I live the days as they come, he says
What happens tomorrow – I can’t guarantee today
So why bother trying to be something I’m not
Striving towards an ends only to end up in a box.

If only lessons could be learnt through words
Life is an experience to be lived, not heard
Yet schooling seems to be the preferred option
Those high horses falling nearest the bottom.

I have a rough idea of the way out
Sketched in my head is an erroneous route.
The checkpoints are determined by ’success’
To which my answers are but a guess.

Right, left, east, west…
Which direction will put my heart at rest?
“Follow this road, then take the second exit.”
Guidance is clear – but on the path I slip.
Plummet into what they call oblivion
Looking to the sky, the sun at meridian.

I once had a vision, it was clear as day
Then the night came and swept it away.
This is why I ask, if indeed you know,
For I understand why, but not the way to go.

Update: 19 Dec 08

I found a verse in the Qur’an that I feel relates to the message I was attempting to convey with this poem:

“And do they not see that We do drive rain to parched soil (bare of herbage), and produce therewith crops, providing food for their cattle and themselves? Have they not the vision?” (32:27)

Abdullah Yusuf Ali comments: The verse begins with “do they not see?”, a physical act. It ends with “have they not the vision?”, a matter of spiritual insight.

Hi,

It appears that Dana Jacobson has been accused on several occasions for ‘hate speech’ against religious groups. Whilst I do not advocate some kind of radical action, I think it is your duty to look seriously into such issues.

As a Muslim I am offended that it is okay for presenters on mainstream television to be slandering any faith or belief. If claims are untrue, make that abundantly clear, otherwise you should take appropriate action.

They responded:

Thank you for writing,

Ms. Jacobson’s inappropriate comments were delivered during a roast for her friends Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg and were in the context of Notre Dame football and its Touchdown Jesus icon. They were wrong and inexcusable, and she was suspended from her duties.

Ms. Jacobson returned to work on January 28 and again offered an apology and asked for forgiveness:

Apology from Dana Jacobson on ESPN’s First Take – 1/28/08:

“Before we do start First Take, there is something that I want to address. There has been a lot of attention surrounding my inappropriate behavior and comments at a roast earlier this month of my friends Mike (Greenberg) and Mike (Golic). I want to once again say how truly sorry I am for my poor choices and bad judgment that night. I have taken responsibility for what I did say and do and realize why it was wrong.

“There are no do-overs in life, so all I can do is what we all do when we make mistakes – learn from them. As a person, and even a broadcaster, I can tell you I have already learned a lot from mine. Several people told me last week mistakes do not define us. It is how we respond to those mistakes that does. I believe that. I hope you can forgive me and allow my future to define me.

“Finally, I want to thank my family, friends, and viewers who have shown me support during this difficult time. Most importantly, ESPN, for its unwavering support and the opportunity to return to this job. The job that I love. Now it is time to get back to that job.”

ESPN met with Christian leaders who, as a result, are now applauding the network for its commitment toward building religious tolerance in the workplace. You can read about the results of those meetings here.

Sincerely,

ESPN Viewer Response

Just thought I’d post it…

My Rating: 5/5

Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantanamo and Back

Review

When I was in Year 10 in January 2005 I did a presentation to my English class on the indefinite detention of potentially innocent human beings in Gunatanamo Bay. Handing out some of the few pictures actually available from the media and articles describing the horrific events that took place in Guantanamo to the class showed some interest, in particular a cutting from a newspaper highlighting the release of 4 Britons, one of whom I have come to know as Moazzam Begg.

Almost two years later, at ExpoIslamia in Manchester I saw a book which immediately struck me as something of interest. I found it difficult to relate from my initial studies into the crimes in Guantanamo to this book, something that you will only really understand when you read it. The personality enclosed in a book is so much more powerful then any article you could read in the newspaper or any piece on the TV news, and this book does not differ.

