I am back and I am smoking…

I am happy, "Ya Rabi" I am, I really am happy…This is what I am talking about, being happy for no reason just be!

Here: cheers! http://kni.prz.rzeszow.pl/~peu/likeu.swf

Why is it so hard…

Am I asking too much or too little? What is it? Why is it not happening?

I just want peace; I want to look at the sky and be happy just for being able to see it. I want to appreciate getting up …lifting up my arm…setting at a table after a day of fasting…I want be happy for every minute I live, for every stupidity in my life.

I want to know what Fulfillment feels like, what we call in Moroccan dialect "Al qanaa".

I thought that I would acquire it, and that I just have to ask …didn't god tell me to ask and he will give. Well, then I am so ready for it…I want to be happy for being happy, happy for just the fact that I am alive. Why is it so hard?

God, am I offending just by asking all this, I know you are listening …so don't I deserve an answer? No, don't…don't let me down!

Plea of a Moroccan slave

As a woman in Morocco, I have always had problems adhering to the normality (or rather what is believed to be so) of my family and my society. I have always found it very appalling how women are treated. Just like second class specie, women's need in Morocco pass second after their men's; should that be the father, the brother or the husband. They just have to wait for leftovers.

No, no…this is regardless of the social class you are from. The discrimination differs from one another, true, but it still exists in all and every family. Some may have been very good in fooling themselves and think that they are emancipated and do not fit in this oppressed group anymore. Let me tell you I was one of them, until I got a visit from my father.

Well, I tell you what…I am stupid and the greatest fool of all time, yes I said it yes I did. I thought I won the battle and that I was a free gal, and that I, no longer, was the oppressed Moroccan slave (l'khdidima d' Sidi).

I have always refused to conform; I fought hard to make myself heard, unfortunately I just realized that my battle has not even begun.

So I was saying, my father is visiting these days and he is staying with me.

You know what the liberated women I am, is forced in doing everyday? Cook, clean and cater to three healthy sound men.

My battle is worth but hard to win, as the first people I would have to battle against are my family. Men in my family, heck…my family likes to think of itself as being a liberated family, not true.

I still have a long way to go.

Human nature

I hate dealing with people…you do not know what hurts them and what pleases them.
I do not know myself that well, so how am I supposed to know the other.

What don't they just hand you an instruction guide? I meet someone or even your relatives and friends and they tell you…here, this is a guide to my personality, the dos and don'ts. Won't it be easier?

I just hate it, you end up having to deal with a misunderstanding while you do not have time.

Is it really over?

I do not know why I am still hesitant in writing something about the ceasefire between Hezbollah and the Israeli's…maybe it is because I do not believe in it. I will wait few more days!

Jouer a l'Autruche.

Avant de faire le tour des blogs ce matin je ne vous cacherais pas que mon morale était a moins zéro a cause de ce qui se passé au Liban mais surtout a cause de mon incapacité, ma lâcheté…maintenant ça va mieux, non..non, pas mieux par apport au Liban mais plutôt par apport a moi-même, et ma lâcheté.

Quelques posts qui m'ont touche:

SI J ETAIS......du citoyen Hmida

To Lebanon With Love de Foulla.

Et j'ai aussi aimé la sincérité de la Marocaine au caire

One more day, does it still matter?

Is it the 20th day? Or does it really matter, people are dying, and that is what should matter.
Some wrote saying that they feel useless. Well, at least we have the right to say such things as being useless, but how about The UN…yes the great UN that is suppose to bring the peace back to the regions that are in need of it. How about this organization that is watching with a great Indignation (so they say) Lebanon being decimated, children killed…

And we are still watching, do we still care?

Mon incapacité me tue

J'ai les larmes aux yeux je ne sais quoi dire…c'est horrible!
Selon quelle logique opèrent ces gens, ces ogres devrais-je dire, parce que seul un monstre dépourvu de cœur et de conscience peut commettre de telles atrocités.
Ahhh! Que c'est douloureux quand on est incapable de changer les choses, de corriger l'injustice.
Dieu que ça fait mal de voire des enfants souffrir pour des conneries, pour l'égoïsme des grands.

Les mots m'échappent, j'étouffe…Ya rabi loutfak.

A race to rule the world

It is definitely true that: if a burgler breaks in and threatens my life and my family's lives I would not hesitate to save my life and theirs at any cost. (Behrooz)

I would do whatever it takes to protect my people; however it is not a burglar we are dealing with here. A burglar I would either get arrested or else, but I will find a way of getting a rid of him. But we are not dealing with a human being, it is a campaign to set the new order.

