Friday, August 26, 2005

Eyeless in Gaza, at the Mill with Slaves: Hamas Takes Over


Israelis deny medical treatment to homicide bombers, steal sand from the desert, try to poison Muslims with buried septic tanks, and the best Allah can do is send giant spiders!? There's no justice.

Thursday August 25, 2005
Gaza City (AFP)

Palestinian medical experts fear a looming health crisis after Israel's pullout from Gaza Strip unless patients are guaranteed access to life-saving treatment beyond the territory.

While Israel regards its departure from Gaza as signalling the end of its 38-year occupation, the Palestinians argue that Israel will remain an occupying power as long as it retains control of its borders and is thus still obliged to meet the health needs of the local population.

"I fear a worsening of the health situation after the withdrawal from Gaza as a result of the Israeli cordon," said Dr Majdi Ashur, president of the Palestinian relief committees.

"Israel is refusing to recognise its obligations as a continuing occupation power by meeting basic health needs of the population and we do not foresee a resumption of proper freedom of movement in the short term," he told AFP.

More than 10,000 patients are transferred each year out of Gaza to Egypt, Jordan and theWest Bank to receive treatment, said Ashur.

Hundreds of those who are treated outside the territory are suffering from chronic or life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, he added.

Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians have been locked in talks for months about the future of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza that has been frequently closed by Israel for security reasons over the years.

Although Israel is set to hand over border control to Egypt, Ashur said it would do little to ease the problems as the traditional main source of health care for Palestinians was in the West Bank.

While there are also ongoing negotiations about a so-called "safe passage" between Gaza and the West Bank, no agreements have yet been reached.

"Our overall health plan links us to the West Bank where the two main hospitals are based," said Ashur.

Mona al-Farra, head of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, said "dozens of patients currently need x-rays, chemotherapy or surgery in areas such as cardiology, neurology or eye surgery".

"There is no agreement with Israel which allows for the transfer of these patients and Israel is refusing to receive certain patients whom it regards as representing a security danger."

Israel has been increasingly reluctant to allow Palestinians to be treated inside its borders since an incident in June when a young woman from Gaza who was receiving treatment for burns was stopped with explosives at the Erez terminal crossing.

A source in the Israeli health ministry, however, said there would be no immediate change to the procedures after the pullout of soldiers is completed next month.

"As in the past when Palestinians were able turn to the civil administration for medical treatment, they will still be able to do this. Nothing is going to change," she told AFP.

Even if Rafah were to reopen, patients would still have a 500 kilometre (310-mile) journey overland to Cairo, a procedure which is not regarded as a viable alternative for emergency cases.

In the past, emergency patients have been admitted to hospitals in the Israeli coastal cities of Ashkelon or Tel Aviv or in Jerusalem, he added.

The departure of Israeli settlers, soon to be followed out of the territory by the last of the soldiers, should make circulation throughout considerably easier.

But the facilities at the around a dozen hospitals in the territory are sometimes little more than basic.

A recent report by Physicians for Human Rights said that up to 2.5 billion dollars needs to be pumped into the Gaza Strip's health sector over the next 10 years.

The level of infant mortality rates stands at a level of 24 per thousand while there is not even single heart scanner for the territory's 1.3 million inhabitants.

The number of doctors in Gaza has fallen by 13 percent between 1998 and 2004, said Aid Yaghi, head of the Gaza branch of the Palestinian relief committees.

http://news.yahoo.com
***

(Communicated by Israeli security sources)

Twenty-one-year-old Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss was arrested Monday morning, June 20, 2005, at the Erez crossing, after attempting to smuggle an explosives belt through the crossing with the intent of carrying out a suicide bombing attack.

Wafa, 21, a resident of Jabaliya, aroused the suspicion of the soldiers at the crossing and during her security check, and when she realized they had discovered the explosive belt on her body, she attempted unsuccessfully to detonate it.

Wafa stated in her questioning that she had been dispatched as a suicide bomber by the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade infrastructure based in the northern Gaza Strip. Wafa was to use her personal medical authorization documents, allowing her to cross through into Israel to receive medical treatment. Wafa stated that she had been directed to carry out the suicide attack in a crowded Israeli hospital.

