Posts by Merry Magdalene

25

Google earth adds Crises in Darfur, you must check this out

by needproof in

jw
friends

anybody not yet familiar with google earth should try it, www.earth.google.com - offers maps and satellite images for complex or pinpointed regional searches.

recently google have added satellite shots of sudan, where a mass genocide is taking place whilst we go to bed each night in our safe and sound environments (relatively).

up to 300,000 people dead so far - why the hell doesn't blair or bush do something about this seeing as though they are so beset with helping other people (bs)... .

Merry Magdalene

http://www.afrol.com/articles/13921

The population of Darfur is presently, as the UN puts it, suffering from "the world's worst humanitarian crisis." It is well documented that the Khartoum government bares much of the responsibility for this immense suffering, which the UN calls "ethnic cleansing" and the US yesterday called "genocide". It is however also well documented that the US through its closest African allies, helped train the SLA and JEM Darfuri rebels that initiated Khartoum's violent reaction, as afrol News reported on Tuesday.

While the US and UK governments are urging the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Sudan due to Khartoum's "acts of genocide" and to stop the humanitarian crisis, many Asian and African countries are sceptical to the sudden rush to condemn Khartoum. They suspect that the real interests behind the proposed sanctions and opening for the use of military force against Sudan is motivated by other than humanitarian motives to meet the Darfur crisis - a crisis which the West actually helped create.

After all, Sudan is believed to hold Africa's greatest unexploited oil resources, even greater than those of the Gulf of Guinea. US oil companies are barred from operating in Sudan and other Western companies are chased from the country by the Washington administration. The Canadian oil company Talisman Energy is even facing charges of "complicity in genocide and war crimes" in a US court due to its past engagements in Sudan. At present, Asian oil companies dominate the field in Sudan.

http://www.energybulletin.net/925.html

The fighting in Sudan's Darfur region, which is being reported in the world press as 'ethnic cleansing' and a 'humanitarian crisis', reportedly stems from attempts to gain control over the oil resources in the region, claim Arab sources.

These Arab sources find it interesting that such skirmishes occurred when a peace agreement that would have brought an end to 21 years of north-south conflict was about to be signed. The sources point out that oil fields have recently been discovered in Darfur.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1503470,00.html

A millionaire British businessman, Friedhelm Eronat, was named last night as the purchaser of oil rights in the Darfur region of Sudan, where the regime is accused of war crimes and where millions of tribespeople are alleged to have been forced to flee, amid mass rapes or murders.
....Documents seen by the Guardian suggest that Mr Eronat, who lives in a £20m house in Chelsea, swapped his US passport for a British one shortly before the deal was signed with the Sudan regime in October 2003.
US citizens are barred from dealing with Sudan under sanctions dating from 1997.
The disclosure that Britain is serving as a base for questionable African oil transactions comes in the run-up to the July G8 summit at Gleneagles, at which Tony Blair's central theme will be the need to help Africa.
The documents show that Mr Eronat may have been acting for China, which has been prominent in the new "scramble for Africa" and its oil deposits. Two Chinese corporations were given an option to buy 50% of Mr Eronat's newly acquired stake in the Darfur field. The option expired last year. It is not known whether China took it up

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/1265/2007/02/7-174635-1.htm

"The main reason behind Darfur is oil. There is no other reason for this area to have blown like this," the LA Times quotes an oil industry consultant who's involved with some of Sudan's major oil companies. The consultant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says it's going to get worse.

http://www.anti-imperialism.net/lai/texte.php?langue=3§ion=BQ&id=24868

When dealing with modern imperialism, the solution to the mystery is likely to be found on the principle of cherchez l'essence – look for the oil. And sure enough it turned out that Darfur was harbouring substantial oil deposits. It is also rich in natural gas and in uranium. It now turns out that the oil deposits in question are likely to rival in size and extent those of Saudi Arabia.

Having been caught with its greedy fingers round the cookie jar, US imperialism is now trying to claim that actually it is the members of the Sudanese government who are the greedy ones. However, the true picture is that the Sudanese government is working to suppress rebellions fomented in the region by US imperialism.

~Merry

147

Merry Becomes A Muslim (a bit long)

by Merry Magdalene in

who is merry?

i was born in 1965, the same year that malcolm x was assassinated.

my father had committed suicide a few months into my mother's pregnancy so we lived with her parents until she married again when i was about 18 months old.

Merry Magdalene

Thanks, Jelcat, for your input. Very interesting. And I appreciate your trying to make the point about blood again.

