My Jihad: Walked the walk, fought the fights

I had read this book (My Jihad) about 4 years ago. This book takes a very good look into the true meaning of 'jihad'. It has awesome descriptions of frontline battles from the man that was there in the face of danger. He is not a terrorist.

Any men (also women), especially American, should read this if they want to understand 'jihad' in its true state (something many Muslims and non-Muslims probably do not understand). The book is very entertaining and easy to read, but sometimes slows pace around many different characters and places.

Synopsis
Aukai Collins grew up hard: abandoned, surviving in the streets and running with thugs. While serving time, he converted to Islam, and went to fight with the Muslims who were targeted for genocide in Chechnya and Bosnia.

This led him to Usama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. As terrorist attacks on civilians around the world intensified, Aukai was asked to lead a mission that included hostage taking and the killing of civilians -- something he would not do.

Disillusioned by those who used Islam for their own ends or to attack innocents, Aukai offered his services to the FBI and CIA as a counter-terrorist operative, even getting close to one of the leaders of the September 11 attacks.

Yet his greatest strength -- providing insight into the problems surrounding the U.S. government's fight against something it doesn't understand -- was ignored by inept members of the American intelligence community.

My Jihad is an insider's story about the greatest threat to world peace and stability in modern times, told by an unforgettable true-life warrior who has walked the walk, fought the fights, and lived to tell about it.

P/s: Dalam buku ini penulis menegaskan bahawa beliau tidak percaya serangan WTC di New York dilakukan oleh orang Islam yang beriman.

Digital Business, the world’s first book to be published with a companion website

I had done my first review for this book sometimes 7 years ago at Jaring Internet Magazine Online, but unfortunately this magazine’s site is not in operation anymore. I read from cover to cover and found that this book is very relevant at that time and still relevant till today because it focuses on very basic of digital business.

I have checked at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble websites, pity they don’t have any stock available. However, you guys can check at Abebooks.com. This website has stock in their disposal, cheap book to buy here. (Cover: Digital Business Japanese version)

Digital Business: Surviving and Thriving In An On-Line World was an instant success when it was first published by Hodder and Stoughton (www.hodderheadline.co.uk) in 1996. The hardback shot to the top of Dillon’s best-seller charts in the UK and the book was translated for Japanese and Chinese editions (both authorised and pirated).

The book was a belated follow-up to Ray Hammond’s 1984 volume, The On-Line Handbook, and it described how internet commerce had grown in the intervening twelve years.

The hardback edition of Digital Business also included a CD-ROM with Netscape Navigator (this is history, indeed! No more Netscape browser) and links to all of the companies, services and products mentioned in the text. Digital Business was the world’s first book to be published with a companion website that allowed readers to read regularly updated editions of the text and follow new links.

Title: Digital Business: Surviving and Thriving In An On-Line World
Author: Ray Hammond
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996
ISBN: 0340666609
Paperback, 288 pages

Dua Wajah membuka rahsia kezaliman penggunaan ISA

Buku pertama yang menceritakan pengalaman pahit ditahan di bawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) yang saya baca ialah Universiti Kedua oleh Kassim Ahmad. Buku ini dibaca semasa masih belajar di Universiti Sains Malaysia. Buku kedua ialah Suara Dari Kamunting 1 oleh Saari Sungib.

Kini saya sudah selesai menghabiskan pembacaan buku Dua Wajah: Tahanan Tanpa Bicara oleh Syed Husin Ali. Kebanyakan dari kita dan saya sendiri sering mendengar ISA disalahgunakan oleh parti pemerintah untuk menangkap, menahan dan mendera para tahanan politik. Selebihnya kita tidak tahu. mungkin.

Melalui pembacaan ketiga-tiga buku yang saya sebutkan, gambaran jelas diperoleh. Namun buku pengalaman Syed Husin Ali ini membuka mata hati saya sejelas-jelasnya apakah ISA yang sebenarnya.

Ya, memang benar ISA ditempa bagi membendung anasir Komunis selepas Malaysia merdeka. Walaupun demikian, dalam banyak kes, seperti yang terjadi ke atas Syed Husin, penahanan beliau adalah sangat kabur. Melalui buku ini penulis mendedahkan bahawa semua alasan penahanan beliau dilakukan dalam keadaan tergesa-gesa dan tanpa bukti.

