Fort Hood, the Anti-War Movement, and Islamophobia

Asalamu Alaikum.

On Nov. 5th, 2009, Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood, while injuring 30 others.

Hasan was a psychiatrist at the infamous Walter Reed, reputed for its horrendous mis-management and completely reckless/negligent care of physically/mentally distraught soldiers.

Hasan spent day after day enduring Islamophobia and with the dual issue of hearing horror stories from veterans, while also dealing with under-funded and poorly managed medical services for soldiers.

On top of all of this, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, which continued to produce more and more of these issues, and now he was set to be deployed to Afghanistan as well.

All of this, subhanAllah, was rolled up into one man, who finally snapped under all of this impossible pressure.

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The response by politicians and the media was typical. Rather than analyze the material circumstances that led to the tragedy, they preferred to pick something easier: blame Islam and all Muslims. SubhanAllah.

While this is to be expected, there is another side to this story that also must be stated. It is now one year since the election of Obama, the election of “change.” In that year, almost all movements for social justice (anti-war, immigrants rights, women’s rights, etc.) have been diminished. The only wonderful exception to this otherwise dismal state of affairs has been the Equal Marriage Movement, mashAllah!

So why do I bring this up? The anti-war movement is bankrupt and the left is uncertain about how to relate to Muslims (and religious people in general)

. SubhanAllah, if we had a Big, Broad, Vibrant, Anti-War Movement then soldiers would have somewhere to turn to. If we had a Big, Broad, Vibrant, Anti-War Movement then soldiers would have somewhere to go when they were feeling disaffected, oppressed, disgruntled, etc. If we had an anti-war movement that stood militantly and defiantly against war and militarism, then we could encourage soldiers to desert their “duties,” to vent their frustrations, to find like-minded people to cut through the isolation, and to organize against the war that oppresses and exploits them to the point of death, insanity, or destitution.

But sadly, this movement does not exist.

Fort Hood massacre should have roused international demonstrations, or at least national demonstrations against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It should have galvanized anti-war soldiers against the wars themselves.

The Fort Hood tragedy should have immediately sparked debates about the terrible toll that war takes on soldiers: from the death of soldiers through to PTSD and the inability to find any jobs upon release from the military.

Instead, the only thing we hear is that Hasan is a Muslim, so the case is closed.

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Moreover, the absence of the Left-wing in response to the Fort Hood massacre highlights the inability of what is left of the anti-war movement to stand up to Islamophobia.

A genuine anti-war movement would stand stead-fastly and militantly against racism and Islamophobia. But instead, many people, on the right and the left seem to think that maybe, just maybe, Islam is the reason behind the Fort Hood massacre. SubhanAllah.

Islam, even on the Left-wing, is still often treated paternally, as a backwards religion that is fundamentally flawed, but deserves some protection by the benevolent Left. What the Left needs to do is open its eyes. The attacks on Islam are also being used as excuses to promote the military and promote further war in the Middle East.

The alternative: insh’Allah the Left-wing alternative needs to be to unilaterally unite with Muslims to fight Islamophobia. The same way that the attacks on Muslims are used to fuel the rhetoric of war, so the fight against Islamophobia needs to be one of many rallying points in our struggle (jihad) AGAINST war.

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To see what an anti-war movement could and SHOULD look like, insh’Allah please check out the incredible documentary, mashAllah, SIR! NO SIR!

As long as the anti-war movement (and the Left-wing in general) maintains that all religions are essentially backwards, and that all religious people are essentially backwards, then they let in Islamophobia through the back door. By allowing Islamophobia to persist, the anti-war movement will remain devoid of Muslims, and devoid of any real ground to stand on. SubhanAllah.

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The only way to end the war is to get the soldiers to stop fighting that war.

The only way to get the soldiers to stop fighting is to provide an anti-war movement that shows them that if they refuse and resist the military, there will be a movement to defend them and embrace them.

The only way to develop that movement is to start organizing against the war at your work place, at your school, at your place of worship, at your community center, or at your military base.

Jazak Allah Khair to everyone involved in Sir! No Sir!

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! BRING THEM HOME!

 

Fort Hood Analysis: Soldiers and Socialists

Asalamu Alaikum.

There are two important articles that I am about to include here from Socialist Worker.
I want to share them, not only because I am an ISO member, but also because I think that these articles add an important Left-wing balance to the debate about the incident at Fort Hood, insh’Allah.

The first article is a state from Fort Hood Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).
The second article was co-authored by a member of IVAW and a member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), and it provides a broader analysis and context for the murders at Fort Hood.
I think it is important to share these articles because Alhamdulillah they provide two important things:
1) the perspective of the murders from soldiers themselves, and 2) the perspective from socialists.

 

I hope you enjoy.

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Terrible toll of senseless wars

This statement was issued by the Fort Hood chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Under the Hood Café, a meeting place organized near Fort Hood by antiwar activists for soldiers to meet and unwind.

November 9, 2009

OUR COMMUNITY is distraught by the tragic shooting at Fort Hood yesterday. We extend our condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

As upset as we are about this incident, this shooting does not come as a shock. Eight years of senseless wars have taken a huge toll on our troops and their families. It’s time to admit that the wars in southwest Asia are in no one’s best interests. Bring the troops home now!

The Army has also repeatedly demonstrated that it is more interested in making soldiers “deployable” than it is in helping them fully recover from PTSD and other mental health issues. This often leaves soldiers with few options other than to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. The Army routinely deploys soldiers who are clearly suicidal and homicidal. Yesterday was a gruesome reminder of the possible violent consequences of this policy. We hope the Army now takes its duty to take care of soldiers more seriously.

