Inspirational Words Found in My Purse

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.

Now you must go back and tell people that this is the Hour.

And there are things to be considered:

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.

It is so great and swift that there are those will be afriad.

They will try to cling to the shore.

They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will sufffer greatly.

Know this river has it's destination.

The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water.

See who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.

Least of all, ourselves.

For the moment we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitutde and your vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

-The Elders ~ Orabi, Arizona, Hopi Nation

So these words are not a totally random find. A fellow protestor handed them to me at the Olympic Torch protests a few months ago in San Francisco. The paper had just been sitting at the bottom of my purse, forgotten. I remembered and found it when news broke recently of China's ridiculous Ramadan restrictions. I pray we really are the ones we've been waiting for.

Top 3 Ways To Know Muslims Have Successfully Integrated

Courtesy of a brother on one of the bajillion listservs I'm somehow subscribed to:

3- When you enter the restroom of a mosque and its dry, and with no lotas
2- When you hear on the news that "Hurricane Abdul-Cader" is brewing
1- When Right wing bloggers slam a Presidential candidate because he doesn't wake up for Fajr prayer

Community Organizers

Sarah Palin, you stand tall because you stand on the backs of those who came before you. You're a VP candidate partially because of the work of community organizers like Susan B. Anthony.

Educating the GOP: A Photo History of Community Organizers

Something Different

I'm doing something different this Ramadan. Check it out: I signed onto the Ramadan Compact!

Ya' Allah Protect Us From Muslim Men Like This One

How do they sleep at night? 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by southwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament this week to spare him their outrage.

"These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them," Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, said Saturday. "Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid."

The women, three of whom were teenagers, were first shot and then thrown into a ditch. They were still breathing as their bodies were covered with rocks and mud, according media reports and human rights activists, who said their only "crime" was that they wished to marry men of their own choosing.

Full Story: MSNBC

I Have Cool Friends

“Men shall have the benefit of what they earn, and women shall have the benefit of what they earn.” – Holy Qur’an 4:32

Photo credit/Hijab flutter: Nadia Afghani
More information on the struggle of service workers at LAX: Daily Breeze

Wake Up America

Aside from the mistake from his mouth at 5:29, I <3 this man:



And in case you were wondering, "what a police state looks like":

End Poverty at UC

To whom it may concern:

I support the 8,500 University of California service workers who are struggling for decent wages. Many of these workers and their families live in poverty, trying to make ends meet on as little as $10 an hour. It doesn't have to be this way. California community colleges and hospitals pay family-sustaining wages that average 25 percent more than those at UC.

As many as 96 percent of UC service workers can qualify for some form of public assistance, including food stamps, child care and public housing subsidies. That's just not right. Parents who work in our state's great university system should not have to rely on food stamps to put food on their tables.

I want UC's campuses and medical centers to be a place where employees are treated fairly and are able to live as hard-working families should.

As a stakeholder in the UC system, I urge you to make family-sustaining wages, rather than poverty wages, a reality for all UC workers. If California community colleges and other hospitals do it, so can UC.

Sincerely,
Zahra Billoo

Send your own letter: Take Action
(Hijab flutter: Marya Bangee)

Desi Aunty Story

At a party on Saturday night, enjoying my last night in Southern California, I encountered a fabulous aunty. My conversation with her was so OUTRAGEOUS, that I can't help but to want to share:

Aunty: "Zahra beta, when are we going to hear your good news?"

Knowing full well what she was attempting to hint at I said "well aunty, I'm insha'Allah graduating from law school this coming May."

Aunty: "beta, thats not good enough news for us."

Sen. Joe Biden on Apartheid Israel

Doesn't this just make the Obama ticket sound even more appealing?

War Against Women: The Use Of Rape As A Weapon In Congo's Civil War

(If you're in a hurry, skip past the video and just read the article excerpts I've posted. It's the type of story that makes one's "problems" seem non-existent.)

Right now there's a war taking place in the heart of Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and more people have died there than in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Darfur combined.
. . .
Dr. Denis Mukwege is the director of Panzi Hospital in eastern Congo. In this war against women, his hospital is the frontline. One of the latest victims he’s treating is Sifa M'Kitambala. She was raped just two days before the team arrived by soldiers who raided her village.

"They just cut her at many places," Dr. Mukwege explains.

Sifa was pregnant, but that didn't stop her rapists. Armed with a machete, they even cut at her genitals.

In the last ten years in Congo, hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, most of them gang raped. Panzi Hospital is full of them.
. . .
"Has rape almost become the norm here?" Cooper asks Anneka Van Woudenberg, who is the senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"I think because of the widespread nature of the war, because there has been so much violence, rape is now on a daily basis - rape is the norm," Van Woudenberg replies.

"Women get raped in wars all the time. How is it different here?" Cooper asks.

"I think what's different in Congo is the scale and the systematic nature of it, indeed, as well, the brutality. This is not rape because soldiers have got bored and have nothing to do. It is a way to ensure that communities accept the power and authority of that particular armed group. This is about showing terror. This is about using it as a weapon of war," she explains.
. . .
In some villages as many as 90 percent of the women have been raped; men in the villages are usually unarmed, and incapable of fighting back. In Walungu the team found 24-year-old Lucienne M’Maroyhi. She was at home one night with her two children and her younger brother, when six soldiers broke in. They tied her up and began to rape her, one by one.

"I was lying on the ground, and they gave a flashlight to my younger brother so that he could see them raping me," she recalls.

"They were telling your brother to hold the flashlight?" Cooper asks.

"Yes," she says. "They raped me like they were animals, one after another. When the first one finished, they washed me out with water, told me to stand up, so the next man could rape me."

She was convinced they'd kill her, just as soldiers had murdered her parents the year before. Instead, they turned to her brother. "They wanted him to rape me but he refused, and told them, 'I cannot do such a thing. I cannot rape my sister.' So they took out their knives and stabbed him to death in front of me," she recalls.
. . .
"When they take a woman to rape her, they'll line up the family, they'll line up other members of the communities to actually witness that," Registre says. "They make them watch. And so, what that means for that particular woman when it's all over, is that total shame, personally, to have been witnessed by so many people as she's being violated."

Many of the women in Dr. Mukwege’s hospital are not only blamed for what happened to them, they are shunned because of fears they’ve contracted HIV and shunned because their rapes were so violent they can no longer control their bodily functions.

Dr. Mukwege says he's doing about five surgeries a day.

His patients often have had objects inserted into their vaginas, like broken bottles, bayonets. Some women have even been shot between the legs by their rapists.

"Why would somebody do that? Why would somebody shoot a woman inside?" Cooper asks.

"In the beginning I was asking myself the same question. This is a show of force, of power, it's done to destroy the person," Dr. Mukwege says. "Sex is being used to commit evil. People flee. They become refugees. They can't get help, they become malnourished and it's disease which finishes them off."
. . .
There may be no justice in Congo, but there are organizations trying to help rape survivors get back on their feet. "Women For Women" teaches survivors how to make soap, how to cook - skills they can use to earn money. They also learn how to read and write. It is the first time many of these women have ever been in a classroom - it is their chance for a whole new life.

