Secrets of the 1984 Wagalla massacre emerge

I have been reading a lot about the Wagalla Massacre that took place in 1984 in Wajir, Kenya. One thing that has been bothering me is I cannot understand why not even one person has been charged. The other thing that bothers me is the fact that not even one participant has come forward. Not even one member of the Kenya security forces has come forward proves that the Wagalla bestiality was just another of the Kenya security forces daily piecemeal event. It also shows that the Kenya security forces are dominated by cowards who should not be allowed to wear any uniform nor be allowed to touch weapons.

Murdering unarmed naked men, raping women and killing children is the most cowardly exercise by many armed forces in the world, but Kenyans should never accept it. I think it is about time a secret commission is put in place by those who believe in justice. The secret commission should hunt these criminals just like the former Nazi’s were hunted down like mad dogs. The leaders of the Wagalla Massacre are known and many still hold high positions in the Mwizi Kibaraka’s criminal government.

How about starting with MOI!! The former ruthless ugly dictator of the Republic of Kenya.

Anyway, impunity is a daily reality for Kenyans and it is all due to good people turning apathetic. The most cowardly thing I can do is share as much information as possible about Wagalla, and hope to move the courageous into bringing justice. This is my first step after 25 years.
WAAAAKE …..UUUP!!!

Secrets of the 1984 Wagalla massacre emerge

Updated Saturday, June 11 2011 at 00:00 GMT+3

By John Oywa

Fresh secrets of the Wagalla massacre in which more than 3,000 people died have come to light

Documents seen by The Standard on Saturday and which have been tabled before the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission which is trying to unravel the truth about the bloody operation that shocked the world, show a tale of intrigues and a series of undercover events that could shed light into how a planned security operation to recover firearms and discipline members of a clan in Wajir District went awry.

 

Twenty-seven years after the killings that the United Nations once described as the worst form of human rights abuse in Kenya, many questions remain unanswered.

 

Last week, the Wagalla ghosts hovered in the horizon after witnesses to the TJRC, former senior government officials and members of the powerful and secretive Kenya Intelligence Committee (KIC) who visited the district a day before the killings, distanced themselves from the deadly security operation.

 

Frequent attacks

 

Some members of the KIC had denied ever holding a meeting in Wajir, leave alone meeting the local District Security Committee.

 

It has now emerged that the decision to round up the Degodia clansmen who had been accused of frequent attacks against their Adjuran neighbours was issued by the Wajir District Security Committee on February 9, 1984, a day after the KIC delegation that included four Permanent Secretaries had left Wajir.

 

Permanent Secretaries Joseph Mathenge (Security and Administration, Bethuel Kiplagat (Foreign Affairs), David Mwiraria (Home Affairs and J Gituma (Information) led the KIC delegation.

 

They met the Wajir District Security Committee on February 8, their first day of the three-day familiarisation tour of the larger North Eastern Province, but minutes seen by The Standard on Saturday show the operation against the Degodia was not discussed. We could, however, not ascertain whether the issue was discussed but not recorded.

 

Minutes reference No PA 3/3A/63 authored by the then Secretary in the Office of the President, Mr J P Mwangovya, quotes the then acting Wajir District Commissioner, Mr M M Tiema, as telling the intelligence committee that the security situation in the area had slightly improved.

 

"The acting DC briefed the committee on the insecurity situation in the district. He said the tribal clashes between the Degodia and Adjuran had slightly improved. The Degodia were reluctant to surrender arms. The Adjuran who surrendered fire arms fear they might be victimised," the minutes indicated.

 

The minutes do not show the response from the KIC delegation over the security situation in Wajir, but only quotes the provincial police officer requesting that the Wajir Police Station be fenced.

 

But a day after the KIC team left, members of the Wajir District Security Committee hurriedly convened an emergency meeting at 3pm to plan the assault on Degodia community.

 

Mr Tiema chaired the meeting with the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) as secretary. Others in attendance were Mr S M G Kibere of the Special branch, Major W W Mudogo of the Kenya Army and Capt D W Situma of the ’82 Air Force.

 

Tiema said he had convened the meeting to review the security situation in the district and cited recent incidences in which the Degodia had attacked their Adjuran neighbours, killing people and escaping with thousands of livestock.

 

"After the meeting, it was resolved that an immediate joint operation of Kenya Police, Kenya Army and Administration Police be mounted to spread all over the district and to arrest the brutal killers," read the minutes.The raid began at dawn and the outcome was disastrous. More than 3,000 people were said to have been killed at he Wagalla Airstrip where they had been ferried in trucks. Those who escaped the bullets died of torture, hunger and thirst or grim exposure to the adverse weather conditions during their three-day confinement at the airstrip.

 

But even more intriguing is the fact that the North Eastern Province Security Committee was never briefed about the killings. Why did the Wajir District Security officials withhold the serious incident from their bosses? Were they acting on orders from other quarters?

 

At a meeting held on February 24, 1984, nearly two weeks after the incident, the Provincial Security Committee chaired by PC Benson Kaaria protested the secrecy of the operation and demanded an explanation from Tiema, according to minutes No B.6/VOL.VI/25-2/84.

 

"The Provincial Security Committee could not comprehend why the District Security Committee decided to keep the authority un-informed of the incident until when the PSC visited Wajir on Monday February 13, 1984," read the minutes.

 

In a letter to Mr Kaaria, the then Wajir DC Joshua Matui, who was on leave when the incident happened, says the shooting started after some of the detainees allegedly tried to attack Government officials who had visited the airstrip on the third day of the operation.

 

In his letter, Matui confirms that 16 other people died of extreme exposure to hunger and dehydration. The debouchments say 381 people died but locals put the death toll between 3,000 and 5,000.

 

Survivors, he says, were only released on February 13. He also confirms in his letter to the PC that the dead were buried in mass graves.

 

As widows and orphans from the Degodia clan wait for answers, questions are being asked whether the truth commission will ever lift the lid on the massacre and facilitate healing in the troubled North.

