------------------------------------------------------ IN THE NAME OF ALLAH ------------------------------------------------------ >>>>>>>>>> I N N O V A T I V E M I N D S <<<<<<<<<< NEWSLETTER 19 December 2001 http://www.inminds.com ------------------------------------------------------ Assalaamu Alaikum We wish all our readers Eid Mubarak. In this newsletter we continue our Palestine theme with information about the recent Quds Day and an update of our Boycott Israel Campaign. CONTENTS ~~~~~~~~ 1> Quds Day Photo-Account - Rabbis denounce israel 2> Boycott Israel Campaign - new guilty companies identified - new banner gallery 3> Errata 4> Christmas Gift? 5> Thought for the Day Quds Day Photo-Account ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This year Quds Day in London was held on 9th Dec. Thousands marched from Marble Arch to Whitehall in solidarity with Palestine. For the first time, the march was attended by a visible non-Muslim presence. This included a representation from Neturei Karta, the anti-zionist Jewish group - in fact the rally was specifically held on a Sunday rather than the usual Saturday to accommodate the Jewish Sabbath. One of their senior rabbis, Rabbi Goldstein denounced israel in his address to the crowd: "Judaism stands completely opposed to zionism zionism although founded by people of Jewish birth does not make it a Jewish conception, communism was also founded by people of Jewish birth but it is not a Jewish conception, and zionism is no more Jewish than communism... We pray daily for the dismantlement of the zionist state (Israel)." Other speakers included Faisal Bodi, editor of ummahnews.com and Hujjatul-Islam Dr.Abbas Shameli of the Islamic Centre of England. Listen to all three speeches and see the photo-account at: http://www.inminds.com/qudsday2001.html Boycott Israel Campaign Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We launched the Boycott Israel Campaign to coincide with Quds Day just over a week ago. Mashallah, we are already seeing great support for it. * The Quds Day committee adopted our boycott leaflet as part of the official Quds Day handout. Thousands were distributed during the rally. The leaflet is downloadable at: http://www.inminds.com/boycott-leaflet.html It is available in both Word format and as a 300dpi jpeg image file. * Sisters at one Mosque have taken on the "Selfridges Letter Writing Campaign" and have solicited nearly 200 letters from their community. For details on this project see: http://www.inminds.com/boycott-selfridges-letter.html * With the help of informants, two new companies have been successfully identified as being guilty of supporting israel: Home Depot : EXPO Design Centers Villager’s Hardware stores Apex Supply Company Georgia Lighting Maintenance Warehouse The Limited Inc. : Express (667 stores) Lerner New York (560 stores) Structure (469 stores) New York and Company (79 stores) Mast Industries (apparel manufacturer) Intimate Brands, Inc . Victoria's Secret (stores) Bath & Body Works (stores) White Barn Candle Company (stores) Henri Bendel (store) The founder and CEO/president of both these companies are zionists and are on the board of directors of Emet, the Pro-Israel Media "War Room" whos function is to ensure that all media in the US stays biased in favour of Israel. For full information see: http://www.inminds.com/boycott-home-depot.html http://www.inminds.com/boycott-limited.html Become an informant today, pick a suspect company and start investigating. Remember we need evidence before we label them guilty. email us your findings at: boycott@inminds.com * One supporter has designed wonderful banners for the campaign. Support the campaign by choosing one of them for your web site: http://www.inminds.com/boycott-banners.html Boycott Israel Campaign Home Page is at: http://www.inminds.com/boycott-israel.html Errata ~~~~~~ In the last newsletter we gave the wrong (incomplete) url for the inspiring lecture by Hujjatul Islam Dr.Muhammad Ali Shomali on the Spiritual journey in Islam. Here are the details again, this time with the correct url: Different Approaches to Morality in Islam lecture by Hujjatul Islam Dr.Muhammad Ali Shomali Particularly important lecture for those considering the study of SUFISM or Islamic Mysticism (IRFAN) to enrich their spirituality. Dr.Shomali teaches in both the Islamic Seminary of Qum and the University of Tehran. "The start point for your spiritual journey is to WAKE UP - realise that something is missing in your life. The Prophet (SAW) once said: 'People are sleeping, only when they die do they wake up - when its too late'. " Listen to the full lecture at: http://www.inminds.com/different-approaches-to-morality.html Christmas Gift? