Salaam! I think every kid at some point has been frightened of the big scary monster living in the bedroom's wardrobe. How many visions kids have laying on the bed staring at the wardrobe doors, fearing to see them slowly open with a long creepy creek, waiting for the big monster to come out. Is this just a simple childhood's nightmare? No, I think there is more to it, something deeper bound to raise up to the surface later on, in adult age. Why do I say that? Because I just saw the 5 wardrobes I have in my bedroom regurgitating the big scary monster they have been hiding inside, right on my bed. What do normal people do on a saturday? Go out, have fun, meet friends. Not DK, on a saturday like this, having this brilliant idea to do a little wardrobe clean up. An idea that made me a mere slave to my wardrobe for the entire day, trying to sort things out. I just took out everything I had, 5 huge wardrobes packed with clothes, all piled up on my bed. It looked like a multi colored mountain. And then I saw it, the big scary monster...right there, all made of clothes, staring right at me with threatening eyes, telling me " Now you are mine! Now I have you"! Panic, frustration, shame. A sense of desperation took me. I sat down on a chair for 5 minutes trying to think of how I was gonna fix that mess, one of those moments when I wished my mother was there, she sure would know what to do with all that. I suddenly realized so many things and felt so ashamed. Me, who is so anti materialistic and spiritual I was completely floored by the massive pile of useless things I had acculmulated during the last few years. Jackets I didnt know I had, shoes I bought and never wore, shirts still wrapped in plastic, items I have no idea where they came from, if I had bought them myself or if was given them. I started to think about all the poor people in the world, of how one strives to make some money to finally buy a dress one really wants, about all the people who wished to have a few more changes, or a pretty dress to wear on sundays. Visions of Palestine, Africa, China, India crossed my mind. If my eyes could express my thoughts with fire, that big pile of clothes would now be incinerated. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I asked myself how did this happen? How did I manage to gather so many pairs of jeans, tops, jumpers, shirts, skirts etc etc without even realizing it? What was the need of buying all that, with my usual lame excuse " I have nothing to wear", a blantant lie to fool the lazy self, who prefer goes to a shop and get something shiny and new, than digging stuff up from the immense pile hiding in the wardrobe. After hours of sorting stuff out, I managed to at least decide which are the things that I'm most probably not going to wear anymore. I gathered all I want to get rid of in some big Ikea bags. The idea is that of giving most of it away to charity. Here in town there is Redcross, I may pay them a visit and see if they can take my clothes. But this is also to you people. If there is anybody who is poor reading this, or if you know somebody who is, or who could use a few more clothes, please let me know. One of the things that I understood today is that it is so much better to have less than to have too much. I could feel the weight of all those clothes hanging from my neck. An incredible quantity of things that ate my day away, draining me to the point I was about to scream for frustration. I dont want to be in this situation again. I dont need all that, noone does. All I need is myself and my body and my health. None of those things are worth anything. Look how they become ugly and worthless and forgotten with the passing of time. One day we will leave the earth and all our possessions will stay here, after us. We cant take them with us. Things belong to those who need them. Just some food for thought...to all of you sincerely Hayam xxx
Salaam guys! Check out my friend's profile DEBU, we have recorded a song together where I recite a beautiful poem written in italian by Shaykh Fattaah called L'Alba! Listen to it and tell me what you think! Add Debu Italiano if you like what you hear :) Much love! DK Hayam Nur xxx
Listen to it here: http://www.myspace.com/itdebu
Ciao ragazzi! Ho recitato una poesia scritta da Shaykh Fattaah per i miei amici Debu in Indonesia....ascoltatemi su questo profile, la poesia chiamata "L'Alba" in perfetto stile sufi con accompagnamento musicale dei Debu al tamburo e flauto. Spero vi piaccia! Aggiungete i Debu, arriveranno canzoni nuove in italiano spero con la mia collaborazione! Ciao a presto! DK xxx
Here are two articles of great interest! Enjoy! Hayam Nur xxx
Quantum Physics and the Discovery of Divine Wisdom
One area of science that shatters the materialist myth and gives positive evidence for theism is quantum physics.
