This was officially stated at a ceremony in Lahore where President Asif Ali Zardari handed share certificates to a group of workers under ‘Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme’, named after the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Under the scheme 12 per cent of government shares worth around Rs100 billion (Dh4.36 billion) are being transferred to workers in entities including 16 listed and 33 unlisted public companies, 23 private companies and 14 other units.

In an address on the occasion at the Governor House in the Punjab capital, Zardari said the Pakistan People’s Party, which he heads as co-chairman, would strengthen democracy and protect the country.

“PPP government knows how to defeat conspiracies against Pakistan,” he said.

The president said that the PPP as the only truly federal party had the potential to “protect, run and strengthen the country”.

Governor Salman Taseer said Punjab — where the PPP is in second position in terms of vote bank after the Pakistan Muslim League-N of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif — would be turned into a “PPP fortress”.

PPP is part of PML-N led coalition ruling the country’s political most important and population-wise largest province.

Bumpy relations

Relations between PPP and PML-N, which is the main opposition party in the federal parliament, have however been bumpy.

But the PML-N leadership has asserted repeatedly the party would never back any attempt to dislodge the democratic system.

Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about the arrests in Pakistan of five Americans

Police in Pakistan raided a house linked to an Islamic militant group Wednesday and arrested five young American Muslim men from the Washington, D.C., area, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

One of the young men had left behind a video showing scenes of war, calling for the defense of Muslims and saying that “young Muslims have to do something,” said a person who had seen the video, describing it as a farewell of sorts.

It was the third known case since September in which Americans with ties to the Pakistan-Afghanistan region have been detained over possible terrorist connections.

The men were not accused of any crime, but their intent remained mysterious, and both U.S. and Pakistani officials emphasized that they were still gathering facts.

The five Americans, ranging in age from 19 to 25, were arrested in Sargodha, a dusty city in Punjab province, where several militant organizations with links to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban operate, according to a senior Pakistani official and a U.S. official in Washington. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three of the men arrested Wednesday are Pakistani-Americans, one is a Yemeni-American and one an Egyptian-American, the Pakistani official said. Pakistani law enforcement officers had “continuously tracked” the men from the moment they arrived Dec. 1 at Karachi international airport. All carried U.S. passports, he said.

They traveled to the city of Hyderabad, returned to Karachi, the hub of commerce in Pakistan, and then went to Lahore, the Punjab provincial capital, where they spent five days before going to Sargodha, he said.

They were arrested at a house that was occupied by Khalid Farooq, the father of one of the young men, Umer Farooq, according to an official familiar with the case. The elder Farooq is believed to have ties to Jaish-e-Muhammad, a banned Pakistani militant group, the official said.

Other Islamic militant organizations are also known to operate in Sargodha, including Sipah-e-Sahaba and a splinter group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Both are Sunni Muslim groups that have targeted minority Shiite Muslims and have also been linked to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.

Al-Qaeda, whose leaders are primarily Arabs, and the Pakistani Taliban, led by ethnic Pashtuns, are based in the country’s Pashtun-dominated tribal region bordering Afghanistan. They have spearheaded an insurgency that has killed and maimed thousands of people in suicide bombings and other attacks since 2007.

Many experts are concerned about cooperation between the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaeda and militant groups based in Punjab that were once used by Pakistani security services to wage a proxy war with India in the disputed Kashmir region.

The U.S. official confirmed that the five men were the same five men from Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs whose families reported them missing last month. Also confirming that they were the missing five men was Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a Muslim American advocacy organization to which their families turned for help.

CAIR arranged a Dec. 1 meeting for the families with Islamic leaders in northern Virginia, who then contacted the FBI, said Hooper, who declined to give further details.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the families of the five men were particularly disturbed to see the video message that one of them left behind.

“One person appeared in that video, and they made references to the ongoing conflict in the world, and that young Muslims have to do something,” Awad said. “The video’s about 11 minutes, and it’s like a farewell. And they did not specify what they would be doing.”

He cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions. But Awad and other Muslim leaders said the case – along with the recent recruitment of young Somali-American men in Minnesota by a violent group in Somalia – suggested that at least a small number of young American Muslims were drawn to extremist views. They pledged to start a nationwide campaign to counter such attitudes.

Hooper said neither the young men’s mosque – the ICNA Center, associated with the national Islamic Circle of North America – nor their families in Virginia supported extremism or violence.

“The Muslim community has taken the lead on this case in terms of taking it to law enforcement,” Hooper said.

Asked for assistance by the FBI, Pakistani security officers tracked the men to Farooq’s house, where they were taken into custody, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

In addition to Umer Farooq, two of the other men – named in Pakistani press accounts as Ahmed Abdullah and Wakar Khan – were described by officials as of Pakistani descent. Another, Ramy Zamzam, is of Egyptian descent, and the fifth man, Aman Yasser, is of Yemeni descent, according to one official. Some were born abroad, but all are now U.S. citizens, U.S. officials said.

A local imam in the Washington area said that before the men left, they did not seem to have become militant.

“From all of our interviews, there was no sign they were outwardly radicalized,” said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

Zamzam is a dental student at Howard University, where he received an undergraduate degree this year with a major in biology and chemistry, according to his Facebook page.

One of Zamzam’s younger brothers, interviewed at the family’s apartment in Alexandria, Va., said Zamzam has a 4.0 grade-point average and is “a good guy.”

An upstairs neighbor, Peter Max-Jones, 16, called Zamzam “very intelligent, very kind, very helpful. Good citizen, all around.” He said Zamzam’s family was “very patriotic, very quiet.”

A U.S. official said there were no apparent links between the men and another American with roots in Pakistan, David Headley. Headley pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Chicago federal court to charges he helped a Pakistani group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, plot last year’s terrorist strike on India’s financial capital, Mumbai. That attack killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Headley, who was arrested in October, has also been indicted on charges of plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that published a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. In another case linked to Pakistan, U.S. authorities in September arrested a Colorado airport van driver, Najibullah Zazi, and charged him with receiving explosives training from al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal area and conspiring to carry out a bomb attack in New York.

I would like to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan. As we enter this month, we are encouraged to keep the sufferings of the destitute and starved in mind. Since a good act is appreciated greatly by Allah, it is encouraged to give one’s Zakat in this month.

As I write this email, there has been a severe devastation in Pakistan. Due to the raging water of the floods many people have lost their lives, houses and livestock. The loss of the seasons’ crops is spelling the impending doom of a fast approaching famine. There have been cases of people who stood on the roofs of their houses and were drowned to death along with their small children and wives.

I have been able to find a very reliable person (Haroon Agha) in Pakistan to distribute this year’s Zakat. I would wish that everyone who gets this message pool something in by Ramadan 15^th so that the money can arrive promptly to those who deserve it. You are encouraged to give Zakat and Sadaqah. The money however will only be given to people who deserve Zakat with a preference to those who have been hard hit by the floods.

Please reply to this email or see me in person to contribute to this cause.

Hassan Mian.

Canadian captive Omar Khadr at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Abdullah Khadr broke down in a Toronto court Tuesday, saying he told authorities in Pakistan he had bought weapons for Al Qaeda because he feared if he didn’t say that, his sister would be raped.

The 28-year-old, who is fighting extradition to the United States on terrorism charges, said he invented stories because it was the only way to stop his alleged torture by Pakistani and U.S. officials.

Khadr alleges in an affidavit that during his 14 months in detention, Pakistani officers beat him and penetrated him with a stick and American officials threatened to arrest his sister and have done to her what had been done to him.

While testifying, the eldest son of the infamous Khadr family became choked up and wiped away tears.

“(The Americans) told me that if I didn’t confess … they would bring my sister and do terrible things,” Khadr told Crown prosecutor Howard Piafsky.

An FBI affidavit says the interview team “never threatened to harm or retaliate against Khadr, his sister or any family member if he did not give satisfactory answers.

