“God willing, we’re going to the Olympics in Beijing.”

With those words, a small team of athletes in Palestine prepare to compete at an event they aren’t sure they will get to: the 2008 summer Olympic Games.
Ghadir dreams that, at last, someone will buy her running shoes. Nader trains while hoping that a missile doesn’t land on him. Zakia hasn’t got a permit from the military authorities to get to the swimming pool.

They leave Jericho in July 2008, hoping to take part in the Games. Inshallah, God willing – because their journey is overcome with obstacles as they attempt to represent a country that not everyone recognises and that doesn’t have the means to support its athletes.

Getting to Beijing is already a victory. But hit by culture shock, the team face another set of battles – with surprising humour and resolve.
“Inshallah Beijing” has all the makings of a tragedy, but is anything but tragic. It is a hopeful and inspiring account of athletes overcoming social obstacles and confronting personal demons.

Faithworks Events welcomes you to its third documentary screening on Friday, 28 January 2011 at 7:30pm, at the Majestic Theatre in Fordsburg. To purchase tickets or to receive notifications about future events, email us at faithworksevents@gmail.com.

This somewhat fast moving slideshow shows pictures of Palestine before the war, bloodshed and occupation.  Most are black & white and a few have been altered to colour.

Caption from the video source, www.islamictube.net

Photos from:  www.arabs48.com
I am not a Palestinian, but my heart feels like one with all what’s going on now..
I found these rare photos for Palestine during the period 1900 – 1940, the time
before the \" Nakba\" ( Israeli occupancy for Palestine)

I saw in these photos the peace and beauty and calmness of these lands and its people \" The Arabs\",
their life was simple, their eyes happy and smiling, they were peaceful and raw.
I wonder what can turn such a peaceful land into fields of blood and violence like now,
but the answer will be on the last photo of the video, where 60 years time of endless fighting
for their own rights and freedom against Israeli terror turned those people into this woman
just hanging till her last breath with the last dying tree on her land and not letting go the
last thread of her existence on her land which the blind occupation wants to cut!!

Most South Africans will be familiar with Abie Dawjee, the formidable political analyst who covers various middle east news and updates.

I was asked to setup a newsblog type website for his organization, RAIN

RAIN  is a free information service to the public.
RAIN provides information, analysis and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in other media.
It provides a voice for groups that otherwise may be unheard.

Visit a http://www.Rain.org.za
Below is a screenshot of their website:

From GazaTalk.com

Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.

Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.

Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. The strike not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children, along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack under international law. This was a war crime.

Other of Israel’s bombardment with protected status under international law have included a mosque, a prison, police stations, and a university, in addition to residential buildings.

Moreover, Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the most minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is bombing and killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been wounded, and cannot receive medical attention. Hospitals running on generators have little or no fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or medical supplies to treat the injured. These people, too, are the victims of Israeli policies targeted not at Hamas or legitimate military targets, but directly designed to punish the civilian population.

Lie #2) Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a response to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket attacks.

Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the beginning, it announced a “special security zone” within the Gaza Strip and announced that Palestinians who enter this zone will be fired upon. In other words, Israel announced its intention that Israeli soldiers would shoot at farmers and other individuals attempting to reach their own land in direct violation of not only the cease-fire but international law.

Despite shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians getting injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it went into effect on June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce on November 4 by launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five and injured several others.

Israel’s violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct response by militants to the Israeli attacks.

Israel’s actions, including its violation of the cease-fire, predictably resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its own population.

Lie #3) Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.

There has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact is, as previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is densely populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as the assassination of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were also murdered. It is victims like his dead children that Israel defines as “human shields” in its propaganda. There is no legitimacy for this interpretation under international law. In circumstances such as these, Hamas is not using human shields, Israel is committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable international law.

Lie #4) Arab nations have not condemned Israel’s actions because they understand Israel’s justification for its assault.

The populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel’s actions and at their own governments for not condemning Israel’s assault and acting to end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab governments do not represent their respective Arab populations. The populations of the Arab nations have staged mass protests in opposition to not only Israel’s actions but also the inaction of their own governments and what they view as either complacency or complicity in Israel’s crimes.

