Shaalom 2 Salaam: A Muslimah's Journey Along the Way From Judaism to Islam

Guess Who Is In The New York Times "Books" Section?!!!

2012-01-24T11:15:00.000-05:00

You guessed it: Love InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women!

I mentioned before that I am a contributor to this collection, Masha Allaah t'ala! We are a few weeks away from the publication date, February 14th, and the publisher has notified our editors that we will go into a second printing! I'm still peeing myself with joy!

Here's a little excerpt from the NY Times review:

"Zahra Noorbakhsh was 14 when her Iranian immigrant mother discovered that Zahra was defying the family ban on mingling with boys: one was among her four friends heading to the movies together.

So the sex education talk that in a different life, back in the holy city of Qom, would have waited for her bridal night was instead delivered in the parking lot of a mall in Danville, Calif." ...

Read the rest of the review here.

Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women - THREE Weeks Until Release!!!

2012-01-04T12:41:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends and Family!

As I posted here before, the book I contributed to, edited by Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi--Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women-- is being released in three weeks!!

It's a moving and provocative non-fiction anthology featuring 25 American Muslim women speaking openly for the first time about their search for love.

Want to know how you can help?

Here are the top five ways you can help amplify Muslim women's voices right now:

Order the book on Amazon today!

http://www.amazon.com/Love-InshAllah-Secret-American-Muslim/dp/1593764286

Re-Post this on your blogs and website.
Tell your family, friends, and networks, and ask them to support Muslim women writers by ordering this book
Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, etc.,
Select Love, InshAllah for your book club--we've included discussion questions at the back of the book.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter - and then ask your networks to do the same!
Connect us to your university or a community organization (e.g., place of worship, student association, non-profit org, etc.) to organize a reading/panel discussion.

Please contact me at Jihadlevine@yahoo.com if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.

More information about the book (including rave early reviews and contributors bios/photos) is available on our website: www.loveinshallah.com.

Love, InshaAllah wouldn't have been possible without our wonderful writers, families and friends. Thank you for supporting Muslim women in telling their own stories and sharing their perspectives!

Oh! I almost forgot! Did you know that Muslim women find Jon Stewart irresistible? Go on over to HuffPo comedy and see why!

International Nurse-In Day

2011-12-28T16:58:00.000-05:00

"The mothers shall give suck to their children for two whole years, (that is) for those (parents) who desire to complete the term of suckling, but the father of the child shall bear the cost of the mother's food and clothing on a reasonable basis. No person shall have a burden laid on him greater than he can bear. No mother shall be treated unfairly on account of her child, nor father on account of his child ... And fear Allah and know that Allah is All-Seer of what you do." (Qur'an 2:233)

It appears that some ignorant employees at a Houston, TX, Target store, and then management at Target's corporate customer service, put their stupidity and the store chain in the international spotlight.

According to Target Nurse-In, a Facebook group:

"Recently a mama was nursing her babe in a local Houston area Target. When she was asked to move to a private location, she refused, and was harassed and humiliated by three separate employees. She then called Target's corporate customer service number and was told by a representative, and then her supervisor that they were aware of the laws, but ...that just because something is lawful doesn't mean its acceptable in their store."

Way to go Target! The Target Nurse-In group has 6,000+ members and is growing. If only those group members stopped buying from you, if would significantly affect your financial bottom line. Not good management strategy any time, especially in this poor economy.

Target Nurse-In called for an "International Nurse-In" day which was held this morning all over the world at 10:00 a.m. Target has retail stores all over America; they also have corporate locations in other countries.

The goal of the protest is to show Target how many mamas they offended, and to impress upon them that women have a legal right to shop (and do whatever in public) and meet their baby's needs at the same time. They also insist that public humiliation for breast-feeding in public will not be tolerated.

So my camera and I mosey on over to our local Target store which is located in Selinsgrove, PA, to see if any mamas would show up to take part in the protest. Selinsgrove is a rural-like area and a bedroom community to the state's capitol, Harrisburg, PA. People aren't super politically active here, but every once in awhile they surprise you! I had to pick up a few things at Target anyhow.

I arrived around 10:00 a.m. Looking around, I see no mamas, no protest signs, nothing unusual. So I proceeded to pick up the few things I needed. When I got to the check-out, I asked the clerk, "Any breast-feeding mamas show up this morning?"

"Not yet," she replied with a grim look. Guess the store manager warned the staff that there "could" potentially be some trouble this morning, lol.

I steer my cart out of the check-out aisle and head out of the store. I happen to glance to my right, just before exiting when I saw them: three mamas peacefully breast feeding their babies in a cafe area next to the store exit!

Peacefully ... so peacefully and discreetly that the Target staff didn't even know they were there! Peacefully ... probably the same way the mama in Houston was feeding her baby while shopping ... Peacefully ... until some ignorant folks accosted her and her baby ... .

I was so thrilled! I eagerly approached them and said, "Are you the Nurse-In mamas?!

Yes, they were! Three brave mamas! And one brave daddy who was supporting the mamas!

Before you poo-poo only three mamas, I want to tell you that their action this morning is HUGE for our area. They were very courageous, and I am proud of them and their families. Here they are:

Ho Ho Ho!

2011-12-25T13:55:00.000-05:00

See slideshow of Santa joining West Bank protest ...

Chanukah, Hanukkah, However You Want to Spell It!

2011-12-25T12:56:00.000-05:00

"Dreidel, Dreidel, I Made It Out of Clay"
Copyright 2011, S. E. Jihad Levine
All Rights Reserved

World AIDS Day 2011

2011-12-01T13:31:00.000-05:00

"Jorge Garcia Campos"
Copyright 2011, S. E. Jihad Levine
All Rights Reserved

"It is a stupefying thing, grief. It comes over me sharply, at unexpected moments, in the middle of me cooking something he would have liked, or hearing music he enjoyed .... I stop, I cry; I let the feeling feel me. And then I do the hardest thing: I put aside the guilt I feel about surviving and being well, and continue with my life." - Doug Federhart *

*Tilleraas, Perry. The Color of Light, 1988. Hazelden Meditation Series

Fitnabook

2011-11-30T16:32:00.000-05:00

عَنْ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ قَالَ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أُرِيتُ النَّارَ فَإِذَا أَكْثَرُ أَهْلِهَا النِّسَاءُ يَكْفُرْنَ قِيلَ أَيَكْفُرْنَ بِاللَّهِ قَالَ يَكْفُرْنَ الْعَشِيرَ وَيَكْفُرْنَ الْإِحْسَانَ لَوْ أَحْسَنْتَ إِلَى إِحْدَاهُنَّ الدَّهْرَ ثُمَّ رَأَتْ مِنْكَ شَيْئًا قَالَتْ مَا رَأَيْتُ مِنْكَ خَيْرًا قَطُّ

Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: The Prophet said: “I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful.” It was asked, “Do they disbelieve in Allah?” (or are they ungrateful to Allah?) He replied, “They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good (charitable deeds) done to them. If you have always been good (benevolent) to one of them and then she sees something in you (not of her liking), she will say, ‘I have never received any good from you.” (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 28)

I never thought it would happen to me; I've been so careful up to this point. But last week, I found myself up to my eyeballs in Facebook fitna.

I use my real name on Facebook. It helps me to maintain my integrity. Because you know once something's out there on the Internet with your name, it will ALWAYS be there. Using my real name helps to keep me honest. It's so easy to be a cyber idiot when you write under the cloak of "Anonymous," "Muslimah38," "Umm Jessica," or whatever - I think you get the point.

So I received a message from a Muslim sister who is the wife of a brother I have "known" a long time through blogging and various groups. The message was not public, but was sent to a select group of "friends" who the sister stated she has had the "honor" to know over the years. I only "friended" her because I know her husband.

Anyhow, the sister goes into a long venomous diatribe about her husband, who she is in the process of getting a divorce from, and provides intimate details about their marriage which shocked me.

Believe me, I understand the emotional pain of the divorce process. But this stuff was vicious and much more information that I needed to know about their marital problems. Then her "friends" left all kind of equally deprecating comments about the husband. I was really blown away. All that coming from Muslim women.

I thought about it carefully over a few days because I wanted to be tactful and before I replied with naseeha. I figured I should reply, and that she wanted a reply, or some kind of feedback or support. After all, why would she include me, her "honored" Facebook friend in her message? This was my comment:

"As with any test, we should remember Allaah t'ala in all of our affairs. How we respond to tests and trials determines the reward. Maybe Allaah is doing you a favor, Sis _______, or vice versa. Don't be ungrateful to Him by spreading your private marital business on FB, even though it's a note to a select few. Some of these 'friends' you may not even known very well or know personally. I know this is difficult for you, but please - maintain your dignity as a Muslim woman and mother. You are a queen and deserve self-respect. As to the rest of you, unless you know _______ or _______ personally, I would refrain from character attacks against them. We can love and support Sis _______ without stooping that low. Sis _______, I am not judging you; I feel for you, wa'ala. I do. Please accept this naseeha in the spirit it is being given :)"

She replied that I should feel free to use the un-friend button on my Facebook profile.

Then the fitna started flying!

Her "friends," Muslim women at that, started to attack me in their comments. I guess I was not supposed to give the sister honest Islaamic feedback, but rather I was supposed to jump on the band wagon and start running down her husband.

I was told that I am judgmental. And who am I, a revert at that, to give feedback, acting like I know everything.

And especially a revert like me with a Jewish name. Was I really a Muslim? I didn't even have a "real" (read Arab) Muslim name.

I was told that I am over zealous in my practice of faith and have crossed the line in "giving instructions" to others on how they should or should not behave.

"Hypocritical nonsense." "Condescending attitude ..."

Another Muslim sister said I should take a hike out of the USA to a place where I better fit in.

And finally - the sister who wrote that I made her want to puke.

All these sisters ... why didn't one of them remind the sister of Allaah (swt).

Why is it when you remind some sisters about Allaah (swt) they jump all over you and accuse you of being judgmental, or worse yet, attack you?

Intellectually, I know it's because they may feel guilty, etc., and deep down they may know you're right. They may feel embarrassed and become defensive. So they strike out at you. It's not always easy to be patience in the face of adversity.

But then sometimes you just want to say "fuck it." FUCK IT!!!

And your want your sisters to hold you, raise their voices with you, join you in a chorous, screaming from the highest hilltop, so the whole world can hear: "FUCK IT! FUCK HIM!"

So, please, tell me. Please. Was I a condescending ass? Do I owe the sister an apology? Was I right and they were wrong? Do I need to use the un-friend button?

Or do I need to join the chorous?

Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women

2011-11-03T07:34:00.000-04:00

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu!

Wow! I've been so busy!

In addition to my usual tendency to over-schedule myself, lol, I just returned from another trip to Turkey. The first two times I went, our itinerary was limited to Istanbul. This time, we visited five cities altogether!

From Istanbul, we took a plane to Sanliurfa, also known as the City of Ur, City of the Prophets, birthplace of the Prophet Ibriheem (as), place of trial and healing of Ayyub (as), etc., birthplace of Ibn Tamiyyah (ra) ... The city of Harran, mere miles from the northern border of Syria, was my favorite place in Sanliurfa.

From Sanliurfa, we journeyed to Ankara, then on to Konya, then on to Izmir, and then returned to Istanbul.

All of this in 10 days!!! Got great photographs. Visit me at my Flickr site (link on the sidebar here) and click on "Sanliurfa" and "Harran" folders. Eventually, I will add Konya and Izmir folders, Insha Allaah.

I returned home to the wonderful news that "Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women" will be released for publication in February of 2012.

And I can finally announce to you all that Yours Truly has contributed her story to this anthology!

Below is a description of the book from Amazon (where the book is available for pre-order):

"In this groundbreaking collection, American Muslim women writers sweep aside stereotypes to share their real-life tales of flirting, dating, longing, and sex. Their stories show just how varied the search for love can be -- from singles' events and college flirtations to arranged marriages, all with a uniquely Muslim twist.

These heartfelt tales are filled with passion and hope, loss and longing. One follows the quintessential single woman in the big city as she takes a chance on a Muslim speed-dating event. Another tells of a shy student from a liberal college town who falls in love online and must reveal her secret to her conseervative family. A third recounts a Southern girl who surprises herself by agressing to an arranged marriage, unexpectedly finding the love of her life.

These compelling stories of love and romance create an irresistible balance of heart-warming and tantalizing, always revealing and deeply relatable."

Writing the story of my search for love and happiness within the context of Islaamic marriage was difficult and challenging for me. At first, I wrote it in a very general way, without much detail. Since I was using my real name for the story, I was shy to release intimate information about my family and husbands (yes, more than one: buy the book and read the details!). But the editors, Nura Maznavi and Ayesha Mattu, did an expert job of helping me to flesh out the details while still maintaining integrity and sensitivity.

I say it was challenging to write this story because the process forced me to take a good look at myself: at my personal strengths and weaknesses, my choices, and mostly importantly, my relationship with Allaah t'ala.

Writing my story catapulted me, again, into the past, dared me to re-live the pain and learn from it, but most of all, affirmed that Allaah t'ala is sufficient for me, and trust in Him always pays off!

You can see our Facebook page here. Please visit there often for updates, and be sure to "like" us!

September 11th

2011-09-11T17:08:00.000-04:00

Shofar (שופר) by S. E. Jihad Levine
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved
The shofar (שופר) is a Jewish instrument most often made from a ram’s horn, though it can also be made from the horn of a sheep or goat. It makes a trumpet-like sound and is traditionally blown on Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year.

Taken at Congregation Beth El, Sunbury, PA, on 9/11/2011 - 10th Anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on America at New York City, Washington DC, and Shanksville, PA

Ramadhaan 1432 A.H./2011 The Welcoming Sermon

2011-07-31T14:52:00.002-04:00

Image Credit: Sana Az

Bismillaah, wal-hamdulilaah, was-salaatu was-salaamu 'alaa rasoolillaah,As Salaamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barakatuh:

Alhamdulillah, we in America who follow High Judiciary Council of Saudi Arabia for the start of the month of Ramadhaan have been notified of their official decision and announcement by email from the folks at Authentic Statements, may Allaah t'ala reward them and their families. Ameen.

"Just a short time ago, Fatwa-Online was informed of the official decision and announcement of the High Judiciary Council (HJC) of Saudi Arabia that since the moon of Ramadhaan was not sighted this evening, here in Saudi Arabia, we shall be completing thirty (30) days of Sha'baan (1432 A.H.), in accordance with the hadeeth of the Messenger of Allaah (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam):

((Fast when you see the crescent. If it is obscured to you, then complete thirty days of Sha'baan. And break your fast when you see the crescent. If it is obscured to you then fast thirty days)), [transmitted by al-Bukhaaree and Muslim].

Therefore, many of us will be starting our taraawee prayers Sunday evening, July 31st, in preparation for the first fast of Ramadhaan on Monday, August 1st, Insha Allaah.

Alhamdulillah, that we Muslims have lived to see another Ramadhaan!

On this last day of Shabaan, I thought I would share the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم welcoming sermon for Ramadhaan from the book, The Prophet's Ramadhaan: How the Prophet Observed the Month of Ramadhaan by Mufti Muhammad Khan Qaadri, translated by Muhammad Sajid, pp. 18-19. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم delivered this sermon on the last day of Shabaan. He صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

"Oh People, a very blessed month is about to come over you. A month in which is a night better than a thousand months. A month whose fasts Allaah (swt) has prescribed for you and made it's Qiyyam a source of reward. Whoever gets close to Allaah (swt) in it with (voluntary) good deeds will be like the one undertaking fard in other months. And whoever fulfils a fard in it will be like fulfilling 70 fard in another month. It is a month of patience and the reward of patience is paradise. It is a month of empathy and a month in whichs the beliver's rizq (livelihood) is increased. Whoever (provides food to) opens the fast of another will have forgiveness for his sins and freedom from Hell. He will receive the same reward as the fasting person and there will be no reduction in the reward of the fasting person. On this the companions pointed out 'Not all of us have the means to feed a fasting person to his full.' The Prophet replied '(My purpose was not that he be fed to his fill but )Allah (swt) will give such reward to anyone who gives even one date or one drop of water or milk.' It is a month whose first is mercy, whose middle is forgiveness and whose last is freedom from Hell. Whoever lightens the burden of his worker Allah (swt) will forgive and free him from Hell. Make plentiful four things in it; with two of them you can please your Lord and without the other two you cannot survivie. The two things with which you can please your Lord are the Kalima Tayyiba (its dhikr) and Istigfaar (seeking forgiveness). The two things without which you cannot survive are asking Allah (swt) for paradise and seeking His refuge from the fire. And whoever gives water to a fasting person Allah (swt) will (on the day of Qiyaamah) quench him from my fountain from which he will not feel any thirst up until entering paradise.' (Sahih Ibn Khuzayma)

RAMADAN MUBARAK MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ISLAAM!!!

Leslie, Of Blessed Memory

2011-07-26T20:05:00.000-04:00

I knew it would happen one day.

We all did. Any of us who are recovering addicts or who love addicts know that if he/she doesn't get into recovery, one day we will find out that the disease of addiction has claimed them.

I knew one day addiction would kill Amy Winehouse.

Addiction kills: ... overdose, HIV/AIDS, murder, liver disease, stomach disease, suicide ... the list of how we die goes on and on.

So it was with great sadness that I listened to the details on TV of how Amy Winehouse was found dead in her apartment. They've done an autopsy, but ...

I felt a great kinship to Amy Winehouse. Mainly because she was Jewish and an addict. Statistics claim that the rate of addiction among Jews is very low.

I remember once going to a recovery gathering in West Palm Beach, Florida. I was visiting my grandparents at the time and as was my habit, I sought out recovering people wherever I traveled. It was so funny. Us Jews in the room recognized each other right away. We were all looking at each other like, "Hey, we're not supposed to be here!"

But meeting other Jewish addicts probably helped us not to feel so isolated and like a freak in our Jewish communities.

Yes, I know plenty of Jewish addicts.

And Amy Winehouse's death reminded me of one Jewish addict I was very close to in particular. Amy's death washed fresh waves of grief over my heart and made me take a trip down memory lane to think of my friend, Leslie, of blessed memory.

Yes, Leslie, is dead, too.

She even looked a lot like Amy Winehouse. Or maybe Amy looked like Leslie, lol. The hair, the tattos, the slim frame. This picture was taken when we vacationed in Puerto Rico together. Leslie was so crazy about butterflies that she tattoed them all over her body. She was so happy when we visited the Butterfly Gallery in San Juan:

Leslie had another chronic disease, one that is ultimately fatal. She found out very early in her recovery and she stayed clean and sober for over 10 years, serving as a model and example for others that anyone can stay clean no matter what. And this was very early in the days of this particular disease. We didn't have the treatment and medications we have now that help people live a long long time. In Leslie's time, one's days were numbered.

She was a substance abuse counselor in a treatment center where I was working, and that's where I met her. We had close friends in common and we hit it off right away. She was a great lady, full of fun, always doing something, and always going somewhere. She was in a relationship with a great guy. Those were the days one puts in the bank.

Years later, Leslie started to get sick. Her lab work wasn't good, and she felt a lot of fear. To make a long story short, she relapsed and started to use drugs again. The addiction was back in full swing and it exacerbated her "other disease."

Leslie was back to reckless and self-destructive behavior. No one could help her. She wouldn't listen to any of us.

