Thoughts of a Hijaabi

Zain Bhikha has great Nasheed’s and when you take a step back and look at the lyrics, it makes you appreciate them even more. This specific one I guess fits on our world today, and it’s called “Our World.” I found the video of the song but before the video here are the lyrics:

” Every morning on every news flash,
I hear the sorrow of the world
It seems like everybody’s lost and
scared trying to make sense of it all
And as I travel to and fro, so many faces pass me by
I see lonely hearts living lonely lives just biding their time
And while we call ourselves civilised, many people living empty lives
As they drone their way through day and night
Chorus:
I pray for our world, I pray for every child
I pray for our world to be filled with smiles
Like the colours of a rainbow and not just black and white
I pray for our world to be filled with light
I pray for all of us, to choose the path that’s right
To believe in Allah, every day of our lives
In the evening on the TV news, I see images of war
I see brother killing brother with no consequence at all
And while those who claim to be leaders, sell us tales of deceit
But Allah alone know in their hearts what they reveal and conceal
And while we call ourselves civilised, we go on killing human lives
Too caught up in our own web of lies
Chorus
Every mother, every father, every daughter,
every son
Don’t you see, that the answer lies only
with the One
Chorus “

“Wear a Hijab to Work Day”

November 13th 2006

Well if you haven’t heard of the shooting let me fill you in. Fremont, California: a young Afghan women named Alia Ansari,was shot and killled about a week ago. The part that makes the story even worst is that Alia was murdered while walking to pick up her children from school and she was walking with one of her youngest child and she was murdered right in front of her 3 year old daughter. Alia wore the scarf on her head (Hijaab) that Muslim women wear and it is believed that, that may be the reason she was killed. But the family is not saying that was the reason why she was murdered nor are they saying that it is a hate crime because they do not want to make any false accusations without having any proof. An investigation is going on to see whether or not it is a hate crime. Family and friends have no idea why else anyone would want to kill Alia Ansari.

“ Local Muslim leaders and the victim’s relatives attributed blame to an American culture of violence, propagated through movies and video games that reward players for killing. In addition, they said things such as talk radio, politicians and religious zealotry by some Christians had focused on Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Justice will not be served by merely catching the killer,” said Hassan Ansari. “We have to figure out how to stop these kinds of things from happening. … American society is what feeds people’s ignorance.”

“Mostly it’s the fault of the media, because they show Muslims in such a way that people hate them,” said Feraidoon Mojadedi, owner of the Rumi Bookstore in Little Kabul. “People are dying all over the world, but what did she have to do with it? She’s a housewife, a mother of children.”

Three women at the Islamic Society of the East Bay said they would continue to wear head scarves even if the killing was a hate crime. “Even if they wiped out everyone on Earth, I would not remove the hijab,” said Suzanne Azim, 43, a Hayward resident. “

This probably isn’t the first time but I am hoping that something like this will never ever happen again. There are many things that I may dislike, but the word hate is such a strong word that can bring about so many disappointments, so the words hate and crime together is just such a horrible combination. Apparently our world has way too much hate in it right now. But something that I read that definitely made me get a little bit of relief and again see a bit of light shining on was this:

” Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine if graffiti near the crime scene is related to the murder. At least five places have been tagged, and four include the acronyms for Afghan gangs.Greg Roth, the pastor at Centerville Presbyterian Church on Central Avenue, discovered Ansari’s name and the letters “R.I.P.” spray painted on the church when he arrived for Sunday services.

“Usually we would paint graffiti out immediately to try to discourage people from doing that, but we were going to leave it for at least a week and show our compassion for the community and our outrage at this event,” Roth told KCBS reporter Dave Padilla. “

That little thing that the pastor did really did I don’t know it was just, :). I mean to see that he was willing to cope with that it gives a little hope. Maybe we all can try to get along and we can see how even if one group decides to act out of ignorance or do something that is out of anger, on the contrary there can be some people that will try to be patient. And that truly does say something and conveys a pretty strong message.

The main purpose of “Wear a Hijab to Work Day” is to remember Alia Ansari. And,

” “I’m not going to say that this is a hate crime until the police come back and tell us what it is, but one of the things that we can do as a community is to make sure that different women and diverse cultures are comfortable in any clothing that they chose to wear and that is what this day is for,” said Fremont City Councilwoman Anu Natarajan. “

We should keep the family of Alia Ansari in our thoughts, and try to not forget her.