Moreover, the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the aid of the Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel’s actions, but because they are submissive to the will of the US, which fully supports Israel. Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the border to allow Palestinians wounded in the attacks to get medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals, is heavily dependent upon US aid, and is being widely criticized within the population of the Arab countries for what is viewed as an absolute betrayal of the Gaza Palestinians.

Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a traitor to his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the people of Gaza. Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas’ past perceived betrayals in conniving with Israel and the US to sideline the democratically elected Hamas government, culminating in a counter-coup by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah (the military wing of Abbas’ Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While his apparent goal was to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at Abbas that it is unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.

Lie #5) Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.

Israel claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents of Gaza warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the people of Gaza have nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the Gaza Strip. It is by Israeli design that they cannot escape across the border. It is by Israeli design that they have no food, water, or fuel by which to survive. It is by Israeli design that hospitals in Gaza have no electricity and few medical supplies with which to treat the injured and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast areas of Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and other sites with protected status under international law. No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.

this short piece from IslamicRevival. The last paragraph is a real soul-stirrer – Insha’allah the arab leaders in the Middle East awaken from their slumber, their decadent lifestyles and face the reality of this world and the reality of the hereafter.

Deeply saddening, appalling is indeed the violence in Gaza, as our world leaders have called it. Events which stir our emotions intensely. But more than emotion, we all feel a view, have an opinion as politics doesn’t just conjure feeling, it conjures thought and viewpoints as more than anything its about how we look after mankind in the world we live in. And in this present world we live in, it has to be said not only is the Palestinian conflict one of the most saddening, but is one which conjures the most political voice. For even the most apolitical amongst us, we all have a view about whether those people who claimed their homeland after around 2000 years, were right to do so, or wrong.

I remember some years ago, before I came to Islam, I was travelling in Morocco with a young Jewish girl who told me about how her parents envisaged settling in Israel one day from the UK, as their ultimate dream. At that time all I knew about Israel was, that it was a place in the middle east which came up in the news now and again, but didn’t really know why and I wasn’t that bothered either. When I returned to the UK, I ambled through some news pages in a vague attempt to maybe find out about this Israel. All I read was Israel was suffering at the hands of Palestinians and Palestinians were suffering at the hands of Israelis. Seemed like another classic conflict situation with some sort of history I’d never get but I hoped, as a passing thought, that both sides would meet in the middle somewhere. Thats classic conflict mediation isn’t it, even in marriages, it’s all about meeting somewhere in the middle; compromise. Both sides had to do their bit.

A couple of years later, my attachment to my Muslim brethren, urged me to read up on the history of Palestine and Israel. I read about a group of people homeless in Europe. I read about them set their eyes on a land they not only wanted to live in, but rule over. I read about them coming into Palestine and throwing people out of their homes, bulldozing them down and making people refugees in their own land. I read about bloodshed, I read about their domination, occupation spreading like a infectious disease. I read about their sophisticated missiles and tanks, whose design, manufacture was aided in Britain and America; massacre families, and the resistance of the Palestinians named as terrorism. Palestinians who grew up generation after generation in the muddy squalor of refugee camps in their own land attempted to fight this occupation with whatever they had. I read it all. Then came the wall, the blockades and the intense attacks of the last few days.

This was Israel. This was occupation, domination and suffering to the nth degee whilst the world watched, calling it deeply saddening and terribly appalling, but never wrong.

There have been many demos over the last few days, asking Israel to stop the attacks – and despite news reports saying that they won’t until Hamas does, we must be slightly loopy if we ever believe they will put an end to their agenda which has been ruthlessly undertaken over the past century. And the West – they will never verbalise Israel’s cruelty, as they are the ones who set the cannon loose and gave the go-ahead all those years ago. It’s a silence that will never be broken in Washington or London, and if we don’t own up to this, we continue to leave the suffering Palestinians stranded in a problem which has been sugarcoated and sold to us as a solution through roadmaps and ceasefires.