We demand transparency from the Army and other federal agencies involved with this investigation.

Under the Hood Café provides military service members with support through referrals to legal, financial and medical services. It is a space for troops to freely express their views on the wars and the military. It also offers GI rights counseling. Iraq Veterans Against the War calls for the immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq, reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered, and full benefits for returning military personnel.

Under the Hood Café
Iraq Veterans Against the War–Fort Hood Chapter

http://socialistworker.org/2009/11/09/toll-of-senseless-wars

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The making of a tragedy

SocialistWorker.org writer Eric Ruder and Trey Kindlinger, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, look at the broader context in which the tragedy at Fort Hood unfolded.

November 9, 2009

PEOPLE ACROSS the U.S. and the world were shocked at the news that an Army psychiatrist went on a shooting rampage, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. Their question was why?

But as the details about the background of Major Nidal Malik Hasan trickled out, commentary about the horrific event settled into two wrong answers.

On the one hand, right-wing pundits, once they learned of Hasan’s Muslim faith and Palestinian heritage, decided they had all the information they needed–and proceeded to pass judgment about what motivated not just Hasan, but all Muslims.

Debbie Schlussel, a frequent columnist for the New York Post and Jerusalem Post, urged readers of her Web site to think of Hasan “whenever you hear about how Muslims serve their country in the U.S. military.”

She continued, “Well, actually, they do serve ‘their country’ in the U.S. military. And their country is Dar Al-Islam and greater Koranistan. It’s Islamic terrorism, stupid. Wait, that’s repetitive. It’s Islam, stupid.”

The real problem, according to syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin, is “the whitewashing of jihad by the MSM [mainstream media]. I’ve said it many times over the years, and it bears repeating again as cable TV talking heads ask in bewilderment how all the red flags Hasan raised could have been ignored: Political correctness is the handmaiden of terror.”

According to Fox and Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson at Fox News, even the military has succumbed to this “political correctness,” prompting her to wonder, “Could it be that our own military is so politically correct right now…to be careful about treatment of Muslims that they would have allowed this to go by?”

The other way the Fort Hood events were seen in the media was less vile, but still not very illuminating. The shooting was seen as the act of a deranged individual, an unpredictable spasm of violence caused by the mental breakdown of a medical professional who himself needed the counseling he was supposed to provide to others.

While an advance over the hate-filled tirades of conservatives, this explanation ultimately leaves the most important cause of the Fort Hood tragedy unexamined–namely, the U.S. war drive in Iraq and Afghanistan and the military’s callous disregard for troops it sends abroad to kill and be killed.

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HASAN JOINED the military after college out of a sense of patriotism, according to friends and relatives, who describe him as a calm and gentle person. Hasan’s parents are from Palestine, and he was born in the U.S. and raised in Virginia.

But after the September 11 attacks, Hasan experienced racist harassment within the military and outside it that left him feeling isolated and under siege. A bumper sticker that said “Allah is love” in Arabic was torn off Hasan’s car, and the vehicle was scratched with a key while it was parked at his apartment complex in Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood, in August.

Hasan’s uncle, Rafik Ismail Hamad, who lives in the West Bank town of Al Birah, said his nephew told him that fellow soldiers once handed Hasan a diaper and told him to wear it on his head. In another incident, according to a Los Angeles Times report, they drew a camel on a piece of paper and left it on his car, with a note that read, “Here’s your ride.”

Despite this abuse, Hasan seemed to be coping with the situation. Hasan’s uncle said his nephew told him, “They’re ignorant. I’m more American than they are. I help my country more than they do. And I don’t care what they say.”

“He felt sorry for them,” Hamad told the LA Times. “He didn’t feel grudges. He felt sympathy.”

As the Times report continued, “[Hamad] described his nephew as a gentle soul who once, as a young adult, mourned for three months after rolling over during a nap and crushing his pet parakeet. During medical school, his uncle said, Hasan switched his major to psychiatry after fainting at the sight of blood while delivering a baby.”

But at a certain point, the stress must have begun taking a toll on Hasan. Hasan’s cousin, Mohammad Munif Abdallah Hasan, who lives in Ramallah, told CNN that this was one of the reasons Hasan had sought to leave the military:

There was racism towards him because he’s a Muslim, because he’s an Arab, because he prays. They used to see him dress in traditional Muslim clothing, so he was a bit irritated because of this. Also, the fact that they wanted to send him to Iraq. He decided to leave the Army for good and hire a lawyer because of this matter.

They wouldn’t treat him as if he is one of them. He was a major in the Army, and other majors wouldn’t treat him equally as a major should be treated. Yes, you are a major in the U.S. Army, but you are still an Arab, a Muslim, you have your own traditions and values and we have ours. He was bothered by that a lot. He wasn’t respected as he should have been.

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ON TOP of the racist abuse, Hasan’s job as an Army psychiatrist brought him face to face with countless soldiers haunted by memories of battlefield horrors–a seemingly endless line of young men and women scarred by their experiences of war. According to an excellent New York Times report:

Many of the patients who fill the day are bereft, angry, broken. Their stories are gruesome, their distress lasting, and the process of recovery exhausting. In time, the repeated stories of battle and loss can leave even the most professional therapist numb or angry. And hanging over it all, for psychiatrists and psychologists in today’s military, is the prospect of their own deployment–of working under fire with combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan…

Major Hasan was one of a thin line of military therapists trying to hold off a rising tide of need. So far this year, 117 soldiers on active duty were reported to have committed suicide.

