What Does it Mean to See a Black Church Burning?

What Does it Mean to See a Black Church Burning?

Michele M. Simmsparris


Excerpted from, What Does it Mean to See a Black Church Burning? Understanding the Significance of Constitutionalizing Hate Speech, 1 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 127-151 (Spring 1998) (Citations and Footnotes Omitted)

A. A Historical Background of the Significance of Black Churches: Beyond a Monolithic Construct of African-American Religion and Religiosity

Notions of religious faith and freedom have shaped much of American political and social philosophy. For many Americans religion is not just a way of thinking, but a way of life. In African-American history, "the church" has long stood at the center of Black communities establishing itself as the pre-eminent source for religious enrichment and secular development.

To capture a sense of the shared historical experiences of African- Americans, in particular African-American Christians, the phrase "the Black Church" evolved. The phrase has developed into a term of art for expressing the centrality of Black churches in Black communities. Although the term, "the Black Church" isa bit misleading, it presents a tangible quality to the intricacies of racial and religious interstionality unique to African- American history. For many African-American Christians, despite their denominational differences, Black churches have always represented a triumvirate of religion, community, and home. Thus, in an attempt to convey the significance of Black Churches in Black communities, scholars have repeatedly asserted that "Black history and Black church history intersect[ed] at so many points as to be virtually identical." Hence, despite the presence of myriad factions of Black churches in America, the depiction of the monolithic Black Church is pervasive throughout African-American historiography as a matter of historical course.

Even though history illustrates many moments in which the social and political experiences of African-Americans either affected or were affected by Black churches, aspects of Black history and Black church histories in many ways remained distinct. In essence, the term "the Black Church" is a misnomer. The term "the Black church" implies that all Black churches share or have shared the same aspirations and strategies for creating cohesive African-American communities. This is far from true.

A deconstruction of the monolithic Black church begins with the acknowledgment of the innumerable differences found among Black communities and the reflection of those differences within their community churches. Black communities differed from region to region. They were divided along social lines, composed of persons from different economic levels, and maintained varying political philosophies. Black communities in the inner cities of the United States have traditionally differed from those in rural areas. Ultimately, the needs and concerns of the members of these varying communities were also dissimilar from area to area. Therefore, like all other Americans, social stratification was a reality of Black Americans. For African-Americans such stratification was affected by the wide range of attitudes toward race, class, gender, education and political affiliation. The social differences that countenanced each sub- community of the larger Black community was also reflected in the identities of Black Churches.

The diversity of Black communities was reflected in the variety of Black Churches. African-American community churches varied in denominational affiliations, theological practice, and regional location. In The Negro Church in America, the sociologist E. Franklin Frazier noted, "Methodist and Baptist denominations were separate church organizations based upon distinctions of color and what were considered standards of civilized behavior." Not only did Black churches differ culturally and ideologically, but each church also differed in the ways it evolved.

Many Black churches were created in response to racial segregation. Many African-American churches were established in response to African-American dissatisfaction with the teachings of "white churches." Some were established simply to bring varying forms of Christianity into Black communities which already had either one or several established Black churches. Consequently, the concerns of independent Black churches reflected the varying concerns of their congregants.

Nevertheless, despite their regional, denominational, and theological differences, Black churches maintained striking commonalities. Black churches were consistently at the social and religious centers of Black communities. The interwoven fabric of the secular and the ecclesiastical within many Black religious institutions created a base upon which African-Americans could organize politically and persist spiritually. Black churches were not only given to the teachings of Christianity but they were faithfully relied upon to address the specific issues which affected their members.

Since the establishment of the first independent African-American church in America in 1773, Black churches have flourished. Even though many African-American churches were created in reaction to racial discrimination and segregation, what developed was more than separate places to worship for African-Americans. Instead, churches became religious institutions devoted to addressing the needs of members of the Black community.



B. Understanding the Church as a Community

The Negro church was not only an arena of political life for the leaders of Negroes, it had a political meaning for the masses. Although they were denied the right to vote in the American community, within their churches, especially the Methodist Churches, they could vote and engage in electing their officers. The election of bishops and other officers and representatives to conventions has been a serious activity for the masses of Negroes . . . . For the Negro masses, in their social and moral isolation in American society, the Negro church community has been a nation within a nation.

In church-centered Black communities, the relationship between one's community and one's church was intimate. Far more than just a place to worship, the Black Church was a nation within a nation. The meshing of Black community life with the religious experiences of African- Americans precipitated the birth of the dichotomy between church and religion found within the construction of Black religions. For many African- Americans, church was not only a place to receive religious instruction on the doctrines of Christianity, church was a community in which to learn about one's world.

Black churches were organizational sites for social and political activities, centers for economic development and growth. As microcosms of the larger society, Black churches provided an environment free of oppression and racism for African-Americans. In Black Churches, African-Americans were consistently exposed to social, political, and economic opportunities which could be sought and had by all members equally.

The representational structure of African-American churches confirmed Black preachers as both religious and community leaders. The sermons of many Black preachers expounded messages of Christianity analogized to the daily experiences of African-Americans. Thematic expressions of overcoming oppression and "lifting while climbing," were first articulated in church sermons.

Using their authority as religious leaders, Black preachers incorporated the teachings of Christianity into political manifestos. Slavery, emancipation, and the continued struggle for civil rights, provided the context for analysis of Biblical stories such as the escape of the Jews from Egypt. The idea of "freedom through collective deliverance," as articulated in the Book of Exodus, gave African-Americans a sense of political and community direction through religious belief and expression. The notion of divine intervention which permeated the lessons of Exodus did not translate seamlessly into a positive mandate for African-Americans to overcome oppression. Yet, the teachings of African-American churches nurtured the motivations of Black people to oppose and overcome racial persecution. African-Americans' belief in divine intervention, coupled with a community spirit to struggle and to overcome social, political, and economic hardships, inspired many Black Church members.



C. Finding a Home in the Church

During the decades of slavery in America, slave associations were a constant source of concern to slave owners. For many members of white society, Black churches and religious meetings symbolized the ultimate threat to white existence. Nevertheless, African-American slaves established and relied heavily on their churches. "Religion offered a means of catharsis . . . African-Americans retained their faith in God and found refuge in their churches." However, white society was not always willing to accept the involvement of slaves in Christianity. As one slave recounted "[t]he white folks would come in when the colored people would have prayer meeting, and whip everyone of them. Most of them thought that when colored people were praying it was against them."

Religious exercises of slaves were closely watched to detect plans for escape or insurrection. African-American churches took on an air of militancy in the eyes of white Americans. Insurrections such as Nat Turner's in Virginia, born out of the religious inspiration of slaves, horrified white Americans. Understanding the potential end which could result from the religious experiences of African-American slaves, many white Americans opposed the participation of Blacks in Christianity.

Despite the social adversity that opposed their existence, Black churches were established, and served as integral parts ofBlack communities. According to E. Franklin Frazier, during times of slavery, and well after emancipation, "the [Negro] church gave support to [Negro] family life [and was] the most important agency of social control [among Negroes]." Insofar as whites could not understand and were afraid of Black religiosity, "the Negro church with its [unique] forms of religious worship was a world which the white man did not invade." Therefore, out of this history of separation and exclusion, Black Churches rooted themselves as the souls of the communities in which they stood.

After emancipation, as racial domination thrived in reconfigured forms, Black churches became virtually the only place for African-Americans to find refuge. As African-American Christians moved from slavery to emancipation their religious practices and houses of worship also changed. They moved away from the "hush-harbors" that they retreated to for solace as slaves, and built churches. Just as the prayer meetings which took place in slave "cabin room[s]" were devoted to countless pleas for deliverance from slavery, the sermons that were given in Black churches addressed the post-emancipation needs and concerns of members of Black communities.

Inevitably, Black churches became sources for Black empowerment. Black churches, such as H.H. Proctor's Congregational Church housed schools, employment bureaus, shelters for the aged and orphans, and meeting places. "In 1886 [African-Americans] organized the National Baptist Convention, in an attempt to reduce the influence of white national bodies among blacks." Black churches worked collectively to deal with Black issues, especially racial discrimination in segregated schools, neighborhoods, and businesses.

As racially motivated violence and terrorism ran rampant across the country, Black churches were staunch in their resistance. In 1908, The Christian Index published the "Colored Methodist Bishops' Appeal to White America-1908." In their statement, church leaders responded to the surge of mob violence and lynchings occurring across the country, denouncing terrorism waged against Black persons and imploring the country to suppress the spread of anti-Black violence. As anti-Black terrorism proliferated into the twentieth century, Black churches grew increasingly vehement in their calls for castigation of racial violence. However the more involved Black Churches became in sparring against the racial intolerance and violence targeted against them, the more the churches and their members were chastised.

By the commencement of the Civil Rights era, Black churches were well established social and political power bases for African-Americans. The enormous presence of Black churches in African-American communities, naturally, sanctioned them with the political power to lead Black people in the movement for civil rights. Yet, Black Churches were torn on whether and how best to get involved in the movement. Some churches and church organizations were completely opposed to any involvement in the political struggle for civil rights. Yet, those that chose to participate did so fervently, organizing by rallies, protests, and marches, while teaching the lessons of Christianity and community involvement. Ultimately, racism made individual African-Americans the targets of racial violence. Racism plus the concentrated political power of African-Americans in Black churches confirmed African-American churches as the central targets for racial violence waged against the entire Black community.



