Transland Journey

It all started with a religious polemical argument within my fellow form-mates in MCKK [ class of 69 ] in the jubileeintan69 website.
Two chaps were almost getting too hot under the collar over some 'ranting' issues, the usual 'purist'  vs 'traditional'.

I interjected and suggested we discuss a possible Kuala Lumpur- London drive instead to 'defuse' the hot situation.
Two weeks later saw myself, Peng[ an oncological paediatrics consultant from UH, semiretired, survived cancer of colon ], Bab [ ex Petronas ] and three others brainstorming on this [ Jed, Deng and Bastamam ].

Driving to London at 60 !!??
As usual with most Malaysian style  brainstorming session, we had teh tarik to 'warm up' the neurons , then gulp in a couple of roti canais, followed by a full plateful of  mee mamak. Then , and only a 'much later' then , the 'storm', sans the brains..........

Talk about 'crazy' people, we do have a lot of them coming from MCKK, at least during my time I was there.....that is why we have such thing as BERSIH  now. Restless souls, semiretarded childhood , a preamble to a delayed protracted adolescence  coalescing into late adulthood !!
But we are certainly no  'sissies' from VI or St John like our friend NTR .......
[ NTR was definitely not MCKK of course, not like his late dad... Otherwise he would not be so 'takut2' as he is now. Everyone in and out of Amenu knows his problem, but the typical' lallang' he is, he is not reading in between the lines and still  waiting for someone else to 'bersih' his problem ! My God ! Once a 'lallang', always a 'lallang' ! Must be in the water they serve at St John or VI. No wonder they always lost in Rugby to even RMC .]


We are doing the KL- London drive sometime next year, probably August after Eid. We agreed on a possible route driving thru Myanmar[ hopefully Myammar opens up its border by then], Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan [  Osama Ben Laden's Abottabad, Quetta etc etc] and on to Iran via the Kyber Pass, then Turkey. From Turkey onwards it would very 'light and easy' heading for Europe and London, via Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia, Bavaria and Switzerland. My initial plan for leaving on the eve of Ramadan and doing the Umrah and Eid in Makkah midway was shot down .Bab and Peng were unfortunately not 'mad' enough.


We reckoned 2 months would be ideal for us to be able to pack in visits to some World Heritage spots and towns along the way.I will drive my Hilux single cabin with the help of my 2 boys, while Peng and Bab plus minus wife will probably in between them secure an old Landcruiser Prado. We plan to 'camp' as much as we can along the way. On  'breaking camp' in London we would go our separate ways. If Bab's and Peng's Prado is still intact by then they will ship it back to KL. Plan B would be to sell it as scrap iron in East London.So far my other classmates are not yet 'mad' enough to 'want to join us'.


I have my very own plan B and plan C : will drive down to Florence and leave my Hilux there with my son in law and daughter who is currently looking after Malaysia's 'durian plantation'  owned by Petronas there.
Some eight months later, after doing some decent work in my hospital back in KL, I would take a two month break and do the 'Muslim Conquest' route in the reverse direction:
Serville, Cordoba, Gibraltar, Tangier, Casablanca, Tripoli , etc and etc and finally Cairo. That would be , insyaallah the 2nd phase.

Godwilling , in late 2014, plan C would be  a trans-Siberian cross to Vladivostok from Moscow and the Stans in the West. This would require a wee bit more of ' mind over matter doa  and zikr' as this is basically no man's land. Insyaallah.
'Angan2 orang tua'.




PS : 
that 'mind over matter doas' and zikr would be ...


'ya  Muqallibal qulub, thabit qalbi alla kaa ta'atik
ya Muqallibal qulub, thabit qalbi alla kaa di nik'
oh The One Who changes hearts, make my heart firm in Your obedience
oh The One Who changes hearts, make my heart firm in Your Din


'bismillah himajreha wa mursaha innarobbi la Ghafur rur Rahim'
in the name of Allah it's sailing and it's anchorage, He is al Ghafur [ most forgiving ] and al Rahim [ most merciful ].


