NKRUMAH'S SPARKLE AFFECTED OTHER GREATS

                   NKRUMAH'S SPARKLE AFFECTED OTHER GREATS

The story is told of a poet who released an oft-repeated line in Arabic prophesying the impossibility of his name, actions and valor been forgotten by his people. The poet as reported was summoned by his people to lead them into war which he gladly accepted. As the war grew intense, his lieutenants began to flee from the battlefield. A flight faster than one from a menacing lion. He plunged into the battle alone and killed as many enemies as he could. He therefore released these poetic lines to signify how influential his singular act of bravery has been to his people:
            
              My people will mention my name when things harden up
             It is in the time of severe darkness, that a sparkle is sought after.

It is unusual for me to quote this Arab poet in relation to the subject matter of discussion. . However, I want to stress home a point into our skulls about how the machinations, covert and overt connivance and conspiracy can and will never extinguish the fire that Nkrumah lit  which sees his name mentioned whenever this noble country of ours is pummeled into the sinking sands of underdevelopment. No wonder he stated that the fire he lit “will be borne aloft, giving light and guidance to the people. Within and without Ghana or better still Africa, we find glowing, beaming and glittering light of Nkrumah’s unflinching influence. It is an undeniable fact that Africa today is still mirred in the myriad of problems more than it were a century ago as the continent continuous to wallow in the doldrums of absolute despondency  and jumps from one frying pan of problem to a fire of another. The continent has been submerged in natural as well as human-fuelled disasters. Civil wars taken over the warp and woof of the continent and hunger and destitution plunging the continent into the muck and mire of absolute penury.
The serious problem affecting Africans is the fragmented and disjointed state in which we find ourselves. And this is where Kwame Nkrumah is sought after like the sparkle in the poet’s darkness.
At the Baden Powell memorial Hall in Accra on July 18th, 1960. Nkrumah told a bevy of African ladies
“I think the solution is not difficult to find if African leaders have the will and the courage to face facts. The fact which faces us must be obvious to us all.  It is unity- a real political unity of African states. Any solution proffered other than unity can only serve to shelve the issue and can never solve this vital problem. We have the choice of three things: to unite, to stand separately and disintegrate, or sell ourselves to foreign powers. “He further stated, “ If Russia can unite sixteen states in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and America fifty states in the United States of America, no power on earth can prevent a similar Union of African States, provided the African leaders realize that this is their only salvation. If this is not done, I can see nothing that can save Africa.”  Such were the thoughts of a man who was much more concerned with the advancement of his people. Nkrumah is indeed a solitaire. And what is a solitaire? It is a jewel set by itself. Nkrumah is indeed a solitaire!
Lets put our observation caps on and critically observe this, the Pan-African congresses started from 1900 in London, 1919 in Paris, 1921 in London, 1923 in London, 1927 in New York and 1945 in Manchester. The fifth Pan-African congress which was held in Charlton Town Hall, Manchester, England from 15-21 October, 1945 was distinct and a complete departure from the other congresses held. This was so because a unique organizer was involved. Kwame Nkrumah organized that congress together with George Padmore, T.R Makonen and Peter Abrahams (a South African writer). The main reason this congress achieved a lot and stood unique in many ways was “because for the first time the delegates who attended it were practical men and men of action and not, as was the case of the four previous conferences, merely idealists contenting themselves with writing theses but quite unable to or unwilling to take part in dealing with the African problem” as Nkrumah stated in his autobiography. It is therefore not surprising that almost all the foremost Africans who partook in it made significant strides in their respective countries. Talking about Jomo Kenyatta, the Kenyan Independence leader, Hastings Kamuzu Banda who was the trailblazer of the fight against colonialism in Nyasaland (present day Malawi), one of Nigerians founding fathers Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo (The sage). Jaja Anucha Wachuku (First speaker of the Nigerian House of representatives as well as first Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent representative to United Nations, Dudley Joseph Thompson (a Jamaican Pan-African who contributed to Jurisprudence and Politics in Caribbean Africa were part of the men that benefited from the radiance  of  Nkrumah which made them luminaries in their various  countries. This is truly the man we will eulogize every microsecond. No wonder C.L.R James described Nkrumah as the “Lenin of Africa” and Amilcar Cabral labeled him as “the strategist of genius in the struggle against classical colonialism.”
The light of Nkrumah did not only end there. Much is said about the extensive and panoramic view of how Nkrumah helped pulverized colonialism and imperialism to the extent of making Ghana the Mecca of international struggle to ensure dignity.  Nelson Mandela, (according to the West, the world’s most respected statesman) outlined how he also came to Ghana to seek support against the much dreaded Apartheid system from Kwame Nkrumah. Ahmed Sekou Toure, Patrice Lumumba, Robert Mugabe, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Samora Machel and other great African personalities sought and gained support here from Nkrumah. The radiation did not end there. It crossed the Mediterranean to affect others who today are hailed as among greatest of men.
Martin Luther King Jnr was so inspired by the spectacle of independence he witnessed such that he delivered the famous “The     birth of a new nation” speech when he went back home.  During a radio interview he granted while in Ghana at the time of independence, he stated “It renews my conviction in the ultimate triumph of justice. And it seems to me that this is fit testimony to the fact that eventually the forces of justice triumph in the universe, and somehow the universe itself is on the side of freedom and justice. So this gives new hope to me in the struggle for freedom.”
In 2012, specifically October 12, 2012, a book was published titled “A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X.” It is a collection of essays in response to a book written by Manning Marable also titled, “Malcolm X, a life of Reinvention”, a book that won the 2012 Pulitzer Price for History describing it as “ an exploration  of the legendary life and provocative views of one of the most significant African-Americans in U.S. history”.  This particular book written by Marable concluded that Malcolm X has been economical with the truth in his autobiography, another book that was named by Time magazine as “one of the ten required reading non-fiction books.”   All these literary controversies surrounded one man in question, Malcolm X, a man who stands tall in the struggle of Black America.  And this man described Ghana as the true representation of Africa and its culture. This made him come back to Ghana later again to gain massive inspiration, seek some goodies and African nuggets of wisdom from the unsinkable Nkrumah.
The man with the most popular photograph in the world, Ernesto Che Guevara, the Cuban Castro brothers and other great men gained massive inspiration from the African Man of the millennium.
The youth of today should learn from Nkrumah and make positive impact in the world. “We should not only teach our children the exploits of their forefathers, we should also teach them how they can make massive exploits.” A point hinted by Ahmed Sekou Toure. I therefore leave us with a gem of wisdom on how to do that from our first ever and real president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah:
“What are your standards? What do you believe in? Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it a noble and glorious challenge- a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve, to achieve the highest excellences and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life?”

