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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Justice For Palestine |
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| yunus |
| 06/05/02 at 22:45:57 |
| salaam Many of us borthers and sisters talk a lot about the injustice which is occuring in Palestine and throughout the world against our borthers and sisters. Hopefully all of us make dua for our borthers and sister that are being oppressed. We as Muslims need to stand up for our brothers and sisters throughout the world we need to "let there arise out of you a band of people inviting all that is good Enoing what is right and forbidding what is wrong they are the ones to attain true felicity" surah 3 104. We must stop just taling to each other about justice for Palestinians. We can talk till we are blue in the face and nothing can come. The time is now for action we must make a jihad (struggle) against our own government by speaking a true word in the face of their unjust rule.This is our obligation to Allah. No longer as people can we sit on the sidelines and allow others to speak out on our behalf. We must understand our role in the occupation we are the ones who are paying for it. Our government has stained our hand with the innocent blood of our brothers and sisters with our money. They our killing our people with our money. This no longer can occur. We must work for justice strive in the way of Allah. contact your congressman mr mcnulty in albany his # is 465 0700. This is our obligation. There is nothing to be afraid of the kafir do not want you to speak out they do not want justice for our people they want to continue the oppression and injustice. We must change this We have nothing to fear but Allah.What is the point of talking to each other about how the jews supposdly control everything. The truth is that they have a big say in government is because they are involved in it. Why are'nt we? where are our lobbying groups? Where are our borthers and sisters who will write or call our congress people? Change begins now with YOU. do you want to change this corrupt system? well then you have to work for it! We need action now. We must make a jihad against this horrible occupation and speak out against it to our policymakers. This is our right in America. As the writer alexander pope said each of us must be the "1 person with principles that who can defeat 100 persons with positions" Please forgive me if I have offended anyone. May Allah have mercy on us all on the day of Judgement. Shukran salaam wa alikum |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| saadia |
| 06/06/02 at 08:59:52 |
| [slm] I wholeheartedly agree w/you. You posted exactly what I have been thinking since I went to the rally last nite--very late because of work, but what saddened me was the lack of people. I didn't know a single person there. And that's ok, but for a rally that was sponsered by, among many other groups, the MSA's from local colleges/universities, umm...where was everyone? No disrespect intended. We can't rely on others to change our conditions if we aren't willing to change them ourselves, and I'm including myself when I say that. If I've offended anyone, please forgive, that wasn't my intention. [wlm] |
| 06/06/02 at 09:09:00 |
| saadia |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| yunus |
| 06/06/02 at 11:08:10 |
| Salaam I was glad that anyone went. But I felt very disapointed that there were no muslims there. I believe in total there were 10. There were more Jews there supporting the Palestinians then Muslims. In the capitial district there are roughly 4,000 muslims. For only 10 to show up is very sad. The only way we will be able to change our condition is to strive for it. We need to be in the forefront of this movement about Palestine. We need to be in the forefront in general to show no muslims what Islam is all about. We can't really on others to change our condition WE have to work for it. |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| mwishka |
| 06/06/02 at 11:20:18 |
| sis saadia, my friend khaoula and i were there, but had to leave early.... (of course, we would have had no idea who you were even if we were there at the same time.. :) ) my question to her as we were leaving was "where were the muslims??" we both thought it was weird... she was the only woman there in hijab, and there were only about 8 men there who seemed to me to be muslim.... (of course, i don't know at all, am basing this on outward appearance and those who went to pray...) i was REALLY surprised by how small it was, about maybe 100 people at its maximum. that's tiny for such a densely populated area as this! i've been to rallies twice that size in oneonta (very small city, ~15,000) and even in new paltz (a village! ~6000, but with many surrounding towns). both of those towns have only one state college (SUNY system) each, so it can't be accounted for by that. from the time we got to the rally site just before 4:30 until we left a little before 6, the crowd had doubled. BUT the majority of the people there were old-time peace activists, those same people i've mentioned elsewhere as having been in this struggle through south africa, and still in there fighting, trying to make headway. so where was everyone else??? -- and oh, i am NOT directing this at anyone, please don't take it that way -- it's a general, somewhat rhetorical question. mwishka (oh, bro yunus - looks like you got in and out of reply-land more quickly than i did.... i wrote this before your reply went up......) |
