Quotations about Imam Hussain (R.A.) by Non-Muslims

1-Mahatma Gandhi “I learnd from Hussein how to achieve victory while being oppressed.”

2-Thomas Carlyle (Scottish historian and essayist): “The best lesson which we get from the tragedy of Cerebella is that Husain and his companions were rigid believers in God. They illustrated that the numerical superiority does not count when it comes to the truth and the falsehood. The victory of Husain,
despite his minority, marvels me!”

3-Edward Gibbon (English historian and member of parliament): “In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the death of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.” (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London, 1911, volume 5, p. 391-392)

4-Charles Dickens (English novelist): “If Husain had fought to quench his worldly desires…then I do not understand why his sister, wife, and children accompanied him. It stands to reason therefore, that he sacrificed purely for Islam.”

5-Antoine Bara (Lebanese writer): “No battle in the modern and past history of mankind has earned more sympathy and admiration as well as provided more lessons than the martyrdom of Husayn in the battle of Karbala.” (Husayn in Christian Ideology)

6-Dr. K. Sheldrake: “Of that gallant band, male and female knew that the enemy forces around were implacable, and were not only ready to fight, but to kill. Denied even water for the children, they remained parched under the burning sun and scorching sands, yet not one faltered for a moment. Husain
marched with his little company, not to glory, not to power of wealth, but to a supreme sacrifice, and every member bravely faced the greatest odds without flinching.”

7-Ignaz Goldziher (Hungarian orientalist): “…Weeping and lamentation over the evils and persecutions suffered by the ‘Alid family, and mourning for its martyrs: these are things from which loyal supporters of the cause cannot cease. ‘More touching than the tears of the Shi’is’ has even become an
Arabic proverb.” (Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, Princeton, 1981, p.179)

8-Edward G. Brown (Professor at the University of Cambridge): “…a reminder of that blood-stained field of Karbala, where the grandson of the Apostle of God fell, at length, tortured by thirst, and surround by the bodies of his murdered kinsmen, has been at anytime since then, sufficient to evoke, even
in the most lukewarm and the heedless, the deepest emotion, the most frantic grief, and an exaltation of spirit before which pain, danger, and death shrink to unconsidered trifles.” (A Literary History of Persia, London, 1919, p.227)

9-Sir William Muir (Scottish orientalist): “The tragedy of Karbala decided not only the fate of the Caliphate, but also of Mohammadan kingdoms long after the Caliphate had waned and disappeared.” (Annals of the Early Caliphate, London, 1883, p.441-442)

10-“Though Imam Hussain gave his life years ago, but his indestructible soul rules the hearts of people even today.”Dr. Radha Krishnan

11-Mahatma Gandhi-“My faith is that the progress of Islam does not depend on the use of sword by its believers, but the result of the supreme sacrifice of Hussain (R.A.), the great saint.”

12-Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru-“Imam Hussain’s (R.A.) sacrifice is for all groups and communities, an example of the path of righteousness.”

13- Reynold Alleyne Nicholson “Hussain (R.A.) fell, pierced by an arrow, and his brave followers were cut down beside him to the last man. Muhammadan tradition, which with rare exceptions is uniformly hostile to the Umayyad dynasty, regards Hussain (R.A.) as a martyr and Yazid as his murderer.” [A Literary History of the Arabs, Cambridge, 1930, p197]

14-Rabindranath Tagore-“In order to keep alive justice and truth, instead of an army or weapons, success can be achieved by sacrificing lives, exactly what Imam Hussain (R.A.) did

15-Dr. Rajendra Prasad-“The sacrifice of Imam Hussain (R.A.) is not limited to one country, or nation, but it is the hereditary state of the brotherhood of all mankind.”

16-Dr. Radha Krishnan-“Though Imam Hussain (R.A.) gave his life almost 1300 years ago, but his indestructible soul rules the hearts of people even today.”

17- Swami Shankaracharya-“It is Hussain’s (R.A.) sacrifice that has kept Islam alive or else in this world there would be no one left to take Islam’s name.”

18-Mrs. Sarojini Naidu–“I congratulate Muslims that from among them, Hussain (R.A.), a great human being was born, who is reverted and honored totally by all communities

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Why the ISmaelies are declared non-muslims….

Reply to a Comment from the post Islamaili (Aga Khani) and their difference of belief from Muslims.‏ I have to write down the whole story let me clear Why the ISmaiilies are declared non-muslims….

