MOHAMMED'S SWORD

Uri Avnery an Israel journalist

Gush Shalom (Israel)

[Uri Avnery, founding member of Gush
Shalom, was a member of the Irgun, wounded as an Israeli commando,
elected three times to the Knesset, publisher of Ha'olam Haze, and the
recipent of several awards.]

Since the days
when Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relations
between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many
changes.

Constantine the
Great, who became Emperor in the year 306 - exactly 1700 years ago -
encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which included
Palestine. Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodox)
and a Western (Catholic) part. In the West, the Bishop of Rome, who
acquired the title of Pope, demanded that the Emperor accept his
superiority.

The struggle
between the Emperors and the Popes played a central role in European
history and divided the peoples. It knew ups and downs. Some Emperors
dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes dismissed or excommunicated an
Emperor. One of the Emperors, Henry IV, "walked to Canossa", standing
for three days barefoot in the snow in front of the Pope's castle,
until the Pope deigned to annul his excommunication.

But there were
times when Emperors and Popes lived in peace with each other. We are
witnessing such a period today. Between the present Pope, Benedict XVI,
and the present Emperor, George Bush II, there exists a wonderful
harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope, which aroused a world-wide
storm, went well with Bush's crusade against "Islamofascism"

, in the context of the "Clash of Civilizations".

IN HIS lecture at
a German university, the 265th Pope described what he sees as a huge
difference between Christianity and Islam: while Christianity is based
on reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic of God's
actions, Muslims deny that there is any such logic in the actions of
Allah.

As a Jewish
atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It is much
beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. But I
cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli
living near the fault-line of this "war of civilizations".

In order to prove
the lack of reason in Islam, the Pope asserts that the prophet Muhammad
ordered his followers to spread their religion by the sword. According
to the Pope, that is unreasonable, because faith is born of the soul,
not of the body. How can the sword influence the soul?

To support his
case, the Pope quoted - of all people - a Byzantine Emperor, who
belonged, of course, to the competing Eastern Church. At the end of the
14th century, the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a debate he had
- or so he said (its occurrence is in doubt) - with an unnamed Persian
Muslim scholar. In the heat of the argument, the Emperor (according to
himself) flung the following words at his adversary:

"Show me just what
Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil
and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he
preached".

These words give
rise to three questions: (a) Why did the Emperor say them? (b) Are they
true? (c) Why did the present Pope quote them?

WHEN MANUEL II
wrote his treatise, he was the head of a dying empire. He assumed power
in 1391, when only a few provinces of the once illustrious empire
remained. These, too, were already under Turkish threat.

At that point in
time, the Ottoman Turks had reached the banks of the Danube. They had
conquered Bulgaria and the north of Greece, and had twice defeated
relieving armies sent by Europe to save the Eastern Empire. On May 29,
1453, only a few years after Manuel's death, his capital,
Constantinople (the present Istanbul) fell to the Turks, putting an end
to the Empire that had lasted for more than a thousand years.

During his reign,
Manuel made the rounds of the capitals of Europe in an attempt to drum
up support. He promised to reunite the church. There is no doubt that
he wrote his religious treatise in order to incite the Christian
countries against the Turks and convince them to start a new crusade.
The aim was practical, theology was serving politics.

In this sense, the
quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emperor, George
Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against the mainly
Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover, the Turks are again knocking on the
doors of Europe, this time peacefully. It is well known that the Pope
supports the forces that object to the entry of Turkey into the
European Union.

IS THERE any truth in Manuel's argument?

The pope himself
threw in a word of caution. As a serious and renowned theologian, he
could not afford to falsify written texts. Therefore, he admitted that
the Qur'an specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force. He
quoted the second Sura, verse 256 (strangely fallible, for a pope, he
meant verse 257) which says: "There must be no coercion in matters of
faith".

How can one ignore
such an unequivocal statement? The Pope simply argues that this
commandment was laid down by the prophet when he was at the beginning
of his career, still weak and powerless, but that later on he ordered
the use of the sword in the service of the faith. Such an order does
not exist in the Qur'an. True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword
in his war against opposing tribes - Christian, Jewish and others - in
Arabia, when he was building his state. But that was a political act,
not a religious one; basically a fight for territory, not for the
spreading of the faith.

Jesus said: "You
will recognize them by their fruits." The treatment of other religions
by Islam must be judged by a simple test: How did the Muslim rulers
behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to
"spread the faith by the sword"?

Well, they just did not.

For many
centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did the Greeks become Muslims? Did
anyone even try to Islamize them? On the contrary, Christian Greeks
held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The
Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations
lived at one time or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their
Christian faith. Nobody compelled them to become Muslims and all of
them remained devoutly Christian.

True, the
Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did the Bosniaks. But nobody
argues that they did this under duress. They adopted Islam in order to
become favorites of the government and enjoy the fruits.

In 1099, the
Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish
inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that
time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims,
Christians were still the majority in the country. Throughout this long
period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the
expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the majority of the
inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith -
and they were the forefathers of most of today's Palestinians.

THERE IS no
evidence whatsoever of any attempt to impose Islam on the Jews. As is
well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the
like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our
time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in Arabic, as did the great
Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In
Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together
and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts.
That was, indeed, the Golden Age. How would this have been possible,
had the Prophet decreed the "spreading of the faith by the sword"?

What happened
afterwards is even more telling. When the Catholics re-conquered Spain
from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews
and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become
Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of
thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost
all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The
Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from
Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of
the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were
they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the
Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible
mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up
to the Holocaust.

WHY? Because Islam
expressly prohibited any persecution of the "peoples of the book". In
Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians.
They did not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost. They had to pay
a special poll-tax, but were exempted from military service - a
trade-off that was quite welcome to many Jews. It has been said that
Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to convert Jews to Islam even by
gentle persuasion - because it entailed the loss of taxes.

Every honest Jew
who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of
gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations,
while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times "by
the sword" to get them to abandon their faith.