'allahumma innaka 'affuwwun tuhibbul 'afwa fa' fu anni' [ doa laylatul qadr ]
oh Allah, You are The One who pardons greatly, and love to pardon, so pardon me


'hasbunallah wa ni' mal Wakeel'
Allah suffice for me, He is al Wakeel


'has biyallah hula illa hailla huwa alai hi tawwakal tu huwa Rabbul arsil Azim'
[ the 'mother' of all tawwakal ]


'rabbirfili wa liwa lidayya wal mukmini wal mukminat'
oh Rabb, absolve me from my sin, my parents and all muslims, males and females


la hawla wala kuwwata illa billah hil Alim yul A zim
there is no change or power except Allah. He is al Alim [ all knowing ] , al Azim [ most high ]


la ila haillallah huwahdahu lasharikalah lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu yuhyi wayumit wa huwa ala kulli lishain Qadir


and 'mother' of all zikir,
la ila haillallah


and finally,
'la ila hailla anta subha nakainni kun tu minazzolimin'
Prophet Jonah's doa, when he was  swallowed and subsequently 'delivered' by the whale.




We all are no Prophet Jonah, but what the heck, even though these are short doa's , but all 'supergedebe' and superheavy  with  connotations within the 'al ghaiba'.
Try them everyday, morning, evening and night. In prayer and outside prayer. In sujud and outside sujud.
Do this with deep sincerity and reflection.
In all your waking moments : standing, sitting and occasionally while sleeping
Remember Him in everything that you do.
Internalize your doa and zikr in your psyche.
You will be on an entirely different 'plane'.
Imagine, no more over-reverence to people irrespective of their position and background.
That constitute ' spiritual and mental' freedom.

They work all the time.
Believe me.

coming home one whole circle on Happiness and Contentment...

Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick, who is proud to state that he was 'son' of former slaves. in this khutbah, finally 'joins' the dotted lines between happiness and contentment with the unlikely state of  suffering, forbearance and 'sabar'[ endurance] in the down and out of previous soceities in the past.....Sons, daughters and ancesteors of former slaves, and slaves who endured the burden of suffering from 'bad and awful' white men from the West whose watch word was 'plunder and rob' the yellows , the black and the sawo matang' of the East and the Far East.


Indeed the white men of the West had and has been bad news from time immemorial till the present time.

Before it was trying to free the impoverished, uncultured 'indians'  from false gods and demigods and introduce to the cleansing vision of Jesus Christ  Superstar and the nebulous concept of Trinity.

....now in  more modern times: in the name of democracy, female emancipation and human rights.

Before it was the Knights of the Templer, East India Company and the much hated Dutch VOC

Now in the guise of NATO, UN and UN security council resolutions, NGO's  and what have you.

At the end of the day, with respect to contentment/happiness, as the shaykh  concedes, we come one whole circle:

It not about any profound psychological endpoints; neither is it about a healthy body with a thick fat bank balance; or a young beautiful wife waiting at home in a nice big bungalow.

It is about sabar, endurance, ridza, cognizance of revealed wisdom. 
It is about returning to HIM.

Hasan al Basri, a tabi'in sufi saint endeared and respected by millions during his time put it simply for the poor and the unschooled of his time, a definitive 'trinity' of sort :

Reading the quran, 

Constant remembrance of HIM through zikr, 

and the obligatory prayers.....fullstop.

He was a great philosopher and thinker of his time and he could go on and on and write volumes.
But his prescription was simply practical.......a product of 'experiential Islam.

Otherwise happiness and contentment can only be the monopoly of the elites, the rich and famous and those with high iq's.

God is great and at the same time most merciful and compassionate.....anyone , just anyone can be happy [ or sad, it is a double edged sword ! ] be he a poor road sweeper, a slave, a 'pm' or mrs 'pm', or a mighty king with millions at his beck and call.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kokGvgPTGv4&feature=relmfu

Still On Happiness........

