You Have No Excuse to...

Skip Your Prayers!

The Stars & The Ravaged Night

The Mighty Stars, all
Rise and shine
They gleam during the night;
The ravaged homes
A pride for some, their
Possessions chewed by Might!

No roof at top,
No walls for support,
Not even a morsel or a bite…
No where to go, they all sit still -
Under a very clear night.

They look far ahead,
For the Stars again -
Their empty eyes
Find none…for all they
could see is a
Blanket of pain...

The Stars will rise again
Tomorrow, in the night;
Again there will be agony,
Despair and harassed flight!

It’s the same old story,
For history repeats itself.
Some seek glory, but for
Others - it’s a mere game
Of blood and money...

So, they came again
With all their Might -
Captured some, and
Shot the fleeing ones.
The Stars raged in the
Dark, and once again
Left the bare eyes
Mourn silently,
Another ravaged night…

Gaza's Reality

Would you be able to live like this ?

If nothing is more precious than a Human life, then what is...?

The picture worth a thousand words

The picture worth a thousand words

By Aijaz Zaka Syed

16 November 2006

THAT night my editor went down twice to go home and then came back wondering if we, after all, should carry that particular picture on Page One. I didn’t blame him. As editor, he had to keep his readers’ sensitivities and sensibilities always in mind.

And that picture of a young Palestinian woman stuffed in the drawer of Beit Hanoun morgue with her two daughters — a toddler and another one and half-year old — lying next to her was too stunning and too disconcerting even for us who are in the business of news and come across scenes of death and destruction almost on a daily basis.

The young mother, Sanah Assamna, looked as if she had just fallen asleep after having lulled her loved ones to sleep. It was just too beautiful and too painful! How could Israel’s brave soldiers kill such lovely and innocent creatures while they slept in the comfort and safety of their homes in Beit Hanoun that Tuesday night?

My boss was right to fret if by splashing such pictures on our front page, we would upset our readers. "We don’t want our readers to stare at dead bodies at their breakfast table, for God’s sake, do we?" shouted news editor from across the newsroom.

"He is right," the editor nodded in agreement. "Although I agree that this is the picture of the day — and very arresting and striking at that, we cannot publish such disturbing scenes of cruelty on Page One."

"But when the guys who are responsible for this depravity against women and children are least embarrassed about it, why should we have any qualms in bringing this to light?" I persisted.

Eventually and thankfully, we went ahead and published that picture after I pleaded with my colleagues to trust my news judgment. And I was right. That picture in cold print the next morning just leapt at you. Very striking and very, very moving!

Anyone who is blessed with children or has been a child wouldn’t remain unaffected and unmoved by this picture of complete innocence and the sheer barbarity of Israel to kill it. Seven of the 18 killed that Tuesday night in Beit Hanoun were young children, many of them toddlers. But then this is not the first time Israel has resorted to such depravity. We have been here before — with nauseating persistence. From the razing of Sabra and Shatila to the blood-letting of Jenin and Beit Hanoun, there has always been a macabre method in Israel’s madness. After all, Israel has to defend itself, as US President Bush points out every time the Israelis cowardly uses its brute force against men, women and children who have nothing to defend themselves.

And what is the big deal if it ends up killing a Palestinian woman here, a Palestinian toddler there in collateral damage. The children of Israel after all have a divine right to this ancient land. What if Palestinians have been living there for centuries? Besides, who cares if some ‘stateless’ people are bombed in the dead of night. They do it all the time those Palestinians — blowing themselves up! They are not like us. They are tormented by this irrepressible, eternal death wish. They have no love for life. They do not eat and drink like you and me. They have no families, no children and no homes to belong to. They have no dreams. They suffer no pain. They shed no tears. Actually, they do not exist for all we care.

Which is why the world does not lose its sleep when Palestinian lives are snuffed out across the large, rotting prison that the occupied territory is. Which is why every time Arab and Muslim states make regulation noises in the UN about the persecution of Palestinians, they are quickly shouted down by the Israel-US combine. The US veto power comes handy to shoot down even perfunctory and totally pointless UN attempts to hold Israel accountable. Just as the US has done in the case of UN resolution censuring Israel on the madness of Beit Hanoun.

US ambassador John Bolton rejected the resolution by arguing it “does not display an even-handed characterisation of the recent events in Gaza, nor does it advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

What even-handedness, ambassador Bolton? When you have women and children — as young as six-month old who in their sleep didn’t even know they were in the line of Israel’s fire — pitted against the brute and full might of a terrorist state, what even-handedness are we talking about? And what peace? How could you talk of peace when Israel continues to bomb an impoverished and hungry people?

But then this isn’t the first time the US has sprung to the defence of its trusted ally and friend. There’s a long history of Washington protecting the killers of a people whose only crime is that they were born in the land that is sacred to three great faiths. The UN resolution slamming Israel’s attack on Beit Hanoun was the fourth in three years that was vetoed by Washington.

And what even if the UN Security Council manages to pass a resolution reprobating Israel? It’s hardly likely to make any difference to Palestinians. It hasn’t in the past. This UN resolution too will be consigned to the dustbin of history where there are many such worthless resolutions, passed by the world body after elaborate diplomatic shenanigans. Israel has yet to implement a single one of them. So much for the persuasive powers of the ‘international’ community!

