Islamic Dress Code?

So, I have been trying to do some more research on the Islamic dress code lately and found it was really difficult to find good solid arguments with evidence from the Qur'an and Sunnah - usually it's vague guidelines or a debate over niqaab, neither of which help me too much.

The Qur'an refers to this topic at least twice:

• "O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." [33:59]

• "And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands..." [24:31]
  
  There are varing interpretations on these ayat. I want to hear from you guys - what do YOU think is proper Islamic dress? Not just opinions please though - I'd love to see evidence.

Oh, and an article that has awesome general guidelines can be found here. Check it out!

The Las Vegas of the Persian Gulf

Key to the World: Dubai

A few of my thoughts in no particular order:

• How do these folks sleep at night? How do you build a "booming oasis" while your neighbors starve?
• I strongly dislike the term "fundamentalists."
• "Shaykh" Mohammad? Yes, the two women on his arms looked exactly what I would expect the female relatives of a "shaykh" to look like. Yay for royal blood!
• There is something about the contrasting experiences of Europeans and South Asians that reminds me of the "house Negro" theory.
• Is the "party scene" really something ABC categorizes as Western values? The West has been demoted from "democracy" to women at water parks in thongs and bars galore.
  
• I hope there are no Muslims at the bars' 3am last calls. However, if they are I hope that when they leave they are walking to the mosque across the street to pray Tahajjud.
  

99.9% of the People who wear turbans are not Muslim

Sikhs are not Muslim

After 9/11 on September 15th, in Mesa, Arizona a Sikh man was killed by a "patriotic" American. Sikhs have nothing to do with Islam. The majority of Sikh's have been persecuted, with a price tag being put on the head of a Sikh man. Sikh by their faith wear a Turban which is distinct. Here is a tragic story:

Attack leaves man dying

Deputies cite reports by witnesses that racism, homophobia fueled lake melee.

By David Richie and Kim Minugh - Bee Staff Writers

Satendar Singh was known within his family as "the lucky one."

At age 19, he won a coveted spot in a visa lottery, enabling him to leave his native Fiji for the United States. He built a life for himself in Sacramento, living with his aunt and uncle and later his grandmother, and touched the lives of those around him.

On Tuesday, Singh lay on life support in the intensive care unit of Mercy San Juan Medical Center, the victim of a Sunday night assault at Lake Natoma -- a possible hate crime that witnesses believe was fueled by homophobia and racism.

With his parents thousands of miles away -- in Fiji with no passports and no visas -- the heartbreaking decision to end Singh's life support fell upon his aunt and uncle.

"The doctors have declared there are no hopes," said Camie Bhuie, Singh's uncle.

Singh, who family and friends said is 26, was expected to be taken off life support late Tuesday night, pending a final test for brain activity.

On Tuesday, Sacramento County sheriff's homicide detectives assumed control of an investigation into the assault, which apparently stemmed from a daylong verbal dispute between two groups.

Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said the incident was being investigated as an assault. If Singh dies, the charges likely will elevate to involuntary manslaughter rather than homicide because the crime did not appear to involve intent to kill, Curran said.

Michael Gross, superintendent for the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area, which includes Lake Natoma, said early Tuesday that state parks officials were investigating the incident as a hate crime. After the case was turned over to the Sheriff's Department, Curran said his agency was not yet ready to apply that charge.

"If, through the course of the investigation, it is determined that the motivation was race or sexual preference, obviously hate crime charges will be added," Curran said.

He confirmed, however, that state parks investigators reported to sheriff's officials that racial and homophobic slurs had been used against Singh and his friends.

Singh had been with six people -- all of Indian or Fijian descent -- at the picnic area near Lake Natoma on Sunday afternoon when trouble began brewing with another group partying nearby, said two friends who were there that day.

The Bee is not identifying the friends because they fear retribution.

The two friends said the other group -- identified by the witnesses and sheriff's officials as being of Russian descent -- called Singh and his friends racial and homophobic names.

Friends said Singh is not gay, but they believe he was singled out because he did not have a date that afternoon.

When Singh and his friends tried to leave at about 8 p.m., they were confronted by the Russian group and a fight ensued, the witnesses said. Singh reportedly was punched once in the face. He fell, hit his head, and began bleeding profusely, the witnesses said.

Though initially knocked unconscious by the impact, Singh regained consciousness at the park but had difficulty breathing. His condition worsened, and he again lost consciousness that night. By Tuesday, he was not expected to survive.

No one else was injured in the fight.

