Is this really happening? Are those words really coming out of their mouths? I'm never leaving California... PRAISE HIS NAME!

India is the first country in the 21^st century to have a massive genocide: 2,000 burned alive in 2002. In Kashmir this month, Indian soldiers shoot and kill an aging Kashmiri politician during a peaceful protest. Four years ago, a European priest and his son were burned alive by long-haired, saffron-clad Hindu religious workers. Welcome to secularism’s false prophet, a nation of rising religious extremism, two dozen raging freedom movements, all hidden under the mask of a colorful film industry that provides distraction for a troubled country.

Fading India In Kashmir

Tensions heightened when fanatic Hindu mobs imposed an economic blockade on the Jammu- Srinagar National Highway with Kashmiri Muslim truck drivers targeted. Indian Punjab, tellingly, followed suit, according to a BBC report, to once again expose the great myth of Indian secularism.

By Abbas Jafari

Friday, 15 August 2008.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

SRINAGAR, Pakistan—It started end of May and has built steadily ever since: the resistance to the Indian occupation of Jammu & Kashmir.

The movement began when the state government agreed to grant 40 hectares of forest land to the Amarnath Cave Shrine Board as the rest and recuperation area for Hindu pilgrimage to the cave. What followed is a general strike and students' protests against the plan throughout the Muslim-majority state and persuaded the state government to take a stand, fearing this was another ploy by the Indian government to change the demography of the disputed state from Muslim to Hindu.

This prompted Hindu retribution and violent clashes were reported between Muslims, Hindus, police and the Hindu protestors in Jammu, with more troops having to be called in for a curfew to be imposed. Reports of assaults on Muslims poured in, along with Muslim homes being set ablaze.

Shutdowns followed across the entire Kashmir Valley called by a freedom leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, in an expression of solidarity with the Muslims in Jammu. Geelani noted that the administration had failed to protect the lives and properties of the Muslims in Jummu with Hindus on the rampage and matters began to spiral out of control.

Tensions heightened when fanatic Hindu mobs imposed an economic blockade on the Jummu- Srinagar National Highway with Kashmiri Muslim truck drivers targeted. Indian Punjab, tellingly, followed suit, according to a BBC report, to once again expose the great myth of Indian secularism.

Another BBC report from Srinagar had Muslim truck drivers refusing to travel on that road, fearful for their lives. The BBC Srinagar correspondent reported that fruit exports worth millions of dollars perished, as a consequence, with stocks of food grain, fuel and other needed supplies rapidly running out.

Just before retaliatory violence reached fever-pitch, a two-day end-July International Kashmir Peace Conference in Washington is reported to have called for "the establishment of an independent and credible investigative commission to probe human rights abuses". This call was reinforced when Z.G. Muhammad, the acclaimed author of 'The Cindering Chinars' and 'Kashmir in War and Diplomacy, quoted the venerated Mr. Yusuf Buch enunciating at the conference: "In Kashmir campaigns of murderous cruelty have been sustained for decades; when the population gets tired of militant insurgency, the repression seems to subside but when an act of police or paramilitary savagery is protested, the orgy
of murder and rape is re-enacted".

Clearly aware of this, India's prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh turned to Hindu nationalist leader of the opposition, L.K Advani and called for an all-party conference to resolve the issue. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) represented by Mr Advani, was said to have been much more inclined towards guarding the interests of the Amarnath Sangharsh Samati (ASS): the spear-head of the Jummu
agitation. The ASS reportedly was not prepared to accept anything short of the allocation of the 40 acres of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board – based in Dehli!

Subsequently, an 18-member cross-party parliamentary delegation was dispatched to Jammu and Srinagar for a solution to draw the major concession from some of the moderates in Kashmir's All Parties Huriayat Conference, of their having no objection to the Hindu demand for a separate state in contiguous areas where Hindus constituted the majority. These areas were identified as Jammu, Kathua, Samaba, Udhampur, and half of Resai, with the majority Muslim areas of Poonch, Rajouri, and Doda districts merged with the adjoining Muslim belt.

Simultaneously, the Conference endorsed the demand of the Kashmiri fruit farmers and traders to take their produce to across the Line of Control (LOC) to Muzzfarabad to draw in urgently needed supplies from across the border. On this India's electronic media asked India's home minister Shivraj Patil whether bifurcation or trifurcation (as Ladakh's Leh district is Bhuddist) of Kashmir could be a possible solution, to which question the home minister replied he was not
competent to judge.

The upshot: an additional 10,000 troops deployed to disrupt the Muzaffarabad- bound march and more killings. With the government unable to stem the tide of unrest, the Huriyat Conference's Ali Shah
Geelani and Mirwaiz Omer Farooq were quickly put under house arrest,
while Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JFKL) leader, Mohammad Yasin
Malik's fast-unto-death protest saw him hospitalized and in critical condition. If that was not enough, Indian security forces then shot dead an alleged resistance fighter along with two farmers and following that, an important Huryiat Conference leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, together with an unspecified number of others, as a reported 100,000 protestors began their march to Muzaffarabad.

Despite curfew being imposed in all 10 districts of Indian-occupied Kashmir close to 250,000 gathered for the funeral prayers of the slain leader and thousands are reported to have stormed Geelani's home to free him. Farooq too was released soon after and the two called for peace as communal killings ravaged the Valley. But are peace and harmony possible in an area where the Muslim majority sees itself persecuted for its religious beliefs?

Zafar Choudhary, in his Countercurrent August 8 article 'Why is Jammu
burning' underplays this. He writes, "What has shattered in last 45 days is the myth that 'Jammu' and 'Kashmir' can behave like a common entity called 'Jammu and Kashmir'…In the early days of agitation, the popular slogans heard in Jammu were "we want the land returned ... These slogans are no more audible. Now people are asking for an end to Kashmir's domination over Jammu. The problem is now no more between the government and the local people on a controversial decision. It has been now projected as Jammu versus Kashmir… When small spark has put the state on fire it has also demonstrated that efforts of dousing flames in one region may well prove as fuel in the other. It is high time that New Delhi's Kashmir policy is redrawn and sentiments beyond Kashmir are also taken care of."

That as it may, the sentiments evoked on the Jammu blockade have accentuated Muslim-Hindu differences in Kashmir and the front-page picture of the crowd gathered to pay homage to Sheikh Abdul Aziz published in Pakistan's Daily Times on Wednesday August 13, is indeed worth a thousand words.

India’s ‘Hindu Al-Qaeda’: Why Hindu Extremists Invaded Taj Mahal?

A group of saffron-clad Hindu extremists entered the Muslim marvel of Taj Mahal, started walking around the monument performing Hindu prayers. Welcome to India’s Hindu terrorists. India is creating al-Qaeda-style civilian militant groups and arming them with heavy weapons. Financing is coming from the narco-trade run by none other than Indian military. This is the face of India that New Delhi’s image makers want to hide from the world.

By ABDUL RUFF Colachal

Saturday, 26 July 2008.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

NEW DELHI, India—India is said to be multi-faceted nation with a flourishing multi-culturalism and securalism, but in reality it expects Muslims and other minorities to make way for the Hindu onward march in every field.

