Conservatives Attack Islamic Superheroes

99 Problems But a Cape Ain't One:

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Superhero fans, especially those old enough to have opinions, are often divided by their views on the appropriateness of real-world politics in their escapist literature. While many of us regard Dennis O'Neil and Neil Adams' socially relevant run on "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" to be a superlative example of costumed heroes confronting the hard-hitting issues of the day, just as many readers dismiss it as didactic and inappropriate given the characters' roots in benign adolescent power fantasies. But what about when real-world issues encroach upon the mild escapism? What happens then?

These issues are being confronted again with "The 99," a comic about a group of multi-ethnic superheroes with a basis in Islamic culture and faith. An animated series based on the comic was meant to debut last week, but it's been pushed back to January of next year (unlike DC's "JLA/The 99" crossover miniseries, which debuts next week with issue #1). Like New York City's so-called "Ground Zero Mosque," itself envisioned to promote tolerance and peace between Muslims and the greater American population, "The 99" cartoon finds itself imperiled by those who've yet to see or even contemplate the true nature of the work.

"Cancel 'The 99' before it starts," wrote the New York Post's Andrea Peyser in an editorial this week.

Hide your face and grab the kids. Coming soon to a TV in your child's bedroom is a posse of righteous, Sharia-com pliant Muslim superheroes -- including one who fights crime hidden head-to-toe by a burqa.

These Islamic butt-kickers are ready to bring truth, justice and indoctrination to impressionable Western minds.

Conservative conspiracy website World Net Daily joined in, writing nearly 1,000 words of warning against the supposedly subversive series. Except, from all appearances, "The 99" is about as subversive as baseball and mom's apple pie.

The superhero group was created by Muslim psychologist Naif Al-Mutawa not to promote radical Muslim values, but specifically to confront them, and challenge the xenophobia preached by radical Imams (possibly the sort of views that have resulted in an American cartoonist going into hiding after challenging Muslim extremists). In an interview with PBS, Al-Mutawa recalls his inspiration for "The 99," which began with the familiar idea of "Pokemon," and his desire to create something for children with that kind of potential:

My next thought was that there had been a fatwa issued against Pokemon in this region. My next thought was, "My God, who are these people, and who appointed them to be spokespeople for Islam?" My next thought was Allah, and how disappointed he must be. My next thought was that Allah had 99 attributes, and that brought me full circle back to Pokemon, which is a concept of 300 attributes.

Each of the heroes of "The 99" represents one of those virtues of Allah, such as strength, mercy and wisdom, attributes that are valued by many faiths and cultures. Praised by U.S. President Barack Obama as embodying "the teachings of the tolerance of Islam," the young heroes also demonstrate these values in their fantastical adventures without any one character praying or even mentioning explicit Muslim scripture nor the Prophet Mohammed, according to ICv2.

Just as importantly, "The 99" are not only intended to present a moderate, tolerant face of Islam to the Western world, but also to the Islamic world itself. In the same PBS interview, Al-Mutawa recalled pitching the idea of "The 99" to investors, and describing the trading cards and stickers of suicide bombers that were sold "in the millions" to children throughout the West Bank and the Middle East. It was time for the Islamic world to find some new heroes, he said.

The inherent Middle Easternness of "The 99" does set it apart from other television cartoons; I don't think we've seen this cultural context presented so obviously in children's entertainment since Disney's "Aladdin" in 1992 (you can count "Prince of Persia" if you like). A seven-minute preview on YouTube reveals more of "The 99's" backstory, which has to do with Mongols plundering and burning a library in 13th century Baghdad, which contained the world's largest collection of knowledge and wisdom. Luckily, the contents of the books were saved within 99 magic gemstones -- "Noor Stones" -- which are discovered centuries later by the young heroes of "The 99."



Such a series mythology is in keeping with the tradition of the variously "ethnic" backgrounds of some of our favorite children's adventure stories: Indiana Jones, Johnny Quest, the Immortal Iron Fist. There are differences, obviously, like the fact that all those heroes are white men inserted into "exotic" locales and cultures to become their champions, rather than heroes actually based in those milieus, as seems to be case with "The 99."

That one female character, Batina the Hidden, wears a burka and a few other heroes wear headscarves seem to be sticking points for opponents of "The 99," and opponents of Islam in general. Indeed, Peyser's critical New York Post piece is called "Trading Cape for the Burqa," as if even gazing upon such fictional children will be enough to prompt non-Muslim American children to abandon our Western fashions and adopt all the trappings of the dreaded Sharia, or Islamic Law. It's the next dangerous fad that will get your children into trouble, like huffing paint or drag-racing down the street at night.

Andy Sullivan, a Queens construction worker opposed to the "Ground Zero mosque," on "The 99":

They're taking advantage of the fact that in every middle-class household, Mom and Dad are working their asses off. They know the kids are watching TV or on the Internet. So maybe Sharia becomes OK. It's a game. It gradually becomes more and more in their lives.

Why shouldn't Mr. Sullivan be scared? In the United States, Sharia is most often discussed in connection with Muslim extremists such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and other places where one imagines thieves' hands being cut off at the wrists and women being executed for having the misfortune of being raped. Sharia has also been invoked as a boogeyman by some conservative American politicians, who say their liberal opponents intend to adopt Sharia in some official capacity. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich recently came out firmly against Sharia being "considered as a replacement for American law" (even though no American politician is promoting anything of the kind). Sharia is coming for our courts and it's coming for our kids!

In reality, Sharia is not a by-the-books law but more of a set of social and political beliefs practiced by Muslims around the world, who differ on the details depending on where you go and who you talk to. What's generally true across the board is that Sharia is about being culturally conservative, behaving very modestly with respect to sex and money, and practicing a high level of courtesy and reverence for one's neighbors.

