Where’s Your Head At?

My head is filled with too many things right now. Least of them all should be my blog, but I just can’t allow myself to disappoint my hundreds of loyal followers waiting with bated breath for my next post (ha!). I mean, it is Sunday after all, right? Which means New Post Day! Yay! No. Not yay. Because after Sunday comes Monday. And Mondays are slowly–but very surely–making its way riiiiight down to the bottom of my list of Reasons to Wake Up on a Monday Morning. I’m not liking you very much right now, Monday. Not very much at all. And, high school exams are nigh, which means set exam papers with memorandums need to be submitted to the office. Tomorrow. Who has time for a lengthy (but seriously entertaining) blog post with all that going on? Certainly not me. So this is what I’ll give you (my throng of loyal and devoted readers); a peek into where my head is at right now. So picture this:

Yep, that’s what it looks like up in here. More or less. Now, because there’s currently very little room in my brain for much real words to grow, I will give you some pictures, to further elaborate on the many ‘stuffs’ wheedling through my brain, in between the yucky exam stuff.

Are you noticing the pattern here? Both last week’s post and the week before that was about being a stranger in this world, or referring to the Strangers Tour that happened here in Cape Town two weeks ago. It is who I want to be–a stranger in this world–so that I may be a companion in the next world, the real world. A companion to who? To my Prophet (may the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him and his family), and all the righteous people who lived in this world, ameen.

I read a beautiful line in an article a bit earlier, and I think it complements this picture beautifully:

“The hijab is only a brush stroke on the canvas within a much bigger picture. Without it the work is incomplete, but it is not the sole element that makes the painting. And my own canvas is incomplete and riddled with mistakes.” – Azlin Ahmed, It’s a Hijab, Not a Halo

And lastly, one of my new favourites…

So, kids, it would seem that the theme running in my brain for this month is ‘change’. And, in the words of the great American president, Barack Obama (that’s sarcasm right there), “Yes, we can!” And we will, in-shaa-Allah. And may we (or I, or whoever cares to join me in this change–whatever it might be that you are changing to, for the sake of Allah) be more successful than the lousy president–oh, oops, did I say ‘lousy’? I meant loser. Nooo! I meant… well, who cares what I meant? May we be more successful in our quest for change, and may we never lose sight of the goal. Ameen.

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Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

U.S. President: License to Kill

Image via Wikipedia

American-born Islamic scholar and leader, Anwar al-Awlaki, was reportedly killed by the American military earlier today. This was by the direct order of U.S. President Barack Obama. Awlaki was believed to be a member of the al-Qaeda group, plotting terrorist attacks against America.

The matter of Awlaki’s assassination has caused much discussion and controversy in the U.S. because Awlaki, although from Yemeni descent, is a U.S. citizen whose assassination was ordered by the U.S. President. Glenn Greenwald, an American constitutional lawyer, says that this goes against the very constitution by which America is governed.

It is reported that in January last year, Awlaki was added to President Obama’s hit list — and this without any due process to determine whether or not he is guilty of the accusations against him. Awlaki was neither indicted nor was there any definitive evidence against him before his assassination. So the questions arise: Does Obama really  have the right to have his own citizens killed without any due process? Does he, as the President of America, have the right and the power to be some sort of trinity — judge, jury and executioner?

Awlaki’s unconstitutional murder is applauded by his fellow American citizens. Greenwald writes on Salon.com:

From an authoritarian perspective, that’s the genius of America’s political culture.  It not only finds ways to obliterate the most basic individual liberties designed to safeguard citizens from consummate abuses of power (such as extinguishing the lives of citizens without due process).  It actually gets its citizens to stand up and clap and even celebrate the destruction of those safeguards.

I wonder how these same Americans would feel if the Mighty and Powerful Obama ordered their non-Arab, non-Muslim brother or father to be killed without any substantial evidence or any trial in court.

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Share your thoughts with me below. How do you feel about the death of Anwar al-Awlaki?