Barack Mubarak?

November 7, 2008
Among Young Muslims, Mixed Emotions on Obama
By PAUL VITELLO

It was easy for them to love the candidate. With the same passion, and for the same reasons that millions of other young people did, they loved Barack Obama’s call to activism, the promise of change, the sheer newness of the guy.

What was hard was feeling they could not show it because they were Muslims.

“I pretty much kept away, because I didn’t want to appear with an Obama button and have people look at me and say: ‘Oh, a Muslim girl supports him. Aha,’ ” said Sule Akoglu, a 17-year-old New York University freshman, who wears a head scarf.

Like just about all the Muslim students who gathered Wednesday night at the university’s Islamic Center on the day after the election, Miss Akoglu described a mixture of delight and frustration at the successful campaign of the nation’s first black president-elect.

He had run a great race, broken so many barriers, done so much right. Yet the persistent rumor that Mr. Obama was a Muslim had led his campaign to do things that the students found hurtful, they said. The campaign had dismissed a Muslim staff member for seemingly flimsy reasons. A campaign worker had shuttled two young Muslim women wearing head scarves out of the line of sight of TV cameras at a rally.

And the candidate known for his way with words had never said the words they waited for.

“In my community, people were saying to me, ‘Who do we support?’ ” said Meherunnisa Jobaida, a journalism student from Queens. “The person who is making the stereotype? Or the person who is not defending us?”

The words defending them were finally spoken instead by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, when he announced his support for Mr. Obama on Oct. 19. Answering a question about the candidate’s faith, Mr. Powell said: “Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?”

The remark struck so profoundly, said the young Muslims at the meeting, that Mr. Obama’s election — in which they thoroughly rejoiced — was like the icing on Mr. Powell’s cake.

Lina Sayed, a Queens native and a recent N.Y.U. graduate now working in finance, said Mr. Powell’s matter-of-fact articulation of an essential American principle lifted a sense of alienation that she had come to accept, and was almost unaware of.

“I forgot about the American dream,” she said. “I forgot that something like this was possible.”

The Islamic Center at N.Y.U. serves about 2,000 students who identify themselves as Muslim, offering activities like skating and bowling, as well as a place for religious instruction, daily prayers and regular meetings like the one on Wednesday night, where students are invited to come and talk.

Though a small sample, the views of the dozen students that night — most of them the American-born children of immigrants from South Asia and the Middle East — generally reflected the results of surveys and recent scholarship.

The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, for example, recently found overwhelming support for Mr. Obama among the country’s estimated 2 million Muslim voters; and scholars like Jen’nan Ghazal Read, a Duke University sociology professor who studies assimilation patterns among Muslims in the United States, has described the sense of resignation many Muslims felt at how the pejorative use of the word “Muslim” went unchallenged during most of the campaign.

“This is a very sober, mature voting population,” Professor Read said in a telephone conference call with reporters yesterday. “They understand the realities.”

Sufia Ashraf, a freshman pre-med student, voiced that sobriety: While disappointed by Mr. Obama’s failure to speak up for Muslims, she was willing to let it go. “I would rather Barack Obama win,” she said. “If he had said something like what Colin Powell said, he might have lost.”

Imam Khalid Latif, the Muslim chaplain who runs the N.Y.U. center, said that throughout the campaign students were “figuring out what it means to be a Muslim in America,” and that seven years after 9/11, young Muslims are still facing tricky questions in their everyday lives. To wear a full beard, or trim it? Skull cap or baseball cap?

Ms. Sayed, the recent graduate, said two of her brothers who worked in the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania, both of them with “very Muslim names,” decided to do their door-to-door canvassing as “Alex” and “John.”

Among the students, many are children of small-business owners who supported Senator John McCain. Many were schoolchildren on 9/11, taken by surprise by the taunting of their classmates, and even more surprised by the police security that became part of their daily school life for a while.

Miss Akoglu, the young woman who did not want to hurt Mr. Obama’s chances by campaigning for him wearing a head scarf, had made the religious commitment to wear a scarf, in fact, just the week before 9/11, when she was in the sixth grade. Though she received more attention by wearing it, and more grief, she has worn it ever since. (After Mr. Powell’s public remark, Miss Akoglu began wearing her Obama pin just to the side of the scarf. “That’s when I put it on,” she said.)

For all the apparent conditions placed on full participation in the political process, the students said, they were more optimistic about the future the day after the election than the day before.

The election proved that the promise of America is real, that the only barrier to participation is one’s own inertia and that “now is the time for us to step up,” said Haseeb Chowdhry, a senior at the university’s Stern School of Business.

“We love this country. This country has an ability to change — that is its strength,” he said.

The consensus among them about Mr. Obama (only one of those present had supported Mr. McCain) was partly generational, partly an identification with anyone saddled with a name like Barack Hussein Obama, and partly a sense of common ground with another child of the world.

“He’s grown up in Indonesia, in Hawaii, in the Midwest,” said Mr. Chowdhry, whose family roots in Pakistan allowed him to grow up in two cultures. “The guy is a cosmopolitan. That’s important for the future. To be able to understand that we are part of the larger world.”

Mr. McCain’s only supporter in the room, Jameel Merali, a junior studying hospitality management, said Mr. Obama’s victory was a wonderful thing, though he still had reservations about his view of economics.

After explaining his understanding of Mr. Obama’s view, and contrasting it with his own — using terms that college students taking economics courses might follow — Mr. Merali concluded that all in all the system of checks and balances would protect the nation against any intemperate economic decisions the next president might consider.

