#arab mutuals can proof read

[i-cant-sing]

I'm not trying to be rude or anything genuinely, but doesn't Islam support pedophilia and child marriage? As well as oppression of women? It's a beautiful religion, but when you sit and read these old laws that are still practiced today and never abolished....

*sigh* what laws? what proof do you have for all your claims?

I'm gonna assume about the child marriage and pd thing that you're referring to Prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha, and if u do a little google research you'll find many answers refuting the claim of him marrying him when she was a child, that she was married at this age and consummated the marriage at another, that she was actually a teen and the scribes just didnt write her age right or things got lost in translation, that a person is considered mature when they can be held responsible for their actions, or when women start menses, or that Aisha was actually a highly intelligent woman and she was far more mature for her age. The more you research, the more you'll find out about this claim. Its better in their words than mine, especially since youre not the first person in 1400 years to raise this accusation.

What I will say is that at the end of the day, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had MANY enemies, so if such claims were true, I think they would've used every opportunity they could bring him down. They would've used it against him. They could've used it when he passes away.

AND that medieval times and european countries did marry off their royal kids for years, even if the kids did not consent. But i feel like no one accuses them of pd and child marriages, no no- everything is bad when Islam is involved, hm?

You say that Islam oppresses women. I think no other religion is as protective and progressive as Islam when it comes to women, all u have to do is to not CONFUSE religion with culture.

Imma give you a few examples of just how Islam treats women, and feel free to tell me any other religion or culture that gives as many rights to women as Islam:

Considering the fact that before the advent of Islam the pagan Arabs used to bury their female children alive, make women dance naked in the vicinity of the Ka'ba during their annual fairs, and treat women as mere chattels and objects of sexual pleasure possessing no rights or position whatsoever, these teachings of the Noble Qur'an were revolutionary. Unlike other religions, which regarded women as being possessed of inherent sin and wickedness and men as being possessed of inherent virtue and nobility, Islam regards men and women as being of the same essence created from a single soul. The Qur'an declares:

O mankind! Reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, his mate, and from this pair scattered (like seeds) countless men and women. Reverence Allah, through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and reverence the wombs (that bore you); for Allah ever watches over you. (4:1)

"Women are considered inferior to men." No. This is so wrong. The Shari'ah regards women as the spiritual and intellectual equals of men. The main distinction it makes between them is in the physical realm based on the equitable principle of fair division of labor. It allots the more strenuous work to the man and makes him responsible for the maintenance of the family. It allots the work of managing the home and the upbringing and training of children to the woman, work which has the greatest importance in the task of building a healthy and prosperous society.

The pagan society of pre-Islamic Arabia had an irrational prejudice against their female children whom they used to bury alive. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was totally opposed to this practice. He showed them that supporting their female children would act as a screen for them against the fire of Hell:

It is narrated by the Prophet's wife, 'A'isha, that a woman entered her house with two of her daughters. She asked for charity but 'A'isha could not find anything except a date, which was given to her. The woman divided it between her two daughters and did not eat any herself. Then she got up and left. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) came to the house, 'A'isha told him about what had happened and he declared that when the woman was brought to account (on the Day of Judgment) about her two daughters they would act as a screen for her from the fires of Hell.

You know how in the west, there's like so many divorce stories about how the wife didnt change her surname to her husbands? YEah, Islam does not do that. It allows women to keep their name even after marriage.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said this in his farewell pilgrimmage:

"Fear Allah regarding women. Verily you have married them with the trust of Allah, and made their bodies lawful with the word of Allah. You have got (rights) over them, and they have got (rights) over you in respect of their food and clothing according to your means."

Woman as mother commands great respect in Islam. The Noble Qur'an speaks of the rights of the mother in a number of verses. It enjoins Muslims to show respect to their mothers and serve them well even if they are still unbelievers. The Prophet states emphatically that the rights of the mother are paramount. Abu Hurairah reported that a man came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and asked: "O Messenger of Allah, who is the person who has the greatest right on me with regards to kindness and attention?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your mother." "Then who?" He replied, "Your father."

How many of you can say that my religion/culture says that "Paradise is under my mother's feet" (which means that as long as you serve your mom well, you could enter heaven). In another tradition, the Prophet advised a believer not to join the war against the Quraish in defense of Islam, but to look after his mother, saying that his service to his mother would be a cause of his salvation. Mu'awiyah, the son of Jahimah, reported that Jahimah came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and said, " Messenger of Allah! I want to join the fighting (in the path of Allah) and I have come to seek your advice." He said, "Then remain in your mother's service, because Paradise is under her feet."

Some of you will claim that oooh women are oppressed because they have to wear hijab or cover up- girls, listen. If you've ever listened to locker room talk, if you ever KNEW just how most boys think about the female body, you would actually wish to wear an iron armour and hide away forever. I've seen men GAWK, and CATCALL women that were covered from head-to-toe... I used to think that you know, maybe its fine to have a niqaab that shows your eyes, surely no man could ever be into that. No. Nope. If you havent realised it yet, then you will experience it first hand one day that eyes are literally "the windows to the soul"- like you know how writers often mention getting lost in their lover's eyes, or how beautiful someones's eyes are- yeah... theres a reason for it.Look around you, look at your friends's or family memebers eyes and you'll know just how much the eyes talk, how much they convey.

When Islam was introduced, for the first time women could have share in their inheritance.

But Islam tells women to stay at homes- NO IT DOES NOT (please read any context)! 'A'isha reported that Saudah bint Zam'ah went out one night. 'Umar saw her and recognized her and said, "By God, O Saudah, why do you not hide yourself from us?" She went back to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and told him about it while he was having supper in her room, and he said, "It is permitted by Allah for you to go out for your needs." The predominant idea in the teachings of Islam with regard to men and women is that a husband and wife should be full-fledged partners in making their home a happy and prosperous place, that they should be loyal and faithful to one another, and genuinely interested in each other's welfare and the welfare of their children. A woman is expected to exercise a humanizing influence over her husband and to soften the sternness inherent in his nature. A man is enjoined to educate the women in his care so that they cultivate the qualities in which they, by their very nature, excel.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has on many accounts, many times advised men to be gentle, to be kind to women. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has said: "The best of you are those who are best to their women."

These are just a few examples but I think that if you were to open your eyes and look at it with a broader mind, you'll see Islam is not what you were taught to believe. I dont believe in coincidences that much, so I think that the very fact that you sent me this ask may be a sign that something deeper inside you is telling you to do your own research, that even you dont believe that Islam is this "oppressive and backward" religion.

Hope this helped <3

[cerealxperimentslain]

i am sick to bastard fucking death of shofarsogood (tw for anti arabism and islamophobia) (& a guest appearance of a klansman for some fucking reason)

i think this post is a little funny, and i will give you the context to see why

ID: A post by @xclowniex, reblogged by @shofarsogood:

“I really need goyim to listen to the whole "if 9 people sit at a table and then one nazi sits at that table and no one tried to remove the nazi, then there are 10 nazis at the table"

I have lost my entire irl friend group due to antisemitism, and whilst correlation doesn't equal causation, so im not saying anything as 100% fact, however there is mad correlation between levels of being antisemitic and closeness with a specific person.

I can't be bothered to turn it into a physcial graph but in my head, oo babie is it a strong graph”

End ID

(first of all lol. lmao.)

ID: @xclowniex reblogged @the-catboy-minyan:

@goatfactsofficial:

A screenshot of a 4chan comment saying “I see you've fall for the old Jewish trick of using evidence to make a point”

@goatfactsofficial:

“literally the pro-pal crowd for the last 298 days”

End ID

let’s be clear, @shofarsogood is mutuals with @prismatic-bell

ID: @shofarsogood reblogged @prismatic-bell

@badjokesbyjeff:

(the post has been cut off for brevity)

End ID

(badjokesbyjeff cameo, naturally)

(I could insert screenshots of prismatic-bell reblogging from shofarsogood but that feels redundant. go scroll both their blogs for a single minute you’ll find more than enough proof)

we should all be familiar with prismatic-bell at this point, but here’s a quick reminder

ID: Post by @prismatic-bell, dated 13 may 2021:

"Free Palestine" IS an antisemitic statement.

It comes with the idea that Palestinians are the only people who have an ancient homeland here, and that Jews are to blame for "taking it over." When they destroyed our temple and put a mosque right on top of it! And then they claim we don't belong there!

"Free Palestine" is a shorthand way of saying you hate Jews. Because it ignores history and, almost without variation, is used as an excuse for antisemitic crimes.”

End ID

(google dot com what were muslims doing in the year 70CE) (also i have endless examples of prismatic bell saying the most fucked up shit. xe has never-stop-posting disease and it would be literally impossible to miss what kind of person xe is)

ID: post by @prismatic-bell:

“You know what?

Fuck Ramadan.

Sorry. We were attacked, raped, murdered, beaten, and kidnapped on a major Jewish holiday, and our Chanukkah was spent in misery. I was threatened for playing Chanukkah music IN MY OWN CAR.

So FUCK Ramadan. If this is how our holidays are treated, y'all can feel the same.”

End ID

like. there are so many “don’t call me zionist” people who follow and interact with shofarsogood. i don’t think you get to find yourself offended by people calling you a zionist if this is who you are mutuals with, & therefore mutuals-in-law with @prismatic-bell and @spot-the-antisemitism.

also second cameo of @the-catboy-minyan

ID: @shofarsogood reblogged @spot-the-antisemitism:

@the-catboy-minyan:

“dude I should have replied to every donation ask I got while having "proud Israeli Jew" on my blog to show people how these are bots that send asks randomly. you think Gazans are gonna come to a (((zionist))) for money? Imao.”

End ID

ID: @spot-the-antisemitism reblogged @shofarsogood. End ID

let me introduce @spot-the-antisemitism

ID: @spot-the-antisemitism reblogged a post by @the-garbanzo-annex-jr:

A badly cropped image. On the left is a photo of protesters protecting their identities with Palestinian keffiyeh and masks. On the right is a photo of a klansman in a hood. The text on the image reads:

“If your ideology requires that you cover your face… …maybe you need a new ideology.”

End ID

these guys’ whole entire deal is cherry picking examples of people being antisemitic and using that to try and delegitimise the whole antizionist & pro Palestine movement through some attempt of “guilt by association”. all while freely and guiltlessly associating with people like @some-israeli-guy

ID: @spot-the-antisemitism reblogged from @some-israeli-guy. End ID

this fucking guy

ID: @some-israeli-guy:

“They started a war to wipe out the Jews, they spread lies of rape and torture to demonize the Jews, and when their people ran away in fear and their militaries lost, they had the nerve to call is "the disaster" and act like innocent victims.”

#israel #palestine #no peace with nazis #palestine is a death cult #palestinian hypocrisy #antisemitism

End ID

like what do you even say to that.

a lot of this checking blog stuff i learned to do when it was much more common for cryptoterfs to be prowling around these parts. cryptoterfs won’t say transphobic slurs and they won’t openly advocate for the death of all transfems and forceful detransition of all transmascs, but they have no qualms about following people who do, while they avoid reblogging anything hateful enough that will get them easily clocked as radfems or terfs. hell, maybe they don’t even personally believe those things, maybe they’re trying to “see both sides of things”. maybe they don’t care at all and follow those blogs for entirely unrelated things and that’s why they won’t reblog any of the hate speech.

does it matter?

at the end of the day, whatever their internal motivations may be, they don’t disagree enough with the absolutely horrendous levels of transmisogyny and transphobia to see it as a dealbreaker

parallels parallels parallels

speaking of which, the way these people blog also mirrors the way that many radfems will blog. we all know the style, the “dig up some fucking joe nobody transgender person saying something stupid or lesbophobic/misogynistic & use that to paint the whole movement in a bad light”

“oh but isn’t that what you’re doing right now?” prismatic-bell hasn’t been the bane of tumblr for years just for you to call xir a joe nobody. i could pull up a joe nobody with 3 followers who says things about palestine that i wouldn’t repeat with a gun to my head, but that’s not what this is about

this is about some incredibly popular blogs on here that are either violently hateful towards palestinians, or they are mutuals with those people and don’t see that as enough of a problem to even unfollow let alone block & denounce them.

anyway i can’t link links in the original post but i have a lot of receipts reblogged to @disgustingechoes feel free to have a peruse if you are unconvinced

[yappacitor]

Woah an intro post

[General]

Hello everyone , I'm Fouad ! This is a side blog where I interact with posts with far less of a filter than on my main (can be posts of political nature , or of nsfw nature) follow me at your own discretion .

Arab/Tamazights/French/English OK! English isn't my first language

I am 21 ,I use they/any. I am Arab/North African/Moroccan/Amazigh/Mzamzi Muslim (you can refer to me using whatever label you recognize last in this list).

My sexuality is unlabeled , but I am in a relationship with a very wonderful so it isn't really relevant at the moment!

I am neurodivergent and hypersexual (admist many things) , your patience is very very much appreciated ! I also speak in all caps sometimes , it's just the burst of energy

New friends are always much appreciated! Esp those interested in Tech , TTRPG/RP and any kind of media really I am love anything and everything and I'm open to watching/playing/reading things myself! If we're mutuals feel free to ask me for discord!

Feel free to ask me for main and discord esp if we're moots!

-------

[Nerd stuff 1]

Although I am more into video games , anime and manga. I consume any kind of media regardless of genre or support feel free to infodump or share anything to me!

I am big into RP and TTRPGs/DND ! I was our groups forever GM so I have a lot of premade worlds and campaigns and note to try out or talk about! I have many OCs and would like to know about yours and make ours interact!

I sometimes draw , once in a while my OCs and once in a while my friend's OCs...unfortunately I didn't make much fandom art yet but who knows!! I mostly do fan art and that fan art be for friends! I can always show you some of my art!!

The caption here is wrong , this is more just a list of media I remembered on the fly. This isn't all of my fav medias! there are much more I forgot to put here!

-------

[Nerd stuff 2]

This is my third (out of 5) year as an electrical engineering student ! I specialize in smart system management which is another fancy way of saying robots , thou our program also includes renewable energy ! So I do embedded , electronics , RF/Analog circuit design However I dabble also in:

mathematics (with preferences towards Group theory and Analysis)

mechanical engineering (mechanical conception and Solid kinematics)

Physics (Electromagnetism , Optics , Quantum mechanics)

game development (I use Godot and Unity) and general programming (C/C++ , Python , Rust)

Computer architecture

I'm also a bit into biology , spec evo and chemistry !! Not a lot but enough to discuss them with people (thanks partner for that :3)

I'll post a list of my projects later feel free to ask me about any of them !!

