I feel very uncomfortable about the pop culture which is growing around some so-called Nasheed artists. Of course I use the term Nasheed artists' very lightly. Islamic boy bands' and Muslim popsters' would probably be more appropriate.
Eminent scholars throughout history have often opined that music is haram, and I don't recall reading anything about the Sahaba whooping it up to the sound of music. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for people letting off steam, but in a dignified manner and one which is appropriate to their surroundings.
The reason I am expressing concern is that just a few days ago at a venue in Central London, sisters went wild in the aisles as some form of pop-mania swept through the concert venue. And I'm not just talking about silly, little girls who don't know any better; I am talking about sisters in their 20's, 30's and 40's, who squealed, shouted, swayed and danced. Even the security guys who looked more like pipe cleaners than bulldozers were left looking dazed and confused as they tried to stop hijabi sisters from standing on their chairs. Of course the stage groupies did not help at all as they waved and encouraged the largely female Muslim crowd to "get up and sing along." (They're called Fluffers' in lap-dancing circles!)
The source of all this adulation was British-born Sami Yusuf, who is so proud of his claret-colored passport that he wants us all to wave the Union Jacks. I'm amazed he didn't encourage his fans to sing "Land of Hope and Glory." Brother Sami asked his audience to cheer if they were proud to be British ,and when they responded loudly, he said he couldn't hear them and asked them to cheer again.
How can anyone be proud to be British? Britain is the third most hated country in the world. The Union Jack is drenched in the blood of our brothers and sisters across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Our history is steeped in the blood of colonialism, rooted in slavery, brutality, torture, and oppression. And we haven't had a decent game of soccer since we lifted the World Cup in 1966.
Apparently Sami also said one of the selling points of Brand UK was having Muslims in the Metropolitan Police Force! Astafur'Allah! Dude, these are the same cops who have a shoot-to-kill policy and would have gunned down a Muslim last year if they could tell the difference between a Bangladeshi and a Brazilian. This is the same police force that has raided more than 3000 Muslim homes in Britain since 9/11. What sort of life is there on Planet Sami, I wonder? If he is so proud to be British, why is he living in the great Middle Eastern democracy of Egypt?
Apparently the sort of hysteria Sami helped encourage is also in America, and if it is happening on both sides of the Atlantic, then it must be creeping around the globe and poisoning the masses. Islamic boy bands like 786 and Mecca 2 Medina are also the subject of the sort of female adulation you expect to see on American Pop Idol or the X-Factor. Surely Islamic events should be promoting restrained and more sedate behavior.
Do we blame the out-of-control sisters? Or do we blame the organizers for allowing this sort of excessive behavior which demeans Islam? Or do we blame the artists themselves?
Abu Ali and Abu Abdul Malik, struggling for their Deen, would certainly not try to whip up this sort of hysteria. Neither would the anonymous heroic Nasheed artists who sing for freedom; check out Idhrib Ya Asad Fallujah, and you will know exactly what I mean.
Fallujah is now synonymous with the sort of heroic resistance that elevated the Palestinians of Jenin to the ranks of the resistance written about in the Paris Communeand the Siege of Leningrad. The US military has banned the playing of any Nasheeds about Fallujah because of the power and the passion it evokes.
If those Nasheeds had sisters running in the streets whooping and dancing, however, the Nasheeds may be encouraged because of haram activity surrounding them.
Quite frankly, I really don't know how anyone in the Ummah can really let go and scream and shout with joy at pleasure domes when there is so much brutality and suffering going on in the world today. The rivers of blood flow freely from the veins of our brothers and sisters from across the Muslim world.
Screaming and shouting the names of musical heroes drown out the screams coming from the dungeons of Uzbekistan where brothers and sisters are boiled alive in vats of water. How many will jump up and down and wave their arms in the air, shouting wildly for justice for our kin in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, and Iraq? There are many more killing fields as well across the Asian and Arab world. Will you climb on theater chairs and express your rage over Guantanamo Bay and other gulags where our brothers and sisters are being tortured, raped, sodomized, beaten, and burned? Or will you just switch off this concerned sister and switch on to the likes of Sami Yusuf because he can sell you a pipe dream with his soothing words and melodic voice?