The solution lies in a place which we don’t always look. Like a action-packed thriller, where the director misguides you into thinking who the killer is, masking the real one in order to create that all breath-taking twist, the Muslims will also face their twist. The realisation that sustainable change can only come from the solution Allah SWT gives us for our politics. Lobbying MPs, pressuring Israel, all these things serve to divert us from the real solution – the armies of the Muslim lands – who did they stand to defend? The thousands and thousands of people, weaponry who make up the Muslim armies – where and for what reason do they stand idle?
Allah SWT will ask the rulers of the Muslim world, where were their ears and their eyes as the missiles fell, one after the other? These rulers we know prefer to shake the hands of the perpetrators than straighten them, in order to keep their seats of power. But Allah Almighty is the owner of the Heavens and the Earth, and it is He who can destroy all 50+ of them and their kingdoms in a fell swoop and one day InshaAllah He will. There will come a day, as Allah SWT has promised where just Islamic rule will return to this Earth and liberate all the oppressed. This is the only solution which can pool together the resources of the Muslim world, and create the unity to enable a resistance which stands to the likes as those of Israel. This is the solution which doesn’t accept a few Palestinian homes being returned, or a few Palestinians being allowed to work – This is the solution which will return an uncompromising rule of law which favours no race, only justice, to the Arabian plains. I pray that we are strong enough to remember this and become part of its return, instead of busying ourselves with fruitless actions which actively ensue its delay.

In light to the Gaza Massacre by Israeli forces, I’v decided to republish this post featuring the infamous nasheed: Sanakhudoo.
Muslims of Gaza, you are killed today, tomorrow you shall be raised, your wounds & flowing blood be a means to enter gardens of paradise.

Sana’khoodu Ma’arikana Ma’ahum
We’ll take our fights with them
Wa sanam dhiJi moo’an Narda’uhum
We’ll go as groups to stop them
Wa nu’eedul haqqal mug-tasaba
We’ll return our slain rights (territories)
Wa bi kullil quwwati Nad-fa’uhum
With all force we’ll push them out

Sana’khoodu Ma’arikana Ma’ahum
We’ll take our fights with them
Wa sanam dhiJi moo’an Narda’uhum
We’ll go as groups to stop them
Wa nu’eedul haqqal mug-tasaba
We’ll return our slain rights (territories)
Wa bi kullil quwwati Nad-fa’uhum
With all force we’ll push them out
Wa bi kullil quwwati Nad-fa’uhum
With all force we’ll push them out

Bisilaahil haqqil battari
By the weapon of truth (meaning that they are the people who have the right, the right will always go back to its owners one day, no matter how long wrong lasts)
Sanu harriru ardhal ahraari
We’ll free the land of the frees (meaning that their dignity always made them free)
Wanu’eedul tuhraa ilal qudsi
We’ll return the pureness of Islam to Al-Quds (meaning it wasn’t pure under non Muslim leadership)
Min Ba’didh-dhuli wadhal ‘aree
After our weakness our humiliation

Bisilaahil haqqil battari
By the weapon of truth (meaning that they are the people who have the right, the right will always go back to its owners one day, no matter how long wrong lasts)
Sanu harriru ardhal ahraari
We’ll free the land of the frees (meaning that their dignity always made them free)
Wanu’eedul tuhraa ilal qudsi
We’ll return the pureness of Islam to Al-Quds (meaning it wasn’t pure under non Muslim leadership)
Min Ba’didh-dhuli wadhal ‘aree
After our weakness our humiliation
Min Ba’didh-dhuli wadhal ‘aree
After our weakness our humiliation

Sana’khoodu Ma’arikana Ma’ahum
We’ll take our fights with them
Wa sanam dhiJi moo’an Narda’uhum
We’ll go as groups to stop them
Wa nu’eedul haqqal mug-tasaba
We’ll return our slain rights (territories)
Wa bi kullil quwwati Nad-fa’uhum
With all force we’ll push them out
Wa bi kullil quwwati Nad-fa’uhum
With all force we’ll push them out

Wa sanamdhi Nadukkum-Ma’aqilahum
We’ll carry on bring down their fortresses
Bi dawyyin Daamin Yuqliquhum
With strong sounds that will scare them
Wa sanam hul ‘ara’ Bi’ayy-deena
We’ll erase our humiliation by our own hands
Wa biqullil quwwati Narda’uhum
With all force we’ll stop them

Wa sanamdhi Nadukkum-Ma’aqilahum
We’ll carry on bring down their fortresses
Bi dawyyin Daamin Yuqliquhum
With strong sounds that will scare them
Wa sanam hul ‘ara’ Bi’ayy-deena
We’ll erase our humiliation by our own hands
Wa biqullil quwwati Narda’uhum
With all force we’ll stop them
Wa biqullil quwwati Narda’uhum
With all force we’ll stop them

