My dear brothers (although I think you have lost the right to be called my brothers). Therefore I will re-address you.
Dear Enemies of Islam and Enemies of the World:
I am writing this letter to you with great disappointment and despondency. In Islam, despondency is considered a sin but I am despondent due to your actions and the nature in which you have behaved toward the world and how you have behaved toward our country. I say our country because Canada is our country. Mine and yours and for all those who live here.
Whatever you may say about your “mother country” and “back home” and “where the heart is” and all those idioms and adages, the fact is that you are now living here, IN CANADA, and by far, this is considered your home.
For sure that is the truth for me. This country, Canada, is my home and you have been accused with the intentions of violating and harming my country and my home.
I speak in general for most minority immigrants. We came to this country with a hope and vision for the future - A vision of a better future, a secure future and a better life. Most of us have had to work hard, doing jobs (jobs that in our countries of origin, servants would do). But we persevered. We persevered because hard work never hurt any one and time and time again we have been shown that with hard work, tenacity and perseverance, one can accomplish anything.
Some of us have had to lie to our families that we were doing really well and that we were living full lives while we were actually struggling and living like paupers, in the beginning.
For others, the struggle still continues. We struggle to survive, the struggle to do things we have never done before, the struggle to integrate without disintegrating, the struggle with children to maintain culture and traditions and to protect them from the negative influences of social vices and most of all the struggle to live without getting caught up in the constant materialism and “living up to the Jones’.”
Thanks to you and your evil intentions, this struggle has just become more difficult.
Canada is a land of immigrants. All Canadians are from immigrant backgrounds.. Everybody has lived through the struggle of survival. The latter generations reaped the benefits of the struggles of the former generations.
While Muslims, Indians, Africans, Europeans, Asians and people of other ethnic backgrounds and religions have had to work harder, be smarter, more efficient and have had to prove themselves over and over again, most survived and new immigrants of similar backgrounds aspired to be like them. New immigrants learned from the mistakes of the older immigrants and the older immigrants provided the support system that the new immigrants needed.
The trust in the Muslim communities was shattered with 9/11 and other acts of terrorism around the world. The media and the entertainment world have not helped by portraying Middle Eastern people as terrorists. Not all Middle Eastern people are Muslims and not all Muslims are terrorists.
We survived by informing people, educating people and most of all by example that showed that Islam was a religion of love and peace and, just as not all sparkling wines are Champagnes, not all Muslims are terrorists, not all African American people are drug pushers, not all Italians are mafia and not all Russians are part of the Russian mob.
You have successfully ruined all efforts that previous and present generations have put into the acceptance of the Muslim communities. Not only have you made us to be wrong but all the trust that the Muslim communities have worked so hard to establish, is like water down the toilet. The constant struggle for equality that we have demanded, fought for and achieved and the fact that we could walk side by side with the “White Canadians” with our heads held high with pride and bask in the glory of the small achievements, has all been ruined by your nasty, intentions of terrorism in this country - the country that opened its arms and embraced your communities, your families and yourselves.
We, the minority immigrants, are the envy of those who do not qualify to come and live here. You, who have that right, have abused it and ruined it for everyone else because your actions have led the whole minority culture to be re-judged and misjudged and of course your actions will now cause the rest of the genuine brothers and sisters who may qualify to come to Canada, to be examined with extra scrutiny.
The most upsetting fact is that while honest people go through gruesome scrutiny and are treated like criminals because of the likes of you and your actions, it is people like you that enter the country posing as honest citizens, with nothing but evil intentions that your religion forbids.
So, it is thanks to you and your kind that disunity exists within the Islamic world. You and only you, guided by some disgruntled and delusional leaders are responsible for anti-Islamic and inhuman behaviour toward the rest of the world.
To be inhuman is to be un-Islamic and you have by far surpassed that.
Your leaders say that you are innocent until proven guilty. I say you are guilty by your intent. In the eyes of the minority population of Canada, you are guilty of shattering our past efforts and our future, of shattering our dream, of destroying our lives.
By that very action, you are guilty.
I wonder if the rest of Canada will really believe that the seventeen of you, (two of whom are already in jail) were working on a gardening project with your three tons of explosive material. I wonder if anyone will believe your fairy tales about how sweet and innocent you are while you pervert God’s words to justify violence.
If you are so intent on killing and destroying, I suggest that you start with your own homes and your families. Destroy your homes and mutilate your families so that you can understand what it is like to have that happen. Destroy your families so that they can be spared the embarrassment and shame of having you as children who do the opposite of what Islam and all other Religions preach.
Fear not Jihadists,(you should look up the true meaning of Jihad) the gates of hell are opened wide and are awaiting your arrival while the rest of us work harder to correct the damage you have caused.
