Blair Scolded for Evoking God in Iraq War Decision
Keys, who lost a son to the Iraq war, accused Blair of "using God as a get-out for total strategic failure."
LONDON, March 4, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – British Prime Minister Tony Blair drew fire on Saturday, March 4, from families of soldiers killed in Iraq and the political opposition for evoking God in his decision to go to war.
"God and religion have nothing to do with this war," said Reg Keys, the father of Lance Corporal Tom who was one of six Royal Military policemen killed in June 2003, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He accused Blair of "using God as a get-out for total strategic failure and I find it abhorrent."
Blair said God and history would judge his action in joining the US-led invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq in March 2003. Some 103 British soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq since then.
"That decision has to be taken and has to be lived with, and in the end there is a judgment that -- well, I think if you have faith about these things then you realize that judgment is made by other people," he said in the interview to be aired Saturday night.
"If you believe in God, it's made by God as well," added Blair, a devout Christian.
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The Peace And Justice Foundation, Inc.
El-Hajj Mauri’ Saalakhan is a Washington, DC-based human rights advocate; author, lecturer and poet. His work has taken him across America into Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. He is a founder of the Coalition Against Political Imprisonment (CAPI); a founder and spokesperson for the National Association for Police Accountability (NAPA); and is the founder and director of The Peace and Justice Foundation. He is the author of four books: The Teacher, a work of Islamically-based poetry and commentary on a myriad of social and political issues; Sacrilege In the Haramain, an eyewitness account of the tragedy that occurred in Mecca, Arabia (on 6th Zul-Hijjah 1407/July 31, 1987); Why Our Children Are Killing Themselves, an examination of the root causes behind the crises facing children, youth and families in America; Criminal Justice in America, an examination of the U.S. Criminal Justice System and its impact on the African American community. He is a critically-acclaimed poet, was selected as “An Outstanding Young Man of America” in 1986. In 1995 he was the recipient of the “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award,” from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and a “Maryland State Senate Resolution,” (for his human rights work in and outside the State of Maryland). In 1999 Saalakhan served as a consultant for Amnesty International's year long focus on human rights abuses in the United States of America. Presently he heads the National Public Information/Education Campaign (initiated by The Peace And Justice Foundation) to repeal the US government's unconstitutional use of "secret evidence," and to mobilize support for Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin
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WHEN A LIE BECOMES 'THE TRUTH'
Sheik Umar Abdur Rahman and the World Trade Center Bombing
In 1986, in the aftermath of America's criminal violation of international law with the bombing of Libya, the Reagan Administration got itself briefly into hot water when it was discovered that the pretext upon which it had ordered the bombing of a sovereign state was in fact based upon a lie. In the wake of the fallout, an administration official by the name of Bernard Kalb resigned from his position with the following words: "I am dissenting from the reported disinformation program. I am concerned about the impact of such a program on the credibility of the US...."
.... Time and space limitations will not permit me to explore this issue in any more detail at this time; let it suffice to say, the US Department of Justice moved forward with a baseless multi-count criminal indictment against the blind hafiz al-Quran, with the most serious charge being "seditious conspiracy" against the United States. This is what Sheikh Umar Abdur Rahman and eleven other brothers were convicted of - as the late William "Bill" Kunstler put it, "the [alleged] conspiracy to blow up everybody and everything" - and not the "World Trade Center bombing." We must never for get this!
To be continued (insha'Allah),
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
Director20 Jumada Awwal 1422 (August 10, 2001)