Sheriff's investigators will reinterview witnesses to determine exactly what happened that day and hope further witnesses will come forward, Curran said. Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at (916) 874-5115.

In addition, officials are looking for two cars seen leaving the park after the fight: a dark green four-door sedan and a red Mitsubishi with a red Department of Motor Vehicles registration sticker affixed to the rear window with the number "7."

As Singh's loved ones mourned their impending loss Tuesday, a steady stream of visitors poured in and out of the intensive care waiting room at Mercy San Juan.

At one point, the room swelled with 100 of Singh's friends and family, his uncle said. Many cried, others smiled while sharing stories about Singh.

He worked at an AT&T call center in the Rosemont area, where many knew him as Simon. He had just earned a promotion.

He was respectful and virtuous, never any trouble for his grandmother, Chand Singh, while living with her.

"He had such an infectious personality," said his aunt, Suvin Bhuie. "He would walk in and the room would light up."

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/256068.html

Sacramento Bee

The Case for Islamophobia

No, this is not just another right-wing opine piece, it is down right islamophobic, racist, offensive and disgusting. I cannot believe the LA Times would publish something like this.

Below are excerpts that are particularly disturbing:

Now, despite friendly and long-lasting relations with many Muslims, my first reaction on seeing Muslims in the street is mistrust; my prejudice, far from having been inherited or inculcated early in life, developed late in response to events.

The fundamental problem is this: There is an asymmetry between the good that many moderate Muslims can do for Britain and the harm that a few fanatics can do to it. The 1-in-1,000 chance that a man is a murderous fanatic is more important to me than the 999-in-1,000 chance that he is not a murderous fanatic: If, that is, he is not especially valuable or indispensable to me in some way.

And the plain fact of the matter is that British society could get by perfectly well without the contribution even of moderate Muslims. The only thing we really want from Muslims is their oil money for bank deposits, to prop up London property prices and to sustain the luxury market; their cheap labor that we imported in the 1960s in a vain effort to bolster the dying textile industry, which could not find local labor, is now redundant.

In other words, one of the achievements of the bombers and would-be bombers is to make discrimination against most Muslims who wish to enter Britain a perfectly rational policy. This is not to say that the government would espouse it, other than surreptitiously by giving secret directions to visa offices around the world. But why should a country take an unnecessary risk without a compensatory benefit?

!!!!!!

I won't even begin responding to Theodore Dalrymple (his real name is Anthony Daniels) because I think there's a serious problem with his whole attitude and approach to the situation. Criticising Muslims for not doing enough to prevent and condemn terror acts is one thing, but calling for all Muslim immigrants to be deported or barred entry is another.

I can't believe that a 'respectable' newspaper would publish an article like this.

Tufaan

(Jazak'Allah khair to Br. Ruben Vaughn for
bringing this effort to my attention.)

Subhan'Allah.

Don Imus and Micheal Savage: One "White Moron" doesn't get fired

Thanks Alia for sending this out.

Are You Just?

Submitted By Guest Blogger Ahmed Ibn Aslam

"The just ruler is the one who calls people to tawhid, calls people to the sunnah. If you want to be just in your community, in your society, in your family, in your masjid you have to make the priority to teach people the sunnah, teach people tawhid, otherwise you are not just. If you are just in all other aspects but you dont call people towards tawhid you are being unjust with Allah , this is the greatest injustice you can ever do. Therefore Umar Bin Abdel Aziz ( the 5th rightly guided calipha) said: My way of changing the muslim situation will be to teach them one sunnah everyday and to eliminate one bidah" everyday."

Shaykh Waleed Basyouni

CD SET: 7 People Under the Shade of the Throne of Allah

Happy 4th of July?

By Guest Blogger Yesi King

As many U.S. residents stock up on beer, barbecue and chips, and families happily sit around excited circles to anticipate the crackling and luminous fireworks that will light up the sky for the most revered of American holidays, many people across the globe suffer from U.S. policies. This day is a reminder of the ‘freedom’ we have and enjoy. However, the irony in Americans enthusiasm lies is the mentality that promotes perceptions like “don’t forget what this day is all about,” or “don't let us forget those brave men and women that fought and died so that we might have the freedom to speak up when things are not as they should be...” Such patriotism is instilled in the institutions of this country in an attempt to quiet dissent over government policies that at the same time promote quite the opposite.

What short memories and biased sense of ‘being’ Americans have. For many, rather than being a celebratory day, the 4th of July is the anniversary of a country whose history is based upon almost 300 years of ongoing carnage and despair brought upon Native Americans of all tribes, it represents a strong and still active mentality of imperialism and racism that we see is alive and popular in the minds of those who support the Israeli Occupation over Palestine, it represents the repressive state of mind amongst all people celebrating the institutions and mockery these symbolic gestures signify while choosing to ignore their true historical significance in the eyes of minorities and those who have not had the privilege of enjoying.