Lately I’ve been receiving the worst comments from the same couple of people and I’ve been deleting them because it seems that trying to reason with these kinds of people is just not possible. So I’ve had all of this stuff building up inside of me to the point where I am simply about to explode or break down; so I’ve decided that I will spill some of it on my blog.

I am tired of being judged by everyone. Do you realize how hard I’ve worked my life? No do you really know?(unless if you actually personally know me) But other than that you don’t, you simply read my blog. If you were to see my somewhere in public you wouldn’t take many things in consideration after taking a glance at me. The only key factor that you would take into consideration is that I am Muslim, I wear a ‘thingy’ on my head and then all of the stereotypes will begin to pour out. You don’t know a thing about me but yet you all ready judge. The cold stare. You look down upon me, and scorn me. Thank you all of you rude people for you are the ones that are beginning to make my heart colder each day and beginning to make me block out my senses.

I am tired of having these kinds of people who discourage me. Who make me feel like I have accomplished nothing, make me feel like a failure. Who take away from me everything that I have worked hard for. Any of the good characteristic that I have developed gets violently ripped away form me and makes me feel as if I am a horrible person that deserves this. But the fact is that no one deserves this. No one should ever have to feel this way, No one should ever have to feel this way.

You know what, I dare one of you to try to put up with the things that Muslims have to go through. Instead of pointing fingers at psychos and being like wow then they all must be like that, how about you try to look at practicing Muslims. Talk to them, ask them all of the questions you have. Or go to the local Masjid (Mosque). Walk in there and try to get a feeling of the surrounding. Talk to some of the people I promise that Muslims are not cannibal’s and we don’t bite. Ask them some basic questions, and then ask the ones who are the head of Masjid your detailed questions.

I sit here and read comment after comment of all these horrendous things about my religion, about my people and all I can do is press the delete button so I wouldn’t have to see it anymore, so I can try to forget about it. I delete it because I don;t want the others that may be as sensitive as me or even more sensitive to get shaken up by the comments. I delete it because of the select fews that are educated and don’t agree with those comments made, and I don’t want them to get upset either. But here’s a little FYI, people may forget what you say to them, but they will never forget how you make them feel.

I am going to simply say one more thing and then stop because if I was to continue babbling about my issues then I would hate myself for turning my blog into a lets listen to my problems corner. The poem I have in my About me section, the poem that apparently many people felt the necessity to say nasty things about, well read it again. You all sit there and say O Islam oppresses women, la ti da lets make fun of it some more blah blah blah blah, it’s a religion that hates women. Ugh! women in Islam are not oppressed, get your facts straight and stop generalizing because of what you heard or what you think is right. What you think is right is different from what the actual facts may be so be careful with that.

You know what, if anything it is you guys that oppresses the Muslims. We don’t do anything, we can’t do anything. If a white guy kills someone, its not on the front of the paper as ‘White man kills someone’ or ‘Christian man kills someone.’ If a white man shoves someone on the street, or is impolite in public no one’s gunna think big about it. If your Muslim and you do something the slightest bit negative then its the hugest thing in the world.
I challenge each of you who reads this post to go to a Masjid (Mosque) and try this out. (If you would like I can give you a list of any Masjid’s that you may be looking for near you.) And if you don’t want to take the wanna be challenge that’s cool too. But please, please, please, just stop passing along the things that you hear. Go and ask about it.
Remember, even though we are separated by cultures, religions, and even by each of our own individuality, we all do share humanity, so why can’t we try to cope with each other? Why can’t we just try instead of stating oh it’ too much of a hard concept?

Eid Mubarak to you all! I hope you all had a great Ramadan, and took the many opportunities that were open to you for all of those great Thawaabs. Al-Hamdulillah this year we had a lot of people celebrate Eid on the same day Well I hope you all enjoy your Eid!