Wafa had been admitted to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva between December 2004 and January 2005 for treatment of massive burns she received as a result of a gas-tank explosion.

Wafa was given permission to enter Israel Monday, June 20, for admission to the hospital for medical treatment. The terrorist infrastructure attempted to take advantage of her medical condition in order to carry out a major suicide bombing attack inside Israel.

There have been several attempts by terrorist organizations to dispatch terrorists to Israel from the Gaza Strip by exploiting those in need of medical treatment:

* Hamed A-Karim Hamed Abu Lihiya, born in 1981 and a resident of the Jabaliya refugee camp, was arrested on December 20, 2004 by security forces. He was suspected of operating as part of the Hamas terror organization and had been smuggled into Israel to carry out a suicide bombing attack. Abu Lihiya confessed in his questioning that he had been smuggled through the Erez security crossing into Israel as a "sleeper" agent of the Hamas terror organization four months before, in August 2004. Abu Lihiya was brought through the Erez crossing using forged documents claiming that he was a cancer patient in need of medical treatment from an Israeli hospital. Lihiya was to join an additional terrorist, after which the two would receive weaponry and carry out the attack with the help of terrorist aides inside of Israel.

* An additional attempt was thwarted in early December 2004 when Hassan Ahmed Ali Tom and Mahmed Diab Namer Ja'arur, two terrorists belonging to the Gaza based al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror organization, were arrested by security forces. The two had intended to infiltrate Israel and carry out terror attacks.

Hassan Tom crossed into Egypt through the Rafah crossing after presenting medical documents which allowed him entry. Tom was arrested on December 12, 2004 in a chase that ensued after he infiltrated into the Negev area from Egypt. During questioning he admitted that his intent had been to murder an Israeli citizen and bury his body in order to jumpstart negotiations between Fatah factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel for the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli citizen. In addition, Tom intended to sabotage the train rails near Netanya using an explosive device which he was to receive from the Fatah infrastructure in the West Bank.

A week before Tom's arrest, Muhammed Ja'arur was arrested at the Rafah crossing as he attempted to cross into Egypt. In his questioning, Ja'arur stated that he was intended to cross into Egypt to join Tom and from there they would infiltrate Israel and carry out the terror attacks.

Monday morning's incident is only one example of the numerous attempts by terrorist organizations to carry out attacks since the beginning of the period of calm was declared in February.

In a joint operation conducted in Ramallah on March 10, 2005, IDF forces and the ISA arrested Hamas terrorist Machmad Bachitsi. Bachitsi, a resident of Gaza, received permission to leave Gaza by claiming to be a kidney donor, but in fact planned to carry out a suicide bombing inside Israel. During his investigation, Bachitsi admitted that he had been drafted by the Hamas organization in the Gaza Strip and that, as part of his preparations, he underwent theoretical and military training, including lessons on electrical circuitry and the production of explosive devices and belts.
http://www.mfa.gov.il
***

Aug. 25, 2005 3:58 | Updated Aug. 25, 2005 6:25
Palestinians: Israel poisoned Gaza land
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Representatives of various Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday accused Israel of burying "toxic materials" under the rubble of dismantled settlements to prevent Palestinians from exploiting the land.

The allegations were made during a press conference in Khan Yunis that was organized by the Popular Committee for Defending Palestinian Lands.

Committee coordinator Abdel Aziz Qadih claimed that the IDF and the settlers had buried the toxic materials six meters under the rubble of the settlements that were evacuated last week. He did not specify the type of toxins, but claimed that they were placed in large barrels underground.

"They want to destroy the land to prevent the Palestinians from using it after it's handed over to the Palestinian Authority," he said. "We call on all those who support our people to expose this matter and to help us deal with it."

Qadih also claimed that Israel was stealing water and sand from Gush Katif.

"This won't deter us from abiding by our rights and lands," he cautioned. He urged Palestinians to stay away from the settlement areas until the PA cleared the area.

http://www.jpost.com
***
Thanks to Carolyn2 at www.jihadwatch.org for the following link.