THE STORY about
"spreading the faith by the sword" is an evil legend, one of the myths
that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims - the
reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion
of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German
Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the
leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own
right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

Why did he utter these words in public? And why now?

There is no escape
from viewing them against the background of the new Crusade of Bush and
his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of "Islamofascism" and the
"Global War on Terrorism" - when "terrorism" has become a synonym for
Muslims. For Bush's handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify the
domination of the world's oil resources. Not for the first time in
history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic
interests; not for the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes a
Crusade.

The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who can foretell the dire consequences?

THIS ARTICLE and more at http://www.twf.org/News/Y2006/0918-Pope.html

Highly recommeded book to read: Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf

   27  Years ago was the last diplomatic communication between the presidents of Iran and the U.S. That's too long a time period for any commnication at the level of this letter for it to be brushed off so quickly and lightly without thought given to it. In addition, the American public are denied  easy access to a translation of this letter because the US government refuses to respond to this rare diplomatic gesture.

 

http://www.ettelaat.com/index2.asp?code=endisplay&fname=/ettelaat/international/data/2006/05/05-10/43.htm
&title=President%20Ahmadinejad:%20Letter%20to%20US%20President%20carries%20Iranian%20nation's
%20views%20on%20international%20issues

President Ahmadinejad: Letter to US President carries Iranian nation's views on international issues
THURSDAY, MAY. 11, 2006
TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to the US President George W. Bush. "The letter to US President George Bush carries the Iranian nation's views and comments on international issues as well as suggestions for resolving the many problems facing humanity," said the Iranian president here Tuesday, IRNA reported. The president made the remark at Tehran Mehrabad International Airport before his departure for Indonesia to attend a meeting of the D-8 (Group of eight developing Muslim states). The letter was submitted to President Bush via the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which takes care of the US interest section in Iran. Earlier, Ahmadinejad had told reporters he had decided to send letters to leaders of certain countries on the occasion of Year of Great Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The following is the full text of Ahmadinejad's letter to George Bush: "In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful" Mr George Bush, President of the United States of America, "For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions that exist in the international arena -- which are being constantly debated, especially in political forums and amongst university students. Many questions remain unanswered. These have prompted me to discuss some of the contradictions and questions, in the hope that it might bring about an opportunity to redress them. "Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ (PBUH), the great Messenger of God, feel obliged to respect human rights, present liberalism as a civilization model, announce one's opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and WMDs, make "war on terror" his slogan, and finally, work towards the establishment of a unified international community - a community which Christ and the virtuous of the Earth will one day govern, but at the same time, have countries attacked. The lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed and on the slight chance of the presence of a few criminals in a village, city, or convoy for example, the entire village, city or convoy (are) set ablaze. "Or because of the possibility of the existence of WMDs in one country, it is occupied, around one hundred thousand people killed, its water sources, agriculture and industry destroyed, close to 180,000 foreign troops put on the ground, sanctity of private homes of citizens broken, and the country pushed back perhaps fifty years. At what price? Hundreds of billions of dollars spent from the treasury of one country and certain other countries and tens of thousands of young men and women - as occupation troops - put in harms way, taken away from family and loved ones, their hands stained with the blood of others, subjected to so much psychological pressure that everyday some commit suicide and those returning home suffer depression, become sickly and grapple with all sorts of ailments; while some are killed and their bodies handed to their families. "On the pretext of the existence of WMDs, this great tragedy came to engulf both the peoples of the occupied and the occupying country. Later it was revealed that no WMDs existed to begin with. "Of course Saddam was a murderous dictator. But the war was not waged to topple him, the announced goal of the war was to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction. He was toppled along the way towards another goal; nevertheless the people of the region are happy about it. I point out that throughout the many years of the imposed war on Iran Saddam was supported by the West. Mr. President, "You might know that I am a teacher. My students ask me how can these actions be reconciled with the values outlined at the beginning of this letter and duty to the tradition of Jesus Christ (PBUH), the Messenger of peace and forgiveness? "There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried, have no legal representation, their families cannot see them and are obviously kept in a strange land outside their own country. There is no international monitoring of their conditions and fate. No one knows whether they are prisoners, POWs, accused or criminals. "European investigators have confirmed the existence of secret prisons in Europe too. I could not correlate the abduction of a person, and him or her being kept in secret prisons, with the provisions of any judicial system. For that matter, I fail to understand how such actions correspond to the values outlined in the beginning of this letter, i.e. the teachings of Jesus Christ (PBUH), human rights and liberal values. "Young people, university students, and ordinary people have many questions about the phenomenon of Israel. I am sure you are familiar with some of them. "Throughout history many countries have been occupied, but I think the establishment of a new country with a new people, is a new phenomenon that is exclusive to our times. "Students are saying that sixty years ago such a country did not exist. They show old documents and globes and say try as we have, we have not been able to find a country named Israel. "I tell them to study the history of WWI and II. One of my students told me that during WWII, which more than tens of millions of people perished in, news about the war, was quickly disseminated by the warring parties. Each touted their victories and the most recent battlefront defeat of the other party. After the war they claimed that six million Jews had been killed. Six million people that were surely related to at least two million families. "Again let us assume that these events are true. Does that logically translate into the establishment of the state of Israel in the Middle East or support for such a state? How can this phenomenon be rationalized or explained? Mr. President, "I am sure you know how - and at what cost - Israel was established: -Many thousands were killed in the process. -Millions of indigenous people were made refugees. -Hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland, olive plantations, towns and villages were destroyed. "This tragedy is not exclusive to the time of establishment; unfortunately it has been ongoing for sixty years now. "A regime has been established which does not show mercy even to kids, destroys houses while the occupants are still in them, announces beforehand its list and plans to assassinate Palestinian figures, and keeps thousands of Palestinians in prison. Such a phenomenon is unique - or at the very least extremely rare - in recent memory. "Another big question asked by the people is ?why is this regime