"Raising My Voice"

From my brilliant editor at rabble. (Derrick! Please forgive that it took me so long to post this. I am lame; this you know, but now it is public. I hope your sense of justice is served re my tardiness! xo)

From Derrick: This is what I've been co-writing for the past year... so I'm really excited it's done! (webMe's note: Me too! Me too!) [...]It's only the UK and Australian version that are out now, North American in October under the title of 'A Woman Among Warlords'.[...]
D.

The UK version of Malalai Joya's book, Raising My Voice: The Extraordinary Story of the Afghan Women who Dares to Speak Out, will be in stores as of early July.

Malalai Joya is the youngest and most famous female MP in Afghanistan, whose bravery and vision have won her an international following. She made world headlines with her very first speech, in which she courageously denounced the presence of warlords in the new Afghan government. She has spoken out for justice ever since, and for the rights of women in the country she loves. Raising My Voiceshare her extraordinary story.

Raising My Voiceis available now for pre-order at either Amazon or from the publisher.

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Where the Wild Things Were

Four years old, seated in the gymnasium of the community center where mama, new immigrant, was receiving language lessons.
I was shy (then) because I had trouble communicating in the foreignness of English, so I saucer-eyed-stared rather than spoke.
(Mostly, I watched my small bare legs splayed out ahead of me, ending in white patent leather shoes that I loved dearly shiny and shinier still.)

I sat with my back to the window, my tiny doughy fists always frantically clutching Where The Wild Things Are.
The characters were my safety blanket I understood as they were written in Child.

It remains my favourite book of all.
And every time I see this trailer, I cry.



(Thank you, Mr. Sendak & soon Mr. Jonze.)

Currently reading

Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah
- Olivier Roy

Prince among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold Into Slavery in the American South
- Terry Alford

Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing
- Rumi

Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas
- Sylviane Diouf

Shantaram: A Novel
- Gregory David Roberts

The Fortunate Slave: An Illustration of African Slavery in the Early Eighteenth Century
- Douglas Grant

The Kings and Their Gods: The Pathology of Power
- Daniel Berrigan

Comments Closed.

Books n Boxing

.1. This is where I live during the week; watch the videos to understand. I've just graduated to level iii, and received 7.5 / 10 across the board, which according to my coach, are the highest marks assigned.

That was me gloating. WBK boxing training is hard work and I am proud of my marks. Just so you understand how hard it is, I'll share a sexy secret with you: if I don't take my last bite of food a full three hours before I start my training, I will puke within the first ten minutes. Nice.

Recall this little article here, please.
And then this follow up piece, for which I channelled my inner Valley-Girl.

I love my coaches.
I love WBK.

.2. Books I am currently reading:

A Tale of Two Sisters
-Anna Maxtead

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
- Vincent Lam

The Conscious Universe: Parts and Wholes in Physical Reality
- Menas Kafatos

Lives of Girls and Women
- Alice Munro

On The Pleasure of Hating
- William Hazlitt

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
- Karen Russell

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
- Walter Benjamin

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
- Henry David Thoreau

(As always, some of these are being re-read.)

Teaching About 'Twilight': Rape, Abuse, Pedophilia & Isolation

I couldn't have written it better myself. Please read this brilliant piece on the series that is Twilight.

If your daughters are reading these books and watching these movies, make sure to take the time to (1) read them first yourself so that you understand how 'relationships' are being packaged for these young women; and, (2) have the decency (stemming from your obligation and duty as a parent, you useless moron) to sit down and teach your daughters that the Twilight brand of 'romance' and 'love' are in fact abusive relationships in which the young female protagonist cedes control, isolates herself from her family and friends, is obsessive // dealing with a stalking-obsessive other, and is expected to give up everything (while he: nothing).

Remember to also mention the RAPE and the aspects of PEDOPHILIA prevalent within.

(Mamas, pay attention: After having sex for the first time, the female character wakes up bruised and battered and incapable of remembering the night or the sex. This is not healthy sexual intercourse (and if it is for you, then you need help), but rather it is what one might call date rape via roofies.)

I hate these books. I hate that our daughters are being taught this is proper love. I don't care that you, of sophisticated and thinking adult mind, are capable of deciphering and peeling the layers of grotesque that make up the Twilight series. It's the young women. The Twi-Hards, the 10 - 20 somethings (yeah, you're still a child at 20. Deal with it.) who are reading these books and romanticising the insidious messages within.

