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  • buzz 12:29 pm on December 8, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , , , , kooks, , , Radical Right   

    “Exposé” of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s secrets by the American Stinker and Campus Watch

    “Shaykh Hamza” was long known as one of the most outspoken Muslim radicals in America. Two days before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Hanson, speaking in Southern California, declared that America stood “condemned” and “unfortunately has a great, great tribulation coming to it.” This diatribe, reported in The Washington Post on October 2, 2001, was delivered at a benefit dinner for the prominent black nationalist known in the 1960s as H. Rap Brown, and later as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who is now serving a life term without parole at the U.S. federal prison in Florence, Colorado, for murdering a police officer in Georgia (among other charges). The dinner was advertised on an Islamist website, NetMuslims.com.

    It goes on….

     

    • abunoor 4:26 pm on December 8, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Obviously Shaykh Hamza Yusuf could hope for no better praise than to be criticzed by some one like Stephen Schwartz.

      I find, the longstanding criticism of Shaykh Hamza by Mr. Schwartz to be particularly bizarre in its intensity, personal nature and in other aspects (seems to be underlying critique of Shaykh’s Hamza’s level of knowledge which coming from a character like Schwartz is laughable). Look to his descriptions of Imam Zaid as well in this article. Just bizarre.

  • buzz 2:23 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , kooks, ,   

    Colonel Gaddafi preaches Islam to 200 glamour girls

    Colonel Gaddafi has lived up to his reputation for eccentric behaviour by lecturing 200 attractive young glamour models on the benefits of Islam.

    The Libyan leader paid the women to attend the bizarre meeting on the fringes of a global food summit in Rome where he subjected them to a solemn discourse on the role of Muslim women. The models, who had been told they were attending a party, were recruited from an agency which hires out pretty young women to act as “hostesses” for conferences and conventions.

    An advertisement placed by the Hostessweb agency read: “Seeking attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old, at least 1.7 metres (5 foot, 7 inches) tall, well-dressed but not in miniskirts or low cut dresses.” High heels and fur coats were allowed, but plunging necklines were out, the agency said.

    (More …)

     

  • buzz 6:52 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: charismatics, , kooks, , ,   

    article by Rachel Aspden

    article by Rachel Aspden

     This is a long piece in the Guardian UK. There are some encouraging aspects to the article and some that, to me, are not so good.

    My journey to the heart of Islam

    What is life like in a madrasa and why are young western women drawn to a life of strict religious discipline?

     

     

    • Len 7:42 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      There are some encouraging aspects to the article and some that, to me, are not so good.

      Such as? (I’m curious to hear the resident sufis’ opinions on this.)

      • buzz 8:27 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        I am one of several Sufi salekeen here so I am happy to offer my opinion fwiw…

        I like that this program, like IAS.org and Zaytuna have traditional Islamic studies mixed in with Zikr and science of the heart (often known as “ilm-e-qalb”). This legitimizes sufism as the serious and valid study that it is. Sufism is the heart of Islam from the beginning, but Sufism is not stranger to deviants and charlatans just like the orthodox paths suffer from.

        I also like the some of these women who have been drinking and partying come to their own free conclusions that the party lifestyle is an empty freedom. That is true and sort of where western culture is now. Sex, Drugs and RnR has been done ad naus…..Something new.

        What I find questionable, and I have read about the same herd mentality behavior going on in other far flung western enclaves in Arab countries, is the cultish charismatic worship of the pirs. The groveling and gooning after discarding teas for baraka, it makes me wonder about the leaders a little bit.

        There is almost always some fact in all fictions. It is true that a pir becomes a beloved and a complete surrogate for the Divine on the Path of love. This is a very delicate and important stage for Sufis. It is very individual and unique to the Pir (guide) and the salek ( follower). Belief and love are the most powerful tools in the saleks assets for progressing along the path.

        Institutionalizing the behavior is cultish and misses the real point of love and devotion earned from a deep and rich relationship between two people. It is the job of the pir to end that kind of mistake among his or her group. Some do it by making the path of love very hard to earn, some do it by avoiding it altogether and fronting more on the scholarly side and waiting for love to show up spontaneously (as it should).

