Posts from — September 2008

I was reading an article in New York Times about Washington Mutual’s collapse, Government Seizes WaMu and Sells Some Assets when I came across this:

But the seizure and the deal with JPMorgan came as a shock to Washington Mutual’s board, which was kept completely in the dark: the company’s new chief executive, Alan H. Fishman, was in midair, flying from New York to Seattle at the time the deal was finally brokered, according to people briefed on the situation. Mr. Fishman, who has been on the job for less than three weeks, is eligible for $11.6 million in cash severance and will get to keep his $7.5 million signing bonus, according to an analysis by James F. Reda and Associates.

*Whew*

I had been looking to improve the look of the website I manage for the media committee I’m on. I’d been meaning to change the look of that site for quite a while but it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all that is out there. Then I found a premium Wordpress theme that really seems to suit the needs of the site, Thesis. This theme was created by Chris Pearson, who created the (free) Cutline theme I was using on this site. Because I had to write an article, I told myself I would delay working on the site in order to get the article finished. Alas, that didn’t happen so after a ton of research (I don’t even buy a DVD without thinking about the pros and cons) I actually paid for a Wordpress theme that I could tinker around with. I feel so much better about the website though and it was well worth paying for. And, I know when I get more time, I can customize it to my liking with or without code.

I thought that was that and thought I could continue with the article but then I felt like changing this site. I ended up going with Pearson’s free Neoclassical theme and decided to retire the Caffeinated Muslim header I created last year. Instead, a few of my pictures will rotate in the header. Right now, I only have 3 pictures that will be rotated but I’m sifting through my pictures to figure out what else I’d like to rotate. If anyone has any ideas of which of my pics I should include, let me know! So far, I’m thinking about adding this, a pic I took in Singapore Airport’s restroom:

(I kid)

This is random, but I wanted to go into a few other aspects of all of this: my web host, FTP, working with images, and working with Wordpress.org, all under the cut (meaning you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to )
[Read more →]

Imam Warith Dean Muhammad passed away earlier this week. He was the son of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. I just wanted to post a bit about him, taken from an article from Altmuslim.com:

Even though he was seen as the natural successor for leadership within the Nation of Islam, WD Mohammad became increasingly open about his rejection of his father’s teachings: the divinity of blacks, the divine origins of Nation founder WD Fard as “Savior Allah incarnate”, and the belief that whites were the Devil incarnate. While serving time in prison for concientious objection to the military draft, Mohammad studied the Qur’an and built up the courage to confront his father’s teachings, even as he was groomed to succeed him. Once released from prison, his rejoined the leadership of his father’s movement, all the while his doubts growing stronger.

His refusal to endorse the unorthodox teachings of the Nation, combined with his open confrontation of corruption within it, kept him in obscurity among other leaders of the group. It was not until ten years later, after the death of his father, that WD Mohammad was able to ascend to leadership and begin turning the movement towards the vision he had spent the last decade crafting. By 1977, he formally broke the Nation away from its original teachings and discarded the name, leaving it and its few remaining believers to Minister Louis Farrakhan, who runs a much smaller Nation to this day.

While WD Mohammad was determined to re-orient his organization towards orthodox Islam, he did so without rejecting the positive teachings that the Nation brought to that community, such as self-reliance and personal discipline. “[He] was able to do two remarkable things,” says Sulayman Nyang, a professor of African Studies at Howard University. “One [was] the re-Islamization of the movement; the second, the re-Americanization of the movement.” Under his leadership, Imam Mohammad’s community reached out to other faith groups, stressed civic engagement as a means of self-empowerment, and worked for economic self-sufficiency. By some accounts, the community under his influence grew to nearly one million people.

Imam Mohammad’s influence, however, was felt outside the African-American Muslim community as well. While some immigrant muslims were (and still are) unaware of what WD Muhammad gave to their community, his influence was most profoundly felt within Muslim leadership. As he reached out to predominantly immigrant Muslim organizations, he brought the lessons of nearly a half-century of organization and vision-making to the table. After his invocation to the US Senate in 1993, he led two more for President Bill Clinton. He shared a stage with Pope John Paul II and The Dalai Lama in 1999, addressing 100,000 people at the Vatican. In 2000, he had a public reconciliation with Louis Farrakhan, though that was seen as a sign of the Nation’s increasing subordination to the global, mainstream Islam Mohammed steered his community towards.

Read more.

There is an email going around from Azhar Usman, a Muslim comedian, that he wrote after he attended the funeral of Imam WD Muhammad and is being reposted on a lot of blogs. The entire email is under the cut.

© 2008 Azhar Usman

An Apology
Heartfelt reflections on the passing of a legendary Blackamerican Muslim leader

[Read more →]

Robotech was one of my favorite cartoons in the 80s.

