Never forget

My father told me today about a man, a Muslim man, who was slashed. Slashed by someone who I assume is anti -Islam, though maybe in his head he was pro- American. The violence is expected, I wouldn't be surprised if me or my father or any other of my Muslim comrades are next.
I'd like to think a lot of things about America, most of it good. When I think about my country and its wholesome values I think about American women who sacrificed nylon stockings for the ww2 effort, I think about the election of President Barack Obama, I think about the Declaration of Independence, and a ton of other random thoughts which bring about the glee I feel to be an American. But then their are our darker days, slavery, police brutality, internment of Japanese Americans, and all the other events that make my skin crawl.
America is what it makes of itself. And right now American is in scapegoat mode. People are angry because they've lost their houses, their jobs, their racial status -their angry because the American dream has failed them and Americans always need a scapegoat. Because most Americans are like spoiled rotten children. Probably since the 'greatest generation' we've wanted things to constantly go our way with as little human sacrifice as possible. And when those buildings fell we were in disbelief. I remember being picked up from school early and taken home. I watched over and over and over again the twin towers collapse. More then scared I was in a state of shock -this was not suppose to happen. America is all powerful, the greatest country in the world -this was not suppose to happen here. My entire idealism of America seemed to crashed that day. If America could be disgraced, what else could go wrong?
Of course we learned that many things could go wrong after that day. The men who lunged those planes in to the twin towers killed themselves as well so we couldn't bring them to justice, we needed to find someone to blame. Al Qaeda? Arabs? Muslims? Iraq? Afghanistan? Who was gonna pay for the lives of our beloveds? Who was gonna pay for dismantling our infrastructure? Some of us -yes US, have decided all Muslims are going to pay. Forget the 300 Muslims who died in the World trade center, forget the fact that their was a pray room in one of the twin towers, forget that their were Muslim rescue workers, forget that Muslims also had to run from that building. No forget them all, forget the diversity of America and the diversity of the people who died on that fateful day. Forget them because once we do we can make this in to us vs. them. If we forget them we can have a clear picture of who the enemy is. Is we forget them we can prevent them from desecrating the memory of the lost ones by building an Islamic cultural center, if we forget them and take away their memory and their contribution we can take away their rights and yes even their lives.
But whatever happened to what we promised them, all of them, not just some of them -but all of them who died on that day of immense grief. We promised them, we would never forget....

Generation Islam

Probably like most Muslims whenever a special is on about Islam I am both interested and worried about the content they will show. CNN's Generation Islam gave me that same initial feeling. I found myself diving in to the lives of Muslims overseas, particularly in Gaza and Afghanistan, trying to see them as I see myself. I cried when they where distraught I felt hope when some of their lives changed for the better but most pressing was a feeling of helplessness.
As CNN's Christiane Amanpour went through the villages of Afghanistan and later Gaza, the people where surrounded by rubble and dirt there where beggars everywhere and not enough people to lend a hand. Its strange because both the terrorist of their country and the US soldiers fighting those terrorist are destroying the lives of innocent people. I guess it is an illustration of the saying that there is no such thing as a good war. War is always bad but as Allah (SWT) says in the Quran oppression is evil.
It is interesting to see how people react when faced they are confronted with evil. Some chose peace by any measure -protesting, rallying but never fighting, some chose self defense/violence by any means -they will fight even if they have no chance of winning except by a miracle, and others become deeply depressed and hurt they do very little because they have been beaten so badly they no longer believe in themselves.
I have digressed by nature, and turned them in to psychological studies for me to philosophize and theorize about, so I will return to the documentary. One critique I have of the documentary is that they showed young men from Afghanistan and Gaza who'd chosen or had been chosen for military fighting in the same light. By this I mean the men of Afghanistan (who were shown) joined a terrorist organization that terrorized their own people. They burned young girls who were in school, bombed schools, and forced young men on suicide missions. This is not the same as the young men who join the "army" of Gaza as soldiers in order to protect their country in a 60 year battle with their unwanted neighbors. One group of men is using violence for destruction while the other is using violence in self defense.
Though the documentary did have a positive tone, the problems of Muslims in Afghanistan and Gaza are complicated and seemingly long term. The bright side of these two groups, from a Muslim perspectives is that they have such vast and complicated problems. Like Allah's treatment of Prophet Ibrahim with constant struggles until he became a friend of Allah. We believe that Allah tests those whom he loves, so Insha Allah in that way their struggles are a sign of good fortune to come in the near future and in the Afterlife, Ameen.