“That’s the beauty of it,” said Mr. Merali, who was born in Tanzania. “The way it was all set up by our founding fathers.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/nyregion/07muslims.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

More Modern Islamic Art

hey guys, two more Islamic graffiti sites (click on the names):

mazzy malik


samir malik

This is just a quick post - I have midterms this week!
Salaam

When Islam Meets Bridget Jones

This is a BBC News article about "Jewel of Medina" by Sherry Jones. Judging from the article, I definitely am not going to be reading this book. However, it's good to be "in the know" about the storyline - here's the article:

A romantic telling of the life of one of the wives of Islam's prophet has caused controversy among some Muslims - and its publication has been indefinitely postponed in the UK amid fears of a violent reaction. But is The Jewel of Medina actually any good? Blogger Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is one of the few people in Britain to have read it.

The Jewel of Medina is a chest-heaving, brassiere-busting book of outrageously tacky historical romantic fiction.

Some parts of the media are suggesting that this book is at the forefront of defending free speech. The author wants it to reach out to solve our global problems of intercultural dialogue. Between them they had me rolling around on the floor laughing.

The book claims to tell the story of Aisha, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, through her own eyes, from the age of six, through adolescence and into adulthood. But although she lives through one of the most dramatic periods of history, the narrative conveys little of the enormity of the changes of the era, and of which Aisha was a huge part.

Sherry Jones, the author, says she wanted her book to be "at once a love story, a history lesson and a coming-of-age tale".

In order to do so, she fabricates a storyline about a lover, Safwan, whom Aisha runs away with - but then decides to leave and return to Muhammad.

But this invented plot dominates, leaving barely any room for the real history and importance of her story.

Whether you believe her to be fact, fiction or fantasy, and Muslims believe her to be very real, Aisha is of great significance in global history. The one fifth of the world population who are Muslim regards her as the wife of the Prophet Muhammad and a "mother of the believers".

click here to read the full article

and here's another linked post from our sisters of Muslimah Media Watch: http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2008/10/16/theres-something-about-aishah/#comments

Sofia Baig: Daughter of the Sand Album out now!

Remember Sofia Baig, the amazing spoken word artist I mentioned in a past post? Well, she recently came out with her first album! It's titled "Daughter of the Sand"

So, I suggest you visit her site: http://www.sofiabaig.com and listen to her stuff (if you haven't already) aaand if you like what you hear then support this sis and order her cd! Seriously, $15 for some insightful thoughts - which are hard to come around these days - sounds like a good deal to me.

Salaam and happy listening!

Islamic Graffiti Artist: AEROSOLARABIC aka Mohammed Ali

Salaam girls and guys! I hope everyone's Ramadan was amazing and that your Shawwal is going well - hurry up and do your six sunnah fasts if you haven't already! Okay, coolest thing ever - Islamic Graffiti (: legiiit. Mohammed Ali is British, but he's bringing his projects into the US (yaay!) I have two videos for you guys and they pretty much give all the background info so there's not much for me to write. Check em out, let me know what you think.

BBC:


CNN:


there are more videos on his site as well as galleries of his work: http://www.aerosolarabic.com/v2/index.php

ps, anyone have cool islamic art they'd like to have featured on my site?

Peace.

The Nature - Talib feat. JT

[Talib Kweli]
Expect the unexpected
Yo

[Intro & Interlude: Talib Kweli & Timberlake]
It's kind of hard to keep faith in the things that you do
When everybody turns they back on you
It's kind of hard to keep faith in the things that you do
When everybody turns their back...

[Talib Kweli]
Yeah I know a city that's surrounded by a beautiful beach
The economy boosted by the drugs they move in the street
More clearer than the crystal sky, blue as the beast
The people ain't got shoes for they feet, or food to eat
So they hurtin but what's for certain you can get you some heat
And over beef you laid to rest like you was gettin some sleep
Where the little kids get ammunition (word) you can't get no nutrition
Or any type of suitable living condition listen
They shoot you over that paper, its just survivalist human nature
to put you out of your misery like euthanasia (yeah)
Don't let them fool you we ain't different than the youth in Asia
Africa and Europe, it's a small world we truly neighbors
If they the third world then who the first to get to heaven
I know it's hard but who does God choose to go through it worst
Usually it's the prophets, ask a cat what really matters
Nowadays usually it's his pockets

[Chorus: Justin Timberlake (Talib ad libs)]
We gotta get back to what really matters
We gotta search our soul to find out, what we're after
The more I find my voice the more they try to make it harder
Mom and dad don't forget, to warn your sons and daughters
About the-na-ture-of-the-world-to-day, the nature of the world today
The-na-ture-of-the-world-to-day, the nature of the world today

[Talib Kweli]
Word! Don't nobody talk no more they all text message
Drivin and typin, not payin attention, missin they next exit
Dependin on navigation they ever know where they goin
They stayin stuck in one spot they not growin
I'm so over cryin, waitin and hopin playin the blame game
The game changed me into (A Different World) like Dwayne Wayne
I'm gettin high just to maintain (yeah)
Take my music like a drug and drop the needle in the same vein
I get a rush like I'm tweekin off blow
Except it ain't via the nose it's from deep in my soul
The street slang I be speakin in code
Kick in the do's, freakin the flow 'til the speakers explode
We in control, the people know I speak the truth
The power of my roots is thicker than sour sop
And they so strong they bustin out the flower pot
Family tradition is to tell 'em you love 'em
While your family livin from granny in the kitchen the little man in prison

[Justin Timberlake]
I'm just tryin to get back, to what really matters
I'm tryin to search my soul to find out, what I'm after
But the more I find my voice the more they try to make it harder
So mom and dad don't forget to warn your sons and daughters
About the-na-ture-of, the world today, the nature of the world today
The-na-ture-of, the world today, the nature of the world today