Haven't Blogged FOREVER

So I haven't blogged for so long I don't remember the last post. But I logged in here after what feels like ages and I have several messages.... again.... from girls asking me how they can marry their Saudi boyfriend, how they can visit Saudi Arabia, how do they know their Saudi boyfriend is serious, will their Saudi boyfriend ever marry them.... etc., etc. So I'm going to respond to your questions in a post here and inshallah this will clear everything up for you.

To get this started, here are some things you should be on the look out for... BIG. RED. FLAGS:

(1) Your Saudi boyfriend is your boyfriend: Girls, dating is completely forbidden in Islam. In case you don't know this Islam is likely to be one of the most crucial parts of his life. Therefor, he takes is very seriously despite his engaging in forbidden relations. However, if he is serious about you and sees a future with you, he will not be dating you, he will be taking the necessary steps to MARRY you.

(2) You Saudi boyfriend introduces you and allows you to "hang out" with his friends: If you were his Saudi fiancee or his Saudi wife, he would be mortified to have his friends even see you let alone spend time with you, talking with you, socializing, etc. This is a sign that he doesn't take his relationship with you seriously and he doesn't see you as potential wife material. Have you ever met a Saudi woman? Where did you see her? In a man's house? No. In a club? No. Hanging out with guys? No. You probably met her or saw her on school campus, in a mosque, or at home. So where do you think your Saudi would expect his future wife to be?

(3) You Saudi invites you out for a night on the town full of his favorite clubs and shots of his liquor of choice: Do I really need to explain this? He would never EVER under any circumstances be ok with someone who may one day be his wife behaving in such shameful acts. n-e-v-e-r.

(4) You have a physical relationship with a Saudi: Virginity is highly prized in the Islamic world for women. They even sometimes go to great lengths to prove their virginity by ensuring they bleed on the sheets on their wedding night. I'm not joking. I don't think this needs further explanation.

(5) Your Saudi wants to marry you, but refuses to tell his family about you: Don't do it girl! you will regret it. Perhaps he wants to marry you to legitimize his physical relationship with you and this is the only way. Or perhaps he truly loves you and wants to marry you, but unless he is strong enough to stand up to his family BEFORE you marry him, then he will never have the backbone to do it later giving excuse after excuse for to delay it... in the end he returns to Saudi Arabia... without you.

(6) Your Saudi wants to marry you, but hasn't shared some vital information such as: Saudis must have governmental permission to marry foreigners which is rarely rarely granted. This process is extremely difficult and long and usually requires an exorbitantly expensive bribe to get it. If he is a student, be aware that he signed a contract agreeing that he would not marry while he was on a scholarship or he would get his scholarship revoked. True story. Didn't know that? Think about the possible reasons why.

(7) Your Saudi allows you and/or encourages you to make youtube videos dancing and bouncing around dressing up in his schmagh and igal and even offers translation services: Do you think he would allow his Saudi wife to do the same?

(8) Your Saudi says nothing to you when you wear your favorite short shorts and midriff baring spaghetti strap tank top: Have you ever seen a Saudi woman? Have you ever familiarized yourself with Islamic dress requirements? More likely then not, when you see a Saudi woman, she will be covered from head to toe wearing an abaya or an outergarment that is both modest and classy. Short shorts and tanks don't count and if your flesh baring doesn't bother him, it's likely because again he doesn't find this relationship to have permanence potential.

(9) You've dated several Saudis: HUGE problem. The extremely large majority of Saudi men will NEVER take a wife who has previous relationships with other Saudis for his first marriage.

Some info for you: Last time I looked into this (last year), there were roughly 40,000 Saudi students currently in the US. About 32,000 are single unmarried men. The vast majority of them date American women while here on scholarship. Of those 32,000 eligible bachelor Saudis, it is estimated that only about 150 of them actually married their American girlfriend. That's 0.005% if you're doing the math.

If you even want a chance to marry your Saudi boyfriend, then you must make yourself marriage material. And then it's up to the lottery odds of 0.005% from there. Good luck.

The Driving Debacle

I have been an advocate for Saudi women getting the right to drive... until now. Not that I rescind my support by any means, but the article below is very telling of the trials that Saudi women must face which make driving seem so insignificant. I can see how beneficial it would be to allow them to get to school, work, shopping, family, etc. but at the same time, the limits that exist make it seem like there are bigger fish to fry before Saudi women can truly live as productive members of society. I would love to see the day a Saudi women holds in her hot little hands a driver's license, but I would love more to see them not have to tackle the ridiculous hurdles of their lives.

By SOMAYYA JABARTI | ARAB NEWS

Imagine if women could drive

Dropped off children at school, did some grocery shopping and now heading to work.

It’s the end of the week, so much to do and so little time to do it in. Today’s TO-DO list:

1. Police station,

2. Passport, department,

3. Bank,

5. Beach resort, boat and jet-ski rental and reservation.

First things first: The police station.

“Salam aleikum, I’m Muna Ahmad, lawyer of Laila Ibrahim who ran a red light,” the uniformed man did not flinch.

I continued, “She completed the consequential one night in jail and here’s the fine payment so she’s free to go.”

Still, silence.

“Excuse me, I’m talking to you.”

“Where is he?” he barked.

“Where is who?” I replied.

“Her ‘wali amr’ (legal male guardian)?”

“I’m her lawyer,” I said handing him a copy of my license.

“Even if you were her mother. If there’s no legal male guardian, then she stays jailed,” he spat without even looking up.

“But she’s done the time,” I argued.

“She’ll do more time until her legal male guardian comes for her. Go complain to a qadi (judge) if you don’t like it.”

Drove to court. Bribed the court’s entry points and approached the judge.

“Sheikh Saeed, I need a court order because my client’s being illegally kept beyond her due time.”

The judge turned to the clerk/plaintiff. “Tell the woman to cover her face!”

“Cover your face woman!” ordered the clerk.

Fine. Face covered, I stated my case again.

“Tell her a woman’s voice should not be heard,” said the judge to the clerk.

Having had enough, face still covered I walked up to the judge and placed my client’s papers in front of him.

“Step back!” shouted the judge. “How dare you trespass God’s boundaries and approach me!”

“Women spoke directly to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and to the caliphs,” I retorted. “Surely, what of their abidance by God’s laws? Or are you better?”

I was shouted out and forcefully removed from court.

“Anyway, women — lawyer or not — are not allowed in here!” were the clerk’s last words.

Fuming, I drove to the Passport Department to renew my passport.

“Where is your legal male guardian?” asked the employee.

“It’s just for passport renewal, not a first time,” I replied.

“Where and who do you think you are?” said the employee. “Where’s the man responsible for you? No husband? Then get your brother, son, father or uncle.”

“But I’ve a national ID,” I said.

“Doesn’t matter,” he replied. “You can’t issue or renew any passport. Only a man can.”

Unbelievable. Blood pressure is a few degrees higher.

On the way to the bank, I received a call from my friend Sarah, in Bahrain for basic lingerie shopping where women work in such departments. Sarah, like many women avoid the local shops where only salesmen are allowed to work. A salesman can size you up (& down), even discuss in-depth, the best lace, the best silk and the best shades. She’d missed her flight back and asked if I could cross the bridge and pick her up?

“Can’t,” was my answer. “My passport’s expired. No passport means no male guardian travel-consent paper.”

At the bank, my 17-year-old daughter wants to open a bank account for her savings.

“I’m sorry you can’t,” apologized the employee. “As a minor only her legal male guardian can.”

“But I’m also her parent, here’s the form verifying my employment status and I’m an old client here!” I said.

“Doesn’t matter. For a minor, the legal male guardian needs to come with the required paperwork,” she replied. “If he’s self-employed, he needs to bring a chamber of commerce license. If not, he should bring an employment status verification paper from the company he works for.”

“And what if he’s unemployed?” I asked.

“Then that’s it,” the employee answered.

“I pay her school tuition fees, save for her university education, buy her clothing, accessories, pay her allowance, pay for her leisure activities, travel expenses, tickets, mobile bills — all that counts for nothing? On what basis?” I asked.

“Wallahi (I swear), it’s not the bank but SAMA policy”, she replied.

Blood rising to a boil, my disappointed daughter (and savings) and I returned to the car and drove out to an Obhur beach resort for the weekend. It will be therapeutic after such a day.

“Can I help you?” the receptionist cordially asked.

“We’re here for the weekend, two nights”, I said.

“Is your legal male guardian with you?”

“No, only the two of us”, I answered.

“Your legal male guardian has to sign the required forms, in person,” he said.

