Ethics

Promoted to the front page

I get home to my apartment, turn on my computer, check my e-mail, and see that I have a comment on one of my Facebook pictures. I look at the comment, and it says the following:

إنشاء الله تهترئ بنار جهنم يا شاذ
you don't have the right to talk about islam. not ever! read about 'قوم لوط'.

Now, before I even saw the message, I knew it was gonna be some homophobic stuff because I've gotten messages like this from this guy before. Who, for some odd reason, friended me on Facebook...and one day left a message on my wall that said "homo" and nothing else. Incidentally, this guy is also friends with two other (gay) FB friends of mine.

For a while now, I have been wondering about the moral responsibility of people like us (see here and here), , who work in the tech industry here in the Bay Area for human rights abuses enabled by our products.

Here's the first real effort I have seen to put some legal and real shape to the concerns:

Recently, I was discussing the possibility of teaching a short summer course in ethics and culture at a university in Bangladesh. I proposed the following outline to them. It will be an elective for first year students with no previous exposure to religious studies or philosophy. As a result, it has to be a bit of an introduction to philosophy, history of religion and politics with an emphasis of what all these mean in a modern Muslim context. Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

Every year we hear ridiculous insults, stupid questions, naive lunacies, and straight out racist bull. Lets collect the worst and funniest stuff said about Islam and Muslims this year. Put it in the comments section. Then we'll sort out the top 10 lunacies said about Muslims this year, put them in a poll and let readers vote on what is the absolutely most stupid and insulting thing said about Muslims this year!

Collect them all!

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President Ahmedinejad is set to star as the Sterling Hayden character "Jack D Ripper" in a remake of Stanely Kubrik's black comedy masterpiece "Dr. Strangelove." The film will be updated for today's headlines and the title changed to "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Holocaust Denial."

(warning spoiler follows)

Jack “Ahmedinejad” Ripper, a delusional Iranian President, executes his plan to strike Isreal with Holocaust Denials, in order to thwart a Zionist conspiracy which he believes threatens to "sap and impurify" the "precious bodily fluids" of the Iranian people with street food falafels disguised in baguettes rather than their usual identifying pita. Ripper convinces everyone at the Tehran Air Force Base that Iran is in a "shooting war" with Isreal, and orders the 843rd Holocaust Denial Wing (which is then airborne in a training exercise called "Operation An-An") past its fail-safe points and into Isreal. Mulla Nasruddin, a cleric participating in an "exchange program" with the Iranian Airforce, suspects that all is not as it seems when he turns on a radio and hear government sponsered Qu’ran recitations instead of Defense alerts.

On Eid al-Shukr, We thank God for the nourishment he has provided us and also thank God for the strength to act against injustice with our hands, our voices, and through prayer.

As a community, I suggest we work with Native Americans to ban racist Sports Mascots. Through grass roots activism, Native American groups were able to persuade the NCAA to ban the use of racist mascots and team names. Their activism provides an admonishment to us and a good example.

WISE or Women's Islamic Initiative Spirituality is meeting in NYC on November 17-19. It will be a gathering of 100 distinguished women to share best practices, network, and God willing, create an advisory council of Muslim women to express women-centered concerns to global political and religious leaders. I like that they have made an effort to include women from different religious and political perspectives. God willing it will be diverse like the umma is diverse and represent the best of what we all have to offer.

WISE is focusing on long term goals, but the community also needs to keep its eye on the here and now.

Sisters Nurturing Sisters in Chicago provides homeless women and children the necessary resources to assist them in becoming self-sufficient. PI.Org would like to support projects like these by offering them webspace and management for free. Please contact us by leaving a comment below if we can help you in any way. SNS website does not seem to be active but it should be: sistersnurturingsisters.org

Please read through below about the Sisters Program. They need help making their most basic funding goals and project services.  Please help if you can:

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Debra Mubashshir Majeed discusses marital rape and where we go from here following the responses to her pamphlet on Marital Rape she published here and used in a discussion on the topic at her mosque.

Debra Mubashshir Majeed writes,

I have read the responses to my initial posting in June with great interest. Since the taleem mentioned above, it has become increasingly obvious
that "we" -- practicing Muslims and those who study our religion,
rituals, and lived realities -- have much work to do on this very important issue. I cannot begin to tell you the depth of ignorance that is taught and shared as revelatory truth. Too many Muslim women arise before dawn each day to make salat and to live in contexts that confirm their sense of inferiority and marginalization. Popular interpretations of Islam suggest that men are the maintainers of women, and some of these women experience that very "maintenance" as domination, as control, and as abuse.

I have nothing to say.  I find myself reflecting on these verses from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching:

31:

Weapons of war are omens of doom,
To be loathed by every living thing
And shunned by those who keep the Way.
Presiding at court, the leader honors the right to conduct war,
But weapons are never the leader's choice.

Weapons of war are omens of doom,
Not to be used unless compelled.
And then used only with a quiet mind and heart.
Do not glorify arms.
If one glorifies arms,
One sings and rejoices over the slaughter of people.
Those who sing, praising such slaughter
Get nothing from this world.

Thus the left is for deeds that bring ease,
The right is for deeds that bring death.
The commander of the left is less important.
The commander of the right is most important,
The commander of the right conducts war with mortal gravity
by mourning for all those slaughtered,
and observing victory like a funeral.