Hindus want every thing in India for themselves. They have enjoyed all benefits of progress and development to themselves leaving nothing to Muslims, except insults and jails.

This write up focuses on Indian chauvinistic activities in the spheres of religion, cultural heritage of Muslims, the plight of Kashmiris and the hidden agenda of the Indian occupation of Jammu & Kashmir.

ONE: Why should India train Hindu extremists, Militants and others?

A group of 10 Hindutva activists-cum-militants belonging to Shiv Sena, a core fundamentalist political outfit, sneaked into the Taj Mahal at Agra on July 24 and performed prayers (puja) within the precincts on Thursday. They were taken into custody and later released without any hurdles.

The Hindu Shiv Sena activists, including three women, bought tickets and entered one by one into the Taj Mahal in the afternoon. They performed some kind of puja and 'parikrama' (circling of the monument) of the Muslim edifice/ structure with folded hands. After a while they were forced to stop the ritual when some people brought the matter to the ‘knowledge’ of the security personnel, who in the first place allowed them to enter and even saw them wearing saffron scarves. A minor scuffle ensued after which the police took them to the Taj Ganj Police station.

This is a routine matter for Indian governments when Hindus perform illegal activities. Had Muslims enter the temples and remove the idols and clean up the structure to be able to offer prayers to God, the matter would be different.

Hindu outfits, who consider themselves above law and have every right to do anything they please with Muslims and their mosques, have been on a rampage for political reasons with concocted stories against Islam.

The latest story or discovery of Hindu extremists and their researchers led by Shiv Sena is that the 17^th century monument is actually a Shiva temple. Hindu extremists have announced earlier that they would perform puja and aarti on every Monday during the Hindu month of ‘Shravan’, considered auspicious for the worship of Shiva. This past Monday, they had been prevented from entering the Taj Mahal. They later performed the ‘rituals’ at the Taj Mahal corridor.

A Shiv Sena chief in Agra said they had gone there as ordinary citizens of India and felt like praying. ‘So, what's wrong with that,’ he asked. The officer belonging to the Archaeological Society of India who is in-charge of the Taj Mahal tried to justify what the Hindu fundamentalists tried to do at the Taj Mahal:

"They came in a group as ordinary citizens and purchased tickets. We were with them all the time along with the Taj Ganj police station in-charge. With folded hands they went towards the mosque and went back. How could we have prevented their entry as they did nothing objectionable? I don't know why such a hullabaloo is being made about it. They told me their program is for Mondays and had come today just to see the Taj Mahal.”

As a Hindu extremist organization thriving on anti-Islamic and anti-Minority sentiments, Siva Sena's activities, like any other extremist religious groups, are supposed to be under scrutiny by the government, but as this incident shows, the government knows about such activities and knew in this case what the Hindu extremists were planning to do, and yet the Indian authorities allowed the Hindus do their prayers (puja) inside the Taj Mahal. The Hindus were conducting their worship in a Muslim mosque which houses the tomb of the wife of the Moghul emperor.

Enough of this nonsense for this nation where people are being divided along religious and fundamentalist lines. It is high time Indian judiciary stepped in to clear up the Hindutva mess the rulers over decades have created in appeasing the majority population.

TWO - Why India trains Hindu militants?

Even as India keeps blaming Pakistan of training freedom fighting Kashmiris, it also trains the Hindu militants and Kashmiri Muslims. With this Indian strategists have decided to kill Kashmiris directly by Hindus themselves, leading a civil war in Jammu & Kashmir. The great idea behind this new scheme is to delay granting independence to Jammu & Kashmir.

As if state terrorist forces are not enough to kill the Kashmiri Muslims, now the UPA government of India and the Indian-occupied J&K government under Governor's rule have embarked upon a massive training of Hindu militants in Jammu region to fight the so-called Muslim ‘terrorists’, which only means Kashmir Muslims, who still demand sovereignty back from the occupying terror forces of India.

After establishing Village Defense Committees (VDC) and handing people with modern weaponry in hilly areas of Jammu province to fight militancy’, Indian terror security agencies are now busy establishing Self Defense Committees (SDC) in all the hilly villages of Jammu. The SDCs would be like VDCs but every member of SDC is given an AK-47 rifle and other heavy weaponry to use against anybody without any accountability. The SDCs consist of 15 volunteers from every village who are registered with the police department before receiving rifles and ammunition.

Thus, Sarankote Police Station in Poonch district has been converted into a zonal office for registering SDCs and people are being introduced to SDCs through the public address system and many SDCs have already been registered. ‘The people who are being registered as members of SDCs are mostly illiterate and there is every possibility that these people can misuse the weapons for their personal grudges or animosities. This can result in a civil war in the area,’ says an elderly inhabitant of Poonch.

This policy of distributing heavy weapons to local civilian militias has anguished the Muslim population in these areas, who feel threatened as police is handing over the weapons only to the members of Hindu community.

Yet, the moot question remains: Why should India train extra Hindus when it has surplus terror military forces, charged with the ‘patriotic’ task of killing the Kashmiris and when they have been doing the ‘job’ pretty well over decades as heavy militarization of Jammu Kashmir by India, killing thousands of innocent Kashmiris?

THREE -  India promotes Narcotics in JK

Very few Indians know that their military units are thoroughly corrupt. Anti-social and anti-people activities like smuggling and narcotics are a part of the Indian military services. Police on 10 July arrested an Indian army trooper and recovered heroin worth Rs. 10,000,000 fom his possession in Rajouri district.

Acting on a tip-off, police intercepted soldier Sumeet Singh at Inphaja Morh in Kandi belt Saturday night and recovered the heroin. Singh, who is working with 13 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry regiment, is presently posted at Udhampur and was on leave when arrested. A case under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPSA) has been registered against him. Military establishment has confirmed the arrest.

It is amusing to note that Indian propaganda abroad includes branding Kashmiris, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis as terrorists and placing slur on Kashmiri, Afghani and Pakistani Muslims involved in drug trade and narcotics.

Genocide, secret mass graves, illegal land grabs, economic terrorism, promotion of Hindu religion in Kashmir, and now trade in narcotics and drugs are the goals of the occupying Indian terror forces from India in Kashmir.

Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal is a research scholar, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

You've probably heard about this guy already.  However, I only think it fair to include him (and the others) for the sake of posterity.  It's good to know what a man believes, because it it a sure sign of how he will act in any given situation.

Christopher Hitchens is probably one of my favorite liberals; I'm serious about that.  He's a classic liberal.  Classic not in the sense that he is the stencil by which liberals are outlined, but in the sense that he believes strongly in classic liberalism.  Classic liberalism is what people like Thomas Jefferson ascribed.  While no fan of Ronald Reagan, and having economic views that tilt towards socialism, Hitchens is a guy who really has no hidden agenda.  He also tends to call things for what they are, and he's fairly accurate in his assessments.

So I like him.