being supported?' "Is support for this regime in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ (PBUH) or Moses (PBUH) or liberal values? "Or are we to understand that allowing the original inhabitants of these lands - inside and outside Palestine -- whether they are Christian, Moslem or Jew, to determine their fate, runs contrary to principles of democracy, human rights and the teachings of prophets? If not, why is there so much opposition to a referendum? "The newly elected Palestinian administration recently took office. All independent observers have confirmed that this government represents the electorate. Unbelievingly, they have put the elected government under pressure and have advised it to recognize the Israeli regime, abandon the struggle and follow the programs of the previous government. "If the current Palestinian government had run on the above platform, would the Palestinian people have voted for it? Again, can such position taken in opposition to the Palestinian government be reconciled with the values outlined earlier? The people are also asking ?Why are all UNSC resolutions in condemnation of Israel vetoed?' Mr. President, "As you are well aware, I live amongst the people and am in constant contact with them -- many people from around the Middle East manage to contact me as well. They do not have faith in these dubious policies either. There is evidence that the people of the region are becoming increasingly angry with such policies. "It is not my intention to pose too many questions, but I need to refer to other points as well. "Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime? Is not scientific R&D one of the basic rights of nations? "You are familiar with history. Aside from the Middle Ages, in what other point in history has scientific and technical progress been a crime? Can the possibility of scientific achievements being utilized for military purposes be reason enough to oppose science and technology altogether? If such a supposition is true, then all scientific disciplines, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, engineering, etc. must be opposed. "Lies were told in the Iraqi matter. What was the result? I have no doubt that telling lies is reprehensible in any culture, and you do not like to be lied. Mr. President, "Don't Latin Americans have the right to ask why their elected governments are being opposed and coup leaders supported? Or, Why must they constantly be threatened and live in fear? "The people of Africa are hardworking, creative and talented. They can play an important and valuable role in providing for the needs of humanity and contribute to its material and spiritual progress. Poverty and hardship in large parts of Africa are preventing this from happening. Don't they have the right to ask why their enormous wealth - including minerals - is being looted, despite the fact that they need it more than others? "Again, do such actions correspond to the teachings of Christ and the tenets of human rights? "The brave and faithful people of Iran too have many questions and grievances, including: the coup d'etat of 1953 and the subsequent toppling of the legal government of the day, opposition to the Islamic Revolution, transformation of an Embassy into a headquarters supporting the activities of those opposing the Islamic Republic (many thousands of pages of documents corroborate this claim), support for Saddam in the war waged against Iran, the shooting down of the Iranian passenger plane, freezing the assets of the Iranian nation, increasing threats, anger and displeasure vis-?vis the scientific and nuclear progress of the Iranian nation (just when all Iranians are jubilant and celebrating their country's progress), and many other grievances that I will not refer to in this letter. Mr. President, "September Eleven was a horrendous incident. The killing of innocents is deplorable and appalling in any part of the world. Our government immediately declared its disgust with the perpetrators and offered its condolences to the bereaved and expressed its sympathies. "All governments have a duty to protect the lives, property and good standing of their citizens. Reportedly your government employs extensive security, protection and intelligence systems - and even hunts its opponents abroad. September eleven was not a simple operation. Could it be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services - or their extensive infiltration? Of course this is just an educated guess. Why have the various aspects of the attacks been kept secret? Why are we not told who botched their responsibilities? And, why aren't those responsible and the guilty parties identified and put on trial? "All governments have a duty to provide security and peace of mind for their citizens. For some years now, the people of your country and neighbors of world trouble spots do not have peace of mind. After 9.11, instead of healing and tending to the emotional wounds of the survivors and the American people -- who had been immensely traumatized by the attacks -- some Western media only intensified the climate of fear and insecurity - some constantly talked about the possibility of new terror attacks and kept the people in fear. Is that service to the American people? Is it possible to calculate the damages incurred from fear and panic? "American citizens lived in constant fear of fresh attacks that could come at any moment and in any place. They felt insecure in the streets, in their place of work and at home. Who would be happy with this situation? Why was the media, instead of conveying a feeling of security and providing peace of mind, giving rise to a feeling of insecurity? "Some believe that the hype paved the way -- and was the justification --for an attack on Afghanistan. Again I need to refer to the role of media. "In media charters, correct dissemination of information and honest reporting of a story are established tenets. I express my deep regret about the disregard shown by certain Western media for these principles. The main pretext for an attack on Iraq was the existence of WMDs. This was repeated incessantly -- for the public to finally believe -- and the ground set for an attack on Iraq. "Will the truth not be lost in a contrived and deceptive climate? Again, if the truth is allowed to be lost, how can that be reconciled with the earlier mentioned values? Is the truth known to the Almighty lost as well? Mr. President, "In countries around the world, citizens provide for the expenses of governments so that their governments in turn are able to serve them. "The question here is ?what has the hundreds of billions of dollars, spent every year to pay for the Iraqi campaign, produced for the citizens?' "As Your Excellency is aware, in some states of your country, people are living in poverty. Many thousands are homeless and unemployment is a huge problem. Of course these problems exist - to a larger or lesser extent -- in other countries as well. With these conditions in mind, can the gargantuan expenses of the campaign - paid from the public treasury - be explained and be consistent with the aforementioned principles? "What has been said, are some of the grievances of the people around the world, in our region and in your country. But my main contention - which I am hoping you will agree to some of it - is: "Those in power have a specific time in office and do not rule indefinitely, but their names will be recorded in history and will be constantly judged in the immediate and distant futures. "The people will scrutinize our presidencies. "Did we mange to bring peace, security and prosperity for the people or insecurity and unemployment? "Did we intend to establish justice or just supported especial interest groups, and by forcing many people to live in poverty and hardship, made a few people rich and powerful -- thus trading the approval of the people and the Almighty with theirs? "Did we defend the rights of the underprivileged or ignore them? "Did we defend the rights of all people around the world or imposed wars on them, interfered illegally in their affairs, established hellish prisons and incarcerated some of them? "Did we bring the world peace and security or raised the specter of intimidation and threats? "Did we tell the truth to our nation and others around the world or presented an inverted version of it? "Were we on the side of people or the occupiers and oppressors? "Did our administrations set out to promote rational behavior, logic, ethics, peace, fulfilling obligations, justice, service to the people, prosperity, progress and respect for human dignity or the force of