Friday, August 27, 2004

OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOM
Sheik: Allah sent giant spiders to combat U.S.

Cleric says arachnids as big as a chair killed soldiers in battle

Posted: August 27, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

An Iraqi sheik claims Allah sent giant spiders to the town of Fallujah to help its residents fend off attacks by U.S. military forces.

Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'i spoke to Syrian TV on Monday, claiming several Arab television stations videotaped the helpful arachnids.

The interview is featured on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, or MEMRI TV. The organization translated the conversation into English.

"They [the Americans] attacked Fallujah and tried to cause great damage to its residents," he explained. "They destroyed mosques and homes, killed women, children and youths, and spread corruption in Fallujah. Nevertheless, we believe that Allah protects the believers, and indeed, Allah stood beside Fallujah, and I'd like to mention some miracles Allah performed in Fallujah. It is possible that the media does not know about them."

Continued Al-Sumide'i: "The first miracle that occurred in Fallujah took the form of spiders that appeared in the city – each spider larger than this chair, or about the size of this chair. The American soldiers left, holding the legs of this spider, and I too, in one of the Friday sermons, held up a spider, with all its magnitude, in front of the satellite channels and in front of the world. This spider also had thin black hair. If this hair touches the human body, within a short period of time the body becomes black or blue, and then there is an explosion in the blood cells in the human body - and the person dies."

The sheik's interviewer then asked about the alleged TV coverage: "The people saw it, but the TV stations did not air it?"

Responded Al-Sumide'i: "The people saw it and the TV stations indeed aired it. I held the spider, and there were between 13 to 15 TV stations, including Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, Al-Majd, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi and other stations, and they saw it with their own eyes."

Some Arab Internet sites have repeated claims of Iraqis about the spiders, and there also are stories circulating of phantom white-robed knights on white horses sent by Allah that killed U.S. Marines in battle.

In a statement reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's spokesman, "Baghdad Bob," the sheik claimed the U.S. was underestimating the number of American casualties in Iraq by a factor of 100.

"Today, if a hundred Americans are killed, they say there was one casualty," he said, "and if dozens of tanks were blown up, they say one was blown up. No one will notice the losses caused to the American forces until they return to their bases – if they return, and in my opinion they will not return – but if they return, the world will see and the American people will see the number of losses."

Al-Sumide'i claimed there were mass graves in Iraq filled with the bodies of American forces.

"A mass grave was created in a desert area near the Saudi boarder for the American soldiers killed. There is also a lake near Al-Sa'diya. The Americans place the casualties inside white or black bags, seal them and toss them from a plane into the lake."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com
***

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Thursday, August 25, 2005

It's the Real Thing


There's an ancient Islamic custom: First you drink from the bottle, and then you throw it at those you got it from and blame them for all your troubles.
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The End of Eschatology as We Know It


Ah, the good old days in Chicago, Ill. when Muslims were under the public radar in America. Not so today, given that Chicago is high on the list of targets for a nuclear attack by jihadis determined to usher in "The Day of Revelation."``

Below we have four pieces on Islam in Chicago. The first is a lead on the demographic of Muslims and Middle Easterners in Chicago and its surrounding areas. The second details some of the Islamic leadership in Bridgeview, a Chicago suburb. The third piece, from 1999, tells a warm and fuzzy tale of Islam in Bridgeview. Finally, a clip on a visitor to Chicago, Abdullah Al Muhajir.

The point is that some Muslims feel comfortable with the idea of nuking a major city, killing indiscriminately its populations. It could be London, Stockholm, Cairo, or your home town. Islam is an equal opportunity killer.

We point out here consistently that Muslims are matters for the police, but Islam is a matter of concern to each and every person on the face of the Earth. Most people have no idea what's going on in their own communities, and if it takes a nuclear explosion in Middle America to draw their attention to it, then who are they going to retaliate against? It's our uncompromising opinion that we must shut out Islam from the Human experience, and we could do well insisting on law enforcement among our own cities even when there are voter-blocs at stake.