Remember Lucienne M’Maroyhi? She’s jumped at that chance. She hopes to start her own business one day.

She is also now the mother of a little baby girl, born a year ago. The father is one of her rapists, one of the men who killed Lucienne's brother. She named the girl "Luck."

"I named her Luck because I went through many hardships," she explains. "I could have been killed in the forest. But I got my life back. I have hope."

Hope is not something you’d expect Congo’s rape survivors to still cling to. But they do.

Each morning in Panzi hospital they gather to raise their voices, singing at a religious service. Our sufferings on earth, they sing, will be relieved in heaven.

Relief in Congo, it seems, is just too much to ask for.

Full Story: 60 Minutes

For the Record: Georgia Started It, Not Russia

The American-armed and trained Georgian army swarmed into South Ossetia last Thursday, killing an estimated 2,000 civilians, sending 40,000 South Ossetians fleeing over the Russian border, and destroying much of the capital, Tskhinvali. The attack was unprovoked and took place a full 24 hours before even ONE Russian soldier set foot in South Ossetia. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans still believe that the Russian army invaded Georgian territory first. The BBC, AP, NPR, the New York Times and the rest of the establishment media have consistently and deliberately misled their readers into believing that the violence in South Ossetia was initiated by the Kremlin. Let's be clear, it wasn't. In truth, there is NO dispute about the facts except among the people who rely the western press for their information. Despite its steady loss of credibility, the corporate media continues to operate as the propaganda-arm of the Pentagon.

Full Story: Counter Punch

Smoke Free University of California

All University of California campuses (including UCSF) will become entirely smoke-free on Thursday, Nov. 20, coinciding with the day of the Great American Smokeout. Smoking will not be permitted in any area of campus, including outdoor areas and in residential units. Even designated campus “smoking huts” will be removed. How’s that for “advancing health care worldwide”?

Additional Information: UCSF Today

"The Ramadan Nutrition and Workout Plan for Success"

If you're one of those people who not only does not lose weight in Ramadan, but goes even further and gains weight this article is for you!

Rehan Jalali on working out and eating healthy, while fasting:

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how can I workout and eat properly while I am fasting? Most people see the blessed month of Ramadan as a time when they will surely lose strength and or muscle mass and some people think they can only "maintain" during this month. This cannot be further from the truth. In fact, if you use some of the strategies I am about to share with you, you can make some of your best gains during this month! It's all about maximizing nutrient uptake, maintaining proper hydration, and modifying key fat burning/muscle building hormones in your favor during this month.

First of all, let's look at what happens to your body during Ramadan. While you are fasting, obviously you become more dehydrated at rest--but actually less than if you had exercised aerobically for over an hour (so exercise causes greater dehydration for that time period versus fasting). Your main metabolic fuel source for bodily function during fasting is mainly fat, which is a good thing. There is a great advantage fasting when the days are shorter as more meals can be eaten during the night. So the goals during Ramadan are to maximize metabolism (even though your metabolism will slow down due to less frequent meals), preserve and enhance as much lean muscle mass as possible (which will inherently increase metabolic rate and allow you to burn more calories at rest), and maximize your workout (both cardio and weight training). During Ramadan, depending on your goals, I really recommend that you limit cardio to 2 days a week at the most. This is again to preserve as much lean muscle tissue as possible. There is actually research showing the health benefits of fasting. It is truly a physical purification.

Training Times

Ok, enough of the background, let's get to the meat of it! I am going to set the record straight here. The best time to do a weight training workout is NOT while fasting. This can create way too much muscle breakdown and cause a significant rise in the catabolic hormone cortisol. Training while in a state of dehydration can decrease strength significantly. In fact, research indicates that dehydrating a muscle by as little as 3% can cause a 12% loss in strength. Training while you are fasting can actually be more detrimental than beneficial! The best time to weight train during Ramadan is after Taraweh prayers at night. This will insure that you will have several meals and plenty of water in your system before going to the gym. This will also allow you to consume your all-important post workout meal or shake which is essential to muscle growth and even fat loss. If this is too late then the next best time to weight train is about 1 hour after Iftar before taraweh prayer. The best time to do cardio work for maximum fat loss is before suhur—yep that's the truth. Of course, most people I know will not want to get up at around 3: 30 AM and do cardio! If you CAN pull this off then the best thing to do is get up and drink plenty of water with a cup of coffee or green tea, wait 30 minutes and perform 30-45 minutes of moderate intensity cardio work like a brisk walk on a treadmill. If this is out of the question for you, then the next best time to do cardio is approximately 30-45 minutes after a "light" iftar (I will define this shortly).

So now you know when to train, it's time to learn what to eat and drink (think water, water, and more water!).

Suhur meal (morning/pre-dawn)

For suhur, it is imperative to drink plenty of water, eat a good blend of protein, carbohydrates, and essential fat—that's right "good fats" have many fat burning and muscle building properties and their importance is even greater during Ramadan. Some good "suhur" foods include:

Egg whites (1 yolk)
Chicken breast
Oatmeal
Cream of wheat
Protein shake
Cinnamon
Bananas
Raw, Dark Honey
Raisins or dates
Fibrous vegetables –This will help increase the feeling of fullness as well.
All natural peanut butter
Flax seed oil
Olive oil – preferably extra virgin (which means it's cold processed and the essential fatty acids are preserved)
Plenty of water

It is important to take a solid Multi-Vitamin/ multi-mineral supplement with suhur as well to make sure daily minimum requirements of key nutrients are met. One good one is Opti-Pack by Super Nutrition. Taking extra vitamin C and vitamin E can also be helpful. It is very important to watch your sodium intake at this time as high sodium can cause greater dehydration plus increase thirst during the day—not good for fasters. Avoid high sodium foods like soups, sauces, condiments, gravies, high sodium bread products, and canned meats.

Iftar meal

This is a key time for rehydration. The wisdom in Islam is never ending. We break our fast with dates and water but if you investigate this nutritionally, you will see that dates are very unique in their nutrient content. They contain very high levels of potassium, a key re-hydration mineral and a special carbohydrate blend that enhance hydration above and beyond water alone. So basically when you eat a date and water for iftar your body gets hydrated again much faster than with water alone (this is a complex topic but I don't want to bore you with the details—You can think of dates and water as a very advanced form of Gatorade?). You should also eat some quality protein at this time as well. I recommend three dates and a meal replacement protein powder like ZI Diet MRP from VPX Sports, Lean Body by Labrada, or Myoplex from EAS. Of course, drink plenty of water. Then 1- 1.5 hours later have a food meal (or follow the schedule above for cardio). Then during taraweh, depending if you pray 8 or 20 rakahs, have a protein bar in the middle (not while you are praying of course!) or have another small protein and complex carbohydrate meal after the 8 rakahs—drink plenty of water if you have a protein bar. Then go train about 30-45 minutes after eating the bar. After the workout, have another nutrition shake (as mentioned a few lines ago) with plenty of water. Eating small meals at night can trick your body into speeding up metabolic rate (not to mention increase nutrient absorption and stabilize insulin and blood sugar levels). Your body loves homeostasis and wants to maintain a certain balance—you literally have to shock it constantly to lose fat and gain muscle over the long run! There is so much wisdom in "Eat and drink but not to excess" and we should try and follow that especially during Ramadan.

