The Prayer- Kid Cudi

My heart thump not from being nervous
Sometimes I'm thinking God made me special here on purpose
So all the while 'til I'm gone make my words important so
If I slip away, if I die today the last thing you remember won't
Be about some apple bottom jeans with the boots with the fur
Baby how I dream of being free since my birth
Cursed but the demons I confronted would disperse
Have you ever heard of some shit so real
Beyond from the heart, from the soul you can feel

And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take
But please don't cry, just know that I have made these songs for you
And if I die before I wake I pray the lord my soul to take
'Cuz I'm ready for a funeral

My mind runs I can never catch it even if I got a head start
God please tell me I am feeling so alone way
I don't need to worry 'cuz I know the world'll feel this nigga
Blessing in disguise but I am not hiding who I am open your eyes bro
If I ever met you, I appreciate the love yo
Girls that I dated, it's ok I am not mad yo
Unless you stabbed me in the heart, no love ho, this shit is so I'll
Play it back from the top if you recognize real

And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take
But please don't cry, just know that I have made these songs for you
And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take
'Cuz I'm ready for a funeral
And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take
So please don't cry, just know that I have made these songs for you
And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul take
'Cuz I'm ready for a funeral (I'm ready for the funeral, I'm ready for the funeral)

A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City

Across the world today there are 42 million refugees and IDPs uprooted by war, famine and natural disasters; a nearly incomprehensible number, 42 million individuals with individual yet eerily analogous life stories, hopes and shattered dreams, displaced and forced to live without a home, without family, a stranger in foreign lands away from all that they once knew. Fleeing with nothing but hope in the humanity of others and their faith in a higher power. Doctors without Borders or also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) are at the fore front of providing aid to these millions, through medical care, food and shelter and information to the needy and helpless. Doctors Without Borders is an “international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflicts, epidemics, malnutrition, natural disasters and exclusion from health care in more than 60 countries” across the world. On any one day 27,000 individuals ranging from doctors, nurses, logistics experts, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory techs, mental health professionals and others can be found upholding the humanitarian principles of medical ethics and impartiality, by providing quality healthcare to people regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation.

October 31st to November 1st 2009, Doctors Without Borders touring exhibit, “A refugee camp in the heart of the city” came to Santa Monica, next to the Pier. The exhibit featured a surreal tour of a makeshift refugee camp. It highlighted various aspects of a refugee camp including different forms of shelters, food stores, medical tents, and other stations commonly found and needed in these camps. The tour was given by former and current MFS volunteers, who intertwined their own real experiences working abroad with the gripping visuals portrayed to the audience on the walkthrough. The tour featured several stations where participants learned of various aspects of life as a refugee. Each station was introduced in the form of a question for in the point of view of the refugee, “Where will I live? Where will I find Water? Where will I go to the bathroom? What if I get sick?” and “How long will I be here?” And at each station the tour guide addressed the various problems, and how refugees cope with them, and MSF’s involvement. The exhibit a huge success also included lectures at local campuses. The exhibit from here moves to Northern California.

MSF’s work abroad and in a more generalized sense the safeguarding of the world’s poor and suffering, as cliché as it sounds, holds a special place in my heart. In the future I hope to see myself working for an organization like Doctors without Borders and going abroad and volunteering my time and skills as a medical professional. I find myself especially drawn to this cause because the majority of refugees share the same beliefs and ideals as me, and were persecuted on that basis. The majority of refugees come from Muslim backgrounds, from the deserts of Somalia to the peaks of Albania. Refugees from Palestine number 4.6 million, Afghanistan 3.1 million, and Iraq’s 2.3 million.

“Humanitarian action is based on the conviction that ordinary people caught in conflict and crisis, whoever and whoever they be, deserve to be spared from the excesses of violence and to receive lifesaving assistance that is impartial, neutral and free from political or religious agendas.” This statement encompasses my beliefs and my desire to be the keeper of my brothers and sisters abroad, to be among the guardians of humanity, the abettor to those who have lost everything. It will be a long difficult journey, but I am determined to use medicine as an instrument abroad to bring peace to lands torn apart by discrimination and animosity.

Dr. Hassan Hathout dies at 84; Islamic leader fostered interfaith relations

Dr. Hassan Hathout, a physician, medical ethicist and leader of the Southern California Islamic community who was at the forefront of efforts to demystify American Muslims and build interfaith bonds, has died. He was 84.