For the third month in a row, I am still stuck on the nature of happiness and the subject of contentment.
Muslim sages and philosophers put it simply to returning to our original 'paradisial state'.
Our conciousness, all our souls, once before in a 'time before time' and 'space beyond space', on the day of Primordial Covenant, the ,Day of Alastu' in the realm of  the divine, were collectively asked:

"Am I not your Lord ?"[ Alas Tu Bi Rabbikum ? ]
We all answered in the affirmative:
" Yes, verily we testify... " [ Balaa Shahidna ]............{ surah al Araf, 7 : 172 }


Man, or 'insan' in Arabic, denotes  a 'state of forgetfulness'.
Man, perpetually in search of lasting happiness and contentment, need to get back to the original 'paradisial' state of remembrance and total submission........that is  the 'sine qua non' of happiness and contentment.


This is the Islamic position.




Prof Seyyed Hoessien Nasr addressing a mainly secular academia at Emory University,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8kSiNLnEQ&feature=related




Related articles in the blog :
Happiness Revisited,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/04/happiness-revisited.html
On Tranquility, Happiness and Contentment
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-tranquility-happiness-and.html

Book :' The Messenger '

Khadijah thought of seeking the opinion of her cousin, the Christian Waraqah ibn Nawfal. She went to him [ whether alone or with the Prophet is not clear ] and told him of Muhammad's experience. Waraqah recognized the signs he had been waiting for and answered without hesitation :
"Holy ! Holy ! By He who holds Waraqah's soul, it is the sublime Namus [ the friend of the secrets of Supreme Royalty, the angel bringing the sacred revelation ] who has come to Muhammad; the same who had come to Mosses. Indeed, Muhammad is the prophet of this people."


Later, during an encounter with Muhammad near the Kaabah, Waraqah was to add:
" You will certainly be called a liar, ill-treated, banished, and attacked. If I am alive then, God knows I will support you in His cause to victory! " Aishah reports that  Waraqah also said:
"Your people will will turn you away !" This startled the Prophet, and he asked:
"Will they turn me away?" Waraqah warned him:
" Indeed they will. No man has ever brought what you have brought and not been treated as an enemy!"


The Prophet's mission had only just began, and already he was allowed to grasp some of the fundamentals of the final Revelation as well as some of the truths that had been present throughout the history of prophecies among peoples............... 


exceprt from Tariq Ramadan's 'The Messenger : The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad'
Tariq Ramadan, a leading Muslim scholar, with a large following especially among young European and American Muslims. In his book, written for a wide audience, he offers a biography of the Prophet Muhammad, highlighting the spiritual and ethical teachings of one of the most influential figures in human history.
If you ask me, 'a bloody good read', even for the non-committed.




Related topics in the blog :
..A European Muslim
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2009/09/european-muslim-prof-tariq-ramadan.html
..Tariq Mehanna
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/04/tarek-mehanna.html
..Tan Sri, Let Us Use The ISA !
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2008/05/pearls-and-gem-from-from-surah-abasa.html

How I Came To Islam...Abdur Rahim Green

" I come from  a place where there are Muslims but no Islam to your place where there is Islam but no Muslim.."
 Iqbal on visiting Paris many  years ago ,at the turn of the last century.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIURcB-YdNA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=zA3CNZ6aJnU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iJx_Qpt5Ro&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tu-xw_f-7U&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BICe3rh2fk0&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLbHHM69EjY&feature=relmfu

Surah Al-Ikhlas
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Say: He is Allah, the One! (1) Allah, the eternally Besought of all! (2)He begetteth not nor was begotten. (3) And there is none comparable unto Him. (4)

translation of the Holy Quran by Pickthal, surah al ikhlas, 112 : 1-4

Your God is One God; there is no God save Him, the Beneficent, the Merciful. (163) Lo! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon the sea with that which is of use to men, and the water which Allah sendeth down from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all kinds of beasts therein, and (in) the ordinance of the winds, and the clouds obedient between heaven and earth: are signs (of Allah's Sovereignty) for people who have sense. (164) 

translation of the Holy Quran by Pickthal, surah al Baqarah, The Cow, 2 : 163 - 164

