Freedom: Most loved, but hard to explain

One of the most wanted and loved things in life is freedom.  People that want it or desire some part of it, they will do almost anything to get it.  Yet, those that have it, tend to abuse it and squander it.

This country was founded on freedoms.  One of the biggest freedoms was religion.  In fact, in school growing up were we taught that the pilgrims came here because they were being persecuted in Europe for their religion.  They wanted to come to a new place so they could worship as they felt God had instructed them to worship.  No less then others, just different.

Here we are over 200 years later, and we still have issues with our freedoms.  Not the least of which is religion.  Religion gets mixed up with other freedoms and distorts the views of many people.

Today, we Muslims tend to be getting the brunt of the backlash.  And freedom of religion is coming to the fore once again.  The Mosjid (Mosque) that has been under harsh scrutiny in New York has become the spark in a house with a gas leak.  It has become this mainly because the media has distorted so many facts about the building and what it is.

The building has been used for a Mosjid for years.  The 60 or so people that were Muslims that were killed when those towers exploded likely prayed there.  What they are planning with that site is a community center.  A 13 story community center with ONE FLOOR being used as a Mosjid.  One out of 13.  And somehow, when the building permit to rebuild the crumbling building and to make it something better came up for review, the focus became the one floor with the Mosjid.  Not the factor that they were making a community center in a location that has historically been a Muslim community.  (That was the turn of the last century as reported in the New York Times about a month ago.)

So for those who said that no Mosque should be built where the ashes from the explosion touched, they just might want to pull out their vacuum and remove the ashes of those Muslims from Ground Zero first.  Because that is Islamic Holy Ground now.  Opps.  Did someone forget to mention that???

And as for the burning of the Qu'rans....

Well that gets difficult.  The on-again and off-again burning by the pastor in Florida was a mess.  I couldn't understand the why of that until the pastor said that he wanted the Mosjid in New York moved.  First, how does a Mosque in New York remotely effect him?  Second, the only thing that would be acheived by burning the Qu'rans is ticking off every Muslim -- not only the ones here in the US, but also all around the world.

To us, the Qu'ran is not just a book, it is the word of Allah given to Mohammed (PBUH), who was illiterate, and put into written form.  The Qu'ran is not just a book to us, or a symbol, or a picture of what we should be like, it is all of that and more.  So, it's like burning the cross, the Bible, a picture of Jesus, and any other Christian symbol you could think of all at the same time.  I almost feel like an Imam should hold a Bible burning in protest of the Qu'rans that were burned in Tennessee.  (A burning held in protest of a Mosjid that was being built/is now being re-built after being burned to the ground.)

Seriously, I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but that is the closest thing we have to what those people were doing.  My main point is that they are trying to make hallowed ground and a "Muslim Free Zone" where it is physically and historically impossible.  More importantly, it is against the First Amendment of the Constitution.  What???   I must be wrong.  No, I'm not.  I even printed out a copy of the written text to review that beautiful, glorious piece of parchment.

People site the First Amendment for freedom of speech.  Well, it does cover that too.  But I really truly believe that says sooo much about what the Founding Fathers thought was important by the order that they listed the freedoms in that First Amendment.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Did I mention that this is the first item on "The Bill of Rights"????

Have a lovely day...

This blog

I've been having trouble writing on this blog.  It goes back to what my instructors/professors drilled in my brain about writing for the reader and knowing your audience.

I've been struggling with what and how to write what I want to say.  I've been wanting to write about the Mosjid in New York, about the yahoo paster in Florida burning Qu'rans and other such matters, and I just couldn't form the words in my head about the subjects like I usually do.  It was like the lovely, poor group of protesters in Pakistan (I believe).  Lovely because they were protesting the burning of the Qu'rans - which, from all reports, was because their lives are all about God, and family.  Poor because they live in an area where they have no instant connection with the world. Which leads us to why they were protesting: The burning of the Qu'rans in Florida.  They hadn't heard that the burning had been cancelled.  Whoa.  Wait a minute.  That was startling to me, but then I thought about it, and just how common-place it is for us to get instant news.

