#Today it's not about caste it's about islam but we know where that is coming from

[deepspaceclawstation]

It's bewildering how often I get blindsided by acquaintances and relatives turning out to be bigots like I knew their political views weren't 100% golden but then they say something and it's like. OH. They actually believe THAT????

[anakinsafterlife]

Thoughts on Dune Part 2

All right, friends. Dune Part 2. I absolutely picked the wrong time to start wanting to return to Tumblr, since I'm currently in the thick of Ramadan, but c'est la vie. I'm a bit worried that if I don't review now that I might forget my specific impressions of the movie, though I have to say that if this weren't Ramadan that I absolutely would be going back to see it again in the cinema, which says a lot considering that it's been at least ten years since I've actually wanted to go back and repeat a film instead of just waiting for it to come out on streaming/DVD.

So the movie is good. It is in fact very, very good. It's the Empire Strikes Back of the Dune duology (possibly trilogy), and (much like Empire) in terms of cinematography, music, scripting and acting it's nearly flawless. There are, however, issues, things that might not occur to a majority-Western audience but which are immediately clear to anyone who either comes from an Arab or Muslim background.

What follows here is a deep dive into some of the historical and cultural sources of Dune and some of the ways in which the movie producers, and in some cases fans, have failed to acknowledge those sources.

First of all, it's obvious that the Fremen are meant to be based on the Arabs, but of the the entire main cast there is only ONE actor with an Arab background, and that is Souhaila Yacoub, the half-Tunisian actress who plays Shishakli, the female Fremen warrior who is executed by the Harkonnens. Now, I have to say that this woman was fantastic. Her attitude is completely on point for an Arab, especially a North African Arab: forceful, loud, a bit brash and mocking even under fire. Nicely done. Points to the producers there, but I have to take that point away again because she is literally the only Space Arab who is actually Arab. Javier Bardem, the Spanish actor who plays Stilgard, does have some interesting moments and one of the reasons why I feel that the screenwriters were advised on Arabic traditions/culture. The incident during which he warns Paul about the Jinn in the desert like it's a joke but then immediately turns extremely serious when Paul starts smiling is so in character for an Arab and honestly just a brilliant bit of scripting, but much of the time he also acted more or less like what people *think* a fanatical religious Arab acts like--loud, frantic and unstable.

Not only this, but the "Muslim" behaviour/traditions in the film are at best...vague. People are praying, but in any direction at all. I do realize that this would be a complicated issue on another planet, where the Ka'aba couldn't be pointed to, but there are Islamic rulings for EVERYTHING. Check out the one about praying in space:

Even if they had as a society simply picked a random direction for prayer, they should all be praying at the same time and in the same direction (they seem to do this in larger crowds, but not in the smaller group where we first see people praying). They also definitely shouldn't be talking during prayer or trying to make other people talk to them during prayer (as Chani does), since talking breaks your prayer and you have to start over all over again (during obligatory prayers).

Language, too, is an issue, and a big one, because while I do understand that a conlang was developed for use in this movie, the linguists consulted did know that the language was meant to be heavily influenced by Arabic. Consequently, they've included a lot of fragmentary Arabic in their work. Unfortunately this Arabic is poorly pronounced at best, to the point where I was looking words up and laughing at what they're meant to be based on. For example, "Shai Hulud," the word for the Worms, is based on the Arabicشيء خلود, which means "immortal thing," and should be pronounced with "shai" rhyming with "say" followed by a glottal stop, and the 'h' in "Hulood" is actually a guttural sound like the infamous "ch" in Bach, followed by a long U. Another example is Mua'dib مهذب , a real word in Arabic that means "teacher," but is is actually pronounced with a "th" sound instead of a d and emphasis on the second syllable, not on the last as in French. (Note: I made an error here. There is a word مؤدب , pronounced mostly the same in the movie, but with a glottal stop after the 'u' sound and a short 'i' after the d sound rather than a long vowel, that is usually used to mean polite, urbane, gentlemanly, etc. but which can also mean teacher, although I have never heard it used in this context) "Usul", أصول, Paul's other Fremen name, was likely not, as I had previously guessed, based on the word "Rasool," meaning Prophet, but on أصول الفقه the Principles of islamic Jurisprudence, which also ties directly into a religious/prophetic them. Again, this is pronounced on the long vowel, so with a short first U and a long second U.

I've included the Arabic spellings in here, by the way, so that you can drop them into Google translator and hear how they actually sound.

Now, I do realize that the story itself is set 8000 years in the future and that spoken Arabic as a language would have changed considerably in that time, if it existed still at all, but Arabic is a liturgical language as well as a vehicle for conversation, and Muslims all across the world today use it as a tool for worship. Muslims who have no cultural connection with Arabic often still learn it in order to connect more deeply with religious traditions and simply to perform prayers and other religious duties. Religious scholars consider it to be a necessary duty of the Muslim to learn at least some Arabic:

And keep in mind that the Arabic spoken today across the MENA region is very different (and different in different places) to the Arabic spoken 1400 years ago by the Prophet Mohamed (peace be upon him). Given Islamic traditions, the chances of the Fremen using liturgical/classical Arabic for their worship would be quite high, even if their spoken language had evolved past the point of being recognizably Arabic.

Keep in mind, also, that Dune as a whole is an allegory for colonialism, economic exploitation of poorer nations (or making rival nations poor through the same), as well as dehumanization of the views and needs of native peoples in order to make that exploitation palatable to the occupying forces (I thought that this was done quite smartly in Jessica's part of the story; although she is sympathetic to the Fremen, she feels that manipulating their religious traditions is the best way to protect her son, and in doing so she allows herself to dehumanize the people who come to rely on her).

It is, therefore, incumbent upon us not to distance ourselves too much from the intended message by claiming that Dune is fiction and need not too accurately reflect the culture and religion of the people that the Fremen are so clearly based on. The fact that the producers have done little to hire Arab actors or induced any real effort to accurately pronounce the Arabic words or accurately portrayal Islamic practices seems to indicate that they are concerned about identifying too closely with the economic and cultural struggle between East and West, properly because they fear the potential economic backlash, and this despite the fact that Frank Herbert clearly wrote his book to illustrate the fallout of that struggle.

Here is a wonderful article written by a culturally Arab woman:

There are numerous other articles addressing the same issues, but I like this one because it's written by a Muslim woman, who also addresses the "hijab cosplaying" in the movie. I didn't get into that much, but I definitely recognize that it's a problem when Muslim women worry about potential violence while wearing hijab in the streets of Western nations, but the same article of clothing is fetishized in movies and fashion.

I've also seen some comment about the Mahdi mention in particular. This is a saviour-figure in Islam who will come near the end of the world. There is no emphasis on this figure in Sunni Islam, but Shias seem to have a significant body of literature concerning this figure and, from what I understand, believe that he may perhaps have already come, and so there has been some poor reception in that community to applying the label of Mahdi to Paul. Criticisms ranging from insensitivity to outright blasphemy have been levelled regarding this usage. Now, there was some tip-toeing around the prophetic theme in Dune, and rightly so, I believe, since the Prophet Mohamed is the "seal of the prophets" in Islam, meaning the last and final. The fact that Paul was essentially set up as a false prophet by the Bene Gesserit does avoid some of the potential fallout from this, and also makes sense of Chani's rejection at the end of the film, since she felt strongly about Paul acting as a false Prophet.

Again, I am aware that there is internal cosmology within the series itself, and that some fans object to the religion of the Fremen being referred to as Islam, but when the inspiration for the entire ethnicity, religion, and the natural resources at stake are as clear as they are in this series, it's also futile to expect that people will not draw those associations, nor that people belonging to the religion or ethnic group in question may not acknowledge the beauty of the movie, the gorgeous cinematography, rousing music, and tightly plotted story, but still take exception to what is clearly Orientalism.

And it is frankly such a shame that we have to place this movie under that header, because the story of Dune is so sympathetic to the Middle East and its peoples, and as I said in the beginning I actually loved the film and found it very beautiful. It was also exciting to see Islamic themes used creatively in mainstream media, but while Frank Herbert clearly wrote the story as an exposition on the exploitation of natural resources, particularly oil, in the MENA region, the truth is that the racism and exploitation that he was protesting are very much alive today and contribute to the oppression of millions. It's particularly disappointing to see the message of the movie sail over the heads of people watching it when Arab Muslims in Palestine are being dehumanized and obliterated at this very moment, and while Libya was one of the latest Arab nations to be targeted for its oil resources, only a decade ago, with European oil companies moving in directly after the downfall of Ghadafi (which makes the timing extremely suspicious, one might say):

And even after the US finished their occupation of Iraq, Western oil companies remained en mass to continued drilling:

Egypt to this day remains economically destabilized while Western nations exploit its oil stocks, to no benefit at all of its peoples:

I'm sure I could cite dozens of other cases, but it's clear that there is a one-on-one parallel between spice melange and oil, making any protests of apoliticism in an inherently political story utterly vain.

I could go on, but I needn't. In short, this beautiful movie could have done so much good even beyond its obvious artistic merits, but instead it is still towing the political line. Much as was the case for Jessica and Paul, sometimes you can be a Harkonnen and not know it.

[harsh003]

Reimagining the Future of South Asia Amidst Historical Divisions.

One became the mother of democracy in India, where the rape of women is still not fully investigated, corruption is high, and law and order is bought with money to this day. Any woman even in modern India today probably scared to report her rape.

“This part of the world was considered as wealthy as Europe as back as 1500’s. We were a good host to Mugal invaders and then followed by the British East India company.

Millions of people died to obtain the birth of a divided India on the 15th of August 1947.

Millions more died trying to leave what was a home for a new home under a new sky.

MThis was India Sky, Pakistani Sky and later to become Bangladesh Sky. Yet we have forgotten that Sky is only one and it cannot be divided.

We left the horrible occupation for freedom for which we were ill-prepared.

The birth of India and Pakistan was built on the bodies of immigrants.

One became the mother of democracy in India, where the rape of women is still not fully investigated, corruption is high, and law and order is bought with money to this day. Any woman even in modern India today probably scared to report her rape. She knows too well that she will be interrogated by a Police 10, Police Senior, DCP, Press, and lawyers. She will be virtually ripped apart so she probably thinks no point in reporting.

Mother of democracy but really we are not as we are divided on caste, regional biases, language bias, religion, and yes we are independent. Many argue with me that at least we ar in control of our own destiny. I don’t agree with this destiny which takes us to an unknown path.

India is known for thousands of years as the land of learned people, peace-loving, law-abiding people.

How is corruption rampant in India? How will anyone get justice? Not possible unless you have money and connections.

We have achieved some economic progress due to some of our policies instigated in 1970 and 1980.

Pakistani where shall I start, it is quite close to being labeled as a failed state. It was formed yet again by two people Mohammed Allam Iqbal and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. It was supposed to be a Muslim household and a democratic one. Democracy in Pakistan never flourished and the institution of the army always had an upper hand in all things

In the beautiful fields of Punjab, the Deseret of Sind was never allowed to belong to the workers.

Landowners controlled the masses and hence wealth did not move much to the workers.

Pakistan means Pure Land but it’s politics is filthy. It was a dreamland for the immigrants but in 1960 it suffered the Bengal massacre which lead to the division of the country. An independent election won by Bengalis was not accepted and led to the birth of yet another country under another Sky!!!

The land of pure is often finding it hard to control its 4 provinces. Lovely people of Punjab are made to fight Sindhis and etc.

Economical it has also not prospered due to lack of education, misunderstanding of the Teachings of Islam, early marriages, etc.

So, in the end, we are worse off than what we were once and worse led by foreigners. We must continue the search for a United India and strengthen the hands of the ordinary people.

We can be the biggest economic market if we still believe in

Breakfast in Dhaka

Lunch in Delhi

Dinner in Lahore

we will have no choice but eventually to come and find a way forward.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In the heart of bustling Mumbai, a vision for a just and equitable world is coming to life through the tireless efforts of Dr. Ahmed Haque, a renowned philanthropist, peace activist, and beacon of hope for many. Founding the Just World Order Federation (JWOF), Dr. Haque is not just dreaming of a better future; he is actively laying the groundwork for it. This initiative, deeply rooted in the principles of justice, equality, and peace, seeks to empower the voiceless, support the powerless, and challenge the injustices that mar our society. Contact Us for more details.

[tawaifeddiediaz]

I saw your post about the way Marjan is portrayed in 911 LS and I was wondering your thoughts on the actress who plays her and if you think that affects the way she’s portrayed?

Hi Nonnie! Thanks for the ask!

I personally don’t know Natacha Karam that well, I don’t really follow the LS cast as much. I do remember watching a few live videos where they brought up a couple of headcanons and all of that, and I do remember thinking that she didn’t really have an understanding of her character at all.

I was just talking to a friend about this today, so I’m going to make this post entirely about Marjan and Muslims, but know that a lot of these points probably apply to the other representations, too. (Also, when I say “you” I’m referring to a general sense)

I don’t think they have a single Muslim in the writer’s room. At all. And I do not believe for a second that they would’ve done their research about Muslim women when they brought Marjan Marwani’s character to light. And I don’t feel for a second that Natacha did her research when it came to playing a Muslim character either. And yes, I do think that affected the way she was portrayed. (Personally, I felt like she should’ve been played by an actual Muslim woman)

I already said the points in that post you were talking about but in the bare minimum: not praying correctly, showing her praying to the backdrop of Old Town Road, pulling her hijab off, sensualising the act of ablution, portraying those women at the mosque.

See, Lone Star devoted its entire advertising on diversity. But they weren’t really diverse at all. They turned her religion into a plot device, they turned Paul being trans into a plot device, they reduced Carlos to just a love interest and Owen’s hair literally was the centrepiece.