Quantum physics deals with matter's tiniest particles, also called the "sub-atomic realm." In school, everyone learns that matter is composed of atoms. Atoms are made up of a nucleus and several electrons spinning around it. One strange fact is that all of these particles take up only some 0.0001 percent of the atoms. In other words, an atom is something that is 99.9999 percent "empty."
Even more interestingly, further examination shows that the nuclei and electrons are made up of much smaller particles called "quarks," which are not even particles in the physical sense; rather, they are simply energy. This discovery broke the classical distinction between matter and energy. It now appears that only energy exists in the material universe, and that matter is just "frozen energy."
There is a still more intriguing fact: Quarks, those packets of energy, act in such a way that they may be described as "conscious." Physicist Freeman Dyson, when accepting the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion (2000), stated that:
Atoms are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom.15
In other words, there is information behind matter, information that precedes the material realm. Gerald Schroeder, an MIT-trained scientist who has worked in both physics and biology and authored The Science of God, makes a number of important comments on this subject. In his more recent book, The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth, Schroeder explains that quantum physics-along with other branches of science-is the tool for discovering a universal wisdom lying behind the material world. As he puts it:
It took humanity millennia before an Einstein discovered that, as bizarre as it may seem, the basis of matter is energy, that matter is actually condensed energy. It may take a while longer for us to discover that there is some non-thing even more fundamental than energy that forms the basis of energy, which in turn forms the basis of matter.16
John Archibald Wheeler, professor of physics at Princeton University and recipient of the Einstein Award (2003), explained the same fact when he said that the "bit" (the binary digit) of information gives rise to the "it," the substance of matter.17 According to Schroeder, this has a "profound meaning":
The matter/energy relationships, the quantum wave functions, have profound meaning. Science may be approaching the realization that the entire universe is an expression of information, wisdom, an idea, just as atoms are tangible expressions of something as ethereal as energy.18
This wisdom is such an omniscient thing that it covers the whole universe:
A single consciousness, a universal wisdom, pervades the universe. The discoveries of science, those that search the quantum nature of subatomic matter, have moved us to the brink of a startling realization: all existence is the expression of this wisdom. In the laboratories we experience it as information that first physically articulated as energy and then condensed into the form of matter. Every particle, every being, from atom to human, appears to represent a level of information, of wisdom.19
This means that the material universe is not a purposeless and chaotic heap of atoms, as the atheist/materialist dogma assumes, but instead is a manifestation of a wisdom that existed before the universe and that has absolute sovereignty over everything that exists. In Schroeder's words, it is "as if a metaphysical substrate was impressed upon the physical."20
This discovery shatters the whole materialist myth and reveals that the visible material universe is just a shadow of a transcendent Absolute Being. Thus, as Schroeder explains, quantum physics has become the point at which science and theology meet:
The age-old theological view of the universe is that all existence is the manifestation of a transcendent wisdom, with a universal consciousness being its manifestation. If I substitute the word information for wisdom, theology begins to sound like quantum physics. We may be witnessing the scientific confluence of the physical with the spiritual.21
Quantum is really the point at which science and theology meet. The fact that the whole universe is pervaded by a wisdom was revealed in the Qur'an 14 centuries ago. One verse reads:
Your god is God alone, there is no god but Him. He encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Qur'an, 20:98)
THE TRUTH OF DESTINY
But you will not will unless Allah wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. (Qur'an, 76:30)
As a result of experiments he performed in 1973, Professor Benjamin Libet, a neurophysiologist at the University of California, revealed that all our decisions and choices are set out beforehand, and that consciousness only comes into play half a second after everything has been determined.44 This is interpreted by other neurophysiologists as meaning that we actually live in the past and that our consciousness is like a monitor which shows us everything half a second later.