For those of you with young boys who are reading these books and watching these movies, then you too have a moral obligation to teach them that this brand of love and romance is unacceptable. That if they behave in this manner, they are (simply put): abusive and dangerous di*ks.

God, I hate Twilight.

(P.S. Since posting this bit, I decided to skim the entire series, so as to ensure I wasn't talking out of my ass & out of line about something I hadn't completely investigated. I stand by my initial visceral and violent reaction.)

On Twilight and being moved to violence

On principle, I was opposed to reading Twilight because of the lunatic storyline communicated to me. Some sh*t about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire who then ends up with a werewolf (the girl, not the vampire), and then somehow has a child with the vampire (the girl, not the werewolf). Or something.

Opposed, on principle to reading this series of books because there are so many brilliant books waiting for attention, that I was extremely hesitant to instead surrender my precious hours to these ones.

I finally did. I went out to dinner with a girlfriend who was swooning over the storyline. She gave me her book and so I began.

But not for long.

As is often the case, I have extreme reactions to things or ideas or situations or people. I don't half-ass most anything, let alone a response to sh*t such as this book.

If I could, I would have stabbed this book. This is how much I hated it. Nearly as much as The Devil Wears Prada.

Not only was this horribly written, it also had a weird sense of sexuality-but-not sterility about it that was simply creepy as the storyline was about A CHILD in (obsessive sexual-but-not-really-as-the-mum's-reading-this-would-have-a-fit-if-these-two-got-groovy-in-this-first-of-three-sh*t-books) love with A VAMPIRE. Oh my God, looking at that sentence, I am ashamed to have given even 5 minutes to this book.

Obviously, I did not make it very far into the book; one afternoon wasted on a little under half of Twilight and I drove it back to my girlfriend's place and had to control myself not to throw it with all my strength at her door repeatedly until she answered...only to keep throwing it at her as she stood in the doorway.

We grappled for a little and she pushed me down on to the sofa, forcing me to watch the film instead. (Thankfully for free. I wouldn't give a cent to this stupid film.)

Much to her dismay, I lasted through the 2 hour comedy. She tried to turn it off, but I would have none of it, as I'd not laughed that hard in quite some time.

For the record no1: I think both the lead actors are equally sh*t. The girl looked as if she were in a perpetual state of stupid whereas the boy a perpetual state of puke.

For the record no2: Really? Seriously? How are any of you still believing in this unhealthy formula that is so repugnant?

Vampire = bad boy meets girl and she changes everything in order to be with him while he, nothing.

This storyline, perpetuated by gender-based fu*k-nuttery is repugnant. It. Is. Vulgar. Does this make you sad? Do you think I'm cruel? Possibly. Go ahead and tell me I have poor taste in literature, please, or that I am heartless. Please - I invite you to.

Still, though, right now I wish to slap my screen.

P.S. If I had a daughter, I would rip this from her hands and burn it.
P.S. to the P.S. I must admit that the baseball sequence in the film version was absolutely beautifully shot.

Poor judge-ment on display in scholarship discrimination

Please find my latest piece here at rabble.

And a little announcement, that I am very excited to make, as rabble is Canada's no.1 progressive voice: rabble asked me to become a regular contributor, and I've accepted...hurrah! When you click on my name, you'll now see that side photo and blurb.

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'Modern' malaise, dread & boredom

Spiritual discussion contextualized within the aesthetic modern, specific to...read and find out to what.

If you are of the variety who believes they are not held to a higher moral ethic (specifically, of the Abrahamic traditions), then you should skip over this entry as it is not for you. I further extend this sentiment to those of you who believe that women fking like men renders the sexes equal.

For all others; click here to download another excellent piece by S. Hamza Yusuf titled Climbing Mount Purgatorio: Reflections from the Seventh Cornice. It speaks to the excesses of today (specifically pornography) and the spiritual and moral malaise / boredom which makes for fertile ground.

More importantly it speaks to the differences between men and women and how men could use to learn from women. This piece will not sit well with those of you who believe they have either a 'modern' or 'Western' perspective on life. Nor for those who wish to behave 'freely' in either the 'modern' or 'Western' definition specific to this part of the world.

It is a heavy theological read, but will make your mind expand. Even if you disagree. Thanks to Aamin for forwarding my way; he is a convert to Islam and a once 'playboy'.

(For those unable to dl the above, please find the article here.)
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Oooh. Politix. Yummy scrumptious wet dripping politics.

John Cusack's War, Inc CrackSpace has posted one of my political pieces here as their most recent blog entry.

