General Thoughts

Some background…

When I began blogging in 2006, it was primarily and initially because of my frustration towards the Western media’s coverage of Darfur and Sudan. I wanted to do something rather than just bitch and whine.

I saw how the Egyptian and Iraqi blogospheres were influential and how they became a powerful voice for the voiceless, and I was quite jealous. Where were the Sudanese bloggers? Where was our blogosphere? It was nowhere to be found, and so I became a blogger. I blogged, I blogged and I blogged, and it was a lonely exercise.

Next, I tried to persuade online friends in Sudanese forums to join me in blogging and sharing their thoughts more publicly. I didn’t care about what they were going to say. I just wanted them to say something, anything, and it worked. By August 2007, things had changed, and there was a small but active Sudanese blogosphere speaking for itself.

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Two days ago I had the privilege of being featured on the Al Jazeera English show, The Stream, where I got the chance to critique the simplistic and biased media narrative on Sudan, something I’ve been blogging about right here for the last five years, especially in the early days in 2006 and 2007 as some of you old-time readers know.

Here’s my main appearance posted below, and here on this page is the full episode that was broadcast.

It was a short segment so I didn’t have the time to elaborate as much as I’d have liked, and I also had to specifically focus on the media narrative. More importantly, now that I’ve watched myself, I’m afraid that in trying to be civil on TV, I might have come across as too soft on the Khartoum regime because I didn’t highlight the extent of the violent atrocities it has committed and indeed continues to commit against various marginalized groups in the country.

Luckily, I have this blog where I can elaborate as much as I’d like and state things more clearly.

The following is a list of links to resources which will give you a nuanced understanding of important background information and critical factors that affect the ongoing horrendous violence that’s unfolding.

• This is the NY Times article I referred to in my appearance, and it contains a criticism of Save Darfur and the rather unhelpful narrative it’s been pushing, along with the Enough Project. It’s an absolute must-read, and so is the Sudan-part of this Slate article.
• In April 2006, the Washington Post published an excellent article challenging numerous misconceptions that have been spread about Darfur by media outlets and pushed by the Save Darfur Coalition. The article is called 5 Truths About Darfur, and it’s a must-read.
• In 2007 I wrote a blog post that’s still relevant today called Darfur: The Reality, the Agenda & the Proposed Solution, which I’m sure many of you will find eye-opening.
• To understand the recent history of Sudan-US relations, check out Official Pariah Sudan Valuable to America’s War on Terrorism, and this article which underscores the tensions between Republicans and Democrats in pursuing a coherent and effective Sudan strategy.
• On the issue of ethnicity and religion being factors, you may want to read my article at Comment is free in The Guardian, called Ending Sudan’s Identity Crisis to get a much better sense of the complex situation.
• Finally here’s an argument for why economic sanctions on Sudan, which negatively affect us the people more than anyone else, should be lifted, and why Sudan should be removed from its now-unfair designation in the US State Department’s list of terrorism-sponsoring countries.

If you dig into just those articles above, you’ll begin to understand the danger in the confrontational approach pushed by organizations like Save Darfur and Enough Project. They might be well-meaning, but politically, their strategy has been damaging and polarizing, leaving little room for positive engagement and normalization of relations with the United States.

And if they, Nicholas Kristof and George Clooney disagree with me, then I’d be happy to engage with them in a friendly debate and discussion.

To their credit, I believe that we all share the same goal of a peaceful Sudan in which all heinous atrocities would stop, and the Khartoum government would beheld accountable for its brutal actions. However, we clearly have very different strategies we’d like to see implemented to get there.

Simply put, Sudan is a fragile country, and if the aforementioned advocates have their way, we could witness the making of another Somalia. And it won’t be pretty.

Stepping from behind the curtain
after five years of anonymous blogging

My name is Ahmad. Amir Ahmad, known to you for the last five years as Drima, and I am the blogger behind The Sudanese Thinker.

