32 - August 7th thru August 13th 2000,
Vol X
 
On
Sovereignty over Jerusalem, Why Not Ask History?
COMMON SENSE
By: Hassan Al-Haifi
Time and again, we wonder at the strange policy decisions of the United
States as a responsible superpower seeking to ensure that its hegemony
works for the sake of world peace and international cohesion Ð globalization.
One would not fail to understand that much of this policy is to be dictated
by a lot of self Ð interest. However, the American policy on the Middle
East seems to be dictated by disregarding much of what the United States
stands for. On the other hand such policy is often dictated, not so much
by the wishes of the majority of the American public, but by the arrogant
and often misleading dictates of the proponents of Zionism, who have made
deep inroads into the American political machinery using techniques from
Monica Lewinsky to political contributions, to arm-twist American politicians
to fall within the goals and aspirations of a Zionist machinery that might
be driving American interests to the brink of patience of a lot of those
who sit on top of those interests: half of the world's oil reserves, to
say the least.
We think it prudent that the American policy makers, not necessarily
represented by the likes of Madeleine Al-Bright, Dennis Ross and many other
members of the American Jewish Community, who are not expected to take
their professional duties and the American national interests to heart,
before ensuring that the Zionist masterminds in the United States and Israel
have expressed their opinions and issued their dictates as to how Middle
East policy is to be formulated and implemented accordingly, should take
a less sinister approach towards the Middle East, if they are to truly
mediate a "peaceful" settlement of the Middle East conflict, and
to ensure that the patience of the people of the region is not driven to
the brink.
For one thing, they cannot rely on the mere token positions of Arab
leaders vis-ˆ-vis an issue that the Arab population is not alone severely
affected by, but perhaps has the solid backing of an entire Moslem population
of the world, which encompasses more than a billion souls who have no hesitation
in carrying out any action that ensure that matters of religious sanctity
are not infringed upon by any blind and arrogant policy makers, who are
really limited in their outlook and perhaps confident that they can dictate
American policy and programs in the directions perceived by the New York
diamond dealers and publishers who insist that the only holy structure
in Jerusalem is the "Wailing Wall".
Jerusalem is first and foremost a sanctified holy fortress that has
been protected by the Al-Mighty for the worshippers of the world and has
been safeguarded by Islamic jurisprudence over the area for thousands of
years, with the latter having proven the strong tolerance and respect that
Islam holds for all the shrines of the monotheistic faiths. Since the Caliph
Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, gracefully declined the offer of the Patriarch of
Jerusalem to pray in the Church of the Ascension, after the Moslem Armies
liberated their Arab Christian cousins in Jerusalem, from Byzantine oppression,
for fear that he could set a bad example of violating the exclusive rights
of the Christians to their holy shrines, although Islam has no qualms about
regarding Christian and Jewish houses of worship as acceptable for Moslems
to carry out their prayers therein, as long as they do not violate the
rights of the religious communities that have sway over those houses of
worship. Instead the pious and modest Caliph of the Moslem World, who has
seen both the Roman and Persian Empires crumble in less than a decade by
the indefatigable Moslem armies that could not be stopped by any power
then, no matter what the odds were against them, and submit to the tolerance
of Islamic jurisprudence, without so much as seeing one church or house
of worship destroyed or transformed into mosques (unless the entire community
involved has converted to Islam and the people of the community themselves
insisted that the relevant house of worship has outlived its usefulness
as a Christian or Jewish house of worship and surely is to be adapted to
the new faith of the community. We must emphasize here that such conversions
were voluntary and were induced by the tolerance and justice that Islamic
jurisprudence reflected by both Moslem scholars and the military and civil
service that served the Islamic faith at the time.
Thus history certainly proves, that if anyone has controlled the holy
places of all the faiths in Jerusalem, with the appropriate degrees of
tolerance and protection to ensure their sustainability, it was Moslem
authorities who have ruled the area for well over 15 centuries. The fact
that the Wailing Wall, the Church of the Ascension and many other holy
shrines of Moslems, Christians and Jews still remain intact to this day
is testimony that, for all intents and purposes, it should be the indigenous
Moslem and Christians of Palestine who should still maintain the "sovereignty"
over these shrines, for the simple reason that they have a proven record
of preserving their sanctity and their structures intact.
In looking back at the Zionist record in Palestine and in the other
areas of the Holy Land, it would seem apparent that the Zionists have repeatedly
and openly violated the sanctity of the Moslem and Christian shrines, with
more indiscreet attention shown particularly the Islamic shrines. They
have discriminately carried out massacres of worshippers as they are praying,
even in the most sacred of months (during the Holy Month of Ramadhan),
such as the massacre in the Al-Khalil Mosque in Hebron, where hundreds
of Moslem worshippers were gunned down in cold blood by Zionist hooligans,
who to this day have yet to be even reprimanded for this heinous crime.