And that is not okay, at all. They did not need to have her hijab pulled off to give her that ostracising storyline. The hijab is part of an identity for Muslim women, it’s not just a piece of cloth. There was no reason to show Muslim women being intolerant. They didn’t need that storyline at all; imagine how much better it would’ve been if they’d shown Islam in a true manner? Where people would get to actually LEARN true things about it for once.

The fact that the show runners felt the need was a big red flag to me, and then what they did with Paul? Yeah, nope. And it’s a common pattern with marginalised groups portrayed on TV/film.

Further, you do not get to edit the religion to fit your needs, no matter if you’re Muslim or not. This includes all those headcanons about Marjan that don’t comply with Islam. I’m not saying that her religion is her whole character base, but it’s a pretty big part of it, and the show runners, audiences, writers and literally everyone needs to respect the fact that writing some of these headcanons (e.g. she just stops wearing hijab, dating, etc.) is harmful to Muslim groups because we don’t get proper representation for our faith.

Muslims are already very poorly represented. We’re constantly called terrorists, attackers. Our religion is constantly attacked for allegedly not having any rights for women, etc. with no basis to these claims. And microaggressions do line up. Please do not spread these stereotypes because honestly? It’s tiring, it’s hurtful and it’s not accurate at all.

My point is, if you want to include people of color, or persons of another religion, or any culture that isn’t relevant to you, please do your research. Speaking as a Muslim, if you’re going to write/show Muslim characters, keep them at the basic level of their faith, do not add anything to it, do not turn it into your plot device, especially when you don’t know what you’re talking about. And especially when it comes to romantic relationships, do your research about it. I actually cannot tell you how frustrating this is.

OH AND THE BIGGEST THING: if there’s something you don’t like about the religion/culture, and you don’t practice it/aren’t from that background, it is not your place to say it. At all.

Sorry Nonnie, that got super long but I hope that answered your question! Thank you for being so polite!

[clydesgod]

Discovery

Feat. an unknown cast of people

(A very lorebased drabble based around a certain oc. Hope you like it. I sorta went off the trails lmaooooooo)

--------------------------------------------

Journal of Gervais Spear 11th of June, 1895 French Sudan

According to our records, there have been many sites like the exact one we have been excavating today all around the world. Some sites include Indochina, South America, the Pacific, and even some sites in Europe. It appears the British are also in touch with some of these sites, as well as the Spanish, Russians, and the Americans themselves.

However, this site feels VERY different to the ones logged before. This one is almost completely intact! Monsieur Leroy has been very adminant that this is the place that connects the other sides. If the translators are right, this entire temple could very well lead to some unknown treasure. Maybe something belonging to Mansa Musa? My brain is full of ideas, though the guide, Majid, tells me not to overthink it.

But I cannot help but think there is something strange about this temple. The stones that built this place couldn’t have come from Africa. That, and it seemed almost impossible for anyone to build such a place underground. It almost feels like this had to have been built by someone completely different from the ancestors of the locals here. Maybe an old empire we are yet to discover?

Maybe the heat is getting to my brain. Maybe I-

Gervais is pulled away from his journal, almost jumping out of his seat as a hand is placed upon his shoulder. He looked up, seeing the smiling face of Majid hovering above him.

“You look tired my friend,” He said, handing over a cup of what Gervais could assume was coffee. “Here, I know it’s early and the sun is not being too friendly to us. But you shouldn’t suffer alone.”

Gervais nodded, taking the metal cup and slowly taking a sip of it. It was a little stronger than what he was used to back in Metz. His face twisted a bit before swallowing, and taking in another sip. Majid simply chuckled to himself, and walked over towards another desk. 

“This place is old, but I hardly doubt the Carthaginians were the ones who built this. The columns here don’t look remotely Greek. Besides, there’s a lack of, er, how you say ‘charm’. Unlike most buildings I’ve seen.”

Gervais nodded, flipping a page as he quickly scribbled something in. He didn’t talk much during the boat ride, and the camel ride over. Majid often felt like the complete opposite to him.

“Monsieur, I hate to be rude but you cannot be trapped under all those ledgers and journals for this long. We’re on the brink of excavating a possible new civilization and all you’re doing is following what Mathéo orders you to do.”

“...we’re not supposed to call him by his first name,” Gervais replied, looking up as he placed a bookmark between two pages and then swiftly closed it. “Monsieur Leroy has put a lot of money towards the expedition. He’s been to many places already, made a name for himself. With this, we might all become shockingly wealthy.”

“Will the guides be as well?” Majid asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

“I-I’m sure they will. Monsieur Leroy is a very generous man. He isn’t one to shy away from getting aid from nearby villages and garrisons.” He took another sip of the coffee, getting used to the taste of it after a few sips. Impressive.

Majid sighed, looking over a map of the world, looking at all the crosses that dotted it. So many sights, so many similarities. Why was this place so different? Why were they all so far apart and so similar?

“How possible is it that, maybe, this was from a more ancient and advanced civilization?” Majid asked, still pondering ideas. “The statutes found already seem to indicate that something used to run through them, maybe some kind of fluid? Like oil?”

“I hardly doubt anyone back then was able to cultivate oil like we can now, let alone use it for whatever they need their statues to do.” Gervais placed the metal cup down, standing as he began to walk over towards a smaller desk full of ledgers and books. He opened one more up, looking over at the path they had taken. They were in the middle of a big dune, the nearest village being 4 kilometers away. They had a camp set up outside, with around 30 labourers who came from the village to aid with the mission. The 14 main members of the expedition were a mix of soldiers, archaeologists, rich men who paid for the trip, guides, and then himself, the keeper of the books of research and other important information.

He scoured around, inspecting where they came from and making sure the route would be okay for when they had to return back to the port.

“What god do you assume this is?” Majid asked, looking over at one of the statues recovered from outside. It was taken inside so it could’ve been dusted and it’s writing examined. None of the translators could even understand it. “It doesn’t look like it’s from any local faiths around this area. No one seems to recognise it.”

Gervais looked behind, sighing. That question perplexed him just as well.

It was a rather tall statue, standing at around 6 feet. It wore a strange robe that covered their entire body, hiding their feet. One arm was down by their side, as the other appeared to be outstretched but had been broken off halfway. The overall figure looked human in nature until you got to the head.

Instead of a head, it looked like someone had placed a squid upon the neck, as if it were a mask or some kind of hybrid. It’s brow (if you could even call it that) looked angry, almost commanding.

Gervais gulped, wondering what kind of creature this was. No kind of being appeared in any kind of historical text. Not Christian, not Judaism, not Hindu, not Islamic, and upon further research, not even a local faith in the region.

“We can only assume it’s a local faith that we haven’t ever heard about or one that’s dead. I cannot imagine who would want to worship one of...those things.” He noted, going back to his research as Majid got a closer look at the figure.

“We found more last night, they all look different in some way,” he added, trying to piece it all together. “Some were shorter, some were taller. Some had different expressions. Some appear to have bosums actually.”

“Did you really have to check all of the statues chests to realize that?” Gervais asked, raising an eyebrow and letting out a small smile.

“Ahh, so that’s what you look like when you smile.” Majid joked back, chuckling as he went back to his work. Gervais’ smile vanished swiftly, as he went back to his own work.

“I trust you two aren’t just messing about down here aren’t you?” A sudden voice said, causing the two men to jump and turn to face their superior.

The man was wearing tan coloured shorts with a short sleeved shirt on, his socks almost reaching to his knees and his boots were coated in layers upon layers of mud, dirt, and sand. His moustache took the centre stage however, seeing it was the only piece of hair on his head he could actually take care of.

“A-ah! No monsieur! Me and Majid were just having a brief jest. We were discussing the nature of these statues-”

Mathéo lifted an eyebrow “You mean the Gens de calmar?”

Majid and Gervais did their best to hide their cringe at their superiors' new name for the artifacts.

“Y-yes monsieur,” Gervais continued. “We have done more research but nothing at all comes up. No religious documents reference this site whatsoever.”

“Ah-that is where you are wrong my apprentice!” The superior replied, looking as smug as ever as an assistant wandered over towards a desk, placing down what looked like an old tablet, like the rosetta stone. However, it lacked any known language writing, and appeared to be mostly made up of pictures.

The men gathered around it, Gervais trying his best not to grope it and explore all of it’s details. Majid placed a hand on his shoulder, knowing fully well he’d damage another artifact at this rate.

“What’s even going on in this picture? It’s such an old form of art.” Majid said, asking the questions Gervais wanted to ask. “It appears to be similar to some old cave art I’ve seen before in Algeria, but there are some things I cannot recognise.”

The tablet itself appeared to be depicting a scene, with a bunch of smaller figures bowing and offering objects towards much larger figures, with lines coming out of their faces. Maybe this was a simpler way of drawing the statues? Were they offering gifts or tributes?

“Labourers found this in an old, blocked off room. It was massive, bigger than any room we have encountered before in this place. It was placed on the floor as if it were discarded by the people who last used this temple.” Mathéo replied, twisting his moustache as he looked over the table at the tablet. “It appears to be written in different forms of text, though it appears impossible to fully translate it. None of the translators could even work out what it meant.”

“...however,”

“However what, monsieur?” Gervais asked, head popping up along with Majid’s.

“If you flip the tablet over, there appears to be one small block of text written in something recognisable.”

Majid and Gervais took hold of the tablet, being careful on flipping it around and placing it flat onto the table. There it was, a small block of text surrounded by multiple blocks of unrecognisable text . Gervais still didn’t understand, but Majid’s eyes widened.

“This is Old Arabic!” He exclaimed, pointing at it and trying to read it. “It’s...very old, I can’t understand fully but, it appears to be so!”

Mathéo looked rather smug, as if he was the one who had discovered this fact. He wandered around, placing a hand on Gervais’ and Majid’s shoulders.

“Gentlemen, I believe we may be coming close to understanding this mystery. If we understand what this means, then perhaps we can understand what the other boxes mean,” He patted both men on the back, turning around as he reached over and grabbed a wooden pipe with his initials on. “I hope you two get back to doing your research, I want at least some of that text understood by sundown. We might be able to understand much, much more about the main room, and unlock its secrets”

Majid turned back, seeing his superior leave in such a pretentious fashion. He couldn’t help but scowl a bit, right before diving back into reading the box.

Gervais turned back around as well, eyebrow cocking up as he saw Majid looking deeper into the text. 

“Can you read anything?” He asked, turning around and leaning on the table as he watched Majid research.

“I feel like I should be able to, it’s not hard to understand it’s just,” he paused, attempting to think of a way to explain his emotions. “It’s like if, you were to read something from, er, the old Franks. You’d be able to understand some words but the rest just appear...strange.”

Gervais nodded, going back to his desk and his journal. He’ll log this down as well, it made sense too.

“...Meshalt Segleell…”

“Hrm?” Gervais looked back at Majid, looking confused. “What did you say?”

“That’s something I can read but...I don't know if it’s a word or a name. It doesn’t sound native to the region at all!” He was perplexed, still looking at other lines on the text as Gervais turned to carry on his journal entry.

Maybe the heat is getting to my brain. Maybe I

Monsieur Leroy found something, just now. A black stone tablet of drawings from a bygone age. On the back of it? A multitude of unknown languages, with only one being legible. Monsieur Karim is studying it as I write this. He has deciphered something but it’s unsure if it’s a name, a place, a language or anything for that matter! We shall keep going until nightfall.

I can just sense treasure. I wonder how Maylis is doing.

…126 years later…

Adam was sitting at his desk, buried under books. It was a Saturday so no one was in for classes. He figured he’d use this time to understand what he was given. A laptop was open besides him as he read on and on through journal entries.

“Is this the last one?” He asked, reading the document over and over in order to try and find anything he had missed.

“YES.” The voice from the laptop said. “UNFORTUNIATLY I WAS UNABLE TO RECOVER ANY MORE. BUT I AM IN THE PROCESS OF FINDING MORE.”

He leaned back on his chair, placing the aged document down as he looked over at the photograph he was given as well. It was just as old as the document, featuring a picture of a black tablet with a drawing on one side and writing on the other. It wasn’t unusual people would ask for his services in translating old texts, but this one felt very different.

“How many people did you say survived that expedition?” Adam asked once again, getting out a magnifying glass as he looked over on the photo. An area of it was circled in a red marker. Inside the circle appeared to be a box of text that looked like Old Arabic. Why was this important?

“DOES IT MATTER?” The voice replied. A brief pause followed. “THE VILLAGERS WERE UNHARMED, BUT 10 MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION PERISHED AND THEIR BODIES WERE NEVER FOUND.”

“Did this Gervais fellow survive?” Adam asked.

“DO YOU ALWAYS ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS TO YOUR CLIENTS?”

Adam held his mouth closed. He looked over the laptop. His camera was on but his client’s wasn’t. It was expected really, people did like to remain anonymous after all. But no one ever really used a voice scrambler.

“EVERYTHING HERE SHOULD BE OF SOME ASSISTANCE. THAT IS ALL YOU SHOULD KNOW.”

“...I understand. I just can’t fully wrap my head around why I need all of this just to find one person? Like, can’t I just-”

“THEIR BLOOD IS HARD TO GET. THE INFORMATION HERE SHOULD EXPLAIN THE BEST WAY TO EXTRACT IT. MY SUPERIOR SUGGESTED THAT YOU ARE THE BEST WAY TO GET WHAT WE DESIRE.”

“So, what, am I just supposed to read this and just find a way to use a syringe on them?? You’re not helping me out here.”

