On the Burqa debate.

” I detest the covering of a woman’s face because… in a very disturbing way it associates increased piety with the disappearance of women from society” Mona Eltahawy

I couldnt agree more.

A clip from the short Egyptian film Lili, actor Amr Waked plays the role of a new Imam of a masjid located in a poor district where drugs and prostitution are rife. He sets out to guide the people of the district but he first has to overcome his own weakness, his sexual desire for the beautiful Lili. With English subtitles

The leaders of  Hamas have come out to declare victory in Gaza against the Israelis. Can you imagine Israeli leaders telling their people they are the winners after more than one thousand of their citizens being killed and infrastructure brought to ruins? They simply will not accept it, the 2006 war with Lebanon was unpopular in Israel because of the human loss they suffered. So why do we insult the people of Gaza by telling them that they are on the winning side? We do not respect and value human life. We have allowed the clerics and politicians for many years to come on our TVs and glorify death instead of life, death equals martydom they tell us and martydom is living in eternal bliss next to the Prophet (pbuh) and the Sahaba. The more blood spilt according to them the more blessing the land of Gaza will receive from God.  Being killed by the enemy is better than dying in the hands of other Muslims, at least you get to be labelled “a martyr”. So why complain when they are being killed? If you love death then of course you will think Hamas emerged victorious.

Nizar Rayan is now considered to be a hero and a martyr because he chose to stay home rather than try and save his children and wives, crazy huh? The extremists culture of death ideology is victorious today.

American Obama
His father is an African migrant who abandoned him in his childhood.
 A minority lawyer who is active in human rights within the Democratic Party
Was elected president of the United States of America!

Arab Obama
No family whatsoever, vagabond
A slave with a dark complexion and has a foreign agenda
He can’t even dream of getting an Arab citizenship

“The car ride to the White House”

My sister is registered on a matrimonial Muslim site and received the following message from a man looking for a second wife and who has 5 children:

 salaamu alaikum ,
i am a salafi brother , 35 years old , i am living and working MashaAllah in Saudie arabie, Mekkah , i make the Hijrah 5 years ago MashaAllah , i am working like a english teacher in the day and like a sport & recreation instructor in the night .

 My Sheykhs are : Sheykh rabiee , Sheykh Abdul Muhsin , Sheykh Fawzaan , Sheykh Albaani , Sheykh Uthaimeen , Sheykh Bin Baaz and all the other Salafi Sheykhs .

 I follow the true Aqiedah and Manhaj , the Qoran and the Sunnah according to the understanding of the pious / righteous predecessors , i have a beard and wear my clothes above the ankle including the work trousers , i have been on the Salafi dawah now for 7 years MashaAllah , i am looking for a pious salafi sister who adheres to the command of Allah and His Messenger ( saw ) above all else , to be my second wife jazakalaahukhairan .

I confess in my believe that the Most Gracious Allah rose over (istiwa)the (Mighty)Throne really in a matter that suits His Majesty and i confess in my believe in Tauwhid ( Islamic Monotheism .

 May Allah forgive our sins and Bless us with Takwa and Protect us against all evil , May Allah also make it easy for all of us to do rightious deeds ,Amin.

My sister and I never heard of any of those sheikhs and how they are relevant to his profile, I do not know. I dislike this cult like mentality where people are hooked on every word of the cult leaders (in this case the sheikhs) and pointing out the length of time they have been a salafi. It’s almost as if to say that before salafiya they were practically non Muslims. Being a salafi is nothing more than being on the path of the sunnah, however its so called followers are portraying it as a sect with a different ideology than traditonal Islam. Their excessive focus and preoccupation  with Sufis and Shias is inconsequential and bring no benefit to them. The only benefactors are the Ruling family who are concerned with the influence of the external forces such as the Shias. Anyone who thinks outside the box faces the wrath of the scholars who label them as deviants and innovators. This keeps the people submissive and maintains power structure. I do not consider moving to Saudi Arabia as hijra because you are recognized as a foreigner and do not have full civic rights unlike nationals. The contribution and ties to the society other than working there is limited. Many expatriates also return to their country when their children finish education because of the lack of employment opportunities and the second class status of their children. The concept of hijra in today’s world is applicable to the Jewish people who acquire Israeli citizenship and gain equal social and civil rights.

