Answer to a “Salafi” Brother (Updated)

Assalamu alaikum, yeah, I’m editing my comments. As I said before, perhaps it’s a good thing that the visual captcha kept me from posting my original thoughts on Imam Zaid Shakir’s blog, because they, as well as my original comments on my own blog, were, well, pretty incoherent. I should have put my post in draft form and then posted it once it was a bit more coherent, but anyway.

Basically, the gist of what I wanted to say was that I didn’t find Imam Zaid’s comments altogether earth-shattering. Firstly, he was attempting to answer a series of questions put to him by another person, so it wasn’t as though he just wrote a huge article bashing Ibn Tamiyah (may Allah have mercy on him and all of us). In fact, the post itself answered other questions dealing with tariqas, etc. So it wasn’t just an Ibn Tamiyah-bashing article.

Secondly, I do not know what is the big deal about saying that someone was a controversial figure while still at the same time having the utmost respect for that person. IMHO, if some Muslims can call others “deviant” if not outright “kafir”, and this is *after* the Sunni Unity Pledge, then surely, someone can say that a person is “controversial”, and no one said anything about them being a “disbeliever”, etc. In fact, at the beginning of the article, Imam Zaid said that Ibn Tamiyah was a pious man, etc., but that he had some controversial positions that were not accepted by many people and as a result he was imprisoned for that. If this can be backed up from a historical standpoint, what is wrong with saying that?

It’s as though to some, criticizing Ibn Taymiyah and his work is like criticizing the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself, or the Qur’an and Sunnah, and this is from many of the same people who will do the same, if not worse, to other Muslims! And IMHO, I find it to be a bit hypocritical! People can continue to post lists of so-called “deviant” Muslims and their websites and some will say “well you’re still going to have the haters so what’s the big deal”, yet let someone say that Ibn Taymiyah is “controversial” and they get accused of single-handedly going against the Sunni Unity Pledge! I wonder where everyone was when certain bloggers and sites and scholars were called “deviants”, etc. And a whole list of “who and who not” to read/look at/to avoid, etc., was published, right there on the Internet for anyone to see! OK, so perhaps the publisher of the site was not a signatory to the pledge, but said person’s opinion is respected and followed, I dare say, by many Muslims, both signatories to the pledge and not. So, again IMHO, you can’t tell one “side” to “just don’t mind the haters” while accusing the other “side” of undermining the Sunni Unity Pledge, merely for saying that someone is “controversial”, which, well, in the case of Ibn Taymiyah, is controversial, I mean, we’re sitting here discussing him aren’t we?!

If signing the Sunni Unity Pledge means that we sweep controversial issues and topics under the rug, solely for the sake of “unity”, then I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that! I think that discussing so-called “controversial” topics can be done in a respectful way, and Inshallah, Imam Zaid did that in his article!

Perhaps I should refresh my memory on who Ibn Taymiyah was, excatly, however, I probably won’t, as this “back and forth” stuff does make my head hurt! And I’m not sure if I’d find any “neutral” articles dealing with him, either he’s the “Shaikh al-Islam who can’t be criticized, and if he is then people are just spreading lies about him”, or he’s a “controversial Muslim who went against hte majoirty of Muslims” and all of that. Perhaps he was a little of both, just a very pious knowledgeable person who held some opinions that were not mainstream opinons. Anyway, I just wanted to repost my comments. Inshallah, this makes more sense.

New Islamic Directions
Answer to a “Salafi” Brother (Updated)

Identify With Me! And Other Conundrums of Western Muslims

Umm Zaid for Majlis: Blahg Blahg Blahg » Blog Archive » Identify With Me! And Other Conundrums of Western Muslims

Assalamu alaikum, posting in a hurry before running off to work, but, a *wonderful* post from Umm Zaid (thanks for reminding me really, thanks!)

More Reflections on the Bin Gregory / Umar Lee Discussion

Assalamu alaikum, once again revisiting the topic of race… I know, or at least I think I’ve done this anyway, talked many times about “white privilege”, how I’ve benefited from it, racism in America, etc., etc., etc. I just wanted to put that out there, because I didn’t want anyone to think that I was skirting that issue.

IMHO, “we”, and I mean the bloggers like Umar Lee, Umm Zaid, Tariq Nelson?, etc., have sort of blogged this issue to death, I mean, now that we’ve put it out there, now that we’ve recognized it, where do we go from here? Do we just say “well that’s just how it is, live with it?” Or do you, yourself, do what you can, in your own small way, to change things?

