Please Retire Your Copy of “THE NOBLE QURAN”

I have seen about a dozen different English translations of the Quran and have many of them. While they each differ slightly because of individual translator differences, the differences are minor nuances and keep faithfully to the original Arabic, which is alongside all of them, except one which is entirely in English.

 

One of the earlier and more popular English translations of the Quran is the version by Marmaduke Pickthall, is is pretty good except it is in old English with too many “Thee” and “Thou”, “maketh” and “shouldst” so it is not an easy read.

Other versions are pretty easy to read and understand and as I said, they all keep to the same message even when they sometimes, use different words.

 

All except for “THE NOBLE QURAN”, by Al-Hilali and Muhsin Khan with its diabolical translations.

If I were giving the Khutba (Sermon) today….

Normally, I am not the person who would lead prayers or, deliver a khutba (Friday Sermon), although I did give a brief khutba once. That was when US Air kicked some Muslims off their plane because some bigoted passenger voiced a “concern” about “Muzlems” being on the plane. I called for a Muslim assembly at Seatac Airport where we would hold our Friday prayer in front of the US Air counters in protest against their corporate bigotry against Muslims. Notably, less than a dozen Muslims felt motivated enough to show up for the congregational prayer at the airport that day, most of them from one family!

 

Today being Friday, I wish I were giving the khutba!

• If I were giving the khutba today, I would talk about the killing of the Sikhs in their Gurudwara (Temple).

Congressman Jim McDermott Signs Pledge: Equal Protection for Muslims

Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington’s 7th Congressional District, has signed the pledge to protect ALL minorities against bigotry and we just received it. In signing this pledge, Jim is joined by:

Jay Inslee (Candidate for Governor), Rob McKenna (Candidate for Governor), Adam Smith (Incumbent Candidate for 9th District House of Congress) and Darshan Runiyer (Candidate for 1st District, House of Congress).

• “All People Are Created Equal…”

  I, _____Jim McDermott______ do affirm my belief

Trayvon Martin: A Case for Muslim Parents

 It is time I spoke with my self-confident teenage son about a few unpleasant realities.

• He is a man
• He is in the teen-to-30′s age group
• He is Muslim
• We are in America

This promises to be a most painful conversation for both of us.

 

For me, because I don’t want my son to be hurt or killed because his name says he is a Muslim.

Killing Afghans, ‘Pakis’, Iraqis, Somalis…WHY???!!!

Updated March 13, 2012…

When the news of a US soldier going out to kill Afghans, first broke, American media were focusing on TWO deaths even as they also reported that the Afghanis were saying about 17 had been killed. Almost immediately other diffusers and excuses began to pour forth, giving “News Coverage” a new meaning.

The New York Times can STILL not bring itself to report the 16 murders without offering some softening words; in the headline, the US soldier is said to kill civilians even as NYT goes on to describe what the soldier (from our Puget Sound area) did:

New York Times: “U.S. Sergeant Is Said to Kill 16 Civilians in Afghanistan“

• “…the soldier, who had walked more than a mile from his base, tried door after door, eventually breaking in to kill within three separate houses. The man gathered 11 bodies, including those of 4 girls younger than 6, and set fire to them, villagers said.”

As if to justify the murders or at least, to minimize the tragedy, Super-Patriot, Angry-Bird John McCain shamelessly shifted the focus to 9-11 instead of offering even a few grudging words of regret or sympathy.

“We should not forget that the attacks on the United States of America originated in Afghanistan,” Senator John McCain told CNN. Inferring of course, that a few deaths of the unwashed, here or there, should not be a cause for concern.

Why Muslims MUST get engaged everywhere in the US

The Grand Question of the Day is not whether Muslims should get engaged in all aspects of life around us, rather, it is whether Muslims can afford not to get actively engaged and how long we may be expected to last if we remain isolated in our own country?

It is said there are three kinds of people; those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who ask, “What happened?”

