I’m feeling very agitated today. I told myself to sleep on it before I write this piece, perhaps the feeling will go away or at the very least calm down a bit. Well the feeling has not gone away nor has it subsided. Let me explain. Last night a friend private messaged me a link to someone else’s (someone I don’t know) Facebook wall to read an interesting thread. On this thread it was a picture of a mother who had some tattoos, wearing shorts and a tank, holding a very little baby that was wearing the Muslim head dress called the hijab. It was obvious the mother put it on the child just cause she thought it looked cute and snapped a picture….it was a photo opp and nothing more. The mother took it off the little baby afterwards as she mentioned after much criticism only a million times, which all fell on deaf ears. The mother was reduced to tears reading people’s crude comments…. I truly felt bad for her. The mother herself was not Muslim, the father was. She thought it was cute and was simply just playing around, much in the way every mom does with their kids when they dress them up in a cute outfit or put them in frilly tutus and such. Anyhow the comments on this thread were HORRIFYING. The blatant racism from the average white Canadian was too much to handle…..I felt like I stepped into a time machine and was thrown back 30 years to my grade schools days. For the record….I am a CANADIAN born Pakistani Muslim……born and raised in this society, went to grade school, high school and yes even university right here. I am as Canadian as you can get……with a Muslim belief system which I am very proud of and you will be hard pressed to get me to feel ashamed of it! With that being said……I grew up in a time when I was the only visible minority or one of a very few in the school and almost on a daily basis I was told to “go back home”, “go back to where you came from, you Paki” (Paki is a derogatory term used to put down Pakistanis much in the same way the “n” word is used for blacks or the socially unacceptable “k” word for Jews). Needless to say I knew that these people did not think I was Canadian enough for them…..but what I do know now is that thinking stemmed from the teachings of really ugly people, the parents of these kids. However I think it is a safe bet those kids have grown up and now are just as ugly in thinking as their parents were because racism is still alive and thriving and part of a vicious cycle that is taught. There is always a new “villain” to hate. There were the Jews, the Irish, the Polish, Blacks, Vietnamese….etc etc. Now Muslims are the new kids on the block…..it is not cool to hate blacks, speak ill of Jews, dislike homosexuality…. but it is perfectly ACCEPTABLE to hate and speak out against Muslims and the religion of Islam but mask it with smoke and mirrors in the name of “free speech!” The free speech card is conveniently pulled out quite a lot when it comes to expressing hatred against Muslims! This thread demonstrated just that…. people telling her that in their own subtle and not so subtle ways “disguised” under the false pretense of advice masked for what is really HATRED of something they have no clue about. Something which Fox News, and CNN and all the magazines have told them on how to think. Coincidentally all these major corporations, tv networks, magazines are owned by the same few people who have an invested interest in the Middle East and its politics. The best way for them to win over their enemies is to “vilify” them in the media, which effects the average Jo’s heart……which in turn influences politics and what we value as a society as a whole. They have done this over and over again and yet we as a society still don’t learn from this trick and tactic. But enough about that, I will digress a bit…. on the thread I saw everything from the “mild” comments such as “poor girl” to far worse…..the proselytizing of one’s religious superiority like the following comment….”if all my Muslim friends gave a chance to open their eyes and just knew a little about Christianity trust me they will all convert” Oh really? Why? Because you think I or any other Muslim for that fact are so unintelligent that we have not studied our religion? Because you think that we have been “forced” to follow it? Keep in mind that force you speak of is nothing but another lie carefully manipulated and fed to you, shaping your thought patterns against Muslims which is just what the media WANTS! They have won over you in their campaign of hatred because your thinking is now “controlled”. Muslims follow Islam because it is SIMPLE…..yes I said that…. it is simple 🙂 …..there is ONE God…..Allah. Allah is not another god but simply the Arabic word for God. Just like Jehovah witness’ say the word Yahweh, it does not mean they believe its another God but simply Yahweh is God in another language. The Islamic faith is simple because at its core the central belief is that God is one, and he alone deserves ALL the worship, not partial worship divided in three but ALL of it because he created us, knows what is best for us and is worthy of it. There is no confusion of three in one, one in three dogma as in other religions etc etc. Simple see?! So to say that if all Muslims “opened their eyes” and they would convert is an insult to our intelligence. Its the assumption that we don’t know anything about