For those of you have not seen the show, here’s a brief summary - An alien spaceship lands on Earth, ending a global war as different countries banded together to study the ship. 10 years later, it’s about to go on its maiden voyage in space when the Zentraedi, a race of giant human-like warriors, attack. The SDF-1 (as the ship is now called) jumps into space, accidentally jumping too far into space and taking an entire city, Macross, with it.

Anyways, it’s a long story.

So the other night I was at my sister’s and she and my brother-in-law happened to be watching Robotech on DVD. As the episode progressed, my brother-in-law made a comment that I’ve heard expressed before:

“You know, the Zentraedi are supposed to be Muslim.”

The Zentraedi are completely segregated - men and women generally seem to be on different ships. They have no concept of romance and do not have any idea about, y’know, ’stuff’. On one occasion, a Zentraedi ship was able to view a live feed of the the Miss Macross pageant happening on the ship and didn’t know what to make of girls in skimpy outfits. When Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, and Max Sterling were caught by the Zentraedi, Rick and Lisa had to show the Zentraedi what a ‘kiss’ was, which resulted in a disgusted group of Zentraedis. Minmei, the singing sensation of Macross, was their downfall as the soldiers were introduced to an entirely different way of life through her songs. Many Zentraedi wanted to defect to the human ship and, thus, embrace the human way of life because of her.

In short, the Zentraedi could portray how some of the world see Muslims while the humans, more specifically the humans of SDF-1, could represent the Western World. Note that I said how the world sees Muslims but not actually what Muslims are actually like

OR

There is no meaning behind anything and we all just think too much.

(I’m thinking the latter…)

Notes:

“Macross” is the name of the city that was taken into space when SDF-1 jumped. The city was essentially rebuilt within the ship and the citizens tried to live a normal life onboard. “Macross” is also the name of the original Japanese cartoon that was translated to become 1st Generation Robotech (this is the generation with Rick, Lisa, SDF-1, etc. and is my favorite generation)

Robotech is a very violent cartoon if one thinks about it. So many people die, the earth is almost wiped out, the future looks bleak, and one has to listen to Minmei’s songs. Seriously though, I can’t believe we all watched this as little kids.

I don’t generally watch TV during Ramadan, a personal choice as I try to limit distractions (I say this while I’m on the interent. huh.). But, I was over at my sister’s place and didn’t want to make them turn it off or anything. (Dunno why I need to make this point, but oh well)

When I grow up, I want to be a Veritech pilot.

There are a number of blogging websites available to the masses today. In order to differentiate themselves from one another, they may provide something unique to sway someone over to them. Tumblr is one such site.

Tumblr provides the user the ability to customize their post with templates catered to text, pictures, quotes, chats, links, audio, and video. I thought this was kind of cool, sort of like blogging when you don’t really have to much to say but when you still want to share something, even if it is just a link, a picture, something else that doesn’t warrant an explanation.

I wasn’t going to sign up though. I mean, I have a Wordpress blog and I’m on Twitter. I’m on the internet enough, y’know?

Yeah, I signed up.

I didn’t really expect to do much of anything with it. I uploaded a couple of pictures and thought that was that. But then it started to be kind of fun, a link here, a quote there, etc. So figured now is the time to out my Tumblr blog:

Bushra’s Tumblr

Ok look, I’m not forcing anyone to follow my Tumblr. I don’t see web stats on it and there are no room for comments. Essentially, I won’t know if no one ever visits it or not. I just find it kind of fun. If you visit it, cool, if you’re thinking “Yet another thing bushra is on” no worries

By the way, quotes and chats are fair game, meaning if something interesting comes up in a conversation I have with someone, I can put it in my Tumblr if I want (This disclaimer applies to all current content as well)

Cool thing about Tumblr: I got the ‘bushra’ username! Woohoo! In your face all other Bushras on the internet!

So I’m a few days late in this post but I still felt the need to acknowledge that it is now Ramadan, the holiest of months to Muslims.

They say that the only thing that some Muslims get out of this month is the feeling of starvation from dawn to dusk. I think that’s how it was for me the past two Ramadans.

I want it to be different this year so I will be striving to work on my spiritual side and get closer to Allah (swt) (or, y’know, ‘God’ as the masses call Him ;))

Muslims go by a lunar calendar and according to most scholars, the lunar months begin and end with the actual physical sighting of the new moon by the naked eye. So for me, it means that if the new moon is sighted anywhere in North America, the month begins. These days, we all have a much better idea of when and where the moon can be seen due to astronomy, math, and all that good stuff.

I happened to see the new moon from my house Monday night and it was a beautiful sight. The following was taken Monday night in the Hayward Hills by someone over at Zaytuna Institute:

My aim is to be a better person this Ramadan. Here’s hoping that I can accomplish that.