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So what do you do when a friend at work or college gives you a Christmas gift? Why not let it become an opportunity for dawah? Give them an Islamic gift in return. Eternal Signs in Fractals CDROM makes an ideal gift to give a non-muslim. The beauty of the enchanting fractal images has a universal appeal, and the well chosen ayats (all in english) which accompany each image are designed to liberate the viewers mind. Its priced at only £12, for more information see: http://www.inminds.com/signs-in-fractals.html To go to our on-line order form: http://www.inminds.com/orderform.html (all credit/debit card orders are encrypted for your security) Thought for the Day ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Since Sept 11 we have seen an increase in the demonization of Islam by the media and the persecution of Muslims and yet as the following snippets indicate, conversion to Islam after Sep 11 has increased four fold! "And they planned and Allah (also) planned, and Allah is the best of planners." Holy Quran 3:54 MORE IN HAWAI'I TURN TO ISLAM [from Honolulu Advertiser] Less than three weeks after terrorists struck New York City and Washington, Heather Ramaha stood among a group of women at the mosque in Manoa and recited the shahada in Arabic: "Ash-hadu alla illaha illa Allah. Wa-ash-hadu anna Mohamadan rassulu Allah." She was testifying that "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah (one true God), and Mohammed is a prophet of God." By doing so, she became a convert to the Islamic faith, extending a recent national trend. Some Muslim clerics across the country say they are seeing a fourfold increase in conversions since Sept. 11, when stories about Islam jumped from the back pages of the religion section to front pages worldwide. Hakim Ouansafi, the president of the Muslim Association of Hawai'i, said that prior to Sept. 11, there had been an average of three converts per month. In the two months since then, there have been 23. One thing Sept. 11 did was remind people that life is too short: "If I'm going to die, I want die a Muslim," a convert told Ouansafi. And oddly enough for a religion that is often perceived as one that cloaks its women from head to foot, the newly converted Westerners tend to be female. Ouansafi said the national ratio of converts is 4-to-1, women to men. Here, he said, it's closer to 2-to-1... ANOTHER CONVERT FOR ISLAM [from LA Times] No one expected Dia Richardson to get religion, and certainly not the one she got. After all, she had lived fast for many years. If the clubs were open, Richardson was there. At Thanksgiving dinner one year, her uncle - one of three Christian ministers in her family - asked her reprovingly, "Just how many beers are you going to drink?" "As many as I brought," she sassed. Then her friend Khadijah Shabazz, who is Muslim, invited Richardson to a mosque wedding in Culver City. Richardson accepted, even though she knew she would have to wear a skirt that covered her legs, "my best asset." It was the first time she had been inside a mosque. The simple reverence of the ceremony, the Arabic prayer resonating in the domed hall, awakened something in her, Richardson said. So did the sound of her 10-year-old son's voice when he intoned the Quranic verse Shabazz had taught him: Bismallah Ir-Rahman Ir-Rahim. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. But not until Sept. 11 did Richardson begin to imagine what it might be like to be a follower of Prophet Muhammad. As reports of anti-Muslim incidents mounted, Richardson witnessed Shabazz's forbearance. "People told her to take off her head scarf to be safe, but she wouldn't do it," Richardson said. "I saw how disciplined and calm they were. And I don't know any Christian who prays at the same time five times a day." Richardson, 30, became her friend's protector, and eventually, her fellow believer. One of the first people Richardson telephoned after she converted to Islam was her uncle John Wood, who lives in Riverside and is also an evangelist minister. "You did what? Are you out of your mind?" Then she heard him scrambling for his Bible. "Wait a minute, let me read something to