Understanding and Dealing With Homosexuality

Across America, gay marriage is becoming a legalized practice, leading to general societal acceptance of the practice. In many Muslim countries, homosexual relationships are practiced secretly, often by men with wife and children. In Kuwait, a judge reportedly ruled that two co-wives were obliged to sleep with their husband as a group if that is what their husband wanted. Apparently the women felt strongly enough about their desire not to see each other naked that they took this issue to court and lost! The issue is so complex that there are even western homosexual men who migrate to Muslim countries because they prefer the privacy to the politics, and because they do not actually wish to disturb the tranquility of the heterosexual family unit and the society that is built upon such stability. They recognize that their behavior is an aberration to the norm and thus threatening to the majority.

Most Muslims feel extremely squeamish about the topic of homosexuality and many have in the past voted Republican in order to support “family values.” However, Republican politicking against Muslims has led to the vast majority of Muslims supporting President Obama and becoming active in liberal circles where Muslims and homosexuals are lumped together as “oppressed people.” Yet Islam is one of the last American religions to uphold the law against homosexual practices.

In the context of “live and let live,” politically active Muslims could choose to push for an even wider acceptance of the concept of marriage to include polygamous marriages. Gay marriage laws could even be used to help co-wives migrate to the United States, perhaps. But ultimately, the debate over gay marriage could probably be ended immediately with universal or perhaps preferably, state-wide health insurance. There is no real practical reason that a person who wishes to engage in a monogamous sexual relationship with someone else would need to get a government-certified piece of paper requiring it, except in order to provide someone else with health insurance coverage.

While genetic theories abound regarding inborn homosexual urges, Islam views homosexuality as something you choose to do, not something you are. A human being is able to find release in various ways, but I've never heard of anyone called a “vegesexual” (for example). One can choose to lead a hedonistic lifestyle, or one can choose the route of procreation and lifelong responsibility. In cases where a person insists on living a homosexual lifestyle, the question is legitimate whether a person should be free to openly confess it – since it might prevent the sorrow of a wife whose husband is not interested in her but is just using her as a smokescreen against society while exposing her to diseases.

Hadith seem to require excluding homosexuals from Muslim society. However, basic politeness also forces us to wonder how to deal with homosexual co-workers, neighbors, and even beloved friends who have chosen to take that path. Many of these people have many positive qualities.

One way to approach the situation is empathy. Most male homosexuals I have been acquainted with have in their early years been molested by an older man. Most female homosexuals that I know have had some bad experience with men or marriage. From an economic standpoint, it makes sense not to procreate, at least in the short-term. This is why the Gay Lobby has become so powerful, because people have money to donate to political causes. There is also some evidence of the Jewish Lobby and mass media producers promoting homosexuality as a way to undermine Christianity.

Another approach is avoidance. Many Muslims will simply avoid dealing with homosexuals the same way as they avoid dealing with alcoholics, and that is a perfectly sane choice to make as well.

The main question remaining is what we are going to tell our children. In my experience when my children observe same sex couples holding hands, the best thing to do is to say nothing. The kids may not even notice. If the question of gay marriage comes up, I explain that this is something other people might do, but Muslims don't do that. So far they seem satisfied with that. Ultimately, it boils down to the concept of premarital chastity. Those young people who give themselves permission to experiment can be drawn down all kinds of paths, while those who choose to wait until the time is right will have time to think about the pros and cons of any given relationship.

Those of us who feel motivated to actively promote heterosexuality should probably focus on the predatory nature of many heterosexual relationships and why some might choose to avoid them.

In Western society, there is an intense need for an increase in same sex bonding. Since the 1970's, it is very difficult for someone to find themselves in a group composed entirely of their own gender. Other than converting to Islam, becoming a lesbian is one of the only ways for women to find themselves in an emotionally supportive group of other women. My friend's husband, who is non-Muslim, attended an evening prayer during Ramadan and exclaimed that he had never been so physically close to other men before.

There is probably a true human need to socialize and be close to people who share our gender. People deprived of such human contact may develop intense emotional needs that could easily be misinterpreted as sexual in some contexts.

Increased Sun Intensity Requires Vigilance

Facial redness has always been a problem for me. When I was a kid my friends used to call me Rudolph because my nose would get so red in the Michigan winter cold. In summer, I was always freckled and pink-faced. It didn’t cause me any discomfort, just mild embarrassment. In fifth grade, I remember thinking I better marry a darker man because I wanted to protect my future descendants from ozone layer depletion. Probably a wise idea, since the sun is so much stronger now than when I was a kid. I have no idea what’s in those chemtrails either but I don’t think it’s good for my skin. Our skin is the only thing protecting us from this world.

I noticed a huge shift in skin health between youth and adulthood. Before age 20 I used to spend a lot of time in the sun outdoors and would attain a bronze color on my arms without any problem. As an adult, the combination of hijab and the housewife lifestyle made my skin extremely sensitive. At first I really liked the effect. No longer mousy brown, my hair went a shade darker while my skin became white like the moon. I looked like Snow White! But I also developed vitamin deficiency and became weak. If a family member forced me to enjoy a nature trail and a waterfall, I’d find myself covered with moles and would seriously regret it.

Around the time of the first Gulf War, it seemed like the sun got really bright. I remember being in college 20 years ago. I left my classroom and walked a couple blocks to the bus stop. By that time, my face was quite red and sunburned and stayed that way for a few days! The intensity of sunlight has continued to be much brighter than what I feel comfortable with. It is physically painful to me to go outside without sunglasses on a sunny day. My son, who has dark eyes, has similar complaints.

Now that I am a mother of four, we are still struggling over skin problems. When my son was a baby, he’d get a red face rash just from touching a soft polyester fleece blanket. Now at 13, he has some kind of acne rash caused by dry inflamed skin. The winter cold makes everybody’s cheeks red and sore, especially the baby. I suffer from rosacea in the nose and cheeks, which comes from my German side of the family. It can sometimes become quite painful and had kept me up at night feeling my capillaries exploding until I discovered a French ointment that costs $40 for 2 oz. I seem to have an allergy to the antibiotic cream that the doctor had prescribed.

Whether we blame genetics or the environment, facial redness is incurable. All you can do is regulate it, avoid triggers like extreme temperatures or caffeine and alcohol, and try to eat a good diet and drink lots of water. I am so thankful that there are so many choices of skin products out there. One of the most beautiful things about capitalism. My personal favorite is a Chamomile Primrose salve marketed online by Common Sense, a Christian hippie community-based business. I often meditate upon the suffering of women in Afghanistan or Native People anywhere, as their faces turn to leather in the wind, sun and rain. As I understand, the early Muslims used olive oil as a skin salve. There is even a commonly accepted religious ruling that applying olive oil to the skin does NOT break the Ramadan fast. That’s how important it is to moisturize!

Like prayer, the most important thing about any healthcare regime is that it needs to be applied regularly. No dermatologist in the world can help you if you don’t actually apply the prescribed lotion. Likewise, we know the importance of eating avocados and carrots, but the knowledge doesn’t help you. Eating in abundance the good food from Mother Earth helps you and your children to enjoy a better life!

Yet, I think we need to take the issue of moles caused by sunlight seriously. Hijabi women should find some way to privately expose their neck and shoulder area to sunlight on a regular basis. In my experience, this is the part of the body most sensitive, even more so than the face. I have read that people who are infrequently exposed to the sun, such as office workers, are more likely to experience skin cancer than construction workers who work in the sun without a shirt.

By the time I was thirty, I had developed a brown spot the size of a quarter on my left cheek. My mother had the same spot in the exact same place, although she was at least forty when it happened. The only thing I can think of is that it was caused by driving a car. Another argument against women driving cars LOL!!! But it’s true, that intense sunlight pouring in through one window will age your skin.

One of the blessings of living in an informed culture is that we can learn from our elders, and we can apply what we learned to future generations. I have learned from the mistakes of my youth the importance of sunscreen. We are so blessed to live in a country where sunscreen is available. Otherwise, all women would have to wear a burqa to preserve their beauty.

Tarek Mehanna Gives Rousing Speech at Sentencing

On April 12, 2010 Tarek Mehanna was sentenced to over 17 years in prison. It was a sad moment for his supporters, who packed the Boston courthouse, but they were rewarded with an historical, moving speech, as Mehanna described how he came to view it as his duty to defend the oppressed.