I am humbled that they think enough of my writing to post it alongside the likes of Naomi Klein. I am so uncharacteristically speechless. Scroll down and look at my spaztic comment about my own article - no one knows I wrote it but Nick / Yvonne / John and YOU. (Now you finally know my last name; forgive the coy?)

(Artists are smart folk, yo! )

Have you told people about War, Inc? Have you friended War, Inc on CrackSpace? What about CrackBook? They will not e-reject you. Promise!

GODSPEED! SAVE DARKIE, SAVE WHITIE, SAVE THE WORLD! YALLA!

Oh

"Children as young as 6 have been forced to have sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in return for food and money..."

I started crying when I read the above article, and it didn't get much better as I was reading the report itself. Please read it if you can as it's just a quick 37 pages. Then do something about it, either by donating money or sending an email or writing a letter or volunteering at a local shelter for abused children.

I've been reading a lot lately about child sexual abuse and exploitation and I can not actually coherently articulate what I think should happen to adult men** who so much as touch anyone below the age of 18. My 'articulation' can't form a linear coherent and logical train of thought; it does, though, give rise to images of crowbars, bats, chains and rusty saws. Without exaggeration, the Saw films would look like a Disney undertaking compared to my imagination.

Sad aside: Did you know that most of the time the (vile, repugnant, unworthy of life) Molester is a trusted family member or someone that would be characterized as a family member, such as an 'uncle' figure?

Even sader aside: Most of the time, the parent(s) is aware that something is going on.

What would you have done to both the parent and that 'uncle'? What would you do? Because there is nothing that you could tell me you would do that I've not already imagined I too would do. And then some. Or maybe: And then too much to merely call "some".

Parents have a duty to protect their children with their life. As I type this, I choke on the mere thought that my parents would shirk this responsibility where I was concerned, as a child, or where I am concerned still, as an adult. This duty, I believe, is among the most important - if not the most important in our lives. I can't possibly imagine what kind of weak, pathetic, disparate character one would possess if they suspected that their child was being molested and DID NOTHING. I actually can't imagine it. I can't wrap my mind around it. I can't think straight if I try to understand it and I loose all cool even writing about it.

When those duties are not taken seriously or with the ferociousness as the protection offered in the animal kingdom when a mama or baba has to protect their cubs, then that "parent" deserves to have every bone in their body broken. And I don't give a rat's ass about the cycle of violence; I don't care if that parent was previously abused or neglected because there is NO EXCUSE. There is NO EXCUSE. You want to cry me a f*cking river about your past; I'll tell you to f*ck off, still.

As with the situation referenced above, there is - and I don't use this term lightly - an 'evil' to the character of those who would commit such a crime against children. A parent's silence is an equally - if not more so - wretched complicity in the act.

There is no recourse, there is no apology, and there is no forgiveness of these individuals. There should only be death.

I've just donated to Save the Children (Canada); I recommend you consider doing the same. For those of you in the USA, you may donate here, while those of you in the UK, can make contact with the organization here.

--------------------
** Save for very rare situations, the impulse to sexually molest children does not seem to be part of the psychological composite of females, but is, rather, a compulsion that seems to lie deep within the male psyche.

Apologies for my going off topic, but the subject of child molestation is one of a handful of subjects that throw me into a tailspin...as you've just witnessed.

Books I am currently reading

Special Note no1: Upon completing the following, I will be settling down to read - and only read - "Cricket In A Fist". I can't read it with any other books as Naomi deserves my complete attention.

Note no2: If I've mentioned these books previously, it's only because I tend to read books two or three times in an effort to sink into them and take as most as I can.

Behaving Like Adults
Anna Maxtead

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures: Stories
Vincent Lam

Dispatches
Michael Herr

My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro
Jeffrey Eugenides

Remember Me?
Sophie Kinsella

Soul On Ice
Eldridge Cleaver

The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion
Joseph Ratzinger & Jurgen Habermas

The Path of Muhammad: A book on Islamic morals & ethics
Imam Birgivi (16th Century Islamic Mystiic)

The Trial
Franz Kafka

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
Haruki Murakami

The Year of Living Biblically
A J Jacobs

Unity, as taught by Islam

"It became clear to him that every [species], although apparently a multiplicity - if one considered all its separate organs, senses and movements - was really a unity if seen in terms of that spirit which emanated from [the heart] and spread from there to all other organs.

He concluded that the spirit indwelling [all] species is a unity but divided among many hearts.

