tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60171546782738104312024-02-07T02:02:39.608-08:00Jonathan M.A.GhaffarCollected writings and ramblings, musings and meanderings.Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-46961281872780326282022-01-09T08:40:00.000-08:002022-01-09T08:40:03.243-08:00Insight on "Insight on Islam" from 03-03-94Thinking of accepting Islam and becoming Muslim? Wondering what Islam can do for you? Can it really make your life better? And most importantly, is Islam -- Peace with, in and through God-- what you need, what you really want, in your life?
These are questions all converts (and all born Muslims, for that matter) eventually must ask themselves in some form or another at some point in their contemplation of committing -- or not committing -- themselves to the rigorous yet rewarding path of Islam.
These are some of the questions I asked myself 27 years ago when I was first introduced to Islam through the blessed writings and members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (known back then as the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam). . .
AlHamdulillah, I know I made the right decision. And it begs the question: how has becoming Muslim changed you for the better? In more ways that I can count -- but that's a cliched answer at best, and doesn't answer the question. . .
So allow me to give you a short answer in the guise (the opposite of 'disguise' by the way) of the first "Insight on Islam" I penned a little more than six weeks after becoming Ahmadi Muslim on Jan.22nd, 1994. . .
"TURN TO ALLAH"
When Fear is the taste in your mouth, and Despair the blood in your veins, and Loneliness the beat of your heart, Turn to Allah and He will be there.
-- "Insights on Islam"
03-03-94
Today, I can honestly say, I'm not afraid, I'm not in despair, and I'm not alone. I have my family members & close friends (Ahmadi & otherwise), I have all my Ahmadi brothers and sisters from literally all over the world, and most importantly and especially, I have Allah, my Ar-Rafiq, and He is closer to me than my Life Artery. AlHamdulillahi Rabbil ’aalamin! I invite you to all the same blessings and more! Alislam.orgJonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-17606240223259200232020-11-19T16:22:00.021-08:002022-11-03T15:10:06.321-07:00Writing Assignment: "DEAR IN THE HEEDLIGHTS" by Jonathan Ghaffar, Oct. 2020<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">PREFACE:
A few months ago, a good friend of mine, Rashid Arshed, gave me a
short description of a story idea he had that he wanted to see what I
could do with it. His principal desire was for me to inject "lots
of emotions" into his framework of an idea. This is actually the
essence of what any writer wants -- and should be able to do -- with
any idea he or she has or receives from someone else. This is why it
represents a very good writing exercise or assignment; it's whole
purpose is to get you, the writer, to emote.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And
so I took it as a challenge, a writing assignment if you will, like
when I was taking creative writing classes back in the mid-1980s to
late '90s. . . I wanted to prove to myself (more than anyone else)
that I could still crank out a reasonably cogent and emotionally /
dramatically satisfying short story, as it had been a long while
since I'd written a short story.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
rest of my portfolio (at: <b>JonathanMAGhaffar.blogspot.com</b>) was
the result of a lot of the creative writing I'd produced in the
time-frame listed above, plus a lot of Islam-related items I'd
produced since accepting Islam Ahmadiyyat in January of 1994. Most of
those items were more journalistic or persuasive writing in nature,
with only a few prose pieces rooted in passion -- the ecstasy and the
torture of the soul kind. . .</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And
so I hereby throw down the literary gauntlet to all my fellow writers
out there who would like to see what they can come up with from the
story idea shown below. But if you take up this creative writing
challenge, I ask only that you postpone reading my entry ("Dear
in the Heedlights") until AFTER you have completed your entry.
That way you will be safeguarded against any undue influence of my
words upon yours.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And
lastly, being a writer, I would love reading your take on the subject
matter outlined by Mr. Arshed, so please forward me a copy of your
entry. (My email is: JonathanMAG@Gmail.com or you msg me on FaceBook
@Jonathan Ghaffar)</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And
if you give me permission, I will post it on my blog and disseminate
it via FB and my email list of subscribers & friends. If you are
shy in that respect, and only want me to read it but not redistribute
it, I will of course honor your wishes.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And
if you wish to give me feedback on "DitH" I will accept it
in hopes that it will improve my writing. God Bless and Godspeed. I
don't say "Good Luck" because the craft of writing has
nothing to do with luck, and everything to do with effort.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">=============================================================================</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>A
Short, Short Story [idea & summary by Rashid Arshed]</b></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Keywords
of the Essay: </b>Corona Virus, lock-down restrictions, Environment /
Atmospheric change (disappearance of pollution), Nature (respect or
lack of it), man’s greed and industrial onslaught. End of Corona
Virus and return of normal (abnormal) life.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Summary:
</b>I was driving on a highway into the 3rd month of Corona Virus
when lock-down restrictions were somewhat lifted. I saw a pack of
over a dozen of deer standing along the highway in bewilderment
looking at the passing sporadic cars. The Highway must have been
completely deserted during the early weeks of the virus due to legal
restrictions and the fear of the virus. The deer and other wild
animals must have thought that no human being would ever venture here
again and they were free to cross the highway and roam about as they
wished. But after the restrictions, the returning cars put a lid on
their hopes.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[When
the restrictions were lifted the cars were zooming in the parkway
like before. . .]</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(This
essay needs to be injected with lots of emotion. – Rashid Arshed)</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">===========================================================================</span></p><p align="left"><br />
<br />
</p><p align="left"><br />
<br />
</p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><b>"D</b></span><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><b>ear
in the Heedlights"</b></span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><b>by
Jonathan Ghaffar</b></span></span></span></p><p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>(story idea by Rashid Arshed)</b></span><br />
<br />
</p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It
had already been three months since the Corona-virus lock-down, and I
was pretty much fed up and feeling like a sardine in a tin with
nobody with a key to let me out – </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">e</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">ven
if it was just to eat me and put me out of my misery. “Death would
be a sweet release,” as Mark Knopfler would say. . . </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">And
s</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">o
I was understandably depressed by all this, being locked up at home
while having to work from home at my day job as a junior book editor
at Simon & Schuster. I was in a cabin-fever funk that even Mark’s
awesome guitar and song lyrics could not free me from.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">To
torment me even more </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">because
of the Stay-at-Home mandate</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
with the pollution level in the atmosphere at near zero, the air
quality outside was better than I’d ever breathed before. During
the lock-down, my only contact with the outside world was the open
window of my attic study/office where enticingly clean and fragrant
fresh air wafted in a steady breeze from the </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">w</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">est
straight through the attic. I could almost hear the wind in a
sing-songy ten-year-old girl’s voice: “Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah, you
can’t come out to play. . .”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> To
match the sounds of the wind and Mother Nature, there was the
spectacular view of the world outside – the crispness in the air,
the green of the trees and the grass, the puffs of white clouds
daubed across an azure blue Van Gogh sky – all this was a delight
to my senses and a reminder of what I was only an observer of and not
a participant in. The springtime colors were more brilliant and
vibrant because of my self-isolation, the fiery magnolia and cherry
blossoms the pinkest I’d ever seen, the birdsong in the nearby elms
the most beautiful of symphonies.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
rebel in me finally screamed </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">out
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">in
defiance. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Screw
this! I’m gonna break ALL the rules and bust outta this prison!</i></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
jumped up from my chair, grabbed my keys, and fled down the stairs
and out of the house like they were on fire. I yanked up the manual
garage door to free my equally imprisoned steel steed, my beautifully
restored ‘68 Shelby Mustang – </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>the</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
poster boy for hospital zone noise and speeding violations and a
wanton, unrepentant, gas-guzzling polluter of the environment. A thin
layer of fine dust had settled on the windows and body during the
past three months of neglect. I couldn’t take her out like that! I
quickly dusted her off, climbed behind the wheel, jabbed the key in
the ignition and cranked over the 351 Cleveland motor.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> There
was the brief, irritable growl of an ogre being roused from sleep,
then the angry staccato rumble as the eight cylinders caught fire
with a </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>vroom-vroom</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
of my foot on the gas pedal – the entry music to an old Hippie’s
muscle-car heaven. I’d missed that sound for many months now, and
it was the sound that drowned my guilt over my rebellious teenage
jail-break. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Screw
it! I’m outta here! . . .</i></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
drove through the deserted local streets, and then hit the on-ramp to
the nearly empty Parkway, which used to be bumper-to-bumper before
the outbreak of Corona-virus. Now the pristine blacktop made me feel
like I was in a post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi movie and the car-free
highway was all mine forever – at least until I ran out of gas or
the Walking Dead got me.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> It
wasn’t long before I was traveling through a wooded area. I could
see a sign up ahead with the word “Slow!” and the image of a deer
and a curved arrow indicating a sharp turn ahead. I slowed down to
25, and as I rounded the turn, I saw a small herd of a half-dozen
deer on the side of the highway, watching me as I passed slowly by.
Perhaps they intended to cross the road, but then heard the rumble of
my approaching Mustang and decided against such foolishness.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> At
that moment a flurry of thoughts flashed through my mind: did these
easily-frightened creatures become emboldened with the lock-down and
its resulting disappearance of potentially deadly traffic and take to
crossing the road without caution? Did the novelty of having almost
no cars on the highway during the last three months make them think
that the most dangerous of all species – humankind – had suddenly
and inexplicably vanished from the face of the Earth, never to
return?</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> If
I were a deer, I could certainly see how they might think that, even
if only wishfully so. It wasn’t as if we were doing anything for
them except accidentally running into them on roads like this all
over the country, or shooting them in the woods just so we could
mount their antlered heads as trophies on our living room walls.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> As
I motored on, my mind was still fixated on that family of deer. I
remember seeing a grizzled old stag, his 12-point antlered head held
high, still fearless and proud as the patriarch. His mate stood
regally beside him with four young ones of various ages and sizes
sheltering behind them, their curious faces peeking out to see what
all the noise and fuss was about.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> They
had no idea a pandemic was sweeping across the land, killing tens of
thousands, and causing the most crippling shutdown of the country and
its economy – of the entire planet, in fact – in well over a
century. Not even the 9/11 attacks had affected America as
drastically and severely as the Corona-virus pandemic – not even
the Great Depression or World War II.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
didn’t know it then, but those deer would show up in my dreams all
the following week, giving me more food for thought than I thought
possible to even have an appetite for. I would come to call these
early morning dream chronicles my “Dear Deer Dialogs.” The first
one woke me up at ten-after-four in the morning, the sky still black
with just the crickets chirping outside.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Dream
Log – 1st</b></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b> Dialog; Monday 4:10am. . .</b></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><b> I’m
driving through the wooded area</b></i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
not far from my home. This time, as I approached the “Slow! Deer
X-ing, Sharp Turn Ahead” sign, I pulled the car off to the shoulder
immediately after rounding the turn. The deer family was there
waiting patiently for me. I felt this pressure, an anxiousness in my
heart, a restlessness I couldn’t put my finger on, only that I felt
an urgency to speak with them – as nonsensical as that is – but
an urgency so intense that when I greeted them with a friendly wave,
it didn’t faze me in the least when the patriarch stag said in a
deep baritone, “Welcome. . . We have been waiting for you. There is
much we need to discuss.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “I’m
sorry I’m late.” I replied apologetically, “I had some work I
needed to finish up.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
old stag nodded his head sagely. If he was clairvoyant I would not
have been surprised, any more than the fact we were having a
conversation. Ah. . . the power of dreams.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
stopped about six feet away from them – correct social distancing,
you know – and sheepishly waved at them again. “So. . . How are
things going with you guys these days?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
patriarch seemed to grin slightly, as if amused at my concern, then
in a serene voice he said, “It has been the most wonderful time
ever. It has been the most peaceful a time we’ve ever known in our
lifetime. I am sure this is how our ancestors must have lived before
humans came to our land. This is what we have heard over the years
from our elders, who passed down to us the history of the
before-time. . . And what about you?” the elderly deer inquired
sincerely.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “It
has been the most terrible time for us ever in </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>our</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
lifetime. . . I believe we are being punished for all the sins we
have committed for the past several hundred years at least.” I
didn’t tell him about the virus, nor could I bring myself to name
him and his kind specifically as some of the victims of any of our
specific sins. Nor did I go into detail of how mankind had destroyed
nature in general to satisfy its own selfishness and greed. I didn’t
figure he was completely blind to the nature of man’s interactions
with nature and which side had fared the worse. I don’t think he
was much interested anyway, considering he had no ability to affect
the outcome either way.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> When
people bring up the maxim that “Mother Nature always has the last
word,” that truism never guarantees the salvation of the
individuals within nature’s abode. There are still winners and
losers there too. More losers than winners by a long shot, I would
hazard to guess.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> We
stood staring at each other in an awkward silence. . . And then I
woke up.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
next morning, I reviewed my Dream Log from the previous night,
marveling at the “Alice in Wonderland” quality of it all. I had
never in my life had a dream where I was having a conversation with
an animal that could speak and understand English. I was actually
looking forward to the end of the day and the onset of sleep. I also
wanted to see if my deer family would be there waiting for me in real
life, so I got in my car and took another drive down that long
highway. I rounded the “Slow! Deer X-ing” hairpin turn, but alas,
there was no deer family to be found. This only increased my sense of
anticipation for my new-found nocturnal musings and adventures. Was
my life so banal and meaningless that a family of talking deer was
what I had to hold onto for a sense of purpose? I wondered if this
was a sign of nuttiness on my part. Deer me!</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Dream
Log – 2nd</b></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b> Dialog; Tuesday 2:17am. . .</b></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><b> This
time there was no driving</b></i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
– I just found myself standing by the side of the road past the
hairpin turn and the “Slow! Deer X-ing” sign. But I was all
alone. A wave of panic swept over me. I didn’t know what to do or
how to proceed. I thought maybe this was a test of some kind, and
that maybe I should say a little prayer of forgiveness or humility or
something. Never having been a regular attendee in any House of God
since I was a young boy, I concentrated on the “or something”
part. I closed my eyes and did my best to think humble, reverential
thoughts.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
heard a rustling sound and opened my eyes to see the patriarch stag
emerging from the woods. My gloom disappeared as though the elder
deer were a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. A moment later, after
the elderly stag had surveyed the surroundings and looked behind him,
the rest of the clan came out of the cover of the trees and joined
him. I wanted to run over and give them all a group hug, but I
figured this might spook them. I think they must’ve picked up on my
exuberance, because they all spread out a bit and came closer as a
group. It felt like a group hug, deer-style. It was enough for me. I
smiled a “thank you” to whichever deity might be on duty.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
patriarch gave me a small curtsy-like bow and said, “There’s been
more traffic than usual today, so we decided to wait back in the
trees. To be honest, we haven’t had many friendly encounters with
your kind outside of petting zoos, and that’s not exactly a lot of
free-willed fun for us. You understand. . .”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
nodded my sympathies and gave them a palms-up apology for my
ill-mannered species. “I totally understand. You can’t be too
careful these days anyway. We humans can be. . . uhm. . .
