St. Louis Muslims - Where Are You?

This week has been a bit busy. Monday evening I received an email about Daniel Pipes, a pseudo-'intellectual' who represents the ugliest face of Islamophobia in the USA. Pipes was coming to speak in front of the 'esteemed' conservative student club of Washington University. This is the same group that hosted the Islamofascism week at WU several months ago.
The email was a 24-hour notice of a gathering of protest outside the conservative students meeting with Daniel Pipes, their prophet of hate and doom. By all measures, the anti-hate gathering was a success attended by 65-70 students, faculty, and non-WU visitors in support of American Muslim. That crowd was similar in size of not a tad larger than those who attended the pro-hate meeting (according to some students who went inside to count the pro-hate attendees).
That sad news is that, despite the circulation of emails to many Muslims with large email lists, and to a lot of friends and relatives of the Muslims involves in organizing the anti-hate meeting, only a handful of Muslims were there.

Yes, it was a short notice.
And, yes, it was a Tuesday evening.
But it was a Tuesday evening and a short notice for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Yet, we ended up with a significant majority of non-Muslims on a cold Tuesday night, protesting against a anti-Muslim hate monger.

An equally frustrating story can be told about Wednesday evening. West county Democrats Club held a showing of an award winning documentary about the torture of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo bay at the hands of American troops, with implicit approval of the 'higher-ups' in the military and executive chain of command.

The notice was circulated on many emails list for a couple of weeks prior to the event. The event itself was held in a hall that is a 2-minute walk from the largest Islamic center in St. Louis on Weidman Road.

The yield: 25 West County non-Muslim Democrats Club members, and 5 Muslims.

O Muslim brothers and sisters in St. Louis: WHERE ART THOU?
And will you PLEASE expand you comfort zone a little bit so you may show some interest in helping non-Muslims who want to help you?

Khaled

• Richard Silverstein is a progressive Jewish Journalist that I like and respect. He posted an excellent piece on Daniel pipes yesterday on his blog, Tikun Olam.
• The documentary shown by West County Democrats is a must see: Taxi to the Dark Side.

My gratitude goes to:

• organizers of the anti-hate rally at WU (The WashU Peace Coalition, The Muslim Student Association, The PRIDE Alliance, Safe Zones, WashU College Dems, Students for a Democratic Society, and Amnesty International)
  
• and to West County Democrats for their support of justice for all.

A Jew Re-redfining Jihad: a lesson in cross-cultural communication

Most Muslim know very well what Jihad means. We know that it is not about beheading 'infidels' - whatever 'infidels' mean. We know it is not about forcing the world into submission to an Islamic Caliphate. And above all, we know its meaning is more about deep and very personal struggle with one's own desires and inclinations than about war and bloodshed.

That true Jihad is not the Jihad that the Western media talk about. Islamic Jihad has been redefined for us as an ugly hateful and scary ideology that the civilized world must eliminate. And, as some Islamophobes propagate, if eliminating all Muslims is the price needed to eliminate Jihad, it is a small price to pay to save the Civilization of Mankind.

I, and 99.99% of Muslims in the world, have not done anything that helped tarnish the meaning of the word Jihad. But I am certain we do not do enough to restore the word to its real glory either. Many Muslims have legitimate grievances against Israel, former and current colonial powers, international media, international religious bodies, .. etc, etc. Many of us, though, have little experience in presenting our cases and causes in a way that is conventional and accepted by centers of power in the world. We are even miserably less experienced in communicating with the average person in Europe and North America, where public opinion has serious impact on the decision making of current super powers.

Many of us take a 'defiant oppositional stance' that alienates many of the non-Muslims that could be our allies in straightening the record, and in addressing the grievances that Muslims legitimately have.
Learning the skill of cross-cultural communication is probably the single most important goal that good Muslims should aspire too to help the cause of Islam.

This is not an innovation into Islam. This is a directive that God has made as part of the Quran over 1500 years ago:

• "CALL THOU (all mankind] unto thy Sustainer's path with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with them in the most kindly manner ..." (Ch 16.125)
• "AND TELL My servants that they should speak in the most kindly manner [unto those who do not share their beliefs] ..." (Ch 17.53)
• "But [since] good and evil cannot be equal, repel thou [evil] with something that is better - and lo! he between whom and thyself was enmity [may then become] as though he had [always] been close [unto thee], a true friend!" (Ch 41.34)

Wisdom, good exhortation, speaking in kindly manner, and repelling evil deeds with good ones have been the eternal advice by God that many, even most, of us have not followed closely with sad consequences for all of us.