Therefore, none of the experiences we perceive are in real time, but are delayed by up to half a second from the real events themselves. Libet carried out his research by making use of the fact that brain surgery can be performed without the use of narcosis, in other words while the subject is fully conscious. Libet stimulated the brains of his subjects with small electrical currents, and when they experienced a perception that their hands had been touched the subjects said that they had felt that "touch" almost half a second before. As a result of his measurements, Libet arrived at the following conclusion: All perceptions are normally transmitted to the brain. As these are subconsciously evaluated and interpreted, the ego is unaware of anything. The information that appears before our minds, in other words that we can be aware of, is transmitted to the cortex, the seat of consciousness, after a certain delay.45
The conclusion from this may be summarised as follows: The decision to move a muscle takes place before that decision reaches the consciousness. There is always a delay between a neurological or perceptual process and our becoming aware of the thought, feeling, perception or movement it represents. To put it another way, we can only be aware of a decision after that decision has been taken.
In Professor Libet's experiments, this delay varies between 350 and 500 milliseconds, although the conclusion that emerges is in no way dependent upon those figures. Because, according to Libet, whatever the length of that delay-it makes no difference whether it is great or small, whether it lasts an hour or a microsecond-our material life is always in the past. This demonstrates that every thought, emotion, perception or movement happens before reaching our consciousness, and that proves that the future is entirely outside our control.46
In other experiments, Professor Libet left the choice of when the subjects would move their fingers up to them. The brains of the subjects were monitored at the moment their fingers moved, and it was observed that the relevant brain cells went into action before the subjects actually took the decision. To put it another way, the command "do!" reaches the individual, and the brain is readied to perform the action; the individual only becomes aware of this half a second later. He or she does not take a decision to act and then performs that action, but rather performs an action predetermined for him or her. Yet, the brain makes an adjustment, removing any recognition that the individual is actually living in the past. For that reason, at the moment we refer to as "now," we are actually living something determined in the past. As already discussed, these studies manifest the fact that everything happens by the will of Allah, as revealed in Surat al-Insan 30.
Take a look around you from where you sit. You will notice that everything in the room is 'made': the walls, the upholstery, the ceiling, the chair where you sit, the book you hold in your hand, the glass on the table and countless other details. None of them happen to exist in your room of their own accord. Even the simple loops of the carpet were made by someone: they did not appear spontaneously or by chance.
A person who is about to read a book knows that it has been written by an author for a specific reason. It would not even occur to him that this book might have come into being by chance. In the same manner, a person who sees a sculpture has no doubt whatsoever that it was made by a sculptor. And not just works of art: even a few bricks resting on top of one another make one think that they must have been brought to rest just so by someone within a certain plan. Therefore, everywhere where there is an order – either small or big – a founder and protector of this order must also exist. If, one day, somebody came forward and said that raw iron and coal came together to form steel by chance, which in turn constructed the Eiffel Tower again by chance, would not he and those who believed him be regarded as insane?
The claim of the theory of evolution, the unique method of denying the existence of Allah (God), is no different than this. According to the theory, inorganic molecules formed amino acids by chance, amino acids formed proteins by chance, and finally proteins formed living creatures again by chance. However, the probability of a living creature being formed by coincidence is less than the probability of the Eiffel Tower being formed in the same manner, because even the simplest human cell is more sophisticated than any man-made structure in the world.
How is it possible to think that the balance in the world came about by coincidence when the extraordinary harmony of nature is observable even with the naked eye? It is the most unreasonable claim to say that the universe, each point of which suggests the existence of its Creator, has come into being on its own.
Therefore, there should be an owner of the balance visible everywhere from our body to the farthest corners of the inconceivably vast universe. So, who is this Creator that ordained everything so subtly and created all?
He cannot be any material being present within the universe, because His must be a will that existed before the universe and created the universe thereupon. The Almighty Creator is One Whom everything finds existence, yet Whose existence is without any beginning or end.