unpredictable at best, and downright hazardous to your health most of
the time. . . I wish I could say otherwise, but our human-deer track
record doesn’t exactly reflect well on us.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> This
time the younger members of the family ventured forth; two young
males; one with nubs for horns, the other was a few years older,
sporting a rack of four-point velveteened antlers. Next to them were
two females, again one younger than the other. It was hard to guess
their ages, whether they were the equivalent of preteens, teens or
young adults, but I saw open innocence in the eyes of the females and
in the younger male – the other male had a glint of </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>something</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
in his eyes – distrust? Resentment directed squarely at “The Man”
– literally? . . . If there was the deer version of Bob Dylan, I
was sure this male “teenager” had been listening to all of his
albums.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
waved a hand in the direction of his family. “We have not been
formally introduced, so allow me to start. My name is Yusef. . .
Joseph Khan. I’m 34, recently divorced, no kids. I work for a book
publisher. . . That means I read books sent in by writers who want us
to publish their books. Not sure how much of this means anything to
you. . .”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> My
voice trailed off and I feared I’d crossed over some unspoken
dreamworld line into a realm and subject that was off-limits. The old
stag made what I took to be the deer version of a chuckle and replied
good-naturedly, “Hey, we’re just deer, OK? There’s still much
that we can discuss, even though we are different species. There </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>are</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
more important things besides work. . .</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Allow
me to introduce myself and my family. . . I am the elder, the leader
and patriarch. My name is William. . . This is my beautiful wife Anne
and the mother of our four children. . . Behind her are my daughters,
Isabella and Patrice, and my sons, Theodore and Arthur – he insists
that we call him </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Arterial</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
now. Kids today.” I had to laugh at that. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Kids
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>anywhere!</i></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Three
of the “kids” came up and nuzzled me with friendly affection. The
fourth, with his four-point antlered head tilted sideways, had to be
“Arterial” – he hung back and snorted at me in a clear show of
disdain. His mom glared at him and gave him a swift kick to his
posterior for being rude to a guest. He took his punishment as a
badge of honor in a world run by “The Man.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> One
of the patriarch’s daughters, the older one, had a bright white
star-shaped flourish on the fur of her chest, and she seemed to want
to make up for her brother’s insolence. She came up to me and
pressed her forehead into my side and said in a sweet melodious
voice, “I’m Isabella. I’m very pleased to meet you, Mr. Khan.
Don’t mind </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Arthur</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
– he’s just going through a phase. . . the ‘I’m a total jerk’
phase. Whether he’ll ever grow out of it, I dunno. . . But the rest
of us like you just fine.” She looked up at me with smiling eyes
that sparkled with intelligence and just a hint of mischievousness. I
stroked the top of her head, hoping she liked it. She seemed to,
leaning into my caress. I bent down to give her a long hug that I
hoped was appropriate.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">While
still at eye level, I said, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“I
would very much like to give you a special name, so that you’ll
always remember me. I don’t know if we will ever meet again. . .”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Isabella
glanced over at her parents, who both nodded their assent, then she
turned back to face me. “I would like that. Very much.” she said,
with a blush in her voice. I had no trouble thinking of a name that
warmed my heart. “I would like to call you. . . </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Pappu</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.
. . is that OK?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “By
all means, but what does that mean?” she asked.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “It
means. . . c</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>harming</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.”
I said wistfully, blinking back tears as I remembered my favorite
niece from back home – my sister’s child. She would’ve turned
11 this month.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> As
we kept chatting about her likes and dislikes, the younger daughter
and son came up to get their share of affection and human attention.
. . And then I woke up.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
day passed without me being consciously aware of me being in it. I’d
forced myself to read about 50 more pages of a merely so-so detective
thriller by an obviously well-connected nobody who (judging from his
prose) seemed destined to remain one – unless he suddenly and I
mean overnight suddenly absorbed, via literary osmosis, the narrative
abilities of Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald or James Lee Burke.
Since the first two were long dead, there might be some hope via
channeling or maybe a séance. Other than that, I wasn’t holding my
breath. But somebody in upper management at Simon & Schuster must
have a son or nephew claiming to be an Author with a capital “A”
and so I became the lucky bastard/junior editor who drew the short
straw and had to wade through his tiresome and cliché-riddled
verbosity.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Needless
to say, I was looking forward to having an adult conversation –
with talking deer no less! Oh what a brave new world of dreams that
has such deer in it! . . . Time for bed!</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Dream
Log – 3rd</b></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b> Dialog; Wednesday 3:42am. . .</b></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><b> This
time it was I who found myself </b></i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">in
a thick copse of trees and dense undergrowth, looking out at the
highway with cars zooming by at an alarming rate of speed. I ran into
the open and began waving my hands wildly above my head. “Hey! Slow
down! There’s a family of deer here. You might hit one of them by
accident! For God’s sake, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>slow
down!</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">”
But nobody seemed to see me or pay attention to a crazed madman
waving his hands in the air and yelling at them.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “You
should know they don’t care. They never care about anybody but
themselves, and they sure as hell ain’t gonna slow down. You should
know – </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>you’re
one of ‘em</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.”
These last words dripped with such accusation and venom I knew who
had spoken before I turned around.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Hey.
. . Arterial. . . How you doing? So where’s the rest of the family?
Everyone OK?” This last question was filled with a sudden surge of
fear I could not disguise as cordial concern. The young deer picked
up on it and gave me a contemptuous snorting laugh that said all that
he needed – or wanted – to say. He continued his scornful
reproach of me and all of my kind.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “You
may have fooled my parents and those airhead ‘everything is
wonderful’ retards I have for siblings, but I’m wise to you,
pal.” Funny how you can call someone your “pal” but know he’ll
never be one – a name you think means something positive but is
really an insult.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
stared back at him and tried not to get defensive. I tried to
remember what it was like being his age and not having my
rose-colored glasses on anymore because life had crushed them into
broken shards at my feet. The Cat Stevens classic “Father and Son”
began playing in the back of my mind. It actually helped me regain
and retain my composure as I forged ahead.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Yeah,
I know. . . Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, buddy. I know.”
I was hoping he believed me, or would at least cut me a little slack
and hear me out. I didn’t wait for him to get up another head of
steam or reload his machine-gun mouth with more judgmental
ammunition.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “I
just saw on the news these amazing before-and-after pictures of
smog-free cities and crystal-clear rivers and lakes where human
pollution had gone away. . . because we weren’t being our usual
polluting asshole selves. I guess it shows Mother Nature can heal
herself pretty quickly – if we’d just get out of the way and let
her. . . Hey, I’m all for it. Makes me optimistic that maybe things
can turn around before it’s too late. Hope so. Second chances and
all that. . .”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> It
wasn’t just a plea on behalf of the environment and its worst enemy
species. This had become personal. I just didn’t know why
particularly. I just felt that it was and that I wanted this “angry
young man” to not see me as just “the enemy.” Maybe
compromising at “frenemy.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> For
a long moment he just looked at me, no scorching comment or tirade
perched on the tip of his tongue waiting to leap over and throttle me
into submission or an early grave – like the Corona-virus wasn’t
already threatening me with that on a daily basis. I refocused my
sight on my ideological adversary and realized that by agreeing with
his position I was effectively robbing him of his weaponry. I knew he
was scrambling for higher ground and a better retaliatory strike.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
wasn’t about to give him that opportunity. “You realize, don’t
you,” I pressed on, “that you represent the most important
necessary element of change in any species?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
sudden look of confusion on his face was hurriedly covered over with
false bravado. “Yeah? And what’s that, smart guy?” He said it
like he already knew the answer but we both knew that he didn’t. I
didn’t rub it in to score a point on him. Instead, I crouched down
to his eye-level and gave him a look of genuine admiration and smiled
as warmly at him as I could.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Because
you question. Everything. And that’s what allows the new generation
to come into its own with their much-needed new ideas and fresh
perspectives. It’s true that if you let the older generation get
stuck in the safety of their beliefs and assumptions, that safety can
quickly turn into quicksand and their potentially false assumptions
can become mental cement.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
saw a new light dawn in his eyes. He’d heard something from “The
Man” that he could actually relate to. I was like an old white
Republican who’d dropped an F-bomb in a rap battle.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Of
course,” I said, “there is something to be said for the wisdom of
your elders. They </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>have</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
been there, done that, and got the T-shirt. So you need to give them
a fair hearing as well.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> This
time the upstart teen laughed without the usual scorn or sarcasm
wrapped around it.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> And
then, again, I woke up to find myself in my regular hum-drum world
and life. I saw the time on the clock – 3:42am – and grabbed my
pen and notebook off the bedside table.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> For
some reason I didn’t dream the next night. Maybe I did, but it
wasn’t deer-related, so my brain didn’t record it and wake me up
so I could write it down. But that in itself caused me to wonder and
question the validity of my experiences thus far. Was I getting some
strange “inspirations” that I wasn’t reacting to appropriately?
Was my receiver not tuned to the right frequency? Was I failing in my
role as a “disciple” in a religion I didn’t know I’d signed
up for? Did I miss the important memo with the last-minute
instructions and guidance from the Big CEO in the Sky? . . . I didn’t
know. Worse, I didn’t know what I didn’t know I was supposed to
know.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
thought it might be my diet. After 10pm I never usually eat anything
before bed, but I remembered that last night – my first dreamless
one – I had gluttonously consumed a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s
“Chunky Monkey.” Not like me at all. I blamed the Ben &
Jerry’s and vowed to resume my usual night-time before-bed
lifestyle choices. So I did push-ups instead. It worked.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Dream
Log – 4th</b></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b> Dialog; Friday 1:58am. . .</b></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><b> I
was in my car, driving on the sun-dappled road </b></i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">not
far from the “Slow! Deer X-ing” sign, when I heard a siren and
saw the lit up red-and-blue flasher bar atop a Forest Service SUV. I
pulled over, rolled down my window and waited. A ranger in a tan
Smokey-the-Bear hat and matching uniform exited his vehicle and left
it idling, and then crunched his way through the loose gravel strewn
along the camber until he got to my car. Off came the Aviator shades.
I half expected it to be Jackie Gleason but no luck. A
thirty-something Hispanic with the name tag “Alonso Reyes” peered
into my car and then looked squarely at me as if I’d just robbed a
bank.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Afternoon,
ranger. Was I speeding? Haven’t seen a speed limit sign for
awhile.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “No,
you weren’t speeding. But there’s a real sharp turn up ahead, ‘bout
half a mile or so. Can I please see your license and registration,
sir?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
opened the glove compartment and started rummaging for the requested
items while I continued talking. “Sure thing, officer. . . And yes,
I’m familiar with that sharp turn. I always slow down just before
the sign. Always keep an eye out for wildlife. Would hate to hit
anything. Kill it, you know. I’m an animal lover.” I almost felt
stupid saying that, like it was unmanly to care about helpless
creatures you could easily kill while driving a heavy
all-steel-bodied ‘60s muscle car like mine.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
ranger nodded as I handed him what he’d asked for. He stepped back
a bit and gave a cursory glance at my driver’s license and
registration, then handed them back. He took another step back to
better admire my classic Mustang. “And you wouldn’t wanna mess up
a fine beauty like what you got here over some dumb deer gets caught
in your headlights and just stands there waitin’ to get run over. .
. Be a damn shame. . . This a ‘69?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “A
‘68. . . Restored Shelby but with a 351 Cleveland and a four-barrel under the hood.” I had no idea what I’d just rattled off like I
was a seasoned grease monkey, but it always got an appreciative nod
and an envious smile from whoever was asking. If it kept me from
getting a ticket today, I’d be happy. But now I was curious. “So.
. . What occasions the stop, officer?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
ranger stepped back up to my window and propped his suntanned arms on
the door. “Glad you asked that. . . Seems we’ve had a few reports
of someone in a classic Mustang parked up a ways past that sharp turn
I mentioned. . . Seems he was hanging out with a bunch of deer.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
forest cop made it sound like an organized crime meet-up, only the
mafia were deer. I tried not to smirk – it all seemed so ridiculous
and unbelievable. But when you’re in a dream, you almost never know
it, and in dreams the weirdest things can happen. The ranger
concurred.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Kinda
weird, if you ask me. And it’s also a clear violation of the U.S.