-----

Past the general warning against bigots terfs and zionists , I don't have that much of a DNI list. However please understand that I might not interact with you if something is past my comfort and I might mute some tags .

While I might not likely block without warning , there are some cases I'll skip the warning and straight out block . But making proof of human decency will save you from that treatment.

[fromthefishbowl]

Hello, I just saw your post. I'm so sorry you had to deal with all the death threats and harassments in this fandom. But just want to say from my perspective as a POC in the US, I really appreciate the different viewpoints that you and other Italians and MENA and Jewish people bring to this fandom. (part1)

The TOG fandom has this incredibly bizarre phenomenon of a bunch of mostly white highly educated middle class people in the Anglosphere shouting antiracist rhetoric AT actual POCs, and trying to force *check notes* Italians into confessing their gu8ilt of *check notes* being white (which, I mean, are you really telling me that the Ukranians and Polish immigrants I encounter are the same as Anglo-Americans who's been here for generations?) (part 2)

I actually don't think any of the rhetoric that this race faker and her supporters (including many big name blogs that are currentl y silent) keep shouting about is about actual social justice for POCs, or even sexual positions or what have you - it's about power and control they want to shape cultural narratives that suit their viewpoints - all despite the repeated and loud rebuttals from actual MENA people in the fandom. (part3)

And because they think they're more enlightened, they don't listen to actual POCs or any views that are different from their own, ever. The whole thing is, I find, incredibly patronizing and condescending, and ultimately, alienating for me as a POC in the US. In the end I wonder who they've helped, aside from their own ego. Anyway, just want to give you a shout-out . I'm glad you exist in this fandom. (final)

Long question, so I had to write a long answer.

Yes, that "bizarre phenomenon" you mention is also what I noticed months ago; the rant post I wrote about it got me blocked and vagueblogged by a lot of big-name blogs in the fandom lmao. None of them actually had the galls to come and talk to me directly, though. Which... if you vague about someone, at least give them time to see the post?? Otherwise what's the point???

The whole "Italians are white" thing made me want to rip my hair out. Not even in the US, Italian immigrants were considered to be white, and last year I asked a couple of American friends if they consider me white, and they told me "I think you're probably Hispanic" and "I just think you're Italian".

We have been mingling with other Med countries for thousands of years. Sicily was an Islamic Kingdom for three-hundred years and the first battles for the territory began two-hundred years before that, and a lot of Italian words descend from Arabic. We have always been in the business of MENA countries and vice-versa. This... forced separation they try to create between us and North African countries is just... it's crazy. And when we would point out that is not how it works, we'd get swarmed by a bunch of angry Anglos/Americans/Northern Europeans insulting us for not following proper US American etiquette regarding race or ethnicity or whatever.

No, I don't think that any of the discourse in this fandom is actually about social justice or making sure that Joe is well written. It was just a bunch of people who wanted a reason to, and I quote a mutual, colonize this fandom space with their bullshit. They wanted us to follow the stereotypes they see in movies.

If the whole point was to educate us about racism in fandom spaces, then they wouldn't be this silent right now or excusing her actions. There's literal proof that she faked her life experiences to have brownie points to use in fandom and that she took the real murder of a man and removed the actual victims of that story of police violence to make herself the protagonist. Who the fuck does that and is still considered a good person??? How can you consider her a good person after reading that???

I wonder how much disinformation she has spread about North Africa in these months, how much stuff she copied and pasted from random websites and fed to her followers pretending that she had learned it out of experience.

I don't know if you'll read this answer, but I thank you very much for dropping it in my inbox. This fandom is hell, but it's nice to see that some people have sunk their teeth in it.

[smarmykemetic]

Kemetic Ritual Honoring the Akhu and Outlaw Dead January 28th

Anyone who wants to participate is invited to our ancestor veneration ritual, scheduled for the 28th. A handful of kemetics from the discord have planned an event where we will be both honoring the traditional Akhu of the Duat with a ritual called the “Beautiful Feast of the Western Valley” with our rituals, offerings, and donations to Egyptian historical reconstruction and humanitarian causes on the 28th of January, 2021. @thetwistedrope has volunteered to perform the traditional Osirian rite, while me and @secondgenerationimmigrant will be performing the Setian version of this rite for the Outlaw Dead, and a few others will be performing rites for the akhu and other ancestors on the same date. These rites are also meant to give participants a chance to grieve and process the trauma of all the people we’ve lost to the COVID pandemic, if this is the sort of thing that helps you.

We will also be performing free readings in exchange for proof of a charitable donation of $5 or more to any of the following charities, as well as naming you as an “ally to the akhu/Outlaw Dead” (depending on which charity you donate to) and asking them to watch over and protect you, since you’re currently helping to take care of both them and their descendants. If you would like to get a reading and favorable mention with our ancestors, please message me with proof of a charitable donation to one of the charities linked below, and I will let you know when you can expect the reading done. Please have any requests in by the 27th though, so I can fully prepare everyone for the naming part of the process; the readings will be done by me and @arcreads2 and possibly a few others -all depends on how many people want to donate. 

You can find the Osirian ritual here and the Setian ritual (the Outlaw Dead version) here, in case you’d like to do your own ritual for the akhu, or your own ancestors. Anyone and everyone who would like to participate is encouraged to participate, either with these rites or whatever ancestor veneration rites you feel like doing. If you’ve got any questions or suggestions, hit me up! 😊

Charitable donations for Osirian ritual:

https://www.egyptianfoodbank.com/en/program/monthly-feeding-al-gameya

https://www.southasasif.com/

https://www.ees.ac.uk/Appeal/ees-heritage-at-risk-grant

http://dakhlehoasisproject.com/support-the-trust/

https://uk.gofundme.com/f/covid19-arab-mutual-aid-fund

https://www.egyptiancurebank.com/donation/monetary/

http://www.e-c-h-o.org/bkgrnd.php

Charitable donations for the Outlaw Dead ritual:

https://marxist-feminist.tumblr.com/post/186191087397/advocates-say-the-fastest-way-to-help-immigrants (a bunch of links to donate to bail for immigrants being held in concentration camps)

https://fourthievesvinegar.org/donate "People are disenfranchised from access to medicine for various reasons. To circumvent these, we have developed a way for individuals to manufacture their own medications. We have designed an open-source automated lab reactor, which can be built with off-the-shelf parts, and can be set to synthesize different medications. This will save hundreds of thousands of lives."

https://www.gofundme.com/f/euz3f9-prisoner-emergency-support-fund "The Toronto Prisoners Rights Project is fundraising to provide assistance to people who are incarcerated and to people who have been released, with little or no reintegration support, due to outbreaks."

https://hater-of-terfs.tumblr.com/post/634553471710937088/getting-involved-masterpost masterpost of similar charities and organizations to choose from!

[princesshalfdemon]

i came to tumblr when i was 18, 8 years now, specifically for roleplaying/rping and to this day its a major part of my tumblr presence. you know how many spanish only RP blogs i’ve seen??? like three. they have their own tags for it but i’ve only seen like three by coincidence too, thanks to recommended blogs back in my pmmm rp days. compared to other languages i’ve seen more people who only speak spanish on here, but that is itself a minority as well and i’m getting off-topic

tumblr is an english-dominated website and your experience here is probably extremely mitigated if you can’t read and type in english. despite being hispanic and having lived in colombia for six months i struggle with spanish, but i already know if spanish was my primary language i’d have very little chance of interacting with as much content as i could without speaking english. now being the second-most language spanish kind of has a boost in these websites but the reality is these kinds of websites are dominated by one language. have you ever seen a PSA with thousands of notes on here written in spanish or arabic or german or japanese or chinese? you haven’t and unless its extremely region-specific aimed at a specific small section of the website you probably never will

there’s something incredibly infuriating of seeing (white) people ask for proof or demand that someone is “actually x” because they never speak the language publicly or post about their experiences living in another country that isn’t the anglosphere (this one is Especially Fucking Annoying). “Oh, you’re Chinese/Mexican/Japanese/Braziliain/anything that isn’t American or British or Canadian??? why don’t you ever type that language or talk about your experiences there sweetie :)” is a very unsubtle kind of unconscious racism like, how expected are you to talk about your experiences living in the USA and what this country is like??? how expected are you to speak something that isn’t english???

like its so engraved into the expectation of people from other countries actively speaking their native language in a website where i’m going to estimate probably less than 10% (if even) possibly knows. bc there’s no point to it for most of them and it only serves to satisfy the curiosity of white people (and in some particularly obnoxious cases POC who have been so affected by white brainrot from their mutuals that expect everyone who uses this site to live in some anglosphere and live in this cloud of wake wokeness) so they can see the foreigner talking their foreign language like watching animals in a zoo

i’ve never seen a case of “well if you’re really from X why don’t you ever talk about living in X or speak X” that wasn’t just really blatant racism

[loverandservantoftheahlulbayt]

🍃🕊🍃 The Significance of 🍃🕊🍃

🍃 Ramadhan 🍃

🍃 The Month of Ramadhan is the holiest one in the Islamic calendar and begins with its social, moral and spiritual blessings.

The following sentences of an invocation point to some of these blessings:

“O Allah , this is the month of Ramadhan, in which Thou didst sent the Quran as a guide for people and as a clear sign to differentiate between right and wrong; and it is the month of fasting, month of prayers, month of returning (to Thee) and month of repentance; it is the month of forgiveness and mercy, the month in which is the Night of Qadr which is better than thousand months ...,

O Allah Bless Muhammad and his progeny and keep me free for Thy worship and for reciting Thy Book.”

It appears from the above sentences that some amongst the blessings of this month are the Qur'an the Night of Qadr, the repentance from sins and mutual understanding and forgiveness.

According to Islamic belief, every action, whether good or bad, carries more weight in this month. Thus, charity is a virtue at all times, but is more virtuous in this month; and injustice is an evi1 at all times, but is more evil in these days.

Reciting Quran is a commendable deed the whole time, but it assumes a far greater significance in this month.

The Holy Prophet (S) has said:

“Everything has its own spring season, and the spring of the Quran is the month of Ramadhan.”

It was in this month that the Quran was revealed to the Holy Prophet (S). According to his words, the Quran is

"the deliverer from wilderness, eyesight for the blind, pardon for the sinner, light in blackness, safety from disaster, rescue for the castaway, clarity in the chaos and the means to reach safely from this world to the life hereafter; and herein is the perfection of your religion; and the path away from the Quran goes to Hell only."

One of the miracles of the Quran is its everlasting freshness even after such and passage of time except the Quran because its treasure would never exhaust and its wonders would never cease. Mr. James A. Michener refers to this aspect of the Book in "Islam - the Misunderstood Religion” (Reader’s Digest, May, 1955) in these words:

“the Koran is probably the most often read book in the world surely the most often memorized, and possibly the most influential in the daily life of the people who believe in it. . .. It is neither poetry nor ordinary prose, yet it possesses the ability to arouse its hearers to ecstasies of faith.”

Laura Veccia Vaglieri writes in "Apologi de I’Islamisme", a translation of which runs as follows:

“But there is another proof of the Divinity of the Quran; it is the fact that it has been preserved intact through the ages since the time of its revelation till the present day ..... Read and re-read by the Muslim world, this book does not rouse in the faithful any weariness; it rather, through repetition, is more loved every day. It gives rise to a profound feeling of awe and respect in the one who reads it or listens to it.”

But we must remember that reciting just a step towards the ultimate goal; understanding and following. Allah Says,

“Do they not earnestly not seek to understand the Quran, or are their hearts locked out by them?

Holy Quran (47:24)

Reading the Quran with proper understanding bears the fruits of spiritual and moral upliftment and material and intellectual advancement. It is better to read a few verses with meditation rather than finishing the whole book in a day like a parrot without knowing what is said.

The Quran is the purest and highest of Arabic literature. But those who depend upon the translations for Quranic knowledge often fail to appreciate its lofty standard.

First of all, there is the difficulty in translating this book into any other language; because in the words of A.J Arbury, it is “a foreign idiom, for the Koran is God’s revelation in Arabic, and the emotive and evocative qualities of the original disappear almost totally in the skilfullest translation." (The Holy Koran, an introduction; London, 1953).

But according to the same author, "bad translation is not the whole story by any means ...No, the fault lies not so much in the manner of translation as in the manner of reading the translations. The root of the trouble is that the ordinary reader, and for that matter the extraordinary readers as well, has not been sufficiently advised how to read as well, has not been sufficiently advised how to read the Koran ...The Koran, like the poetry is resembles in so many ways, is best sampled a little at a time; and that little deserves and needs meditation."

Laura Veccia Vaglieri comments: "On the whole we find in it a collection of wisdom which can be adopted by the most intelligent of men, the greatest of philosopher's and the most skillful of politicians.”

If a man recites the Quran with meditation and understanding, he would learn morals which would help him acquire spiritual perfection: he would feel encouraged to follow the footprints of men of God: he would be sorry for whatever sins and mistakes he might have committed in his life. This will make him tum towards God with a soul full of gratitude for all the blessings bestowed upon him by God, and full of remorse for all his misbehaviors.

It is for this reason that the month of Ramadhan is described as the month of repentance. The Holy Prophet (S) has said: "There is no intercessor better than repentance." Allah in His grace forgives all sins and transgressions if a sinner repents sincerely. The operative word is "Sincerely". A repentance without a Change of heart is no repentance. It must produce change in habit, honesty in dealing, love and fear of God in actions.

According to Imam Ali (a.s.),

“Repentance must have six elements: the repentant must be really sorry for what he had done: he must have firm determination not to do it again: he must make amends for whatever wrongs he might have done to others: he must fulfil all the obligations of religion previously neglected; he should fast long enough to melt away the flesh grown of unclean and unlawful food: and he should feel the taste of obedience to Allah as he was previously enjoying the taste of sin”.

When a man repents sincerely, Allah makes him as clean as he was the day he was born. The Holy Prophet (S) has said: "One who repents from sin is like the one who never committed any sin."

It is obvious from the above discourse that the month of Ramadhan and its fast purify the soul and bring a man nearer to Allah. "Fast is a shield against Hell”, said the Holy Prophet (S). The fast mentioned in this tradition is not merely abstinence from food and drink. it is an act of self-denial for the love of God. And this voluntary self-denial imposes a very high discipline, where the external regulations occupy the lowest rung of the ladder. Imam Ali (a.s.) said: “Many are the people whose only share in the fast is the hunger and thirst.”

The measure of a man's nobility is his love of, and obedience to, God. When for a whole month he follows the words of Allah unquestioningly, without regret and without complaint, and when he spends his time in prayer, charity, humility and noble works, should one wonder if he gets fully disciplined to obey each and every command of God unhesitatingly and spontaneously without any thought of avoiding or dodging any order.

