y this point, frankly I had had enough. JUS had cost me everything and I was tired. I finally concluded that if the product of Islam is Muslims - you can have it. I decided I was going to walk away and call it a day. Not from the portal which I knew was providing value and that I could turn into a money maker in an instant with a revised focus but from Islam, as in my mind, the actions of Muslims was nullifying the religion. Praise be to Allah that he had other plans and try as I did, I couldn’t let Islam go. When you come to the truth you know it and I knew that Islam was the way to God and ultimately mans answer. Allah finally allowed me to see that our Ummah is weak because the Muslims are weak and they are weak because most do not know or practice their religion. Islam is a complete system – one of beauty, peace and justice but we must do what has been prescribed for us and that Allah (SWT) commands if we are to reap its benefits, assume our leadership role and bring others to His religion.

The same of course applied to me also. I had been so busy building the portal and vending off this attack or that or worrying about where the next money was coming from that I was not studying my religion. I was praying Salah which I had learned off tapes, but other reading the Qur’an with my eyes half open at the end of very long days, I was miles away from true Muslims and I had no practical teaching to help me understand how to live Islam. My only interaction was through the web. I finally realized I had my eyes on the Muslims instead of Islam and that brought me to a very important turning point.

I decided to leave my precious mountain for the Middle East to study Islam and Arabic with those who truly know this faith which is where I am today. From the time I made that decision, Allah (SWT) has opened incredible doors for me and for JUS that I could have never imagined. I have seen first hand the results that occur when we strive in our faith. Allah (SWT) now comes first in my life and JUS comes second and as I keep my eyes on His path and keep learning His ways, the doors continue to open.

It could be said that I have paid a tremendous price for Islam. Gone is my mountain paradise and my secular aspirations, gone are the dinner parties, the toys and the frills. In truth, I could never pay enough for what I have acquired. All Praise is due to Allah who has led me to the true path, the path that brings peace to the soul and value to human life, who has allowed me the honor to make sacrifices for Him alone and who continues to give me strength for our work.

There was no question in my mind, from the first days of my research, that the so-called war on “terrorism” was a sham. This is not a war on “terrorism” - this is a war against Muslims and our resources. In its current form, this war began two decades ago, with roots earlier than that and under the guise of a reckless American Foreign Policy. Now that the backlash has finally erupted, the result is being exploited to accomplish what the real goal has been all along.

The US "war on terrorism" has an entirely different agenda than we are led to believe and that is the US goal of world hegemony, built around securing, by force, command over the oil supplies required to drive the whole sinister saga. Although there are attacks against our religion of Islam every day, the truth of the matter is that the West could care less if Muslims worshipped the moon goddess Artemis or our navels. Their motives are that the US and the UK are beginning to run out of secure hydrocarbon energy supplies and by 2010, the Muslim world will control as much as 60% of the world's oil production and, even more importantly, 95% of remaining global oil export capacity.

We now know of course that a blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), Jeb Bush (George Bush's younger brother) and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). Titled “Rebuilding America's Defenses”, the yet-to-be-infamous document was written in September 2000 by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region before 911. The blueprint even states that the process of transforming the US into "tomorrow's dominant force" is likely to be a long one in the absence of "some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor.”

It is clear the US authorities did nothing to pre-empt the events of 911. It is known that at least 11 countries provided advance warning to the US. In fact, 911 offered a means to put their sick plan into play, as it is clear from PNAC’s work that military action against Afghanistan and Iraq were on the drawing board well in advanced of 911.

Until July 2001, the US government saw the Taliban regime as a source of stability in Central Asia that would enable the construction of hydrocarbon pipelines from the oil and gas fields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Indian Ocean. The Taliban were the only government to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan in more than two decades. When the Taliban refused to accept US conditions, the US representatives told them "either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs” which in fact they did, under the bogus pretext of providing safe haven to Bin Laden and “liberating” the people of Afghanistan. Even Osama bin Laden himself pointed to the real motives in his denial of the accusations against him faxed to Al-Jazeera shortly after September 11th 2001 that said “On this occasion I confirm that I did not do this action that appears to have been done for personal motives of America.”