UMU | United Muslim Ummah

Muslim Unity: A Basic Need For Peace

2011-04-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

By Bushra Tarrar

The unity of Muslims the world over is the need of the hour, not for any aggressive design but for own survival, salvation, growth and development. Only unity can bring them the glory that the world of Islam once enjoyed. There will then be a third -world bloc (of the Muslim countries) in this emerging multipolar world that would be powerful enough to stand the rigours and the pressures of Zionist dominated capitalistic bloc or any other power that has expansionists designs. This unity has to move beyond mere lip service but translated in concrete terms.
Muslims must understand the divide and rule policy of the West. In the contemporary history, the British policy in the Middle East where Colonel Lawrence, the notorious Lawrence of Arabia was launched to work and break the Ottoman Empire, through Arab nationalism and further divisions within the Arab world in particular. Having done that the he also sowed the seeds of intra Arab and inter Arab conflicts in the region. To come more into recent history that’s still evolving, one must study the pattern since the Iran-Iraq war, the mosaic will emerge very clear.
After the Iranian revolution, the Americans, French, British, Germans, Australia and other smaller countries like Italy etc. took sides and sold their military hardware worth billions of dollars. Not only that but they also kept fanning fear, threats and hatred to make a clashes inevitable. Iraq invaded Iran with all that it had including the chemical weapons which were again supplied by the West. This bloody war continued for almost a decade where millions of people were killed on both sides. West, were having a laugh and also minting money by keeping this war flamed to its maximum duration for their economic gains. When Iraq was completely exhausted, Sadam Hussain at the behest of the US attacked Kuwait and captured it to give a war trophy to the people of Iraq. Not realizing that he fell in a well laid out trap from which Sadam never recovered and ended up at the gallows.
This invasion of Kuwait was made the basis for Western intervention that was led by the US. Operation Desert Storm that isolated Iraq from the rest of the world was orchestrated in the Security Council of the UNO. After this war, Iraq was placed under UN sanctions, no fly-zones were established. Export of oil was stopped but a limited quantity only under ‘oil for food’ was allowed. In this game billions of dollars were made by the American corporations, oil companies made rich harvest. In the US when all other business was heading for a slump, oil companies were positing quarterly profits in billions of dollars. Due to these sanctions, half a million Iraqi children died for want of baby food and medicine that could not be imported freely. To an interview, the former US Ambassador to the UN and Secretary of State Madeline Albright when questioned about the justification of over half a million children for want of food and medicine, she said it was a price worth it. Half a million children and women was of no consequence to the Zionist USA. All they want is money, money and more money no matter what it costs the humanity.
Raja Mujtaba, in his open letter to the Kings and Presidents of the Islamic countries had warned way back in 2002 that the Muslim world is going to face a situation worse than they can imagine. Today, US and its allies are singling out every Muslim country and then pounce on it like Hyenas on the week animals after singling them out. Today Muslims should be united not only in the religious sense but also in other fields like industry, agriculture, trade etc. A joint defence strategy should be their first and foremost priority. The Muslim countries have a lot of resources for trade, commerce and industry. The whole block is not only self sufficient but also contiguous to a large extent. But unfortunately they stand divided on more than one issue, it could be Arab or non Arab issue or Shia-Sunni issue. All these seeds were sowed by Lawrence of Arabia that are being capitalized by the Zionists and their allies. with one another but there is lack of understanding and unity.
OIC, Organization For Islamic Conference, Arab League or Gulf Cooperation Council etc. have all become redundant and worthless bodies. To begin with, they do not convene any conference and if they do, they never come out with some unanimous decisions that they can translate into action. These organizations of the Muslim world have become a laughing stock. Irony is that knowing it fully well that the West has and continues to damage the Muslim world, the rulers still look upon them as messiahs to their problems. Every time when some situation aggravates, without solving the previous problems more are added through sanctions and vetoes. Every decision favours Israel or India but none provide any relief to Muslim Countries. For the last two decades, Sudan is embroiled in civil war. The clash is going on between the Muslims and the Christians. These are the same people who were living in complete peace but the destruction of peace was engineered by the West to take over oil from Sudan and split the country into two. Likewise in Eastern Timor, Australia and the USA supported by the UK played a major role to bring about its separation from Indonesia.
They can make Islamic Unity much more meaningful only if they sink their egos and the concepts of narrow nationalism. They should think that they all have faith in one Allah and Quran. This is the clear and true basis for their unity. They should try to feel this spiritual reality. They should not allow the sectarian differences or of any other nature bring about any division amongst the Muslims.
They can become a world power if they all come to have a prioritized economic structuring and mutual defence pacts. They would need to make heavy investments in education, science and technology. Allocate more and more for research and development, these should be funded through IOC etc. amongst the Muslim countries, Pakistan, Turkey and to some extent Iran have a developed defence industry. This can become the basis for further enhancement involving other countries into it.
Source Opinion Maker

Unity of Ummah : Mufti Mohammad Shafi

2011-02-28T06:00:00.001-08:00

The Jewish hand behind Internet

2010-12-26T05:51:00.000-08:00

Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, MySpace, eBay...

By Freedom Research, June 2009

In the following document we will give an insight into the Jewish penetration of the Internet and also show the level of cooperation between leading Jewish Internet entrepreneurs and the racist Jewish Apartheid state of Israel.

The Jews - contrary to the "liberal" views they officially say they profess - in their suppressive acts practically demonstrate that they always seek to dominate the information flow, they don´t tolerate any dissent. It is just as when Israel says "Shalom" while Israel´s military at the very same time pounds its Arab neighbour states with bombs and missiles.

The Arabs have learnt the hard way the faleshood of these Jewish statements, it is now time for the rest of the non-Jewish world to get this right, and to see that the freedom of information on the Net is seriously threatened.

This document will not cover the entire field. Also, as it is timebound to an an anlysis that is from a 2009 perspective - things will change. Companies will change names, new actors will appear. But still this piece of work is unique and will give a guide into the mechanisms behind the Net, mechanisms that will continue to act even in the future. And as many of these Jewish entrepreneurs are rather young and the Internet seems to be here to stay, we will hear from them for a long time onwards.

WARNING: Please note that the contents of some of the sites with revealing Jewish material we have linked to below, may be altered by the Jews in the future. Perhaps even information contrary to this document and Radio Islam will replace the original material we had linked to. This has happened before and for our part just illustrates the level of Jewish dishonesty.

Sections

Some Jewish "profiles" behind information on the Internet


Google´s Jew Sergey Brin	Wikipedia´s Jew Jim Wales

Google
(which in 2006 acquired Youtube)

Founders Brin and Page are Jewish

The Jewish site SomethingJewish.co.uk writes in a review by Marcus J. Freed of the book "Richistan", 05/09/2007 on "the Jewish boys from Google":

The global economy is vastly different to 40 years ago and today’s new billionaires include the Jewish boys from Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, along with thousands of other ‘instapreneurs’.

Larry Page - who shares the title of Google President even has an Israeli family connection.

B´nai B´rith Magazine, paper of one of the mightiest Jewish organizations, writes in their article "The Searchmasters", spring 2006, on "...Larry Page, whose mother Gloria is Jewish". The Magazine continues:

Larry's maternal grandfather, however, followed a much different path. He was an early settler in Israel, making aliyah in the spartan desert town of Arad.

Sergei Brin and Larry Page -"the Jewish boys from Google"

The Jewish entourage in Google

The Jew Craig Silverstein was the first employee hired by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The Jewish woman Susan Wojcicki was the one who gave Google office space to start the business. Susan Wojcicki has since become Vice President of Product Management at Google.

This while here likewise Jewish younger sister Anne Wojcicki, a biotechnology specialist, in May 2007 during "a traditional Jewish wedding" ceremony (according to Israeli paper Ha´aretz, May 29, 2008) married the Google President Sergey Brin. Keeping everything neatly within the tribe.

SomethingJewish.co.uk writes 24/05/2007:

Jewgle wedding
By: Leslie Bunder
The world's wealthiest Jewish bachelor is no more. Sergey Brin, co-founder of search giant Google and worth over $16bn got hitched to his long-time love Anne Wojcicki earlier this month in the Bahamas, but so secret was the wedding, that it has only recently been confirmed.

According to a report in the San Jose Mercury News, the wedding took place under a chuppah with both Brin and Wojcicki confirming their commitment to the Jewish faith, though no rabbi is said to have officiated at the ceremony.

Wojcicki, is the sister of Susan Wojcicki who gave Google office space to start the business.

In 2001, Brin's mother Eugenia commented she hoped he would find a Jewish bride. "I hope he would keep that in mind," she said.

Wojcicki, who has a background in biotechnology, has been active in Jewish projects and currently sits on the board of Reboot, a venture that engages Jews to explore their culture.

Recently, Wojcicki launched a biotech company 23andMe which has seen Google itself invest several million dollars into it.

Justin Rosenstein was a top engineer at Google serving three years as Google´s Product Manager for Page Creator. Rosenstein was one of the first employees that Facebook´s Jewish boss Mark Zuckerberg poached from Google as Facebook began its rise in 2007. In 2008 Rosenstein left Facebook with Facebook´s likewise Jewish co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz, to form a new company.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz (left) and Justin Rosenstein

Sheryl Sandberg

Another Jewish profile who has been important in the shaping of Google is Sheryl Sandberg.

Sheryl Sandberg was Google Vice President of Global Online Sales & Operations, a position from where she built and managed the online sales channels for advertising and publishing and operations for consumer products globally. Sandberg was behind Google´s AdWords, and sat in the board of Google´s philantropic arm Google.org.

Before Google, Sandberg worked for the Jew Lawrence Summers, first when he was Chief Economist of the World Bank, then as his Chief of Staff when Summers was Treasury Secretrary in the Clinton Administration.

The Jewish Chronicle (December 4, 2008) ran an article on the book "Jewish Wisdom for Business Success" - a book by Rabbi Levi Brackman and Jewish journalist Sam Jaffe - where they argue that the Torah and ancient rabbinic texts are not simply guides for holy living, they can also provide helpful career advice. The Jewish Chronicle writes:

Their book combines tips on good business practice gleaned from the Bible, Midrash and Kabbalah with examples of success stories such as Andy Klein, who quit corporate law to start a brewery and ended up with an investment bank, or Sheryl Sandberg, who rose to become vice president for global sales for Google. And while there are role models to emulate, there also ones to avoid: Pharaoh the gas ruach (man of coarse spirit) or Korah, the ba’al ga’avah, the arrogant egotist.

Sheryl Sandberg

As Vice President of Google´s Global Sales Sandberg was behind the AdWords project which links paid advertisements to search results, a gadget that allowed Google to turn their search engine into "extremely profitable business", as Rabbi Levi Brackman and journalist Sam Jaffe write in their book "Jewish Wisdom for Business Success", p. 2. They have the case of Sheryl Sandberg in the first chapter in their book as an example of Jewish business sucess. In the same p. 2 of their book:

Early in 2008, she left Google to become the second-in-command of Facebook, the emerging social-networking company.

Sheryl Sandberg - Jewish "second-in-command of Facebook" - is presently Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. As COO, Sandberg is responsible for helping Facebook scale its operations and expand its presence globally. Sandberg manages sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy, privacy and communications and reports directly to Facebook’s Jewish CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Sheryl Sandberg is well connected to the Jewish community and the "philantropy" business, a favourite Jewish pastime where they can take a small part of their enormous wealth gained from the "goyim" and put it in small projects completely after their taste, to show how humane, generous and an openminded they are. Sandberg was thus with Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, on a joint venture "addressing global poverty and social justice issues through philanthropy", December 10, 2008.

She also sponsors Jewish activities at for instance the Joshman Family Jewish Community Center, a center that not so surprisingly also has an "Israel connection", as their website says. The Joshman Center writes on this "Israel connection":

Our mission is to strengthen relationships between American Jews and the Israeli émigré community and to build a deeper connection to Israel.

See: http://www.paloaltojcc.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=Rambam's%20Ladder%20Award%20Dinner%20and%20Auction%202009&category=Special%20Events&submenu=Special_Events

Sandberg was included in Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women of 2007.

She is married to former Yahoo! music head David Goldberg with whom she has two children.

More Google Jews - Elliot Schrage and Ethan Beard

Elliot Schrage

The Jew Elliot Schrage was since 2005 Google´s Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs, the man who ran Google´s PR. He had this important position until May 2008 when he left for Facebook to work under the same role.

At Google, he broadened the company’s messaging from a focus on only product PR to include all aspects of corporate, financial, policy, philanthropic and internal communications. Before Google Shrage served as a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Zionist infested "public policy think tank".

Schrage together with the Jewish US Holocaust Museum launched the Darfur tool to Google Earth (see article U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Join in Online Darfur Mapping Initiative http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/darfur_mapping.html):

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today joined with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to unveil an unprecedented online mapping initiative aimed at furthering awareness and action in the Darfur region of Sudan. Crisis in Darfur, enables more than 200 million Google Earth™ mapping service users worldwide to visualize and better understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur. The Museum has assembled content—photographs, data and eyewitness testimony—from a number of sources that are brought together for the first time in Google Earth. This information will appear as a Global Awareness layer in Google Earth starting today.
Google Earth’s Elliot Schrage, Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs, joined Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield and Darfurian Daowd Salih at the launch.

Crisis in Darfur is the first project of the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative that will over time include information on potential genocides allowing citizens, governments and institutions to access information on atrocities in their nascent stages and respond.

"Educating today’s generation about the atrocities of the past and present can be enhanced by technologies such as Google Earth," says Bloomfield. "When it comes to responding to genocide, the world’s record is terrible. We hope this important initiative with Google will make it that much harder for the world to ignore those who need us the most."

"At Google, we believe technology can be a catalyst for education and action," said Elliot Schrage, Google Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs. "Crisis in Darfur will enable Google Earth users to visualize and learn about the destruction in Darfur as never before and join the Museum’s efforts in responding to this continuing international catastrophe."

Of course spreading the knowledge of Israel´s genocidal destruction of Palestinian infrastructure in Gaza in the 2009 assault is not part of this education.

Ethan Beard

Another actor is Ethan Beard who was Google´s Director of Social Media. He has since left for Facebook to become Director of Facebook's Business Development and then Facebook's Director of Platform marketing. There are indications that he is Jewish.

Manber - Google´s Israeli Vice President of Engineering

Google's Vice President of Engineering, Udi Manber, is Israeli and a graduate from the Israel´s Technion Institute in Haifa.

He has a long record of top jobs in Internet related positions.

Manber became the chief scientist at Yahoo! in 1998.

In 2002, he joined Amazon.com, where he became "chief algorithms officer" and a Vice President. He was later appointed CEO of the Amazon subsidiary company A9.com, where he led the company's A9 search engine work. (Please see an article on Amazon´s support for Israel.)

In 2006, Manber was hired by Google as one of Google´s Vice Presidents of Engineering. In December 2007, he announced Knol, Google's new project to create a knowledge repository.

Mandber as a senior Google operative, interacts with the Judeo-Zionist community.

Here is an advertisment which discloses how Google´s Manber will sit with a Rabbi and discuss Talmud and the Web (http://www.oakland.com/google-s-talmud-the-web-jewish-culture-and-the-power-of-associative-thinking-e394931):

Thu Sep 18, 2008
Contemporary Jewish Museum presents

Google’s Talmud: The Web, Jewish Culture, and the Power of Associative Thinking

Location
The Contemporary Jewish Museum
736 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

district: Downtown/Financial District

Location Date and Time
Thu Sep 18, 2008 (7:00 PM - 8:30 PM)

Description
One of the hallmarks of Jewish culture and scholarship is an emphasis on commentary and “associative thinking,” a method essential to the creation of the Talmud and thousands of years of Biblical commentary. Udi Manber, Google’s Vice President for Engineering and best-selling technology critic Howard Rheingold will join Rabbi Lawrence Kushner in a panel discussion exploring the connections between art, technology, and Jewish culture, as seen through the new social, intellectual, and spiritual implications of the idea of “search.” This will be followed by a discussion with Dan Schifrin, the Museum’s director of public programs and writer in residence.

Advertisement for the event was also made in the Jewish Weekly: http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/35726/calendar/

Udi Manber, Google´s Israeli Vice President of Engineering

Google’s Jewish guru of giving

In the article "Google’s guru of giving" (http://www.financialexpress.com/news/googles-guru-of-giving/265113/0), January 24, 2008, The Financial Express details Larry Brilliant. Dr Brilliant led the Internet giant’s philanthropic arm Google.org, where he ruled over a and 40-strong team:

As well as adopting the informal company motto, “Don’t be evil”, the internet search firm’s co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, decided to commit Google to engage in serious philanthropy. Innovative as ever, they created a new sort of philanthropic entity, a division of the company that could pursue its mission through both for-profit investing and making charitable grants. This, they hoped, would one day “eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world’s problems.”
It would be funded with 1% of the firm’s equity, annual profits and employees’ time.

In February 2006, after a lengthy search, Dr Brilliant was appointed to run Google.org. Media reports focused on the old hippy’s colourful past, not least his spell as a doctor with the Grateful Dead, a legendary 1960s rock band. What attracted his new employers was his unique record of success both in running Silicon Valley tech firms and in implementing large-scale solutions to big social problems.
[...]
Though he has taken nearly two years to produce a strategy for Google.org, Dr Brilliant has not been taking things easy. He may have added a taste for Hindu meditation to his Detroit Jewish roots (he once shared a guru with Apple’s boss, Steve Jobs), but he is a driven man, travelling widely and seeking advice from hundreds of people, pushing himself harder than friends say is wise for a sexagenarian. When he arrived at Google.org he found extraordinarily high expectations, a blank sheet of paper to fill with a strategy, and “microscopic attention” from outside on what it was doing.

During his time as Google´s philantropic boss Brilliant combined his work with his dedication for Jews and Judaism. For instance Brilliant, as Executive Director of Google.org, appeared as a speaker at the Jewish Community Federation in San Fransisco´s Business Leadership Council Breakfast meeting. February 28, 2007. According to the organization´s homepage (http://www.sfjcf.org/aboutjcf/press/2007/brilliant.asp):

Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, will share his vision for “Healing a Broken World” with attendees at the second annual Business Leadership Council Breakfast on Wednesday, February 28, 2007.
[...]
Dr. Larry Brilliant is the Executive Director of Google.org, the umbrella organization which includes the Google Foundation as well as partnerships with and contributions to for-profit and nonprofit entities.
[...]
Sponsored by AT&T and Levisohn Venture Partners, this special BLC event is open to all donors who contribute $1,000 or more to the 2007 San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation’s Annual Campaign. Donors under the age of 40 who contribute $500 are also welcome.
The Jewish Community Federation is the central organization for fundraising, planning, outreach and leadership development for Jewish communities in San Francisco, the Peninsula, and Marin and Sonoma counties. In fiscal year 2006, the Federation’s annual campaign allocated $18.3 million to some 60 agencies providing social services, educational and cultural programs in the Bay Area, in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere in the world. In fiscal year 2006, the Federation’s Endowment Fund, with assets exceeding $1.8 billion, provided more than $203 million for a variety of grants, seed projects and emergency needs. For more information, call 415.777.0411 or visit www.sfjcf.org.

So here we can see how the Google boss fraternises with an organization that is interrelated to the Zionist state.

In April 2009 Larry Brilliant, after 3 years at Google, said he was parting ways with the Internet giant, leaving Google.org to join a new organisation set up by former eBay President and Jew, Jeff Skoll. But Dr Brilliant also said he would remain as an advisor to Google.

Google´s Israel connections

Here follows a most revealing article on how Google´s Sergey Brin, Facebook´s Mark Zuckerberg and Yahoo´s President Susan Decker, are invited by the Israeli leadership to Israel, during Israel´s 60th anniversary celebrations:

Facebook, Google founders to attend Jerusalem conference in May
By Guy Grimland, Ha´aretz Correspondent

Ha´aretz 01/04/2008

Co-founder of internet giant Google, Sergey Brin, will join Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Yahoo president Susan Decker at a presidential panel on technology to be held at the Jerusalem International Convention Center May 13-15.

The convention, which was formed at the initiative of President Shimon Peres, will also be attended by a number of Israeli political, religious and financial leaders, as well as academics and cultural figures.

The panel will discuss issues facing technology in today's age and the future, in particular in regard to how it will affect Israel and the Jewish world.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair will also take part in the conference, as will French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former prime minister of the Czech Republic Vaclev Havel, Nobel Prize Laureate Eli Wiesel, and Georgia President Michael Saakashvili

The Israel News Agency also writes (http://www.israelnewsagency.com/israel60thbirthdaypresidentsconferenceshimonperesanniversaryjerusalemolmertfacingtomorrow48050708.html):

In attendance, in addition to many national presidents and heads of state will be dignitaries from the worlds of business and academia. Among them are Sergey Brin, founder of Google and Susan Decker of Yahoo. Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson will be serving as the honorary chairpersons for the Israel 60th Birthday Presidential Conference which has enthusiastically attracted the attention of Jewish leaders and others worldwide.

And B' nai B' rith Magazine (http://bnaibrith.org/magazines/2008FallBBM/future-concerns-mariaschin.cfm) are also happy with the representation:

I was particularly impressed with the large numbers of young people in attendance, representing Israeli universities and aliyah organizations like MASA. At the conclusion of the panel discussion moderated by Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi and featuring, among others, Brin, the co-founder of Google; Susan Decker of Yahoo; and Rupert Murdoch, several dozen young adults crowded on stage to meet the speakers—and more than one business card was exchanged.

Google´s Sergey Brin at Western Wall, Jerusalem

We write more on the Zionists attending this conference in our section on Yahoo!.

Google´s business cooperation with Israel

Ha´aretz online edition 15/05/2008, writes:

Google co-founder lauds Israeli innovation in tech, environment
By Lior Kodner, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Google co-founder Sergey Brin on Thursday lauded Israeli innovations in technology and environmental efforts, saying Israel "takes our climate challenges very seriously."

Brin, visiting as a delegate to President Shimon Peres' Presidential Conference, told Haaretz that these challenges have "great geopolitcal ramifications on this country, in addition to environmental ones."

He noted that Israel's leading efforts in the field of sustainable energy, saying: "Obviously in Israel they need to innovate with water and things like that. I was really intrigued to see drip irrigation. I just realized that came out of Israel."

Brin gave particular attention to Israel's work in environmentally friendly transportation.

A prototype of the world's first fully electric car was demonstrated for the first time on Sunday in Tel Aviv, by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi.

Developers hope the car will revolutionize transportation in the country and serve as a pilot for the rest of the world. If all goes as planned, Israel will be the first country to have electric cars on its highways in large numbers in the next few years.

Brin also spoke about new projects ongoing at Google, including the "huge range of efforts" being made on mobile technology and the patience needed in the field.

"I think it takes a while to devlop the technology, to devlop,

to educate advertisers about it," he said. "We have to bootstrap everything. our search based targeted ads took a number of yearsand people are expecting overnight that you work a miracle. It is a combination of technology, advertising networks, abd user expectations. All those things have to come together and that takes time," he said.

During his visit, Brin toured Jewish sites, including the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, announced the establishment of an R&D center in Israel. Ha´aretz 30/01/2006 writes:

Google founder plans R&D center in Israel
By Guy Rolnik

DAVOS, Switzerland – Google “is in the process of establishing an R&D center in Israel,” Sergey Brin, a founder of the Internet search titan, told Haaretz during the World Economic Forum here. Brin and co-founder Larry Page were among the more visible participants at the economic conference. Both have a solid connection with Israeli entrepreneurs in the Internet field.

A Google executive told Haaretz that the company had recently recruited a large number of academics, engineers, mathematicians, statisticians and economists for additional development of the company’s search engine algorithm and its smart ad systems on the Net. There is still a shortage of quality personnel for developing analytic tools and predicting the massive volume of information accumulated on the search engine.
[...]
Last summer, Google decided to establish a local marketing and sales branch in Israel to bolster its advertising revenues in the Israel market. Google hired Meir Brand to head its Israel office, choosing a former Microsoft executive just as it had done in China.
[...]

Ha´aretz interview with Sergey Brin in Israel, May 29, 2008:

[...]
This is Brin's third visit to Israel. The first time was with his parents, when he was still a teenager, and the second was in September 2003, when Google was still a relatively small, privately owned company. Last week, however, Brin arrived here as the head of one of the largest and most influential companies in the world.
How has Israel changed since your previous visits?

"It's pretty impressive just to see how the tech industry has continued to grow. The development, kind of just looking at the city of Tel Aviv. I mean, there are a bunch of buildings. Maybe I'm crazy, but I feel like there are lots of buildings that weren't here when I was here last. And I've just seen some of the companies and their state of development, the levels developed here - it's just incredible."
[...]
Did your family ever consider immigrating to Israel?

"Boy, I need to ask them that. In fact, my great-grandmother lived in the U.S. for a period of time, so we did have some ties to the U.S. I think my dad actually had a colleague who had moved to the U.S., who had given him greater certainty [with respect to] the job market. And those were the big factors. But I can ask. My parents are here with me - I mean, not in the office, but in Israel."

In hindsight, considering what you see now in the U.S. and Israel, if your parents had come here, do you think we would have Google today?

[Laughs] "Look, I've been very lucky in my life, and I'm sure there've been lots of random circumstances that have contributed to that, so I probably would not be the first to change it. But looking at the kinds of innovation and development that I see here now, I certainly think it's possible to enjoy great success coming to Israel."

Google´s cooperation with Jewish censors

Below are some articles illustrating how Google assists Jewish Internet censorship. The articles show that Google follows dictats from ADL and the Zionist Organization of America, that Google "robots" censor pro-Palestinian bloggers, and that sites like Radio Islam are censored.

ADL Praises Google for Responding to Concerns About Rankings of Hate Sites
includes letter from Google Jew Sergey Brin and Google´s explantion for the word "Jew"
How the Zionist Organization of America shapes Google´s policies
ZOA complains about "anti-Semitism" ...and Google adjusts promptly
ZOA Convinces Google to Change the Earth
the Zionist Organization of America changes the way we view the World through Google Earth
Google´s war on pro-Palestinian bloggers
Google´s "robots" unmasked, Is Google ethnic cleansing the Internet?
Uruknet cut off from Google News again! - external link
information on how an Iraq war information site is being censored by Google
Jew Gotta’ Friend At Google - what is "hate speech"?
Google News stops indexing what it calls "hate spech"
"Google This"! - on Google´s Israel rush
by Philip Jones, Rense.com
Google Fascists?
looking into the worrying implications of Google's near monopoly of web search engines
Censorship of the Internet - study reveals Google censorship of Radio Islam´s sites
by Germar Rudolf

Here we will give attention to one extra article to show how the Zionist organization ADL cooperates with Google. In 2007 a conference was held in Israel with ADL, the International Network Against Cyberhate, and Google´s Israel Director Meir Brand. Ha´aretz, 12/11/2007, writes:

Organizers of the conference representing the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that counters anti-Semitism, brought examples of anti-Jewish hate material freely available on the Internet, and participants called for more action to stop it.
[...]
He [Meir Brand] said Google removes results from its search index only when required to by law, for example, when copyright infringement is an issue. In Germany and Austria, he said, Google removes Nazi content, which is against the law there.
Recognizing the problem, however, Google has instituted a warning system for hate entries, taking viewers to a page warning that some of the search results may be offensive, and noting that opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect Google's views.

Just as a small reminder ADL:s Director Abraham Foxman was one of many top Jewish dignitaries in Israel celebrating Israel´s 60th Anniversary back in 2008.

Appendix

Excerpts from the article "Sergey Brin: the Google revolutionary", by Mark Malseed, The Jewish Chronicle, April 6, 2007 [the complete article can be read here]:

"This intensity emerges during weekly strategy meetings, where he and Page — who share the title of Google president — command the last word on approving new products, reviewing new hires and funding long-term research.

Brin also holds sway over the unscientific but all-important realms of people, policy and politics."

"Brin’s Jewish sensibility is, likewise, grounded in his family’s experience of life in the Soviet Union, and their eventual emigration to the United States. “I do somewhat feel like a minority,” he says. “Being Jewish, especially in Russia, is one aspect of that. Then, being an immigrant in the US. And then, since I was significantly ahead in maths in school, being the youngest one in a class. I never felt like a part of the majority. So I think that is part of the Jewish heritage in a way.”"

"As a young boy, though, he had only a vague awareness of why his family wanted to leave their native Russia. He picked up the ugly details of the antisemitism they faced bit by bit years later, he says. Nevertheless, he sensed, early on, all of the things that he wasn't - he wasn't Russian; he wasn't welcome in his own country; he wasn't going to get a fair shake in advancing through its schools. Further complicating his understanding of his Jewish identity was the fact that, under the atheist Soviet regime, there were few religious or cultural models of what being Jewish was. The negatives were all he had."

"For many Soviet Jews, exit visas never came. But, in May 1979, the Brins were granted papers to leave the USSR. "We hoped it would happen," Genia says, "but we were completely surprised by how quickly it did." The timing was fortuitous - they were among the last Jews allowed to leave until the Gorbachev era. Sergey Brin, who turned six that summer, remembers what followed as simply unsettling" - literally so. "We were in different places from day to day," he says. The journey was a blur. First Vienna, where the family was met by representatives of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which helped thousands of Eastern European Jews establish new lives in the West. Then, on to the suburbs of Paris, where Michael's "unofficial" Jewish PhD adviser, Anatole Katok, had arranged a temporary research position for him."

"One thing the Brins shared with thousands of other families emigrating to the West from the Soviet Union was the discovery that, suddenly, they were free to be Jews. "Russian Jews lacked the vocabulary to even articulate what they were feeling," says Lenny Gusel, the founder of a San Francisco-based network of Russian-Jewish immigrants. "They were considered Jews back home. Here, they were considered Russians. Many longed just to assimilate as Americans." Gusel's group, which he calls the "79ers", after the peak year of immigration in the 1970s, and its New York cousin, RJeneration, have attracted hundreds of 20- and 30-something immigrants who grapple with their Jewish identity. "Sergey is the absolute emblem of our group, the number one Russian-Jewish immigrant success story," he says.

The Brins were no different from their fellow immigrants in that being Jewish was an ethnic, not a religious, experience. "We felt our Jewishness in different ways, not by keeping kosher or going to synagogue. It is genetic," explains Sergey's father Michael. "We were not very religious. My wife doesn't eat on Yom Kippur; I do." Genia interjects: "We always have a Passover dinner. We have a Seder. I have the recipe for gefilte fish from my grandmother." Religious or not, on arriving in the suburbs of Washington, the Brins were adopted by a synagogue, Mishkan Torah of Greenbelt, Maryland, which helped them acquire furnishings for their home. "We didn't need that much, but we saw how much the community helped other families," Genia says. Sergey attended Hebrew school at Mishkan Torah for almost three years but hated the language instruction - and everything else, too. "He was teased there by other kids and he begged us not to send him any more," his other remembers. "Eventually, it worked." the Conservative congregation turned out to be too religious for the Brins and they drifted.

When a three-week trip to Israel awakened 11- year-old Sergey's interest in all things Jewish, the family inquired at another synagogue about restarting studies to prepare for a barmitzvah. But the rabbi said it would take more than a year to catch up and Sergey abandoned the pursuit. If there was one Jewish value the Brin family upheld without reservation, Michael says, it was scholarship."

Sergey Brin

"What came next is Google legend. In the spring of 1995, Sergey met an opinionated computer- science student from the University of Michigan named Larry Page. They argued over the course of two days, each finding the other cocky and obnoxious. They also formed an instant bond, relishing the intellectual combat. Like Sergey, Larry is the son of high-powered intellects steeped in computer science. The two young graduate students also share a Jewish background.

Larry's maternal grandfather made aliyah, and his mother was raised Jewish. Larry, however, brought up in the mould of his father, a computer-science professor whose religion was technology, does not readily identify as a Jew. He, too, never had a barmitzvah. Larry and Sergey soon began working on ways to harness information on the web, spending so much time together that they took on a joint identity, LarryandSergey"."

"Their venture quickly bore fruit. After viewing a quick demo, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim (himself a Jewish immigrant from Germany) wrote a $100,000 cheque to "Google, Inc"."

"They are without a doubt two of the most eligible bachelors on Google Earth, but both are reported to be in serious relationships - Sergey is reportedly engaged to Anne Wojcicki, a healthcare investor and the sister of Google executive Susan Wojcicki, who owned the garage where Google got started. In a 2001 interview, Genia said she hoped Sergey would find "somebody exciting who could be really interesting to him... [who] had a sense of humour that could match his". As one might expect, she also prefers that Sergey marry a Jewish girl. "I hope that he would keep it in mind," she confided."

"The Ten Commandments it is not, but Google does operate with a moral code of sorts. "Don't be evil" is the maxim supposed to guide behaviour at all levels of the company. When pressed for clarification, Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt has famously said: "Evil is whatever Sergey says is evil." One malevolent practice, in Google's view, is tampering with or otherwise censoring the list of results produced by a Google search. An early test of the Google founders' commitment to providing unfiltered information struck very close to home. The antisemitic website Jew Watch appeared prominently in Google results for searches on the term "Jew", prompting Jewish groups to demand that Google remove the site from the top of its listings. Google refused. Sergey said at the time: "I certainly am very offended by the site, but the objectivity of our rankings is one of our very important principles." As a compromise, Google displays a warning at the top of questionable pages."

