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A MESSAGE FROM JUS ON THE OCCASION OF OUR FIRST RAMADHAN

Nov 08, 2002 Source:Jihad Unspun

For over one billion Muslims throughout the world, Ramadhan is a special month of the year.
Ramadhan was the month in which the first verses of the holy Qur'an were revealed to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
During the special month, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset every day.
It is a time for inner reflection, devotion to God and self-control.
Since the time we began Jihad Unspun, we have had the great privilege to report both sides of the issues as they relate to this "war on terrorism" and news of the Mujahideen that would otherwise go unnoticed.
We have taken on this mandate willingly and with passion, knowing that there is little chance of resolving "the great divide" between the West and the Middle East if we do not understand the issues, which in the highly censored post 911 world we live in, is near impossible.
Over the past months we have experienced both great joys and great sorrows as we strive to make the reality behind the issues known.
Our readers, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, have praised our efforts and at times criticized our efforts but most importantly continue to send us mail asking who we are, why we are (still) here, what our agenda is and which side of the fence we sit on.
As we commemorate this first Ramadhan, I have chosen this occasion to share with you our journey;
to set the record straight about who we are and what we are striving to accomplish.
On September 11th I was in the US at a Boeing trade showing unveiling a new product I created for the aerospace industry.
With approximately half of my client base in aerospace, these events had a significant impact on my business and I was mad as hell like everyone else at the "terrorists" who did this.
However something changed for me the day George Bush, who professes to be a Christian, spewed out "we are going to smoke them out of their holes".
Christianity teaches forgiveness and turning the other cheek and I could not believe that without any real proof of who the perpetrators where, we were going to drop WMD on Afghanistan.
Something didn't add up and I began searching the Internet to find out what was really going on and who bin Laden was.
Many sites were shut down at the time, I used the Internet archives to access previously live pages and I found other sites, that with the help of translation software, I was able to interpret information from Arabic and Urdu.
Until that time I thought like everyone else in North America, that 911 came out of the blue and that this was strictly the act of radical, off balance criminals.
What I discovered was shocking.
I discovered that this war was a war against Islam that had been going on for years.
I unveiled lies, deceit, oppression, murder and a variety of horrors that we in the west were imposing on others.
I began reading everything I could get my hands on and the more I read --
the worse it got.
Of course it takes two to tango!
That's when I decided to do JUS, to create a voice that presented the other side of the story which is simply omitted or misrepresented from our newspapers in the West.
Having spent many years as one of the leading business magazine publishers and with web development skills I had developed in recent years, I knew that my background would be most helpful in this mission.
As I began researching the portal, I realized that if I were to understand the issues behind this "war" I would have to have some understanding of Islam.
As a very grounded Southern Baptist, I was not at all threatened to begin to dialogue with Muslims, which I did through message boards and the internet initially.
Before long, I was engaging in discussion about religion until I arrived at the point where I realized that the worship of Allah was the true path and I reverted to Islam shortly before the portal went live in April, 2002.
All praise is due to Allah for his leading me to his straight path.
JUS has a specific mandate;
--To reach primarily English speaking North Americans with both sides of this conflict so that readers can come to informed conclusions based on information presented from both sides.
--To provide a source of current information on the Mujahideen and their military campaigns and the latest developments on Jihad in Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and Iraq which remains mostly unavailable in the West.
This is a lofty goal indeed.
It has been the plan from day one to establish JUS as a major media outlet, publishing on the web, in print and on CD. It will take many hands, much money, the supporter of our readers and Allah's will to accomplish it.
JUS is pro human rights, pro religious freedom and pro freedom of speech.
JUS is anti American Foreign policy, not anti American.
We are against war and denounce terrorism regardless of the perpetrators.
We are against media censorship and against the regime that lurks every day to shut down the voices that deviate from mainstream news and dare to tell this story.
The West prides itself on ‘freedom of speech" however in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
Case and point is Palestine.