The voice on the laptop paused. It gave Adam enough time to look back at the photo, and then look over at the transcript of the box, which was besides the photo.

“IT’S MORE COMPLICATED. MY SUPERIOR SIMPLY WANTS TO KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY ‘DEAL’ WITH THE BLOOD. YOU PROVIDE ME THE INFORMATION AND THE BLOOD, AND YOU GET PAID.”

“What kind of being is this again? A demon? A super demon??? How am I supposed to do this without dying exactly?”

“THE BLOOD CAN RUN IN THE FAMILY. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PURE. AS LONG AS IT’S CONNECTED WITH HER. SHE’S ONE OF THE ONLY ONES MY SUPERIOR HAS DETECTED ON EARTH.”

Adam sighed, knowing that whilst the job was going to be hard, at least the money would be worth it...right?

“I’ll see what I can do.” Checking the time, he realized he should probably end the call soon. He was feeling hungry, and would work better without this guy’s annoying voice app distracting him. However, he paused, seeing something on the pile of documents. He reached over and picked it up. It was a similar photo, but it was a better close up of the text itself. 2 words appeared underlined. He looked back at the transcript, his eyebrow rising up curiously.

“Say, one more question about this...job. Err, this thing you sent me. It appears there was a translation error of sorts. What does this mean exactly?” He held the picture up to the camera, awaiting a response. “Segleell appears to be right, it’s the other word I’m wondering about.”

Seconds passed.

“THERE WAS A MISTRANSLATION. SORRY ABOUT THAT. THE CORRECT TRANSLATION IS  KRISTA SEGLEELL.”

“THAT IS ALL.”

[arcticdementor]

Our American crisis can only be understood within the framework of a religious struggle. It is a war for ownership of the True Faith, and perhaps the key question in its outcome is whether the parties in conflict see the other as a wayward American sect, or as full-blown heresy.

…

Now the New York Times, The Forward or Catholic Herald or Pravda of the Church of Woke, has declared the status of the American Religion to be "Sectarian." Nate Cohn presents the carefully curated official Church pronunciamento on the national situation:

Whether religious or political, sectarianism is about two hostile identity groups who not only clash over policy and ideology, but see the other side as alien and immoral. It’s the antagonistic feelings between the groups, more than differences over ideas, that drives sectarian conflict.

The narrative advanced is that, yes, there is an American faith-divide driving conflict in our national life, and yes, there are some that see this as an existential divide. Of course they are of the Red variety. Moreover, Red’s existential angst derives from their inmost fears as a potentially persecuted minority. The religious comparison, though only once elided in the piece, is to Sunni vs. Shi'a.

The counterargument, buttressed by ever-stronger daily evidence, is that the struggle is not simply sectarian, meaning, a battle about minority persecution. It is, quite to the contrary, a religious war over who will represent Orthodoxy in the American Religion, and hence, which faith-vision will reign.

History tells us that the standard definition of heresy — “belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine” — fails to convey the full conflict dynamic that is in fact at play. If many intra-religious sects co-exist today, however inimically, history shows that they first had to survive the initial, existential battle with Orthodoxy, perhaps for centuries. A culture area inhabited by different sects is, by definition, a world where competing sects live side-by-side — and survive.

In contrast, heresies summon existential battle. If defeated, the loser heresy would be stamped out: Through excommunication, inquisition, expulsion, and yes, extermination. Just ask the Albigensians. The 13th (1209-1229) century “Crusade” against the Cathar heresy — at the direct order of Pope Innocent III — is viewed by many historians as an “ideological genocide” — Hundreds of thousands perished.

…

We inhabit an unrelenting religious war that almost precisely paces the all-or-nothing battles between the early Church and Arianism and Monophysitism and Nestorianism, and yes, the just-emergent Islam. It also, precisely, resembles the bitter, blood-drenched battles that ravaged Europe between 1560 and 1648. It resembles, also precisely, the wars that raged in Russia and Germany and Hungary and Italy and Spain, between Fascism and Bolshevism.

We are not now, Mr. Cohn notwithstanding, a nation of riven sects, hard and horrible as his judgment may sound.

We are a nation — far more dangerously — in existential battle over heresy. More pointedly, this is a battle over who will seize the standard of orthodoxy, and who will be struck down and burned at the stake for heresy.

Remember, triumphal new religions must first make the leap from heresy to orthodoxy, and this means: Destroying the old religion, and toppling it from its temple perch. Pulling down statues and burning books — icon-smashing, or “iconoclasm” — is necessary theater in the systemic trashing of the Old Religion — and the dominion of the new.

Heresy, in other words, must come in from the cold — and it can only do so by burning down the former house, or temple city.

Moreover, nothing will stand in its way, because there is only one way.

…

This is the world of Woke today. It is a fever world that knows no boundaries in its pursuit of the true faith. It is a world that will do anything to cleanse and purify a world corrupted by America’s false gods. It is a world that now has the levers of the state itself to instate a new national catechism — and enforce conversion to the new, improved American Faith.

Test and taste the new linguistic pieties on your tongue: Here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here. Observe the rod of conversion.

The Church of Woke is no “sect,” and the United States is engaged in no “sectarian conflict.” This is a heresy with a celestial head of steam, hellbent on making itself the rod of new American Orthodoxy, while casting down our old religion into infernal depths of apostasy.

[novicetypewriter]

Religion: what it is supposed to be and what we have made it

Religion is supposed to be an intimate guide of a person, extremely personal and beyond the reaches of anyone else than the person itself. This would’ve been my ideal judgment of the affair had it been similar to its definition in real world.

A religion expresses a person’s ideal code of conduct as an individual and a part of the society. It shapes the conscience, morality, conduct and lifestyle of any person. We have tons of religions in our world that means we have tons of codes of conduct which may be complacent or conflicting with one another. This also means that we as humans have an inalienable choice to make, of either choosing any religion or none at all. It should not be of anyone’s concern as to why a person is following that religion and not mine; hello…it’s none of your business because it is what that person feels is right for them.

My own opinion is that this whole complex tangle of religion is abhorrent. As mentioned earlier, there are so many religions that are out there, mostly with conflicting views, or so it seems pragmatically. This leads to hatred among the followers of somewhat “polar” religions (mind it, they may not be polar in their ideals but have been made so by most of the preachers) and then, follows a race of establishing superiority of one over the other. I think most of the conflicts in the world, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia, definitely have an attribute of religion too, that keeps the fire burning. This also brings me to my conjectural conclusion that conflicts over religion mostly occur in places where at least one religion has its origin at.

I absolutely have no interest in discussing religion because I consider myself an atheist. But it disturbs me listening to instances of violent, communal riots, especially in my country which is a fucking developing country and all people talk about is this smallest aspect of one’s fucking personal life. This has a lot of reasons such as illiteracy among the citizens (especially, men; I will justify this later), obsolete yet unconditional love towards the religious preachers (not the religion, but the preachers because as it turns out people assume that they connect with them and the preachers teach the ideals, which is mostly not the case), and the most powerful of all, ‘people in power struggling to make religion a public issue and shamelessly declaring their religious identity in space and slandering other religions’. There are a lot of other reasons too, but these are issues I consider are at the forefront of them.

In most of the cases, the conflicts are seen in the developing world that is struggling to develop using available resources. And since, these countries comprise a huge share of illiterate population, there are certain popular arguments which are used against minority groups. One of them is xenophobia. The minority groups are often of foreign origin or from regions in the peripheral areas. The majority (that, mostly, comprise the native religion) feels this unjustifiable superiority complex that they are the sole inheritors of the land they live in. This theory itself reflects roots of illiteracy because these are given by people who are struggling in the country, and who hence, may not be having access to better education. To further bring the perspective of feminism in this argument, we need to know the fact that the modern religions (and this time it is the ideal concept of almost all the religions, besides the accentuation by the preachers) have their origins in a society dominated by men. The modern religions are simply anti-paganistic; be it Christianity, Islam or Hinduism. Each and every religious epic was written by men, with men protagonists and addressing men solely. Women were just represented symbolically, and that too reinforcing the fucking ideas of fragility, subordinance, and for the pleasure of men protagonists. It is very rare to see strong women in these epics as compared to zillions of men counterparts and that too probably, just to satisfy feminists. But guess what: this is not helping feminism even a bit. Firstly, men think that the women gods are superior to real women in the world, thus having an unanticipated effect; those gods are majestic which women in real world are not, logically, yes fuckers, because this is real world and that’s why they are fantasies. Secondly, a more direct consequence of the representation of women as fragile and delicate creatures in these epics has made men to believe that women NEED men to protect them and that their honor is central to men’s honor and courage. This really pisses me off because again fuckers, those epics are fantasies, women in the modern world are not those women, you are really backward, women know how to protect their own honor, they do not give a fuck about your honor and you are the ones we need protection against, so won’t it be a simple task to control your testosterones and remain within your boundaries. If we compare men and women living in exactly the same conditions except for their genders, women are much more aware of this fact and they do not need men to interfere in their affairs; they are being toxic. For example, in India, honor killings are a widespread practice in some of the rural areas. It arises when a woman marries a man, consensually, but the family of woman thinks that the man trapped her. Unsurprisingly, this would not have been a problem if the man belonged to the same religion or caste as the woman. It becomes a problem if the man is of an alien religion, mostly a Muslim, or of a lower caste. Then the family, without asking the woman for her fucking conviction, goes on to kill the man through mob-lynching and surprisingly, the woman is killed too because she was being difficult and rebellious. And mind it that things never even reach to this point; even if the woman is seen with a man of the same kind as mentioned above, the man will be lynched and woman confined to the house. Rumors are spread that a woman of one religion was raped by the man of another religion and the man is lynched. In the backdrop of all of this, is the man’s political dream of being masculine as preached by their religion; but YOU ARE BEING FUCKING LEECHES ON WOMEN AND WE DON’T LIKE IT, SO FUCK OFF AND DIE SOMEWHERE FAR.

The second important issue is the personality cult around the priests and preachers of different religions. People are illusioned in front of these “mystical” leaders who know this fact and use this to facilitate hatred among religions. When I wrote about the feministic problems earlier, it must be noted that the men with those toxic beliefs are disciples of these preachers. So, ultimately, the preachers are the overlords. They just need to speak a word slandering any other religion and this rat race of disciples start to run behind it. These preachers are in no way propagating religion and they have absolutely no idea what a religion is. They are bestowed upon the responsibility of interpreting the religious texts in accordance to present context and try to accommodate different religious ideologies so as to attain overall peace and harmony. This is exactly what a religion should do- peace and harmony. But this may come as a surprise to almost everybody, as this is not what religion in the real world means. It more likely to be a phenonmenon upheld by a group of fanatics, radicals, bloody orthodox terrorists. That’s what a religion is today. (again this is a general idea; there are many people within these religions who are against this mainstream approach, including some priests too)

Any sensible person will not believe wholly in any one religion; rather they would consolidate the good virtues of all religions and create their own personal religion. Every other insane person will be wholly devoted to a particular religion and act as a robot in the hands of fanatic overlords.

The last yet the most worrying issue is the knowledge of the religion of people in power and their open declaration about it. Democracy is supposed to be a consolidating force and the people in power should be symbols of this consolidation. This means that they need to suppress their personal opinions and act as an absolutely neutral person. But guess what threatens this argument: the people in power being more personal than public and in the worst case, BLOODY PREACHERS BEING BROUGHT TO POWER. Can you believe this? The fundamentals of secularism, fraternity, liberty, freedom, equality, and every other political principle being endangered by giving the power in the hands of these people. This scenario is an extensive combination of all the other issues I have mentioned in this article; think about it. And this is the only reason my country is observing so many riots, communal clashes, police brutality, women objectification, and loss of hundreds of thousands of innocents lives every fucking year.

This is my take on religion and again, I personally do not give a fuck about religion. But those who do, please know what a religion is supposed to be and what we have made it. (and for those leeches, get your act straight otherwise you are the ones who’ll need protection; FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING DIRTY LIVES.)

[quatorz]

Here’s something I wrote just prior to the election...

I’m sharing it here in case anyone thinks its useful.  I think-especially with the events of today-its going to become so apparent that we need to ‘demystify’ the Trumpster fire and expose him for the lying sack of shit that he was.

I said to a friend of mine MANY years ago that the most dangerous thing that was happening was that the truth was becoming partisan.  Man is that true now. 

But I wrote this, sent it to a few relatives (including my own Dad who is a supporter of the Orange One), and posted it to Facebook. 

The goal of the piece was always: ‘hey, you don’t have to listen to me.  Here are other sources (most of them Republican) who point out this mans complete inability to fill the Oval Office.  (And I live in Pennsylvania, and I wrote this just before our former Governor-former Republican Governor-Tom Ridge endorsed Biden.  Else I definitely would have included this). 

And some of it may seem slightly personal or familiar?  I was writing this primarily to speak to members of my family and friends. 

If any of this is useful, feel free to use it. 

Why I’m Not Voting for Trump

A few weeks ago a bomb dropped.  Not a literal bomb-as in ordinance, but a news bomb.  Although in our endlessly insane (or maybe insanely endless?) news cycle that’s been the last four years, it was easy to get overshadowed because another bomb probably dropped the next day or ever a few hours after that one.

But this one was different.  This was the revelation that Trump had 400 million dollars in outstanding loans.  On one of those loans-for 100 million dollars-they’d paid only the interest-none of the principal-and the loan is due in 2022.  The obvious question was asked: who does he owe that money too?

It’s a good question.  There was a great quote making the rounds from Eric Trump in 2014: ‘Who needs American banks?  Russia has plenty of money!’  During his town hall Savannah Guthrie asked Trump directly if that 400 million dollars was owed to foreign banks.  “Probably,” he said.