Example: The gas main blow-out in San Bruno, CA.  It happened, and it was all over the news.  If I am not mistaken, the local news stations dumped the prime time shows to cover the explosion.  So what has been happening that I've discovered that I cannot seem to stand -- instant & continuous coverage.  Instant, as soon as it happens.  Continuous being the ongoing incessant coverage despite no new information and the fact that the news people have covered the same information repeatedly for the last two hours.

I'm the first to admit that I am a news jumkie, but when something like this happens, I cannot stand to watch the news for a week or two.  I can't stand to see the same images that have already been burned into my brain to the point of dreaming about them at night.  I already have enough problems sleeping at night, I don't need to see the images of houses burning in my head to make things worse...

But it has become commonplace for so many of us in the world.  The instant news of a plane crashing halfway around the world, and the subsequent loss of life.  So when I hear about how someone didn't hear the Qu'ran burning was canceled and even held a protest where two members of the community were shot and killed over the protest, well, it just blows my little mind.

So then I was thinking about how many of the people in the Muslim World do not understand how it could be acceptable for someone to burn books in protest in this country.  Or how people could be allowed to protest without the police shooting into the crowd.  I realized that they should be my audience.  I don't know how many would read this little blog, or if they would even want to but I now have an audience to go for.  My voice can be the bridge between the Muslim World and the American one.

Now I need to go warm up my voice....

In the meantime, have a lovely day....

To Hijab or not Hijab

So I have a precious interview tomorrow morning.  Precious because they are a rare thing these days, yet they are the biggest necessity in order to get a job to pay the bills.  Only the second one that I have had since I was laid off in April 2009.  So the biggest question that I am facing is not what outfit I should wear or how to do my hair, but whether I should wear the hijab or not.

Ramadan is ending this week and I have made a conserted effort to wear the hijab, to get used to wearing it on a regular basis.  But the political environment has been getting truely horrific for the Islamic brothern here in the States.  It is being exsaserbated by the renovation of the Mosjid near the World Trade Center.

Yes, this was one of the major reasons that I started this blog.  By the same token, it is a very difficult subject with many facets that have to be examined and polished for clarity on the subject.  Way too many to start looking at them now.  But I want to look more at the effects of what is happening with this situation.

One major effect is the amount of stares I have been getting for wearing the Hijab.  I get stares anyway -- well you would to if you saw a very fair, blonde hair, & blue eyed woman wearing a hijab too.  I even get stares when I go into the Mosjid.  But the stares have been increasing and getting more astringent of late.

Not only from the white Anglo-Saxon descendants, but also from the Persian and other people from Muslim majority countries.  In the past, the white people have been more rude about it.  Imagine eating dinner with your niece, who is sitting across from you, in a restaurant having a really good time laughing until your crying and generally having a blast.  Only to have the family that sat down behind your niece and stare at you.  And I'm not talking the occasional glance from the child, I'm talking the uncomfortable hard stare that you feel into your soul from the father of the family.  I'm talking seeing him always looking at you when you're looking at your niece, and every time you happen to glance over.  To me, it was beyond rude, and it really put a damper on the evening for me.

But it hasn't gotten any easier.

The overt showing of displeasure of the Mosjid being near ground zero has put the Islamic world back under attack.  Like I said, I will go into this further at a later time, but one of the major things is that the Mosjid has already been there for years.  They just want to remodel or gentrify the building and make it more useful.  They needed the proper permits to do this, and they applied accordingly.  It's just someone who dislikes the Islamic world that put the permit request out there and twisted it.

This dislike has quickly and readily spread to other states and Mosjid.  The one under construction in Tennessee is a very good example.  Someone torched it.  It is now an arson case, and has garnered national attention.  More locally, the Mosjid near San Jose has gotten attention and backlash for wanting to build a minaret on one corner.  The opposition was disguised by trying to put it under the "arcitecture doesn't fit with the neighborhood" school of thought.  The appeal of the approved permit was denied.

But all this goes internal with me.  I feel the stares stronger and I am used to them because of the cane that I walk with.  I feel the stares because of my hijab.

So tomorrow, I have my precious interview.  Despite my attempts to be more Muslim, I will not wear my hijab.  I only have myself to rely on to pay my bills, and unemployment will be ending soon.  If I can give them less of reason not to hire me, the better.  Allah forgive me, but I need to do what I can to become employed.