Election day is in one day

I will be relieved once the election is over, if only for a very short time. We should all go out to vote our conscience, no matter who criticizes us for being “stupid” for believing what we believe. This goes for both sides. There is nothing more that I hate than people who cry foul when their side is viciously attacked, but turn around and bully others for the exact thing they are being bullied over. We have to remember that most people have their reasons for why they think a certain way. There are some who are just truly ignorant, but many people whom we denigrate as being “ignorant” are just people who have different views than us. Granted, it does seem that Obama and the Democrats are receiving most of the vicious attacks, but that has been a standard right-wing tactic to denounce one’s opponents as being “unpatriotic”, and “subversive”, to get their way. In this time, the right-wing ideology has attached itself to the Republican party, but the Republican party itself is not in essence, a right-wing ideology.

Hussein! Terrorist! Kill him! Off with his head!

I have been attempting to steer away from the political chaos that has ensued for the past three months or so. It has gone far beyond “normal” bickering, but has reached the level where some people are actually screaming “kill him!” in reference to their opponent. When a nation goes that far with their hatred, unbridled nationalism, and a total disdain for their opponent that they will shout things like “off with his head!”, it is not a stretch of the imagination that someone might actually attempt to do that. You will say, “Matthew Muhammad, it’s just talk. Don’t be so paranoid about these thing. This is the politics way. People get out of hand, say many unforgivable things, and when the storm clears we all remind each other that we didn’t really mean any of it, and then we meet for a dysfunctional Thanksgiving dinner where all of the supposed reconciliation melts away and the shouting goes on throughout the night while Uncle Dave is drunk and confiding in you that he never really loved his wife!“

I will condede to that challenge to a certain degree. The “politics way” is as you describe, however there comes a time where you have to stand up against something that is totally out of line, no matter if it is the “politics way” or not. Shouting “kill him!”, or “off with his head!” in referring to Barack Obama is indefensible. Calling for the death of your political opponents in public is the first step in building a culture of hate, violence, fear of dissent, and ultimately the curtailment of all human rights. I was glad that John McCain took the microphone away from that old woman when she said she didn’t trust Obama because he was an “arab.” But in his refutation he said, “No Ma’am. He’s a decent family man and citizen whom I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues”, which begs the question: Is it impossible to be an Arab and a decent family man and citizen? You know what, I’m going to give John McCain the benefit of doubt here. I will assume he was flustered and had to do something quick to put out the fire he caused in the first place, and it was the first thing that came out of his mouth. “No Ma’am. He’s a decent family man and citizen…”

You might wonder, “Matthew Muhammad, you sound like a biased democrat. Why are you spending so much time talking about McCain?” The truth is, I am not a democrat. I don’t belong to an existing political party. And I am still not sold on Barack Obama as per his policies. Like Joe Biden, he vows to be a strong supporter of Israel, which is required to even have a chance at being President of the U.S. While I don’t have an issue with the existence of Israel as a nation, because it is done and can not be reversed by “righting the wrongs”, I believe the willful ignorance of the suffering of the Palestinian people on the part of the candidates has made me cynical of the whole process. Sure, it would be cool to see the day of the first African-American to be sworn into office. Sure, that would produce a “change” into the psychology of many of the nation’s people. But if a person is not willing to even stand up and say “I have a problem with the refugee camps you placed these people in”, then is that really “change?”

That said, I have never heard anyone from Obama’s or Biden’s rallies shouting “kill him!”, “off with his head!”, and his middle-name (as if his middle-name has any inherent ‘evil’ quality about it) in reference to John McCain. Fun tid bit of information. The Jewish Rabbi’s name, who became a Muslim in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad was Husayn, before he changed it to Abdullah. And since “antisemitism is gone” (yeah, right) in America, no one should have a problem with that name since it once belonged to a Jew. John McCain asks Barack Obama why he would not repudiate what some random guy said about John McCain being like George Wallace in the 1960’s, but he won’t repudiate the bigoted and prejudiced things that are said by his supporters at his and his vice-president candidate’s own rallies! So, Barack Obama has to repudiate the remark of some unaffiliated person who makes a slight against John McCain, but John McCain doesn’t have to do comply with the same gesture with people attending his (or his VPC’s) very own rallies…..That doesn’t make sense.