Considered in this way, [all] species [is] a single entity and its many members were as the many organs in one individual: thus, not a multiplicity but a unity."
- Ibn Tufail, "The Journey of the Soul" (a short 62 page story that may be one of the most important I've yet to read. A strong recommendation for you to order, read and reflect upon.)

********************
Philosopher Ibn Tufail is better known in the West as Abubacer, teacher of Averros, teacher of Avicenna. For those of you interested in philosophy, you already know that these are among the Greats. This short story is worth your time as it is considered a part of the foundation on which stood many of the later philosophers.

The Gaza Bombshell

You must please read Vanity Fair's The Gaza Bombshell.

It is a lengthy article and so I recommend you print it up and then read it when you are in the proper state of mind.

On Palestine

An educational two sites sent my way (thank you!).

First is the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and second is Israel's 60th Birthday blog that has an excellent Jews-in-solidarity-with-Palestinians blog roll and a must-read letter from Freud.

Bookmark & learn.

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Cricket in a Fist

Of the many things for which I am thankful are the friends I hold near and dear.

Na.oh.mee, mentioned here previously, is one of these friends.

Of all her exceptional qualities, it is her compassion that draws me in and softens me up. It's this same compassion that will undoubtedly permeate all of her future works, most definitely her soon-to-be first novel: Cricket in a Fist.

It will be released in two days and I am anxiously awaiting my copy!

I Recommend

that during this coming holiday season, and among the varied books you read, you take some time to walk carefully through Reza Aslan's No god but God; The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam.

It's in this month that millions of Muslims will make their way to Mecca for the pilgrimage. Take a moment to think about them and the world they are entering. Try and understand why they are about to take such a difficult journey, where they stand as Muslims and where the future generations of Muslims may stand.

You may be misunderstanding your environment, believing that this has nothing to do with you, when the reality is the pilgrimage - in exactly the same way Christmas and Hanukah affect and touch us all - is a part of you in some way or another. Look at it, see how that is, peek over the slightly high walls and learn a little more about that side of you that you've never before examined. You may be surprised by what you find...

Your mind has a natural inclination for turning toward knowledge; consider feeding it something new this month.

In response to the notion

that believing in God is the first step to becoming a killer, en masse.

I would add: on many levels, this particular line of thinking seems the natural route for those who possess neither the strength of character nor the bravery to look inside and ask themselves what it is that makes us behave the way we do, because whether we like it or not, how we interpret is an extension of how we behave. The way we view the world is the way we interact with it and how we position ourselves within it with respect to ourselves as well as others. More precisely, it is this interpretation which denotes what we expect to receive from 'this world' - and this reality one can see most clearly in those whose trump card is the martyr card.(1)

It's easier to say 'I blame you' rather than facing, understanding and ultimately changing 'my culpability'. What better way to eschew responsibility than to pin it on belief in the Almighty? Funny that, because pinning the blame on even the idea of His existence renders it necessary that others believe in Him; because for the likes of those who would carry the above belief, they would be lost if they had nothing to rage against. A fine line if ever there was one.

**********
(1) If the above seems severely judgemental, that's because it is. It is a response to any a**hole who would look at me and tell me that I'm on my way to becoming a killer, en masse. That sort of poison deserves to be met with an equal amount of offensiveness.

So: If you don't believe in God and if you also don't believe that I am en route to becoming a murderer, then chill out 'cus the above post ain't about you.

Organic Farming

First come, first served: If anyone wishes to have the following, please send me your full mailing address. I will send to you these seven books free of charge. I've written all through them and made tons of notes because 99% of the information was new to me...

Good Growing: Why Organic Farming Works by Leslie A. Duram
Cultivating Utopia: Organic Farming and Rural Culture by Kregg Hetherington
Organic Farming by Nicolas Lampkin and C.R.W. Spedding
Harvest: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm by Nicola Smith
Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach by Karl Schwenke
Organic Farming: Everything You Need to Know by Peter V. Fossel
It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quite the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart and Flavia Bacarella

Comments field here closed - you should all know my email by now. Thx.

Update On Maher Arar

"...our Government (USA) did not admit it was a mistake, but it is worse than a mistake because our Government seems to continue to claim the authority to snatch someone off the street, hide behind the fiction of 'expedited removal'. This wasn't an expedited removal in this case. An expedited removal would've gotten him out of the country and sent to him off to Canada[...]This was a kidnapping[...]This was a kidnapping utilizing the fact that he was here in this country, or at least technically not in this country, but at Kennedy Airport, in order to get him into custody so that he could be sent to someone who does not have our scruples and our laws about torture.[...]

