nomad

Jefferson and the Quran

2007-01-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

Ellison Uses Thomas Jefferson's Quran, Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press, 5 January 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) - Keith Ellison made history Thursday, becoming the first Muslim member of Congress and punctuating the occasion by taking a ceremonial oath with a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

"Look at that. That's something else," Ellison, D-Minn., said as officials from the Library of Congress showed him the two-volume Quran, which was published in London in 1764.

A few minutes later, Ellison took the ceremonial oath with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at his side. So many of Ellison's family members attended the ceremony that it was done in two takes.

Ellison had already planned to be sworn in using a Quran, rather than a Bible. He learned last month about Jefferson's Quran, with its multicolored cover and brown leather binding, and made arrangements to borrow it.

Although the Library of Congress is right across the street from the Capitol, library officials took extra precautions in delivering the Quran for the ceremony. To protect it from the elements, they placed the Quran in a rectangular box, and handled it with a green felt wrapper once they got it inside the Capitol.

Instead of using surface streets, they walked it over via a series of winding, underground tunnels — a trip that took more than 15 minutes. Guards then ran the book through security x-ray machines at the Capitol.

The Quran was acquired in 1815 as part of a more than 6,400-volume collection that Jefferson sold for $24,000 to replace the congressional library that had been burned by British troops the year before, in the War of 1812. Jefferson, the nation's third president, was a collector of books in all topics and languages.

The book's leather binding was added in 1919. Inside, it reads, "The Koran, commonly called 'The Alcoran of Mohammed.'" Jefferson marked his ownership by writing the letter "J" next to the letter "T" that was already at the bottom of pages, according to Mark Dimunation, chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special collections division.

Ellison, the first black member of Congress from Minnesota, was born in Detroit and converted to Islam in college. He said earlier this week that he chose to use this Quran because it showed that a visionary like Jefferson believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources.

In a brief interview Thursday on his way to a vote, Ellison suggested he had tired of the whole issue of his using the Quran.

"It was good, we did it, it's over, and now it's time to get down to business," he said.

Asked if he was relieved to have it behind him, Ellison said, "Yeah, because maybe we don't have to talk about it so much anymore. Not that I'm complaining, but the pressing issues the country is facing are just a little bit more on my mind right now."

Ellison's mother, Clida Ellison, said in an interview that she thought any controversy over her son's choice was good, "because many people in America are going to learn what the diversity of America is all about."

She described herself as a practicing Catholic.

"I go to Mass every day," she said.

Eid reflections: searching for Salah-ad-din

2007-01-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

So for Eid we had some friends and family over. The topics of discussion inevitably shifted to Saddam Hussein's execution and, the perennial favourite, The State of Pakistan Today and What Can Be Done To Remedy It.

There was a great deal of pessimism even from individuals who are usually more optimistic vis-a-vis Pakistan and its inhabitants. But last night, for some reason, the discussion was much more sober and pessimistic in tone. The discussion drifted towards how almost every transaction in Pakistan is tainted with hues of corruption and bribery. Ordinary transactions, ordinary places to visit, it almost seemed as though every encounter with another Pakistani would result in your losing some money to corrupt officials demanding bribes and whatnot.

It reminded me of other previous discussions i have had with Muslims of other nationalities who complain of similar issues. The core thread running throughout most of these discussions is that of a sense of lost 'Muslim-ness', a sense that Muslims themselves have corrupted their faith. A sense of futility, a belief that Muslims are today's downtrodden, they are the underdogs. If they are not the underdogs, then they are (portrayed as) the tyrants. Iraq, Palestine, Sudan, Indonesia, Somalia, Thailand, Russia. If you listen to the news, or pick virtually any large region of the world, you can practically pinpoint an area where, if we are not the victims then we are surely the oppressors.

Volunteering at a Christian homeless shelter this past week, i was moved to learn that one of the homeless clients there is a Muslim.

"You should make dawah to him," one of the sisters said to one of the brothers.

Later, i thought to myself: he is not the one who needs dawah. We are the ones who need dawah because there is surely, surely, something wrong with us if a Muslim brother is accessing the services of a Christian homeless shelther. Where were the Muslim food banks, the Muslim groups organizing soup kitchens for the homeless? We dropped the ball on that. It's not him who needed the dawah. It's us.

An Eid execution

2007-01-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

There is something disturbing about that video. About the taunts hurled by witnesses, about the jostling, the mood, the atmosphere is undignified. The man is being hanged. There is a time and a moment for a bit of dignity. Yes, dignity even for a murderer. Yes, dignity even for a mass murderer. Why? Because that display of dignity is what separates 'us' from 'them'. The respect that we show when others do not, the dignity we display when others do not, the adherence to rules and regulations, to guidelines and decorum, that is what differentiates us from them. The line is otherwise blurred. In the absence of all that, what separates the executioner from the executioned?

Saddam Hussein's execution on Eid

2006-12-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Convenient timing for the execution on Eid day: the news was released just at the right time in North America, so that media outlets on this side of the Atlantic could put it into their front page. So this morning, as Americans wake up and read the papers over their coffees and espressos, they can wake up to the news that Saddam Hussein has been executed.

Executed for which crimes? Not one of his worst crimes that the US constantly mentions - the gassing of the Kurds at Halabja. He could not be tried in court for that crime because that would require a great deal of evidence to come forth - evidence that had messy blood trails leading to Rumsfeld. So he was convicted and sent to die on Eid for a crime that had no trails leading towards the US.

Since we are on the topic of crimes, lest it be forgotten: where is the alleged mastermind behind 9/11 - the one whom Bush had pledged to hunt down? Compared to Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and his secular Baathist party were small fry.

Nakoda Lodge

2006-12-26T03:53:00.000-07:00

And the earth - We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth

To be observed and commemorated by every devotee turning (to Allah) {50.7-8}

Swearing in

2006-12-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

The board that oversees the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here publicly distanced itself on Thursday from a member who recently condemned the first Muslim elected to Congress for planning to use a Koran during the private part of his swearing-in ceremony. In November, the board member, Dennis Prager, a conservative commentator and radio show host, said that Keith Ellison, the newly elected Muslim member of Congress, should give up his post if he could not take his oath on a Bible, which Mr. Prager said was the traditional religious text of the United States.

In its resolution, the council’s executive committee criticized Mr. Prager’s remarks as "antithetical to the mission of the museum as an institution promoting tolerance and respect for all peoples regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity.", "Holocaust Museum Rebukes Member for Koran Comment", New York Times, 21 December 2006

Amongst one of the newly elected members of Congress, is a Democrat from Minnesota who happens to be the first Muslim American elected to Congress - Keith Ellison. He wants to use the Quran, not the Bible, in a private unofficial ceremony that will see him sworn into office on January 4 2007. In the US currently, there is some uproar regarding this individual's decision to carry the Quran, not the Bible, into this ceremony.

Irony of ironies: the US Constitution protects religious pluralism. While we ask this elected official to swear to uphold the Constitution, we do so in a manner that asks him to deny his own religious identity. This is the great United States of America.

Meanwhile, a board member of the Washington-based Holocaust Memorial Museum, Dennis Prager, stated this gem: "My entire effort in the Keith Ellison matter has been to draw attention to the need to acknowledge the Bible as the basis of America’s moral values. Judeo-Christian values are the greatest single protection against another Holocaust."

Someone needs to send Mr. Prager a history book. It was the manipulation of "Judeo-Christian values" that allowed the Holocaust to occur in the first place. How ignorant to say that one group's values are the only beliefs that can save humanity from repeating the Holocaust. Prager obviously lacks information regarding Judeo-Christian-Islamic history and needs to refresh himself on the three Abrahamic faiths' parallel teachings and beliefs.

While the US dedicates itself to spreading democracy and religious pluralism in Iraq and Afghanistan, and doing a fine job of that as we can all see, the American administration might want to ensure that it doesn't trample upon those rights on the domestic front.

Little mosque on the prairie

2006-12-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

Canada's 'Little Mosque on the Prairie' aims to ease religious tension, 2 October 2006

OTTAWA, (AFP) - Canada's public broadcaster CBC hopes to lighten religious tensions between this country's Christian majority and Muslims with a new sitcom, "Little Mosque on the Prairie."

The show is a parody of the acclaimed US drama "Little House on the Prairie" (1974-1983), starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about the life and adventures of the Ingalls family in the 19th century American West.

But instead of raising pitchforks, tumbling down hills and selling eggs at the general store, this fictional Muslim family struggles to find its place in Canada's vast western prairies in a post-September 11, 2001 world.

CBC spokesman Jeff Keay said Monday the broadcaster has ordered eight episodes and will begin airing them in January.

"The producers recognize that this is a potentially sensitive topic," Keay said.

The Roman Catholic pope Benedict XVI's recent comments on Islam, an alleged Toronto terror plot foiled in June and attacks on mosques have divided Canadians lately, he acknowledged.

"But, the show is a comedy. We hope people will laugh," he said.

Liverpool-born filmmaker Zarqa Nawaz wrote and produced the satire.

Her previous films include "BBQ Muslims" about two brothers who are suspected of being terrorists after their barbecue blows up, and "Real Terrorists Don't Belly Dance."

Her production company is called Fundamentalist Films; its motto is to put the "fun back into fundamentalism," according to its website.

