A Jew in Sheik's Clothing? - Lesson from 1964

In 1964 the question in New York was: Can a bright, young, energetic, ambitious Jew get elected to Congress from a heavily Jewish district if he has an Arab name?

While searching for the pictures in my previous post, I came across this fascinating story published in Time Magazine in May 1964. Yes, 1964. And it is about a young progressive newbie in the political arena who is running for the 19th district in New York. Our candidate is running against a more seasoned politician, who happened to be Jewish. The younger guy had career experience and family credentials that "would seem to make [him] a likely Democratic reform candidate in the June 2 [1964] primary against Congressman Leonard Farbstein, 61, a Tammany type who is seeking a fifth term in Manhattan's meandering 19th Congressional District".
One problem though: the young candidate's name was William Haddad.
You may not see much in that name, but an Arab will recognize the last name: it means 'smith' in Arabic, more specifically, a blacksmith.
But William Haddad was not a Muslim, nor a Christian. He is actually Jewish, born to a Russian Jewish mother.
Unlucky for him though, his father was an Egyptian Jew.
So his opponent, Mr. Farbstein, adopted the following slogan: "Can you trust an ARAB to fight for the interests of Jews and for Israel?"
[Khaled's comment: in case you may get confused by this statement, let me reiterate that the race was for a representative of Manhattan, New York and not for the Israeli Knesset].

The article continues:

"Even worse, said Haddad, Farbstein was going about telling folks that Haddad was born an Egyptian, that he got married in the Protestant Episcopal Church and thus was a meshumad (an apostate from Judaism). In the 19th District, where 50% of the voters are Jews, such talk can ruin a politician."

"Haddad, naturally, was outraged over the whispering campaign. He tried to catch up with the rumors by pointing out that his mother is a Russian-born Jew who keeps a kosher home, and that his father had the misfortune of having been born in Cairo to Egyptian Jews."

But the young candidate still had some moral spine, and was so upset that he needed to prove his Jewishness to be competitive in the primaries of June 1964, that he told the magazine editor "If I have to be Jewish to win this campaign, it's not worth winning."
So, not much is new under the sun. Politics is dirty, and has alway been.
I am not sure how that election race of June 1964 ended. I am writing this late at night, and I am too tired to do more research on the subject (if you find out, leave a comment to inform the rest of us about how the race concluded).


The campaign against Obama cannot get him by saying why they really do not like him: black, new and relatively independent (i.e., not deeply in bed with special interest groups), but worst of all, he seems to have the people behind him.
People will vote for him because of who he is, not because they hate the other guy (or gal) more. The establishment dose not look kindly upon something like that. That almost pulls the carpet from underneath the power brokers, and hands the lead back to The People. They, the power brokers, can put up with losing to the other party. But loosing to The People is too much for them to swallow.

The Republicans (and possibly the Clinton campaign) are having a mud slinging party against Obama to score cheap electoral gains at any price. And the right wing Jewish groups (Likudniks) would like to embarrass him enough to extort some statements on pro-Israel policies that may tie his hands in case he gets elected.

I hope both groups fail, but the outcome is far from certain. He may be riding a tidal wave, but as I mentioned before: politics is dirty.

As for 2008, the question will be: Can a bright, young, energetic, ambitious Black get elected to the White House if he has an Arab name?

Khaled

Links:
A Jew in Sheik's Clothing? - Time Magazine, 1964

Anti-Semites for Obama - The Sleaze from Tennesse Republican Party

The smear campaign against Obama is going on - full steam ahead.
From the Muslim first name, to a 'Hussein' middle name, to Muslim attire pictures, etc, the pressure will not relent.

A recent Tennessee Republican Party press release has taken the sleaze to new heights with the title "Anti-Semites for Obama". That 'piece of work' was beautifully covered on Richard Silverstein Blog post.

I will not be trying to defend Obama. His campaign people can do a better job than I ever will. But for fun I did some research (thank God for Google), and I came across some interesting pictures from Ethiopian Sigd Festival - a religious worship in jerusalem.

Any of you with some familiarity with African attire realizes that most people in any particular region in Africa, as well as in any other part of the world, dress like their compatriots regardless of religion. So, look at these pictures and tell me: is it a Somali Muslim attire that Obama is wearing, or could it be...an Ethiopian Jewish attire?

The point is attires, and names, do not matter.


If someone votes for Obama because of an attire, or because of his first or middle name, they are stupid.
If someone votes against Obama, for his attire, or because his first or middle name, they are twice as stupid.
I like his spirit. I like the spirit that his presence as a candidate has ignited in this country. If he is elected, that will tell me the great revival of America has begun.
That is why I will vote for him.

Khaled

Addendum:
Just to be fair to all Abrahamic religions in Africa, i am adding a picture of Christian Ethiopian, and a group of Sudanese men. As you may be expecting: the dress is still almost the same.