The God Makers (anatomy of a propagandist’s wildest fantasy)

One of my guilty pleasures is that I love conspiracy theories. There, I said. I love, love, love them. I don’t believe in 95% of the ones I happen to stumble upon, but there is something fascinating about the psychology behind conspiracy theories. What they bring out of people, the paranoia, the faith, the determination that they have grasped some certain truth that others are unaware of, and that the ‘most powerful’ people are withholding from the masses. This builds a compassion for those who don’t know on the conscience of those who do know, the sense of duty that they have to save their fellow man from the peril of the evil overlords who wish them nothing but harm and a terrifying future. It is the same as very religious people who believe all non-believers in their creed are destined to a terrifying hell-fire, and it is their duty to bring the others to the truth of their cause. What am I rambling about? There is this movie I saw over a year ago, entitled “The God Makers.” It was produced and released by Jeremiah Films, an extremist fundamentalist organization in California in the 1980’s. They made all kinds of films using propaganda techniques that would make Hitler blush. They made a sequel to this film some years later.

It is about the birth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon faith. Now, I don’t know one way or another if the claims of this film are true as I have not studied the Mormon faith other than a few articles. But after watching some of the company’s other films, I realized that their purpose is to spread fear an distrust of all other religions, denominations, and beliefs other than their own. So, it is only natural that this film would be disturbing as well. My purpose for posting this is to expose viewers to propaganda techniques that are all around us, including in this film, and to ask us to consciously make an effort to research a topic beyond what some anti-film/book says about it.

As it turns out, I can not post the full movie here, but I will post the most “exciting” part of it.

Back from a short break

I just needed to take a few days off from posting to rejuvinate my brain. You may have noticed that the themes for this particular blog has become a bit eclectic. That was intentional. I first wanted to create a blog about Islamic issues, but I soon realized that I don’t have tons of information on tap nor do I have the resources which can point me out to interesting articles/books all the time. I do it manually, and it takes up a lot of time. So, I have broadened the theme to focus mainly on spiritual and religious ideas, but certainly not only about that. It will take some time for me to get into a groove and get used to this new venue. As I wrote in one of my previous entries, I think changing blogs is like changing schools. At first I was shy to really speak my mind unless I knew enough people would agree with me, but now that is has been a few weeks I am feeling more comfortable in showing my true colors.

Random Meanderings of Truth and Sincerity

I don’t have a specific theme right now, so I’m going to just ramble a little. One of the things I adore this time of the year is how the death of summer is so beautiful. The trees don’t look as majestic as they do during fall, their death into the hands of winter. It makes me wonder if it is simply a way of nature, or also a sign from God? For if nature does not look as beautiful as in its dieing season, what can we gather from that? I don’t know. I have a vivid memory of Fall of when I was six years old and was walking home with my brother from school. I noticed the leaves from the trees were red, and I asked him why they were red. He told me they were ‘bleeding’ to taunt me, and I got really upset. I protested, yelled, and even began to cry to get him to change what he said to something that didn’t bother me so. He didn’t, and it ended up being a bad day for me.

Every time I look back at that memory, I get choked up because I think he may have been right. The leaves were ‘bleeding’ and thus ‘dieing.’ What appeared so beautiful to me could have been the agonizing pains of the leaves trying to hold on to a fleeting existence in which they inevitably become dust. Even when my brother said that, I felt as if I had to save them somehow. I didn’t know how to protect them, but I felt in my conscience that I needed to help them. I wanted to console them somehow.

