Trump and our misplaced fears

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Let’s jump right into it.

Amidst all this apocalyptic talk, I believe we are doing ourselves a great disservice.  We are allowing ourselves to be governed by our irrational fears.  I’m hearing talk of WWII internment camps, rise of fascism, and mass deportations. How are we any different with our extreme depictions of the future than the other side who rallied around an impending Armageddon due to guns being confiscated by big government, attacks by terrorist immigrants, and the replacement of the US constitution with Shariah law.

Breathe people.

Let us put things in perspective.

America didn’t suddenly transform into Nazi Germany overnight. The vast majority of Americans still support womens/minorities/gay rights, acknowledge climate change, and even believe that immigration helps the country.

Trump did not win because of his hate-filled platform.  He won despite it.  It just goes to show you how frustrated people have become with status quo politics – which is exactly what Hillary stood for.

At the same time, are we so naïve to believe that the sentiments publicly expressed by Trump didn’t exist in the minds and hearts of millions of Americans? Didn’t the racist police exist during Obama’s presidency? Haven't islamophobic incidents occured throughout the past 8 years? Weren’t countless drone attacks on Muslim countries overseen by Obama?

Some will counter that never have such vile remarks and beliefs been uttered from a presidential platform.

Are you suggesting that the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their neo-con cabal had any lesser vitriolic beliefs?  They led us into two devastating wars, instituted a surveillance state like no other, laid the groundwork for the 2008 financial meltdown, and so much more, but since they never expressed racist or misogynistic sentiments, our sensibilities were not sufficiently provoked.

How odd.

Also, can I say that I feel a sense of chicken coming home to roost?  No one batted an eye when the benevolent Obama expanded his executive powers, failing to reign in the NSA and the surveillance state. Obama apologists loyally turned a blind eye to their leader’s unflinching support of Wall Street. Democrats stayed quiet at the assassination of a US citizen (Anwar Awlaki).

So let’s get off our high horse in denouncing the unacceptable and repugnant when it spews from Trump’s mouth, but happily accepting when it’s packaged in the eloquent and soothing words of Obama. If you want to make the argument that the sky is falling, try not insulting our collective intelligence by claiming Trump’s victory is the catalyst.  Obama’s eight years, as well as Bush’s eight before him, sure helped bring about our current state of affairs.

Speaking of Obama…

Just like America didn’t get a racial panacea when Americans voted in their first Black president, she won’t get a racist paradise by voting in the first openly racist president.  200 years of American history has shown us one thing, namely the system has been deliberately constructed to prevent major shifts in one direction or the other.

Obama’s two terms have shown us that one man does not a government make. Regardless of how visionary and full of hope his promises were, he was forced to work within the strict confines of the American government. And so too must Trump.

Yes, I do believe there will be a temporary spike in hate crime. Thugs and bigots will be emboldened to lash out and act upon their racist tendencies. In response, minorities will have to put up their personal defense mechanisms, in the same way Muslims do in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack carried out by their co-religionists. They will have to constantly look over their shoulders, keep their guards up, and hope for the storm to pass. Eventually common sense will prevail, irrational fears will subside, and the masses can go back to their viral videos and celebrity gossip.

Fear and all its associated, knee-jerk reactions have a necessary role to play in our survival. Sure there are times when vigilance and paranoia are necessary. But once we calm down and begin to use our rational faculties, I believe we will all see through the haze of political fog that is impeding our vision. And what we will see is that our fears and hatred are misplaced and our enemy is not a Republican or Democrat.

Our enemy is the 1%.

Our enemy is the military industrial complex.

Our enemy is Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and all other Big Industries.

Our enemy is crass materialism and its failed attempt to fill our spiritual void.

Everything else is distraction and a sideshow.


Saturday, November 12, 2016 | | 5 Comments  

Bill Maher finally gets it right

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Normally Bill Maher is a bigoted idiot who fancies himself as an educated liberal. He has a history of bashing Islam for having inspired the radicals and extremists, while often conveniently forgetting that Western aggressions have paved the way and tilled the soil for those perpetrating completely un-Islamic reactions.

Except this one time. For once he connected the dots and (somewhat) admitted that a source of so much misery around the world is Western meddling in extremely unstable parts of the world.

 Let's hope and pray that others too come to their senses and instead of digging a deeper hole and channeling their inner Rambo*, realize that less is more.

 *Speaking of whom, I think it should be mandatory viewing for everyone to watch the Rambo episode when he aids the Afghani Mujahideen. That just about sums up the complete confusion upon which American foreign policy is based. The West has no clue who to support when it comes to these lands of a thousand tribes, such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan.

Sunday, November 15, 2015 | | 0 Comments  

What to write about?

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Yes, it's been quite a long time. My longest respite from blogging yet. I have my excuses. Leaving Saudi Arabia after 12 years and relocating the family to Islamabad would leave many a bloggers gasping for air. At the same time, it sure does provide for some good material.

So what topic, dear reader, should I resuscitate this blog with? My musings on leaving Saudi Arabia? The challenges of living in Pakistan? Our inevitable move back to the States? Is Trump a bigger joke than even George W. Bush? Is Pakistan sports a bigger joke than those two combined? Android vs IOS? Coffee vs Tea?

I need some inspiration.
I need some motivation.
I don't need any more perspiration (friggin' humidity here is killing me!).

It's your call.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015 | | 4 Comments  

Controlling our Narrative

Monday, November 11, 2013

Let us all stop being manipulated. Let us stop our mouths from watering every time the bell rings. Let us stop being knee-jerk consumers of 24-hour news channels, internet crazes, and instant feeds.

