Umar Lee

I want to send a special congratulation to my good friend Omar for graduating from Marymount University in Arlington, VA. I know this brother worked long and hard on this and his journey was not easy. He was born in aisle 6 of a C-Town on Fordham Road to a Puerto Rican Vietnam Veteran father and a Turkish mother who is a coinsurer of clocks. This Turkorican attended Walton High School in the Bronx (a school that had a 20% graduation ate at the time) where he learned very little other than his analyzing phenotypes and worked with his Uncle at C-Towns and on vending routes form a young age. Later he traveled down to Northern Virginia and attended the Islamic Institute for Arabic and Islamic Sciences in America to study Islam while going to Northern Virginia Community College part-time where he continued his analyzing phenotypes and was  living with 10 other brothers in a one-bedroom apartment ( half of them being GED dropouts from Philly). He did all of this while working and supporting himself and riding his bicycle all over the DC area ( just as he had done in NYC as a bike messenger) before he received a scholarship to the Islamic University of Medinah. After attending the school for a brief time and almost causing an international incident he came back to the US and attended Marymount and worked many different jobs until last week when he received his degree in history. He now plans to become a teacher and is looking for a job. It was a long road for him but masha’Allah he did it so I am sending him a special congratulations and I guess I will have to take him to a Yankees game or something.

It is important to remember when we are discussing issues of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bias in America that there are real consequences to Islamophobia and they are often felt most by Muslim children. Take this story as an example out of Michigan City, IN where a teacher by the name of John Scheimann was fired after he called a Muslim student’s father a terrorist and made other unsubstantiated claims about the man. The lesson of this is two; number one it is that teachers, doctors, cops, nurses, judges, and many others in positions of relative power over us may listen to right-wing talk radio, read Islamophobic sites, and watch FOX News, and then in turn they will act on the hate they have been filled with often to the most vulnerable, and second we should also recognize that while there are many full of hate there are many others who are not and in this case the system did the right thing.

As I have stated before I have kind of lost interest in the whole Obama-Clinton campaign and the sore loser antics of Hillary. So I did not pay that much attention to the whole Obama-McCain rift over Hamas. What I did catch on the news was the fact that a Hamas spokesman had said that he liked Obama and McCain then used that as a campaign issue saying “it is clear who Hamas supports” and Obama countered saying McCain was losing his bearings which drew charges of playing the age-card.

I did not pay a lot of attention to the whole issue because I did not take it serious. It just seemed like political crap until yesterday when I was watching TV I saw a picture of the Hamas spokesman and it was none other than Dr. Ahmed Yousef a Palestinian brother who used to live in Northern Virginia who I have met and spoke to on many occasions.

Brother Ahmed ran a Palestinian think tank in Northern Virginia by the name of the Universal Association for Studies and Research and was a brother I would see at the masjid quite frequently. Unlike a lot of “Palestine 6^th Pillar” brothers and Arab-Muslim activists he was not only concerned with issues in the Arab World and how the Muslim community in America could be used to bolster their cause. Brother Ahmed was very interested in issues relating to the American-Muslim community and had a particular affinity for African-American Muslims. He had a sophisticated understanding of American and global politics and always framed his arguments in a well-thought out manner.

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There are two pieces from fellow Muslim bloggers and friends I want to draw reader’s attention to. The first is Tariq Nelson issuing the opening argument in the “Masculinity and War on Our Boys” series of posts we are working on. The second is by Marc Manley on his blog and it is a very interesting account of his encounter with the professional Islamophobe-for-profit Irshad Manji at Temple University. This story is a must read that gives a deep insight into what kind of person Manji actually is and the shallow and misinformed nature of her arguments. .

It has come to my attention that the ISNA Zonal Conference will be held from May 24-26 in Baltimore, MD at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center. There are a lot of great speakers planned for this event and it should be worthwhile to attend. I always enjoy attending ISNA-sponsored events no matter where they are held and always enjoy hearing the likes of Altaf Hussein and Abdullah Ali.

However, it has come to my attention that the Hotel Workers at this location are on strike because of the poor conditions under which they work. It is important for the American-Muslim community to stand up as a people that support just causes from people of all faiths and races. A part of the spirit of social justice that Muslims in America need to embrace is in aligning ourselves with organized labor as they strike and negotiate for better conditions and wages for their workers.

