Israel helps Palestinian refugees evacuate to Egypt

TEL AVIV, June 21 (RIA Novosti) - Israel has assisted in the evacuation of at least 100 Palestinian refugees from violence-torn Gaza to Egypt via Israeli territory, an army spokesperson told RIA Novosti Thursday.

Hundreds of Palestinians, mostly Fatah loyalists desperate to flee from the Hamas-controlled enclave, have already spent several nights in a tunnel at the Erez checkpoint on the northern end of the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israeli troops.

"The decision [to allow the evacuation] was made by the [Israeli] political leadership in coordination with Egyptian authorities," the spokesperson said.

The refugees traveled south through Gaza to the Kerem-Shalom crossing point, where they were let into Israel, and then transported to Egypt.

Meanwhile, Israeli radio station Galei Tzahal said Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would meet Sunday at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The sides are set to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories following the violent takeover by radical Islamist group Hamas of Gaza last week, and the establishment of an emergency government by Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Last week's armed clashes between Hamas and pro-presidential Fatah left at least 100 people dead. President Abbas, who now controls only the West Bank, dismissed the Hamas-led government following the coup, and his new emergency cabinet led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has received the backing of most Western nations, and the more moderate Arab states.

Better than a servant!

Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu narrates : "Fatima Radhi Allahu Anha complained of the suffering caused to her by the hand mill. Some captives were brought to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. She came to him but did not find him at home. Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha was present there and Fatima Radhi Allahu Anha told (of her desire for a servant). When the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came, Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha informed him about Fatima's visit. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came to us, while we had gone to bed. I wanted to get up but the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, "Remain at your place". Then he sat down between us till I could feel the coolness of his feet on my chest. Then he said, "Shall I teach you something which is better than what you have asked me? When you go to bed, say, 'Allahu-Akbar' thirty-four times,
Subhan Allah thirty-three times and Alhamdu-lillah thirty-three times for that is better for you than a servant." (Bukhari)

Commentary

This incident has been mentioned in Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood, Nasai and other books. From other narrations of this hadith we learn more about this incident :

Fatima Radhi Allahu Anha had developed sores on her hands due to grinding flour with her hand mill. She had also developed sores on her neck due to carrying water. Sweeping her home had made her clothes dusty and baking bread had discoloured her face. Now, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had received some slaves and Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu had heared about this. Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu, advised her to go to him and ask for a servant to help her with her household chores as these had over powered her. When she came to the house of her father she did not find him. Rather, he was in the masjid in discussion with his companions. Later, after he was told about the arrival of his daughter to see him, he came to see them in their room. The cloth that was covering Ali and Faatima Radhi Allahu Anhuma was so small that their feet were exposed when they covered their heads and their heads were exposed when they covered their feet. When he requested to enter they wanted to first dress appropriately but he asked them to remain lying down as they were. He said that he would prefer to sell the slaves that he had received and spend the money on the Ahlus Suffa as they had no food. He instead taught them certain azkaar which were better then a servant.

Ali Radhi Allahu said : "I have not left practicing on this ever since I heard this from Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam." Somebody asked : "Not even on the night of Siffeen?" Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu replied : "Not even on the night of Siffeen." (Muslim)

Siffeen is the name of a place close to the Euphrates where the famous battle took place between Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu and the Syrians in the year 37 Hijri. It was a trying and strenuous battle for Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu, hence the questioner asked him to see if he had remembered to practice on the advice of his master on that night too. This shows Ali's Radhi Allahu Anhu obedience to Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and his punctuality and discipline in worship.

It is important to note that Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned a number of different azkaar to be recited at the time of going to sleep. These are applicable to different situations and occasions. Each of these are virtuous in their own way.

The statement of Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that these azkaar were better than a servant can mean two things. Firstly, a servant is related to this worldly life whereas azkaar are related to the hereafter. The hereafter is superior and everlasting when compared to this world. Secondly, it could mean that these azkaar are of greater benefit in fulfilling the household chores than a servant.

Lessons

1. From this hadith we learn that Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu was very close to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Proof of this is from the following :

a.. Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu was the son-in-law of Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
b.. Imam Bukhari Rahimahullah mentioned this hadith in the section dealing with the virtues of Ali Radhi Allahu Anhu.
c.. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam entered into their private room in a very informal manner.

2. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave preference to Aakhirah for his close family. He did not choose the comforts of the world for them. He encouraged his daughter and son-in-law towards patience and the rememberance of Allah Azza Wajal instead of acquiring a servant. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam chose for his daughter what he chose for himself in terms of patience and azkaar in times of difficulty.

It was a settled principle with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that he always placed his family members and those who were nearer to him in the front line in facing a risk or hazard but allotted them the last place when he distributed favours, rewards and spoils of war. When the three well-known warriors of the Quraish, Utba, Shayba and Walid Ibn Utba, challenged the Muslims to single combat at Badr, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sent forward Hamza, Ali and Ubayda Radhi Allahu Anhum, although he knew about the bravery and strength of the enemy combatants. Hamza, Ali and Ubayda Radhi Allahu Anhum, belonged to the Prophet's Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam own clan, the Banu Hashim, and were his near relatives.

3. Scholars mention that from this hadith one learns an important technique in teaching people. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam approached his daughter and son-in-law with extreme love and affection asking them not to inconvenience themselves by moving from their bed. He then sat affectionately between them as close as he could. He explained to them what he thought was better for them by means of kind words. Such kindness and affection will melt the heart of any person. When one wants to convince another it can be easily achieved with love and affection.

4. This zikr makes strenuous tasks easy.

5. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam through this incident taught the Ummah to exercise patience in difficulty, to accumilate good deeds for the hereafter and to be keep safe from the deceptive worldly life by focussing on the hereafter.

6. One should encourage ones family towards giving preference to the hereafter over the world according to their level of tawakkul and reliance upon Allah Azza Wajal.

=========================================================================================================
10 Jumaadul Ula 1428 / 28 May 2007
Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha

The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said :"The superiority of Aisha over other women is like the superiority of Tharid (a special gravy dish) to other meals." (Bukhari)

During the final illness of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he used to repeatedly ask, "Where will I be tomorrow?", in the hope that he could spend his last days in the home of Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha. (Bukhari)

Once the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha : "O Aisha, Jibraeel sends salaams to you."
Aisha replied : "Upon him be salaams also together with the mercy and blessings of Allah." (Bukhari)

The sublime character of Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha, her devotion to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, her virtue, intelligence and eloquence were unparalleled in history. She was a perfect symbol of Islamic womanhood. She was only eighteen years of age when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam passed away. However, she related 2210 ahaadith.

There has been no woman like her in the whole history of Islam who understood the teachings of Islam so well and convincingly explained juristic issues to others. It is said that about a quarter of all the laws of Shariah are narrated from her. (Fathul Baari)
Even the most eminent and learned Sahabah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam consulted her on intricate legal issues.

Imam Zahabi, one of the most eminent scholars of the science of hadith, writes about Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha in his Tazkiratul Huffaaz : "Among the Sahabah of the Prophet who were knowledgeable in jurisprudence she was the most prominent for even the leading jurists referred intricate questions of law to her for advice. Abu Musa says that if any companion of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam amongst us hadany difficulty in finding out the real understanding of any Hadith, he used to ask Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha because she invariably knew about it."

The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam left this world while he was in the home of Hazrat Aisha Radhi Allahu Anha. Aisha mentions that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam breathed his last while he lay between her chest and neck. (Muslim)

She was fortunate to have the saliva of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mixed with her own a few moments before he left this world. Allah Ta'ala so willed that she had the honour of softening the miswaak which the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used just prior to him breathing his last.

Hate Sermons from the Pulpit

It is our duty to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it. We have an obligation to maintain a balance in the society

We lose that balance and that elusive equilibrium if we let hate mongers, hate sermons and hate lectures creep in our societies.

The Muslims have been diligently cleaning up the hate sermons from happening in their communities in the United States and Canada. I can recall one incident last year in Canada where one such alleged hate monger Yaseen Sheikh was not allowed to land in Canada and was sent right back to his home; The United Kingdom. The Muslims are making serious efforts to prevent radical preachers from making any speeches in their communities and their Mosques. I am sure some one slips by here and there, but the vigil is there and the guard is on. Islam is about bringing a balance to the society, and American Muslims are vigorously fighting to prevent the Mosque pulpit to ever go into the hands of hate generators.

Hate peddling is unfortunately human, and doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with religion, any religion.

As all the religions teach to overcome hate, here are some quotes about doing unto others;

Bahai: Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for any one the things ye would not desire for yourselves. Writings of Baha'u'llah

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Udana-Varga 5, 1

Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:1

Confucianism: Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. Analects 12:2

Hinduism: This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you. Mahabharata 5,1517

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Sunnah

Jain: "Living beings (souls) render services to one another" or in short "Live and let live."

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. Talmud, Shabbat 3id

Sikh: All humans are same and so we should treat them all the same – Guru Gobind Singh

Taoism: Regard your neighbor's gain as your gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. Tai Shang Kan Yin P'ien

Wicca: Harm None

Zoroastrianism: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself. Dadisten-I-dinik, 94, 5

As we pledge one nation under God with liberty and justice for all, we have to look into each other and look at ourselves, and lift ourselves up from the hate pit and come together on a level playing field of goodwill and generosity.

The business side of faith has thrived on ridiculing others faiths and manufacturing a devil out of thin air. There is a misplaced spirituality in operation; our faith is the best, because others aren’t. Wow, what logic! Arrogance and Spirituality are inversely proportional; one cannot be religious when there is an element of arrogance in it. Other faiths don’t have to be bad for mine to be good. My little daughter says if there is no negative selling how would the business of Church survive? How would you grow congregations and the monies that come with it? Shamefully hate and fear binds the people, even though much of it is manufactured. Who has the time to question? A majority of us do not really hate anyone, nor do we care for those sermons, we go there as a social event and often honoring the courtesy of invitation. However, the extremists among us cash on it, they know what binds us.

It is the human weakness that allows the propagation of hate, and we shamelessly abuse our holy texts to justify human killing and destruction of the world be it Armageddon, Jihad, Promised land or some such notion to satisfy one’s disruptive mindset. Whether it happens in Church, Mosque, Temple, Synagogue or any place of worship, the silent majority puts up with it and does not speak out. We go to the place of worship to rid ourselves of our sins – the elements of ill-will, malice, hate, anger and other entrapments. The pulpit has become a loading dock for malice and incitement to look down upon others who hold a different view.

Anya Cardell writes (http://www.anyacordell.com). “This follows on the lecture last week by Steven Emerson at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, attended and warmly received by about 500, entitled ‘The Terrorists Living among us’. Both Pipes and Emerson have long histories of virulent anti-Muslim efforts. Pipes invented what he calls ‘Sudden Jihad Syndrome’, which he defines as the sudden change of any normal appearing, apparently peaceful Muslim, who may turn on a dime into a radical terrorist. …so I'm not going to cite right now a bunch of similarly appalling assertions from Pipes, Emerson, and their cronies--but they are truly terrifying, adding to the 'open season' mentality currently profiling, stereotyping, smearing, and generalizing all Muslims. I have met the families of innocent men who were murdered in the hate-backlash of 9/11, and know that there are all-too-real consequences of such hate and fear-mongering. “Additionally, a requisite for war is demonizing and dehumanizing the Other, so that we can shrug, rationalize or justify what we call 'collateral damage', and how innocents are caught in the crosshairs or ensnared in big nets, (roundups, detentions, etc.), all in the name of 'security'.”

Should our places of Worship offer space for hate sermons or for bridge building lectures? I hope the sanctity of the synagogue is not violated by the Emerson, Pipes and his likes and no one ought to be allowed to preach hate towards other people.

It is in our interest and the interest of public safety that the sermons delivered at places of worship fill our hearts with love, generosity and goodwill and build bridges for a safe and peaceful nation.

What if we make our speeches in the place of worship a public record? To keep peace, law and order in our country, we need to consider hate speech as a crime. The speech that would permanently place wedges between our communities injects distrust and destroys the concept of one nation under God.