But even by this most unspecific definition of Sharia, "The 99's" connection to Islamic law seems tenuous at best. The reality is that Superman himself operates in a way that would be very agreeable by most mainstream interpretations of Sharia, and it is with pronounced irony that conservative Americans, particularly those in favor of living life like we're all Boy Scouts, react so hatefully towards Muslims, who are truly their allies in this regard.

If "The 99" were truly promoting the kind of intolerant views so feared by detractors -- if the super-strong Jabbar left an unmarried woman to burn in a fire because he found out she was banging her boyfriend, for example, or Betina the Hidden refused to stop some bank robbers unless the bankers agreed that "Israel should be wiped off the map," then we would have a problem. But none of those things are going to happen, and for millions of Muslims around the world, those things are not what Sharia is about.

There are no doubt numerous empirical studies that suggest a wild conversion of non-Muslim American children to Islam or an adoption of fundamentalist Sharia is incredibly unlikely, but I can best speak to my own experiences as an American youth growing up not just in front of Islamic-themed television, but in actual Islamic countries. So as to deflect any accusations of religious bias, I should point out that my surname, Khouri, is Arabic for "priest," and it's a name my ancestors took on as they converted to Christianity. It is from within that Christian heritage that I first encountered Islam -- not on my television, but living next door. As a child I lived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language. The little girls next door wore headscarves, as did all the women on our street -- except for my Scottish/German mother and my half-Arabic sister, since they weren't Muslims. The broadcasts of "Astro Boy" and "The Muppet Show" were interrupted for salah (ritual prayers), and I took a mandatory Arabic language class in school.

Strangely, over twenty years later, I remain a non-Muslim who can't speak Arabic, and I suspect the same will be true of non-Muslim children who watch "The 99." The worst that could happen, if you're inclined to think of it that way, is that non-Muslim American children may actually learn that while Europe was up to its eyeballs in the Dark Ages, the Middle East was experiencing a cultural renaissance. Non-Muslim American children may actually lay their eyes upon fictional kids of perhaps unfamiliar backgrounds stepping up to become heroes themselves, rather than backwater citizens in distress waiting for Tom Cruise's "Last Samurai" or Kevin Costner's "Dances With Wolves" character to come save them.

In the mythology of "The 99," these young heroes appear to explicitly embody virtues and powers that inform all superhero stories, and with a stated mission to change the world for the better by focusing on those ethics and not on any religious dogma. It is a mission that Grant Morrison and Deepak Chopra have advocated for years.

"The 99" creator Naif Al-Mutawa, in conversation with CNN:

It is finally time that all of us became more accountable for that which our children will be hearing; tiny differences setting us apart rather than celebrating those positive things that bind all good people together. If we allow small-minded men to spout fear and hate in the name of our religion, we will enable them to brainwash another generation as they did our own. And soon, the next generation will fall into a pit of dissonance. To sit by silently makes us all complicit.

There's nothing to disagree with there, and children could do a lot worse than watch animated series based on that outlook. Assuming any children watch "The 99" at all.

You see, having broken down the bigoted, anti-Islamic arguments against "The 99," we're left with the inescapable fact that it just looks like hell. As you probably saw in the preview video above, the animation is like something out of a '90s SEGA game. The characters appear utterly without any depth or attractive edge to their personalities whatsoever. Barring any surprises -- like the series even airing at all in this toxic political climate -- it looks like the U.S. media has embarrassed itself again by railing ignorantly against a work of little substance, a cheap cartoon that depicts only the most basic concepts of good versus evil in the plainest possible language.

Indeed, "The 99" is the superhero cartoon for which conservative parents have prayed for years!

[Via ICv2]

First the Masjid disappears, then the law

Submitted by admin4 on 14 October 2010 - 11:47am

• Articles
• Indian Muslim

By Shafeeq Rehman Mahajir,

In the Ayodhya matter, has the judgement of the Allahabad High Court
unwittingly taken the law to the ideological right, and conferred
legitimacy on questionable doctrine of majoritarian supremacy, while at
the same time succeeding, I cannot say inadvertently or otherwise, in
concealing it ? Are the judges of today capable of being seen as
magicians creating illusions that make settled principles of
jurisprudence magically disappear ? The verdict has the distinction of
leaving us wondering if we are watching an illusion, in effect, though
obviously such a situation would never have been ever intended by any
Court, to distract the citizens from seeing the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth. Why is it said that justice must not only be
done but it must be seen to be done ? That is because the message matters as much as the outcome.
In the Ayodhya matter, the judgement of the Allahabad High Court has
with consummate skill allowed certain established principles of civil
law to go for a toss, caused the law to morph before the very eyes of a
stunned section of the country’s population, even as the right itself
was delirious at what it could hardly believe was happening.

Magicians have certain stock tricks and are adept at creating
illusions so that audiences reach the conclusions magicians want. The
judgement by picking stands and claims so devoid of any verifiable
content and so completely divorced from the normal realm of evidence,
proof, documentation, verification, legal sustainability, precedent,
etc., and alleged facts so impossible to prove, walked such a perilous
path that it appeared to it perfectly logical to resort to reliance on
blind faith... and in doing so it created so compelling an illusion
that it successfully blinded itself to not only binding precedent but
also threw overboard all canons of judicial propriety in decision
making, to such an extent that from that warped viewpoint, only one
outcome seemed possible. Then it seems to have used the
reasonable-seeming outcome to reverse engineer “reasons” to “decide” the
matter in the way it did and the result was to inadvertently push the
law in the right direction.

