Update on Fahad Hashmi's court date

More information and an account of the post-hearing activities coming up sometime tomorrow morning.

Fahad Hashmi’s confident smile and stress free attitude in the court indicate his innocence and his belief that he will soon be freed

On July 7th, 2009, the lobby outside the court room of Judge Loretta A. Preska was filled with chatter from about 20 people present 45 minutes before the hearing was supposed to be opened to Public. As time went by, people trickled in more and more until the time of the hearing amounting to a whopping 60-70.

The doors of the court room 12A didn't open until about 4:35 p.m. Many people stood right outside the doors so they could get in and not have to be turned back. Finally, the guards opened the flood gates and Lo! A flood it was.

The wooden benches inside the court room that normally seat Five were pushed to the limits, up to Eight people sat in those benches. Some finding no other space grabbed the chairs reserved for court security guards and attended the hearing.

Syed Fahad Hashmi along with his attorney Mr. Sean Maher and the government lawyer Brandon McGuire were already present in the court room as it got packed with an audience there for the sole purpose of showing support and uplift the spirit of Fahad Hashmi. As Mr. Maher whispered into the left ear of Mr. Hashmi who was sitting on Mr. Maher’s right, Mr. Hashmi gave a beaming smile and his eyes sparkled from tremendous happiness at seeing so many people there to support him as well as his friends and family. One attendee and a relentless force in the campaign to free Fahad later noted that seeing that smile alone was enough to bring people from all over the states and not feel like it is a burden.

The hearing started with Judge Preska calling upon the government lawyer Brandon McGuire and the defense attorney Sean Maher to report any updates.

Mr. McGuire reported to the court that the government will provide two expert witnesses and that was the only issue that could be addressed in a non-closed court room. Much of the hearing today and on other days goes on behind closed doors with none but the defendant, the attorneys from both sides, the judge and the court employees.

The defense pointed out that it awaits some disclosures from government which are necessary in order for the case to proceed in a way that doesn't neglect the constitutional rights of Mr. Hashmi.

Since no actual business took place in front of the public, the Judge quickly handed down the next court date of the 12th of August at 3:00 pm which was agreed to by both sides in advance after lauding the attorneys from both sides for having prepared for the upcoming trial without any extra delays. With that, the judge adjourned until the next date. Fahad Hashmi stood up from the defandant's chair and walked away with no signs of distress of grief rather with a huge smile accross his face as if he was going to a long awaited vacation.

The crowd of supporters of Fahad Hashmi slowly walked out as light chatter broke out outside the courtroom.

For more coverage

For more coverage of Dr. Afia Siddiqui's July 6th, 2009 court date, click here.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is in pain, litrally!!

SubhanAllah,Our sister Dr. Aafia is in pain!!!

Tday, when Sister Aafia came and sat covered in her off-white veil and a olive green jilbaab that covered her whole body except for her eyes, she turned back to see a court room filled with non-muslims and only one muslim. She glanced once past me and returned for a second look. Perhaps I was the only face she felt was not in there to harm her. That is how she feels towards everyone else including her own defence attornets.

As the proceedings went on, she broke her silence as well as the court rules and spoke in her own defense saying "she never shot anybody, nor is she against America. America has been framed in a war because of a misunderstanding. She has knowledge of those who caused it and this knowledge she has is the reason that all this has happened to her because they don't want anyone to believe what she has to say about them."

She also complained about physical harm as recent as THIS MORNING in the form of "forced gynecological exams ordered by the court" that left her "aching all over."

Today's hearing was in order to determine whether she is fit to stand trial or not. While both sides argued back and forth, Dr. Afia broke in from time to time to correct misleading statements from the witnesses saying "I want the world to know this" after she corrected the false information.

One such burst from her resulting in the judge being forced to break for 5 minutes so the defense is able to calm her down. When she came back, she said "this court is the worst court ever". At one time she told the judge that she wanted to relieve her attorneys but the judge didn't take her seriously and asked the attorney speaking at the time to continue speaking.