Is this Russian girl scamming me? How to recognize scammers

Are you an American or Western European man exchanging emails with a girl from Russia? I was contacted by a girl who turned out to be a scammer. Reader Derrick put together some great advice how to detect scammers.
I only have one advice (#8) to add: If a Russian girl tells you that she will get a visa to the USA instead of inviting you, that is - under the current immigration law - a SURE sign that SHE LIES.

Here is the process how a Russian woman can come to the USA:

If she is considered a relatively young/ attractive woman (let's say under 40, hope I don't hurt anyone's feelings here), then there is virtually NO CHANCE THAT SHE GETS A TOURIST VISA TO THE USA. First the Russian Federation will not allow her to leave the country. Then, even if she was getting out, the USA will deny her admission. The reasoning is that she is considered a risk. How could she not be a risk? If she had family in Russia (husband, children) or a valuable business or real estate. Most likely the woman who writes you will be considered a risk. The only way for her to get a visa into the USA is this procedure:

the foreign man visits her in her native area in Russia
they get engaged during such a visit - take photos of the 2 of you together
he flies back and applies for a K-1 visa. A K-1 visa is also known as Fiancee visa, used for marriage-based immigration
once the K1 visa is granted, the girl can enter the USA and stay there for 3 months. By the end of these 3 months you HAVE to GET MARRIED or the girl has to go back home.
if you get married, the girl gets a greencard and can work
after 3 years of marriage, the girl can apply for a US citizenship. That's when they interview you to find out if it's a real marriage. She also has to answer some questions about US history, political system, etc etc.



Here are Derrick's tricks (1-7) that he uses immediately from the start:

GOOGLE or websearch the first part of the scammers first emails and/or 'profile'. SEE HOW MANY OTHER SITES their listed on! RECORD THOSE SITES FOR FUTURE REFERENCE. THAT alone can give you a good idea IF your dealing with a scammer OR not.

GOOGLE or websearch the return email address. See how many 'hits' come from that search and also note all the sites. (many times you'll see the email end up on a 'scammers list') IF YOU FIND THE EMAIL ADDRESS LISTED ON A SCAMMER LIST - don't bother further, your only fooling yourself - no matter what excuse they might give you.

FROM THE START - ASK FOR SPECIFIC INFOMATION! A full name, address, phone number - something. OFFER THE SAME in exchange, except make it a P.O. box and a CELL PHONE rental card that will protect your identity. If you see your requests ignored, which you usually will, don't waste your time further.

ALWAYS ASK SPECIFIC QUESTIONS that would REQUIRE A SPECIFIC ANSWER outside the use of FORM LETTERS. IF YOU FIND your questions go unaddress in your reply emails from 'them/her' - YOUR DEALING WITH A SCAMMER. Again, don't bother further.

DON'T WAIT 6 MONTHS to offer to talk with the PROSPECT by phone! WHAT A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME! IF THERE IS CHEMISTRY OR APPEARS 'INTEREST' BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU - then sieze the opportunity. ARRANGE A PHONE CALL! International rates to Russia and most places are reasonably cheap. IF YOU GET THE REPLY ' I'M SO POOR I DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO A PHONE' - drop the whole thing, your only wasting your time and WILL BE SCAMMED at some point in the future.

PHOTO FLOOD! IF IT/SHE/HIM/THEM - LOOK TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE - THEN IT PROBABLY IS! MOST IF NOT ALL OF THE SCAMMES USE PHOTOS OF MODELS IN THEIR HOME COUNTRIES TO POSE ON THE NET IN THEIR PROFILE(s)! Consider this - IF THEY LOOK like a MODEL then tell you they're so poor they don't have access to a phone - YOUR BEING SCAMMED!

ASK FOR A SPECIAL PHOTO TO BE TAKEN. IF YOU SENT YOURS, HAVE THEM TAKE A PHOTO SHOWING THEM HOLDING UP YOUR PHOTO IN THE PICTURE! That is a good 'scammer filter' - even the most adept with Photoshop will easily be spoted.

BETTER STILL - ASK THEM TO TAKE A PHOTO THAT SHOWS THEM HOLDING A CURRENT NEWPAPER OF YOUR CHOICE OR THEIR COUNTRY, WITH A RESOLUTION THAT YOU CAN READ THE DATE! NOT some low grade - grainy photo! FEW WILL EVER DO THAT.

AT THE LEAST - ASK THEM FOR A PHOTO of them wearing a specific combination of clothes and/or colors - something different then the usual 'model clothing' - most use to send out. OR AN OBJECT - TOASTER, ELECTRIC CLOCK, BY A COUCH, IN A ROCKING CHAIR something that would be very hard to use PHOTOSHOP to just PUT in another FILE PHOTO.

*** IF this person is real or sincere, they won't mind doing this for you! ALSO - offer to do the same for their comfort also - that is only fair.

IF THINGS GET SERIOUS - then ASK THEM TO DELETE ALL THEIR OTHER WEB PROFILE POSTS! CHECK ON THE ONES YOU NOTED EARLIER! Again, IF THEIR SINCERE - they will - happily as your their DREAM and future!

If she talks about getting a visa or that she needs money to get a travel visa to the USA, she lies. See the proper course of action described at the top.

CIA jails in Europe 'confirmed'

A Council of Europe investigator says he has evidence to prove the CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate "war on terror" suspects.
Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, has been investigating CIA operations on behalf of the European human rights body.

In his new report, released on Friday, Mr Marty says secret CIA prisons "did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania".

The governments of both countries have strongly denied any involvement.

A spokesman for the CIA told the BBC that "the CIA's counter-terror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed, and of benefit to many people - including Europeans - by disrupting plots and saving lives".

Mr Marty says he drew on multiple sources and used his own intelligence methods to investigate the CIA's "extraordinary renditions", the process under which terror suspects were transported around the world for interrogation.

"Some European governments have obstructed the search for the truth and are continuing to do so by invoking the concept of 'state secrets'.... This criticism applies to Germany and Italy, in particular," he said.

Milan trial

His report came as the first criminal trial over the CIA "extraordinary renditions" opened in Italy. Twenty-five CIA agents and a US Air Force colonel are on trial in their absence, accused of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured.

Unnamed CIA sources quoted by Mr Marty said Poland was the "black site" where eight "high-value detainees (HVDs)" were interrogated, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001 - and Abu Zubaydah, a suspected top al-Qaeda operative.

The report says Romania "was developed into a site to which more detainees were transferred only as the HVD programme expanded".

"The secret detention facilities in Europe were run directly and exclusively by the CIA. To our knowledge, the local staff had no meaningful contact with the prisoners and performed purely logistical duties," the report continues.

But it adds: "the highest state authorities were aware of the CIA's illegal activities on their territories".

US President George Bush admitted in September that terror suspects had been held in CIA-run prisons overseas, but he did not say where the prisons were located.

Mr Marty says there is evidence that the CIA operations took place in line with Nato authorisations agreed on 4 October 2001, "some of which are public and some of which remain secret".

Some detainees were held in secret for several years and subjected to "degrading treatment and so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' (essentially a euphemism for a kind of torture)," Mr Marty says.

In a preliminary report last year Mr Marty said the CIA ran a "global spider's web" of secret flights.

Mistreatment

In comments published in the French daily Le Figaro on Friday, Mr Marty said "suspected terrorists" were also "kidnapped then tortured and detained illegally in rogue states like Syria, where there is no civilian law or law governing the rules of war".

In January a European Parliament committee approved a report which said EU states knew of secret CIA flights over Europe.

The report said the governments also knew of the abduction of terror suspects by US agents and the US's use of clandestine detention centres.

A BBC investigation last year revealed that a well-known CIA Gulfstream plane, the N379P, had made several landings at Szymany airport in northern Poland in 2003.

The airport's flight log also showed that a Boeing 737 had flown direct from Kabul to the airport, which is not far from a Polish intelligence base in the village of Stare Kiejkuty.

Exposed: The Myth That Psychiatry Has Proven That Homosexual Behavior Is Normal

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality
as a mental disorder from the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of
Mental Disorders (DSM-II).

This decision was a significant victory for homosexual activists, and they
have continued to claim that the APA based their decision on new scientific
discoveries that proved that homosexual behavior is normal and should be
affirmed in our culture.

This is false and part of numerous homosexual urban legends that have
infiltrated every aspect of our culture. The removal of homosexuality as a
mental disorder has given homosexual activists credibility in the culture,
and they have demanded that their sexual behavior be affirmed in society.

What Really Happened?
Numerous psychiatrists over the past decades have described what forces
were really at work both inside and outside of the American Psychiatric
Association-and what led to the removal of homosexuality as a mental
disorder.

Dr. Ronald Bayer explains how homosexual activists captured the APA
for political gain.
Dr. Ronald Bayer, a pro-homosexual psychiatrist has described what
actually occurred in his book, Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The
Politics of Diagnosis. (1981)

In Chapter 4, "Diagnostic Politics: Homosexuality and the American
Psychiatric Association," Dr. Bayer says that the first attack by homosexual
activists against the APA began in 1970 when this organization held its
convention in San Francisco. Homosexual activists decided to disrupt the
conference by interrupting speakers and shouting down and ridiculing
psychiatrists who viewed homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 1971,
homosexual activist Frank Kameny worked with the Gay Liberation Front
collective to demonstrate against the APA's convention. At the 1971
conference, Kameny grabbed the microphone and yelled, "Psychiatry is the
enemy incarnate. Psychiatry has waged a relentless war of extermination
against us. You may take this as a declaration of war against you."

Homosexuals forged APA credentials and gained access to exhibit areas in
the conference. They threatened anyone who claimed that homosexuals needed
to be cured.

Kameny had found an ally inside of the APA named Kent Robinson who helped
the homosexual activist present his demand that homosexuality be removed
from the DSM. At the 1972 convention, homosexual activists were permitted to
set up a display booth, entitled "Gay, Proud and Healthy."

Kameny was then permitted to be part of a panel of psychiatrists who were
to discuss homosexuality. The effort to remove homosexuality as a mental
disorder from the DSM was the result of power politics, threats, and
intimidation, not scientific discoveries.

Prior to the APA's 1973 convention, several psychiatrists attempted to
organize opposition to the efforts of homosexuals to remove homosexual
behavior from the DSM. Organizing this effort were Drs. Irving Bieber and
Charles Socarides who formed the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Deletion of
Homosexuality from DSM-II.

The DSM-II listed homosexuality as an abnormal behavior under section
"302. Sexual Deviations." It was the first deviation listed.

After much political pressure, a committee of the APA met behind closed
doors in 1973 and voted to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder from
the DSM-II. Opponents of this effort were given 15 minutes to protest this
change, according to Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, in Homosexuality and the
Politics of Truth. Satinover writes that after this vote was taken, the
decision was to be voted on by the entire APA membership. The National Gay
Task Force purchased the APA's mailing list and sent out a letter to the APA
members urging them to vote to remove homosexuality as a disorder. No APA
member was informed that the mailing had been funded by this homosexual
activist group.

According to Satinover, "How much the 1973 APA decision was motivated by
politics is only becoming clear even now. While attending a conference in
England in 1994, I met a man who told me an account that he had told no one
else. He had been in the gay life for years but had left the lifestyle. He
recounted how after the 1973 APA decision, he and his lover, along with a
certain very highly placed officer of the APA Board of Trustees and his
lover, all sat around the officer's apartment celebrating their victory. For
among the gay activists placed high in the APA who maneuvered to ensure a
victory was this man-suborning from the top what was presented to both the
membership and the public as a disinterested search for truth."

Dr. Socarides Speaks Out

Dr. Satinover shows how APA's policies were influcenced by closeted
homosexual APA leaders.
Dr. Charles Socarides has set the record straight on how homosexuals
inside and outside of the APA forced this organization to remove
homosexuality as a mental disorder. This was done without any valid
scientific evidence to prove that homosexuality is not a disordered
behavior.