SAMPLE Ramadan MEAL PLAN for fat loss and muscle gain
(*This plan is for a 170 lb male, please adjust amounts for body weight)

Suhur:

Eat 6-8 egg whites (one yolk)
One bowl of plain oatmeal w/ cinnamon, raisins and a banana
1 teaspoon all-natural peanut butter or olive oil or flax seed oil
Plenty of water (16-24 oz.)
Opti-pack by Super Nutrition (one pack) –multi-vitamin/mineral

Iftar (the evening opening of the fast):

Three Dates and a Nutrition Shake (ZI Diet MRP from VPX Sports, Lean Body by Labrada, or Myoplex from EAS)
Plenty of water

For cardio wokouts --Do cardio 45 minutes after this meal for 30-45 minutes at a moderate pace or do a sprint workout if you have less time and then have the next meal before taraweh. (Have a cup of green tea with Iftar on cardio days)

For weight training days: Eat another food meal before Taraweh like chicken breast (or baked salmon), brown rice and some veggies OR
Baked Fish (Salmon, Tuna, Orange Roughy, or Mahi mahi), sweet potato, and a garden salad or some steamed vegetables.

Drink plenty of water during taraweh--Go to the gym after taraweh. (If you pray 20 rakahs, then have a protein bar in the middle of taraweh). Drink plenty of water during the workout and you can even have Powerade™ or a sports drink during the workout.

After the workout, have another Nutrition Shake --lots of water of course. Then sleep 45 minutes later or stay up all night eating and working like I do!

Following these simple workout and nutrition tips can really help you make great gains during this blessed month. May God help give us patience and strength in this month and throughout the year and make us strong mentally, internally, spiritually, and physically!

Looking for Alternative Wedding Music?

Patriotism

You ask me why the I.W.W. is not patriotic to the United States. If you were a bum without a blanket; if you had a left your wife and kids when you went west for a job, and had never located them since; if your job had never kept you long enough in a place to qualify you to vote; if you slept in a lousy, sour bunkhouse, and ate food just as rotten as they could give you and get by with it; if deputy sheriffs shot your cooking cans full of hiles and spilled your grub on the ground; if your wages were lowered on you when the bosses though they had you down; if there was one law for Ford, Suhr, and Mooney and another for Harry Thaw; if every person who represented law and order and the nation beat you up; railroaded you to jail, and the good Christian people cheered and told them to go to it, how in hell do you expect a [wo]man to be patriotic? This war is a business man's war and we don't see why we should go out and get shot in order to save the lovely state of affairs we now enjoy.

Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

Call Arnold: Protect the Wages (and Lives) of Over 200,000 California Workers

It'll only take a few minutes of your time, and each of us made the call we could make a HUGE difference. $6.55 is not a living wage in California, and the inefficiency of (some of) our legislators should not be used as a justification to put the lives of 200,000 workers on the line.

From the activists at the Courage Campaign:

Call Arnold: Watch the video and then call the governor to protect 200,000 state workers

Tell Governor Schwarzenegger to halt the wage cuts

On the same day that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received 28,016 petition signatures from the Courage Campaign, True Majority, and CREDO Mobile, Arnold announced that he would delay signing an Executive Order slashing the wages of over 200,000 state workers to $6.55 an hour, the federal minimum wage.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Arnold delayed the Executive Order signing to Thursday.

That's 24 hours from now. Which means we still have time TODAY to pressure Arnold to stop holding state workers hostage to his political budget negotiation games.

As a community of concerned citizens, we've got just a few hours to take action together. On behalf of hundreds of thousands of state workers, please pick up your phone right now and call Arnold.

Let's flood the Governor's phone lines. Here are several numbers for Arnold -- call one, call some or call them all:

Sacramento: 916-445-2841 (press 1, 2, and 0 to speak to a live person)

Fresno: 559-445-5295 (a live person should answer your call)

Los Angeles: 213-897-0322 (a live person should answer your call)

Riverside: 951-680-6860 (a live person should answer your call)

San Diego: 619-525-4641 (a live person should answer your call)

San Francisco: 415-703-2218 (a live person should answer your call)

Washington D.C.: 202-624-5270 (press 0 to leave a general message)

Here is a sample script for your call:

I am calling to demand that the Governor not sign the Executive Order that will cut the pay of state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour.

Governor Schwarzenegger needs to stop holding working people hostage and make sure that his fellow Republicans in the legislature support a responsible budget.

The Governor needs to show leadership, instead of threatening the ability of innocent state workers to afford basic necessities. We need solutions to this budget crisis, like closing the Yacht Tax loophole which allows yacht and private jet purchasers to get off tax-free.

No more games and gimmicks. Don't use workers as pawns and push them to the brink of financial disaster. Thank you.

Source: Courage Campaign

Excuses

I caught myself giving somebody fewer than 70 excuses this weekend. It's one of those things that's easier said than done. "What 7o excuses" you ask?

Hamdun al-Qassar, one of the great early Muslims, as narrated by Imam Bayhaqi in his Shu`ab al-Iman [7.522].

He said (Allah have mercy on him),

"If a friend among your friends errs, make seventy excuses for them. If your hearts are unable to do this, then know that the shortcoming is in your own selves." Id.

Source: SunniPath

Think you might need some practice? Here's a fun game: a Muslim Walks into a Bar

I'm in Love, Again!

Maybe I need to stop saying it so often. People may think things...

Anyhow, I'm absolutely in love with the new NYC Subway Car Dawah Project! Check it out: as little as a $48 donation will help sponsor a dawah poster in an NYC subway car this Ramadan!

Think about how often we will drop $50 over the course of the weekend? $15 for a movie, $10 for parking and $25 for a wedding present or dinner. :-\

This is $50 that will go soooo much further! It's something other religious and political groups have been doing for ages; it's our turn!

What better way to prep for Ramadan?

I linked to the video in the Muslamics post, but I'm linking it here again. I can't embed it, but it's definitely worth watching!

Loving San Francisco

I will admit this city took some time to grow on me. However, two years after moving here I have come to terms with the fact that I'm madly in love with this place. What's not to love?

1. The hijab friendly weather
• Summer? What's that? You can still find long sleeved shirts available for purchase here in mid-June.
  
2. The public transportation
• It costs me $6/round trip to work, in Oakland, every day. With gas, insurance, parking, idiot drivers and bridge toll costs to consider, this is definitely a bargain over driving.
  
3. The diversity
• When walking thru a "strange" area you get more "Salaams!" (from Muslims and non-Muslims) than stares, you can't help but to be happy about the world.
  
4. The politics!
• OK, I'm not sure how much the other items combined even compare to this. If I wasn't sure about my love affair prior to reading this story, after reading it I'm now ready to make a lifetime commitment to this crazy place:
  

San Francisco voters will be asked to decide whether to name a city sewage plant in honor of President Bush, after a satiric measure qualified for the November ballot Thursday.