The Muslim and Arabs are dealing with a campaign aiming at tarnishing their reputation and their integrity…they want us gone dead. And I tell you what- I won't give them this satisfaction…if they attack me to provoke me and show the world that I am the bad guy , then no, I won't do it.

I want to prove to the world that Islam is a civilized religion. They need to know that it is not the religion but rather some of the followers who did not grasp the real meaning of this beautiful, peaceful belief.

I am not fond of Hezbollah or any other radical group for that matter…but one thing I liked about their reaction to the Israeli retaliation, is how they have avoided as much as they could (and until the world saw the atrocities and the Israeli barbaric attacks—BBC world has reported this morning that Hezbollah has killed 20 people while Israel killed 200 most them Civilians…and that alone proves that the world is now realizing that something is not quite right) committing the atrocities Israel has committed.

Hezbollah acknowledges, as it should have, the fact that their target and enemy is the system and not the civilians. By doing what they did, Hezbollah proved to the world that Muslims and Arabs are not barbaric as they were lead to believe.

And when I blame Iran, or rather the Iranian president, I blame a person who should have known better than throwing words that he knew would hurt his people. In diplomacy things work differently, we live in 21 century and states and head of states are bound in dealing with things, problems and enemies with some tact.

And as for Palestinian cause, I think that the world in its entirety should give a bit of its own peace and wealth to solve that issue and not one country or another.

Syria on the other hand is another problem…I will just say that it is unfair to let others pay the price for you.

Jews or Christians are not any different it is just people who talk on our behalf who sometimes make us look different.

And the end we are all human, and we all want to live in peace see our kids grow. Our leaders are pulling us towards goals that are not ours, and for a change we should do our best to turn the game around and have them serve our own goals.

Let Lebanon heal

Why?

I have been away from my blog for a while now; not that nothing was happening, but rather because nothing has moved me as much as the bombing of Lebanon did.
I am lacking words to describe how I feel. Pictures of children lying dead on the streets, civilians running around trying to save what is left (if any is…).

But what angers me the most is that the country has not recovered yet from the years of war it went through. Lebanese people are still coping with memories from the civil war.


Yes Hezbollah provoked Israel. But Hezbollah is not the children not the innocent. Get Hezbollah, nobody wants them around anyway.

The world has been silent for a long time and it needs to stand up now and resolve the issues that are burning the Middle Eastern region down.

It is not fair for a country (Lebanon) to pay the price for Hezbollah arrogance, Iran's stubbornness and Palestinians cause.

maybe i do not know what i am talking about, maybe i am unaware of the reality of things. Everything is possibel, but one is however true no matter what: Peace is not an exclusive right but a universal right, Israel deserves it as much as the rest of the world. Reciprocity is the key.

Strangly true

Strangly true!

I am usually very skeptical, but sometimes things are so clear that you have to believe.

This is not the first time it happened to me. It is dawn and I am not really asleep but not completely up either and then ...I saw something or someone.

for a moment there, I really taught I was talking to him until I heard his voice asking whom I was talking to.

So as I said, I am not really up and I feel pushed down by some weird and strange force and then I see my husband. It was just his head, you know like a projection and I could see through it, and he started telling me something. He was telling me something but unfortunately my fear would not let me discern.

I t was scary my husband was next to me asking me whom I was talking while his own head was trying to tell me something. Maybe he has something to tell me, but he is afraid I might not take very well.

I don't know, it is just weird! Last time I had this experience it was my grandma who came to visit, She sat next to me on my bed and we talked. Her voice was very appeasing, could be my weird brain?

Another blogger detained--Free Alaa!

Ashamed and embarrassed

Ashamed and embarrassed, by what Morocco has recently done, I tried not to talk about it, but I guess after the lengthy report on Al-Jazeera and other Arabic News sources there is no way I can hide it any longer.
When I first heard about the Visa denial decision in response to the Hams group request to enter Morocco for the Islamic Pan-Arab Summit, I did not know what to think.
It is not like the Moroccan government to do such undiplomatic move, yet it was its decision. What is it? Is it a sound decision, made because the government has very serious concerns about Hamas entering the country and influencing the Islamist groups we have in Morocco? Or is it a bow to the lord of the “New World”, M. Bush.
What is going on? People are dying there!
As I have said many times before, I am pro-nothing and certainly not HAMAS or any other entity; my only concern here is the humanitarian aspects of the issue.
Hamas or other, look at the people the civilians who have nothing to do in all this (well yes they have voted for the group) they just wanted a better lives for them and for their children.

My head hurts, i really do not get it anymore. You know i can't even watch TV anymore, especially the news. I feel bad whenever i see pictures of kids dying or suffering while i am on the sofa making all these speeches and doing nothing. I want to chnage things but how...?

