Traditionalist versus Modernity

I recently read this article 100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About which talks about things like dialup modems, dos, letters, library books and numerous other things kids of the next generation will have no idea about and never experience. I felt unaccountably sad reading it. Not old necessarily but no doubt I’ve crossed the mark where I’m now ready to say “back in maaahhh dayyyyyy young whuppersnappers…” !! lol , but I just feel sad that all this progress and modernity is taking away things that really made us appreciate life and developed our character.

Someone recently called me a traditionalist I guess it’s true… I certainly do feel sometimes that I’m living out of time and should have been born in a different era. But then I think I like some things of now, but want to also keep some things of the past. As time rushes forward, let’s look at a few specific examples of how far we’ve come in just the last 20 years in my own lifetime:

From phones to mobile phones. While I agree cell phones are greatly convenient for meeting up with someone at the mall, sending a quick amusing text to someone or emergencies, there’s just so much we have lost by having this ‘always on, always connected’ device. Ever try to pray Taraweeh at the Mosque? Or any prayer for that matter? Or any lecture? Or let’s say TAWAF AROUND THE KABAH. Yes I heard one guy chitchatting to someone in Arabic during Tawaf telling them ‘I’m making Tawaf’. Oh really!? Hmm. How about eating at a restaurant or just walking around the mall or the grocery store or texting while driving or oh yeah walking down the sidewalk!? People just can’t seem to stop. It’s like it’s become a crutch now. I’ve seen people texting other people at an Islamic retreat in remote mountains!! Uhhh what are you gaining exactly. And what are we losing; the experience, the normalness of life, regular interactions. As a society we’ve never thought about what we were losing by the absolute proliferation and ubiquity of cell phones. Even in remote villages in India the latest rage is to have video/camera cell phones. What are they improving and what are they destroying?

From books to e-books. Really? I hate e-books and I’ve read plenty. There’s just something in the idea of a book being so totally portable. While we have kindles and ipods it’s just not the same. Can you curl up with an ipod on a rainy day, or read an electronic novel on the beach, or drop your kindle over the side of the bed when you feel sleepy? Just not the same. There’s something too in owning a physical book, having a bookshelf of books, giving them as gifts, passing them on, borrowing them, finding a rare book, having references. I have tons of Arabic references on CDs but I still reach for the shelf. Books were never meant to be long pages of electronic text. Maybe it’s the way we process information, pages at a time in our mind as a story progresses or something, but losing out on traditional books is truly a loss for society. It highlights how we’ve become so information/soundbyte driven. What we do now is type in google, gloss over wikipedia or listen to a youtube clip, never really learning anything in comprehensive/completeness.

From regular TV to 1 billion all the time DVR channels. I know the next generation will have no idea what it meant to anticipate a show or have fewer choices that might make them actually learn something or watch something they wouldn’t have otherwise or maybe watch less, period. When’s the last time kids have watched something with their parents or as a family. Gone the way of VCRs eh. I always see these kids switching from channel to channel to channel and even watching 2 or more things at the same time. And then they complain there’s nothing on TV and we wonder why our kids are so messed up lol! I saw one kid at an Islamic school secretly pull out his illegally downloaded collection of DVDs, of R-rated movie after movie. Yup technology is great. We can watch as much as we want all the time. Luckily there’s been so much written on the effects of TV, mostly negative, and on how it has changed how we process/learn by Western authors that I don’t have to go into it.

From Makkah to new Makkah. If you’ve been unaware, one of the most startling changes to our holy places has been occurring within our own lifetimes. Those who went to Hajj or Umrah just 20 years ago remember colorful souks, seas of diverse humanity, meeting Muslims from all over the world and open access to the special sites of historical significance. Those of today? Remember: Huge megapolis hotel/designer boutique complexes, grand buffets, faceless people covered with surgical masks and being in the Haram numerous times in their lifetime. No doubt it is a blessing that more Muslims can be accommodated but we’ve just lost that once-in-a-lifetime Malcom-x life transforming type of experience Hajj used to be. I remember a time not long ago when someone came back from Hajj and everyone in the community would go to visit and welcome them and ask them about their wonderous experience and stories.

Seeing digital computer animations of what the Haram will look like in a few years is like seeing a modern Jetson city of humongous skyscrapers, hotels and cars. Yes we can build it, we can be modern and shiny and whatever. But why? We have lost something so precious. Our link to the past. The feeling of being in the Holy cities, of following in the prophets-of-old’s footsteps, of any historical significance. It’s just been wiped clean. It’s like a dystopian utopia!! Dubai or Makkah? Will we even know the difference?

