SHAFAQNA-
When it comes to the little ones, how many Indian children starved to death in the 1943 Bengal famine, under Britain’s ‘benign’ colonial rule? Over 2 million people died, in Bengal alone – surely many were kids. PM Winston Churchill denied them access to international aid. The generous heart of the man later awarded the title of ‘the greatest Briton’. The same Churchill who in 1919 ordered chemical attacks on Russian revolutionary villages!
Ancient tales, of no relevance today? Consider the figure of half million Iraqi children’s deaths, owing to the West’s crippling economic sanctions. US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright was President Clinton’s appointment, women-abusing Bill prided himself on having the first female to the job. (Also the first dwarf, given her vertically-challenged physique.) When Albright was confronted with that horrendous charge on TV, she made no attempt to deny it. Instead, her candid reply was that the little Arab ones’ lives were a price ‘worth it’. The graceless, decrepit creature is still alive, fulminating against ‘rising fascism’ and Trump. Fascism eh? Pretty rich, coming from a politician who basked in the demise of half-million innocent kids!On FB my friend Leo Cecchini, a former US diplomat, asks why Bashar Assad should have used chemical weapons, when his side ‘has already won the war against the rebels. It just doesn’t make sense’. He observes how the Russian Foreign Minister has fingered the rebels: they did it! That would make sense. The rebels – including jihadi terrorists guilty of horrendous crimes against Christians and other minorities – stand to gain the most from knee jerk international reactions. It was in the rebels’ interest to launch the chemical attack. To lure foolish Western leaders to fight on their side. Will Trump take leave of his senses and bomb Assad? Puzzling, given that one of his electoral pledges was to rein back America from military interventions abroad. Why the U-turn? Sheer cussedness? Trump speaks of ‘Animal Assad’. Should he fall into rebels’ trap, would he become ‘Donkey Donald’?Or could it be a matter of family influence? Don’t mean lovely wife Melania but Trump’s creepy daughter Ivanka and her creepier husband, Jared Kushner, with their links to Israel. Does that conjure up another likely scenario? Many times has Israel bombed Syria. The latest missile strike hit the T-4 airfield near Homs, close to the ancient site of Palmyra, once ruined by the ISIS barbarians. The strikes evince sinister Israeli plans, not simply military but strategic and geopolitical. The Zionist state seeks to profit from the Syrian civil war and destroy for good the Syrian state, to consolidate its hold over the illegally occupied Golan Heights. Further, as President Assad gave the Palestinians some degree of support…geddit? Above all, PM Netanyahu wants to castrate the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah. The only Arab fighting force that has given Israel’s Army a bloody nose. With Hezbollah out of the way, Israel might feel free to push the beleaguered people of Gaza into Northern Sinai, out of the way. Iran will then be next to be targeted. With Saudi-Wahhabi support. La samaha Allah!
Children and Israel, oh, yes. How many Arab children are slain by Israelis? According to the Palestinian Ministry of Information in Ramallah, by 2013 the Israelis killed 1518 Palestinians kids. Over 6000 were injured. The figures would be higher by now. In 2016 alone 32 children were shot. There are children in prison where they are often tortured. Do you hear about these statistics? Independent media mention them occasionally but they never get the kind of obsessive, magnified attention the Douma victims got. Israeli crimes against children and other civilians are routinely ignored or underplayed. Are Palestinians then a non-people? Doesn’t their little ones’ blood count?
Theresa May, that parody of a leader, is urged to join the nightmare armed coalition against Syria. ‘Don’t let the French steal the act!’ Tory warmongers spur her. The French! Meaning pipsqueak, jumped-up technocrat Macron and his gang. Itching to emulate ex-President Sarkozy’s exploits. (How many Algerian children died during the French colonial war there, I wonder?) Sarkozy, the crook being investigated for taking bribes from Libya’s Gaddafi, whose country he later helped to devastate. But Theresa isn’t egged on by Tories alone. Tony Blair too calls for British intervention in Syria. Like Dracula, the aging man’s blood lust is insatiable. Had he a conscience, it would tell him to discourage another disastrous adventure like the invasion of Iraq. But, no, Tony keeps at it, regardless of the deluge of evils that war unleashes on the innocent. There is something frightening about a warped mind like that.A US-led war on Syria looms. Verily, this is the hour of the scoundrels and the powers of darkness.”
The word Jihad literally means, to struggle or strive, or to work for something with determination. It does not mean war. The Arabic word for war is Harb and the word for fighting is Qital. This is important to know, because making Jihad is any action which is done to further the cause of Allah. Even giving da’wah in a tough place, going to learn knowledge or donating money when it’s a hardship can be a type of Jihad. (4:81) .However, the word jihad is most often associated with the act of physically confronting evil and wrong-doing, hence, it can be applied to the act of fighting as well. (3:110) But the goal of a physical Jihad is not to have a big war, gain riches or kill people, it is to further the cause of Allah and to create justice on Earth. (5:0) Then, when the evil is removed, or the other side wants peace, we are to make peace as well. (8:61) A person came to the Blessed Prophet and asked, “A man fights for treasure, another for fame and a third for bravery. Whose fighting is for the Cause of Allah?” The Blessed Prophet answered, “The one who fights so that the Word of Allah becomes supreme, his fight is for Allah..A physical Jihad may only be initiated for three reasons : firstly To defend the Muslim community against aggression secondly to eliminate an evil force which is oppressing people and thirdly to remove any barrier to the free flow of Islamic da’wah. (8:39). The first two are easy to understand. The third would be necessary if, for example, there was a Country which forbade the practice of Islam or its preaching. because it’s argued that they are obviously wrong-doers and are attempting to stop the truth from being preached.