Jihad?

Watching this video, though it may sound funny, made me scared as well despite being a Muslim. Even another friend of mine who is Muslim thought the video was scary.

It is definitely understandable of why Americans (or rather EVERYONE) who watches this video or any type of video on any religions, race or gender that portrays them as being violent based on what they have done, would give us a reason to be afraid and fearful.

Everyone should be aware that not everything portrayed in the media is the absolute truth. Yes, the events cited by the video might all be based on facts, but you could not judge the other 1 billion people just by the few hundreds that showed what is actually against our own religion as a matter of fact. Do a research on what is given to us on the news and analyze them intelligently. A very good example is to see how women are portrayed in the media. Women are often seen as being weak and passive, while men are always seen in masculine roles in an advertisement. Hence, will you judge that a women is incapable of doing tough jobs, while men are absolutely only masculine in character and could not show any weakness or tears? Of course you don't, and the same goes to all religions and race and gender, not just Islam alone.

Do not just accept what is given to us. Sometimes, it is not what they seem to be.

I could be criticizing a lot regarding the video; first off, the word jihad does not have a 'goal' of world domination. Go ahead and google it, and you will find that it literally means 'struggle'. The word jihad is not only applicable for war, but it could also be used when you are facing a 'struggle' to prevent yourself from committing sins or hurting others; I could say that I am in a 'jihad' if I am working very hard to get a good pay to put food on the table. I could also say that I am in a 'jihad' if I am trying my very best to get rid of a bad habit (even like smoking or drinking). Hence, you could quickly evaluate that the person who made the video did not really do much research about jihad or Islam itself rather.

It is true that Islam has been involved in many wars as the video has listed. But once again, you could not judge the rest of the people of that religion based on certain events that was committed by usually the extremists. I believe that if you were to search for the war histories of any country at all (wars do happen even without religion in play), you will also find a whole list of bad events. Hence, I do not think it is fair to simply depict to Americans (in this video) that Islam is a violent religion by showing all the bloodshed. Why is it that other religions and other countries who have also fought in a war not being questioned the same way Islam is put into trial?

For clarifications, it is true that there are verses in the Qur'an that some might say be 'promoting' war against 'infidels' or so they say. However, if you were to really analyze the Qur'anic verses, it only gave permission for one to go into war if one is in a state of oppression; hence war is actually forbidden for us to pursue unless lives are at stake and that is the very last option that we have. If you were to look back on Prophet Muhammad, he would definitely try to work things out peacefully with anyone at all, before finally residing to battle.

As a Muslim, I do feel sad that there are extremists out there willing to kill others (or what they may claim to be 'infidels') in the name of Islam, when what they are doing is against Islam itself. However, I am certain that there is a blessing in disguise. I do not support any act of terrorism, but I am optimistic that even from such bad events, it has opened the eyes of others, opened my own eyes as well. People are curious about who and what Islam is. Is it true that it is a terrorist religion? Is it a violent religion? Oppressing women by asking them to wear the headscarf?

Those who have really opened their eyes and hearts will be able to find out what Islam truly is. And unfortunately, there are still others out there who refuse to see beyond what is out in the media.

I sincerely would like to thank the commenters of this blog (at worldinconversation.org), as when I read your comments and your view of Islam even though you are non-muslims, I am very happy and glad to know that you guys are among those who do not judge others simply from what is portrayed in the media. :) Thank you, may God bless you. :)

Religion Dying Out?

Reading this article certainly made me devastated of the fact that there are indeed more and more people losing their faith in God, losing their faith in religion.

Based on what we have discussed in class, I would completely agree that managing a larger group of people is definitely much more challenging than managing a smaller group of people; this does not only apply to religion, but it could be applied to simply about anything at all. A bigger company with more employees under it faces more challenges to manage their employees compared to a smaller company. The more people present in a certain religious group, the harder it is for the pastor, imam, or head of the religion for that area to be able to reach the people's heart.

Most of the people that I know of who is no longer a believer of a 'superior being', or sometimes do not agree with religions that has been presented to them, are actually just people just like you and I.

They are the people who are brave enough to question the rules of a religion, to question who is God? And we as human beings, being curious beings as well, have the right to do so.

I am also not an exception myself.

Being born into a Muslim family, I was raised as a Muslim with the basics knowledge of Islam. I never did question about the religion since everyone was doing it; it was considered a 'norm' back home. However, as I grew older, just like any other teenagers and young adults, we begin to seek answers to our questions, to our curiosity. However, it was not an easy road to travel on, as I was afraid of taking the wrong turn.

Coming to the U.S., I could sincerely say that I have found Islam here, more than I did back home where majority of the population were Muslims. So far, I have found nothing but answers to my questions. Even though it is not as simple as getting all the answers I want in a day, but all my questions so far has met the righteous answers.