Future Makkah

From normal interaction to Facebook, twitter, etc. This is the biggest change I think we will see most of the effects of in the next decade. Social networking was supposed to bring us more together, help us keep in touch and somehow help us in our lives. But it’s designed a new kind of social strata and society that makes normal friends and life look simpleton. Numerous studies show that ‘social networking’ is only making us into anti-social dysfunctional inhumane beings and yet we continue to plug away driven like a nerdy 10th grader by some kind of peer pressure trying to get a date for the prom! :p Ack! We’re not closer, our relationships are not more real and social networking has brought forward a whole host of problems that we now have to deal with.

Do we really need to know what everyone is doing each second? Do we really need to compete over pictures and statuses and how many ‘friends’ we have? Is being witty in 140 characters really progress for humanity? Do we really need to share so much of our lives with high school friends we knew a million years ago or an acquaintance we just met? There seems to be no end to our connectivity even while it is increasing our narcissism, jealousy/envy, passive-aggressive behavior and drama in our lives. Apparently, we didn’t have enough drama in high school and need more! Why don’t we just implant a chip in our brain that just connects to all the other chips in the collective. Oh wait, I thought we destroyed the borg, not are the borg!!

Anyways, just some offhand examples I thought to mention. I’m not saying I don’t like technology. I love technology and I love that with it, some things can become easier and better for us. That some things really have a lot of benefit and have made life so much more interesting in many ways, more than any other time in the past. But why aren’t we aware of the choices we are making and realize that with bigger, better, newer we are losing precious things in the process.

Sometimes living in the US we don’t even understand or know what we have lost (like this next generation will not know what we loved or experienced after us). Living overseas in arguably one of the most preserved societies ever, I came to realize there were so many little things that we should be mourning the loss of. It was like living in a different world there without all these ‘modern conveniences’, low technology, hardly any internet, hardly any telephones for that matter. There were many people there who did not even own phones! People live in simple ways, in small homes, connected to real people and connected to the environment around them. Everything is old and in their own way they try to preserve certain things of importance: historical places, their old Mosques, their good cultural traditions, their societal values of hospitality, generosity, politeness, welcoming of strangers, learning, preserving institutions, giving to the poor. They also just didn’t covet material things like us. They buy what they need and use and no extra. If you exclaim over something they have, they will turn around and give it to you! They reuse and recycle everything because they just don’t see the point of waste. They want to preserve the things around them for their children.

Satellite television and popular culture was at that time slowly making a dent but nothing like the influence it has on the rest of the world; so they were protected. Just walking through the souk and buying something from the person who actually made it or grew it, knowing the cafe owners by name, meeting and sharing with your neighbors. Even some very old traditions such as the closing down of one’s store when a coffin was carried through the souk on its way to burial, the Ramadan suhoor drummer guy, wedding customs, decorating the house of a person who went to Hajj, visiting the sick and the poor. Such beautiful things may soon be lost to ‘modernity’. Living there in the 1100s and living there now is different but somehow they have kept so much of their beautiful culture and traditions, you often wonder if you’re living out of time! Their etiquette and their interaction with other people, guests, store owners, their positive way of life, of family and tradition and religion, ethics, they’re all the same. Somehow they have kept them and they fight to keep them regardless of the encroaching ways of the world.

Modernity: Mosques and Dishes

In all our progress and modernity, I just feel like we’ve lost so many of the beautiful experiences and traditions of the past. We can never appreciate the simple things. We can’t see the worth in the history, the tradition, the culture. We’re oblivious to the downside of any technology. We never say ‘well maybe we shouldn’t do that’ or ‘maybe this technology doesn’t improve my life’ or ‘what do i need that for when i’m fine right now’ or ‘do i really need to buy ……’ We can’t seem to turn it off, unplug or disconnect!

Again I’m not saying we should go back to living like we were in the 1100s, I like things like washing machines, modern transportation or Islamic lectures via internet but why have we lost our appreciation for having less clothes, horse back riding or learning in a Madrassa? Why can’t we keep and appreciate the good things of the past and adopt or limit the things of the future in a way where we preserve what we value and encourage a healthy and dare i use a buzzword ‘green’ way of life. Are they diametrically opposed?

Maybe we should take some time this Ramadan to unplug, let go of some of our ‘modern’ attachments and try to come back to a natural way of life and reflect on what we have missed living in all our progress and modernity ;-D

Ayah Aref, too political to be helped?

