#Islamic education for kids

[youqaria]

Importance of teaching Quran to children from an early age

The Quran is the holy book of Islam and is considered to be the word of God. It is the foundation of the Muslim faith and plays a central role in the lives of millions of people around the world. As parents and educators, it is our responsibility to ensure that the next generation is taught about the Quran and its teachings. One of the most important ways to achieve this is by teaching Quran to…

[digitalislamicguide]

5 Pillars of Islamic Parenting: Raise Happy & Successful Muslim Kids

Raising children is a beautiful yet demanding journey. Muslim parents, entrusted with the precious souls of their children, often grapple with the best approach to nurture their faith, character, and overall well-being. Islam, as a complete way of life, offers a wealth of guidance on this matter. This article explores five core principles of Islamic parenting that can empower Muslim families to…

[qurantajweedcourseonline]

114 - Surah An-Nas سورۃ ٱلنَّاس ┇ Beautiful Tilawat e Quran ┇Madani Isla...

[madaniislamicacademy]

114 - Surah An-Nas سورۃ ٱلنَّاس ┇ Beautiful Tilawat e Quran ┇Madani Isla...

[lapseinart]

No I think it’s like you’re dividing a circle in two parts. The circle is all atheists. On one part you have “Women, POC, immigrant, trauma survivors, etc.” and on the other you have “White men”.

Then you have another circle. It is also all atheists. You divide that into parts. One is “Religious trauma survivors = people that can’t believe in what teaches them to be cruel, cant trust the books that teach about peace and love when faith has hurt them” and the other part is labeled “intellectuals that eschew silly superstitions that say they might have to face one (1) single consequence.”

The original post links these two ways of separating atheists together in such a way that leads it’s readers to conclude that overlapping these circles ensures that everyone in the “White men” category is also in the “intellectuals” category.

The post in no way implies that it means that “most” men are atheists because it makes them feel intellectually superior; there are no qualifiers in the original post. This is a rhetorical choice by the person to make the original screenshotted post to imply that the two factors (being POC/Queer/traumatized vs being a white man and religious trauma vs intellectualism) are inherently linked. This obviously does not reflect reality as not all POC that are atheists have religious trauma and we know it does not reflect reality; that’s why people are upset by the implications of this post. Obviously the post is meant to be hyperbolic in an effort at comedy to make fun of white men, but there are spaces in which these categories can overlap and technically there are atheists that don’t belong in either category as is the case in the division between atheists with religious trauma and “intellectual” atheists — namely people who just grew up atheists. This post does not contain the realities of the situation of some people and it makes people sad or mad.

Also I’m making this in good faith please don’t be so reactionary I may be chronically online but I’m agnostic not atheist.

it's so cool to see you being openly atheist because i remember for a while back in the 2010s other "social justice" posters could get Weird about that. did you ever come across that one post with tons of notes claiming the only valid reason for atheism was religious trauma

you mean this little chestnut?

not only have i "come across" it, i have critiqued that post specifically multiple times, and every time i do, someone who wasn't on here at the time accuses me of paraphrasing it or even lying about its existence entirely. that post and "Culture is about identity, community and family. It’s about tradition. It is not and has never been about “sharing”" are really the poster children for tumblr discourse: flagrant right-wing/reactionary ideology wrapped up in socially conscious language getting 6-digit notes with 0 pushback

[alfezkhan081]

Weekend School At Dar Al-Hijrah

Children can receive a well-rounded education from Dar Al-Hijrah Weekend School, which includes instruction in the Qur'an, Islamic Studies, Seerah, Arabic, and other Islamic education for kids. The academic year is split into two semesters and lasts from September to May. The first weekend after Labor Day, which is the first Monday in September, marks the start of the fall semester, which lasts for 14 weekends. Beginning in January, the winter semester consists of 14 weekends. Register now at 

[mee-op]

@ma7moudgaza2 is sharing the spirit of Eid Al-Adha, an islamic holiday. On these day, people are supposed to be celebrating with their loved ones-- eating food, laughing, cheering, talking, but Palestinians don't have the privilege of celebrating as they did before.

