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09 March 2013
By El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
Assalaamu Alaikum
(Greetings of Peace):
Last year this time (in
Johannesburg), South
Africa was
one of 15 COUNTRIES that
had a demonstration in defense of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. For
this year's 10th anniversary observance the
mobilization point will be the U.S. Consulate in
Durban South Africa, on Friday, March 15. One of the
main organizers of this year's action, Br. Inayet
Wadee, sent us a copy of the flyer for this year's
action; the design of the flyer is excellent!
On the top half of the
flyer are the following words:
10 YEARS & STILL AWAITING
JUSTICE
The last line is the one
that should really be a shock to the senses...it is
the rhetorical
question that should tug at the heart and cause
us ALL to STOP and REFLECT deeply on what it means to
be human;
on what it means to be a
being of conscience, and on what it means to be family!
Tomorrow morning
at 9:00 there will be a press conference for Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui, Attorney Lynne Stewart, and a remembrance of
the late Rachel Corrie, at the National Press Club in
downtown Washington, DC. In the afternoon a support
rally will be held for Aafia at the Pakistan Embassy -
located at 3517 International Court, Washington, DC
(behind the Van Ness UDC campus).
The question I have for
my Muslim brethren (especially
the leaders) is simply this: will YOU be present
and accounted for? For as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr so eloquently stated:
"In the end we will remember not the words of our
enemies,
but the silence of our friends."
Insha'Allah, we expect
to be on Washington, DC's Pacifica
Radio WPFW (89.3
FM)
at 7:30 tomorrow morning
to talk about the mobilization
---------------------------------
Bismillah Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim
OPERATION REDEMPTION
An Open Letter to Muslims in America regarding
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the campaign for her release and
repatriation, and our own spiritual and psychological
redemption
The
word redemption is
loaded with meaning. It encompasses the act of
redeeming oneself, and/or the state of being redeemed.
To redeem is
to recover something of value by discharging an
obligation. According to Webster, it means "to
ransom, free or rescue by paying a price." It
also signifies making good on a promise (to fulfill)
and to atone –
another interesting verb that signifies making amends,
or to expiate.
March 30, 2013, will mark 10 years since Dr.
Aafia Siddiqui and
her three young children (ages 6, 4, and six months)
were disappeared in Karachi, Pakistan by
agents of the Pakistani and American governments. It
was March
30, 2003. Five years later (2008) a barely alive Aafia
Siddiqui would be brought to the United States to
begin 2 ½ years of pre-trial confinement that would be
even more oppressive than what was imposed upon the
young American soldier accused of leaking classified
documents to Wikileaks (Bradley Manning).
Aafia's oldest children Ahmed and Maryam (American
citizens by birth) would be returned to the family
home in Karachi in
2008 and 2010, respectively. The youngest child,
Suleman, remains unaccounted for to this very day!
As recorded in Sahihs Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet
(peace be upon him) reportedly said, "You
will observe that the believers are like parts of the
body in relation to each other in matters of kindness,
love and affection. When one part of the body is
afflicted, the entire body feels it; there is a loss
of sleep and a fever develops."
In another hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim, the
Prophet (pbuh) reportedly said: "Whoever
removes a worldly grief from a believer, ALLAH will
remove from him one of the griefs of the Day of
Judgment. Whoever alleviates the lot of a needy
person, ALLAH will alleviate his lot in this world and
the next. Whoever shields a Muslim, ALLAH will shield
him in this world and the next. ALLAH will aid a
servant [of His] so long as the servant aids his
brother."
The seal of the Prophets (Mohammed ibn Abdullah, pbuh)
also reportedly said: "A
Muslim is the brother of a Muslim; he neither
oppresses him, nor does he fail him."
And also, "None
of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother [which
also includes his sister] what
he wishes for himself." –
source, Sahih Bukhari and Muslim
And finally, in one of the most well-known and often
quoted ahadith in the Muslim tradition, the Prophet (pbuh)
reportedly said:"When
you see an evil action you must change it with your
hand; if you cannot do so, with your tongue [the jihad
of the tongue]; if
you cannot do so, detest it within your heart…that is
the weakest degree of faith." –
source, Sahih Muslim
To say Muslim leaders and well established Muslim
organizations in America (generally
speaking) have failed to measure up to this high
standard – especially as it pertains to the human
rights challenges that are symbolized by this Muslim
woman's case – would be an understatement. But every
day of new life also affords a new opportunity.
It is also recorded in both Bukhari and Muslim that
the Last Messenger of ALLAH stated, "When
a person repents, God's pleasure at this is even
greater than that of one who dismounts from his camel,
loses it in the desert, and then finds it again all of
a sudden."
In this New
Year of
the Muslim Hijri calendar (1434 AH), we invite
committed Muslims in America to join us in an
intensive three month initiative that
will officially begin on December 30, 2012, and run
through March 30, 2013, culminating in three major
mobilizations: one in WASHINGTON,
DC and the others in FORT
WORTH, TX.
We have named this initiative Operation
Redemption because
it will provide committed Muslims in America –especially Muslim
MEN -
with an opportunity for us to redeem ourselves on this
extremely important, precedent-setting case, and the
equally important peripheral issues that surround it!
May ALLAH (SWT) bless this effort, and all those who
positively respond to it. Ameen.
In the struggle for peace thru justice,
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
7 Safar 1434 A.H. (December 20, 2012)
Special Note:
Over the course of this
three month consciousness-raising process, in support
and defense of our sister, our plans have been
slightly but very importantly modified. Initially, we
were planning to do an action in New York City in the
middle of March, but that has been tabled (for now);
the first action will now take place in Washington, DC
on March 8 ("International
Women's Day"). Everything else remains the
same.
To contact us, or to send a contribution in support
of this critically important mobilization:
The Peace Thru Justice
Foundation
11006 Veirs Mill Rd.
STE L-15, PMB 298
Silver Spring , MD. 20902
Tel: (301) 220-0133 or
(202) 246-9608
E-mail: peacethrujustice@aol.com |
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