Our trip begins with an article he had published at Slate.com:

The thing that this gaggle of cranks and parasites has in common is the extreme deference with which it is treated by the junior senator from Illinois. In April 2004, Barack Obama told a reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times that he had three spiritual mentors or counselors: Jeremiah Wright, James Meeks, and Father Michael Pfleger—for a change of pace, a white Catholic preacher who has a close personal feeling for the man he calls (as does Obama) Minister Farrakhan. This crossover stuff is not as "inclusive" as it might be made to seem: Meeks' main political connections in the white community are with the hysterically anti-homosexual wing of the Christian right. If Obama were to be read a list of the positions that his clerical supporters take on everything from Judaism to sodomy, he would be in the smooth and silky business of "distancing" from now until November. And that is why he hopes that his Philadelphia speech, which dissociated him from everything and nothing, will be enough. He seems, indeed, to have a real gift for remaining adequately uninformed about the real beliefs of his "mentors."

What did he mean by his last comment?  Well, it seems that Barack Obama had to distance himself from all three aforementioned individuals (Meeks, Wright, and Pfleger) because of some of their zany, wacky antics.

Father Pfleger is a real lovely guy too.  Consider a post by David Kopel about a couple of Pfleger's outbursts:

Rev. Pfleger does not respect the property rights of persons who sell products he does not like. He "is known for climbing ladders to deface liquor billboards."

The Westlaw database does not indicate that Sen. Obama has participated in the project which has gained Rev. Pfleger notoriety among Bill of Rights advocates: his persecution of Chuck's Gun Shop. Since all firearms stores have been driven out of Chicago, the closest firearms store to Chicago is Chuck's Gun Shop, in Riverdale, a short distance south of Chicago. Pursuant to Illinois law, Chuck's only sells guns to customers who have already obtained a Firearms Owner's Identification Card (FOID) issued by the Illinois State Police after a background check. The employees of Chuck's Gun Shop have also voluntarily undertaken the "Don't lie for the other guy" training program sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to help gun store employees detect straw purchases (purchases by legal buyers conducted on behalf of prohibited persons).

Yet the Reverends Michael Pfleger and Jesse Jackson have been organized large crowds to repeatedly picket Chuck's Gun Shop. On June 23, 2007, Revs. Jackson and Pfleger were arrested for criminally obstructing the entrance to the store. The charges were eventually dropped, just as Governor George Wallace never was criminally punished for standing in a doorway to obstruct the exercise of constitutional rights. (The comparison is a little unfair, since Wallace eventually stood aside, whereas Jackson and Pfleger had to be physically removed by the police.)

In another demonstration at Chuck's Gun Shop, owned by John Riggio, Rev. Pfleger told the crowd: "We're going to find you and snuff you out....Like a rat you're going to hide. But like a rat, we're going to catch you and pull you out....We're going to snuff out John Riggio." Rev. Pfleger also promised: "We're going to snuff out legislators that are voting against our gun laws. We're coming for you because we're not going to sit idly."

Call me judgemental, but threatening to "snuff out" people because they run lawfully operated gun shops is a tad hypocritical.  But this isn't the only inflammatory thing the good Father Pfleger has uttered:

"I really believe that she just always thought, 'This is mine! I'm Bill's wife, I'm white, and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into the plate....And then out of nowhere came, 'Hey, I'm Barack Obama and she said, 'Oh, damn! Where did you come from? I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show!'

"She wasn't the only one crying," he shouted as he mockingly pretended to cry, "There was a whole lot of white people crying...... "I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show."

Senator Obama, who has publicly disavowed Rev. Wright’s controversial comments, soon found himself having to disavow this Catholic Priest. He did so from the campaign trail this week with these words:

"As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that unites us.... That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together."

Really?  Barack is "deeply disappointed" as of this year?  In all that time Obama never heard this kind of talk, or was never disappointed about it before?

Do you really buy any of that?  I don't.  He's known Pfleger for years. 

What else has Father Pfleger said...recently?

...and I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit back while you tear down Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright!  How dare you!  How dare you!  How dare you - seek to reduce Jeremiah Wright who's one of the greatest Biblical scholars this nation has, to a thirty-second sound beep and try to demonize him and trivialize him!  You can not do that!

Since when is truth unacceptable?

Excuse me?  Reverent Wright is one of the greatest Biblical scholars this nation has?  Ummm...seeing that Father Pfleger is a Roman Catholic, does that mean his superiors (those would be the guys who kinda have more Biblical knowledge than the good Father) are some how less than the good Reverend Wright in their Biblical knowledge?  How about this faithful reciting of Holy Scripture by the "honorable" Rev. Wright:

Hopkins attends Trinity United Church of Christ, where Rev. Wright just retired as pastor. In the now-famous sermon from 2003, Wright said black people's troubles are a result of racism that still exists in America, crying out, "No, no, no, not God bless America! God damn America — that's in the Bible — for killing innocent people."

Now I have several Bibles, in several languages.  I've scanned just about all of them to find exactly where it says "God damn America".  Can't find it.  I guess it must be in a new, revised edition or I don't have access to a same cool decoder ring that Rev. Wright has.

Maybe I didn't get the memo?

Wright preaches a radical, race-oriented, Marxist-inspired form of pseudo-Christianity called Black Liberation Theology (you can hear the actual founder of this "cult" talk about this aberration of Scripture at the NPR link I provided above).  According to the founder of this "branch" of Christianity (and I use these terms loosely), this interpretation of the Bible was inspired partially my Malcolm X.  You know, Malcolm X the Muslim.

Not that being a Muslim is a bad thing.  But Islam, and especially the teaching of the Nation of Islam (which we'll get into), isn't exactly compatible with Christian teachings or Holy Scripture.  And remember, for a long time Malcolm X was affiliated with the Nation of Islam.  Well, that was up until he was shot down...after he left the Nation of Islam.

Funny how that works, eh?

And as James Cone says to NPR:

Now Malcolm X, who was not a Christian as you say, he gave Black Theology it's black identity.  And this is important too, because we were black before we were Christian.  And in a White Supremacist society like America has been - 246 years of slavery, a hundred years of segregation and lynchin' - in a society where white domination is so powerful and the minority group in where black has been defined as evil, and as negative then we have to turn that understanding of black on its head, and see ourselves as loving ourselves, not hating ourselves.  So Black [Liberation Theology?] is black self-esteem.

I mean, outside of the whining psycho-babble in there, what Black Liberation Theology does is steep itself in racial stereotypes, and promotes the same baseless self-esteem drivel that they've been pushing on the kids in public schools.

You know, the same type of self-esteem crap that makes little Johnny feel good, even though he can barely read.

For the record: Barack Obama has far more money then I'll ever have.  He has a nicer house than I do.  In fact, so does the Reverent Wright.  So, I'm kinda having a real hard time seeing this white supremacist society all these guys keep talking about.

Again, maybe I didn't get the memo?  The Organization of White Supremacists didn't tell me to line up to get what's rightfully mine by birth?  I dunno.

Cone also stated that God concerns himself more with the poor and the downtrodden.  Last time I checked, some of the most important figures of the Bible were wealthy men: Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon.  They were wealthy because God blessed them with wealth.  So, I'm kinda missing that Biblical reference as well.