Post Script :

A  ' husnul khatimah ' ending for Mr Green Senior, Alhamdullillah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsAVcJXvrCU&feature=fvwre




Related topics on the blog :
'Death and Dying revisited,'
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/04/death-and-dying-revisitedsteps-to.html
'Being Able to say Shahada on your Deathbed is an Absolute Rarity,  my friend !...Or Some of My Random Thots on Death
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2008/05/some-more-random-thots-on-death.html

Happiness Revisited

The great sufi saint of the tabi'in era, just one  or two generations after Prophet Muhammad [ pbuh] and the sahabi period, Hasan Al Basri concluded  rather abruptly that tranquility, happiness and contentment in this life and the afterlife rest on three things :

1. Recitation of the Quran

2. Solat 

3. Zikrullah

Must have sound rather  too simplistic to most  of us present day Muslims,  mildly, partially or totally 'disconnected' from the Din or otherwise.. He was of course addressing  Muslims of his century, the 8th  or 7th century or so, where doing all the basic 5 pillars of Islam were a matter of routine. 'Nominal Muslims' were  non existent and if they exist, regarded as  kuffar or worse, bottom of the  heap 'Munafikun'.

This is the 21st century. Nominal Muslims  and the so called 'Munafik' rule and dominate the Muslim hinterland interfacing with the Western world. Values have changed. Human rights. Animal rights. Green right. All rights except God's right...The world has become godless. Political correctness is the order of the day. This is the 'period' when wrongs become right and rights become inordinately wrong.


Even when people of religion discuss 'happiness' with the rest of the world, it has to be 'laced' and sugar coated with 'honey' and the right PC. Otherwise the United Nations and the whole might of the Security Council will come 'homing' on them in due course !
 [ see ' On tranquility, happiness and contentment : An Emory University discourse with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Prof  Hoessien Nasr,  His Honourable, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sack  and Rev Schorri ....http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-tranquility-happiness-and.html  ]

I have practically gone 'around the world' studying and researching on the nature of happiness. Have read Holiness Dalai Lama's book on 'Happiness' and found him quite hollow. Listened to gurus and self proclaimed expert on lifestlye . All lacking substance and direction, most totally lost.

Listened to hundreds of lectures on 'tranquility and contentment', listened to various professors and philosophers. All seemed only to concentrate on the now and here. Those who believe in a tomorrow beyond today, got themselves lost in the central issue of God and minor gods !

Certainly happiness and tranquility has nothing to do with your position in life or how much money you have in the bank.

One can be the president of USA, or a powerful figure in a nation state or a sultan with  absolute power, with hundreds at one's beck and call. 

One can have a Bentley Turbo and a fleet of Mercs and Porches in the garage and a trophy wife waiting in bed.  But happiness may still be elusive. In fact these symbols  of success could guarantee one a real big headache if one lack the knowledge and the wisdom to handle them.  We would be wise to be reminded by what Prophet Mosses [ pbuh ], had to say about the age of affluence to the Israelites  following the end of years of hardship after the exodus  from Egypt :


 "Affluence is the  preamble of heedlessness, disbelieve and misplaced pride".

At the personal level I have 'experimented' myself with zikr, in the depth of the ocean bed, zikr hours and hours  in endurance riding on the back of a galloping horse over hills and dales. I have even wokened up in the wee hours of the morning to experience the bliss of solitude and prayer. Had read volumes of tafseer and books.....these 'experiments', all to no avail, if the heart is not there.

Happiness is not on the hills  or dales or in books or volumes of quran......it is just there in one's heart to be rediscovered !

At the end of the day, I have to conclude, on matters of the heart, and indeed tranquility, contentment and happiness are things of the heart, we have to give it ,to the sufis who practice 'experiential Islam'. that indeed the sufi saint, Hassan Al Basri, had got it right.