The major Muslim organizations led by those such as the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation have also came to this conclusion and held a number of events and seminars in conjunction with the labor movement. A basic part of having solidarity with labor is honoring striking workers by not frequented the companies which they are striking and therefore bringing economic consequences on those being targeted. Crossing a picket line, especially for any organization, is a sign that the struggle of the workers is not important and you see no value in a strike.

That is why it is most unfortunate that ISNA is holdings its event at a hotel that is currently having a strike. As I am writing this I am trying to find out more details; but if the strike is still ongoing and ISNA goes forward with this conference I will be very disappointed. If the strike is resolved this is a non-issue; but if it appears that this picket line will be crossed by ISNA then I will encourage all readers who are about the rights of workers to make their displeasure heard. And, to give credit it where it is due, if ISNA does the right thing in the event the strike is ongoing I will be the first to sing their praises. I am still seeking more info.

(Photo by Marc Manley)

Closure to the Burqa Bandits

I am tired of hearing about the so-called “burqa bandits” and the controversy surrounding the refusal to burry them by the Germantown Masjid. And as Imam Luqman Ahmed stated in his email that people need to be quiet unless they know what they are talking about and leave this to people who know the community to discuss and imams (I agree with the first part and almost all of what he said and respect that brother a lot, meaning you should know before you comment, but disagree on the second half as at least half of the imams in America couldn’t tell their butt from a hole in the ground). I am also tired of people blaming this solely on the Salafi community as if there was no crime in Philly before the Salafis and there were no Muslims movements with a lot of criminality in them before, those who believe that have selective memories, and I could challenge you on that but need not do so.   So, I am going to leave this alone and as a matter of fact I am tired of hearing about it.

Mothers Day Thoughts

I hope many of my readers did not get suckered into observing this un-Islamic holiday designed for the benefit of card companies, chocolate makers, and florists. Every day is Mothers Day. My grandmother called me on Saturday saying she was waiting on my call the next day and I called her back in the chilly Philly weather from Rittenhosue Square waiting on a brother and said “you do not need a day you are special everyday and this is a holiday with no meaning and that is my gift to you; stop observing this meaningless celebration”.  In this same manner I do not observe any holiday to commemorate any person, past or present, if you truly love this person they do not need a special day.

Our Boys

 Along with my friends Tariq Nelson and Rasheed Moore I am going to begin writing a series of pieces on the feminization of the Muslim male, Muslim movements promoting or turning a blind-eye to this,  the miseducation of our boys, the anti-boy sentiment in public schools, and the infiltration into the Muslim community of these feminist anti-male attitudes (primarily being introduced by Muslim women and males educated in the system here and giving the thoughts of social scientists supremacy over the teachings of Islam).

Hezbol-

I do not like to talk about things going on outside of America that do not directly effect us here; but I am concerned about the instability and violence being spread by the group that calls itself Hezbollah in Lebanon and their targeting of Sunnis and Christians. Unfortunately I have heard many Sunnis here, who would be Hezbollah targets there, applauding their recent acts of vigilantism.

I have been reminded by my elder of Islam and life in Philly of something that I had overlooked regarding the Muslim brothers who robbed a bank dressed in niqaab and then killed a Philly cop. He told me what I should have thought of off top and that is the fact that this action first and foremost (besides from its obvious criminality) put Muslim women in jeopardy. Sisters will now be looked at with suspicion and maybe even be asked to remove their niqaabs in some places. This was not only a crime against the state but a crime against our Muslim sisters who we are supposed to be the protectors of. It is already hard for sisters to wear the niqaab ( and May Allah reward them for their dedication to the sunnah and rejection of false desires) and for sisters who wear hijab ( May Allah reward them as well). Prison Muslims forming gangs on the street do not need to make things harder on them. I have also included this photo of the cross-dressing Muslim and maybe his taste for women’s clothes was something that was picked up while in the joint.