Its funny that the hearing is to determine whether Dr. Aafia Siddiqui truly understand and comprehends what she says but when she said I want to relieve my attorney now, the judge reacted as if she doesn't understand what she is saying and is pshycotic, if that is the case then why not approve the defense's motion that she is infact pshycotic and as a result the case should be dismissed and she should be given medical help.

We have 56 or so muslim countries in the world but one Aafia Siddiqui who has 5 years of her life declared "missing" sat in the her chair surrounded by non-muslims sympathetic and non sympathetic HELPLESS. No One from the Muslim leaders is able to pick up the phone and give a stern notice along the lines of "hand-off Aafia Siddiqui". Perhaps this is because many of them are oppressors and crooks themselves and if they say something, Americans will put them in their lowly place by reminding them of what the leaders themselves have done.

It truly saddens my heart to see the helplessness of the muslims that such an egregious thing is happening but no one who has power can take a stand against it.

True Goodness Directed and Produced by Me

Israel's Senseless/Stupid Foreign Policy and Its Possible Consequences

The world has seen the oppression that the Israeli's have brought down upon the people of Gaza. The surprising thing is the tolerance the whole world except a little has been having towards this genocide. It wasn't for a few countries like Iran and Venezuela, the whole world would have been indistinctly tainted with the blood of those innocent people. It is an extremely shameful condition for humanity that such a large scale, heavy-handed military campaign is going on against a weak, hungry, broke people and is indistinct of innocent civilians and nobody from the "developed" nations has stood up to say NO THIS IS WRONG OF ISRAEL TO DO. For those of us who agree with this, we must realize that it is our job to change this sad situation to happy one where someone who is strong, developed, wealthy will stand up to anyone and everyone when they oppress others like that and take advantage of their weakness.

Watching all the images that are coming out of Gaza of extreme brutality and beast like suppression and comprehensive subjugation, I was forced to think about the effects this will have.

Firstly, I think that Israel is going to be very unsuccessful in rooting out Hammas and stop the rocket attacks that it is so bothered by. It may eventually cause the current catches of the rockets wherever they are to run out or be destroyed if they have any luck finding it, however, as soon as the Gazans get a chance, they will start it again. Let me tell you why. The amount of damage that has been done has left every single family affected by it. Whether multiple members have been killed or wounded or both, or the whole family has been humiliated in front of each other out in the street in the dark and cold night, and/or they have been starving and living a very difficult life because of the Israeli blockade. What do you think the children, those who havent already been killed, will want to do as they grow up? You have taken away everything that they ever looked up to, how do you expect them to sit down quitely and not do everything possible to take the hatred out that has been planted by you soo deeply. I can see every one of those kids and adults becoming Hammas now even if they werent before.

Secondly, the world has seen this and their is a change coming, the older generation that was so bogged down by seeing two powers on their two sides will not remain the same. It seems now that the power of both of them has faltered and new ones are coming up. And they are going to out their foot down and I honestly hope they do regardless of who is involved in oppression.

Thirdly, I think the world was warming up to the idea of a two-state solution. Infact, even the Arab and Muslim world was beginning to face the reality (thats those who actually do care) and were opening up to accepting that. But this aggression with such unpropotional power is going to supercharge hatred towards the Israelis once again. Infact, I have noticed this wave of reawakening myself among people. I reminds me of the Russian_Afghanistan war that gather the whole muslim world togather in support of the Afghans and a new movement was born which evolved into the current AlQaeda. If the world wants to prevent another AlQaeda, they need to do something about this conflict and punnish the oppressors in a significant manner.

Fourthly, I cant help but see the similarities between the Holocaust done by Nazis and this conflict. Wasnt it the time when the world said never again will we let a strong power sqish a powerless people again? Wasnt it the time when they said never again will we stay out of people's "internal affairs"? Then why is it that they dont do anything about this now? Look at the irnoy of this, the 10th day of the lunar year just passed which marks the day when Mosses and his people were saved from Pharoah and the jews commemorate that by fasting and the same practice has been instituted in the Muslim religion. The irony is that the same people who until today portray themselves as the victims of the most violence ever and in that incident were saved by an oppressing and more powerful army are the same people who are doing the same thing to another and another people need to be saved from them now.