"Viewed against the backdrop of Sergey's distaste for authority, the decision to cave in to China's totalitarian leadership seems out of character. Sergey's public comments on the matter have evolved to reflect this contradiction. While defending the decision at first, he later acknowledged that Google had "compromised" its principles. "Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense," he has said, but adding: "It's not where we chose to go right now." Does a company founded by two Jews, no matter how assimilated, necessarily retain some defining Jewish characteristics? The Google masterminds' penchant for pushing boundaries - without asking permission - might as well be called chutzpah.

However you label it, it is an attitude that runs deeply through Google and may help explain why the company is embroiled in lawsuits over many of its new projects: the aggressive scanning of library books it does not own; display of copyrighted material; and copyright issues connected to its acquisition of YouTube, the online video site whose popularity rests in part on the availability of pirated television and movie clips. Google's first employee and several other early hires were Jewish and, when the initial winter-holiday season rolled around, a menorah rather than a Christmas tree graced the lobby. Google's former chef, Charlie Ayers, cooked up latkes, brisket, tzimmes and matzah-ball soup for Chanucah meals and turned the Passover Seder into a Google tradition.

To some, Google's emphasis on academic achievement - hiring only the best and the brightest and employing hundreds of PhDs - could be considered Jewish. So, perhaps, could "Don't be evil". With its hint of tikkun olam, the Kabbalistic concept of "repairing the world", it reflects the company's commitment to aggressive philanthropy."

"Nevertheless, he and his parents do support a few charities. "There are people who helped me and my family out. I do feel responsible to those organisations," he says. One of them is Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the group that helped the Brins come to the United States. Genia serves on its board and heads its project to create a digital record of Jewish-immigrant archives. Has Sergey been a target of antisemitism since he left the Soviet Union? "I've experienced it," he says. "Usually, it is fairly subtle. People arp on about all the media companies being run by Jewish executives, with the implication of a conspiracy... I think I'm fortunate that it doesn't really affect me personally, but there are hints of it all around. That's why I think it is worth noting.""

"Several years ago, Sergey and Larry visited a school for gifted maths students near Tel Aviv. When they took to the stage, the audience roared, as if they were rock stars. Every student there, many of them, like Sergey, immigrants, from the former Soviet Union, knew of Google. Sergey began, to the crowd's delight, with a few words in Russian, which he still speaks at home with his parents. "I have standard Russian-Jewish parents," he then continued in English. "My dad is a maths professor. They have a certain attitude about studies. And I think I can relate that here, because I was told that your school recently got seven out of the top 10 places in a maths competition throughout all Israel."

The students applauded their achievement and the recognition from Sergey, unaware that he was setting up a joke. "What I have to say," he continued, "is in the words of my father: ‘What about the other three?'" The students laughed. They knew where he was coming from. That Sergey has parlayed his skills into unimaginable business success does not mean those "standard Russian-Jewish parents" are ready to let him off the academic hook."

Facebook

"He met Mark Zuckerberg in 2002 after they had joined the same fraternity which primarily concentrated on activities within the Jewish community.

'We ate Shabbat dinner together,' Hasit said. 'Every year we raised money for charities in Israel. Mark was one of the members of the fraternity, like many other Jewish students at Harvard.'

Hasit, who wears a skullcap, says the 25-year-old Zuckerberg feels an affinity with Judaism. 'He fasts on Yom Kippur,' Hasit says of Zuckerberg. 'Sometimes he would come to the Hillel House, a Jewish organization that ran various activities.' "

- The Jew Ariel Hasit, who now has joined the Israeli Defense Forces, on his personal experience of the Jewish Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Ha´aretz, 10/05/2009.

Jewish founder and CEO

The popular social networking site Facebook, launched in February 2004, has a 100% Jewish founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

Jews readily boast about this fact. The Jewish etnocentrist site Jew or Not Jew: Choosing the Chosen People, see logo below, have a special entry for Zuckerberg (as they have for Google´s Sergey Brin and Larry Page), where Zuckerberg gets their "Jew Score" total of 12 (4 + 4 + 4).

See: http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=369 .

The site, which should be reagarded as some case of internal Jewish humour, explains the meaning of this score:

About the Jew Score
We evaluate how Jewish a person is based on three factors. How Jewish they are internally, how Jewish they are externally and how much we want that person to be a Jew in the first place.

In practice, the I Score tends to refer to birth history with some adjustments for how we imagine they see/saw themselves. The O Score is for how Jewish they look and act. The K Score stands for Kvell (pride) and is subject to the whims of the creators of this website.

The Jew Score refers to our opinion only and is affected by but not definitive of one's actual Jewishness.

The site of the World Jewish Digest, as another example, also counts Mark Zuckerberg as one of their examples of Jewish influentials in their list "10 to watch in 2008 - WJS´s shortlist to Jewish standouts" . Zuckerberg, "born into a well-to-do Jewish-American family in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y", gets the rankning place of 3 in their list of 10 influential Jews.

Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg´s Jewish entourage at Facebook

The New York Times, May 13, 2009, reported:

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted that “Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a Jewish former Harvard University student.”
Mr. Schnitt [a Facebook spokesman] told ABC that while some employees of the social-networking service came from families marked by the Holocaust, that was not influencing their decision:

Many of us at Facebook have direct personal connection to the Holocaust, through parents who were forced to flee Europe or relatives who could not escape. We believe in Facebook’s mission that giving people tools to make the world more open is a better way to combat ignorance or deception than censorship, though we recognize that others, including those at the company, disagree.

So here we learn from the Facebook spokesman Mr. Schnitt that "many of us at Facebook have direct personal connection to the Holocaust", which of course means nothing else than that they are Jewish.

So who are these Jewish actors?

To begin with, in the absolute beginning, when Zuckerberg decided to spread his new Facebook project to other schools than Harvard, he enlisted help from his Jewish friend Dustin Moskovitz. Moskovitz then became the Vice President of Engineering of Facebook.

Dustin Moskovitz

They got their first funding from another Jew, German-born technology entrepreneur Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal.

We here recommend reading an article from the The Guardian (14 Jan, 2008) on the people behind Facebook which has more information on Thiel. The Guardian concludes that:

"... the real face behind Facebook is the 40-year-old Silicon Valley venture capitalist and futurist philosopher Peter Thiel."

Peter Thiel

As a typical Jewish etnocentrist Thiel prefers to deal with other Jews. His business partner with whom he who founded PayPal is the Ukrainan-born now-American Jew Max Rafael Levchin.

David Sacks

George Zachary

Other Jews Thiel is interacting with are David Sacks, PayPal's former chief operating officer, and George Zachary, "a friend of Max and Peter's" and partner of the Jew Ed Skoll from eBay.

Below follows an excerpt from "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0", by Sarah Lacy, (see: http://www.metroactive.com/metro/06.11.08/cover-supermen-0824.html) on Thiel´s "PayPal mafia":

The PayPal mafia even had Hollywood success. Jeff Skoll was one of the first eBay executives who became friends with the PayPal crew when eBay bought the company in 2002. He started up Participant Productions on a lark, and it has been one of the most profitable productions companies in Hollywood. Among its first four films were Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, and An Inconvenient Truth. Skoll's success convinced Max and Peter to start dabbling in Hollywood, bankrolling the 2006 indie flick Thank You for Smoking, along with David Sacks, PayPal's former chief operating officer.
While Sacks continued to play the Hollywood game, he also launched a new social networking site for families, called Geni.com. It allows people to fill out their family trees and link them to the family trees of spouses and in-laws. Anyone on the tree can add to the tree, the idea being that over time you discover people you're related to that you didn't know. It's a bold idea, one of the first Web 2.0 start-ups aimed squarely at families. Peter Thiel, naturally, backed it early on. And in Geni's first venture capital round with Charles River Ventures, it got nosebleed $100 million valuation. The CRV partner who wrote the check was George Zachary, Skoll's early partner in Participant Productions and a friend of Max and Peter's. By 2006, the PayPal mafia was an incestuous world where, for now, everyone seemed to be making lots of money.

Thiel makes up one fourth of the Board members of Facebook. Thus apart from providing the money, he really has a lot of influence - just as The Guardian had noted.

Thiel - "the real face behind Facebook" - is a Zionist

What The Guardian failed to tell is that Thiel also has an Israel agenda.

The Israeli-based Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies writes (http://www.adelsoninstitute.org.il/OnAgenda.aspx?id=62&from=a):

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, The Adelson Institute hosted Richard Perle, former assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee during the Reagan administration, and Peter Thiel, Co-Founder of PayPal and President of Clarium Capital Management. The topic of discussion was: “The first 100 days of the Obama administration".
Perle briefed the Adleson Institue's staff and faculty and said that the outcome of Obama's new approach towards adversaries will be tested in a few months time.

Thiel, who participated in Perle's briefing, said that there is an incredible gap between Israel's reality and its potential. People talk about China, India and Brazil as emerging market countries, he added, while Israel is underrated. According to Thiel, all it takes is a short visit to Israel in order to appreciate the incredible talent, intensity and drive of the Israelis.

It should here be reminded that Richard Perle that Thiel met in a briefing, is the infamous Neo-con from the Bush era who was one of the main Jewish architects behind the Iraq invasion and war in 2003.

Facebook sponsor Peter Thiel reveals his Israel agenda in a video speech he made for the Adelson Institute and which can be seen through the following link: http://www.adelsoninstitute.org.il/MediaViewer.aspx?id=57

The Adelson Institute gives the following description of Thiel´s video message:

Israel is Truly the Country of the Future, May 17, 2009
There is an incredible gap between Israel's reality and its potential, says Peter Thiel, Co-Founder of PayPal and President of Clarium Capital Management. Thiel, a guest of the Adelson Institute for Strategic studies, participated in Richard Perle's briefing at the Adelson Institute. People talk about China, India and Brazil as emerging market countries, says Thiel, while Israel is underrated. All it takes is a short visit in order to appreciate the incredible talent, intensity and drive of the Israelis.

In the video Peter Thiel - economic sponsor and Facebook Board member - hails the Jewish state of Israel. Here follows a transcript of some of his statements in the video:

"I believe that Israel is a truly extraordinary place."
"... an incredible potential..."

"Just visiting here [in Israel] for a few days one is always struck by the incredible talent and intensity and drive of the people."

"I think that if Israel is able to resolve some of these issues, that surround it over the next few years, it will probably be the best place in the world."

"I believe the future is not in cheap labour or cheap capital or in real estate. I believe the future is in technology and in that sense perhaps Israel is truly the country of the future."

The Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem is a 100 % Zionist institution.

We here reproduce the Mission Statement of the institute Thiel cooperates with:

The Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem is an academic and research institute founded by its chairman, Natan Sharansky, in 2007. The Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies develops, articulates and builds support for the strategic principles needed to address the challenges currently facing Israel and the West. Israel, as the only democracy in this region surrounded by totalitarian governments, is on the cutting edge of the challenges and dangers confronting Western civilization everywhere.
As part of this overall effort, the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies seeks to explore how the advancement of freedom, democracy, and human rights can be marshaled as an effective measure to secure and strengthen international stability and security. The Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies also seeks to examine international law in light of the new forms of asymmetric warfare and terror; the establishment of credible deterrence against guerilla and terror organizations and the states that sponsor them; the appropriate response to weapons of mass destruction; and the strengthening of Israel's relations with its strategic allies.

Natan Sharansky, founder and chairman of the institute, is a racist Russian Jew and Israeli politician (former deputy Prime Minister) famous for his "tough" stance on the Palestinians. Palestinian resistance to Zionist domination is branded as "terrorism". Sharansky writes in Jan. 15, 2009 (Bloomberg.com) on the ongoing Israeli slaughter in Gaza:

Terrorism is a cancer that can’t be cured through “proportional” treatments. It requires invasive surgery.

Here follows another article on Peter Thiel and Israel from [vc]cafe (http://www.vccafe.com/2008/01/02/peter-thiel-gambles-on-the-next-internet-hit-israels-hooja/):

Peter Thiel gambles on the next internet hit – Israel’s Hooja
Peter Thiel knows a thing or two about consumer internet. After all, he’s a PayPal cofounder, one of Facebook’s board members and its first investor ($500,000) way before its $15 billion valuation, giving him a hefty return of a billion. Thiel is known as a savvy investor with a ‘golden touch’ that tends to invest small amounts early on taking a ‘hands-off’ approach with management (learn more about his investment strategy in Thiel’s recent WSJ profile).

Apart from Facebook, Thiel invested in some of the internet’s biggest brand names early on, including: Yelp, Slide, LinkedIn and Friendster.These days, Peter Thiel is managing the hedge fund Clarium Capital, which manages $2 billion under management and he’s also a partner in the Founders Fund, that recently raised $220 million for its second fund. Now, for the first time, Thiel is betting an Israeli tech startup, to be the next winner.

Globes reports that Thiel, along with a group of private investors, raised $1.5 million for Hooja, an Israel-based startup founded in April of 2006 by Naama Moran, a former Greylock Partners associate. Hooja is still operating in stealth mode (landing page only) but its known to be developing a unique search technology that enables content providers to search for personal and social information in the deep web, including social networks. One of Hooja’s investors describes the technology as ’social search’ – basically providing higher ranking to information that a user’s friends are likely to click on.

Other Board members

The other Board members of Facebook apart from Thiel are Mark Zuckerberg himself, the Jewish venture capitalist Jim Breyer, and finally Marc Andreessen.

Jim Breyer also sits in the Board of Directors of Dell, Walmart and Marvel.

Jim Breyer

Marc Andreessen is the founder of Netscape (non-Jewish?), but a man who works closely with the Jew Ben Horowitz with whom he founded Opsware. Andreessen has also invested in the Israeli Israel Seed Partners thus becoming a partner of and cooperating with Jonathan Medved, one of Israel's leading venture capitalists. So Andreesen - Jew or not - is well entangled in the Jewish-Israeli Internet establishment.

Ben Horowitz

In our section on Google we detailed Sheryl Sandberg, a Jewish woman who was Google´s Vice President of Global Online Sales & Operations.

As Rabbi Levi Brackman and journalist Sam Jaffe write in their book "Jewish Wisdom for Business Success", p. 2:

Early in 2008, she left Google to become the second-in-command of Facebook, the emerging social-networking company.

The Jewish "second-in-command of Facebook" Sheryl Sandberg is presently Chief Operating Officer. As COO, Sandberg is responsible for helping Facebook scale its operations and expand its presence globally. Sandberg in this position manages sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy, privacy and communications and reports directly to Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

It can here be repeated that Sandberg is married to another Jew, David Goldberg, former music head at Yahoo!.

Elliot Schrage

Another recruit from Google is the Jew Elliot Schrage, now Vice President of Communications, Public Policy and Platform Marketing at Facebook. In this position he is responsible for developing and coordinating key messages about products, corporate business and partnerships. He also oversees the company’s public policy strategy worldwide. At Google Schrage was Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs and in our special section on Google we documented how he worked to promote propaganda together with the Jewish "US Holocaust Memorial".

Another Jew who has had positions of influence in Facebook was Justin Rosenstein, a top engineer who was one of the first employees Facebook poached from Google, where he was a Product Manager, as Facebook began its rise in 2007.

Both Dusty Moskovitz.and Rosenstein have since left Facebook (2008) to jointly start Internet ventures of their own.

Ethan Beard is head of Platform at Facebook. Earlier he was Director of Business Development. Prior to joining Facebook, he was a Director of Social Media at Google.

Facebook and Israel

The Jewish state sees the importance in Internet Jews such as Mark Zuckeberg. In 2008 the Israeli paper Ha´aretz reported:

Facebook, Google founders to attend Jerusalem conference in May
By Guy Grimland, Ha´aretz Correspondent

Ha´aretz 01/04/2008

Co-founder of internet giant Google, Sergey Brin, will join Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Yahoo president Susan Decker at a presidential panel on technology to be held at the Jerusalem International Convention Center May 13-15.

The convention, which was formed at the initiative of President Shimon Peres, will also be attended by a number of Israeli political, religious and financial leaders, as well as academics and cultural figures.

The panel will discuss issues facing technology in today's age and the future, in particular in regard to how it will affect Israel and the Jewish world.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair will also take part in the conference, as will French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former prime minister of the Czech Republic Vaclev Havel, Nobel Prize Laureate Eli Wiesel, and Georgia President Michael Saakashvili

Here we see how the young Jewish entrepreneur Zuckerberg, with fellow Internet-Jew Sergey Brin, is invited down to the Jewish state to participate in the celebrations of Israel´s 60th anniversary (which was the reason the meeting was held) and to meet with the top Zionist echelons.

(It should here be noted that Shimon Peres is a war criminal. In 1996 he was responsible, as the leader if the Jewish state, of Israel´s massacre of over 100 Lebanese civilians in Qana.)

On March 11th, 2008, Nick O'Neill posted an interview with Mark Zuckerberg where they touched on the subject of "anti-Semitism" and Internet:

Recently Shimon Peres suggested that Israelis and Jews worldwide use Facebook to fight anti-semitism in addition to inviting Mark Zuckerberg to Israel. I asked him about his thoughts on Facebook as a tool to fight anti-semitism and if Facebook would take proactive measures to fight against it. Mark believes that Facebook need to focus on building useful communication tools and that the users can use these tools to connect and generate more worldly perspectives. As such Facebook does not need to be proactive about it. When asked about whether he will visit Israel next year, he said maybe.

Mark Zuckerberg (left) with fellow Jewish Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz (center)

First Facebook user has joined the IDF

A quite telling detail is that the first real user of Facebook, apart from the co-founders, is a Jew, Arie Hasit (who carries the Facebook URL id 7). Hasit studied with Zuckerberg in Harvard and later on did what the Jews call Aliyah to Israel, that is he settled in occupied Palestine in accordance to the Jewish Law of Return. Hasit has since joined the Israel Defense Forces Spokespersons Unit, a propaganda/desinformation unit of the IDF.

The Israeli paper Ha´aretz ran a piece on Hasit and Facebook 10/05/2009 (underlines below added by Radio Islam):

Facebook founder's roommate recounts creation of Internet giant
By Guy Grimland, Ha´aretz Correspondent

Five years ago, hardly anybody had heard of Facebook. Today, it seems that there is nobody in Israel or the world over who is not familiar with the social networking Web site, which recently crossed the 200 million user threshold. Facebook is estimated to be worth $15 billion after Microsoft bought 1.6 percent stock in the company for $240 million.

Arie Hasit, 26, witnessed the birth of Facebook. He shared the same apartment as Mark Zuckerberg, the site's founder, joined the same college fraternity, and witnessed first-hand the company's initial climb from a dormitory start-up to a dominant mega-monstrosity on the Web.

Hasit grew up in Philadelphia. Since he was young, he dreamed of immigrating to Israel, which he did two years ago. Today he is serving in the Israel Defense Forces Spokespersons Unit. He chose to enlist for a year-and-a-half rather than the six months which are required of new immigrants in his age bracket. Israel is not foreign to him.

"Every summer I was in Jewish summer camp in the U.S. From time to time I would visit Israel."

After completing high school at age 18, he enrolled at Harvard University, where he studied the history of the Land of Israel. "I thought this would make it easier for me after I would get to Israel," Hasit said. "My parents actually thought I should learned computers so that I would work in high-tech when I got here."

Hasit focused his studies on the hip-hop genre in Israel, a subject which would become the topic of his thesis. He met Mark Zuckerberg in 2002 after they had joined the same fraternity which primarily concentrated on activities within the Jewish community.

"We ate Shabbat dinner together," Hasit said. "Every year we raised money for charities in Israel. Mark was one of the members of the fraternity, like many other Jewish students at Harvard."

Hasit, who wears a skullcap, says the 25-year-old Zuckerberg feels an affinity with Judaism. "He fasts on Yom Kippur," Hasit says of Zuckerberg. "Sometimes he would come to the Hillel House, a Jewish organization that ran various activities."

Hasit and Zuckerberg struck up a friendship, though they were not the closest of friends. They later lived together in the college dorms.

"Mark just happened to live in the apartment where I lived in the dorms," Hasit said. "He was in one room while I was in the other. This was a large apartment, we were seven students crammed into five bedrooms. We saw each other every day for a number of hours. When Mark moved into the dorms I was already in my third year while he was in his second year."

Hasit says that Zuckerberg decided one day to build a Web site that would serve as a utility for students at Harvard. "He built the site for fun," Hasit says. "We had books called Face Books, which included the names and pictures of everyone who lived in the student dorms. At first, he built a site and placed two pictures, or pictures of two males and two females. Visitors to the site had to choose who was 'hotter' and according to the votes there would be a ranking."

"He only ranked people who received the most votes for being good looking, not everybody," Hasit said. "There were about 1,000 people in all. Within four, five hours the site became so popular that at one point it became impossible to surf the Web on Harvard's Internet server. This was on a Sunday in October 2003."

"The next day, the head of the university denied Zuckerberg access to the Internet. People complained that Mark used their pictures without permission. He apologized and ultimately the university decided not to expel him even though there were columns in the campus newspaper that argued that what he did was completely improper."

Zuckerberg's stunt came at a time when students were appealing to the university to develop a Web site that would include the pictures and contact details of students in dorms. Now they feared that the Zuckerberg episode would compel the administration to shelve the idea.

"Mark heard these pleas and decided that if the university won't do something about it, he will, and he would build a site that would be even better than what the university had planned," Hasit said. "Before founding Facebook, he built the site Course Match which allowed students to find out who among those living in the same dorm are taking what courses, so that they could form study groups."

Zuckerberg started developing Facebook from his modest dorm room. Every visitor who registered at the site received a serial number. The first, second, and third user who registered took up dummy pages. The fourth user was Zuckerberg himself.

The fifth user is Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook who also served as the company's spokesperson. Dustin Moskovitz, the third part of the site's founding triumvirate, occupies the sixth user spot. Moskovitz led the technical staff at Facebook before quitting the company to found a start-up in 2008.

Hasit's is the seventh registered user, which in practice makes him the fourth real user to log into Facebook. "Often people ask me how I became the fourth user. Sometimes I tell them."

"Mark came to me on the day he built Facebook, and he said to me, 'Arie, I built this site. I want you to sign up.' And that is how I signed up to Facebook. I put a favorite quote of mine in the profile. I specified my favorite books, which courses I take at Harvard. I uploaded one picture to the profile. There was no Wall. There was no News Feed. There weren't too many things in Facebook, which only began its lifespan on the Web.

"Initially Zuckerberg asked a small group of people to sign up to Facebook. At a certain point he told us to start inviting friends, and that is what we did on the first and second day which the site went up on the Web. We could only invite students enrolled at Harvard. In fact, if you did not have a Harvard e-mail address you could not sign into Facebook. At first, dozens of Harvard students registered. The numbers then reached the hundreds, and by the fourth day it had already reached the thousands. People were very enthusiastic about the site. It enabled them to know who took what courses and to meet new people. It conquered Harvard. In less than a week, some 4,000 students signed up for Facebook."

Hasit recalls how Zuckerberg spent hours in front of the computer. "He studied computers and psychology," Hasit said. "Despite the fact that he developed Facebook, he continued his studies as per usual. His grades were okay. He was even in a relationship with a girlfriend. During Facebook's initial days, the walls in his room were filled with graphs and charts which showed how many people joined on a daily basis, who used what application, and who has the most friends."

"After a few weeks, he decided to open up Facebook to another university. He had two friends, one at Stanford and the other at Dartmouth, whom he asked to promote the site there. He also asked for help from his ex-girlfriend who was a student at Dartmouth."

Facebook quickly attracted a following in other leading universities. "Every user specified which university he belonged to, and that was how he kept in touch with other students at the university in which he studied, but all the networks were under one Web site."

"The graphs and charts in his room became graphs and charts which included statistics from all the universities. At one point he received requests from students at other universities who were not in Facebook to open the site to them as well.

Summary

So we now know that the Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, "feels an affinity with Judaism" and has "raised money for charities in Israel".

In Facebook´s early history Zuckerberg was assisted by the Jew Dustin Moskovitz and got funding from Jewish businessman Peter Thiel, the latter a man with open Zionist views and in contact with the Zionist establishment. Thiel then joined the Board of Facebook and is presently - according to The Guardian - "the real face behind Facebook".

Other top namnes are co-Board member Jim Breyer and the Jewess Sheryl Sandberg, the "second-in-command of Facebook".

And one of Zuckerberg´s friends from Harvard - his roommate and Facebook´s first real user - has since moved to Israel and joined the Israel Defense Forces Spokespersons Unit. This also reveals the mindset of people in Zuckerberg´s proximity.

Knowing this one is not surprised thet the arch-Zionist Shimon Peres invited Zuckerberg to Israel in 2008.

We here give links to more information on Facebook:

The Guardian on the Jews behind Facebook
Guardian article that gives some idea about the people behind Facebook, including the Jewish moneyman Peter Thiel
Jewish Internet Defense Force 'seizes control' of anti-Israel Facebook group
article from The Jerusalem Post

Wikipedia

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is an Internet encyclopedia that anyone can edit and add information.

Wikipedia claims its articles are based on a "neutral point of view" but as it is human beings writing the articles, of course the contents quickly have been mixed up with politics. For instance organization like CIA have tried to affect the entries (see BBC:s "Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits' "), and big companies try to control the information on themselves. And Israel and its army of "cyber-soldier" Jews from all over the world are now doing the same...

The Wikipedia project has ended into control of student research on the Internet.

The situation is now that the majority of subjects Googled will show Wikipedia as the top - or one of the firts top results - and thus Wikipedia will get the majority of the hits.

And as shown in our section on Google this Internet search-engine is well in the hands of Zionist Jews and also cooperates openly with Zionist organizations such as ADL and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) to control the searches and censoring information and certain sites.

This means that apart from Wikipedia other sites may be censored when Googling any given subject.

Larry Sanger

Wikipedia´s Jewish founders - Wales and Sanger

From all the available information it appears Wikipedia was started by two Jews, one a programmer, and the other an 'Adult Site' operator.

The origins are in a project called Nupedia launched in March 2000 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.

The Jew Jimmy Wales (actually James Wales, or also known as "Jimbo"), with riches from his time as an options trader, became an Internet entrepreneur and decided to create a free, online encyclopedia. He recruited the Jew Larry Sanger, who was finishing a Ph.D. in philosophy at the Ohio State University - whom Wales knew from their joint participation in online mailing lists and Usenet discussion groups - to become the paid editor in chief. Wales’s company Bomis, an Internet search portal and a vendor of online “erotic images” (featuring the Bomis Babe Report), picked up the tab initially.

The Jewish computer programmer Ben Kovitz is the one who suggested to Larry Sanger, Nupedia's editor-in-chief, to transfer the online encyclopedia to a wiki support. Larry and Jimmy Wales accepted and from that time, Wikipedia took over Nupedia and became a huge success.

Larry Sanger, one of the two recognized cofounders, is openly Jewish. In their rabblings of what different famous Jews are doing The Jewish Chronicle mentions Sanger in an article "Larry Sanger... creates a new Wikipedia", The Jewish Chronicle, 26 October 2006, p. 10.

Wales is presently in charge. Sanger left in 2002, and is a professor/lecturer at Ohio State.

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales History

Jimmy Wales is the de facto leader of Wikipedia and as thus wields a lot of influence. Time Magazine named him in its 2006 list of the world's most influential people.

Short history: Wales who was born in Huntsville, Alabama, went to the exclusive Randolph prep school, and onto the University of Alabama. Wales graduated and became a Futures Trader in Chicago. Next he opened Bomis, an 'Adult Content' website, which was followed by Nupedia, which morphed into Wikipedia.

Wales is the darling of the Jewish crowd at Harvard, being a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, at the Harvard Law School.

What is Bomis.Com?

Basically 'Bomis' is an adult site, started by Wales.

The website featured user-generated webrings and that, according to The Atlantic Monthly (September 2006), "found itself positioned as the Playboy of the Internet". For a time the company sold erotic photographs, and Wales described the site as a "guy-oriented search engine".

Jimmy Wales with Bomis babes

a Bomis babe - financing Wikipedia

Jewish employees

Names like Jeremy Rosenfeld (a Bomis employee), Benjamin Kovitz, Seth Cohen, dot the landscape of technical staff.

Wales´ editing interventions

It should here be noted that although Wikipedia states that it professes a "neutral point of view" the on-line dictionary has even seen direct interventions from its owner Jimmy Wales over its contents. The Herald Sun reports June 30, 2009, in the article "Wikipedia edits helped free David Rohde":

THE New York Times worked with Wikipedia to keep news of the kidnapping of one of its reporters in Afghanistan off the online user-edited encyclopedia.
New York Times reporter David Rohde, who was kidnapped by the Taliban in November, escaped from his captors along with his translator this month.

A number of news organisations, including Agence France-Presse, at the request of the New York Times, agreed not to report the kidnapping out of concerns for their safety.

Keeping the news off Wikipedia was another matter, the Times said.

It said that on at least a dozen occasions, user-editors posted news of the abduction on a Wikipedia page about Mr Rohde, only to have it erased.

Several times the page was frozen, preventing further editing, it said.

"The sanitising was a team effort, led by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, along with Wikipedia administrators and people at the Times,'' the newspaper said.

"We were really helped by the fact that it hadn't appeared in a place we would regard as a reliable source,'' Mr Wales told the Times.

"I would have had a really hard time with it if it had.''

The Times said that two days after the November 10 kidnapping, Michael Moss, an investigative reporter at the Times and friend of Mr Rohde, altered Mr Rohde's Wikipedia entry to emphasise that his work could be seen as sympathetic to Muslims, like his reporting on Guantanamo and his coverage of the Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims.

It said that the next day, an unidentified user, citing an Afghan news agency report, edited the entry on Mr Rohde and mentioned the kidnapping.

Mr Moss deleted the mention, and the user promptly restored it, adding a note protesting the removal, the Times said.

It said the Times eventually reached out to Wales and Wikipedia put an indefinite block and then a temporary freeze on changes to the page.

"We had no idea who it was,'' Mr Wales said of the unidentified user making the edits.

He said there was no indication the user had ill-intent.

The Times said Mr Wales himself unfroze the page after the June 19 escape by Mr Rohde and his interpreter, Tahir Ludin.

Interesting here is to see that people should be kept in the dark of the "security deterioration" and the realites of what is happening in occupied Afghanistan. Instead Wikipedia will help in sanitising the image.

Wikimedia Director Sue Gardner in Israel 2009

Wikipedia chief Gardner goes to Israel - gets advice

Israeli paper Ha´aretz reports 04/05/2009 on how Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation which runs Wikipedia, has participated at a meeting in Israel - a Wikipedia Academy 2009 Conference - organized by Wikimedia´s Israeli supporters and Tel Aviv University's Netvision Institute for Internet Studies. Ha´aretz writes:

Wikipedia editors: Coverage of Israel 'problematic'
By Cnaan Liphshiz

Wikipedia's coverage of Israel-related issues is "problematic," leading Israeli internet researchers claimed Sunday at the Wikipedia Academy 2009 Conference dealing with the world's largest encyclopedia. The conference was organized by Wikimedia's volunteer-based Israel chapter and Tel Aviv University's Netvision Institute for Internet Studies. However, the Web site's leading manager said it merely reflected public discourse.

In demonstrating what he defined as problems, Eli Hacohen, the Institute's director, showed how Hamas is not defined as a terrorist organization in the first paragraph describing the organization on the English site of the reader-edited online encyclopedia, which is the world's fourth most popular Web site.

Hacohen also documented his attempts to define Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as a Holocaust-denier. Each time he included his remarks on Wikipedia, users and editors removed the reference - despite Ahmadinejad's frequent and public Holocaust denials.

On a related entry, Hacohen also noted that Wikipedia defines David Irving - a known Holocaust denier - as a historian, although his credentials are recognized by no one but himself. Furthermore, the Wikipedia entry on January's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza describes it as an "intense bombardment" by Israel on a civilian population.

Dror Kamir, a leading Israeli Wikipedia promoter, showed how Lod is not listed as a city in Israel in Wikipedia's Arabic-language version.

Also attending the conference, which discussed Wikipedia's role in academia, was Sue Gardner, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia. Gardner told Haaretz that she is "quite comfortable" with the mistakes on the Web site. "I know that more or less the same mistakes can be found in the New York Times," she explained.

Before her address at the conference, she defined Wikipedia as a "just another mainstream news medium." Wikipedia, Gardner said, "will never say anything as Wikipedia. It will only quote relatively well-respected sources, including other media. So it's natural for Wikipedia to reflect public discourse as it fluctuates, and news is the first draft of history."

On her first visit to Israel, Gardner explained that her attitude stemmed from her framework of reference as a journalist in her native Canada, including a stint as director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Web site.

The boss of Wikipedia thus travels down to the land of the chosen people to be lectured on how Wikipedia can be improved when it divulges information concerning Israel/Jews.

For a collection of images from this event beteween Wikipedia and Israel, see this link:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_Academy_Israel_2009

Sue Gardner in Israel 2009, Eli Hacohen to the right

Wikipedia leading editor also goes to Israel

David Shankbone, leading editor at Wikipedia, has been invited by the Israeli Government´s Foreign Ministry to help polish Israel´s image:

Photo Editing Israel’s Online Image
By Sharon Udasin, Staff Writer
The Jewish Week, 03/04/2009
[...]
But David Saranga, the media consul for the Consulate General of Israel in New York, plans to fight back. After launching a pro-Israel campaign through Twitter.com during the Gaza war and by bringing Maxim magazine into Israel last year, he says he is recruiting the best in the business to revamp Israel’s online image.

In just a few weeks, he will bring six American new media experts to photograph Israel, with funds from the Consulate and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[...]
However, Saranga says the initiative will, hopefully, knock the pictures of destruction much further down the lists, behind photos of ordinary Israeli daily life. And because he has enlisted Internet authorities like pen-named Wikipedia senior editor David Shankbone, Saranga thinks that there is a good chance they’ll stay that way.