“I couldn’t see these things beings done to my brothers & sisters – including by America – and remain neutral... [T]his trial was not about my position on Muslims killing American civilians. It was about my position on Americans killing Muslim civilians, which is that Muslims should defend their lands from foreign invaders – Soviets, Americans, or Martians,” stated Mehanna, who compared Muslim fighters overseas to American Revolutionary Minutemen fighting invading British occupation soldiers.

 

Mehanna's speech was on point and delivered very well. He gave a detailed analysis of his youthful intellectual processes, as he learned about American history and painful current events. One news report was particularly shocking to the young teenager: 

“I learned about Abeer al-Janabi, a fourteen-year old Iraqi girl gang-raped by five American soldiers, who then shot her and her family in the head, then set fire to their corpses.”

I'm sure most of us have gone through a similar educational process when we were young, realizing at some point that the world can be a violent and unfair place. Last night, my five-year-old daughter saw a nature show on TV where whales were eating fish swimming under the sea. She was so horrified that she cried, “I'll never eat fish again!” Imagine how she will feel when she learns about Abeer al-Janabi. 

 

True leadership inspires people to transcend fear and to make sacrifices for the sake of others. This author recalls that when I was in fifth grade, a documentary about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired me to pray to God right then and there at my school desk to make me among the martyrs. I asked Him to purify me, to fortify me, and to make me worthy.

Mehanna spoke of the examples of true leadership that inspired him to commit the “crime” of translating online Arabic documents related to jihad:

 

“When I was six, I began putting together a massive collection of comic books. Batman implanted a concept in my mind, introduced me to a paradigm as to how the world is set up: that there are oppressors, there are the oppressed, and there are those who step up to defend the oppressed. This resonated with me so much that throughout the rest of my childhood, I gravitated towards any book that reflected that paradigm - Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and I even saw an ethical dimension to The Catcher in the Rye.”

Mehanna listed among his heroes Paul Revere, Tom Paine, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, John Brown, Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Anne Frank, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Ho Chi Minh, and Nelson Mandela. He said he still has all his notes from history class! Malcolm X in particular made him dig deeper into his Islamic roots, to read the Quran and to learn about the Prophet Mohammed (s).

Mehanna testified, “the more I learned, the more I valued Islam like a piece of gold. This was when I was a teen, but even today, despite the pressures of the last few years, I stand here before you, and everyone else in this courtroom, as a very proud Muslim...”

He continued: “I wasn't tried before a jury of my peers because with the mentality gripping America today, I have no peers. Counting on this fact, the government prosecuted me - not because they needed to, but simply because they could...

“In your eyes, I'm a terrorist, and it's perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I'm the one going to prison for 'conspiring to kill and maim' in those countries - because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a 'terrorist,' yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the 'terrorists' are, she sure wouldn't be pointing at me,” Mehanna declared.

“It was made crystal clear at trial that I never, ever plotted to "kill Americans" at shopping malls or whatever the story was...

"The government says that I was obsessed with violence, obsessed with 'killing Americans.' But, as a Muslim living in these times, I can think of a lie no more ironic.”

Mehanna's appeal process has already been set in motion. His defense will take this to appellate and Supreme Court if necessary.

You can read Mehanna's entire sentencing statement at http://freetarek.wordpress.com/

Shariah Could Improve Women’s Health

In the national debate regarding healthcare coverage, “folks are getting up in arms about the idea that the pill could set uninsured women back about $1000 a year, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s nothing,” Tracie Egan Morrissey writes in Jezebel, an online feminist magazine, which estimates the total cost of personal feminine hygiene and health maintenance to amount to $2,667 to $4,232 a year for a non-pregnant woman.

This itemized list tabulates the regular expenses involved with being specifically a human female – birth control, menstrual pads and tampons, PMS remedies like Midol, increased toilet paper use compared to men, and regular hair removal, as well as over-the-counter and prescription remedies for yeast infections, feminine itching, urinary tract infections, and the doctor-recommended yearly Pap screening for cervical cancer. Not included in the list are the costs of pregnancy tests, emergency contraception, and abortion, which if not utilized would result in exponential additional costs related to pregnancy, childbirth and daycare.

I’ll leave it to the politicians to debate about which healthcare items should be covered by taxpayers, keeping in mind that most insurance companies prefer to provide free contraception rather than dish out tens of thousands for pregnancy, childbirth, and the cost of the future children’s medical care. 

Costs related to treating infections could be easily reduced

If both men and women followed Islamic norms, women’s general health maintenance costs would likely decrease. Let’s set aside the pre-marital chastity discussion and just focus on Islamically married women. The cost of birth control and preventative doctor exams would remain the same as would menstrual expenditures, unless she is one of those Earth Mamas who make their own pads out of worn out T-shirts or have a baby every year (which is great). Female camaraderie among Muslim sisters can save a lot on salon costs, I have heard. 

Male circumcision can also play a huge role in bettering future wives’ long-term health, reducing rates of sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer, and even AIDS. Scientific trials have shown that male circumcision can reduce a man’s risk of becoming infected with HIV during heterosexual intercourse by up to 60 percent. These findings have led to the decision by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) to recommended circumcision as an important new element of disease prevention. Isn’t it amazing that modern medicine is catching up with the Muslims?

Yet the most notable Islamic contribution to women’s health is without question the increased use of water for personal hygiene. In Europe, washroom fountains for rinsing off one’s personal areas are associated with prostitution, while in America, such bathroom fixtures do not even exist. There is not even a word in the English language for something you use to wash yourself after using the toilet. 

It baffles me that, in this day and age, when people scientifically understand the close relationship between cleanliness and health, there is no concept in the modern Western world of rinsing off. A woman’s risk of urinary tract infections, yeast infections, and general personal discomforts are greatly reduced by the Islamically-recommended regular use of water by both herself and her husband.

Granted, in many Muslim countries where toilet paper is not readily available, the bathroom situation can still be quite alarming even when there is some kind of fixture providing water. But there is no reason that modern man and woman cannot combine the use of toilet paper, water, and occasional soap to provide the freshest feeling.

The persistent problem of yeast and urinary infections exists also in girl children who are not sexually active. Therefore I do not understand why every medical doctor does not at least suggest to his or her patients the importance of washing with water beyond hand-washing. Perhaps it is more profitable to keep humans in a constant state of low-level infection that requires regular medication.

It is my hope that as more Muslims enter society as fully participating members, we could spread our knowledge of personal hygiene among the general population. Even those Americans who have zero interest in religion or spirituality would benefit from the disease prevention aspects of Shariah. I too, like the feminists at Jezebel, used to consider yeast and urinary tract infections a normal part of life. Then I discovered water, thanks to a Muslim penpal who decided to school me on Islamic practices. 

For some reason, discussion of the advantages of improved hygiene is often censored. It is almost as if the medieval European Christian taboo against bathing with water remains; it is as if the mere mention that bacteria exist is in itself an obscenity. Women are kept in a state of shame about their “odor” while being exposed to the advertisements of chemical companies selling them products.

Yet there is no more beautiful smell than a clean woman, to which the Prophet’s (s) hadith can attest.

Afghanistan Dilemma Remains Unsolved

Dennis Weichel, a National Guardsman from Rhode Island recently sent to Afghanistan, was killed after only 12 days as he saved an Afghan girl from being crushed by a US military vehicle. He was killed by that same US military vehicle. The father of three has been posthumously promoted to sergeant and received the Bronze Star for his heroism. The evening news has seized upon this headline to counteract the bad publicity caused by the recent reports of the US military massacring a family with many children asleep in their home.

A recent poll showed that 69% of Americans want the US to get out of Afghanistan. Reports such as the above may point to why 31% of Americans still support the US occupation: they somehow still believe that Americans are there to help people. This may explain why well-meaning people continue to enlist.

The evening news showed Weichel’s sister repeatedly stating, “That girl is alive because of my brother.” Well, that girl might be the first Afghan female the US military has actually helped. The important thing is, that nameless female has a future, even if Weichel does not. Maybe she could become a symbol of hope in the American dream for Afghanistan.

In 2001, feminists led by Hillary Clinton proclaimed that the US invasion of Afghanistan was for the liberation of women. Cries that bombing villages and starving civilians would not improve the lives of women fell on deaf ears. Internet “jokes” continue to abound, implying that female US military personnel are “showing” Afghan men, stereotyped as women-abusers, what it feels like to be abused by women. Of course no one mentions that every Afghan man tortured or killed in war is some woman’s beloved son. The fact that patriarchy remains in force even in a country of widows and orphans points to the probability that mothers are still raising their children according to old-fashioned thinking.

