October 2006

…For now. I just got off the phone with a well informed friend in Sudan. He says things are calming down now in Khartoum. There were a few isolated killings here and there after Mohamed Taha’s beheading but nothing that major. The so called “investigation” into Mohamed Taha’s murder is still going. The hilarious part as I’ve said previously is that the investigators are not ruling out the possibility of “Western hands”. The price increases continue but people are too scared to riot now and they’ve accepted the reality already. This is the situation for now in Khartoum. Just remember that if the UN steps into Darfur without consent, things would turn upside down very quickly. Sigh!

“Why did you wait all this time to tell me this?” asked Abbas with tears in his eyes. “I was so scared you would leave me and I was afraid to lose you” replied Fatimah with a trembling voice. “Please! You have to believe me. It was a stupid mistake and I have completely repented. I love you and you are the only person I have left in the whole world.”

“If you did love me you would have told me from the beginning Fatimah” shouted Abbas as he tried hard to recover from the shock. “You’re not a virgin! How could this be?” murmured Abbas to himself. She’s not a virgin! He stood in the middle of the room like a man with past deeds darker than his own shadow. Something lurked deep within his chest. He kept thinking to himself if this was karma.

“I thought you were the one for me” suddenly blurted out Abbas. “I am still the one and this doesn’t change anything.” insisted Fatimah. “Why does it have to be so horrific? Is it because I’m a girl? What about you haven’t you ever done any evil deeds you wish you could take back?”

“People will talk if the man you sinned with appears and spreads the truth about you. They will all point at me and say there goes the man who married a whore! If we have children, people will eventually point at them and call them the children of a whore too” said Abbas angrily. “But I’m not a whore and you know that! Even if I was a virgin, anyone who is anybody that has hostility towards me or you could spread rumours. People will always talk, so who cares if they do? We love each other and that is all that matters.” insisted Fatimah again desperately. It was pointless. Abbas wasn’t in the room anymore. All that remained there were shadows — dark, creepy and confused shadows.
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The above is a short piece I wrote 2 years ago during a “bumpy” time in which I was refining my ideologies regarding certain aspects of morality. I’ve got many similar pieces scattered around written on different forms of media. One day I shall compile them all and come up with a decent novel. The day it gets published, I’ll cancel it from my “to do before I die” list.

In Sudan and much of the Muslim world it’s a huge deal marrying a girl who’s not a virgin. There’s something I don’t like about this picture. Society subconsciously paints itself using a selective choice of paints. Men don’t get the same “dirty looks” that girls do and I don’t think that’s fair. After all it’s the men who go around “banging” the women don’t they not? In the context of the society where I come from, such attitudes are so very hypocritical in my opinion to the extent that they heavily disgust me sometimes. Truth be told, almost all the horny “bangers” banging other men’s daughters and sisters with their “weapons”, would literally bang anyone who simply dares to get sexual thoughts over their daughters or sisters. This literal banging would be carried out with a diverse variety of weapons. This literal banging would be done with the sole purpose of punishing other men for misusing their “weapons”. Moreover this literal banging would be carried out in the name of honor. “Honor”, a lovely word that means different things to different people. It’s a word easily interchangeable with the word “virginity”. I find it rather very funny and slightly depressing too or vice versa depending on my mood when I think about it. Where’s the honor in punishing someone for a crime the punisher himself is guilty of? Where?

God what the hell was I thinking? Yesterday was torture. A bunch of friends and I decided to have iftar and break our fast a little differently so we decided to drive off our “in the middle of nowhere” campus and go to the McD buffet in the nearby town. Yes, that’s right McD buffet! You pay the equivalent of 5 US dollars and you get to eat all you want. Bad mistake! The event turned into an eating competition.

My friends and I got over-stuffed like hell. I had 5 burgers, 2 french fries, a bag of nuggets, 2 ice creams and 2 cokes. That was nothing compared to what some other guys ate. Imagine having 9 burgers, 3 french fries, 2 apple pies, a bag of nuggets, 2 ice creams and 2 cokes. Crazy!

I woke up with nightmares today early morning. There were burgers chasing me everywhere… big scary burgers. I hate McDonald’s!

Maggie at Hyscience has a great post that made my day. It’s 2 days old but who cares. Read it if you haven’t. Iraqi tribes unite to drive out al-Qaeda. Yaaaay! I have a question though. Why the hell isn’t this getting any major coverage in the MSM?

I thought this would be interesting to post. It’s one of those things “on the other side” that rarely get a huge coverage.