For all the professors , philosophers and people who are expert at weaving words and phrases in this world, from our perspective as Muslims at least, the 'keys to the garden' remained only in three  magic words:

Recite the Quran [ Iqra ], Solat, Zikr.

It is for all of us to just discover them on our very own individual  life journey  !

Mekkah and Medinah geographically are situated in Saudi Arabia, but for those who have arrive, these two venerated places of worship should be in one's heart !

on recitation of the Quran:

[Yususf Estes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhkbwj5yNyo

[Mufti Menk of Zimbabawe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=hJZi1Txle6o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszS9pv2iK4&feature=relmfu

on solat:

[Mukhtar Al  Magraoui]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khgqQWuDBqs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL5UXdd4F1s&feature=related

on zikr :

[Yasir Qadhi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUScyrbvqxg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0lLPowOqqI&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpM1d3BZKl0&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG24gr9UPoU&feature=relmfu

Tarek Mehanna....................

"..a successful war correspondent has to write with honesty, passion and anger..."
Robert Fisk




Reading Glenn Greenwald's  article on Tarek Mehanna, makes one unsure whether it is safe anymore for anyone to be a Muslim in the US.?

Makes one  wonder whether all those pious ,bearded Muslims praying 5 times a day dutifully at their dilapidated mosques in mid America or elsewhere in the USA, are not already on the FBI supercomputers list somewhere. And whether all their sms's, emails and private conversations, all 'wired up ' ,monitored,and sieved through like a comb, looking for key words and suspicious nuances ?

Whether really all this 'bullshit' about  'exported' democracy and freedom of thought and belief which seem to be sacrosanct in 'the Land of the Free' really can hold water?
Whether it is safe and fair anymore for the world to be lead and influenced  by a myopic administration centred in Washington?

Whether the greatest monolithic superpower in the world is crazy enough  to run a protracted undeclared  and 'asymmetric 'war with 1.5 billion Muslims ?  To increasingly many now, and daily ever increasing number, USA has already declared such a war long time ago. And I do not blame them. Muslims are being killed and mutilated like dogs all around the world by USA tanks and bullets, drones and non drones, directly and indirectly, openly and covertly,by USA armies and non armies , by proxies and friends.

Whether a contrararion 'Ghandian' view in a Muslim's private life is to be considered a  deadly 'viral contagion' in America,  already a ' rogue state  'if one can be allowed to surmise by any standard, high or low.. tUSA, the only nation superstate in the world that has more than 300 military bases offshore, 50 % of which are in Muslim majority countries, and 100 % overlooking and 'policing' Muslim majority countries . The USA and its cohorts  have their dirty hands everywhere and are currently at war in Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestine, Somalia. Thank God these 'bastards' are not in Malaysia yet but if PRU13 move south, and the new government become a shade more Islamic than what is universally comfortable, be prepared for 'some dirty hands' meddling in our affairs.

Just practically anywhere, if  the locals tend to want the 'shariah' as a way of life and there is oil  to be found in their sand ! [ At MacDonald , they serve everything for breakfast :dictators, guided democracy, pirates and goons, anything except 'syariah'.]
....and Australia, has recently joined US, as it's latest offshore 'policeman' overlooking millions of Muslims in South East Asia, with an American presence in Darwin and a willing she-poodle in Canberra !

Whether, whether, whether........??