        It worries me when it is ignored and makes me think that having big numbers of people around is important and shows deep compromise or corruption. Or that is how I see it.

        • Len 8:56 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          What I find questionable, and I have read about the same herd mentality behavior going on in other far flung western enclaves in Arab countries, is the cultish charismatic worship of the pirs. The groveling and gooning after discarding teas for baraka, it makes me wonder about the leaders a little bit.

          This is the sort of thing I was curious about. I’m aware Sufism is diverse and there are always bad apples, but I was wondering about the pervasiveness of this kind of behavior…

          • Buzz 9:06 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

            There is a very fine line between right and wrong. This looks wrong to me given they have never even met this guy before. Baraka is true but it is a very intricate and layered reality. It is a deep secret in Sufism.

      • shams 4:20 am on October 24, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Well….I never was a huge party grrl…I have always been a geekess…..but what seduced me was the intellutual discipline of al-Islam.
        I took ballet from the age of 5…..it is more like that, the discipline, the training….the protocol. You give up some things to dance well.
        bi la kayfah

  • buzz 3:41 pm on August 3, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , kooks, munafiqun, ,   

    _1571144_bladenafp150

    Kooks & Criminals #1

    This is the 1st installment in an inward looking series to find the lame and limping in the Muslim community and create discussion and solicit suggestions for a cure.

    Wahhabi incites persecution of Sufis in Sri Lanka:

    Lankan police hunt for Muslim preacher from TN
    P K Balachandran
    First Published : 03 Aug 2009 04:34:00 AM IST

    COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police are looking for Kovai Ayoob, a controversial Islamic preacher from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
    The hunt assumes significance in the context of a clash on July 24 between fundamentalist Tawheed Jamaath and moderate Sufis in the western coastal town of Beruwela in which two persons were killed.

    Immigration Controller P A Abeykoon told The Sunday Times that he had asked the police to catch Ayoob. As per Ayoob’s visa he is a tourist, but violating the rules he was propagating, through public speeches, the ideas of the radical Wahabist Tawheed Jamaath in Sri Lanka and creating tension between the fundamentalists and the traditional sufis.

    Ayoob’s plan to be present at a religious gathering in Kalmunai in the Eastern Province last Friday was called off because of the police hunt. But his speech for the occasion, delivered over the phone, was broadcast with loudspeakers.

    In 2006, another radical Islamic preacher from Tamil Nadu, P Jainulabdeen, popularly known as PJ, was deported for creating sectarian tension in Colombo. Recently, in Ottamavadi in the eastern province, the moulvi of one sect had the moulvi of another sect abducted.

    In Beruwela on July 24, the moulvi of the Tawheed/Wahabi Masjidur Rahman mosque publicly dubbed the moulvi of the Sufi Bukari Thakkiya mosque and his congregation as kafirs (rejectors of Islam) because the latter were holding a “Kanduri” feast in honour of a Muslim saint. In the clash that followed, two persons were killed. More than 130 are currently under detention for rioting.

    The Wahabis condemn the deification of human beings, however saintly they might have been. They also consider holding feasts, with music and other forms of merriment, in honour of saints as utterly un-Islamic. However, most Muslims in Sri Lanka, being under the influence of South Indian Islam, believe in the worship of saints and observe their anniversaries with feasts.

    SURRENDER ARMS: The DIG of the Eastern Province, Edison Gunatilleke, extended the deadline for the surrender of arms by Muslim militants. He believes that there are about 300 Muslim militants in Sri Lanka, most of them operating in the Eastern Districts of Batticaloa and Amparai.

    Police believe that some of these militants have links with Saudi Arabia-inspired young Islamic scholars. They could also be part of the underworld in Colombo and also be working for Muslim political leaders.

    A great comment followed:

    Islam is a religion which preaches PEACE and CHARITY. If there is anybody propagating conflict he should be decapitated in the market place. I am Sure Sri lanka people will solve this problem

     

    • thabet 12:14 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      This is the 1st installment in an inward looking series to find the lame and limping in the Muslim community and create discussion and solicit suggestions for a cure.

