Sunday, September 16, 2012

Virginia mosques vandalized; area Muslim leaders call for calm

Men gather for prayer at the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque on Aug 12, 2011, in Falls Church. Members of the mosque emerged from an early prayer service Saturday to find that someone had smashed out the front and back windows of about 30 cars.

Ever since the first mosque opened in Harrisonburg, Va., 14 years ago, the immigrants from Pakistan, Iraq and other countries who worship there say they have felt welcomed in the rural college town. They participate in local food banks and shelter programs, have close relations with local churches and often receive non-Muslim visitors at their weekly prayer services.

So on Friday, worshipers were shocked when they arrived at the mosque to find graffiti scrawled on the building, including obscene and racial insults against “Irakis” and a warning: “This is America,” followed by another slur. Some speculated that the sudden harassment must have sprung from the anti-American violence that has swept the Middle East over a vulgar anti-Muslim video made in the United States.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to us before, even after 9/11,” said Ehsan Ahmed, a director of the Islamic Center of Harrisonburg mosque and an economics professor at nearby James Madison University. “We have always been welcomed here, and we participate in many community activities. We can’t say what their motive was, but the timing is very coincidental.”
On Saturday morning, members of the Dar al Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church emerged from an early prayer service to find that someone had smashed the windows of about 30 cars parked on neighborhood streets. No written slogans were left, but mosque officials initially thought the vandalism was directed at them.
Later in the afternoon, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman said the incident was a “random act of vandalism” that was scattered over a widespread area and that “the mosque was not at all the target.”
Over the past several days, Muslim leaders in the Washington area and across the nation have rushed to denounce the vulgar video and the anti-American violence it has provoked.
American Muslim immigrants have taken the furor in stride, saying they refuse to be provoked or exploited by extremist forces on either side.
In Harrisonburg, members of the vandalized mosque said they were immediately bolstered by sympathetic support from the community. A city council member hastily set up a Web site called “We are all Harrisonburg” and invited residents to attend a solidarity meeting at the mosque Sunday. More than 500 people signed up.
“This incident has given people an opportunity to reach out and get to know their neighbors, to build something positive from it,” said Kai Degner, the council member and a real estate agent. “Our city is growing and changing and becoming more diverse, with 57 languages in our schools. Change can require adjustment, but we have had no horror stories here.”
Mohammed Aslam Afridi, a Pakistani-born veterinarian who is president of the mosque, said he was sure the graffiti was connected to recent events elsewhere. “This anti-Islamic video has stirred people up, and so has the attack on the Sikh temple in Wisconsin,” he said. “People are angry and upset. But we are all children of Adam. This is my Harrisonburg, my Virginia and my country.”
Leaders of other mosques and Muslim organizations have been working overtime all week to call for calm and to make sure the provocative video, which portrays the Prophet Mohammed as a salacious thug, does not create new tensions or clashes for their communities. An estimated 5 million foreign-origin Muslims reside, work or study in the United States.
On Friday, Imam Mohamed Magid told worshipers at the All Dulles American Muslim Society, a large and influential mosque in Sterling, not to allow the provocative video — believed to have been made and promoted by a few extremist Coptic Christian immigrants from Egypt — to undermine the image of their faith community and damage the relationship between the United States and the Islamic world.
“We should not fall into the trap of people who want to portray Muslims as violent people,” Magid told the congregation. “We should not express our anger with violence and breaking things and taking innocent people’s lives,” Magid said. Instead, he called on Muslims to combat bigotry with education. He also paid tribute to the U.S. ambassador to Libya who died Tuesday in an assault on the U.S. Consulate there.
Leaders at Dar al-Hijrah joined a news conference Wednesday condemning anti-American violence in Libya and Egypt and later went to a prayer vigil in front of the White House. Residents in the surrounding neighborhood expressed suprise and concern when they heard about the vandalism.
“Oh, dear. I was worried something like this would happen,” said Kathleen Kline Moore, pastor of the First Christian Church of Falls Church, one block away. “These people are our friends, and we always let them park in our church lot on Fridays. We support them and we absolutely deplore what has happened to them.”
On Saturday, the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations issued a video appeal in Arabic by its executive director, Nihad Awad, asking Muslims not to blame the U.S. goverment for the video.
Awad and Magid said they had given numerous interviews this week in an effort to calm tensions and counteract misinformation about the video. On Friday, Awad participated in a debate on an Egyptian satellite news channel with organizers of the protests there.
Among many Muslim immigrants in the Washington region, there was a similar expression of revulsion against the video and horror at the convulsive violence that swept the Middle East in response. Several said they feared that the episode would revive the kind of suspicion and hostility that affected their communities after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Others said the inflammatory video should have been taken off YouTube and other Internet sites where millions of Muslims could see it.
“Both sides are wrong. The video was disgusting, and the violence was totally wrong,” said Zahid Mughal, 38, a Pakistani American who runs a gas station in Arlington County. “Any fool can put a video on YouTube, and by reacting so violently, you just give the extremists what they want.”

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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
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Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
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honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

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His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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