Buku ini sangat berjaya mendedahkan lorong-lorong gelap tanpa cahaya dalam tubuh akta yang ‘membenarkan’ unsur kezaliman dinobatkan. Lorong gelap kehidupan yang dilalui Syed Husin sepanjang hampir enam tahun itu seumpama lorong-lorong fizikal yang kelam yang dilalui beliau semasa berulang-alik ke bilik soal-siasat.

ISA merupakan sebuah akta yang digambarkan baik di permukaan, untuk membendung fahaman Komunis. Ya, mungkin ada eloknya. Tetapi ISA sebenarnya telah sekian lama disalahguna oleh pihak-pihak tertentu. ISA menghalalkan semua kaedah supaya tahanan politik mengaku perkara-perkara yang terlalu kabur, malah tidak langsung dilakukan oleh tahanan. Ini digambarkan dengan terperinci oleh Syed Husin. Akta ini juga samar. Sebuah akta yang kabur apabila digunakan secara melulu, ianya menjadi sangat zalim.

Saya tabik kepada Syed Husin. Walaupun beliau didera secara mental dan fizikal, namun beliau tetap teguh pendirian. Pusat kekuatan penulis, seperti yang digambarkan dalam buku ini, ialah Allah, kebenaran dan isteri yang taat.

Isteri Syed Husin, Puan Sabariah Abdullah, berkata dalam satu surat terbuka, begini: “Oleh kerana tahanan-tahanan politik tidak dibawa ke mahkamah terbuka, maka penahanan seseorang itu betul-betul terletak di bawah kekuasaan kerajaan. Kerajaan BN mempunyai kuasa terlalu banyak sama ada hendak membebas atau menahan terus seseorang tahanan politik. Kecurigaan tentang penyalahgunaan kuasa dalam hal ini semakin meluas. Jikalau kes tahanan politik dibawa ke mahkamah terbuka, rakyat bolehlah mengetahui segala perbicaraan, dan inilah yang nampaknya tidak diingini oleh kerajaan BN, kerana kepentingan politiknya.”

Dalam buku ini nama-nama besar ahli politik negara yang turut ditahan dalam ISA seperti Anwar Ibrahim dan Ibrahim Ali juga disebut dan menjadi rakan Syed Husin semasa di Kamunting. Wartawan Abdullah Ahmad, penulis buku Pandangan Dari Tudor City, New York juga ada.

Buku ini sangat saya syorkan untuk dibaca oleh anak-anak Malaysia tanpa mengira kaum dan latar belakang agama. Ianya umpama fiksyen thriller, tetapi benar terjadi. Fikir-fikirkan, insyaAllah.

Judul: Dua Wajah: Tahanan Tanpa Bicara
Penulis: Syed Husin Ali
ISBN: 978-983-3782-58-1
Penerbit: Strategic Information & Research Development Centre, 2008
Ketebalan: 176 muka surat
Harga: RM20.00

Berkaitan: Penggunaan ISA secara melulu tidak boleh dimaafkan

The Hunt For Bin Laden dan My Jihad sangat kontras

Buku The Hunt For Bin Laden sarat dengan propaganda jahat Amerika Syarikat (AS). Walaupun memuatkan kisah benar berkenaan War On Terror yang dipalu gendang perang oleh bekas presiden AS George W. Bush selepas serangan 11 September 2001, tetapi kedapatan komentar atau fakta yang dibesarkan.

Kandungan buku ini terlalu mengagungkan anjing-anjing perang George W. Bush dalam usaha menghancurkan Taliban dan rangkaian al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden. Fakta-fakta serta keberanian pasukan khas yang dikenali sebagai Special Forces terlalu diangkat tinggi demi maruah ketua pengganas dunia George W. Bush.

Terdapat juga pernyataan yang menghina Islam seperti “Mungkin Allah sudah kehabisan bidadari di syurga” dengan terbunuhnya askar-askar Taliban dan al-Qaeda.

