I no longer do.

A new film about gays and lesbians in the Muslim world is challenging notions of right, wrong and religiosity in Islamic culture. Filmmaker Parvez Sharma says his film “A Jihad For Love” is an effort to shed light on the social and spiritual struggle of homosexuals who are devout Muslims.

It tells the story through personal narratives of gays across 12 countries. In the film, Sharma compiles a vision of Islamic life through the eyes of the gay faithful. “I felt it really important to empower gay and lesbian Muslims to tell the story of Islam,” Sharma told ABC News.

The stories in the film are intimate, with main characters that include a gay Imam in South Africa, a lesbian couple in Turkey, homosexuals in Egypt and a group of gay Iranians fleeing the country to seek asylum in Canada.

Hendricks describes how he lived before coming out, married to a woman in hopes that traditional family life would change his sexual preference. His life as a closeted gay Muslim was cloaked with depression and secrecy, which he sees as a common and potentially suicidal combination for gay Muslims who bury their sexual preference.

In another scene, three lesbians discuss the Koran and its implications for women. “The Prophet Muhammad did an enormous number of things so that women could participate in public affairs, including politics. For me, Muhammad was a feminist,” says one woman.

She goes on to describe how she would profess her lifestyle while speaking to God on judgment day. “I have loved women and it was not a sin, because my loving a woman caused no harm. I only loved Allah, my one God, I only loved.’”

Now that “Jihad for Love” is made, it is showing in the West and in countries with significant Muslim populations, like India and Turkey. Sharma has yet to show it anywhere in the Arab world. [Source]

Despite continuing to wonder whether homosexuality is a nature vs. nurture issue, I find the mere idea of a gay Imam extremely absurd. Devout? If they are devout, then isn’t part of being devout not doing something against what you have devotion for? And it is well known that homosexuality is a sin in all 3 religions. I have not watched the movie but will be looking ‘forward’ to hearing what the gay and lesbian “devout” Muslims have to shed light on …

P.S. How would YOU profess your lifestyle while speaking to God on judgment day?

Why is it that when we’re depressed and miserable and just feeling like running into a semi or driving off a cliff is when we feel most inspired to write?! or is it just me?

(not that I’ve been feeling this way lately, but.)  

You wouldn’t do sins out of fear or love and worship?

You know what, it’s not even worth giving a full review. I was very interested in reading the book mainly because I read that it is autobiographical account of a highly educated woman, who taught at Ivy League Universities. I believed as her area of study being Anthropology - or as so she claims, it would add a lot of substance to the book for I thought she would historically link her own experience as a callgirl to culture and relate them to modern society . Reading her ‘autobiography’ was disturbing. It was very poorly written. The writing was choppy. It lacked smooth transitions. It lacked substance. It was utterly pathetic.

After I finished reading it, I found out that Angell appeared on Oprah where she admitted that she was not a university lecturer as noted in the book. The book which dedicates quite some heavy content about her students, the subjects she is teaching, her Dean, and the staff, she even tells us about her office, tests, bla bla bla. The truth is she was a High School French teacher.

From Social Anthropology and introducing a new course on the history and sociology of prostitution at some top Ivy League school such as MIT and Harvard to a High School French teacher. Doesn’t that say a lot about the book? I believe so. As I read on Amazon, “upon further questioning by Oprah–actually, it was Oprah repeating the same statement of “You did this to make yourself look better.” Over and over–Ms. Angell finally admitted that, yes, she kept the fictionalized elements in the book to make her look better.”

Well, well. And there we have a ‘highly educated woman’ talking to us about morals and ethics in her pages and wanting us to understand where she’s coming from when in fact her account is based on a big lie. I contacted MIT - the Dean of the Anthropology Department - they confirmed that no such person taught with them and no such course or even similar course was ever or currently is taught at MIT. The Dean of the Divinity school at Yale said he never heard of Jeannette Angell. How do you trust a liar? If a lot of what she says in her “autobiography” is just a mere figment of her own imagination then most definitely this book should have been labeled and marketed as just that - Fiction!!
I called her Literary Reprsentitive and gave my strong opinion about the lies decorating her so called true story and asked him questions for which he couldn’t offer me any answers as he was stumbling on his words trying to find something to excuse the big lies… I asked for my money back

I contacted her Publisher. They claimed that at the time the book came out, and marketed as a true story, they were not the publishing copmany. They instead gave me the UK based publishing company to contact.

