Who are the Terrorists?

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American Capitalism, a Necessary Evil?

The Shield

Islamic Commentary on the State of the Muslim
Ummah
Vol. 1, No. 7 March 2007




“They will ask thee as to what they should spend on others. Say: Whatever
of your wealth you spend shall [first] be for your parents, and for the near of kin,
and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer; and whatever good you do,
verily, God has full knowledge thereof.” Qur’an 2:215


America or more precisely, the American Government would have us believe that its way of life is the only alternative for the world today. This is in spite of its failure at home, where the rich became richer on the backs of free African labor in the form of slavery for more that 400 years.

Capitalism is championed as are distributive necessary evil with the premise that the rich would create jobs for the poor, and that money would be circulated. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Capitalism only benefits those who have the power and the money already to exploit the powerless and the poor. For instance, the wealthiest 1% of the households in America own 33.4% of the nation’s wealth, and the wealthiest 10% of the households own 71% of the nation’s wealth.

According to one source, “The richest 2 per cent of adults own more than half of global household wealth, and almost all of the well-heeled live in North America, Europe and richest Asia-Pacific countries.” Without argument, capitalism is a man thought out system that does not bring prosperity, much less, equality to people. Right here in America, there is an economic problem. Just look at the black and Latino inner cities or ghettos. The capitalist’s mind says that the poor, the non-white, are a necessary evil to motivate people to spend long hours at work and studying in school so that they don’t end up like them, the outcasts, the undeserving.

Many people, who are fooled by capitalism, accept this condition of the poor in America as a necessary evil to make the system of capitalism work. This is sick, that we would accept a system that creates poverty for many and massive wealth for a few. Capitalism was thought of by men, thus anything created my humans is naturally imperfect. The root of the problem or the cause of the many symptoms is the disease. Islam is the only system or ideology that can rid the world of today’s inequalities and problems. This is because Islam is from the one who created all that is in existence today.

Allah is the attribute giver, and he is the ultimate problem solver. Islam eradicated poverty during its zenith, and Insha-Allah it will again. We can say that when the Islamic system comes back, it will make sure that there are no necessary evils, there are no ghettos, there is no world poverty, especially in the Muslim world where resources are abound. Ali (ra), the fourth Khalifah in Islam said, “If poverty were a man, I would have killed it.” As human beings it should pain us to sleep when others go to bed on empty stomachs. Allah gives the motive for redistribution of wealth:

“Let the man of means spend according to his means: and the man whose resources are restricted, let him spend according to what Allah has given him. Allah puts no burden on
any person beyond what He has given him. After a difficulty7, Allah will soon grant relief.”
(TMQ 65:7)

There was time in the history of Islam, when Africa had so much, that the poor due Zakat was left untouched. Capitalism is an evil, but we Muslims say not a necessary one when the true alternative is revived!

An Ideological Ummah Can Never Be Colonized

The Colonization of Muslims

An Ideological Ummah Can Never Be Colonized


The Shield
Islamic Commentary on the State of the Muslim
Ummah
Vol. 1, No. 8 April 2007



“Allah has promised those among you who believe, and do righteous good deeds, that He will certainly grant them succession to (the present rulers) in the earth, as He granted it to those before them, and that He will grant them the authority to practice their religion, that which He has chosen for them. And He will surely give them in exchange a safe security after their fear (provided) they (believers) worship Me and do not associate anything (in worship) with Me. But whoever disbelieved after this, they are the Fasiqun
(rebellious, disobedient)” (TMQ 24:55)


The worst type of colonialismis intellectual. Armies can be repelled, invasions can be endured, and material setbacks can be absorbed as long as the Ummah maintains its connection with its ideological base i.e. the Islamic aqeedah. For a nation that believes in an eternal afterlife, of what concern are the temporal comforts of this life?

Allah has created us as beings with intellect, who once being convinced of something, are prepared to expend our energy and sacrifice our lives for this idea. Once intellectually convinced of an idea, humans by nature propagate it, that is we act in accordance with our concepts towards life. Muslims who believe in Allah will inevitably share their belief with everyone through invitation and discussion and will naturally challenge all beliefs that run counter to this, regardless of whether they have power or are powerless.

Under the merciless torture of his master, Bilal (ra) defiantly proclaimed “Ahad, Ahad, Ahad” (Allah is One), knowing it would enrage his master, despite his physical state of slavery and misery. Instead of acting like a fearful slave, he acted like a fearsome warrior; taunting his master by proclaiming Allah’s oneness. The aqeedah breeds a mentality of confidence and defiance to all that stands in its way. Despite boycotts, torture, slander,death threats, and seizure of material wealth, the Muslims remained steadfast, telling the Quraish that they would one day rule the Arabs and the non-Arabs and conquer the Roman and Persian empires; a prophesy which indeed came to fruition. Embracing this deen wholeheartedly, they knew their situation would soon change and that no amount of physical coercion would destroy their trust in Allah. Any nation that embraces a comprehensive way of life will inevitably challenge ideas that contradict it. And any nation that has a comprehensive way of life can not be colonized. This is because the idea towards life, or the aqeedah, defines success and prosperity and does not accept a position of defeat.

