Salaam alaikum,
So…
Ayan Hirsi Ali (or Ayan Hirsi Magan or whatever is it) is in trouble. Frankly, I don't know how to feel about this because how can one hope to maintain a platform of anti/illegal immigration when that person is an immigrant or the descent of immigrants. I know Michelle Markin tries to convince the world otherwise. This is the new class of orientalists and God perserve us from their fitna. The careers of these women, of Manji, Magan and Malkin, is on thin ice. I'm not saying that they will fall through the cracks but that they have to carefully maintain their media crafted indentities less someone who truly hates them for whatever reason will attack their reputations and render them has-beens. And as in the case of Magan (Ali), the attacks come from within their own ranks.
One statement of pride in one's culture, one statement of fairness towards Muslims or admiration of Islam and they will be thrown out on their hides. It's a dangerous and shaky endeavor. After all, being a Somali anti-immigration immigrant is a tough balancing act. You have to convince supporters that you hate your people so much, that you want so badly to be a part of the club, that you're willing to do anything. Even if that means lying, even if that means demonizing those who you claim are responsible for your suffering. Because it's not enough to attack the evil practices of FGM (which is declining, alhamdulillah) or the jalili practice of forced marriage (which turns out that she didn't suffer from). To be effective, to be accepted, you have to lampoon and deride everything about who you are. Being Somali, or Filipino, or Indian, or Arab and proud of it is a liability that racist and neocon supporters can't afford.
I wonder what that must feel like. We've all suffered from low self esteem at one time or another. But I don't think I could hate myself so much that I could sit at a dinner table and have my supporters deride my race, religion, and culture without a peep of protest. I don't think I could sit there and have them tell me that they are activitely working to remove my kind, whether that's Muslims or people of African descent. I couldn't tolerate if it was Indians, Arabs, Hispanics, Jews, or Catholics. But they, these strange people, somehow, can deal with it and smile in the process. Look at how easily they turned on her after everything she's done for them. The rest better be careful. Very careful. Sowing corruption in the earth is a nasty business and the people they have surrounded themselves with are vipers. They are so corrupt that they would stab their star apostate in the back and not care if she we're shipped back to Somalia (or Kenya or wherever she's from. Subhan'Allah, the lies!)
As the Muslim communities of the West become more political and more media saavy, I believe that within…let's say 5 years, we will be able to really fight back against all the nonsense being thrown our way. With all the bad media being thrown at us, Islam continues to flourish. More businesses are inquiring about our beliefs so that they can offer us halal alternatives. More companies are offering shari'a compliant loans. Designers, Muslim and non-Muslim, are making clothes just for us. More Muslims are entering politics, social sciences and the arts. As minority groups that came before us, we are crafting an identity that is true to our American values and our Islamic values and refusing those who tell us that they aren't compatible. And whether they like it or not, Islam is growing in all the "unlikely" places. After all, who would have thunk that in America, Islam would be the fastest growing religion. Obviously, we Muslims are just too uppidy and siddidy for the neo-Colonialist project they've set up for us.
We are bringing our faith with us and unlike those who came before us, we will not alter this beautiful deen so much that it's not recognizable. At the end of the day, it's about doing the right thing, worshipping God, and having some intergrity. That's why when everything is said and done and the neocolonists are finished with their project, they will look back on an America much different than the one before with a strong, flourishing, devout Muslim community that doesn't feel threatened or slighted by the words or actions of the their puppets.
The road will be difficult but as with the Japanese, the Russians, the Cubans and so many others–people forget. We're today's enemy and tomorrow's will be someone else. May God help them and may we help like the Japanese community helped us after 9-11. Of course the downer is that she's coming here. And since she's an Black (or person of African descent) ex-Muslim, she will be co-opted by those who want to slam all Muslims and all people of African descent as backward, lazy malcontents. Bill Cosby will look tame compared to a banished Danish politician telling Black Americans how she made it out of "backward, oppressive" Somalia so naturally we Black Americans can make it out of the ghetto. Don't think these people won't go there because Muslims aren't the only targets in the war of terrorism. Get ready for some ugly Black Orientalism and I hope Dr. Sherman Jackson writes a book solely on this subject.
I would like to be hopeful because as long as there is breath in her body, she can repent. Not for our sake but for the sake of Allah. It's one thing to have issues with Muslims. It's another to attack innocent people, to stigmatize those who aren't responsible for your pain and to disrespect holy scripture in the name of money and fame. That's not ethical on a religious or secular level and anyone with an unbiased view can see that. No one should live a life where they are used as a puppet to be disgarded. That is slave mentality to the extreme–to love your master so much even though he hates you. Then again, as I read on Yusuf's blog, maybe she just likes trouble.
May she and her kind be guided and live aright. Ameen.
aiman/sindbad said,
May 19, 2006 at 7:19 am
Salaams Izzy,
May I put this post as a guest column on “Islamophobia Watcher” or link to it? I’ll understand if you don’t agree
.
