Tips to use Coronavirus Lockdown time 

by Dr. Aslam Abdullah
It is almost sure that the entire world, perhaps for the first time in human history, would impose a lock down due to Coronarius unprecedented spread. The governments would ensure that people maintain social distance, avoid assemblies of more than ten people, stop visiting places of worship, clubs, and sports arena, and stay at home. This unusual house detention of the entire family may last until the end of June or July, depending on the outcome of the testings.
As of March 17, 167, 515 cases were found with 6606 deaths, almost four percent of the infected people. In nearly 80 percent of the countries, people were infected through local transmission, while in the 20 percent, the reported cases are the imported ones.
Regardless, the coronavirus will impact the life of every human around us. We need to prepare ourselves for a changed lifestyle. We will have more time to spend with our spouses and children. We will not find many social gatherings around us to visit and relax with our friends. We will not even have the places of worship open for congregational prayers. During the month of fasting, Muslims may not have the special Taraweeh prayers in mosques. Christians may have to postpone their Sunday mass, Hindus, Sikhs, and Jews may also have to cancel their collective services.
During this time, we will have our televisions, the internet, and cell phones, and our family members around us. Exceptions will be homeless people, seniors living in hospices, or people without a family.
How should we use our time?
These are trying times for all. But, if we follow a disciplined and organized approach to make use of the time and opportunities we have, we can improve the quality of life for all.
Physical health.
We should not neglect our physical health. Staying in one place for 24 hours without exercising and physical movement will impact every aspect of our health. We can still go out to walk alone or with our family members in our neighborhood. We can do light exercises at home, individually and collectively. We can take time to organize our home and clean our attic or garage if we have one. We can work on our lawn if we have, trim the trees, rearrange the bricks, cut the grass, remove the weed or clean the patio, etc.  If we are physically fit, we can ensure that we clean our toilets, bathrooms, and all those areas that remain out of sight during regular days.
Spiritual health
We would need a rational understanding of everything happening around us. We would like to know why the logic behind quarantine? Why did this disease spread so fast? We want to decipher the reasoning behind the assertion that viruses the centuries-old notion that infections are divine punishment. We want to understand the religious argument that such moments allow us to test our strength and capacity. We cannot do that purely based on the knowledge that we have created through our experience. We will have to return to a higher authority for guidance. Most of us believe in a higher power whom we remember through different names in different languages. We believe that he spoke to us through his specially chosen individuals, known as messengers and prophets. The message delivered through them is in books we call holy scriptures.
The scripture Muslims call the Quran reminds them that when "calamity befalls them, they say, verily, unto God do we belong to and unto, God we shall return."
Muslims usually recite this expression at the time of someone else's funeral. However, the verse has broader implications. It means that God is our creator, and we must try to understand the purpose of our creation to make our life meaningful. In this journey to rediscover ourselves, we may come across many hurdles and obstacles, but we must not lose hope in our ability to overcome. We must return to divine guidance to understand the causes of the calamity and try to fix them so that we do not repeat the same mistake.
It is in this context we can return to the divine guidance, reflect on them, and evaluate our lives accordingly. We can select passages from the Quran and reflect on its relevance to our situation. We can do it individually or collectively.
Additionally, we can plan to memorize passages from our scriptures. We can choose those passages that have messages for our day to day life. We can seek the help of those who are familiar with such passages through emails or phone calls or search them on google or use the vast resources available at Islamicity.org.
One of the goals we all can have is to read the scripture with meaning if we are not well versed in the Arabic language. These days, the Quran translations are available in audio and written form all over the internet.
The other thing that we can do is select a book or books to read at least 25 pages a day. If we cultivate this habit, we will reap its benefit when we return to our regular life. It will become our daily chore and a life long companion.
We should also plan prayers on time in family settings. Perhaps, we could organize a smaller scale, Jumah, at homes with ten or fewer people. The Fiqh of numbers comes from jurists based on their times and situation. It is not a divinely ordained number, and it can change according to the circumstances.
Family Health
The time we have will allow us to build a relationship with our spouses and children. We can have daily meals with the family together. We can turn these meals into family meetings and discuss issues that impact us all. We should use these forums to inculcate the habit of listening to others patiently. If we have young children, we should help them overcome their fears and concerns.
It is also essential that we play some sports or board games or indulge in some entertaining activities. We can watch a good movie or an excellent documentary together. We can play games that many of us might have played in their childhood.
Perhaps, we can use the time to tell our children and spouses about our family history and our roots, revisit our values, and remind ourselves of the task that lies ahead of us. We can all participate in the family to prepare the food menu and help each other in cooking the food and setting up the tables and cleaning afterward.
Friend's and Neighbors
During this period of isolation, it is also useful to call your friends from time to time. You may offer your services to local hospitals in case they would want a patient to talk to someone over the phone. Or you can call some senior whom you know and seek his welfare. Diseases do not spread through talking over the phone. It would be an excellent way to keep your contacts fresh.
Similarly, you can engage in social interaction with your neighbors while maintaining the social distance.
However, the success of all these recommendations would depend on our ability to translate them into reality. Doubtlessly, if we are disciplined, we will see a qualitative change in our life. If not, it will be just a few more months of social isolation. It is up to us to return to our world as a transformed individual or in a state of stagnation. 