Human rights reports show that as of 2012, problems such as forced marriage, physical abuse, and incarceration of rape victims have not gone away, yet new problems such as forced prostitution are on the rise. 

US-friendly President Karzai has pledged to increase educational opportunities for girls, but according to the Daily Beast, in March just two days before International Women’s Day of 2012, Karzai sent out a “code of conduct” issued by the government-supported Ulema Council on how women should act and behave. “Men are fundamental and women are secondary,” the statement posted on the website of the presidential palace read. 

No Muslim man, no matter how conservative, would normally ever say something so offensive out loud even if he might practice it in his daily behavior. Islam teaches us that “Paradise lies at the feet of the mothers.” 

The Taliban was originally formed by vigilantes seeking to make Afghanistan safe from rape. The entire reason for the Taliban taking over Afghanistan in previous decades was to uphold the honor of the mothers! Afghan militias allied with the Soviet Union had used rape as one of their weapons of war and that news made the teenagers decide to leave their studies to become Afghanistan’s barefoot soldiers – to defend the women and girls from the abuse of the godless warlords! Despite their many flaws, the Taliban laid down their lives for women, and they are still respected as the only militia that does not rape. 

There has been a lot of ongoing talk about Karzai fluctuating between trying to work with the US and talking with the Taliban, who apparently have not actually been toppled. They seem to be more like a ragtag group of armed farmers, who are not going to go away. 

I have no idea what Afghan women are going to do about their general situation, and it looks like they are on their own with that decision. According to my Women’s Studies classes in college, the status of women improves with economic stability. Men without a stable income are more likely to abuse their wives, while women with a stable income are less likely to be abused by their husbands. It’s a pretty simple mathematical/psychological formula really. But the majority of US efforts seem geared at taking any kind of financial freedom away from the Afghan people, including laws forcing farmers to buy genetically modified seeds from the Monsanto Corporation, which do not reproduce – forcing Afghan farmers to buy seeds on a yearly basis from the US. 

Americans that want to help Afghan girls and women are going to have to do more than “support the troops.” They will have to organize to defend their own gardening and farming communities against government control of seeds and other outrageous abuses.

Since the US set up heroine processing plants in Afghanistan, it has become completely impossible for Americans to access the flower sap Afghan housewives reportedly use to quiet their children. This is the exact opposite of capitalism! Heroine will kill you dead and spread AIDS through needles. Opium is less harmful than cigarets, even if it’s just as addictive. Legalizing drugs might go a long way towards ending the CIA involvement and violence associated with growing opium, and would provide safer and more natural forms of the drug to consumers of painkillers. 

Ultimately, cessation of war would provide Afghan farmers some respite to explore other crops to make a living.

Where Will Our Summers Take Us?

Spring is the time when we start dreaming about our summer vacations. Signing kids up for summer camp, planning a family vacation, or perhaps opting out of travel and instead, looking into what summer programs are available close to home. Some of us are planning gardens, while some of us might decide to acquire a new skill this summer like learning to knit, type, or skateboard. Many of us are simply looking forward to staying up late and sleeping in late, just because we can!

It’s important to be realistic about how much time, energy and money we actually have to spend on any potential plans. I had thought about making the drive back home for my high school reunion with four kids in tow, but after a few episodes of my two year old getting out of her car seat and jumping around the car unrestrained, the idea of 18 long hours on the highway started seeming like a really bad idea. I also opted out of the annual extended family gathering, because it seems important for me to find out what the kids and I could come up with for fun on our own!

Traditionally, Americans scrimp and save all year in order to go on some wonderful summer vacation which then leaves them in debt. It’s true that nothing can replace a camping trip to the Smoky Mountains or hiking the Grand Canyon and those memories would probably mean a lot to your children, but there is also a valid argument that you should not invest so much effort in escaping your everyday life. Rather, why not invest your time and energy in making your everyday life more interesting and fun? 

The more free time we spend away from home, the fewer opportunities we have to make a valuable impact on our local communities. Instead of giving money to gas stations and McDonalds on the Great American Road Trip, we could be strengthening our ties with neighbors through frequent visits to the playground or invigorating local business by going to restaurants, art exhibits and films in our own city. At least, we could be working together as a family to catch up on home repairs and maintenance.

Our growing children will probably need some serious sleep repair time. I recall when I was in Junior High, the first week of summer vacation meant sleeping 12-14 hours at a time. Gradually my body would get to the point where it was satisfied with 8 hours of sleep, but this gaining of healthy equilibrium would be a process that took several weeks. 

Physical growth spurts demand a lot of sleep. Emotional upheavals also require sleep to heal. I have noted that when I give my body the permission to experience as much REM sleep as it wants, my dreams are initially disturbing but as the days go by they become less threatening. It seems that as I allow my body to heal from stress, my emotional state also improves. The mind needs to work out all its inner conflicts subconsciously during the dream state. Eventually, we wake up feeling refreshed! 

It seems today’s generation is even more sleep-deprived than mine was. The governmental school systems have steadily increased the homework load upon young people since the Vietnam War, partially in an effort to keep up with the Asians and partly in an effort to keep the kids away from political protesting. In an era of increased economic competition, schoolwork overload also seems to be a way of weeding out those who really want to attend college from those who don’t care. 

Perhaps even more worrying is the lack of play time for today’s young people. I notice that my teenage son, like me, really needs time to unwind or else he gets so cranky he can’t focus. One of the things preventing young people from truly unwinding is the TV. The constant interference of TV prevents anyone in the room from forming their own thoughts. I noticed that if I just demand that the TV be turned off, pretty soon the children start playing with their toys or reading quietly. My son seems to have an almost physical need to create things.

As much as I want my children to succeed in school, it is perhaps even more important for them to be able to create neurological pathways using their minds in more self-directed ways. Focusing on things they enjoy teaches kids how to focus. And at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you earned A’s or C’s in seventh grade, it matters if you can put food on the table for your family. A lot of that earning capability comes from developing the unique gifts and talents God gave you personally. 

Those of us who are unable to have any great adventures this summer can find excitement through living through others who are embarking on exciting and wonderful journeys! There is a caravan leaving from India heading towards Gaza to bring humanitarian aid. There is a Bosnian man, 47-year-old Senad Hadzic walking to Mecca on foot. There are so many worthy endeavors we can tune into! 

We can also bring good fortune upon ourselves by aiding the traveler. If you know of someone that needs a place to stay, or you see someone at the side of the road who needs a ride, let them into your life! You would be surprised at how invigorating such an action can be. By providing a traveler with a meal, you will gain access to some very interesting personal stories and gain far more than you have paid. Likewise, if you leave your home with nothing but a backpack, you will be surprised by all the generosity and kindness you will receive from strangers. Americans are truly great people to meet.

Trash Is Evidence of Governance

The political situation that hits me on a most personal level is local garbage. Why is that poor people’s streets are filled with garbage? When I walk down my street, there is garbage mixed in with the leaves. We can’t blame the City for this. I watched a hearing on public television where Boston’s Mayor Menino was pretty much imploring Boston residents to use garbage bags! Street sweepers do come by regularly to clear up the debris, but they can’t be responsible for picking up people’s lawns.

The immortal Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.”

One of my enduring memories of Zurich, Switzerland, the city where my mother was born, was the sight of people awake at 7am vacuuming their window frames. I mean, who in America vacuums their window frames? Maybe the Arabs. The women in Dearborn, Michigan will certainly be found well before noon sweeping if not vacuuming the sidewalk in front of their homes. 

Yet even this can be made into a complex issue! Friends from Beirut explained to me the vast differences between sidewalk upkeep between Sunnis, Shias, and Christians in Lebanon. 

What are the factors that influence a person’s interest in keeping up appearances? I am guessing that home ownership plays a great role in determining the amount of energy spent in sweeping the sidewalk. When you own something, it represents you in this world. So it is quite likely that those who rent are less likely to care if passersby have to gag as they walk past. 

Personal organization is probably key. If the inside of your home is chaos, you are less likely to venture outside to control the chaos out there. The amount of leisure time probably also plays a role. The essence of Middle Class America includes weekends free to tend and prune the garden. When people are working two or three jobs, there is less interest in “the lawn” and more energy spent on getting food on the table.