Getting ready for a (Wo)man

2006-09-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

How come when a guy "gets ready" to head out, all he has to do is:

- shave
- take a shower (regular shampoo)
- deodorant
- put on clean clothes
- combs hair
- walks out of door

When a woman "gets ready" to head out, she feels [society tells her?] she has to:

- take a shower: this is not your average-Joe-regular shower. This is a tedious process involving various shavers, exfoliants, body scrubs, loofahs, pumice stones, invigorating body washes, rainforest-smelling shower gels, and unique volumizing/moisturizing/therapeutic shampoos corresponding with their complex conditioners
- post-shower phase: body lotions, foot lotions, and hand lotion, each of which should smell more exotic than the last one
- blow-dry hair ensuring no 'frizziness'; style hair using another complex set of different hair brushes and combs to give maximum style, 'lift' and volume, as well as using gels, hairsprays, and pins to keep it all in place for the rest of the day
- deodorant and perfume
- apply expensive face moisturizer as the first of many steps towards applying makeup. When in makeup stage, don't forget to apply: matching skintone concealers (liquid? powder? cream?), matching skintone foundations (liquid? powder? cream?), eyebrow pencil, mascara, eyeliner, eyelash curler, eyelash comb, eyeshadows (powder or cream?), brow eyeshadows, lipstick, lipliner and corresponding lip gloss, powder finish (to ensure no greasy spots), blush, blush brush
- must wear matching shoes and purse

Why don't guys have to go through all of the above rigmarole? Why can a guy go out looking like crap, and a woman has to look perfect each and every time?

Say what?

2006-08-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

Journalist: "What did Iraq have to do with that?"

Bush: "What did Iraq have to do with what?"

Journalist: "The attack on the World Trade Centre?"

Bush: "Nothing"

~ ~ ~
Bush is going to leave Iraq for the next president to clean up, Warwick McFadyen, The Age, 25 August 2006

"WE'RE not leaving, so long as I'm the President." There in nine words is the exit strategy for the United States involvement in Iraq. Depending on your viewpoint, it's either a commitment or an admission of defeat.

George Bush has another 26 months to run on his presidency, which means that by November 2008, the US will have been in Iraq for almost six years. In a couple of months, America will pass the time it spent fighting in World War II — 45 months.

The time span was noted by Senator Edward Kennedy during a hearing this month of the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Iraq and Afghanistan. The senator also noted the cost of the war: $US400 billion ($A524 billion), 2579 killed, 19,000 wounded. And that's just one side of the coin. Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at more than 40,000.

Bush also mentioned the C word. Civil, that is, as in civil war. He was concerned about the shadow it cast. But the US strategy was to "help the Iraqi people achieve their objective and their dreams, which is a democratic society". The tactics to realise that dream were another matter. Cut and run or stay. To go "would be a huge mistake". Not only for the Iraqis. "It's in our interests that we help this democracy succeed. A failed Iraq would make America less secure … It would give the terrorists and extremists an additional tool besides safe haven, and that is revenues from oil sales."

The President then fell over himself. After he said "the terrorists attacked us and killed 3000 of our citizens", a question was asked: "What did Iraq have to do with that?"

Bush: "What did Iraq have to do with what?"

Q: "The attack on the World Trade Centre?"

Bush: "Nothing, except for its part of — and nobody has ever suggested in this Administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack … The lesson of September 11 is take threats before they fully materialise." This is the 1 per cent doctrine, enunciated by Vice-President Dick Cheney, which goes that if there's a 1 per cent chance of something happening, treat it as a 100 per cent certainty and respond accordingly. As a point of record, most of the September 11 attackers came from America's great ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia.

No matter. Saddam, a dictator, killer of his countrymen and women, is now on trial and facing a death sentence for crimes against humanity. He was brought to justice because of the US invasion. Yet in the opening of this window for democracy, a spectre grotesque and life-taking has also entered.

It is sectarianism. Last month, about 3500 Iraqis died, according to mortuary and hospital figures. Iraq Body Count, which monitors violent civilian deaths, has calculated that from March last year to this March, 36 people, on average, died each day. In the first year of the invasion it was 20 a day. A total of 789 American soldiers died in the March to March period, according to globalsecurity.org, or two deaths a day.

For months, Iraq has been "sliding towards civil war". At what point on the clicking of death's toll does the situation become "officially" civil war? In the Senate Armed Services hearing, General John Abizaid, commander of the US Central Command, came as close as a military chief has to describing it as such. "I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war." The general also noted the insurgency's "resiliency, it's probably going to last for some time even after US forces depart".

General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the hearing that civil war was a possibility "but that does not have to be a fact. Shia and Sunni are going to have to love their children more than they hate each other." Pace by name, pace by outlook.

The hearing coincided with the disclosure by William Patey, who recently retired as British envoy to Baghdad, that "the prospect of a low-intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy".

The figures support this. The New York Times reported that the number of roadside bombs last month was the highest ever, and that since January, attacks against the US and Iraqi forces have doubled. Last month, 2625 bombs were found, of which 1666 exploded. That's 53 explosions every day. If this bombardment were not bad enough, there is the question of winning hearts and minds. The US second-in-command in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, admitted recently that "people who were on the fence or supported us … in the last two years or three years have in fact decided to strike out against us. And you have to ask: Why is that? And I would argue in many instances we are our worst enemy."

Certainly Abu Ghraib and Haditha did not help matters.

Senator John McCain commented to the Senate hearing that US deployments in Iraq to cover trouble spots, such as the recent surge in troops into Baghdad, was policy more along the lines of "a game of whack-a-mole". Some game.

Bush this week spoke of Iraq's impact on the US. "These aren't joyous times … and they're straining the psyche of our country." Bush is only echoing one of the latest opinion polls, by the Pew Research Centre, which found Americans were increasingly pessimistic about Iraq, the fall into civil war, and the military's capabilities of preventing it.

The US has about 133,000 troops in Iraq. It hopes that as the Iraq forces get up to speed (they were dismantled by the US during the invasion), then it can gradually withdraw its own.

At what point in the cycle of violence will that occur? One thing's for certain, by then Bush will have left the scene.

Profiling terror

2006-08-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

A story from the dark days of apartheid in relation to the mass hysteria on the Malaga flight (Removal of men condemned, August 21): a white woman flying out of Cape Town complained she was seated next to a black man. Told the plane was full, she insisted there were seats free in first class. The stewardess immediately obliged, moving her black neighbour to the front of the plane.
Glyn Ford MEP
Labour, England South West

To fight these reactionaries we must tackle the crisis that they feed off

2006-08-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

[...] Every identity has its fundamentalists - the gatekeepers of what is and isn't permissible for those who share that identity. Since we all have access to multiple identities - race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, class - these fundamentalists usually have their work cut out trying to keep everybody in line. As the guardians of authenticity, their job is to deny complexity and impose uniformity.

[...] There is no sensible conversation you can have about Islamic identity that does not address what is happening to Muslims locally and globally.

For the past five years they have been fed on a nightly diet of bombings and occupation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon; imprisonment and torture in Guantánamo Bay, Belmarsh, Basra and Abu Ghraib; and tales of alleged wanton murder and rape in Hamdania, Haditha, Balad and Mahmudiya.

This excuses nothing but explains a lot. The war on terror did not create Islamic fundamentalism but it has exacerbated it. The government should not change its foreign policy because it makes Muslims angry (it should change it because it is immoral, ineffective and makes virtually the entire world angry). But nor should it treat this anger as though it were the unpredictable response of fanatics who don't watch the news and operate in isolation to world events. At present the government's only response to these trends is greater surveillance of Muslim communities and holding bantustan-style meetings with "community leaders" whose credibility decreases every time they show up at Downing Street. The government's strategy at the moment is to first pathologise and then patronise them.

This won't work. Not for reasons of cultural sensitivity particular to Muslims but political common sense applicable to anyone. Those who refuse to address the issue of poor housing, job prospects and public services in white working-class areas will never address the rise in the racial fundamentalism that has found voice in the British National party. To acknowledge this is not to pander to racism but to display an understanding of its root causes.

Fundamentalists only thrive at times of crisis. At certain moments for certain identities they offer not just the easy way out but what can seem like the only way out. To be serious about combating them one must first be serious about tackling the crisis that gives them leverage. Only when you offer an alternative and more attractive route out of that crisis can you isolate the leaders and win over the followers. To do so is not indulgent but intelligent.

Fear of the unknown

2006-08-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

[...] A flight from Malaga to Manchester was delayed this weekend because passengers refused to travel with people they regarded as behaving suspiciously.

A passenger on the flight, Heath Schofield, explained the suspicions. "It was a return holiday flight, full of people in flip-flops and shorts. There were just two people in the whole crowd who looked like they didn't belong there."

~ ~ ~
[P]resumably these two gentlemen dressed in warm clothing were the only ones on the flight intelligent enough to check the weather forecast for Manchester before they boarded the plane.
Lyndon Rosser, Cardiff

not i not i not i

2006-08-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

So tired of explaining my religion. So tired of seeing ignorant eyes. So tired of that sick-feeling-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach whenever i hear in the news about an "attack" in the "public transportation" by groups that seem to bear the "hallmarks" of "al Qaeda elements", or "British nationals of Pakistani origin", young men, bearded men, reverts, families, wives, such good neighbours, such nice young men. Then the inevitable onslaught of angry letters-to-the-editor: Muslims can't integrate, they hate our freedoms, kill them all, wipe them all off, uncivilized savages, militant faith, jihad and virgins. So sick and tired of this BS.

i shouldn't have to explain my religion for the freaking umpteenth time. How hard is it to walk down to your local library and check out a book on Islam for yourself? Educate yourself. Don't you live in a supposedly free society? R-e-a-d.

i am Muslim and damn proud of it. And tired of feeling afraid when i'm outside, tired of wondering if those eyes are sizing me up. Tired of my own paranoia, tired of the ignorance in societies, tired of people who refuse to educate themselves. Tired of being judged because i was born with more melanin than some.