guns, intimidation, insecurity, disregard for the people, delaying the progress and excellence of other nations, and trample on people's rights? "And finally, they will judge us on whether we remained true to our oath of office - to serve the people, which is our main task, and the traditions of the prophets -- or not? Mr. President, "How much longer can the world tolerate this situation? "Where will this trend lead the world to? "How long must the people of the world pay for the incorrect decisions of some rulers? "How much longer will the specter of insecurity - raised from the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction -- hunt the people of the world? "How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people's houses destroyed over their heads? "Are you pleased with the current condition of the world? "Do you think present policies can continue? "If billions of dollars spent on security, military campaigns and troop movement were instead spent on investment and assistance for poor countries, promotion of health, combating different diseases, education and improvement of mental and physical fitness, assistance to the victims of natural disasters, creation of employment opportunities and production, development projects and poverty alleviation, establishment of peace, mediation between disputing states, and extinguishing the flames of racial, ethnic and other conflicts, where would the world be today? Would not your government and people be justifiably proud? "Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger? "And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever increasing global hatred of the American government? "Mr. President, it is not my intention to distress anyone. "If Prophet Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishmael, Joseph, or Jesus Christ (PBUH) were with us today, how would they have judged such behavior? Will we be given a role to play in the promised world, where justice will become universal and Jesus Christ (PBUH) will be present? Will they even accept us? "My basic question is this: Is there no better way to interact with the rest of the world? Today there are hundreds of millions of Christians, hundreds of millions of Muslims and millions of people who follow the teachings of Moses (PBUH). All divine religions share and respect one word and that is ?monotheism' or belief in a single God and no other in the world. "The Holy Koran stresses this common word and calls on all followers of divine religions and says: [3.64] Say: O followers of the Book! Come to an equitable proposition between us and you that we shall not serve any but Allah and (that) we shall not associate aught with Him, and (that) some of us shall not take others for lords besides Allah; but if they turn back, then say: Bear witness that we are Muslims. (The Family of Imran) Mr. President, "According to divine verses, we have all been called upon to worship one God and follow the teachings of divine Prophets. "To worship a God which is above all powers in the world and can do all He pleases. The Lord which knows that which is hidden and visible, the past and the future, knows what goes on in the Hearts of His servants and records their deeds." "The Lord who is the possessor of the heavens and the earth and all universe is His court planning for the universe is done by His hands, and gives His servants the glad tidings of mercy and forgiveness of sins. He is the companion of the oppressed and the enemy of oppressors. He is the Compassionate, the Merciful. He is the recourse of the faithful and guides them towards the light from darkness. He is witness to the actions of His servants. He calls on servants to be faithful and do good deeds, and asks them to stay on the path of righteousness and remain steadfast. Calls on servants to heed His prophets and He is a witness to their deeds. A bad ending belongs only to those who have chosen the life of this world and disobey Him and oppress His servants and A good end and eternal paradise belong to those servants who fear His majesty and do not follow their lascivious selves. "We believe a return to the teachings of the divine prophets is the only road leading to salvation. I have been told that Your Excellency follows the teachings of Jesus (PBUH) and believes in the divine promise of the rule of the righteous on Earth. "We also believe that Jesus Christ (PBUH) was one of the great prophets of the Almighty. He has been repeatedly praised in the Koran. Jesus (PBUH) has been quoted in Koran as well: [19.36] And surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path, Marium "Service to and obedience of the Almighty is the credo of all divine messengers. "The God of all people in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, the Pacific and the rest of the world is one. He is the Almighty who wants to guide and give dignity to all His servants. He has given greatness to Humans. "We again read in the Holy Book: ?The Almighty God sent His prophets with miracles and clear signs to guide the people and show them divine signs and purify them from sins and pollutions. And He sent the Book and the balance so that the people display justice and avoid the rebellious'. "All of the above verses can be seen, one way or the other, in the Good Book as well. "Divine prophets have promised: "The day will come when all humans will congregate before the court of the Almighty, so that their deeds are examined. The good will be directed towards Haven and evildoers will meet divine retribution. I trust both of us believe in such a day, but it will not be easy to calculate the actions of rulers, because we must be answerable to our nations and all others whose lives have been directly or indirectly affected by our actions. "All prophets, speak of peace and tranquility for man -- based on monotheism, justice and respect for human dignity. "Do you not think that if all of us come to believe in and abide by these principles, that is, monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day, we can overcome the present problems of the world -- that are the result of disobedience to the Almighty and the teachings of prophets - and improve our performance? "Do you not think that belief in these principles promotes and guarantees peace, friendship and justice? "Do you not think that the aforementioned written or unwritten principles are universally respected? "Will you not accept this invitation? That is, a genuine return to the teachings of prophets, to monotheism and justice, to preserve human dignity and obedience to the Almighty and His prophets? Mr. President, "History tells us that repressive and cruel governments do not survive. God has entrusted the fate of men to them. The Almighty has not left the universe and humanity to their own devices. "Many things have happened contrary to the wishes and plans of governments. These tell us that there is a higher power at work and all events are determined by Him. "Can one deny the signs of change in the world today? "Is the situation of the world today comparable to that of ten years ago? Changes happen fast and come at a furious pace. "The people of the world are not happy with the status quo and pay little heed to the promises and comments made by a number of influential world leaders. Many people around the world feel insecure and oppose the spreading of insecurity and war and do not approve of and accept dubious policies. "The people are protesting the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots and the rich and poor countries. "The people are disgusted with increasing corruption. "The people of many countries are angry about the attacks on their cultural foundations and the disintegration of families. They are equally dismayed with the fading of care and compassion. The people of the world have no faith in international organizations, because their rights are not advocated by these organizations. "Liberalism and Western style democracy have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity. Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems. "We increasingly see that people around the world are flocking towards a main focal point -- that is the Almighty God. Undoubtedly through faith in God and the teachings of the prophets, the people will conquer their problems. My question for you is: ?Do you not want to join them?' Mr. President, "Whether we like it or not, the world is gravitating towards faith in the "Almighty and justice and the will of God will prevail over all things. "Vasalam Ala Man Ataba'al hoda Mahmood Ahmadi-Nejad President of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