Yes, that’s me in the picture below addressing the UN General Assembly back in 2006 when I was 19 on the importance of human rights and protecting freedom of conscience.

Oh yeah, for real, and then Kofi Annan thanked me afterwards.

Right.

Why I decided to reveal myself recently on Twitter and now here is something I have numerous personal reasons for and that I cannot explain adequately in a simple short blog post. Let’s just say the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, and the changes sweeping the region now have inspired me and forced me to come to a simple conclusion.

Screw anonymity.

Initially, blogging anonymously was a convenient comfort, but eventually it became increasingly suffocating, and I decided to break free. So here I am.

And now let me get to the triple announcement.

1. Announcing My Upcoming Book

Islam: A Love Story – How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind, Broke My Heart, and Blogging Freed My Mystic Soul

About two years ago, I mentioned that I began working on a book, and many of you have been asking me about it since then. Today I’m glad to finally unveil the details. Learn more here and don’t forget to read the raw unedited prologue and tell me what you think.

2. The Future of Islam In the Age of New Media: 60 Speakers In 60 Seconds Each for a Total of 60 Insightful Minutes

As some of you know, I’m currently pursuing a Masters in philosophy along with research focused on the impact of new media on contemporary Islamic thought.

As part of that research effort, I’ve been working for the past five months on an online audio seminar which convenes 60 diverse speakers comprised of Islamic scholars, new media experts, academics, journalists and activists each giving their take on The Future of Islam In the Age of New Media.

And today it’s my pleasure to announce this online event to you. Learn more about it and sign up here.

We’ve all seen the power of digital media and how it helped in the recent uprisings that toppled the Tunisian and Egyptian dictators. And while there has been a lot of talk about that subject, there has hardly been any discussion on what I believe to be the more important topic, and that is the impact of new media on the Muslim faith.

Islam permeates all aspects of Muslim life including education and politics. Therefore, any evolution and new trends that emerge within Islam and Islamic thought, even in cyberspace, have the potential to influence important matters beyond Islam itself.

This isn’t theory. It’s factual and it’s already happening.

As Gary R. Bunt, a leading researcher and one of the event’s featured speakers rightly observes and states in his book iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam, “The Internet has a profound contemporary impact on how Muslims perceive Islam and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting in the twenty-first century.”

How and in what ways this is happening is precisely what will be explored and discussed by the event’s 60 speakers.

Having personally undergone a profound transformation in my own religious beliefs and identity–going from fundamentalism through heartbreak and disillusionment, then two years of near atheism, and finally finding peace in Sufism–I know from firsthand experience the impact the Internet can and indeed does have on the faithful.

However, that specific transformation is only one person’s journey, and therefore cannot be decidedly pointed out as representative of the larger emerging trends.

So what are those larger emerging trends then?

Stay tuned for the online audio seminar and hear all 60 perspectives.

3. I’m Speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum

Oh yeah, true story.

I’ll be speaking on a panel called “Dawn of a New Arab World” along with Libyan blogger, Ghazi Gheblawi, Tunisian digital activist, Lina Ben Mhenni and the courageous Bahraini human rights activist, Maryam al-Khawaja.

The panel will be moderated by Philippa Thomas from BBC, and will be streamed live right here.

Stay tuned for that as well.

More soon.

Peace.

The following is the raw and unedited draft of the prologue from my upcoming book, Islam: A Love Story – How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind, Broke My Heart, and Blogging Freed My Mystic Soul.

He smacked her across the face—a violent thundering slap. The television seemed to reverberate with the impact. It was the climax of the show, and I had just entered the living room uninvited.

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Yes, yes, I know I’ve been awfully quiet. Major events happened recently, and I haven’t blogged about them here (mainly because I’ve been busy tweeting about them instead).

Damn, so where shall I start?

As you can recall, I was mightily pissed off a few months back when Biden refused to acknowledge that Mubarak was a dictator, and the Obama administration reacted to the Egyptian uprising in one hell of a confused and disappointing way.