I think that Israel is a bully that will be brough down soon enough and will regret that it did the things it did. I also think that the world needs to stand up against this putting the politics aside in order to take care of weak fellow human beings.

 

Do children have any rights over parents?

In most masajid, most speeches, and most heart to heart talks with uncles and aunties, we hear about the rights of parents over their children. We hear about them so much because not a lot of people fulfill their duties to their parents in order to the topic to be moved to the rights of children. But, in my dissection of the issue,(figuratively speaking, I believe in Peace for All) I observed that the rights of the parents and children are interdependent, in fact some rights of children maybe needed in order for the rights of parents to be fulfilled. I know at this time your eye brow might be raised and some of you are about to make takfeer but HOLD YOUR HORSES.

The biggest clue in this maybe where do the rights of each party start. The rights of parents don't start before the birth and not even until much after the birth. But the rights of children start way before the birth. Before I go any further and start getting labels and refutations of me in comments, I would like to say that this is absolutely not a justification for any children to not fulfill the rights of ANY parents. This is just for us to understand why a certain problem may have occurred. And once you read it all, I am sure you would at least understand where I am coming from.

When it comes to children, we learn from the sunnah that there are three major rights that children have over their parents.

1. To choose for the children a righteous father/mother: This is very important right that the children have and a very important choice that you (brother or sister) have but affects your children in a much bigger way than it affects you. When you marry that person, you are fully capable of distinguishing between right and wrong and you know the Islamic way of doing things because your parents thought you that. IF your parents did not teach you that, then it was totally a surprise turn in your qadr ordained by Allah that Allah guided you and you learned it. If he didn't, you wouldn't know that, Correct or Not? So it seems there are only two ways of learning these things. Parents or Surprise. And can anyone count on a latter? If not, then make sure you let your children count on the former. Parents are the children first teachers, super heroes, role models, and leaders. Are you going to choose a gorgeous beauty who uses F-word like its "Hi" and let your children look up to them?
2. To give them a good name: Firstly we see that many times this is the task that must strengthen the child's character with the family he is born in by making the name rhyme with the rest of the siblings or similar to the father's name or such patterns like that. While, in the sunnah, we learn that this task should strengthen the child's relationship with Allah. Rasulullah (saw) informed us that the two most beloved names to Allah for boys are Abdullah and AbdurRahman. Secondly, the name affects the people. To understand it in the easiest way, ask yourself this; Would you name your child Devil? Why Not? And Thirdly, the name is not something totally in your (parents' dominion) rather it is an amaanah that truly belongs to the child since he or she will be called by those names not only in their whole life in the dunya, but also on the Day of Judgement so don't embarrass him in front of his classmates in school and don't let people say he is such a big sheikh/doctor/president/general but look at his name, they don't match.
3. To teach them the Book of Allah: I know engineering and medicine is important but remember when you were speaking to your non-Muslims coworker, you told him about all the science in the Quran, if you teach your children the Quran properly, they will eventually get the hint that they should excel in some worldly science in obedience to the commands of Allah in the Quran. You want him to be dutiful to you and listen to you, not one book of Medicine tells them to be dutiful to the parents, and nor does ANY worldly science. Teach them the Quran and you get everything else as a gift from Allah. Teaching doesn't mean that they can read it in Arabic but don't understand one word of it, teach them the understanding of it, let them see what Allah told them and just sit back and watch the results.

NOW, think about it, if your child has a non-practicing and disobedient to the parents mother or father but is very cute, and you never taught him how important it is to be good to the parents which is (no. #3) in the Quran, you think they will give you your rights? You can engineer your children actually. Do the above three and you got a grade A otherwise they are going to be some other grade. I am sure none of us want that.