I guess a question that could easily be asked is what is there to gain from reading this book? Honestly I think you will gain from reading anything, the amount of knowledge to be gained from books is immense, unfortunately something I know I haven’t really been taking advantage of recently.

The thing about this book is that even though it is completely factual, it portrays the story as something which makes you attached to Moazzam’s ‘journey’. You ultimately feel weak and helpless sat there in your warm sofa reading about someone no different to yourself being taken from his home in Pakistan into 3 years of illegal detention. He is British and lived but an hour away from me. The only real difference was his choice to help his Muslim brothers suffering in other countries, something which we all strive to do.

The journey takes you from England to Bosnia, Pakistan to Afghanistan, Bagram to Cuba and finally back to England. A mixture of emotions run through you as you read about the terrors, the praying, the lack of food, the torture – psychological and physical, the excitement of small acts of kindness. If you don’t cry at least once when reading this book you have a heart of stone or just really didn’t read it.
Ensnared within this steel quagmire,
Our view holds little to admire,
So to the darkness we retire,
Amidst the chime of the razor wire.
I opened the file I kept with the research I did on Guantanamo in year 10 and suddenly I could put a real picture to the faces of the people talked about in the articles. I could put a real image to the few pictures of the camps in Guantanamo. It’s funny how you think you’re well educated on the problems of the world until you really learn just how deep it goes. The example of Moazzam’s father becoming active in campaigning for his son’s release really touched me:

“Old feuds between my father and his siblings had stopped, and they had come together. People who hadn’t spoken to one another for years had turned up to my fathers house and offered him their complete support. I had come home to a united family”

Astonished that out of so much evil has come some good. There are so many things to say about this book, but really – just read it. You will truly see what a mess we are in today, what our governments are doing beyond the laws, how people just like us are suffering for no apparent reason. “You do NOT have the RIGHT to remain silent.” (used by Amnesty protestors against Guantanamo).

Perhaps it is time to starting making a difference.

Read the story about how a world of warcraft geek got a taste of being a Muslim on an Aeroplane here! – Thanks Tibault.

Iraq is being struck by suicide bombers in densely populated civilian areas. The media, or more importantly the people carrying out this war (America), of course, made it appear that it is a civil conflict where Iraqi’s (probably toss the words Islamist Extremist Terrorist in there to excite the public) are just killing other Iraqi’s, and the occupying forces (US&UK) are there to help prevent this civil unrest and liberate (do people still fall for that ?) the Iraqi people. Frankly I didn’t believe for a minute that Iraqi’s were killing other Iraqi’s. I know that Iraqi’s are killing more soldiers in Iraq then perhaps we know about, but let’s see what is actually happening in the world of ‘mass suicide’.

Article: Robert Fisk
Source: ICH

The Americans, my interlocutor suspected, are trying to provoke an Iraqi civil war so that Sunni Muslim insurgents spend their energies killing their Shia co-religionists rather than soldiers of the Western occupation forces. “I swear to you that we have very good information,” my source says, finger stabbing the air in front of him. “One young Iraqi man told us that he was trained by the Americans as a policeman in Baghdad and he spent 70 per cent of his time learning to drive and 30 per cent in weapons training. They said to him: ‘Come back in a week.’ When he went back, they gave him a mobile phone and told him to drive into a crowded area near a mosque and phone them. He waited in the car but couldn’t get the right mobile signal. So he got out of the car to where he received a better signal. Then his car blew up.”

Surprised? I’m certainly not. Funny how this story isn’t much of a revelation to me, at all. Why? The minute the war bells chimed I knew this wasn’t going to be a just war. In fact, can you even call it a war? Surely war’s have to have two sides to them? Surely there has to be an enemy to engage? We marched in the streets of London with 1 million others to tell the world that this wasn’t going to be a just war – this wasn’t going to be ‘just a war’.

And if you’re surprised, this is barely scraping the surface.

Update: I just watched Loose Change 2nd Edition, if you want to know the truth about what happend on 911, I highly recommend it. Oh and its sunny outside (in Manchester!)