Yes, I know there is racism, bigotry, Islamophobia, and a whole lot of other “bad” stuff in the world. It upsets me, makes me angry, makes me feel powerless to stop it, etc. However, the best thing that I can do, as someone who has happened to have been born white, is to try not to fall into the pitfalls of racism and bigotry that my white forefathers/ancestors have engaged in. And I think this could be done by everyone! Just because you’re black, brown, Arab, African, that doesn’t make you somehow immune to displaying bigotry and prejudice.

I guess I’m just tired of the rehashing of the same old issues/problems, and the ensuing back-and-forth/fitna that almost always results, and the lack of any meaningful proposals of solutions to solve things like this, and I think that colored my reaction to Umar/Ben Gregory’s posts. How many times can we talk about the “white liberals”, the “globos”, the “bad Muslim marriages” the “bad brothers/sisters”, the “white Muslims with a complex”, heck, the “convert Muslims with a complex”, or the just plain old “Muslims with a complex”, etc., before we start trying to actually do something about it?

Umm Zaid made a point on her blog, something to the affect of “if she didn’t know any better”, that, well, let me take this off in my own direction, I don’t want to steal words out of her mouthg.

Let’s just say I was a non-Muslim who happened upon some of the negative blogging going on. Would I think that Islam is something that I’d want, that I’d want to try to live? To implement? To truly make a part of my life? Well, if it means that I’ll be dealing with a whole community of racist, bigoted, materialistic people, then no. Not to say that *some* in the community are not like that, however, if you only mention that, and you don’t mention the “good” Muslims you encounter, then it definitely paints a bleak picture of Islam.

That and all of the “bad marriages”, the “brothers practicing polygamy wrongly”, and all of the other stuff that we all know about and I won’t rehash here.

My point is, yeah, we know, so now what? Do we continue to blog about it, to write about it, and unwittingly make Islam and Muslims look worse in the process? Or do we say, yes, we know we have these problems, but here are some proactive solutions, and here is how I think we should put them into practice!

So yes, I know that I never give up my white privilege (or my “blind” privilege, but that’s a different topic for a different day, which perhaps I’ll revisit), no matter how “hijab-ed” I am, I know that when people see me, they’ll see me as “white” first, unless of course, my “observant Islamness” trumps all of that, and then I’ll be some kind of “traitor”. I know that. And you know what, I don’t care! Many sighted people think I should be just sitting at home collecting government handouts because God forbid that a blind person can actually “do anything”, “I mean, won’t you hurt yourself? Trying to cross that street and all? But oh yeah, I forgot your dog just takes you there.” Or worse, the “old school” people who think that you should not have your own home at all, that you should just be in some sort of group home or institution.

So I know all too well people’s stereotypes of others, and how that can play out. But you know what? I just really don’t care anymore! I just don’t! I did once, but I don’t now! Perhaps some of my husband’s easy-going personality has begun to rub off on me. But let others wallow in their own ignorance! That is not my problem! I’m tired of being the ambassador for blindness, whiteness, Islam, women, or whatever else you want to pin on me! I don’t want to be the “token representative” anymore! I’m not a good diplomat and I don’t fit well into that role!

I’ll happily answer questions for those who genuinely want to know but if your only intention is to start some kind of fight/debate/argument with me, or to “convert” me in the case of my religion, then you’re really barking up the wrong tree.

I don’t care what “the other” thinks I should be doing, I won’t let “others” define what I am, what I think, how I feel. I can only be responsible for myself! And that’s just how it is!

My Initial Comments on the Ongoing Discussion between Umar Lee and Bin Gregory

Assalamu alaikum, Umar Lee and Bin Gregory are having an interesting discussion going on. I wanted to comment, however, I find it easier to comment on my own blog and then link back to their respective blogs (ya know that cool thing word press does when you link to someone else’s post and it puts a comment in their comments box letting them know you blogged about their article?)

