The Nomad and the Olive Branch

The Crusades were one of the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind, and was grossly misinterpreted as a war between "Muslims" and "Christians". The same thing could be said for the Lebanese Civil War, which involved a myriad of sectarian factions that allied with each other at parts and opposed each other later on, or vice-versa. However, the same can't be said entirely regarding the Crusades, although, like all wars, the Crusades were driven largely by political motivations more than anything else. And then you've got your extremists, from all sides. The most notable group of extremists are the Knights Templar, who were Crusader Knights that wanted to openly fight with the Muslim, Christian and Jewish "infidels" of Palestine and subjugate them either to death or conversion... their choice. However, from reading the New Testament, I admit that I actually find it less draconic than the Koran and the Old Testament, with the latter being the more d...

I admit that I am no student of Philosophy. However, I must comment that after reading certain philosophical works (are they philosophical?), I started to question them from a more - you can say - "simplistic" point of view, one that does not include all the confusing mumbo jumbo in contemporary and classical Philosophy. One such person who caught my eye was a German guy named Hegel. Georg Hegel . He was a German philosopher back in the day, and had quite a cult following, both right-wingers and left-wingers. I tend to view him in the same light as the same guy who said that "democracies can't fight each other" (which is utterly false ). Why is that? Hegel, like Samuel Huntington, in his controversial yet faulty "Clash of Civilizations" theory (I wrote something about this , but I suppose Edward Said has a much better argument), provided a philosophy that is based on simplistic collectivist ideas that do not take into account the many variables that s...

With chaos stretching from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, we have never lived in a more dangerous time. Our man in the Middle East looks back over a lifetime of covering war and death, and lays out a bleak future for all of us - one that even those living in the comfort of the Home Counties cannot escape. by Robert Fisk A few days after Lebanon's latest war came to an end, I went through many of the reporter's notebooks I have used in my last 30 years in the Middle East. Some contained the names of dead colleagues, others the individual stories of the suffering of Arabs and Kurds and Christians and Jews. One, dated 1991, is even splashed with a dark and viscous substance, the oil that came raining down on us from the skies over the Kuwaiti desert after Saddam blew up the wells of the Emirate. It was only after a few minutes that I realised what I was looking for: some hint, back in the days of dangerous innocence, of what was going to happen on 11 September 2001. And sure en...

"God created you from a single male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so ye may know each other, not that ye may despise each other ." -The Koran, (49:13) When you look at a map of the world, you will notice that it's not one big homogeneous land mass. It is a world divided by borders. But look further, and there are more divisions than meets the eye. You will see people... many people... of different backgrounds, whether they are cultural, racial, social or religious. The world itself is a mosaic within a mosaic within a mosaic, and these mosaics aren't simply components of each other, but interweave at parts. Unfortunately, there are many who wish to disrupt this delicate balance, especially regarding religious divisions. Throughout history, religious divisions have been at most pseudo-apocalyptic: from the Crusades to the Inquisition, while politically driven, had religious undertones, and spiritual differences were exploited for the sake of...

Ramadan: It's Not Just a Food Fast Ramadan in America can be overwhelming. Here are five ways to simplify and be more spiritual for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. By Dilshad D. Ali Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, is special to millions of Muslims worldwide as a holy period dedicated to fasting, self-purification, and spiritual attainment. Every year the world’s Muslims redesign their life to focus on the goals of Ramadan: A whole-body awareness of God and a humble thankfulness for whatever blessings He has granted. But Ramadan in non-Muslim countries can be more challenging, as Muslims try to navigate the requirements and recommendations of Ramadan--fasting from sunrise to sunset, fitting in the five daily prayers at their appointed times, attending special evening tarawih prayers at the mosque, and reading the Qur’an each day for an entire month--while juggling the demands of work, school, and family. While I passed lunchtime in my junior high school guidance cou...

Ya know what ticks me off? Islamophobia... Anti-Semitism... Anti-Africanism... Anti-White... racism. Racism. Discrimination. Bigotry. You name it. But if anything, I also hate hypocrites. I'm here to talk about some of the hypocrites who defend Islam, who, while still in a minority, need to tone their voice down because they are setting a bad example for the Muslim community. It's like someone who complains about other people persecuting him/her and what he/she believes in, and at the same time forces others to deviate from societal norms for his/her sake by telling them to do something that would comply with their religious values. What I'm trying to get at is that there are some Muslims who have many other phobias as a result of Islamophobic pressure being applied unto them. For example, there are Muslims who will stand up for their religion and denigrate the religious beliefs of others. The biggest example of this is the trend of anti-Semitism evident amongst extremely l...

I have to admit that I haven't been following much of the news lately. I was talking to one of my friends after a long day of nothing but studying. Suddenly, he mentions Pope Benedict, the current presiding spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and a current speech he gave out. While many have criticized the Pope for his apparent incompetency, I have actually had mixed impressions about him, and I have yet to fully understand his character. The speech in question was made on Tuesday September 12, 2006, in a German university. However, I will focus on some key excerpts from that entire speech. Regarding the concept of Holy War, he said, "I was reminded of all this recently, when I read... of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. In the seventh conversation...the emperor touches ...

During the early days prior to the unjust invasion of Iraq, much of the public was lead into being convinced that Saddam was a threat and just had to go. The media served to propagate the lies that Bush Jr. and his cronies spewed out in order to justify an impending invasion on the Cradle of Civilization, but now that we're seeing in the clear, we have exposed the lies for what they are whenever they came out, every step of the way. And this is exactly what I am going to do right now. One of the first statements that "justified" the Iraq war was the "threat" that Saddam posed to the West. Many people started thinking about a potential WMD attack on the U.S.A., which is something that they have not done during the previous administration and after the Gulf War, when he had his WMD's ready for bear. Bush succeeded in convincing the American public (supporters, really) that Saddam was a "threat to world peace". He managed to gain more support for thi...