Hathout died of natural causes Saturday at his Pasadena home, said a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, of which he was a prominent member.

He was also a leader of the Islamic Center of Southern California, where he coordinated outreach efforts for two decades. A well-regarded scholar, he wrote several books, including "Reading the Muslim Mind."

"He was one of our giants in the history of Islam in America," who urged Muslims to be "organically integrated in American society and not act as visitors" in it, Salam al Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said Sunday.

In 1998 Hathout delivered a sermon at the first White House celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the day marking the end of the Muslim holy month Ramadan. Along with Rabbi Leonard Beerman of Bel-Air's Leo Baeck Temple and the Rev. George Regas of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Hathout also helped organize the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race, one of the first major inter-religious efforts in Los Angeles.

"As a physician he was so committed to life, he wanted to stand against anything that was going to obliterate life. He did that as a deeply religious person," Regas said Sunday.

Hathout was born in Cairo on Dec. 23, 1924. The son of a schoolteacher, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he earned degrees from the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He also had a doctorate of philosophy in reproductive genetics.

He taught obstetrics and gynecology in Kuwait, where he lived for 26 years before immigrating to the United States in the late 1980s.

He quickly became involved in interfaith work in Los Angeles. With Beerman and Regas, he organized weekly prayer services for Muslims, Christians and Jews during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The first service at All Saints in Pasadena drew more than 1,500 worshipers.

"We've lived together for centuries with mutual reserve and hatred," he told the Daily News in 1991. "One of the positive things of the whole gulf crisis is that the three communities came together and discovered each other's faith and scriptures are so similar."

After 9/11, Hathout stepped up his efforts at bridge-building and called on Muslims to tone down anti-American rhetoric. He also spoke at Open Mosque Day, a program launched in 2002 in which more than two dozen mosques in Southern California invited non-Muslims to join in Islamic prayers, food and literature.

At one such event a few years ago, he told visitors that instead of classifying humanity by religion, he sought to view people in more basic terms: "those with a loving heart and those with a hating heart."

"He had a wonderful heart," said Dr. Omar Alfi, a physician and former chairman of the Islamic Center of Southern California, who knew Hathout for 60 years. "His main point was that religion is love . . . that humans are either loving or hating people irrespective of their religion.

"That was always a very important point for him."

Hathout is survived by his wife of 56 years, Salonas; a daughter, Eba; a brother, Maher; and two grandchildren.

Burial will take place at 3 p.m. today) at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 Workman Mill Road, Whittier 90601. Visitation with the family is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Islamic Center of Southern California, 434 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles 90020.

Elaine Woo
LA Times
elaine.woo@latimes.com

Inna lilah wa inna ilahi raji'un.
(From Allah we all come and to Him we return.)

A Trip Down Skid Row

Today some friends and I took the leftovers dinner bags from last night's CAIR Manzanar trip to Skid Row on San Julian St. in Downtown LA. I was nervous and anxious on our way there. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had heard much about this area of downtown. Never have I seen so much loss and agony in one place. Going up and down the street, there were countless men and women walking about aimlessly, sleeping on the sidwalk or lounging. Looking into the faces of the people I saw the pain and loss as well as the dilapitated compliant conditions around them.

Homelessness is a complicated issue. Many of these homeless people could just be down on their luck, mentally ill, veterans to a country that has forsaken them, some could be criminals and fugitives, others may not even be homeless! But nonetheless the state of these people and the condition in which they continue to persist and endure through should not and cannnot be ignored. It is a matter of humanity. To help the poor and defend the weak. Yet despite these grounded idealouges I found myself skwirmming at the sight. I am ashamed to find in myself the feelings of fear, a fear of this strange new world so distant from my conception of home, a fear of saftey, a fear of losing some insignificant material possession. It was a surreal experience. I had always heard of people going to places like this and saying they couldn't believe they were still in America, however you can never truely know what that means unless you go for youself and see it with your own eyes! It hits home taking over your greatest securities of saftey and the idea of the perfect American Dream.