A fast which produces such results is surely a shield against Hell and is worthy of the pronouncement of Allah:

“Fast is for me and I will reward it myself”.

🍃🕊🍃🕊Imam Reza.net 🕊🍃🕊🍃

[ashfaqqahmad]

Faith versus Logic 2

Names are Cultural and not Religious

Click here to read the previous part of this article

Apart from this, people also raise a question that if you don’t have faith, why don’t you change the name?

Means if you do not believe in the Islamic concept then change your name to Ashok instead of Ashfaq — but then Ashok will be a Hindu name. Suggest a name that does not smell of any religion – is atheism any creed that does have any names of its identity?

It is sciolism, that names are religious. In fact, names are cultural. In India, you will find many Nihal’s in Sikhs and Muslims — many Abraham’s will be found in Christians and Muslims – many names like Ayan, Kabir, Raja, Rani, Sara, Sheeba will be found in both Hindus and Muslims.

How Homo sapiens won the battle of survival?

Buddhists, Hindus of India, Nepal will have similar names – but if you reach Japan, there Buddhists have no Indian names but you will find Japanese names like Akira, Amara, Xian, Shijuka and if you meet Buddhists in China, there according to Chinese culture, you will find names like Bruce Lee, Wang Li, Su Chi, Han Xi.

In Indonesia, Malaysia, Muslims will get their names according to their culture, in Africa according to their culture and in Europe, there will be many common names of Muslims and Christians.

Since an Indian Muslim follows Arabic culture, he keeps an Arabic name and that is why they have made a notion that these names are of Muslims, while Josephs and Peters were found in Europe thousands of years before even Christianity came and Even before the arrival of Islam, Umar, Ismail, Abrahams were found in Arabia.

In the year 610, Hazrat Muhammad declared himself a prophet, conferred the title of Muslim and began the transition to Islam, but his name was the same for forty years before that. Bibi Khadija, who was the first to believe, had the same name Khadija before that.

The names of Hazrat Umar, Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Osman or Hazrat Ali were nothing else before practising Imaan. Before people becoming Muslims there were a lot of Christian and Jewish tribes in Arabia and their names were still the same that remained after believing – because names were not from religion, names were from Arabic culture.

Where did religion come from and how logical from the point of view of science?

So drop this idea from the heart that there is a copyright of any religion on any name… and if there is someone with no faith, asking him to set his name, his marital custom, or his funeral as a separate creed —  Actually it is sciolism of the people.

The cremation ceremony is a primitive tradition and not a religion

In the endless debate between the atheists and theists, these taunts will often be heard by you– Except the Name and Marriage, the third big taunt is whether they will be burnt or buried?

People feel that religion has a monopoly over the cremation ceremony, which is why according to them they ask a great question. – but is it actually that great? If you are asked about the human development journey then the people of Taurat, Injeel, and Quran will bring Adam and Eve while people of Vedas will bring ahead Manu and Shatrupa.

If evidence is sought from them that man has found an existing form with the help of gradual development (which is also archaeologically proven) or the modern humans started from the first humans in the world, who started doing everything from wearing clothes to farming, from the same period – then the believers will go to the other option and if you ask for any proof of this, then they have books …No more proof is needed.

If God is there then how can it be from the point of view of science

Okay, lets remove the technical errors according to their convenience and assume that we are branches of the human tree that in Africa, was the same tree that started from Adam Eve or Manu Shatrupa and starting from the fossils of Ramapithecus, Kiniapithecus of 1.4 million years ago, crossing through Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Gingithropus, Lucy reaching Homo Hebilus, Homo Heidelbergonsis, Homo erects (erects, pekinensis, moritenicus) finally reached till Homo sapiens (neanderthalensis, phosilisis, sapiens) to the present modern form we are.

If you look at the issue of the name, then these people spread out of Africa and spread all over the world and formed hundreds of different beliefs and developed cultures. Names are the identity of a human being, which would have been needed since the time humans started speaking– Since then, names were started to be named after their culture.

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It is not that before Christ, there were no Joseph, Peter, Philip in Europe or people did not have names like Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Usman before the advent of Islam in Arabia … the names of the wife, friends, colleagues or family members of the Prophet himself used to do the same before reading Kalma, and remained thereafter. Because such a provision that Arabic culture has to be adopted along with religion has been made in Islam, Arab names were assumed to be the hegemony of Islam, while such is not the case.

Many methods of body termination have been in practice

Similarly, there is the issue of cremation of dead bodies – if you see religion, Sanatan would be five thousand years old, Buddhist two and a half thousand, Ebrahimi three and a half thousand (which was later divided into about two and a half, two and a half thousand years ago into Jews, Christians and Islam) years old, But human civilization is not only thousands but millions of years older… then how would they have cremated the bodies. Keep one thing in mind that it was made a religious ritual much later, the sole purpose was to destroy the dead bodies, and it will continue to be so.

Among them, the most ancient methods have been to bury, to leave the dead bodies for animals and birds – many species of fishermen immerse the bodies in the sea to cremate. In India, this has been in vogue for burial, shed in rivers and burnt as a pyre for thousands of years. In some eras, tombs of capable people were also built in the form of cremation and dead bodies were also spiced up and kept safe as mummies.

In many tribes of Africa, the Amazons and in Tibet itself, the bodies are left for animals. Once, many tribal species used to leave bodies of their dead, for the eagles. Even today, the Parsi community in Mumbai leaves the bodies opened in the Tower of Silence so that the eagle can eat them. Burying is the main practice outside of India as a method of destroying dead bodies.

As long as we are alive as an atheist, everything is there, at the end of our consciousness we are finished… then it makes no difference whether our body termination is done as burnt, buried or by medical students. It often depends on other people around, how they like to terminate the corpse.

what are the possibilities for new writers

That is why if someone does not agree with your faith, then it is his constitutional and human right… You may not agree with him, but don’t give this stupidly taunt as change your name, how to get married or be buried or burnt. Because names are cultural, they don’t have a monopoly of religion, in marriage the desire of the other party is also important and the cremation is a process of body termination that has been going on since the early period of human civilization – every burial doesn’t mean an aspiration of Magfirat and Jannat and not everyone who burns in pyre have the desire for Moksha.

Moral decay or transcendence is beyond faith

For the rest and the main charges – one of them is the social decline related to morality. For a believer, this is religion originated, while it has no relation to religion. They say why can’t atheists have sex with sister, then the pure answer is morality as in human behaviour, otherwise, you will find, the brother who had sex/raped their sister, or the father who made relation with the daughter, in every religion.

The second answer is that if the world started with two humans, then their first breed, which is the father’s semen and mother’s womb, were all born siblings (keep this twin theory to yourself, that all born of one womb are siblings), then the next generation is obviously born out of their mutual relationships… According to that, we all are children of siblings then, now you decide whether they were a human being or an animal.

There is another accusation, what is the difference between an animal and an atheist? It is the same difference as of between a human being and an animal, of conscience, to be of the more sophisticated mind – Do they understand the difference between better and worse like human beings and are they able to turn the circumstances in their favour like a human being?

An accusation is that if the human is made from monkey to human, then why this process has stopped now. The answer is that of a race there are many species – from small cats to lions, all come into the cat family, or from lizards to dinosaurs, all come into one family. In the same way, suppose a monkey species living on trees for some reason (assume food crisis) came out of the jungles and started walking on two legs and according to the need of the time, it grew wiser from generation to generation — this does not mean that all species of apes should grow in the same way.

How to write a book in Microsoft word  

Do theists have all the answers?

Now come to the main point where the theists attack with a list of unresolved questions related to nature, why is this so? If not so, why it isn’t — The thing to note here is that an atheist tries to understand almost everything/questions, but a theist chooses answers of every complicated question or the things he does not understand to leave upon the God. We grapple with questions and it is the result of our struggles that discoveries have been made all over the world, otherwise the people tied to religion while absconding under the guise of God, consider themselves to be declared winners.

For Newton, he is said to have discovered the force of gravity by watching the apple fall – It was only his ability to cope with the question, that it was found out what force is there in the ground, otherwise, for a moment imagine Newton as a pundit or mullah… Watching the apple fall, would have held the slogan that, it is all a wonderful act of God and would have closed the eyes and have gone sleeping again.

They ask many questions related to nature– if it is like this, why is like this, if it is like that, why is it like that – that if we have made our nature that every question we should have an answer. Well, let’s ask you the same question in return, Tell me what is the answer…. there is a hundred percent guarantee, in that case, the answer will go to the God and stop – that the God has made each and everything, that’s His nature and that He can do whatever he wants – such people have no more answers.

Think, you go to the exam and there comes a question that why do gas balloons rise up, what will we write in the answer – That it is all because of God or that they contain hydrogen gas which is the lightest in weight, because it is a certified fact by science that has come to your knowledge.

How come – through a man who closes the answer to every question upon God, or through a fellow who keeps the God aside and grapples with questions? By the way, you consider the man a masterpiece of God, then according to that what is third gender – is this not his complete failure? Whether all the physically incompetent or half incomplete people/fetuses are born – aren’t they all failure of that God?

Click here to read the next part of this article

इस लेख को हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिये यहाँ क्लिक करें

[asmakahf]

Second Wife, Prostitute or Porn Star!

Why Islam Allows second wife?

The reasons are many but one is a man marrying a lonely woman, who has nobody to take care of her.

This is done out of free will of both, yet people are against this, these are the very "people" who support every immoral act because its an individual's choice and freedom.

Shockingly no media informs you when 100 of 1000s of Rich ,independent, educated and beautiful women from western/European nations marry arabs and are happy to be thier 2nd or 3rd or even 4th wife!

This media that bashes 2nd marriage glamourises concepts like sugar daddy with taglines like -- these young women are independent, doing it out of free will and its a mutually decided agreement between the two,

Who are we to judge!

And women involved in dirty jobs that ONLY use her body Say -- if we had enough money to support ourselves we would never choose this "job".

Classically there was a saying if you want to judge a ruler/govt, see if women of his kingdom have to sell themselves for livelihood.

To call it job is injustice to people who do it because they dont have choice .

Pole dancing, adult movies, modelling, prostitution -these things are NOTHING BUT MAKING A HUMAN BODY INTO A LIFELESS OBJECT MEANT TO BE USED and THROWN WHEN OUT OF SHAPE/FORM.

It needs you to do such and such things...

Situation is so disgusting that highly educated women were lining up when theres an audition for porn online streaming service!

More shockingly people who are hiring have reject a lot women because they already have too many at thier dispense!

In islam when,The Moment a man marries a woman(second wife) Her status becomes Equal to his First wife, she is not a mistress (mistress who is hidden from public life of the man who she is in relationship with) Second wife in Islam is as much a responsibility and honour of a man as his first wife.

So a woman who was lonely probably not respected, left on her own to do small jobs or be sulking for love and attention, ignored by male members of her society and women looking down on her insecure that she can sleep with any man because she has no husband in her life. We have all seen this ,heard this and know it happens.

Such a woman gets instant Equal respect and position like a first wife.

Heard a young man say this is how you define status of a woman, cant she earn on her own!

This is the mindset that opposes woman being second wife, where she belongs to one man, and this mindset encourages and demands respect for prostitution/ porn industry where woman is a worst than an object, have to tolerate every dirty thing and becomes a sort of garbage bin where people throw their filth and relieve themselves.

By this logic woman can and should make their bodies into dumping ground and be available for being judged for money she can call her own but she is doing the backward thing if she chooses to stick to one man who is married and marries her to give equal rights and who provides for her with respect.

Having multiple women by a man's side is proof of his success, women who keeps changing and changing, new flavour for every week.

And if a man marrries second time, you think its a joke or easy for him to call another woman as his wife?

You think its lust that he marries women legally, gives her right over him for life?

To call a woman a second wife officially is a brave thing.

Dont assassinate character of men who have 3 or 4 wives and lots of children. They have taken up the responsibility unlike those men who love short flings and want to run away from women he spend even 1 night!

In any era a rich man has no dearth of women ready to be his mistresses.

For sure, some categories of women will never understand this.

One who is happily marrried, other who is young women who haven't seen the uglier side of life yet and fake feminists who think idea of independent woman is one who earns by any means, is ready to go nude and thrash men at the drop of a hat.

If this world really cared about WOMEN,

If this world really knew what Feminism should be about they WOULD HAVE WORKED TO ELIMINATE HER OBJECTIFICATION, PROSTITUTION AND PORN.

Instead they are busy in stripping women,

Want her to earn by hook or by crook and

Spread propaganda against religions which have solution to female problems.

Whoever started this idea of feminism was one big fool and enemy of womanhood.

Women who were victims of some men's chauvinism or different crimes needed remedy to target just that.

Women DID NOT NEED THAT BEING VICTIMS THEY WILL BE ASKED TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES IRRESPECTIVE OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

They dint need that they will be transformed into wanna be males.

They dint need thier ability of giving birth is made into a burden,

They dint need that they are called out to be strong, fight and come out and run race with men.

They needed that men respect her,

They needed that no man leaves her after using her as a woman or as a wife.

They needed that men provide for her children.

They needed that husbands participate and help her in bringing up children.

They needed thier husband or after his death there is a system that helps her to take care of her and her children.

She needed strict laws to curb rape and molestation.

Not one of the above is focus of modern world.

All they want is

Women earn, be a single mother and earn,

Be unhealthy, be weak but you have to earn,

be elderly, have period issues, doesn't matter you have to earn.

They use women to target Islam and HIDE what status Islam gives to a daughter, wife, mother, sister.

That's because islam is a religion where women is Queen of the house, a husband takes care of her its Duty on him. He is supposed to be gentle with her, treat her well and be kind to her.

Dont say you dont need it,

Why is it some women envy while they look at another woman and say that's one lucky woman who doesn't need to work, her husband is soo sweet he takes care of her and doesn't force her to work!

We don't need to change victim, we need to change the system that is apathetic towards victims.

You are doing injustice when you work on or discuss what can be done to the victim and ignore the crime or criminal.

In any situation, when people start discussing, debating about victims they do not intend to give them justice. For example Palestinians.

People discuss them, thier culture, thier photographs, history and what not.

But nobody ever talks about their suffering,

How many times did u hear or read The fact that they are not fighting for freedom,they are struggling to breath.

[avasharpe]

Sugar and Salt

Chapter: Seven of Ten

Summary: Zari and Behrad move back into their parents home, but Laurel drops with a lead on who called ICE, Zari picks up her computer to track him down.