Forest Service’s anti-fraternization between humans and local
wildlife ordinance, which would include deer – any number of, any
size, male or female. And they can carry ticks with Lyme disease, you
know.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
didn’t know, and frankly, I didn’t care. All I did care about
just then was that I may have missed a meet-up with the local deer
mafia, with whom I had grown inordinately fond of and emotionally
attached to, if only in my admittedly weird and apparently illegal
fraternizing inter-species dreams. What can I say – I aim to
misbehave. I gave the ranger a deprecating smile and raised my hands
palms-up in the universal gesture of helplessness.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “I
like deer.” I said in my own defense. “Are you gonna arrest me
for that?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> The
ranger’s previously congenial grin faded into a stoic
‘all-business-now’ frown.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “Son,
I don’t believe you’re taking all this with the requisite gravity
that it deserves. Do you </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>not</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
understand that it is </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>we
humans</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
who are at the very top of this world’s food chain and ‘survival
of the fittest’ hierarchy of who all’s in charge of things on
this planet? God said so!”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Ranger
Reyes was looking and sounding more and more like Jackie Gleason with
every passing second and with every word he spoke. He was becoming a
redneck right before my eyes.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
was momentarily flummoxed for words, with no response immediately
presenting itself. After a few fish-faces, all I could come up with
was a feeble, “But officer, they’re only a family of deer. Cute
deer. A cute little deer family. . . I have nothing against them, and
I hope they have nothing against me.” I held back that one tiny
piece of information that would most certainly get me locked up in a
room with padded walls: “</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>And
we have these wonderful little chats together</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Yeah.
That would go over real well. I kept silent and waited for the cop to
do his worst. He took out his citation booklet and started scribbling
something. I waited for the nightmare to end so I could get back to
my business. I heard the ripping sound as he tore off the ticket and
handed it to me. “No need to sign. This is just a first-warning
notice. I find you out here again. . . </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>fraternizing</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
with the wildlife. . . I’m not gonna go so easy on you. Understand
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>mi
amigo</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">?”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Ranger
Jackie stepped away from my car, donned his Aviators, pointed a fat
finger at me and intoned, “You best remember YOU are in charge, not
them. Don’t make ME be ‘in charge’ of what happens to YOUR
tree-huggin’ deer-lovin’ sorry-ass excuse for a huMAN being. Are
we clear on that? . . . WE ARE IN CHARGE AROUND HERE – And you can
thank GOD for that!”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> He
didn’t wait for my response as he turned crisply on his boot heels
and </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>harrumphed</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
his way back to his SUV, climbed in and put it in gear, and peeled
off down the highway. I sat there behind the wheel, listening to the
ringing silence of his departure, which was thankfully replaced by
the soothing sounds of nature. I decided not to risk continuing on to
my deer meet-up spot in case someone in a Smokey-the-Bear hat was
waiting for me in the trees. . . And then I woke up.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> This
latest dream was the strangest one yet. I was frankly at a complete
loss as to how to process it. But I wrote it all down as quickly and
accurately as I could in my Dream Log, and told myself when I woke up
again in daylight, maybe it would make more sense. But I wasn’t
holding my breath on that one. But I did feel strangely. . . </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>elated</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.
. . to still be breathing.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> To
be honest, I could now appreciate what it must be like to be a “deer
in the headlights.” You’re suddenly ensnared in twin blinding
lights that transfix you and freeze you in your tracks. You don’t
know what’s causing the lights or why they keep getting bigger and
more blinding, and the next thing you know. . . you’re in deer
heaven. Or hell, if you’re in the deer mafia. . .</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
realized it wasn’t right for me to make light of deer getting
caught in some car’s headlights, especially in the light of my
recent conversations with my new-found deer family. They had names,
nicknames even, at least for one of them anyway. I felt this tug of
emotion in my chest that told me I wanted to have a special name for
each one of them. Even “Arterial” – he needed an extra special
moniker that would, hopefully, herald a better and clearer direction
in his young tumultuous firebrand of a life. “Father and Son”
indeed. We start off as the latter only to become the former, only to
see the whole process repeat itself. Such was the tragic comedy of
life. I was beginning to see that it didn’t much matter if we
walked on two legs or four.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Dream
Log – 5th</b></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b> Dialog; Saturday 4:10am. . .</b></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><b> Traffic
was heavier in the late afternoon </b></i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">as
people headed home or somewhere else, and I knew I was risking being
spotted by Ranger Reyes or some nosy Orwellian Gestapo-minded
motorist, but I had to check on my deer family. I rounded the hairpin
turn and our round table gathering spot came into view. I pulled
over, backed my car as far back and out of sight from the road as I
could and cut the engine. A few cars went </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>whooshing</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
past. No cops, thank goodness.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
looked into the woods but I couldn’t see any of my friends, not
even back in the undergrowth. I was about to give up and go back home
when just the head of the matriarch peeked through the dense foliage
of the treeline. I smiled happily and gave her a wave.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> “There
are too many cars. You’re going to have to come to me, OK?” She
disappeared out of sight. I got out of my car and headed to where I’d
last seen her. I took a last glance at my car’s blazing cobalt blue
exterior and wished I’d invested in a camouflage paint job. Oh
well, I’d just have to risk the stormtroopers. I headed into the
dense forest of trees.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
was expecting to find the entire family waiting for me, but it was
just the mother. She was absently nibbling an overhanging leaf as I
came crashing into the small grassy glade where she stood waiting.
She stopped chewing and said, “There you are. Good. We don’t have
much time. There’s so much you have to know. Find a girl, settle
down. If you want, you can marry.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Where
had I heard that advice before? Certainly not from my parents. They
would do the finding, I would do the marrying, and all of us together
would do the settling down. All together. In the same house. Forever.
And in that moment of realization, I saw my whole relationship with
Eileen Donnelly, my fiery, red-headed Irish Catholic now-ex-wife laid
out before me like a Cliff Notes outline of how </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>not</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
to succeed at rebelling against your parents and their cultural and
religious road map of good intentions for your future – the paving
stones to Hell as far as I was concerned. That was ten years ago. Was
I any wiser ten years later? I wish I could say “yes” but if I
was being honest with myself – always the hard part with
introspection – I couldn’t say.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> What
I’d learned the hard way was that there was no rainbow at one end
with a pot of gold at the other, because as everyone knows who’s
ever tried to find the end of a rainbow, it can’t be done. You can
only see the rainbow when you’re far away from it. And then only
after it has rained. So all you get is wet and there’s no pot of
gold to buy yourself a lifetime supply of umbrellas. Not even one for
that rocky, rainy road of life that we all have to tread, often
alone.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Anne
was watching me, back to leaf nibbling as she waited so patiently for
me to come to terms with myself. And that’s when the second
epiphany struck me. (I was starting to feel like Mike Tyson’s
sparring partner.) My deer family was the reflection in the mirror of
my life that I was afraid to contemplate or consider having another
go at – for fear of another crushing failure.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> And
then came the knockout blow: the reason I didn’t want kids –
which was the real reason Eileen left me, even after I’d converted
and married her in the Church – it was because of my </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Pappu</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.
I had loved her like she was my own daughter, and the thought of
having a daughter of my own and then having something happen to her.
. . losing her. . . I wasn’t brave enough to face that possibility.
To chance it. . . I saw for the first time that my fear of sorrow and
loss had kept me from having the joys of love and laughter – and
children – in my life. The tears were running down my cheeks before
I was aware that I was crying.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Anne
came up to me then as I wept, nuzzling my hand as she leaned her body
into mine, offering her strength to give me comfort and hold me up in
my moment of emotional surrender.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> And
then I woke up.</span></span></span></p><p align="center" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
stopped dreaming about talking deer after that. I still took to
driving past the hairpin turn, hoping to see my dear deer friends
again, but I never did. I guess they had served their Freudian angst
or Jungian purpose in my collective unconscious self-examination in
those stultifying and suffocating early months of the Corona-virus
lock-down. Funny how a worldwide pandemic can stir the most private
internal conflagrations of the soul. Perhaps that was ultimately the
real point of it all. . . It was our forced reflection on what truly
mattered in life.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> What
threatens our mortality is what can also threaten our morality as
well – especially our complacency in taking it for granted or
thinking we possess any in the first place. It isn’t until we are
forced to put it to the test that we learn to what extent or in what
amount that quality we call moral courage actually resides within us.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> We
shouldn’t be too surprised to learn we are all a quart low when it
comes to courage, or that we are too often cowards to one degree or
another in facing up to the challenges of the heart and the trials of
life. The one thing that Corona-virus has done – if it doesn’t
kill you – is to give you the time to put the ol’ SUV of the soul
in the shop for a check-up, a tune-up, and a much needed balancing
and rotation of all four tires, to better grip whatever road you’re
on.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Only,
for the most part – while the owner of the garage might be named
Krishna, or Moses, or Jesus, or Buddha, or Mohammad – we are still
the ones who have to open the hood and turn the wrench. We are the
mechanics of our own selves. We may have a manual that works well
enough in guiding us to determine where the knocks and pings are
coming from, but we are still the ones who have to get our hands
dirty and demonstrate the answers to the questions by how we choose
to live our lives and express our love for others. . . and for
ourselves.</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> It
is </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">the
testing of</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
our bravery, demonstrated by the choices we make while transfixed in
the headlights of tragedy, that shows us the fleetingness and
fragility of our bravery and our lives. And no one really ever has a
choice except, as John Prine sang, “to go on out and do the best
you can.”</span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Like
I said, I didn’t have any more talking deer dreams, but that’s
not to say I didn’t have another dream about a deer caught in the
headlights. It just wasn’t the four-legged kind. It was the
two-legged kind. It was – you guessed it – me. And no one was
more surprised than me. . .</span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><b> I
found myself standing in the middle of the road</b></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
just past the hairpin turn – a metaphor for the unexpected trials
of life? I dunno – but there I was. Night had fallen, a foggy gloom
had welled up out of nowhere, and I could hear a car approaching and
see its headlights sweeping across the woods on the far side of the
road as an older, European </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">two</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">-door
sedan rounded the curve.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Naturally,
my brain was screaming at me to get off the road, but I couldn’t
move, couldn’t get my legs to listen. But it wasn’t because I was
paralyzed with fear – I felt no fear at all. In fact, I was
perfectly calm, almost giddy with anticipation as to what would
happen next. Where would I end up? I really wanted to know. . . And
it didn’t feel like a death wish, like I was giving up. . . I knew
I wasn’t.</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> So
I just stood there like a happy idiot, as Jackson Browne would say,
my mind half-yelling, half-laughing at me to get ready to get
blind-sided like a happy idiot. But I wasn’t laughing and I wasn’t
afraid anymore. I could recognize the metaphor now, as though I were
outside of myself, watching me not being afraid anymore of new
challenges that life – or God – had in store for me. I smiled at
the knowledge that I had finally made room in my life for God, even
though I was fuzzy on the details of Who exactly that was. But it was
a start, an open door. . . And so I waited and watched as the sedan
straightened out in its lane, its headlights boring into me. I closed
my eyes. . . And then, just like that, I was sitting in the passenger
seat.</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> A
beautiful dark-haired woman wearing a headscarf was driving what
looked like an older BMW 2002, the early-to-mid ‘70s model. She was
holding the wheel left-handed with a firm, confident grip, her right
hand resting warmly in my left, our fingers intertwined. She glanced
at me and smiled, giving my hand a loving squeeze, then her eyes went
back to the road ahead. The fog had lifted and the car’s headlights
played across an empty highway that seemed to stretch on forever,
straight and true. Her left hand returned to the wheel as she
concentrated on her driving.</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> I
looked down at my left hand and was surprised to see a silver wedding
ring on my third finger. At that moment I heard an odd gurgling sound
coming from the back seat. I craned my head around to look. An infant
dressed all in pink with a pacifier in her mouth was making the
gurgling noises. She smiled at me with her eyes and kicked her feet
up and down in her baby chair. I already knew what her special name
was.</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> And
then I woke up. . . Once again.</span></span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">*
* *</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> A
couple of months later, after the lock-down had eased up a bit, I
returned to my regular daily drive back and forth to my office at
Simon & Schuster in New York City. I had held firm in my refusal
to sign off on the hapless wannabe “Author” – no matter who he
was related to – and thankfully, someone higher up on the editorial
board respected my integrity and concern for the company’s
reputation, and I wasn’t given the boot. In fact, I was promoted to
full-fledged editor.</span></span></p><p align="left" class="western">
</p><p align="left" class="western"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> And
the person they hired to fill my old junior editor’s position? She
was a stunningly beautiful woman with light olive skin and dark brown
hair named Ayesha Marie Chandler. Being a devout Muslim convert, she
always wore a head covering whenever she ventured outside her home.