D. Sometimes When There's Racial Hate . . . There's Fire

Extra-legal violence has been an effective means of communicating racial hatred throughout American history, especially as a method of social and physical control. Fire in particular was used not only to inflict physical harm upon disfavored persons in communities, but to send messages which threatened further harm to either persons or property. The pages of American-African history document an undeniable record of the racially motivated use of fire to either threaten or inflict harm upon African- Americans.

During the Civil Rights Movement, "the church functioned as the institutional center" for Black mobilization. Churches provided "an organized mass base and meeting place," for African-Americans to strategize their moves in the fight against racial segregation and oppression. As Black Churches became the epicenter of the social and political struggles for African-American equality, they increasingly became targets for racially motivated violence. Thus, a broad assault on members of a Black community could effectively take place by burning a Black church. The bombing and burning of Black churches translated into an attack upon the core of civil rights activism, as well as upon the larger Black community.

The most infamous example of church destruction, occurred on Sunday, September 15, 1963. When the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was fire bombed, the explosion was felt by the entire Black community. Not only were four children killed in the attack and several people injured, but a community's sense of security within their church was forever shaken.

The burning of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church signified the depths to which racial hatred could fall. Like many other churches bombed before and after, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was attended predominantly by African-Americans. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, the Church was active in the struggle to desegregate southern public schools and supported the call for equal rights for Black people in America. Even though the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was implicated in this crime, members of the KKK were not the only persons responsible for similar acts of terror throughout the country. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident.

In January 1957, four Black Churches were bombed in Montgomery, Alabama. In April, two were burned in Bessemer, Alabama. In 1958, burned churches were reported in Birmingham and Memphis. In 1959, a church was reported to have been burned in Roscoe, Georgia. In 1963, a church was reported to have been bombed in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In Vicksburg, Mississippi, two people were killed in a church that had been used to register for Black voters when it was bombed in 1964.

Starting in 1964, Meridian, Mississippi, was added to the list of places in which Black churches were attacked. In January 1968, two more Black churches were bombed in Meridian. On February 22, the New Hope Baptist Church, "site of a Head Start program and civil rights activities," was torched. On February 23, the parsonage of the Newell Chapel Methodist Church was finally burned after a previous failed attempt.

As a result of the violence, some churches were forced into social incapacitation. Members of the First Union Baptist Church in Meridian were so afraid of being bombed that they opposed using the church for a much needed Head Start Program. Thus, racially motivated arsons, though not successful in destroying the souls of Black communities, managed nonetheless to inflict a significant amount of harm on churches, their congregants, and surrounding communities. FN110] In the end, the message of racial hate was burned into the memories of African-Americans and revisits us every time one of our churches burn.

Black Church fires set by arsonists in the 1990s revivify images of Black people excluded from participating in the Christian faith, lynched by angry mobs, and watching their churches torched during the 1950s and 1960s. Images of anti-Black terrorism are so indelible that they are recreated as African-American churches burn in the 1990s. In places like Amite County, Mississippi, during the last year, the smoking remains of burned or burning Black churches have re-inscribed the message of racial hatred which permeated the 1960s.

In Amite County, Mississippi, racial hate is unquestionably apparent. Graffiti writings of scrawled racial epithets and swastikas on the walls of burned Black churches articulate the unrelenting presence of racism. It is not surprising that Amite County, once deemed one of the two most notorious "church burning capitals of the world," is again a major target for attack. In Amite County, "Black residents [here] have long been the victims of [other] racially motivated attacks--mailbox shootings, cross burnings, hooded Klansmen yelling racist slurs while riding through Black neighborhoods." Such incidents illustrate how far we have not come with regard to eradicating racial terrorism. Therefore, when the Springhill Freewill Baptist Church was burned in 1996, the flames rekindled the fear and outrage produced by the burning of Black Churches a generation earlier.

The arsons of the 1990s inspire fear based not only on what was learned in Black history books, but rather on the recollections of real experiences. Margaret Tobias, a current resident of Amite County, not only "witnessed church bombings of the 1960s, she survived an attempted arson on her home in 1965." Now, thirty years later, as member of the Springhill Freewill Baptist Church, Tobias is, again, a witness and victim of church desecration.

Among the most disturbing aspects of the burning of Black Churches today is the demolition of the comfortable myth that such acts of terrorism ended with the Civil Rights Movement. According to the late Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones, former Associate to the General Secretary for Racial Justice, National Council of Churches, "[o]ver the past four years (1992-1996) there have been more Black Churches burned than during the entire Civil Rights Movement." From January of 1995 through July of 1996, more than seventy Black and multiracial churches were burned. More churches were burned during that eighteen month period than during the previous five years combined. As one commentator wrote, the era of "night riders, cross burnings, church burnings, home burnings, and farm burnings" was thought to have passed. Instead the burnings of Black Churches across the country teach us that racial violence is an ugly fact of our American reality.

To burn a Black Church is to conjure up images of past and future fires set to harm members of Black communities. It is in this context of violence and the communication of violence that incidents of cross burning like that which was addressed by our nation's Supreme Court in R.A.V. must be understood. Contextually the historically racist meaning of fire as a threat is understood by arsonists and victims alike. Consequently, whether fire is used to burn a cross or a church such expression must not be viewed solely as "speech," but rather as an incontrovertible threat.

Fundamental to the problem of racial terrorism is our government's willingness to constitutionalize hateful speech, which creates an environment that nourishes hatred against Black communities and results in burned churches. By the time a church is burned to the ground the harm has already been done, and in every case the harm is irreparable. Although some may argue that there is a clear difference between cross burning and church burning, given the history of the expressive meaning of both such argument would stand without merit. R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul vividly illustrates the consequences of inaction in the face of racial intolerance.

Full text of Human Rights Record of the US in 2005

Full text of Human Rights Record of the US in 2005

Following is the full text of the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005, released by the Information office of China's State Council Thursday.


The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005

The Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

March 9, 2006


On March 8, the U.S. Department of State, posing once again as "the world's judge of human rights," released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005. As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights situations in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but kept silent on the serious violations of human rights in the United States. To help people realize the true features of this self-styled "guardian of human rights," it is necessary to probe into the human rights abuses in the United States in 2005.

I. On Life and Security of Person

For a long time, the life and personal security of people of the United States have not been under efficient protection. American society is characterized with rampant violent crimes. Across the country each year, 50,000 suicides and homicides are committed (Va.Violent Deaths Are Mostly Suicides, The Washington Post, October12, 2005).

The U.S. Justice Department reported on Sept. 25, 2005 that there were 5,182,670 violent crimes in the United States in 2004. There were 21.4 victims for every 1,000 people aged 12 and older, which amounts to about one violent crime victim for every 47 U.S. citizens (Crime Rate Remains at 2003 Level, Study Says, The Washington Post, September 26, 2005).

According to figures released by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), murder increased by 2.1 percent across the United States during the first six months of 2005, compared with the same period of 2004. A total of 4,080 murders were reported in cities with more than 10,000 people, while homicides were up 13 percent in cities with a population of 10,000 or less (Murder Rate in Small Cities Jumps 13%, USA Today, Dec. 20, 2005).

The Washington D.C., with a population of less than 600,000, had 194 slayings in 2005 (D. C. Area Slaying Climbed In 2005, The Washington Post, Jan. 2, 2006).

In Chicago, the number of various crimes exceeded 125,000 from January to September of 2005, including 352 murders, 11,564 robberies, 8,903 assaults and 534 arsons (http://egov.cityofchicago.org).

From January to mid-November of 2005, 334 persons were murdered in Philadelphia, exceeding the total number of murderees in the city in 2004 ( Philly: 334 Killings So Far This Year, Philadelphia Daily News, Nov. 14,2005).

During the first half of 2005, 198 murders were reported in Los Angeles, 11 percent more than the same period of 2004 (Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2005).

Seventy-two people were murdered in Compton, California, with a population of only 96,000 ( Compton Killings Highest in Years, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 2, 2006). Camden in New Jersey has become the most dangerous city in the United States, with its homicide rate more than ten times the national average and robbery rate, more than seven times the national average (Camden, N.J., Ranked Most Dangerous U.S. City, The Washington Post, Nov. 22, 2005).

The United States has the largest number of privately owned guns in the world. According to statistics released in June 2005 by the Brady Campaign, an organization aiming to prevent gun violence, there were approximately 192 million privately owned firearms in the United States (Firearm Facts, Issued by The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, June 2005, in: http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/factsheets/).

A survey conducted by the Washington Post and the American Broadcasting Company showed that about ten percent of the surveyed were once shot, and 14 percent threatened by guns.

According to figures released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Justice Department in 2005, in the year 2004 the United States recorded 339,200 firearm-related crimes, including 11,300 murders, 162,900 robberies, and 165,000 assaults (Statistics Crimes Committed with Firearms, Issued by U.S. Bureau of Justice, in: http://www.ojb.usdoj.gov/bjs).

