"Reach Out To Israel, Arabs Urged"

I don't think everybody needs to be told as to what is going on in Palestine. Our mothers are being raped there this very second, and another one of our brothers just got shot in the head.

But I can't believe that Arab countries are being asked to reach out to Israel! Below is the article from the BBC

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called on Arab nations to reach out to Israel.

Ms Rice was speaking in Jerusalem after three days of meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders.

She said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to meet every two weeks.

Ms Rice also said there was a "path of co-operation" with the new Palestinian unity government.
The secretary of state was speaking on the eve of the opening of an Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

'Complex' issues

Ms Rice urged Arab nations to take a more active role in regional peace efforts, although she said the presence of the militant Hamas faction in the Palestinian government made the issues "more complex".

"The Arab states must be reaching out to Israel... to show Israel that they accept its place in the Middle East," she said.

Ms Rice said there could be co-operation with the new Palestinian unity government but stressed again that Hamas must renounce violence.

Hamas has refused to adhere to three key international demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and honour previous peace agreements.

Ms Rice said Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas would meet regularly and that she would attend some of the meetings.

"They achieved something, which is the very regularised meetings between the two of them, in which they will not just talk about their day-to-day issues, but also about a political horizon," she said.

Ms Rice said it was "not inconceivable" for a peace deal to be reached before the end of US President George W Bush's tenure.

But she added: "We're not yet at the... [stage] of final status" negotiations.

I can't believe this - it's like they're saying "why don't you Arabs do more? - it's all your fault".

Yes the Arab nations should do more - they should help their Palestinian brothers and sisters by forcing the Western countries to see that they can't be paid up (as so many of the arabs have already) and that they want Israel to no longer exist - everyone can live in Palestine in peace. If it was possible in the past then surely it is possible now.

The part that really made my blood boil though was when Condoleeza Rice said:

"The Arab states must be reaching out to Israel... to show Israel that they accept its place in the Middle East," she said.

Israel is murdering innocent people day in and day out. The only crime of the Palestinians is that they are Palestinians.

But how do we stop this? How can we end the killing of the Palestinians?

The answer lies in our mental ressurection. We shouldn't stay oblivious to the butchering of the Palestinians. It's our foreign policy (along with America's ) which allows Israel to get away with murder.

Change the foreign policy, then you change the future of the Palestinans to something that they can look forward to.

Our mosques and our MPs have too long allowed injustice to prevail - now we have to hold them to account and show Allah that we are Muslims who do care and want to please Him.

If we politically activate then we can ensure that Palestinians get the justice that they deserve.

I'm back...

Assalaamualaikum,

I promised to keep people updated on what I got up to while I was at Hajj, but as soon as I came back (on the 18th of Jan), I was bogged down with so many things that I just couldn't find the time to write about my experiences.

However, I'm back now (it depends if you see that as good thing or a bad thing) and want to share what happened when I first got to Makkah and to the House of Allah.

We (I mean my family and I) had a 7 hour stay in Cairo before we got to Makkah, and as such were really really tired. I couldn't soak in everything as I was getting used to wearing two pieces of white, unsewn cloth and I was so tired.

We were lucky enough to have an old family friend in our Hajj group, and he had been coming for the past 26 years to perform either Hajj (pilgrimage) or Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage).

I remember walking for about 5 minutes before we got to the beautiful mosque, the marble looked so pure, and the atmosphere was electric - I was finally going to get the chance to see THAT house, I was finally going to see it with my own eyes. No TV broadcasts, no sir, I would get a chance to see the House of Allah for which so many believers in the past have strove to protect. As water washes away dirt, the thought of finally seeing Baitullah (the House Of Allah) washed my fatigue right out.

We entered through one of the doors that was close to mount Marwa (one of the two hills that Hajira/Hajar - the wife of Ibrahim/Abraham peace be upon him - ran on to try and find some water to quech her screaming baby's thirst).

There were so many people - all the men dressed in simple white cloths, no one could tell who was a king and who was a pauper, but they all had one common goal, to follow the Command of Allah.

As we got closer to the House I could feel the hairs on my neck stand up, I hadn't even seen it yet, but I could sense that it was there.

And then I saw it.

And I cried, and I kept crying, throughout the time I spent there that day that is all I did, such was the effect of Allah's House.

When we got to the end of the ritual, the men went to get their hair cut and then we all headed home to change out of our Ihram clothes (I did the type of Hajj where you take the Ihram clothes off after having done the preliminary rituals and then don it again when the 5 days of Hajj begin).

However something weird happened over the next couple of days, I couldn't feel any emotions when I looked at the Kaabah while I was in the Mosque - had I become so impure from within that I couldn't even show thanks, even FEEL thanks?

But that's when I realised - it wasn't that I couldn't feel anything when I looked at the Kaabah - the truth was that I was experiencing a new emotion that throughout my hectic life I have never encountered - sakinah (tranquility).

In the hustle and bustle of today's world where is the chance to just sit and thank Allah? I had all the time in the world to say thank you to Allah, and it was due to this new feeling of trainquility that Allah bestowed every time I looked up at the big beautiful House Of Allah.

There's so much more to say, but if I say it all now I'll need to make a new blog! Instead, from time to time I'll let you know what happened.

Fiamaanallah,

Abu Funza