| 06/06/02 at 11:24:12 |
| mwishka |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| siddiqui |
| 06/06/02 at 12:05:01 |
| [slm] I came in late(from work) towards the end , found a few muslim brothers I guess we (I) arent really bothered unless afflictions strikes u personally may allha help us [wlm] |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| nouha |
| 06/06/02 at 12:50:49 |
| [slm] i am soooo sorry i couldnt make it, i had class. but please if there was any highlights etc, lemme know? i saw some stuff on the news. wasalam nouha:) |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| jannah |
| 06/06/02 at 13:14:21 |
| [wlm] This is very sad.. I was hoping a lot of people would have gone as well. Unfortunately I had to go out of town, but I was thinking to send a reminder to the albanymuslims list but didn't have time :( br yunus I don't think people "don't care" I think they care about Palestine and it's people very much. they just feel so frustrated and really don't know what to do about the issue. many people don't understand the benefits of demonstrations. they may have attended the large one in DC and feel that it hasn't done anything to stop the US gov't. i think if we can teach people that legislators do consider rallies and public opinion very much, it would make a difference. the same as voting, many Muslims don't vote because they think their one vote won't make any difference, but if their one vote and my one vote and an organization pools our votes it makes a big difference. it is also important for us to network with other non-muslim social justice organizations that are fighting for our same causes. |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| saadia |
| 06/06/02 at 14:53:23 |
| [slm] O sheesh! I just missed you than mwishka! I got there around 5:40-ish, and there were MAYBE 3o pple there or so. I'm not condemning anyone for not going, everyone has their reasons, be it school or work, I'm just sayin, it was depressing to see or not see, us standing up for ourselves you know? Going to this rally was important for me, maybe not because it'll change the world in one swoop; but I think rallies are important to let people know that there are others out there who feel maybe the same way you do about something and not to be afraid to let your stance be known. The media tries to tell us that according to polls pple think Israel is justified in its actions and scares pple away from being in the minority opinion, but it's not true....I hope that makes sense. [wlm] |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| mwishka |
| 06/06/02 at 15:25:02 |
| um, here's something to think about... i looked in the albany paper to see how it was covered. i knew there was a photographer there because i spoke to him (something on that in a second..). here's the bad news: one very very tiny picture of part of the march - which could have been a good picture if it were large, but it was so small they were dwarfed into nothingness in front of huge columns, plus an equal size picture showing anti-protest protesters. and the rest of the bad news: two pages before these pictures, which were hidden on page B4 for anyone who wants to look for them, there was a gigantic half-page picture of some miscellaneous union demonstration in new york city -- not even LOCAL! so, IF we had had a huge protest and it was treated this way, we could raise serious legitimate concern with the way the paper covered it. in this case, that's a little harder. the most influential people to contact the paper in this case would be people not at or connected with the march or rally, but who drove by or saw it on the news and could call up the paper or write a letter-to-the-editor saying "how come you missed this important news story on a critical issue facing us all right now??" sigh.... about the phorographer, sort of. my friend and i noticed the photographer taking her picture a number of times. this sort of makes sense, from a photography point of view, since she WAS the only obviously muslim woman there, but, he came to ask her name and she didn't give it to him -- she really didn't want any pictures taken and tried to stay behind her sign the whole time. even for prayer someone tried to shoot pictures and she had to ask him to stop. my friend is shy, in that sense, not liking pictures taken at all (i can relate to that, though i've learned to not care and just let people take pcitures of me whenever they want...) - but i also don't think this photographer understood anything about modesty in islam and a desire not to parade oneself as a personal image. he had completely misunderstood, i could tell, and thought my friend was being uncooperative. (darned muslims! how can we feel sympathy for any plight they have in this country if they don't even participate the way other people do.....you know, on that level..) unfortunately, a well-meaning but way too volatile participant at the rally tried to help (i think he was trying to help!) by yelling at the photographer and being quite hostile and angry. the photographer's face showed that he wished he didn't have to be there and wasn't feeling all that welcome