Sniggers and Sniffles of a moron

Mango Mould with Chocolate Sprinkles anyone?

unicartoony — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:26:00 +0000

Yeah. Doesn’t look very impressive. But tasted GREAT.

Anyway, this sweet dish wasn’t made to welcome the rain/winds or something. It’s just that there had been two boxes of mangoes (paitis) gifted to our Dad and despite giving so many away, so many were left and were getting over-ripe. Khair.

The rains were (as usual) a nuisance for Karachites. At Jinnah Hospital, the wards had water standing on the ground, and people had to wade in and out of the hospital in order to supply food/medicines to their sick family members. I saw a woman patient saying that she had been operated on only yesterday, and today, no doctor was able to come and see to her. :S:S:S.

I can’t believe the aazmaishain (challenges) people have to face in life, and I worry that someday I’d have to face things like these too and all I would think is ‘but Ive never faced this beforeeee’ – May Allah Help us all in this regard. Ameen.

So long.

PS: I do wonder why this dish is called ‘mould’ ..er, if you know what I mean!

PSS: Can you guess what’s standing (being held up) behind the bowl?

The Israeli flotilla attack: victimhood, aggression and tribalism

unicartoony — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:28:00 +0000

A must-read **somberly**. As I said, it’s now high time we choose sides. And this article cannot make it more clear that we now need to do this. However we may have to sacrifice our ”apologetic” attitude.

The Israeli flotilla attack: victimhood, aggression and tribalism

By Glenn Greenwald

One of the primary reasons the Turkish Government has been so angry in its denunciations of the Israeli attack on the flotilla is because many of the dead were Turkish citizens. That’s what governments typically do: object vociferously when their citizens are killed by foreign nations under extremely questionable circumstances. Needless to say, that principle — as all principles are — will be completely discarded when it comes to the U.S. protection of Israel:

A U.S. citizen of Turkish origin was among the nine people killed when Israeli commandos attacked a Gaza-bound aid flotilla . . . An official from the Turkish Islamic charity that spearheaded the campaign to bust the blockade on Gaza identified the U.S. citizen as 19-year-old Furkan Dogan . . . . Dogan, who held a U.S. passport, had four bullet wounds to the head and one to the chest . . . .

Will the fact that one of the dead at Israel’s hands was an American teenager with four bullet wounds to his head alter the Obama administration’s full-scale defense of Israel? Does that question even need to be asked? Not even American interests can undermine reflexive U.S. support for anything Israel does; even the Chief of the Mossad acknowledged this week that “Israel is progressively becoming a burden on the United States.” One dead 19-year-old American with 4 bullet holes in his head (especially one of Turkish origin with a Turkish-sounding name) surely won’t have any impact.

Yesterday, newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron became the latest world leader to unequivocally condemn Israel, saying the attack was “completely unacceptable” and demanding an end to the blockade. But last night on Charlie Rose’s show, Joe Biden defended Israel with as much vigor as any Netanyahu aide or Weekly Standard polemicist. Biden told what can only be described as a lie when, in order to justify his rhetorical question “what’s the big deal here?,” he claimed that the ships could have simply delivered their aid to Israel and Israel would then have generously sent it to Gaza (“They’ve said, ‘Here you go. You’re in the Mediterranean. This ship — if you divert slightly north you can unload it and we’ll get the stuff into Gaza’.”). In fact, contrary to the Central Lie being told about the blockade, Israel prevents all sorts of humanitarian items having nothing whatsoever to do with weapons from entering Gaza, including many of the supplies carried by the flotilla.

One can express all sorts of outrage over the Obama administration’s depressingly predictable defense of the Israelis, even at the cost of isolating ourselves from the rest of the world, but ultimately, on some level, wouldn’t it have been even more indefensible — or at least oozingly hypocritical — if the U.S. had condemned Israel? After all, what did Israel do in this case that the U.S. hasn’t routinely done and continues to do? As even our own military officials acknowledge, we’re slaughtering an “amazing number” of innocent people at checkpoints in Afghanistan. We’re routinely killing civilians in all sorts of imaginative ways in countless countries, including with drone strikes which a U.N. official just concluded are illegal. We’re even targeting our own citizens for due-process-free assassination. We’ve been arming Israel and feeding them billions of dollars in aid and protecting them diplomatically as they (and we) have been doing things like this for decades. What’s the Obama administration supposed to say about what Israel did: we condemn the killing of unarmed civilians? We decry these violations of international law? Even by typical standards of government hypocrisy, who in the U.S. Government could possibly say any of that with a straight face?

* * * * *

What this really underscores is that the mentality driving both Israel and the U.S. are quite similar, which is why those two countries find such common cause, even when the rest of the world recoils in revulsion. One of the more amazing developments in the flotilla aftermath is how a claim that initially appeared too self-evidently ludicrous to be invoked by anyone — Israel was the victim here and was acting against the ship in self-defense –has actually become the central premise in Israeli and (especially) American discourse about the attack (and as always, there is far more criticisms of Israeli actions in Israel than in the U.S.).

How could anyone with the slightest intellectual honesty claim that Israel and its Navy were the victims of a boat which Jon Stewart said last night looked like “P Diddy’s St. Bart’s vacation yacht”; or that armed Israeli commandos were the victims of unarmed civilian passengers; or, more generally, that a nuclear-armed Israel with the most powerful military by far in the Middle East and the world’s greatest superpower acting as Protector is the persecuted victim of a wretched, deprived, imprisoned, stateless population devastated by 40 years of brutal Israeli occupation and, just a year ago, an unbelievably destructive invasion and bombing campaign? The casting of “victim” and “aggressor” is blatantly reversed with such claims — which is exactly the central premise that has been driving, and continues to drive, U.S. foreign policy as well. In Imperial Ambitions, Noam Chomsky — talking about America’s post-9/11 policies — described the central mental deception that is at the heart of all nations which dominate others with force (and if you’re one of those people who hear “Noam Chomsky” and shut your mind, pretend that this comes from “John Smith”):

In one of his many speeches, to U.S. troops in Vietnam, [Lyndon] Johnson said plaintively, “There are three billion people in the world and we have only two hundred million of them. We are outnumbered fifteen to one. If might did make right they would sweep over the United States and take what we have. We have what they want.” That is a constant refrain of imperialism. You have your jackboot on someone’s neck and they’re about to destroy you.