Many of us accuse the West of double standards when they judge Arab and Muslim causes - a legitimate charge in many cases. But we rarely look at the way we judge issues ourselves. Many of us are profoundly guilty of the same thing we accuse the west of: having double standards. Yet we do not easily and willingly identify it in our own behavior and the behavior of other Muslims. It is not healthy to scream loudly to complain of what many of our own practice with our complicit approval, attempts at justification, or at best benign negligence.

Speaking up against our own for injustices they commit is an Islamic duty. God is very explicit in enjoining us to stick to one standard: upholding truth and justice no matter who is at fault:

• "... Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious..." (Ch 5.8)
• "... when you voice an opinion, be just, even though it be [against] one near of kin..." (Ch 6.152)
• "... Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk." (Ch 4.135)

For those who are still reading, it is about time to know what any of this has to do with re-redefining Jihad by a Jew.
while doing my daily world newspaper tour I came across this title in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:

"This year, this Jew is embracing Jihad"

And before you start wondering about any subliminal hidden vicious meaning for the title let me tell you: He is not talking about fighting till death against Muslims, Arabs or Palestinians. He is not talking about beheading the enemies of Israel, and he is not talking about establishing a Jewish theocratic Caliphate in Muslim Land.
He is actually, and simply talking about Jihad the way it was meant to be in the glorious days of Islam "... [as it] has been used in the Koran in its root meaning, i.e. to strive and to strive for betterment of society, to spread goodness (maruf) and contain evil (munkar)."

I would not quote every great sentence in the article, otherwise I will be quoting a lot. I promise you this: you will feel a lot better after you follow the link at the end of this posting and read the article in its entirety.
A Jewish Journalist embracing Jihad in the pages of the major Israeli Newspaper ... How did this happen?
Simply he came a across two Muslims who followed the teachings of the Quran that I mentioned earlier:

First, use wisdom when presenting you case and,
Second, be fair in judging the world: you own and the others.

Bradley Burston simply came across an article (see link below) by Asghar Ali Engineer explaining true Jihad, and how different it is from what some violent Muslims claim it to be. He also came across a Muslim, Peter Dames, commenting on the latest violence between Arabs and Jews in Akre, Israel, during the cerebration of Yum Kippur.

Peter Dames wrote:

"As a man who practices Islam, I have to say both sides ought to be ashamed of themselves. Why are you committing such crimes? In the name of religion? No, I don`t think so, because God-fearing men contemplate God throughout their day.

This has got to end. We are children of Abraham - not children of Satan. People, wake up! Monotheism is under attack because of such actions. Let not ignorance prevail over your emotions but rather let your intellect achieve peace, love, stability & closeness to God. Let's stop pointing fingers. Let's forgive and forget and live for the future for the sake of our children. Salaam/Shalom/Peace everyone. - Petere Dames"

Wouldn't it be great if we read more articles by non-Muslim journalist embracing Jihad? Or at least using the the word the way it was meant to be? Unfortunately, this is not going to happen until we have a lot more Muslims embracing Jihad the right way, communicating their understanding to non-Muslims the right way, and applying justice using the same standards accross the board.
It is about time to 're-redefine' Jihad.

Khaled

Links:

Read Bradley Burston's article here:

This year, this Jew is embracing Jihad - by Bradley burston in Haartez.

Burston is one of my favorite journalists of the Israeli daily Haaretz. I may not always agree with him, but he rarely talks like an ideologue and, mostly, the reader feels he thinks of the issue at hand, then decides how he should react and what to write about it. No foregone conclusions, and no prejudging.

Also, check the article that moved him to writing the article listed above:

Making Mockery of Jihad - by AsgharAli Engineer

'He's Not One of Us' - By Calvin Trillin, Deadline Peot of The Nation

I could not resist having this little poem posted here. I guess it is the complement of the previous posting about the 'Angry white man: He is one of us'. Only, this one is about Obama not being one of them.
This is copied from The Nation, a great liberal progressive publication.

'He's Not One of Us'

As John McCain's chances seem weakened or dead,
Republican rallies become mobs instead.
They have no civility left--not a shred.
They curse at Obama, their faces bright red:
"A traitor!" "A terrorist!" "Off with his head!"
"He's not one of us," Sarah Palin has said.
Lucky him.

By Calvin Trillin - from Then Nation, October 15, 2008

Khaled

"That angry white man - Yeah, he is one of us"

For me, the three presidential debates where totally devoid of new content. That is likely the case for many who followed the campaign closely for many months. It was, however, important as a window into the personalities of the candidates. It helped reinforce my impression of Obama as a thoughtful and decent person. You could frequently see it in his face when McCain deals one of his numerous low blows or tell one of his explicit lies. The look on Obama's face tells you he could respond in kind, but he feels better than to stoop that low.

