Cute Girls Shouldn't Wear the "Sexy Hiijab"

Comments on Comments

There are things which make a video go viral, is stupidity one of them?

I was harsh in my comments on some YouTube™ channels this afternoon.

One girl, although cute was very loud, and her first sentence was glaringly wrong, grammatically. Then she talks about Islam like it is a hobby which you can opt in or out of anytime. One day, maybe you’re praying, the next day, you’re not, you get the picture. That’s, ” freedom of religion” according to some people. But do we have to have 1000,000 YouTube™ videos defending the general Muslims’ laxity in performing their sacred duties posted all over the net? Is the world now a much better place?

For one thing, I don’t believe that most normal Muslims believe it is okay not to pray. Prayer is one of the first pillars of Islam. Secondly, if they claim the right of freedom of speech, then so do the rest of us. If they can comment then so can I, or am I wrong? It seems there are children who think their videos are the efflorescence of the entire internet experience. Worse, there are Muslim youth who believe that their very personal interpretations are the epitome of Islamic thought today. They think that because they are young and energetic, that is an excuse for poor scholarship and that youth alone gives them the right to say and do anything, regardless of what is right and wrong. Many non-Muslims have made similar judgment calls. Of course, it isn’t just youth who say and do irresponsible or stupid things.

And sometimes, “out of the mouth of babes…”

HOW OLD ARE YOU?

One guy, Fousey (somebody-or-other) says, If you like then give it a thumbs up ( I would say thumb up, since the icon is of one thumb up, and you do it once per video) but aside from my tendency to exaggerate small insignificant issues occasionally, which I can do with a fine tooth comb, if I’m in the mood for that kind of bitchiness, I strongly object to the fact that he is greatly promoting his freedom over mine; if I don’t give it a thumb up I can’t comment on his channel (can he do that??) Hey, freedom of speech is my right as well as yours, whether I like the video or not. Of course (I’ll make this perfectly clear for internet) I’m being facétieuse (Is there anything wrong with my French?) and he has every right to block me from his channel forever, which is why I posted several comments after each other and immediately shared them on Twitter™ and Google+™. Thanks for the thumbs up ;) +Karmi Neveg Fousey had 530,000 views on one video!! At some point I started thinking, ”When can we hope for that Islamic revival?”

[just a side note, I tried to find facetious in the dictionary and couldn’t but I did find a word (or expression) I’ve never heard before, which I will share now Parents might want to cover their children’s eyes or ears, lol– Fag hag -. It means a woman who likes hanging around with gay men. But why do both the Oxford dictionary and my computer not have a spelling/spelling suggestion for a fairly common word?? ]

I do comments on comments, too, which is the point of one of Fousey’s vids He suggested we could do comments on comments, like what’s- her -face, some personality, female I think it was, I forget the name. [Revised – it was Ellen.]You can watch the video, to find out who he was referring to. OR maybe you have a good idea already.

Apart from not getting why most Muslims on the planet (and beyond, reminds me of the video description/warning: “Earth is being invaded by Muslims”) know who some actor is, who died recently, which I feel bad about, truly, but also, I don’t get that they are all on YouTube™ promoting Islam (their less than kosher version) by apologizing for the few who want to promote prayer and fasting in the community, and also good manners and character, meaning, not backbiting or snitching or slandering other Muslims. My question is: why do they get to be the spokespersons for Islam?? The majority of “practicing” Muslims didn’t unanimously give them that honor. Besides, there are already many people promoting these virtues; forgiveness, kindness, enjoining good and forbidding evil, Muslim brotherhood (unity, not the political or military wing of an Islamic group) and in an enlightened and proper way, without props like “the sexy hijab” which express nothing more than “somebody doesn’t want to be taken too seriously”. There are hijab styles that are not “sexy” or at least, change the name of the style, so it is, “the coiled snake hijab” or something less provocative than “the sexy hijab”. Read my post, “Everything Is Not Sexy”, if you like.