So anyway, On Umar’s blog, the first quote that I wanted to touch on was:

“( quoting Umar) I despise the patronizing and phoniness of guilty white liberals, but the Muslim community is full of them. These Muslims take shahadah and immediately begin a full imitation of some group, Arabs, Pakistanis, African-Americans, etc, and are subservient and un-critical of these cultures while being fiercely critical of any white culture…. I think that some of these Muslims, but not all, embrace Islam to stop being white…”

Firstly, I don’t think it’s just “guilty white liberals” who tend to “immitate” other groups of Muslims, whether they be Arab, Pakistani, or whoever. No matter which race or ethnic group you come from, many times, if you’re an American Muslim, and you come into Islam, the degree to which you adopt another culture depenends largely on whether you feel or you have been told and have been led to believe that “anything American is haram”. And I just don’t think it’s “those white liberals” who’ve fallen into that trap.

Secondly, just as you had an affinity for African-Americans before becoming Muslim, don’t you think that others were/are in the same shoes as you? Do other white people not have the right to have an affinity for other cultures/groups just because it seems “wrong” or that “oh they’re just trying to be anything but white”?

Yes, I know this happens, we all know the white person who becomes Msulim, marries a Muslim, etc., and next thing you know, they have a thicker accent that the *insert ethnic group here* person they married, assuming that person had an accent in the first place.

But all of that being said, why does, or should, this concern you or any of us? Is that not *that* person’s thing/issue to work through? And why do you think you have any monopoly on affinity for cultures/groups, while “all those other white people are just perpetratin’ ’cause they don’t wanna be white”? What happened to thinking the best about your brother/sister in Islam? What happened to leaving that which does not concern us?

If you don’t want people to just assume “you’re just a white guy who doens’t want to be white”, why not just assume that if someone adopts another’s culture that either they’re just terribly misled or naive, or that, perhaps you should just leave it alone and let them deal with it?

Yes, I know there’s white guilt, etc., etc., and racism, etc., etc., and don’t get me started on how racism is still very much alive and how everything’s affected by race, I know that, OK? But assuming that other white Muslims are just “a bunch of guilty white liberals” just ’cause they don’t think like you do, or didn’t grow up the why you did, well, I just find that terribly insulting!

Perhaps it’s because I’m just a weak woman or something, I don’t know. Or perhaps because I grow up in a semirural, small-town, military family, where I went to a residential school for the blind as a child, perhaps that’s why my outlook is different. Or maybe it’s the “sufi” in me that says that perhaps it’s better to live and let live, if it’s not bothering you, and if it’s not a matter of life or death, perhaps my reaction is to just live and let live, or perhaps spend my time concentrating on my own faults (and Allah knows there are many), instead of pointing out the faults of my brothers/sisters?

Because methinks that Umar’s constant haranguing of other “white Muslims” or other classes of people that he speaks about with contempt, i.e., “those globos sipping lattes”, could possibly point to a form of “white guilt” inand of itself. However, that’s for him to deal with! I’m just tired of white Muslims being castigated because we don’t fit the “right kind of mold” or we’re not the “right kind of Muslim”.

Listen, I didn’t grow up in a bad neighborhood, I’ve never been in trouble (hey I pretty much followed the rules as a child), I went to college, etc., etc., etc. But at the same time, I have an interest/affinity for African/African American history/culture myself, what the heck does that make me? I don’t feel guilty for being white, because then that would be saying that Allah was wrong in making me who I am. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t go through feelings of white guilt myself, at times, when I was younger. I think it’s only natural when you read and learn about “what white people have done” to others, etc., heck, unless you’re just an out and out racist, who wouldn’t get just a tinge of emotion, be it anger, guilt, or something else, when you read about things like the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery in the US, etc. But again, those were feelings I had to work thorugh, and I’d venture to say, my own feelings to continue to work through.

The thing is, I don’t feel very comfortable having someone trying to put me in some sorta box, someone who doesn’t even know me, but because I, and/or others like me, didn’t come from the “right” kind of neighborhood, or didn’t hang around the “right” kind of people growing up, or didn’t have the “right” kind of family background, or follow the “wrong” interpretation of Islam, etc., etc., that I’m not the “right” kind of white Muslim!

I’m sorry, I know it shouldn’t bother me, I know I’m “not leaving that which does not concern me”. I know I should probably just not say anything, because well, as Umm Zaid said a few weeks ago “you don’t know me”, and it shouldn’t bother me!

Perhaps the argument could be made that a little of what Umar says does indeed apply to me and I’m just getting all defensive about it, perhaps, or perhaps not! Perhaps it’s the fact that I don’t like a whole group of people being painted with a broad brush, whether it’s Muslims, white Muslims, “sufis”, “white liberals”, whoever! Pick your group!

