Islam is a Religion of Peace

A Message for Muslims - and for all of us

"Islam is a religion of peace. Islam teaches respect and love for all, even the animals. But many narrow-minded Muslims have so far failed to learn anything good from the teachings of Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him, who preaches love for the peoples of all religions. We are far away from the basic principle of Islam i.e. "Enjoining the people to do Good and forbidding them from Doing Evil" and thus, possess no quality of the civilized society...

The killing of others in the name of religion is a Sin. Can a FATHER ever teach his Children to be the permanent Enemies of each other?

...My feeling is that the Muslims should unite to discredit and deactivate the fringe mullahs (Preachers of Hate) who promise a quick trip to paradise to people who have little and sacrifice themselves with bombs strapped to their bodies. If the mullahs (THE LIARS) thought that it really was a way to paradise they would be strapping bombs to themselves!" - S.A.Rehman, PAKISTAN

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Friends,

We've received a new Message for Peace from S.A.Rehman, a Muslim Peace Activist from Pakistan, whose home country that in the last few years has been the target of frequent air bombings by the US and automated (death-by-robot) extra judicial illegal executions of people in the context of the US-sponsored War Against Islam that has divided the globe, and is continuing to plunge the world into an expanding battle-field.

The message is a surprising bouquet of spiritual truth, religious truth and Universal Love.
Please read it below - a good remedy to help clear the mind from the constant propaganda of hatred and violence!

Peace Be Upon Us,
Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
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AN OPEN LETTER TO MUSLIMS ONLY

Dear Muslim Brothers and Sisters,

God forbid if any one of our near one and dear one is killed then the killer is evil, a beast and what not and should get penalty but if one among us kills anybody then he is not evil and we start lying, denying or even justifying the killing.... double standards?

Being Muslims, many of our brothers and sisters are not working for peace. They are misguided, mistaken and spreading the virus of hatred and revenge through telling deliberate lies, disinformation and false accusations, which is resulting in death and miseries for number of innocent people living around the world at the hands of merciless KILLER MUSLIMS and also bringing bad name to Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH), who never killed anyone in his life time.

Instead of teaching about Good & Evil, certain Radical Muslim Clerics are only "Trading in Religion". They teach us about accusing, abusing and killing the non-Muslims. They try to hypnotize us to Hate and Kill the non-Muslims and brethren of other sects or be killed and without using any common sense, we readily believe in whatever is being said by these Hate Mongers. Actually, they are "Agents of Satan" who is paying them heavily and in return they are cutting at the very roots of the Ummah. Instead of "Mourning" most of the Muslims are rejoicing on the brutal killings of the non-combatant innocent civilians and "The Murderers" have always been "Our Great Heroes".

Before it is too late and the Curse Of God falls upon us, we should use common sense, find out the TRUTH and must change ourselves to save Muslims from becoming the most "Hated, Isolated, Discredited and Suspicious" people in the world. We must start working for promoting "Sectarian Harmony and Religious Tolerance" in the society and should prove to the WORLD through our deeds that Islam is not a religion of Zero Tolerance and Mohammed (PBUH) teaches "Love & Peace" and not Gangsterism, Terrorism, Barbarism, Extremism, Sectarianism, Cruelty, Inhumanity and "Hatred & Killing" of the innocent civilians.

Islam is a religion of peace. Islam teaches respect and love for all even the animals. But many narrow-minded Muslims have so far failed to learn anything good from the teachings of Mohammed (PBUH) who preaches love for the peoples of all religions. We are far away from the basic principle of Islam i.e. "Enjoining the people to do Good and forbidding them from Doing Evil" and thus, possess no quality of the civilized society. Unfortunately, many of us show Zero Tolerance towards others and have wrongly learnt few thing to be called as good Muslims and those are "hate" the non-Muslims and "Accusing, Abusing and Cursing" the non-Muslims. ...act of madness?

The killing of others in the name of religion is a Sin. Can a FATHER ever teach his Children to be the permanent Enemies of each other?

The time has come for us to stop readily believing in whatever is being said, read and written by the LIARS / Hate Mongers. Unfortunately, some misguided-Muslims believe that the Holy Koran and Holy Prophet (PBUH) both have instructed Muslims that the opponents be KILLED and that they are simply following the orders. We should use our own common sense and only believe which is logical, convincing and in the best interest of the humanity.

Why do we hate others so much, may be they are better humans then what we are. My feeling is that the Muslims should unite to discredit and deactivate the fringe mullahs (Preachers of Hate) who promise a quick trip to paradise to people who have little and sacrifice themselves with bombs strapped to their bodies. If the mullahs (THE LIARS) thought that it really was a way to paradise they would be strapping bombs to themselves! Their followers are kept too ignorant to see this for themselves and enlightened Muslims should educate them. We must promote understanding and peace. We are all watched by the same God and need to help one another, not Hate and Hurt.