Like Amy Winehouse, Leslie was found dead in her apartment. I still think about her a lot, and still love her.

At her funeral, we released butterflies.

Next year Insha Allaah, I will be clean 30 years. This is the first time I've "come out" online about my own addiction. To people who know me personally and professionally, it's no secret that I'm a recovering addict.

Maybe now that I'm out I can write more about Islaam and addiction!

In the meantime, if you know anyone who is suffering with the disease of addiction, get them help. Don't stop trying. No matter how much they resist your efforts and push you away.

I wish I would have tried harder to help Leslie.

Is It Dinner Time Yet?!

2011-07-17T11:32:00.000-04:00

My "neighbor's" cat, Mocha. He used to live with my Buddy and therefore is the only cat that can come on our porch without Buddy freaking out and chasing the intruder off! Mocha shows up on the porch twice a day at mealtime and I've even caught him sleeping in my flower bed.

Hope you all are well, and having a great summer. For me, I have been busy gardening and have had guests in my home.

So, Insha Allaah, you will be patient awhile longer for posts from me and will enjoy my photographs in the meantime :)

Insha Allaah I will have GREAT news to share in the coming month or so!

2011-06-26T14:19:00.001-04:00

ZUCCINI BLOSSOM, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

ZUCCINI BLOSSOM by S. E. Jihad Levine, copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved

Peer in to get a preview of how your food forms. Subhan'Allaah!

"It is He Who sends down water (rain) from the sky, and with it We bring forth vegetation of all kinds ..." (Qur'an, Al-An'am: 99)

Learning the Arabic Alphabet!

2011-06-23T18:23:00.002-04:00

Palestine and Israel (I/P) - My Position

2011-06-14T17:19:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, a little bit after midnight (actually Thursday morning), I am scheduled to be interviewed by talk show host LiAmi Lawrence on RADIOKOLAMERICA.COM.

LiAmi's audience are primarily Israeli citizens living in America, but he tells me that he also has a very diverse audience.

The program will run 9-11 p.m. PST, which starts at midnight on the East Coast. I will be the first interview so tune in at midnight and you should hear us shortly after.

I wanted to think out loud here a little bit ahead of tomorrow's interview.

Many people are interested in my story because I was raised Jewish (by a Christian mother and a Jewish father) and converted to Islaam later in life. Many people, both Muslims and non Muslims, find it curious that a Jew could be attracted to Islaam. I'm not sure why, because both religions have a LOT in common.

So people are always interested in my story. And they are especially amused at the thought of a former Jew being a Muslim chaplain.

Two principal things caused me to leave Judaism: Jesus and Zionism.

My mother never converted to Judaism after marrying my father, and she remained a practicing Christian, actually a Catholic. Because of that, my brother and I were exposed to Christianity and its beliefs. After my parents divorced, when I was about 12 years old, she forced us into Catholic baptisim and it was then I learned about Jesus (as).

Although I never believed that Jesus (as) was the son of G-d, nor did I believe that he was part of a trinity, or that G-d Himself was part of a trinity, Jesus (as) left a mark on my heart.

So as a child, it was initially Jesus (as) who started to pull me away from the religion of Judaism. Although he left a mark on me, he didn't totally pull me away from Judaism due to Zionism. I had an identity as a Jew and at the time I didn't know I could still culturally and ethnically identify myself as Jewish while being a member of another religion (Islaam) at the same time. I now know that is possible.

I consider myself a cultural and ethnic Ashkenazi Jew (Polish) who is a Muslim.

I was an ardent Zionist through my mid twenties. I loved Israel and wrote many poems to her. I published one on here before. Like many other Jews, I didn't know anything about Palestine or Palestinians. 1948 and 1967 were sources of pride to me, but I didn't understand why at the time. I was ignorant of the facts on the ground. All I knew was that "we" got "our" country back - finally.

When I became a Muslim, I started to learn. First of all, it became clear very early to me that a lot of Muslims didn't like us (Jews). Well, what's new, I thought. I lot of people don't like us. But I began to learn why many Muslims didn't like us. And it had to do with Israel/Palestine (I/P).

So I began to research ...

Because of my identify, my heart is with all the people in that land.

But more importantly, as a human being, I cannot stomach what is going on over there. It makes me sick and ashamed.

I want it to be different.

What goes on over there happens in a lot of places all over the world. But for Jews, with a collective memory of the Holocaust, to subject the Palestinians to a lot of what we were subjected to in Eastern Europe makes me sick.

I wanted to collect my thoughts in one place and put them down on paper, in this case a computer screen. I also want to raise awareness.

This is a list of what I object to:

1. The humanitarian impact of Israeli measures in Occupied Palestinian Terroritory (OPT)

Under international law, Israel must ensure that persons under its jurisdiction enjoy the fulfilment of their human rights, including the right to housing, health, education, and water. UNRWA calls on Israel to respect its legal obligations.

2. The Separation Wall

MR. NETANYAHU TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!!!!!!!

Israel states that this wall is necessary in order to protect it, to prevent the access to Israel by Palestinian suicide bombers. Building a wall around "Israel" is reminiscent of the East Berlin Wall. It impedes access to education and healthcare for the Palestinian people and healthcare workers. Besides, it is downright fucking humiliating and degrading. It separates Palestinian families.

The UN International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel's barrier is illegal and that it violates International Law. The court said it should be torn down. But Israel has ignored this ruling and the Separation Wall stands.

3. Illegal Settlement Building

It is prohibited under international law for Israel (or any other country) to transfer its citizens to occupied terrority. But Israel continues to allow "settlers" to build and expand in occupied terrority. Extreme settlers engage in violence against Palestinians in a measure called "price tags." On the rare occasion when the Israeli government rules against the settlers, they take revenge and retaliate against Palestinians. There is also a price tag on Palestinian violence in the form of mosque burning, destruction of Palestinian agriculture and animals, burning of olive groves, physical assaults, vandalism of wells and property, and on and on. One hateful price tag occurs when settlers (who are usually on hilltops) open their sewage and allow it to pour down on to Palestinian towns and into Palestinian fields. And no, it doesn't fertilize the fields, it destroys them.

4. The status of East Jerusalem

To include planning and zoning restrictions, house demolitions and displacements, residency status problems, etc.

5. Annexation and Land Confiscation

To include declaring Palestinian owned land as a closed military zone. This is the only declaration Israel legally can use to appropriate Palestinian land under international law and they take full advantage (mis-use) of it.

6. Refugees

There are Palestinian refugees who have been driven out of their land or who have fled all over the world. But they are especially living in numeorus refugee camps surrounding Israel in places like Gaza, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt.

What is to be done with all of these people? What rights do they have?

Refugees have an internationally recognized right of:

a. right of return - whether they fled or where forced
b. compensation for damages
c. right to regain their properties or receive compensation
d. right to support for voluntary resettlement

This right is supported by customary international law, international humanitarian law, and human rights laws. In the specific case of the Palestinians, this right was affirmed by the United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948, and has been reaffirmed repeatedly by that same body, and has also been recognized by independent organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The U.S. government supported Resolution 194, and voted repeatedly to affirm it until 1993. At that time, the Clinton administration began to refer to Palestinian refugee rights as matters to be negotiated between the parties to the conflict. (source)

-------

I'm purposely not going into a lot of detail here on any of what I mentioned above, like I said, I'm just trying to organize my mind.

I'm not interested in Israeli justifications, rationalizations, excuses, or anything else for why they do what they do.

I am against violence - whether it's aimed at the Palestinian population OR the Israeli population.

There are three major positions for resolution of the I/P problem. Yes, there are others, but these three are the most often put on the table.

1. Israel wants it all.
2. The Palestinians want it all (back).
3. A two-state solution.

Here's my position: a two-state solution based on 1967 agreements as a starting point. My position is not popular among many Muslims, believe me.

But let's get real. Israel is not going anywhere. Do Muslims really believe that some day Israel will be wiped off the map? But there must be justice and a resolution for the Palestinian people.

Allahu Alim. Only G-d knows this.

But for now, what is needed is a solution to this madness. The two sides must engage in real talk. They must stop with all the excuses and why they can't "get 'er done."

It appears to be the leaders of both I/P that impede the peace process.

Survey after survey show that people want peace.

There are both Palestinian and Israeli peace and human rights organizations that are working hard to make peace happen. Let's pray for these people and groups that they are successful in driving public opinion and public policy.

So, hopefully, you will listen to me tomorrow night. LiAmi tells me his website will have a link to the interview in case you can't stay up late.

Keep me in your du'a.

Pensamientos ... Palestinian Farmers ... Hispanic Agricultural Workers

2011-06-13T23:47:00.000-04:00

Gardening is one of the things I most enjoy in this life. Whether it's outside or inside, I garden all year around.

Gardening gives me time to be alone with my thoughts, to think about all kinds of things, especially things that trouble me.

Take anger and frustration for instance. There's nothing better, for me, to alleviate anger and frustration than pulling weeds and trimming flowers. And believe me, there are plenty of them in the garden. The above picture is just today's take.

I think about Palestine and Israel - a lot.

I am a Muslim who has a Christian mother and a Jewish father. My heart and soul are anchored in Israel/Palestine (I/P) which is an important piece of real estate to all three faith groups.

I care about what happens there.

I think often of Palestinian farmers. I see pictures of Palestinian farmers waiting in long lines to pass through check points to get into their fields. Sometimes they are not let through. Or they are held in a series of check point lines by IDF for so long that their perishable produce wilts. Gardening and working a field are acts of immediacy. If you don't understand what I mean, get a bunch of stuff for a salad out and let it sit on your kitchen counter for an afternoon and you'll see what I mean. Or, if you have a garden, don't go out there for a few days, and see how the weeds overgrow everything. You saw the picture of my day's take of weeds. My garden is about the length of two and a half double-car garages. Imagine an entire field.

Palestinian farmers depend a lot on wells to irrigate their fields. Israel has diverted much of the water in the Occupied Territories for use by the Israeli people. Yes, the Palestinians are allocated water by Israel, but it is not enough. Some Palestinian farmers dig "illegal" wells and when they are discovered, the IDF comes and destroys them. Likewise, it is illegal for Palestinian farmers to even collect rain water. When discovered, the IDF blows up the cisterns.

Sometimes I try to clear my mind while in the garden. I try to focus on the glory of Allaah t'ala creation. Just look at this for an example:

In the following weeks, this dainty yellow blossom will become a cucumber! Subhan'Allaah!

I think about other farmers and farm workers too.

As I was gardening this morning, I was thinking about the meaning of the word "wetback," a slander term often used to refer to Mexican and other Hispanic farm workers. They are out in the fields in California, the Southwest USA, and other agricultural areas of America for very long hours. I can't even start to imagine how much they sweat doing this work so the people of America can have produce on their plates.

Why was I thinking about this? Well, as I move through the rows of my garden, weeding, or pulling radishes and other stuff, I sweat like crazy. I mean it drips off of me.

I guess that makes me a wetback too!

Look at this vintage hoe/rake:

One of my neighbors gave it to me. I belonged to her grandfather! She and her husband don't garden anymore, so they gifted it to me. Alhamdulillah, I was moved to tears for such a beautiful gesture. You can't buy these anymore. The picture doesn't show it, but the tips of this hoe are flat. I move through my garden with this thing like I do across my kitchen floor with my broom. It makes my work so easy and I don't have to schlep out the roto-tiller which is destructive to the garden insects in the dirt.

At harvest time, I give my neighbors bags of vegetables!

When I come in from the garden, I have a smoothie.

I use soy milk with vanilla flavor, two dates, one prune, my garden mint, and whatever fruit I have. Currently, I am using organic blueberries from the store, and my own strawberries:

I hate to sound like an advertisement for something, but these prunes shown below are soooo excellent! I have 62 years old and have NEVER found a prune I like until now. They taste so good! Plus, they are individually wrapped. They have a better shelf life this way, and they are easy to carry. They are soft as butter. You can put them in your family's lunches or carry them in your purse or pocket for a healthy snack. Plus, I read online that prunes are very valuable for those tying to lose weight or maintain healthy weight.

Here's the payoff - my smoothie made in my vintage blender:

Final image - some of my lavender blossoms. Jazaka Allahu Khayrn Sister Mumina!

Anybody Out There?

2011-06-12T07:21:00.001-04:00

(Israeli Apartheid Wall)

Israel built a Separation Wall between them and the Palestinians.

The reason: for "security," to prevent suicide bombers from walking from the Occupied Palestinian Terror-tories to Israel.

The UN International Court of Justice has ruled Israel's barrier illegal, stating that it violates international law, and that it should be torn down.

The Apartheid Wall is a huge fitnah for both Palestinians and Israelis. But most of all, for the Palestinian people.

Have you ever seen it? Maybe you have seen snippets of it on the Internet.

Blogger, "northshorewoman" has a cyber walk along this wall posted on her blog.

Here's YOUR chance to take a walk alongside this wall. You MUST see this video. You HAVE TO witness this. Especially if you're an American. After all, your tax money has contributed to it. Are you okay with that?

But watch the video for yourself (second video in her post):

northshorewoman: a cyber saha through the West Bank: "I went for a cyber walk through parts of the West Bank today. I was not expecting to, but in the manner of a saha , I aimlessly wandered the..."

Anyone listening? Anyone out there?

To borrow a slogan from the HIV AIDS movement: Silence = Death.

Silencio = Muerte

Oh, and while you're at it, go to American Jew Lucas Koerner's blog. Read his words, see his images, and watch a video about how HIS PEOPLE treated him in Israel while he was there protesting on Jerusalem Day - all because he does not agree with their measures regarding the Palestinian "problem" and dared to peacefully express his views.

iPhone "Diana" Photography

2011-06-08T19:40:00.002-04:00

uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).
This photo was taken with the iPhone app, "Diana."
Digital Digital Diana replicates the 1960s cheap 120 camera called the "Diana." This toy camera was made entirely of plastic, and quality control was lacking. Considered a dismal failure, the Diana was discontinued in the 1970s.
Like any artist, only after death is their true beauty and value discovered. In later years, the Diana became a cult classic among photographers who consider their work art.
The dreamy, out-of-focus, grainy, light-leaked images lent unique moods to the photos exposed in the little blue plastic camera from Hong Kong. Each Diana had a character of its own. Like snowflakes, no two lenses were alike.
The Diana quickly rose to the paramount of the cult art class, making it one of the most sought after, extinct analog cameras ever. (description taken from iTunes App Store).
I thought my old antique Singer sewing machine to be the perfect subject for my debut into Diana photography.
I got this machine in a yard sale for $10, put $80 into it, and Alhamdulillah, I have a great working machine. So much so, that I gave my new one away! It is truly a spiritual experience to use this sewing machine. It's one of the first Singers converted to electricity. Masha Allaah that they kept the beloved Singer body.

Sunday Morning ...

2011-06-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

Alhamdulillah, this is my first free Sunday morning.

Islaamic weekend school graduation was last week, and I am free under after Ramadan. I'll definitely miss all the children, but it will be so cool so see how much they've grown over the summer months when I see them again during Ramadan, Insha Allaah.

I spent my first free Sunday morning in my garden. There's plenty of work to do out there. Part of my morning routine is to spend an hour or so out there after breakfast and after the pain pill kicks in :)

It rained real hard last night, Alhamdulillah. My gardening pal, Buddy, and I went out to see how things were.

This is a partial picture of my garden. In this view, I have planted three rows of carrots, two rows of radishes, two rows of beets, almost a dozen tomato plants, a few rows of peppers (green, red, and yellow), and a lot of beans in whatever space is left all around the periphery of the garden. Behind the camera are rows of zucchini and cucumber, and of course, more beans :)

Before I go in, I can see that the weeds have taken over. Buddy and I go in:

"OMG Mom! Look at all this work!"

"I'm out of here!"

"I think I'll hang out right here, and watch YOU work."

After "we're" done, we go to look along side of the garage:

Check out these raspberry bushes! Last fall, I cut the canes back to about two inches. My husband and my neighbors thought I was nuts. But look now! "Pruning is a plant's friend." I have another neighbor who freaks out when I take the hedge trimmer to my bushes. You'd think they'd learn by now, from the beautiful results, that pruning and trimming is a healthy thing to do. My raspberry bushes have grown almost to the garage door knob in just over two months. Insha Allaah we will have berries real soon :)

Finally, I can't resist photographing roses and other flowers after an evening's rain. The lady who owned this house before I did, planted roses on one whole side of the house. I have red, pink, mauve, and yellow ones. I have cut roses inside my house all summer and most of fall. All of these roses are frost resistant.

Roses are a sadaqa for the eyes and nose. Masha Allaah, Allahu Akbar! How beautiful is Allaah's world!

Masha Allaah, the Cats of Istanbul!

2011-06-02T09:32:00.002-04:00

Masha Allaah, the Cats of Istanbul!, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

First Strawberries!

2011-06-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

First strawberries! Yum! Once you eat strawberries from your own (or someone else's) garden, you will NEVER buy them in a store again. I gathered these, plucked a sprig of mint on my way into the house, and immediately made myself a fresh smoothie.

With all the wet weather we had a few weeks ago, I was really worried. But today and yesterday I actually went out to the garden with a hose! It's been real hot and we had a lot of sun, Alhamdulillah, so everything's coming up nicely.

It's been SO hot that my garden friend, Buddy, doesn't even care to move from his place on the shaded front porch to joint me in the garden as he usually does.

What a wimp!

2011-05-27T19:05:00.002-04:00

SPOTTED LAVENDER FOXGLOVE AFTER AN EVENING'S RAIN STORM, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

S. E. Jihad Levine, Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved

Masha Allaah! I love this time of the year!

Hope you all and your families are well. I've been sooo busy the past few weeks.

The garden is finally in. Now I weed and wait.

Our masjid's weekend school graduation is this Sunday; the kids have been practicing real hard and they're very excited. Insha Allaah I'll have some nice pictures for your next week.

Nakba 63

2011-05-15T21:32:00.000-04:00

May 15, 2011: 63 years of Palestinian occupation and oppression.

Tears ...

2011-05-11T08:19:00.001-04:00

Tears ..., originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

Abu Hurayrah (ra) stated that once the Prophet (saw) met a group of his companions who were conversing together laughing. He (saw) remarked, "By Him Who has my life in His power, if you were to know what I knew then you would laugh little and weep much." He (saw) then went away from while they wept.

(Copyright 2011, S.E. Jihad Levine, All Rights Reserved)

The Assassination of OBL

2011-05-03T16:03:00.000-04:00

The other night I fell asleep with the TV on and woke up a few hours later. My bleary eyes caught CNN's "Breaking News" banner and I was stunned to see "Osama bin Laden Dead."

It was like one or two in the morning, can't remember, but then I was even more stunned to see students from George Washington University running to the gates of the White House, screaming, yelling, celebrating, chanting "USA!" ...

Then an impromptu crowd grew in New York City ...

I'm telling you - nothing short of a fire or some other emergency could get me into the streets at that hour at my age, lol.

Anyhow, in the few days since the assassination of OBL, there has been much celebration in America and some other places. And once again, everyone dredges up a very detailed list of OBL's character defects.

Inititally, I thought I was alone in feeling a bit sad about OBL's death. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly no fan of OBL and don't agree with his interpretation of Islaam.

But I'm not going to make takfir on him, or be glad that he is dead.

It was the same with me when Saadam Hussein was executed. I felt shame at the way the executioners taunted and humiliated him before they hung him. I even felt shame at watching the video.