The Prostrating politician at the feet of AIPAC

Every four years, almost all known political leaders, regardless of their party affiliations, come to the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) to renew their pledge to the state of Israel and prostrate before the mighty unbreakable idol of the Jewish lobby. Why shouldn't they? AIPAC offers public officials huge donations through its networks to get them re-elected. In 2019, AIPAC and its affiliates spent $2,962,107 on lobbying for Israel.

This year the AIPAC conference was different. Only one Democratic Party presidential aspirant, Bloomberg, a Jew by faith and race, was in person present at the meeting. Biden and Klobucher sent their video messages. Bernie Sander maintained his 30-year old tradition and refused to attend the apex body of Israeli supporters in the country. Even though Sanders was absent, he dominated the AIPAC as speakers after speakers targeted him for their hate and condemnation. The most prominent ones were the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel UN envoy Dany Dannon. The Israeli Prime Minister described Sanders as part of forces that are trying to break US-Israeli relations, and the envoy of the Jewish state called him a liar or an ignorant fool or both. He told Sanders that he was not welcome in Israel as he would not be allowed to re-enter Israel again.

The Democratic aspirant for the Presidential candidacy, Bloomberg, called Sanders dead wrong for saying that AIPAC promotes bigotry and hatred. He assured the lobby of his loyalty to Israel. The other two candidates Biden and Klobucher, also prostrated before the lobbying group, giving their words that they would remain committed to Israeli interests forever.

The Republican leaders, attending the conference were Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo, House minority leader as well as senate majority leader. In their speeches, they assured Israel of their undivided loyalty to the Zionist state.

The $330 million US tax dollars work hard for 8.6 million Israelis, mostly Jewish, as they pay some $3.6 billion annually to the state of Israel. According to the US congressional report, the US taxpayers have paid $143 billion to the state of Israel until 2019, an amount larger than the annual budget of at least 35 countries.

The US support to Israel stems from four main reasons:

1. Thirty-five percent of US citizens are evangelical Christians who believe that the return of Jesus would happen when all the Jews gather in Israel to build the Third Temple.
2. Liberals identify them with the Zionist movement that sought a homeland for Jews. They view Israel as the center of democracy and hope of the underprivileged.
3. Many Christians still live in guilt for letting one of them, Hitler, kill millions of Jews during the holocaust in Germany.
4. The US Administration feels that the Israeli-Arab conflict empowers the country in the Middle East and ensures a steady gas supply.

For these reasons, the US has never played the role of an honest broker in the conflict. It has always sided with Israel regardless of the plight of the Palestinians.

Over the years, many Americans, feeling frustrated with their Administration's one-sided support to Israel, started questioning the Israeli policy towards Palestinians. They began to demand equality for the people uprooted from their land by the settlers from Europe and the Middle East.

Bernie Sanders articulated their feelings when he said that the security of Israel does not mean denial of human rights to Palestinians. The growing anti-Israeli movement has shaken the Israeli lobby that is using all sorts of tactics to scare its opponents.

The pro-Israel groups are funding candidates heavily who are not questioning Israel's right to deny Palestinian their human rights. They hope to unseat candidates such as Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Democratic primaries. They are also investing huge on the Biden campaign as others have backed off from the race.

Sanders has come under attack not only from AIPAC but several Hindu groups who support the paramilitary organization RSS and BJP of India. The United States India Political Action Committee, formed in 2012, began shifting to Republicans from Democrat in 2017. In 2018, it gave all its PAC money to Republicans. Sanders is no favorite with India lobby, which is a Hindu lobby as its members are from the RSS and BJP supporters in the US.

These two lobbies representing racist Israeli and Indian political elites, are certainly impacting the US elections.

The public needs to be aware of their influence.