Islam will win - Haaretz

Quite a provoking title, especially for an article form the Israeli newspaper. The author, Bradely Burston, is a very moderate and balanced Israeli writer, who is very frequently flamed by the right wing readers of the paper. He makes some interesting points. see what you think.

"As Iran prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary next year of the revolution led by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the world of jihad is fraying at many points and, in the worst symptom of any revolution, beginning to show its age."

'The same day the Al-Qaida video appeared, senior Iranian cleric Hassan Rowhani strongly criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his verbal assaults against Israel, asking: "Does foreign policy mean expressing coarse slogans and grandstanding?"'

Click below to read the full article
Islam will win - Haaretz

Most Muslims 'desire democracy' -BBC

The largest survey to date of Muslims worldwide suggests the vast majority want Western democracy and freedoms, but do not want them to be imposed.

The poll by Gallup of more than 50,000 Muslims in 35 nations found most wanted the West to instead focus on changing its negative view of Muslims and Islam.

The poll, which claims to represent the views of 90% the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, is to be published next month as part of a book entitled Who Speaks For Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really Think.

Click Below to read the full article
Most Muslims 'desire democracy' -BBC

Genuine or Political: Turkey's radical revision of Islamic texts

From the BBC online: Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

This article on the BBC website was quite a jolt for me this morning. Turkey occupies an important place in the Muslim world, and in the world in general. Being at the fault line between the East and the West, belonging to Europe (and NATO) with EU aspirations on one hand, and being governed by a democratically elected Islamic party on the other hand. Turkey has close to 75 million people, 99% of them are Muslims, and 30% of the population is under age 15. It is a country that that has a growing strategic influence for many decades to come.
There is a definite revival in Islamic spirit in Turkey, as evident by the recent lifting of the ban on Islamic head cover in state universities, which - believe it or not - required a constitutional amendment to be lifted. But the country is still very secular, and a significant portion of its practicing Muslims see no contradiction between strongly believing in Islam and practicing it on one hand, while fully supporting a secular mode of governance for the state on the other hand.
Turkey also occupies a big place in Islamic history, being the headquarter of the last transnational Islamic state (Ottoman Caliphates).
That is why reading this article on the BBC was quite interesting for me.

There is no doubt in my mind that Muslims for 1500 years have had different approaches to the understanding of the same religious text. That is why we see so many ways of implementation of Islam that varies by geographic location.
At least in some case, one may find that the daily life, moral values, and cultural norms in one Muslim group more similar to those of non-Muslims living in the same geographic location, than to Muslims in a remote country on a different continent, even though both communities are predominantly Muslim.
That is not necessarily bad. Islam is strong yet flexible enough to accommodate to peoples across different culture and over many centuries of history. This is almost a prerequisite for any successful ideology. A space-age scientist in cutting edge high-tech lab in California can be a proud and a practicing Muslims. An illiterate cattle herder in the middle of a small village in central Africa or Afghanistan can be also a proud and a practicing Muslims. They both can get together, share in performing the rituals, and enjoy and learn a great deal form listening to the Quran, and at the end they each can go back where they live and work and carry on with there lives.

My point is that prevalent culture has always colored what we individually think Islam is. Many of us, Muslims, think that we know THE ONLY WAY to practice properly, while we actually only know how we were raised (or taught) to practice. This invasion of prevalent culture into religious thinking and interpretation leads to many problems, with 'cultural baggage' that gets stuck to Islam and makes it difficult to reconcile our differences withing the Muslim community, and more importantly, it confuses the non-Muslim world as to what Islam really is.

Now back to the article. I truly hope that such academic effort is conducted with utmost consideration for the spirit of Islam, and with truth seeking as the ONLY motive behind it. But I also cannot help get worried a bit because we keep hearing the words 'reforming Islam' coming from individuals and groups that are also explicitly islamophobic and inherently hostile to Islam and Muslims. It is frequently the code word for those who believe Islam is genuinely evil, but talking about reforming it seems more politically correct than suggesting to throw it all away.
I cannot imaging the Turkish researchers belong to the latter, so i am hopeful.
I do believe Islamic thinking needs revitalization, and that serious effort is needed to strip Islam (the religion) from the dead weight (cultural baggage) that associates with it more frequently than not. Local culture and societal traditions are valuable. they tell us a lot about who we are. And, as long as they do not contradict with core Islamic beliefs, they are totally acceptable. But they should never sneak on us to become part of our religious beliefs.

And as for judging the effort by Turkish scholars, I will wait until the document mentioned in the article is out there for all of us to see.