Backers of the measure, who for several months circulated a petition to place the measure on the ballot, turned in more than 12,000 signatures on July 7, said organizer Brian McConnell. The Department of Elections on Thursday informed those supporters, the self-proclaimed Presidential Memorial Commission, that they had enough valid signatures - a minimum of 7,168 registered San Francisco voters - to qualify for the November ballot.

McConnell, who came up with the idea over beers with friends, often donned an Uncle Sam outfit to drum up support for the petition. The all-volunteer group of signature gatherers often carried around an American flag and blasted patriotic music from a boom box to attract attention. He said the campaign to pass the measure will be an equally grassroots effort.

The measure, if passed, would rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant. McConnell said the intent is to remember the Bush administration and what the group sees as the president's mistakes, including the war in Iraq.

Some people aren't laughing, including the San Francisco Republican Party, which sees the measure as an embarrassment, even to this famously liberal city. Chairman Howard Epstein has vowed to fight the measure with all means available to him.

A White House spokeswoman, when asked about the measure several weeks ago, refused to comment.

What's not to love? SF Gate

Do You Drink Tea?

If you see anyone drinking tea, and you ask him what he is drinking, he will tell you "tea." There is sugar in the tea, but he will not mention the sugar, no one ever says he is drinking tea-and-sugar. No doubt the sweetness of the sugar fills the tea, but the person drinks and says nothing about it.

The long standing tradition of Qur'anic memorization is analogous to the sugar, doing its work in secret. In a child who embarks on the journey of memorizing Qur'an we see that the hands, nose, ears, eyes, and tongue are dynamic, but no one can see what the soul is accomplishing. Their ears come across as listening, and their tongues seems to be reciting. But no matter what it may seem to be, it is not only the tongue that recites. And in spite of form, it is not only the ears that hear. That which speaks and hears is the invisible soul within. The effect of the long standing tradition of Qur'anic memorization on a child is similarly invisible.

And this is what happens to a child when he memorizes the words of Allah, the Exalted. We might think they are just memorizing words. But in actuality, every letter they say, every sound they make, makes an imprint in their hearts and minds which enables them to take the imitated step of converting his oral recognition of Qur'anic language into a physical act.

The best education we can give our children is the memorization of the Holy Qur'an. As Rasulullah(sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) said: "No group of people gathers in one of the houses of Allah to recite the Book of Allah and study it together, but tranquility descends upon them, the angels surround them, mercy comes down upon them, and Allah mentions them to those who are with Him." (Muslim).

The vessels for preservation of Islam are in our children's hearts. Allah says: "Nay, but they, the clear ayat, are preserved in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge…" [Qur'an 29:49]

It is our duty to plant these seeds in our children for we must equip them for what lay ahead of them. There is no better time to preserve our heritage than today, in these critical times.

As there are numerous schools and institutions available that teach hifz, it is time that we as parents invest our children's time memorizing the Qur'an and join the ranks of thousands who seek to earn the pleasure of Allah (azza wajal) and preserve the very foundation of our Islamic identity.

Buraydah (radhiyallahu anhu) said: "I was sitting with the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) and I heard him say: ..The Qur'an will meet its companion on the Day of Resurrection when his grave is opened for him, looking like a pale man, and it will say to him, 'Do you know who I am?' He will say, I do not know you.' It will say to him, 'Do you know who I am?' He will say, I do not know you.' It will say, 'I am your companion the Qur'an, who made you thirsty on hot days and kept you awake at night. Every merchant will benefit from his trade, and today you will benefit too.' He will be given power in his right hand and immortality in his left, and on his head will be placed a crown of dignity. His parents will be given two garments the like of which could never be made by the people of this world and they will say, 'How did we earn these?' It will be said, 'Because your child learned the Qur'an.' Then it will be said to him, 'Read and go up through the levels and rooms of Paradise. He will keep on ascending as long as he reads or recites.'" (Ahmad).

Sayyidina Abu Hurairah (Radhiallahu anhu) stated that Rasulullaah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said :Whosoever read the Qur'aan, learnt it and acted upon it, his parents will be made to wear a crown which will glitter like the light of the sun and they will be made to wear such clothing which is more rich than the garments of the entire world. They will then inquire as to why they are being so adorned. They will be informed that their son memorised the Qur'aan Kareem. (Narrated by Hakeem : Reliable on the conditions of Muslim.)

Sayyidina Anas (Radhiallahu anhu) says that Rasulullaah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said:"Oh people, there are some special servants of Allaah Ta'aala. We inquired :"Who are these Oh! Rasulullaah? He said:"Those who memorise the Qur'aan Kareem are the special servants and friends of Allaah. (Narrated by Nisai, Ibne Maja, Hakeem.)

Sayyidina Uthmaan bin Afaan (Radhiallahu anhu) narrates that the Merciful Nabi (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said: "The best person from you is that person who learns the Noble Qur'aan and teaches it to others." (Narrated by Ahmed and companions in six reliable books.).

Source: Quest for the Divine

The Girl Effect

Basement Sex Slave

The world just gets more and more disturbing each day:

Man faces 20 years for keeping sex slave in basement

REDWOOD CITY — A Daly City man accused of housing a teenage girl in the basement of his parents' home and molesting her hundreds of times will face up to 20 years in prison after copping a plea on Wednesday to more than a dozen felony counts of child abuse and domestic violence.

John France Gonzales, a 23-year-old former pharmacy technician, had been charged with 142 felonies, including more than 100 counts of child abuse, many involving sodomy and oral copulation.

Prosecutors slapped Gonzales with every possible felony count to hold him accountable for more than 500 occasions of sexual conduct with the victim, according to Morley Pitt, San Mateo County's assistant district attorney.

But the district attorney's office had always planned to reduce the multiple felony charges against Gonzales as long as he accepted responsibility for his criminal behavior, Pitt said.

Prior to the plea bargain, Gonzales faced up to 132 years in prison, according to the prosecutor. Now he will spend no more than 20 years in prison.

"It's a fair resolution that will enable the victim to hopefully move on with her life and not face the terrible specter of having to testify and relive what went on in her life when she was a teenager," Pitt said.

Gonzales met the girl in 2000, when she was 10 years old and living in San Bruno with her aunt, whom Gonzales was dating, according to former defense attorney Jeffery Neubarth.

Prosecutors say that Gonzales molested the girl for the first time when she was 12 and maintained his relationship with the girl for several years while she lived in San Bruno and with her grandmother in Healdsburg.

Gonzales allegedly took the girl from her grandmother's home in August 2005 and told her that she could not return, eventually moving her into a bedroom at his parents' Daly City home in October 2005, according to prosecutors.

Full Story: Inside Bay Area

The Rain

"Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
but how to dance in the rain."

Respect

Reader commentary re: censoring pictures of a suicide bombing in Anbar:

"Respect for the dead in any of these pictures is not an issue. To say it [is] disrespectful is a pretense of morality. They are dead and in pieces. There was no respect for them when they were alive. Respect for the living is not an issue either. These pictures show no respect for those who were alive. Those of us who are left alive do not deserve the kind of respect of being denied the reality of war. These pictures ought to be shown to show the world, to show us, the repugnance of war . . ."