I'm
not a listener of Metal music, but when it comes to my sons
writing their own songs it goes without saying I'm their fav fan.

www.myspace.com/Anundergoingtragedy

Yesterday,
I drove down to Laguna Beach where I used to always go to with Yusef.

It's lovely, not just sandy beaches but tide pools to investigate,
rocks to climb, and snorkeling or diving.

Waves and sea gulls so calming to hear while
walking above on the cliff path,
feeling the breeze at a warm 67f.

Each time I tried to leave I was pulled back to the cliff's edge
to watch the waves get pulled further away from shore.

The Sea knows me for it called me to its shores and bid me to listen.

 

I saw this on Mahmood's Den and had to pinch it. Sorry, but it's really
a lovely picture of the Agave blooming in Bahrain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave

Agave at A'ali Roundabout, originally uploaded by malyousif.

 

Back in Ohio for a week now and I'm trying to pack up a house, sell three cars, do
repairs/maintenance and put the house on the market for sale.
Over whelming, Yes! But with jet lag properly recovered from I think I am able to hit
the list of To Do's.

The worst so far is not having DSL at the house. Which really is for the
better. I can see myself sitting for hours on end surfing about, reading all
the news going on in the world, checking in on Woa2 (a Yahoo women's only
group), chatting away to my Dear Hubby and sons and just not getting a thing
done regarding the house.   Bummer... the down side of no DSL at the house. Instead I found I spend a few hours emailing, reading the news, checking
Woa2 posts and getting things done.

Memories take
over as I sort through things to pack, sell, give away or trash.
Sometimes I have to sink into the reflections and let them wash over
me, pulling
me into a memory here and a memory there. These are what I want to write
about more than anything else and some how complete the circle.

In Tiny Arab State, Web Takes On Ruling Elite

MANAMA, Bahrain
- Ali Abdulemam, this country's most notorious blogger, sat in the
boxlike reception room of his father's house in a cramped Shiite
village dotted with raw cinder-block houses, trying to log onto the
widely popular Web site that he founded.

The government on this
flyspeck of an island nation, home to an American Navy base, recently
renewed its effort to block dozens of opposition Web sites. So Mr.
Abdulemam, 28, a computer engineer, had to spend about 10 minutes
whipping through various computer servers around the world before
finally pulling up his Web site, BahrainOnline.org.

It
was National Day, Dec. 16, and some five miles away, the beautifully
landscaped boulevards of Manama, the capital, were packed with revelers
enjoying bands and fireworks. Pictures of the ruling princes blanketed
the city, which was also awash in the national colors, red and white.
Red and white lights were even wrapped around the palm trees lining the
main thoroughfares.

But most of the couple of hundred people
posting messages in the "National Forum" section of BahrainOnline
mocked the idea of celebrating the day in 1971 when a Sunni Muslim king
ascended the throne to rule over a Shiite Muslim majority.

"In
Bahrain, glorifying the king means glorifying the nation, and opposing
the king means betraying the homeland and working for foreign
countries," wrote one online participant, noting that the formula is
the mark of a dictatorship. "Should we be loyal to the king or to
Bahrain?"

Bahrain, long a regional financial hub and a prime
example of the power of the Internet to foment discontent, bills itself
as a leader of political change in the Arab world. It is a claim echoed
in praise from the United States, which considers Bahrain crucial for
its many regional military ventures because the American Navy's Fifth
Fleet is based here.

But in Bahrain, as across the Arab world,
those pushing for democratic change want to end minority rule by a
family, sect or a military clique.

The royal family here
dominates, holding half the cabinet positions and the major posts in
the security services and the University of Bahrain.

Sheik
Muhammad al-Khalifa, the prince who runs the Economic Development
Board, argues that Bahrain should not become a democracy in the Western
sense. "As traditional Arabs, I don't think democracy is part of our
nature," he said.

"I think all people want is accountability," he added, noting that some form of democracy was needed to achieve that.

So
political change in the Middle East rests partly on whether and how the
many minority governments will yield power and allow others to
participate. So far, the results are anemic.

The al-Saud tribe
slapped its name on the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where local elections
a year ago have not produced active municipal councils, and crucial
issues like how much oil wealth the ruling family absorbs are not
discussed.

In Syria, the ruling Assad family and its
confederates from the Alawite minority sect are in crisis, accused of
assassinating Rafik Hariri, a former Sunni prime minister of Lebanon
and an important figure who might have been able to rally majority
support against the Alawites' monopoly on power.

Of course,
Iraq remains the biggest experiment of all in changing the practice of
minority rule. The American occupation has yet to answer whether it is
possible to forge a democratic government in the Arab world, or if the
attempt will drown in a cauldron of sectarian bloodshed. But the
results are being closely watched, perhaps nowhere more than in
Bahrain, where up to 70 percent of its native population of 450,000 are
Shiites, similar to Iraq's Shiite-Sunni split. Shiites here also
increasingly look to moderate religious leaders in Iraq for guidance.

Some
political change has occurred. Debate is growing through the Internet,
satellite television and other forces, and elections this year will
replace the Parliament and municipal councils first chosen in 2002
under a new Constitution. Members of the ruling Khalifa family describe
this as a vibrant process that will ultimately establish a local strain
of democracy. Yet some of its most senior members and their Sunni
allies hint that the process is threatened because Bahrain's Shiites
disloyally serve outside interests like the Shiites in Iran and Iraq.

Members
of the opposition call this nonsense and accuse the ruling dynasty of
questioning their loyalty to avoid having to share power. They say King
Hamad and his Khalifa clan, descendants of Bedouins from the Arabian
mainland who conquered this island, taking it from its Persian masters
in the 18th century, will only make cosmetic changes, noting that
almost nothing has been done to alleviate the entrenched discrimination
faced by the poorest segments of the Shiite population.