Click below to read the BBC article:
Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

Obamaphobia in Israeli Press

"There's still this lingering Israeli and Jewish phobia that a Black politician, especially one who earlier in his career was sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians might revert to his earlier positions and turn his back on Israel. The very notion is ridiculous because (unfortunately) no one can become President of the United States without being slavishly pro-Israel whether they wanted to be or not. There's just too much Jewish campaign money on the table and too much lobbying power from the likes of AIPAC and other Israel lobby groups."


Comment:
This is a very nice article from the well-established progressive Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein. He is a straight talker, and a joy to read. He is a big fan of Obama, and he did not take well to the racist cartoon of the major Israeli newspaper, Maariv.
Read the full posting on Richard Silverstien's Tikun Olam Blog

Khaled

Muslim Brotherhood Announce Their Participation in Local Elections and Abandon the Slogan of 'Islam is the Solution'

"MB [muslim Brotherhood] General Guide Mohamed Mahdi Akif in a press conference held at his office said: "We decided to participate in the elections to carry out God's will and to save the nation, despite the arrest campaigns that MB is subjected to."He added: "There are 400 MB detainees because of the upcoming elections, but this will not prevent us from participating strongly and effectively," explaining that the Guidance Office would not disclose the names of candidates and would not raise the slogan of 'Islam is the Solution', but would rather raise slogans against corruption and price rises"

• To read the rest of the article in English click here
• To read the rest of the article in Arabic click here

Comment:
An interesting bit of news from The Egyptian Today (Almasry Alyoum) newspaper published in Cairo. The most interesting part is that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided to drop the slogan they held for decades "Islam is the Solution". What that means, practically, will not be obvious for some time. I hope it signals a change from the customary lip service they pay to their principles, toward finding if they can come up with practical and implementable solutions to peoples everyday problems. But if it is anything like the usual Egyptian politics, it is likely to be substituting one slogan for another, so I will not hold my breath.

khaled

This November, I'm voting Christian - Bradley Burston

"The United States has been in church for nearly a year, now, preached to, proselytized, evangelized, testified to by one presidential candidate after another. It seems to be working, on me at least. I've come to a decision. I'm going to vote for a Christian. "
---

"I am not about to demand that my candidate be the most consistent of church-goers. My candidate need not believe in Church theology or politics. This is what I want from my candidate: Emulate Jesus. Heal. Be a true Christian. Act to heal a country which is wounded and cleft to its core.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. (Matthew 5:44) "

Click here to read the full article in Haaretz.

Hooliganism, under the pretense of patriotism.

FBI investigates bomb threats against a local mosque.

I would like to apologize to you all. This is not the kind of post I normally like to write, but the circumstances of the last 2 trying days made it seem necessary.

Last Tuesday was like any other workday until I received a call that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington DC has notified the FBI that two right wing hate sites had comments inciting violence again a St. Louis mosque. A press release was distributed to national media and contained some samples of the hate filled comments, and explicit reference to violence against the Islamic community Center in south St. Louis, MO, with threats of shooting, using dynamite and a plan to "drop bombs from a light plane". The hateful violent threats were posted comments on 2 websites (Little Green footballs, and Gateway Pundits).

These tirades followed a fear-mongering and less-than-insightful article about the new Minaret constructed at that Islamic center. That tiny bit of news was enough for the hooligan-spirited macho fans of those sites to respond with hundreds of hateful comments against American Muslims and their devilish plan to take over America. The knights of the little green footballs and gateway pundits were coming to the rescue of Christianity and the Western Civilization with their brilliant plans for appropriate response (i.e., vandalism, shooting, bombing, etc) commensurate with the magnitude of the crime committed - building a tower for a small mosque after getting all the required permits.

The following morning, the Post-dispatch printed an report by Tim Townsend on the incident and about the progress of the FBI effort thus far. That was followed by a torrent of hate and Anti-Muslim emails sent to the Post-Dispatch for their criminal participation in the CAIR-led conspiracy against the USA. The defenders of Western Civilization also started putting anti-Muslim comments on a truly nice and informative article by Ryan Miller on his Middled blog as they searched my name and found a reference and an interview with me (amongst other St. Louis Muslims) on his blog.

I know that sounds comical, but they are really upset that the Post Dispatch and the local CBS affiliate KMOV, reported that the FBI is investigating a bombing threat against a St. Louis target.

'CAIR’s propaganda also made it to the local CBS affiliate, KMOV, where they uncritically label LGF an “anti-Muslim site” at CAIR’s bidding: FBI investigating threats made against mosque in St. Louis.'

I guess they may see that threatening to bomb a mosque is an act that should be awarded a medal, not investigated. Any media reporting to the contrary should, in their little green minds, be treated as an act of treason not an exercise in the freedom of expression. As for Ryan Miller, his major sin is that one may get the impression after reading his article that Muslims may not all be terrorists. How blasphemous of him.