The Washington Post reported on Dec. 25, 2005 that every year nearly 12,000 Americans use guns to kill people. In the reports of crimes received by American police in 2004, 70 percent of the murders, 41 percent of the robberies and 19 percent of assaults on persons were committed with firearms.

The unchecked spread of guns has caused incessant murders. In February 2005, mother and husband of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow were shot to death at home in Chicago.

In March, a rape suspect killed one judge and two others at a courthouse in Fulton County in Atlanta and hijacked four cars to escape.

On March 12, a gunman opened fire at a church service being held at the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people and injuring four.

On March 21, 17-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandparents and went on a shooting rampage at the Red Lake High School in Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota, killing another eight persons including school security guard, teacher and students and injuring 14 others (CNN, March 21, 2005).

On April 25, a 14-year-old girl shot her father to death in Colorado. On Christmas Day of 2005, a man shot and killed his mother at home in the suburb of Washington and then drove eight miles to another home and killed three other people, before turning the gun on himself (Washington, AP April 30, 2005).


II. On Infringements upon Human Rights by Law Enforcement and Judicial Organs

There exist serious infringements upon personal rights and freedoms by law enforcement and judicial organs in the United States.

Secret snooping is prevalent and illegal detention occurs from time to time. The recently disclosed Snoopgate scandal has aroused keen attention of the public in the United States. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. President has for dozens of times authorized the National Security Agency and other departments to wiretap some domestic phone calls. With this authorization, the National Security Agency may conduct surveillance over phone calls and e-mails of 500 U.S. citizens at a time. It is reported that from 2002 through 2004, there were at least 287 cases in which special agents of FBI were suspected of illegally conducting electronic surveillance. In one of the cases, a FBI agent conducted secret surveillance of an American citizen for five years without notifying the U.S. Department of Justice. On Dec. 21, 2005, the U.S. Senate voted to extend the Patriot Act, a move that aroused keen concern of public opinion. The law makes it easier for FBI agents to monitor phone calls and e-mails, to search homes and offices, and to obtain the business records of terrorism suspects. (Senate Votes to Extend Patriotic Act for 6 Months, The Washington Post, Dec. 22, 2005). According to a report of the U.S. National Broadcasting Company on Dec. 13, 2005, the U.S. Defense Department had been secretly collecting information about U.S. citizens opposing the Iraq war and secretly monitoring all meetings for peace and against the war. According to a report of the New York Times, in recent years, FBI had been collecting information on large numbers of non-governmental organizations that participated in anti-war demonstrations everywhere in the United States through its monitoring network and other channels. The volume of collected information is stunning. (The Fog of False Choices, The New York Times, Editorial, Dec. 20, 2005). Among it, there are 2,400 pages of information on Greenpeace, an environmental group. On Jan. 9, 2006, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection announced that in the "anti-terrorism" fight the U.S. customs has the right to open and inspect incoming private letters, which again sparked protests. (The AP, Jan. 9, 2006.) On Jan. 17, 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights separately filed suits in U.S. district court for eastern Michigan and a federal court against the U.S. President and heads of security agencies for spying on U.S. citizens.

Police abuse is also very common in the United States. According to a report of the Los Angeles Times on July 14, 2005, Los Angeles police shot dead the 19-month-old daughter of a suspect when trying to arrest the suspect, which triggered public outcry. On Oct. 9, five New Orleans police officers battered a 64-year-old retired teacher on the street while trying to arrest him, and he suffered injuries. (AP, Oct. 9, 2005) The incident caught the attention of public opinion. On Dec. 26, a New Orleans Police officer fired at least six shots at a black man carrying a knife and killed him. Cases of police abuse are usually hard to get just settlement. According to a report of the Los Angeles Times on March 31, 2005, only eight out of more than 200 charges against police mistreatment and abuse were resolved, and the rest were either shelved or settled privately.

There exist obvious injustice and frequent rights infringements in the judiciary system. In 2005, the U.S. media disclosed several cases of citizens wrongly convicted. After 24 years in prison, Robert Clark Jr. from Georgia was released after a DNA test proved him innocent. Clark's was one of the longest incarcerations served by the 164 people who have been exonerated by DNA testing. (After 24 Years in Prison, Man Has a Reason to Smile, the New York Times, Dec. 8, 2005). On the night of Dec. 21, 2005, the CNN Larry King Live program interviewed four convicted felons that have recently been proven innocent by DNA evidence after having stayed more than 10 years behind bars. Well-known Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos said during the program that he had seen studies that there are up to 20 percent of wrongful convictions in the United States. (Many Convicted Felons Have Been Proven Innocent by DNA Evidence, CNN Larry King Live, Aired Dec. 21, 2005.) A report of the U.S. Death Penalty Information Center released in October 2005 said the U.S. death penalty system is "woefully short of justice," because of "misconduct in misinforming the juries." (AFP, Oct. 18, 2005)

The United States proclaims to be a "paradise of freedom," yet the total number and ratio of its people behind bars both rank the first in the world. According to data released by the statistics bureau of the U.S. Justice Department on Oct. 23, 2005, the total number of people incarcerated in the United States was 2,267,787 at the end of 2004. This meant an incarceration rate of 724 per 100,000, up 18 percent from ten years earlier and 25 percent higher than that of any other nation. (Study Notes Upswing In Arrests of Women, the Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2005.) According to a survey of the New York Times, the number of people sentenced to life in prison had doubled in the United States over the past ten years. (Packing Prisons, Squandering Lives, the Baltimore Sun, Oct. 21, 2005.) From 2003 to 2004, the number of prisoners grew at a rate of 900 each week. In the first half of 2004, the number of newly incarcerated in the 50 states grew 2.3 percent over the same period of the previous year to 48,000.

As the prisons were packed, the situation of prisoners worsened. On Dec. 31, 2004, 24 state prison systems were operating at or above their highest capacity. The federal system was 40 percent over capacity. (The Nation's Prison Population Continues Its Slow Growth, U.S. Department of Justice, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs) As the government cut back on expenditure of prisons, some state prison systems reduced input on medical care for prisoners. As a result, a large number of prisoners were infected with tuberculosis or hepatitis. In April 2005, a 44-year-old male inmate died in a prison of New York for lack of timely treatment. In recent years, hundreds of inmates suffered head injuries from maltreatment in New York City alone. In a Rikers Island jail of New York, an inmate was punched on the head by a prison guard and he lost the sight in one eye; an inmate had his eardrum broken and the cheekbone of another inmate was fractured from police maltreatment. (In City Jails, A Question of Force, the New York Times, Oct. 30, 2005.) In Phoenix city, inmates were kept in tents and forced to undertake various sorts of labor, fed with only two meals a day and bereft of any entertainment. (El Universal of Mexico, Aug. 26, 2005.) In August 2005, a Qatar student that had been detained for two years without indictment described the living conditions in the prison: no guarantee of basic life necessities, long-time confinement in a very tiny ward with the longest period lasting 60 days, handcuffed and fettered even in the ward, including during bath. During Hurricane Katrina, between Aug. 29 and Sept. 1, 2005, correctional officers from the New Orleans Sheriff's Department abandoned 600 inmates in a prison, as many were immersed in chest and neck level water and left without food, water, electricity, fresh air, or functioning facilities for four days and nights.

Sexual infringement is quite common in prisons. According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Justice in June 2005, an estimated 8,210 allegations of sexual violence were reported by correctional authorities, of which almost 42 percent involved staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct. A report of the Human Rights Watch said that 21 percent of inmates in seven Midwestern prisons in the United States suffered sexual violence perpetrated by inmates of the same sex.


III On Political Rights and Freedom

The United States has always boasted itself as the "model of democracy" and hawked its mode of democracy to the rest of the world. In fact, American "democracy" is always one for the wealthy and a "game for the rich."

The democratic elections in the United States, to a great extent, are driven by money. During the mayoral election of New York City in November 2005, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent 77.89 million U.S. dollars of his fortune for re-election. That came to more than 100 U.S. dollars per vote. The election was termed by the Associated Press as the most expensive mayoral re-election in history. In the race for governor of New Jersey, the dueling multimillionaires spent 75 million U.S. dollars combined, with 40 million dollars by Jon S. Corzine, who won the election. Taking into account the 60 million U.S. dollars he spent on a Senate seat in 2000, Corzine had spent 100 million U.S. dollars in five years for elections. According to a survey, in Washington D.C. a U.S. senator needs about 20 million U.S. dollars to keep the seat in the Senate. The Washington Post criticized the U.S. political system in an editorial: "But a political system that turns elective office into a bauble for purchase is not a healthy one."