Regarding white sisters in hijab, I think we still maintain some form of “whiteness” or “white privilege”, if you like, even with hijab because we can just always take it off and just melt back into society, assuming that we choose to do that (which I don’t). Assuming that a sister chooses not to forego hijab and/or Islam itself, then yes, she gives up, IMHO, some of her “whiteness” or “white privilege”, whether she likes it or not, whether she agrees with it or not. But again, this goes back to the category of issues that each individual Muslim must work through on their own. It seems to me that a better approach would be to kindly advise people in private, instead of labelling a whole group of people as something “just because of your own life experiences”.

And I think I’m going to have to make a part two of this post if I want to comment further because this has turned into a blog post in and of itself. So perhaps after re-reading Umar’s post, and then reading Bin Gregory’s post, I’ll have more to say, or perhaps not! I think I need to take a step away from the ‘puter and take a deep breath.

Health Minister Dr. Tamsir Mbowe Fired

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..

Assalamu alaikum, The Gambia Journal’s take on the firing of Dr. Tamsir Mbowe (this article does not advance any reasoning for the firing, btw).

Breking News! Gambian Dictator Jammeh In Big Trouble > The Gambia Echo > The Gambia Echo – Online Newspaper

Breking News! Gambian Dictator Jammeh In Big Trouble > The Gambia Echo > The Gambia Echo – Online Newspaper

Assalamu alaikum, it will be interesting to see what affect this actually has, assuming these programs/actions even get implemented.

GAMBIAN HEALTH MINISTER TAMSIER MBOWE SACKED > The Gambia Echo > The Gambia Echo – Online Newspaper

GAMBIAN HEALTH MINISTER TAMSIER MBOWE SACKED > The Gambia Echo > The Gambia Echo – Online Newspaper

Guide Dog labrador class of 2007 | Herald Sun

Guide Dog labrador class of 2007 | Herald Sun

Assalamu alaikum, this is a story about someone whose dog was poisoned by rat poison (who would do such a thing!?)

Disabled man not lovin’ it after snubs at McDonald’s

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro — Disabled man not lovin’ it after snubs at McDonald’s

Assalamu alaikum, OK so maybe my “militancy” is about to ocme out, but there was absolutely no excuse for htis! And as for the man “not looking blind”, what the heck does that mean!? Just ’cause you don’t move your head back and forth like Stevie Wonder, or put your hand in your eyes, your “not blind”? Many blind/visually imapired people who lose their vision later in life, like this guy in the article, will still move their eyes, and focus their gaze on people, long after they’ve lost their sight, I guess it’s just one of those learned behaviors that never goes away.

Now for my part, my eyes do not focus, and if you look at my eyes you can definitely tell I’m blind, however, even so, many people, even with me, have not known that I was blind, which I find, well, strange.

Anyway, this just goes to show you how much ignorance is out there! I’ve been denied access to quite a few restaurants, not to mention being denied employment, and at one time, having a bus driver just about refuse to take me on the bus with him, I actually heard him say “she’s not going on the bus with me,” etc., etc., I ultimately ended up on the bus, but I sat way back in the bus which I dind’t feel comfortable with, as normally I prefer to sit near the driver in case I need some sort of assistance once we stop.

Access for dog guides and their handlers, as well as other access-related issues such as employment, transportation, etc., are things I’m definitely passionate about. Not that you guys didn’t know that already.

Will real Pacers please stand up? | IndyStar.com

Will real Pacers please stand up? | IndyStar.com

Assalamu alaikum, yep, guys, it’s that time of year again! Let’s hope the Pacers can put something togheter this year! Last year was utterly disappointing! I’m tempted to say, “If only we could get Reggie back”, but well, time must move on, and thaa just isn’t going to happen. But boy I miss those days! Perhaps some time I’ll blog about that, but not now.

Revisiting Bill Cosby

Assalamu alaikum, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about, well, what I’d term “morality” lately, and while looking around Oprah’s website (I was reading the book club discussions and interviews, etc.), I accidentally ended up revisiting the whole Bill Cosby controversy.

As I was saying to my husband earlier, I really didn’t know *what* to think or feel about it. In fact, when I started to talk to my husband about it, I had trouble even forming coherent sentences to explain my position.

Let me try to explain what I mean. Or at least, perhaps the best way I can illustrate my dilemma, would be to just ask a series of questions.