We have settled among us people who share a view of life that includes the celebration of the End of the World. Yes, some of them are fundamentalist Christians. But it's those among us who are Muslim, men and women dedicated to actually making it happen, and making it happen by causing mega-deaths in our cities who should be of some concern to us. It's past time to start some serious discussion with our community leaders to put a stop to the fascist ideology of Islam; a perhaps more to the point, to put a stop to the dhimmi attitude that all religions are bad, Christianity worse than all, and that Islam is just another harmless worldview held by a small minority, of whom a smaller minority yet want to nuke us. Let's stop pretending it's all relative. No, nuking Middle America is really a bad thing. Unless you're Jose Padilla, for example, or maybe the guy at the cafe, Bridgeview, Ill.

(For our Muslim readers we slipped in a bit of legal advice from CAIR-Chicago.)

March 9, 2005

By Ray Hanania

If you think the title of this column should be "covering Chicago's Arab and Muslim Community," it might explain the challenges Chicago's media continues to face.

The "Arab and Muslim Community" is not a "community" at all, but two very separate and very distinct communities; each has multiple levels of confusing political and social sub-terrains.

Arabs and Muslims are not the same. They are very different. They each are a part of the post-September 11th story or the ongoing Middle East conflict, but in significantly different ways.

In only a few occasions, do the two communities overlap.

This has probably been the single most important error the news media has made in covering the Arabs and Muslims.

There are about seven million Muslims in America, but only about 22 percent are Arab. Referring to the Arab community as Muslim or covering the Arab community in that religious context is wrong.

Half of the Arabs in America are Christian. And, in addition to the Arab Christians, there are another one million Christians who originate from the Middle East who are not Arab, such as Assyrians or Chaldeans. Assyrians speak Arabic but are militant in defining themselves as "non-Arab" and will tell you so.
[Much more at the following link.]

http://www.hanania.com/profiles/ArabOverview3-9-05.htm
***

Bridgeview Mosque Foundation/ Hamas member Mohamed Saleh arrested with Howard U prof Abdelhaleem Ashqar on terrorism charges

August 21, 2004

MIM: After years of being under law enforcement scrutiny more proof of the obvious emerges revealing the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation's direct ties to Hamas. The BMF spokesman is Rafiq Jaber, the head of the Islamic Association of Palestine, which is the American wing of Hamas.

Which begs the question of how such a hub of terrorist activity in the Hamas stronghold of Bridgeview Illinois, is still conducting 'business as usual' and why Muhammed Hamid Khalil Salah is the only BMF associate who was arrested this week. Imam Jamil Said of The Bridgeview Mosque Foundation is a known Hamas leader. The BMF president Oussama Jamal , is a darling of the Chicago interfaith circuit, who apparently have no problems with his and Jamal's declarations at a post 9/11 community memorial service where he stated that he did not think Muslims were behind the 9/11 attacks, and that terrorism was a direct result of US support of Israel. Jamal used the event to bash Israel and cry to the media about how Muslims are suffering in the US.

-------------------------------------------

Hamas activist Oussama Jammal owns a film company and recently won an award at the International Family Film festival in California.


At a post 9/11 press conference, in the presence of mosque spokesman Rafiq Jaber and Imam Jamil Said, Ousama Jammal stated the following: "How certain are we that it was Arabs who were behind it?" Suggesting that Americans look at the causes, he argued that despair and fear are at the roots of terrorism. http://www.washington-report.org/archives/november01/0111050.html

The Bridgeview mosque is known as a center of IAP, Hamas, and Al Qaeda activity.

The spokesman for the Bridgeview Mosque is Rafiq Jaber, the national president of the Islamic Association of Palestine. which is "considered to be a front group for Hamas operating inside the United States". http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26545

Nabil Al Marabh, a suspected planner in the 9/11 hijackings attended the Bridgeview mosque. http://www.suntimes.com/terror/stories/cst-nws-commun21.html

A member of the the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation, Mohammed Saleh, was the first American citizen to make the FBI's most wanted Islamic terrorist list .