Marriage is the union of two people to form one family and this is the main reason I am against the practice of polygamy. It is irresponsible for a man living in a foreign land and supporting five children on a teacher’s salary would seek to create a second family. Even if he has enough money to get a second wife he should be investing it on his children’s education and future. The motivation behind getting a second wife is sex. Children also need quality time with their parents and leaving that to the wife while he is busy forming another family shows his recklessness. Not only is it an unattractive look to have your clothes above your ankle but it doesn’t say anything meaningful about your level of piety or personality. I have a friend who is an African Carribean convert, he is educated, has a good job and is a practising Muslim, but some sisters overlook those qualities and focus on the length of his beard and whether he can quote from the right salafi sheikhs. Their way of establishing the suitability of a marriage partner FOR LIFE is asking questions such as “Where is Allah? Who and Where are the Ulamaa” Do you wear a thobe?”

It is ironic that those acclaimed salafi men (like the one above) state that they are looking for a salafi woman, yet they contact non hijabis!!!!!!

Often, when we discuss issues of racism, discrimination or women’s rights we tend to make comparisons between the West and Muslim countries. The focus is mainly on the different forms of racism that exist or which society is considered to be more discriminatory. Racism is a universal problem, but what differentiates the West from the Muslim world is that it has adopted laws, policies and provisions that safeguard citizens from discrimination. The laws promote equality and diversity. Racial equality in the West is not perfect but it has progressed steadily partly due to the society and culture being one which is open to change and is able to learn from criticism. The mechanisms put in place against discrimination such as a complaint system and accountability can be exercised by everyone who is affected by it. Even somewhere like France, in which there is default racism by virtue of the fact that ethnic monitoring is not conducted, it is my contention that the failure partly exists with the ethnic minorities themselves. It is an immutable fact of power dynamics that powers will only concede to the weak when either they have a pang of conscience or alternatively they are forced to acknowledge the grievances of the weaker group. France’s minorities have not used to their advantage the democratic and legal system in order to allow for the safeguarding of their rights and to address their grievances. Considering there are 7 million ethnic minorities in France, they have failed to capitalize on their numbers in the same way minorities in the UK, US and Canada have. 

In Muslim countries however legislation in this area are in some cases non existent, deficient, inadequate and can prove near impossible to enforce. Discrimination is imposed by the government through regulations, for example in Malaysia there are prejudiced policies against non-Malays in employment, housing, education etc. The marginalisation of Shias in Saudi and their exclusion from positions of power in their regions is another example of this. In Dubai it is not unusual to come across job adverts asking for “fair complexion” employees or people of specific religion or nationality. There are few provisions or recourse mechanisms to ensure that individuals grievances are resolved, let alone acknowledged. In fact it could be argued that the concepts of ‘discrimination’ and ‘mistreatment’ are perceived as ‘Western’ value impositions, not real matters that require considering. Sadly the people who are usually at the receiving end of discrimination share the viewpoint that maintains racism and discrimination. So there isn’t a desire to minimize or eradicate racism and discrimination per se, just racism and discrimination against themselves (ala Mahatma Gandhi). Gandhi’s struggle against racism in South Africa was exclusively to ensure his people received preferential treatment to blacks. He opposed racist legislation against the Upper caste Indians in order that they were not degraded to the level of the “raw Kaffir”( blacks). The greatest winners in the discrimination game are the ones who perhaps would be most ardent in challenging it if they themselves were affected by it i.e. Caucasians.

I was watching the trailer of the new Arab reality TV series “The Hydra Executives” which is similar to the Apprentice. The winner of the show will be given $1 million to set up their own real estate business. The creator of the show is Sulaiman Al Fahim, CEO of Hydra Properties in UAE and the contestants they have chosen to compete are eight Americans and eight British. The producers of the show are sending out a message which is- fellow Arabs need not apply, don’t deserve such a big prize and are incapable of achievement, unlike white people of course. Wouldn’t it be absurd if the next season of the American Apprentice, Donald Trump actively sought out sixteen contestants consisting simply of Saudis and Jordanians? Yet the Arab people are fed this rubbish and are expected to watch and lap it up. There is an unwritten but generally practiced rule that people of a particular ethnicity are suited for particular roles only and are paid according to their nationality. The Saudi TV presenter and writer Lubna Hussain in an article talked about her own experience of racism and being replaced by a Westerner in a job.

There was indeed a flaxen-haired woman who had been appointed as my replacement. It came as no surprise that she didn’t even hold a degree, had been offered double my salary and was allowed to reside in an entirely different country altogether! Gentlemen really do prefer blondes it seems.

 I suppose the aspect that upset me the most about this hideous episode is how as a nation we have no confidence in the ability of our own people. We have this innate belief that anyone of Caucasian descent must somehow be superior to us regardless of education, talent or intellect. Even if we possess some of the most brilliant minds in the world, we relegate the task of discovering and nurturing them to other countries. Many people disillusioned with this brand of arrogance and contempt for anything local have left the Kingdom seeking and receiving their due share of glory elsewhere.