"The
problem with the royal family is that when they give us any democracy
they think that it is a gift and we have to thank them for it," Mr.
Abdulemam said. "The time when they were the lords and we were the
slaves is gone. The new generation is well educated. They won't live
like our fathers did in the past, when they said O.K. to whatever the
royal family did."

A 'Golden Time' Cut Short

Bahrain's first Parliament, elected in 1973, proved too boisterous
for King Hamad's father, who dissolved it after 18 months. Opposition
demands to restore it increased through the 1990's, marked by bombings
and other sporadic violence. The authoritarian government subjected the
mostly Shiite opposition political activists to arrest, torture and
forced exile.

When King Hamad, now 55, inherited power in 1999, he promised a democracy that he described as "areeqa" or "well rooted."

He
announced changes that included amnesty for exiles and the disbanding
of the dreaded State Security Courts. Bahrainis enthusiastically
approved the new plan in a public referendum.

It was then that
Mr. Abdulemam established his groundbreaking Web site, determined to
give Bahrainis a place to share ideas and develop plans to deepen
political change. "It seemed like a golden time, when the country was
moving from one period in its history to another," he said. "Everybody
needed a place to talk so I provided it."

But King Hamad soon hit the brakes. In 2002 he announced a new Constitution, formulated without public consultation.

The
cabinet, led by his uncle, a hard-liner opposing democratic change,
would report to him, not the Parliament. Instead of a single 40-member
Parliament, he added an appointed upper house. Amending the
Constitution now required a two-thirds majority of both houses, giving
the monarch full control. Parliament now could only propose laws, not
write them. An audit bureau that had previously reported to Parliament
was replaced with one that would not subject the spending of the royal
court or the 2,500 royal family members to any public scrutiny.

"I
had been full of hope that a new era was coming to Bahrain," Mr.
Abdulemam said. "But what happened next threw us all in the dirt. When
the king brought in the new Constitution, everyone was crushed."

Politics in the Internet Age

In the old days, with its monopoly over television and radio and the
ability to shut down newspapers, the Khalifa dynasty would have had
less trouble controlling the debate. Now, with the Internet and
satellite television outside its reach, the government resorts to
tactics like tossing Mr. Abdulemam and two of his fellow Web masters
into jail for a couple of weeks, as it did last year.

At the
time, the opposition orchestrated repeated demonstrations and
international intervention to help win his release, but legal charges
of insulting the king, incitement and disseminating false news remain
pending and can be dredged up at any time.

One reason the
Internet is so popular - scores of villages have their own Web sites
and chat rooms - is that far more can be said about the ruling family
online than through any other means.

"Freedom of expression is
something you have to take, not something that will be granted to you,"
Mr. Abdulemam said, but he doubts that free speech alone will
accomplish much. "Their policy basically comes down to, 'Say what you
want and we will do what we want.' "

BahrainOnline is the go-to
political site, with princes, Parliament members, opposition leaders
and others with an interest in politics saying they consult it daily to
find out what the opposition is thinking.

The easiest way to
ensure a large turnout for any demonstration, the leader of the main
Shiite opposition group said, is to post the announcement for it on
BahrainOnline.

"If something happens anywhere in Bahrain, usually
within five minutes maximum something about it is happening on my
site," Mr. Abdulemam said.

Still, the site's Web masters are
often criticized for creating a "tabloid" that spreads rumors and
demeans those considered enemies. Ghada Jamsheer, a women's rights
advocate who criticized the Shiite clergy for opposing a proposed law
that would give more defined divorce rights to women, said her face was
pasted onto a naked body.

Mr. Abdulemam said his site was
blamed for trash posted on any site in Bahrain, and his Web masters,
monitoring as many as 1,000 posts a day, remove anything that promotes
violence. He laughs when he recalls his arrest and how little his
interrogators knew about how the Internet works, blaming him for the
content of every posting.

Mansour Jamri, editor of a daily
newspaper, Wasat, and the son of a famous Shiite opposition cleric,
notes that many of those writing on the Web sites are very young.

"If
you don't shout with them you are a corrupt person, you are basically a
dog used by the government," said Mr. Jamri, who has been portrayed as
just that.

Part of the issue is that the press remains hobbled.
When Abd al-Hadi al-Khawaja, a prominent human rights advocate, was
arrested in late 2004 after giving a speech attacking the prime
minister over corruption, no newspaper printed what he had said. For
that people had to turn to BahrainOnline.

"This pocket of anarchy is a byproduct of half-hearted democracy," Mr. Jamri said.

Simmering Frustrations

In 2002, BahrainOnline led a fight to boycott the elections. As a
result, Shiites mostly stayed away from the polls, and the vote
exacerbated the sense among Shiites that the Khalifas and their Sunni
allies were not interested in treating them as equals.

Election
districts were gerrymandered so that sparsely populated Sunni districts
in the south got almost as many members as the heavily Shiite villages
in the north. Opposition groups amassed evidence that the government
gave passports to various Sunni Muslim groups, including members of a
tribe in Saudi Arabia that had once lived on Bahrain, to alter voting
demographics.

Ultimately, Sunnis captured 27 of the 40 seats in
the election. As in many parts of the Muslim world, fundamentalists
were the best organized, and a group of Sunni fundamentalists became
the largest bloc in Parliament. They muted any opposition to the
government out of concern that it might help spread the influence of
Shiite Islam.

The new Parliament spent half its time bickering
over religious practice. It won a fight to allow fully veiled women to
drive. It proposed a ban on scantily clad window mannequins. It tried
to separate the sexes in all classrooms. Last year, alcohol sales were
banned during a Muslim holiday - a time when tens of thousands of
visitors arrive from Saudi Arabia to drink.

What Parliament did
not do was really confront the government over a chronic housing
shortage and unemployment, particularly among Shiites. The gap between
the largely Sunni haves and the Shiite have-nots grows ever more
apparent and feeds simmering frustration.