Shankbone — whose real name is David Miller — first visited Israel in December 2007, when Saranga led a group of journalists on a tour of the country’s high-tech and environmental developments. All in all Shankbone estimates that he illustrates over 4,000 Wikipedia articles with his photography.

“The idea is to create a body of work that not only Wikipedia can use but that the general public can use,” he said.

Shankbone is not Jewish, but he said he learned extensively about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in school. While he considers himself a supporter of Israel, Shankbone doesn’t intend to make Wikipedia a Zionist Web site, and he looks at the Gaza war as a black-and-white situation — Israel had a right to respond, but its mode of attack was not without fault.

Yet for Shankbone, the purpose of his photo expedition is not to document the aftermath of the war.

“People want to talk to you about other things than just missiles,” he said.

Ideally, Shankbone said he’d like to end up at solar power plants in the Negev Desert or in a southern city like Eilat, because he spent most of his time up north during the previous trip.

“I particularly like small towns, because my feeling is that anyone can come to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem,” Shankbone said.

While on open-source sites, users can add and remove other people’s contributions as they see fit, only an administrator can permanently delete the posts from the storage database, Wikimedia Commons. In his three years working as a Wikipedia editor, however, Shankbone said that he has been careful to avoid inserting his own political positions, and readers have rarely altered his content. His collection remains the largest Creative Commons — a Web-based data-sharing platform — photograph community generated by one person, he said.
[...]
Critic Oboler, however, questions whether “bringing out people like Shankbone will help directly with the grass-roots, anti-Israel and often anti-Semitic activity that occurs online.”

“What it will do is help in the fight for hearts and minds online,” he said. “This proactive engagement is also important.”

“It certainly isn’t going to be the silver bullet,” Shankbone agreed. “It does give Wikipedia the opportunity or responsibility to present accuracy.”

And while Saranga hopes to change the world’s perception of Israel in the long term with the support of every American Israel consulate, he recognizes that, realistically, results will not be immediate.

“At the end of the day, a single activity won’t change perceptions; a single activity won’t change the criticism generated by the Gaza war,” he said. “But what is important is to create a critical mass of positive activities that will improve Israel’s image.”

The Jerusalem Post writes on the same story:

Leading Wikipedia editor to visit Israel
By Herb Keinon

The Jerusalem Post, Dec 8, 2007

In an acknowledgement of the importance that the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia has in shaping opinion, the Foreign Ministry is bringing one of its leading editors, David Shankbone, to Israel next week.

World According to a communiqué put out by the ministry, Shankbone has carried out dozens of interviews of US personalities for Wikipedia, including presidential candidates, religious leaders, rock stars and journalists. Shankbone will be visiting within the framework of a delegation of technology writers being brought to Israel by the Foreign Ministry and the America-Israel Friendship League.

Explaining the rationale for bringing Shankbone to Israel, David Saranga, the spokesman at the consulate in New York, said: "More than once we have faced editors connected to Israel that appear on Wikipedia in English that do not represent the reality in Israel. We decided to initiate a visit by Shankbone to describe Israeli reality as it is."

Wikipedia, according to the Foreign Ministry, is the eighth largest web site in the world, with some 60 million visitors a day, or some 14,000 hits a second.

David Shankbone - whose real name is David Miller - has himself written on his trip in his private user page in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:David_Shankbone/Israel):

Israel
I went to Israel to expand Wikipedia's quality photographic representation and coverage of Israeli-related articles. My trip was reported on in their press:

Jerusalem Post
The official blog of Israel
Haaretz

I also wrote a series of articles about the trip for Wikinews. I interviewed their President, Shimon Peres, had lunch with the President of the Technion and discussed the philosophy of Wikipedia over dinner with Yossi Vardi. Here is the first one.

And if you have a chance—check out Solar power in Israel, which I recently wrote.

Below is a gallery of images I took on the trip.

And here is a nice picture of Shankbone-Miller with Shimon Peres:

Wikipedia´s David Shankbone (Miller) with Israeli war criminal Shimon Peres - the man behind the
Qana massacre of over 100 Lebanese civilians in 1996

Shankbone´s interview with Peres appeared in the Israeli paper Yedioth Aharonoth (here part of the article, reproduced from the Israeli government site http://www.isrealli.org/ - isRealli - The New Blog of the State of Israel):

WikiPeres
By Itamar Eichner

Yedioth Aharonoth, 24 December 2007, p.12

A President with Value: Peres is the First Leader to Be Interviewed for Wikipedia’s News Site

The nation’s president proved again yesterday that despite his advanced age he has no need to be embarrassed facing politicians much younger than he. Shimon Peres is the first world leader to grant an interview to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

The interview with Peres will be published on the Wikipedia news site, Wikinews and his statements will be integrated into various articles throughout the encyclopedia.

For over an hour, Peres sat with one of the Wikipedia senior editors, David Shankbone. Shankbone, who came to Israel with a delegation of journalists, turned to the Israeli Consul for Media and Public Affairs in New York, David Saranga, and asked to schedule an interview with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Peres. To Shankbone’s surprise, it was Peres who decided to take up the gauntlet and grant an interview to the popular encyclopedia. Wikipedia is the eighth most-popular website in the world in terms of daily traffic.

At the outset of the interview, Shankbone told Peres, “We checked among Internet surfers under age 30 and we found that you are the most popular and most recognizable leader in the world.”

Peres used the interview for a bitter attack on Iran. “The Iranian economy cannot support the atomic program,” he said, “and the world must decide if it is ready for nuclear weapons to fall into terrorists’ hands.”

Peres was asked his opinion of the younger generation of Israelis. “The 14- 15- and 16-year-olds need to participate in determining the world’s future,” the President explained. “If it were up to adults, they would want kids to keep dancing the hora or singing Slavic songs, but youngsters don’t listen and should not have to. Young women today also wear more risqué clothing than they did in the past and there is no problem with that since they look nicer.” Consul Saranga said last night “It was important for the Foreign Ministry that part of the interview was dedicated to subjects other than the conflict [with the Palestinians].”

The interview has since appeared in Wikinews - "the free news source" - as it was destined to be, and can be read at: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres_discusses_the_future_of_Israel

Shankbone-Miller to return to Israel

In his own blog 2008/07/31 Shankbone-Miller writes that he will return to Israel (http://blog.shankbone.org/2008/07/31/david-shankbone-to-go-back-to-israel-for-wikimedia/):

David Shankbone to go back to Israel for Wikimedia
By David Shankbone

Last December I traveled to Israel where I had lunch with Yitzhak Apeloig, the president of their premiere university, the Technion, and interviewed their President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shimon Peres (photo, right).

In the next few months I will be returning to the Holy Land for a week-long photography expedition. From the students of Haifa to the dolphins of Eilat; from the vineyards of the Galillee to the Bedouins of The Negev; I will engage in a photographic documentary of the people and landscape of Israel. The goal is to create a comprehensive body of images of the country that are licensed as free content, meaning my work will be available to everyone via Wikimedia for both commercial and non-commercial uses.

Watch this blog for updates.

In his own blog 2009/03/04 Shankbone writes more on his new Israel trip, where he will be joined by "baroness of social media, Tamar Weinberg, and her photographer husband". "Consul David Saranga in the Israeli Foreign Ministry [...] was instrumental in putting the trip together" (http://blog.shankbone.org/2009/03/04/my-israel-trip-covered-in-jewish-week/):

My Israel trip covered in Jewish Week
By David Shankbone

Sharon Udasin recently wrote in Jewish Week about my upcoming photography expedition of Israel for the creative commons. Also on the plane will be the baroness of social media, Tamar Weinberg, and her photographer husband. The itinerary is not set, but I have requested an interview for Wikinews. Because the focus is on photography, most of my writing will take place on this blog where I hope to document the experience. Consul David Saranga in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who has spear-headed his country’s foray into social media, was instrumental in putting the trip together.

My goal here will be to document not just the monuments and public structures that every tourist documents, but also common, every-day features of life and landscape. Cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are not crying out for free media (although they can always use more professional-quality shots). Instead, places like the Arava Valley, the kiryats and the kibbutzes need coverage.

I want to capture life outside the scope of a rifle. That not every Israeli is armed, living in rubble or dodging missiles is lost in a media narrative that filters everything through conflict. The hope is to obtain shots of the country not typically obtained by tourists and photojournalists. Small town and rural Israel holds all the appeal for me.

More tricks to control information in Wikipedia

But corrupting the very top names of Wikipedia for Israel´s cause is not enough. Jewish students, paid by Hasbara fellowships from the Israeli government, are mobilized to edit Wikipedia in a pro-Israel manner.

The images and text below are from a Hasbara newsletter dated May 2007.

Hasbara is an Israeli institution that gives fellowships to Jewish students around the world and also aids them in organizing "Israel Advocacy", i.e. Israel-propaganda.

We also recommend reading the following articles:

Jimmy Wales counting the bucks

A pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia
CAMERA orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia
Wikipedia joins the "censor game"
example on how Jewish Internet activists work to delete information they dislike
Online Censorship by Israel - What do BLOGGER, YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK,
and WIKIPEDIA have in common? - external link
by Irish4Palestine, 21/02/2009
Foreign Ministry out to "conquer" internet
article from Israeli YNet site on a Israeli government photo offensive on Wikipedia, Wikimedia, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr
Photo Editing Israel’s Online Image
Israel´s government invites Wikipedia editor Shankbone to help with pro-Israelization of Wikipedia

Yahoo!

Yahoo Jew Terry Semel

Yahoo! in Jewish hands

The Jew Terry Semel was CEO of the search engine company Yahoo! between 2001 and 2007.

During his time as Yahoo! CEO Semel used his position to impress on his fellow Jews. For instance Semel in the shape of Yahoo-boss appeared as one of the main speakers at the Jewish Community Federation in San Fransisco´s meeting, January 25, 2006, according to the organization´s homepage (http://www.sfjcf.org/aboutJCF/photos/album/default.asp?album=blcbreakfast-jan2006&page=1):

300 JCF donors gathered at the Julia Morgan Ballroom to kibbitz and build a Jewish network of business professionals. Featured speaker Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel gave an engaging, personal talk, sharing his views on philanthropy and leadership.

Terry Semel speaks at Jewish Community Federation in San Fransisco

The Jewish site Jweekly.com writes on the event:

Yahoo CEO talks of philanthropy, teamwork at JCF event
Friday, February 17, 2006

By Maureen Earl, correspondent

With more than 420 million users around the world, Yahoo can claim a high spot on the Internet echelon. But it wasn't always smooth sailing for the Sunnyvale-based company.

When Yahoo's chairman and CEO, Jewish Brooklyn native Terry Semel, first arrived at the company in 2001, it had just lost $98 million on revenue of $717 million. Semel was determined to put Yahoo back in the black.

His strategy worked. Last year Yahoo earned $1.2 billion on sales of $5.3 billion — and those 420 million users aren't bad, either.

On Jan. 25 Semel addressed 300 donors to the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation who gathered for the JCF's first Business Leadership Council breakfast.

Semel, once one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood and now one of the most commanding leaders in Internet technology, started the keynote address by announcing that he was not a morning person.

"I prefer to take an hour to reflect and catch up in the morning," he said.

Soft-spoken but authoritative, Semel discussed the importance of philanthropy in business. "Business and philanthropy go hand in hand," he said. "I came from a lower-income family in Brooklyn, yet by the age of 10 or 12 I'd already been taught the importance of giving.

"You need to start kids off that young so that it becomes a habit. To accomplish things you also have to give. At first maybe with time, then later with money, and eventually even both if you are able."At the age of 10 it was a dollar from his allowance; today, Semel no longer thinks on a small scale.

"I now think in terms of hundreds of millions," he said, "but the same principles apply whether it's a two-person philanthropy organization or a giant like Yahoo."

Tikkun olam, repairing the world, is how Semel operates both in philanthropy and business. He recalled how, as an ambitious young man working as a sales trainee at Warner Bros. in the mid-1960s, his boss would arrive shouting and yelling at all and sundry.

"There and then I decided I would not do that. How people are treated is vital."

Semel, who graduated in 1964 with an accounting degree from Long Island University, went on to become chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. During his 24-year career there, Semel and his business partner, Robert Daly, helped shape the company into one of the world's largest media outlets, generating nearly $11 billion in total revenue from businesses in 50 countries.

In 1999, Semel and Daly pressed their hands into wet concrete outside Hollywood's legendary Mann's Chinese Theater. With the executives thus immortalized in Hollywood lore, the ceremony marked the last day of work for the two at Warner Bros.

In May 2001, after an 18-month hiatus, Semel joined Yahoo as CEO and chairman immediately after the dot-com collapse in Silicon Valley.

"I was looking for a challenge. I didn't take the position for the money," he said.

Whether he was looking for it or not, Semel has netted $403 million by exercising Yahoo options and selling shares. He still owns shares and options worth more than $230 million.

The credit of Yahoo's success, Semel said, goes to his staff and their practiced team ability.

"It's always about team. No one wins if it rests on one star athlete. The superstar ideal will not get you to the Super Bowl, it's not sustainable. It has to be the team. And we [at Yahoo] actually like each other — we love the challenge."

Last year Yahoo added 220 people a month and now employs about 10,000. Daniel Rosensweig, Yahoo's chief operating officer, said, "Terry's a Brooklynite at heart. He expects a new fight every day."

One of the biggest challenges Semel faces is adapting the company to fit its users' ever-changing preferences.

"The big change in technology is that we used to have someone else program everything for us," he said. "Someone else programmed television, so you watched what was on when it was on. Internet has turned the user into programmers — we want what we want, when we want, and we get it."

On Friday evenings, Semel boards his private jet in Sunnyvale and returns to his family and home in Bel Air for the weekend. There he is able to relax for a couple of days knowing that he has helped grow Yahoo into a company that has the widest global reach of any Internet site.

Not shabby for a man who, prior to joining Yahoo, had rarely gone near a computer.

Semel may constantly redirect attention to his team, but he is very much an individual. "I would not have succeeded had I not been true to myself. I never wanted to be the guy who looks back and says 'I wish I'd done this, done that,'" he said.

Summing up Semel´s pre-Yahoo! career

Prior to Yahoo! - as stated in the article above - Semel worked in Hollywood where he spent 24 years at Warner Bros. As its chairman and co-chief executive officer, Semel and his partner built the company into one of the world’s largest entertainment enterprises. Prior to Warner Bros., Semel was in charge of Walt Disney's Theatrical Distribution division and he has also been in charge of CBS’ Theatrical Distribution division.

Terry Semel is a friend of Arnon Milchan, the Jewish Hollywood producer with Mossad connections, and was one of the invited att Milchan´s Israel party 2008, a party co-organized by the Israeli consulate (The Jewish Journal, September 25, 2008).

Other Yahoo! Jews

The Israeli Jew Andrei Broder, a graduate from Israel´s Technion Institute, is Vice President for Search & Computational Advertising at Yahoo! Research. Broder also serves as Chief Scientist of Yahoo’s Advertising Technology Group. He has previously worked for AltaVista as the Vice President of research and for IBM Research as a Distinguished Engineer and CTO of IBM's Institute for Search and Text Analysis.

David Goldberg was Vice President and General Manager of Music at Yahoo! Inc., since the acquisition of LAUNCH Media, Inc. by Yahoo! in August 2001. David Goldberg is married to and has kids with Sheryl Sandberg, the Jewish Internet boss formerly with Google and presently "second-in-command" in Facebook (see our long entry on her in our Google section).

Goldberg left Yahoo! in 2007.

The Israeli engineer Udi Manber, also a graduate from the Israeli Technion Institute and who we portray in more depth in our section on Google, was chief scientist at Yahoo! from 1998 to 2002. Manber then joined Amazon.com where he became "chief algorithms officer" and a Vice President. He was later appointed CEO of the Amazon subsidiary company A9.com, where he led the company's A9 search engine work. In 2006, he was hired by Google as one of their Vice Presidents of engineering.

Andrei Broder

David Goldberg

Udi Manber

Yahoo! and Israel

Semel was in Israel during the festive events 2008, celebrating Israel´s 60th anniversary. Semel appeared as a speaker on Shimon Peres’ “President’s Conference” in Israel May 15, on the topic "The Revolution of the Internet and the new media", together with Google´s Jewish co-founder and President Sergey Brin. Semel was here to represent his post-Yahoo! company Windsor Media, where he is chairman and CEO.

Susan Decker, the present President of Yahoo! Inc., also attended and spoke at the 2008 Israel conference. Decker is the person that took over the Presidency over Yahoo! directly after Semel.

The Israeli paper Ha´aretz writes:

Facebook, Google founders to attend Jerusalem conference in May
By Guy Grimland, Ha´aretz Correspondent

Ha´aretz 01/04/2008

Co-founder of internet giant Google, Sergey Brin, will join Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Yahoo president Susan Decker at a presidential panel on technology to be held at the Jerusalem International Convention Center May 13-15.

The convention, which was formed at the initiative of President Shimon Peres, will also be attended by a number of Israeli political, religious and financial leaders, as well as academics and cultural figures.

The panel will discuss issues facing technology in today's age and the future, in particular in regard to how it will affect Israel and the Jewish world.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair will also take part in the conference, as will French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former prime minister of the Czech Republic Vaclev Havel, Nobel Prize Laureate Eli Wiesel, and Georgia President Michael Saakashvili

Other Zionist participants at the meeting were Rupert Murdoch and Maurice Levy, the latter a powerful French Jew with enormous might in the advertisement/publicity business (Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi), and a man very dedicated to promoting Israel´s image.

The meeting was moderated by Israel´s "technology guru" Yossi Vardi, whom Yahoo! already had business dealings with (see below).

The “President’s Conference” figured other speeches by staunch Zionists such as Israel´s Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and "American" agents of Israel such as Dennis Ross and Henry Kissinger.

And the collaboration between Yahoo! and Israel deepens

Here follows three Ha´aretz articles on the subject.

Yahoo! President Susan Decker takes interest in Israel
By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10, May 18, 2008

Susan Decker, the president of Yahoo! Incorporated, visited Jerusalem last week to attend the 2008 Presidential Conference.

Decker oversees one of the most popular Web sites in the world, with more than 400 million page views daily. She is the second highest paid female executive in the United States, with 14,000 people working under her.

Decker suggests that Yahoo! exemplifies the fact that the glass ceiling she was spared is a thing of the past.

Internet giant Yahoo! to follow rivals Google, Microsoft to Israel

By Raz Smolsky and Maayan Cohen

Ha´aretz 14/01/2008

Internet giant Yahoo! is coming to Israel, and not only over the Net. The company is taking its battle for survival against Google and Microsoft to Israel on two levels. It will open a research and development center in Haifa, and will also enter the content side of the business here for the first time through a cooperation agreement with Walla!, which is partly owned by Haaretz.

Yahoo! is following Google, which set up R&D centers in Tel Aviv and Haifa, as well as establishing a marketing center that also deals in joint content arrangements with Israeli portals. Microsoft, meanwhile, has set up a sales and marketing branch in Ra'anana, as well as R&D centers in Tel Aviv and Herzliya.

Yahoo! is now negotiating office space in the Matam high-tech park in Haifa; and is expected to open its research center within a few months.

Google kicked off in the Middle East with its Haifa R&D center in July 2006, despite the Second Lebanon War at the time; the center was its first in the region and only its fourth outside of the U.S. Other well-known companies in the Matam industrial park include Intel, Microsoft, Elbit and Zim.

Yahoo!'s first foray into the Israeli content market is based on a strategic deal signed with portal Walla!. The goal is to threaten Google's hegemony in the Israeli search market for the first time and the real challenge is to compete in search-based advertising.

Under the long-term deal signed between Yahoo! and Walla!, the technology and databases will come from Yahoo!, but the search engine will be branded as Walla! Search, the name of Walla!'s present engine.

Only six months ago there were reports that Walla! was negotiating with Google in the search market, but no agreement was ever reached. Google usually partners with a local search engine by providing the technology and the advertisements, while the revenues are split.

The joint Walla!-Yahoo! venture will continue using Walla!'s AdVantage platform. This will allow Walla! to continue to manage the advertising itself, and it will receive a higher percentage of the revenues than in a deal that also included advertising, such as Google proposed.

According to Walla! CEO Ilan Yeshua: "The search and advertising in search results sector is one of the fastest growing in the world, and also in Israel. The agreement with Yahoo! allows us to offer Walla!'s surfers an excellent search product ... for the Israeli user. The agreement will help Walla! increase its market share in the search-based advertising market. The existence of another strong player in the search and textual advertising sector will contribute to competitiveness , both in the search experience and in the range of possibilities available to advertisers."

Yahoo! and Walla! had previously discussed technological cooperation in the past, but nothing serious came of it. Walla!'s previous management, replaced in 2006, was never willing to allow outsiders to share its advertising revenues.

Israeli Internet advertising was estimated at $90 million in 2007, 10% of the total advertising pie. Of this figure, search engine advertising took about half, $40-50 million, the large majority of which went to Google.

Yahoo buys no-sales FoxyTunes for $40m

By Guy Griml

Ha´aretz, February 05, 2008

Yahoo, the Internet giant that Microsoft wants to take over, is gearing up for its second Israeli investment: FoxyTunes, owned by entrepreneurs Vitaly and Alex Sirota. The exact amount has not been announced, but sources close to the situation say the company will go for between $30 million and $40 million.

The Sirota brothers, new immigrants from Russia, are the big winners in the deal, along with Yossi Vardi and a group of private investors from the United States. Initial investment in the company is estimated at just a few million, and the brothers will be raking in a total of $15 million.
[...]
"We will become part of Yahoo Entertainment, and they will distribute the FoxyTunes toolbar to as many people as possible."

More on Jewish Internet actor Semel...

Semel is currently on the Board of Directors of Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, Emerson College, and the Guggenheim Museum. But he still continues his favourite pastime, which he describes in a Hebrew-language interview in the Israeli The Globe, as:

I’m busy mostly with in searching for interesting companies in order to purchase and invest in, and I’m certain that they’ll be heard of in the coming years.

Terry´s daughter Courtenay Semel is also in the spotlight. The Jewish site Jewtastic writes:

Semel Reveals She Was Lohan’s First Jewish Gay Lover
By Jewtastic Staff

August 18th, 2008

Lindsay Lohan embarked on a secret lesbian affair with aspiring actress Courtenay Semel before meeting [Jewish] Samantha Ronson, it has been claimed.

Semel - the daughter of former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel - insists she was the Mean Girls star’s first gay love.

But she claims they kept their affair secret because of the actress’ fear of coming out to the world.

She said: “Everyone thinks Samantha is Lindsay’s first lesbian love, but we were very passionate until her fear of being found out drove us apart. At the time she was terrified her career would be over if she revealed her sexual tendencies. But then Samantha came on to the scene and I was dropped.”

Terry Semel doing the classic "palms-out" pose

MySpace

MySpace is a social networking website with an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults internationally.

Jewish co-founders and President

The MySpace project was overseen by Brad Greenspan (eUniverse's Founder, Chairman, CEO), who managed Chris DeWolfe (MySpace's starting CEO), Josh Berman, Tom Anderson (MySpace's starting President), and a team of programmers and resources provided by eUniverse.

Known Jews in this lot are Anderson, Greenspan and Berman.

As one Jewish blogger writes:

The website was co-founded by Tom Anderson. Although Tom’s last name reflects his father’s Scottish heritage, he and his mother are Jewish and he was raised in a messianic Jewish household.

Josh Berman, the other Jewish co-founder of MySpace.com, also served as the company's Chief Operating Officer.

President Tom Anderson (right) and Chris DeWolfe (left)

Jewish Vice Presidents including an Israeli paratrooper (reserves)

Another Jew, Richard Rosenblatt, was former Chairman of MySpace and thus earned the title the "MySpace guru".

The Jew Travis Katz is presently the international head of MySpace and a senior Vice President (2009).

Richard Rosenblatt

Travis Katz

Josh Brooks

Among other names as senior Vice Presidents we have Shawn Gold, the Israeli Nimrod Lev (former Israeli paratroopers and military intelligence) and Josh Brooks. Whether Steve Pearman also is Jewish, we don´t know.

Another Jew - with political insights - is Jeff Berman who joined MySpace in 2006 as Senior Vice President of Public Affairs. In 2007, Berman was promoted to General Manager of MySpaceTV (http://myspacetv.com), where he oversaw the launch of the company's global video platform. There he cooperated with media Jews Michael Eisner, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick. In 2008 Berman was appointed Executive Vice President of Marketing and Content of MySpace, responsible for spearheading the development and implementation of marketing initiatives and campaigns for MySpace's more than 110 million users worldwide. Berman will thus report to MySpace's CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe.

Before joining MySpace, from 2001-2005, Berman served as Chief Counsel to the Jewish U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.

Jeff Berman, MySpace Jew with political insights

MySpace, and its parent company eUniverse (now renamed Intermix Media) was bought in July 2005 for US$ 580 million by arch-Zionist Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Murdoch is a fanatic pro-Israeli. In the Jewish magazine 15 Minutes, Issue 26, July 1, 2001, one could read:

[Murdoch] explained at a Museum of Jewish Heritage dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria that, "I have always believed in the future of Israel and the goals of the international Jewish community".

MySpace and Israel

The Israeli paper Ha´aretz writes, January 09, 2007:

Hey, Israeli startups - MySpace wants you
By Lior Haner

Even though most Israeli entrepreneurs say they want to develop their startups into large companies, most secretly wish for generous purchase offers from abroad - and may even prefer working as senior vice presidents in an American corporation.

Both of these wishes were granted to Israeli Internet serial entrepreneur Nimrod Lev, 35, who founded KSolo in 2005, sold it last summer to Fox Interactive Media and now works as a senior vice president at Fox.

Fox Interactive is owned by the media conglomerate News Corp., and owns the popular MySpace Internet Web site. Lev is currently on a personal trip to Israel, and will be speaking at the Israel Management Center's convention this coming Sunday, January 7, where participants will choose the 2006 high-tech CEO of the year.

Haner's current visit is his first to Israel since selling KSolo and he does not hide his intentions to find more Israeli Internet entrepreneurs for Fox's acquisitions department. "If there is a company can benefit FOx's MySpace, I would rather find it in Israel than elsewhere," explains Lev.

Despite his Israeli background and the fact that there are other Israelis who could assist companies in penetrating the American market, Lev insists that due to the cultural gaps and problems in understanding one another, any company that wants to succeed overseas needs a local presence.

This week Lev hopes to meet with representatives of several Israeli companies whose products are in their initial stages, to form ties between them and Fox. Lev believes that the next big high-tech field combines the Internet and cellular services, but he has not revealed which Israeli companies he thinks have the best potential, or with whom he is meeting. In the meantime, he has been heaping praises on the more established and familiar Internet companies, such as Jajah, Oberon Media and Quigo Technologies.

He also feels the biggest underachieving company in recent years is Babylon, the interactive dictionary developer, which Lev says could have been much more successful. During his visit, Lev will share his experience and relate the story of his ascent to the upper echelons of the American Internet industry.

Lev started out as an editor at the Israeli Internet portal Walla in 1996, a job he landed after editing the student newspaper at Tel Aviv's College of Management.

Firing Cupid's arrow

In 1999 Lev left Walla to join Zion Madmon, the founder of cupid.co.il, to help promote that company and develop it abroad, thus beginning his journey to American Internet.

"We established JCupid, which joined forces with JDate," recalls Lev. "In 2004, Cupid was sold to Spark Networks, which operates JDate. That was my first exit and I immediately started looking for my next project and remained in the United States. The next thing turned out to be KSolo." KSolo, run by the Israeli developers of Cupid and headed by Lev in New York, is a site for karaoke singing and recording.

Lev says that his secret to success is not developing something that he thinks users want, but something that users need. The product does not have to be connected to the success of other sites or the entrepreneur's personal background.

"I was no longer a bachelor when I began matchmaking on the Web and had no connection to karaoke when I founded KSolo, but it seemed to me like a necessary product. One does not always have to invent the wheel. One can take something that works well in the real world and adapt it for the Internet. This was the case with the two companies I founded," he says.

"At KSolo, we signed an agreement with all the major copyright holders of the songs in America and share the revenues with them," Lev adds, adding that in the Internet era, content has so far been considered the main thing.

"One has to understand that in the past two years, the user has become the focal point," continues Lev, "and it is the users who control the content."

Lev's path to the Fox deal began like that of many Internet entrepreneurs, with a fund-raising campaign by private investors.

"The investors were American," relates Lev. "It is easier to raise money in the U.S. It depends on the project, but usually Israelis find it harder to spend money. It is something in their blood. Israeli market evaluations are lower, because Israelis were burned more severely by the bursting of the high-tech bubble. Since the American Internet market was much more advanced, many companies had already had exits, while in Israel, the industry collapsed a moment before companies closed deals, and the sting of the previous experience affects investors' decisions to this day."

In the summer of 2006, about a year after KSolo went on the air, Lev received a telephone call from, Tom Andersen, one of Fox's senior executives, who is also the president of MySpace. He had discovered a karaoke recording by a KSolo user on the user's personal site at MySpace.

"The negotiations [with Fox] were quick and very serious," recalls Lev. "For a few weeks I attended a great many meetings, at which [Fox representatives] explained to me exactly what they wanted. They exhibited a level of perseverance and determination I had not encountered before and did not waste any time, something critical to startups."

Lev would not disclose how much he received for the company, but commented that the investors received a good return on their money. After the sale, Lev was appointed a senior vice president at Fox, where he continues to be responsible for KSolo's operations.

The Jewish Vitual Library wrote in their article on MySpace´s Lev Nimrod´s (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Nimrod_Lev.html) connection to the Israeli military:

Ironically enough, it was war-not love-that prepared Lev for his career and reinforced his belief in promulgating the Jewish faith via Jewish marriages. Military service is compulsory in Israel-women serve two years and men three. Lev, however, opted to serve five: three years as a paratrooper in a combat unit and then two years in charge of an intelligence unit that focused on anti-terrorist tactics. Today, he is a captain in the reserves.
"When you walk 60 miles with 40 pounds on you, everything else looks easy," he says. "I wish that young people didn't have to go through this. At this age-after high school graduation-they should be thinking about chasing down dates not about chasing terrorists. But I know that until we find peace, everyone has to contribute to Israel's safety. We're defending Israel so Jews all over the world will have a place to feel safe. This is one of the reasons we need to do whatever we can to bring Jews together."

Lev Nimrod

The Guardian on how Israel´s Foreign Office tries to promote Israel via MySpace:

Israel seeks friends through MySpace
By Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent

The Guardian, Saturday 24 March 2007

A 58-year-old Jerusalem woman is not a typical MySpace user - the hugely popular social networking site is inhabited mostly by people at least 30 years younger.

But the profile she is reading is a profile with a difference: it represents the entire state of Israel. Officials hope that running a MySpace page dedicated to Israel will help improve relations with people from other countries, and increase awareness and communication with those under 35.

The idea belongs to David Saranga, a diplomat based at the Israeli consulate in New York. Mr Saranga said research had shown Israel's image among the young was not good, and that by reaching out through one of the internet's most popular sites he could repair some of the damage.

"We saw that we had a problem with the 18 to 35 age group. The reason is that this group doesn't see Israel as relevant.We have to talk to them in their language, in platforms they are using, and the new media is one of the ways to do so," he said.

The page is particularly targeted at young Americans, who make up a large proportion of MySpace users. Since Mr Saranga set up the page, "Israel" has gained 963 friends from around the world, including fictional characters such as TV secret agent Jack Bauer and Star Wars heroine Princess Leia, as well as, it is claimed, the Hollywood actors George Clooney and Leonardo Di Caprio.

The pages include pictures of Israeli cities, as well as music that invites the audience to question the cycle of violence and to "end this holy war". Among Mr Saranga's other initiatives are a blog called "isRealli" and an internet TV station.

Shawn Gold of MySpace

Article from Prison Planet.com on arch-Zionist Murdoch´s "cyber trojan horse":

MySpace Is The Trojan Horse Of Internet Censorship
Media elite's last gasp effort to save crumbling empire

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com | March 16 2006

MySpace isn't cool, it isn't hip and it isn't trendy. It represents a cyber trojan horse and the media elite's last gasp effort to reclaim control of the Internet and sink it with a stranglehold of regulation, control and censorship.

Since Rupert Murdoch's $580 Million acquisition of MySpace in July 2005, it has come from total obscurity to now being the 8th most visited website in the world, receiving half as many page hits as Google, despite the fact that on first appearance it looks like a 5-year-old's picture scrap and scribble book.

MySpace is the new mobile phone. If you don't have a MySpace account then you belong to some kind of culturally shunned underclass.

What most of the trendy wendy's remain blissfully unaware of is the fact that MySpace is Rupert Murdoch's battle axe for shaping a future Internet environment whereby electronic dissent, whether it be against corporations or government, will not tolerated and freedom of e-speech will cease to exist.

MySpace has been caught shutting down blogs critical of itself and other Murdoch owned companies. They even had the audacity to censor links to completely different websites when clicking through for MySpace. When 600 MySpace users complained, MySpace deleted the blog forum that the complaints were posted on. Taking their inspiration from Communist China, MySpace regularly uses blanket censorship to block out words like 'God'.

Earlier this week Rupert Murdoch sounded the death knell for conventional forms of media in stating that the media elite were losing their monopoly to the rapid and free spread of new communication technologies. Murdoch stressed the need to regain control of these outlets in order to prevent the establishment media empire from crumbling.