So: what makes that revelation a ‘bomb’? 

When I heard this, I immediately thought back to an instance that’s always stuck with me: last October when we inexplicably pulled our troops out of Syria.  Do you remember that?  Trump got off the phone with President Erdogan and announced that we were pulling out of Syria.  The backlash was immediate and bi-partisan.  Resident sycophant Lindsay Graham was especially critical, tweeting out:

“The most probable outcome of this impulsive decision is to ensure Iran’s domination of Syria...The U.S. now has no leverage and Syria will eventually become a nightmare for Israel.

“I feel very bad for the Americans and allies who have sacrificed to destroy the ISIS Caliphate because this decision virtually reassures the reemergence of ISIS.  So sad.  So dangerous.  President Trump may be tired of fighting radical Islam.  They are NOT tired of fighting us.”

This incident always stuck with me.  Especially the timing: getting off the phone with Erdogan and then hours later pulling out of Syria.  Astute researchers quickly found an audio clip of Trump on Steve Bannon’s radio show from back in 2011 saying ‘well, I have a conflict of interest when it comes to Turkey.  I have two buildings in Istanbul’...

So at first I thought this was simply another example of something I’d long thought Trump guilty of: being the president of Trump Enterprises first, and America second.  We’d seen that before with one of the first acts of his administration: the Travel Ban*, and then with his handling of the FBI building**. 

But when news of the outstanding loans came to light, I thought again about Syria, and the odd, out-of-the-blue nature of the President’s decision. 

The day the news of the loans broke, they had a former security official on MSNBC, and he brought up an interesting point: if you had large outstanding financial obligations like that to a foreign bank, you might be denied a security clearance based on that fact because you could be threatened or cajoled into acting against our country’s interests. 

Is that what happened here?  Did Erdogan ask Trump to pull his forces out of Syria (or did he demand it)?  Or was it Putin, indirectly through Erdogan who maybe told Trump “a mutual friend would be very appreciative if you would do this for him”. 

Who gave the order to pull out of Syria…?  An order that-according to Lindsey Graham-went against America’s interest and all but assured the resurrection of ISIS?

You’re probably thinking: whoa, Dave!   Easy there!  I mean, that sounds pretty crazy, right?  The idea that the President could be financially compromised to the extent that he does the bidding of our adversaries? 

Actually, I’m not the first to submit this crazy theory.  After the 2018 meeting in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin, a Republican state Congressman from Texas (yes, you read that right: a Republican from Texas) posted an op-ed with the title: Trump Is Being Manipulated by Putin. What Should We Do?

This Texas Republican’s background?  He’s former CIA.  In the op-ed he writes: “over the course of my career as an undercover officer in the C.I.A., I saw Russian intelligence manipulate many people. I never thought I would see the day when an American president would be one of them.”

He goes on to say: “The president’s failure to defend the United States intelligence community’s unanimous conclusions of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and condemn Russian covert counterinfluence campaigns and his standing idle on the world stage while a Russian dictator spouted lies confused many but should concern all Americans. 

“By playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands, the leader of the free world actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial and weakened the credibility of the United States to both our friends and foes abroad.”

Wow.

I strongly believe that this President is dangerous.  He’s dangerous in the way he coddles up to autocrats.  He’s dangerous because he has financial entanglements that make him put his own interests before the nation’s.  And he’s dangerous because he politicized a virus that killed 200,000+ people when we now know he’s on record in February telling Bob Woodward (on tape no less) that this was WAY worse the flu, and was deadly. 

But you don’t take my word for it.  Listen to some fellow Republicans.  Here’s a statement by 70 Republicans who served as national security officials and say that this President is dangerously unfit to serve another term.  https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/

There’s more.  In an open letter to America, 780 retired Generals, Admirals, Senior Noncommissioned Officers, Ambassadors and Senior Civilian National Security Officials announced their support of Joe Biden for President for similar reasons: https://www.nationalsecurityleaders4biden.com/

Let me say, also, that I don’t think there’s anything ideologically wrong with being a Republican.  But I would submit to you that this current Republican administration and Republican Congress does not serve you, or anyone you know.

Basically, if you’re not going to watch Penn State play Ohio State tonight from Mar-A-Lago, their interests are not your interests. 

Trump isn’t for the ‘little guy’.  He’s accomplished one thing legislatively in his four years in office, and that was a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires.  Now, those billionaires are using their considerable resources (like Rupert Murdoch and Fox News) to try and get you to vote for him again so that they can keep the gravy train rolling.  It’s as simple as that.  It’s all about money.

Oh, and I forgot one other thing this President has done for the wealthy and corporations: he’s been hell bent on deregulating industry.  Which is great for big business, but not so great for us-the consumers.  In 2019 regulations on the pork industry were rolled back (read more about that here: https://qz.com/1716113/trump-gives-pork-industry-a-path-to-regulate-itself/).

What could go wrong there?  There were two health inspectors who came forward (if I remember right, they may have been the ones to bring the issue to light) and they basically said that they wouldn’t be eating the food from the companies where they had worked. 

Right now there are massive efforts to have legitimate votes cast be discounted.  In Minnesota, Republicans there are fighting a ruling that ballots can be received up to seven days after the election-as long as they are postmarked by election day.

This deadline was put into place months ago because of the pandemic, and was accepted on a bi-partisan basis.  Now Republicans are challenging that.  So you could have voters that put their vote in the mail last Tuesday-while the deadline was valid-only to have their vote challenged if the post office delivers it on Wednesday. 

Surely it can’t be partisan to feel that everyone’s vote should count?  But this is the new extreme right Republican party that will do anything to win-even disenfranchise legal votes.  Discounting valid votes is how we go from being America to being a Banana Republic.  At some point these Republicans need to understand that they are Americans first and Republicans second, or we are screwed as a nation. 

Trump is a man who shows no respect for the office of the President, caters to autocrats while his lawyers argue in court that he shouldn’t be able to be investigated while he’s in office.  If you’re an American, that should ALARM THE CRAP out of you.  Democracies can fall.  It’s happening everywhere around the globe.  If you think it ‘couldn’t happen here’ simply because it never has, that’s some dangerous thinking.  Remember, technically Putin is ‘elected’ into office.  And this Congress has failed epically in its duty to be a check on the executive branch.  That’s their job, by the way-regardless of who is in office.  

Don’t get me started on Attorney General William Barr.  I wonder if-during his confirmation hearings-when he listed ‘Banana Republics’ on his resume they thought he’d worked for the now defunct clothing chain, not that he was adept at creating them. 

You may be asking yourself: why is he putting all this out there now?  Because I love all of you-and certainly respect all of you.  And I see you blindly following a leader who doesn’t represent you or your values.  And I see you acting in a way and saying things and posting things that are inconsistent with the people I know you to be.

I’m working on the assumption that you are being fed false information.  That deep down you are indeed the people that I think you are, but you are being misled.

And remember: there are two ways to lie.  You can outright tell someone something that is false.  But you can also lie by omission.  Fox News is certainly guilty of the former, but maybe even more so of the latter.  (Fox News probably won’t tell you that 780 former Generals and National Security officials say that the President shouldn’t serve another term.   They didn’t lie…they just didn’t mention it.  And I think that’s something worth mentioning.)

Think of the dynamic at work here: Trump does or says something.  The dozens of news organizations that you’ve followed and respected your entire lives tells you it’s false.  One-ONE-news organization backs up his claim (the organization that is owned by a man who has benefited financially from President’s policies).  Meanwhile Trump calls the others ‘fake news’.  Do you see anything wrong there?

There is a great quote from Orwell’s 1984 that has become hauntingly prescient over the last four years: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” 

This Tuesday will be a deciding moment in this nation.  If you want a vote that actually means something in 2024, don’t vote for Trump on Tuesday.

 ****************

*What about the Travel Ban?  Glad you asked.  If you remember, the travel ban was assigned to keep us safe by preventing people from certain countries from coming to America (it is worth noting that the travel ban was first struck down by a federal judge appointed by George Bush).  One of the oddities about the travel ban was that there were three countries that were exempt.  These three countries were the only countries that had produced terrorists that had killed Americans.  None of the countries actually on the travel ban had.   Weird, huh?  Do you know what else these countries had in common?  They all had Trump branded properties. 

 **  The F.B.I. building.  So the F.B.I. building is in not great shape.  It’s old and falling apart.  In fact they had sections of the outside cordoned off so that a piece of the outer façade doesn’t fall off and kill someone.  The U.S. government had worked out a deal with a contractor that the contractor would build the F.B.I. a brand new facility-for free-and then in exchange the contractor would be given the old F.B.I. location to do whatever they want with it.  Presumably, knock down and make it into a new building/hotel/shops (whatever).  Pretty good deal, right?

Except…a year or so ago a lady had a meeting at the White House and then went before Congress and said that the F.B.I. did not, in fact, want a free brand new facility anymore, but instead wanted the renovate and repair the old one instead.  Huh…

Do you know what building is just a couple blocks down from the F.B.I. building’s location?  Trump’s D.C. hotel. 

Now I know what you’re thinking.  You’re saying: ‘but Dave, look at all the NFL owners: they didn’t want new stadiums.  They decided to pour money into their old dilapidated stadiums that were steeped in tradition and history!’  Except you’re not saying that because that never happened.  Everyone wants a new facility over a crumbling money pit, and I’m sure the F.B.I was no exception.

(It’s also interesting to note that-for some reason-there was two billion dollars in one of the recent versions of a Coronavirus relief bill-that wasn’t passed-allocated for the repair of the F.B.I. building.  Why?  Who put that in there? It wasn’t Senate Republicans.  It was funny watching Mitch McConnell answering questions about that and having to admit that he had no idea that it was even in there).

[thatssonano]

Hey, remember the research paper about why TV fails to represent female muslims? Well here it is.

Hey guys,

So I'm finally gonna try to write a real little thing about how TV fails to write muslim women. I thought about doing a real research paper and I wrote the introduction and got really anxious because it reminded of my very stressful master degree lol so this is much more simple. Anyways, let's get to it. 

As a kid, I was very hungry for representation on TV. Mostly because I had no models, no one to identify with. As a very introvert and self-conscious kid, I didn't know what to be or what to do. At some point, I started looking up to my sister, very beautiful, very intelligent and very ambitious girl. So I thought "I ought to be like that, that's what a muslim girl like me should be like.” 

Thing is, I wasn't as smart as she was, my grades were not as good, I wasn't as pretty or as popular at school, and there was not a single box I could fit in. I ended up being the "weird but nice little sister". But I was so invisible everyone would nickname me "Sarah 2" (my sister's name being Sarah.) And you know what? For the first time, I felt like I existed. Because I was "the little sister". Dude, how sad is that?

I was too white for them, not muslim enough, too weird for them. So obviously, it was tough to pave a way for myself when I was the only girl like me. 

The first time I was finally not nicknamed was when I got into college at the age of 17. Only because we didn't choose the same college. And I understood I didn't have to be as smart or as ambitious as her, I understood that I didn't have to get the life she had when I was 22. 22, guys. 

I'm turning 26 in one month. And I chose my own life. But God, how much time it took me to realize that there wasn't only one type of "the muslim girl"? 22 years.  

I'm not saying that to share about my life or whatever, I just want to show the consequences of not having representation on TV. And for sure, many people don't care about representation, my sister doesn't, my brother doesn't. But I do. Maybe that's because I'm hypersensitive, maybe that's because I believe art should mirror reality. All I know is that it's necessary for many. 

I met Sana Bakkoush on a random fan video about several fictional couples on youtube. I didn't know Skam then but there was this second in the video where I would see Noora and William staring at each other or whatever, and there was this beautiful hijabi girl in the back. I had to know what this show was about. So I did my research and binge-watched it. With much luck, I got to the end of the whole show before episode 3 of season 4 came out. So I learnt to grow with Sana, I fell in love with her, and I just felt like I could understand her. I was her. I finally was validated with her. Up until episode 5, all was well. And then,… it just broke? Still today, I'm trying to understand how they could let that happen and I guess there's one obvious reason. The writing staff was white. Julie Andem is white. And to me, if you're not from that community, you should not try to write about this one. 

As the plot thickened, you could feel like it was unbalanced, incoherent, and that many things didn't make sense. But that's pretty normal, because if you don't live the problem, you can't understand. Now I won't curse Julie Andem for not trying, but I guess what should have been done was to hire a muslim writer. And God, people can't tell me it's too tough to find. Even if it was not Iman Meskini's job, she could have asked her. God, this girl taught more about ramadan through her ig story than Skam ever did. 

Now I'm not saying she didn't do us all dirty when she gave us 9 episodes instead of ten and it all broke us on June 17th 2017 (Yep, this day is a national holiday now). And honestly, I've got not one good explanation for this except they didn't feel her story was that important. Unconsciously, I hope, because it would be too evil otherwise.

The reason, to me, that Sana was so many people's favorite character was because Iman Meskini gave her so much realness. Sana was strong yet vulnerable. Everyone, muslims like non-muslims could understand her, and I think she inspired so many people. Her life is amazing, and she's what now? 22. I really hope she gets a Nobel Prize in the future, she deserves it. 

Now let's talk about the others. I think it'd be a bit faster. 

Imane Bakhellal. Uhm. Well the main issue is the same, she was written by a white man. So obviously, it was 1. wrong. 2. wrong. 3. wrong. The story barely focused on her faith and whenever we'd see her pray she'd be interrupted. Look, I've been praying for 13 years and the only times I've interrupted my prayer were because I had just realized I had not done wudhu. Or I was too jet-lagged so I was praying in the wrong direction.  