Decisions of the U.S. Congress and the Administration are deeply influenced by money. It is known to all that in the United States, various firms and interest groups hire public relations and consulting companies to lobby the Congress and the Administration, spending money to influence their decisions and win government contracts. On Jan. 4, 2006, mainstream U.S. media carried reports on super lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleading guilty to three felony charges including a conspiracy involving corruption of public officials and agreeing to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in investigating members of Congress and aides suspected of corruption. The case is the largest power-for-money scandal in American politics for several decades. It was reported that 20 members of Congress and their aides have been involved in this unusual large-scale scandal. But the Abramoff case is just a tip of an iceberg. According to the Washington Post and the British Observer, lobbying has become a great growth industry with huge profits in Washington. Currently, the number of registered lobbyists has reached 34,750, that comes 60 to 1 compared with the total number of the U.S. federal officials elected. Meanwhile, the lobbyists handle more than two billion U.S. dollars of funds a year. Washington downtown's K Street with many lobbying firms is called "the road to riches" and "the fourth largest power" next to the President, the Congress and the Court. From 1998 to 2004, lobbyists spent 13 billion U.S. dollars to promote realization of their clients' wishes. In 2004, 2.1 billion U.S. dollars was spent on lobbying the federal government and the Congress, and 3 billion U.S. dollars for elections of the President and members of Congress in the United States. The USA Today revealed that since 2000, 5,410 trips of Congress members were financed by undisclosed sources and Congress members have taken 16 million U.S. dollars in privately financed trips. It's a "revolving door" for lobbyists to turn into politicians and retired politicians from government service to engage in influence peddling in the private sector. It was reported that since 1998 more than 2,200 former U.S. government employees have become lobbyists; among them are 273 former White House staff members and 250 former Congress members and department heads from the Executive branch.

On Oct. 24, 2005, a national public opinion survey released by the U.S. News and World Report revealed that 73 percent Americans believe their leaders are out of touch with the average person; 64 percent of Americans feel that their leaders are corrupted by power; 62 percent think that leaders seek for increase in personal wealth. A joint Gallup Poll by the USA Today and CNN found job approval for Congress, which has a Republican majority, has fallen to 29 percent, the lowest level since 1994; 49 percent American adults say they believe "most members of Congress are corrupt." Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark said it is an offense to democracy to describe the United States as a democracy.

The United States flaunts its press freedom but scandals about the U.S. government blocking and manipulating information came out continually. The New York Times reported on March 13, 2005 that the United States is in "a new age of prepackaged TV news." The federal government has aggressively distributed prepackaged news reports to TV stations. At least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years.

The U.S. military pays Iraqi newspapers and journalists for the so-called information operations campaign. The Los Angeles Times reported on Nov. 30, 2005 that the U.S. military troops have been writing articles burnishing the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq, sending them to a Washington-based firm, which translates them into Arabic and places them in Baghdad newspapers. It said the military also has purchased an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station "to channel pro-American messages to the Iraqi public." Other reports said that U.S. army officers created an outfit called the Baghdad Press Club that pays members as much as 200 U.S. dollars a month to churn out positive pieces about American military operations. The Washington Post in an editorial called these activities against freedom of the press as "planted propaganda."

The U.S. government's ban on different voices through various means has been condemned by the international community. On Nov. 22, 2005, British newspaper the Daily Mirror, citing a "top secret" memo on April 16, 2004 from Downing Street, said the U.S. government wished to bomb the headquarters of Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, during the Iraqi War to block information about the real situation of the war and remove its negative influence on the U.S. side; the revelation resulted in protests by all the Al-Jazeera staff in more than 30 countries and criticism from the International Federation of Journalists. On Nov. 27, British Observer said Al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad and Kabul had all been bombed by the U.S. military and its journalists detained, threatened, abused and harassed by the U.S. military during the Iraqi war. In fact, U.S. crude intrusion into press freedom happened repeatedly. On April 8, 2003, cameraman Jose Couso of the Spanish Telecino television station was shot dead by U.S. soldiers. After Couso's death, the Spanish court issued warrants for the Spanish police and International Criminal Police Organization to arrest and extradite three suspected U.S. soldiers immediately. On Aug. 28, 2005, U.S. forces opened fire at a team of Reuters reporters; one Reuters soundman was shot several times in the face and chest, and he was killed on the spot. Two Iraqi reporters who rushed to the spot were also arrested and forced to exposure to the scorching sun. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the United States is holding four Iraqi journalists in detention centers in Iraq and one journalist of Al-Jazeera, at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo bay, Cuba. None of the five have been charged with a specific crime. In July 2005, the New York Times reporter Judith Miller was sentenced to jail for refusing to disclose her source. Covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a photographer for Canadian Toronto Star daily was hurled to the ground by New Orleans police. The police grabbed his two cameras and removed memory cards. When he asked for his pictures back, the police insulted him and threatened to hit him. A reporter for a local newspaper of New Orleans was also attacked while covering a shoot-out between police and local residents. The police detained him and smashed all of his equipment on the ground.


IV On Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The United States is the richest in the world, but its poverty rate is also the highest among the developed countries. In the United States, problems such as poverty, hunger and homelessness are quite serious, and the economic, social and cultural rights of working people are not guaranteed.

A study of eight advanced countries by London School of Economics in 2005 found that the United States had the worst social inequality, Reuters reported on April 25, 2005. The poverty rate of the United States is the highest in the developed world and more than twice as high as in most other industrialized countries (Newsweek, The Other America, Sept. 19, 2005). In recent years the fortunes of the rich have continued to rise in the United States. According to two new studies by Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based wealth-research firm, and the Boston Consulting Group, millionaire households (excluding the value of primary residences) in the United States controlled more than 11 trillion dollars in assets in 2004, up more than 8 percent from 2003 ( Millionaire Ranks Hit New High, Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2005). Meanwhile, the income of ordinary employees in the United States has seen a sharp decline, causing the increase of poor population. The data issued by the U.S. Census Bureau said that the nation's official poverty rate rose from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 12.7 percent in 2004, with the number of people in poverty rising by 1.1 million from 35.9 million to 37 million, which means one in eight Americans lived in poverty. Poverty rates in cities such as Detroit, Miami and Newark exceeded 28 percent. The New York Times reported on Nov 22, 2005 that in 2004 3.9 million families had members who were undernourished.

Homelessness is a serious problem. The USA Today reported that a snapshot tally conducted in June 2005 found 727,304 homeless people nationwide, meaning about one in 400 Americans were without a home (National Count of Homeless Puts Issue In Human Terms, USA Today, Oct. 12 2005). According to a survey by the United States Conference of Mayors in 24 cities including Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, requests for emergency shelter in 2005 increased in the survey cities by an average of 6 percent from a year earlier, with 71 percent of the cities registering an increase. Requests for emergency food assistance increased by an average of 12 percent, with 76 percent of the cities registering an increase. More than 3,100 families with nearly 6,000 children apply for emergency shelter in Washington D.C. annually, with many sleeping on the streets or in cars or bus stations (Lifting up the Poor, Letters To the Editor, Washington Post, Oct. 28, 2005). The Los Angeles Times reported on June 16, 2005 that Los Angeles County has become "the homeless capital of America," with the average number of vagabonds or people in shelters hitting 90,000 a day, including 35,000 people chronically homeless.

The rights of American labor are not guaranteed. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, in November 2005 the number of unemployed persons in the United States was 7.6 million, with an unemployment rate of 5 percent. Nearly 20 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for six months or more (Union: Job Cuts at GM 'Unfair', USA Today, Nov. 22, 2005). And about 3.6 million people were out of unemployment insurance (The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2005). Low pay, inadequate work conditions and lack of work protection are also a problem. The Washington Post reported on Aug. 3, 2005 that employees in American meatpacking plants face hard work in tough settings, and they suffer cuts, amputations, skin disease, permanent arm and shoulder damage, and even death from the force of repeated hard cutting motions. The China Press in New York City reported on Nov. 1, 2005 that employees in most New York restaurants lacked basic labor protection. They usually work overtime, with low pay and have hardly any health insurance. About 38 percent of them have been burned or scalded, and nearly half have experienced cut injuries. On Oct. 31 last year, transit workers in southeastern Pennsylvania of Philadelphia went on strike, due to disputes over health care insurance with the employer. In New York City, the transit workers union began a citywide strike on Dec. 20 last year after failing to reach a deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in negotiations on wage and pension issues.

Per capita medical expenses in the United States are higher than in any other countries, however, the crisis of health insurance for workers is quite prominent. Statistics show that in 2004, the overall costs of health care increased 8.2 percent over 2003, but 45.8 million people or 15.7 percent of the total population were out of health insurance coverage, an increase of 800,000 people from the previous year. New York City alone had nearly two million residents without health insurance, with two thirds of them on payrolls. Each year 18,000 Americans die due to lack of medical treatment. A survey released by Kaiser Family Foundation in September 2005 found that only 60 percent of employers offered health insurance coverage, down from 69 percent five years earlier. In 2005 the average annual premium for family coverage hit 10,880 dollars. In coming years rising health care costs will price more and more people out of coverage. On Nov. 21, 2005 U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill of budget reduction by 50 billion dollars, including funding for health care, food aid to the poor and support to children's projects, which suggests worsening of living conditions for the poor.


