Thoughts of a Hijaabi

I’m sure most of you by now have heard about Sean Bell, the 23 year old man who was shot to death by police officers. The famous case of Amadou Diallo is also appearing again, who I think got shot at by like 18 shots…? (don’t quote me on that I’m not exactly sure), but both of these cases are pretty scary if you think about them. The question of are we ever safe pops into my head over and over again. If you aren’t safe because of burglers, and if you aren’t safe because of murderers and if you aren’t safe because of any other angry/violent person out there, and now we have police officers making mistakes and shooting innocent people down, then are we ever safe? I mean its so scary, and the famous question that everyone seems to be asking, “Why did officers fire 50 rounds at three unarmed men?” Well anyone out there got an answer for me, because if you do I would really like to know. Sure Mayor Bloomberg said that New York city police have the strictest ruling on racial profiling, and that 50 shots was “excessive” but that doesn’t help, that’s no answer, and can the officers justify themselves for what they have done? Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, “I can’t have a visceral reaction. I’m in charge of a 52,000-person organization. I’m also the final determiner as far as discipline is concerned in any process that goes forward.” Well if he is not responsible, and the city isn’t responsible, and the men aren’t taking that much responsibility for themselves then who in the world is responsible for this? Well I can go on forever with this ramble that I have going on here but I leave you all with these quotes:

” “I appreciate it,” said Anthony Childers, 54, of St. Albans. “I’m glad he wants to talk to the family it shows he’s concerned.”

But Stokely Roberts, 27, of Cambria Heights, was skeptical. “It’s a show,” he said. “It’s an effort to make it look like they really care. It’s not genuine.” He also said police are heavy-handed in their approach to policing in minority communities. “

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Some lighter news–> “Yeah, I got a lot of negative feedback about that but my legs are silky smooth now mashAllah”

So I haven’t been able to update my blog in a really long time; somewhere between my computer blowing up and all of the college applications that were due, I don’t know for some reason I just couldn’t fit this into my schedule.(Please keep me in your du’aas so I can get into the college I want)

So yeah Black Friday. What an interesting day. Apparently I decided to go, yeah biggest waste of my time. But the experience oh my, I think it was scarier this year for me. I mean I’ve been shopping on Black Friday before but it was only at Macy’s for a little bit; but I’ve never been at a store like Best Buy and this year that’s where I decided to go. People were like attacking each other, jumping each other, yelling at each other, yeah it was definitely on the scary side. I like ran out of the store because first it didn’t have what I wanted and second the site was scary. If you ask me I think insanity has taken over our society, hey it even infected me.  I mean I’ve been shopping on Black Friday before, well not that many times, I really hate shopping so I don’t really get whats so amazing about it; but this year I realized what a stupid thing it is to do. I mean think about when the new PS3 or Nintendo Wii came out, people went insane. Ok I’ll give it to you that they are a bit cool, but remember when a guy shot someone else because of a PS3! That’s so scary, I mean people are killing each other over products that aren’t even necessary to have.  For example, in my house the only thing my brothers have are the Nintendo DS and Nintendo SP. I find it pretty ironic that people get violent over something that they use as a source of entertainment that promotes violence in the games they produce. 

Well here were some other headlines/quotes/statements that caughtmy eye today:

“Funerals are being held in Iraq for victims of Thursday’s bomb attacks in Baghdad’s Shia Sadr City district that left more than 200 people dead. “

“BLOODIEST DAYS OF VIOLENCE

23 Nov 2006 - 202 dead
Wave of car bomb and mortar blasts strike Sadr City in Baghdad

7 April 2006 - 85 dead
Triple suicide bombing at Shia Buratha mosque in Baghdad

5 Jan 2006 - 110 dead
Suicide bombers hit Karbala shrine and police recruiting station in Ramadi

14 Sept 2005 - 182 dead
Suicide car bomber targets Baghdad labourers in worst of a series of bombs

28 Feb 2005 - 114 dead
Suicide car bomb hits government jobseekers in Hilla

2 March 2004 - 140 dead
Suicide bombers attack Shia festival-goers in Karbala and Baghdad

1 Feb 2004 - 105 dead
Twin attacks on Kurdish parties’ offices in Irbil “

“Israel rejects ceasefire proposal : Israel has dismissed an offer by Palestinian militant groups to stop firing rockets into Israel, if Israel ends attacks on Palestinians. “

” Lebanon is the most politically complex and religiously divided country in the Middle East, which is what makes it such a potentially explosive factor in an unstable region. “

 

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I found out about this on this site/blog, its pretty creepy. It’s about this UCLA student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, who was tasered basically because he didnt have his ID on him…? well thats what I got out of it, you can read about the incident here, here or here. Watch the video:

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My teacher (Mr. L, woot for ToK), gave me this article, it was in Newsweek, yeah read it!

