Anti-muslim Rally at Ground Zero
I do not want to get into the ground zero mosque arguments, but this video… is scary.
It reminded me of a concert I went to when I was about 18 or 19 studying in the US. I went with a friend who likes heavy metal, I am not into that music, but I went along. I think I was the only non-white person there, and somehow I could feel a few unfriendly stares.
I tried to stand as close as I could to the security guards, and a big white guy kept following me with his eyes, with a lot of anger in them, this was in the early nineties.
The following week, there was a “peaceful” KKK march downtown, which I watched on the news, and that big guy was right there marching with them… yes, after staring at me for what looked like an eternity, I would not mistake him in a police lineup.
I was lucky, as was this guy, those people could’ve made him look like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky in less then a minute.
Pakistan Needs our Help
Twenty million people in Pakistan are in dire need of help.
Thanks to Raed AlSaeed for making this video
Laurence Fishburne’s Daughter
I have to say that Laurence Fishburne is one of my favorite actors, and when I heard that his daughter Montana Fishburne (or her screen name Chippy D) got into porn I was shocked, and when I heard she got into porn to get famous like Kim Kardashian, or in her own words “I’ve watched how successful Kim Kardashian became and I think a lot of it was due to the release of her sex tape”
Her father of course is very upset, no normal father would like this, and where I am from, people kill their offspring for that, but that is not what I want to write about, what I want to write about is the effect of the media machine.
Now the Kim Kardashian sex tape which was about her and her boyfriend was supposedly leaked, i.e, it was a private tape and not made for public viewing (or so they say), Montana’s endeavors are the opposite all together.
The Media Machine
“Fame is the worst drug known to man, It’s stronger than, heroin, When you could look in the mirror like, ‘There I am’ And still not see, what you’ve become” Jay-Z
That is the effect of the media machine, I do not know the intricacies or complications or what she as a young woman had to go through, but from her statement it is obvious she is doing it for fame, and while she could’ve taken the way others have taken to become legitimate and respectable actors, she chose the shortcut.
The New Generation
As a father I follow child psychology a bit, and I was surprised when they said how media has influenced kids lately. It used to be, at least in my generation, that kids wanted to be something in particular, a doctor, an engineer, a policeman, a race car driver, etc. Those were careers, dreams and aspirations. Now, these days they say, when they asked kids what they wanted to be, a big percentage said they wanted to be rich. Rich and Famous. That is it. Montana is an example of that, no one want to work hard anymore.
I do not have Montana’s sex tape, but to keep you all happy, I have embedded the new sex tape by Eva Mendes
King Abdullah and Obama? No it’s Maureen and yo Mama!
Don’t you just love it? King Abdullah and Obama… no, it is Maureen talking bout your mama.
What I loved is how bad the pictures were, I would expect someone of her “expertise on matters” would travel with a better photographer, but that’s just me.
And of course to get more hits, why not call the heading of the post Sex and the Saudis? I mean it should sell, I guarantee you that.
The pictures were staged contradictions, if investigative journalism had the aim to inform and educate, this has failed miserably.
Look at me, I'm so sad I am in Saudi and instead of going to the desert I decided to pose next to a painting in a museum all covered up
But when I did go to the desert to pose with an Arab man, I decided I did not need to cover up
This Saudi man who shall remain nameless (but liked to be called Jack) said he liked "girls with the smell of the United States"
I am not sure about that, you know my friend Fouad AlFarhan found his picture being used for a dating site.
And what is that I see? another picture of them in the desert uncovered? and is that a photographer with a DSLR sitting up there? Wouldn't he let you have any of the pictures?
The thing is, once you buy a DSLR you start noticing them everywhere 
I think I will cover up again and sit on a falic symbol
Oh look, we found a real camel, stop the car, let me cover my hair and take a picture with it
And let me just say they love Obama so much many have named their camels “Barack”. Of course she fails to say that Barrak is the Arabic word for the camel’s sitting action (barrak aljamal = the camel sat), and the word mabrook is derived from a sitting camel, congratulating a person with mabrook means may you have a sitting camel (1000 mabrook, one thousand camels) this of course was before currency and was meant to wish someone wealth.
