Thank You Palestine

This afternoon, a friend emailed me a picture of a Friday afternoon Gaza protest that took place outside the mosque I grew up attending. I recognized some of the faces; uncle figures who had helped raise me. This small San Gabriel mosque and these people are not the type I would ever imagine affiliated with a protest. But subhana'Allah, the modern day genocide in Gaza has given the silent amongst us voices. Everybody is organizing. Everybody is acting. So, thank you Palestine:

Thank you Palestine for setting us free.
Thank you for giving the masses of Arabs a voice.
Thank you for giving the masses of Arabs a will.
Thank you for giving the masses of Arabs a uniting cause.

They were thrown down the well of humiliation,
Just like Josef; to get rid of them
They were pushed one small step at a time
Mow they are so used to it
Now they cannot tell if it was day or night

But you Palestine set them free
There is no darkness like occupation and
there is no light like liberty.

And that is not all!

Even those who were silenced after 9/11 got their voice back.
Thank you for giving Muslims in the US a voice.
Thank you for giving Muslims in the US a will.
Thank you for giving Muslims in the US a uniting cause.

Palestine you have awakened hearts from Caracas to those in a far away sea

Palestine, you have set us free so many times...

So...
When will we set you free.
When ... ?

Source: unknown

Earth Hour 2008

Come on: turn off the lights and hug a tree!

I'll be at a bridal shower tomorrow night, but I've already put in a request with the hostesses that we turn off the lights in compliance with Earth Hour. Hopefully they agree. I even bought 100 tea lights in hopes of coaxing them. insha'Allah.



As the video description says: "Do Something!" to make a positive impact.

They Said It Wouldn't Last

Creative activism...

Happy anniversary, War! I can hardly believe we've been together for five years now ... that's a fifth of the way to our silver anniversary!

Traditionally, a fifth anniversary is marked with gifts of wood, symbolizing a "strong and lasting marriage." But I knew you wouldn't mind a gift of Kevlar -- I looked it up, and apparently it symbolizes "a strong and lasting insurgency." Somehow it just seemed more appropriate.

It's sooo sweet of you to take me out to dinner for our anniversary, War. I know it's not easy getting a reservation here in Baghdad, with so many of the local restaurants destroyed by suicide bombers. But eating in the Green Zone is fine. No, really! Concrete barriers and barbed wire can be extremely romantic.

Anniversaries make me so nostalgic. I have to confess, though, when we first met I wasn't all that sure about you. Remember those sweet nothings you used to whisper in my ear, about WMD and "shock and awe"? Did you think I was impressed by all that macho posturing? I never really fell for it, you know.

I have to say, you didn't make a great impression on my mother either. She always thought you were a bully and a liar. And I don't know if you noticed this, War, but even your friends were pretty appalled by some of your behavior. Right, wild oats. Whatever. Still, I wasn't surprised so few of your so-called friends showed up for the wedding, and fewer still stayed for the dancing. Some "coalition" that turned out to be!

But I don't want to dwell on the bad times, because we did have some good times, didn't we? Remember those peaceful days between "Mission Accomplished" -- I think that was May 1, 2003 -- and ... and ... well, July 2003 or so, when we could still stroll around Baghdad at dusk, interrupted only by occasional small-arms fire? Those were the days, before the car bombs and IEDs.

We were happy then, weren't we, War?

I really think we were. True, the parades and flowers never did materialize, but I'm not a romantic sap. For me, it was enough that hope was in the air. Children were going to school, political dissidents could speak openly, Iraq was full of a sense of freedom and possibility. So there were no WMD after all -- so what? All's fair in love and war, right? -- and all's well that ends well!

Except, I guess, that the whole thing hasn't exactly ended well.

Don't you wish we could go back to those halcyon days in the spring and summer of 2003, and have a do-over? This time, we'd do it all so differently, wouldn't we, War? We've learned, we've grown. Oh! If we could only do it all over again, we'd have more troops to start with, and we'd never have had that awful quarrel with nice General Shinseki. We wouldn't disband the Iraqi army, we wouldn't have done that whole de-Baathification thing, we'd have prevented the looting and infrastructure sabotage that helped the insurgency get off the ground. Right?

But you can't go back again, can you? If all that couples counseling has taught me anything, War, it's that we need to take responsibility for what's happened, because when relationships sour, there are always casualties.

In this case, a whole lot of casualties. Nearly 4,000 U.S. troops are dead, and more than 29,000 U.S. troops have been wounded. At least 82,000 Iraqi civilians have died violent deaths since the invasion, and some estimates suggest that as many as 600,000 other Iraqi civilians have died of causes indirectly related to the conflict. They say that nearly 20% of Iraqis have had to flee their homes.

Oh, I know, War, I know. In five years, every relationship is going to have its ups and downs! And you're right, you've been trying hard lately to turn things around. I do give you credit for that. Your surge brought violence down, even though it seems to be rising again. And you've tried so hard to listen, finally, and understand that an enduring relationship has to be about more than just brute force.

But, War, it's just not enough. It's too little, too late. "Political progress," "reconciliation" -- pretty words, but I just can't see it happening.

Anyway, War, I don't like to be a stick in the mud, but it kind of bothers me that these days we're jumping into bed with absolutely everyone: Sunni insurgents, Shiite insurgents, Kurds, God knows who else. It's like being inside Eliot Spitzer's marriage and James McGreevey's marriage and David Paterson's marriage, all at once.

Look, War, I don't quite know how to say this, on our anniversary and everything, but ...

I want a divorce.

Source: LA Times

A Picture/Drawing is Worth a Thousand Words

Gaza Massacre Continues

How do we sleep while our brothers bleed?

[Apartheid] Israeli forces have kept up attacks on the Gaza Strip, where they have killed at least 32 Palestinians, militants and civilians, since Wednesday morning.

Mabroooook ...

...to my sister in uniqueness, Lena Khan! Remember what I said about loving creative activism?

"We are proud to announce the winners of our One Nation, Many Voices Online Film Contest: including Grand Prize winner Lena Khan for her music video, 'A Land Called Paradise'."

Creative Activism Makes Me Happy

Egyptian player Mohamed Abou Traika wears a tee shirt reading "Sympathize with Gaza" as he celebrates his goal 1-0 against Sudan in Kumasi 26 January 2008 during the African Cup of Nations football championship. STR/AFP/Getty Images

Bay Area Activist/Muslim Events

The Bay Area had been making me crazy for a while and I couldn't understand why. However, this past Wednesday (when I received an email about a HUGE event taking place this Saturday (mind you I'm on a lot of listservs, and there had been almost ZERO advertising for this event beforehand)) it kind of all just fell in place. It isn't there aren't enough activist or even spiritual events up here - rather it is that there is almost ZERO coordination amongst the various hosting/organizing groups. People sometimes double and triple schedule various events on the same day such that you could have several events happening in one weekend and NO events in another. Unlike in Southern California (Alhamdulillah for SCAMA!), the Bay Area does not seem to have a single location where ALL relevant events are listed such that people could refer to it before deciding on dates.

So, as a minimal contribution to event coordination in general (as well as my sanity) I decided I was going to put every event that ever came my way HERE.

Check it out. Add it to your Google Calendars. Bookmark it.

Do what you need to. End the madness.

For the Record

I find inspiration in

the legacies of the global Islamic movement
as well as the Civil Rights movement.
Furthermore,
I advocate a notion of a Muslim student community
that is deeply religious, educated,
multi-ethnic, fiqh-balanced,
gender balanced, non-sectarian,
activist, service oriented and shura based!

Is that really too much to ask?