“But I’m paying,” I said.

“Doesn’t matter,” he answered.

“OK then, we’d like a boat ride and to rent a jet ski,” I said.

“With a ‘mahram’ (male guardian again)?” he asked.

“I told you, just us two,” I retorted.

“Sorry madam, you can’t.” Absolutely livid, we drove back home.

So let me get this straight:

Only a man can bail a woman out of jail regardless of time served or paid fines.

Only a man can speak to and be seen by a judge.

Only a man can practice law.

Only a man can sell women’s lingerie.

Only a man can open a bank account for his child.

Only a man can check into a beach resort (regardless if the fact that women can check into hotels).

Only a man can rent a boat (ride) or jet-ski (in person or on paper).

Only a man can facilitate a woman’s traveling (in person or on paper).

BUT I’m allowed to drive? Must be a toy car, the wheel merely a pacifier?

All of the above is FACT. The only fiction is driving.

What illusive independence!

Adults are we?

Driving: What is our God-given right and due?

Mothers. Wives. Daughters. Sisters. Doctors. Educators. Writers. Researchers. Scientists. Journalists. Marketers. Bankers. Nurses. Financial analysts. Therapists. Architects. Lawyers. Pilots. Students. Designers. Mathematicians. Entrepreneurs. Businesswomen.

What were their words? “Doesn’t matter”.

Says man.

Not God.

Palestinian Oppression Versus South African Apartheid

Comparing Israeli Oppression with South African Apartheid
an expert report by Anthony Loewstedt

Anthony Loewstedt is a Doctor of Philosophy and a teacher at Vienna’s Webster University. He recently came to Palestine on a six month mission to work for MIFTAH – The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, and taught at Bir Zeit University. Dr. Loewstedt is currently writing a book comparing the apartheid rule in South Africa, Greco-Roman Egypt and Palestine-Israel.

THE ISRAELI oppression of Palestinians needs to be better understood. Perhaps understanding and explaining it is not absolutely necessary in order to defeat it, but very likely will help, so that appropriate and successful strategies of resistance and liberation can be developed and implemented, and, moreover, so that similar systems of oppression may be defeated or stopped sooner and more easily in the future.

Although it has by necessity unique features, one way to understand it better is to compare Israeli oppressive behavior with others. The most frequent object of comparison so far has no doubt been South Africa during the apartheid era. I will attempt to argue here that this is indeed a fruitful comparison, although it has important limitations, and that the comparison cannot be reduced to a single dimension of measurable oppression.

Similarities
In both Israel and South Africa, outside invaders came and claimed the country as theirs, defining themselves in ethnic terms, whilst ignoring or silencing the protests of the indigenous populations as well as those of the international community and of a small, marginalized minority within their own ethnic group.

But instead of killing most of the indigenous people, as Europeans had done previously in the Americas as well as in the southern Pacific including Australia and elsewhere, both Israeli Jews and South African whites left most of the original population alive. In order to be able to pay lip service to an increasingly dominant global ideal of nation-state democracies, they instead expelled a majority of the indigenous people or attempted to surround and lock them up in ‘Bantustans’, nominally independent yet crucially weak polities. Along with this expulsion policy – which included some very insidious techniques of encouraging ‘voluntary’ emigration, such as racially discriminatory laws and practices – came an ethnically selective and intensely racist immigration policy.

In these ways attempts were made to secure Jewish and white majorities in the states of Israel and South Africa. The white South Africans failed while Israel has succeeded so far in achieving this, although the prospects of securing such a majority seem doomed to fail in the long run. There are in fact many more similarities, but I will stop here for reasons of brevity.

Differences
Attempts are often made by comparative analysts to estimate the severity of oppression. On a macro-level, genocide is usually, and with good reason, considered worse than apartheid, but apartheid is also considered more severe than colonialism. Here can be seen one of the limits of the Israel-South Africa comparison. Israel is on the verge of achieving a kind of ethnic cleansing that borders on genocide. If it achieves a few additional mass killings combined with further emigration and fragmentation of the Palestinian people, it will effectively end its apartheid project and turn it into genocide. Today there are twice as many Palestinians (including refugees) as there are Israeli Jews, but that may still change.

Another limit to the comparison is that while a combination of black South African demographic growth, non-violent as well as armed resistance, and boycotts, divestment and sanctions by the international community along with the demands of the global market eventually brought down apartheid in South Africa, this cocktail of strategies and developments may yet fail in Israel.

On the other hand, there are today partially new contexts of international law, which may prove to be excellent strategies against Israeli oppression. One is the European Union (EU), to which Israel wants to belong. It is not yet as close to EU membership as Turkey is, but Turkey had to start relaxing its oppression of indigenous Kurds to get as close to membership as it is now. The EU can be expected to demand a corresponding end to discrimination against Palestinians from Israel as a prerequisite to EU membership.

Secondly, the new International Criminal Court (ICC) classifies apartheid as a crime against humanity, and this aspect of globalization may yet catch up with Israel, which has opted out of the ICC along with other rogue states, including Israel’s staunchest ally the US, that do not wish to be subject to humanitarian values and jurisdiction. Some of these factors may change. The US was also a keen ally of apartheid South Africa’s, but only until its usefulness as an anti-Communist regional power had been made redundant by the end of the Cold War.

If resistance against apartheid is divided up according to the traditional three pillars of state power – executive, judicial, and legislative – along with the business and mass media sectors (as the two pillars French liberal political philosopher and one of the founders of modern political thought Charles de Montesquieu never posited), then Palestine may be more successful with partly different transnational judicial measures than South Africa was, simply because Palestine and its international allies have new judicial instruments that black South Africans did not have at their disposal.

But resistance against Israeli oppression does not look likely to be successful in the realms of the mass media, the bulk of which are owned or at least heavily influenced by Israeli allies and sympathizers. Business powers may be slightly more dismayed by Israel’s many obstacles to free trade, such as closures, curfews, censorship, walls and other Israeli disturbances to the free flow of goods, labor, and information that globalized capital needs. But the Palestinian markets are marginalized and tiny, even compared to the black South African markets, which included nearly 40 million potential consumers and laborers, eight times as many as the Palestinians that remain in Palestine.

With respect to executive power, Palestinians are as weak as the South African blacks who also faced a formidable military power that wielded an ABC (atomic, biological, chemical) arsenal along with other state-of-the-art military technology. Indeed, Israel and apartheid South Africa developed their weapons together. As in South Africa, non-violent resistance against Israeli oppression is by far more actively employed than violent measures, but with an equally unsure outcome. Although international sanctions and other aspects of international law played an important role in the demise of South African apartheid, I believe the role of international law will be even more important in order to defeat Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

Excellent article by a Christian Professor of Theology at Boston University

Protection Versus Oppression: Can Israel and Palestine Co-Exist?
By Karen L. Hernandez-Andrews

From March 17 – April 1, 2009, I was in the West Bank and Israel with a peacemaking delegation from Christian Peacemaker Teams. There, I witnessed first hand, not only the efforts on the ground to better the lives of the Palestinians, but also, the oppression faced by Palestinians on a daily basis. From check point after check point, to increasing numbers of Settlers taking over Palestinian land, to the Security wall (which is about 60% finished), to the fact that it can take a Palestinian more than four hours to drive to their final destination, when that same distance would take an Israeli an hour or less because they can drive on “clean roads” – the oppression is obvious, apparent and blatant. On the other side, Israel’s need to protect itself is understandable, and in fact, with the many check points, and the security wall, suicide bombings have dropped dramatically. Where, then, is the happy medium? Where does the need to protect turn into oppression so severe that people are literally dying? How can a society protect themselves and at the same time, not oppress? More, how can people learn that the right to protection does not mean that it is alright to hurt people in the process? The ultimate idea to ponder then is, Protection versus Oppression: How can Israel and Palestine Co-Exist?

This is of course a question that is asked every day, around the world. As I walked through the streets of Hebron, where fanatical Jewish settlers are taking over the old city, or when I stood next to the separation wall, knowing that on the other side, less than six feet from me, was a family whose livelihood is literally cut off from the rest of the world; or as I watched Israeli soldiers escort children from the village of Tuba to the village of At Tuwani, because if they don’t, the nearby extremist Jewish adult settlers who live on the Ma’on Settlement will attack the children as they have done before (and actually just did once again on April 6) — I asked this question.

