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In pursuant of his slogan, Changeђ, the president of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place>, Barack Obama, has taken another giant step in world politics, calling for global unity.<o:p></o:p>

President Obama made this call as part of his landmark speech delivered on Thursday, June 4, 2009. The speech, which was delivered in <st1:city w:st="on">Cairo</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region>, was recast at an hours difference, at the conference hall of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> embassy in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Banjul</st1:city></st1:place>. The embassy officials had invited intelectuals, religious leaders and media practioners, and a cross section of the Gambian community, to witness the broadcast. The relationship between the Islamic world and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars,Ӕ the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> president told students at <st1:placename w:st="on">Al-Azhar</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cairo</st1:city></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p>

According to him, violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. He noted that the attacks of 9/11, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in his country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Westren countries, but also to the human rights. In the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place> presidents view, this has bred more fear and mistrust, stressing the need for an end to it.<o:p></o:p>

However, he made it clear that new beginning must be based upon mutual interest and respect, and on the truth that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place> and Islam are not exclusive, and therefore need not be in competition. He stressed that in order to move forward, there is the need to say openly things we hold in our hearts.<o:p></o:p>

Hamas, Obama said, must end violence, recognise past agreements, and recognise <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>Ғs right to exist, And, in the same vein, he stressed that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> must live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, work and develop their society. œAnd just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in <st1:city w:st="on">Gaza</st1:city> does not serve <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>s security, neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the <st1:place w:st="on">West Bank</st1:place>. Progress in the daily lives of Palestinians must be part of a road to peace. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> must take concrete steps to enable such progress,Ҕ he said. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place> president finally stressed the need for the people of the world to live together in peace, noting that this is Gods vision.<o:p></o:p>

Hatab Fadera observer.gm June 05, 2009<o:p></o:p>

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Say: Would it profit you in the least if, as ye fondly imagine, your names were to endure? Nay, by the Lord of all worlds! Was the idol 'Uzza made any greater by this, that its name lived on amidst the worshippers of names? Nay, by Him Who is the Self of God, the All-Glorious, the All-Compelling! Should your names fade from every mortal mind, and yet God be well pleased with you, ye will indeed be numbered among the treasures of His name, the Most Hidden. Thus have We sent down Our verses that they may attract you unto the Source of all Lights, and acquaint you with the purpose of your Lord, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. Abstain, then, from all that hath been forbidden unto you in the Book, and eat of the lawful things which God hath provided for your sustenance. Deprive not yourselves of His goodly bestowals, for He, verily, is the Most Generous, the Lord of grace abounding. Subject not yourselves to excessive hardships, but follow the way We have made plain unto you through Our luminous verses and perspicuous proofs, and be not of the negligent.<o:p></o:p>

(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 46)<o:p></o:p>

Baha'is facing persecution in Iran<o:p></o:p>

As practitioners of the Bahai faith in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region> are being imprisoned for their beliefs, members of the Summerland BahaҒi community are watching closely.<o:p></o:p>

Emily Unger, a local member of the faith, says the news of persecution in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region> is not just an abstract concept for some of their members locally.<o:p></o:p>

There are families in the Okanagan who have relatives in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region> who are being persecuted,Ӕ she said.<o:p></o:p>

In <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region>, seven Bahais were arrested in March and May, 2008. Today, a year later, they remain in prison where they have been subjected to intense interrogation and have had no access to legal council. Visits from their families have been restricted.<o:p></o:p>

Since March, 35 BahaҒi believers in 15 locations have been summoned to local offices of the Ministry of Intelligence, interrogated and pressured to sign that they would not engage in any Bahai activities with others.<o:p></o:p>

Arrests are also increasing and in the first four months of this year, 38 BahaҒis in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region> have been arrested, the highest number since 2005.<o:p></o:p>

Unger said the Bahais in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region> are subject to other opposition as well. Children of BahaҒi families are taunted and ridiculed while older students are not permitted to attend university because of their faith.<o:p></o:p>

