irabat-la's blog

an arab blogger who seeks the hidden and lost truths in a turmoil of religious, sectarian, and political conflicts .. i generally research and blog about religions, politics, history, science, and particularly about middle eastern issues .. this blog is merely to reflect opinions and raise questions freely and objectively .. not hostile towards certain religion, religious sect, political party, individual, neither is biased to any .. i also blog in arabic "al-tabari.tumblr.com" ..

[irabat-la-blog]

The future is a mental projection that you are having in the present moment. I’m not talking about the practical aspects of the future, like booking a flight or planning what you want to do this year, but the psychological future. That’s where we can get trapped. If you are always focused on the future, you miss the reality of life, which is the present moment.

Eckhart Tolle

[irabat-la-blog]

Racism and biased foreign policy may produce homegrown terrorists

I have seen more fundamentalists and extremists in the West than my home country and other countries in the Middle East. Ironically, the majority of them were born and raised in the West. I think that Muslim youths in the West can easily suffer form an identity crisis, especially if they are discriminated against, whether at the personal level or the community level or even surprisingly at the world level (Ummah). In other words, they lose that sense of belonging to their homegrown countries in the West due to racism domestically, and the biased foreign policy of the West when it comes to Muslims and Arabic issues, particularly the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hence, they look for an identity to belong to, and the obvious alternative is to turn to their roots of origin. However, there is very few cultural and community centres for Arabs and other minorities in the West, but there are plenty of Mosques around. I am not implying that Mosques preach extremism, in fact most of them focus on the relationship with God in terms of worship, and the relationship with their family and people in terms of morals and ethics rather than politics, yet there is few Mosques that are led by extremists who have their own illusionary holy agenda of fulfilling the will of God across the globe, a lost youth who is alienated in his country and is terribly upset with its foreign policy can easily be a prey to such extremists. Furthermore, the Western media make things worse by presenting such issues in a white and black, good and evil, us and them fashion ..

[irabat-la-blog]

In the Jewish way of looking at things, success in an undertaking, for instance, is not viewed as blessed by God. A man may arrive at power because he was unscrupulous, not because God aided him. This leaves God free to hold man accountable for his actions--both successes and failures.

"Jews, God, and History" by Max I. Dimont

[irabat-la-blog]

From 'villains' to 'flies' and 'niggers' in one hundred pages, it's not difficult to see how easily my father's world of 'pure, clean and upright' Britons bestialised its enemies. Though there are a few references to the 'boldness' of Afghan tribesmen - and just one to their 'courage - no attempt is made to explain their actions. They are evil, hate-filled, anxious to prove their Muslim faith by 'cutting pieces out the unfortunate Britisher'. The notion that Afghans do not want foreigners invading and occupying their country simply does not exist in the story.

Robert Fisk in his book "The Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest Of The Middle East" referring to "A Tale of the Afghan War by Tom Graham" he inherited from his father.

[irabat-la-blog]

Why some Muslims want to assassinate Salman Rushdie?

I'm not fond of reading novels but I bought Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" to find out why some Muslims want to assassinate him because of it.

[irabat-la-blog]

One of the problems in writing this book has been to decide what to call the sect of Islam that is being described, since it is known by a variety of names. It is often referred to by Sunnis by the derogatory title of Rāfidī (the Repudiators, see p. 73). The name Ja'farī is strictly a designation of the Shi'i school of jurisprudence (see p. 125), but this name has also been used for the whole sect, especially by the ulama and b Sunnis. In Lebanon the Shi'is have traditionally been called Mutawālī (plural: Mutāwila), while in Afghanistan and India the name Qizilbāsh is used. A name that has found favour among Western scholars is Imāmī. Although it is used among Arab Shi'is, it has little currency among Iranians or Indians and has the further disadvantage of being often used loosely to include Ismā'īlīs. Probably the most accurate and most widely-accepted, although less elegant, designation is Ithnā-'Asharī (Twelver) and this is the usage that has been preferred in this book. The Shi'a often refer to themselves as al-Khāssa (the Select, as against the Sunnis who are referred to as al-'Āmma, the generality of the people)

Moojan Momen -- Book: An Introduction to Shi'ism

[irabat-la-blog]

The majority of books written in the West on Islam are concerned with Sunni Islam and have tended to ignore or minimise the importance of Shi'i Islam. This is not surprising in view of the fact that Sunni Islam represents the belief of the majority of Muslims and is the state religion of most of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. However, the Shi'i are the next largest group after the Sunnis in the Muslim world and are the largest religious community in several countries: Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon.

Moojan Momen - The preface of "An Introduction to Shi'i Islam"

[irabat-la-blog]

Mathematics, stellar astronomy, computer technology, Christianity and Judaism, and then Islam--all have their origins in the Middle East ... From mathematics to the predominant Western religion, Christianity, we live in a truly global civilization that was created by people in the Middle East; Abraham, the Pharaohs, Jesus Christ, Avicenna and Averröes all come from this area.

Christopher Catherwood -- A Brief History Of The Middle East