“It also never threatened to send Khadr or his sister to any prison in Egypt or Uzbekistan, or suggested, directly or indirectly, that he or his sister would be raped,” says the affidavit, part of which was read by Piafsky.

Khadr said he confessed to selling weapons to suspected Al Qaeda member Hamza Al Jowfi because he was reduced to tears and they wouldn’t believe him otherwise.

But the FBI says Khadr never cried and any suggestion he admitted to only minimal involvement is wrong. Instead, “he provided specific and detailed information regarding his relationship and dealings with Al Jowfi,” according to the agency’s affidavit.

Piafsky asked Khadr why he didn’t set the record straight and tell the truth to RCMP Sgt. Konrad Shourie, who interviewed him after his return to Toronto.

Khadr said he told Shourie what he thought he wanted to hear, fearing he’d be sent back to Pakistan.

“You almost predict what they want to hear,” said Khadr, whose father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was a reputed Canadian Al Qaeda financier and friend of Osama bin Laden.

Court saw a videotape of the December 2005 interview between Shourie and a relaxed Khadr, who shares a few laughs with the officer about how to make money by selling anti-aircraft missiles.

Asked about his demeanour, Khadr replied: “I thought Konrad Shourie had power over my life. You do whatever to please the person in front of you. … It’s a defence I built up in Pakistan to try and make the jailers happy.”

The U.S. has requested Khadr’s extradition to face charges of procuring weapons for Al Qaeda and plotting to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

I am not talking here about the much-discussed point that al Qaeda does not seem to actually be present in any significant way in Afghanistan. The argument here rests on claims that the goal is to prevent al Qaeda from returning to Afghanistan and that al Qaeda is so deeply interwoven with the various Talibans as to make the distinction meaningless. Both arguments are problematic -– but since both have been discussed elsewhere at some length, I won’t dwell on them.

I am more concerned with an issue more in the areas where I focus: the relationship between al Qaeda Central and the broader network of affiliated movements (AQAM, in the lingo) and like-minded individuals (which me might call AQN, the al Qaeda Network). A key part of the Obama administration’s strategy has been a very successful reorientation of America’s relationship with the Muslim world, downplaying al Qaeda and refusing to allow that extremist fringe to hijack or monopolize those vital relationships. But the new focus on al Qaeda in the AfPak strategy threatens to reverse that vital achievement … and even to revive al Qaeda’s flagging fortunes in the wider Muslim world.

In part, this refects a debate which has been raging for years over the importance of AQC to the wider network of salafi-jihadist groups and individuals. The Obama administration’s Afghanistan strategy seems to have taken one side in that debate –- but whether that is because it is correct, or because it is useful to justify an Afghan military strategy chosen for other reasons, is hugely important.

For Bruce Hoffmann and other “Centralists,” al Qaeda Central continues to play an extremely important role in guiding, shaping, arming, and directing the seemingly inchoate network of jihadists. They point to evidence of contacts between the perpetrators of well-known cases and AQC affiliated people in Pakistan or elsewhere. They point to the deluge of AQ propaganda still pouring out of al-Sahab and other jihadist media outlets. On the other side, Marc Sageman and other “bunch of guys” analysts see the threat as primarily one of a very loosely affiliated network of like-minded individuals and organizations who neither need nor want direction from AQC. If AQC was needed as a spark to light the fire, it is no longer needed to keep the fires burning or new fires from breaking out when local conditions come together.

In reality both approaches likely have some degree of merit. AQC does still exist, does put out its propaganda, does try to shape and guide the jihad. But individuals and local organizations carry out their own analysis and planning, explode into action for their own private reasons, seek out and network with other like-minded people without being told to do so. A healthy strategy pays attention to both dimensions.