      

By Glenn Greenwald
In one of the most egregious violations of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech seen in quite some time, Tarek Mehanna, an American Muslim, was convicted this week in a federal court in Boston and then sentenced yesterday to 17 years in prison. He was found guilty of supporting Al Qaeda (by virtue of translating Terrorists’ documents into English and expressing “sympathetic views” to the group) as well as conspiring to “murder” U.S. soldiers in Iraq (i.e., to wage war against an invading army perpetrating an aggressive attack on a Muslim nation). I’m still traveling and don’t have much time today to write about the case itself — Adam Serwer several months ago wrote an excellent summary of why the prosecution of Mehanna is such an odious threat to free speech and more background on the case is here, and I’ve written before about the growing criminalization of free speech under the Bush and Obama DOJs, whereby Muslims are prosecuted for their plainly protected political views — but I urge everyone to read something quite amazing: Mehanna’s incredibly eloquent, thoughtful statement at his sentencing hearing, before being given a 17-year prison term.
At some point in the future, I believe history will be quite clear about who the actual criminals are in this case: not Mehanna, but rather the architects of the policies he felt compelled to battle and the entities that have conspired to consign him to a cage for two decades:
________________________

TAREK’S SENTENCING STATEMENT
APRIL 12, 2012
Read to Judge O’Toole during his sentencing, April 12th 2012.

In the name of God the most gracious the most merciful Exactly four years ago this month I was finishing my work shift at a
local hospital. As I was walking to my car I was approached by two federal agents. They said that I had a choice to make: I could do things the easy way, or I could do them the hard way. The “easy ” way, as they explained, was that I would become an informant for the government, and if I did so I would never see the inside of a courtroom or a prison cell. As for the hard way, this is it. Here I
am, having spent the majority of the four years since then in a solitary cell the size of a small closet, in which I am locked down
for 23 hours each day. The FBI and these prosecutors worked very hard-and the government spent millions of tax dollars – to put me in that cell, keep me there, put me on trial, and finally to have me stand here before you today to be sentenced to even more time in a cell.

In the weeks leading up to this moment, many people have offered suggestions as to what I should say to you. Some said I should plead for mercy in hopes of a light sentence, while others suggested I would be hit hard either way. But what I want to do is just talk about myself for a few minutes.

When I refused to become an informant, the government responded by charging me with the “crime” of supporting the mujahideen fighting the occupation of Muslim countries around the world. Or as they like to call them, “terrorists.” I wasn’t born in a Muslim country, though. I was born and raised right here in America and this angers many people: how is it that I can be an American and believe the things I believe, take the positions I take? Everything a man is exposed to in his environment becomes an ingredient that shapes his outlook, and I’m no different. So, in more ways than one, it’s because of America that I am who I am.

When I was six, I began putting together a massive collection of comic books. Batman implanted a concept in my mind, introduced me to a paradigm as to how the world is set up: that there are oppressors, there are the oppressed, and there are those who step up to defend the oppressed. This resonated with me so much that throughout the rest of my childhood, I gravitated towards any book that reflected that paradigm – Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and I even saw an ehical dimension to The Catcher in the Rye.
By the time I began high school and took a real history class, I was learning just how real that paradigm is in the world. I learned about the Native Americans and what befell them at the hands of European settlers. I learned about how the descendents of those European settlers were in turn oppressed under the tyranny of King George III.

I read about Paul Revere, Tom Paine, and how Americans began an armed insurgency against British forces – an insurgency we now celebrate as the American revolutionary war. As a kid I even went on school field trips just blocks away from where we sit now. I learned about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, John Brown, and the fight against slavery in this country. I learned about Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, and the struggles of the labor unions, working class, and poor. I learned about Anne Frank, the Nazis, and how they persecuted minorities and imprisoned dissidents. I learned about Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King,
and the civil rights struggle.
I learned about Ho Chi Minh, and how the Vietnamese fought for decades to liberate themselves from one invader after another. I learned about Nelson Mandela and the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Everything I learned in those years confirmed what I was beginning to learn when I was six: that throughout history, there has been a constant struggle between the oppressed and their oppressors. With each struggle I learned about, I found myself consistently siding with the oppressed, and consistently respecting those who stepped up to defend them -regardless of nationality, regardless of religion. And I never threw my class notes away. As I stand here speaking, they are in a neat pile in my bedroom closet at home.

