[IslamCity] How Islamic Inventors Changed the World
Dear members of the list, Assalamu Alaikum. The following article might be of some interest to you. Shah Abdul Hannan How Islamic inventors changed the world http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/ article350594.ece Article from The Independent - UK From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them Published: 11 March 2006 1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffÃ(c) and then English coffee. 2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one. 3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot. 4 A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didnâEUR~t. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eaglesâEUR~ feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him. 5 Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the CrusadersâEUR~ most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened MahomedâEUR~s Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV. 6 Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by IslamâEUR~s foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today - liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry. 7 The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al- Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of
[IslamCity] Verse of the day
In the name of Allah. "Those who believe (in the Oneness of Allâh - Islâmic Monotheism), and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allâh, Verily, in the remembrance of Allâh do hearts find rest"Al-Quran(13:28) Read Quran with Translationq[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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[IslamCity] Fwd: Islam in the UK
-- Forwarded message --U.K. Is Europe's Most Tolerant Country
MANAMA,
March 11 (IslamOnline.net) – The United Kingdom is a more tolerant
place for Muslims than other parts of Europe despite the hardships and
daunting challenges faced by Muslims in the West after the 9/11
attacks, a famed British Muslim writer said. Sarah Joseph, the
editor of British magazine Emel, said Britain allows an ample room for
religious freedom and free speech, asserting the importance of building
bridges with the British people, Bahrain's English-language Gulf Daily
News reported Wednesday, March 10. "The actions of the British
government are not a reflection of the people of that nation," she said
in statements made during her four-day visit to Bahrain, where she
delivered a series of lectures on Muslims' burning issues. She said the
some two million people who took to the streets of London to
demonstrate against the war in Iraq was a case in point. "The
vast majority of anti-war protesters were non-Muslim. They do care
about the Israel and Palestine conflict, about issues that we care
about," she was quoted by the Bahraini daily as saying. 'Most Practiced' Joseph predicted that Islam would be the most widely practiced religion in the United Kingdom by 2020. "We
are the second largest faith in Britain and will be the largest
practicing faith in Britain by 2020 if you use church and mosque
attendance as a measure," she said. She says mosque attendance is expected to outstrip church attendance over the next 16 years. Britain's
The Sunday Times reported last January that the number of British
Muslims praying at mosques had outstripped the number of regular
worshippers in the Church of England, the mother church of the Anglican
communion. British reports also revealed last month that some 14,000 British elite have converted to Islam. The
Gulf Daily News cited estimates as suggesting that anywhere between
10,000 and 50,000 people a year convert to Islam in the U.K., which is
currently home to approximately 1.8 million Muslims. 'Secular Fundamentalism' Joseph
further warned that Europe is in danger of falling victim to what she
called "secular fundamentalism", the English-language Bahraini daily
said. "It is the other extreme of what they are saying they are trying to fight," she said. "This secular fundamentalism is creeping through Europe - there is no room for God in political discourse.
"This for me is a particularly worrying trend. People with faith have to stand up and fight secular fundamentalism," she added. She hit out at the French ban on hijab as a bid by
French President Jacques Chirac to win support from his right-wing opponents. The
French parliament adopted on February 10 with an overwhelming majority
a controversial bill that would ban hijab and religious insignia in
state schools, despite fierce opposition from the country's sizable
minorities and international rights groups. Joseph is currently pursuing her PhD in "Britons Embracing Islam" at King's College London. She defines herself as a British Muslim "embracing Islam not from the pathway of birth and family, but from a different world".
***
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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RE: [IslamCity] We do dawah and media training courses for your local area.. please read and pass on the message
plz when n where will it b?"Julianne (Noora) Alsamman"@yahoo.com wrote: Assalamu alaikum rahmatu Allah wa barakatu. Whom ever is going to this please inform us what you learned after you go. Jazakum ALlahu khairan.Quran:surahÂl-'Imrân,ayah 15. Shall I inform you of things far better than those?For Al-Muttaqûn the pious there are Gardens(Paradise)with their Lord,underneath which rivers flow.Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month!Unlimited Internet Access with 1GB of Email Storage.Visit http://www.juno.com/value to sign up today!***{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the
Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125){And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood,
an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] --All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links* To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamcity/* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED]* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--
All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise.
