Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Muslims condemn Mumbai attacks, worry about image

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Muslims from the Middle East to Britain and Austria condemned Sunday the Mumbai shooting rampage by suspected Islamic militants as senseless terrorism, but also found themselves on the defensive once again about bloodshed linked to their religion.
Intellectuals and community leaders called for greater efforts to combat religious fanaticism.
Indian police said Sunday that the only surviving gunman told them he belongs to the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group is seen as a creation of Pakistani intelligence to help fight India in the disputed Kashmir region. Another group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, has also operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al-Qaida.
Ten gunmen attacked 10 targets in the three-day assault including a Jewish community center and luxury hotels in India's commercial hub. More than 170 people were killed.
Many Muslims said they are worried such carnage is besmirching their religion.
"The occupation of the synagogue and killing people in hotels tarnishes the Muslim faith," said Kazim al-Muqdadi, a political science lecturer at Baghdad University. "Anyone who slaughters people and screams `Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) is sick and ignorant."
In Britain, home to nearly two million Muslims, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, Inayat Bunglawala, said that "a handful of terrorists like this bring the entire faith into disrepute."
A previously unknown Muslim group, Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The name suggests origins in India.
Pakistan has denied involvement and demanding that India provide proof. In Pakistan, Jamaat-ud Dawa, an Islamist group believed to have ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, denounced the killing of civilians.
In Islamic extremist Web forums, some praised the Mumbai attacks, including the targeting of Jews.
A man identified as Sheik Youssef al-Ayeri said the killings are in line with Islam.
"It's all right for Muslims to set the infidels' castles on fire, drown them with water .... and take some of them as prisoners, whether young or old, women or men, because it is one of many ways to beat them," he wrote in the al-Fallujah forum.
In the Gaza Strip, the territory's Islamic militant Hamas rulers declined comment. Hamas has carried out scores of suicide attacks in Israel, killing hundreds of civilians in recent years. However, Hamas has said it does not want to get involved in conflicts elsewhere.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to the attacks as terrorism, but added that the violence is rooted in "unjust policies" aimed at destabilizing the region. He did not elaborate.
India is seen by many in the Arab and Muslim world as a Western ally. For example, Israel has become an important arms supplier to India, angering Muslim Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia said in a statement carried earlier this week by the Saudi Press Agency that it "strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act." An editorial Friday in Saudi's English-language Arab News said that "no civilized person ... can be anything but revolted and sickened by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai."
However, Jonathan Fighel, an Israeli counterterrorism expert, said Saudi organizations have been funneling money to Muslim militants in Kashmir.
"This demonstrates exactly the double game and, I would say, the hypocrisy of the Saudi regime," said Fighel of the Israel-based International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. Throughout the Muslim world, the attacks set off soul-searching. "I think that Muslims should raise their voice against such actions. They should forge a coalition to fight such phenomena, because it harms them and damages their image," said Ali Abdel Muhsen, 22, a Muslim engineering student in the West Bank city of Nablus. Muslims and Arabs must confront the violence "that is taking place in our name and in the name of our (Islamic) tenets," wrote Khaled al-Jenfawi, a columnist for Kuwait's Al-Seyassah daily.
"Unfortunately, we have yet to see a distinguished popular condemnation in the traditional Arab or Muslim communities that strongly rejects what is happening in the name of Islam or Arab nationalism," wrote al-Jenfawi.

Source

Saturday, October 11, 2008

In the Name of God

Spineless slaughterers -
planting bombs,
blowing up innocents
in cold-blood,
inflicting casualties
making rivulets flow with blood
weaving a web of conspiracy
spreading terror
to perpetuate fear in minds,
all in the name of God!

Callous cowards -
preaching hatred and practicing violence
singing dreadful lullabies
of sleepless nightmares
dancing in the rain of bloodshed
they quench their scarlet appetite
with human lives and
blood of the unfortunate victims
all in the name of God!

Brutal butchers -
slaughtering the poor civilians
spitting venom of vengeance
brutally annihilating bodies and souls
painting the verdant land crimson
with blood-stained brush from the palette of
caste, color, creed, race and faith,
all in the name of God!

Ruthless ravagers
stabbing brotherhood in the back
burying humanity deep down
the grave of dead heart,
slashing the secular souls
with deadly daggers and
savage scimitars of religion
without a grain or remorse
all in the name of God!

Mindless murderers
of mankind, peace and harmony
turning cities into graveyards,
sowing fatal seeds of hatred and
harvesting crops of contempt
Don't burn the roses for the sake of vicious thorns
for helpless tears I can see in Mother India's eyes
seeing her children die…

For God's sake
stop this madness, reprisal and carnage
in the name of God…

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

You don't need a crystal ball -- history is repeating itself.

If the bailout passed last week were to have the desired outcome, kick-starting our ailing economy -- and there's no reason to believe it will -- we can expect another painful economic crisis in five to 10 years. It may not be an American crisis, and it might get less attention for that reason, but it will happen.

In the meantime, an enormous bubble of paper wealth will grow -- nobody can say in what sector or which region it will occur -- and some people who get out at the right time will make fortunes. But many more ..........For more

Is This The End??? Nope...

Taking some time off from this blog while I get a better hold on my life, health and career.
I'm obsessed with getting the weight off that I gained from quitting smoking.
In my quest to make some money blogging over this last year, I've gain not only weight, but an internet addiction, and a sedentary and almost reclusive lifestyle. While I lost the cigarettes, I also lost what little confidence I had in myself as well as my ability to communicate with people, even my family. I've been feeling mentally and physically atrophied.
It's time to take care of me, get ahold of my life and go forward with healthier habits, a part time job I can be proud of and ...
last and most exciting is going back to school for a new career. I've been accepted into the Midwest Academy of Healing Arts! By this time next year I will have my certificate in Massage Therapy.

This isn't the end of my writing or blogging, just greatly curbed for the next while. Heck, I'm already thinking I may start a diet/food/health blog over at 3fatchicks.com.