Mahmoud is one of many Palestinians trying to make things better for the children in Gaza; he is giving money to kids for every $20 CAD donated. Please donate if you can, and pray for a free Palestine 🤲

[sayruq]

NAHLA AL-ARIAN HAS been living a nightmare for the past seven months, watching from afar as Israel carries out its scorched-earth war against her ancestral homeland in the Gaza Strip. Like many Palestinian Americans, the 63-year-old retired fourth-grade teacher from Tampa Bay, Florida, has endured seven months of a steady trickle of WhatsApp messages about the deaths of her relatives. “You see, my father’s family is originally from Gaza, so they are a big family. And they are not only in Gaza City, but also in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, other parts,” Al-Arian told me. Recently, the trickle of horrors became a flood: “It started with like 27, and then we lost count until I received this message from my relative who said at least 200 had died.” The catastrophe was the backdrop for Al-Arian’s visit last week to Columbia University in New York City. Al-Arian has five children, four of whom are journalists or filmmakers. On April 25, two of her daughters, Laila and Lama, both award-winning TV journalists, visited the encampment established by Columbia students to oppose the war in Gaza. Laila, an executive producer at Al Jazeera English with Emmys and a George Polk Award to her name, is a graduate of Columbia’s journalism school. Lama was the recipient of the prestigious 2021 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia Award for her reporting for Vice News on the 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut. The two sisters traveled to Columbia as journalists to see the campus, and Nahla joined them. “Of course, I tagged along. You know, why would I sit at the hotel by myself? And I wanted to really see those kids. I felt so down,” she said. “I was crying every day for Gaza, for the children being killed, for the women, the destruction of my father’s city, so I wanted to feel better, you know, to see those kids. I heard a lot about them, how smart they are, how organized, you know? So I said, let’s go along with you. So I went.” Nahla Al-Arian was on the campus for less than an hour. She sat and listened to part of a teach-in, and shared some hummus with her daughters and some students. Then she left, feeling a glimmer of hope that people — at least these students — actually cared about the suffering and deaths being inflicted on her family in Gaza. “I didn’t teach them anything. They are the ones who taught me. They are the ones who gave me hope,” she recalled. “I felt much better when I went there because I felt those kids are really very well informed, very well educated. They are the conscience of America. They care about the Palestinian people who they never saw or got to meet.” Her husband posted a picture of Nahla, sitting on the lawn at the tent city erected by the student protesters, on his Twitter feed. “My wife Nahla in solidarity with the brave and very determined Columbia University students,” he wrote. Nahla left New York, inspired by her visit to Columbia, and returned to Virginia to spend time with her grandchildren. A few days later, that one tweet by her husband would thrust Nahla Al-Arian into the center of a spurious narrative promoted by the mayor of New York City and major media outlets. She became the exemplar of the dangerous “outside agitator” who was training the students at Columbia. It was Nahla’s presence, according to Mayor Eric Adams, that was the “tipping point” in his decision to authorize the military-style raids on the campus.

