Tag: culture

In another diary entry, the writer accused American Muslims for slacking off of our purported duty to be fifth column agents for overseas Muslims. Apparently, she thinks "our people" should be her preferred peoples who happen to be Muslim instead of our people being those amongst whom we live, marry, and work.

The fundamental flaw with Ummatists is the same as with Marxist Internaitonalists: they fail to understand the true driver of human activity: "What's in it for me?" Let's assume we as American Muslims do act as the fifth column for overseas interests. What's in it for us? How do we benefit from it aside from a wam and fuzzy feeling at the end of the day? Will the Muslims for whom we would act as agents thank us even? If so, how? 

I say, its extremely foolish for us to alienate ourselves from our own people for people who do not know us, will not thank us and will most certainly forget us when we come calling for the same that we did for them. Among Muslims in this world, there is only a take-take attitude typical in people who know only to help thier own clan. There is no give and take, so why should I as an American Muslim always be asked to give-give and only get in return cultural imperialism from overseas Muslims ("You should speak Arabic because its the language of the Quran [and to make yourself different from the Kuffar]!").

To hurt ourselves by loosing the trust of our neighbors, colleagues, those in authority over us (that's a Quranic phrase, BTW) for the sake of people who don't know us and care even less for us except when we have fat wallets and deep pockets is abject folly.

Tell me again what do I get out of that...?

I have put an embedded flash version of the song Chashme Siya Dari by "Afghan Elvis", Ahmad Zahir, up at Dean's.

Yes, he too was banned by the Taliban. 

Please check it out. Translation in comments below.

Here is some background to Ahmad Zahir.

Update [2007-4-8 13:29:54 by Ali Eteraz]: I have uploaded two more Zahir songs. Ai Khuda & Gole Sangam. I recommend using quicktime. Ai Khuda is a really beautiful song.

Thanks to Razib for hosting. 

From Yahoo, some funny Muslims:

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Sarajevo artists raised a monument to canned beef on Friday in a gesture ridiculing donors for providing such an unpopular food as humanitarian aid during the Bosnian capital's 1992-95 siege.

"The Monument to the International Community" from the "Grateful Citizens of Sarajevo" reads an inscription at the marble foundation of the 1-metre-high golden can of beef.

Bosnians have accused the international community of not allowing them to defend themselves after imposing an arms embargo in the 1990s, while feeding them with outdated canned food instead.

"The message is clear," said Dunja Blazevic of the Centre for Contemporary Art, which launched the initiative placing the work by artist Nebojsa Seric Soba in the centre of Sarajevo.

"The Ikar canned beef is remembered by the people of Sarajevo with disgust. Cats and dogs did not want to eat it and people had to," she said. "Everybody agreed that we should do the project in this way. It's witty, ironic and artistic."

At least 100,000 people were killed during the Bosnian war, 10 percent of them in Sarajevo alone through constant shelling and sniping by Bosnian Serb forces from the surrounding hills.

Have you heard about Arab Canadian rapper Belly? He's got a new song out with Ginuwine (author of the famous "ride it/my pony"). The video features lots of strippers, as well as Hulk Hogan. Belly sounds like he'll go political at some point:

His favorite song on the album is “History of Violence,” a hidden track that “is from raw emotion, [it] came from…watching the news and getting so angry.” Currently being marketed as a “musical ambassador of peace,” I had to ask Belly if he felt that he had to sacrifice some ideologies as an Arab and Palestinian in an effort to not offend certain individuals. With certainty, he responds “I’m a militant with my words. The pen is mightier than the sword…Leaders make decisions and the people suffer.” He continues. “I feel like I needed to [represent Arabs], I needed to be that voice. You never know who might get pissed off, but I speak my mind. If I’m going to be in the line of fire, let [others] benefit from and enjoy what I did.” 

Read the whole review at Arabisto. Watch the youtube video.

You won't be impressed by the intellectual aptitude here, especially when you hear him talking about "all these hoods in Ottawa."

Compare Belly to Palestinian SlingShot Hip Hop (The Lyrical Front). Who is really representing true hip hop?

I'm glad I don't listen to mainstream shit anymore. Belly or not, American hip hop remains dead.

In related news, I was lifting and I saw this video playing. Ah, little white girl rapping. Frankly, she's better than the fat Palestinian dude. Here's a skinny little Sri Lankan girl who's song I enjoyed recently.

His name is Kareem Salama. Great stuff. I'm a huge fan of country music. Just go to his website and leave it on. It plays the whole album automatically or you can toggle through the songs from the top right. I liked song 1 and 5.

I was born and raised in Ponca City, a small town at the edge of Green Country in Oklahoma, but my parents were born and raised in Egypt.  When I was young I loved water painting but I was also an amateur boxer for years. I enjoy classical Western poetry but I enjoy classical Arabic poetry as well. I have a degree in Chemical Engineering but now I’m finishing my last year in law school. I like country and blue grass music but I appreciate good R&B music as well.

I love art. 

Promoted to the front page 

Orhan Pamuk is not only the most recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (2006), but his difficult novels are widely read in his home country of Turkey for perhaps two reasons: they take the pulse of the country's concerns and they attempt to do this by rescuing literary narrative from the grip of politics. Pamuk's seventh novel Snow is his first work set in contemporary Turkey, and it is arguably the most insightful fictional commentary on the post-9/11 world that has been written so far, precisely because it does not mention the attacks at all, but contextualises the underlying issues brilliantly.