Fandom: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Relationship: Amaya Jiwe/Zari Tomaz, and Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe.

Characters: Amaya Jiwe, Zari Tomaz, Behrad Tarari, Kuasa, Sara Lance, Ava Sharpe, Sin Lance, and Kendra Saunders.

Chapter Rating: General Audiences.

Additional Tags: Bakery and Coffee Shop, Mutual Pining, Non-binary character, Trans Character, Fake Marriage, But Real Feelings, Food.

Read at AO3

Read at FFN

……………………………………………………………………

“Okay that goes up to Zari’s bedroom and those boxes can go into the kitchen,” Sara instructed Mick, Ray, and Nate and pointed up the stairs for them to carry the parts of Zari’s bed frame. Sara stood in the entryway at the bottom of the stairs as she directed traffic for the move-in process.

“Remind me who put you in charge of this?” Zari asked as she set down the box she was carrying. 

“Well someone’s got to make sure you don’t set up your closet in the living room,” Sara said, pointing her toe at the box Zari had just sent down, which was clearly labeled ‘Zari’s clothing.’ “And Amaya said I could.”

Zari just rolled her eyes and picked up the box again. Making a note to go find Amaya as she walked upstairs. 

It had been a few weeks since she had agreed to move and they had spent the majority of the time going through old things, packing, and cleaning. They had agreed to keep some of their parents’ old furniture with a few touches of their new things.

It was hard for Zari to see the old furniture and everything reminded her of them, but once she started adding her things to the house it made things easier. They only had to move in a few pieces of big furniture, such as beds and desks, as the majority of what they had were in boxes. Zari was surprised that she didn’t want much of her furniture and was in the process of selling or giving it away to anyone who needed it. As she trudged her way up the stairs Behrad and Sin came running down the stairs almost barreling right into her. 

“Hey you two are supposed to stay in Behrad’s room and unpack,” Zari said, readjusted the box in her arms. “You two nearly knocked me over and we don’t want you guys getting trampled with the big furniture.”

“But we already unpacked all of my stuff,” Behrad said, with a shrug. “Can’t we help somewhere else?” 

“Okay, fine, but stay out of the way of the big furniture,” Zari said, moving to let them pass.

“Okay,” Sin said as they ran past her. 

“And no running,” Sara shouted at them before Zari could. 

Sara and Zari both exchanged a look with knowing smiles as Zari shook her head. Zara trudged up the stairs and heard Sara bark orders at Ava and Kendra as they brought in more boxes. When she reached the top of the stairs, Amaya came out of one of the rooms and met Zari with her winning smile.

“Do you want me to take that into your room?” Amaya asked, already taking the box from Zari’s arms. 

“Thank you,” Zari said, gratefully handing it over. “Hey, did you tell Sara she could direct traffic, instead of helping out?”

“Yeah, she said she wasn’t feeling that great, but she did bring Ava with her to help out. Besides, we do need someone to make sure everything goes where it’s supposed to, why?”

“Oh, I think the power is going to her head a little bit,” Zari smiled and rolled her eyes. 

“Well, I’m sure you can keep her in check,” Amaya smirked back. “How about you and I drop off this box together and you can help me put my clothes away?” 

Amaya smiled and her eyes had that beautiful sparkle and Zari took a moment to appreciate Amaya’s brilliant eyes. Ever since they had started the move in process and as they each committed to spending more time with the kids, there hadn’t been much time left for them to be alone and Zari missed being around just Amaya. 

“Zari?”

“Yeah, lead the way,” Zari said, ducking her head and blushing a deep red.

Amaya licked her lips and giggled as she turned around and led Zari down the hall. Zari knew that they would most likely just end up making out for a while and eagerly followed her. 

“Hey guys,” Lita said, coming out and walking up to them with her hands in her pockets, and the glow between them faded. “Can Kuasa and Hector set up a video game since we’re all done getting Behrad moved in?” 

“Yeah, but could you supervise Behrad and Sin? They want to help with the moving, but I don’t want them to get hurt by the big furniture pieces,” Zari said pointing down the hall to where they had run off.  

“Yeah no problem,” Lita said with a shrug and a smile.

“Thank you for babysitting Lita,” Amaya added with a nod as Lita popped back into the room, to let Kuasa and Hector know what was going on.

Once Lita had scampered down the stairs, Amaya sent Zari another sultry smile and swayed her hips as she walked down the hall. Zari followed her like a puppy and the second she set the box down, Zari put her hands on her hips and twirled Amaya towards her. They smiled at each other before leaning in and pressing their lips against one another. Zari sighed as she relaxed into the kiss and Amaya wrapped her arms around Zari’s neck. 

“Zari!” Sara yelled at her from down the stairs.

Zari sighed again, but this time in frustration and Amaya pulled away from her. “We should probably go see what she wants?”

“Whatever it is, it’s not important enough to drag me away from you,” Zari said as she chased Amaya’s lips and kissed her again. 

“Zari, your lawyer is here to speak with you!” 

That broke them apart. They hurried down the stairs to see Laurel waiting for them with a stack of papers in her arms. Laurel and Sara both had a somber look across their face and Amaya reached out to squeeze Zari’s hand as they walked the rest of the way down the stairs.

“What’s this about?” Zari asked as she stepped off the bottom step.

Laurel looked around at everyone as they were still moving things in and walking around the house. “Is there somewhere we can speak privately?” 

Zari nodded for Laurel to follow her and walked over to her father’s old library. As a child, her father would work in his study and Zari would play on the rug. He was quite the book collector and many of the books were in Arabic. Her father made sure she and Behrad knew how to speak and read in Arabic and carry on the cultural traditions. Zari hadn’t stepped foot in the room yet and didn’t have any plans to change it. It was exactly as she remembered it as she opened the door and led Laurel in.

Laurel looked around the room and Zari offered her one of the chairs next to the desk. Laurel put the papers down on the coffee table between them and pulled out a few documents getting right to it.

“When I took on your case I did a little digging and contacted someone I knew in ICE, in order to find the report made against you. The report was made anonymously, but they included your home address and your work address. I thought something was off about how they knew where you lived and where you worked. I got a copy of the phone call and I think, I should play it for you.” 

Laurel pulled out her phone and looked up at her, Zari just nodded and Laurel hit play.

“Hello, I have a concern about someone illegally living and working here in Star City. Their name is Zari Tomaz and they live at 108A Orange Street, Star City, and work at Jewi’s Bakery over on 140th Street.”

Zari’s jaw fell open, she was shocked to hear Damien Darhk’s voice on the call as he listed off her address. He began to say a few other unkind and down white racist things about her, but Laurel hurried to end the recording and put her phone away. 

“I’m sure you can guess as to who it was, but unfortunately I can’t legally be sure that it was Damien Darhk. By reporting you he violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act but without proof, he can’t be prosecuted. I had one of our private detectives trace the phone call, but it just led to a dead end burner phone. In the meantime, all I can do is suggest that you stay away from the school as much as possible. I would also suggest that you transfer Behrad to a different school as well. I have no reason to believe that another report to ICE won’t be made if you file a change of address with the school.” 

As Laurel spoke she looked over at Zari who just noted as she took everything in. She wasn’t sure what else she could do. Especially if, as Laurel said, they had no proof.

“But I can’t take Behrad out of that school. It’s the best one in the district and I can’t afford the private school fees,” Zari said standing up as she began to pace the room. 

“I’m so sorry Zari. I know how difficult this is for you and that you don’t want to sacrifice Behrad’s education,” Laurel said, shaking her head. “I’m going to keep our detective on it to see if we can try and prove Darhk broke the law. Though at this point there’s nothing I can do other than continue with your green card papers from your marriage. Until then you need to lay low and have no contact with Darhk or the school.”

“But what am I supposed to do about Behrad? Amaya and the others have been dropping him off and picking him up, but the school keeps harassing them for a change of address or questions about my whereabouts. They’ve even threatened to call CPS.”

“I’ll draft a statement for the school and assure them that you’re still providing for Behrad, without giving them your new address. That should at least get you through the end of the year. However, they’ll want an address for you and your confirmation that you’re still his guardian for next year, but then we’ll have things in order for your green card.”

Zari sat back down at the chair and looked around the room. It represented the kind of life that their parents had envisioned for them, with a nice house in the good school district. Yet, her parents were never able to finish the process of citizenship before they died and Zari let it slide like an idiot. This whole mess was her fault. 

“Thank you Laurel,” Zari said, finally looking over at her. 

“I’ll send you a document for the school that you can look over. If you get it back to me tonight, I can have it filed with the school tomorrow,” Laurel nodded as she got up. She put a hand on Zari’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. “Just take it one step at a time. We’re on track for your visa and your I-130. I’m still setting up the interview, but you’re doing everything right to get your citizenship and everyone here is making sure that you’re protected.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” Laurel said before she left. 

Zari sat alone in the library for another minute before Amaya came in.

“Damien Darhk was the one who ratted me out to ICE,” Zari said, looking up at her.

“I’m sorry Zari,” Amaya said, as she tilted her head and walked over to sit next to her. Amaya put her arm around her and pulled her in.

“Don’t be,” Zari said, welcoming her embrace. “You’ve done everything you could to help me and I truly appreciate it.”

Amaya leaned in and kissed her and Zari let herself melt against her lips. They let themselves have a moment to each other before Zari stood up and held out her hand to Amaya. “Come on we should get back to work, before Sara barges in on us.”

Amaya let her pull her up and shook her head. “Sara’s actually being really helpful you know.”

“Doesn’t make her any less annoying,” Zari said as they walked out.

With Sara’s direction, they got everything moved in and both Zari and Behrad’s bedrooms put together before they finished for the day. Amaya and Zari agreed to have some alone time with the kids so they said good night and parted ways at least until tomorrow. Since Monday was their day off, they planned to meet for breakfast and send the kids off the school together. 

Zari enjoyed her time with Behrad but sent him to bed a little earlier than usual. She then pulled out a black duffel bag from under her bed. Quietly, she walked down the hall and checked on Behrad who was already fast asleep, exhausted after a day of moving, then crept downstairs and back into her father’s library. 

It was the one place in the house where she felt truly safe and Zari quickly set up her laptop and other equipment. In college, Zari used to be quite the hacker, but as the years went on, she slowly stepped away from it in favor of working legally for Amaya. Yet, she always kept the duffle bag of her old equipment ready to go in case they needed it. Once Zari had everything loaded and had completely shielded her computer, she began her search for everything and anything related to Damien Darhk.

……………………………………………………………………

Amaya was enjoying a lazy morning as she stretched and rolled back over in bed. It was a Monday and she would have to get Kuasa up for school and to meet Zari and Behrad for breakfast soon. She was glad that she didn’t have to be in at the bakery that morning, as it was their day off. 

Amaya reached out her arm only to feel the cold and empty space where Zari would have been. She understood and completely supported Zari’s move, but that didn’t mean she didn’t miss her. Letting out a sigh, Amaya grabbed the extra pillow, pulling it towards her and wrapping her arms around it. She closed her eyes again and wished for a few more minutes of sleep. 

Just as her mind had started to drift off in that place between thoughts and unconscious dreaming, the sound of her phone vibrating on her nightstand jerked her up. Amaya sighed and reached for her phone, smiling as she saw Zari’s name and quickly answered her call. 

“Hey you.”

“Amaya I need you to meet me at the house as soon as possible.” 

Zari’s urgent tone made her heart quicken as she got out of bed and went over to her dresser, pulling out a set of clothes. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I know who contacted ICE. I have proof that they did it along with the long list of other crimes, but it involves you and the kids,” Zari said and Amaya knew that she was rubbing her forehead. Amaya paused and gently set the clothes on her bed. “I don’t know what to do about all of it.”

“Just take a deep breath,” Amaya said and waited for Zari to mirror her on the other end of the line. “Have you called Laurel or Sara or Kendra?”

“No, I don’t want to go to Laurel until you know, but I probably should call Sara and Kendra as it involves them too.”

“Okay, why don’t you do that, and in the meantime I’ll get ready, get some food for breakfast, and bring it over for everyone?”

Amaya could hear Zari chuckle and knew she was smiling. “Do all of your solutions involve food?”

“A full belly makes everyone feel better, that’s what my Mama always told me.”

“Well, your Mama was probably right. She did a good job raising you.”

“She did,” Amaya said, remembering everything her mom taught her about baking and helping people.

“Alright, but how soon can you get here?” Zari asked, the worry back in her voice.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes if I can get to Kuasa up soon.”

“Better make it in half an hour, but thanks.” 

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”

“I love you,” Zari said, and Amaya’s heart skipped a beat. No matter how many times Zari said it to her, it always felt like the first time.

“I love you too.”

Zari ended the call and Amaya quickly got dressed and ready. Kuasa put up a bit of a fight, but she could see the worry on her face and was soon ready as well.

……………………………………………………………………

Zari paced back and forth in her office as she waited for Sara to pick up the phone. 

“What the fuck Zari. It’s like 6 a.m. on our day off?” Sara said, clearly not in the mood for the early phone call.

“Does Ava like Damien Darhk?”

“What?”

“Does Ava like principal Damien Darhk?”

“Zari what is going on?” Sara insisted and Zari heard Ava in the background ask her the same question.

“Can you just answer the question Sara?” Zari insisted and stopped pacing. She knew that Sara would be on her side no matter what, but she didn’t want to cause any trouble with Sara’s relationship with Ava.

Sara sighed and Zari could hear her sit up in bed and move around. “No, they’re constantly clashing over curriculum and funding and stuff. He made her pay for a new curriculum change out of pocket. All because she wanted to include a more diverse historical curriculum. It was this whole thing, so no she doesn’t like him. Now, what is this about?”

“Okay, can you and Ava come over as soon as possible? Amaya and Kendra are coming and she said she’ll make breakfast for everyone, but I need to talk to both of you?” 

“Are you and Behrad okay?” Sara asked, sounding truly worried. “Has something happened with the school?” 

“I found some incriminating evidence about Darhk and you both should know about it.”

“Okay, but this is something we should call Laurel about?”

“No, she doesn’t need to be a part of this until we decide what to do. I don’t want her getting in any sort of trouble,” Zari said, finally sitting down and trying to speak as clearly and calmly as possible.

“Okay, we’ll be right over.”

“Thank you,”

“Of course,” Sara said, before hanging up. 

Sara was Zari’s last phone call as she had called Kendra already. They were the three people in the world that she knew she could always count on and they would want to be a part of what she found. Zari fell into the chair and closed her eyes. She had stayed up all night only falling asleep at the keyboard for an hour around 2 a.m. on accident. The anxiety of the night and the revelation of what she had found started to get to her. So she decided to close her eyes for a few minutes.