      The problems and their solutions are different in different parts of the world, because they are tired to their context.

      Western Muslims (like us) have different problems to those in Syria or Pakistan or Sri Lanka. I prefer we fixed our problems rather than lecture others about the magical “cure” that will fix their lives.

      • Buzz Kill 12:18 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Westerners don’t have problems with their Islam. We have problems with our politicians and our foreign policy. We can talk about that. We should.

        I am talking about the Muslim community. It needs some introspection. I cannot turn a blind eye to the corrupt elements. They are there. And they’re my responsibility as much as George Bush is.

      • Buzz Kill 1:34 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        I prefer we fixed our problems rather than lecture others about the magical “cure” that will fix their lives.

        Let me add that I have no intention of lecturing muslims from other nations how to fix their problems. I wouldn’t presume. That is really their own business.

        I wish that many countries were better able to separate religious and political issues. That would be better for them to focus on which politician can build schools and improve incomes rather than who can kill more infidels or kafirs.

        Just like any kook or criminal in the west, a neocon or a evangelist preacher, peoples’ influences need to be weeded out of our cultures. I think it is time to condemn and show intolerance from the middle towards the extremes that say it is OK to blow each other up.

      • Buzz Kill 3:18 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Finally:

        Western Muslims (like us) ….

        Well, there is Western and there is western.
        I am invested in this culture. I was born here and I believe in its fundamental goodness. I’m a Westerner.
        Then there are those that live in the West, raise their families and live out their lives here in the West, yet emotionally, they have their heart elsewhere. Some real or imagined homeland they have emigrated from long ago and they remain sour like some unwilling but self-imposed refugee.
        Thankless bastards.

        We do not want government inteference in every avenue of our lives or in our religious discourses, do we? So what do Blair’s critics propose in this case? A government vetted Islam? No thanks. It is only Muslims who can rescue the hijacking of Islamic terminology, beliefs, practices and tenants from extremists amongst us, or from those bigoted elements in the media, whether to the left or right of the political spectrum.

        – under|progress

    • Shams al-Nahar 8:21 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      But Buzz…this is a problem with all CSSs…..fundamentalism. When a CSS comes under threat from mutant strategies from outside you get a retreat to fundamentalist beliefs including severe punishment for defection, message purity, millenialism, etc.
      The fact that it is often Sufis is partly because the fundamentalists recognize Sufi memes are both more attractive and more liberal than fundamentalist memes.
      The other reason Sufis are often targetted is the same reason that Jews are targetted…a club that is very hard to join…and that is percieved to hold an attitude of superiorty to outsiders.
      The best defense against a retreat to fundamentalism is the Qur’an itself, and the protocols that the Prophet designed for how muslims should treat each other.

      • Shams al-Nahar 8:24 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        I should say….the protocols the Real Most High designed, and the Prophet voiced to the people. ;)

        • Buzz Kill 11:30 am on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          Nope. I do not accept your explanation. I believe that fundamentalism is mostly an innate strategy as is mysticism like Sufism. I cannot think of an example where a person switched these camps.

          You hear of PLENTY of examples where a fundamentalist deprogrammed and went totally atheist and hedonist. That should tell you something.

          Basically, I think there are two tribes (as best I can to stay near your parlance): Bani Unity and Bani Separation.

          The first tribe sees everything and everyone as connected. They do not follow the selfish gene or selfish meme protocol except that there is one Gene and one Meme to which they are totally submitted.

          The second tribe believes they are broken off and separated from the rest of Existence and they see differences and gaps everywhere. They temporarily presume they are an absolutely unique and privileged creation high above the other sub-levels of creation. They are fire.

          Tribe 1 threatens Tribe 2′s delusion. So they try to kill tribe 2 before the cognitive dissonance becomes too threatening.

          • Buzz Kill 2:10 pm on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

            Make that T2 tries to kill off T1…

          • Shams al-Nahar 5:51 pm on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply

            hmm…..i am going to have to work out an elegant and intellectually devastating counter rich with quranic references and quotes from Dr. Boyer….but in the meantime….
            the realms are up and patch 3.2 is live!
            l8r

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