Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah Hmm, what do I think about the ban of the niqaab in France.  Tempest in a teapot, that’s what it is.  It is Sarkozy and other politicians pandering to a xenophobic base of citizens in order to score points towards reelection.  It is a distraction from the miserable economy.  It is a reflection of what is going on here in the U.S. with the mosque controversies and various states trying to make Islamic... Read more

Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah On March 20, 2011, an ignorant little worm of a man burned a Qur’an.  He’s not the first and will probably not be the last.  He claims to be a man of God but by his actions he showed his only leader is the devil, and whatever mad voices only he can hear that tell him what he is doing is good.  But I’m not here to talk about him.  He’s had more than... Read more

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah Weary and bleary-eyed from lack of sleep (thanks to a teething baby who likes to wake up at night and serenade me), I went through my usual morning routine.  I turn on CNN.  One of the first stories was about an Alabama hospital where patients had been infected by contaminated IV bags.  Imagine you go in for some surgery, and it is successful, only to succumb to a bacteria in your glucose.  At... Read more

Today has been a pretty productive day, alhamdulillah.  Cleaned the bathroom, scrubbed the dining room floor, and spent all my “spare time” (time when I’m not holding the baby) creating a new blog for my auction stuff and updating and joining online auction websites.  So, that brings me up to three blogs now.  I think I’m going to have writer’s cramp, but I’ll get over it.  The new blog hopefully will help me get noticed on all the auction sites... Read more

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah We all know the benefits of making dhikr, remembrance of Allah.  It is the habit of many Muslims to say “alhamdulillah” (praise be to Allah), subhanAllah (glory be to Allah), and other phrases that come to us from the Qur’an and authentic Sunnah.  Making dhikr is a way of remembering Allah, thanking Him, asking forgiveness from Him, glorifying Him, and showing that we are submissive to His will.  It can be a beautiful... Read more

Yesterday, it was announced that law enforcement in several countries had broken up a child pornography ring that circled the globe.  They arrested nearly two hundred men and saved over two hundred children from sexual slavery.  This bust was the result of a three-year investigation and is a major coup for the good guys, but these arrests are, sadly, only a drop in the bucket.  Millions of predators are still out there, and they want your child, too. I lived... Read more

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah Today was one of those cranky days.  I woke up after an up-and-down night with a fussy baby.  A stuffy nose makes him wakeful.  Actually, he doesn’t need an excuse.  He’s just cranky by nature right now.  Probably a growth spurt.  I fumbled through the morning routine, getting kids off to school and hubby off the work, grumbling a bit to myself that I never get to take a morning off.  Grumble, grumble.... Read more

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan reminds us once again that our lives can change or end in an instant.  This is a harsh reminder hard on the heels of disasters in New Zealand, Chile, and Haiti.  Just in case you weren’t listening the last few times, I suppose.  In one way the Japan earthquake is different; there’s a lot more film of the actual disaster, especially the tsunami that killed so... Read more

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah Hello to everyone!  I would humbly like to promote my new blog, which I started yesterday over at WordPress. I decided that I would dedicate a blog only to my love of cooking, sharing recipes and techniques.  Otherwise it tends to get lost in among the other stuff I post.  Not everyone wants to go from politics to pita bread and back on a weekly basis.  Here is the link to my blog:... Read more

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah I didn’t watch the congressional hearings today on the radicalization of American Muslims.  Being an American Muslim, I already know what the problems are and how they should be addressed.  Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King, channeling the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, was challenged on many fronts as he tried to keep the scope of the hearings narrow.  He was not interested in hearing about radical militias who secretly plot... Read more