among the crowd. ok, this was all very unfortunate and just misunderstandings. i took the shoulders of the two men. who were right in front of me and said "please don't argue here". they both looked chagrined - the photographer was looking more and more embarrassed - i said to him quietly "my friend is shy, she just doesn't want her picture taken at all. you know, shy - just like anyone might be." i said "OK?" and he nodded, but it didn't look ok... what i had said had been inaudible, except the "ok?" and the angry guy looked at me funny and nervous like i must have said "just ignore him, ok?" but my friend said 'what did you tell him?" i said "i just told him you were shy like anyone might be..." the angry guy heard, too --- so i THINK everybopdy got fixed. whew! now my whole point in telling this part of the story is that you NEVER want to do what that angry guy did, if you're holding a public demonstration of any kind. and all muslims are going to have to somehow work double triple or google time to get a better explanation out in public of what islam is and does than what's getting out there now. and now i've run out of time and must go, whether i'm done or not. oh yeah i went to this photographer to volunteer my stories to him when i get back and, i think partly from his kind of less than pleasant interactions, he was a littel hesitant, said it sounded more like a human interest story for the troy record since only one person from this area was going, but he took my information and some basics about the trip. he might feel better later, when he recovers from his discomfort while just out trying to do his job. next time, let's remember to try to help people like him out if we're giving them something in public meant to be educational and inspiring. (and i DON'T mean my friend needed to have her picture taken or tell him anything about herself - i'm referring to making sure reporters like him have an understanding in place beforehand of how to approach a muslim gathering of any sort. that's your job as muslims. well, it's my job, too, as a human, but i didn't want to be too presumptuous here....) mwishka |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| yunus |
| 06/06/02 at 15:54:31 |
| On Of the good things at the rally was a Brother Came with a box of Qurans. We Gave roughly 35 Qurans out to people for free. Inside the Qurans we tucked pamphelts abot Islam like on by Yusuf Islam on why he became a muslim. When I gave the Qurans out to people they seemed generally enthusiastic. People were really suprised that they were getting a Quran for free. A couple people gave me hugs. These protests/rallys are great oppurtunities for brothers and sisters to give dawah. Also I did not say that people dont care about Palestine I know that they do and that is what makes it sad for me that not that many muslims showed up. If people could tell me what I did wrong in helping to orginize the rally if they thought the flyer did not address a issue the concerned them please tell me so I can make the changes so that inshaAllah things go better nex time. Any way we had a rally back in April with 50 people and this rally according to the news media was 100 people. So We have doubled in size over 2 months which is a good thing. There are a lot of muslims in this country especially here in the capitial district. Each of our voices do make a difference. I was thinking that if people do not want to come out for a rally for one reason or another. What about a letter writing campaign to our congressman Mike Mcnulty. He is very pro Israel. If I was to work with others to draft a letter addressing our concerns about Palestine and Us aid to Palestine and lets say 500 brothers and sisters were to mail this letter to him in one week. Then the next week send another letter so one a so forth. This would have a very big impact. Would people be interested in doing something like this? Also please if you are an American citizen register to vote. This is very important. The reason why the jews labor unions etc have such a great infulence is because they vote as a block. Elections are coming up in november your represenatice Mr Mike Mcnulty is going to be up for reelection. We need to let him know that unless he changes his policy towards tha Palestinines the Muslims in this community will not support him. Also there is a Gentleman running o the Green party who is against the occupation. In this country we need a 3rd party the Greens look like the only viable and just option. We can no longer trust either the democrats or republincans. they both work for corporations intrest groups and the rich. We need to work at a grassroots level to tell people why what is happeing to the Palestinines is wrong. We need to get more involved in policts. Islam and politcs are one. The prophet (pbuh) when he went to Medina not only was he the Prophet of Allah but he was the leader of Medina. The same goes for the 4 caliphs (may Allah me pleased with them) they were both religious and political leaders. Islam encompasses everything. We need to work for justice and to do this we need to become more invloved in politics. |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| mwishka |
| 06/06/02 at 23:31:47 |
