Saturday, September 29, 2007

lol@MuslimsAgainstShariah

Man the amount of amusement never ceases thanks to the overzealous efforts by neoconservative assclowns such as the fake plastic whore Pamela Gellar of Atlas Shrugged fame (I refuse to link to that God-forsaken site), but this attempt is a whole another level. MuslimsAgainstShariah recently entered the game out of nowhere earlier this month and lately have been generating some buzz for their utter stupidity. Their Manifesto is so hilarious and absurd that one can't help but to think that it's a ploy by them to seed more discontent for their malicious ends. Here's some tidbits to make you chuckle:

The Crusades vs. The Inquisition
While the Inquisition was a repulsive practice by Christian Fundamentalists, the Crusades were not unprovoked acts of aggression, but rather attempts to recapture formerly Christian lands controlled by Muslims.


Denying that the Crusades was provoked, and justifying the Crusades? Sorry not even the most secularist Muslim would admit to this. None!

And another:

Twenty-first century Muslims have two options: we can continue the barbaric policies of the seventh century perpetuated by Hassan al-Banna, Abdullah Azzam, Yassir Arafat, Ruhollah Khomeini, Osama bin Laden, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, Hizballah, Hamas, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, etc., leading to a global war between Dar al-Islam (Islamic World) and Dar al-Harb (non-Islamic World), or we can reform Islam to keep our rich cultural heritage and to cleanse our religion from the reviled relics of the past.


Yasser Arafat an Islamist? Wow how bloody stupid can these morons possibly be? Arafat was motivated by Palestinian nationalism, not by religion. This ridiculous accusation makes me believe that Zionist neocon jackasses are the ones behind this project. For Hamas, they're dedicated to liberating Palestine, not to impose Islam on others. And as for Hezbollah, I guess defending Lebanon from barbaric attacks by the IDF or building schools and hospitals for the otherwise oppressed and downtrodden Lebanese Shi'a population is considered "barbaric" then I have no clue what else to say of their idiocy.

Do these morons also not understand that those groups and individuals they mentioned was a direct result of U.S. foreign policy from the 50's? Would they be also willing to condemn the brutal occupation of East Timor under the Indonesians supported by the U.S.? Or the Greek junta? Or the support of General Zia-ul-Haq that paved the way for the fanaticism that is evident in Pakistan today? Instead of looking at the root causes and the faults of them, they instead rely on tiresome cliches to win some points with the anti-Muslim neocon crowd. I hate to break it to these morons but you can still be a proud American while admitting the faults of your foreign policy.

I would elaborate more but I think I said my piece on this. Esra'a from MidEastYouth has commented on the suspicious nature of this rather shadowy group and well-respected Muslim writer Ali Eteraz elaborates more on the group's rather interesting origins (where I earlier mentioned the connection with Pamela Gellar) as well.

For reform, there are plenty of other Muslims in Muslim countries who have been pivotal in ushering the next phase of Islamic reform. While these morons are living comfortably in their suburban McMansions in suburban Nebraska (if there is such a thing in that God-forsaken Midwest craphole), Muslim reformers are risking their lives and evading government oppression to help save Islam from the uneducated and power-hungry fanatics.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Fanatics' desperate effort to destroy pre-Islamic heritage

As if the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues wasn't enough, fanatical mullahs and their constituents from Swat in the Northwest Frontier province attempt to blow up yet another statue in the name of their twisted version of Islam which is quite alien to the Subcontinent:

Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in north-west Pakistan.
The statue, thought to date from the second century BC, sustained only minimal damage in the attack near Manglore in remote Swat district.

The area has seen a rise in attacks on "un-Islamic" targets in recent months.

This is the first such attack in Pakistan and is reminiscent of the Taleban's 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan in Afghanistan.


It is a miracle that there was only "minimal" damage, but I surely hope this serves as a wake up call to normal Pakistanis that fear this menace and to do something about it. They have no problem destroying remnants of our ancient Islamic heritage in Saudi Arabia, such as the Ottoman-era al-Ajyad fortress in Saudi Arabia, the the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, Iraq, and the Wahhabi raid of Karbala in 1801 where Imam Hussein's shrine was looted by the vandals, so what does remnants of non-Islamic heritage hurt them?