Just about all that most Indians will be interested in, in the matter
of the Babri Masjid – Ram Janam Bhoomi case, is who won or lost — the
outcomes of the cases. The court perhaps omitted to keep in mind one
other crucial factor : any judgement as a tool of legal thought-shift is
powerful because ratio decidendi of judgements forms the legal maze in
which the citizens must in future navigate for securing their rights.
So, while most public discourse is confined to simplistic issues of who
won and who lost, the courts in fact write legal manuals to govern the
future of a billion people, impacting (now in unsettling ways at that)
what the legal fraternity smugly believed were settled jurisprudential
principles of limitation, res judicata, dispossession of persons in
settled possession being by only another provided that another could
prove better title, lis pendens (no party can transact to affect any
other party during the course of litigation), evidence, probative value
and more.

Given there was a mosque there for four centuries and a half, given
the rules of evidence, given the doctrine of lis pendens, given the
problem of limitation, given the problem of a video record of demolition
of the mosque by illegal means, the judges came up with a brilliant
solution : ignore the demolition of 1992 altogether and focus on the
alleged demolition of centuries in the past... So what if there is no
proof of that alleged demolition ? So what if there is no proof of who
executed that alleged demolition ? So what if there is no proof, if
even there is actual controversy, about a specific place being a
birthplace as claimed ? So what if there is no proof of that alleged
structure allegedly demolished being a temple ? Shift focus from 1992,
of which time and act of demolition there is available evidence, to
another century, another set of allegations (as against proved fact) of
which there cannot be any proof... and fall back on the legally dubious
and logically questionably theory that because it is the faith of
millions it must be accepted. Behold, the magical result is there !
What cannot be, suddenly is ! What is, suddenly disappears... and
there is “justice for all” !!

Arre bhai, koi aur kyaa karey ? What's a judgement by a set of
conservative justices to do, faced with a nation on the boil, an issue
that is insurmountable, a 1994 Supreme Court refusal to answer a
reference but to rush in where a Higher Court declined to tread ?
Unaware perhaps that by their judgement they erode the Law, all the
while the set of conservative justices assiduously wrote volumes in the
convenient belief that the integrity of the very nation itself was
otherwise in jeopardy. But to enable the set of conservative justices to
do their amazing work without itself getting caught in the nets of
precedent, law and logic, the judgement has been brilliant at choosing
to present resounding in its content only those claims in which what
the alleged invaders did centuries ago was not just clear, but clear
enough to adequately to sustain a legal argument on, whereas what was
seen in 1992 was... wait, how could the judgement wish that away ?
Simple – it did not ! It caused learned judges to simply ignore the
demolition of 1992 !!

What the judgement achieved is so fantastic, you would be amazed
beyond your imagination ! While the nation is watching, the
Constitutional mandate of upholding the law is sidestepped skilfully,
the principle that a change in situation during litigation cannot inure
to the advantage of any party is quietly buried, four centuries and a
half of history is disbelieved, mythology is elevated to the status of
fact, the rules of evidence are scuttled, the doctrine of lis pendens
disappears, the problem of limitation is overcome, the video record of
demolition of the mosque by illegal means evaporates, so the learned
judges can then turn their attention to the task they set themselves –
preserving the national peace while the judgement continued at its task
of destroying the rule of law.

Obviously the learned judges had no faith in the capacity of the
executive to ensure peace, prevent outbreak of violence... After all,
they did have as a stark reminder a precedent : the precedent of a State
Government holding out to the highest Court in the country the
guarantees and assurances of the protection of the mosque, and the grand
spectacle of that edifice come crumbling down... So how could any
Court now rely on the executive ? They had to ensure peace themselves !
So what if that is not the mandate of a Court ?

Did you think the reference to “the grand spectacle of that edifice
come crumbling down” was a reference to the mosque that was demolished ?
No, since the judgement chose not to refer to it I will not either –
my reference is instead to the edifice of Rule of Law. What was
reflected in that act of demolition of the mosque was aggravated first
by the very majesty of law being trampled upon by a State that breached
undertakings given to a Court, aggravated further by a Court that did
not react. When mob violence takes over, reason, logic and law take a
back seat, and edifices do come crashing down. That is in essence the
way the mob works. Which is why decisions in disputes are not left to
mobs to take, for fear that those decisions taken by mobs would not
correctly be reflective of what the law prescribes, what the decisions
of past stalwarts of legal and constitutional thought have held, and
what would uphold the highest traditions that once prevailed in the
land. Decisions in disputes are therefore left to Courts of Law.

Courts of Law to operate on the basis of Law. If however, judgements
of a Court of Law were to proceed to do to the edifice of the majesty
of law and to Rule of Law exactly what a mob did to the edifice of the
mosque, would what happened to the mosque not also happen to the
structure of the Law as we know it ?

So who thinks it is the Sunni Muslim Wakf Board that is affected by
the judgement, or the Amrohi Akhara, or the Ram Lalla idol ? The
persons affected one way or the other by the demolition of the mosque
may be those, but the persons affected by the demolition of Rule of Law
at the hands of the judgement are the likes of you and I, make no
mistake of that !

If a right is claimed and denied, the law step to correct any
imbalances. Sorry, let me correct myself, the Law would have stepped in
to correct imbalances. Now, with a verdict of three learned judges
vapourising so many legal principles at one stroke, what will now step
in will be not Law as we knew it, with inconvenient doctrines and
principles and requirements of evidence and proof and so on and so forth
disrupting national harmony, but Law as we now are told it shall
henceforth be : the belief of millions shall be the effective substitute for the law.
With that substitute there is miraculously achieved, before your very
eyes, a magical transformation, a legal-morphing causing the law of the
land to disappear and stand substituted with the belief of a majority of
the people living in the country.

