Michael Jackson and the Muslimania

I’m not sure if you’ve heard the latest that’s rounding the websites; but apparently the self-proclaimed King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has embraced Islam.

Note that I write “apparently” because at the time of this article’s writing, I don’t have any confirmation (or denial) of this apart from a few websites and stupid Emails that people keeping mindlessly forwarding.

And I’d like to take a wide big yawn and ask…so?

Actually, this is not the first time I’m hearing this; MJ was supposed to have become muslim a long time ago when the rumor first came out in the late 90s.
And then the idea died a natural death.

More recently, it was the Indian astronaut Sunita Williams who apparently was supposed to have seen the Masjid al-Har’am and Masjid an-Nabawi as shining stars and immediately became muslim.

And the last of the news I heard before this was about the paparazzi-craving, drug-abused, messed-up, I-will-shave-my-head pop punk Britney Spears who is allegedly in love with her muslim boyfriend and is thinking about “taking up” Islam.

To be completely honest I couldn’t care less about MJ or Britney Spears; mostly because I don’t look up to them as role-models or even put them on the nice-to-know list.
And if I ever have kids, I’d never want them to think they should grow up to be just like Britney or MJ.


Which brings me to my original question:
Why are we so paranoid about celebrities and make a big deal of them becoming muslim?
Are we really that pathetic that we need a Britney Spears or a Michael Jackson to glitter-up an image for Islam?
Do we think people are gonna say, “Okay, if Britney’s doing it, it has to be good; lemme give it a shot too” about Islam?

I don’t think so.

And to prove it, here’s a real example:
MJ’s older brother Jermaine Jackson did become a muslim and this is a fact. This happened in 1989 and his name is now Muhammed Abdul-Aziz.

And yes he has given interviews and the like on his quest for peace - unfortunately I don’t see what this has achieved on the teen-culture front.

And I don’t blame him. As far as I see, the benefits are only individual; and there is nothing to cheer for the masses here.

Because in the end, only YOU will answer for what YOU do…and it’s every man for himself.

WALL-E Inspired!

Its not everyday that you watch a movie that inspires you to do a post on it, but after I popped in the DVD this evening after work and sat back in my recliner, I had a brainstorm!

Wall-E (pronounced "wally", from Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animations) tells the story of a trash-compacting robot named Wall-E who hitches a ride onboard a space probe to Axion - a human colony in space. The people at Axion live in an artificial, almost-virtual world having all the comforts of life and more...so much so that they start losing basic human traits such as the ability to walk.

As the plot unfolds however, the Captain of the Axion comes to realize that this colony was originally intended only as a temporary home (some 700 years earlier) and the original plan had been to return back to earth after 5 years...which had been all but forgotten.

And so, begins the quest to return back to the REAL home, against the odds of the resident robots who refuse to leave the comforts of the now-familiar space home.

And thinking about this story, it strikes me strange...

How different are WE from the humans in this movie - who think of the space home as their permanent home and not once even begin to think that this may all be just a temporary stopover for a little while. People who are so involved with their day-to-day activities of work and food and sleep that they forgot the real purpose they were here, and that they had to go back one day.

Do we really think of ourselves as immortals, to inherit the earth forever? Or do we think that we will never die and go on living?

That Space Station was a temporary home for a specific purpose, and so is ours. They had to go back to their real home one day, and so will we.

It is opening your eyes to what lies beyond the obvious, that is the difficult part.