Dr. Socarides, writing in Sexual Politics and Scientific Logic: The Issue
of Homosexuality writes: "To declare a condition a 'non-condition,' a group
of practitioners had removed it from our list of serious psychosexual
disorders. The action was all the more remarkable when one considers that it
involved an out-of-hand and peremptory disregard and dismissal not only of
hundreds of psychiatric and psychoanalytic research papers and reports, but
also a number of other serious studies by groups of psychiatrists,
psychologists, and educators over the past seventy years."

Socarides continued: "For the next 18 years, the APA decision served as a
Trojan horse, opening the gates to widespread psychological and social
change in sexual customs and mores. The decision was to be used on numerous
occasions for numerous purposes with the goal of normalizing homosexuality
and elevating it to an esteemed status.

"To some American psychiatrists, this action remains a chilling reminder
that if scientific principles are not fought for, they can be lost-a
disillusioning warning that unless we make no exceptions to science, we are
subject to the snares of political factionalism and the propagation of
untruths to an unsuspecting and uninformed public, to the rest of the
medical profession, and to the behavioral sciences." Dr. Socarides' report
is available from the National Association for Research and Therapy of
Homosexuality: www.narth.com.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DSM
The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is the
most widely used diagnostic reference book utilized by mental health
professionals in the United States.

It's a manual by which all diagnostic codes are derived for diagnosis and
treatment - every single physician (an estimated 850,000*) in the United
States refers to this book in order to code for a diagnosis. In plain
English, what does this mean? It means that for over 30 years physicians
have been prevented from properly diagnosing homosexuality as an aberrant
behavior and thus, cannot, recommend a course of treatment for these
individuals.

Prior to that time, homosexuality had been treated as a mental disorder
under section "302. Sexual Deviations" in the DSM-II. Section 302 said, in
part: "This category is for individuals whose sexual interests are directed
primarily toward objects other than people of the opposite sex, toward
sexual acts . performed under bizarre circumstances. . Even though many find
their practices distasteful, they remain unable to substitute normal sexual
behavior for them." Homosexuality was listed as the first sexual deviation
under 302. Once that diagnostic code for homosexuality was removed,
physicians, including psychiatrists, have been prevented from diagnosing
homosexuality as a mental disorder for more than three decades.

*American Medical Association statistic, 2002.

THE USA AND VATICAN SECRET CAMPAIGN TO RESCUE WAR CRIMINALS

While Vatican City and its many extraterritorial buildings in Rome turned
into the protective semi-official refuge for hundreds of war criminals, the
USA's State Department became busy integrating many of them within its
multi-varied branched subterranean machinery, operating outside official
officialdom. The operations, although secretive, eventually became known.
The immediate result was increasing opposition to them all. Because of this,
thousands of fleeing war criminals were diverted hastily to South American
countries, with the connivance of the secret services of the USA. Many were
helped to enter the USA itself and to settle there, under different names
and phony identities.

The State Department and the Secret Services tried to minimize the
disclosures which meanwhile had begun to leak ever more frequently via the
media to a shocked postwar world. To millions of war veterans and war
victims of both continents, the whole policy of protection of war criminals
became offensive. It was repudiated and condemned by all, with few
exceptions. The spearhead of such universal condemnation were the Jews. The
disclosure of the Nazi concentration camps had shocked the world and, of
course, world Judaism. The European Jews, many of whom had emigrated into
the USA, were certainly not going to accept the ambiguous form of American
Catholic appeasement towards their former tormentors. The decades of the
Fascist nightmare were still too vivid to be forgotten, forgiven, or to be
relegated to past history.

The terrorized and wounded Jewish soul thirsted for prompt merciless
revenge. This became encapsulated into the atavistic slogan of "an eye for
an eye." The experience of the concentration camps, and many of their
survivors, maximized the slogan into "one thousand Arian-Christian-Nazi eyes
for one Jewish eye." Their thirst for revenge, far from remaining
encapsulated into a mere verbal blood curdling rhetorical Biblical
quotation, became their solid menacing policy from the very beginning. It
helped to shape the policies of the postwar world, even before the Second
World War had ended. This was done via the activities of the Jewish Lobby in
Washington. A presence which no State Department, Secret Service, political
party, or even American President would ignore at their own peril.

The emergence of Israel as the Messianic fulfillment of the Judaic dream, in
addition to adding tangible religious dimension to World Judaism outside
America, made the American Jews the most pervasive ethnic influence of
America. This was so since American Judaism, like American Catholicism,
having penetrated both political parties, could affect the policies of any
USA administration. The Jewish campaign, conducted with hammering
persistence via a national media, a large proportion of which was controlled
by Jewish interests, affected the policy of the USA. The operations directed
at helping and recruiting war criminals were curtailed. Discretion became
the watchword of both the State Department and the U.S. Secret Service. The
more so, since the Jews set out to hunt war criminals, wherever and whenever
they could, often with striking results, independently of them both.

At the Vatican the campaign had been most unwelcome, the more so since the
Jews had openly condemned the Pope, not only for not having helped them
during the Hitlerite terror, but also for having been pro-Nazi. The Vatican,
however, resented the Jewish campaign because of its long-range political
implications. That is, it was imperiling the secret joint Vatican-USA
preparation for an anti-Russian crusade, to be eventually identified with
the Cold War. Because of this Jewish interference with their plans, the
Vatican and the State Department then formulated a joint, most secretive
promotional campaign of recruitment, whose watchword became "immense
prudence." The new policy permitted their recruitment to operate, as in the
past, with efficiency and with impunity, notwithstanding Jewish vigilance.

The Vatican-USA new campaign soon became identified with the passing of a
massive promulgation of equivocal legislation meant to deal with all kinds
of information connected with recent and current recruitment and protection
of war criminals. Legislative measures, thus once law, closed the door for
good to any curious or mischievous investigator.

The result of such bolting of the door with legal nails was that
identification of war criminals, already in the USA or about to arrive
there, became even more difficult. Even more significant, it became a
protective legal umbrella under which potential and real war criminals could
take cover and avoid detection. The task of having them identified and
arrested became almost an impossible one, protected as they were by obscure
official specifications. Many of these never saw even the light. In fact,
hundreds became so secret that none, with the exception of certain military
or intelligence mandarins, could ever lay their hands on them. Most of such
documents, that is those dealing with war criminals, were declared
"classified," that is, they were made inaccessible to anybody except the USA
Intelligence.

As the years and the decades went by, however, such "classification" became
"declassified." "Declassification" revealed what had been suspected all the
time, namely that the USA and the Vatican had helped and indeed had
"shipped" thousands of war criminals to Australia, Latin America and indeed
to the USA and Canada, even before the war had ended.

"Declassification," although helpful, nevertheless continued to be
obstructed by rigid legislation which permitted only a glimpse of light to
be seen as the time limit expired. As it happened during a news conference,
in May 1986, for instance when USA Army Counter-intelligence Corps documents
were "declassified" and interpreted.[1]

The spokesman, who had been tracing U.S. government involvement in helping
Nazi war criminals for seven years, said that investigation of war criminals
conducted by the USA after the War, "had been a joke."

As of May, 1986 there were probably 6,500 of an estimated 10,000 Nazi
collaborators who had been assisted by the pro-war criminals organization,
still living in the U.S.

According to The Times of London. "The U.S. had classified the documents
until now in order to protect allied governments and the Vatican from the
embarrassing revelations in them", it said.

"They showed that the intelligence agencies of France and Britain,
immediately after the war, revived a former Nazi organization, called
Intermarium, he said. The organization was formed originally by a Russian
tsarist general shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution in order to fight
communism.

"The intelligence agencies of France, Britain, Australia, Canada, Austria,
West Germany, and Italy, as well as high Vatican officials, had then become
involved in recruiting former Nazi war criminals for the organization. They
rearmed and funded them while helping them to emigrate, Mr. Loftus said.

"The central governments of these countries apparently did not know about
their intelligence agencies' activities.

"The U.S. Army Counter-intelligence Corps found out about the allied
involvement in 1947, and the U.S. decided to get involved itself and to keep
the entire operation secret." [2]

Intermarium was only one of the many organizations meant to help war
criminals. The U.S. Intelligence had at least a dozen, several of which are
still in operational use. Many of them are disguised under equivocal names.
The Vatican, however, was the senior partner since it had the multiplicity
of such agencies. This was so because it had the advantage of the Catholic
Church, which permitted the Vatican to apparel its organizations under the
disguise of religion. The result was that it became practically impossible
to track down their identity or nature of operations, whether they had been
classified, or declassified. The efforts would have stirred up a hornet's
nest in the American Catholic World. A hornet's nest, which even the
American Jews had considered prudent not to disturb. Such religious or
semi-religious organizations are still dispensing what amounts to war
pensions to elderly war criminals, or to their families, under the disguise
of charitable bodies. The official exchange of USA-Vatican ambassadors, in
1984, dealt with the problem to the satisfaction of both parties. This is
one of the many secret items of which the U.S. public knows nothing.

THE NIGHTMARE OF A NATION

The Independent Kingdom of Croatia, having thus officially sprung into
existence, set forth with burning zeal to fulfill all the hopes so
obstinately entertained by its religious and political promoters: the
Vatican and Fascism. Inspired by the graciously remote majesty of good King
Tomislav II, under the patronage of His Holiness the Pope, protected by
Hitler, watched by Mussolini, ruled by Catholic terrorists, and policed by
Catholic bayonets, the New Croatia began to transform itself into the ideal
commonwealth as advocated by Catholic tenets.

A State, however, according to papal dicta must be regulated not only by
civil but also by religious authority. So Pavelic, having determined that a
religious equivalent of himself should partake of the rights and duties of
rulership, saw to it that the head of the Hierarchy became a de facto ruler
of the New Croatia. Archbishop Stepinac, the Croatian Primate, and others,
members of the Hierarchy, the religious equivalent of the Ustashi, were duly
elected members of the Sabor (Totalitarian Parliament). The military,
political, and religious architraves of the new State having thus been
erected, Pavelic and Stepinac set out to transform its whole structure into
what a true Catholic-Fascist State should be. Movements, institutions, men,
and everything else were made to conform to the letter and spirit of
Catholicism. All potential opponents-Communists, Socialists, Liberals-were
either banished or imprisoned. Trade unions were abolished, workers'
organizations became pitiful caricatures of their former selves, the Press
was paralyzed when it was not altogether gagged, freedom of speech, of
expression, and of thought became memories of the past. Every effort was
made to dragoon youth into Catholic semi-military formations; the children
were marshalled by priests and by nuns. Catholic teaching, Catholic tenets,
Catholic dogma became compulsory in all schools, in all offices, in all
factories, and everywhere the iron heel of the new State was felt.
Catholicism was proclaimed the main religion of the State. Other religions
and those professing them were ostracized, chief among these, the Orthodox;
while the Jews were compelled to wear the Star of David on their clothes,
all members of the Orthodox Church went in fear for their property, their
personal and family safety. To be Orthodox had suddenly meant to be a
potential victim. Soon, in all parks and public transport vehicles, a new
inscription appeared: "Entry forbidden to all Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and
dogs." The Ministry of the Interior, led by Andrija Artukovic, issued the
following decree: "All the Serbs and the Jews residing in Zagreb, the
Capital of Croatia, must leave the town within 12 hours. Any citizen found
to have given them shelter will be immediately executed on the spot."