People with no aqeedah are easily coerced, colonized, and deceived. So in parts of Africa, the Europeans colonized and exploited the people with ease. In places like Afghanistan and India, the British had a very difficult time staying in control because thepeople retained Islam and refused an outside force to suppress them. With the Arabs and the Turks of the Uthmani Khilafah however, rather than trying to crush by force, they took advantage of the weakness in the Ummah. The British adopted a policy of attacking Islam and driving a wedge between the Muslims anIslam. They criticized various aspects of Islamic law in order thave the Muslims adopt a new wayof life; a new aqeedah. They concealed their intentions of dividing and colonizing the Ummah by promoting crooked ideas of Arab independence and Turkish nationalism.

They succeeded in establishing political groups with influence and power to adopt a secular way of life. Any nation that adopts an ideology, will naturally rise to dominance. After the hijrah when our beloved Prophet and his sahabah came to Madinah, they were poor, lacked a sophisticated military, and deprived of the material resources compared to the mighty Quraish. But within 8 years the Muslims had conquered the heart of Arabia, Makkah with an army covered in armor from head to toe and with a cavalry in excess of 10,000 horses. Even if a nation adopts a false and corrupt ideology, it will still rise because the ideology defines the goal of life.

Even if it is corrupt, a comprehensive way of viewing life is incredibly motivating and can transform even a nation of farmers into a formidable force. When Czarist Russia adopted the corrupt ideology of Communism it became a world superpower capable of dominating the world within 20 years. However, because Communism is a corrupt and unnatural creed, its own people eventually rejected it.

These incidents prove that once a nation adopts a specific viewpoint towards life, or aqeedah, their mentality is solidified and their actions are governed by an unshakable purpose that does not recognize temporary limitations. A nation that gives up its aqeedah (whether correct or not) truly becomes colonized. As stated earlier, no nation that embraces its ideology can ever be colonized. The Muslims who were once the rulers of the known world were pried from their deen. The Kuffar exported their ideas and culture into the Muslim lands. They then attacked Islam and depicted it as backwards. They did all this so that Muslims themselves would leave Islam as a way of life. The Kuffar worked to make sure that we didn’t view Islam as an ideology, or complete system.

They made sure that we weren’t ideological unless we carried their broken ideology. They injected their ideas and concepts towards life through music, literature, educational institutions, etc. Today ,Muslims have to reject all thoughts that don’t emanate from Islam. The Muslim Ummah is waking up and realizing that it will only regain its glory and status when it rejects all kufr thoughts and returns to Islam.

The West is workingextremely hard to counter this. Just like yesterday, their strategies have not changed. While they are content with Islam as a spiritual way of life, they portray the political, economic, and social aspects of Islam as backwards and incapable of dealing with the modern world. The situation of the Muslim Ummah is one of colonization. The only way an ideological Ummah can be colonized is from lack of conviction or laziness and confusion. The Kuffar have worked to drive us away from Islam, but they are only doing what Allah says they will do. Any nation will exert its way of life on others, so we can’t blame others for our situation. Muslims have no excuse to live in the current situation of slavery, humiliation and slavery, because we still have the Deen of Allah. Our issue is to reclaim our Deen (Way of Life) and adopt it in totality and change our situation from one of fear to one of victory. And this can only be done with the establishment of the Khilafah (Islamic State).

