What would the Moon reveal to the world?

So this one time on the ferry...

2006-05-03T22:29:00.000-04:00

I started that day surprisingly awake. Not just in reference to the early hour I was able to rise, but rather a deeper sense of spiritual inspiration. I had an Islamic Center picnic to attend, but other than that, I was eagerly anticipating a carefree day dedicated to personal reflection. I grabbed my notebook, a pen, a book close to my heart, packed my bag, and wrapped a hijab around my head, ready for the day.

The picnic brought not much more than beautiful weather, pleasant casual company (I didn't exchange too many words, I just enjoyed watching the movements of their lives), and a chance to sit under the trees and relax. Kiran wasn't able to make it to the picnic, so I figured I would bring the picnic to her. I grabbed some of the left over food they were trying to get rid of at the end, called her up, and decided to make the 2 hour journey to her home in the island.

I had been carrying around a Rumi poem in my notebook all day, pondering over its meaning and potential significance in my life...

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing
There is a field, I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other'
Doesn't make any sense."

I tore out a sheet from my notebook, scribbled down the poem, and left it on a bench for a passerby to find. Perhaps it would make them think for a moment, enjoy the beauty of life for that instant, be inspired, or if nothing else, bring about a smile stemming from a secret of life passed along between strangers.

The trek took longer than anticipated, with weekend route changes, subway lines closed, unexpected transfers and a packed shuttle bus service driven by a half sober crazy driver, not to mention the wait for the ferry. I wasn't too fazed by it though. Life is "about the journey", a wise (cough cough) man said to me recently. :) Sometimes the patience and wisdom displayed in the most trying of situations is more rewarding and important than the outcome itself. So I remembered Allah and thanked Him for the beautiful day and the chance to see my friend and I couldn't help but to smile, even when pushed and crammed into the overpacked shuttle bus.

I sat waiting for the ferry and watched the birds inside the waiting area fly around, walk alongside the men and women, accustomed to the asphalt and marble and glass... perhaps that's how we are- natural creatures so accustomed to our new urban societal scenery that we have lost a bit of our natural instincts, and even more so, our natural humanity. Living in this city, one has to struggle so hard to find and maintain a balanced outlook, surrounded by a city fervently promoting indulgence, extravagance, and lust. It's no wonder that most of these inhabitants no longer believe in the necessity of God or selfless aspirations. There are exceptions of course. And then there are the self righteous extremists.

Case and point: Ferry Bible Lady. This was my first encounter with this wonder of a woman, although I’m assuming by the general apathetic reactions from the other people, she (or other fanatical characters like her) are frequent commuters on the ferry.

This lady held firmly to her beliefs to a point of denying the rest of the world to a right to their own. She circled around the multiple levels of the boat, screaming out the “word of the Lord”, reading out scriptures of the Bible and warning that we would all go to Hell if we didn’t accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior right then and there and that the way this world is going is straight to Hell because we deny ourselves of the salvation of the Lord. She didn’t like the minorities (Arab and Indian looking ones especially), and gazed at them with a certain level of fear of the unknown in her eyes. She had a daughter walking beside her, and a baby in a carriage to her other side. She barely paid attention to her children though, just dragged them around with her, too busy focusing on condemning the masses of “unbelievers” and reciting random parables and encounters which didn’t really support her cause or claim at all. You would wonder why she didn’t prepare a better routine or at the very least, a coherent message if the campaign to “save the heathens” was so dear to her. I imagine God would have rather preferred her to teach good morals and virtues onto her daughters and take care of the gifts of life that He entrusted to her, rather than neglecting them like she seemed to be so used to doing. Her older daughter was about 10 or 11 years old, she seemed very frail and delicate, with confused, sad eyes. I wondered what the world must be like for her.

I saw that she was staring back at me, and embarrassed, I turned away. There was a Jewish man sitting next to me, with a big shiny star of David proudly embellishing his chest. I lowered my gaze as I noticed he was staring at me curiously, almost suspiciously, focused on the scarf around my head.