It wasn't until I watched the documentary Tragedy in the Holy Land, The Second Uprising which is currently available on both JUSPLUS and through our video store that I realized, an informed individual, that Israel is occupying Palestinian land!
This fact is simply not told in western press and we here only about the Palestinian "terrorism".
Both Muslims and non-Muslims work on the JUS portal.
We have brought together a group of journalists that span the globe to assist in evaluating news items and editorial features.
We cooperate with other independent news sources to share items of interest and work hard to present the best possible information that's out there.
As more time and more hands permit, we intend to publish more original editorial features.
Those who work on JUS are a rare breed.
On this special occasion I would like to acknowledge their efforts publicly.
The news doesn't magically appear every day- many hands go to work to provide you with this information.
Many sacrifices are made and many other things are placed on hold.
I have been blessed with Muslim brothers who have helped me to understand the issues, as well as non-Muslims who have worked tirelessly to keep this portal up.
We have an incredible group of volunteers that undertake a variety of tasks, from daily translation of news items from Urdu and Arabic to coding our pages.
JUS also has our own reporters in both Lahore and Karachi Pakistan and are continuing our efforts to place our own people inside the hot spots.
The common thread that binds the special group of individuals that work with JUS is that they all understand that regardless of which side you are on, it's paramount to get all the information.
At this time, I would like to extend my heart felt thanks to those who work hard every day to make this work possible.
JUS received almost an instant audience.
We went on the boards with 40,000 hits a day and that now is a mere drop in the bucket today.
Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the response this portal would receive.
That said, it has been a daily challenge to meet the growing needs of our audience, both in time and with finances however Allah has been faithful and he continues to provide for us each day.
On behalf of all of the JUS staff, we extend our deepest thanks to our readers, who without, there would be no purpose for our efforts.
Over the past months, we have been able to establish our JUSPLUS channel to make available sensitive content and streaming videos.
Recently we have opened JUS, The Video store as another way that viewers can obtain this information and as we move forward, we have many things planned to continue to elevate the quality of information that we are able to publish.
Many ask how we have been able to survive while others have been shut down and the answer is simply "not easily".
JUS is not all a success story and there have been many challenges from both sides of the aisle each and every day.
We have been written up by groups like USA Today as a "terrorist" site which couldn't be further from the truth.
When we distributed our Casualty report, we mailed 1.5 million copies of this throughout the USA and we were forced to move the portal.
We received death threats and of course daily we get our share of hate mail however surprisingly enough, this is greatly outweighed but the positive comments we receive...
Every day we battle vigilante groups who are trying to shut us down however we do not focus on this, we simply try to work around it with the hope that saner minds will at some point prevail and this hatred towards Islam will be dispersed.
If we do not tell this story to the West, who will?
I have also come to learn the very sorry state of the Muslim Ummah (nation).
From day one we came under attack from Muslims who didn't understand our approach because of the high quality look to the portal.
This was a deliberate decision as most Westerners would not take seriously any information presented to them unless we can do so on their terms, at a level they are used to.
Many sites have spewed hatred against America and we denounce this --
it accomplishes nothing.
It is silly to think that we can share insight and understanding by calling Americans a variety of names let alone move towards reconciliation!
We have been accused by Muslims for everything from being the CIA to using the color red.
Again for the most part, we have been blessed with kind comments from Muslims which far outweigh the negative ones.
Recently we have come under attack by Maktabah Al Ansaar Agency and their new Waaqaih site, who have spread malicious lies about us.
As the new kid on the block, we made every effort to work with Maktabah offering many possibilities however it appears they are sidetracked from the bigger goal.
As Muslims, we are a group of people bound together by the purest of belief, which constitutes our nationality.
If there is no belief there is no Ummah, for there is nothing to bind it together.
Allah says in the Qur'an, addressing the believers of every land, age, race, throughout the centuries, speaking through Noah, Peace be upon him, to Muhammad, Peace and Blessings be upon him - "This your community is a single community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me." (al-Anbiya, v.92).
This is just the latest example of the sad state of affairs amongst the brethren but there have been many and as a new Muslim, this saddens me a great deal.