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[IslamCity] FAZAIL E QURAN - HADITH 1
Hadhrat Uthman (Radhiyallaho anha] narrates that
Ra-sulullah (Sallallaho alaihe wasallam) said: The
best amongst you is he who learns the Qur'an and
teaches it. In most of the books, this hadith is
quoted with the word 'and* between 'learns' and
'teaches' as above. Thus the greatest reward would be
for him who learns the Holy Qur'an and thereafter
teaches it to others. But in some of the books this
'hadith's is narrated with the word 'or', in which
case the meaning would be: The best amongst you is he
who learns the Qur'an or-teaches it.
According to this version, the reward is general,
i.e., equally great whether one learns himself or
teaches to others.
Thus there would be equal virtue for both.
The Qur'an is the basis of the religion of Islam, and
on the preservation and propagation of the Qur'an
depends the very existence of this faith. Hence the
virtue of learning and teaching the Qur'an is
self-evident and does not need further elucidation.
There are, however, various degrees of excellence. The
highest is to learn the Qur'an along with its meanings
and purport, and the least is to learn its words only.
The hadith mentioned above is supported also by
another saying of Rasulullah (Sallallaho alaihe
wasallam) as reported by Hadhrat Sa'eed ibn Saleem
(Radhiyallaho anho): If a person who has acquired
knowledge of the Holy Qur'an considers another person
who has been gifted with something else to be more
fortunate than himself, he has shown disrespect to the
blessings of Allah bestowed on him on account of his
learning the Qur'an. It is evident that since the
Qur'an, being the Word of Allah, is superior to all
other discourses as mentioned in some of the Ahadith
quoted later, its reading and teaching must be
superior to everything else.
Mulla Alt Qari quotes from another hadith that whoever
acquires the knowledge of Holy Qur'an stores the
knowledge of Prophethood in his forehead.
Sahl Tastari (Rahmatullah alaih) says that the proof
of love for Allah is the existence of love for the
Word of Allah in one's heart.
In 'Sharhul Ihya, the list of people who will be given
shelter in the shade of the Arsh (Throne of Allah) on
the fearful Day of Judgment includes those persons who
teach the Qur'an to the children of Muslims and also
those who learn the Holy Qur'an in their childhood and
are devoted to its recitation when grown up.
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***
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I
am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--
All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in
any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved
otherwise.
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Re: [IslamCity] CAN WE EAT MEAT SLAUGHTERED BY A SHIA?
Speaking of shia, Can someone please tell the person Karim who is posting false
hadeeths and stuff about ali radiAllahu anhu to stop posting them. Jazakum
Allahu khairan.
Quran:surahÂl-'Imrân,ayah 15. Shall I inform you of things far better than
those?For Al-Muttaqûn the pious there are Gardens(Paradise)with their
Lord,underneath which rivers flow.
Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month!
Unlimited Internet Access with 1GB of Email Storage.
Visit http://www.juno.com/value to sign up today!
***
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I
am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--
All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in
any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved
otherwise.
If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily
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[IslamCity] get marry with a muslim partner because he/she is (islamically) religious.
my reply to a muslim sister in the forum of
www.islam.com is mentioned below.
wassalamu alikum
cemil celepci
///
get marry with a muslim partner because he/she is
(islamically) religious.
Ýstanbul, 2005-02-23
dear sahira,
assalamu alaikum,
age difference is no matter in islam. if the age
difference would be around 25 years; i would kindly
advise you to think before marriage.
however, your age difference is 17 years. this
shouldn't be problem among you. your parents, friends,
family and all of your environment (and of course you)
should first of all take into considiration the
islamic counciousness of the future partner.
Actually, the partner who is intended to get married
should know islam very well and should live islam as
well. you should prefer such a person.
our prophet says one of his holy words that all
marriages are done according to the below reasons:
people get marry with a girl/woman because of her
following four features;
1-because she is beatiful.
2-because she is rich.
3-because she is from a noble family.
4-because she is (islamically) religious.
our prophet muhammad peace be upon him advises us to
choose the girl who has the fourth feature of the
above ones.
this doesn't mean that you do not take into
considiration other three features. immam gazzali
(died at the year of ) rahimehullah indicates that
if a girl has the four of above features together, of
course, it is better to choose her.
the above four features are valid not only for muslim
girls but also for muslim boys as well. this means,
muslim girls should also try to find the muslim
partner who has fistly the above fourth feature.
let me please explain the above hadees of our prophet
a little bit:
suppose there are four muslim partner with whom you
intend to get married.
-first muslim partner is handsome/beatiful; but he/she
is not so (islamically) religious.
-second muslim partner is rich; but he/she is not so
(islamically) religious.
-third muslim partner is from a noble family; but
he/she is not so (islamically) religious.