Mr. Abdulemam, for
example, earns a decent salary as a computer engineer at an
American-owned company. With a wife who is expecting their first child
any day, he can not afford $130,000 for a plot of land and does not
ever expect to be able to.

He is the youngest of 10 siblings, 4
of whom still live with their children in his father's house. Some 15
people live there, with each nuclear family allotted a room. "I know we
deserve better," he said.

Exact numbers are hard to pin down in
Bahrain, but about 27,000 applications are pending for subsidized
government housing, senior officials concede. Unemployment stands
officially at 15 percent but runs as high as 28 percent among Shiite
young adults ages 20 to 24, diplomats and Bahraini economists said.

Opposition
members accuse the royal family of monopolizing all available land, and
say an expatriate community of 250,000 - from Asia and other Arab
countries - blocks Shiites from most decent jobs. Shiites avoid some
tough jobs like construction and are generally barred from joining the
security services. Royal family members concede that more needs to be
done to improve housing but deny hoarding land. A job training program
is to begin this month.

Last spring, the committee in the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights that monitors racial discrimination
rebuked Bahrain. The report said that although Bahrain paid lip service
in its laws to barring discrimination, actual practice lagged.

When
Mr. Abdulemam was arrested in February 2005, he found that his
interrogator was an Egyptian, one of hundreds of Sunni Muslims from the
Arab world and Pakistan recruited into the security services, given
houses and usually citizenship.

"He was asking me whether I was
loyal to this country," Mr. Abdulemam said sourly. "How can an Egyptian
ask me about my loyalty? There are many ways to love your country, and
what I do is one of them."

The poverty suffered by many Shiites
seems particularly galling to them given the real estate boom. The
capital's skyline is dominated by gargantuan luxury office blocs under
construction, which Bahrainis contend are all owned by the royal
family. The capital is also plastered with ads for housing developments
like Riffa Heights, an upscale community with sea views and a golf
course in a plush neighborhood already dominated by royal palaces where
Shiites cannot buy land.

Senior officials call it all essential
development to attract investment to Bahrain, long the Persian Gulf's
financial hub but one competing increasingly with far richer emirates
like Dubai and Qatar.

The young, American-educated crown prince
even used a huge tract to build a $150 million Formula 1 racing
circuit. Talal al-Zain, the investment banker who is the raceway's
chairman, lauded it as a means of putting Bahrain on the international
map. The track seems to baffle Bahrainis. For special races on National
Day only about 500 people, most of them foreigners, sat in stands built
for 30,000. One Web site mocks the crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad
al-Khalifa, as "Salman Schumacher," a reference to Michael Schumacher, a top racer.

Formally,
the Bush administration has declared that it supports democratic change
across the region, that the United States will no longer laud despots
just because they back American policy. "Hopeful reform is already
taking hold in an arc from Morocco to Jordan to Bahrain," President
Bush said in his 2005 State of the Union address.

Practically,
though, the United States has not pushed for sweeping change out of
concern for what might happen if states fell into the hands of
Islamists.

The Khalifas court the Bush administration
particularly well. The foreign minister, Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed
al-Khalifa, noted that a proposed port might provide the deep-water
docking space needed for the aircraft carriers that now have to anchor
offshore. Such cooperation has earned Bahrain a free-trade deal and
praise from Mr. Bush.

A Shiite-Sunni Divide

During a protest march on National Day, some of the participants
chanted "Death to Khalifa!" referring to Sheik Khalifa bin Salman
al-Khalifa, 69, who has remained prime minister since independence in
1971. They yelled it in Arabic and Persian, the language of Shiite
Iran.

With Iraq holding so much of the people's attention here,
much the way Iran did after its revolution, the question is whether
developments in Iraq will lead Bahrain to more sectarianism or more
democracy. Signs of both exist. Some postings on BahrainOnline include
portraits of prominent Iranian ayatollahs past and present,
particularly Khomeini and Ali Khamenei.
Members of the ruling family generally use such displays to buttress
the accusation that the basic goal of the Shiites is to establish an
Iranian-style theocracy in Bahrain.

But Shiites here respond
that the ayatollahs are strictly spiritual guides and that native
Shiites have lived in Bahrain longer than the ruling family and have no
intention of living under the thrall of yet another foreign power. To
counter the accusation that their loyalties lie outside Bahrain, the
Shiite activists stopped hoisting such pictures at rallies.

"The
new Iraq is the model," said Sheik Ali Salman, the 40-year-old Shiite
cleric elected to lead Al Wifaq Islamic Society, the main Shiite
opposition group, and a man who once organized rallies denouncing the
American invasion of Iraq. The expectation that Shiites will dominate
the Iraqi government has given Shiites across the region new
confidence.

Speaking fluent English learned during five years
of exile in Britain, the cleric ticks off all the steps Iraqis have
taken toward choosing their own leaders in the same period that King
Hamad has been busy consolidating power while warning against moving
too quickly to carry out change.

Most Shiites follow one
senior cleric on matters of religious practice in their daily lives.
Mr. Abdulemam said he used to look to Khomeini in Iran, but recently
switched to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the moderate and powerful
Shiite cleric in Iraq.

Sunnis in Bahrain are at times incensed
when Shiites fax Ayatollah Sistani questions, like asking him whether
they must obey traffic laws, because King Hamad is not, in their view,
a legitimate Islamic ruler. (He faxed back to say yes, they do.)

Where
many Shiites here used to watch Al Manar, the satellite channel
broadcast from Beirut by the militant Shiite group Hezbollah, they have
switched to the Iraqi-run Euphrates channel. When a bombing kills
Shiites in Iraq, some in Bahrain wear black.

Shiites and Sunnis
silently assess all events in Iraq, which are both feeding democratic
yearnings and deepening the divisions between them.

"If a Sunni
area is bombed, the Sunnis wish it was a Shiite area; they don't say
it, but they feel it," said Sheik Khalid al-Khalifa, a prince and an
academic who serves on the Shura Council, the appointed upper house of
Parliament. "It's the same for the Shiites. It's all reflected here."