MySpace is Rupert Murdoch's trojan horse for destroying free speech on the Internet. It is a foundational keystone of the first wave of the state's backlash to the damage that a free and open Internet has done to their organs of propaganda. By firstly making it cool, trendy and culturally elite for millions to flock to establishment controlled Internet backbones like MySpace, Murdoch is preparing the groundwork for the day when it will stop being voluntary and become mandatory to use government and corporate monopoly controlled Internet hubs.

The end game is a system similar to or worse than China, whereby no websites even mildly critical of the government will be authorized.

The Pentagon admitted that they would engage in psychological warfare and cyber attacks on 'enemy' Internet websites in an attempt to shut them down. The fact that the NSA surveillance program spied on 5,000 Americans tells us that the enemy is the alternative media and that it will be targeted for elimination. Google has been ordered to turn over information about its users by a judge to the US government.

The second wave of destroying freedom of speech online will simply attempt to price people out of using the conventional Internet and force people over to Internet 2, a state regulated hub where permission will need to be obtained directly from an FCC or government bureau to set up a website.

The original Internet will then be turned into a mass surveillance database and marketing tool. The Nation magazine reported, "Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out."

The original Internet will deliberately be subject to crash upon crash until it becomes a useless carcass of overpriced trash and its reputation will be defiled by the TV and media barons cashing in on the perfectly streamlined Internet 2, the free for all network that just requires you to thumbscan in order to log on! Those with a security grading below yellow on their national ID card will unfortunately be refused access. Websites that carry hate speech (ones that talk about government corruption) will be censored for the betterment of society.

For the aspiring dictator, the Internet is a dangerous tool that has been seized by the enemy. We have come a long way since 1969, when the ARPANET was created solely for US government use. The Internet is freedom's best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize power and subjugate the world under a global surveillance panopticon prison.

Rupert Murdoch's MySpace and its ceaseless promotion by the establishment media as the best thing since sliced bread is part of this movement. In saying all this we do encourage everyone to set up a MySpace account, but only if you're going to use it to bash MySpace, Rupert Murdoch and copy and paste this article right at the top of the page! See how long it is before your account is terminated.

eBay

The Jewish boasting page www.jewishachievement.com writes on the Jewish first President of eBay, the Canadian-born Jeff Skoll:

Jeff Skoll did not create eBay, non-Jew Pierre Omidyar did in 1993. For Omidyar, born to French and Iranian parents, creating an on-line auction Web-site was a Labor Day weekend hobby project. For its first couple of years, it was simply a free Web-site Omidyar ran on his own home page along with several other of his Web page creations. During the first few months, he tried to recruit Skoll, a Jewish French-Canadian he met through friends, to become his partner. Skoll turned him down, choosing to remain at Stanford Business School.
In early 1996, Omidyar's Internet service provider began charging him $250 a month to host the site. Omidyar was forced to start charging a fee, which he passed along to the site's users based on the sale price of auction items. As the checks started rolling in Omidyar realized he needed help. Again, he approached Skoll. This time, after a few months of consulting for eBay, Skoll signed on as its first full time employee and President.

Jeff Skoll

Skoll grew up in Canada and showed early signs of being a driven entrepreneur. At twelve, he was selling Amway products door-to-door. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a 4.0 grade point average, he set up two high tech companies before moving to Palo Alto to enroll at Stanford Business School. Compensating for Omidyar's easy going ways and enjoyment of programming, Skoll was the driven leader who planned the business and made things happen. He hired key people, established much of the culture, and constantly pushed to build the business.

The result is the number one auction Web site in the world. It grossed $3.9 billion in 2004, netted $936 million and was worth $53 billion by mid 2005, all of which made both Omidyar and Skoll very wealthy. Skoll has since left eBay and now devotes the bulk of his time to philanthropic activities, particularly his Skoll Foundation to which he has donated $250 million. The Foundation supports social entrepreneurs working to effect lasting positive social changes worldwide. In 2003, Skoll won recognition from Business Week magazine as "one of the most innovative philanthropists of the past decade"

Ed Skoll also interacts with fellow Jewish Internet entrepreneurs. We have named the Israel-loving financier and Board member of Facebook, Peter Thiel, in our section on that company.

Thiel togeher with the Ukrainan Jew Max Rafael Levchin founded PayPal. The company was then bought by eBay. In an excerpt from "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0", by Sarah Lacy, (see: http://www.metroactive.com/metro/06.11.08/cover-supermen-0824.html ), we can see how Skoll "became friends with the PayPal crew" of Jews and even entered the movie business:

The PayPal mafia even had Hollywood success. Jeff Skoll was one of the first eBay executives who became friends with the PayPal crew when eBay bought the company in 2002. He started up Participant Productions on a lark, and it has been one of the most profitable productions companies in Hollywood. Among its first four films were Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, and An Inconvenient Truth. Skoll's success convinced Max and Peter to start dabbling in Hollywood, bankrolling the 2006 indie flick Thank You for Smoking, along with David Sacks, PayPal's former chief operating officer.
While Sacks continued to play the Hollywood game, he also launched a new social networking site for families, called Geni.com. It allows people to fill out their family trees and link them to the family trees of spouses and in-laws. Anyone on the tree can add to the tree, the idea being that over time you discover people you're related to that you didn't know. It's a bold idea, one of the first Web 2.0 start-ups aimed squarely at families. Peter Thiel, naturally, backed it early on. And in Geni's first venture capital round with Charles River Ventures, it got nosebleed $100 million valuation. The CRV partner who wrote the check was George Zachary, Skoll's early partner in Participant Productions and a friend of Max and Peter's. By 2006, the PayPal mafia was an incestuous world where, for now, everyone seemed to be making lots of money.

Just to clarify both David Sacks, PayPal's former chief operating officer, and George Zachary, "Skoll's early partner in Participant Productions and a friend of Max and Peter's", are Jewish.

Another Jew in Skoll´s present entourage is Larry Brilliant who we detail more in our section on Google where he for 3 years was responsible for Google´s philanthropic arm Google.org. In 2009 Brilliant joined a new organisation set up by Jeff Skoll. But Dr. Brilliant also said he would remain as an advisor to Google.

Skoll was President of eBay until 1998 when he became Vice President, Strategic Planning and Analysis, until back problems necessitated his departure from full-time employment at the company. Once eBay's second largest stockholder (behind only Omidyar) he subsequently cashed out a portion of his company holdings, yielding him around $2 billion.

Jeff Skoll of eBay

Yossi Vardi - "Israeli technology guru"

Article from European Jewish Congress, Thursday, May 22, 2008:

Yossi Vardi: Israel’s ’Mr. Tech’
By Jennifer L. Schenker

It’s May 15, and Israeli technology guru Yossi Vardi is moderating a session on the future of the Internet at a conference in Jerusalem. On stage with the fatherly 65-year-old is a who’s who of tech and media bigwigs, including Google (GOOG) co-founder Sergey Brin, Yahoo ! (YHOO) President Susan Decker, and News Corp. (NWS) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch.

Vardi (right in the above photo) isn’t the least bit cowed by their eminence. In his irrepressible manner, he calls out to the crowd : "How many Israeli entrepreneurs in the audience want to do business with Yahoo ?" He then tries to get Decker to give out her personal e-mail address. (She declines.) Vardi settles for announcing the e-mail of Yahoo’s head of European operations to the scores of entrepreneurs who have raised their hands.

Undoubtedly the most prominent and connected tech entrepreneur in Israel, Vardi makes no bones about his objectives. The point of moderating the tech panel, he says later with a laugh, was to "shamelessly promote Israel’s high-tech sector." The same evening, he tries to convince Brin to do more business in Israel by dragging the Google co-founder and his parents to a dilapidated warehouse in the suburbs of Tel Aviv to introduce them to 300 Israeli "garage geeks" who tinker there.

Now this goodwill ambassador-long known for his connections in Silicon Valley-has been tapped by the Israeli government to help deepen ties with Europe. Vardi was recently named co-chairman-alongside Mathias Döpfner, the chief executive of German media company Axel Springer (SPRGN)-of a group called the EU-Israel Business Dialogue. Its aim is to foster business relations between Israel and Europe through events such as the upcoming Israel Innovation Day in Germany on June 16.

Making Deals, Earning Respect

Although the panel’s work is just getting under way, Europe’s big tech companies have already been eyeing Israeli innovation for some time. In March, a France Telecom (FTE) subsidiary spent $21.4 million for a startup called Orca Interactive, based in Ra’anana, near Tel Aviv, that develops Internet TV software and applications. Germany’s Deutsche Telekom (DT) has opened a research and development laboratory at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University focused on network security. And Britain’s BT Group (BT) is "actively scouting for Israeli technologies to use either ourselves or for our customers," says Gary Shainberg, BT’s vice-president for technology and innovation support.

Such deals are welcome news to Vardi, who founded his first technology startup in 1969 and has gone on to be involved in more than 60 Israeli tech ventures. He has taken seven companies public and sold many others-the most famous of which was ICQ, the first Internet instant-messaging company, which was acquired by AOL (TWX) for more than $400 million.

But more than his financial success, what has turned the avuncular Vardi into Israel’s Mr. Tech is relentless networking, his passionate belief in the cause, and generosity with his time and money. Known for his love of gadgets and mischievous sense of humor, Vardi has plowed his gains from ICQ and other successes back into startups, serving as angel investor and mentor to scores of young Israelis. He now counts more than 40 companies in his investment portfolio, and spends much of his time traveling around the world to promote these and other Israeli companies at business events.

That commitment and kindness has earned Vardi legions of admirers, including Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, who calls him Israel’s "best ambassador" to the world of science and technology. Vardi isn’t in it for the money, Peres insists. "He is after the science itself. He really and sincerely wakes up in the morning, opens his eyes, and asks, ’God, what can I discover of your secrets today ?’ And once he has it, he will relate it to others."

Groundbreaking Generosity

There’s another motivation as well, says Vardi, who had a long civil service career in Israel : what he calls modern day Zionism. "I belong to the generation that witnessed the creation of the state," Vardi says. "I still remember the dancing in the streets on the 29th of November, 1947, so for me, what I am doing, is a current manifestation of pioneering the building of the state of Israel."

At times, Vardi may be too much of a soft touch. He says he hates to read business plans and instead goes with his gut-sometimes even committing to investments over the phone if he believes in the entrepreneur making the pitch. "My wife, Thalma, who keeps me connected to the ground, tells me it doesn’t make sense that every kid with shining eyes walks away from a meeting with me with a check," says Vardi. "But I tell her if I lose the money at least it goes to nice people and allows them to follow their dreams. Who wants to give money to jerks?"

Thanks in part to his involvement, high tech now represents a vibrant portion of Israel’s economy (BusinessWeek.com, 5/13/08). But the domestic market is so small that Israeli tech companies have to grow their businesses quickly in the U.S. and Europe. Nobody can open doors abroad like Vardi, say entrepreneurs and executives.

"Yossi is a super-node," says BT’s Shainberg. "He connects people and companies from around the world to leverage the world-beating technology innovation in Israel." With the help of Vardi and the Israeli Trade & Industry Assn., Shainberg is bringing a group of Israeli tech entrepreneurs to London on June 10-11 to meet with executives from the British phone company and its partners.

Forging Relationships

Indeed, Vardi’s web of connections spreads throughout the Continent. He has, for instance, a long-standing relationship with German publishing company Hubert Burda Media, acting as an informal adviser on digital strategies. A few years back, he helped the company set up a conference called Cool Companies in the Hot Desert that brought a group of German tech entrepreneurs to Israel. "Yossi is a connector, a sharer, a giver, a storyteller," says Stephanie Czerny, Burda’s managing director in charge of R&D, marketing, and communication.

The success of the event led Vardi and Burda CEO Hubert Burda (left in the photo) to launch what has quickly become one of Europe’s most important technology conferences, known as Digital, Life, Design, or DLD. The annual event now draws 1,000 attendees every January, and this year Vardi brought 150 Israeli Internet entrepreneurs along with him to the conference to introduce them to potential investors and business partners.

Vardi thrives on forging those sorts of links. "Yossi has an amazing capability and will to connect people," says Tal Keinan, CEO of an Israeli startup called SemantiNet, one of the companies in Vardi’s portfolio. "This is priceless for a startup."

Keinan found that out firsthand when Vardi invited him to a private dinner in London in April. Held in the BT Tower, the exclusive event included senior executives from Apple (AAPL), Yahoo, Hutchison Europe, and Google, as well as partners from investment firms such as Accel Partners and Hasso Plattner Ventures. As if that wasn’t enough, a few days later back in Israel, Vardi introduced Keinan to Dell (DELL) founder and CEO Michael Dell.

For all his brokering of deals and relationships, Vardi isn’t impressed by big names and isn’t in it just for the money. "It is about building things, about having fun, about exploring new boundaries, and crossing boundaries," says Uri Admon, CEO of an Israeli startup called Dyuna, another company in Vardi’s portfolio. "He is an inspiration to us all."

Schenker is a BusinessWeek correspondent in Paris.

Other Jewish actors

In August 2007 the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit featured the forum "Social Networking 3.0". The composition of the panel at this forum was very illustrative:

Moderator Charlene Li was joined by Travis Katz, senior Vice President and General Manager of MySpace International; Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook; Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media and former MySpace Executive; Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning; and Karl Jacob, CEO of Wallop.

The only non-Jew in this panel was Bianchini, the rest - Katz, Moskovitz, Rosenblatt and Karl Jacob - were are all from the tribe of the "chosen people", as they call themselves. This clearly illustrates the Jewish overrepresentation in this field.

We will here reproduce some Jewish articles on the subject of Jews and Internet.

Networking meeting. From the left; Travis Katz, Dustin Moskovitz, Richard Rosenblatt,
Gina Bianchini, Karl Jacob.

Richard Rosenblatt

Karl Jacob

Travis Katz

Dustin Moskovitz

The Jewish boast-page www.jewishachievement.com writes on the subject:
(Note that the passage below that Google´s Larry Page is a "non-Jew" is utter nonsense, as illustrated by quotes from Jewish sources in our section on Google.)

Jews as High Technology Entrepreneurs and Managers

Jews have traditionally been seen as prominent in such industries as finance, merchandising, apparel, textiles, entertainment, media, and publishing. And in most of them, Jews were true pioneers. They played leading roles as those industries emerged on the scene.

Their disproportionate importance to the contemporary world of 24/7 competitive high technology is less well known, but they have flourished there as well. It plays to their strengths. High technology demands a solid grounding in the underlying science or engineering and that typically calls for college, and sometimes a post graduate education. Demographically, Jews are better educated than their peers. An earlier chapter pointed out the high levels of Jewish enrollment at leading public and private universities.

The National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01 goes further. It points out that:

"More than half of all Jewish Adults (55%) received a college degree and a quarter (25%) earned a graduate degree." "The Comparable figures for the total U.S. population are 29% and 6%." As a result,

"More than 60% of all employed Jews are in one of the three highest status job categories: professional or technical (41%), management and executive (13%) and business and finance (7%)." "In contrast, 46% of all Americans work in these three high status areas, 29% in professional or technical jobs, 12% in management and executive positions and 5% in business and finance."

Jews also tend to be disproportionately entrepreneurial, working where they will succeed or fail based on their own efforts. Andrew Grove's decision to stop writing, and instead to pursue science, illustrates the point. Judgments about writers are often subjective while those about science are much less so. Grove wanted to work in a field where he would be judged on his own performance. He chose chemistry and got his Ph.D. After several years working with the best and brightest at Fairchild Semiconductor, he left to become one of the three founders of Intel.

Technology is a high risk meritocracy. While even the most talented people sometimes fail, and fortune can obliterate the most brilliant of plans; technology is not political. Relationships and initial funding will carry a venture only so far. Ultimately it must succeed or fail on its own merits in a volatile, highly competitive arena. Such risky opportunities can be pursued in hospitable climates, such as the United States, and in such environments, Jewish entrepreneurs have done well. They:

Created the world's largest and most valuable personal computer company; (Michael Dell, Dell Computers)

Co-founded the world's most successful search engine; (Sergy Brin, Google)

Head the world's largest software company; (Steve Ballmer, Microsoft)

Co-founded and head the world's second largest software company; (Larry Ellison, Oracle)

Co-founded, led and served as Chairman of the dominant microprocessor and memory chip company whose products drive most of today's personal computers; (Andrew Grove, Intel)

Created the first "killer application" software which ignited demand for personal computers; (Mitch Kapor, Lotus 123)

Served as Number 1 or 2 person in three of the world's four most valuable Internet companies according to a May 2004 Fortune study (Terry Semmel at Yahoo, Jeff Skoll at e-Bay and Barry Diller at IAC)

Co-founded and head the communications protocol/chip company whose technology is the market leader in U.S. cell phones and is likely to be the world leader as the next generation cell phone technology (3G) is adopted worldwide. (Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm).

And that is only the barest overview:

Dell: Michael Dell and Larry Ellison (of Oracle) share the distinction of being two of the most successful college dropouts in history. (Non-Jew Bill Gates is a third.) Dell quit the University of Texas in 1985 when he was 19 years old to start Dell Computer Corporation with a $1,000 stake. His idea was to "cut out the middleman" by selling personal computers (PCs) directly to customers.

Dell's combination of custom built computers, excellent product quality, superb customer service, outstanding production efficiency, and low prices created the world's largest computer manufacturing company. In achieving that distinction, he took on IBM, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and many other PC makers, most of them much bigger and better financed than Dell.

He is emblematic of the creative, determined nature of successful entrepreneurs. In the process, he made his company one of the most valuable in the world. In 1992, Dell became the youngest CEO in history to earn a spot on the Fortune 500 when his Company had been in existence for only eight years. With fiscal year 2005 sales of $53 billion, Dell has humbled most competitors. Despite the challenges of rapid growth and competitive success, Dell and its founder are consistently counted as among America's most respected.

The success has earned 40 year old Dell a fortune, sufficient, till his most recent birthday, to consistently place him among Fortune's "40 under 40." These are all young entrepreneurs, athletes and entertainers who have achieved stellar success before reaching age 40. With his wife, Dell has created the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, endowing it with more than $1 billion. Its focus is the health, education, safety, care and development of children. Among its recent commitments was $130 million to help boost high school graduation and college attendance rates in Texas.

Google: Sergy Brin is the son of Russian Jewish emigrants who left the Soviet Union in 1979 to escape persecution. Sergy was six at the time. Mathematically inclined, he earned a computer science degree from University of Maryland before entering Stanford as a postgraduate student. There he met non-Jew, Larry Page, also studying for his doctorate. Together, they developed a search engine - called BackRub before they renamed it Google.

They dropped out of Stanford, rounded up $1 million from friends, family and angel venture investors and on September 7, 1998, launched Google. Less than ten years old, it is the most popular search engine on the Web with more than eighty-two million users each month accessing more than eight billion Web site pages (twice the comparable 2004 figure). It employs more than 4,000 people and has had a spectacular run up in its stock price to a value of roughly $80 billion in mid 2005.

Microsoft: Steve Ballmer did not found Microsoft. Non-Jews Bill Gates and Paul Allen did. They started the Company in 1976, five years after they began programming together while attending Lakeside High School in Seattle where they had access to the school's computer. Gates went off to Harvard where he and Ballmer became good friends. Ballmer was a bright Jewish kid from Detroit who scored a perfect 800 on his math SATs and who took it upon himself to "socialize" Gates at Harvard - until Gates dropped out to start Microsoft. About the same time, Paul Allen dropped out of Washington State and together Gates and Allen launched the Company.

Gates tried to convince Ballmer to drop out as well, but instead, Ballmer stayed in school, going on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard in 1977. He worked for Proctor and Gamble for two years and then entered Stanford Business School. Perhaps just to "fit in," he then dropped out of Stanford Business School in 1980 after Gates had made yet one more appeal for him to join Microsoft. Ballmer was the Company's twenty-fourth employee.

Within three years Paul Allen was gone, the result of a bout with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Ballmer served first as the Company's financial disciplinarian and later became the number two guy, holding down every senior job in the Company before being named President in 1998 and CEO in 2000. Known for his determination and salesmanship, Ballmer has been vital to Microsoft's success.

Oracle: Larry Ellison is a University of Chicago dropout. He was one of the three (later four) partners who founded Oracle Corporation in 1977. Ellison, the leader, read an IBM article about a new kind of software termed a "relational database." Then commonly acknowledged as a revolutionary new way to build a database, no one, not even at IBM, thought it was commercially viable. Ellison disagreed and with $2,000, the partners began developing the software, using cash generated from consulting projects to augment the $2,000.

Of the four founders, two later left the company and one died. But from the start, it was Ellison that was, and still is, the driving force behind Oracle. "Relentless," "determined," and "ruthless" are among terms commonly used to describe him. He has been schooled in Japanese approaches to business where anything less than 100 percent market share is not enough.

His strong ego is characterized by the titles of two books about him. The first is titled, "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison." It is the first line of an old Silicon Valley joke for which the punch line is "God does not think he is Larry Ellison." The second book is Everyone Else Must Fail, for which the preamble is "It is not good enough that I should succeed."

Ellison was born to an unmarried Jewish teenage mother and an Italian-American air force pilot father, but he grew up with an aunt, and an uncle who constantly put young Larry down saying he would never amount to anything. Harvard Business School's Entrepreneur of the Year in 1990, the 2004 Forbes' 400 lists Ellison as the world's ninth wealthiest person.

Ellison has devoted roughly half a billion dollars to charities, particularly a medical foundation focused mostly on infectious diseases in the third world and diseases of aging. In mid 2005, he also pledged $115 million to Harvard University.

Intel: As noted in the Andrew Grove bio, Intel was formed in 1968 by non-Jews Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore who recruited Grove to be their co-founder and third employee. Their established reputations and ability to raise the needed $2.5 million from venture capitalist Arthur Rock financed the Company, Noyce headed up sales and Marketing, Moore R&D, while Grove headed manufacturing and product development. Grove disciplined the organization to set and reach goals and he made the critical decisions, such committing Intel to the microprocessors which made Intel the huge success it is.

Lotus: Mitch Kapor did not invent the spreadsheet, but his software program, Lotus 123, was the first application to spawn huge demand for personal computers. Visicalc, an earlier spreadsheet program created by Jew Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston in 1982, was available on several early computers including the Apple II a few years before Lotus 123 arrived. But Lotus 123 had many more features, was easier to use, and had far better graphics. It provided the compelling reason for consumers to buy personal computers and demand was so strong, Lotus grossed $53 million in its first year and $156 million by 1984. Kapor went on to create other major software programs including Lotus Agenda.

eBay: Jeff Skoll did not create eBay, non-Jew Pierre Omidyar did in 1993. For Omidyar, born to French and Iranian parents, creating an on-line auction Web-site was a Labor Day weekend hobby project. For its first couple of years, it was simply a free Web-site Omidyar ran on his own home page along with several other of his Web page creations. During the first few months, he tried to recruit Skoll, a Jewish French-Canadian he met through friends, to become his partner. Skoll turned him down, choosing to remain at Stanford Business School.

In early 1996, Omidyar's Internet service provider began charging him $250 a month to host the site. Omidyar was forced to start charging a fee, which he passed along to the site's users based on the sale price of auction items. As the checks started rolling in Omidyar realized he needed help. Again, he approached Skoll. This time, after a few months of consulting for eBay, Skoll signed on as its first full time employee and President.

Skoll grew up in Canada and showed early signs of being a driven entrepreneur. At twelve, he was selling Amway products door-to-door. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a 4.0 grade point average, he set up two high tech companies before moving to Palo Alto to enroll at Stanford Business School. Compensating for Omidyar's easy going ways and enjoyment of programming, Skoll was the driven leader who planned the business and made things happen. He hired key people, established much of the culture, and constantly pushed to build the business.

The result is the number one auction Web site in the world. It grossed $3.9 billion in 2004, netted $936 million and was worth $53 billion by mid 2005, all of which made both Omidyar and Skoll very wealthy. Skoll has since left eBay and now devotes the bulk of his time to philanthropic activities, particularly his Skoll Foundation to which he has donated $250 million. The Foundation supports social entrepreneurs working to effect lasting positive social changes worldwide. In 2003, Skoll won recognition from Business Week magazine as "one of the most innovative philanthropists of the past decade"

InterActive Corp (IAC): Barry Diller has made a career of corporate transformations. He started in the mail room at the William Morris Agency in his early 20s, and at age 24, moved to ABC-TV. Within three years, he was Vice President of Feature Films and Program Development. In that job he inaugurated ABC's Movie of the Week, the most popular movie series in television history. At ABC Diller pioneered highly profitable "made-for-television" films which focused on social issues such as homosexuality, the Vietnam War and drugs.

In 1974, following that success (and still only 32), he was named President of Paramount Pictures. At Paramount, he oversaw creation of the hit television series: Cheers, Taxi, and Laverne and Shirley, and hit movies including: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Ten years later he moved to Twentieth Century-FOX where in 1985, after Rupert Murdoch took over, he launched Fox as the fourth television network. By 1990, Diller had Fox producing five nights of prime time television with such popular shows as: The Simpsons, Married With Children, Cops and America's Most Wanted.

Diller quit Fox to purchase a stake in QVC, the cable shopping network, and from there he launched an unsuccessful bid to take over Paramount. Sumner Redstone's Viacom beat him out. Shortly thereafter, in 1995, non-Jew John Malone recruited Diller to leave QVC, invest in and run Liberty Media's Silver King Communications, which was broadcasting the Home Shopping Network. Diller later merged Home Shopping into Silver King.

Through a blinding series of name changes, strategic redirections and $8 billion worth of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and investments in more than 45 companies, Diller created what is now called Interactive Corp (IAC), the fifth major Internet Company, (behind Google, Amazon, e-Bay, and Yahoo). Little known to the general public, IAC controls such prominent Internet names as: Expedia, Hotels.com, Lending Tree, Hotwire.com, Evite, Citysearch and Ticketmaster.

Over the years, Diller has served as a director of Coca Cola and the Washington Post, Trustee of New York University, member of the Executive Board for Medical Sciences at UCLA, member of the Board of Councilors of USC's School of Cinema-Television and a member of the Board of the Museum of Television and Radio.

Yahoo: Terry Semel did not create Yahoo. Non-Jews Jerry Yang and David Filo did in 1994, as a hobby, while pursuing their electrical engineering PhD's at Stanford. In those halcyon, "early bubble" days, Yahoo went public within two years. It was then, and still is today, regarded as one of the major Internet successes of all time, but along the way, it hit a bump in the road. In 2001, Yahoo lost $93 million on revenues of $717 million. The stock tanked and new talent was needed to avert a melt down.

That is when Terry Semel arrived. Semel had 24 years at Warner Brothers where he had been instrumental in building the Company from $1 billion to $11 billion in annual revenues. Semel quickly pushed Yahoo's marketing, consumers' services and acquisitions and by 2003, he had turned the company around. In 2004, Yahoo made $1.6 billion under his leadership.

Qualcomm: Irwin Jacobs is listed as one of seven Qualcomm founders, but by any measure, he has been the "essential man" from Qualcomm's 1985 inception till now.

Qualcomm created and controls Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA), a major wireless telecommunications technology. It is the most widely used wireless calling technology in the United States, (47 percent market share) used by such carriers as Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint. Around the world, 212 million wireless phones already utilize Qualcomm technology and as 3G, the next generation of wireless, is deployed, Qualcomm is expected to become the international market leader as well.

Jacobs grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was a mediocre musician, but an excellent student earning a bachelors degree from Cornell and a Masters and a Doctor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He taught at MIT and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) from 1959 to 1972.

While teaching, he wrote a still used college text, Principles of Communications Engineering, and in 1969, co-founded LINKABIT, a company he describes as his initial move towards becoming an "academic dropout." That finally happened in 1972 when he became LINKABIT's full time President and Chairman. The Company pioneered satellite TV receiver technology (VideoCipher) and was the first to commercially introduce Time Division Multiplex Access (TDMA), the predecessor technology to CDMA. Jacobs built LINKABIT to 1,400 employees, before merging it with M/A-COM and he served on that Board until 1985.

Initially, Qualcomm did research and development and some manufacturing for wireless companies while it built the largest satellite-based messaging service used by trucking companies to manage their fleets. That service was quickly overshadowed, however, by CDMA. By 2004, CDMA was generating over $5 billion in annual revenues.

All of this has made Jacobs (and his fellow founders) quite wealthy. Jacobs has responded with major philanthropy. He and his wife have given $110 million to the San Diego Symphony (hearkening back to his days as a mediocre musician), another $110 million went to the UCSD to "support the other faculty that are currently doing the teaching," $7 million went to the Salk Institute, and millions more has gone to support the San Diego Food Bank and historic New Bedford. Both he, and fellow Qualcomm founder Andrew Viterbi now have schools of engineering named after them, Jacobs at UCSD and Viterbi and the University of Southern California.

RealNetworks: Ron Glaser takes credit for creating the first technology to "stream" audio, video, and other digital content, such as music and games, to computers. He founded RealNetworks in 1994 to capitalize on the technology.

Fresh out of Yale with degrees in economics and computer sciences, Glaser joined Microsoft in 1983 where he rose, over his ten years there, to become Vice President of Multimedia and Consumer Systems. He left Microsoft in 1994 and shortly thereafter, says he downloaded Mosaic, an early version of the Netscape Internet browser. He immediately saw the potential to augment the browser with "streaming." He founded RealNetworks and was soon able to take it public. It became a hot Internet stock and, for a time, Glaser was a billionaire.

Today, following the bursting of the Internet bubble and heightened competition with Microsoft's Media Player and Apple's Quicktime, RealNetworks continues to post operating losses and it is taking on Microsoft in court. Like earlier Federal and state lawsuits against Microsoft, Glaser's company claims Microsoft competes unfairly by bundling its Mediaplayer into its software. Win or lose, RealNetworks has sufficient cash to finance itself for some time and thus remain a major Internet force, particularly as the downloading of music and games becomes ever more prolific. If RealNetworks succeeds, Glaser will rejoin the ranks of billionaires who hit it big with their Internet technology innovations.

Broadcast.com & HDNet: Mark Cuban grew up poor, the son of Russian Jewish emigrants in blue collar Pittsburgh. He was a bright student who was also considered something of a hustler with his native selling ability (selling garbage bags, greeting cards and magazines, all door-to-door, from the time he was 12.) At the University of Indiana he started a chain letter and gave disco dancing lessons to pay for school.

After graduating in 1983 he started a computer consulting firm, MicroSolutions, though he neither owned, nor knew much about, computers. Self-taught by having to learn to perform on the promises he made to customers, he built the Company to revenues of $30 million a year before selling it to Compuserve. He made himself wealthy in the process.

He then "kicked back" for a few years, before returning in 1995, with partner Todd R. Wagner (not Jewish), to create Broadcast.com. It pioneered radio and television broadcasting over the Internet. Cuban and Wagner soon took it public and, in 1999, sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion. Cuban and Wagner were billionaires.

His attention then shifted to his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Cuban is a brash, avid, courtside presence whose outbursts have cost him an estimated $1 million in fines. At the same time, his savvy marketing and recruiting of top talent has converted the Mavericks from a perennial loser to a contender.

Cuban also launched HDNet, a high definition television broadcast network available on satellite, cable, and selected over the air high definition broadcast stations. He and Wagner also purchased Landmark theaters, a large U.S. chain of "art-house" movie theaters which will air the high definition movies he is producing and the films he has contracted six major studios to convert from film to digital.

Measures of entrepreneurial success

One measure of entrepreneurial success is provided by the Fortune "40 Under 40" annual list of the wealthiest young Americans, nearly all of them self made. Though entrepreneurial success is not simply about wealth, it is one scorecard. The Fortune's 2004 list is included as Exhibit 16a. While it includes thirteen athletes and entertainers, the remaining twenty-seven are successful young entrepreneurs, mostly from high technology companies they started or led. Of the twenty-seven, at least six are Jewish. Three of them are among the top five and five of them among the top ten. In order, the six include: #1 Michael Dell, #3 Jeff Skoll, #5 Sergey Brin, #9 Dan Snyder, #10, Marc Benioff, and #17 Jerry Greenberg. Statistically, at two percent of the U.S. population, Jews would be lucky if even one of the twenty-seven was Jewish. At 22 percent, the result is ten times what one would expect.

The Forbes 400 corroborates the Fortune list. (Exhibit 16b) Of the year 2004 ranking, at least 25 percent of the "400" are Jewish. And like the Fortune "40 Under 40," many of them made their wealth as entrepreneurs who started successful businesses. Prominent among the first twenty-five are #9 Michael Dell, #10 Lawrence Ellison, and #11 Steven Balmer. As with the Fortune 40, the performance defies expectations. We would expect perhaps eight Jews among the 400, the actual figure (at least 102) is twelve times that.

And another Jewish article, this time from http://emergentobserver.blogspot.com/2009/03/omg-jewish-history-of-internet.html:

OMG, A Jewish History of the Internet
Did you know that the internet is Jewish? Yeah...Moses got the Torah from HaShem on Mt. Sinai and HaShem told Moses that his brother Aaron and his descendants would be Kohenim forever. Now a "Kohen" is a priest and the story of the internet involves a Jewish priest, a Jewish painter, a Jewish Scotsman and a Jewish sugar merchant living high in the mountains...well sort of...