Okay, not to be overly negative, there are other less important things I don’t like about the videos too, such as the poor English. Okay, if you’re making a video, can it be in a language that doesn’t reflect the fact that your parents probably don’t know with whom and where you hang out most nights? Or did you actually grow up on the streets?

And if you can’t make up your mind, just flip a coin, “Happy early, late, on time Eid…” was ridiculously unpragmatic. I mean, it’s okay to pick a time and a place or to express something within a realistic time/space continuum. I realize she is a nice person at heart and just wanted to include everybody, but whether we celebrate Eide with Saudi Arabia or Malaysia, or post Ghaddafi, with Morocco, lol, it is all basically doing it together, and if she celebrated it already, which we all had, then she should’ve just said, “Happy belated Eide” if her video was done post Eide. What is wrong with being decisive?

That’s a small complaint, but it helps in life to be decisive more than not, don’t you agree?

Comment to My Comment?

Back to the point about English, and word usage; okay, I understand that many of the youth (or overgrown children still living with their parents, as the majority of Muslim youth appear to do, still) are filling a need or what they see is a need for more low quality productions, with stupid jokes and likely many equally stupid followers (by the looks of the number of views, that’s most of the Muslim youth today or their non-Muslim friends too). But I would prefer, (yeah, I just said that) that they make nicer more serious videos about things that matter, or discuss the same subjects but with more seriousness. I can say that, because I’m the adult in this “conversation”.

If you want, just share some of the good Islamic videos on your channel and save your buffoonery for your friends. That way you avoid hateful comments to your videos, and the general public doesn’t get a taste of the poor quality of stuff you churn out like, all the time. Probably, this is getting annoying, and sorry for being so “judgmental”. But I am in the mood to be “judgmental”. Actually, this is my advice, which anyone can take or leave. I don’t know any of these people personally and never judge people on YouTube ™just because I know that I don’t know them personally. Some people come off as arrogant or bigoted, but they are probably genuinely nice people, or at least have a lot of similar minded friends and/or colleagues, who appreciate their unique perspective. Fousey had around 530,000 hits on one video!! 

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

I’ve had emails from people who sound like nice people, but their comments often leave me cold. It isn’t that I feel the need to judge them, I don’t. But I feel a responsibility to educate people when they seem to ask a lot of questions about Islam or make a lot of comments which are sometimes inappropriate or reflect their general ignorance of Islam. I am not saying that I know more than them, but I do think I know my religion very well, in the most basic and necessary things a Muslim is required to know, especially about basic beliefs and the most general ideas or teachings such as Tawheed (the Oneness of Allah).

Anyway, if they believe that the people leaving negative comments are all judging them, then they are judging those people. Just because someone doesn’t like your video doesn’t mean they are judging you, especially when they say, Allah guide you and things to that effect, which is non-judgemental and a good thing to say. Muslims often say this to each other, not just to people they disagree with. Maybe the people leaving those comments you dislike are just trying to ask you to think about what you are doing and whether or not it is how you could best spend your time. Life is precious, and time waits for no one, right?

You know Fred, Everybody does!

I know that it is probably the case that many negative comments on most channels are from trolls or ppl who like to harass; comments are sometimes nasty or vindictive and people post such, for the pleasure of it; I am guilty of poking fun at ppl sometimes, but I don’t believe in child abuse or cruelty. Many of the owners of the worst offenders might even be children. It is good to keep in mind that most people on the net commenting are probably children too. But if you act like a child in your videos, then beware; you are making yourself a magnet for abusive language or comments.

You know how that guy Fred, made so many videos and they went viral? Some of it is an acquired taste, or rather made for small-minded people or kids. It’s proof that children are a force to be reckoned with. By the way, Fred made an app, it is a doll that looks like him, and he has sold a lot of them. YouTube can be a lucrative venture, too. People can promote whatever they like on YouTube, whether their own product or app or a magazine. And ideas are always being promoted. What kind of ideas, does matter. If someone is promoting “freedom of speech” then he should also practice some by giving free reign to others’ negative comments, occasionally. You can share videos you don’t like but which someone else might like to discuss with you. If that doesn’t work out well, then you can always “agree to disagree”.

