Monthly Archives: January 2009

Museum of Islamic Art

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A big welcome to all art freaks and to any random viewer who may have landed on this page by chance.

The following bunch of paragraphs will be trying to fool you in thinking that I know a lot about the world we live in.

Anyways this week, rather than focusing on an artist, I wanted to focus on a building.  However, this build is no ordinary building – heck no!

The new Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar is a truly inspirational project.

The Museum of Islamic Arts (MIA) will provide a stunning environment in which to showcase its extensive store of treasures from across the Islamic world. Designed by I.M. Pei, the Museum will have nearly 5,000 square meters of exhibition space available, in addition to generous education, conservation and presentation areas.

The Museum will in time join forces with four other national museums which will be built in the Doha Harbour area.

The Museum is one of the most important and monumental building projects of its type in the world today. In architectural terms, it is one of the most distinguished modern buildings in the entire Middle East. It is a structure of exceptional quality, designed by one of the most important architects in the world and will house great treasures.

This museum, along with the other museums planned to be constructed in the area, and in the context of the major educational reforms and new university establishments being supported by the Qatari authorities, will transform the State of Qatar into a centre of world-class educational excellence.

Debt Elimination

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We’ve all heard time and again that interest and riba are categorically haraam in Islam. Maddeningly though, we often don’t hear a solution to the problem. Everybody knows these things are haraam but practical advice on how to avoid them is very hard to come by. This blog post answers a part of the question; it offers suggestions on eliminating interest-bearing debt quickly.

Pre-Requisites

1. Ask Allah to Forgive You: If you made the mistake of getting into riba (interest) debts, for whatever reason, repent and do your best to get out of it. I didn’t know better myself, and even when I found the ruling out on interest, I justified it to myself, which was wrong (college education). Stop immediately and reverse course on this.  Ask to be forgiven and formulate a new plan of action to deal with this situation.  Take your time with college and life in general – don’t let society force its ridiculous standards on you.

2. Ask Allah to Help You: We underestimate this, but remember that if you try to come closer to Allah, Allah will come closer to you faster, as was mentioned in a hadeeth qudsi. I’ll explain later how this very principle caused my wife and I to pay off all our college debts ($35,000 from me, about $8000 from her) and other lingering debts in 2 months, alhamdulillaah.

3. Financial Discipline: If you don’t have control over yourself, this system will never work. If you can’t control compulsive shopping or spending, no system will work for you. Period. If you have control issues, see a therapist, psychologist / psychiatrist, or a personal coach to help out.

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The big factor here is the DD – the bigger it is, the faster your debt gets destroyed.  I placed a modest $200, but honestly, most people living on their own can go a couple of hundred higher and make this happen much faster, and people who are living with their families can create a massive DD of about $900 – $1000 or more and can out can knock debts out very quickly.  Given the state of the economy, although I don’t normally recommend it, if you can live with your folks and work a full-time professional job, then stay with them til all debts are gone.

Read the entire post here.

Generational Change of Barack Obama

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Muhammed S. Mehtar at Islam in action-

The majority of Muslims in the United States were pleased to campaign resourcefully and successfully, and remain proud to have been part of sharing in the historic vote for the agent of positive change. President Barack Obama’s ideas invigorated the majority in comparison to his contemporaries. Such sentiments are shared within the US and abroad, be it amongst the allies of the United states or her foes.

President Obama’s energetic approach and his campaign showed great potential, and there is much hope for his promises to be made true. The hope, energy, and overall positivity of his campaign logically demands the support of not just Judeo-Christian minded Americans, but American Muslims in vast numbers as well.  Islam being a religion of change itself and change in comparison to religions that preceded it, Muslims have once again chosen the path of newness and have thus trusted the words of President Barack Obama for a better America and more gentle and reconciliatory world.

Thus, on the national front, the choice of Mr. Obama by Muslims in America is a result of the perception that an Obama choice would result in greater equality and understanding between Muslims and their neighbors. On the international front, an Obama victory signals more peace and security and a smoother working relationship between the US and foreign nations seeking a better and more equitable future for their people.