The crushing caseload–there are 408 psychiatrists for 553,000 active-duty troops around the world–leads to burnout and despair among those charged with treating the mental health trauma of a generation of soldiers. “It’s a pretty damn stressful place to be,” said Dr. Stephen Stahl of the conditions for psychiatrists at Fort Hood. “I think it’s a horrible place to practice psychiatry.”

Plus, according to the Times story:

Providing care has its own risks. In studies of therapists working to soothe mental distress in victims of violence, whether criminal, sexual or combat-related, researchers have documented what is called secondary trauma: contact distress, of a kind. In one 2004 study of social workers on cases stemming from the September 11 attacks, researchers found that the more deeply therapists were involved with victims, the more likely they were to experience such trauma.

According to Hamad, Hasan’s uncle from Al Birah, Hasan told him that his caseload of physically disabled and mentally troubled war veterans was weighing heavily on him:

He didn’t have time even to breathe. Too much pressure, too many patients, not enough staff. He would say, “I don’t know how to treat them or what to tell them,” because he didn’t have enough time. They just kept coming one after the other. Sometimes he cried because of what happened to them. How young they are, what’s going to happen to the rest of their lives. They’re going to be handicapped; they’re going to be crazy. He was very, very sensitive.

Spec. Chance Mills is an active-duty soldier at Fort Hood who personally experienced the inadequacy of the military’s mental health services–in particular, the Army’s Combat Stress Control Team. When preparing for deployment or already deployed, troops are seen by doctors only to send them back to their unit so they can continue fighting, according to Mills.

“It was just there to check a box [on a form],” Mills said in an interview. “It was an assembly line, following the steps. It was a [false] remedy to the problem, so they could send people back. There was no resolution of anyone’s problems.”

Cindy Thomas runs the Under the Hood Café, an antiwar, pro-troop hangout for soldiers at Fort Hood. As she described it:

In general, those with mental health issues are treated so horribly it’s a wonder that more don’t snap. It’s to where even officers have issues with PTSD, feeling depression and pressure. It’s harder for those who deploy–they’re not stable. With pressure, they are snapping harder and quicker. But the everyday pressures of going to work and seeking mental help is causing PTSD even within those who don’t deploy.

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IN RECENT years, Hasan became more vocal about his opposition to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That hardly distinguished him from many tens of thousands of troops who witnessed firsthand the futility and brutality of the U.S. war on those countries. Nevertheless, mainstream media outlets reported on Hasan’s opposition as if it were somehow inappropriate or misguided to have such thoughts.

Dr. Val Finnell, a former medical school classmate of Hasan’s, described Hasan as “a very outspoken opponent of the war” in the classroom and in public settings. “He equated the war against terror with a war against Islam,” said Finnell. Finnell explained that he was “shocked” by the shooting, but “that said, given the things that Major Hasan has said to me in the past and to other people, I am not surprised.”

But how farfetched is it to believe that the U.S. “war on terror” is at least partly a “war on Islam”?

Consider the words of Gen. William Boykin, who said in 2003 of the U.S. pursuit of Somali warlord Osman Atto: “He went on CNN, and he laughed at us, and he said, ‘They’ll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.’ Well, you know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”

In September 2009, Boykin declared, “There is no greater threat to America than Islam.”

It’s impossible to know how many times Hasan counseled soldiers who had just told him stories of killing innocent women and children in the streets of Baghdad or the mountains of Afghanistan.

But it’s certainly plausible that hearing such stories–told to him by young men and women practically young enough to be his children–could have produced a confusing tangle of emotions: Feeling himself to be an American patriot, while empathizing as a Muslim and a man of Palestinian descent with the Iraqi and Afghan victims of the U.S. military. It could also have left Hasan with an unbearable mix of anger and desperation.

The grief at Fort Hood over the carnage Hasan left is very real. But it’s important to remember that for millions of people throughout the world, there is grief at the carnage that the U.S. military causes day in and day out–the bombing of Afghan wedding parties that leave dozens dead on what should have been one of the happiest days for their families; the gunning down of whole families at checkpoints in Falluja and Baghdad and Basra.

Hasan may have pulled the trigger, but it was the U.S. military that loaded the gun–with its killing fields around the world, its callous disregard for the troops it sends into battle and its neglect of the mental health professionals who are supposed to help soldiers survive their mental scars.

The bigoted conclusions of the Michelle Malkins–that the “violent teachings” of Islam caused this tragedy–must be rejected. When Sgt. John Russell shot and killed five fellow soldiers at the Camp Liberty combat stress clinic in Baghdad, his religion wasn’t used to explain why he went on a shooting spree. Hasan’s shouldn’t be used as an explanation for what happened at Fort Hood.

The real solution to the horror that took place at Fort Hood is to build a social movement large enough to bring the senseless and ultimately futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–with their trail of civilian and military casualties–to an end.

http://socialistworker.org/2009/11/09/making-of-a-tragedy

Ft. Hood and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Asalamu Alaikum.

The media has been abuzz about two main topics:

The Ft. Hood shooting and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

If you would like to hear my opinion about the Ft. Hood shooting, check out my last blog post.