just a few more thoughts.... brother yunus, i hope you didn't take any of my comments, especially on the size of the turnout, as criticism of your organizing efforts.. i hope you didn't.. i spoke to about three people trying to find out what group was the general sponsor, and they all told me variations of "it's a very loose coalition." so this is to be expected from a sort of new (i'm assuming) coalition.... i was asking that trying to find the right people to give my contact information to about my trip to palestine and it was hard to do, there didn't seem to BE anyone prepared to assist me in that regard. perhaps i can be in touch with you about that later, if you've been working with this coalition.... one thing i would suggest about any letter sending campaign is that you not let people all send the same letter - if it's all to the same legislator. for a national mailing that might not matter as much. a draft letter is a GOOD idea! but you have to be sure to tell people to use it as a template and not to copy it word for word - or it will decrease in effectiveness. mwishka |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| nouha |
| 06/06/02 at 23:48:33 |
| [slm] mwishka, i didnt know u were albaynian!!!! :) we should meet soemtime 8) wasalam nouha:) |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| se7en |
| 06/06/02 at 23:52:31 |
| as salaamu alaykum, I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it :( Yunus I don't think you did anything wrong in your publicity. Our community can just get really frustrating.. it's hard to get people motivated and active. I think it might be because we're still mostly an immigrant community, and people are reluctant to get involved in the political arena, or don't know *how* to get involved in it.. another thing is, a lot of people think that these rallies are futile, and they don't really do anything of benefit. May Allah reward you for your work, and inshaAllah next time there'll be a bigger Muslim turnout.. at least by one :) wasalaamu alaykum :-) |
| 06/06/02 at 23:54:39 |
| se7en |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| sofia |
| 06/10/02 at 13:05:01 |
| As-salaamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullah - Maybe suggest that the next one be held on a weekend or even after work hours? I think that's one of the reasons the D.C. rally was such a success: if it were held on a Wed afternoon, I doubt so many busloads of Muslims would have come, Allahu'alim. [Not to mention it was in D.C., which was reason enough for a high turnout]. Although I posted something about this in an earlier thread (can't recall where now), this may be useful: check out www.ing.org for tips on how the San Fransisco Bay area Muslims changed the way the newspapers, reporters, local news, schools, police depts, etc, changed their views a bit in regards to reporting on/dealing with Islam/Muslims. They can come out for a speakers training session, to help areas build their own bureaus. May Allah help us all represent in the best way, aameen. Saadia, you *know* if I was in town, I woulda had my rally on. :) |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| mwishka |
| 06/10/02 at 14:14:34 |
| sis sofia, the awkward middle-of-the-week timing was because it was palestine solidarity day, the anniversary of the start of the six day war........ but, yep, it's pretty hard to get to things on weekdays... mwishka |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| yunus |
| 06/10/02 at 23:08:15 |
| salaam wednesday was the 35th anniversary of the occupation. Also there was no need for busloads to come we have enough muslims here in this community to make it inshaAllah a good event. The problem was not many showed up. Also most people could have come after work 5 o clock. People need to remember that while DC is our nations capital Albany is the New York state capital and our represenatives have offices the federal building is here etc. InshaAllah the next rally will be good. I would like to do something in spetember on the anniversary of Sabra and Shatila which will be the 20th anniversary. I dont mean to come down on people for not going it is just it is very discouraging for me since i put a lot of time into orginizing and i thought that since so many brothers and sisters hate what is happeing in Palestine many people would come out. I understand that i need to work on myself and then ALLAH will guide the people to help me |
| Re: Justice For Palestine |
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| sofia |
| 06/11/02 at 10:52:31 |
| Wa 'alaikumus-salaam wa rahmatullah, I hear ya on the low turnout of Albany natives. Insha'Allah you're next rally will be better, but I'd still advise *not* necessarily holding it on an exact anniversary date (unless it happens to fall on a wkd). Reason being, making it on an exact anniv date may connote "solidarity" moreso than some may be willing to stand for. Don't know if that makes sense, but there may be some pockets of non-Muslims/Muslims who are afraid to come right out in public on "Palestine Solidarity Day" but may otherwise want to for a more broad, general, pro-human rights in Palestine event. You're right, there are many (Muslims and Non-Muslims) who have issues with the what's going on in Palestine and the Muslims (at least) should have all showed up. Just thinking of pointers for the next time around, altho I'm sure much of what was done for the last one was enough. |
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