Naeem's Blog

I know I’ve been drilling this for the past few days, so I promise this will be my last post on the issue…for now. :-)

Dissident Voice has a nice article about the recent controversy surrounding Chomsky and Zinn supporting a vote for Obama. Check it out people. The writer ends the article with these strong words: "A vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama is—at best—an act of criminal negligence."

However, I was much more intrigued by the leading quote used in the article:

“You don’t stick a knife in a man’s back nine inches, and then pull it out six inches, and say you’re making progress.”
– Malcolm X

I see this as a perfect analogy representing the choice being made by anyone deciding between the two candidates. Obama supporters are essentially saying that pulling the knife out six inches is the best we can do.

I say we leave the knife all the way in until the poor sap figures out how to fight back. *That’s* the change we need!

A commenter on my previous post asked what alternative solutions do I propose (instead of voting Obama) and I responded that third party alternatives exist, as well as countless other grassroots organizations that are struggling for real change.

I find it truly objectionable when people respond that a vote for any third party candidate is a wasted vote. Why have we accepted this predicament where only two parties are representative of the broad spectrum of the American people? Isn't that the real question? We're accepting defeat when we allow the debate to be framed between these two parties. They do NOT represent all the varying views that exist.

We need to step outside the preset parameters of the Repub-Dem debate. Its not about Obama versus McCain. Its about the masses versus the elite.

Educate yourself with this debate between presidential candidates, Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin. Although I don't necessarily agree on all the issues with these candidates, I stand behind any and every attempt at busting the two-party mafia that runs America.



[Youtube Link]

The real shame is that most people will never watch this debate. They need 30-sec soundbites or else their ADD kicks in.

I’ve posted before on the hollowness of Obama and his campaign for ‘change’. Pigs will fly before he confronts the three-headed dragon of racism, materialism, and militarism that has wreaked havoc across the American landscape.

However, in this post I wanted to focus on another argument peddled by Muslims supporting Obama – namely, he’s the lesser of two evils.

Sorry folks, but that is such a defeatist attitude.

Instead of arguing about the need to change the crooked system that insanely refers to itself as a democracy and claims to stand for freedom and justice, American Muslims are justifying participation with this weak-minded logic of ‘lesser of two evils’.

Muslims must stand for their principles, as exemplified by our most perfect teacher (saw).

Have we forgotten how the Prophet (saw) rejected participation in the crooked Meccan political system? Did he not out-rightly reject their power-sharing deal, later responding with the famous words: Even if they (Quraish leaders of Mecca) were to place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I will never join them nor will I ever desist from my message?

Then how come we are so quick to partake in an American political system that puts to shame the shenanigans of the Meccans?

I’m not arguing whether its halal or haram to partake in the political process. I’m simply talking about good ‘ol common sense.

Listen, even if the Prophet (saw) himself were standing for the President of the US, I wouldn’t vote for him. No one man can ever make a difference from within a crooked system. The Prophet understood that and that’s why he rejected participation. His struggle was to replace the rotten core - lock, stock, and barrel, instead of trying to reform it from within.

Those Muslims who are intent on exercising their right to vote by choosing the lesser of two evils would be better off focusing their energies on exposing this corporatocracy, as John Perkins of ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’-fame so aptly refers to it.

Simply choosing to ‘live in dignity’ as an American Muslim is burying your head in the sand ostrich-style. Simply declaring that we are ‘free’ to worship our Lord is not sufficient. Simply washing our hands of the crimes perpetrated by our adopted homeland is not sufficient.

I’m not calling for the shariah. I’m merely calling for basic justice.

The truth of the matter is that justice will be never be implemented by the current system of governance in the US. The powers-that-be will never allow for true justice to prevail. True justice has a price tag they are not willing to pay and requires a sacrifice they are not willing to make.

This is about decades of underhanded oppression that have strangled the peoples of South America, Africa, and Asia.
This is about pushing consumerism to the max, ignoring all social, economical, and environmental ramifications.
This is about supporting (and even installing) despotic regimes all over the world.
This is about the economical hamstringing of the entire Third World by the G8 countries (ingeniously using the IMF and World Bank).
This is about supporting anti-democratic forces against the democratically elected governments of Bolivia, Palestine, and Venezuela (to name a few).
This is about the cancerous banking system that has spread all over the world.
This is about a military-industry juggernaut that has wreaked global chaos with power and greed fuelling its ambitions.
This is about continuously expanding the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, within America and throughout the world.