NB: The writer is a student of Tafsiliyya School for Training and Education.

HAPPY PERSISTENCE EARTHDAY TO MUBARAK IDDRISU

Until we met that fateful Friday on the serene campus of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, I held the perception that he was one of the guys who never saw the value of schooling and by tether, education. Though our elders say “an inquisitive monkey always has a bullet on his face”, I decided to be inquisitive.

 “What are you doing here”? I asked

“I am here to pray and go back to class.” He responded confidently.

“Which class”? I added more inquisitively.

“Remedial class at Ideal College.” He responded again.

After that interlocution, I found out that he had moved from Nima to Madina estate so that he could escape the enticements from friends in order to fully concentrate on his academic studies. I then revised my notes on him since then. And he has moved on stealthily.

Mubarak Iddrisu is the subject matter of discussion today. He completed Mrs. Adu Sam’s New Nation School in Nima in 2007 and moved to O’ Reilly Senior High School that same year to study General Science. After a year of rigorous studies, he did not fare well in the science course and decided to move to Business. He therefore joined the new entrants thus repeating a year. Like many Nima guys presently, he lost his soul to worldly pursuits and started as Mr.Kwabla Kuwornu will say “showing himself randomly’” in school. In his own words, he had this to say “Maazi, there is no club in Accra that I have not frequented. Roxbury, Vienna, Glens, Aponkye, Container etc.” and other clubs that are not discoverable to my puritan mind. “Maazi, if even I went to school those days, it was due to the unwavering cajolements from my parents. My dad who is shy of me usually begs me to go to school. My weekends begin on Thursdays when together with friends, I go for rendezvous in one of the boiling points in Accra. I sometimes go to school red-eyed and full of sleep and wish a teacher will just query me on anything. That query alone gives me a ‘carte blanche’ to move away from school usually with friends to endless parties in my house, restaurants etc.” In the end, Mubarak failed terribly and miserably in his WASSSCE examinations. HE PERFORMED DISMALLY AND ABYSMALLY. 

