Masjid Al-Aqsa

Whenever Masjid Al-Aqsa is mentioned in the media, it shows the picture of Mosque (Dome of the Rock). QUESTION COMES"WHY"?
The main reason for that is the Zionist Conspiracy to erase from the memory of Muslims worldwide, the true picture of Mosque Al-Aqsa. Many Muslims and Non-Muslims publish the incorrect picture of Mosque Al-Aqsa out of ignorance. What is worse than this is that many Muslims today, display the picture of the Dome of the Rock in their homes and offices, as it were Mosque Al-Aqsa. The real tragedy is that generations of Muslim children (as well as many adults) around the world, are unable to differentiate between Mosque Al-Aqsa and The Dome of the Rock.
What do you think is going to happen if Mosque Al-Aqsa is destroyed and removed from the present landscape. Obviously, you might not expect much, since everyone will see the Dome of the Rock still standing, unharmed. People will incorrectly believe that nothing has changed and that something else was destroyed. What are you going to do NOW?
It is our duty now to clear up this misunderstanding, especially for our children because they are the future. We have to carry out this duty even if we demonstrate and scream in the streets. We must help people understand the truth. Mosque Al-Aqsa, where Messenger Muhammad (PBUH) led the prayers for the other messengers."سبحان الذي أسرى بعبده ليلا من المسجد الحرام إلى المسجد الأقصى الذي باركنا حوله لنريه من آياتنا ، إنه هـو السميـع البصيـر"Glorified be He (Allâh). Who took His slave (Muhammad SAW) for a journey by night from Al-Masjid-al-Ha râm to the farthest mosque, the neighborhood where of we have blessed, in order that we might show of our signs. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer. Surah Al-Isra'(17) verse:1 Now forward this to all, so as to inform them of the TRUTH. وَقُلْ جَاء الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا And say:'TRuth has come and Falsehood has vanished. Surely! Falsehood is ever bound to vanish.'Surah Al-Isra'(17) verse:81
Now forward this to all, so as to inform them of the TRUTH. Did You Know About Al-Aqsa Mosque
•Masjid Al Aqsa was the second Masjid on earth
•It was built 40 years after the Ka'ba in Makkah
•Most scholars are of the opinion that Masjid Al Aqsa was first built by Prophet Adam.
•Ibrahim (as) rebuilt the Masjid Al Aqsa in Jerusalem as he and Ismail rebuilt the Ka'ba in Makkah.
•Prophet Daud (as) began the rebuilding of Masjid Al Aqsa.
•It was Prophet Sulayman (as) who finally completed the building of Masjid Al Aqsa.
•Masjid Al Aqsa built by Sulayman (as) was destroyed in 587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon.
• The Jews call this same Masjid Al Aqsa built by Sulayman as their Temple.
•The Jews re-built their Temple on them same site in 167 BC but was destroyed in 70 AD and Jews banished from Jerusalem. • The site of Masjid Al Aqsa remained barren and was used as a rubbish tip for nearly 600 years until the Great Khalifah Umar bin Khattab liberated Jerusalem in 637/8 AD.
•The Khalifah Umar bin Khattab began the foundation of Masjid Al Aqsa and a timber mosque was built.
•The Umayyad Khalifah, Abd'al Malik ibn Marwan in 691/2 [72/73 AH] began the construction of, Dome of the Rock - today this is the Golden Domed Mosque.
•The al Buraq wall or Western Wall where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal the Buraq on the night journey of al Isra is what the Jews call the wailing wall.
•To Muslims it is the land or the Haram Sharif area which is most holy and important. • The Haram area of Al Aqsa has within it the Masjid Al Aqsa [Black Domed Mosque] and Dome of the Rock [the Golden Domed Mosque].
•Israel occupied Masjid Al Aqsa in 1967.
•That, the fundamentalist Jews have made 100's of attempts to destroy Al Aqsa since 1967 when they occupied it. A fire in 1967 started by their help destroyed the 900 year old Mimbar installed by Slaudeen Ayub, the Great Muslim Hero.
•That, the fundamentalist want to blow up and destroy Masjidul Al Aqsa and replace it with a Jewish Temple.
—
The Prophet ( sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam ) said :"Do not set out on a journey except for THREE MOSQUES. ie

1 - Al-Masjid Al-Haram
2 - Al-Masjid An-Nabawi [The mosque of ALLAH's Apostle]
3 - Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa [ Mosque of Jerusalem ]."[ Sahih Bukhari ]

Muslims and the Assault on Liberalism

A few years ago I wrote an essay for the Tabah Foundation titled “Reasonable Accommodation: Religion, Secular Law and the Limits of Multiculturalism”. At the time, Dr. Charles Taylor, a world-renowned philosopher and author of A Secular Age and Dr. Gerard Bouchard, a reputable Canadian sociologist, had been appointed to carry out a series of public consultations in Quebec. The provincial government wanted a formula to handle the apparently never-ending stream of demands from faith communities for religious accommodation in the public sphere. The commission was dubbed “Reasonable Accommodation.”

I felt it was important for Muslims living as minorities in the West to become familiar with the debate and the findings of the commission. It was not just a theoretical exercise but rather addressing an issue that Muslims need to understand better in order to adapt to the terrain of liberal secular societies.