Oh, Muslims, wake up! The Ummah is not bleeding; it is hemorrhaging.
Listen not to what is haram. Listen to the pain of your global family.
#2
This is an especially fine piece of demagoguery. People shouldn't be happy or having fun- they should be angry, upset, and seething. How dare they??
#4
Fallujah is now synonymous with the sort of heroic resistance that elevated the Palestinians of Jenin to the ranks of the resistance written about in the Paris Communeand
#5
I mean, how dare someone have fun when some theoretical "oppressed" person somewhere is suffering!! How dare someone be proud of citizenship in a country that is a large part of Western Civilization (especially one that is so hated, and has dragged its flag through the blood of said oppressed victims of colonization)!
Of course, this writer doesn't love this idealized Islam enough to actually, y'know, leave England, 'cause everyone knows those other countries are so totally gross and they don't even have Starbucks....
Tweak it a bit, and this mopey broad would fit right in with the Kos Kiddies.
Politics in Europe is the poorer after the brave MP was stripped of her Dutch citizenship
That Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the controversial Dutch MP, had dangerous enemies determined to kill her for her outspoken views on Islam was well known. What is surprising is that it is those closest to her who have now betrayed her. She has been the victim of misrepresentation and caricature, and become a pawn in a wider ideological battle.
Her latest battering came after a Dutch documentary film crew, which had gone to Kenya to interview various members of Hirsi Ali's family to unearth the story of her origins, misleadingly claimed to reveal that Hirsi Ali had lied about her country of origin and the arranged marriage from which she was fleeing when she arrived in Holland in 1992. It claimed she had not been forced into the marriage and that she therefore had nothing to flee from. When the film was shown on 11 May, it prompted the Immigration Minister to write a letter to Hirsi Ali stripping her of her Dutch citizenship.
Hirsi Ali had long ago alerted her party to the 'lie' in her 1992 asylum application. She had claimed to come from Somalia (where she lived as a child) because, being a wartorn country, it would qualify her for asylum. She has publicly stated several times she was ashamed of doing so. The truth was that she had lived for 10 years as a refugee in Kenya.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, her political ally and friend, and long aware of the facts, responded to the 'revelations' by revoking Hirsi Ali's citizenship. Verdonk, who has her eye on the leadership of the Liberal party, claimed she could not make exceptions for an MP.
Hirsi Ali certainly lied, but the exploitation of that lie by her detractors has been outrageous. The rules (and prejudices) surrounding asylum do not cater for female refugees fleeing the will of a family. They are designed for those fleeing a government or a war.
Her father had arranged her marriage to a distant cousin. Though she refused to turn up at the ceremony, the family signed the documents and she became legally married. 'My father is not a man who takes no for an answer,' she said.
En route to Canada to join her appointed husband, she applied for asylum in Holland, claiming she was from Somalia, believing that had she told the truth, she would have been returned to Kenya. So she lied and in a moving statement last week explained why.
'I felt I had no choice. I was frightened that if I simply said I was fleeing a forced marriage, I would be sent back to my family. And I was frightened that if I gave my real name, my clan would hunt me down and find me. So I chose the real name of my grandfather. I claimed my name was Ayaan Hirsi Ali, although I should have said it was Ayaan Hirsi Magan.'
And Hirsi Ali is surely right. A woman fleeing domestic oppression is unlikely to find her asylum claim a priority in any country.
Some see her as the victim of a growing anxiety in the Netherlands about immigration, to which Hirsi Ali herself has contributed. Others are determined to discredit her for her atheism, her rejection of Islam and her exposure of the way Muslim women are often forced to submit to their men.