Just then, Bible Lady pointed straight at me and yelled out, “YOUR religion only promotes evil! YOUR religion won’t save you! Know that now! Only JESUS can save you!” I noticed her daughters sparkling brown eyes, looking at me, not fully understanding who I was or why I was evil but she seemed more sad than scared. She must be carrying around so much apprehension about life, others, herself, faith, the world. I looked at her empathetically and then turned to the Jewish man, hoping for a similar degree of compassion, hoping to share a moment of understanding, for surely he too must have faced religious persecution at some point in his life. He looked away and pretended not to see me. I sighed and prayed silently for Allah to guide us and infuse our hearts with love and mercy for one another.

Eid Mubarak!

2006-01-10T11:31:00.000-05:00

I pray everyone is doing well and has an amazing Eid, filled with joy, blessings, and lots of food :-P

Thought.

2005-12-17T09:57:00.000-05:00

We in America, are constantly taught, even forced, to question, rebel against the norm and conformity, assert our independence and freedom, think and act for ourselves, and exist as autonomous individuals. However, as of late, it seems those lessons have evolved into legends, buried within our past and are made to be dying axioms of our forefathers not applicable to today’s post 9-11 world where Patriot Acts and paranoia hinder us from granting civil rights and liberties to human beings, just on account of their nationality or religion, when no other justification for their mistreatment can be produced.

baby pictures!

2005-12-06T16:55:00.000-05:00

nuvi's making a family scrap book... some pictures of me she scanned and sent over:

checklist

2005-06-29T20:23:00.000-04:00

checklist on life:

__ summer?: sucks so far and drastic shift of plans has left me over worked, underpaid ($3.80 per hour, baby), and lonely

__ job?: (see above)

__ love life?: ha. such a joke. let's not even go there.

__ weather?: floods causing 3 hour extended stay at work (without pay) and blocks on all major roadways in Westchester- SUCK

__ health?: need root canal and 4 fillings and can't get dentist appointment for another 2 to 3 weeks and pain is KILLING me and can barely talk anymore (can't eat much either- bummer)

__ friends?: ugh. that's all i will say for now. i don't want to get into it.

__ family?: the ones whom i barely ever see?

_X_ hope?: (check!) at least i have THAT much in life.

I forgot what was so important

2005-06-26T11:26:00.000-04:00

"Since then it's been a book you read in reverse so you understand less as the pages turn"

The thoughts I once was consumed by have now dissipated, perhaps by forceful repression by my self, and left me with a state of confusion, kind of like waking from an intense, vivid dream, knowing that whatever was lost by your consciousness was important enough to you at that moment of sleep at least to absorb your preoccupations, but now for the life of you, you can't seem to recall what that was. Traces of your dreams ressonate with you as you struggle to recall and are revibrated with simple daily activities like pouring a glass of water... Was there water in the dream? A lake? A drink someone passed you? A well? Tears? No, you shake your head. You pass it off as mere de ja vu and move on with your day, surprised that it happens again and again, especially when you're SOOO close to remembering who was in your dream, what they did, what happened, how you felt... but that de ja vu screws you up, confusing you, leaving more unsolved pieces of the puzzle to toss your head into a blizzard of hazy postulates and no certainty.

2005-06-20T10:01:00.000-04:00

My relatives! Yes, that includes Sadia, whom I just found out is related to me!!!!!!

2005-06-20T09:59:00.001-04:00

Kiran, looking pretty not really playing much :)

2005-06-20T09:59:00.000-04:00

OOOH, there comes the strike and... aaaw.. you missed :)

2005-06-20T09:57:00.001-04:00

A fuzzy picture of the patio, the tents of some remaining relatives at the end of the day

2005-06-20T09:57:00.000-04:00

My crazy uncle :)

2005-06-20T09:56:00.001-04:00

Sadia getting set to throw the smack down

2005-06-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

Kiran learning how to serve... :)

2005-06-20T09:55:00.001-04:00

My dad and Aahirah both were kicking butt

2005-06-20T09:55:00.000-04:00

Sun is about to set, the guests have almost all left save my friends, we're all about to pack up and clean up everything, and yet, the badmitton tournament is STILL going on!

2005-06-20T09:54:00.000-04:00

My beautiful little cousin, Riddita, picking up the ball we were playing catch with

2005-06-20T09:53:00.000-04:00

Hey, Rusha, look alive! The shuttle is coming straight at you!