In 1972, at the International Computer Communication Conference, Robert Kahn (a kohen) was able to connect 40 different computers revealing his work to the public for the first time. Just three years later David Farber (whose Yiddish family name means “painter”) worked to create a primitive kind of email system. Within the next twenty years the internet that we now know and love was born. In 2003 MySpace was launched and by 2006 it had become the largest social networking site in the United States. MySpace added a new dimension to how we communicate and share information with our friends, family and even religious communities. The website was co-founded by Tom Anderson. Although Tom’s last name reflects his father’s Scottish heritage, he and his mother are Jewish and he was raised in a messianic Jewish household. At the age of 14 Tom was a computer hacker working his mischief under the tag name Lord Flathead (not a Jewish name). He lead a team of hackers that were able to brake in to Chase Manhattan Bank computers, he tampered with banking records and left a message saying that unless he was given free use of the system he would wipeout the records. He must have been praying because he was never charged with the crime :) The website Tom would later become famous for inspired a 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg (a Jewish name meaning “sugar mountain”) to create another social networking site called Facebook. Things are looking sweeter then a pile of sugar for Zuckerberg because Facebook has made him over a billion dollars and more people can be found on his networking site then in the entire country of Japan.

…So we see that many key players in the field of computer technologies are our fellow tribesmen. The internet itself has even been compared to the Talmud…layers upon layers of commentary dealing with issues from personal hygiene to oven construction. However the internet is only truly comparable to the Talmud if it’s dialogue eventually returns to G-dly matters. The Talmud finds a way to elevate even mundane and seemingly secular matters to a level of Torah. We should do the same with our technologies, only then do they become truly Jewish.

And finally yet another Jewish boasting article on the same topic (from http://kupe.joeuser.com/article/158970/Jews_On_The_Internet):

Jews On The Internet
By Larry Kuperman

July 29, 2007

The question of how many Jews there are begs the definition of "What is a Jew?" and also "Who is a Jew?" Questions that have been asked many a time.....mostly by other Jews. Being a Secular Jew myself, I like the most liberal, inclusive definition that includes....well ME. The biggest number that you will see is about 18 million Jews. This works out to something like 1/4 of one per cent of the world's population. So you would expect that our impact on the Internet would be proportional to our numbers.

Not so, bubbala. (A term of endearment, darling. Can you feel me virtually pinching your cheek? In a nice way.) The impact of Jews far outweighs their numbers. Lets look at "Who's A Yid?"

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google. Larry Page's mom, Gloria Page, is Jewish. Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, Russia, to Jewish parents, Michael and Eugenia, who fled to America for religious freedom.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, while he was a student at Harvard University. It was originally going to be limited to Harvard students, but expanded quickly. Zuckerberg saw the potential in the site and sought capital. He turned to Peter Thiel, a co-founder of Paypal and, not-so-coincidentally, also Jewish. Facebook is often rumored to be up for sale. How much is Facebook worth? Let me refer that to Mr. Thiel: "Facebook's internal valuation is around $8 billion based on their projected revenues of $1 billion by 2015." Founder Mark Zuckerberg is 23, or as we like to say, 10 years past his Bar Mitzvah.

Robert Kevin Rose is, comparatively, an old man at age 30. He is best known for founding Digg.com. Robert lost his job during the burst of the Dot Com bubble, ended up working as a production assistant on the show The Screen Savers He began appearing on air and stepped in as host after Leo Laporte left TechTV. On November 1, 2004, he started a site that combined social bookmarking, blogging, RSS into arguably the premier tech news site. Today Digg is rated among the 100 most popular sites on the web.

Scott Blum has been referred to as the "Sam Walton of e-commerce." Leaving a successful career as a shoe salesman as a youth, he founded Microbanks, a company that sold add-on memory modules for Macintosh computers. Before his 21st birthday, he sold Microbanks to Sentron Technology in San Diego for $2.5 million in cash. He would then co-found Pinnacle Micro with his father. Leaving there under a cloud of dubious accounting practices (he paid no penalty and admitted no guilt) he would go on to found Buy.com. He left before went public, returned to take it back private and it is now his baby.

RealNetworks is not the most beloved company in the world, nor is Real Player a favorite product. But there is no question that CEO and Founder Rob Glaser has been influential. When he founded Real Networks in 1994, at age 31, he was already a millionaire from his days at Microsoft. He has had a major impact on the Internet.

Certainly also worth mentioning are Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, whose mother is Jewish; Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, who was born on the Lower East Side of New York to a Jewish mother and raised by his great-aunt and great-uncle in Chicago; and Phillipe Kahn, founder of Borland.

What would the Internet be like with Google, PayPal, Facebook, Digg.com, Buy.com? It would be very, very different.

***

The Jews are responsible for present "Islamophobia"!

2010-12-26T05:25:00.000-08:00

What every Muslim (and Christian) must know

The Jewish bible - the Torah - states:

"And I will stir up Egyptians against the Egyptians - brother will fight against brother, neighbour against neighbour, city against city, kingdom against kingdom."
(Isaiah, 19; 2)

As part of this campaign the Jews in the West try to stir up the Westerners to be anti-Muslim by inventing a "Global Muslim Threat". But the only group which favours because of the present war-situation is the Jews and Israel - both the Westerners, and the Muslims are the loosers.

"The man who translated Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' into Persian -- and was threatened with death for his work -- is seeking asylum in Israel. Dr. Jamshid Hasni, 57, is married to an Israeli woman and is undergoing a conversion to Judaism. He told the Ma'ariv newspaper that he could not "return to my homeland because extremists will harm me. I prefer to live in a Jewish country. I want to be part of the Jewish people."
-- The Jewish Chronicle, December 6, 2002, p. 13.

for more detail read the following articLe..

http://radioislam.org/islam/english/index_islam.htm#islamophobia-2

* The Caricatures in Middle East Politics - IMPORTANT!
By James Petras and Robin Eastman-Abaya

* Flemming Rose - A Ukrainian Jew Working for Mossad?
Articles by Christopher Bollyn

* Mohammed Cartoons - Jewish Media Provokes to Inflame 'Clash Of Civilizations'

* The Mohammed Cartoons - Recruiting Europe For Bush's War On Iran

* Uncovering the Israeli-Republican-Evangelical Networks behind the “Obsession” DVD
By Omid Safi, Palestine Think Tank, Oct 19th, 2008

* Who Are Behind Pushing Islamophobia?
By Ali Gharib and Eli Clifton, PRA Right Web, October 18, 2008

* Who was behind the "Danish" cartoons?
By Ahmed Rami

* The West, War, and Islam - The Jewish medias are used to misinform and to instill hatred against the Islamic peoples
By Ernst Zündel

* How the Jewish-Zionist Grip on American Film and Television Promotes bias Against Muslims
By Abdullah Mohammad Sindi

* Reel Bad Arabs - Planet of the Arab - videos
Revealing the racist Jewish-controlled Hollywood propaganda war against the Arabs

How I Came to Love the Veil

2010-12-20T21:09:00.000-08:00

POLITICIANS AND JOURNALISTS just love to write about the oppression of women in Islam ... without even talking to the females beneath the veil.

They simply have no idea how Muslim women are protected and respected within the Islamic framework which was built more than 1400 years ago.

Yet, by writing about cultural issues like child brides, female circumcision, honor killings and forced marriages they wrongly believe they are coming from a point of knowledge.

And I am sick of Saudi Arabia being cited as an example of how women are subjigated in a country where they are banned from driving.

The issues above have simply nothing to do with Islam yet they still write and talk about them with an arrogant air of authority while wrongly blaming Islam. Please do not confuse cultural behavior with Islam.

I was asked to write about how Islam allows men to beat their wives. Sorry, not true. Yes, I'm sure critics of Islam will quote random Qur'anic verses or ahadith but all are usually taken out of context. If a man does raise a finger to his wife, he is not allowed to leave a mark on her body ... this is another way of the Qur'an saying; "Don't beat your wife, stupid".

Now let's take a glance at some really interesting statistics, hmm. I can almost hear the words pot, kettle, black. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, four million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12-month period.

On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands and boyfriends every day . . . that is nearly 5,500 women battered to death since 9/11.

Some might say that is a shocking indictment on such a civilized society, but before I sound too smug, I would say that violence against women is a global issue. Violent men do not come in any particular religious or cultural category. The reality is that one out of three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Violence against women transcends religion, wealth, class, skin color and culture.

However, until Islam came on the scene women were treated as inferior beings. In fact we women still have a problem in the West where men think they are superior. This is reflected in our promotion and wages structure right across the spectrum from cleaners to career women who make it into the boardroom.

Western women are still treated as commodities, where sexual slavery is on the rise, disguised under marketing euphemisms, where womens’ bodies are traded throughout the advertising world. As mentioned before, this is a society where rape, sexual assault, and violence on women is commonplace, a society where the equality between men and women is an illusion, a society where a womens’ power or influence is usually only related to the size of her breasts.

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures and now I look at them as multi-skilled, multi-talented, resilient women whose brand of sisterhood makes Western feminism pale into insignificance. My views changed after the truly terrifying experience of being arrested by the Taleban for sneaking into Afghanistan in September 2001 wearing the bhurka.

During my 10-day captivity I struck a deal that if they let me go I would read the Quran and study Islam. Against all the odds, it worked and I was released. In return I kept my word but as a journalist covering the Middle East I realized I needed to expand my knowledge of a religion which was clearly a way of life.

And no. I'm not a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. To be a victim you have to bond with your captors. During my imprisonment I spat, swore, cursed and abused my jailers as well as refusing their food and going on hunger strike. I don't know who was happier when I was released - them or me!

Reading the Quran was, I thought, going to be a very simple academic exercise. I was stunned to discover that ut clearly stated women are equal in spirituality, education and worth. A woman’s gift for child birth and child-rearing is very much recognised as a quality and attribute. Muslim women say with pride they are homemakers and housewives.

Furthermore The Prophet (pbuh) said that the most important person in the home was The Mother, The Mother, The Mother. In fact he also said that heaven lies at the feet of the mother. How many women make it into the top 100 power lists for simply being a "great mother"?

With Islam choosing to remain at home and raise children takes on a new dignity and respect in my eyes, similar to those sisters among us who choose to go out to work and have careers and professions.

I then began looking at inheritance, tax, property and divorce laws. This is where Hollywood divorce lawyers probably get their inspiration from. For instance the woman gets to keep what she earns and owns while the man has to stump up half his worth.

Isn’t it funny the way the tabloid media gets very excited over the prospect of some pop or film stars pre-nuptial wedding agreement? Muslim women have had wedding contracts from day one. They can choose if they want to work or not and anything they earn is theirs to spend while the husband has to pay for all the household bills and the upkeep of his family.

Just about everything that feminists strived for in the 70s was already available to Muslim women 1400 years ago.

As I said, Islam dignifies and brings respect to motherhood and being a wife. If you want to stay at home, stay at home. It is a great honor to be a home maker and the first educater of your children.

But equally, the Quran states if you want to work, then work. Be a career woman, learn a profession become a politician. Be what you want to be and excel in what you do as a Muslim because everything you do is in praise of Allah (swt).

There is an excessive, almost irritating concentration or focus on the issue of Muslim womens’ dress particularly by men (both Muslim and non-Muslim).

Yes, it is an obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly but, in addition, there are many other important issues which concern Muslim women today.

And yet everyone obsesses over the hijab. Look, it is part of my business suit. This tells you I am a Muslim and therefore I expect to be treated with respect.

Can you imagine if someone told a Wall Street executive or Washington banker to put on a t-shirt and jeans? He would tell you his business suit defines him during work hours, marks him out to be treated seriously.

And yet in Britain we have had the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw describing the nikab - the face veil revealing only the eyes - as an unwelcome barrier. When, oh when, will men learn to keep their mouths shut over a woman's wardrobe?

We also had Government Ministers Gordon Brown and John Reid express disparaging remarks about the nikab - both these men come from over the Scottish Borders where men wear skirts!!

Then we had a series of other parliamentarians enter the fray describing the nikab as a barrier for communication. What a load of nonsense. If this was the case can anyone explain to me why cell phones, landlines, emails, text messaging and fax machines are in daily use? Who listens to the radio? No one switches off the wireless because they can not see the face of the presenter.

The majority of sisters I know who choose to wear the nikab are actually white, Western reverts who no longer want the unwelcome attention of those few leering men who will try and confront females and launch into inappropriate behavior. Mind you, there are a couple of London sisters I know who say they wear the nikab at anti-war marches because they can't stand the smell of spliffs.

I am afraid Islamophobia has become the last refuge of the racist scoundrel. But the cowardly, chauvinistic attacks launched - largely by men - is unacceptable to Muslimahs as well as their secular, female sisters from the left.

I was a feminist for many years and now, as an Islamic feminist, I still promote womens' rights. The only difference is Muslim feminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We all hate those ghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing when the emergence of Miss Afghanistan in bikini was hailed as a giant leap for women's liberation in Afghanistan.

I've been back to Afghanistan many times and I can tell you there are no career women emerging from the rubble in Kabul. My Afghan sisters say they wish the West would drop its obsession with the bhurka. "Don't try turning me into a career woman, get my husband a job first. Show me how I can send my children to school without fear of them being kidnapped. Give me security and bread on the table," one sister told me.

Young feminist Muslimahs see the hijab and the nikab as political symbols as well as a religious requirement. Some say it is their way of showing the world they reject the excesses of Western lifestyles such as binge drinking, casual sex, drug-taking etc.

Superiority in Islam is accomplished through piety, not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex.

Now you tell me what is more liberating. Being judged on the length of your skirt and the size of your cosmetically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your character, mind and intelligence?

Glossy magazines tell us as women that unless we are tall, slim and beautiful we will be unloved and unwanted. The pressure on teenage magazine readers to have a boyfriend is almost obscene.

Islam tells me that I have a right to an education and it is my duty to go out and seek knowledge whether I am single or married.

No where in the framework of Islam are we told as women that we must do washing, cleaning or cooking for men - but it is not just Muslim men who need to re-evaluate women in their home. Check out this 1992 exert from a Pat Robertson speech revealing his views on empowered women. And then you tell me who is civilized and who is not.

He said: "FEMINISM ENCOURAGES WOMEN TO LEAVE THEIR HUSBANDS, KILL THEIR CHILDREN, PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT, DESTROY CAPITALISM AND BECOME LESBIANS".

Here is an American man living in a pre-Islamic age who needs to modernize and civilize. People like him are wearing a veil and we need to tear that veil of bigotry away so people can see Islam for what it is.

Written by Yvonne Ridley
Tuesday, 31 October 2006

AwakeinG ArticLe by sister Yvonne Ridley.

2010-12-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

I’m not discussing the details whether the music is Haram or Halal but with joy at pleasure domes when there is so much brutality and suffering going on in the world today. The rivers of blood flow freely from the veins of our brothers and sisters from across the Muslim world.

Screaming and shouting the names of musical heroes drown out the screams coming from the dungeons of Uzbekistan where brothers and sisters are boiled alive in vats of water. How many will jump up and down and wave their arms in the air, shouting wildly for justice for our kin in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, and Iraq?

There are many more killing fields as well across the Asian and Arab world. Will you climb on theater chairs and express your rage over Guantanamo Bay and other gulags where our brothers and sisters are being tortured, raped, sodomized, beaten, and burned?

Oh, Muslims, wake up! The Ummah is not bleeding; it is hemorrhaging. Listen not to what is haram. Listen to the pain of your global family.

WAR ON TERROR.

2010-12-14T12:59:00.001-08:00

امت مسلمہ مدت ہائے دراز سے اس ابتلاسے گزر رہی ہے کہ اسے جو حکمران میسر آئے ہیں،انھوں نے بادشاہت، آمریت یا جمہوریت کے نام پر جبر کے سائے مسلط کرکے آئین و قانون سے ماور اور قاعدے ضابطے سے آزاد شخصی حکومتیں قائم کی ہیں،اوریہ حکومتیں امت کے لیے آزمائش در آزمائش کا سبب بنی ہیں۔ کم وبیش پچھلے ستر اسی سال میں جابجامسلم ممالک دنیا کے نقشے پر ابھرے ہیں۔ ہر جگہ آگ اور خون کے دریا سے گزر کر انگریزوں، فرانسیسیوں، ولندیزیوں اور پرتگالیوں کا مقابلہ کیا گیا جنھوں نے نوآبادیاتی نظام دورتک پہنچایا اور پھیلایا تھا۔ وقت کی استعماری قوتوں سے پنجہ آزمائی اور میدان عمل میں نکل کر ان کے خلاف محاذ آرائی کے تمام دوائر اور مراحل سے گزر کر یہ آزادی مسلمانوں کونصیب ہوئی ہے ورنہ یہ حقیقت سب جانتے ہیں کہ کوئی استعمار اپنے چنگل سے کسی کو آزادی دینے کے لیے بآسانی آمادہ وتیار نہیں ہوتاہے۔ مسلمانوں کی یہ آزادی اور اس کی پشت پر چلنے والی تحریکیں مسلسل اس بات کا اعلان کررہی تھیں کہ مسلمان جب آزادی کی جدوجہد کرتاہے تو غیروں کی غلامی سے نکل کر رب کی غلامی کی طرف جاتا ہے۔طاغوت کی فرمانروائی سے آزادی حاصل کرکے اللہ تبارک و تعالیٰ کی کبریائی کی طرف پیش قدمی کرتا ہے۔اس لیے آزادی کی تمام تحریکوں میں لاالہ الااللہ کانعرہ بلند ہوتاتھا’ پاکستان کا مطلب کیا لاالہ الااللہ‘۔ ہر ایک جو اپنا ’پاکستان‘ بنا رہاتھایا اپنے ملک سے استعمار کو بھگا رہاتھا،تو یہ اسلام کا حوالہ تھاجس نے لوگوں کے اندر ایک کردار،جدوجہد کا ایک عنوان اور بڑے پیمانے پر قربانیاں دے کر کشمکش مول لینے کا کلچر پیداکیا۔ آج اگردنیا کے نقشے پر ستاون مسلمان ملک موجود ہیں تو یہ بات بلاخوف تردید کہی جاسکتی ہے کہ ان کی بڑی تعداد اسلام اور کلمہ لاالہ الااللہ کے نام پرآزاد ہوئی ہے۔
لیکن آزادی کے بعدمسلمانوں کو اس آزمائش کا سامنا کرنا پڑا کہ ہر جگہ گورے انگریزوں اور فرانسیسیوں کے بجائے کالے انگریز اور فرانسیسی برسراقتدار آگئے ، اور وہ اسی نظام اور انھی پالیسیوں کا تسلسل برقرار رکھنے پر مصر رہے اور انھی رویوں اور طور طریقوں کو اپناتے رہے جو ان کے’ گاڈ فادر‘ چھوڑ کر گئے تھے۔ ان تحریکوں کو جن لوگوں نے لیڈ کیا، انھوں نے اسلام کا نام استعمال کیاکہ اس کے بغیر عوام کو اپنے گرد جمع نہیں کیاجا سکتاتھالیکن بحیثیت مجموعی اس ایلیٹ کلاس اور کرتادھرتالوگوں کے ذہن مسموم تھے، ان کے اعضا و جوارح بھی اور ان کی سوچ اور فکر کے تمام دھارے بھی غلامی کے اندر جکڑے ہوئے تھے۔ وہ اس بات کا تصور نہیں کرسکتے تھے کہ شریعت کا نفاذ اس دور میں بھی ہوسکتاہے۔اسلام کو ایک نظام کی حیثیت سے آج بھی قبول کیا جاسکتاہے، اسلام کا کوئی معاشی، معاشرتی اور تمدنی نظام بھی ہے کہ جس کو بروئے کار لایا جاسکتاہے۔ کوئی اگر اسلام کے قریب ہوا بھی توصرف انفرادی دائرے میں،اجتماعی دائرے سے اسلام کو دوررکھنے کے لیے اس نے بھی پوری کوشش کی ۔
یہی وجہ ہے کہ آزادی کے بعد ہر جگہ اسلامی نظام کے لیے بڑے پیمانے پرمزاحمت دیکھنے میں آئی اور مسلم عوام نے استعمارسے نجات حاصل کرنے کے بعداس کے پروردہ گروہ سے آویزش اورکشمکش مول لی۔اوردنیا نے دیکھا کہ غلبہ دین، اسلامی نظام اور معاشرے کو ظلم سے پاک کرکے عدل وانصاف کی دعویدار اسلامی تحریکیں جابجا جڑپکڑ رہی ہیں، پذیرائی حاصل کررہی ہیں،اور اس کے نتیجے میں جہاد کا علم بھی بلند ہو رہاہے اور کامیابی کے جھنڈے گاڑ رہاہے۔ صومالیہ، نائجیریا اور الجزائر میں تبدیلی کی لہرہے اورترکی سے مراکش اور سوڈان تک اسلامی تحریکیںآگے بڑھ رہی ہیں۔ جہاد افغانستان کامیاب ہواہے اور اس کے نتیجے میں سوویت یونین کی شان و شوکت پارہ پارہ ہوگئی ہے۔ تو اس کے نتیجے میں امت مسلمہ کوایک دوسری آزمائش سے دوچار ہونا پڑاکہ امریکہ نے یک محوری دنیا کے نام پر اعلان کیا کہ میں تنہا اور اکیلا اس دنیا کا امام ہوں اور پوری دنیا بالخصوص عالم اسلام کو میرا ہی باجگزارہونا چاہیے۔ اسے میری پالیسی اور کہے پر عمل کرنا چاہیے،اور جو عمل نہیں کرے گا اس کی بیخ کنی کے لیے عسکری قوت کااستعمال کیا جائے گا اور بارود کی برسات سے نافرمانوں کی اینٹ سے اینٹ بجا دی جائے گی ،انھیں پتھر کے زمانے میں دھکیل دیاجائے گا۔
امریکہ اپنے حلیفوں کے ساتھ مل کرعالم اسلام اور امت مسلمہ کے خلاف اس لیے اعلان جنگ کیے ہوئے ہے کیونکہ وہ امریکی استعمار کے غلبے کو تسلیم کرنے سے انکاری ہیں،اور اپنے معاشروں میں امریکی تہذیب اور اس کے ورلڈ آرڈر کے بجائے اسلام اور اسلامی تہذیب کو غالب دیکھنا چاہتے ہیں۔ اسلامی معاشروں میں وہ اسلامی تحریکیں موجود ہیں جو عوام الناس کو اسلام کے صحیح تصورات سے آشنا کراتی ہیں اور اسلام کے غلبے اور دین کی پذیرائی کے لیے کوشاں ہوتی ہیں،اور امریکہ کے گماشتہ حکمرانوں کی خواہش کے علی الرغم حالات میں سے اپنے لیے کوئی راستہ بناتی ہیں۔ اس لیے بڑے پیمانے پر کوشش کی جارہی ہے کہ اسلامی تحریکوں سے مسلم عوام کو’ نجات‘ دلائی جائے، اور ایسا ماحول پیدا کیا جائے کہ نہ صرف لوگ سیکولر ازم کی طرف راغب ہوں، امریکہ کے مسلط کردہ نظام پر چلنے کی کوشش کریں بلکہ اس کے ساتھ اسلامی تحریکوں پر ایسے لیبل لگائے جائیں کہ معاشرے میں ان کے کام کرنے کی راہیں مسدود ہوجائیں۔ان کو انتہاپسند ،بنیاد پرست اور سوچنے سمجھنے کی صلاحیت سے عاری قرار دیا جائے،اور ان کو دہشت گرد کہہ کر یہ باور کرایا جائے کہ یہ معقول بات سننے، قاعدے ضابطے میں رہنے اور کسی آئین و قانون کی پابندی کے لیے تیار نہیں ہیں۔ دنیا بھر کی اسلامی تحریکیں پہلے دن سے یہ بات کہہ رہی ہیں کہ یہ جنگ دہشت گردی کے خلاف نہیں اسلام اورعالم اسلام کے خلاف ہے،وقت اور حالات نے اس مؤقف کودرست ثابت کیا ہے۔ اس جنگ کو تقریباً دس سال ہونے کو ہیں،دنیانے دیکھ لیاہے کہ یہودی فلسطینیوں کا جینا دوبھر کریں، ان پر گن شپ ہیلی کاپٹروں سے بمباری کریں لیکن انھیں کوئی دہشت گرد نہیں کہتا۔ ہندوبڑے پیمانے پرہندوستان میں بسنے والی اقلیتوں کوتہہ تیغ کرے ، بنیادی حقوق چھین کر انھیں جینے کے حق سے محروم کرے،لیکن کسی ہندو کو، ان کی کسی تنظیم کو دہشت گرد نہیں قرار دیا جاتا۔کشمیر وفلسطین اور افغانستان و عراق میں مسلمان ظلم کا شکار ہیں لیکن آج تک کسی عیسائی، یہودی اور ہندو کے نام دہشت گردی کاقرعہ فال نہیں نکلا۔سارے دہشت گرد صرف مسلمان ہوتے ہیں یا یوں کہیے کہ دہشت گرد ہونے کے لیے مسلمان ہونا ضروری ہے۔
یہ بات سمجھنی چاہیے کہ جس دنیا میں ہم رہتے ہیں اس میں پرائیویٹ سیکٹر میں کوئی فرد یا افراد کا کوئی گروہ دہشت گرد بن کر اٹھے تو لمحوں منٹوں میں اس کا صفایاہو سکتاہے، اوروہ کوئی نقصان پہنچائے بھی تو اس کا مداوا ہوسکتاہے۔ملک کے اندر قانون ہوتاہے، فوج اور پولیس ہوتی ہے،ایجنسیاں اورخود عوام الناس ہوتے ہیں جو ہرطرح کی دہشت گردی کے خلاف اٹھ کھڑے ہوتے ہیں۔ فی زمانہ اصل دہشت گردی تو ریاستی دہشت گردی ہے جس کی وجہ سے نچلی سطح پر دہشت گردی پنپ رہی ہے۔ اگر ہمارے معاشرے کے اندر بم دھماکوں کا نہ ختم ہونے والا سلسلہ چل نکلا ہے تو اس کے ڈانڈے بھی امریکی دہشت گردی سے ملتے ہیں۔ دنیا میں لاکھوں لوگ امریکی بمباری کی وجہ سے لقمہ اجل بن رہے ہیں، ڈرون طیاروں اور ڈیزی کٹر بموں کی وجہ سے تباہی پھیل رہی ہے۔افغانستان اورعراق میں لاکھوں لوگوں کو امریکہ اور نیٹو کی افواج نے مارا ہے۔ کشمیرمیں بھارت اور فلسطین میں اسرائیل ریاستی دہشت گردی کے مرتکب ہیں۔ حقیقت یہ ہے کہ سٹیٹ ٹیررازم نہ ہو تو اس کا ردعمل بھی نہیں ہوگا۔ایکشن کے نتیجے میں ری ایکشن ہوتا ہے، اور پھر یہ معلوم نہیں ہو پاتا کہ اس ری ایکشن سے کون کون فائدہ اٹھا رہا ہے۔ہم جب یہ بات کہتے ہیں کہ فاٹا سے بلوچستان تک پاکستان کے تمام علاقوں میں فوجی آپریشن ختم ہونا چاہیے تو اس کی وجہ یہی ہے کہ اس کے نتیجے میں ری ایکشن ہوگا اور معصوم لوگ اس کی زد میں آئیں گے۔ ہم مسلسل یہ بات کہہ رہے ہیں کہ مذاکرات کیے جائیں، لندن کانفرنس اور مذاکرات کے لیے امریکی کوششوں کے بعد اس کی حقانیت مزید واضح ہوگئی ہے۔امریکی جنگ میں شمولیت نے اس قوم کولاشیں دی ہیں، معیشت کو تباہ اور امن و سکون کو برباد کیاہے، فوج اور عوام کے درمیان دوری پیدا کی ہے۔ مذاکرات مسئلے کا حل ہے اور افغانستان کے نام پر لندن کانفرنس نے یہ اعلان کردیاہے کہ فوج کشی چاہے وہ امریکہ کی ہویانیٹو کی، ناکام ہوچکی ہے۔اس لیے ڈومورپر عملدرآمدکی پالیسی سے جتنی جلدی نکل آئیں ،اتنا ہی ملک و قوم کے لیے اچھاہے۔ یہ اقدام دہشت گردی کے خاتمے اورملک میں قیام امن کے لیے معاون ثابت ہو سکتاہے۔

The Arrivals Reloaded (Urdu)

2010-12-13T10:22:00.001-08:00

خطرہ حرم اور حجاب سے ہی

2010-12-12T22:25:00.000-08:00

خطرہ حرم اور حجاب سے ہی

مغربی تہذیب کا مسئلہ یہ ہے کہ اس نے کبھی انسان کو معاشرتی ”حیوان“ کی سطح سی اوپر دیکھنے کی کوشش ہی نہیں کی۔ لہٰذا اسلام جب انسان اور انسانی معاشرے کو اعلیٰ تہذیبی اقدار سے مزین کرتا ہے تو یہ چیز مغرب کو خلافِ فطرت محسوس ہوتی ہے۔ اسی وجہ سے مغرب اسلام کے خاندانی نظام اور قوانین حجاب کو بھی تسلیم کرنے کی پوزیشن میں نہیں ہے۔ ملکوں ملکوں حجاب پر پابندی کے قوانین منظور کرائے جارہے ہیں۔ مغرب کی انسانیت کے شرف سے محرومی کی دلیل یہ ہے کہ عورت کی بے لباسی اور اسے بکاﺅ مال بنادیئے جانے کے خلاف تو کسی اخلاقی حد بندی کی بھی ضرورت محسوس نہیں کی جاتی لیکن اگر مسلمان خاتون ایک رومال سے اپنا سر ڈھانپ لیتی ہے تو یہ عمل قانونی جرم بن جاتا ہے۔دیکھا جائے تو حجاب کے خلاف عالمی مہم کے پیچھے جہاں سیکولر لابی کی جارحانہ پالیسی کار فرما ہے وہاں سرمایہ دارانہ استعمار کے مفادات بھی وابستہ ہیں۔ میک اپ اور کاسمیٹک انڈسٹری جو صرف امریکا میں سالانہ 8 بلین ڈالر کماتی ہے اور عالمی منڈی میں سالانہ 19 بلین ڈالر کا کاروبار کرتی ہی، وہ آخر یہ بات کیسے قبول کرسکتی ہے کہ خواتین اپنے جسم، بال اور چہرے کو چھپا کر رکھیں۔ ظاہر ہے کہ جو خواتین باحجاب گھر سے باہر نکلتی ہیں وہ اپنی غیر معمولی تزئین و آرائش کی ضرورت محسوس نہیں کرتیں۔ لہٰذا مغرب میں خواتین کے اندر تیزی سے پھیلتا ہوا اسلام اور حجاب کی مقبولیت، سرمایہ دارانہ استعمار کو اپنے لیے خطرے کی گھنٹی لگنے لگی ہے۔اتنا تو سب جانتے ہیں کہ مغربی ممالک کے اندر حجاب کے خلاف کریک ڈاﺅن سراسر غیرمنطقی اور تعصب پر مبنی ہے۔ اب تک فرانس، بلجیم، ہالینڈ، اٹلی اور ڈنمارک جیسے خالص سیکولر ممالک کے اندر حجاب کا استعمال قانونی جرم قرار دیا جاچکا ہے۔ بلجیم کی تو کل آبادی کا صرف 4 فیصد حصہ مسلمان ہیں جن میں حجاب استعمال کرنے والی خواتین صرف 100 ہیں۔ محض ایک سو نفوس پورے ملک کے لیے آخر کیا مشکل پیدا کرلیتی! یہ سیکولر بے چارے اسلامی شعائر کا ہلکا ساعکس بھی برداشت کرنے کی قوت نہیں رکھتے۔ اب ان ممالک کے حکمران خواہ کوئی جواز پیش کریں، لیکن ان پابندیوں کا اصل سبب یہ ہے کہ انہیں اسلام کے تصور حیا اور حجاب سے خوف لاحق ہے جو دنیا بھر کے اندر خواتین میں اسلام کے فروغ کا سبب بن رہا ہے۔ حجاب کی اس قوت کا راز یہ ہے کہ حجاب محض کسی عورت کا انفرادی عمل نہیں ہوتا بلکہ ایک تہذیب کا اعلان اور عقیدے کا اظہار ہوتا ہے۔ عام طور پر سعودی عرب، ایران اور طالبان کے زیر انتظام افغانستان پر یہ تنقید کی جاتی تھی کہ یہاں خواتین کو بزور حجاب کا پابند بنایا جاتا ہے۔ تنقید کرنے والوں کو معلوم ہونا چاہیے کہ یہ وہ ممالک ہیں جہاں اسلام کی حیثیت سرکاری مذہب کی ہے جہاں حاکمیت اعلیٰ اللہ رب العالمین کی تسلیم کی جاتی ہے۔ البتہ جواز تو سیکولر مغربی ممالک کے اندر حجاب پر پابندی عائد کرنے کا سمجھ نہیں آتا۔ گویا ان ممالک کے اندر مذہب تو ریاست کے معاملات میں مداخلت نہیں کرسکتا مگر ریاست کو مذہب کے معاملات میں مداخلت کرنے کا پورا اختیار ہے۔ اگر یہی سیکولر ازم کا اصل مفہوم ہے تو بنیادی انسانی حقوق اور شخصی آزادی کی خیر منایئی!اصلی بات یہ ہے کہ دنیا بھر میں حجاب مخالف پروپیگنڈہ اسلام کے خلاف روایتی بغض اور تعصب کی بنا پر پھیلایا جارہا ہے۔ جس پر پردہ ڈالنے کے لیے رنگ برنگ توجیہات پیش کی جاتی ہیں۔ یوں تو برطانیہ کے سابق وزیراعظم ٹونی بلیئر، وزیر خارجہ جیک اسٹرا، اٹلی کے وزیراعظم رومانو پیراڈی بھی خاصی دلچسپ باتیں کرتے رہے ہیں مگر خاص طور پر فرانس کے صدر نکولس سرکوزی ہمیشہ اپنے قد کے مطابق بات کرتے ہیں۔ کبھی تو وہ کہتے ہیں کہ حجاب ایک مذہبی علامت ہے جس سے فرانس کی سیکولر شناخت متاثر ہوتی ہے اور کبھی کہتے ہیں کہ یہ کوئی مذہبی علامت نہیں ہے بلکہ خواتین کو نیچا دکھانے کی سازش ہے اور یہ کہ برقع اور حجاب آمرانہ اقدام، نسل پرستی اور متعصب ذہنیت کا آئینہ دار ہے۔ انہوں نے بڑی حسین منطق یہ بھی ایجاد کی کہ: Seeing is believing, when a woman looks liberated, She must be liberated. گویا انہوں نے کہاکہ برقع پوش خواتین کسی قیدی کی طرح نظر آتی ہیں۔ اس طرح کی باتیں کرکے صدر سرکوزی نے اپنا قد مزید چھوٹا کرلیا ہے۔ کیوں کہ حجاب کے خلاف ان کا بیان کردہ کوئی ایک جواز بھی ٹھوس نہیں ہی، جبکہ مسلمان خواتین کے لیے پردے کے حق میں بس ایک جواز ہی کافی ہے کہ حجاب ”حکم الٰہی“ ہے۔ ویسے بہتر ہوتا اگر مسٹر سرکوزی حجاب کو ایک مذہبی علامت کہہ کر خاموش ہوجاتے لیکن حجاب کو خواتین کو نیچا دکھانے کی سازش قرار دینا ان کی کج فہمی کا نکتہ ¿ کمال ہے۔ اس طرح کی سوچ اس شخص کی فطری خباثت کی آئینہ دار ہے جس نے خود فرانس کی ایک ٹاپ ماڈل کے ساتھ شادی کی جو اپنی بے ہودگی میں بڑا نام کما چکی ہے۔ فرانس کی خاتون اوّل کی بے ہودہ ترین تصاویر فرانس کے شاپنگ مالز، ٹی شرٹس اور شاپنگ بیگز پر چھپتی رہیں۔ ان کی اشاعت پر بعد میں پابندی بھی لگادی گئی۔ یہاں ان نامناسب حوالوں پر بات کرنے کے پیچھے ہمارا مقصد صرف یہ نکتہ نکالنا ہے کہ ”کیا اصولاً ان تصاویر پر پابندی اور اسلامی حجاب پر پابندی کا آپس میں کوئی جواز بنتا ہی؟“ اگر پہلا اقدام درست ہے تو دوسرا لازماً غلط تسلیم کیا جانا چاہیے۔حجاب کو جبر، قدامت پسندی اور انتہا پسندی کی علامت قرار دینے والے یہ بات بھول جاتے ہیں کہ اسلام نے آج سے چودہ سو سال پہلے ہی عورت کے مقام کو زمین سے اٹھا کر آسمان کی رفعتوں تک پہنچا دیا تھا جبکہ مغرب کے تہذیبی انحطاط کا عالم یہ تھا کہ آج سے صرف دو سو سال پہلے تک انسانی گوشت لندن کے بازاروں میں فروخت ہوا کرتا تھا اور ابھی انیسویں صدی تک یورپ کی منڈیوں میں غلاموں کی تجارت کا کاروبار عروج پر تھا۔اسلامی تہذیب کا امتیاز ہی یہ ہے کہ یہ چودہ سو سال پہلے بھی جدید تھا اور آج بھی۔ اس تمام عرصے میں اسلام نے بے انتہا نشیب و فراز طے کیے مگر حرم اور حجاب کو کبھی آنچ نہیں آنے دی۔ اس لیے کہ یہی حرم اور حجاب اسلامی تہذیب کی آخری پناہ گاہ ہے۔ اسلام کے خاندانی نظام اور احکام حجاب کا مقصود یہ ہے کہ اگر شیطانی تہذیب پورے معاشرے پر بھی مسلط ہوجائے تو کم از کم وہ آغوش جس میں ایک مسلمان بچہ پرورش پاتا ہے وہ خود عفت و پاکیزگی کا گہوارہ ہو اور جس ماحول میں ایک نسل اپنی تربیت کی بنیادی منزلیں طے کرتی ہی، وہ حرم تقویٰ کی بنیاد پر قائم ہو۔آج مغرب کو اصل خطرہ ایک حجاب نما کپڑے یا کسی چار دیواری سے نہیں بلکہ اس غیور نسل سے در پیش ہے جو اس کی زیر سایہ پرورش پانے والی ہے۔