Ok, I think I just gave it more of my writing time than it deserved.
From the first few pages, I was able to deduce that her story is full of bullshit, but still wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.

What a low attempt at insulting the intelligence of your reader, Mrs. Con-Artist!

On Nakba day:

- “I am emotional today; you know it being Nakba and the fact that I am PMS’ing.”

On Nakba news coverage:

- “I was watching the news yesterday…and would you be surprised if I told you that Al-Jazeera’s Nakba report was the fourth? Al-Arabiya was like 3rd or so… Doesn’t it show you how much fucking Arabs care?”

Inspired by a conversation about my upcoming Palestine summer vacation, she said:

“Can I say something not to offend or anything….but maybe Palestinians should just leave that land to end the misery and suffering and to save all the innocent lives…even though the land belongs to them…just for the sake of peace…. But I don’t know where would they go then? Maybe other muslim countries, start fresh. Start a new life with better and safe future for kids. Why care about the land when it will only give you pain and so much blood shed! when we know that there is so much support for Israel from the west, and so little for us. Why go through all the pain….and why make the kids go through it too! Just my thoughts…”

Expressions of Nakba is an international competition and exhibition to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba: the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948.

The competition strives to present the extraordinary narrative of a dispossessed people through a diverse range of expressions that interpret the collective identity, historic struggle, and emotional experience of the Nakba for Palestinians.

Sponsored by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, this online gallery showcases the wining entries from the competition in addition to a wonderful range of selections in the form of visual arts, poetry, essays, music, video and digital media.

Check it out!

And check out the following, too:

We will never forget…

I want to be able to travel through out Palestine without having to flash my passport at every checkpoint as I wait hours and hours to get from one city to another.

I want to see children finishing a full academic year free of school closures due to israeli occupation.

I want to see university students graduate on time without having to worry about making up the missed academic years spent in israeli jails.

I want to be able to travel to any part of the so great Arab world without having to go through a long complicated process just because my Passport reads “West Bank” under place of birth.

Palestinians everywhere seem to have common dreams and wishes for themselves and their Palestine, and so here is my version of the same and very similar dreams and wishes anonymous once shared here …

I wish that all our children can have a better childhood and future than ours.
I wish to fly around and know exactly the meaning of being free.
I wish to be able to roam in my own country with no fear or peril and be the one to choose where to go, and not the checkpoints.

I wish to be able to go with to the Mediterranean Sea with friends.
I wish to be able to reach Akka whenever I want
I wish to taste the oranges of Jaffa, and the grapes of Hebron. To watch the sunset over the beaches of Haifa, to see the sunrise over the mountains of Safad .
I wish to taste the fish of Gaza, live the nature of Toolkarm, and walk the old streets of Jerusalem.

To walk the serene streets of Bethlehem

I wish to see children playing hopscotch and marbles rather than israelis and Palestinians.
I wish to see one marrying another for pure love and not because they both have the same identity card.
I wish to see a smile on an old man’s face.
To see smiles replacing frowns.
To see tears dry up, wounds clot and sorrows fade.

I wish to see people in camps, places sweltering with the sun of injustice but cold of tragedy, flourish again.
That all prisoners living under the darkness of torture will be able to see sunlight again and return to their homes, so the pale faces of their mothers would shine again!
The dream to see complete sunrise not blocked by the wall.
To see the wall, a gray gloomy monster filled with hatred and injustice, falling and disappearing like a sandcastle washed away into the undertow.