The same is true with any form of oppression. And it’s psychologically understandable. If you’re crushing and destroying someone, you have to have a reason for it, and it can’t be, “I’m a murderous monster.” It has to be self-defense. “I’m protecting myself against them. Look what they’re doing to me.” Oppression gets psychologically inverted; the oppressor is the victim who is defending himself.

Thus, nuclear-armed Israel is bullied and victimized by starving Gazans with stones. The Israel Navy is threatened by a flotilla filled with wheelchairs and medicine. And the greatest superpower the Earth has ever known faces a grave and existential threat from a handful of religious fanatics hiding in caves. An American condemnation of Israel, as welcomed as it would have been, would be an act of senseless insincerity, because the two countries (along with many others) operate with this same “we-are-the-victim” mindset.

* * * * *

A prime cause of this inversion is the distortion in perception brought about by rank tribalism. Those whose worldview is shaped by their identification as members of a particular religious, nationalistic, or ethnic group invariably over-value the wrongs done to them and greatly under-value the wrongs their group perpetrates. Those whose world view is shaped by tribalism are typically plagued by an extreme persecution complex (the whole world is against us!!!; everyone who criticizes us is hateful and biased!!!). Haaretz today reports that “Jewish Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. gave a rare demonstration of unity on Wednesday when they backed Israel’s raid of a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla.” Gee, whatever could account for that “rare demonstration of unity” between these left-wing Jewish progressives and hard-core, Jewish right-wing war cheerleaders who agree on virtually nothing else? My, it’s such a mystery.

I can’t express how many emails I’ve received over the last week, from self-identified Jewish readers (almost exclusively), along the lines of: I’m a true progressive, agree with you on virtually every issue, but hate your views on Israel. When it comes to Israel, we see the same mindset from otherwise admirable Jewish progressives such as Anthony Weiner, Jerry Nadler, Eliot Spitzer, Alan Grayson, and (after a brief stint of deviation) Barney Frank. On this one issue, they magically abandon their opposition to military attacks on civilians, their defense of weaker groups being bullied and occupied by far stronger factions, their belief that unilateral military attacks are unjustified, and suddenly find common cause with Charles Krauthammer, The Weekly Standard, and the Bush administration in justifying even the most heinous Israeli crimes of aggression.

It will never cease to be mystifying (at least to me) that they never question why they suddenly view the world so differently when it comes to Israel. They never wonder to themselves:

I had it continuously drummed into my head from the time I was a small child, from every direction, that Israel was special and was to be cherished, that it’s fundamentally good but persecuted and victimized by Evil Arab forces surrounding it, that I am a part of that group and should see the world accordingly. Is this tribal identity which was pummeled into me from childhood — rather than some independent, dispassionate analysis — the reason I find myself perpetually sympathizing with and defending Israel?

Doesn’t the most minimal level of intellectual awareness — indeed, the concept of adulthood itself — require that re-analysis? And, of course, the “self-hating” epithet — with which I’ve naturally been bombaded relentlessly over the last week — is explicitly grounded in the premise that one should automatically defend one’s “own group” rather than endeaveor to objectively assess facts and determine what is right and true.

This tribalism is hardly unique to Israel and Jews; it’s instead universal. As the Bush years illustrated, there is no shortage of Americans who “reason” the same way:

I was taught from childhood that America is right and thus, even in adulthood, defend America no matter what it does; my duty as an American is to defend and justify what America does and any American who criticizes the U.S. is “self-hating” and anti-American; the wrongs perpetrated by Us to Them pale in comparison to the wrongs perpetrated by Them on U.S.

Or listen to Fox News fear-mongers declare how Christians in the U.S. and/or white males — comprising the vast majority of the population and every power structure in the country — are the Real Persecuted Victims, from the War on Christmas to affirmative action evils. Ronald Reagan even managed to convince much of the country that the true economic injustices in America were caused by rich black women driving their Cadillacs to collect their welfare checks. This kind of blinding, all-consuming tribalism leads members of even the most powerful group to convince themselves that they are deeply victimized by those who are far weaker, whose necks have been under the boots of the stronger group for decades, if not longer.

That’s just the standard symptom of the disease of tribalism and it finds expression everywhere, in every group. It’s just far more significant — and far more destructive — when the groups convincing themselves that they are the Weak and Bullied Victims are actually the strongest forces by far on the planet, with the greatest amount of weaponry and aggression, who have been finding justifications for so long for their slaughtering of civilians that, as Israeli Amos Oz suggested this week about his country, there are virtually no limits left on the naked aggression that will be justified. Thus, even when Israel attacks a ship full of civilians and wheelchairs in international waters and kills at least 9 human beings, this is depicted by its tribal loyalists as an act of justified self-defense against the Real Aggressors.

UPDATE: A few related items worth noting:

(1) Max Blumenthal catches the IDF trying to quitely withdraw its absurd claim that the flotilla was linked to Al Qaeda;

(2) Reporters Without Borders notes that, as of yesterday, Israel continued to detain most journalists on the ships, including their film and cameras, thus preventing any of them from disputing Israeli propaganda; as the NYT reported, Israel was also “refusing to permit journalists access to witnesses who might contradict Israel’s version of events.” Manifestly, all that was done to ensure that the highly selective and edited video released by the IDF would shape the narrative of what happened and could not be challenged in the first few days of reporting.

(3) The truth, however, always emerges. See this interview with just-released Al Jazeera reporter Jamal ElShayyal, who was aboard the ship that was attacked, about what really happened and who began the shooting.

(4) Jeremy Scahill was on MSNBC today debating the flotilla attack with Israel-centric Ed Koch, and did a superb job debunking several of Koch’s lies. There is no excuse for any television network to host discussions of this incident without including critics of the attack and the blockade, including that rarest of all American TV events: hearing from Palestinian or other Muslim critics of Israeli policy.