Abeer Allam contributed reporting for this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/international/middleeast/15bahrain.html?pagewanted=all

The cold weather finally made it to Bahrain.
By cold I mean windy, humid and about 55f - 60f. And believe it or not
even after 6 years of living in Ohio where it does get cold, I feel
cold here. Wish I had my wooly sweaters.

It's good weather for camping out in the desert. Camping season
in Bahrain lasts from mid Dec to about mid March (or until it gets too warm). The camps are
set up out in the empty section of the island towards the south west side.

Anyone can set up a
camp, just stake & rope off the site you want. It first come, first choice
of spot. Once the large canvas tents are set up you are ready to go. Some folks
set up a water tower and bring in water with a tanker. No one is really roughing
it because there is running water and lights. Someone has even set up a 24hr.
convenience shop in the area so no one has to run home any more for a forgotten
item. 

The entire family
enjoys going out to the desert camp. During daylight there are games of
volleyball or football  (soccer), desert hikes, cards, Karrom or 21 Questions. Ali
& Zaid bring their guitars and amps to play, some else brings a keyboard and
traditional drums then after dinner we enjoy songs from Elvis, heavy metal to
old traditional Bahraini ones.

During
January of each year on a suny day, I'd take the guys (4Ds = 4 dear
sons) and drive out to the 'Tree of Life'. The Tree of Life is out in
the middle of the desert. It seems, no one knows where the tree's water
source is, who planted it or how long it has been growing there. It's a
mystery tree. An Acaisha Tree out in the middle of the desert.

"Located on the southern end of the island of Bahrain
is a solitary tree. A very nice tree, especially considering the
otherwise very barren surroundings. This tree is also known as the tree of life."
- http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/tree+of+life

Tree of Life, Bahrain

Taking
pictures of the boys at the Tree of Life every year for me is the same
as some else buying the annual school photos taken at the begining of
each school year. I want to take what I feel will be the last time with
all of them together. In another year only God knows where each son will be.

Three Bahraini Prisoners Still At Camp X-Ray

Yes, we've had civil unrest here in Bahrain. But then which country hasn't had any? Do we have terrorist here - no. Also, I will never believe such things stated about the 6 Bahrainis who were detained at Camp X-ray. If these Bahrainis are what the Bush jockies claim they are then the Boston Tea-Party was a results of terrorists. http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/story.asp?Article=129871&Sn=BNEW&IssueID... Save Juma now!

By KANWAL TARIQ HAMEED Published: 15 December 2005 BAHRAINI Guantanamo Bay detainee Juma Al Dossary will die unless urgent action is taken to save him, says his lawyer. Mr Al Dossary tried again to kill himself in a hospital bed, days after trying to hang himself and slashing his wrist, it was revealed yesterday. He fractured his spine in the original attempt and is still unable to walk unaided two months later. Mr Al Dossary suffers memory loss and is in pain, say lawyers representing the three Bahrainis still detained at the camp. He also slashed his wrist in the incident, during a visit by New York-based lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan on October 15. A camp doctor who operated on Mr Al Dossary said that 70 per cent of his vein had been severed. He again tried to kill himself by pulling out the stitches while in hospital, says the US military. Intolerable Mr Al Dossary lay unconscious for two days after the incident and was told he must wear a neck brace for six weeks. The 30-year-old prisoner is undergoing physiotherapy because he cannot walk unaided, according to notes made when Mr Colangelo-Bryan visited him again on November 11. He also experiences severe headaches, spasms, extreme fatigue and difficulty in speaking on occasions, say the notes. Mr Al Dossary reportedly apologised to Mr Colangelo-Bryan for trying kill himself in front of him, but said it was a desperate attempt to "send a message to the world that the conditions at Guantanamo are intolerable". "Juma said the purpose of Guantanamo was to destroy detainees and he has been destroyed," Mr Colangelo-Bryan wrote. Mr Al Dossary was said to have emphasised that "he had really wanted to die". "Juma recalls awakening on Monday October 17 in the Naval Hospital; the suicide attempt was on October 15," say the notes. "When he woke up he had two tubes in his mouth to assist him in breathing. He also had a catheter and a heart monitor. Mr Al Dossary was said to have been moved to the detainee hospital after almost a week, where he was told that 70 per cent of his vein had been severed but no nerves had been damaged. "Juma had approximately 14 stitches in his arm to close the wound," say Mr Colangelo's notes. Several days after Juma woke up, the area on which surgery had been performed became red and puss began to form in it. A second procedure was performed to clean the wound. "Three days after waking up, Juma began to recover his memory. Now, Juma remembers the things he did daily before his suicide attempt, but has difficulty remembering things he did not do regularly. He also has trouble recalling details such as dates, including his birthday, and phone numbers," Mr Colangelo-Bryan says in the document. "Juma was told by a doctor that an X-ray had been taken, which showed that he had a fracture in his second vertebrae as a result of the hanging. "He has pain from the back of his head half-way down his spine. Several days prior to November 11, Juma had requested another X-ray on his neck because he had a pain and heard a cracking sound. The X-ray was taken and a doctor told Juma that he "did not see anything" on the X-ray. Mr Colangelo-Bryan feels Mr Al Dossary is physically and mentally "on the brink of collapse". He was said to be asking for his conditions of confinement to be changed to allow him to interact with other detainees. "Juma said that he does not trust the female psychiatrist he has seen because there is no honesty or rationality at Guantanamo. He said that he does not even trust himself any longer and does not know if he can control himself," wrote Mr Colangelo-Bryan. Mr Al Dossary attempted to kill himself once again by pulling out the stitches in his arm two days after the meeting with Mr Colangelo-Bryan, according to the US military. The US military statement followed a report by lawyers which said that camp officials prevented them from seeing Mr Al Dossary a second time as promised, in spite of their protest that this could have a detrimental impact on his psychological health.

?nbsp;Gulf Daily News

Zaid & Ali 2/24/2005 

 

Mosaic Flowers

 

 

       A combination of roses, peonies and irises