Long story short, subhanAllah as long as the wars in the Middle East are funded with with US tax dollars, promoted by the US establishment, and carried out by US soldiers (even though most soldiers go to war against their will since the majority are against the wars), this sort of tragedy will only repeat itself.

The fact is, to paraphrase Howard Zinn: “war poisons everything and everyone involved.” This comes from a man that was a pilot in WWII. Mash’Allah.

Nidal Malik Hasan was psychiatrist that had to listen to horror stories from soldiers that suffered from PTSD and saw the savagery of war. SubhanAllah this affected him.

Nidal Malik Hasan had to work at Walter Reed Hospital, a hospital that was notoriously underfunded,  understaffed, and poorly managed. Working day in and day out in a situation where he had to see people daily that he knew needed desperate help, but were not being helped because of the mis-management of Walter Reed had an affect on him. SubhanAllah.

SubhanAllah many other soldiers, non-Muslim soldiers, have murdered and/or raped their comrades. To bring up his religion as the reason for this is to deliberately ignore the fact that this war is driving its own military members insane.

Moreover, to bring up Nidal Malik Hasan’s religion is to deliberately invoke racism, Islamophobia, and to encourage hate-crimes against Muslims. SubhanAllah it is simply racist.

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But to the main point of this post: The fall of the Berlin Wall. Socialist Worker, the newspaper of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) did a perfect series to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall in a classic socialist way: to put it in context!

The major media outlets and politicians refer to the fall of the Berlin Wall “as the triumph of the US and Capitalism over the USSR and Communism.”

But is that really what happened? To be sure, the USSR and its eastern bloc were not typical capitalist states, but they were also not communist either. SubhanAllah, we in the ISO would argue that there has never really been a truly communist country.

As Marx defined “Socialism” and “Communism” they were defined by “worker’s power” and “worker’s democracy.” They are about the end of hierarchy and about the extension of democracy beyond simply the state apparatus, but into the workplace.

Genuine democracy, Marx would argue, would have to begin at the grassroots in our work places and extend out. “Bottom-Up Socialism,” as opposed to the USSR’s “top-down socialism.”

Insh’Allah, please read the links from Socialist Worker’s FALL OF THE WALL SERIES to learn more about our perspective on the fall of the Berlin Wall and how that struggle in fact represented a reawakening of a genuine working class movement and struggle.

Another important thing that I wanted to raise, is that while the Berlin Wall has fallen, there are other walls that need to be demolished as well. As a Muslim and as a Socialist, Alhamdulillah, I do not want borders and I do not want border walls.

As a Muslim and as a Socialist, insh’Allah I believe that we need to abolish all borders and have one world for all people.

This means we also need to abolish the border walls between Mexico and the US, insh’Allah.

As well as the border walls between Palestinians and israelis, insh’Allah.

For more about that, please read the article by The Nation about BERLIN, israel, MEXICO.

FROM MEXICO TO PALESTINE: BORDER WALLS ARE A CRIME!

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Series: The fall of the wall

• The fall of the wall
  Socialism, Stalinism and Eastern Europe

  The regimes of Eastern Europe that collapsed 20 years after a series of mass rebellions were the opposite of what we mean by socialism. November 3, 2009

• The fall of the wall
  Revolts behind the “iron curtain”

  Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a history of workers’ struggle against the self-described Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. November 6, 2009

Berlin, Israel, Mexico: Walls Across the World

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/491173/berlin_israel_mexico_walls_across_the_world

Fort Hood, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, and Islamophobia

Asalamu Alaikum.

MAJOR NIDAL MALIK HASAN was Muslim.
So because he is Muslim, is that why he killed people in an Army base?
So what about the non-Muslims who have also killed or raped their fellow soldiers?

SubhanAllah, isn’t it more likely that the stress of war, being around veterans with horror stories, the threat of being deployed and/or redeployed are the circumstances that lead people to commit crimes such as this?

The only way to prevent this incident and similar incidents, is to immediately withdraw all troops from the Middle East. The longer any soldiers are there, the more likely that they will be psychologically damaged and commit other horrendous acts of violence.

SubhanAllah, don’t blame the Ummah (Muslim Community) for this one. Scapegoating Muslims doesn’t fix the actual problem, which is the fact that the US war machine forces people to do what normal humans beings don’t want to do: become involved in war and all of its consequences.

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In the link below, there is a video of an American POW, Shoshanna Johnson, who calls out the bigotry of JAG officer Tom Kennif after he implies that because Hasan has a Muslim name, that is the reason for the crime.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/shoshanna-johnson-calls-out-jag-tom-kennif

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Besides that, please read this:

Follow the Fort Hood story on Twitter

All the latest can be found on this blog and on Twitter at @FtHoodShootings

Home > The Blotter > Archives > 2009 > November > 05 > Entry

Veterans group was pushing lawmakers for more mental health counselors for soldiers

By Denise Gamino | Thursday, November 5, 2009, 04:47 PM

Just as the tragedy was unfolding at Fort Hood, officials from a veterans group based in Austin were meeting in Washington with the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee to plead for more mental health counselors for U.S. soldiers coming home from war.

“I’m very upset. I’m at the point of tears,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, who lives in Austin.

“We warned the military about this. We warned the military about the need to increase the number of mental health care providers. We warned the military about lowering recruiting standards, about the medical exams for soldiers coming back from the war and needing mental health care and brain injury exams.”

“We have been working tirelessly to try to prevent this from happening,” he said. “This is so horrible. This is a tragedy.”