The good news is that while the little ones (green footballs, pundits or otherwise) carry on with their hate-spreading activities, the FBI will continue investigating, and Tim Townsend will continue the great reporting we are familiar with, and as far as I know, Ryan Miller has already moved on with a new posting of a beautiful and very thoughtful response to the critical comments.

But it cannot stop there. We, Muslims and non-Muslims, need to realize that the serious threat to all of us may not only be coming from the outside. It is also coming from the inside, and it is not from the American Muslims. It is from the hate-filled minds that are incapable of understanding the beauty of diversity and coexistence. It is from the minds of the ignorant, the racist, and supremacists that can never see any possible good in someone that has a different look, a different dress or a different religion. People with such minds that are intellectually lazy and empty. And like all fanatics, they live in closed circles - physically or emotionally- of like minded people, and for them ignorance of the outside is bliss.

We, Muslims and non-Muslims, need to make a goal of ACTIVELY endorsing civility, and expressing discontent with ignorance and indiscriminate hate.

• Please log on to those hate-filled sites, little greens and little pundits, and leave a rational comment on why you disagree with them, what you really think of them, and why they are a disgrace to the great tradition of this country.
• Please visit to the Post Dispatch Forum and leave a message of support for Tim Townsend, and reporters like him.
• Please visit Ryan Miller's Blog and show some support for the spirit of inclusiveness and understanding that he expresses repeatedly there.

And finally: PLEASE spread the word to colleagues, friends and family urging them to do the same. If we just watch from the sidelines, we leave the field to the Hooligans to set the standards for all of us.

khaled

US-Islamic forum in Gulf backs Obama

"DOHA, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) — Delegates at a US-Islamic forum voiced support on Monday for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, although some warned against expecting any radical policy change irrespective of who captures the White House.

Obama, who is vying to become the first black president of the United States, won overwhelming support in a mock election by more than 200 American and Muslim delegates at the US-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital.

His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Republican candidates won only a handful of votes."

Amr Khaled, a famous Preacher, was quotesd as saying: "I would like to see Obama become president of America because he champions 'change and hope', which we Muslims need as much as the Americans do," Islamic television preacher Amr Khaled told AFP."

He went on to say: "on behalf of millions of Muslim youth who seek work, respect and freedom," and urged the next US administration to "solve the political problems in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, and not to mix between Muslims and extremists."

Read the full article on AFP

The ayatollah has a simple piece of advice for any Muslim woman being abused by her husband: Hit him back.

Lebanon cleric advises 'modern Shiites

"BEIRUT -- The ayatollah has a simple piece of advice for any Muslim woman being abused by her husband: Hit him back. "A woman can respond to physical violence inflicted on her by a man with counter- violence as a self-defense measure," Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon's senior-most Shiite cleric, wrote in a fatwa late last year that shocked conservative Muslims around the world. Fadlallah long has been considered a leader of the most radical faction of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon. He endorsed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution in Iran and was accused of ordering, or at least encouraging, the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks here, a charge he and his supporters have denied. He issued fatwas, or religious edicts, calling on the faithful to resist the United States, and urged Muslims to boycott American products. But the 72-year-old cleric, who agreed to an interview recently in his South Beirut compound, has toned down his rhetoric in recent years. Instead, he espouses a more modest vision for the faithful than the ambitious agenda set forth by Iran, which considers itself the patron of Shiites worldwide and has been trying to increase its influence throughout the Muslim world."

Read the full article in the LA Times

Generation Obama

Generation Obama

Cora Currier |They're wired, they're passionate, but will they show up? The depth and substance of Obama's youth army has yet to be tested.

Read the full article iin the Nation.

The Parallel Universe - aka, the Middle East.