Our contention is that the WORLD should resolve the conflicts facing the Muslim World to stop the terrorism. Unfortunately, all the disputes facing the Muslim World are our self created. The root causes of all the disputes are based on the Muslim Philosophy of Hate against the non-Muslims. The Muslim literature, teachings and preaching are spreading and injecting this hatred in hearts and minds of the Muslims. Our intolerant behavior is further proved by the root causes of all the pending conflicts that we (Muslims) cannot live side by side in peace with the non-Muslims. All the disputes facing Muslim World can be resolved easily, only if we (the Muslims) are able to condemn the "Philosophy of Hate" created in us by our past and present elders who have divided the peoples of the world in the name of "Religion, Cast and Creed".

Fellow Muslims! if God is one and he loves mankind, we should value each others life and strive to protect each other than thinking that if we kill we shall have reward. God looks at human beings not as belonging to different religions, that is why the rain falls to all, the sun shines to all and we all breathe the air freely. We are all created or given life in the very same way- whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jew etc. Let us learn to love each other sincerely.

The change of heart and mind is possible to achieve if we keep up our relentless efforts for a violence free and peaceful world. We need to preach love, kindness and humanity with extremist devotion and mission. The mullahs (THE LIARS) and the preachers of HATE must be excommunicated at every level and we should stop giving them donations as it is our money which is being used by them to spread HATRED for killing of the innocents.

We must also stop dividing the World into Muslim and non-Muslim blocks. Our political leaders and religious teachers must offer positive ideas. Without the ability to imagine a better world, we cannot build anything together. Tolerance of the beliefs of other peoples in the world, warmth and friendship across racial cultures MUST be the objective of all peace loving people worldwide. What is being offered today through religion is "Death, Destruction and Sufferings".

MY PRAYER FOR PEACE:

Merciful God, please give to peoples of the world, the required wisdom and determination, to Forgive and Forget the bitterness of the past and learn to live in peace like brothers and sisters, by condemning the divisions and hatreds created in us by our past and present elders.
(Amen)

Please Read And Circulate this Message For Peace.
Thank you.

S.A.Rehman
Peace Activist
PAKISTAN

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A version of this was first published at the Universal Life Church "All is One" Temple email group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/2408

Its home page is here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church

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Easter and Global Revolution

by Petros Evdokas

I was very moved to read the holiday wishes and cards sent to the StopTheWar Coalition by our Palestinian and Nepalese friends, allies and comrades (copies below).

"Who cares about religion?" one might say. There's some truth to that objection. But there is a deeper, more significant truth in embracing the spiritual and social yearnings of the People. When revolutionaries embrace, cultivate and defend the best and most beautiful elements of our Peoples' cultures and yearnings, the People in return find more direct and clear motives to embrace, cultivate and defend the Revolution itself.

Freedom fighters who emerge from actual struggle in the various active fronts of the global Liberation Movement have an instinctual understanding of this. It's not "just politeness", "policy", or "diplomacy" as some clever supposedly emancipated secularists might say to dismiss our comrades' sentiments. There's something essential about easter references to the Resurrection of the Soul and Revolution.

"But why? What is the meaning of all this?"

Our comrades from Nepal, Palestine, Kurdistan, Lebanon, have a direct and inner awareness that the true culture of the people, which includes the peoples' spiritual life in its pure forms, separate from the distortions it manifests when it is dominated by the authoritarian church and other pseudo-religious institutions, is the moral and cultural foundation of liberation which, married to the realities of a freed up production, common ownership and people's power applied to direct democracy can generate a whole new world.

"But isn't it just backwards and reactionary religionism?"

It is precisely the opposite. The shocking truth of our people's true culture resides actively within our own words and is wholy embedded within our hidden semi-subconscious culture. This truth even survives in the international language, english:

o~ Primarily within the hellenic/greek language, but in almost all languages of the world, the words for Strike (Στάσις), Revolution (Επανάστασις), and Resurrection (Ανάστασις) are all slight variations of each other in meaning, in sound and reference. They are also conjoined at the root in conveying process and condition, expressing variations of a particular state of being.

This unity of concepts, spread out through the millennia as our culture helped to sculpt significant parts of modern civilization still survives in english: there is a close relation between Insurrection and Resurrection.

Who wants more? The unity between Communion and Communism?

In the hellenic/greek language:
o~ The word for Communion and Society is the same: Κοινωνία (Koinwnia).
o~ The phrase for a self-governed body of citizens is the same as the word for church: Εκκλησία του Δήμου (Ecclesia).

The domination of our peoples' lives by Capital and the State is matched equally by the domination of our culture by the authoritarian Church. There's no way to strive for, or even to perceive of, a local and global Liberation without paying attention to the efforts aimed at affirming, nurturing and freeing up our true culture from the claws of the Church demons who hold it hostage with superstition, mystification and moral perversion.


An awareness of the spiritual, emotional and moral significance of political events is an essential part of popular Consciousness. Every person with a Conscience in the western world perceives Palestine as the enduring Crucifixion. Bleeding, tormented, screaming and dying on the cross erected by the global Empire, Palestine is perceived by the western world in precisely those terms; this is the true essence of the peoples' culture expressing itself through its primeval archetypes.