What could possibly be done to beautify the neighborhood? One approach would be to increase government: perhaps fine people for non-compliance of some basic standard, or at least make more trash receptacles available to the public, which would be managed by paid employees. 

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while giving a speech in support of the garbage workers strike. He said the people who remove the trash from our community are as important as doctors, because their work prevents disease. You can’t argue with that!

But on my street it’s not just about the weekly garbage pick-up. People seem to be sitting on their porches just throwing cigaret butts towards the street. After garbage day is over, their lawns remain strewn with bottles and wrappers. Why don’t people clean up in front of their homes?

Possibly, what is needed is a non-government neighborhood organization to educate everyone about the importance of recycling and reducing waste. I’m guessing that nothing short of peer pressure would convince many of my neighbors to think about their waste.

Recycling receptacles are free for anyone who wants them from the City. All you have to do is care enough to make a phone call, and separate your food containers from your food remains. If you really truly care enough you can even separate your food waste and compost it in the yard.

All of this is so simple, so what lies between us and environmental responsibility? School children are being educated about the importance of where we put our waste, but they can only do so much to convince their parents.

A lot of the issue really does have to do with personal pride. When you buy, say, a pack of rice mix, you cook the rice and then you have a packet as well as a box to dispose of. It does take some small amount of effort to separate the plastic packet from the box. The box is recyclable. 

A lot of American housewives worked hard in all their free time to get the government to take responsibility for these boxes and cans. A lot of mothers were worried about the garbage pile-up, and rightly so. We live in a country where the people can actually make a difference when it comes to these essential issues. We should support those people who made the effort to do the right thing.

When you see a person litter, what does it make you think about that person? Why do people go about their lives as if it’s someone else’s job to pick up their waste? Are we barn animals? How do we go about explaining to our loved ones and neighbors the importance of such matters?

I truly do not know. But I think it’s interesting to ponder the question, is such a simple matter a sign that we need more government or less government? Whichever we choose, what are we willing to do to see this problem through to its resolution?

Psychoanalyzing Pharaoh

Today we commonly ask, “How could the Germans remain silent during the Holocaust? How could they live in denial? How could they?!” Although a few did risk their lives to reach out to those against whom Nazi violence was directed, the vast majority were patriotic citizens.

Technically, wiping out a civilization is called “genocide.” So, what is the difference between a Jewish supporter of Zionist Israel and a German supporter of Nazi Germany? The difference is that unlike in the 1930s and 40s, today there is no barrier to receiving accurate news reports. There is no Jew or Gentile who could honestly say they had no way of knowing what the Jewish homeland was doing to the Palestinians. If he does not know, it is because he does not care to know.

The Germans, by contrast, had very little access to public information except via government-controlled radio. A memorial in Munich, Germany remembers a professor and a few college students who were executed by the Nazi regime for throwing fliers out of the classroom window publicizing the war crimes of their government.

Today I see American Jews, at far less risk of peril for speaking out than what would have faced an outspoken Nazi opponent, remaining in blank-faced denial about the erasing of Palestine from the map. They want us to believe that the land simply “came to be known as Israel.”

Zionists around the world are praying and waiting for their inheritance of Biblical lands to be claimed in its entirety, without delay, in order to implement the “redemption of Israel.” Then, they believe, there can be peace on earth. Therefore, they see Palestinians as obstacles to peace.

A letter to the editor published in The Jewish State, a small New Jersey newspaper, states: “Unless and until the Palestinians stop teaching their children the virtues of jihad, martyrdom, and the destruction of Israel, the Palestinian children, cute as they are, remain my virulent enemy and I will not spend much time lamenting their demise if and when they are taken out as collateral damage.”

How can it be that this monster who seethes with hate and feels no remorse, can perceive himself as reasonable, ethical and moral? Helplessly, the world watches as many of Palestine’s best and brightest are simply ‘knocked off,’ not by a random act of terror but by the painstaking deliberations of the state military apparatus. Yet the Zionist continually feels that he is the one who has been wronged, that his violence is always and only provoked by the other. What is at the heart of all this abusive behavior?

An essay written by an American fourth grader attending Hebrew School reveals the murderers’ hidden inferiority complex: “Why do people treat Israel as if she is less important than other countries?…I cannot answer why people would treat any country as if it counts as less than another…We need to stretch out our hands to pull the Israelis from the pit into which the terrorists have thrown them. We must also show the terrorists that we will not allow them to take over our country.”

The Israeli Declaration of Independence refers to “the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land.” I find it curious that the founders of the Jewish state proclaimed as sovereign over the land not the Lord God but to themselves, with their proclaimed “natural and historical right” to take possession of it. Their entire argument for rebuilding Solomon’s Temple also seems to revolve around the idea that this will show the world that the Jews are really something.

 “This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.”

Jabotinsky wrote: “To the hackneyed reproach that this point of view is unethical, I answer, ‘absolutely untrue.’ This is our ethic. There is no other ethic.” (1923).

So, is Zionism a struggle for Jewish supremacy or a struggle to be as good as other nations? On one hand, the Jews declare their absolute uniqueness, and then they declare that they want to be like everyone else. Is the only way for Jews to get beyond their imagined second-class status is by declaring themselves God, making others into second-class citizens and founding a nation over their graves?

The story of Moses and the Pharaoh tells us that God destroys civilizations for their cruelty. Pharaoh is described as one who “transgressed beyond bounds in the lands, and heaped therein mischief (on mischief). Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse chastisements” (Quran 89:11).

Many Muslims consider the discovery of Pharaoh’s mummy in 1898 at Thebes to be a warning specifically to the Jews from God. This Sign is the fulfillment of a Quranic prophecy where Allah says to the Pharaoh: “This day We (have decided to) preserve your body (from destruction) so that you may become a sign to (a people) who will come after you, for most people are heedless of Our signs” (10:92-93).

No country based on a racist ideology, which imposes a tyranny of one ethnic group over the others, has any need to exist as a nation among other nations.

Warding off the Evil Eye

People often think it’s silly to worry about protecting yourself from other people’s bad thoughts. Personally, I never would have believed it myself about the Evil Eye, or that other people’s thoughts could potentially harm me, except that I watched my newborn baby die in my arms while I nursed him, for no scientific reason – no cause of death was ever determined by autopsy – but something spiritually intense was definitely going on in the room. My cat’s hair was standing on end, her eyes had turned red, and she was hissing and glaring intensely at the child that I had just brought home from the Birth Center. I had never seen my cat this way, she looked like a demon. I was terrified. This was not the cat I knew. Unfortunately my husband had left me alone in this whirlwind of negative energy. Then my baby just stopped breathing and suddenly died.

Later on I learned that there is an ancient belief, shared by many Muslims, that the djinn can enter a cat and suck the life out of a baby. For this reason many people try to keep cats away from newborn babies. They hang Ayat al Kursi over a baby’s bed or recite it to keep away the Evil Eye. At the time I had no idea this level of vigilance was required to protect my child’s life! I was totally prepared in all other ways for the basic needs of a newborn. If I look back now, I realize that more than one person held my baby during his short life of 19 hours, who are causing deliberate pain in my life to this day. There were other people who never wanted my marriage to happen. I have no idea how many people prayed against me or wished harm to fall upon me and my firstborn son. The lesson I have learned is to be more aggressive about protecting myself against harm.

Yet during times of stress our defenses can become compromised, even when we know what to do. This week after completely floored by some totally undeserved accusations and hateful words, I was like a train derailed. I got so sick that I was sweating and shivering, while the person who had originally upset me continued to behave in a ruthlessly unkind manner, almost seeming to delight in causing me distress. When people get you down, they actually manipulate you into hurting yourself sometimes. Not eating, not sleeping, becoming enraged in reaction to their lack of respect. So now I’m back to square one in terms of building up the fortress which is my personal space.

Perhaps the most important thing, after praying for healing for ourselves and our loved ones, is to spiritually protect our homes. The djinn congregate in dirty places, the Prophet (pbuh) told us, so vacuuming up those cobwebs on the ceiling and taking care of things long left undone can help dispel the repressed, negative energy that is symbolized by our procrastination.