V. On Racial Discrimination

The United States is a multi-ethnic nation of immigrants, with minority ethnic groups accounting for more than one-fourth of its population. But racial discrimination has long been a chronic malady of American society.Black Americans and other ethnic minorities are at the bottom of American society and their living standards are much lower than that of whites. According to The State of Black America 2005, the income level of African American

families is only one-tenth of that of white families, and the welfare enjoyed by black Americans is only three-fourths of their white counterparts. In 2004, the poverty rate was 24.7 percent for African Americans, 21.9 percent for Hispanics, and 8.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites. In New Orleans, 100,000 of its 500,000 population live in poverty, with the majority of them being black Americans. The homeownership rate for blacks is 48.1 percent compared with 75.4 percent for whites. The Washington Post reported on April 11, 2005 that in 2004, about 29 percent of African Americans who bought or refinanced homes ended up with high-cost loans, compared with only about 10 percent of white Americans. Statistics released by the Federal Reserve in September

2005 also indicated that according to the 2004 mortgage data, the average incidence of higher-priced home purchase loans was 32.4 percent among African-Americans, 20.3 percent among Hispanic whites and 8.7 percent for non-Hispanic whites. The Los Angles Times quoted on July 14, 2005 a report on the State of Black Los Angeles as saying that black Americans were behind other ethnic groups in income, housing, medical care and education. Blacks had the lowest median household income of 31,905 dollars, compared with whites at 53,978 dollars. Although just 10 percent of the population, blacks were estimated to make up 30 percent or more of the homeless.

Minorities face discrimination in employment and occupation. According to a report of the U.S. Department of Labor, in November 2005 the black unemployment rate was 10.6 percent, compared with the white unemployment rate at 4.3 percent. Black male earnings were 70 percent of white males, and black females earnings, 83 percent of their white counterparts. Ethnic minorities are often kept away from high-end occupations. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission quoted a report as saying that the employment discrimination rate was 31 percent for Asians and 26 percent for African Americans, and the discrimination against Muslims doubled after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The China Press reported that although Africans, Hispanics and Asians accounted for 57 percent of the work force in New York City, only less than 19 percent of them have got senior management positions, compared with whites who dominate 76 percent of them, or even 97 percent of such positions in some government departments.

The rates of colored people without health insurance are higher than that of whites. The uninsured rate was 19.7 percent for blacks and 32.7 percent for Hispanics, that is to say nearly one of every three Hispanics in America had no health insurance. The black life expectancy was six years less than that of whites, and the mortality for black infants aging below one year doubled that for such white infants. According to the Washington Post, 76.3 out of every 200,000 blacks were found infected with HIV/AIDS, eight times higher than whites. Blacks account for more than half of all new HIV/AIDS infections in America and black women account for an astonishing 72 percent of all new cases among women. More than 80,000 American blacks die annually due to lack of health insurance, with the death rate of middle-aged black males twice that of the same white group.

Racial discrimination in America's justice and law enforcement is serious. William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, once said that the only way to lower the crime rate in America was for all black women to have abortion. In America, black criminals tend to get heavier penalties than their white counterparts. According to the State of Black America 2005 issued by the National Urban League, blacks who are arrested are three times more likely to be imprisoned than whites once arrested, blacks are sentenced to death four times more often than whites, and a black person's average jail sentence is six months longer than a white's for the same crime. A December 2005 study by the University of Maryland indicated those who killed a white victim were 2 to 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed a non-white; but black offenders who killed white victims were nearly 2.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than white offenders who killed white victims and 3.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than black offenders who killed black victims. Although blacks are just 12.2 percent of the American population, 41 percent of American prisoners detained for more than one year are blacks, and 8.4 percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29 are behind bars. According to reports issued by the Human Rights Watch and other organizations, following the Sept. 11 attacks, at least 70 people, all but one Muslim, were held as "material witnesses" under a narrow federal law that permits the arrest and brief detention of "material witnesses". One-third of the 70 confirmed material witnesses were incarcerated for at least two months, some were imprisoned for more than six months, and one actually spent more than a year behind bars. According to a report by the Washington Observer weekly in its 42nd issue in 2005, Chinese American Muslim chaplain James Yee was charged with crimes of espionage and mutiny, which potentially carry the death penalty. Because there were no evidence to support the allegations, the charges were later quietly dropped. The case was quoted by the media as one of the most serious judicial wrongs in American history.

Violent crimes against ethnic minorities have been increasing in America. According to a FBI report issued in October 2005, of the 9,528 victims of hate crimes in 2004, 53.8 percent were victims of racial prejudice, and 67.9 percent were blacks. Among the hate crime offenders, 60.6 percent were whites. According to statistics, blacks are twenty times more likely than whites to be a victim of hate crimes. In Los Angeles, 56 percent of hate crimes were targeted at blacks.



VI On Rights of Women and Children

The United States does not have a good record in safeguarding the rights of women and children.

Women in the United States do not share equal rights and opportunities with men in politics. Despite the fact that women account for 51.1 percent of the U.S. population, they hold only 81 or 15.1 percent of the 535 seats in the 109th U.S. Congress, including 14 or 14 percent of the 100 Senate seats and 67 or 15.4 percent of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Only eight (16 percent) of governors of 50 U.S. states are women. No women of color have ever been governor of a U.S. state. Just 14 of the mayors of America's largest 100 cities are women, accounting for 14 percent of the total. By November 2005, there were only 81 women serving in statewide executive office, 25.7 percent of the total 315 working posts. Of the 7,382 people serving in the state legislatures, 1,668 are women, accounting for 22.6 percent. A research by the Inter-Parliamentary Union showed the United States ranked 61st in terms of women's representation in national legislature or parliaments out of over 180 directly electing countries, down from the 58th in December 2003.

Women in the United States have a higher unemployment rate than men, and lower pay for the same work. A survey by the U.S. Census Bureau said the median earnings of women and men in 2004 were 31,223 and 40,798 U.S. dollars, respectively. The female-to-male earnings ratio was 77 percent. Yearly earnings of women business owners were only 49 percent of men counterparts. In 2004, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 24,249 charges of sex-based discrimination, and 4,512 charges of pregnancy-based discrimination.

Poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women. In 2004, 28.4 percent of households headed by single women were in poverty. More and more women and children became homeless. In the city of Pasadena, Southern California, the number of homeless women and children reached 701 in 2005, increasing by 42.7 percent over 2003 and accounting for 57.6 percent of the homeless population in the city. Homeless women and children became the largest homeless population, surpassing that of single men for the first time.

U.S. women often fall victim to domestic violence. Statistics from American Institute on Domestic Violence showed each year in the United States 5.3 million women are abused, and 1,232 women are killed by an intimate partner. A news report said one out of every three American women would fall under the influence of domestic violence in her life.

American women face high risks of sexual offense. The FBI reported in October 2005 that during 2004, approximately 94,635 females nationwide were victims of forcible rape, which means that 63.5 out of every 100,000 women suffered from forcible rape. This figure also represents an increase of 0.8 percent from 2003. Women are sexually harassed while at work. In 2004 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 13,136 charges of sexual harassment, with 84.9 percent of them filed by women.

According to an investigation by the Pentagon released on Dec. 23, 2005, up to 6 percent of the women at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies said they experienced sexual assault during the 2004-2005 school year, and about half or more said they were sexually harassed. In the Reserve Forces and National Guard units, 60 percent of women and 27 percent of men were sexually assaulted or harassed during their service. And 11 percent of women were raped.

The U.S. prisons saw a surging number of female prisoners who had received bad treatment. A report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics on April 24, 2005 said by the end of June 30, 2004, the number of female prisoners reached 103,310, increasing by 2.9 percent from a year earlier. In 2004, female prisoners in federal and state prisons accounted for seven percent of the total, up 4 percent from 2003, or nearly twice the increase rate of male prisoners. Nearly 50 percent of female prisoners said they were sexually assaulted. A total of 8,210 allegations of sexual violence were reported in U.S. correctional facilities during 2004, and the correctional authorities substantiated nearly 2,100 incidents of sexual violence, with women accounting for the majority of victims.

American children's living conditions are worrisome. In terms of the child poverty index, the United States ranked next to the last among 22 developed nations in the world. Statistics released by U.S. Census Bureau on Aug. 30, 2005 showed children accounted for nearly one third of the 37 million poverty population in the country. And 1.35 million U.S. children had experienced homelessness.

Among the population aged under 18, those who lived in poverty accounted for 30 percent of the total in Washington D.C., 27 percent in Mississippi and Louisiana, 26 percent in New Mexico, and 24 percent in West Virginia. In New Orleans, 40 percent of children in urban areas lived in poverty.

American children's health has seen a decline, and death rates of infants and juveniles are increasing. Nationally, 29 percent of children had no health insurance at some point in the last 12 months, and many got neither checkups nor vaccinations. The China Press based in New York City said in a report on May 5, 2005 that over the past 20 years researchers funded by the U.S. government had tested anti-HIV/AIDS medicine on hundreds of children living in welfare homes with no basic protection or supervision by any independent organization. This practice brought great harm to the health of the children, and some of them died during the treatment.

One third of children in the United States were born out of wedlock, and half of the children live in single-parent families. At present, four million U.S. children live with jobless parents, facing such problems as domestic violence, melancholia, and drug and alcoholic addiction.

American juveniles often fall victim to violent crimes. More and more students go to school with knives or other weapons. In 2005, the number of students found with knives and other weapons in Maryland schools was 2,845, a jump of 63 percent over the past five years. Virginia schools also reported 2,278 cases of confiscated weapons in 2003 to 2004. And Washington D.C. reported 148 weapon incidents from 2004 to 2005.