BBC on the Burner

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BBC refused to air request for Gaza aid to “maintain neutrality“.

Masud advises:

You can register your own complain here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

Here is what I wrote:

I wish to complain about the BBC’s decision to not allow the DEC appeal for Gaza to go ahead. This is a very disgraceful decision and will cost lives on the ground. I do not buy the BBC’s official line that it affects its impartiality since this was not a concern for other similar appeals. I can only think that the BBC has succumbed to some external pressure from a foreign government. This is the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation and as a license fee payer I am angry, annoyed and disgusted at this decision for which there is no conceivable reason. Could you please publish the minutes of the meeting in which this decision was made and why and I would like to know which of the directors/trustees decided against the DEC appeal?

EVERYONE I have spoken to, regardless of their ethnic or religious background, cannot understand this ludicrous and cruel decision, it would seem that the overwhelming majority of the BRITISH public do not agree with you. In fact I think it is safe to say that given this it is the BBC that is currently not acting impartially.

Yours angered, annoyed and disgusted.

Masud A. Khan

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(Video via MR)

All the more reason to support Al Jazeera.

Is political Islam a threat to the West?

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Over at Goatmilk, there’s a review of the Doha debates about West and Islam

As the world witnesses Muslims frequently embracing “Islamic” political parties in the Middle East, many ominously foresee this trend as an inevitable threat to “the West.”

This contentious issue anchored last week’s prestigious Doha Debates moderated by veteran BBC journalist Tim Sebastian in Qatar, which hosts controversial topics in front of a diverse, engaged audience of 350 people. The motion “This House Believes that Political Islam is a Threat to the West” was defeated by 51% to 49% following a vote from the passionate audience, which included several members from the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference who were invited to observe and participate.

In support of the motion, Maajid Nawaz, a former leader of the radical Hizb ut-Tahir who has since totally renounced his affiliations, stressed that Muslims and Islam are not inherently undemocratic or extremist, but rather the modern politicisation of Islam creates a dehumanising ideology soaked in separatism and violence. As he told me after the debate, “Political Islam is an ideology. They believe in exporting this divisive ideology to Muslims in the West… terrorists emerge from these parties. They don’t believe in our same democratic values.”

However, Shadi Hamid, a research fellow at Stanford University debating against the motion, disagreed: “With the exception of Hamas or Hizballah, every single mainstream Islamic party has renounced violence.”

Hamid’s debating partner, Sarah Joseph, Editor of the Muslim lifestyle magazine Emel, won over the audience by vocalizing her frustration at the nebulous and generalized definitions of “the West” and “political Islam.”

Meanwhile, Yahya Pallavicini, an Italian Imam and government adviser, argued for the motion lamenting the misuse of religion by Islamist political parties who selfishly hijack theology to “legitimise violence” and demonise women.

Quote of the Day: Obama’s Inauguration Day

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This half-Luo tribesman from Hawaii whose African father had no connection whatsoever with the West African ancestors of American slaves, was not imbued, but rather hued, with significance. His melanin carried the meaning, which is to say that he was judged by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character, in a precise reversal of Martin Luther King Jr’s famous phrase.

America’s African Americans, who have failed to produce a credible leader in the two generations since the Civil Rights Act of 1965, broke America’s last color bar, hailed this carpetbagger as a savior. For a generation of white liberals raised on the notion that skin-color aversion is the original sin of American politics, the confusion is understandable. The African Americans in attendance should have known better. In a way, they did. If not for Aretha Franklin, the day would have been a total loss.

It just wasn’t their day. I mean that literally: it was a day on which a dark-skinned man became president who had nothing to do with them. The son of a Kenyan economist and an American anthropologist walked off with the blood-stained mantle of seven decades of civil rights struggle. If the black poets and clergy offered a counterfeit of real emotion, it is hard to blame them. They were just the extras on Obama’s stage set.

[not a friend of Spengler, but he is right about that!!]