Women

During a discussion on Islamic issues somebody asked me to speak and quite proudly said;

"Yeah I'm willing to listen to what anyone has to say, I'll listen to a woman.. I'll listen to a CHILD if it can learn from it!". 

As if women are on the same level as children, and this brother seemed rather smug that he was willing to be humble enough to listen to a female. 

*sigh*

My Mosaic

Here's my mosaic, answering these 12 questions that I've seen on Organic Muslimah, Boba and 'Liya's blogs.

Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into
 Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into
fd’s mosaic maker.
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Another reason our role models don't include models..

As if we needed another reason to turn away from the materialistic culture of celebdom. 

Brigitte Bardot has been convicted of inciting religious hatred and discrimination after she wrote a letter attacking Muslims. 

 "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts."

Brigitte is here referring to Eid al Adha, where an animal is slaughtered.

Okay, so the woman is an animals rights activist. So why does she attack Muslims? 

French slaughter houses mass kill horses, pigs and who-else-knows-what in a commercial environment. These animals live in terrible conditions, are fed on other meat products, they are killed infront of each other in a cruel manner and the profit goes towards huge companies ready to spend the money to exploit and rip off consumers in a variety of ways. 

Slaughtering an animal on Eid is done in a halal way. This means it is humane. Muslims slaughter animals in a way which involves much less suffering and what's more, the benefits of the meat are not wasted and go to poor people.  Muslims are a minority in France. I wonder why Brigitte is focussing on a humane, hardly used method of killing animals to eat while thousands of animals in the same country are having their rights horribly infringed upon, as creations of God. 

Learning Arabic

So, like most non-Arab Muslims, I want to learn Arabic. It's the language of the Qur'an, and the language of the Prophet Muhammad (alayhi salatu wa salam) so to increase my understanding of the religion, learning Arabic would be an important step. 

I have been learning Arabic for about a year, although I admit, at a very slow pace. This summer I'm going to start studying more intensively.

Here is the lowdown on some language books/packs I've bought and their pros and cons so you can see (if anyone reading is learning Arabic) if it's worth trying. 

Mastering Arabic

Jane Wightwick & Mahmoud Gaafar

PROs

- 20 easy-to-digest Units on topics such as Family, Food, Future...

- 370 illustrated pages - a lot of material

- Includes an index, grammar section and glossary

- Takes you from complete Beginner to Lower Intermediate level

- Teaches the Arabic script and handwriting in small chunks throughout the units

CONs

- To complete all the activities, separate CDs must be purchased. 

 

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Teach Yourself Arabic

J.R. Smart

PROs

- Information-heavy, much grammar.

- Great if you want to translate Arabic media like newspapers.

- Fantastic translation exercises included.

- Good explanation of the script, which is tackled first

- 300 pages of small text - rather comprehensive if you can complete it. 

CONs

- Not good for conversations, it doesn't let you know how to interact well, rather understand books, newspapers, TV shows etc.

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PROs

- 28 small units covering the basics of Arabic grammar

- Transliteration for those of us who are not so hot on the script

- Nicely laid out and easy to find particular concepts

CONs

- No exercises so it's hard to test your understanding

Why I love my City

Glasgow, Scotland

It's almost impossible to explain my feelings for my homeland. Except, the word "home" probably sparks a very similar feelings inside everybody, no matter where you are from. There's something about the place I grew up in, some nostalgic vibe that I wish I could communicate with words. For me, Glasgow means the streets I played in as a child. It's outskirts are where me and my friends would run around in the grass, racing and playing hand-clapping games, pretend to be detectives and argue over who got to be which "Charlie's Angel".  I love it's roads, it's strange assortment of buildings, it's curry shops and it's cafes. I love it's libraries and universities, it's bridges and tunnels. I love it's multi-culture, I love the halal signs above resteraunt doors, I love kilt-clad men playing bagpipes on Buchanan street and the reggae tinged guitar playing on the doorstep of Buchanan galleries. I love escape artists and the man painted in gold! I love sunny days with ice cream at George Square, and I love seeing rain hit the streets.

I love Glasgow.

The BBC's Women In Black

The final episode of the BBC's "Women in Black" was broadcast this week.

The 5 part series saw the presenter, who was herself unveiled, investigate the fashion of Muslim women in Yemen, Dubai, Egypt, the UK, and Holland.

I have to say, it was quite a disappointment. The UK episode was about Pakistani fashion, and the Holland episode was about Moroccan weddings. The Holland episode actually contained nothing Islamic whatsoever - except one 3 second clip of Amani praying with a female rapper.

 Although the show was named "Women in Black" and Amani claims in the opening credits to "show you what's under the veil" (how very cliched), much of the fashion shown didn't actually meet the standards of hijab. 

 Although the programme was the first of it's kind in Britain, a hijab fashion show essentially, I find it was more based on the culture of a few Muslim countries rather than the religion of Islam. 

Muslims in Big Brother

The media are giving a new edge to their representation of Muslims. 

Big Brother is a show in the UK which basically takes 16 members of the public, and puts them in a house together for the Summer. It's a human zoo, and everything they do is filmed and broadcast on TV 24/7 (press the red button on your remote!).  A housemate is voted out every week according to who the public like and dislike and the last housemate standing wins! It's usually a pretty sordid affair - people who hardly know each other end up getting very intimate, massive fights occur and attention seeking chavs get their 15 minutes of fame. 

This year, they decided to put two Muslims in the house. 

The opening night is when we meet the housemates - this includes an audition tape where they have a chance to showcase themselves, an interview and a walk up the carpet in front of a massive audience. 

This year, two Muslims entered the house. For Muslims to consent to be watched 24/7 hours a day (yes, even in the bathroom) in a house of mixed gender is strange enough, but the Muslim characters they chose to represent the Muslim population are even stranger.

First is revert Alexandra. She's a girl who likes to speak her mind, and got pregnant with her first child at 15. She says one of the things which make her happiest in life is Islam - although she admits she won't practice. The outfit she wore on the opening night was a skin tight, blue number which didn't cover her buttocks.. she strutted along the walkway blowing kisses and dancing... hmmm.... 70 excuses but it's not very good to show the nation such an example of a Muslim. 

Second is Mohammed. He is a Somalian refugee. His opening statement was;

"Not everybody called Mohammed is a terrorist". 

Fair enough, but when asked if he was a "practicing Muslim" in his interview he replied;

"Let's just say I wouldn't let my mother know the things I get up to" and admits to being quite a drinker.  

Let's just see if this has any effect on the UK's general image of Muslims.