When I read news like the following, I wonder if there is any explanation for the insanity behind such actions:
Kabul, Afghanistan - Insurgents attacked three government offices in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 26 and wounding nearly 60. The assault was one of the most complex and daring to take place in the Afghan capital since 2001.
There are more criminals in this than just the Taliban. All of us who fail to condemn it, we are complicit.
Where are the humanitarian Muslims who rush to condemn the insanity of Israel? Where are the rallies, and protest marches decrying the Taliban's brutality? I have yet to read any press releases from ISNA and CAIR. Will this be covered in our Khutbahs tomorow? If you hear one, please let me know. Will we call upon our Lord to rid the ummah of such fitnah?
What can explain mindless actions other than a primitive, tribal culture and civilization?
The irony is, Taliban literally means seekers of knowledge. A second irony is that such fitteen groups think they are acting in accordance with Islam. If we Muslims don't condemn such shameful acts, if we don't do something to counter it, we will be guilty of duplicity, among other things. And our Lord does not like duplicity.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
To Dream The (Worthy) "Impossible" Dream
Perssimists will find all sorts of problems with dreams of this sort. They are part of the problem. We need bold dreamers!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Two Moons in Someone Else's Moccasins
There is this well-known native American saying: “Do not judge your neighbour until you walk two moons in his moccasins.” Looks like some of our American neighbors have strapped on their moccasins and are walking in our paths. Here's a video on the same, encouraging. Interesting exercise, I applaud this effort.
I believe Americans are like people in many parts of the world: hospitable, generous and kind. Americans have one more trait that people in many parts of the world lack: they tend to be non-judgmental. However, the things that have made the world judgmental and nations less hospitable have arrived in America in the form of commentary from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. They appeal to humanity's lesser instincts just as a generation of semi-literate mullahs have in many Muslim countries.
While we don't always need as close an appreciation for how the world appears to someone else as in the experiment above, I do believe it makes us better neighbors, even adversaries, to be sensitive to it. Something as simple as appreciating the other side's perspective can significantly reduce misunderstanding, conflict and even violence.
I believe Americans are like people in many parts of the world: hospitable, generous and kind. Americans have one more trait that people in many parts of the world lack: they tend to be non-judgmental. However, the things that have made the world judgmental and nations less hospitable have arrived in America in the form of commentary from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. They appeal to humanity's lesser instincts just as a generation of semi-literate mullahs have in many Muslim countries.
While we don't always need as close an appreciation for how the world appears to someone else as in the experiment above, I do believe it makes us better neighbors, even adversaries, to be sensitive to it. Something as simple as appreciating the other side's perspective can significantly reduce misunderstanding, conflict and even violence.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Whither The Roots of Dubai?
People find all sorts of reasons to love and hate New York city. I too have a list of things I would want to see different in the Big Apple (affordable parking for one). But I marvel at the inspiration and courage that God endowed certain people with to build those bridges and tunnels. Really, think about it. There must have been skeptics and doomsdayers when plans were laid to build under-water highways in what became Holland and Lincoln tunnels? Or to stretch that vast span across the Hudson called The George Washington Bridge? Surely some of the very people behind those ideas must have faced self-doubt? Yet the enterprising human spirit overcame skepticism and doubt and we have the vast, bold statement of human will and ingenuity in block after neat block of steel and glass rising to meet the sky.
I drag New York City in to all of this to make the point that I am, to a fault, a fan of the human spirit of adventure and enterprise.
Yet, despite a dozen trips to Dubai in the last 18 years, and despite sitting through countless infomercials on the Emirate, my take on Dubai ranges from skepticism to nausea.
Don't get me wrong, I admire Sheikh Mohammed's courage. Without doubt, his plan/goal to do something bold to inspire the current generation of Emaratis, perhaps all Arabs, perhaps all Muslims, is admirable. And on that, I will always pray that God may bless us with more people who have such courage. But I will also pray that the courage and desire to do something big should direct as much effort to deepening of the roots (for they provide stability) as to shooting branches, leaves and flowers (for they draw attention and create buzz).
