All the Somali clichés in one post

Here are a few of the recycled talking points that the Abubakar Asadique Islamic Center (AAIC) disseminates to its surrogates in defence from any accusations related to the current Somali Minnesota predicament. All the clichés in one post.

1- We are all Muslims and Somalis. Therefore, we must think and act alike with one mindset (hint: essentialism).
2- The accusations are politically and tribally motivated
3- The media is the problem (see the Foxnews9 clip)
4- The media is being overtaken by few individuals who don’t represent the views of the Somali community (hint: Omar Jamal)
5- The underlying intent is to destroy and discredit Muslim mosques and centers (the missing men rhyme is merely a scapegoat)
6- We provide valuable services for the youth and the community at large
7- The kids were recruited from the streets and not from the mosques (to the contrary, most of the youngsters were either college or high school students or working, or both)
8- There are those who want to exploit Somali plight for political reasons
9- Our problems stem from lack of a unified leadership among the Somali community; and
10- Lack of a united Somali community organization with one voice. In other words, the community is paralyzed by the existence of so many different community organizations and advocates with different visions and services. Therefore, we need to unite them all and form one community organization with one voice.

Somali Christmas Party in Minneapolis

Last night I attended a Somali Christmas party. Yummy-tasting food and desserts, old-school music and dance highlighted the festivity. A well-decorated Christmas tree lit the room. Handsome men and beautiful women of all ages ready to mingle packed the room. At the door, a gorgeous young woman ushered us in with a cordial greeting. Inside, my eyes were exposed to some of the old recycled faces and strangers. For some, it was an ideal social gathering to meet potential mates. For others, a fun place to relieve themselves of the gloominess of the winter. Whatever intentions there were, everyone had a pleasurable evening.

Only a handful of them were dancing conservatively in a circle, moving their bodies moderately with no booty shaking and body contact, entering the ring one after another and sometimes in duo. O yeah, there was a senior citizen woman who exceptionally swung her booty with great excitement. I give her an A+

There were no alcoholic beverages served as anticipated from Somali gatherings. Paradoxically though it may seem, if I may extrapolate an observed trend from smaller circles of trust, majority of the attendees, men and women alike, drink. However, they prefer to drink covertly and are uncomfortable with exposure to the public eye as the ensuing social backlash is severe. I don’t blame them. I fault but the culture.

Things were quite different at the Shiisha place on Central Ave, our next destination. Young Somali women puff on a smoke pipe liberally and with a great pleasure in the presence of Somali men. How much we have progressed. It is said that social progress is measured by how much social progress women have attained. Somali women endured (the majority of them continue to endure) centuries old misogynistic treatments at the hands of male dominated societies. Thanks to America, smoking shiisha is now an acceptable social norm for the female sex. Free at last!
---RELEVANT POSTS: Young Somali Minnesotans and Soul Mate Searching

Frustrated Young Muslims Build Sub-Culture by Turning to Punk Rock

Five years ago, young Muslims across the United States began reading and passing along a blurry, photocopied novel called “The Taqwacores,” about imaginary punk rock Muslims in Buffalo. The novel’s Muslim characters include Rabeya, a riot girl who plays guitar onstage wearing a burqa and leads a group of men and women in prayer. There is also Fasiq, a pot-smoking skater, and Jehangir, a drunk. Such acts — playing Western music, women leading prayer, men and women praying together, drinking, smoking — are considered haram, or forbidden, by millions of Muslims

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Bush effigy pelted with shoes

Reuters-Dec 24

Blaming on Non-existent External Factors on the Recruitment of young Jihadists

Abdirahman Aynte asks: Are jihadist groups luring Minnesota Somalis back to fight?
I say: you betja, yeah.

Before these teenagers went missing, youth programs at mosques went minimally scrutinized, complained some community leaders. To address this, Adam, the Daral Hijra Center director, urges mosque leaders to introduce greater oversight on youth activities. “Our image as a community is tainted,” he said. “Instead of pointing fingers at our mosques and religious leaders, we need to repair our image. We need to minimize the influence of external factors by increasing oversight.”