.

 

 

 

 

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Soccer Referee Information

After playing and coaching is over, one must become a referee.
Crazy! Young kids can now abuse you. Thugs might try to beat you up, but what else can you do to stay in touch with the beautiful game.

Nice Links for any Soccer Referee:
Referee Pre-Game Card
Ask A referee

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Hope to ban the Arabic word for “slave”

BASRA (Reuters)

Barack Obama's election in the United States has already had an impact in Iraq, inspiring some black Iraqis to run in a forthcoming election in the hope of ending what they call centuries of discrimination."Obama's win gave us moral strength," said Jalal Chijeel, secretary of the Free Iraqi Movement.He said the group would be the first to field black candidates in any Iraqi poll when it joins provincial elections scheduled for Jan. 31He argues Iraqis of African origin are not represented in top office, suffer disproportionately from poverty and illiteracy and are commonly referred to in derisive terms. (More)

My reaction to another post on the same subject:

You see Islam blah! Blah! I am sick and tired of stupidity of my fellow Muslims and pure racist shit. There is racism among Muslims and we cannot use Islam to explain it away. It is all over and you don't have to go to Iraq to see it. Just go to any community anywhere in the world. Why Siraj Wahaj and fellow outsiders start MANNA? Because of RACISM. Pure and simple. Yes, there it is. It is present in everyday Arabic or any language used by Muslims in conversations. Call your mama ABD and ask her how she feels. Would you like to be called abd or Abeed? I don't think so. Muslims have to realize that the tide is changing and Islam will not wait.

Black Iraqis are saying we are hurting and you are trying to say, "no you are just trying to benefit," .... whatever. The Dalits of India are making some progress, but every now and then haters just do what haters do.

Solution: Do what the jews are doing. Reaching out to all the Jews even in Yemen. It is bad, hha ha, but guess what; we can hate the Jews as much as we like, but at the end, we respect "their respect for their own." Black people have a long way, but we have to start reaching out for our own. Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Animist or whatever. We have to love our own soo much, until the others, just hate us for doing the right thing.

To paraphraze Brother Malcolm Shabazz, "They don't hate us because we ar Babtist, Methodist or Muslim...they hate us because we are BLACK."

Before I forget, can you ask the Imam to speak about the al Akhdam of Yemen and what Islam has to say about it. Tell her not to quote the Quran, but what Muslims can do to clean this racist shit from fake Muslims.

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OBAMA an OBSEQUIOUS PRESIDENT?

Greetings people,

Trying to understand Obama's support for Isreali inhuman behavior and his indifference to the suffering people of Gaza, I googled, and what an English language lesson it was. Obama obsequious? My English language is not limited, but I uncomfortably approached a dictionary hoping it is not negative. My reaction was, Ummm! No, I don't think so and "NO he cannot be obsequious."

Here is what I found out and it made me throw up. After 8 years of the WORST creature in office, I cannot imagine an OBSEQUIOUS PRESIDENT.

Obsequious(əb sē′kwē əs, äb-)

adjective
showing too great a willingness to serve or obey; fawning
Archaic compliant; dutiful

Obsequious Synonyms:
docile, submissive, cringing, slavish, sycophantic, deferential, servile, subject, enslaved, subordinate, parasitical, stipendiary, toadyish, toadying, fawning, truckling, groveling, spineless, crouching, cringing, mealy-mouthed, subservient, abject, beggarly, sniveling, prostrate, sneaking, oily, bootlicking*, brown-nosing*, kowtowing*, apple-polishing*, flunkyish*, toad-eating*; see also docile, obedient 1.
Antonyms insulting*, proud*, haughty.

What do you think?
Yes, I am informed, but often selectively choose not to agree with the Obama negatives. When Obama was asked about Isreali massacre of innocent women and children is Gaza, I painfully remembered Obama's statement, "There is only one president," (when it comes to foreign affairs) but he had something to say when India was attacked. "Barack Obama on Friday expressed sorrow for the victims of the attacks on Mumbai ... Rice has called Obama twice to brief him on the series of attacks in Mumbai."

While reading some of the google output reports, a little voice inside me was whispering to Obama:
"Please don't abandon us, please, please don't go to the wrong side. We believe in you and trust our inner instict that we made the right choice. We are with you and don't be afraid of anyone. Please do the right thing. You cannot forget what injustice feels like. Don't let the wrong side convince you to wear a gas mask. Smell it, smell it, it is nothing but the stench of injustice. All we want is justice for all."

A little sad reminder on what politics is all about. We voted for Obama because we thought WE could, or to be more realistic, he could make a difference. "No Obama is still a politician," and frankly I don't know what that means, but it sounds bad.

President Obama has every right to support whoever he wants, but when it comes to justice and fairness I hope he will be very careful in making the right humane choice. His choice will depend on how active we all can be and more on how passionate we want him to be on the right humane side.

I still strongly support Obama, but I cannot afford to just hope and allow my win to be turned to the worst catastrophe. Obama belongs to the people and we have to fight as hard as we can to keep it that way.

Thanks,

I found the word obsequious in this article by Uri Avnery.

Here is how it caught my attention:

After months of a tough and bitter race, a merciless struggle, Barack Obama has defeated his formidable opponent, Hillary Clinton. He has wrought a miracle: for the first time in history a black person has become a credible candidate for the presidency of the most powerful country in the world.

And what was the first thing he did after his astounding victory? He ran to the conference of the Israel lobby, AIPAC, and made a speech that broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning.

That is shocking enough. Even more shocking is the fact that nobody was shocked. MORE

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Finkelstein versus Dershowitz

Havard Law Prof. Dershowitz is humbled
How can Havard keep a fake?

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A Growing Demand for the Rare American Imam

New York Times does it again, "Educate American Muslims about their religion."
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: June 1, 2007
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. — Sheik Yassir Fazaga regularly uses a standard American calendar to provide inspiration for his weekly Friday sermon.