Is it viewed as somehow “racist” to say that out of wedlock births, men not taking care of their children, and a culture which promotes crime and violence is *not* OK? Am I not supposed to say that one should get married before they have kids, that one should be law-abiding, etc., that one should work hard in order to get the things they want in life, instead of employing “quick-fix” ways to get what they want? Are you somehow harboring “close prejudices” if you say such things? Should white people just not say these things, so that they don’t get labelled as “racists”?

Listen, I can definitely understand the barriers that we have in our society, that hold people back from achieving their goals and realizing their potential. I’ve faced many of these sorts of barriers myself. However, instead of “blaming sighty” for my problems, my mindset was to keep trying, to do the best I could, and some day, I’d succeed! And I think that as popular hip-hop music is “consumed” by many white kids, this is a discussion *all of us”, black, white, and everything in between, need to have in this country. Because I, for one, don’t think it’s acceptable to degrade women, participate in crime and violent acts, I think one should be married before one has sex and of course has children, etc., etc. One should work hard in order to succeed in life, etc., etc., etc., and I could go on and on. It’s one thing if people get caught up in bad situations, people make mistakes, however, after doing the same thing over and over, i.e., after the fourth kid, just to use one example, it’s not a mistake anymore, it’s a conscious choice! After the fifth robbery, the sixth drug sell, it’s not an “oops I just got with the wrong crowd” kinda thing. I am reminded of my brother and a group of his friends, they had this kinda sorta rap group called “DI”, which stood for “Deadly Intentions”. This was like, I don’t know, before he got married, so I guess it was about 7, 8, 9 years ago, because I was still in college. I remember him telling me about the group, I heard some of their “stuff”/material, and I was just appalled! They were rapping about the standard gangsta rap fare, killing, selling/doing drugs, sex, etc. And none of this, well, a lot of it, they’d never have done in real life! I remember thinking, why couldn’t you rap about something more positive, like, I don’t know, going to the store, or something. I was just really upset about the whole thing, and I just couldn’t support them. And before anyone says “these problems are just a blakc thing”, I lived in and near a small town in Tennessee, and was very surprised to hear that some of the things that went on there wasn’t unlike some of the stuff I saw in East Chicago and Gary in Indiana. Which further makes me wonder if, as I’ve seen on some blogs, poor rural/small town white people have some of the same problems as “inner-city” African-American communities.

I think that Bill Cosby said *many* things that are perhaps true, although there’s a better way he could have put it, and he seemed to brush off things like institutional racism, and seemed to suggest that *all* poor parents didn’t care about their kids, were just running around “purchasing $500 Sneakers instead of $250 Hooked on Phonics”, etc., while on the other hand, I think his critics also seemed to want to brush aside the fact that the problems that Cosby was speaking to *were* and *are* real problems that must be dealt with!

It’s a very complex issue, you have bad schools, police brutality, a system that seems to doom many minority groups to failure, and then on the other hand, you have a sub-culture that seems to promote all that is destructive and further impedes a group or person’s ability to succeed! So it’s like you not only have “the outside” harming you, you’re also harming yourself! And IMHO, that’s just not a good thing.

To me, there are certain things that are just, well, “wrong”. having 4 or 5 kids with no daddy that you can’t take care of is not right! Selling drugs to people, killing people, robbing, etc., is wrong. Having a sub-culture of music that promotes this lifestyle of drugs, crime, abuse of women, is wrong! And I’m going to say, I don’t care *who* is doing it! If there was gangsta country, I’d be saying something about that too! For me, while “race” plays a major part in all of this (and who can deny that it doesn’t?), there are other factors too, such as socioeconomic status, etc.

What Cosby fails to recognize are the many “poor” people who’d love to be involved in their kids’ lives, but can’t because they have to work two jobs to keep the bills paid and food on the table! Or the teachers that don’t care “because they’re just gonna fail anyway, why borther”. Or the schools that have substandard facilities. I remember one time someone telling me that in some of the Chicago schools, there was not proper heating in the winter, the restrooms did not work, there was not adequate textbooks, etc., and you expect people to learn in this environment?

My point is that it’s not just a cut-and-dry issue of “if those people would just start doing” such-and-such. Also, the point is not lost on me that Cosby is on a bit of a high horse, if memory serves me right, he was not always “acting morally” himself.

So I’m just saying, there are a lot of things at work here, and perhaps Cosby might be saying things that need to be said, but he needs to say them in such a way that doesn’t make them the fodder of white Conservatives, which allows those Conservatives to say “see look, we told you so”.