Minimize the influence of external factors? This is absolutely baloney and a diversion. There is no such thing as external factors. The factors that are luring young men to Jihad activities are already built into the Abubakar mosques’ dynamics. The matter should be framed as to how can we progressively modify and monitor mosques’ and Madrasas’ Islamic curriculum.

Young Somali Minnesotans and Soul Mate Searching (Updated)

I attended a so-called Somali comedy show by Oday Cabdule on Saturday night. The proceeds will go to charity, the organizers claim. Hopefully it turns out that way. The event took place at Minneapolis Convention Center on 12/20/08 between 9-12midnight.

Most people were there ostensibly to contribute, but in fact to find soul mates. There were many singles. Due to cultural reasons, some Somalis prefer to keep their mate hunting intentions vague. Others are reluctant to appear desperate in their pursuit for a partner-in-love though they are. Consequently, it is convenient for them to join or form pseudo-cause-driven (depending on the founders’ true intentions) ad hoc committees. It's worth noting that some of them have both objectives in mind: the explicit and the implicit one: to assist the needy ones and simultaneously to link hearts. On rare occasions, they kill two birds with one stone.

Outside, in the hallways, they gave each other the looks and the smiles, and gazed on each other's shining high foreheads common to Somalis; each waiting to see whether the other will summon up the courage to ask him/her out while limiting conversations to mundane matters.

After a great deal of indecision about how to move the night forward without making it appear like a blind date, a group of about a dozen (myself included) moved on to a popular rendezvous for after-party breakfast goers in uptown Minneapolis. There, they devoured their food, chitchatted, laughed, bored each other to death, took up their bill to the counter and departed. I cannot tell who got whose contact. I wish them all luck, however.
Me wondering how many of them hooked up.
---RELEVANT POSTS: Somali Christmas Party in Minneapolis

Al-Shabab declares global Jihad

Al-Shabab declares global Jihad:

"We wish to tell Bush and our opponents our real intentions," Ibrahim Almaqdis, one of the fighters, told Al Jazeera news during an interview in Marka 56 miles outside the capital Mogadishu. "We will establish Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa, Japan, Russia, the Solomon Islands and all the way to Iceland, be warned, we are coming."

US Federal Agents Hunt for the Missing Somali-Americans

FT reports:

US federal agents have intensified the hunt for more than a dozen Somali-American youths missing from their homes in Minnesota, after a suicide bomber involved in a series of attacks by an al-Qaeda-linked group in east Africa in October was identified as an American citizen, the Financial Times has learnt.

How Kids are Turned into Jihadists

A former Somali terrorist who is now a resident of Minnesota, Yusuf Shaba, has some fascinating insights on the evolution of radicalism and how Jihadists penetrate young Muslims’ minds only to become like them. The missing young Muslim Somalis of Minnesota is a case in point.

Yusuf Shaba, who writes about Islamic ideology and radicalism for the Warsan Times, a Somali-English monthly newspaper published in Minneapolis, says he decided to speak out about what he considers Islamic indoctrination at Minneapolis mosques because he doesn't want his sons to follow the same path he did. Shaba, 34, joined Al Ittihad Al-Islami (Islamic Union) at age 16 and was wounded at age 19 in Somalia. Al Ittihad was Somalia's largest Islamic terrorist group in the 1990s. Shaba says jihadists generally recruit young men from among two groups: those shunned by their families because they've turned to drugs, gangs or alcohol; and the sons of families who forbid exposure to Western culture and allow them to socialize only at the mosque. Shaba says he and his three teenage sons attended a program two months ago at Abubaker As-Saddique Islamic Center, where a former Somali warrior sat in a circle with other young people and delivered a passionate recitation of his experiences during the Somali civil war.