The Washington Post reported in a feature story in August 2005 that a survey of 325 Latino seventh- and eighth-graders from across Montgomery County discovered 12 percent of the 11-to-13-year-olds had carried a weapon such as a knife or a club (one percent had carried a gun); 38 percent had gotten into a physical fight; 27 percent had stayed home because they felt unsafe going outside; and 16 percent had been threatened or injured by someone with a weapon. Twenty percent had been involved in gang-related activities; 12 percent said they had been members of a gang.

Frequent on-campus violence incidents threatened the safety of 26.4 million U.S. students aged between 12 and 16. Statistics showed 12 juveniles died of firearm-related crime everyday in the United States. A report by The Los Angeles Times on March 4, 2005 said more than 70 percent of sixth-graders in Los Angeles had experienced or witnessed violence incidents, and this proportion reached as high as 90 percent in some areas.

The U.S. judicial protection for children's rights is far lower than international practice. A report released by the U.S. Department of Justice showed the number of juveniles behind bars in the United States reached 102,000 by the end of 2004. The United States is one of the few countries where a crime committed by a juvenile results in a life sentence without any possibility of parole. According to a Human Rights Watch report, 93 percent of youth offenders serving life without parole were convicted of murder, and an estimated 26 percent were convicted of "felony murder." This means that anyone involved in the commission of a serious crime during which someone is killed is also guilty of murder, even if he or she did not personally or directly cause the death. About 9,700 inmates were serving life sentences for crimes they committed before they turned 18. At least 2,225 child offenders are serving life without parole sentences in U.S prisons, compared with a combined total of 12 in other countries; 16 percent of the child offenders were between 13 and 15 years old at the time they committed their crimes, and an estimated 59 percent were sentenced to life without parole for their first-ever criminal conviction. At present, the number of child offenders serving life without parole sentences in the United States is three times of 15 years before. Child offenders often experienced abuse in prisons, and staff-on-inmate sexual assaults at correctional institutions for juveniles were almost 10 times more than in jails for adult offenders. The United States is one of the few countries that sentence child offenders to death. To date, six states in America still have no minimum age for death sentence.

In 2004, a total of 63 juveniles aged 17 or under were sentenced to death. At present, there are around 3,500 prisoners on death row in the United States, with 72 of them sentenced for crimes they committed before they turned 18.


VII. On the United States'Violation of Human Rights in Other Countries

Pursuing unilateralism on the international arena, the U.S. government grossly violates the sovereignty and human rights of other countries in contempt of universally-recognized international norms.

The U.S. government frequently commits wanton slaughters of innocents in its war efforts and military operations in other countries. The USA Today newspaper on Dec. 13, 2005 quoted a 2004 study published in the medical journal The Lancet as saying that it was estimated that about 100,000 Iraqis, mostly women and children, had died in the Iraqi war launched by the U.S. government in 2003. The year 2005 also witnessed frequent overseas military operations targeting at civilians by the U.S. forces, causing quite a number of deaths and injuries. On July 4, 2005, the U.S. forces killed 17 civilians, including women and children, in their air strikes in Konarha Province of Afghanistan. On Aug. 12, a U.S. military armored patrol vehicle fired at people coming out of a mosque in a town in the suburbs of the Iraqi city of Ramdi, killing 15 Iraqis, including eight children, and injuring 17 others. On Aug. 30, U.S. jet fighters launched several sorties of air raids against an area near the western Iraqi border town of Qaim, causing at least 56 deaths, including elderlies and children. On Nov. 21, U.S. troops fired at a civilian vehicle in northern Baghdad, killing a family of five, including three children. On Jan. 14, 2006, U.S. military aircraft struck a Pakistani village bordering Afghanistan, killing at least 18 civilians and triggering widespread anti-U.S. demonstrations in Pakistan.

In 2005, news of prisoner abuse by the U.S. forces again hit headlines, following their 2004 prisoner abuse scandal that stunned the world. To extract information, the U.S. forces in Iraq employed various kinds of torture in their interrogations. They abused the Iraqi detainees systematically, including sleep deprivation, tying them to the wall, hitting them with baseball bats, denying their access to water and food, forcing them to listen to extremely loud music in completely dark places for days running, unleashing dogs to bite them for amusement and even scaring them by putting them in the same cage with lions (reports from The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Washington Weekly and other news media). A report by The Human Rights Watch in September 2005 said that U.S. soldiers regarded prisoner abuse as "amusement" and a way "to relieve stress." Due to the unbearable abuse, many detainees maimed themselves, went on hunger strikes and even rioted. According to a report issued by the South Command of the U.S. military, there occurred 350 self-maiming cases in the prison of Guantanamo, Cuba, in 2003, with 23 prisoners seeking to hang themselves in one week of August. In August 2005, 131 prisoners in Guantanamo went on a hunger strike to protest inhuman treatment. In April the same year, a riot broke out in Camp Bucca prison in south Iraq due to the U.S. warden's refusal to treat a sick prisoner. The United States has time and again rejected the requests of the UN Commission for Human Rights special mechanism to visit Guantanamo to investigate the incidents of prisoner abuse. And after yielding to pressure, the U.S. side made it a rule that the UN delegation should not have any contacts with the detainees there, incurring international condemnation.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States wantonly apprehended terrorism suspects worldwide, flaunting the banner of "anti-terrorism." An AP story on Nov. 16, 2005 said that since the start of the anti-terrorism war in 2001, the United States had detained more than 83,000 foreign nationals, with 82,400 of them under the custody of the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. And 700 captives were shipped to Guantanamo. Over the past four years, the U.S. has not brought any indictment against them or brought them to court hearing. By March 2005, 108 people had died in custody. Up to date, there are still 14,500 foreign nationals under U.S. custody.

In 2005, the scandal of the "secret prisons" set up overseas by the U.S. government was revealed, causing an international uproar. The New York Times carried an article titled Secrets and Shame on Nov. 3, 2005, criticizing the overseas secret prison network concealed by the CIA. According to The Washington Post, after the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA set up covert prisons, only known to a handful of officials in the White House, Justice Department and the Congress, in Thailand, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and some Eastern European countries, detaining about 100 people believed to be terrorism suspects by the United States. Kept in dark and underground cells, the prisoners in the "black sites" have no legal rights and no one outside the CIA can talk with or even see them. Even officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross are forbidden to have any contacts with the captives.

To obtain intelligence from the captives, the CIA employed various kinds of torture, such as forcefully grabbing the shirt front of the prisoner and shaking him, slapping and belly slapping. Prisoners were forced to stand, handcuffed and feet shackled, for more than 40 hours, and they were also left to stand naked in a cell kept at around 10 degrees Centigrade and constantly doused with cold water. The torture also included binding a prisoner to a board with plastic or paper wrapped over his face and water poured over him (the British newspaper The Independent, Dec.4, 2005).

In November 2002, a CIA officer ordered guards of the Salt Pit prison in Afghanistan to strip naked a detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets. He froze to death (The Washington Post newspaper).

The CIA frequently transfers terrorism suspects to other countries for torture and interrogation aboard a secret aircraft. The British, German and French media reported that the CIA plane carrying terrorism suspects had landed in a British military airfield at least 210 times, and crossed German airspace or landed in German airports at least 473 times. The CIA aircraft which took off and landed near Paris also landed and took off in the Guantanamo naval base for six times.

The U.S. government's violations of internationally-recognized norms and human rights incurred strong international condemnation. At a press conference, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louis Arbour sharply criticized the United States for infringing human rights by setting up secret prisons and transferring terrorism suspects without going through legal procedures under the pretext of fighting terrorism, noting that such acts were eroding the global ban on torture. On Dec. 20, 2005, the European Union, through a local court in Milan, Italy, issued warrants for the arrest of 22 CIA agents suspected of kidnapping in Italy. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter described the prisoner abuse by the U.S. military in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo as "embarrassing," and going against the rudimentary American commitment to peace, social justice, civil liberties and human rights.

The facts listed above show a poor human rights record of the United States, which forms not only a sharp contrast with its image of a self-claimed "advocate of human rights," but also disaccord with its level of economic and social development and international status. The U.S. government ought to first clean up its own record of human rights before qualifying itself to comment on human rights situations in other countries, let alone arrogantly telling them what to do.

To respect for and protect human rights is a necessity and indicator of human civilization, and to promote human rights is the common responsibility of all countries and a major theme of international cooperation. No country in the world can claim to have a perfect state of human rights, nor can any country stay outside the course of human rights development. The issue of human rights should become a theme of social development in all countries and of international cooperation, rather than a slogan for exporting ideologies or even a tool of diplomacy to fix others out of one's own political needs.

For years, the U.S. government has ignored and deliberately concealed serious violations of human rights in its own country for fear of criticism. Yet it has issued annual reports making unwarranted charges on human rights practices of other countries, an act that fully exposes its hypocrisy and double standard on human rights issues, which has naturally met with strong resistance and opposition from other countries. We urge the U.S. government to look squarely at its own human rights problems, reflect what it has done in the human rights field and take concrete measures to improve its own human rights status. The U.S. government should stop provoking international confrontation on the issue of human rights, and make a fresh start to contribute more to international human rights cooperation and to the healthy development of international human rights cause.
People's Daily Online --- http://english.people.com.cn/

Fundamentals of Islam

Fundamentals of Islam

By Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab At-Tamimi (1703-1792)




You should know, may Allah have mercy on you, that we should learn four points:

1 Knowledge : which consists in knowing Allah, knowing His Messenger, and knowing the religion of Islam by knowing the evidences from the Quran and the Sunnah.