That did not raise any hackle on his skin because after all he was rich and could afford anything he wanted. He therefore continued his Parisian life with untold impunity.

There is a particular Stamping ground in Nima called Los Angeles. That is where we usually sit together into the wee hours of the night ‘analyzing’ topics ranging from archaeology to zoology. These analyses usually end up in noisy, charged arguments with each party screaming his lungs out to have his point stated.  However, we had sane and most often intellectually-stimulating discussions.  The discussions sometimes required thorough research before we came to a conclusion. Through these numerous discussions, Mubarak popularly called Shushu, who is one of the strong discussants realized he has a natural predilection for learning that he dropped. He decided to go pick it up. That was the beginning of the volte face!

Mubarak enrolled at the Ideal College, hid his face from friends and in his own words “married his books profoundly.”  Days before the results came out; he told me he will never go back to school again if he fails this time around again. Never! He was never to fail again! Allah stated emphatically in the Holy book of Islam, specifically in Chapter 18:30 “…… Indeed, We will not allow to be lost, the reward of any who did well in deeds.”  Mubarak stamped his authority in the examinations by coming out with straight A’s with two B’s. As I put pen to paper, Mubarak is a student of the University of Cape Coast studying BSc. Mathematics with Business.  

Archbishop Desmond Tutu painted this picture well for us “There is no situation that is not transformable. There is no person who is hopeless. There is no set of circumstances that cannot be turned about by human beings and their natural capacity for the love of the deepest sort.”

To all Nima boys and girls, no one owes us a living. We make our own destinies. You make your own life. You can choose to waste it and you can choose to make the most out of it. I see great potentialities in us that we waste on frivolities, banalities and unproductive ventures. We must persevere. We must persist in the face of turbulences and pestilences. We must persist to put our heads above the troubling waters.  Persistence indeed conquers.

Calvin Coolidge should perhaps advise us:

“Nothing in this world will take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

NB: The writer is a student of Tafsiliyya School for Training and Education.

Mubarak celebrated his birthday on 16th September, 2014. A birthday is just the beginning of another 365-days journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip!

GHANA MUSLIM ACADEMY AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF KNOWLEDGE

GHANA MUSLIM ACADEMY AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF KNOWLEDGE

The significance of knowledge can never be overstated or underestimated. That is why I join any bandwagon that is blazing the trail for the acquisition of this important factory that can change a wild beast into a near perfect human being.

Throughout history, it has been the men who challenged the thinking of their people, questioned tradition based on the availability of knowledge that they had acquired, fought  gallantly  against the ignominy of ignorance and left indelible footprints that has served as a memento of  their existence on earth,   that have shone brightly in the world. Some had to go through untold hardships, severe persecutions, venomous vituperations and others had to suffer with the ultimate price of their lives.

One person that stands out in such regards is the man who is credited to have invented the telescope and known as “the father of modern observational astronomy”, Galileo Galilei.  Galileo was an Italian Physicist and astronomer who was sent to the University of Pisa by his father to study and become a medical doctor. However he opted out when he found out that he had a strong inclination towards mathematics. He began to tutor until he became a Professor in Mathematics.  Galileo invented the first telescope and used it in making his first astronomy observation; “the moon was not smooth but mountainous and pitted.” Galileo’s study further entrenched his belief in Copernicus’s Heliocentric theory that the sun was the center of the earth and all other bodies revolved around it. This was much to the chagrin of the Catholic Church by then that held the belief that the world was earth-centered and all other bodies revolved around the earth. The Roman Inquisition banned Galileo in the end and placed him under house arrest. The Inquisition’s injunction against Galileo in 1616 stated inter alia, that he has   “to abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it... to abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing.”