On February 20, 2003, Nahla’s husband, Sami Al-Arian, a professor at the University of South Florida, was arrested and indicted on 53 counts of supporting the armed resistance group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The PIJ had been designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, and the charges against Al-Arian could have put him in prison for multiple life sentences, plus 225 years. It was a centerpiece case of the George W. Bush administration’s domestic “war on terror.” When John Ashcroft, Bush’s notorious attorney general, announced the indictment, he described the Florida-based scholar as “the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian.” Among the charges against him was conspiracy to kill or maim persons abroad, specifically in Israel, yet the prosecutors openly admitted Al-Arian had no connection to any violence. He was a well-known and deeply respected figure in the Tampa community, where he and Nahla raised their family. He was also, like many fellow Palestinians, a tenacious critic of U.S. support for Israel and of the burgeoning “global war on terror.” His arrest came just days before the U.S. invaded Iraq, a war Al-Arian was publicly opposed to. The Al-Arian case was, at its core, a political attack waged by Bush’s Justice Department as part of a wider assault on the rights of Muslims in the U.S. The government launched a campaign, echoed in media outlets, to portray Al-Arian as a terror leader at a time when the Bush administration was ratcheting up its so-called global war on terror abroad, and when Muslims in the U.S. were being subjected to harassment, surveillance, and abuse. The legal case against Al-Arian was flimsy, and prosecutors largely sought to portray his protected First Amendment speech and charitable activities as terrorism. The trial against Al-Arian, a legal permanent resident in the U.S., did not go well for federal prosecutors. In December 2005, following a six-month trial, a jury acquitted him on eight of the most serious counts and deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal on the other nine. The judge made clear he was not pleased with this outcome, and the prosecutors were intent on relitigating the case. Al-Arian had spent two years in jail already without any conviction and was staring down the prospect of years more. In the face of this reality and the toll the trial against him had taken on his family, Al-Arian agreed to take a plea deal. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to one count of providing nonviolent support to people the government alleged were affiliated with the PIJ. As part of the deal, Al-Arian would serve a short sentence and, with his residency revoked, get an expedited deportation. At no point during the government’s trial against Al-Arian did the prosecution provide evidence he was connected to any acts of violence. For the next eight years following his release from prison in 2008, Al-Arian was kept under house arrest and effectively subjected to prosecutorial harassment as the government sought to place him in what his lawyers characterized as a judicial trap by compelling him to testify in a separate case. His defense lawyers alleged the federal prosecutor in the case, who had a penchant for pursuing high-profile, political cases, held an anti-Palestinian bias. Amnesty International raised concerns that Al-Arian had been abused in prison and he faced the prospect of yet another lengthy, costly court battle. The saga would stretch on for several more years before prosecutors ended the case and Al-Arian was deported from the United States.

“This case remains one of the most troubling chapters in this nation’s crackdown after 9-11,” Al-Arian’s lawyer, Jonathan Turley, wrote in 2014 when the case was officially dropped. “Despite the jury verdict and the agreement reached to allow Dr. Al-Arian to leave the country, the Justice Department continued to fight for his incarceration and for a trial in this case. It will remain one of the most disturbing cases of my career in terms of the actions taken by our government.” That federal prosecutors approved Al-Arian’s plea deal gave a clear indication that the U.S. government knew Al-Arian was not an actual terrorist, terrorist facilitator, or any kind of threat; the Bush administration, after all, was not in the habit of letting suspected terrorists walk. Al-Arian and his family have always maintained his innocence and say that he was being targeted for his political beliefs and activism on behalf of Palestinians. He resisted the deal, Nahla Al-Arian said. “He didn’t even want to accept it. He wanted to move on with another trial,” Nahla said. “But because of our pressure on him, let’s just get done with it [because] in the end, we’re going leave anyway. So that’s why.” Sami and Nahla Al-Arian now live in Turkey. Sami is not allowed to visit his children and grandchildren stateside, but Nahla visits often.

[writingwithcolor]

Sri Lankan Fairies and Senegalese Goddesses: Mixing Mythology as a Mixed Creator

[Note: this archive ask was submitted before the Masterpost rules took effect in 2023. The ask has been abridged for clarity.]

@reydjarinkenobi asked:

