What Do You See?

Playing to the Reactionary Right, on Monday night President Bush announced that 6,000 National Guard members will be deployed to our southern border. However, what the Bush Administration didn’t explain is that this guard deployment is necessary because it has only funded 210 new border agents, instead of the 10,000 mandated by Congress, forcing young men and women fresh back from Iraq to patrol the border for “national security.” Will the politics of fear make immigration reform impossible?

The White House is also seeking to cut the Environmental Protection Library Network's budget by 80 percent and force many of its libraries to close. The Administration still refuses to admit that Global Warming is real, and won’t sign on to the Kyoto Protocols; some studies estimate that because of this climate change, the number of people affected by storms and floods has already increased from 740 million to 2.5 billion people since the 1970s.

But now, oilman George Bush is trying to present himself as a conservationist. “Save fuel!” he says; it is a matter of “national security!” Well, of course, we all know he is trying to create a more populist image to help the Republicans in the coming elections. But who can believe him anymore? His efforts do not compare to those of Democrat President Carter, who got US consumption of imported oil down from 9 to 7 million barrels a day. After him, alas, it was “Morning in America” again, and President Reagan came and took the solar panels off the roof of the White House. Business as usual!

Then over the next 15 years the Republicans took over all three branches of government and now in 2006 the American people import 13 million barrels a day, an increase of eighty five percent. Energy bills give billions in tax breaks to oil and energy interests, who are making their biggest profits ever while gasoline prices continue to rise. Last year ExxonMobil enjoyed 36.13 billion in profits—the highest of any corporate profit in history.

We Muslims also know how energy politics also affects the “War on Terror.” We see how Libya has finally been taken off the list of “supporters of terror” and at the same time the US government has ordered a ban of arms sales to Venezuela, which pursues its own independent and provocative energy policies despite US pressures.

The oilmen say; “You are either with us or against us!” And increasingly they have their answer from the world.

But I cannot celebrate American isolation or American leadership’s moral fall from grace. And I do not believe that this crisis is necessarily the chance that Muslims have been waiting for; or that it represents an opportunity for the Socialists, or any other utopians either. Power corrupts men anywhere and it is up to the people to safeguard their religious and constitutional protections of human liberty. Are we doing so?

Recent reports have informed us that the National Security Agency has data mined- the entire phone records of Verizon, Bell-South and AT&T, almost surely breaking the scores of privacy laws. In addition, law makers care calling for DNA collection from all convicted criminals, no matter how small the offense, and in some states laws are proposed to collect DNA of all those who have been arrested, whether guilty or not. Moreover, if your family member’s DNA is collected, the government will also be able to know yours as well!

Alas, technology serves corrupted power all too well! The people must wake up; human awareness and critical thought must overcome the robotic invasion of the Total Information Awareness programs, the many, many surveillance programs surrounding us in an invisible but tightening net! O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!

In the New York Times, columnist Bob Herbert warns, “There are not enough pretty words in all the world to cover up the damage that George Bush has done to his country. If the United States could look itself in a mirror, it would be alarmed and ashamed at what it saw.” Yet as writer Robin Wright adds, we face the "near inability of the United States to see its power from the perspective of the powerless."

Can you and I help wake up the American people? Can we open their eyes? Or are we still too sleepy ourselves to wake others up? Do I have the energy and self-awareness to make any impression at all? What do you see in the mirror? That is where we must start.

Muslims Make a Meal

Muslims Make a Meal:
Transformation For Self, Spirit and Society



We read the news. Bad news. But Muslims, what is our response? Are you and I really content with the world as it is? The world our children must live in? Are we not hungry for something more?

Of course among ourselves our mouths taste the spice of complaint, mild or bitter. And some of us like spicier speech. But as men and women, can we not cook and serve the media and those in power with some fragrant and intelligent meal and nourish them with good Muslim conversation?

Cooking requires preparation and measure. Many of us understand the basic laws of what we do in daily life. How long to boil an egg. So why not learn similar social rules to influence our powers that be?

In Uzbekistan (supposedly a Muslim nation and a US ally!) the government actually boils its political opponents to death, like eggs, alas. But surely to prevail, we Muslims need to better understand not brutal force but psychology and humanity and the power of truth.

Every day, humanity stirs the pot but the mixture fails to satisfy. So many of us remain spiritually as well as physically hungry in this world. Have we Muslims forgotten the action of heat and light on matter and spirit? Have we, of all people, forgotten the alchemy of souls working towards transformation?

We can share our spiritual cooking to transform the world. It is with love, and trust building, that we may transcend the various difficulties. This does not mean we must stay in the warm kitchen. We must not ignore the marketplace of ideas. But like bread in the warm oven, the heart rises before it is shared; there are preparations of prayer and practicalities of measuring the material before we participate in serving humanity. Take the necessary steps; then invite your congressman (or congresswoman) to tea and cake!

It is good to share the results of such occasions and not hide and hoard relationships with “power” as so many do. And please forget the illusion and packaging of “prestige.” Humility is a crucial ingredient for long-term success– search your shelves—I am sure it is there somewhere!

Yet we may need to share recipes so we do not waste our efforts. Recall the Fool who was sent to buy flour and salt. He took a dish to carry his purchases. “Make sure”, said his master, “not to mix the two things—I want them separate.” When the shopkeeper had filled the dish with flour and was measuring the salt, the Fool said, “Do not mix it with the flour; here I will show you where to put it.” And he turned the dish upside down, to provide on its upturned bottom a surface to put the salt.

The flour, of course, fell on the floor. But the salt was safe. And when the Fool returned to his Master, he said, “Here is the Salt!” But his master asked; “And where is the flour?” “It should be here”, said the Fool, turning the dish over. And of course the salt fell, and the flour was seen to be gone.

So it is with us, doing first one thing and then another. One thought and then another, but little unity. We are hungry for what is next; we forget what we already have. And what we have, our judgments, opinions and opinions about opinions, these we chew on and chew on long after any useful nutrition is gone.

Of course, we hope to serve fresh thought to our guests. But are we really prepared to build trust with our fellow humanity beyond the post 9/11 anxieties? Recall the story of the man who strayed into the Land of Fools. He saw a number of people running in terror from a field where they had been trying to harvest wheat. “There is a monster in the field!” they told him. He looked and saw it was a watermelon.

The man offered to “kill” the “monster” for them. But after he had broken it, he started to eat the watermelon, and the people become so frightened of his power, they drove him away as a security risk! But the next year, another, more perceptive man agreed to help the people—but he was sensitive to their fear—he tiptoed away from the “monster” and spent a lot time with the people planning and educating little by little so by the end they could not only lose their fear of melons but also grow them themselves!

For, Humanity does not live by bread alone!