From all the historical figures I learned about, one stood out above the rest. I was impressed be many things about Malcolm X, but above all, I was fascinated by the idea of transformation, his transformation. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie “X” by Spike Lee, it’s over three and a half hours long, and the Malcolm at the beginning is different from the Malcolm at the end. He starts off as an illiterate criminal, but ends up a husband, a father, a protective and eloquent leader for his people, a disciplined Muslim performing the Hajj in Makkah, and finally, a martyr. Malcolm’s life taught me that Islam is not something inherited; it’s not a culture or ethnicity. It’s a way of life, a state of mind anyone can choose no matter where they come from or how they were raised.
This led me to look deeper into Islam, and I was hooked. I was just a teenager, but Islam answered the question that the greatest scientific minds were clueless about, the question that drives the rich & famous to depression and suicide from being unable to answer: what is the purpose of life? Why do we exist in this Universe? But it also answered the question of how we’re supposed to exist. And since there’s no hierarchy or priesthood, I could directly and immediately begin digging into the texts of the Qur’an and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, to begin the journey of understanding what this was all about, the implications of Islam for me as a human being, as an individual, for the people around me, for the world; and the more I learned, the more I valued Islam like a piece of gold. This was when I was a teen, but even today, despite the pressures of the last few years, I stand here before you, and everyone else in this courtroom, as a very proud Muslim.

With that, my attention turned to what was happening to other Muslims in different parts of the world. And everywhere I looked, I saw the powers that be trying to destroy what I loved. I learned what the Soviets had done to the Muslims of Afghanistan. I learned what the Serbs had done to the Muslims of Bosnia. I learned what the Russians were doing to the Muslims of Chechnya. I learned what Israel had done in Lebanon – and what it continues to do in Palestine – with the full backing of the United States. And I learned what America itself was doing to Muslims. I learned about the Gulf War, and the depleted uranium bombs that killed thousands and caused cancer rates to skyrocket across Iraq.
I learned about the American-led sanctions that prevented food, medicine, and medical equipment from entering Iraq, and how – according to the United Nations – over half a million children perished as a result. I remember a clip from a ’60 Minutes‘ interview of Madeline Albright where she expressed her view that these dead children were “worth it.” I watched on September 11th as a group of people felt driven to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings from their outrage at the deaths of these children. I watched as America then attacked and invaded Iraq directly. I saw the effects of ’Shock & Awe’ in the opening day of the invasion – the children in hospital wards with shrapnel from American missiles sticking but of their foreheads (of course, none of this was shown on CNN).

I learned about the town of Haditha, where 24 Muslims – including a 76-year old man in a wheelchair, women, and even toddlers – were shot up and blown up in their bedclothes as the slept by US Marines. I learned about Abeer al-Janabi, a fourteen-year old Iraqi girl gang-raped by five American soldiers, who then shot her and her family in the head, then set fire to their corpses. I just want to point out, as you can see, Muslim women don’t even show their hair to unrelated men. So try to imagine this young girl from a conservative village with her dress torn off, being sexually assaulted by not one, not two, not three, not four, but five soldiers. Even today, as I sit in my jail cell, I read about the drone strikes which continue to kill Muslims daily in places like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Just last month, we all heard about the seventeen Afghan Muslims – mostly mothers and their kids – shot to death by an American soldier, who also set fire to their corpses.
These are just the stories that make it to the headlines, but one of the first concepts I learned in Islam is that of loyalty, of
brotherhood – that each Muslim woman is my sister, each man is my brother, and together, we are one large body who must protect each other. In other words, I couldn’t see these things beings done to my brothers & sisters – including by America – and remain neutral. My sympathy for the oppressed continued, but was now more personal, as was my respect for those defending them.