Unity In Islamic World : CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:

2010-11-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

Each of us is molded by whatever culture in which we grew up. As we grow and mature, we naturally become used to the style of dress, the types of food, hygiene, and the general cultural norms of our environment. By the time we are adults, we have become molded to the customs and lifestyles of the people of our own country. However, anyone who has moved from their own country to another country will notice many cultural differences. These differences can be minor, but many can be dramatically significant. For example, when coming to the United States from Saudi Arabia, there were so many differences in the culture, customs, and way of dressing. It was difficult for any one to feel comfortable at first. Vast differences in the culture and customs of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia can make adjustments.

Cultural difference is also a barrier in Muslim unity. Inhabitants of one Muslim country are not ready to change their cultures and traditions and adapt any change. There are number of cultural differences in Muslim countries like dressing manner, lingual differences, food, way of living etc. mode of dressing is different in different Muslim countries like in Saudi Arabia, Iran & Iraq its compulsory for a Muslim women to wear hijab and cover her body properly but in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Dubai etc. its not necessary for a Muslim women to wear hijab. Mode of dressing also varies to the whether of that country.

The taste of food and spices are different in Muslim countries then others. Like in Pakistan lots of hot spices are used in desi food but in Iran and Iraq people eat very fewer spices.

Lingual differences are a cultural difference it means different languages spoken in different Muslim nations. Due to this divergence sometimes Muslims are unable to comprehend the point of view of other nations. Some Muslims are so much in love with their native languages that they repudiate to adopt another language. English is an...

Unity of Muslim Ummah?

2010-08-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

Unity of Muslim Ummah?
By:
Syed Soharwardy
All Muslims know the value and importance of uniting the Muslims around the world. We have read and heard many times the famous verse from Surah Al-i-Imran, " And hold fast all together by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you) and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favor on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love so that by His grace ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the pit of fire and He saved you from it. Thus doth Allah make his signs clear to you: that ye may be guided". (Verse 013, Al-i-Imran).
Delivering long and long speeches about the Unity of Muslim Ummah does not tire our leaders, Imams and scholars. Every Muslim talks about the unity. However, as days are passing by Muslims are getting more and more divided. The division is multidimensional. Muslims are divided based upon languages, ethnicity, regional preferences, nationalism and above all sectarian beliefs in the name of Islam. The reasons of these divisions could be many. But in this paper I would like to focus on two reasons.

Division among Muslims because of local nationalism.
Division among Muslims because of sectarian beliefs in the name of Islam.

In spite of so many movements of unity why Muslims are getting further divided? This paper identifies the "source" of disunity and provides some suggestions in this regard. This paper briefly discusses the unity issues during the early period of Islam and in spite of extremely serious conflicts how Muslims remained prosperous and united till the fall of Khilafat-i-Islamiyah during early 1900s.
Basis for UnityOn what principles Muslims should be united? You may say the obvious answer. We are all Muslims, we believe in one God i.e. Almighty Allah, we believe in one Prophet i.e. Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe wa Aal-e-hee Wasallam) and we all have the book of Allah i.e. Qur'an. With due respect to my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, this sentence is nothing more than a lip service. The conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Algeria, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Bangladesh, South Africa (within Muslims), UK (within Muslims), USA (within Muslims), Canada (within Muslims) and many other Muslim and non-Muslim countries were created in the name of Islam. The conflicting Muslim parties fight against each other in the name of Allah. The reason is clear. In all conflicts if we review the conditions of compromise/ unity, we will find that our leaders, Imams, scholars, governments and Islamic organizations want to unite Muslims based upon their "own" principles and beliefs. Although, there is no dispute in Qur'an but nowadays every sect / organization / government / Imam / leader has it's own interpretation of Qur'an and Hadith. Every sect / organization / government / Imam / leader is struggling for control and power in order to implement their own sectarian beliefs and policies. We talk a lot about unity but we want unity based upon our own conditions. Religious groups and sects claim that they are killing or declaring Muslims as KAFIR, MUSHRIK, BID'ATEE, etc. in order to please Allah. How could we achieve this unity?
Difference of Opinions during the best of timesDuring Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) time whenever Muslims were divided on issues, Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) used to bring them together. All the Companions (May Allah be pleased with them) used to accept his final decision from their hearts. For example, after the battle of Hunain, the hypocrites among Muslims tried to divide the Muhajir and Ansaar on the issue of distribution of GHANEEMAH. Muslims were very close to fight among themselves. Allah's Messenger was informed about the situation. He came and talked to them, and brought them together. The division disappeared. Similarly, once two companions of Prophet (peace be upon him) were engaged in a dispute. Both of them belonged to two different tribes of Madinah. The hypocrites saw a perfect opportunity to ignite tribal rivalry. They started singing tribal songs on both sides. Muslims got divided into two groups and were very close to start a fight. The news reached to Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him), he came and presented himself to the both groups. Both groups realized that for few minutes they had completely forgotten that Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) was among them. As soon as they listened Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him), they realized their mistake and repented immediately. The unity of Muslim remained intact.
After the death of Allah's Messenger, Muslims were divided on the issue of who would succeed the Prophet (peace be upon him). But as soon as the issue was resolved peacefully, all the Muslims were united behind Hadhrat Abu Bakr Al Siddiq, the first Caliph of Islam (May Allah be pleased with him). This unity of Muslims continued till the Martyrdom of third Caliph of Islam, Hadhrat Uthman ibn Affaan (May Allah be pleased with him). The first major division of Muslims occurred over a political issue of whether the murderers of Hadhrat Uthman should be captured first OR the law and order situation in Madinah should be handled first. This difference in approaches on purely a political issue divided the Muslims permanently. However, there were no differences among Muslims regarding Islamic Jurisprudence and worshipping (Ibadaat). All the Companions (Sahabah), the Family (Aal-e-Nabi) of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and later TAB-E-EEN (Muslims who followed the companions of the Prophet, Peace be upon him) used to pray together and only ONE way. If some differences occasionally appeared among them, they never considered it as a difference that could divide Muslims. Although, after the Martyrdom of Hadhrat Uthman, Muslims were divided in to two groups but neither history nor other Islamic literature tells us that they had differences in IBADAAT or Islamic Jurisprudence (FIQAH) OR they declared each other as Kafir, Mushrik, etc. like our Imams and scholars do nowadays.
If we read the Islamic history and the development of Islamic Jurisprudence (The science of Fiqah), we will realize that the four Ahle Sunnat Imams of Islamic Jurisprudence, Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi'e and Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal (May Allah shower His mercy upon them) had very high respect and love for the family of Prophet (Peace be upon him). They learnt Islamic Jurisprudence from Imams of Ahle Bait (family of Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him). Imam Abu Hanifa was not only a student of Imam Ja'ffar us Sadiq but he was also his stepson. It is very difficult to believe that Imam Abu Hanifa would have compiled the Fiqah that is very much different than Imam Ja'ffar us Sadiq's Fiqah. It is hard to believe that Imam Abu Hanifa would have prayed (Salat) behind Imam Ja'ffar differently like Shi'a and Sunni pray (Salat) differently today. There is a possibility of minor differences but if we look today's Fiqah Ja'fariyh and Fiqah Hanafiyah, there is a huge difference. Obviously, the people created these differences after these noble Imams. These noble Imams never created these differences.
The major division among Muslims in Jurisprudence occurred when the Science of Fiqah (Islamic Jurisprudence) became a formal subject, the Sunni Muslims were divided into four Madhahib (ways), HANAFI, MALKI, SHAFI'E AND HANBALI. The Shi'a Muslims separated their Fiqah and called it JA'FARIAH (from Imam Ja'ffar us Sadiq, May Allah be pleased with him). However, beside the differences in Fiqah the Sunni Muslim scholars and Imams always respected each other and never ever condemned each other. The discussion on the differences in Fiqah was never made a topic of Friday Sermon (KHUTBAH). One never called the other Imam and his followers as wrong. They never asked the Muslims not to follow the other Imams. Their differences of opinions were purely intellectual and based upon the Hadith of Prophet (peace be upon him) which reached to them at different times. This was the difference of opinion, which Allah's Prophet (peace be upon him) called "IKHTILAFO UMMATI RAHMAH", "The intellectual difference of opinion in my Ummah is a blessing".
The local nationalism was never preferred over the worldwide Islamic brotherhood. Imam Muslim, Imam Bukhari, Imam Trmidhi and many other Imams and scholars of Islam were non Arabs but no one felt that they were from non Arab parts of the world. Every Muslim knew only one criteria of brotherhood, which was the love, and the following of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him). With all the differences Muslims were united and very faithful to their religion. Muslims were the superpower of the world. Muslims were the leaders in setting up the standards for the rest of the world. Muslims were educators, scientists, doctors, engineers, commanders, etc. Intellectually, morally, economically, politically and spiritually Muslims were the leaders and model for other communities and nations. Muslims knew and practiced that " AL MUSLIM-O-MAN SAL-I-MAL MUSL-E-MOON-A- MILLI SANIHI WA YADIH ", a Muslim is a person from whose hands and tongue the other Muslims are safe (Al Hadith).
Challenges to Muslim UnityIn the previous section we discussed that the tribal / geographical nationalism has always caused problems for the unity of this Ummah, even during the period of Prophet (peace be upon him). But the physical presence of Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) was the bounding force for all Muslims. The Muslims were united around Muhammad (Peace be upon him). The battle of UHAD, the battle of HUNAIN, the battle of KHAYBER, the agreement of HUDAIBIYAH and many other events have given us undisputed proof that the uniting force for Muslims was only the personality of Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam).
After the death of Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him), the same tribalism got ignited in some of the tribes. Some of the tribes refused to pay ZAKAT and six people of various tribes claimed that if Muhammad of Bani Hashim (Peace be upon him) can be a Prophet why can't they be Prophets of their tribes? The first Caliph of Islam, Sayyidna Abu Bakr us Siddiq (May Allah be pleased with him) saw this tribal rebellion against Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the religion he preached. He crushed this tribal rebellion with force and the unity of Muslim Ummah was kept intact. This also proves that the unity of Muslim Ummah has always been challenged by those who tried to bring themselves at the high levels of Muhammad (peace be upon him) by claiming Prophethood or by undermining the honour and the teachings of Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Although, during the period of Hadhrat Ali ibn Abi Talib (May Allah be pleased with him) the Muslims were divided on the political front. Hadhrat Ameer Mua'wiyah (May Allah be pleased with him) was the ruler in Syria and Ameer ul Mo'mineen, Ali ibn Abi Talib (May Allah be pleased with him) was the Caliph of Islamic state in Madinah but they never considered each other as bad Muslim or weak Muslim. All Muslims were together as far the teachings, love and respect for Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) was concerned. However, during the rule of Yazeed ibn Muawiyah the unity of Muslim Ummah was destroyed by ignoring the respect and love for Allah's Messenger (Peace be upon him) and his family (Aal-e-Nabi). The Grand Son of our beloved Prophet (Peace be upon him), Hadhrat Sayyidna Imam Hussain (May Allah be pleased with him) scarified not only his own life but also the lives of his family members and close friends to defend and protect the SHA'AER of Allah (Signs of Allah). Imam Hussain's (May Allah be pleased with him) martyrdom gave new meanings to the unity of Muslim Ummah. Muslims realize that Imam Hussain's martyrdom has very important message for the Muslim Ummah. The message is that the Muslims must be united and ready to scarify their own lives for the sake of Allah's DEEN and to protect the Honour of Hadhrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and his family when challenged by the forces of evil.
Throughout the Islamic history till the early 1900, the Islamic history is full with glory and turmoil but Muslims remained the superpower of the world and the leaders of the modern civilization. Beside many differences within Muslim community no outside power was able to undermine the strength of Muslim Ummah however these outside powers always have tried to destroy the unity of Muslim Ummah. During the period of Banu uma-i-yah and Banu Abbas, there had been many attempts to disintegrate and disunite Muslims. Many sects grew and died. For example, Khawarij and Rawafidh were born during that time. There were several other branches grew from these two sects but finally all of these sects died out because of the excellent and very sincere work of TRUE scholars of Islam such as Imam Hussain, Imam Ja'ffer us Sadiq, Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi'e, Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal, Imam Muslim, Imam Bukhari, Imam Tirmidhi, Imam Baihaqi, Hadhrat Fuzail ibn Ayaz, Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi, Imam Asha'ry, Imam Jozi, Allama ibn Kathir, Allama Jalaluddin Suyyuti, Mulla Ali Qari, Imam Ghazali, Imam Asqalni, Sayyidna Abdul Qadir Jilani and hundreds of other Ulema-e-Haq and Auwlia Allah. Because of the noble work of the above and many others scholars of Islam the Ummah rejected the beliefs of Khawarij, Rawafidh and their sub-sects and Muslims remained united. The intellectual difference of opinion always remained among the scholars of Islam but that should not be considered as a division.
Movements of Disunity
The struggle between HAQ (right) and BAATIL (wrong) has always been part of human history. Started from Hadhrat Adam (May Allah's peace be upon him) this struggle is still going on. The forces of evil have never accepted the truth of Islam and they have always used their wicked ways to destroy this TRUTH (HAQ). The only way these forces could undermine this Truth (Islam) was to disunite its followers. The disunity among Muslims could only be achieved if some of the Muslims disconnect themselves from the following and obeying of Hadhrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him).
Druze, Bahais and AhmediesThe anti Islam forces have always supported the ideologies of those Muslims who tried to give "new" meanings to the Qur'anic verses or tried to undermine the honour of Allah's Messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him). Al-Hakim bi-amr Allah in 1022 broke away from Shi'at Muslims and created his own religion which was later recognized as Daruzism. Al-Hakim bi-amr Allah had full support from the Jews and the Christians. They helped him in organizing and establishing his dynasty.
During early 1900 in Iran when Bahá'u'lláh claimed that the God has manifested in him and founded the religion of Bahaism. The western governments supported him. Many of his followers broke away from Islam and followed him. However, both of the above breaks from the Muslim community were not considered as major disunity among Muslims because both the followers of Druzism and Bahaism did not claim themselves as Muslims any more. They were considered as the followers of different religions. The entire Muslim Ummah remained united except few hundreds who converted to Druzism and Bahaism.
One of the most recent attempts by the anti Islam forces to disunite Muslims was the establishment of another religion within the Muslim community called Ahmedism or Qadyanism. During 19 century in India a Muslim scholar, Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qadyani claimed that he is the Prophet of Allah as well. Mirza Ghulam Ahmed and his patrons from the British Empire had learnt the lessons from Bahai religion. They saw that Bahá'u'lláh made a mistake by disassociating from Islam. The disassociation from Islam created a roadblock to convert Muslims from Islam to Bahaism. Bahá'u'lláh was able to attract only few hundred Muslims and most of his following came from the Christians, Parsees and Hindus. Therefore, anti Islam forces were not very successful in achieving their goal. They were expecting that Bahá'u'lláh will attract thousands upon thousands Iranians to follow him. Instead of this Bahá'u'lláh converted thousands of Christians, Parsees and Hindus towards Bahaism.
In the case of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed the anti Islam forces were very cautious. Therefore, Mirza Ghulam Ahmed claimed himself as a Prophet but under the Prophethood of Muhammad ibn Abdullah (Peace be upon him). This way he tried to keep himself and his followers associated with Islam and at the same time establish a new religion within Islam. This tactics worked very well and thousands of Muslims of Punjab (India) were deceived. They thought that they could get the worldly benefits by following Mirza Ghulam Ahmed and still remain Muslim. The British were the rulers of India and these poor Muslims wanted to get some benefits from these patrons of Ahmedism. The British were relatively successful this time and created disunity among Muslims of India. But this new religion, Ahmedism remained in India and Pakistan. Slowly Muslims of India and Pakistan were getting aware of the motives and beliefs of this new religion and the following of this religion started declining. In 1970s after a long struggle, the Ahmedism and Qadyanism were declared as non-Muslim faiths. At that time, the Ahmedees and Qadyanees started mass migration towards the western world where they received full protection. Although, the Muslim Ummah do not considers Ahmedees and Qadyanees as Muslims but Ahmedees and Qadyanees themselves still claim that they are Muslims. After the declaration of Ahmedism as a separate religion, the Muslims are united and they did not see Ahmedism as a part of Islam.
The Start of Real DisunityAfter almost 13 centuries of Muslim rule, the focus of Muslim Ummah changed. What Qur'an describes the attributes of Muslims as, "They (Muslims) are very kind among themselves but very hard on Kuffaar". Muslims slowly adopted the opposite attributes. They became very kind to KUFFAAR and very hard and cruel to Muslims. Our religious leadership started focusing on minor issues. Instead of healthy intellectual discussions, our religious leadership started emphasizing on resolving the differences through force. Some Muslim scholars intentionally used Qur'anic verses and misinterpreted their meanings. Those verses which Allah had revealed in Qur'an to inspire Muslims to fight against Kuffaar, these scholars used those verses to create animosity among Muslim brothers. They made a Muslim an enemy of another Muslim by using Qur'an and Hadith.
The Colonial Era and Unity of Muslim UmmahFor the last 13 centuries Muslims were the superpower of the world. Khilafat-e-Uthmania (Ottoman Empire) was a thorn in the eyes of anti Islam forces. They wanted to destroy this Islamic Empire at any cost. They were trying for the last 13 centuries to destroy it but did not succeed. These forces saw the shift in focus of Muslim scholars and took full advantage of it. They planted a very dangerous seed of nationalism among Muslims. Muslims started fighting against their own Muslim brothers because either they were not from the same region or they were speaking a different language. When the Muslim superpower, Ottoman empire (Khilafat-e-Uthmania) was fighting against the European colonial powers, the English, the Dutch, the French, the Italians, etc.. at the same time they had to defend themselves from their own Muslim brothers because Ottoman forces were TURKS and were not local. To create HATE for TURKS the local so called scholars of Islam used religion in order to get support from all local Muslims. The tactics they used to get support from local Muslims in order to destroy Ottoman Empire was simple. Keep Muslims busy in fighting on minor issues. Make small issues as big issues and fight against those Muslims who do not accept the ideology of these local nationalist scholars. Since these nationalist scholars of Islam were fighting against Muslim Turkish Ottoman Empire the Western Christian governments loved them and supported them in their struggle. Now, these Muslims were very friendly with Kuffaar and very hard on other Muslims. After a long series of events during 1800 and early 1900 most of the Muslims countries became colonies of European governments. These so-called nationalist scholars received big rewards from their Lords in the West and they were successful in destroying the unity of Muslim Ummah while still claiming the title of "Islamic Scholars".
Strategies of Europe's anti Islam Forces
In late 1700s and early 1800s century the European powers realized that there is no way that the Christian forces can break the strength of Muslim Ummah. The West had seen more than 13 centuries of Muslim rule. The only way the anti Islam forces could weaken the unity of Muslim Ummah was to use and nourish some of the Muslims within the Muslim community who could divide the Muslims. Europeans especially the British were studying the Muslim society for many years. They were working hard to develop a wicked strategy which could not only divide Muslims but also help them in controlling the Muslim land and resources. The strategy of European anti Islam forces was based upon the following principles.

Muslims believe in one God and they worship only one God. This believe in one God was not considered as a threat towards European Society and governments. The Christian and Jews also believed in one God, therefore, this would be common point of discussion and communication.
Muslims do love their Prophet, Muhammad (Peace be upon him) from their hearts. It is possible that a Muslim may not completely practice his / her religion but it is impossible to find a Muslim who does not love Muhammad (peace be upon him). As long as Muslims remain in love with their Prophet (peace be upon him) it is very difficult to penetrate in their lines and change their thinking. Therefore, develop and support few Muslims who are willing to challenge the honour and authority of Muhammad (peace be upon him). Once, Muslims get into dispute about their own beloved Prophet, it will be very easy to disintegrate them.
Muslims believe in their Holy Book, Qur'an. They also believe that Qur'an is the word of God and can not be changed. Muslims rely on Qur'an for guidance and religious beliefs. However, Qur'an is the major threat for non-Muslim society. No Muslim would accept to modify or change the Qur'anic verses. All major interpretations (TAFSEER) and Translations of Qur'an are similar. Therefore, develop and support those Muslims scholars who will be able to provide "new" meanings to the Qur'anic verses and interpret them "differently". These kinds of scholars are those who are;

Nationalist and against Ottoman Empire because of its Turkish heritage.
Leaders in their local communities and want to be recognized as big leaders
Looking for better living but can not afford it.

During late 18th century the European governments were desperately working to disintegrate Muslim Unity. On one side British were breaking the unity of Muslims of non-Arab world by supporting Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qadyani and on the other side they were creating Arab nationalism among Muslims of the Arab World. They found several Muslims who were willing to fight against the Turkish Ottoman Empire. They found two local Muslim leaders in Najd area of Arabian Peninsula who were willing to fight against Khilafat-e-Islamiyah provided that the British give them power to rule the land. One of them claimed to be a reformer of Islam and the other was a tribal leader and wanted to be the King of Arabia. The British saw a perfect opportunity to destroy KHILAFAT-E-ISLAMI (Ottoman Empire) and used these two leaders of Najd to destroy the unity of Muslim Ummah. These two leaders made an agreement among themselves that the reformer whose name was Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab would use Islam as his slogan and the tribal leader would provide men and weapons to fight against Muslims who support KHILAFAT-E-ISLAMI (Ottoman Empire). Since, the self claimed reformer knew that the Turks and the Muslims of Hijaz love Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) more than any thing else he decided to undermine the high levels and honour of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him). He used the beliefs of Khwarij to undermine the authority of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him). He did not openly preach hate against Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) but presented Muhammad (Peace be upon him) as an ordinary person who "was" Allah's Messenger but died 1300 years ago.
He used little different approach from other self-claimed reformers. Ghulam Ahmed Qadyani, Bahaullah and Muhammad Daruze all claimed that they were Prophets hence proclaiming that they were at the same level as Muhammad (Peace be upon him). But Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab instead of claiming high levels for himself as the other did he brought down the levels of Muhammad (peace be upon him ) so low that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab both looked at the same level (I seek Allah's refuge). He presented Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a dead person who does not have any more links with his Ummah and Ummah does not need him anymore (I seek Allah's refuge). He destroyed all the historical sites and objects which had any connections with Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) or with the companions of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon them). He killed thousands of Muslims in Arabian Peninsula in order to establish the government of his partner who promised him to give him a fair share in his kingdom. Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab did not follow the consensus (Ijma') of Islamic scholars and considered himself as the final authority in giving the interpretation of Qur'an and Hadith. Since, he claimed himself as a Muslim reformer he used force with full backing of British government and his partner to occupy the entire Arabia. Finally, he was able to capture the control over Makkah and Madinah, the two holy cities of Islamic faith.
The Europeans were very happy with the disintegration of Ottoman Empire. These so-called scholars of Islam did what the entire anti Islam forces couldn't do in 13 centuries. After the disintegration of Ottoman Empire most of the Muslim countries became European colonies. Muslims were oppressed all over the world. All the glory of Islamic superpower vanished and Muslims were completely disunited.
WahabismMuhammad ibn Abdul Wahab founded a new sect in Islam called Wahabism. The ideology of Wahabism was based upon the beliefs of Khwarij. In other words, the Wahabism was a revival of Khwarjism. Two very important factors played very important role in the success of Wahabism. First, the Makkah and Madinah both cities were in the control of Wahabi Imams who used the two holy mosques to spread their ideology on worldwide basis. They preached to the pilgrims and the visitors of these two holy cities. Muslims who did not know that the Wahabism is a product of the destruction of Ottoman Empire consider the Imams of these two holy mosques as sacred persons and followed whatever they preached. On the other hand the wealth of oil in the Arabian Peninsula brought job opportunities for worldwide Muslims and non-Muslims. When Muslims went to work in the region they thought that all of the residents of the Holy Land are true followers of Islam. They did not know that the present religious authorities of Makkah and Madinah follow a school of thought, which is against the consensus of Islamic scholars. This kind of so-called Islamic thinking in the Arabian Peninsula is different than the thinking of the Islamic scholars throughout the history of Islam. Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab organized and established this school of thought in the name of Islam that contradicts with the consensus of Islamic scholars such as; Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi'e, Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal, Imam Muslim, Imam Bukhari, Imam Tirmidhi, Imam Baihaqi, Hadhrat Fuzail ibn Ayaz, Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi, Imam Asha'ry, Imam Jozi, Allama ibn Kathir, Allama Jalaluddin Suyyuti, Mulla Ali Qari, , Imam Ghazali, Imam Asqalni, Sayyidna Abdul Qadir Jilani and hundreds of other Ulema-e-Haq and Auwlia Allah.
How the Unity of Muslim Ummah can be achieved?There is only ONE way to achieve the unity of Muslim Ummah and that way is the way of Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam). This way was used by the Companions of Allah's Messenger (May Allah be pleased with them) and the Muslim scholars during the 13 centuries of Muslim rule of this world. One may say that everyone follows Qur'an but we are still disunited. That's true. The dispute is not in the Qur'an. The dispute lies with those scholars and their followers who interpret Qur'an based upon their own sectarian beliefs and ignore consensus of Islamic scholars (IJMA'). Muslims must return to the consensus of Islamic scholars which did exist from the period of SAHABAH (Companions of Allah's Messenger) till the fall of Khilafat-e-Islamiyah just one century ago. Muslims must think as one nation and must overcome the linguistic, geographical, regional and ethnic differences. The agents of colonial empires have seeded the linguistic and regional nationalism among Muslims. Muslims must leave linguistic and regional nationalism behind and become one body. If any part of the body feels pain the entire body should feel it and find the cure for it.
The intellectual differences of opinions should be not be considered as a dispute but it should not be discussed on streets or during Friday sermons. It should be discussed in the universities, and Dar-ul-Ulooms. A disputed matter or issue is that matter / issue in which the Muslim scholars are divided. Therefore, instead of condemning each other, calling names and killing Muslims we must follow whichever Muslim school of thought we want to follow but respect others.
Following are some DOs and DON'Ts to help in building the unity of Muslim Ummah.
DOs;

Whenever we discuss a disputed matter we must be civilized, open minded and kind to other Muslims.
Whenever we discuss a disputed matter we should acquire in-depth knowledge of both side's point of view.
We should be positive and respectful towards other Muslims regardless of difference in opinions.
We must be preaching and spreading Islam not our own sectarian beliefs.
If a dispute arises on the interpretation of a verse in Qur'an OR Hadith OR about a certain action we must follow the consensus of the scholars of Islam. If we find that the scholars are split on the issue then one can follow who ever he / she likes to follow but must not consider the others as wrong.
Friday's Sermons of our Imams should be on the common issues and teachings. The Imams must try to bring Muslims together. They must stay away from the disputed topics.
Muslims must love, respect and follow Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) did.
Muslims must adopt all those ways which increase the love of Allah, His Prophet (peace be upon him) and His book, Qur'an.
Muslims must be very careful in listening, reading and following of those scholars of Islam who were responsible for the destruction of KHILATFAT-E-ISLAMI during 1800 and later.
Muslims must focus on the major issues of Muslim Ummah such as Palestine, Al Quds, Chechnya, Kashmir, Indonesia, Philippines, Burma, Macedonian, Albania, etc.. rather than wasting time on minor issues.
Muslims must focus on education, technology and science, moral and spiritual vales, economical and political stability in Muslim countries.

DON'Ts;

Imams in mosques and scholars of Islam must not interpret verses of Qur'an from their own opinions and preferences. They must follow the consensus of Islamic scholars about an issue.
Imams and scholars should not be condemning Muslims of other sects in their speeches and Friday sermons.
Muslims should not be spreading hate for other Muslims who disagree with them as long as both groups follow the interpretation of Qur'an and Hadith from an authentic scholar of Islam.
Muslims should not follow those Imams and scholars who undermine the honour of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) and consider themselves as the final authority on Islam.
Muslims should not follow those Imams and scholars who are disrespectful towards the consensus of scholars of Islam.
Muslims should not follow those Imams and scholars who ignore their own innovations in Islam but keep Muslims busy in small disputes.
Muslims should not follow those scholars who are very eager to issue Fatwa against Muslims and declare them KAFIR, MUSHRIK, JAHANNAMI, BID'ATEE, etc.
Muslims should not follow those self claimed Imams and scholars who spread nothing but hate against those Muslims who do not belong to their sect.
Muslims should not follow those Imams and scholars who intentionally dual on minor differences among Muslims.
Muslims should not follow those Imams and scholars who divide Muslims rather than uniting them.

