imam zaid on the norway massacre

Reflection on the Norway Massacre by Imam Zaid Shakir

...let us imagine that the wildest of the anti-Muslim bigots eventually get their wish and the country is purged of Muslims. Were that to happen, an America purged of Muslims would not be a nation immune from purges. New demons would emerge to take the place of the departed Muslims. Like the Muslims, those demons would demand to be exorcised and the likes of Anders Breivik, perhaps by the millions, would rise up to undertake the task. Before such a scenario unfolds, we would do well as a nation to realize that the demons we need to exorcise are not our fellow humans. They are the demons of ignorance, delusion, hubris and our tendency to continuously ignore the lessons that history repeatedly endeavors to teach us. The sooner we all get on with the business of attacking those demons the better off we will all be.

"the oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a westerner"

Loonwatch: Jews and Christians Way More Likely than Muslims to Justify Killing Civilians

Loonwatch: Surveys Show Muslims in Every Country Less Likely to Justify Killing Civilians than Americans and Israelis

Why They Hate Us (II) by Stephen Walt

I don't really want to essentialize Jews and Christians in the way Muslims too often are, but I can't help but point out that given the genocides which were commanded in the book of Deuteronomy and put into vivid practice in the book of Joshua, it is clear that Bible believers can't take the position that genocide is always wrong and be consistent. Furthermore, in modern times, in spite of the moral restrictions of Catholic just war theory, it is clear through acts like the attacks on Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII that even Christian/Western nations have reached a turning point in terms of following their own rules.

On a related note Defending the Transgressed: Mudafi' al-Mazlum by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti is a contemporary fatwa (from a traditional Shafii) against targeting civilians in warfare.

Blogger Muhammad Cohen shares a tongue-in-cheek reaction to the Breivik attacks in Norway which was Overheard at Ali’s Diner on Arab Street

For a bit of background on where the title of this post comes from, you can check out Common Dreams' The Westmoreland Mind-Set by Derrick Z. Jackson

"checking out some fromm, some sartre, camus..."

I've recently been looking into Slavoj Zizek again which has whet my philosophical appetite more than usual. The thing that is most intriguing about Zizek is the way he seems to synthesize so many diverse influences into a coherent perspective. It's made me want to reread some older philosophers to try to decide how I feel about them. At the moment, I mainly want to look at some of the existentialists like Camus and Fanon. When I first got into them (in high school) I wasn't Muslim so reading them now should be interesting considering that Camus was born in Algeria and both of them had a lot to say about the Algerian Revolution (and by implication, political revolution and jihad in general). The other day I went to Borders and got Albert Camus' Resistance, Rebellion, and Death and The Rebel. I'll probably read some Gabriel Marcel next and then pick up The Wretched of the Earth again.

See also:
islam and existentialism
ali shariati

your friendly spider-man from the barrio

Wow, I'd heard that the Ultimate version of Spider-Man was going to die... check out his replacement; from Peter Parker to Miles Morales:

New Ultimate Spider-Man Is Half-Black, Half-Latino And while we are on the subject, you may have also missed the half-Puerto Rican, half-Mexican Spider-Girl, Anya Corazon.

somalia: nevermind by amir sulaiman

black faces
white tongues
the smell of sea water
taunts with sarcasm
drink me


oh somalia
im sorry i couldnt be there for you
but while you were trying to to get your daughter
to drink her urine
a singer died
while your children
were falling from the tree of life
scattered bushels of rotten fruit
some whiter children were shot


oh somalia
only if your beautiful wasnt so black
only if you were
gaza or
libya or
bahrain or
egypt or
norway or
england or
japan or
america
or the moon
i would mention you in a poem


only if you had
oil or
poppy or
timber or
rubber or
white people
i would mention you in my prayers


oh somalia
only if your beautiful wasnt so black
the world has grown accustom to watching you die
since i was a child
somalia - synonymous with suffering
african meant adversity
an african struggling was like
a fish swimming
a dog barking
somalia meant starvation


nevermind the magic in your poetry
or
the glowing saints rising from your lands like a thousand moons