The next thing she knew someone was knocking at her door and she quickly got up to go see who it was. Smiling and dressed Amaya with a groggy and grumpy Kuasa who was still in her pajamas were standing on her porch as Zari opened up the door. 

“I promised her, she could go back to sleep on your couch,” Amaya said, putting her arms on Kuasa’s shoulder as she led the groggy girl into the house.

“Yeah, no problem. She can go up to my bedroom if she wants?” Zari said looking down at Kuasa.

“Yes please,” Kuasa mumbled, already walking towards the staircase. 

“Do you remember where it is?” Amaya gently asked her as Kuasa put one hand on the banister and seemed to lean on it as she walked up the stairs.

Kuasa just nodded and Amaya gave her a gentle smile as they both watched her until she got to the top of the stairs. Amaya stepped forward to give Zari a hug and she melted into her arms. She was relieved to have Amaya there again and she didn’t realize how much she had missed Amaya until they were together again.

Amaya pulled back but wrinkled her nose as she tugged at Zari’s shirt. “Is this what you were wearing yesterday?”

“Umm,” Zari looked down at the shirt she was in fact wearing yesterday and realized she had not showered or changed in the past 24 hours. Even after they got finished moving, she probably didn’t smell too well either. “Why don’t I go hop in the shower.”

“I’ll get breakfast started and let the others in when they get here,” Amaya said, already taking a step back from her. Her nose wrinkled up in a way that told Zari that she did in fact stink.

By the time she had showered and changed, Amaya had already made breakfast with Sara, Ava, and Kendra sitting at the table eating.

“Where are the other kids?” Zari asked, and she walked into the room seeing only the adults. 

“Carter’s with Hector,” Kendra said looking up from her eggs.

“And Laurel’s watching Gary and Sin,” Sara added, putting down her fork and going over to give Zari a hug. “We’d figured it’d be easier not to drag them out of bed and we weren’t sure if they should be involved in whatever this is.” 

Zari nodded and Sara pulled back, making room for Kendra to pull Zari in for another hug. Amaya put a plate of food in front of her and Zari quickly ate. There was a slight tension in the room, but everyone seemed to understand wanting to eat before getting into the heavy stuff. 

“So Laurel’s watching both Gary and Sin? You four must have had a fun sleepover last night,” Kendra’s said with a teasing smile. 

“Fun for the kids and for the adults,” Amaya said, sending Ava and Sara a wink. 

They all chuckled and Zari took another bite of her food in order to avoid saying something sarcastic to them. She knew Sara wouldn’t mind, but she didn’t want to offend Ava who was already turning a deep shade of red.

“Shut up,” Sara said with a playful smile. Ava hid her blush in Sara’s shoulder as they sat next to each other. “Ava and I are in a happy and committed relationship and both of our children are comfortable with each other.”

“Well, we are all very happy for you,” Amaya said, as she turned off the burner and put the dishes in the sink before throwing the towel over her shoulder. She walked over towards Zari who put an arm around her waist.

“Yeah, just don’t hurt her Ava,” Kendra said, looking pointedly over at her as Amaya and Zari nodded in agreement.

“Believe me, I have no intention of ever harming Sara,” Ava said, looking over at Sara with a kind of soft and loving look that Zari knew meant she was head over heels.

They may be overprotective, but with Sara’s history of doomed romances, they had a right to be. The three of them knew to let it happen, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t feel the need to protect her. If they ever got their hands on Oliver Queen, they would all need Laurel to represent them.

“Alright, enough of the lovey dovey stuff,” Kendra said looking pointedly over at the couples. “Zari you said that you had something important to tell us about what you found about Damien Darhk.”

The light hearted moment was gone and Zari pulled away from Amaya. She pulled out her laptop from where she had left it on the counter. There was so much information that it took her most of the night to go through and even longer to compile it into a damning folder of evidence. She pulled up the few documents that she compiled that would put him in prison and turned her laptop towards them, so they could read through the documents she had.

“Yesterday Laurel gave me a video recording of Darhk contacting ICE and giving them my address and the address of the bakery. He never identified himself so she couldn’t prove it was him, but she said she was going to try. I decided to do some digging of my own. I got into the school’s records and started looking through things. I wasn’t sure what I would find, but I figured if he was giving out my information, chances are he was giving out those of others as well. I couldn’t really find anything so I went into the school’s finances. It turns out that Darhk has been secretly taking money off the top of the budget and putting it into his own pockets. You can see the money here at the top of this document matches the deposits made in this account. It’s a secret account that he has in the Caymans, and it’s under an LLC, but I was able to trace it back to him. Some of it’s not in his name but in Nora Darhk’s name. I don’t know how much she is involved in this but.”

“No,” Ava said, shaking her head. “There’s no way Nora is involved in this. I mean yeah she has a trust fund from her father, but she doesn’t touch it. Unlike her father, Nora is a good person she can’t be involved in this.”

“That’s what I was thinking as well. I was able to trace withdrawals and deposits from this account to things that Darhk purchased and currently owns,” Zari said as she watched all of her friends process the information.

“He told me there wasn’t room in the budget for a new ramp into the school,” Kendra said she looked shocked as she covered her mouth with her hand and seemed to sink into her chair. “That money should have gone to building a ramp so that my child can access the school safely.” 

“And it’s not just a little bit of money,” Sara said, she put a hand on her belly as she skimmed through the documents with a look of worry across her features. “It’s at least a half of a million dollars and that’s just for one year.” 

“How could this have gone on for so long?” Amaya said, looking over at Zari in astonishment.

“Given what’s here, I’m guessing that it’s been going on for as long as he’s been the Principal,” Zari said sitting back. 

“It’s not just the ramp, it’s all of the little things he told us we couldn’t get. We had to clean our own classrooms, pay for our own supplies, our books, our curriculum. We just had a fundraiser to pay for a new sports field. He asked teachers to donate part of their paychecks and we did, and look, he took at least a quarter of that money. We are the ones who made that school number one in the city. It was because of our hard work and he just did it to get rich.” Ava’s voice was full of disgust as she turned away, rubbing her forehead. 

“What are we going to do about this?” Amaya asked, she had a look of fierce determination across her face that fueled Zari’s own need for justice. 

“I have carefully printed out everything that I found, but I don’t know who to send this to,” Zari said with a shrug and a shake of her head. “If I send it to the wrong person, they will just sweep it under the rug. I want to make sure they have to prosecute him.”

“He has to pay for what he’s taken from our kids,” Kendra said, staring at the documents as if she could burn a hole through them. 

“Yeah, we have to make sure he doesn’t get away with this,” Sara said as she looked up from where she had been going over everything on Zari’s computer.

“We?” Zari asked, she didn’t think her friends would want to be involved in this, given that it definitely involved a few crimes.

“Yes,” Amaya said, walking over to her and putting a hand around her waist and standing next to her. “We’re in this together and will help, however we can.”

“Even though you’ve already done all the hard work,” Sara said, giving her a smile. 

“I know exactly who we can give this to in the school district who won’t sweep this under the rug,” Ava said, turning back around and rejoining the conversation. “My adopted father Hank Heywood. He works in administration for the school district. He’ll make sure this gets investigated..”

“We should give it to some journalists as well just in case,” Amaya said, giving Zari’s waste a squeeze.

“One of my old friends from college, Iris West is a journalist over at the Star City Chronicles,” Kendra added, getting up and coming over to put her arm around Zari’s other side. “She’ll make sure this gets published.”

“I don’t think any news editor would turn away this kind of story,” Sara said, turning away from the computer and pulling Ava close. 

“Good, we have to make sure that this isn’t ignored.” Zari nodded, feeling more sure than she had this morning.

“Because of you, it won’t be,” Amaya said, leaning over and giving Zari a kiss. 

……………………………………………………………………

The women spent the rest of the morning sorting through the evidence and writing a statement to be placed on top of the stack of files. Kendra contacted Iris and agreed to meet up and hand over the documents under the condition that Iris wouldn’t release anything unless the school failed to properly investigate Darhk. Ava and Zari contacted Hank with the information and worked with him to find a time to anonymously drop off the files. By the time Kuasa and Behrad were both up and ready for school they had everything sorted. 

“Okay so I will drop off the kids at school and keep an eye on Darhk throughout the day,” Ava said as she gathered her things.

“Kendra and I will meet up with Iris,” Sara said standing in the doorway as she handed Ava her coat.

“And Amaya and I will have a courier drop off the documents for Hank and then we’ll all just come back and hang out here,” Zari finished, handing Amaya her keys.

“I’ll try and make it back for lunch, but if I don’t I’ll check in after school lets out,” Ava said, leaning in to give Sara a quick kiss as she hands brushed Sara’s her belly and waist.

Zari was so relieved to have Amaya go with her even if they were just handing the documents off to a courier. Despite her worry, having Amaya there put her at ease.

“After that, I guess we just have to wait,” Kendra said as they all just stood in the hall reluctant to go.

“Yeah, from what I know it shouldn’t be more than a couple of weeks before Darhk is fired. Although school lets out for the summer in a few weeks so who knows,” Ava said, as she lingered and held Sara’s hand.

“Here’s hoping that it all goes smoothly and Darhk is out before the end of the year,” Zari said, with a nod.

“Thank you Zari,” Ava said, pulling her in for a hug. “Without you, none of this would be happening.”

Kendra, Sara, and Amaya each piled in on the hug and whispered their thanks to her. They just stood there for a moment hugging each other until they had to part.

Ava left first and then Kendra and Sara. Zari looked over at Amaya as she pulled out of the driveway. If this worked, it wouldn’t mean that ICE would never be trying to deport her. But it would mean that other families at the school wouldn’t have to go through what she was and that alone was worth fighting for.

[learnarabiconline]

Ayat and Hadith that Prove Islam is a Religion of Peace

Critics of Islam often brand it as a barbaric and brutal religion. Their argument is generally based on a select few ayat (Quaranic verses) and hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) which seem to promote violence.

There are indeed a number of ayat and hadith which encourage Muslims to turn to combat in certain situations. It is important to remember, however, that much of the Quran was revealed during a time of war. The vast majority of seemingly pro-violence ayat and hadith were revealed to Muhammad PBUH while his followers were being persecuted by those who did not believe his message.

Despite bias interpretations from fringe extremist sects, the Quran encourages Muslims to remain cordial and non-violent in times of peace. Evidence to support Islam's preference for peace can be found in a great many ayat and hadith.

The peaceful ayat and hadith far outnumber those calling for bloodshed. There are so many, in fact, that we could not possibly examine them all in this article. For that reason, we have gathered a few of the most noteworthy here and encourage you to seek out additional examples during your own scripture study. Here are just some of ayat and hadith which prove Islam is a religion of peace,

Ayat Promoting Peace

The Quran is made up of a mammoth 6,236 verses. In the Muslim world, these verses are more formally known as "ayat" (or "ayah" individually). The ayat are spread out over 113 surahs (or chapters) and deal with a variety of topics. Below, you'll find some of the most memorable ayat encouraging peace.

Al-Qasas, Ayah 56 ​

When Islam was in its infancy, the pagan leaders of Mecca viewed Muhammad as a minor annoyance. As his following increased, however, his status was elevated to legitimate public enemy. Those who opposed Islam sought to stop it in its tracks by slaughtering even the most inconsequential Muslim.

When one considers the hardships Muhammad and his followers endured to practice their faith, it should come as no surprise that the Quran stresses the importance of freedom of religion. Despite what jihadi groups may believe, Islam teaches that each person should have the right to practice their religion. This is never stated more clearly than it is in the 56th verse of the 28th Surah, Al-Qasas. It reads as follows:

"Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided." (Quran 28:56)

Al-Baqarah, Ayah 190

The ayat that are often cited as "proof" of the Quran's violent nature rarely call Muslims to violence. In most cases, they merely encourage followers of Muhammad to defend themselves when attacked. So, according to traditional Islamic belief, a Muslim may only resort to violence if it is the sole way they can shake an aggressor. An example of this teaching can be found in Al-Baqarah, the second surah of the Quran. Ayah 190 of Al-Baqarah reads:

"Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors." (Quran 2:190)

Al-Baqarah, Ayah 195

​A lot of the Quran's peaceful ayat simply advise Muslims to avoid conflict and violence. While they are admirable in their message, they often draw criticism for their failure to encourage behavior which lends itself to the progression of a community.

Of course, as any Muslim knows, it is not enough to merely avoid doing bad deeds. To enter the gates of paradise, a Muslim must also improve the lives of others through their words and acts. This is reflected in numerous ayat throughout the Quran, including Quran 2:195.

In surah Al-Baqarah, just five ayat after advising Muslims to avoid violence whenever possible, the Quran does so again. This time, however, it also encourages readers to perform good deeds. The ayat reads as follows:

"And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw [yourselves] with your [own] hands into destruction [by refraining]. And do good; indeed, Allah loves the doers of good." (Quran 2:195)

Al-Insan, Ayat 8-9

​We have all heard about the grizzly videos of jihadi soldiers torturing prisoners of war. Disguising their blood lust as obedience to Allah, members of ISIS and similar extremist groups behead, drown, and even burn their prisoners. Unsurprisingly, their actions are responsible for much of the negative press Islam have received in recent years.

In reality, these jihadi fighters are directly violating the commands of Allah. Although the Quran does permit the keeping of prisoners in a time of war, it states unequivocally that all prisoners of war must be treated justly. An example of this can be found in surah Al-Insan, ayat 8 to 9.

"And they offer food to the needy, the orphan and the captive. [Saying] "We feed you for the sake of Allah alone; we wish for neither reward nor gratitude from you.'" (Quran 76:8-9)

Hadith Promoting Peace

In Islam, the Quran is complimented by hadith. Hadith are accounts of sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad. Just like the Quran, the hadith come out strongly in favor of peace and kindness. Some of the most popular peace-promoting hadith are outlined below.

Entertain Your Guests And Keep Peace With Your Neighbors ​

​Arabs are famous for their hospitality. If you have traveled to the Middle East - or even paid a visit to your local mosque - you likely have first-hand experience of that fact.

Arabs prided themselves on their hospitality even in the pre-Islamic age. Once Muhammad gained a following, however, showing kindness to your neighbors and visitors became even more important. In the eight book of Sahih Bukhari, you'll find one of many sayings of Muhammad on the importance of being a good host.