I woke up this Sunday morning to an amusing piece of news. The Iranian government wants some members of the Danish parliament to APOLOGIZE to the Muslim world for a recent 're-publication' of the cartoons about Prophet Muhammad, pbuh.
I had to laugh. It was not a happy laugh, but the one that tells I am too tired to get upset, that i am almost ready to give up, or the one that means I am thinking 'when will this stupidity stop?'.
But then it dawned on me. Of course the Iranian government is not stupid, it just exists in a parallel universe - a sort of 'bizzaro' world, for those who used to read superman comics.
In case you do not follow the news, here is the scoop.
Few days ago, the Danish authorities discovered a plot by three idiots who thought they are performing their religious duties and doing you, me, and the rest of Muslims in the world a great favor by allegedly planning to kill (yes; kill - this is not a typo) one of the cartoonist who published the distasteful cartoons about our Prophet 3 years ago. In a show of support from their fellow artists, several Danish newspapers decided to republish the cartoons.
Do I like the cartoons? No. Do I think the cartoonists, both initially and on republication are provocative? Yes. Do I think anyone has the right to stop them from doing that? Definitely not, unless of course they live in Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or any of the other countries that exist in that parallel universe I mentioned earlier, where you are told what you can say, what you can do, and what you are allowed to believe in. That is why many Muslims live here, and not there.
Now, the nine Danish members of the Parliament have been scheduled for some time to visit Iran to raise issues regarding human right abuses, and the Iranian nuclear program. Of course, the Iranian government has the right to receive them, or not to receive them. But rather that stating that they simply would not accept the members of Denmark's foreign affairs committee to discuss what is internal Iranian affair, " two days before the scheduled trip, Tehran demanded the MPs condemn the cartoon on their arrival in Iran.".
"A condemnation and apology would help convince the Iranian people that Denmark's authorities had distanced themselves from the action" , Iran's parliament said in a letter to Danish MPs.
I guess Iran feels the Danish elected officials should feel morally at fault for their citizens' use of the guaranteed right of freedom of expression. Don't you think that it is the Iranian government that should feel at fault for restricting the freedom of expression of their own citizens? Should not the rest of the rulers of the middle east share with the Iranian government the sense of shame and guilt for depriving their own people of almost all universally accepted human rights? I guess they don't.
That brings back the issue of the parallel universe they live in: the universe where universal human rights are not that universally accepted, where expressing what you think is evil, contradicting your government is immoral, and where a government ruling one oppressed people feels it has 'moral authority' to dictate to democratic governments how they should behave with their own citizens.

Some of us would say no one expects anything better from dictatorships, and they are right. But what hurts me more is that I frequently feels that the sense of entitlement and moral superiority is not limited to those governments. For a case in point, and on this same lucky Sunday, the British Guardian published an interesting report. One hundred and eighty thousand people demand to remove images of the Prophet from a Wikipedia article.

Before you rush into thinking that the images were the same insulting cartoons, and say that cartoons like these have no place in an intellectual and a semi-academic product like Wikipedia, let me correct you. The images in question are not the infamous cartoons. They are 'artistic paintings' produced by Muslim Ottoman and Persian artists 500 years ago, at a time when some Muslim communities felt there was no disrespect to the prophet in drawing his face, and that there was no scriptural prohibition on doing that.
Arrogance and sense of extreme entitlement does not even begin to describe the request made by those 180,000 individuals.

• The drawings were made by Muslims 500 years ago when this was acceptable.
• The images of the paintings are part of academic and history article.
• Wikipedia does not owe Muslims anything.
• Arabic Wikipedia does not carry them.
• No one forces any Muslim to stare at the pictures, or even use Wikipedia at all. One can always set the web browser not to display images.
  
• The prohibition on the Prophets picture is not scriptural, and was not implement throughout Islamic history.

And yet, 180,000 individuals felt they have the right to demand that Wikipedia do what they feel that as Muslims 'we are entitled to'.

Why would they think like that? The parallel universe theory seems like a tempting explanation here as well.
But on a serious not, it is disheartening to see Muslims behave like that. Those individuals are at least somewhat educated, likely 'youngish', understand English, hopefully know what Wikipedia is, and feel that they have the right to express their opinion freely (which is good), and yet could not see the irony in their request.
They most likely were not the people on the streets of the Arab and Muslim world in 2005 burning Danish flags, and wagging swords in the air in a comical threat to the West. They belong, more or less, to the current or future intelligentsia of the Muslim population. Yet I cannot help but think that they reacted emotionally - though not physically - in a way identical to those ignorant ones that made the embarrassing scenes we all remember on the streets 3 years ago.
If our intelligentsia is to think like that, I cannot blame the Iranian government for its stupid behavior.
And that is truly sad.

khaled

For the full articles check below::
Danish MPs refuse cartoon apology - BBC
Danish Papers Reprint Muhammad Cartoon - CBS
Wikipedia defies 180,000 demands to remove images of the Prophet - The Guardian
Danish cartoons 'plotters' held - BBC

Dear anonymous: I respectfuly disagree with you.

A week ago, and in response to my previous post, I received this comment from an anonymous reader.

".... there is no doubt and i totally agree with you that targeting civilians is totally unislamic and immoral, but, i'm talking about the Palestinians specifically, i think if we put ourselves where they are, in so much despair, oppression, not being able to get food or not having electricity (referring to what happened recently in Gaza) i think one would not think whether civilians are targeted or not. u just want to get back at those people occupying your country and making you suffer that much especially with no one being able to do anything about it for so many years. i think if one is living under these circumstances you cannot expect him to think about anything else than revenge. i'm not saying it is right but this is the human nature and we cannot blame them." end of comment.
The emphasis using boldface is mine.