Start of a novel

2005-05-06T11:13:00.000-04:00

So hanging out last night with my friends made me really sad. I can't explain why exactly, but I felt like breaking down into tears. Sigh... Anyway, instead of letting myself cry or whine or act pathetic over it all, I've decided to channel my energy into constructive use. So I took all the emotions and thoughts I had and started writing. I have an intro to a story. I don't know what it's going to be able just yet, but it's a start... here's what I have so far:

As improbable as some hopes might be, just the mere fact that they exist in the first place may be enough. Deep inside, logical thought supercedes emotions. But everywhere else, the outer psyche is consumed by faith in the unexpected.

A gentle nudge, a coincidental run in, facilitated progression mistaken for fate, an ambiguous comment is only fuel to drive. The motives that direct idealistic ambition are as pure as the dawn’s first rays, inspiring unyielding potential.

Vision clouded with rosy reveries evoke “what if’s” and “maybe’s” and “perhaps’” and “who knows.” Conscious thought can be overwhelmed with dreamer’s plight, the constant yearning for the impossibles, the longing for the almost possibles.

What passion possesses a lover’s soul? Where the heck does it come from? What force conduces his utterances and beliefs? What makes him this way?

People forget that the heart is the seat of humanity

Election Results 2004

2004-11-03T00:46:00.000-05:00

AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This freaking system of apathetic big business tactics and conjured representations of false "morality" and "religious ethics" to support a neoconservative adgenda is sickening! And the fact that people, after all the chaos and mess, defecit (due to reckless spending of budget revenues), pollution, Muslim and Arab blacklisting in this new age of McCarthyism, bigotry, violence, education lags, war and mass civilian (as well as troops and journalists) deaths of the past years still chose to vote in the moron!!!!! Is the government that apathetic to outcries by global communities, protests to their human rights violations, so blind to the destruction and massacres and raping and pillaging of land in the Middle East... are they that selfish and heartless? And are the majority of American public that brainwashed and ignorant to the realities of the world and of our current state to have the nerve to elect them in again? History's mistakes are repeated over and over again due to our neglegence of it's occurence in the first place and our apathy to reformation of current tactics which obviously have proven unfruitful (a.k.a.- forgein policy and relations with other nations, namely the Middle East) When will we learn? When it's yet again too late and the world rebels against us and we call it terrorism and evil instead of the result of our own stupidity? :'( I cried today.

Islam and the West- Clash of Civilizations?

2004-05-08T12:49:00.000-04:00

It’s very difficult for one to change their identity. It’s said that try as he may, “a leopard can’t change his spots.” In the “West”, where Western civilization is in reference to the Judeo-Christian civilization and history, secularism exists where there is a distinct division of political and theological authorities and perspectives. However, in the Muslim world, Islam ideally fuses both religion and law. (Militant activists such as Osama bin Ladin call for the restoration of the practice of this unification of religious and political spectrums in the Islamic nations in existence today.) There is no real “separation of church and state” that exists in Islam for it’s a religion that touches upon every aspect of the lives of its followers, extending even into the political realm. This draws upon a divergent viewpoint of the West and Islam. Does this denote that Islam and its corresponding “Muslim nations” can never be accepted or be part of the “West,” for its core identity conflicts with the secular and capitalistic ideals upon which Western civilization and its global enterprise are built upon?

With the modern trend of globalization taking place, we’re supposedly becoming more and more similar due to our interdependency on economics, trade, and the unification of cultural identities. However, can this type of assimilation exist in the Islamic world, where theology and law are so intertwined? In “The Clash of Civilizations?,” Samuel Huntington asserts that the introduction of globalization into such a situation as the Islamic world would bring about a clash for there are innate, irreducible cultural and religious identities which don’t assimilate into one another and will cause a “clash of civilizations,” a vicious and existential quarrel between “Islam” and the “West.” Huntington’s opinion differs from those of recent authorities such as Tom Friedman who argue that we need to revolutionize the Middle East to order to introduce democracy, free trade, and market to make it more part of a the globalizing, capitalistic culture. This was his reason for wanting to go into war in Iraq. However, perhaps the root of the tension doesn’t lie in the incompatibility with Islam and democracy or Islam and the West, but rather Islam and imperialism, to which globalization might be seen as another intruding force within the context of Islamic society, culture, nation and (overall) religion.