Beliefwatch: School Veil

” Nov. 13, 2006 issue - There’s a new fashion on college campuses, but it’s not one you’ll find at Abercrombie any time soon. It’s the higab, the traditional Muslim headscarf that denotes modesty and reverence to God, and it’s being worn by increasing numbers of young Muslim American women. By most accounts, they are the American-born children of the estimated 4 million Muslims who immigrated to the United States over the last 40 years. The irony: many of those parents abandoned their Islamic cultural identities to assimilate into American society. “We’re seeing more young women wearing the higab whose mothers don’t wear it,” says Hadia Mubarak, former president of the Muslim Students Association. Mubarak says that young Muslim Americans who grew up here are not facing the kinds of identity crises their parents did. “These kids are comfortable in their American identity because that’s the only culture they’ve known, so it’s easier for them to embrace the outward manifestations of Islam.” Spurred by a desire to express solidarity in the face of post-9/11 discrimination, young Muslim Americans are connecting with their Islamic heritage and embracing a religious culture many of them had known only secondhand. Henna Khan, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan and Kashmir in the 1970s, began wearing a higab just before her freshman year at UC, Berkeley, in 2003. “It’s easier to put it on when you see other girls putting it on,” says Khan, 21. “I was inspired by this whole American Muslim movement.”

The trend comes amid a historic spike in anti-Muslim discrimination in the United States, and the higab has been the magnet for much of it. Since 9/11, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over the right to wear higabs in the workplace and in photo IDs. “The higab is the walking symbol of Islam,” says Council on American-Islamic Relations legal director Arsalan Iftikhar, who authored a report documenting nearly 2,000 cases of anti-Muslim discrimination in 2006. “

I also found this article, thoguht it was kinda interesting, a bit funny, but interesting.

Borat 

Tommorow is November 13th and it is “Wear a Hijab to Work Day.” Don’t forget Alia Ansari! Just in case she was the young Afghan women who was muredered in front of her 3 year old daughter, read the rest of on one of my previous posts.

Everyone recognizes that map right? I mean we see it all the time. I think they should juss label that land as The Palestinian&Israeli Conflict. It seems that these people never see anything good in that part of the area and specifically, the Gaza Strip is a place of constant war and of constant terror. Yes terror,we use that word quite a lot don’t we? But if you really want to know what the meaning of this word is go check out Gaza Strip.  Actually go check out Beit Hanoun. Imagine sitting in your home in fear that your house might combust and in a matter of minutes you may not still be in existence. Imagine pretty much being a prisoner in your own home, not being allowed to leave; imagine having a loved one who is suffering from an illness and you cant go to take them to the doctor or go to get there medicine, and you have to sit and watch them suffer. Imagine having soldiers standing on the roof top of your home firing bullets at basically anything they want, or “anything that moves.” Imagine being at home but still you do not feel safe; still you are overwhelmed with fear and as hard as you try you cant get anything fear out of your thoughts. Heavy firing, missiles being launched, tanks all right outside you door. Can you imagine? Didn’t think so.. That’s what the people of Beit Hanoun have been going through this past week.

“My youngest daughter will not even go to the toilet on her own, she is so paralysed with fear.”-Ibrahim al-Za’anin

Fear is the only feeling that these people now know. It is now their extra baggage that they are forced to carry, no matter how much they may want to drop it or leave it somewhere they can not and do not have that option.

Something else to consider.

“Allowing Palestinians to get an education in Israel is in our long-term benefit,” says Sari Bashi, the director of the group. “It will foster better relations between the two sides.”-Sari Bashi, Human rights activist

Since this October, Palestinian students have been banned form entering Israel, the only way they can is through a series of security checks and process which can take as long as they want it to, for someone it took up to 9 months! This totally got me ticked. I mean I do understand that they have to go through the security checks but the part that gets me upset is how this whole thing is not only ruining peoples lives, now it is getting in the way of education. I mean education is the way we can fix everything but if your going to ban education, then we’re going to have so many more problems….

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InshaAllah I’ll be a better Hijaabi….

Ali from Ummah films is back with a new season and yeah I love this one. So to all ma Sisters in Isalm out there, watch this one :

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Well I’ve been busy lately but I’ve been wanting to post about something my teacher told my class in the beginning of the week. So in the beginning of the week my history teacher, Mr. Trachtenberg, gave us a homework assignment that I think I will probably all ways remember. He told us that we should give someone a compliment, or just do something nice for someone whether you know them really well or even if you don’t know them at all.

He told us we should keep this little journal thing, and we should record any nice thing or nice ‘deed’ that we do.; and this journal can help us look upon what we have done, and if we’re ever having a bad day you can kind of go to that for some comfort. I really liked this idea of his. I mean he’s the only teacher that I’ve ever had that gave an assignment like this which if you think about it, its really sad because I’m a senior in high school, so I’ve gone to school for 12 years (13 if you feel like counting kindergarten) and yet he’s the only teacher that’s ever given me this kind of assignment. This is probably one of the only assignments that will stick with me forever, for my own good and even for the good of others. I think you should all try it
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Look at photo #6…….