There is no doubt in my mind that the suffering of the Palestinian people is real and is beyond what most of us can imagine, not to mention, live under. Israeli occupation is not just land grab, but has always been aiming at the destruction of the Palestinian spirit and the Palestinian identity. It is evil, and no historic rights of any kind could make it lawful. And, YES; if it were me, I probably would have liked to "just get back at those people" as the comment said. But the truth remains that if I did that it should not be acceptable or justifiable. To understand where the anger and rage are coming from is healthy, and helps all of us: Muslims, non-Muslims, Arabs, and non-Arabs, get to the real source of the problem of violence: Injustice, and try to help solve the cycle of violence.
But through out all this, we SHOULD NOT ever accept such a deed, or try to justify it. Understand it: Yes. Condone, accept, or justify: Never. Speak against it, and try to stop it from happening: Always.
The reasons are simple and many: some are practical, but most are religious.
"Getting back at those people" ends up targeting a lot of innocent individuals. Not every Isreali is guilty of occupying Palestinians. There are many that knew, over several generations, of no land but that piece of land they live on called Israel. Historic right or not, they were born there, grew up there, were brought up to look at it as home, not as the land their grandparents took away from Palestinians.

Most of us grow up being fed - by our parents, leaders and teachers - facts about life, history, and religion - that we never questioned or verified. If one of those Israelis had their child or sister killed by a suicide bomber, do you think that he or she is entitled to the same kind of anger, and desire for revenge and vengeance like the Palestinian that grow up watching the suffering and atrocities committed against Palestinians? If that Israeli decided to "get back at those people" who killed his child or sibling, how much will we empathize with them? Are we going to judge them by the same standard that we extend to our Palestinian brother or sister? If we do not treat the two situations equally, we are violating God's orders (please read this verse carefully, thinking about what God is asking you to do, very explicitly)

And regardless of whether we treat them equally or not, the cycle of vengeance will perpetuate itself ad infinitum until the only peace available is the peacefulnesses of death for everyone.

The young Palestinian young man that carried out the last suicidal bombing had ample reasons to be angry, both national and personal as his native land was occupied, and he was jailed and abused at age 15 by Israeli soldiers, . On the other side, the brother of the Israeli child that lost his legs in the latest Qassam rocket attack on Sderot town in Israel, will grow up to be an Israeli soldier in a couple of years, and will have his reasons to hate Palestinians, and to take it out on them.
The next reason is based in religion. Revenge and vengeance are basic feelings that we all have. They are part of our inherent desires and instincts that got created us with. Throughout the Quran, and in a good portion of the Prophetic teachings, God is teaching us that to be good human beings, and obtain eternal success in the life after, we need to resist the urge to act upon many of those instincts. Inner desires and instincts can lead us stray, and can be in the way when justice needs to be served. In this verse, God commands all of us, through the lesson He is teaching Prophet David, to resit one's basic desire ( الهوى in Arabic) in our search for justice lest we go astray, and that otherwise we shall face dire consequences.
Eternal happiness (paradise) is promised to those who resist responding to the impulses of the inner desires (lust, greed, vengeance) .

Anger and vengeances, even during war, are not acceptable in Islam. Muslims should fight out of love for justice, not out of anger or for revenge.

We are told that Imam Ali - the fourth of the Muslim leaders after the Prophet, pbuh - once during a battle was ready to yield the final blow to an enemy soldier when that fighter spat on him. Ali, being a good student of the Prophet, subdued the enemy soldier but did not kill him. When asked why he did not kill the enemy soldier, he answered: "I would not have been sure whether I killed him in my fight for justice, or out of the anger I felt when he spat on me."

Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, intending to be provocative for enducational reason, told his companions "Help your brothers come out victorious, be them the oppressed, or the ones committing injustice". He was instantaneously asked by his critically thinking companions: how can we help them come out victorious if they are the oppressors? He, pbuh, answered: "by stopping them from committing injustice".

Victory, for the Prophet, was achieved by getting one of our own to stop committing injustice. As God said in the verse listed above: "Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious" (Holy Quran: chapter 5 verse 8).

What a wonderful lesson Islam teaches us: Victory is not in killing the enemy, or getting the land. Victory is in pleasing God, but by doing what He ordered us to do: being just in the face of hatred, adversity and evil-doing by others, and in the face of our anger and desire for vengeance.

khaled

Misjudgment that made martyrs of others

"It is all very well for the archbishop to explain that he does not want the term 'sharia' to refer to criminal punishments, but for most people that's what the word means: something atavistic, misogynistic, cruel and foreign. It is the Death of a Princess, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the hangings in Iran and the stonings in Afghanistan. It is the law which locks up middle-aged primary teachers for allowing their classes to name a teddy bear Muhammad. To the British media a demand for sharia is a demand to 'behead those who insult Islam'."
Click here to read the full article from the Guardian.
From the BBC: Q and A: Sharia law explained

Suicidal or not, targeting civilians is immoral and criminal:

Last week has been a busy time for suicide bombers.