Hi, I’m half Sri Lankan/half white Australian, second gen immigrant though my mum moved when she was a kid. My main character for my story is a mixed demigod/fae. [...] Her bio mum is essentially a Scottish/Sri Lankan fairy and her other bio mum (goddess) is a goddess of my own creation, Nettamaar, who’s name is derived from [...] Wolof words [...]. The community of mages that she presided over is from the South Eastern region of Senegal [...] In the beginning years of European imperialism, the goddess basically protected them through magic and by blessing a set of triplets effectively cutting them off from the outside world for a few centuries [...] I was unable to find a goddess that fit the story I wanted to tell [...] and also couldn’t find much information on the internet for local gods, which is why I have created my own. I know that the gods in Hinduism do sort of fit into [the story] but my Sri Lankan side is Christian and I don’t feel comfortable representing the Hindu gods in the way that I will be this goddess [...]. I wanted to know if any aspect of the community’s history is problematic as well as if I should continue looking further to try and find an African deity that matched my narrative needs? I was also worried that having a mixed main character who’s specifically half black would present problems as I can’t truly understand the black experience. I plan on getting mixed and black sensitivity readers once I finish my drafts [...] I do take jabs at white supremacy and imperialism and I I am planning to reflect my feelings of growing up not immersed in your own culture and feeling overwhelmed with what you don’t know when you get older [...]. I’m sorry for the long ask but I don’t really have anyone to talk to about writing and I’m quite worried about my story coming across as insensitive or problematic because of cultural history that I am not educated enough in.

Reconciliation Requires Research

First off: how close is this world’s history to our own, omitting the magic? If you’re aiming for it to be essentially parallel, I would keep in mind that Senegal was affected by the spread of Islam before the Europeans arrived, and most people there are Muslim, albeit with Wolof and other influences. 

About your Scottish/Sri Lankan fairy character: I’ll point you to this previous post on Magical humanoid worldbuilding, Desi fairies as well as this previous post on Characterization for South Asian-coded characters for some of our commentary on South Asian ‘fae’. Since she is also Scottish, the concept can tie back to the Celtic ideas of the fae.

However, reconciliation of both sides of her background can be tricky. Do you plan on including specific Sri Lankan mythos into her heritage? I would tread carefully with it, if you plan to do so. Not every polytheistic culture will have similar analogues that you can pull from.

To put it plainly, if you’re worried about not knowing enough of the cultural histories, seek out people who have those backgrounds and talk to them about it. Do your research thoroughly: find resources that come from those cultures and read carefully about the mythos that you plan to incorporate. Look for specificity when you reach out to sensitivity readers and try to find sources that go beyond a surface-level analysis of the cultures you’re looking to portray. 

~ Abhaya

I see you are drawing on Gaelic lore for your storytelling. Abhaya has given you good links to discussions we’ve had at WWC and the potential blindspots in assuming, relative to monotheistic religions like Christianity, that all polytheistic and pluralistic lore is similar to Gaelic folklore. Fae are one kind of folklore. There are many others. Consider:

Is it compatible? Are Fae compatible with the Senegalese folklore you are utilizing? 

Is it specific? What ethnic/religious groups in Senegal are you drawing from? 

Is it suitable? Are there more appropriate cultures for the type of lore you wish to create?

Remember, Senegalese is a national designation, not an ethnic one, and certainly not a designation that will inform you with respect to religious traditions. But more importantly:

...Research Requires Reconciliation

My question is why choose Senegal when your own heritage offers so much room for exploration? This isn’t to say I believe a half Sri-Lankan person shouldn’t utilize Senegalese folklore in their coding or vice-versa, but, to put it bluntly, you don’t seem very comfortable with your heritage. Religions can change, but not everything cultural changes when this happens. I think your relationship with your mother’s side’s culture offers valuable insight to how to tackle the above, and I’ll explain why.  

I myself am biracial and bicultural, and I had to know a lot about my own background before I was confident using other cultures in my writing. I had to understand my own identity—what elements from my background I wished to prioritize and what I wished to jettison. Only then was I able to think about how my work would resonate with a person from the relevant background, what to be mindful of, and where my blindspots would interfere. 

I echo Abhaya’s recommendation for much, much more research, but also include my own personal recommendation for greater self-exploration. I strongly believe the better one knows oneself, the better they can create. It is presumptuous for me to assume, but your ask’s phrasing, the outlined plot and its themes all convey a lack of confidence in your mixed identity that may interfere with confidence when researching and world-building. I’m not saying give up on this story, but if anxiety on respectful representation is a large barrier for you at the moment, this story may be a good candidate for a personal project to keep to yourself until you feel more ready.

