Ban me

I like to talk about stuff that keeps happening to me; so here’s something that never seizes to amaze me; it goes something like this:
“The Kaffirs have made a fake Quran and are selling it online to innocent muslims worldwide. Here’s the link (and then a ridiculous link), please do not go to this site, forward this to as many muslims as you can!”

Dude, I missed the point here.
Like, if you didn’t want us to go there, why’d you give us the stupid link anyway?

Now, almost everyone I know has a profile on orkut or Facebook or whatever, actively reads Email and chats, carries a mobile phone or two, all in all very tech-savvy but I can’t understand for the life of it how stupid can a guy get?

I mean, if you tell a guy about a lame book and ask him never to read it, rest assured he’s not gonna get to the nearest bookstore and buy it.
But on the net, completely different rules apply. Give a guy a “Do-not-Click” link and chances are, 10 out of 10 people are gonna click on it 1) because they can or 2) to see it for themselves.
Which is exactly what we’re trying to stop. Everyone knows how easy it is to set up a site. Its getting people to visit that’s the hard part. And by providing a link, you’re indirectly supporting their cause and giving them the publicity they wanted in the first place.

So the next time some person sends you a bad link and asks you not to go there, don’t forward that to everyone…tell the guy what this is all about.

Eid and Isolated

Oh boy, first post, and I’m all excited.
Not like I want to start off with on a down note, but seeing as it happens to be Eid right now (give or take a day or two, depending on your geography) I thought I’d write on what the Festival of Sacrifice really means.

Not the conceptual aspect of it – I guess every Islamic site on the web has all the details – but on what it really means to us as a community and the individual.

And to be quite blunt:
At least this year, it hardly meant anything to me at all.
During Eid-ul-Fitr a couple of months ago, I didn’t even know it was gonna be Eid the next day till after I managed to get it across with the people at the mosque (in a colorful mix of broken Arabic and German)
And the next day, when I went for the Eid prayer and Khutbah I was the only guy who was, well, the only guy. I didn’t know another Muslim for miles. (make that a couple of hundred miles, at the least)
After which I came back from the mosque and got back to work just like any other day.

I don’t know how many people face this but I guess we might have something of an identity crisis on our hands.

I sit here now, making plans for my ‘weekend’ – a Sunday, and about me and the guys who’ve planned on a trip during the ‘Christmas holidays’.
All this is fine, except that Christmas isn’t my holiday. And neither is New Year.

I am reminded of this every time I walk the streets here this ‘holiday’ season, and see all those colorful Christmas trees all over the malls. Every time I hear the carols, every time I see the mistletoe and every time I read a “Merry Christmas”.

And realize, this isn’t just about a festival. It’s about a way of life. And this, what we choose to lead, becomes our way of life. It’s called Islam and we have own festivals to think about.

Wishing you all a very blessed Eid-ul-Adha!