you." He found a passage from the Book of John: "He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. . . ." "I knew you were going to try to preach it out of me, Uncle John, that's why I didn't call you before," Richardson told him wearily. "But I've been reading the Quran, and I think it's the best thing for me." Shabazz, who runs a Muslim day-care center out of her home in Central Los Angeles, had agreed to home-school Richardson's son, Christopher. Shabazz, 41, was a Jehovah's Witness when she married a Muslim man 20 years ago and converted. She never chided Richardson about her lifestyle or tried to proselytize her. And Shabazz taught Christopher about Islam only after he asked why she bowed to the east at noon. One night a few months ago, staying at her father's home in Silver Lake, Richardson pressed her hands together to pray with Christopher at his bedside. Christopher stopped her and reached for her hands. "Don't pray like that," he said, turning her palms skyward. "Pray like this so you can receive the blessings." Eventually, he started asking Richardson whether he could be a Muslim. "Why do you want to do that?" she asked him. "I just like it," Christopher said. Shabazz, he said, was "so calm and you're so hyper." "I just didn't feel that we were living nice," Christopher said. "I didn't like staying with baby-sitters. I just wanted to stay with my mom. I was mad. I was depressed." Christopher just about dragged his mother to the mosque wedding of one of the teachers at Shabazz's day care. "I have something to do," she told Christopher. "I have to work late." "Na-uh, no you don't," Christopher said. When Richardson arrived at Shabazz's house, she was told that she would have to borrow some clothes before entering the mosque. "Everything I have is all short, short and cleavage," she said. One of the women gave Richardson a long-sleeved ankle-length gown. Another pitched in a scarf to cover her head and neck. Richardson looked in the mirror--and was pleasantly surprised: "Hey! I still look kind of good." Richardson said she was immediately struck by how reverent the atmosphere was. "At my uncle's church, everyone is always whooping and hollering," she said. "But everything is quiet in there, and peaceful." Then an undulating voice came blazing through that silence, an Arabian melody calling the gathering to prayer: Allah'u'Akbar! Allah'u'Akbar! "What does that mean?" Richardson whispered. Shabazz whispered back, "God is great." Sept 11 As reports of attacks against Muslims came in following Sept. 11, Richardson spent more time with Shabazz. "I was like her guard dog," she said. On a shopping trip one day, Richardson noticed people giving Shabazz the evil eye because of her traditional dress. Sometimes Richardson returned the sentiment with a hand gesture that isn't in any holy book. During those trying days, Richardson saw reflected in Shabazz's certitude her own emptiness and confusion. "I was just smoking weed, being with guys, having no job. I was just wild. "One time I was getting my hair braided up and I thought: 'Look at all this trouble I'm going through getting my hair done when it's very obvious the whole world is going to hell.' God or an angel or some voice in my head was just telling me: 'You need to do something.' " Back at her father's apartment, Richardson found the book of Islamic supplications Shabazz had given her and opened it. My forelock is in your hand . . . your decree over me is just. And she seemed to hear the words she read reverberating within her. You make the Quran the life of my heart and the light of my breast and a departure for my sorrow and a release for my anxiety. She went to see Shabazz. "I walked in in my miniskirt and was like: 'I'm going to take shahada [testimony of faith] today.' ' Christopher was at Richardson's side when they recited the ancient oath: "I bear witness there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Messenger." With that, she took a baptismal shower and for the second time in her life donned a borrowed hijab. Wassalam Innovative Minds _________________________________________________ TO UNSUBSCRIBE Visit: http://www.inminds.com/unsubscribe.html and enter your email address. TO SUBSCRIBE Visit: http://www.inminds.com/index.html#sub and enter your email address. TO SUBMIT ARTICLES Email them to editor@inminds.com, please ensure that they are original and short. (c) Innovative Minds 2001. All rights reserved. http://www.inminds.com