Abaddon:
I don't think I missed any point about menstration Merry. I know there are other parts of the cleaning routine for men and women, it's just Allah, in contradiction to all known medical science, thinks a menstrating women CANNOT be clean. Or do you think menstrating surgeons take a day off to avoid infecting their patients with girl cooties? Y es, I do deliberately try to make it sound ludicous; because it IS. Not Islam being ludicrous, but thinking Allah can be guilty of such silliness being ludicrous.

Honestly, there is nothing in Islam indicating that there should be any superstitious fear or disgust toward menstruation any more than any other cause of bleeding! Islam does not promote ignorant superstitions but warns people against them. Surgery is fine while menstruating, just not formal prayer, because one cannot wash for prayer after bleeding if one is continuing to bleed. Surgery has different cleanliness requirements than Salat. That is all.

I think we should. The lies of (big-C literalistic) Creationists of both Christian and Islamic persuasion make many sincere people think ANY acceptence of evoluton as rejection of god. Such an opinion is the result of a total misrepresentation of evolution by those same Creationists.

I am interested in exploring this more as it is a topic I know little about. From what I have been able to discern so far it seems to me that some creationists got drawn into a false debate against evolution due to claims made by both materialists (trying to use evolution to disprove God and creation) and other creationists (trying to do the opposite). One of Allah's names is translated "the Evolver" so I have no problem with the idea of creation through evolution. My problem is with saying that everything came from nothing or was just always here, without a Creator that exists outside time and space and beyond our comprehension. I recently was researching the entropy versus evolution debate and found that my own uninformed opinion may well have been quite mistaken on that. I am still reading.

So you DON'T hold Sunni views about the Mahdi? ALthough your comments NOW show it is not neccesarilly an immediate hope, you do realise before I mentioned it, it did sound like it was very soon. Interesting (and I'd fully expect you to point out such things about me :-)

Sorry, I didn't intend to make it sound soon. Some Muslims do feel this way due to various "signs." I prefer to cultivate a sense of readiness that comes from not knowing when, just as I don't know when my own death will come, so it is best to do all we can right here and right now. And all I said was that no one mentioned the Mahdi in my quote, nor did I. You were reacting to something that wasn't there.

I do feel valued equally.
Maybe if you lived in Turkey or Iran, you'd feel differently. Maybe you feel valued equally because you are isolated from any Muslim community and can approach Islam as an anchorite (female hermit), interpret it in your own way, and not be forced on a daily basis to experience it as your sisters in Islam do. Prehaps your feeling of equality would be tempered if you actually had experience of dealing with 'born-in' MUslim males.

I am glad that Jelcat addressed her own experience with this as I have none of my own other than on-line. I don't recall the context of my above statement, but I don't think I meant that I feel valued equally by men (which is not of primary importance to me) but by God, as expressed through the Qur'an. I know how men can be. I grew up around males who often made a point of letting me know that females are inferior to males, and none of them were Muslims and not all of them were religious in any way. I watched with great interest a documentary by a Muslim woman called The Mosque and Me (I think) that looked into some of the male prejudice against females in mosques throughout Canada and America. She also spoke to a Muslim scholar who showed that such mens' prejudice was not supported by the Qur'an or the Sunnah and should be corrected.

Thanks for the on-going discussion. Some people don't like to debate with me IRL, thinking I want them to immediately capitulate and agree with everything I say or else shut up. I don't. How can you ever get to the meat and marrow of things that way? Best wishes for a good week.

~Merry

31

Are you a "Leader" or a "Follower"?

by JH in

jw
friends

i'm a "loner", so no one is following me, and i'm not following anyone.. maybe i tend slightly towards being a follower, but it better be worth my time, or i'll be back to a loner once more.

.

Merry Magdalene

Sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes neither.

~Merry

15

Ex-jw, inactive mormon, and now what?

by olvidado in

jw
friends

after 4 years of having lurking through this forum (except one time that i asked an username and used it once),i have decided to participate in this.

i am spanish, i have been living in a small town in the north of spain almos my whole life (except one year in leicester-england), but currently i am lving in germany.

my story: i have been brought up in a catholic family, but the religion was never important in my familiy.

Merry Magdalene

Welcome Olvidado. Thak you for sharing your interesting experiences with us. I hope you enjoy it here and find much benefit.

~Merry

142

The Need To Question Atheism

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

the need to question atheism this need to question atheism stems from the fact there are some individuals.

on this board that subscribe to such.

the questions stated are not for some.