As I sat in Sderot eating lunch and a “color red” occurred, when I had to run and take cover because a rocket was on its way over to somewhere in the vicinity, I asked this question. Sderot, about a mile away from Gaza, is ravaged by Qassams from Hamas and Hamas wannabes, and has been for the last eight years. I spoke to several people in this small city of 20,000, all of whom have some sort of bomb shelter in or near their home, who put their children to sleep in the bomb shelters, who have just built a new playground with a bomb shelter, whose theatre and indoor sports arena are rocket proof, whose schools have been fortified, and where all the bus stops have been turned into bomb shelters. As I heard stories of the way people live in Sderot — I asked this question.

As I sat in the taxi on the way to Nablus and waited in line at a rotary, because the settlers in the area had the right of way in to and out of the rotary, before any and all Arabs; as I stood and looked over eighty homes that were scheduled for demolition in Jerusalem; as I listened to people’s stories who live in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp and heard about how their family and friends were killed in the Intifada, and as I watched children who were the third generation to be born there, playing around us; as I walked through the streets of Hebron and noted the over five-hundred businesses out of the seven-hundred business that are now closed due to the violent conditions of the city — I asked this question. When the Muhammad Ali Hospital director in Hebron told us that it takes two hours to get a permit for a Palestinian to go to Jerusalem for emergency care, (and Jerusalem is about 40 minutes away) — I asked this question.

When several of us went to the Jewish side of the Ibrihimi Holy Temple/Mosque, and they asked all of us if we were Muslim or Christian — I asked this question. If we would have been Muslim, they would not have let us in. When I saw a sign that basically said that Jews are not allowed to pray at the Temple Mount, because as of right now, the site is Islamic — I asked this question. As Israeli soldiers pointed their guns at unarmed Palestinian women at a Mother’s Day celebration and demonstration against the security wall — I asked this question. As I stood on the roof of Wi’am, an organization in Bethlehem that works to educate about the Palestinian plight, and stared at yet another illegal Jewish settlement — I asked this question.

Is this protection? It may be, but it is also oppression. Just last week, Israel closed all entrances in to Jerusalem to Palestinians who have a work permit to get into the city because of Passover – this is to stop any violence during the holiday. This means that these Palestinians cannot work, therefore do not get paid for ten days, and hence, cannot provide for their families. Protection versus Oppression: How can Israel and Palestine Co-Exist? I wish I knew the answer, but right now, all I have are more questions. Indeed, Israel has the right to defend itself and to keep their society safe, but I must ask, at what price? With whose lives? By what standards? In what means? The Palestinians are suffering horribly. It is time for Israel to reexamine their policies, make them more humane, work with Palestinian leaders and come to some semblance of understanding and coexistence. For everyone’s sake.

SICK. SICK. SICK.

A recent fundraising event that a group of Muslims organized and attended in Orange County, California drew about 250 anti-Islamic protesters. It's no surprise that the event was sponsored by the likes of Pamela Gellar and Robert Spencer, but it is shocking that the Islamophobic rally was attended by actual politically elected representatives. The protesters were ruthless even with little children present. It's heart wrenching. I don't know whether to feel sorry for them for the intensity of their hate or cry for the Muslim parents who have to explain this to their confused children.

The Saudi Royal Welfare Program

Now I've had an idea about this program, but had no idea the extent to which it goes. Anyone with links or knowledge about Saudi Arabia has heard of the spoiled royals and the privileges of the royal family... down the farthest distance royal from the king. I had no idea the extremism of the program and the amount of squandering that the royal family does. (Please god don't let my blog get blocked in KSA for this lol). If it does, someone send me a quick email and tell me so I can fix it.

Read all about it HERE.

VERY Interesting Article about the History of Saudi-American Relations and More

Read it HERE. Very cool read for those interested in little known facts that bring current events to brighter light.

More Inconvenient Truth

I don't know about any other Muslimah's out there, but one of the very first questions I am asked by non-Muslims is about the treatment of women in Islam. I have an arsenal of information to give them on this subject, but it made me wonder what e-x-a-c-t-l-y the Bible says about women and violence and all of the other things I am peppered with by curious individuals. Coming from a Christian background as I was growing up and being exposed to Christianity my entire life, I was kind of surprised at myself for not already knowing this. Despite this, I set out on a mission to find the same kind of information in the Bible that sparks questions to me as a Muslim. So, without further ado, here is some of what I found:

Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
-- I Corinthians 14:34-35

Have you allowed all the women to live?" he [Moses] asked them.... "Now ... kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man."
-- Numbers 31:1-18

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod [sceptre], he shall not die.
-- Proverbs 23:13

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son ... Then shall his father and his mother ... bring him out unto the elders of his city ... And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die.
-- Deuteronomy 21:18-21

... all who are under the yoke of slavery ... who have believing masters ... must serve all the better since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these duties. If any one teaches otherwise ... he is puffed up with conceit, he knows nothing; he has a morbid craving for controversy..., which produce envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among men who are depraved in mind...
-- I Timothy 6:1-5

... thou shalt take an [awl], and thrust it through his ear..., and he shall be thy servant for ever.
-- Deuteronomy 15:17

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother... - said Jesus
-- Matthew 10:34-35

Now of course, many Christians will say something to effect of "we don't practice those barbaric dark ages practices anymore because we are civilized". However, there becomes a fundamental difference between Christians and Muslims; Muslims have never attempted to change the word of God and Christians pick and choose what they agree with or not and dispose of the rest as being "outdated". Thoughts?

EXCUSE ME!!?!!

In the Saudi Gazette, the headline read, "Girl gets a year in jail, 100 lases for adultery". Upon closer inspection, the details emerge. Read this:

By Adnan Shabrawi

JEDDAH – A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus. The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride. The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house, east of Jeddah, where he and four of friends assaulted her all night long. The girl claimed that she became pregnant soon after and went to King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces in an attempt to carry out an abortion. She was eight weeks’ pregnant then, the hospital confirmed. According to the ruling, the woman will be sent to a jail outside Jeddah to spend her time and will be lashed after delivery of her baby who will take the mother’s last name. – Okaz/SG __

Honestly, the girl made a very unwise choice to accept a ride from an unknown man, HOWEVER, she was raped!! How can the authorities punish her for something against her will!? If they must punish her, punish her for getting into the man's car who was obviously not her mahram (Saudi rules here... still wouldn't agree to it, but they are quite persistent in these matters), but to punish her for being raped and impregnated, that is simple appalling and downright shameful.

A Saudi Prince's Plea for Reform

By Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud
New York Times
February 24, 2011

THE toppling of the heads of state of Egypt and Tunisia on the heels of huge demonstrations there, and the subsequent manifestations of public unrest in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Yemen, have generated a wide range of opinion on the root causes of those events. Some analysts see the protests as a natural outcome of the policies of autocratic regimes that had become oblivious to the need for fundamental political reform, while others view them as the inevitable product of dire economic and social problems that for decades have been afflicting much of the Arab world, most particularly its young.

In either case, unless many Arab governments adopt radically different policies, their countries will very likely experience more political and civil unrest. The facts are undeniable:

The majority of the Arab population is under 25, and the unemployment rate for young adults is in most countries 20 percent or more. Unemployment is even higher among women, who are economically and socially marginalized. The middle classes are being pushed down by inflation, which makes a stable standard of living seem an unattainable hope. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening. The basic needs for housing, health care and education are not being met for millions.

Moreover, Arab countries have been burdened by political systems that have become outmoded and brittle. Their leaderships are tied to patterns of governance that have become irrelevant and ineffective. Decision-making is invariably confined to small circles, with the outcomes largely intended to serve special and self-serving interests. Political participation is often denied, truncated and manipulated to ensure elections that perpetuate one-party rule.

Disheartening as this Arab condition may be, reforming it is neither impossible nor too late. Other societies that were afflicted with similar maladies have managed to restore themselves to health. But we can succeed only if we open our systems to greater political participation, accountability, increased transparency and the empowerment of women as well as youth. The pressing issues of poverty, illiteracy, education and unemployment have to be fully addressed. Initiatives just announced in my country, Saudi Arabia, by King Abdullah are a step in the right direction, but they are only the beginning of a longer journey to broader participation, especially by the younger generation.

The lesson to be learned from the Tunisian, Egyptian and other upheavals — which, it is important to note, were not animated by anti-American fervor or by extremist Islamic zeal — is that Arab governments can no longer afford to take their populations for granted, or to assume that they will remain static and subdued. Nor can the soothing instruments of yesteryear, which were meant to appease, serve any longer as substitutes for meaningful reform. The winds of change are blowing across our region with force, and it would be folly to suppose that they will soon dissipate.