1. Declaring believe in Allah, and believe in the Prophet is the basis of faith, however it is NOT enough and lots of other ‘nice’ things does not suffice to save onself from Hell.

2. The Aga Khan of the Ismailis presents Farmans and they are accepted as doctrine

This is a recorded Farman of Aga Khan III wherein he says;

“If I say it is night, (you are to believe) it is night. If I say it is day (you are to believe) it is day”

In contrast Allah (swt) says:

“Give the warning to those in whose (hearts) is the fear that they will be brought (to Judgement) before their Lord, for whom there is no protecting friend nor intercessor beside Him (Allah), that they may ward off (evil)” “… and who can forgive sins except Allah?” Holy Quran 6/51 and 3/135

This speech is also documented well in Ismaili books you can check it out for yourself if you doubt what I say. You dont have to be a genius to know that this is clear heresy.

Mowla’na Ima’m Hasan Ala’Zikrihis Salaam (23rd Ismaili Imam) declared the Youm-el-Qiya’ma, the Day of Resurrection, which was held on the nineteenth of Ramaza’n, 559 a.h. (10th of August, 1164). Thousands upon thousands of Ismai’ilis came from all corners of the world to attend this important day of resurrection of the holy faith. The Holy Ima’m declared…
“Today I have explained to you the Law [shari'at] and its meaning. I make you free from the rigidity of the Law and resurrect you from the bondage of the letter to the freedom of the spirit of the Law. Obey me and follow my farma’n…. Break your fast and rejoice. This is the day of utmost happiness and gratitude.”


In contrast to this Allah (swt) says

“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious).

(Fasting) for a fixed number of days, but if any of you is ill or on a journey, the same number (should be made up) from other days. And as for those who can fast with difficulty, (i.e. an old man, etc.), they have (a choice either to fast or) to feed a poor person (for every day). But whoever does good of his own accord, it is better for him. And that you fast, it is better for you if only you know.” (2:183-84)

“The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind and clear proofs for the guidance and the criterion (between right and wrong). So whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of Ramadan), he must fast that month, and whoever is ill or on a journey, the same number (of days which one did not fast must be made up) from other days.

Allah intends for you ease, and He does not want to make things difficult for you. (He wants that you) must complete the same number (of days), and that you must magnify Allah for having guided you so that you may be grateful to Him” (2: 185).

3. Another shocking statement by an Ismaili Imam (the grandfather of current Aga Khan IV. Interestingly the father of the currect Aga Khan was NOT made Imam because he had numerous affairs with hollywood actresses during his time and was an embarassment even to Ismailis):

20 February 1910, at Rajkot, India, Aga Khan III
“Do not at all reflect about the future and do not at all think about whether you shall receive the Heaven or the Hell in the afterlife. Because, all things — the Heaven and the Hell — [to give] is in my hand.

Well that quote was so ridiculous. Let there NO doubt that saying such a think is shirk. There are there are just too many passages from the Quran regarding the ultimate Judge being Allah (swt) on yaumul qiyaam that there is not enough space to post so to make the quote above look laughable. Malik i yaum i deen is ONLY and will ONLY ever be Allah (swt). Anyone claiming to be otherwise will be destined for Hellfire.

4. The Ismailism all professedly believes that the Qur’an was time bound and was not meant to be a Universal message for all times. They believe that their spiritual leader, Karim Aga Khan, is the “walking – talking Qur’an” and his “religious pronouncements”, whatever they may be, are the “guidance” for the present times. The fundamental article of faith that there will not be any NEW revelations or “wahy” after the Qur’an, is being completely violated by the Ismailis.

5. The Aga Khan has officially Declared himself, before his followers, as the “Mazhar of Allah on earth”. The word “mazhar” means “copy” or “manifest”. Consequently, these Ismailis who call themselves Muslims do “sujood” before him. So even the primary axiomatic principle of Tawheed is being fundamentally and formally violated by them.

6. The Ismailis are not instructed to offer the Islamic Salaah, observe Saum or perform Hajj. They have replaced Salaah with certain shirk-infested Dua’as (thrice a day) and praying in the form of Hindu inspired ‘Ginans’. To the peope that do not know it is NOT Salaat. It is NOT doing wudhu and other things that the Shariah commands. It is a series of songs which are sung in “jamaatKhanes (because they do not have masjidss)” They are told that their Hajj is a personal “Glimpse” (Deedaar) of Karim Aga Khan.

