October 24, 2006 – 4:13 pm
American Muslims are seemingly incapable of pleasing the media. They don’t really riot, they are not fond of torching embassies, and they generally stay away from issuing menacing fatwas. As much as terrorism continues to be on the mind of the average American (and rightfully so), our population of both immigrant and homegrown Muslims is relatively boring.So what’s can an enterprising journalist dying to cash in on the anti-Muslim hysteria in the States do? How about this: Make stuff up! Read More »
In light of the rampancy of Islamophobia in various circles and the groupthink mentality that fuels it, Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is all that comes to mind…
Therefore, in order to completely eradicate global terrorism and the growing menace of the rapidly growing Muslim population around the world and securing broader wealth to those of us who deserve more, we are better advised to heed and enact the objective recommendation below and understand its goodwill impetus driving them.
It is a melancholy object to those of us of the Western culture when we see the streets of the cities and towns in US and Europe crowded with Mazlems, Mouzlims, Mohammedans or whatever and their veiled, apparently oppressed creatures of the female sex, followed by three, four, six, or more children. Read More »
For many thousands of years, roguish rulers and militant societies have repeatedly tried to impose their own brand of peace on other societies even as these appeared to enjoy peace-like tranquility, but, in a manner which did not conform to the warmonger’s own traditions and culture. This could not be more meaningful than it is today, as the mightiest nation on earth has led a full force descent on a small distant country already under strict world surveillance, and for that reason, peaceful on the outside though ominously discordant internally. Read More »
Between euphoria and frustration, clarity and confusion, moderates must develop a sustainable alternative solution to the lawlessness that paralyzed Somalia for over 15 years, and find a platform to showcase that. Of course the quest to accomplish that would not only require willpower and resilience to paddle against the ferocious waves of suspicion, fear, and hate, but also a real support (of moral and material value).
In light of the events of the past few weeks in Mogadishu, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) has emerged as being the group with the most feasible plan to restore law and order in mostly chaotic Somalia. The seemingly untamable south is now safe and ICU is determined to maintain it. And on this particular objective to maintain peace, the newly formed International Contact Group (ICG) should unequivocally support the union. Needless to say, in doing so, the ICG will, among other things, have a unique opportunity to prove its critics wrong. Read More »
(This article was first published in Jordan’s Living Well magazine)
One day this teacher walked into the classroom with an unusually somber look that I shall never forget. As I discovered in due course, he had intentionally put on that deeply solemn face because he wanted to tell us a cautionary tale, one that required special dramatic effects.
The teacher, whose name I shall withhold, began his Oscar-winning performance by telling us that his next-door neighbor died a week before. Miraculously, however, he told us that she was given another shot at life and that he just had a chat with her in the staircase of their building where he accidentally bumped into her. He asked her what she witnessed in her brief afterlife encounter and she told him that she saw many women hanging by their long hair which was tied to ceiling rails made of hell fire. This was, she revealed to our mesmerized, almost tearing teacher, their punishment for not covering their hair while they were alive. Read More »
January 5, 2005 – 9:48 pm
“You’re in deep doo-doo now,” was my 6th grade math teacher’s favorite expression, the one that signaled a mini-Apocalypse in the form of a D grade, or a detention, or a shrill call to the parents demanding an explanation of one’s behavior. I never got along with my math teacher, but the phrase has stuck to me somehow, and I remembered it recently while doing research on Islamic bloggers for this article.
Only the words “doo-doo,” despite the horrific memories of my awful math class, seemed a bit too gentle for the mess I encountered. Read More »
Quick memo to the good ol’ folks that drive straight from church to the pro-war rally in their starred and striped S.U.V.’s:
You are total idiots.
Oh, I am sorry. I doubt even you would have an easy time trying to picture Christ as your supporter in the demolition of the Middle East. Christ on a tank, waving an American flag, drool coming down his chin. Christ with a machine gun. Christ with a terrified, naked man on a leash. Read More »
February 28, 2001 – 6:56 pm
God is not to blame, we are
If this often preached conciliatory statement is true - that Muslims, Christians, Jews, and the rest of humankind are all, metaphorically speaking, the children of God - then we are indeed a bunch of incorrigibly spoilt kids with a very bleak future.
True, our ‘metaphoric’ Father left us His will inside more than one mysterious and ancient covenant. But one thing over which no doubt can be cast is that all have essentially sought to attain the same goal: peace on earth and equal justice for all. It is incredibly ironic, therefore, how these holy scripts managed over the centuries to become so diametrically conflicting with each other to the point that they are today totally irreconcilable.
Even the fundamental shared command against the grave act of taking an innocent human being’s life has found its detractors in the very name of the Giver of this life. The resulting endless strife among God’s agonizing children everywhere has led this humble sibling to sometimes honestly wish that the Almighty never bothered to entrust us with anything at all.
Before you slit my throat with knives of blasphemy, I invite you to take a quick tour of the world’s major conflicts today. Start in Palestine, go east to Afghanistan, take a detour to Chechnya, and then come down to Kashmir and India. Stop over in Indonesia, visit the Philippines, then travel west back to Sudan, and from there on to Algeria. Cross to Europe going over north Cyprus, then passing through Bosnia and Kosovo, head all the way up to Ireland. What do you notice? What lies at the heart of all the persisting troubles that you see? More precisely, what is it that makes all these human beings think they are so different from the people they seek to murder? Read More »
