By Alistair Lyon

RABAT (Reuters) – Unlike other Arab leaders challenged on the streets early last year, King Mohammed VI swiftly reformed Morocco’s constitution, held an election and let an Islamist party lead the government.

His response smothered popular ferment, drew plaudits from the West and seemed to set Morocco on a more democratic course, but 20 months on it is unclear how much power has changed hands.
Le Matin, an establishment French-language daily, still devotes its first half dozen pages to the doings of the monarch and his advisers before the elected government gets a mention.

The Islamist prime minister, Abdelillah Benkirane, still has his office in the vast precincts of the royal palace in Rabat.

For now, his Justice and Development Party (PJD), whose success in an October 2011 election brought it into government for the first time, insists political cohabitation is thriving.

“Morocco is an exception in the region,” Communication Minister Mustafa el-Khalfi told Reuters. “We have succeeded in developing a third way between revolution and the old system of governance: reforming within stability and unity.”

Under the new constitution, King Mohammed, who bases much of his legitimacy on his Islamic credentials as “Commander of the Faithful” and as a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad, keeps control of military, security and religious affairs, while parliament legislates and the government runs the country.

“Key institutions enshrined in the constitution are coming to life,” said one Western diplomat of the reforms. “The breadth of debate is changing. People feel part of the process.”

Yet after two decades of stop-go reforms that began under the king’s late father Hassan II, not all Moroccans are convinced that the palace has loosened its grip that much.

“The monarchy has a very strong survival instinct,” said Moroccan historian Maati Monjib. “The official tactic is divide and rule and it has been systematic for about 400 years.”

CREDIBILITY RISK?

After the turmoil of last year’s Arab uprisings, the PJD-led government installed in January gained some real clout, he said. But by August the king and his advisers felt bold enough to take back some of their “traditional, non-constitutional powers”.

The PJD may risk credibility with its Islamist base by taking office and then finding real authority lies elsewhere, as happened to a socialist opposition party in the 1990s.

“They haven’t finished a year in power yet, but what they have announced is not encouraging,” said economist Najib Akesbi. “They’ve got stuck to the regime. History is repeating itself.”

Khalfi, who is also government spokesman, retorted that it was normal for incumbent parties to lose some popularity and that the PJD had backed the monarchy even when in opposition.

“We believe in the crucial historical role of the monarchy to defend unity and stability and lead the necessary reforms.”

Any immediate prospect of a mass uprising may have receded, but social and economic tensions smolder in a country with wide income disparities and what Khalfi called decades of corruption.

He listed Morocco’s other problems as unemployment, poverty, health and illiteracy, requiring investment and good governance.

Reliant on fuel and wheat imports, the economy has suffered from Europe’s recession, which has hit tourism and transfers from Moroccans working abroad, many in nearby Spain.

Morocco ranks 130 out of 187 countries on the U.N. human development index and 56 percent of adults among its 32 million people are illiterate. Food and fuel subsidies absorb about 54 billion dirhams ($6 billion) a year, or six percent of GDP.

Few dispute that the subsidies are wasteful, benefiting the well-off more than the needy, but removing them is a political hot potato and could prove broadly unpopular – with the poor who are skeptical about promised cash compensation and middle-class people who would have to pay more, as well as businesses that have grown fat on cheap sugar, wheat flour and energy.

JUDGES TAKE TO STREETS

Marina Ottoway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace suggests that the palace may be happy to let the PJD-led government attempt its policy of phasing out the subsidies.

“If problems result from the change, consumer anger and blame would be directed at the government while the palace could get rid of an old problem at little risk to itself,” she wrote.

Scattered unrest, mostly over economic grievances, erupts often in Morocco. Even judges, not known for street activism, staged a sit-in last month outside the Supreme Court, where about 1,000 demanded more independence for the judiciary.

The mostly secular February 20 Movement, dynamo of the 2011 demonstrations, still exists, but authorities are less tolerant of its protests since a referendum approved the constitutional reforms. Many young activists have retreated to the Internet.

Two significant Islamist tendencies also remain outside the political mainstream, partly for their own reasons.

Ultra-orthodox Salafis, a minority group with a growing appeal in the deprived outskirts of big cities, are debating whether to drop their ideological rejection of politics and emulate their Egyptian counterparts who formed a political party after Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow and did well in an election.

Al-Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Charity) is a formidable broad-based movement which first backed last year’s youthful protests, but later withdrew, wary of its secular allies.

Its ageing leader, Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine, has long been a thorn in the royal flesh, refusing to recognize the king’s status as Commander of the Faithful, demanding that he “return what his father stole” and favoring a republic.

“They are well-organized and well-structured. They can mobilize tens of thousands of people,” the Western diplomat said of al-Adl wal Ihsan. “If the economic crisis deepens and social challenges are not addressed, will they step in?”

The king toured Gulf Arab states last month to drum up aid and investment from rulers so worried by the fallout from last year’s Arab revolts that they invited distant Morocco and Jordan to join their regional club, the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Mohammed VI, the biggest private stakeholder in Morocco’s $95 billion economy, is involved in many sectors of the economy, from telecoms to precious metal mining, banking and cement.

This combination of political power and economic interest compromises Morocco’s stated goal of creating a competitive, transparent economic arena, argues Akesbi, the economist.

“This monarchy, which governs, also does business, making every outcome possible – conflicts of interest, abuses of power, nepotism. And that’s what we witness every day.”

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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By Karin Friedemann, TMO

Few children in the US are fully prepared for the responsibilities of adulthood by their eighteenth birthdays, even with the best of families. American young people generally spend their twenties in a state of limbo, searching for themselves as they complete their education and/or enter the workforce.