To the defenders of this lunacy, would you have been okay if suddenly the Spaniards decide to destroy remnants of their Islamic past in southern Spain? Would you accept the Hindus torching the Taj Mahal on the basis of again, being a remnant of India's Islamic past? Was the destruction of Babri Masjid by Hindu fanatics justified since it offended their sensitivities? Where does this madness end?

I know some are going to bring up the smashing of Idols in Makkah, but that's a moot point since THERE ARE NO BUDDHISTS IN SWAT OR NWFP IN THE FIRST PLACE! Buddhists don't even worship statues for crying out loud, so what Goddamn right do these fanatics have in destroying these statues? Will it improve the status of their people in that God-forsaken province? Will it help feed the poor? Instead of blowing up these statues, perhaps they can use the money they bought the explosives with and use it towards feeding their people or their families even?

How much longer before fanatics in Egypt engage in a mass-orgy of the destruction of ancient Egypt? How much longer before the pyramids of Giza are destroyed by these vigilante forces? Successive Muslim empires left them intact and did not bother to destroy them, so what logic can they suddenly start destroying them now?

If anyone in Pakistan is concerned about our culture and heritage that is currently under assault, then by all means stop these people with whatever means necessary. These wannabe mullah dogs have done nothing but ruined Pakistan AND Islam.

Happy Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah

For all my Muslim brothers and sisters, have a happy Ramadan and make the best of it!

For all my Jewish brothers and sisters, have a great Rosh Hashanah!

And a wonderful blog post by Brother Umar Lee on the merits of Ramadan.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

I'm disgusted with neoconservatives

Yeah I know, how many times are you not disgusted with neocons? They like to slander and discredit those that they often disagree with. Apparently they cannot by any means resort to agreeing to disagreeing in a civil manner and move on.

This case is no different, where a woman who is accused of supposedly harboring terrorist sympathies is anything but. Samuel Freedman does an excellent job of deconstructing the lies the far-right have enacted simply because she is a Muslim. The fact that she did the following:

For anyone who bothered to look for it, Ms. Almontaser left a clear, public record of interfaith activism and outreach across the boundaries of race, ethnicity and religion. Her efforts, especially after the Sept. 11 attacks, earned her honors, grants and fellowships. She has collaborated so often with Jewish organizations that an Arab-American newspaper, Aramica, castigated her earlier this summer for being too close to a “Zionist organization,” meaning the Anti-Defamation League.

Ms. Almontaser has twice been profiled on Voice of America as an accomplished Muslim American. Her son, Yousif, spent several months on rescue efforts at ground zero as a member of the Army National Guard. Four of her nephews and cousins have served in the United States military in Iraq.


mattered nothing to these Islamophobic bigots, not even the fact that her family members FUCKING SERVED IN IRAQ! They had more guts to fight a war than these armchair generals have done. Then again, they slandered John McCain and Senator John Kerry (politics withstanding, you should never slander those who had enough guts to serve their country). She has done more to promote tolerance and respect for all yet what do these anti-Islamic scumbags accomplish? Breeding more hate for the sake of generating more hits for their pathetic blogs in which they spread their malicious lies to impressionable Americans.

These so-called "defenders of democracy and freedom" are truly the scum of this country. They are the reason why this country is so fucking polarized that their patriotism is in question. Not even Jon Stewart of the Daily Show is is immune from this. It seems like the right seems to hold a monopoly on who is American and who isn't. It's okay to wish another 9/11 to "unite the country" according to these kooks.

To Sister Debbie, do not give up by any means, and to anyone reading this blog entry, spread the word to fight the misconceptions and the slander that these bigots are spreading to further their agenda.

By all means do not let this go unnoticed. An accomplished member of society is being tarnished for lies being concocted by the lowest of the scum.

H/T: Tariq Nelson and Umar Lee

Why I love Lebanon

For some reason, Lebanon seems to amaze me. It is a country the size of New Jersey that holds 3.2 million people, all holding 17 different religious beliefs. It is a country that has been destroyed countless times yet managed to rebuild itself over and over, be it the 2006 Israel/Lebanon war, the '75-'90 Lebanese Civil War, the '58 instability (where US President Dwight D Eisenhower sent Marines at the time), the social upheaval in the 1860s-1870s, and so forth. One of the few countries where you'll find the youth wearing a necklace like this:



Also a country where despite a war that is being fought against the Islamist Fatah al-Islam, the Lebanese people still manage to live life to its fullest and not live a life of fear.