Your lawyers are vying for the public’s sympathy and trying to sway us off-track by making comments about ill treatment and abuse. Even if they were true, why didn’t you think of all the ill treatment and abuse that you were going to impose upon the people and citizens of Canada, some of them even your people?
In the Holy Koran, the Geeta and the Bible in some form or the other, it is said that all actions will reap reactions. Well, you sowed the seeds of injustice, and now it is only fair that you reap the fruit.
I would like to re-affirm my vows to re-pledge my family and myself to love and protect Canada and all Canadians; and if it means disengaging from the likes of you that are bent on doing the opposite, then so be it. I am sure I am not alone.
Sincerely,
A heavy-hearted, grief-stricken and highly disappointed Muslim (I neither have the heart nor the intention of calling myself your brother).
P.S. I am a jihadi too but unlike you, I dedicate my life to preserving life and struggle to increase love, acceptance and tolerance.
The true meaning of Jihad is struggle. What you were going to do is no struggle. It is in fact against the very principles of Islam.
What the hell is happening to advertising?
Is it just me or has the marketing industry and in particular, the advertisements, gone bananas?
It almost seems like the ads on TV need to be rated before they air –
M for Moron, I for Incomprehensible and SS for Stupendously Stupid.
It is truly amazing and amusing.
It is not all of the ads but most of them leave me guessing as to what the message of the ad and what the product actually is.
I may not be a marketing expert but it seems to me that the whole point of advertising is to bring awareness to the uninformed and to convince them that they need to get or use the product.
Well half the time, the ads are offensive and the other half they appeal to some moronic level of intelligence which I refuse to believe, even exists.
Maybe it does.
Maybe the level of the intelligence has gone to the dogs (and yet dogs are intelligent) and the stupid, moronic human shown in ads appeals to the same in our population. Since the bottom line and desired outcome of the ad is to increase sales, I guess, the ad companies are appealing to an intellectually challenged population who like to see shreds of paper on a bear’s behind or men sitting and panting like dogs and being made to be ignorant and stupid.
Of course, the truth does not matter. As said on the X Files – “...........The truth is out there".
Nobody really tells the truth where consumables are concerned. They just want you to spend your hard earned money. After all the whole point is to make money and tuth, does not make money.
It is the illusion of the implied, the true meaning of which is unknown, even to the marketers themselves.
What is the world becoming?
It almost seems like the ads on TV need to be rated before they air –
M for Moron, I for Incomprehensible and SS for Stupendously Stupid.
It is truly amazing and amusing.
It is not all of the ads but most of them leave me guessing as to what the message of the ad and what the product actually is.
I may not be a marketing expert but it seems to me that the whole point of advertising is to bring awareness to the uninformed and to convince them that they need to get or use the product.
Well half the time, the ads are offensive and the other half they appeal to some moronic level of intelligence which I refuse to believe, even exists.
Maybe it does.
Maybe the level of the intelligence has gone to the dogs (and yet dogs are intelligent) and the stupid, moronic human shown in ads appeals to the same in our population. Since the bottom line and desired outcome of the ad is to increase sales, I guess, the ad companies are appealing to an intellectually challenged population who like to see shreds of paper on a bear’s behind or men sitting and panting like dogs and being made to be ignorant and stupid.
Of course, the truth does not matter. As said on the X Files – “...........The truth is out there".
Nobody really tells the truth where consumables are concerned. They just want you to spend your hard earned money. After all the whole point is to make money and tuth, does not make money.
It is the illusion of the implied, the true meaning of which is unknown, even to the marketers themselves.
What is the world becoming?
MEDITATION
Here’s a meditation I received in my in-box that seems pertinent to today’s material living from
Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote ... Jonathan Lockwood Huie -Insights for living simply; an Inspired Life.
We turn today to one of my favorite Russian writers. Feodor Dostoyevsky, who keenly points out...
Wealth is the number of things one can do without.
I don't know about you, but as I grow older (I'm 58 years old as I write these words) I have less and less interest in all the stuff I've bought, borrowed, or inherited during my years on this ball of dirt.
I mean, seriously, I could give away just about everything I own and never miss most of it for more than a few minutes.
I don't know if that's the slumbering mystic in me trying to get out of work so I can move to a mountain top and contemplate my navel for the rest of my days or if it's a serious aberration of some sort that's causing me to reject the American habit of constantly accumulating more and more stuff.
Honestly, though, I really do yearn for a day when I can live very simply with little more than the basic needs of life.
Well, let's meditate on Dostoyevsky's observation this coming week and see where it takes us.
Breathe in your stuff... hold... then breathe it out and let it go, completely.
Really let it go........................................................................
I recently heard.................................................
.......................A quote by Florence Foster Jenkins, a soprano of the forties.
"I am aware that people say I can't sing. But nobody can say that I didn't sing".
"I am aware that people say I can't sing. But nobody can say that I didn't sing".
