Bring your own Shisha

Rachel Corrie died almost 2.5 years ago under a bulldozer. A hideous industrial accident you might think. She was on a construction site and fell under the bulldozer. Of course this construction site was for the construction of settlements in the Gaza Strip.

One eyewitness states:

“If he’d stopped at this point, he may have only broken her legs, but he continued forward, which pulled her underneath the bulldozer. We ran towards him, and waved our arms and shouted, one activist with the megaphone. But the bulldozer driver continued forward, until Rachel was underneath the central section of the bulldozer. At this point, it was more than clear that she was nowhere but underneath the bulldozer, there was simply nowhere else she could have been, as she had not appeared on either side of the bulldozer, and could not have stayed in front of it that long without being crushed. Despite the obviousness of her position, the bulldozer began to reverse, without lifting its blade, and drug the blade over her body again. He continued to reverse until he was on the boarder strip, about 100 meters away, and left her crushed body in the sand.”

Two years on, a memorial concert in Alaska has had to be cancelled, ‘due to safety concerns for the performers’. According to the blog for the main piece of music to be played,

“The composer and soprano had received email and telephone threats.”

It is now due to be premiered at the Hackney Empire in London on Tuesday 1st November.

People have differing opinions as to what the ISM (of which Rachel was a member) actually do. Some say they offer support for terrorist/freedom fighter/suicide bomber organizations and some say they are a

peace organisation.

More Info: http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Acid. The word conjures up various images.

For some, its that discomfort in the stomach after a heavy meal. For others it is the stuff you find in science labs in school. But for a few, it is a horrible reminder of their life. Everytime they look in the mirror they see the word Acid.

In the ‘developed’ world, the sale of acids are severely controlled due to the simple fact that they are so dangerous. But in the developing world, such controls are not in place. So it is relatively to buy concentrated forms of acid and use them to attack whom you wish. Invariably it is women who suffer such attacks.

As UNICEF define them:

“In an acid attack, a man throws acid (the kind found in car batteries) on the face of a girl or woman. Any number of reasons can lead to acid attacks. A delayed meal or the rejection of a marriage proposal is offered as justification for a man to disfigure a woman with acid. Sulfuric acid is ubiquitous, being the basic, inexpensive ingredient for making lead acid batteries in all motorized vehicles all over the world. There does not appear to be any way of reducing its availability in any way.”

To use Bangladesh as an example, 2003 saw over 400 attacks reported. Pakistan has had almost 1000 attacks reported by Human Rights Watch. But this is not simply a south asian problem. Africa is seemingly suffering the same problem with Nigeria,Uganda and other areas of sub-saharan Africa leading the field.

The Acid Survivors Trust is an organisation who work with local support groups for survivors of such attacks to give them the confidence to rejoin general society and speak out against this heinous crime.

Here are a few more linkys for articles on this issue (Warning some of the images may upset):

“She was born a girl and that’s why she had to pay the penalty; her father tried to kill her by pouring acid into her mouth.”

“Monira’s Story“

Ok, my last few posts have been a little heavy of late. So to lighten the mood, and also because I am strongly resisting the temptation of a Ice Cold Mocha Frappucino for both health and ethical reasons, here are 2 little cartoons about our ‘favourite’ coffee vendor.

Warning: NSFW due to bad language, or use headphones and make sure there are no kids or easily offended people around.

Ban the Qur’an.

So now we are gearing up for a glorified turf war: Christian Fundamentalists Vs Muslim Fundamentalists. I love it.

If we are going to take literals, then lets look at the New Testament (Luke 19:27 and also Matthew 27:24 onwards). Basically how can we look at the minute details of any faith out of context and then decide to condemn the whole essence of that faith. All three of the Abrahamic faiths fundamentally ask for the following of One God.

All I can say is that we should be prepared for some fun. Just batten down the hatches and keep yourself to yourself, this will help us understand each other much more efficiently and will promote understanding & integration. One point to remember, fear and misunderstanding breeds hatred. That is common knowledge and does not change.

Joseph/Yusuf/Yosef is a prophet in the Abrahamic religions. For the purposes of this post I will use the name Yusuf as that is what I’m used to. Interestingly the essence of Yusuf’s story is not vastly different between the 3 religions.

He was the son of Jacob/Yaqub, one of several sons, but the favourite and so his brothers plotted to kill him, but they amended it to exiling him. This happened to him while he was a boy. He was sold into the slave market in Egypt, where he was bought for a nominal sum. Then he fell victim to the attempted seduction by a great man’s wife who, when her wish was foiled, sent him to prison, where he remained for some time. In spite of all of this, he at length approached close to the Egyptian throne and became the king’s chief minister. Eventually he found his brothers at his mercy and chose forgive.

So why do I recount this story? Well to my mind it seems that this is one which should be closely looked at by British Muslims and other Muslims in the West. The times that beset them are difficult. But if you look at this story, you should see one simple thing. That Yusuf integrated into the society in which he found himself. He became so much a part of it that he found himself in a position of authority. But once in that position, he did not then seek to abuse this power and take revenge on those who wronged him. He sought to forgive and move on. He got on with life and brought himself closer to his God.

More stories of the Quranic Prophets here.

More stories of the Biblical Prophets here.

Why fear the Muslims?

<sarcasm>Because if they catch you breaking their car windows, ‘they might eat your children.’ Heathens tend to do that you know. Eat the children of normal people. </sarcasm>

Seriously though, during Fajr* prayer this morning at my local mosque, someone decided to break a couple of car windows. At 6 in the morning! So basically the people who run the mosque informed the Police, the MCB, and the Islamic Human Rights Commission, as all these bodies want to keep a record of these crimes.

But essentially I am upset by this as in all honesty, I have never really been a victim of racial abuse, and to experience this now, it’s quite jarring. I hate to admit it, it may be something that we have to live with for the next couple of decades. Why a couple of decades, well I think back to how race relations were in the 80s and how this dominated society, especially after the Brixton and Broadwater Farm riots.

*Fajr, for my non-muslim readers, is the prayer just before dawn when its cold and you cant be bothered to get out of bed, but you do because it is an act of worship in itself. Basically the first prayer of the day.

So we are now being subjected to what I call the MFF (Muslim Fear Factor). It can be summarised as ‘Don’t piss off the Muslims ‘cos they might bomb ya’.

Is this a form of Islamophobia (what a horrible word)?

Eating the flesh of the swine is haraam. Simple. Not looking at a pig. Not touching a pig. Not even thinking of a pig! In fact even less haraam* is looking at an effigy of pig. What is Winnie The Pooh without piglet? What will happen to kiddies who want to watch ‘Babe’? Will flying pigs be subject to Air Traffic Control procedures?

So banning any pig shaped items in the office is the almost preemptive strike taken by the Dudley Council in order to stop anyone else getting offended. Oh Purrrrleeeaase!!! Do I as a muslim give a sh*t whether someone plays with a toy pig? Hell no. We have more important things to worry about.

*Are their gradations of haram? Why do some manufacturers put 100% halal on goods? How can something be 50% halal?