"Anyone who believes in Allah and the Day of Judgement should not harm his neighbor. Anyone who believes in Allah and the Day of Judgement should entertain his guests generously and should say what is good, or keep quiet." (Sahih Bukhari)

You Cannot Hate And Be A Muslim

​Critics of Islam often point towards its opposition to same-sex marriage as evidence of its supposed hateful nature. While mainstream Islam teaches that same-sex relations go against the commands of Allah, it does not call on Muslims to hate members of the LGBTQ community. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad clearly stated that anybody who hates another person cannot be a Muslim, let alone enter Paradise.

Islam is very much about loving your neighbor, regardless of what they do or who they love. Evidence of this can be found in a passage of Sahih Bukhari, which reads:

"You will not enter Paradise until you believe and you will not believe until you love each other. Shall I show you something that, if you did, you would love each other? Spread peace among yourselves." (Sahih Bukhari)

Arguments Are Not Constructive

​While Muhammad was known to enjoy a hearty discussion about theology, he made sure his followers understood the difference between a debate and an argument. While a debate can contribute to the development of a community, an argument can have the exact opposite effect. An argument would have been particularly destructive in the early days of Islam, when Muhammad needed Muslims to stand together against the non-believers.

According to Sahih Muslim, Muhammad warned his followers that consistent disagreements among them would prevent the expansion of Islam, saying:

"Verily, those before you were ruined by their differences over the Book". (Sahih Muslim)

Avoid Selfish Acts

As a child, Muhammad was fascinated by fallen civilizations, such as the Biblical lands of Sodom and Gumorrah. As exhibited in both the previous and following hadith, the Prophet was ever mindful of these tales even in adulthood. He often reminded his followers of the mistakes made by the people of these once-great civilizations, which had ultimately led to their destruction. If Muslims were not careful, Muhammad warned, a similar faith would befall them.

Selfishness and miserliness were particularly ripe in 7th-century Arabia. Muhammad went through great efforts to ensure such issues did not infect his community of believers. In Riyad as-Salihin, he states:

"Avoid cruelty and injustice, and guard yourselves against miserliness, for this has ruined nations who lived before you." (Riyad-us-Salihin)

We Should Actively Seek To End ConflictEnter heading here...

When our friends are having an argument, it can be tempting to just sit it out and let them sort things out for themselves. This is understandable. However, Muhammad advised against such indifference.

According to the Prophet, if two warring people are left to argue, it is unlikely that a mutually-beneficial resolution will be reached. Those involved in the dispute will be too blinded by emotion to conceive of a solution that will please both parties. For that reason, Muhammad encouraged his followers to act as a mediator in disputes among their family and friends, saying:

"Shall I inform you of something that holds a higher status than fasting, praying, and giving charity? Making peace between people, for verily sowing dissension between people is indeed calamitous." (Kenzul Ummal)

[nataliesnews]

A report on the trump plan 4.2.2020

Dear Natalie,

 An excellent article and I agree wholeheartedly.:

Shimon Z. Klein

 shared a 

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Admin · 13 hrs

 Paul Mirbach

Yesterday at 7:55 PM

I thought it was time I elaborated on this plan, and explained why in my opinion, this plan is blatantly one-sided and unacceptable - and why it marks the end to Israel as a true democracy - as opposed to a sham, manipulated projected illusion of democracy. This will be long but bear with me.

1. Look at the map. The Palestinian "state" includes only the densely populated areas of the West Bank by Palestinians. This is no coincidence (see b below). Also, note is surrounded by Israel, with no borders with any other country. It is an enclave, totally dependent on Israel for physical and economic contact with the "outside world". It is the exact same form and situation of Bantustan states in South Africa) The annexation of the Settlement blocs, with no removal of outlying Israeli settlements, while Israel also has complete control of the Jordan Valley, means in essence that Israel has complete control - if it desires - of the entire region. Which means in effect complete annexation - but it cherry-picks the areas it says is annexed, leaving the Palestinian "state" out.

b) Therefore one must question WHY. In my opinion, the answer is obvious: in order to manipulate the demographics, so that Israel does not have to give Palestinians franchise, thereby allowing Israel to enjoy annexation, but not having to risk losing the Jewish majority.

2. Contiguous connection of the "parts" that make up Palestine - with tunnels?? And people think that is a viable solution for a country, a STATE? Seriously??

3. "A peace agreement 'will be forged'". How? For there to be an "agreement" it requires two sides. One side was not even consulted in building this vision. Their core grievances were rejected out of hand - and you expect them to "agree"? This is reminiscent of how the World powers carved up Europe and the Middle East after WWI, creating countries like Lebanon and Yugoslavia, without addressing the grievances and concerns of the composite populations. The result? Civil War in Lebanon, which lasted for 15 years, because of the irreconcilable interests and conflicts between Christians and Muslims, while giving Christians a constitutional majority, regardless of the real majority. It also saw the birth of the Hezbollah who now effectively controls the country, and has made it almost a satellite state of Syria. Civil in the Balkans, which lasted ten years, saw massacres and genocide and resulted in war crimes of the most horrendous nature. The danger that in the future such a result will happen in our region as a result of ignoring the grievances of the Palestinians, cannot be dismissed.

4. "Satisfied with benefits and compromises". Where has Israel compromised? It got all it essentially wanted. Where are the benefits for the Palestinians for their national aspirations? They receive in essence nothing in addition to what they already have as a result of Oslo.

5. "The United States will act as facilitator". How is that possible, when it does not enjoy the trust of one side and has proven its partisan position in favour of the other? If you were going through a divorce, would you accept your husband's (or wife's) lawyer as a facilitator?

6. "It is essential that a Palestinian state created under a peace deal be a state that has the tools to succeed". How can it have such tools, when it does not have the infrastructure?

 a) Electricity. The Palestinians have absolutely no means of space to be able to produce their own electricity. Space is necessary for public health, that the plants will not be in populated areas, which could cause cancer. Where can they build such plants? Which sources of energy do they have at their disposal to produce electricity? Water source? No. wide areas for solar or wind turbines? No. Which means they will be totally dependent on Israel. Electricity drives not only households, but industry and means of production. so, how will they be independent? and if a conflict arises, Israel can cut them off.

 b) Financial institutions like a stock exchange in order to generate capital? Their GDP is $10 billion for a population of 2.5 million. Compare that to Israel's budget and GDP for 8 million. 25.8% live below the poverty line. Average income is $1924 per capita. Who has money to invest?? $720 million in exports per annum vs $4.2 billion in imports. Great prospects for an economy, right?

7. "Withdrawing from territory captured in a defensive war is a historical rarity. It must be recognized that the State of Israel has already withdrawn from at least 88% of the territory it captured in 1967. This Vision provides for the transfer of sizable territory by the State of Israel -- territory to which Israel has asserted valid legal and historical claims, and which are part of the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people -- which must be considered a significant concession". a) Almost all of that 88% was the Sinai. Israel annexed the Golan, and now they annex the West Bank.

 b) As for Israel's "significant concession"? Convenient is it not, that the area of that concession also happens to hold 2.5 million Palestinians who would otherwise have the right to vote as Israeli citizens in Israeli elections?

8. " (The conceptual map) Takes into account the State of Israel’s valid legal and historical claims". What about the Palestinians' legal and historical claims? Are they deemed invalid? Because none of THEM has been taken into account, they have been ignored - and they have the audacity to call this plan fair and equitable?

9. "Avoids forced population transfers of either Arab or Jews". Wow. Israelis appropriate landform the Palestinians, build on it at first without building permits and without proving ownership, then they retroactively legalize these settlements and then as a reward for such behaviour, there will be no "forced population transfers". Truly just and moral...not.

10. Approximately 97% of Israelis in the West Bank will be incorporated into contiguous Israeli territory, and approximately 97% of Palestinians in the West Bank will be incorporated into contiguous Palestinian territory.

97% of the Palestinians will live in "contiguous Palestinian territory in an area of approximately 3500 km squared. 2.5 million people in 4300 km squared. think about the population density, and think about the viability of that being a "state".

11. "The Israeli population located in enclaves that remain inside contiguous Palestinian territory but that are part of the The state of Israel shall have the option to remain in place unless they choose otherwise, and maintain their existing Israeli citizenship".

However, "The Triangle Communities consist of Kafr Qara, Ar’ara, Baha al-Gharbiyye, Umm al Fahm, Qalansawe, Tayibe, Kafr Qasim, Tira, Kafr Bara and Jaljulia. These communities, which largely self-identify as Palestinian, were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949, but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated. The Vision contemplates the possibility, subject to the agreement of the parties that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine. In this agreement, the civil rights of the residents of the triangle communities would be subject to the *applicable laws and judicial rulings of the relevant authorities*". (Read; Israel will strip them of citizenship and the right to vote).

This basically means that the Israelis living in settlements in the "Palestinian state" will retain their citizenship regardless, but the Israeli Arabs of the Triangle Area transferred to the "Palestinian State" will not retain their citizenship. If this is not gross manipulation of demographics in order to ensure a Jewish majority, and a convenient way to get rid of those pesky Arabs in the Triangle, I don't know what is. Classic gerrymandering. Anyone who can countenance the transfer of Israeli citizens and depriving them of their citizenship no longer has the right to claim that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East". It is a sham illusion of democracy, manipulated to suit their ideological agenda, while maintaining a facade of fake democracy.

12. Water rights. The Plan talks about mutual water rights, but Israel has total control to access to the sources of water - The Kinneret, the Jordan river etc. What "mutual rights" can there logically be? It is a facade. It allows Israel to dominate them with tools of pressure, like access to water, in order to "keep them in line". Further proof of a Bantustan situation.

13. The issue of access for the Palestinian "state" to port facilities and having control over them is not only unworkable but infeasible. There is no way in Hell that Palestinians could in practice have control over their parts of the ports for imports and exports, and there is no way they could have a viable mechanism for customs and Excise. They will be totally dependent on Israel, which would hold another pressure lever to assert its dominance on the "state".

In conclusion, NO, this is not a viable deal - and if I were Palestinian, I would also reject it. However, what concerns me more, is the damage this will do to Israel as a democracy and to the vision of Zionism being a just enterprise. This is not a peace plan. It is a blueprint for unilateral annexation with a message to the Palestinians – take it, because this is an offer you cannot refuse. This is not what our thinkers and forefathers envisioned. It is a gross and ugly mutation. An abomination. A Rosemary's baby.

In my opinion, it is unconscionable.

Warmest Regards,

Shimon

[vampireadamooc]

Lecture I: The Primitive Rite Itself

1.6 - Light from the Classics

Lucian, the bright Greek thinker, who was born and trained in the East, writing in the middle of the second century of our era, is explicit as to the nature and method of this covenant as then practised in the East In his "Toxaris or Friendship," l Mnesippus the Greek, and Toxaris the Scythian, are discussing friendship, Toxaris declares: "It can easily be shown that Scythian friends are much more faithful than Greek friends; and that friendship is esteemed more highly among us than among you." Then Toxaris goes on to say 2: "But first I wish to tell you in what manner we [in Scythia] make friends; not in our drinking bouts as you do, nor simply because a man is of the same age [as ourselves], or because he is our neighbor. But, on the contrary, when we see a good man, and one capable of great deeds, to him we all hasten, and (as you do in the case of marrying, so we think it right to do in the case of our friends) we court him, and we [who would be friends] do all things together, so that we may not offend against friendship, or seem worthy to be rejected.

Opera, p. 545.

Toxaris, chap. 37

And whenever one decides to be a friend, we [who would join in the covenant] make the greatest of all oaths, to live with one another, and to die, if need be, the one for the other. And this is the manner of it: Thereupon, cutting our fingers, all simultaneously, we let the blood drop into a vessel, and having dipped the points of our swords into it, both [of us] holding them together, 1 we drink it There is nothing which can loose us from one another after that"

Yet a little earlier than Lucian, Tacitus, foremost among Latin historians, gives record of this rite of blood-brotherhood as practiced in the East He is telling, in his Annals, of Rhadamistus, leader of the Iberians, who pretends to seek a covenant with Mithridates, King of the Armenians (yet farther east than Scythia), which should make firm the peace between the two nations, "diistestibus? "the gods being witnesses." Here Tacitus makes an explanation: 2 "It is the custom of [Oriental] kings, as often as they come together to make covenant, to join right hands, to tie the thumbs together, and to tighten them with a knot Then, when the blood is [thus] pressed to the finger tips, they draw blood by a light stroke, and lick 3 it in turn.

See references to arms as accessories to the rite, in Africa, and in Madagascar, and in Timor, at pages 16, 32, 35 f., 45 f., 53, supra.

Annaks, XII., 47.

See page II, supra.

This they regard as a divine 1 covenant, made sacred as it were, by mutual blood [or blended lives]." There are several references, by classical writers, to this blood-friendship, or to this blood-covenanting, in connection with Catiline's conspiracy against the Roman

Republic. Sallust, the historian of that conspiracy, says: "There were those at that time who said that Catiline, at this conference [with his accomplices] when he inducted them into the oath of partnership in crime, carried round in goblets human blood, mixed with wine ; and that after all had tasted of it, with an imprecatory oath, as is men's wont in solemn rites [in "Sharb el-ahd" 2 as the Arabs would say] he opened to them his plans." 3 Florus, a later Latin historian, describing this conspiracy, says: "There was added the pledge of the league, human blood, which they drank as it was borne round to them in goblets." 4 And yet later, Tertullian suggests that it was their own blood, mingled with wine, of which the fellow-conspirators drank together. "Concerning the eating of blood and other such tragic dishes," he says, "you read (I do not know where), that blood drawn from the arms, and tasted by one another, was the method of making covenant among certain nations.

Arcamtm, literally "mysterious," - not in the sense of secret, or occult, but with reference to its sacred and supernatural origin and sanction

See p. 9, supra.

Catilina, cap. XXII.

Historia, IV., I, 4.

I know not but that under Catiline such blood was tasted." 1 In the Pitti Palace, in Florence, there is a famous painting of the conspiracy of Catiline, by Salvator Rosa; it is, indeed, Salvator Rosa's masterpiece, in the line of historical painting. This painting represents the covenanting by blood. Two conspirators stand face to face, their right hands clasped above a votive altar. The bared right arm of each is incised, a little below the elbow. The blood is streaming from the arm of one, into a cup which he holds, with his left hand, to receive it ; while the dripping arm of the other conspirator shows that his blood has already flowed into the commingling cup. 2 The uplifted hand of the daysman between the conspirators seems to indicate the imprecatory vows which the two are assuming, in the presence of the gods, and of the witnesses who stand about the altar. This is a clear indication of the traditional form of covenanting between Catiline and his fellow conspirators.

