People Must ORGANIZE to Force Elites 

to Be Accountable to Them

A central aim of grassroots democracy is to hold members of local elites--mayors, school superintendents, police chiefs, developers, etc.--accountable for their actions to the citizens of the locality.

However, local elites do not operate in a vacuum; they are nodes in a larger network of governments, business interests, and militaries.  Because of this, grassroots democracy must also incorporate their activities with larger networks above the local level.  These networks must be strengthened, extended, and multiplied.

American elites, including Presidents, federal legislators, judges, bureaucrats, Wall Street bankers, insurance executives, media moguls, the military, and multi-national corporations make decisions every day that have a massive impact on our lives.  They have this impact not only as separate entities, but as interlocking networks.  This multiplies their power.  In the present circumstances of the world, this amount of power is unprecedented.  

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."  Lord John Dalton Action may have written that in 1887, but it is more true now than in any earlier era.  And the stakes are much higher.  Wars proliferate (and the US business elites profit from them), the greed of bankers ruins the financial lives of millions of people, global weather change threatens millions more because corporate elites do not want to pay for pollution prevention, and the threat of nuclear explosions by terrorists or militaries continues.  The power of the world's elites, led by Americans, and their quest for more profit and power is so vast that they have the potential for ending life as we know it.

The BP oil rig explosion and extractor rupture is only one example.  Although BP has spent millions on a public relations campaign to cover up the damage, not only has the event continuing to damage the Gulf of Mexico and neighboring areas, but if the rupture had not been capped, the scientific community warned that the oil could spread out of the Gulf and into the Atlantic, putting the fish population (and the humans that depend upon them) at risk.

Another example, though one that US media rarely mentions, is the 30-year devastation of the Niger Delta by Shell Oil.  Now, the US media rarely mentions this, because it and most Americans just do not care about Black Africans, so tragedies affecting them are not seen in the same way as bad things that happen to "real human beings" (white people, especially Americans).  Besides, we Americans value our oil supply far more than human beings (especially if they are black- or brown-skinned).  To see a glimpse of what Shell has done, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejym4mKelhM&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmI3xjZk_y0 .

In other words, geo-cide is a possibility, and greed-caused catastrophic events are inevitable.  Why?  Because of corporate greed and citizen inaction, which has resulted in a practical end to America as a democratic republic, and the creation of a plutocracy.  With laws passed under the excuse of the "War on Terror," citizens' rights have never been less secure, and we are becoming "one nation, under surveillence."  The next step is full-blown fascism.

Our only hope in avoiding such things is to ORGANIZE.  The Muslim Democratic Action Network is committed to teaching and motivating Muslims and non-Muslims to work together to reclaim America.  www.muslimaction.net

Three BAD Reasons for Muslims
NOT to ORGANIZE:

Three BAD reasons NOT to ORGANIZE:

1.  You think if you "keep your head low" enough, the bad times to come will not affect you.

2,  It sounds too "political" and, therefore, scary.

3.  You're doing OK financially now in America, and will be able to adapt to changing times.

WRONG!!!

Look around you:  Muslims are quite vulnerable in this nation, with the voices of hatred and intolerance growing louder and more powerful.  Remember that Black people were terrorized (lynchings) and oppressed for more that a century under Jim Crow laws and Japanese Americans were stripped of their property and imprisoned during WWII.  These things could happen to us.  To be American is to be political; the Constitution places the responsibility for governing this country in the hands of citizens--you and me!  Patriotism, then, requires that people organize politically and when necessary, protest the government's actions.  Democracy is not just voting--it is the Power of the People to be engaged in the government, culture, and economy around us, and to sometimes work to change them.

Finally, Islam is not a religion based upon selfish goals.  It is a Way of Life that pushes us to worship Allah (SWT) by actively seeking what is best for all around us, as well as ourselves.  Too much of the financial well-being of American Muslims comes from haram practices that are OK in America (selling booze, engaging in riba, assimilating into American culture, etc.), but deadly to our Deen.  Unless the American Ummah takes up the challenge and helps to transform America, beginning NOW, things will only get worse, our rights will be more endangered, and the destructiveness of the American Corporate System will continue to murder, exploit, and impoverish.


For 3 GOOD reasons for American Muslims to ORGANIZE, see below.

Israel the Model democracy, Most Moral Military--and Other Horse crap.

Did you ever notice that Zionists HATE it wen pro-Palestinian-types display signs using the word "Apartheid"?  "Israel is an Apartheid State" says one of the signs Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends carries at our weekly synagogue vigils in Ann Arbor.  "You dirty anti-Semites" is a common retort offered by those who attempt to heckle us.  Another is "How DARE you compare Israel to South Africa (under apartheid)!"  A third is simply the mantra, "Israel is NOT an apartheid state."

Well, maybe it IS unfair to compare Israel to South African apartheid--to South Africa, that is.  After all, as barbaric and brutal as the white supremacist South African government was--in severely segregating Blacks in "townships" and keeping them under strict curfew in "white areas," and frequently sending soldiers and jeeps into the townships to shoot people--they never bombed the townships with war planes, or shelled the people with artillery and tanks as the Israelis are wont to do to Palestinians in the "Occupied Territories."