Oh lord! If I only had magical powers. I would turn M.Bush into a frog and let's see, Ben Laden into a ...i do not know something that we can kick without being blamed...Ahhh! A ball. Who else can you think of someone else that the world does not need?

What does the Moroccan government want?

Accused of defamation, Le Journal hebdomadaire an « independent » Moroccan newspaper has been condemned into paying almost $340.000. This is not the first time a newspaper is prosecuted like this, just last week three others endured the same treatment and they could thus close, according to this article on Liberation.fr
What is the message here, I really don’t get it. Do they or do they not want us Moroccan to evolve?

According to Al-Tourabi, there is nothing in Islam that explicitly forbids Muslim women from marying non-Muslims

According to an interview given by Al-Tourabi to Al-Sharq Alawsat, Muslim women can marry if they wishe a non-Muslim men. Well! I am very pleased to see that imminent scholars like him are opening this door. We need to reestablish the connection with our religion and the only way would be opening discussion like what follows: Alsharq Alawsat

الخرطوم: اتهام الترابي بالردة عن الاسلام بسبب فتوي تجيز زواج المسلمة من غير المسلم

اقام الشيخ محمد عبد الكريم عضو هيئة علماء السودان دعوي قضائية صباح امس الثلاثاء تحت المادة (125 ) من القانون الجنائي السوداني ـ حد الردة ـ في مواجهة المفكر الاسلامي السوداني الدكتور حسن الترابي، وكان الترابي قد افتي بزواج المرأة المسلمة من الرجل الكتابي مسيحيا كان او يهوديا ، ووصف القول بحرمة ذلك بانه مجرد اقاويل وتخرصات واوهام وتضليل، الهدف منها جر المراة الي الوراء.

واعتبر الترابي الحجاب للنساء، يعني الستار وهو الخمار لتغطية الصدر وجزء من محاسن المراة، ولا يعني تكميم النساء ، بناء علي الفهم الخاطئ لمقاصد الدين والآيات التي نزلت بخصوص الحجاب والخمار ان منع زواج المراة المسلمة من غير المسلم، ليس من الشرع في شيء والاسلام لم يحرمه ولا توجد آية او حديث يحرم زواج المسلمة من الكتابي مطلقا الا ان الترابي نوه الي ان الحرمة التي كانت موجودة، كانت مرتبطة بالحرب والقتال بين المسلمين وغيرهم وتزول بزوال السبب.
واضاف الترابي في ندوة بعنوان دور المراة في تأسيس الحكم الراشد اقيمت بدار حزب الامة جناح مبارك الفاضل انه يقدم الاسانيد لما افتي به، وقال ان التخرصات والاباطيل التي تمنع زواج المراة المسلمة من الكتابي، لا اساس لها من الدين، ولا تقوم علي ساق من الشرع الحنيف ، واضاف وما تلك الا مجرد اوهام وتضليل وخداع للعقول، الاسلام منها براء .

وعضد الترابي اقواله السابقة التي جوزت امامة المراة للرجل في الصلاة، وقال ان من حق المراة المسلمة، ان تؤم الرجال وتتقدم الصفوف للصلاة، اذا كانت اكثر علما وفقها في الدين من الرجال وابان انه من حقها ذلك.

ومضي الترابي الي القول ان شهادة المراة تساوي شهادة الرجل تماما وتوازيه بناء علي هذا الامر، بل احيانا تكون افضل منه واعلم واقوي منه.

الخرطوم ـ القدس العربي

Tehran offers £30m for Palestinian crisis

I am not a fun of Hammas, but Tehran's pffer is a very noble gesture towards the palestinians; because that is what it is, by giving money it is not Hammas you're helping but you are giving a life to those poor children of palestine--Article.

- "When will Muslims become ‘humanitarian’?"

Ahmad Baghdadi, a journalist and academic on the subject of political Islam at Kuwait university, wrote in Al Ittihad, an Emirates government daily newspaper, on April 4: “When will Muslims become like the rest of God’s creation and leave creation to the Creator [God]? When will they become aware that they do not have the right to judge people’s faith? When will they wake up from their delusion of thinking they are the best of people when it comes to faith? When will Muslims wizen up and learn that our creator sees more than those who he created and that [our creator] did not delegate the issue of people’s faith to the Muslims? Why do we find only Muslims in the world that kill a human just because they do not want to be Muslims and want to change their religion?

Baghdadi continued: “Everyday, hundreds of Christians and others ‘apostatize’ their religion and convert to Islam and their nations do not confront them badly, but leave them the freedom of choice. A few days ago, the newspapers read that Abdul Rahman, who lives in Afghanistan-that the Americans librated from the Taliban movement-wanted to change his religion from Islam to Christianity because of his own private convictions, what happened? The world rose up on this poor man, as if life is not miserable enough for him living in Afghanistan. The Afghani regime-that America produced which is a matter that is forbidden if we want to go into the details on a religious level- sought to take him to court and issue a judgement of execution!