Religion teaches us the identity of our Creator Whose existence we discover with our reason. Through what He has revealed to us as religion, we know that He is Allah, the Compassionate and the Merciful, Who created the heavens and the earth from nothing.
Although most people have the capability to grasp this fact, they spend their lives unaware of it. When they look at a landscape painting, they wonder who its painter is. Later, they praise the artist at length for his beautiful work of art. Despite the fact that they face numerous originals of that painting the moment they turn around, they still disregard the existence of Allah, Who is the only owner of all these beauties. In truth, not even a lengthy research is needed to understand the existence of Allah. Even if one had to live in a room from the time he was born, countless pieces of evidence in this room alone would be enough for him to grasp the existence of Allah.
The human body so overflows with evidence that it could not be contained in many multi-volumed encyclopaedias. Even giving a few minutes of conscientious thought to it all is enough to understand the existence of Allah. The present order is protected by Allah and maintained by Him.
The human body is not the only food for thought. Life abides in every square millimetre of the earth, be it observable by men or not. The world overflows with many living beings, from unicellular organisms to plants, from insects to sea animals, and from birds to human beings. If you take a handful of soil and look at it, even therein you can discover manifold living creatures with diverse characteristics. The same is true also for the air you breathe. Even on your skin, there are many living creatures whose names are unknown to you. In the intestines of all living beings are millions of bacteria or unicellular organisms that help digestion. The animal population in the world is many times greater than the human population. When we also consider the plant world, we see that there is not a single spot on the earth where there is no life. All of these creatures that are spread over an area of millions of square kilometres have different body systems, different lives and different contributions to the ecological balance. It is preposterous to claim that all these have come into existence by chance with no aim or purpose. No living being has come to exist through its own accord or effort. No coincidental happening can ever result in such complicated systems.
All of this evidence leads us to the conclusion that the universe works with a certain 'consciousness'. What, then, is the source of this consciousness? Surely it is neither the living nor the non-living beings in it. Nor can they be the ones that maintain the harmony and preserve the order. The existence and glory of Allah reveals itself in countless proofs in the universe. In fact, there is not even a single man on the earth who will not accept this evident reality from the heart. Yet they still deny it 'in iniquity and arrogance though their souls are convinced thereof' as stated in the Qur'an. (Surat an-Naml, 14)
This book is written to point out this reality from which some people turn away because of its being at odds with their interests, and also to disclose the frauds and senseless deductions on which some untrue allegations stand. This is why many diverse subjects are tackled in the book.
Those who read this book will once more see the indisputable evidence of Allah's existence and witness that Allah's existence encompasses all things: the 'reason' knows this. Just as He has created this all-pervading order, He is the One Who also maintains it incessantly.
Global Warming. Stop buying things you don't need!
Right, we all have been hearing more and more about the effects of global warming, but how many of you truly took time to learn and understand its devastating consequences? When your life is still the same, despite the air pollution and a slight change in the duration of seasons and the unusual weather, it is hard to think that we are about to succumb a catastrophic change that will modify the life of our planet forever. In the last 100 years with the development of industries and technology, the life on the planet has changed extremely fast from a slow, agricultural, tranquil life to the life we know today made of cars, computers, mobile phones, airplanes that can take us in a few hours from county to country, from one side of the world to the other. We have been building houses everywhere, destroying the eco-system, occupying 50% of the surface of the planet. Our forests are reduced to small patches of green, considering that trees are the lungs of the earth, now this is a really big problem. When you watch documentaries about nature, they always show you these perfectly human-free environments, where animals roam free. What you dont know is that these natural paradises are not as big as they seem, there are roads, houses and cars right around them! That's because we have been building everywhere and where we dont live we have built roads to get us to other inhabitated places! Furthermore think about the luxury we live in, in the West. We all have computers, steroes, endless numbers of Tvs, mobile phones that get changed and dumped basically every year, ipods, mp3 players, dvd players, printers, scanners, all kinds of things one could dream to have. Well all these things have a price, not only the price we pay to purchase them or the price the factories have to manifacture them but the price that our planet pays. Most things, especially the ones made of plastic, are draining the natural resources of our planet dry. In a society where consumerism