Juveniles who have been placed in foster care face special challenges when they turn 18 because they must suddenly become responsible for managing their own lives. When kids “age out” of the system, they often end up returning to the unstable parental homes from which they were originally removed. The Boston Foundation conducted a study of the problem in 2008, and found that: 37 percent of former foster kids older than 18 had experienced homelessness; 54 percent were unemployed, and half of those with jobs worked fewer than 20 hours a week; 30 percent had been threatened or injured with a weapon; 25 percent had been arrested in the prior 12 months; and 11 percent reported being raped.” The study also showed that 39 percent reported being moved to 10 or more foster homes over the course of their lives, which resulted in a disruption of their education. 59 percent of the teens surveyed reported feeling “sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row.”

The government stops tracking young adults once they leave foster care, but independent studies have demonstrated that up to 20 percent of all prisoners in the nation are former foster children. A government database of National Youth in Transition is being compiled, but it will not be completed until 2016.

Steve Holt reports in Boston Magazine that “the New York-based group Children’s Rights is suing Massachusetts for violating the constitutional rights of children in its care. The class-action suit, expected to be heard in US District Court in Springfield early next year, was filed on behalf of six children the organization says have been “badly harmed” by abuse, neglect, and numerous placements while in the state’s foster care system. Connor B. v. Patrick also accuses the state of not adequately preparing adolescents in foster care for living independently as adults.”

Marie, a single mother overwhelmed with caring for her sick son lost her job, so her two children were temporarily removed from her home. When she finally got her children back, she learned that both of them “had been sexually abused over and over again” by the fourteen year old son of the foster mother.”

Former social worker Judy Andreas writes: “’Sendy was only two years old at the time,’ Marie cried to me. ‘Where was the foster mother? Why had Social Services snatched the children from my loving arms to put them in harms way?’”

Marcia Robinson Lowry, Children’s Rights’ executive director explains that “taxpayers are paying for a system that, rather than protecting children, is further contributing to damage that children have gotten already in a home environment.”

Former foster child Donald Rudolph, age 18, murdered three people including his mother and sister in Weymouth, Massachusetts last year. Donald had “spent the past two years moving between foster homes, his parents’ houses, and the street,” reports Boston Magazine. He had been arrested four times and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia within a year after he left foster care.

Donald had actually applied for continued assistance from the Department of Children and Families (DFC) but was automatically cut off after being incarcerated. Donald had the choice to reapply, but he did not do so.

“And with that, Massachusetts willfully cut ties with a man it knew was mentally ill and a threat to others,” writes Holt.

Donald’s mother reportedly told police he was off his medications and was out of control. Donald was arrested and pleaded guilty to burglary, dealing marijuana, and shooting a random woman with a pellet gun. On September 14, 2011, District Court Judge Diane Moriarty ordered him to receive mental health treatment, but no one was appointed to oversee his care. In October, he was arrested again for burglary, and was again set free, pending a November 29 court date.

On November 10, 2011, he murdered his family.

Donald’s surviving sister, Brittany Rudolph, who was away at college the night of the murders, says her brother’s years in foster car were filled with neglect and abuse. She says state officials missed clear signs that her brother needed continued intervention. “The way they handled it – the system,” she says, “they basically created a criminal.”

Donald is certainly not Massachusetts’ youngest murderer. Fourteen-year-old Ernest Watkins IV of Boston was charged on October 6, 2012 with the death of a 39-year-old man during a robbery, after stabbing him 37 times. Under state law, any juvenile charged with murder is automatically tried as an adult. He will likely receive life in prison. 

Such cases as this inspire discussions on how violent youth crime could be best prevented, whether by putting more resources into supervising troubled teenagers or by locking them up more swiftly to prevent them from committing worse crimes.

The flip side of the “tough on crime” approach of giving long prison terms to young murderers is that now the state faces increasing financial burdens from aging prisoners requiring medical care. James Ridgeway wrote an article in the Bay State Banner entitled “The Other Death Sentence: Aging and Dying in Prison,” about the experiences faced in prison by “men in various stages of bad health or terminal illness.”

He describes the last days of Lefty Gilday, “a minor league ballplayer turned ‘60s revolutionary, a convicted cop killer and target of one of the most famous manhunts in Massachusetts history.” Lefty was loved and respected by the other inmates, who came to him to settle disputes. When he became infirm, his friends helped him to the toilet and cleaned him up. Joe Labriola, 66, who was convicted of killing an FBI informant, used to help Lefty get some fresh air by wheeling his chair into the yard and sitting with his arm around Lefty to keep him from falling out.

Lefty was placed in isolation for throwing an empty milk carton at a prison guard, but Labriola snuck into Lefty’s cell one day and found stacks of unopened food containers. “Lefty said he couldn’t open the tabs to get at the food. The stench of piss and feces was overwhelming,” Ridgeway reports.

There are countless prisoners who are so old and sick they are bed-ridden, clad in adult diapers. Some of them have families who are willing to take them, but the government refuses the release of prisoners, who are well beyond the point of posing a threat to society. Many other prisoners, who committed violent crimes as teenagers decades ago, but who have worked hard to better themselves and whose parole board has recommended their release, remain imprisoned at our expense.

Funds are extremely limited for teens who need supervised help, yet funding seems to be unlimited for housing prisoners even until death. The amount of money spent on each life prisoner far exceeds what it would have cost to send each one to Harvard.

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By Maryam Sakeenah

“You have to read these”, my friend compelled me, giving me a couple of yellowed, printed-long-ago sort of books. That gave me my first glimpse into the fascinating life and inspiring works of Maryam Jameelah.