It is important to keep track of what comes into your house and what goes out of your house. If you feel a negative association with a gift given to you by someone who seems like they might not wish you well, get rid of it. Burn it, throw it down the toilet or into a river, or at least wash it, with a prayer. And take a bath. I’ve been told, if someone who you suspect dislikes you gives you food, especially sweets, don’t eat it. If a gift disturbs you emotionally because every time you look at it you have to relive some old memory, at least put it away so you don’t have to look at it anymore. If you must send your children to visit people who do not wish you well, make sure you pray over them before they leave and also purify your doorstep in some way so that all who enter into your dwelling will shed whatever bad thoughts might be with them.

How do you purify a doorway? A home? I am sure lots of people would tell me it’s wrong, but this is what I have learned from experience can help get rid of children’s nightmares and other negativity. Some people recite prayers over water and sprinkle the water in every corner and doorway of the home. Some people recite prayers and wave smoke at every corner and doorway of the home. I personally find that the beauty of fresh flowers in a vase helps counteract the ugliness of Satan. The basic idea is to ask God to keep evil out of your home and to keep you and your family safe. Even when you are not at home, you can visualize some kind of force field of light surrounding your home. If you don’t have energy for all of that (like me right now, because I’m sick), just say a prayer and ask God to protect you “from the evil of the envier when he envies.” The hadith recommend reciting Ayat al-Kursi and the four Qul’s. Reading the Psalms of David works for a lot of people. Most importantly, do something. Intention is everything. You don’t have to be an enlightened or perfect being to pray for protection. It does not require religious observance or sinlessness. But it could lead to that.

Lice Happens

This week, I am unable to come up with any deep observations on politics, psychology or spirituality, because my daughter came home with lice. Those parents who have gone through this know how embarrassing, time consuming, and stressful it can be. I even got a second call from the school nurse telling me I didn't do a good enough job picking out the nits. Both the nurse and my daughter's kindergarten teacher spent time removing lice eggs from my daughter's long, beautiful hair. I am grateful, and humbled.

I guess my eyes must be going bad, and the evening lighting in my apartment isn't that bright, but I am truly doing the best I can. After shampooing myself and four children with the recommended medication and combing through everyone's hair, I have been doing laundry around the clock for the past two days, losing sleep - all the while my youngest engages in “cute” antics like dumping corn starch all over the living room, peeing on the carpet, and well, you know what it's like to have kids. This article is devoted to parents facing the stress of lice. As if we didn't have enough to worry about.

I remember bursting into tears the fifth time my kids got lice from visiting their cousins in Queens. A nice Pakistani lady calmed me down reminding me it's no big deal. It is often humiliating to be found with lice in your family, because lice is common in places where people have less access to running water. It is associated with being poor and dirty. However, lice are very happy to live in clean people's homes too. Lice live on the scalp, sucking your blood. But they do not die from shampoo. So even if your children bathe frequently, they could get lice. If you are diligent about brushing your children's hair often while looking closely at the scalp and each strand of hair as you comb through it, you might catch the lice sooner than if your kids' hair stays braided or messy.

If you catch lice early, you will find white little bubbles about the size of a pencil dot sticking to shafts of hair near the scalp. You have to use your fingernails to slide the egg down the hair shaft and remove it. If lice goes on for a long time left untreated, you will find little crusty brown dots stuck to the scalp that require a fingernail dig to dislodge. In any case, as soon as you realize all these eggs are in your child's hair you have to use the lice shampoo, and then manually search through every blade of hair. And wash your hands afterward of course. We might think: Who has the time for this???!!!

It is part of primate biology to be vulnerable to insect parasites, but God created biology with some interesting psychology mixed in! Monkeys and gorillas comb each others' fur and pick out insects (and eat them) as a way of showing love and affection. They can sit together for hours, just exchanging their beingness with one another, providing a little gentle skin massage to their beloved in the process. I knew a woman whose husband had such fond memories of his mother searching his hair for lice while he lay his head on her lap, that he enjoyed his wife to pretend to look for lice as part of their mating ritual! That woman is now an elected official – so don't let the fear of real or imagined lice hold you back.

It takes a lot of love to pick nits out of someone's hair. And a lot of time and patience. Single parents definitely face a challenge because there is no one around to comb through their hair, after they have combed through their children's hair. Some barber shops will help out on the sly. But it is always a situation where you are begging someone for a serious favor!

Hazrat Ali said (something like) that he KNOWS there is a God, because every time he makes plans, something else could happen. You might have thought you were going to reorganize your recipe box this weekend. But instead, you are dealing with life. I mean, lice.

The Question of the Pill

“If a man breaks a relationship with you because you would not allow him to participate in the sexual act, you can be assured that he did not love you from the beginning.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr. 1957


There has been a lot of discussion in the news recently about funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides cancer screenings as well as abortion to low-income women. The question of abortion funding has elicited outrage and accusations that women’s rights are under attack in the same way that minorities are under attack by lack of civil rights. Therefore, advocates on both sides of the issue have looked to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for insight.

The Reverend supported birth control for African-Americans as a way of alleviating poverty. MLK was the first recipient of the Margaret Sanger award for his support of Planned Parenthood in 1966. However, abortion was not one of Planned Parenthood’s services then as it was illegal, and birth control was only being promoted for married couples at that time. MLK made his personal opinion regarding sexual behavior quite clear in a 1957 advice column, where he told a young woman:

“I think you should hold firm to the principle of premarital virginity. The problems created by premarital sex relationships are far greater than the problems created by premarital virginity. The suspicion, fears, and guilt feelings generated by premarital sex relations are contributing factors to the present breakdown of the family. Real men still respect purity and virginity within women. If a man breaks a relationship with you because you would not allow him to participate in the sexual act, you can be assured that he did not love you from the beginning.”

“Abortions are destroying us as women,” Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., told The Final Call.

Ms. King is a pro-life advocate and the director of African-American Outreach for the New York-based Priests for Life ministries. Alveda King became an outspoken anti-abortion activist after having experienced more than one unhappy abortion in her teen years. She now believes that “the Negro cannot win if he’s willing to sacrifice the futures of his children for immediate personal comfort and safety.” King considers Planned Parenthood to be the “number one killer of African-Americans.”

In 1996, Planned Parenthood reported that “Blacks, who make up 14 percent of all childbearing women, have 31 percent of all abortions.”

The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 legalized abortions in America and since then, Black women have accounted for between 13-15 million abortions, making them five times more likely to have the procedure than their White counterparts. From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred nationwide.

It is meaningful to note that “Roe” – the actual woman who was responsible for legalizing abortion in America – seriously regretted the political use of her pregnancy. Roe is now an outspoken anti-abortion advocate! Her conversion to Christianity was influenced by anti-abortion protesters around her clinic who chatted with her during her cigaret breaks. They explained to her about the true value of the human soul and the possibility of divine redemption.

Anti-abortion activists take amazing amounts of abuse from the public that only a Muslim would understand. Once in a while somebody listens. One young Black single mother told me that her unborn child saved her life. Being pregnant changed her – for the better.

As complex as the abortion issue remains, the issue of birth control is even more complicated. When left to our own natures, the human female body is capable of producing about one child per year. In the olden days, this could mean 14 or more children, and often, premature death. Just producing enough nutrition to create and sustain that many lives was the central challenge in every woman’s life.

Classic country singer Loretta Lynn wrote a song in 1972 called “The Pill” that was banned on all the radio stations. She sang:

“You …promised if I’d be your wife you’d show me the world

But all I’ve seen of this old world is a bed and a doctor bill.

I’m tearing down your brooder house ‘cause now I’ve got the Pill!”

The availability of birth control that is not dependent upon a male partner’s cooperation has made a huge difference in the lives of women. The past forty years have demonstrated that women who do not have too many children are capable of competing with men, and sometimes, excelling them in all realms. At the same time, the existence of birth control has contributed to a certain level of male expectation that is divorced from the concept of a meaningful and committed emotional relationship.

What is never discussed are the health consequences. Every type of Pill, or injection, or NuvaRing can cause cancer, seizures or heart attack, and will certainly increase your Candida growth of yeast while killing the good bacteria in your digestive system, just like taking antibiotics. It’s like being an alcoholic or a foodaholic eating way too many sugary foods. Yin/Yang balance is health. Birth control causes a stress upon your immune system. If you have, or will develop, any kind of immune issue, taking hormonal birth control medication will affect that. Be particularly alert to increased risk of cervical and breast cancers, heart attack and strokes, high blood pressure, gall bladder and liver disease, decreased bone density, yeast overgrowth and infection and increased risk of blood clotting.