The birth day of your national independence and of your political freedom reminds you of your great deliverance entitled to you by your Declaration of Independence. Are those same embodied principles of freedom and justice extended to those whom you oppress in your own country and elsewhere? Because beneath your public celebrations, festive shouts and enjoyment, the woeful bawl of millions whose shackles, heavy and dreadful are also plagued with further perplexity and disgust for your joy. To forget and ignore them for your convenience is nothing less than American denial and oppression. What wonder it would be if instead on this day, the 4th of July caused you to view your freedom and privilege in comparison to theirs, from their point of view. Whether you choose to look towards your declarations, your present ideology or your dreams for the future, the performance of this nation seems by the same token repulsive and fake.

Standing with those whom you choose to ignore on this day much like every other day, in the name of compassion which you have trampled, in the name of self independence which is chained, what, to the oppressed and occupied, is your 4th of July? To him, your merriment is a farce filled with the merciless jubilation over your governments bulging arrogance and deception. A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he has to pay in exchange for your joys. Point the finger all you want, search high and low, you will not find a country guiltier of bloody and horrible practices than the United States.

What is a joyous day for you is only a reminder of the price others have to pay for your definition of freedom, democracy and liberation. Your imperialist tendencies cause the problems you believe you face and use to justify your war mongering and crimes. So as people sit back on their lawn chairs and enjoy the beaches on this hot and sunny day, the wail of children elsewhere will blend into the backdrop of bombs, poverty and inequality the U.S. has designated to be necessary for their own well being and prosperous future. Thus, on this happy 4th of July as the fireworks scream freedom that you continue to take away, blind patriotism will make many people very happy.

Who is Craig Monteilh? (The Irvine Terror Plot cont.)

Criag Monteilh, I reported about him after learning of a hearing on a restraining order issued against him. You can read it on Irvine Terrorist Plot post regarding the Islamic Center of Irvine (ICOI). He has led to the erosion of trust in my fellow Muslims going to the various Mosques in Orange County. I feel like every person I meet is up to no good. You can read about that in my previous post on my blog. His story can also be found on on the LA Times article by HG Reza .

However, I want to share this article from the Washington Post as it was forwarded to me recently from a community member- please read it, and also visit my recent post exploring the question- Who is Craig Monteilh? - where I put forth some community hypothesis as to who Craig is.

The Informer: Behind the Scenes, or Setting the Stage?
By Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 29, 2007; C01

With tired eyes and mussed hair, Osama Eldawoody opens his door to an unexpected guest.

He doesn't get many visitors these days. He is in hiding for his own safety. He has received no direct threats, he says, but has heard through friends of friends that there are those who want to kill him. Nobody likes a snitch.

The 51-year-old Egyptian immigrant chain-smokes Marlboros in a corner of the comfortable apartment that he now calls home, far away from his previous life in New York, in a location he wants to keep secret. This place is his hideaway but also his trap. Here, he grants his first interview since moving cross-country.

For 13 months, he was a paid informer for the New York Police Department. His work in 2003 and 2004 helped convict Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Pakistani immigrant, of conspiracy to bomb Manhattan's 34th Street subway station. Siraj, 24, was sentenced in January to 30 years in prison, but for Eldawoody the case, now under appeal, still feels raw.

"It's been hurting me. Everybody believes that I am a cheater," he says.

"By Islam, by my feeling toward my country . . . it's something that had to be done," he says.

Siraj's family and supporters say he was simply an angry, foolish young man with no connection to actual terrorists or capacity to obtain bombs, playing along -- for a while -- with a man who he believed was his closest friend. They say Eldawoody effectively goaded Siraj into plotting to plant explosives -- to be supplied by Eldawoody -- in the subway station, just below the Macy's store in midtown Manhattan, and then recorded those conversations.

Police and prosecutors say Siraj was already a violent terrorist just looking for an opportunity to strike. Eldawoody says had he not intercepted Siraj, the younger man eventually would have joined a real terrorist sleeper cell.

The world of domestic Muslim informants remains fogged in secrecy and national security laws. But defense lawyers in a number of court cases paint a picture of an industry in which informants seeking personal gain create the very terrorists they are supposed to be exposing.

To continue reading...

Another European Muslim Denied Entry into the US

Update 07/02:

The family of Mr. Isakjee issued a statement today, you can read it here.