Sana’khoodu Ma’arikana Ma’ahum
We’ll take our fights with them
Wa sanam dhiJi moo’an Narda’uhum
We’ll go as groups to stop them
Wa nu’eedul haqqal mug-tasaba
We’ll return our slain rights (territories)
Wa bi kullil quwwati Nad-fa’uhum
With all force we’ll push them out
Wa bi kullil quwwati Nad-fa’uhum
With all force we’ll push them out

Lan Nardha Bijuz-in Muhtallin
We’ll never accept a slain part of our lands
Lan Natruka Shibral-lildh-dhulli
We’ll never leave out a bit of our land for them to humiliate us with.
Satamourul ardhu Wa tahriquhum
The Earth will burst in flames and burn them
Fil ardhi Baraakeenun Taghli
In Earth there is volcanoes that are boiling (he’s pointing to how much Muslims have in their hearts from having their lands slain rights taken)

Lan Nardha Bijuz-in Muhtallin
We’ll never accept a slain part of our lands
Lan Natruka Shibral-lildh-dhulli
We’ll never leave out a bit of our land for them to humiliate us with.
Satamourul ardhu Wa tahriquhum
The Earth will burst in flames and burn them
Fil ardhi Baraakeenun Taghli
In Earth there is volcanoes that are boiling (he’s pointing to how much Muslims have in their hearts from having their lands slain rights taken)
Fil ardhi Baraakeenun Taghli
In Earth there is volcanoes that are boiling (he’s pointing to how much Muslims have in their hearts from having their lands slain rights taken)

You talk of how 9/11 was a day you suffered,
And how it was a day where it killed 3,000,
And a sad day that must be remembered for eternity…
And it is a day you keep reminding us about,
And you cry over it repeatedly…

When does the second face of the hypocrite expose itself?
In Palestine, my people are bombed constantly,
Homes bulldozed like grass being cut with a lawnmower.
In Afghanistan and ‘Iraaq, my people are cowardly bombed from the sky,
Most of the time, killing women and children,
And destroying homes and families.
In Somalia, my people are raped and their neighborhoods bombed,
Until my people wake up every morning, expecting the worst.

But of course, none of this matters to you.
Because the blood of an American is worth more than a Muslim…

So glad tidings of hypocrisy to the two faced people,
Who cry of innocent deaths on 9/11,
But turn their faces away towards the innocent deaths of daily life,
Committed by its own people and her allies.

And glad tidings to these two faced hypocrites,
Who attack the Muslim lands after 9/11 based on retaliation,
Yet, for some reason, the Muslims don’t have this same right,
When they retaliated for the crimes of America
On September the 11th.

You talk of 9/11,
But 9/11 happens everyday in my lands.

60 years of Israeli occupation & persecution of Palestine.

Look into my eyes
Tell me what ya see
U don’t see a damn thing
Cuz u can’t relate to me

U blinded by our differences
My life makes no sense to u
I’m the persecuted one
U the red, white and blue

Each day u wake in tranquility
No fears to cross your eyes
Each day I wake in gratitude
Thankin’ God He let me rise

Ya worry ’bout your education
And the bills u have to pay
I worry ’bout my vulnerable life
And if I’ll survive another day

Ya biggest fear is getting a ticket
As ya cruise your Cadillac
My fear is that the tank that’s just left
Will turn around and come back

Yet do u know the truth of where ya money goes
Do u let the media deceive your mind
Is this a truth that nobody knows
Has our world gone all blind
Yet do u know the truth of where ya money goes
Do u let the media deceive your mind
Is this a truth that nobody knows
Some one tell me

Oh let’s not cry tonight
I promise you one day it’s through
Oh my brothers
Oh my sisters

Oh shine a light for every soul
That ain’t with us no more
Oh my brothers
Oh my sisters

See I’ve known terror for quite some times
57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe
It’s the check point on my way to school

Terror is the robbery of my land
And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father
The bullet in my baby brother

The bulldozers and the tanks
The gasses and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door
All due to your funds

You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of my enemies
I’m terrorized in my own land
And I’m the terrorist