"But the West, who are freedom owners and are ensuring security in Afghanistan, stood by him and supported his right in believing in his God how he wants and by any religion. The Afghani regime stepped back for fear of wasting millions of dollars that the Western world promised the Afghani regime for its construction. In other words, this regime that calls for religiousness sold his religion for an offer from the world. The regime declared Abdul Rahman insane to get rid of the religious responsibility meanwhile Abdul Rahman stood hard by his stance to convert and did not care about the consequences of his decision which could have resulted in his death. Thank God someone was there to stand by him otherwise his body would have been dangling on the rope of the scaffold!”

Baghdadi added: “Those who do not understand religion must read Mahmoud Shaltout’s book ‘Islam - A Dogma and A Law (Sharia)’. Without going into the details, Shaltout expressed a fear of terrorism arising on behalf of some religious clerics. He also said that the death punishment to those who covert to another religion is not in the Quran and that the Hadith ‘who changes his religion, kill him’ is a Hadith of one that cannot be taken in the courts. Unfortunately, no one listens to him and his opinion is lost in the ignorance and small insight on religious matters. However, we find that Muslims deserve the award of abusing the Muslim religion and with competence too by their stiff and unjustified stands on those who want to convert. Then, after all that, the wonder: why does the West stand against us? And on top of this and that, they rant about Muslim forgiveness and human rights. As if people are stupid and do not understand!

“Please, explain to me, because I do not know how to deal with the Muslim mentality, how can a country where millions live on the sale of drugs forbidden in Sharia, the intellectual mind and even atheists, judge a person because of his convictions? Why do Muslims, amongst all people, seek to kill those who change their religion? And the rest of the world, with no exceptions, allows its citizens to embrace any religion they want without threats on their lives...separation from the parents and the ripping apart of the family? Why do Muslims not learn to respect the humanity of the human and his right to choose? The Muslim world is the only one that insults the humanity of the human by killing him if he changes his religion, and if the woman chooses a life partner without the approval of her guardians. With this, we wonder: when will Muslims ‘become human beings’? When will they become like the rest of humans, living naturally with the rest of God’s creations without harming th! em?” - Al Ittihad, Morocco

Anti-proselytism law passed in Algeria.

Yep! In Algeria this week, the law was passed by the nations counsel. The later law stipulats that every incitement into converting to other religions but Islam will be punishable by a 2 to 5 years and a fine of 5.000 to 10.000 Euros will be the result.
Read the article (French).

I am not saying that this is a bad or a good thing, right or wrong; but I think that it should have been handled differently. Formulated this way some people might see it as an incitement to be an anti-anything but Islam.

I really don’t know, I am starting to think that the world is going nuts!

What is hell?

A friend of mine is studying and gathering information to find out if Islam is a religion for her. She is really serious about converting, so she has all these questions about this and that; Very interesting questions!

Last week she asked me what my intake on wearing Al-hijab was. And just like I always say, I told her that as long as you purify your heart and deeds your appearance remains a plus and not an absolute necessity. Islam is a tolerant religion, in other words as long as you respect its 5 pillars, the others and yourself the complementing details are between God and you.

This is not the first time I am put in such position, where a dear person come to me with such questions or asking for clarifications about ‘MY’ religion. But is it really my religion? Now ask because, I have the feeling that it is not and that though I love it so much and I love everything about it, I am just perpetuating a tradition. Unlike my friend I haven’t studied Islam but inherited it and no matter what I do, I won’t have the same spiritual strength people who study it will gain.

I am Muslim myself I don't have answers to some of her questions. I just now put my finger on one of the things that are behind the issues and contradictions we suffer from in the Muslim world. It is not Islam we practice, we haven't--at least I know--I haven't studied the religion as deeply as my friend is now doing. I have inherited the religion but I have never taken time to build my own understanding of it is principles.

Here is a question for you, she asked me: What is hell?

Mixed feelings

When i read the title “How I Learned to Love the Wall” of Irshad Manji’s contributions to New York Times, I said to myself oh! My god so there is a positive explanation to the separating wall in Palestine after all…I really wanted to believe that there was something good in it after all.
Irshad’s article did not appease my trust for positivism but it did deepen my humiliation, because to me there is nothing more humiliating than the image of an old person hopping (as young soldiers are standing watching and refusing to help) over the wall to go about their business.
I have learned as a child that your age earns you respect and special treatment no matter where you go, unfortunately that is no longer true…
Irshad, well written article but it lacks balance.