The Senate staff meeting was not interrupted with the news from Fort Hood, Sullivan said. Rather, he learned of the mass shootings when he stepped into the corridor after the meeting and saw 13 messages on his phone.

During the meeting on Capitol Hill, Veterans for Common Sense and Swords to Plowshares, based in San Francisco, noted that the military suicide rate for 2009 is on track to set a record.

“This is going to be a major trauma for veterans, reminding them of the war,” he said. “We encourage them, if they are experiencing difficulty, to seek care at the V.A.”

He urged anyone traumatized to call the U.S. military’s suicide prevention hotline, (800) 342-9647, or the national suicide prevention line at (800) 273-8255.

“We hope that the military leadership takes this incident very seriously and increases access to mental health care. There are community groups that are offering to help fill the gap because the miitary lacks enough doctors to provide care.’’

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2009/11/05/veterans_group_was_pushing_law.html

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And this:

Horror at Fort Hood Inspires Horribly Predictable Islamophobia

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/493148/horror_at_fort_hood_inspires_horribly_predictable_islamophobia

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Finally, if you or anyone you know is in the military, please direct them to Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

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UPDATE: Since I last posted this article a few hours ago, there was an office shooting in Orlando.

Interestingly enough NO ONE IS ASKING WHAT THAT SHOOTERS RELIGION IS.
Link to the story from BBC below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8347663.stm

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Here are some more instances in the US military where atrocities occured and NO ONE asked about the suspect’s religion.

Ex-soldier could face death over Iraq murders, rape

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/08/kentucky.iraq.soldier.rape/

Army Rape Accuser Speaks Out

Says She Was Treated ‘Like A Criminal’ By The Army

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/17/60minutes/main674791.shtml

U.S. soldier charged with murder in Iraq shooting deaths

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/12/iraq.soldiers.killed/

The Rape of Latinas in the US Military

http://www.aztlan.net/latinas_us_military_raped.htm

When war comes home

http://socialistworker.org/2009/08/11/when-war-comes-home

Covered up by a military contractor (KBR)

http://socialistworker.org/2009/10/26/covered-up-by-a-contractor

Women’s Liberation – Women’s Bodies = Women’s Rights

Asalamu Alaikum.

SubhanAllah, the debate around the world today in regards to women’s abortion rights is completely miserable and flawed.

SubhanAllah, the debate right now is about whether or not abortion is “murder.”

It is important to say that this is NOT the way the debate has always been.

Insh’Allah we can shift the debate back to where it should be: which is about how abortion rights are an integral part of Women’s civil rights and Women’s health.

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For starters, as a Muslim, I think it is important to say that The Prophet (SAW) was always concerned with the interests of women.

Though it is vilified today as a symbol of Women’s oppression, the original point of having Muslim Women wear the hijab (head covering/veil) was not as a way of demeaning or demoting them, but as a way of uplifting them.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but it must be put in context. In the Middle East, during the time of The Prophet (SAW), upper class women wore the hijab as a symbol of their status and superiority. Lower class women were not allowed to wear the hijab as a means to demean them. Making the hijab something to be worn by Muslim women (if they choose too) was a way of empowering Women. Mash’Allah.

Moreover, it is important to say that sexism (and homophobia) are products of any class society. The Prophet (SAW) and his companions lived in a time before the industrial revolution and before the correlary growth of modern mega-cities. Therefore, the capacity to truly abolish poverty, class, and gender divisions was not yet possible. In lieu of that, The Prophet (SAW) stressed the need for respect of women’s rights, their right to own property, to control their marriage, to be assisted in domestic labor equally by the spouse, etc.

So with all of this in mind, is it so hard to imagine that we should support Women’s Rights, such as Abortion Rights? Alhamdulillah.

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Moving back to the original point, a fetus is a fetus. An abortion removes a fetus from a Woman’s body. So long as the abortion is voluntarily chosen by the woman, then it is no one else’s business.

According to anthropologists and historians, women in the North America (from Native Americans to white US women) used to commonly and unapologetically have abortions when they wanted too.

It was only around the 1870s that the Catholic church formally stated opposition to abortion, and around that time that abortion also began to become a negative issue.

Otherwise, as long as women have had any understanding of chemistry and physiology, there have been abortions. This goes back to pre-class societies.

Some right-wingers say that they don’t want women to treat abortions like they were simply taking care of any other medical issue. Well thats exactly how I think it should be treated. The guilt and the stigma that has been associated with abortion, insh’Allah must be stopped.

Just like everything else the right-wing tries to ban with reactionary laws, the fact is that banning abortions does not stop people from having abortions. It only makes it more difficult for someone to get it.

It is important to remember that this is a class issue. A rich woman can bribe a doctor to give her an abortion, if abortions are made illegal. But a poor woman can not. She will have to go to some “back alley” abortionist and risk health complications or even death from having botched abortion.

In other scenarios, the only thing that happens is a woman is forced to have a child that she does not want. Some people say “why not just put the child up for adoption?” To those people, I would say that most stories I’ve ever heard about orphanages and the adoption process are typically horror stories.

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SubhanAllah it is also important to say that Women get pregnant for lots of different reasons.

*Absence of any sexual education, or only recieving “abstinence-only” education (which has been proven not to work).

*Rape

*No access to birth control and/or condoms (or they’re too expensive, which is again a class issue).

These are just three easy to understand reasons why abortion should be legal, but to be clear, if any Woman wants an abortion FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, insh’Allah she should be able to have one, no questions asked.

