Archive for April 2009
Obama’s First 100 Days – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Wajahat Ali, April 17-19
Originally Published in The National
President Obama flew gracefully and confidently – albeit experiencing some minor turbulence – through his first 100 days as he ambitiously donned the uniform of the multicultural Superman of the 21st century.
Obama, the biracial, Hawaiian born son of a Kenyan father and a White Kansan mother adorned with a multi-syllabic Arabic name, who sowed his oats from Indonesia to California, now emerges as the ideal aesthetic leader – and much hoped for redeemer – of this brave, new globalized world fragilely teetering towards potential calamity.
Unfortunately, Obama’s hour glass only allows four years to remedy the paralyzing economic crisis at home and the smoldering fires of political and religious extremism abroad primarily fueled by the belligerent tone and myopic policies of George W. Bush’s
Trigger happy administration.
Most noticeably, Obama’s inclusive and humble rhetoric immediately sets him apart from his arrogant predecessor, whose indignant adherence to right wing fundamentalism and unilateral aggression contradicts Obama’s professed desire of mutual understanding, engagement and partnership. Unlike the profoundly anti-intellectual Bush, the Ivy league educated, former law professor Obama can thankfully name the 20 countries comprising the G20 Summit. Read the rest of this entry »
A male response to Zeba Iqbal’s Article on Women
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It is difficult to remove male-female interaction from the context of (hetero)sexuality. When we have pubescent boys and girls discovering each other, and themselves, there is a concern that inappropriate relations may emerge. Unfortunately, it seems that the response has generally been to freeze gender relations at the adolescent level and not move beyond that age. This response has the perverse effect of hyper-sexualizing our relations, rather than creating safe environments for men and women to interact.
Read the rest of this entry »
“Facing Race: Muslims and Islam” Series: A Bit of Beard Rubbing on Beards
GOATMILK introduces its original and exclusive month long series entitled “Facing Race: Muslims and Islam” featuring diverse Muslim writers from around the world discussing race, ethnicity, prejudice, stereotyping and multiculturalism in the post 9-11 world.
A Bit of Beard Rubbing on Beards
M. Junaid Levesque-Alam
Some men have very ambivalent relationships with their beards.
Grow it out a bit, and you can pull at it in a philosophical sort of way, but at the risk of having a prickly, less-than-kissable face.
Rein it in, and you may win the favor of your wife, but you may also be left baby faced and feeling a bit naked.
This “dilemma” is complicated if your hair is black and your skin is bronze.
Few, after all, have failed to take notice of the glowering, dour and angry visages of Islamic extremists whose images might as well burn out bulbs behind television screens given their omnipresence. Unfortunately for some of us who like to maintain some facial hair—not a Santa Clause-sized beard, mind you—this connection between beards and bombs can elicit some unwarranted attention. Read the rest of this entry »
“Facing Race: Muslims and Islam” Series: Who’s Afraid of a Muslim Planet?
GOATMILK introduces its original and exclusive month long series entitled “Facing Race: Muslims and Islam” featuring diverse Muslim writers from around the world discussing race, ethnicity, prejudice, stereotyping and multiculturalism in the post 9-11 world.
WHO’S AFRAID OF A MUSLIM PLANET?
“The word “Muslim” is the polite way of niggerizing someone now. Of course, this elision between “Muslim” and “nigger” was established much earlier on with the entry of “Black Muslims” into the American consciousness.”
HUSSEIN RASHID
After 9/11, Dr. Cornel West, one of the pre-eminent racial critics of our times, said that all of America is now nigger. He elaborated that:
That since 9/11 all Americans feel unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated, and that’s been the situation of black folks for 400 years. So that sense of, you know, I mean, in that fundamental sense, to be a nigger is to be unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated. And now the whole nation niggerized, and everybody got to deal with it.
What Dr. West highlights is that “nigger” is not just about being Black anymore. It is it’s own distinct racial category that encompasses anyone who is at the bottom of the pile of American racial hierarchy. After 9/11, he saw all Americans as being niggers. I think this conception of the term offers productive way in which we can think about niggers in American public life and who the current niggers are. If we think about Black Americans as the “whipping boy,” all meanings fully intended, of empowered, white America, we understand how whiteness is constructed in this country. Read the rest of this entry »
A Muslim Man’s response to “A Few Good Muslim Men”
Azaad Raha responding to the now famous “A Few Good Muslim Men” article
“Under thy nose” by AZAAD RAHA
“Where have the good Muslim men gone?”In the league table of futile statements, this surely ranks up there.
Why?
Because aside from being defeatist and self-delusional, this statement exemplifies the very mindset which is the principle reason why so many Muslim women are single in the first place.
Let me explain.
First, to really appreciate this statement and all that it represents, you have to consider both the context in which it is uttered, and the reasoning behind it. The context is sadly an increasingly common one – namely an increase in the number of single, thirty-something Muslim women, who are finding it difficult to get married. It is heartbreaking, and represents a failure on an individual and community level. They are our sisters, our daughters, and our friends. We feel for them, but it is also the time for some home truths. Read the rest of this entry »