Nowhere in any the Bibles I have in my possession does it say anywhere that God concerns himself morewith the poor and the downtrodden.  Nor do the teachings of Jesus, at least those that I've read (which is all of them), concern themselves with race to the wacked-out extreme that guys like Cone, Wright, and Pfleger stretch them.  Again, I must not have that wonderful decoder ring that the greatest Biblical scholar in this nation has (Rev. Wright) in his possession.

What I take away from the Bible and from the teachings of Jesus is that we are supposed to help our neighbor.  That we are supposed to treat our neighbors as we would want to be treated.  That God is so great that - rich or poor - we are given equal consideration in his eyes.  We are made in the Image of God.  For all my "lack" of understanding of Holy Scripture, no where is there stated that God makes exceptions for one group over the other.

Guys like Wright and Pfleger like to put God in a very small box, so that they can define him however they want.  What's sickening is that these people are defining both God and Jesus as being essentially racist.

Remember the part where I highlighted Islam as being a part of Black Liberation Theology. 

But back to Pfleger.  How about this one from the good Father:

...honest enough to address the one who says, "Hummm - well don't hold me responsible for what my ancestors did."  But you have enjoyed the benefits of what your ancestors did.  And unless you're ready to give up the benefits, throw away your 401 fund!  Throw away your trust fund!  Throw away all the money that's been put away in the company you walked into because your daddy, and your grand-daddy, and your great - unless you're willing to give up the benefits, you must be responsible for what was done in your generation!  'Cause you are the beneficiaries of this insurance policy!

You must be honest enough to expose white entitlement, and supremacy where ever it raises its head.

Where might you have heard this shiiiii...um...stuff before?  Here, let me help you:

The present generation of whites - they didn't do this to us!  The present generation of whites are innocent of what their great-grandfathers did.  But, you're in a privileged position because of what your fathers did.  And we're in a hell of a condition because of what your fathers did.  So if you, the present generation of whites, want to escape what is justly due, then you got to do the right thing!  You got to do justice [to the?] Black Man.  What is the right thing?  You gotta apologize for what you did!  You gotta repent for what ya did!  You've gotta say, "we've been wrong!"  Now we know we [whites?] don't want ya [blacks?], we don't like ya, but we'll give ya justice.

Yep.  Louis Farrakhan.  In fact, Father Pfleger is good friends with Louis Farrakhan.  He openly admits it.  Yes, Father Pfleger is friendly with a Nation of Islam leader who took a trip to the terrorist-sponsoring state of Libya, and met with Qaddafi (along with Reverend Wright).  What's not so well known is that Qaddafi himself is a semi-Marxist...at least a big enough Marxist that his nation had been feeding off the Soviet trough for many years.

Birds of a feather, say I.

What are some of the more profound things Farrakhan has said?  Well...

Is it wrong for me to remind you that you have suffered at the hands of white people? If I don't remind my people of what you people (whites) have done, you might get the mind to do it again.

They (whites) are sick and their world has made us sick. I'm not dealing with well people. I'm dealing with sick people who have made us sick through a corrupt leadership.

Everywhere I go I wanna give the white man hell from the cradle to the grave. This is a new generation of blacks and we say to you, white man, you either stop or drop.

How about Farrakhan's thoughts on Jews?

I don't give a damn what you say about me, you bagel-eating, hook nose, lox-eating so-called Jew. The so-called Jew is Jew-wish--he wishes he was a Jew....You wanna-be Jews, we're gonna strip you buck naked before the world. There's no place for you to hide. You lied for too long telling that you are the chosen people.

Everybody talks about what Hitler did to you. What did you do to Hitler? What made that man so mad at you?

You wonder why I call it Jew-nited Nations...Jew York City...Jew-niversity. Because you control it.

Yes.  A lovely little friend Pfleger has picked up there.

Call me crazy, but somehow I don't think Jesus would approve of half the stuff Father Pfleger tolerates or endorses.

Then there is this little gem from Pfleger:

Yes.  You evil white people out there are rapists.  America is raping black people.  And it's only because a reformed Whitey rapist like Father Pfleger has come along to tell black people the truth.

Rev. Wright goes home every day, to his 10,000 sq. ft. mansion in tears, because of the raping white people like me have done to him.  Yes, he sobs bitterly in the new, plush carpeting of his mansion.  Weeps unrestrained as the elevator in his humble abode takes him to the second story of his modest dwelling.  How cruel life, and terrible white folks like me, have been to Jeremiah Wright!

(Rolls eyes.)

Remember, this is one of Obama's spiritual mentors - admitted by Barack Obama himself.  A guy who has been arrested some 40 times.  What good he has done for the black community is stained by the vile evil that he spews day-in and day-out.

Does anyone really believe that Obama never knew Pfleger spewed this kind of crap?  Or that he didn't tacitly approve of it?

I will say this of Barack Obama: I believe him to be a loyal person at heart.  It is the reason why there hasn't been even a hint of scandal when it comes to his married life; because he is true-blue when it comes to his relationships.  Which is the reason why his denials about Pfleger, his repudiation, and distancing himself from Pfleger doesn't wash with most thinking people.

But all this talk of Justice got me thinking...there are a couple of Bible passages that comes to mind when discussing people like Father Michael Pfleger.  The first:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree can't produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn't grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.

Or how about this one:

"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?  Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?  Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?  How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

No more prescient thing could be written.

Then again, I'm not the nation's greatest Bible scholar, so what do I know?

While the media will undoubtedly shape the narrative to emphasize McCain's recent vow to make a "comeback," Barack Obama came out the clear leader in Wednesday night's Presidential Debate. Obama was more concise and to the point--giving firm answers, great rebuttals and even detailing policy, more so than any of his previous two debates.

McCain did better than his past two debates, but he came off far more hot tempered, even interrupting Barack several times, particularly when Barack was answering key questions that offset McCain's original narrative. McCain was far too defensive for his own good and he ultimately came off brash, just as John Kerry did four years ago against Bush--the only difference is that McCain is playing for Bush's team. It's an uphill battle these days.

Making things even better, the questions asked were pointed and focused, forcing our two candidates out of their respective 'talking point' circles, though a few slipped in on both sides. Still, these were the best questions of any debate because they forced the two candidates to talk about their policies, their beliefs and each other. That's what the American people wanted out of this debate and it finally provided.

But, Americans did get something else, something they didn't want--mudslinging. It came from both sides, but McCain's slams were far meaner and far more defensive, particularly his final dig about education vouchers which even caught the moderator off guard. The best moment came towards the middle of the debate when Obama offered up the suggestion that Republicans and Democrats need to find 'common ground' on issues. It nearly stunned the Arizona Senator. Hilarious.

In all, Nanners had a great time at his debate party. He learned a few things about each candidate and their potential administrations, but he must confess--Nanners would have been a far better choice for VP for Barack Obama. That Biden guy has added nothing to the show. Obama needed a monkey to offset the puppet on McCains side.

To watch this debate, as well as the others, visit HULU! 

By VIKAS BAJAJ

Published: October 16, 2008

The American housing market, where the global economic crisis began, is far from hitting bottom.

Home prices across much of the country are likely to fall through late 2009, economists say, and in some markets the trend could last even longer depending on the severity of the anticipated recession.