The Road – Cormac McCarthy – Books – Review – New York Times

The Road – Cormac McCarthy – Books – Review – New York Times

Assalamu alaikum, I literally stayed up all night listening to this book (what was I thinking?), so I’m still trying to process it. I’ts not a happy book! I can tell you that, and you’ll go to sleep with visions of scenes from this book in your head (or at least I did).

I’m going to have to find a happy book to read now, to balance this book out, but there is something about this book that makes you want to read, and to keep reading. “The Road” is about a man and his soon, traveling down a road, they’re trying to go to the coast, the book alludes to the fact that there’s something “better” there. There has been some sort of apocolyptic/cataclysmic event, the world is dark and cold, full of death, whatever “daylight there is, is gray, no sun. The book never mentions outright what happened to cause this devastation, but the ash seems to suggest some sort of mass volcanic eruption, however, when in the book, they pass burned out cities, with no volcano in sight, as far as I can tell, based on the location of hte chracters, I’m again left in wonder as to “what happened”. And accept for a few flashbacks, a few snippets of the past, references to “a rosy light glowing in the window” at “1:17 when the clocks stopped”, you don’t get much more informaiton than that.

However, the focus of the book is not on the “what happened” but on the “now” the “how” of getting throught he next day, and the next, and the next.

I don’t want to give away the ending, however, it does leave you left wondering what will become of the boy? And the father too, though you’ll find that out once you read the book, I’ll throw that little hint out to you.

And that’s my first attempt at some sort of a “review”. I think I’m going to eat something and then go back to sleep. I always sleep weirdly, and feel strangely after staying up all night, I don’t sleep soundly, nor badly, and I feel as though I’ve been drugged or something, not to metnion the strange dreams I had, especially after reading this book. Anyway, so there you go. Take care all.

Speak Good or Remain…

Sillee Soonee Sister: Blahg Blahg Blahg » Blog Archive » Speak Good or Remain…

Assalamu alaikum, wow, timely words/reflections from Umm Zaid. I think that sometimes it’s so easy to talk about the bad (why is that?) than the good. I think it somehow, I don’t know, allows us to wallow in our own “victimhood”, or to point the finger at the “them” and say to ourselves “look I’m not like that”, when by doing that, we’re doing the very same thing that the “they” we’re going on and on about are doing.

I can definitely say that much of the “bad” in the Muslim community that is being so readily talked about on many blogs, I’ve not seen, or at least, Alhamdulillah, most of that passed me by. Perhaps “innocence” and “things just plain going over my head” are not such bad htings after all.

Because asdie from my own bad first marriage (which to be honest could have been avoided if I’d paid attention to the signs before the marriage), I’ve not see the many, many, multiple marriages, the misuse of polygamy, etc., etc., etc. Oh, yeah, I’ve *heard* about it, but I’ve not actually been a first-hand witness of much of the drama that others have.

I don’t know what that makes me to some people, naive, stupid, just not with it, I don’t know. But I can definitely say that Alhamdulillah, much of that stuff passed me by.

And if there are “problems”, once you’ve “aired them out” why not think of solutions? Instead of airing and reairing the same dirty laundry? How many times can you talk about the “bad” in the community, without, well, making it seem like there isn’t any good among us?

Well, in my experience, let me just point out some of the “good” Muslims I’ve come into contact with. First and foremost is the “good Muslim” that I’m married to, Mashallah. (and today is our first anniversary Alhamdulillah.) The “good Muslims” who helped my brother and I after our house fire, the Muslims who helped me when I was getting out of my first marriage, the Muslims who were there for me, supported me, answered my questions when I had them, and all of the Muslims who do good for their friend, families, communities, and people they don’t even know!

Why can’t we focus on that? Haven’t we focused on the “bad” long enough?

National Assembly Is a Rubber Stamp-Darboe

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..

2007-2008 Tourism Season Hit Hard by Indirect EU Sanction

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..

Leader Dogs for the Blind: Update

Leader Dogs for the Blind: Update

Assalamu alaikum, this is a link to the latest newsletter from Leader Dogs for the Blind!

Lamin Waa Juwara NDAM’s Secretary General Is the Interim Chairman for Brikama Area Council

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..

UDP’S Darboe Condemns Amendment

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..

President Jammeh Appoints First Paramount Chief

..::The Gambia Journal Online::..