And she drove a very nice classic car – a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">1974</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
BMW 2002 Tii </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Alpina
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">with
dual Weber carbs. . . For some reason, I just knew we were going to
get along fine.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">============================
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>
THE E</b></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>ND
</b></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">==========================</span></span></span></p><p>
</p><p align="left"><br />
<br />
</p><p></p>Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-74219777164472767002019-09-18T22:00:00.000-07:002019-09-18T22:00:08.560-07:00MORE LYRICS: "CRAZY BY DEGREES"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-73455944683796869522019-09-18T21:54:00.002-07:002019-09-18T21:54:40.412-07:00A TRUE-LIFE GHOST STORY. . . <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-47741577458584104752019-09-18T21:46:00.001-07:002019-09-18T21:46:06.703-07:00FICTION: "FUTURION"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-55551257600560250352019-09-18T21:27:00.001-07:002019-09-18T21:27:39.452-07:00FICTION: "CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-3866009993200655652019-09-18T21:22:00.002-07:002019-09-18T21:22:33.619-07:00FICTION: "HOW I SECURED A TREASURY POST"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-24266785795900151962019-09-18T21:09:00.004-07:002019-09-18T22:10:18.171-07:00LYRICS: "VINNIE OFF OF MAIN"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-81757424831975707282019-09-18T20:40:00.002-07:002019-09-18T21:00:15.139-07:00FICTION: "LOVE - NEXT EXIT"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-62696293568360582822019-08-20T21:06:00.001-07:002019-08-22T09:40:14.127-07:00INSIGHTS ON ISLAM: a Convert's Search for God and Spiritual Truth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">"<u>ALLAH'S MERCY IN RELATION TO SIN</u>"</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">AN EXCERPT FROM MY FORTH-COMING BOOK. . .</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">02-22-98:</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Realized
more fully that Allah’s Mercy is not a faculty that manifests one
time; say, at the onset of the commission of a sin. His Mercy<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
– His desire to save you from the consequences of your impending
sin – is in force all throughout the commission of the sin,
offering you at every moment, </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">with
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">every
downward step you take towards the harming of your body and soul, the
opportunity for you to reverse your course of action and instead turn
to Him </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
repentance</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
is because</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Allah’s Love for you is constant and ever present, like gravity,
and His Mercy that seeks to save you from the inferno of your sins
and transgressions is ever waiting for you to turn to Him and take
hold of His life-saving rope so you may be pulled out from the pit
and be rescued </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">from
your self-wounding sin</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">But
alas, there always comes a moment in the act of every transgression
against yourself or others where the tides of fear or circumstance
cannot be reversed or blamed for what your “self that incites to
evil” propels you to do.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
comes a time in the commission of all sins – that is, in every act
of separation from God</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: cambria, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: cambria, serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: cambria, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: cambria, serif;">when
you consciously submit to your inner Shaitan and let go of the rope
of Allah and commit to engaging in an act of “willful selfishness”
we generally refer to as “sin.” It is at such moments that our
direct disobedience to God can and often does result in the
manifestation of the negative (and usually predictable) consequences
of our willful selfishness.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Such
consequences may not appear immediately – and this, too, is a Sign
of Allah’s Mercy, of Him giving us every opportunity to repent –
but should our hearts not seek His Forgiveness and divine
redemption, His punishment (like His Mercy) shall be, like gravity,
inescapable. And it is then that we shall fall. Even then, at that
late hour, we can still choose to fall to our knees and prostrate in
humility and sorrow, seeking His countenance and Mercy in sincere
remorse and repentance, for remorse is the smelting furnace of an
anguished heart and a self-tortured soul, each s</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">eeki</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ng
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
final desperation to purify the gold of our original goodness of the
dross of our sins.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 120%;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
is a necessary fire whose flames shall, insha’Allah,</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">cool
the heat of our future passions that we may yet be saved from the greater
Fire in the Hereafter.</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<br /></div>
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-29166949632472179812019-03-25T15:27:00.001-07:002019-03-25T15:27:50.087-07:00MY SPEECH ON THE "SPLIT" IN AHMADIYYAT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="ev0l6" data-offset-key="7rv46-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7rv46-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7rv46-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">For "Musleh Ma'ud" [Promised Son] Day Event in Feb. I gave a speech on the Split in the Ahmadiyya Jama'at, usually marked from 1914 upon the demise of the 1st Khalifa and the election of the 2nd Khalifa, Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra). But the true series of events is more interesting by far. . . </span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="ev0l6" data-offset-key="b732m-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b732m-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3K1o9fv1cA&feature=youtu.be</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="ev0l6" data-offset-key="77mqg-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="77mqg-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="77mqg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-75338085926591955152018-11-25T15:53:00.001-08:002018-11-25T16:00:50.655-08:00THE "GREEN BOOK" IN THE LAND OF RED, WHITE, BLACK AND BLUE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">On
Thanksgiving Day the wife and I went to see the film "Green
Book" – a biopic about the relationship between Black
world-class pianist Dr. Don Shirley (in a wonderfully nuanced
performance by Mahershala Ali) and his Italian driver and bodyguard
Tony Vallelonga (in a hilariously in-your-face portrayal by Viggo
Mortensen). They first meet when Dr. Shirley hires Tony to accompany
him on a concert tour that will take them through the Deep South in
pre-civil rights 1962 America. The title of the film comes from the
travel guide called a Green Book that African-Americans relied on to
find Black-friendly restaurants, gas stations, entertainment and
lodgings in an America where knowing where it was safe to go for
food, gas, fun and sleep could mean the difference between a pleasant
vacation and a racist nightmare ordeal that could end up costing you
your life. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">The
wife and I both enjoyed the film – very impacting on so many levels
because there were so many levels to the film. I encourage everyone
to go see it. But I have to say I am dismayed at some of the
comments and reviews that basically "talk trash" about
certain aspects of the film, like saying it's “White people making
a movie about racism for White people,” or complaining that Don
Shirley wasn't portrayed correctly or in enough depth. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Firstly,
on the racism charge, if you want to reach White audiences with a
message they need to hear, the <i>modus operandi</i> of using White people
to do that is actually a good thing. Look at Spike Lee's "Black
kKklansman" as an example. While undoubtedly an important film
that should be widely seen and one masterfully executed by Spike (as
usual), how many White people were lining up to see it? Same problem
Michael Moore has: their reputations precede them. Point being, you
can't get a good message into a person's head if they don't want to
listen to the messenger. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">As
for complaining about the depth (or lack thereof) with regard to
historical accuracy or details, I only got one comment for all those
nit-pickers and nay-sayers out there: show me what YOU have done to
bring America to an awareness of Dr. Don Shirley and his music, and
the Green Book that (literally) could mean life or death for
African-Americans traveling in pre-civil rights America, especially
in the South. Yeah, I thought so. Nada. Zip. At least now there's
a movie out there that's going to reach millions of Americans –
many of them African-Americans who have never heard of Don Shirley or
the Green Book – and I am hoping that whoever sees this engaging
film will be enlightened and moved emotionally by what they see in
"Green Book." </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Medicine
is more easily imbibed with a little honey, and "Green Book"
is the kind of medicine that a LOT of people need to imbibe,
especially in today's Trumpian world where racism is being
dog-whistled left and right by the man currently in the White House.
Before Trump came on the stage, the Green Book that saved the lives
of countless African-Americans was just a historical remnant of a
much more intolerant and racist time. What's truly scary is that if
things race-wise keep deteriorating, the Green Book may, by necessity,
have to make a comeback. We can't allow that to happen. It's bad
enough that some people don't understand why "Black Lives
Matter" or why Colin Kaepernick and other Black athletes want to
take a knee to protest racial injustices. It's even worse when some
people don't think there's a problem with racism in America at all. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">That's
why "Green Book" comes to the fore at a time when the need
to face America's past, <i>vis-a-vis</i> race relations, is even more vital
to the survival of America as a country and as an ideal. We are not
all White. We have never been all White. We are a mixture of people
from all over the globe in search of a better life and a chance to
live free. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">True,
many of the people who came here did not do so of their own volition
but rather in chains or through the harsh winds of war, famine or
economic hardship, but regardless of the misfortune or dire
circumstances that brought them to America, some of them and many
more of their descendants were first empowered and eventually granted
more freedoms and better opportunities by the promise inherent in
seven simple words that truly gave birth to America: "Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">We
owe it to our children – White, Black, Brown or whatever shade of
skin tone they may be – to ensure that the America our past
generations hoped for continues to shine, not just as an ideal, but
as an attainable reality of freedom, hope and opportunity. America
must fight and strive to be the place where the oppressed can escape
religious, political, racial, economic and other forms of
persecution. Trump and his minions are herding us down the road to a
fascist, authoritarian, apartheid police state that will spell the
death of America as we know it. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Think
I'm being overly reactionary? Remember: Germany was one of Europe's
most highly cultured and civilized nation-states, boasting strong
democratic and humanitarian mores and institutions. . . before Hitler
came to power. In less than a decade, Hitler and the Nazis destroyed
everything good in their country and tried to do the same in the rest
of the world. And all along the way, the Nazis had willing enablers
and sycophants to oil the wheels of their racist, antisemitic,
eugenics-driven machineries of death. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">So
call me reactionary – it's what happens when you know even a little
bit of American and world history and are not feeling at ease or
encouraged by current trends. OK, the rant is over. Here's the link
to an article on "Green Book." Go see the movie and support
the ideal of what America needs to be and, God-willing (and
people-willing), can be. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mahershala-ali-green-book-20181121-story.html</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-66115832883385760532017-06-18T16:51:00.000-07:002019-09-16T20:25:29.314-07:00AUDIO-VIDEO LINKS + GHAFFAR'S BLOG POSTS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">=========================================================</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"> Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar - Email: JonathanMAG@Gmail.com</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"> Cell: 1-909-525-5299 - Work Ph. (Chino Mosque): 909-627-2252</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"> Mailing Address: 11941 Ramona Ave. – Chino, CA 91710-1661 USA</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"> 1-866-WHY-ISLAM (rings at Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino, CA)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">=========================================================</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Link
to my online 8-Gig folder of Tabligh & Da'een Education Materials
(includes 5-vol. Eng. + 1-vol. Eng. commentary Qurans + Sher Ali Quran +
many books by PM & others in PDF form):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"> </span><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c74m7q6azy6yi66/S_ycUXwDp7"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c74m7q6azy6yi66/S_ycUXwDp7</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 4pt; line-height: 6.13333px;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">=================================================</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How I became an Ahmadi Muslim (20-min. version)</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">YouTube<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;"> LINK: </span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iVhlzmJrGY&t=990s</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Salat
-- the Muslim 5x daily prayer audio files in English and Arabic + Surah
Fatiha (ch.1) + Surah Baqara (ch.2) v1-8 + Surahs 87-114 [WAV &
MP3s] </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qb7ommvv9du3vnj/asUHT_Uiob"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 19.1667px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qb7ommvv9du3vnj/asUHT_Uiob</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 19.1667px;">Link to MP3 of KCAA 1050-AM radio show interview on The Kathleen Wells Show 29-min. excerpt with </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 19.1667px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 19.1667px;">Imam Zafarullah and </span>Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar from Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Chino, California. Interview Wed. Oct. 22<sup>nd</sup>, 2014. Topics: response to Bill Maher's anti-Islam comments, ISIS, true teachings of Islam and Ahmadiyyat. </span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4M4FcOAjmd6TTlndDlwdVl3SkU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4M4FcOAjmd6TTlndDlwdVl3SkU/view?usp=sharing</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar’s Oct. 11th 2012 1-hour radio interview: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: large; line-height: 21.4667px;">“How I became Ahmadi Muslim”</span></div>
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<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19398995/Jonathan%20Ghaffar%201-hr%20interview%20-%20How%20I%20became%20Ahmadi.mp3">https://www.dropbox.com/pri/get/Jonathan%20Ghaffar%201-hr%20interview%20-%20How%20I%20became%20Ahmadi.mp3?_subject_uid=19398995&w=AABOVjvoLIzKCrGbbvM2vkiSUMN8gqyu3csy7XdeeRz7CA</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">“Ground Zero Mosque” radio interview with Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar Aug.2010</span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4M4FcOAjmd6RDExRGR0NHU1clk/view?usp=sharing"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4M4FcOAjmd6RDExRGR0NHU1clk/view?usp=sharing</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“Introduction
to the Holy Quran” audio CD files [originally recorded by M.A.Ghaffar
in 2011 at the Baitul Hameed Mosque; sound quality re-engineered in 2014
for 2<sup>nd</sup> pressing of CD with new disc & jacket design.]</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yohh9gzy3b7vp51/AADPDGEnb0Atr7zEy7hyiPx-a?dl=0"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yohh9gzy3b7vp51/AADPDGEnb0Atr7zEy7hyiPx-a?dl=0</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Prof. Bart Ehrman vs. Evangelical Craig Evans debate on NT reliability:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/anb67h9lq5qzwr0/AADYRzZZU2gyY7BGrpMXzIlva"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/anb67h9lq5qzwr0/AADYRzZZU2gyY7BGrpMXzIlva</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“Understanding Islam” KCAA 1050-AM Radio Show 32-kbs MP3 audio files (Sept.2009-Feb.2012: </span><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cbgcj3oz8ud9i74/kFzeftqJoh"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cbgcj3oz8ud9i74/kFzeftqJoh</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“Understanding Islam” KCAA 1050-AM radio show scripts</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/15jmzt2lwxirwnx/a8jTYCTLqv"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/15jmzt2lwxirwnx/a8jTYCTLqv</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Introduction to Ahmadiyyat (Video link)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/r21js93yslmtl9o/Vid%20-%20Intro%20to%20Ahmadiyyat.wmv"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.dropbox.com/s/r21js93yslmtl9o/Vid%20-%20Intro%20to%20Ahmadiyyat.wmv</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“Voice of Islam” radio shows (1-15 from 2002)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/py6s96homiluwx3/AABp9AyjxYkwFmZ2Cl-lJK-za"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/py6s96homiluwx3/AABp9AyjxYkwFmZ2Cl-lJK-za</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Holy Quran Arabic recitation by M. Rashid Alafasy</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9j1aqwej2n6m0if/d5x93wbLil"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9j1aqwej2n6m0if/d5x93wbLil</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Quran CD in English and Arabic (AMC Portland Jama’at production)</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yvsnbpy92niu1yf/P_9RSsMugD"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yvsnbpy92niu1yf/P_9RSsMugD</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Abdur Raheem Hubbs’ short video on “Muhammad in the Bible”:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdQ3mSxsDjg"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdQ3mSxsDjg</span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 27.6px;">GHAFFAR’S BLOG POSTS. . .</span></b><br />