Biden Campaign and Hitler's Hindus or Hindu Fascists 

By Dr. Aslam Abdullah
Joe Biden, aspiring to be the Democratic Presidential nominee, had appointed Amit Jani, a Hindu nationalist and the supporter of India's Prime Minister, accused of masterminding the Gujarat massacre of Muslims in 2002.
However, the voters objected to his decision, and on March 9, 2020, the Biden campaign nominated Farooq A. Mitha as the Muslim outreach coordinator. Biden, however, did not remove Jani. Why? Like a real politician, Biden wants to play safe and court Modi for getting Hindu votes.
Biden campaign may have miscalculated its appeasement of Hindu nationalists. Modi has already endorsed Trump. In Houston, in front of the world in the public rally in September 2019, Modi had declared, "four more years to Trump."
No matter how many Hindu nationalists Biden or any Democratic candidate appoint, Hindu American supporters of Modi and his organization, the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh, RSS, would not back him. The RSS is a fascist organization that believes in the supremacy of Hindu upper castes and wants to turn the secular and plural constitution of India into a Hindu nation with no equal rights to people of non-Indian faiths such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Amit Jani has close ties with RSS and its counterparts in the U.S.
The other reason could be the influence of RSS supporters in his own Delaware state, where Hindus are the second-largest religious group after Christianity.  Between 2000 and 2010, Hindus saw 116 percent growth in Delaware.  However, a vast majority of these Hindus are supporters of Modi and the RSS and send financial contributions to Hindu groups in India, many of them reportedly involved in promoting hatred and violence against minorities.
Hindu Americans claim 4.1 million adherents in the U.S. Not all are Indias, as one million of them are of ancestry other than Indian. But, only 35 percent of them, or 1.4 million are citizens.  The total number of Hindu voters is less than 600,000, and Hindus percentage in voting as 57 percent.
Biden campaign will alienate progressive and human rights activists by identifying with Hindu fascists and supremacists, and his continuous appeasement of such elements would alienate many other Indian voters of Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, and Islamic faiths.
Biden's new Muslim advisor is Farooq A. Mitha, who served in the Obama administration as the Special Assistant to the Director of the Department of Defense (DoD). Before joining, he DoD, he was a partner in the law firm
 Prior to joining the Obama administration Farooq was a partner in the law firm Geller Mitha, P.A., where he focused on civil litigation, business transactions, government affairs, and administrative law.
Mitha also served as the Executive Director of the Emerge USA, a nonprofit civic engagement organization.  He has a background in international policy and national security. In 2009, Mitha conducted research as a Fulbright Fellow in Amman, Jordan where he focused on Jordanian-Israeli relations. His research was published in the summer 2010 edition of Middle East Policy. Mitha also participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, where he co-led a discussion on election reform in Lebanon.
Mitha obtained his law degree from the University of Florida Levin College Of Law and held a B.S. degree in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from the University of South Florida. He is fluent in Arabic, Spanish and Gujarati.
In the opinion of many election experts, his appointment would remain cosmetic as long as the Biden campaign does not distance itself from Hindu fascists.
 Hindu American supporters have created the impression that with about 500,000 voters, they may swing the votes in key battleground states. These states are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In battleground states won by Trump, the victory margin was between .1 percent to nine percent.
In Arizona, President Trump's victory margin in 2016 was 3 percent, in Florida, 2 percent, in Georgia, 5 percent, in Iowa 9 percent, in Michigan, a few thousand votes, in North Carolina, 4 percent, Ohio, 8 percent and in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, only a few thousand votes.
In battleground states won by the Democrats, the margin was between .1 to 3 percent. In Minnesota, 3 percent, in Nevada, 2 percent, and, in New Hampshire, only a few thousand.
These 13 battleground states will seal the fate of the next President of the United States. Democrats are secure in California, D.C. Rhode Island, New York, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, New Mexico, Mane,  Washington, Virginia, and Colorado. The Republicans will win Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky,  easily, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Southern Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming
In the battleground states, Muslims are more than one percent of the population.  They make up to 3 percent of the 13 battleground state electorates. Their votes would be crucial to secure victory for any Presidential candidate.
Muslims in 8 of the 13 battleground states, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Colorado can play a manor role in deciding who the next presidential candidates would be.
In the last general elections, President Trump won 307 electoral college votes. Out of that, 150 came from the Nine states.
Swing of states such as Florida, 29 votes, Pennsylvania, 20 votes, Michigan, 16 votes, Ohio, 18 votes, and Wisconsin, 11 votes, Colorado, nine votes, Nevada, four votes, and Minnesota 16 make 123 electoral college votes.  Of these 123 electoral college votes, President Trump won in the last election. If Muslim voters in these states cast at least 60 percent votes, a Democratic nominee would be able to add 123 votes to the safe Democratic votes of 207, making the total votes for either Biden or Sanders 330 out of 538.
Biden, if elected as the nominee, risks the Muslim support if he continued to pander to the supporters of Hindu fascists and nationalists. His mistake in appointing Amit Jani as the special outreach coordinator to Muslims has already cost him substantial Muslim support as some 60 percent Muslims are supportive of Sander compared to only 16 percent of Biden.
One hopes that the next Presidential candidate of the Democratic party understand the matrix of the battleground states and act wisely.