Thing is, Imane didn't make me feel anything. And it was even sadder, because I am a muslim living in Paris. To me, her story wasn't focused on her, it wasn't even focused on religion or her struggle living between two cultures. I didn't learn a thing. And God, that hurt. That hurt even more when the director didn't acknowledge it was poorly written and was actually proud of it. It hurt that white people get the right to write our story and we're there, not having any voice. It sucked. But I guess, she had ten episodes, right, even if the last episode was within the same day. 

It didn't really bother me that she kissed him. The speech she recited did though. I got really frustrated about it. How hard would it be to find a muslim writer? Honestly, I would have been glad to join them, even as a volunteer. 

I'm not actually mad at the actress, I guess it was just a reflection of her relationship with islam. And I know many people got the representation they wanted, but to me, it remains poorly written. To me, it remains hypocrite because they don't get it. Being a muslim woman of color in France sucks sometimes. But having at least her story focused on her would have been great too. 

 Ok, let's move on. 

Amira Mahmood. I love her a little less than Sana, but I mean come on, that's understandable, right?

Amira is strong, she's beautiful, kind, smart. And her season was going well, until it wasn't anymore…. Because, well, it ended. I keep on wondering why it happened and I came with no logical answer. So maybe it was lazy writing, maybe it didn't matter to them, maybe the writers were just tired. I don't know, honestly, I don't know. But it pissed me off bad. (Honestly it was the third character I was let down on, lol, it started to be a lot to handle). Also, the other seasons were so greatly written, they had depth and understanding, it was soft and beautiful. And to me, season 4 just felt… lazy? Sure, I loved Mohammed but the Australia plot wasn't even that important it actually got fixed over text? And how hard would it be to find exciting plot for a muslim character? What? Everything should be about kissing, hair and sex? Well, no. I mean, I would have loved to see her actually working, I would have loved to see her actually bonding with her dad, I would have loved to see her at a boxing game… The summer and fall after I graduated high school was a very hard time to me, mostly because it was a time of discovery and transition. Everything was changing. God, they should have explored that more. So I don't know, I just felt detached then, and I think that's more sad, actually.

But I do believe the actress did a great job, and I wish Tua all success. 

Shall I give a little paragraph on Nadia from Elite? Hell yeah I'm going to. Well, the show is focused on sex so, I mean, are we even surprised the writers did this to Nadia? Not really, but we're still mad. Again, it was written by white people; who focused on all the stereotypes people spread about muslims. The strict dad? Check. The very quiet and invisible mom at the mercy of the dad? Check. The muslim girl who does not actually know why she's religious and only follows her parents' footsteps like a sheep because islam is just way too strict so no one in their sane mind would ever venture in such a religion? Check. The hunger for having white friends and doing the same? Check. Falling for a white guy and giving up everything she ever "believed" for him? Check. I hope the writers heard about what people had to say about it. 

Honestly, I know some would say "there are muslim girls like this". Well, ok. But what about us? We've been invisible to society for years and years. I grew up without having a single fucking idea about who I was and I just always felt like I was the odd one out. Too white, too Algerian, too muslim, too girly, too boyish, too into traditions, following too much her parents' rules… Well, growing up I just decided, I will never be enough of something, because I’m a little of everything. So yeah, some muslim girls do that, but some others don't. And we want to see these girls too. We want to normalize their way of life, so they can just live. And we want them to have the same screen time than the rest of the cast. And we want them to have exciting plots too. 

God, I've been smothered by the fucking veil debate in France for weeks and weeks and I couldn't breathe anymore. That's why we need visibility. To be acknowledged. To erase ignorance and hate. To create a homogenous society in this globalized world where everyone is different and it is okay. Because as long as your liberty isn't in danger, then the other can live as he wills. 

To finish I guess some of you would be like “if you’re so eager to criticize the work of others, just write your own story” Well I did. I actually finished one scenario in French and I have just started one in English. But how can I actually make it into reality if I don’t know anyone in the business bold enough to work with me on it? 

Honestly if you've read all of that, congratulations, thank you so much, love you all, peace out. 

I didn’t write everything I wanted but I believe it’s long enough already lol. Be safe, well and kind. (that’s what Bob Morley says and he’s a king).

[ivory-haired-queens-blog]

Unpopular Opinions: Fandom Edition

Hey none of you asked but I’m here to deliver so here are some unpopular opinions for the fandoms I’m in. Spoilers, duh.

Marvel:

I don’t like Natasha. Or Steve.

Pepper Potts is a top.

As much as I love Loki, his death was nessicary in Infinity War.

Steve should have killed Bucky in Civil War. He was a threat, plain and simple.

I ship Ironstrange/Supremefamily.

Clint should have died in Infinity War.

I love Tony Stark with my whole heart. (Not an unpopular opinion but you needed to know that)

I’m not happy with the end of Endgame.

10 years in the making....for you to do Thor like that?

Not because he’s fat or because he’s dealing with trauma, that’s totally acceptable.

What’s not acceptable is them making Thor into the butt of the joke because he’s fat.

I love the Antman movies.

I’m totally not biased because I loved lost.

(I’m kinda biased)

Shuri is the best Marvel character and would beat Tony Stark in a battle of wits.

(I’m so gay I love her.)

With as many years as Marvel has had the MCU, I am disgusted at the lack of diversity within the movies.

Like it’s 2019 and we JUST got a female empowerment scene in Endgame.

Like I want a gay superhero.

(We have a disabled one thank god. Love you Stephen.)

And don’t give me that Valkyrie/Captain Marvel BS because they never blatantly stated or showed it in their movies.

I want an Asian superhero bitch.

A superhero who is Muslim/Islam/and religion besides Christian.

I think that, as much as I hate Natasha and Steve, they should have been the ones that Bruce first sees in Infinity War. I know it set up the whole “earth is closed today” sequence but it didn’t make sense and was OOC.

I love Stephen Strange and he’s never done a single thing wrong ever in his life I would die for this man.

I like MCU Peter Parker over the origional movie Spider-Man.

Fight me.

I also like the Tony Stark/Peter Parker better than the Uncle Ben/Peter Parker so @ me.

The 100

I don’t ship Bellarke that hard.

Like yes, I think they’re obviously being groomed to end up together. I know the show runners will make them official before the end of the series. I’m not mad about that, I just don’t really care to be honest. It’s like, too obvious.

But there are some cute bellarke scenes

What they did to Monty was bullshit but what they did to Jasper was worse.

I feel no guilt whatsoever in saying that I think that killing all of Mount Weather was what they should have done from the beginning.

Yes, even the kids. Because if you kill their leaders, the men and women will fight back. The colony would have been left with a handful of adults, and a bunch of kids if the origional plan had worked. This is doomed to fail and honestly just killing them all would be better than seeing them kill eachother for food, power, whatever. If that makes sense.

I think that Finn deserved to die.

I think that Murphey deserves the world.

Charlotte fucking killed Wells. Yes she’s young but she knows better than to kill someone. Maybe not kill her, but we all know that Clarke wouldn’t have banished her like she did Murphey. Clarke has a gender bias because Murphey didn’t do anything and she wouldn’t have punished Charlotte as hard because she’s a young girl. I rest my case

Even though what he did was bad and wrong, I don’t think Murphey should have been banished. He’s right. They were all compliant and even excited when he was being hung, but when it’s a little girl all bets are off.

Like Bellamy brought the whole hostage thing upon himself because he fucking tied a noose around Murphey’s throat.

Again, not that what Murphey did was right. He didn’t have to act like that. Jasper didn’t do anything to him.

Also this segment is getting long but the show writers and everyone else just casually forgot that Murphey was TORTURED? Hello? Are we not going to acknowledge that?

I shipped Clexa with my whole heart.

Another actually popular opinion: what they’ve done to Raven’s character this season is bullshit. Her only role is Abby’s moral compass. This is the same girl who shuttled to earth in a Tin Can. She’s better than this.

What the fuck??? Happened to??? Jordan???

Like Madi stabbed him

And then they proceeded to not talk about it for like four episodes and then casually mention it in passing like “oh he saved Pria that means he gets to live”

Like they set up his character to be really important this season.

But he’s not.

I think that Murphey/Emori is the best ship.

I also think that Either Murphey or Emori or Both are secretly double crossing the Primes. (This comes out before the finale of season six)

They didn’t have to do Onyia like that

The opening of season three is so weak that I actually stopped watching the show around that time (I’d been watching since the beginning of season two) because there’s just nothing there in the first like 10 minutes and I couldn’t do it.

Maybe I’m just impatient but it’s bad.

I think that Octavia did the best that she could with what she had available and I think that’s she’s not a bad person for what she did with the fighting pits/cannabalism. And I know that if Bellamy had been in her place, he would have eventually done the same.

Kane was a whiny bitch in season 5.

Why’d the kill Diyoza(I can’t spell) like that?

I liked Joesephine. It was really fun to see Eliza Taylor be able to get a new character in the show. Also props to her for that last episode with pretending to be Joesephine and being Clarke at the same time.

I called the dude being Gabriel from the first time I saw him you peasants.

Octavia’s redemption arc this season is beautiful.

They did....that.....to Kane. I’m angerey.

Lost In space

Not enough people watch this show. (The Netflix remake or the origional)

Seriously guys it’s a good show.

Absolutely nothing is wrong with it.

I love Don West with my whole heart.

I love Dr. Smith with my half heart.

I love the robot with my two hearts.

I love Penny Robinson with all the stars in the galaxy.

I love all of them okay.

There are no plot holes, no inconsistencies, no faulty science and anyone who says (or proves) otherwise is wrong.

It’s confirmed for a season two which should air in like the December-February time area.

It’s a Netflix show so you can binge the entire season in like a weekend.

Seriously watch it.

The Umbrella Academy

Five x Delores is weird.

Luther x Allison is illegal.

Klaus deserves all the push pops in the world.

The handler is hot.

The Comission killed Dave.

Luther is the most boring, Unorigional, straight white guy character I’ve seen in a long time. I hate him so much.

Allison is a queen but her character is brought down by her weird relationship with her brother.

Tbh if I was Allison you know I’d be telling my kids that I heard a rumor that theyd go the fuck to sleep. Like that’s a good thing. Idk maybe I’m just a sociopath.

Istanbul not Constantinople being played over a scene where five murders a squad of Commission people is the greatest cinematic masterpiece ever conceived by man.

“Where are you going” “to save the world” “oh is that all?” Iconic.

None of these are really unpopular but the show writers seem to think differently.

Diego has never done anything wrong in his life like yaaaasss bitch kill your brother at yo daddy’s funeral!!! Work!!!

PaTcH

AAaAHh

Big Theif - Mary is the perfect song to play over Klaus returning from Vietnam.

Will you love me, like you loved me in the January rain?

It’s up there with Goodbye July.

Speaking of Goodbye July....

Z Nation

Many people haven’t watched it

It’s like if The Walking Dead and Zombieland had a baby....and then the baby did a line of cocaine.

It’s wild.

Watching Garnet die ruined every sliver of hope I had in humanity.

I have a special place in my heart for this show because it’s the first show that me and my mom would stay up and watch the new episodes air every Friday. It brought us closer and I can’t thank the cast and show runners enough for this.

So maybe I’m biased, but you should watch it.

Having Murphey switch from being an anti-hero to a villain back to an anti-hero and then to a regular hero, amazing. Astonishing. The peak of human existence.

Even though he’s not entirely human.

What color is Murphey today? Is he pale, discolored, grey, blue, red? We don’t know!

Roberta Warren is the Black Goddess main protagonist that we deserve.

Addison Carver is a functional Bi.

10k is tragic backstory central but other than that, his character development is pretty lacking other than him persuing love interests.

None of these are really unpopular opinions but I doubt any of you have watched the show. It’s on Netflix. Watch it.

Oooooohhhhh George.

Georgia St. Clair could stomp me to death and my ghost would still want to fuck her.

Anyways I’m gay

God damn I have a lot of pent up Gay energy.

Murphey and Lucy have a realistic enstranged father/daughter relationship and it’s heartwarming.

And then they killed her off to save him.

Honestly if you name a character Murphey they can only be assholish bad boys with a good heart deep down sorry I don’t make the rules.

Also if you name a character Murphey I will love them with my whole soul.

I’m so mad they cancelled the show.

I’m infinitely more mad that they named that disgrace of a show Black Summer and claimed that it was a prequel....but it didn’t follow the same cast and had they not advertised it as a prequel I would never have guessed.

Black Summer gives totally opposite vibes than Z Nation does. I get that black summer is supposed to be the worst time that the zombie apocalypse ever had, with cannibals and no food, but it feels like s completely different show.

It’s like if The Walking Dead claimed that it is a prequel/occurs during Shaun of the Dead.

Like....no. They’re....no.

Anyway watch it it’s good.

Detroit: Become Human

Connor isn’t the best character.

This is an unpopular opinion post deal with it.

Markus has to be my favorite.

Honestly this game is so good and not even just graphics-wise.

It’s the same robotic sentience story we’ve been fed for years, but this time it’s from the Android’s perspective and this time all they want is to be free. That’s it.

I fucking hate North.

Hank is literally if Rick from Rick and Morty were serious.

The only correct way to play Connor is to walk the thin line between deviant and regular A.I. Without leaving out Hank. The correct thing to do is make Conner deviant at Jericho.

The only correct way to play Kara is to protect Alice with every fiber of your being. Meanwhile, get close to her. Do not get caught, even if that means dissappointing her.

The only correct way to play Markus is to lead a peaceful revolution. Also tell North to fuck off.