SUMMARYDruze, Bahais and Ahmedies separated their faith from the mainstream Islam therefore, they are considered as an out side communities. However, the followers of Wahabism always claimed that they are the true followers of Islam and their claim got strength from the fact that they have occupied the two holy cities of Islam, Makkah and Madinah. Some of the followers of Wahabism are the richest people and they are using the power of petro dollars to convert innocent Muslims towards Wahabism. What Wahabis have done is un-parallel in Islamic history. They used the verses of Qur'an and the text of Hadith to create animosity among brothers. All those verses of Qur'an which Allah has revealed to inspire Muslims against KUFFAR, these Wahabis used those verses to inspire Muslims against Muslims. Just like Ahmedies, Wahabis consider all those Muslims who do not follow them as "MUSHRIK" and "KAFIR". Therefore, in Wahabism it is allowed not to obey Muslim parents and fight against your own Muslim brothers and sisters if they do not follow the Wahabi sect. They use Allah's order of Amr bil Ma'roof wa Nahi A'nil Munkar (order good and stop evil) to spread their own ideology and sectarian beliefs. THIS IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF DISUNITY AMONG MUSLIMS OF THE PRESENT TIME.
A very important commonality between Ahmedies and Wahabis is the hidden jealousy for the high levels of Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam). Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qadyani by claiming Prophethood tried to bring himself at the level of Allah's Messenger (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam). While, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab tried to bring the high levels of Allah's Messenger (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) so down at his own level that he looked like at the same level as Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam). (I seek Allah's refuge from Satan). But Allah, the Creator of Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) has given Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam so high levels that if all the human beings and all the force of this world try to undermine the honour of Muhammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) they will never succeed. WA RA FA'NA LA KA ZIK RAK.
The Noble Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) foretold about the coming of such people in the Hadith narrated by "Abu-Yaa'li" on the authority of "Huzaifah" who said:
The Noble Prophet (sallal laahu alaihi wasallam) said: "What I fear most for you, is a man who reads the Qur'an until such time when the blessing of Qur'an is reflected on him and he takes Islam as his Cloak ... he then turns around and strips himself off from Islam and then tosses it away behind his back, then he heads quickly towards his neighbour with his sword unsheathed and he calls him a 'MUSHRIK'" I said: "O, Prophet of Allah! Who is more worthy of being called a MUSHRIK the one being attacked or the attacker". He replied, "It is indeed the attacker."
May Allah keep us on the right path, the path of SALEHEEN and keep us with the SALEHEEN. Ameen
Remember; the true knowledge is with Allah and His Prophet ((sallal laahu alaihi wasallam).

Iqbal, Quran and Muslim Unity

2010-07-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Mansoor Alam

Muslims are supposed to work together towards a common goal set by the Quran and shown by the Prophet (PBUH) through his Sunnah. They are brothers and sisters because they are bonded by the common ideology of the unity of God and the unity of humankind.

These are the foundational principles of Islam. The Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) require Muslims to work for the unity of the Ummah. Muslims are required to be merciful towards each other (The Quran (48:29)) and be like the body where if any part hurts the whole body should feel the pain (Hadith). But, are Muslims practicing this injunction of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH)? Muslims and various Islamic organizations are working hard but it is frustratingly obvious that the above goals are ever so illusive. Instead of Muslims being united in mercy towards each other, they are, on the whole, far from it. Instead of feeling the pain and misery of other Muslims (Chechens, Palestinians, Kashmiris, for example), most of us are happily enjoying our material comforts of life. Is Muslim unity only a dream that cannot be fulfilled? Many argue that all this talk of Muslim unity is out of date. Islam may have once united Muslims but present reality makes it impossible. They say it is nice talk, which makes Muslims feel good but an unrealistic goal that cannot be achieved. Muslims spend (and have spent) a lot of their time and emotional energy debating this issue.

We will come back to this fundamental question- is Muslim unity possible, and if it is, then how to achieve it? But first, let us find out the present state of Muslims and compare it with the Iqbal’s visionary diagnosis of their problems.

Muslim misery and suffering is as common today as it was in the days of Iqbal. Every day that passes brings more death and destruction to Muslims, only at a much wider scale. It is sad to see Muslim governments collaborating with non-Muslims to inflict damage and suffering against fellow Muslims. Many Muslim groups are also engaged in fighting against each other in many parts of the Muslim world. And in some countries where Muslims are in minority, their condition is even worse. As a minority they are systematically being subjected to discrimination, humiliation, persecution, torture, and rape. One wonders: is it ever going to end?

When Greeks attacked Turkey in 1923 (at the behest of the British) Iqbal’s heart started crying. He knew that it was not just an attack on Turkey, but it was an attack on Islam itself. He tried to free the Muslim mind from the prevailing colonial mentality and from Muslims’ own narrow self-interests. He wrote the poem "Tolu-e-Islam" which later became one of his classic works. [Copies of this poem were sold and all proceeds were sent to Turkey.] He said:

"Hawas ne tukre tukre kar diya hay na’u insan ko

ukhuwwat ka bayan ho ja mohabbat ki zaban ho ja
ye Hindi, wo Khurasani, ye Afghani, wo Turani

tu ay sharmindayeh sahil uchhal kar bekaraan ho ja"

"Greed has torn apart humankind. You (Muslims), become role models of love and brotherhood. Get beyond the narrow boundaries of nationalities (like Indian, Khurasani, Afghani, and Turkish) and jump into the limitless ocean (of Islam)."

Observing the present situation in which Muslims find themselves today, Iqbal’s soul must be feeling extremely restless. Alas! There is no Iqbal today among Muslims who can guide the Muslim Ummah against the forces that are bent on its destruction. But the Muslim Ummah can also be torn apart due to internal conflicts.

In fact, this is what is happening to Muslim Ummah today. Probably, there are no people in the world today who have been as divided as Muslims. They are divided along religious, political, ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and sectarian lines. These divisions extend further into subdivisions. Status, wealth, fame, and fortune have also created social differences among Muslims.

Muslims are divided at the root into Sunnis and Shias. Sunnis are further divided into Hanafi, Maliki, Shaafai, and Hanbali. Shias too are divided into Kesania, Zaidia, Imamia or Ithna ‘Ashari, Ismalia, etc. Sunnis are also divided into Ahle-hadith and Ahle-fiqha. In the Indian subcontinent (at least) Ahle-fiqha are further divided into Deobandis and Barelwis. Similar differences exist in other places as well. Are all these divisions and differences schools of thought as many Muslims claim? Whether or not we admit it, these differences and divisions do create physical, emotional, and psychological barriers amongst us. Iqbal says that these differences create prejudice in human beings:

"Shajar hay firqa arayee, ta’assub hay samar iska
ye wo phal hay jo jannat se nikalwata hay adam ko"

"These divisions are the branches of a tree; its fruit is prejudice. This is the fruit which gets Adam (man) expelled from Jannah (peaceful life)."

Although in North America we do try to work together (despite our religious differences) in a civilized manner, but our brothers and sisters back home are not that fortunate. There, these differences sometimes lead to violence and killings. Why is that despite clear warnings of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) against it? Is it due to the prejudices that are the inevitable results of our divisions, as Iqbal mentions in the above poem?

With all these divisions and differences, can we progress in the world? Iqbal does not think so:

"Firqa bandi hay kaheen aur kaheen zatein hain

kya zamane mein panapne ki yahee batein hain"

"Somewhere are religious divisions and somewhere are differences based on caste. Is this the way to prosper in the world?"

He further says:

"Tum syed bhi ho Mirza bhi ho Afghan bhi ho

tum sabhi kuchh ho batao ki musalman bhi ho"

"You are Syed; you are Mirza; you are Afghan. You are everything. Tell me, are you Muslim too?"

Here Iqbal uses the word "Syed" to represent the caste system that has penetrated Muslims (especially in the Indian subcontinent because of Hindu influence). He uses the word "Mirza" to represent the ruling elite and the word "Afghan" to represent the differences in Muslims based on region, language, and race.

All these differences are anti-Qur’anic. When Iqbal poses the question, "Tell me, are you Muslim too?" he implies that those who feel proud and superior compared to other fellow Muslims because of these labels attached to their names (and not because of Taqwa), they are not entitled to be called true Muslims.

Qur’an says that those who create differences in the Deen (Islam) are among the Mushrikun:

"Be not among the Mushrikun i.e., those who create differences in Deen (Isalm) and become sects. Each (sectarian) party quite content with itself (that it is following the correct path)." (30:32)
"And those who create division in Deen (Islam) and become divided into sects, O Prophet (PBUH)! You have no part in them in the least." (6:159)

The Prophet (PBUH) is reported to have said:

"Anyone who gets even one feet away from the Ummah has taken out the Islamic yoke from his neck, even if he prays and fasts."

That is why Qur’an calls upon all Muslims to be united and hold on steadfastly to the rope of Allah (i.e. Qur’an) and gives a stern warning to them not to create any divisions (3:103) amongst themselves.

If we look at the global picture as a whole, we find that the number of Muslims has grown steadily to more than a billion today. Muslims possess the richest resources of the world and the most fertile lands of the earth. In spite of this, how ironic that the most vulnerable and the most dependent people on earth are also Muslims.

Coming to the religious level, we find that the number of mosques is growing everywhere. The number of Muslims going to mosques is also increasing. The number of Muslims performing the annual pilgrimage increases every year, and in fact, has to be controlled to restrict the number. The number of Muslim organizations has been growing steadily. Whenever some differences arise among Muslims in one organization, they create another one and build another mosque. Noticing such an abundance of religious fervor among Muslims, Iqbal was led to say:

"Masjid to banadi shab bhar mein imaan ke hararat walon ne

man apna purana papi hay barson mein namazi ban na saka"

"Those with fervor in their faith built the mosque in a night, but the heart is sinful and did not prostrate in years."

Now, let us come to the real question. In spite of all the speeches and the sermons exhorting Muslims to unite, we see that the result is disappointing, to say the least. Why is that? The only way to diagnose this problem is to find the root cause according to Iqbal.

We will have to go deeper into our hearts to find out the root cause of our problems. If we look only at the outside, then just like a tree, we will see its trunk, the branches, and the leaves. And if the roots have become infected with a disease, no matter how strong the rest of the tree is, sooner or later it is going to die. Actually, its demise may be hastened even by a moderate wind. No amount of nourishment given to the branches and leaves will help prevent its final demise.

Obviously, the source to which we must turn to find out the root cause of the problem must provide the necessary guidance to diagnose it. According to Iqbal, the necessary guidance to diagnose all our (not just Muslims’ but entire humanity’s) ills is contained in the Qur’an:

"Wahi derina bimari wahi namuhkami dil ki

‘ilaj iska wahi aabe nishat angez hay saaqi"

"It is the same old disease, the same psychological problem of the heart. The cure is also the same, ‘Aab-e-Nishat’ i.e., the Qur’an."

Qur’an says:

"O mankind! There has come to you a guidance from your Lord and a cure for the disease in your hearts." (10:57)

Thus according to Qur’an and Iqbal, the disease of all our problems lies in our hearts and therefore, the cure should also begin there. Iqbal says:

"Zaban se kah bhi diya la ilaha illah to kya hasil

Dil-o-nigah Musalman naheen to kuchh bhi naheen"

"What can you accomplish by saying la ilaha with your tongue? If your heart is not a Muslim, then it is nothing."

That is, the Iman should enter the depths of the heart. Simply saying that I believe is not enough, according to the Quran (49:14).

The Qur’an says:

"Among human beings are those who say ‘We believe in Allah and the Last day;’ but they are not among the Momins." (2:8)

Those born in Muslim families cannot claim to be Momins (just like the bedouoins of Arabia) unless Iman has entered their hearts.

"The bedouins say, ‘We believe,’ (O Rasool) Say to them that you don’t believe, but you have accepted to surrender (to Islam) and Iman has not yet entered the depths of your hearts." (49:14)

Also, Iman is not blind faith. The Qur’an clearly says that Iman becomes strong only with knowledge,

"And that those on whom knowledge has been bestowed may know that (Qur’an) is the Truth from your Lord, so that they may believe in it and their hearts may be made humbly (open) to it." (22:54)

Therefore, the heart must be kept humble and open, so that Iman acquired by the mind (knowledge) may enter the heart. Iman cannot enter those whose hearts have disease and those who have sealed and hardened their hearts (22:53).

Qur’an says the Momins have dignity and power over others:

"If you are Momins, then you will have dominance and power." (3:139)

And unbelievers will never be able to subdue and dominate Momins:

"And never will We grant to the unbelievers victory and domination over Momins." (4:141)

Obviously, if we as Muslims compare ourselves with these very clear verses of Qur’an, then we have to come to only one conclusion that we are not among the Momins which the Qur’an talks about. Majority of our hearts are not open and humble. In fact, Qur’an tells us that instead of making the heart open and humble, there are some who let their emotions and ego control them. It says:

"Have you seen the one who has taken his own emotions as his god." (25:43)

Iqbal says regarding this type of person:

"Zabaan se gar kiya tauheed ka da’wa to kya hasil
banaya hay bute pindaar ko apna khuda tu ne"

"What is the benefit if you claim with your tongue in oneness of God? You have made your emotion an idol and taken it as your god."

How many of us (besides practicing the five pillars) are willing to go deep down in our hearts and honestly admit that we follow our emotions more often than we follow Allah (i.e. Book of Allah)? Allah demands total and complete surrender of our wills:

"O you who believe! Enter in Islam completely." (2:208)

Therefore, the problems which we Muslims are facing today are the outward symptoms of the root cause, i.e., the internal friction in our hearts between obedience to Allah and obedience to our own emotions and egos. And it is this internal conflict that is referred to as the disease of the heart by the Qur’an. Iqbal too espouses this same theme of the Qur’an when he says:

"Batil du-ee pasand hay haq la sharik hay

shirkat miyan-e haq-o-batil na kar qubool"

"Batil (as opposed to Haq; the Truth) likes to compromise but Haq is uncompromising. Do not accept the middle ground between Haq and Batil."

Therefore, as long as we Muslims keep compromising the TRUTH contained in the Quran, there is no hope for a cure of our collective mental, psychological, and emotional ills. We do not know how many psychological, emotional, and mental forms of idols we carry all the time in our hearts and minds. Qur’an demands us to cleanse and purify our hearts from all kinds of Ilah. These subtle forms of shirk are addictive and like a slow poison have a deadening effect on our hearts and minds. Iqbal in his unique God given style says:

"Dile murda dil naheen hay ise zida kar dobara

ki yahee hay ummaton ke marge kuhan ka chara"

"The deadened heart is not a heart. Make it alive again. This is the only way to cure the age old diseases of nations."

How to revive and resuscitate the dead heart; Iqbal says it is only possible through Qur’an:

"Gar tu mi khahi Musalman zeestan – neest mumkin juz ba Quran zeestan"

"If you wish to live the life a Muslim, then it is not possible except by the Quran."

‘Aisha (R) said: "The Prophet (PBUH) was a walking Quran." Thus the Sunnah is to live by the Quran and not just read it for earning reward for the hereafter.

Iqbal says about our Sahaba (R):

"Wo mu’azziz they zamane mein Musalman hokar
aur tum khwar huey tarike Quran hokar"

"They had dignity and power in the world because of Islam. And you are suffering humiliation and defeat because you have left the Qur’an."

Quran says that our Prophet (PBUH) will complain to Allah:

"And the Prophet (PBUH) will say: "O my Lord! Truly my people took the Quran for just foolish nonsense (i.e., they left the message of the Quran)." (25:30)

But Iqbal also emphasizes that there are plenty of roadblocks in the path of the Quran. No less is the roadblock presented by some religious scholars in the name of Islam. Iqbal says:

"Khud badalte naheen Quran ko badal dete hain

huwey kis darja faqeehane haram be taufiq"

"These people don’t change themselves but they change the Qur’an (by their interpretations). How unfortunate are these custodians of haram (Islam)."

He further says:

"Ahkam tere haq hain magar apne mufassir

taaweel se Quran ko bana sakte hain Pazhand"

"O Allah! Your guidance is no doubt The Truth. But our interpreters can turn Qur’an into Pazhand by their interpretations."

[Pazhand is the book compiled by the followers of Zoroaster which according to them is the interpretation of Avesta, the book of Zoroaster in which his followers inserted their own thoughts.]

And finally, Muslims should always keep in front of them the following verse, which describes the law for change:

"It is a fact that Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they bring about change in their own selves." (13:11)

Iqbal echoes exactly the same message of the Quran in his own God given style when he says:

"Khuda ne aaj tak us qaum ki haalat naheen badlee

na ho jisko khyal aap apni haalat ke badalne ka"

Let us conclude with the folowing message of Iqbal:

"Manf-e-at ek hai is qaum ki nuqsaan bhi ek

ek hi sab ka nabi deen bhi iman bhi ek
harame paak bhi Allah bhi Quran bhi ek

kuchh bari baat thi hote jo Musalman bhi ek"

"There is one common gain and one common loss for all Muslims. (Remember the Prophet’s hadith that all Muslims are like a body.) One Prophet (PBUH) for all and one Iman for all. One Ka’aba, one Allah and one Qur’an for all. How great it would be if Muslims also were one!"

Let us pray to Allah to unite our hearts in the path of Islam. It is Allah’s promise that if we do that, then we will regain our dignity, power, and glory (24:55). And Allah does not break His promise (2:80).

[republished with author's permission from www.tolueislam.com]

2010-07-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

وَاعتَصِموا بِحَبلِ اللَّهِ جَميعًا وَلا تَفَرَّقوا ۚ وَاذكُروا نِعمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيكُم إِذ كُنتُم أَعداءً فَأَلَّفَ بَينَ قُلوبِكُم فَأَصبَحتُم بِنِعمَتِهِ إِخوٰنًا وَكُنتُم عَلىٰ شَفا حُفرَةٍ مِنَ النّارِ فَأَنقَذَكُم مِنها ۗ كَذٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُم ءايٰتِهِ لَعَلَّكُم تَهتَدونَ ﴿١٠٣﴾سورة آل عمران, مدنية, 200 آية

اور سب مل کر الله کی رسی مضبوط پکڑو اور پھوٹ نہ ڈالو اور الله کا احسان اپنے اوپر یاد کرو جب کہ تم آپس میں دشمن تھے پھر تمہارے دلوں میں الفت ڈال دی پھر تم اس کے فضل سے بھائی بھائی ہو گئے اور تم آگ کے گڑھے کے کنارے پر تھے پھر تم کو اس سے نجات دی اس طرح تم پر الله اپنی نشانیاں بیان کرتا ہے تاکہ تم ہدایت پاؤ ﴿۱۰۳﴾

(103) And hold fast, all together, unto the bond with God, and do not draw apart from one another. And remember the blessings which God has bestowed upon you: how, when you were enemies, He brought your hearts together, so that through His blessing you became brethren; and [how, when] you were on the brink of a fiery abyss, He saved you from it. In this way God makes clear His messages unto you, so that you might find guidance,

(103) En houdt u allen tezamen vast aan het koord van Allah en weest niet verdeeld en gedenkt de gunst van Allah, die Hij u bewees toen gij vijanden waart en Hij uw harten verenigde, zo werdt gij door Zijn gunst broeders en gij waart aan de rand van een vuurput en Hij redde u er van. Zo legt Allah u Zijn geboden uit opdat gij zult worden geleid.

(103) Hamılıqla Allahın ipinə (dininə, Qur’ana) möhkəm sarılın və (firqələrə bölünüb bir-birinizdən) ayrılmayın! Allahın sizə verdiyi ne’mətini xatırlayın ki, siz bir-birinizə düşmən ikən. O sizin qəlblərinizi (islam ilə) birləşdirdi və Onun ne’məti sayəsində bir-birinizlə qardaş oldunuz. Siz oddan olan bir uçurumun kənarında ikən O sizi oradan xilas etdi. Allah Öz ayələrini sizin üçün bu şəkildə aydınlaşdırır ki, haqq yola yönəlmiş olasınız!

(103) "Dan berpeganglah kamu semuanya kepada tali (agama) Allah, dan janganlah kamu bercerai berai, dan ingatlah akan nikmat Allah kepadamu ketika kamu dahulu (masa Jahiliah) bermusuh musuhan, maka Allah mempersatukan hatimu, lalu menjadilah kamu karena nikmat Allah orang-orang yang bersaudara; dan kamu telah berada di tepi jurang neraka, lalu Allah menyelamatkan kamu daripadanya. Demikianlah Allah menerangkan ayat-ayat-Nya kepadamu, agar kamu mendapat petunjuk."

(103) あなたがたはアッラーの絆に皆でしっかりと縋り，分裂してはならない。そしてあなたがたに対するアッラーの恩恵を心に銘じなさい。初めあなたがたが（互いに）敵であった時かれはあなたがたの心を（愛情で）結び付け，その御恵みによりあなたがたは兄弟となったのである。あなたがたが火獄の穴の辺りにいたのを，かれがそこから救い出されたのである。このようにアッラーは，あなたがたのために印を明示される。きっとあなたがたは正しく導かれるであろう。

و همگى به ريسمان خدا ( قرآن و اسلام، و هرگونه وسيله وحدت)، چنگ زنيد ، و پراكنده نشويد! و نعمت (بزرگ) خدا را بر خود، به ياد آريد كه چگونه دشمن يكديگر بوديد، و او ميان دلهاى شما، الفت ايجاد كرد، و به بركت نعمت او، برادر شديد! و شما بر لب حفره‏اى از آتش بوديد، خدا شما را از آن نجات داد; اين چنين، خداوند آيات خود را براى شما آشكار مى‏سازد; شايد پذيراى هدايت شويد. ﴿۱

(103) Et cramponnez-vous tous ensemble au "Habl" (câble) d'Allah et ne soyez pas divisés; et rappelez-vous le bienfait d'Allah sur vous: lorsque vous étiez ennemis, c'est Lui qui réconcilia vos coeurs. Puis, pas Son bienfait, vous êtes devenus frères. Et alors que vous étiez au bord d'un abîme de Feu, c'est Lui qui vous en a sauvés. Ainsi, Allah vous montre Ses signes afin que vous soyez bien guidés.

(103) I trzymajcie sie razem wezla Boga,* i nie rozdzielajcie sie! Wspominajcie dobroc Boga nad wami! Oto byliscie wrogami, a On uczynil przyjazn w waszych sercach i staliscie sie przez Jego dobroc bracmi! Byliscie na skraju przepasci ognia, a On was od niego wyratowal. W ten sposób Bóg wyjasnia wam Swoje znaki. Byc moze, wy pójdziecie droga prosta!

ترانہ ملي

2010-07-08T01:22:00.001-07:00

ترانہ ملي

چين و عرب ہمارا ، ہندوستاں ہمارا

مسلم ہيں ہم ، وطن ہے سارا جہاں ہمارا

توحيد کي امانت سينوں ميں ہے ہمارے

آساں نہيں مٹانا نام و نشاں ہمارا

دنيا کے بت کدوں ميں پہلا وہ گھر خدا کا

ہم اس کے پاسباں ہيں، وہ پاسباں ہمارا

تيغوں کے سائے ميں ہم پل کر جواں ہوئے ہيں

خنجر ہلال کا ہے قومي نشاں ہمارا

مغرب کي واديوں ميں گونجي اذاں ہماري

تھمتا نہ تھا کسي سے سيل رواں ہمارا

باطل سے دنبے والے اے آسماں نہيں ہم

سو بار کر چکا ہے تو امتحاں ہمارا

اے گلستان اندلس! وہ دن ہيں ياد تجھ کو

تھا تيري ڈاليوں پر جب آشياں ہمارا

اے موج دجلہ! تو بھي پہچانتي ہے ہم کو

اب تک ہے تيرا دريا افسانہ خواں ہمارا

اے ارض پاک! تيري حرمت پہ کٹ مرے ہم

ہے خوں تري رگوں ميں اب تک رواں ہمارا

سالار کارواں ہے مير حجاز اپنا

اس نام سے ہے باقي آرام جاں ہمارا

اقبال کا ترانہ بانگ درا ہے گويا

ہوتا ہے جادہ پيما پھر کارواں ہمارا

اکیسویں صدی اور علامہ اقبال

2010-07-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

اکیسویں صدی اور علامہ اقبال

آج تہذیبوں کے ادغام میں ہر ملت کو نہ صرف اپنی ایک شناخت کو قائم رکھنا ہے بلکہ اس کے ساتھ ساتھ دوسری تہذیبوں کے بد اثرات سے بھی بچنا ہے اور یہ صرف اسی صورت ممکن ہے کہ جب کوئی ملت اپنے اقدار ، رویات اور تمدن کے بارے میں آگاہی رکھتی ہو۔

آج امت مسلمہ ایک ایسے مرحلے سے گزر رہی ہے کہ صیہونی نظریاتی بنیادوں پر اسلام کے سیاسی تشخص کو تباہ کرنے کے خواہاں ہیں۔مسلم دشمن اقوام کی خارجہ پالیسی کا مقصد ہے مسلمانوں کو تباہ کرنا ہے کیونکہ اسلام کا سیاسی تصور ہی انکے لئے عذاب بنا ہوا ہے

تحریر:محمدالطاف گوہر

انسانیت ازل سے اپنی بقا کی جنگ لڑ رہی ہے جبکہ تہذیبی ، مذہبی اور قومی عوامل میں افراد کو معاشی، سیاسی اور سماجی طور پر بنیادی حقوق کی پاسداری،خود مختاری ، رواداری، اخوت و مساوات کو اولین اہمیت حاصل رہی ہے۔ زندگی کو ترقی کی راہ پر گامزن رکھنے کیلئے جدت کا سہارا لینے کو ایک لازمی جز کی حیثیت حاصل رہی ہے ۔ البتہ اگر اسکی بنیاد عقلیت پسندی اور سرما یے کا حصول ہوا تو اسکے باعث اقوم عالم نے اذیت کا مزہ ضرور چکھا ہے۔
اس کرہء ارض پر انسانیت کی نہج کو کرب سے نجات دلانے اور اسکو ترقی کی راہ پر گامزن کرنے میں اگر ایک طرف الہامی ذرائع بہت اہم ہیں تو دوسری طرف ایسے افراد بھی شامل ہیں جنہوں نے انسانیت کے درد کو محسوس کیا اور اپنی زندگی کو فلاح کیلئے وقف کر دیا ۔ زندگی کو انکا احسان مند چاہئے جنہوں نے اسکو آشکار کرکے افراد کو کرب و اذیت کے گرداب سے نکلنے میں مدد دی۔ تاریخ گواہ ہے کہ انسان ازل سے قوت پر حکمرانی کا خواہاں رہا ہے جبکہ زندگیوں کو کنٹرول کرنے والی اس طاقت نے کئی روپ بدلے ہیں، جسمانی قوت، وراثت ، بادشاہت، صنعت، سرمایہ اور آج اس طاقت کا عظیم سرچشمہ صرف اور صرف علم ہے ۔
تہذیبوں کی ایک نئی روش اور جدت کے باعث ایک نیا ماورائی معاشرہ ، (سائبر سوسائٹی) معرض وجود میں آیا ہے جو کہ سیاسی ، سماجی ، قومی حد بندیوں سے آزاد اور اجتماعیت کی طرف گامزن ہے جبکہ اس دور کی قوت صرف علم کے مرہون منت ہے ۔ آج تہذیبوں کے ادغام میں ہر ملت کو نہ صرف اپنی ایک شناخت کو قائم رکھنا ہے بلکہ اس کے ساتھ ساتھ دوسری تہذیبوں کے بد اثرات سے بھی بچنا ہے اور یہ صرف اسی صورت ممکن ہے کہ جب کوئی ملت اپنے اقدار ، رویات اور تمدن کے بارے میں آگاہی رکھتی ہو۔
ملت اسلام کو برصغیر میں اپنی ایک شناخت اور قائم رکھنے اور اسکی پرواخت کی آگاہی کا سہرا سر ڈاکٹر علامہ محمد اقبا تمدن، معاشرت ، دین و مذہب سب جدا جدا ہیں اور اگر ہندوستان میں ہندوں کے منشاءکے مطابق متحدہ ہندوستانی حکومت ہو جاتی ہے تو ہندو اکثریت کی بنیاد پر مسلمانوں پر غلبہ حاصل کرتے ہوئے مسلمانوں کا تشخص ختم کر دیں گے اور معاشی طور پربھی مسلمان ناآسودہ رہیں گے، لہذا انگریزوں کی غلامی کے بعد مسلمان ہندو اکثریت کی غلامی میں رہنے کی بجائے الگ مسلم ریاست میں اپنی حکمرانی قائم کریں ۔ جہاں وہ مذہبی آزادی اور اسلامی اصولوں کے مطابق زندگی بسر کر سکیں اور معاشی، تعلیمی،ثقافتی و معاشرتی ہرلحاظ سے ترقی کر سکیں ۔جو کہ دو قومی نظریہ کااساس بنا اور اس کے بدولت پاکستان معرض وجود میں آیا۔
علامہ محمد اقبال اپنے عہد کے ایک معروف شاعر، مصنف،قانون دان ،سیاستدان، مسلم صوفی اور تحریک پاکستان کی ایک اہم ترین شخصیات میں سے ایک ہیں۔ جبکہ انکی شاعری اردو اور فارسی زبان میں ہے اور یہی انکی بنیادی وجہء شہرت ہے۔شاعری میں بنیادی رحجان تصوف اور احیائے امت اسلام کی طرف ہے جبکہ علامہ اقبال کو دور جدید کا صوفی سمجھا جاتا ہے ، بحیثیت سیاستدان ان کا سب سے نمایاں کارنامہ نظریہ ءپاکستان کی تشکیل ہے جو انہوں نے 1930 ءمیں الہ آباد میں مسلم لیگ کے اجلاس کی صدارت کرتے ہوئے پیش کیا۔ یہی نظریہ بعد میں پاکستان کے قیام کی بنیاد بنا۔
اقبال نے نئی نسل میں انقلابی روح پھونکی اور اسلامی عظمت کو اجاگر کیا، انکے نظریات اور تصورات کے روح رواں موضوع ، خودی ، عقل و عشق، مرد مومن، وطنیت و قومیت ، تصورِ تعلیم، تصورِ عورت ،مغربی تہذیب، تصورِ ابلیس اور عشق رسول اللہ ﷺ ہیں جو کہ ہر دور میں اپنی مثال آپ رہے ہیں۔اقبال نے اسلام کی عالمگیریت کو اجاگر کیا ؛
ایک ہوں مسلم حرم کی پاسبانی کیلئے
نیل کے ساحل سے لے کر تابخا کاشغرُ
اسلام بنیادی طور پر عالمگیر پیام ہے اور تمام نوع انسانی کو اخوت کی لڑی میں پرو ئے ایک وسیع تر ملت اسلامیہ کے قیام کی دعوت دیتا ہے تاکہ انسان کی ہوس کا علاج ہوسکے۔ لیکن اس کے لئے پہلا قدم یہ ہے کہ دنیا کے تمام مسلمان ممالک ایک لڑی میں پرو ئے جائیں۔اقبال کی بھی یہی تمنا ہے کہ ان کے نزدیک اسلام ایک ازلی، ابدی ، آفاقی اور عالمگیر نوعیت کا پیغام ہے،یہ ہر زمانہ ، ہر قوم اور ہر ملک کیلئے راہِ ہدایت ہے۔ اس لئے اس کے پیروکاروں کو رنگ و نسل اور ملک و وطن کے امتیازات مٹا کر یکجا ہو جانا اور دنیائے انسانیت کیلئے ایک عالمگیر برادری کی مثال پیش کرنی چاہئے ۔ لہذا انسانوں کے درمیان اخوت کا جذبہ پیدا ہونا چاہیے نہ کہ قوموں کا ایک جگہ اکٹھا ہو جانا۔
آج امت مسلمہ ایک ایسے مرحلے سے گزر رہی ہے کہ صیہونی نظریاتی بنیادوں پر اسلام کے سیاسی تشخص کو تباہ کرنے کے خواہاں ہیں۔مسلم دشمن اقوام کی خارجہ پالیسی کا مقصد ہے مسلمانوں کو تباہ کرنا ہے کیونکہ اسلام کا سیاسی تصور ہی انکے لئے عذاب بنا ہوا ہے۔جسکے باعث ایک ایسی سلامی ریاست وجود میں آئے جو اسلام کی سیاسی باگ دوڑ کو سنبھال لے اور اپنی خارجہ پالیسی اسلامی اصولوں ہر مرتب کرے ۔ اسی لئے مسلم دشمن عناصر ، مسلمان ممالک پر قبضہ اور تقسیم کے دونکاتی طریقہ پر کاربند ہیں۔جسکے نتیجہ میں اسلامی ممالک کا ایک دوسرے سے جنگ و جدل (ایران وعراق کی جنگ)، اور فرقہ وارانہ فسادات وجود میں آئے۔ مسلمانوں کو اپنے اندر اختلاف کو کم کرنے کیلئے کام کرنا ہوگا ، آج پوری امت مسلمہ کو اپنی سالمیت اور بقا کیلئے اکٹھا ہونے کی ضرورت ہے ۔

مسلمانوں کی ترقی کے اصول ۔۔ تقویٰ، اتحاد ملت، تبلیغ ودعوت

2010-07-04T01:37:00.000-07:00

مسلمانوں کی ترقی کے اصول ۔۔ تقویٰ، اتحاد ملت، تبلیغ ودعوت

محترم امام علی دانش

الله تعالیٰ نے سورہٴ آل عمران میں مسلمانوں کی ترقی اور اجتماعی کامیابی کے لیے خاص طور سے تین اصول کی تلقین فرمائی ہے، سب سے پہلے تقویٰ اختیار کرنے کی ہدایت ان الفاظ میں فرمائی کہ:﴿ یآیھا الذین آمنوا اتقوا الله حق تقاتہ ولا تموتن الا وانتم مسلمون﴾․

”اے ایمان والو! ڈرتے رہو الله سے، جیسا چاہیے اس سے ڈرنا اور بجز اسلام کے اور کسی حالت پر جان نہ دینا۔“

