Archive for February, 2007

02.21.07

CAIR Article Comment

Posted in Personal at 3:41 pm by Abbas

I wrote a letter in response to Parvez Ahmed’s ( board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group) and I received a generic response and I replied again. Here are the set of emails (in order).

A Naqvi
To: pahmed@cair.com
Brother Ahmed
Salaamun ‘akaykum wa rahmatullah,

I first want to commend you for your efforts in trying to bridge the gap and cracks amongst the Muslims, and applaud CAIR for advocating and promoting social justice and peace in the United States.

However, your recent article entitled Politics, Not Faith, Behind Shia-Sunni Divide in Iraq, though may be written with good intentions is offensive to me as a Shi’a Muslim American. I think you over-simplified the issue and situation and have tried to ignore the whole problem altogether. Successorship in regards to the Shi’i is very important and is in fact an article of faith (Imamate) and concluding its soley “political” is very inapproproate and unneccessary. And also the historical “facts” you elude to in your article is contested by other historians.

Your statement

“The historical context was always political and, despite severe disagreements in the past, the conflict never assumed the characteristics it displays today in Iraq: viciousness, indiscriminate killing, and complete disregard for human life.”

is incorrect and undermines a great deal history. Historically, the Shi’a minority have been facing systematic discrimination and persecution from the time of the Ummayads till now.

I hope that my comments do not discourage you from your noble work, but encourage you to have increased dialogue with the Shi’a minonrity, so that as Muslim Americans we become united and stronger in order to initiate change and promote justice for all.

Your Brother,
Abbas Naqvi

Parvez Ahmed

To: A Naqvi

Salaam-

Thank you writing to me.

Shias and Sunnis do have variant readings and interpretations of history. Despite this, Shia and Sunni communities have often united on advancing the major principles of Islam - i.e. monotheism (tawhid), peace, justice, social welfare etc. Even if they do not unite the least each side can do is not demonize the other side and commit violence against each other. It is very disturbing to see what is going on in Iraq everyday.

I do understand and empathize with your views. I am trying to find ways to having an open and constructive dialogue on this matter.

Parvez

Salaams,

If that is the case, which is by the way is not, because there is a consensus amongst the historians and it is fact that the Shi’a minority on numerous occasions have been persecuted and humiliated, in the future please do not make it seem like the only “interpretation,” like it was in your article. Again, I commend you for your efforts to build ties and unity, but in the future please be a bit more cautious, considerate and appreciative.

-Abbas

Grand Canyon Adventure- Part 1

Posted in Personal at 11:28 am by Abbas

The Canyon trip was indeed an adventure. I am inshaAllah going to blog on it. I don’t have time to blog all of it, so I’ll divide it into parts I guess. For the sake of confidentiality I will use fake names (Sam, Albert, Kemp, Abbas, Bernstein). This is not a novel or a story book, so please don’t lecture me on grammar and proper structure (I don’t care- I am just typing it up). Here is part 1.

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We left San Diego right after Fajr time on friday (6am) heading towards Pheonex, so we can meet up with some of our Arizona (SMSA) friends and attend the Al Mahdi program (Dr. Liyakat Takim lectured). Kemp did most of the driving, and I did most of the sleeping - I was very tired, because I barely had any sleep the night before. We talked about all sorts of things (fireworks - they are illegal in Cali, gun-laws in Arizona, Jinns, bears, etc). I didn’t really know much about Pheonex; the only thing I knew was the Suns.

We finally made it and we wanted to look for a cheap motels.

Kemp: I know a ghetto motel.. let me take this exit.
Me: Where is it..
Kemp: Right here.

We look for really cheap motels. We see three of them that are around 40. Then we see one that is 35.00 per night.

Albert: Man, we are going to get STDs in these motels. I am not staying in them.

The pool fence was rusted, the curtains were ripped and the cars parked outside were totalled, so we decided it was not worth it. We started to get hungry, so we went to some halal Arab restaurant to eat. We filled our stomachs and Kemp found a nice little hotel through a friend (since he knew the area). We showered, slept and headed to the masjid. It was in the middle of a residential area but it was pretty roomy and there were a good amount of people from different ethnicities (arab, irani, indopak).

We met up with some friends from Tuscon and Pheonex, some of whom I have never met face to face, but have a relationship through blogging, internet, or business.