The border patrol guy who either gets Kara and Alice caught or knowingly lets Androids cross the border is the best character. Forget about Markus, this guy sees either “oh fuck androids are killing people, maybe we shouldn’t let this one cross the border” or “Androids just want to be free and are peacefully fighting for this. Let this one and her daughter through.” I love him.

LUTHER.

YES DADDY.

anyway.

Let Out The Bear He Just Wants To Say Hi :)

Even though I think Conner is overrated by the fandom, I do like him.

But he’s not a pure innocent cinnamon roll either.

It depends on how you play, but he has really violent options so stop the “He wouldn’t harm a fly” attitude.

But he is cute.

The home screen for the game is revolutionary (no pun intended) and I hope future game follow suit in making the first impression of the game something cool.

Stealing clothes/money/the fence cutters is literally okay.

Also if you put Kara in white hair you can die.

If in your first actual play through you got the Kara lives at the recycling plant ending but Alice dies, you can die too.

I’ve never actually seen the steal money and go to motel option play out because it’s stupid, especially if you don’t steal clothes. Like that’s begging to be caught.

Stranger things

Billy Hargrove is bad and just because he’s abused does not make what he does okay.

Harringrove is gross and I’m gay so my opinion counts as double.

That being said, there are some really cute fics about Harringrove and I can see the appeal of “good boy falls for mysterious bad boy with a dark past and trauma”

I’ve said I’m gay this whole post because I say it a lot, but I don’t like actually labeling myself but I like girls and boys and everything in between and I say I’m gay kinda as a joke when girls are hot.

That being said...

Steve Harrington calling himself Daddy made me feel things.

Strange things.

Haha get it I’m making a joke to distract you from the daddy part.

Steve Harrington is a good person now, but he was still an asshole before and he can still be criticized for his past.

I used to be hardcore Jancy but after season three I feel like Nancy needs and deserves a break from boys so she can figure out herself and who she is now and what she wants to do without the weight of boys and boyfriends constantly around her.

That being said i still don’t like Nancy because she was flirting/slept in the same bed with Jonathan whilst obviously having feelings for him while she and Steve were still a thing. It’s not cheating but to me it’s close enough to raise red flags.

Robin is perfect in every way.

I don’t like Jonathan. He’s creepy in s1, fine in s2, but then is s3 he doesn’t do anything to or about his male bosses when Nancy is being made fun of because she’s a woman.

Seeing Nancy’s class priveledge/Jonathan’s male priveledge clashing was so cool tbh

Elmax > Mileven > Lumax

Jim Hopper, with all his faults, is still a caring dad.

Plus him threatening Mike made me laugh so hard sksksksks

Steve Harrington deserves the world and then some.

Low key I really want s4 to give in insight on his family life.

I also want him to get an apartment with Robin.

Robins cute tbh but for half the season I though she was a Russian spy. I guess I was wrong.

Mrs. Wheeler shouldn’t sleep with billy (not that she can now) because it’s wrong, but the reason she wanted to is because her husband is so boring and she gave up on her dreams to be his perfect housewife. She wanted a challenge with Billy. Instead, she should leave her pushover of a husband and find someone better.

Anyway Steve Harrington deserves the world.

Yeah okay hate me whatever.

[dlkardenal]

It’s a kind of magic - Looking at the history of magical practices

Hey there, traveler!

That’s right, it’s Dar here with today’s cadaver on the dissecting table: magic. Given that magic isn’t technically one trope but a broad term used to define many things mostly in fiction genres it won’t be a single post but a short series about the topic. Let’s start with the basics: what do we mean by this short word, where did it come from and what’s the big deal? This episode is more of a ‘fun facts from the history of magic’, but I think they are interesting enough to inspire some readers. So have fun!

Magic is roughly saying a supernatural method to affect beings or forces that we can’t manipulate with mundane methods. From witches’ brew to voodoo dolls, chants and sacrifices, magic can appear in many forms but the main gist is the same: the user does something symbolic and commands a force to alter reality in some way. Some may think magic was born with J.R.Tolkien, but as you can guess from the introduction, it is a tale as old as time.

The more ancient civilizations accepted magic as a fact, a tool against certain dire events. Ancient Mesopotamia, for example, had a jurisdiction system in place as it was believed that nearly every person could cast magic, and thus cursing someone and protecting oneself from such a curse was no more extreme than getting into a fistfight. There was the offender, the evil magician who cast the curse and the defendant, who used magic in self-defense. This wasn’t as spectacular as one would think, it mostly consisted of imprisoning magic energies, unwillingly committed sins or the essence of some illnesses into objects, and then burning them to cleanse the magical power, be it ill or beneficial from this world.

In Egypt, there was a personified apparition of magic called heka, and they thought magic was a tool given to men by the creator to ward against certain events. Their use of magical energies came from the understanding that humans shared the divine nature of gods, they could create things and effects with words. Yupp, like Skyrim, only more desert-vibe. Do you know the pictograms and hieroglyphs inside pyramids? Those are words of magical nature, tailored to provide the dead royal with the means to survive in the afterlife. Fun fact, they were written inside the pyramids to keep them secret from the commoners, as it was a prerogative of the pharaoh to be guided by such spells.

But not all was rosy. The modern term ‘magic’ has a Greek origin and comes from the time of the Greek-Persian wars. The greeks learned this word from the Persians who followed a different religion then the polises, so the term ‘magos’ (meaning mage or magician) quickly gained a derogative connotation and referred to the alien, heathen religions of the Persians. This however quickly diluted and spread into the Hellenic masses and quickly became synonymous with charlatan and quack. This was the time magic and religion became inseparable for quite a long time after, the former being an improper, insulting form of the latter.

That derogative meaning continued into early and later Christianity. Theologists described magic as the opposition to miracles, supernatural phenomena created by God’s power (basically the same concept with a different source). This was further strengthened by the fact that the Celtic and german tribal religions (the so-called heathens) still thought of magic as a method to control the natural world and more importantly to commune with the divine. During the Middle Ages as Christianity spread magic was always an opposing force and almost solely present in druidic and supposedly in Jewish and Islamic religions. This is an important fact because these cultures became the foundations for the modern representation of magic, including the witches, the future tellers, the alchemists, and astrologists.

An interesting thing happened when Europe went to conquer the world. Our brave ancestors brought their beliefs and conventions with them, and that meant the way they thought about magic. They were quick to stamp every foreign religion, be it African, indigenous American, or Asian as magic, and tried to replace it with some good-old Christianity. That resulted in some quite fascinating things. For example, the Portuguese word feitiço means spell or incantation, but when they applied this to some West-African religious practices, the concept of fetish was born. Another example (my favorite) is the Haitian and Louisiana voudou, the mixture of some African beliefs and strong Christian pressure by the French. This created a religion worshipping Bondye (from French Bon Dieu, meaning „good God”) and the loa, the lesser deities or spirits connecting mortals to Bondye. Due to the forced but unwilling shift in faith, there are some really interesting anomalies, like the correlation of the death loa Maman Brijit and St. Brigitte of Ireland. Just to give an example why is this my favorite mythology, voudin rituals include the summoning of a specific loa into a „Mount”, a practitioner who lets the loa inhabit his or her body for a while. Then, you have to buy the loa’s attention with gifts. In other religions, this would be animal sacrifices or burning food, but not here. The loa are not so old-timey. Some of them need a good cigar, others desire pink champagne, while Baron Samedi, for example, the tophat wearing king of death likes his followers to host a funeral for his Mount so he can magically spring to life and laugh.

However as modern age approached like a steaming, oil-smelling mechanical monster, some magic turned out to be very real and very mundane and people had a new name for it – science. The line between technology, actual magic, and quack machinations became blurred and people were uncertain what to believe anymore. This uncertainty gave way to the witch hunts where basically anything unexplainable was marked as magic and thus diabolical. This public uproar raged on for quite some time in short and long periods all over the globe before the whole thing turned into skepticism.

The Modern Age brought with it a philosophy of intellect’s absolute dominance over every other virtue. An intelligent man didn’t believe in dubious practices, an intelligent lady never turned to clearly fraud future-tellers and mediums. This, however, went an interesting way. As it was no longer punishable by being burned alive but only shunned and ill-advised, it sparked a certain curiosity in people. Young girls bored out of their minds found an interesting mystery in these charlatans, and with that magic was reborn. During the Victorian era seances multiplied, secret magical organizations grew like mushrooms after the rain and the whole romantic (and terrifying) way we think about magic came into existence.

I think I’ll stop here for today. Next week we’ll move onto the mages, the practitioners and adepts of magic and take a look at how their real-world counterparts evolved during the ages. Did you find it interesting? Do you know more facts about historical magic practices? Which age and culture is your favorite to draw inspiration from to create a unique magic system? Let your voice be heard in comments or reblogs!

Cheers,

Dar

[wisdomrays]

REMEMBER MARY IN THE BOOK: Part 2

The Annunciation

Two Qur'anic passages mention Mary during her pregnancy, as follows:

The angels said: Oh Mary, God has chosen and purified you. He has chosen you above all other women. Oh Mary, be obedient to your Lord. Prostrate yourself and be among those who bow down. This is part of the hidden news We reveal to you. You were not with them when they cast lots to see who would take care of Mary, nor were you with them when they disputed among themselves. The angels said: Oh Mary, God gives you the good news of a word from Him. His name will be Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, who will be eminent in this world and the next, and will be one of those brought near (to God). He shall speak to people from the cradle and in his later years, and will be one of the righteous. She said: My Lord, how can I have a child when no man has touched me? He said: Thus it is. God creates what He wills. If He decrees something, He only need say: Be!' and it is. (3:42-47)

Mary is called chosen and purified, one kept from sin by God. She was raised in the purest family and had the utmost dedication to God. Her mother prayed that she and her offspring would be protected from Satan, and her prayers were answered. In addition, she was advised to prostrate herself and be among those who bow down. The Qur'an often advises believers to perform these acts of faith in their prayers: Mary is being exhorted to do the same. The intention behind this, as we have seen with other biblical figures found in the Qur'an, is to remind the reader that the attitude of submission at the heart of Islam is not something that came into existence only with the arrival of Muhammad. Many virtuous people, like Mary, fully submitted themselves to the divine will centuries prior to the emergence of Islam.

The Qur'an reminds Prophet Muhammad and its readers that part of the hidden news is being related. As only God knows all of the hidden news, Muslims are cautious not to add to what the Qur'an has revealed. For example, the place in the east mentioned in the following verse is not precise. It could be a chamber on the eastern side of Zachariah's house or the city of Nazareth. As the Qur'an does not diverge from its main point, in this case Mary's self-imposed seclusion even before the annunciation, such irrelevant details are not given. Her decision, made before she knew of this event, cannot be seen as an act of escape from social pressure. It is highly likely that it was an attempt to draw closer to God.

Remember Mary in the Book. When she withdrew from her family to a place in the east and took cover from them, We sent to her Our spirit which appeared to her in the form of a normal person. She said: I take refuge in the Merciful One from you if you fear Him. He said: I am only a messenger from your Lord, to give you a righteous son. She said: How can I have a son when no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste? He said: Thus it is. Your Lord said: It is easy for Me. We will make him a sign for people and mercy from Us. It is an accomplished fact.' (19:16-21)

One may imagine her distress at such an awkward situation. Raised in the purest household and living a life of chastity and virtue, she now must confront terribly degrading accusations and humiliation. Not comprehending, she said she cannot have a son because she is a chaste virgin. Although the angel confirmed this and said he was sent by her Lord, she still did not comprehend how the pregnancy can occur. Yet her upbringing and faith gave her the strength of heart to submit fully to the Divine Will and bear the result patiently.

She is a young virgin, all alone in a patriarchal society. The Qur'an does not mention Joseph, and Biblical sources only give him a minor role. Mary does not rely on her relatives or her appointed guardian for support. Her lifestyle seems to demonstrate the fact that God is the only one to rely on and turn to for help.

The Birth of Jesus

She conceived him and withdrew with him to a distant place. The birth pangs led her to the trunk of a palm tree, where she cried: Oh, if only I had died before this and had been forgotten, unremembered! Then (a voice) called out to her from below her: Do not grieve. Your Lord has placed a stream beneath you. Shake the trunk of the palm tree and it will drop fresh ripe dates upon you. Eat, drink, and be consoled. If you see another person, say: I have vowed a fast to the Merciful One and will not speak to anyone today.' (19:22-27)

Mary went to an unknown distant place. Muslim commentators have proposed Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Egypt, and other places. Wherever the place, she was far from civilization and in distress.

Her cry in verse 23, a heartfelt complaint in which she laments her situation, raises some interesting questions about her character. Most of the explanations of the cause of her anguish extend beyond herself, like her concern that others might mistakenly call Jesus the son of God, rather than understand it as due to lack of belief or some other personal flaw on her part. Whatever its precise cause, there is an ironic element to her prayer that can be easily overlooked. The image of Mary praying that she be unremembered and obliterated from history strikes the reader as incompatible with the high profile and exalted status she has come to hold within both Islam and Christianity. Against her wishes, she certainly was not forgotten! In this sense, Mary's prayer was not answered.

She carried him (Jesus) to her people, who said: Oh Mary, you have done something strange! Oh sister of Aaron, your father was not wicked nor was your mother unchaste. She pointed to him. They said: How can we talk to a child in the cradle? (19:27-29)

As her son was to be a sign for people and a mercy from God, Mary brought him to her people. God did not desert her. According to Jewish law, an adulteress had to be stoned to death. From his cradle, Jesus defended his mother: I am God's servant. He has given me the Book, made me a Prophet, blessed me wherever I am, and charged me with prayer and almsgiving as long as I live. [He has made me] dutiful toward my mother, nor has He made me a tyrant, wretched (19:31-32).