Truth be told, if any one can stop Israel’s terrorism, it is the US of A. And it must, if it does not want the infinite suffering of Palestinians to radicalise the whole of Arab and Muslim world. The US must rein in Israel, if it wants to protect its long-term interests in the Middle East and worldwide. It must stop playing the devil’s advocate.

Aijaz Zaka Syed is Assistant Editor with Khaleej Times. He can be reached at aijazsyed@khaleejtimes.com

The Closed Quarter

I see a shadow,
A little shadow
I hear some voices,
Them getting narrow…
I sigh and close my eyes,
Fully anticipating a row…
Wearily I rest my head
On my knees,
As numbness fills
Every part of me…

‘Snatch’, I hear
I jerk my head up
The shadow I saw
Became many as they near!
I see hands,
All dark and bloody
Reaching out to
Tear every part of me…
I put my hands up
To protect myself,
To fight for my
Honor and dignity!
I see their hands
Crawling in the air
Their big talons
Ready to tear my wear…
I tighten up my
Outer cover, my
Inside shaken to the core
I try to stop
Those hands reaching me
But my honor – my niqab,
They tore…
I scream in anguish
As my honor kisses the dust
‘Learn a lesson’, I hear
Their voice, ‘she must!’

‘The veil she wears
Is nothing but a
Hurdle in attaining
New heights; we can’t
Identify her for we
Can’t see any
Part of her being…’

They said this and more
But my eyes were fixed
Firmly on the floor,
Tears welled up in
My eyes- as I witnessed
My honor’s cruel demise…

Today it was the veil,
Tomorrow it’d be something else
Ever so hot in our trail
Those hands never stop or fail!
With closed minds, and
Eyes firmly shut,
They see or hear nothing
Just follow what they want,
New ideologies ever they flaunt…!

The closed quarter
That’s what it is
No freedom to practice
What one’s religion teaches…!

The dark shadows now
Retreat, their job was done -
They left a battered
Soul behind…
…dented the body was
but
The spirit remained unbroken,
I stood up as hope filled
My mind…

The closed quarter
That’s what the
World has become!
Targeting, degrading
Not tolerating 'ny gem,
Who’s hurting whom?
Who’s losing what?
Closed quarters,
Some people are hiding
Behind them…

A is for Allah

۱ - is for Allah, nothing but Allah
ﺐ - is the beginning of Bismillah
ﺖ - is for Taqwa - bewaring of Allah, and
ﺙ - is for Thawab - a Reward
ﺝ - is for Jannah - the Garden of Paradise
ﺡ - is for Hajj - the Blessed Pilgrimage
ﺥ - is for Khatam - the Seal of the Prophethood -
given to the Prophet Muhammad -
Sall-Allahu-'alaihi-wa-sallam

ﺪ - is for Deen (Way of Life) - al-Islam (the Submission), religion with Allah since time began
ﺫ - is for Dhikr - remembering Allah, and
ﺭ - is for the month of Ramadan - Oh Ramadan
ﺯ - is for Zakah - to cure our greed, when we give our money to those in need
ﺱ - is for Salamun ‘alaikum - 'peace be with you', Wa ‘alaikumus-salam
ﺵ - is for Shams - the shining sun, which Allah placed for everyone, and
ﺹ - is for Salah - for when we pray, facing Him, everyday, facing Him, till we meet our Lord

Allah - there’s only one God and Muhammad is His Messenger
Allah - la ilaha illallah (there is no god but Allah)

ﺾ - is for Dhuha - the morning light, the sun has turned from red to white
ﻂ - is for Tariq - a path to walk upon, and
ﻆ - is for Zill - a shadow, and
ﻉ - is for ‘Ilm - the thing to know, to make our knowledge grow, in Islam
ﻍ - is for Ghaib - a world unseen, and that we know is not a dream, and
ﻑ - is for The Opening - Al-Fatiha, and
ﻖ - for the Qur’an - the Book of God, and
ﻚ - is for Kalimah - a word we’re taught, to teach us what is good and what is not, and
ﻞ - is for the beginning of: La ilaha illallah
ﻢ - is for the Messenger - Muhammadur-Rasulullah
La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur-Rasulullah

Allah - there’s only one God and Muhammad is His Messenger
Allah - la ilaha illallah

ﻦ - is for Nawm - the sleep God gave, to give us rest after the day, and
ﻫ - is for the Hijrah - the Journey that the Prophet made, and
ﻮ - for Wudu' (ablution) - before we pray, to help us wash our sins away, and
ﻱ - is for Yawm-id-Deen (Day of Judgement)

Watch the video

I couldn't take my eyes off his face...

This image reminded me of a poem I wrote ages ago:

Many souls, least bothered
Lives lost, all bare;
Much chaos, no comfort
A hell, no care...

Some may opine that this image is nothing but an advertising gimmick...or perhaps it is not; It really is true! What if the child, the innocent victim caught in a bloody 'situation', is as real as you and me...? Whatever the case might be - I just couldn't take my eyes off this boy's face...