Just pick up a damn book and read about Islam if you don't know what it's about.

9/11 Commission

2006-08-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

New 9/11 Audiotapes Reveal U.S. Military's Information Breakdown: Time-stamped recordings contradict testimony given at 9/11 Commission, ABC News, 02 August 2006

The NORAD tapes, Vanity Fair, August 2006

How gross am i

2006-07-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry Zakk, i meant to do this some time ago.

Harper's backtracking

2006-07-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Lest we forget.

Harper makes medical wait-times promise disappear from priorities list, MSN, 13 July 2006

OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper's vow to reduce wait times for medical procedures seems to have mysteriously vanished from the prime minister's famous five priorities.

The Conservative government has rarely uttered the words "wait times" in the past couple of months.

But the vanishing act was complete in a guest column penned by Harper in the July issue of an obscure conservative journal, Report Magazine. The column was unearthed and brought to wider public attention Thursday by Maclean's columnist Paul Wells.

Harper boasts about his fledgling minority government's achievements since bringing down its first budget in May.

"It's been quite a ride ever since, with progress being made on all of our five priorities - from cleaning up the federal government, to cutting taxes, cracking down on crime, supporting families and strengthening our country at home and around the world," Harper writes.

But until now, strengthening the country was not listed as one of the Conservative government's five priorities.

Throughout last winter's election campaign and in the April throne speech outlining the new Conservative government's agenda, the fifth priority was always "work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times guarantee."

Harper brandished his short list of five priorities repeatedly during the campaign to draw a contrast with then-prime minister Paul Martin's reputation for failing to find focus.

"If you don't have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, you probably won't get much done," Harper said last January when he first laid out his five priorities.

"You need to know what you believe in, what you want to do and have a plan to do it."

The wait-times guarantee was supposed to ensure patients would receive medical procedures by specified deadlines. If timely care proved impossible locally, provinces were to foot the bill to send patients out of province.

Harper never offered to give the provinces any additional federal cash to help meet his promise of timely care. Indeed, he suggested they had sufficient money through a $42-billion, 10-year deal struck by Martin in 2004.

One provincial official said chances are "nil" that the wait-times guarantee will ever get off the ground as long as Harper refuses to back up his promise with the money to make it happen.

Or as Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman put it: "You can't get something for nothing."

During a conference call last week with his provincial counterparts, Smitherman said federal Health Minister Tony Clement insisted no additional money would be forthcoming to shorten wait times.

Smitherman said no province is averse to moving on wait times, but he said he was "awestruck" by Clement's attitude.

"You cannot pretend there are not extraordinary additional costs associated with it," he said in an interview.

A spokesman for Harper denied the wait-times guarantee has been dropped from the government's agenda.

"Certainly the wait-times guarantee remains in our priorities," said Stephane Rondeau, insisting that Harper's column "does not define the government's agenda."

Rondeau could not say why Harper didn't mention the promise in the column if he remains so committed to it.

"I cannot comment on that but there's no way we're moving away from that priority."

NDP health critic Penny Priddy, a former health minister in British Columbia, accused Harper of trying to accomplish "privatization by stealth," doing nothing to shorten wait times in the public health system and giving private clinics time to "put down roots."

"I don't think they ever really intended to do very much," Priddy added, blasting Harper for blithely replacing the wait-time issue with another more vague priority to strengthen the country.

"This is really condescending to Canadians to think you can do this and no one will notice."

Liberal leadership hopeful Bob Rae, a former Ontario NDP premier, said Harper and Clement "have absolutely no intention of following through on" the wait-times promise.

"If you're going to make it real, you have to be prepared to invest in it."

Rae said Harper is dropping the promise deliberately "because their real agenda is to drive the provinces to establishing two tiers."

"That's what the real agenda is, it's to tell the provinces and the public that if you want speedy treatment, go to the private sector."

Rae noted that Harper deep-sixed the wait-times guarantee in another recent missive.

In a letter to the editor in the Calgary Herald last week, Harper didn't mention the guarantee as he boasted about cutting taxes, introducing child-care allowances, cracking down on crime, beefing up the military, standing firm against terror and starting to reform government institutions.

The prime minister also promised to strike a judicial inquiry into the collapse of the Fraser River salmon fishery and to "oppose racially divided fisheries programs."

Rae said the letter in the Herald and the Report magazine column suggest Harper has adopted a "very American style" of saying one thing to the general public and another to his hard-right constituency.

"He seems determined to maintain a communication almost as if not only is he prime minister, but he's still sort of the archbishop of the right-wing church. He has to communicate directly with right-wingers to let them know that he's still one of them."

ZZ

2006-07-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

i keep wondering - what exactly was said? We'll find out later today i guess.

BBC Radio Five Live asked for help from a deaf lip reader, Jessica Rees, who read the words phonetically to an Italian translator.

She deciphered the insult as being "you're the son of a terrorist whore" - a translation also carried by many national newspapers in Britain on Tuesday.

The BBC's Ten O'Clock News also called in experts to study the television footage of the incident and determined the following:

Materazzi's first word to Zidane was "no" before he then told him to "calm down".

He then accused him of being a "liar" and wished "an ugly death to you and your family" on the day the Frenchman's mother had been taken to hospital ill. This was followed by "Go f*** yourself".

"Zidane set to comment on red card", BBC

"core warrior values"

2006-06-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

A great article by Gary Younge in the Guardian, titled, "If wanton murder is essential to the US campaign in Iraq, it's time to leave".

[A squad of US marines in Iraq] claim they then saw a back door open and, believing they were in "hot pursuit" of a gunman, broke into a second house and prepped another room, killing eight civilians, including two women and five children aged from three to 14. The imperialist "wears a mask", wrote George Orwell, "and his face grows to fit it".

Bear in mind that this is the marines' account, according to their lawyers - in other words, the account they feel puts them in the best possible light. Let's assume they were telling the truth. Given everything we know about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by the US, what military-aged Iraqi male in his right mind would not run from a battalion of American soldiers after a bomb has gone off?

Making American Imams

2006-06-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

A very interesting read from the New York Times regarding Sheikh Hamza Yusuf's and Imam Zaid Shakir's initiatives in the U.S.:

[...] "This is the wealthiest Muslim community on earth," Mr. Shakir told the crowd, quickly adding that "the wealth here has been earned" — unlike, he said, in the oil-rich Middle East. As the audience laughed at Mr. Shakir's flattery, he chided them for buying Lexuses — with heated leather seats they would never need in Houston — and Jaguars, and made them laugh again by pronouncing it "Jaguoooaah," like a stuffy Anglophile.

And then he issued a challenge: "Where are the Muslim Doctors Without Borders? Spend six months here, six months in the Congo. Form it!"

[...] Mr. Yusuf told the audience in Houston to beware of "fanatics" who pluck Islamic scripture out of context and say, "We're going to tell you what God says on every single issue.

"That's not Islam," Mr. Yusuf said. "That's psychopathy."

i've been tagged

2006-06-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Sooo, Zak has tagged me with the "six weirdest things" about myself. That should be easy :D Let's see....

1) This is kindof stupid... If i'm watching a movie (or anything on tv), i cry whenever there's a part that shows some kid crying. Doesn't matter where i'm watching the movie (even if there's a gazillion people around me), or what's happening to the kid, or who the kid is, i'll still cry [bawl my eyes out] if i see ANY kid crying. It's guaranteed.

2) It doesn't matter how hot it is outside, it can be 40+ C, but if i'm lying down to sleep, i ONLY feel comfortable with a sheet or a quilt covering me... even if that means sweltering while i'm sleeping. i know it makes no sense.

3) On average, i take about fifteen minutes to write a three-line e-mail. i go through every word repeatedly.

4) i don't like buying footwear. i have one pair of summer sandals that i wear everyday, rain or shine, and one pair of winter shoes that i wear during the winter. That's I-T. i have been told numerous times that this is not normal behaviour for females.

5) i hate 'dressing up' (like for fancy occasions/weddings etc). i absolutely HATE dressing up formally. Again, this is apparently not normal behaviour for females - generally speaking.

6) i hate standing close to anyone. It makes me uncomfortable.

i think that's it... i hope i did alright, Zak?

Zarqawi

2006-06-09T08:59:00.000-07:00

"Removing Zarqawi is a major blow to al Qaeda. It's not going to end the war, it's certainly not going to end the violence, but it's going to help a lot" ~ President Bush, REUTERS, "Bush says Zarqawi death won't end war but will help", 09 June 2006

During Saddam Hussein's time in Iraq, there was an EXTREMELY limited presence of al Qaeda in Iraq IF there was any to begin with. Hussein's secular Baathist regime did not exactly see eye-to-eye with the more extremist elements that make up al Qaeda. Pre-US invasion, there was little if any presence of al Qaeda forces in Iraq. Post-Saddam Hussein and post-US invasion, al Qaeda elements have successfully carved a very firm foothold for themselves in Iraq. Now, Bush talks about Zarqawi's death as being a "major blow to al Qaeda". Who is he fooling? If he hadn't ordered the invasion in the first place, there would have been no al Qaeda in Iraq to begin with. So far, all the US has managed to 'accomplish' has been to fight demons that the US itself created in the first place. And then they pat themselves on the back for doing that! Good God... Orwellian times.

How stupid can a president get. How stupid must a populace be? For heaven's sake, do the majority of Americans not comprehend where their president is leading them to?

will the real Guy please stand up?

2006-05-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

hahahahhaha...

