It’s a little thought experiment I’d like to share with you all, and is basically a video of me talking, because I don’t want to write a long blog post that’s going to blind you to death.

The answers you come up with during this thought experiment are precisely the kind that have huge political consequences daily on the rights Mideast Youth fights for, and the freedoms we’re trying to advocate.

So, watch the video, and let me know in the comments section below…

… who would you trust more, Mr. X or Mr. Y?

The issue of Darfur is a political issue that bids militant groups that use violence to fight a legitimate government over perceived injustices

The Sudanese regime is NOT legitimate. A dictatorship is NEVER a legitimate government. This government came via a coup and wrecked havoc upon its own people throughout the whole country, even in the north. Moreover, the injustices are NOT perceived. They’re real. Just check this out, and you’ll know.

Secondly, I find it rather unfortunate that a post about this episode just had to, for some reason, include Israel in the picture. To me, it implies a conspiratorial mindset and seems by default to reject political pressure on a country when it comes from other powerful ones, even if this pressure could yield useful results. I could be wrong, but that is my perception.

Thirdly, I found the following naive:

That said however,President Bashir should do more to help his country to come out of this ugly war and bring Darfur and its tribes back to the fold of Sudan on equal footing with peaceful resolution to this tragic conflict.

Omar al-Bashir couldn’t care less about the people of his country, especially in regions populated by people from tribes he most probably views as “inferior.” The idea that Bashir “will” because apparently he “should” is silly. Won’t happen, and that’s why pressure is important, but it needs to be exerted strategically, and this where Ali Alarabi and I agree!

But with this indictment, the international community is exasperating the problem and complicates matters even worse especially for all of the innocent victims in Sudan.

Precisely. And this where I want to elaborate. I highly recommend my analysis for MEY’s readers.

June 20, 2008 (KAMPALA) — A coalition of Arab rights activists criticised the Islamic world for its silence on the atrocities and crimes committed in the troubled region of Darfur, Sudan.

In a statement issued on the sideline of the 35th OIC Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, the Arab Coalition for Darfur blamed the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for focusing their concern on Iraq and Palestine.

“The suffering of Muslims in Darfur is as real as that happening in Iraq and Palestine,” the coalition said.

“The Islamic world’s response to the daily killings and suffering of millions of Muslims in Darfur has been largely silent, from both civil society as well as from institutions and majority of Islamic governments,” it said.

Yesterday the Ugandan President urged the OIC countries to accord some of their efforts and concern to Darfur crisis and southern Sudan peace process. He added that failure to resolve the Darfur issue would undermine the unity of the organisation.

The Arab rights coalition also underlined that negligence of Darfur crisis would not be good for the Islamic world. “The Islamic world must decide to end its wall of silence, before it is too late … More silence could be catastrophic on the Islamic community.”

The coalition is made up of human rights groups in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait, Palestine and Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003.

Created by Arab activists last May in Cairo, the coalition urged the Arab heads of states to “use all their potential, relations and resources to stop the conflict.”

Initiated by the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, the coalition includes rights activists from Sudan, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait and Egypt.

It’s a good move but I remain skeptical for good reasons. Darfur is super exaggerated, it’s a Jewish conspiracy remember? Oh yes, it is. Full stop. End of discussion.

Unless such a stupid mode of thinking gets eradicated, we will remain gullible and easily fooled into buying our dictators’ lies and falsehoods.

At the end of the day, I’m glad these activists are voicing their concerns out loud. I salute them!

Article Two of the new Iraqi constitution makes clear that “no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed laws of Islam.” Likewise, Article Three of Afghanistan’s constitution states that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.”

Washington enthusiastically endorses each constitution, indicating that the Islamization of democracy is either harmless or unstoppable. In so doing, neo-cons have succumbed to the logic of the multicultural Left: namely, that’s the way those people do things over there and who are we to tell them otherwise?

Welcome to the essence of cultural relativism, the ideology that insists there is no universal standard of human dignity or decency. Thus, anything goes as long as it doesn’t directly affect me or my kids. How individualistic. How selfish. And how revealing that when it comes to re-building Iraq and Afghanistan, cultural relativism unites the post-modern Left and the neo-conservative Right.

Nice, so while we’re trying hard to push for the desperately needed reform of numerous aspects of Islamic law, here comes the Bush administration in support of constitutions espousing the very things we’re trying to eliminate.

Ali Eteraz points out that Iraqi feminists bemoan this and why shouldn’t they? Too often, they pay a hefty price.

Dear Bush administration, I thought you’re with us against the Islamists?

More over at Irshad’s blog. Meanwhile and on a related note, check out Sudanese singer Nancy Ajaj. Sudanese conservatives loathe her. I can’t understand how they could abhor someone so sweet.

• Muslim reformer’s ‘heresy’: The Islamic state is a dead end

I am so ecstatic over the publicity his immensely important scholarly work is receiving. It’s also cool to see an intellectually diverse group of people like him and Manji working together to achieve a common goal we all share.