Merry Magdalene

I have heard many athiests claim that if only God would reveal God's self to humanity with obvious proof (also claiming this would be a very simple thing) they would no longer be athiests. But I have long disagreed, suspecting that many would still not believe in God but would sooner assume that someone was just pulling an elaborate trick, a grand illusion, or else that they themselves had gone insane and therefore could not trust their own perceptions. The Qur'an says the same thing.

In imagining this occuring, I think there would be some God-believers who would feel the same way about this manifestation as atheists and would not be certain if it could be trusted as real. There would be others, believer and non-believer, who would accept it.

Interesting to ponder. On what are our assumptions about reality based? What challenges those assumtions? How do we respond to those challenges? And why?

~Merry

11

The Lucifer Effect--Understanding How Good People Turn Evil--Phil Zimbardo

by blondie in

jw
friends

my first exposure to psychology was reading one of phil zimbardo's books after seeing his series on a pbs station.

you might remember him from the stanford prison experiment.. the above is his new book that i plan on getting.

he also spoke at mit and the webcast is here:.

Merry Magdalene

Thanks Blondie. That looks worth reading. If I remember correctly, the results of that prison experiment were quite chilling. This could shed a lot of light on current horror stories.

~Merry

147

Merry Becomes A Muslim (a bit long)

by Merry Magdalene in

who is merry?

i was born in 1965, the same year that malcolm x was assassinated.

my father had committed suicide a few months into my mother's pregnancy so we lived with her parents until she married again when i was about 18 months old.

Merry Magdalene

Did you all give up on me? Sorry I haven't had time to finish up here.

LittleToe: There's a marked difference between justice and mercy, Fortunately, Allah is Merciful as well as Just. http://www.understanding-islam.com/related/text.asp?type=article&aid=44

Thank you for your fair-minded remarks, Zagor.

Hi tij! No, I haven't written any lyrics for a while. It comes and it goes. I did find a couple poems yesterday that quite touched me, though-- the last two on this page (Lam Aleph and Imagine): Mideast Youth . So, what did the Muslim boy say to ask me?

He does have a penchant for rainbows, though
'and rainbows always turn to grey'...... m. y'tara 2006
Silver is just another shade of grey
You peeked at my hair, didn't you!?.....................................................................................

As to the Dispatches Undercover Mosque series shown on YouTube, here is the response of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia London. Don't feel sorry for me! Ignorance, intolerence and bigotry are to be encountered everywhere, on both sides of the fence (among Muslims and among non-Muslims). It is part of the human condition. There are many other reasons you could feel sorry for me, but I would rather you didn't. There is no need. Feel sorry for abused and oppressed women of all religions or none everywhere in the world. I am not one of them, but I hope somehow I will be able to stand up for what is right and help them.

Bernadette:
If I were to turn to Islam then I like to think it would be the mystical Sufi, although the Whirling Dervishes are perhaps a little OTT for my tastes
Yeah your right LT ....scottish dancing is more sedate
Oh, the mental pictures...it's too much!!! Thanks for the bright spot in my day

Have a great weekend everyone!!! ~Merry

25

Should Britain Build a £100m Mosque for the Olympics?

by LittleToe in

a poll is being taken by the british newspaper "the evening standard" as to whether or not britain should invest 100m in a new mosque for the olympics.

i have to admit i'm a little confused as to why folks would desire to have their tax money invested in paying for a religious building, given that religions are already tax free.

i don't see a similar offfer to build a new cathedral, synagogue or hindu temple, nor would i want to.

Merry Magdalene

Quick update:

The Mayor of London today revealed an organised email campaign around an online poll being conducted by the Evening Standard aimed at stirring up communal hatred by spreading entirely false statements about plans for a new mosque in East London. These included a totally untrue claim that the Mayor was planning to spend £100 million of public money on the mosque when there are no plans to spend any public money at all on the mosque.
--http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=11471

~Merry

147

Merry Becomes A Muslim (a bit long)

by Merry Magdalene in

who is merry?

i was born in 1965, the same year that malcolm x was assassinated.

my father had committed suicide a few months into my mother's pregnancy so we lived with her parents until she married again when i was about 18 months old.

Merry Magdalene

I only have a moment but wanted to say thanks to KW. I'm glad to have had the chance to "meet" you here at JWD. My best to you and yours.