nevermind the beauty of your beaches
or
the utter perfection in the hips of your women


oh somalia
only if you didnt wear the resemblance of eve
like an ornate funeral shroud
we wouldnt see you as our sin
and avert our gazes
in shame
turn our faces
to blame
only if your lack of the worldy
didnt remind us
of our lack of the other-worldly
perhaps then we would mention you


oh somalia
only if your beautiful wasnt so black

god loves mexicans and kazakhs more

Elenamary shares an interesting intersection between Latin and Muslim culture in God loves Mexicans and Kazakhs more

dead poets society

I just recently learned about the passing of two poets who were a big part of their respective scenes. Will "Da Real One" Bell was based in Miami and David Blair was based in Detroit. At times I've been moved by both of them and I was sad to hear that their voices were silenced.


Blair - Being Black in America


Will "The Real One" - So I Run

New Times: Will Da Real One's murder left many questions
Detroit Metro Times: Poet and singer/songwriter David Blair passes away

is the glee project racist?

Just putting the question out there...
For those who don't know, The Glee Project is an elimination-based talent show where the winner will get cast in a multi-episode arc on the show Glee. The show started with 12 contestants. Each week, the contestants sing, dance, rap, perform in videos. The "bottom three" are given a chance to save themselves with one more song. The loser of the week is eliminated.

The show started off with 4 out of the 12 contestants being people of color (or as W. Kamau Bell says, "obvious ethnics"). One identified as a black gay man, one who identified as a biracial woman, one Nuyorican Latina, and one man who (as far as I remember) never talked about their background but was pretty obviously of African descent (possibly biracial). That last guy was the first one eliminated. And in the first four weeks of the show, all but the black gay man were eliminated. Coincidence?

The world of Glee is at times like a cross between a Bennetton ad and an afterschool special so I certainly wouldn't argue that the creators of the show are racist in a crudely exclusionary way. But I do suspect that the writers of the show would have trouble writing extended story lines dealing with race and ethnicity.

Planet Grenada: is glee racist?
Racialicious: When will Glee stop ignoring race?

thoughtcrime

From Recipes for Disaster

"But what if I get caught?"

"...you're already caught. Better ask yourself- what if you get free?"

i speak for myself: american men on being muslim

Taken from Wajahat Ali's Goatmilk blog:
I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim (White Cloud Press, May 2011) is being received very positively in the media and is spurring dialogue that we feel is necessary and timely. In this vein, we want to continue the conversation with a sequel called I Speak for Myself: American Men on Being Muslim. The book will be published by White Cloud in 2012.

Each essay must be written by a practicing Muslim American man, born and/or predominantly raised in the U.S. We are looking for contributors between the ages of 22 and 45 who claim Islam as their faith.

Please write articulately about a personal aspect of your life with regards to being a Muslim American man. The essay should express in some way how your Muslim-ness and American-ness affect your life. This need not be overt but the essay should come from that perspective.

Essays should be no longer than 1500 words and will be edited for clarity. All submissions may not be accepted, but every submission will be considered. Please include name, age, DOB, full contact info, birthplace, ethnicity, sect of Islam, profession/field, and anything else about yourself that might be useful for us to know (short bios are fine).

This is a project that, Inshallah, will appear across a variety of platforms, both national and international.

Please send all queries about this project and/or entries via email to: isfm786@gmail.com.

my fellow american

My Fellow American is an online film and social media project that calls upon concerned Americans to pledge and spread a message that Muslims are our fellow Americans. It asks people of other backgrounds to pledge, and share a real life story about a Muslim friend, neighbor, or colleague that they admire. Using the power of social media, My Fellow American seeks to change the narrative – from Muslims as the other, to Muslims as our fellow Americans.

gil scott-heron - Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un

Just some of my favorites from this great artist who will be missed.