As for McCain, his demeanor was consistent throughout the three 'games'. He is mean-spirited, disrespectful, and can hardly hide his total disgust and despise for Obama. But moreover, he came across as lacking the spark of intelligence and acumen that his opponent had plenty of.
He has one super power, I have to admit. And that is his unlimited capacity for eye-rolling.

One thing that I did not feel while watching McCain was that he was a racist. After all, he adopted a non-white child. And I have great respect for people who cross the race line to make a family, either by marriage, or by adoption.
I thought of him as 'angry man', not as 'angry white man'. The title of this posting was in part inspired by the PostPartisan piece by Harold Meyerson on the Washington Post website. Meyerson did not accuse McCain directly of playing the race card, but the title resonated with me because minutes before reading Meyerson's piece, I was watching a disturbing YouTube video that a friend sent me (see below).
Like the debates, the video clips are devoid of new content. Actually they are devoid to any factual content, old or new. But they are loaded with the emotions of hateful ignorant people.
Hate and ignorance seem to be a consistent feature of Republican gatherings these days. It makes me feel pity on the few Republicans that truly have a vision based on knowledge and ideology for the economy, or government in general. Some of them are still their, and I am sure they feel lost and very very lonely in the midst of their own party.
The racism showing in the words of the crowd heading towards a Republican Party event cannot be missed. It is explicit and it is vulgar. I am not sure if the hate and anger demonstrated by many Republicans in general towards Obama can be explained by anything other than racism compounded the inability of those individuals to fathom how 'that one' who belongs to 'an inferior group' in their eyes, would capture the respect, imagination, and the admiration of billions around the world , and more importantly inspires and captures the hearts of the majority of the American people.
It is as if they are scared to death that the fantasy of supremacy that they thrive on is falling apart.
In the first clip, an apparently normal-looking woman states that Obama is a terrorist because it is 'in his blood line'. Another one re-enforced the idea by wisely adding 'just look at his middle name'.
----

----
In the video clip below, a child says about Obama, 'you need gloves to touch him'.
A child said that. God only knows what the children of those people are being taught at home. I just pray that I would not come across a group of them in a dark alley in the future.
----

----
In the Palin-McCain rallies, the 'family-value parading, God-fearing, church-going' Republicans do not have a problem calling their opponent who has more than half the country solidly behind him, ‘a terrorist’, 'off with his head', and 'kill him'.
He terrorizes them. He threatens their ‘race-centered’ way of life.
"A black President? What is next? Think of them as equals? No way".
Assuming that McCain is not a racist himself, he sure knows that this 'unspoken' issue may be his only chance to win the White House. He does not utter the ugly words himself, but he does not move a finger to put the fire out. He just enjoys the support.
And for his target audience - like the ones in the video clips - McCain may have no charm, no new ideas, no consistent message and very bad temper - but all of that would not matter.
I can hear them say " He is an angry white man - Yeah, he is one of us".
And he will get their votes.

Khaled

See Also:

• A Rage No One Should Be Stoking- Washinton Post Opinions Box
  

An idiot for a clergyman: Arnold Conrad's 'god' versus 'hindu, buddah or alla'

Check this weird (and scary) clip from a man of God !!!



This idiot (Arnold Conrad) painted himself in a corner. If Obama wins, that may be taken as one of the following:

• a. Conrad's God is weaker that the 'other gods'
• b. Conrad's God does not really like McCain and his supporters at all
• c. Conrad and his followers have no god that will listen to them.

The idiot, Conrad, does not even realize that 'Hindu' is not a name of Hinduism deity.
And, for a Christian clergy to violate so many commandment of his own faith in less than a couple of minutes (e.g., using God's name in vain, and not trying the Lord, your God) tells us how desperate idiots like him, and his supporters, are.
It also goes to show how much sane people from any faith should be scared to death of whichever political or religious ideology that produces people like this person and his followers (such as this idiot in the picture below, From BrettMarty.com).


This, unfortunately, is not the only time something like that happened. Many of you may still remember how one of our own [Lt] generals, William Boykin, (paid by your and my tax money) told his audience - and I am paraphrasing - that the the war on terrorism would show that 'our [Christian] God is bigger than their God'. If you are not scared yet by the words of zealots like this one, it may help scare you to know that Boykin was in 2003 our appointed deputy undersecretary of (no kidding) Defense for Intelligence!!!!!!!!!.

Khaled