Born as Margaret Marcus into an American Jewish family who cared little for religion and were active believers in the American Way, it was curious how that little girl refused to fit into that life and culture and came to realize it wasn’t the glittering American Dream, after all. She sought answers and found herself interested in the exotic and oriental. Young Maggie Marcus’s fascination with oriental cultures led her to meet many New York Arabs and Muslims, from where she was introduced to Islam.

At a relatively young age, Maryam began to study and to read up on Islam and Muslim culture. She found in Islam what the society around her lacked and never could give her. She found herself heartily in agreement. From then on, there was no going back. After her reversion to Islam in 1961, it became clear to her that New York couldn’t be her home any more. The odds were too many.

Soon after, Maryam began regularly corresponding with Muslim leaders and scholars throughout the world including Maulana Maudoodi, in whose ideas she found a close kinship. At his invitation, Maryam shortly moved to Pakistan and settled in Lahore. Here, she lives with her husband, four children and the extended family members, spending her days reading and writing regularly for the Muslim World Book Review on a wide range of issues and subjects related to Islam and the West, and the resurgence of Islam.

Maulana Maudoodi had once called Maryam Jameelah ‘a tropical sapling planted in the Arctic.’ Reading through the details in the biographies my friend had lent me, there was so much that truly moved one. What inspired me was how a young mind, with no Islamic influence around, grew to develop such a seasoned vision of Islam, such courage to enable her to resist all the tempting glamour of developed society. Her search was honest and it rested only after having achieved that which alone fulfilled. Masha Allah!

After her arrival in Pakistan, Maryam had to grapple with a totally different lifestyle and cultural milieu. She reminisces of the linguistic barrier, the climate she was totally unsuited to, the large family structure and the hygiene conditions. It could hardly be called ‘home’ for a young New Yorker. However, this cultural ‘leap’ Maryam Jameelah had undertaken was in fact also a ‘leap of faith’, making her amazingly resilient.

Some of the most beautiful passages in Maryam Jameelah’s biography which taught me much were about how the young New York girl seeks and appreciates the beauty in the simple ways of Muslim culture. For her, eating out of a common earthenware dish is beautiful for the warm sharing it involes; walking barefoot on a dirt floor and making ablution out of a clay pot are the simple, natural pleasures of life, the rare delights of the unsophisticated simplicity_ uncorrupted by materialism and artifice_ that is essential to Islam. She warms up to the largesse, generosity, hospitality of values engendered by Islam.

The flies, the heat, the dirt, the discomfort and inconveniences fail to bring low the indomitable spirit. Surely, the eyes beholding so much beauty in something a ‘Westernised’ mind would sneer at must be beautiful_ ‘wearing in the eyes the dust of Madina’, as Iqbal would have said.

Getting a fuller view of Maryam Jameelah, I ended up reading several of her works on Islam and the West, which were certainly deeply insightful, incisively critical_ the product of an analytical mind and a passionate heart. It was around then that my friend called up, and in high pitched tones of excitement, told me of a rare discovery: she had actually traced Maryam Jameelah to her home! She had simply followed the publishers’ address given at the back of one of her books_ printed back in the 70s, and praying ardently that they hadn’t shifted since then, actually sought out the place!

Next Saturday evening we were both threading our way through the streets of Sant Nagar_ not to forget stopping at the florist’s on the way to get a bouquet of ‘Nargis’_ decidedly ‘Nargis’_ we had to be as ‘oriental’ as would suit the occasion. On the way, observing the narrow, bumpy and dusty streets and the barefooted children playing around, I thought I could feel that beauty Maryam had sought in there too. This was so removed from the urbanized quarters_ an island within a monstrosity of ‘development.’ The car halted before an old house much like the ones around. We brightened up when a bright, cheerful and warm face appeared_ Moon Apa’s, who had facilitated the visit. She made us feel welcomed- rather, at home. I think I understood how Maryam Jameelah had so effortlessly managed to say ‘I belong.’

To my left, I saw a huge courtyard which immediately aroused the feeling of ‘dejavu’_ it clicked… I remembered a page from Maryam Jameelah’s biography… suddenly, the room filled up with gaily dressed women from the 70s laying out traditional sweetmeat dishes to welcome their guest from New York who had chosen to live among her companions in faith…

We said our Maghrib prayers in the drawing room where we were waiting adjacent to Maryam Apa’s room. Folding up the prayer mat, my heart thumping wildly, I couldn’t keep from looking at the dear old profile etched across the open window, at the head of silvery-white hair draped in a white dupatta’ (scarf), lowered on the prayer mat in sajdah. I felt the unspeakable blessdness of the moment filling up my veins. Some things just cannot be expressed…

Most of what we heard Maryam Apa say, we had already read in her books. But to see it come alive in the full-throated voice which had in it the energy and vitality of her rich heart; to see that ‘undying flame’ of the unbeaten spirit in the fine old eyes, and the deep-seated gratitude and thankfulness for the life she has lived was an experience unsurpassable. She brightened up sharing memories of the past, shyly smiling like a little girl, her beady eyes twinkling even though she was frail and volatile with age, exhausted and not very mobile any more.

Since she settled in Lahore, Maryam Jameelah has been a prolific writer. Her work reflects a deep, incisive and analytical understanding of Western culture and civilization. Being an ‘insider’, and not having lived in a colonial or postcolonial set up, she digs deep into the very foundations of American society and with a rare, refreshing vision and raw honesty, exposes it down to its bare bones. She feels intensely its spiritual bankruptcy and the toll materialism has taken on the life of the average American, reducing life to a struggle for material prosperity and comfort, no more.