Some mosques also screen videos about the war in Afghanistan and about Muslim victims of perceived injustices in such places as Nigeria and the Palestinian territories. "They give them all the grievances that Osama Bin Laden has," Shaba says. "They talk about nothing but jihad and it's the best thing that can happen to a Muslim." When the brainwashing is done and the teachers are confident students will do anything asked of them, the teachers give them tazkia, or clearance, to get more specialized training in the United States or abroad, Shaba says. "The people who trained us encouraged us to not get married, to sever our ties with our families, so that when the mission comes we won't worry about family." Shaba says similar activities occur at Minnesota Da'wah Institute in St. Paul, another mosque. Sheik Mahamud Hassan, the institute's imam, says nothing like that is happening as his mosque. "It's liars," he says. "I'm not missing any members."
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Muslim preachers in Iraq demanded the immediate release of 'the shoe-thrower'

Muslim preachers in Iraq demanded the immediate release of 'the shoe-thrower' who rose to prominence after aiming his shoes (though missed narrowly) at President George W. Bush at a press confrence in Iraq.

"From this place we call on the prime minister and ask him, 'Tell us why you have detained a person who made such a heroic and fair act? A stand that all of us should have taken a long time ago'," Uthman Raheem said in his sermon. "Why do you detain a man who stood up in the face of injustice?"

The Shoe-thrower is Awarded with Hand in Marriage

Middle East’s Muntazer Al-zaidi ‘the shoe-thrower’, America’s irritating Joe ‘the plumber’ counterpart, was eulogized widely in the Arab world for his weird but brave act for throwing his shoes, one after the other, to president Bush. He received the highest accolade when one Arab pronounced that his daughter and the shoe-thrower be joined in matrimony. “I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him”. In other words, his daughter is his most valuable property.

Al-Shabab, Somalia's Taliban

From the Economist

The Shabab has learnt from its mistakes in 2006, when it was overwhelmed in a few days by the Ethiopian army. It is now more pragmatic and more aggressive. This time round, it is apparently not picking fights with wealthy qat merchants. Men can chew what they like—but won’t be “clean enough” to get a lucrative job in Kismayo’s port. Education is encouraged. Girls can go to school. Charcoal burning is forbidden for the sake of the environment.

But the Shabab has also tightened its own security. Alleged spies for the transitional government or for Ethiopia are routinely beheaded with blunt knives. Mr Turki, the jihadist leader who lives mostly in the bush near the Kenyan border, sleeps in different houses when he is in a town. Public floggings and executions strike fear. So do masked faces. “Before, we knew who killed our relatives,” says a Kismayo merchant. “Now we don’t even know that.”

Most tellingly, the Shabab has learnt how to get hold of money faster. It concentrates its fighters in towns where there is money to be earned. The aim is to create an army that puts Islamist identity above divisive clan loyalties. Shabab commanders say a pious state will emerge once weaker militias have been disarmed. Some reckon that the Shabab shares some of the ransoms earned by pirates who operate out of the central Somali port of Haradheere. Those in Puntland, farther north, are apparently beyond the Shabab’s reach

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The U.N. General Assembly condemned defamation of religion

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly condemned defamation of religion for the fourth year running on Thursday, ignoring critics who said the resolution threatens freedom of speech.

The non-binding resolution, championed by Islamic states and opposed by Western countries, passed by 86 votes to 53 with 42 abstentions. Opponents noted that support had fallen since last year, when the vote was 108-51 with 25 abstentions

Islamic states say such resolutions do not aim to limit free speech but to stop publications like the Danish cartoons showing the Prophet Mohammed that sparked bloody protests by Muslims around the world in 2005

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The Origins and Purpose of Life

By Lisa Zyga

In a recent study called “Why did life emerge?”, two scientists, son and father Arto Annila of the University of Helsinki and Erkki Annila of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, offer some insight into the general driving force of life’s origins in terms of thermodynamics. As they explain, all organisms are composed of molecules that assemble together via numerous chemical reactions. Just as heat flows from hot to cold, these molecules obey the universal tendency to diminish energy differences, so that the most likely chemical reactions are those in which energy flows “downhill” toward a stationary state, or chemical equilibrium.

Although the researchers don’t speculate on the specific chemical reactions that created life, they explain that the molecules involved most likely underwent a series of more and more complex reactions to minimize mutual energy differences between matter on Earth and with respect to high-energy radiation from Sun. The process eventually advanced so far that it cumulated into such sophisticated functional structures that could be called living.

