Respect and Love to the Fair People of the Friendly Land: Ethiopia!

Following the news about home from far away is not easy and I don’t really have time recently to follow up even local news in my small community or in the state that I’m living at. However, even when you are thousands of miles away from home.. news find their way to you, thanks to the digital age technology that made it so simple. Recently, I was hammered with tons of info, videos and photos of the riots of Riyadh. So, my comment to the event might not be swiftest but it’s certainly is sincere and pure.

First of all, My condolences to the families of the victim(s) and I pray that all the injured will be stable and recover soon, inshallah (God-Willing).  There were some reasons that led to these sad events were that area of the city became a scene of a Hollywood action movie overnight. I’ve not had the opportunity to study and analyze the situation and I’m not intending to. I just wanted to say that I’m sad to how things turned out.

The thing that saddens me the most is blaming a whole race, nation and country of these riots. Unfortunately, some Saudis people were agitating hatred towards Ethiopians and blaming them for everything. I understand that a few individuals who happened to be Ethiopians were troublemakers but they definitely do not represent the good Ethiopian people. I met many people from Ethiopia and I always had good time with them and never a single bad experience.. some of them became good friends to me and we have a lot of respect to each other. 

I really find it weird that some people question the Ethiopians and their ethics. Let me remind myself, all the Saudis and the Muslims around the world of the great favor that Ethiopia did to us in one of our most challenging times; the migration of prosecuted Muslims to Abyssinia in 613-615.

“Negus treated the Muslims with honor and pledged his protection to them. Both crestfallen envoys of the Quraysh had to leave Abyssinia in great shame while the Muslims lived there in peace and security.” (Ibn Hisham, pp. 334-38)

That happened at the time when Muslims were prosecuted by their own cousins, tribes and people who did not like them for their faith. Yet, a king in the flourishing civilization of Abyssinia offered them a haven and refused to harm them after the Qurish family sent their messengers to the king Nequs (Al-Najashi). When the Messenger of Allah saw the persecution to which his companions were subjected and from which he could not protect them, he suggested to them, 'If you were to go to Abyssinia, you would find a king there who does not wrong anyone. It is a friendly land and you could stay there until Allah grants us relief.'

The Prophet – PBUH – said that their king is fair who came from a fair environment and their land is friendly and how come we expect anything but good people from that land. I think Ethiopians deserve a better treatment and we should never hold grudges on them over a few tens of troublemakers who do not represent the true nature of those great people. I’ve heard of inhumane treatment even to people who did not get involved in that riot which is absolutely unacceptable even if some of them were provoking troubles, they should’ve been stopped but in a humane way. I hope what I heard about racism towards Ethiopians and treating many of them in inhumane way is not true.

I hope that the people of Ethiopians and Saudi Arabia restore trust in each other and take this chance to diffuse the tension between the two peoples and upset the plotters who are trying so hard to use these events to create friction between us, to serve their agendas.

All the respect and love to the fair people of the friendly land! May both nations be at peace, inshallah!

 

Arabic Phrases - The Ex in the City Series

I've found a series of videos made by an American who lives in Amman, Jordan. they are funny and accurate.. it's a fun way to learn and practice Arabic. I really recommend watching them.

Monopoly - Saudi Short Film (ENG SUB)

this is a docufiction or mockmentry made by my friend Bader Al-Hamoud

please click on the CC then turn on the English subtitles

Exmaple to a Quranic Miracle

New images have been found revealing amazing truths behind verses in the Quran that depict the embryonic development. The Quran is said to be the word of God ( Allah ) and such miraculous phenomena are used to authenticate this statement. The Quran claims that the embryo is a "Alaqah" which means either a blood clot, suspended or leech like structure. We put this statement to the test.

"To see any detail in it as is described in the Qur'an, I need an instrument that wasn't developed until the 1700s" Dr. E Marshall Johnson

Jesus Vs. Muhammad!!

This a response to the EPIC FAIL of a video by Steven Crowder in his desperate attempt to gain attention. It's always best to ignore such videos, especially since the whole "Islamaphobia" thing is getting old now, but in certain instances it's good to clarify where he went wrong in terms of the misconceptions he put forward.

***PLEASE NOTE MARY DID NOT GET MARRIED IN ISLAM - THIS IS THE CHRISTIAN VIEW, BUT REGARDLESS IT WOULD HAVE STILL BEEN SEEN AS A NORMAL MARRIAGE***

This video deals with the obvious criticisms of Islam and brings light to their reality.

1) The Marriage of Aisha with Muhammad (pbuh)
2) The issue of polygamy and multiple wives in Islam
3) The punishment of adultery in Islam
4) The concept of Jihad and fighting
5) The final words and death of Muhammad (pbuh) the best man to walk this Earth.

We will defend our beloved noble Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) until our last breaths. We are used to this already.

"They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it." Quran 61:8

Alnakba - English Documentary - 2 parts

to read more about Al-Nakba please click here.

Al-Nakba

Series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures.