And totally appropriate. Modern Palestine writhing on the Crucifix is located exactly where the easter references place it geographically: in the gateway to the Middle East, in the center of the Holy Lands. No matter how strongly the western Churches allied to Capital and Empire try to erase this from awareness, people in the West still connect to the idea and to the emotions related to Palestine through this archetype. Easter and Palestine on the Crucifix are an integral part of the moral~spiritual landscape within the awareness of most people in the West.

Let's say it again: An awareness of the spiritual, emotional and moral significance of political events is an essential part of popular Consciousness.

The Revolution unfolding recently and securing itself in Nepal is a Resurrection of the collective Soul. Both society and the person are becoming reborn through it with the pains, the joys and the awareness of an old/new Soul becoming re-established within existence, re-anchoring itself to the here and now.

Rebirth of Consciousness - Resurrection - is built into the very essence of all cultures in countries of the East; both the secular and the spiritual elements of eastern culture are embedded with ideas and concepts entirely filled with those archetypes. Is there anyone in the eastern countries who does not perceive social and personal revolution that way?

It's not a coincidence that in many countries of the East where the language is related to Sanskrit or Hindi, a political slogan is called a "mantra".

It's not a coincidence that two of most important and universal principles of Socialism are embedded within the theology and organization of Islam:

o~ Both Socialism and Islam affirm a social organization and management of resources aimed at the fulfillment of the needs of the people, stemming "from each according to one's ability, to each according to one's need";

o~ Both Socialism and Islam affirm a universal identity articulated by the Islamic concept of Fitrah, according to which all people without exception are born as embodiments of The All, Allah, and that each one of us only realizes (becomes aware and actualizes) Universal Consciousness according to the realities our collective and personal circumstances as experienced by the influences and conflict of class, religion, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, gender and sexual identities.

We say "it's not a coincidence", in order to underline the fact that there is continuum of ideas, concepts, emotions and factual realities ranging from objective to the subjective and the metaphysical, from the global peoples' spiritual cultures to the political struggles of the revolutionary global liberation process and all the way to the objective tenets and self-evident truths of Scientific Socialism.

As we move forward in the 21st century we recognize more clearly that social institutions that used to be progressive at one point in history are now reactionary chains holding us back: we move to seize back social production and resources from the claws of Capital; we move to seize back social administration, defence and justice from the claws of the State; and we move to seize back our own spiritual and cultural lives from the claws of the authoritarian Church.


In Cyprus, torn up and destroyed by the global Imperial State and Capital with the collusion of the local ruling class, both in the north and the south the leaders of the progressive political forces and those who pretend to be leading Patriots, Socialists and Freedom lovers have entirely betrayed both Socialism and the need to defend, protect and liberate the Motherland. They have joined themselves with the vultures of the global Imperial State to directly rule over, manage and oversee the exploitation of their own people and have joined in with the suppression of our people's own true native spirituality and culture. Their treason and byzantine intrigues have brought our indigenous culture and spirituality to the brink of extinction.

Additionally, they portray themselves as secularists, supposedly free from "religious superstition". At the same time they constantly pose in public at every opportunity with leaders of authoritarian Religion, reinforcing the most sick and oppressive connections between State, Religion and Capital. The people are left defenseless and without guidance. How do we wrestle back from their claws what is ours? Our spiritual and cultural treasures? Our country's social production and natural resources? Our communities' administration and the management of our own affairs?

When the leaders abandon the people, how are supposed to act? In what direction?

Meanwhile, when the leadership is truly immersed in the struggle and embraces the people's culture and its spiritual traditions, miraculous achievements become feasible and placed on the table of possibilities:

o~ the Vietnamese revolutionary forces embraced the religious and traditional Lunar~Solar New Year in 1968 with passion for freedom and military organization, initiating the Tet Offensive which led to the spreading of the revolutionary People's War everywhere in the country, leading the avalanche that finally defeated the greatest imperial country in the world's history. The US Empire is still yelping from that injury.

Class struggle, national liberation, collective and personal spiritual emancipation go hand in hand. Our comrades from countries where the struggle is active and where the Liberation Movement has not abandoned its basic principles, understand this reality intuitively. But in Cyprus, it seems, another heaven and another hell must pass before we are able to shake off the numbness induced by shopping and television in order to remember how and why to live. And die.

Petros Evdokas
http://petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
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From: NEPAL

The Nepalese Equality Partner Association for Liberty, NEPAL wish you all the best on the occasion of Happy Easter!
With warm regards;

Durja Man Tamang
--
Nepalese Equality Partner Association for Liberty
(NEPAL),
Nicosia, Cyprus
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From: belal.abdelhai@gmail.com

Η ΠΑΛΑΙΣΤΙΝΙΑΚΗ ΠΑΡΟΙΚΙΑ ΣΑΣ ΕΥΧΕΤΑΙ ΚΑΛΟ ΠΑΣΧΑ
The Palestinian Community in Cyprus wish you a Happy Easter
الجالية الفلسطينية في قبرص تتمنى لجميع الاخوة المسيحيين فصح سعيد

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The Definition of Fitrah
By Yasien Mohamed
http://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/DefinitionFitrah.htm

{ Please click on the image of the card to see the details in Arabic, English, and Hellenic (greek) }

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