Where, yes, girls like this (pictured below) tend to support Hezbollah (which throws the whole Islamic credential out of the water):



Where the women, even if they are gorgeous, are more politically active than women in America.

Where it holds itself as a testament to how an Arab country can succeed economically without the need to pick up arms and fight (excluding Hezbollah, of course)

Where despite religious differences, people can still manage to have a drink and relax (not that I condone drinking as a Muslim, but I tend to let people do their own thing and let God be the judge)

How I wish other countries in the region can follow suit. Despite the flaws Lebanon has, it's still a better country than others in the region.

Beautiful Lebanon, don't lose your unique character.

Long Hiatus

It's been a while since I last made a post, and of course so much has happened since then, such as Virginia Tech, Lal Masjid, Tom Tancredo's call to nuke Mecca and Medina, Obama's call to invade Pakistan, the stoning of a Kurdish girl by Yezidi fanatics, the thwarted bomb plots in England committed by stupid disaffected Muslims, etc.

The reason why I did not update this blog is purely out of laziness. I stopped giving a shit about blogging since I was too lazy to express my opinions on a blog that very few people bothered to read about.

Now I'm thinking about moving to WordPress, but due to the decision by the Turkish court to ban all WordPress blogs, I have to reconsider.

Even though school has started, I will try my best to update this blog as much as possible with relevant material. That means you will very rarely, if ever, find blog posts about my personal life since it is highly irrelevant to this blog and moreso about the events that affect us worldwide.

For those who have waited patiently for a blog post (I doubt there are but just in case), I would like to apologize for my inactivity spurred by my laziness and lack of drive.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Photos from Hajj 1952

Found these photos from a friend of mine and thought they were mesmerizing to see how Hajj was 55 years ago. Photos courtesy of National Geographic:

Jeddah Airport



Sea route



Self-explanatory



Don't know who they are, but I like the fez



Arafah Plain





Day of Arafah



Coca-Cola, way before the boycott started



Jumratul



Shopping





I'm surprised they smoked the sheesha there at the time



Security



This is truly surreal, hard to believe this was just 54 years ago









From the source

Apologies for the light blogging

I have been a bit busy with other things in my life which have disabled my ability to update this blog on a regular basis. I will do my best to blog as much as possible despite the current situation I am experiencing.

In the meantime, I was saddened to hear of the verdict involved embattled Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem being sentenced to life for the mere crime of criticizing the Islamic faith. Now as a Muslim, I should theoretically be hostile towards those who are critical, but I should also exercise tact and respect towards the other. It's not like Kareem was some LGF idiot who advocated nuking Muslims or what not. According to Esra'a at MidEastYouth, he was relatively harmless and respectful towards others. It's no surprise to me that a majority of the supporters are practicing Muslims, who are also friends with him. I can't help but to respect the individual for putting up with his actions. Like him or hate him, you have to respect the fact that he is willing to take responsbility for his own actions and stand up for what he believes in.

I just hope that the state of democracy and freedom will not be given the back burner due to this setback.

May Allah swt help Abdel Kareem in his quest for freedom.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Very colorful portrait of Iranian society

What you will never get to see if Salafists take power:













I'm speechless of these photos. The idiots who talk about bombing Iran back to the Stone Age due to the idiocy of the regime should seriously reconsider.

H/T Sepantra

Hypocrisy by the Right (LGF, JW, FoxNews, etc.)

When word broke out that the shooter of the Trolly Square Mall in Salt Lake City was a Bosnian Muslim, the usual suspects from the right, such as Rush Limbaugh, Robert Spencer, and Charles Johnson, were marked with anger and tried foolishly to pin this shooting on an alleged wave of "Islamoterror". They also had the dubious distinction of complaining about how the MSM "intentionally" left out that he was a Muslim out of PC-ness they claim. Since when did identifying his religion become a factor? Only when it is a Muslim in question, apparently. When a BNP member assaults a Pakistani or black man in the UK, you won't ever see these fools ever campaign for the release of the suspect's religion.