People, we are seeing the real beginnings of a growing Islamic reformation movement! And since I’ve been a long time Ustaz Taha fan, I’d naturally like to see the ideas he inspired spearhead it. I swear, I am sooo loving this. More publicity for ‘Islam and the Secular State‘ please!

As for the Muslim Heretics Conference, Manji blogged about it here. I’m awaiting her upcoming thoughts on Geert Wilder’s ‘Fitna’.

Recently, Irshad launched the Moral Courage Project, which I believe deserves attention here since I find that Mideast Youth exemplifies the essence of MCP’s purpose in many ways.

Two weeks ago, the first featured guest hosted by Manji was none other than the Sudanese Muslim scholar Prof. Abdullahi An-Na’im who recently launched new book “Islam and the Secular State“, one I’ve been anxiously looking forward to.

These are some of the ideas Abdullahi presents in it:

* “I do believe that it is possible, indeed necessary, to reinterpret Islamic sources in order to affirm and protect freedom of religion and belief. This is my position as a Muslim, speaking from an Islamic perspective, and not simply because freedom of religion and belief is a universal human rights norm…”

* “The possibility of belief in anything logically requires choice in the matter, as one cannot believe in anything without the freedom and ability to disbelieve it.”

I don’t know about you but this certainly excites me – a book full of concrete Islamic arguments and rooted in Islamic tradition calling for separation of religion and the state, and challenging the current Islamist status-quo of the Muslim world.

If you have time, check out the site of the upcoming conference which will feature An-Na’im’s work. It’s Heretic Muslims – A Celebration of Heresy Conference: Critical Thinking for Islamic Reform. I love the whole idea behind the “heresy” theme. Very interesting and deeply thought-provoking.

I think it’s cool that Irshad is featuring such intellectuals and collaborating with them to achieve common goals. I’ll be keeping track of MCP and Manji’s guests in the coming months. I encourage you to do the same. Like I said, I think the Moral Courage Project is highly relevant to this site.

anybody interested in posting once in a while over at Darfur-Awareness? A reader emailed me in today expressing disappoint over the lack of updates there. She’s right and I take full responsibility for that. I’ve gotten awfully busy lately and the frequency of posts is far from enough. I can hardly keep up with my online responsibilities thanks to being a final semester student and the upcoming book I’m writing.

Any volunteers? I could really use some help. It would be cool if we could pump up the pace of things.

Drop a comment if you’re interested.

Tehran’s police chief, Reza Zarei, has been arrested after he was found nude in a local brothel with six naked prostitutes, the Farda news website reported Wednesday.

… Over the past year Zarei was in charge of enforcing the Islamic dress code on Iranian women with the purpose of “moralizing of the city.”

It is alleged that in the past six months, hundreds of young people have been arrested in Iran for not respecting the Islamic code of behavior.

The immensity of this disgusts me but hardly surprises me. Are they gonna stone him to death? Lash his filthy butt? Oh yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen. You see, “Islamic” law is just a way to gain power, oppress people and hide behind a veil of piety.

Gosh, I need a glass of ice cold water. Muslim Heretics Conference anyone?

I get the same type of reactions and comments from Sudanese and Muslim conservatives about how I shouldn’t mention topics related to it on my blog.

Well, here’s the thing. It’s not like we’re talking about it 24/7 or promoting it. Blogs are a great means for public discussion (the only real ones in our “free” countries) and hence we use them to talk about the issue.

Ever heard of AIDS or HIV? No? How about prostitution? Don’t these issues involve bringing up the topic of sss… erm… ssee… Gosh, I’m so scared to say it. Okay, read the following backwards, xes. Yes, that word… we’re so afraid of hearing it because God forbid we naughty boys might end up with irreversible erections, right?

Excuse me, but most people don’t even realize the extent of how much room there was for sex to be discussed within the Islamic tradition a long time ago (before the lovely rise of Wahhabism and Taliban-mentality, or before many aspects of true Islam got buried under a pile of man-made cultural crap).

Check out what the guys at SunniPath, a traditionalist Islamic online resource, have to say for example:

The origins of Islamic erotic literature probably lie in early Abbasid Baghdad, where a fusion took place in educated circles between ancient Arab poetic traditions of amatory verse which described female beauty and the act of love with considerable frankness, and the translation of Indian texts.

… The genre is, when maintained within the fiqh boundaries, a legitimate branch of the Islamic sciences

… There are several works on the subject by Imam al-Suyuti, but apparently the most influential such text by an alim was the Ruju’ al-shaykh ila sibah fi’l-quwwa ala al-bah, by the great Shaykh al-Islam Kemal Pasha-zade, the leading scholar of the Ottoman state in the time of Selim I.

There is certainly a case for producing an advanced manual in English drawing on Islam’s rich legacy in this field.

OMG! A MANUAL? A SEX MANUAL so we can have better, ehm, “boom boom”? These perverted Muslims must be beheaded! How evil!

Here’s a suggestion. Let’s flush down the toilet the oppressive patriarchal aspects of our cultures and revive the lost, beautiful spirituality and openness of our faith.