Liberty Heights…

For some reason I was thinking of an old movie I saw when I was still in High-School, named ‘Liberty Heights.’ It was released in 1999. It starred Ben Foster, Adrien Brody, Orlando Jones, and Joe Mantegna. The film centers around the separate lives of two Jewish brothers living in Baltimore in the year 1954. Integration had just become legally binding for public schools in the state while prejudice, bigotry, and bitterness was still the norm. Ben (played by Ben Foster) is in his last year of High-School, while Van (Adrien Brody) is going to college at the University of Baltimore. Their father Nate (Joe Mantegna) runs a burlesque and is involved in the ‘numbers racket.’

Ben is intrigued by and becomes attracted to his fellow student Sylvia, a black girl who has been attending the school due to the recent integration law. He finds the courage to talk to her on the bus after school, and tells her that he is going downtown because he ‘always’ goes downtown (assuming she lived in that area because she was black.) Startled that she doesn’t live there, he follows her off the bus and asks her why she lives in a suburban neighborhood. She politely rebukes him for his assumptions, and offers to drive him home.

Van is into politics and is very skeptical about Judaism and religion as a whole. Unlike his friend Yussel, Van doesn’t harbor a persecution complex and bitterness against all things ‘gentile’ (although understandable during a time when public swimming pool signs would read ‘No coloreds, dogs, or jews.’) When the two of them go to a party in a suburban ‘gentile’ neighborhood, Van becomes enchanted with a blonde girl he sees in the basement. Plans to talk to her are foiled when he finds out a fight has broken out between Yussel and and a ‘gentile.’ The fight is broken up when a popular guy named Trey crashes his car in the field due to his drunkenness.

A lot more happens in the movie, but I don’t want to give away all the details

Malcolm X’s Letter to Elijah Muhammad

I found this interesting letter from Malcolm X to Elijah Muhammad dated March 11, 1964. It was only about a month before he performed his pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. In it, he explains that he did not leave the Nation of Islam of his own free will, but rather because a certain ‘Captian Joseph’ and his followers were conspiring to defame Malcolm out of envy that he was so dear to Mr. Muhammad. Much like how some of the followers of W.D. Fard sought to kill Elijah Muhammad for being so dear to Fard and was designated as his ‘Messenger’, a number of Elijah Muhammad’s followers were doing the very same thing to Malcolm. They wanted to be as dear to Mr. Muhammad as Malcolm was. Not being able to bear the thought that Elijah Muhammad believed he had suddenly left the NOI for no apparent reason, he set out to write this letter in order to clarify to his teacher his true situation which certain elements within the organization were preventing him from having knowledge of. Then about a month later, as I said, Malcolm went on pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca where he ‘discovered’ the difference between ‘global Islam’ and the Nation of Islam.

On that note, it is a myth that Malcolm did not know the difference between the teachings of ‘orthodox’ Islam and the Nation of Islam. He had already traveled to Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana as early as 1959 and was probably aware of the way Muslims believed there in comparison to what the Nation of Islam taught. He had already known that ‘orthodox’ Islam taught many different ideas than the NOI, but stayed with the organization all the same. He accepted ‘true Islam’ only after realizing there was no way to get back into the organization’s grace. His own sister Ella had left the NOI to follow ‘orthodox’ Islam before Malcolm made his pilgrimage. It was in fact from her donation that he was able to make the hajj. That doesn’t mean his conversion was insincere or that it had no value on his life as a man and human being, but the truth of the matter must take precedence over a narrative that sounds cool.

