Support Ghaza

You may have noticed that this blog wasn't updated with a "Happy New Year". The thing is the new year didn't start happy. Israel keeps bombing the innocent civilians of Palestine. The death toll at the moment stands at 765.
When we hear of the death of one person, we feel sad. Millions felt sad when Bernie Mac died. When Anna Nicole Smith died. When Foe died on the pitch. the examples are numerous.
But 765? It's only a number. You don't know them. Stalin said it best: "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."
People are angry, this blogger included. Today, a Rally to express this rage started out after Friday prayer.


Here is my $0.02 analysis:
Israel claims that Hamas is shooting at Israel and that they hide between civilians. Thus the civilian deaths. Lets analyze this:
1- Hamas could be hiding between civilians. But after 765 civilian deaths, this is proven to be a failed tactic as Israel will bomb you anyway. Hence, if I was a civilian, I wouldn't harbor Hamas in my house. No sense the two of us dying. My civilian death will add nothing.
But this is not the case, is it? As I see more civilian deaths every day; this leads me to...

2- Hamas is NOT hiding between civilians. Which would make sense as Israel claims rockets are still being fired at them. Which means they're not dead yet nor their machinery is destroyed. If this is so, then the only reason I can think of to continue the raids...

3- Israel is killing civilians on purpose to: a) inflict internal pressure on Hamas to cease. And b) Decrease the number of Palestinians anyway.

So I do think that Israel is committing mass war crimes here.

Another catalyst for killing Arabs is Money. Someone somewhere is making money off of it. Rationale:
Israel is the #1 recipient of American foreign Aid.
$2.4 Billion is given away to Israel per year. This will change starting 2009 to be $30 Billion per annum for the next 10 years (That is a total of $300 Billion, my friends).
Purpose?

Virtually all of this money is used to buy weapons (up to 75% made in the U.S.).

So the US gives money to Israel, but forces it to spend three quarters of it on American weapons.
In plain simple English, to me American friends:
Someone is taking your tax dollars, giving it to Israel, and is TELLING Israel to give it to certain arms merchants.
You may as well just give the money to the Arms merchants yourself!

If I was an Arms merchant who can get access to these billions upon billions, I would certainly "secure" my friends in the government who would "facilitate" such laws. I would also be tempted to "increase demand" in Israel by, well, I dunno. Faking attacks? Spreading rumors? Inciting Hamas (or any other) to strike? Having Israel in need of Arms gives me the Ferrari liquidity I need.

People, the ones dying in the middle are innocent. If you have to be a skeptic then most of them are innocent and I don't buy this collateral damage crap.
Do something about it. I'm not talking about mere donations. That is simply giving the man a fish. Please, do something to break this vicious cycle. I implore you.

Americans afraid of college prayer room

So, Normandale Community College, USA, have turned its meditation room into a Muslims prayer room. It has a male and female section, prayer times, direction of the Qibla, and people can thankfully actually pray there now. Katherine Kersten writes about it, it gets posted into Digg, then Islamophobia breaks loose, just look at the comments of Digg users:

It'd be a good time to start carrying pork-rinds around campus, and offer them to anyone you meet. Since it's not politically correct to "profile", offer them to eveybody, especially those in the meditation room. It'd be rude not to offer.

It works on airlines, too........

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Wow.

I think a group of female students needs to go in there quite often and be sure to be uncovered, speak loud enough to be heard, and not stay in the small cordoned off area for women. Show these folks what gender equality means.

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Come on diggers, you talk of free speech and bash religion all the time. whats stopping you now??? You rip the Christians a new one everyday, let me see your best shots about this oppression against women and against other religions.

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Is anyone beginning to understand how the excesses of the Crusades and the Reconquista happened?

All this my friends is pure Islamophobia. I can safely say so because they are contradicting their own AMERICAN LAWS which state: Every person has the right to practice his / her own religion.

Now, the segregation of sexes is done as part of the religion itself, and that is a private matter. No one is being injured by it is there? Is it increasing fatalities amongst infants perhaps? Guess not.

And the whining about a dedicated prayer room? Well, again, the AMERICAN LAWS state that they are free to practice their religion. Which incidentally means praying 5 times a day and that unfortunately needs a place to do so.

I mean seriously, people are stuck in a room praying and all this phobia surfaces? Americans are not Americans anymore. No, they do not believe in the words of their forefathers anymore. shame that.

Different Ramadhan timings - Poll results

Here are the results of the tiny poll that I had on the right:

Do you think different Ramadhan starting dates make sense?

Yes. There are different ways of calculation. 1 (20%)
No, we are a small country for god's sake! 4 (80%)
I don't know. Maybe. 0 (0%)

So this shows that through my modest estimate, people wish to be Muslims and have a unified calendar rather than sects. all well and good.

So how are different days are being announced? What are the rules to govern this? Is there any common ground? Should there be a unified calender worldwide, region wide, country wide or be sect specific. What about Eid? and hajj? And how come we all agree on Muharram?

I want this to be a big discussion so please invite everyone you know here, I'd like input from as many people as possible. Thanks.

patcondell is Racist (in my opinion)

This is a reply to patcondell's question on you tube whether he is racist or not. Being a person that explains allot, you tube comments aren't enough for me, so here it is:
Opposing views are fine, but the video turned weird towards the end. Looking at your other videos I can safely say: Yes. You ARE racist.
The practices of some individuals is far from the teachings. When Families in Jordan kill off their girl for bringing "dishonor", that's their society. Not Islam. I dare you to prove otherwise.
Saying that the Quran promotes war not peace clearly shows that you haven't read it. Don't bring up phrases out of context. A bad film review can have the phrase "unique", but that proves nothing without the rest of the text.
People take things out of context all the time to achive certain goals. Bin Laden is very good at it. So is Bush.

To sum up:

1. Women dress in black (like, what did you say? a Giant Pepper pot was it?) out of their own accord (outside of Saudi of course). You see it as a form of oppression, they see it as a form of dignity. Tell me why should they be ashamed of them selves? Why isn't it you who should be ashamed for having a limited view on things? So their dress means something different from what you think. Why do you have to force your idea on the subject?
   
2. The thought of Islam promoting war or was spread by the sword is really old. It's been discussed so many times before. Please catch up.

I think you have the wrong idea about Islam. If you wish to verify how true my words are, please, lets discuss here.
However, do not attempt to force your ideas here UNTIL you understand what it is you are criticizing. Only then your ideas, even if different, will be accepted.
What do you say?
What do readers think?

Back from Umra

I'm finally back from Umra. Didn't post earlier because I was mostly hooked on Zelda. Yes, I bought a nintendo Wii from Mecca and I'm loving it! But more on that later.
My Umra trip was easy and quick. Mecca was serene, quite and very clean. It was my brother's first time so we tagged along most of the time. One can never get enough of praying in the holy mosque.
I got some pictures for you from there. You can't really take pictures, else everyone will treat it like a tourist attraction rather than the holy place it is. Still I managed to get some, so enjoy!

I am going to Umrah

I'm leaving tomorrow morning, heading for the holy city of Mecca to do an Umrah. It was a surpreise decision. It's been years since I went there last. Wish me luck, I'll be back on Sunday god willing.