7. The Aga Khan and his appointees ‘forgive the sins’ of the followers on regular basis. Ismailis are misled into believing that they will not be questioned on the Day of Judgment for the sins that are already forgiven in their Jamatkhanas (community centers). Forgiving of sins is the exclusive prerogative and privilege of Allah (swt) alone. Qur’an 3:135.

8. Against this backdrop, most of the poor (spiritually poor) Ismailis who are not introduced to al-Furqan are confused and misguided. Hence, Ismailis are very easy prey to missionary efforts by various Christian groups and Baha’is. I have known a couple of young ex-Ismailis who are today preaching “Pauline Christianity” to Ismailis as evangelical missionaries.

9. Karim Aga Khan’s own daughter Zahra having married a practising Christian has opened the gates for young Ismailis girls to follow the footsteps of a family member of their beloved Imam-e-Zaman. The parents of the Ismaili girls who wish to marry outside of Islam have no recourse but to let them go.

10. The Aga Khan has made Halaal for the Ismailis that which Allah has made Haraam for the humans. Taking of interest (usury) is not forbidden by the religious instruction classes run by the “Tariqaah” board of the Ismailis. As a matter of fact, the much publicized “Venture Capital” program (details on the website of FORBES Magazine – search under “Aga Khan”), of loaning funds on interest by the AKFED (Aga Khan Fund & Economic Development), has been a great success. Similar entrepreneurial projects are now being actively promoted and introduced to poor Muslims of Tajikistan and neighboring areas.

11. The Muslim Ummaah and the various Muslim leaders are not fully aware of these Un-Islamic acts and beliefs of this community of less than two million members, who claim to be the Ismaili Muslims. Surprisingly, their leader Aga Khan claims himself to be a spiritual leader of 15 million Muslims and a Direct Descendant of Prophet Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam).

12 Earlier, one did not have authentic books on Ismailism, but it is not so anymore. There are two authentic books as well as one comprehensive web site exposing the inner practices of the Ismailis and the Proclamations (Farmans) of the Aga Khans. Hence, now you have no “hujjah” argument or excuse left before Allah (swt) for not taking up the task of inviting the misguided “Ismaili Muslims” towards the Deen of Allah (swt) and not safeguarding them from committing unpardonable sin of Shirk.

13. The Aga Khan in collaboration with so many Western powers and aid, has set up the world-wide Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) which runs several institutions and service companies both in the profit and not for profit sectors. This network is very actively operating in Pakistan, India, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Bangladesh, and has now started concentrating its efforts in Tajikistan and the neighbouring areas where there is a concentration of Muslims who have not known or openly practised Islam for the decades. By taking up economical, social, educational and rural development efforts through NGOs (Non-Govt. Organizations) within the AKDN, the Ismailis and the Aga Khan have gained wide acceptance amongst these countries and masses. Hence this urgent appeal.

14. Now all these beneficiaries are “obliged and grateful” to the Aga Khan and his followers and his organizations for the much-needed schools, medical centers, hospitals, various projects and programmes. In this manner they are penetrating and infiltrating the support system – and one fine day, the Muslim Ummaah will wake up to the unexpected realization that they have a community of so called Muslims, practicing the Un-Islamic Tariqaah, in charge of all core and support activities. Each of these much-needed projects will have the photos of Aga Khan decorating the walls.

So if we review:

1) If the ‘Imam’ declares yaum ul qiyaam he is a Dajjal.

2) If the ‘Imam’ declares fasting is not obligatory he is a Dajjal

3) If the ‘Imam’ declares Hajj is not obligatory he is a Dajjal

4) Declaring Heaven and Hell as “metaphorical” rather than real places means he is a Dajjal

5) Allah IS AL HAKIM and the judger of Yaum ul Qiyam and the ONLY one that can accept repentance and tauba. Not any Imam.