That being said, the right is unusually silent when it comes to a white ex member of a notorious racist party that would make Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh look like a bunch of Jane Fonda liberals, the BNP, who was recently arrested in a plot to assasinate the Prime Minister and stockpile weapons in anticipation for civil war.

According to The Telegraph, a few things I would like to note about this individual in question:

An entry in Cottage's diary read: "Thought for the Day. The easiest way to save the country is to assassinate Tony Blair and when Prescott takes over shoot that f***** as well."

In addition to targeting Mr Blair, he spoke of wanting to shoot Lord Greaves, the Liberal Democrat peer


So they advocate murdering British PM Tony Blair, yet the right stay unusually silent about this.

Another interesting tidbit:

Police searched the couple's terrace home last September and found 21 chemicals that in various combinations could be turned into explosives. They also found large amounts of rice and sugar, both of which can be used in the manufacture of explosives, as well as crossbows, air pistols, ball-bearings and canisters filled with petrol


I remember when the Canadian Muslims who were caught in a plot to commit the worst attack in Toronto, the media was nonstop in their coverage when the weapons and fertilizer were discovered, yet again, where is the non-stop coverage when a huge stash of weapons is discovered by a white Christian male?

And finally:

"He is very religious and has become more and more so. He doesn't attend church. He prays to God all the time, he says, in his head."


God forbid! He was very religious with a stash of weapons, so it could mean one thing: he must be one of them "Mohammadans"! Only in this case, he was a zealous Christian who had some apocalyptic dreams of a civil war in Britain.

Yet the Bosnian teen shooter never prayed and been to a mosque, and you have reactionary fools from LGF, JW, and MPJ jumping on the news of him being a Muslim.

So you have someone who had potential to do some deadly damage on the scale of the July 7th attacks in 2005, yet the media turns a blind eye towards it, and the right do not utter a word about this.

Yet the far right bitch and moan about the supposed PC efforts in the Trolley Square murders.

Now how's that for hypocrisy?

The right should put their money where their mouth is and stop being such hypocrites when it comes to press honesty, because last I checked, they only choose what suits them for their agenda and discard it when it doesn't.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Jeremy Clarkson exposes American hypocrisies on sensitivity

The fine lads at BBC Two's Top Gear (which is only aired in the UK, but easily available via Bittorrent) came out with a new episode where they make it to America. From their journey in FL to Alabama and then to the shithole known as New Orleans, they document their activities in the American heartland where Bush, the Bible, and homophobia runs dominant in those neck of the woods.

This clip from the recent episode has got to be the funniest stuff I have ever seen in ages. Words can't describe the awesomeness of what they have done.

So before you go criticize the Muslims for having their sensitivities hurt, keep this video clip in mind and realize that even Bible-thumping right-wing incest-loving Christians in the Deep South also respond with violent force when their views are being contradicted by "outsiders".

I swear to God, the Deep South would be a perfect place for conservative Muslims ironically, since it is very religious and homophobia runs rampant there. Personally I wouldn't give a shit if the South was carpet bombed a thousand times, but that's just me. They are the biggest disgrace to America, bar none.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Australian PM's comments about Barack Obama

Australian Prime Minister John Howard made a comment about hopeful Democratic candidate Barack Obama and the consequences of what his win would entail on the war on terrorism. Howard argues that Obama's plan to withdraw American troops by March 2008 would inspire al-Qaeda in Iraq to breed more recruits. I couldn't help but to note the absurdity of his comment towards him.

First of all, Howard is wrong that a withdrawal from Iraq would breed more terrorists than what it is currently. The Iraq quagmire has already influenced al-Qaeda to recruit more impressionable people into its fold moreso than prior to the Iraq war. Many intelligence reports, such as this one by BBC News support the assertion that the war on Iraq continues to fuel terror around the world. The 7/7 attacks in London a year and a half ago further attest to the increased terror, especially so since the perpretrators of the atrocity cited the war in Iraq as their motivation for the action.