In hard-hit areas like California, Florida and Arizona, the grim calculus is the same: More and more homes are going up for sale, but fewer and fewer people are willing or able to buy them.

Adding to the worries nationwide are rising unemployment, falling wages and escalating mortgage rates - all of which will reduce the already diminished pool of would-be buyers.

"The No. 1 thing that drives housing values is incomes," said Todd Sinai, an associate professor of real estate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. "When incomes fall, demand for housing falls."

Despite the government's move to bolster the banking industry, home loan rates rose again on Tuesday, reflecting concern that the Treasury will borrow heavily to finance the rescue.

On Wednesday, the average rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages was 6.75 percent, up from 6.06 percent last week. While banks are moving aggressively to sell foreclosed properties, the number of empty homes is hovering near its highest level in more than half a century.

As of June, 2.8 percent of homes previously occupied by an owner were vacant. Nearly 1 in 10 rentals was without a tenant. Both numbers are near their highest levels since 1956, the earliest year for which the Census Bureau has such data.

At the same time, the number of people who are losing jobs or seeing their incomes decline is rising. The unemployment rate has climbed to 6.1 percent, from 4.4 percent at the end of 2007, and wages for those who still have a job have barely kept up with inflation.

In New York and other cities that rely heavily on the financial sector, economists expect that job losses will increase and that pay heavily tied to year-end bonuses will decline significantly.

One reliable proxy of housing values - the ratio of home prices to rents - indicates that in many cities prices are still too high relative to historical norms.

In Miami, for instance, home prices are about 22 times annual rents, according to analysis by Moody's Economy.com. The average figure for the last 20 years is just 15 times annual rents. The difference between those two numbers suggests that a home valued at $500,000 today might be worth only $341,000 based on the long-term relationship between prices and rents.

The price-to-rent ratio, which provides one measure of how much of a premium home buyers place on owning rather than renting, spiked across the country earlier this decade.

It increased the most on the coasts and somewhat less in the middle of the country. Economy.com's calculations show that while it remains elevated in many places, the ratio has fallen sharply to more normal levels in places like Sacramento, Dallas and Riverside, Calif.

The current housing downturn is much more national in scope and severe than any other in the postwar period, partly because of the proliferation of risky lending practices. Today, foreclosures are running ahead of the downturn in the economy, a reversal of previous housing slumps.

"We are in uncharted waters," said Brian A. Bethune, an economist at Global Insight, a research firm.

Colleen Pestana, a real estate agent in Orange County in California, said many people losing their homes in Southern California used to work at mortgage and real estate companies. Many of them bet heavily on real estate by upgrading to bigger houses every few years. Now, many are losing their homes.

At the same time, Ms. Pestana said, her clients who are looking to buy are having a harder time lining up financing. One of her clients recently had to give up on a home after the lender that had offered a pre-approved loan changed its mind - a frequent occurrence, according to real estate agents and mortgage brokers.

"I am working harder than I have ever had to work to get a deal together and keep it together," said Ms. Pestana, who has been a real estate agent for seven years.

To cushion themselves from potential losses if homes lose value, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies that the government took over in September, have increased fees on loans made to borrowers who have good but not excellent credit records, even those who are making down payments as big as 30 percent.

Those higher fees are generally invisible to borrowers because banks factor them into mortgage interest rates. While the national average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now 6.75 percent, according to HSH Associates, mortgage brokers say the rates for many borrowers in the Southwest or Florida can be as high as 8 percent, especially for so-called jumbo loans that are too big to be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Those loan limits vary by area from $417,000 to roughly $650,000.)

Higher interest rates result in bigger monthly payments, pricing some potential buyers out of the market. For example, monthly payments are $2,700 on a 6 percent 30-year, fixed-rate loan of $450,000. If the interest rate rises to 7 percent, those monthly payments jump to $3,000. All things being equal, when rates rise prices generally fall.

This month, Fannie and Freddie canceled a fee increase that would have applied to markets where home prices are falling, but the companies still have many other fees in place. In an effort to help drive down rates, the Treasury Department has announced plans to buy mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie and Freddie. The government also recently increased the amount of loans the companies can buy and hold.

Still, those efforts will take time to have an impact and it is not clear whether they will be sufficient to get banks to lend more freely, especially in areas where jumbo loans make up a bigger percentage of lending, like New York and parts of California and Florida. Economists say that prices in those places will probably fall further.

In some of those places, price declines are being driven by a sharp increase in sales of foreclosed homes.

Hudson & Marshall, a Dallas-based auctioneer that holds sales for lenders, reports that banks are accepting prices that they refused to consider just 12 months earlier. In a recent auction of 110 foreclosed homes in the Las Vegas area, for instance, the auctioneer's clients accepted 90 percent of the bids submitted by buyers, up from 60 percent a year earlier, said David T. Webb, a co-owner of the company.

Single-family home prices in Las Vegas have already fallen 34 percent from their peak in the summer of 2006, according to the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home price index. Prices in San Diego have fallen 31 percent since late 2005.

While those declines have been painful to homeowners in those cities, economists said the quick decline might help the markets reach bottom faster than in previous housing cycles, said Edward E. Leamer, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles. In a previous boom, home prices peaked in the Los Angeles area in 1990 but did not hit bottom until 1996. Prices remained near that low for more than a year before starting to climb again.

"In some areas of California, we are really at appropriate levels," Mr. Leamer said of current home prices. But he added: "The risk is that we are going to get some overshooting, meaning that prices will be lower than they ought to be."

In Florida, Jack McCabe, a real estate consultant, said that while some cities, like Fort Myers, are showing tentative signs of a rebound, others like Miami and Fort Lauderdale are still under pressure. Two homes on his street in Fort Lauderdale that sold for about $730,000 apiece in 2005 recently sold for $400,000 - a 44 percent decline.

"The rocket has run out of fuel, and now it's plunged back down to earth," he said.

______________________________________

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“A couple more minutes,” she thinks to herself as she tries to salvage some remnants of sleep. “Just a couple more minutes.”

But then a blood-curdling scream comes from the kitchen. It’s her mom yelling her name, bugging her to get up as she prepares breakfast for the two of them. She pulls the covers down to her neck and turns her head to her enemy (known as the alarm clock): it reads 4:30 A.M. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she thinks to herself as she musters the strength to get out of bed.

Sumerra gets up and makes the unceremonious trek to her bathroom. After brushing her teeth, she walks down the long hallway connecting her bedroom and the kitchen, where she plops down on a seat and shoves any edible subtances in sight down her throat, knowing that for most of the day she can have neither food nor water.

For Sumerra, a biology major and recent graduate of the University of San Francisco, this is just a typical morning during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

Muslims fast during Ramadan because it is believed that the first revelations of the Qur'an were sent from Allah and given to Prophet Muhammad during this time. Therefore, it is the holiest time for all Muslims.

Another purpose of Ramadan is for Muslims to better sympathize with those who are homeless or underprivileged, and to be more appreciative of the blessings in their lives.

