Month: July 2005

A Muslim for a Month

Muslim for a month

Morgan Spurlock, the guy who made the documentary “Super Size Me”, is now delving into the lives of Muslims in America.

The experiment: Spurlock would take an ordinary American and have him live with a Muslim family, observing all their customs, for one month.

The person chosen was Dave Stacy, a 33-year-old insurance sales executive from West Virginia, a practising Christian with no knowledge of Islam.

The Muslim family was that of Shamael Haque, a first year resident in neuropsychiatry at Henry Ford hospital in Detroit.

Haque, along with his wife Sadia Shakir, who attends the Thomas Cooley Law School, put all reservations aside and opened their Dearborn, Michigan, home to this stranger from the Bible Belt.

During his 30 days, Stacy lived, ate and prayed with his Muslim hosts.
He also read the Quran, tried to learn Arabic, visited a halal slaughterhouse and prayed in a mosque.
In one very tense scene, he went out on to the street to petition Americans into signing a bill to stop the profiling of Muslim Americans.

“…a show like this is important, to get some information out there to educate people. We can’t demonise six million American Muslims. There are 270 million Americans out there and the last time I checked, Timothy McVeigh wasn’t a Muslim. So I think that we just need to preach a little tolerance.”

— Morgan Spurlock

I think the idea of this show is really great in how it aims to promote understanding and tolerance, especially because of all the difficulties and hardships Muslims in America have been facing since the events of 9/11.

Thumbs up to Morgan Spurlock for tackling these important issues. Bravo.

[More: Al Jazeera]

A Letter To The Terrorists, From London

“…If this is a message to Tony Blair, we’ve got news for you. We don’t much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We’ll deal with that ourselves. We’re London, and we’ve got our own way of doing things, and it doesn’t involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.

And that’s because we’re better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we’re going to go about our lives. We’re going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we’re going to work. And we’re going down the pub.

So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.”

Read the full letter: A Letter To The Terrorists, From London.

Amazon.com 10 Year Anniversary Surprise

As part of Amazon.com’s celebrations of their 10th anniversary, they’re doing something really cool…

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that it is teaming with UPS to make special surprise deliveries to select customers over the next 10 days. Randomly selected customers across the country will open their doors to find a favorite actor, musician, athlete or author personally making “Special Deliveries” of their Amazon.com order alongside a UPS driver.

Among the celebrities scheduled to make special deliveries are actor Harrison Ford who may deliver the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” DVD, Grammy-award winning musician Moby hand-delivering his recently released CD “Hotel,” and Jason Alexander with a “Seinfeld” DVD.

I think this is a really nice idea, and a great way of involving people with their anniversary celebrations, not to mention add to their sales.

I just wish Arab and Tunisian businesses would learn from ideas like this and realize that the happier their customer is and the more they offer him, the more they will win eventually.

Third International Photography Meetups

The Third International Photography Meetups will be held, from Friday July 15th to Monday July 18th, in Ghar El Melh (Tunisia), in the third fortress near the old port.
Their goal is to accentuate and develop exchanges between photography professionals and amateurs, as well as between the adult and young audiences of this art.

The programme of this edition showcases works from a score of Tunisian photographers (Hamideddine Bouali, Marianne Catzaras, Nicolas Fauqu

Reflections on the London Explosions

Our deepest condolences go out to the people of London, our hearts and thoughts are with you in this very difficult time.

The latest toll from the London explosions yesterday say that at least 50 people were killed and 700 injured, and the numbers are still set to rise.

Investigations are still under way, but a group calling themselves “The Group of al Qaeda of Jihad Organization in Europe” are claiming responsibility for the attacks.

I strongly condemn such attacks, and decry their use of Islam as a cover and reason for them.
Islam doesn’t support terrorism!
Islam doesn’t support the killing of innocent people!
Islam is totally against these sick and evil doings!
People who do such things are NOT Muslims!
They do not represent Islam, nor do they speak for us Muslims!
They do not have our support!

Multiple Explosions Hit London

Multilple explosions in London have caused terrible injuries…

Police are confirming at least three explosions on buses in central London today, and several blasts rocked the Tube network leaving dozens of people injured.

British Home Secretary Charles Clarke says there have been “terrible injuries” in the explosions.

The Tube blasts at the height of the rush hour on Thursday were initially blamed on a power surge.

Union officials blamed the Tube blasts on a series of bombs, and Scotland Yard confirmed the bus explosion and said it was dealing with “multiple explosions” in London.

The Prime Minister’s office said they were “still unsure” whether the explosions were a terrorist attack and although casualties were reported, no further details were yet available.

Update:
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said authorities found found indications of explosives at the scene of one of the blasts and that there are concerns it was a coordinated terror attack.

PM Tony Blair said: “It is reasonably clear there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London.” There have been casualties, he said “both people that have died and people seriously injured.”

[Source: CNN, BBC News]
[More: Londonist]

Our hearts are with the people of London and England, hoping that the damages are limited and that their loved ones are safe and unharmed.

London Wins 2012 Olympics

London 2012

The 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London, the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has announced.

London won a two-way fight with Paris by 54 votes to 50 at the IOC meeting in Singapore, after bids from Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated.

Thousands of people in London’s Trafalgar Square cheered as they watched the announcement on giant TV screens.

London has hosted the Olympics twice already, the last time in 1948. It becomes the first city to host the Olympics three times.

[More: BBC Sport, CNN]

Tarzan Swings, Tarzan Falls…

I could see something like this happening to a friend of mine once he gets married 😛

A Romanian man ended up in hospital after he tried to swing from tree to tree to escape his wife and go drinking.

Stefan Trisca, 66, had been locked in the bedroom by his wife who was fed up with him going drinking with his friends.

His Tarzan style escape plan backfired when he slipped from a vine and fell 15ft to the ground, breaking his arm, an ankle and a leg.

“Unfortunately it was more difficult than it looked in the Tarzan movies.”, He said.

[Source: Ananova]

Maybe if he was in the US, with it’s mad lawsuit-happy culture, he could sue the hollywood studios that made “Tarzan” movies claiming that they mislead him into trying it himself.

Anyway back to my friend, I really wouldn’t be amazed at all if something like this were to happen to him swinging out of his bedroom window to go for a drink, lol…