As far back, even, as the fifth century before Christ, we find an explicit description of this Oriental rite of blood-covenanting, in the writings of "the Father of History." "Now the Scythians," says Herodotus, 3 "make covenants in the following manner, with whomsoever they make them.

Apologet., cap. IX.

See stamp on outside cover.

Hist., IV., 70.

Having poured out wine into a great earthen drinking-bowl, they mingle with it the blood of those cutting covenant, striking the body [of each person having a part in it] with a small knife, or cutting it slightly with a sword. Thereafter, they dip into the bowl, sword, arrows, axe, and javelin. 1 But while they are doing this, they utter many invokings [of curse upon a breach of this covenant]; 2 and, afterwards, not only those who make the covenant, but those of their followers who are of the highest rank, drink off [the wine mingled with blood]."

Again Herodotus says of this custom, in his day 3: "Now the Arabians reverence in a very high degree pledges between man and man. They make these pledges in the following way. When they wish to make pledges to one another, a third man, standing in the midst of the two, cuts with a sharp stone the inside of the hands along the thumbs of the two making the pledges. After that, plucking some woolen floss from the garments of each of the two, he anoints with the blood seven stones [as the "heap of witness" 4] which are set in the midst While he is doing this he invokes Dionysus and Urania.

See note, at page 59, supra.

See the references to imprecatoty invokings, in connection with the observance of the rite in Syria, in Central Africa, in Madagascar, and IB Timor, at pages 9, 20, 31, 46 f., 53, supra.

Hist., III., 8

See page 45 supra, note.

When this rite is completed, he that has made the pledges [to one from without] introduces the [former] stranger to his friends I or the fellow citizen [to his fellows] if the rite was performed with a fellow-citizen."

Thus it is clear, that the rite of blood-brotherhood, or of blood-friendship, which is to-day a revered form of sacred covenanting in the unchangeable East, was recognized as an established custom among Oriental peoples twenty-three centuries ago. Its beginning must certainly have been prior to that time; if not indeed long prior.

An indication of the extreme antiquity of this rite would seem to be shown in a term employed in its designation by the Romans, early in our Christian era; when both the meaning and the origin of the term itself were already lost in the dim past. Festus, 2 a writer, of fifteen centuries or more ago, concerning Latin antiquities, is reported 3 as saying, of this drink of the covenant of blood: "A certain kind of drink, of mingled wine and blood, was called assiratum by the ancients; for the ancient Latins called blood, assir"

See references to the welcoming of new friends by the natives of Africa and of Borneo, at the celebration of this rite, at pages 36 f., 51, supra.

Sextus Pompems Festus, whose chief work, in the third or fourth Christian century, was an epitome, with added notes and criticisms, of an unpreserved work of M. Vernus Flaccus, on the Latin language and antiquities

See Rosenmuller's Scholia in Vet. Test., apud Psa. 16:4.

Our modern lexicons give this isolated claim, made by Festus, of the existence of any such word as "assir" signifying "blood," in "the ancient Latin language;" 1 and some of them try to show the possibilities of its origin; 2 but no convincing proof of any such word and meaning in the Latin can be found.

Turning, however, to the languages of the East, where the binding vow of blood-friendship was pledged in the drink of wine and blood, or of blood alone, from time immemorial, we have no difficulty in finding the meaning of "assir." Asar (אסיר) is a common Hebrew word, signifying "to bind together" as in a mutual covenant. Issar (איסר), again, is a vow of self-renunciation. Thus we have Asar issar 'al nephcsh (עסאר איסר אל נפצ'ש) "To bind a self-devoting vow upon one's life" 3 upon one's blood; "for the blood is the life." 4 In the Arabic, also, asara (لربط) means "to bind," or "to tie"; while asar (اسار) is "a covenant," or "a compact"; and ahid (سوار) is "a bracelet"; which in itself is "a band," and may be" a fetter." 5 So, again, in the Assyrian, the verb "to bind," and the noun for "a bracelet" or "a fetter,"

See Scheller's, and Harpers', Latin Dictionary, s. v. "Assuatum."

See Curtius's Griechische Etymologic, s. v, lap (ear).

See Gesenius, and Fuerst, s. vv.

Deut 12:23.

See Lane, and Freytag, s. vv.

are from the same root. 1 The Syriac gives esar (اسار), "a bond," or "a belt." 2 All these, with the root idea, "to bind " as a covenant binds. In the light of these facts, it is easy to see how the "issar" or the "assar," when it was a covenant of blood, came to be counted by the Latins the blood which was a covenant.

See, for example, Delitzsch's Assyrische Lesestucke, second edition, p. 101, line 72.

See Castell's Lexicon Syriacum, s. v.

[scripturehomosexuality]

“Sex, Drugs, And Refugees”: How the Syrian Refugee Crisis Helps Expose Modern Sexual Philosophy

For the purposes of this post, “sex” will refer to any sexual activity possible between men, whether penetrative or non-penetrative. When referring to anal sex, we will mention it specifically as such.

For this post, I’m highlighting a documentary made by public broadcaster RT. Though I had seen it when it first aired, a second viewing showed me that it would be relevant for this blog.

Before you read the rest of this post, I ask you to see it in full. It will only take 30 minutes. By itself, it’s an education, and the commentary of this post will expose deeper levels of its story.

The documentary is entitled “Sex, Drugs and Refugees”, and it first aired during June 2018. It chronicles how the Syrian refugee crisis has created a haven for male-male prostitution in Greece. I don’t use the word “haven” positively here. As you will see, this isn’t work that the refugees are happy about. They are doing it just to survive.

It’s a brutal documentary, isn’t it? However, it reflects the reality these refugees even as you read this sentence. Thus, I applaud RT for doing such a superb job on it.

Here are some key points:

In summary, Syrian males are selling sex to other males to get basic needs satisfied. It’s worth noting that every time sex is specifically discussed, it’s strongly implied that the contact is usually anal.

None of the refugees selling their bodies identify as “gay”. This is an interesting fact that will be discussed later on.

None of the males interviewed feel good about their work at all. In fact, for one of them, his sex work and severe poverty were making him suicidal.

Their clients are European men, either locals from Greece or tourists from other parts of the EU. They have money that the refugees want, and the refugees have sexual desirability that the European men want. So this sets up a perfect system for a quid-pro-quo arrangement, as unequal as it might be.

And while this point doesn’t come from the video, it’s still relevant here. Most of their patrons probably don’t identify as “gay” either. In fact, according to a Public Radio International story in 2016, these occurrences are virtually unknown to the local “gay” community. Instead, the patrons usually “are married or in the closet.” This is also a curiosity that will be further discussed later.

Delving further into the topic, this situation is the product of three separate factors. As before, the main points will be highlighted in bold.

The most obvious one is the Syrian civil war. This war had its origins in the 2011 Arab Spring, when anti-government rebellions were occurring in many Middle Eastern countries. In the case of Syria, these rebellions escalated into total war. Now in its seventh year, the war has torn apart Syria, leaving few places untouched. Many of its residents fled for their lives, and most went to the European Union for asylum.

The second factor is the sexual fluidity of the developing world, which includes Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. Unlike the United States and Europe, most same-sex activity isn’t stigmatized there. Nor is such activity considered an anomaly. The contact is usually non-penetrative, and thus is not even considered full “sex”. Thus, those activities aren’t labelled “homosexuality” in those countries, and men there feel freer to have sexual contact with other males. In those countries, such contact are just activities that males do, and don’t constitute as signs of a deeper condition.

Only anal sex is stigmatized, because of its gender bending nature, where the penetrated male is acting like a woman. As such, “homosexuality” usually refers to the LGBT version of same-sex activity tied to drag and gender-bending behavior. It’s also used as a synonym for the anal sex that LGBT activism lauds so strongly.

And on top of that, there’s one more nuance. Within anal sex, the developing world establishes a dichotomy that allows men to keep some dignity during the act. During the act, the penetrated male is considered  “homosexual”, since he’s a male who’s “acting like a woman” during sex. Meanwhile, the penetrator isn’t considered “homosexual”, since he’s taking the man’s role. In these prostitution arrangements, the refugees usually penetrate during anal. This is why, even as they have anal sex with other men, they feel no conflict in not identifying as “gay”.

This leads to the third factor: the presence of LGBT activism in Europe. To be clear, their sexual concepts haven’t reached the extremes of the United States - yet. That’s why in Europe, communal nudity is still acceptable, briefs have never been stigmatized, and their cultural masculinity is somewhat closer to natural masculinity.

Nevertheless, LGBT leadership and media do have substantial influence in Europe. Their advocacy of anal sex has made an impact within the European Union. The patrons of the refugees approach them with their sexual ideas in mind, which is why they usually ask for anal.

The documentary shows us the product of all three factors. All of them have combined into a dangerous and horrendous cocktail, which has created widespread teenage male prostitution in Greece.

As such, it’s hard to overstate the largest irony of this situation - that of all places in Europe, it is happening in Greece. In ancient times, Greece openly displayed a model of homoeroticism that shunned anal. In Athens, anal was punishable by death, and the same likely existed in other cities. Both the g0y movement and the Man2Man Alliance take their inspiration from the homoeroticism of Ancient Greece. This blog has likewise been influenced by their model of male-male eroticism.

Yet 2000 years later, anal now flourishes in the very place it was once prohibited. Acts that once were the hallmarks of Greek homoeroticism - frot, intercrural, mutual masturbation - now take a backseat.

Still, this situation yields several truths that we must learn. These give further proof that modern sexual philosophy, which slanders homoeroticism as inherently abnormal, has no leg to stand on.

Firstly, we can see that same-sex desire is truly universal. Think about the mixture of cultures that this situation has brought together. In this documentary, the refugees who sell sex mainly come from Syria. One youth from Afghanistan was also interviewed. However, there are other refugees that come from other parts of the Middle East and South Asia. Meanwhile, the patrons come from Greece and other parts of the European Union.

In all likelihood, most of the patrons have never set foot in the Middle East and South Asia. The refugees have certainly never gone to Europe before. Yet, once they enter each other’s company, their contact quickly turns to sex. So is same-sex desire a product of particular cultures, or is it something that is deeply rooted in every man? And by “same-sex desire”, I’m not referring to the desire for anal sex. That is definitely the product of culture.

Secondly, we see that the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy is total nonsense. By and large, these refugees don’t identify as “gay” at all. They don’t identify with “gay” culture, and don’t seem to have any interest in it.

Meanwhile, most of their patrons likely don’t identify as “gay” either. If the local “gay” community knows nothing about this topic, it means that those patrons have little connection to the “gay” community. In their everyday lives, they likely identify as “straight”. Yet, they’re having sex with male refugees.

If you didn’t get the point, let me be more direct. The refugees aren’t “gay”. The majority of patrons aren’t “gay” either. Yet they’re having sex with each other, and male-male sex is considered very “gay”, at least in the U.S. In the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy, only “gay” males are supposed to be having sex with each other, which clearly isn’t happening here.

Within the dichotomy, it’s odd if one of the sexual partners isn’t “gay”. The fact that neither partners are “gay” throws off the whole system. Furthermore, this arrangement exists separately from the local “gay” world, and the two barely interact.

Obviously, the dichotomy cannot capture what’s happening here. In fact, in most news coverage the terms are barely used, because they carry no real meaning in this story. At what point will we admit that these terms don’t work?

Thirdly, it’s also clear that the LGBT anal sex model doesn’t work, and will never work. Think of this: in their own countries, these refugees probably never had anal sex before. Through their sex work in Europe, they’re likely encountering anal for the first time.

Thus they are different from Europeans and Americans, who are enculturated to associate anal with homoeroticism. Historically, no such association existed in their country. As a result, they unwittingly act as informal judges on how good anal sex really is. Because of their inexperience, they are more able to judge anal sex on its own merits.

As such, their judgement has been overwhelmingly negative. In this video and other media output, I’ve yet to find any migrant who speaks positively about doing anal with their patrons. All of them speak about it with shame and disgust.

Also, keep this in mind - these refugees aren’t necessarily opposed to male-male sexual contact. Otherwise, they wouldn’t consider it as a viable option for money. I doubt most American men would allow themselves to sell any sex to other men, no matter how low they might sink. It would be too threatening to their self-image and their social standing. Meanwhile, such obstacles don’t exist for those refugees, because they came from a more sexually fluid world. The Middle East in particular has a substantial history of homoerotism.

However, they strongly detest the form or type of sex that they often do. It doesn’t matter that they usually act as “tops”, which is considered an ideal role in anal sex. Even so, to them, it doesn’t make anal any less disgusting.

All three conclusions strike body blows to modern sexual philosophy. All of them would raise too many questions that the philosophy wouldn’t be able to answer. That’s why U.S. media has been quite silent on this topic, even as it constantly makes headlines in other parts of the world. There’s no way to cover this story without harming modern sexual philosophy and the sexual labeling system it sustains.

To be clear, while it does yield important lessons about human sexuality, this is not a positive story. I feel sorry for those refugees. They are trapped in a predatory sexual arrangement, where they must do whatever their patrons ask just to get money. Indeed, it is a humiliating experience, and their disgust at their predicament is justified.

So the question is, what is the solution for them? Honestly, I’m not sure, and that’s what saddens me most. In many ways, their lives have been changed forever. They will never be the same people who left their homelands for safety and security. Even if the civil war stopped today, that would not give a solution to the torment suffered by the refugees.

I think that the best we can do is create a world that can better welcome them. That must include the sexual realm, where refugees need not encounter acts that disgust them. Their revulsion against anal sex is justified, and there’s no reason for them to do it if they don’t want to.

Thus, if you want to help create that change, please read further on this blog. I urge you to read “The ‘Straight’-’Gay’ Dichotomy: How It Works”, to fully understand how that system functions. I also urge any who read this to go to “For Straight People (though not exclusively)”, which will point to philosophies and forms of same-sex behavior that don’t hinge on demonstratively false concepts. Also read the page “History of the Concept of Homosexuality”, to see how this concept evolved into its modern day meaning. Don’t be afraid of talking about what you learn to others.

The situation of these refugees are horrendous, and I assure you, they’ll never be the same again. However, as bad as their situation is, it has yielded something that can be quite good. In its own way, their predicament exposes the folly of modern sexual philosophy.

Through their story, we have seen that the labels of “gay” and “straight” are nonsense, and that same-sex attraction is universal. They have also acted as unwitting judges of LGBT anal sex model, and have shown that it will never work. I can’t think of another story that encapsulates the sheer claptrap of our sexual concepts, save for the story of footballer Aaron Hernandez.