This video clip is hilarious. To fully understand it, you need to read the following article:

"Revealed: The identity of the BBC's latest star", The Mail on Sunday, 13 May 2006

with a knife

2006-05-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

She's "detained" for questioning? URGHHHHHHHHHHHH. Detain the stupid man.

Filipina severs genital of abusive Saudi boss, Khaleej Times, 2 May 2006

RIYADH — A Saudi man was recovering in hospital after having his penis sewn back on by surgeons but the Philippine maid who chopped it off when he sexually assaulted her is under arrest, reports said yesterday.

The maid's 38-year-old employer assaulted her while his wife was asleep, the Okaz daily said.

She grabbed a knife from the kitchen to defend herself and used it when he persisted despite having it brandished in his face, the paper said.

He is now recuperating after successful surgery in a specialist hospital in Riyadh, while she has been detained for questioning, it added, without identifying either party.

Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, many of whom work in domestic service, are systematically abused and exploited, the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a July 2004 report.

The Saudi authorities strongly deny the charge.

Dixie Chicks

2006-05-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Love their latest:

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don't mind sayin'
It's a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Sayin' that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I'm not ready to make nice
I'm not ready to back down
I'm still mad as hell and
I don't have time to go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
'Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should

commodifications

2006-05-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

i am confused as to why some desis refuse to believe, truly believe with their hearts, that marriages are something decided by God. Allah determines who marries whom. It's not upto Aunty falaan falaan. No Aunty, regardless of how well-connected she may be and how many eligible belles/beaux she is connected to, cannot make a rishta happen if it's not something Willed by Allah. Period. End of discussion. Nooooo. Not for some desis. (Emphasis on 'some'). i don't know what the marriage-contract has been morphed into. It doesn't seem as though what i am seeing around me, is what Islam stipulates. The guy is a commodity valued according to the profession he belongs to and the corresponding income. His status is a commodity. The female's skin colour is a commodity. Her virginity is, obviously, a commodity. She had better never been divorced. Brush under the carpet the fact that the majority of the wives of Prophet Muhammad (may God's peace and blessings be upon him) were either divorced or widowed. Nooooo. Forget the fact that Islam recommended we should look for piety in our spouses... Noooo. 'Are they sayyids', their status, their skin colour, her sughaarpana, the dowry she'll bring in, the greencard/ western passport she brings. Ugh i am so sick and tired of this crap sometimes. How can i be proud about ALL aspects of my culture/heritage when there are some aspects that are so blatantly abused. Islam makes it so simple. We make it so damn difficult.

invitation

2006-05-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire,
Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair ~ Rumi

Stephen Colbert

2006-05-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Once you are able to get past the annoying ad, Stephen Colbert's skit during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner [29 April 2006], is rather amusing.

"we cry"

2006-04-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

"One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up by an IED, we cry" ~ President Bush.

What would Prophet Muhammad do?

2006-02-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

09 February 2006, The Free Lance-Star

What would Prophet Muhammad do?

You do not do evil to those who do evil to you, but you deal with them with forgiveness and kindness ~ Sahih Al-Bukhari

That description of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is a summary of how he reacted to personal attacks and abuse.

Islamic traditions include a number of instances of the prophet having the opportunity to strike back at those who attacked him, but refraining from doing so.

These traditions are particularly important as we witness outrage in the Islamic world over cartoons, initially published in a Danish newspaper, that were viewed as intentional attacks on the prophet.

Peaceful and not-so-peaceful protests have occurred from Gaza to Indonesia.

Boycotts have targeted companies based in Denmark, and in other nations that reprinted the offensive caricatures.

We all, Muslims and people of other faiths, seem to be locked into a downward spiral of mutual mistrust and hostility based on self-perpetuating stereotypes.

As Muslims, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, "What would the Prophet Muhammad do?"

Muslims are taught the tradition of the woman who would regularly throw trash on the prophet as he walked down a particular path. The prophet never responded in kind to the woman's abuse.

Instead, when she one day failed to attack him, he went to her home to inquire about her condition.

In another tradition, the prophet was offered the opportunity to have God punish the people of a town near Mecca who refused the message of Islam and attacked him with stones.

Again, the prophet did not choose to respond in kind to the abuse.

A companion of the prophet, Sahih Al-Bukhari, noted his forgiving disposition. He said: "I served the prophet for ten years, and he never said 'uf' [a word indicating impatience] to me and never blamed me by saying, 'Why did you do so or why didn't you do so?'"

Even when the prophet was in a position of power, he chose the path of kindness and reconciliation.

When he returned to Mecca after years of exile and personal attacks, he did not take revenge on the people of the city, but instead offered a general amnesty.

In the Quran, Islam's revealed text, God states: "When [the righteous] hear vain talk, they withdraw from it, saying: 'Our deeds are for us and yours for you; peace be on to you. We do not desire the way of the ignorant.'

"O Prophet [Muhammad], you cannot give guidance to whom you wish, it is God who gives guidance to whom He pleases, and He is quite aware of those who are guided" (28:55-56).

The Quran also says: "Invite [all] to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knows best who have strayed from His Path and who receive guidance" (16:125).

Another verse tells the prophet to "show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant" (7:199).

These are the examples that Muslims should follow as they express justifiable concern at the publication of the cartoons.

This unfortunate episode can be used as a learning opportunity for people of all faiths who sincerely wish to know more about Islam and Muslims.

It also can be viewed as a "teaching moment" for Muslims who want to exemplify the prophet's teachings through the example of their good character and dignified behavior in the face of provocation and abuse.

As the Quran states: "It may well be that God will bring about love [and friendship] between you and those with whom you are now at odds" (60:7).

IBRAHIM HOOPER is national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

a positive response

2006-02-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

CAIR is responding to the furore surrounding the Danish cartoons issue in this manner. Kudos to CAIR.

Say what?

2006-02-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

There will be a regular "Say what?" section on this blog from now on, due to the increasing frequency with which our esteemed politicians manage to articulate the stupidest things.

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown, in response to the video allegedly showing British troops abusing a group of Iraqis:

...speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, Chancellor Gordon Brown said the "loyal, hard-working, decent troops" in Iraq...

Me thinks he is from planet Neptune.

some soothing lines of poetry

2006-02-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

i read these lines to myself usually when i am feeling down.

falak kai dasht main taaron ki aakhri manzil
kahin tau ho ga shab-e sust mauj ka sahil
kahin tau ja kai rukay ga safina-e gham-e dil.

abhi girani-e shab main kami nahin ayi
najaat-e deeda-o-dil ki ghari nahin ayi
chalay chalo kai woh manzil abhi nahin ayi.

~faiz ahmed faiz

"Prophet brought peace and mercy for us all"

2006-02-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

"Prophet brought peace and mercy for us all", Abid Ishaq, 10 February 2006, Khaleej Times

"Grievous to him is what you suffer, anxious for you, compassionate is he, merciful to the believers." (Quran, 10:128)

Dear readers, the above verse of the Holy Quran points to the noblest of all humans; Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Not only does this divine verse direct us towards the compassionate and merciful attitude of the Prophet, it also expresses the depth of compassion and mercy he exercised on a daily basis.

It is related that a Bedouin once came asking for something from him. He gave the man something and said, "Have I been good to you?" The Bedouin said, "No, you have not and you have not done well." The Muslims became angry and went for him. The Prophet indicated that they should hold off. Then the Prophet got up and went into his house. Then the Prophet sent for him and added something to his gift and said, "Have I been good to you?" The Bedouin replied, "Yes, may Allah repay you well in family and tribe."

The Prophet said, "You said what you said and that angered my Companions. If you like, say what you said in my presence in their presence so as to remove what they harbour in their breasts against you." He said, "Yes." He came back later and the Prophet said, "This Bedouin said what he said and then we gave him more. He claims that he is content. Isn’t that so?" He said, "Yes, may Allah repay you well in your family and tribe."

The Prophet said, "The example of this man and me is like a man who has a she-camel who bolts from him. People chase it and they only make it shy away more. The owner calls to them to stay clear of him and his she-camel, saying, ‘I am more compassionate and better to it than you.’ He goes in front of it and takes some clods of dirt and drives it back until it comes and kneels. He saddles and mounts it. If I had given you your heads when the man said what he said, you would have killed him and he would have entered the Fire."

In another incident, when the Prophet's people rejected him, Arch Angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to him and said, "Allah has heard what your people say to you and how they reject you. He has ordered the angels of the mountains to obey whatever you tell them to do." The angel of the mountains called him, greeted him and said, "Send me to do what you wish. If you wish, I will crush them between the two mountains of Makkah." The Prophet said, "Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins those who will worship Allah alone and not associate anything with Him." (Muslim, Bukhari and the Six Books)

The Prophet's compassion and mercy are not merely historical facts. The very message of Islam and the compassionate character that the Prophet communicated applies just as much to us in rural and urban neighbourhoods today as it did to the Bedouin in the desert fourteen centuries ago. This is because Allah, the Creator, sent the Last Prophet to all humanity for all times to come and thus protecting the Prophet's character is the right of every Muslim. This protection however needs to be planned, objective-oriented and effective due to the great importance that Allah has placed on the seal of all prophets; Muhammad, peace be upon him.

When Muslims protect the noble Prophet's exemplary character by reacting violently, somewhere along the line, the teachings of the compassionate and merciful Prophet are lost. Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) anxiety and suffering for us increases when we resort to impatience and hatred and we fail miserably in justifying the Prophet’s reply to the angel of the mountains. Muslims need to educate themselves and others on the Prophet's life and teachings and not resort to means that drive others away from Islam. Allah says regarding the Prophet: "We sent thee not, but as a Mercy for all the worlds." (Quran, 21:107)

Here we go again.