After the end of the Cold War in the early 1990’s, the world was open for new ideas on how the structure of the world system should be in terms of ideological, political, and economic issues which were previously in conflict during the Cold War. There existed previously a head bashing between capitalism versus communism. However, that was ended with the conflict resolved and capitalism having prevailed. A new world structure was to be established. National sovereignty no longer was eminent, and thus the concept of globalization emerged. An opposing theory to this new trend of globalization is that there always existed an endemic, natural global pattern in which the Cold War was an odd interlude in which ideologies were in a grand scale conflict and now we were going back to the natural works of history and world clockwork.

Through the lens of this theory we can imply that although cultural infiltration through media, consumerism, and the Internet will result in coagulation of cultural identity, the core ideals of the civilizations will remain inflexible and thus create for tension. This incongruity between root cultures would cause eventual collision of ideals which would result in political and global unrest. His theory extends into the syntax of the current war in Iraq for he says that we can’t go into these Middle Eastern nations thinking we can revolutionize their political, economic, and social structures, for they can never be able to augment their lifestyles and ideologies and conducts into fitting our molds for what modern civilizations should entail. The resistance we see displayed by the Middle Eastern people and revolts and extremist groups can thus be attributed to this “clash of civilizations.” Thus the buildup of Middle Eastern, Indian, and Chinese nuclear arms against the powers of the West are to protect themselves from the permeation of Western influence and foreign culture which they might try to impose on them. He can also then understand why try as it may, Turkey will never be accepted as a European nation even if it casts off its Islamic exterior and “Westernizes” the image of its people. The underlying mentality of the people will never be pliable to the European, Western standard. Finally, the hostility and anti-American mentality existing in the Middle East today can then also be attributed to the incompatibility between their culture with the American, Western one and its corresponding aims and values.

However, although yes, culture clash has attributed to misconceptions and animosity between the conflicting forces, the crucial reason for resentment is not a clash of ideals and cultures, but rather a clash of imperialism versus a struggle for self-determination and nationalism. The clash isn’t seen in the assimilation of the people to Western customs, for you can find Mickey and McDonalds in the most anti-American of countries, but it lies in the forceful replacement of indigenous values and assertion of land and ownership from the people. In such a situation, the people feel a need to identify more towards their own identity and distance themselves from anything related to these outside invasive Western powers.

The clash of civilizations definitely is not the main reason for global strife. In fact, there are many limitations to Huntington’s theory. Sometimes within the West there existed some of the bloodiest wars in history (e.g. WWI and WWII). In the age of imperialism where there is a bitter world race for power, territory, resources, and arms buildup, a lot of conflicts arise within the West itself. Similarly, there are major violence and hostility among non-Western countries that existed even before Western interference (for example, the Iran-Iraq War, which was the bloodiest war in the second half of the 20th century with over one million casualties fought over the pursuit of control of resources). However, even with all these flaws, Huntington’s theory is agreed with by many, especially terrorists. His discontent with the West’s current tactics are similar to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s discontent with the current state of the Muslim world. They both share disapproval for the clash of Western and regional civilizations.

What we must realize is that it’s not necessary for universal values to exist for cooperation to be established. The West’s misconception lies in the fact that it values Western values as universal ones. However, we must soon learn that we can’t change the rest of the world to mold themselves to Western ideologies and products of such. Democracy, human rights, feminism, and the likes are Western constructs and although there may lay parallels in other parts of the world, we can’t expect to thrust unto them these notions identical to how we view or apply them. Sometimes they are incompatible with the lifestyles of the people of the area. Huntington also argues that Western, particularly American, civilization becomes inassimilable due to immigration and this leads to the breakdown of democracy. Sometimes assimilation of Western values doesn’t result in mutual understanding but allows for more hostility as exemplified by the example of Marxism, which is a Western discourse of economics, adapted and applied by the previous Orthodox Soviet government. Ironically, this adaptation of Western idea would be expected to allow for mutual discourse, but instead it caused more conflict. Globalization itself is hypocrisy for it’s a cover to promote Western culture, ideologies, and economic interests and not truly rooted in intentions of global, worldly interests but rather Western interests.
-Muniba Hassan-