Ginny’s Thoughts & Things

courant.com | Muslim Campground Raided, But Why?

A Tennessee-based blog called “Ginny’s Thoughts and Things” also seeks answers about the East Haddam raid: “I’m totally confused on this one. Could someone

explain this to me?”

Assalamu alaikum, yep I was quoted! And to think how strange my day was going yesterday! I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone, as it was, and to have my blog quoted! I sure didn’t expect it! I mean, if my blog was going to be quoted, I thought they would have quoted something, I don’t know, more profound? Like maybe something more than “can someone explain this to me?” Kinda makes me sound like an airhead. Which maybe I am to some extent.

But the way yesterday was going, the only thing more weird or strange than having my blog quoted by a newspaper would be to have had my ex-husband all of a sudden resurface in my life, without warning, to proclaim how much he messed up, and send me all the receipts for the cost of all the intensive counselling sessions he’d gone to in order to deal with his abusiveness. And / or to have one or more upright and pious men come and tell me how unfailingly pious / religious he’s become and what a good Muslim he is. And how much he wants me back in his life! But then again, if that were to ever happen, I think I’d truly be afraid, because the day that happens is the day it snows in July in Senegal, and if it were to ever snow in July in Senegal, then I’d truly be afraid that the Last Hour is truly upon us! Subhanallah! But even if he were to try to come back in my life, I just wouldn’t want him! He’d have to go and bring me the moon and maybe a few stars thrown in for good measure before I’d even consider even remotely dealing with him again! And we all know that is impossible! I mean, my life has become so much better without him in it, in so many ways! And to think he said I’d never succeed without him! OK, enough of that! Astaghfirullah! I did not plan to make this blog a place for me to vent about past wrongs done to me by people! May Allah forgive me!

But I have been thinking a lot about how much better my life has gotten since my divorce, and to think, sometimes I actually had moments where I thought maybe I was better with him! Maybe I’d never succeed! This just truly goes to show that Allah truly takes care of people, that He is in control, not some mere man who beats blind women! Allahu Akbar! Allah truly is Most Merciful, Most Kind! And is that thunder I’m hearing? OK, gotta go! Or else I might be making dua for a new computer, because this one’s gotten zapped by lightning.

Bill Bennett: “[Y]ou could abort every black ba … [Media Matters]

Assalamu alaikum / greetings, got the above link from Ousman’s blog Just wanted to give credit. Is anyone else talking about this? Is anyone in the “mainstream” news media talking about this? I haven’t listened to any kind of news today except for NPR on the way home and they did not mention it, at least not in the time I was listening.

Nightmare for African Women: Birthing Injury and Little Help - The New York Times

Assalamu alaikum, before the “developed world” wasn’t so developed, I’d imagine that this was also a problem, too. This reminds me of the hadith that paradise is at the feet of the mothers. When you think of all women throughout history have had to go through to carry a child to term, give birth to them, and raise them, Subhanallah! Also, Islamically, isn’t there something somewhere which says that if a woman dies while giving birth that she will be a martyr or something like that? I couldn’t even imagine having something like a fistula, and then be in the position of not being able to get it fixed. Subhanallah, I can try to imagine, but imagining isn’t like suffering from something like this! And you don’t only suffer from the physical affects of a fistula but also the emotional / societal affects, because of how people treat you.

Assalamu alaikum, as I’ve said in previous posts / comments, on my first post on race and racism, I really don’t think I dealt with the subject in an adequate way. Racism / prejudice is a very complex subject, and racism can come in many forms, and racism doesn’t just have to be in horrifying images of men in white sheets running around lynching people. A case in point is a quote from Bill Bennett where he says that the crime rate would go down if every black baby was aborted. Huh? Now how can that not be racist? I’d sure like to hear how Sean Hanity or Rush Limbaugh would spin this one. Oh, I take that back, no I wouldn’t. I can’t stand any more than about 5 minutes listening to those two, and if I have to suffer through them in the car with my dad on the way home, out come the dhikr beads and I launchin to mad dhikr, just so I can drown them out!

As I’ve said before on this blog, or maybe I haven’t, but, this whole issue of racism has fascinated / angered / I don’t know what else, ever since I relized that said issue existed! I mean, for me, the concept of color itself is a hard enough thing for me, someone who has never seen it, to understand. And what is more, it’s harder for me to understand even more how the color of one’s eyes or hair doesn’t really matter so much, but yet the color of one’s skin has come to mean so much! I’d really like for you sightlings ( just kidding ), to explain that one to me! And though many have tried, I can understand color in the abstract sense, like I know it’s there, but because I’ve never seen it, I don’t think I’ll ever quote understand it.

Maybe that’s why I don’t understand racism. Maybe that is why I don’t understand why anyone would make such a preposterous statement as to suggest that aborting black babies would reduce the crime rate in this country! Or that one race, because of skin color is superior to other races. Or, what would possess a group of men to go and terrorize unsuspecting people, for no other reason than they are black. Or, well, I could go on. I just don’t get it.

Or what would cause people to engage in economic, social, and other practices that put people of color at the bottom of the economic and power structure.

The thing is, prejudice and racism still exist in this country, at least, in a big way. And my previous post on racism was in no way trying to say that it didn’t. But at the same time, there is a difference between prejudice and racism. And while there are still many racist and prejudiced people in this world, their actions and words should call them out as such, not just merely because they happen to be of a certain color. what I’m saying is that when people look at me, I don’t want to be automatically assumed to be some kind of racist or whatever, before you’ve even sat down and talked to me, simply because I’m white. To me, that is terribly unfair.

Now, if I were to go around making the sorts of statements that Bill Bennett is making, then it would be a different story.

Another thing that I’ve often wondered about is who can or cannot be a racist? If racism merely means the feeling of superiority of one race over another, then I’d say anyone who feels that one race is superior to another can be a racist. However, if you feel that racism not only supposes that one holds one race as superior to another but also the ability to enforce that superiority, I guess you could say, then I’d say that no, at this time, being that white people are at the top of the political and economic structure, then other races and ethnic groups cannot be racist.

On the other hand, however, anyone can be prejudiced. White people don’t have a monopoly on prejudice. Just to cite a few examples, I’ve seen prejudice exhibited from all types of people, from the white person who thinks black people are violent or lazy or whatever, to all kinds of people who think all Muslims or Arabs are terrorists, to even African-Americans who think most or all Africans are dishonest, though none of the people mentioned above have dealt with Africans, African-Americans, or Muslims, or have never even dealt with said people face to face. They only believe what they’ve been told, or they take one bad experience they’ve had and label all Muslims as such-and-such or all Africans as such-and-such or all black people as such-and-such. I can sort of understand the tendency to do this, but it’s not right.

I just wanted to point out that I’m not so naive to think that racism in this country isn’t alive and well. It’s just taken different, more acceptable, more politically correct forms. So there you go, take what I’vve said for what you think it’s worth.

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Assalamu alaikum, intentional Muslim communities? Hmmm…