One of Jesus' miracles is to speak in the cradle to refute the calumnies against his mother. This idea has had a profound effect on the Muslim mentality, and to slander a virtuous Muslim woman is still considered one of the greatest sins. The text has certainly contributed to the preservation of the sense of woman's honor in Muslim society.

Conclusion

Mary's story is an example of courage and trust. Her deep faith and devotion caused her unique life to flourish. In addition, her life shows that religion, when understood correctly, does not pacify or restrict believers but rather frees them from the chains of earthly worries and fears. This freedom allows them to fulfill their purpose in life.

Understanding that submission to the Divine Will is the ultimate source of relief in this world and the Hereafter, Mary submitted herself and found peace. Her example lives on in the hearts of all believers and continues to inspire all who seek to live up to their full spiritual potential.

[idonthaveanydamnidea]

idk if that’s been done before but here’s a translation of the interview of david, axel and maxence

BY @bethdelusional AND I (go check her blog too pls she deserves credit that was long as fuck)

The first clip of the third season of  « Skam France » is out. The show, adapted from Norway, tells the daily life of highschoolers. In this season, the character of Lucas, closeted gay, and Eliott, his lover, are the focus. TÊTU went on the set and talked to the two actors. 

 « I want life, I want smiles. Have fun please! » Screams the director David Hourregue behind his camera. In front of him, a dozen of actresses and actors, a little distracted, are filming the same scene for the 20th time.  « Ok, ok, we’re ready», one of them responds to him, provoking a big laugh in the group. Between every take, a dozen of technicians are working in this big hangar of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), where the temperature is not over 10 degrees on this november day. Note on the decoration, white, pink and yellow neons, perched on the ceilling beams, are lighting the concrete floor and banners have been installed on a bar at the back of the room . « come on, action ! » 

 Today, David Hourregue shot the last scenes of season 3 and 4 of Skam France, the first scene will be out on january the 19th on FranceTVSlash. The web-series, adapted from Norway, tells the daily life of a group of highschoolers. The first two seasons, already out, were centred around Emma and Manon, talking without taboos about cyber-bullying and slut shaming with a background of love rivalries. 

Season 3 will be about Lucas, a young closeted gay. « In the first two seasons, the young highschooler tries to figures himself out, he goes out with a few girls», David Hourregue remembers. But season 3, will be the revelation and the acceptance, with the arrival of Eliott, played by the actor and model Maxence Danet-Fauvel. This student in terminale (third and last year of highschool), openly pansexual, is gonna change the daily life of Lucas. 

Axel Auriant, sitting in a large leather armchair, told us about being completly shaken by reading the screenplay.  « It’s the revelation of a teenager who wants to live a love story, but have to face the difficulty of not being in the norm set by society » , the actor explains simply, dressed with jeans and a black jacket. « He lied to everyone, he lied to himself and now he wants to live his life the way he wants. » 

If the young actor is straight, playing a gay character didn’t cause him any problems : «  I too , like Lucas, fell in love » he smiles. « And for me, whether it’s a girl or a boy, it’s exactly the same thing. I wouldn’t have any problem falling in love with a boy one day. »

An « ordinary » romance,  an opinion shared by his on-screen partner, Maxence, who wants us to see Eliott and Lucas beyond their sexuality. « We built everything on a love story and not on gender or homosexuality »   He explains to us on a little wood bench, his hair all messy. «   We want straight people to be able to relate to us, and for a romance between two guys to feel ordinary  » 

The two actors, very close in real life as on screen, talk about their meeting like an evidence : « We saw each other one night (after Maxence was casted) and we drank quite a lot », Axel remembers. « The morning after, it felt like we had been friends for three years. » 

A crush that helped them making this love story the more « believable  » that they could. « We didn’t expect such a connection to form », Maxence says with a big smile. « Before shooting our scenes, especially sex scenes, we were eager to jump on each other, even though we’re both straight. The love story between Eliott and Lucas is stellar. »

But even if the love story between Eliott and Lucas seems evident and all drawn out, it’s not that simple. The series especially deals, with subtlety, with the difficulty of coming out. « We dived into the french issue of coming out. In Norway, everything goes relatively well because they have ten to fifteen years of advance on these kind of things. But the difficulty is clearly greater in France, especially around loved ones ». The show also deals with the bullying issue. Indeed, in seasons 1, 2 or 3, Lucas is often singled out by his own friends : “it’s a closeted gay thing to say”, “here's the gay guy”… A subject that Axel knows well, for having experienced it too.  « I was called a fag in high school because i was dating a gorgeous girl and I wasn’t the most masculine guy. Some mornings, i throwed up before going to class, I was late with a stomach ache... And it’s almost impossible to talk about it with your loved ones or your teachers.   »

Those stereotypes  still exist, and if all of these subjects are well handled in Skam France, it’s far from being the case in every french show and movie. Axel says : « When you watch a comedy like “Epouse-moi mon pote”, you tell yourself that it’s a part of why there are still stereotypes on homosexuality. I cursed Tariq Boudali (an actor in the movie he mentioned i guess) for doing that to the homosexual cause. It’s abominable.».  The actor explains that he refused to star in the play of Laurent Ruquier “Pourvu qu’ils soient heureux”, a play that talks about a boy coming out to his parents.  « I refused this role because after reading it, i told myself it was not possible giving the way the subject was treated. I want to avoid clichés, precisely! »

To David Hourregue, SKAM France overall gives the opportunity to talk freely to the youth. « We want to show that you totally can live your sexuality from a young age. We see it in particular with Alexia’s character, bisexual and accepted by everyone. We have to give a message of open-mindedness ».

The show also tackles the question often avoided, of the vision of homosexuality in religion, especially in Islam. The subject will be treated through Imane, a young muslim high schooler that will be the focus in season 4. And even if the team expects some homophobic reactions on social media, they don’t fear it. « The goal of the series is to make people react », Maxence reckons.  « So if we can make a fucking homophobe shut up and tell him “watch closely, because I’m sure you never lived such a beautiful love story with a woman”, that’s good. »    

[seeselfblack]

For the critical thinker — this is really an interesting and IMPORTANT article discussing religion in the context of history that you should know about and understand despite your religious preference...

Black People Can’t Unite As One While Following Religions From The Oppressor: Cognative Dissonance Or Complete Ignorance

In my personal experiences over the years, religion has gradually become somewhat of a taboo subject amongst ‘Black’ people. It’s almost as if there exists a silent acknowledgement and agreement amongst our people, an unwritten rule perhaps, that Christianity is going to be the prevailing religion, and if anyone shows up to the dinner table or family cookout as a representative of anything other than the Christian religion, then it will be neither discussed or acknowledged.

Even if acknowledged, or brought to the surface of casual conversation, there exists also somewhat of a condescending tone when speaking to most Christians, as if the religion they practice is the only true religion, and any subscriber to any other religion is simply being rebellious, or going through a mere ‘truth seeking phase’, again as if Christians are the only true posessors of some sort of universal truth. The level of ignorance, narrowmindedness, and obduration is astounding when speaking to most Christians about what they believe vs what other people who dare not subscribe to Christian dogma and history believe...

... Any doctrine, that asks you to suspend logic and critical analysis in the way of “faith” should automatically be met with well deserved skepticism and cynicism, and should under no circumstances be taken as facts, or documented, verifiable events in history. And likewise, it can be said with somewhat of a degree of certainty, although a generalization, that anyone who has an unbiased cognizance of history tends typically to not be a person who would consider themselves “religious”...

There are numerous heralded authors over the decades that have dared to tackle the subject of religion from a critical analysis point of view, and all of their various works can be laboriously referred to and cited here. However a list of authors and books would quickly become redundant, and are not essential to expressing the overall point of this article, because history speaks for itself...

...Most people, if asked directly and bluntly, would agree upon the importance and value of a knowledge of history, especially and particularly of one’s own culture.

Even in American public schools, where the typical student isn’t taught anything about Black/African history or culture pre-Columbus, and the only periods in Black/African history that are emphasized are the 300-400 years of American slavery and subsequent era of “Civil Rights”, one can still draw the following conclusions based off of nothing other than historical facts and logic:

A. Slavemasters forbid their slaves from reading, being taught to read, or owning books (why?)

B. The only type of sanctioned gatherings that were permitted were to go to church (why?)

C. The Slavemasters completely stripped Africans of their indigenous names, identities, and any other distinguishing features, and forbid them from speaking in their tribal dialect (why?)

D. European Slavemasters were almost exclusively Christian, mostly Catholic, and some Protestant

So without any background in history beyond public school, without being any type of historian or scholar, and without being particularly well read, there are a few common sense implications that can be rationally maintained based off of the well known facts at hand.

... Why would a brutal, merciless, slave/plantation owner, who denied you the ability to read, to have an identity, or any type of Creator given human rights, give you a book or document that would liberate you? Why would you want to go to the same heaven that the book that the Slavemasters gave you says exists, and that the Slavemaster himself believes he is headed to? Why would you want any type of affiliation whatsoever with any type of organization, association, or religion that your Slavemasters belong to? Why would the same person who violently killed your next of kin, raped your wife, flogged you, hung you, starved you, seperated you from your family, worked you without pay, and degraded you at every opportunity, miraculously turn around and do something for you or give you something that was in YOUR best interest? All the above questions/statements sound pretty illogical to say the least, that is to anyone willing to apply logic and critical analysis to the subject.

Taking a deeper dive into history strengthens an already sturdy case, the case of cognitive dissonance vs. complete ignorance that is. It is a well known fact that every major religion has its roots in Kemet, or what is now called Egypt. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. all can be traced back to Africa, and more specifically the Nile Valley region, from present day Ethiopia all the way up to Egypt, which was the first “Mecca”.

... Greeks were free to pillage through and take any sacred documents and papyri they could find and understand from the vast number of temples and libraries in Kemet, which were not only used for initiation ceremonies, but as centers for learning and studying. From this invasion by Alexander and the Greeks, followed by a subsequent Persian invasion and another invasion from what later came to be known as “Arabs” (which were just a group of mixed Afro-Asiatic tribes), Christianity and Islam as it is known today started to form in Africa and in Europe.

As more and more Europeans came to colonize Africa, the majority of them did so under the guise of spreading Christianity, as if 1.3 billion indigenous Africans were all going to a firey hell without the intervention of the white man bringing the ‘word of Christ’, and his asinine concept of god. Meanwhile, in every single case, the true intention was to steal the land, extract the natural resources for commerce and wealth, utilize the labor of the indigenous population to do it, and rape the women that were subjugated in order to gradually whiten out and replace the indigenous culture with European culture....

The Kemetu people, or Cushites, spread their culture across the world, to almost every geographical land mass. And amongst almost every culture universally, there are pyramids, and a story of a diety who was conceived from a virgin mother, sent to teach the masses, performed miracles, and was eventually chastised, slain, and resurrected. Most of the “Holy Books”, the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, contain the same myths, or rather allegories, just with a different cast of characters.

It is a historical fact that Alexander the “Great” (he was only great to the Greeks) conquered Egypt in around 325 B.C. It is well known that when a nation invades and conquers another nation, the army and nation that is victorious is at liberty to help itself to whatever they deem of value of the conquered nation, and knowledge was no exception...

... The majority of us have been drinking religious Kool Aid for so long, regardless of the flavor, regardless of the religion, that when shown for the first time the actual fruit that the Kool Aid was engineered to emulate, we reject the fruit as fraudulent. All religions are fruit of the same tree, and that tree has it’s roots in the Nile River region of Africa. There are many more precious vitamins and minerals in the source than in the artificial simulation.

There is no way possible we as Black/African/Moorish people can unite under some type of common umbrella and pull together to have the strength and unity to overthrow our oppressors, while embracing a tool used by our oppressors in our own enslavement. Prior to Europeans stepping foot into the continent of Africa, there was no jihads, no crusades, no violent, tyrannical religious regimes. No popes, no paying for indulgences, no silly idea of someone coming back to save everyone from their own stupidity. Again I ask, is it cognitive dissonance or complete ignorance?

[bodhirook1138]

The Problems with Aladdin: Orientalism, Casting, and Ramadan

Originally posted on Medium.

Edward Said and Jack G. Shaheen did not do the work they did so that movies like Aladdin would still get made.

I say this as someone who has had a complicated relationship with the 1992 Aladdin animated feature. I loved it when I was a kid. For a long time, it was my favorite Disney cartoon. I remember proudly telling white friends and classmates in third grade that Aladdin was “about my people.” Although nothing is said in the movie about Aladdin’s religion, I read him as Muslim.

When I grew older, I read Jack G. Shaheen’s book, Reel Bad Arabs, which analyzes about 1,000 American films that vilify and stereotype Arabs and Muslims. Among these films is Aladdin, which Shaheen reportedly walked out of. Shaheen spoke out against lyrics in the film’s opening song: “I come from a land from a far-away place/Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face/It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” Although he convinced Disney to remove the lyrics for the home video release, the final verse was still there: “It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” As a 1993 op-ed in The New York Timeswrote, “It’s Racist, But Hey, It’s Disney.”

In Edward Said’s seminal book, Orientalism (1978), he described orientalism as a process in which the West constructs Eastern societies as exotic, backwards, and inferior. According to Said, orientalism’s otherization of Arabs, Muslims, and Islam provided justification for European colonialism and Western intervention in the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries, often under the pretext of rescuing the people — especially Muslim women — from themselves. In addition to orientalism’s practices of constructing the “Orient” as the West’s “Other,” Said asserted that another major facet of orientalism involves a “western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the ‘Orient.’” In other words, it is not the Arab or Muslim who gets to define themselves, but rather the West does.