تقویٰ کیا ہے؟

مکمل تقویٰ اختیار کرنے کا حکم دیا گیا ہے۔ تقویٰ عربی زبان کا لفظ ہے، بچنے اور اجتناب کرنے کے معنی میں آتا ہے اور جن چیزوں سے بچنے کا حکم ہے وہ ڈرنے ہی کی چیزیں ہوتی ہیں ،ان میں مبتلا ہونے پر الله کی ناراضی اور سزا کا خوف ہوتا ہے، اسی لیے تقویٰ کا ترجمہ ڈرنا بھی کیا جاتا ہے ۔

حضرت عبدالله بن مسعود وغیرہ کے واسطے سے یہ روایت منقول ہے کہ: ” حق تقویٰ یہ ہے کہ الله کی اطاعت ہر کام میں کی جائے، کوئی کام اطاعت کے خلاف نہ ہو اور اس کو ہمیشہ یاد رکھیں، کبھی نہ بھولیں اور اس کا شکر ہمیشہ ادا کریں، کبھی ناشکری نہ کریں۔“

تقویٰ کا ادنیٰ درجہ کفر وشرک سے بچنا ہے۔ اس معنی کے لحاظ سے ہر مسلمان متقی کہا جاسکتا ہے او راعلیٰ درجہ ہر اس چیز سے بچنا جو الله او راس کے رسول کے نزدیک پسندیدہ نہیں ہے، یہاں تک کہ یہ مقام حاصل ہو جائے کہ قلب وذہن ہر وقت الله کے ذکر اور اس کی رضا جوئی کی فکر سے معمورر ہے۔ جو شخص پوری زندگی فرماں برداری اور پرہیز گاری پرقائم رہے گا اس کا خاتمہ بھی ان شاء الله العزیز ایمان پر ہو گا، انفرادی حیثیت سے متقی بن جانا ہی کافی نہیں ہے، بلکہ ہر مسلمان کی ذمہ داری ہے تو وہ خود بھی الله ورسول صلی الله علیہ وسلم کی نافرمانی سے بچتے رہنے کی پوری کوشش کرتا رہے اور دوسروں کو بھی اطاعت وتقویٰ کے راستہ پر لانے کی جدوجہد حسب استطاعت کرے ،تاکہ اجتماعی طور پر بھی ملت اسلامیہ میں تقویٰ کی صفت غالب آجائے، اس کے لیے اتحاد واتفاق ضروری ہے، اس لیے آگے کی آیت میں ہدایت فرمائی گئی۔

دینی بنیاد پر اتحاد کا حکم

﴿فاعتصموا بحبل الله جمیعاً ولا تفرقوا﴾․

”اور مضبوط پکڑو رسی الله کی سب مل کر اور پھوٹ نہ ڈالو۔“

تفسیر ابن کثیر میں عبدالله بن مسعود سے روایت نقل کی ہے کہ رسول اکرم صلی الله علیہ وسلم نے فرمایا: ”کتاب الله وہ الله کی رسی ہے‘ جو آسمان سے زمین تک لٹکی ہوئی ہے مطلب یہ ہے۔“ کہ الله تعالیٰ کے بھیجے ہوئے نظام حیات یعنی قرآن پر مضبوطی سے قائم رہو۔ یہی وہ بنیاد ہے جس پر اتحاد ملت برقرار رہ سکتا ہے ۔ امت مسلمہ کی شیرازہ بندی الله تعالیٰ کی ہدایت کی روشنی میں ہی کی جاسکتی ہے، جیسا کہ اسلام کے قرون اولیٰ میں اس کا مشاہدہ ہو چکا ہے کہ نبی کریم صلی الله علیہ وسلم نے صدیوں کی عداوتیں اور کینے مٹا کر اہل اسلام کو بھائی بھائی بنا دیا تھا، جس کے نتیجہ میں دونوں جہاں کی فلاح نصیب ہوئی اور جب تک قرآن حکیم سے مسلمانوں کا انفرادی واجتماعی رشتہ مضبوط رہا سر بلندی وسرفرازی ان کے قدم چومتی رہی #

وہ معزز تھے زمانہ میں مسلماں ہو کر

اور ہم خوار ہوئے تارک قرآں ہو کر

ہم کو کتاب سنت کی روشنی میں متحد ومتفق ہو کر آگے بڑھنا چاہیے #

ایک ہوں مسلم حرم کی پاسبانی کے لیے

نیل کے ساحل سے لے کر تا بخاک کاشغر

اسلام کی بنیادی باتوں پر اتحاد ہو جائے پھر ضروری اختلاف مضر نہ ہوں گے اور یہ مقصد حاصل کرنے کے لیے تبلیغ ودعوت کی ذمہ داری ادا کرنی ضروری ہے، اس کی اہمیت بیان کرنے کے لیے ارشاد فرمایا:

دعوت الی الخیر پر کامیابی موقوف ہے

﴿ولتکن منکم امة یدعون الی الخیر ویأمرون بالمعروف وینھون عن المنکر واولئک ھم المفلحون﴾․

”اور چاہیے کہ رہے تم میں ایک جماعت ایسی، جو بلاتی رہے خیر کی طر ف اور اچھے کاموں کا حکم کرتی رہے اور برائی سے روکے اور ایسے لوگ پورے کامیاب ہوں گے۔“

مسلمانوں کی ایک بڑی تعداد ہمہ تن دعوت وتبلیغ کی خدمت پر متعین رہے، جس کا وظیفہ ومشغلہ بس یہی ہو کہ دین کی طرف مخلوق کو بلایا کرے اور اس کام کی اہمیت کا یہ بھی تقاضا ہے کہ ہر مسلمان اپنے حسب حال اس خدمت میں تعاون کرے، اس لیے پوری امت کو مخاطب کرکے فرمایا: ﴿کنتم خیر امةٍ اخرجت للناس تأمرون بالمعروف وتنھون عن المنکر وتؤمنون بالله﴾․

” ( اے امت محمدیہ!) تم لوگ اچھی جماعت ہو کہ وہ جماعت لوگوں کے لیے ظاہر کی گئی ہے، تم لوگ نیک کاموں کا حکم دیتے ہو اور بری باتوں سے روکتے ہو اور ( خود بھی) الله پرایمان رکھتے ہو۔“

اس آیت میں امت محمدیہ کے خیر الامم ہونے کی وجہ یہ بیان فرمائی ہے کہ وہ خلق ا لله کو نفع پہنچانے کے لیے وجود میں آئی ہے اور گزشتہ تمام امتوں سے زیادہ فریضہٴ دعوت وتبلیغ کی ادائیگی اس امت کے ذریعہ مقدر ہے۔ پہلے ایسا بھی ہوتا رہا ہے کہ اس فریضہ سے عمومی اور کلی غفلت اختیار کی جاتی رہی ہے، لیکن یہ امت اس فریضہ کو بالکل کبھی متروک نہ کرے گی۔

ارشاد نبوی ہے کہ:

”اس امت میں تاقیامت ایک ایسی جماعت قائم رہے گی جو فریضہ امر بالمعروف اور نہی عن المنکر ادا کرتی رہے گی۔“

نبی اکرم صلی الله علیہ وسلم نے اس فریضہ کے ترک پر وعیدیں بھی سنائی ہیں، تاکہ امت میں اس کی طرف سے غفلت عام نہ ہو جائے، آپ نے فرمایا کہ:

” قسم ہے اس ذات کی جس کے قبضہ میں میری جان ہے! کہ تم ضرور امر بالمعروف اور نہی عن المنکر کرتے رہو، ورنہ قریب ہے کہ الله تعالیٰ گنہگاروں کے ساتھ تم پر بھی عذاب بھیج دے، اس وقت تم الله تعالیٰ سے دعا مانگو گے۔جو قبول نہ ہو گی۔“

ایک حدیث میں ہے:

”تم میں سے جو شخص کوئی گناہ ہوتا ہوا دیکھے تو اس کو چاہیے کہ اپنے ہاتھ( قوت) سے اس کو روک دے اور اگر یہ نہ کرسکے تو زبان سے منع کرے اور اگر یہ بھی نہ کرسکے تو کم از کم دل سے اس منکر کو بُرا سمجھے اور یہ ادنیٰ درجہ کا ایمان ہے۔“

مذکورہ روایتیں مشکوٰة شریف سے لی گئی ہیں۔

امت کے ہر فرد کی ذمہ داری ہے کہ وہ بھلائی کو پھیلانے او ربرائی کو روکنے کی کوشش اپنے علم واستطاعت کے مطابق کرے۔

خاتم النبیین حضرت محمد رسول الله صلی الله علیہ وسلم نے دین کی امانت اپنی امت کے سپرد فرما دی، اب کوئی کتاب آسمان سے نازل نہ ہو گی اور نہ کوئی نبوت ورسالت ہو گی ۔ امت کی یہ ذمہ داری ہے کہ دین کی امانت کو محفوظ رکھنے کی سعادت حاصل کرے، اگر ایک قوم اس سعادت سے محروم ہو گی تو دوسری قوم کو الله تعالیٰ اس منصب پر فائز کر دے گا۔

دعوت وتبلیغ کے دو درجے

دعوت الی الخیر کے دو درجے ہیں، پہلا یہ ہے کہ غیر مسلموں کو خیر یعنی اسلام کی طرف دعوت دینا، ہر مسلمان پر لازم ہے کہ وہ اسلام کی عملی زندگی کا نمونہ بنے اور غیر مسلموں کے سامنے اسلام کا تعارف اچھے طریقے سے کرائے۔ اگرآج امت مسلمہ اپنا مقصد دیگر اقوام کو خیر کی طرف دعوت دینا بنالے تو وہ سب بیماریاں ختم ہو جائیں گی جو دوسری قوموں کی نقالی سے ہمارے اندر پھیلی ہیں، صحابہ کرام کی کامیابیوں کا راز یہی تھا کہ انہوں نے اپنی زندگیوں کا مقصد مخلوق خدا کی اصلاح وترتیب کو بنالیا تھا ،اس جماعت کا ہر فرد اسلام کا نمونہٴ کامل تھا اور خود کو دعوت الی الخیر کا ذمہ دار سمجھتا تھا۔

حالات کا تقاضا

زمانہ کے حالات مسلم خوابیدہ کو آواز دے رہے ہیں کہ #

اٹھ کہ اب بزم جہاں کا اور ہی انداز ہے

مشرق ومغرب میں تیرے دور کا آغاز ہے

سرمایہ دارانہ نظام کی خرابیاں اشتراک کی تحریک منظر عام پر لاچکی ہے او راب فتنہ اشتراکیت ( کمیونزم) بھی خود کشی کر رہا ہے، کمیونزم کے سب سے بڑے داعی روس میں نیا انقلاب آرہا ہے، خدا فراموشی اور مذہب بیزاری کے برے انجام کو لوگوں نے آنکھوں سے دیکھ لیا ہے۔ دنیا میں صرف اسلام ہی وہ نظام فکر وعمل ہے جو تباہی کے دہانے پر کھڑی دنیا کو نجات دے سکتا ہے، بڑی ضرورت ہے کہ اہل اسلام قرآنی دعوت کا پرچم تھام کر آگے بڑھیں، کامیابی ان کے قدم چومنے کے لیے منتظر ہے۔

ایک غیر مسلم کی شہادت

ایک ہندو فاضل مسٹر سی، این مہتا نے لکھا ہے کہ:

” مجھے ایسا معلوم ہوتا ہے کہ وہ روحانی قوت جس نے معمولی لوگوں کو پر شکوہ اور بہادر بنایا تھا، اب بھی دنیا میں کایا پلٹ کر سکتی ہے، اسلام کا پیغام اب کسی قوم کا خاص حصہ نہیں بلکہ تمام دنیا والوں کا ورثہ ہے، ہندوستان میں مسلمانوں کا ہی حصہ وہ کارنامے نہیں ہیں جو اسلام کے ذریعہ ظاہر ہوئے، اسلام کی تلوار نیام میں گئے ہوئے صدیاں گزر چکی ہیں، مگر اسلام کاتسلط پہلے سے کہیں زیادہ ہے، کیوں کہ پیغمبر اسلام نے اسلام کے اصول سادگی ، حق پرستی اور مساوات قرار دیے ہیں۔“ ( خطبہ صدارت سی مہتا بحوالہ مکتوبات نبوی)

حقیقت یہی ہے کہ الله، رب العلمین او راس کے آخری نبی رحمة للعالمین ہیں۔ اسلام کا چشمہٴ رحمت سب کے لیے ہے ۔ جلد ہی وہ دور آنے والا ہے ان شاء الله کہ اسلام کو ظاہری غلبہ بھی پوری دنیا پر نصیب ہوجائے گا۔

افق پر جلوہٴ نور سحر معلوم ہوتا ہے

زمانہ تیرگی کا مختصر معلوم ہوتا ہے

مسلمانوں میں تبلیغ

دعوت دین کا دوسرا درجہ خود مسلمانوں کو دعوت خیر دینا ہے۔ تمام مسلمانوں کو ضروریات دین سے واقف کر دیا جائے۔ امت مسلمہ میں علوم قرآن وسنت کے ماہرین پیدا ہوں اور دین خالص کی روشنی میں غیر اسلامی نظریات اور رسوم باطلہ وخیالات فاسدہ کو مٹایا جائے۔ احیائے سنت اور فروغ دین کی جدوجہد منظم طور پر کی جائے، کیوں کہ جب تک دعوت خیر دینے والوں میں خیر نہ ہوان کی دعوت کا اثر دوسروں پر نہیں پڑ سکتا۔

بقول شاعر #

آدمی نہیں سنتا آدمی کی باتوں کو

پیکر عمل بن کر غیب کی صدا ہو جا

2010-07-03T13:43:00.001-07:00

List of Muslim soldiers

A Muslim soldier is a Muslim who has engaged in war, or is trained in the art of war. Some of the more contemporary belong to state or national military forces and are more accurately described as soldiers. Some of the older entries may be more accurately be described as warriors, and some as militia. Entries in this chronological list are accompanied by dates of birth and death, branch of Islam, country of birth, field of study, campaigns fought in, and a short biographical description.

Muslim military leaders

This list includes notable conquerors, generals, and admirals from early Islamic history to the 20th century.

500s

Sword of Caliph Umar, with later hilt.
Prophet Muhammad
Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib
Abu bakr As-Siddiq
Umar bin al-Khattab
Usman ibn Affan
Ali bin Abi Talib
Khalid ibn al-Walid
Saad Bin Abi Waqas
Zirrar ibn al-Azwar
Qa'qa ibn al-Amr
Usama ibn Zaid
Jafar ibn Abi Talib
Abu Sufyan ibn Harb
Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah
Zayd ibn Harithah
Bilal
Amr ibn al-'As

600s
Hasan ibn Ali
Husayn ibn Ali
Musa bin Nusair, (640-716). An Umayyad governor and general in North Africa.
Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef, (661-714). Umayyad administrator of Iraq.
Muhammad bin Qasim, (695-715). An early Arab General who captured Sindh in Pakistan.
Um Umara. Female fighter.
Nusaybah Bint k’ab Al Maziniyyah. Female fighter who fought at the Battle of Uhud with the army of Muhammad after converting to Islam.
Khawla bint al-Azwar, (d. 639). Female fighter who fought alongside the Rashidun army at the Battle of the Yarmuk against the Roman Byzantine Empire. She is Zirrar ibn al-Azwar's sister.
Wafeira. Female fighter who fought alongside khawla at the Battle of the Yarmuk.
Umar II, Umayyad Caliph

700s
Tariq ibn-Ziyad, (d. 720) . An Umayyad Amazigh general, who swept Hispania with Muslim army.
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi
Zaid ibn Ali - Arab, fought the Banu Umayyad
Muhammad ibn Qasim captured Sind and Multan in Pakistan
Yahya ibn Zayd - Arab, fought the Banu Umayyad
Muhammad ibn Abdullah (Nafs-az-Zakiyah) - Arab, fought the Abbasids
Ibraheem ibn Abdullah - Arab, fought the Abbasids
Isma'il ibn Jafar - Arab, fought the Banu Umayyad

800s
Abu 'Abdullah al-Shi'i, an Ismaili Da'i and a soldier, built a Katama Berbers army and helped found Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa.

900s
Mahmud of Ghazni, (971—1030). Ruler of Ghazni.
Jawhar as-Siqilli, commander of Fatimid forces. Founded Cairo and built Al-Azhar Mosque.

1000s
Avicenna
Alp Arslan
Togrul, Founder of the Seljuq Dynasty

1100s

Saladin and Guy of Lusignan after Battle of Hattin
Muhammad of Ghor
Zengi
Muḥammad Shahābuddīn Ghorī
Nur ad-Din Zangi, (1118–1174). A Syrian ruler and military leader who fought in the Crusades.
Saif ad-Din Ghazi I, Muslim leader during crusades
Saladin - 1138, Sunni, Kurd, Crusades
Shirkuh, Muslim Kurd leader during crusades

1200s
Qutb-ud-din Aybak built the Qutub Minar
Razia Sultana, Indian princess
Mu'in ad-Din Unur
Al-Kamil Sunni Kurd leader
Baibars, fought with Crusaders and Mongols
Saif ad-Din Qutuz, fought with Crusaders and Mongols
Qalawun, fought with Crusaders
Khalil
Ghiyas ud din Balban
Ala ud din Khilji , Indian king who fought with the Mongols
Uthman I, Founder of the Ottoman Dynasty
Berke Khan, Fought with Mongols
Aybak, Founder of the Mamluk Dynasty
Saif ad-Din Qutuz1300s
Tamerlane (1370,1405). Conqueror and founder of the Timurid dynasty.
Ala ud din Khilji
Bayezid I Victor of Battle of Nicopolis
Zheng He (1371–1433) Chinese mariner, explorer, and fleet admiral

1400s
Qutaibah bin Muslim,
Sher Shah 1472.
Hayreddin Barbarossa (1475–1546). Ottoman Admiral.
Zahiruddin Babur Conqueror and founder of the powerful Mughal Empire
Selim I
Suleiman the Magnificent
Mehmed II also known as Mehmed the Conqueror
Sharifa Fatima. Female Zaidi chieftain of Yemen who conquered Sana'a.

1500s
Humayun (Mughal King)
Akbar (Mughal King) Son of Humayun.

1600s
Shah Jahan Ruler of the Mughal Empire 1628 - 1658
Aurangzeb 6th Mughal Emperor whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707. Indian and Afghan Muslims applaud him a Caliph.

1700s
Hyder Ali - (1722–1782).
Imam Shamil, (1797–1871). An Avar (modern day Dagestan) who is considered both a political and religious leader for Chechens, Dagestanis, and Circassians.
Tipu Sultan. (1750–1799).
Syed Ahmad Shaheed Great Muslim of the sub-continent(Pak-India-Bangladesh)
Shah Ismail Shaheed

800s
Abdel Kadir, (Abd al-Qādir al-Jazā'irī). (1808–1883). Algerian militant against the French occupation.
Bakht Khan, Indian Muslim commander during Indian war of independence
Husein Gradaščević, leader of Great Bosnian uprising
Muhammad Ahmad, (1844–1885). a Muslim religious leader and militant in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
Omar Mukhtar, (1862–1931).
Nadir Shah, (aka Nadir Qoli Beg and Tahmasp-Qoli Khan). (1688–1747). A Shah of Iran and a military leader.
Bai Chongxi, (1893–1966). A Chinese General of the Republic of China (ROC).
Abd el-Krim, ('Abd al-Karim Al-Khattabi). (1882–1963). Berber leader fighting against the French and Spanish occupations in Northern Morocco.
Hakim Ajmal Khan
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Begum Hazrat Mahal, Indian Queen who fought for independence from the British
Syed Ahmad Shaheed Great Muslim of sub-Continent (Pak-India-Bangladesh)
Shah Ismail Shaheed

1900s
Muhammad Ataul Ghani Osmani, 1st Commander-in-Chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces and led the Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh Liberation War
Shamim Alam Khan, General, 1938- , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Pakistan
Sudirman, (1916–1950)
Abdul Haris Nasution
Gamal Abdel Nasser
King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud - founder of modern Saudi Arabia
Noor Inayat Khan, intelligence operative for the British in WWII
Ziaur Rahman, leading Sector Commander during the Bangladesh Liberation War and later became the President of Bangladesh
Mohiuddin Jahangir, recipient of Bir Sreshtho
Raja Aziz Bhatti, recipient of Nishan-e-Haider
Major Tufail Muhammad Shaheed, recipient of Nishan-e-Haider
Captain Muhammad Sarwar Shaheed, recipient of Nishan-e-Haider
Matiur Rahman, recipient of Bir Sreshtho
Khaled Mosharraf, leading Sector Commander during the Bangladesh Liberation War
K M Shafiullah, Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army
Nur Khan, Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Air Force
A. K. Khandker, first Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Air Force
Muhammad Mahmood Alam, air commodore of the Pakistan Air Force
Hassan Nasrallah, Commander in Chief of Hizbollah
Hamidur Rahman, recipient of Bir Sreshtho
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Bashar Al-Assad
Ahmed Shah Massoud
Ayub Khan Military ruler of Pakistani Islamic Government.
Major Aziz Bhatti (A brave Soldier of Pakistan martyred in the Pak-Indo war 1965).
Zia-ul-Haq (Ruler of Pakistani Islamic Government).
Hawaldar Lalak jan Pakistani Soldier.
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
Hasan Salama
Saad El Shazly, Egyptian Chief of Staff during the Yom Kippur War
Ahmad Ismail Ali, Commander-in-Chief of Egypt's army during the Yom Kippur War
Abdel Ghani el-Gamasy, Director of operations for all forces participating in the 1973 Yom Kippur War
Abdul Munim Riad, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces
Mohammed Aly Fahmy, Commander of the Egyptian Air Defense Command during the Yom Kippur War
Abdul Munim Wassel, Commander of the Egyptian 3rd Army during the Yom Kippur War
Abd-Al-Minaam Khaleel, Commander of the Egyptian 2nd Army during the Yom Kippur War
Abdul Hamid, Indian soldier
Atif Dudaković, general of Bosnia-Herzegovina Army
Afsir Karim, Major General of the Indian Army,
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, the "Mullah" who fought imperialism in Somalia
Rashid Minhas,Captin of Pakistan Air Force

Unclassified
Ali Sadikin
Sukarno
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Tahir ibn Husayn
Wiranto

Islam A World Civilization

2010-07-03T12:51:00.001-07:00

Islam A World Civilization

Incorporated from the Magazine "Islam: A Global Civilization", prepared by Islamic Affairs Department, The Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington, D.C.

"Thus We have appointed you a middle nation, that you may be witnesses upon mankind." (Qur'an 2:143)

General Characteristics of Islamic Civilization. Islam was destined to become a world religion and to create a civilization which stretched from one end of the globe to the other. Already during the early Muslim caliphates, first the Arabs, then the Persians and later the Turks set about to create classical Islamic civilization. Later, in the 13th century, both Africa and India became great centers of Islamic civilization and soon thereafter Muslim kingdoms were established in the Malay-Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flourished throughout China.
Islam is a religion for all people from whatever race or background they might be. That is why Islamic civilization is based on a unity which stands completely against any racial or ethnic discrimination. Such major racial and ethnic groups as the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Africans, Indians, Chinese and Malays in addition to numerous smaller units embraced Islam and contributed to the building of Islamic civilization. Moreover, Islam was not opposed to learning from the earlier civilizations and incorporating their science, learning, and culture into its own world view, as long as they did not oppose the principles of Islam. Each ethnic and racial group which embraced Islam made its contribution to the one Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged. The sense of brotherhood and sisterhood was so much emphasized that it overcame all local attachments to a particular tribe, race, or language--all of which became subservient to the universal Brotherhood and sisterhood of Islam.
The global civilization thus created by Islam permitted people of diverse ethnic backgrounds to work together in cultivating various arts and sciences. Although the civilization was profoundly Islamic, even non-Muslim "people of the book" participated in the intellectual activity whose fruits belonged to everyone. The scientific climate was reminiscent of the present situation in America where scientists and men and women of learning from all over the world are active in the advancement of knowledge which belongs to everyone.
The global civilization created by Islam also succeeded in activating the mind and thought of the people who entered its fold. As a result of Islam, the nomadic Arabs became torch-bearers of science and learning. The Persians who had created a great civilization before the rise of Islam nevertheless produced much more science and learning in the Islamic period than before. The same can be said of the Turks and other peoples who embraced Islam. The religion of Islam was itself responsible not only for the creation of a world civilization in which people of many different ethnic backgrounds participated, but it played a central role in developing intellectual and cultural life on a scale not seen before. For some eight hundred years Arabic remained the major intellectual and scientific language of the world. During the centuries following the rise of Islam, Muslim dynasties ruling in various parts of the Islamic world bore witness to the flowering of Islamic culture and thought. In fact this tradition of intellectual activity was eclipsed only at the beginning of modern times as a result of the weakening of faith among Muslims combined with external domination. And today this activity has begun a new in many parts of the Islamic world now that the Muslims have regained their political independence.

Left: A general view of the skyline of Istanbul, the old Ottoman capital, showing the Suleymaniye Mosque, one of the many grand Mosques which adorn the city..
Right: The mosque and mausleum of Ali al-Rida in Mashhad, Iran which, because of the presence of this site, became over the centuries one of the major center of religious learning and activity in the Islamic world.

A Brief History of Islam: The Rightly Guided Caliphs
Upon the death of the Prophet, Abu Bakr, the friend of the Prophet and the first adult male to embrace Islam, became caliph. Abu Bakr ruled for two years to be succeeded by 'Umar who was caliph for a decade and during whose rule Islam spread extensively east and west conquering the Persian empire, Syria and Egypt. It was 'Umar who marched on foot at the end of the Muslim army into Jerusalem and ordered the protection of Christian sites. 'Umar also established the first public treasury and a sophisticated financial administration. He established many of the basic practices of Islamic government.
'Umar was succeeded by ' Uthman who ruled for some twelve years during which time the Islamic expansion continued. He is also known as the caliph who had the definitive text of the Noble Quran copied and sent to the four corners of the Islamic world. He was in turn succeeded by 'All who is known to this day for his eloquent sermons and letters, and also for his bravery. With his death the rule of the "rightly guided" caliphs, who hold a special place of respect in the hearts of Muslims, came to an end.
The Caliphates
The Umayyad caliphate established in 661 was to last for about a century. During this time Damascus became the capital of an Islamic world which stretched from the western borders of China to southern France. Not only did the Islamic conquests continue during this period through North Africa to Spain and France in the West and to Sind, Central Asia and Transoxiana in the East, but the basic social and legal institutions of the newly founded Islamic world were established.
The Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads, shifted the capital to Baghdad which soon developed into an incomparable center of learning and culture as well as the administrative and political heart of a vast world.
They ruled for over 500 years but gradually their power waned and they remained only symbolic rulers bestowing legitimacy upon various sultans and princes who wielded actual military power. The Abbasid caliphate was finally abolished when Hulagu, the Mongol ruler, captured Baghdad in 1258, destroying much of the city including its incomparable libraries.
While the Abbasids ruled in Baghdad, a number of powerful dynasties such as the Fatimids, Ayyubids and Mamluks held power in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The most important event in this area as far as the relation between Islam and the Western world was concerned was the series of Crusades declared by the Pope and espoused by various European kings. The purpose, although political, was outwardly to recapture the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem for Christianity. Although there was at the beginning some success, and local European rule was set up in parts of Syria and Palestine, Muslims finally prevailed and in 1187 Saladin,the great Muslim leader, recaptured Jerusalem and defeated the Crusaders.

SOME ENGLISH WORDS DERIVED FROM ARABIC
ADMIRAL-amiral-rahl	ATLAS-atlas	JASMINE-yasmin	SAFARI-safara
ADOBE-al-tub	AZIMUTH-al-suut	LEMON-limun	SAFFRON-za'faran
ALCHEMY-al-kimiya'	BANANA-banana	LUTE-al-'ud	SANDALWOOD-sandal
ALCOVE-alqubba	BAROQUE-burqa	MAGAZINE-makhazin	SOFA-suffa
ALEMBIC-al-anbiq	CABLE-habl	MASK-maskhara	SUGAR-sukhar
ALGEBRA-al-jabr	CAMEL-jamal	MONSOON-mawsim	SYRUP-sharab,shurb
AMBER-ambar	CHECKMATE-shah mat	MUSK-musk	TAMBOUR-taburak
AMULET-hama'il	COFFEE-qahwa	NADIR-nazir	TROUBADOUR-tarrab
ANTIMONY-ithmid	COTTON-quton	ORANGE-naranj	ZERO-sifr
ARTICHOKE-al-kharshuf	GIRAFFE-ZURAFA	RICE-ruzz	ZIRCON-azraq

North Africa and Spain
When the Abbasids captured Damascus, one of the Umayyad princes escaped and made the long journey from there to Spain to found Umayyad rule there, thus beginning the golden age of Islam in Spain. Cordoba was established as the capital and soon became Europe's greatest city not only in population but from the point of view of its cultural and intellectual life. The Umayyads ruled over two centuries until they weakened and were replaced by local rulers.
Meanwhile in North Africa, various local dynasties held sway until two powerful Berber dynasties succeeded in uniting much of North Africa and also Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries. After them this area was ruled once again by local dynasties such as the Sharifids of Morocco who still rule in that country. As for Spain itself, Muslim power continued to wane until the last Muslim dynasty was defeated in Granada in 1492 thus bringing nearly eight hundred years of Muslim rule in Spain to an end.
Islamic History after the Mongol Invasion
The Mongols devastated the eastern lands of Islam and ruled from the Sinai Desert to India for a century. But they soon converted to Islam and became known as the Il-Khanids. They were in turn succeeded by Timur and his descendants who made Samarqand their capital and ruled from 1369 to 1500. The sudden rise of Timur delayed the formation and expansion of the Ottoman empire but soon the Ottomans became the dominant power in the Islamic world.
From humble origins the Turks rose to dominate over the whole of Anatolia and even parts of Europe. In 1453 Mehmet the Conqueror captured Constantinople and put an end to the Byzantine empire. The Ottomans conquered much of eastern Europe and nearly the whole of the Arab world, only Morocco and Mauritania in the West and Yemen, Hadramaut and parts of the Arabian peninsula remaining beyond their control. They reached their zenith of power with Suleyman the Magnificent whose armies reached Hungary and Austria. From the 17th century onward with the rise of Western European powers and later Russia, the power of the Ottomans began to wane. But they nevertheless remained a force to be reckoned with until the First World War when they were defeated by the Western nations. Soon thereafter Kamal Ataturk gained power in Turkey and abolished the six centuries of rule of the Ottomans in 1924. While the Ottomans were concerned mostly with the western front of their empire, to the east in Persia a new dynasty called the Safavids came to power in 1502. The Safavids established a powerful state of their own which flourished for over two centuries and became known for the flowering of the arts. Their capital, Isfahan, became one of the most beautiful cities with its blue tiled mosques and exquisite houses. The Afghan invasion of 1736 put an end to Safavid rule and prepared the independence of Afghanistan which occurred formally in the 19th century. Persia itself fell into turmoil until Nader Shah, the last Oriental conqueror, reunited the country and even conquered India. But the rule of the dynasty established by him was short-lived. The Zand dynasty soon took over to be overthrown by the Qajars in 1779 who made Tehran their capital and ruled until 1921 when they were in turn replaced by the Pahlavis.
As for India, Islam entered into the land east of the Indus River peacefully. Gradually Muslims gained political power beginning in the early 13th century. But this period which marked the expansion of both Islam and Islamic culture came to an end with the conquest of much of India in 1526 by Babur, one of the Timurid princes. He established the powerful Mogul empire which produced such famous rulers as Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan and which lasted, despite the gradual rise of British power in India, until 1857 when it was officially abolished. Farther east in the Malay world, Islam began to spread in the 12th century in northern Sumatra and soon Muslim kingdoms were established in Java, Sumatra and mainland Malaysia. Despite the colonization of the Malay world, Islam spread in that area covering present day Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand, and is still continuing in islands farther east.
As far as Africa is concerned, Islam entered into East Africa at the very beginning of the Islamic period but remained confined to the coast for some time, only the Sudan and Somali land becoming gradually both Arabized and Islamized. West Africa felt the presence of Islam through North African traders who traveled with their camel caravans south of the Sahara. By the 14th century there were already Muslim sultanates in such areas as Mali, and Timbuctu in West Africa and Harar in East Africa had become seats of Islamic learning. Gradually Islam penetrated both inland and southward. There also appeared major charismatic figures who inspired intense resistance against European domination. The process of the Islamization of Africa did not cease during the colonial period and continues even today with the result that most Africans are now Muslims caring on a tradition which has had practically as long a history in certain areas of sub-Saharan Africa as Islam itself.

Major Dates of Islamic History
Birth of the Prophet Muhammed 570 A.D.	The Seljuqs 137-1300
First verses of the Noble Quran revealed 609	Saladin's Conquest of Jeruslem 1187
Prophet's migration form Makkah to Madinah (hijrah), beginning of Islamic calender 622	The Mamluks 1252-1517
Death of the Prophet 632	The Mongol Conquest of Baghdad 1258
The "Rightly Guided" Caliphs 632-661	The Ottomans 1299-1924
The Umayyads 661-750	The Timurids 1369-1500
The Abbasids 750-1258	Conquest of Constantinople 1453
The Spanish Umayyads 756-1031	The Fall of Granada 1492
The Fatimids 909-1171	The Safavids 1502-1736

Credits
Incorporated from the Magazine "Islam: A Global Civilization", prepared by Islamic Affairs Department, The Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington, D.C.