2006-02-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

31 January/01 February. Muslims around the world, depending upon their unique time zones, celebrated the Islamic New Year on those dates. What a horrible start for Muslims, what a dreadful way to usher a new year.

i was watching the news a few days back, saw the pictures of protests, SOME British Muslims calling for a repeat of 7th July, people around the world wondering 'why are they so backwards? why can't they take a joke? Those mozlims still live in the 8th century' and i just started crying. Where the hell did we go wrong? From Ibn Sina to Ibn Rushd, from algorithms to algebra to alchemy, to Muslim rulers having larger libraries in their homes than all of European libraries put together, to translating ancient, classical Greek medical texts into Arabic (whilst Europe was busy burning them for fear of their blasphemous contents), and now --- THIS. A plurality of dictatorships around the world are governed by Muslim rulers; the levels of corruption in Muslim countries is well-known to those who have lived there; at the start/end of Ramadan, we wonder at which sect is going to open fire at which other sect in a mosque; when the US and UK (and a smattering of small countries) invade Iraq, the Muslim world for the most part sits and watches. When a ferry sinks in the Red Sea, with hundreds upon hundreds of innocent passengers (including children), we lack the technical expertise to deploy rescue personnel immediately - rather it takes the Egyptian government ten hours to get off its rear and for Egyptian rescue personnel to arrive at the scene. TEN hours. How many lives could have been saved had they left earlier? While some of those who claim to be Islam's "custodians of the most holy places" party in Switzerland and earn titles such as 'Playboy princes', victims from Pakistan's earthquake continue to shiver and starve in plastic tents high atop the mountains.

Instead of calling for a repeat of 7th July, instead of setting fire to Norwegian and Danish embassies, instead of making placards that warn non-Muslims of the bloodbaths to come, how hard would it have been to sit down for a few minutes, take a deep breath, and think --- how would Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) have reacted? The very figure we claim to be defending with our impotent signs and banners, the very man whom we claim to be protecting while we smash windows of a foreign embassy and burn effigies of different ambassadors, would **he** be pleased with our actions? Or might he have suggested a different course of action based upon what Allah Revealed in the Quran...

"Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knows best who have strayed from His Path and who receive guidance." {16:125}

"show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant" {7:199}

"It may well be that God will bring about love (and friendship) between you and those with whom you are now at odds." {60:7}

Non-Muslims who watch us waving placards calling for more terrorist attacks, wonder at our hypocrisy. They wonder - rightly - how many times Jews have been caricatured in Muslim newspapers, how many times anti-Jewish material has been printed in Muslim media. Does that not smack of hypocrisy? Are we - the ummah - that weak that we cannot engage in some real, honest self-introspection? God, are we that weak?! So much for repudiating the cartoons' messages. Our actions have reinforced the very stereotypes caricatured by the cartoonists.

Rather than setting fire to embassies and threatening to kidnap anyone who looks 'white', our sanctified custodians of Islam's holiest places, our very own Playboy Princes might have funded (IF they could have tolerated spending time away from their partying and gambling) a symposium in Copenhagen - something along the lines of "Discover Islam". Invite people like Yusuf Islam, Hamza Yusuf, King Abdullah and his wife, Musharraf, Bush, Prince Charles, Christian theologians from around the world, the Pope, yes even Angelina Jolie to give the event some PR appeal and ensure media coverage, to present speeches about how to revitalize Muslim societies - economically, culturally, politically. One part of the exhibition would have focused on the 'past' (the glorious civilization) but other parts of the exhibition would be focused on the present and the future. There would be speakers to present talks aimed at shattering misperceptions of Islam. There would be sections of the exhibition depicting art and architectural examples from some of our finest mosques. Prince Charles could give talks about his Islamic garden. Yusuf Islam on how to re-engage with our Muslim youths.

But no - that calls for brains. Let's set fire to a foreign embassy, let's wave around violent banners. THAT is how to protect our Prophet (pbuh).

Truly, we have the best faith with the worst followers. i weep for our selfishness, i weep for our corruption, i weep at how far we have strayed from the righteous path, i weep for our lack of faith.

Is the pendulum swinging?

2006-01-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Subsequent to 9/11, the social pendulum in the US was heavily pro-conservative. Political dissent was equivalent to being anti-American. The very principles that, it is stated, the US was founded upon were targeted: the Patriot Act was passed by a prostrated Congress, while mainstream American media networks failed to independently analyze the PR bulletins issuing from the White House.

Now, one can smell a whiff of change in the American air and psyche. One striking example of the pendulum's swinging back from its far right position is a recent David Letterman episode (aired 03 January 2006), which starred Bill O'Reilly as one of the guests. Now David Letterman is not your average Joe talk show host. He is immensely popular in US culture. I was amazed to learn that he took on Bill O'Reilly - a few months back, this would have been a ratings-disaster for the usually apolitical Letterman. A sign of things to come, I hope. Extract from their conversation:

O'Reilly: "Robust debate is good. But we believe that the United States, particularly the military, are doing a noble thing, a noble thing. The soldiers and Marines are noble. They're not terrorists. And when people call them that, like Cindy Sheehan called the insurgents 'freedom fighters,' we don't like that. It is a vitally important time in American history. And we should all take it very seriously. Be very careful with what we say."

Letterman: "Well, and you should be very careful with what you say also."

O'Reilly: "Give me an example."

Letterman: "How can you possibly take exception with the motivation and the position of someone like Cindy Sheehan?"

O'Reilly: "Because I think she's run by far-left elements in this country. I feel bad for the woman."

Letterman: "Have you lost family members in armed conflict?"

O'Reilly: "No, I have not."

Letterman: "Well, then you can hardly speak for her, can you?"

O'Reilly: "I'm not speaking for her. Let me ask you this question."

Letterman, referring back to O'Reilly’s examples of a war on Christmas: "Let's go back to your little red and green stories."

O'Reilly: "This is important, this is important. Cindy Sheehan lost a son, a professional soldier in Iraq, correct? She has a right to grieve any way she wants, she has a right to say whatever she wants. When she says to the public that the insurgents and terrorists are 'freedom fighters,' how do you think, David Letterman, that makes people who lost loved ones, by these people blowing the hell out of them, how do you think they feel, waht about their feelings, sir?"

Letterman: "What about, why are we there in the first place? The President himself, less than a month ago said we are there because of a mistake made in intelligence. Well, whose intelligence? It was just somebody just get off a bus and handed it to him?"

Bill O'Reilly: "No."

Letterman: "No, it was the intelligence gathered by his administration."

O'Reilly: "By the CIA."

Letterman: "Yeah, so why are we there in the first place? I agree to you, with you that we have to support the troops. They are there, they are the best and the brightest of this country. There's no doubt about that. And I also agree that now we're in it it's going to take a long, long time. People who expect it's going to be solved and wrapped up in a couple of years, unrealistic, it's not going to happen. However, however, that does not eliminate the legitimate speculation and concern and questioning of why the hell are we there to begin with?"

O'Reilly: "If you want to question that, and then revamp an intelligence agency that's obviously flawed, the CIA, okay. But remember, MI-6 in Britain said the same thing. Putin's people in Russia said the same thing, and so did Mubarak's intelligence agency in Egypt."

Letterman: "Well then that makes it all right?"

O'Reilly: "No it doesn't make it right."

Letterman: "That intelligence agencies across the board makes it alright that we're there?"

O'Reilly: "It doesn't make it right."

Letterman: "See, I'm very concerned about people like yourself who don't have nothing but endless sympathy for a woman like Cindy Sheehan. Honest to Christ."

O'Reilly: "No, I'm sorry."

Letterman: "Honest to Christ."

O'Reilly: "No way. No way you’re going to get me, no way that a terrorist who blows up women and children."

Letterman: "Do you have children?"

O'Reilly: "Yes I do. I have a son the same age as yours. No way a terrorist who blows up women and children is going to be called a freedom fighter on my program."

Letterman: "I'm not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap. But I don't know that for a fact."

[...] O'Reilly: "Listen, I respect your opinion. You should respect mine."

Letterman: "Well, ah, I, okay. But I think you’re - "

O'Reilly: "Our analysis is based on the best evidence we can get."

Letterman: "Yeah, but I think there's something, this fair and balanced. I'm not sure that it's, I don't think that you represent an objective viewpoint."

O'Reilly: "Well, you're going to have to give me an example if you're going to make those claims."

Letterman: "Well I don’t watch your show so that would be impossible."

O'Reilly: "Then why would you come to that conclusion if you don't watch the program?"

Letterman: "Because of things that I’ve read, things that I know."

O'Reilly: "Oh come on, you're going to take things that you've read. You know what say about you? Come on. Watch it for a couple, look, watch it for a half hour. You'll get addicted. You'll be a Factor fan, we'll send you a hat."

Letterman: "You'll send me a hat. Well, send Cindy Sheehan a hat."

O'Reilly: "I'll be happy to."

One of the saddest images...

2006-01-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

...from 2005.

Caption: "Casualties on all sides continued to rise, with over 2,000 US soldiers having now lost their lives in Iraq. Many Iraqi lives have also been shattered, including this young girl whose parents died when their family car came under fire from US forces in Tal Afar."

(Source).

Purple pieces of paper

2005-10-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Feeding the survivors during Ramadan, BBC, Owen Bennett Jones, 15 October 2005

Mandra Hussein had walked more than 40km by the time he reached Bagh. An elderly man with a long white beard, deeply creased face and a flowing shalwar kameez, his clothes were threadbare and dusty. And he was the bearer of bad news.