However, the deeper questions remain unanswered, unresolved, and the inner self unsatiated:

It is this distressing evolutionary process that has today made America a slave of machines. The supremacy of the USA is accepted all over the world and its hand is seen in everything that happens anywhere. No country, Muslim or non-Mulsim, is altogether free from its control and domination. Today America has enslaved the world with its way of life but it has itself become the slave of machines. It is a prisoner of its lifestyle, of material progress, factories, laboratories and of fancy goods and gadgets. Man here has got so completely cast in the technological mould of life that his ideas and emotions have also become mechanical. The properties of rock and iron have entered into his soul. He has become narrow and selfish, cold and unfeeling. There is no warmth in his heart; no moisture in his eyes. This is the reality I have sadly observed during my stay in America.(As quoted by Maryam Jameelah in ‘The Resurgence of Islam and Liberation from our Colonial Yoke).

It is this dissatisfaction and disappointment with the deceptive sheen of the Western humanistic tradition and all it could ever offer that makes Maryam Jameelah embark on a search for meaningful life true to the purpose we are sent with, in tune with the ebb and flow of nature, imbued with simplicity and spirituality. She finds this fulfilment in Islam and Muslim culture, and this is where the seeker in her finds the anchor to hold on to. They say, ‘beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’. The vision that rejected the emptiness of the culture of materialism and narcissism finds out the beauty of the ‘Muslim’ Way of Life:

The remedy for the problems of the modern world is the adoption of absolute transcendental values. The fallacy that everything must change with changing times makes life devoid of meaning and purpose since there is nothing of permanent worth. It is responsible for our ‘throw-away’ culture which considers everything disposable. The relativity of values is responsible for the unprecedented epidemic of vulgarity and obscenity in the mass media, of arts and entertainments, the generation gap, widespread alcohol and drug addiction and suicide as a leading cause of death. If everything must change with the changing times, human dignity and the nobility of character are almost impossible to achieve since these are based upon permanence and stability in the moral order.

Modern man desperately needs a Supreme Authority for reference to distinguish between what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is ugly. This does not mean totalitarian dictatorship but the Rule of Law in the highest sense. Only the Divine Law of the Shariah is impartial and just; where ruler and ruled, rich and poor, young and old, celebrities and ordinary anonymous folk are equally subjected to its jurisdiction… the authority of the Shariah proceeds from Almighty Allah. Thus it is feared, esteemed, loved and obeyed simultaneously. It combines the internal sanctions of fear of Allah and His retribution in the Hereafter with severe but just punishments for violation of that law on which the health of the individual and society depend.
Her belief in Islam as the panacea and the absolute Good is powerful and authentic:

The call of Islam to modern man is the call to stability and inward peace. A society based on the precepts of fear and reverence for the Divine Law will not be troubled with crime, violence and lawlessness.…Individually, Islam would bring a direction, meaning and purpose to life which materialistic cultures cannot provide; an inward serenity and peace even in the midst of external frustrations and adversity… the ugliness of our environment would be supplanted by beauty…” (Islam and Modern Man)

Again, being originally an outsider, she does not take the ways of Islam dully as a habit but delights in its refreshing distinction from the materialism and artifice she has known and come to detest. Observing the contrast directly, closely and first hand, Maryam Jameelah’s later works show a seasoned understanding of the inner dynamics that make post-Enlightenment secular-liberal Western society what it is and the influences_ direct and indirect_ it exercises on what it calls the ‘developing’ predominantly Muslim world. She studies and presents an analysis of Western philosophy and traces its evolution till the point where a secular, capitalist-materialist social structure was realized. She analyzes the motives and methods of Western imperialism, colonial rule and the state of perpetual neo-colonialism the Muslim world labours under. She is bitterly critical of modernist Muslims who believe that in the Westernization and ‘modernization’ of Islam lies its hope for survival and progress:

The earliest modernizers in the Muslim world were dismayed by the contrast between the material backwardness of the Muslims and the dazzling energy and concrete accomplishments of Europe. They thought that if only the Muslims could imbibe modern knowledge through modern education, their people would become just as strong, progressive and prosperous.

Some, like Jamaluddin Afghani and Shaikh Muhammad Abduh sincerely believed that this was the proper road to Islamic revival in its call to modern man. The leaders of the Muslim countries accepted this advice without question. More than a century has passed since then but although all Muslim countries have adopted the Western s7stem as their own, they remain poor, weak, backward…

Yet the Orientalists and the modernizers insist that the Muslims are weak because they are not Westernized thoroughly enough and prescribe another dose of the same harmful diet. Those who merely imitate and not create, those who are always passive receptors instead of active givers are defeated in the inevitable course of events because their initial position is one of failure. The call of Islam to modern man can succeed only if it proceeds from a position of strength, independence and self-confidence.

Why is Westernization so attractive to the Muslims as it is for everyone else? It is irresistible because it is easy. Contemporary civilization is based upon self-indulgence while that of Islam requires sacrifice, altruism, discipline, self-control and endurance which are difficult. But self-indulgence leads to decadence and decline while the opposite qualities, which Islam demands, lead to superior strength, unity and virtue. If practiced in its right spirit, Islam leads to social integration. Self-indulgent materialism leads to social disintegration an ultimately collective suicide…

The times in which Maryam Jameelah’s writing is placed, the 1960s to 80s were when the groundwork for contemporary politics was being laid taking shape. Her analysis and observations therefore, help one understand the roots and implications of contemporary socio-political issues. Her work bears striking relevance to current-day dilemmas and issues_ certainly the vision of an eye gifted with foresight.