Those and other differences aside, the core issue is that in South Africa until 1990, the white supremacist government  created discriminatory laws based on the view that Blacks and "mixed-race" people were inferior to whites, and must be kept as separate as possible and in total subjugation.

"Apartheid," you see, was the Afrikaner (the language of the whites) word for "separation."  It's the same concept as was  in the United States for almost a century in most parts of the country.  We called it "segregation" or "Jim Crow laws," and atrocities were committed by the white majority on Black individuals and communities regularly.

So, "apartheid" and "segregation" were systems of racial separation and discrimination.  If a wall had been built in South Africa to separate Blacks from "the superior race," it could have been called "the Apartheid Wall."  In the US, a similar wall would have been called the "Segregation Wall".

Now, in Israel, things are different.  Legal racism in South Africa and the US were discredited, vilified, and  scrapped decades ago.  It is shameful in those countries to defend in any way such policies, which the United Nations has formally outlawed as a crime against humanity.

But in Israel, the doctrine called "hafrada" in Hebrew, which means the same thing as "segregation" and "apartheid" is defended as absolutely necessary to the security of Jews.  That's why they erected what they call "the Separation Barrier/Fence," "Geder HaHafrada."

So the Zionist hecklers are wrong, lying, or deluded--take your pick:  Israel IS an Apartheid State.  If it is "anti-Semitic" to be truthful and morally consistent, then I guess I'm definitely anti-Semitic.

Israel is a racist state in a way that is totally incompatible with meaningful democracy and, for that matter, with the enduring ethical tenets of Judaism, particularly as set forth in the writings of the Prophets.

But somehow, although Zionists are taking the low road of morality, they have the high hand of power, and somehow manage to demonize those who want to end Israeli apartheid/hafrada/segregation as it was ended in South Africa and the US.

"Well, at least Jews aren't racist!"  I've heard people say that, and again, I can't decide if they are in denial, lying, or seriously deluded.  Whatever it is, they are wrong again.  Zionists and the Israeli leadership and US sycophants are expert in their ability to sound oh, so righteous while they twist facts, cover up atrocities, and defend the indefensible.  But every once in a while, the truth slips out, as it did on June 25 in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.  For years, Israel has allowed migrant workers and refugees from various parts of the world into Israel to provide cheap labor for dirty jobs.  Lately, however, Netanyahu's government has turned on them and is intent upon getting rid of them.  The State is currently rounding up and imprisoning tens of thousands of people--particularly those who fled from Sudan--and just passed a low allowing authorities to detain such people for up to three years without trial.  

But the kicker is that Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, is quoted as saying that most of the "Muslims that arrive here do not even believe that this country belongs to us, to the white man."  "I will continue the struggle until the end of my term, with no compromises," Yishai continued, stating that he would use "all the tools to expel the foreigners, until not one infiltrator remains."

The true colors of Netanyahu's Cabinet finally show--not white and baby blue, but the white of death and the red of blood, the colors of the Ku Klux Klan.

Three Good Reasons Why Muslims Must ORGANIZE--Politically, Economically. Morally, and In Alliance With People of Good Will:

1.  It is sunnah.  We usually think of sunnah as relating to praying and living our normal lives.  BUT--our Rasool (SAW) led the early Ummah to organize and re-organize a land filled with fitnah to one with humane laws, governance, customs, and way of life.  

2.  Allah (SWT) has placed American Muslims inside a nation which is filled with fitna and much in need of Muslims willing to live up to the example of the first Ummah.  Not only is the US. stipping away the rights of its own citizanes and allowing the super-rich to oppress them,  but with its military and economic might brings fitnah to the world.

3.  Our society is shifting dramatically, and which way it shifts will depend on which groups are most powerful.  Muslims now have almost no power, in the US. or the world. The ONLY way we can get power to use for the sake of Allah (SWT) is to ORGANIZE in ways that have worked well in American history and other places.

MDAN, Muslim Democracy Action Network, is based upon the teachings and examples of groups that successfully changed this nation, from Martin Luther King's Civil Rights Movement to the Labor Movement to women's right to vote, and many more.

For more info:  www.muslimaction.net or e-mail me at  ccd@provide.net

Muslims: Stand Up for Islam--Before It's Too Late!

 We face grave dangers as Muslims (from Islamaphobia and assimilation), as Americans (from a government growing more fascist and war-like every day)., and as human beings (from climate change and other man-made natural disasters).

We must ORGANIZE ourselves into a united, strong Ummah to protect our rights AND to help change America's moral values, priorities, and policies--politically, economically, and culturally.

But HOW do we do that?

American history is filled with grass-roots, truly democratic movements of common people who organized to acquire power to change their governments and society for the common good.  These successful movements provide MANY examples of strategies, tactics, and tools American Muslims can use to make changes in our government’s policies, particularly its  War on Terror, War on American rights, and support of Israel and its crimes.  WE CAN--AND MUST--LEARN THESE LESSONS!

, and www.muslim-action.blogspot.com.