Wikileaks Releases Video Depicting US Forces Killing of Two Reuters Journalists in Iraq by: Dan Murphy  |  Christian Science Monitor A video released on the Internet Monday by WikiLeaks, a small nonprofit dedicated to publishing classified information from the US and other governments, appears to show the killing of two Iraqi journalists with Reuters and about nine other Iraqis in a Baghdad suburb in 2007 that is sharply at odds of the official US account of the incident. WikiLeaks said the video was from the camera gun of one of two Apache attack helicopters that participated in the incident. The group said … Continue reading TOP SECRET: US Forces Killing of Two Reuters Journalists in Iraq

view: Peace, prosperity and progress for tribal people —Ishtiaq Ahmed What is utterly disgraceful is the fact that women have been effectively and comprehensively denied their right to education by both commission and omission. Nowhere is this fact more glaringly manifest than in FATA My recent discussion of tribal society and culture in the Daily Times evoked several e-mail responses by people curious to know what can be done to prevent that region and its people being drawn into the midst of violent conflicts. Most immediately the thing that comes to mind is to see to it that peace is … Continue reading Peace, prosperity and progress for Pashtuns!

Dear Friend of Chicken Soup for the Soul, We owe most of our success to writers like you for the wonderful contributions of inspiration, hope, overcoming life’s challenges and realized dreams. We hope that this letter finds you well and sitting atop a plethora of stories that you just don’t know what to do with. We welcome stories from contributors of any age. Recipe for A Winning Chicken Soup for the Soul Story A Chicken Soup for the Soul story is an inspirational, true story about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It is a story that opens the heart and … Continue reading Chicken Soup for the Soul

Poem: Childhood of the Saint (Note: I find myself presently writing poems under the title: In Constant Incandescence, swirling around thoughts of saintliness and godliness. With now three grandchildren, the newest being a grandson in Switzerland (the other two granddaughters in London, and we grandparents in Philadelphia), and thinking about what the great awliyya’s childhoods might be like (of which we often have more factual information), this poem has come, partly in honor of the new arrival, of whose saintliness actually only Allah knows for sure… but of which each child born partakes…) for Noah Leon Sanders The childhood of the … Continue reading Childhood of the Saint

“And if you were to count Allah’s favors, you would not be able to number them…” Sheikh Salman al-Oadah And if you were to count Allah’s favors, you would not be able to number them; most surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. [Sūrah al-Nahl: 18] Our lives are a continuous succession of Allah’s gifts. Many people, due to their outlook on life or their circumstances, fail to see that they are receiving Allah’s bounty. Allah has made it clear that we will never be able to count all of His blessings upon us, since they are innumerable. This statement is found … Continue reading And if you were to count Allah’s favors, you would not be able to number them…

“Is there any creator besides Allah who provides for you from the heavens and the Earth?” Sheikh Salman al-Oadah Allah says: “O humankind! Remember Allah’s grace toward you! Is there any creator besides Allah who provides for you from the heavens and the Earth? There is no God save Him. How then are you turned away?” [Sūrah Fātir: 3] Allah also tells us: “Say: ‘Who gives you sustenance from the heavens and the Earth?’ Say: ‘It is Allah.’” [Sūrah Saba`: 24] All sustenance is provided by Allah alone. This does not contradict with the fact that we have to work … Continue reading Who provides for you from the heavens and the Earth?

“By the morning hours…your Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased.” Sheikh Salman al-Oadah “I swear by the morning hours, and by the night when it is still; your Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased. And surely what comes after is better for you than that which has gone before. And surely your Lord will give you that which will make you well pleased. Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter? And find you wandering and gave you guidance? And find you destitute and made you to be free from want? … Continue reading The Creator has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased.

A rebirth for Rupert Murdoch? By having his children baptised in the River Jordan, perhaps the head of News Corp is signalling his own conversion Nicholas Blincoe guardian.co.uk, This week’s Hello Magazine has a cover so Hello-ishly Hello-esque that one ought to wear sunglasses before picking it up. Royalty, in the shape of Queen Rania of Jordan, rubs shoulders with celebrity (Nicole Kidman), in a composition of flowing white robes and surrounded by decoratively angelic children. But wait, who is the outsize leprechaun in the corner? Surely not Rupert Murdoch, looking like he has wandered into a Broadway revival of … Continue reading Satan asks forgiveness! Should we trust him?

A Society Consumed by Locusts: Youth in the Age of Moral and Political Plagues by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed (Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: D Sharon Pruitt, [niv], ‘Playingwithbrushes’) As the recent health care debate has made clear, the decades-long conservative campaign against the alleged abuses of “big government” is far from over. In the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan insisted that government was the problem not the solution, he unleashed what was to become a neoliberal juggernaut against both the welfare state and … Continue reading A Society Consumed by Locusts: Youth in the Age of Moral and Political Plagues

Not Just Guantanamo: US Torturing Muslim Pretrial Detainee in New York City Monday 05 April 2010 by: Bill Quigley, t r u t h o u t | Report (Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: assbach, Temari 09) Today, in New York City, the US is torturing a Muslim detainee with no prior criminal record who has not even gone to trial. For the last almost three years, Syed Fahad Hashmi has been kept in total pretrial isolation inside in a small cell under 24-hour video and audio surveillance. He is forced to … Continue reading US Torturing Muslim Pretrial Detainee in New York City