Three litigants got three months’ more time to settle, or else. The
country got for free the magic of the disappearing legal rules ! Ab
Supreme Court jaaiye, das saal wahaan latgegaa maamlaa... by which time
the magical result of today would have been operational for a decade !
And who ever saw anything once granted in our country being taken back
again ?

The conservative judgement couldn't simply overrule the problematic
legal issue of an inconvenient set of "precedents" staring at the judges
: faced with the national uproar both ways, for and against the
verdict, no one notices the silent but crucial collapse, at the hands of
the judgement, of settled legal principles. Court decisions based on
highly fragile, judicially unknown and logically unacceptable lines of
reasoning will unfortunately invariably impact all who live in a land
with “millions” subscribing to certain beliefs. If the faith of those
millions is to be the determinant of what is proper and what is not,
then things like law, precedent, judicial decision making, rule of law,
etc., pale into insignificance and stand substituted by an uncertain,
absolute, unverifiable, impossible-to-prove something else – the will of the majority.
That spells the end of the India that Babasaheb Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh,
Mahatma Gandhi, Moulana Azad, Swami Vivekanand, and others of that
calibre thought would come into being. We are now looking at a dubious
legal construct based on a thought-shift from the secular to the
fascist, from the multicultural to a monochromic, from the inclusive and
pluralistic to the exclusionist. What we leave for our children is up
to us but one factor is not a variable : if we are not to allow a
malevolent drift, we need to act before it is too late.

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Islamic head scarves take fashion cues

Younger, Westernized Muslim women are
seeking out trendy styles, with one Orange County student selling
designs inspired by Vogue and Elle. But some critics wonder whether the
stylish creations defeat the purpose of modesty.

Marwa Atik,19, right, adjusts a scarf on her friend Marwa Biltagi. Some of Atik's friends had gathered at her Orange County home to model her new line of scarves for a photo shoot for her website, Vela Scarves. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Disney restaurant hostess sues for permission to wear hijab

By Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times October 7, 2010

On one of the holiest nights of
Ramadan, Marwa Atik chose a crowded Southern California mosque to debut
her latest creation.

It was just after midnight when the 20-year-old walked into the Islamic
Center of Irvine, dressed in a long, flowing burgundy robe, her head
wrapped in a charcoal-colored chiffon hijab, trimmed with decorative gold zippers.

After the group prayers, sermon and Koran recitation, a woman approached
Atik, gesturing at the scarf. "OK, I want one," she said excitedly.
"How can I get it?"

Atik has taken the Muslim head scarf, often known as hijab,
and turned it into a canvas for her fashion sensibilities, with ideas
inspired by designs from Forever 21 and H&M as well as haute couture
runways and the pages of Vogue and Elle. Showing her latest design at a
mosque was her way of gauging sentiment on scarves that go beyond the
limited fashion realm they have thus far inhabited, such as floral and
geometric prints or lace and beaded embellishments.

"I knew that I wanted to do a zipper scarf, because I knew that zippers
were in style," Atik said, her head covered this day with a sea-foam hijab, echoing the color of her light green eyes.

The hijab has long been a palette of sorts for changing styles
and designs, and shops across the Middle East are replete with colors
and shapes that can vary from region to region. Some women in the
Persian Gulf region wear their hair up in a bouffant with the scarf
wrapped around it like a crown. Syrians are known for cotton pull-on
scarves, the hijab equivalent of a T-shirt. And in Egypt veiled brides visit hijab stylists who create intricate designs and bouquets of color atop the bride's head.

But Atik's experiments with the hijab, which is meant as a symbol of modesty, are created with an eye toward being more adventuresome and risky.
To some, the trend heralds the emergence of Westernized Muslim women, who embrace both their religion and a bit of rebellion.
But to others in the Muslim community, what Atik is doing flies in the
face of the head scarf's purpose. When the scarf is as on-trend as a
couture gown, some wonder whether it has lost its sense of the demure.

Eiman Sidky, who teaches religious classes at King Fahd mosque in Culver
City, is among those who say attempts to beautify the scarf have gone
too far. In countries like Egypt, where Sidky spends part of the year,
religious scholars complain that women walk down the street adorned as
if they were peacocks.

"In the end they do so much with hijab, I don't think this is the hijab the way God wants it; the turquoise with the yellow with the green," she said.

The conflict is part of a larger debate among Muslims on which practices are too conservative and which too liberal.

And at a time when Muslims hear stories about women filing lawsuits
after not getting hired or being barred from wearing head scarves at
work — most recently at two Abercrombie & Fitch stores and Disneyland — the message is reinforced that the hijab is still regarded with suspicion.

For women like Atik, an Orange Coast College student who works part time at Urban Outfitters, fashion-forward hijabs are an attempt not only to fill a void, but to make the scarves less foreign and more friendly to non-Muslims.

The Islamic religious parameters for hijab — that the entire body
must be covered except for the face and hands — are broad enough to
include those who wear black, flowing abayas to those who pair a head scarf with skinny jeans.

"We've gotten maybe just a few people saying, 'Oh, this is defeating the
purpose,'" said Tasneem Sabri, Atik's older sister and business
partner. "It really comes down to interpretation."

The criticism means little to Atik, a petite young woman who favors skinny jeans, embellished cardigans and knee-high boots.

Atik sees the fashion industry's treatment of the hijab as staid and lackluster. She wants to make the scarves edgier, with fringes, pleats, peacock feathers, animal prints.

"We want to treat the hijab like it's a piece of clothing,
because that's what it is, it's not just an accessory," said Nora Diab, a
friend of Atik who began the venture with her but bowed out to focus on
college. "We can still dress according to what's 'in' while dressing
modest."