(See similar asker concerns here: Running Commentary: What is “ok to do” in Mixed-Culture Supernatural Fiction, here: Representing Biracial Black South American Experiences and here: Am I fetishizing my Japanese character?)

- Marika.

Start More Freely with Easy Mode

Question: Why not make a complete high-fantasy universe, with no need of establishing clear real-world parallels in the text? It gives you plenty of leg room to incorporate pluralistic, multicultural mythos + folklore into the same story without excessive sweating about historically accurate worldbuilding.

It's not a *foolproof* method; even subtly coded multicultural fantasy societies like Avatar or the Grishaverse exhibit certain harmful tropes. I also don't know if you are aiming for low vs high fantasy, or the degree of your reliance on real world culture / religion / identity cues.

But don't you think it's far easier for this fantasy project to not have the additional burden of historical accuracy in the worldbuilding? Not only because I agree with Mod Marika that perhaps you seem hesitant about the identity aspect, but because your WIP idea can include themes of othering and cultural belonging (and yes, even jabs at supremacist institutions) in an original fantasy universe too. I don't think I would mind if I saw a couple of cultural markers of a Mughal Era India-inspired society without getting a full rundown of their agricultural practices, social conventions and tax systems, lol.

Mod Abhaya has provided a few good resources about what *not* to do when drawing heavily from cultural coding. With that at hand, I don't think your project should be a problem if you simply make it an alternate universe like Etheria (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), Inys (The Priory of the Orange Tree) or Earthsea (the Earthsea series, Ursula K. Le Guin). Mind you, we can trace the analogues to each universe, but there is a lot of freedom to maneuver as you wish when incorporating identities in original fantasy. And of course, multiple sensitivity readers are a must! Wishing you the best for the project.

- Mod Mimi

[erotetica]

Fuck Trump, here’s all the civil rights orgs I know:

(Most have education pages and/or socials to follow and boost if u can’t donate right now)

LGBTQ+

Trevor Project—queer crisis hotline/counseling (NOTE THAT THEY CALL POLICE IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS)

List of Crisis Hotlines/etc compiled by Inclusive Therapists .com which DON’T CALL POLICE

Point of Pride—helps trans folks having trouble accessing gender affirming healthcare

Trans Lifeline—community support/resources/financial aid for trans folks

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

National Network of Abortion Funds—financial assistance/transport/childcare for people in ban states seeking abortions.

Brigid Alliance—same

Sister Song—reproductive justice for WOC

Indigenous Women Rising—helps Indigenous families access abortions/menstrual hygiene/midwifery/etc

Afiya Center—reproductive justice/HIV care for Black womxn in Texas

Abortion access orgs for Americans in the

Midwest

South

Appalachia (they also offer free emergency contraception/support services/etc)

RACIAL JUSTICE

NYU Law Center on Race Inequality—self-education resources on racism & antiblackness/how to contact elected officials/how to protest safely.

List of orgs protecting Black Americans, compiled by NYU (incl NAACP, Audre Lorde Project, BLM, Black Voters Matter, etc)

National Immigration Law Center—fighting for asylum seeking/DACA; helping immigrants access healthcare/worker’s rights/etc

American Civil Liberties Union—working on many intersectional initiatives

Southern Poverty Law Center—same

GLOBAL AID (While we Americans wait for shoes to start dropping, let’s not forget others in need, and that Trump’s atrocious foreign policies will affect everyone!)