On behalf of my fellow citizens I want to apologize to you, Mr. Arar, for the reprehensible conduct of our Government for kidnapping you, for turning you over to Syria, a Nation that our own State Department recognizes as routinely practicing torture. I also want to apologize for the continued, and from everything I've seen, some of which I'm not at liberty to discuss, baseless decision to maintain the fiction that you are a danger to this country.[...]

This conduct does not reflect the values of the American people. The great secrecy employed by the Administration is, I believe, less an attempt to protect our security, than it is an attempt to protect this Administration from the consequences of its actions, and from the consequences of being held accountable at law for what it's clearly done in breaking the law. There's no excuse for that.[...]

The Administration was outsourcing torture.[...]

They (The Administration) got assurances from the Syrians that he wouldn't be tortured. Assurances from a Government that our Government says lies all the time.

Assurances from a Government that our Government says tortures as a matter of routine.

Assurances from a Government that our Government says practices State terrorism?

Who in the Bush Administration was foolish enough to believe in those assurances?

We have to decide whether the Bush Administration is cynical in lying to us and to itself that they believed those assurances, which I believe to be the case, or was foolish in believing assurances from a Government that it says can not be believed.[...]

I was privy, I saw all the classified information yesterday. And I'm not at liberty to reveal all the classified information, but I am at liberty to say that I fully concur with Justice O'Connor in saying that there is nothing there. There is nothing there that justifies the campaign of vilification against your (Arar) name Sir, or that justifies, in my mind, denying you entry into this country, or characterizing you as a terrorist in any way."
- NYC Democrat Jerrold Nadler, October 18, 2007, at The Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight: Rendition to Torture: The Case of Maher Arar. (United States House of Representatives, House Committee on Foreign Affairs.)

Maher Arar is still barred from entering the USA and remains on their 'Watch List'. (Because, really, why would they let him get near a US Court where he could legally tear The Administration a new a**hole?)

Feel free to watch the entire 3 hour session as I did for there's much to be learned.

You're a smart enough bunch to reach your own conclusions...

This is what happens

...when my mind is captured by a book: I write all over it. In the middle of the night a few weeks later, I'll wake up and add another note in the margin, and then the same thing will happen soon thereafter in the middle of the day and then again while at dinner with friends and again while in a meeting at work and again and again and again until I run out of room and I have to add a stickie note to keep up with my own head (notice the Crack drawings all over the stickie note).





To confirm my Absolute Nerd status, notice the little yellow stickies lining the top of the book with keywords on them. That's so that I can find what I need in a heartbeat later on.

(The above is an image of my own copy of Even Angels Ask. I hope that Dr. Lang would appreciate this sort of 'defacement'.)

What do you do when you read things like this?

...there is an urgent need to counter the Palestinian de-development phenomenon, but it is also important not to normalise "something that should never be normal".

"This is man-made poverty, and there are people whose lives could be completely transformed by the decision of politicians," he said.

"The costs are going to be massive, and it'll take a decade to be a functioning place again, but within just a few weeks of that decision there would be a different attitude."

What does reading the above move you to do, if anything? Does it bother you? Do you shrug it off or do you stop after the first sentence because reading this doesn't make you feel good?

I know someone who is frivolous and, quick honestly: a sh*t most days. Whenever conversation has turned to politics or human rights issues, their response is either a rolling of the eyes, a puff, a turning away (I was once so infuriated I nearly grabbed the back of said individual's head by the pony-tail and whipped her around) or a flat-out: "I don't want to talk about this, it's turning my mood".

F*ck her mood.

How about you? What do you do when you read things like this?

Books read these last few weeks

As promised, here's a list of the books I've had the pleasure of reading this past month. I've already said elsewhere that books to me are like oxygen, so don't be surprised by the amount of reading I do on a regular basis.

Can You Keep A Secret?
- Sophie Kinsella

Essential Rumi
- Jalal al-Din Rumi & Al Coleman Barks

Even Angels Ask: A Journey to Islam in America
- Jeffrey Lang

Fidel: A Critical Portrayal
- Tad Szulc

Getting Over It
- Anna Maxted

Journey of The Soul: The Story of Hai bin Yaqzan
- Abu Bakr Muhammed bin Tufail & Riad Kocache

Losing My Religion: A Call for Help
- Jeffrey Lang

Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
- Michel Foucault

Mecca & Main Street: Muslim Life in American after 9/11
- Geneive Abdo

On Beauty
- Zadie Smith

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of A Continent
- Eduardo Galeano

Out of Africa
- Isak Dinesen

She Came to Stay
- Simone de Beauvoir

The Divided West
- Jurgen Habermas

The God Delusion
- Richard Dawkins

The Lives of Girls & Women
- Alice Munro

The Power of Humility: Choosing Peace Over Conflict In Relationships
- Charles Whitfield, Barbara Whitfield, Russell Park & JeneanePrevatt

A Monopoly on The Truth

"...when the CIA or FBI cannot legally hold a [alleged] terrorist subject, or wish a target questioned in a firm manner [interchangeable here with: tortured], they have them rendered to countries willing to fulfill that role. He said Mr. Arar was a case in point."