Although placed in times when the Muslim world was ravaged by modernist post-Kemalist reform movements like President Nasser’s in Egypt, Maryam Jameelah’s work is set apart, shunning all such influences, safely cocooned in her firm fidelity to the fundamental sources of Islam and her sensitive appreciation of Islamic tradition. She passionately defends this ignored treasure, showing it to the world in its unclouded, natural splendour. She believes in the eternal dynamism of Islamic tradition, its eternal relevance as a means to establish a viable egalitarian, peaceful, just and welfare-oriented society in the present day, modelled on the insights provided by the first Muslim community in Madina. She pleads her case convincingly and passionately:

“It is often asserted by orientalists that the values and ideals of traditional Islamic civilization have no relevance, even for Muslims today because, like all non-European cultures, it was the product of an antiquated tradition of the pre-scientific age. They assert that only secularity is relevant to modernity, to change, to continual technological innovations, and their social consequences. Since the genuine Muslim is a traditional man, he can therefore have nothing of relevance to contribute to the daily life of the modern man. But despite the drastic environmental transformation brought about by modern technology, the basic human drives and needs remain unchanged. Therefore modern man is just as thirsty for the spiritual sustenance which alone gives life its meaning, direction and purpose as was his ancestors, even if he is not consciously aware of it.

It is the purpose of those who call modern man to Islam to awaken him to the urgent intensity of these needs, not only for the individual but for the whole of human society. Unfortunately, there remains another great obstacle in the path of a modern appreciation of Islam. Islamic civilization was not only remote from modernity in the technological sense; it seems even more remote from the modern mind in its moral ideals, which cannot be appreciated by the secular man or even regarded by him as desirable. The spiritual ideals of Islam can be understood only by truly God-fearing people, who yearn for God’s mercy and salvation in the Hereafter.

Those who wish to call modern man to Islam must make him understand and appreciate such virtue which is utterly foreign and incomprehensible to the materialist. By an effective presentation of the profound richness of Islamic culture as an historical acuality in the life of the Muslims until the recent past, he must make the modern man appalled by the spiritual poverty in which he must live and long for a better life not limited to this world.” (Islam and Modern Man)

In the context of the contemporary dilemmas of achieving ‘liberation’, ‘pluralism’, ‘enlightened moderation’ outside of Islam and remoulding Muslim societies to toe the Western line and achieve the Western ideal of Secular-liberalism, Maryam Jameelah’s works have perhaps a relevance more than ever before.

While Muslims debate which ‘brand’ of Islam be adopted to appease the imperious demands of Western imperialism; while we concoct the smothering labels of ‘extremist’, ‘secular’, ‘modernist’, ,moderate’, ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ and seek an identity alien to our real, true essence, we need to rediscover the beauty and quiet superiority of the pristine ‘Muslim’ way as lived by the Prophet (s) of Islam and the earliest generation; we need to make that legacy speak to us again of our problems and dilemmas and provide a way forward.

Maryam Jameelah, in throwing overboard the naive presumptions she was socialized into, prejudices she inherited and wholeheartedly choosing to live by the way of Islam  with pride and passion, has a lot to teach us as we still grope in the darkness for an identity.

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By TMO

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during his election night victory rally in Chicago, November 7, 2012.    REUTERS/Jason Reed

The 2012 election season thundered to a close last night, with a decisive victory for President Barack Hussein Obama.

The Muslim Observer congratulates President Obama for his thumping majority, with wins in the electoral college and in the popular vote.

The president won convincingly in most if not all of the battleground states, including Ohio, Virginia,Michigan, Colorado, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

As this is being written, the night after the election, Florida is still too close to call, but whatever the Florida result, the election was won by the president through his success in the other battleground states.

There are several important facts to note from this election.  Number one, the demographic landscape has changed–unless a party is able to include Latinos, African Americans, and other minorities, it will not win.  This election has shown how the population of the United States has shifted.  This painful lesson has just been ground into the Republicans and it remains to be seen whether they will take it to heart.

Said Faiz Khan, Chair of the Pakistani Democratic Party of Michigan, “The election of President Obama to a second term shows the fairness of elections in the United States.”  Being as fair as it is, he said, other countries should follow it–this builds the faith of a lot of people in the system.

Ahmedullah Siddiqui argued that “hopefully the people have given Obama a chance for a second term that he will use wisely.”

The 2008 election was followed by a frenzy of activity including stimulus actions, the building of “Obamacare,” and much much more.  In 2010 a backlash resulted in extremists flocking to Washington under the “Tea Party” banner of the Republican party. In fact this Tea Party movement crested around 2010 and has begun to recede.

As evidence consider that this 2012 election has resulted in stunning defeats purging many of the most vitriolic anti-Muslim stooges from Congress, namely Rep. Allen West, from Florida, who had claimed that Islam was not a religion but a “totalitarian theocratic political ideology” that is a “very vile and vicious enemy.”

Similarly, Florida State Rep. Adam Hasner (R) was defeated in his bid for the US congress.  Hasner had co-hosted an event to entertain Dutch anti-Islami politician Geert Wilders (with Pamela Geller!). 
In Illinois, Rep. Joe Walsh (R) was defeated in his re-election bid.  He had earlier implied that a secret Islamic threat was lying in every nook and corner of the United States including his home district of Elk Grove, Addison, and Elk Grove.

In Arkansas, Rep. James McLean defeated a Republican challenger Charlie Fuqua who had advocated deporting all Muslims.

In Minnesota, Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN) lost his seat after having been a key supporter of Rep. Peter King’s Inquisition against American Muslims.

Even one of the Tea Party superstars, Michelle Bachmann, once a Republican presidential primary frontrunner in the presidential campaign, faced a difficult challenge and was almost defeated.

And so in sum the 2012 elections marked a turning away from the extremism that has marked the Republican party since September 11, 2001.