President Obama’s name is derived from the Arabic “Baraka” which means blessed, close but different, however enough with the Arabic lessons
Even though I am at a private swimming pool, let me wear this silly thing and pose in it
I personally think the burkini is silly, but when you just wear and sit next to a swimming pool (a private swimming pool) to mock those who wear it… well that just says a lot about who you are.
Oh look, can you please wear an Abaya and sit on a stationary bike?
Ok, what is the reason for this photo?
And then there is this, I have no intention of going into the water with this, but I just like to make fun of them, Haha
Yet, in an ancient market not a museum, an old man fixes some traditional head flowers on a girl's head
Could this be a old man marrying a young girl euphemism (hint hint)?
Oh yeah, while at the pool I wore a full cover, yet at the couch I wear short sleeves
Oh yeah, I also wear short sleeves while playing golf while thinking I wish you were Tiger Woods... you know, Tiger Would! 
wink
Where is your Abaya in this picture?
"No Vickies only La Perla" as Diddy said, and notice the boots and the fire extinguisher behind her, just in case things get hot
Well, at the end of the day, after mocking them all, let me just relax and have a cigar, Cuban please
Unlike Big Will when he gets jiggy wit it “ciga-cigar right from Cuba-Cuba, I just bite it, it’s for the look I don’t light it” Maureen had her cigar and lit it.
I am not saying that Saudi does not have a long way to go (as do other places). I am just saying, there are many ways to say something constructive, and none of these were anywhere close to them.
As for now, I’ma just chill, ‘til the next episode.
Please note: I do not disagree with most of what she says, but these pictures (maybe they were for private use, but then again they were discussed on CNN) are mocking a country in a way which reminded me of something once upon a time called blackface.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Speech
This speech is going down in history, Turkey’s PM Erdogan speech responding to Israel’s terrorist attack against humanitarian aid ships “Freedom Flotilla”
Today I do not only want to speak to my dear people but to all of humanity.
I want to call to the conscience and hearts and minds of the whole of humanity, I would like to share courageously my feelings.
Yesterday, in the darkest moment of the night two bloody attacks occurred.
The first of them was the terrorist attack against our military troop at the Iskenderun Naval Base. In this malicious, vicious attack six of our soldiers died, and they have become martyrs. Seven of our soldiers have been injured.
The second, at dawn in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the heart of humanity has taken one of her heaviest wounds in history. The aid ships, from the humanitarian heart, these flowing aid ships have been hindered with guns, by violence, despotism.
They, who with mercy, compassion and humaneness, loaded onto these ships, they could not reach their place of destination, they were wreaked in carnage.
Yesterday, beginning in the morning hours, armed elements of the Israeli Army stopped humanitarian aid being brought to the Gazan people, from more than 32 countries, with 600 people inside carried by the Free Gaza Flotilla, in international waters, in an absolutely illegal way did they attack, spilling the blood of innocent humans.
At this violent attack, resulting in casualties and persons being wounded, the humanitarian aid ships were seized and Read more
Humanitarian Flotilla Bound for Gaza
It is a shame what is happening, I am lost for words. So I am posting this instead.
Bismillah
Sends shivers when you hear it,
regardless of the hardship, we will never ever fear it
Hamdulilah
For your perseverance,
got me feeling blocked up like egypt’s border clearance
Bismillah
May God bless your dead and gone,
we say we undefeated, you say we’re headstrong
Hamdulilah
for the will to believe in life,
if you struggle God loves you man, relieve the strife
Bismillah
Please read Su’rat Yassin
for the purest always fall for the furious I’ve seen
Hamdulilah
to be grateful for your place you never know what
fate will bring us from the hateful.
Bismillah
for the souls anguish love
and the moments our brothers get snuffed out by slugs
Hamdulilah
we see through the politics, when a missile is issued
to kill and follow our kids….