(BTW, these injustices have taken place under the watch of both parties alike, Democrats and Republicans, so what kind of change are you expecting with Obama again?)

Confronting and ending these injustices is the change we REALLY need.

And sadly, all we American Muslims are concerned with is our ability to build Islamic schools, freely attend the local masjid, wear the hijab unharassed, and vote for Obama.

Fine, ignore the real struggle. Go ahead and claim that you’re doing your part by voting for the lesser of two evils - Just lemme know how the sand tastes down there.

If I had to create a list of the greatest blessings of being married, this would most definitely be in the top five.

You see, we have these little baby blankets all over the house – perfect snuggle blankets – very soft and just the perfect size. And me being the master-napper, I’m the ideal recipient of these blankets during my post-work siesta. So when my wife comes over and spreads the blanket and tucks me in, just as I’m gently floating into my glossy dream world, I can honestly say I’ve tasted heaven on earth.

But recently that rarely ever happens. ‘Cause after 15 years of marriage, I’m happy if she simply throws me the folded-up blanket from across the room.

So for you young couples out there, this is an easy way to get brownie points with your slumbering spouses. And for you older ones, just try and aim for the feet when you throw the blanket. We nappers would be much obliged!

We’re always reading about reporters embedding with the US forces or the coalition forces, but here’s a piece of real journalism where the reporter is embedded with the Taliban.

A real must-read folks.

My problem with the jihad being waged by the Taliban is illustrated in this passage of the article:

“Ibrahim's recent injury, it turns out, was the result of a clash between his forces and a group of foreign fighters under the command of Dr. Khalil. The foreigners wanted to close down a girls' school, sparking a battle. Two Arabs and 11 Pakistanis commanded by Dr. Khalil had been killed by Ibrahim's men.”

These fighters may spend most of their time praying in the masjid (as mentioned in the article), but they have no problem turning around and killing each other over differences in religious interpretation.

How very typical of this Ummah.

When it’s all said and done and the US negotiates a face-saving withdrawal (involving both the Afghan government and the Taliban), I fear the end result of this latest episode in Afghanistan will be the same in-fighting that erupted when the Russians were expelled in the 90’s. But instead of greedy warlords aspiring for power, it will be jihadi zealots claiming religious authority over each other.

That’s what you get when hearts are not transformed, choosing instead to force change from the outside in.

And about all this talk of a surge in Afghanistan, I like what was written in the article:

"More troops are not the answer," a senior United Nations official in Kabul tells me. "You will not make more babies by having many guys screw the same woman."

My good friend Marc at his Manrilla blog mentioned in a recent post the story of a third generation American Muslim who has basically left Islam. While the grandfather remains a practicing Muslim, the parents are more or less lax in their adherence and so the college-age grandchild has taken on the predominant American attitude towards religion – indifference.

About said individual, Marc made the following interesting remarks:

“By coming and staying in America [i.e., his identity forming here] and his parents not being full-time practitioners, their religious practice tapered off to reflect their environment, where there were no secondary or tertiary enforcements to inform his religious consciousness.”

And that, folks, is one of my greatest worries in raising children in the West – that lack of ‘secondary and tertiary enforcements’ that are readily available in Muslim countries.

From the adhan heard throughout the day to the social pressures against the hard sins (drinking, fornicating, etc.) to the ease in donning Islamic clothing to the non-issue of praying in public, I feel many Western Muslims are overlooking the importance of these peripheral factors.

By themselves, I admit, they are relatively insignificant. But in the larger context of creating an Islamic persona, their significance cannot be emphasized enough. Particularly when the primary enforcements (ie. parents) are lethargic (or maybe even ineffective) in their efforts to impart an Islamic ethos to the child.

Does such apathy towards religion exist in the Muslim world? Of course. But as of yet (and it may change), it’s not socially acceptable and definitely not celebrated. An atheist or an agnostic in the Muslim world would have to stay ‘in the closet’ or suffer social ostracization. Freedom of religion be damned.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the grandchild (or even the child) of the student cited above would one day openly renounce Islam and convert to another religion.

Regardless of how un-Islamic Muslim society has become, what are the chances of that ever happening in a Muslim country?

Thinking to awaken the blog after my Ramadan hiatus...lots to write about, just wondering if any loyal readers are still around....