Indigo Jo Blogs said,
May 19, 2006 at 8:26 am
Crocodile tears for Ayaan
With Ayaan Hirsi Magan’s resignation after the exposure of her asylum grounds as largely false and her Dutch citizenship now in serious doubt, the hypocritical crocodile tears are beginning to flow in large numbers. Robert Spencer calls it “persecut…
JD said,
May 19, 2006 at 9:56 am
“Obviously, we Muslims are just too uppidy and siddidy…”
Siddidy?
“But I don’t think I could hate myself so much that I could sit at a dinner table and have my supporters deride my race, religion, and culture without a peep of protest.”
When I first read this sentence, my initial thought was that these people may be “self-hating.” And while I do suspect that Manji and Ali may be the “self-hating” type with regard to their cultures and Islam, I don’t think everyone who’s willing to listen to derision about their “race, religion, and culture without a peep of protest” is that way. In fact, this is one of the dilemmas faced by us American expats. Living outside the country, you hear different perspectives and opinions about your country, some of which can be quite hostile to the U.S. You then have to decide whether or not you’re willing to respond (after all, some of the criticisms being made may be spot on). It’s a balancing act. Those arguments that are based on ignorance, I try to correct (just as I would with someone who’s ignorant of Islam). Other times, it may be better just to grin and bear it.
BTW, K, congrats on the A for your paper. (Oooh, don’t get me rhymin’.
) If you don’t mind, could you send me a copy of your paper by e-mail so I could read it?
aiman/sindbad said,
May 19, 2006 at 11:32 am
As an update to my first post, I have just read that she will be moving to the United States.
Umm Zaid said,
May 19, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Salaam ‘Alaikum
One thing I don’t understand is how she can be offered a visa when she’s had her citizenship stripped from her for lying (vs. for political protest reasons). But perhaps the visa is only offered on a limited time basis, although it seems to me that she’s been working her way “up” to this: first Kenya, then Germany, then Holland, now America. So maybe it’s being offered as an employment visa and not a first step to residency (regardless of her personal plans). I would just like to know more about this issue…
aiman/sindbad said,
May 19, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Salaam alaikum Umm Zaid,
She has been offered a job by the neocolonialists in the American Enterprise Institute. More here.
altaf said,
May 19, 2006 at 6:24 pm
was that job ever advertised? don’t they need to advertise the job to see if there are possible US citizen/residents who can do the same job b/4 offering it to a non-resident/citizen? don’t we have enough of our own aunties and uncle toms? do we have to now also import ‘em?
dawud said,
May 19, 2006 at 8:20 pm
salaam, sorry Izzy to be pedantic, but she only wishes she was a Danish MP
– I’m not proud that she was given an anti-immigrant platform by my parents’ homeland, but there it is.
Allah be merciful, and guide all of us.
dawud said,
May 19, 2006 at 8:29 pm
oh, it’s Holland… and I would appreciate your advice – I wrote this on Umar Lee’s blog, please explain to me why it’s racist, as I’ve been informed:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/jihadofumar/114779522534190978/
“Making Michelle Malkin or Ayaan Ali their mouthpieces means that they can pretend that they care about women, minorities, social integration issues – in the same way that Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice allowed the Bush regime to pretend it cared about black people while abandoning New Orleans…”
I thought the meaning was clear – that substantive issues with and problems amidst the muslim community can’t be solved by appointing convenient spokespeople, and then deflecting all the anger and frustration of their critics by saying “But s/he’s one of you!”
Izzy Mo said,
May 19, 2006 at 8:56 pm
I’ll answer all of your comments but I’m about to go nappy-nap.
I’m about to go into rant mode. Watch out Dawud!
Dawud: I read the comment and no, it’s not racist. Obviously Condi Rice and Colin Powell are educated, qualified people. But the fact is that they haven’t used their power or influence to help anyone but themselves. Colin Powell gave that awful speech, that lie, to the UN while “holding amthrax” in is his hands with NO GLOVES ON. And Condi…how could someone who in early 2001 state that Saddam was contained and not a real threat to the US to basically making him into evil incarnate #1? Thousands of Blacks suffered from Hurricane and more has been said about it from Bill Clinton and King George I than Condi and Colin. I don’t care for Bill Cosby’s morality trip but at least the man gives scholarship funds and money to historically Black American colleges.
The real activists never get the attention because they are actually *doing* something. What programs has Ayan Ali created to help Muslim women? She is risking her life to help FGM victims? She is working with NGOs and womens group or :::gasp::: Muslim groups to stop this practice? Has she created any program or at least wrote a paper of objectives to tackle the problems of spousal abuse or rape. Nope, but there are hundreds of women who do and they don’t get any credit or money. Same thing with Mukhtar Mai. She’s a real activist. Not only did she speak out against her attackers but she stated time and time again that she was a devout Muslim. SHE actually built schools for poor children but has Irshad Manji done? I don’t see no centers, no schools, no institutions, nothing. Nothing but rhetoric and book deals and TV shows. No doubt, watch for Ali on Oprah! That’s what these people don’t get. Here on the community level where the real gruntwork is being done, they’re nowhere to be found. For goodness sake, even the gay Muslim community doesn’t care for Manji!