For the last several weeks I have been real tired of this election process and have been paying less and less attention to it. After last night however and the all but certainty that Sen. Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for the Presidency I am once again enthused.  As I have stated before I am an Obama supporter. Contrary to what some on Islamophobic websites have stated my support for Obama has nothing to do with the fact that his father was a Muslim. I support Obama because I believe that he represents a real change in American politics and to the ideals of where a president can come from and what he should look like.

Race has been the central issue in American public life since this nation was founded and to have a black man in the Presidency of the United States will make a strong statement about where the nation is and what it can aspire to. It will send an image of America to the world, which is mostly non-white, as an open and diverse nation in contrast to the phony John Wayne image that Bush likes to portray.

This is not just about Obama and his blackness. This is also about who he has been as a man. This is a man from humble middle-class roots, who lived in Indonesia as a child, is an Ivy League grad yet worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, and is married to a black woman from the South Side. Yesterday on TV Mitt Romney made fun of his background as an organizer; but to me it is one of the best things about Obama. When guys like Romney laid people off men like Obama stood up to help them when they could have been getting rich.

On the core issues that Americans care about the most; the economy, health-care, education, and the war Obama has the best stance on the issues. Is he perfect? No, he is not and no politician is and anyone looking for perfection in politics and is more than two years removed from college needs to grow-up.  I also vote first and foremost for issues right here in America and who will be best for me, my family, and the people closest to me. I do not expect a Palestinian in Gaza to think of what is best for Americans when they head to the polls and I do not think of them before my family. Issues in the Muslim World and ending the war in Iraq are important and need to be dealt with in a better way by America but those issues take a backseat to me to what is going on right here. I want to know who is going to help get ex-offenders jobs, who is going to bring us universal health-care, who is going to make education more equitable and relevant, and who can bring people of all races and religions together.

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AsSalamuAlaykum, below you will find the email that was sent to two attorneys regarding my wife ( this letter is from brother Sulayman and it is not my wife but his) and the way that she was treated while in the custody of the Washington DC Metropolitan Police.

I’m sending this email to you all because on May 14th the PSA (Police Service Area) 607 will be having their monthly meeting. We are asking that we all attend this meeting in full representation of the Muslim Community. We have to show the powers that be that we have a voice and situations like this will not be tolerated. In the SE part of Washington DC you not only have more Hispanics and Caucasians but you are now seeing more Muslims and our Police Department needs to be more culturally sensitive and aware that we are all not the same and therefore shouldn’t be treated as such. Especially when they have special police units that cater to the Gay http://www.gllu.org/ and Asian, Pacific Islander Communities http://apia.dc.gov/apia/cwp/view,A,3,Q,525689.asp

The Prophet SALLALLAHOU ALAYHI WASALLAM advised us to change any situation with our hands, then with our voice, and then at least abhor it in our hearts. With this being said let’s begin to make a change in the system so that the next sister, be it you or someone else will not have to go through this same ordeal. Let them see us and let them hear how we feel about this situation.

InShaAllah please attend this meeting and if you can’t forward this request to a brother and/or sister that can. Lastly, but not least make Du’a for us and if you have any questions and/or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Meeting Details:

PSA 607 Monthly meeting

When: May 14th, 2008 @ 7:00pm

Where: Sixth District Substation
2701 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20019
Phone: (202) 698-2088

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If you are a Muslim writer Philly is the gift that keeps on giving. In the latest episode of Muslim madness in Philly it seems as if some guys have allegedly dressed up in niqaab  robbed a bank killing  police officer Sgt. Steven Liczbinski  in the aftermath while one was killed by a cop (and apparently they are all Muslim). Of course their idea is not unique I have heard brothers talking about such a thing for years but these guys finally did it. Local Muslim leaders interviewed, including those at the Germantown Masjid, are outraged that robbers would hide behind niqaab and have fully condemned this.

The City of Philly is now hot and officers are turning the city upside down and harassing Muslim brothers looking for the last suspect who is still at large. So, if I were a young black Muslim male in Philly, I would be real careful when I get pulled over ( See this). We know how the police act when one of their own gets killed and we know how the media blows the case up and makes the dead officer look like Mother Teresa (even if he was more like Al Capone with a badge and of course no such coverage is given to those who are killed by police) so we all need to be careful about what we do and how we do it so that it does not bring harm upon our families and the community.

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