For any reform to be effective, however, it has to be the result of meaningful interaction and dialogue among the different components of a society, most particularly between the rulers and the ruled. It also has to encompass the younger generation, which in this technologically advanced age has become increasingly intertwined with its counterparts in other parts of the world.

Exclusion can no longer work. This admonishment was most forcefully and unabashedly expressed by no less a personage of an earlier generation than my father, Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, in a recent television interview.

Social and political change is invariably turbulent, painful and unpredictable. But the Arab world has an abundance of resources, natural and otherwise, that transcend oil. Most important, it has a substantial reservoir of talent that can be enlisted in the creation of a vibrant social and economic order that would enable Arab countries to join the ranks of those nations that have within a few decades propelled themselves out of underdevelopment, stagnation and poverty. But that can be achieved only if the will to reform is unwavering, enduring and sincere.

Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, a grandson of the founding king of modern Saudi Arabia, is the chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company and the Alwaleed bin Talal Foundations.

Israel's Public Relations Offensive

In an attempt to prove that they are not the evil, oppressing, hateful regime that the world knows it is, Israel is attempting to make themselves look like saviors. Watch this report from Aljazeera. Despite every human rights organization and the U.N.'s research, Israel claims that the aid that so many are trying to get into Gaza via flotilla, etc. is simply not needed; that the Gazans lead a peaceful life complete with 5 star restaurants and an over-abundance of food. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Well then we can all sleep sound at night know that the heroic Israeli regime is looking after the needs of the people of Gaza. More smoke blowing.

Tennessee bill would jail Shariah followers - Includes acts of evil such as prayer and making wudo!

A proposed Tennessee law would make following the Islamic code known as Shariah law a felony, punishable by 15 years in jail.

State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and state Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, introduced the same bill in the Senate and House last week. It calls Shariah law a danger to homeland security and gives the attorney general authority to investigate complaints and decide who's practicing it.

It exempts peaceful practice of Islam but labels any adherence to Shariah law — which includes religious practices such as feet washing and prayers — as treasonous. It claims Shariah adherents want to replace the Constitution with their religious law.

A dozen other states are considering anti-Shariah bills, and there's a federal lawsuit in Oklahoma over one.

Imam Mohamed Ahmed of the Islamic Center of Nashville on 12th Avenue South said Islam teaches its followers to obey the law of the land. Shariah law, he said, teaches moral values.

"What do you mean, really, by saying I can't abide by Shariah law?" he said. "Shariah law is telling me don't steal. Do you want me to steal and rob a bank?"

The Attorney General's Office had no comment.

It is unclear whether the bill will go before lawmakers in its current form. The measure was filed Thursday to beat the deadline to introduce bills for the current session, Matheny said. It has not been assigned to a committee.

Changes considered

Matheny, the House speaker pro tempore, said he is concerned that aspects of Shariah law might conflict with the U.S. Constitution, but he does not intend to criminalize practices such as the preparations for prayer or dietary rules. He said he would consider amending the bill before asking the legislature to consider it.

"I'm still researching it," he said. "My intent is to educate and to look at it."

Most anti-Shariah bills in other states would ban courts from citing Shariah law. Oklahoma voters approved a referendum in November that banned state courts from using Shariah law in their rulings. A federal judge blocked the Oklahoma law from being implemented, pending a federal lawsuit claiming it is unconstitutional.

The Tennessee bill goes further by proposing criminal penalties for following Shariah. Matheny said the bill was model legislation, given to him by the Tennessee Eagle Forum, a conservative advocacy group.

Bobbie Patray, state president of the Eagle Forum, confirmed that the law had been drafted by David Yerushalmi, a Chandler, Ariz.-based attorney. Yerushalmi runs the Society of Americans for National Existence, a nonprofit that says following Shariah is treasonous.

He also has close ties to Frank Gaffney, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security and Policy a key witness for the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against a mosque being built in Murfreesboro.

Backers, critics sound off

Rebecca Bynum, editor of the New English Review, a Nashville-based website that is critical of Islam, supports the bill.

"I applaud Senator Ketron for his effort to protect the citizens of Tennessee from the real and present danger presented by Shari'a and for the deep knowledge and thoughtful consideration that produced this bill," she wrote in an e-mail. "Even if this bill does not pass, it will have done our citizens a great service by provoking informed discussion of this issue."

Charles Haynes, a senior scholar with the First Amendment Center in Nashville, disagrees. He said the bill is based on a complete misunderstanding of Shariah law, which he described as a set of voluntary religious rules, similar to Catholic canon law or Jewish religious law.

The bill is wrongheaded, he said.

"It's complete nonsense," he said.

The bill also is unnecessary, Haynes said, because people of all faiths have to follow secular law.

"Civil law and the Constitution of the United States trumps religious law," he said. "The government can't label religious laws as wrong or treasonous or evil. The government may not take sides in religion. It may not say what is a good religion or a bad religion."

Selah Sbenaty, a member of the Islamic Center of Murfreesbodo, said state legislators have bigger problems to worry about than Shariah law. He wishes they would spend more time trying to fix the state's economy and less time worrying about Islam.

"I believe this bill is a waste of our tax dollars, and I am sure the bill will not pass," he said. "The people of Tennessee are good, loving, hospitable, and do not tolerate bigotry."

The bill is SB1028 in the Senate and HB 1353 in the House.

Article from The Tennesseean.

The World is Changing Before Our Very Eyes

You'd have to live in your own personal world to have missed any of the incredible events unfolding all over the Middle East and North Africa. Historical changes are happening as I write. Tunisia ousted their leader and Egypt was quick to follow by booting Hosni Mubarak. Protests and demonstrations have been sweeping across the vast region since a young man set himself in fire in Tunisia in protest of the government seizing his food cart and only source of income. Economic conditions, slave wages, incredible high unemployment, and inequality have finally come to a head and the response has been amazing.

Let me for a moment play the devil's advocate. Don't get me wrong, I strongly stand behind the will of the people and support them in their struggles against corruption and inequality. However, the democracy they seek is not going to fall into their laps. Power struggles are inevitable as corruption and bribery will likely show their dirty faces in any elections and governmental reorganizations. Look at Iraq, for example. The United States has been attempting to make a democracy out of Iraq for y-e-a-r-s and there is still widespread corruption, oppression, voting fraud, and wars between factions and people for power. So, now that they're gone Tunisia and Egypt (and hopefully Libya soon because seriously, there are few people in this world that I have encountered that are as unstable and just plain weird than Gadhafi)? Look what Americans had to go through for exactly what you're asking for. Wars. Death. I fear for the people of these countries. Not because those puppets are gone, but because of what lies ahead. Many people will unlikely be alive when the goals of the people are accomplished whether they die from time or by the hands of conflict.

I pray for the safety and success of the people of these countries inshallah that their path is not one that harms them more than it helps them. Allah kareem.

Why won't this guy just give it up already!!

I have refrained from posting about the chaos in Egypt up until now as I waited for some kind of resolution to come about, but things have been basically stalemate for 2 weeks now. I am fully in support of the Egyptian people's will that Mubarak finally step down and I am also in support of their continued persistence.

The entire world has been waiting to see what Mubarak will do next. Rumored to be finally resigning his post, his speech a few hours ago shocked many Egyptians as HE REFUSES TO STEP DOWN! More ludicrously, he claims that he will not obey orders from outside of Egypt. Ummm, HELLO Mubarak! It's your own people on your own front lawn who are ordering you. His attempts at blaming this chaos on western powers are believed by no one but himself, of course, and I doubt he believes himself.

I am afraid this will lead only to escalation. Perhaps the army will turn on him and take matters into their own hands. Protesters have told reporters that there has been talk of storming the presidential palace.... surely at the cost of more lives.

If Mubarak were a real leader (and we all know he is only a selfish, cunning man who drives his people and his country into the ground as he sits on his $70 billion fortune), he would in the very least be able to see that he is the one out of options and that in order to preserve the country he claims to care about, he has no choice but to bow to the people's demands. Give it up already. You're making a fool of yourself.

The Procrastinator That Lurks Inside Me

I'm a writer. That's what I do. Professionally even. However, the one thing I should be doing is the one thing I just can't bring myself to do. I was the same way all throughout college and now grad school. Can anyone relate? There is an essay... due tomorrow... requires a lot of research... have known about it for 3 weeks... it's my paycheck even when I finish it for pete's sake... and I haven't even started. In fact, I'm sitting here blogging instead of writing the cursed thing.

It seems when I have some deadline lurking around the corner, I find there are a zillion things that need doing around the house. Today I found I haven't scrubbed the backsplash behind the stove since last week and there was a speck of tomato sauce on it. I could have just wiped it down for now. I have a paper due don't I? I can deep clean it later right? Of course! But I didn't. I scrubbed it.