The counter-argument in favor of hormonal birth control is that the process of pregnancy and birth is also dangerous and potentially life-threatening. I don’t know about you, but if I had the choice between cancer and another child, I know what I would choose. But you never get to make those choices with rear view mirror hindsight.


Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based freelance writer. karinfriedemann.blogspot.com

Are Walls Necessary to Protect America?

In the coming presidential election, one of the issues being discussed is how the United States should protect its borders from illegal immigrants from Mexico. As a first generation European-American, I feel somewhat uncomfortable placing my legal rights above those whose ancestors have resided on this continent for perhaps 10,000 years – although I can also understand that there are probably some very real problems associated with undocumented residents placing a burden on taxpayers. While I have no quick answers, I can state with certainty that the US-Mexico border wall makes me very uncomfortable, given its similarities with the Israel-Palestine Wall, which has caused so much human suffering including the deliberate starvation of innocent populations, who WANT to work.

My own family was divided for 40 years, unable to visit one another, by the Wall that separated Western Germany from USSR-occupied Germany. This Wall was topped with barbed wire and decorated with automatic machine guns that were programmed to shoot anything that moved. Like the Palestine Wall, people dug tunnels underground to escape, while visitors had to wait in traffic jams for hours, getting their cars searched by soldiers, just to obtain a temporary travel pass. My father’s cousin even served prison time for “possession of a Bible.”

I went to the former East Germany in 1993 for a visit. My nearly deaf and blind great-uncle in Saxony told me he had lived through four different governments in his lifetime. He told me the only thing he could say for sure in the wisdom of his old age was that things always change. Sometimes you have everything, other times you don’t have enough. But if you wait, times will eventually change. He was not sure that Capitalist Germany was going to be better than Soviet Germany. Because of the Wall, he was never able to travel, and now that he could travel, there was no point since he could barely see. He told me that he had known enough of war and had no desire to see the next century. He died in his sleep on New Years Eve 1999.

Family friends had amazing stories: their idea of a vacation was to travel to the hilly countryside to glimpse the land on the other side of the Wall. One day, they threw a message in a bottle into the sea to try and connect with the outside world. It ended up in Norway! A family in Norway began to write letters to this family trapped in Germany and they established a great friendship. As soon as the Wall came down, our German friends couldn’t wait to buy tickets to visit Norway. So I can truly sympathize with the issues faced by both Mexicans and Palestians: The personal humiliation involved with one’s freedoms being hindered by a cement monstrosity cannot be quantified. It may help to view the historical facts associated with today’s present reality.

La Voz de Aztlan (the Voice of Mexican-American Californians) states on its website, aztlan.org

“As a consequence of the 1839 westward imperialist expansion by Anglo-Saxons and other White European settlers that was fueled by the diabolical and racist notion called Manifest Destiny, the Republic of Mexico ended up losing over half of its territory. Manifest Destiny was utilized to justify the massacre of many native American Indian tribes and to rob Mexico of Alta California, Tejas, Nuevo Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Manifest Destiny was the evil concept held by racist expansionists that God had given Whites the right to conquer and “civilized” the Mexican and Indian “savages” in order for them to establish a nation from coast to coast. It is exactly the same Satanic ideology that European Ashkenazis Zionist Jews are using to dispossess native Palestinians of their territory in the Holy Land.”

They conclude that their intention “is also to unite with the Islamic nations that are suffering from the same oppression meted out by the White colonialist and imperialist interests, such as Iran, Palestine and others.”

This may seem like a radical position, but the facts speak for themselves. La Voz editorializes:

“Another of the most glaring similarities is the incarceration policies of youths by the dominant culture. Presently, the survival of the Palestinian people is being threaten by the selective incarceration of the bravest, strongest and most productive members of the group… the incarceration of Raza youths, is also having the effect of destroying the family structure of our communities. In many cases, children are being left fatherless in the critical stage of their development. Targeting by the police of Raza youths is similar to the targeting of Palestinian young males by the Israeli Armed Forces.”

Jewish landlords are accused of “ethnically cleansing” Mexicans from downtown Santa Ana, California, while links are made between the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a Jewish terrorist group, border control vigilantes and CIA drug smugglers.

I think enough questions remain to make it important for Muslim Americans, especially those from immigrant families, to come to an understanding of the historical realities facing Mexican people today. The strong opinions voiced by many of today’s politicians regarding “border control” are covering up some very real political and racial issues that we need to understand, from both sides, before coming to any conclusions.

Debating Prisoners' Release

Two bills have been introduced in the Massachusetts House and Senate,
which are meeting a lot of protest from the local community,
especially among those of color. House Bill 3811 and Senate Bill 2504
would implement a “three strikes” sentencing policy. The issue is
currently in conference with state legislators, elected officials, and
criminal justice advocates.

The bill would require anyone being charged with certain offenses a
first or second time to serve two-thirds of their sentence before
being eligible for parole, while a third offense would receive the
maximum prison sentence without possibility of parole. The Senate bill
is more lenient than the House bill, as it introduces some leniency
towards drug offenders and targets only dangerous or violent
criminals. The House bill considers any and all felony convictions as
counting towards the three strikes. Opponents are being asked to
contact state lawmakers in hopes of revising these bills so that
prison times will not be extended for non-violent offenders.

State Representative William Brownsberger received a standing ovation
at a recent panel discussion on the “three strikes” bills for saying
this “isn't a black and Latino issue, it's a human issue.”

Nancy Gertner, a retired judge from the US District Court for the
District of Massachusetts, wrote in a recent editorial in the Boston
Globe: “Why is Massachusetts moving in a direction opposite that of
other states -- retaining life without parole for juveniles, refusing
to enact post conviction DNA testing statutes and more recently,
proposing a new version of the discredited “Three Strikes and You’re
Out” crime approach?... Existing get-tough policies have pushed our
system to the breaking point.”

Gertner is particularly “mystified” by the Massachusetts legislature's
repeated rejection of DNA testing: “No one is interested in the
imprisonment of an innocent man.”

Overcrowding averages 143 percent over capacity; one unit at MCI
Framingham is even at 331 percent over capacity. Judge Gertner
concludes that “if the new law increases the prison population as it
is likely to do, the Commonwealth will have to build more capacity
fast – costing $100,000 per cell. This is on top of the $1 billion a
year the state spends on incarceration. Worse yet, since the current
system is too strained to meaningfully invest in keeping prisoners
from reoffending, we are doomed to keep paying to house some of the
same prisoners over and over.”

Mississippi and Texas have implemented far more intelligent reforms.
By reserving prison space for the most violent and instituting
rehabilitation programs for low level offenders, Mississippi has cut
its prison population by 22 percent, saving roughly $450 million,
according to one study. Texas enacted similar reforms in 2007, saving
an additional $2 billion. Crime rates in both states have
substantially declined.

Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, but it is the only New
England state that enforces life without parole for juveniles. Arnold
King has served 40 years of a life sentence for a shooting that
occurred when he was a teenager. While serving his time, King worked
hard to educate and improve himself, and became a valuable member of
the community. The former Massachusetts furlough program used to allow
prisoners temporary leaves of absence from prison in order to work,
participate in educational programs, visit family members, obtain
medical treatment, look for work upon release, attend a funeral or
other valid reasons. King went on 30 furloughs, during which time he
worked actively with the Rainbow Coalition, interned at the State
House, did a number of speaking engagements trying to curb youth
violence, and he was even married at Jamaica Pond while on a furlough.
His brother, Kazi Toure, states:

“Prisoners, piecing their lives back together, truly benefited from
this humane rehabilitation program as a way of reacclimating back into
society. But the program was shut down. Everyone who was a lifer was
pulled back behind the wall - where they have remained.”

While there has been a reduction in clemency towards prisoners who
have tried to better themselves, there has been an increase in the
practice of reducing prison time or releasing prisoners – in exchange
for acting as an informant. For example, a man named Johnny Martorano, who
admitted to killing 22 people, was released from prison after
serving just 12 years, because he gave information about Dan Connelly,
the FBI agent, who let Whitey Bulger, the Rifleman Flemmi, and Stevie
Selemmi commit whatever crimes they wanted including murder for the
FBI, in order to get information about other crimes. Similar deals
have been given to supposedly dangerous Muslims incarcerated for
terrorism related offenses: they are often given softer sentences in
exchange for incriminating old friends.