The Bridgeview mosque has also been linked to the Holy Land Foundation, a charity which was closed down by the U.S. government for fund raising for terrorist groups. http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8279.

More of this story is available at the link below.

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/251
***

Islam thrives in Chicago

By Lola Smallwood, Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1999

On a recent Friday afternoon, men dressed in cotton robes and sandals, baggy jeans and tennis shoes, overalls and work boots, slowly packed into an unadorned prayer room illuminated only by the light of two narrow, rectangular windows inside the Bridgeview mosque.

Within minutes, there was no space even to kneel on the avocado-colored carpet. Worshipers spilled out of the main prayer area to the courtyard outside the mosque, unrolling beautiful Persian rugs to accommodate the crowd.

Many are immigrants. Many more are descendants of Muslim emigres who are swiftly building a strong Muslim-American community in the south and southwest suburbs--and taxing the capacity of the Bridgeview center.

"We are going through a transition where the growth is really among the youth," said Bassam Jody, a Tinley Park resident and president of the Chicago Mosque Foundation. "It's a case of children and grandchildren of Muslim immigrants coming up and spreading out to places such as Tinley Park and Orland Park."

Though it is unclear how many Muslims live in the southern part of the Chicago area, foundation officials said that on Islamic feast days, more than 5,000 Muslims have crowded into its mosque--built to hold 800 to 1,500 people.

And Friday congregational prayer draws some 2,000 Muslims.

Three small rental offices in Frankfort, Tinley Park and Bolingbrook serve as a place for Muslims to carry out salah, the required prayer, five times a day. But none of those locations offers Islamic educational or community programs.

However, on Fridays, men are required to attend congregational prayer, and most prefer to attend the Bridgeview mosque, officials say.

That has made conditions so cramped that officials recently announced intentions to build a new mosque in the nearby southwest suburbs by 2005. Though no definitive location or cost for the mosque is yet known, officials said about 15 acres of land would be needed to build the mosque.

The community's growth in the southwest suburbs reflects an explosion in the Muslim population throughout the Chicago area, which has risen from 50,000 to more than 350,000 in the last 30 years.

The growth is fueled by a continual stream of Muslim immigrants from places such as Yugoslavia, Asia, India, Africa and the Middle East.

However, a major force behind the numbers in southern Cook and Will counties is the emergence of second- and third-generation Muslim Americans.

"There was no community when I came here," said Salem M. Salem, 53, a Palestinian businessman who came to Chicago from Jerusalem in 1969.

Between puffs on a hand-rolled cigarette in the living room of his Oak Lawn home, he explained how he sent his small children back home to relatives to learn the principles and customs of Islam. They remained there for three years.

"Today you don't have to send children away," he said, as his two adult daughters, Nadia, 26, a Chicago lawyer, and Jackleen, 22, a University of Chicago graduate student, listened nearby. "The community is stronger. There are mosques, several schools. Children can be taught right here."

The migration of Muslim immigrants has traced an intricate pattern across the Chicago area since the late 1880s, said Asad Husain, president of the American Islamic College on the North Side.

During the early stages of migration, Muslims, many from the Middle East, settled in the predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side. As they prospered, those immigrants who chose to remain in the U.S. sought better housing opportunities in nearby suburbs such as Burbank, Bridgeview and Oak Lawn, making the southern region one of the largest and fastest-growing Muslim communities in the Chicago area.

Elsewhere, Muslim communities also thrive today in northern suburbs such as Morton Grove, where Eastern European Muslims from Albania and Serbia have settled. In DuPage County, Muslims from India and Pakistan have put down roots in Lombard, Villa Park and other cities.

Still, early on, many Muslim immigrants saw the Chicago area as a temporary land of opportunity, and little was done until the 1980s to build up the community, Husain said. As late as the 1970s, it was the norm for immigrants who had come for jobs or educational opportunities to return to their native countries. But since then, there has been considerable effort to create a religious community.

The Muslim religion is based on the Koran--a prodigious text of revelations shown to the prophet Muhammad by God during the 7th century, followers believe.