2 Acting according to this knowledge.

3 Calling other people to this knowledge.

4 Persistence in the face of adversity that results from calling the people to it.

And the evidence is from the saying of Allah azza wa jall:
"By the Time. Verily Man is in loss. Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual enjoining of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy."(103:1-3)


Al-Shafiái said about these verses: "If no argument besides this verse had been revealed by Allah to his creatures, it would have been sufficient for them."
Al-Bukhari, may Allah have mercy on him, named a chapter in his Sahih:
"Chapter : Knowledge before Saying and Acting"
The evidence is the saying of Allah azza wa jall:


" Know, therefore, that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for thy fault,"(47:19)


He, azza wa jall, began with knowledge first before saying and acting.
Know, may Allah have mercy on you, that every Muslim, male and female, should learn these three things and act according to them:

That Allah has created us, has given us sustenance, and has not left us without guidance. He has sent His messenger to us; whosoever obeys Him is destined to Paradise, and whosoever disobeys is consigned to Hell. The evidence is in His saying:


"We have sent to you, (O men!) a Messenger, to be a witness concerning you, even as We sent a Messenger to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh disobeyed the Messenger; so We seized him with a heavy Punishment." (73:15-16)

Allah does not accept that any partner is associated with him in worship, be he an exalted angel or a messenger prophet. The evidence is in His saying:
"And the places of worship are for Allah (alone): So invoke not any one along with Allah."(72:18)

Whosoever bears obedience to the Prophet and worshipped Allah alone should not take for friend those who deny Allah and His messenger, even if they were his nearest kin. The evidence is in His saying:
"Thou wilt not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day, loving those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even though they were their fathers or their sons, or their brothers, or their kindred. For such He has written Faith in their hearts, and strengthened them with a spirit from Himself. And He will admit them to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow, to dwell therein (for ever). Allah will be well pleased with them, and they with Him. They are the Party of Allah. Truly it is the Party of Allah that will achieve Success."(58:22)

Know you, may Allah guide you to His obedience, that the Hanifiyyah is the creed of Ibrahim (Abraham), which is to worship Allah alone, with pure religious devotion. It is this that Allah has ordained on all people; and indeed He created them for this purpose. The evidence is in His saying:
"I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me." (51:56)
To "serve Me" means to serve and worship Allah azza wa jall alone without partners.
The greatest thing that Allah has ordered is to Tawheed, that is to worship Allah alone. The greatest of what he forbade is Shirk, which means calling upon other with Allah. The evidence is in His saying:
"Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him;." (4:36)


The Three Fundaments

If you were asked "What are the three fundamentals that must be understood by every Muslim", say : "A worshipper should know his Lord, his religion, and his Prophet, salla Allah u alihi wa sallam.
The First Fundament: Knowing Allah.
If you are asked : "Who is your Lord?", say : "My Lord is Allah. He has nourished me and all other creatures with his blessings. He is my Deity, and I have no other Deity but Him." The evidence is in His saying:
"Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;" (1:2)
Every thing other than Allah is of His Creation; and I am part of that Creation.
If you were asked : "How did you know your Lord?", say : "Through His signs and His creatures. Among his signs are the Night and Day, and Sun and Moon. Among his creatures are the Heavens and the Earth, and all that is in and between them." The evidence is in His saying:
"Among His Sings are the Night and the Day, and the Sun and the Moon. prostrate not to the Sun and the Moon, but prostrate to Allah, Who created them, if it is Him ye wish to serve." (41:37)
And His saying:
"Your Guardian Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then He settled Himself on the Throne: He draweth the Night as a veil o'er the Day, each seeking the other in rapid succession: and the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, (all) are subservient by His Command. Verily, His are the Creation and the Command. Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds!" (7:54)
The "Lord" here is the worshipped Diety. The evidence to this is in His saying:
"O ye people! Worship your Guardian Lord, who created you and those who came before you, that ye may become righteous; Who has made the earth your couch, and the heavens your canopy; and sent down rain from the heavens; and brought forth therewith Fruits for your sustenance; then set not up rivals unto Allah when ye know (the truth)"(2:21-22)
Ibn Katheer, may Allah have mercy on him, said: " It is only the creator of all these things who is worthy to be worshipped."
Some of the forms of worship ordained by Allah are Islam (Submission), eman (faith), ehsan (charity), Duâa (prayer and supplications), khawf (fear), rajaa (hope), tawakkul (trust), raghbah (aspiration), rahbah (awe), khoshoâ (homage), khashiah (apprehension), enabah (remorse), estianah (supplication), estiadhah (appeal for refuge), estighathah (succour), dhabh (sacrifice), nadhr (vowing).
These as well as other forms ordained by Allah are all to Him, taala. The evidence is in His saying:
"And the places of worship are for Allah (alone): So invoke not any one along with Allah." (72:18)
Consequently, if anyone performs one of these rites not exclusively to Allah; he is a polytheist and an unbeliever. The evidence to this is His saying:
"If anyone invokes, besides Allah, any other god, he has no authority therefor; and his reckoning will be only with his Lord! And verily the Unbelievers shall not prosper!."(23:117)

Prayer:
It was narrated in the hadith: "Prayer is the essence of worship", and the evidence is in His saying:
"And your Lord says: 'Call on Me; I will answer your (prayer): but those who are too arrogant to serve Me will surely enter Hell abased!'" (40:60)

Fear:
Evidence to fearing Allah alone is in His saying:
"Be ye not afraid of them, but fear Me, if ye have faith."(3:175)

Hope:
Evidence of hope is in His saying:
"Whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and, in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner." (18:110)

Trust:
Evidence of trust is in His saying:
"But on Allah put your trust if ye have faith." (5:23)
and His saying:
"And if any one puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him." (65:3)
"Whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and, in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner." (18:110)

Aspiration, Awe, and Humility:
Evidence of aspiration, awe, and humility is in His saying:
"They used to call on Us with yearning and awe, and humble themselves before Us."(21:90)

Apprehension:
Evidence of apprehension is in His saying:
"So fear them not, but fear Me; and that I may complete My favors on you, and ye may (consent to) be guided;" (2:150)

Remorse:
Evidence of remorse is in His saying:
"Turn ye to your Lord (in repentance) and submit to Him, before the chastisement comes on you: after that ye shall not be helped." (39:54)

Supplication:
Evidence of supplication is in His saying:
"Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek." (1:5)
and from the hadith:
"If you need aid, supplication to Allah for aid."

Appeal for Refuge:
Evidence of appeal for refuge is in His saying:
"Say: I seek refuge with the Lord and Cherisher of Mankind, The King of Mankind,"(114:1-2)

Appeal for Succour:
Evidence of appeal for succour is in His saying:
"Remember ye implored the assistance of your Lord, and He answered you: 'I will assist you with a thousand of the angels, ranks on ranks.'"(8:9)

Sacrifice:
Evidence of sacrifice is in His saying:
"Say: 'Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds: No partner hath He: this am I commanded, and I am the first of those who submit to His will.'"(6:162)
And from the hadith: "Allah's curse is upon those who offer sacrifices to other then Him."

Vows:
Evidence of vows is in His saying:
"They perform (their) vows, and they fear a Day whose evil flies far and wide."(76:7)


The Second Fundament: Knowing the Religion of Islam through evidences.


This knowledge is the submission to Allah alone, and yielding to Him by obeying His commandments; and the denial of association with Him and the Mushrikeen, or associationists.
This knowledge is of three ranks:

Islam (submission).
Eman (faith).
Ehsan (Perfection of Worship).
The first rank : Islam (submission).


Islam has five pillars:

Testifing that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammed is His Messenger.
Performing prayers.
Paying the Zakat.
Fasting the month of Ramadan.
Pilgrimage to the Sacred House (Mecca).


The evidence for testifying from the Quran is His saying:
"There is no god but He: That is the witness of Allah, His angels, and those endued with knowledge. Standing firm on justice. There is no god but He, the Exalted in Power, the Wise."(3:18)


This means that it is only Allah that is worthy of being worshipped, and the negation, "... no god but ...", implies the denial of any other deities worshipped besides Allah. He should have no partner in His worship as He has no partner in His Domain. The following verses illustrate this point
"Behold! Abraham said to his father and his people: 'I do indeed clear myself of what ye worship: (I worship) only Him Who originated me, and He will certainly guide me.' And he left it as a Word to endure among those who came after him, that they may turn back (to Allah)." (43:26-28)


And His saying
"Say: 'O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah.' If then they turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to Allah's Will)." (3:64)


The evidence for testifying that Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah is in His saying:


"Now hath come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves: it grieves him that ye should suffer, ardently anxious is he over you: to the Believers is he most kind and merciful. But if they turn away, Say: '(Allah) sufficeth me: there is no god but He: On Him is my trust,- He the Lord of the Throne Supreme!'" (9:128-129)


To testify that Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah signifies that one should obey his ordinances and believe him in what he tells, avoid what he prohibits and worship Allah according to His precepts.