Some call it justice.

I call it vengeance and revenge.

Most major religions make general caution against these emotional states.

"Vengeance is Mine," Christians are told in the book of Romans.

"Do not speak ill of the dead, for they have seen the result of their past deeds," Muslims are reminded in Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 4, Number 76.

Jewish law also warns about lashon hara (evil speech) against the dead.

I emphasize "general" caution because, like everything else, one can never generalize when it comes to religion.

But I think Martin Luther King, Jr., put it into words best:

"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

Do we really think the world will be cured of its hate and darkness now that OBL is gone?

I don't think so.

2011-04-28T19:05:00.002-04:00

Strolling Through Fatih, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

Fatih, Istanbul Turkey

Mannequin in the Grand Bazaar

2011-04-27T11:18:00.004-04:00

Mannequin in the Grand Bazaar, (Istanbul, Turkey) originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

There are those
among us
who are
nicked
kicked
displayed
then played
used
abused
affected
neglected ...
They look good
on the outside
but inside
cease to live anymore ...

Akilam School, Istanbul Turkey

2011-04-26T12:12:00.000-04:00

Last year, our group visited the Akilam School in Istanbul, Turkey.

The visit to the school was the highlight of the trip for me. I remember getting a teary-eyed, tight-squeeze hug from each student when we left, along with "See you in Jennah, Insha Allaah."

None of us was sure we'd ever see each other again in this dunya.

So, Alhamdulillah, I was thrilled to find out that we would be visiting the school again this year!

My traveling companion, Sister Megan, and I got to teach an English class. We had so much fun! It was great being with the sisters again.

I can't tell you the feeling I have in my heart for these sisters. I have real mad love for them. I am so proud of them! I smile everytime I think of them, or see pictures of them.

The visit and opportunity to see them again was truly heaven :)

May Allaah t'ala bless them, guide them, and reward them and their families. Ameen.

Sisters, Insha Allaah we will see each other again in 2012.

Spring: I'm Ready for a Change!

2011-04-26T11:25:00.001-04:00

I'll give you a break for a moment (just a moment) from the Istanbul pictures, and share with you some of what I'm thinking and feeling today.

Spring is in the air in the northeast United States. Everything is starting to bloom and color is everywhere.

I clean off my front porch and went to buy leftover Easter flowers. After they finish, I can plant them on the side of the house. Sitting in my porch rocking chair, I am enjoying the flower scent that whiffs by my nose, carried by an unusual warm spring breeze.

The flowers remind me of Istanbul; tulips and other flowers are everywhere! Last year we were there at the end of February and it was PrimeRose season. April is tulip season. The Turks have planted them everywhere in Istanbul, alongside the roads, and in planters ... I'll bet they invested in thousands and thousands of tulip bulbs. The reward is displays like this:

Yeah, I'm glad it's Spring and am ready for the change that comes with it.

With everything going on in the world, I'm ready for something different.

Wildfires, tornadoes, floods ...

Libya, Palestine, Syria ...

And Obama and the "Birther" issue. If his birth certificate exists like many maintain, including people who claim that they saw it, why doesn't this guy (Obama) just show it to us and get it over with already? Jeez! What bullshit.

So - I'm psyched and ready for the royal wedding on Friday!!! For one day, I'd like to experience a fantasy and forget about everything going on until at least Saturday :) It makes me really feel my age to think back on how I watched the wedding of Prince William's parents :(

Okay, that's it :) Back to the Istanbul photographs!

Seed Seller at the Yeni Jami Mosque

2011-04-25T14:56:00.001-04:00

"Seed Seller at Yeni Jami Mosque"

Istanbul, Turkey

S. E. Jihad Levine

The Yeni Jami Mosque sits right next to the Bosphorous. So of course, there are zillions of pigeons and sea gulls flying around. This lady sells seeds to the tourists. Tourists and children love to throw the food to the birds.

Turkish Hamals

2011-04-25T13:43:00.001-04:00

You can see these guys all over Istanbul. They are called "hamals," or porters. Their job is to carry heavy loads on their backs. The first image in the collage shows what the frame looks like without a load; the rest of them show hamals carrying loads. What is so amazing is that the majority of the hamals I saw are not young men. And Istanbul is a city of hills. Incredible!

I apologize for the smallness of this collage. I can't get the image any bigger due to having a sidebar on this site.

Go to my Flickr to see it a bit better!

Making Wudu

2011-04-24T18:22:00.000-04:00

"Making Wudu"

Istanbul, Turkey

S. E. Jihad Levine

Calligraphy Teacher

2011-04-24T17:06:00.000-04:00

"Calligraphy Teacher"

Istanbul, Turkey

S. E. Jihad Levine

2011-04-24T16:47:00.000-04:00

Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey

S. E. Jihad Levine

Afternoon Salat

2011-04-24T16:28:00.000-04:00

"Afternoon Salat"

Istanbul, Turkey

S. E. Jihad Levine

Nut Vendor

2011-04-21T19:25:00.000-04:00

Caught eating his own product!

"Nut Vendor"
Istanbul, Turkey
S. E. Jihad Levine
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved

2011-04-20T17:52:00.001-04:00

Fatih, Istanbul Turkey

S. E. Jihad Levine

Shoe Shine Man

2011-04-20T16:33:00.000-04:00

Shoe Shine Man

Zeytinburnu, Istanbul, Turkey

S. E. Jihad Levine

Boats on the Sea of Marmara

2011-04-20T15:59:00.000-04:00

Boats on the Sea of Mamara

Istanbul, Turkey

Shortly after Imsak

S. E. Jihad Levine

Father and Son Leaving the Mosque

2011-04-20T06:10:00.000-04:00

"Father and Son Leaving the Mosque"

by S. E. Jihad Levine

Istanbul

2011-04-19T13:10:00.000-04:00

I just returned from Istanbul, Turkey. It's the second time I've been there; went last year.

I love Istanbul so much, Masha Allaah. Both this year and last I've taken nearly 1,000 images each time. Insha Allaah I will be posting some of them here. You can also go to my Flickr site and see my complete Istanbul set.

I love street photography. Photojournalism was my focus in art school. The people of Turkey never fail to satisfy my love of photographing people.

Here are two images to start with, both taken while at mosques.

Thie first one appears kind of dark at first, but I love how my camera caught the man in the foreground and the bookcase in the background in shadow. The mosque (either Fatih Mosque or Sulymanye, can't remember) was quite dark except for the light coming through the window behind the Muslim brother reading from the Qur'an. The second image, of course, was taken outside. Return ofen for more images, Insha Allaah!

2011-04-07T19:59:00.001-04:00

"Hope"

(Outside Mural at Masjid Al-Aqsa

Germantown Avenue

Philadelphia, PA)

The Holy Land Belongs to Everyone

2011-04-07T19:46:00.000-04:00

I took this photograph in January of 2009, at a demonstration to protest the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

I've always loved these words, shalom and salam ... peace.

As ethnic groups, Arabs and Jews are practically the same people, cousins of sorts.

And never has there been so much fighting and so much violence as there has been over the centuries from these two groups of people. A real family feud.

If you are a first-time visitor to this site, I want you to know that I converted from Judaism to Islaam. I changed my religion, but I did not change my ethnicity. I still consider myself to be an ethnic Jew. Some people insist that there is no such thing as an ethnic Jew. I disagree.

Even before I was a Muslim, I always had a deep love for the land known these days as Israel. It's the same sort of love that every Muslim has for Mecca and Medina. Even though some of us have never been to Mecca and Medina, we dream of going there one day, of making Hajj. We make intention to go there, and wait for Allaah t'ala to extend an invitation to us. Mecca and Medina are deep in the DNA of every Muslim. There is no doubt in my mind that just about every pious Muslim in the world, if they had to, would fight to the death to defend Mecca and Medina.

It is the same feeling for Jews with Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Jerusalem is in the DNA of every Jew, whether they are a Zionist or not. In Jewish prayer books, we consistenly read, "next year in Jerusalem." There is a longing to return. And return some have. Likewise, if they had to, every Zionist in the world would fight to the death to defend "Israel." It's also important to be reminded that Judaism and Zionism aren't exactly the same thing.

But there is a problem. Since the beginning, since the state of Israel was created by the Zionists, they have declared that it is a Jewish state. For the Jewish people.

Because of my Palestinian activism, some people think that I hate Jews and that I hate "Israel." Nothing can be further from the truth.

It is BECAUSE I love Jews and the Holy Land, and BECAUSE I love the Palestinians that I involve myself in a jihad for truth.

I am against violence. My jihad is a jihad of speaking out. It is one of trying to get to truth.

Since meeting a wonderful group of Jews in a group called "Jihadi Jews," I learned that there are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes - on both sides.

Some people think that there is nothing worse than a person who "used to be," an "ex" or a "former." An ex-smoker, a former drug addict, whatever ... And in my case, a former Zionist.

I think it is exactly because I used to follow the Jewish faith and was a Zionist that my perspective is unique. My whole heart is rooted in that land. Jewish, Muslim, Palestine, Israel, Palestians, Israeli ... I am so in.

And I also acknowledge the rights of the Christians to that land.

I believe that the Holy Land belongs to all of the people of the world. I believe that whoever wants to live there should be able to do so in peace.

I would love to see the Holy Land governed as an international zone.

I'm so sad for all of the violence. So many Israeli and Palestinian children are dying.

I want it to stop.

For my people.

Let the Games Begin!

2011-04-03T22:03:00.000-04:00

My neighbor wanted to get the mulch early this year. In my area, we don't actually plant until Mother's Day. I was thinking I had a lot of time yet, but with all this work, May will be just around the corner!

With God on Our Side ... Thinking of the Occupation of Palestine and Other Global Conflict

2011-04-03T11:14:00.001-04:00

Oh my name it is nothin'

My age it means less

The country I come from

Is called the Midwest

I's taught and brought up there

The laws to abide

And the land that I live in

Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it

They tell it so well

The cavalries charged

The Indians fell

The cavalries charged

The Indians died

Oh the country was young

With God on its side.

The Spanish-American

War had its day

And the Civil War too

Was soon laid away

And the names of the heroes

I's made to memorize

With guns on their hands

And God on their side.

The First World War, boys

It came and it went

The reason for fighting

I never did get

But I learned to accept it

Accept it with pride

For you don't count the dead

When God's on your side.

When the Second World War

Came to an end

We forgave the Germans

And then we were friends

Though they murdered six million

In the ovens they fried

The Germans now too

Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians

All through my whole life

If another war comes

It's them we must fight

To hate them and fear them

To run and to hide

And accept it all bravely

With God on my side.

But now we got weapons

Of the chemical dust

If fire them we're forced to

Then fire them we must

One push of the button

And a shot the world wide

And you never ask questions

When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour

I've been thinkin' about this

That Jesus Christ

Was betrayed by a kiss

But I can't think for you

You'll have to decide

Whether Judas Iscariot

Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'

I'm weary as Hell

The confusion I'm feelin'

Ain't no tongue can tell

The words fill my head

And fall to the floor

If God's on our side

He'll stop the next war.

YOU CAN HEAR THE SONG HERE

2011 Palestine Film Festivals - AAPER

2011-04-01T18:42:00.001-04:00

2011 PALESTINE FILM FESTIVALS
The Palestine Film Festival is an event to showcase films which help educate Americans across the United States about the situation in Palestine and the need for an equitable U.S. policy toward Palestine that advances freedom and equality for the Palestinian people.
Read more about it and see the film schedules here:
2011 Palestine Film Festivals - AAPER

Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah)'s photostream

2011-03-31T14:02:00.001-04:00

Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah)'s photostream on Flickr.

Here's a link to my Flickr photo stream. I keep losing the badge on my sidebar, so I'm trying this route :)

When I was a Zionist, and the Murders of Palestinian and Israeli Children ...

2011-03-17T18:06:00.000-04:00

"Star of David"
Digital Art - Copyright 2011

S. E. Jihad Levine

POEM: TO ISRAEL
by Sharon Elayne Levine

5/31/74
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved

Israel, oh my blessed Israel!
When will You find
Everlasting peace?

Your borders are torn
With war and
Bleeding discontent,

Your children are falling
Day by day
For Your life.

May G-d let You
Find Peace soon,
For the sake of Your children,

And for all of the world!

I remember writing this poem in 1974, sitting at my grandmother's kitchen table looking out the window onto her sunny garden she had just planted. I was a Zionist then, and I remember feeling very anxious and sad. It's not the greatest poem in the world, but as was and is my habit, I write poetry when I am upset. It's practically the only time I do write poetry.

What was happening in that part of the world in 1974 that had upset me?

Well, on May 31, 1974, Israel and Syria signed an agreement on disengagement following the Yom Kippur War in October of 1973.  Weeks before that on May 15th, the Ma'alot massacre occurred.  Palestinians crossed the Israeli border from Lebanon and attacked a van killing two Israeli Arab women. Then they entered an apartment building in the town of Ma'alot and killed a couple and their four year old son. Then a local school was taken over and 105 students and 10 teachers were taken hostage. The Palestinians demanded the release of 23 Palestinians from Israeli prisons under the threat of killing the hostages. When the elite Israeli Golani Brigade unit stormed the building on the second day of the standoff, the hostage-takers detonated their grenades and shot the children. 105 children. 25 hostages were killed, including 22 children, and 68 more were wounded.

The month before, on April 11th, the Kiryat Shmona massacre occurred. Palestinians crossed the Israeli border from Lebanon, entered an apartment building in the town of Kiryat Shmona and killed all 18 residents there, half of whom were children. (Above history from Wikipedia)

The relentless attacks on Israeli citizens and the slaughter of so many children was a shocking horror to Jewish people, especially Jewish people in America. Jewish people like me.

I was a young Jewish woman in my mid-20s in 1974. Like many Jews, I had no clue who the Palestinian people were and what they wanted from us. No one taught us about them in the synagogues and temples of America, and many of us didn't accept responsibility for learning the whole history of how "our country," Israel, came to be born. We were just glad that we had a home for our people. World War II and the Holocaust were still vivid in the minds of many Jews in 1974. G-d had returned us to our land. That's all most of us knew. That's all most of us cared about.

One of my favorite books in 1974 was Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, the story of a young girl who gave her life to help Jews leave Europe and settle in Israel. Of course, I read all the stories of Zionist heroes: Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, David Alazar ... And oh, how jealous I was of the Israelis referred to as sabras, those born on our country's soil.  And the women! I wanted to fly planes like Hannah Senesh. I wanted to grow up and be the president of a country like Golda Meir. I wanted to be a soldier like my sisters in the Israeli military. I wanted to live on a kibbutz. I was trying to learn Hebrew.

I was a Zionist!

And since 1998, I am a Muslim.

With a heart divided between two peoples, it saddened me deeply to hear of the murder of five members of the Fogel family last Friday evening who were butchered in their sleep in the Jewish settlement of Itamar on the West Bank. Although many are blaming the murders on Palestinians, the truth is that the Israelis are still investigating and no one knows who did this yet.

I know: these settlements are illegal.

I know: many many Palestinian children have been murdered by the Israelis.

True. But that's not why I'm writing about it today.

I'm writing to demand that the violence stop. Is anyone listening?!

How many Israeli and Palestinian children have to die before both sides will sit together like the adults they are and come up with a peace plan? How much blood has to be shed before the international community will give more than lip service to trying to help? How many children will die before the UN enforces its resolutions?

Let's face it: Israel probably isn't going anywhere. But I would like to see a peace plan and enforcement of the UN resolutions that call for Israel to return the borders to the 1967 lines. I would like to see Israeli honor the agreements they signed. The ones Anwar Sadat died for. The ones Yitzhak Rabin died for.

But that's going to take a lot of work.  And both sides have to do it. What's the alternative? Ongoing violence and oppression?

My poem, written in 1974, and the question it asks is still relevant today in 2011.  If I would have known better in 1974, I would have directed the question to both the Palestinians AND the Israelis. I would have asked for peace for all the children.

Sadly, there is still no answer. Yet ...

Can YOU Defend Islaam?

2011-03-09T13:46:00.000-05:00

"Qur'an Kareem"

By now, the majority of the Muslims in the United States, and even abroad, are aware of Rep. Peter King's (NY/R) plan to hold Homeland Security hearings to investigate the American Muslim community. These hearings begin tomorrow.

Although King claims that he is only seeking to investigate the problem of radicalization in the Muslim community in America, many people accuse him of putting Muslims and Islaam itself on trial.

And Florida pastor, Terry Jones, is at it again. You may remember him and his followers as the good Christians who had plans to make a bonfire and burn Qur'ans. This time, it's even crazier.  On March 20, he is planning to put the Qur'an on trial.  He says the public will be judge, jury, and executioner. If the Qur'an loses its case, it will receive the death penalty. Perhaps he will burn the Qur'an or even subject it to a firing squad. He's not sure yet. He even has a Face Book page for his project. Will somebody please donate another car to give to this guy so he will relax for awhile?!

Seriously though, how about you? Could you defend the Qur'an? What if Pastor Jones or some other non Muslim asked you to explain the following:

"Fight those who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." (9:29)

Keep in mind that the above is quoted from the Yusuf Ali translation, the small paperback gold colored Tahrike version that is most commonly distributed to non Muslims for dawah. There are no footnotes or explanations in this Qur'an translation. What is the non Muslim supposed to take away from this ayah?

How about the Noble Qur'an translation, by al-Hilali and Khan. How does this translation treat this same ayah:

"Fight against those who believe not in Allaah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger (saw), and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (Islam) among the people of the Scriptures (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." (9:29)

Is this better? Does it clear up the confusion? Before you say that the ayah is taken out of context and does not mean anything intolerant or violent, read the footnotes in this translation. Yea! Footnotes! Surely, they will clear it up!

The footnote for this ayah directs the reader to the footnote for 2:193. Let's see what that says:

"al-Jihad (holy fighting) in Allah's Cause (with full force of numbers and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands). By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior, and His religion (Islam) is propagated. By abandoning Jihad Islam is destroyed and the Muslims fall into an inferior position, their honour is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim, and he who tries to escape from this duty, or does not in his innermost heart wish to fulfil this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite."

Wow! Since when is Jihad a pillar of Islaam?

And the footnote claims that every Muslim must be willing to engage in this type of jihad or at least wish to in his heart.

"Hog wash!" you cry? Well, you will then be accused of takiyyah which loosely translates into halal lying to non Muslims.

"No way!" you say. "Takiyyah is a Sh'ia practice."  To the Islamophobes, there is no difference between a Sunni, Sh'ia, Sufi, or Salafi ... see the problem?

"It's a problem with translating the Qur'an into English," you say. "Bull!" they respond.  They have Arabs like Brigitte Gabriel telling them that the Arabic version is even worse, not softened up for Western audiences like the Yusuf Ali translation.  "She should know," they cry. "She was born and raised in the Arab world and can read the Qur'an in Arabic." Despite her claim that she is only against Islaamic radicals, her public statements about Islaam and Muslims suggest otherwise.

How about Sharia law? Are you willing, as a Muslim, to assert that you do not believe in or support Sharia law?

There's a lot of work to be done. And every Muslim has to do it. Sorry, but it's true.

For the most part, America had no problem with Islaam until 9/11 happened. Before 9/11, many people didn't pay much attention to Muslims, and the majority of Americans probably couldn't have told you the first thing about the religion of Islaam even if it were the million dollar question on a game show. If you really pushed them, maybe they could come up with Nation of Islam, Muhammad Ali, or Malcolm X.