Eventually, we began noticing the shift in Obama’s US foreign policy towards the region, which went from a rather one-size fits all “yay let’s support these dictators for the sake of stability” to “let’s actively support democracy where we can and avoid doing so in the case of regimes we can’t afford to ditch.”

Things have gotten better in some ways, but not in regards to others.

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This is absolutely hilarious and brilliant.

And this one is dedicated to the Pope.

Yay to an evidential worldview.

Now, speaking of social media and what it would have been like if Facebook existed years ago, I highly encourage you to check out this excellent critique by Sami Ben Gharbia entitled “The Internet Freedom Fallacy and the Arab Digital activism.” If you’re a new media enthusiast or you’ve got a strong interest in political blogging, it’s a must-read.

Talk soon.

Cheers.

Cool new posts coming. Why? Because I’ve been away and busy traveling observing some fun stuff that are pretty relevant to this blog. So yes, Drima will be back, shortly. Stay tuned and don’t go away.

Cheers.

This is one hell of a courageous piece written by Dr. Farzana Hassan. More of these voices are needed to shake up numerous outdated aspects of the Traditionalist and dominantly accepted interpretations of the Quran today.

Interpretations that keep the Muslim mind locked in shackles and enslaved to dogmatism.

Boohoo, sucks.

Faith need not be like that.

And Dr. Farzana seems to largely agree with me in her piece, except for some small details like the one I discuss below.

RELEVANCE OF QURAN IN THE 21ST CENTURY
by Dr. Farzana Hassan

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I begin by quoting a few verses of the Quran:

“Those who disbelieve from among the people of the book and the idolaters will not desist from disbelief, until there came to them the clear evidence—A messenger from Allah reciting to them the pure Scriptures. Therein are lasting commandments.” (Quran 98: 2—4).

The reference here is to the eternal character of the Quran. It is a claim made by the Quran fourteen centuries ago– a claim which in my opinion is quite extraordinary in the light of more or less established truths. The bulk of humanity has witnessed and attested to these truths over time: that societies perpetually evolve and social norms change, therefore all societies need to reconsider the laws regulating altered ethics. It is also a claim that has not as yet been tested, as undoubtedly scripture is often treated as sacrosanct, demanding abject loyalty from the faithful.

Today I speak as a sceptic. And as a sceptic, I want to examine the validity of such claims, both in the light of modern circumstances, and in the light of the many theological constructs that have thus far attempted to confer some legitimacy to such claims.

Islam discourages critical inquiry of the Quran.

I disagree with that last sentence.

It is the dominant understanding of the Islam today which discourages critical inquiry of the Quran. Not Islam as a whole since its birth, and throughout its history of evolution until today.

Nope. Not Islam as a complete whole.

I can tell you from personal experience that making such a claim is unhelpful.

This is because it puts faithful Muslims in a difficult position, wherein they struggle between remaining fully loyal to their faith and valid skeptical doubt.

Such claims make it seem as if critical inquiry of the Quran has no room in Islam, and that if a Muslim does want to engage in such an activity, then it amounts to disloyalty, sinfulness and erosion of faith.

This maybe - and in fact is - the case in the eyes of most Islamic scholars today, and the majority of current Muslims who have been influenced and indoctrinated by them.

However, the bulk of today’s breed of Islamic scholars aren’t representative of all the generations of Islamic scholars that lived before them.

The bulk of today’s breed are a product of the Ash’ariyya’s victory over the Mu’tazila.

A victory that I believe me was one of the main - probably the main #1 reason - why the Islamic Civilization and Golden Age of Islam, fell to its knees.

Seriously, I’ve talked to many like-minded heretical Muslims who value reason, and often, I hear them say “if only the Mu’tazila had won. Islam today would be so different.”

How true.

Heck, you know what, watch the video below just so you can understand the immense contributions made by the Muslim scholars and scientists of yesterday. Contributions made by people who valued reason.

Algebra. Algorithm. And ironically, even alcohol.

