Are you kidding me?

As I sit here eating my muffin and drinking my Dunkin Donuts coffee, I came across this.

McCain disgusts me…

…and so does his buddy, Rod Parsley.

I admire Obama though. I feel like he doesn’t favor people. He doesn’t favor Blacks just because he’s half Black, he doesn’t favor Muslims because his father was from Kenya, he doesn’t favor any particular group of people. I know a politician will always be a politician, but that quality of his gives him a plus point in my book.

Today’s observation

I donated blood today and a male nurse in his 40’s/50’s asked if I was Muslim, and when I said yes he asked if it was okay for him to touch/work with me. I said, “Yeah, no problem,” and he said, “All right, I just wanted to be sure it was okay.” When the blood bag was full and he was taking the needle out he asked me to turn my arm so that he could unwrap the tourniquet without touching me. Then he started laughing a lot and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I feel so weird about this.” I just laughed along because it wasn’t a big deal. Jeez, he’s a nurse, not a molestor.

But then later I was thinking, wait, why did he say he was feeling weird? Was I supposed to be offended or something?

The Afghan poppy problem: this should work

The premise is simple, suggests Lisa Gans, a human rights lawyer who has worked in a few Islamic countries (including Afghanistan): let the Afghans grow poppy, then have medical organizations buy it for legitmate use (such as morphine). From her article:

Uganda, and a few other countries have attempted, with success, to find creative ways to make morphine more readily available, and the results have been highly beneficial to people suffering from illness and pain. Concerns about abuse of opiates where they have been made available have proven unfounded, and there is no reason why these drugs should not be made available in the same way that they are in more developed countries. In large part, the refusal to consider legitimate export or even stockpiling of poppy crops under the supervision of international organizations has been the result of the “war on drugs” waged by the U.S. that has stifled creative and productive thinking within organizations like the INCB.

[...]

The reason that poppy farming is such a concern in Afghanistan is that the Taliban and other drug lords control the sale of poppies to international opium traders. The sale of the poppies for the creation of illegal drugs funds the Taliban and other rogue groups operating in Afghanistan, and thus enables them to fight U.S. and international forces.

Afghan farmers get paid pennies on the dollar for what this stuff is worth. Why not scrounge up a few more dollars, outbid the drug lords (and the Taliban), and pay the farmers for a legitimate use of the plant? That way the farmers can actually make a living, rather than trying to raise crops that just isn’t suited for the Afghani climate and soil conditions and making little to no money off the little bit that does grow.

Oh right…because of the bullshit “war on drugs”. Also, the US doesn’t actually care about the well being of the Afghanis. If they did, the US would have found a way to spend a little bit more money on Afghani infrastructure after buying the mujahideen all those weapons to wage a proxy war against Soviets. Maybe then, there would be no poppy “problem” today.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Just an FYI to her newest novel. I think it’s structured much like Interpreter of Maladies, which was my freshman reading assignment in college. If this new one is anything like it, I really look forward to reading it. From the article:

It’s easy to forget, given the sensitivities that have been awakened in this country since 9/11, thrusting lifelong citizens under suspicion for having foreign-sounding names and subjecting visitors to the indignity of being fingerprinted, that America was conceived in a spirit of openness, as a land where people could build new identities, grounded in the present and the future, not the past. This dream, despite current fears, has in great part been made real. And the fact that America is still a place where the rest of the world comes to reinvent itself — accepting with excitement and anxiety the necessity of leaving behind the constrictions and comforts of distant customs — is the underlying theme of Jhumpa Lahiri’s sensitive new collection of stories, “Unaccustomed Earth.”

Any thoughts on her old books? The new one? The themes she typically writes about? I think she really vividly describes the struggle for first-generation Americans who try to fit in within both worlds, get frustrated in the process, but find a way to create an identify for themselves. At least I personally feel like I can relate. I think she’s a great writer.

Just thinking…

There’s a lot I’ve been wanting to post, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Grad school is occupying me at the moment. How does one manage the stresses of school, work, life, and all the drama within it at once? I don’t know. I turn to God though. He listens to me when nobody else does.

Some things that just came to my mind…good ways to clean your heart and de-stress. Can someone recall this following hadith for me? I can only paraphrase what I remember: The Prophet (SAW) was sitting with a group of Sahabah and he talked about a man who “would enter Paradise.” The Sahabah wanted to see what was so special about the man so they went to his home to see what he did. They noticed he did nothing out of the ordinary, no extra prayers, no extra dhikr, no extra charity. He just prayed his usual 5 times a day, was a decent person, and tended to his work. They asked him what he did differently and he said that “every night before I sleep, I forgive all of those who have wronged me.”

Also interesting:

17. Sleep the way the Prophet slept

End your day on a positive note. Make Wudu, then think of your day. Thank Allah for all the good things you accomplished, like Zikr and Salat. Ask yourself what you did today to bring humanity together and what you did to help Muslims become servants of humanity. For everything positive, say Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah). For everything negative say Astaghfirullah wa atoobo ilayk (I seek Allah’s forgiveness and I turn to You [Allah]). Recite the last two chapters of the Quran, thinking and praying as you turn on your right side with your hand below your right cheek, the way the Prophet used to sleep. Then close your day with the name of Allah on your tongue. Insha Allah, you will have a good, restful night.

My identity problems as a Muslim

Seriously. It’s a question I’ve asked over and over since I came to Islam.