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<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">06-03-17: </span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ISIS</b></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2017/06/seeing-forest-for-trees-in-fight.html </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">12-02-16: </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>LOVE IS WHAT GIVES US POWER OVER EVIL</b></span></span> </span> </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2016/12/rebuilding-our-way-to-better-america.html </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">10-15-16: </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MY ANSWER TO "A GERMAN'S VIEW ON ISLAM"</b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK:</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2016/10/my-answer-to-germans-view-on-islam.html </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">08-17-16: </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MY COMMENTS ON AN ANTI-MUHAMMAD VIDEO</b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK:</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2016/08/my-comments-on-anti-muhammad-video_17.html </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">06-09-16: </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MUFTI MUHAMMAD SADIQ AWARD COMMENTS: How I became an Ahmadi Muslim</b></span></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">YouTube<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;"> LINK: </span></span><br />
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iVhlzmJrGY&t=990s</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">12-01-15: </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><u>POLICE IN THE BLACK AND WHITE SPOTLIGHT</u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2015/12/police-in-black-and-white-spotlight.html</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">05-04-15: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=5873604540448767445;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname"><b>5,000 WORDS OF THANKS TO MR. BRADBURY</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2015/05/5000-words-of-thanks-to-mr-bradbury.html">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2015/05/5000-words-of-thanks-to-mr-bradbury.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">04-22-15: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=8093298013738555259;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=1;src=postname"><b>21st ANNIVERSARY OF MY 2nd CONVERSION</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2015/04/21st-anniversary-of-my-2nd-conversion.html">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2015/04/21st-anniversary-of-my-2nd-conversion.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">12-15-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=1621111487317655954;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=2;src=postname"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">THE NATURE OF GOD, HIS PROPHETS,</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">AND THE PROMISED REFORMATION OF ISLAM</span></b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: <a href="http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-nature-of-god-his-prophets-and.html">http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-nature-of-god-his-prophets-and.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">07-10-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=7870954573127003722;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=3;src=postname"><b>SOLVING THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE "TROUBLES"</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/07/solving-israel-palestine-troubles.html">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/07/solving-israel-palestine-troubles.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">07-09-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=7018441639716386316;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=4;src=postname"><b>A GEM FROM THE MASTER, RAY BRADBURY. . .</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-gem-from-master-ray-bradbury.html">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-gem-from-master-ray-bradbury.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">05-15-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=5606913977881680884;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=8;src=postname"><b>10 WAYS TO BE CLOSER TO GOD</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">BLOG LINK: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/05/10-ways-to-be-closer-to-god.html">jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2014/05/10-ways-to-be-closer-to-god.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">04-19-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=467124972841920622;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=9;src=postname"><b>ONLY LOVE CAN HEAL HATE</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">04-08-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=177688465489238446;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=10;src=postname"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">STILL SHINY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[My first attempt at "Firefly"-inspired lyrics]</span></b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">04-03-14: <b><u>SAYING “NO” TO THE CANCER OF WAR</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">03-27-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=1637731369614184642;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=12;src=postname"><b>SECOND COMING OF JESUS ALREADY HAPPENED</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">03-27-14: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=2169771325761936351;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=13;src=postname"><b>JESUS' SECOND COMING HAS ALREADY HAPPENED (MAG's original 2K word ver.)</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">02-10-14: </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=681410907592898050;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=14;src=postname"><b>THANK YOU, IMAM SHAMSHAD, FOR ASKING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY</b></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">12-11-13: </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=5799465851257544300;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=16;src=postname"><b>GOD IS ONE, NOT THREE-IN-ONE</b></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">11-08-13: <b><u>PAKISTAN’S DEADLY BLASPHEMY LAWS</u> (footnoted)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">10-19-13: <b><u>LIVING THE LESSONS OF ABRAHAM</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">10-04-13: <b><u>THE HEALING PROPERTIES OF MYRRH wrt: JESUS</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">09-21-13: <b><u>MUHAMMAD: THE BEST MESSENGER OF ISLAM</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">08-18-13: <b><u>PAKISTAN’S BLASPHEMY LAWS</u> (OP-ED VERSION)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">08-17-13: <b><u>ARE MOSQUES HOTBEDS OF TERRORISM?</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">08-08-13:<b> <u>BLASPHEMY LAWS ARE THE REAL BLASPHEMY</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">07-20-13: <b><u>RAMADHAN A TIME FOR RE-DEDICATION TO GOD</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">04-17-13: <b><u>TERRORISM WILL NEVER SUCCEED</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">03-16-13: <b><u>PEACE AND SALVATION THROUGH THE MESSIAH</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">03-15-13: <b><u>PEACE STARTS WITH JUSTICE AND RESPECT</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">03-14-13: <b><u>WHO ARE THE REAL BLASPHEMERS IN PAKISTAN?</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">01-26-13: <b><u>GOD’S LAWS ARE A BLESSING NOT A CURSE</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">01-05-13: <b><u>CHAI WITH IMAM SHAMSHAD</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">12-15-12: <b><u>CHRISTMAS – A REMINDER TO FOLLOW CHRIST</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">12-15-12: <b><u>WHY JESUS DID NOT DIE ON THE CROSS</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">12-6-12:<b> <u>SAVING MALALA TO SAVE ISLAM</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">8-22-12: <b><u>RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFO ON AHMADIYYAT</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">7-2-12: <b><u>DEFENDING THE QUR'AN</u></b> [Reply to 2003 Newsweek article]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">7-2-12: <b><u>FREEDOM WITHOUT JUSTICE ISN'T FREEDOM</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">7-2-12: <b><u>9-11: AFFECTS AND EFFECTS 10 YEARS LATER</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">7-2-12: <b><u>WHY THE MURDER OF AHMADIS IN PAKISTAN</u></b></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">SHOULD CONCERN AMERICANS</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">7-2-12: <b><u>WHEN THE POLICE ARE THE CRIMINALS</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6-30-12: <b><u>WE ARE HERE TO LOVE GOD AND EACH OTHER</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6-30-12: <b><u>SAUDI GRAND MUFTI'S EDICT GOES AGAINST ISLAM</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6-30-12: <b><u>OSAMA BIN LADEN -- AN ICON NO M</u></b><u>ORE</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6-30-12: <b><u>NOAH'S ARK FOR THE MUSLIMS</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6-30-12: </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=1049516684169429552;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=13;src=postname"><b>KILLING MUSLIMS IN THE NAME OF ALLAH</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6-30-12: </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=4160405046456305513;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=15;src=postname"><b>IF JESUS VISITED PAKISTAN</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">6-30-12: <b><u>FEAR IS THE STONEMASON</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">6-26-12: <b><u>REFLECTIONS OF THE PROPHET (saw)</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">6-23-12: <b><u>WHY PEOPLE DON'T ACCEPT ISLAM</u></b></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">EVEN WHEN THEY BELIEVE IT'S TRUE</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">5-16-12: <b><u>A HEART ALIGHT ON THE WINGS OF JOY</u></b></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">SUNG FORTH IN THE CALL TO PRAYER</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">5-16-12: </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6017154678273810431#editor/target=post;postID=1895992219841754370;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=21;src=postname"><b>IS WAR THE ONLY WAY TO PEACE?</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">4-4-12: <b><u>THE ABRAHAMIC FAITHS: GOD'S TIMELINE TO ISLAM</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">4-4-12: <b><u>DEFINING ISLAM WITH LOVE OR HATE</u></b></span></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-66952980282279222622017-06-03T14:44:00.000-07:002017-06-03T14:54:53.937-07:00SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ISIS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">Pres. Trump has returned home from his first tour of the Middle-East and Europe, evoking praise and vitriol here and abroad, depending on whether you view the world and its myriad, interconnected complexities through Trump's myopic green-colored glasses or not. What is painfully obvious is that Trump is woefully ignorant of, and thus completely unprepared to handle, the realities of statecraft on today's world stage with its many volatile players.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Just look at his visit with the Saudis. With one hand he gestures for peace across the Middle-East while calling for a crackdown on Sunni Jihadist extremism, yet with his other hand, he shields his eyes from five decades of Saudi-funded and exported Sunni Jihadist extremism while selling the Saudis $110-billion in US-made weapons. (This is like hiring a known pedophile to run your daycare center!) And these weapons will inevitably be used against Shia (read: Iran-friendly) factions in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen -- which means some of that $110-billion in bombs and bullets will end up in the hands of ISIS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This will result in even more death and destruction and even more refugees seeking escape to anywhere safe. So it understandably angers and amazes me how some people can raise the alarm over an influx of Muslim refugees -- created by the instability of their war-torn countries -- and signal the doom and downfall of their own countries while doing nothing to help prevent the death and destruction in Muslim countries which produce these unwanted refugees in the first place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Go back a decade or so before Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen were embroiled in their political and military upheavals and you'll see tens of millions of Muslims living relatively peacefully in relatively stable societies. True, most were ruled by iron-fisted dictators, but the reality is that America and other Western nations, as well as Russia, were often instrumental in putting those dictators in power and were more than happy to turn a blind eye to these dictators' evils and repression of their respective populations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So it's hardly a surprise when these same populations rise up and demand their freedoms the first chance they get. Sadly, power vacuums are rarely, if ever, filled by altruistic, kind-hearted, benevolent statesmen who love their countries, but usually by murderous tyrants and despots who only crave self-enrichment and power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The answer to this whole debacle is simple: the US and all those who seek to end the problem of radical Islam need to empower the reformist and moderate forms of Islam such as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (visit <a href="http://alislam.org/">Alislam.org</a>, <a href="http://muslimsforpeace.org/">MuslimsForPeace.org</a>, <a href="http://khalifaoislam.com/">KhalifaofIslam.com</a>) and also work to re-educate the Muslim world that, for the past half-century, has been fed a steady diet of hate and ignorance from the Saudi-funded madrasas (Islamic schools) teaching their radical Wahhabi-Salafi doctrines and intolerant, violent Jihadist version of Islam. (I know, easier said than done, but that’s the real solution in a nutshell.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then, at the same time, the US and her allies must stop supporting -- with their dollars, guns, and silence -- the root sponsors of this self-destructive interpretation of Islam. Then, after a generation of Muslims has been raised without this Saudi-financed Wahhabi-Salafi doctrinal cancer in Islam, you will see the Islam that existed for at least a millennia after the birth of Islam in the 7th century AD.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">History is the best barometer of what is actually true -- be it in a culture, a philosophy, a religion or a civilization. Barbarism never produces civilization. Even a cursory review of Islamic history demonstrates a worldview and reality where education, literacy, science, freedom of religion and interfaith tolerance, freedom to dissent, and technological advancements were all in evidence for well over a thousand years. This was not the result of the absence of true Islamic thinking and government in the world, but the presence of true Islamic thinking and government in the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, Islamic history is not pristine, let alone perfect. As I often remark, “Religion would be great if there were no people in it.” But because people are often driven by fear, greed, insecurity and hate, it is no surprise that you have in a religion’s Holy Book all the good things it commands its followers to do and live by, and then you have the lives they often choose to live according to their own lower, animalistic natures instead of their own higher, moral and spiritual selves. It’s a wonder God puts up with us at all, given our frequent disobedience, arrogance, and outright disbelief in Him and His prophets and His Teachings. But all that is on us, not God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">All Holy Scriptures give the same core of ethical and moral tenets so we can freely choose to strive to better ourselves instead of butcher each other. Thank God I believe in a God Who is Patient and Forgiving or we would all be doomed and in deep spiritual trouble. The liability and responsibility, of course, are still firmly and entirely laid upon our shoulders. And this goes for the believers in any Faith, or for atheists who believe in no god but subscribe nonetheless to an ethical code and the sense of having an innate moral compass to be adhered to and not ignored.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For those who do believe in a Higher Power, God never forces us to do or be good. If He did, we would be little more than meat puppets. God gives us the freedom of choice and also the responsibility for the consequences of our choices. It is the key moral and spiritual arrangement between God and mankind that validates our purpose in this life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The downside of this is that it does not remove evil from the world. But that, in fact, is also the upside as well and the main point of our existence. In whatever form evil takes and in whatever religious garb evil people seek to cloak themselves in, combating and defeating evil is our job, not God’s. That is why Islam clearly states that it is a Muslim’s duty to stand up to and fight against tyranny and evil – especially when it hides behind the name of Islam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It would be nice to believe that Muslims can and will do this by and for themselves, but the reality, like the reality of Hitler and Nazi Germany, forebodes otherwise. When someone is dying from cancer – one they may vociferously deny is afflicting them in the first place – it becomes incumbent on others to do whatever they can to help affect a cure. The silent majority on every side of the issue needs to step up and speak out and be proactive and not just reactive. As the famous adage goes, “All that is required for the triumph of evil is for the good to do nothing.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So decrying a “problem” is good in that you call attention to it, but unless you understand the problem and how it came to be and what you can actually do about it, you will find yourself woefully ill-equipped to solve it. This is the case with almost all the articles and essays and blogs and videos out there calling Islam a “terrorist religion” out to destroy the West.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The “solutions” presented are usually knee-jerk, reactionary, emotionally or religiously biased, and they invariably suffer from faulty and misinformed perspectives mired in fear and ignorance that only exacerbate the situation, making real, substantive and effective responses nearly impossible to achieve. The danger of this is obvious and often lost in the din of alarm bell rhetoric and the stampede of the frightened herd.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And it is this danger of rushing headlong into a hasty and flawed reaction to the very real problem of ”Islamist” terrorism that will doom the fight against it from the very start. As in any battle with an unpredictable opponent, the secret to winning depends on understanding your adversary, knowing the geography and pitfalls of the battlefield, and having the knowledge and resources to thoroughly defeat your enemy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In this battle, the weaponry is overwhelmingly ideological and not military. The physical fight is always the “Lesser Jihad” – while the “Greater Jihad” is the much more difficult challenge to heal the hearts and minds of those infected with the deadly myopia of extremist, radical Islam. But that battle can be won. It must be won. The consequences are too dire to contemplate if we – Muslims and our religious and secular allies – fail to act. There is no room anymore for a “silent majority” on either side. It is high time for Muslims especially to step up and deal with this cancer of deadly extremism in the body of Islam.</span><br />
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[ This essay is an excerpt from my post titled: <i>My Answer to 'A German's View on Islam'</i> at: <a href="http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2016/10/my-answer-to-germans-view-on-islam.html">http://jonathanmaghaffar.blogspot.com/2016/10/my-answer-to-germans-view-on-islam.html ]</a><br />
