Reflections Of A Muslimah

Five daughters. Imagine that. Gone in one go.

I come from a family of Five Sisters and the bonds we have are unbreakable. We're together through thick and thin. Some of the happiest and memorable moments I have spent were with my Sisters.

In the on-going Israeli massacre of Gaza, among hundreds that were killed and are still being killed was the story of a family which lost five daughters.

Washington Post reports:

JERUSALEM, Dec. 29 -- Trapped in the rubble, Iman Balousha, dressed in her green pajamas, said she could hear her sisters' cries. "Mother! Mother! Where is my mother? Pull me out!" Their muffled voices slipped through the toppled bricks.

Early Monday, an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip destroyed the family's house, located next to the Emad Aqeel mosque, the intended target, which was also flattened. Rescuers tried frantically to save the girls. Iman was lucky: She was half-buried in the debris.

One by one, the cries stopped, Iman recalled in an interview. She could see the leg of her 4-year-old sister, Jawaher, whom her family called Ayah. She could touch her hair. But minutes later, Ayah stopped breathing.

"I've lost five sisters," Iman, 16, said at a relative's house Monday evening, her soft voice fading. Tears slid down her face. Her mother, Samira, held her 16-month-old son, whose face was bruised and specked with dried blood.

"Does my 12-days-old baby have a rocket with her?" Samira demanded. "Or my son, does he have a missile with him? Or did my daughters have AK-47s beside them? Why did they target them?" The five daughters who died were ages 4 to 17.

A mourner lifts the body of four-year-old Dina Balousha, one of five members of the same family - including three children and two teenagers - killed in an Israeli missile strike.

Assalāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāhi Wabarakath,

I know I haven't blogged for a while. I went through one of my phases where I lost the inclination to write/blog here. But I'm back, I guess. I might just change the layout completely.

There were so many things that I wanted to blog about initially, Muntadar Al-Zaidis shoe-throwing incident, The Mumbai attacks, The War Of Terror and other things.

Is it just me, or our current World situation just keeps on getting worse?

The Gaza attacks were the last straw. It is absolute indiscriminate killing. It's sickening. Open random bombs dropped on civilians. The blockade which resulted in people dying. What is more shocking is the case of our current so-called 'Muslim' leaders today of our nations. They are silent, probably calling for another 'meeting' and doing nothing. Absolutely nothing to help the Muslim Ummah. Weak, pathetic and cowardly. They're happy as long as they don't upset the superpowers of this World: USA & Israel. Sickening, isn't it?

The death toll that I checked last night for Gaza was around 300, and I'm sure it must've increased by today. My heart bleeds for Gaza, for the Palestinians, The Iraqis, The Afghanis, for the Prisoners in Gitmo and Afghanistan and the Somalis. For the Women who are raped, the Children that are killed, the Men who are tortured. For all those who suffer. And yet, all we do is, protest. And protest. And protest. After a while, our voices die down and no action is taken.



The genocide goes on. We need more then to just voice our anger, our thoughts. We need a constant voice, we need action, we need to make sure our voices don't die down again. We need to unite.

Assalāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāhi Wabarakath,

So Obama has won the American elections. I wouldn't exactly be interested in the American Presidency, but who becomes president in the United States indirectly concerns the World, or more specifically Muslim Countries. I wonder what will his foreign policy consist of and/or what are his plans with Iraq and Afghanistan? Secondly, I hope we don't see a War in Pakistan/Iran, inshaAllah.

Speaking to a few American Muslims I know were voting, they said the American Muslim Community although didn't approve of either, were choosing the 'lesser of two evils'. To add to the hype, on his blog, Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki has caused quite the stir by voicing his opinions in three posts on the impermissibility of voting in an American democracy. He makes some very valid points, although I have to do my own research on 'voting from a Shar'i perspective' as there is a difference of opinion involved among the Ulema when it comes to this.

However, what I extremely detested was the slandering of the Imam and his character just because some people did not agree with his views. There is a manner of disagreeing and a manner of respect involved, especially when it comes to dealing with Shyookh. Sadly, this involved Muslims.

I came across this article this morning, which spoke about how a U.S Airstrike in an Afghani village turned a Wedding to a Mass burial ground. Allahu'l musta'an.

On a side note, I was sick and tired of seeing people donate their status to the American elections on facebook. People that weren't Americans or even living in America. Why don't we get so hyped about other Countries' elections? Hmmph.

Assalāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāhi Wabarakath,

This has been all over the news. It is so sad and pathetic at the same time and highly angering. Why do they think they can attack and kill and raid any Country they want? Why are we not doing more then protesting this?

And like always, the victims are innocent civilians, including Women and Children.

You can read more about it here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7698820.stm

Here are a few pictures from Yahoo:

An image grab taken from official Syrian television showing victims of what the Syrian media reported was a US attack on a building in the village of Al-Sukkiraya, near the Syria-Iraq border. Iraq has said the deadly raid was targeting an area used by insurgents plotting attacks on its soil, as Damascus protested about what it branded a cold-blooded war crime by US forces.

(AFP)

Syrian villagers mourn for the victims during a mass funeral in the village of Sukaria, in the Bou Kamal area near the Iraqi border October 27, 2008. A deadly raid on the Syrian side of Iraq's border, blamed by Syria on the United States, targeted an area used by insurgents for attacks on Iraq, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Monday.

REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)

A Syrian man mourns near the body of a relative who died a day before when U.S. military helicopters launched an attack on Syrian territory, before a funeral procession in the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal in an area of farms and brick factories about five miles (eight kilometers) inside the Syrian border, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008. Blood stained the dusty earth Monday as anguished villagers on the outskirts of farming town near Iraq buried loved ones they say were killed by an American helicopter raid inside Syria.

(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Syrians carry coffins of their realtives who were killed yesterday in a US military raid on the village of Sukkiraya, on the Syria-Iraq border. The United States mounted a rare cross-border raid into Syria to kill the head of a smuggling network feeding arms and foreign fighters to Iraq, a US official said Monday, signaling a more aggressive approach to insurgent sanctuaries.

(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

A Syrian man sits next to blood staining the floor in the village of Sukkiraya, on the Syria-Iraq border, the scene of what the Syrian media reported as a deadly US military strike. US forces in Iraq staged a "successful" raid into Syria against foreign fighters, an American official said Monday, as a furious Damascus accused Washington of "terrorist aggression.

"(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

In an image made from APTN Television an amateur video shows a pointing to a covered body in Syria after a raid Sunday Oct. 26, 2008, in Sukkariyeh, Syria.

Syrian protesters gather at Youssef al-Azmi square during a demonstration against the U.S. raid on a village near the Syrian-Iraqi border last Monday, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday Oct. 30, 2008. Hundreds of Syrian riot police ringed the shuttered and closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Thursday, as tens of thousands of Syrians converged on a central square for a government-orchestrated protest to denounce a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border.