His village had been destroyed, there had been a heavy snowfall, the children were becoming ill. He had made the long journey to raise the alarm. Before setting off he had made good preparations. He had written out everything that had happened on a few sheets of purple notepaper. His idea was to give the document to someone in the army or perhaps to a newspaper, so that help would be sent.

He did not have much luck.

No-one was particularly interested in his pieces of paper.

He did manage to see a brigadier to explain everything, but the army man was overwhelmed. Many others from remote villages had similar stories. He just made some vague promises and, feeling sorry for the old man, gave him two small cartons of mango juice and that was it.

Despite the adversity he faced, Mandra Hussein remained a very pious man. The earthquake may have measured 7.6 on the Richter scale but it had not shaken his faith.

"Our village may have been destroyed but I give thanks to Allah," he told me, "for making the earthquake happen in the daylight hours, so that many people were out of their houses. Allah ensured that many of us survived."

a picture for memory's sake

2005-10-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

More than ten years ago, i used to know a lady who, with her husband, used to rent out the top part of my grandmother's home in Islamabad's F/6-1 sector. They were a young couple, perhaps recently married. At that time they were childless. i was maybe five or six years old, not any older than that. My two older sisters and i used to love spending time at her place - even though we had loads of relatives downstairs. She doted on children, anyone's children.

In her living room were floor-to-wall brown bookshelves, lined with toys and soft dolls. Each soft doll had a particular name. i remember she picked up a small orange cat doll (that was Garfield), and asked us what she should name it. The three of us instantly yelled out, "Garfield!" For us, she was the coolest Auntie around - she would engage with children in a way that children respected and would respond to most sincerely, never in a condescending manner. In short, she was one of my favourite Aunties.

That was more than ten years ago. Since then, Allah Blessed her and her husband with two sons, whom i am sure were brought up in one of the most loving environments possible. That was three days ago. Her eldest son, while running down the stairs of the apartment building they lived in during the earthquake, died. Her younger son is in critical care at a hospital. She pleaded with the authorities to allow her back to her building, her rubble, to permit her to find one picture of her eldest son - one picture for memory's sake. That is the sole tangible item she may have of her eldest son, if she finds the picture amidst the rubble of a high-rise apartment complex.

Her husband passed away a few years ago.. now her son is gone and the other is in hospital. i think about this mother's devotion towards all children, how desperately she and her husband wanted their own biological children, i think of her generosity and love towards everyone... and i struggle to make sense of why this happened to HER, when rapists and murderers walk the streets of Islamabad and every other city, when those who abuse their children manage to do so, when "bad" people are not punished and it seems only the good ones are.

There must be some logic, somewhere, that resides solely in Allah's possession; it is beyond my grasp. i know that the One who planned everything in this universe, the planets' orbits, the moon's phases, the unity and interconnectedness of an ecosystem, must have in His infinite wisdom some reason for this. Even if i do not understand that reason (and i freely acknowledge that i fail to), it should be enough for me to submit that His will be done. To submit, afterall, is to be a Muslim.

A nameless "young boy"

2005-09-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Something about this picture tugs at my heart.

Caption: A young boy winces as he carries a hot charcoal oven to a bakery in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

May I pee, please?

2005-09-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

hehe.

Can I go to loo, asks Mr President, Jim McBeth, Scotsman, 16 September 2005

THE hastily scribbled note could have been a request for help on the finer points of international law or a cogent comment on the state of the United Nations' Security Council.

But the message, which quietly passed from George Bush, the US president, to Condoleezza Rice, his Secretary of State, as the world's leaders looked on, was somewhat more prosaic - the leader of the free world wanted her permission to go to the loo.

"I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?" Dubya asked, in a moment captured by a photographer with a fast eye and a long lens.

It is not known what her reply was but it offers an insight into the unique relationship between Ms Rice and her president, who once said: "This foreign policy stuff sure is frustrating."

The scenario will also provide ammunition to those critics of the president who believe he is indecisive and too reliant on his powerful advisers.

Wade Nelson, an American politics observer, said: "Apparently, the leader of the free world is equally afraid to take a bathroom break without asking permission from his Secretary of State.

"The possibility that a world leader feels he needs permission from a staffer to urinate begs the question: What kind of leader is this?

"Could he have stood up? Walked out? Or, in these situations, does protocol demand someone of lesser stature request a break so no-one knows the president needs to urinate?"

Mr Bush's misfortunes have helped feed the criticism.

Three years ago, he choked on a pretzel, fainted, fell off the sofa and cracked his face.

Sporting a bruise, he quipped: "I should have listened to mother: always chew your pretzel before swallowing!"

More recently, his standing with voters plummeted, not because of Iraq, but because he dropped Barney, the White House dog. He was castigated by animal welfare groups.

And at this year's G8 summit the president put a Scottish policeman in hospital by running into him on a mountain bike.

Mishaps apart, yesterday's "Please, miss!" moment shows how much he relies on Ms Rice.

Mark Fancher, the lawyer, writer and African-American activist, said: "Rice is so eager to please her boss that she not only carries out plans, but initiates and orchestrates."

Ms Rice is regarded as an "absolutist" on loyalty. Nicholas Lemann, the eminent political commentator, said Rice was "extremely sure of her value".

Whatever the high-flying political relationship, Scottish politicians sympathised with the president.

Brian Monteith, the Conservative MSP, said: "There are times in meetings when beneath your cheery smile you are bursting."

And Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald added: "It happens to the best of us."

Mission Accomplished

2005-08-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

It is such a cliche, but truly - man never learns from his history. It was, admittedly, in the last century that the Vietnam War occurred but not more than four decades ago. Yet here we are again, gleefully repeating our same mistakes.

"The insurgents quite frankly can't tolerate the passing of a national constitution and they cannot tolerate a second successful round of elections in December and you can be sure they will fight." Major General Douglas Lute - Director of Operations for US Central Command

How Orwell would be twisting in his grave. Time for dissection. According to Major General Lute, the "insurgents....can't tolerate the passing of a national constitution and they cannot tolerate a second successful round of elections in December..." Let's put aside for now the fact that the then US admin of President Eisenhower did not permit elections to be held in Vietnam in 1956 for fear that Ho Chi Minh, wildly popular as he was, would win. Layman's terms: the US was afraid that, in an election, the person who would garner the most votes, would win. Horror of horror. Let's put that fact away, nevertheless, because it occurred during the period of another administration. There was a 15 August 2005 deadline for accepting the new constitution in Iraq. That deadline has had to be extended twice. In other words, the original deadline was missed. The main squabbling points regarding the deadline appear to be: the role of Islam, the role of federalism and the division of natural resources. Women, by the way, get all of one grand mention in the Iraqi constitution. Well, so much for liberating Iraq's women blah blah blah. Iraqi women's rights & Kurds, the two hot and sexy issues for the US admin prior to the war, are now dropped like hot potatoes. Well the Kurds have always been used and dumped by almost everyone in the past, so i am sure they are used to it.

It is oft-stated that the US always wins the war, but loses the peace. In realistic terms, how much regional and global legitimacy does a constitution have when it is overseen and pushed through by Zalmay Khalilzad, an American ambassador from the occupying force?

Next: what of the role of Islam? Is the US comfortable wiith seeing ayatollahs running the show in a country that has the world's third-largest known oil reserves? oops, that sounds a great deal like neighbouring Iran. How comfortably will President Bush sit in Washington knowing that Shiite-run Iraq may become similar in governance to Iran? Mission-not-exactly-accomplished, Dubya.

The dukhi of Afghanistan

2005-08-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Each and every conflict leaves public and private ghosts, individuals whose lives are irrevocably changed whether for better or for worse.

An interesting piece from the BBC's Tom Coghlan:

To the men of the Red Army who fought in Afghanistan, their elusive mujahideen enemy were always called simply the "Dukhi" - the ghosts. But when their last tank rolled back across the Oxus river in February 1989, the then Soviets left behind some Cold War ghosts of their own.

In the hills of northern Afghanistan, there are still men with pale skin who talk Russian when they are together.

Until 1981, Nasratullah was a soldier in the Red Army called Nikolai. Together with two others, now known as Rahmatullah and Aminullah, he survives from a total of five Soviet soldiers known to have been captured and converted to Islam.

They went on to fight against their old comrades with the mujahideen.

The ill-fated Soviet adventure in Afghanistan is often compared to America's disastrous foray into Vietnam. Russia says 13,000 Soviet soldiers were lost between 1979 and 1989. An estimated 1.3m Afghans, mainly civilians, also died.

Today, 45-year-old Nasratullah is a softly spoken, melancholic, chain smoker who earns $80 a month as a policeman. But until his conversion to Islam, he was a junior officer from an elite Soviet parachute regiment. He agreed to be interviewed only with the encouragement of his former mujahideen comrades. He remains close to the men who first captured him.

"We captured Nasratullah during an ambush in Kaligai village in 1981," recalls his white bearded former commander, Sufi Payda Mohammed, eyes rimmed with kohl. His mujahideen band operated in the steep-sided valleys of Baghlan province, along the key re-supply route from the Uzbek border to Kabul. The mujahideen commander remembers "a very terrible fight" during which they killed around 20 Soviet soldiers. Nikolai was the sole survivor, captured after he exhausted his ammunition and hid in a drainage ditch under the road.

The area around what was known as Soviet Base 80 is still littered with the rusting tanks and destroyed supply vehicles. Local people say Russian embassy officials returned to the area last year offering cash rewards for the location of the graves of missing Soviet soldiers. They left with six exhumed bodies.

