Letters to the Editor, October 24, 2003

The French TV program coordinator, Evelline Thomas, was chosen as the new symbol of the French Republic. (Alittihad, 10/17/03).

Noooo ! it's wrong . it s a mistake ! Evelline Thomas was just chosen by the mayors' club to represent them.

please correct this information.

Samy, France

Dear Editor

I write as an Anglo-Saxon Englishman - but also as one with a deep interest and respect for Islam and its Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him)

As an educator and historian, I have become fascinated by your website. As an admirer of Islamic culture, I applaud the way in which Al Jazeerah defends itself and the Islamic World.

America and its behaviour are winning it far more enemies than friends. I lived in America for a number of years and it saddens me to see the course that their government is taking.

God is Most Great

Mark Perry Nash

Care to juxtapose the cost of colonization (the U.S.A. keeps begging)?

'Tis once said that: ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth
accumulates and men decay.

Illapsable harrower times?

Abla Mutaa

Dear Editor,

Is it anti-Semitic to demand efficiency and credibility in Israel?

I think not -- especially when US taxpayers are footing a 9-million-dollar-a-day bill for a policy that is obviously not working.

Yet when taxpayers and various members of Congress accuse George Bush of having a brutal and ineffective policy in Israel, Sharon lobbyists accuse these Americans of being anti-Semitic.

However, when these same Americans accuse Bush of having a brutal and ineffective policy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, Africa and the United States of America, they are not accused of being anti-Semitic. What is the difference? There is no difference. A brutal and ineffective policy is a brutal and ineffective policy -- and we have the right to protest because we are the ones who are paying for it.

Is it anti-Semitic to demand efficiency (and credibility) from our government? I think not.

Jane Stillwater

Salim Tamari is to be commended for his sweeping analysis 'No obvious destination' (Al- Ahram Weekly, 18-24 September) of the political and social dynamics which have emerged since the creation of the Israeli-Palestinian region following the Catastrophe of 1948.

If only the story's conclusion had been written between 1988-1996 and secular nationalism emerged into a realised two-state solution. Instead, the Israeli extremist government continues a brutal suppression of the people, coupled with a sense of entitlement to the Palestinian landscape which is continuously reshaped through illegal territorial expansion, as well as the entrapment of Palestinians by the Apartheid wall and Israeli-only highway, the electrified razor wire fence and checkpoints.

Facing the raw aggression of Israel, with little the PLO can do to buffer its impact, a spiritualisation of Palestinian identity through the Islamic movement serves to create a national psyche of courage, the exercise of will against the threat of impending annihilation. But, as Tamari notes, that does not make for a system of government shaped by and accountable to the people... a self-determined nation of Palestine positioned to take its place in the 21st Century. Sadly, the suicide bombings serve to mask Israel's tyranny; whereas, the recent display of national courage in the face of Israel's threat to assassinate Arafat has won Palestine a moral victory in the eyes of the world.

As Tamari correctly asserts, Palestinians never before have had such an "urgent need of coherent political leadership".

Genevieve Cora Fraser

Massachusetts, USA

Dear Editor,

I've learnt with concern about the recent Israeli military attack on a target in the West of Syria [dd october 6th] Yet apart from the fact whether it was a trainingcamp of the Palestinian organisation the Islamic Jihad [according to Israel] which had claimed resonsibility for the recently committed suicide-attack in Haifa or a refugee-camp [according to Syria], such an attack is a serious violation of the sovereignity and territorial rights of Syria. According to International Law a military attack on another country is only justified, when the attacking country [in casu Israel] is first attacked [by Syria], when there is an imminent military threatening or when there is a Security Council-Resolution, which justifies the attack, which was not the case. The existence of a trainingcamp of the Islamic Jihad is only legally punishable when Israel has significant evidence of the involvement of Jihad-leaders or activists for the suicide-attack in Haifa. In that case Israel must follow the way of the International Law by asking Syria for their deliverance or demand that Syria give them a trial. In the case of a Syrian refusal, Israel can be supported by the International Community, which can force the Syrian authorities to bring them to justice.

The fact that this attack wasn't condemned by a Security Council Resolution is not only a detoriation of International Law, it can also lead to future violations of territorial rights in other international conflicts.

Astrid Essed

Amsterdam [Z-O] The Netherlands

Poems to Innocent Children of Iraq and Palestine

By Zeenat ul Islam

10/24/03

Innocent children of Iraq, victims of war...
They dropped bombs, more and more.

Innocent children of Iraq, they bombed with all their might
Missiles rained throughout the night.

Innocent children of Iraq, many people have died,
May Allah Ta'Ala grant them a stage in Jannah that is high.

Innocent children of Iraq, never fear...
No matter what happens, Allah Ta'Ala is near.

Innocent children of Iraq, never abandon hope,
Continue to hold tight to Allah Ta'Ala's boundless Rope.

Innocent children of Iraq, keep that beautiful smile,
Many agree that this illegal war war vile.

Innocent children of Iraq, the Ummah is on your side,
Paradise we are promised if to His Laws we always abide.

Innocent children of Iraq, please remain strong...
Allah Ta'Ala knows who is right and who is wrong.

Innocent Children of Palestine

My dear brothers and sisters in Palestine
We heard your cries today
We will never let you walk alone
Until you’re victorious in Allah’s Way.

So many Muslims have died today
But nay, they were martyred
As long as we hold to the Rope of Allah tight
We will never become dishearted.

May Allah guide the Zionist Jews
Who occupy your land to leave you alone
Just go on resisting their terror
And Allah will improve your stand.

My dear children keep on throwing stones
As your efforts aren’t in vain
Allah will reward you for every stone you throw
And insha’Allah He will ease your pain.

Keep fighting for what is yours
And bear Allah in mind
For if we place our trust in Him
It is success that we shall find.

An open letter to those of the Islamic faith everywhere

First of all let me say that I am an American. I do not subscribe to any faith or religious belief. My contention is that with God (or Allah) being the highest intelligence in the universe that no mere man can claim to understand him or her or even it. I mention that to illustrate that I am not speaking as a believer in Christianity. I do accept the ideals of Jesus as do I the wisdom of Mohammet and Budda.

I have known many people, Arabs and Caucasians and oriental and find that the differences end with the physical. The heart is the same as is the color of the blood. Today in America I see first hand the trend toward Americans being herded into a chain of events, orchestrated by the present administration, that ensure that they allow many wrongs committed against Islamic peoples under the guise of national security.

The eventual losers in such efforts will be both Islamics and Americans as well. In their rush to judgment to protect their way of life they are ready to destroy anything which they have been led to perceive as a threat. To them that threat is from Islam. It is from Islam that that threat must be countered. It has to be countered through educating the American populace to the reality of the situation. Islam must show that there is really no difference between them and Americans.

Americans are being told that Muslims worship a different God. Very few are aware that Muslims worship the God of Abraham which is the same God of the Jews and Christians alike. Allah is not a separate deity from the God of the old Testament. Allah is only what Muslims call God. Muslims are as helpless to stop the extremist in their midst as the extremist that control the American government.

They are not helpless when it come to showing the Americans the reality of their beliefs. As I see it this is the most important thing that the American people need to know. It is the only way that we will all be allowed to exist in a peaceful world. There is a saying that to know the truth will allow freedom. And most of all what Muslims need to understand is that Americans, while responsible for their acts, are not aware that they are being led by evil. I suppose that what I am really asking is that Muslims help save Americans from themselves.

Bud English San Leandro, Ca, USA

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.

editor@aljazeerah.info