Source: Zoriah - Photo Journalist

An Ideal Husband

Father Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest born in Australia and based in Bordentown, N.J., says we should be considering:

• Does he have friends?
• How does he spend (or not spend) his money?
• Is he a doormat?
• What is his relationship with his mother like?
• Does he have a sense of humor?
• Have you ignored any problems in him, because you think you can change them?
• What is his family like?
• “Finally: Does he possess those character traits that add up to a good human being — the willingness to forgive, praise, be courteous? Or is he inclined to be a fibber, to fits of rage, to be a control freak, to be envious of you, to be secretive?"

Full Story: An Ideal Husband

"The Same Be For You"

We've got a few big days ahead of us. Please do the Billoo folks, and yourselves, a favor and remember us in your duas.

Making dua for others

The Prophet (saws) said: 'There is no believing servant who supplicates for his brother in his absence where the angels do not say, 'the same be for you'' [Muslim]

Second Job

I've been toying with the idea of a second job for a while now. The non-profit legal sector pays the bills, but just barely. It likely won't work out given the weekend travels and such, but I thought I'd still check to see if I found anything worth applying to. I think I may have:

Reply to: HR@sfjcf.org
Date: 2008-07-02, 11:19AM PDT

TITLE:
[Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission Coordinator

REPORTS TO:
[Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission Senior Planner

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
Assist with management and coordination of the daily activities of the Jewish Community Federation’s [Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission operations, including the Federation’s [Apartheid] Israel Office . Provide administrative support for the Senior Planner, staff and lay leadership of the Peoplehood Commission.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

General Administrative Assistance:

• Word processing: write drafts of meeting minutes, memos, letters, grant summaries, mail-merge, labels
• Mailings: prepare and mail correspondence to commission members
• Filing: keep files organized/accessible for supervisor; create new files and filing systems when required; keep existing files current; file incoming/newly generated material as appropriate.
• Phone reception: provide information/referral over phone; perform switchboard relief when necessary.

Assist with Communications and Coordination with JCF’s [Apartheid] Israel Office:

• Faxing or preparing emails to the [Apartheid] Israel Office as needed for ongoing communication.
• Filing and tracking correspondence from [Apartheid] Israel Office related to accounting and expenses.

Assist with Management of JCF San Francisco [Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission:

• Maintaining close communication with Accounting Department. Set up for meetings including ordering catering, creating and maintaining name cards, entering meeting set up forms, supervising meeting set up.
• Take notes at meetings and draft minutes.
• Help to draft operating budget

Visit Coordination

• Help to develop and coordinate itineraries for overseas visitors
• Help to develop and coordinate itineraries for consultation visits overseas
• Staff overseas visits
• Responsible for overseas visits follow-up including paying invoices, billing participants

PostingID: 740472422

Any volunteers to help me tailor/polish my resume and draft a cover letter?

John Mayer's Got It Right

"It's better to say too much,
than never to say what you need to say again."

Source: Say What You Need to Say

Are Your Eyebrows Being Threaded by Modern Day Slaves?

Lawsuit alleges Little India beauty salon chain exploits workers:

Ziba Chief Executive Sumita Batra, 39, and her staff have styled models for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines and TV shows "America's Next Top Model" and "Extreme Makeover."

But now Batra and her family partners are accused of building their business by exploiting workers, many of them female immigrants. Former Ziba workers filed a class action lawsuit last week alleging the owners of the 11-store salon chain failed to give them the minimum wage, overtime compensation and meal and rest breaks.

The plaintiffs include Payal Modi of India and Bishnu Shahani from Nepal, who say they were paid as little as $4 an hour at the salon, denied rest breaks and required to deliver hours of free henna tattooing services at parties.

The women, who say they were fired in January for challenging the salon's labor contracts, have since opened their own salon in Culver City.

"A lot of people don't read or speak English. They don't know California law," said Modi, who immigrated to Los Angeles in 2001. "So we have to fight for them."

Source: LA Times

Database of Female Instructors in the Islamic Sciences

This (see below) made my day. It's time we got something like this started. It's 2008 and there are still Muslim organizations, knowledge institutions and madrassas without a single female instructor on staff and it's downright ridiculous. Please help out, and spread the word:

Assalamu Alaikum!

My name is Saad Omar and I am the Director of the Ghazali Project.. Having two younger sisters, I know how difficult it can be for sisters to find other sisters to study (for the sake of more private and intimate sessions that are not possible with male instructors). To facilitate this, the Ghazali Project is working on creating a database of female instructors in the various Islamic sciences such as tajweed, Fiqh, seerah, and other basic islamic disciplines, that will be organized by location (so students can find teachers in their area). (we are including Canada and the UK in this database)

I am looking for everyone's help to make this database. If you are a teacher or know someone that is qualified to teach, please send me the following information. As this information will be made public on our database, only send me information that you are comfortable making public for the student's benefit.

Full Name:

Email Address:

Cell Phone (Optional):

City/State/County (if you live outside the US, please email me directly to receive instructions on what to write):

Area of speciality (e.g. Tajweed):

Experience/Qualification:

Please spread this email on to others who may be interested in contributing! Please do not send a teacher's information without their permission

-Saad Omar [Ghazaliproject@gmail.com]

Interesting & Random Workers' Rights Statistics

12% African-American workers in unions typically earn 12% more than those without unions.

7 years It took the National Labor Relations Board over 7 years to find Wal-Mart guilty of unionbusting and firing a worker in Nevada.

59% of nurses in a recent survey say that a reason to organize unions is to have a formal channel to work with management to address issues that impact patient care, such as short-staffing and cost-cutting on equipment and supplies.

3,000 to 2,000 The NLRB's staffing level has fallen from nearly 3,000 full time employees in 1980 to fewer than 2,000 in 1998, only slightly more than staffing levels in 1950s. The NLRB caseload has tripled since the 1950s, but the agency's current staffing level remains only slightly higher than staffing levels in 1950.

$330 million v. $231 million $330 million Budget for the Department of Interior to preserve and improve sport fishing $231 million: Annual budget for the National Labor Relations Board.

$3,800 is the average amount employers owed to workers they illegal fired in retaliation for union activity in 2003.

36% of workers who vote against union representation and explain their vote as a response to employer pressure according to a survey of 400 NLRB election campaigns in 1998 and 1999.

$16 an hour is the average amount a Costco employee earns and workers only pay 8% of their health insurance costs.

25% Profits at Costco are 25% higher than at Sam’s Club.

50% Costco employees sell 50% more per square foot of salesspace than Wal-Mart’s rival warehouse chain Sam’s Club

More at: American Rights at Work

I'm Voting Republican! Not!

(Disclaimer: I do not think the Democratic party is an appropriate alternative.)

"In Europe, Debate Over Islam and Virginity"

It seems every time I check in, we (certain members of the Ummah) are doing something even stupider than last time. The NY Times, today, published a piece on the move by many women to reconstruct their hymens. It also included some additional information on the French virginity/annulment case discussed here.

PARIS — The operation in the private clinic off the Champs-Élysées involved one semicircular cut, 10 dissolving stitches and a discounted fee of $2,900.