Personal Development For Smart People

Another thing I am interested in are ‘Personal Development’ books and programs. I’m not into the new-age ones, though. One of my favorite sources for personal development information is Steve Pavlina’s blog entitled ‘Personal Development For Smart People.’ There is a crazy amount of information on that site, from articles about how to balance your time to get more things done in a day, to advice on how to start your own business in the ‘real world’ or the ‘internet world.’ In the mere three years the site has been up and running, there are atleast a thousand free articles to read and learn how to better one’s self.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz: Malcolm X

One of my ‘heroes’ is Malcolm X, former national minister of the Nation of Islam during the 1960’s. I make it a point to read his autobiography at least once a year to refreshen my memory of his story. Although I don’t agree with every single opinion he held, I find the narrarative of his life to be immensely inspiring. It gives me reason to believe that anyone can change and transform themselves, as long as they believe in something enough to let it happen. Remember, Malcolm only became a ‘traditional’ Muslim in April 1964 and was killed in February 1965; amounting to ten months. He was a stern follower of Elijah Muhammad for twelve years prior to that shift. Why am I making something out of this? It makes me think that it does not matter what one believes, as long as they actually believe. This doesn’t exclude the fact that there may be certain ideas that are more true than others.

Malcolm is too big as a symbol to be the poster-man for anyone’s ideology. Ossie Davis’s euology was quite telling when ending it with “who didn’t hesitate to die because he loved us so…” Out of context one could easily infer that he was talking about Jesus, which is ironic because Malcolm was not big on people seeing other people as divine (except W.D. Fard in his NOI days.) His autobiography can be enraging at times, especially when the reader is a ‘member’ of the ‘devil race’ (i.e. me). But in context, I don’t find it that offensive. I probably would have if I lived in that era, but since some time has passed it is easier to put things into perspective objectively. I am of the thought that the Nation of Islam had to happen. Fard had to come. Elijah Muhammad had to be his messenger. The status quo and the ‘we all knows’ had to be overturned violently. Something needed to happen to give black people a sort of arrogant confidence because they had been brainwashed to hate themselves by those in power. There were even books written on how to break the will of a black slave so as to insure against rebellion and unrest. The ideas therein are written in such a matter-of-fact style, which makes it all the more chilling.

After the ‘civil war’, black slaves were technically ‘freed’ but the system was still very much against them. Fast forward sixty years, and there are all types of products for black people to make their hair look like white people’s hair. Malcolm used to get his hair ‘conked’, which entailed the use of lye and other mixtures to be placed on his head to ’smooth’ out the kinks. This would burn and hurt. Unlike the movie ‘Malcolm X’, these sessions would take a lot longer to cause the seering pain the movie depicts; but pain nonetheless. In that context, it was needed for someone to show up and say ‘You know what. You’re better than them. They’re evil by nature, and you’re righteous by nature.’ That doesn’t mean I accept all the doctrines of the Nation of Islam. No sir. If you dig deep enough into it, it can get quite scary. But all the same, this was an evolutionary process.

Much of Malcolm’s autobiography describes his understanding of the NOI teachings and how it changed his life, and the lives of many other black people. He talks about how he would speak in small meetings at peoples houses (just like his father!) to tell them about the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Sometimes he would get so worked up, his voice would be scathing (which has happened to me a few times, it’s a strange sensation). He speaks of how Elijah Muhammad had to chide him many times to slow down and to be patient, because the growth of the NOI will take time. On that note, Alex Haley can be said to have saved the autobiography so many love so dearly. At one point, Malcolm was so upset about something that he wanted to turn the book into a polemic against Elijah Muhammad. Haley said that this book was meant to be an autobiography, and that the people have to know what Malcolm was thinking at specific times, not what he thinks about those events now (except for small descriptions after the old thought is explained.)

To be continued

Shari’ah Law: An Introduction

One of the many books I want to begin reading is Mohammad Hashim Kamali’s “Shari’ah Law: An Introduction”

It looks like a very interesting read, as I am interested in how the Shari’ah actually works. I hear the word all the time, but I see very few people actually explaining what it is; both Muslims and non-Muslims. I figure that since this is a legal system that has helped shape the current western systems to a certain extent, whether they will admit to this or not, it would be intelligent to get an idea or two about what it really is. Fazlur Rahman devoted a chapter to this subject on his book “Islam”, but I didn’t understand it very well.