LOL, I know, awesome.

But it doesn’t stop there. Like I said, just watch this video now from Neil Tyson, one of my most favorite scientists, to get a good idea.

It’s absolutely pathetic how so many Islamic scholars today love to brag endlessly about the great scientific achievements of the Islamic Civilization, but at the same time despise the philosophical foundations and high emphasis on empiricism that built its very Golden Age.

If you have no idea who the Mu’tazila are, I highly encourage you to learn more about them, starting with this.

And while, you’re at it, continue reading  Dr. Farzana’s awesome piece.

By contrast, Christianity and Judaism, the other two great monotheistic faiths, permit a liberal theology to scrutinize scripture without penalty. Islam rejects the idea entirely. But I wonder. Why must any document, old or new, religious or secular, be exempt from the scrutiny of intellectual processes that could enable an understanding of its true essence?

Such thoughts have inspired me to delve into today’s topic, which seeks to either establish or dismantle the notion that the Quran relates well to modern times.

… For example, does the Quranic injunction enjoining women to wait four months before ramarrying after the passing of their husbands have relevance for modern times? This provision was put in place for seventh century Bedouins to be able to make determinations of paternity and lineage in the absence of medical tests. But now, with all the medical advances that enable such determinations through a simple test, I question the relevance of such a provision to our modern circumstances.

Continue reading here >>

Iknow not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

– Albert Einstein

Drima just got back from Istanbul and is officially blown away by the city. Gosh, what an amazing vibrant place. I loved every second of every minute I spent there.

I don’t think I’ve ever been in any city that felt so comfortable and homey for me in such a short span of time. It is such a rare occasion of the best of East meeting the best of West, and the two merging together so peacefully, you sometimes can’t even tell them apart.

Prayer in the Blue Mosque was certainly the highlight of the trip for me. It was a deeply mystical experience being inside under the large dome listening to the beautiful and echoing recitation of the Quran by the imam.

What’s up everyone, I’m back with a little thought experiment I’d like to share with you. I’m doing it with a new format that I’ve been wanting to try out lately, because it allows me to share more in less time. Plus, you don’t have to end up reading a gigantic long post.

Video has its advantages, but please excuse me if my voice sounds a little weird. I recorded the whole thing right after waking up. Alrighty then, let’s begin. Watch the video below.

I’ll be doing a follow-up post update after this, but for now, who would you rather trust more? X or Y?

UPDATE: Many of the first 20 comments contain no direct answer to the main question - whether the pick is Mr. X or Mr. Y.

That’s partially due to a blunder on my part for not making the thought experiment coherent enough, so I don’t blame those of you who who over-analyzed the story and came up with hilarious non-answers.

For example, I didn’t have a particular reason for stating the one day time period it took both Mr. X and Mr. Y to finish their bridges. The stated short time period wasn’t meant to sound like some miraculous feat, but a number of you perceived it as such, which was quite intriguing. Regarding Harvard apparently not offering civil engineering courses, well, it wasn’t meant to cast doubt on Mr. X’s genuine honesty.

Both Mr. X and Mr. Y are good honest men. It’s just that the basis of their bridge building and design efforts are different.

All in all, the feedback was ultimately good because it’s going to help me refine this thought experiment and make it more coherent. It also helps me prepare the ground to move forward with certain related topics I want to begin discussing. More importantly, if we only take into account the answers that did make a clear pick between X or Y, then we have an obvious winner.

Here are the answers (they are limited to ones from the first 20 comments in this post and the first six comments posted over at YouTube):

Answers from the Blog Post

Zoxuf - “I would go with Mr. X because his method of bridge building has been proven to be reliable in the past while Y’s method has not yet been proven.”

Andrew Brehm - “I’ll have to agree with Zoxuf… I’d trust Mr. X more.”

Elizabeth - “I agree with Andrew. I believe in G-d, but I can’t be sure that Mr. Y actually was inspired by G-d. I’ll pick Mr. X’s bridge.”