There are other lessons to be learned from the 2012 elections.  First, that the demographics of the country have shifted and are continuing to shift.  Second, that the political landscape is changing.  Third, that the Muslim vote (which was, in the interest of self-preservation decidedly anti-Republican) contributed significantly to the narrow margins in the swing states.  Certainly Muslims voted in all of the swing states, for Obama, and contributed to the victories there.

A cautionary tale is that of Syed Taj, the Muslim in Michigan’s 11th district who was left to rot by the Democratic Party.  Taj, a Democrat, lost narrowly in a heavily Republican district in a unique electoral situation to an opponent, Kerry Bentivolio, who apparently has been repudiated by his own brother, has only Tea Party support, a reindeer farmer (not kidding) who has no particular successes in his life to recommend him to the august position he has secured himself.

The Democractic Party fuelled the Democrat in Michigan’s first district and yet let Dr. Syed Taj fail to win, perhaps concluding his heavily Republican district was insurmountably red.  This was to their own loss, as a television ad exposing the weaknesses of the extremist and flaky Bentivolio could have tilted the balance in the favor of the blue candidate who could then  have benefitted the American Muslim community and the Democratic party at large.

But aside from the lower level races, the politicians and activists of the Muslim community were ecstatic regarding the reelection of Barack Obama.

Shahid Tahir, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Michigan, said “I am happy to see President Obama winning the election” and I have “a lot of expectations from him, especially in moving the country forward.”

Dr. Inayat Lalani, Founding president of the Texas based American Muslim Democratic Caucus, said in response to a question about the Muslim participation in the election: “Muslims are playing the game on a level playing field and are now scoring–look at the election results and see how many bigots are out.”

Dr. Aslam Abdullah, Editor in Chief of The Muslim Observer, said “The 47 percent spoke and convinced an additional 3.4 percent that money cannot buy them and intimidation cannot restrain them. Now they are 50.4 per cent. The 48.1 percent forgot that America comprises blacks, Latinos, women, young, Muslims and and liberals and there are Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Mormons who identify with 47 percent.”

Moon Khan, a local-level politician in  Lombard Illinois (York Township Trustee, 2005 – 2012 and a candidate for the Village President of Lombard Illinois), summed up many of the sentiments and themes of the 2012 election:

“The results of the recent election reflect the new emerging dynamics of America where Muslims can also play a role of a smooth piece of a large puzzle. The United States of America is no longer divided into two entities: Republicans and Democrats, blacks and whites, Catholics and Protestants, red and blue, white collars and blue collars, men and women, English speaking and non-English speaking, rich and poor, gay and straight, old and young. But this country is now a conglomeration of all of the above, including Muslims.  Welcome to a New America, a real representative of all the humanities.”

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… to care for elderly Pakistani couple at their home. We are looking for live-in, female help. Must be a mature, Urdu speaker who is willing to relocate to Cincinnati, Ohio. Prior experience in elderly care will be a plus. Proper living arrangements will be provided. please contact Qaisar by email at helpcinti@gmail.com, or call on mobile phone 248-719-3125.

By Fuad Shalhout

Growing up, I knew there were two things I wanted to do in my life: play sports or write about it. Once I got to high school, I realized the former wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t big, fast or athletic enough to play. I had the same dream as plenty of other kids have. But my dream of being the next Michael Jordan or Brett Favre was squashed. So, I averted my attention to writing about sports.

Sports has a huge economic and cultural impact in the world. Millions of people are in love with it and many kids look up to athletes as their idols.

I want to be the person that relays information these millions of people are dying to know.  I want to be the person these people look to everyday knowing they will get the most objective, honest, straight-to-the-point story about their favorite teams.

Being a journalist is a beautiful thing. I can make people laugh with the words that I write and change the way they think about certain subjects. 

Many people say I’m crazy for trying to become a journalist in today’s economy. But I don’t think this way. I believe, in my heart, I will become one. I fell in love with it once I went to high school and there is no reason for me to believe I won’t achieve my goal.

I remember in my senior year in high school, my English teacher told me that they were going to create a school newspaper.  Previously, my school didn’t have one and upon hearing the news, I was thrilled. It would be a part of our class assignments…so I decided to write for the sports section. I wrote about all things, whether it was the school basketball team, which I was a part of, or the NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL. I was a laid-back, quiet guy during that time. But when it came to sports, I would go on and on talking about it. And now, I was able to write about it during school? I felt like I was in heaven.

This only confirmed what I already knew; that my love for writing is matched by no one. My English teacher continued to encourage me to become a journalist because she saw the talent I had in me.  It was good to know that I had people‘s support, although I knew there were still doubters around me.

I want to know the ins and outs of a story. I want to make phone calls, talk to sources and conduct interviews to inform my audience with the most accurate information possible.

A huge motivating factor in me becoming a journalist is that I want to be one of the rare Muslims who become a sports journalist. There aren’t that many out there. I want to try to change this trend and blaze a trail of my own. Having the opportunity to show other Muslims around the world who have the same dreams as me that they can do this would be a huge honor for me.

It’s already enough of a battle being a Muslim living in today’s world with so many stereotypes floating around. The battle of getting hired by an organization or publication to write and talk about sports is a battle in itself as well. Think about it: how many Muslims do you see working for the Detroit Free Press, The Los Angeles Times or for ESPN? How many Muslim announcers do you see calling play-by-play during games? How many Muslims do you see interview athletes? The lack of Muslims in the sports business is obvious. Why is it this way? To be honest…I really don’t have an answer for that.  But I do know it’s time to break this trend and I’m determined to be the one to do it.

I am now the sports editor for my school’s paper at Wayne State University and I hold this position with great pride. I try to give the most accurate information about WSU’s sports teams to over 30,000 students and staff.  Having the opportunity to talk to so many great players and coaches, and building a terrific relationship with them has been an experience I deeply cherish. I try to let my writers know that I am always available to them for any help they need and I make it clear that I want them to put out the best stories possible.