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This year marked the second season of the reality tv competition searching for Israel’s Next Top Model (the show is a knock off of Tyra Bank’s program “America’s Next Top Model”). The three finalists are depicted in this picture. All are Israeli young women. Two are Jewish, one is Muslim. Kristine, the blond model was born in Russia. Mimi, the black model was born in Ethiopia. Her family belongs to the group of courageous Ethiopian Jews who braved starvation, exposure to the elements, wild animals, brutal marauders and exhaustion to escape Ethiopia by WALKING to the Holy Land. Niral, the brown haired beauty on the left, was born in Israel to a Muslim-Israeli family. Niral won the competition and is now “Israel’s Next Top Model.”

(source)

Seen here at her home, without the special make-up and lighting she would have at a photo-shoot Niral’s natural beauty is very obvious. Niral, an Israeli Muslim, did not win the competition to be the model representing Israel because of political correctness. Niral won because she was the best model. Unlike the American version of the tv show, in Israel the public votes for the model they like best. The Israeli public overwhelmingly chose Niral. Arab Israelis voted for her. Jewish Israelis voted for her. They liked her looks and they loved her temperament - Niral has a strong personality, she stands up for herself and is true to her beliefs. All these things gained her the respect of the Israeli public. One of the stickers on her door is a slogan coined from a phrase she used during the competition which can be loosely translated as “don’t tread on me babe!”

(source)

Ali Eteraz shares with us some news:

Hasan Hanafi, a Philosopher Professor in Cairo, is in trouble for comparing the Quran to a supermarket where you can find whatever you are looking for (i.e. selective reading). He is being labeled and an apostate (and a Marxist, which is interesting because the epithet “Zionist” and “CIA agent” were still available).

Now here’s the thing I just can’t understand. A major part of becoming religious is understanding the logic behind the various aspects of religion. Therefore criticism and questioning in the spirit of intellectual debate is important. Why can’t I question things I find weird in my religion? Why do some retards find it so wrong? I swear to God I hate this damn attitude. It’s because of it, that many people have made religion become more of a cage rather than a source of comfort and enlightment. Hasan Hanafi is a Professor of philosophy so it’s natural he would say what he said. It’s only an expression for God’s sake. It doesn’t mean he’s insulting our holy Quran. I’m happy that some reformists are standing up.

Rarely do other thinkers publicly side with him, but one of them is Gamal Al-Banna, a Muslim reformist and, ironically, younger brother of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna.

“I have to say it wasn’t very intelligent comparing the Quran with a supermarket but, in the end he’s not wrong,” says Banna, asserting that “one finds different opinions in the Quran”.

Some of the holy book’s verses are “very dense and confusing expressions” that require interpretation, he says, calling for a “return to the Quran,” interpreting it where necessary in the light of the whole corpus of Islamic theological writing.

Banna himself has been at the receiving end of criticism by traditional Muslim scholars.

Why am I not surprised? It’s a good thing that Hanafi is maintaining his intellectual stance though.

For now, Hanafi has chosen to remain silent in the face of his critics.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he told AFP. “It is in the heart of the university that these things should be debated.”

Reform starts with questioning and intellectual debate. If all Muslims become too afraid of questioning for fear of being labeled apostates, then the various aspects of Sharia that need reform will never be reformed. Yes, you read that right. Some aspects of Sharia do need reform. Sharia is not static, at least not all of it. The reason the Islamic Civilization at its golden age achieved so much was because of the fact that intellectual debate was always encouraged. It’s funny how things have changed since then.

By the way, I’m still holding on to my promises of putting up my first podcast and posting why Islam and Muslims should be distinguished. I’ve just been busy like mad.

This is how they get you if they want to

Abulgasem Ahmad Abulgasem, a political opponent of the Sudanese government, prominent figure in Abuja Peace Negotiations and member of a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, was arrested by the Saudi Arabian security forces on 26 September at his home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he lived for 28 years.

The reason for his arrest is unclear but is believed to be connected to a speech in which he criticized the Sudanese government at the Sudanese Embassy prior to his arrest.

According to our source, Abulgasim was already deported on Saudi Arabia Airlines flight 453 from Jeddah to Kartoum, at 18:50 local time. His life is at imminent risk of torture and unfair trial if not at great danger of being sentenced to death.

More at Darfur Daily News.

Werner K is a South African soldier stationed with the AU troops in Darfur. He regularly puts up pictures that give you a glimpse of how things look like there on his blog. Check it out. It’s pretty cool.

(A big thank you to Sudan Watch for bringing this blog to my attention)

UPDATE: Sorry about the pics not displaying properly. Just view them all here on Werner’s blog.

Jan Pronk is the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Sudan and he leads the UN mission there. Lately I’ve been very impressed by his efforts and the solutions he proposed. I agree with him on many things. I do however personally prefer the AU troops to handle the situation instead of UN troops. If that’s not possible and UN troops will inevitably end up taking over Darfur with Sudan’s consent, I would welcome it. I just hope al-Bashir and the UN will be able to handle the loony Sudanese Islamists and al-Qaeda when they declare their so called jihad against the “Zionist” UN troops and Bashir for becoming their puppet.