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-74694456129063209652016-12-02T15:47:00.000-08:002016-12-30T17:56:39.959-08:00LOVE IS WHAT GIVES US POWER OVER EVIL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">On the one-year anniversary of the Dec. 2nd mass shootin</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">g in </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; text-indent: 0.5in;">San Bernardino</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">, we gathered in our places of worship and civic venues to honor those taken from us by two people who called themselves Muslims, but who violated God’s sacred laws in the Quran and chose instead the path of hate -- choosing the evil of murder over the sanctity of life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">There are some who think the two people who perpetrated the heinous and unspeakable atrocities one year ago today were, in fact, true followers of the religion and teachings of Islam. But this is not true. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">In chapter 5, verse 32 of the Quran, God relates the powerful truth He first gave to the Children of Israel when He said: “Whosoever <i>unjustly</i> kills a person. . . . it shall be as though he had killed all mankind. And whosoever saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved all mankind.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The foundation on which the sanctity of life is based comes from God’s requirement that we, as His highest creation, strive to be just in all matters. God states this clearly in chapter 16, verse 90 of the Quran: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">“Verily, God enjoins justice, and the doing of good to others; and giving <i>in charity</i> as though to one’s own family; and <i>He</i> forbids indecency and manifest evil, and wrongful transgression.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">From just these two verses, it should be clear what Islam commands and condemns, and what it upholds as being right and wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> On the anniversary of a tragedy, it is natural to grieve and to weep for those we have lost, and to seek help and solace in prayer for those who are thankfully still with us, but who rightfully suffer in the pain and sorrow of their wounds, both mortal and of the heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Our reflections in these difficult times naturally bring back the immediacy of what we all experienced on that awful day one year ago. . . The shock, the horror, the overwhelming sadness and grief. . . And yes, the anger and the hunger for vengeance that is normal in the aftermath of evil. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What is vital in this time of reflection is to understand the past and its participants, and to use that wisdom to maintain vigilance in the present to prevent future tragedies. This requires our <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">sincere</span> and s<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ustained</span> engagement – we must come together in unity of purpose to combat hatred and its causes with love and all its power and purity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Most of us have heard the quote by the philosopher Sir Edmund Burke: “All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">To update Mr. Burke to the modern age, let us all then, as good men <u>and</u> good women, join together so that good may triumph over evil. We can do this by standing for what is right and against what is based in fear and hatred and the demonization and exclusion of the “other.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let us always remember that love is God’s ultimate power over evil. He blesses us with this capacity within our hearts so we may love and seek understanding and connection with each other. It is this love that can remove our fears and animosities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It is this love that can tear down the walls of stone and belief which we so often fashion to keep ourselves isolated and alone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let us strengthen our bodies, minds and spirits with this love, so that together we may prevail against the forces that seek to keep us in darkness and distrust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It is only with this God-given power of love that we can be empowered and enabled to truly honor, reflect and rebuild our way to a better America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-6076394617696424512016-10-15T18:08:00.004-07:002017-06-02T14:41:40.691-07:00MY ANSWER TO "A GERMAN'S VIEW ON ISLAM"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I recently received an Email on the threat from Islam and Muslim refugees entitled: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“A German’s View on Islam” credited to Dr. Emanuel Tanya [<i>sic</i>]. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I remember reading something nearly identical to this but attributed to another person, so I searched for it on Snopes.com and found this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A German's View On Islam. Dr Emanuel Tanya. Is this a true publication?</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />Origins: On 21 February 2006, Canadian Paul Marek published on his blog <b>Celestial Junk</b> an </span><a href="http://cjunk.blogspot.com/2006/02/why-peaceful-majority-is-irrelevant.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">article</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> titled <b>"Why the Peaceful Majority is Irrelevant."</b> [article link: http://cjunk.blogspot.com/2006/02/why-peaceful-majority-is-irrelevant.html]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In passages such as the following, Marek's essay warned about the dangers of Islamic fanaticism and dismissed as irrelevant the notion that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are peaceful: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We are told again and again by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unquantified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is, that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is, that the "peaceful majority" is the "silent majority" and it is cowed and extraneous.<br />
<br />“History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points. Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by the fanatics. Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others, have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marek's article has been republished in books such as How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth and Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam, and it has been widely circulated on the Internet under the title "A German's View on Islam." However, in the latter form the essay has most commonly been attributed to the late Dr. Emanuel </span><a href="http://holocaust.umd.umich.edu/tanay/section001.html"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tanay</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who isn't German (he was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States) and had nothing to do with writing it.<br />
<br />It is uncertain how Dr. Tanay's name became attached to Internet-circulated versions of this essay. Some versions of the message state Tanay was one of the people (perhaps the first) who forwarded Marek's article to a wider audience, but this explanation does not seem likely and has not been proved. [From </span><a href="http://www.snopes.com/"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">www.snopes.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> at this link: </span><a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/germanislam.asp"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/germanislam.asp</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> ]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My response. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I've seen this email before. Of course what it says, in general, is true: it is always the “silent majority” who allows by their inaction the evil in the world to increase. But what is striking to me about Mr. Marek’s full post (wherein he cites the tens of millions of deaths as a result of WWII and Communist purges) is that the vast majority of all of those tens of millions of people killed in WWII were not killed by Muslims, but by Christians and atheists and Buddhists or the followers of Shinto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The obvious response is that governments orchestrated the bloodbath of WWII and all the wars before and after. Their participants were aligned with one religion or another or with no religion in the case of Communist nations, but the nations who responded with their armies in the conflicts that have consumed so many precious lives throughout history are the agents of death and destruction. The soldiers, regardless of their beliefs, are only pawns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So in reality, the only way for Muslims as a standing army in countries bent on destroying the West to succeed would be if said Muslim countries could actually muster a viable army and equip it with arms and then successfully wage wars or military assaults on their "enemies." Only ISIS is in that category and they are isolated in Syria and Iraq and exist solely as a result of the civil war in Syria and the power vacuum left in Iraq when the US and its allies pulled out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the fact that the under-equipped and outnumbered Kurds have been more than capable of countering and defeating ISIS in their military engagements speaks volumes about the long-term ability of ISIS to seize and hold territory against a committed opposition. Add to this the fact that ISIS is spending nearly all its time and attention on killing other Muslims, not Christians. All other Muslim countries engaged in warfare are similarly targeting mostly other Muslims from different sects. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Christians who desire the extermination of Islam and Muslims should be rejoicing at this information, and it's no secret that Christian-led and atheist-led governments are happily selling arms to any and all Muslim nations who can afford to buy them. So while Islam represents a cultural and ideological "threat" to western European and Christian societies based on the perceived differences (real or imagined) between Islam and Christianity, this is nowhere near the threat level that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people (nearly all non-Muslims) from the 1930s-1970s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nor are there any forms of terrorism or warfare being propagated by Muslims (against themselves or anyone else) that even comes close to matching the civilizational destruction caused by the Western nations in the two Gulf Wars and by Russia and Syria in the current civil war in Syria, where close to half-a-million Syrians -- most of them innocent women, children, and non-militia members -- have been killed. If you wanted a conspiracy theory about the West's plan to eradicate Muslims from the world through wars and the fostering of sectarian Muslim violence, you wouldn't have to dig too deeply to find your damning evidence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So it kind of amazes me how some people can raise the alarm over an influx of Muslim refugees -- created by the instability of their war-torn countries to which the West has much blood on its hands -- and signal the doom and downfall of their own countries when they do nothing to help prevent the death and destruction in Muslim countries which produce these unwanted refugees in the first place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Go back a decade or so before Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Yemen were embroiled in their political and military upheavals and you'll see tens of millions of Muslims living relatively peacefully in relatively stable societies. True, most were ruled by iron-fisted dictators, but the reality is that America and other Western nations, as well as Russia, were often instrumental in putting those dictators in power and were more than happy to turn a blind eye to these dictators' evils and repression of their respective populations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So it's hardly a surprise when these same populations rise up and demand their freedoms the first chance they get. Sadly, power vacuums are rarely, if ever, filled by altruistic, kind-hearted, benevolent statesmen who love their countries, but usually by murderous tyrants and despots who only crave self-enrichment and power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The answer to this whole debacle is simple: the US and all those who seek to end the problem of radical Islam need to empower the reformist and moderate forms of Islam such as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (visit Alislam.org, MuslimsForPeace.org, KhalifaofIslam.com) and also work to re-educate the Muslim world that, for the past half-century, has been fed a steady diet of hate and ignorance from the Saudi-funded madrasas (Islamic schools) teaching their radical Wahhabi-Salafi doctrines and intolerant, violent Jihadist version of Islam. (I know, easier said than done, but that’s the real solution in a nutshell.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then, at the same time, the US and her allies must stop supporting -- with their dollars, guns, and silence -- the root sponsors of this self-destructive interpretation of Islam. Then, after a generation of Muslims has been raised without this Saudi-financed Wahhabi-Salafi doctrinal cancer in Islam, you will see the Islam that existed for at least a millennia after the birth of Islam in the 7<sup>th</sup> century AD. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">History is the best barometer of what is actually true -- be it in a culture, a philosophy, a religion or a civilization. Barbarism never produces civilization. Even a cursory review of Islamic history demonstrates a worldview and reality where education, literacy, science, freedom of religion and interfaith tolerance, freedom to dissent, and technological advancements were all in evidence for well over a thousand years. This was not the result of the absence of true Islamic thinking and government in the world, but the presence of true Islamic thinking and government in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course, Islamic history is not pristine, let alone perfect. As I often remark, “Religion would be great if there were no people in it.” But because people are often driven by fear, greed, insecurity and hate, it is no surprise that you have in a religion’s Holy Book all the good things it commands its followers to do and live by, and then you have the lives they often choose to live according to their own lower, animalistic natures instead of their own higher, moral and spiritual selves. It’s a wonder God puts up with us at all, given our frequent disobedience, arrogance, and outright disbelief in Him and His prophets and His Teachings. But all that is on us, not God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All Holy Scriptures give the same core of ethical and moral tenets so we can freely choose to strive to better ourselves instead of butcher each other. Thank God I believe in a God Who is Patient and Forgiving or we would all be doomed and in deep spiritual trouble. The liability and responsibility, of course, are still firmly and entirely laid upon our shoulders. And this goes for the believers in any Faith, or for atheists who believe in no god but subscribe nonetheless to an ethical code and the sense of having an innate moral compass to be adhered to and not ignored.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For those who do believe in a Higher Power, God never forces us to do or be good. If He did, we would be little more than meat puppets. God gives us the freedom of choice and also the responsibility for the consequences of our choices. It is the key moral and spiritual arrangement between God and mankind that validates our purpose in this life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The downside of this is that it does not remove evil from the world. But that, in fact, is also the upside as well and the main point of our existence. In whatever form evil takes and in whatever religious garb evil people seek to cloak themselves in, combating and defeating evil is our job, not God’s. That is why Islam clearly states that it is a Muslim’s duty to stand up to and fight against tyranny and evil – especially when it hides behind the name of Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It would be nice to believe that Muslims can and will do this by and for themselves, but the reality, like the reality of Hitler and Nazi Germany, forebodes otherwise. When someone is dying from cancer – one they may vociferously deny is afflicting them in the first place – it becomes incumbent on others to do whatever they can to help affect a cure. The silent majority on every side of the issue needs to step up and speak out and be proactive and not just reactive. As the famous adage goes, “All that is required for the triumph of evil is for the good to do nothing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So decrying a “problem” is good in that you call attention to it, but unless you understand the problem and how it came to be and what you can actually do about it, you will find yourself woefully ill-equipped to solve it. This is the case with almost all the articles and essays and blogs and videos out there calling Islam a “terrorist religion” out to destroy the West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The “solutions” presented are usually knee-jerk, reactionary, emotionally or religiously biased, and they invariably suffer from faulty and misinformed perspectives mired in fear and ignorance that only exacerbate the situation, making real, substantive and effective responses nearly impossible to achieve. The danger of this is obvious and often lost in the din of alarm bell rhetoric and the stampede of the frightened herd.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And it is this danger of rushing headlong into a hasty and flawed reaction to the very real problem of ”Islamist” terrorism that will doom the fight against it from the very start. As in any battle with an unpredictable opponent, the secret to winning depends on understanding your adversary, knowing the geography and pitfalls of the battlefield, and having the knowledge and resources to thoroughly defeat your enemy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In this battle, the weaponry is overwhelmingly ideological and not military. The physical fight is always the “Lesser Jihad” – while the “Greater Jihad” is the much more difficult challenge to heal the hearts and minds of those infected with the deadly myopia of extremist, radical Islam. But that battle can be won. It must be won. The consequences are too dire to contemplate if we – Muslims and our religious and secular allies – fail to act. There is no room anymore for a “silent majority” on either side. In that respect Paul Marek is right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-23611304280081316332016-08-17T13:21:00.003-07:002016-10-04T14:21:27.531-07:00MY COMMENTS ON AN ANTI-MUHAMMAD VIDEO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln5fVgM0gLQ<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none; line-height: 115%; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This video is pretty
standard in how it shows hadith and Quran in a certain light and portends to
"let the facts speak for themselves". . . I would strongly suggest
visiting</span><span style="color: #167ac6; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.muhammadfactcheck.org/" style="color: #167ac6;">www.MuhammadFactCheck.org</a></span><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"> and read through the
concise and well-vetted answers to many of the criticisms leveled in this
video. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The trouble with her "take" on Islam and the Life
of Muhammad (saw) is that it seems totally historically accurate the way
she recounts it from hadith and Quran. But like her recounting of the poisoning
of Muhammad (saw) event, she makes it seem like he ingested the poisoned meat
and then immediately died, when in fact a good long length of time transpired
between the two events. </span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"> And anyone who knows how poisoning works, knows that
poison either kills you right away, or your body successfully fights off the
poison and you survive the attempt without dying from it -- which is obviously
what Muhammad did. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Regarding the story of Muhammad ordering (and in some
Internet reports single-handedly performing) the beheading of 700-900 Jews. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">#1.