Ayah Aref on the 5th anniversary of her father’s arrest and detention by the gov’t.

Recently I was trying to publicize an event in our town to protest the injustices going on against Muslims. I described the Muslim response as pathetic and I received replies that people ‘were afraid’ or even that ‘there’s no need to be political in Islam, you can be just as good a Muslim without it’.

Now this is going to sound mean but for people who say that I wonder what they would say if tonight the FBI raids their house and arrests their father and drags him off to jail in the middle of the night, destroying their entire family. Gee it’s OK not to be political right. And then when they become social piranhas to the Muslim community, have no income, have psychological problems and are forced to beg for help from the same government that did this to them I wonder if they would have the same reply?

I really can’t understand where this apathy comes from in our community. It’s honestly disgusting to see. It’s like you watch a man being beat up in the street or a woman raped and you don’t do anything. You close your window and go back to watching American Idol.  Is this what it means to be Muslim? We only care when it happens to me?

What does the Qur’an say about this?

The Qur’an says: “We sent aforetime our messengers with clear Signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance, that men may stand forth in Justice.” [Al-Hadeed 57:25].

“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.” [An-Nisa 4:35]

How can we then sit back and say we are Muslims when we can’t even follow the Quran and stand up for OUR OWN, let alone any injustice to anyone else. When we know that sitting back and doing nothing when there is injustice and need is just not part of Islam. How many places does Islam exhort Muslims to fix the wrongs of society? To give to the poor, to stop taking usury, to look after orphans, to stand up to an unjust ruler, to not be prejudiced, to stop the ills of society, to spread a word of truth, to help those oppressed. All these goals are for social justice amongst ourselves. The Seerah of our Prophet(s) is rife with example after example of how the early Muslims stood up to every injustice and worked to change them.

Yet it seems that we do not care. Our Islam has been relegated to our heart. It’s my own personal faith and belief. No one has a right to “judge me”. Sure no one can judge you, but ask yourself what it means to be a Muslim. Is it all about just prayer and fasting or is there a reason why there is so much exhortation in the Qur’an to truth and justice?

Can a Muslim cut themself off from the entire world and other Muslims and believe it to be fine? Can a Muslim stand by and do nothing while injustice is occurring to others? What is the difference between Islam and other faiths where it is all about belief only? If you believe hard enough you’re saved and that’s all you have to do?

People who refuse to do anything, how can you believe that it is Islamic to act like that towards our Muslim brothers and sisters who are in such difficulties? How can we not want to prevent it happening to others? How can you expect anyone to help you? Do you expect God to help you, when you don’t help others? (after all it might be ‘too political’)?

Now I’m not asking people to run wild through the streets burning flags or whatever, which is usually what people like to think of as ‘political things’ so they have an excuse not to do anything.

Here are some simple things that every Muslim can do in their community.

• Read articles and news about the different injustices going on just to keep informed.
• Join the different groups or even just their mailing lists that are working on these things.
• Make food and send it to the wives and children.
• Forward and link to articles that talk about these injustices, making other ppl aware of them.
• Buy Eid presents for the kids.
• Volunteer to help Muslims in need in your professional capacity, ie as a lawyer, doctor, teacher or psychologist, etc.
• If in MSA, help organize seminars and lectures discussing these issues.
• Help the kids buy school supplies or other things they may need for their education.
• Write to the men in jail or send cards.
• Help donate money to the funds set up for the families which goes to pay for their rent and food and education.
• Follow orgs like the ACLU and CAIR when they send out action type items like writing or calling certain people to further a cause.
• Whenever you see the wives/kids smile and take some time to talk them.
• Attend the information sessions and seminars on these topics at local Mosques, MSAs or Law schools.
• Support others who are trying to support the wives and kids, ask what you can do to help them help.
• Buy new clothes for the kids or mothers and give it to them as gifts.
• Listen to independent radio stations and shows like Democracy Now and Independent Radio that expose these issues.
• Volunteer to take the kids to the park or somewhere special.
• Buy and read the books and autobiographies written by and about these men and the injustices going on.
• Attend events organized by ppl trying to fight injustices. If you don’t understand the goals or benefits of a particular thing (ie a rally or demonstration) ASK them.
• Help give rides to the kids to visit the doctor or dentist or to go to Islamic events.
• Learn more about each specific case and the legal dimensions involved and discuss with others.
• Visit the wive’s businesses and try to support them by buying.
• There are a thousand things we can all do within our own capacities.
• Make Dua for the men in jail and their families.