Then I finally sat down to do my essay. I opened my laptop... and immediately went to cnn.com. Read the news. Checked my friends status updates. Watched the latest episode of my favorite TV show that I missed. Emailed a couple friends I haven't heard from in a while. All the while, my Word document is open... and blank.

So here I am... procrastinating again. WHY DO I ALWAYS DO THIS TO MYSELF!? I swear it's a form of self torture. Despite my anxiety and panic about the cursed essay, I cannot bring myself to start it. Well, this isn't my first go-around here. I do this every. Single. Time. It's excruciating. So I'm going to go make some tea now. Yet another obstacle to completing the incompleted but it's going to be a long night.. and I'm going to need some caffeine.

Some REAL Truths Behind the Saudi Spinster Rate

I'm a huge opponent of the Saudis crying foul over their high spinster rate blaming it on everything except reality. Well, this article in arabnews sheds some light on what could be a huge player in the reason game and this one actually makes sense to me. I've said it a million times that the real solution for this problem of theirs is to let the women choose who they marry and when they marry. In my honest opinion, they are their own problem.

Families frown upon marriage for younger daughter before older

By RIMA AL-MUKHTAR | ARAB NEWS

Published: Feb 5, 2011 00:48 Updated: Feb 5, 2011 00:48

JEDDAH: Saudi families say they are stopping their younger daughters from marrying if they have older sisters who are unmarried.

They claim to do so might cause their older daughters emotional pain and lead to the perception that they are either unattractive or not good enough for marriage.

“We live in a small society where rumors run faster than light, and I don’t think I would allow my younger daughter to wed before my older one, as I fear people might think she is not good enough,” said Nesreen Jameel, a stay at home mother.

“Even if my younger daughter had more people proposing to her, I would reject them all until my older daughter gets married first.”

In a society where gender mixing is restricted in public or closed places, men are not allowed to see women who are not related to them, which does not help in terms of attracting suitable marriage proposals for Saudi girls.

“Men who usually propose to my daughters usually hear about them from their mothers or women relatives, which makes it hard for boys to consider both daughters and they usually go for my younger one,” said Salwa Atallah, another stay at home mother.

“I started taking only my older daughter to women-only social events to make it easier for her to mix with other women and give her some exposure. I will not take my younger daughter out with me to these events until the older one gets married first.”

Not all families have the same point of view. They give their daughters freedom to choose their partners.

“My youngest daughter was the first to get engaged to her classmate in dentistry school. I didn’t object to this even though I have two older daughters who are still single, because I believe that when it’s time for them to get married they will,” said college lecturer Enas Hassan.

“My older daughters might get jealous, but it’s not like I told the man to propose to the younger daughter and leave the older ones! They just have to learn how not to be selfish and only Allah will decide when it’s time for them to get engaged.”

According to social studies specialist Dr. Abla Zamka, this phenomenon only exists in closed and uneducated societies.

“The world has changed and some people find it hard to get rid of old customs and ways inherited from their parents and grandparents,” she said.

“I think that this mentality should change because it’s nonsense and a waste of time. I believe that if a younger daughter is proposed to first, then this is her destiny handed down from Allah and the parents should not refuse.

“We need to educate these people and guide them to do the right thing, because according to recent studies many unmarried women are getting older. No one wants their daughters to end up husbandless and unhappy.”

Another Blsphemy Case in Pakistan

Pakistan has jailed another teenager for blasphemy apparently doodling some negative comments about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on a school exam. He is 17 years old and was turned in by the department of education and then arrested by the police. The media hasn't cited any specific things the teen wrote. Pakistan's blasphemy law states that whoever defiles the name of the prophet (pbuh) should be put to death or imprisoned for life.

Pakistan is not alone in it's blasphemy laws although they do have the strictest and they seem to enforce them a heck of a lot more often than others. When the famous Danish cartoons appeared, while the Islamic world was up in arms about it, Pakistan was literally out of control.

Let's visit this from a very technical Islamic perspective (Thank you Qatar University for my education in Islamic Studies). Read these two verses from the Holy Quran:


"
“Lo! those who malign Allah and His messenger, Allah hath cursed them in the world and the Hereafter, and hath prepared for them the doom of the disdained.” (Surah Alahzab, verse 57)

And the most important case of blasphemy against the Prophet (pbuh) ever:

“The power of Abu Lahab will perish, and he will perish. His wealth and gains will not exempt him. He will be plunged in flaming fire. And his wife, the wood-carrier, will have upon her neck a halter of palm-fibre.” (Surah Almassad)

you may notice that there is no order from Allah or judgment other than the promise of hell fire even for Abu Lahab! That's right, folks, there is no prescribed earthly punishment for blasphemy in the Quran.

"The Arabic terms used to describe blasphemy against God and the Prophet (PBUH). The Arabic words sabba (abuse, insult) and shatm (vilification) denote blasphemy and have been adopted in Persian and Urdu as well. It must be stated that the word shatm does not occur in the Quran at all while a derivative of sabba is used only in one verse and that too to proscribe the Muslims from hurling sabba on other people’s gods and deities." (Dr. Mohammed Taqi)

So this begs the question: Where does the death penalty and other laws come from exacgtly if not from Allah himself? This is where things get sticky. Oftentimes, scholars start quoting hadith in which the Prophet (pbuh) allegedly condoned the death or punishment of the blasphemer. However, the truth is these are weak chains of narration and several madhabs have rejected them. The inconvenient truth for supporters of these stringent blasphemy laws is that there are two strong hadith in which the Prophet (pbuh) not only tolerated insults against him, but pardoned them in mercy mashallah.

So therefore, these supporters fall back on a Quranic verse, the infamous Surah Almaidah which is open to extremely wide margins of interpretation:

“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.”

My argument, however, is isn't this in direct negation of another verse? "We sent thee not, but as a Mercy for all creatures (21:107)." By not prescribing harsh penalties, was Allah not trying to prevent the exalted status of the Prophet (pbuh) from being undermined?

I honestly believe laws like this exist because of erred ijtihad. Misinterpretation, reliance on weak narrations, and inaccurate qiyas. AND it makes us look like savages in the eyes of the rest of the world. Why enforce a punishment Allah never prescribed? Remove biddah. Return to the real Islam. But who am I to say? Allah knows best. Assalamu aleykum.

Shocked but Over the Moon Excited

So not long ago, I posted an apology to my friends and readers due to my extended blogging absence after having my beautiful son. Well, I have no words for my excitement because I found out today that number 2 is on the way!! Al7amdullah my family is already growing. A year ago my husband and I were 2 and now we will soon be 4 mashallah. I'm thrilled. Make dua for me and my budding family inshallah. And check out my little heartbreaker's picture <3

Hatred All Over the World

So as million across the globe have, I have closely been watching the events in Egypt unfold with mixed emotions of hope for the ouster of Mubarak and disappointment in the overall behavior of the Egyptian people as rioting, burning cars, looting and other despicable crimes are occurring. Nevertheless, I have also noticed other alarming things as I often read reader comments on articles written both on western and Arabic media sites from Muslim haters and actual Muslims alike. I've collected some doozies that I particularly thought were jaw dropping in their hatred. I've copied and pasted them so the terrible spelling and grammar problems are from the writers themselves.

American readers commenting on the guilty plea of "Jihad Jane":

"I am wiping my rear with the book of Islam as we speak."

"I understand Islam and accept it for what it is....a cult.
A cult wrought with fear and oppression under the auspices of being 'god's way'. The more intelligent and well nourished of us here on earth are aware that the only reason Islam flourishes is due to the fact that it is shoved down the throat of observers 5 times a day...in lieu of education and food...and purports to have an answer for every aspect of life...and holds a militant pedophile as its ultimate example of manhood."

"Islam is a culture of uncivilized barbarian animals they will never conquer the cradle of human civilization that is Europe."

"Islam is the greatest scourge ever invented by mankind, and Islam was invented by men. God has nothing to do with it. Disgusting misogynistic, violent selfritious scum. You can wear whatever clothes you want and bow in any direction you want it doesen't matter, your religion, as do all religions invent by men have no value."

"Europe would sooner commit a 1000000 holocausts of Muslims than allow its pristine culture to be subverted by a bunch of sand monkeys."

"Another fooled one by the cult of death. The Devil must be behind islam because so many people are deceived by it. Just the kind of thing he would do. Why must muslims always follow Evil? Leave the cult of death and there might be hope for your souls yet."