Bismillah
Children have the realest dreams, waking up in cold sweats out in Philistine
Hamdulilah
You could really tell you see, turned the news on, heard they sent shells to scenes
Bismillah
two hours later in Gaza, the floor starting pounding and they felt the Ha’za
Hamdulilah
Hessa the policies lied, when a house was blown to pieces, and an olive tree cried
Bismillah
The ch’thib that move too fast out the mouth of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas
Hamdulilah
We need real leaders instead of fickle beasts wicked streets
cripple beings rippling through the middle East
Bismillah
God while we’re on the subject please cut the strings off our political puppets.
Hamdulilah
bil rooh bil dem when soldiers creep
your men thinking that our souls are cheap speak….
Let the world know that hip-hop is the rock that we bring when we aim our slingshots
Bismillah
The claim you call Israel
and the way you defend it shames Ismaill
Hamdulilah
See we could live together if the cycle of your violence didn’t silence our life with all your rifles
Hamdulilah
Alaikum Alsalam, Arab Jarab when there’s harab man, 3laihum il haram
Hamdulilah
Ta’thamoon lil nas wal hu’ra, we refuse to have anymore Mohammad Al-Durrahs
Song by Narcy, lyrics from leaveyournineathome
A Muslim Miss USA: Bikinis and Bombshells
Mona Eltahawy made an interesting video.
And Wajahat Ali tells it like it is with his analysis of the Sex and the City 2 movie. As I thought, it is not very flattering.
I hope I live to see the day where, like the portrial of Africans in old movies is not played by a white guy who gets painted black (i.e. Blackface).
Last note: did you know that no one from the Middle East is in the new Prince of Persia movie?
Miss USA Rima Fakih
There is this brouhaha (who makes up these words?) about Rima Fakih, the current winner of miss USA, mainly because of where her family comes from, not that I follow any news about beauty pageants (humans… or animals for that matter ) racism gets to stick its ugly head out in these situations.
Now, I would’ve thought people might be a little happy about how a young Arab Muslim woman is assimilated, I mean isn’t that what they want? To be assimilated enough to join (and win) a pole dancing competition? Not that pole dancing is limited to some cultures, I’m just saying… you know…
I’ve written about Haifa Wehbe before and she is also Muslim… devoutness is debatable, for every person who is devout in any religion, you can find many that say he/she are not, so anyway.
However, calling her Miss Hezbollah or that whatever wax job that she needed to remove all her body hair, go wear your burka… this and that… well, that just shows… I mean… I am not an expert on these things, but if that means anything, it just means no matter what people do, some people will never accept them… which reminds me of a line I heard in a Kanye West song “even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga.. in a coupe” referring to how some people still might see a successful black person in America.
Of course those who do not know what goes on in the Arab world do not know that women are not all clad in black everywhere, but then again that is all they see, even when CNBC makes a news report with women in it, they have to include a shot of fully covered women, when it obviously does not have anything to do with the story they were making.
Here is Jad Choueiri in one of his trashy songs (but this time with a message LOL) showing the world we are not all terrorists.
Beauty pageants, being what they are (i.e. fixed, politically motivated, affirmative action, something or the other) or whatever, are not the end of the world, not even Saudi’s Miss beautiful morals
To iterate, they want a ban of face covering, and to free “mozlim women”, and Arabs and Muslims should assimilate into the culture, and for those that do… they still get called names.
Now let me go and play some Louis Armstrong while I wear my rainbow colored glasses.
Women in Saudi Arabia Today
CNBC reported this, and I saw it at Suris
Interesting video, but… did they really have to show women on treadmills and stationary bikes in their full cover? to me, it was a big LOL… but that’s just me
They also inteviewed an interesting writer, Isobel Coleman, who wrote a book called “Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women Are Transforming the Middle East”
Man Rape
You know how, when you read something in the news, and… well… OK, let me start again.
A Saudi man, 28 years old, has been accused of raping a 69 year old man in New York (NY times source), which I have to say goes against my preconceived notions of the older rapes the younger. In court they 28 year old said it was consensual and that he was a “, and to each him own… but what I do not understand is why the Saudi government wanted to bail him out, when in Saudi they put a guy in Jail and sentence him to 1000 lashes for Read more