Why are prisoners who are no longer a threat to society being kept
locked up, while other prisoners, including serial killers, are being
set free in exchange for information? There needs to be more public
involvement and oversight of the process by which prisoners are
granted or denied a second chance at life. Three-strikes laws don't
protect the community but collectively punish taxpayers. They reduce
incentive for good behavior, and increase the financial and emotional
calamities experienced by the families of those incarcerated, who live
in our community.


Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based freelance writer.

A New, Humane Approach to Zionism

I used to enjoy musings on the "insanity" of Zionism, trying to psychoanalyze the condition, but I am now starting to wonder if we should start to consider Zionism as a type of autism. As in, a neurological deficit, and not a psychiatric condition caused by a trauma like the Holocaust.

The stereotypical autistic genius and the Zionist mind are very similar in so many ways:

- ability to function impressively in some realms while lacking common sense
- lack of empathy - while at the same time possessing a self-image of being a decent person
- inability to put himself in someone else's shoes - even if needs are explained, it does not "compute"
- compartmentalization of the mind - learning does not infer wisdom to another area of experience
- appreciation of cute animals/cries during movies yet oblivious to the real life needs of others
- unwilling to make any effort to alleviate a human's suffering - if it is caused by himself
- reacts with outrage and counter-blame when someone mentions what he did
- will not cooperate, even if it is in his own best interest
- reluctance to enter into any human relationship unless the other person is "useful"
- sense of entitlement or delusions of grandeur
- imagining others as lesser beings made to serve oneself – no sense of gratitude
- the self-explanation for harming others is always that he is "merely existing" or "surviving"
- constantly tries to get other people's sympathy for being a clueless victim of unfortunate circumstances, so that people will give him money/credibility

Scientists are still trying to understand how the human brain can malfunction. Some people's brains are found to be abnormally active in certain regions while abnormally inactive in other regions, compared to typical left and right brain activity. The autism label is used to separate people with neurological disorders from people whose antisocial behaviors may have other causes. For example, Chronic Oppositional Defiance is considered a psychiatric condition, even though it is nearly identical to Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome, considered a type of autism.

Autistic children can often be recognized at a very young age by their inability to understand what another person is pointing to. This is because the child CANNOT imagine herself in another person's shoes in order to guess at what he might be pointing to. It is a true disability. It is not a psychiatric condition. It cannot be cured. The person truly cannot imagine another person's point of view.

If an autistic person recognizes that he has a problem understanding others' point of view, he can learn to use his intellect to compensate for lack of intuition, for example by memorizing social rules and following them legalistically rather than understanding right and wrong on an intuitive level.

However, there is probably no limit to how the brain can analytically reinterpret even something as simple as the Ten Commandments, so that they only apply to certain people, or certain cases. Historical events can be ignored and the person who remembers what happened is labeled as "delusional."

I have found this same level of intellectual disconnect when talking to Zionists. They are seemingly unable to follow a logical argument through to its conclusion, but rather short-circuit, become defensive and irrational, and create distance, much like many good autistic people act when you try to make them understand a logical, linear argument.
They can see things in so many multi-dimensions that life becomes so complicated that something like mopping a floor - a linear progression of a series of acts aimed at a specific goal - becomes so overwhelming that they just don't even bother trying to do it. They just act helpless until someone else does it for them. A successful autistic adult (like Bill Gates) is one who is skilled in getting people do things for him while he concentrates. Autistic people try to maintain control over all circumstances, due to a rigidity of thought.

Once you realize another person is incapable, not just unwilling, to negotiate solutions – you have to change tactics. You cannot have a cooperative relationship based on human equality with an autistic individual because the neurotypical person will always be compensating for the autistic person's unwillingness or inability to reciprocate, and their refusal to negotiate constructively. Rather than keeping their agreements, they often just invent a new personality that doesn't "remember" having that conversation before. Just like an Israeli peace treaty!

We Americans have been negotiating with a people incapable of caring about our point of view. We have to see clearly that we are in a caretaking position. We are not dealing with human beings who we can talk to on our own level. The fact is, Israel is a country that would never have survived without our financial generosity. It is not a “normal” country. Israel is pretending to be normal the way a person with Aspergers pretends to be normal - so very cruel to those upon whom she so heavily relies.

Zionists have a certain mental deficit. We must decide as a people to stop begging them for empathy. We will stop trying to make agreements with them in good faith. Then, we will stop suffering from feelings of rage, hurt, and hate. We are the caretakers of Israel, like them or not. If we don't step up to the responsibility, and admit our adversary has a serious problem, no one else will.

Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based freelance writer. Karinfriedemann.blogspot.com

Let the Dandelions Live!

“Hast thou not seen that Allah sent water down from the sky and led it through sources into the ground? Then He caused sown fields of different colors to grow.” (Quran 39:21)


The Quran provides us with an intuitive grasp of the eco-system and its relationship to our lives. So you can imagine my shock, as a new Muslim, walking nervously towards my local Islamic Center, to find my Quran teacher applying lawn care chemicals to the grass – less than a half mile from Lake Saint Claire! My shyness prevented me from shouting, “WHAT are you doing?!”

In Islam, water is considered a gift from God, so no individual literally owns it. Humans are the stewards of water and other common resources that belong to the community.

Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey show that pesticides and herbicides most frequently detected in streams and shallow ground water throughout the country come from home and garden use. Documented cases of pesticides in groundwater wells show cancer clusters in many towns.

Lawn chemicals also harm the microorganisms, beneficial insects and earthworms that are essential to maintaining healthy soil. In turn, this affects the long-term survival of birds and fish. World supplies of honey are running low, resulting in dramatic price increases, because honey bees are dying in huge numbers due to pesticides. In the long run, pesticides can actually help the very pests they target by also killing their predators, so that their use becomes self-perpetuating.

There is a joke, circulated on the internet, entitled “God and Lawn Care,” which begins:

“GOD: What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon.

The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.

“ST. FRANCIS: It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.”

St. Francis goes on to explain that these humans do not bale the grass to feed it to animals. They pay for water to grow the grass that they then mow once or twice a week, put in bags. and pay somebody to haul away. They do the same thing with the tree leaves, which God thought was supposed to be the natural fertilizer for the grass. Needless to say, God is quite exasperated.

The modern lawn care industry began after World War II. Companies that produced chemical and biological weapons for the military needed a new market for their products. The chemical industry saw money making possibilities in the lawns of the growing postwar suburban communities. Chemical companies like Dow and Dupont produced the pesticides, and lawn care pesticide applicators marketed them to consumers. Many of today’s pesticides include components of war-time defoliants like Agent Orange, and nerve-gas type insecticides.

During a typical year in neighborhoods across the country, over 102 million pounds of toxic pesticides are applied in pursuit of a perfect lawn and garden. This figure continues to increase despite the growing body of scientific evidence of the public health and environmental consequences.

According to the EPA, 95% of the pesticides used on residential lawns are carcinogens. Chemicals commonly used on lawns and gardens are associated with birth defects, cancer, neurotoxicity, kidney and liver damage, and endocrine disruption. The National Cancer Institute reported that children develop leukemia six times more often when pesticides are used around their homes. The American Journal of Epidemiology found that more children with brain tumors and other cancers had been exposed to insecticides than children without.

Studies by the National Cancer Society and other medical researchers have discovered a definite link between fatal non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) and exposure to lawn-care chemicals. Exposure to these pesticides is even linked to learning disabilities like autism, as well as skin rashes and asthma.

Increasingly, reports from many people around the country are “beginning to link feeling terrible with the fact the neighbors had the lawn sprayed the day before,” notes Catherine Karr, a toxicologist for the National Coalition Against The Misuse Of Pesticides.

Chemicals from lawns are tracked into homes and settle into the dust, becoming lodged in carpets. Children are especially vulnerable to toxic contamination because they often play close to the grass or carpet.

Statistics are frightening, so what do we do if we are serious about having a beautiful yard?

Some lawn care companies offer “natural” or “organic” services. Before hiring them, make sure you read the ingredients in their products and do some online research. The increasing marketplace for “environmentally friendly” products is also opening the door for fraudulent and misleading claims.

Using alternative gardening strategies will bring better results and be kinder to the environment. There are simple, long-lasting solutions which require no chemicals and much less money. Integrated Pest Management is a relatively new approach to lawn care that looks at the overall health of the soil. The quick-fix that chemicals offer does not address the fact that weeds are a sign indicating the overall health of your lawn. IPM looks at issues such as pH balance and aeration of the soil, as well as irrigation and drainage. Composting household food scraps and grass clippings should become a central part of soil fertilization for the serious lawn and garden enthusiast.

Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based freelance writer. Karinfriedemann.blogspot.com.

No Justice for US Muslims

Tareq Mehanna found guilty


On December 20, 2011, Tareq Mehanna was found guilty of terrorism
support by a Boston jury, despite the fact that the government relied
solely on innuendo and prejudice against Muslims to make their case.
Mehanna is an Egyptian-American Muslim who was arrested by the FBI in
2009, at the age of 27. Mehanna, who faces life in prison, is accused
of translating al Qaeda propaganda into English, as well as seeking
terrorist training in Yemen, though he insists he was just traveling
for religious study. Mehanna's sentencing is scheduled for April 12.
Richard Hugus, in an article, “The Inquisition Comes to Boston,”
published on uruknet.info, writes:

“The recent finishing off of the Bill of Rights in the National
Defense Authorization Act was actually just a formality. The United
States has been able to persecute and convict US citizens for a long
time now whether they had a trial by jury or not... Jury trials don’t
make any difference when it comes to terrorism cases because the
American public is deeply ignorant and long trained to be intimidated
by authority.”

Mehanna's trial went on for eight weeks.

“It was a circus of prejudicial evidence, government-coerced
informers, Patriot Act snooping by the FBI, phony government experts
on terrorism, and all-around ignorance about the Muslim religion,”
writes Hugus.

Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a front group led by Charles
Jacobs, demonstrated outside the courthouse. This same group has been
spearheading the campaign against the show, “All American Muslim.”

“The only thing the United States was able to prove in its case
against Tarek Mehanna was that he was opposed to the war in Iraq,”
writes Hugus.

“There was nothing he said in the hundreds of instant messages and
online chats, stolen from his computer and introduced absurdly as
evidence, which would not have been said by any opponent of that
genocidal attack.”

This case is all the more unfortunate because it could have been
prevented. The Roxbury Mosque dropped its charges against Charles
Jacobs and the David Project, even after they had clear evidence that
they were guilty of the Federal crime of conspiracy against rights,
thus allowing the Zionists to continue their plots against other
Muslims. I understand that legal proceedings are expensive and
stressful, but Charles Jacobs, a Polish immigrant, could have ended up
behind bars. Instead, yet another Muslim, innocent of any criminal
wrongdoing, faces life in prison just because the Muslim community
wanted to finish building their beautiful mosque.

There is so much evidence that the legal attacks against Muslims are
purely racist in content. This author was even targeted by Charles
Jacobs, Robert Spencer, and their group of anti-Muslim supporters,
accused of support for terrorism, due to her pro-Palestine
commentaries under the pseudo-name “Maria Hussain.” Court documents
from the Roxbury Mosque defense showed that Zionist prosecutors
planned to prosecute me for my opinions. However, according to emails
revealed as part of the discovery process, they found out my real name
and decided not to prosecute me, because although I profess Islam,
they were not sure if my ethnic background might be Jewish.

Glenn Greenwald comments that “this meaningless, definition-free word
— Terrorism — drives so many of our political debates and policies...
It’s a word that simultaneously means nothing and justifies
everything.”

Mehanna's alleged support for terrorism was based on “Sawt-al-Jihad”
magazine – a document that government witness Evan Kohlmann claimed
was found on his computer, even though there was no evidence that the
document had ever been opened at all.

Evan Kohmann has a history of being unqualified. He also served for
the outrageous prosecution of the honorable Imam Yassin Aref of
Albany, NY. During Aref's trial, the government’s expert, Evan
Kohlmann, gave totally wrong misinformation about IMK to the jury in
order to depict Aref as a terrorist because he was once employed by
the Islamic Movement for Kurdistan (IMK), which the US government does
not even consider to be a terrorist organization. The “expert witness”
Evan Kohlmann testified to a ridiculous connection between the IMK,
the militant Kurdish Ansar al-Islam organization, al-Qaeda, and Saddam
Hussein, in order to incriminate the innocent man, who came to the US
as a refugee.

Mehanna was fortunate enough to have a real expert on the defense, but
it didn't seem to matter much.

Dr. Marc Sageman, a terrorism consultant and former CIA case agent, a
flight surgeon in the U.S. Navy and a CIA case officer in Afghanistan
coordinating America’s covert operation against the Soviet occupation,
testified that the videos on Mehanna's computer were never used as a
recruiting tool for al-Qaida.

This testimony was all the more remarkable, because Sageman has
studied al-Qaida from its birth in 1988; he knew and lived with all
the major commanders of the mujahideen who were fighting the Soviet
army. He consults for the Defense Department, the Department of
Homeland Security and the CIA. He has classified security clearance,
which the under-qualified government witnesses don’t have.

In response, Evan Kohlmann, merely testified that the kind of videos
and documents that Mehanna translated and promoted online were
allowing al-Qaida to recruit and incite young men to violence.

“He tells stories,” Sageman tried to explain.

Even after questioning, Mehanna continued to praise his trip to Yemen.
“I didn’t regret it for a second,” he said, “how could you? Those are
the best two weeks of my life.”

Some of Mehanna's old friends testified against him under government
pressure, citing his “extremist” views, including Daniel Maldonado, a
New Hampshire native serving a 10-year prison sentence after pleading
guilty to training alongside al Qaeda members in Somalia.

“The government decides if I can hug my children,” Maldonado admitted
during his appearance at the trial.

Good Morning, Occupy Boston!

14 December 2011

On December 8, Judge Frances McIntyre lifted the restraining order protecting Occupy Boston from being shut down.

McIntyre said that while the protesters are exercising their rights to freedom of expression, the occupation of state land is neither speech “nor is it immune from criminal prosecution for trespass or other crimes.” This does not mean eviction is imminent, but the restraining order against the police no longer applies. Throughout the day, occupiers were handed a notice warning them that they would be subject to criminal trespass if they remained in the park. The ACLU of Massachusetts was actively involved in informing occupiers of their rights.

While some protesters packed up and went home, others decided to stand their ground. A few even moved their tents to the middle of Atlantic Avenue just before 2am on Friday. Expecting a possible police crackdown, thousands of supporters from nearby areas flooded into the campsite awaiting the midnight deadline, yet midnight came and went with no response from police officers, as they stood around the perimeter looking into the swelling crowd.

Occupy Boston’s newswire reports that the protesters “rallied at midnight, making circles two deep around tents, as the Veterans for Peace stood guard, white flags snapping in the wind.”

Police blocked off the streets surrounding Dewey Square just before 1am on Friday as hundreds of Occupiers and Occupy supporters packed the encampment. Boston Police Superintendent William Evans said that the police would not be moving in on Dewey Square early Friday morning. He stated that even though Mayor Thomas Menino set the deadline, he did not specify when the camp would be shut down.

As the news came in that no raid was coming, and no was eviction imminent, protesters danced in the streets to celebrate. FOX News reported that “the encampment site in Dewey Square in the city’s financial district looked noticeably smaller Friday than it had since the protesters first began occupying the site on September 30. Only about 40 protesters and 35 tents remained, covering less than half the area the protest once did.”

While there is no obvious victory for the protesters as they continue their standoff with the City of Boston, it is clear that the voices of the many are influencing current events. Two weeks ago, a federal judge blocked a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup, saying that he could not be sure that it was “fair, adequate, or in the public interest,” while last week, a District Attorney announced she was suing the banks for fraudulent foreclosure practices.

The very next day after their feared eviction, on December 9, Boston Occupiers amassed against the Department of Housing and Community Development to demonstrate against the lack of affordable housing and ongoing evictions of homeowners, connecting it with the plight of their tent city, citing such statistics:

Each year, 600,000 families with 1.35 million children experience homelessness in the United States, making up about 30 per cent of the homeless population over the course of a year. In any given day, researchers estimate that more than 200,000 children have no place to live. A full time worker earning minimum wage cannot afford a one bedroom unit priced at Fair Market Rent anywhere in the United Stated. Federal Support for low income housing has fallen by 40 per cent from 1980-2003, 15 per cent of all American families and 32 per cent of single parent families live below the poverty line.

During a visit to the site, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis wouldn’t say what the city plans to do about the remaining protesters.“We have learned over the past ten weeks just how powerful the people can be,” stated a spokesperson for Occupy Boston. “Unproductive wealth struggles to justify its inefficiency, and deceit grows helpless before a truth that has found its people.”


Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based freelance writer