World Central Kitchen—hunger relief

Action Against Hunger—same

War Child—supports and educates children in conflict zones, like Yemen and DRC

Medecins Sans Frontieres— medical aid

Islamic Relief USA—emergency aid

PALESTINIAN AID

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund— medical aid for kids

Anera— emergency relief & long-term development resources for Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan

United Nations Relief and Works Agency—aid for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon/Syria/West Bank/Gaza/Jordan

Palestine Red Crescent Society—medical aid

SUDANESE AID

List of humanitarian orgs working in Sudan, compiled by 500 Words Magazine

CONGOLESE AID

Panzi Foundation—supports assault survivors & their families

Eastern Congo Initiative—supports ands funds local/community-based Congolese efforts

Please reblog, & add any legitimate humanitarian organizations you know of! I love all of you!!

[blackwoolncrown]

"This project is inspired by Islam Hajaj who was a teacher in Gaza prior to the genocide. Displaced a few times with her family and children, Hajaj settled in Al Zawaydah by the beach. Among the belongings that she carried through dislocation was a small library for her children. She read for them the same books over and over during the genocide.

After she settled in Al Zawaydah, Hajaj began reading for other children along with her kids. She spent the days teaching them and creating a safe space so they could remember their childhood prior to the genocide. Hajaj began to notice that the children began feeling hopeful and excited for the next day.

Every day Hajaj received more and more children, happy to learn and be together. Now there are fifty children between the ages of 8-10 who want to join the project. Her tent doesn’t have the capacity to hold and create a loving space for all these children. With a bigger tent, she and the kids will get to draw and color, meditate, learn, and heal. Hajaj has started the healing process with the kids through art, spirituality, fun, and learning in these times when fear is worse than death.

She and two more of her fellow teachers make the foundation of this project. Being part of this project helps them counteract the despair and hopelessness and remind them who they once were before the genocide. The women of Gaza uphold this project and cultivate the seeds of hope in the children and each other."

Hi folks, please support this fundraiser- I was connected it to a friend who has vetted the founder. Their aim is to set up tents where they can provide safe education to children in the Gaza strip with education and childcare, where they can learn, draw, and be get the care they deserve as children.

[qurbanjaan]

I met an Afghan-Pakistani family last night here in Germany, they come from a culture where the women aren’t allowed to even leave the houses. Ever. Her husband got her a visa and out of the country by secret pretending they were going to Iran. She’s been here for a year and can’t speak anything other than Pashto, she also can’t seem to get out of the house by herself even though her husband tells her to. This is the first time her daughter’s been to proper daily school. I can’t stop crying, I just feel so terrible when I see her and then I think of your situation and then my other Pakistani friend who isn’t allowed to go to the school she wants to go to because it’s in another (Muslim) country whereas her brother got to go where he pleased and even shittalked the women who were in his university. I want to ignore this shit life and enjoy living in a good country but it’s all around me. It’s not even just a certain race but it’s all of them, no one ever sees a problem with it and my heart keeps aching. This cannot be normal, we can’t keep letting this happen. It’s not fair, it’s not fair.

I go through a similar situation as the first woman you mentioned. I’m free and he incentivizes me to go out and do what I want, but I’m scared to leave the house and behave how I want because I grew up so strictly that I feel like everything will be over for me if I anger someone or cross him at the wrong day. See, he is good to me, we are both apostates, even! We don’t even follow anything islam preaches but I just can’t help this fear, when we go through so many restrictions we start fading away and it’s hard to recover autonomy.

See, how can a brother think so lowly of someone that shared a womb with him? How cruel can you be to see someone that’s pursuing education as evil and help to restrict his own sister? It’s impossible to have faith, impossible! We grow up blindly at home, deliver kids and then if we die, the next day they will be married again to another poor child! How can we keep our faith this way?

[girlactionfigure]

Look.

At every single face.

134 innocent people brutally stolen from their families after 1200 Israelis were massacred in a single day, in an unprovoked barbaric attack by Hamas. This Islamic fundamentalist terror organization has the support of many Palestinians. Still. And worse, much of the civilized world.

Amongst the surviving hostages, there are different nationalities and religions, babies and elderly people. There are mothers and fathers, children, uncles and aunts, grandparents, brothers and sisters.

We have no idea how they are.

They've been held for 6 months now. 6 months.

It's unthinkable.