There are no Jewish historical records of this ever happening. Strange, for a
group that has meticulously documented every injustice and atrocity committed
against Jews throughout their history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">#2.
The recorder of this event was a well-known anti-Semite (he hated the Jews with
a passion), so much of what he says Muhammad said or did pertaining to the Jews
needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">#3.
The way the lady describes the attack on the Jews makes it look like the Jewish
tribe in question was totally impartial and innocent of any malice towards the
Muslims. Not true AT ALL. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The Jewish tribe instigated war against the Muslims at every
opportunity. All the Jewish tribes in Medina agreed to and signed The Charter
of Medina when the Prophet Muhammad was freely elected by the town as their
mayor. He was invited to relocate to Medina for this express political purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">The conditions of the Charter were that all signatories
pledged to defend the town and all the other signatories in the event of an
attack by outside forces, like the Meccans. (Read the Charter of Medina here: </span><a href="http://www.covenantsoftheprophet.com/"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none; color: #167ac6; line-height: 115%; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;">www.CovenantsoftheProphet.com</span></a><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The Jewish tribe in question repeatedly conspired against the
Muslims with the Meccans to undermine and destroy Islam and the Muslims. For
one egregious breach of the Charter, Muhammad ordered the tribe banished -- not
exterminated -- from Medina to another town. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Then, later, when this same tribe helped the Meccans breach
the defenses of Medina and nearly cause a rout of the Muslim forces, Muhammad
assembled his forces and went to their fort and besieged it for like a week.
When the Jews finally agreed to surrender, to negotiate their terms, the Jews
picked a Jew who had converted to Islam, thinking he would treat them
favorably. He didn't. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">The Jewish Muslim convert cited Deut. 20:10-14 </span><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">which commands that
after the war that all men on the losing side be killed and that all
others be made captives of war and their property taken as spoils of war. These
are not the commandments in the Quran, but in the Jewish Holy Book. The Jews
agreed to abide by the ruling of their chosen arbiter. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Now, again, there are other hadith which state that Muhammad
gave pardons to most of those Jews about to be slaughtered under the rules of
war from their own book. And since the charge against them was, essentially,
treason against the state (of Medina), death is the standard punishment for
treason even today. Remember the Rosenbergs? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">But like I said, for something so gruesome to have actually
taken place, you would think the surviving Jews of Arabia would have recounted
the event repeatedly in their oral and written histories -- but they didn't.
Maybe because it never happened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">#4.
About the Jewess poetess that Muhammad supposedly ordered killed for writing
insulting poetry about him. . . In the book "Extremist" by Qasim Rashid (from which the website www.MuhammadFactCheck.org is based), this
event is covered in detail. The salient facts NOT reported (i.e., intentionally omitted) in the video are as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The man reportedly sent to kill her was a blind man (the first
thing that doesn't make sense), who didn't know where she lived, but managed to
find her house anyway. Then, he enters the woman's house while she's wide
awake, with a baby in her lap, and her grown children asleep around her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">But the woman never yells to wake up her kids, doesn't get up
and run away from the blind man with the knife (and I would assume easily
escape) nor does she wake up her sleeping family members to come to her defense
-- again something pretty easy against a blind guy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">So none of these escape maneuvers enter the woman's mind, and
the blind guy is able to find his way across the room without waking up anyone
sleeping by stumbling over them, and then he manages to stab her to death while
not harming the baby in her lap and without waking up her family members or her
fighting back. (If you believe THAT story, I've got a bridge I wanna sell yah.
. .) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">#5.
The age of Aisha at marriage & consummation. There's only one source hadith
for this story, and it comes from a guy -- Hisham ibn 'Urwah -- who narrated a decent number of uncontested hadith
throughout most of his life, but the one in question about the age of Aisha was done
AFTER he migrated from Medina to Baghdad at the age of 71. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Virtually all scholars of hadith consider his hadith
narrations from when he lived in Baghdad unreliable because he was losing his
memory. Now, in Arabic, to say six is "sittah" and to say 9 is
"tissah</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large; line-height: 34.5px; text-indent: 0.5in;">.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">" To say 16 or 19 you add the word for 10 in Arabic:
"asharah."</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">What scholars believe happened is that the narrator forgot
the word "ashara" to make it 16 and 19 respectively. Scholars think
this mistake occurred (or maybe it was deliberate because pedophiles preferred
the age of Aisha being 6 and 9 instead of 16 and 19) because of the failing
memory problem. Plus the narrator only cites his father as the first reporter
of the ages of Aisha being 6 and 9. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The reason it most certainly was not 6 and 9 is supported by
the fact that almost all hadith record that Aisha was born BEFORE 610 AD -- the
advent of Islam -- in what's called "jahiliyyah" the Time of
Ignorance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Aisha is recorded as being born about 4 years before the
start of Islam. Now, the Muslims were in Mecca for 13 years before they
migrated to Medina. Muhammad was Nikah'd (married) with Aisha about a year
before he migrated, making a total of 16 years as the age of Aisha. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">She was officially taken by Muhammad as his wife about 2
years after migrating to Medina, making her age 19 at the time of consummation.
Aisha is also cited as being on the battlefield during the battle of Badr, and
Muhammad would certainly not have allowed an 8-year-old girl to be in the midst
of deadly fighting. Muhammad, in fact, forbade anyone under 15 from being in
the battle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Now, taking into account the bad memory and "10"
dropping probability in the hadith, you can see how the ages line up exactly
historically as either 6 and 9 (going by hadith) or 16 and 19 going by actual,
dateable, historical events. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The nail in the coffin of the "Aisha age" hadith
controversy is the following point: Aisha's older sister, Asma, was 10 years
older than Aisha, and it is well recorded that Asma was 27 at the time of the
migration to Medina. So Aisha would have been 17 at the time of the actual
migration. One year less for her Nikah makes her 16 which lines up
historically; three years later, in Medina, when Aisha became Muhammad's actual
wife makes her 19. End of story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The other point to remember is that the age of puberty is and
has traditionally always been the age of "adulthood" in Judaism and
in all pre-modern cultures. Puberty means menstruation in women. Able to have
kids = legal to get married. That usually happens between the ages of 12-14 in
girls. And in Islam, you cannot make a marriage contract -- or any contract --
with a minor. They must have reached what is called the "age of
reason." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">(As an aside with regard to Christian American history, the
"Age of Consent" in America -- the age at which a girl could get
married and/or have consensual sex with a grown man was 7 in the very early
1800s, 10 by the mid-1850s, 12 by the last quarter of the 1800s, and 14 by the
1900s. That's why the '50s rocker Jerry Lee Lewis could legally marry his
13-year-old cousin in Arkansas. It caused a scandal, but it wasn't illegal
under Christian-passed marriage laws.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">People will believe anything they want if it aligns with
their prejudices and beliefs. But those who have actually read the Quran and
the vast majority of hadith (the Quran supersedes all hadith, by the way, not
the other way around) know that the themes of: justice towards all (especially
one’s enemies), love of God and His Creation, forbidding Muslims from being the
aggressors in a fight or war, seeking peace to end fighting even when it is
dishonorable to Muslims, no killing of religious clergy or any non-combatants
in a war / battle, respect for one's parents, relatives, the elderly, the
orphans and the oppressed -- all of these very clear commandments in Quran and
hadith overwhelmingly demonstrate what is taught and focused on in Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">As Muhammad (saw) once stated: If anything he is said to have
said or done goes against the Quran or his sunnah (behavior established by
repeated example), don't follow or believe it to be true. The hadith are
records of events and teachings sent and evolved over 23-years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Many reports, like stoning to death for adultery, reflect
punishments given before the Quranic ruling came down or punishments delivered
to Jews by request from their Holy Book, the Torah. The Quran states only
lashes for adultery not stoning to death, and no other punishment can supersede
or countermand it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Just because ignorant and often evil-minded Muslims do not
obey God's Divine Commandments is not a poor reflection on Islam or Muhammad,
but on those ignorant or disobedient Muslims who either do not know or choose not
to follow the teachings of the Quran.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">If anyone with an open mind and heart wants to know the truth
about what Islam really teaches and requires from its followers, go to
Alislam.org and get yourself educated. If one is literate, ignorance is a largely
self-curable affliction.</span><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-81835714592790675682016-06-09T15:06:00.001-07:002016-10-04T14:31:26.861-07:00MUFTI MUHAMMAD SADIQ AWARD COMMENTS LINK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Link (below) to YouTube video of my comments upon receiving the Mufti Muhammad Sadiq Award -- how I became Ahmadi Muslim. . . Below that is the link to comments on receiving the same award by my friend & fellow Tabligh (preaching) Road Dawg, Rahman Abdul Aleem. Please watch his video first, as I make mention of his experiences in conjunction with mine in similarity and impact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ghaffar's comments on receiving the 2016 Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) Award Ceremony May 28th: </span><br />
<b style="color: blue; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iVhlzmJrGY" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iVhlzmJrGY</span></a></b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: black;"><b>==================================================</b></span></span><br />
<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: black;">Aleem's comments on receiving the 2016 Mufti Muhammad Sadiq (ra) Award Ceremony May 28th:</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HphZKX-KMQo"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HphZKX-KMQo</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-11823127423717869962015-12-01T21:34:00.000-08:002015-12-01T21:34:26.243-08:00POLICE IN THE BLACK AND WHITE SPOTLIGHT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have all respect for police officers, considering the
nature and danger of their job, but there is the matter of responsibility. And
self-control. Regarding the series of events in recent years wherein (usually)
white police officers kill black men or teens who are usually either unarmed or
armed with lesser caliber weapons than the officers, a thought occurred to me
after hearing (yet again) how the (usually) white police officer shot the black
person because the officer "feared for his life." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You would think if there was one occupation where the
ability to control NOT being in fear for your life would be a required
prerequisite, being a police officer would be that job. And since many police
officers are combat vets, you would think being able to maintain your calm and
NOT let a dangerous situation make you act violently and impulsively out of
fear would be something they were already familiar with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But maybe investigation would find that the majority of
these officers who do shoot black people were combat vets and that maybe THAT
is the problem in itself -- being involved in chaotic firefights where you
might be tempted to "let all hell break loose" in a fearful encounter
out of fear for your life or in revenge after seeing your fellow soldiers and
friends killed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">More needs to be done to train police officers to be able
to respond appropriately and proportionally to threats. I find it very hard to
buy the "I feared for my life" response when the officer has a gun
and is 10 feet away from a suspect who is armed with a rock or a knife or
nothing at all. Maybe it’s a matter of prevention. Perhaps better psychological
evaluations are needed to prevent ex-vets with PTSD from becoming police
officers in the first place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And for those officers already in the field, why don't they
train them to use Tasers, or to shoot for the legs in such situations instead
of "kill zones"? And I can't help but wonder what the statistics are
for incidents of officers killing unarmed or lesser-armed suspects who are
white instead of brown, compared to the scenarios we've been seeing over and
over again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is it just a matter of white officers fearing black males
as opposed to white males in an otherwise similar police / suspect encounter?