Clearly, the Obama administration does not intend to ignore the other areas of concern -– countering violent extremism across the spectrum and around the world. But the AfPak strategy puts a tremendous amount of resources into one side of the equation -– al Qaeda Central. This could only be justified if it were the case that AQC is in fact vitally important to the survival and efficacy of the broader jihadist challenge (AQAM and/or the AQN). The case here remains fairly weak, though. Even granted that they try to make a difference, it seems likely that were bin Laden and Zawahiri to be killed or brought to justice -– inshallah –- it is unlikely that this would materially affect the ideologically motivated actions of the pockets of salafi-jihadist mobilization around the world.

And all other things are not equal. The AfPak escalation may well increase the pressure on AQC –- especially if the Pakistanis can be brought more fully on board. But at the same time, it may well galvanize and strengthen the affiliated movements and like-minded individuals around the world. Affiliated movements may benefit from personnel or resources leaving the Afghan theater or Pakistani safe havens, and strengthen the capabilities of insurgencies in Yemen, North Africa, Somalia, Iraq or elsewhere.

And to the extent that the escalation angers Arab and Muslim public opinion, it could create a point of entry into mainstream attitudes which al Qaeda has largely lacked in recent years. It could reinforce the growing notion that Obama is no different from Bush, that the U.S. is waging a war against Islam, that moderation does not pay. This would resonate dangerously with the breakdown of Obama’s efforts to push Israel towards a settlement freeze (especially if the Israeli-Palestinian front collapses into violence comparable to the 2000 al-Aqsa Intifada) or if tensions with Iran spike into military confrontation.

It is therefore absolutely vital that the Obama administration coordinate its AfPak strategy with its wider Middle East foreign policy and with its efforts at strategic public engagement with Arab and Muslim audiences. It needs to be sharply attuned to signs suggesting that its escalation in Afghanistan is restoring the ability of al Qaeda to appeal to the generalized “resistance” discourse which retains great sway with Arab public opinion. If it doesn’t do that, then even a successful campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan against AQC may end up actually strengthening the wider challenge of violent extremism which it is ostensibly meant to defeat.

They detained Gary Faulkner, a 52-year-old construction worker, after a 10-hour search in the country’s lawless tribal areas.

Officers said he told them he planned to “decapitate” the al-Qaeda leader. He was carrying a 40-inch sword, a handgun and dagger, and was equipped with night-vision goggles.

A local police officer, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, said: “We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden.” Bin Laden has evaded capture ever since the 9/11 attacks that shocked the world and turned al-Qaeda into a global terror brand. Analysts believe the 53-year-old Saudi has slipped back and forth across the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, relying on networks of tribal supporters in a region where central government holds little sway.

Last month, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan’s lawless border regions – and that he was being protected by Pakistani government officials.

However, some analysts also believe he may be dead, pointing out that video messages featuring the jihadi leader have all but dried up in recent years. Rumours have long circulated that he is struggling with kidney disease, or was badly wounded in an airstrike.

The tantalising prospect of tracking down such a notorious criminal has attracted a small band of bounty hunters and fantasists, lured by a $25 million (€20 million) FBI reward offered for information leading to his capture.

Mr Faulkner’s solo mission is the latest bizarre twist in the world’s highest-stakes game of hide-and-seek. He told police he visited Pakistan seven times.

On this occasion he arrived in the country at the start of the month and travelled to the district of Chitral, a mountainous area close to the Afghan border that attracts adventurous tourists for its hiking.

He was assigned a police guard – common in an area where foreigners are targeted by kidnap gangs. When he checked out without informing his minder, police launched a manhunt, according to Mr Khan, who was involved in the investigation.

“A search operation was launched and we found him 14 kilometres [nine miles] short of the Pakistan-Afghan border. He was trying to enter Nuristan,” said Mr Khan.

Nuristan is a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban, and along with Chitral is often mooted as a possible bin Laden safe haven. As well as his weapons, Mr Faulkner was also carrying a book of Christian verse.

“He said 9/11 caused colossal losses to the US, therefore he wanted to locate Osama bin Laden and his friends,” added Mr Khan.