I won't discuss either the CIA or the FBI's tactics mentioned above because this information is not new. What I wish to point out is the shameful behaviour of countries calling themselves 'Muslim' - not with respect to the misunderstood concept of 'secular' human rights, but rather their very status as 'Muslim' countries, because the country to which Mr. Arar was sent was a so-called 'Muslim' country. This being one of the tragedies of Islam in the modern world, when the Muslim 'states' stand not for justice, but are known to uphold and proliferate the very things Islam demands one fight against.

There is not one 'Muslim' country who truly follows the straight path; who extend the simplest Islamic rule of war - to not maim a tree unless is absolutely necessary - to the human population. Such controlled behaviour is meant to be upheld in the most strenuous of circumstance, imagine the high standard of control one is to execute under normal circumstance.

Our nations are a self-loathing representation of Islam and we will reap what we deserve, and right now, we deserve to be the chumps of the world. The state of the Ummah is disgraceful due to the collective and absolute stupidity of its Nations. It is no surprise that 'outsiders' (a concept I loathe, but a reality nonetheless) do not respect Islam when we so very clearly do not respect ourselves on a national level (not to be confused with individual behaviour). I am constantly shattered by the actions of the Ummah because they go against the very nature of who We - Muslims - are supposed to be and represent. And when all is said and done, it represents me as equally as I represent it.

To me, the treatment of Arar would have been unacceptable had he been tortured at the hands of Americans or Canadians (which, by proxy, he was). His treatment would have been equally unacceptable had he not been a Muslim.

I believe one of our biggest problems was and remains arrogance and our own misunderstanding of who we are. This is not solely an affection of Muslims, it is unfortunately a virus of the human condition which, I believe, the essence of religion attempts to remedy. Unfortunately, the remedy continues to be ignored.

I write 'arrogance' because today's Muslims believe - as most other denominations also believe - that we are the only ones who hold The Truth and so we will naturally be placed in positions of power over others (by God, nonetheless).

In terms of Islam, because of the simple reality that we forge the paths we walk and even if we believe we have been shown the straight path, it does not mean that we are following it. More importantly, and more to the theological point, if we are to follow the straight path, it is not for this world - it is neither for power nor gain in THIS world, but rather in the hereafter...a hereafter that belongs not exclusively to Muslims. A fallacy so many Muslims take for granted and use to justify so much bigotry and hate and separation, even amongst ourselves. We need to be reminded that just as Heaven is not exclusive to Muslims, neither will Hell be free of Muslims. This was told to us directly by God; that there are Believers who are not 'Muslim'. This is a declaration made repeatedly in the Quran, supported by several hadiths.

I once had a conversation with a fellow Muslimah who was appalled by my thinking because her response was: "But if that's the case, then I don't have to wear hijab, pray, fast or pay zakaat to go to Heaven!" My simple answer was "You do those things because you choose to do them and because you choose to believe in them. More importantly, you do them because you believe they make you a better individual in terms of who you are, and not in terms of your station with respect to other people in this world." She didn't get it and refused to open her mind to it.

It later dawned on me that she felt she was owed her standing in the hereafter because Islam can be perceived as demanding at times - like a child, her mind thinks along the lines of: Well, why should the person who doesn't fast and doesn't pray and doesn't pay zakaat and who wears mini-skirts get to go to heaven like me? rather than I do these things because I believe in them and I wish for my brothers and sisters - Muslims and not alike - peace on this earth and the hereafter. But not to pedophiles, rapists, oppressors, human rights abusers, etc. et al.

So many choose to follow the first route because the world is easier when it's compartmentalised. I have to make clear here that it is not simply Muslims who do this, it is every collective. It's easier to live and breathe when I say 'I am better than you' because the other alternative, the alternative I believe to be the true basis for all religion, is the alternative to wish even for your enemies: peace.