compels us to buy more and more and to always have the top of line items of the newest technologies, the natural resources are being exploited with a terribly increasing speed and in allarming amounts. Carbon Fossile which we use as fuel, source of power and as essential element for manifacture is running out...we are consuming forever what the nature has created in millions of years...which will take millions of years to recreate. We have been using it as it was a never ending resource, but it is not and only now the governments begin to realize it. If they dont find soon a valid alternative to it, we can all forget all the commodities we are used to today. What is also very problematic is that while before it was just the West using these resources, now even the 3rd world countries are beginning to develop industrially and they also want to live at the very same standard as western countries. These means these countries are also going to drain from the very same 'wells' as us, accelerating the disappearing of the very same resources. Look at China, twenty years ago China didnt even have highways, now it has cities with skyscrapers, loads of industries and it is the fastest growing economy in the world. The raise in temperature we have been having in the past years because of global warming has made thousands of glaciers around the world disappear. Even the very top of Hymalaya, the highest place in the world is melting at an amazing speed. If it goes on like this in the next 10 years we will have to face great catastophies. Every year when the ice from Hymalaya melts from the glaciers its waters goes to fill the 3 biggest rivers in Asia, that cross India and China. With its waters the fields are irrigated and people can mantain their agriculture and grow their rice. If the glacier gets smaller and smaller these rivers will slowly have so little water and the whole ecosystem will be destroyed. The cultivation of rice and other products will be totally impossible in vast areas and this will seriously affect the way people eat all over the world. The melting of icebergs will increase the sea level of many meters, these mean many countries will be totally flooded, and as the temperature raises the deserts will get bigger and vast areas of Africa and other warm countries will be totally uninhabitable. Now, considering we are several billion people in the world, where will all these people go? They will have to move to the little areas where life would be still bearable. I can imagine in my head cities of the future made of kilometric skyscrapers where everyone would live on top of the other , because the people will be too many compared to the inhabitable surface. Or maybe, even worse, a new form of racial hatred will get rid of all the muslims, all the black people, or something like that, so the ones left can have the space to live and exploit the remaining resources of the earth. What a terrible perspective! All this sounds like a terrible nightmare and it seems just like the delusion of a lunatic, the scary thing is that it is not. That's why all governments of the world now have as 1st priority the problem of global warming, because it is imminent! And what about all the species of animals that are in danger? Every half hour a different specie ceases to exist! Not only due to the change of climate and of seasons but also because we have polluted and destroyed the animals natural environment! And what about natural catastrophies? They have quadrupled in the last 100 years and they will keep increasing. Do you know that in Nigeria there are fields full of technological wastes coming from the west? Literally hills of broken TVs, old steroes, all kinds of electrical appliances that the West doesnt need anymore. Why do we ship them there and begin to destroy one of the most unspoiled countries in the world? Because we have no alternative. Because we are already full of trash and wastes. That's because we keep producing and producing, the demand is so high, that we cant even get rid of our own wastes! Do you know that people in Greenland, a land covered in ice where almost nobody lives have the highest percentage of pollution in their blood? How can it be? Because of all the winds, they get all our pollution! Yes, even such a remote part of our planet is affected, nothing is spared! So, if you care about the destiny of our planet, please stop buying things you dont need. Dont believe our consumerist society that makes you believe you really need a new mobile phone, the newest playstation, the newest mp3 player. We dont need any of these things. We dont need these things to be happy. That's not what life is about. Look what has become of our society. Noone gets married anymore, they just want to work so they get the money to BUY things they dont need. They work 5 days are week or more from morning to dawn, so they can pay off their debts. So they keep buying things they dont need. They work all week and then get drunk on weekends. Then they get depressed because they do nothing but working and getting drunk and their lives are so sad and empty. Dont you see what money and consumerism has done to our society? We are slaves of our own materialism!
sincerely,
Deadly Kristin (Hayam Nur as Sufi)
PS: If you guys repost this, please quote me as it took me an hour to write this down, ok? Ma'a salaam
Salaam! I invite everybody, especially non-muslims to watch this wonderful documentary! Peace and love! Dk Hayam Nur PS: Repost at will
What is Islam? Who is Muhammad (peace be upon him)? This is the first of 3 part documentary narrated by Ben Kingsley about Islam and ... all » attempts to answer these questions.