(5) Sadly No’s HTML Mencken examines the extreme and twisted demands for Israel-loyalty being issued by Commentary Magazine, among other sectors in the U.S.

(6) One of the tired, clichéd epithets being spat by right-wing war cheerleaders at critics of the Israeli attack (such as myself) is “Useful Idiots.” Yet just as nothing helped Al Qaeda (and Iran) more than the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. torture regime, Guantanamo and the like, nothing helps Hamas more than these types of naked acts of Israeli aggression which repulse the world. As Gazan-born journalist Taghreed El-Khodary explained yesterday in Salon:

Israel has given Hamas a present. Hamas’ morale is high; it’s a boost for them. They feel stronger and that’s what they needed at this time when they had been weakened somewhat.

So who are the actual Useful Idiots?

UPDATE II: This morning, John Cole predicted that because of Turkey’s opposition to Israel in this case, “the new mission du jour for the wingnut Wurlitzer is to begin a full-fledged demonization of Turkey.” Leading the way, however, is Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who, speaking today to National Review — that’s National Review — denounced Turkey as “our former ally.” By “our,” he presumably means “the United States.” So apparently, even if a stalwart American ally like fellow NATO member Turkey evinces insufficient devotion to Israel, then they must be declared a non-ally of the United States (h/t Steve Hynd). It doesn’t matter if Turkey is actually important to American interests; the fact that they are odds with Israel means they must be jettisoned by the U.S. See above for how and why that works.

‘Freedom Behind the Razor Wire’

unicartoony — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:53:00 +0000

‘Freedom Behind the Razor Wire’
(‘What It’s Like’ pt.4)

At this moment, I can glance out my window and see a 60-ft. stretch of grass patches, dirt, sunflowers, and gravel that ends at the perimeter fence. At various times of the day, droves of small birds swoop down onto the grass before my window, hopping around from one place to another while rapidly pecking the ground with their beaks. They keep at this for maybe ten minutes before flying off in the same formation they landed in.

To be able to witness their grace and beauty is a treat in here, thanks to Allah. But more significant in my mind is the fact that they were choosing to land here, of all places. These creatures possess the wings to carry them soaring heights and great distances to land on any plot of land they so choose. Human beings that we are, we have no such wings and are here against our choosing. Yet, the birds make a daily choice to land behind the razor wire, on prison grounds.

There must be a sign in this …

By definition, prison is a tool of confinement. the sovereignty of its inhabitants is usurped. It is characterized by limitation. It is not designed to offer much to those who it swallows into its cold, gray belly … conventionally speaking. For certain people, however, there is an exception to this. For certain prisoners, there is a treasure hidden here that only they can find; it is a treasure that, when found, turns this institution of confinement upside down and inside out. It is the treasure of the very freedom that was intended to be usurped – rather, a freedom greater than the one intended to be usurped. This treasure, when found , can transform a tool of confinement into a tool of liberation, as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah realized on his way into prison while recitingL { ” … inside, it will be mercy, and on the outside, it will be torment.” } from Surat al-Hadid, v.13.

When he was in an Egyptian jail in the city of Alexandria, Ibn Taymiyyah began one of his letters with the verse from Surat ad-Duha: { ” And mention the bounty of your Lord.” } He then proceeded to do so: ” I would like to inform my companions that I am in a state of bliss the like of which I have never experienced or seen. Allah has opened wide for me the gates of His endless bounties. These blessings by Allah will only be tasted by those who have acquired insight into the realities of faith and Tawhid … The subsequent pleasure and happiness, total joy and excitement, that are difficult to describe are all found in the knowledge of Allah, belief in Him, and true worship of Him, alone. ” And we all know of his golden statement that is repeated often today hundreds of years after he uttered it: ” What can my enemies do to me? My paradise and garden are in my chest, going with me wherever I go. My imprisonment is a time of privacy with Allah. My deportation is tourism for me. My execution is martyrdom. So, what can my enemies do to me … ?” It is this same spiritual freedom that Sayyid Qutb found in prison that led him to pen these poetic verses:

“Brother, you are free behind these walls,
Brother, you are free in these shackles;
If you stick firmly to Allah,
Then how can the plots of people harm you?
Brother, the armies of darkness will vanish,
And a new dawn will shine on the world;
So, let your soul shine,
And you will see the dawn come to us from afar … “

The above is simply a conveyance of the freedom these men found in regards to their own selves. The freedom that their imprisonments granted to the world, however, was far wider and greater. Their writings, their teachings, the stands they took, and their circumstances of imprisonment inspired and liberated the hearts and minds of all who came across them while writhing in the abyss of ignorance and inferiority complex. They did not merely disperse knowledge – they shaped personalities! And this liberation was born through their captivity.

On p. 174 of his autobiography, Malcom X said: ” Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. this impression is due entirely to my prison studies.” On p.176, he explained: ” I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from then until I left prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of books with a wedge … Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up until then, I never had been so truly free in my life. ” And on p.183: ” I don’t think any body ever got more out of going to prison than I did. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college. “

The above words are of one who entered prison as a thief, pimp, and street hustler who could barely read or write … The prison within whose walls he devoured book after book in a process that taught him his history, expanded his vocabulary, reformed his morals, and transformed him into an unparalleled orator who shook the world with nothing more than the power of his words. Behind those walls of the Norfolk State Prison here in Massachusetts – just 45 minutes from where I sit and write you these words – Malcolm X was able to liberate his mind in a manner that made him a liberator of the minds of so many others. (By the way, I’ve spike with several inmates here who had previously been held at Norfolk, and they informed me that the gigantic library that Malcolm was transformed by has since been removed.)

Nelson Mandela is considered to be the world’s most famous former political prisoner. He spent 27 years under lock and key because of his refusal to renounce the right of South Africa’s blacks to struggle against the racist apartheid government that kept them in a state of subjugation. He spent more time in prison than I’ve been alive on this Earth, yet that time behind bars had the opposite of its intended effect. Each minute he spent at Robben Island Prison was a testament to the undying will of a symbol of resistance. This imprisonment of Mandela and his colleagues set in motion a chain of events that, after nearly three decades, forced the DeKlerk government to seek negotiations with the ANC and (at least officially) put an end to apartheid. This imprisonment of Mandela and his colleagues resulted in an entire country being freed from the evil of institutionalized racism (although there is much left ot be done in this regard in South Africa).