While Ante Pavelic was transforming Croatia with a mailed fist, his
religious equivalent, Archbishop Stepinac, facilitated the revolution by a
timely nationwide mobilization of the whole of the Catholic Church. No
opportunity was allowed to pass without Stepinac openly singing the praises
of, or sprinkling with oral or holy-water blessings, the new Catholic
Croatia, her great Leader Pavelic, the Duce, and the great Fuehrer. When
dates commemorating the bloody ascent of Fascism to power were celebrated in
Fascist Italy or in Nazi Germany, Stepinac, although in Croatia, celebrated
them with no less fervour. Thus he punctiliously celebrated October 28, the
day when, in 1922, the first Fascist dictatorship was installed in Italy.
While Mussolini annually paraded His Black Shirt battalions in Rome on that
date, Stepinac annually commemorated the march with speeches, prayers, and
congratulations, distributed with equal generosity also to Hitler on his
ever-gloomier succeeding April birthdays. When it came to his own new
Fascist State, however, the archiepiscopal panegyrics became impassioned
recommendations for everything done by the New Croatia. After Parliament was
convoked in February, 1942, Stepinac, with all the sacred authority of the
chief pillar of the Mother Church, asked the Holy Ghost to descend upon the
sharp edged knives of the Ustashi, and to settle, at least while the
parliamentary session lasted, upon the brow of Pavelic. Special prayers and
extra ounces of incense were offered in all Catholic churches on Pavelic's
birthday. [1]

When the pocket-sized Ustashi Navy departed for the Black Sea, to destroy,
side by side with the Germans, the Red Navy of godless

A copy of the original document dealing with the conversion to the
Catholic Church of all Orthodox persons employed by the Government. Issued
in Zagreb by the Ministry of Justice and Religions.

Everyone had to be or to become a Catholic. Refusal meant instant
dismissal, loss of property, or arrest. And, very often, all three.

Additional decrees were issued, e.g. "Law concerning the conversion
from one religion to another." On June 1, 1941, the Ustashi Premier set up
an Office of Religious Affairs, in charge of "all matters pertaining to
questions connected with the conversion of the Orthodox Church" (Decree No.
11,689).

Such legislation rested upon the tenet that "the movement of the
Ustashi is based upon the Catholic Church," as enunciated by Mile Budak,
July 13, 1941, at Karlovac.

Forcible conversions became the standard practice of Ustashi Croatia.
The conversions were duly legalized by the State and gave immunity to the
new Catholics, from arrest, from seizure of property and from execution.

A mass execution carried out by the Ustashi at Brode, early in 1941.
Nazi troops were looking at some of the victims.

The Nazis, who for a time were posted in Croatia, were so horrified at
the Ustashi atrocities that they set up special commissions to investigate
them. The Orthodox Church of Serbia, in fact, appealed directly to the Nazi
General Dulkeman to intervene and stop the Ustashi horrors.

The Germans and the Italians managed to restrain the Ustashi while
they were under their supervision. When the Nazis left Croatia, however, the
Ustashi multiplied their atrocities, unreprimanded by the Government. Since
the latter's policy was one of total elimination of the Orthodox Serbian
population via forcible conversions, expulsion, or straightforward massacre.

Victims were executed in groups without trial on bridges and then
thrown into the river. In May 1941 the Ustashi besieged Glina. Having
gathered together all the Orthodox males of over fifteen years of age from
Karlovac, Sisak and Petrinja, they drove them outside the town and killed
600 of them with guns, knives and sledge hammers.

Russia, Stepinac flanked by Dr. Ramiro Marcone, the representative of that
lover of peace, Pius XII, celebrated the triumphal departure in Zagreb,
surrounded by the Catholic Hierarchy, mumbling Latin incantations for speedy
victory by those brave aquatic crusaders. Stepinac's colleagues imitated
their leader with unmatched zeal-e.g. Bishop Aksamovic, of Djakovo, who was
personally decorated by Pavelic because "His Excellency the Bishop has from
the very beginning cooperated with the Ustashi authorities." Or Archbishop
Saric-the bosom friend of Jure Francetic, the commander of the Black
Legion-who raised his right hand in the Ustashi-that is, the Nazi-salute at
every opportunity, public or private.

The transformation of the Catholic Hierarchy into a de facto Ustashi
Hierarchy had a most dreadful significance. It meant that the whole
machinery of the Catholic Church in Croatia had been put at the complete
disposal of the ruthless individuals determined to make of the new State a
compact political and military unit, cemented by the most secure guarantees
of the State's indestructibility. Such a policy implied, not only the
transformation of the Croatian social, cultural, and political fabric, but
also the complete extirpation of whatever was "alien" to Croatian stock and
to its national religion. This required the total elimination of whoever was
not a Catholic Croat. Not an easy task, as a large portion of the new State
was composed of bulky racial-religious groups wholly foreign to Ustashi
Catholicism. Out of a population of 6,700,000, in fact, only 3,300,000 were
Croats. Of the remainder, 700,000 were Moslems, 45,000 were Jews, followed
by sundry smaller minorities. Over 2,000,000 were Orthodox Serbs.

The inclusion in the New Croatia of so many alien elements was due to the
territorial ambitions of Croat Separatism. These, as we have already seen,
had been epitomized in the conception of the "Greater Croatia" of Ante
Starcevic, who founded an extreme political party, the Croatian Law Party,
subsequently elevated to the level of a fanatical National programme by Ante
Pavelic. The Party's ideology, although one of racial and religious
exclusiveness, accepted geographical expansion. This meant the inclusion in
an independent Croatia of disputed territories, and hence of non-Catholic
elements, which became automatically the greatest obstacle to the complete
Catholicization of the new Croat State. To solve the problem, a policy
directed at the swift elimination of all the non-Croat, non-Catholic
population was adopted and promptly set in motion. This was repeatedly and
publicly enunciated by members of the Ustashi Government-e.g. on June 2,
1941, in Nova Grarfiska, Dr. Milovan Zanitch, Minister of Justice, declared:

This State, our country, is only for the Croats, and not for anyone else.
There are no ways and means which we Croats will not use to make our country
truly ours, and to clean it of all Orthodox Serbs. All those who came into
our country 300 years ago must disappear. We do not hide this our intention.
It is the policy of our State, and during its promotion we shall do nothing
else but follow the principles of the Ustashi.

Dr. Mile Budak, Minister of Education and of Cults, lost no time in
enlightening his listeners of the nature of such principles. During his
first Press interview as a Minister, when asked what the policy of Croatia
would be in relation to the non-Croat racial and religious minorities, his
reply was an ominously simple one: "For them" (the minorities), he said, "we
have three million bullets." This was not the boasting of a fanatical
individual. It was the epitomization of a policy, coolly planned by Pavelic
in concert with the Catholic Hierarchy, which was set in motion immediately
when the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia. Dr. Milovan Zanich, Dr. Mirko Puk, Dr.
Victor Gutich, Ustashi Ministers, unhesitatingly declared that the New
Croatia would get rid of all the Serbs in its midst, in order to become 100
per cent Catholic "within ten years." On July 22, 1941, the plan was again
officially confirmed by Dr. Mile Budak: "We shall kill one part of the
Serbs," were his words, "we shall transport another, and the rest of them
will be forced to embrace the Roman Catholic religion. This last part will
be absorbed by the Croatian elements." Ways and means to enact such a scheme
were swiftly adopted. The most radical and most ruthless: mass removal of
Serbians from the contested zone. According to the Ministers, one-third of
these were to be transported to Serbia proper, one-third would be
"persuaded" to embrace Catholicism, and the remainder would be "disposed of"
by other means. "Other means" soon signified biological extermination, and
"persuasion" forcible conversion.

Conversion and extermination spelt one thing: the total annihilation of the
Orthodox Church. That, in fact, turned out to be the official policy of the
New Catholic State of Croatia. Such a policy was

"The Pit of Death" An Orthodox Serb being thrown alive into a mass
grave in the notorious concentration camp of Jasenovac, in 1942.

"The Pit of Death" was reserved for those Serbs who challenged their
Catholic converters. The camp, when run by the Franciscan Monk, Father
Filipovic, squalled in horrors Dachau Concentration Camp. These horrors,
however, were often committed in rural districts as well.

On April 28, 1941, for instance, Ustashi storm troopers encircled the
villages of Gudovac, Tuke Brezovac, Klokocevac and Bolac, in the district of
Bjelovar, and arrested 250 Orthodox peasants, among whom was Stevan
Ivankovitch and the Orthodox priest, Bozin. Having led them all to a field,
the Ustashi ordered them to dig their own graves. This done, their hands
were tied behind their backs. Thereupon, they were ALL PUSHED ALIVE INTO
THEIR GRAVES.

The barbarity created such a commotion, even among the Nazis, that
they set up a Committee to exhume the bodies and took photographs as
evidence. The oral process was incorporated in an official Nazi document,
"Ustachenwerk bet Bjelovar."

Corpses of children starved to death in the notorious Concentration
Camp of Jasenovec, whose Commandant at one time was a Franciscan Monk,
Father Filipovic. Father Filipovic, following the advice of Father D. Juric,
let more than 2,000 other Orthodox children die while the camp was still
under his rule,

Jasenovac Concentration Camp distinguished itself because of the
number of young inmates sent there. In 1942 the Camp held over 24,000
Orthodox youngsters. Twelve thousand of them were murdered in cold blood by
the Commandant.

Special camps for children were set up in many parts of Croatia. Those
who were sick or too old to change their religion were made to perish
through neglect or where simply massacred. An Ustashi named Ante Urban, a
pious Catholic, protested indignantly at his trial after the war when
accused of having killed hundreds of children. He asked the Judge to
consider the accusation a lie, "Since," he explained, he had killed
personally "only sixty-three of them."

formally put forward in Parliament by, among others, Dr. Mirko Puk, the
Ustashi Minister of Justice and Religion: "I shall also make reference to
the so-called Serbian Orthodox Church," he said. "In this regard I must
emphatically state that the Independent Croatian State cannot and will not
recognize the Serbian Orthodox Church."[2]

Pavelic's triple programme was made to operate simultaneously everywhere,
following the establishment of the New State. Its execution was simple,
direct, and brutal. It ranged from hurried decrees-like that issued by his
new Minister of Public Instruction only four days after Hitler's attack
(April 10, 1941), which barred members of the Serbian Orthodox Church from
entering the University unless they had given up the Orthodox faith before
April 10, 1941-to wholesale deportations, like those carried out on July 4
and 5, 1941, by the Ustashi in Zagreb; to the massacre of men, women, and
children, like that of Kljuch, on July 31, on August 31, on September I and
2, 1941, when the "Flying Ustashi" summarily executed approximately 2,000
Serbs.[3]

In a State insanely bent on a policy of racial-religious extermination, laws
and legality, when observed, were nothing but tragic mockeries. The Courts
Extraordinary already mentioned, for instance, always condemned regardless
of evidence, did not permit the right to appeal, and their sentences had to
be carried out within three hours of pronouncement. Thus, these courts
sentenced an immense number of people to death without offering them any
opportunity for defense, and their sentences were strictly applied. In most
cases the courts punished "collectively," under the guise of "trials." One
bench alone, for instance, that of Zagreb, within two days-August 4 and 5,
1941-sentenced to death 185 persons; that of Stem, from August 3 to 25,
1942, 217 persons; the proceedings at the mobile court at Ruma on August 3,
1942, lasted only two and a half hours, during which twenty-six persons were
sentenced to death. At Stara Pazova, on August 8, 1942, the court
proceedings lasted only half an hour, and eighteen people received the death
sentence. At Ruma on August 10, 1942, a defending counsel appointed by the
Ustashi handled the defense of twenty-five persons, whom he met for the
first time at the trial, the chairman of the bench allowing him only two
minutes for each person. The Tribunals, a most tragic mockery of justice,
were veritable instruments of extermination, as proved by the fact that
within four years one bench alone of the mobile court extraordinary of
Zagreb, headed by Ivan Vidnjevic, sentenced to death 2,500 citizens.

