Are You Optimistic About Kuwait?

Optimism

an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome

[Merriam-Webster]

Sick and Tired

Most people in this world are individuals that belong to a distinct group. Be it by gender, family name, nationality, occupation, health, religion, etc. And because they belong to this group, they are expected to represent it completely and know absolutely all there is to know about being part of that group. You are expected to spread awareness and knowledge when it is needed. Personally, I always had to defend my groups. I was always defending Islam, Arabs and Journalism. Living in a foreign country where people are ignorant (can’t blame the people for that) yet curious, defending myself was a constant routine. I was sick and tired of it.

Islam. This is the hardest one. Even the basics of Islam are hard to defend thanks to the contradicting events happening in the Middle East and surrounding regions. I would tell them that Muslims believe in and are supposed to respect all the prophets and books sent to us from God. What could I respond with when even the Arkan Al Iman (Articles of Belief) are set aside?

Is it still justified to say that Islam is a religion that promotes peace? To my knowledge in the times of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) people of different faiths lived peacefully in their towns. It was only when the Muslims were wronged that jihad was declared and the peace was disturbed. Let’s not also forget the Islamic movement that was for the purpose of spreading the religion. It was effective, but also violent. That is a fact.

I consider myself to be a religious person, in my own way. I love my religion and it is always on my mind. Almost every night before I fall asleep, my head rests on the pillow as I ponder and think about the things I was told to memorize at school. I try to make sense of it all. I do. And if I need to, I ask my mom to help me figure things out. She gives me the facts and lets me understand them on my own. The only thing that throws me off is that Muslims all over the world believe different things. We claim that that all Muslims are unified in their beliefs, but it is painfully obvious that we are not.

So the only things I said in my defense is that the people that are behind non-peaceful events and actions are extremists. Even though the truth is that some of those people that agree with extremists are just ignorant and don’t know any better. I’m not a history buff, but has there been a time when there hasn’t been a war in the name of Islam? (That’s a legitimate question that I hope someone answers in the comments.)

Danish Embassy Car-Bombed

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri recently called for attacks on Danish targets in response to the publication of caricatures in Danish newspapers depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

[Newsvine - AP]

Oh my God. Are we still dealing with this issue?

WTF. Seriously, have these people run out of reasons to kill people in the name of God? They heard us the first time. They probably won’t do it again. Enough!

We need to stop this right now. Support for terrorist groups have not gone down at all and the proof is that there are still many brainwashed recruits signing up.

We need to promote peaceful Islam. Updating religion books in our schools is a start. Education is the only way to go.

Body Count

About two weeks ago, the American media were highlighting the fact that the death toll of US soldiers in Iraq has reached 4,000. The 4,000th body was confirmed on March 23rd, three days after the the 5th anniversary of the invasion. That is a significant number of men and women sacrificed to avenge the death of the 2,646 Americans who died on 9/11. But we can’t say “avenge” anymore because that isn’t the current mission. First it was to find more of Al Qaeda (after the bombing of Afghanistan), then it was to find weapons of mass destruction, then it was to free the helpless people from a ruthless dictator, and now it is to cash in on some sweet oil introduce true democracy to the good people of Iraq and take care of those that object.

Back to the 4,000. That is a lot of dead people. However, they are only peanuts when compared to the number of Iraqi civilian casualties. Almost 83,000 confirmed deaths. This number could be as much as 90,000 but it’s not accurate because sometimes, bodies are so extraordinarily destroyed or unidentifiable that it’s really hard to match them to one or more persons. Note that this number doesn’t include the deaths of Iraqi fighters, insurgents, and opposition forces, which roughly estimate to at least 70,000 as of January 2008. Again, the actual number has a huge possibility of being much higher. In general the total number of Iraqi deaths is between 150,00 and 223,000 according to the World Health Organization.

I don’t know what the news media in the Middle East is like at the moment, but I can tell you that there wasn’t any mention of the Iraqi casualties. They do report the deaths a single attack or event but that’s it. It’s sad that so many people are not informed of both sides of an issue, especially when it comes to number. It’s one of the easiest ways to form an opinion or judgement on something, so it’s only fair to present both sets of numbers.

Nonpartisan reporting is hard enough to find in this country but I can’t expect anything more from it. After all, America is one of the two countries at war.

Death is horrible no doubt. Someone somewhere lost a loved one, whether it’s one or 100, it sucks. But what sucks more is that Iraq’s 89,000 body count includes only children, the elderly, and innocent civilians. The 4,000 Americans were armed soldiers who had a chance, however small, to fight for their lives. Let us all hope that this war ends soon. I don’t think any of us initially thought that it would last this long. Not even the Bush Administration itself, they have been digging themselves into a hole ever since it all began.

If Americans Knew

If Americans Knew is a website I came across a couple of times by chance while reading other Middle Eastern blogs and just watching YouTube. The website is aimed at Americans obviously and hopes to present them with accurate information about the Palestine/Israel issue without any twisting and filtering of the media.

It’s a great website because it doesn’t complicate things. The information is there and is backed up. I think that their best section is the videos page. Apparently they produce and sell short documentaries. What they show on the videos page are the trailers to these documentaries and they are great.

The last video I saw was one called The Easiest Targets. It’s about the treatment women and children get while entering and leaving Israeli territories. The trailer doesn’t show gruesome images or sounds, but they might as well have. Just listening to the women telling their stories and then trying to just slightly pretend to imagine what it must have felt like. By the end of the video, I felt like I had been violated.

This isn’t your usually sobbing woman describing her ordeal, these are strong woman who have found their own way of dealing with that part of their past. I admire them. I’d watch it just for that. Check it out here and view it in whatever format you want.

Also, get a chance to just sit and browse through the website. It’s worth it.

BS, Not Only College Students Do It

Politicians are good at “BS” too. They are probably even better at it, because it’s not only a professor they are deceiving but huge numbers of people. When policy makers and leaders in the upper level provide BS from behind desks, these factors influence other factors. That is really serious!

In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid “physical labor” and wrote of the need to “keep elevating the threat,” “link Iraq to Iran” and develop “bumper sticker statements” to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rendition

Extraordinary rendition and irregular rendition are terms used to describe the extrajudicial transfer of a person from one state to another, and Torture by proxy is used by some critics to describe extraordinary rendition by the United States, with regard to the transfer of suspected terrorists to countries known to employ harsh interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture.
— Wikipedia

Rendition is an upcoming moving I am extremely excited about and I am confident it will be one of the best movies of the year. You really can’t go wrong with the actors and subject of the movie. However, the director is a relatively unknown person and this will be his first Hollywood feature.

The movie is about the American wife of a suspected Egyptian terrorist who is trying to find out what happened to her husband who “disappeared” during a flight from South Africa to Washington, DC. It also squares in on a CIA analyst who questions himself during the interrogation of this suspected Egyptian terrorist.

Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal and the great Meryl Streep. What more could I ask for! Also, this could one the rare times when an Arab character is actually innocent in a big-time Hollywood film. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m pumped.

Watch the super cool trailer here. The movie comes out October 19th in the USA.