Scarves from Atik's recent collections are sold under the label Vela,
Latin for veil. In addition to the exaggerated zippers, there are
Victorian pleats, military buttons and even a black and white scarf with
gold clasps named simply Michael (as in Michael Jackson).
A recent design features a plain scarf with a large sewn-on bow, called
"Blair," after the "Gossip Girl" character. There is also a growing
bridal scarf collection.

The scarves have a certain unfinished look to them, with frayed edges
and visible stitching. Atik sews many of them herself, though she
recently hired a seamstress to help fill orders placed through the Vela website.
The scarves, which are not available in stores, range in price from $15
for basic designs to $60 for high-fashion styles, pricier than many on
the market.

When not in class or at work, Atik spends most of her time researching
trends, designing new scarves or filling orders. She makes frequent
trips to Los Angeles for fabric.

Atik said she is inspired by risk-takers such as Alexander McQueen, the late avant-garde designer with an eye for shock value.

"I feel he says it's really OK to be different," Atik said while taking a coffee break in Los Angeles' Fashion District.

Atik, whose parents are from Syria, began wearing the head scarf in
eighth grade. She was the editor of her high school yearbook but found
herself spending more time browsing fashion websites than looking at
photos of student clubs and activities. After school she would spend
hours at Wal-Mart reading fashion magazines. In the summer of 2009 when she and Diab decided to design hijabs, she took sewing classes, the youngest among a group of elderly women making patterned quilts.

Before a photo shoot for her website this year, Atik did last-minute
hemming and sewing at her makeshift work space in the kitchen of her
Huntington Beach home. The kitchen table was covered with half-completed
designs. Bags of satin and chiffon fabric sat on chairs and lacy and
beaded scarves spilled out onto the fruit bowls.

Atik fingered a beige and pink chiffon scarf.

"I think we're going to try a couple on you," she told her friend Marwa
Biltagi, who had arrived wearing a loosely wrapped black and gold scarf.
"Because either way you can work it."

In the backyard, Biltagi and others posed beside palm trees, heads
cocked to the side, backs arched. Someone commented that it looked very
French Vogue.

"One, two, move, yeah exactly like that.... OK, I'm going to be taking
like a lot so just keep switching it up.... Yeah, I like how you had
your hand up on the wall," Atik said as she clicked the camera. "I feel
like we need music."

Her mother watched from the kitchen.

"There are people who say that it's not a hijab. As long as it
covers the hair, I noticed these young people, they like these things,"
Safa Atik said. "Why I encouraged her is because ... she's making
something that looks nice."

Alaa Ellaboudy, who runs the blog Hijabulous ("A hijabi's
guide to staying fabulous"), is familiar with the scolding that
non-traditional scarves can prompt. The Rancho Cucamonga resident wears
her scarf tied behind her neck and has a penchant for dramatic eye
makeup and bright clothes.
"Everyone has their opinion, 'Oh no that's haram [forbidden], you can't do that,'" Ellaboudy said. "But for me, it's always about finding that balance and still looking good."

On her blog, she defines "hijabulous" as being "exceptionally stylish yet conforming to the Islamic dress code."

When the over-sized September issue of Vogue arrived, Atik flipped through the pages for inspiration.

A few weeks later, stocking up on fabrics and an ostrich feather in the
Fashion District, she went from store to store with the same request:
"Do you have a leopard-print chiffon?"

At her third store she saw a leopard print but thought the look and feel of the silk fabric were not quite right.

"I wouldn't want this on my head. If only it was chiffon, I'd be all over it."

raja.abdulrahim@latimes.comCopyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Islamic Art (and not so Islamic art) in the World's Tallest Tower's lush interior

 Burj Khalifa..

     

   

 

Top 6 Methods to Understand a Woman

Part I 

Part II 


Part III 


Part IV 


Part V 


And Finally! 

Have you ever wondered how a woman's brain works? 
Well....it's finally explained here in one, easy-to-understand illustration: 


B 
Forward this to all the guys for a good laugh, and to all the ladies who have a good sense of humor.

Ideal Muslim in a Pluralistic Society

Ideal Muslim in a Pluralistic Society

In a world plagued with wars, racism, political turmoil, economic downturns, and social anguish, many people are looking for an alternative in which justice, freedom, decency, and common sense will prevail. Such societies have existed in the past, in the golden eras of Islamic civilization, and we have the hope that, if Allah wills, such a society may appear again. But until then a Muslim has to live in this society in a way which will cause that society itself to metamorphose into a just and liberal one.  

Here is a picture of what a Muslim’s life in a society consisting of Muslims and non-Mulims, would look like. Drawing on the extensive research of Islamic History and contrasting the ideal with the sorry state affairs in human societies today, let us explore the religious, political, economic, social, and other facets of this Muslim’s life, illustrating everything from the responsibilities of those in authority to the interactions between individuals on the humblest levels. For those who are longing to see a better world, this life offers practical ideas and hope.

The collective lives of the people do not bear any impression of the guidance of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The lives of luxury led by the ruling few and greed has caused many people a grave economic set-back.

Let us take a look at how an ideal Muslim woman would live in such a mixed society.

The Muslim woman never forgets that the mother’s responsibility in bringing up the children and forming their characters is greater than that of the father, because children tend to be closer to their mother and spend more time with her; she knows all about their behavioral, emotional and intellectual development during their childhood and the difficult years of adolescence.