Oh boy, is it a different story now! The average Islamophobe has read the Qur'an from front to back VERY carefully. Many non Muslims and Islamophobes (I'm not saying they are the same - not saying that non Muslims are Islamophobes) are intelligent and know how to use research tools. Not knowing any better, many of them sit at the feet of Sheikh Google or apostates from Islaam who "know".  It's not unusual to hear that many of them own numerous copies of the various translations of the Qur'an which are available. Many of them can quote surah and ayah where they take issue with our religion, and use the Qur'an to support their view that Islaam is religion of hate, intolerance, and violence.

Allaah t'ala tells us that the Qur'an is His book for ALL of mankind.  He tells us that it is the last revelation. There will be no more books. The Qur'an was revealed in the Arabic language. Muslims believe it is the word of God Himself. How does non-Arabic speaking mankind get the message of the Qur'an?

Through you. Through me. Through every Muslim. It's called dawah and it is the responsbility of every Muslim. If we don't do it, Bin Laden and his like, and other extremists will.

We cannot stick our heads in the sand anymore. We cannot defend Muslims who speak lies against Islaam. We cannot defend terrorists or extremists. We cannot be silent when atrocities are committed in the name of Islaam. We cannot support conspiracy theories as excuses for haraam actions. We cannot blame others, especially the Jews, for all of the problems in the Islaamic world.

The refrain "Islaam is a religion of peace" does not work anymore. Islamophobes are now claiming that Islaam is a relgion of piece - piece by piece.

There is an old saying, "The squeakly wheel gets the grease." In the case of Islaam of Muslims, it is the extremists and ignorant Muslims who get the grease. The grease is the media.

There is a famous quote from Anne Frank's diary:

"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."

Most Americans are basically decent people who are good at heart. But they are afraid. I can't blame them.  They are uninformed. Some Americans do make an honest effort to explore Islaam and learn. Many of them become Muslims as a result, Alhamdulillah! But other Muslims listen to the nut jobs and believe them.

There is no central authority in Islaam at this time. There is no caliphate or vatican where people can get "official" answers.

American Muslims cannot squander the opportunity. It is an opportunity. And Allaah forbid that something else happens here! Islaam is definitely at a crossroads in America.

But we can't defend Islaam if we ourselves do not know our deen.  We must study Qur'an, especially the verses that trouble the non Muslims, and know the tafsir (explanation) of them. We must ask questions of knowledgeable scholars and teachers.

Allaah t'ala has promised to protect the Qur'an. We don't have to worry about the Qur'an.  But many Muslims all over the world are being tested, and are suffering under the yoke of governments and societies.

I believe in the goodness of America. My family came to America from Eastern Europe for the promises of this country. I believe they can be fulfilled for Muslims here, too. Allaah t'ala blessed us to be here.

Poor Birds!

2011-03-07T09:50:00.000-05:00

(Image - Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved)
We had a March dump of snow here in the north east United States last night.

Poor birds in my neighborhood woke up this morning to the site of their feeder covered in snow!

February and March are the most difficult months for wild birds. The earth is in a hard freeze, making it difficult for them to resort to their normal sources of food. They really appreciate backyard feeders.

So, it's important for us who have bird feeders to keep them filled with food and cleared of snow. It's a sadaqa to Allaah's creatures.

Do they not see the birds held (flying) in the midst of the sky? None holds them but Allaah (none gave them the ability to fly but Allaah). Verily, in this are clear Ayat (proofs and signs) for a people who believe (in the Oneness of Allaah) 16:79

Kippah כִּיפָּה Table at the Synagogue

2011-03-06T18:47:00.003-05:00

Kippah כִּיפָּה Table at the Synagogue, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

The kippah is sometimes referred to as the yarmulke. Jews cover their head during prayer, but some Jews always wear something on their head because the Talmud states, "Cover your head in order that the fear of heaven may be upon you."

Tzedakah Box

2011-02-24T16:33:00.000-05:00

"Tzedakah Box"
S. E. Jihad Levine
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved

Looks like this tzedakah box in the synagogue was decorated by the children.

We have a sadaqa box in our masjid that was also decorated by the children. Last year, we donated half the money to the children's wing at our local hospital, and the other half to programs for children at our community's homeless shelter.

These boxes are in masjids and synagogues so the people can give voluntary charity.

The Jews call them "tzedakah" boxes and the Muslims called them "sadaqa" boxes.

Most Jewish children have tzedakah boxes in their rooms at home. When it is full, the parents help them to choose a good cause to donate to.

2011-02-23T10:33:00.004-05:00

Hebrew Class, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).
Copyright 2011 S. E. Jihad Levine, All Rights Reserved

Was at the synagogue yesterday and took some great shots, Masha Allaah. Here's the first of them.

"Never Again" ???

2011-02-22T09:07:00.001-05:00

Dr. Hajo Meyer, Auschwitz survivor, shares his thoughts about the current moral dilemma the Israeli government, and by extension, the Jewish people, find themselves in ...

"Sometimes Solidarity Came in Silence"

2011-02-20T17:45:00.001-05:00

I'm reading this terrific novel, Sweet Dates in Basra, by Jessica Jiji.

The book starts off in early 1941 Basra, Iraq.

It's written mainly from the point of view of three Iraqi children - Omar (Muslim), Shafiq (Jewish), and Kathmiya (Shia, Marsh Arab).

Omar and Shafiq live along side each other in a house separated only by a wall. The two families are actually like one despite the differences in religion.

I"m not finished with the book yet to give a proper review, but I am so touched by two of the female characters, Salwa and Reema, that I wanted to share a little about them with you.

Salwa is Omar's mother, and Reema is Shafiq's mother.

They both gave birth around the same time, so when Reema fell ill, her daughter, Leah, took little Shafiq to Salwa, and she nursed little Shafiq until Reema was well enough to care for him. "It was one of those when-you-were-a-little-boy stories," Shafiq tells the reader, that he "never tired of hearing ... how he and Omar were christened brothers."

"You were such a part of me then," his mother explained years later. "Like a little piece that broke off from my body. All I cared about when I woke up was you. I was calling out your name even though you were barely half a year old and could never have answered. My throat was so sore. I don't know if anyone could even hear me. But then Leah came over, she put another wet towel on my head and she said, "We brought him to Salwa."

Omar's mother, the neighbor.

"After I heard Salwa had you," his mother continued, "I could sleep. I didn't wake up for five days. The jinn was trying to kill me, trying to get both of us, but it couldn't."

His mother's milk had run dry, but Salwa, who was nursing her own little Omar, saved Shafiq's life.

When Leah first brought her Shafiq, Salwa famously told Omar, "Make some room for your brother."

Salwa never expected Shafiq's mother, without ever having heard those words, to mimic them when she picked him up after the fever broke. But as soon as Reema scooped up her flowing, sated baby, she said, "Shafiq, you have to leave a little milk for your brother."

So it was that they were and ever would be related.
Subhan'Allah! In these present days of Islamophobia, anti-semitism, Palestine, Israel, Zionism, and all that - how many Muslim women can make claim to have a CLOSE Jewish woman friend? How many Jewish women can say they have a CLOSE Muslim woman friend?

How many Muslim or Jewish women can boast of having such solidarity as Reema and Salwa had? How many Muslim women would so willingly and so selflessly give her breast to a Jewish child?

When Salwa's husband, Hajji Abdullah Abd El Hamid, passed away, it was Reema who was there for her.

For three days following the funeral, the living room in the Abd El Hamid home was transformed into a reception area where visitors streamed in to pay respects. Shafiq and his family joined in bowing their heads and hearing the prayers of the mullah. Roobain (Shafiq's father), who had been to the funerals of other Muslim friends and associates, had explained it all: the special sura they recited from the Koran, the way to bow your head, the chance to reach for the hands of the family. 'But they may not respond and you shouldn't expect them to,' he'd said. 'Sometimes solidarity is louder in silence.'

Reema proved that. Her head covered with a veil, she got up and went to the kitchen, where she stayed for sixteen hours. And returned the next day for longer. And the next. No salt or blue china (for luck and to ward off evil spirits). Just making coffee and cooking meat and chopping vegetables and baking bread and cleaning, cleaning and scrubbing and washing the house so that Salwa, all she had to do was cry.

Sometimes solidarity came in silence. And sometimes in shaking rice in a pan to get all the little pebbles out. Shake, shake, a sound like a rattle, the pebbles separate and the rice is clean.

Shafiq thought of Salwa saving his life when his mother's milk ran dry. She was a widow now, but like Reema, he would never desert her.
I was so touched by that. I think it's because of what I perceive as the sad and lost relationship between many Muslim and Jewish women today.

How many Jewish women would abandon their own households and families for days to care for their Muslim sister and her family in their time of desperate need?

Reema did. In silence. No one asked her to. She just knew what she had to do. For her sister.

Reema and Salwa related to each other as women and friends. It didn't matter that one was Jewish and the other was Muslim. Even though the novel is a work of fiction, it wasn't easy for Muslim and Jewish woman in 1940s Iraq. There was a constant fear that the Nazis would invade Iraq. There were regular attacks on innocent Jews from certain segments of Iraqi society. Jewish people were killed and hurt, their homes and businesses destroyed or looted. Iraqi Jews were voraciously nationalistic and were proud to be Iraqis. Sadly, as history played out, Iraq eventually did expell its Jewish population. Today, very few Jews remain in Iraq.

I wonder how the Salwas and Reemas of Iraq dealt with that. Like their solidarity sometimes came in silence, did it go in silence as well? I wonder what will happen to Salwa and Reema by the end of this novel.

I read an article not too long ago about a group of Muslim and Jewish women in California who developed a "Cousin's Club." They meet on a regular basis for sisterhood and solidarity. During their get togethers, they talk about everything and anything. They are very close and their relationships are very precious to them.

Our local rabbi is a woman. This week, Insha Allaah, we are starting a local Cousin's Club. So far, there's the rabbi, me, and one other Jewish woman. I pitched the idea to some of the Muslim women at my masjid, and I think some of them may come in time. But we need to start with just the few of us.

Well, back to reading ... I'll let you know if the novel's worth the read when I'm finished with it.

The Nakba of Arabic Jews...من [جو] [أربيك] النكبة

2011-02-15T09:59:00.000-05:00

As Salaamu Alaikum and Greetings of Peace:

I belong to a Face Book group for Jews and Muslims. As you can imagine, there is a lot of conversation about Gaza, the creation of the State of Israel, etc.

There is a lot of heated discussion about the perceived ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and their treatment under Israeli occupation, and justice.

One of the Jewish members posted the video below. I can't stop thinking about it.

As we Muslims express outrage about the treatment of Palestinians in Israel, do we really understand the entire history of the region and the entire scope of the problem?

Are we only looking at the problem through the lens of Muslims?

For true peace to occur in the region, shouldn't we insist upon justice for Jews expelled from Arab lands? Do these Jews have the "right of return" to Arab lands that we advocate for the Palestinians in the diaspora?

Where is the justice and restitution for BOTH Jews and Arabs in the Middle East?

What do you think?

For All You Who Enjoyed My Bathroom Post

2011-02-14T11:59:00.000-05:00

The American Revert's Bathroom!

2011-02-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

One of the things that most intrigued me when I came to Islaam is the issue of the bathroom.

I learned that there is a du'a for entering the bathroom:

"[بِسْمِ اللهِ] اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْخُبُْثِ وَالْخَبَائِثِ".

[Bismillaahi] Allaahumma 'innee 'a'oothu bika minal-khubthi walkhabaa'ith.
(Before entering) [In the Name of Allah] . (Then) O Allah , I seek protection in You from the male and female unclean spirits.

Reference: Al-Bukhari 1/45, Muslim 1/283. The addition of Bismillah at its beginning was reported by Said bin Mansur. See Fathul-Bari 1/244

And a du'a for exiting the bathroom:

"غُفْرَانَكَ".

Ghufraanaka
I seek Your forgiveness.

Reference: Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah and At-Tirmithi. An-Nasa'i recorded it in 'Amalul-Yawm wal-Laylah. Also see the checking of Ibn Al-Qayyim's Zadul-Ma'ad, 2/387.

(Above from "Fortress of the Muslim," Darussalam Publications, on IslamicAwareness.net)

There are also rules (etiquettes) for the bathroom. For example, a Muslim is not supposed to mention the name of Allaah t'ala in the bathroom. And a Muslim is not supposed to greet another Muslims with "As Salaamu Alaikum" in the bathroom. A Muslim is not supposed to use the right hand for cleaning the private parts after using the bathroom (and while you're at it, clean three times). And a Muslim is supposed to enter the bathroom with the left foot, and exit the bathroom with the right foot.

The etiquette of the bathroom can be overwhelming to the new Muslim!

In simple Islaamic terms, the bathroom is considered a dirty place. So much so, that a lot of Muslims run in and out of the bathrooms like someone is chasing them!

It always appalled me to see the condition of some of the bathrooms in our masjids, and in the bathrooms of some of our Muslim businesses: water all over the place, dirty toilets, paper towels (if they have them at all) on the floor, no hand soap, etc.

And many Muslim homes are no better. One thing I've noticed is that the bathrooms of most Muslim homes are very simple and inornate.

Sometimes this is a dilemna for the American Muslim because we Americans love our bathrooms!

The average American bathroom is not only a place for relieving yourself and showering; they can serve other purposes.

We Americans like to read in our bathrooms. Many of us keep books in our bathrooms:

My personal favorite :)

Some Americans like to have plants and pretty things in the bathroom:

Some Americans love fancy handsoaps & handcremes and flowers in their bathrooms:

Last but not least, a lot of us Americans love to take long bubble bath soaks, sometimes with candlelight:

How does a person dash in and out of the American bathroom, lol. What do you think?

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Thoughts on Healing

2011-02-03T19:14:00.001-05:00

Istanbul, 2010
WARNING! TRIGGER ALERT!

I was reading an article in the December 2010 issue of SISTERS magazine written by Sister Sadaf Farooqi entitled, Swept Under the Carpet. Sister Sadaf, a homeschooling mom of two "based" in Pakistan, was inspired to write on the topic of sexual abuse of children after hearing about the experiences of some of her close friends.

Like the topic of domestic violence, the topic of sexual abuse of children is difficult for a lot of Muslims to talk about. After all, we are members of a religion that highly values and respects women and children. Realistically though ... that's not always the case.

Statistics on sexual abuse among Muslim children are difficult to come by. Shame, privacy, and secrecy are just a few factors that contribute to the silence. In some Islaamic cultures, a young Muslim woman's future and marriage prospects are ruined as a result of childhood sexual abuse even though she is a victim and the abuse was not her fault. After all, Muslims value virginity.

I congratulate Sister Sadaf for writing this important article, but a few things about it made my blood boil.

If you are a reader of this site, you know that I often disclose that I was sexually abused as a little girl. I haven't written about it in specific detail, but I have shared the fact that I was abused with you.

I was sexually abused by five different male family members from around age 3 or so until about age 16 or so. And then there were those family members who were complicit in the abuse because it was right under their noses and they didn't want to know.

The damage done resulted in a very difficult life for me. I learned real early not to trust adults. I got the message loud and clear that adults would not help or protect me. I also learned not to trust men. I was well into my 40s before I knew how to have a healthy relationship with a man. Sexual intimacy for me involving taking risks that were terrifying. Alhamdulillah, I achieved healing from the help of Allaah t'ala and a wonderful therapist that He put in my life.

In my work as a substance abuse counselor and also in my chaplaincy work, I have counseled many women who have been sexually abused as children. (Not purposely leaving out little boys here - because they are abused, too, but for purposes of this writing, I am focusing on girls) As a result, I know a little bit about how to help women through the healing process. That's why I felt anger when I read the last part of Sister Sadaf's article.

At the end of her wonderful article about how to empower moms to protect their children, she gives "tips" for adults abused as children to try as a "remedy" when they find their past coming back to haunt them:

1. Talk to a trusted confidante who will keep it secret, perhaps a parent or spouse.

2. Strive to think about worse things that have happened to other people in this world, as this will develop gratitude for Allah in the heart, instead of rebellion and displeasure with His decree.

3. Make tremendous du'a to Allah to enable you to forget the incident and also consciously try to forgive the perpetrator. The power of positive thinking is amazing!

4. If you can afford to, consult a counselor or therapist.

Okay **taking a deep breath**

First of all, before you leave me a bunch of livid comments, I know that each woman's healing process is different; some women may find Sister Sadaf's "remedies" helpful. But as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse myself, they provoked an extreme reaction in me. And I found them over simplistic.

1. The title of the sister's article suggests that sexual abuse is often the HUGE secret that ruins lives. So, why would I want to maintain the secrecy and protect the perpetrator after I've finally gotten up the courage to tell someone or once I'm ready to tell someone? Perhaps I am in the beginning of my healing, and sharing with someone is a start in the process, an exercise in trust, thereby the need to ask the person I tell to keep it a secret. And we all know that secrets like this can be spread like wildfire in the masjid much to our horror. But what if the perpetrator is still around? Worse yet, what if he is a family member? What if he has small children himself? Is secrecy wise in this case? At any rate, do I have to continue to live with the big secret?

2. Thinking about "worse" things that have happened to other people in the world does not increase my gratitude to Allaah t'ala in this case. There is nothing more painful for an abused person to endure than to have someone else "minimize" what happened to them by suggesting that they think of other people who have/had it worse. Your experience is valid. It was "worse" enough for you!  Acknowledging what happened to you and feeling your emotions does not mean that you need more gratitude in your heart. Thinking about your abuse does not mean that you are ungrateful to Allaah t'ala. After all, most abused people have had a lot of experience  thinking of others first before they think of themselves. That is one way in which a lot of us confuse boundaries.

Giving yourself permission to think about what has happened to you, and focusing on your healing is not rebellious and does not indicate "displeasure" with the decree of Allaah t'ala. If your past is "coming back to haunt" you, you may be experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). For that reason, the article should have suggested consulting a professional as the first "remedy." In a lot of western countries, especially in the United States, there are sometimes programs that a woman can take advantage of that utilize sliding fee scales. Do not let lack of financial resources keep you back from seeking help. There are also online help forums, and free help lines in the community that you can explore. You can also start an anonymous blog and you'll be amazed at the help you'll get from your Muslim sisters.  Online anonymity is a gift. Ask for help. Pray for help. But, get help!

3. Sister Sadaf suggests that you "make tremendous du'a to Allaah to enable you to forget the incident ... sorry sis. It doesn't work this way.  Having your innocence stolen is not something you will ever forget. Having your breasts squeezed and sucked, or if you have no breasts having your nipples rubbed and licked, your private parts probed, your mouth filled with someone's private parts, or your vagina brutally ripped open are experiences you do not forget. Having your uncle watch you undress or having your brother grind on you cannot be forgotten. Giving birth to your father's baby or aborting your teacher's baby ... well, you get the picture. You can forget your keys, or you can forget an appointment, but it is impossible to forget being sexually molested or raped when you were a child.

4. She also suggests that you, "consciously try to forgive the perpetrator" with the "power of positive thinking."

In the Qur'an, Allaah t'ala tells us,

"Let them pardon and forgive. Do you not love that Allaah should forgive you?" (24:22)

"And verily, whosoever shows patience and forgives, that would truly be from the things recommended by Allaah." (42:43)

On the surface, you may be thinking that this suggests that you should just "forgive and forget" as the saying goes and as the author of the article appears to be recommending.