Yes, “if the world had listened.” This is the first time I saw this. I think we need a couple more George Galloway’s.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Hijaab/Niqaab controversy. Well I’ve been pretty busy lately and today when I looked at the newspaper I saw the article in the Times. And the famous chain e-mail that I received from numerous people:

“ Tony Blair, the British prime minister, has entered the debate over the integration of Muslims into British society, calling the full veil worn by some Muslim women “a mark of separation”.

Blair also said that Britain needed a wider debate on Muslim integration, and particularly over the need to strike a balance between integration and multiculturalism.

“It is a mark of separation and that’s why it makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable,” he said at his monthly press conference on Tuesday, pointing out that UK Muslims should be free to dress as they wished.

“No-one wants to say that people don’t have the right to do it. That’s to take it too far.”

Blair was speaking in reference to a recent case when a British school fired a Muslim teacher for refusing to take off her veil for classes.

The school said that she was unable to teach while showing only her eyes.

Blair has previously been reticent over the issue, but on Tuesday said he supported the handling of the case.

“I can see the reasons why they came to the decision that they did,” he said.

Multiculturalism examined

Blair also said that the controversy over the veil highlighted the difficulties faced by British Muslims trying to balance their loyalty to their state and to their religion.

“People want to know the Muslim community in particular, but actually all the minority communities, have got the balance right between integration and multiculturalism,” he said.

“We need to conduct this debate in a sensitive way, but it needs to be conducted.”

He later added that the veil debate was part of a wider struggle within the Muslim world over the future of Islam.

“There’s a second issues which is about Islam itself, and how Islam comes to terms with, and is comfortable with, the modern world,” he said.

His comments came after Jack Straw, a cabinet minister and former foreign secretary, wrote two weeks ago that he asks Muslim women who come to his constituency surgery to remove their veils.

Straw later added that he would prefer if women did not wear veils at all.

The recent controversy has focused mainly on the right of Muslim women to cover their faces - rather than on their right to just cover their hair. “

It’s getting scary that the open practice of the religion of Islam is getting harder and harder. First it started off slowly. Muslim’s fearing to be different so they changed there names hoping that they would be less bothered. Then guys decided that hey maybe they will be more accepting if we shave our beards, so the guys shaved their beards hoping that they will experience less scorn. And yes I actually do know many girls that took off there Hijaab after 9/11 and I know many girls that also took off their Niqaab after 9/11. Well I have a question for you how much more do the innocent Muslims who are being black mailed through propaganda have to give up or negotiate? Ever since 9/11 when people hear the word Muslim they they cringe their faces in disgust, sometimes they open their mouth and you hear horrible things come out about Muslims. Ok I understand that the fear of “terror” has creeped into our country but hey you have to remember that it works both ways.

My mom all ways tells me, هر دو طرف سيل كو, basically meaning make sure you take a look at both sides. But apparently this isn’t taken into consideration. Lately when I go out to places like the grocery store and places of that sort I get looked down upon. Scorned. And every once in a while a curse here and there is said,slurred, or mumbled. I mean there is all ways going to be that nasty glare or that nasty stare down but do you know how much those glares and stares hurt? Do you know how much more it hurts getting those nasty words thrown at you? No you don’t. And you won’t ever will know until you actually go through it, go through it repetitively until it sadly becomes juss a norm. I read this really good article (click here) and I suggest that you read it. It’s about someone who wears a Niqaab to see how it would be, to try to get a feel for what they go through and how other people make them feel. (Me and some friends have that idea we’ll try it soon and I’ll post the results up here.)

Oh how can I forget Prime Mnister Tony Blair. When he was talking about “a mark of separation,” what a load of garbage! These are the things that get me maddd upset. You all point and point and point at us not thinking what we have to face. And you all judge us based on the action of what a couple of fools decided to do! The real reason you are putting us through this is because you are all afraid of change and diversity and you just don’t want to admit it.

Well as my teacher told me today, “I am surrounded by ignorant people.”

I am surrounded by ignorant people as well and at times they are starting to bring down my hopes and spirits.

This was forwarded to my in an e-mail by one of my friends. Usually when I get forwards they’re these useless things that waste my time. But this story made me and see some hope, basically when ever I see something that’s worth while I’ll post it up here. So if you have time read this story.

“At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled
children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never
be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its
dedicated staff, he offered a question: “When not interfered with by outside
influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son,
Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand
things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?”

