From: imnet2@max.u.washington.edu
Subject: ISLAMIC WORLD NEWS (25th)
Organization: 
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 22:12:15 GMT

******************************************************************************
*     IN THIS ISSUE:                                                         *
*                   - NEWS UPDATE (Aug. 25th)                                *
*                   - ISLAM AND ARAB NATIONALISM (PART V)                    *
*                             By Imam Mohammed H. Asi                        *
*                   - ANNOUNCEMENTS                                          *
******************************************************************************
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% NEWS UPDATE:

 SOMALIS DIE IN THE MILLIONS WHILE THE UN,
 OTHERS DITHER (special report [Crescent International])

 Whole generations of Somalis are literally dropping dead of hunger and
 starvation all over the country; and almost a third of the population is
 on the verge of starvation.
 Even the most hardened international food agency worker, such as Trevor
 Page, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), says he has not seen such
 scenes of human devastation in the past 20 years as in Somalia today.
 While the world has been treated to unceasing television coverage of
 obscenities of human degradation, the UN has done nothing to relieve the
 tragic plight of Somalis.
 Weeks after accusing the west of focusing its attention and resources
 on Yugoslavia to the criminal neglect of the bigger catastrophe in
 Somalia, UN secretary-general Boutros Ghali has yet to take any step to
 save the Muslim nation in the Horn of Africa, which is being decimated
 by the twin curse of civil war-related famine and drought.
 The Egyptian-born Copt Boutros Ghali, who has described the brutal
 Serbian assault on the Bosnian Muslims as the "war of the rich",
 has blocked any help to the "poorer Somalis" as a result of reckless
 dithering that can only be interpreted as deliberate.
 It is not as if the secretary-general is unfamiliar with the nature
 or scale of the problem.
 Relief agencies working in Somalia issued a clear warning and
 appeal for help 18 months ago, with evidence of the magnitude of
 unfolding disaster.
 Muhammad Sahnun, the Algerian ambassador and special representative
 to Somalia, who has visited the war-torn country several times has
 actively and publicly worked to whip the international community into
 action, only to be thwarted by his secretary-general, who has no policy,
 no emotion or motivation on what he has officially been designated as
 the world's most tragic disaster.
 As WFP chief Page remarked bluntly:  "It's so bad because we've let
 things simmer without paying proper attention."
 Sahnun said two months ago that 5,000 Somalis were dying every day as a
 result of the civil war, man-made famine and natural drought, and that
 1.5 million other were facing death within weeks unless urgent humanitarian
 aid was mounted.
 Statistics of the terrible toll the violence and famine have taken
 were widely known. More than a quarter of Somalia's children under five
 have perished; many more are malnourished and need immediate help; some of
 them beyond rescue, while unknown numbers are orphaned.
 Relief organisations warn that this could be the tip of the iceberg,
 since relief work has been confined to the cities and towns.
 No one knows the scale of the suffering and mayhem in progress in the
 hinterland but there is some indication as emaciated nomads and farmers,
 who have lost their livestock and crops, stagger out of the bush into
 feeding centres only to die in food queues.
 Two million Somalis are estimated to have fled the disaster.
 The relatively well-to-do are finding their way to Europe and north America.
 The majority however, have been trapped in the neighbouring countries of
 Kenya and Ethiopia, where adequate food and medicine are not available even
 in the UNHCR camps that have proved death traps for small children.
 Tens of thousands of desperate refugees took to small boats from the
 ports of Kismayo in the south, and Bossasso in the northeast, to seek
 safety in Kenya and Yemen. Many of them were drowned during
 their voyages.
 In Yemen, where the country's resources are already strained to deal
 with problems arising from the Gulf War, neither the Gulf countries nor
 the UNHCR have helped Sana'a adequately to cater for the refugees.
 In fact Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates have not helped
 at all and have accused Yemen of neglecting the refugees in a shameful
 exploitation of the plight. The Gulf Sates have not forgiven Sana'a for
 refusing to join the US-led assault on Iraq during the Gulf War.
 There grisly statistics have been accompanied by endless appeals and
 practical proposals for the solution of the catastrophe.
 Relief workers, visiting journalists, ambassador Sahnun, and UN technical
 teams studying the problem at first hand have pressed on Boutros Ghali
 the urgency of the situation, proposing three measures as the minimum
 necessary to contain the situation.
 The first step would be to inundate Somalia with 'mammoth quantities of
 food, so that it becomes a non-tradeable commodity'. Food has become
 the object of the fighting in Somalia now as warlords, bandits and hungry
 people fight over it.
 As Nicholas Hinton, the director-general of Save the Children Fund, has put
 it: "If there was enough food there would be no need for people to fight
 over it."
 The next step would be to restore a degree of security which would enable
 food and medical supplies to be provided adequately and without
 interruption. This could amount to armed intervention, involving the use
 of a sizeable international force.
 The third step would consist in bringing about reconciliation, without
 which the reconstruction of the country's infrastructure would not
 be possible.
 Boutros Ghali's response to these proposals shows why he must share in
 the blame for the failure to act to contain the avoidable tragedy. Far
 from organising the dispatch of food to Somalia he has failed to establish
 any UN presence on the ground, which has been totally missing since
 January.
 Many relief organisations have continued their work throughout the fighting
 while the UN pulled out at the slightest sign of violence.
 On the question of providing armed protection for food convoys, the
 UN secretary-general proposed 500 troops which Pakistan promptly agreed
 to provide.
 Strangely enough on August 20 he said he was not certain that number was
 adequate. He admitted: "We are still preparing the report on Somalia...
 We have no figure in mind now."
 As far as the third proposal (UN assistance in fostering reconciliation)
 is concerned, the secretary-general, far from propounding a solution to
 the conflict, has taken steps to obstruct its resolution by supporting one
 of the warlords.
 Before taking his duties as secretary-general, Dr Ghali dealt with the
 Somali conflict in his capacity as Egypt's deputy prime minister for foreign
 affairs.
 He was instrumental in formulating the policies of the Arab League,
 the Organisation of African Unity, and to a lesser extent, the Organisation
 of Islamic Conference, whose policy was primarily dictated by Saudi Arabia.
 The Arab League, the OAU and OIC all support Ali Mahdi, the weaker of
 the two warlords responsible for the fighting in Mogadishu.
 The country's legitimate president, Ali Mahdi, is boxed in the Karan
 district of Mogadishu, while his adversary, colonel Aideed Farah, controls
 the rest of the city and large chunks of southern Somalia (northern Somalia
 declared a breakaway republic in May, 1991).
 Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE believe that unless the question
 of sovereignty is resolved first, no other action - even the humanitarian
 relief work - can be attempted.
 This policy has been adopted by the UN secretary-general who has set up
 a UN crisis committee on Somalia, including representations of those
 organisations.
 The policy also explains the failure of the oil-rich countries to
 contribute to the relief work in Somalia.
 King Fahd has been moved enough by the plight of a British girl in need of
 an operation abroad to pay for the medical bill after the British government
 refused to help. Shaikh Sabah, the amir of Kuwait, paid US $1 million to
 relieve the plight of the animals in London zoo, which was facing
 closure.
 No such concern has been apparent for the millions of starving human beings,
 many of them children, in Somalia.

 BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA
 The Serbs have added another gory twist to their barbaric practices.
 Serbian soldiers and irregulars now place bets on pregnant Muslim women
 to see what the gender of the fetus is.
 The Serbs slit open the women's stomach, pull the fetus out to check its
 gender and let the poor women bleed to death, reports Irfan Mirza, a Muslim
 journalist currently in Bosnia-Hercegovina with a group of mujahideen
 from Afghanistan, Lebanon and Syria.
 Irfan Mirza's firsthand account was faxed to the offices of CRESCENT
 INTERNATIONAL, together with another appeal from Zagreb, Croatia, signed
 by several University professors and journalists appealing for help for the
 Muslims interned in concentration camps run by the Serbs.
 In the letter, professor Mubera Maslic narrated the plight of the 12,000
 residents of Janja, a small town on the river Drina. The residents were
 cut off from the outside world but because they were witnesses to the
 massacres that the Serbs have perpetrated in various parts of Bosnia,
 they are being punished with executions.
 The residents of Janja had the horrible task of pulling out the bloated
 bodies of Muslims as they floated down the Drina river.
 They were, however, forbidden to bury them in the local cemetery. The Serbs
 insisted that the bodies be buried in the field in an attempt to hide
 the evidence of their crimes.
 On August 21, all the men were herded into the local stadium and that
 night the Serbs started killing them one by one.
 The letter also signed by Professor Neda Lusic, Professor Dr Muhamed
 Zdralovic, Journalist Hasan Ibrahimovic, Asmir Mujagic and Malarem Causevic,
 makes an urgent appeal to the world for help.
 Is anyone listening, though?
*******COURTESY OF CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL, The newsmagazine of the global  
         Islamic  Movement. Phone # (416) 474-9292, Fax (416) 474-9293.
ADDRESS: 300 Steelcase Road West, Unit8, Markham, Ontario, L3R 2W2 Canada.
**************************************************************************
EVENT SCAN ###############################################################
                 ISLAM AND ARAB NATIONALISM
By Imam Mohammed H. Asi