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SubhanAllah what really bothers me about the “pro-life” crowd, is that the same people who want to ban abortion to “save babies,” are the same people who want to destroy public schools, promote wars in the Middle East, support the death penalty, etc.

For anyone that REALLY supports kids, babies, etc. insh’Allah here are a few things to do INSTEAD of hating on Women and making them ashamed:

1) Help struggle (jihad) for more funding for public schools, which should include kindergarten – grad school.

2) Struggle for 24hr Universal Day Care, that way a single mother, or a family that has to have both adults work (which is now most families) can still have the children taken care of.

3) Struggle for Universal Single-Payer Healthcare. That way women and children can go to the doctor as often as possible to get check ups, medicine, treatments, etc whenever they need them.

4) Struggle for higher wages for men and women. If moms and dads got paid more, they would be better able to have families and raise families.

5) Struggle against the occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Countless numbers of babies and children die everyday because the wars literally kill them with bullets and bombs, or because the health and economic catastrophes of war kill them instead.

6) Struggle against deportations of undocumented workers. This only breaks up families, or forces babies and children to be sent back to a country with an awful political climate or economy that the adults were trying to escape in the first place.

These are some positive Working Class issues to organize around and insh’Allah win that would ACTUALLY benefit both Women and children.

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And to pro-life men: Shut up. You will never have to deal with 9 months of pregnancy, of social stigmas that make you solely responsible for a child, and other aspects of sexism.
“Pro-life men, go home! If you get pregnant, let us know!”

History Lesson: Suicide Bombers vs. World Wars I & II

Asalamu Alaikum.

I remember a few years ago, when I would hear people say about Muslims: “they just don’t value life like we do.” First of all, it must be said that this is a racist and Islamophobic comment meant to characterize all Arabs and Muslims as lunatics.

This comment was made in particular as a reference to “suicide bombers.”

This blog post is not about the politics of “suicide bombers.” With that said, I think it is important to quickly say that first of all, I call “suicide bombers” “Martyrs.”

Why do people martyr themselves?
Well for starters, lets put a the situation of martyrdom in context.

I think that it is central to understand the situation a martyr is in: they want to fight back against NOT ONLY an occupying force, but a MILITARILY AND ECONOMICALLY SUPERIOR occupying force.

For a martyr, the only way to stand up to the most advanced tanks, drones, jet fighters, heat seeking missiles, spy satelites, etc. is to use domestic products to create homemade bombs. The only reason a martyr uses their body as a weapon is because that martyr does not have access to advanced military equipment. I assure you, if a martyr was government funded, they would not need the rode of martyrdom.

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But insh’Allah, let us look at this a little closely, and in broader context. Insh’Allah anyone who reads this blog has read something about history.

“They just don’t value life like we do.” Ok, well lets see.
Many people may have heard of World War I and World War II.

BOTH TIMES, EUROPE BLEW ITSELF UP AND EACH OTHER ACROSS THE ENTIRE CONTINENT. Martyrs are small change compared to the level of brutal, raw, mass destruction during WWI and WWII. Moreover, while martyrs kill themselves as an act of resistance, subhanAllah, both of the World Wars were intended to spread Imperialism.

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World War I about 16.5 million deaths, and about 21 million wounded.
Europe in particular, was basically destroyed. And for what? For the re-division of the world by the Imperialist European powers.

By the time of WWI, the imperialist powers had carved up every possible section of the world into colonies or “spheres of influence.” Now those colonies and sphere’s of influence were running into collisions with each other, and each imperial power wanted to take over each other’s territories. The cost was 16.5 million dead and 21 million wounded. So, who exactly “just doesn’t value life?”

World War II would happen 21 years after World War I. Some people have claimed that WWI so completely decimated Europe, that Europe needed time to create give birth to more children, to be able to continue the war again. WWII happened for basically the same reasons of WWI. WWI was not able to satisfy the imperialist powers in their redivision of the world, so WWII would be the final episode, ending with the sole standing super powers being the US and the USSR.

WWII would kill an estimated 60 million people internationally. Again, Europe would be decimated completely, with Western Europe relying on the US to rebuild it, and Eastern Europe relying on the USSR to rebuild it. Of course, both the US and the USSR did not rebuild Europe out of benevolence, but out of self-interest in creating modern day spheres of influence, and as bulwarks against each other.

And again, with the understanding that 60 million people died (and this includes the deaths created by THE HOLOCAUST), the question must be repeated: exactly whom is it that “doesn’t value life?”

While I could go on and on and on with examples of “western savagery” and the way in which capitalism creates these acts of institutionalized mass murder, I will stop here and end with some subhanAllah horrifying pictures.

I want everyone to remember, the pictures you are about to see are not only real, but are taken from one of the most industrially advanced places on Earth, particularly back in the 1910’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s. I would also like to remind everyone that the working class build these cities, and then rebuilt these cities, and then again rebuild these cities.

I would also like to remind everyone that the Jewish people were systematically slaughtered in the concentration camps, but they were not alone. The concentration camps were also for Communists, Socialists, Gays, Transgenders, Elderly, Disabled, Roma, and “criminals.”

I figure I should add in Picasso’s Guernica as well to depict the bombing of that. I like art and I love anti-war art.

Photography: My Wife’s Prayer Rug

Asalamu Alaikum.

Mash’Allah my wife’s prayer rug.

I know that we are mukabis (soul mates) because her rug is Bolshevik red and yellow.

 

 

 

Things You’ll Need to Know: Jummah (Friday Prayers)

Asalaamu Alaikum!