There were literally hundreds more I could have copied over but this is plenty to understand the sentiment of the responding readers.

Now, as one can likely gather from my blog, I am no fan of Israel. In fact, I detest the Israeli regime, Zionism, and the protecting granted to these criminals by western states like my own, the U.S.A. However, Muslims are not innocent of hatred and threats. They may not be as harshly worded, but hatred is deeply embedded in their comments as well.

Muslims responding to an article about Israel's worry about Egypt being taken over Islamists and how it will significantly affect their safety:

"So sweating out yr wit! Are u Mr. Israel! Coz u know once these muslims unite they gonna rip Israel wipe out the name of Israel from the world map!! its the right time to be frightened !"

"All the Western Rulers and the Despicable Jews will not be able to save Mubarak"

"Yes INSHALLAH we will remove all the dirty israelis from this world soon, you just wait & watch !"

"Yes, Israel, your time for destruction is very near and you know very well."

So the moral of the story here is that hatred exists even in the hearts of Muslims however they choose to justify their hatred. We complain about anti-Islamic sentiment growing in the world. We demand equality and tolerance from western nations that we live in. We advocate the peaceful qualities of our religion, but these types of behaviors and these words only undo our hard work. Believe me when I say when an anti-Islam westerner remembers anything about any Muslims they come across or comments they read from Muslims, they will remember only these, the bad and embarrassing. They will never remember the words of those of us who actually practice the tolerance we demand from others.

An Afterthought from My Last Post

For those men who adamantly claim that the streets are too crowded and dangerous for women to drive should look to themselves, their sons, their brothers, uncles, and whoever else drives that they know to determine why the streets are dangerous to drive on. Why are there so many traffic accidents? Could it be that Saudi men are some of the most reckless drivers on the planet? I am not throwing around falsities here. Saudi Arabia has one of if not THE highest rate street accidents and deaths as a result.

Maybe its because fathers recklessly allow their seven year old son to sit on their laps and drive. Or maybe its because the young men have nothing better to do than drive around like maniacs and the sick part is that they usually get away with it. Just saying. Check out the video. It's an oldie in a way but a goody nonetheless.

Let me suggest that maybe (JUST MAYBE) accidents and deaths would decrease if Saudi Arabia would let women drive instead of irresponsible and destructible teenage boys and little boys who can't even reach the pedals.

The Vicious Cycle Has Started Again

So here we go again... it is reported that Saudi Arabia is considering (for the trillionth time each with no results) letting women drive. While I have high hopes for this kind of reform in the kingdom's future, I have little faith that it will happen any time soon. There exists and will likely persist to be too many roadblacks (i.e. men!) who will just not allow something to happen. After all, the women must be protected and think of all the violent and terrible things that could happen to them should they be free to roam the roads. I mean, look at the loss of morality in the west and why would they want their women corrupted to such an extent! (regular readers should be able to detect ssarcasm, newbies should insert a healthy dose of sarcasm here).

So, it's frustrating to me and I don't even live there. But I assure you Saudi sisters out there that the rest of the world is rooting for you and knows for a fact that you are more than capable of driving cars. Hell, most of you do it outside the country anyway and no one stops you. What is it about those borders that magically transforms so many of you into conformists and slaves to societal expectations? Anyhow, I won't hold my breath that it will happen, but one can hope.

Whah whah whah

So, arabnews published an article about the rise of spinsterhood in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I have included a link at the end of my rant. The statistics claim that there will be four million spinsters (over age 32) by the end of 2015 equaling one in every sixteen women. The study has blamed a series of issues for this "problem" from fathers refusing daughters to wed due to fear of loss of income, and... wait for it... the rise in the number of Saudi men marrying non-Saudi women.

So, I have a few things to say about this and several words of advise for my Saudi sisters and for the God forsaken government. First, I can end your spinsterhood singlehandedly in a fraction of a second with my groundbreaking idea: let Saudi women marry non-Saudi men. I know. I know. Genius right? Let them marry who they want. Novel idea.

Second, and this one is for my Saudi sisters who are a little on the demanding side (and I've met many many of you so I know you're out there), stop demanding such outrageous dowries and wedding details as conditions of your marriage. Allow a normal God fearing man the opportunity to a-f-f-o-r-d to marry you. Maybe your chances of Mr. Right will miraculously improve overnight. Just saying. And as an example, my husband and I paid $38 for our entire wedding. From start to finish. And I'm deeply happily married to my husband without the extravagance or the pressure of being social superior to another by having a more lavish wedding than any of your friends. Be realistic for pete's sake.

I know there are a few other complicated and complex issues contributing to this issue, but these are the ones I decided to pick on today.

Oh, and while you're at it, Saudi government who I could only hope has the best interest of your own people at heart (cough, eye roll, sarcastic giggle), and while you are implementing such a sweeping change to improve the lives of women by letting them marry who they want, let the women drive. News article here.

I simply have no words...

Just when I thought nothing Israel did anymore would shock me... I read this. And like always, information like this fails to fall on western ears through the media. And like always, that's pretty shady. In my never ending pursuit of opening western eyes to the E-V-I-L that is Israel, behold this article (and yay Wikileaks):

Israel told US of intention to starve Gazans

By AGENCIES

Published: Jan 6, 2011 01:51 Updated: Jan 6, 2011 01:51

JERUSALEM: Israel told US officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse" while avoiding a humanitarian crisis, according to US diplomatic cables published by a Norwegian daily on Wednesday.

Three cables cited by the Aftenposten newspaper, which has said it has all 250,000 US cables leaked to WikiLeaks, showed that Israel kept the US Embassy in Tel Aviv briefed on its internationally criticized blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The territory, home to 1.3 million Palestinians, is run by Hamas, which is shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence or accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals. [Dania sidebar: To be fair since I'm always dogging Israel, I think Hamas is pretty skeezy itself.]

"As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed (to US Embassy economic officers) on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge," one of the cables read.

Israel wanted the coastal territory's economy "functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis", according to the Nov. 3, 2008 cable.

In a speech in January 2008, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to spell out that policy, which has since been eased in the wake of an international outcry over a deadly Israeli raid last May on a Turkish aid ship trying to break the blockade.

"We will not harm the supply of food for children, medicine for those who need it and fuel for institutions that save lives," Olmert said at the time. "But there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards (at southern Israel)," he added.

The Jewish state says it has significantly relaxed the blockade since May, with dozens of truckloads of goods entering the territory daily.

However, Israel continues to restrict what it says are "dual-use" goods which can be used for both military and civilian means, and only allows in limited amounts building materials for projects run by international organizations.

Aid organizations have said shipments should be increased further.

Palestinians say impoverished Gaza remains effectively a "prison" sealed off by Israel, and have called for an opening to allow normal trade and other links with the world. The unemployment rate in Gaza stood at 35 percent last year, one of the highest in the world.

Aftenposten said last month it had obtained all the diplomatic documents leaked to WikiLeaks and that it would publish stories based on them independently of the whistle-blowing website's own releases.

WikiLeaks has so far only made public around 2,000 of the some 250,000 cables in its possession, in cooperation with publications El Pais, The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde and Der Spiegel.

Meanwhile, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark is in the Gaza Strip on a solidarity mission.

Clark met with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday to kick off a three-day visit. He will also meet with human rights activists and visit relatives of people killed during Israel's military offensive into Gaza two years ago.

Clark did not comment to reporters, but Haniyeh's office said they discussed Israel's blockade of Gaza and recent escalation in Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

The visit places Clark at odds with American foreign policy, which shuns Hamas as a terrorist group. A longtime critic of US military policy in the Middle East, Clark was attorney general in the mid-1960s.

It's been a while

I want to apologize to any readers who have missed my posts the last few months. I've been extremely busy, but in a good way. My husband and I recently welcomed our first child into the world... a baby boy. It's been an interesting, challenging, and cherished journey so far as a new mom. I had no idea the challenges that awaited me and the joy that a little one brings to life. I will do better getting some posts written for my readers and inshallah I will figure out some time management to do it soon lol.

I don't know what to say....

In light of the recent wave of Islamophobia hitting America, here is an example (not representative of majority obviously) but an example of the Islamophobes fueling the phobia. Read it here.

A must see

Saw this on another blog I follow and couldn't not share it.