Their freedom not being an absolute priority for the Western world is outrageous. The world speaks of Gaza as though this never happened by the people who made it happen: Jihadi terrorists and their supporters.

The world continues to adopt THEIR narrative.

It's shocking to see affluent, educated individuals, advocates for various rights - from climate change, trans and women's rights - siding with Hamas sympathizers after their October 7th atrocities. As Sam Harris said, it just reveals how confused and decadent and morally vulnerable our civilization has become.

Israel's October 7th was like America's 9/11s. But worse. The equivalent is 40,000 victims—13 times more than the number of Al Qaeda victims on 9/11.

But not just in numbers.

In intensity. Everyone here knows someone who was lost.

In brutality. They were individually eliminated in the worst way imaginable.

In continuity. The attacks went on for months with daily rockets rendering people across the country, like me, running to bomb shelters with my kids. Months. And armed terrorists attacking us - who still do.

And yes, the hostages. They are still there. And in political debate, by armchair pundits, they are often not even mentioned.

I never imagined how many people I considered friends and trusted colleagues who have decided to remain quiet - not a peep. Somehow they think that speaking up for those massacred and the hostages means they aren't FOR the many innocent Palestinians killed in this conflict.

You can be for both, for ALL innocents, as I am.

War is ugly but unfortunately right now, necessary. To those who are too afraid to say it for fear of being canceled - there, I said it. Cancel my a**.

We will NOT be quiet about it.

Not on Facebook.

Not on any social media platform.

Not with our friends.

Not with our co-workers.

Not with our clients.

Not on the news.

Not on the streets.

These people are family to us.

They ARE our family.

Look at their faces.

May they come home alive, soon.

Words by Eitan Chitayat

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Rockets continue to be fired at Israel, at least one person was injured, a 64 years old man. Here's a reminder that this is what it looks like AFTER Iron Dome has intercepted a rocket from Gaza, as the rocket's debris falls over the residential area that the terrorists fired it at, and debris can surprise people by landing up to a few minutes after an interception:

And this is what it looked like when a girl happened to be outside when the siren sounded, and she didn't have enough time to get to a bomb shelter:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by חמ״ל - חדשות מתפרצות בזמן אמת (@hamal_news)

I've mentioned 77 years old Chana Katzir before. She was held hostage by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second biggest terrorism organization in Gaza, which released a vid with her and another captive kid, and then claimed that she was killed by IDF fire. She then turned out to be alive, and was released by Hamas on the first day of the hostage deal. Her family said she was healthy when she was kidnapped, but she returned from captivity with heart problems. Her condition deteriorated, and she is not hospitalized, with a real threat to her life.

This is Chana in the vid:

(the Arabic subtitle reads, "I am Chana Katzir from kibbutz Nir Oz")

And this is her with her family:

Chana's son Elad is still in captivity.

The IDF continues to expose constantly how Hamas uses civilians areas, including schools and kindergartens, for its terrorist activity:

The US Congress discussion on Antisemitism at college campuses was even more shocking than I thought it would be. It was evident that they would claim that certain phrases are disputed in meaning, and therefore protected by freedom of speech. I did NOT think that three presidents of prestigious higher education institutes would sit there, and not be able to bring themselves to say clearly, that an EXPLICIT call to genocide the Jews goes against their schools' code of conduct.

As a gay, Jewish and disabled woman, I think the following vid is incredibly important. It shows the "free speech" line of defence is applied selectively, it's used to allow harassment of Jews, while speech that is offensive to other marginalized groups is NOT allowed.

The answers (obviously coordinated, because these presidents are parroting each other, down to using the same terms) claimed that as long as this call was "just" speech, not conduct, it was not a violation of their code. I just wanna point out that the way we get to hateful conduct, IS by allowing hate speech. Also... what does that even mean, "if it turns into conduct" in the context of a call to genocide? Jews have to be massacred (with intent to destroy the whole nation) on UPenn's college campus, for the president of this university to finally think it constitutes harassment of Jews? Plus, harassment is absolutely one of the crimes that doesn't have to be an action. Sexual harassment has long been recognized to include speech, so why is harassment of Jews treated differently to harassment of women? Does anyone think that a Jewish student, who hears dozens of students on campus calling for the genocide of the Jews, is not feeling harassed?

