it says: love your neighbor…

israel and lebanon are neighbors….
we are witnessing israeli love in bombed building and burnt ambulances and scared an bleeding children clinging to a dazed mother… some of israeli love was signed by their children.

the silence of the progressives. i could envision the progressives sitting in groups of three (for solidarity!!) covering each others’ eyes, ears and mouths. the germans did the same. The only difference is that the germans did it sipping beer in their famous beer halls. lucky germans…they were drunk…they did not know what was going on to their neighbors.

What an utter crock. You’re full of it, center.
Ginan, this is heart-rendingly lovely, and a great way to remind me that I hadn’t done anything this evening on the matter (I try to do something twice daily, the mornings are easier for some reason.)

Ginan Rauf

center i understand your anger. I have been speaking out on this
issue. And you know it. This woman- I have no idea where you
are located- is resisting whether you see the value or not of what
she is doing, just by staying behind. She is really addressing the
cynical and racist implications of evacuations. She had the
opportunity to leave because she is a dual national but choose to stay. That is a form of solidarity few of us are able to rise to. She
does this during a time of colossal colossal abandonment when
much of the world, including its craven Arab leaders are looking
the other way. They are the ones to whom you should be directing
your misdirected ire. But the progressives- whatever that means- are
a soft target.

There are layers and layers of resistance here. It is the solidarity of staying and living when others want to turn you into refugees and deny your existence, to shatter solidarity and scatter, to destroy
a civilization of which you are defiantly proud unlike the cowering
autocaratics who have no sense of identification with their people.
You expose the brutality of the aggressor by refusing to be the
aggressor, by letting the insane forces of war win and degrade us all
She is trying, in the only way she can, to shatter the stupid stereotype that all Arabs are hateful, full of hate and a desire for
revenge when citizens, ordinary people in the West rarely hear
that voice.

In case you hadn’t noticed, survival itself becomes a form of resistance when people want to annihilate you. There is the daily
business of helping sick friends, one suffering from cancer, and
gathering money for refugees ect ect, of keeping up the will to
live when life can become so brutal and meaningless that you give
up internally.. You think about living but also about what makes life
worth living. this is hard hard daily work. You insult the resilence,
intelligence and humanity of those who stay behind by reducing this
to Germans sipping beer. Shame on you. It takes superhuman courage to carry on daily, to have a wedding and not let the purveyors of carnage win.

You stay in order to affirm your attachment to theland, a locale, a specific place. You disrupt the colossal abandonment. You stand behind with a view to rebuilding your culture—- a variant form of resistance that is non-violent but hardly passive.You resist the global politics of a warrior class that is holding
citizens hostage, you make the presence of ordinary citizens
felt on the global stage and seek desperately for a way out. But
she never loses sight of the brutality, of what is being done to her
country.

this form of resitance sumud- has a long history. People often overlook the daily practice of sumud in places like Gaza and the West bank. You might want to watch the film Rana’s Wedding to get a sense of what how it operates in praxis, on a daily basis. You migh
also want to check out Raja Shehedah’s ‘’ The third way’‘ and just
think about how resistance operates in myriad ways on multiple fronts. Unless hearts are openned and minds changed in privileged
sectors of the North I don’t know how you can stop this stunning
level of savagery. As this war grows more costly dissent will grow in
Israel. If our troops ending getting sucked in dissent may grow here as well.

You think about living but also about what makes life
worth living. this is hard hard daily work. You insult the resilence,
intelligence and humanity of those who stay behind by reducing this
to Germans sipping beer. Shame on you. It takes superhuman courage to carry on daily, to have a wedding and not let the purveyors of carnage win. Ginan

Ginan,
I have nothing but admiration for the sumud of those refusing to leave. my point was that the germans in denying responsibility for what was happening to their neighbors is pretty much like what the progressives here are doing. Haven’t you noticed some distancing themselves from that stuff and concentrating on our ‘local’ community?
the progressives ignore that the lebanese are our neighbors.
the last thing i would ever think is look down at the dedication and the resilence of those who refuse to budge from their homes…
Ginan, i never intended an iota of what was read in my post. sorry if i offended you.
look forward to reading your thoughts on this topic and other topics.

Neighbors? Black Africa is closer geographically to us than Lebanon with alot more problems. Or, do you mean neighbors in faith or, perhaps even ethnicity? If you rate this issue as meriting attention because of severity, there are many places under more severe pressure. So, I’m confused by this angst-ridden focus (temporary, as it always is). Not that I’m telling you its a bad thing, simply that I’m opting out and hope others start to think long term rather than chasing the tragedy of the day. But, please, for the sake of learning, lay out the rationale and know that I have no intention of “proving” you wrong or trying to “prove” the superiority of my position. I just need to understand yours more.

- A Salafi in worship, a Sufi in society, a Secularist in government.

Ginan Rauf

I agree with you about the denial of responsibility.

no hard feelings.

You know Omar you can go on and on rationalize all you want
but one thing shows though consistently. You can barely bring
yourself to care on a human level. shame Arabs when they act
racist, insensitive, arrogant or overbearing towards others. I
am the first to admit that we have a problem with racism. But
for heaven’s sakes have the graciousness, the generosity of spirit
not to kick people when they are down. Some of us have friends
with families over threre, some of us have friends over there,
some of us are deeply connected to the culture. It is insulting for
you to trivialize our deeply felt connection to our countries of
origin. Not once have i detected a shred of kindness, a spark of
identification with the human suffering. If this what your faith is
all about?

My compassion ran out alot time ago. It was a finite resource, and others helped me spend it foolishly. But, then again, like I said, I don’t begrudge you your focus, but don’t tell me I have to care, too, until you or anyone can tell me why I should care about this more than something else. Family, freinds? I hope they come through unharmed and wish them the best.

- A Salafi in worship, a Sufi in society, a Secularist in government.

Ginan Rauf

You make my point. It shows, the rahma deficit. nobody says you have to care more. You do begrudge us our focus, assume that our concern is the frantic topic of the day. What is the faith all about? I always thought Sufis saw the divine in all of creation, were hurt if any of God’s creatures were harmed?

Rahma is NOT a finite resource, and Muslims complaining about a rahma deficit is like saying you’re broke when you live in a gold mine. It will take a bit of work, but the infinite source of Divine Mercy WILL take your call. You just have to dial.

I've decided to elevate my response to an entry. I won't sugarcoat how I feel; raw reality and what someone really thinks, however unpretty people think it is. I, for one, think the Lebanese people are being used as a yo-yo by Hezbollah and Israel.

Nakia- perhaps rahma is a degradable resource. Seriously. Like
I am really interested- in terms of evolutionary biology-about
generates feelings of altruism, expands the circle of empathy some speak of.