Around Valentine’s Day this year, he talked about how the Koran endorses romantic love within certain ethical parameters. (As opposed to say, clerics in Saudi Arabia, who denounce the banned saint’s day as a Satanic ritual.) More

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Zbigniew Brzezinski

The Grand Chessboard

American Primacy And It's Geostrategic Imperatives

Key Quotes From Zbigniew Brzezinksi's Seminal Book

"Ever since the continents started interacting politically, some five hundred years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power."- (p. xiii)

"... But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.” (p. xiv)

"In that context, how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources." (p.31)

“Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization." (p.35)

“The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea." (p.125)

"In the long run, global politics are bound to become increasingly uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a single state. Hence, America is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but it is also likely to be the very last." (p.209)

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." (p. 211)

Zbigniew Brzezinski's Background

According to his resume, Zbigniew Brzezinski lists the following achievements:

Harvard Ph.D. in 1953

Counselor, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Professor of American Foreign Policy, Johns Hopkins University

National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter (1977-81)

Trustee and founder of the Trilateral Commission

International advisor of several major US/Global corporations

Associate of Henry Kissinger

Under Ronald Reagan - member of NSC-Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy

Under Ronald Reagan - member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

Past member, Board of Directors, The Council on Foreign Relations

1988 - Co-chairman of the Bush National Security Advisory Task Force.

Brzezinski is also a past attendee and presenter at several conferences of the Bilderberger group - a non-partisan affiliation of the wealthiest and most powerful families and corporations on the planet.

The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski – More Quotes

"...The last decade of the twentieth century has witnessed a tectonic shift in world affairs. For the first time ever, a non-Eurasian power has emerged not only as a key arbiter of Eurasian power relations but also as the world's paramount power. The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power...” (p. xiii)

"... But in the meantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.” (p. xiv)

"The attitude of the American public toward the external projection of American power has been much more ambivalent. The public supported America's engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.” (pp 24-5)

"For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia... Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia - and America's global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained.” (p.30)

"America's withdrawal from the world or because of the sudden emergence of a successful rival - would produce massive international instability. It would prompt global anarchy." (p. 30)

"In that context, how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. Eurasia is the globe's largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world's GNP and about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources." (p.31)

“It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization." (p.35)

"Two basic steps are thus required: first, to identify the geostrategically dynamic Eurasian states that have the power to cause a potentially important shift in the international distribution of power and to decipher the central external goals of their respective political elites and the likely consequences of their seeking to attain them;... second, to formulate specific U.S. policies to offset, co-opt, and/or control the above..." (p. 40)

"...To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together." (p.40)

"Henceforth, the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America's status as a global power." (p.55)

"Uzbekistan, nationally the most vital and the most populous of the central Asian states, represents the major obstacle to any renewed Russian control over the region. Its independence is critical to the survival of the other Central Asian states, and it is the least vulnerable to Russian pressures." (p. 121)

[Referring to an area he calls the "Eurasian Balkans" and a 1997 map in which he has circled the exact location of the current conflict - describing it as the central region of pending conflict for world dominance] "Moreover, they [the Central Asian Republics] are of importance from the standpoint of security and historical ambitions to at least three of their most immediate and more powerful neighbors, namely Russia, Turkey and Iran, with China also signaling an increasing political interest in the region. But the Eurasian Balkans are infinitely more important as a potential economic prize: an enormous concentration of natural gas and oil reserves is located in the region, in addition to important minerals, including gold." (p.124)

"The world's energy consumption is bound to vastly increase over the next two or three decades. Estimates by the U.S. Department of energy anticipate that world demand will rise by more than 50 percent between 1993 and 2015, with the most significant increase in consumption occurring in the Far East. The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea." (p.125)

"Uzbekistan is, in fact, the prime candidate for regional leadership in Central Asia." (p.130)

"Once pipelines to the area have been developed, Turkmenistan's truly vast natural gas reserves augur a prosperous future for the country's people.” (p.132)

"In fact, an Islamic revival - already abetted from the outside not only by Iran but also by Saudi Arabia - is likely to become the mobilizing impulse for the increasingly pervasive new nationalisms, determined to oppose any reintegration under Russian - and hence infidel - control." (p. 133).

"For Pakistan, the primary interest is to gain Geostrategic depth through political influence in Afghanistan - and to deny to Iran the exercise of such influence in Afghanistan and Tajikistan - and to benefit eventually from any pipeline construction linking Central Asia with the Arabian Sea." (p.139)

"Turkmenistan... has been actively exploring the construction of a new pipeline through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea..." (p.145)

"It follows that America's primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it." (p148)

"China's growing economic presence in the region and its political stake in the area's independence are also congruent with America's interests." (p.149)

"America is now the only global superpower, and Eurasia is the globe's central arena. Hence, what happens to the distribution of power on the Eurasian continent will be of decisive importance to America's global primacy and to America's historical legacy." (p.194)

"Without sustained and directed American involvement, before long the forces of global disorder could come to dominate the world scene. And the possibility of such a fragmentation is inherent in the geopolitical tensions not only of today's Eurasia but of the world more generally." (p.194)

"With warning signs on the horizon across Europe and Asia, any successful American policy must focus on Eurasia as a whole and be guided by a Geostrategic design." (p.197)

"That puts a premium on maneuver and manipulation in order to prevent the emergence of a hostile coalition that could eventually seek to challenge America's primacy..." (p. 198)

"The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role." (p. 198)

"In the long run, global politics are bound to become increasingly uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a single state. Hence, America is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but it is also likely to be the very last." (p.209)

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." (p. 211)

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What a Hijab can do for you

UN soldier in Lebanon trades her blue beret for a veil
Sep 12, 2008
MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (AFP) — Sylvia Monika Wyszomirska is a Catholic from Poland, but in an effort to integrate better into south Lebanon's conservative society she has traded her UN peacekeeper's beret for a headscarf during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"Out of respect for the environment I work in, I feel I need to try to integrate myself" during Ramadan, said 37-year-old Wyszomirska who has been stationed in the country for four months.
"And since my contingent is deployed in a Muslim area, I have decided to wear the hijab," the Muslim veil, over military fatigues, the mother of a little girl told AFP (More)

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Lenana 1967 (Wow! Asante Sana)

The power of the Web
Visit the site for more information:
Take a step into the past
Nakumbuka thse names:
Ramtu
Odula
Garood
Karago
Okumu
Kariungi
Nyanjom

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In Memory of Roger Otolo

Wazee ukumbuka. Picha inaleta raha. Nimeipata Hapa.
Sitting on the left is Bigger Otolo

Mukulu great job.