About ten minutes from my home, there once lived an author (about 200 years back) named Henry David Thoreau. This man was so disgusted by America’s unprovoked invasion of Mexico, as well as the continued practice of slavery, that he refused to pay his poll tax. He was then thrown in jail, where he remained until a friend stepped in to pay the tax for him against his will. In his famous essay ‘Civil Disobedience,’ Thoreau reflects: ” The proper place today, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less despondent spirits, is her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the state by here own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there … on that separate but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her – the only house in a Slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. ” Of his own freedom that he experienced in prison, Thoreau described: ” I saw that if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was still a more difficult on e to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. “

Subhan Allah, look at how his conviction in the righteousness of his cause turned his prison into, as he described it, “more free and honorable ground” than what was outside it. He felt freer than his townsmen because out of them all, he was the only one who was willing to make a material sacrifice for what many of them believed in but were too afraid to step outside their comfort zones for. This is why when his friend and fellow author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, visited him in jail and asked him: “Henry, what are you doing in there?” Thoreau responded by peering out from his cell and simiply asking: “What are you doing out there?”

And al-Maqdisi wrote the following poetic verses to his mother from the depths of prison:

“… Here, I am free despite my chains,
Their ringing fills all corners of my heart;
My honor is here, my freedom is here,
My shackle is my honor and my injury is my pride;
I will say to the prison that has adopted me,
Tighten your shackles and do not release them;
Here, I am free, and outside these chains,
Are people who kneel down in treachery;
O prison, I long for my chains,
These chains and shackles are my weapons;
O prison, I am part of my cell,
These cells and their darkness are my cloak;
I am lofty and honored in your shackels,
And the ‘free’ beyond your walls are happily enslaved …”

Frankel, who was held at Auschwitz, wrote: “As much as he sinks deeper and deeper into prison life, the prisoner also obtains a longing for the beauty of art & nature in a way he never experienced previously. Their effect would allow him to forget, sometimes, his stressful conditions. If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to Bavaria when we saw the Salzburg Mountains, with its peaks visible in the foreground in front of the Sun, through the few tiny holes poked into the walls of the boxcars, they would never believe that these were the same faces of those who had previously lost all hope of life & freedom. Despite this, or because of it, the beauty of nature overtook our hearts after we had been deprived of it for such a long period of time, ” and he went on to describe: “We observed the clouds fading in the sunset, with the sky filled with these clouds as they continuously changed form and color – from grayish-blue to blood red. One prisoner commented: “How beautiful the world can be …” “

Back in the 70s, a woman named Assata Shakur ( a member of the Black Panthers) penned the following poetic expression of the freedom she maintained while behind bars:

” … I have been locked by the lawless,
Handcuffed by the haters,
Gagged by the greedy;
And if I know anything at all,
It’s that a wall is just a wall,
And nothing more at all.
It can be broken down … “

So, these prisoners – with all of their various religious beliefs, political affiliations, geographic locations, and ethnicities – despite being chained and locked in tiny, suffocating cells, were able to turn their prisons from tools of confinement to tools of liberation. Prison became for them a vehicle of freedom for themselves, and at times for millions around the world whose hearts and minds they touched.

Looking, then, at these birds as they hop around before my cell window, it makes perfect sense that they would choose to land behind the razor wire: they find a freedom here on these grass patches. No human being walks these patches, so they are free to poke their beaks into the ground and seek out the straw and insects it has to offer them. Yes … it should be clear now that like the aforementioned prisoners, these birds find a certain freedom behind the razor wire that keeps them coming back day after day. They swoop down, gather what they need, then fly off.

Trying to pinpoint what freedom I have found behind these walls, I think back to a day when I was laying in my cell reading, only to see a visiting official of some sort peering in as he walked around the unit. He said to me: “What a depressing place, ” to which I replied by standing aside and pointing back, saying: ” This is where I worship my Lord.”

Although it is difficult to adequately express in words, the conditions of prison – while having obvious downsides – are ideal for freeing oneself from worldly distractions and turning fully to Allah. Three weeks before I was arrested, I was reading an essay on Tawhid & shirk by on eof the scholars of Najd, I cam e across a sentence in this essay that made me stop. He was defining the term ‘hanif’ that is mentioned repeatedly in the Qur’an, and he said: “Hanif means to turn fully towards Allah while turning away from everything else.” So, I thought to myself: ‘Imagine if I can reach that state, where I can focus fully on Allah and not be distracted by anything else … ‘

Here, I have the two factors to facilitate this: peace of mind & and time. I don’t do anything in here that I didn’t do on the outside, but the difference is in the quality, depth, enjoyment, and relaxation that was difficult attain at the masjid or at home. The outside world bears fruit, and prison bears another fruit. Both have taste, but they are distinct form one another because of the difference in conditions under which each fruit grows. I’ll give a few examples:

The Prophet (صلي الله عليه و سلم) said: ” For me to sit with people remembering Allah from dawn until Sunrise is more beloved to me than freeing four slaves of the Children of Isma’il. ” This is because freeing a slave results only in the freedom of the body, but the remembrance of Allah at this time of the day results in a freedom which is far greater and sweeter—the freedom of the heart and soul. Like most of you, this period during the day was usually spent preparing for and driving to school or work an hour away. I could sporadically take proper advantage of this time, but would usually miss out due to life’s demands. In here, nothing is required of me by others. The only time when I even have to communicate with anyone is when my cell is being searched, which only occurs monthly, anyway. So, this time in prison is my time – every second of it – in which I can do what I want, when I want (of course, within the capacity of choices). I can now sit each day after praying Fajr and slowly and calmly proceed through a solid list of adhkar & ad’iyah until I see the Sun rise. If you find the time in your own day to do this, start by opening up ‘Fortress of the Muslim’ and reciting #75 daily. Week by week, work you way up until you find yourself going through #75 – 98 on a daily basis. Try to incorporate it into your daily routine such that it becomes an inseparable portion of your day, like food and sleep. In here, I enjoy this practice each day for as long as I choose, without having to worry about time constraints. I know now what Ibn Taymiyyah felt when he referred to this as the early morning sustenance without which he would have no strength during the day.