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. “I believe that when a child like Shay,
physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an
opportunity to realize
true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people
treat that child.”

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew
were playing baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they’ll let me play?”
Shay’s father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on
their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to
play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence
to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not
expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance
and said, “We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I
guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the
ninth inning.”

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on
a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth
in his heart. The boys saw the father’s joy at his son being accepted. In
the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was
still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove
and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was
obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning
from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of
the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the
bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to
be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to
win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit
was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat
properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that
the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life,
moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make
contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The
pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards
Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball
right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and
could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have
been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s
head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams
started yelling, “Shay, run to first! Run to first!” Never in his life had Shay
ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the
baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second!” Catching his breath,
Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the
base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder
had the ball … the smallest guy on their team who now had his fi rst
chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the
second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions
so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the
third-baseman’s
head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of
him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, “Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay”

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him
by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, “Run to third!
Shay, run to third!”

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators,
were on their feet screaming, “Shay, run home! Run home!” Shay ran to home,
stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and
won the game for his team.

“That day”, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his
face,
“the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and
humanity into this world”.

Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having
never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming
home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!“

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and this too!

Ignorance.noun-the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc. There are ignorant people all around us, and I guess the one’s that really notice who is and isn’t ignorant are those who are different. How you may ask, ok I’ll give some examples, we’ll get some help from history. Ok so African American’s, they all knew what ignorant was because they would see how there masters were so ignorant in thinking that they are the greatest, or that they are the best just because they were white. So the African American’s recognized the ignorant people, the ignorant people were the white people; well that’s kind of mean you can’t blame white people for everything ok so most of the world was at fault for slavery so I guess you can even go about saying that most of the world was being ignorant. During World War II U.S. decided that all of the Japanese people may be spy’s so they decided to put them away. Ok we didn’t harm them or kill them, but we still did take there rights away and separated them form society didn’t we? Don’t you think that its ridiculous for a whole group of people, race, or religion should be judged by something that only a few from the group has committed.

Ever notice how Muslim’s are automatically associated with terrorism? Ever notice how Arabs are automatically thought as terrorists? That Afghans are assumed to be part of the Taleban? I mean if you want to make broad statements like that then we are all in serious trouble aren’t we? I mean that means no one should go near white people because they’re all part of the KKK and they want to kill anyone that’s not white! That means that if your a small kid or a minor you shouldn’t go near priests because priests are psychotic child molesters! All those Christian fundamentalists are going to blow you up because they blow up abortion clinics! You see what generalizing a certain group of people can do? You can’t base a whole religion upon the actions of a specific few can. I bet it never occurred to you and you were never faced with it, and those two examples I used were a little cold and extreme but hey you guys did it first. After 9-11 tons of Sikhs got beaten up because people thought they were Muslim. (***FYI learn to differentiate between religions, especially if you are going to go around beating people because they belong to a certain religion.***) First of all what is your typical thought of a Muslim? I bet I can guess. For a guy, it’s this bearded guy with a turban on his head. And the girls got these weird things on their head and some cover their face. Well first of all I think we would notice a million guys walking around with turbans, wouldn’t we? So ok just a guy with a beard,… so does that mean that all of those people with newspaper covering them sitting in Central Park singing weird songs are Muslims? Don’t think so. Face it, racial profiling really wont get you that far. I mean if you look at my whole entire family and if you use those images that most people think are what Muslims look like then you will be quite confused looking at my family. I have relatives that have skin color from white as snow to brown. Eye colors: brown, green, brown/green, blue, crystal blue… Hair, from dark drown to light brown to dirty blond to blond; straight curly wavy eh its all mixed up. Hm doesn’t this throw of the use racial profiling? Not all the guys got these beards, and not all of the girls wear a “thingy” on their heads.