Now I am going to say the meanest thing I have ever said on my blog: If you personally have never done a single thing on this list or refuse do a single thing on this list, I’m going to ask you if you have a shred of mercy in your heart, and if you don’t have a shred of mercy I’m going to ask you how you think you are Muslim.

Are these things so hard? Why aren’t we doing them? Certainly there are at least one or two things we can do on this list or think up on our own that we could do. Will these things bring down the wrath of the FBI at our door? Very unlikely. Are these things so overtly political that we’ll be branded a ‘freedom fighter’ or worse. NO they’re not.

Even the pagan Quraish, sworn-enemies of Islam, secretly sent food and necessities to the Muslims OUT OF THEIR COMPASSION. Where is our compassion brothers and sisters? Where is our Islam? The Islam of justice for all of humanity, of caring, of uplifting, of ideas for a new and better way of life for the oppressed and downtrodden, of equality, of truth, of fighting evils in the world. Has it become lip-service? Ritualized faith? Are we living at the End-of-Times where we say La ilaha ilaAllah but we don’t even know what it means?

Can you look into Ayah Aref’s eyes and turn your back on her and say she has nothing to do with you?

You’re too busy with your own life right, too busy fasting and praying??? I’ve heard all the arguments and excuses for not doing anything. That people are scared, they don’t have time, they’re barely surviving, they have other priorities, blah blah blah. Frankly, they’re the same things Shaitan whispers to me to prevent me from doing a good deed. Why do we let Shaitan do that to us, instead of doing what’s right?

I know this is a mean blog and a personal one, and perhaps uncomfortable for some people. It’s not personal or directed at any one person. Do not get offended. I’m just a person with a blog after all. Your thoughts and actions are yours and you’ll be responsible on the Day of J. as will I. But I just want each of us to go back to the Qur’an and the teachings of Islam and really think about what it means to be a Muslim. I mean really think about it and then tell me if I’m wrong. Because if I am, I can go back to standing back and doing nothing too.

Wsalaam wrt.

P.S. The pictures from said event.

[Reader NOTES: Apologies to the people subscribed to my blog via RSS feeders like Greader (my favorite!). It should have full text on but for some reason some of the articles don't appear full text! I hate when I'm subscribed to a blog and can only read 2 lines and then have to click on the link to open it and wait 5 minutes for all their graphics and flickr pics or whatever widgets they have to load! So the trick to get full text in Greader is to first unsubscribe and then click on the subscribe button and manually enter: jannah.org/blog/feed that's it. Don't let it put /rss or anything else after it. Refresh if you have to. If you're subscribed to the right feed I think it should give you full text. So hopefully you'll be able to read all of this without clicking!

Apologies to IE readers. I never use IE, haven't ever I think ever since the dawn of browsers, so I never check it! But I just noticed one or two blogs were completely non-readable in IE and just said <end if> gee thanks for telling me So I fixed them now so hopefully everyone will be able to read everything regardless of browser!

Also for some reason the blog has been loading REALLY slow. I haven't been able to pinpoint what it is but it's something to do with the last WP upgrade and this theme, but I love it so I want to try to fix it so stay patient inshaAllah Lastly I added a new link called "List of All Posts by Category" which is a really nice listing of the blog entries by category. Check those out inshaAllah and I'm sure you'll find a lot of interesting topics and subjects.]

So onto blogging!

Go Back Home to Your Country!

This past week an interesting thing happened that brought up a subject I’ve been wanting to talk about for a long time. That is the exodus of Muslims from the US back to their countries (or to other Muslim countries). The reason it came up is because a visiting shaykh to the area was asked a question about it and he encouraged all Muslims living in the US to go back to their home countries! He even went so far as to say that the only reasons Muslims were here in the West was for Dunya and ‘to make piles of money’ and that they would be asked about it on the Day of J!!! Now this was said in the richest suburban Masjid in our area where the people are all doctors or professionals and the cars are all BMWs and Mercedes (and I even saw some old uncle driving a really hot convertible to Jumah!) You can imagine the shock and the pin drop silence of everyone there. And then people started arguing saying that they are better Muslims here and that the world is a global village and that it’s not how it used to be with Islamic lands and non-Islamic lands, but he was adamant.