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How the Qur'an Can Be Used to Justify Gay Marriage

By Pamela K. Taylor

It may be a radical reading to use the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet to justify gay marriage, but to me it is the only one which upholds the fundamental Islamic ideals of fairness, equality of all human beings, compassion and mercy.

Like the Bible, and most other religious texts, the Qur'an doesn't have any verse that says, "God has made you black and white, male and female, straight and gay. Be you as brothers to one another, working, eating, praying, loving as one family." On the other hand, it also does not say "Marriage is only between one man and one woman," or even "between one man and up to four women."

There is a clear assumption in many passages in the Qur'an that marriage is between men and women. Passages that talk about how a couple should decide when to wean a child, what times of day it is permissible to have sexual relations during Ramadan, or what to do when conflict arises and a divorce seems the best solution.

But other passages -- passages that talk about the fundamental nature of human relationships as a duality -- do not have a gender dichotomy. The word "zauj," often translated as mate or spouse, signifies one half of a partnership, both husband and wife. This is a powerful concept which affirms the fundamental equality of both spouses and leaves room for a genderless conception of human partnering.

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Gay marriage and the Bible

John Meacham of Newsweek reacting to conservative reactionaries standing, unwavering, the path to gay marriage because they believe the biblical scriptures ordain against it writes:

No matter what one thinks about gay rights—for, against or somewhere in between--this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism. Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions that come to us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt—it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition.

Briefly put, the Judeo-Christian religious case for supporting gay marriage begins with the recognition that sexual orientation is not a choice—a matter of behavior—but is as intrinsic to a person's makeup as skin color. The analogy with race is apt, for Christians in particular long cited scriptural authority to justify and perpetuate slavery with the same certitude that some now use to point to certain passages in the Bible to condemn homosexuality and to deny the sacrament of marriage to homosexuals. This argument from Scripture is difficult to take seriously—though many, many people do—since the passages in question are part and parcel of texts that, with equal ferocity, forbid particular haircuts. The Devil, as Shakespeare once noted, can cite Scripture for his purpose, and the texts have been ready sources for those seeking to promote anti-Semitism and limit the human rights of women, among other things that few people in the first decade of the 21st century would think reasonable.

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Teen disappears: 'Mom, I'm in Somalia'

CNN has the story of Burhan Hassan, 17, one of the young missing Somalis from Minnesota possibly enticed to go fight Jihad in Somalia. The most concern now by U.S. officials is the ramification of their return to U.S. soil after acquiring terrorism training. Omar Jamal seems to know: “I don’t see anything that would prevent from those kids to carry out suicide bombs right here [in the United States].”


Hassan's mother speaks out:


---RELEVANT POSTS:
The Somali American suicide bomber, a victim or a villain?
Islamism and college campuses
Do Terrorists deserve a proper Muslim burial?

I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist

A former radical Islamist writes:

There isn't enough room to outline everything here, but the foundation of extremist reasoning rests upon a model of the world in which you are either a believer or an infidel.

Formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion: they are considered to be one and the same.

For centuries, the reasoning of Islamic jurists has set down rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.

But what radicals and extremists do is to take this two steps further. Their first step has been to argue that, since there is no pure Islamic state, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr (The Land of Unbelief).

Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world.

Along with many of my former peers, I was taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief.

In Dar ul-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians. The notion of a global battlefield has been a source of friction for Muslims living in Britain. For decades, radicals have been exploiting the tensions between Islamic theology and the modern secular state - typically by starting debate with the question: "Are you British or Muslim?"

But the main reason why radicals have managed to increase their following is because most Muslim institutions in Britain just don't want to talk about theology.

They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex truth that Islam can be interpreted as condoning violence against the unbeliever - and instead repeat the mantra that Islam is peace and hope that all of this debate will go away.

This has left the territory open for radicals to claim as their own. I should know because, as a former extremist recruiter, I repeatedly came across those who had tried to raise these issues with mosque authorities only to be banned from their grounds.

