The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

مرفوعا… السماء الزرقاء

الأشجار و المشاة

العصافير و الأعلام

الريح و الظل

و الشمس الغربية

تأليف قصيد

Recent personal events had me revisiting the Don Imus scandal [if it can be labeled such a thing] and how its apex came in the form of an Oprah town hall meeting. 9th Wonder, a hip hop musician, had some interesting remarks on this phenomenon, in that why did it take all this time, and more specifically, a white man to say something we’d consider derogatory [when the word’s used by us all the time as well as other morally suspect nomenclature], to have a hip hop town hall meeting. As 9th Wonder pointed out, “we should have been had one”. Black folks can run around and act irresponsible, fight, shoot, cuss and more, and it’s just “okay” for us. But a white man comes along and says something we think is racist rhetoric [yes, I do believe Imus is an ass but that’s a bit besides the point here] and the media goes into a whirl and we’re having a town hall meeting. My question is, why ain’t we havin’ a town hall meeting about gun violence in the black community? Why ain’t we havn’ a town hall meeting about AIDS? About teen pregnancy and single motherhood? If we’re waiting for the white man to find that controversial, well, let’s just say we should pre-order our coffins today because none of the aforementioned issues have ever been crucial to non-whites and yet we continue to suffer horribly in black urban centers. May God give us the insight, the courage and the means to make a permanent, lasting changer for the better.

You Tube interview with 9th Wonder.

I will be submitting one of the images from my new project, AME [The American Muslim Experience] at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design Staff art show. The image is one of Shaykh Hajj Musa, a long standing resident of the Philadelphia Muslim community. The print is a large-format ink jet print [54 inches by 36 inches] - you can see the image as well as the print one coming off the plotter below. I will inform you of any additional shows. Prints will be on display at the School of Design starting Monday, July 23rd [34 & Walnut, Philadelphia]. The show is a short one so if you happen to stop by in the next week or so it along with the other staff/faculty images should be up. Below is a preview of the image as well as the print coming off the large-format plotter. Enjoy.

Update!

The PennDesign Staff Art Show official details:
July 23rd through August 1st, the Reception is Friday, July 27, at 5pm. Hope to see you there. If you need directions just leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you.

Update!

Many thanks for those who took time to come. It was a pleasure to get a chance to show the first image of the series. Following photographs © 2007 Jerry Brown.

ذهبت إلى التلفزيون لشراء الخوخ

لا يشتري إلا شهوات مجوفة

سألت الواعظ: متى الساعة

قال لي: استغفر الله و تصدق

لا يبيع اللحام إلا الميتة

و خبازي مصرفي بل لا أستطيع أن أسحب

سألت الصرصار لو عنده شفقة لي

أُصحيتُ بضحكه

تأليف قصيد

In lieu of the previous post, I thought I’d add this link to some material by Olivier Roy, the author of The Political Failure of Islam, has written a new book, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, as a sort of sequel or follow up to the first book. Roy was invited to speak at CCEIA. I found his talk to be quite insightful. Here’s a link to the video, audio and transcript. Enjoy.

Like many, both Muslim and non-Muslim, I have paid attention to the events that have unfolded abroad – the UK incidents and the Lal Mosque standoff. My sentiments were inline with many readers I came across: bewilderment at the UK incident [doctors killing people?] and disappointment mixed with confusion of the Lal Mosque siege. But perhaps what caught my attention even more was the reaction of Muslims, predominantly from America, more specifically in the American-Muslim blogosphere, a reaction that seemed to revolve around apologizing for the attacks. The root of this apology seems to be rooted more in the embarrassment that these heinous acts have had upon the public lives of many American-Muslims. I found this embarrassment to be somewhat concerning. Were American-Muslims more concerned with how they were viewed at work than with the crimes themselves? If so, then why is there not an equal outcry of embarrassment over, say, the Dar Fur atrocities or, if we want to keep it simply humanistic and go beyond religion as a signifying factor, why has not inner-city gun violence [especially for the many Blackamericans who are also Muslims!] garnered the same rosy-cheeked blush? Perhaps this embarrassment has more to do with “who’s watching us” than it really has to do with any moral outcry. It is this latter part here that I shall address in a moment, but first things first. What gets our deserving attention and what sets us off? Read more this entry »