As of now, I feel Dubai is giant tree with lots of branches, leaves and flowers but no roots. It's all held into the ground by some silly super-glue. If you've read Ayn Rand's Atlast Shrugged, you might remember the giant oak tree in the Taggart family's backyard was knocked down by a storm. Remember Eddie Willers' shock when he saw that the tree trunk had been hollow and its roots had rotted away? Dubai is posing to be an oak tree that hasn't taken the time to grow roots and I find that unsettling.
To that extent, I think Sheikh Mohammed is more of a Donald Trump (ouch, I know, sorry!) than a George Washington or Mu'adh Ibn Jabal. Despite the court and cloak of a nation builder, possibly even the zeal and earnest desire to be a nation builder, he's as close as the real world gets to a builder of sand castles.
It is easier to criticize than be the one doing something...and I write this acutely aware of that. But really, isn't nation building a more serious business? Doesn't it need a lot of ground-work, hard work, difficult work in advance of rolling out the catwalks for Armani and Prada?
How do I explain my dissimilar takes on New York and Dubai? First, there is something daringly original and creative about New York. It's hard to admire an imitator. Further, New York had an organic growth. New York had a parallel "human resource" development around it. New York addresses more than just the superficial, thrill & frill needs of the men and women who built it.
Nearly everything newsworthy Dubai is doing must seem superficial to non-Muslims and either makrooh or downright haram to Muslims. Artificial islands? Skiing in the desert? The Qur'anic word lahw comes to mind. The American city Las Vegas comes to mind. Very few American heroes have come from Vegas. Many serious-minded Americans go to see the neighboring Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon instead of the lights and shows of Sin City (believe me, really! :) ).
I don't write all this to deride Dubai. I hope I am wrong - I remain a well-wisher. I hope they have focused on the roots and I just haven't seen them. If you have, please take a minute to point them out to me.
I drag New York City in to all of this to make the point that I am, to a fault, a fan of the human spirit of adventure and enterprise.
Yet, despite a dozen trips to Dubai in the last 18 years, and despite sitting through countless infomercials on the Emirate, my take on Dubai ranges from skepticism to nausea.
Don't get me wrong, I admire Sheikh Mohammed's courage. Without doubt, his plan/goal to do something bold to inspire the current generation of Emaratis, perhaps all Arabs, perhaps all Muslims, is admirable. And on that, I will always pray that God may bless us with more people who have such courage. But I will also pray that the courage and desire to do something big should direct as much effort to deepening of the roots (for they provide stability) as to shooting branches, leaves and flowers (for they draw attention and create buzz).
As of now, I feel Dubai is giant tree with lots of branches, leaves and flowers but no roots. It's all held into the ground by some silly super-glue. If you've read Ayn Rand's Atlast Shrugged, you might remember the giant oak tree in the Taggart family's backyard was knocked down by a storm. Remember Eddie Willers' shock when he saw that the tree trunk had been hollow and its roots had rotted away? Dubai is posing to be an oak tree that hasn't taken the time to grow roots and I find that unsettling.
To that extent, I think Sheikh Mohammed is more of a Donald Trump (ouch, I know, sorry!) than a George Washington or Mu'adh Ibn Jabal. Despite the court and cloak of a nation builder, possibly even the zeal and earnest desire to be a nation builder, he's as close as the real world gets to a builder of sand castles.
It is easier to criticize than be the one doing something...and I write this acutely aware of that. But really, isn't nation building a more serious business? Doesn't it need a lot of ground-work, hard work, difficult work in advance of rolling out the catwalks for Armani and Prada?
How do I explain my dissimilar takes on New York and Dubai? First, there is something daringly original and creative about New York. It's hard to admire an imitator. Further, New York had an organic growth. New York had a parallel "human resource" development around it. New York addresses more than just the superficial, thrill & frill needs of the men and women who built it.