He apparently told police: “God is with me, and I am confident I will be successful in killing him.” Mr Faulkner is being questioned by Pakistani intelligence agents.

An Insight into the Critical Situation in NWFP by Ibn Abdul Aziz  (July 17, 2009)

My Role

I live in the city of Karachi but alhumdulilah two weeks ago, I was given an opportunity of a lifetime by Allah (SWT) to visit the troubled area of Mardan in NWFP province, and to assess the humanitarian crisis in the area; a trip financed by the charitable organization, Helping Hand.

Before I went, I was a little skeptical about the whole situation. My mind was filled with questions: Who’s right and who’s wrong: the Pakistani government or the Taliban? Which side was the instigator and which side was the victim? Who was responsible for this whole mess? How much was US intervention involved?

But after visiting my brothers and sisters in the area and realizing their problems, my thoughts took a U-turn. Instead of trying to decipher the political game played by world leaders in this area, I realized that my role was totally different. On the Day of Judgment, Allah (SWT) will ask me not if Baitullah Mehsud made the right decision or if President Zardari should be punished for killing Muslims. Instead I will be responsible for helping out my brothers and sisters, who had been afflicted with hardship. In regards to trying to the politics being played, I, as an average citizen do not have any role nor can my intervention in politics help the cause of these afflicted people. Instead, my mind’s focus was on this important question: how can I help my Muslim brothers and sisters?

The Current Situation

According to the Pakistani government, 16% of the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons- the refugees) are staying in camps, equivalent to nearly 170,000 people. The rest of the IDPs, 84% (nearly 900,000), are staying with host families, i.e. are being accommodated in schools, colleges, homes of relatives or strangers and so on. In the beginning, the locals were extremely generous and donated of their possessions what they could. But the people of Mardan and the surrounding areas are not rich themselves, and now the area is increasingly low on food and other essential supplies. Their relatives or strangers have been guests at their homes for more than a month, and Allah knows best how long these guests will have to stay away from their own homes.

As for the military operation, fighting is still going on in the afflicted areas even though the government has overwhelmingly declared that the situation has ameliorated. My contact in the area has said that insha’Allah it will be safe to go back by Ramadan.

Helping Hand in cooperation with various other non-governmental relief organizations like Islamic Relief, Muslim Aid, NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority of Pakistan), and the World Food Program has managed to deliver food to hundreds of thousands of families. They have also setup medical facilities, approximately 45 mobile medical units and 5 permanent ones. They have a camp in Takht Bhai, Mardan where they house almost a hundred families. Here is a story of one of the residents, Iqbal Husain.

The Story of Iqbal Husain

 

A School Teacher

Iqbal Husain was born and raised in Swat. He lived in Waliabad, Swat where he was an English and Math teacher at an elementary school. After school hours, he would go to his store and spend his evenings as a part-time electrician. He lived in a two-room house with his wife and kids. His brother, Muhammad Husain, also a Math and English teacher, worked at a private school. Muhammad Husain was better off than his brother and owned two houses.

As the end of May approached, the Pakistan army had started attacking the Taliban. As a result, harm to Swat’s citizens was once again considered collateral damage. His brother, Muhammad had moved into Iqbal’s house days earlier since one of Muhammad’s houses had been shelled and partially damaged. Every night, his children would hear guns firing, helicopters flying, and bombs exploding. Iqbal felt that the best decision was to leave Swat, at least temporarily, until the situation got better. Iqbal was born in Swat, and had lived all his life in there. The same was true for the rest of his family. But now, fearful for the lives of his wife and five children, Iqbal decided that he should abandon his home. Iqbal knew the uncertainties and dangers that his family would face if they became refugees, but he felt he had no other choice.

Leaving his Homeland

On May 28^th, Iqbal made the most momentous decision of his life to leave Swat. In utter desperation, he gathered up his belongings and fled his home with his family. He was joined by seventeen members of his extended family, including his sister and two brothers’ families. The group walked for seven and a half long hours through the mountains before they finally reached the city of Bunair. The trek through the mountains was extremely difficult for the children and many of them became sick on the way. In Bunair, they found a ride to Mardan for Rs. 300 per person which was more than three times the normal fare. All in all, the short ride to Mardan cost his family a fortune but they had no choice but to pay the asking price.