Unlike other parts of the prison, the isolation unit is generally silent and calm. The only sounds to be heard are the occasional mechanical whirring of doors being slid open/ shut, and the voice of whoever is out on rec speaking on the phone. Otherwise, there is a constant, eerie silence. There are no blaring televisions, inmate fights, and everything else that would occur in the population units. So, my remembrance of Allah is conducted with full focus on the meanings of what I’m uttering. I can go through them slowly and calmly in total concentration without any background noise to spoil the moments. When I’m finished, I get up to pray the Duha prayer. The Prophet said: ” … each tasbih is charity, each tahmid is charity, each tahlil is charity, each takbir is charity, enjoining the good is charity, preventing the bad is charity, and this is all completed by praying two rak’at of Duha prayer.”

My cell is at the eastern-most edge of the prison, with my window on the eastern wall of my cell. So, I pray in the direction of the open view of the grass, sunflowers (in warmer weather), fence, and trees i mentioned previously. And whenever I get some sunlight, it enters through that direction as well. So, I have quite a serene qiblah to pray towards, by Allah’s Grace alone. It could’ve been otherwise, with me having to pray towards my rusty blue cell door covered in graffiti, but I was given the best wall in here to be east. So when I stand up and begin to recite, I have the closest thing to a scene of natural beauty I can before my eyes. This, when contrasted with the blandness of the remaining three walls, automatically induces a sense of khushu’ from the start, which is only amplified by the silence around me. I can recite with full focus and concentration on the meanings of the verses. pausing at each one, asking for Paradise when I come across mention of it, seeking refuge from Hell when coming across mention of it, and I can recite for as long as I wish without having to rush. I have all day, after all. It was the Prophet’s sunnah that he would not recite portions of chapters in each rak’ah, and would rather recite them in their entirely – sometimes even reciting more than one complete surah in a rak’ah. I can do that now, while I rarely could on the outside because of the interference of time. And really, I think you all find your salah more fulfilling when you stand longer, and the Prophet said that this type of prayer is the most beloved to Allah.

I want to pause and briefly comment on having the Qur’an with me in here. It has amazed me how many verses I would recite on the outside without having fully grasped their significance, only to come here and repeatedly say: ‘How could I have missed that?’ When I suddenly had more time to dedicate to the Qur’an, words and concepts began popping out at me that I had previously glossed over on the outside, and i’ve had many ‘Aha!’ moments where the hairs on my arm would stand on end. In here, I’ve developed a very personal bond with the Qur’an. More than ever, I see it as ‘my’ guide, ‘my’ companion, ‘my’ book, that speaks both to me and for me. With hours a day spent reading & exploring it, I’ve become more familiar with it than I was on the outside; I have come to know its character, its nature, its unique dimensions. There is just something about reading it in this environment that causes me to feel each verse’s impact in a more direct manner that is unfiltered by the distortions of the outside world. I’ve always said that in here, I have the two things I need most always at arm’s length: a faucet to make ablution from, and a Qur’an to read from.

The Prophet said: ” The closest the worshipper is to his Lord is while he is prostrating to Him. So, increase your supplication in it,” and he said: “… as for the prostration, exert yourself in supplicating during it, because you’re most likely to be responded to.” Knowing this valuable virtue of the time spent in sujud during the prayer, ask yourself how long your average sajdah is. I know that my own on the outside were not nearly as long as they could’ve been, and I would encourage you – even if you don’t have the time and peace of mind that I have been blessed with here – to elongate it. Repeat the tasbih slowly, with concentration, travel with your mind to the Throne of Allah high above the sky; there are some narrations that the Salaf would make the tasbih ten times or more during the average sajdah. Try to maintain this, and follow it up with a lengthy list of supplications, as this is time allotted for you to ask for whatever you wish! I can tell you that one way I’ve been able to spend longer times in sujud in here is to go into the sujudslowly and calmly, with tranquility. Usually, the way you initiate the sajdah determines how you continue it. The volume of your voice should be just above a whisper, and your forehead, nose, hands, knees, and toes should be planted firmly and symmetrically in the ground and be as comfortable as possible for you to take as much time as you can. Such moments, especially during the late night hours when the entire unit is dark and asleep, are golden for me.

More liberating than these outer physical actions, however, has been the effect of the environment on the actions of the heart. Picture yourself living in a concrete box, forbidden from being in the same room as another human being (except your attorney) for months at a time. A guard rushes by every half hour during his rounds, trying to avoid having to stop for any reason. You sporadically converse for no more than five minutes at a time with passersby from behind the metal door of your box. Besides this, you sit in that box in silence and solitude. You will barely notice that there are others in the building, mainly because you have no access to them. After living in such a state for months at a time, you cannot help but attach less significance to the abilities and presence of others. For all intents and purposes, you are on your own. If you were to have a heart attack sitting in that concrete box of a cell, nobody would know about it until they were to eventually find you on the ground during their bi-hourly rounds. The subconscious reliance you had on people throughout your days outside is now shifted to the only other presence you have with you in that cell: Allah. You are now forced to direct whatever pleas, complaints, and concerns you may have in a single direction. You have seen how easily people come and go, and you are now being taught in raw terms how to put your reliance in the right place. You now know the secret behind the Prophet taking an oath from ‘Awf bin Malik to “not ask anyone for anything.” For the Salaf, true Tawhid was in depending on Allah in all matters instead of others. This concept looks me in the eyes every second I spend here in this concrete box … this box that is freeing my reliance from other than my Creator. Ibn al-Qayyim said: “What will cut down your concern with what is with others is to simply bear witness to reality, and this is to see that everything is from Allah, by His permission, in His grasp, and under His authority. None of it moves without His movement or power, and nothing benefits or harms without His will. So, how can you be concerned with the creation after witnessing this?”

