Drama America!

I’m sick and tired of all the American drama. Don’t get me wrong I used to be one of america’s fans, loving everything American from movies to songs to books and I still do. But the thing I started noticing lately is that the United States is a selfish country. They only think for themselves and do whatever is best for them.

I’m a muslim. A very proud one. And this whole drama the Americans make about muslims just made me realize how close minded and ignorant they are. Of course after 9/11 is a terrible thing that was done and the people responsible for it are heartless and close minded. Normal reaction: Americans were scared and traumatized. Having bombs dropping in your neighborhood or city is not an everyday life incident, but that doesn’t give them the right to be so damn dramatic about it.

If they do just a little bit of research they can see how Palestinians are still being slaughtered by Israel military everyday for more than 50 years now. You know what scratch that –not because the Palestinian dilemma is not important but because Americans can’t seem to understand or sympathize with it- . Just look to other bomb attacks that were claimed by Al Qaeda in other countries during the past years; 5/16 in Morocco, Casablanca; two attacks in Mauritania over the last two years; 7/7 in London and other attacks in many other countries. Everyone is terribly terrified, everyone has lost someone and everyone wants to move on.

A long time ago there were Jews and black people suffering from discrimination and intolerance and not until later that the world in general and the Americans in particular understood that they’re normal people, with normal needs and feelings, and with humany brains. And now it’s the Muslims turn to suffer from the same thing.

Those people keep forgetting that Muslims are firstly human beings; they have rights and dignity. Religion is a choice, is a way of living and not a plan to destroy the world. And Islam like all other religions seeks love and peace in the world.

I read an article a while ago named “American Muslims ask, will we ever belong?” From the name you can understand what’s it about. It broke my heart when I saw the title, because in this whole dilemma we forget about the people themselves and their sufferings. Yes they are muslims but they are Americans first. They were born there, it’s their country and their home too. Imagine yourself being mocked and discriminated against in your own country for something that you didn’t do or for some beliefs that you have the right to have. It’s like being a homeless stranger in your own home.

I’m not generalizing here, I know there are a lot of Americans that support Islam and Muslims and I’m glad that they try to give a voice to this issue and speak the truth of it.

One of my favorite filmmakers and authors is Michael Moore. I’ve seen many of his documentaries: Sicko, Bowling for columbine and others, and read a lot of his articles. He is one of the people who support Muslims and deal with them as humans and not as dangerous entities. I highly respect this man for his constant honesty and straightforwardness in all issues that he tackled along the years.

Another great Muslims supporter, is Nicholas D. Kristof, he wrote some articles about the matter and made it clear that the Muslims community like any other community in the world has good and bad people and we shouldn’t judge the whole just because a few did some mistakes. Nicholas lived in many countries and traveled to nearly all continents and saw how life is outside the United States which made him realize that the world has other dimensions then the ones you see in Fox or CNN.

Ignorance and the fear of the unknown are the main motivation for Americans to act the way they act. What if they back off a little bit and search about those muslims and try to know them as normal people and not judge that woman just because she’s wearing a scarf on her head or that man just because he has a longer beard than they are familiar with. Trying to see things beyond appearances and lead the behavior to be civilized and modern.

If you’re very curious you can always ask that man or woman on the street why they’re wearing that or saying this but don’t act quickly and hurt them by saying they’re savages or terrorists just because you’re ignorant.

The 99: Islamic Comic book

Inspired by Superman and Pokémon, Naif Al-Mutawa created the 99; the Islamic comic book illustrating the 99 attributions of Allah by 99 superheroes from 99 countries.

Naif had the idea after his comeback to Kuwait from the United States of America where he got his PhD in psychology. For him this is his contribution to Islam in order to develop the means of education.

The book was banned in the Saudi Arabia because even thus it’s based on the 99 attributions of Allah as in the Koran such as wisdom, light, strength and mercy and it educates the children about good values and helps them through life, but what seems as a problem for the conservative Muslims is that the book opposes to what Islam states as believing in Allah and asking him for help instead of asking individuals.

Naif raised money from businessmen of different countries after they believed in the project and hired the best crew that made X-Men and Power rangers’ comic books to make his idea and vision come true.
The book made great success in the middle East and attracted many reviewers around the world, most of them praised the work and described it as positive and more than just entertainment.

For me this is a great idea to share with the world the greatest attributions of Allah that we see in this world and through history. There are a lot of ways to help Islam grow up again and this is definitely one of them.