In Israel, two days ago, a suicide bombing in Dimona took the life of a 73 year-old Israeli woman, and critically injured her old husband. The killing of the ”dangerous” 73 year-old civilian was promptly and proudly claimed by the following 3 groups, in order of their claims: Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the secular Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and finally by Hamas officials. They all must feel very good about themselves; wasting the life of a young 22 year-old Palestinian man, and killing a 73 year-old non-fighting woman.

Call me a doubting Tom, but, I have the funny feeling that this did not bring us any closer to liberating Palestine. Moreover, I think this is going to be the beginning of a week or two of non-discriminate Muslim bashing in the world media, and worse, to a frenzy of killing of mostly Palestinian civilians in Gaza and possibly the west Bank, courtesy of the great guardians of Palestinians and Islam, Hamas and the Martyrs Brigade.

On another sad note, and on the Muslim holy day, Friday, it was Iraqis turn to suffer. Two women exploded in the middle of two busy markets. The vengeful criminals behind the attacks were “equal opportunity” killers: one bomb for a Sunni market, and one for a Shi’a market. They did not want anyone to feel they were left out.

Notice that I did not say, “the two women exploded themselves” because they did not. They were unable to make that critical decision. They were, reportedly, mentally retarded as per the survivors who frequented the markets, and knew the women. The criminals behind the the killing of a hundred Iraqis, and of the two poor souls used as tools in the crime, pulled the trigger for them using cellular phone-rigged detonators. All fingers are pointing to Al-Qaeda Islamist. This is not a new low for Al-Qaeda as they have used a 15 year-old boy with Down syndrome before. Al-Qaeda does not only kill other Muslims- which they have done before, shamelessly and repeatedly- they feel free to use unwitting mentally-retarded women.

Two weeks ago it was time to bomb a different kind of target: a high school in Baghdad attacked with explosives hidden on a peddler-pushed cart, killing a bystander and injuring 21 others, mostly school children. And as I was writing this the news of another attack by Al-Qaeda came. The news is still sketchy, but it seems that 8 members of an Anti-Qaeda Sunni group were killed in a suicide bombing. The horror does not seem to end.

It baffles me, in the middle of all this, how these people find the theological backing for their insanity. When I study the Quran I find the following verse:

And, when I read early Islamic history I find that Abu-Bakr, the first Muslim Nation leader after our Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - echoed the Prophetic teachings as he instructed one of his generals on the way to a battle: “Do not mutilate the dead; do not kill a child, an elder or a woman”. Omar, the second Muslim nation leader, maintained the same stance with his military leaders: “Never kill and old man, a woman or a child. Make sure to avoid them during battles and in conducting raids”.

[For an essay I put together on the rules of war in Islam, and Islamic view on violence against civilians, please click here]

What is more baffling is how we, Muslims, do not get ANGRY every time we hear about incidents like those mentioned above. But do not get me wrong: I am not saying that we condone it or that we are not upset by it. Almost all of us know very well that there is nothing Islamic about those who kill civilians. But in fact we need to get VISCERALLY ANGRY at the idea that some Muslims will resort to this sort of barbarity believing that it is Islam.

And I guess many of us like to believe that the horror we hear about, committed in our name, is not true; that is a quirk in history, a mistake, a conspiracy, or a result of media bias, etc, etc, etc. The truth is all that does not matter; we need to be denouncing the evil deeds loudly and vehemently as a matter of principle. It is not about where to lay blame. It is about what you, and I, stand for. And in this case it is about what we know that Islam stands for.

There should be no ‘mincing words’, no half-hearted, conditional or ‘qualified’ denouncement. We need to keep denouncing until every one around us, as individuals, and as a community become fully aware that our denouncement is not a facade of civility, but is a true expression of our faith and core beliefs. Do not say, we have denounced enough. If your audience cannot hear you, it does not matter if you think you are loud and clear; you obviously are NOT LOUD ENOUGH.

With the shameful incident of the Iraqi retarded-women bombers, I circulated emails to many friends, and many in leadership position (religious and administrative) asking them to encourage the religious leaders, and others in leadership positions in Islamic councils, foundations, Mosque leadership etc, to be vocal: Friday sermons (Khutbas) SHOUD be about how abhorrent targeting civilian is to Islam, how suicide bombers in civilian areas should be prosecuted as criminals under Islamic law if they by chance survived their evil deed or even posthumously to set a precedent, how the popular culture should not celebrate them as heroes but rather feel pity on them for being so misled so as to waste their lives in such an un-Islamic way. Friday Sermons and speeches should be on how we, Muslims, should be at the forefront of denouncing such deeds whether they are committed against Palestinians, Muslims, Israelis, American or any other civilian population, and whether they are committed by Muslims, Israelis, Americans or anybody else anywhere in the world. Islamic justice and fairness have one yard stick. Using moral standards that vary with our emotional inclinations is a great evil according to the many verses of Quran such as in chapter 4:

as well as in chapter 38: There are millions of our brothers and sisters, Muslims and non-Muslims, in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and many other places that are suffering, and they need our cries for help and justice on their behalf. Our cries for the poor, the weak, the occupied, the displace, the intentionally-starved, and the oppressed in all those places will be better felt and received if we convincingly, and publicly, apply our moral values equitably to every one, and everywhere.