Only that's much too difficult, because it takes a level of sophistication to define ourselves by who we are, rather than by who we are not. It is truly a pity that humanity - Muslims and 'Not' - is still too stupid, self-possessed, and much too weak to embrace this.

Please note: I didn't pull any of the above out of thin air, I was taught this by my religion. The above is the essence, the underpinnings, the draw of justice and egalitarianism that is taught by Islam. That it has been perverted by Muslims and non-Muslims alike is something I have to argue against because it demands I do just that...and because silence truly is complicity.

Neruda

is my favourite poet, and this is my favourite of his poems. It was read to me when I was 22 and I was as moved to sadness then as I have been every time I've read it since.

Fable of the Mermaid and the Drunks

All those men were there inside,
when she came in totally naked.
They had been drinking: they began to spit.
Newly come from the river, she knew nothing.
She was a mermaid who had lost her way.
The insults flowed down her gleaming flesh.
Obscenities drowned her golden breasts.
Not knowing tears, she did not weep tears.
Not knowing clothes, she did not have clothes.
They blackened her with burnt corks and cigarette stubs,
and rolled around laughing on the tavern floor.
She did not speak because she had no speech.
Her eyes were the colour of distant love,
her twin arms were made of white topaz.
Her lips moved, silent, in a coral light,
and suddenly she went out by that door.
Entering the river she was cleaned,
shining like a white stone in the rain,
and without looking back she swam again
swam towards emptiness, swam towards death.

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent"

Serving as a sort of balance - for lack of a better word - to the neoc*n article I posted a few hours ago, here is a Frontline interview with Hamza Yusuf, a man for whom I have an endless amount of respect and admiration. He references Thoreau, Shakespeare and The Song of Roland; he discusses hegemony, foundations of democracy, need for dissent, and the role of media, etc.

It is the likes of him who make me proud. Not to mention that he's TOTALLY cute.

A warm hug in the middle of your week

If the consequence of such thinking weren't so devastating, it would be comical. Fundamentalists ranging from the Fundamentalist Muslim, Fundamentalist Jew, Fundamentalist Christian, Fundamentalist Anti-Religionist, Fundamentalist Anti-Crayonist, and Fundamentalist Anti-Humorist make me cry.

Here are some choice quotes from Ne*cons on a cruise: What cons*rvatives say when they think we aren't listening:

'"The Muslims are breeding. Soon, they'll have the whole of Europe."' (I appear to be shirking my duties as "Muslim breeder". I should really get on that.)
'"I went to Paris, and it was so lovely. [...] But then you think - it's surrounded by Muslims."'
'A Filipino waiter offers him a top-up of his wine, and he mock-whispers to me, "They all look the same! Can you tell them apart?"'
'"The coverage of this [Iraq] war is unbelievable. Even Fox News is unbelievable. You'd think we're the only ones dying. Enemy casualties aren't covered. We're doing an excellent job killing them."'
'"...nobody was tortured in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo."'
'...black people "tend to revert to savagery", and should be given the vote only "when they stop eating each other"'
'"… A white man doesn't have a chance in this country."'
'"The Mexicans are getting these benefits, the coloureds or niggers, whatever they are saying, are getting these benefits, and I as a white man am losing my country."'
'Katrina showed [...] "the dysfunctionality that is evident in many black neighbourhoods"
'"Pinochet is a hero. He saved Chile."'

Among the brainiacs there were Bernard L*wis and Mark Ste*n.

...as heart-warming as Jesus C@mp.

Stop. Read. Think.

.1. Please meet my new hero: Roy Bailey. In light of Rushdie's Knightedness, this is quite appropriate.

.2. To the person who coined the phrase: "There is no such thing as a stupid question", I call: Bullsh*t.
&
Thanks for making room for a generation of Stupids. (More on this later, Inshallah.)

.3. The following is an interesting philosophical look at predestination in the religious sense.

“The question, “What is the value of [life] if God has already predestined the future?” assumes that in some way God has a future. That is, it assumes that God is situated in time and peering into a preordained future as we [live]. But in order to have a future, one’s existence must be contained within time and, as a result, finite. The reason this question leads to contradictions is that it assumes a contradiction in the first place – that God both transcends and is finite in time. Any question that assumes two mutually incompatible premises will always result in conflicting conclusions. Assume, for example, that a circle is a square. With this assumption in mind, we can ask if a circle has corners. If we emphasize the circle’s roundness, then the answer is no. If we concentrate on the properties of a square, the answer is yes. When the consideration of a question inevitably ends in contradiction, it should be asked if the question itself makes sense.

