American Muslims and Presidential Elections 2008

"These are challenging times for Muslims around the world for more than one reason but from challenges sometimes triumphs can come to fruition as well. Post 9/11 Muslims living in the west were under severe scrutiny. Some of it was probably justified but mostly it was paranoiac & reactionary which in some instances resulted in oppressive & unfair treatment.

But by & large Muslims that follow the law of the land & live in peace are still more prosperous, freer in practicing their religion & enjoy more civil liberties in west than in some so called Muslim countries. If you doubt that than you wouldn’t be able to explain an absence of any mass migration of Muslims from west to their native lands, on the contrary, given the dismal human-rights condition & corruption throughout the Muslim world, immigration to west is still the most attractive & lucrative game in the business. Another fact that is interesting & its something that I have iterated on these same pages before is that every year 20,000 Americans are converting to Islam, most of who are women. So if west was truly threatening to the religion of Islam than I think they should have done something to curb this phenomenon. That’s not to say that everything is hunky dory in Washington. I don't, & 73% Americans don't either so I have a little company."

Absolutely in agreement with the foregoing having experienced the fourth decade of existence in the land of free

"Disagreeing with American foreign policies doesn't really mean that you are against 'us'. That stupid train has thankfully left the station & hopefully it won’t return in Nov. 2008. Please understand that most likely the next president of USA would probably be someone who is not too hot about current American Foreign policy so American Muslims should not be afraid about their discontent & should be vocal about their angst at the American foreign policy."

while remaining optimistic with reference to above, this is where there are some reservations and don't believe that people addressed here should be blindsided because the grass appears greener than it really may be

As anyone should be optimistic & hopeful & so are the core Republicans, there is cause for concern keeping in mind that certain cliques in addition to the AIPAC in USA that are up to a lot more than one can think of, while they are also crafty & creative in manipulating & mutilating the affairs of US & well equipped in concealing the truth to portray themes in the manner they would like the common & quite innocent people of the land to visualize, not to mention they also have a great support from within the media the legislature, executive & the judiciary if not entirely.

It is no hidden matter now that, a lot has gone in the preparations to become attack & invade Afghanistan & then prepare a case & invade Iraq as well as there is a lot in works & happening to strike Iran which is a long term massive plan of those neocon cliques of which the current regime is a sole part of not just a puppet; while at home a lot has been done to prepare for incarcerating masses of people in concentration &/or internment camps, the most favored outfit of Haliburton & it's subsidiary which was previously owned & operated by Lady Johnson (widow of Pres. Johnson) has been busy as they secured an uncontested contract. One would ask what is the legitimate reason for building & renovating of so many prison camps all over USA & why are so many Non-Republicans pointing a finger towards such a project undertaken by the current regime?

One would hate to think of the worst however something is up the sleeves & in works & people should at the least be cautious without panicking since, this is a matter of serious concern & there are too many ideas flying around such preparations.

Since the appearance of this particular issue I personally feel concerned not about myself but about those next generations of ours and their off-springs who are still in infancy or will be born in the future.

I am not sure if the author is aware of such crafty projects that are being worked upon however, in case the esteemed author is not aware I would sincerely recommend a research on his part.

I find myself in agreement with the author for the most part except, the concerns as described, as this is my, my children's and my grand-children's homeland and I feel very proud on the level of Islam held & practiced in this land as compared to other so-called Islamic countries for whom I pray that Allah SWT blesses all of those with appropriate wisdom and vision with true spirits in accordance with the true message of Allah SWT and as conveyed by our beloved Prophet(PBUH) ameen.

JazakAllah

Tauheed, it is better for you not to write if you're doing to write to make a damn fool of yourself...

masadi: but seriously - are you really so stupid as to think that i had to read your last two posts in order to know that they would be a bunch of abuses, false accusations, lies, hypocrisy? Or do you merely act stupid?

#166 masadi: That was very good. (applause). Write more often. :-)

tahmed writes "attempt to get attention to your otherwise barren posts"

Let me ask your unholy shallowness a simple question. You start by saying that you don't read my posts and end by saying that they are "barren" How in hell do you know that if you don't read them, liar! Then you calim I am insulting in my posts and yet your entire post is insult after insult multiplied. Like I said this snake is a lying hypocrite with the morals of a pig and the intellect of a rat, he might try all kinds of fluff to mask his dirty stench but somehow it always come through pungent and strong....

Re: # 164

Hamza sahib:

Darn it... Hamza, you missed it. Now you may have to stand it a very very long line for a very very long line. In the mean time it can be a very good idea, don't you think, to respect women folks.

Anil, r u related to bipasha basu by any chance?

Re: # 160

Hamza:

"...an equal opportunity abuser..."

You gave me the first laugh of the day, you can have your first wish of the day.

Shukriya viqar bhai..zarra nawazi hay aapki...

Re: # 152 Bravo, Abu bayTa. Well said.

Zeena bibi is a tremendous lady of many talents. As you said, she is a good hard working woman who, I am sure, has a dream for this world (most of us do). Dreams of different people do differ; nothing unusual about that.

But your point in not sucking up to cliques and fraternties on Chowk (or anywhere else for that matter) is worth its weight in gold.

I hope you'd NEVER change :-).