We pick up Bernstein and we head out the next morning. Instead of leaving at 6am, we leave at 10, 10:30am (that was a big mistake.. you’ll see why soon). We stop at Walmart and we get 10 or so cans of beans, spinach, and tuna. We get gloves, 0 degree sleeping bags. I wanted the snake bite kit.

Sam: Your a Sayyid.. I thought you couldn’t get killed by snake bite. You can use your sayyid powers!

Me: Just in case…

Anyway, we get our stuff and we hit the road and we get there in a few hours. We stop at some hickish restaurant, while they were having an NRA meeting. We get into the Grand Canyon and we change into our clothes and we prepare ourselves down the hike. We chose the ~24 miles (total - up and down) trail. We were all excited and ready to go.

Grand Canyon (182).JPGGrand Canyon (191).JPG

02.20.07

Interview with Dr. Shahid Alam

Posted in Current Events, Essay at 8:07 pm by Abbas

I recently interviewed Dr. Shahid Alam, the author of “Challenging the New Orientalism.” Here is an excerpt:

Q: After being featured on “Jihad Watch,” being blacklisted by David Horowitz and being accused of being “un-American” by Bill O’Reilly, what was your motivation for publishing the book knowing that you may be putting your academic career at risk?

A: My motivation is the same that I had in writing the essays. I wanted to bring some history and objectivity into the public discourse on relations between the West (including Israel) and the Islamicate world. That was a difficult goal. My essays were carried only on some left-leaning and Islamic websites in the US. I am hoping that publishing them in a book may help to bring my arguments a bit into the mainstream.

My essays have received some adverse attention – even hostile attention. But I have survived, with a few scars. And I am ready for a few more if this helps to advance a better understanding of the world we live in.

Visit Hot Coals for full interview - click here.

02.15.07

Trip

Posted in Personal at 12:29 am by Abbas

Will be going to Pheonex for the masjid program there, inshaAllah on friday and then camping and hiking the Grand Canyon (18 or so miles - don’t ask how I will survive). Hence, I will not be updating ’till I reurn (Monday, inshaAllah).

02.12.07

The Great “Divide”

Posted in Personal at 1:14 am by Abbas

The great Muslim divide has has taken shape in the United States. There was an article (http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/us/04muslim.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26eiQ3D5059Q26enQ3D783e875fdbbd422fQ26exQ3D1171256400Q26partnerQ3DAOLQ26pagewantedQ3Dprint&OP=62eb560fQ2FD9ApDQ3CQ24Q2Az5Q24Q24ByDyZZQ2BDZyDZQ25DQ7CzDZQ25tQ7Cz4ltQ26JBt4) written by Neil MacFarquhar on the NY Times entitled Iraq’s Shadow Widens Sunni-Shiite Split in U.S., where he talks about the tension and discrimination primarily against the Shi’a Muslims. To a certain extend it is true. And to a degree its i true; I can speak for myself and others who face bigotry and intolerance from other Muslims from local masjids and organizations.

Nevertheless, the article has caused a reaction from the acclaimed Sunnipath.com website, an online Sunni academy. The director of the academy went as far as blogging about the article and publicy responded to it (http://blog.sunnipath.com/?p=13).

However, at the end of the day, I think it comes back to the individual. Yes, it’s very important for our establishments to recognize each other compassionately as brothers and sisters in Islam, but our institutions are essentially controlled by our communities and societies, so it ultimately goes hand in hand. We need to recognize the importance of tolerance and compassion as individuals and as established institutions. A very pleasing and satisfying response I read from a Sunni scholar on how to deal with each other was from Shaykh Faraz Rabbani of the Sunni Path Academy and I hope we all follow his advice.

I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.

Yes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with working with other Muslims whom one may have some differences with towards shared goals. Rather, this would be very much in the spirit of the sunna of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).

At the same time, one must understand that the basis of unity and respect is accepting the reality that there are longstanding differences of opinion that cannot be ignored. Thus, “forced unity” where we try to somehow negate the existence of differences simply exacerbates old wounds. Rather, the way forward is to acknowledge that we differ; and to “work around” the differences rather than denying them.

And Allah alone gives success.

It goes in line to my article I wrote on Islamic Unity (http://thenlightenment.whatheblog.com/2006/05/17/islamic-unity-a-commandment-from-god/). We must also keep in mind, upholding Islamic Unity is not a preference, but an obligation.

02.05.07

Soon

Posted in Personal at 3:32 pm by Abbas

InshaAllah, I will return in due-time with regular updates.