My Ramadan 2008

Ramadan Mubarak! (Blessed Ramadan)

Today is my 2nd full day of fasting in observance of the Muslim tradition. Observance of Ramadan [when Muslims are obligated to forego food and water for a full month (30 days) during the day light hours] is the one aspect of Islam's five tenants I maintain dutifully. I am drawn by the self discipline it requires, as well as the idea of being in communion with deprived people around the world.

In about an hour I will break my fast with a formal prayer; and eat some dates, yogurt and a heaping glass of water.

Today I want to share one of my most favored iyats (verses) from the Quran. It is from Surah (chapter) 14(v4), Ibrahim:

"We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in a language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. So Allah leads astray those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases and He is Exalted in power, Full of Wisdom."

(Transliteration from Yusuf Ali)

The Quran is full of wisdom, indeed. In coming editions, I hope to elaborate further on Quranic wisdom -- religious politics aside.

Inshallah!
(If God wills it)


September 11, 2008 - 11th day of Ramadan - Alhamdulailah!

Ramadan is going well. Praise be to Allah (God) for the blessing of clarity, inner peace and guidance that comes with the tradition of fasting. I am contemplating how I will make further relations with Muslims during this time, and how I will make a monetary contribution at the culmination of Ramadan later this month. I want to raise money for PlumpyNut -- a nutritious food -- that benefits third world children... More research will be done during this month. Haiti was recently devastated by a hurricane. I will make a contribution to a relief organization. And finally, I plan to attend the 2nd annual MANA convention in Phialdelphia next month.

Today I want to share one of my most favored iyats (verses) from the Quran. It is from Surah (chapter) 10 v108, Jonah:

"Say, O ye men! Now that truth has reached your from your Lord! Those, who receive guidance, do so for the good of their own souls; those who stray, do so to their own loss; and I am not (set)over you to arrange your affairs."

(Transliteration from Yusuf Ali)

I favor this iyat (verse) because it reinforces, for me, the principle that their should be no coercison in Islam...That man has free will is Allah's blessing; and that we should not depend [superstitiously] upon Allah (God) to intervene on the routine affairs of men, as he has already provided proper guidance [in Al Quran].

September 25, 2008

Ramamdan Mubarak! (Blessed Ramadan)

I'm in the last full week of Ramadan, Al Hamdulailah! [Praise be to Allah]. For me the first two weeks are always the toughest. Now I am coasting a little on the stregnth of my resolve, and my body's adaption to the routine I have fallen into. A brother who works where I do came up to me this morning to ask if I was Muslim. I confirmed it. He said he had heard this but was not sure. He said if he had known he would greeted me with salaams. [That was a manly and beneficent gesture on his part.] I agreed to do so in kind.

I decided to give to hurricane relief in Haiti after Ramadan as my charity. For me, Haiti holds a facinating place in the history of the New World. I want to write about it here some day soon. Tuesday, I purchased several jars of honey from an Islamic website I like, Soundvision. I plan to lable them with some favorite verses from the Quran, and use them for dawa (subtle exchange of islamic faith). As for Eidul Fitr (Islamic holiday commemorating the end of Ramadan), I am not sure what I will do to celebrate. Typically, I say home, perferring to forego the crowds and immersing myself in unfamiliar company... It is my nature too. [I do the same for New Years and most other holidays.] We will see.

Today I want to share one of my most favored iyats (verses) from the Quran. It is from Surah 4, An-Nisaa (The Women)
Verse 36.

"Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him; and do good – to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbors who are of kin, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the way-farer (ye meet), and what your right hand possess; for Allah loveth not the arrogant, the vainglorious."

(Transliteration from Yusuf Ali)

I favor this iyat because it crystalizes the moral imperative for Muslims. [It is one of the most often repeated exhortations in the Quran.] This verse explains what the obligation of Muslims are in the context of citizenship -- wherever they are in the world. It also establishes common ground for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Assalaamu Alaikum!

Election 2008

Barak Obama for president! The Dems had a really good convention -- even the weather cooperated. Obama's speech was excellent, as was the entire production. John McCain made a chess move -- picking Sarah Palin as his running mate. If he wins, his campaign was brilliant. If he looses, he will be the GOP goat for years to come. [And that strategy will not be used again by either party].

I think this whole election season has been good for the American electorate. I predict that this will be the largest voter turn out in many years.

Coming Soon...

Obama Watch. Barak Obama receieved the democratic nomination for president, making political history.



Ramadan Mubarak! As a practicing Muslim, I am obliged to observed the holy month of fasting which begins September first this year. I will chronicle my experiences here, on my blog, Inshallah (If God wills).

Book Review: 'A People's History'

I recently completed a fascinating read. Howard Zinn is the author of A People's History of the United States (1492 - Present). I count it among the most important books I have read. And I claim that it is essential reading for the re-education of the American public -- whom mostly posess only a cursory knowledge of history. Zinn is a known personality in the world of academia, he has been "a historian, playwright and social activist" for many years. In this edition (2003) of 'A People's History' he retells major events in the maturation of this country from [the invasion of] Christopher Columbus to the Bush "war on terror." He reveals obsure events like precolonial rebellions by Davis Bacon, counter expansionist battles by Native Americans, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, the vacillations of President Lincoln on the issue of slavery, and the many campaigns (wars) for American industrial markets -- many executed without the consent of the public (i.e, un-Constitutionally).