"I think my generation wants to be defined as Muslim Americans and feel comfortable with who we are and where we're at," said Nadia Salem, who lives a block from the Bridgeview mosque with her husband, writer Ibrahim Abusharif, 40.

Besides the proposed mosque in the Bridgeview area, new mosques have been built or are proposed in Villa Park, Des Plaines and Chicago. Five Islamic-based elementary and high schools have opened since 1990, including two in Bridgeview.

And in some ways, the new generation has brought a certain nuance to the faith in Bridgeview. In recent years, Friday prayer sermons have been offered in English instead of Arabic. A new community center houses a Sisters Community--a religious network of Muslim women. And a youth center offers teens a place to hold discussions such as "Teens and Islam" or "Marriage in Islam" to educate youths on how to apply the religion to modern life.

Such outlets are particularly essential in American society, where the culture in many ways contradicts the laws of the religion, Muslim parents said. For example, premarital sex and even unchaperoned dating among adults is prohibited. Women are encouraged to be educated but required to stay home with small children unless the family is in financial trouble. And elderly parents must be cared for by their children--not in nursing homes.

Yet financing mosques and community centers isn't easy because the teachings of the Koran forbid Muslims from accepting or providing interest-bearing loans.

In fact, the $600,000 mosque that opened in Villa Park last year was completely financed through cash donations, said Abdul Hammed Dogar, board member of the Islamic Foundation in Villa Park.

"Islamic religion said exploiting the needy is sinful," Jody said. "We will take no loan. We will look to the business community and Muslim organizations to raise the funds."

http://www.islamfortoday.com/chicago.htm
***
Oh, just in case you're flying in to Chicago and you're having troubles with the local authorities, here's a tip for you.

http://www.cairchicago.org/knowyourrights.php

IF THE FBI CONTACTS YOU:

American Muslims support strong law enforcement. We also treasure civil rights. Your right to be politically active and to hold different beliefs/views is protected by the Constitution. If you are visited by the FBI, remember:

1) You do not have to talk to the FBI. You have no obligation to talk to the FBI, even if you are not a citizen. Never meet with them or answer any questions without an attorney present. Refusing to answer questions cannot be held against you. It does not imply that you have something to hide.

2) You do not have to permit them to enter your home or office. FBI agents must possess a search warrant in order to enter your house. If they say they have a warrant, demand to see it before allowing them to enter. Even if they have a warrant, you are under no obligation to answer questions.

3) Never lie or provide false information to the FBI. It is better to refuse to answer any questions. Lying to an FBI agent is a crime. Contact CAIR for advice.

[We are not going to suggest that CAIR will lie for you.]
***

U.S. authorities capture 'dirty bomb' suspect

His associate captured in Pakistan, U.S. officials say

June 10, 2002 Posted: 11:47 PM EDT (0347 GMT)


Al Mujahir

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal officials have captured a U.S. citizen with suspected ties to al Qaeda who allegedly planned to build and explode a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.

U.S. officials said Washington was the probable target of the plot. FBI Director Robert Mueller said the plot was in the "discussion stage" when the suspect, Abdullah Al Muhajir, was arrested. Mueller said the plot had not gone any further, to the knowledge of U.S. authorities.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Al Muhajir -- who was born Jose Padilla -- was captured May 8 as he flew from Pakistan into O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. Officials described the flight as a reconnaissance mission.

Officials said that when Al Muhajir arrived in Chicago, he declared having $8,000 but was found to have more than $10,000 in his possession.

In the weeks before he flew to Chicago, Al Muhajir was tracked flying between Pakistan, Egypt and Switzerland, officials said.

U.S. officials later said an "associate" of Al Muhajir had been arrested in Pakistan before May 8. It was not clear whether thisLearn more was the "associate" Ashcroft referred to when he said Al Muhajir was working with someone in Pakistan on plans to build a dirty bomb. (Full story)

A dirty bomb is a conventional bomb equipped with radioactive material designed to spread over a wide area.

[More at link:
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/06/10/dirty.bomb.suspect/index.html
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