But Islaam is also a religion of justice and this deen does not require you to be a doormat for criminals. Also, your perpetrator has obligation to make tauba, and part of repentance is making restitution to a victim. So, you are owed.

This is where the patience Allaah t'ala speaks of comes into play.

For you see, there are two kinds of forgiveness in the clinical sense.

a. You did something to me. I forgive you. It's okay. Let's just forget about it.

b. You did something to me. It's not okay. It's never going to be okay. I'm never going to forget about it. But, I'm going to move on. I'm not letting what you did have any more power over me. I'm not going to let you continue to abuse me by constantly letting the memory of what you did to me haunt me. I'm going to heal.

The second item (b) is also forgiveness. It's a type of commutation. Kind of like a pardon. The crime doesn't go away, but the sentence ends.  Part of tauba is for the perpetrator to ask Allaah t'ala for forgiveness. But when a crime is committed against someone's human rights, the perpetrator must also seek the pardon of the one who he has wronged. If he does not or cannot get the forgiveness of his victim, Allaah t'ala decides between the two of them on the Judgment Day.

Don't get me wrong: Allaah t'ala is the Disposer of all affairs. That is part of Tawheed ar-Rooboobiyah.

If you have been abused, I am suggesting that perhaps once you move through the process of healing you may find yourself in a beautiful spiritual place! Some women don't totally heal, but some do!

When I started the work of sexual abuse therapy, my counselor told me something that gave me hope and courage to do the work I needed to do.

She told me that the grief, pain, anger, depression, and madness I was feeling then would get better. She said that I would never forget. But she promised that one day I would get to a place where my childhood had no power over me. She said it was like walking through fire. That it would get worse before it would get better. She promised me that God would see me through it if I asked Him to help me. She told me that I'd have to re-live the experience in order to feel all the emotions that I had been stuffing since childhood. She suggested that this was the language of letting go.

I held on to her promise.

And it worked for me! My childhood no longer haunts me. I can talk about what happened to me without emotionally collapsing. I can share without crying, but the absence of tears does not mean that I am emotionally numb like I once was.  I no longer engage in self-destructive behavior to punish myself.  I can write about it like I'm doing now. I can try to help other women.

Most of all, I have the gratitude for Allaah in my heart the the article's author spoke of.

"A woman's psyche may have found its way to the desert out of resonance, or because of past cruelties, or because she was not allowed a larger life above ground. So often a woman feels then that she lives in an empty place where there is maybe just one cactus with one brilliant red flower on it, and then in every direction, 500 miles of nothing. But for the woman who will go 501 miles, there is something more. A small brave house. An old one. She has been waiting for you. (Clarissa Pinkola Estes)

Shalom to Salam

2011-02-01T10:49:00.001-05:00

(I wrote this story years ago for Islam Online. The site has since folded as a result of the controversy when it was taken over in Egypt. I thought I had posted this to my own blog, but couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe it is here, but I didn't see it. Anyhow, I searched the internet and for once was happy about copyright violation! I tweaked the piece a bit, and Alhamdulillah, I am bringing my Shahadah story home to my own site.)
Shalom to Salam
By S. E. Jihad Levine
(originally at:  http://www.islamonl/ ine.net/servlet/ Satellite? c=Article_ C&cid=%20115607769319 2&pagename=Zone- English-Discover _Islam/DIELayout)

My husband and I had gone to the masjid for a speaker's program. It was the first time that he had invited me to the masjid since our marriage a year or so earlier. We had met and married while we were both working as substance abuser counselors in a rehabilitation center.

We couldn't have been more different in the beginning, as we are from entirely different backgrounds: he is Black and I am White, he is Muslim and I was Jewish. Although he hadn't asked me to become a Muslim prior to our marriage, he did give me silent da`wah by his excellent example.

He had an extensive Islamic library, and because I was an avid reader, I naturally read a lot of his books. I also observed his modest behavior, watched as he made salah five times a day, went to Jumu`ah Prayer on Fridays, and fasted during the month of Ramadan. So it was natural that I would develop an interest in his religion.

When we arrived at the masjid, he pointed out the entrance to the women's section - downstairs in the basement. We agreed to meet in the parking lot after the program was over. "OK, I can do this," I thought to myself as I entered the dark dank hallway and walked down the steep steps.

Since I never had trouble making friends and always enjoyed multicultural situations, I looked forward to the evening.

My husband had suggested that I wear something modest for the occasion. I ran my hands down over my long-sleeved dress, straightening and smoothing it out. I felt confident that the women at the masjid would approve of my appearance.

However, when I arrived at the bottom of the stairs and walked through the door marked "Sisters," I could immediately feel it in the air: thick tension, suspicion, estrangement, and confusion. Every veiled head turned in my direction and the Muslim women stared at me as if I had two heads. I stood frozen in place in the entrance way, staring back at them.

I had never seen so many Muslim women together in one place. Most of them wore the traditional hijab, but two women peered out at me through head coverings that revealed only their eyes. A few others sat with their scarves draped over their shoulders. When they saw me, they pulled them up over their heads. I was perceived as a stranger.

But then one of them got up from where she was sitting, approached me, and introduced herself as Sister Basimah.  At least this one had a welcoming look on her face.

Hi," I said. "My name is Sharon. I'm here for the speaker's program?"

"Is anyone with you?" she asked.

"My husband is upstairs," I replied.

"Oh! Your husband is Muslim?" she asked.

"Yes. Yes, he is," I said.

"Al-hamdu lillah," she said. "Come over here and sit with us."

She led me to a table where three other women were seated. They were the most beautiful exotic women I had ever seen. Right after she made introductions, I forgot each one of their names, which were equally exotic. Sister Basimah then got up and went to greet more people who had arrived.

"Where are you from?" one of the women asked me. I replied that I was an American of Eastern European heritage, born in New York City.

"Where's your husband from?" was the next question.

"He's from America."

"But where is he from?"

"Philadelphia, " I replied.

"No, I mean, what country is he from?"

"He's American, born in the United States, he's African-American, from Philadelphia, " I replied, thinking that there was a language barrier. I would later learn that most of the Caucasian women in this masjid were married to Arab men.

"Hmmm," they all said in unison and they cast their lovely gazes downward.

"Are you thinking of becoming a Muslim?" another one asked, looking up at me with a beaming expression of hope on her face.

"No," I replied, "I'm Jewish." Well, I wish you could have seen the look on their faces. As soon as it was politely possible, the topic was switched.

"Are your children Muslims?" one of them asked, returning to the interrogation.

"No." I replied, "I don't have any children." That was it; their attempts to find a common ground with me had failed. They smiled at me and then something incredible happened for which I was not prepared: The conversation turned to Arabic. Just like that - I was locked out.

I continued to sit with them at the table. They mostly spoke to each other in Arabic, and I mostly smiled. As more women would join the table, they would introduce me in English, "This is Sharon. She's Jewish." Then they resumed speaking in Arabic.

Then the program began, the women gathered in the prayer room and everyone sat down on the plush carpeted floor. But after about five minutes, the women started chatting to one another, all but drowning out the sound of the program that was being delivered over a stereo speaker from upstairs.

After the program was over, the women went into the kitchen to prepare food. Sister Basimah came over and told me to sit and make myself comfortable until it was time to eat.

"But let me help you," I offered.

"No! You are our guest. Some American sisters have arrived. I'll introduce you," she replied.

Sister Basimah motioned to one of the women on the other side of the room. She came over and the two women kissed each other on the cheeks and greeted each other with a cheerful Arabic expression. Then they turned their look on me.

"This is Sharon. She's Jewish. Will you keep her company until we eat?" Sister Basimah said to the other woman.

"Oh, yes!" she replied. "Hi, Sharon, I'm Sister Arwa!"

Sister Arwa and I sat down and began to get acquainted. I asked her questions such as how long she had been a Muslim, whether she was married to a Muslim, etc. Then she dropped the bomb.

"Why did you kill Jesus?" she blurted out.

"What?" I replied. My face must have betrayed my shock and disbelief.

"I mean" she inquired again, this time softening her question, "why did the Jews kill Jesus?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I was astonished and rankled by the question. I could tell by the innocent look on her face that she really wanted to know. Maybe she never met a Jewish woman before, and this was her first real opportunity to get an answer to her burning question.

When I was first introduced to her, I welcomed her company; after all, she was the first American I had seen that evening. Now I wanted to get up and run from the table. Then the anger set in.

Giving her a baleful look, I replied through clenched teeth, "We did not kill Jesus. The Romans did!" She returned the look of a wounded animal. Her lips opened to say something, but before she could reply someone called to her.

"Excuse me," she said, "I'll be back." I could hear the relief in her voice as it trailed off while she quickly escaped from our table.

A group of African-American sisters arrived at the masjid and I spent the remainder of the evening in their company. Before I left to meet my husband, Sister Basimah gave me her telephone number and encouraged me to call and arrange a time to visit with her.

I did call her, and we developed a beautiful relationship. Over the days and weeks that followed, she told me all about Islam and Allah. It was from her that I learned that Muslims believe that no one killed Jesus! I learned that Allah took him up unto Himself.

She sensed that even though I was Jewish, my heart was searching and yearning for spiritual peace. One evening while my husband and I were visiting her home, she came right out and invited me to Islam.

The turning point occurred when she explained that all my sins would be forgiven when I came to Islam. She said that I would be reborn, like a newborn baby, with no sins, with another chance. I broke down and cried.

I wanted another chance to get right with Allah. You see, I had a very checkered past. I always loved God, but I got lost in life. We asked her husband to help me say the Shahadah.

When I told my husband what I was about to do, he was shocked and happy at the same time. He asked me if I was really sure about my decision, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. I responded that I was never surer about anything in my entire life. There was no internal battle, no fears or doubts.

After I said the Shahadah, Sister Basimah's husband said, "Mabrook (congratulations) ! You're now a Muslim!" (a line I use to this day when I help sisters say Shahadah).

Before I left Sister Basimah's home that special evening, she gave me a gift of a booklet about modesty for Muslim women. She also gave me a prayer rug, a prayer dress, and a hijab. When we returned home, my husband gave me a gift of my very own Qur'an and a summarized Sahih al-Bukhari.

I have worn hijab since that day, al-hamdu lillah. I have never taken it off, even after the dreadful days following September 11, 2001.

When I became a Muslim in July of 1998, my father denounced me once and for all. He had been very upset with me anyhow for marrying a Muslim, and refused to recognize my husband as his son-in-law.

"But, Sharon, those people hate us!" he cried.

All efforts to explain the difference between the peaceful religion of Islam and the political struggle between the Palestinians and Israelis fell on deaf ears. Never mind that my father was the first one in his family to marry outside of Judaism. My mother had been a practicing Catholic when they married.

To add insult to injury in my father's eyes, my husband was also African-American. Prior to September 11, 2001, most Americans thought of Malcolm X whenever Islam was mentioned. Many other family members also made it known how disappointed and frustrated they were with my decision to marry a "Black Muslim."

My father died in August of 2001, one month before the events of September 11. At the request of my father's wife, my family did not tell me that he had died until after his funeral was over. Did they fear that I would show up in the synagogue dressed in Muslim garb accompanied by my black husband?

We are taught that the religion of Islam is for all people and for all time. It shouldn't matter whether a Muslim is Egyptian, Pakistani, American, Saudi, Indonesian, or Palestinian. It shouldn't matter whether he or she is black, white, red, or yellow. It shouldn't matter whether he or she speaks Arabic, English, Spanish, or Urdu. Our cultural diversity should not divide our Ummah. Allah tells us in the Qur'an that (Al-Hujurat 49:13).

-------

(Update, 2011)  Alhamdulillah, despite all the challenges of cultural differences and family, I am still a Muslim. I am blessed that my step-mom (Jewish) and brother (Bah'ai) accept me as a Muslim.

I remember visiting my step mom for the first time as a Muslim. Everywhere we went, she introduced me to her Jewish lady friends with, "This is my daughter, Sharon," or "You remember my daughter, Sharon, don't you?" Me with my Arabic style jilbab and hijab. Can you picture it! She told me she didn't care what religion I was, as long as I loved God and was happy.

I haven't really discussed it too much with my sister (Jewish).  I do remember her asking me if her children, at the time little children, would be frightened if they saw me in Islamic covering.

My mother (Christian) was deceased by the time I came to Islam. But, when I would go to Pittsburgh to visit her sister, my aunt (Christian), I am ashamed to say that I took my hijab off before entering her home. Although this is permissible Islamically because there are no men in her house, I did it for the wrong reasons. I just didn't want to explain much. I did have on modest clothing with the hijab down around my shoulders and she never asked. She probably thought it was a fashion accessory :)

2011-01-30T12:42:00.003-05:00

It is said that physical books are quickly becoming obsolete.

Many people still love the feel of curling up with a cup of coffee (or whatever!) and book in hand. They love the feel and even smell of a physical book. Cracking the cover for the first time of a book that arrives in your post is almost a spiritual experience for some people. Me included!

(An aside: I remember how no one in the house was able to open the newspaper and take anything from it until my father was done with it, or until HE distributed sections to family members. I always waited for the Comics section.)

Many book lovers adore visiting brick-and-mortar stores like Borders where they can sit in an atmosphere of book bliss with other book lovers. Kind of like the atmosphere in a library but only better because no one insists that you be quiet :)

Book lovers insist they will never buy Kindles or other e-readers.

But I wonder if the publishing industry will force people to re-consider their position by making physical books less and less available for purchase.

Some of you can remember what it was like when music formats changed. Vinyl record collections and the equipment to play them on became harder and harder to obtain to the point that many record lovers were forced to abandon them for tapes or CDs. Try to buy a new car with a tape player in it! Now, most people have digital music collections.

It is predicted that physical books will go the way of the vinyl record in the future. We will all have a digital book shelf.  I already have one with Kindle and iBooks. It's so cool to look at your digital book shelf, click on a book cover, and voila, there's your book! I like that digital books are searchable. This is especially cool for Qur'an and ahadith collections.  You can even highlight sentences (Gasp! What will happen to the highlighter pen market?) or bookmark sections (no more dog earred books) so you can go right to them when you need them. Makes reference and research a whole lot easier. So, e-books and e-readers do have some benefit. But I don't want to read literature or poetry in e-format.

Part of the pressure for society to move toward the e-book format comes from the publishing companies who are making it more prohibitive for authors to publish their work in physical book form and still make a profit. Everyone profits from an author's work except the author. Print-on-demand publishing can also be financially prohibitive.

As a writer, I know all this and don't have the patience or finances for it.  That's why I do the majority of my writing right here on my own website. I also ordered the book pictured in the beginning of this piece. I may try my hand at making books. I do collage occasionally and have a lot of cool papers and other materials.

For me, writing is not a commercial venture.  But for those writers who write books and want to make money, too, I can understand. Some writers don't mind having their book published in e-format, but many would rather have their book come out in one or more other formats so that there is choice for the consumer.

Choice is becoming obsolete for readers, too.

Let me give you an example.

I bought the e-book, The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moshe Katan for a class at the Spiritual Care Center of our local hospital. The author is Mitchell Chefitz. This work, is the first in a trilogy by Chefitz. In it, he uses fiction to teach kabbalistic themes. I initially purchased the book as an e-book because I am always a little wary of buying "textbooks" and then being stuck with them. Between my husband and me, we have zillions of books, Masha Allaah, so book shelf space in our house is at a premium.

But I loved The Seventh Telling and learned so much from it. I wanted the physical book, so I purchased a hardback. I was then eager for the second work in the trilogy.

I was able to purchase a hardback copy of the second work in the trilogy is The Thirty-Third Hour which uses fiction to teach Torah themes. Read it. Loved it!

Since The Thirty-Third Hour was published in 2002, I thought that surely the third and final book in the trilogy would be out. But alas, I searched and searched and couldn't find anything online about it.

So, I had the brilliant idea to search for the author on Facebook and Alhamdulillah I found him!

I sent him a private message, asking about the final book in the trilogy.

He responded and told me that the third book would be out soon, BUT it would only be available as an e-book.  Oh wow! Was I bummed!

How can I put an e-book on my library shelf along side of The Seventh Telling and The Thirty-Third Hour?!I can guarantee you that it will do something to my spirit to see the space on my shelf that this e-book will create.

I wrote Mr. Chefitz and told him this. He responded that if the e-book does well, physical publication may be a possibility in the future. (St. Martin's Press published the first two books in the trilogy, not sure why they won't/can't publish the third one unless it is Chefitz' decision.)

But *whaaaaa* I want the hardback copy! What upsets me is that I won't have a choice.

I don't like not having choices.

Big, Bad, Blonde Shiksa - Part 2

2011-01-25T14:37:00.000-05:00

Continued ...

So, I returned to Judaism. I started to take classes and establish relationships at the local reform temple. Oddly, my mother didn't try to stop me. I remember my Jewish grandfather calling my rabbi to explain the details of my situation so the rabbi could understand it all better. The rabbi later told me that my grandfather pleaded with him to take care of me and look out for me. (I am crying as I write this!) I was grandpa's little girl. I was the first Jewish grandchild in the family. You can imagine ...

Well, getting back to my mother.

I used to hate my mother. I had NUMEROUS issues with her. Only waaay later in life did I forgive her and come to understand and feel compassion for her, her life, and her choices.

My mother loved my father until the day she died. She wouldn't admit it, but she did. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear her crying while she was drunk, talking to one of her friends long-distance, talking about my dad. She kept pictures of him (which I now have) and maintained a relationship with my grandparents until they passed away.

Did she change herself much or her identity in order to be married to a Jewish man?

I do remember how her speech was peppered with Yiddish words until the day she died.

And she could cook a Jewish pot roast that was right up there with that of both my Jewish grandmother and Jewish great grandmother.

In the beginning, she tried to keep a kosher kitchen, but as I mentioned in Part 1, it didn't work out too well :)

She agreed to raise her children Jewish, which is HUGE for a believing Catholic woman.

She kept the name "Levine" until she married my step father. And despite making us Catholics, she didn't attempt to change our names.

All this in a post World War II America. And after all that, she ended up divorced anyway.

Hmmm ...

Well, time for some photos:

Here's a Valentine's Day card my father sent to my mother. After she died, I found it in her drawer where she kept all her treasured memories. The middle is made of satin cushion:

Here's a picture of my dad and a few of his service buddies. My dad is the one kneeling down in the foreground.

My dad's aunt, uncle, and grandparents. Aunt Julia is in the back. My great grandparents Jake and Fanny are in the middle, and Uncle Sammy is in the foreground, sometime in the 1940s.

My father and stepmom when they got married.

Another image of my dad.

My parents on one of their trips to Pennsylvania:

My mom holding my brother, and my dad and me:

Big, Bad, Blonde Shiksa - Part 1

2011-01-24T18:12:00.009-05:00

There's a great conversation going on over at Lucky Fatima's blog, inspired by another one at the Big, Bad, Blonde Bahu Blog, having to do with mixed religious, cultural, and racial marriages, and the phenomenon of the wife (usually, not the husband) taking on aspects of her husband's religion, culture, and race. In many cases, the wife ends up being a wanna-be fill in the blank (Arab, Pakistani, etc.)

She often starts to dress like the people of her husband's culture, learns his language, cooks the food of his country, and may even convert to his religion. The people of her husband's culture may find this a curious thing. Often, despite all her efforts, the wife never becomes fully accepted by her husband's side. And worse yet for some women, she may lose herself and her own culture completely.