Part V
             The Arab-Israeli (Hebrew) Equation

     The sources  of information consistently beam out to us
that the  issue of  Palestine is  one of  two irreconcilable
nationalisms. Sometimes  it is Arab vs Israeli, sometimes it
is Syrian vs Israeli, sometimes Palestinian vs Israeli, etc.
. .  To present  this issue  in this manner is tantamount to
conceding a legitimate claim to both sides of a human issue:
refugees (formerly  Jews, presently  Palestinian  asking for
the same  piece of  land, ie.  Palestine! whcich  they  once
inhabited). The  end result  being the party having the most
force possessing  Palestine. In  our times,  that means  the
Zionists.  Hence   the  whole  issue  of  Allah's  covenant,
previously Jewish and Islamic history, the present day ocean
of Muslims  in and around Palestine do not and cannot find a
legal and  legitimate relationship to the land of Palestine.
The factious  spirit of  nationalism, ethnicity  and  racial
particularism has,  for all  means and  purpose, robbed  the
issue of its essence.
     The issue  of Palestine  is the  central issue  of  the
Muslims  worldwide  because  it  represents  the  historical
collective  guilt   of  Muslims  -  Arabs  and  non-Arabs  -
execising at  one time  or he  other, and  especially  their
nation states  today, the  abominable and  heinous crime  of
national arrogance.
     Let us  not forget that in the Muslim lands today there
are those  linguistic, racial  and ethnic  groups who do not
have their  nation state! In the aftermath of the expiration
of the  Ottoman  state,  which  was  the  last  symbol,  and
probably nothing  more than  a symbol,  of Islamic plurality
and national  coexistence, the  Muslim Ummah was dismembered
into nation  states created  in the  image of Israel (yet to
be) from  Sumatra to  Senegal. .  . It  certainly is not per
chance  that   the  Kurds   whose  most   important  Islamic
personality  was   Salah  Ud-Din   al-Ayyubi  who  liberated
Palestine from Euro-Imperialism 900 years ago, the Kurds who
by sheer  numbers are  entitled more to a nation state than,
say, the  Maronites of  Lebanon, these  Kurds have  been the
subjects and  objects of  Arab  Nationalism's  extermination
policies and  campaigns in  Iraq, Turkey  and the  Pahlavi's
Iranian nationalism.  The superpowers,  post-WW1, are paying
back the  Kurds of  today because  a  Muslim  leader  -  who
happened to  be a  Kurd -  led  the  most  crushing  attacks
against the  particularism of  Europe  900  years  ago  when
Europe sought to defeat Islam's universalism at that time in
Palestine, they  are paying  them back  by  denying  them  a
nation state.
     Arab nationalism  in its  modern  day  political  image
amounts to  the Zionizing  of Islam.  In other  words: Islam
serves as  a tool  and instrument, the same way that Judaism
was exploited  for the  racial and  ethnic  and  nationalist
cravings for  a homeland,  regardless of  whether the  newly
acquired homeland  would be administered according to and in
conformity with  the divine  order revealed by Allah or not.
Recent history  serves as  the best  testimony to Hebrew and
Arab nationalists employing religious slogans to reach their
nationalist  and   chauvinistic  ends.  The  Zionization  of
Judaism  -  which  was  at  one  time  in  the  remote  past
unpolluted  by  the  `chosen  race/goym'  mentality  -  this
Zionization (the return to Zion) served as a vehicle to undo
the collective sin of Bani Israel when they refused to march
into the  holy land  when they were ordered to do so by Musa
(AS) to  establish Allah's  system: "`O my people! Enter the
holy land  which Allah  has promised you; but do not retreat
for then  you will  lose!' They answered: `O Musa, Behold, a
superpower nation occupies that land, and we will surely not
enter it unless they depart therefrom, then, behold, we will
move in.'" [5:22]
     Bani Israel did not want to carry arms and confront the
superpower in  Palestine at  that  time.    They  were  out-
numbered and  outmaneuvered by  a force that was superior to
them physically, militarily, technologically, and otherwise.
Musa's order  seemed to  them nothing  less than  a  suicide
military operation  in which reliance upon Allah was nothing
more than an invitation to death.
     Musa, as  we are  told by divine narration, asked Allah
to exonerate  him and  his brother from a cowardly and cowed
manifestation of  Iman: "Declared  Musa: `O my sustainer! Of
none am  I master but of my self and my brother (Aaron) draw
you, then,  a dividing  line between us and these iniquitous
folk!'" [5:25]
     Thereupon  Allah's   reply  to  those  who  refused  to
sacrifice their  lives to obey their Lord was: "Answered He:
`Then, Verily,  this land  shall be  forbidden to  them  for
forty years,  while they wander on earth, bewildered, to and
from; and sorrow you not over these iniquitous folk!'"

