Muslim Peace Fellowship

Israeli Government Desecrates Hanukkah with Blood
Palestinian Human Rights Community Calls for International Action

Mazin Qumsiyeh reports from Palestine (http://qumsiyeh.org)

(Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine) It was not possible to sleep here for two nights now. The events and the images of death and carnage of children, of policemen, of people that look like my mother and my son and my sister and my friends were simply too much. Gaza has run out of stretchers and many are now carried to hospitals (which are running out of supplies) and morgues on commercial street signs, in blankets or simply by their limp limbs. Three mosques were destroyed. I recalled the Israeli attacks on the Church of Nativity which was minor compared to this. I was watching Israel shell the University in Gaza City including its faculty of science and a residence dorm for female students and was thinking of my university and my lab and office at Bethlehem University. I was then shocked into more horrific scenes and news.

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What borders are made of. Photo: Nadim Audi

Thanks to our friends at the Institute for Middle East Understanding, two op/eds on Gaza were published in major California newspapers this Sunday. The two pieces, which are below, appeared in the Los Angeles Times (Dr. Eyad Al Sarraj, Gaza Community Mental Health Center) and the San Jose Mercury News (Darlene Wallach, Free Gaza Movement).

These op/eds are likely to be attacked and their authors loudly criticized. Please send letters of support to the editor of the LA Times and the editor of the SJ Mercury News. Details and full text of the op/eds follow.

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(Eid al-Adha, 1429) By the grace of God, the Muslim Peace Fellowship (MPF) is once again inviting public membership.

MPF seeks Muslims who are willing to embark consciously on a journey to peace – inner peace, social peace, global peace – that is as necessary as ever. We have much to share. We can train you. Come join us in spreading the Islamic message of peace and justice among Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere, and especially in the US.

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 Arabic translation of Right to Life

by Emad Baghi

1 December 2008. An Arabic translation of Right to Life, a book by Iranian human rights defender Emad Baghi, has been published by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The book presents groundbreaking research in Islamic jurisprudence and Sharia supporting suspension and abolition capital punishment in countries following Islamic law.

Right to Life has been banned by Iranian authorities and Baghi has been interrogated and imprisoned several times for articles he wrote making the arguments collected in this book.

The book is a comprehensive exposition of Baghi’s research arguing for abolition and suspension of the death penalty in Iran and other Islamic countries. As he wrote in a letter to the head of the Iranian Judiciary in April 2006, “Crime, felony, and executions are the results of and contributors to a culture of violence.” He has been tirelessly promoting abolition of the death penalty in Iran, and demonstrating that neither Qur’anic verses nor Islamic jurisprudence pose obstacles toward this goal.

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