“Allah ordained fasting so that Muslims can attain the consciousness of Allah,” says Aijaz Patel, an Urban Studies major at San Francisco State. “Ramadan also unites the community and increases the bond that we have, and to sympathize with the poor. I feel the hunger that my Muslim brothers and non-believers are feeling."

“It makes me think to myself that if people can live like this every day, then I should be able to do it for a couple of hours," Sumerra says. "I think fasting itself has many benefits and encourages concentration, motivation and good behavioral traits, such as self-discipline, self-control, self-restraint and patience.”

There are roughly 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, representing about twenty percent of the world's population. In the United States there are about 10 million Muslims, representing only 3 percent of the population. Fewer people observe Ramadan in the U.S. than in countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, which have much larger Muslim populations. This creates widespread misconceptions of Islamic religious practices in the U.S.

Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, when Muslims fast during daylight hours between sunrise and sunset. During this time, Muslims are supposed to put more effort into practicing the teachings of Islam and refraining from lying, cheating, greed, lust and gossip. Furthermore, Muslims are to abstain from both eating food and drinking liquids. “Fasting during Ramadan is one of the most exciting times of the year for Muslims,” says Sumerra. “There is a greater sense of family and community during the month of Ramadan while fasting. It’s a time to test your faith. I think Ramadan brings out the good in people. Fasting makes you experience hunger, which is something that we’ve become unfamiliar with. It makes you realize what the less fortunate experience and encourages charity.”

But fasting is difficult. Depending on the year, Muslims are to fast anywhere from ten to fourteen hours per day for thirty days. This year during Ramadan, sunrise occurred around roughly 5:30 a.m. and sunset occurred around 7:30 p.m., so Muslims were fasting for over thirteen hours a day from September 1 to 30. And since Ramadan arrived on the cusp of summer and the beginning of fall, there were several days where it was blazing hot, making it harder to go on without water. On top of that, the Islamic calendar is based on a lunar calendar, which is ten days shorter than the Roman calendar everyone follows. This means that in a couple of years, Ramadan will stake its claim during the summer.

“Fasting is difficult for everyone, but everyone’s just trying to balance it out with everything else they’ve got going on,” says Aijaz. “It is a struggle, but just living in America, everyone's very accommodating and very understanding. I’ll tell my boss that I’m fasting, and immediately he’s much softer on me. The instructors, they understand that if I’m sleeping in class or daydreaming, they understand that it’s the time of Ramadan. So everyone is very accommodating in that aspect.”

The five pillars of Islam are magnified during this time as well: believing that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet, praying five times per day, fasting between sunrise and sunset, giving to charity, and making a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

For Muslim students, life goes on along with Ramadan because they have to fast while going to school, work and taking care of other personal matters, which makes fasting even harder to accomplish. Many Muslim students may not realize that it can be easier to fast in Islamic countries than in the U.S., as accommodating as people may be here.

“It might definitely be harder, but I think they’re getting more joy out of it because of the challenge and because you’re celebrating your own identity in America,” says Shaikh Aladdin Albakri.

According to the Imam, in Islamic countries, schools and businesses close down at certain points throughout the day so that everyone can make their five daily prayers. Furthermore, these institutions close down early so that everyone can make it home on time to break their fast.

The elderly and those who are sick or pregnant are exempt from having to fast. But those who can mentally and physically handle the challenge are more than welcome to. There is no exact age when a Muslim is to start fasting, so it usually depends on the parents and whether they feel that their child is ready or not. Generally, the parents try to get their kids’ feet wet by fasting occasionally when their child is in elementary or middle school.

Faizal Mohammed, an accounting major at San Francisco State, said how he got used to fasting at a very young age. “Every year, it became harder and harder and harder, but it’s nothing new for [Muslims].” Faizal also noted how his non-Muslim friends talked about how they felt fasting was a bit too extreme and radical and noted how they could never handle it, but Faizal feels that fasting is a way to control your desires during Ramadan.

His brother Ibraheem, an accounting and information systems major at SFSU, referenced how fasting during his high school years was the worst because he was on the school’s soccer team, so breaks were mostly spent wandering around and trying not to think about water.

When Sumerra is at school late at night, she makes sure to bring several snacks with her, and then breaks her fast during class, or if she doesn’t bring anything with her, she hurries to buy some things from the local market and rushes back to school. She also noted how fasting would begin to take a toll on her body at times because she would be up until midnight or later doing homework, and then have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. the next day to do it all again.

The breaking of the fast is called the “Iftar.” During this time, Muslims recite a small verse, and then follow through by eating a date for its vast nutritional value, as it helps regain many of the nutrients lost from a day of fasting. Generally, most Muslims eat a couple of snacks, make their prayer, and then return to eat large, lavish meals with their friends and family.

Muslims also try to finish the Qur'an during Ramadan as well, starting the first chapter of the Qur'an on the first day of Ramadan and finishing the thirtieth chapter before the last night. And since Ramadan is a festive time, there is a lot of sharing and giving that goes on as well. Families and friends tend to invite each other to their homes for Iftar, making it a joyous alternative for those who live in a rather hectic, individualistic American society.

“When I think about Ramadan, it reminds me of family get-togethers,” says Sumerra. “Every weekend we would be invited to someone’s house for Iftar. Eating together with everyone was a lot of fun. Also, another thing I love about Ramadan is the delicious food. During Ramadan, there are usually special foods and appetizers cooked.”

The last day of Ramadan is also an Islamic holiday known as Eid ul-Fitr. Because the Islamic calendar is based on a lunar calendar, Ramadan can end with either twenty-nine days or thirty, depending on when the new moon appears. So on Eid ul-Fitr, all Muslims flock to their mosques in the morning to attend a special morning prayer that’s led by an Imam. The rest of the day is then marked by celebrations and good times with both family and friends.

“My family loves Ramadan, so we always have big gatherings,” says Rukayah Albdolcader, a pre-nursing major at San Francisco State. “I have a big family and we are really close, but during Ramadan, our love for each other increases and it’s great to spend time together.”

But what’s the best part of Ramadan ending for any college Muslim student?

“Not having to set that alarm for 4:30 in the morning,” says Sumerra, with a pleasant grin on her face.

So instead of wishing for the Indian government to do more to protect these Christians, we should pray for these persecuted India Christians instead. And we should all realize how irrelevant so many of our western notions and institutions (and doctrines that we have developed around them) are to persecuted and impoverished Christians living in third world and developing countries where they have no functioning economies, no stable or effective governments, no freedoms of religion, speech, or assembly or any institutions or population respecting those ideas capable of protecting them, and almost universal poverty. So again, instead of looking to governments and NGOs to protect these Christians in India, China, Africa, Muslim areas, etc. we need to pray to Jesus Christ on their behalf, and then start doing the same for our own deliverance rather than looking to leaders, governments, or the economy.

www.newsweek.com/id/164081

Since August of this year, a spate of violence has swept across significant portions of the eastern Indian state of Orissa. More than 30 people have been killed, thousands of homes torched and hundreds displaced. The principal victims have been the small, beleaguered Christian communities. Sadly, they are no strangers to such tragedies. In 1999, Hindu zealots murdered an Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two sons.