other religions and have been brainwashed to follow this religion. In fact in our religion it says and actually “encourages” one to study and ASK questions about one’s faith. To not blindly follow. Perhaps as Muslims we believe in our faith because not only is it simple which makes sense, but it is very disciplined. Worship of God is not reduced to a once a week ritual but rather a daily practice of praying five times a day at scheduled times. Humans have to and should question the PURPOSE of life. Is it to live for the weekend and party? Is it to go shopping? Is it to just earn money? Live day to day? There has to be something MUCH more than just THAT! Muslims believe the purpose of life is to worship God in ALL our ACTIONS……ALL the time! For a great resource and understanding of this I would recommend this link……I know it is a bit long but I GUARANTEE that many of you will have a greater understanding of that which some of you fear and some of you just misunderstand. Anyhow as I mentioned we believe that the purpose of our lives is to worship God in all our actions……ONE of these is modesty! This is a concept that alludes many now a days in a society who’s values are constantly changing from year to year, decade to decade, century to century…..(you get the point). We can go out and see billboards advertising shampoo using SEX!!!!! How the two even connect baffles the brain. We sell and advertise cars in a titilating manner using scantily clad partially naked women. Does that naked woman come with the car?….does she make the car go faster? Does she increase the value of the car? Hmmmm? As you can see, societies values are CONSTANTLY EVOLVING. Decades ago you would never find a woman who would disrespect herself in that manner. But that is exactly the problem, when you base your values on a system that is constantly evolving your values will evolve too….I think a more accurate word would be “de-evolve” A good example of this is the Brazilian bathing suits! Can you even call that a bathing suit?!…. can we call it a cheese string instead? That society sees no wrong in it! It is a society that has slowly with time “de-evolved” and foolishly think they are now “liberated.” This is the same path our society is slowly going down. This is why Muslims base their values of modesty on what God has said…..because it does NOT CHANGE due to the whims of people and society…it is CONSTANT. I wear my hijab just like Mary the mother of Jesus did FIRST because I have been commanded to by God and we believe he knows what is best for his creation so therefore we obey. However if that is not a good enough reason for you (it is enough for me!) I would like to point out the benefits of it. It is concept meant to protect women, men and society as a whole. So when I put my hijab on I wear it with pride because I know that I do it because my body is not a public commodity. My self worth is not based on the desires of men nor is it based on an unattainable goals the magazine and Hollywood industries put out. You see when I put on my hijab which I wear around men who I am not related to, I tell the world that you MUST respect my MIND, my INTELLECT and judge me on THOSE merits… much like you would with most men…..not on how slim I am, beautiful, and all other things that are artificial. Therefore I “reclaim” my sexuality and refuse to let others reduce me to the sum of my parts. I know what you are probably thinking…..”what about the men?” The men are told FIRST in our teachings to value modesty, they are told this before women. This is why you will have a tough time finding a “practicing” Muslim man wearing a cheese string 🙂 (ewwww)! Men are told to lower their gaze when they see women they are not related to. This is a protection and means of showing respect to the woman! YES, there is that word…. RESPECT! I feel like busting out into Aretha Franklin’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T. song now…..damn it! Anyhow men are not excluded from this virtue…. to protect themselves and dress in a modest manner. The hijab is not an oppressive tool as so many of you have been told to believe sadly…. it is a means to LIBERATE me and other women from the shackles of desires. Now wearing hijab is not something that is compulsory on a child…. if a mother puts it on her child like the woman I am speaking about above, it is simply because she’s playing around……but it only took that one little thing to bring out the HATE in so many people on the thread. The comments that make me laugh are the one’s along the lines of when someone insults another race and says “I’m not racist…..I have many black (insert Muslim here) friends but… blah blah blah!” Well if it smells like crap, looks like crap, guess what?! It IS crap! Sorry! Modesty is something that is compulsory in our religion and I refuse to let the masses make me feel ashamed for that. The people I love the most are those who ask questions in the most sincerest manner. It shows they have a REAL desire to learn. I don’t care for those people who ask crude questions because frankly its a bit obvious…..they don’t want to possibly change their mind or opinion on a matter…. they just simply want to win an argument and really nothing more. Those people will be, and always will be nothing more than “controlled” sheep that follow the masses.
Jasmin Malik Photography 