But while the Tribunals had at least a semblance of legality, the Ustashi
found means to exterminate thousands of persons by a quicker method-i.e. by
dispatching them to concentration camps and disposing of them there. The
institution and supervision of these camps were exclusively in the hands of
Pavelic, who personally attended to their management. The arrests and
deportations to these camps rested with the Ustashi, who could send to them
anyone they judged to be an "unreliable person," and who had absolute
authority to kill immediately on arrival anyone taken there. Indeed, there
"was agreement," to quote Ljubo Milos, Commandant of the Jasenovac
concentration camp, "that all sentenced to three years, or not sentenced at
all, were to be liquidated at once."3 By virtue of this, inmates of the
camps were murdered indiscriminately, either individually or collectively,
without even a legal excuse. Thus, in March, 1943, the inmates of the
Djakovo Camp were purposely infected with typhus, causing the deaths of 567
persons; on September 15, 1941, all those inmates of the Jasenovac camp who
were unable to work, numbering between 600 and 700, were killed; in the camp
of Stara Gradiska, 1,000 women were killed. Of 5,000 Orthodox Serbs being
taken to Jasenovac camp at the end of August, 1942, 2,000 were killed en
route, the remainder were transferred to Gradina, where on August 28 they
were put to death with hammers. In the Krapje Camp, in October, 1941, 4,000
prisoners were murdered; while in the Brocice Camp, in November, 1941, 8,000
prisoners were killed. From December, 1941, to February, 1942, at Velika
Kosutarica, at Jasenovac, over 40,000 Orthodox Serbs were massacred, while
in the Jasenovac camp, in the summer of 1942, about 66,000 Orthodox Serbs,
brought from the villages of the Bosnian Marches, were slaughtered,
including 2,000 children.

Children were not spared, and special concentration camps were set up for
them. Nine of these were at Lobor; Jablanac, near Jasenovac; Mlaka; Brocice;
IJstici; Stara Gradiska; Sisak; Jastrebarsko; and Ciornja Rijeka. The
destruction of infants in these places would be incredible, were it not
vouched for by eyewitnesses, one of whom has testified:

At that time fresh women and children came daily to the Camp at Stara
Gradiska. About fourteen days later, Vrban [Commandant of the Camp] ordered
all children to be separated from their mothers and put in one room. Ten of
us were told to carry them there in blankets. The children crawled about the
room, and one child put an arm and leg through the doorway, so that the door
could not be closed. Vrban shouted: 'Push it!' When I did not do that, he
banged the door and crushed the child's leg. Then he took the child by its
whole leg, and banged it on the wall till it was dead. After that we
continued carrying the children in. When the room was full, Vrban brought
poison gas and killed them all.[4]

At his trial, Ante Vrban protested that he had not killed hundreds of
children personally, "but only sixty-three."[5]

In 1942 there were some 24,000 children in the Jasenovac camp alone, 12,000
of whom were cold-bloodedly murdered. A very large portion of the remainder,
having subsequently been released following pressure by the International
Red Cross, perished wholesale from intense debilitation. One hundred of
these infants, aged up to twelve months, for instance, died after release
from the camp because of the addition of caustic soda to their food.

Dr. Katicic, Chairman of the Red Cross, shocked by these mass murders,
lodged the strongest protest, threatening to denounce to the world this mass
slaughter of infants. As a reply, Pavelic had Dr. Katicic flung into the
concentration camp of Stara Gradiska.

That was not all. Even worse horrors-if worse there could be-took place in
Pavelic's concentration camps. There were cases when the victims were burned
alive:

The cremation at Jasenovac took place in the spring of 1942. In this they
meant to imitate the Nazi camps in Germany and Poland, so Picilli had the
notion of making the brickworks into a crematorium, where he did succeed,
out of 14 ovens (7 a side) in making an oven for cremating people. There was
then a decision to cremate people alive, and simply open the huge iron door
and push them alive into the fire already alight there. That plan, however,
excited terrible reaction among those who were to be burned. People
shrieked, shouted and defended themselves. To avoid such scenes, it was
resolved first to kill them and then to burn them.[6]

The representatives of the "only true Church" not only knew of such horrors:
not a few of them were authorities in these same concentration camps, and
had even been decorated by Ante Pavelic-e.g. Father Zvonko Brekalo, of the
concentration camp of Jasenovac, who was decorated in 1944 by the leader
himself with the "Order of King Zvonimir"; Father Grga Blazevitch, Assistant
to the Commandant of the concentration camp of Bosanski-Novi; Brother
Tugomire Soldo, organizer of the great massacre of the Serbs in 1941; and
others. The worst abominations could hardly have been surpassed by the deeds
of these individuals, the vilest betrayers of civilization and of man.

How to recognize scams aimed at Muslim women, and how to protect yourself (and others) from them??

A number of "cyber scams" aimed at exploiting Muslim women have popped up on the net over the last few years. By request, Modern Muslima presents you with a list of those scams, how to recognize them, and how to protect yourself (and others) from them. We'd like to thank all of the sisters who shared their experiences, sometimes painful and embarrassing, with us so that we could provide you with this information.

Veil (Hijab) Fetishists

There are two types of Hijab Fetishists out there: the kind who "have fun" simply looking at pictures of veiled women (and who build websites and swap veiled photographs), and the kind who enjoy writing stories and initiating correspondence about veiling. Very often, these fetishists are not Muslim and do not pretend to be.

The first kind are relatively innocuous. All the photographs of women on their website are likely to be women in full (face) veils. The e-mail exchanges they have tend to center on swapping nothing more than photos. Their pages (one of which is very popular with Muslim women) tend to focus solely on photographs. Any text on their sites will deal with historical and socio-cultural views of veiling, and almost completely leave out religious writings, such as ayat (verses) from the Qur'an. Links on their site will take you to more pages (Islamic and not) about veiling, or even to pages of a sexual nature.

The second kind are not as harmless. They exchange stories of a sexual nature, centered on the female character being veiled, and swap photographs of both veiled and...shall we say, partially veiled women. They sometimes engage in "role playing" on e-mail lists and in chat rooms. Again, most of them don't even bother with religious (or even historical) ideas about veiling, and most of them can't be bothered to pretend they are Muslims.

However, there are a few fairly active Veil Fetishists out there who do pretend to be Muslim women. They try to get Muslim women to write things or send photographs that they would never knowingly share with a man, much less a man (or woman) who is sexually aroused by veiling. What these Veil Fetishists do is create a Yahoo! or AOL id with a Muslim woman's name. They then "troll" various e-mail groups, message boards, and chat rooms looking for Muslim women to talk to about veiling.

One individual is known for pretending to be a new Muslim woman who needs "help" learning how to pin the hijab. This individual tries to find sisters who have web-cams and asks them to turn the camera on, and do a step by step demonstration of how to put the hijab on so "she" can learn. This person has been at this for more than a year as of this writing (August 2003).

Another group of people are far more extreme and much more insidious. The things that they say and engage in online could be extremely damaging to an unsuspecting Muslima's heart and mind. This group includes several individuals who pretend that they are "extremely conservative" Muslim women, although they almost never use the word "Salafi" (probably because they aren't familiar with it).

They set up web pages and Yahoo! groups about "Extreme Conservative Veiling," "Silent Niqaabis," and so on. Not all members of these groups are Muslims, nor do they claim to be. For example, some claim to be "conservative Christians," while others are just "secular conservatives" who are into veiling for "social reasons." These people then join authentic Muslim women's groups, troll for very conservative and / or fully veiled women, and invite them to join their groups. Unfortunately, a number of sincere and innocent Muslimas have joined these groups.

These Veil Fetishists, who are both men and women, get some sort of sick sexual fulfillment out of pretending to be Muslim women and encouraging Muslim women to talk about veiling, their relations with their husbands, and practices that might be classified as "sado-masochism." All of their conversations and posts focus solely on veiling and the overwhelming sexual power of women's bodies and voices, and how it must be contained through extreme measures.

For example, these individuals have encouraged Muslim women to tie their legs and ankles together when walking outside (so that the stride is not too "large" and "unfeminine") and to wear gags (so that they do not knowingly or unknowingly arouse men outside of the home by talking). They swap photographs of various types of gags and binding garments. They also encourage these Muslim women to engage in a type of purdah that includes never going out of of the home, blacking out windows, and being locked into a room by the husband / male partner when he is not home. They share stories about being in full niqab all of the time, including at home alone or with the husband / male partner, and claim it is "more Islamic" to do this.

They also tell these Muslimas that it is "more Islamic" to engage in a practice known as "domestic discipline." "DD," which is practiced by some Christian conservatives, but mostly by secular conservatives and fetishists, is the practice of regular light (or not so light) spanking and hitting of the wife / female partner by the husband / male partner in order to "keep her in line."

The easiest way to recognize these people is to realize that beneath the rhetoric about "good conservative" Muslim women being "silent and feminine," these individuals exhibit absolute ignorance about Islam, its teachings, its beliefs, and so on. Nor is any of the content of their posts or websites Islamic in nature. One can also peruse the members lists of these groups and see that most members have IDs that contain words and implications of a sexual nature.

Circumcision Fetishists

Even worse than hijab fetishists are the circumcision fetishists. One individual has been extremely active in trying to fool Muslim women over the last year or so. He has created a number of seemingly Islamic Yahoo! IDs; he always poses as a woman. He finds pictures of fully veiled Muslim women on the 'net and puts it on his sites / groups, claiming that is him. He creates groups relating to the idea of female circumcision in Islam, and then trolls genuine groups in search of seemingly naive members or simply spams genuine groups with invitations to his group.

The Circumcision Fetishist seems to possess a fair amount of knowledge on what various Islamic sources have said about female circumcision, which is why it seems that some poor sisters have taken him at face value. Unfortunately, he has simply pulled these quotes off of a (get ready to gag) circumcision fetishist website.

He also posts articles or "testimonials" allegedly from Muslim women all over the world about how wonderful it is to be circumcised. His only goal is to convince women to get circumcised and to encourage them to talk about their genitals. A number of well meaning, naive Muslim women (esp. new Muslimas) have joined his groups. A quick scan of the members lists of his group show that along with the sincere Muslimas, there are a large number of people whose IDs have words of a sexual nature.

Fortunately for Muslimas, this individual exhibits a gross lack of knowledge about anything else to do with Islam, which always gives him away. He does not know what the five pillars are, does not use the greetings of peace ("Salaam Alaikum"), and none of his messages have any religious content whatsoever. New Muslimas should know that under almost no circumstance (actually, none that I can think of) would a Muslim woman discuss her genitalia in a public or semi-public forum. If you join a group or receive an invitation of this nature, it is almost certainly a cyber scam.

As of this writing, we do not know of any other individual who pretends to be a Muslim woman; however, there are a number of websites, e-mail groups, and picture / story swaps out there which fetishize the circumcision of both men and women. If you are looking for information on male infant circumcision in Islam, you may come across some of their sites by accident. You will almost immediately recognize these sites for what they are, since they feature quite a large number of inappropriate photographs.

The Abandoned Muslima

Another common scam is the "Abandoned Muslima." Regrettably, it is fairly difficult to tell the scammer from the person who genuinely needs help. The Abandoned Muslima is a woman, almost always claming to be a convert, who says that she has been abandoned by her husband, usually with a child or two (or three or four or five...). She almost always says that her husband has abused her in some way. Abandoned Muslima simply can not get a job; she alleges that absolutely no Muslim in her community, whether it is at the masjid, or just fellow community members, will help her. Usually a claim that they made fun of her or made racist comments about her is tossed in. Abandoned Muslima will spend several weeks, months even, bombarding members of various Muslim e-mail groups with her tales of woe and hardship.

After Abandoned Muslima has warmed up her audience, she will make a "reluctant" plea for members of the group to send her money. Offers of jobs or other types of assistance (such as directing her to social service agencies) will always be rejected for various reasons.

Abandoned Muslima is looking for cold hard cash (or money orders). After she has received money from well meaning members, she will disappear. Some Abandoned Muslimas may also start to create trouble after they've received their money, usually by launching personal attacks on other members, before disappearing.

Abandoned Muslima will disappear from the e-mail circuit for about six months to a year. Later on, she will reappear on other groups, often using the same name, but a different e-mail address or Yahoo! ID. Group members who recognize her from previous experiences and who try to warn others may be "hand slapped" as being mean to the new member. Abandoned Muslima may "apologize" and claim she was "going through a rough time" when she suddenly disappeared without a trace or word of thanks from the previous group.