The ostensible trigger for the renewed attacks on the Christian communities appears to be the unresolved murder of a local Hindu preacher, Swami Laksshmanananda Saraawati, in August. The local police have blamed a neophyte Maoist terrorist organization, the Naxalites, for his murder. But the Bajrang Dal, a radical Hindu organization, with ties to the hypernationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), assert that the preacher was killed because of his staunch opposition to evangelical Christian missionary activity in the state. The BJP has sought to pin blame on the Christian community.

Despite expressions of outrage in India's vigilant national press and statements of concern on the part of the country's vibrant civil society about the plight of the Christians, the state government has proven to be appallingly complacent—it has failed to act quickly to stem the violence. The Christians in Orissa—predominantly converts from either lower castes or from the tribal populations of the state—constitute a tiny minority with little or no electoral clout.

The tragedy that has now befallen the hapless Orissa Christians is emblematic of a growing tide of intolerance and violence that is sweeping across much of India. The nation's disregard for the plight of the Christian minority, which constitutes barely 2 percent of India's population, constitutes a failure to guarantee religious and cultural freedoms under India's Constitution. If attacks on helpless minority populations continue with impunity, India's much-vaunted economic growth may soon be at risk. Violent social unrest is bound to have an adverse impact on foreign investors, raise justifiable concerns about the rule of law and bring on the opprobrium of the international community.

The sources of such religious hatred are complex. In large part they stem from the failure of the once-dominant political party, the Indian National Congress, to uphold the country's professed commitment to secularism. Instead of adhering to their own political convictions, the Congress party pandered to the Hindu majority, failed to address legitimate Muslim concerns about discrimination in public life while caving in to the demands of Muslim zealots. This clumsy political strategy benefited the BJP, marginalized secular Muslims and contributed to the growth of Muslim radicalism.

One of the principal manifestations of the surge in Muslim radicalism is the recent wave of bombings in major urban centers such as Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and, in September in the nation's capital, New Delhi. A shadowy, little-known group, the Indian Mujahideen, have claimed responsibility for the bulk of these attacks and have taunted India's police and intelligence agencies for their inability to stop these bombings. With elections coming next year, the BJP has not made significant efforts to exploit these tragic incidents. Given that its other policy preferences are not vastly different from those of Congress, it can ill-afford to alienate India's 100-million-strong Muslim minority. Instead it has been content to allow its acolytes in the Bajrang Dal to wreak havoc in Orissa in an attempt to solidify its Hindu nationalist base.

Since a regional party controls the state of Orissa, the Congress-dominated national coalition government has been reduced to making ineffectual appeals for calm. However, in the absence of concerted pressure on the state government, it is most unlikely that these pleas will be heeded. The small, vulnerable Christian community simply does not count as a viable political bloc. Consequently despite their dire circumstances they can expect little protection from the state.

Fortunately, all is not lost. Public denunciations of this form of violent religious intolerance can remind the national and state governments that the world is not oblivious to the plight of the Christian minority. Such public shaming, though lost on the rulers of authoritarian states, still has considerable resonance in a democratic state like India, warts and all.

Ganguly directs the India Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington, and is an adjunct fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles.

By: Avni Tafili

Be the first one who to see the light of the new day, along with the dawn of the rising sun; being totally convinced in your Lord, fully devoted to His Words, steadfast in the assurance that God is with you. Dawn has come around! Submit all your being to its Lord, be a devoted Muslim! Oh convinced man in his Lord! Stand up, overcome your lust and overcome your enemy! Your Lord is the All-Hearer, All-Seer, the Sustainer, and the All-Careful. He is the One Who promised to you and only you to be a triumphant over everything! The first shines of the sun are appearing, the beams of awakening. The sky is clearing up. The mind is getting bright.

There is nothing to be waiting for! The end of dusk is going off, whereas the dawn of rising, awakening is already appearing. You are among those who understand, those who reason, and among those who feel their own power. Now, then, get up and say: “I am awake, I am powerful, I believe in a God Who helps me and protects me! I am a Muslim and I am proud to be so, and I am unshakable!” That the newest sunny day, which is starting, has a message for you! Accept it, don’t deny it! Do not wait anymore, because your Lord loves you, puts mercy upon you! He gives you pleasant promises! You would never be chapfallen while Allah is your Lord, from Whom has begun everything!

Furthermore, you are not alone! You are not piteous! You are not incapacitating! You are distinguishable! You are the best among mankind! You could save the justice! You could change the world! You could, indeed, reunite the people! You could spread the goodly word! You could change men’s mind and their hearts not to worship else, but Allah – the Most Powerful!

This message is for you and for no one else! And for who else is it, except for the one to whom was promised a triumph and victory. You are the one, for the reason that your Lord will bring the justice back on Earth. His Light will never be off! You shall get up under that Light. There’s no more powerful light than His, which comprises everything and everyone. Live with it. Live under it and take it, because Allah has chosen you! You are an obedient man who didn’t accept to worship no one, except Allah – the Creator of life, earth and heavens. Everything comes under Him, with or without its will. Yes, indeed, lordship is due to Him! So, be under His lordship with your feelings, mind, heart and soul!

Move in the name of Allah! Help in the name of Him! Think in the name of Him! Love in the name of Him! Again, you are due to His lordship which is unlimited and endless. You are not a stranger! You have your Lord and this earth is due to you! Stand up, agony is vanishing; irresponsibility is brushing off; unconsciousness is exterminating! And you have your own roots, your own identity and you are the inheritor of earth! Who else could be, oh believer, if not you?! Oh the convinced man of the Creator of life!

The darkness is sinking, whereas the light of Islam is illuminating. You are the one who will hold that light in your hand! Yes, you are, and who else, except you! God appointed you to put the justice out in earth, to hank the darkness and to water the plant of the light. God’s Word is the best word ever. He is Life-giving to all creatures. Stand up, the time is up! Allah’s Word, indeed, was never overcome, in itself. Islam was never restraint the brightness of its light. It’s a light which can never be vanished! It can never perish! It can capture hearts, minds and souls! It is Islam from which no one ever gets independent! A man cannot live without light; he cannot live in darkness. He cannot confront abyss. He loves the width, the pure, and the beautiful and loves the spiritual peace.

Do not care what others say! They lie, indeed! They don’t know what Islam means! Do not listen to their whisper! Be self-opinionated, be proud, be generous, and be elevated! You are great, powerful! There isn’t bigger power which could conquer the power of a man who is tightly bound with the Most Powerful! Your Lord is the Listener, the Seer, the Sustainer; the One Who doesn’t sleep and doesn’t nap! He is Alive, amongst all! Nothing and no one can escape from Him! You and we are always in His care! He is Allah – a name beloved to each and every spirit, but injustice and darkness of mankind’s will changed this love of man for his Lord. In addition, you have a soul which loves its Lord; you possess a heart which beats for His cause; you have a mind which is derogated to its Lord and you have a body which you have submitted in worshipping Him and only Him!