-forth muslim partner is (islamically) religious; but
he/she is not so handsome/beatiful, he/she is not so
rich and he/she is from a normal family.
If you want to be happy both here in this world and in
the hereafter you should prefer the fourth muslim
partner.
If you choose the fourth partner, Allah subhanahu wa
taala may give both to you and to your partner the
other three features before you die.
However, if you do not take into considiration the
religiousness of the partner and if you prefer one (or
three) of the above three features only, both of you
may become, one day, ugly, poor and from a normal
family.
May Allah subhanahu taala help all of us (being as
muslims all over the world) to get married with those
partners who are really living Islam as much as they
do.
Fi amanillah. (may Allah protect all of us.)
Wassalamu alaikum.
Cemil Celepci
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ýstanbul
Turkey
Cemil Celepci
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Istanbul / Turkiye
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Moderatörü
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamicdialogue - Turkish and English messages
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***
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness), and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: I
am one of the Muslims.} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels. [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all.
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
--
All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in
any way reflect the
[IslamCity] ATROCIOUS ENTERTAINMENT
Atrocious Entertainment by Pieter J. Friedrich 03/29/06 http://pieterfriedrich.com/atrocious.html See those kids by the river/Drop some napalm/Watch them quiver/Napalm sticks to kids ~ U.S. Army cadence It's a popularly accepted truth that art is an expression of culture. American culture, then, is obsessed with sadism. The movie theater has become our Colosseum, the actor our gladiator. Blood is our artistic medium of choice, the human body our canvas. God's command to meditate on what is right, pure, and lovely has been perverted by society to an implicit command to meditate on whatever is evil, whatever is polluted, and whatever is hideous. Sadism commands top dollar at the box office these days, according to an article in the latest issue of Newsweek. Confirming what I've long suspected, the article quotes horror magazine editor Tony Timpone, In 1990, I had to pull my hair out just to find a movie to put on the cover. There were only three or four major horror releases a year. Now there's three or four a month. We're like pigs in slop. Horror movies like Saw II, which was infamously advertised by a movie poster representing the II as a pair of severed fingers, dominate theaters. With the public lust for blood snowballing, horror films have increasingly abandoned suspense in favor of no-holds-barred gore. As documented by Screen It, scenes focusing on every cut and delighting in every agony have become the norm. For instance, the recent film Hostel, which beloved faux-butcher Quentin Tarantino co-wrote, features a scene in which a sadist takes a power drill to a victim. After showing one insertion, the camera reportedly cuts to the drill as its laid down with flesh and blood in the bit. We then see the victim who has bloody drill holes in various parts of his body. I learned about this movie when a female Air Force recruit told me she was looking forward to it, particularly because Tarantino was signed onto the project. A prime example of the sadism offered by recent films is Saw II, which was highly anticipated by many of my peers. This movie contains such uplifting scenes as a woman reaching into a suspended glass cage with one-way openings, and being unable to remove her hands upon discovering that such attempts result in the bloody slicing of her wrists by the razor-sharp metal surrounding the openings. Another scene shows a former druggie tossed into a pit filled with used syringes and forced to frantically dig through the needles in search of a key. When I refused to see this film due to its pointlessly violent content, several acquaintances (all military recruits) pointed out that the film contained a great twist. Besides, they argued, the torturer has moral reasons for his actions. He tortures people to snap them out of an unappreciative stupor and teach them to appreciate life. Other recent films include Cry Wolf, which tells the graphic story of a trio trapped by a kidnapper intent on torture, The Hills Have Eyes, which dwells on the pleasant subject of cannibalism, and Underworld: Evolution, which concentrates on multiple impalings and vampiric incidents. How does the public respond to all this? In the words of one moviegoer quoted by Newsweek, I liked it. I just wish it was bloodier. In what I believe is a direct result of a cinematic glorification of torture, American war crimes have literally become a laughing matter. Several months ago, I overheard one young airman telling his sergeant about the hilarious cadences he learned during his training, including the notorious Napalm Sticks to Kids chant. The sergeant, entertained, requested the airman serenade him with some of these cadences. See those kids over by the lake? Drop some napalm, watch them bake, crooned the airman, amusing the sergeant to no end. After Saw II, which netted 29 times its four million dollar production cost, featured a favorably portrayed maniac offing a houseful of men and women, it's hardly startling that nobody cares that twelve Marines are currently accused of a My Lai style mini-massacre. While stateside audiences munch popcorn and revel in the sight of an eyeball being cut from a woman's skull, as portrayed in Hostel, is it any wonder that each day reveals a new story about American troops abusing Iraqis in one way or another? True, the Abu Ghraib MPs confined themselves to techniques for producing humiliation and mental distress, bypassing outright torture, but their motivation was to abuse for time-killing giggles. Mistreatment became a recreational sport, a form of diversion like you might find in your friendly neighborhood theater. Of course, the American occupation in Iraq has produced more than perverted shenanigans. Aidan Delgado, who was profiled in a New York Times article after being discharged from the Army for conscientious objection, says, Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by.