But for the patient, a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent from Montpellier, the 30-minute procedure represented the key to a new life: the illusion of virginity.

Like an increasing number of Muslim women in Europe, she had a hymenoplasty, a restoration of her hymen, the vaginal membrane that normally breaks in the first act of intercourse.

“In my culture, not to be a virgin is to be dirt,” said the student, perched on a hospital bed as she awaited surgery on Thursday. “Right now, virginity is more important to me than life.”

As Europe’s Muslim population grows, many young Muslim women are caught between the freedoms that European society affords and the deep-rooted traditions of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

Gynecologists say that in the past few years, more Muslim women are seeking certificates of virginity to provide proof to others. That in turn has created a demand among cosmetic surgeons for hymen replacements, which, if done properly, they say, will not be detected and will produce tell-tale vaginal bleeding on the wedding night. The service is widely advertised on the Internet; medical tourism packages are available to countries like Tunisia where it is less expensive.
...
One character jokes that she wants to bring her odometer count back down to “zero.”

“We realized that what we thought was a sporadic practice was actually pretty common,” said Davide Sordella, the film’s director. “These women can live in Italy, adopt our mentality and wear jeans. But in the moments that matter, they don’t always have the strength to go against their culture.”

The issue has been particularly charged in France, where a renewed and fierce debate has occurred about a prejudice that was supposed to have been buried with the country’s sexual revolution 40 years ago: the importance of a woman’s virginity.

The furor followed the revelation two weeks ago that a court in Lille, in northern France, had annulled the 2006 marriage of two French Muslims because the groom found his bride was not the virgin she had claimed to be.

The domestic drama has gripped France. The groom, an unidentified engineer in his 30s, left the nuptial bed and announced to the still partying wedding guests that his bride had lied. She was delivered that night to her parents’ doorstep.

The next day, he approached a lawyer about annulling the marriage. The bride, then a nursing student in her 20s, confessed and agreed to an annulment.
...
“We had a revolution in France to win equality; we had a sexual revolution in 1968 when women fought for contraception and abortion,” said Dr. Jacques Lansac, the group’s leader. “Attaching so much importance to the hymen is regression, submission to the intolerance of the past.”

But the stories of the women who have had the surgery convey the complexity and raw emotion behind their decisions.
...
The lives of the French couple whose marriage was annulled are on hold. The Justice Ministry has sought an appeal, arguing that the decision has “provoked a heated social debate” that “touched all citizens of our country and especially women.”

At the Islamic Center of Roubaix, the Lille suburb where the wedding took place, there is sympathy for the woman.

“The man is the biggest of all the donkeys,” said Abdelkibir Errami, the center’s vice president. “Even if the woman was no longer a virgin, he had no right to expose her honor. This is not what Islam teaches. It teaches forgiveness.”

Full Story: NY Times

Wear Your Kaffiyeh with Pride Day

INTERNATIONAL “WEAR YOUR KAFFIYEH WITH PRIDE” DAY - Friday, June 6th - A response to the removal of the Dunkin’ Donuts Ad & the derogatory stereotyping of Arabs and their culture.

Last week, the US chain Dunkin’ Donuts pulled an advert following complaints that the scarf worn by a celebrity chef offered symbolic support for Islamic extremism, as it resembled a kaffiyeh. Although this item of clothing is Arab in origin, it is worn by people from all walks of life, including several American models and celebrities, who have no affiliation with, or sympathy for, terrorists of any kind.

Response to this incident has been largely negative, with many consumers going so far as to even consider boycotting the popular food chain. However, a more positive approach to combating the false stereotype, initially propagated by a small group of right-wing bloggers, headed by Michelle Malkin, is the launch of International “Wear Your Kaffiyeh with Pride” Day, where participants are asked to wear a kaffiyeh on Friday 6th June. This peaceful form of visual protest aims to remind the World that this cultural icon - much like hats, coats, gloves and shoes - is simply a popular clothing accessory that should not be discriminated against, solely on the basis that it is included in the wardrobes of a particular brand of criminal.

The event was launched on the popular social networking site, Facebook, in the early hours of Sunday, June 1st - yet already, over seventeen thousand people have been invited to the protest, with the numbers growing every hour. This does not include those who have pledged their support via blogs and websites.

The protest has resonated with people from across both the religious and racial spectra, with one recent recruit stating: “from a Catholic Canadian Living in America… Bravo! I’m now frantically looking for a Kaffiyeh!“. In fact, the organiser of the event, a blogger who goes by the handle “iMuslim”, is herself a non-Arab PhD student, based in the United Kingdom. The famous British activist and journalist, Yvonne Ridley, has also lent her support to the campaign, urging her contacts to “wear the kaffiyeh with pride”.

A similar newsworthy, clothing-based protest took place last year in several Canadian schools, as part of an anti-bullying movement. A large number of students attended school donning various pink items of clothing, to display their solidarity with a fellow male pupil who had previously been harassed by school bullies for wearing a pink polo shirt.

At the end of the day, the significance of Kaffiyeh Day extends past the misrepresentation of an article of clothing, and the misguided actions of one of America’s many fast-food chains. It is about self-empowerment, justice, and a call to the end of derogatory stereotyping of all peoples, irrespective of race or religion. And though the inspiration for these types of protest varies, at their heart lies the same message: please, whatever you do, don’t judge a book by its cover - or even its kaffiyeh.

More information about International “Wear Your Kaffiyeh with Pride” Day can be found via the following links:

Facebook event page

Blog post of event organizer

Contact details for the organizer can be found on her blog

Every Drop Matters

The governor's pronouncement follows the driest spring on record and two years of below-normal precipitation. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, the backbone of the state's water supply, stands at two-thirds of normal; dusty banks line many important reservoirs; and environmental rulings have slashed water pumped from the crucial Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - all while California's booming population threatens to overwhelm some of the state's key infrastructure.

Some water districts, including the East Bay Municipal Utility District, already have imposed rationing and threatened to fine or reduce water supply to customers who violate the restrictions. Most of the remaining Bay Area water districts have asked for voluntary cutbacks on the order of 10 to 20 percent.

But as the dusty days of summer approach, more districts are likely to make restrictions mandatory. The picture looks increasingly grim if the next winter brings scant rain and snow.

"If we get a third consecutive dry year, we're going to have serious, serious problems, and I don't know the answer," said Ted Thomas, spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources.

Source: SF Chronicle

As people of conscience we should already be making efforts to conserve, but consider this a reminder in case you needed one.

Ten ways to start saving:

1. Water your lawn only when it needs it. Step on your grass. If it springs back, when you lift your foot, it doesn't need water. So set your sprinklers for more days in between watering. Saves 750-1,500 gallons per month. Better yet, especially in times of drought, water with a hose. And best of all, convert your lawn to native plants.

2. Fix leaky faucets and plumbing joints. Saves 20 gallons per day for every leak stopped.

3. Don't run the hose while washing your car. Use a bucket of water and a quick hose rinse at the end. Saves 150 gallons each time. For a two-car family that's up to 1,200 gallons a month.