Kerajaan Taliban di Afganistan yang sementara itu mungkin sedikit sebanyak tidak menggambarkan pemerintahan Islam yang sebenar. Juga beberapa tindakan al-Qaeda mungkin tidak tepat dalam pelaksanaannya memerangi kepentingan dan tali barut Israel dan Amerika Syarikat. Bak kata Naib Presiden PAS, Mohamad Sabu, “Taliban merupakan pemuda-pemuda nakal dalam Islam”, justeru itu ada tindakan mereka tidak menepati kehendak Islam.

Walaupun begitu, gendang perang yang dipalu oleh George W. Bush ternyata amat salah. Ini justeru kerana bekas presiden Amerika Syarikat itu terlalu dirasuk dan taksub dengan dendam kesumat terhadap dunia Islam. Bagi Bush, Islam itu terroris dan terroris itu Islam. Padahal dia mabuk kuasa dan gila dengan wacananya. George W. Bush ialah bapa terroris yang maha gila dan penegak kezaliman Israel. Itulah fakta yang maha benar.

Walaupun demikian, jangan pula buku ini diharamkan oleh pihak Kementerian Dalam Negeri (KDN).

Jihad pada pandangan pejuang untuk Chechnya dan Bosnia

Jihad merangkumi pengertian yang luas. Bagi sesetengah golongan yang tidak faham, terutamanya kumpulan anti-Islam, jihad dirujuk kepada ‘kebenaran Islam bagi membunuh penganut yang bukan-Islam.” Ternyata bahawa pemahaman ini amat salah.

Jihad dibenarkan, malah menjadi wajib di ketika dan suasana yang berbeza. Dalam buku My Jihad, diceritakan saudara Aukai Collins memeluk Islam atas kesedaran sendiri. Justeru menyahut tuntutan jihad di kala itu, dia pergi ke Chechnya dan Bosnia bagi melaksanakan seruan suci ini membantu umat Islam di sana yang disembelih oleh terroris.

My Jihad merupakan kisah benar pelaksanaan jihad di zaman moden ini. Ianya diceritakan oleh seorang pejuang yang bersifat apa-dikata-akan-dikota, mengharungi sendiri peperangan suci dan masih hidup untuk diperikan kepada kita.

Saya telah membaca buku ini lebih kurang tiga tahun lepas. Buku ini berjaya memberi gambaran sebenar terhadap salah satu cabang jihad. Ia menyediakan penerangan terperinci kepada peperangan secara berdepan yang diharungi oleh Auka Collins semasa diancam bahaya. Walaupun kakinya putus sebelah, beliau terus berperang di kedua-dua negara itu dengan menggunakan kaki bantuan. Subhanallah!

Tidak keterlaluan saya katakan bahawa buku ini harus dibaca oleh orang-orang Islam dan bukan Islam bagi memahami apa dia pengertian sebenar jihad, bukan setakat membunuh orang secara sembarangan.

Buku My Jihad sangat mengujakan dan mudah dibaca oleh semua, walaupun pada mulanya seseorang itu tidak memahami apa itu seruan jihad dalam Islam.

Namun kadang-kadang kedua-dua buku ini terlalu perlahan justeru kerana banyak karekter, pasukan dan nama tempat yang terlibat.

Berkaitan: George Bush lagi!
Who’s the “real” George Herbert Walker Bush?
A conversation with Aukai Collins

P/s: Saya menentang PPSMI tetapi tidak membenci bahasa Inggeris

*** Saya menyediakan perkhidmatan katering untuk pelbagai majlis. Menu yang pelbagai boleh disediakan; masakan Melayu, resepi Cina & India halal, serta makanan ala-barat. Sila rujuk blog katering.

The Hunt For Bin Laden penuh propaganda jahat terhadap Islam

Buku The Hunt For Bin Laden sarat dengan propaganda jahat Amerika Syarikat (AS). Walaupun memuatkan kisah benar berkenaan War On Terror yang dipalu gendang perang oleh bekas presiden AS George W. Bush selepas serangan 11 September 2001, tetapi kedapatan komentar atau fakta yang diperbesarkan.

Kandungan buku ini terlalu mengagungkan anjing-anjing perang George W. Bush dalam usaha menghancurkan Taliban dan rangkaian al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden. Fakta-fakta serta keberanian pasukan khas yang dikenali sebagai Special Forces terlalu diangkat tinggi demi maruah ketua pengganas dunia George W. Bush.

