The Muslim Student Association @ UConn

By Bessy Reyna, at The Hartford Courant on May 16, 2008

Early this month, I attended a panel dealing with the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It was organized by the group "We Refuse To Be Enemies," composed of Jews, Muslims and Christians. This group's main goal is the promotion of a peaceful and just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In light of Israel's 60th anniversary, and the lack of progress in resolving the conflict, this is an ever more urgent issue.

U.S. officials are being advised in internal government documents to avoid referring publicly to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups as Islamic or Muslim, and not to use terms like jihad or mujahedin, which "unintentionally legitimize" terrorism.

Rain is indeed one of the most important factors for the permanence of life on earth. It is a prerequisite for the continuation of activity in a region. Rain, which carries great importance for all living things, including human beings, is mentioned in various verses of the Qur'an, where substantial information is given about the formation of rain, its proportion and effects. This information, which never could have been known by the people of the time, shows us that the Qur'an is the word of God.

If the Israeli newspaper Haaretz enjoys the freedom to discuss the Israeli terrorism inflicted upon the Palestinian people 60 years ago and to keep the history of 500 Palestinian villages that were destroyed as a result of Israeli terrorism, why is Israel still portrayed by American media as in a state of self-defense?! How many Jewish villages did the Palestinians destroy? None!

JNF to erect signs in parks, citing destroyed Palestinian villages

During the War of Independence in 1948, some 500 Palestinian villages in the young State of Israel were destroyed. Many residents fled their homes out of fear of the Israel Defense Forces and other Jewish elements active in the area; others were actively expelled from their villages. Today, only a few of these destroyed villages are publicly mentioned in connection with their original locations.

New communities have been built on some sites; the ruins of others have been covered over by parks and nature reserves.

Source: The Day
By: Rev. Bruce M. Shipman, Groton CT.

During a lunch party in London, the woman on my right remarked that she was Islamophobic. I let the remark drop, but afterwards resolved never to do so again. I do not let anti-Semitic remarks pass unchallenged, and I know half truths told in a climate of fear can allow hatred to grow. Neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia is OK.

Muslims are encouraged to cut the middle man and consider running their own farms. (IOL photo)

NEW YORK — American Muslims, like Muslim minorities in the West, concern themselves with eating halal meat, which usually focused on slaughtering animals according to Shari`ah.

Discovering more about what animals are being fed before being shipped to slaughterhouses, whether Islamic or not, many Muslims are wondering what the term halal meat really implicates.

"I don’t think artificial means should be used to fatten up animals," Amina Khan, an alarmed 30-year-old housewife, told IslamOnline.net.

"It is unnatural."

In the United States, it is common to feed chickens, turkeys, pigs and cows the blood, bone and unwanted flesh of farm animals mixed into their regular animal feed.

Most animals today are injected with hormones for them to grow large in short periods of time and are being intensively raised in small pens, cages and feedlots.

"It was terrible and filthy," said Zeenat Sultana, a 40 year-old school teacher, after watching a news segment showing chickens living in cramped conditions in dirty cages on an American factory farm.

Question

Does the following verse: [O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily God guideth not a people unjust.] (Al-Ma’dah 5: 51)