Love & Forgiveness
It is truly amazing how we come down on celebrities when they falter.
I guess there is nothing surprising about it because this is the kind of society we have become.
Like none of us has ever faltered in our life.
What have we become?
We have transformed into a very unforgiving and fickle society. The media, television and movies have helped to turn us into a society that is too quick to condemn, too quick to judge, too quick to sentence and too quick to sever ties - be that of love, loyalty or just a fan-club.
When Michael Jackson was accused of child molestation, every radio station I know boycotted his music. There was not one positive thing being said about him at that time. At the time of his death and after, nobody could stop talking about him and how he was the greatest showman on earth, and he really was the greatest showman on earth. But news sells. Sensationalised news sells even more, be it positive or negative.
Now the wrath of humans is on Tiger Woods.
With celebrities, for sure they are role models. But we also revere and respect them for what they do - their sport, their music, their acting or writing. What they do in their personal lives is really their business. As our former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has, very aptly said “What goes on in people’s bedrooms is nobody’s business but their own”.
Unfortunately, it is not unusual that celebrities will err - too much money, too much power, too much pride. However, it is not up to us to condemn them. It is up to their families to condemn or forgive them but since the media propagates this constant barrage of hate and condemnation, the families are led and influenced towards a negative outcome. What a pity!
It is not the negative that governs who we are and what we do but how we come out of the negative, to learn from it and grow from it. Be it with celebrities or in our daily lives, we are just too quick to pass judgment and condemn rather than learn from the mistakes and make the relationships stronger and the futures brighter.
To err is human and to forgive is divine. How many times have we heard that? We may not be aiming for divinity but there is not one person on this earth that has not erred. We have all erred in our ways many many times.
So then why are so quick to judge and condemn in the case of Tiger Woods?
We need to learn to live our lives knowing that mistakes will be made, that upsets will happen and that there will be negative situations in our lives, while not letting these negative situations govern the outcomes of our lives. Life cannot be measured by the negativities but how we come out of the negative, forgiving the people we love, asking for forgiveness from the people we love and continuing to grow and striving to become better.
Not just for the new year, in the spirit of giving, but for the rest of the year and for the rest of our lives, it is important that we learn to forgive, not ignore, not condemn, not judge, but forgive each other, our spouses, our children, our parents, our neighbors and most of all, ourselves so that we can get on with matters that are more important in life like love, admiration, generosity, kindness, integrity and brotherhood.
I guess there is nothing surprising about it because this is the kind of society we have become.
Like none of us has ever faltered in our life.
What have we become?
We have transformed into a very unforgiving and fickle society. The media, television and movies have helped to turn us into a society that is too quick to condemn, too quick to judge, too quick to sentence and too quick to sever ties - be that of love, loyalty or just a fan-club.
When Michael Jackson was accused of child molestation, every radio station I know boycotted his music. There was not one positive thing being said about him at that time. At the time of his death and after, nobody could stop talking about him and how he was the greatest showman on earth, and he really was the greatest showman on earth. But news sells. Sensationalised news sells even more, be it positive or negative.
Now the wrath of humans is on Tiger Woods.
With celebrities, for sure they are role models. But we also revere and respect them for what they do - their sport, their music, their acting or writing. What they do in their personal lives is really their business. As our former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has, very aptly said “What goes on in people’s bedrooms is nobody’s business but their own”.
Unfortunately, it is not unusual that celebrities will err - too much money, too much power, too much pride. However, it is not up to us to condemn them. It is up to their families to condemn or forgive them but since the media propagates this constant barrage of hate and condemnation, the families are led and influenced towards a negative outcome. What a pity!
It is not the negative that governs who we are and what we do but how we come out of the negative, to learn from it and grow from it. Be it with celebrities or in our daily lives, we are just too quick to pass judgment and condemn rather than learn from the mistakes and make the relationships stronger and the futures brighter.
To err is human and to forgive is divine. How many times have we heard that? We may not be aiming for divinity but there is not one person on this earth that has not erred. We have all erred in our ways many many times.
So then why are so quick to judge and condemn in the case of Tiger Woods?
We need to learn to live our lives knowing that mistakes will be made, that upsets will happen and that there will be negative situations in our lives, while not letting these negative situations govern the outcomes of our lives. Life cannot be measured by the negativities but how we come out of the negative, forgiving the people we love, asking for forgiveness from the people we love and continuing to grow and striving to become better.
Not just for the new year, in the spirit of giving, but for the rest of the year and for the rest of our lives, it is important that we learn to forgive, not ignore, not condemn, not judge, but forgive each other, our spouses, our children, our parents, our neighbors and most of all, ourselves so that we can get on with matters that are more important in life like love, admiration, generosity, kindness, integrity and brotherhood.