Galileo died on January 8^th, 1642 whilst under arrest after publishing more of his conviction after the inquisition.

Another of such men who had to die painfully for his ideas based on empirical knowledge was Parnili. Parnili postulated that blood runs through the veins. This ruffled the thinking nest of his people. In the end he was pilloried and pelted to death.

These two stories amidst a myriad of them go a long way to confirm how knowledge outlives eternity. Long after these two men died, the world has come to establish that blood runs through the veins and the sun is the center of earth and all other bodies evolve around it.

It is in lieu of this fervid efficacy of knowledge that I profoundly give unconditional gratitude to the Ghana Muslim Academy for the tour de force they chalked. The Ghana Muslim Academy on Thursday, 4^th September ended its five week long intensive lessons with sessions of guidance and counseling aimed at supporting students at the Junior High School and Senior High school level to reach their educational goals in Nima, a suburb of Accra.

“This year’s free vacation school is very significant in that, it has recorded the highest enrolment since 2011. We have enrolled 300 students for both Junior High School and Senior High School this year. 55 students for the JHS and 245 students for the SHS.  On gender distribution, girls outnumbered the boys. The girls are 30 and the boys are 25 at the JHS level. At the SHS level, the girls are 153 and the boys are 92. This has been the trend for the past 10 years and it is indicative that parents in our deprived communities take the education of their girl-child seriously”, a revelation made by the Headmaster, Mr. Sulemana Moru.

Ghana Muslim Academy started this Free Vacation School since 1995 and a lot of students are beneficiaries of this free tuition. 

These are the positive strides that the inhabitants of Nima, a seemingly accursed community should be supporting. A community that is at the brink of collapsing can only be saved by a conscious effort on the part of the ‘sane’ ones to reshape and reframe the thinking minds of its young ones  so that they save the  community from sinking into the abyss. 

The message of the Minister of Education, Prof.Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang who graced the occasion to climax the vacation school was poignant to say the least. In simple plain English, she told the young children “You must believe you can make a difference. Having believed it you need to go beyond. It is not enough to believe you can make it and then after you have believed you can make it you go to sleep. That will not make it. You also need to plan, how am I going to realize the ideal, how am I going to make the thoughts I have into reality……… as students, a chunk of the time must be channeled into your studies. Everything else can wait.” A much needed advice to our youth.

Just like the works of Galileo and other great men proved how powerful and monumental knowledge is with their deaths. Just as they proved that a death for a noble cause is the greatest way to leave this earth. And just as the productions of their mind outlived them, so will the efforts of the Ghana Muslim Academy outlive eternity.

May Allah fortify your organization and further help spread the tentacles of your impact.

Knowledge is a tool we can use to develop ourselves. Knowledge is needed to replace an empty head with a filled head. Knowledge is needed for better thinking. Knowledge is the tool we need to lift ourselves from the depths of obscurity to heights of development. It is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. It also a sword against the enemy.

The Prophet of Islam, the exemplar beyond compare, drew home the point of how preponderantly important knowledge is to a people. In one of the six canonical books on the sayings of his, specifically Sunan Abu Dawud, he is credited to have said;

“If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, God will cause him to travel on one of the roads of Paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great pleasure with one who seeks knowledge. The inhabitants of the heavens and the Earth and (even) the fish in the deep waters will ask forgiveness for the learned man. The superiority of the learned over the devout is like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave (no monetary inheritance), they leave only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion.” May Allah grant us abundant knowledge! NB:  The writer is a student of Tafsiliyya School for training and education.

BOOK REVIEW: THE CLOTHES OF NAKEDNESS

                            ( Book written by Benjamin Kwakye)

1.     The wise treads cautiously

The story started In Medias res (Latin: in the midst of things) with Mystique Mysterious meeting  three great friends in the drinking spot, Gabriel Bukari, Kofi Ntim and Kojo Ansah.   Gabriel Bukari, as described in the book,  is a gentle, kind-hearted and hardworking man who loved his wife profoundly. Perhaps, his mistake in the entire story is the lack of concerted effort on his part to be circumspect in dealing with Mystique Mysterious. He simply did not look before he leaped and thus followed Mysterious foolishly till he met his pathetic death. On the other hand, Kofi Ntim showed extreme cautiousness in dealing with Mysterious and found himself living happily ever after. The story basically indicates how the wise study things through before they take action. The wise indeed tread cautiously.

