Eid Celebration … Christmas without the shopping

Eid Eladha (feast of scarifies) commemorating the saving of Abraham son’ Ishmael by the lamb (let us not get picky on which son). As in Christmas when christens hunt for the right tree to bring home. Moslems started their Eid celebration by going hunting for the right lamb to bring home to scarify.Here in Minnesota, WE DO THINGS A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. my daughter and I START Eid BY rushing to the early Morning Prayer.IN the segregated prayer room, she is always perplexed BY THE unexplained gender separation. After the brief chanting of god’s greatness … “Allah Akbar, Allah Akber … We BEGIN the Eid prayer, AND the Imam IN HIS three piece suit GIVES a short sermon.We need to stay true to our faith” he TELLS US. “Don’t listen to the extremists’ rants, listen to your heart. AT Social hour, AFTER warm kissing and hugging, bagels replace the traditional Eid cookies for the Eid snack. WE present Elediah- a few new fresh dollar billsto OUR eager happy kids. THEN WE ALL head to… Mall of America, the shopping Mecca of the world..the consumers’ cathedral where millions visit to worship Calvin, Liz, Loren, Tommy and Victoria. FOR Moslems in Minnesota, where winter ELIMINATES any hope of outdoor celebration, Mall of America has become a new cultural sanctuary. Thousands of American Moslems of all ethnicities, nationalities, races and creeds gather to celebrate OUR own native customs and identities. NEXT TO the Betty Crocker Bakery, A few Egyptian men catch up on the latest political jokes in Egypt. Several Palestinian women WATCH nervously AS their kids vanish into the maze AT THE Camp Snoopy indoor playground. A group of Iraqis enjoy a rare peaceful moment by the indoor garden, WHILE not too far AWAY, some Somali men ARE Kneeling down in the corner GETTING READY for the noon prayer. Next to them, a cluster of young Pakistani men ARE listening to their ipods. By the Rainforest Café, some West Africans IN crisp white robes and hats SEEM OBLIVIOUS TO the strange artificial noises COMING FROM the theme restaurant. On the rollercoaster Moslem boys RIDE with Moslems girls, who laugh as their headscarVES ; hjjab, fly over their faces above their unconcerned parents.AND in the middle of the mall a few Moslem women, cloaked WITH their traditional black dress Berkas, walk TOGETHER. Their black unified bodies eclipse the front window of Victoria’s SECRET, BUT they SEEM oblivious to its window undressing displays. WE areN’T shopPING, JUST celebratING. There Are no bags to carry, JUST our kids.No culture idol to worship except our god … No fashion trends to follow, only our traditions. It’s Christmas without the shopping.EVERY YEAR Thousands of MOSLEMS IN MINNESOTA turn the biggest shopping center in the world into a non-shopping mall … Where the biggest gift we get is our free spirit.

Happy Eid Everyone. Ahmed Tharwat, Host Belahdan, Arab American TV Talk Show
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Love My Dog, Love Me

The great Arab-Muslim-American puppy story.
By Ahmed TharwatPosted Friday, Nov. 12, 2004, at 12:44 PM ET
Having a dog in an Arab/Muslim household is an exhausting proposition. Who wants to wash or take a shower every time a dog touches or licks you, as I was brought up to do back home in Egypt? In Islamic tradition, Muslims are prohibited from touching the saliva of dogs. If you do come in contact with a dog, you’re supposed to wash your hands seven times before you pray. Most Muslims will avoid dogs at all cost to stay clean for their daily prayers. There are a few closet Muslim dog lovers, but they tend to keep their dogs outdoors.
Still, after a long nagging from my daughter and a few Internet pictures of an angelic beagle puppy, I reluctantly agreed to let a dog into our home under a few conditions. The dog was to stay downstairs in what is now known in our house as the bunker, and my praying area would be designated a “no-fly” zone for the dog.
We brought home the 6-week-old, 3-pound beagle on a cold, crisp Saturday afternoon. We named him Oliver. A few days after he had arrived at our house, I had to take Oliver with me to the supermarket. I noticed something new was happening out there, something Arab-Americans have rarely experienced since Sept. 11. People on the street, in their cars, in the parking lot, and at the supermarket were giving me a new look—a friendly one. Strangers who used to skillfully avoid eye contact now wanted to engage me in warm conversation. Patriotic national hotline tippers, who are usually more concerned about Muslim sleeper cells, now stopped me and cordially inquired about my puppy’s sleeping habits, breed, and big black eyes. Families congregated around me with their children to see the cute puppy, and they talked to him as if he should know what they were talking about.
As a hyphenated-American, I discovered that owning a dog easily accomplished what many diversity training programs have failed to do for years. Regardless of our race, color, religion, or country of origin, we were one community of civilized dog lovers.
I now take Oliver everywhere I go. He is my post 9/11 homeland-security blanket. Arab-Americans: Get a puppy, now that you need a real friend.
Ahmed Tharwat produces and hosts the Arab/Muslim-American television show Belahdan in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

