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Open Thread Sunday 10/26/2008

Published

October 26, 2008

Have we got some stuff for you on this edition of Open Thread Sunday.

1. Everyone knows about the woman who faked being attacked by someone because she had a John McCain sticker on her car. Many people, Muslims and others alike, have made parallels between this and the incident of the Muslim student wh faked being attacked. What do you think about the issue?

2. A horrible incident of injustice took place in India this past week between Hindu extremists and a nun who was raped. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described it as a national shame. More on that here.

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3. Have you seen the article by Nafees Syed posted up on CNN Commentary? The sister is a junior at Harvard University majoring in government, is an editorial editor at The Harvard Crimson as well as a senior editor and columnist for the Harvard-MIT journal on Islam and society, Ascent. She writes on how candidates need to start seeking the votes of Muslims here.

4. Who really is Barack Obama? Some people have seen this article on the “reality” of who he is, and how his highly debated past has been “exposed.” Curious? Click here.

5. Did you know kids in politically active Muslim families definitely prefer Obama? See here for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww76WzCmb8o

6. And finally, anyone wanna get their Aqeeqah party for their newborn featured in Parents magazine? See the following:

Hello!

Thanks so much for your help. Yes, what we are looking for is an actual family who had a baby and would allow us to take photos of the ceremony celebrating the babies birth. From what I’ve read and heard from my research, there is a ceremony where a family slaughters a lamb or goat, and then invites friends and family to share the meal. They then shave the babies head, weigh the hair and donate that weight in silver to the poor. That’s exactly the type of traditional celebration that we would love to take photos of. Does that sound like something we might be able to work together to find?

Thanks again!

Best,
Cheryl Lock
Editorial Assistant | Parents Magazine

Contact info@muslimmatters.org if you want to participate in this, and let others know about it as well!

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21 Comments

Zaynab

October 26, 2008 at 5:44 PM

what Muslim student that faked being attacked?

Reply
Amad

October 26, 2008 at 6:58 PM

Any Aqiqahs coming up?? this is a great opportunity for our Muslim celebration story to be told to readers of one of the most popular parenting magazines in America.

Reply
Abu Umar

October 26, 2008 at 8:15 PM

Who really is Barack Obama? Some people have seen this article on the “reality” of who he is, and how his highly debated past has been “exposed.”

A most excellent question, and one we really need to consider long and hard. I know that many Muslims have jumped on the Obama bandwagon, taken in by all the Messianic talk of hope and change which have been repeated ad nauseam. But his troubling associations are something that we must take into serious consideration, and no, I’m not talking about Bill Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I am, of course, referring to neocons. Journalist Jim Lobe has written a very interesting article about one of Obama’s senior Middle East adviser Dennis Ross, who is being described as a “soft neocon“. I find it troubling that several other neocon figures (including the detestable Christopher Hitchens and neocon Ken Adelman) have started to flock around the Obama campaign. This is certainly a development to watch closely.

Reply
Amad

October 26, 2008 at 8:34 PM

salam
Anyone planning to go to the “Torch Bearers” AlMaghrib seminar in NY (Oct 31-Nov 2)?

inshallah, i am! Who else?

Reply
manoffewwords

October 26, 2008 at 10:10 PM

Amad:

Reminder again yaa ikhwaan (appreciate the questions and comments from all who stuck to the topic):
This is not the thread to post irrelevant youtube videos (esp. yours Dawud, what was that??), or to make pitches for either candidate, or in MOFW case, to diss both. Unfortunately Nader is not relevant at this stage, so let’s stick to the candidates from whom the next President will surely be chosen (if Allah wills). We can’t change reality, we have to live with it.

Nader is not relevant? The reason Nader or Cynthia McKinney aren’t relevant is the irresponsibility of the media in excluding them from the debates and from balanced coverage, which, it seems, is an injustice that we Muslims have no qualms in replicating here on Muslim Matters.

If this debate is being done in the spirit of democracy then it’s a sham, just like the sham media we are always complaining about. Why follow in the footsteps of the MSM when we could be better. Democracy Now hosted a debate to expose their listeners to the platforms of Nader and McKinney from the Greens. That was responsible journalism. This here is just another scam.

Amad, to declare who is or is not relevant is in itself undemocratic and casts a shadow of illegitimacy over this entire “debate.” In addition, your comment that “we can’t change reality, we have to live with it” is a pessimistic betrayal of the values of activists and reformers all over this country. Those, like Nader, McKinney and Barr who champion the odds because they believe in REAL change deserve equal time and coverage. Anything less and you are cheating your readers.