I really don’t know when this ignorance will go away but we can hope that it will go away soon can’t we?-inshaAllah- I’ve been looking for a nice video, there’s a lot of them but I chose this one (mostly because I really like the Nasheed in the background) so hear is a brief introduction to Islam:

I read the news everyday, but what makes me sad is that the same area’s or people are in the news everyday. I mean Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve made the point about Iraq not too long ago in one of my posts and Afghanistan well, that country hasn’t seen peace in a while. Although the reason for these violence’s may be “necessary”, I mean do we not understand from history? Violence does NOT bring about peace. Just think about it when World War I came about it was said that it is “the war to end all wars” well uhm yeah that was a huge lie and that war just brought about a chain of other wars. Today countries try to justify there violent actions saying that oh we are the good guys and we are simply just trying to bring peace and yes there will be some casualties along the way, but apparently the word some can be changed and fooled around with easily and those casualties well,Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihe raji’oon. Basically the only thing we can do for them is make du’aa for them, pray for them, keep on hoping that it will get better and inshaAllah it will soon stop. Well I can’t remember the last time I’ve done this, but below are some random quotes: (They are actually just mostly headlines that kind of just stick to you and make you realize how much that they are suffering, do you think they even know the meaning of peace anymore?)

“I stand by the figure that a lot of innocent people have lost their life…and that troubles me, and it grieves me. Six-hundred thousand or whatever they guessed at is just… it’s not credible,” -President George W Bush

” An estimated 655,000 Iraqis have died since 2003 who might still be alive but for the US-led invasion, according to a survey by a US university.”-BBC News

” Sixty bodies have been found scattered across the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police there have said……..The 60 bodies, who were all men, were found in various parts of the city over a 24-hour period, defence and interior ministry officials said on Tuesday.Many of them had been shot in the head at close range, execution-style.The victims also had their hands and feet bound and showed signs of torture - hallmarks of death-squad killings, the police said.”-BBC News

“They (Shiite militias) consider Sunnis terrorists who must be killed. If the zero hour is coming, we will take the decisions needed to defend ourselves.”-Khalaf al-Alayan, Sunni member of parliament

“Gunmen in police uniforms have killed the brother of Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi in Baghdad.”-BBC News

“While critics point to the discrepancy between this and other independent surveys (such as Iraq Body Count’s figure of 44-49,000 civilian deaths, based on media reports), the Bloomberg School team says its method may actually underestimate the true figure. “Families, especially in households with combatants killed, could have hidden deaths. Under-reporting of infant deaths is a widespread concern in surveys of this type,” the authors say. “Entire households could have been killed, leading to survivor bias. “The survey suggests that most of the extra deaths - 601,000 - would have been the result of violence, mostly gunfire, and suggests that 31% could be attributable to action by US-led coalition forces. The survey is to be published in a UK medical journal, the Lancet, on Thursday. In an accompanying comment, the Lancet’s Richard Horton acknowledges that the 2004 survey provoked controversy, but emphasises that the 2006 follow-up has been recommended by “four expert peers… with relatively minor revisions”.”-BBC News

“At least 11 people, including a number of police officers, have been injured in an explosion in the Afghan capital, Kabul, say police.“- BBC  News

“The international community [must] reassess the manner in which this war against terror is conducted”- President Karzai

 

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Don’t forget this<3

…So the Yankees are eliminated from the playoffs But I have to admit they are really starting to get bad, they’re not playing as well as they should be playing. And this year I knew that they really didn’t have that much on their side for winning the World Series, only their fans. Ever since the beginning of the season there were so many instances when I wanted to go up to the players and punch them in the face, and I understand why everyone is so happy that the Yankees are out. I mean don’t get me wrong I am a Yankees fan but some of the Yankees fans that I know are psychotic. I have a friend that decided to start punching out someone during a Yankees game because the person next to them made a remark about Jeter being over rated. Hey honestly speaking I beleive taht Jeter is a little over rated. I mean the amount of praise that Jeter gets from people his performance can be so much better. I love the Yankees but those “hard core Yankees fans” are just making the matters so much worst. If they just acted like normal human beings and normal fans it wouldn’t be that bad, I mean look at all the other people who support their team, their not as nutty as the Yankees fans.

But the Mets are pretty good this year, I think that they do have a good shot at the World Series. I don’t have anything against the Mets but they’re just not “my team.” Look at me saying “my team” as if Iim the manager of the team, and don’t get me started on  Joe Torre, that gozoke makes me pretty angry sometimes. Oh well, I was just hoping that the Yankees would win this year, but hey there is all ways next year

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