Unfortunately, it does happen that real Muslim women with real financial difficulties reach out to their sisters online for help. So how do we tell Abandoned Muslimas apart from the real sisters? Most of the time, you simply can't. Abandoned Muslima has got her story down pat.

The only difference between a real sister and an Abandoned Muslima is that the real sister who is in dire straits is going to be willing to take a job or visit a social service agency. Remember, Abandoned Muslima is after cash, not a job, and she is going to reject these other forms of help using various excuses. Abandoned Muslima is also likely to disappear quickly if a potential donor exhibits interest in talking to those community leaders who are alleged to have rejected her for racist reasons.

If you want to help struggling Muslim women, the best thing to do is look within your community. It is highly likely that some woman in your community or one nearby is struggling to pay the bills. There are also several Islamic social service agencies across the country that provide financial and housing assistance, as well as job counseling, to Muslim women. You would be doing a lot of good to put your money with them.

The Lonely Brother

The Lonely Brother is a Muslim man who is looking for a little "haram" (forbidden) interaction online. He may also be seeking something in real life. He always targets convert women, especially new sisters. His scam is pretty straightforward. He is a Muslim man who says that he is looking for marriage. He claims to be very, very lonely. After only one or two e-mail or Instant Message conversations, he finds himself "deeply in love" with the sister. What he does after this depends on his level of depravity.

Some Lonely Brothers try to encourage the woman to engage in cyber-sex or phone sex, claiming that it is "halal" (permissible) because they are online and "it isn't real." Or they may try to appeal to her sense of pity and guilt by playing the "but we're in love and I can't wait, it's too difficult" card.

Other Lonely Brothers will convince the sister to meet them in person. They will first suggest a public place, such as a museum, park, or mall. He will take her around, be semi-charming, pay for her lunch. He will then almost always, somehow, "awkwardly" suggest that they begin to have sex. He will claim that it is permissible because they are "engaged" and "really in love." Or he will tell her that Islam allows a sort of "temporary marriage," or muta'h that will allow them to "marry in secret" (i.e., without witnesses or even an imam to officiate) and engage in sexual relations. After the sister does what he wants, he simply disappears, or he gives her the excuse that "he's not ready to marry after all," or that his family won't let him marry a convert, and then takes off.

Unfortunately, there are enough new Muslimas out there who don't know enough about Islam, who are confused and who are lonely themselves that they fall for this stuff.

Sisters! No sincere, good Muslim man is going to ask you to engage in cyber or phone sex, or ask you out on a date, or ask you to engage in "temporary marriage," which is NOT permissible. Lonely Brother, more often than not, is actually engaged or married to a Muslim woman already, OR fully engages in haram behavior outside of his scamming Muslim women (and here, we mean openly dating and having relationships with women, going to bars, smoking marijuana, and so on). If you have doubts about a Muslim man you have met online, talk to a knowledgeable Muslim whom you trust. Ask your imam. Ask him to visit the imam with you. If he declines or backs out, you know he's not for real.

The Friendly Shi'a

The Friendly Shi'a is a Shi'a man or woman who joins general or Sunni-specific Islamic groups in order to "learn" and "promote Islamic unity." He or she (for our purposes, it is she) will exhibit an intense desire to learn about various aspects of Sunni law and belief. She is friendly and seemingly open. She will repeatedly assure the members of the group that her aim is not to convert them to Shi'ism.

However, she soon slips in questions about various ayat (verses) in the Qur'an, hadith from the Sunnah, or historical incidents. The question may be cloaked with the intent that she wants to "learn the Sunni perspective" or "get a deeper grammatical understanding" of the matter in question. A quick visit to any one of the large number of Shi'a missionary sites will clue you in to the fact that these are the very same questions Shi'as are encouraged to ask Sunnis when proselytizing them.

When confronted with a Friendly Shi'a, my recommendation is to do a simple Google or Yahoo! search on the individual, using their e-mail address or Yahoo! ID. One will almost certainly pull up articles from websites or posts from Shi'a lists / message boards that speak to the individual's true intentions and feelings.

In my experience, Friendly Shi'a will pull the "who me?" wide-eyed innocent act when confronted or asked about her intentions, even when told that the confronters have found evidence of those true intentions. It has also happened that at the same time Friendly Shi'a is interacting on the given group, there are several other Shi'a on the same group who are engaging in 'taqiya,' or dissimulation. This basically means lying, and in our case, means pretending and claiming to be Sunni Muslims. The Friendly Shi'a will disavow any knowledge of these individuals, even though that quick Google search showed you that they interact together, openly, on Shi'a boards using the same names and IDs.

Individually, the Friendly Shi'a targets those who are new to Islam, those who exhibit a desire to become students of knowledge, and / or those who express some confusion about various Islamic concepts. Friendly Shi'a also exploits those whom she perceives to be overly friendly, quiet, or weak. Such individuals may be targeted for a more "individual" proselytizing off list. Members should be wary when Friendly Shi'a starts asking questions about the personalities and biographies of various other members.

Now, because the Shi'a has been so friendly and open until this point, there will be other members of the group who feel bad exposing her or trying to have her removed, saying that it adds to the "disunity" of the Ummah. It ends up creating a significant amount of fitnah for group / message board owners and members. This does not mean that all Shi'a are "bad," or even that most online Shi'a engage in this or approve of this. Most Shi'a 'netizens out there stay on Shi'a groups and the Shi'a 'web and are not the slightest bit interested in doing what Friendly Shi'a does. What it does mean is that message board and group owners need to be both aware and wary of Shi'a members, and protect the rest of the group by hiding the membership lists or member e-mail addresses.

I Love You, I Love You So Much!!!

"O 'Ibâdî (My slaves) who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)! Despair not of the Mercy of Allâh, verily Allâh forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (39;53)


Forgive me O Allah
For the wrongs I have done.
For anger, I shouldn't have
Against anyone.

I know I'm weak O Allah,
But I love You, I really do,
And in spite of my weakness,
I know You love me too.

Forgive me for not reading Your word,
And for the times that I stray.
Forgive me for just being too 'tired'
When I don’t take the time to pray.

Give me the strength, O Allah,
to do what I should each day.
Let Your love shine through me
So others will follow Your way.

Even though I've failed You Allah,
I know You'll forgive me,
And this I promise Lord,
A better Muslim I will be.

For Your rememberance is in me
Filling my heart with Your love,
And I have Your reassurance
You’re guiding from above.

I love You Allah, and thank You
For the blessings You bestow,
I will tell others about You
So Your goodness they too, will know.

The Upper Hand- Charity in Islam

Islam encourages the Muslim to spend from his money for Allah's Sake
whenever he is capable of doing so, and it stresses on the great
virtues of giving a charity. The prophet (PBUH) said, 'The Upper Hand
is better than the Lower Hand. The upper hand is the one that gives,
and the lower hand is the one that takes'. Allah SWT said in the Holy
Book, 'The likeness of those who spend their money for Allah's sake,
is as the likeness of a grain (of corn), it grows seven ears, every
single ear has a hundred grains, and Allah multiplies (increases the
reward) for whom He wills, and Allah is All-Sufficient for His
creatures needs, All Knower' (2: 261). And He SWT said, 'Whoever
works righteousness, whether a male or a female, while he (or she) is
a true believer, verily to him We will give a good life (in this
world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall
pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they
used to do.' (16: 97)

In this life, the charity enlarges the blessing in one's fortune.
Unlike what most people think; money gets practically bigger so long
the person is giving charities. As the prophet (PBUH) stated, 'The
Charity does not lessen one's money'. As we know, the number of the
money we have is not what counts, but it is the value of the money
and the things you can get with this money is what counts. When the
believer keeps on feeding his money with charity, this enlarges the
blessing in his money. With a certain amount of money he would be
able to do more than what he used to do before, not to mention the
harm that would be pushed a way from his money, so that the money
wont be wasted by some way or another (e.g. car accident, health
problems, ...etc.). Besides, the charity has an amazing effect in
pushing away the calamities and harm that is afflicting the Muslim.
The prophet (PBUH) said, 'Cure your sick people with Sadaqa (i.e.
charity)!' That's why the righteous Muslims used to cure themselves
in time of sickness with giving charities! One of the early righteous
Muslims whose name is Ar-Rabe'e has been afflicted by Al-Faalig (i.e.
Hemiplegia) and was suffering from that disease for sometime. One day
his wife grilled him a chicken and baked some fresh bread, which he
used to love so much... Resisting the temptation of his favorite
dish, he asked her to give the food to one of the poor as a charity,
saying 'I would like to give the poor what I love most, that may
Allah accept my charity and reward me with what is better than that'.
His wife suggested that she would keep the food for him, and instead
give some money to the poor which equals the same price of the food.
Ar-Rabe'e asked her to bring the money, and when she did, he asked
her to put them all together (the money, the grilled chicken and the
fresh bread) and give them all to the poor!! This was the attitude of
Muslims towards giving charities, while lots of people nowadays spend
enormous amounts of money on the doctors and medications neglecting
the importance of a charity that might not even make a noticeable
difference in their wealth.

In the Hereafter, the charity could be the reason for protecting
oneself from Hell-Fire even if it was as small as a piece of date!
The prophet (PBUH) said, 'There will be none among you but will be
talked to by Allah on the Day of Resurrection, without there being an
interpreter between him and Allah. He will look and see nothing ahead
of him, and then he will look (again) in front of him, and (only) the
Hell Fire will confront him. So, whoever among you can save himself
from the Fire, should do so even with one half of a date (means: even
if all what you can give as charity is one half of a date)'. Allah
SWT has praised those who make a constant right in their wealth for
the poor and has promised them multiplied rewards for their charity.
He SWT said, 'Who is he that will loan to Allah a beautiful loan
which Allah will double unto his credit and multiply it many times?'
(2: 245). The prophet (PBUH) also said: 'If one gives in charity that
equals one date-fruit from money that is earned in lawful way, and
Allah only accepts what is lawful, Allah shall take it in His right
(hand) and then enlarges it's reward for that person (who has given
it), just like any of you who brings up his baby horse, so much so
that it (i.e. the charity) becomes as big as a mountain'. What we now
spend as a charity for Allah's sake is what remains with us after
death, however, what we spend for our worldly pleasures vanishes and
goes away. A'isha (the prophet's wife, may Allah be pleased with her)
reported that they once slaughtered a sheep, and then distributed all
parts of the sheep as a charity except for the shoulder which she
kept for them. When the prophet (PBUH) asked her about what remained
from the sheep (after distributing it), she said 'Nothing remained
except for the shoulder', so the prophet (PBUH) commented 'Everything
remained except for the shoulder!!'

However, for the charity to be accepted and to achieve it's goals,
the Believer must consider some essential manners when giving the
charity. First of all, the charity must be given from money that is
earned in a lawful way. Allah SWT says, 'O ye who believe, spend from
what you (lawfully) earned' (2: 267). And the prophet (PBUH)
said: 'God is Tayyib, and He only accepts what is Tayyib', (the word
Tayyib means lawful, pure, good, ..etc.).

Second, when giving a charity, the believer must purify his intention
and make his purpose just for the sake of gaining Allah's pleasure
and reward with this charity, not anything else (such as worldly
benefits, fame, good reputation, ..etc.). The prophet (PBUH)
said, 'All deeds are based on the intention and everyone will be
rewarded according to what he intended (from his action)' And he
(PBUH) said, 'Nothing that you spend for Allah's sake but you will be
rewarded for it, even the food that you raise up to your wife's
mouth'. God SWT praised those who give for His sake without expecting
any benefit from the people who receive the charity, He SWT
said, 'And they give food (in spite of their love for it) to the
poor, the orphan and the captive. Saying; we feed you seeking Allah's
countenance only, we wish for no reward nor thanks from you' (76: 8 &
9). Any of our daily actions could be turned into a worshipping
activity if it is done purely for Allah's sake, and vice versa: any
worshipping activity could be rejected by Allah if it is done for any
other purpose rather than pleasing Him.