Journalism is changing due to the increased role of social networking, but one thing that will never change is the way it can connect people to today’s news. 

The passion I have for journalism is so great, that I would write for free. It’s a job that I would simply love to do. I don’t want to wake up every morning of my life dreading to go to work. 

Being a journalist gives you an opportunity to talk to people everyone else won’t get to talk to.

The journalism industry is highly competitive, but that’s exactly the way I like it because I’m a highly competitive person. I embrace all challenges thrown at me and I never back down. In this business, you can’t back down.

When people open the newspaper, or click online to read my writing, I want them to feel like they’re getting the best possible information out there. I want them to be informed and to want to continue coming back for more.

In journalism, there will always be something new to write about. Becoming a journalist is my ultimate goal and no matter what obstacles are in my way, I will walk right through them because I have faith in Allah and I know I have my family’s support.

Why would I want to be anything else? To have the opportunity to inform an audience and to experience new adventures everyday seems like a no-brainer career to me.

We are in a strong need of Muslim sports journalists and with the confidence I have in my abilities, I ask, why can’t I become one?

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By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

World Boxing Union (WBU) Champion Hamidullah Rahimi is scheduled go into the ring to compete with his opponent in Afghanistan’s first ever professional boxing event ever in his war-torn country.
“World Boxing Union (WBU) Champion Hamidullah Rahimi would take on his challenger Rafael Bejaran from the Republic of Dominican in Kabul on Oct. 30,” The local Pajhwok Afghan News reported.

The Afghan boxer Hamid Rahimi won the World Boxing Union (WBU) Championship by defeating his Belarusian rival in Hamburg, Germany this past February. Rahimi, 29, who has lived in Germany for the past 20 years, has been boxing for over 15 years. An Afghan by origin, the pugilist has won 20 of the 21 matches he has played so far,” the reports said, adding the event will took place in a giant tent in western edge of Afghan capital Kabul.

It was seen as an important step toward the realization of Rahimi’s dream to host the first-ever professional boxing event in Kabul under the banner of “Fight 4 Peace”, the report said. “An athlete hoists his country’s flag after a competition without any bloodshed. The upcoming duel will send a strong message of peace to the world. Therefore, I call it a fight for peace,” Rahimi was quoted as saying. “I requested the competition be held in Kabul because I want to change the landscape of athletics in Afghanistan. I also want the world to know that Afghanistan has the best athletes,” the Afghan sportsman added.

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Imam clears misconceptions about Islam

ELON,NC–Imam Abdullah Antepli cleared misconceptions about Islam at Elon University. He was speaking at an event organised by the Better Together organization. Imam Antepli is the Muslim chaplain at Duke University.

“It is the social homework of Americans to understand Islam as a religion and to understand Muslims as people,” Antepli said.

“No religion becomes a source of violence just through theology,” Antepli said. “The theology becomes a source of violence only after it merges with other political, historical, cultural and social views.”

Muslims donate food on Eid

HAMDEN,CT–The Muslim community of Hamden and its environs donated food and volunteered at the local food bank on Eid-ul-Adha day at the Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan Islamic Center, the New Haven Register reported.

“Eid day just happened to fall on this day. And the food bank happened to be here on this day,” said Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan, the Imam of the center. ”They came together because of either coincidence or God’s doing.”

The distribution is held in coordination with Connecticut Food Bank.

Marshfield mosque holds open house

MARSHFIELD, WI–The Masjid Al Noor held an open house last Saturday to educate the community about Islam. It is the only mosque in central Wisconsin.
The open house featured a guest speaker who described the differences and similarities between Islam and other faiths and the fundamental beliefs of Muslims.
“Islam is an Arabic word which means peaceful, willing submission to God,” said Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, a Chicago physician who established a foundation, Gain Peace, to foster understanding of Islam among other faiths.

While Islam is a religion, it is also a way of life which is based on a person’s relationship with Allah, also called God by Christians and Jews, Ahmed said. The God of the three faiths is the same, he said.
“Peace is the natural outcome when an individual or society submits to the will of our creator,” Ahmed said.

Colorado State to serve halal meals

DENVER–Colorado State University has now decided to serve halal meals at its cafeterias after request by Muslim students. According to one survey there are at least 300 foreign students at CSU from Muslim countries. This is in addition to domestic students.

Housing and Dining Services determined from a survey that there was enough demand for these meals. Halal meat will be substituted into the regular Parmelee cafeteria  menu on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunch and dinner, according to dining officials. These days were chosen because they are the weekdays when there are no Halal seafood items already available on the menu.
Halal meals to be offered upon request in Parmelee include barbeque grilled chicken breast, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings, chipotle chicken sandwiches, sweet chili Asian chicken wings and more. The same outside vendors that provide dining hall meat also provide halal meat.

The Corbett dining hall also features halal options which currently do not include beef or chicken. Some of these options are mozzarella cheese sticks, red beans and rice, baked cod with lemon, grilled Portobello mushrooms and more.

“We’re pleased that this particular INTO CSU student was among those who made their dietary requirements known,” said Avery Waxman, senior director of marketing communications and recruitment strategy at INTO, in an email to the Collegian student newspaper.

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By Fareed Zakaria

The International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook makes for gloomy reading. Growth projections have been revised downward almost everywhere, especially in Europe and the big emerging markets such as China. And yet, when looking out over the next four years — the next presidential term — the IMF projects that the United States will be the strongest of the world’s rich economies. U.S. growth is forecast to average 3 percent, much stronger than that of Germany or France (1.2 percent) or even Canada (2.3 percent). Increasingly, the evidence suggests that the United States has come out of the financial crisis of 2008 in better shape than its peers — because of the actions of its government.

