{"id":73,"date":"2010-09-20T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/20\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel\/"},"modified":"2010-09-20T10:14:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T10:14:00","slug":"in-defense-of-christine-odonnel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Christine O’Donnel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim<\/i><\/b>

<\/i><\/b>
Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah<\/i>

<\/i>
Okay, for the most part I\u2019ve tuned out the nattering nabobs of political negativity. \u00a0The recent primaries and upcoming November elections are just a buzzing background that I try to ignore. \u00a0I\u2019m well \u00a0into the \u201cscrew all of them\u201d attitude towards politicians in this country. \u00a0Democrats and Republicans are different sides of the same corrupt coin that is bankrupting, morally and financially, our country. <\/p>\n

I have been hearing more chatter the last few days about Christine O\u2019Donnell. \u00a0Now, I don\u2019t know her, I don\u2019t know her background, and I have not really looked into her past or politics, but the media has been kind enough to inform me that she is against masturbation and that she once dabbled in witchcraft. \u00a0The first admission makes people giggle; the second perhaps will send gasps of disbelief among her conservative cohorts. \u00a0But I think this is way overblown. <\/p>\n

As far as the masturbation issue, as a religious Muslim, I believe she is totally correct. \u00a0Islam\u2019s mainstream opinion is that one should resist this urge. \u00a0Sexual gratification is for a man and woman within the bounds of marriage. \u00a0If a person is married, they should share love an intimacy with their spouse, not themselves. \u00a0If a person is single, he or she should fast, keep busy, that sort of thing, and marry early to avoid having to resort to this.

<\/i>
Unfortunately for Ms. O\u2019Donnell, we live in an extremely permissive society where \u201chooking up\u201d is viewed as a great way to spend an evening when you\u2019re bored and NCIS is in reruns. \u00a0Masturbation? \u00a0We have fornication, adultery, open relationships, same-sex relationships, swingers, pedophilia, date rape. \u00a0Masturbation falls pretty far down the line when you are concerned about the sexual health of this country. \u00a0She is ridiculed for her position, treated as a naif and a buffoon for stating something that is actually a mainstream belief for religious Muslims, Christians, and Jews. \u00a0She owes no apology for the belief. <\/p>\n

Now, as far as the \u201cdabbling in witchcraft\u201d thing, I can totally <\/i>\u00a0understand where she is coming from. \u00a0As young people, we hang around with friends, test the limits of family, and experiment, not always intelligently. \u00a0She\u2019s getting such a reaction from this that you would think she spent her adolescence sacrificing Persian kittens to Satan and bathing in their blood. \u00a0She dabbled <\/i>\u00a0in witchcraft, just like I dabbled <\/i>in a lot of things that I\u2019d rather not admit to.<\/p>\n

Okay, let\u2019s see where she and I fall on the scale of teenage weirdness. \u00a0When I was fourteen, I got involved in community theatre (yes, I\u2019m a snob because I spell theatre with an \u201cre\u201d and not an \u201cer\u201d. \u00a0So sue me.). \u00a0I used to hang out with grownups, grownups who drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes and stuff I thought <\/i>\u00a0at the time were cigarettes but probably weren\u2019t. \u00a0Then I joined a medieval re-enactment group called the Society for Creative Anachronism when I was fifteen. \u00a0I ran around Oklahoma and Texas going to tournaments with grownups who drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes and stuff I well knew by this time were not <\/i>cigarettes, <\/i>\u00a0and beat on my friends with swords, threw spears at targets shaped like Roman soldiers, danced around Maypoles, drank while underage (gasp!) and basically enjoyed the heck out of myself. \u00a0Many (most, okay, all) of my friends could be described as \u201cnon-traditional\u201d (geeks, nerds, outcasts). \u00a0Some were involved with Wicca, Druidism, and other non-typical ways of looking at the world (like through a haze of hashish). \u00a0So if sometime, somewhere on the internet a picture surfaces of me in a thirteenth-century gown, holding a sword and standing next to someone with a wizard hat and a black cat under her arm, well, yeah, that\u2019s me and I \u00a0just have to live with that. \u00a0That was part of my life back then. \u00a0And most likely, a lot of those Wiccans and Druids have grown up to become moms and dads living in the suburbs driving mini-vans and regaling their kids with stories of how interesting they used to be. \u00a0Some of them might even be politicians running for office. \u00a0And I\u2019m okay with that. \u00a0Heck, we elected a president who has done cocaine.<\/i>

<\/i>
So, Christine, I\u2019ve got your back. \u00a0You stick by your beliefs and don\u2019t worry about that whole \u201cdabbling in witchcraft\u201d thing. \u00a0Those who poo-poo your beliefs about abstinence and sexuality are wrong; those who think your past is going to come up and bite you probably have bigger skeletons in their closets. \u00a0Forget them.<\/p>\n

Now, before anyone thinks that I am a card-carrying Tea Partier, this is NOT an endorsement of Christine O\u2019Donnel or anything like that. \u00a0I hate politics. \u00a0I just think this hubbub over these two issues is stupid. \u00a0We have a wrecked economy, with one in seven households receiving some form of government aid, \u00a0a moral morass of a society, a foreign occupation army that is murdering and being murdered, etc., etc., etc. \u00a0Can we please focus on something that matters <\/i>\u00a0and get over this silliness? \u00a0What? \u00a0President Obama was really born in Kenya? \u00a0Really? \u00a0And Michelle hates white people? \u00a0Wow, now that\u2019s <\/i>\u00a0news!

<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahOkay, for the most part I\u2019ve tuned out the nattering nabobs of political negativity. \u00a0The recent primaries and upcoming November elections are just a buzzing background that I try to ignore. \u00a0I\u2019m well \u00a0into the \u201cscrew all of them\u201d attitude towards politicians in this country. \u00a0Democrats and Republicans are different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Defense of Christine O'Donnel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahOkay, for the most part I've tuned out the nattering nabobs of political negativity.  The recent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Defense of Christine O'Donnel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahOkay, for the most part I've tuned out the nattering nabobs of political negativity.  The recent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Muslimah in Progress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-20T10:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/8276196425188955527-1089061803497822478?l=muslimahinprogress.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html\",\"name\":\"In Defense of Christine O'Donnel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-20T10:14:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-20T10:14:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/6218cbef696f8f6c933831dfcc2096b9\"},\"description\":\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahOkay, for the most part I've tuned out the nattering nabobs of political negativity.  The recent\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-christine-odonnel.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In Defense of Christine O’Donnel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/\",\"name\":\"Muslimah in Progress\",\"description\":\"I'm an American Muslimah of a certain age with some pretty strong opinions. 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