What's sad is that I even have to ask such tragic questions at all in this day
and age. Sometimes I feel like D.W. Griffith’s unapologetically pro-Klan and
unabashedly racist film "Birth of a Nation" was made a year ago
instead of a century ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-58736045404487674452015-05-04T15:14:00.001-07:002015-05-09T22:30:49.691-07:005,000 WORDS OF THANKS TO MR. BRADBURY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Not far from our mosque in Chino, there's a Goodwill thrift store where I often go looking for used books -- James Lee Burke, Lee Child, Walter Mosley, John D. MacDonald, et al. So what usually happens is I'm riding my bike heading for the main intersection where the Goodwill is, and I sometimes get this "urging" to go in there because there's something cool I need to check out. I've learned to listen to this quiet insistence (my being nudged, as it were, by the Higher Power I call Allah) and I am always rewarded.<br />
<br />
This time around (about a week ago), I get nudged to go inside and peruse. . . I see a Travis McGee novel (Darker than Amber) which I promptly snap up, plus a book called "Aromatherapy A-Z" which intrigues my didactic sensibilities, and I spy a Bradury classic: "Fahrenheit 451" -- but since I've already got a copy, I do no more than give it a loving glance of appreciation and fond remembrance.<br />
<br />
But something keeps pulling me back to it, so finally I pull it out from between some cookbooks where it was resting (did the book shelver mistake it for recipes?) and I see that it's a 40th anniversary edition with a new introduction by its esteemed author. I open the nice-but-not-mint copy and there, on the inside front page, is the large looping scrawl of a signature: <i>Ray Bradbury </i>and a date: 3-18-94. O-M-G as the kids today would say.<br />
<br />
Yes, I was seeing that right: a signed 40th anniversary edition of "Fahrenheit 451" !!! Needless to say, it was soon mine for a mere $3. And the oddest part of it was that, for some unknown reason, page 58-59 had been half torn from the tome. A fitting irony about a book where firemen "censored" books by setting them on fire.<br />
<br />
And it got me to thinking about my "homage" to Bradbury's classic, something I'd written almost as an explanation to myself in answer to the question: How could such a state of affairs evolve in the modern age? My answer was the 5,000 words you see below -- "Mightier than the Sword" -- written before I changed my name after accepting Islam Ahmadiyya in 1994. (By the way, I have in my typewriter collection a 1929 Royal just like the one displayed in the title. Can you spot the "mistake" in the image? Hint: I wanted the typewriter to face toward the lettering in the title, not away from it, so I used a manipulation common in all graphic design programs. I used Quark to create the magazine-style portfolio of my writings (and some from a few friends) which I produced when I lived on Maui from 1996-2000. That's why the issue number is "0". . . Enjoy!)<br />
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-80932980137385552592015-04-22T23:47:00.000-07:002015-04-22T23:47:54.638-07:0021st ANNIVERSARY OF MY 2nd CONVERSION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today, April 22nd, marks my 21st anniversary of emotionally / spiritually accepting Ahmadiyya Islam . . . I took Bai'at (initiation) on Jan. 22nd 1994, but that was essentially an intellectual, reason-based acceptance of the truth of Islam as it was presented by Ahmadiyyat & Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his successors & scholars.</div>
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But it was after having a decidedly non-intellectual spiritual experience that I was convinced at the core of my being of the truth of the Promised Messi<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">ah and Imam Mahdi. You can check out my conversion story at the link below. At the 28-min. mark is where I start discussing my conversion directly.</span></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffar’s Oct. 11th 2012 1-hour radio interview: “How I became Ahmadi Muslim”</div>
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<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19398995/Jonathan%20Ghaffar%201-hr%20interview%20-%20How%20I%20became%20Ahmadi.mp3" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/…/Jonathan%20Ghaffar%201-…</a></div>
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Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-16211114873176559542014-12-15T20:42:00.001-08:002014-12-15T20:43:08.550-08:00THE NATURE OF GOD, HIS PROPHETS, AND THE PROMISED REFORMATION OF ISLAM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"> From the very beginning of man's
spiritual self-awareness, God has always appointed -- and taught -- righteous
human beings as His exalted prophets and messengers. Their missions have always
been the same: to deliver to their people God's divine teachings and to also
become living, holy examples and embodiments of those same divine teachings.
The desired result is for people to be righteous reflections of God's Divine
Attributes and love and serve God and His creation. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"> There are over 100 Divine Attributes of
God -- some of which are exclusively His, such as “The All-Knowing,” “The
Eternal” and “The All-Powerful” -- but most of these are innate and we are
meant to manifest them in our daily lives. These godly qualities include being
Kind-hearted, Generous, Loving, Honest, Just, Peaceful, Truthful, Merciful,
Forgiving and Patient. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">When this happens, goodness and peace reign, and evil, hatred and
strife are combated and dissipated. What this is, in a word, is “Love.” And it
is this fostering of love -- for God and for all His creatures and His creation
-- which is the ultimate purpose of all the prophets of God. And this is also
why, in Islam, Muslims are commanded to believe in and respect all prior
prophets sent by God because of just this divine, unifying purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">It is also a fundamental belief in Islam that God has always
commanded His chosen prophets and messengers to proclaim to their people that
God is not -- nor has He ever been -- a force of nature or celestial object,
nor any created being (human or otherwise) nor any man-made idol -- but rather,
that God is and always has been the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the Universe
and its sole Deity. He is non-physical, wholly transcendent above His creation,
and completely unbounded by it or contained within it in any way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">God states this succinctly and clearly in verses
2-5 of the 112th chapter of the Holy Quran, called Al-Ikhlaas:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Proclaim:
He is Allah, the One -- Allah, the Independent and<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Besought
by all. He begets not, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">nor is He
begotten; and there is<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">none like
unto Him.</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"> [112:2-5]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"> What these verses mean is that,
fundamentally and eternally, God has always been and will always be only and
singularly One, and that there is nothing and no one in heaven or on Earth like
Him who is worthy of our worship. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"> All other earlier teachings -- from
whatever religion -- that present ideas contrary to this pristine Oneness can
be shown to be deviations from that clear, divine commandment to believe in the
pure, non-physical Oneness of God, which God Himself has stated so decisively
in the Holy Quran and in previously revealed Divine Scriptures such as the Torah.
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">All that Islam adds to this is that Muhammad (peace be upon him)
-- who represents and embodies all the eternal spiritual truths delivered by
previous prophets -- is God’s all-encompassing messenger for all mankind and
the last Law-bearing prophet sent into the world. No new Law-bearing prophet
will be sent after Muhammad (pbuh), nor will any new Holy Law be given after
the Quran. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">What is promised by God is that He will appoint righteous servants
as needed to rekindle in the hearts of mankind the cleansing flame of the pure
love and worship of God. He will do this at His sole discretion as the Master
of all Creation and the Day of Judgment, and in answer to the needs of mankind
for its moral, spiritual and worldly reformation. The purpose of which is so
that human beings may rediscover, comprehend and put into practice the true
teachings of the Holy Quran and the life-giving example of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">To that end, most Muslims -- both Sunni and Shia -- believe that
God has done this by raising up and appointing spiritual, saintly reformers
every century following the advent of Islam and the passing away of the Holy
Prophet (pbuh) 1400 years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">And while most Muslims believe in the advent of a Divinely-Guided
spiritual leader known as the Imam Mahdi, as well as the Second Coming of Jesus
Christ (pbuh), only Ahmadi Muslims believe both of these advents have occurred
(as promised by Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Quran) in the person and writings
of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) of Qadian, India. Ahmad established the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in 1889 under divine decree and shortly thereafter
-- again under divine decree -- proclaimed that he was, in fact, the Imam Mahdi
for Muslims and the Second Coming of the Messiah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">“Love for All - Hatred for None” is the motto of the Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community. We now have Chapters in over 200 countries of the world with
total membership numbering in the tens of millions. We are striving for peace,
justice, serving humanity (HumanityFirst.org) and bringing spiritual
enlightenment and moral purification to all of humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">We oppose all forms of terrorism and oppression, be it of
individuals or groups, and we condemn all such acts as being completely
un-Islamic and against the teachings and example of the Holy Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh). And while Ahmadis have frequently been the targets of extremist Muslim
violence, persecution and even murder, no Ahmadi Muslim has ever responded in
kind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">For all those peace-loving Muslims seeking the true face of Islam,
they will find it within the members and in the spiritual leadership (Khilafat)
of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. </span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">And for all those non-Muslims curious to find the true face of
Islam they, too, will find it in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and its system
of Divinely-supported Khilafat. And finally, to all those who fear, hate or
despise Islam, or who decry the silence of the peaceful Muslims of the world
(or who do not believe such Muslims even exist), we invite them to study the
original and pure teachings of Islam presented by the peaceful Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community and embodied by its tens of millions of devout members from around
the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Those who fear, hate or despise Islam will not find within the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or in its members any evidence of what they fear,
hate or despise because Ahmadiyyat is the true Islam that we invite the world
to discover, support and freely embrace, if they so wish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">May God open the hearts of all people living in ignorance or
hatred or fear -- and all people who seek God -- so that true love and peace
may enter into their hearts, and reign as Love Supreme. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">_______________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To learn more about Ahmadiyya
Islam or to visit Ahmadiyya mosques in Southern California (Chino &
Hawthorne), call 909-627-2252 or 1-866-WHY-ISLAM. To find an Ahmadiyya chapter
near you, call 1-800-WHY-ISLAM or go online to: Ahmadiyya.us to see all
Chapters. For information on Ahmadiyya, go online to: MuslimsForPeace.org or Alislam.org</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-78709545731270037222014-07-10T15:16:00.000-07:002014-07-10T23:39:53.981-07:00SOLVING THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE "TROUBLES"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was watching Al-Jazeera
America this morning -- they had George Mitchell on talking about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. He said in Northern Ireland, on the eve they signed the peace accords that
pretty much ended "The Troubles" there, 85% of those polled said they
saw no hope for peace. Then they had it. The same thing can happen in the
Israel-Palestine situation. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Once the situation is in
place, it can be maintained -- so long as people on both sides want that to
happen. Therein lies the rub. To the Muslims in this situation, I say
"Remember the Treaty of Hudaibiyya!" -- it was roundly criticized by
the companions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) as unjust, a humiliation and an
insult to their honor, etc. etc. but that did not keep Muhammad (pbuh) from
signing it and choosing peace over war. The word "Muslim" means one
who seeks peace with and submission to God, and by extension, His creation. You
can't love God and hate your fellow man. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Islam also commands Muslims
to not be the aggressors in a conflict, nor to attack or kill non-combatants
(i.e., civilians), and to end aggression as soon as possible -- especially if
the enemy calls for peace. In Islam, a Muslim government is required to cease
hostilities and grant peace if so desired by the enemy. So as long as the
Muslims violate these laws of God in the Quran and do not follow the sunnah
(example) of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), they will continue to be cursed with
disunity, worldliness and ignorance among themselves, and suffer violence and
oppression at the hands of their Muslim brethren (as in Syria and Iraq) and
from others. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And speaking of the
Israelis, they must answer to God for their intransigence and evils as well.
Ironic that a group who suffered at the hands of one group of oppressors 75
years ago can become oppressors themselves and see nothing wrong with that --
defend it even, in the name of "payback" and their survival as a
state and a people. If what the Israelis do with their Jewish settlements is
OK, then let them allow one Palestinian settlement inside Israel for every
Israeli settlement they have in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Suddenly it's
not so OK anymore, is it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Remove labels in any
conflict and leave just the actions themselves and judge the good or the evil
of it then. It will be easy and clear. Now keep the labels off and treat people
as you would desire and deserve to be treated as a human being. Now put the
labels back on. And now apply the required justice and righteous behavior as
you would have it for yourself without the labels. Problem solved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-70184416397163863162014-07-09T17:44:00.001-07:002014-12-17T17:55:39.886-08:00A GEM FROM THE MASTER, RAY BRADBURY. . . <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>I’ve
been reading one of my great inspirations, Ray Bradbury – his collected
non-fiction writings called “Bradbury Speaks”. . . On pages 46-47 I found this wonderful gem [I can “hear”
this in Carl Sagan’s voice]:</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>“The
unknown celestial environment cries out to be known. We are the delegates of
cognition whose task it is to witness and celebrate. The Cosmos thrives through
us. The dead stuffs of planetary time are roused to life because we say it’s
so. We pitiful worms have dreamed a cocoon of metal, glass, and fire and have
come forth as homely moths and then fine papillons to cross space and annul
time. Our conscious mind <i>wonders</i> at
this. Our secret mind knows. It speaks. We listen and dream ourselves better
cocoons.”</b> <b>– Ray Bradbury</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If, in the not too distant future, we
survive our own lesser natures burning to destroy us, and succeed in building
and manning the ships that cross the interstellar seas, it will be the greatest
ingratitude if we do not christen our ships with the monikers of those
envisioneers, those literary spellbinders named Bradbury, Burroughs, Wells,
Asimov, Heinlein, Clark and others who have sailed there before us, taking us
with them, that we may meet ourselves in their company at some far distant time
in the silent expanse of solitude and destiny that is space, our final
frontier. -- JMAG<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6017154678273810431.post-34117566421066003302014-06-26T18:33:00.004-07:002014-07-09T17:41:44.340-07:00MY FAREWELL COMMENTS FOR IMAM SHAMSHAD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Here's a short video of my remarks at Imam Shamshad's Farewell Event at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino, CA Tuesday, June 24th. . . Imam sahib is now in Chicago as their new missionary. May Allah bless, guide and protect him.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYHCXMi2toE&feature=em-upload_owner" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=LYHCXMi2toE&feature=em-<wbr></wbr>upload_owner</a> </span></div>
</div>
Jonathan M.A.Ghaffarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13677586705498133464noreply@blogger.com0