I sat next to a Brit on a plane once as I was flying in from the UK. We struck up a cordial conversation and I asked him where he worked.

“I’m head of an electrical engineering department,” he sheepishly replied, evidently embarrassed at the grandiose title of his job.

“That’s really impressive,” I remarked. “Where did you study electrical engineering?” I casually enquired. I was shocked by his follow-up confession.

“You would not believe this. I used to be an electrician in Derby. When I applied for a similar job here, they made me head of the whole department! I told the guys that I wasn’t an engineer and that there were loads of Pakistanis and Indians under me who were more qualified to boot, but they’d have none of that.”

The frequent irony of the whole situation is that it is more often than not the Westerners themselves who are appalled by such behavior. They have a harder time fathoming this unwritten rule than we do. One of them had once asked me if I had been subjected to much racism while I lived in London. My response was, “I never encountered true racism until I arrived back.”

Living in the West, one constantly encounters some individuals who are strong proponents of mass hijra and they always paint a picture of the West being the place of fasad whilst giving a rosy picture of Muslim countries as the “lands of tawheed”. If you are going to instruct people to uproot from their native country to another land present them with the full picture.

An article by the Egyptian writer Tarek Heggy.

The Drama of  The “Islamists”

 I have often tried to imagine a scenario in which what I call the ‘Islamists’ will have achieved all their objectives. The scenario assumes that Osama bin Laden or someone like him get their way and proceed to impose their vision of what the Muslim world should be on the rest of us. The principal features of this vision can be summed up in the following:

But whether the first scenario prevails or the second, the big question remains the same: why the suffering, the spilt blood, the violence and destruction, the pain, anxiety and misery? I laugh bitterly to myself as I answer the question: for the sake of power! The only difference between the two scenarios I mention and other possible scenarios is who holds power. In the two scenarios, power will lie with the ‘Islamists’. In a scenario where things remain as they are, the answer is obvious. But there is another scenario which assumes that Muslim societies will opt for development, progress and democracy, in which case power will lie with the people who will exercise it through their duly elected representatives. Unfortunately, this last scenario is not receiving serious consideration in political circles.

The departure of the West, particularly the United States, from Muslim lands.

The removal of the kings and presidents now in power for being what bin Laden and his ilk see as agents of the Great Satan, a.k.a. the United States.

The takeover of power by Osama bin Laden or someone like him, the reinstatement of the Caliphate, the annulment of organic law and the adoption of Islamic Shari’a.

I close my eyes and try to visualize where this would lead. Such a scenario can only unfold in one of two possible ways.One is that it will lead to the complete isolation of the Muslim world from the non-Muslim world in all spheres, scientific, economic, military and cultural. When I take the image further, I see Islamic societies transformed into vast seas of humanity with little knowledge of science or of how its application in various fields can improve the quality of life on earth. Of course, this matters little to a Muslim who is more concerned with what happens to him in the afterlife than he is with his lot in this life, which is but an instant in the greater scheme of things, a passage to the hereafter. Under political Islam, these societies will be densely populated because their rulers will tell them that the Shari’a enjoins Muslims to multiply as this will make the Prophet proud of them on Judgement Day.

The living standard of the members of these societies, which will have boycotted sacrilegious Western science, will be dismal in all respects, economic, medical and scientific. But this too is unimportant, because the material world is of little significance to the devout Muslim, who considers life to be but a short bridge he must traverse to reach either Heaven (with its flowing streams, succulent fruits and black-eyed houris), or Hell (with its raging fires). So intensely do I focus on this imaginary scenario that I sometimes manage to conjure up actual images, when my closed eyelids become a screen on which scenes of pitiful suffering and insurmountable problems are projected. I see Muslims staging raids on the world of the infidels and the infidels retaliating in kind, their advanced weapons raining widespread devastation on the Muslim world and turning it into an empty wasteland where backwardness and chaos reign supreme. For the Muslims, who do not manufacture their own weapons but are forced to buy them from their more advanced enemies, have no way of defending themselves against the sophisticated weapons used against them.

I can practically hear the imams in the mosques assuring their congregations that God inflicted the defeat on them to test their faith, and that if they pass the test He would send them a miraculous victory. Thundering from their mimbars, they will paint a rosy picture of the Muslims triumphing over the unbelievers, ending their sermon by calling on God to wreak death and destruction on the pagan Christians and their Jewish lackeys.