6)The Quran explicits states that those who believe in Allah and the last day “PROSTRATE THEMSELVES IN PRAYER”

7) Masjid were and have always been places of worship not “JamaatKhanes”

8) When the Ismailism denies the obligation prayers as mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah is kufr. To replace Salaat with “ginans” and shirk songs is kufr. Ismailis claim to follow the Imams like the Shia. Well the Imams ALL carried out salaat and no obly tha but did extra nafil and extra salaat in line with the teachings Rasulallah (pbuh). All Hadith of Sunni and Shia states this. The entire Muslim Ummah carrys out salaat and namaz. The enture Muslim Ummah Prostrates themselves in pray during Hajj in front of Allah as they have done for thousands of years. I cannot understand how Aga Khanis can deny this and think it is made up BS that we do all these things and that actually salaat is a fantasy and rasullalah and the imams instead sat in a jamaatkhane. Salaat is performed exactly how it was by billions of Muslims.

10. Allah Commands:

“From whencesoever thou startest forth (for prayer) turn thy face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque: That is indeed the truth from thy Lord. And Allah is not unmindful of what ye do. So from whencesoever thou startest forth, turn thy face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque; among wheresoever ye are turn your face thither: That there be no ground of dispute against you among the people, except those of them that are bent on wickedness; so fear them not, but fear Me; and that I may complete My favours on you, and ye may be guided”. Holy Quran 2/ 149-150

Ismailism says

“Facing Qibla in prayer is not a fundamental principle of Islam, it is a tradition.” ‘Ismaili Tariqah’ page 184

Unfortunately the Ismaili decided to ditch the idea.

So brother honestly Allahs law as outlined in the Quran, and the Sunnah of the prophet in authentic Hadith is the only authentic thing we have. Thats why its outside Islam when you chop and change, and reject obligatory laws like sawm and hajj and say they are not obligatory and spin an interpretation on salaat. As well as declare heaven and hell are metaphoric. THESE ARE THE PILLARS OF ISLAM. They are what is required to be called a Muslim to accept Allah.

There are lots of Muslims who dont fast, dont pray, dont go hajj, dont wear hijab. However if you ask them if it is commanded by Allah they will say yes. But the reason for them not doing it is shaitans influnce

But the situation here is Ismailism says you dont act upon say sawm and hajj or anything else commanded in the Quran. Which means you reject that Allah requires it, despite it being commanded in the Quran.

In the name of Allah (swt) and Islam, kindly urge our Brothers and Sisters to do Da’wah to the Ismailis, who otherwise will, on the day of judgement, hold us responsible for not conveying the Revealed Truth to them. It hurts to see the misguided simple minded people die on SHIRK because we did not amply warn them before their deaths.

To spread the “Truth” and eradicate “Tagoot” is a significant, major Sunnah of the prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam).

I want to ask the Ismaili brother an honest question, do you honestly- really believe that this man is Allah’s hujjat on the earth, and the current Imam and successor of the Prophet Muhammad ?

NO. Anybody who ever preaches in violation of what is commanded in the Quran is a DAJJAL. There are many Dajjals who will come b4 the great Dajjal. There is no fitna greater than that of the Dajjal. Please be aware of this

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The Guard Who Found Islam

Terry Holdbrooks stood watch over prisoners at Gitmo. What he saw made him adopt their faith.

Army specialist Terry Holdbrooks had been a guard at Guantánamo for about six months the night he had his life-altering conversation with detainee 590, a Moroccan also known as “the General.” This was early 2004, about halfway through Holdbrooks’s stint at Guantánamo with the 463rd Military Police Company. Until then, he’d spent most of his day shifts just doing his duty. He’d escort prisoners to interrogations or walk up and down the cellblock making sure they weren’t passing notes. But the midnight shifts were slow. “The only thing you really had to do was mop the center floor,” he says. So Holdbrooks began spending part of the night sitting cross-legged on the ground, talking to detainees through the metal mesh of their cell doors.

He developed a strong relationship with the General, whose real name is Ahmed Errachidi. Their late-night conversations led Holdbrooks to be more skeptical about the prison, he says, and made him think harder about his own life. Soon, Holdbrooks was ordering books on Arabic and Islam. During an evening talk with Errachidi in early 2004, the conversation turned to the shahada, the one-line statement of faith that marks the single requirement for converting to Islam (”There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet”). Holdbrooks pushed a pen and an index card through the mesh, and asked Errachidi to write out the shahada in English and transliterated Arabic. He then uttered the words aloud and, there on the floor of Guantánamo’s Camp Delta, became a Muslim.