However, then in the eyes of American foreign policy makers like Mrs. Albright
these are not terrorists. Only Moslems who insist on protecting their own
holy places and the places of their Christian cousins are terrorists, because
they threaten that all Moslems should do anything in their power to prevent
any change to the sanctity of Moslem jurisprudence over the areas, which
are even recognized by the former imperialist power that had the mandate
over the area, which never refuted the legitimacy of Moslem ownership over
the Holy sites in Jerusalem, perhaps they realized for sure that if the
ownership changed hands, then surely the Christian shrines will be threatened
by Zionist hooligans who have no qualms or who show no hesitation about
carrying out ethnic and religious cleansing by any means possible. For
Moslems, it is not just a matter of legitimate rights; it is a religious
duty to do so. History has proven that there is no way that Zionism should
be allowed to hold sway over the holy sites revered by over half the population
of the Earth, since the proponents of this demagogic philosophy have literally
changed the face of the areas they have stolen from its rightful owners
and do not hide the fact that they have no hesitation about carrying out
their Zionist dream of Eretz Israel Ð from the Euphrates to the Nile,
banking on the continued blind support of the United States, who seem to
have become blinded to historical facts and the logical aspirations of
the non-Jewish constituencies that make up the American public, who considerably
outnumber the Jewish and particularly the Zionist constituencies, who never
fail to hide their "double loyalty" to the robbery that has become
Israel and to their make-believe loyalty to the United States.
Nevertheless, one appalling situation fails to convince this observer
of any hopes to be found in the existing leaderships of the Arab and Moslem
populations of the world. One is not oblivious to the feelings of the people
in the street, in most of the Arab and Moslem countries of the world, as
to their views on the recent threats by the United States of moving their
embassy to Jerusalem. For sure, had they been allowed by their leaders
to express their views openly in the streets, for sure the American policy
makers might be brought to twice about moving their embassy, if they could
see first hand the anger and disgust at the almost blind implications of
American foreign policy towards the region. Literally millions would come
out in the streets to denounce such policy decisions and to ensure that
they will indeed carry out any and all necessary measures that would insure
that the sanctity of Moslem beliefs are not to be taken lightly, if these
policy makers are willing to take their own real interests lightly. One
only has to recall that after the 1973 rescue of Israel by the United States,
this observer witnessed American motorists by the millions line up for
hours to get their limited rations of gasoline, because one serious minded
Moslem leader Ð the truly majestic King Feisal of Saudi Arabia decided
to close the faucet of oil flowing to the United States and other Western
countries, because he was, like most Arabs and Moslems of the world just
fed up with the blind justice that the United States deems appropriate
for the region. However, where are the present Moslem and Arab leaders
from the venerable man of principles that King Feisal was then, who gave
his life for the principles he stood for? Accordingly, he has achieved
the ultimate goal of martyrdom for his faith and the love of his fellow
Arabs and Moslems indefinitely. Carry on Mohammed Hussein Nasrullah (of
Hizbullah), you are on the right track!
Illicit
Enrichment, Any Solution?
Imad Al-Saqqaf,
Taiz Bureau Chief,
Yemen Times
Amidst the financial and administrative corruption sweeping all government
machinery, bribery phenomenon has overwhelmingly spread in judiciary, education,
health and security. Consequence of bribery can be traced among thousands
of ineligible and failure students, thousands of postponed legal cases.
It is manifest in cases of thousands of arbitrarily imprisoned people and
those doctors who have converted into headsmen instead of angels of mercy.
What is worse is that decision-makers know well where corruption is
bred and where it stems from. However, once in a blue moon one of them
has been prosecuted.
I still remember the execution of some Iraqi officials after being
proved guilty of taking bribes in the 1980s, Syrian ex-prime Minister,
Mahmoud Al-Zoghbi who committed suicide after accusing him of corruption
and the prosecution of Prime Minister of Pakistan. In our country the situation
is just the opposite, for corrupts are rewarded and promoted.
I believe that one of the main reasons for the spread of such corrupt
practices is Qat. Oddly enough, people buy qat that costs them more than
the salaries they get. This of course comes through taking bribes for even
putting a single signature.
This happens everyday in schools, hospitals, offices, courts, police
stations, etc. In an overnight tens of such corrupts become prosperous
and nobody dare ask them where you have got this from.
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