This reality has helped in making supplication much more enjoyable. See, the more needful the heart is of Allah’s bounty, the more tender it will be. Du’a’ is best made at those moments when the heart is most tender. You often find that those with the hardest hearts are those who place the least reliance on Allah and are always trying to take advantage of others, and vice versa. Think back to how ‘Ikrimah, the son of Abu Jahl, accepted Islam. He was escaping from Makkah by boat the day it was conquered, and the boat got stuck in a storm that was sure to drown everyone on board. At this moment of dire need, ‘Ikrimah’s heart became tender and he supplicated: “O Allah, I promise that if You deliver me safely from this, I will go and put my hands in those of Muhammad, and will find him full of mercy.” As Ibn Kathir related, they made it through the storm, and ‘Ikrimah went to the Prophet to announce his Islam. So, that one moment of dire need perfected his supplication such that it was responded to on the spot. Prison is 24-hour boat ride through a storm, and the nature of it frees your supplication from the barriers to acceptance. This is one reason why the supplication of the oppressed is accepted.

A large number of the inmates held here are awaiting trial. Observing them when I can, I cannot help but be reminded of the Day of Judgement. Most of those guys admit that they actually did something, but hope to find one technical error, one loophole in the system, some way out of where their choices have brought them. They sit day and night poring over their collections of case studies, spending long hours in the law library, preparing motions and arguments and statements in hopes of squeezing whatever mercy they can from the judge! Please! Just one more chance! Have mercy! Lighten the sentence! If I go back, I will never return to what I was doing (see surat al-An’am, v.27)! This is judgement day for them, as their deeds have caught up with them, and one judge will determine their fate based on those deeds. I wish each and every reader of these words could witness this spectacle for themselves, as it will serve to pull the wool from over many eyes as to the reality of this life in relation to the next. This is the scene we will all one day face before the Ultimate Judge – One Who cannot be swayed by closing statements, cannot be overruled by hidden loopholes, and Who is more aware of our deeds than we ourselves are. To watch these desperate souls fighting their cases is a liberator from the procrastinative illusions of everyday life …

Finally, I can say that every aspect of my surroundings is a reminder of my freedom. My very presence here is a reminder of my freedom. Let’s be clear: I am not in prison because I ever engaged in some “terrorist act.” Not even my lying accusers have charged me with ever having attempted to hurt a soul. Surely, then, I am no more of a ‘threat to society’ than the rapists, home invaders, and heroin dealers who are released from here daily with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Rather, I am here because of my holistic belief in the tenets of Islam at a time when there is unrelenting pressure from the powers of the world to redefine it according to their whims and desires. I am here because in the so-called ‘battle for hearts and minds,’ I have, by Allah’s grace, kept my heart and mind free from becoming casualties. So, everything I lay my eyes on in here – the rusty door, the metal sink/ toilet combination, the concrete walls, my orange jumpsuit, the annoying Flexipen I’m using to write this – is a stark reminder of my freedom, not my imprisonment, despite the undesirable nature of it all. This is a raw freedom that can unfortunately rarely be found outside these types of walls.

… ‘Freedom’ carries different meanings for different people. The absence of an agreed on definition for it, though, is an indication of how universally sought after it is. It is a goal that people will even risk their lives to attain! I just completed a book discussing the Revolutionary War. Long & bloody battles were fought by Americans to free themselves from the yoke of British domination, just as battles are being fought today by those who wish to free themselves from American domination. It touches every aspect of our lives: food (menus give you freedom of choice), marriage (represents the freedom to express love), government (people generally wish to be free of government interference, hence the calls to do away with big government), and so forth. Everyone talks about it, everyone wants it, but everyone differs over its definition. However, I believe that I and many others behind bars have confirmed for ourselves what ultimate freedom is. I will suffice by quoting Babar Ahmad: “True freedom is not the ability to go where you want, disobey your Lord when you want, and think how others want you to think. Rather, true freedom is the freedom to live for one’s religion, beliefs, and principles.” The one who has this is free even if he is in the depths of a prison, and the one deprived of it is imprisoned even if he has never set foot in a prison.

This freedom is buried as a hidden treasure deep within concrete walls. It cannot be unearthed without swooping down behind the razor wire, just as those birds do outside my window day after day.

Your brother in the orange jumpsuit,

Tariq Mehanna
Plymouth County Storage Facility
Isolation Unit – Cell #108
Monday 3rd of Jumada ath-Thani 1431
17th of May 2010

So what did the passengers experience on Freedom Flotilla?

unicartoony — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:42:00 +0000

It is important to note what the passengers experienced and are recounting about the Israeli commando action on one of their ships with 500 people on board.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read here, and here.

Now, the Israeli point of view is that they were “attacked” with knives, sticks, axes and pistols. They “couldn’t help but respond.” They responded – not really in kind – and managed to finish off around 10 people. 50 passengers are now deported to their countries, since they left voluntarily. The rest of the survivors (hundreds) are now being held by Israel, because they “refuse to cooperate” … These are the recounts told by passengers about what happened to them that night.

Mihalis Grigoropoulos, Greece
“I was steering the ship, we saw them [Israeli soldiers] capture another ship in front of us, which was the Turkish passenger vessel with more than 500 people on board and heard shots fired. “We did not resist at all, we couldn’t even if we had wanted to. What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard?” “The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired upon with plastic bullets and were stunned with electric devices. “There was great mistreatment after our arrest. We were essentially hostages, like animals on the ground. “They wouldn’t let us use the bathroom, wouldn’t give us food or water and they took video of us despite international conventions banning this.”

Mutlu Tiryaki, Turkey
“When we went up to the deck, they emerged from helicopters and military boats and attacked us.

“They approached our vessel with military ships after issuing a warning. We told them we were unarmed. Our sole weapon was water.”