Arriving in Mardan was just the beginning of their troubles. By the time they reached the beautiful city of Mardan, they found it already overcrowded. The people of Mardan were extremely hospitable and had offered all they had to their uninvited guests. Some who had two rooms gave one of away. Others gave much of their houses to complete strangers. There were large dinners for the refugees and all types of accommodations were provided for them. But the people of Mardan were not rich themselves and they could only provide supplies to a certain extent. When Iqbal and his family reached Mardan, no one had any space to house any more refugees. Every place was full. People already had dozens of outsiders living in their house and they couldn’t cater to any more people.

And so Iqbal and his family moved on from Mardan. By the blessing of Allah (SWT), on the outskirts of the city, they found a generous but poor old man. He offered his one-room house to them for the sake of Allah (SWT). Subsequently, twenty-four people stayed in one room for about two weeks! It was extremely difficult but it was better than living outdoors in the torrid summer heat.

Finding Camp

Iqbal and his brother would scout the surrounding area everyday for a better place to stay. During the second week of June, they were blessed by Allah (SWT) when they found an encampment being constructed. Within a day or two, the extended family of twenty four was able to move into tents on the allocated ground. This camp is the location, where I visited with, and interviewed Iqbal Husain. And it is also the place where Iqbal’s extended family continues to live.

When I asked Iqbal how he was coping with his current situation, he expressed his gratitude for the workers of Helping Hand, the organization that had set up the tents. The tents are approximately 8ft. by 15ft. (120 sqft or 11 m^3) each, and every 4 tents are surrounded by a 90ft. by 35ft. enclosure (3150 sqft or 300 m^3). Iqbal’s extended family occupies all four tents in an enclosure which has been constructed so that women can easily observe Pardah. The provided kitchen consists of a one-foot high cement slab, and a couple of pots and pans for four families. Outside each enclosure there are three bathroom stalls and three shower stalls for 5 families. The bathrooms simply consist of 3 walls, a door and a drainage system.

The accommodations are no doubt meager but they are much better than what many others have. Some unfortunate refugees are living in overcrowded bedrooms, others in old and dirty tents and others in old, unused schools and colleges. I asked Iqbal what problems he still faced. He repeatedly said that the heat was bothering everyone since Swat is located in a cold region where the inhabitants are not used to high temperatures. Though the tents have electricity, they do not have fans and the heat becomes unbearable in Mardan, especially during the day,. At night, he said, the temperature becomes bearable, but mosquitoes swarm around his children and he has no means to keep them out of his tent.

As for his finances, Iqbal said that his savings (which had consisted chiefly of his monthly salary) are almost all used up. Though he doesn’t have to pay rent, and every family is provided with wheat, sugar, salt, pulses, oil, and tea, (the standard monthly ration from the World Food Program), he has other expenses to deal with. His family of 7 was provided with 1 tent, 3 mattresses, 3 pillows, 1 utensil set, 1 water cooler, 1 hygiene kit, and one 2kg gas burner. His children still need new shoes after their long journey and he still has to buy milk and vegetables for his family daily. Other than that, his major needs consist of buying appropriate clothes to withstand the sweltering heat and crockery to cook their food.

The Millions…

Different organizations have accommodated people in various types of camps. Some are provided by the government but most are the work of various local organizations. Some of the camps I came across were in almost horrific conditions. I asked Iqbal about the current situation in Swat and he said that a curfew is ongoing in the area for more than a month. About 20% of the population is still stuck in the region while 80% are refugees. Since he has returned inflation has increased to 300%. When I asked Iqbal when he thinks he will go back home, he said that he is planning to return a 5-6 days before Ramadan.