Third, the believer should hurry up with giving the charity and
should not delay it without a specific reason. It is also much better
for the Muslim to give charities during his life when in need of
money, than to wait until death comes to him, then he commands his
inheritors to give the charity on his behalf. The prophet (PBUH) was
once asked about the best of all charities, so he said; 'The best
charity is what you give during your life while you are in need of
it.'

Fourth, it is more fitting for the Muslim to give the charity from
his best possessions that which he loves most. This actually is the
opposite of what many people nowadays do, as they only give their old
rusty possessions as if they are trying to get rid of them! Allah SWT
says in the Holy Book, 'By no means shall you attain righteousness
unless you give (freely as a charity) from that which you love; and
whatever you spend Allah knows it well.' (3: 92). However, this does
not mean that one should lessen the value of his charity if he only
has little to give. The prophet (PBUH) once said to his
companions, 'One Dirhem could be better in reward than one hundred
thousand Dirhems!' a man asked, 'And how is that, messenger of
Allah?!' He (PBUH) replied, 'a wealthy man takes one hundred thousand
Dirhems which is one part of his wealth and gives it as a charity,
while a poor man who only has two Dirhems pays one of them as a
charity.' And it was reported that A'isha (may Allah be pleased with
her) once gave a piece of date as a charity when this was all what
she had. Whatever that you do, big or small, will be put in your
account, even if it was as tiny as the weight of an atom. Allah SWT
says, 'Whoever does an atom weight of good he shall see it (in his
book), and whoever does an atom weight of evil he shall see it' (99:
7 & 8).

Fifth: The believer must hide his charity and do his best not to let
anyone know about it to avoid falling into Riya'a (i.e. showing up
one's good deeds to others and doing the good deeds for other than
Allah's Sake). The prophet (PBUH) said: 'Seven (types of) people will
be covered with Allah's shade on a day when there is no shade but His
Shade, (from among them) a man who gives a charity hiding it, that
(even) his left hand does not know what his right hand has spent'.
Saying that your left hand does not know what your right hand has
spent is a form of expression that indicates how careful you should
be when giving a charity not letting anyone notice what you're doing.
It would even be better to hide your identity from the one who is
receiving the charity, when possible, so as to protect the receiver's
dignity and save him from feeling shameful or humiliated. One of the
righteous successors used to give a constant charity to the scholars
who were known to be poor at his time, and in order to hide his
identity and protect them from the embarrassment he used to wait
until they enter the mosque for one of the daily prayers, then put
the money inside their slippers! The scholars never knew his true
identity until only when he died and they found out that the charity
they used to receive on a constant basis all of a sudden stopped!!

Sixth: The believer must not follow his charity by harming the one
who is receiving it, nor should he keep on reminding him of his
generosity. Hurting the one who receives a charity by any mean would
only nullify (i.e. cancel) the reward of the charity, as Allah SWT
indicated in His Holy Book, 'O you who believe, cancel not your
charities by reminders of your generosity, or by harm' (2: 264).

Seventh: When one can not (or do not want to) give a charity to a
person who is asking for it, he then should only say a kind word to
him, and should not by any mean hurt his feelings. Allah SWT
said, 'Kind words and forgiveness are better than a charity followed
by injury' (2: 263).

Compiled, edited and adapted by Khalid Latif

What is not taught in School

What is Taught: The first mention of man in flight was by Roger Bacon, who drew a flying apparatus. Leonardo da Vinci also conceived of airborne transport and drew several prototypes.
What Should be Taught: Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain invented, constructed and tested a flying machine in the 800's A.D. Roger Bacon learned of flying machines from Arabic references to Ibn Firnas' machine. The latter's invention antedates Bacon by 500 years and Da Vinci by some 700 years.


What is Taught: Glass mirrors were first produced in 1291 in Venice.
What Should be Taught: Glass mirrors were in use in Islamic Spain as early as the 11th century. The Venetians learned of the art of fine glass production from Syrian artisans during the 9th and 10th centuries.


What is Taught: Until the 14th century, the only type of clock available was the water clock. In 1335, a large mechanical clock was erected in Milan, Italy. This was possibly the first weight-driven clock.
What Should be Taught: A variety of mechanical clocks were produced by Spanish Muslim engineers, both large and small, and this knowledge was transmitted to Europe through Latin translations of Islamic books on mechanics. These clocks were weight-driven. Designs and illustrations of epi-cyclic and segmental gears were provided. One such clock included a mercury escapement. The latter type was directly copied by Europeans during the 15th century. In addition, during the 9th century, Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain, according to Will Durant, invented a watch-like device which kept accurate time. The Muslims also constructed a variety of highly accurate astronomical clocks for use in their observatories.


What is Taught: In the 17th century, the pendulum was developed by Galileo during his teenage years. He noticed a chandelier swaying as it was being blown by the wind. As a result, he went home and invented the pendulum.
What Should be Taught: The pendulum was discovered by Ibn Yunus al-Masri during the 10th century, who was the first to study and document its oscillatory motion. Its value for use in clocks was introduced by Muslim physicists during the 15th century.


What is Taught: Movable type and the printing press was invented in the West by Johannes Gutenberg of Germany during the 15th century.
What Should be Taught: In 1454, Gutenberg developed the most sophisticated printing press of the Middle Ages. However, movable brass type was in use in Islamic Spain 100 years prior, and that is where the West's first printing devices were made.


What is Taught: Isaac Newton's 17th century study of lenses, light and prisms forms the foundation of the modern science of optics .
What Should be Taught: In the 1lth century al-Haytham determined virtually everything that Newton advanced regarding optics centuries prior and is regarded by numerous authorities as the "founder of optics. " There is little doubt that Newton was influenced by him. Al-Haytham was the most quoted physicist of the Middle Ages. His works were utilized and quoted by a greater number of European scholars during the 16th and 17th centuries than those of Newton and Galileo combined.


What is Taught: Isaac Newton, during the 17th century, discovered that white light consists of various rays of colored light.
What Should be Taught: This discovery was made in its entirety by al-Haytham (11th century) and Kamal ad-Din (14th century). Newton did make original discoveries, but this was not one of them.


What is Taught: The concept of the finite nature of matter was first introduced by Antione Lavoisier during the 18th century. He discovered that, although matter may change its form or shape, its mass always remains the same. Thus, for instance, if water is heated to steam, if salt is dissolved in water or if a piece of wood is burned to ashes, the total mass remains unchanged.
What Should be Taught: The principles of this discovery were elaborated centuries before by Islamic Persia's great scholar, al-Biruni (d. 1050). Lavoisier was a disciple of the Muslim chemists and physicists and referred to their books frequently.


What is Taught: The Greeks were the developers of trigonometry .
What Should be Taught: Trigonometry remained largely a theoretical science among the Greeks. It was developed to a level of modern perfection by Muslim scholars, although the weight of the credit must be given to al-Battani. The words describing the basic functions of this science, sine, cosine and tangent, are all derived from Arabic terms. Thus, original contributions by the Greeks in trigonometry were minimal.


What is Taught: The use of decimal fractions in mathematics was first developed by a Dutchman, Simon Stevin, in 1589. He helped advance the mathematical sciences by replacing the cumbersome fractions, for instance, 1/2, with decimal fractions, for example, 0.5.
What Should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians were the first to utilize decimals instead of fractions on a large scale. Al-Kashi's book, Key to Arithmetic, was written at the beginning of the 15th century and was the stimulus for the systematic application of decimals to whole numbers and fractions thereof. It is highly probably that Stevin imported the idea to Europe from al-Kashi's work.


What is Taught: The first man to utilize algebraic symbols was the French mathematician, Francois Vieta. In 1591, he wrote an algebra book describing equations with letters such as the now familiar x and y's. Asimov says that this discovery had an impact similar to the progression from Roman numerals to Arabic numbers.
What Should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians, the inventors of algebra, introduced the concept of using letters for unknown variables in equations as early as the 9th century A.D. Through this system, they solved a variety of complex equations, including quadratic and cubic equations. They used symbols to develop and perfect the binomial theorem.


What is Taught: The difficult cubic equations (x to the third power) remained unsolved until the 16th century when Niccolo Tartaglia, an Italian mathematician, solved them.
What Should be Taught: Cubic equations as well as numerous equations of even higher degrees were solved with ease by Muslim mathematicians as early as the 10th century.


What is Taught: The concept that numbers could be less than zero, that is negative numbers, was unknown until 1545 when Geronimo Cardano introduced the idea.
What Should he Taught: Muslim mathematicians introduced negative numbers for use in a variety of arithmetic functions at least 400 years prior to Cardano.


What is Taught: In 1614, John Napier invented logarithms and logarithmic tables.
What Should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians invented logarithms and produced logarithmic tables several centuries prior. Such tables were common in the Islamic world as early as the 13th century.


What is Taught: During the 17th century Rene Descartes made the discovery that algebra could be used to solve geometrical problems. By this, he greatly advanced the science of geometry.
What Should be Taught: Mathematicians of the Islamic Empire accomplished precisely this as early as the 9th century A.D. Thabit bin Qurrah was the first to do so, and he was followed by Abu'l Wafa, whose 10th century book utilized algebra to advance geometry into an exact and simplified science.


What is Taught: Isaac Newton, during the 17th century, developed the binomial theorem, which is a crucial component for the study of algebra.
What Should be Taught: Hundreds of Muslim mathematicians utilized and perfected the binomial theorem. They initiated its use for the systematic solution of algebraic problems during the 10th century (or prior).


What is Taught: No improvement had been made in the astronomy of the ancients during the Middle Ages regarding the motion of planets until the 13th century. Then Alphonso the Wise of Castile (Middle Spain) invented the Aphonsine Tables, which were more accurate than Ptolemy's.
What Should be Taught: Muslim astronomers made numerous improvements upon Ptolemy's findings as early as the 9th century. They were the first astronomers to dispute his archaic ideas. In their critic of the Greeks, they synthesized proof that the sun is the center of the solar system and that the orbits of the earth and other planets might be elliptical. They produced hundreds of highly accurate astronomical tables and star charts. Many of their calculations are so precise that they are regarded as contemporary. The AlphonsineTables are little more than copies of works on astronomy transmitted to Europe via Islamic Spain, i.e. the Toledo Tables.


What is Taught: The English scholar Roger Bacon (d. 1292) first mentioned glass lenses for improving vision. At nearly the same time, eyeglasses could be found in use both in China and Europe.
What Should be Taught: Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain invented eyeglasses during the 9th century, and they were manufactured and sold throughout Spain for over two centuries. Any mention of eyeglasses by Roger Bacon was simply a regurgitation of the work of al-Haytham (d. 1039), whose research Bacon frequently referred to.


What is Taught: Gunpowder was developed in the Western world as a result of Roger Bacon's work in 1242. The first usage of gunpowder in weapons was when the Chinese fired it from bamboo shoots in attempt to frighten Mongol conquerors. They produced it by adding sulfur and charcoal to saltpeter.
What Should be Taught: The Chinese developed saltpeter for use in fireworks and knew of no tactical military use for gunpowder, nor did they invent its formula. Research by Reinuad and Fave have clearly shown that gunpowder was formulated initially by Muslim chemists. Further, these historians claim that the Muslims developed the first fire-arms. Notably, Muslim armies used grenades and other weapons in their defence of Algericus against the Franks during the 14th century. Jean Mathes indicates that the Muslim rulers had stock-piles of grenades, rifles, crude cannons, incendiary devices, sulfur bombs and pistols decades before such devices were used in Europe. The first mention of a cannon was in an Arabic text around 1300 A.D. Roger Bacon learned of the formula for gunpowder from Latin translations of Arabic books. He brought forth nothing original in this regard.


What is Taught: The compass was invented by the Chinese who may have been the first to use it for navigational purposes sometime between 1000 and 1100 A.D. The earliest reference to its use in navigation was by the Englishman, Alexander Neckam (1157-1217).
What Should be Taught: Muslim geographers and navigators learned of the magnetic needle, possibly from the Chinese, and were the first to use magnetic needles in navigation. They invented the compass and passed the knowledge of its use in navigation to the West. European navigators relied on Muslim pilots and their instruments when exploring unknown territories. Gustav Le Bon claims that the magnetic needle and compass were entirely invented by the Muslims and that the Chinese had little to do with it. Neckam, as well as the Chinese, probably learned of it from Muslim traders. It is noteworthy that the Chinese improved their navigational expertise after they began interacting with the Muslims during the 8th century.