Hongera na asante sana.
Imagine MEN MACHINE

Sijui wako wapi lakini furaha sana.

Front row: Coutts Otolo, Kalambo Kaisi, Geoff Simiyu
Second row: Dave Awimbo Aggrey Awimbo

Back row: Tom Oketch Frank Abukutsa, Chief Edebe

Half backs: George Mngongo, Bimbo Mutere

Centres: Ben Mukuria, Dave Muraya

Wingers: John Akatsa, Kadir Shapi, Emmanuel Lubembe-wingers
Full back: Cliff Mukulu

Ongeza the following alafu angalia mchezo.
Ochido

Kibisu

Ngaruiya

Sagala

Belsoi

Walter na Jack Omaido

Opoti yuko wapi? (Just a thought)

An excellent site. White African Kenya Rugby

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Obama Slideshow

Enjoy this day
Take it
digest it and run with it

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Why not

Jane Stillwater, a 64-year-old citizen journalist who says she loves all religions and is a practicing "Catholic/Christian/Hindu/ Muslim/Buddist," faces East as she does her evening prayer in Berkeley on Tuesday. Chronicle photo by Kurt Rogers

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Minneh K. Kane

Just wanted to keep this in mind after watching an interview on Yahoo. She has bi-racial kids. (Future interview for Kenyans Abroad)

Minneh K. Kaneh, Lead Counsel, Legal Vice Presidential Unit (VPU), World Bank
Ms. Kane, a Kenyan national, has worked at the World Bank since January 1988, and at present serves as a lead counsel in the Legal VPU. Focusing mainly on legal and judicial reform issues, she is currently working on projects and /or sector assessments in Kenya, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Kane worked as a barrister in Kenya for Hamilton, Harrison and Mathews, the oldest and, at the time, the largest, law firm in East Africa. She handled corporate and commercial matters taking cases to the High Court and other courts in Kenya. Ms. Kane has a master's degree in law from Harvard Law School. She is a barrister-at-law of Grays Inn, London, and an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She has a B.A. with honors in English law and French law from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England and a diploma in French law from the Université de Paris-Sud, Faculté de droit de Sceaux, Paris, France.

This was very moving and I wondered if the swimming pool was finished


From Sr. Pauline:

"As you know I have recently celebrated my Golden Jubilee 50 years as a Loreto Sister. To mark this achievement I have launched a SWIMMING POOL FOR LORETO NYAKATO (Mwanza, Tanzania) project. I am appealing to you my past students, parents and teachers to help me to realize this dream I have for our children in Nyakato. I believe that our combined efforts can bring this about. The target is $50,000 and the goal is a swimming pool by the end of my Golden Jubilee Year.

In Tanzania, a swimming pool in a school is not only unheard of, but is not even in their imagination that such a thing could be possible. Yet I believe that a swimming pool would do so much to help our girls to gain self-confidence. Drownings in the lake are common because no one knows how to swim so this is another reason why a swimming pool is needed.

I want our girls to know that they are as good as young people anywhere in the world, and to have the confidence to face the world as well-equipped equals of Loreto students world-wide. They have already left their Mwanza contemporaries far behind because of the unique Loreto education which they are receiving. But there is still a lot of catching up to be done before they will have reached the full flowering of their talents and personalities which I believe they are capable of. A swimming pool for Loreto Nyakato is just one of the ways by which this catching up will happen.

Please help me to make my Golden Jubilee dream come true a swimming pool for Loreto Nyakato, please.

Thank you my dearly loved girls, parents and teachers for doing this for me.


(Sr.)Pauline Boase


Loreto@mwanza-online.com
Loreto Girls Secondary School,
Box 92, Mwanza, TANZANIA

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Who are We and are We Proud to be British?

Answering Haitham al-Haddad's "Who are We and are We Proud to be British? "

Asamalum Alaikum,

I enjoyed your article with a lot of reservations. I googled your name to get a better understanding of who you are. What I found out was a bit interesting and I wonder if you have a problem with being defined as a Palestinian, who grew up in Saudi Arabia and schooled in Egypt. Can we say that your idea of pride would have been different if you were a Saudi national or you had full citizenship in Palestine? I hope you don’t see my view as a personal attach, but just an honest individual observation

I am not a scholar to claim there has been a study, but it is a fact that many non-Saudi Muslims who were born and raised in that "Muslim country" have a negative feeling towards expressions of national pride. When it comes to British citizens (Christian and European) many would say that, the British are proud of their Britishness, but they don't throw it in your face and treat others with disgust. It is true there might be some lingering racism, but it is a FACT the British have basic HUMAN respect. The British do recognize your citizenship even if you are a Hindu. Comparing that to Saudi citizens (white, brown and black) I don't think you would disagree with what many born and raised non-Saudi Muslims would say. I am not claiming you were born in Saudi Arabia, but just in case you were, I can imagine how good it would feel if you were recognized and respected as a Saudi national.

The point I am trying to make is not to disagree with your theological explanation, but to bring you to what OUR MUSLIM reality looks like in the so-called Christian WEST. Could you or any of those Muslim scholars make a similar argument in the outskirts of Makka or Madina. There is nothing wrong with promoting and teaching our religion, but once in a while we have to be honest with the reality we are in. Quite often we select issues and hot topics that do not serve Muslims well, but put many of us on the wrong side of “fighting social justice for all.”