But why, Hirsi Ali might ask, is it so difficult to forgive a falsified asylum application and so easy to ignore the abuses daily suffered by immigrant women? Such abuses include domestic violence, honour killings and genital mutilation, all practices which Hirsi Ali has witnessed directly as an interpreter for Somali women in Holland.
And yet, as the debate on immigration becomes polarised, in the Netherlands as in Britain, the left remains silent, fearing that to speak out would be anti-immigrant. At the same time, it is equally peculiar to hear elements of the right embracing women's liberation, the easier to bear down on Muslims.
Hirsi Ali's more nuanced views are frequently caricatured. She once questioned whether the morality of the Koran should apply literally in the 21st century, pointing out that Muhammad had been married to a nine-year-old and that that might be considered perverted today. Her words provoked the headline 'Hirsi Ali Calls the Prophet a Pervert'.
The conservative American Enterprise Institute has offered Hirsi Ali a job. She will not make life easy for her new colleagues and certainly oppose many of its views on social policy.
Instinctively anti-authoritarian, Hirsi Ali has always raised difficult questions. It is a tragedy that such a brave and honest figure has been forced out of European politics. And a deep irony that such an honest woman has been brought down by a necessary lie.
For some reason, I wasn't able to post under my usual nick today. My Netscape postings came up as Sheling Unomons1998 and my Explorer post came up as Whereng Elmomotch1978, so I'm going to see if the same is true in comments as well. The next comment will also be mine.
#1
I hope the Republican party gives us a better alternative than either of these two semi-RINOs.
Guiliani's pro-choice background would alienat a lot of the base. And McCain is too old - and too much of a self-centered grandstanding panderer.
I like Allen of Virginia. And Brownback of Kansas, Romney of Mass are OK, not sure if a NE moderate can win (Broawnbakc may bee to un-charismatice), especially carrying as a Mormon (which will lose him votes in some areas where it would be a close call, like Ohio and gainign alto where it doesnt matter like Utah). Any of those those teamed up with Condi in the VP slot might do well enough to win.
Complete losers?
Hagel (too liberal)
Guliani (too mcuh baggage)
Frist (jerk, part of the problem not solution in Senate - too weak kneed).
McCain (see above)
Pataki (too liberal)
Tancredo (love him on immigration though - way ahead of his time, but too single-issue)
Cheney - will not run. Retire justifiably, having given a lot to the nation
Owens (Colorado Gov) - blew it by having amessy divorce, and letting his state go Dem while he jacked off inthe Gov Mansion listneing to country club repubs and got outspend and outmanuvered by the liberal money boys in Boulder.
And finally,
Jeb Bush - any other cycle he'd be far and away the best candidate. Intelligent, well spoken, photogenic, solid record as governor, bery popular in the region, and respected outside the region.
But will not make it in 08, not right after his brother. Too much like "inherited" and apparenly the USis not ready to do dynasitic politics (excepting Mass and RI who will vote for a bag of oatmeal on a stick, as long as its related to or named Kennedy). He will only be 59 in 2012 and 63 in 2016 (probably his bet bet after a quick turn in the Senate). If Rice doesnt take the ticket in 08, he might come on as a VP.
Right now though, the best winnign combo the Republicans can have is Allen-Rice in 2008.
That will throw shockwaves into the whole political system.
And if that doenst work. assuming Blackwell is elected Gov of Ohio, he would be the logical 2012 candidate.
#2
Great analysis there OS. I don't know much about Allen, guess it's time to start researching. Off the top I thought it would be a Giuliani/Rice ticket. In either ticket they should put Rice in and lock up the elections for years.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/21/2006 9:19 Comments ||
Top||
#4
There will be debates, and we will all hear how they each handle the problems. What we need to do is recognize that some problems are not as important as others. WOT, for example is # 1 with me, followed by borders, taxes, property rights, out of control spending, poorly focused education system, tort reform, corruption, an so on. I didn't mention abortion, or gay marriage, because they are small potatoes by comparison.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
