Reflection From a UC Berkeley Islamo-Jihadist

My name is Bilaal Ahmed, and I'm the former leader of your local jihadist organization, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UC Berkeley. I don't know if you noticed, but two weeks ago my cover was blown by a paid political advertisement in the Daily Cal from David Horowitz's Freedom Center, which revealed that we, the MSA, are a "campus front group for jihad." To think that the hard work of Muslims in America over the past 40 years to construct this front could be uncovered so easily pains me greatly.

I am writing to admit to you, attentive reader, that Horowitz once again is absolutely correct just like he was this past October with Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for a terrorist state to be established so that we can all devote our lives to it and place its well-being above our own.

Since Horowitz already let the cat out of the bag, let me tell all of you just a few ways your MSA at Berkeley has supported terror this past year: We made terrorism-laced sandwiches on Sproul to give to homeless people at least once a month, hoping that they would join our cause; we organized a team of 70 Muslims to participate in Relay for Life on behalf of the American Cancer Society, hoping that one day we will be able to use cancer as a biological weapon; we held a charity event and raised $1,000 for Save the Children (of terrorists, of course). Oh, and before I forget, we've occasionally held ice cream socials, dinners, bowling nights, barbeques, broom-balling, ski trips and get this, we play football on some Fridays to pretend that we love America. As you can easily tell, all our activities are designed to foster extremely close relationships among the members of our terrorist organization so that when one of us goes out for a jihadi terrorist mission, we can all get super depressed when they do not come back alive.

We also spearheaded a massive campaign to recruit others to stand in solidarity with our terrorist cause. We had to do this in the most creative manner possible so we voiced our concern as the need for "peace" (May God protect us from it!). You may have heard of the so-called "Peace Not Prejudice Week." Unfortunately, our plan backfired and we ended up uniting groups for the "worthy" cause of peace and not prejudice which was by no means our intention. We preferred the slogan "Prejudice Not Peace," but that did not seem to go over well with other members of the coalition.

Not to mention we also host weekly self-betterment series for our members, in which we help them hone their terrorism skills and encourage open dialogue about issues in Islam-oh I am sorry-Islamo-Fascism. We are currently working on expanding our services to include TIP, the Terrorism Improvement Project, in an effort to network with other local terrorists and help our members reach out to leaders in the greater terrorist community. TAP (Terrorism Awareness Project), take that!

Clearly, MSA is just not doing a good enough job of hiding its terrorist activities. In fact, we would like to thank Horowitz for spending so much of his own private funding and time on an ad that got us free publicity and landed us on the map. If you see our table on Sproul, please stop by, ask questions and leave with a better sense of terrorism in Berkeley. Oh and don't forget to pick up some pamphlets about Islamo-Fascism and give them to your friends!

Source: Daily Californian

For Muslim Students, a Debate on Inclusion

The intense debate over whether organizations for Muslim students should be inclusive or strict is playing out on college campuses across the United States, where there are now more than 200 Muslim Students Association chapters.

Gender issues, specifically the extent to which men and women should mingle, are the most fraught topic as Muslim students wrestle with the yawning gap between American college traditions and those of Islam.

“There is this constant tension between becoming a mainstream student organization versus appealing to students who have a more conservative or stricter interpretation of Islam,” said Hadia Mubarak, the first woman to serve as president of the national association, from 2004 to 2005.
. . .
Members acknowledge that the tone of the Muslim associations often drives away students. Several presidents said that if they thought members were being too lax, guest imams would deliver prayer sermons about the evils of alcohol or premarital sex.
. . .
“There were drunkards in the Prophet Muhammad’s community; there were fornicators and people who committed adultery in his community, and he didn’t reject them,” Mr. Mertaban said. “I think M.S.A.’s are beginning to understand this point that every person has ups and downs.”

Full Story: NY Times

A Week of Hate Begins Today

"All thanks and praise is due to Allah the Almighty. We ask Him to send His peace, blessings and mercy upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, his family, companions, and all those who follow his way till the Day of Judgment.

Over 14 centuries after divine revelation was sent to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), there continues to be attempts to challenge and slander Islam and Muslims. Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, says in the Qur`an,

"They want to extinguish Allah’s light with their mouths: but God will not allow except that His light be perfected, even if the disbelievers hate it." (9:32)

Today in the West, Muslim students continue to face obstacles as they are at the forefront of the Islamic work. Just as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions struggled and sacrificed to combat falsehood and to spread the message of Islam, it is truly an honor for Muslim students to also have the opportunity to struggle and sacrifice for Islam.