So what do we think about this? On the one hand I can see where the shaykh is coming from. I’m sure he gets tons of people that come up to him lamenting about their kids, how messed up they have become and how many have become non-Muslims. No doubt there are a lot of Muslims in the US that have no Islamicity whatsoever after their parents generation. Many even renounce Islam and marry non-Muslims and the children end up becoming non-Muslims. I read an article 10 years ago by Yahiyah Emerick that talked about how we were continuously losing our fist generation and the only reason Islam was surviving in the US was because of fresh immigrants that would ‘refill our stock’. I think if we all thought about it, for every Muslim we know that goes to a Mosque and really tries to raise their kids Islamically we know many more that have become non-practicing and will be completely lost after the next generation. How painful is it for us to learn about all these waves of Muslim immigrants who came to this country even in the 1920s or 1960s and there is barely a trace of them today except for a sign that might say Madina, Ohio. We only have to look to our youth today to see the extremely deterimental state we are in. Do we want the same thing to happen to us and our future generation?

So I always ask myself if these kids and their families would be better if they lived in a Muslim country? There are no doubt the same evils existing there as here and sometimes there is an even higher level of ‘dunya coveting’ and corruption, but the society as a whole tends to protect people from certain things and even if you have a bad apple or two in your children, your entire lineage is not lost because their children have a fairly good chance of being raised as Muslims by the societal culture. To find a girl converting to Christianity and marrying a non-Muslim is rare, but in the US it is sadly becoming common. Wearing hijab, praying 5 times a day, fasting every day in Ramadan is it rare or is it common in the West? And don’t forget statistics say the Mosque-going Muslims are 10% of the actual Muslim population in the US.

But does moving back make sense? What about those people who have no ties to any Muslim country, like white or African-American converts? What country are they supposed to go to? And speaking of which, what country are Muslims going to move to? Saudi has an extremely strict immigration policy as do Syria and most other Muslim countries. In fact there are groups of Muslims who try to ‘make Hijrah’ all the time and are living illegally in these countries. Even if you are legally there you do not have the same access to health care or education as the real Arab citizens do. You can’t even own property. Even if you somehow obtain a work visa and live in these countries, once your working life is over you will be sent back to your ‘original country’. There is no way single women or single mothers would be able to move overseas because the societies are just not built to accommodate them. This is coming from someone who lived overseas for a time on a temporary student basis and that was difficult in itself. And what about all of us who came from minority Muslim countries? (like India or Cambodia or wherever) Why would we just move back to another Muslim minority country? What’s the benefit there? So what should we do?

Some people argue that you can only be a true Muslim if you live in a Muslim country because only there can you practice all of your Deen. Oh really? Muslims in the West can pray, they can fast, they can pay zakat, they can go to Hajj. No doubt there are some discrimination issues there but it is possible. Is there such a thing as Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb anymore? No country in the world practices Islamic Shari’ah 100%. And every Arab country I know of is under a dictatorship. What can’t people practice here if they have the drive or effort in the West?

I think, for myself, having the experience of living in a Muslim country for awhile I can’t see myself moving overseas. I can’t see the Islamic argument for it and I wouldn’t be able to justify it for myself. That’s why when I see these great Muslim families moving overseas it just makes me really sad. They are like so valuable here for so many reasons but over there they could just be anyone. It’s just a big loss for the Muslim community here even if they feel it’s a better decision for themselves and their kids.

I know the New York Times and some other papers (Chicago?) did some articles on this, post 9/11 like in 2002 or something that talked about how there was mass migration back to home countries by Muslims and the affect it was having in certain Muslim type areas like Devon St. /Jackson Heights. But it wasn’t until about 2005 until now that I’ve been noticing a number of very well established good families moving back home. Many families who are here to study and work temporarily are going back home instead of staying like their counterprarts did in the 80s and 90s. If everyone goes back what will be left? If they stayed we could really build a strong identity, culture, foundation and institutions to allow us to be a viable thriving minority in this country.

Is the shaykh right and it’s every family for themselves. Save your family and forget about the rest? Going back to me just feels like the easy way out. When you go back what else do you have to do? Nothing. You raise your family like everyone else. You send them to school and you really don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to be active in the community. You don’t have to teach or do Dawah or anything. (In some of those Muslim countries doing Dawah can get you in a ton of trouble even!) The irony is that many families have gone overseas for the ‘economic benefit’ in these troubled times. (It’s easier for a US professional to find a job over there than here!) So what does this say about the Shaykhs argument about “dunya-lovers” ?!?

Anyway the whole thing is very complex if you ask me. I just thought I’d bring it up as a discussion topic to think about as it’s something I think about every time someone leaves or there’s a new shaykh in town that drops a hugely controversial opinion like this on ppl!!