I dare to say that I found Islam here is because when you are out of your waters and travel onto another land, you will be able to see how strong your faith is and to what extent do you believe in yourself, believe in a superior being called God. I am free to not practice my religion, I am free to throw my faith away as it is not the 'norm' over here, and no one is there to prevent you from taking the wrong or right steps. It is all up to you.

Hence, I would certainly encourage everyone to keep your hearts and mind open. Do question what you think is not right, and be brave enough to take one step further to find the truth. I am confident that if you have the intention of finding the truth and not simply to find facts to say that 'My religion is right, your religion is wrong!' or 'You will go to hell and I will go to heaven!', you will definitely find the truth with a good heart, God willing :)

I truly believe that if someone is telling the truth of something good, there is nothing to hide about the truth, there is nothing to be ashamed of the truth, as it is indeed nothing to be hidden, and should be told to every single person in the world.

No one on earth has the right to say that someone is going to hell and heaven, or judge a person just by his or her actions alone. Only He could judge on that day. As the saying goes, 'hate the sin, not the sinner'.

I admit, that I do not have much knowledge about other religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism or any religion. Hence, I do not have the right to criticize other religions and condemn them to hell, as only He knows who will be sent to heaven. Even Muslims, like myself, are not safe from the fires of hell if we commit a lot of sins. He will only judge us humans on the Day of Judgement, so who are we to judge others?

However, I am glad to know that the more I question about my religion, the more I find the answers. I hope that everyone out there will do to. :)

For me, religion is a part of my life, and it is the food to our souls. I noticed that the more you deny the existence of a superior being, the more unsettling your life would be. It is true that one could still be a good human and do good to others in the world, but they will always be in conflict and feel unsettled whenever God comes into a conversation. I personally feel that if we are indeed right about all religions, why are we always feeling so unsettled about it if we are so sure that God does not exist?

I urge you to investigate the religions out there, find people who has knowledge about the religion, people who are willing to share with you their religion and are not afraid to tell you the truth, and conclude your research based on your findings. God willing, you will find the right answer.

What a man is..

Article from an inmate : http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/

As I was reading this article, I had second thoughts on whether this was actually a letter of an inmate; it seemed more like those articles that give advices for men to be successful in relationships. Even so, it really touched me that all the points written in this article is true and spot-on, and were actually realized by an inmate when he is doing his time.

I completely agree with the inmate; why do people only change when something dramatic happens in their life? Why can't they just admit that they were wrong and change to be better without the need of a dramatic event? Even though the latter seems to be the better option, most of us only do change when something finally happens; usually a traumatic experience.

It is difficult to change. No matter what type of change it may be; finally eating your greens or finally managing your anger, it all requires a huge amount of innovation and emotional strength, where we most often lack off. I myself would admit that I still have bad habits that I would like to change, but changing just the very next second is not humanly possible.



Even so, I still do believe change is not easy, but possible. It WILL require a lot of emotional strength and support, and it also requires a lot of our effort as well. Truth be told, if we have the intentions to change and try our very best to do so, He will help us along the way. We should never give up on trying to improve ourselves even though sometimes it takes years for us to achieve what we want. We will never know that maybe, on the 99th day of our effort we gave up, when He will actually grant our wish to change on the 100th day. So we should never give up trying, never give up hoping, and have faith in Him :)

I could go on and on describing about recognizing what women wants from a man. But I could simply say that men also have fairly similar needs from women; attention, trust and love.

However, I would agree with what the inmate has mentioned; regarding what he has learned about what women wants from men, mostly from the video. As we have watched in class, music videos show the wrong idea of women only wanting sex and money from men, and that they enjoy being treated as a sex object within the videos when the reality is the direct opposite. Newspapers, magazines, televisions and films are doing the same exact thing to our society as well. Men are always portrayed to be the stronger and more masculine figure, while women are more feminine, submissive and passive.

Now, there are exceptions to these claims where in some films, women are the 'heroes' and saves the day. But you could almost always find both genders more in their traditional roles and gender stereotypes.
Once again, it is hard for the media to CHANGE to portray the reality of life unless they would see it to be profitable. Even so, there is still hope that one day all of these would change for the better, with people who are becoming more aware of our surroundings.



Changing, will never be easy. The important people around us could sometimes even be the main reason why it is so hard for us to change, as well as the society. Our friends would sometimes critisize us: "He/She is a horrible person!". And when we finally do change, the same people would give discouraging comments: "He/She is just putting up an act. Remember how he/she was before?"

I hope that everyone would realize that in this world, we could NEVER satisfy everyone. If you would want to change, do it for yourself, for your loved ones that supports you, and for Him. If you set your goals on changing to satisfy everyone, you will never find yourself be able to change completely, or perhaps if you do change, you will never be happy. Do it for yourself, for your loved ones who supports you, and for Him. As only these people and God will be able to see the change in you :)


Learn from the past, do your best in the present, for the better future. Don't judge a person based on his or her past, but judge based on what he or she is doing and has become. Spread the love, as we do not have time to hate :)