The word ‘predestination’ alone is problematic. If it is used to mean that at some time in the past God programmed all events for the future, the underlying assumption is that God exists in time [as time is understood by the human mind]. If we mean that God’s wisdom and knowledge encompass all and that nothing in creation can conflict with that, then it has to be admitted. But that is not the primary sense of the word ‘predestine’, which means ‘to determine in advance.’”

And to that I add: Because the human mind can only comprehend that which it has already experienced and that which it is capable of experiencing. We can not conceive of something beyond the very limited constraint of the human condition. We understand ‘time’ in a very specific way; it advances and what is past is lost. Whereas the above asserts that there is necessarily a multitude of ways to live time, humans are only party to one unless you're like me and you time travel in search of the perfect Crack. At any given moment, there are a bazillion different events occurring during that very moment – that is something we may see as a ‘dot’ in time within which there are infinite events. Perhaps the experience of ‘time’ mentioned above and with respect to that which is not human is exactly like the ‘dot’ only the ‘dot’ is the entire history of the whole of humanity, including what we have not yet experienced in 'human time'.

Whereas the human condition is to experience the passing of ‘time’ and the movement in a horizontal model in a multitude of ‘dots’, perhaps the Divine experience of ‘time’ is both horizontal and vertical and so the shape of that ‘dot’ is not one any of us can experience…but definitely something worth contemplating…

It’s basic philosophy and mathematics, really.

I am falling in love with Dr. Jeffery Lang, imagining all of the conversations I could have with this man. I’ve ordered all of his books and look forward to meeting him, Inshallah.

Two strong recommendations

.1. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Recommended by K (thank you) and a luxury to read. I can't actually describe this book, per se, but rather merely communicate to you the feeling of gentleness into which you will fall almost instantly when you start reading.

.2. Struggling to Surrender by Jeffery Lang. This is an almost too-personal account of a man's near thirty year spiritual journey. So far, it has manaded to anger, challenge, and calm me, as well as dig at my curiosity. This is one of the most powerful books I have ever, ever, ever, ever read. Lang pulls no punches: "You cannot simply read the Qur’an, not if you take it seriously. You either have surrendered to it already or you fight it. It attacks tenaciously, directly, personally; it debates, criticizes, shames, and challenges. From the outset it draws the line of battle, and I was on the other side."

Pythagoras

Learn something new today, if you wish. This is one of the cooler things I've read in a long time. Best to print it out and give it the attention it deserves.

Books I am currently reading

I've always received a slew of emails asking me for book recommendations and so I thought that for those interested, I would share the names of the ones through which I am currently flipping…

Beyond Marxian Nature Theory: Understanding and Contesting Japanese Social-Environmental Relations (1955-1985)
Al Vachon

In The Footsteps of The Prophet
Tariq Ramadan

Julia’s Chocolates
Cathy Lamb

My Happy Life
Lydia Millet

Le Petit Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Book of Ruth
Jane Hamilton

The Dark Tower VII
Stephen King

The Heart of Islam
Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Yes, Yes, Cherries
Mary Otis

He who truly loves...

...must learn to weep.

Love for Humanity

This man, Imam Zaid Shakir, has a capcity to stir my heart. In light of what is happening across this world and what has been brought home to the likes of people I love (T) in Virginia, I think the message in this video is timely.

It is a 28 minute speech and it might just touch your heart (please note he begins the lecture with a short few words in Arabic, less than a minute). I was listening to this on my iPod and I had to listen to it in short intervals because I found myself overwhelmed by his message.



If his words have spoken to you as they have to me, then take a little walk through his home on the interWeb and listen to other lectures and read some of his work (scroll down).

I would love to hear your thoughts on the lecture.

**Please note new Learn about Islam link on right hand side.

Two political bits

.1. How ridiculous this notion of Quebec as a 'Nation'.

.2. I am very happy about Correa's win.

& I've had a lot on my mind and hence the 'no blog zone' as of late; I promise to write something soon enough...

PostSecret

Thanks to Anjum for pointing the way to the incredible project titled PostSecret. I’ve just placed my order for the three books (two already published, one to be released in January 2007).

I’ve decided to buy a stack of postcards and send them into this thing; recommend you do the same. It’s cathartic to just think about what I’d write.

"As a Jewish atheist...

..., I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli living near the fault-line of this 'war of civilizations'."

For those of you familiar with Uri Avnery's writing, it will come as no surprise that he provides the best response to the Pope's recent quote (quote-unquote)** mistake.

Please take a moment to read the article.

**thanks, Espy.