     When Bani  Israel were  authorized to  enter  the  holy
land, fighting,  to establish  the divine  dispensation they
adamantly refused  to do  so. They were to endure a diaspora
throughout their history because they were not true to their
covenant with  Allah. Zionism  was, and still is, the act of
going into Palestine by circumventing the `order to fight.'

     Throughout the  years, in their diaspora, the Zionists,
in collaboration  with the  Imperialists managed  to  switch
sides with  the Muslims.  The Zionists  -  by  a  rubric  of
multinational networks;  one of  which is Arab nationalism -
usurped the  Muslim  land  of  Palestine,  but  during  this
process by which they laid a net of nation-states hostile to
Islam throughout  the Ummah,  the final resultant being that
the multitude  of Muslims in this world began to suffer from
a diaspora  of their  own. Muslims  were never at home under
the reign  of Arab  Nationalists or  non-Arab  nationalists.
This subtle  but effective  change of  positions between the
Muslims  and   Yahud  took   place   without   a   cognizant
identification of this geopolitical displacement. . . By the
Muslims. . . The influence of Bani Israel is so awesome that
their claim  of following  Musa is  virtually undisputed and
the  identification  of  the  Muslims  with  Musa  is  semi-
nonexistent. This  being the case, the Muslims, by an act of
divine justice  are presented  today with  the same  set  of
circumstances as  Bani Israel  when they  were told to march
into the holy land. So far Arab nationalism has been playing
the role  of evasion  and retreat in launching a war against
Zionism and  understandably so,  as both  are historical and
modern  counterparts.   And  when  the  military  option  is
dismissed the  Arab  Nationalists  revert  to  negotiations,
reconciliations,   solutions,    Camp   Davids,   diplomacy,
disengagement agreements, and on and on.
     The argument  that Yahud are making against the Muslims
is very strong indeed: we at one time were followers of Musa
(AS) and  when we  were ordered  to do  combat Palestine  we
failed to  do so  for logical  reasons (in  Palestine  there
dwell a  superpower). today  when the  followers of Mohammed
(AS) are presented with a superpower in Palestine they, too,
are doing  the same  thing we did; they are fainthearted and
deserting under fire. Because of this timidity the `Muslims'
have incurred  a diaspora of their own. This potent argument
has met  its remises  with the  establishment of the Islamic
state in Iran, but not without the dual diabolic declaration
of war  by Arab and Israeli (Hebrew) nationalism against the
Islamic state.  This Israeli-Arab  common cause  is - at the
writing of  this paper- in an accelerated and advanced stage
of co-ordination and cooperation not only against the heroic
combatants of  Islam  but  against  their  determination  to
withhold their  covenant with  Allah, which  by-passes their
particularism as  Persians, or  Iranians, and expands over a
time period dating back to al-Shaytan's supremacist frame of
mind as  he verbally stated his rationale: "I am better than
he; You  have created  me out  of fire, whereas him you have
created out of clay." [7:12]
     