And don’t worry about the person who called you a racist because he called me a racist, too, but he changed his name to Canuck. He went on about how I hate white people because I pointed out the attitudes and behavior of some racist coworkers. He totally ignored my paragraph about how it was other white people that helped me throughout that whole thing. See, it’s okay if they call you a terrorist, a hatemonger, a Jew-hater or whatever’s hot that week but please, oh please don’t hold up a mirror. Don’t give them inconvient little things such as facts and history. Don’t worry about it. All the commotion’s over something that can’t be stopped and as more hearts are reconciled to their Creator through Islam, the more they’re gonna hate it. But God said he would establish this deen whether they like it or not.
My bad, I’m just a wee bit tired of the haters.
izzymo said,
May 20, 2006 at 4:04 pm
I’m back. Good nappy-nap! Salaam alaikum,
Aiman: Sure, you can link it. We have to start fighting these folks somehow and bloggin’ not a bad idea.
JD: U neva’ heard of “siddidy” or maybe I should say “siddity”
Southern slang for uppity, brother. In our case, it’s different because most of the time, we’re confronted by people who may not like Islam but unlike Manji and Ali’s supporters, they don’t actively try to find ways to remove or destroy us. At least I hope they don’t. The grin and bear it advice seems best because sometimes, it just doesn’t matter. Their minds are made up but your behavior can be the best form of dawah.
UZ: While we couldn’t possibly tolerate someone like Tariq Ramadan, when it comes to the “Muslims America Loves,” the gates are wide open. Now will the right-wing anti-immigration actvist complain about her? Nah, better to crack on well adjusted Africans.
Aiman: Make dua. Things will get worse before they get better and because she’s Black, that gives her more credibility. Our media is actively recruiting Blacks to put down other Blacks and Muslims to put down other Muslims. And I’m sure the Latinos are catching hell from their compatriots too.
dawud said,
May 20, 2006 at 4:44 pm
UZ – as Izzy Mo noted (beating me to the punch) that Tariq Ramadan – who has a lot more to say about actually getting muslim immigrants to involve themselves and ‘assimilate’ into Western society – gets rejected by the State Dep’t [thanks to Daniel Pipes and Steve Emerson, et al]… while Ayaan gets a ‘free ride’, it says a lot about what direction (and sway to carry the State Dep’t and administration) the AEI wants to take America. God help and guide us all.
On the other hand, don’t you prefer your enemies to declare themselves openly, and tell you who they are? I don’t hate Ayaan, though she evidently (tossing the Qur’an on the ground, beating up a woman with Qur’anic verses written on her, and cursing muslim immigrants – who whatever their faults, aren’t begging on the streets of Marrakesh, but rather are cleaning up and working in the factories of Europe)…
AywaLlah – Allah is the Judge, the Almighty – not us, and if there wasn’t freedom to disbelieve, what would faith be worth?
aiman/sindbad said,
May 20, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Salaams,
Thanks, Izzy. I am planning to write about this myself tomorrow insha’Allah and give a few good links like yours in it. Yes, and I’ll make du’a that all goes well for my Muslim American brothers and sisters. This is a time in world history when we have to badly support each other.
Altaf, I don’t think this job was advertised. It’s probably an invitation. The neo-cons are in desperate need of vulgar propagandists. Christopher Hitchens is going a good job for them, but they need more…they are in need of “native Orientalists”.
izzymo said,
May 21, 2006 at 3:36 am
Altaf: You know America at this moment is in the business of promoting these people to keep the masses scared (and consumed with hatred against Muslims) and assauge their own fears about a growing worldwide Muslim community that’s defining Islam for themselves. The silliest thing, though, is that the more they attack innocent Muslim civilians, the more people around the world are sympathetic to their cause. I mean, Islam is growing in Catholic Latin America, Rwanda, Europe, and other places which is proof of its transformative power in human society. So to block the dawah, they pull these people out. Alhamdulillah, we’re too smart and they’re too stupid.
Dawud: I guess that she’s out rather than being covert. It’s not so much her disbelief that bugs me because I know Muslims who don’t practice or who’s faith is hanging on a thread. It’s her lies and targeting innocent people that bugs me. She can be an apostate but why can’t she just leave quietly like the rest of them. I didn’t undress statues of the Virgin Mary (AS) when I left Catholicism.
JD said,
May 21, 2006 at 5:18 am
K wrote: “I didn’t undress statues of the Virgin Mary (AS) when I left Catholicism.”
I’ll have to remember that line. BTW, I’m another ex-Catholic.
izzymo said,
May 22, 2006 at 12:40 am
Man, JD, there’s like so many of us.
Mfemme said,
May 25, 2006 at 12:14 am
First of all every Somali in the world knew Ayan Hersi was a big fat phony. Somali’s have a strong sense of pride about their culture and heritage which is more than 90% based on muslim tenets. Even the most vile, disgusting, god forsaken, Somali would shoot you dead for questioning his/her tawheed…which is why we knew she was a total apostate and an opportunist looking to make money…..well at least now the whole world knows what we knew all along…..sweet.
I've been linked at Wikipedia! « Izzy Mo’s Blog said,
April 22, 2007 at 4:26 pm
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