Hence the woman who understands the teachings of Islam and her own educational role in life, knows her complete responsibility for the upbringing of her children, as is referred to in the Qur’an:

(O you who believe! Save yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is Men and Stones . . .) (Qur’an 66:6)  
 

The Prophet (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) also referred to this responsibility in his hadith:

“Each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock. The leader is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock; a man is the shepherd of his family and is responsible for his flock; a woman is the shepherd in the house of her husband and is responsible for her flock; a servant is the shepherd of his master’s wealth and is responsible for it. Each of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock.”¹ 
 

Islam places responsibility on the shoulders of every individual; not one person is left out. Parents - especially mothers - are made responsible for providing their children with a solid upbringing and sound Islamic education, based on the noble characteristics that the Prophet (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) declared that he had been sent to complete and spread among people:

“I have only been sent to make righteous behavior complete.”²  
 

Nothing is more indicative of the greatness of the parents’ responsibility towards their children and their duty to give them a suitable Islamic upbringing than the verdict of the ‘ulama’ that every family should heed the words of the Prophet (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam):

“Instruct your children to pray when they are seven and hit them if they do not do so when they are ten.”³

Any parents who are aware of this hadith but do not teach their children to pray when they reach seven or hit them if they do not do so when they reach ten, are parents who are sinners and failing in their duty; they will be responsible before Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’ala) for their failure.

The family home is a microcosm of society in which the children’s mentality, intellect, attitudes and inclinations are formed when they are still very small and are ready to receive sound words of guidance. Hence the parents’ important role in forming the minds of their sons and daughters and directing them towards truth and good deeds is quite clear.

Muslim woman have always understood their responsibility in raising their children, and they have a brilliant record in producing and influencing great men, and  instill  ling noble values in their hearts. There is no greater proof of that than the fact that intelligent and brilliant women have produced more noble sons than have intelligent and brilliant men, so much so that you can hardly find any among the great men of our ummah who have controlled the course of events in history who is not indebted to his mother.

Al-Zubayr ibn al-’Awwam was indebted for his greatness to his mother Safiyyah bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib, who  instill  led in him his good qualities and distinguished nature.

‘Abdullah, al-Mundhir and ‘Urwah, the sons of al-Zubayr were the products of the values  instill  led in them by their mother, Asma’ bint Abi Bakr, and each of them made his mark in history and attained a high status.

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (radhiallahu anhu) received wisdom, virtue and good character from his distinguished mother, Fatimah bint Asad.

‘Abdullah ibn Ja’far, the master of Arab generosity and the most noble of their leaders, lost his father at an early age, but his mother Asma’ bint ‘Umays took care of him and give him the virtues and noble characteristics by virtue of which she herself became one of the great women of Islam.

Mu’awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan inherited his strength of character and intelligence from his mother, Hind bint ‘Utbah, not from his father Abu Sufyan. When he was a baby, she noticed that he had intelligent and clever features. Someone said to her, “If he lives, he will become the leader of his people.” She responded, “May he not live if he is to become the leader of his people alone!”

Mu’awiyah was unable to    instill  his cleverness, patience and skills in his own son and and heir, Yazid, because the boy’s mother was a simple Bedouin woman, whom he had married for her beauty and because of the status of her tribe and family.

Mu’awiyah’s brother Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan, who was a prime example of intelligence, shrewdness and quick-wittedness, was similarly unable to pass these qualities on to his son ‘Ubayd-Allah   (subhanahu wa ta’ala) who grew up to be stupid, clumsy, impotent and ignorant. His mother was Marjanah, a Persian woman who possessed none of the qualities that might entitle her to be the mother of a great man.

History records the names of two great men of Banu Umayyah, the first of whom was known for his strength of character, capability, intelligence, wisdom and decisiveness, and the second of whom took the path of justice, goodness, piety and righteousness.

The first was ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, whose mother was ‘A’ishah bint al-Mughirah ibn Abi’l-’As ibn Umayyah, who was well-known for her strength of character, resolution and intelligence. The second was ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-’Aziz (radhiallahu anhu), the fifth of the khulafa’ al-rashidun, whose mother was Umm ‘Asim bint ‘Asim ibn ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, who was the most noble in character of the women of her time. Her mother was the righteous worshipper of Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’ala) whom ‘Asim saw was honest and truthful, and clearly following the right path, when she refused to add water to the milk as her mother told her to, because she knew that Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’ala) could see her.

If we turn towards Andalusia, we find the brilliant, ambitious ruler ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir who, having started life as an orphan, went on to establish an Islamic state in the West, to which the leaders and kings of Europe surrendered and to whose institutes of learning the scholars and philosophers of all nations came to seek knowledge. This state made a great contribution to worldwide Islamic culture. If we were to examine the secret of this man’s greatness, we would find that it lay in the greatness of his mother who knew how to  instill in him the dynamic spirit of ambition.

During the ‘Abbasid period there were two great women who planted the seeds of ambition, distinction and ascendancy in their sons. The first was the mother of Ja’far ibn Yahya, who was the wazir of the khalifah Harun al-Rashid. The second was the mother of Imam al-Shafi’i: he never saw his father who died whilst he was still a babe in arms; it was his mother who took care of his education.

There are many such examples of brilliant women in our history, women who  instill  led in their sons nobility of character and the seeds of greatness, and who stood behind them in everything they achieved of power and status.

The Muslim as Islâm meant him to be, is a unique and remarkable person in his attitude and conduct and in his relationships and dealings with others at all levels. Throughout his long history, man has never been given the components of a virtuous and integrated personality such as Islâm has bestowed upon the Muslim through the divine guidance contained in the Qur’ân and Sunnah.

Islâm does not concentrate on filling men’s minds with philosophical ideas, or on excessive dream-like spirituality, or on physical training and perfection, or on self-serving materialistic philosophies such as exist nowadays in both East and West. Islâm drew up a balanced, integrated program for man’s development, taking into account his physical, intellectual and spiritual needs, based on the sound principle that man is formed of body, mind and soul.