"Don’t you see that the lion is silent and yet feared, while the dog barks constantly and is despised?" A Quote by Imam ash-Shafi`i

On YouTube™ spelling doesn’t matter much, but language is still important to communicating the right idea. I will promote one of my least favorite video channels. IrishInfidel has a channel that promotes hatred of Islam. The guy’s real name is Kevin, who sounds very different in one email than his public comments to me. Mostly he doesn’t believe in dialogue, but promoting his videos. That’s makes me wary of his motivations, and I don’t believe anymore that he is an atheist, but might be a closet Christian. In all honesty, it doesn’t matter to me; he can be whatever he likes... He is IrishInfidel on YouTube™ Readers can also read my response to his video in this blog; his name is one of the labels which makes searching for a discussion about him easy. I debunked his video “The Camel is a symbol of Allah” several months ago. I think I promoted that post on Twitter™ and Google+™ earlier today. I take offence at the word “symbol” as opposed to “sign”, and show why there is a difference. Also, the story of Prophet Saleh and the she-camel is an added bonus, which many people probably have never heard of.

I can see why that might help

If you’re speaking English, why not try a British accent, sometimes it just sounds more intelligent. But if the quality of the material isn’t equally impressive, then your accent won’t make a difference to the overall impression; if you are not truthful, that is one of the biggest mistakes, IMHO, you can make on the internet, and that mistake could go viral, too. This is something to think about before posting that next video. The IrishInfidel promoted another anti-Islam video with a British narrator. Did it work? Or will the video go viral despite itself? Readers be the judge, it is about science in the Quran, or the Miracle of the Honey Bees. I wrote my own take on the video in a blog post, probably you can find it easily enough without me having to put the link. (In case not, I will revise this later, I’m offline at the moment.)

I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try to blog about something offbeat tomorrow. It is still within the Islamic topics, but a slightly off the cuff post. We will see, until then, farewell.



Not Everything Is Sexy

excerpt from a previous blog on MyIslamFeed by DD

In 1984, I guess life is a lie, a complete and utter lie… girls in blue sashes are not really "girls", they're not like other girls…not sexy.

My mother is coming to visit, I'm happy and…nervous. Why, nervous? My mother is 76 years old and smokes…

…I'm thinking of a poster I saw once in grade ten in the English class room; it reminds me (now as then) of my mother.  My mother was a smoker then, she still is…never tried to quit, as far as I know. The poster says, "Smoking is [not] sexy"; the woman in the poster is 50ish with dark lank hair. She's not so old…but has unsightly dark bags under her eyes, a gaping mouth, lots of smoker's wrinkles, and looks sexless/genderless. Regardless of the health risks, smoking stinks! (Read on)

My mother has been smoking for over 40 years, maybe 45 years…she is 76 and still smoking. Don't ever start smoking, is my first advice; second advice, stop smoking as soon as possible; stop at once, you'll thank me if you do!(If you're still young and beautiful).

Imagine if you could see your before and after pictures NOW?!! Believe me you'd kick the smoking habit.

I'm afraid that I'll be shocked to see my mother after not having seen her in many years. I'm nervous that I'll be seen in public with her…but that's wrong! She's my mother after all! Whatever qualms I have, will have to be set aside…being the irrational fears only of an admittedly selfish, selfcentred woman in midlife...

This brings me to the topic of words…and people's use of the word "sexy".  As I was reading a while back in a famous person's blog, or tweets...language changes with "newspeak" (what's called usage)…this is nothing new. Languages always keep evolving.  It is the nature of languages and of society; because it's the people who use language (as opposed to any other species of animal/man/ape). I'm a Muslim creationist (as opposed to believing in the creationism as per the Bible I believe in the Qur'anic version of events; including the 'Big Bang' neatly described therein), not an evolutionist, I think language proves that ppl are ppl and apes are apes, and the two never were one. Kind of like men are always men, women are women, except for some children who are born with male and female organs, but take one look and usually you know a boy or a girl; best leave the internal stuff to the doctors…

 Being humans we are rather fickle, I think.

