Rasheed Gonzales

My spam counter is on the rise but nothing is appearing in the spam queue; me thinks me has the problem described here. If anyone’s leaving comments that aren’t spam and they’re not coming through, this might be why. In any case, if that happens, email me the comment (@ rasheed DOT gonzales AT gmail DOT com) and I’ll see about posting it myself.

Peace.

One brother mentioned this quote in the course of a discussion I participated in and I found it rather intersting and quite profound, especially considering who the quote came from and who it was directed to.

A bit of background to the quote … the quote is said to have been made by Sultana Ayelsha, mother of Boabdil (Abū ‘Abdillah Muhammad XII), the last king of Granada. After surrendering the city to Ferdinand and Isabella in January 1492, Boabdil left Granada exiled. “Legend has it that as the royal party moved south toward exile, they reached a rocky eminence which gave a last view of the delectable city. Boabdil reined in his horse and surveying for the last time the Alhambra and the green valley that spread below he burst into tears” (Source). Unsympathetically, his mother (of all people) told him:

You do well to weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man.

There are two new books out by brother Jalal Abualrub of IslamLife.com. You can check out the promos for them on YouTube:

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Being that we’re currently in this the blessed month of Ramadân, I thought it would be fitting to post this article when I received it in my inbox this morning courtesy of brother Ibrahim al-Koobee of the Aqeedatus-Salaf yahoogroup (may Allah reward him with good). Due to its general nature, it serves as a good reminder for all of us.

I took the original Arabic from which the article was translated and retranslated it for my blog (you can read the original translation on the English portion of Asaala.com).

Ramadân: the Month of Godliness and Faith

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Brother AbdulHaq of SalafiManhaj.com repute sent me a link to this article from the Guardian titled This Onslaught Risks Turning into a Racist Witch-Hunt.  It’s got me a bit concerned for British Muslims. Here I thought the UK was a bit better than the US in terms of hostility towards Islam and Muslims … guess it isn’t that much better, is it?

Some snipets from the article:

According to an international Harris poll last month, nearly 30% of British people believe it’s impossible to be both a Muslim and a Briton (compared with 14% who think you can’t be French and a Muslim); 38% think the presence of Muslims in the country is a threat to national security (compared with 21% in the US); and 46% believe that Muslims have too much political power in Britain, far above the level of any other surveyed country.

[…]

… . The fact that a large minority of Britons have some of the most Islamophobic attitudes in the western world has passed without comment. Instead, we have since been treated to a renewed barrage of lurid and hostile stories about Muslims which can only have further inflamed anti-Muslim opinion and the community’s own sense of being under permanent siege. This isn’t just a problem of hate-filled tabloid rants, such as the Express’s denunciation of Muslims’ “alien and threatening outfits”, or Richard Littlejohn’s Muslim-baiting in the Mail. For the past three weeks, there has been a stream of hostile coverage in the heavyweight press and on TV current affairs programmes.

Read on … This Onslaught Risks Turning into a Racist Witch-Hunt.

One of the brothers from the UK sent me the link to this article this morning. Like the brother who sent it to me, other than the reference to ‘Wahhabis’, I found it rather interesting and thought I’d share it with the rest of you. It’s a short article titled The Collapse of Tolerance: ‘Block Thinking’ About Multiculturalism and the Threat of Islam is Leading Us Towards a Clash of Civilizations.

From the article:

“Multiculturalism” has become a suspect term almost everywhere in the world nowadays, and particularly in Europe. People say things like: “I used to be for openness and toleration of difference, but now I see where it’s leading.” But where is it leading?

Almost every reason for toleration’s apparent fall into disrepute concerns Islam. Even simple requests, like that of schoolgirls to wear headscarves in class, are suddenly freighted with immense political significance and treated as issues that must be resolved at the highest level of government. People - and their elected leaders as well - often have the feeling that such seemingly innocent proposals are in fact part of an ominous “hidden agenda”.

Read on … The Collapse of Tolerance.