Terdapat juga pernyataan yang menghina Islam seperti “Mungkin Allah sudah kehabisan bidadari di syurga” dengan terbunuhnya askar-askar Taliban dan al-Qaeda.

Kerajaan Taliban di Afganistan yang sementara itu mungkin sedikit sebanyak tidak menggambarkan pemerintahan Islam yang sebenar. Juga beberapa tindakan al-Qaeda mungkin tidak tepat dalam pelaksanaannya memerangi kepentingan dan tali barut Israel dan Amerika Syarikat. Bak kata Naib Presiden PAS, Mohamad Sabu, “Taliban merupakan pemuda-pemuda nakal dalam Islam”, justeru itu ada tindakan mereka tidak menepati kehendak Islam.

Walaupun begitu, gendang perang yang dipalu oleh George W. Bush ternyata amat salah. Ini justeru kerana bekas presiden Amerika Syarikat itu terlalu dirasuk dan taksub dengan dendam kesumat terhadap dunia Islam. Bagi Bush, Islam itu terroris dan terroris itu Islam. Padahal dia mabuk kuasa dan gila dengan wacananya.

George W. Bush ialah bapa terroris yang maha gila dan penegak kezaliman Israel. Itulah fakta yang maha benar.

Walaupun demikian, jangan pula buku ini diharamkan oleh pihak Kementerian Dalam Negeri (KDN). Saya masih belum habis membacanya.

Berkaitan: George Bush lagi!
Who’s the “real” George Herbert Walker Bush?

*** Saya menyediakan perkhidmatan katering untuk pelbagai majlis. Menu yang pelbagai boleh disediakan; masakan Melayu, resepi Cina & India halal, serta makanan ala-barat. Sila rujuk blog katering.

Alexander seeks for immortality?

Alexander's fame long outlasted the ancient world. Christian writers wondered: Did the monstrous races whom Alexander met, the Sciapods and the rest of them, have souls? Could they be saved? Were they, indeed, in our world at all, and included in God's plan of salvation? His legend assumed more exotic forms. Alexander encounters the Amazons, a nation of women warriors, and has a love affair with their queen. He visits the fabulous island of Taprobane, sometimes identified with Ceylon, where he finds a Utopia: no slavery, and universal good health and longevity. The Earthly Paradise comes to play a part in his story.

Alexander seeks for immortality and almost -- but not quite -- attains it. On Mount Qaf he meets the angel of death, who tells him to stop worrying about mortal glory. He becomes a Muslim -- a striking anachronism: he lived a thousand years before the Prophet -- and conquers Andalusia for the faith. He reaches the distant Land of Darkness. He goes in search of Adam's tomb. He attains the Water of Life but is unable to drink from it. Jewish accounts say that he was favored by Enoch and Elijah. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim stories all depict him receiving both rebukes and edification from their respective moral teachers.

(Mad About the Boy, a review by Jasper Griffin on Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend by Richard Stoneman, Powells Book).

Related links: Alexander the Great, what Allah says in the Quran & Iskandar Zulkarnain, misteri dan sarat tauladan

*** Saya menyediakan perkhidmatan katering untuk pelbagai majlis. Menu yang pelbagai boleh disediakan; masakan Melayu, resepi Cina & India halal, serta makanan ala-barat. Sila rujuk blog katering.

Who’s the “real” George Herbert Walker Bush?

I hate the content of this book, I hate the initial price of this book (RM45), and I hate George Bush, Sr (and George Bush, Jr). But many thanks, firstly to authors namely Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin and secondly to the Malaysia’s publisher Thinker’s Library.

Initially I don’t want to buy this book because of the price. But when I saw the bargain price of RM15, I never have a second thought. I bought this book at one of the book expos (I forgot what expo, though) with the price RM15 only!

I strongly recommended this book to those who want to know in depth on how this George Herbert Walker Bush, the forty-first President of the United States came to power. Full of conspiracy; walks like conspiracy, talks like conspiracy, and acts like conspiracy.

