28.6.09

Janazatul Ghayb or not?

Its funny how questions are raised sometimes, above others which are far more aching.
Maybe a great socio-spiritual scholar makes an address to a special gathering, and their questions concern ritual cleanliness or some minor mechanics of ritual prayer. There are so many signs in a question.

What is it that you want to know about this situation?

Did he bear witness or not?

As the brit millet continues on its undignified track, we and I, wonder if a great singer of our times was Muslim when he left this world.

So much of our perceived dignity is contained in the answer to this question, wrongly so. I have seen you tube nasheed videos proporting to contain his voice to clumsy slideshow backgrounds construced by folks who sincerely beleive they are carrying the Prophets message to the people.

For the love of Him alone, will you 'daees' please cease?

Its not pleasant to put words into a dead man's mouth, not when its an individual and not when it's many individuals who have suffered death in the context of a favourite interpretation of a political struggle.

27.6.09

iKhatna

you know i'm talking to you so i'll cut to the chase.

Is their any stone you'll leave unturned
any cultural hook to leave unburned?
its like you're born to nafficate
there's another word that rhymes with 'tate'
thats what this is, i wish you'd stop
get better jobs, blow out the snot.

i've had it up to here with this,
can you not hear the whole world hiss?
puppeteered leaders, amateur thinkers,
row upon row just wearing blinkers,
is this really how you spend your bucks?
Forgive me, I thought you gave a ____.

26.6.09

[Defined] The Muslim Situationist

You know how it is, one day you are an activist, then you find yourself in an Egyptian jail being offered the opportunity to sellout. After a period of isolation you land yourself a great deal of british government attention and funding to publicly recant your views as vice-director of some dodgy foundation.

That's a particularly smelly example, but the essential point is that, its not right. Its the situation, its non-transferable experiences.

Attitude defining/changing stimuli and events can include: personal loss, money, the spurning of old friends, and attention from powerful sources.

Its hard to mitigate the harm of the Muslim Situationist. To mitigate the creation of such individuals and adapt to their present existence is a priority.


[New Word] Professionationalism

The tribal imprint of work that can lend its wearer a false sense of significance. e.g Professional's networking event.

16.6.09

Tehranistani Thunderstorms

Its hard to know how iran's latest temporary leadership change process will unfold.
  • Opposition contesting the validity of the polls.
  • Campus deaths, and the modern university as a bastion of political mojo.
  • State muffling of news.
  • Overbearing use of state security force, which at time restrains, at others molests.
  • Social schisms becoming more apparent between ganj folks and townie yaars.
  • Clear foreign backing for the pro-western narrative.
  • Clear local desire for change.
  • Copycatting of US election sloganeering.
  • Substantial, under-reported local support for the incumbent.
  • Outside ummahtic conservatives over-valuing the status quo and the whole 'sticking two fingers up at the west', over basic internal justice.
  • Ummatic over-emphasis on the symbolic importance of Iran.
  • Hundreds of thousands demonstrating physically, amplifying, forcing powerful hands.
  • Other national yaars wetting themselves over the use of web 2.0.
  • A distinct rupture of a political phase that has lasted a generation.
  • Common use of raw betrayal and treachery accusations.
  • The risk of political over-compensation evaporating real and struggled-for gains
Sorry, must stop analysing every political orchestration through the lens of Bangladesh.

This is my nonsecular political dua (prayer)

Oh Allah, assist the sisters and brother in Iran in their struggle for truth and life
Protect them from the plots of eachother, and foreigners
Prevent the reckless from wrecking things
Promote just, creative resolution, whatever that may be
because you know best, I dont really have a clue.