4. Install water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors. Saves 500 to 800 gallons per month.

5. Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher. Saves 300 to 800 gallons per month.

6. Shorten your showers. Even a one or two minute reduction can save up to 700 gallons per month.

7. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways and sidewalks. Saves 150 gallons or more each time. At once a week, that's more than 600 gallons a month.

8. Don't use your toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket. Saves 400 to 600 gallons per month.

9. Capture tap water. While you wait for hot water to come down the pipes, catch the flow in a watering can to use later on house plants or your garden. Saves 200 to 300 gallons per month.

10. Don't water the sidewalks, driveway or gutter. Adjust your sprinklers so that water lands on your lawn or garden where it belongs--and only there. Saves 500 gallons per month.

Additional Tips: Mono Lake

Obama's Got It

And now the real fun begins...

Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, becoming the first black candidate to lead a major party into a campaign for the White House. Vanquished rival Hillary Rodham Clinton swiftly signaled an interest in joining the ticket as his running mate.

Obama arranged a victory celebration in St. Paul, Minn., at the site of this summer's Republican National Convention — an in-your-face gesture to Sen. John McCain, who will be his opponent in the race to become the nation's 44th president.

The 46-year-old Obama outlasted Clinton in a historic campaign that sparked record turnouts in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.

Source: Associated Press

Barack O'Bollywood

(Please do not misunderstand this blog post. This is by NO means a Barack Obama endorsement.)

Reminder: Debates & Arguments

Imam Shafi’i (rahimuAllah) “Never do I debate a man with a desire to hear him go wrong in his articulation, or to expose the flaws in his argument, and thus vanquish him.

Whenever I face an opponent in debate I silently supplicate, ‘O Lord, help him so that truth may manifest itself in his heart and on his tongue. If it be that the truth is on my side, may he follow me; and if the truth be on his side, may I follow him.”

"Muslims in Love"

Zerina Usman's take on my bio:

Zahra never dealt with dating and breakups in high school. She believes Islamic etiquette between the sexes kept her focused and emotionally un-entangled. Now a law student, the pragmatic Zahra remains dedicated to her career goals, only considers men who can handle her ambition, and watches her Muslim friends, one by one, succumb to cupid's arrow.

Source: Muslim in Love Cast Bios

(Disclaimer: that is a terrible picture! Though, I should be able to tell my insecurities to shove it. I'm working on that.)

Check out the in's and out's of this amazing documentary project by a friend and creative activist at Muslims in Love. I've been told you can hear my voice somewhere in the trailer! And if you're interested in seeing the whole documentary, email the director!

Ice Cream Cartons

The world is coming to an end, or so it seems.

I think I just suffered thru one of the longest days, of the year. The straw that broke the camel's back arrived at Safeway about an hour ago. I might blog about the rest of the day later, but here's what you're getting for now:

I needed milk and bananas. Nothing else. However, I saw the ice cream sale signs. So I thought I'd take a look. Dreyers' was the featured brand; $6.49 a carton. However, if you bought one you'd get a 2nd one for free. Sounds great, right?Except the cartons looked funny. Something was off. Either all of my gym going had distorted my ice cream visions or something was wrong. They looked shorter and pudgier.

What? No. It can't be. I've been eating ice cream religiously since my early days in this world. How could I not remember what a carton was supposed to look like?

And then it hit me. Look at the Breyers' and Safeway cartons to compare. Sure enough, something was wrong. Approximately 80% of the containers were "1.5 L" in size and the other 20% were "1.75 L" - needless to say, the 1.75 L containers reminded me of my childhood while the 1.5 ones made me think "omA! The world is coming to an end."

Maybe it is, because I was able to find this when I got home:

Grocery shoppers have come to expect certain sizes in cans and bottles, but a check of three Edmond grocery stores found some changes in packaging. For instance, Breyers Ice Cream recently shrank the size of its cartons from 1.75 quarts to 1.5 quarts. The manufacturers of Edy's Ice Cream have followed suit. The change comes down to a choice of making the products cost more or creating a container slightly smaller and maintaining the same price.

Source: The Oklahoman

Request From Mona Khalil

As Salaam Alaikum Zahra's family and friends,

My name is Mona Khalil and I am currently a second year Peace Corps volunteer serving in Morocco.

At the moment, I am working on raising money for a Computer and Resource center for my local youth center that serves my community and neighboring villages. My proposal includes 6 computers and 15 dictionaries at a total cost of $2,880.00. Any amount* you can donate to this project is appreciated. If you are not in a position to donate, I completely understand. But if you forward this email along to people you know, you are still contributing to our cause. Every bit helps in any way possible.

*Your gift supporting this project is tax-deductible.

You can access my project on Peace Corps official website: Peace Corps Donors

-Mona

14 Tons of Spilled Oreo Cookies Snarl Ill. Traffic

So tragic, think of the work conditions (and gas prices) the truck driver is suffering because of AND think of the Oreos:

Police say a trailer loaded with 14 tons of double-stuffed Oreos has overturned, spilling the cookies still in their plastic sleeves into the median and roadway.

Illinois State Police Sgt. Brian Mahoney says the truck's driver was traveling from Chicago to Morris on Interstate 80 around 4 a.m. Monday when he fell asleep at the wheel and slammed into the median.

"The boxes came out of the trailer and boxes were ripped open," he said.

The crash about 50 miles southwest of Chicago remains under investigation.

Mahoney says no charges have been filed but both lanes of traffic remain closed while authorities remove the cookies.

Source: Associated Press

Happy Birthday!

"Happy" 60 Years of Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Mass Murder, Rape, War Crimes, Oppression, and Illegal Occupation!

May 15, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, when Palestinians were forced from their homes and ethnically cleansed en masse in a premeditated and organized campaign carried out by armed Zionist militia.

Source: International Middle East Media Center

The events of 1947-49, and specifically 1948 itself, are known as Al-Nakba, the Catastrophe. It was the time of the forced expulsion of at least 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias, but has the catastrophe now finished? Another year has now passed, this one marks the 60th since May 1948, and the pain is no less now than it was all those years ago. Once again 15 May has come around without answers and justice. Still millions wait for their rights. Still millions are forced to live crowded together in the refugee camps of Palestine and surrounding countries. But while some are marking this as the 60th year since the Nakba, should we not be marking this as the 60th year of the ongoing Nakba?

Source: Redress Information & Analysis

Sixty years on, the state of Israel has given the world the Palestinian Nakba, the killing of Palestinian children for sport, the targeted assassinations of innocent Palestinians, the Apartheid Wall, and house demolition. Israel has given the world the most racist state in modern history, characterised by laws for Jews and discriminatory laws for none-Jews. Israel has given the world Zionist Jews who appropriating the Nazi Holocaust for shameful ends and too often tried to tar any legitimate criticism of Israel with the cliché of “anti-Semitism”. Israel has also given the world war criminals such as David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barack, Shimon Peres, and Isaac Shamir, to mention just a few achievements.

Source: Counter Currents

Hijab News From Denmark

Thank God my dreams did NOT include being a judge in Denmark:

Denmark's government said Wednesday it will prepare legislation that would bar judges from wearing Islamic head scarves and religious symbols in court.