2.     A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

Another theme captured by this wonderful story, The Clothes of Nakedness is how it is better to have a lesser but certain advantage than the possibility of a greater one that may come to nothing.  Baba had   Adukwei, a lovely girl who stood against all odds to show the love she had for him. In the end, he threw her away for another he hoped he will get. This resulted in the beatings he had to take from the police and eventually lost both Adukwei and the lady he hoped to get. The story teaches us that “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.”

3.     The one who experiences most wins

A very significant theme the story portrays is how life favors the determined man who faces a lot in life. Kofi Ntim was a man who defied death in even in his childhood which people believed (including his father) that it led to his mother’s death. He really faced difficulties in life from a very tender age and that made him studier. All his experiences really fused into his personality. No wonder he is the only survivor of the three friends. The experiences he had in life have made him very wise and astute. Truly, the one who experiences the most wins.

4.     The devil finds work for the idle hands.

Another theme massively reflected in the story is how the devil finds work for the unengaged person. Mystique Mysterious realized and noticed that the youth always sit purposelessly and smoke so he used that as a conduit to win them to his wicked cause. He did this by supplying them with marijuana and money. This made them gullible to him to the extent that at a time when he was caught trying to rape Fati, they never heeded to Kojo Ansah’s decision to have Mystique Mysterious sacked from the town. Indeed and truly, the idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

5.     There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the eye.

PALESTINE IS STILL AN ISSUE:13 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT

PALESTINE IS STILL AN ISSUE

13 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

 As the periodic bloodshed continues in the Middle East, the search for an equitable solution must come to grips with the root cause of the conflict. The conventional wisdom is that, even if both sides are at fault, the Palestinians are irrational “terrorists” who have no point of view worth listening to. Our position, however, is that the Palestinians have a real grievance: their homeland for over a thousand years was taken, without their consent and mostly by force, during the creation of the state of Israel. And all subsequent crimes—on both sides—inevitably follow from this original injustice. (Introduction to the book “The origin of the Palestine-Israel conflict published by Jews for justice in the Middle-east).

1.     The current turbulence in the Middle-East between Israel and Palestine is as a result of the illegal occupation of Palestine by Jews from across the length and breadth of the world claiming that it is “the Jews historical homeland”.

2.     This call for massive occupation was not coming from any religious edict. Rather it was as a result of a movement known as Zionism. As a matter of fact, Zionism was an idea brought about by an Austro-Hungarian Journalist known as Theodor Herzl. He together with Max Simon Nordau (born Simon Maximilian Sudfeld) and Prof. Mandelstamm formed a triumvirate that massively represented the “Zionist dream”.

3.     Zionism is a form of secular Nationalism that stems from secular philosophers and not religion. However, as in the case of other versions of nationalism, Zionism also attempted to use religion for its own ends. It is at best, a racial ideology that sees Jews as ultra-superior to all other races and that those races are unfit to live closer to Jews.

4.     The above-mentioned three men formed the World Zionist Organization which started the massive call for Jews to move so that they live separately because they are a separate “race”.  Initially, most Jewish communities in the world rejected the call and saw it as a betrayal of the edicts and teachings of Judaism.

5.     In the year 1900, in their quest to find a place of settlement, the   Jews tried Uganda in a design known as “Ugandan Scheme” or “Ugandan Plan”. This offer was made to them by the British Colonial Secretary called Joseph Chamberlain. This plan foiled because the land was occupied by Maasai  people who were emerging from their conquer over the Sirikwa tribe and also the land was filled with lions and other wild creatures.

6.     They later regarded Palestine because according to them “it was their historical land.” So the Propaganda began. They canalized the propaganda because they had the largest imperialist then, Britain solidly behind them. The slogan they used to make their message appealing was “a people without a land for a land without a people.” In actual fact, the Jews had land because they were settled in various parts of the world and the land in question was inhabited by Palestinians.