His most famous (and commercialized, and copied, and parodied) piece is:

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

But some less well known pieces are:

Ghetto Code (Dot Dot Dit Dit Dot Dot Dash), an inspired meditation on the United States government's role in the world.

and:

H20-Gate Blues, on the moral aftermath of the Watergate scandal. (I'm not certain if an honest-to-goodness sample was used, but the music and some lines from this piece also inspired KMD on the piece Bananapeel Blues which has nothing to do with Nixon, but is instead a breakdown of Five Percenter theology).

Wikipedia: Gil Scott-Heron
NPR Music: Gil Scott-Heron, Poet And Musician, Has Died by Daoud Tyler-Ameen

rap news: osamacide / #revolution spreads across america

Osamacide


#Revolution Spreads Across America

the five percenters: islam, hip hop and the gods of new york

I recently finished reading Michael Muhammad Knight's The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip Hop and the Gods of New York. The book is a pretty informative and detailed treatment of the early history (birth record) of Clarence 13X and the Nation of Gods and Earths. I definitely recommend it if you want to learn more about the movement.

My initial impressions: I was surprised at the extent to which Five Percenters seemed to get in trouble with the authorities for petty crimes even after being "civilized". (And Knight describes how he himself would "elevate with equality" i.e. smoke weed, with other Five Percenters). At the same time, I also was surprised by the extent to which Clarence 13X seemed to get along with with the "powers that be". (He had a good relationship with the New York City bureaucracy including the mayor and he was even a supporter of the Vietnam War.) Personally, I wish he been more thorough and in-depth when it came to the Five Percenter teachings, but all in all, it was a decent book.

See also:
Hip-Hop Linguistic: Interview with Michael Muhammad Knight

Grenada's Past:
Blue-Eyed Devil

black in latin america

PBS recently had a special on Blacks in Latin America hosted by Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr. I only caught part of the special myself but here is the corresponding page with a number of clips, episodes and essays. The series focuses on Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

imam zaid on nationalism and the recent muslim uprisings

Two articles from Imam Zaid Shakir:
Islam and the Question of Nationalism [1]
Reflections on The Islamic Legitimacy of the Muslim Uprisings (Expanded)

muslim responses to the death of osama bin laden

The Goatmilk blog has put together a pretty good round-up of individual Muslim commentary on OBL's death. In addition, Muslim poet, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, shares his own thoughts in his blog entry on the Death of Bin Ladin. Finally, the Huffington Post has two pieces: NYC Muslim Community Reacts To Bin Laden's Death and 'Muslimericans' React to Bin Laden's Death

muslim easter hymn

The closest thing I know of to a Muslim Easter song, is Bob Marley's Time Will Tell, with the powerful line "Jah would never never give the power to a baldhead/ run come crucify the dread" I've blogged about it before, but here is a cover of the song by Gilberto Gil:


Gilberto Gil: Tempo só (Time will tell)

"read the book 'how to eat to live' by elijah muhammad/ it's a brown paperback/ for anybody/ either white or black"

Actually, this blog post is not about the Elijah Muhammad classic but the much more recent book Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman which I happened to pick up at a used bookstore last weekend and am starting to experiment with. The concept behind the book is fairly simple. Eat lots of good food. And the way Dr. Fuhrman measures the quality of food is in terms of nutrients / calories. More specifically, he recommends a plant-based diet with lots of green leafy vegetables, other nutrient-rich vegetables and whole fruits; supplemented with beans, legumes, nuts and whole grains and sparing use of other foods. I've been pesco-vegetarian for years, I literally don't remember the last time I ate red meat. So mostly the new plan means I'm trying to cut out the fried food and eat more fruits and salad. We'll see how it goes.

manning marable rip

NPR: Manning Marable's 'Reinvention' Of Malcolm X
NPR: Mourning A Mentor: Students Pay Tribute To Marable
Democracy Now!: “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention”: Manning Marable’s New Biography Investigates Conflicted Reality of the Civil Rights Leader
Democracy Now!: African American Historian Manning Marable Dies Days Before Publication of His Biography of Malcolm X
The Root: Manning Marable: A Brother, a Mentor, a Great Mind (Dyson)
HuffPost: Tavis Smiley on Manning Marable
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Manning Marable: In Memoriam (Skip Gates)