April 2009

Oh. My. God.

Okay, so you’ve probably already heard about the amazing Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. You know, the 47 year old, unmarried woman, who’s never been kissed, is unemployed and lives with her cat?

Makes you kinda grateful for those seemingly lame high school crushes now huh?

But yeah, anyways, this kid Shaheen Jafargholi… well, he’s mind-blowing. I mean, damn, where the hell was he hiding all this time? Stellar. And absolutely mind-blowing.

That’s some serious crazy talent for a 12 year old, heck, for any aspiring singer.

Watch Him NOW >>

Listen carefully, if you don’t appreciate the awesome quote below, I’m going to issue a fatwa encouraging any pious person who sees you on the street to pinch your butt really hard until your eyeballs pop out.

Seriously, you better do as I say, or else expect that bad-ass fatwa to be issued first thing in the morning tomorrow. And if I’m too lazy to issue it, I’ll just pay someone to do it.

After all, it’s not like many of those cute fatwa issuers - including those in al-Azhar - aren’t on the payroll of their governments anyways. So hey, I’m sure they’ll have no problems accepting money from me in return for some awesome fatwa fun.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now read…

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” - Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, the super cool Sufi mystic lover.

So, you’ve probably already heard about the Pope’s recent trip to Africa where he expressed his awesome wisdom on the effectiveness of the lubricated super elastic XXXXXL condoms he found on the continent in the fight against AIDS. It looks like he’s loving them big time.

He’s completely supportive too.

And did I already mention the condoms there were XXXXXL? Did I? No, really did I?

Bet he’s also gonna like this video a lot.

Dear boys reading this blog post right now, (especially those of you in Africa), stay safe.

Use condoms when you wanna get down with the boom boom.

Although, if you think about it, once oral sex enters the equation (and it usually does), then condoms ain’t really all that effective anymore, right?

Crap, the Pope might be right about those slimy things after all. Who knew?

What do YOU think?

WARNING: Only the boys in da house can answer. Girls, the sexist chauvinist Drima says you’re not welcome. Okay, kidding. He loves you all. So, what do you all think?

UPDATE: Looks like the Vatican isn’t happy about reactions criticizing the Pope’s irresponsible remarks on condoms.

In a strongly worded statement, the Vatican defended the pope’s view that condoms aren’t the answer to Africa’s AIDS epidemic and could make it worse. On his way to Africa last month, he said the best strategy is the church’s effort to promote sexual responsibility through abstinence and monogamy.

Way to go Mr. Pope.

… The Roman Catholic Church opposes the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against contraception. It advocates sexual abstinence and sexual faithfulness between husband and wife as the best ways to combat the spread of HIV.

I say discard the ludicrous teachings on condoms and contraception.

Enough of this destructive religious dogmatism please. As for sexual faithfulness between husband and wife, thumbs up. I’m also in favor of lifestyles that reduce the risk of infection and don’t involve random multiple sex partners.

Still though, take the teachings on sexual faithfulness and random partners, and combine them with encouraging condom use.

Anyway, it’s funny how a person who doesn’t even have sex is supposed to know so much about it, let alone preach about it.

The following post will not fulfill its purpose or make full sense, unless the entire series of posts it’s a part of is read in order. You are therefore encouraged to start with the introduction.

Category #2 - “Good” Non-Rational Faith

There are truths in this world that are universal, and when it comes to moral ones, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the best document we have so far that espouses them on a global level.

However, there are moral “truths” which are relativist.

Despite the fact that I find the idea of moral relativism difficult to accept, I realize such a thing does exist, which brings me to “good” non-rational faith.

“Good” non-rational faith is belief perceived to be good in matters that are difficult to rationalize or back up with sufficient rational evidence. Its “goodness” is that of a relativist subjective kind and depends on the social construct you grew up in.

To one community, something can be “good” but to “others” it’s “bad” and hence the relativism. It also tends to fall within matters of morality, both religious and cultural.

Faith-based dress code modesty and sexuality are good examples  that involve lots of moral relativism.

The Muslim Zaynab who covers her hair with a hijab because she believes Allah instructs her to do so. The Afghani woman who goes one big step further and veils her entire face because she believes that’s what Allah truly wants. Or the liberal Fatemah who wears jeans with a T-shirt and doesn’t cover her hair at all because she believes Allah’s definition of modesty is a dominantly spiritual one.

All three’s moral dimension of their dress-code and their idea of modesty is relativist. It’s not universal. It can be challenging to paint into a straight forward black and white picture.

Through mainstream Muslim eyes, Zaynab will seem like the most faithfully moral of all three. Fatemah will come across as inadequately pious, and the Afghani woman’s faith in the morality of her dress-code will be perceived as too culturally contaminated.

But ultimately and generally speaking, the three Muslim females’ dress-code will be tolerated and accepted by the global population of Muslims as normative.

On the other hand though, a Muslim girl wearing tiny jeans shorts and a bikini who’s walking during summer down a street populated by mainstream Muslims will easily find herself labeled immoral and highly lacking in faith.

Personally speaking, I find Fatemah’s choice of clothing normative. The hijabi Zaynab… well, I’m not a fan of the hijab and I would never encourage any future daughters I may have to wear it.

Yup, I don’t like the hijab, although I respect a Muslim woman’s right to wear it out of choice, as many in my extended family do… similarly to how Christian nuns and religious Jewish women cover their hair too.

As for the face veil, I’m staunchly against it and find it heinous.

Hence, from a personal perspective, I wouldn’t place the hijab and face veil under “Good” Non-Rational Faith. I don’t find anything about them good from a universal perspective, or even “good” from a relativist one.

However, a Muslim community in general will, and this post is written from its perspective, in order to keep the example simplified.

Ultimately though, the point I’m trying to make is that all of us have beliefs we see as clearly good, and they are indeed universally good.

For instance, how often do you find people arguing over whether or not rape is a good or bad thing? See my point?

However, then you have those faith-based beliefs which to you or your community are good, but to many others, are not necessarily so. For example, the hijab or face veil, and the big debates surrounding them.

Hence, “Good” Non-Rational Faith.

Up next: Category #3 - Bad Non-Rational Faith

For what it’s worth, I’ve been feeling bad about not updating this place as often as I’d like to. But, I’m starting to realize that writing a book, maintaining a healthy social life, excelling at one’s career, blogging, and more, combined, is hard to keep up with if there isn’t some sort of desperately needed system in place.

So, as of today, I’ll pick one day in a week to sit my ass down and finish three drafts in one go to be then posted throughout the following week.

That way, the blog will be updated consistently and you don’t have to get annoyed everytime you check back for some new goodies and find nothing.

Yalla ya 7ilween.

Salam.