7.     The British Foreign Secretary during the First World War (1914-1918) then was Arthur James Balfour. He wrote a letter to Baron de Rothschild. This letter became known as the ‘Balfour Declaration.”  As a result of this, England, the world’s super-power by then ruled that “His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people… in Palestine.”

8.     Having received the official support of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionists found themselves in a difficult position when many fellow Jews refused to emigrate. Thus the Zionists began to engage in "special activities" to "encourage" Jewish migration to Palestine, even force when necessary, such as harassing Jews in their home countries and cooperating with anti-Semites to ensure that governments would expel their Jews. Thus Zionism developed as a movement that harassed and terrorized its own people.

With the Nazi Party's rise to power, Jews in Germany were subjected to ever-increasing pressure, a development that further accelerated their migration to Palestine. The fact that the Zionists supported the Nazi suppression of Jews is a fact, and yet remains one of history's best-kept secrets.

9.     Approximately 100,000 Jews emigrated from wherever they were to Palestine between 1920-29. If one considers that there were about 750,000 Palestinians at that time, then 100,000 is certainly no small number. The Zionist organizations had complete control over this migration. Jews who set foot in Palestine were met by Zionist groups, who determined where they would stay and what type of work they would do. This migration was encouraged by Zionist executives with various incentives.

10.                        From the day Zionism entered Palestine, its adherents have sought to destroy the Palestinians. To make room for the migrating Jews, whether influenced by Zionist ideals or afraid of anti-Semitism, the Palestinians were constantly pressured, exiled, and kicked out of their homes and lands. This movement to occupy and exile, accelerated by the founding of Israel in 1948, destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. To this day, about 3.5 million Palestinians still struggle for their lives as refugees under the most difficult conditions.

11.                         According to official records, the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine increased from 100,000 in the 1920s to 232,000 in the 1930s. As of 1939, the Palestinian population of 1.5 million included 445,000 Jews. Their numbers, which had represented just 10% of the population 20 years earlier, now accounted for 30% of the population. Jewish settlements also expanded rapidly, and by 1939 the Jews owned twice the amount of land that they had owned in the 1920s. As of 1947, there were 630,000 Jews in Palestine and 1.3 million Palestinians. Between November 29, 1947, when Palestine was partitioned by the United Nations, and May 15, 1948, Zionist terrorist organizations captured three-fourths of Palestine. During this time, the number of Palestinians living in 500 cities, towns, and villages dropped from 950,000 to 138,000 as a result of attacks and massacres. Some were killed; others were exiled. In this way, 400 Palestinian villages were wiped off the map during 1948-49. The property left behind by the Palestinians was seized by the Jews, by virtue of the “Absentee Property Law”. Until 1947, Jewish land ownership in Palestine was some 6%. By the time the state was formally established, it had sequestered 90% of the land.

12.                        “The Balfour Declaration, made in November 1917 by the British Government… was made a) by a European power, b) about a non-European territory, c) in a flat disregard of both the presence and the wishes of the native majority resident in that territory.

13.                         Gandhi on the Palestine conflict – 1938 

“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French…What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct…If they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs… As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.” Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in “A Land of Two Peoples” ed. Mendes-Flohr.

Sources:

1.     “Palestine” by Harun Yahya

2.     “The origin of the Palestine-Israel conflict” by Jews for Justice in the Middle-east.

3.       “Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice” by John Quigley, professor of law at Ohio State University. Duke University Press, 1990.

4.      “The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & the Palestinians” by Noam Chomsky, professor at MIT and “arguably the most important intellectual alive” (NY Times). South End Press, 1983.

5.      “Original Sins: Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel” by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi. An honest history of Zionism by a noted Israeli scholar who teaches at Haifa University. Olive Branch Press, 1993

6.      “Bitter Harvest” by Sami Hadawi. A very complete look at the documentary evidence of the creation of the state of Israel, by a Palestinian Christian who lived through that period. Caravan Books, 1979.

More to come……….  In sha Allah!   Free Palestine!

Inusah Mohammed.

okoromaazi@gmail.com

The writer is a student of Tafsiliyya School for Training and Education.