John Arendt - www.bclocalnews.com June 04, 2009<o:p></o:p>

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Say: Would ye worship him who neither heareth nor seeth, and who is of a truth the most abject and wretched of all God's servants? Wherefore have ye failed to follow the One Who hath come unto you from the Source of Divine Command bearing the tidings of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Great? O people! Be not like unto those who presented themselves before Our throne, and yet failed to perceive or comprehend; these are indeed a contemptible people. We recited unto them verses that would enrapture the dwellers of the heavenly Dominion and the inmates of the Kingdom on high, and yet they departed veiled therefrom, and hearkened rather unto the voice of him who is but a servant of God and a mere creation of His Will. Thus do We impart unto you that which shall guide you towards the path of God's favoured ones.<o:p></o:p>

(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 41)<o:p></o:p>

You may not want to print this, because of fear. Yes fear we have been and are all afraid. Some of our very stupid senators (our government) have allowed the ACLU to run wild. They have sued every thing from a little girl carrying her Bible to school to removing the veterans memorial crosses.

Every thing they have done and are doing has done absolutely nothing to improve the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.

Those veterans memorial crosses were put there to remind us to honor and remember the terrific sacrifice our friends and relatives fought and so many died for, and that is the freedom we enjoy today, and I want to remember them.<o:p></o:p>

Obama has given away millions of dollars on this so-called stimulus, while at the same time we are in debt up to our eyeballs. This doesnt make any sense to me. Obama has just done this to make himself look good.

The ACLU and corrupt judges, Pelosi and some uneducated senators and the Clintons are trying to destroy the very reason this nation was and is the greatest nation on earth, that has been and will always be our faith in God. Their claim is, this is offensive to some.

I am the one who is offended and every loyal citizen should be. Our faith in God through Jesus Christ is all documented and recorded history, so there is no reason to be ignorant.

What these stupid people are trying to do is treason. To sacrifice the sovereignty of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> to any one is wrong. Just think about it, would you like to lose your Social Security, your flag, your currency, and all the rest? I donҒt think so, because we are a free country. Our Constitution has served us well for the past 200 years and the Ten Commandments have served as a guide to our government and others for over 2,000 years.

These people who want to change it are the devils advocates, other nations have tried and failed. I donҒt want to be another failure. I know we should do something. But the problem is, I dont know what.

Leon Mulkey www.svherald.com Jun 02, 2009 <o:p></o:p>

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O people! Fear God, and disbelieve not in Him Whose grace hath surrounded all things, Whose mercy hath pervaded the contingent world, and the sovereign potency of Whose Cause hath encompassed both your inner and your outer beings, both your beginning and your end. Stand ye in awe of the Lord, and be of them that act uprightly. Beware lest ye be accounted among those who allow the verses of their Lord to pass them by unheard and unrecognized; these, truly, are of the wayward.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p>(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts)</o:p>

Here in a dry <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state> valley, outside a small town, a cathedral of light is to be dedicated on Friday. Like the cathedrals of antiquity, it is built on an unrivaled scale with unmatched technology, and it embodies a scientific doctrine that, if confirmed, might lift civilization to new heights.
Bringing Star Power to EarthӔ reads a giant banner that was recently unfurled across a building the size of a football stadium.
The $3.5 billion site is known as the National Ignition Facility, or NIF. For more than half a century, physicists have dreamed of creating tiny stars that would inaugurate an era of bold science and cheap energy, and NIF is meant to kindle that blaze.
In theory, the facilitys 192 lasers җ made of nearly 60 miles of mirrors and fiber optics, crystals and light amplifiers will fire as one to pulverize a fleck of hydrogen fuel smaller than a match head. Compressed and heated to temperatures hotter than those of the core of a star, the hydrogen atoms will fuse into helium, releasing bursts of thermonuclear energy.
The projectגs director, Ed Moses, said that getting to the cusp of ignition (defined as the successful achievement of fusion) had taken some 7,000 workers and 3,000 contractors a dozen years, their labors creating a precision colossus of millions of parts and 60,000 points of control, 30 times as many as on the space shuttle.
Source: The New York Times Online
This is an awesome project!<o:p></o:p>