Unfortunately, many wives experience this transition with identity issues. If you read through the two posts mentioned above, you'll get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Since I was born into a mixed religious and cultural family, I thought I'd throw one of my hijabs into the ring and write about the "shiksa." (Thanks Fatima!)

The word "shiksa" has Yiddish and Polish origins. It is derived from the Hebrew word, "sheketz," which loosely translated is the flesh of an animal deemed taboo by the Torah.  Most Jewish people in America understand the "shiksa" to be a non Jewish woman. It can also refer to a non Jewish woman who has attracted the attention of a Jewish man. Sometimes, Jewish women refer to their non Jewish household help as "shiksa." The Urban Dictionary has a great description of the "shiksa" here. (Warning: some readers may find the language offensive.)

Most of the time, "shiksa" is used in the derogatory sense. It is an insulting and offensive word. The "shiksa" is not a woman of valor. She is despised, especially by other Jewish women, because somehow she has managed to snare an otherwise-good-Jewish boy. Especially nowadays. Many unmarried Jewish women claim it is difficult to find a nice Jewish husband. So it adds insult to injury when Jewish men marry "shiksas." Even if the "shiksa" converts to Judaism, it is still a sore spot for many Jewish people.

My mother was a "shiksa." She was a tall, big-boned, blue-eyed, Polish, Catholic, blond woman.  A "big, bad, blonde shiksa."  My father in turn was an olive-skinned, black hair, dark brown eyed, Russian/Austrian Jew. Looking at pictures of him when he was a young man, I can see how my mom would have found him tall, dark, handsome, and exotic.

They met after the end of World War II in New York City where they had both been serving in the US Military.

The story goes that my mom and some of her Army girlfriends were partying in a bar when they saw a bunch of handsome Navy guys. The two groups got together and my parents were immediately attracted to each other. After a bunch of drinks, issues like religion and culture were the last things on their minds.

My parents were madly in love. At the time, my father's people, Eastern European immigrants, were also living in New York City. Since my dad loved my mom so much, his family worked real hard at accepting the new "shiksa" addition to the family. They tried real hard to teach my mom about Jewish traditions. For example, my great-grandmother Fanny explained to my mom all the ins and outs of the kosher kitchen. But my mom had problems getting it straight, and often mixed up the dishes and pots. Grandma Fanny finally gave up and solved the problem by finding excuses to keep my mom out of her kitchen.

My mom had no intention of giving up her religion. And my father didn't expect her to, nor did he ask her to convert to Judaism.  As most newlyweds do, my parents thought that their love could see them through anything. They mutually decided to celebrate the religious holidays of both of their faiths. So. They had Christmas and Hanukkah. Easter and Passover. You get the idea. However, once my brother and I came along, it was decided that we were to be raised as Jewish children. I'm not sure who did the deciding.  Was it my father? Did my mom agree in order to keep family peace? Was it okay to have a "shiksa" in the family as long as her children were Jewish? And how did that work since religion passes through the mother in Judaism? Did my mother secretly convert? Anyhow, we always identified ourselves as Jewish. I remember going to the synagogue with my father and grandfather, but my mom never went. My brother and I knew our mother was not Jewish. Somehow, it was no big deal.

My maternal grandmother, my mom's mother, on the other hand HATED my father. She used to spit on the floor every time his name was mentioned. We used to travel to Pennsylvania from New York City once a year to see my mother's family (also immigrants). No one else in the family had a problem with my dad except my grandmother. For that reason, she tolerated him while they visited, but she made it real clear that she did not like him or accept him. My father tolerated it all with his classic humor. After all, Grandma hated her son Tony's wife, too, because she was an Italian. In those days, Poles and Italians did not intermarry either. So Uncle Tony and my dad became great pals until the day I told my dad that my Uncle Tony had been sexually molesting me.

In my dad's family, he was the first one to marry outside of Judaism. He wouldn't be the last though.

Looking back, I can now understand how difficult it was for my parents.  We're talking about the early 1950s. At that time, Jews were not accepted in America like they are today.

In the end, the differences played a role in destroying their marriage. What really devastated my mother was the discovery that my father was cheating on her. With a Jewish woman. After the divorce from his "shiksa," my father married his Jewish girlfriend. He then had a 100% Jewish family. He might have been able to chalk off the whole memory of his "shiksa," except for two small details: my brother and me.

My mother never forgave me for not telling her that my dad had a girlfriend. WTF! I was about 11 years old. My dad used to take us on weekends to visit our grandparents, and a lot of times, she was there. I thought she was an aunt or cousin or someone like that. What did I know? Well, for sure, I knew she was nice and loving to me. By this time, my mother's alcoholism was in full swing and you can imagine everything that went along with that.

My stepmother and father also eventually divorced. But to this day, and I am almost 62 years old, my stepmother and I are very close. I call her "mom" (my mother is deceased; used to call her "ma") and cannot imagine my life without her. She has always been there for me, and she introduces me to everyone as "my daughter."

As soon as my mother returned to her family in Pennsylvania, she stuck my brother and me in a Catholic school. I was about 12 years old at the time and my brother was about 8. We had no choice in it. Anyone who is familiar with my blogging knows how I suffered until I was old enough to make my own decision to return to Judaism. On one hand, I found comfort in the physical presence of the Catholic church: the candlelight, stained glass windows, smell of incense, Latin chanting, etc. But I had a solid Jewish education: I could not reconcile Isa (Jesus), peace on him, with being the Almighty G-d. Nor could the church convince me that G-d was part of a Trinity or that He had a son.

(I'm writing this in two parts because I hit "Publish Post" before I was done with it. Oi vey. Part 2 to come tonight or tomorrow Insha Allaah.)

Martin Luther King: "The Montgomery Story" Comic

2011-01-17T22:29:00.000-05:00

The original comic book, The Montgomery Story, has been translated into Farsi and Arabic. Many people in the Middle East have now read it and learned the wonderful story of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights struggle.

You can read it online here in the original English and/or download the comic in all three languages to your computer.

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, Chapel

2011-01-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to go through old pictures from various film cameras I've owned during the last 40 years. Wow! I've been into photography that long!?

I've started to scan them because, in many cases, I've lost the negatives. I have boxes and boxes of pictures.

So, I should have fun over the next few months (or years, lol).

If anyone knows the name of this chapel, please let me know. It's in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, near the waterfront. I don't think it's the Capillo del Christo, but I remember it was somewhere near the Parque de las Palomas.

Makes me want to return now that I have a nice DSLR camera.

Cat Toys for the iPad

2011-01-09T09:54:00.001-05:00

Alhamdulillah, I found this wonderful toy in the App Store for cats called Cat Toys.

My cats absolutely love it. It's even a lot of fun for me to watch them play with it. They wack and bat the heck out of the iPad screen, so be sure that you have one of the screen sheet protectors over your iPad, and cut your cat's nails often (which you should do anyway).

Now if only I could get my iPad back. Everytime I pull it out to use, my cats are right on top of it.

Here are a few shots of my oldest male cat using "his" iPad!

"Birdie Cupcakes"

2011-01-06T11:54:00.002-05:00

Been fooling around with food photography. Not as easy as you'd think!

Anyhow, my neighbor brought these over. I am blessed to have neighbors who love gardening, gardens, and all who visit them.

Recipe for these birdie cakes is here.
Make some for your backyard friends and receive ajr at the same time.

Jumuah Mubarak!

2010-12-23T18:19:00.000-05:00

Arabian Perfumes

2010-12-15T17:31:00.001-05:00

Memory Lane ... The Projects

2010-12-08T10:15:00.000-05:00

As Salaamu Alaikum and Greetings of Peace:

Insha Allaah this finds you all and yours well! How is everyone coping with the upcoming Winter?

Me, in addition to my usual complaints, Alhamdulillah, I've been dealing with severe pain in my wrists and fingers. Haven't been doing too much online except commenting on blogs here and there, and updating/venting on Face Book ...

I've been reading a lot, but I've also been a lot busier than I like to be. Since retirement, I have enjoyed doing exactly what I want to do and not what others want me to do. At this point in my life, my constant reflection is on my akhirah. Approaching old age is an opportunity from Allaah t'ala to catch up, do things one has always wanted to do but never had time for, and most of all ... an opportunity for good deeds and tauba.

I went to Pittsburgh last week for a business meeting. I used to live there from about age 11 or so until my early 20s. So, there are many traces and tracks of me there. It's been at least 10 years or so since I last visited Pittsburgh. While there, I visited the graves of my family. After that, I decided to go down Memory Lane.

Someone told me that the old housing project where I used to live is no more. Because it had became so crime and drug infested, the government tore it down. At one time, there were 20 buildings there. We used to live in 17G.  Strange how those kinds of details stick with a person.

A lot of the old housing projects in America were originally built as housing for veterans returning home from World War II. Once the veterans got situated and on their feet, the government converted them into low income housing.

Our entire project was situated around an oval road. And the road is all that remains of the lives of the people who had lived there. Grass and weeds now replace the row houses. It was so weird to drive my car around the oval, remembering where everything and everyone used to be.

I was practically born and raised in the projects.

The first one was in the Bronx. Today the area is called Harlem, but it was the Bronx back then (the 1940s). The hospital where I was born, Bronx Hospital, is no longer there. We used to live in a high rise on E. 113th St. and 3rd Avenue. I remember trying to visit the building while on a "tour" of New York City with an Urban Sociology class in college. But, our class couldn't get past the drug dealer who stood sentry in the entry foyer. Because they do business in the foyers and stairwells of the high rises, the punk wouldn't let anyone in who wasn't a resident of the building. One wonders how people live like that. But then again, the fear of the building residents and the lack of protection by the city both play into the condition there.

When I was about 4 years old, we moved from the Bronx to Chicago - for a better life. All of us went except for some of my great aunts/uncles and my great grandparents. A few of my great grandparents' children stayed there to look after them. They didn't want to leave New York City, the place they immigrated to from the "old country."

I still can remember the caravan to Chicago: my paternal grandparents, my aunt and her kids, and my parents and us. We lived there until my parents got divorced when I was 11 years old or so. That's when we moved to Pittsburgh to live near my mother's people.

After a short stay with my maternal grandmother, she kicked us out. My mother was an alcoholic, and one alcoholic in the house (my grandfather) was enough for my grandmother.

So, we went to stay in the projects with one of my aunts, my mom's sister. She had a three bedroom place for herself, her daughter, and her five sons. Once we got there, we were two adults and eight children living in a three bedroom place.

My mom and my aunt slept in one room. The little kids slept in the other room. And us four older kids slept in another room.  As one of the older kids, I slept in a bedroom with three of my older cousins.

It was in that room where I was sexually molested by my two older cousins while the one who was my age watched.

It wasn't the first time ... actually the first time was by an uncle when I was about three years old.

After a few months, we got our own place in the projects.

A lot of people reflect on the negatives of project life, but there were also a lot of positives.

First of all, everyone knew everyone. And everyone knew everything about everyone. It's impossible to maintain total privacy in the projects. If you try, people will put their heads together and make up stuff about you.

Domestic violence, divorce, rape, child abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and much more ... it was all there.

So was love and friendship. And camaraderie.  It wasn't all bad.

I remember us all going down to the township building to stand in line to collect our allotment of surplus food - flour, sugar, lard (!), pasta, powdered eggs, butter, cheese ... the best part was when we got home and our neighbor, Mrs. Berger, used to make cakes from her supplies. There was always cake in her home! Her specialty was chocolate mayonnaise cake. She always gave every kid in the project who came to her house pastries.

It was in the projects where I watched the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show.

Most of all, I remember that my mother always thought that we were better than everyone else. She always held on to the fantasy that we were different from everyone else, that we were only there temporarily, that we weren't like the rest of the residents there, that the projects wasn't our lifestyle ... she was bound to get us out someday.

And get us out she did. She got married to a wonderful man who took us out of there and bought us a real house in a real neighborhood.

So I guess in the end it seems like a fairy tale ending. It wasn't. But, I guess that chapter of my life ended up well.

Kindle ... And an Announcement

2010-11-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

I bought a Kindle!

Go to my Wordpress blog and read the photo essay I wrote about e-readers and books.

I had this Wordpress blog for awhile now. I was using it as a private blog, writing all kinds of garbage on it, mostly rants, under the cover of anonymity. For a long time now, I've thought about transferring this site to Wordpress. But I've decided to keep them both and delete all of the vitriol from the Wordpress one.

It took me about 3 minutes to upload the above image to this post. Arggggggg. I thought Wordpress would be faster, but alas, it is not.

I wish uploading images to the Internet was as fast as documents are to upload. Even my Flickr pro account is slower than I like :(

Anyhow, I hope you like the first post on my Wordpress blog.

Oh, and while I'm at it, feel free to check out my chaplain's blog. I haven't updated it in awhile, but intend to soon, Insha Allaah.

2010 Brass Crescent Awards

2010-11-07T10:27:00.001-05:00

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu and Greetings of Peace:

As I was going through the blogs and sites on my feed, I noticed that quite a few of them were talking about the 2010 Brass Crescent Awards.

So, I schlepped over there to see who had been nominated.

Imagine my SURPRISE as I discovered that one of my posts had been nominated in the category, "Best Post or Series," which is an award for a "single post or group of posts in the Islamsphere" that was the "most original and important above all the others."

The piece that got nominated is "Somebody's Always 'It' in America." It addresses some of America's attitudes towards minorities, especially post World War II from my personal perspective.

Subhan'Allah! I am truly honored and humbled. Even if I don't win the actual award, I am still a winner . Jazaka Allahu Khayrn to everyone who made this happiness possible for me.

So get on over there and vote - for me, if you want, but more importantly, for all of the great nominees! And VERY IMPORTANT - once you vote, they will send a confirmation email to you. If you don't confirm your vote, it won't count.

Polls close end of Friday, November 19.

"CIGAR TREE" LEAF IN THE FALL

2010-10-28T16:03:00.002-04:00

"CIGAR TREE" LEAF IN THE FALL, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

Sorry I haven't had much time for writing lately, but Insha Allaah you will enjoy my photographs in the meantime!

Samir (Again)

2010-10-24T16:11:00.001-04:00

Samir, originally uploaded by Shaalom2Salaam (Safiyyah).

Like I said before, I NEVER tire of photographing this guy!

He was sleeping and when he heard the camera noises, he got up and I caught him mid-yawn just in time.

I love his face, Masha Allaah!

Flickr

2010-10-24T16:07:00.001-04:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Oh, The Joys of Google'ing Your Name

2010-10-24T10:47:00.002-04:00

Forum fraught with misconceptions - Letters - News Item

Since the comments are "closed" for the letter written in the above link, I thought I'd respond to it on my own turf:

Mr. Charles H. Shuey, you said:

"And Levine seemed to forget that Muslim women are not allowed to vote, drive a car, obtain an education, or appear in public unescorted, among numerous other barbaric restrictions."

For the record, sir:

I am a registered Republican and "you betcha," I vote!

I not only drive, but I own my own car!

I have a Bachelors degree and various professional certifications!

I am very visible in public! If you remember, you saw me at the forum unescorted!

Any other "barbaric misconceptions" I can clear up for you?

You cannot paint the entire Muslim world with such a wide brush. The result is exactly what you have written: "fraught with misconception."

Insha Allah Mr. Shuey, you will Google yourself and see this. In case you miss this, I'll mention this over on Facebook, too.

Samir

2010-10-20T18:27:00.004-04:00

SUNDAY SCHOOL!

2010-10-17T16:35:00.003-04:00

Blogger (I Want to Add a Bad Word)

2010-10-11T20:24:00.000-04:00

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu Dear Readers:

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I've been REAL busy the last few weeks. I was going to upload some pictures tonight, but Blogger is behaving badly. Every time this happens, I think of defecting to WordPress. I'm just too lazy and too busy to redesign a new site. Who knows? I may get some inspiration to do so yet :)

Arggggggggg ...

Will try again tomorrow, Insha Allaah.

Afghani Children's Juggling Competition

2010-09-27T12:01:00.000-04:00

Alhamdulillah! May these children always smile, sing, and have fun. Ameen!

Safiyyah on the Radio!

2010-09-24T21:56:00.001-04:00

My friend and I were on the WKOK radio program, Leaders and Lawmakers, on September 23, talking about Islaam. You can listen here. It's a little less than a half an hour.

The first one of us speaking is my friend. The host mistakenly called her by my name, lol. She's the one with the Arab accent.

By the way, if anyone knows how I can permanently post this to my site (I have it downloaded to my computer), please let me know. I think the link is live only for a few weeks.

How Far You've Come ...

2010-09-20T11:28:00.002-04:00

Copyright © 2010 S. E. Jihad Levine, All Rights Reserved

... from the Nation of Islam, years ago ... to where you are today ... loving Allaah t'ala ... being steadfast in your prayer and in all of your duties to Him ... from the mean streets of Philly to the classroom, teaching our young men of tomorrow ... Subhan'Allaah! ... I love you ... and am proud and blessed to be your wife.

QUR'AN KAREEM

2010-09-14T18:39:00.003-04:00

Collective Guilt: The 9/11 Qur'an Burning Controversy

2010-09-09T16:11:00.000-04:00

I read a Cagle Syndicate op ed piece in my local newspaper written by Tina Depuy.

The name of her piece is A Burning Question: Extremists on 9/11.

By now, I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Dove World Outreach Center's plans for burning Qur'ans on 9/11 in Gainesville, Florida.

I find it ironic that journalists and talking heads are going out of their way to comment that one pastor's bad decision should not reflect on all Christians or all Americans.

"Everything about our country is about to be boiled down to a picture of a heap of Korans smoldering," Depuy writes in the piece.

They fear that all Christians and the American people will be identified with the pastor. The apologists are out in full force. Even the military has taken to pleading with this pastor to change his plans. They say that the Florida pastor's actions will endanger the troops.

Oh yes - national security. As if this reprehensible act is not sufficient enough. We have to drag the troops into it.

"They" could stop this pastor. First of all, he doesn't have a permit for burning. The police could stop him. All they have to do is show up and when the pastor lights the torch they move in and arrest him for burning without a permit. Or, they can arrest him under the Patriot Act as endangering national security. After all, if it were a Muslim doing this, they'd pick him up in a hot minute. Or, they can let him go. After all, in America, we have the right to do stupid things as long as we are willing to live with the consequences.

Let's see who else in history has burned books (called "libricide)." According to Depuy's piece:

1. The Ancient Library of Alexandria - burned by Julius Caesar.
2. The Mayan codices of their history and religion - burned by the Conquistadors.
3. The Library of Baghdad - burned by the Mongol invaders.
4. Book burnings in Germany, Bosnia, Kuwait, China, and Tibet.
5. Harry Potter books have been burned.

America's in good company, eh? A book burning in America. In 2010. Imagine it!

Author and professor Rebecca Knuth who studies libricide has concluded that libricide often precedes genocide according to the article..

But the most important part of Depuy's piece is the following:

"So as all Muslims are apparently judged by their extremists who on 9/11 crashed planes into buildings - all Americans will be judged by our extremists who on 9/11 burned Korans into ashes ... but most notably it means that THE MUSLIM WORLD AND AMERICANS ARE ABOUT TO HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN THEY THOUGHT."

Are Americans finally starting to learn a lesson about collective guilt?