We drove through the street once, surveying a good place to drop the food off. The street itself was only the beginning, all around the block, there were people minding their own business, just a block away from the polic station. After the first drive through we came around again and stopped at a Volunteer Center. There we dropped the 22 sandwich bags containing a turkey sandwich, chips, apple and cookies in a courtyard of more than 50 people. As soon as we dropped it, people swarmmed around the food, taking a bag and devearouing it.

Although we surely did not contribute to ending poverty in America, this experience has brought to surface feelings of my own ungratefullness and weakness. I pray to Allah(swt) to strengthen me as a person, to help me fear him alone and I seek his forgiveness and mercy, I ask Allah(swt) to alleviate the pains of poverty and to give guidance to those who have gone astray. I thank Allah(swt) for his bountiless blessings. As it says in the Qu'ran,

"He has completed His blessings upon you, in open and hidden ways" [31:20]

We can truley never be able to express ourselves in way that would do justice for the innumerable blessings we are each given. But we can say Alhumdullialah and be grateful when we have the opportunity to do so, especially for the greatest blessing of all, faith, something that many of the people of Skid Row have lost. I will definately be going again, if you'd like to join let me know.

Manzanar, Living in a Remebered Present

February 19th 1942, Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, began the forced relocation of thousands of West Coast Japanese Americans to ten concentration camps spread out across the the western continental states. Fueled by war time hysteria and fear following the cowardly attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan, Americans of Japanese ancestry were subjected to humiliating treatment and racist attitudes that brought into question their loyalty to America. As early as following the decimation of the American Pacific naval fleet, the FBI moved swiftly to solve the "Japanese Problem" by seizing and arresting "enemy" aliens. The newly created War Relocation Authority (WRA) was charged to create the camps that would eventually become the home of around 120,000 Japanese Americans, 2/3 of which were American born citizens. Of these camps, Manzanar once the prison to hundreds of families, has now been transformed into a site of remembrance, and a endearing reminder of American complancy in the face of injustice.

Located in the desolate and arid Ownes Valley, Manzanar was an enclosed one square-mile area of military style barracks, mess halls, and open fields, that housed over 10,000 people, under the survielence of eight permiemter guard towers. The Japanese were brought to the camps under the pretext that they were going for their own protection, however came to find the guard towers and armed soilders enclosing them behind barbed wires. They had become prisioners, guilty for the crime of being Japanese. What followed for many was three years of an isolated exisitence, void of freedom, lost in confusion and dispair, what followed was three years of unjust imprisonment.

On April 25th, Japanese Americans, Muslims and many other people made an annual pilgirimage to commorate this blotch in American History and to ensure "never again". The experience of the Japanese Americans offers invaluable wisdom to Muslim Americans living in a post 9/11 America, that are faced, as the Japanese did, with a constant unjust scrutinty and harrasment by the Government and general public. Talking with former camp attendees, a constant phrase surfaced, "fighting injustice". These powerful two words, resonate on so many levels and they remind me of a commonly quoted saying of the prophet:

Whosoever sees an evil deed, let him change it with his hand; if he is unable to do so, then with his tounge; if he is unable to do so then with his heart, and that is the weakest of faith. (Muslim)

Having the opportunity to sit down and talk to former internees and learning their stories firsthand was remarkable in and byself. They discussed their own complancent nature at the time, and the post-camp experiences that finally led them to open up to younger generations. They talked about the humiliating expeirneces of encampent in retrospect and the degrading treatment. We also discussed the contemporary issues, Muslims find themselves in today, and idnetified parallel stories.

If we, as Muslims, as activists are to be the catalyst for social bettermant as mandated by the Qu'ran, it is critical that we learn and gain from the past expeirnces of others, and interanlize these struggles in our own, and to work in solidarity with other communities to find justice for the wrongs commited and being commited. In doing so we are taking a proactive approach and emboding the above mentioned hadith. Let us not be complacent with the injustices of today, let us ignore no more the parallel stories of the Japanese Americans and Muslim Americans and gain from what they can offer. Let us speak out against Abu Gharib, Guantanomo Bay, and the secret torture prisons around the world. Let us no longer see it acceptable to allow the FBI to infringe on our civil liberites in overt tactics.

Manzanar was an eye-opening experience that proves to be a reminder to continue to work against the injustices of our day, and find meaning in the past. There is so much to gain from going
.

Fort Minor- Kenji

Going to Manzanar this weekend. Reminded me of this song.