This part deals with the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), his early life, his encounter with God Almighty and the birth of the Islam. Islam would become the revitalizing force of a barbaric Arabia, returning people to God and bringing back the monotheistic message of Christianity and Judaism in its most powerful way.: Islam Women were given rights over there husbands, racism was annihilated and the rich were made equal to the poor. This religion is the solution to all of humanities problems and it is important to learn about it today
JASON MILLER Friday, August 18, 2006 ISLAMOPHOBIA is a mental and spiritual affliction. And our Western ruling elites bear the responsibility for inflicting it upon the psyches of the masses.
Now that the Stalinist/Maoist regimes have collapsed or evolved toward capitalism and no fascist states with imperial ambitions exist (besides the United States and its few allies), the American Empire needed to find a new "enemy" to replace Stalinists and Nazis. Much of the soft power employed by the leaders of America's "top down democracy" stems from psychological manipulation of "the mob". Mobilization of the masses against a common enemy "threatening the very existence of the American Way " has long been a staple in the United States' ruling elites' ongoing push to monopolize the world's wealth, power, and prestige.
And who better to vilify than Islamic people? Many are dark-skinned and live in developing nations, meaning their lives are inconsequential in the prevailing moral calculus of the West. The Middle East is predominately Islamic, its sands are oozing with crude oil, and it is home to Israel. From the perspective of the Empire, what better region to target than the Middle East?
And whether one believes that 9/11 was a false flag operation perpetrated by the US government or the work of radical Islamic Fundamentalists, the members of the Bush Regime obviously shed their crocodile tears publicly while privately celebrating the event as their Pearl Harbor. 3,000 civilian deaths and the demolition of a powerful symbol of the Western "value" of avaricious Capitalism whipped the American public into a furor against the "evil Muslims" who "hate our freedoms".
Never mind the fact that the United States and Israel have undertaken a nearly unparalleled program of military aggression and ethnic cleansing throughout the Middle East since the formation of the illegitimate colonial nation in Palestine.
Two of the most disturbing and inflammatory perversions of the truth the Western media entities disseminate are that all adherents of the Islamic faith are radical fundamentalists and that Sharia Law is universally harsh and grossly inferior to the Empire's system (which provides "liberty and justice for all").
Just as Christianity encompasses a broad spectrum of people with varying ways of practicing and expressing their faith, the Islamic world is filled with human beings who have diverse ways of expressing their religious beliefs. There are liberal, moderate, and Fundamentalist Muslims. And surprising as it may seem, most practitioners of Fundamentalist Islam, like most Fundamentalist Christians, are essentially peaceful individuals. In fact, a Muslim truly following the tenets of Islam practices moderation and tolerance. Many Muslims are no more willing to strap plastic explosives to their belts for a suicide mission than most Christians would be to bomb an abortion clinic. There are radicals from both religions, but they are very much in the minority.
Another lie deeply embedded in the barrage of communications we receive from the Western corporate media is that the United States and its allies are morally superior to the "evil Muslims". One aspect of Islam they offer as "proof" of this faulty conclusion is that many Islamic nations incorporate Sharia into their legal systems. While Sharia can involve harsh and rigid forms of justice, it exists to varying degrees in the many Muslim nations around the globe. Judiciaries in Islamic nations manifest the influence of Sharia in ways that span the spectrum from extremely dogmatic to highly secular and liberal.