The refugees’ pain and suffering need not be in vain. Their story is yet one more that exposes the absurdity of modern sexual philosophy. If we don’t ignore the lessons it gives, and apply what those lessons teach us, we can ensure that future generation can suffer a little less. We can ensure that in future, sexual concepts will more closely match sexual reality.

[caredogstips]

6 Iconic Works Of Art With Brutal Insults Hidden In Them

We all take our inessential little revenges where we can. If someone cuts you off in commerce, you give them the thumb. If one of your co-workers ingest your lunch, you pee in the coffee maker. If someone talks at the movies, you follow them residence, dress like a comedian, and shriek “their childrens” awake each night for the rest of “peoples lives”. But not everyone stops events so reasonable. Here are masters who held onto enmities so long and so hard that their petty avenge became commemorated in their work.

# 6. Harry Potter Is Full Of J.K. Rowling’s Secret Insults

We’re at a culture time where anyone who needs Harry Potter explained to them is clearly a robot trying to gain sentience. So we’re hop-skip the purpose of explaining who Harry Potter is. Better luck next time, robot. For the rest of you, it turns out that J.K. Rowling realise it a habit to turn real beings from her life into attributes in her works, and for shifting those personas into avenge. For instance, when Stephen Fry was hired to narrate the first audio journal, he was told that a sequel was already in the works. Fry commended this Rowling person whom he’d only met with, “Good for you.” She took it as an offend and never forgot it. It got petty.

When registering the book, Fry had fus adding the words “pocketed it.” Through a bizarre lecture hindrance, it always came out as “pocketeded it.” So he called her up and would like to know whether he could change it. Rowling afforded a hard no. And then, through sheer coincidence , the phrase “pocketed it, ” appeared in the next four Harry Potter notebooks. That’s how ridiculous “womens issues” was willing to get for the tiniest quantity of revenge.

Which introduces us to the character of Gilderoy Lockhart, the blowhard educator from Chamber Of Secrets . He was based on a humanity Rowling knew and reviled, who was constantly bragging about acts that almost certainly never happened. So she made him a persona in her work who virtually facilitates Magic Hitler rise to power and get his psyche mopped. Then, after publicly announcing that this shithead was based on a real guy, Rowling responded, “Don’t annoy … he will never in a million years dream that he is Gilderoy Lockhart.” So everyone who has ever gratified J.K. Rowling, take note: There’s a decent hazard she thinks you’re a stupid asshole.

Based on a real stupid asshole .

Another character, Harry’s vile Aunt Marge, was based on one of Rowling’s family members who “liked dogs more than people.” But there’s one character who rises above all others in the annals of hated Harry Potter Characters. The one character whom every fan agrees is the most evil and disliked. No , not Voldemort. Not Lockhart. Not even the sniveling Wormtail.

It’s Dolores Umbridge. Her identify literally signifies “annoyance and offense.”

You goddamn bitch .

If you watched the movies, you might recollect Umbridge as the short one dressed in all-pink who realise Harry write with a pencil that carves characters into his tissue. Seemed a little bit much, right? Well, she was based on a educator Rowling knew whom she described as someone she “disliked deeply on sight.” The impression was mutual, and Rowling described her style as being “appropriate to a girl of three.”

Imagine you’re a coach trying the very best to fertilize young judgments. One of your students( though not your favourite) has already become the most successful writer since God. Excited, you open one of her volumes and find someone who’s clearly you, written as a dimwitted maid of immoralities garmented for a children’s tea party. Oh well, you predict she never forgave you for those imprisonments …

“That was just the once, you crybaby.”

… and then later in the book, your reputation is dragged into the woods by centaurs — a scene which we’re almost certain implies that they then raped her.( That centaurs abuse human girls is an essential part of the lore around them. For speciman, the centaur Nessus was killed while trying to rape a human lady .) Yeah, that’s how freaking nighttime this gets. J.K. Rowling didn’t get along with one of her coaches, so she had the teach get( apparently) sexually contravened by horse-men in a children’s volume. Then she announces to the world that this sorceres get bayoneted in every flaw by centaur rooster is based on a real party. “Not to * wink !* name any refers, but it was one of my teachers, and here’s job descriptions! “

“Does she have teenagers? They just watched Stand-In Mommy lose all hope and glory. Oh glee! ”

So if you ever had an proof with J.K. Rowling, give the books another speak. There’s a good chance a goblin based on you has been torn apart by unicorns for the amusement of children.

# 5. Muslim Street Artists Bash Homeland … On Homeland

Homeland is a testify with so many absurd constructions that it’s more of a practical joke on the observer than a floor. But that’s not why it’s contentious. It’s about CIA agents contending Islamic terrorism, and it’s been called everything from insulting and humiliating to borderline racist. Basically, the appearance treats controversial issues the same way Donald Trump might list his favorite Mexicans — it’s not quite “bigoted, ” but it’s definitely uncomfortable.

So some of Homeland ‘s detractors decided to speak out against the reveal from inside the show itself. One occurrence took place in a Syrian refugee camp. Because the writers are all lily-white Americans with little-to-no Syrian refugee camp suffer, they decided to let some individuals who knew Arabic embellish the laid with graffiti. You possibly discover where this is going. They wrote smart-ass words everywhere.

This suggests ” Homeland is watermelon, ” which is meaner than it resonates in Arabic .

The three masters hired were Don Karl, Heba Amin, and Caram Kapp, and they felt that the establish reached Arabs and Muslims feel disliked and helped shape negative minds. So they said so, in Arabic, right in front of the producers’ non-Arabic-speaking faces.

“This show does not represent the view of the artists.”

The entire place seems a bit obvious in hindsight. Homeland is no other indicate on Tv that hires Middle-Eastern performers, and most of them either play-act suicide bombers or regular grinders. So when the same evidence hires Middle-Eastern set designers and tells them to make it super Arab-y , no one should be surprised if they respond by trolling you.

Actual translation: ” Homeland is racist.” Oh, and “NO MICKEY MOUSE.”

# 4. The God-We-Wish-It-Were-True Story Of “The Cask Of Amontillado”

“The Cask Of Amontillado” is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most well known toils. It’s about a being who gets retaliate on a acquaintance by pulling him underground with wine and then entombing him alive. He leaves “the mens” chained to a wall to die, mocking the man’s shriekings for blessing. A few vague details are given, but it’s never become clear to the reader what injustice invigorated the assassination. Even for Poe, it was a bit dark.

“Once you’re dead, I’m giving your body the teabagging of Amontillado.”

And it all started because another novelist was sort of a douche.

Like all scribes, Edgar Allan Poe had a wonderful sexuality life, great “hairs-breadth”, all the money in “the worlds”, and countless antagonists. One of them was a scribe mentioned Thomas Dunn English. The two detested one another, and Thomas wrote a parody of Poe into one of his tales: a reference appointed Marmaduke Hammerhead who writes a legend called “The Black Crow, ” acts crazy, and is drunk all the time.

Poe didn’t think it was cute. He registered a suit against the working paper English worked for, and acquired. Still unsatisfied, Poe decided to placed him into a narrative. And in that legend, he garmented “the mens” like a jester, walled him up in a dungeon, and tell madness and famine race to destroy him. In … in fiction! Exclusively in fiction.

This was his response to being announced crazy .

As you might have approximated, the poorest of the poor drink dumb “whos got” lay alive in “The Cask Of Amontillado” was based on English. So if you had to read the tale in high school and none of you could figure out what the hell the guy did to deserve such a dark fate , now you know. He gently taunted Edgar Allan Poe. When Poe kills you in a legend, he dresses you like a buffoon and lets you whimper for their own lives alone in the blackness. As opposed to doing you in with the whimsy of a centaur penis.

# 3. Willow Swerved Multiple Movie Critics Into Villains

Though you put your heart and soul into a work of art, there will always be a critic there to tell you it sucks. It happens no matter how great your artistry happens to be, but it happens a lot if your prowes — like Willow — kind of sucks.

Maybe in a preemptive strike against their inevitable offenses, or maybe as revenge for past commentaries, George Lucas mentioned two of the villains in Willow after film reviewers. The first was General Kael, a skull-headed warlord reputation after Pauline Kael, who had called Star Wars an tired circus with no psychological clutch. Well fuck you, Pauline, you’re an evil skeleton now. In Willow .

“You look hopelessly cool and impossibly badass. Aren’t you ashamed? ”

And this wasn’t the only period this happened to Kael. The same year Willow “re coming out”, an analog of her also appeared in the Dirty Harry movie The Dead Pool . Apparently, the filmmakers still hadn’t forgiven her for calling Dirty Harry “fascist, pro-violence, pro-gun, republican nuttery scrap.” So they based a reputation on her, and then had that character get brutally jabbed to demise. That’ll picture her who’s pro-violence!

“I know what you’re deliberation: six gaping spurting curves, or only five? ”

You might believe that George Lucas was outdone, since his insult was simply appointing some guy “Kael, ” while Dirty Harry exited all-out and killer her. Perhaps you’re right. But wait until you hear about the other reviewers who took a smack in Willow . This one is brutal .

At the end of Willow , a two-headed fire-breathing dragon shows. George knew the dragon could be more than a fantastic culminating to history’s greatest film — it was his chance to get revenge for every mean happen Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had ever said about his movies. Those guys would rue the day they traversed the artistic juggernaut of George Lucas!

He identified the dragon Eborsisk.

“We grant it two deformed-looking whale dicks up.”

Oh, shit! Can you envisage what Siskel and Ebert must have visualized when they received information that !? With one reputation( which is never even pronounce aloud ), Lucas killed them both and plummeted the mic. Eborsisk! That’s like both their reputations in one! It was the snap discover of all the countries … Eborsisk. The instant some supplementary information revealed that the dragon’s reputation was Eborsisk, “the worlds” knew never to doubt George Lucas’ filmmaking abilities again.

# 2. The Symbolic Middle Finger In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

The writer Sir Walter Scott isn’t exactly a household name, but there’s a respectable opportunity you’re familiar with some of his effort, like Ivanhoe and Rob Roy . Regrettably for him, the most famous journal in which his name sounds is The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn . And that’s because Mark Twain goddamn detested Walter Scott.

Even more than he hates you for misrepresenting him on Facebook .

Twain thought that Scott’s writing romanticized battle, and was worried that young men were reading about the magnificences of engagement and ranging off to combat. He felt that Scott’s novels were to blame for much of the “windy humbuggeries” of the South, which gave rise to concepts like duels or even the Civil War itself. He felt that Scott’s novels continued the delusion that Southerners were noble heroes and gentlemen, despite their participation in brutal frontier justice and the owning of other humans. So Twain are determined to immortalize his antagonism of Sir Walter Scott in art.

If you don’t recall the patch of Huck Finn , it’s about a runaway boy and an escaped slave traveling down the Mississippi River, and the language hasn’t aged well. What you may have never observed was an aesthetic offend to Scott encoded into their passage. In the tale, Twain named a steamboat after the object of his condescension; the Walter Scott is carried away by a strong present and wrecked against some rocks.

“The regained wood was then turned into an outhouse which was consistently full of shit.”

It was meant to symbolize the path the Old South rode along on Scott’s strong back toward an out-of-control catastrophe( the Civil War ). It’s a little bit more subtle than embed someone alive or probing them with a centaur, but it translates to the same act: “Fuck you, Sir Walter Scott.”

# 1. DC And Marvel Piss On Their Movie

In its very first trailer, Man Of Steel boasted a quote from Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman . This was strange chiefly because All-Star Superman is considered one of the greatest Superman floors ever told, and Man Of Steel was a 150 -minute tantrum hurled by stupid room juveniles. Besides having a laser-eyed alien as the prime reference, they could not be more different. In Man Of Steel , Superman clicks cervixes and watches fathers succumb. In All-Star Superman , he is infallible and benevolent. He’s nearly drew as God.

It’s not even that subtle about it .

Morrison shovels the idea of Superman being a perfect compounding of every human ideal. So he was understandably ticked off that the matter is “gritty” movie in which Superman is a petty thug exploited a quotation from his duty. But since he wrote Action Comics , Superman’s flagship title, it was likely wasn’t appropriate for him to come out and publicly talk shit about the movie. Instead, he carefully knit all that shit-talking into a Superman story.

In a long, mind-bending narration that obligates Memento look like Blue’s Clues , Morrison acquainted a soul called Super-Doomsday.

We’re sure that swastika-looking “S” was purely coincidental .

It’s created by scientists attempting to make a pure and inspirational person, but in their hopelessnes, they sold him off to “owners corporations” which moved him into “a violent, disturbed, faceless anti-hero … a global marketing icon .“

Sound familiar?

“Oh, I get it. You’re like a metapho-AARRRGH! LASER BEAMS !!! ”

Superman eventually uncovers him and uncover a distorted half-Superman/ half-Doomsday — which is eerily same to the form of Doomsday’s origin in the upcoming Batman v. Superman .

“Ugh. Doomsday is some Kryptonian DNA with demon shit attached? What deplorable monster would green-light that project !? ”

Morrison got extremely heavy-handed as he wrote. The commercialized Superman is powered by “a simple corporate directive: kill the competition.” And if that wasn’t obvious enough, the large-scale bad behind Super-Doomsday( an imp from the fifth facet) find right out and explains it TAGEND Able to pinch limitless account in a single body …

“There’s blood on your princely pinnacle. A stain that can never come out. The mark of betrayal and exploitation … Your “S” a dollar sign! ” It almost sounds like he’s referencing a very concrete occurrence. Hmm … wonder what it could be?

“Hkk! This … testifies a fundamental misinterpret … hkk! … of 80 years of reference developing! ”

While on the subject of literary superhero retaliation, Marvel had a similar rebuttal to a bad movie in the sheets of Fantastic Four . In one issue, groupings of people birthing a strong resemblance to the stars of the appalling, frightful Fantastic Four reboot be standing talking about a movie that they worked on with a director referred “Trang.” “Its probably” a including references to FF chairman Josh Trank, but it’s so deeply unclever that it virtually seems impossible.

Turning that “4” on his shirt into four middle fingers would’ve been wittier . And then this happens TAGEND

“We had to level the whole metropoli in case they wanted to threw a reboot.”

That’s it — over the course of three boards, Marvel wordlessly explosion them. It’s the kind of hamfisted theme that makes you long for the intricacy of a fifth-dimensional pixie appearing to explain the laugh. Or, of course, the sophisticated nuance of J.K. Rowling’s unwanted centaur cocks.

Always be category, because you never know when you’ll end up a laugh in someone else’s innovation. Witness more of that in 6 Brilliant Insults Hidden In Video Games As Easter Eggs and 6 Famous Works Of Art You Didn’t Know Were Vicious Insults .

Read more: www.cracked.com

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