When historians look back on Guantánamo, the harsh treatment of detainees and the trampling of due process will likely dominate the narrative. Holdbrooks, who left the military in 2005, saw his share. In interviews over recent weeks, he and another former guard told NEWSWEEK about degrading and sometimes sadistic acts against prisoners committed by soldiers, medics and interrogators who wanted revenge for the 9/11 attacks on America. But as the fog of secrecy slowly lifts from Guantánamo, other scenes are starting to emerge as well, including surprising interactions between guards and detainees on subjects like politics, religion and even music. The exchanges reveal curiosity on both sides—sometimes even empathy. “The detainees used to have conversations with the guards who showed some common respect toward them,” says Errachidi, who spent five years in Guantánamo and was released in 2007. “We talked about everything, normal things, and things [we had] in common,” he wrote to NEWSWEEK in an e-mail from his home in Morocco.

Holdbrooks’s level of identification with the other side was exceptional. No other guard has volunteered that he embraced Islam at the prison (though Errachidi says others expressed interest). His experience runs counter to academic studies, which show that guards and inmates at ordinary prisons tend to develop mutual hostility. But then, Holdbrooks is a contrarian by nature. He can also be conspiratorial. When his company visited the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Holdbrooks remembers thinking there had to be a broader explanation, and that the Bush administration must have colluded somehow in the plot.
But his misgivings about Guantánamo—including doubts that the detainees were the “worst of the worst”—were shared by other guards as early as 2002. A few such guards are coming forward for the first time. Specialist Brandon Neely, who was at Guantánamo when the first detainees arrived that year, says his enthusiasm for the mission soured quickly. “There were a couple of us guards who asked ourselves why these guys are being treated so badly and if they’re actually terrorists at all,” he told NEWSWEEK. Neely remembers having long conversations with detainee Ruhal Ahmed, who loved Eminem and James Bond and would often rap or sing to the other prisoners. Another former guard, Christopher Arendt, went on a speaking tour with former detainees in Europe earlier this year to talk critically about the prison.
Holdbrooks says growing up hard in Phoenix—his parents were junkies and he himself was a heavy drinker before joining the military in 2002—helps explain what he calls his “anti-everything views.” He has holes the size of quarters in both earlobes, stretched-out piercings that he plugs with wooden discs. At his Phoenix apartment, bedecked with horror-film memorabilia, he rolls up both sleeves to reveal wrist-to-shoulder tattoos. He describes the ink work as a narrative of his mistakes and addictions. They include religious symbols and Nazi SS bolts, track marks and, in large letters, the words BY DEMONS BE DRIVEN. He says the line, from a heavy-metal song, reminds him to be a better person.
Holdbrooks—TJ to his friends—says he joined the military to avoid winding up like his parents. He was an impulsive young man searching for stability. On his first home leave, he got engaged to a woman he’d known for just eight days and married her three months later. With little prior exposure to religion, Holdbrooks was struck at Gitmo by the devotion detainees showed to their faith. “A lot of Americans have abandoned God, but even in this place, [the detainees] were determined to pray,” he says.
Holdbrooks was also taken by the prisoners’ resourcefulness. He says detainees would pluck individual threads from their jumpsuits or prayer mats and spin them into long stretches of twine, which they would use to pass notes from cell to cell. He noticed that one detainee with a bad skin rash would smear peanut butter on his windowsill until the oil separated from the paste, then would use the oil on his rash.
Errachidi’s detention seemed particularly suspect to Holdbrooks. The Moroccan detainee had worked as a chef in Britain for almost 18 years and spoke fluent English. He told Holdbrooks he had traveled to Pakistan on a business venture in late September 2001 to help pay for his son’s surgery. When he crossed into Afghanistan, he said, he was picked up by the Northern Alliance and sold to American troops for $5,000. At Guantánamo, Errachidi was accused of attending a Qaeda training camp. But a 2007 investigation by the London Times newspaper appears to have corroborated his story; it eventually helped lead to his release.