Abaddon, I feel you missed the point about menstruation being only one of the things we are required to purify ourselves after and before we pray. Why is that the only one that bothers you? Because it has been treated with unhealthy regard by other religions? It is not viewed the same way in Islam (or isn't supposed to be; I can't speak to the attitudes of every Muslim in every culture; some of us do still hold on to non-Islamic attitudes).

You seem to feel the Qur'an IS reliable. Yes.

If you are interested we can talk about these topic (evolution and whether the Qur'an is inspired) in another thread. Cool. I look forward to a chance to explore this topic more, whether on another thread or on my own.

You unavoidably do pass an implicit judgement (by, for example, questioning their motives) even if you are a nice enough human being not to make it explicit. I am truly not trying judge anyone (including myself), but when I observe things with which I do not agree, I feel a call to self-reflection and I try to express the hope that others will do the same. I believe we can question motives without judging them. We are doing a lot of that on this thread, imo.

Our enslavement to God in turn means that we have to suppress many of our souls’ desires and inclinations. Therein lies one of the greatest secrets to unleashing our real human potential. This is so because it is our human potential that separates us from the rest of this creation, and it is to the extent that we are able to conquer our physical nature that we realize that spiritual potential.
Now is the time to give ourselves to our Lord, totally. The trials and tribulations we are currently witnessing will only intensify as we move closer to the end of time
Oh please not the Mahdi. Please, do two things for me. Find the Qur'anic reference to the Mahdi. You probably already know I know that you almost cetainly know there isn't any.
No one mentioned the Mahdi, only the end of time.

Second, ponder on why you are now believing in what you were brought up to believe. You come from a background with Millenialist beliefs. You have adopted a school of Islam with similar beliefs. "The world is a terrible place and will end soon. God/Allah will make it better". Do you see a pattern here? Maybe you have been drawn to a 'solution' you LIKE or are subconsciously drawn to, rather than one which is obviously 'true' in comparison to other beliefs. In Islam I have found no promise that the end will come soon, only that it will come, maybe soon, maybe a long long time from now. We must be fully engaged now in doing what is right and contributing to making the world a better place to the extent that we can, while yet being glad that this is not all there is. I was raised as a JW with isolation from almost everything and the hope that I might never have to die. I liked that a lot. Who really wants to die? When I left JWs I didn't give up that hope but pursued it through my research into the legends of the human immortals of India, China and Ireland. When I gave that up for Christianity, there was still an escape clause that Jesus made it possible that I might not have to die (if I squinted just right while reading the associated scriptures). But in Islam I had to finally give up my most cherished desire, for the Qur'an explicitly states that everyone must taste death. ("No one here here get's out alive.") Maybe I have a subconscious death wish, but I don't think so.

How much submission is here in going after your own desires? I'm not saying that to be mean, but to trigger self-analysis.I don't think you're mean at all. I am frequently trying to examine my desires, but they are often deeply hidden.

The quotation about female Imams is rife with error; just as evolutionism has nothing to do with the god existing or not, so to feminism has nothing to do with god existing or not. It very elegantly tries to turn the tables so the discussion is not about equality with men but about having value to god, but neglects the fact that many traditional Islamic ways show god does not value men and women equally; not as different equals (which is what they are), but as different in-equals. I disagree. And I do feel valued equally.

Like I say, if it's about your subconscious yearning for something clear-cut and certain that promises an end to the problems of the world, then it ain't submission to god but a form of shirk, with your own desires being the idol (even if you're not aware of it). I hope not, but I pray that if I am committing shirk it will be revealed to me more clearly. The self-examination continues...

All the best Merry, a pleasure discussing things with you. Likewise. I find your point of view very interesting, challenging and worth considering. I hope we both benefit.

~Merry

147

Merry Becomes A Muslim (a bit long)

by Merry Magdalene in

who is merry?

i was born in 1965, the same year that malcolm x was assassinated.

my father had committed suicide a few months into my mother's pregnancy so we lived with her parents until she married again when i was about 18 months old.

Merry Magdalene

Abaddon, I always feel a mixture of dread and delight when you show up.

As an educated moden woman, how do you integrate your understanding of natural processes of the female body (like menstration) with Qur'anic et. al. dictats on this?