Is it wrong for an Indian Muslim to say, “Yes, I live in the Dubai and I am very proud of the Muslim-British cricket team captain.” For someone in your position, I totally believe your priorities are off the “Serving-Muslim Well” mark. Please do read my letter with the understanding that, we are on the same side and want the best for Humanity, Muslim or non-Muslim. Let me conclude by saying that I am a proud naturalized American citizen and a proud father raising two American kids. I cannot allow anyone to take that away from them.

Interesting vindication and not all Muslims are on the “Us Vs Them” train. At a Muslim conference in the USA, “Dr. Alkhawaga, a psychiatrist, said the rhetoric is "very troubling." In fact, he proposed that the integration of pure Islam with American culture at its best would make "a perfect marriage."

Read the rest of “From the emotional to educational, topics vary at Muslim confab.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08307/924770-85.stm

Proud American Muslim,

Mohamed Ahmed

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Million Man March Pledge

I was there and it made me very PROUD.

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"The Endorsement from Heaven,"

Greetings Obama supporters,

This is my take on Kristoff's Op-Ed titled, "The Endorsement from He*&%$."
The heading is very loaded and it is supposed to have the same Bush "fear effect." Hell is a negative and in this case it's deeper meaning is nothing but, MUSLIM; ISLAM; ARAB; NON-CHRISTIAN; OTHERNESS; THEM and all the negatives that don't apply to "US." Us could be anything, depending on where one stands or sees themselves. Does the other leaning towards McCain make the Obamans better human beings? I don't think so.

The use of the new code word which is beyond HATE, connecting a religion followed by the OTHER, yes ISLAM to fascism is something despicable and it's effect is the same as "Hate yourself" as well as "I hate you because..." Why should anyone try to make Muslims hate themselves? Why should anyone make any human being hate themselves? The only reasonable answer is, the opposite of hate is a bit too hard a path for many. LOVE. (just putting those letters together, yes, LOVE has a calming effect.)
Here is a link to I love you in many languages
LOVE LOVE LOVE NAKUPENDA, Je t'aime, Ngiyakuthanda, mein ap say muhabat karta hoon
I also could not understand how Kristoff after writing:
(1) "The U.S. chose a very confrontational route," in Somalia.
(2) "The greatest catastrophe is the one endured by ordinary Somalis who now must watch their children starve. "

His conclusion was beyond basic logic that, "the only winner has been Islamic militancy," which also means, MUSLIM, ISLAM, ARAB, NON-CHRISTIAN, OTHERNESS or THEM. One wonders who the losers are. If WE, US, not THEM are the losers, then who else are the winners. One in New jersey or Oklahoma cannot see the Somali mother as US nor anything near our humanity, but THEM. Yes, that Somali mother watching her starving child must be a WINNER too. Bush believed in Us Vs THEM and after thousands of innocent deaths, many have come to an intelligent conclusion that he was very wrong, and the human as well as DOLLAR value has been too high a price to pay.

We all have to refuse the "Us Vs Them" mentality and promote building bridges between all human beings. We have come too far as a species to accept and allow a pilot to drop death on those who don't even have running water nor the mobility to go to the river. It is about time we supported our troops to feed the hungry, fight disease, celebrate our differences and never to allow the destruction of a school, hospital, dams and all that makes us human.

I was not supposed to write or share my thoughts, but to tell you the truth, I feel good and free.

I totally believe Obama will be the next president of the USA, but just in case, you never know what the GOP magician has under her/his pants. If at all something very bad happens (God forbid), we saw it in 2000 and it is still possible. I will be able to say, "five days before the election, I was free and felt great." I will work very hard the next 5 days to hold on to this feeling of being FREE by knocking more doors, making more calls and do all that is possible to help Obama win the presidency and bring POSITIVE CHANGE.

We can do it! Yes We Can!
Being an Obama believer, I HOPE and wish the Obama era will be filled with basic humanity to the OTHER. We have come a long way to go back to FEARFASCISM. ( I deeply apologize to all those beautiful letters especially A and F)

"Dehumanizing even the worst of the worst, in a way diminishes our humanity."

The whole world has voted for Obama, now they are counting on YOU and ME.

Change We Can Believe,

Mohamed Ahmed

I posted this letter on other sites
NewYork Times (comment 335)
The Philistine

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Hamza Yusuf Speaks

Muslims in the USA

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Saudi Solutions ( a very telling statement)

This is a very good documentary about Saudi Women. The ending is very perfect. The prince seems a bit arrogant, but in a way he is trying to solve a very serious problem. Slow but Sure is the best way.

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Imam Zaid Shakir on Segregation among Muslims in America

RACISM in the USA is "understandable," but among Muslims, it is the most dispeakable and rotten acceptable thing in many American Masjids. I am sorry to say that most of the Muslim leaders in many Muslim organizations and Imams in most of the Masjids were trained in the TOILET. While Americans are busy trying to get rid of their racist past, Muslim immigrants are busy reaching out to all the waste from the segregation out houses. The following interview is an indictment to the Muslim community and if nothing is done about it, defending the image of Islam will be impossible. Imam Zakir Shakir happens to be an indigenous American and that is why he can point at the cancer. It is about time ISNA, ICNA and all immigrant led organizations come out and say they have been busy spreading FITNA.

You can click the link below for more information.

Segregation and Marginalization is NOT the will of God

Wajahat Ali (AltMuslim)
There is a problem of race relations within the Muslim American community: Muslim on Muslim crime, if you will. Often most Muslim conferences talk about "Unity" yet we traffic in stereotyping and racial prejudice that is rampant within the American Muslim citizenry. What causes this?

Imam Zaid Shakir:
As Muslims in this country there are lots of factors that work to create divisions at a fundamental level between communities whose populations are rooted in immigration and communities of converts: African Americans primarily, but increasingly Latino and Caucasian-American. From an immigrant perspective you have people in many instances who are coming to America, who have been, historically, attracted to her through "brain drain politics."