In prison, Errachidi was an agitator. “Because I spoke English, I was always in the face of the soldiers,” he wrote NEWSWEEK in an e-mail. Errachidi said an American colonel at Guantánamo gave him his nickname, and warned him that generals “get hurt” if they don’t cooperate. He said his defiance cost him 23 days of abuse, including sleep deprivation, exposure to very cold temperatures and being shackled in stress positions. “I always believed the soldiers were doing illegal stuff and I was not ready to keep quiet.” (Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said in response: “Detainees have often made claims of abuse that are simply not supported by the facts.”) The Moroccan spent four of his five years at Gitmo in the punishment block, where detainees were denied “comfort items” like paper and prayer beads along with access to the recreation yard and the library.
Errachidi says he does not remember details of the night Holdbrooks converted. Over the years, he says, he discussed a range of religious topics with guards: “I spoke to them about subjects like Father Christmas and Ishac and Ibrahim [Isaac and Abraham] and the sacrifice. About Jesus.” Holdbrooks recalls that when he announced he wanted to embrace Islam, Errachidi warned him that converting would be a serious undertaking and, at Guantánamo, a messy affair. “He wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into.” Holdbrooks later told his two roommates about the conversion, and no one else.
But other guards noticed changes in him. They heard detainees calling him Mustapha, and saw that Holdbrooks was studying Arabic openly. (At his Phoenix apartment, he displays the books he had amassed. They include a leather-bound, six-volume set of Muslim sacred texts and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam.”) One night his squad leader took him to a yard behind his living quarters, where five guards were waiting to stage a kind of intervention. “They started yelling at me,” he recalls, “asking if I was a traitor, if I was switching sides.” At one point a squad leader pulled back his fist and the two men traded blows, Holdbrooks says.
Holdbrooks spent the rest of his time at Guantánamo mainly keeping to himself, and nobody bothered him further. Another Muslim who served there around the same time had a different experience. Capt. James Yee, a Gitmo chaplain for much of 2003, was arrested in September of that year on suspicion of aiding the enemy and other crimes—charges that were eventually dropped. Yee had become a Muslim years earlier. He says the Muslims on staff at Gitmo—mainly translators—often felt beleaguered. “There was an overall atmosphere by the command to vilify Islam.” (Commander Gordon’s response: “We strongly disagree with the assertions made by Chaplain Yee”).
At Holdbrooks’s next station, in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., he says things began to unravel. The only place to kill time within miles of the base was a Wal-Mart and two strip clubs—Big Daddy’s and Big Louie’s. “I’ve never been a fan of strip clubs, so I hung out at Wal-Mart,” he says. Within months, Holdbrooks was released from the military—two years before the end of his commitment. The Army gave him an honorable discharge with no explanation, but the events at Gitmo seemed to loom over the decision. The Army said it would not comment on the matter.
Back in Phoenix, Holdbrooks returned to drinking, in part to suppress what he describes as the anger that consumed him. (Neely, the other ex-guard who spoke to NEWSWEEK, said Guantánamo had made him so depressed he spent up to $60 a day on alcohol during a monthlong leave from the detention center in 2002.) Holdbrooks divorced his wife and spiraled further. Eventually his addictions landed him in the hospital. He suffered a series of seizures, as well as a fall that resulted in a bad skull fracture and the insertion of a titanium plate in his head.

Recently, Holdbrooks has been back in touch with Errachidi, who has suffered his own ordeal since leaving the detention center. Errachidi told NEWSWEEK he had trouble adjusting to his freedom, “trying to learn how to walk without shackles and trying to sleep at night with the lights off.” He signed each of the dozen e-mails he sent to NEWSWEEK with the impersonal ID that his captors had given him: Ahmed 590.
Holdbrooks, now 25, says he quit drinking three months ago and began attending regular prayers at the Tempe Islamic Center, a mosque near the University of Phoenix, where he works as an enrollment counselor. The long scar on his head is now mostly hidden under the lace of his Muslim kufi cap. When the imam at Tempe introduced Holdbrooks to the congregation and explained he’d converted at Guantánamo, a few dozen worshipers rushed over to shake his hand. “I would have thought they had the most savage soldiers serving there,” says the imam, Amr Elsamny, an Egyptian. “I never thought it would be someone like TJ.”
With Dina Fine Maron in Washington
http://www.newsweek.com/id/190357

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UK’s first official sharia courts

ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.

The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.

Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.


It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.

Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

The disclosure that Muslim courts have legal powers in Britain comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was pilloried for suggesting that the establishment of sharia in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.

In July, the head of the judiciary, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, further stoked controversy when he said that sharia could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.

In fact, Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.

It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.

Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.

Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.

Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a “parallel legal system” based on sharia for some British Muslims.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”

There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.

Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.

The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.

In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.

In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.

Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”

Article Taken From Times Online...

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The true face of islam

This is the real Islam that you don't see in the media everyday so please help spread these videos. rate and comment them so they could be put on you tubes main page and for every one to see the real Muslims.

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