Optimist - “I like intuitions and convictions, but only when they are my own, thereby making it hard to trust Mr. Y’s bridge… Honestly, trusting a person with conviction and intuition seems romantic, but in this case it’s also flirting with death. I don’t like crocodiles. So Harvard grad’s bridge it is!”

lirun - “i would trust mr x.. assuming i dont need to double guess his credentials”

Amjad - “I would trust Mr. Y more, because Mr. X is a big fat liar! Harvard University does NOT offer Civil Engineering degrees, so Mr.X is a liar! :P”

Answers from YouTube

yaeli13 - “Yikes, I might rather build my own boat. I’d probably go with Mr. X though.”

StephenM02 - “mr. x”

… and the score is (drumroll)

• Total clear picks: 8
• Picks favoring Mr. X: 7
• Picks favoring Mr. Y: 1

Mr. X wins.

The results don’t surprise me. Do they surprise you?

To some of you, this might just be a simple fun silly thought experiment, but to me, it’s much deeper than that. The answers this experiment generates are precisely the kind that have huge political and social consequences on everyday life.

I trust in reason, and it seems like most of you who gave an answer do too. Whereas when it comes to faith, I only revere and respect the uplifting kind in non-rational and non-empirical matters, which cannot be proven or dis-proven, but I will not be dogmatically bound to it.

More in an upcoming post.

From Sudanese Optimist’s blog:

Sudan has lost a dear citizen, who has contributed tremendously to Sudanese and Arabic literature. His most acclaimed work is the 1966 novel “Season of Migration to the North.” The novel was, at one point, banned in Sudan for its inclusion of sexual imagery, yet it was declared “the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century” by the Syrian-based Arab Literary Academy in Damascus.

More here at this BBC article. Amira also hammered out an awesome roundup over at Global Voices.

RIP Tayeb Saleh, you will be missed.

““Is”, “is.” “is” — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don’t know what anything “is”; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.” - Robert Anton Wilson

And on continues my battle with ways of figuring what is real Vs what is perceived. Go down the rabbit hole of epistemology, and I suspect you’ll never be the same again.

Related:

• Reality Vs ‘Reality’: Mediums, Sound Waves and Music That Moves
• Kant On Reality and Empiricism

And along with the second debate, Obama was the better performer in this one.

I liked how he sailed through McCain’s attack and question about Ayers calmly and rather eloquently like it was no big deal. On the other hand, I loved how McCain looked into the camera and started talking directly to “Joe.”

It was kinda funny, but I liked his emphasis on the importance of smaller government. His performance in this debate was better than the previous one which is ironic, since the format of the previous debate is supposed to be McCain’s favorite - town halls. During the first debate, he was the winner though.

Overall after watching the two candidates hit each other back and forth, I’m coming out in favor of Obama but with my nose squeezed tightly.

Thing is, when the race began, I was backing McCain. I wanted to see him win. Moreover, I wanted to see Hillary and Rudy lose, lose, lose.

Thank goodness them two did.

Obama was a no-name so I didn’t even pay attention to him. But then his phenomenal rise began, and the rest is history.

I like McCain, and I don’t have the kind of hatred many on the left have towards him, but ultimately, I believe his choice for VP was terrible. It served him well but only in the short-term. Moreover, I’m tired of seeing the lack of pressure being exerted by Elephants on Sudan to implement the CPA and settle the Darfur conflict.

Darfur is an issue which is more important to liberals since conservatives are more concerned with Iran and the War on Terror, (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). Not only that, but Biden has switched his interventionist position on Darfur too to something more acceptable. On top of that Obama is staunchly in favor of Net Neutrality. McCain isn’t strongly so, which isn’t so nice.

Am I comfortable with my choice?

No, but one needs to be made, regardless of the big question marks.

And the big question marks that remain aren’t over Iraq or Afghanistan.

They’re over Iran, Pakistan…

… and the current US economic crisis!