Update 07/01:

Since I posted about this, some people have forwarded me articles or even stories of their own experiences or of their relatives. You are more then welcome to do so, in fact since this is work related you can send it to my work e-mail address- ashaikh@cair.com- that way we can keep track of these trends.

One very interesting article I got was on Yahoo- and I think it will be good to see this develop because it is a way to clear people's names, however, there is no way to take your name off any Government list if you happen to find yourself on there. But it seems DHS will be will soon be requiring 10 digital fingerprints when entering the country, as well as other biometric data, such as facial and eye retina scans.

Wright said data was collected on visitors under strict U.S. privacy protection rules, and that the new 10-print scan would not take more time than the current check — usually about 10 seconds.

The prints are checked against U.S. security watch lists drawn up by U.S. Homeland Security and other policing agencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency also have access to the prints, Wright said.

The 10-print scans would be "virtually 100 percent match accurate," he said.

"We are going to know that that's you," Wright said. Future changes include adding other biometric identifiers — such as facial or retinal scans — to better rule out fraud, he said.

But the issue is privacy and what the government will do with this information. It almost seems that this will be the first step toward requiring such "Big Brother" techniques to US citizens themselves. You ease people's fears by applying things to the "other" and soon the citizenry will become the "other" and accept it. What is further upsetting is that 34,000 people were turned away because of being on some "government watch list". It falls in with the whole notion that fewer and fewer international tourist will want to visit the United States.

Update 06/30

Unfortunately, with no explanation Mr. Isakjee was denied entry and sent back. He must now apply for a visa with the US embassy, however, he will not be able to get a future visa, having been turned away and not knowing why or how to remedy this- the US embassy will deny him his request and he will never be able to visit his family in the United States.

I believe it is one thing for the government to turn people away, however when there is no way to clear one's name it is against the tradition and values that have made America so great. We allow people the opportunity to clear their name to force the government to "prove without a doubt that the individual is 'guilty'". This may not apply in a situation where entry is denied- in fact legally the US owes very little rights to people it denies entry to.

However if this is a 'War on Terror' and part of this is to win over the hearts and minds of Muslims around the world, then this behavior is only adding to "physical" losses we are now faced with in Iraq. This constant humiliations, harassment and beseeching of guilt only lends to the feelings that this is a "War on Islam and Muslims" and the further marginalization of any good will amongst Muslims around the world.

It is no wonder that less and less people from around the world are visiting the United States:

Visiting the United States isn't as popular as it used to be mainly because of delays and difficulties in getting visas, long lines at customs and aggressive promotional campaigns from other countries.

Travel executives told a Senate panel Wednesday that people are going elsewhere for those reasons. And long lines at Customs were blamed for the U.S. losing out on the 2007 Pan American Games to Brazil and a big concern for the U.S. Olympic Committee as Chicago and Los Angeles compete for the 2016 Olympics.

You can read the article here.

However, many on the Right will probably see this as a good sign, keep them darn "aliens" out (laugh). But think of this

Lawmakers and travel executives are working on strategies to boost international tourism, which contributes $1.3 trillion and 7.3 million jobs to the U.S. economy, according to the Travel Industry Association.

No, if anything, this is exactly the time that the United States needs to, must be connected to the rest of the world and not see itself better then everyone else.

Update 6/29 12:45PM:

Barabara Morgan from the British Consulate in LA confirmed that Esakjee was allowed to finally call his family and speak to them. It has been close to 16 hours since he arrived to LAX. Around 230AM, he arrived at 8AM, an agent by the name of Miller informed the family that the "interview" (interrogation) had ended and that they had decided to deny him his visa waiver. He now must be denied entry and sent (shipped) back home. The agent also claimed that it was the British that had requested a denial of entry- Morgan strongly denied this and said that it is not in their jurisdiction to have the United States government do anything of the such. When confronted Miller changed stances and said that they can not share "sensitive" information.

To me it seems like its all a joke. No wonder there are less people coming to the United States to visit during their vacation. If hearing or being treated like second rate citizen is the norm then I wouldn't want to visit that country either.

Can some one find the article, it came out earlier this week...

BREAKING NEWS: UK MUSLIM HELD IN LOS ANGELES

(LOS ANGELES, CA, 6/29/07) - The Greater Los Angeles area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) has been informed that a Muslim citizen of the United Kingdom is being held following his arrival yesterday on a flight from London. CAIR-LA is investigating the reason for the man's detention. The 57-year-old man is reportedly scheduled to be returned to Britain on a flight later today.