Yet do u know the truth of where ya money goes
Do u let the media deceive your mind
Is this a truth that nobody knows
Has our world gone all blind
Yet do u know the truth of where ya money goes
Do u let the media deceive your mind
Is this a truth that nobody knows
Some one tell me

Oh let’s not cry tonight
I promise you one day it’s through
Oh my brothers
Oh my sisters

Oh shine a light for every soul
That ain’t with us no more
Oh my brothers
Oh my sisters

American do ya realize
That the taxes that u pay
Feed the forces that traumatize
My every living day

So if I won’t be here tomorrow
It’s written in my fate
May the future bring a brighter day
The end of our wait

Oh let’s not cry tonight
I promise you one day it’s through
Oh my brothers
Oh my sisters

Oh shine a light for every soul
That ain’t with us no more
Oh my brothers
Oh my sisters

Middle East update

Palestine: Gaza Strip Appeal

In addition to a siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and deteriorating social, economic and security conditions, Israeli Forces are carrying out military operations using ground and air forces. On 22 January 2008 Islamic Relief launched a 5 million Pound (R90 million) appeal for Gaza, which has reached the kind hearts and minds of many individuals and institutions.

Nearly 10 million Rands worth of food parcels, medical equipment, medical supplies and blankets have been distributed by Islamic Relief, to 500 thousand beneficiaries. More funds are required by our colleagues in Palestine who are continuing to procure, pack & deliver emergency aid to families in North Gaza, Gaza City, Khanyounis and Rafah.

Islamic Relief also donated one large and two small ventilators in addition to four life monitor machines and several boxes of bandages and other medical disposables to Al-Shifa Hospital on 1 March 2008.

Islamic Relief has been working in Palestine since 1994, and opened its Gaza City office in 1998. Projects such as the Milk for Pre-school children and the Family Sponsorship projects have been affected by the disruptions, but are continuing as best they can. IR donors also sponsor 3,900 orphans in Gaza.

Iraq: 5 years after the war

Armed violence is still the biggest threat facing Iraqi people. Since the beginning of the war in 2003, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed. Conflict and criminality has created thousands of widows and orphans. Sectarian violence since February 2006 has forced 1.26 million people to flee their homes, becoming internally displaced inside Iraq.

More than 60 percent of the population in Iraq is cut off from essential services. The absent rule of law and increasing criminality has prevented families from accessing services such as schools and hospitals, and professionals from providing them. Unemployment is also prevalent, reaching more than 50 percent in some areas.

There are more than 4 million Iraqis who are food insecure. Many more are living in poverty and are increasingly threatened by malnutrition and diseases such as cholera. In short, after 5 years of the war, Iraq is still facing a burgeoning humanitarian crisis.

Islamic Relief Iraq will continue its emergency relief operations and expand them in 2008 to cover 25-30,000 Internally Displaced families, and vulnerable families including women heads of households, elderly families and those living below the poverty line estimated at USD 1/ day.

Islamic Relief Iraq is mainly involved in emergency relief projects providing food and non-food items to IDPs and returnees. This is in addition to its Orphans Welfare Programme and the seasonal projects of Ramadan and Qurbani.

IR Iraq is acknowledged for working in many of the hotspot areas in Iraq, especially in the central governorates of Anbar, Baghdad, Salah Al-Din and Diyala.

Islamic Relief Iraq’s work has been ongoing since 2003 to the present, whereas many international NGOs have left the country after the bombing of the UN premises in August 2003.

Iraqis are suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis and they need the consorted efforts of the international community to relieve this suffering. We call on all our donors and philanthropists to address the Iraqis humanitarian needs rapidly to enable them to recover and rebuild their shattered lives and communities.

————————————————————————–
Charity No: 2004/025107/08
043-357 NPO
PBO 930 018 104

————————————————————————–
Bank Details
Acc name: Islamic Relief SA
Standard Bank, Fordsburg
Account No: 005318459
Branch Code: 005205
Please fax deposit slip with reference to 011 836 1055

————————————————————————–
57 Mint Road, Fordsburg, Jhb.
PO Box 42811, Fordsburg, 2033.
Tel: (011) 836 1054
Fax: (011) 836 1055
www.islamic-relief.co.za
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