Thought provokingly powerful article; a must read

A terrible disease of the mind

By ZAID NABULSI

Published: Aug 23, 2010 23:15 Updated: Aug 23, 2010 23:15

My family and I long to return to the Gardens of Cordoba (Qurtuba). We agonize with every breath to re-inhabit the castles of Seville (Ishbeelyah). In our veins, there runs an eternal longing to walk again in the footsteps of our forefathers in Zaragoza (Saraqusta). We yearn to once again cultivate the orchards of Valladolid (Balad Al Waleed). We shall strive, by military means if necessary, to see the blessed day when we can tread along the rose-scented pathways of the splendid palace of Al Hambra (Al Hamra'a) in Granada (Ghirnata).

Every stone and every particle of sand in that Iberian holy land belongs to me and to my people, exclusively. No Spaniard terrorist has the right to obstruct the will of God and deny my family the legal title to the land of our ancestors. It is God who had given us Andalucía (Al Andalus), and it is God who promised us that we, the exiles, shall ingather in it once again.

I would indeed have to be a certified lunatic if I had meant a word of the above. Yet, the only difference between my disease of the mind and that of the millions of Jews who claimed to have "returned" to Palestine, is that in my case, at least the monuments and Arab names I am referring to are real and do actually exist today, and it is not contestable that the direct ancestors of my people did actually build that great civilization.

On the other hand, all Zionist archaeologists have failed - after digging up every conceivable corner of Palestine for the last 62 years - to come up with a single credible Jewish teapot or tablespoon, let alone excavate an alleged Jewish temple remotely matching the grandeur of any of the visible relics of Andalucía.

Not only that, but they needn't have bothered digging. Two years ago, Israeli Professor Shlomo Sand argued, with meticulous scholarship in his earth-shattering book, The Invention of the Jewish People, that the claim that the Jews of today are the ethnic offspring of the Biblical Jews is yet another Zionist myth, because all records tell us that the current Jews are the descendants of Khazar tribes who converted to Judaism, and have no genetic link whatsoever to the Jews who lived in Palestine during Roman times. The latter, he concludes, are, most ironically, none other than the Palestinians of today who converted to Islam (or Christianity), because the Romans apparently never exiled anybody. Moreover, Sand demolishes the myth of the Kingdoms of David and Solomon by proving they are pure legends that never existed. What is astonishing is that, to date, no Israeli historian has been able to debate, let alone refute, any of Sand's devastating findings.

Yet, not only would I need to be in a straitjacket if I was serious about reclaiming Spain for the Arabs - irrespective of our real history there - but the Spanish people would have the right to laugh at the sheer absurdity of my hallucinations, if not get gravely offended by their audacity.

I cannot, for example, visit the magnificent Hall of Abencerrajes (Ibn Sarraj) in Al Hambra and then, after explaining to my children that it was Muslim Arabs who constructed these wondrous architectural miracles, go on and indoctrinate them that this piece of real estate should belong to them. I cannot do that any more than an Italian tourist can visit Jerash in Jordan, and thereafter decide to build a settlement and live there because, he says, it really belongs to his great uncle, a certain Mr Julius Caesar.

This is the case simply because, in this modern world, we do not go around stealing other people's land by attributing our crime to an ancient historical link to such land, or because we believe that we belong to the same race or religion of the people who once lived there.

But the Zionists get away with it the whole time, and have been doing so for far too long - despite the total lack of any real historical connection to the land of Palestine (not that it matters or makes it any more legitimate if they did have such pre-historic connection).

For who can, in their of heart of hearts, credibly deny the blatant repugnancy of the whole underlying premise of Zionism, the very madness upon which Israel was founded? Indeed, any person who happens to support the immorality of the theft of the land of Palestine under such religious or forged historical pretexts would in reality be making up excuses for blatant colonization that are far more ridiculous than my demented ranting about returning to the gardens of Cordoba.

So why do these Zionists get away with such a ludicrous monstrosity?

We all know why. The hegemony over world media exercised by Jews is crucial so that no one can ever challenge the Zionist narrative or point out the naked, unadulterated lunacy of the whole Zionist enterprise. Coupled with a world conscience shrouded in a cloud of Holocaust guilt, an event that is forbidden to even debate, you get an oppressive atmosphere that has suffocated the ability of Western civilization to deconstruct Zionism down to its most basic insanities.

For how is it conceivable for otherwise rational populations to even entertain, let alone accept and adopt, the twisted Zionist logic about the Jews "returning" to a promised land after so many thousands of years of supposed separation? And how can these same people acquiesce to Israeli politicians openly using such religious nonsense as a justification for the contemporary and ongoing catastrophe inflicted upon the millions of guiltless Palestinian inhabitants of that land?

Take for example, José María Aznar, the former Spanish prime minister, who recently gave a solemn warning on the pages of the London Times:

"Anger over Gaza is a distraction. We cannot forget that Israel is the West's best ally in a turbulent region ... if Israel goes down, we all go down...".

Well, Aznar, we do not advocate for Israel to disappear or go down anywhere, because, despite the evil deeds accompanying its creation, Israel is a fact that we have to live with today. Likewise, the Israelis are fellow human beings upon whom I do not wish to impose the televised barbequing of the eyes and flesh of their children using white phosphorus, nor shall I ever tolerate such horrendous barbarity to be inflicted upon them.

But, hey José, if you see nothing wrong with what Israel is, and regard its Goldstone-documented war crimes as a mere "distraction", while ignoring that it is the source of all the "turbulence" of the region you mentioned, then you might as well give us back Malaga and Marbella. After all, in Andalucía, no Christian or Jew was ever persecuted or burned at the stake, nor had his bone marrow fried by any other means.

Yet, the travesty continues unabated. Take this most recent manifestation of the mental illness enveloping the racist state of Israel (branded by Jewish US Media Inc. as "the only democracy in the Middle East"). Hillary Rubin is a US Jew from Detroit who decided to move to Israel in 2006, something millions of Palestinian refugees can only dream of. But that is not the story. Rubin happens to also be the niece of Zionist leader, Nahum Sokolow, so you would've supposed that she is a Jewish notable, revered in Israel for her noble lineage. Last month, she fell in love and wanted to get married to a nice Jewish boy from Herzliya. According to Ha'aretz newspaper, after filing for a wedding license, she was refused and was told that she needed to prove the Jewishness of her maternal lineage for - listen to this - four entire generations. This is not 1933 Germany, but modern day Israel. So she got letters from four Conservative rabbis and one Chabad rabbi attesting to her Jewishness. But the Herzliya Rabbinate still wouldn't have it. To allow her to marry her sweetheart, these men of God stipulated she comes up with the birth or death certificates of her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother, something she of course failed to do. This is not an isolated incident, but the official applicable Israeli law on the books. Oh yes, Adolf Hitler is turning in his grave at this news. "And they dared crucify me for the Nuremberg laws?," the Führer is muttering to himself.

Well, there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen. Didn't I tell you that Zionism is nothing but a terrible, incurable disease of the mind?

-- The writer is an attorney, partner in Nabulsi & Associates law firm. He spent many years working for the United Nations in Geneva.

What do YOU think?

As everyone in the world at this point is aware, in lower Manhattan, there is a massive proposed building project to erect an Islamic community center. The cost of the project is projected to be $100 million dollars and will include restaurants, an aquatic facility, teen center, and a prayer space for Muslims. It is a interfaith center. All religions are invited to take advantage of the many amenities that will be available. The controversy comes in with it's location, which is two New York size blocks from "ground zero" where the World Trade Center towers once stood. The building itself was damaged in the aftermath of the events that day. Nearly 70% of Americans oppose the mosque. Arabnews.com had posted that through their own questioning, many Arab Muslims in other countries also oppose the mosque for the simple reason that it is shedding negative light on the Muslim ummah as a whole and fanning the flames of Islamophobia worldwide. I have my own very strong opinions about the subject, but I want to know what YOU think. If you are a Muslim, leave a comment. Are you in support of the mosque or no? Why or why not? Hateful comments about ANY religion or ethnicity will not be tolerated as they are on far too many sites, so be civil and respectful.

"O mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another, and not despise one another. Truly, the most honored of you in God 's sight is the greatest of you in piety. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware." (Noble Quran 49:13)

Have been on a blogging hiatus but couldn't ignore this one

Did you see this one? One of my many news stops of the day, cnn.com, has a v-e-r-y interesting opinion article posted. Apparently, the same church in Gainesville, Florida that hands out t-shirts printed with "Islam is the Devil" is planning an event. It is entitled "Burn a Quran Day". It aligns timely wise quite well with the flood of hatred over the proposed community center and Islamic center in lower Manhattan. Check out the article:

Editor's note: Akbar Ahmed is professor and Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington.