A sample chapter from my upcoming book - 'I Have Good News and Bad News'
When I was younger I had issues with the world. I wanted to do something to make the world a better place. I wanted to be a better person myself. I had aspirations and dreams. I wanted to be a writer, an actor, a teacher, a chef, and even considered being a flight attendant. I just wanted to make the world a better place
I used to be as emotional as I am now. Come to think of it, it was probably the beginnings of my Multiple Sclerosis and nobody could diagnose it correctly. I would lose my temper easily, and was considered ‘an angry young man’. I do not know why I was so angry but I was. I had a wonderful upbringing with extended families and cousins that were (and still are) like siblings. I was still a very angry teenager. I was also sick, which ranged from anemia to hypoglycemia to getting malaria very often.
Whenever I was upset, I would run into the mosque and pray for strength. I would cry and pray for a miracle. Miracles are subjects for myths.
My parents were not wealthy and could not afford expensive schools or universities. They also spoiled me lots and loved me lots and we had great times together. I wouldn’t change anything. Ultimately, it was up to me how I turned out. Was I going to play the eternal victim and blame it on missed opportunities and what could have been? Or was I going to be a master of my own circumstance and destiny? I chose the latter. Not conscientiously but instinctively – To be the best you can, using the resources you have. That was what I believed then and that is what I believe today.
Now I have Multiple Sclerosis. How am I going to lead my life? Am I going to be a victim? Or am I going to be a master of my circumstance?
Religion has taught me “Be true to your self” and “Honor yourself”.
If ever I needed an answer to the question, “Why me?” it would be now.
Why not me?
Am I going to be a victim by even asking “Why me”? Or am I going to take the bull by the horns and be a master of my circumstance?
Well I am not a master of circumstance, as such. But, I can certainly accept things and continue doing my best, being my best and let nature and this illness take its course.
As much as I am an idealist, I like to think that I am more a realist who lives in the present world under my present conditions, whatever those conditions may be.
So why not take the bull by the horns? And if he has no horns, then grab him by the ears.
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is that I am having a hard time with my illness and the future looks dark and bleak. I cannot help but think the worst.
The good news is that I am not a quitter. I still do my best at everything I do and I now have to set a new pace. I need to contemplate less and do more - read more and write more - live more. I have made some adjustments that are required and I will re-invent my life, if I have to. I have people that love me so much, it is quite amazing. If I were to die tomorrow, I can say I have had an amazingly fulfilling and love-filled life but I am not about to give up and die.
So it is not just taking the one bull by the horns, I have the whole bloody herd by the bloody horns………..for now.
That is the great news…………for now.
I used to be as emotional as I am now. Come to think of it, it was probably the beginnings of my Multiple Sclerosis and nobody could diagnose it correctly. I would lose my temper easily, and was considered ‘an angry young man’. I do not know why I was so angry but I was. I had a wonderful upbringing with extended families and cousins that were (and still are) like siblings. I was still a very angry teenager. I was also sick, which ranged from anemia to hypoglycemia to getting malaria very often.
Whenever I was upset, I would run into the mosque and pray for strength. I would cry and pray for a miracle. Miracles are subjects for myths.
My parents were not wealthy and could not afford expensive schools or universities. They also spoiled me lots and loved me lots and we had great times together. I wouldn’t change anything. Ultimately, it was up to me how I turned out. Was I going to play the eternal victim and blame it on missed opportunities and what could have been? Or was I going to be a master of my own circumstance and destiny? I chose the latter. Not conscientiously but instinctively – To be the best you can, using the resources you have. That was what I believed then and that is what I believe today.
Now I have Multiple Sclerosis. How am I going to lead my life? Am I going to be a victim? Or am I going to be a master of my circumstance?
Religion has taught me “Be true to your self” and “Honor yourself”.
If ever I needed an answer to the question, “Why me?” it would be now.
Why not me?
Am I going to be a victim by even asking “Why me”? Or am I going to take the bull by the horns and be a master of my circumstance?
Well I am not a master of circumstance, as such. But, I can certainly accept things and continue doing my best, being my best and let nature and this illness take its course.
As much as I am an idealist, I like to think that I am more a realist who lives in the present world under my present conditions, whatever those conditions may be.
So why not take the bull by the horns? And if he has no horns, then grab him by the ears.
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is that I am having a hard time with my illness and the future looks dark and bleak. I cannot help but think the worst.
The good news is that I am not a quitter. I still do my best at everything I do and I now have to set a new pace. I need to contemplate less and do more - read more and write more - live more. I have made some adjustments that are required and I will re-invent my life, if I have to. I have people that love me so much, it is quite amazing. If I were to die tomorrow, I can say I have had an amazingly fulfilling and love-filled life but I am not about to give up and die.
So it is not just taking the one bull by the horns, I have the whole bloody herd by the bloody horns………..for now.
That is the great news…………for now.
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