The upcoming event titled "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" will take place on college and university campuses starting October 22nd in an effort to curb critical thinking and academic freedom, spread racism and hate, and slander Islam and Muslims with lies and deception.

[...]

Before anything, MSA West asks you to make sincere du`a. It is through the example of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that we learn that even the staunchest enemies of Islam have been brought to their knees by the truth and guidance of Allah, subhanahu wa ta`ala. We pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala helps us to enjoin good and
forbid the evil, and to guide us to success in teaching truth over falsehood.

We ask Allah, Glory be to Him, to grant us the strength, courage, and knowledge needed to expose the falsehood as falsehood and to portray the truth as truth. We ask Him, the Almighty, to help us spread His light in all its fullness however hateful it may be to those who deny the truth."

Taken from the MSA West "Don't Hate...Educate" Packet. To request a copy, please contact president@msawest.net.

Ramadan Kareem

Prophet Muahammad (sallahu alaiyhi wa salaam) declared Ramadan as a blessed month and that fasting during its is a compulsory act, saying: "The doors of Paradise are open and the doors of Hell are closed during the scared month of Ramadan; moreover, in this month there is one night that is better than a thousand months."

For your reading benefit and out of a selfish hope that I may get some tiny ajar for it, please find below a compilation of various resources on Ramadan.

• Everything you wanted to know about the starring role the moon gets in any Ramadan conversation can be found at the Moon Sighting site.


• An incomplete version of a Ramadan 411 can be found at: Wikipedia


• Muslim Matters: Audio of Ramadan conference call with Shaykh Yaser Birjas and Shaykh Yasir Qadhi available for download here!


• CAIR's 'Sharing Ramadan' Resource Guide


• Live Prayer Broadcast from Mecca, Saudi Arabia


• Ramadan Rulings for Women: Part One


• Dua Guide: Great resource year-round, but particularly this month!


• Take advantage of the multiplicity of blessings available this month and DONATE generously! My personal favorites:


• MSA West


• Islamic Relief


• CAIR
  
  
  

Ramadan Kareem!

Dedicated to All Students Fighting For Justice

This week, many universities will see their Muslim Student Associations, Arab Student Unions, Students for Justice and Peace, International Solidarity Associations, etc. hosting events dedicated to exposing the injustices that are occurring on a daily basis to Palestinians and Arab Israelis at the hands of a theo-democracy aided and supported unconditionally by the United States government.

There will be lectures by intellectuals from all different ethnic and religious backgrounds speaking out for justice, for fairness, for equality, for humanity.

There will be supporters from all different groups, religious and non-religious, who believe that all people, no matter what their faith tradition, ethnic background, political preferences, or physical features, should be treated as humans. They will urge their classmates to listen to the message of tolerance, equality, and respect.

There will also be protestors – Zionists who believe that the “Holy Land” is the birthright of the Jewish population and that Israel, as a nation, has a right, not only to exist, but to expel non-Jews, namely Muslim and Christian Palestinians from their homes and establish settlements that have been deemed by the international legal community to be illegal.

These protestors don’t see Palestinians as human beings, with families, birthdays, soccer balls, toys, goals, aspirations, first loves, favorite ice cream flavors, glowing smiles, memories, family photos, keepsakes, role models, corner markets, tea cups and saucers, music and dancing, shining eyes.

They dehumanize the Palestinians, take away their dignity and their dreams, take away their history and their future, take away their education and their careers and their families and turn them into animals, unfeeling, spiteful, hateful, barbaric, vicious, as if every Palestinian who has ever walked the face of the earth is a slobbering, rabid dog, destined to attack, feared, loathed, spat upon, abandoned and left to wander and die.

This is the way with all supporters of injustice. They are all the same, no matter who they are persecuting. This is not just unique to the Palestinians. The Native Americans were savages, as were the Africans. The Asians were mysterious and sly, conspiring and not to be trusted. The Italians, the Irish, the Eastern Europeans, the Russians, the Aboriginees, the Hispanics. They have ALL been dehumanized.

The Jewish population has also been stripped of their humanity in the past. After the Holocaust, however, the Jewish population made sure that they would not fall prey to oppression ever again. They remind us in magazine advertisements, in lobbyist groups, in the creation of the Anti-Defamation League, in Holocaust Remembrance Day. They remind us of their humanity, of their daily suffering at the hands of brutal oppressors.