Bayram Kalyon, Turkey
“The captain of the vessel Mavi Marmara told us, “They are firing randomly, they are breaking the windows and entering inside. So you should get out of here as soon as possible.
That was our last conversation with him.”
Source

“There was a massacre on board,” said the woman, Nilufer Cetin, whose husband, Ekrem, is the Marmara’s engineer and was still in Israeli custody. “The ship turned into a lake of blood.”
Norman Paech, a former member of Germany’s Left Party who was aboard the Marmara, said he only saw three activists resisting.
“They had no knives, no axes, only sticks that they used to defend themselves,” Paech said at a news conference in Berlin after he and four other Germans returned from Tel Aviv. He added, however, that he could “not rule out” that others used weapons somewhere else on the boat.

Source

I’m on a roll here.. :S – Creation of Israel

unicartoony — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:19:00 +0000

Salam again

This is my fourth post of the day. But since it’s after 12 so it’s the first post of tomorrow . *face falls at once*. I just can’t help thinking about Talat Hussain and whether he is okay or not. Rehman Malik assures us that hey, everything is fine and that he has contacted Interpol and they’ve assured him that they’re doing THEIR best to retrieve information about the missing people. How can he be so sure they are pretty okay, is beyond me.

SO anyway, this post is about something which I didn’t have much of an idea. Usually, we regard the US as the biggest protector and ally of Israel. But lately, especially now, I have come to realise that this status should be awarded to none other than the country which SET UP Israel in the first place: Britain!

In 1917 Chaim Weizmann, scientist, statesman, and Zionist, persuaded the British government to issue a statement favoring the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The statement which became known as the Balfour Declaration, was, in part, payment to the Jews for their support of the British against the Turks during World War I. After the war, the League of Nations ratified the declaration and in 1922 appointed Britain to rule in Palestine.
Source: Truman Library
The series of events unfolded thus:

During World War I, the British sought Jewish support in the fight against Germany. This and support for Zionism from Prime-Minister Lloyd-George[19] led to foreign minister, Lord Balfour making the Balfour Declaration of 1917, stating that the British Government “view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”…“it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. (Wikipedia)
(Ha!)

After World War I, the League of Nations formally assigned the Palestine mandate to the United Kingdom; endorsing the terms of the Balfour Declaration and additionally requiring the creation of an independent Jewish Agency that would administer Jewish affairs in Palestine. Britain signed an additional treaty with the USA (which did not join the League of Nations) in which the USA endorsed the terms of the mandate. (Wikipedia)

*sigh*

That done, the migrations began. Every Jew wanted to migrate to the Middle east and when this number got too large, Britain panicked, and threw the problem at the UN.

The negative publicity generated by British attempts to halt Jewish migration to Palestine added to voices in US Congress delaying the Anglo-American loan which was vital to preventing bankruptcy of the British Empire . Fearing a parallel conflict with Britain’s Arab allies and subjects at a time when the Empire was severely weakened, the Labour Government decided to refer the Palestine problem to the United Nations. (Wikipedia)

But what could the UN do? Of course it suggested two (read TWO) separate states. We have a historyyyyy of UN following its own resolutions.

In September 1947, one month after Partition of India, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) recommended partition in Palestine, a suggestion ratified by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947. The result envisaged the creation of two states, one Arab and one Jewish, with the city of Jerusalem to be under the direct administration of the United Nations. (Wikipedia)

So then followed major uprisings of Arabs vs Jews.

In the early stages 100,000 Palestinian Arabs, mainly the upper classes and the better off fled to neighbouring states.Before May 1948, 150,000 more fled or were evicted during fighting as the Jews slowly overpowered the Arab forces. Jewish preparation for the Arab invasion led to the eviction of hostile Arab communities who controlled access routes. (Wikipedia)

And then, the creation itself!

On May 14, 1948, the last British forces left Haifa, and the Jewish Agency, led by David Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, in accordance with the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Both superpower leaders, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, immediately recognized the new state.

They couldn’t wait could they :S

Israeli heinous actions – some thoughts

unicartoony — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:46:00 +0000

I don’t find much condemnation for Israeli actions from our authorities. By our I mean, both Muslim authorities, and Pakistani authorities. Pakistani authorities seem to think that a simple condemn statement is fine and well, while the rest of the ummah generally don’t even bother doing that. It’s a desperate situation where we have proved ourselves SO dead that we don’t raise a PEEP about our own people dying (and in this latest case, everybody was a civilian and unarmed). Now, there may be an outcry from different corners of the world, but the countries which hold resources and whose ”embargo” would have caused some serious effects, remains… in effective, flacid and corpse-like. The latest attack on the flotilla cannot be justified by any angle. One can’t say that those 600 people were carrying wheelchairs with dynamites stuffing or something. Those were perfectly ordinary people, who had been determined to help out a severly economically crippled Palestine and that’s their crime which got them killed and injured.

US blogger Glenn Greenwald gives his take on the attack here. He writes:

It hardly seemed possible for Israel — after its brutal devastation of Gaza and its ongoing blockade — to engage in more heinous and repugnant crimes. But by attacking a flotilla in international waters carrying humanitarian aid, and slaughtering at least 10 people, Israel has managed to do exactly that. If Israel’s goal were to provoke as much disgust and contempt for it as possible, it’s hard to imagine how it could be doing a better job.

He adds:

The one silver lining from these incidents is that the real face of Israel becomes increasingly revealed and undeniable. Not even the most intense propaganda systems can prettify a lethal military attack on ships carrying civilians and humanitarian aid to people living in some of the most wretched and tragic conditions anywhere in the world. It is crystal clear to anyone who looks what Israel has become, and the only question left is how will the rest of the world — beginning with their American patrons — will react.

Source (nice read)

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You know.. I would just like to understand one thing. Why would a state (and its people) be this…..

Image source

20 Dead In Israeli Attack On Aid Flotilla

unicartoony — Mon, 31 May 2010 11:48:00 +0000

20 Dead In Israeli Attack On Aid Flotilla: A private TV channel (Aaj TV) anchor Talat Hussain and producer Raza Agha have gone missing after the attack by the Israeli forces on an international flotilla carrying aid to besieged Gaza, killing at least 20 people and injuring several others.

Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto the deck of a Turkish ship and immediately opened fire on unarmed civilians. Live image from the flotilla shows that Israeli soldiers from the helicopter and a number of speedboats boarded one of the ships at night.

Activists wearing life vests were treating what appeared to be injuries for unknown reasons.
Israeli navy on Sunday night sighted the pro-Palestinian ‘Freedom Flotilla’ bound for the Gaza Strip and ordered the convoy to dock at an Israeli harbour. Troops boarded the flotilla and clashed with the activists after they ignored Israeli orders to turn back.

The flotilla of six ships set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday and was expected to reach Gaza by Monday morning, Al-Jazeera reported. The flotilla, originally made up of nine ships from Turkey, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Kuwait and Algeria, were carrying around 10,000 tons of aid including cement, water purification systems and wheelchairs.

One of the ships had not arrived and two others had been damaged. In the meantime, the deposed government of Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) condemned the Israeli naval forces attack on the ‘Freedom Flotilla’.

Source
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I am speechless with indignation and fury at this blatant blatant act of terrorism in the name of I don’t know what! at the unarmed civilans on board those ships carrying aid to the Palestinians. How can a full commando action be carried out on a bunch of civilians is just beyond me! And thankfully there are protests and anger is being shown around the world, against this inhumane act. And people say we shouldn’t protest at stuff? Sit quietly? HA

By the way, the inhumane attack on Qadiyanis in Lahore on Friday was also an act where terrorists entered a mosque and opened fire on unarmed civilians. There is absolutely no difference between one terrorist attack and this latest one on activists and other civilians carrying aid. *quite furious actually*

Image source

I should be grateful

unicartoony — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:44:00 +0000

Assalamualaikum

Even though this blog is mainly a personalised and humungous piece of ”rant”, I still think that one should be really grateful for the things one has, rather than lamenting over the stuff that’s not being granted etc. Most probably it has a good reason or another and we’re too shallow to realise it. Hence, I’m IA going to change the name of this blog, and probably the layout too. I have decided this SO many times in the past (layout I mean) and everytime, something or the other comes up and :S.. nothing happens. This time, no matter how many days it take, I’m IA going to do a template/layout change to this blog.

Khair, that aside. What was I grateful for? There are many things of course, will mention just two of them Insha Allah.

One of them is:

A couple of days back, it was my friend’s wedding. The venue (me the senseless directionally challenged person) was completely unknown to me and of course my mum (very very directionally apt MA) knew where it was. Since it was a night function and my friend had invited ”family”, both my parents went with me! The place was really far off and unknown too! But look at them.. taking out their time, and going to a place where they knew literally nobody! :):). And MA, they were so patient about it too… because I was busy chatting with friends and then going to the bride’s room and yakking around with her etc. Plus, there was no time limit (because this was a private ground, rather than a proper wedding hall), so er, it got very very late. We reached home by 1.30 am. When anybody asked parents why did they go and they could have sent me with the driver etc, they firmly replied ”How could we let her go alone? So we thought that even though we might be bored because we don’t know anybody, we’d still accompany her, after all, it’s her really good friend’s wedding!”

Long live my caring parents

(and stupid me for complaining about trivial things regarding them)
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The other thing:

I never mentioned what my result was in the exams held for the 3-month Quran course I attended from Jan to April. And … I stood first!

Alhamdulillah. The class strength wasn’t huge, (factors that put a damper on a ”first position”), but the fact is that I was one of the people in class who had had no formal training in any kind of religious institute. So with that limitation, standing first was a huge achievement for me. And not mentioning it immediately on blog makes me guilty. Why?

If it were a university position, I probably would have written it down on that very day. And this, being so menial in our eyes, is just left as it is, and it’s been a long time since this result came out. Not surprisingly, none of my folks were over the moon about it. They were happy yeah, but not as happy as they would have been if I had been a university position holder .

Sigh. Dad just had to say this: “Acha! 96% ?? 100% kew nahi ayee???”

Image source

Guess!

unicartoony — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:42:00 +0000

This is a stupid post. So if you’re really farigh, read on. Or rather, see on.

Er. You’re supposed to guess what can be 16 (in number) to make that thing absolutely beyond amazing!

Hints:

1. Having 10 kids is beyond incredible (so 10 being the number of CHILDREN is an amazing number). Got it?

2. If you haven’t, here’s another example: 200 is amazing number if you’re counting the number of tattoos in a person’s body.

3. 12 is an amazing number if that’s the age of a person who’s had Microsoft Certifications.

So now guess. What can be the most amazing thing – 16 in number!
Happy Guessing!

PS: Yea, I’m really really farigh.

PSS: Answer will be posted on 10th June Insha Allah.

Over at last! (and random stuff)

unicartoony — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:40:00 +0000

Assalamualaikum

Not that my exams are anything like a big pain. After all, they’re only two and two isn’t that great a number unless that’s the number of pimples one has. But the fact is that these past 20 days or so were horrendous because one has to be totally ATTACHED to books :S. If you’re not studying, you’re thinking about studying, or planning about studying, or er, procrastinating and aiming not to do so ‘tomorrow’. So this was the last paper. It’s over. And end of story.
story = second semester.

There are 4 more to go if I take a research project. And 3 more to go if I do not, and have a 2 and a half year deal of just studying courses with nil research experience. Sounds crappy? Tell me about it. *grumble*

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Bhanju wanju came for an hour or so today (sis had to visit near our place and was dropped back at her home when I left for exam today), so awww. The kid gives me such a HUGE welcome (and others too, of course ), but MA. The feeling that there is somebody in this planet who cares nothing about all the achievements I have (or not), any other feature I might (or might not) have etc. And just cares about the presence of a Khala! Awww. *melts*

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One thing I have nver understood. If my brain knows which signals to send which part of my body, like it knows exactly where to communicate what, then how come I don’t know my own brain’s functions? I was wondering today when saw some questions related to neurons and what not. How come I have to learn about the brain, even when my BRAIN already knows what it’s doing. How come I don’t know????

Any answers?

Image source