The evidence for prayers and Zakat, and the meaning of worshipping Allah alone is in His saying:


"And they have been commanded no more than this: to worship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being true (in faith); to establish regular prayer; and to give Zakat; and that is the Religion Right and Straight."(98:5)


The evidence for fasting from the Quran is His saying:
"O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint,-" (2:183)


The evidence for Pilgrimage is His saying:
"Pilgrimage thereto is a duty men owe to Allah,- those who can afford the journey; but if any deny faith, Allah stands not in need of any of His creatures."(3:97)

The second rank : Eman (Faith)


Eman comprises of seventy and something branches (narrated by Bukhari), that highest is to say "La ilaha illa Allah" which is to testify that "there is no god but Allah", and the lowest is to remove obstacles from the path of the people. Modesty and bashfulness is one of the branches of Eman. The pillars of Eman are six:


Belief in...
1 Allah.
2 His Angles.
3 His Books.
4 His Messengers.
5 The Last Day.
6 and Destiny, whether good or bad.


Evidence from the Quran for the six pillars of Eman is:


"It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces towards East or West; but it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and give Zakat; to fulfill the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the God fearing."(2:177)
Evidence for Destiny from the Quran is:
"Verily, all things have We created in proportion and measure."(54:49)

The third rank : Ehsan (Perfection of worship)
Ehsan has only one pillar and that is you have to worship Allah as if you see Him; for though you do not see Him, He sees you.


Evidence is in His saying
"For Allah is with those who restrain themselves, and those who do good." (16:128)


and in His saying:
"In whatever business thou mayest be, and whatever portion thou mayest be reciting from the Quran,- and whatever deed ye (mankind) may be doing,- We are Witnesses thereof when ye are deeply engrossed therein." (10:61)


Evidence from the hadith is the well known hadith of Jibreel (Gabriel).
According to Omar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, who said:
"One day while we were sitting with the Prophet, salla Allah u alihi wa sallam, there came upon us a man with very white clothes and very dark hair; no traces of any traveling on him, and non of us knew him. He sat before the Prophet, salla Allah u alihi wa sallam, with his knees touching the Prophet's knees, and his hands over the Prophet's thighs. The stranger said:
"O Muhammad, tell me about Islam." He (salla Allah u alihi wa sallam) said: "It is to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah, to perform prayer, to give Zakat, to fast the month of Ramadhan, and to perform the Pilgrimage to the House, if you can afford it.". He (the stranger) said: "You have spoken the truth." We wondered why he asked him and then told him that what he had said was true.


The stranger then said: "Tell me about Eman." He said: "It is to believe in Allah, His Angles, His Books, His Messengers, The Last Day, and in Destiny, whether good or bad."


He said: "Tell me about Ehsan." He said: "To worship Allah as if you are seeing Him, for though you do not see Him, He sees you."
He said: "Tell me about the Final Day." He said: "The answerer has no better knowledge than the questioner."


He said: "Tell me about its signs." He said: "When a slave girl gives birth to her own mistress, and when you see the bare-footed and tattered needy shepherds vying with each other in erecting high buildings."
Then that stranger left, and the Prophet was silent for a while then said: "O Omar, do you know who was the questioner?" I said:" Allah and His Messenger know better." He said: "That was Gabriel. He came to teach you your religion."

The Third Fundamental: Knowing Your Prophet Muhammed, salla Allah u alihi wa sallam.


He is Muhammad, son of Abdullah, son of Abdulmuttalib, son of Hashim, of the clan of Quraysh, one of the Arab clans, the descendants of Ismael, the son Ibrahim Al-Khalil. He was born in Mecca. He lived for sixty three years, forty before his mission and twenty three years as a prophet and a messenger.
He was initiated into prophethood with the revelation of the verses:
"Read! in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created. Created man, out of a leech-like clot. Read! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the Pen,- Taught man that which he knew not." (96:1-5)


Later Allah sent him as a messenger to warn against associating partners with Allah and to preach worshipping Allah alone. The evidence is in His saying:
"O thou wrapped up (in the mantle)! Arise and deliver thy warning! And thy Lord do thou magnify! And thy garments keep free from stain! And all abomination shun! Nor expect, in giving, any increase (for thyself)! But, for thy Lord's (Cause), be patient and constant!" (74:1-7)


"Arise and deliver thy warning" against associating partners with Allah, and call the people to worship Allah alone, and "Thy Lord do thou magnify" through testifying His unity, and "Thy garments keep free from stain", means keep your deeds clean from the acts of association, and "Abomination shun" mean keep away from idols and from idolaters and deny them.
He continued to preach worshipping Allah alone for ten years, when he was ascended to Heaven where the five prayers (salat) and their times were ordained. Thus, he performed prayers in Mecca for three years.
The he was ordered to emigrate to Madinah. This emigration means departing from among the polytheists to settle with the community of Islam. This type of immigration is a duty that Muslims should observe up till the Last Day.
The evidence is in His saying:


"When angels take the souls of those who die in sin against their souls, they say: "In what (plight) were ye?" They reply: "Weak and oppressed were we in the earth." They say: "Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourselves away (from evil)?" Such men will find their abode in Hell,- What an evil refuge! - Except those who are (really) weak and oppressed - men, women, and children - who have no means in their power, nor can they find a way (to escape). For these, there is hope that Allah will forgive: For Allah doth blot out (sins) and forgive again and again." (4:97-99)


and His saying:


"O My servants who believe! Truly, spacious is My Earth: therefore serve ye Me - (and Me alone)!"(29:56)
Al-Baghawi, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "This revelation refers to the Muslims who remained in Mecca and had not emigrated to Madinah. For Allah calls them as people who have faith." Evidence from the hadith is in the Prophet's saying:
"Emigration shall never cease (to be the refuge of oppressed Muslims) until repentance ceases; and repentance shall never cease till the sun rises from the west."


When the Prophet settled in Madinah, the other ordinances of Islam were prescribed; these include the Zakat, fasting, Pilgrimage, the Adhan (call to prayers), Jihad (fighting in the cause of Allah), and the injunction to recommend good and denounce evil.


He remained in Madinah until he died ten years later, but his religion remains to guide the Muslim community to all the good and to warn them against all evil. The good is the creed of worshipping Allah alone and every thing with which Allah is pleased and satisfied. The evil is associating partners to Allah and every thing that Allah dislikes and prohibits.


Allah has sent him to all people and nations, and He has ordained that all mankind and jinn should follow him in obedience to his message. The evidence is in His saying:
"Say: 'O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Messenger of Allah,'" "(7:158)
And with him Allah has completed and perfected the religion. The evidence is in His saying:


"This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion."(5:3)


The evidence of the prophet's death is in His saying:
"Truly thou wilt die, and truly they (too) will die. In the end will ye (all) dispute, on the Day of Judgment, in the presence of your Lord."(39:30- 31)


And when the people die they shall be resurrected. The evidence is in His saying:
"From the (earth) did We create you, and into it shall We return you, and from it shall We bring you out once again."(20:55)
And His saying:
"And Allah has produced you from the earth growing (gradually), and in the End He will return you into the (earth), and raise you forth (again at the Resurrection) "(71:17-18)


After Resurrection, they shall render account to Allah and they are rewarded or punished. The evidence is in His saying:
"Yea, to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and on earth: so that He rewards those who do evil, according to their deeds, and He rewards those who do good, with what is best."(53:31)


Any one who denies Resurrection is an unbeliever. The evidence is in His saying:
"The Unbelievers think that they will not be raised up (for Judgment). Say: "Yea, By my Lord, ye shall surely be raised up: then shall ye be told (the truth) of all that ye did. And that is easy for Allah."(64:7)


Allah has sent all the messengers to give good news and warnings. The evidence is in His saying:
"Messengers who gave good news as well as warning, that mankind, after (the coming) of the messengers, should have no plea against Allah." (4:165)
The first messenger was Noah, and the last was Muhammad; and he is the Seal (Last) of the prophets. The evidence that the first messenger is Noah is in His saying:
"We have sent thee inspiration, as We sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him."(4:163)


And to every nation, from the time of Noah to Muhammad, a Messenger was sent to command them to worship Allah alone, and to interdict the worship of all idols. The evidence is in His saying:
"For We assuredly sent amongst every People a Messengers, (with the Command), 'Serve Allah, and eschew Evil.'"(16:36)


Allah has commanded all mankind to disbelieve in idols and to believe in Him.
Ibn Al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "An idol (Taghut) means any object for which the believer oversteps his limits, whether this is an object of worship, or subordination, or of obedience."
The Idols (Tawagheet) are many, but their heads are five:

Satan, may Allah curse him.
Whosoever is worshipped and acquiesces to that worship.
Whosoever calls people to worship him.
Whosoever claims any knowledge of the Unseen (Ghaib).
Whosoever judges or rules according to whatever has not been sent down by Allah.
The evidence is in His saying:
"Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects Taghut (evil) and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things." (2:256)


This is the meaning of "La ilaha illa Allah", or "There is no God but Allah"
The evidence in the hadith:
"The head of the Command is Islam, its central Pillar is prayers, and its highest pinnacle is Jihad (struggle in the Cause of Allah)."
And Allah knows best.