People who were successful on their own right, people able to pass very rigid entrance exams in their respective countries - they were very privileged and talented individuals. When coming to this country, they found the universities to be very receptive, and the brightest were given scholarships and education. When you have that degree of talent, it becomes very easy to assume anyone, who just works hard and gets ahead, makes it the way "I made it" - and not to look at the some of the factors that work against everyone getting ahead just like in the country where you come from. In that country, there were, say, only 5000 seats for education, but there were millions who couldn’t pass the high school exams, and millions who couldn’t pass the junior high exams.

So, there is a tendency when one is successful to forget the realities that render a lot of people unsuccessful – to use those terms. Coming with those attitudes and seeing people whom you assume had the same opportunities you had in this land of opportunity – it works towards creating very narrow minded attitudes that are very shallow in terms of really understanding the dynamics at work in the lives of many people from different racial, ethnic groups. Those prejudices play themselves out in the mosques.

In addition, many of our societies are plagued by racialized thinking. You see a lot of color consciousness in a lot of Muslim societies - Syria and to a lesser extent Sudan. Pakistan and India where lighter skin people are looked in a different light than darker people. The daughter who has lighter skin, even if her features aren’t as attractive as the darker skinned daughter, she gets all the marriage proposals.

Wajahat Ali (AltMuslim)
She’s the number one draft pick.

Imam Zaid Shakir:
Yeah, so then you come to this country and you see a lot of African American Muslims and you have this built in mechanism to project the inherent, intrinsic racialist, racist attitudes towards those people. These create a lot of discomfort when the two groups come together and this is perceivable. Especially at those who are considered to be at the lower end of the economic spectrum. It is very important for Muslims to acknowledge this and not be in a state of denial regarding a lot of these racialist attitudes, color consciousness, and social economic snobbishness – it’s real!
You have those attitudes, you have that tension, and then you have a desire to exclusively pursue those interests. Each group is pursuing its respective interest and not looking at how coming together in certain areas could strengthen certain communities, especially in this indigenous, racial divide. So, when each group is selfish, then the everyday life activity and organizational activities of the other group becomes irrelevant.
You get a phenomenon like 40,000 people in Chicago for an ISNA conference [the largest Muslim American conference in America] and less than 1% of that is African American Muslims, even though 35% of American Muslims are African American. Or, you have Warith Deen Muhammad’s convention [Elijah Muhammad’s son] and over 99% of attendees are African American, because people feel it is relevant to their circumstance and identity. We have, as Muslims, stagnated ourselves in terms of how we organize ourselves, our interests and those advancements that deepen these divisions. We need to transcend this because we have so many ways we can help each other and strengthen each other.
Malcolm X when he went to Hajj had an observation that I don’t deny: that people of different groups tend to congregate and gravitate towards ones who are similar. Urdu speakers go to Urdu speakers, Spanish speakers go to people who speak Spanish for example. Should there be a level where we can recognize this and even celebrate it? This is part of what the Quranic message encourages: "We made you into nations and tribes." It’s a reality, it’s a cultural reality. But shouldn’t there be a higher level where we can identify some common issues that no individual group or no individual ethnic collectivity has the power to address individually? And then come together at that level to those larger issues that affect all of us? So, it’s important for us to mature to a point, where as you said, as opposed to empty cries for unity that totally ignore the sociological basis of the separation that exists in the community are replaced by a mature call for creating common agendas that don’t seek to eradicate the existing divisions, but seek to glorify and celebrate those divisions.
But, on the other hand, look at a higher level of interest where our collective resources are needed. For example, challenging the spread of prejudicial and hateful attitudes towards Muslims. That’s a massive project. The people spreading those ideas are spending lots of money, publishing books, dominating talk radio, getting their voices on major media outlets like Fox and others. So, to compete on that level and put out a countervailing message, is going to take a tremendous amount of resources that no one community possess. It will taken a common agenda, a common message, a common strategy and pooling of resources, such as a nationwide legal endowment with lawyers on retainer with ongoing research into civil rights and human rights issues that are relevant to Muslims in this country – like a NAACP legal fund but for rights of all Muslims. Responses as a community to those situations in a very effective manner: fueled jet plains loaded with resources to supply medicine ready to fly anywhere in the world for example. That’s what we are capable of doing as Muslims if we are to come together and think at a higher level and not confine our activism to issues that are specifically germane to "my corner and segment" of the Muslim community

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AN APOLOGY to African American Muslims

After coming accross this wonderful letter by Azhar Usman (on the left), I shared with friends in a Muslim group by writing the following:

Asalamu Alaikum,

Thank you for reading and may Allah Subhanna wa taalah give you the strength to do what is right. My observation of Islam in America has been very painful and sometimes it is reflected in my writing. How can one be a Muslim and not feel the pain of outright racism. It is better to be seen as divisive than accept what is outright inhuman.

The link below is a letter of apology from a Muslim Immigrant. Please read it and pass it to others.

Heartfelt reflections on the passing of a legendary 
Blackamerican Muslim leader

By Azhar Usman

On September 11, 2008, while countless American flags whipped in the wind and the television and radio waves were dominated by remembrances, recordings, and stories about the terror attacks of seven years ago, I attended the funeral of Imam W.D. Mohammed (may God be pleased with him). For me, it was a somber day, but I found myself mostly lost in thought: about African-American Muslim communities, about the challenges ahead in American Muslim institution-building, and about the future of Islam in America. If you don't know who Imam WDM was, you should look him up. The Sufis say: “The true sage belongs to his era.” And of the many gifts given to Imam WDM by God, perhaps the most obvious and beneficial one was the Imam’s profound understanding of the principles of religion, and his adeptness at intelligently applying those Islamic principles in a socially and culturally appropriate manner befitting the everyday lives of his North American followers. While carefully respecting sound, traditional jurisprudential methodologies of the Islamic religion, and the collective religious history and time-honored scholarship of classical Islam, he promulgated creative ideas and dynamic teachings across many domains of human endeavor, including theology, law, spirituality and even ethics and aesthetics, that together articulated a vision for a quintessentially “American Muslim” cultural identity. And he did all of this before anyone else, with quiet strength and unending humility—a true sage indeed.