Since I wrote this piece, I am thrilled to see all of the non Muslims come out and support the Muslims and condemn the extremist attitudes of some American Christians.

More importantly, they are not so much defending the Muslims as they are defending the US Constitution, religious freedom, and everything that is decent about America.

I pray that Allaah t'ala, with Whom all things are possible, makes something happen so the event on Saturday does not go forward. He tells us,

They intend to put out the Light of Allaah with their mouths. But Allaah will bring His Light to perfection even though the disbelievers hate it. (Surat As-Saff, 61:8)

Even if the event does go forward, we will be okay. As a Muslim, I will look at it as another test, and pray that "this too, shall pass" as it has with other groups in America who have traveled the same path.

Goodbye 2010 Garden Season

2010-09-07T17:57:00.000-04:00

Above is the garden once it got going: nice path, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, tomatoes, peas, peppers, tomatoes (big boys, cherry, and plum), cucumbers, okra, carrots, and lots of different types of herbs.

Once it was harvest time, I was getting a huge basket of vegetables every day. My whole day consisted of picking, washing, cutting, boiling, and packing into bags for freezing. And then, there was the joy of giving everybody of the block bags of fresh veggies!

Lately, as fall approaches, I've been getting less and less.

Yesterday, the basket looked like this:

One thing I am getting PLENTY of Masha Allaah t'ala is the berries. We've had a real hot and humid summer. The bees have been real busy, and the berries are looking good. They are so sweet and good, Alhamdulillah. We have been eating them with cake, ice cream, smoothies, and just plain by themselves!

We had a lot of days where the heat was well into the high 90s and even 100 one or two days. We had a bit of a drought in July, and the local farmers were very upset. But, I was out there with the garden hose every night. The biggest problem with the drought is that even the insects are looking for moisture and cannot find it. So, they start eating the leaves of everything in an attempt to get moisture. In the following picture, some type of beetle is making holes in my beautiful poppies. Oh well, I chalk it off to sadaqa. Everyone has to eat.

Other flowers have made it, though:

And mums are now in season, so I bought a few pots for my front porch. Once they start looking a little crazy, it will be time to re-pot them on the side of the house. I have three years of mums over there and the bushes are HUGE, Masha Allaah t'ala:

So - that's about it. Pretty soon, it will be time to move all of the porch furniture into the garage, and pull out Buddy's winter house.

Thank you Allaah for the wonderful 2010 gardening season. Please give me the health and strength to plow the garden under in preparation to do it all over again next year/Ameen!

2010-09-06T14:30:00.002-04:00

(Close-up of the carpet in the women's section of the main prayer hall of Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, Philadelphia, PA)

how to get free Qurans to burn on "Burn Quran Day"

2010-09-04T12:21:00.001-04:00

via Aaminah Hernandez on Face Book.

Jazaka Allah Aaminah!

Somebody's Always "It" in America, and Currently the Muslims are "It"

2010-08-24T17:13:00.000-04:00

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu, and Greetings of Peace:

As things heat up with Muslims and Islaam in America, I find my thoughts swirling like crazy. Disjointed. Angry. Fearful. Naive. Denial. Humor. Just a few words that come to mind. What follows is probably a trip down Memory Lane and a long post that doesn't make much sense, even to me, but I feel a need to get it out. Perhaps brainstorming my thoughts will help to write a cohesive piece somewhere down the line :)

Besides, I had a nightmare last night which I still remember in vivid detail, and when that happens, it always leaves me emotionally vulnerable the following day.

So, if you care to join me and read on, here goes ...

When you were a kid, did you ever play that tag game, "It?" You know, one kid would tag another, saying "you're it," and then everyone would chase around "it" until he/she was caught. When kids play the game, it's usually harmless and a lot of fun. But when we play the game in America, it is anything but fun.

Somebody's always "it" in America (Japanese, Jews, Catholics, Blacks, etc.,) and currently the Muslims are "it." Just last month, the undocumented were "it," but now, since the NYC mosque controversy, the Muslims are "it."

My mind has been drifting to the past lately, and also to a conversation I had awhile back with a Bosnian sister. Also, someone commented on one of my other posts about wondering how the Jews in Europe must have felt prior to Hitler getting a strong foot into Europe. That also got me thinking.

I was born in New York City a few short years after the end of World War II. My mother was a Polish Catholic, and my father was a Polish/Russian Jew.  Shortly before I entered kindergarten, our family moved to Chicago.  The city had a large Polish immigrant population and my mother had relatives there. So we and practically my entire family on my father's Jewish side moved to Chicago. Why? Well, mainly the face of Harlem and the Bronx at that time was starting to change to Blacks and Latinos and many Jews fled for the suburbs of New York or other places. Not that America had a love affairs with the Jews in those days like she does now! Believe me, we were part of "it" in America in the 1940s and 1950s. Most Americans could give a rat's behind about the "creation" (theft) of Israel. Things didn't really start to change for us Jews until after the rise of Evangelical Christianity and the role of the Jews in their agenda which is another post for another time.

Anyhow, my parents bought a small house in a Chicago suburb called Norridge, and my aunt rented a place in Skokie, which had a large population of Jewish people. My grandparents rented a place smack in the urban part of Chicago. I remember as a child when my dad would take us around on errands on the weekend, and we would go to Skokie to visit my aunt and so that my brother and I could play with our cousins.  The non Jews used to roam around the Jewish commercial district of Skokie and put their "dawah" materials under the windshield wipers of Jewish cars. I remember my dad and I returning to our car and him seeing the papers under our windshield, and him getting real mad and tearing up the papers. As a 6 year old or so little girl, I knew that we were different and people didn't like us because we were Jewish. I was afraid of non Jews.

In Norridge, we lived next to a German family. I think the husband was a German, I can't remember, but for sure, the wife was. I think she was a German immigrant or a "war bride," or something like that, because she didn't understand English very well as I remember, and she had a thick German accent. I don't remember the husband having a thick German accent.

(Post for another time: war brides. Many American soldiers married German women and brought them back to America. Also, many African-American soldiers married German white women, too.)

The family's name was George and Mary Farr. To the Farrs: if you are reading this by some chance, maybe you are "Googling" yourselves and come across this post, PLEASE FORGIVE ME AND MY FAMILY for the way we treated you when we lived next door to you whether you were aware of our meanness or not.

As the saying goes, "shit rolls down hill," or "hurt people hurt people," and this is exactly what my Jewish family fell into. Even though my mom was not Jewish, we were living as a Jewish family at that time, exclusively going to synagogue and identifying as Jewish.  Even though few people liked us or wanted anything to do with us on our block because we were Jewish, my family, and me by extension being a child and copying my parents, contributed to the psychological and social torture of the Farr family. In those days, Americans didn't like Germans either. The Germans were "it." After all, many of our "boys" fought the Germans in the war. And many of our "boys" lost their lives at the hands of Nazi soldiers. Just like nowadays, we use words like the "n" word and other offensive words to describe different groups of people and individuals, in those days, many American referred to the German people as "krauts" to refer to a popular German food, sauerkraut. (By the way, the Jews were mainly called "kikes." It always makes my skin crawl when I hear some Muslims refer to us Jews as Yehudi ...)

Mary Farr was a housewife. She took care of her children and home and didn't bother with the neighbors. Maybe she was anti-social, maybe she was intimidated by her language skills or by our culture, or maybe she was just plain busy. But the fact remains, that the Farr family was a mystery to our community. Sometimes we kids would see her in the backyard hanging out her laundry.  We would watch her from behind the bushes, laughing and knocking each other over, calling out, "Mary Farr, Mary from far far away." She never said or did anything, but she had to have heard us. We never trick-or-treated at their house on Halloween, and none of the neighborhood gossip ladies hung out at her house for the afternoon coffee clutch.

(The American housewife coffee clutch: also a post for another time, lol)

Her children didn't come out and play with us or get dirty. I don't think she allowed them to get dirty. It was said that she had a spotless house. Don't know who went in there to see and be able to report back to everyone else, but that was what was said.

But the fact remains that our community was not friendly or welcoming to the Farr family because they were "krauts."

Many years later, when my parents got divorced, my mom and step-dad bought a house next to another German family, lol, the Hess's. They had a daughter named Janet. They were a similar family to the Farrs - didn't bother with anyone, kids never played in the neighborhood, etc., and us kids also used to torture Janet and her brother. I remember that I, myself, beat up Janet real good at the bus stop one morning while waiting to go to school.

These are some of my memories as a Jewish child dealing with the legacy of World War II in America and dealing with the German-Americans. As we now know, German-Americans aren't treated like that in America anymore, but like I said, someone is always "it" in America.

Recently, I participated in an interfaith seminar with some German Christian chaplains who are first-generation Americans. They shared that in Germany, the people have a sort of collective guilt and shame about what happened in their country during the war, and for the role that some of their people played in the crimes against millions of people. They also told us that Germans make it a priority to do interfaith work in that country, and they do not shy away from talking about what happened in their history in the schools so it doesn't happen again.

---

How did most of the Jews feel in Europe when Hitler and his buddies were starting to make noises?

Well, the rich and those with the means saw the writing on the wall and left the various countries of Europe, especially Eastern Europe. Then there were those in denial. Jews who believed that no harm would come to them. How could anyone believe that their government or their neighbors would intentionally engage in genocide? It was unimaginable to many Jews. Besides, many Jews believed that being the Chosen People, G-D would protect them. Even after the Nazis were seizing their property and possessions and driving them from their homes, many left in a passive manner, telling themselves that the situation was only temporary. Did the message sink in when they were made to wear arm bands with the Star of David identifying them as Jews (think identity cards in America - which many politicians and Americans are in favor of). Initially, there was a collective denial among the Jewish people that anything bad would happen (kind of like now for the Muslims: we have Constitutional rights, yes?) Only after they were taken to concentration camps, stripped naked, lead to gas chambers and used in medical experiments did some of them think that perhaps there was no G-d after all. Then again, some Jews endured it all, seeing it as a test (sound familiar Muslims?), believe that G-d had a plan which they did not even start to try to figure out what it was. By the end of the war, many Jews were convinced that there was no G-d.  "If there is a G-d, He wouldn't have let this happen to us."

This is true for some Jews. I heard these things from my family when I was a child.

---

Something similar happened in Bosnia. A Muslim sister described to me how the Bosnians initially were in denial about the possibility of the Serbs harming them. Many Bosnians and Serbs were intermarried. Bosnians and Serbs lived side by side in the same neighborhoods. Bosnians and Serbs were friends. Although the Serbs were the majority and also the ones mainly in powerful positions (police, mayors, etc), the Bosnians never feared them.

Until Bosnian families were awakened in the middle of the night by mobs of Serbians who had the intention of driving the Bosnians from their homes. Initially, they were asked to leave or driven from their homes. Those who resisted were beaten and even killed. It wasn't long before the Serbians lost their manners and stopped asking. The brutal rape of Bosnian women and girls was commonplace. My friend knew of Muslim women who, after being raped by scores of men, had rifles put up their vaginas and the triggers were pulled. My friend and her family saw the writing on the wall and didn't wait to be driven out by the nighttime raids. They fled their home with only what they could barely carry and ended up in a refugee camp. They were transferred to several camps in Europe before they were finally sent to America as part of the refugee resettlement program. They had no choice really as to where they would go.

You may be reading this and thinking that my friend and her family were fortunate.  Sure, they suffered a bad situation, but they were blessed. They got out, didn't they?

Well, maybe. But she doesn't see it that way. My friend's mother, who was ill to start with, died while in the camp. Her father was practically catatonic with grief, and eventually had a stroke which left him paralyzed and bed ridden. Once in America, my friend was his sole caregiver. The well-intentioned brothers at her masjid hooked her up with an Afghan brother for marriage who treated her like crap and forced her to live like a prisoner in her own home. He took her to the masjid one day during Ramadan, gave her talaq in front of the imam, and left her at the masjid without any of her things or her father. The brothers had to return to the house to figure out what to do with her and her father.

And man o man was this sister ever bitter at the United States government and the irony of being resettled to a country for whom she only had hate. Why?

Because when the Serbs aggressed toward the Macedonians and Croatians, the arms for defending themselves poured in from the UN. But when it came time for the Muslims in Bosnia to defend themselves, according to her, President Clinton ordered that no arms be given to the Bosnians.

My friend ended up with PTSD and emotional scars that will never go away. The only thing that keeps her from going completely crazy is the love for Allaah t'ala in spite of everything. Subhan'Allaah!

---

One of my commenters said something about making "provisions" NOW in case the Tea Party or their likes end up in power in America.

What will happen to the Muslims in America in that case?

I can relate. My passport is in order. And I have one credit card that could get me and my family out of here.

---

"Ah Safiyyah, why you got to be talking like such a paranoid downer during Ramadan?" you may be saying if you have made it reading to this point.

Do you think it can't happen here in America?

Well, my friends, I think I will enjoy an extended vacation in Istanbul!

Because, at the end of the day, rational voices will prevail in America. Unlike some other Muslims, I believe America is a wonderful country. Allaah t'ala tells us in the Qur'aan that He sent the Prophet, peace be upon him, as a mercy to ALL of mankind. That means everywhere.  I believe that we ARE different than some other countries in the world. And those of us who believe that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is suppose to work for ALL Americans, have to stand up against the current injustice. Because if we don't, who is going to stand up for whoever else ends up being "it" next in America?

MOOZ-lum Official Trailer

2010-08-22T12:47:00.000-04:00

Watch the trailer and spread the word!

I'm An American, Too!

2010-08-22T12:25:00.000-04:00

Over and over on conservative TV and radio, we hear the commentators saying that the United States military men and women are "fighting" for our rights. That they are fighting to keep us free.

Whose rights? Whose freedom?

Just a select few, or only a select few groups of Americans?

I am an American. Born and raised in the USA. I am also a Muslim. American Muslims, like any other group of citizens, deserve the protection of our Constitutional rights.

I am from a military family. Even my mother served and was honorably discharged from the military. I am the ONLY person in my immediate family who did not serve in the US Military.

My mother's people were Catholic, and my father's people were Jewish. Both groups went through hell in America. Just like the Muslims are going through hell now. I think my family has paid our dues! My family fought for the rights of ALL Americans.

My Mother:

My Father:

My Step-Father:

My Brother:

There was a time in American history when Catholics, Jews, and Mormons could not or had difficulty building houses of worship. Haven't we learned anything from the lessons of history?

Where Are All The "Moderate" Christians? An Appeal!

2010-08-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Baraktu and Greetings of Peace:

As I take in all of this controversy over the building of a mosque, Islaamic center, whatever you want to call it, near Ground Zero in New York City, one thing keeps getting hung up in my mind: Where are all of the "moderate" Christians? Where are your voices?

Why are you not speaking out? Why do we not see your leaders and clergy on CNN and Fox News? Do the extremists among you speak for the rest of you? Shall we hold all of you accountable for the minority among you? Isn't that what some of you did with Islaam and Muslims after 9/11?

Or is there really a minority? A CNN poll shown this morning reveals that 68 per cent of all Americans polled, or two-thirds of those polled, do not favor the construction of the mosque near Ground Zero. Who are these Americans? Two-thirds of all Americans are against the First Amendment according to this poll? Don't say that "we are for the first amendment and religious freedom, but just not "there," meaning near Ground Zero. It is not a matter of apples and oranges. It is the same thing. You are either for freedom or against it!

We cry loudly about how America's sons and daughters are dying so "we" can be free.

Who are "we?"

We cry out in agony, mourning the passing of "our" way of life in America?

What does "our" way of life mean in a diverse, pluralistic America?

After September 11th, you asked, "Where are the moderate Muslims? Why are they not speaking out?"

Now, I ask you the same question.

What are you doing to quell the rising tide of Islamophobia in America?

The Ground Zero controversy is a symptom. It's not about "sacred ground," or the area being a cemetery, or possible body parts in/on the building. If that were the case, we wouldn't see the push back at the building and renovation of mosques all around America like we are seeing (California, Tennessee, Staten Island, etc.). Something bigger is going on. Consider the demonstration held a few weeks ago against the Temecula, CA, mosque proposal:

According to the Valley News in its report "Temecula mosque proposal targeted in pending protest"

-- "a loose-knit coalition of area residents is planning a demonstration at the Islamic Center's existing facility along Rio Nedo west of Murrieta Creek."

-- "An e-mail alert sent to area newspapers last week announced that a one-hour 'singing – praying – patriotic rally" will begin at 12:30 p.m. July 30 at the Islamic Center’s existing facility. The advisory -- sent by a leader of a conservative coalition that has been active with Republican and Tea Party functions – recommended participants 'bring your Bibles, flags, signs, dogs and singing voices.'"

-- "'We will not be submissive,' the notice proclaimed. 'Our voices are going to be heard!' The alert went on to question what its authors described as Islamic beliefs. It suggested that participants sing during the rally because Muslim 'women are forbidden to sing.' It suggested that rally participants bring dogs because Muslims 'hate dogs.'"God help us!

When the church in Florida has its Qur'an burning on September 11th, will America's Christians be there protesting against it? Or will they be tossing Qur'ans into the fire? Or, will some let these hate-filled people do the dirty work? If we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem.

It is with great sadness that I read about mosques all over America asking for police protection for Eid celebrations. Eid is the celebration of the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting and spiritual renewal. It is just coincidence that the Eid date falls around September 11th this year.

Some people are asking Muslims not to have Eid ul-Fitr celebrations on September 11th. Let's see: no Eid on September 11th. No Islaamic center near Ground Zero. What CAN we do Christian America?

It's been nine years since the horrible events of September 11th. You've had nine years the learn the truth about Islaam - not the old tired talking points of the Islamophobes given a voice in the media. Not the cherry-picking of verses from the Qur'an.

Numerous Muslims died in the attacks of September 11th. The 9/11 families include Muslim families.

As a Muslim chaplain and as someone committed to interfaith relations, I do a lot of speaking engagements to non Muslim audiences who are primarily Christians. You know, it's the same questions they ask each and every time. The people in the audience are confused. My friends are confused. What the media and some of their hate-filled Christian chain emails tell them doesn't jive with what they know about Muslims from being friends and neighbors with me and other Muslims they know.

Truth. We MUST have the conversation in the land of the free and home of the brave. Truth. It requires courage.

I heard a 9/11 firefighter say on television, "That mosque will NEVER be built there." What will you and your supporters do, sir? Physically prevent the construction? Blow it up like the church in Atlanta was blown up resulting in the deaths of Black children during the Civil Rights era only to show displeasure because Blacks wanted equal rights in America? Is that where this is heading?

Americans tell the Iraqi government that Sunnis and Shias must get along, work side by side in tolerance to build the future of Iraq. We like to hold up our American values as a model for them. We like to tell people in the Muslim-populated world that America is not at war with Islam, but only with the terrorists. Every American president since the creation of the state of Israel has tried to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians together, asking them to work toward the creation of two separate states where everyone can live in tolerance and peace. Does America have the moral authority to do this work considering that it appears that we are heading down the road where American Muslims require police protection and lawyers to defend their Constitutional rights?

My mother was a Catholic. One half of my family is Christian. I practiced Christianity for years. No one ever taught me to hate or oppress people of other faiths. I am from am immigrant family. We came to America from Eastern Europe to get away from the kind of stuff going on in America today.

If we want to "win hearts and minds" overseas, we better start here in America.

The Muslim world is watching. Christians: find your voice! Speak out against the hate, fear, and oppression. To the Christians who are fighting against the insanity: thank you!