I hope that you can acknowledge that this was a shortsighted and misguided and pledge to make your next debate an honest representation of the REAL spectrum of choices available to Muslims.

Reply
Amad

October 26, 2008 at 10:42 PM

First of all, MOFW, I didn’t organize the debate. I am just helping moderate the comments per instructions explicitly stated in the post. There have been many other posts on the candidates, where you could have brought up the 3rd candidate issue.

Secondly, in my opinion, the other candidates are indeed irrelevant. Nothing undemocratic about that, you have the democratic right to disagree with me :) Also, we are not a “media outlet” that adheres to journalistic standards of equal time for all political candidates. Rather, we publish opinions and views that reflect the writers’ positions on this blog. If you have something to say on the other candidates and their viewpoints, you could have always requested to write a post on them for MM.

Thirdly, there was nothing shortsighted or misguided about the debate. Simply put, either McCain or Obama will be America’s next president, if Allah allows. And we can fret all we want about the unfairness of not having a third option, but that’s reality my brother. And there is nothing cavalier about denying reality. I don’t think Democracy Now! feels that these other candidates have a chance either. They are in the business of providing indie and alternative viewpoints, and that is what they are doing.

Finally, Muslim Americans are barely getting their foot on to the political scene, let alone become reformers of the system. It is an honorable goal, no doubt, and I commend you for trying. But don’t expect everyone to jump on the bandwagon quite yet :)

Reply
manoffewwords

October 26, 2008 at 10:51 PM

I look forward to throttling you at torch bearers. Not for your preposterous opinions, of course, but for your offensive emoticons.

Reply
abu abdAllah, the Houstonian

October 27, 2008 at 5:50 AM

bismillah. hmmmm. makes me wonder if amad really stands for Angry Muslims Aborting Democracy, or does he merely uphold their desire to abort open debate about third party candidates? probably neither, but don’t let him off the hook. “mofw”? you could always throttle him for shrinking you to an acronym. i mean you only had a few words…
what’s next,
aaAth :)

Reply
Hidaya

October 27, 2008 at 11:00 AM

I am coming @ Torch Bearers InshaAllah. Br Amad, are you coming alone or with your family?

Reply
Amad

October 27, 2008 at 11:24 AM

Family inshalah.

Reply
MR

October 27, 2008 at 12:23 PM

InshaAllah I also will be at Torch Bearers!

Reply
Abu Umar

October 27, 2008 at 1:22 PM

In other news the American military has attacked a village inside Syria and has killed several people (reportedly civilian construction workers):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZzRAmgaSqg

Reply
ksr

October 27, 2008 at 1:40 PM

FTA Ms Syed’s article (#3 above):

Is it really politically necessary for Obama to avoid visiting mosques … while rallying support from churches and synagogues?

Sadly, yes. Irrational fear of Islam is epidemic in this land and not about to be overturned during the course of a presidential campaign, regardless of formidably charming its opponents may be (and I do believe that Obama, with his relatively extensive lifelong contact with Muslims, can be counted among them). Even otherwise sensible folk would collectively raise their eyebrows at Obama’s visiting a mosque–to say nothing of the field day the neo-conservative media would have–so why, from a purely pragmatic point of view, take that kind of a risk to ingratiate himself with a percent or so of the population that will likely vote for him anyway?

Reply
Abu Umar

October 27, 2008 at 5:06 PM

The government has just broken up a plot by terrorists to assassinate Obama:

Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Reply
Amad

October 27, 2008 at 5:21 PM

Wow, Abu Umar, what a story… No one has mentioned their religion yet.

Reply
Hidaya

October 28, 2008 at 12:15 PM

I hope to meet ur family there, insha’Allah

Reply
Abu Umar

October 29, 2008 at 9:42 PM

Wow, Abu Umar, what a story… No one has mentioned their religion yet.</blockquote

Newsweek asks “Neo-Nazi threats as great a worry as Al Qaeda?”

Reply
AmatulWadood

October 29, 2008 at 11:23 PM

I know this may sound like a dumb question…but if too many ppl come on the site for the debate tomorrow, will it crash or anything? I don’t want to miss out inshaAllah.

Reply
Abeedah

October 30, 2008 at 1:45 AM

manoffewwords (Author) said:

Am I reading this right? If so, then has the announcement been made already?

Reply
ibnabeeomar

October 30, 2008 at 2:12 AM

@abeedah – no, one of the moderators moved the comment to this post instead of another one so it displayed that.

Reply
Abu Umar

October 31, 2008 at 12:35 AM

Justin Raimondo: “Making Excuses for Obama: The mythology of good intentions.” Be sure to read it.

Reply