The Prison Industrial Complex

The Prison Industrial Complex
America’s slave plantations

The Shield
Vol. 1, No. 12 July 2007

Most of this article will focus
on the private sector
associated with the penal
system, but I would also like to
briefly touch on some
environmental factors that act as a
lubricant for the Prison Industrial
Complex. Because of its political
sensitivity I will skim over the
Welfare System and high divorce
rate. Myself, like many others
know successful people who grew
up under these circumstances.
Quoting from an article in the
American Friends Service Committee,
“ The politics of systems —
— the welfare system, the public
school system, the health and the
criminal justice system play a
profound role in the lives of the poor
in this country.
In the Fall of 2000 , Opra
Winfrey aired a show about,
“juvenile crime.” The discussion
was centered around a juvenile
nicknamed “Gummie” who
committed several crimes in the
West Englewood community in
Chicago. On the panel was Patrick
Murphy, who was an official, at that
time with the Cook County Juvenile
Corrections, was quoted as saying,
“Hundreds of Gummies come
through the system everyday, but I
can count on one hand the ones
who come through whose father
plays an active role in their development.
”(Unquote) Without
the knowledge being passed on
from the head of the household who
is in the trenches and being the
shock absorber for whatever the
society has to throw at him, the
family unit becomes more
vulnerable to a system which seeks
to exploit its members. The Welfare
System and high divorce rate have
created a serious absentee father
problem.
We now find impressionable
youth involved in the gangster
antics of the prohibition era such as
drive-bys. The theme is echoed in
gangster rap where many youth
view a conviction rap sheet as a
right of passage. The societies
temper - tantrum creates judges
whose appointments hinge on a
high conviction rate and the social
safety net for the youth begins to
be replaced with a dragnet. These
kind of environmental factors
provide oil for one of America’s
largest growth industry, the Prison
Industrial Complex.
When the Prison Industrial
Complex is brought up, usually the
first issue is privatization . As we will
see later, there is not a big leap to
privatization from the extent the
private sector is already involved in
the penal system.
According to a Fall, 1993 article
in Covert Action Quarterly entitled
Prisons for Profit, private prisons are
not new in U.S history. In the mid -
1800’s legislatures awarded contracts
to private corporations to operate
Louisiana’s first state prison, New
York’s Auburn and Sing Sing
penitentiaries and others. As the
system spread , labor and business
complained of unfair competition. By
the turn of the century, the first era of
private prisons came to an end.
The concern for privatization
resurfaced under former President
Reagan’s Get Tough on Crime
Policy.” Prison populations soared
in the 1980’s into the 1990’s, making
the Land of the Free (U.S.) the
world leader in locking up its
citizenry. According to the FBI
Uniform Crime Reports, by 1990,
421 Americans out of 100,000 were
behind bars, easily outdistancing
our closest competitors, South
Africa and the then USSR with its
KGB tactics. On any given day the
prison population topped 1.2
million, compared to the fewer than
400,000 at the start of the Reagan
era. Currently the prison population
is 2 million plus.
The Prison Industrial Complex
has become such a well oiled
machine, there are currently 7
million in U.S. jails, on probation
or parole. In Illinois 2/3rds of those
released from prison return to the
inmate population within three
years.
The cost of the state and local
federal corrections budgets ran to
more than 20 million a year in the
early 1990’s.The cost of constructing
cells to keep up with the constant
increase in prisoners is estimated at
$6 million a year. The public sector
imprisonment industry employs
more than 50,000 guards as well as
additional tens of thousands of
administrators,and health, education
and food service providers.
Especially in rural communities
where employment is scarce,
corrections institutions provide
stable jobs. Private enterprises from
architectural firms and construction
companies, to drug treatment and
food service contractors, to prison
industries –to the whole gamut of
equipment and hardware suppliers
of steel doors, razor wire,
communications systems and
uniforms. Post programs like
electronic monitoring and boot
camps all get a piece of the action.
Quoting from a January 29,
1996 article in The Nation entitled
Making Prisons Pay, Bob Tessler,
owner of DPAS, a company that
opened a date processing operation
in San Quentin State Prison. “ We
have a captive labor force, a group
of men who want to work. That
makes the whole business
profitable. We don’t have to pay
health and welfare on top of wages
. We don’t have to pay vacation or
sick pay.” (Unquote) DAS also gets
a 10% per cent tax cut on the first
$2,000 of each inmates wages.
In California’s Joint Venture
Program inmates receive a
minimum wage minus 80% that is
withheld to cover “institutional
costs”. Quoting “ Brad Haga,
former spokesman for Oregon
Prison Industries , “We’ve got guys
paying $6,000 a year to rent a cell.”
(unquote) According to Haga,
Unigroups aggressive marketing
tactics sold over $4.5 million worth
of “Prison Blues ”, a convict made
line of blue jeans. The California
Department of Corrections even
made inroads into the Japanese jean
market with a line of “Gangsta
Blues”. Ironically the gangster
culture was being glamorized and
sold back to the public by the very
criminal justice system that claims
to be at war with these threats to
society.
These industries are finding
prison joint ventures more
lucrative than cheap foreign labor
because there’s no language
problem, better control of the
workforce and because it is local
there is a quicker turn around time.
There also are no strikes or
union organizing. In fact , they
have been used to break strikes.
Prior to proposition 139 in
California , TWA’s ticket reservation
operation in Ventura Youth Facility
was allowed to open because
juvenile prisons were exempt from
many of the state laws. The
company was forced to close its Los
Angeles reservation office because
of a flight attendants strike. Over a
2-day period, 61 youthful offenders
worked 718 hours processing calls
from travelers who would have
otherwise been lost to TWA’s
competitors. TWA’s extra help
allowed them to transfer ticket
agents to flight attendant positions,
effectively breaking the strike .
According to August , 1999
report AFSCME Corrections
United, three independent studies
have shown that private prisons
haven’t saved the taxpayers any real
money or improved service. These
companies make their profits by
cutting corners and hiring workers
at lower pay.
As we have seen, the
tentacles of the Prison Industrial
Complex are many. Environmental
factors related to the
family unit and corporate greed
fuel a machine that views an
offender as a cash crop. Until a
system is in place where the
overall health of the society takes
precedent over corporate greed
this condition will only magnify.