[IslamCity] Inews Daily - 04/04/06
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful Inews Daily Tuesday4thApril 2006 - 5th Rabi' al-Awwal 1427 Sudan 'blocks' UN trip to Darfur Sudan has prevented the United Nations' top humanitarian official from visiting the troubled Darfur region. Jan Egeland said he thought the government did not want him to see the latest wave of "ethnic cleansing" against black Africans in South Darfur. He said thousands of people had fled after 60 villages were attacked by Janjaweed militias. More than two million people have sought refuge in huge camps following three years of such attacks. The Sudanese government is trying to stop the UN from taking over the peacekeeping mission in Darfur from the under-funded African Union. A Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman said the government had asked Mr Egeland to delay his visit because it coincided with a holiday to mark the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (p). Ten killed, 38 wounded in Baghdad mosque bombingAt least ten people were killed and 38 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack near a Baghdad Shiite mosque yesterday as worshippers were leaving after their evening prayers. The bomb was set off near Al Shuruqi mosque in the Al Shaab neighbourhood, northeast of Baghdad. The attacker drove his pickup truck loaded with explosives straight at the entrance of the mosque as worshippers were leaving following prayers. The truck struck a concrete barrier surrounding the building and detonated. The explosion occurred hours after US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and her British counterpart Jack Straw ended their two-day unannounced visit to Iraq. Jordan charges Indian workers with murderA Jordanian criminal prosecutor has charged 13 Indian expatriates with stabbing to death two compatriots over a financial dispute, the Jordan Times newspaper reported yesterday. A spokesman for the Indian embassy confirmed the report but said an investigation was still underway. "There was a fight between two groups of Indians over a matter of money. Two people were killed and one is in hospital in stable condition," the embassy spokesman said. According to legal sources, the suspects could face the death penalty if found guilty of murder. The prosecutor said one of the victims owed one of the suspects 42,000 rupees (around 940 dollars) and was late in repaying the loan. Angry at the delay, the lender, accompanied by 12 other Indians armed with knives and blades, sought to get his money back but a fight broke during which two people were killed. Pentagon sceptical but not discounting Iran missile stridesIran may have overstated claims to have developed radar-absorbing materials capable of hampering the targeting of its ballistic missiles, a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday, adding however, that Tehrans weapons program also could be "making strides". The US Defense Department reaction followed Irans announcement Friday that it has test-fired a missile that can hide from radars and whose multiple warheads can accurately strike different targets at the same time. The missile test, conducted on the first day of a weeklong Iranian military exercise in the oil-rich Gulf and the Sea of Oman, comes amid growing tension between the United States and Iran over its nuclear program. Hamas says it has met French, Indian officialsA Hamas spokesman said on Monday Hamas members held talks two months ago with French officials and more recently with an Indian diplomat despite US and Israeli efforts to isolate the Islamic militant group. "Meetings were held here (in Gaza) two months ago with French officials," said a Hamas spokesman without identifying them or providing any details about the talks. Frances ambassador to Israel denied French officials have any contact with Hamas, which won elections in January and formally took control of the Palestinian Authority last week. Israel and the United States have sought to isolate Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, since its election victory. Algerian who published al Qaeda fatwas jailed for 10 yearsA Spanish court yesterday jailed an Algerian man for 10 years for creating a website where he published messages from al Qaeda inciting 'jihad' and justifying terrorist attacks. Madrids National Court found Ahmed Ibrahim guilty of "belonging to a terrorist organisation", in this case al Qaeda. He was arrested in Spain in April 2002 while "creating a website to publish radical and extremist principles", notably fatwas from al Qaeda calling for jihad, the judgement said. The court said Ibrahim had several times met senior members of al Qaeda in Palma de Majorca in Spains Balearic islands where he lived, and that he had proven contact with radical extremists. Kurdish unrests spreads to Istanbul, death toll at 15Kurdish riots that hit southeast Turkey spread to Istanbul over the weekend and the countrywide death toll from nearly a week of unrest