In Timbuktu, a new move to save ancient manuscripts

"Timbuktu, Mali - Abdel Kader Haidara carefully picks up one of a dozen small leather-bound books lying on his desk and leafs through the age-weathered pages covered in Arabic calligraphy.
This tiny book is centuries old and one of more than 100,000 manuscripts that can be found on shelves and in boxes in Timbuktu, the ancient Malian city of mud-brick walls nestled between the Niger River and the Sahara Desert. "The manuscripts are our heritage," says the curator of the Mamma Haidara Manuscript Library, the largest of more than 20 private libraries in the city. "They have been passed from generation to generation. They are the history of Africa, the history of mankind." But if not for an $8 million donation from South Africa, this history might have been lost forever. The manuscripts in Arabic and African languages cover almost every conceivable subject from history and medicine to law and human rights, from astronomy and philosophy to conflict resolution and literature. It's a Who's Who of ancient kingdoms." [Click here to read the full story from the Christian science Monitor]

So what if Obama were a Muslim?

So what if Obama were a Muslim? (by Leonard Pitts - Statesman journal, Oregan)

"Barack Obama is not a Muslim.We know this because he has told us so.We know it because there is no credible evidence to suggest otherwise.We know it despite a campaign of lies and whispers from various bloggers, pundits and head cases. Barack Obama is not a Muslim. But, what if he was?Same guy, same charisma, same inspirational idealism. But also, a Muslim. Not a crazy Muslim. Not a guy prone to strapping bombs to his chest in hopes of meeting virgins in heaven. A Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-type Muslim. A Dave Chappelle, Ahmad Rashad, Shaquille O’Neal-type Muslim. A guy you like and admire who just happened to be, you know ... Muslim.Would it matter? Should it?" [for the full article click this]

Self evident. No comment necessary on this one, but see Jim Hacking's post "Obama, the non-Muslim" on this blog.

khaled

A Chief Rabbi with a brilliant idea, and a 'holy place' envy

A couple of days ago, Haaretz, a Major Israeli newspaper reported that the Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger announced a marvelous idea to solve the Israeli Palestinian issue, at least in Gaza. the holy man of God is suggesting transferring the Palestinian population of Gaza to Egypt's Sinai. And do not think he is heartless enough to throw then in the open desert. To the contrary he actually is suggesting constructing a "Modern Palestinian Country" for them there. Minor problem though: Egypt has sovereignty over Sinai, and it may not necessarily like the idea to giving up a piece of its land, even if it was desert. No, problem, thinks the holy man, we will get a friendly superpower (USA), and its faithful ally (UK) to sponsor the idea, with the European Union to back them up".

"Take all the poor people from Gaza to move them to a wonderful new modern country with trains buses cars, like in Arizona - we are now in a generation where you can take a desert and build a city. This will be a solution for the poor people - they will have a nice county, and we shall have our country and we shall live in peace."

This is not only brilliant, but also novel, and wise. "I have thought about it with some wise people only in the last two weeks, and I think it is a great idea - nobody spoke about it before." I wonder what were these wise people smoking at the time? Could have they been accidentally exposed to too much paint thinner? And, have they ever wondered why 'nobody spoke about it before'?

In addition to his wisdom and creativity he can tell the future, he ".. anticipated that the idea would find popularity among Israelis." He also said that he will be discussing this idea with the Israeli Prime Minister soon. And for the doubting Tom out there thinking, he is mixing politics and religion, he clearly states "I cannot give advice to political subjects" but that he "only gives answers thought religious eyes."
I do not know if I should be laughing, or crying, but I know that if I do not give my self the liberty of making fun of that wise guy, I will have to hurling insults at him.
I guess he is calling for another Belfor promise, this time to the Palestinian of Gaza, at the expense of Egypt.
And who know; by the year 2108 my great great grand child may be sitting here, writing a post about another brilliant Rabbi trying to find a piece of land for the Egyptians in Libya.

Important note to Muslim readers:

• The Chief Rabbi also thinks you have too many Holy places (if you do not believe me, listen to the video yourself), and that you should play nice and leave one for the Israelis. So do not be greedy, and share- OK.

Khaled


Links:
Report: Chief Rabbi says move Gazans to a Palestine in Sinai
Israeli Chief Rabbi: Expel Gazans to Sinai, Make It ‘Like Arizona'