These days, Muslims fall in the second and third categories. We avoid getting involved and offer justifications that salve our conscience that we don’t need to get involved after all.

Some Muslims say it is “Haram” (forbidden) to associate and cooperate with the (“Unbeliever”) ”kuffar”. The theory being that the workings of “Muslim” countries offer us a better chance to help with honesty, decency and Justice, than the workings in the “kuffar” countries…the THEORY!

The facts are in stark contrast with the idealistic picture we have in our minds between the Good (“Muslim” countries) and the Bad (“kuffar” countries). In fact, there is more Iman (faith) in the so-called “kuffar” countries, than there is in the countries we would love to think of as “Muslim” countries. We have greater freedoms HERE, we can pursue our jobs with more ease and not worry about paying bribes just the stay in office or, get promoted and for the most part, we get more respect and greater peace here than we would in any “Muslim” country.

There is also nothing in the Quran, the prohibits Muslims from working in countries where we are minorities.

Some Muslims argue against cooperation with “the kuffar” because they are hostile towards Muslims and our cooperation will only help them persecute Muslims more.

Some Muslims keep thinking this is only for a short time and they will return to the Old country “one of these days”. These people are never going to settle down, but few of them will ever return top the Old country; they will continue to grumble and idealize the Old country more and more, but with every visit “back home” they will postpone their plans of return for a little while longer…until they are buried here.

What to do?

Pakistan’s JF-17 Presentation in Dubai Air Show

Guns or butter? that has been the single driving question throughout history.

 

Pakistan’s JF-17 is a nice fighter jet that speaks well for Pakistan’s military assembly and production plants. The aircraft is a Chinese design, made up of components from many countries (mostly Chinese, some Russian and Western) and assembled in Pakistan, I doubt if it is better that the US F-16 and F-18s in any respects except for being cheaper. By next year, it is estimated that Pakistan will be producing 58% of the components itself.

 

It is a national disgrace, that these aircraft were first used against the people of South Waziristan.

 

That said, it is a national tragedy for Pakistan to be so involved in building war machines that cost BILLIONS and become obsolete after just a few years

If Muslims did what others do…

I published a story, “Detroit Muslims force women to sit in the back of buses” a few days ago, it was not correct, I had in fact, changed a few words that then affected the perspective of the story in a different manner. The actual headline was: “At Front of Brooklyn Bus, a Clash of Religious and Women’s Rights” from a New York Times story and it was about the use of a private, but publicly-funded busline for the Orthodox Jewish Community of Brooklyn.

My motivations for sending out the changed story were to find out how people (Muslims and non-Muslims) would react to Muslims doing such a thing and how differently this story would be viewed BECAUSE Muslims were thought to be doing such a thing in this land of “Freedom and Democracy”. My point was

Is Pakistan the problem?

Out-going Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen accused Pakistan  of not only aiding terrorism against the US, but of fomenting it by supporting and directing the militant Haqqani network. By the way, the Haqqanis are located among the semi-autonomous, Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and are a US-manufactured group dating back to the days of our war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Not to be out-done, calls are coming from Congress to take military action against Pakistanand to send US troops within Pakistan to resolve the “Haqqani problem”; it is, after all, time for elections.

While such strong statements may pander well to the American public, they do nothing to help ease the increasingly worsening situation in the “Af-Pak” region in fact, such speeches only underscore the dismal state of understanding of the problems in that region. America defines problems exclusively as they relate to itself and attempts to define the origins and broader impacts of the underlying issues, are regarded as treason.

9-11; the Facts, the Fiction and the Emotions

Today is the ninth anniversary of the terrible tragedy that we call 9-11. There are observances all over the world, people crying as they recall their lost loved ones or, that terrible day.

In these sincere, honest expressions of pain, there are also expressions of people whose hate of Islam and Muslims is so consuming that for them, there is no other reality except that Islam and Muslims are