So I stood before his final resting place, brokenhearted. And I suddenly began to feel the weight of the moment, realizing that when God takes back one of his dearly beloved friends, those who are left behind should cry not for the deceased, but rather for themselves. For the fact that they are now without one of God’s friends in their midst, and, in a sense, they are orphaned. And the tears began to well up, for I became acutely aware that I was standing in front of the grave of my spiritual grandfather, who was himself a spiritual descendant of Bilal al-Habashi (may God be pleased with him), the mighty and beloved companion of the Prophet himself. Bilal was the first Black African to convert to al-Islam at the hands of the Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and keep him) in the sands of Arabia nearly a thousand and a half years ago. Undoubtedly, some measure of that love, mercy, compassion, and spiritual stature that inhabited the heart of Bilal has found its way down through the ages, and I found myself begging God to transfer to my own heart some glimpse of these realities now laying before me.

Almost five years ago, my business partner, Preacher Moss (who is a member of the WDM community) founded the standup comedy tour “Allah Made Me Funny,” and he invited me to be his co-founder. Needless to say, it has been nothing less than an honor to work with him on the project. But to many, it was an unusual pairing: a Black comic and an Indian comic? Both Muslims? Working together? And before we ever even announced our partnership publicly, we met privately and swore an allegiance to one another—a blood oath of sorts—which was this: No matter what happens, in good times and in bad, we have to be the brothers no one expects us to be. And built on this promise (and premise), we brought on our first collaborator, Brother Azeem (who is a member of Minister Farrakhan's NOI), with whom we toured for over two years (2004-2006) before parting ways amicably. Then we brought Mohammed Amer onto the team in the fall of 2006 (a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian refugee who grew up in a Sunni Muslim family in Houston, Texas). Mo, Preach, and I are still going strong together, and we are grateful for the unqualified support, love, and blessings that Imam WDM and the entire community have always given us.

But today, as I observed the funeral proceedings, I felt sad and heavy-hearted. Something wasn’t sitting right. Something was physically paining my heart, and it felt like remorse, shame perhaps, maybe even guilt. I began to realize that the tears flowing from my eyes were as much a function of these feelings as they were any lofty spiritual aspirations of mine.

You see, I attended an interfaith event a couple of years ago on 9/11. A group had assembled to commemorate the tragic event, to honor those who perished that day, and to pledge ongoing inter-community support and bridge-building to fight ignorance, hate, and intolerance. At that event, there was this short, middle-aged, sweet, extremely kindhearted, White Christian woman. When she took the microphone to speak, she was already teary-eyed, and I assumed that she was going to make some comments about the victims of 9/11, as so many others already had that night.

But she didn’t do that. Instead, she explained that she had become utterly grief-stricken by the constant barrage of news stories she witnessed about Muslims and Arabs being harassed, profiled, and mistreated after 9/11. She explained that she felt powerless to do anything about it, and that it made her sick to her stomach to hear of hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs, and especially to hear of Christian preachers denigrating Islam and its Prophet. She started to cry, and so did many others in the room, humbled by the magnanimity of this simple woman.

And then she did what I thought was a strange thing: she apologized. She prefaced her apology with all the logical disclaimers, such as “I know this may mean nothing to you,” and “I know that I am not the one who did these horrible things," and "I know that you may dismiss this as empty rhetoric until you see some follow-up action on my part, but anyway,” she continued, “I want to apologize on behalf of all the Christians and all non-Muslims and non-Arabs who have been attacking your communities, harassing your people, and accusing your religion of all these horrible things. I'm sorry. I'm very, very sorry.” I was stunned. Speechless, in fact. Though all of her disclaimers were true, and my skeptical mind knew it, her apology melted our hearts. Here was this powerless servant of God sharing some of her most deeply felt emotional vulnerabilities, and she was apologizing to Muslims for something she didn't even do? Jesus (may God bless him and keep him) once famously remarked: “Make the world your teacher,” and so I immediately took this woman as a lesson in humility. Admitting her powerlessness made her incredibly powerful.

And this brings me to the point (and title) of this essay. I would like to unburden myself of something that has been sitting like a ton of bricks on my heart for my entire life. I want to apologize to my Blackamerican brothers and sisters in Islam. I know that this apology may not mean very much; and I know that our American Muslim communities have a LONG way to go before we can have truly healthy political conciliation and de-racialized religious cooperation; and I know that I am not the one who is responsible for so much of the historical wrongdoing of so-called “immigrant Muslims”—wrongdoings that have been so hurtful, and insulting, and degrading, and disrespectful, and dismissive, and marginalizing, and often downright dehumanizing.

But anyway, for every “Tablighi” brother who may have had “good intentions” in his own subjective mind, but behaved in an utterly insensitive and outrageous manner toward you when he suggested that you need to learn how to urinate correctly, I’m sorry.

And for every Pakistani doctor who can find money in his budget to drive a Lexus and live in a million-dollar house in suburbia, and who has the audacity to give Friday sermons about the virtues of “Brotherhood in Islam,” while the “Black mosque” can’t pay the heating bills or provide enough money to feed starving Muslim families just twenty miles away, I’m sorry.

And for every Arab speaker in America who makes it his business to raise millions and millions of dollars to provide “relief” for Muslim refugees around the world, but turns a blind eye to the plight of our very own Muslim sisters and brothers right here in our American inner cities just because, in his mind, the color black might as well be considered invisible, I’m sorry.

And for every liquor store in the “hood” with a plaque that says Maashaa’ Allah hanging on the wall behind the counter, I’m sorry.