Allah obviously made women to bleed. We know this is nothing fearful or dirty. Yet women cannot "participarte in he performance of prayers" whilst menstrating. This is about as logical as a command from god as men not being able to pray whilst undergoing spermatogenesis, yet given the very frequent fear of menstration in primative cultures such as Islam stemmed from (and Judaism too) it is all to logical that a man might think this. Yes, menstruation is natural and not fearful, but I would argue that it is dirty. Not in the sense of bad, shameful, evil, or contaminating to men, but in the most natural sense. Before prayer, men and women are both required to cleanse themselves after sleeping, defecating, urinating, vomiting, bleeding or oozing from a wound, etc. So why is it unfair for women to not be able to pray until after they stop bleeding (both menstrual and post-partum) and are able to cleanse themselves? As well as showing respect to Allah, from my own experience I would say it is a kindness and a mercy to be exempt from fasting and from salat prayer at those times. And we can still make du'a prayer. http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/w_islam/impur.htm

And female Imams; if women are equal, why don't we them?I think it is because there is no Prophetic tradition that can be pointed to for having women lead men in prayer (many agree that they can lead other women in prayer, and some say they can also lead unqualified men in prayer within their own households) and there are some proofs for why they should not. I have not done much research on it as it has been a non-issue for me. There are some who are pushing for this. I wonder why. Is it for the sake of Allah or for their own sake? By asking these questions I do not believe I am judging women for wanting this or wanting not to wear hijab. It is simply a reminder that as Muslims we must always question our own motives in order to purify ourselves, and we must encourage each other to do this as well. I feel that there are very important, legitimate issues of oppression and discrimination that should be addressed, but I do not think this is one of them.

When Imam Shakir was addressing this issue here, I liked this point:

Islam has never advocated a liberationist philosophy. Our fulfillment in this life will never come as the result of breaking real or perceived chains of oppression. That does not mean that we should not struggle against oppressive practices and institutions. However, when we understand that success in such worldly struggles has nothing to do with our fulfillment as human beings, we will be able to keep those struggles in perspective, and not be moved to frustration or despair when their outcomes are counter to our plans.
Our fulfillment does not lie in our liberation, rather it lies in the conquest of our soul and its base desires That conquest only occurs through our enslavement to God. Our enslavement to God in turn means that we have to suppress many of our souls’ desires and inclinations. Therein lies one of the greatest secrets to unleashing our real human potential. This is so because it is our human potential that separates us from the rest of this creation, and it is to the extent that we are able to conquer our physical nature that we realize that spiritual potential.
We must all realize that we will never achieve any meaningful change in our situation relying on our own meager resources. The great sage Ibn ‘Ata Allah as-Sakandari has said, "Nothing you seek through your Lord will ever be difficult; and nothing you seek through yourself will ever be easy." 77 Now is the time to give ourselves to our Lord, totally. The trials and tribulations we are currently witnessing will only intensify as we move closer to the end of time. If we are not living for our Lord, relying on His guidance and help, and trusting in His wisdom, we will find it very difficult to negotiate our way through this world.
When we live for our Lord it becomes easy to live with each other. If in our personal relations we can come to embody the spirit of mutual love, mercy and affection, encouraged by our Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, we will be able to make a beautiful and lasting contribution towards the uplift of men and women alike. The times we live in cry out for such a contribution. The question is, "Who will respond?"

Isn't it all a but 'all are equal but some are less equal than others' double-speak? You will probably continue to feel this way no matter what I say, and I will continue to feel otherwise. I only hope none of us will let our perspective on this obscure the more important issues that need to be addressed. I am sure you feel that 'equal but different' and 'equity not equality' are just more ways of masking unfairness while I feel that they are ways of explaining a fairness that many just don't like. Here is another quote I like, taken from a discussion on female Imams: (sorry I couldn't change the font size)

What we so often forget is that God has honored women by giving them value in relation to God - not in relation to men. But as Western feminism erases God from the scene, there is no standard left but men. As a result, the Western feminist is forced to find her value in relation to a man. And in so doing, she has accepted a faulty assumption. She has accepted that man is the standard, and thus a woman can never be a full human being until she becomes just like a man-the standard.

Very interesting to read you past experiences. I find it especially interesting you were interested in paganism and Wicca, both of which seem at poles to your current beliefs. Thanks. Yes, very different. No one could be more surprised at my changes than me, except maybe my best friend.

Do you feel you were less certain in the past (about the validity of your former beliefs) and are more certain now? Or do you feel the certainty you feel now is the same as the certainty you felt in the past? Do you preclude feeling yet more certain about different beliefs in the future? If so why? I feel that I have always been equally certain about my beliefs, jumping in with both feet so as to gain the fullest experience, while yet continuing to question and explore and challenge from 'within' that experience. Unfortunately hindsight cannot be applied to the present. I do believe in looking before you leap, but, for me, it can't be all looking and no leaping.

~Merry