If you identify as a man and you are interested in joinging Islam, its important to know that Alhamdulillah Muslims have a weekly Holy Day. The Jews have Saturday, the Christians have Sunday, and we have Friday.

You could say that mashAllah the Abrahamic religions helped bring you the weekend.

Actually, there is a very interesting history of Jewish and Christian workers influencing the union/labor movement to develop the modern weekend. I think its about time the labor movement incorporated more Muslim workers, and insh’Allah began a struggle (jihad) for a three day weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).

Alhamdulillah I would be willing to work 4 ten hour days, instead of 5 eight hour days. But its going to take a struggle (jihad) to get there!
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So the original point of this post is to let you know that if you identify as a man, and you wanna be Muslim, you have to go to Jummah (Friday prayers). The Sisters are strongly encouraged to go to Jummah, but it is not mandatory for them.

Islam is all about tawhid [Oneness of Allah (SWT)]. This tawhid manifests itself across every aspect of Islam in a Muslim’s daily life.

It is represented in the way all Muslims pray five times a day in the almost exact same way all over the world. All Muslims are united in their monotheism. All Muslims are united in having to complete the 5 Pillars of Islam (which I wrote about in a previous post), and all Muslims are encouraged to pray together as a physically united and present Ummah at Jummah. Out of consideration for a women’s comfort and safety, only men MUST go to Jummah, but all are strongly encouraged to pray as an Ummah AT LEAST this once a week.
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I remember how frightening it was going to Jummah for the first time at my closest masjid (mosque). When you really care about something, but you’re still not comfortable with your level of understanding of the matter, it can be scary to dive right into the thing itself.

For some people, they’ve been dreaming of their marriage for years and are terrified when the wedding is finally happening. Other people have always worked hard to get a certain job, and then just as they are about to get it, they begin to doubt whether or not they’re ready or it. SubhanAllah this is kinda how I felt when I first when to the masjid.

I was very nervous because I’d never been in a masjid before.
I was nervous because I didn’t know what to talk about with pious people (as I had not always been a pious, religious man myself).
I was nervous because I wasn’t sure how to act, or if people would hear my awful Arabic (I’m still learning), or if people would notice my mistakes while I made my salat (prayers).

Of course, the fact of the matter is that you will never really learn what you need to learn until you dive in and actually try to get involved in your masjid and meet your Ummah. Just like learning how to swim, you can read about swimming forever, but you’ll never really learn how to swim until you jump in the water.

As a Chicago Muslim, I find it easiest to make it to the Downtown Islamic Center (DIC) http://dic-chicago.org/

Another great Chicago masjid is the Muslim Community Center (MCC) http://www.mccchicago.org/
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As a final note, masjids can take on all kinds of architectural appearances. A masjid can be someone’s basement. Or someone’s store front. Or one of the many beautiful, famous masjids of the world.

Here are a few images:

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Don’t forget, when you go to a masjid for Jummah, you will have to remember how to do your wudu (ablution), your salat (prayers), you’ll have to know some basic Arabic as well (greetings, Arabic for your salat, etc.).

First of all, when you walk into a masjid, you’ll probably have people look at you and say “Asalamu Alaikum!” You will have to remember to respond “Wa Alaikum Asalam!” Lots of folks will also say “Que falik?” (how are you?)  You will respond “Alhamdulillah! Wa anta?” (Praise be to God! And you?) They will respond “Alhamdulillah!” (Praise be to God!) At that point you’re probably done.
Though more often than not, after the initial round of “Asalamu Alaikum” and “wa alaikum asalam” you’ll probably be done instead.

Besides that, there are three main parts of most masjids: a “locker room” or closet area, a wudu room and/or bathroom, and the actual prayer space where you face the qiblah (face towards Makkah).

You’ll first walk into the locker room or closet room area. While you’re there you’ll hang up your jacket or sweater, put away your back pack, put away your shoes, and take off your socks (probably stick them into your shoes).

From there, you’ll either move into a typical bathroom and do wudu from a regular bathroom sink, or you’ll have deep basin-style sinks that you could stick your feet into while you stand (one foot at a time). If you are at a very well-funded masjid, you’ll even have the fancy wudu stations that have seats so that you can easily wash your feet.

After that, every masjid is basically the same, with more or less ornamentation, depending on how well-funded it is. All masjids have a corner that is in the direction of Makkah where there is a green lantern, and a space for an Imam to speak from to deliver the khutba (sermon). There are no seats in a masjid. There is just a carpeted floor. Usually, the carpeting will have a line pattern which is used to orient you as to which direction to face while you pray, as well as how to form straight lines when you pray.

So why would you form straight lines when you pray? Because when Muslims pray, we pray standing in lines, shoulder to shoulder. We try to stand as close as possible (but not uncomfortably) and we move in unison during prayers. Honestly, Mash’Allah, its beautiful.
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In the prayer area, whether it is outside on a street, in someone’s basement, in a backyard, in a store front, or in a rich and ornate masjid, everyone sits on the floor. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, man or woman, etc.

Everyone sits are floor. Everyone is humbled, and everyone is equal.

For Jummah prayers, you pray 2 mandatory rakat, and you should pray an additional 4 rakat as well. At least, thats how I do it (Sunni Muslim, Shafii school of thought).

So when you first walk into the prayer area, after your wudu, you find a space and you do 2 rakat. Then, probably the khutba will be given. Then the entire Ummah will pray 2 rakat as a group. Then, everyone that was sitting, standing, and praying in their original spot MOVES to another spot anywhere in the masjid, and prays 2 final rakat.

