Posts by anjum rahman
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normally i really don't bother biting re blog discussions about how evil islam is etc etc etc, cos there's really no point. people believe what they want to believe.
however, while you all have been debating about what sort of threats islam & muslims might present, our mosque in hamilton was swastika'd again last friday night. on saturday, skinheads came driving around through our carpark (ie the forecourt of the mosque) at 3 different times during the day. their only purpose could be to intimidate.
and there is really nothing we can do about this. i guess it's one of the joys of being a kiwi muslim, just like those arab women that were shot at last year while waiting at an auckland bus stop.
no doubt we are luckier than those in other countries. in america, a detroit mosque and 6 muslim businesses suffered vandalism this week, after other businesses had suffered earlier in the month. a washington mosque was vandalised on 21 jan, there was vandalism and intimidation at a michigan mosque on 18 jan, a muslim school in canada was vandalised on 17 jan, and the list goes on.
the situation in england is just as much fun, with violent racist attacks being carried out for decades in that country. i remember visiting in 1978, and seeing indian homes with windows boarded up because of bricks that were constantly being thrown through them.
looks like are we headed in the same direction here. if so, how much of this kind of treatment is the muslim community supposed to take? how long do we have to put up and shut up, and still think ourselves somehow "privileged" to be "allowed" to live in this country (even though we are of this country)? and when the patience runs out, when someone finally snaps, will that make us all terrorists?
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kia ora all
well i'm in malaysia, and yup, it's raining. but it hasn't been all rain, and the consolation is that i'm staying in a mini-palace, with 2 full-time maids, a part-time gardener, a driver and sundry other luxuries. it just goes to show, when you're rolling in money, asia is the place to be (if you can conveniently forget about minimum wages, the 40-hour working week & various other basic labour laws... hmmm, i daren't antagonise my very gracious hosts by trying to unionise their labour force!)
have also been enjoying the food, the shopping, the hairdressers, and yes even the dentist - everything being so much cheaper here. have been trying to keep away from all the news, but couldn't avoid hearing that they're hanging saddam today. i guess this proves they've won the war.
i haven't really tried to get a sense of what people are thinking here of such world events. we're getting al-jazeera in english, which i've so far avoided. everything is pretty much controlled and censored here anyway (including all the "rude" bits of foreign films & tv programmes!), so there is not too much overt criticism. and malaysia is definitely prospering from the results of the tensions in the world today. many arabs and africans are now coming here for their holidays instead of going to america or europe, which is great for the local economy. so i guess they're not complaining too much.
well, i'm off for a lunch invitation, and hoping for better weather tomorrow, when we celebrate eid here. have a happy new year everyone.
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what was most appalling about the nat radio bit was the appalling lies. bassett said the book was based on nothing but stolen emails. ummm, what about the strategy documents, minutes of meetings, faxes, polling information etc?
jim mora said something along the lines that the interest in bassett was because he was formerly a labour person who was providing advice to national. noooo, the interest was because he was pretending to be an independent commentator while providing advice to national. and he was using his column to support stuff that he had apparently helped draft (eg the welfare speech). but there were absolutely no questions along those lines.
bizarre.
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oops, my computer illiteracy just showed... but i can count!!!
hey tze ming & kumanan, great job. hope you can persuade north & south to run a piece like this.
by the way, i'm also interested in being involved in any moves you have afoot - let me know if i can help...
cheers
anjum -
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craig, i'd believe you if they treated all political news in that way. i can think of any number of news items that would come under the category of being covered by the herald (the dom isn't widely available here), have little local/parochial interest etc etc, but they make a huge deal of it.
i don't think there's a conspiracy theory involved here. i just think it's wrong that they didn't report at all what every other media outlet thought was a major story.
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ok, how's this for media bias. last night's waikato times had not one word on nicky hagar, the effect of the injunction etc. NOT ONE WORD!! given this was their first edition after hagar's press conference, and given it was a very major news item, how do they justify that one?
and what action can you take when they simply fail to report on a major news item? i can't see which particular standard that would break, but it seems pretty wrong to me...
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kia ora keith
just heard that darling deborah is going to "defend" her article on the panel this afternoon (national radio). be ready to ring in... or better still, why not ring them now & see if you can get on as well. i think it would be great for you to provide an alternative viewpoint on this.
cheers
anjum -
as one of those "delusional" people, i've found this thread really interesting. last sunday night i gave a speech to the theosophical society about the islamic understanding of God, and no such challenging debate ensued. i guess those guys (and they were almost all male!) must believe in a God of some sort.
on another sort of related note, the human rights commission has its draft national statement on religious diversity (yup, that's what it's called) out for consultation. i can't do those cool link thingy's (being technologically challenged as well as delusional), so here is where you can find it:
in trying to organise a consultation meeting on this, i've found you atheists and anti-theists etc are the hardest group to connect with. you don't congregate in a church, you have no common meeting point (such as a sermon where notices are announced), no non-spiritual leader, so how does one get your collective attention??? i would have suggested that you organise yourselves better, except that organised non-religion is probably not a concept that would take off...
anyway, since the draft statement affects atheists as much as it does the faith communities, it would be really useful to have your feedback.
cheers
anjum -
hi tze ming
since you mentioned my name... i did reply to the crazed comments of this guy cos i thought it was important to do so. so did at least 10 others within 24 hours, and no-one on the group supported him. i had no idea someone would send it to the herald, though i know not to put anything in writing that i don't want the whole world to know!!!
interestingly enough, i offered the herald my peice that appeared on public address re this issue, but they chose not to publish it. and they don't appear to have had a headline "muslims in nz outraged at comments by sheikh alhilaly", even though i forwarded to simon (with permission) the comments of others who had responded to eyad.
how we even start to fight against this kind of stuff, i don't know. all i know is that it feels very suffocating to be subject this kind of reporting. but it's really heartening to read your piece and to read the comments above.
cheers
anjum