September Musings- Refugees, Gay Marriage & Donald Chump

I’m one of those Bloggers that focus on a topic and write a blog post or article about it. I’m feeling that sort of head-spinning, ENFP-all-over-the-board sensation prompting a diary-entry type blog post. There is a lot going on in the world at the moment (as usual.) I’m my passionate, intense self these days and having dialogue with people. I’m inspired, insulted, hopeful and disgusted. A lot is going on.

Refugees

“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”

~Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14(1)

If it weren’t for countries that recognize and protect the above value which honors the sanctity of human life, I would never have been born. My mother was born in an Austrian refugee camp; and, my dad was protected for a year in Greece after he fled communism.  The United States accepted my immigrant parents who became contributing citizens in America, working, paying taxes and embracing the American way of life. And putting my own existence aside, it’s simply astonishing that a huge chunk of our world population consists of people in flux and in danger and that can only be described as “refugees.”

There is much to be learned about the nuances of the EU and their responsibility and ability to accept refugees crossing en masse across their borders. Regardless – there is a fundamental reality of our world today that exposes a historical snapshot of what we have become. We have become a world that values material over human life. We have become a world that has not yet been able to resist the urge to discriminate against other human beings, to put ourselves in others’ shoes, to judge.

I can focus on all of the wonderful people that have welcomed refugees and helped them best they could. As a world establishment however- we are woefully ill-equipped spiritually and have stacked our priorities in a way that do not protect the sanctity of human life. If we did, no one would need to risk life and limb in a boat that seems to resemble a baby’s blow-up bathtub hoping that on the other side of the ocean clearing, someone will help them and not kill them.

We have plenty of money for bombs and chemical weapons and drones and tanks. We do not have money to safely transport human life attempting to navigate out of a dangerous war zone and into safety.

When barrel bombs rain down upon you. When your environment looks like the picture above. Death is near. Would you lay down and die in the rubble? Would you fight to live? Frickin’ duh.

We have come witness to nations like Germany and Austria that take their promise to humanity seriously and are doing their best to help refugees showing up at their borders. We have come to witness countries like Hungary that clearly dread the idea of having to help anyone at all, keeping people caged like animals and throwing food at them. Look at the Camera Woman in the above video physically kicking children and tripping old men holding children. She has that much contempt towards human life that does not resemble HER ancestry or a place in the world that SHE is in apparently.  We have come to witness human traffickers robbing families of their life savings with false promises to put them on a yacht and bring them to safety – only to put them in a dinghy and abandon it- leaving women and children to drown in the sea, their bodies washing ashore. Look at the father of the now famously drowned Syrian toddler. He tried to save his family only for them to die under his charge. How does he go on living now? He doesn’t. He is walking the earth a shell of his former-self. Humanity took everything he had and killed his soul.  It shouldn’t have taken his son’s dead body on a beach to rattle the conscience of humanity either. Dead babies lay in rubble in Palestine constantly. They lay in rubble in Yemen. We don’t see those that need help because we don’t want to see them. We want to pretend we care now because ignoring a dead baby washing up on the beach is just too obvious of an omission of our consciousness. It makes us collectively feel better to say, “Oh! Look. That’s horrible. Poor Syria.”

We have come witness to media outlets insisting on calling refugees “migrants.”  A migrant is a person whose life is not necessarily in immediate danger- but seeks to emigrate to find a better life. A refugee is fighting to live. Refugees have rights. They gain refugee status and are afforded asylum by nations that can help resettle them. Shame on you political, racist publications purposely, willfully mislabeling human beings- kicking them while their down.

Want to help?  Urge your government to STOP the war in Syria. Urge your government to welcome refugees into your country.  Donate to charities that help refugees like any of these:  Refugee Charities.

Gay Marriage

Having homosexual urges is not a sin in Islam. Nor does it decree a person less than human or worthy of shame. Acting out homosexual urges in Islam is a sin. There is nowhere in Islamic doctrine that makes homosexual marriage halal or permissible. Anyone attempting to “interpret” Qur’an as making gay marriage permissible is changing the unchangeable.

It is incumbent upon Muslims to follow the law of the land for which they live. To respect the rights of others of different faiths and beliefs. Gay marriage is now law in the United States. People of the same gender are allowed to marry each other in civil services in the United States. This is done. Period. All of this news coverage about Kim Davis, the Christian woman elected to office who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because it is against HER religion is pretty outrageous. Her actions are outrageous and so is the coverage. She should have stepped down from her job if she felt she could not compel herself to do her job and to follow the law of the land she is being paid to represent. She went to jail. Her actions did not change the law. Gay couples can still get married in the United States. I see this woman as a one-off, bad representative of how to behave in a secular society and respect the sanctity of your religion. At the same time, I respect her right to stating that gay marriage is a sin in her morality – as it is in mine. But she does not issue licenses for the Christian Church. She issues them for a government, secular entity.