I mentioned Paul Revere – when he went on his midnight ride, it was for the purpose of warning the people that the British were marching to Lexington to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, then on to Concord to confiscate the weapons stored there by the Minuteman. By the time they got to Concord, they found the Minuteman waiting for them, weapons in hand. They fired at the British, fought them, and beat them. From that battle came the American Revolution. There’s an Arabic word to describe what those Minutemen did that day. That word is: JIHAD, and this is what my trial was about.
All those videos and translations and childish bickering over ‘Oh, he translated this paragraph’ and ‘Oh, he edited that sentence,’ and all those exhibits revolved around a single issue: Muslims who were defending themselves against American soldiers doing to them exactly what the British did to America. It was made crystal clear at trial that I never, ever plotted to “kill Americans” at shopping malls or whatever the story was. The government’s own witnesses contradicted this claim, and we put expert after expert up on that stand, who spent hours dissecting my every written word, who explained my beliefs. Further, when I was free, the government sent an undercover agent to prod me into one of their little “terror plots,” but I refused to participate. Mysteriously, however, the jury never heard this.

So, this trial was not about my position on Muslims killing American civilians. It was about my position on Americans killing Muslim civilians, which is that Muslims should defend their lands from foreign invaders – Soviets, Americans, or Martians. This is what I believe. It’s what I’ve always believed, and what I will always believe. This is not terrorism, and it’s not extremism. It’s what the arrows on that seal above your head represent: defense of the homeland. So, I disagree with my lawyers when they say that you don’t have to agree with my beliefs – no. Anyone with commonsense and humanity has no choice but to agree with me. If someone breaks into your home to rob you and harm your family, logic dictates that you do whatever it takes to expel that invader from your home.
But when that home is a Muslim land, and that invader is the US military, for some reason the standards suddenly change. Common sense is renamed ”terrorism” and the people defending themselves against those who come to kill them from across the ocean become “the terrorists” who are ”killing Americans.” The mentality that America was victimized with when British soldiers walked these streets 2 ½ centuries ago is the same mentality Muslims are victimized by as American soldiers walk their streets today. It’s the mentality of colonialism.

When Sgt. Bales shot those Afghans to death last month, all of the focus in the media was on him-his life, his stress, his PTSD, the mortgage on his home-as if he was the victim. Very little sympathy was expressed for the people he actually killed, as if they’re not real, they’re not humans. Unfortunately, this mentality trickles down to everyone in society, whether or not they realize it. Even with my lawyers, it took nearly two years of discussing, explaining, and clarifying before they were finally able to think outside the box and at least ostensibly accept the logic in what I was saying. Two years! If it took that long for people so intelligent, whose job it is to defend me, to de-program themselves, then to throw me in front of a randomly selected jury under the premise that they’re my “impartial peers,” I mean, come on. I wasn’t tried before a jury of my peers because with the mentality gripping America today, I have no peers. Counting on this fact, the government prosecuted me – not because they needed to, but simply because they could.

I learned one more thing in history class: America has historically supported the most unjust policies against its minorities – practices that were even protected by the law – only to look back later and ask: ’what were we thinking?’ Slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of the Japanese during World War II – each was widely accepted by American society, each was defended by the Supreme Court. But as time passed and America changed, both people and courts looked back and asked ’What were we thinking?’ Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the South African government, and given a life sentence. But time passed, the world changed, they realized how oppressive their policies were, that it was not he who was the terrorist, and they released him from prison. He even became president. So, everything is subjective - even this whole business of “terrorism” and who is a “terrorist.” It all depends on the time and place and who the superpower happens to be at the moment.

In your eyes, I’m a terrorist, and it’s perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I’m the one going to prison for “conspiring to kill and maim” in those countries – because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a ”terrorist,” yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the “terrorists” are, she sure wouldn’t be pointing at me.

The government says that I was obsessed with violence, obsessed with ”killing Americans.” But, as a Muslim living in these times, I can think of a lie no more ironic.

-Tarek Mehanna, 

4/12/12

Related articles on the blog :


First Gulf War,
 http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-gulf-war-revisited.html

America, Please Go Home !
[ the best one hour interview clowns like President Bush and Lord Blair et al should listen  and give some thots to...]
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2010/11/please-americago-home.html


War of Terror, The Muslim View
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/search/label/Empire