I recommended 'A People's History' for all who claim to value American citizenship. Whether you are on the right or the left -- or like most of us, somewhere in between -- your perspective on the history of United State's will be reshaped.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey

I have been eager to write a comment about the early 20th century Negro (Black) leader Marcus Garvey for a long time. I always defer, however, because I am never confident that I can do a just commentary on his contribution to the maturation of Black people for [these] modern times. I recently read a selection from a book I keep near my bedside -- "Selected Speeches and Writings of Marcus Garvey." His speech on unemployment from that book is what motivated this installment.

Garvey was certainly a man of his times. He was a "race man." His speeches are colored with the racial vanacular of that period -- when 'Jim Crow' was dominant throughout all of America. As a result those who are unfamiliar with his many comments on race and economy may well be put off at first. However, one must note that Garvey was reacting to the prevalent racial attitudes of his time, not fomenting them. Indeed, Garvey was controversial among Black people and among Whites. He chastised the leaders of Black people for not responding more effectively to the many afflictions facing the masses of African-Americans, such as mob violence and poverty. His platform -- like that of his idiological mentor, Booker T. Washington -- was primarily economical when the established leadership among Blacks were concerned with social equality and academic achievement.

A very good example of this was his speech on unemplyment given in New York City on February 11, 1921. Garvey gives a brilliant analysis of the tendencies of [White] employers and [Black] employees that could very well be given today, and with almost as much accuracy as it had then. I have often mused that a thorough education for black people -- indeed all people in a capitalist economy -- must include a lesson on fundemental economics, at least.

In some measure, Garvey was a forerunner to, among others, Elijah Muhammed, Tony Brown, Malcolm X, and Earl Graves. His stance on race relations, economic mobility and cultural pride have been vindicated by the publications, exhortations and commentaries of such diverse contemporaries as the National Urban League, Tavis Smiley, Ebony magazine, Louis Farrakahn and many more.

HBO's 'Black List'

The documentary 'Black List' on the thoughts of Black people in today's society currently appearing on HBO is excellent. The film -- essentially a series of plain interviews with accomplished African-Americans -- is marvelously poignant, yet effective in its simplicity. 'Black List' hits the mark that CNN missed by a mile.

Watch it for yourself. Find a way to download it. Show it during Black History month, Kwanzaa or the "King Holiday." This is one holds enduring value.

CNNs 'Black' Mis-fires

Kudos to CNN's Soledad O'Brien for parlaying clout earned from her award winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina into a much anticipated report on African Americans... I guess?

America's fascination with its African population is longstanding. New York Senator Daniel P. Moynihan made a name for himself reporting on the status of black people (1965). There was the Kerner Commission report in 1968 which, among other things reported on the disaffection black people felt with American justice. I remember that, in the late 1980s Newsweek magazine made the plight of black males a focus of a bestselling "special report." Indeed every notable talk show host from Phil Donahue to Ted Koppel has examined the "state of Black America." On the surface, such reporting comes across as genuine interest in the challenging issues facing America's foremost minority population -- Hispanics not withstanding. However, I wonder, cynically I admit, if it is not merely a curious preoccupation with how Americans of African decent are able to consistently persevere in the face of systematic racism.

O'Brien's reporting had a great flaw. At the crux of all the difficult issues facing black people was our achievement, or underachievement, as it relates to the majority racial group in the United States -- white people. [A population itself that is more varied in its ethnicity and class distinctions than blacks]. It is difficult to take issue with the Soledad O'Brien’s motives. She is as full of integrity as she is charming. Each profile started positive enough, referring to African-Americans traditions: reunions, family dinners, pursing education, and holding down fine jobs. Predictably, however, those perspectives served as a segway into what many perceive as unyielding pathologies in black America. All the traditional shortcomings were analyzed: Incarceration of black males, the vaunted "achievement gap," absentee fathers, and the newest alarm -- disproportionate (new) AIDS cases among black women. CNN's coverage had all the trappings of an in-depth exposé, but with the shallow incision of a tabloid magazine.

Black In America was billed as a thorough report on the diverse issues facing black people today, yet it perpetuated stereotypes – mostly addressing issues that liberals and bigots want to examine. O'Brien discussed the plight of black families without any historical footage, or real discussion, about the concerted efforts to hinder families from surviving since slavery. She examined black men in prison without tracing the systematic use of the penal system to maintain disproportionate rates of black male incarceration since the days of the chain gangs --when (southern) authorities used false imprisonment to create a ready labor force for public works contractors. Limited facts about the proliferation of AIDS in urban America gave the false impression that African American women are walking Petri dishes for the disease. And most troubling for me was the notion that the achievement of black children in school requires extraordinary enticements; a position that will only serve to perpetuate bigoted ideas about innate inferiority. Or that their failure is alarming only because they fall short of the achievements of (some) white children in school.

What Black In America left out was far more important that what it covered. Cheap cocaine influenced the drug economy greatly in the 1980s, but the disproportionate sentencing of black people for the same crimes committed by whites – trafficking – predisposed them to incarceration. A discussion of reparations for slavery found not light in this exposé. COINTELPRO, racial profiling, or the corporatizations of Hip Hop were lost discussions too. And should not a discussion of the underachievement of (some) African American children in school have included the disproportionate assignment of black youth, especially boys, into special education classes -- mostly for perceived behavior issues? There is reliable research on the topic.

Certainly African Americans have come far in our history as a people. The most important feature of African American sociology, however, is that despite economic stratification and diverse political orientations on everything from school vouchers to same-sex marriage, we still identify as a single people. But then again, we've never really had a choice in that...did we?