You are a great man! Overcome your lust! Overcome your enemy! You didn’t give God’s Pleasure for no price! You replied with “NO!” to others and you obeyed Allah! You made it with a bright reason and with pure heart. Oh great brilliant man! You possess an inheritance which cannot be ended; you have a source that does not exhaust! You have the Quran in your hands – a Book which cannot be conquered by anyone! Never and ever! It’s an unconquered Book and if you apply and respect it, you won’t neither be conquered, nor overcome! There shouldn’t be agony of waiting! Agony is for ready-to-die people, for those who have no other opportunity to live and for those who don’t know their Lord!

In consequence, you don’t have to wait anymore! You simply say: “Oh my Allah! I reckon on You! I seek Your Help for all of my issues! I live my life only for You! I sacrifice myself for You! I spend for Your cause! I live for You and I die for Your Sake! My life has no conception without You! I am nothing without You, indeed! Therewithal, strengthen me in Your Way, so that I shall see Your Face in Jannah, ja Allah!

You, oh beloved Muslim! By Him Who created my life, Who created your life, Who created the whole living and everything! By obeying Him you will be unstoppable, unconquered, full of decisiveness, full of hope, full of power, full of joy!

Allah loves you and He puts mercy upon you! Allah has chosen you, so be a true Muslim! Be a code of awakening, triumph and the code of the livelihood!

Translation from Albanian: Arsim JONUZI

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Now, wasn't that worth Scrolling down here?

Fear returned to Wall Street today, driving the Dow Jones industrials down 733 points as the stock market gave up nearly all the gains from Monday's rally.

The percentages losses for the Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index -- 7.9% and 9%, respectively -- were their worst since the Oct. 19, 1987 market crash.

The cause was a combination of weak economic reports in the morning, a gloomy outlook on the economy from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then heavy late-day selling, apparently from hedge funds and others scrambling to meet margin calls.

Today's sell-off was pushing futures prices for stock indexes lower, suggesting a weak open for U.S. stocks on Thursday.

• Get free, real-time stock quotes on MSN Money

The blue chips finished at 8,578, down 7.9% on the day. The S&P 500 fell 90 points to 908. The Nasdaq Composite Index was off 151 points, or 8.5%, to 1,628.

The point losses for the Dow and the S&P 500 were their second-largest. The biggest came only on Sept. 29 -- 778 points for the Dow and 107 points for the S&P 500.

In two days, the Dow has given back 86% of its 936-point gain on Monday. The S&P's retracement: 92%.

The Nasdaq, the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X), which tracks the largest Nasdaq stocks, and the Russell 2000 Index, ($RUT.X), which tracks small-cap stocks, have given up all of their Monday gains.

The Nasdaq-100 fell 120 points, or 8.8%, to 1,244. The Russell 2000 fell 52 points, or 9.5%, to 502.11.

The market "is absolutely trading on fear right now," John Wilson, co-director of equity strategy at Morgan Keegan in Memphis, told Bloomberg News, because "nobody knows yet how bad the economy is going to get."

About the only solace an investor can take from the close is this: All the indexes are still 8% or so above the lows they saw in panic selling right after Friday's open.

In addition, crude oil fell under $75 a barrel for the first time since Aug. 31, 2007. Crude is now down 49% from its peaks in July and down 21% on the year.

Prices at the pump have declined as well. AAA's Fuel Gauge Report put the national average price of gas at $3.125 a gallon today, down 24% from the $4.114 peak on July 17.

Gasoline prices tend to fall more slowly than crude as refiners work off higher-cost inventories.

Energy shares were battered all day and were the market's weakest link. ExxonMobil (XOM, news, msgs) and Chevron (CVX, news, msgs) both fell more than 12% and contributed nearly 149 points of the Dow's loss. The Select Sector SPDR-Energy (XLE, news, msgs) exchange-traded fund, which tracks the energy sector of the S&P 500, was down 14.4% to $43.30.

Financial stocks overall moved lower after Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney said the government's plan to stabilize key U.S. banks by injecting $250 billion is not a "panacea solution." The Select Sector SPDR-Financial (XLF, news, msgs) ETF, which tracks the financial sector of the S&P 500, was down 10.9% to $15.45. The ETF 46.6% this year.

As stocks fell, many investors looked for safety, driving interest rates lower. The yield on a 1-month Treasury bill dropped to 0.03% today, which means investors were basically paying the government for safety. The dollar moved higher as a result.

In addition, many investors piled into put options to protect against more losses. The CBOE Volatility Index ($VIX.X), which rises with increasing fear, closed up 26% to 69.25 today.

Several fears drove the market:

• The economic slowdown hasn't hit bottom, and it will take longer than anyone expected to rebound. That hit consumer stocks such as McDonald's (MCD, news, msgs), down 8% to $51.55; Starbucks (SBUX, news, msgs), down 10.4% to $10.12; and Apple (AAPL, news, msgs), down 5.9% to $104.08.

• Moves by the Fed, the Treasury and central banks around the world won't be enough to turn the financial system around quickly.

Economic growth in emerging nations, particularly China, Russia and Brazil, is slowing rapidly, if not stalling entirely

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Read and Benefit.

The Basis of Unity

by Yasir Qadhi

When we turn to ahadeeth of the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam, we find that a small hadith might contain so much benefit that volumes can be written about it. As he himself said, "Indeed I have been given comprehensive speech." In other words, a very small statement or a very small phrase will be able to carry a great meaning. This is the case with a particular hadith – the Hadith of ‘Irbad ibn Sa’riya, named after the companion who narrated it. This hadith is so well-known and comprehensive that when this companion’s name is mentioned, this hadith comes to mind. It is an authentic hadith reported in the sunan of Abu Dawud and the ja’mi of Tirmidhi as well as others.

'Irbad ibn Sa'riya narrates: "Verily the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam delivered a sermon, which caused our hearts to tremble and our ears and our eyes to cry." Notice the effect that the Prophet’s speech sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam had on the Sahaabaa. And the Qur’an describes the Believers as such:
…when they hear the verses recited to them they fall down in sajdah and they cry.

This is the way of the Believer; he benefits from and loves to hear advice. And this is in contrast to the hypocrite and the weak believer, the Fasiq. Allah 'azza wa jal describes them in the Qur’an:
Why is it that they turn away when they are reminded? / Why don't they listen? / It is only the believer that benefits from advice and loves it.

|Islam|HD|

The Sahaabaa were affected because of their sincere faith and dedication to the deen. They were moved and more importantly they paid attention. And this is a sign of eman; when a person finds he loves to attend religious gatherings and when Qur’an and Sunnah are recited, he is affected. And the opposite is also true. When a person does not care about religious lectures, khutbahs, sermons, seeking knowledge, or if he does not pay attention when the Qur’an and Sunnah are recited to him, then this is an evil sign befitting of the hypocrites and the kuffar. And that is why the Sahaabaa were the best of our generations. Sitting there they were affected by Prophet Muhammad’s sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam talk. Their hearts trembled and their eyes cried.

'Irbad then goes on and says, “The Sahaabaa said, after the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam had finished the sermon, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we feel that you are about to leave us. The emotion in which you have delivered this talk was so intense that we feel that you are about to leave us. So give us some concise advice, give us a legacy. Give us, if you like, your last will and testament.’