The USA Empire has a great deal of house-cleaning to do before it is in a position to preach to other nations on human rights issues.
Here are but a few recent examples of the United States' own flagrant human rights abuses:
1. carrying out quite a number of its own executions in a manner recently discovered to inflict a great deal of suffering on the victim
2. routinely torturing and suspending justice for suspected "enemy combatants"
3. funding the Israeli Apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians
4. occupying a nation where it has killed over a million Iraqi civilians since the Gulf War invasion (through brutal economic sanctions and military actions).
5. funding the Israeli devastation of Lebanon
6. supporting numerous ruthless and murderous regimes (as long as they are friendly to US corporations)
7. having cynically embraced Saddam Hussein as an ally (knowing of his crimes against humanity) when it furthered US interests and invading Iraq preemptively to topple him when he ceased to be useful.
8. having kept the House of Saud in power for years despite its harsh practice of Sharia (i.e. thieves' hands are severed and adulterers are stoned).
9. maintaining the largest prison population in the world through a legal system so unjust that 50% of those incarcerated are Black when Blacks comprise 14% of the general population.
10. engaging in numerous outright massacres of civilians (i.e. Haditha, Fallujah)
In truth, Israeli and American lives are no more precious than those of the Arab and Persian human beings populating the Middle East. And neither the United States/Israel/Great Britain nor the nations and groups comprising the resistance in the Middle East are innocent of the deep transgression of murdering innocents. Each nation or group also commits human rights abuses against its own people in some fashion. However, Western exploiters and invaders are culpable of far more frequent and grievous war crimes than the Middle Easterners who are defending themselves, their resources, and their people.
If the majority of the human beings controlling the corporate media had a shred of moral decency they would focus their efforts on informing their viewers, listeners, and readers of the vast number of war crimes committed by Israel and the United States. They would start portraying the "terrorists" as the resistors of oppression they truly are. They would make a distinction between the various Middle Eastern resistance groups' legitimate attacks on their occupiers' militaries and the war crimes they commit against civilians. And they would devote most of their remaining substantial resources to the inundation of news consumers with stories, photos and video footage depicting the tragic and gruesome civilian suffering and death.
As it is, the Western corporate media shamelessly serve the Neocons by perpetuating a virtually endless cycle of hatred and violence. They incite and feed Islamophobia and they fabricate a plethora of false justifications for the malevolent actions of Israel and the United States. But then in a fascist nation, corporations are wedded with the state, militarism is the state's primary focus, scapegoats and enemies are essential, and the function of the Fourth Estate is to provide the propaganda to control the masses.
Just imagine if the mainstream media in the United States actually began fulfilling its role (in what is ostensibly a free society) and acted as a check on our government rather than its accomplice. If more Americans knew more truth, instead of hating Islamic people and pushing to intensify the war in the Middle East, the masses would be demanding that reason, justice, and peace prevail. They would demand that the United States completely withdraw its military from the Middle East and leave Israel to stand on its own, which would force the Israelis to finally settle the Palestinian issue in a just manner and to cooperate with their neighbors as equals.
If the major media entities of the West were living up to their responsibilities as members of the Fourth Estate, perhaps 3 year old Ali Ahmad Hashim of Qana would not have been bombed to death, the members of the Ghalia family would not have been obliterated on a Gaza beach, 76 year old wheel-chair bound amputee Abdul Hamid Hassan Ali would not have been massacred at Haditha, Cindy Sheehan would not be grieving for a son lost to a war of imperial aggression, and Reuven Levy of Haifa would not have been annihilated by a rocket attack as he was doing his job for Israel Railways.
I am not holding my breath waiting for money-driven enablers of war like Rupert Murdoch to start heeding the advice of Jiminy Cricket. However, I will not succumb to their assault of malicious distortions. I refuse to fear, hate, or consider myself at war with 20% of the world's population simply because they choose to follow the teachings of the Qur'an.
Islamophobia is an intellectual and spiritual malignancy. Reason and humanity are the cures.
