The Nomad and the Olive Branch

Religion is one of the many things that mirrors in the societies of today's diverse world. Over a span of hundreds of years, it has also has become one of society's defining points when it comes to matters such as social, economic and governmental issues. It has also diversified with the diversification of culture, race, heritage and political ideologies in general, and has been responsible for much diversification in the fields of Art and Philosophy. With such a variety of religions comes a variety of ways to approach what each religion considers its own Ultimate Reality, through prayer, meditation and constant study of religious scripture. In many cases, prayer is an easy task and can be done in the comfort of one's home or workplace; in other cases, certain accommodations must be made. However, to keep the religious bondage in society strong, religious groups erect buildings to rally those of the same faith in unified worship and prayer. In almost every religion, the fir...

As time progresses from a religion's birth, it is more likely for a religion to split into several different sects as per the different interpretations and teachings that come about in these times, on the part of several religious figures in a particular religion. We have seen many Christian divisions - Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant, among others - as well as several Jewish divisions - Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, among others - and even divisions in Islam like the Sunnites and Shi'ites. However, the sectarian division of Islam in its later years was prophesized and explained by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself. "Awf ibn Malik reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said, 'The Jews split into 71 sects: one will enter Paradise and 70 will enter Hell. The Christians split into 72 sects: 71 will enter Hell and one will enter Paradise. By Him in Whose hand is my soul, my Ummah will split into 73 sects: one will enter Paradise and 72 will enter ...

...when they already have a legacy of human rights violations in Afghanistan and Iraq on their track record. I'm talking about the Coalition and how they have turned this "war on terror" into a war on Arab and Muslim human rights in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. After the so-called "liberation" phases of the two battles, we have seen nothing but the security of the Iraqis sacrificed along with their freedoms for the sake of the imperialist conquest of Iraq and Afghanistan. We have seen prisoners being detained in places like Abu Ghraib. We have seen checkpoints being set up all over, and people dying at these places. Bombs and chaos all over. Air strikes and missiles are added to the fire. What next? I mean, lives are being lost in this farcical "WOT", and there is no price worth the cost of human suffering and death. Disclaimer: I do not condone terrorism, whatever and wherever it arises, whether it be from insurgents or Coalition troops. Let'...

These days, everyone is making a fuss about the big interview Ms. Wafa Sultan had on Al Jazeera's Itijah il Mu'aakis (Opposing Directions), a debate program hosted by Faisal al Qassem. If you search "Wafa Sultan" under Google, you'll realize how much praise she has received from the rightwing pundits. The popular edition of the interview that many anti-Arab and Islamophobes take is the edition brought about by the crock of shit (mind my language) that is MEMRI-TV . The video came along with a very rudimentary transcript. However, the transcript provided by MEMRI-TV provides only part of the interview, and you can see the entire transcript provided by the title link detailed above. Wafa Sultan, as you can see, is so full of wonderful ideas about civilization and western dreams of democracy that she doesn't care about her own people being killed and their perceived "progress" hindered by the intervention of the West. Well, I'm seriously going to ...

Yup, and you heard me right. Iraq Body Count seriously has no defense. I shall continue henceforth with a point-by-point debunking of this farce of a source. Let's start first with their first point: 1 Documenting civilian deaths: an ultimate moral responsibility [...] For this reason a group of independent volunteers, made up entirely of UK and US citizens, have been keeping a record of media-reported civilian deaths continuously from the first day of the invasion to the present. This is the Iraq Body Count (IBC) project. We are led to believe that the IBC is an anti-war source that is against the invasion of Iraq; however, it seems that it stands with their respective countries but not to the extent that one likes it to be. By looking at their statement of beliefs, it is clear that they indicate media-reported deaths. But is that always the case? We have always recognised and made explicit that our media-derived database cannot be a complete record of civilians killed in violence...