The personality of the Muslim is perfectly integrated and balanced, and no aspect of it is overtaken by others, as happens in other societies where man is brought up under imperfect manmade systems which all too often are governed by selfish desires, reprehensible innovations or deviant ideas. The Muslim as has been explained in this study, is obedient to Allâh, follows His guidance, seeks His protection, accepts His decrees and always seeks to please Him.

The Muslim personality is balanced. He pays due attention to his body’s needs and his outward appearance, without letting it distract him from taking care of the inner characteristics, as befits man whom Allâh has honored, made His angels prostrate to him, and subjugated for his benefit all that is in heaven and earth. Rather, the Muslim is also concerned with that which will form sound intellectual development and ways of thinking, so that he will understand the nature and essence of things. He does not forget that man is not only composed of a body and a mind, but that he also possesses a soul and a spirit, and feels a longing for higher things that makes him rise above this materialistic life and scale the heights of goodness, virtue and light. Therefore he pays as much attention to his spiritual development as to his physical and intellectual development, in a precisely balanced fashion, which does not concentrate on one aspect to the detriment of others.

With his parents, he is an example of sincere filial piety, good treatment, infinite compassion, utter politeness and deep gratitude.

With his wife, he is the example of good and kind treatment, intelligent handling, deep understanding of the nature and psychology of women, and proper fulfillment of his responsibilities and duties.

With his children, he is a parent who understands his great responsibility towards them, which is, as well as flooding them with love and compassion, to pay attention to anything that may influence their Islâmic development.

With his relatives, he maintains the ties of kinship and knows his duties toward them. He understands the high status given to relatives in Islâm, which makes him keep in touch with them no matter what the circumstances.

With his neighbor, the true Muslim is an example of good treatment and consideration of others’ feelings and sensitivities. He puts up with mistreatment and turns a blind eye to his neighbor’s faults while taking care not to commit any such errors himself. He always adopts the Islâmic attitude whereby treating neighbors well was made a basic principle of Islâm, so much so that the Prophet thought that Jibrail would make his neighbor his heir. Therefore he never does anything bad to his neighbor, nor does he fail in his duty towards him; rather, he does not spare any effort to do favors for his neighbor, without expecting any favors, reward or thanks in return.

His relationship with his brothers and friends is the best and purest of relationships, for it is based on love for the sake of Allâh and this pure, sincere, brotherly love derives its purity from the guidance of the Qur’ân and Sunnah. Hence it became a unique network in the history of human relations.

From these strong bonds and deep love emerged a group of the best attitudes and characteristics, which make the true Muslim a wonderful example of humanity, in whom are embodied the values and morals of Islâm. He is loving, not cold, towards his brothers and friends; he is loyal and does not betray them; he is sincere and does not cheat them; he is gentle and never harsh; he is tolerant and forgiving, and does not bear a grudge or stab in the back; he is generous and prefers others to himself, and he prays for them in their absence.

In his social relationships with all people, he is well mannered, civil and noble, characterized by the attitudes that Islâm encourages. These are not the matter of superficial politeness, which conceals ulterior intentions, aims and goals. Rather it is the ongoing good behavior which is taught in the Qur’ân and Sunnah, and which Islâm has made a religious duty for which man will be brought to account.

The Muslim is truthful and sincere with all people. He does not cheat, deceive or betray. He does not envy others. He fulfils his promises. He has the attitude of shyness (modesty). He is tolerant and forgiving. He is cheerful. He is not pushy. He is patient. He avoids slandering or uttering obscenities. He does not unjustly accuse others of ‘fisq’ or ‘kufr’. He is shy and modest. He does not interfere in that which does not concern him. He refrains from gossiping, spreading slander and stirring up trouble. He avoids false speech and suspicion. When he is entrusted with a secret, he keeps it and does not disclose it. He is modest and never arrogant. He does not make fun of anyone. He respects his elders and those who are distinguished.

He mixes with the best of people. He is keen to do good to people and protect them from harm. He strives to reconcile between the Muslims. He calls others to the way of his ‘Rabb’ with wisdom and beautiful preaching. He visits the sick and attends funerals. He returns favors and is grateful for them. He mixes with people and bears their mistreatment with patience. He tries to make people happy as much as he can. He guides people to do good. He always likes to make things easy and not to make them hard.

He is fair in his judgements. He does not oppress others or play favorites. He is not a hypocrite or a sycophant or a show-off. He does not boast about his deeds and achievements. He is straightforward and is never devious or twisted, no matter what the circumstances. He loves noble things and hates foolishness. He does not exaggerate in his speech or puff up his cheek with pride. He is generous and does not remind others of his gifts or favors. He is hospitable and does not complain when a guest comes to him. He prefers others to himself as much as possible. He relieves the burden of the debtor. He is proud and does not think of begging. He knows that the upper hand is better than the lower. He gets along with people and they feel comfortable with him. He measures all of his habits and customs against Islâmic standards. He follows Islâmic etiquette in eating, drinking, giving ‘salam’, visiting people, entering their homes and sitting with them, and in other social activities. This is the clear, beautiful picture of the Muslim whose personality has been formed by Islâm and whose heart, mind and soul are filled with its divine light.

For man to reach this sublime level of noble virtues and morals and to translate them into a living reality on earth is the greatest achievement for which systems, laws, philosophies and ideologies may strive. It surpasses all other scientific and materialistic achievements which are known in our world today, and which dazzle us with their lights and colors. Man is the noblest and most precious of creatures, and all of the past efforts to establish human cultures have been aimed solely at achieving his happiness and elevating and honoring him. The way to honor him is by enhancing his humanity. The culture that concerns itself only with man’s lower desires, without developing and purifying his human nature and awakening his potential for good, is a culture that is sorely lacking. It has failed to fulfill the most important condition of human culture and has neglected the very humanity of man, which is his most valuable hidden asset.