And More…

The local community has done all they could to help their brothers and sisters in Islam and now they are exhausted. It remains the responsibility of the international Muslim community to pitch in. There are hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes and in need of proper attention. The World Food Program provides monthly rations but the amount lasts for 10-15 days depending upon the size of the family. A family of 12 would receive the same amount of food as a family of 3.  Those people who have given shelter to refugees in their homes can no longer cope with their added burden and some of them are starting to turn people out of their homes. In other words, a large portion of the 84% (host family category) of the IDPs will soon be living once again in the open air if proper facilities are not given to them.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

How can you help? My trip to Mardan was financed by Helping Hand, a non-governmental organization based in the US. You can donate online at www.helpinghandonline.org. I also witnessed the collaboration of other organizations in providing facilities to the IDPs such as Islamic Relief and Muslim Aid.

Allah (SWT) says in Surah Baqarah, what means:

“The likeness of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah, is as the likeness of a grain (of corn): it grows seven ears, and each ear has a hundred grains. Allah gives manifold increase to who He wills. And Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures’ needs, All-Knower.”(2:261)

I urgently ask you to support our brothers and sisters in Pakistan in NWFP in any way possible.

Ramy Zamzam

Ramy Zamzam, 22, one of a group of young men arrested by Pakistani intelligence officials, graduated from West Potomac High School in 2005.
Zamzam, of Egyptian family background, was a senior dental school student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. at the time of his arrest in Sargodha, Pakistan.
The other men, all Americans, are now being held in Lahore: Ahmad A. Minni, 20; Umar Chaudhry, 24; Waqar Khan, 22, and Aman Hassan Yamer, 18. Chaudry’s father, Khalid, was also arrested in Pakistan. All five of the young Americans worshipped at a local mosque off Route 1 on Woodlawn Trail — the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Two of the men live on the same street as the mosque.
Their arrest by Pakistani police is based on allegations that they have been working with extremist Pakistani recruiters to join a training camp run by the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Nina Ginsberg, a Washington criminal defense lawyer and spokesman for the young men’s families, has refused to comment on the case or the views of the families beyond that the families are concerned about their safe return to the U.S., and do not believe they were involved in extremist activities as reported by the Pakistan government.
The families reported the men missing in late November, and released a farewell tape in an effort to assist authorities in locating the men. Shortly thereafter Pakistani officials announced their arrest in Pakistan. They have been held in custody since.
At the present time the FBI and the Pakistan intelligence service are investigating the men’s activities. The effort by the U.S. Department of State and the FBI’s effort to secure their release and deportation to the U.S. to face possible criminal charges has been held up by a recent court decision in Lahore to temporarily block the handover of the men to the U.S. government until the Pakistani government submits a detailed report on Thursday, Dec. 17. 

IN RESPONSE to the revelations about the young men and their alleged attempts to link up and train with extremist elements in Pakistan, the Moslem Association of Virginia and the Muslim American Society held a local press conference and issued a written public statement on Dec. 10 expressing their surprise and concern for the five men and the overall issue of radicalization of Muslims in the United States.
A statement from the Muslim American Society said: “Leading American Muslim organizations and community leaders are planning to launch a Web site and organize a summit where young Muslims can ask mainstream scholars questions as part of renewed efforts to combat extremism” … “the summit, to be held in Chicago, Ill., Dec. 23-27, will reach out to young Muslims to do peer mentoring that will focus on positive solutions involving issues of hate, violence, and intolerance.”
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said: “The idea is really to refute and counter the misuse of certain ayahs (verse of the Qur’an) and hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) that are commonly misused by recruiters of young people who do not understand the depths and circumstances of revelations and just juxtapose superficial and disconnected meaning to justify their actions.”
Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society, believes more imams and trained scholars should take steps to respond to incorrect ideas being promoted on the internet because young people get most of their information online and use social networking sites, blogs, and links as modes of communication. “They [scholars and imams] are not here writing, they’re not posting stuff on the internet” … “therefore, people are taking religious information in a vacuum.”