I wish that Eilat will be Um Rashrash, Tel Aviv will be Tal El Rabi and Shkeim will be Nablus again.
I wish to see all refugees able to put their keys in their locks and get back to their homes.
I wish to see unity, peace, and prosperity in Palestine. To feel that our country does exist.
I wish for and dream of a free Palestine.

“From the silence, let the whispers grow until with one voice we can all find a way to go forward in peace and once again hear the laughter of children ring out in that most ancient land of Palestine…”

Where the sun will rise and continue to shine.

My latest reading (which, overall, was not all that impressive…but not too bad either) triggered some thoughts in my mind … As I was driving to work, I sent 2 rounds of a mass sms to some of my female friends with the first asking:

Hi! Would u take on prostitution if it guarantees a free palestine and exclusive return of all refugees?

Minutes later, my phone began to vibrate.

Response 1: No because it wud never happen. I know this is not an answer but that’s not even a valid question

Response 2: No cuz my parents care more about me than palestine, cuz i care about not hurting them more than the fate of others no matter how selfish that sounds. And cuz when i die, God will not take ‘for palestine’ as an excuse for selling myself and ignoring his conditions, right? You cant shut off human nature.

Revised Question sent in round 2 :

Hi! Just thinking about this … just pretend the result is guaranteed… Would u take on prostitution if it guarantees a free palestine and exclusive return of all refugees?

Response 1: I would sell my husband

Response 2: Does the end justify the means?

Response 3: No. God will not bless or free palestine if its women enter prostitution en mass!

Response 4: No Maam. What kind of barakah [blessing] would we have bel watan [in our homeland]

Response 5: Yes. Arent i such a ho. But at least a loyal one

Response 6: Inti Khateera [You are dangerous - fatal]

Response 7: I need time. It’s not easy.

Response 8: why think of something which is just not going to happen??!! Why waste your thoughts on that! and if it can really happen then when the time comes, we can think of it ….depends on the situation we are in reality

So, would you?!

Aside from war, violence, poverty…What could make someone so damn bitter!

Call Girl: Confession of a Double Life. by Jeanette Angell.
Jeannette Angell went to the US from France at the age of 21 after earning two university degrees. She went on to obtain three more in the United States, including a Masters in Divinity from Yale and studied for her PhD at Boston University.

At thirty-four, her live-in boyfriend ran off and cleaned out their joint bank account. She was left destitute. Despite lecturing and teaching at several universities, including Harvard, MIT and the London School of Economics, she saw no way out of her financial crisis until she read an ad for “escorts” in the Boston Phoenix.

This started a three-year dual career of teaching at universities in the daytime, while working as a $200/hour callgirl at night. Callgirl gives insight to a world usually distorted by caricature and stigma with honesty, humour and intelligence.(source)

Sounds very interesting…and what makes it so is that this person is not a random lost person. This is a highly educated person, with degrees from top universities (well. I guess this doesn’t really say much. I mean…George W. Bush went to Yale!)…is an educator. So what really drove her to take prostitution on as a second job while still keeping her daytime teaching job! I am looking forward to reading her confessions!
AND. Though this isn’t/wasn’t about prostitution, I still believe this (and similar) type of job could* be degrading to one’s dignity. But I will reserve my in-depth opinion of this book and prostitution till after I read it.

* (you know, because dignity means different things to different people and is measured differently)

P.S. I’ve always had a secret fetish for fishnet stockings!

“Everything in this world can be stolen, except the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a just cause.” - Ghassan Kanafani

This Week In Palestine, May 2008

Some of this month’s In the Limelight:

“Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages which Were Destroyed, Depopulated and Occupied by Israel in 1948″

Refugee tent and embroidery thread, 8’ X 10’ X 12’, 2001

This piece is a document (or the remains) of a three-month community-based project. More than 140 people came through [Emily Jacir’s] studio to sew, memorialize each village and socialize; oftentimes there was live Arabic music. The people who made this Memorial were bankers, lawyers, filmmakers, dentists, consultants, playwrights, artists, activists, teachers, etc.
(via Picturesque Palestine and Emily Jacir)

(Read more)