From the publisher

This is the groundbreaking classic exposé of the Bush family, cited by all that followed it, yet still unmatched. Exhaustively documented by intensive search of dozens of archives and months of interviews with government insiders, this biography digs up all the dirt - frightening, gory, hilarious - on the Bush dynasty:

How the Bushes made their fortune building up Hitler and the Nazi war machine - Iran-Contra - Zapata's Watergate burglars - The Reagan shooting - The "war hero" story - the secret government - "Eugenic" population reduction plans - Kissinger, China, and genocide in the Third World - Luring Iraq to attack Kuwait - the Bush Leveraged Buyout Mob, theft of a nation - Jupiter Island, Skull and Bones, and other power centers.

Essential reading as long as this Anglo-American oligarchy directs American politics, this 700- page blockbuster is a vivid X-ray of the presidential dynasty, and the private forces dominating both major political parties.

“Those who betray their benefactors are seldom highly regarded. In Dante’s Divine Comedy, traitors to benefactors and to the established authorities are consigned to the ninth circle of the Inferno, where their souls are suspended, like insects in amber, in the frozen River Cocytus. This is the Giudecca, where the three arch-traitors Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius are chewed for all eternity in the three mouths of Lucifer. The crimes of Nixon were monstrous, especially in Vietnam and in the India-Pakistan war, but in these Bush had been an enthusiastic participant. Now Bush’s dagger, among others, had now found its target; Nixon was gone.

In the depths of his Inferno, Dante relates the story of Frate Alberigo to illustrate the belief that in cases of the most heinous treachery, the soul of the offender plunges at once into hell, leaving the body to live out its physical existence under the control of demon [Satan]. Perhaps the story of old Frate Alberigo will illuminate us as we follow the further career of George Bush (Sr).” (Webster Tarpley & Anton Chaitki, Sins of the Father: The Life & Crimes of George Bush, Sr).

Publisher: Progressive Press (www.waronfreedom.org) & Thinker’s Library
ISBN: 978-0930852924 & 967-69-0499-6 (Thinker’s Library’s version)

Novel yang baik menerapkan unsur budaya

Bagi saya, antara ciri sebuah novel yang baik ialah pembacanya membaca dengan asyik dan tidak melangkau, walaupun mungkin tidak berniat untuk dihabiskan dalam masa beberapa jam sahaja. Ciri novel yang baik juga boleh mengajak pembaca menghayati fenomena dan panorama yang diwujudkan dalam plot-plotnya. Tidak kurang juga sebuah novel yang baik boleh membuatkan pembacanya mengenali sedikit sebanyak budaya sesebuah kehidupan, sama ada murni atau sebaliknya.

Saya baru selesai membaca novel Hatiku di Harajuku oleh Ramlee Awang Murshid. Saya membelinya lebih kurang setahun yang lalu, tetapi baru membacanya.

Saya senang dengan novel ini; plot-plot yang pendek dan mendebarkan, banyak aksi, banyak teladan dan saya boleh mengenali budaya samseng Jepun melalui watak-watak dan kejadian yang berlaku di persekitaran kegiatan kumpulan Yakuza, juga budaya samurai.

Sebelum saya membaca novel ini, bertahun dahulu saya telah membaca sebuah novel bahasa Inggeris bertajuk “Cloud of Sparrows”. Mengapa saya menyukai Cloud of Sparrows? Pertamanya kerana penulisnya orang Jepun, Takashi Matsuoka, keduanya kerana ceritanya berkisar di Jepun.

Novel Cloud of Sparrows penuh dengan budaya dan perkelahian cara samurai, berperang menggunakan kuda dan pedang, tipu helah ninja, pandangan orang Jepun terhadap orang Inggeris, dan pertentangan budaya antara dua peradaban; Jepun dan Inggeris atau barat. Novel ini mempunyai sekuel, bertajuk “Autumn Bridge” yang masih cantik melepak dalam rak buku saya!

Sebagai panduan asas, saya memang mencari novel-novel bahasa Inggeris yang ditulis penulis tempatan dan Asia. Juga novel yang menumpukan jalan cerita dan budaya orang-orang Asia. Lantaran itu dalam koleksi saya ada novel-novel yang ditulis oleh Takashi Matsuoka, Douglas Chua, Khoo Kheng-Hor,Tunku Halim dan James Clavell.