Let us begin dictating our own agenda. Let us decide for ourselves what is worthy of our attention. Let us raise the bar in inter- and intra-communal discussions.

For every video showing a Taliban beating some lady, let us refrain from commenting at the behest of wider society. For every news story highlighting the plight of Saudi women and their prohibition from driving, let us turn our backs on outside forces dictating the relevancy of certain issues (and thus the irrelevancy of so many other). For every video of a Saudi beating an expat worker, let us avoid being goaded into an apologetic response merely to appease our host nations. For every nutjob Muslim highlighted for acting like a nutjob, let us stop validating the highlighters by psychoanalyzing the nutjob.

Let us stop digging ourselves deeper into our hole by continuously answering, ‘When did you stop beating your wife?’ Just as we understand the idiocy in replying to that question, we must also understand the madness in responding to every sensationalized whoop and holler highlighted in our newsfeeds.

We need to begin framing our own context and establishing our own position instead of responding to foolish viral videos and cultural phenomena that serve to only further substantiate prejudices and biases. Instead of fostering an enlightened alternative, we are only nourishing the degenerate beasts of shock journalism, snuff entertainment, and socio-cultural rubbernecking.

Must we have an opinion on every shmuck getting her fifteen minutes of fame? Must we demean ourselves with water cooler discussions about the latest video phenom on Youtube?

Or maybe we can choose the high-road and become prophetic, not only in our daily worship, but in our consumption of daily culture. Let us stop shrouding these instances of cultural flatulence in faux discussions of morality and ethics and instead, insist on meaningful conversations rich with substance and import, consistent with our agenda and beliefs.

Monday, November 11, 2013 | Labels: , , , , | 6 Comments  

Egypt: I told you so

Friday, July 12, 2013

I’ll humbly join the chorus of know-it-all’s who are not so humbly declaring to the world that they predicted the unfortunate fate of ‘democratic’ Egypt. While the current turmoil and chaos is very saddening, it definitely is not surprising. Two years ago, based on the experiences of Pakistan and Turkey, I envisaged such a scenario where the military would intervene. I must admit that Turkey has shown greater maturity and resilience in their standing up to the military, but Pakistan has remained true to form with the military still calling all the shots.

Truth be told, Egypt has a long way to go before they can reach the depths of Pakistan.  To reach such ignominy they would have to vote in a president, some sleazeball like El-Baradei, who would run the country for three years before stepping down under corruption charges, then return to power 4 years later before getting overthrown in a military coup, then go into exile in Saudi Arabia for 8 years, and then finally return and somehow ‘win’ elections to make him the leader of the country for the third time (I just summed up Pakistan’s current Prime Minister’s career arc). Yeah, Egypt has a looong way to go.

Welcome to the big boy’s table, Egypt…where Pakistan has a monopoly on adventures in farcical democracies.

On a more serious note, I've read countless analyses of the situation in Egypt, but the most astute and comprehensive breakdown is this post by Tariq Ramadan.  Well worth your time...

Friday, July 12, 2013 | Labels: , , | 2 Comments  

30 million by Four

Friday, July 5, 2013

I recently listened to this very enlightening podcast episode by Lexicon Valley titled '30 million by 4'. It details a very interesting research that highlights the importance of engaging your young children in conversation. Anyone with preschool children would greatly benefit from the 20 minutes or so.

30 million by 4 podcast

And I won't tell you what the title means...you'll have to listen to the podcast to figure it out. :-P

Friday, July 05, 2013 | Labels: , | 7 Comments  

When Muslims Intermarry

Friday, April 26, 2013

I recently returned from a short two-week trip to the US and one of the more common discussions I had with family and friends was about the future of Muslims in the West. I plan on posting my thoughts in some upcoming posts, so let me start things off with a very real concern: Intermarriage.

As Muslims being to assimilate and integrate, I find myself not so worried about some of the more recurring issues such as hijab or drugs or aqeedah – don’t get me wrong, they aren’t trivial, but they aren’t likely to result in offspring completely leaving the religion. On the other hand, the increasing rate of Muslims marrying outside our religion is just such an issue.

What so many Muslims may see as an acceptable practice from the Shariah point of view (where in fact a man marrying a Christian or Jewish woman is sanctioned, as they are People of the Book), is in my mind a very dangerous practice that will all too often result in future generations essentially leaving Islam.

As if the pressures of modern Western culture are not strenuous enough on a young Muslim, adding to the mix the life-long presence of a non-Muslim mother is, needless to say, very harmful.

And so I found this Washington Post article quite timely as it reinforced my recent concerns.

One interesting discussion I had was with my brother-in-law, who suggested that if I wanted to study the future of Muslims in the West, I ought to look at the Jews when they first arrived to the US. At the time of their arrival, they had a most similar makeup to us Muslims, in that they had relatively high levels of religious observation, a formal law like our Shariah, and restrictions on intermarriage.

And what I found was quite disturbing. When they first arrived in the late 19th century, Jews were intermarrying at a 4% rate. After nearly a century, their intermarriage has skyrocketed to nearly 50%. And this is from a religion in which intermarriage is strictly forbidden!

And as a consequence, as more Muslim men decide to intermarry, Muslim women will be left with little choice but to follow suit. This article from Al-Jazeera documents this inevitable rise in women marrying outside the faith.

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘How does this affect me or my children? They are being raised in a strictly observant household where intermarriage is not an option.’ That may be true, but can the same be said for two or three generations down the line?
 

Friday, April 26, 2013 | Labels: , , , , , | 6 Comments  

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