What is Taught: The first man to classify the races was the German Johann F. Blumenbach, who divided mankind into white, yellow, brown, black and red peoples.
What Should be Taught: Muslim scholars of the 9th through 14th centuries invented the science of ethnography. A number of Muslim geographers classified the races, writing detailed explanations of their unique cultural habits and physical appearances. They wrote thousands of pages on this subject. Blumenbach's works were insignificant in comparison.


What is Taught: The science of geography was revived during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries when the ancient works of Ptolemy were discovered. The Crusades and the Portuguese/Spanish expeditions also contributed to this reawakening. The first scientifically-based treatise on geography were produced during this period by Europe's scholars.
What Should be Taught: Muslim geographers produced untold volumes of books on the geography of Africa, Asia, India, China and the Indies during the 8th through 15th centuries. These writings included the world's first geographical encyclopedias, almanacs and road maps. Ibn Battutah's 14 th century masterpieces provide a detailed view of the geography of the ancient world. The Muslim geographers of the 10th through 15th centuries far exceeded the output by Europeans regarding the geography of these regions well into the 18th century. The Crusades led to the destruction of educational institutions, their scholars and books. They brought nothing substantive regarding geography to the Western world.


What is Taught: Robert Boyle, in the 17th century, originated the science of chemistry.
What Should be Taught: A variety of Muslim chemists, including ar-Razi, al-Jabr, al-Biruni and al-Kindi, performed scientific experiments in chemistry some 700 years prior to Boyle. Durant writes that the Muslims introduced the experimental method to this science. Humboldt regards the Muslims as the founders of chemistry.


What is Taught: Leonardo da Vinci (16th century) fathered the science of geology when he noted that fossils found on mountains indicated a watery origin of the earth.
What Should be Taught: Al-Biruni (1lth century) made precisely this observation and added much to it, including a huge book on geology, hundreds of years before Da Vinci was born. Ibn Sina noted this as well (see pages 100-101). it is probable that Da Vinci first learned of this concept from Latin translations of Islamic books. He added nothing original to their findings.


What is Taught: The first mention of the geological formation of valleys was in 1756, when Nicolas Desmarest proposed that they were formed over a long periods of time by streams.
What Should be Taught: Ibn Sina and al-Biruni made precisely this discovery during the 11th century (see pages 102 and 103), fully 700 years prior to Desmarest.


What is Taught: Galileo (17th century) was the world's first great experimenter.
What Should be Taught: Al-Biruni (d. 1050) was the world's first great experimenter. He wrote over 200 books, many of which discuss his precise experiments. His literary output in the sciences amounts to some 13,000 pages, far exceeding that written by Galileo or, for that matter, Galileo and Newton combined.


What is Taught: The Italian Giovanni Morgagni is regarded as the father of pathology because he was the first to correctly describe the nature of disease.
What Should be Taught: Islam's surgeons were the first pathologists. They fully realized the nature of disease and described a variety of diseases to modern detail. Ibn Zuhr correctly described the nature of pleurisy, tuberculosis and pericarditis. Az-Zahrawi accurately documented the pathology of hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and other congenital diseases. Ibn al-Quff and Ibn an-Nafs gave perfect descriptions of the diseases of circulation. Other Muslim surgeons gave the first accurate descriptions of certain malignancies, including cancer of the stomach, bowel and esophagus. These surgeons were the originators of pathology, not Giovanni Morgagni.


What is Taught: Paul Ehrlich (19th century) is the originator of drug chemotherapy, that is the use of specific drugs to kill microbes.
What Should be Taught: Muslim physicians used a variety of specific substances to destroy microbes. They applied sulfur topically specifically to kill the scabies mite. Ar-Razi (10th century) used mercurial compounds as topical antiseptics.


What is Taught: Purified alcohol, made through distillation, was first produced by Arnau de Villanova, a Spanish alchemist, in 1300 A.D.
What Should be Taught: Numerous Muslim chemists produced medicinal-grade alcohol through distillation as early as the 10th century and manufactured on a large scale the first distillation devices for use in chemistry. They used alcohol as a solvent and antiseptic.


What is Taught: The first surgery performed under inhalation anesthesia was conducted by C.W. Long, an American, in 1845.
What Should be Taught: Six hundred years prior to Long, Islamic Spain's Az-Zahrawi and Ibn Zuhr, among other Muslim surgeons, performed hundreds of surgeries under inhalation anesthesia with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges which were placed over the face.


What is Taught: During the 16th century Paracelsus invented the use of opium extracts for anesthesia.
What Should be Taught: Muslim physicians introduced the anesthetic value of opium derivatives during the Middle Ages. Opium was originally used as an anesthetic agent by the Greeks. Paracelus was a student of Ibn Sina's works from which it is almost assured that he derived this idea.

What is Taught: Modern anesthesia was invented in the 19th century by Humphrey Davy and Horace Wells.
What Should be Taught: Modern anesthesia was discovered, mastered and perfected by Muslim anesthetists 900 years before the advent of Davy and Wells. They utilized oral as well as inhalant anesthetics.


What is Taught: The concept of quarantine was first developed in 1403. In Venice, a law was passed preventing strangers from entering the city until a certain waiting period had passed. If, by then, no sign of illness could be found, they were allowed in.
What Should be Taught: The concept of quarantine was first introduced in the 7th century A.D. by the prophet Muhammad, who wisely warned against entering or leaving a region suffering from plague. As early as the 10th century, Muslim physicians innovated the use of isolation wards for individuals suffering with communicable diseases.


What is Taught: The scientific use of antiseptics in surgery was discovered by the British surgeon Joseph Lister in 1865.
What Should be Taught: As early as the 10th century, Muslim physicians and surgeons were applying purified alcohol to wounds as an antiseptic agent. Surgeons in Islamic Spain utilized special methods for maintaining antisepsis prior to and during surgery. They also originated specific protocols for maintaining hygiene during the post-operative period. Their success rate was so high that dignitaries throughout Europe came to Cordova, Spain, to be treated at what was comparably the "Mayo Clinic" of the Middle Ages.


What is Taught: In 1545, the scientific use of surgery was advanced by the French surgeon Ambroise Pare. Prior to him, surgeons attempted to stop bleeding through the gruesome procedure of searing the wound with boiling oil. Pare stopped the use of boiling oils and began ligating arteries. He is considered the "father of rational surgery." Pare was also one of the first Europeans to condemn such grotesque "surgical" procedures as trepanning (see reference #6, pg. 110).
What Should be Taught: Islamic Spain's illustrious surgeon, az-Zahrawi (d. 1013), began ligating arteries with fine sutures over 500 years prior to Pare. He perfected the use of Catgut, that is suture made from animal intestines. Additionally, he instituted the use of cotton plus wax to plug bleeding wounds. The full details of his works were made available to Europeans through Latin translations.
Despite this, barbers and herdsmen continued be the primary individuals practicing the "art" of surgery for nearly six centuries after az-Zahrawi's death. Pare himself was a barber, albeit more skilled and conscientious than the average ones.
Included in az-Zahrawi's legacy are dozens of books. His most famous work is a 30 volume treatise on medicine and surgery. His books contain sections on preventive medicine, nutrition, cosmetics, drug therapy, surgical technique, anesthesia, pre and post-operative care as well as drawings of some 200 surgical devices, many of which he invented. The refined and scholarly az-Zahrawi must be regarded as the father and founder of rational surgery, not the uneducated Pare.


What is Taught: William Harvey, during the early 17th century, discovered that blood circulates. He was the first to correctly describe the function of the heart, arteries and veins. Rome's Galen had presented erroneous ideas regarding the circulatory system, and Harvey was the first to determine that blood is pumped throughout the body via the action of the heart and the venous valves. Therefore, he is regarded as the founder of human physiology.
What Should be Taught: In the 10th century, Islam's ar-Razi wrote an in-depth treatise on the venous system, accurately describing the function of the veins and their valves. Ibn an-Nafs and Ibn al-Quff (13th century) provided full documentation that the blood circulates and correctly described the physiology of the heart and the function of its valves 300 years before Harvey. William Harvey was a graduate of Italy's famous Padua University at a time when the majority of its curriculum was based upon Ibn Sina's and ar-Razi's textbooks.


What is Taught: The first pharmacopeia (book of medicines) was published by a German scholar in 1542. According to World Book Encyclopedia, the science of pharmacology was begun in the 1900's as an off-shoot of chemistry due to the analysis of crude plant materials. Chemists, after isolating the active ingredients from plants, realized their medicinal value.
What Should be Taught: According to the eminent scholar of Arab history, Phillip Hitti, the Muslims, not the Greeks or Europeans, wrote the first "modern" pharmacopeia. The science of pharmacology was originated by Muslim physicians during the 9th century. They developed it into a highly refined and exact science. Muslim chemists, pharmacists and physicians produced thousands of drugs and/or crude herbal extracts one thousand years prior to the supposed birth of pharmacology. During the 14th century Ibn Baytar wrote a monumental pharmacopeia listing some 1400 different drugs. Hundreds of other pharmacopeias were published during the Islamic Era. It is likely that the German work is an offshoot of that by Ibn Baytar, which was widely circulated in Europe.


What is Taught: The discovery of the scientific use of drugs in the treatment of specific diseases was made by Paracelsus, the Swiss-born physician, during the 16th century. He is also credited with being the first to use practical experience as a determining factor in the treatment of patients rather than relying exclusively on the works of the ancients.
What Should be Taught: Ar-Razi, Ibn Sina, al-Kindi, Ibn Rushd, az -Zahrawi, Ibn Zuhr, Ibn Baytar, Ibn al-Jazzar, Ibn Juljul, Ibn al-Quff, Ibn an-Nafs, al-Biruni, Ibn Sahl and hundreds of other Muslim physicians mastered the science of drug therapy for the treatment of specific symptoms and diseases. In fact, this concept was entirely their invention. The word "drug" is derived from Arabic. Their use of practical experience and careful observation was extensive.
Muslim physicians were the first to criticize ancient medical theories and practices. Ar-Razi devoted an entire book as a critique of Galen's anatomy. The works of Paracelsus are insignificant compared to the vast volumes of medical writings and original findings accomplished by the medical giants of Islam.


What is Taught: The first sound approach to the treatment of disease was made by a German, Johann Weger, in the 1500's.
What Should be Taught: Harvard's George Sarton says that modern medicine is entirely an Islamic development and that Setting the Record Straight the Muslim physicians of the 9th through 12th centuries were precise, scientific, rational and sound in their approach. Johann Weger was among thousands of Europeans physicians during the 15th through 17th centuries who were taught the medicine of ar-Razi and Ibn Sina. He contributed nothing original.


What is Taught: Medical treatment for the insane was modernized by Philippe Pinel when in 1793 he operated France's first insane asylum .
What Should be Taught: As early as the 1lth century, Islamic hospitals maintained special wards for the insane. They treated them kindly and presumed their disease was real at a time when the insane were routinely burned alive in Europe as witches and sorcerers. A curative approach was taken for mental illness and, for the first time in history, the mentally ill were treated with supportive care, drugs and psychotherapy. Every major Islamic city maintained an insane asylum where patients were treated at no charge. In fact, the Islamic system for the treatment of the insane excels in comparison to the current model, as it was more humane and was highly effective as well.


What is Taught: Kerosine was first produced by the an Englishman, Abraham Gesner, in 1853. He distilled it from asphalt.
What Should be Taught: Muslim chemists produced kerosine as a distillate from petroleum products over 1,000 years prior to Gesner (see Encyclopaedia Britannica under the heading, Petroleum). Source: Sangkancil Please visit and join! Islam4all & Basics_of_Islam