As to the second scenario, it assumes that the leaders of political Islam, after achieving the objectives mentioned at the beginning of this article, will not set out to isolate the Muslim from the non-Muslim world. Instead, they will deal with the unbelievers in accordance with an established maxim of Islamic jurisprudence which holds that “necessity overrides taboos.” In this scenario, there will be extensive transactions with the non-Muslim world in all sectors: economic, scientific, social, industrial, services and agricultural. The acquisition of knowledge will be a high priority goal on the grounds that Muslims “must seek knowledge, even in China.” When I use my modest knowledge of politics, history and modern management to try and envisage where this scenario will lead, I find myself laughing aloud, because it will inevitably take Muslim communities back to where they stood a century ago when it came to dealing with non-Muslims: one party learning from the other, one party buying from the other, one party trying to catch up with the other.

That is a reference to Condoleezza Rice by the comedian, pro-black dictator Colonel Qadafi. Qadhafi’s warm words for Rice is intended in my opinion to have  a dig and gloat at Arab leaders for being “ordered” around by a black woman. He is able to say what the average man on the streets of the Middle East feels. With English subtitles

I want to use this blog to write about issues that matter to me, my first subject is about sexual harassment. I lived in Sanaa, the capital city of Yemen for seven years as a teenager and then moved to the UK. As a woman it is difficult to escape from sexual harassment, men masturbating in narrow alleyways, rubbing themselves against women in markets and crowded buses, shopkeepers asking you to come to the back of the shop was all too common an experience. I can’t count the amount of times I saw men attempt to expose their private parts to me. I have had men whisper to me “beautiful”, do you want cock”. When I talk to female friends and relatives who lived in Yemen about this issue they all have a story to tell. The incident two years ago where mobs of men went on a sexual assault frenzy in Cairo sparked a debate as to the causes of harassment. The high unemployment among the youth who spend most of their time in cafes watching raunchy music videos, diffculty in getting married were some of the reasons given . This might apply to Egypt but not Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

The problem in Yemen and Saudi in my opinion stems from the sexual objectification of women and a culture that views them as inferior, not only are they physically weaker but intellectually and morally inferior. A woman’s function and existence is one of sexual pleasure for men. This is the reason why a woman always needs a guardian in their eyes, if left alone she would fall into sexual sin and be a public fitna. It is not uncommon in Yemen to see a mother walking behind her 13 year old son who is her guardian. A woman is an incomplete human (muwadin nakhis) who is defined and judged in light of her sexuality, she should not appear on TV because of her feminine shape, she should not speak in public because her voice is awra (shameful) etc.

The strict segregation is part of the cause as well, it creates lack of interaction and familiarity between the sexes. I consider it unhealthy that relatives for example cannot mingle with each other, instead females retreat hastily in another room if a man is approaching without even a greeting. Curtains are used to separate the sexes when talking to each other, those situations sexualise a perfectly normal environment. Any interaction between the sexes is deemed to be sexual. Rather than letting sexuality develop naturally, men are raised to see women as sexual objects and have unhealthy views towards sex. In one of the arab cafes in my city there is a homosexual guy from the Gulf who dresses as a woman but everyone knows he is a man. This guy receives so much attention from some arab men who ask for his phone number or to take him out. He explained that as a transvestite other men consider him to be loose and willing to offer them quick sex, being a man was not important to them as long as they are able to get sex. It is no surprise that a majority of men in arab gay chatrooms are from Saudi.

The excessive covering of women with a niqab and hand gloves adds to the sexualisation of women, the columnist Yasmin Brown wrote “these coverings are physical manifestations of the pernicious idea of women as carriers of Original Sin, whose faces or hair turn Muslim men into predators. In truth, half-naked women and veiled women are both solely defined by sexuality. One group proffers it, the other withholds it. A young girl in a boob tube and a young girl in a hijab are both symbols of unhealthy sexual objectification“. I dont believe that the niqab or hijab alone sexualise women but it does have a negative effect in a culture where women are considered to be inferior in every sense of the word. It is this attitude towards women that has caused the death of 15 girls in Mecca when religious police stopped them leaving a burning school because they were not properly dressed.

I have written about this topic because I hear many muslims in the West going on and on about women in the West being portrayed as sexual objects and try to paint a rosy picutre of muslim countries. Some converts and second/third generation muslims in the West try to imitate and import Saudi culture and lifestyle through fatawa without understanding the damaging potential consequences of their behavior. It’s important that we strike a middle and balanced ground in order to have a healthy society and when pursuing virtue not achieve the opposite.