Perhaps the most important cause of America’s relative health is the Federal Reserve. Ben Bernanke understood the depths of the problem early and responded energetically and creatively. The clearest vindication of his actions has been that the European Central Bank, after charting the opposite course for three years with disastrous results, has adopted policies similar to the Fed’s — and averted a potential Lehman-like collapse in Europe. (Mitt Romney’s two most prominent academic advisers, Glenn Hubbard and Gregory Mankiw, seem to recognize this, but Romney apparently doesn’t. As recently as August the Republican presidential nominee repeated his criticisms of the Fed and promised to replace Bernanke at its helm.)

In addition to providing general liquidity, the Fed and the Treasury rescued the financial system but also forced it, through stress tests and new rules, to reform. The result is that U.S. banks are in much better shape than their European counterparts. Consumers have also been paying off debt, thanks to a series of tax cuts and other forms of relief.

A McKinsey & Co. study of crises in recent decades found that the United States is mirroring the pattern of countries with the strongest recoveries. It noted that “Debt in the financial sector relative to GDP has fallen back to levels last seen in 2000, before the credit bubble. US households have reduced their debt relative to disposable income by 15 percentage points, more than in any other country; at this rate, they could reach sustainable debt levels in two years or so.”

Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, the leading experts on financial crises, argue that the United States is performing better than most countries in similar circumstances. U.S. consumer confidence is at its highest levels since September 2007.

Every recovery since World War II has been led by housing, except this one. But finally, housing is back. Two weeks ago, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, declared that housing had turned the corner and predicted that, as a consequence, economic growth in 2013 would be so strong the Fed would have to raise interest rates. Given his firm’s vast mortgage portfolio, Dimon has a unique perspective on housing, and he is a smart man who knows that the Fed has promised to keep rates flat for three years. Last week, data on new housing starts confirmed Dimon’s optimism.

U.S. corporations have also bounced back. Corporate profits are at an all-time high as a percentage of gross domestic product, and companies have $1.7 trillion in cash on their balance sheets. The key to long-term recoveries from recessions is reform and restructuring, and U.S. businesses have been quick to respond.

Government intervention assisted this process with banks, auto companies and even in housing. Romney is correct to point out that the Obama administration supervised a managed bankruptcy in Detroit — forcing the kind of reform a private equity firm would have (though, crucially, providing the cash that a President Romney would not have). The Economist magazine, which initially opposed that bailout, reversed itself because of the manner in which General Motors and Chrysler were made to cut costs and become competitive.

And then there is America’s energy revolution, which is also bringing back manufacturing. U.S. exports, which have climbed 45 percent in the past four years, are at their highest level ever as a percentage of GDP.

All these good signs come with caveats. Europe continues to weaken. The fiscal cliff looms ominously. But the fact remains, compared with the rest of the industrialized world and the arc of previous post-bubble recoveries, the United States is ready for a robust revival. This is partly because of the dynamism of the U.S. economy but also because of the timely and intelligent actions of the Fed and the Obama administration.

The next president will reap the rewards of work already done. So it would be the ultimate irony if, having strongly criticized almost every measure that contributed to these positive tends, Mitt Romney ends up presiding over what he would surely call “the Romney recovery.”

comments@fareedzakaria.com

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By Ahmed Al-Hilali, TMO

One of the shortest men to ever play professional basketball, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, was standing tall with his Denver Nuggets jersey at only 6’1. Although his physical stature isn’t that high, his spiritual side made up for it, and made him taller than Yao Ming both on the court and off. While leading the NBA in free throw percentages, scoring, points per minute, and assists for one year, it’s safe to say nobody in the NBA at his time could guard him, especially Michael Jordan. His face before a big game and after a buzzer beater for the win does not change, but stays filled with piety. He was and still is a huge impact, both on the court and off. This is why he has gained so much respect from everyone who has ever met him.

Abdul Rauf always has advice to give, no matter the situation. Once when I was playing defense, he told me “Always keep your hands up because you’ll never know the second you need them whether to block a shot or steal the ball. Those milliseconds count,” This one piece of information helped me improve my game so much on defense. He taught me to always respect my teammates and trust them with every shot they take. Even though Abdul Rauf scored most of his team’s points, he also led his team in assists. This was a very difficult thing to accomplish since the players on his team didn’t match his skill level, and at the same time his coach kept sitting him out of the game. After everything he’s been through, it’s truly paid off.

Abdul Rauf always looks happy from his performance and humble at the same time. He is happy in the sense that he did well enough for the crowd to cheer him on and bonuses come flying his way; but he stays humble since he is never content with what he does. He is never satisfied inside because deep down, he knows he could do so much more. There’s more to it than just the feeling of knowing he could do better. Ever since Mahmoud was born, he suffered from Tourette’s, which is an incurable disease which causes involuntary ticks or twitches. This was the main reason why he was so humble, because no matter how good he did on the court he was not perfect as a human being, so he had nothing to brag about. This is an amazing way to look at one’s self, and I hope to achieve this level of humbleness.

People who have only seen the easy and fun sides of Mahmoud haven’t seen his serious side; the side that is only seen by the ones he talks to about important decisions or religious matters. This is the side that needs to be shown from many people, out of respect for the subject. One thing about Abdul Rauf is the fact that he gives anybody respect when disrespect was given to him first. This is a quality I wish to gain from Abdul Rauf, along with many of his others.

Abdul Rauf has impacted many lives, including my own. From the day I met him, he has taught me many things both Islamic and basketball related. I have improved my basketball skills with the help of his tips, and hope to gain his morals as well. The last time a small man made a big difference was during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. Who knew I would live to see the next?

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