Okey, berbalik kepada Hatiku di Harajuku. Novel ini membuatkan saya menyelongkar rak buku saya, dan menjumpai sebuah buku bertajuk Konspirasi Jepun yang dikarang oleh Marvin J. Wolf. Sudah lebih kurang 13 tahun buku ini terperap di rak buku, namun tidak tergerak untuk membacanya. Buku Konspirasi Jepun versi Bahasa Melayu ini diterbitkan oleh Yayasan Penataran Ilmu, tahun 1989, dan diterjemahkan dari versi asal bahasa Inggeris oleh Mansor Ahmad Saman. Saya sedang membacanya selepas novel Hatiku di Harajuku.

Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of the Militant Islamic Movement

To know about Hamas, why they exist and why Palestinians fight Israelis, this is the book you should read. The truth is still the truth, no matter what; just open your eyes and heart.

I feel really excited to get this book.

From publisher

The radical Islamist movement Hamas shocked the world when it won a landslide election victory in January 2006 in the Palestinian occupied territories.

One of the few journalists not to be surprised by this outcome was Zaki Chehab who has developed an international reputation as a fearless reporter and was one of the first to interview members the Iraqi resistance in May 2003. Fluent in Arabic, he is a Palestinian refugee who grew up in UN refugee camps and has unique access to and understanding of Hamas.

Like Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon, Chehab shows how Hamas built a formidable social base in Palestine through its welfare programs. He also explains why, in the face of the endless complexities, disappointments and delays brought about by the signing of the Oslo Peace Accord, Hamas's strategy of armed struggle and terrorism offers the Palestinian people a seductive, simple and deadly alternative.

Title: Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of the Militant Islamic Movement

Author: Zaki Chehab

ISBN: 9781560259688

Asy-Syahid Sheikh Ahmad Yasin

A Review by Michael B. Farrell

On April 6, 1994, Yehia Ayyash, one of the more elusive members of the Islamic Resistance Movement known by its Arab acronym Hamas, left an indelible mark on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The man whom former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called "the Engineer" dispatched a Palestinian named Raed Zakarneh on what would be a historic mission. When Mr. Zakarneh blew his car up, killing himself and eight Israelis at a bus stop in the Israeli city of Afula, he became Hamas's first suicide bomber.

The attack was retribution for a massacre perpetrated by a Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, who threw a hand grenade into a crowded mosque, killing 29 Palestinians.

And so Hamas literally exploded onto the world stage. Today, Israel and the US consider it a terrorist organization with which they refuse to negotiate.

Yet neither they -- nor the rest of the world -- can afford to ignore Hamas, particularly since the group's most recent historic feat: seizing control of the Gaza Strip and routing out Fatah, the main faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

So how did this marginal group, inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, grow from its shadowy beginnings in the densely populated slums of the Gaza Strip to first win a landslide victory in the January 2006 Palestinian election and now to hold complete control over all of Gaza?

Zaki Chehab's new book, Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of the Militant Islamic Movement, goes a long way toward answering such questions. Chehab's book not only explains the methodical rise of Hamas, but also offers insights into the group's psyche that go beyond the stereotypes perpetuated by so much of today's news coverage.

Chehab is a veteran Arab journalist who has covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a quarter century and is now the London bureau chief for Al Hayat.

But he is more than that. Chehab is also a Palestinian who was himself born in a refugee camp, a credential that has allowed him unprecedented access to any number of high-level sources.

Through interviews with Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin, the so-called "father" of Hamas, Chehab lays the groundwork for the group's evolution: "The first phase was to build institutions; charities and social committees which would open their doors to the young and old -- anyone who could play a role in resisting the occupier," explains Sheikh Yassin.

The second, he told Chehab, was to work on "strengthening the roots of the resistance within every household in the West Bank and Gaza."

From there, it became possible to build a military that evolved from rock throwing to rocket launching and finally to establish a dialogue between Hamas and its Arab and Islamic neighbors.

Hamas saw success on all fronts, as Chehab explains in interviews with other key Hamas members who have managed to survive (avoiding the fate of Ayyash, the Engineer, who the author says was assassinated by Israeli intelligence) to lead it today.

But Chehab doesn't stop with an examination of the group's leadership. He moves on to probe its rank and file and offers the reader a glimpse of the poverty and anger that turn ordinary men and women into militants.