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Sorry, Blame it on Omar Jamal

It is a well known fact that Muslim extremists are minority in number yet their voices reign supreme. Check out this video and observe how they rebuttal accusations aimed at their Abubakar Assadique mosque—linked with an ongoing FBI investigation about the missing young Somali Minnesotans—with considerable vigor. They are blaming the messenger (the outspoken, sometimes hyperbolic, Omar Jamal who is a vocal critic of local Somali religious ideologues), and the media for creating public awareness of possible nascent Muslim radical cells in Minnesota and around the country.

“[Omar Jamal] is going to the media and saying something bad about our community and that’s unacceptable”, shouts one Islamist. What is bad about talking about young teenagers lured into fighting evil war?

The religious fanatics are succeeding in convincing the media and the public that Omar Jamal is tribally motivated and thus his comments merit no attention. They understand the fluid nature of tribalism and are doing their best to inject it into the conversation.

Two of the many missing Somalis were Students of University of MN

Yesterday I blogged about the danger religious ideologies' infiltration into college campuses in Minnesota pose. An article by AP reports that two of the many missing Somali teenagers who have traveled to Somalia to join the Jihadists, Al-shabab, were attending the University of Minnesota. Like I said, college campuses are rich with youngsters with hearts easy to change.

Do Terrorists deserve a proper Muslim burial?

The controversy and resentment surrounding the proper Muslim burial given to the Somali Minnesotan suicide bomber, Shirwa Ahmed, last week is simmering within the conservative blogs and some commentary sites. Ahmed was buried at a Muslim cemetery in Burnsville, Minnesota after the FBI shipped his corpse back to Minnesota. Fox news reported that Ahmed was neither hailed as a hero nor was he condemned as a killer but buried and the last rites performed on him as an ordinary Muslim.

This causes a PR nightmare for Somalis and Muslims in general. Ahmed, an unrepentant terrorist, took innocent lives down with him. Thus, giving him a proper burial sends the wrong signals that the community isn’t doing enough to condemn terrorism. The Somali community would have done a great service—to mend relations with the mainstream society—for themselves had they taken a stance similar to the one the Indian Muslims adopted. Influential Indian Muslim clerics refused to give burial service to the nine gunned down Mumbai terrorists.

The men are not true followers of the Islamic faith, according to the influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre (three-hectare) Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai.

"People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee. "Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime."

I wonder whether the Somali community believes that Ahmed was a true believer who died for an Islamic cause.

Eid Mubarak from BallyWood

Ballywood celebrates Eid (Muslim's holiest holiday) with music and dance. Enjoy the video.

NY Times: Who Wrote the Koran?

An Iranian cleric, Abdulkarim Soroush, is sending shock waves through Muslim circles by questioning the divine origin of the Koran:

"[the prophet] was at the same time the receiver and the producer of the Koran or, if you will, the subject and the object of the revelation...when you read the Koran, you have to feel that a human being is speaking to you, i.e. the words, images, rules and regulations and the like all are coming from a human mind...This mind, of course, is special in the sense that it is imbued with divinity and inspired by God. "

Islamism and college campuses

Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the four 7/7 London bomb detonators were University students. Shirwa Ahmed, the Somali Minnesotan suicide bomber, reportedly, acquired some college level education.

It is been widely documented that, in Europe and other places around the world, college campuses are a fertile ground to indoctrinate and recruit young Muslims into radical causes. The radical Muslim groups infiltrate college campuses through student unions and exert their influence considerably. These student unions (the Muslim student union, for example) serve as a bridge that connects the outside radical Muslim organizations and the Muslim students. Their goal is to propagate Islamism (Islam as a political ideology, a governing philosophy equipped with fully detailed judicial, economical, political and social policies necessary to run a state and not limited merely to the worshiping arena) and provide the extremist Muslim groups with a platform for their proselytizing efforts to merge the religion and politics. This marriage of the religion and politics, alien to traditional Islam, creates an atmosphere where such radical attitudes could flourish.