They remind us that the world sat by idle while they were stripped of their livelihoods, their families, birthdays, soccer balls.... In an attempt to recapture some of that humanity , members of the Jewish community around the world read the names of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust, to give their life a voice, a heartbeat, a soul.

However, their slogan, “Never Again” cannot be monopolized by the Jewish population. “NEVER AGAIN” is for us all. I pray to God that the Jewish people of this world never experience the oppression and deadly scourge of hate that they dealt with prior to and during World War II. I pray that they never experience ANY oppression or injustice at all. But they also can’t dish it out on anyone else. At all. Ever. Especially since they know what it’s like.

This week is not just about Palestinians. It’s about right and wrong. It’s about humanity. It’s about every human being given the chance to allow his heart to sing and his soul to take flight and his mind to extend past the bounds of imagination. It’s about supporting the idea that NO ONE should be able to take ANYONE’S humanity away from them, ever.

To all the students and organizations sponsoring this week’s events, I dedicate my prayers to you. You are the lights in the darkness, the beacons of hope for the future, the strength in this time of global weakness and temerity. Stand firm and never waver.

To all those who come out to show your support for justice and humanity in Palestine, I applaud you for being bold enough to stand up for what is right in a world that blurs the lines and allows hypocrisy to plague the landscape of our world and policies.

To all those who come out in protest of these events, I quote our current President, “Bring it on!” Every time you protest events that seek only justice, equality, and the freedom to live without fear, torture, terrorism, and dehumanizing policies, you show your true colors – the blackness of your soul.

Keep protesting, keep dehumanizing, keep supporting injustice – it only makes our job that much easier. To quote Eminem (wow, I’m on a role), “I’m glad cuz they feed me the fuel that I need for the fire to burn, and it’s burnin’” and we will continue to return until justice reigns supreme for all and humanity is a staple for every person on the face of the earth.

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

OVER THIRTY KILLED IN VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING RAMPAGE

(Los Angeles, CA - 4/17/07) – More than thirty people were killed today at Virginia Tech, a university on the Eastern coast of the United States. Officials are describing the horrific incident as the deadliest shooting rampage on a college campus in American history.

SEE: "Officials: Gunman Dead After Bloody Campus Rampage" (CNN, 4/16/07)

If anyone slays a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew all people. And if anyone saves a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all people. Qur'an 5:32

Muslim Student Association-West, a grassroots coalition of Muslim student groups across the West Coast, extends it deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and the students and faculty of the campus. Our thoughts are with you during these difficult times.

We encourage all students to work with their campuses to ensure the safety of everyone, and pray that Allah protects our campuses and societies from such criminal acts in the future.

BLIND Snowboarder

From Adil Latif (he found me on the MSA West email network, and is friends with some of the individuals I had the opportunity to meet thru my work with MSA West):

Imagine being taken up in a helicopter and dropped off on top of a snow covered Glacier. snowboarding down this glacier at speeds up to 40mph, avoiding the many dangers such as crevasses (large cracks in the ice) cliffs, and praying there will be no avalanches.

AND YOU ARE BLIND!

My name is Adil, and I am planning to perform the above challenge. I was born with a degenerative eye condition which resulted in my eyesight slowly worsening from the age of 14, and now at 25 I am 96% blind.

So Why Are you Doing This Adil?
I am asking people to sponsor me for the above challenge, so that I can raise £14,000 which is enough money to transform 10 buildings into schools in the region where the Asian earthquake took place in 2005. Most schools were destroyed. The children have to get back into school to ensure they can become productive members of society. More importantly the schools will provide the children trauma support to assist them in overcoming any psychological stress they have suffered from as a result of losing their loved ones. Your support will help 300 children have a better future. It will also provide me with the necessary motivation to carry out this snowboarding challenge, as it has never been done before by someone who is blind!

So how do I know you aren't just making all this up Adil?
If you Google the term 'blind snowboarder' you will come up with many news articles, one of them is included below.
BBC News Article (slightly out of date): BBC News

So How Can I Help Adil?
1. Pray that my snowboarding ability is up for the challenge by the end of this month!
2. Help me raise my target of 14,000 which will equip 10 schools.

To make an online donation and to see how much I've raised already please visit: Just Giving

Visit my blog, and read about how someone who is blind is able to learn snowboarding you can visit: Feel the Edge

With so many demands on your pocket and time I really appreciate any form of help you can provide. As a wee gesture from my end, everybody who donates will be entered into a prize draw.