If you come into the Jummah a few minute late, it might be best to simply wait until after the 2 congregational prayers, and simply move to another spot, and then do 4 rakat total. Either way, its best to try and do a total of 6 rakat, though you don’t have too.

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After this, it is time to get back to the “locker room” area, get your shoes, your jacket, and head back to work or to whatever business you must attend.

Alhamdulillah that is your first Jummah!

 

Religion and the LGBTI Community

Asalamu Alaikum.

SubhanAllah, often times I feel as though when people find out that I am Muslim and that I am for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Intersexed (LGBTI) Liberation, they seem confused. “This religious guy supports the LGBTI community?”

Well here are some helpful things to correct this bigoted idea that all religious people are opposed to homosexuality.
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Alhamdulillah a new movie has recently come out that documents the rise of a wonderful movement of the LGBT community within the Ummah (Muslim community). Jihad for Love is a must see for anyone that thinks that all religious people are inherently homophobic.

Its also important to mention that many Christian churches nowadays also place Rainbow Flags on their public announcement boards as a sign that the LGBTI community is welcome and embraced by the local congregation.

Not to leave out the Jewish community, there is also a film that recently came out also acknowledging and embracing the LGBTI community within the Jewish community.

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Alhamdulillah within every and any community, there is the LGBTI community. Within every individual is the possibility for Love with any other human being. As one comrade put it, “the heart wants what it wants, and you can never control or predict it.”

It is also important to say that subhanAllah, homophobia is the flip-side of sexism. The two are completely connected and dependent on each other. Similarly, the fight against homophobia is linked directly with the struggle (jihad) against sexism. The Prophet (SAW) wanted to fight sexism, and would therefore have likely opposed homophobia (if the LGBTI identity had existed then, as it does now).

It is also extremely important to say that Homophobia, Sexism, and Racism reinforce each other and are all linked to be used against the working class to keep us divided. By fighting each other, we lose focus of the fact that we should be fighting the rich instead.

The fight for Socialism is the fight against homophobia, sexism, and racism.

Jazak Allah Khair to Parvez Sharma and Sandi Simcha Dubowski!

Religion and Socialists/Revolutionaries

Asalamu Alaikum.

Way too often, I hear people from both the right-wing and the Left-wing make fun of religion and/or religious people.

Most recently, I recall Bill Maher’s movie Religulous. This came out quite some time ago, but the basic principle of the movie is something that I hear very often: religious people are stupid/backwards/right-wing.

I would like to ask that insh’Allah, people stop making bigoted comments against religious people.

Often, I hear comments like, “I can’t believe how crazy those Catholics are.” My parents are Catholic. Do not call Catholics crazy.

I hear other variations on this, and usually the butt of the joke lands on people who are either Christian or Muslim, but I’m sure people make similar comments about other religions (and against religious people in general).

SubhanAllah, this must stop, particularly from the Left-wing.

*For starters, Freedom of Religion should be a Civil Right.
This means that any individual should be free to practice any, or all, or no religion. No one should be ridiculed or persecuted for their religious beliefs.

*Moreover, as Marx and Lenin went out of their way to state time and time again: Religion should always be respected and regarded as a personal matter.
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But moreover, there is an underlying belief amongst many people that all religious people are inherently right-wing.

This is a crude stereo-type, and is completely bigoted.

For starters, it must be said that being religious does not inherently mean that a person is right-wing in their politics.

SubhanAllah I’m sure that there are plenty of aethiests running around being bigots. I’m pretty sure that the top 1% of the world’s ruling class don’t worry about praying, sinning, ideas about the after-life, etc. I’m pretty sure that the top 1% only really care about staying in power, staying rich, and crushing the working class at every opportunity.

Mash’Allah One prominent Catholic that was a leader in Latin American liberation struggles was Monseñor Romero. More broadly, “Liberation Theology” was a left-wing Christian ideology that permeated Latin America during the years of jihad (struggle) against the US Empire. This ideology still exists and is still widely followed and supported in Christian communities around the world.

Alhamdulillah, Socialism and socialist movements and tendencies also have a long history in the Middle East, and within Islam; particularly with the spread and entrenchment of colonialism before and after the World Wars. One prominent Islamic Socialist was Brother Hasan Al Banna.

Mash’Allah, one of the most religious communities to develop a strong, organized, and vibrant Left-wing was the Jewish community of Europe and Russia! Most importantly, I would like to point out that there are several kinds of Socialists (Stalinists, Maoists, Trotskyists, etc.), and that I am a Trotskyist.

I mention this for several reasons, but for the purpose of this blog post, I would like to emphasize the Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg were two EXTREMELY important Socialists in world history, and they were Jewish.

Again, I must stress that these were all people that mash’Allah belonged, to one degree or another, to religious communities and/or identities. Their religious community/identity did not prevent them from being left-wing socialists and revolutionaries, in fact for many it reinforced their dedication to the cause of international socialist revolution and the liberation of humanity.

As a sidenote: insh’Allah sometime soon I would like to put up a post about the incredible high levels of Socialist and Anarchist influence on the Jewish communities of Europe and Russia, and how World War II + the Holocaust liquidated Jewish left-wing radicals that were forever a barrier against right-wing zionist ideology.

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Insh’Allah this has helped people realize that being religious is in no way a barrier to Socialist politics and Left-wing ideas.