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Clash of Culture or clash of stupidity

The recent removal and questioning of six Moslem clerics from a Twin Cities’ flight became a front-page, headline news story with several clashing views. From a civil liberties point of view, those imams’ freedom of worship was taken away and they were singled out and publicly humiliated because of either their religious customs, the way they looked, or the use of their native language. From the view of the Americans involved, widely known for their ethnocentric and Islamic-phobic tendencies, the imams “seemed angry,” as a passenger explained in a police statement. The patriotic passenger continued, “The men then chanted ‘Allah, Allah, Allah.’ “They spoke Arabic again.” We have been fighting in Moslem countries for years, we should know by now that Moslem prayer is always in Arabic regardless if any terrorist tendency, and prayers require invoking the phrase “Allahu Akbar’(God is the Greatest) numerous times. Colloquial Arabic is likewise full of expressions like “Inshahallah” (god-willing) and “mashallah” (what god wishes), which are not normally preambles for suicidal acts. Besides, we really are supposed to be a little jolly when speaking with God; he is our creator after all. It does not really matter to me if overzealous passengers or paranoid US Air pilots demonstrated their cultural incompetence on board. But what truly bothers me about this incident is that it appears to me not a clash of civilization or culture, but a clash of stupidity. I appreciate the imams trust in American public judgment and prudence. But from the common sense view, the way those imams behaved and looked at the airport is part of the clash. Any outraged Moslems should be aware that in a post 9/11 Islamic-phobic country, Moslems with huge untrimmed beards should just not pray in the boarding area at an airport. Period. I certainly understand that as Moslems we should be the ones who are extremely cautious about traveling by air with paranoid Americans. As for me, I don’t really care what the First Amendment says or entitles you to, in a post 9/11 Islamic-phobic era, I do not care if the time of prayer was called or not. According to my only imam (my dad), when traveling, a Moslem can always pray all five daily prayers in the comforts of home upon arrival. The prophet followed this guideline even though he was among his own devoted followers, not a suspicious and paranoid airport crowd. You just cannot display that degree of poor judgment as a Moslem, let alone as an imam, whom other Moslems expect to exhibit social prudence. This is an era in which we can assume that Moslems are profiled, some have their phones monitored, and others may be followed or watched when they are praying at mosques, all in the interest of the safety of the flying public. What are you thinking when you pray at the airport itself! I understand that getting drunk at an airport bar before boarding would have been less threatening to lots of passengers. What happened at the airport to those six imams is not a lack of legal rights and a First Amendment issue, this is a lack of common sense and poor judgment issue. Those imams are supposedly teaching us through sermons at every Friday prayer how to behave as a Moslem living in a hostile post 9/11 era. Those six imams biggest blunder was not just praying together at the airport but being there together. Bushra Khan, spokeswoman for CAIR’s Arizona chapter, said, “All these men did was pray, . . . and that scares some people.” Please count me in; I would be too, but not because this type of behavior predisposes a terrorist tendency, but rather a pertinacity of stupidity tendency. In this post 9/11 era, when I travel, I am always clean shaven; I leave my prayer rug and my nail clippers at home along with my feta cheese and cans of fava beans.. I don’t even pray at a mosque, let alone at the airport. My biggest concern is not connecting with god Almighty at the airport, but connecting with my flight. I stay quietly in the waiting area, watching CNN and Fox network news blasting fair and balanced coverage of Moslems around the world. I don’t ask for special “halal” meals on the flight, but just quietly fish out any offending pork that may have found its way into my entrée. And when they ask me to take my shoes off at the airport; I understand it is time for security check and definitely it’s not the time for prayer.
Ahmed Tharwat/ Host and producer
BelAhdan
Arab American TV show
Airs on Public TV
Sundays at 10:30pm
www.belahdan.com

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