And for every news media item or Hollywood portrayal that constantly reinforces the notion that “Muslim=foreigner” so that the consciousness of Blackamerican Muslims begins even to doubt itself (asking “Can I ever be Muslim enough?”), I’m sorry.

And for every Salafi Muslim brother (even the ones who used to be Black themselves before converting to Arab) who has rattled off a hadith or a verse from Qur’an in Arabic as his “daleel” to Kafirize you and make you feel defensive about even claiming this din as your own, I’m sorry.

And for every time you've been asked “So when did you convert to Islam?” even though that question should more properly have been put to your grandparents, since they became Muslims by the grace of God Almighty back in the 1950s, and raised your parents as believers, and Islam is now as much your own inheritance as it is the one's posing that presumptuous, condescending question, I’m sorry.

And for every time some Muslim has self-righteously told you that your hijab is not quite “Shari‘ah” enough, or your beard is not quite “Sunnah” enough, or your outfit is not quite “Islamic” enough, or your Qur‘anic recitation is not quite “Arabic” enough, or your family customs are not quite “traditional” enough, or your worldview is not quite “classical” enough, or your ideas are not “authentic” enough, or your manner of making wudu is not quite “Hanafi,” “Shafi,” “Maliki,” or “Hanbali” enough, or your religious services are not quite “Masjid” enough, or your chicken is not quite “Halal” enough, I'm sorry.

And for every Labor Day weekend when you”ve felt divided in your heart, wondering “When will we ever do this thing right and figure out how we can pool our collective resources to have ONE, big convention?,” I’m sorry.

And for every time a Muslim has tried to bait you with a question about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, trying to force you to condemn him—turning it into some sort of binary litmus test of true iman—with reckless and irresponsible disregard for the historical fact that he was among the first Black men in America to ever do anything meaningful for the upliftment and betterment of Black people, I’m sorry.

And for every time you’ve heard of an African-American brother who tried to bring home a South Asian or Arab sister to meet his parents, only to learn that her parents would rather commit suicide than let their daughter marry a “Black Muslim” (a/k/a “Bilalian brother”), even as they cheer hypocritically at stadium style speeches by Imams Siraj Wahhaj, Zaid Shakir, Johari Abdul Malik, or others—or get in line to bring one of them to speak at their multi-million dollar fundraiser for yet another superfluous suburban mosque, I’m sorry.

I’m sorry. I’m very, very sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I want every African-American Muslim brother and sister to know that I am ashamed of this treatment that you have received and, in many cases, continue to receive, over the decades. I want you to know that I am aware of it. I am conscious of the problem. (Indeed, I am even conscious that I myself am part of the problem since curing hypocrisy begins by looking in the mirror.) I am not alone in this apology. There are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of young American Muslims just like me, born to immigrant parents who originate from all over the Muslim world. We get it, and we too are sick of the putrid stench of racism within our own Muslim communities. Let us pledge to work on this problem together, honestly validating our own and one another's insecurities, emotions, and feelings regarding these realities. Forgiveness is needed to right past wrongs, yet forgiveness is predicated on acknowledging wrongdoing and sincerely apologizing. Let us make a blood oath of sorts.

When the bulldozer came to place the final mounds of dirt over the tomb of Imam WDM, I was standing under a nearby tree, under the light drizzle that had just begun (perhaps as a sign of mercy dropping from the heavens as the final moments of the burial were drawing to a close), and I was talking to a dear friend and sister in faith, whose family has been closely aligned with Imam WDM for decades. She shared with me a story that her father had just related to her about the passing of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1975 (the same year I was born, incidentally). She told me that her father described the scene in the immediate aftermath of Elijah’s demise: utter confusion and chaos within the NOI and the communities surrounding it. There was much debate and discord about what direction the NOI would take, and many were still in shock and denial that the founder had actually died. Out of the midst of that confusion arose Imam WDM, and along with his strong leadership came an even more, perhaps surprisingly courageous direction: the path away from the Black nationalism, pan-Africanism, and proto-religious beliefs of his father, and instead the unequivocal charge toward mainstream Islam, the same universal and cosmopolitan faith held and practiced by over a billion adherents worldwide. In this manner, her father explained, the death of Elijah Muhammad became a definitive end to a chapter in our collective history, and the resulting re-direction by Imam WDM marked the beginning of the next, far better, chapter in that unfolding history.

Maybe I am just an idealistic fool, or maybe Pharaoh Sanders was right about the Creator’s Master Plan, but I sincerely believe that all we have to do—all of us together: Black folks, South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis), Arabs from every part of the Middle East and North Africa, Southeast Asians (Indonesians and Malaysians), Persians, Turks, Latinos, assorted Muslims of all stripes, colors, and backgrounds, and yes, even our White Muslim brothers and sisters—is live up to a simple promise to one another: No matter what happens, in good times and in bad, we have to be the brothers and sisters no one expects us to be.

It is hoped that the passing of Imam WDM will also mark the end of a chapter in our collective American Muslim history, and perhaps now, in earnest, we can all look together toward The Third Resurrection.

May God mend our broken hearts, lift our spirits, purify our souls, heal the rifts between our communities, unify our aims, remove our obstacles, defeat our enemies, and bless and accept our humble offerings and service.

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© 2008 Azhar Usman | 10 Ramadan 1429 | 11 September 2008

About the Author

Azhar Usman is a Chicago-based, full-time standup comedian. He is co-founder of "Allah Made Me Funny—The Official Muslim Comedy Tour," which has toured extensively all over the world. He is frequently interviewed, profiled, and quoted in the press, and he is an advisor to the Inner-city Muslim Action Network's Arts and Culture programs. Mr. Usman is also a co-founding board member of The Nawawi Foundation, a non-profit American Muslim research institution. He considers himself a citizen of the world and holds degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Minnesota Law School. Born and raised in Chicago, his parents originally hail from Bihar, India.

For more information, please visit:

www.allahmademefunny.com

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