 Around this time, we are at a point where we could be losing much of our language, with the need for more and more tech in our lives, to communicate with family or friends, to keep old friends close, to ignite new relationships it's a must! Ipod, etc, etc. (I can feel my China Wall of resistance going up again!..) Only a few years ago, it happened that words became not "gender- specific", which is a good thing. Better to have a female doctor, or a mailwoman; I think this works for most Muslims, in fact, and proves in a way that Islam never was against females, or women's equality.

Why is everything sexy all of a sudden? The answer seems obvious, like a red rose means love, and a white

one means friendship…Everything is NOT sexy! But people, especially celebrities these days… everywhere one goes… reads a newspaper, a blog, or sees an interview someone famous is saying, (something) is quote, unquote SEXY??

It's in vogue to do that, simply "following a fad". "The more things change the more things stay the same" couldn't be more true in 2009 than 1989 (the year I embraced Islam).  :)

I saw a video on YouTube, the Junoon band (an Arab, or Pakistani band, perhaps) and Salman, one of the members, the ringleader according to the description presented, but a woman, perhaps an interviewer, or one of the band members as well, an overweight middle aged woman, older in a sexy kind of way actually, kind of overpowers the conversation. They are friendly, yes…sit eating at a very nicely decorated table, in a wonderful looking room, then begin discussing the Qur'an…

Think for a minute (pause), a group are guest with another famous person, perhaps an interviewer, they feel relaxed, at ease, and perhaps with some pre dinner drinks, a little giddy…

I caution people not to discuss the Qur'an without knowledge; it's very dangerous for one's faith; especially taking important religious matters, and issues lightly. 

…the talk turns to the woman reading Qur'an one night, and how she describes what she was reading at the time, as "Sexy". Other members, probably 'Salman', laugh; he is seated on her right, while she is at the head of the table. Their shameless laughter surrounding a book which Muslims hold dear is thoughtless and perverse…or isn't it??

Some things just are not possible. It's not possible to call a holy book such names, or give such descriptions to holy books (even with all the comparisons or contrasts Muslims or Christians make about each other's holy book, which I don't personally want to do; I think it's been overdone, or at least everyone has heard these comparisons, the information is already out there, so enough said…)

This is a misuse of the language, in that language is meant to convey a message…a message which should reflect one's true perception…or else, reflect what one is feeling. But, if for example a person lies to his wife, and tells her she is "ugly "is unfair and (maybe also) not a reflection of reality. Now in courts of law this could be considered "emotional abuse", which proves that in a society the rules dictate what is and what isn't acceptable. It's not acceptable to use random or precise words at will to disparage, hurt or otherwise harm others: lying, defamation, and so on are all considered illegal, in fact.

But who, society, or the individual is supposed to dictate to "us" what kind of language, or what use of language is proper, legal, illegal, etc.? Apparently there are laws in place already, in some cases…such as "emotional abuse", "defamation of character", etc. Probably, more types will be added in future, as new legal battles arise, and new precedents are set…let's hope it will be for the betterment of society and to facilitate good will and harmony among the people and groups. (Remember how hated the word "nigger" was, how controversial the word, "black" became, and how "colored" was "in", then it was "out")

Could calling holy books "Sexy", or certain verses "Sexy" become an issue of legal rights for some against others' claims of 'freedom of speech', or freedom of "liespeak"? Just as defamation of character is wrong, could defamation of the character of a book be wrong also?

Finally, could Muslims, in the future, have some solid ground at last in the fight against Salman Rushdie's, "the Satanic Verses", for defaming the character (it is a holy revered book) of the Holy Qur'an?  

I can count on one thing for sure, my mother will never change: beauty (may be) only skin deep, but mothers are always the most 'beautiful' ppl we know personally…

I'm really looking forward to this family visit…Mom, I love you!