(CNN) -- In less than a month, Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida plans to host "Burn a Quran Day" to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The pastor, author of the book "Islam is of the Devil," is using the burning to urge American Christians to "stand up" to what he describes as a monolithic Muslim threat. A Facebook page for the event has accrued thousands of "likes" and Jones has said people have been mailing him Qurans to burn.

As a Muslim scholar, an adherent of one of the Abrahamic faiths -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- and as someone committed to interfaith understanding, I urge Jones to cancel this event. Not only are the actions of Jones contrary to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, but they are also against the ideals of the American Founding Fathers.

The planned burning has already caused alarm in the Muslim world, with the pre-eminent Sunni university, Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, condemning it as "stirring up hate and discrimination."

At a recent dinner in Washington, a host for one of Pakistan's top TV channels confided in me that he "didn't dare" report the story because if he did, "not a single American would be safe in Pakistan." He and the cameraman were quivering with anger as they asked me to explain why Americans hated Islam.

I tried my best to explain this was not the case, but Jones' burning will have great symbolic significance to a Muslim world already feeling under attack by the United States. It will cause undue harm to U.S. relations with the Muslim world and particularly the war effort.

Gen. David Petraeus, the head of American forces in Afghanistan, has repeatedly expressed the need for winning the "hearts and minds" of local people by treating them with dignity and respect. When Afghans see that their holy book is being burned, it will cause riots and attacks that will put U.S. troops further at risk. There will be similar riots and attacks in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. It will inflame the entire Muslim world and fuel acts of terrorism.

It could also inflame anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, especially in the context of the anger over the proposed Islamic center near ground zero in Lower Manhattan.

Many American Muslims will feel as if they are second-class citizens and it could push some angry young men toward violence.

On my recent fieldwork trip to 100 mosques in 75 American cities with a team of American researchers for the book "Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam," we documented that many mosques had been attacked, sometimes bombed. In May, not far from Jones' church in Gainesville, a pipe bomb exploded in a mosque in Jacksonville.

As objectionable as the prospect of Jones' Quran burning is, it may not cease with the holy book of the Muslims. I have always maintained that this kind of vitriolic hatred of one religion is a descent on a slippery slope, as no one can say who will be next. I was not surprised, therefore, when I heard Jones recently agree, when asked to do so in an internet podcast interview, to burn "a couple of copies of the Talmud" too.

Not only does the burning of holy texts reflect the darkest days of medieval Europe and Nazi Germany, but it is hard to think of anything more un-American, by the definition of the Founding Fathers themselves.

George Washington welcomed the Jews to America as the "stock of Abraham" while John Adams showed the utmost respect for Islam, naming the Prophet Mohammed as one of the greatest truth seekers in history. Benjamin Franklin called him a model of compassion.

The Founding Fathers read and honored the same Quran that Jones is now seeking to burn. Thomas Jefferson kept the same Quran in his personal collection and it informed his decision to host the first presidential iftaar during Ramadan.

The Founding Fathers were also inspired by Christian thinkers like John Locke, who declared that the true Christian's duty was to "practice charity, meekness, and good-will in general toward all mankind, even to those that are not Christians."

I consulted many distinguished Abrahamic friends for this article, all concerned with the drift toward intolerance exemplified by Jones' threat, who were happy to endorse this article's content and language.

They include the Episcopal bishop of Washington, the Right Rev. John Chane; Senior Rabbi Bruce Lustig of the Washington Hebrew Congregation; Imam Mohamed Magid, executive director of the ADAMS Center in Northern Virginia; Pastor Dr. Robert Norris of Palm Beach, Florida's, Royal Poinciana Chapel and member of the Presbytery of Tropical Florida; the Rev. Carol Flett of the Washington National Cathedral, the Rev. Dr. Clark Lobenstine of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington; Sister Maureen Fiedler, Sister of Loretto and host of Interfaith Voices, and too many others to name.

At the core of the Abrahamic faiths, these esteemed figures represent the need to show compassion and understanding of others. By threatening to burn the holy books of two of these faiths, the Quran and the Talmud, Jones is violating the basic tenants of all the Abrahamic faiths and doing something that is unacceptable by any standard of religion.

As an adherent of one of these faiths, Islam, and one who respects the other faiths, I implore Jones as a Christian and an American to cancel his burning event, follow the true teachings of Jesus by loving his neighbor, and engage in respectful dialogue instead.

The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Akbar Ahmed.

Israel really pisses me off *vent*

Israel has always been a mistake. A mistake with dire consequences. Their story began in Egypt where they got in trouble with the Pharaoh. So they ran with Moses “across the Red Sea” to Palestine (which was not an empty place... sound familiar?). There they started fighting with the Philistines obviously after they told them that “God promised the land to them”, wrecked havoc in the country and its peoples for many centuries (eventually leading to the order for the crucifixion of Jesus), and were finally dispersed by the Romans in 70 A.D. after the latter had enough. The Palestinians have always lived in Palestine since time immemorial, they were pagans, some were Jewish, converted to Christianity at the time of Jesus and later to Islam under Islamic rule. The Palestinians built the most wonderful cities and villages throughout history. Palestine was one of the most culturally developed places during Ottoman times. These people were so kind as to accept Jewish immigrants to come live among them at the end of the 19th century and early twentieth, only to be rewarded by the Zionists who took over that immigration by ethnic cleansing in 1948. The Zionists could not take their revenge on the Nazis, so they channeled all their anger and hate against the Palestinians who simply refused to leave their ancestral homeland. Israel is a Western Colonial racist/religious mistake that continues to poison the world today and wrecks havoc in America's standing with the Arab/Islamic world which was just fine before 1948. The Israelis must either give all Palestinians EQUAL citizenship rights (like South Africa did to its black natives, though I have a sneaking suspicion the Israelis will never give proper equal rights to any non-Jew) or let them build their own state on the part of Palestine partitioned to them by the UN in 1947 and which Israel illegally occupies since 1967. The Obama/Clinton groveling to Netanyahu is wrong and is costing America in life, money, and positive relationships with Islamic countries. Why is this stupid, spoiled, bratty country so important to the US???? It is because of the powerful Jewish American lobby called The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. Check out this link here.

FINALLY.... the US grows a pair

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN Friday that Israel's announcement of new settlement construction in disputed territory in East Jerusalem was "insulting" to the United States. The Israeli announcement came during Vice President Joe Biden's visit this week to Israel. It complicated U.S. efforts to set up so-called proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, the latest attempt to nudge the two sides back toward talking directly. Seriously, it's about time the US condemns Israeli actions. The question remains: are they going to back up their words with actions???

Way to go Sheik! (high five man)

Sheikh Dr. Tahir ul-Qadri: At a news conference in London, England, on Tuesday, the renowned Islamic scholar issued a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- condemning suicide bombers as destined for hell, removing extremists' certainty of earning paradise after death. The 600-page fatwa is arguably the most comprehensive theological refutation of Islamist terrorism to date. Qadri said his aim was to set an important precedent that might allow other scholars to similarly condemn the ideas behind terrorism. London's The Independent newspaper reports that the imam told fellow Muslims: "Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses of ifs and buts. The world needs an absolute, unconditional, unqualified and total condemnation of terrorism."From CNN.com.

Speaks for itself...

Just when you thought France couldn't get anymore ridiculous...

French police probe halal burger "discrimination"
From Arab News

French police are investigating claims that a burger chain serving only halal meat in restaurants with a strong Muslim clientele is discriminating against other customers. Prosecutors in Lille ordered the probe on Friday, a spokesman said, after the Socialist mayor of the nearby town of Roubaix sued the Quick chain for switching to Muslim dietary laws in eight of its 350 branches. Quick -- a rival to global chains like McDonald's in parts of Europe -- offers turkey and halal beef instead of pork in those branches. "Why should the people of Roubaix be forced to go to Lille or elsewhere to find bacon?" Franck Berton, the mayor's lawyer, told Reuters. French restaurants are under no obligation to offer a range of products, and there are plenty of kosher and halal eateries catering to Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities.

The halal market alone was estimated at 5.5 billion euros in a December 2009 survey, and is growing strongly. However, Mayor Rene Vandierendonck and other politicians have accused Quick of "communalism" or violating the French principle of equality. While Quick started the halal service in late November, the public furor only erupted this week after far-right leaders criticized the chain -- just before regional elections in March. The row has also touched a nerve laid bare by months of state-sponsored discussions over banning Muslim face veils and strengthening French national identity. The veil ban has won support from some Muslim feminists. The identity campaign, however, has been widely criticized as populist electioneering, with some associated events descending into brawls or rants against Muslims and immigrants.