That said- my gay marriage rant is not about Kim Davis or about licenses.  It’s about people that have aligned themselves with the LGBT movement and have become extremist and fascist in their “my way or the highway” stance on homosexuality. I am an American Muslim woman and I have every right to state that gay marriage is against my religion. I have not ever taken any measures to stop gay marriage from becoming law. I have never taken measures to make it pass either. Why would I do that? I do not take measures to make things that are haram / sinful for me – become law. Would you?

More than once, I have been belittled, insulted and degraded for stating that my religion STILL does not condone homosexual marriage. This was true 1,400 years ago. It is true today. Apparently, even though I do not discriminate against gay people or their marriages, I am a “bigot” who would “not help a gay Syrian refugee” for stating the facts about my faith. Yes- this was said to me. And even Muslim people around who are aware this was said to me did not come to my aid. Let me tell you something fascist, extremists: if you are going to demand respect for something that you stand for that is different than what other people stand for – it will NEVER happen by discrediting other people.

The following are NOT arguments that suddenly make gay marriage halal in Islam:

• I have a lot of gay friends that I love.
• Gay people have helped me through the toughest times in my life.
• I can name these 12 Muslim people that support gay marriage and think it shouldn’t be a sin.
• My God is not a bigot.

None of these statements magically make Qur’an change from making homosexual marriage a sin into making it lawful. If you are going to attack me with the label “bigot” or accuse me of hurting gay people, then I’ve lost respect for your ability to argue logically and defend the LGBT movement. You cannot defend a movement by degrading, humiliating and projecting logical fallacies onto people that don’t hold your world view.  If you want to support the LGBT movement, you need to stop hoping upon hope that religious people everywhere will embrace in their hearts what you embrace in your heart about love being love. Not everyone agrees what love is and what it means and how we are supposed to behave on the earth. Deal with it. I have never hurt a gay person or restricted their rights in some way.

I’m also disappointed in Muslims that are clearly defending gay marriage simply to be accepted for the Muslim cause. The right to religious freedom is not dependent on getting sympathy by forsaking who we are and what we stand for. We can live in tolerance and preserve each other’s human dignity while still standing for the morals that make up the fabric of what Islam even is.  We are being tested in this dunya. I will not forsake who I am so that some brothers and sisters still “like me” or that I fit into the crowd with new-age people. I’ll stand alone.

On a positive note, I have a gay friend who supports my world view as I have presented in this post! We are planning to have lunch together. And to write a blog together. Not everyone is an extremist, fascist who tries to change the human being that I am, change my soul, change my religious beliefs and degrade me. My gay friend respects me and I respect him. Take that, my doormat Muslim friends. (Astagfirullah, I had to say it.) And take that, Fascists!

Donald Chump

Am I one of those people that believe the President is pre-chosen by the elite powers that have hijacked our nation and my vote actually means nothing? Pretty much. But I value my right to vote so much – that I will always exercise it and defend it on principle and on the off chance that I’m wrong about my “conspiracy” theories.

That said – nothing is more embarrassing and off putting than the circus show that is the Donald Trump insanity that has taken over our airwaves. A person leading a diverse nation must be impartial. He is very not impartial. At this point- I’m not sure who he even stands for. I’m thinking he only stands for himself and the daughter he keeps telling the media he would date if he didn’t actually father her.  (Freaking eww!)  I don’t waste too much time tweeting or talking about Donald Chump. He is a waste of my precious breath. But I just want to say in my musings that I’m disappointed that in 2015, we entertain an illusion of something that cannot possibly be real. President Kennedy is rolling in his grave. This is not an MTV reality show. This is our country. These are our lives. Having a narcissistic, sociopathic, lunatic bigot standing on a platform humiliating every group that exists in America and acting like this is normal and he is an actual viable candidate for the office of President is really, really depressing.  I don’t get depressed very easily at all. Looking at his face is depressing. It’s depressing that we can take him seriously.  I look forward to his defeat and to when we can go back to hating him for the asshole reality show star that he is, the silver-spoon spoiled brat instead of the pretend potential President of the United States. And move on with our lives.

In that vein – I’m feeling the Bern baby!

Have a good week.

Yasmina

Stand with Bernie Sanders.

P.S. If you know me personally and you think this post is about you – then it is.

lol

About the Author

About the Author: I'm a Writer, Speaker and Muslim Activist. I'm a former Board Member of the #MyJihad Public Education Campaign. Follow my blog at yasminareality.com or follow me on Twitter: @yasmina_reality. I'm also now on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YasminaReality Peace! More from this author.

Tagged With: Blogger, donald trump, extremism, gay marriage, halal, refugees, Syria