He talks to the mother of a young martyr who urged her son to take up arms at an early age. So enmeshed in her family's daily life is the fight against Israel that on their wall hangs a framed piece of barbed wire torn from a Jewish settlement.

Chehab watched as two Hamas members caught the elderly, grieving father of a suicide bomber in their arms as he collapsed from grief. Within minutes, they had persuaded him that this was not a loss but an honor. Such views, Chehab makes clear, are not the ravings of an isolated few. The Islamic Resistance Movement, he argues, is not going away, or not going quietly. It has broad and growing support among Palestinians, deep backing within the region, and impressive resilience.

Inside Hamas could hardly be more timely, although, written before the seizure of Gaza, it runs the risk of being overtaken by events. But that doesn't alter the force of Chehab's conviction: Hamas must be part of any regional negotiations.

"Attacking and isolating Hamas, as has been done," he writes, "is merely making the movement more popular."

Michael B. Farrell is the Monitor's Middle East news editor.

Misi Piramid: Agak Sukar Tetapi Mengasah Minda

Saya memiliki novel Misi Piramid hasil buah fikiran Ida Munira Abu Bakar, terbitan PTS One Sdn Bhd beberapa hari lalu. Tahukah anda apa faktor pertama yang membuat saya teruja untuk membelinya? Kulit dan desain belakang novel ini. Jadi saya hendak nyatakan bahawa kata-kata ‘Don’t judge the book by its cover’ tidak boleh diguna pakai kerana memang desain kulit buku atau novel memainkan peranan penting sebagai daya penarik pertama.

Selepas itu baharulah saya lihat isi kandungan dan rekabentuk teks dalam novel ini; juga menarik. Terus terang saya nyatakan, walaupun novel ini ditujukan kepada golongan remaja, saya yang sudah menghampiri 40 tahun pun masih teruja dengan novel ini. Inilah bentuk novel fantasi yang harus diketengahkan oleh penerbit Melayu.

Saya masih belum membacanya. Anak dara saya yang bersekolah di sekolah rendah dalam tahun empat sudah mulai menelaah novel ini. Komen pertama anak saya, “Buku ini susah sikit untuk difahami. Isinya berat." Saya berkata kepadanya, “Memang sukar sedikit. Tetapi novel ini mengajak kita supaya berfikir dan mengasah minda supaya kreatif dalam menyelesaikan masalah."

Isinya ialah dunia fantasi. Novel ini mengisahkan seorang remaja, Zek yang menghabiskan cuti akhir tahun dengan membaca di khazanah ilmu di rumah pusaka datuknya. Tanpa disangka suatu kejadian aneh menimpa dirinya sehingga tercampak ke sebuah dunia fantasi.

Millennium bug, the biggest hoax?

In the midst of reading fiction (Y2K by R. J. Pineiro), I remember a very hot issue by the end of last millennium; Y2K or millennium bug. As everyone already known, the year 2000 had passed without major hiccup or catastrophe, as predicted by the IT experts at that time. The entire IT industry or PC industry the most, was working as usual.

So nobody ever talking about the Y2K bug since then, I presumed. For me, the Y2K bug is among the biggest hoax for the last millennium in IT industry. Don’t you think so?

* A retired female CIA operative falls in love with the inventor of a computer program to solve Y2K problems. When her lover is hurt by the same terrorist that ended her career, Kate returns to the field to stop a madman about to cripple the world's information systems as the clock ticks down to 2000.

Petunjuk dan peringatan wahyu Allah itu laksana air yang akan menyuburkan tanaman, air akan memberi faedah hanya kepada tanah yang subur. Jika air disiram ke atas batu pejal pasti tidak mendatangkan kesan. Demikian juga petunjuk dan peringatan Allah ia hanya akan berguna apabila segala nasihat dan peringatan itu jatuh ke lembah hati yang lembut. Hati yang keras seumpama batu pejal tidak mungkin diresapi air, oleh itu hati yang keras mati tidak mungkin dapat manfaat dari petunjuk dan peringatan wahyu itu.

* Apa sahaja, jika ianya dari Tok Guru, memang bermanfaat...tidak rugi memilikinya

-- Ann Wan Seng

Pautan: Insan! Ingatlah