     Any attempt  at framing  this  war  of  Islam  vs  kufr
outside of  this Quranic  dimension boils down to a naive or
partial interpretation  of events,  capable of derailing its
potentials.  The   favored  status   claimed  by  Iblis  and
rehearsed by  the chosen race mentally of Yahud, then at one
time  or   the  other   courted  by   followers  of   divine
instructions, notably  the Arab  nationalists, this mind-set
could also  adapt to  such self-glorfying  deportments as: I
was born  a Shi'i  or a  Sunni or  whatever hence  I am ipso
facto superior!  In this  regard, one  of the  risks  of  an
Islamic  revolution  rush  is  its  vulnerability  of  being
consumed after  a period  of time by traditional environment
from which  it arose.  The Islamic  revolution,  today,  has
brilliantly  withstood   and  defeated  the  occurrence  and
recurrence of  particularism. But one of the most potent and
dangerous  particularism,   of  which  internal  traditional
elements, interlock  with external  hostile elements, is the
sectarian projection  of Islam.  It is  no wonder  that some
throwback voices  coincide with  the systematic presentation
of Islam  as Shi'ism  and Muslims as Shi'ite. If the Islamic
revolution  can   clear   this   last   in   a   series   of
particularistic policies aimed at isolating the revolution -
and I  have no  doubt that  it can - then the future will be
catapulted with  a unifying  force  unparalleled  in  recent
history.
############################ ANNOUNCMENTS ################################
***********************************************************
*** This section is open for posting announcements for the
purpose of education and information only, no commercial or
solicitation ads please. ***********************************
*************************
Medical Doctors Relief & Development(MDRD), a voluntary,  
non-profit organization is seeking the support of members and 
volunteers who are willing to provide medical relief and
set up development operations in the poor countries of the world.
For more information, please contact Dr. Mohammad Amjad Alvi,
   1530 Albion Rd. Rexdale, Ont. Canada, M9V 1B4.
    Tel. (416) 240-0570, Fax (416) 240-1728
NB:
THE MDRD IS, NOW, SEEKING THE ASSISTANCE OF VOLUNTEERS, ESPACIALLY
FROM EUROPE, TO ASSIST IN GETTING SUPPLIES,ALREADY COLLECTED, REACH
BOSNIA. Contact Dr. Alvi on the above address please.
________________
________________
THE ASSOCIATION OF ISLAMIC COMMUNITY GAZI HUSREV-BEG, has set up a
special service to support the struggle in Bosnia.
To find out how to contribute to this effort please contact:

ASSOCIATION OF ISLAMIC COMMUNITY GAZI HUSREV-BEG
[Bosnia-Hercegovina F.]
4146 DUNDAS STREET WEST, ETOBICOKE, ONTARIO M8X 1X3, CANADA

PHONE: (416) 233-5967  FAX: (416) 237-0656
_________
The Third Annual Islamic week will be held from Oct. 12th - 21st
at the Univesity of Washington. The program consists of:
Islamic art and books display, Panel discussions, and lectures.
Imam Mohammed H. Asi will be in Seattle on Oct. 16th in Sha' Allah. 
For more information contact the Union.
-----------
##########################################################################
*------- Note to contributors and readers:  
   ****Islam, as a universal Religion, forbids any sorts of racial 
bigotry; country names are to be used for and understood as a mere designation
of the geographical locations. Criticisms are for that particular system
or power structure and NOT the people. 
__________
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are confidential. 
This program is updated twice a week. All rights revert to the Union, articles
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----------
PRODUCTION:
THE INTERNATIONAL MUSLIM STUDENTS UNION, P.O.BOX 85720, SEATTLE, WA. 98105
PHONE #: (206) 685-3309 ******************************************************
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