Nasratullah himself tells a different, more ideologically-driven version of how he came to fall into mujahideen hands. He says he witnessed a massacre of more than 70 civilians at Kaligai. "We swore in the Russian army on the sword and the Bible to help society. It was against the law what was done," he says. In horror and disgust, he says he simply turned and walked away from his unit.

Prisoners were often killed by both sides, but Nikolai was found by villagers who cared for him and then passed him to the mujahideen. It was a year, he says, before he decided to convert. During that time he helped to mend mechanical equipment.

"I didn't choose to convert," he says today. "The religion chose me."

His former captors deny that any of the men were forced to become Muslims, or did so through fear.

They were renamed by the clerics who converted them. Nasratullah then spent eight years in the frontline with the mujahideen. According to his comrades, the Soviet converts were decent fighters and particularly useful for listening to Soviet radio traffic. "If you are in the frontline then you must fight and you must kill," is all he will say about fighting against his countrymen.

Nasratullah says he was born in 1960, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. He will not give his last name. His father was also a soldier in the Red Army and Nikolai attended a military academy, which he will not identify. He volunteered for service in Afghanistan and served there for three months before his capture. In July 1988, Moscow offered an amnesty to all Soviet prisoners of war in Afghanistan, whatever they had done during their captivity. None of the Soviet converts took the offer, though all have visited their former homeland since the war.

"They said that they felt like white pigeons among black crows in Russia," says Sufi Muhammed. "They told us 'we were devout and wanted to pray, but our families had no belief and didn't understand us'."

When he visited Ukraine in 1996, Nasratullah met some of his old Red Army comrades. He says he was relieved when they did not blame him for his conversion, or for joining the mujahideen. Like many of the veterans of Vietnam, the Soviet veterans have suffered wide disillusionment. There were mass protests in June by some of the Ukraine's 150,000 Afghan war veterans, many of whom survive on a state pension of $40 a month. "Russia and Afghanistan are not so different," says Nasratullah. "I have a good life here, though the economy is not very good."

Under the Taleban, Nasratullah and his fellow Soviets came to the attention of leader Mullah Mohammed Omar who, impressed with their devout lives, gave them homes and businesses. All three have local wives and families. Three years ago, Nasratullah had a daughter he named Mosal. But after the Taleban fell in 2001, the houses were reclaimed and none of the three is considered rich. Locally, they are regarded as curiosities, and admired for being devout. Nasratullah says that while he has the support of his old mujahideen comrades and his Islamic faith he will never leave Afghanistan.

"Mongolian eyes"

2005-08-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Brits who are brown-skinned and possess "Mongolian eyes", better watch your back.

The report quotes an unidentified officer who followed Mr de Menezes to the bus stop as saying: "I could not positively identify this male as Hussain Osman... but he had distinctive 'Mongolian eyes'." (Source: Britain's Daily Mail).

Excerpts from a leaked report to ITV into Menezes's killing/manslaughter reveals now that a surveillance officer was outside Menezes's residence; had this highly-professional intelligence officer not been busy urinating at a critical moment in time, perhaps he might have identified Menezes as *not* being one of the individuals wanted by the authorities - Mongolian eyes nothwithstanding. Contrary to media reports issued immediately subsequent to the Brazilian's death, the innocent commuter had not run from any officers, nor jumped any barricades, nor was he wearing a bulky, padded jacket. So much for placing our trust with the media or the police. The latter had apparently given this individual no indication he was being pursued. The innocent man had also been physically restrained in the train by one officer, without exhibiting manifest resistance, when a second officer fired seven shots into his head and one into his shoulder. Some of the officers involved in this series of events have apparently been given a paid holiday. i hope they get a beautiful tan while snorkeling and scuba-diving, wherever they may be.

Only a deluded fool would possess any trust in the media now. They accepted at face value diverse statements from the police and witnesses, with little to no attempts at corroboration. At the centre of this entire pathetic state of affairs lies an innocent human being gunned to death, and a mother and a father in some remote dusty Brazilian town mourning their son. All three of these poor Brazilians will very shortly be forgotten, at least as soon as the international media spotlight moves to cover slightly more sexier stories - perhaps the next pretty Caucasian American girl declared missing.

"Jews do not expel Jews"?

2005-08-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

Currently, many media outlets are focusing upon the Israeli government's attempts to forcibly remove Jewish settlers from select Gazan locations - i.e., from Occupied Palestinian Territory. Some of the published pictures include defiant, weeping protestors holding out on rooftops, Jewish worshippers clinging to the Torah scrolls in synagogues, human chains of female and male protestors with yellow ribbons tied to some part of their clothing (the ribbons signifying their opposition to Prime Minister's Sharon removal orders), Israeli policeofficers cradling a Jewish baby in a settler's residence, Israeli female policeofficers escorting female protestors away from their synagogue holdout, an Israeli male policeofficer hugging an elderly Jewish settler as he was getting into his car to leave his home, a Jewish settler burning an Israeli flag. Such are the pictures that the world has been treated to by select media outlets.

At one point even i started to feel bad - especially when i saw pictures of tots crying, being shielded by Israeli policeofficers. At times like these perhaps, a little historical context and perspective are required. This is Occupied Palestinian Territory. These acts need never have taken place had not this very same government of PM Sharon's decided to expand their settlements and encroach upon others' residences. When Palestinian families are evicted, they do not have the luxury of months of advance warnings, police officers holding and comforting their babies... no, they are given at the most five minutes' warning prior to a bulldozer coming up and reducing one's home to rubble. What some Jewish settlers experienced in Gaza, is incomparably superior to what many thousands more of Palestinians have had to experience at the hands of the same authorities.

During the forcible removal of the Jewish settlements, some of the Jewish protestors screamed, "Jews do not expel Jews." That is accurate. Jews expel Arabs.

Will Islam progress?

2005-08-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Will Islam progress beyond this century and by "progress" i don't mean just grow quantitatively, but qualitatively?

It is almost becoming a cliche to state that Islam is one of the world's fastest-growing faiths. In almost every continent, not only is it quantitatively increasing but, contrary to media coverage, a greater number of its adherents are females rather than males - all the attempts at painting Islam as a repressive religion for females notwithstanding.

There is a difference between "Islam" and "culture-specific Islam" - the latter seems to be practised by many individuals raised since birth as Muslims. "Culture-specific Islam" is an oxymoronic phrase because Islam by its very nature transcends culture and heritage. Shoulder-to-shoulder do its followers stand during salaah, a Nigerian next to a Bolivian next to an American, all equal in the eyes of Allah. However, in reality, that egalitarian belief is seldom implemented by those raised since birth as Muslims.

i am beginning to know a few Muslim reverts (individuals who have decided to revert to Islam). One of the aspects that strikes me the most about their personalities, generally speaking, is their lack of cultural baggage. They consciously made a decision to adopt a faith subsequent to independent study of that faith - they actually read a meaning of the Quran (often not being able to read the Quran in its Revealed language), they study the hadiths, they actively hunt out books on diverse topics within Islam, and if they have questions/concerns/criticisms etc., they try to seek out an educated and qualified Muslim scholar to address their concerns. Once their heart and mind are both satisfied, they declare the shahada.

i think, if Islam will genuinely "progress" beyond this century, it will be upon the shoulders, sweat and tears of individuals such as the ones above - the new generation of Muslim reverts, the Johns, Julies, Toms, and Smiths. They are the ones untainted by centuries of cultural superstition, dogma, cultural prejudice, customs, biased beliefs, passed from parent to child (as is the case, for example, in many Pakistani Muslim families). Reflect on your "average" Pakistani wedding - feasts fit for royalty, lavish affairs that parents save up money for since their son's/daughter's birth, extravagant dowries paid (dowries? Islam? come again?), finest silks/chiffons/georgettes bought for members of the other side, elaborate logic-defying customs clung to obstinately, the literal showing-off of the presents/suits/shalwar kameezes/rolexes purchased by the bride's side of the family, tonnes of food literally thrown away, wasted, food sufficient to feed a village, wasted in order simply to show that one is financially capable of wasting food...Oftentimes, the only point at which Islam makes a presence during a Pakistani wedding is during the signing of the nikaah, subsequent to which it's bhangra-time where both genders may or may not dance together, or gossip-fests to discuss who's bahu has yet to produce a male heir.

It is the Muslim reverts who may yet bring back purity to Islam, who may yet be the 'modern' generation that not just reads the Quran, not just recites the Quran, but lives the Quran.

"To make God laugh...

2005-08-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

...tell Him your plans."

"Democracy cannot defend itself...

2005-08-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

...by aping its opponents."

A thought-provoking, articulate, & informative piece by Liberty's Shami Chakrabarti. Excerpts:

[...] I for one would advocate a transfer of resources from the identity-card project (which ministers now admit to having "oversold") to direct policing and intelligence budgets. Intelligence and prevention are key and Britain's 2 million Muslims, far from being this country's problem, are an essential part of our best defence against future attacks. Far from inspiring or reassuring them, Friday's neo-McCarthyite hectoring has rattled many moderates who had previously begun to rally in vigorous defence of their families, faith and country of birth or adoption - Britain.

However, Muslims should not be alone in their fears for the future. If Mr Blair is allowed to construct the Britain that he has mapped out, it is not the rules that will have changed, but our society. We will be just that little bit less distinguishable from the violent, hateful and unforgiving theocrats, our democracy undermined from within in ways that the suicide bombers could only have dreamed of.

[...] Democracy cannot defend itself by aping its opponents, and mercifully the "rules of the game" do not change because players, however powerful, grow tired of them. Previous generations endured the terrors of war and left us our rights and freedoms. This legacy is greater than any one man or moment. It must not be sold in a summer.