While the law would also ban crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and turbans, it highlights ongoing debate over Islamic traditions in Denmark, an issue that gained world attention in 2006 when Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad triggered violent protests in Muslim countries.

Although there are no known cases of a judge in Denmark wearing a traditional Muslim head scarf known as a hijab, Justice Minister Lene Espersen said the law was needed because judges "must appear neutral and impartial" in court.

The new legislation has created a rift in Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's government. It was prompted by discussions over a set of dress code guidelines issued last year by the court administration, which noted that Danish law does not bar judges from wearing head scarves.

The guidelines went largely unnoticed until the government's ally, the nationalist Danish People's Party, decided to politicize the issue last month.

The party, known for its anti-Muslim rhetoric, created a poster showing a woman wearing an all-encompassing burqa and holding a judge's gavel. The party urged the government to introduce legislation ensuring that courts remain "neutral instances in the Danish judiciary."

Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal-Conservative coalition was sympathetic to the idea, but Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech broke with the party line.

Roenn Hornbech wrote an opinion piece in a Danish newspaper saying lawmakers have no business regulating the dress of judges.

The premier criticized her Wednesday, saying her article was "unfortunate" and should have been cleared with him first.

Danish Muslim groups have been quiet on the issue, although the Muslim Council of Denmark said this month no one should be disqualified from a job "because of one's clothes, religious beliefs or political views."

The justice minister said the government bill, to be presented later this year, would be directed at judges, and would not affect prosecutors, defense lawyers or other court officials.

Source: Associated Press

Globalization Strikes Again

The considerable savings is perhaps one reason Forrester Research, based in Cambridge, Mass., has projected the offshoring of 29,000 legal jobs by the end of the year and as many as 79,000 by 2015. It's part of India's inevitable move up the corporate food chain, from lower-value business process outsourcing--like call centers--to knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). The latter category encompasses higher-skilled jobs, such as engineering and medicine, and relies on the KPOs to behave more like branch offices of U.S. companies.

ValueNotes, a business-research firm based in Pune, India, says a subset of KPO called legal process outsourcing (LPO) has grown revenues 49% from 2006, to $218 million last year. The figure will nearly triple, to $640 million, by 2010, it says. ValueNotes counts more than 100 legal-services providers in India, ranging from a handful of overseas corporate legal offices, such as Oracle's and General Electric's, to companies that contract to provide low-cost legal services to U.S. and British businesses. Leaders include Integreon and LawScribe, both in Los Angeles, and New York--based Pangea3.

Full Story: Call My Lawyer ... in India

It's Time For A New Tone

My Taxes Paid For It (Kind Of): I Want A Slice

Jenna Welch Bush and Henry Chase Hager were married at the Bush family’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. Check out that cake!

Lena Khan in New York TIMES

(From a Friend, About a Friend: subhana'Allah)

Assalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah,

It is at moments like these that we say "Subhan'allah and Alhamdulillah!" To see the work of one of our very own sisters in the community flourish and grow to this level is simply inspiring. Please take a moment and read this article. It references Lena Khan and her most recent movie "A Land Called Paradise."

NY Times: Young Video Makers Try to Alter Islam's Face

In addition, please make du`a' for her and her career. Do it NOW! The du`a' of one person on this list could make a very big difference. Please forward this email to as many people as you'd like!

Jazakum Allahu khayr!

--
wassalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah.

akhukum fillah,
mohammad mertaban

Idiocy Defined

Two kilograms of cocaine were seized, along with 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said.

Of the 96 people arrested, 75 were students. Eighteen of the students were arrested Tuesday when nine search warrants were executed at various locations including fraternities, said Jesse Rodriguez, San Diego County assistant district attorney.
The undercover probe, dubbed Operation Sudden Fall, was sparked by the cocaine overdose death of a student in May 2007, authorities said. As the investigation continued, another student, from Mesa College, died Feb. 26 of a cocaine overdose at an SDSU fraternity house, the DEA said.

Those arrested included a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree and another who was to receive a master's degree in homeland security.

"A sad commentary is that when one of these individuals was arrested, they inquired as (to) whether or not his arrest and incarceration would have an effect on him becoming a federal law enforcement officer," said Ralph Partridge, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

Full Story: Associated Press

Beware of "Britain's Wal-Mart"

Tesco is known as "The Wal-Mart of Britain," and they have a record of breaking food safety laws abroad. Now they're opening markets in the United States under the name Fresh & Easy.

We think it's important that you know about Tesco's record before you decide to shop at a Fresh & Easy market. That's why we've launched a new website: Fresh Easy Facts.

At "Fresh & Easy Facts" you can get the facts on:

* Tesco's record of breaking food safety laws

* The latest food safety tips from our experts

* Important Information on Fresh & Easy that you can share with your family and friends

Activists are very concerned that Tesco's Fresh & Easy may lower the high standards of the U.S. grocery industry, something that our grocery workers have worked very hard to establish.

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Teacher Fired for Refusing to Sign Loyalty Oath

When Wendy Gonaver was offered a job teaching American studies at Cal State Fullerton this academic year, she was pleased to be headed back to the classroom to talk about one of her favorite themes: protecting constitutional freedoms.

But the day before class was scheduled to begin, her appointment as a lecturer abruptly ended over just the kind of issue that might have figured in her course. She lost the job because she did not sign a loyalty oath swearing to "defend" the U.S. and California constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

The loyalty oath was added to the state Constitution by voters in 1952 to root out communists in public jobs. Now, 16 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main effect is to weed out religious believers, particularly Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses.

As a Quaker from Pennsylvania and a lifelong pacifist, Gonaver objected to the California oath as an infringement of her rights of free speech and religious freedom. She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the oath if she wanted the job.

"I wanted it on record that I am a pacifist," said Gonaver, 38. "I was really upset. I didn't expect to be fired. I was so shocked that I had to do this."
...
The loyalty oath was added to the state Constitution by voters in 1952 to root out communists in public jobs. Now, 16 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main effect is to weed out religious believers, particularly Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses.

As a Quaker from Pennsylvania and a lifelong pacifist, Gonaver objected to the California oath as an infringement of her rights of free speech and religious freedom. She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the oath if she wanted the job.

"I wanted it on record that I am a pacifist," said Gonaver, 38. "I was really upset. I didn't expect to be fired. I was so shocked that I had to do this."
...

"The way it's laid out, a noncitizen member of Al Qaeda could work for the university, but not a citizen Quaker," she said.
...

"It makes no sense that they do this to people," she said. "It's people who take it seriously who don't get hired."

Full Story: LA Times

Yay CSU! Go on: trample on the free exercise rights of your employees. WooHoo!

Cabinet Member of the Year!

1. Two years later, and they've kept my name on it.
2. Mikey got it!

(Photo credit: Mikey's cell phone)

Yea, this is sounds a little self-centered but I needed the pick me up and this picture text message delivered!

Con.Law Distraction: Because My Brain (& Maybe Yours) Could Use A Distraction

Gangsta Seven Year Old Steals Car:



This is sad beyond words.