For All You Java Junkies and Company Co-Dependents: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee! American Companies investing in settler relocation and Palestinian occupation would love Americans to believe that the tone of accusation is false. The facts are wrong. The topic is meaningless. The presence of Israeli democratic perfection- civil rights, spiritual solidarity, highways to the Holy Land- is eternally before us; but the evil little secret in the center of the myth is democracy is all the lies that support OCCUPATION and that it will continue to exist without us knowing and doing anything about it, without the price of what we put on our credit cards to support the deaths of innocent human beings and all the other pain exacted. Lets face the facts, it is not possible for a person to do anything really constructive if he has already been assured that anything of huge importance will take place without him, that transformation, change, revolution- or whatever you want to call it- do not call for his or her participation, and that a you as a person can somehow stand forever on the outside of the circle of effectiveness. Businesses attempt to cover their own tracks by offering us bogus and insincere commentary. Is Halliburton not the major blood sucker in Iraq and one of the biggest hustlers in human history? But lets get back to the Palestinian point We typically fall for the denials and half-truths of American vested corporate interest because deep down inside we want to consider the real deal as being trivial and unimportant, while the things that deeply matter to the Palestinian people go on eternally without us because we didnt give a damn about making even the smallest alteration in the irrelevant things we eat or drink. I am not asking anybody to wage a campaign about forcing the Jews out of Palestine. This is a land that holds spiritual value to all three faiths. I am asking for real democracy and the kind that comes without apartheid walls, without ethnic and religious profiling that allows for inadequate healthcare, education, oppression and the disregard of human life; and lies that compromise the leverage of our own sense of moral potency! The body and conscience of the average American citizen is in denial. Why? Because it allows us to grant ourselves an unofficial pardon for the human pain we support with our dollars and dimes. Much of that pain is the economic foundation of our own material advantage and Israels. Why must we be shaken from our dreams to do the right thing? We claim to be sophisticated people while acting like we are suffering from intellectual and moral retardation. If we cant give up a donut and a cup of coffee from Starbucks while people are dying from every sip, then go ahead and enjoy this life, live it up- paradise might just be for someone else. My Creator knows best. I dont pretend for one minute to know. I just would not want the entrance to the gate to stand before me and a jelly-filled donut! To all those offended, Im just exercising my First Amendment rights and a duty to tell it like it is. If it interferes with your latte, get over it! Personally I prefer a beverage that isnt mixed with someones blood. Khalilah Sabra MAS-Freedom Foundation, NC
Mariam Sobh <> wrote: Assalamu Alaikum, Some links to the Starbucks saga..fyi http://www.snopes.com/politics/israel/starbucks.asp http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E4D71530F931A35755C0A9659C8B63 ~Mariam --------------------------------- To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: khalilah sabra Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:15:15 -0800 Subject: Re: Muslims coffee drinkers, do not prefer starbucks! I receive an email that asked the following question: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: if you went to a deli to purchase a bagel/slice of pizza/soda, and the owner told you "Hey listen, 10% of whatever you spend is going to be used to try and kill off those terrorist Muslims" Would you complete the transaction? or would you bear the hunger to walk to another store that makes the food half as good? Put yourself in your brothers/sisters place; put yourself in front of the ammunition you paid for halfway around the world. Put yourself in front of Allah on the day of Judgment. I spoke to some brothers on this issue before... and they said, "come on man, who doesn't support Israel? Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts, they all support it" SubhanAllaah, let's say they do, every last one of them... you are not willing to give up coffee altogether for your brothers and sisters? "You pay taxes don't you, that supports Israel" they say. SubhanAllaah, even though we do, shouldn't we at the very least absolutely minimize to a penny what we are making available for that and spend what we must only. We can have conferences about brotherhood all we want, every single year, and say ooh aah, and shed tears at the stories... when will that give life to an actual change in our lives? Think about that insha Allah next time you want coffee, finals are coming up, gotta study... turn left to Starbucks, or right to the corner deli... I have an answer. It may not be the right one, but it is the one I have to offer. We as a people lack purity of heart. We wish for one thing but dont put forth the other thing that will result in change. Theres hollowness in the ethics we pretend to have. Maybe this reasoning does not apply to everyone but it does apply to too many. These are the ones who say they favor change but fall into a state of stagnation. If we cant give up coffee for the sake of Allah and for the sake of a people truly harmed by governments and history, then something is really wrong with our aqeedah. Either we love Allah too little to make such a small contribution, or we love these unimportant things too much. Isnt time we made a decision about what we want to contribute, and to which Islamic cause, and at then at least be persistent? Nobody is asking for your wealth, your lives and any huge worldly contribution. Its just a stupid cup of overpriced coffee from a business that doesnt care about the rights of Palestinians. They care so little about them that they are willing to help steal their land. Why it this so hard and what arent you seeing what is happening here? Maybe its yourself and your momentary selfish interest that allows you to walk in and support the devil and his brew. A small number of people will have the capacity or even the perseverance to twist history; but each of us can exert our individual effort to change a small portion of events that will offer support for a people who are suffering from sever oppression, but in the total of all those efforts will be written the history of a generation who made small sacrifices besides the bigger ones. It is from numberless diverse acts of bravery and conviction that human history is shaped. Each time a man or woman stands up for a principle, or acts to improve the lives of others, or strikes out against inequality, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope to those who have been waiting for humanity to act. Its just a cup of coffee and a donut that most of us dont need anyway. Instead of a New Years resolution, lets have a New Years Revolution. This is one action we can do. No matter where you are, or what youre doing no more Starbucks or Dunkin dumb donuts. It's not worth it. Really. Khalilah Sabra.