Second, al-Qaeda has actually endorsed Bush in the 04 elections by stating:

"We are very keen that Bush does not lose the upcoming elections."
The statement said Abu Hafs al-Masri needs what it called Bush's "idiocy and religious fanaticism" because they would "wake up" the Islamic world."We are very keen that Bush does not lose the upcoming elections."


This is quite ironic since it is coming from a pro-Bush news source as so the pro-war camp cannot accuse Fox News of holding a liberal bias now.

And third, Mr. Howard would be furious if a Democrat were to comment about the elections in Australia, so perhaps he should keep his opinions to himself about the Democratic candidates in America.

Finally, Obama said it best about Mr. Howard:

“If he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq,” Mr. Obama said. “Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.”

Sunday, February 04, 2007

More Iraqis dead in the latest carnage

More Iraqis continue to die from the hands of suicide bombers

Words absolutely cannot describe my anger towards the bastards that perpretrated this act, but I must attempt it to convey my feelings towards these barbarians. Day after day, night after night, deranged suicide bomberz continues to murder innocent Iraqis, and I am sick and outraged at the lack of outrage towards these cowards by the Arab and Muslim world. We all know how the Muslim world engages in an uproar over the stupid Danish cartoons, the dumb Pope's opinion on Islam, or a group of non-Muslims insulting the Qu'ran, yet when these animals twist God's words into a gospel of hatred and violence to murder innocent people, Muslims around the world are conspicously silent. Many Muslims are too busy cursing the U.S. and the rest of the non-Muslim world for its abuses against other Muslims, yet not giving a shit about the rise of extremism in Muslim societies, from Casablanca to Cairo to Karachi to Jakarta. They start protesting in droves when the Danish cartoonists insult our Prophet, but when a group of piece of crap extremists from England distort the message of our Prophet for their own ends, no fatwas are apparent, nor the massive amount of protests against these people. When a thousand year old Islamic shrine is bombed, again, there is a lack of outrage in comparison to the Newsweek Qu'ran article, the Danish cartoons, or even the Pope's comments about Islam(which should've been ignored instead of whining like little bitches about it). Does there have to be another attack on their home countries to get the message to their heads, as was the case in Amman, Jordan in November 11, 2005? I am just simply ashamed and disgusted at the lack of attention and disgust displayed towards these animals by the Arab/Muslim world.

When will al-Jazeera start displaying the brutality espoused by the terrorists in Iraq, instead of glorifying them? When will Muslim leaders such as Sheikh Tantawi of al-Azhar in Egypt or Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi in Qatar come out and excommunicate these demonic savages for twisting the name of Islam for their own personal ends? When will the Arab and Muslim world take a good look at themselves and see what cultural suicide they are engaging in? Instead of teaching their children to be educated and succeed in the modern world, and never to promote mischief, instead they are being brainwashed by impressionable imams to declare takfir and murder anyone who disagrees with their twisted ideology.

Tell me, what is the crime of these Iraqis who were murdered savagely in Hilla the other day? What is the crime of the Iraqis who continously are victims of gross slaughter by the evil terroristic scum in Sadr City? What did they do to deserve this? Is it because they are Shi'a, a sect that most Muslims believe is heretical and deviant because they are different? Is being a Shi'a a crime far worse than anyone could conceive in Iraq? Not just Iraq, but this sectarian disease is spreading to other Muslim countries, such as Bahrain, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, to a lesser extent.


The news in Iraq continues to break my heart as each day passes by, as more Iraqis are maimed by these evil forces. I feel utterly helpless as children and women continue to suffer by these opportunistic devils. They claim to care about liberating the Iraqi nation (and the Ummah), but instead dwelve into their carnal lust of slaughtering innocents.
I don't know what else to say about Iraq, other than being a lost cause, because it is extremely difficult to be optimistic about Iraq when news such as this breaks out every single day. To those who believe Iraq is not in a civil war, open your eyes and see it for yourself.
Until the Arab and Muslim world come to their senses and stop displaying selective outrage towards incidents that suit them, they will continue to engage in intellectual, cultural, and unfortunately, religious suicide because while they claim to be devout Muslims, they are in fact running astray from Islam. I guess a 30 Year War is indeed possible in the near future.

God help us all.