I’m a convert to Islam. I also happened to be of Indian descent (South Indian). But really, I’m pretty much an American kid with brown skin. The extent of my cultural ties to India: I like Indian food. Put me at an Indian buffet and watch me kill some rice and chicken tikka masala, or watch me tear up dosas like my stomach occupies my entire chest cavity.

When people see me at a Pakistani or Bengali masjid, I don’t look out of place. Now, I really don’t complain about this; if I was white or something, people would look at me with some kind of fascination, like “oooh, pet convert, dawah is working!” So I just kind of blend in and don’t really complain. But it gets lonely.

Like it or not, the cultural groups among Muslims tend to stick together. So when I look at a group of Muslims from the subcontinent, I ask myself, OK, I blend in, but what do I really have in common with these people? I don’t come from a Pakistani/Bengali family, don’t speak Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujurati. I have none of the cultural practices that desis have. When my Pakistani and Bengali friends tell me about how things work in their house, their family relations, etc….I just look at them and think either “wow, that makes no sense,” or “wow, that’s backwards.” Really, every single time. I don’t walk around calling everyone “bhai” or “bhenchod”. I don’t say “Khuda hafiz”. The sight of kurtas on a guy makes me gag, I don’t care how formal it looks. Saris and lehengas look like halloween costumes to me. Associating with desi Muslims doesn’t make much sense to me, even though I subconsciously do it anyway. I feel like my conversion is a dirty little secret sometimes that I like to keep from them.

As far as converts go, by and large it seems like the predominant group is the Blackamerican Muslims. Honestly, with the notable difference that I’m not black, it seems like I have more in common with these people than with any other group among Muslims in America. These are people who saw Islam as an alternative, as a of way of solving their problems and giving them hope. They saw this as an honorable belief system, the same way I did when I decided to convert. I, like them, saw this as a better way of living. It was simple and beautiful at the same time. English is their first (and only) language. Many of them don’t have family support for their decision to live their life as a Muslim. But then again, a lot of these people come from circumstances that I don’t. It seems to me that a lot of Blackamerican Muslims are from the inner city and/or from broken homes, with relatively little wealth. The worst I can say (and me and my buddies, growing up in a very mixed black/white/latino suburban neighborhood, used to joke about this) is that we were “upper low class”. But those circumstances didn’t have much to do with me deciding to convert to Islam. And I’m sure, to some or a lot of them, that I seem no different than one of the born-Muslims who gives them dirty looks when one of them goes to a South Asian or Arab masjid.

So where does that leave me? As “just a Muslim”? I’m not naive enough to believe that anymore, no matter what talk of brotherhood or a unified Muslim community I hear from imams. I’m not holding my breath waiting for the day things change. Yes, I’m a cynic. And no, I don’t have a solution to this, even in theory. Maybe this is the way it will continue to be for me for the rest of my life. Whatever, I don’t care.

Stories like this bother me

Why does the media focus on one little story and make it seem like the real deal? [sarcasm] Because writing about one little town I’ve never heard of will really give you a representative view of what the majority of American Muslims are like. [/sarcasm]

Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling

Edit by Nattuk: Read some of Dave’s thoughts on homeschooling.  Good, funny stuff.

Bring the troops home…

What are these people dying for? (It’s a good read.)

The purpose of a US soldier is to defend this country…does anyone really believe that Iraq is an issue of national security anymore? Or is this just the US administration saving face now?

Related: Cheney is a dickhead.

WWTP(SAW)D

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Then I realized Mawlid is sometime this week (depending on when people decide to celebrate it), so I thought this was fitting.

You’ve seen those WWJD pendants and bracelets and things right? I think the idea is that for every action, you should ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” Good marketing of a concept that all Christians should strive for. As Muslims, we should strive to do the same with the man we hold in high esteem, the example to mankind, Muhammad (SAWS). Much is said of how the Qur’an is a message for all time, and indeed we should treat it as such. The other lasting legacy is the example of the Prophet (SAWS), whose character, composure, and actions should serve as examples for us all.

Looking to the example of the Prophet (SAWS) is more than, saying he grew a beard or wore a turban and therefore we must do the same. Picture the Prophet (SAWS) if he was alive today. What would he have done in each of our circumstances? As a college student in Boston, as a young professional in New York, or as a business owner in LA? As a medical student, as an engineer, as a mechanic? Or how about as a single parent, a widower, or an elderly person? We should look to his example for how to deal with our own trials and tribulations, even though the world is vastly different than when he was alive. We should strive to take his example and use this as our guide through our daily lives, no matter how different they may be. While we may think that we have it rough, almost nothing can compare to the suffering that the Prophet (SAWS) had to endure when he was preaching Allah’s message. His patience, determination, and most of all his trust in Allah (SWT) carried him throughout this time and helped him emerge from his personal battles victoriously. Throughout it all, he was a simple, kind, and caring man, evidence that we should not let our troubles affect our treatment of others.

As Muslims, none of us are stupid or uneducated about the kind person Muhammad (SAWS) was or about the quality of his character. We don’t need an extensive study of the hadiths to know how he would have acted. We know the ideals that he embodied - and this is what is important. The world is a different place than 7th century Arabia. If the the Prophet were alive today, he may not have had a beard or wear a turban, but his character, how he behaved towards others, the compassion he showed, his taqwa…all that would remain the same. We should strive to keep these ideals in mind as we go through our day. For everything we do, ask, “What would the Prophet (SAWS) do if he was here?” His example can help us excel at what we do and act in a way that is sensible, reasonable, and is pleasing to Allah (SWT).

EDIT: See Ali Eteraz’s blog for an excellent post on the character of the Prophet (SAWS). And another.