Nearly everything newsworthy Dubai is doing must seem superficial to non-Muslims and either makrooh or downright haram to Muslims. Artificial islands? Skiing in the desert? The Qur'anic word lahw comes to mind. The American city Las Vegas comes to mind. Very few American heroes have come from Vegas. Many serious-minded Americans go to see the neighboring Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon instead of the lights and shows of Sin City (believe me, really! :) ).
I don't write all this to deride Dubai. I hope I am wrong - I remain a well-wisher. I hope they have focused on the roots and I just haven't seen them. If you have, please take a minute to point them out to me.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
So We're All Terrorists Now?
An admirable trait in America as a nation is its quest to be a more perfect Union. It does not purport to be a perfect nation, merely one that is trying to get closer to that ideal. In it, there is a confession of falling short, and a determination to be better - two very admirable qualities that continue to serve America well.
Like many immigrant groups (e.g. Catholics, Jews) before Muslims, we are now the target of a massive campaign by a small-but-resourceful group for demonization. Over the years, this demonization technique has been perfected. Yet, the determination of every immigrant group has been able to defeat it. America is and has been the land where the children and grandchildren of immigrant laborers go on to become governors and senators.
A mainstream organization like ISNA has been in the cross-hairs of these hate groups for some time. What is interesting is the technique used. Having created the perception of a link between Muslims and terrorism (towards which many of our own have contributed rather generously), these groups now use innuendos to besmirch the reputation of any organization or individual.
Ingrid Mattson, ISNA's president, spoke by invitation at President Obama's inaugural National Prayer Service. She was very well received by leaders of the various faith traditions based on eye-witness accounts I have heard. I have known and followed Ingrid's work since she was a graduate student at U of Chicago. She represents the best in western and Islamic traditions. Modest, but walking as an equal with the best of the world. But hate groups have been pulling the levers they have put in place to label her as someone with "ties to terrorists." If Ingrid is "linked to Hamas" (which the readers' brains have been conditioned to translate as "Ingrid Mattson is a terrorist"), who among us is safe from such accusations and innendos?
There is bad news and good news in this. The bad news is, we're going to have to face a desperate group of people who have no shame and no ethics and who will try anything to besmirch the good name of Islam and Muslims. The good news is they are betraying signs of desperation. Remember how corrupt cabals with lots of power and wealth deal with a minority that threatens to expose their corruption? First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win. It's a rite of passage for every immigrant group to America as it stands at the cusp of a signifcant recognition. But we have to prove our worth and earn it.
We will have to steadfastly hold to being a just and fair people during this trial that lies ahead. We will have to do the right thing every day and ask our Lord for strength. In the end, I have no doubt as to who will prevail...this country has a fine tradition of that, and my faith assures me of it.
Preparing for the Attack of the Bigots
Fair-minded Americans are especially challenged by Obama's rise to the highest office in the land.
Many like Rush Limbaugh are openly hoping for America's first president with a non-traditional demographic to fail. Cheney recently claimed America is becoming unsafe due to Obama and he is perhaps waiting for his "I told you so" moment should, God-forbid, something bad happen.
The challenge before us is to produce a thousand men and women of Obama's caliber. The man's temperament is extraordinary. The clarity he brings on issues is refreshing. His ability to stand calmly under pressure and smile is unparalleled. Hate-mongers are plotting and hoping for things to fall apart. They want things to go wrong so they will spread fear for as long as they can so Americans do not soon dream of thinking freely when it comes to racial and other prejudices.
Now is the time to prepare. The silent majority has its work cut out for it. If anything goes wrong, the hatemongers will have a field day. Prepare! Be ready!!
Many like Rush Limbaugh are openly hoping for America's first president with a non-traditional demographic to fail. Cheney recently claimed America is becoming unsafe due to Obama and he is perhaps waiting for his "I told you so" moment should, God-forbid, something bad happen.
The challenge before us is to produce a thousand men and women of Obama's caliber. The man's temperament is extraordinary. The clarity he brings on issues is refreshing. His ability to stand calmly under pressure and smile is unparalleled. Hate-mongers are plotting and hoping for things to fall apart. They want things to go wrong so they will spread fear for as long as they can so Americans do not soon dream of thinking freely when it comes to racial and other prejudices.