Anil its highly presumptuous of you to suggest that i talk down to women. I talk down to stupidity, men or women doesnt matter. I have been an equal opportunity abuser. I will say it again that zeena is right about many things but in my opinion she is wrong about obama, hilary represents status-quo, i hate status-quo when its oppressive. she has taken money from lobbyist, bama hasnt. As a muslim shes in bed AIPAC, like i said i m not expecting wholesale changes in middle east policy from obama either..but i reckon hes a lesser evil. I said it before ill say it again, if Pakistan remains this picture of uncertainty and chaos, where whoever has the biggest gun can fire chief justice, appoint citizens of usa who couldnt win a local body election in pakistan and make them PM, where we will sell our sovereignty, lives of our own citizens and national interest for the right amount, than forget obama, winnie the pooh will bomb pakistan. If u dont want pakistan bombed than pakistan needs to have some semblance of order where army isnt running amok. If pakistani people have a stake in there own country and they are content with thier rulers ..i assure you no one will be able to bomb pakistan.

Re: # 158
Zeena:

re; Don't you agree that poor folks do well when are given fair chance?

Yes, sometimes, absolutely. Sometimes all it takes is not even a 'chance', just 'stop beating me down.' Folks often do well when free to do so.

Sometimes we beat ourselves down, with despair. But, other times, it is an actual tyrant, or tyrant at the head of some mob or group of thugs, or just mean, nasty folks. That is when we need to count on the decency of each other, that is when 'a kinder mob' is the only hope we've got on earth.

Someone told me once, 'You can only for sure change yourself.' We only get a little bit of time, that may not be enough to change the whole world.

Someone also told me once, "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."

Apparently, you can't always listen to people, especially on the in-ter-net.

We can't escape the following, when it comes to the whole world: "on average, we're average." We need to forgive ourselves for that which we can't change, and just take this chance, this miracle that was given to us as a gift.

We must also forgive ourselves for being imperfect, and simply strive to always do our best. That has to be enough, because that is all we can do.

best,
FGB

And anil jii
Yes, poverty is like an infectious disease running through generations. But don't you think this is like a generalization?

What about those extremely poor folks who came out of their poverty via struggle?

Don't you agree that poor folks do well when are given fair chance?

#153 anil jii
Yes, I agree with your view on poverty. I always say this loud right from my childhood," All humans are born equal, then why they're not given equal chance to prosper?"

Trust me, even now it makes me extremely sad when I see all this unjustice and unfairness in global society. But, then this world is a sad reality where cruel prospers and poors are always on the receiving end.

Then who'll change this world? the way it is.....

#146 Posted by tahmed32
tahmed jii
Yes, I totally agree with you on this. You see, this is the sad dillemma with Pakistan, exclusively.

All Pakis are obsessed with religion and always project Islam, Islam and Islam.....in their words 24/7.

But, when you see the actual Pakistani society, everything is just opposite of Islam. Starting from Elite class and going down to poor class, every one is involved in some sort of corruption.......

And this is more disturbing for me, when corruption becomes the main stream culture and becomes completely acceptable in Paki society.

Yes, all those corrupt generals, politicians, feudals and others in Pakistan have had committed this serious crime of making a very good top class country called Pakistan in to a corrupt dunk with chaos......sigh*

And tahmed it is this kind of mind set in Pakistan that is obsessed with twisted kind of Islam(mullahism) which is also responsible in the current chaotic situation.

And if you see Paki society, it is largely hijacked by Mullahs, Army generals and feduals...All of them are insincere, incompetent and corrupt...And that's sad, deeply sad.....

Re: # 149

Thank you, tahmed32.

It is a little ironic that you characterized my post as "muslims hate the west": that was in fact exactly how I originally phrased the question when I was in Bangladesh! As in, "Why do.."

But, my hosts corrected me. These were Bangladesh naval officers at Chittagong Harbor Naval Base. Admittedly, maybe not a scientific survey. They said, from memory: "Muslim world does not hate the West. The Muslim World fears and loathes the West..." and then went on to explain the 'powerful state unguided by morality' reason.

I agree, it is a fine distinction between "hate" and "fear and loathe" but they explicitely corrected me on this point. I took that to mean that the distinction was important to them.

re "9/11: This was the culmination of a decade-long provocations by ben laden to the US. You need to consider what caused ben laden to engage in this plot."

I wouldn't dare to presume, I don't know the man. There are way too many crazy theories about, from bored radicalized playboy millionaire to miffed rebuked defender of The Kingdom in 90' to 'wedge driver' to holy war ignitor to self proclaimed reclaimaint saviour of the new empire, RECONQUISTA - 7? 8?.

Sadly, it could just be megalomania run amok. America has enough of its own bored nuts to worry about, he's mainly given them something to fuss over. Since he killed those 3000 people, Americans have killed over 240,000 of each other on the highways over nothing more important than the really good Italian Ice across town, and that pile of senseless carnage doesnt make page 8 of the local paper.

(Drive carefully by the way!)

America was bending over backwards ignoring him for a whole decade. It must have been infuriating, I guess. He mainly provided an excuse for a bored nation to clumsily go to war, and clumsily it did. Not a shining moment for any of the adults involved, on any side of the conflict.

Re;Middle east: This is the long-running feud that is best understood as a land feud lasting generations (in the tradition of the hatfields and mccoys feud).

True 'dat. It is a kind of an impossible 'one bone, two dogs' problem. (It could be three dogs, but one of them is tired.) No wise King in sight to resolve this one. If this was the M.E. of America, America would have long ago turned the contested area into a relgious amusement park, 'Holyland' -- where children of all religions would gleefully ride animatronic re-enactments of past events for a buck. Of course, that crass commercialism would desecrate the HolyLand...whereas, blowing up those same children apparently does not.

Thank you.

Best regards,
FGB