All of the achievements and inventions of human civilization, such as cannons, missiles, satellites, transistors, television, video, etc., cannot replace the human aspect of man and indeed are worthless if they are not used to enhance his humanity, purify him and make him truly happy:

"By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it. And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right. Truly he succeeds that purifies it. And he fails that corrupts it!" (Qur’ân  91:7-10)

The development of a society is not measured solely in terms of its scientific achievements and material inventions. These are a factor, but there is another, more important, standard by which a society is also measured. That is the prevalence of human values such as love, empathy, altruism, sacrifice, uprightness and purity of thought, behavior and dealings with others.

If individuals are the basis of a society, and the pillars upon which every social renaissance is built, then rightly-guided societies pay attention to human development and enhance the positive, constructive aspects while seeking to eliminate evil, destructive motives, so that the individual will become a model citizen. It is from groups of such model citizens that clean, civil, strong, healthy, righteous societies are formed.

The Islâmic society is one which is integrated and of superior quality, and the Muslim in such a society is of the highest class because of the teachings of his religion which have instilled in him the highest and noblest human attitudes, and encouraged him to adhere to them in the field of social relationships.

The backwardness, division, hatred and cutting off of ties that we see occurring at all levels  — international, regional and individual — among the Muslims are clear evidence of how Muslims are ignoring and neglecting the strong bonds of faith and brotherhood enjoined by Allâh. Hence the misguided ideologies of jâhiliyyah arose in the Muslim lands, and we have been overwhelmed by imported foreign principles that have brought poison and disease, and have made us like debris floating on the floodwaters.  This would not have happened to the Muslims if their genuine Islâmic identity and the purity of their intellectual and spiritual sources had been preserved.

The attack against the Muslim world was conducted on two fronts. One was an assault directed against the Islâmic identity and aimed at distorting the Islâmic personality. The other was aimed at polluting the intellectual and spiritual sources, and diverting Muslims towards other, alien, sources.  They managed in many Muslim lands to distort the Muslim identity and made the Muslims follow them like sheep in their intellectual matters and the way they behaved and felt. They deprived the Muslims of the values and morals of their religion, and took away the divine impetus which had brought them onto the stage of world history in such a remarkable fashion.

Nothing can restore the health and authenticity of the Muslim identity except a sincere return to the eternal way of Allâh, and a deep understanding of the mission with which the Muslim has been entrusted. This will enable the Muslims to fulfill their duty of conveying this message to mankind, after they have adopted it for themselves as an ideology and way of life.

When our misguided Ummah, which is lost in the mire of jâhiliyyah, subordination and tribalism, finally returns to the cool shade of Allâh, it will once again be the free, strong, integrated, supportive, united Ummah that will never be defeated. Then it will be the Ummah of faith, and Allâh has promised in the Qur’ân to support the Ummah of faith: "...and it was due from Us to aid those who believed." (Qur’an 30:47)

Thus a Muslim or a muslimah should live in such a way as the sahabah of old, who by their very life, caused the land in which they had arrived (such as India, China or Indonesia) to embrace Islam en-masse.

 

Israeli female soldier confesses to her involvement in killing Palestinian child

Israeli female soldier confesses to her involvement in killing Palestinian child

[ 19/07/2010 - 12:42 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- An Israeli female soldier admitted in a TV show entitled "soldiers behind the scenes" that she helped once her comrades to kill a Palestinian child in cold blood, but she did not disclose when and where the crime took place. "I was monitoring through the camera at the command center the movements of Palestinian children throwing stones at the army and directing soldiers to move towards the kids, and under my guidance through the walkie-talkie, they killed a Palestinian kid," the soldier said. She added that she, afterwards, received congratulations from the soldiers on the killing of the child and claimed she was shocked by this news and felt her directions were the direct cause of the death of this innocent child. She also confessed that the slain child did not constitute any threat to the heavily-armed soldiers. Another female soldier also told the channel that she arbitrarily detained and tortured dozens of Palestinian citizens during her shift at the Shave Shomron checkpoint located between Nablus and Jenin. She blatantly said she detained 80 Palestinians, only for pleasure, and forced them to stay under scorching sunlight while she was yelling at them without any reason and watching them suffer from boiling heat. Meanwhile, the Haaretz newspaper reported Monday morning that the Israeli government and the military commandership are mulling over revoking the ban imposed on the entry of settlers into the West Bank cities under the control of the Palestinian authority (PA). The newspaper added that this came as a result of the significant improvement in the security situation in the PA-controlled territories and the cooperation between Mahmoud Abbas's security apparatuses and Israel. The Israeli settlers were banned entry into the West Bank cities after the outbreak of the second intifada (uprising) especially when several incidents of kidnapping and killing were reported against them. For his part, Dr. Abdulsattar Qassem, a professor of political science at Al-Najah university in Nablus, condemned the security cooperation between Abbas's authority and Israel as a big crime against the Palestinian people. Dr. Qassem told the Palestinian information center (PIC) commenting on Israel's intention to allow settlers to enter West Bank cities that this matter is not political as some may believe, but it is a security-related issue resulting from the success of Abbas's security apparatuses in guarding the safety of Israeli settlers and their high-level cooperation with Israel. "What is happening is a big crime against the Palestinian people; the party who leads the negotiation team signed long time ago on everything and it is ready to defend the Zionists' security by all means," the professor underscored.