The Somali Student Associations from some of the college and university campuses in Minnesota have been organizing weekly Halaqa sessions (a Madrassa style Islamic discussions)—lead by leaders of radical Wahabi leaning mosques—for years on campuses. I am not accusing the Somali Minnesotan student associations of disseminating Jihadist ideas, nevertheless, there is no doubt that they are providing a platform that leads young Muslims to drink the kool-aid as Shirwa did.

The Somali American suicide bomber, a victim or a villain?

The Somali American suicide bomber, a victim or a villain? This is a question of a critical importance. Though there is no simple answer, Omar Jamal, a Twin Cities Somali activist dubbed the bomber a victim of religious indoctrination. Yes, he’s been indoctrinated but that doesn't make him off the hook. He killed innocent men, women and children out of his own will (I don’t think he was forced to do it at gun point). Though religious fanatics exploit some perceived weaknesses, ultimately, we are responsible of processing and examining our scholarship. Everyone is responsible for his/her actions and their consequences. Bad or good. So yes, he may be a victim of the powerful and perilous sect of Islam but no doubt he is a murderer. No one should be mourning for his passing.

Can a Muslim Woman Marry a Non-Muslim Man?

One perception that prevails (wrongly) amongst Muslim circles is that Islam permits Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women but the reverse is forbiden. Dr. Imam Khaleel Mohammed is a scholar who sharpens his critical reasoning when reading religious scriptures. Unlike most Muslim scholars, he understands that Koranic interpretations must not be static but evolve with time and space; not misogynistic but gender progressive. Dr. Mohammed argues, succinctly, that a Muslim woman is permitted to marry a non-Muslim man.

Terrorists Know How to Play Politics

Who said terrorists are not political strategists. Indeed, they are such stirrers. The quote below encapsulates one possible motive behind Mumbai terror attacks:

Provoking India would not only realign the interests of the Pakistani military and the Islamists, it would threaten U.S. efforts to reorient the Pakistani military towards domestic counterinsurgency, and to broker a deeper rapprochement with India—a development U.S. analysts believe is key to resolving the conflict in Afghanistan.

Should India Strike Terrorist Targets in Pakistan

The recently Mumbai terror attacks bring to live Obama’s unilateral pre-emptive war remarks. During the Democratic primary, the then senator of Illinois said in reference to threats terrorist camps in Pakistan pose to U.S. and its interests, “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will [with or without Pakistan’s consent].” Does India has that same right to unilaterally strike (when facing inevitable though not imminent threats) terrorist targets in Pakistan? or even better, should the two nuclear armed neighbors brush off their bitter rivalry and team up to root out their common enemy--terrorism? Terrorism is driven by ideology and passion rather than common sense and it has no borders. An Indian Jihadist is a brother to a Pakistani Jihadist and an enemy to a secular Pakistani. Terrorists share a common philosophy: to institute a united expansionist Islamist state where entire populations submit to. Where Sharia is the rule of law and democracy and free speech is oppressed. Where men are the enforcers of the law and women, the disenfranchised.

I know how these terrorists are inspired

Ed Husain:

"Terrorism begins with a less extreme shade of Islamism, and in many cases Saudi-inspired Wahhabism - unless we understand the root causes of the theology of terror, we will not be able to defeat it...Wahhabism and segments of Islamism are defined by their rejection of mainstream Muslim teachings and age-old spiritual practices, literalist readings of scripture devoid of scholarly guidance, and a hell-bent commitment to confronting the West. Moderate Muslims have common cause with the West to extinguish extremism in our midst."

Literalistic readings of religious scripture is quite perilous. consider the following verse from the holly Koran:

[5.51] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.

In other words, literally, if one has a Catholic friend, one by default exits Islam and enters Catholicism. The literal version of the verse might have been relevant during Muhammad's time, a period of constant religious struggle and antagonism between the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians but is, without a doubt, irrelevant and illogical in today's world. The Koran must be not a static but rather a living scripture that accomodates contemporary issues. We live in an ever-evolving world. The human species are very diverse and interdependent. The idea that no Muslim should take a non-Muslim for a friend but an enemy justifies and/or sows the seeds for animosity towards Americans and Europeans and leads to extremism and Jihadism. It must be noted that Muslim literalists are minority in number among Muslims but reign.