2005-08-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Caption: A man holds up a banner reading "Allah loves London. We are not afraid" in defiance of the bombings during two minutes of silence in remembrance of the victims at Trafalgar Square (AP Photo/Sergio Dionisio) (source).

devils & dust

2005-08-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

"I got God on my side
I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust"
~ bruce springsteen

55 years

2005-07-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

Met a person today who reminded me of someone i wish i had met. Became Canadian, born in Berlin. His wife had passed away two years ago. They had been married for fifty five years. Not once, he stated, not once in those fifty five years did they ever have one negative word between them, nor did they ever experience a single fight. In fifty five years.

i asked him, what was your's, and your wife's, secret towards such a peaceful relationship? His response: if they disagreed regarding anything, they would postpone the disagreement until that day's evening when they would sit down peacefully, each with a glass of wine (he told me a glass of milk would work just as well in my case), and each would present her/his side of the issue. Eventually, one would be persuaded of the other's point of view. Hence, they mutually avoided quarrelling. He had tears in his eyes as he remembered his wife.

Surely, it must be one of God's greatest blessings if one is so privileged to have someone love them for fifty five years and, forever, be so fondly remembered.

And among His signs is this, that He has created for you mates from among yourselves, that you may dwell in tranquillity with them; and He has put love and mercy between you. Verily in that are signs for those who reflect {xxx.21}

2005-07-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

What happens can't be stopped. Aim for grace.
~ Ann Beattie

furtive glances

2005-07-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

A reflective piece on the BBC's website this morning, one that i believe delves into an aspect of humanity's nature.

The piece discusses London commuters' range of emotions - fear, wariness, distrust, paranoia and guilt - vis-a-vis their fellow commuters, as well as how Tube and bus passengers are dealing with each other and themselves in the days subsequent to the multiple explosions.

Those of 'Asian appearance' (how would one define that?) feel furtive glances from others; some express their feelings when the seat next to them is the only one left unoccupied. Others articulate their guilt for harbouring stereotypical sentiments, while a few discuss how these emotions play right into the desires of the 'terrorists'.

i don't reside in a city that has, as of yet, experienced bombings. The day following the 7 July bombings, i went to a store wearing - what i usually wear when it's hot these days - jeans and a white kameez that reaches to my knees. It's an extremely 'ethnic' dress look. i am not certain if it was my paranoia. i felt distinctly uncomfortable. i deliberately tried not to make eye-contact with anyone; the few times i looked up i thought i saw others staring at me. If there were to be attacks in this country as well, i wonder at how people here would react vis-a-vis each other.

It's an extremely uncomfortable feeling, to walk around with the perception (accurate or not) that others are regarding you as an outsider. In the BBC piece, there was a comment by an individual from the U.S.:

"Now the general public has been introduced to the plight of the black man. I am a chemistry PhD student, a research and teaching assistant but that does not seem to be enough to make others feel comfortable. I too make my own declarations: doing work on my computer, grading papers or reading some chemical journal with a molecule in full view, but I still see some women clutch their purses a little more tightly or some men making sure their wallets are still there as I pass. To survive, you have to train yourself to just let it go. Perhaps when the fear subsides and the london public returns to a fair sense of normalcy, we will learn the more appropriate of the two lesson here: Dont judge."

'seeing' Menezes

2005-07-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Eyewitnesses' excerpts from the BBC:

i) "I saw an Asian guy.

"[...] As [he] got onto the train I looked at his face, he looked sort of left and right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified."

ii) "He had a baseball cap on and quite a sort of thickish coat - it was a coat you'd wear in winter, sort of like a padded jacket. He might have had something concealed under there...."

iii)"...I saw this guy who appeared to have a bomb belt and wires coming out..."

Jean Charles de Menezes

2005-07-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan police commissioner, 22 July 2005: "The information I have available is that this shooting is directly linked to the ongoing and expanding anti-terrorist operation."

Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan police commissioner, 24 July 2005: "This is a tragedy. The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family I can only express my deep regrets."

Patriot Act

2005-07-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

While images of London's multiple bombings were being broadcasted into screens all across the Capitol, the United States House of Representatives agreed to renew the Patriot Act.

Say whatever one will regarding Dubya, the guy sometimes has undisputably the best timing to get things done.

fair & lovely

2005-07-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

One of my sisters returned from the UAE and, amongst the items that she purchased over there, one particular product was "Fair & Lovely" cream. For those unfamiliar with this Asian (?) product, the following descriptive blurb may shed some light:

"The new cream not only gives you noticeably fairer and more radiant skin, its new 4 step holistic fairness process also helps to keep your skin free of blemishes and oiliness whilst protecting it from harmful UV sunrays."

One of the commercials for this product, at least the one aired in the UAE, depicts two females walking towards a hotel. A man approaches them with the intention of greeting them; he wholly ignores the darker-complexioned lady and walks towards the lighter-complexioned lady, who is all smiles as he approaches. Both of them walk inside the hotel. Both, manifestly, are - according to society's perceptions - pleasing to the eye. Other commercials send the message that, if one wants to 'get ahead' in society (in terms of careers), one must be lighter-skinned.

i may be taking this too far. However, the cream - in my opinion - is symbolic of how warped our societies are becoming vis-a-vis our perceptions of skin colour. Despite all the technological advancements we have made, despite the fact that we are able to construct space stations, we still have not genuinely progressed if we - collectively and individually - believe that lighter-skin is superior to darker skin. My sister has had to grow up with this throughout her childhood; by relatives and friends she was regularly informed that she was the darkest out of the children in this family. Today she is manifestly no longer a child; she is an articulate, mature young lady. Yet the repercussions of those childhood memories certainly are alive and kicking as evidenced by her independent decision to purchase and use a skin-lightening cream. This may be a minor issue in the eyes of some, but in some cultures (including the one i was raised up in), skin complexion is an issue upon which arranged marriages are either formed, or broken.

There can be nothing more beautiful than what God has bestowed upon each of us. There can be nothing sadder than personal conceptions endeavoring not to accept that.

This too will pass

2005-02-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

Not that i am much aware of the precepts of Sufism, but, from "The Way of the Sufi":

A powerful king, ruler of many domains, was in a position of such magnificence that wise men were his mere employees. And yet one day he felt himself confused and called the sages to him.

He said: 'I do not know the cause, but something impels me to seek a certain ring, one that will enable me to stabilize my state.

'I must have such a ring. And this ring must be one which, when I am unhappy, will make me joyful. At the same time, if I am happy and look upon it, I must be made sad.'

The wise men consulted one another, and threw themselves into deep contemplation, and finally they came to a decision as to the character of this ring which would suit their king.

The ring which they devised was one upon which was inscribed the legend:

This, too, will pass.

Before his sweat dries

2005-02-11T03:09:00.000-07:00

i remember reading sometime back for the first time a reported saying attributed to Prophet Muhammad, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him. i don't remember the exact words, but the hadith is paraphrased as follows (it has been paraphrased by me so the following words are not exact as they should be): "Pay the labourer his wage before his sweat dries [from his brow]." According to another hadith, "One of the three persons that the Prophet (pbuh) will argue against on the Day of Judgement is a "man who engaged a labourer and enjoyed full benefit from him, yet did not pay him (his due) wages" [again, paraphrased].

This week, a 25 year old construction worker from India, Arumugam Venkatesan, hung himself from a ceiling fan in a house on the outskirts of Dubai, apparently because he was unable to pay back a high-interest loan he had taken in order to pay it to a company that arranged for him to relocate from India to Dubai. The company that brought him from India to Dubai had allegedly not paid his salary for months and, contrary to the UAE's laws, the company had taken his passport from him. Consequently not only were they, in effect, making him work for no wages whatsoever, but Venkatesan had no legal route for leaving the country had he even wished to return to India; the company kept illegal possession of his passport. Apparently a common practice.

Venkatesan is only one of the hundreds of thousands of construction workers who make the trek across the Arabian Sea from cities such as Dhaka, Colombo, Bombay, Karachi, Lahore. Some come by boat, some by plane. Many leave behind several dependents - hungry mouths they hope to feed through the foreign remittances they will send back home. In Venkatesan's case, according to the report, "he was the sole breadwinner in a family of six."

i tried to find some mention of this news in the English-language UAE newspapers, but have been unable to. However, the UAE-based Khaleej Times did manage to report yesterday that this year's Dubai Shopping Festival has been a massive hit, including with foreign tourists. $3 million and 220 pounds of gold are "up for grabs". Extremely reassuring to know.

strange...

2005-02-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

...strange how, in the midst of feeling so many stormy emotions, an unasked-for act of kindness done by a 'semi'-stranger, may mean so much. Someone did that for me today, and it almost filled me with tears.

Forces me to take a deep breath at the end of my day and thank Allah for all the little blessings i have that i never take the time to appreciate.

Shake hands with the devil

2005-02-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Watched this Canadian documentary, "Shake hands with the devil - the failure of humanity in Rwanda" last night. It has won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at this year's Sundance Festival. The documentary follows retired Canadian forces general Romeo Dallaire as he returned to Rwanda ten years subsequent to serving as head of the United Nations peacekeeping forces. Dallaire was witness to the massacre of almost one million people during that country's civil war; he pleaded for the international 'community' to give him the authority and the resources - sufficient numbers of peacekeepers, for example - to prevent the massacres. The world, as it often does, looked away and 800,00 innocent people were macheted to death.

i can't get the look in Dallaire's eyes out of my mind. One may almost see, though not quite, what ghosts still haunt this individual. i hope he finds the peace he is seeking for, if not in this world, then in the next.