We of course forgive our brothers and ask Allah to forgive both their and our transgressions.
For the record, JUS does not buy their videos from Maktabah.
We purchased one video for a large sum only to discover later that we were in fact paying drastically more than is required by going directly to the source of these videos, which in our case is Saudi Arabia.
Further, our own translators have translated these films and we have added our own subtitles so that viewers can view this in English.
The rumor that we are selling their material is simply not true.
When combined with the fact that this latest attack comes the day after we opened our Video store, it is painfully obvious that once again our brothers are thinking only about their market share.
Islam needs voices and these attacks only hurt the Ummah as a whole.
More importantly this is a very big market and we need all of the voices we can get!
We have come in the spirit of cooperation and brotherly love and this latest attack is disheartening indeed.
How can we expect non-Muslims to accept Islam if we can not even accept each other?
We no longer carry Azzam news but rather translate news from our own sources and from the Pakistani Dailies.
As Azzam experienced several closures, we began to source out alternative sources and discovered that the news translated from Urdu dailies was very similar to that which we were obtaining from Azzam.
The fact that these dailies publish in hard copy adds further credibility to this news and its has been our decision to embrace this method for the sake of continuity.
Any original material on JUS is clearly marked "Jihad Unspun".
Any items translated from dailies is labeled with the name of the daily and "translated by Jihad Unspun".
All other news is simply accredited with its source.
Jus readers most likely notice a few other things about the stylesheet of the portal.
For instance, we always preface the word "terrorism" except in third party articles, in quotations.
The reason for this is becasue there is blood on the hands of both sides.
We do not use the word "suicide" bomber but rather bomber as lives of the sons of Palestine that are martyred in this conflict are being taken only to be used as weapons to stop being violated further and in the absence of weapons, not becasue they have given up on life.
We do not use the word Zionist outside of its context as it is often used as slang inappropriately.
In all cases, our stylesheet applies to our own material - we do not alter third party articles or news items in any way.
From time to time we preface news items with comments from the Editor.
This is to let our readers know that what there are about to read we have some concerns with.
JUS is about truth and although almost every article or news item has some debatable comment, when we notice something that appears amiss, we advise our readers of it.
This is strictly our opinion which is why it is added as an editor's note.
This rule applies to both sides of the fence, not just mainstream news.
We have come to learn that there is propaganda on both sides and it is our duty to advise our readers to the best of our ability of any information we may have to maintain the level of integrity that we have worked hard to be recognized for.
So almost a year later, on this my first Ramadhan, I realize now I have truly chosen the most difficult path.
We are not the authorities;
we are professional individuals, Muslims and non-Muslims working together who are priveledged to have the ability to do this work, with nothing to gain other than the pleasure of Allah and the defense of freedom of speech.
I am grateful to all of those who have stood with me through the almost daily trials and also my own blunders.
I ask for forgiveness for my shortcomings and acceptance as one who is on the true path.
Our mission is hard and sometime thankless but we continue to be encouraged by the faithful readers of Jihad Unspun.
With or without the support of others, we will continue our work to present the best news source possible, with the skills, experience and heart we have been blessed with, as long as Allah wills it.
From the essence of Islam, in the spirit of Ramadhan, we extend our best wishes to all our Muslim readers, our brothers and sisters, at this special time.
We ask all of our non-Muslim viewers to respect this important occasion by showing kindness and understanding to the Muslims populations within your communities.
I thank personally each and every reader and I ask you to continue to support this portal so we can become a truly viable voice for a free society.
Wa salamualeikum wa rahmatu Allah and best regards, JUS
"By Al-'Asr (the time).Verily!
Man is in loss, Except those who believe and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth." (103)
O Allah, let us be from those who follow the best of what they have heard and grant us success in speech and work for what You like and approve!
You are our Ally, so help us in our battle against falsehood!
Ameen.

http://www.jihadunspun.net/index-side_internal.php?article=32457&list=/home.php&

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