There are plenty of excellent and detailed critiques out there about how the original Aladdin is filled with racist, sexist, and orientalist tropes, so there’s very little, if anything, to say that already hasn’t been said. In her extensive report, “Haqq and Hollywood: Illuminating 100 Years of Muslim Tropes And How to Transform Them,” Dr. Maytha Alhassen argues that Hollywood’s legacy of depicting Arabs and Muslims as offensive caricatures is continued in Aladdin, where the main characters like Aladdin and Jasmine are “whitewashed, with anglicized versions of Arabic names and Western European (though brown-skinned) facial features” and speak with white American accents. Alhassen notes the contrast with the “villains, Jafar, and the palace guards” who are depicted as “darker, swarthy, with undereye circles, hooked noses, black beards, and pronounced Arabic and British accents.” In another article, “The Problem with ‘Aladdin,’” Aditi Natasha Kini asserts that Aladdin is “a misogynist, xenophobic white fantasy,” in which Jasmine is sexualized and subjected to tropes of “white feminism as written by white dudes.” Not only does Jasmine have limited agency in the film, Kini writes, but her role in the film is “entirely dependent on the men around her.”

When Disney announced plans to produce a live-action remake of Aladdin, I learned through conversations that the Aladdin story is not even in the original text for Alf Layla wa Layla, or One Thousand and One Nights. It was later added by an 18th century French translator, Antoine Galland, who heard the story from a Syrian Maronite storyteller, Hanna Diyab. Galland did not even give credit to Diyab in his translation. Beyond the counter-argument that “the original Aladdin took place in China,” I am left wondering, how much of the original tale do we really know? How much did Galland change? It’s possible that Galland changed the story so significantly that everything we know about Aladdin is mostly a western, orientalist fabrication. For a more detailed account about the origins of the Aladdin tale, I recommend reading Arafat A. Razzaque’s article, “Who ‘wrote’ Aladdin? The Forgotten Syrian Storyteller.”

Disney has been boasting about how the live-action Aladdin is one of the “most diverse” movies in Hollywood, but this is an attempt to hide the fact that the casting of this film relied on racist logic: “All brown people are the same.” It’s great that an Egyptian-Canadian actor, Mena Massoud, was cast in the lead role, but there’s inconsistency elsewhere: Jasmine is played by British actress Naomi Scott, who is half Indian and half white; Jafar is played by Dutch-Tunisian actor Marwan Kenzari; and Jasmine’s father and a new character, Dalia, are played by Iranian-American actors Navid Negahban and Nasim Pedrad, respectively. The casting demonstrates that the filmmakers don’t know the differences between Arabs, Iranians, and South Asians. We are all conflated as “one and the same,” as usual.

Then there’s the casting of Will Smith as the genie. Whether deliberate or not, reinforced here is the Magical Negro trope. According to blogger Modern Hermeneut, this term was popularized by Spike Lee in 2011 and refers to “a spiritually attuned black character who is eager to help fulfill the destiny of a white protagonist.” Moreover, the author writes that Lee saw the Magical Negro as “a cleaned up version of the ‘happy slave’ stereotype, with black actors cast as simpleminded angels and saints.” Examples of the Magical Negro can be found in films like What Dreams May Come, City of Angels, Kazaam (which also features a Black genie), The Green Mile, The Adjustment Bureau, and The Legend of Bagger Vance. In the case of Aladdin, the genie’s purpose is to serve the protagonist’s dreams and ambitions. While Aladdin is Arab, not white, the racial dynamic is still problematic as the Magical Negro trope can be perpetuated by non-Black people of color as well.

I need to pause for a moment to explain that I don’t believe an Aladdin movie should only consist of Arab actors. Yes, Agrabah is a fictional Arab country, but it would be perfectly fine to have non-Arabs like Iranians, South Asians, and Africans in the movie as well. That’s not the issue I have with the casting, and this is not about identity politics. My problem is that the filmmakers saw Middle Eastern and South Asian people as interchangeable rather than setting out to explore complex racial, ethnic, and power dynamics that would arise from having ethnically diverse characters existing within an Arab-majority society. Evelyn Alsultany, an Associate Professor who was consulted for the film, states in her post that one of the ways Disney tried to justify casting a non-Arab actress for Jasmine was by mentioning that her mother was born “in another land.” However, this seems to have been Disney doing damage control after they received some backlash about Jasmine’s casting. The result is convenient erasure of an Arab woman character. Moreover, the change in Jasmine’s ethnicity does little, if anything, to reduce the film’s problematic amalgamation of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures. Alsultany writes that “audiences today will be as hard pressed as those in 1992 — or 1922, for that matter — to identify any distinct Middle Eastern cultures beyond that of an overgeneralized ‘East,’” where “belly dancing and Bollywood dancing, turbans and keffiyehs, Iranian and Arab accents all appear in the film interchangeably.”

Other examples of how the film conflates various Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures is highlighted in Roxana Hadadi’s review: “Terms like ‘Sultan’ and ‘Vizier’ can be traced to the Ottoman Empire, but the movie also uses the term ‘Shah,’ which is Iranian monarchy.” Referring to the dance scenes and clothing, she writes they are “mostly influenced by Indian designs and Bollywood styles” while “the military armor looks like leftovers from Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven.” An intersectional approach to the diverse ethnic communities represented in the film would have made for a more nuanced narrative, but this would have required a better director.

Speaking of the director, it is amazing that, of all people, Disney hired Guy Ritchie. Because if there is any director out there who understands the importance of representation and knows how to author a nuanced narrative about Middle Eastern characters living in a fictitious Arab country, it’s… Guy Ritchie? Despite all of the issues regarding the origin of the Aladdin story, I still believed the narrative could have been reclaimed in a really empowering way, but that could not happen with someone like Guy Ritchie. It’s textbook orientalism to have a white man control the narrative. I would have preferred socially and politically conscious Middle Eastern and Muslim writers/directors to make this narrative their own. Instead, we are left with an orientalist fantasy that looks like an exoticized fusion of how a white man perceives South Asia and the Middle East.

Lastly, I have to comment on how this movie was released during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. In fact, the film’s release date, May 24th, was just one day before the last ten days of Ramadan, which are considered to be the most important in the month. During Ramadan, Muslims around the world fast — if they are able to — from dawn to sunset every day for 30 days. The time when we break our fast, iftar, typically involves dinner and prayer with family, friends, and/or the community. But Ramadan is more than just about fasting, it’s a time of self-reflection, compassion, and strengthening our connection with Allah, our loved ones, and community. I don’t believe Disney released Aladdin during Ramadan intentionally. If anything, I think the film’s release date is reflective of how clueless and ignorant Disney is. It’s so ridiculous that it’s laughable.

I don’t want to give the impression that Muslims don’t go out to the movies during Ramadan. Of course there are Muslims who do. I just know a lot who don’t— some for religious reasons and some, like myself, for no other reason than simply not having enough time between iftar and the pre-dawn meal, sehri (I mean, I could go during the day, but who wants to watch a movie hungry, right?). Even Islamophobic Bollywood knows to release blockbuster movies on Eid, not towards the end of Ramadan.

But this isn’t about judging Muslim religiosity during the holy month. No one is “less” of a Muslim if they are going to the movie theater or anywhere else on Ramadan. My point is that Disney has not shown any consideration for the Muslim community with this movie. They did not even consider how releasing the film during Ramadan would isolate some of the Muslim audience. It’s clear that Disney did not make efforts to engage the Muslim community. Of course, there is nothing surprising about this. But you cannot brag about diversity when you’re not even engaging a group of people that represents the majority of the population you claim to be celebrating! In response to Shaheen’s critiques of the original Aladdin cartoon, a Disney distribution president at the time said Aladdin is “not just for Arabs, but for everybody.” But this is a typical dismissive tactic used to gloss over the real issues. No doubt Disney will follow the same script when people criticize the latest film.

I don’t have any interest in this movie because it failed to learn anything from the criticism it received back in 1992. The fact that a 1993 op-ed piece titled, “It’s Racist, But Hey, It’s Disney” is still relevant to the live-action version of a film that came out 27 years ago is both upsetting and sad at the same time. As I said earlier, Edward Said and Jack Shaheen did not exhaustively speak out against orientalism, exoticism, and vilification to only see them reproduced over and over again. Of course Disney refused to educate themselves and listen to people like Shaheen— their Aladdin story was never meant for us.

[tripsinegypt]

How to Plan Your Adventure In Egypt "Complete Guide"

Egypt is considered to be the home to some of the oldest civilization and historical monuments in the world which worthy to plan Egypt adventure tours.

The Giza pyramids, Valley of the Kings and temples & tombs of Luxor are all breathtaking and only the start of many ancient wonders. However, do not forget the majestic desert safaris to the western desert, to camp under the magical stars in the White deserts.

In this article, we provide you with how to plan your adventure in Egypt by clarifying the best adventure place in Egypt and when a suitable time to do that, continue to read.

Best Places in Egypt for Adventure:

Here are several options for the various places who are looking for enthusiasts to adventure.

1- Discover The Great Pyramids of Giza and Sphinx.

We will ride the time machine to take you on a trip to the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, those landmarks that considered one of the highlights landmarks of the ancient Pharaohs civilization and which are still maintaining their status until today, and even increase day by day.

It is the ancient monuments that attracted the attention of millions and even billions of tourists who coming to Egypt to see them. The pyramids of Giza were one of the seven wonders of the world for a long time and did not decrease their status, but increased more and more.

During your visit to the area of ​​the Pyramids of Giza, you will be able to know more about the great pyramid founded by King Khufu which date back to the year 2650 BC. This pyramid was used to be buried cemetery for King Khufu and his family.

You can visit the ship of Khufu or the famous Sun Boat, which was discovered in 1954 by archaeologist Kamal Al-Malakh, and then you can head to the pyramid of Khafra, which is 5 minutes' walk from the Great Pyramid on foot.

Then followed by the Pyramid of the "Menkaure" which is located at the end of the plateau, and the pyramid visit is available from 8 am to 5 pm. After that, you can head to the myth Sphinx which is a monumental and legendary statue established to protect the pyramids.

It is one of the largest statues on the face of the earth. It is 20 meters long and 73 meters wide. It is famous for its body, which is the body of the lion and face of a human. The sphinx is symbolized to power and reason.

2- Explore Best Cairo Sights

Cairo city has many iconic sights you should visit when you plan your adventure in Egypt. In Cairo, you can visit the Egyptian museum and the treasure of King Tutankhamun and thousands of artifacts.

Cairo city also has the oldest Churches in the world like the Hanging church. Also, Cairo has many Islamic landmarks such ad the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammed Ali and Alazhar Mosque and the majestic Khan Elkhalili Bazaar also you can take a dinner cruise at Nile view restaurant.

Read more facts about King Tutankhamun and discover its treasures which found with them through the discovery of his tomb.

3- Cast Your Eyes at The Biggest Open-Air Museum in the World

Luxor the city of thousands of gates or Thebes as called, it was the capital of ancient Egypt during the golden era of the Egypt new kingdom which ruled by great Pharaohs in the ancient time.

It one of the best place to visit in Egypt.  Luxor has one-third of the monuments of the world, the best places to explore in Luxor such as the royal tombs of the ancient pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings, the famous tomb in the valley is King Tutankhamun tomb.

There ate more monuments located in the east bank of Luxor such as Hatshepsut temple which was built to commemorate the achievements of the great Queen Hatshepsut.

Also, you can visit the massive Colossi of Memnon which founded by King Amenhotep III to guard its mortuary temple. Leave the east and heat to the west to visit the biggest temple in the world "Karnak Temple" which actually contains many temples inside. It has the largest Hypostyle halls in the world and wonderful inscriptions on its wall and many Obelisks.

4- Witness What Aswan Has to Offer

Aswan, a city located on the Nile River. It contains considerable archaeological sites like the Philae temple complex, Aswan High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk and the majestic temple of Abu Simbel.

Aswan landmarks are worthy to explore when deciding to book one of Egypt tour packages, so don't miss the chance and discover the beauty of Aswan during your trip to Egypt.

5- Enjoy The Adventure At The White Desert & Egypt Oases

Explore the best Egyptian desert which all the travelers who like the desert adventures Egypt have an amazing dessert that dominates about 2/3 of the Egyptian distance the Western Desert and the Eastern Desert.

The white desert originally was a great ocean and dried then the wind formed the white chalk into amazing shapes of animals and birds, Mushrooms, etc. The White Desert of Egypt distinguished by its tranquility and serenity that makes it one of the amazing destination for desert camping and Safari in Egypt.

Egypt has quite a number of oases, and the natural landscape of the oases is filled with warm sulfuric water, which can be cured of rheumatic diseases, and is frequented by visitors of safaris and nomadic singers. To enjoy and see the natural and tourist attractions.

The best oases in Egypt that you can visit is Bahariya, Dakhla, Kharga, Baris oases.

6- Enjoy The Relaxation at The Red Sea

Resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt are among the most visited by tourists, due to the abundance of coral reefs, white beaches, and sunshine, making it a destination for divers and sun-lovers.

Also, Hurghada has considered one of the best diving spots on the Red Sea include the rubble of an amazing old ship and coral gardens. The beaches are 20 km away for good destinations for tourists; hotels, restaurants, and markets. The beaches of Marsa Alam are other examples of beaches in the Red Sea.

7- Discover Egypt By A Nile Cruise

There is nothing wonderful to spend a magical Nile cruise on the back of a floating hotel in the Nile, from Luxor to Aswan or the opposite, where the warm sun of the South and watching the effects of the first civilization in history make you feel proud that you are true when deciding to spend your vacation in Egypt.

You can read also about 25 weird facts about ancient Egypt.