Reza Aslan on How To Read the Quran

"Arabic is a language whose words can have multiple, sometimes contradictory, meanings, so how one chooses to render a particular word from Arabic to English has a lot to do with one's biases or prejudice. Take the following example from Sura 4:34, which has long been interpreted as allowing husbands to beat their wives: "As for those women who might rebel against you, admonish them, abandon them in their beds, and strike them (adribuhunna)." The problem, as a number of female Quranic scholars have noted, is that adribuhunna can also mean "turn away from them." It can even mean "have sexual intercourse with them." Obviously, which definition the translator chooses will be colored by whatever his or her preconceived notions are about a husband's authority. The new crop of Quran translators are brushing aside centuries of traditionalist, male-dominated, and often misogynistic clerical interpretations in favor of a more contemporary, more individualized, and often more gender-friendly approach to the Quran. In the process, they are not only reshaping the way Islam's holy book is read; they are reinterpreting the way Islam itself is being understood in the modern world."

Its about time Muslims to avoid literalism (i'm speaking of the radical yet powerful minority elements of Islam) and start interpreting Islam in the light of contemporary issues. The issues of the 21st century are vastly different than those of the 13Th century.

Al-Zawahiri on Islamonomics

Al-Zawahiri calls "on Americans to embrace Islam to overcome the financial meltdown...a repercussion of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and that the crisis would continue as long as the foolish American policy of wading in Muslim blood continues." Perhaps its time to remind the Al-Qaida number-two-in-command the principle that correlation equals not a causation.

British Born Pakistanis Linked to Mumbai Terror Attacks

Two British citizens of Pakistani origin are reportedly involved in Mumbai terror attacks. No doubt that UK is home to Muslim radicals in Europe.

Extreme Anti-Muslim View from the Right Wing

Here is a bit of extreme view from the right.

Ann Coulter:

"Far from being sodomized and tortured by U.S. forces -- as Obama's base has wailed for the past seven years -- the innocent scholars and philanthropists being held at Guantanamo have been given expensive, high-tech medical procedures at taxpayer expense. If we're not careful, multitudes of Muslims will be going to fight Americans in Afghanistan just so they can go to Guantanamo and get proper treatment for attention deficit disorder and erectile dysfunction"

AP: Young Somali men missing from Minneapolis

Just Jihads are Possible

If "Jihad" is perceived to be, as some claim, "the struggle against those who seek to oppress the freedoms of Muslims", then, one wonders if that struggle be waged violently or peacefully.

A Somali Suicide Bomber is one of the Missing 20

The news about the missing Twin Cities Somalis has taken a grim turn--one of them is confirmed to have taken part of a suicide mission in Puntland, Somalia.

Side note: the link to Twin Cities Fox9 news is here: http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=FD94CE301F29D48DCACB9E3256FF2B82?contentId=7946522&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

Alqaida Recruits Somali Youngsters from Minnesota

The Al-qaida wing that operates from Somalia, Al-shabaab, has been clandestinely recruiting Somali teenagers from the streets of Minneapolis, and ferrying them off to Somalia to fight a pseudo-holly war in their effort to regain control and to institute a Taliban style regime. This is a question of national security. Its a threat of a rise of homegrown young Jihadists indoctrinated in the back alleys of unmonitored Madrasas to believe that they are fighting Allah's war. No doubt that we have sleeper cells in Minneapolis area. Who is financing the activities is another question investigators are looking for. The biggest setback authorities are facing is, presumably, in my opinion, lack of cooperation from the community. Follow the link to read the full story.

Somali Pirates to Stimulate Wallstreet

Somali pirates are in negotiation to buy Citigroup.

Marrying a one-year old infant

How about having a marriage contract with a one-year old girl, kissing her at toddler stage, subjecting her to suck your cock at at age 5, and finally, having sex with her at 7. The worst child abuse model is found in the Middle East.