Ask yourself: WWJD? (What would Jesus do?)

Ramadan 1431 A.H.

2010-08-10T16:59:00.000-04:00

LGBT (LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDERED) MUSLIMS: DO THEY HAVE A PLACE AT THE TABLE IN OUR COMMUNITIES?

2010-08-05T18:13:00.000-04:00

(Image by Antonio Martins here)

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu and Greetings of Peace:

Insha Allah this finds you all and your families well, and preparing for the start of Ramadan next week, Insha Allaah.

We are very busy at the prison, getting it together for about 175 Muslim women to participate in the month's activities: fasting, iftar, community dinner, Eid prayer, and finally Eid feast!

In the meantime, I am fascinated at how the world seems to be going crazy, especially here in the USA. The illegal immigration battle heats up, and as well, the ongoing opinions of everyone in the media about the New York City mosque controversy near Ground Zero.

Then yesterday, Proposition 8 in California, which restricts marriage to one man and one woman, was overturned by a US District Court Judge who ruled that the voter-approved law violates federal equal protections and due process laws.

Regardless how anyone personally feels about homosexuality and gay marriage, and religion aside, it makes sense that in a country like America any law prohibiting one group of people to do something that everyone else in America is allowed to do, based on race, gender, religion, etc., is indeed unjust. And illegal.

Still, the homophobes continue their fight, and are appealing the judge's decision.

I say "religion aside," because I am talking about marriage that is sanctioned by the government. In America, one can marry in a church, synagogue, masjid, or wherever, but for the marriage to be "legally" recognized by the secular government and the IRS, a secular marriage license is needed.

To clarify, I do not agree that gays should be allowed to have a nikah in the masjid. Nor do I think that the religion of Islaam needs to be "updated," to permit gay marriage. I'm just saying that there's a difference between religious and secular marriage in America, and we must advocate for every one's rights in America, least they come after us next.

Back to the New York City mosque controversy, I was pleased to see that the rabbis were out demonstrating today in support of the mosque project. In my opinion, all religious groups should be out there doing the same.

I was also pleased to see a link on my JTA mobile news service describing how a group of Orthodox rabbis, educators, and mental health professionals signed a statement supporting gays in the Jewish community.

WHAT?! Rabbis supporting gays?!

"For the last six months, a number of Orthodox rabbis and educators have been preparing a statement of principles on the place of our brothers and sister in our community who have a homosexual orientation," the statement explains.

Yes! From the mobile link, "All human beings ... deserve to be treated with dignity and respect (kevod haberiyot) ... Embarrassing, harassing, or demeaning someone with a homosexual orientation or same-sex attraction is a violation of Torah prohibitions that embody the deepest values of Judaism."

The statement of principles views the treatment of gay Jews with dignity and respect as an obligation.

It affirms that "halakhah sees heterosexual marriage as the ideal model and sole legitimate outlet for human sexual expression. The sensitivity and understanding we properly express for human beings with other sexual orientations does not diminish our commitment to that principle."

Halakhic Judaism still views all same-sex sexual interactions as prohibited. It does not prohibit orientation or feelings of same-sex attraction as impermissible, just the sexual acts. Nothing in Torah devalues the human beings who struggle with the feelings.

The group also affirms "the religious right of those with a homosexual orientation to reject therapeutic approaches they reasonably see as useless or dangerous."

Jews struggling to live their lives in accordance with halakhic values need and deserve the support of the Jewish community, and should be welcomed as full members of the synagogue and school community, the statement says.

When will the Muslim community officially develop such a statement of principles?

Is there a middle road? When will our communities become all-inclusive? (Disabled Muslims have been asking this question for a long time.)

Muslims are people, and all of the "problems" and issues of general society are present in our communities. As much as we like to think these problems don't exist, issues such as homosexuality, teenage pregnancy, HIV, and substance abuse are rampant among us. May Allaah t'ala protect us from them/Ameen. Only recently, have the problems associated with domestic violence in the Muslim community received the needed attention they desperately require and deserve.

While some among us spend our time worrying about whether or not our sister wears a hijab or plucks her eyebrows, or why our brother refuses to grow a beard, we run the risk of neglecting some other very serious issues.

Muslim families will live in shame and secrecy if a family member is gay or has HIV.

This shouldn't be.

In my work as a Muslim chaplain, I routinely interact with Muslim inmates who insist they are a lesbian or bisexual.

Are they really lesbian or bisexual? As women, are they merely lonely? Are they afraid and seeking protection? Are they trying to fit in? Are they being a predator and taking advantage of each other (getting money, commissary items, etc.)? Have they always been curious and feel safe to "experiment" while incarcerated?

If so, how can I help? And with what attitude do I approach this area of pastoral counseling within an Islaamic framework?

And if they are truly a lesbian or bisexual. AND a Muslim? Then what? Do I shun them? Shame them? Enjoin the good and forbid the evil? Be a warner and then leave it between them and Allaah t'ala? After all, they know Islaam's position and have probably thought about it more than I have.

In his book, "Homosexuality in Islam: Critical Reflection on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims," Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle bravely puts the gay card on the Muslim table. You can read the first 42 pages here. Kugle maintains that Islaam is not so clear about homosexuality as most of us Muslims may think. "Many Islamic authorities claim that homosexuality is categorically forbidden, but the reality is much less clear-cut. There are no verses in the Qur'an that unambiguously condemn homosexuals, and there are even some that suggest they can be tolerated in Muslim communities. In addition, reports from Hadith that denounce homosexual and transgender persons are of dubious authenticity," reads the back cover of the book.

Subhan'Allah!

Notice that the author does not talk about the sexual acts between same-sex Muslim persons as being acceptable to the religion of Islaam, he merely challenges Muslims to think about how we perceive our LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) brothers and sisters among us - much like the rabbis have done in their Statement of Principles.

What do you think? Do you know any gay Muslims? How are they treated within your communities? Does Islaam differentiate between the "sin" and the "sinner"?

"Perfect Balance" and Perfect Headlines

2010-07-26T13:09:00.000-04:00

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu and Greetings of Peace:

When was the last time you passed by a newspaper kiosk and saw Islam portrayed in the headlines like this?!

Our local newspaper, The Daily Item, did this piece on our masjid. That's me, praying behind our masjid president, Sobhi Ammar.

I feel truly blessed to live in a small rural community where the neighbors and the community are so lovely and so tolerant. Especially after six young Christian missionaries from our area were hurt in the recent Uganda bombings. I wrote about that here.

Today is a good day, Subhan'Allah!

Aging, Friends ... And Other Thoughts

2010-07-22T16:01:00.000-04:00

(Daddy and me)

It seems like only yesterday that I was a little girl, playing, laughing, spending a lot of time with my Daddy ... that was before the divorce, before the sexual abuse began ...

Now it seems like the years have flown by, and all of a sudden, I have become an old woman.

Alhamdulillah.

But one of two things can happen, I think, once we age. One is that some of us say anything we want, with little reserve and tact, and few people hold us accountable to the extent they did when we were younger. After all, some people think that we older folks lose a few marbles when we get "up there," so they cut us a break. The other thing that can happen is that we get older and wiser, and we learn how to keep our mouths shut.

A few weeks back in our spiritual care class, we were discussing free speech. Someone asked whether or not it is always necessary to respond to ignorant people. Does every moment have to be a teachable one? Are some people even willing to learn, to become a student? Is there ever a time to just let stupidity fly?

I think so, and I am working hard at it. It's something I should have probably done a loooong time ago in my life. But, better late than ever (see? you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!). I like to think it is part of improving my Islaamic character.

You see, I can have a very sharp tongue, Astagfirullah. Ask anyone who knows me. I am also very direct, which bothers a lot of people. I think it comes from years of working in prisons where, at times, you have to let everyone know what time it is up front.

I try REAL hard to be nice to people, but it seems that some people, even outside of the prison enivronment, mistake this for a weakness. And some Muslims don't have good adab to start with, so they try me. And then when they get what they asked for, they are offended.

I'm trying very hard to improve in this area, keeping in mind the advice of the Prophet, peace be upon him, the one with the best character:

Ibn 'Abbas reported that the prophet of Allah, upon him be peace said, "...If you become angry, remain silent." (Bukhari)

I was thinking a lot about this, mostly because of visiting Facebook, and some other blogs/sites of Muslims. Some of the nonsense I read is just mind-blowing. I used to be real quick in clicking "leave a comment," but I've stopped doing this, Alhamdulillah. If I can't say something nice, I don't say anything at all (like my mother taught me).

Here's an example: some Muslims on Facebook were ranting about the 5,000-friend limit policy of Facebook. 5,000 friends? Subhan'Allah! I know I've never had close to 5,000 friends over my entire lifetime.

And are people really our friends? Or merely aquaintances? I have learned this the hard way, even as a Muslim.

I have made close friends with Muslim sisters only to have it not work out well. So, now, I take the advice in this hadith:

... 'Ubyd al Kindi said, "I heard 'Ali say to Ibn al Kawwa, 'Do you know what the first one said? He said, 'Be a little reserved in your love for your friend, for some day he may become your enemy. And be a little reserved in your hatred for your enemy, for some day he may become your friend.'" (Bukhari, Taabarai, Tirmidhi)

Subhan'Allah!

Likewise,

... Aslam reported that 'Umar ibn al Khattab said, "Do not let your love become dependency, nor allow your anger to become desctructive." Aslam said,, "And how is that?" 'Umar replied, "When you love so much that you become as attached as a child is to its mother. And when you hate so much that you wish destruction for the one you hate." (Bukhari)

I'm not saying that some of us have that kind of love or hate for our cyber-friends, I'm just saying that it perhaps would be wise to be reserved both online and in real life.

Getting rid of Spot

2010-07-15T23:06:00.001-04:00

I saw this picture on the web and also watched a piece on CNN about all of the pets that have been turned in to the shelters in the Gulf as collateral damage of the BP oil spill.

They said that people down there have been forced with the "hard" decision to get rid of their pets because they cannot afford to feed them due to job loss, etc.

Now people: maybe it's just me, but I don't get this. I really don't. As an animal lover and owner of four cats myself, I just don't get it.

Taking a pet into your home implies a heavy responsibility. It involves committing to keeping and caring for that animal for life - no matter what.

After all, I don't think there's a mad rush in the Gulf to turn children into the authorities because people can't feed them.

You may say that it's not the same thing, and you may not agree with me. That's okay. But, for me, it is. You just don't "get rid of" family members. And pets are part of the household, and family.

Americans value the family pet. I've been told it's not such a big deal in some other places, but here it is.

I saw one dog that was the family pet for nine years. Nine years! How could that family do that?

I could NEVER get rid of one of my cats!

Thoughts About the Uganda Bombings and a Sense of Community

2010-07-13T15:33:00.001-04:00

(AP Photo)

With the exceptions of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the state of Pennsylvania is mostly peppered with small rural communities. And the majority of people here are Christians.

Many of them have never met a Muslim in real life unless they are members of the US Military and have been stationed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

So when terrorism, from which most of us here in Pennsylvania like to feel we are directly immune, hits our small communities, people feel shocked, angry, and fearful. Like most people everywhere touched by terrorism, right? After all, isn't that one of the objectives of terror?

The first time terrorism hit us in a big way was on 9/11, when one of the three hijacked planes, United Airlines Flight 93, dropped out of the sky into a farmer's field in Shanksville, PA. With all of the news coverage of New York City and Washington, DC, Shanksville, and the people of Pennsylvania were mostly forgotten. And when that particular flight did receive attention, it was mostly about Todd Beamer and his famous last words, "Let's roll!"

While on a business trip to the area, I visited the Shanksville site. At that time, there was a temporary memorial set up. You have to drive up small roads and twisting turns to get to the site. The last leg of the journey involves driving uphill on a small makeshift road, and then at last, a HUGE field under a HUGE sky appears before you. I have never seen such a big sky! It is eerily quiet up there except for the sounds of mobiles and other mementos clinking and tinking against the memorial. One is only left to look at the scene and use the imagination as to the horror of that day. I wrote about it and took some pictures which are here.

A few days ago, terrorism in a faraway land hit us personally in Pennsylvania again. This time, less than a few miles away from my house. Six members of a local Christian missionary team were injured in the Uganda bombings. You can read about it here.

I went to the prayer service at the United Methodist Church of Christ last night. I was the only Muslim there that I was aware of (no one there looked like me, lol). I thought it was important for them to see Muslims there. For them to know that we, as their neighbors and members of the community, are there with them and for them. To let them know that we, too, are shocked and angry.

As a Jew, I remember stories told of the numerous people, Christians and Muslims, who helped us during the Holocaust. Christians and Muslims who hid Jews in their homes. Christians and Muslims who helped us at the cost and threat of their own lives and the welfare of their own families. As people of faith, they knew it was the right thing to do.

And participating in Interfaith activities is the right thing to do in my opinion.

I was supposed to go to the service with our local rabbi, but at the last moment she had an emergency at her synagogue. I met Rev. Kind from the United Methodist Church of Christ and extended the thoughts and prayers of both the Jewish and Muslim communities.

In her prayer service, Rev. Kind told the people that despite all of the feelings of fear, sorrow, and anger, she also knows there are feelings of hope, and she encouraged the people to turn their hearts with love toward God. She reminded the people to never diminish the power of prayer, and asked them to let go of bitterness and hatred, and replace it instead with forgiveness. In the midst of hope and possibility, she celebrated the fact that "the love of God is so great that nothing can overcome it."

Please keep all victims of terrorism in the world in your dua. And do not be afraid to be "present" in the face of fear and confusion. The terrorists are counting on the fact that Muslims everywhere will isolate.

After all, what they did is not jihad ... it is murder.

How Do We Get Our Kids to Love Their Lord and the Masjid?

2010-07-11T15:15:00.000-04:00

(Muslim school children in the masjid performing "Allaah Nay Banaya Hum Sub Ko" (Allaah Made Us All) - What Happens to our Precious Children When They Become Teenagers?)

As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu and Greetings of Peace:

I am co-teaching a a course at the Geisinger Medical Center, Division of Spiritual Care, called "Islam: Religion, History and Culture." The course runs four Tuesday evenings during the month of July. We are using Seyyed Hossein Nasr's book, "Islam: Religion, History and Civilization" as a required text.

There are no Muslims or Jews in the class, but there is a wonderful group of Christians who have a sincere desire to understand Islam and Muslims, Alhamdulillah. My colleague is a Buddhist, and there is one other Buddhist woman in the class.

At the very beginning of the class, we were talking about the general dis-interest of our youth and even some adults, in coming to the masjids, churches, and synagogues. We were putting our heads together and trying to come up with why this is so.

My colleague suggested that perhaps one reason may be that people have the perception of "what's in it for me," or put another way, some people lack a personal relationship with "God" separate from the rituals involved with religions and houses of worship.

I notice this trend with the Muslim youth in my area. Not necessarily the young children, but the pre-teens and teenagers.

At my masjid, we have a general musala upstairs, and of course, a women's section downstairs. On the ground floor, you can find the general entry way where people come in, hang up their coats, put their shoes on the shoe rack (wishful thinking, lol), and there are also some long benches in that area. Usually, the benches are used by people waiting for rides, waiting to collect the entire family to go home, or by people putting on or taking of their shoes.

A curious phenomenon happens though once the Family Nights or Eid parties get going in full swing.

The teenagers can be seen on the ground floor standing around or sitting on the benches, chatting to each other, usually both boys and girls together.

If their parents do ask them to sit with them, they are usually bored out of their minds, and many of them can be seen with their eyes glued to their Blackberrys and iPhones.

It seems that they really don't want to be at the masjid.

I see similar things with our Islaamic weekend school. The little children LOVE coming and participating. As a matter of fact, they cry when the school season is done. In our masjid, there is no summer Islaamic school because most of the families are traveling.

The teenagers on the other hand, do not like to come to the Islaamic school. Their parents make them come. The majority of the teenage students are actually children of our teachers. Given a choice, the teenagers wouldn't come at all. This is especially reflected in the fact that they do not come to class prepared. They have been studying the same surahs for the few years I have been there, and the teacher tells me they were studying the same ones before I got there. In reality, when most of them are 14 or 15 or so, they stop coming at all. After all, their parents claim, they are "busy" with school and other activities, and "we really can't force them, now can we?" they say.

Who's the parent and who's the child? When I was a kid, I did what my parents said. If my mom said, "get in the car," we got in the car, lol.

The big question is: why should the young people (and even some older ones) WANT to come to the masjid? What's in it for them?

Like my collegue implied, most people adhere to a religious life because of the perception that it means something to them. They have a personal relationship with "God." Religion to them is worth sacrificing for, worth dying for, and worth loving for. Didn't Allaah t'ala say in the Qur'an:

"I only created jinn and man to worship Me." (adh-Dhariyat, 56)
So, does it matter whether or not we have a personal relationship with "God." Do we have a choice? If we were created only to worship Allaah t'ala, that's that ... right?

Well, on the other hand, we are told that there is no compulsion in religion.

Why aren't our Muslim children getting this message? Do we raise them to understand that the only reason they are in this dunya is to worship Him? Or do we give them the message, directly or indirectly, that they have a choice in the matter? By allowing our children to give preference to a soccer game instead of Qur'an class, what kind of message do we convey? Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with activities and sports. But, where is the priority?

When I go to the masjid, I see sisters and their children dressed beautifully in the clothing of their countries, etc., but when these same children go to school, they are dressed like the other non Muslim children. Do we give the message that a hijab or jilbab is only for the masjid, and not for the rest of our activities? Why do parents allow their kids to wear skinny jeans and shirts/blouses that outline their blossoming figure?

In case you think I am overly strict, or a fuddy duddy, I am going somewhere with this.

My point is that if we don't insist that our children value an Islaamic lifestyle, we cannot expect them to "enjoy" being a Muslim. The result is that they don't have a personal relationship with Allaah t'ala.

Let's face it. As much as some of us like to think that our kids are Palestinian children or Egyptian children, or whatever ... the truth is that they are American children. Born and raised in America and in an American lifestyle. They don't even think like some of us from the "old country" do.

Do we insist that they identify as Pakistani, Palestinian, Egyptian, etc., as opposed to Pakistani-American, Palestinian-American, Egyptian-American? Do many of our kids suffer from identity issues?

In my little town, there may be only two or three Muslim children in the entire high school. I acknowledge that it must be hard for them, espcially if they are darker than most of the American white children. Children are cruel sometimes. But I think it may be a little easier perhaps if they are secure in their identity as Muslims, and if they know who their Lord is, and LOVE Him.

How do we get our children to love Allaah t'ala and the masjid? How do we ensure that they grow up developing a personal relationship with their Lord? What do you think?

Award from Rukhpar Mor, Masha Allaah

2010-06-30T17:26:00.002-04:00

As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu and Greetings of Peace:

My dear sister over at Rukhpar Mor acknowledged me and some other bloggers with this award.

Going places? Where will I be or want to be in 10 years?

Hmmm ... I'm not going to try to predict such a thing since Allaah t'ala knows best. Ten years from now would make me almost 72 years old, Alhamdulillah!

So, if He still has me around, I would pretty much like to continue what I am doing now: working as a prison chaplain, teaching weekend Islaamic school, writing, photography, making jewelry, gardening, and above all, worshiping and pleased my Lord.

Jazaka Allahu Khayrn Rukhpar for thinking of me.