Now that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the largest school Board in Canada and fourth largest in North America, is being attacked for allowing Muslim students at Valley Park Middle School to offer the Friday congregational prayers in the school’s cafeteria, it is important to revisit the topic and to ask whether this particular accommodation meets the yardstick of ‘reasonable’ or not?

I Complain, therefore I am

Just came back from Detroit where I attended the ADC-Michigan annual awards gala, during which I received the Literary Leadership Award for my work in Gaza Mom. During my allotted two minutes, I read a selection from the book with which many be familiar, called “I Complain, therefore I am”, from 2006 (and which first appeared in the Guardian).
At the time, I wasn’t yet aware of Newt Gingrich’s disgusting Palestinians-don’t-exist comments, but given the circumstances, re-posting my entry seems timely. As an aside, the [lack of] response to Gingrich’s comments is simply appalling, as was the thunderous applause he received when he unabashedly restated his beliefs during the Iowa Republican debate.
Well Newt, this piece is for you.
I’m fairly certain I exist.
Descartes tells me so, and before him, Ibn Sina. And when my son drags me out of bed to play with him in the pre-dawn hours, I really know I do.
So you can imagine how distraught I was when my existence was cast into serious doubt by a major airline.
After booking a flight online with British Airways out of Cairo (the nearest accessible airport for Palestinians here, eight hours and a border crossing away from Gaza), I attempted to enter my “passenger details”, including country of citizenship and residence.
Most people wouldn’t give this a second thought. But being the owner of a Palestinian Authority passport (which one can acquire only on the basis of an Israeli-issued ID card), I have become accustomed to dealing with Kafkaesque complications in routine matters.
And sure enough, in the drop-down menu of countries, I found the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Isle of Man and even Tuvalu – but no Palestine.
Now, I understand “Palestine” does not exist on any western maps, so I would have settled for Palestinian territories (though Palestinian bantustans may be more appropriate), Gaza Strip and West Bank or even Palestinian Authority, as my “pursuant to the Oslo accord”-issued passport states.
But none of these options existed. And neither, it seemed, did I.
I was confused. Where in the world is Laila El-Haddad if not in Palestine, I thought? Certainly not in Israel (as one of many customer relations representatives casually suggested).
I sent an email of complaint to BA humbly suggesting that they amend the omission. Several days later, the reply came: “We are unable to assist you with your query via email. Please call your general enquiries department on ba.com…then select your country from the drop-down list.”
Frustrated, I sent a follow-up email and was told to contact my “nearest general enquiries department” (if I was to take that literally, that would be Tel Aviv). Instead, I opted for customer relations in the UK, whose web support told me there was no guarantee I would ever get a definite answer.
I relayed the tale to my friend, whose own status as an east Jerusalemite is even more precarious than mine as a post-disengagement Gazan. “Could it be,” she posited, “that there is no definite answer because we aren’t considered definite people?”

Hunger Strike for Palestinian Prisoners

On Sept 27, several hundred Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails started a hunger strike to protest the conditions of their incarceration. They have made several key demands, including an end to abusive isolation, restrictions on higher education in prisons, denial of books and newspapers, shackling, excessive fines, and most importantly, an end to all forms of collective punishment, including the refusal of family visits, night searches of prisoners’ cells, and the
All freedom supporters around the world are called to join the prisoners with one day hunger strike, on Wednesday October 12th, when they will have entered their 16th day of hunger strike.
If you are joining, declare it: “On 12.10.11, I will be on hunger strike in support of Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike since September, 27th”
يوم 12.10.11 انا مضرب\ة عن الطعام دعماً للأسرى الفلسطينيين، المضربين عن الطعام منذ 27 أيلول
Hashtag on twitter: #HS4Palestine
Some 8000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons or detention centers by the Israeli army, including 370 minors and 103 Palestinian women, according to the Palestinian prisoner’s rights and support group, Addammeer.
Over 750 are held without charge or trial.
These are not hardened criminals we’re talking about folks. The overwhelming majority of Palestinian prisoners are regarded as political captives who have been arbitrarily imprisoned or detained under the broad banner of “security”, according to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem.
“If these same standards were applied inside Israel, half of the Likud party would be in administrative detention,” noted the group in a report.
Palestinians have been subjected to the highest rate of incarceration in the world-since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel-constituting some 20% of the total Palestinian population, and 40% of all Palestinian men.

According to Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and B’tselem, their conditions of detention are extremely poor, with many prisoners suffering from medical negligence, routine beatings, position torture and strip searches.Since the beginning of this Intifada in September 2000, over 2500 children have been arrested.
denial of basic health treatment

A bit tardy of me to only post this now-but have been insanely busy putting the finishing touches on the first draft of our book! If you happen to live near Madrid or DC, stop by for some of the fruits of our kitchen-testing! In the meantime, enjoy this article-the product of many months of hard work, published in Saudi Aramco World magazine. Consider it a prelude to our book!

As home to the largest concentration of refugees within historic Palestine, Gaza is an extraordinary place to encounter culinary traditions, not only from hundreds of towns and villages that now exist only in memory—depopulated and destroyed during the Palestinian exodus of 1948—but also from the rest of Gaza’s long history.

Through decades of conflict, families in Gaza have held to recipes and foodways as sources of comfort, pleasure and pride. Unable to control much else in their lives, Gazans are renowned for lavishing care and attention on food and family. Visiting kitchens up and down the Gaza Strip, talking to women about cooking and about life, offers lessons in the vital art of getting by with grace.