Now is the time to prepare. The silent majority has its work cut out for it. If anything goes wrong, the hatemongers will have a field day. Prepare! Be ready!!
Story-Teller Extraordinaire
I just finished reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth. It's mesmerizing. I normally don't go about buying every famous author's next book. Yet, I knew I would be buying and reading Unaccustomed Earth the moment my eyes fell on the book's epigraph, a quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that inspired 19th century New England novelist most famous for The Scarlet Letter:
"Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn out soil. My children...shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth."
Jhumpa Lahiri has gained much fame, all quite well-deserved, for her two prior works, one of which was made into a movie. The reason her writings hold special meaning for people like me, is because nearly all her stories are inspired by the experience of Bengali-Indian immigrants to the United States. In Namesake she focuses on the immigrant generation. In Unaccustomed Earth she uncovers the life of the children those immigrants had as both embraced America as their home.
As I read one story after another in Unaccustomed Earth, I marveled at the power story-tellers have. Good story-tellers take their readers on elaborate, even transformational, journeys over which readers surrender all control to the story-teller.
Unaccustomed Earth has two common threads running through it: life experiences of Indian-Americans (I should say Bengali-Indian-Americans) and a sometimes-subtle, sometimes not-so-subtle sexual tension that the author builds and maintains throughout her stories (with the exception of two stories). Many Muslims might be a bit uncomfortable because of the consistency with which she holds to the latter theme. A good story-teller can glorify the trivialization of something sacred as well as make fun of the fact that some hold it sacred. Jhumpa Lahiri does both when it comes to that most intimate and sacred connection between two humans. But she does more. She lays bare the struggles of the Indian-American immigrant family from the perspective of one who has had front-row center seats to this show all her life. On things that other readers find simply funny, the reader who has witnessed life from the same perspective as the author will laugh to tears. There is very little pretension, the author does not try to be someone else. The stories are powerful because of their simplicity in both plot and prose.
What will resonate with all Muslims is the struggle between the old and the new. The journey into the unaccustomed earth by the new generation and all the joys and gut-wrenching it entails. I hope many of you will read and enjoy it. I hope somewhere out there are young Muslims who will grow up to tell the story of American Muslims and their foray into this unaccustomed earth.
"Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn out soil. My children...shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth."
Jhumpa Lahiri has gained much fame, all quite well-deserved, for her two prior works, one of which was made into a movie. The reason her writings hold special meaning for people like me, is because nearly all her stories are inspired by the experience of Bengali-Indian immigrants to the United States. In Namesake she focuses on the immigrant generation. In Unaccustomed Earth she uncovers the life of the children those immigrants had as both embraced America as their home.
As I read one story after another in Unaccustomed Earth, I marveled at the power story-tellers have. Good story-tellers take their readers on elaborate, even transformational, journeys over which readers surrender all control to the story-teller.
Unaccustomed Earth has two common threads running through it: life experiences of Indian-Americans (I should say Bengali-Indian-Americans) and a sometimes-subtle, sometimes not-so-subtle sexual tension that the author builds and maintains throughout her stories (with the exception of two stories). Many Muslims might be a bit uncomfortable because of the consistency with which she holds to the latter theme. A good story-teller can glorify the trivialization of something sacred as well as make fun of the fact that some hold it sacred. Jhumpa Lahiri does both when it comes to that most intimate and sacred connection between two humans. But she does more. She lays bare the struggles of the Indian-American immigrant family from the perspective of one who has had front-row center seats to this show all her life. On things that other readers find simply funny, the reader who has witnessed life from the same perspective as the author will laugh to tears. There is very little pretension, the author does not try to be someone else. The stories are powerful because of their simplicity in both plot and prose.
What will resonate with all Muslims is the struggle between the old and the new. The journey into the unaccustomed earth by the new generation and all the joys and gut-wrenching it entails. I hope many of you will read and enjoy it. I hope somewhere out there are young Muslims who will grow up to tell the story of American Muslims and their foray into this unaccustomed earth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)