I swear to God, I sometimes wonder how the hell Zawahri passed his medicine exams and became a doctor. He doesn’t mind Muslim “blackies” getting killed in Darfur but he minds “Zionist” troops for trying to help ops I meant colonize. Oh well… To get a clear picture of Darfur’s developments and what needs to be done, read this entry in Jan Pronk’s blog. Three months are left before the AU troops leave. There’s a lot of work to be done in this time. Will Darfur be saved? Geee, I sure hope so. Meanwhile let’s just pray Iran or Israel don’t end up starting another world war because that sure ought to make things lovely!

Lovely ey?

Two former senior US officials and a sitting congressman called Monday for the US to lead military strikes against Sudan if Khartoum persists in its refusal to allow UN peacekeepers into its Darfur region.

The United States should push now for a new UN resolution giving Sudan an ultimatum to accept the unconditional deployment of a UN force within a week or face military consequences, they said.

If that fails, the United States, “preferably with NATO involvement and African political support”, should strike Sudanese airfields, aircraft and other military assets and blockade Port Sudan, through which Sudan’s oil exports flow, they said.

“Then UN troops would deploy — by force, if necessary, with US and NATO backing,” they said.

I don’t think they understand the consequences involved if such a thing happens. Like Daniel Davies said (h/t: Sudan Watch)

As I’ve said repeatedly with respect to Darfur, it’s the height of irresponsibility to demand “action” without saying what that action might be, or to provide some kind of sensible assessment of its likely consequences.

The idea of striking the mentioned military targets doesn’t sound too bad as a way of putting pressure but I think the consequences could be pretty bad. Darfur mainly needs a political solution and an agreement that has all parties involved onboard. Diplomacy, incentives and political pressure can bring about a favorable result. Please don’t tell me they won’t work. They worked in brokering a peace deal ending the long bloody civil war between the north and south and I believe they will work for Darfur too if given some time. I do understand that time itself is the issue here and this is why I so desperately want to see the AU force strengthened. There’s no point engaging in talk and diplomacy if innocent people in Darfur don’t have protection. Please remember that a peacekeeping force won’t work if there’s no peace to keep in the first place. Hence, simultaneous efforts for a political solution are vital. The AU troops shall stay until the end of the year. That means we have 3 months only. A lof of work needs to be done.

This is good. The eastern rebels have reached an agreement with Khartoum. All that remains now is Darfur. Will we become another Iraq or will we save ourselves? Time will tell. Lord have mercy!

They post jokes about Jews in Sudanese discussion forums. I’ve gotta tell you folks. Some of them are pretty damn funny. Here are some:

Why do Jews have big noses? Because air is free

Once, I was about to marry a nice Jewish lady, then I discovered that she was using one tooth brush with her four roommates…

She knew many things about my country, when I was asking her why she did not answer…

Why did the Jews walk around the desert for forty years? They heard that someone dropped a quarter.

How was copper wire invented? Two Jews fighting over a penny.

A Sudanese Jewish girl jokingly responded by posting funny stuff about Palestinians and Muslims.

A man walks into a sex shop in Jerusalem looking for a sex doll.
Clerk: So what kind do you want? Jewish, Christian or Muslim?
Man confused: What’s the difference?
Clerk: The Muslim one blows itself up.

On my flight to New York there must have been a Jew in the bathroom the entire time. There was a sign on the door that said “occupied.”

I almost fell off the chair laughing so hard after I read those next two.

Did you hear about the Muslim strip club? It features full facial nudity!

A Palestinian girl says to her mommy, “After Abdul blows up, can I have his room?”

You’ve got to admit they’re funny right? Obviously, a bunch of other guys had to eventually ruin the thread since they have no sense of humour. Wow surprise of the century!

Bob Woodward’s book is stirring decent controversy ey? Mike Wallace’s interview with Bob was featured on Yahoo’s front page. Many of the commenters there are not happy. The November elections are on the way and the American blogosphere is pretty heated up. Democrats need to pick up 15 seats to regain control of the House and 6 seats for the Senate.

The situation in Iraq is worsening mostly thanks to those retarded Sunnis and Shias blowing up and slaughtering each other and also thanks to Bush’s mismanagement. Plus, it looks like tensions are increasing between the Kurds and Arabs which could signal a third war besides the Sunni-Shia one and the one against “Zionist” troops. Many Muslims will tell you the violence in Iraq is happening because Americans are using the “divide and conquer” rule. Ya, sure thing. The violence just helps the Americans a lot doesn’t it?

If it wasn’t for our violent nature and this intense age-old Sunni-Shia rivalry, Iraqis would be enjoying a democratic Iraq free from Saddam the butcher. Aaah anyways, I don’t know about you but I have a feeling the elections are going to be “blue”.