And at the same time, House resolution 894, condemning antisemitism, passed with over 300 votes in favor. Which is good. What bothers me is that there is even a single person who would vote against it. And it turns out, no less than 14 people voted against it. Not to mention those who voted, "present." This should be an eternal shameful stain on the records of every single one of the people, who couldn't bring themselves to clearly say no to Jew hate.

This is 20 years old Assachalo Sama.

He's one of the Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the fighting resumed. He was mortally injured, and for two weeks, doctors fought for his life, before he succumbed to his wounds. The people who served with him said he was the heart of the unit. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Some of the protesters at this week's march against LGBTQ-inclusive education in Halifax were noted to be wearing visible signs of their Muslim faith.

But Syed Adnan Hussain, an associate professor of religion at Saint Mary's University, says objecting to LGBTQ rights has little to do with core Islamic beliefs. 

He says there's no explicit condemnation of homosexuality in the Qu'ran. He worries that many decided to participate based on rampant misinformation instead. 

"I think there's a tendency to say, Islam rejects X, Y, or Z, but it does not," Hussain said. [...]

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Note from the poster @el-shab-hussein: I have proximity to this conversation as a Muslim trans queer guy myself. The grounds on which these arguments are had are almost never a matter of religion. Out of all the Muslim transphobes and homophobes I've been arguing with lately, they never bring up religion. Their most common issue is "You shouldn't be talking to young kids about this it will brainwash them and make them change their sex at age 5. Don't force that on kids." Basically your usual American and Canadian transphobic fearmongering. Sex changes happen in the most conservative of Muslim countries. There are fatwas permitting sex changes. There's just nothing in the religion to back the transphobia up (which is the main culprit of this wave of hate tbh).

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[femsolid]

French TV is just amazing. I don't own a TV so I only watch it when I'm at other people's place and the news channels are simply phenomenal. We're told a 16 years old guy was killed by the police again (and the police didn't call for an ambulance it's a neighbour who did -10 minutes later- because some kids came to tell him what had happened) so the journalist asks a police union representative to give us his opinion which is of course that if you try to run from the police you should expect to be killed. In other news today Marion Marechal Le Pen is campaigning to revive her nazi party because she wants to "protect her daughters from the anti-police riots and the illegal immigrants who rape french women". Think the journalists are going to address this quote? Nope. Then the journalists discuss the inflation in France and how the prices are so high that french people are struggling to feed themselves (in one of the richest country on earth). A journalist gives us a simple solution: we need to be more responsible and stop buying expensive food. Merde alors! Hadn't thought of that. This way the brands that increase their prices will lose money and stop doing so. Duh! Anyway back to the most pressing matter nationwide right now and for the last decades: should muslim teenage girls be allowed an education if they wear a veil? Survey says... non, apparently. A girl was expelled for wearing what she claims to be an opened black kimono but really is an outrageous religious symbol that threatens our great nation's secularism.

Wow. Not only did she deserve to be expelled but it's definitely worth talking about all day on the news. I'm traumatised just looking at this picture. Of course the great debate is back: how can we stop those provocative muslim girls who are obviously on their way towards islamic radicalisation and terrorism from trying to bypass secularist laws by claiming to be wearing some sort of kimono when really we all know it's just a facade and what they really mean to do is scream allah akbar with a machine gun in their hands? The journalists quickly ask a law professor who explains unironically that this outfit is illegal in much the same way that muslim girls who wear long skirts because they can't wear a hijab are illegal. Almost as if it's not about displaying your religion but belonging to a religion instead. Almost as if girls are forced to show their bodies to men. If I ever doubted selling my TV years ago here is the reminder as to why I did.