Series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures. Special series Last Modified: 29 May 2013 06:36

“The Nakba did not begin in 1948. Its origins lie over two centuries ago….” So begins this four-part series on the ‘nakba’, meaning the ‘catastrophe’, about the history of the Palestinian exodus that led to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel. This sweeping history starts back in 1799 with Napoleon’s attempted advance into Palestine to check British expansion and his appeal to the Jews of the world to reclaim their land in league with France. The narrative moves through the 19th century and into the 20th century with the British Mandate in Palestine and comes right up to date in the 21st century and the ongoing ‘nakba’ on the ground. Arab, Israeli and Western intellectuals, historians and eye-witnesses provide the central narrative which is accompanied by archive material and documents, many only recently released for the first time. Editor's note: Since first running on Al Jazeera Arabic in 2008, this series has won Arab and international awards and has been well received at festivals throughout the world.  Episode 1  For Palestinians, 1948 marks the 'Nakba' or the 'catastrophe', when hundreds of thousands were forced out of their homes. But for Israelis, the same year marks the creation of their own state. The tragedy in Palestine is not just a local one; it is a tragedy for the world, because it is an injustice that is a menace to the world's peace. Arnold Toynbee, British historian. This series attempts to present an understanding of the events of the past that are still shaping the present. This story starts in 1799, outside the walls of Acre in Ottoman-controlled Palestine, when an army under Napoleon Bonaparte besieged the city. It was all part of a campaign to defeat the Ottomans and establish a French presence in the region. In search of allies, Napoleon issued a letter offering Palestine as a homeland to the Jews under French protection. He called on the Jews to ‘rise up’ against what he called their oppressors. Napoleon’s appeal was widely publicised. But he was ultimately defeated. In Acre today, the only memory of him is a statue atop a hill overlooking the city. Yet Napoleon’s project for a Jewish homeland in the region under a colonial protectorate did not die, 40  years later, the plan was revived but by the British.  Episode 2  On 19 April 1936, the Palestinians launched a national strike to protest against mass Jewish immigration and what they saw as Britain’s alliance with the Zionist movement. The British responded with force. During the six months of the strike, over 190 Palestinians were killed and more than 800 wounded. I cannot imagine Zionism without violence, whether before or after the establishment of the state of Israel. Dr Anis Sayegh, the Palestinian Encyclopedia editor. , Wary of popular revolt, Arab leaders advised the Palestinians to end the strike. Palestinian leaders bowed to pressure from the Arab heads of state and agreed to meet the British Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by Lord Peel. In its report of July 1937, the Peel Commission recommended the partition of Palestine. Its report drew the frontiers of a Jewish state in one-third of Palestine, and an Arab state in the remaining two-thirds, to be merged with Transjordan. A corridor of land from Jerusalem to Jaffa would remain under British mandate. The Commission also recommended transferring where necessary Palestinians from the lands allocated to the new Jewish state. The Commission’s proposals were widely published and provoked heated debate. As the Palestinian revolt continued, Britain’s response hardened. Between 1936 and 1937, the British killed over 1,000 Palestinians; 37 British military police and 69 Jews also died. Episode 3 Few Palestinians, if any, could have imagined they were to become victims of what would later be called ‘ethnic cleansing’. When the British were preparing to leave Palestine, we didn’t have weapons. My father gave me money and I bought a gun with only three bullets for 100 Palestinian liras. Sami Kamal Abdul Razek, palestinian refugee, After 30 years of British rule, the question of Palestine was referred to the United Nations, which had become the forum for conflict. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly met to devise a plan for the partition of Palestine. UN Resolution 181 divided Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state, with Jerusalem as an internationalised city. The Jewish state was granted 56 percent of the land; the city of Jaffa was included as an enclave of the Arab state; and the land known today as the Gaza Strip was split from its surrounding agricultural regions. But making the proposed Arab state all but proved impractical in the eyes of many Palestinians. When the draft resolution was presented for voting, Arab newspapers ran a ‘name and shame’ list of the countries that voted for the UN partition plan, and Arab protesters took to the streets. Following the partition resolution, Britain announced it would end its mandate in Palestine on 14 May 1948. Episode 4 In early 1948, Jewish paramilitary forces began to seize more land in Palestine. By the end of July, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been forced to flee their homes, and their plight as refugees had just begun. I swear to God, we tasted it; we tasted starvation like no one else did Hosni Mohammad Smada, Palestinian refugee, In May of that year, Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte had been appointed as the UN Mediator in Palestine. His mission was to seek a peaceful settlement. The Count surveyed devastated Palestinian villages and visited refugee camps in both Palestine and Jordan. The scale of the humanitarian disaster became apparent, as he witnessed cramp living conditions, long queues for basic food and scarce medical aid. Count Bernadotte was no stranger to human disaster; with the Red Cross he had rescued over 30,000 prisoners of war from Nazi concentration camps. Now he advocated the Palestinian’s right to return to their homes. In a report dated 16 September 1948, he wrote: “It would be an offence against the principles of elementary justice if these innocent victims were denied the right to return to their homes, while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries.” The Count’s first proposal argued for fixed boundaries through negotiation, an economic union between both states, and the return of Palestinian refugees - the proposal was turned down. On 17 September, the day following his UN report, Count Bernadotte’s motorcade was ambushed in Jerusalem. He was shot at point blank range by members of the Jewish Stern gang. Al-Nakba debate    The historic struggle for Palestine is characterised as the claims and counter-claims of Arabs and Jews, but one factor that is often overlooked behind the Palestinian 'Nakba' or 'catastrophe' of 1948, is the part played by an old imperial power, Britain. So, whose interests were best served by the British in Palestine? How did it honour its mandated duty of care? and what were the calculations and miscalculations it made in redrawing the map of Palestine, and reshaping its history? The 65 years of the Israeli statehood, continue to cause conflict and controversy. The history is written by the victors, who are the rewriters of history as new information, new documents, and new historians, come to light. It is time to examine how history itself is the battleground for the hearts and minds of new generations today. To discuss the historic events that led to the Nakba, the birth of Israel, and the making of history, we are joined by Rosemary Hollis, former head of the Middle east programme at the Royal Insitute of International Affairs; James Renton,senior lecturer in History at Edge Hill University and author of The Zionist Masquerade: The birth of the Anglo-Zionist alliance 1914-1918 ; and Avi Shalam, professor of International Relations at Oxford University and author of the Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, The Zionist Movement, and the Partition Of Palestine . Source: Al-Nakba