Somalis For Jesus!: The Martyrs’ Corner

Somalis For Jesus!: The Martyrs’ Corner

Polygamy

In you tube, you find a lot of Muslim clerics using gibberish to justify polygyny—polyandry is prohibited in Islam. See this

and this on:

The most common excuse revolves around the surplus female population. This is the most ridiculous, emotionally retarded argument ever put forth. Forget statistics for a second—though phony its—none of these guys ever ponder the emotional side of the argument. Don’t they know women have feelings as much as they do. What if we substitute polyandry for polygyny. How would men feel about that? Imagine that. Some Sheikhs present perspectives such as the man must treat his wives fairly and equally, that he must afford to put food over the table for all his families. But what happened to emotional intelligence?

Bad temper and Islam

"If you have a bad temper, then you are not one of us"--Islam. Can John McCain ever be a Muslim?

Wife Beating, No More than 10 Blows

"How much pain be caused by 10 blows with a toothpick?" Excuse me Sheikh, but a beating is a beating. It doesn't matter whether you use a toothpick or a bamboo stick.

Honor Killing

Women and gays and honor killing

I Divorce You, I Divorce You, I Divorce You

"Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex". So so true. Islamic societies have a long way to go. Disclaimer, the following video is full of horrific graphics. I warn you.

Man-made Laws Vs. Sharia

Should Muslims in the Western world submit to the governing laws set forth by respective governments or choose Sharia and turn their backs against the "man-made laws"? And if the latter is not an option, should they "rise up...and not rest until the flag of Allah and the flag of Islam is raised above [1600 Pennsylvania avenue]"?

These people are welcomed with open arms, allowed to practice their religion with complete freedom, and the next thing you hear is that they want to impose their will upon others. This is absurd. How much more can Londoners take.

Middle Easterners on Barack Obama, "Abu Hussein"

Is electing Barack Obama the end of Islamic bigotry in U.S. as this citizen of Bahrain suggests:

I can honestly say that we can finally wave goodbye to the overwhelming
anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry that we have suffered with for the past eight
years under the Bush administration

Sheikh Kalisch comes out of the closet, the fall out

A Muslim cleric is hired to train teachers to teach Islam, little did we know that he harbours doubts about the existence of prophet Muhammad. Now Muslims are boycotting, and Germany's plan to integrate the country's 3 million Muslims is in limbo.

The best way to beat your Muslim wife

Apparently, one sheikh here has some ideas on how to beat your wife. He is saying that beating is permitted by God and that there are 3 types of women that beating them depends on your survival: 1) the one who was brought up being beaten (she has fixated behaviour--"accustomed to beating". no way out. period. My favourite quote: "he will get along with her only if he practices beating". 2) the "condescending" one. 3) and the disobeying one.

Islamists seized control in Somalia. Sharia is back

Well, we are back to square one. deja vu........Remember this movie. the rise of the Islamic courts in Somalia a couple of years ago and their subsequent fall, and the take over of the Ethiopians and their follow Yusufists. Now, exit yusufism. enter Shabaabism.

A renowned Muslim scholor questions the existense of prophet Mohamed pbuh

Speaking of fanaticism/extremism, here is one for you to ponder: a German Muslim professor questions the existence of prophet Muhammad and, suddenly, all hell broke loose. They are predicting this to trigger bigger protests than the Danish cartoonists generated.

Yes, its the morning of November 16th, 2008. 2am. Sunday. i'm laughingoutloud because we have just completed an improbable journey--you go figure.....but really, lets have some real red meat.....why do we have fanatics, extremists, conservativs, liberals, etc. why attach lables upon each other. aren't we all the sons and daughters of mother nature. Aren't we all destined to be disposed and our bodies rotten. some of us off to Heaven others to the gates of Hell--if you believe such a thing....Why do women wear burka when men could walk freely with shorts. Aren't men good looking enough to lure women. I say enough is enough. its time for men to wear burka. its time to see each other as humanbeings with common purpose in this world--you know what i'm talking about



developing thoughts.......

wow....i'm now a blogger. what a step!......hopefully this works out