[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am2-fVIkf8I]

"The BNP is te nply party that will stop the Islamification of Britain and ban the Burka"

Who thought that the Burka was so scary?

This article is being spread everywhere on social media and I think it's worth sharing here too. It's really good. Please read when you have the opportunity. Below are some quoted parts:

At 21 I married a man five years older than me.  The second time around, at 31, I married a man five years younger than me.*

Eight years into our marriage, it still sends little shock waves through people when I mention this. There are sometimes oooohs and aaahhhs, eyes get bigger and rounder, and I can almost see folks wanting to high five me and slap my husband on the back for biting the bullet and marrying an older, divorced, single mom.  I have, no joke, been asked at least a dozen times how I managed to pull this off.

But a decade ago when he proposed to me, I didn’t bounce off the walls. I advised him to speak to his elders and family, which he did. I was mature enough to know that marrying into a South Asian family meant actually marrying the family, and without their blessings there would likely be no blessing in the marriage.  So he dutifully approached his parents, armed with the story of Khadijah (ra) and Muhammad (saw)**, confident as an aalim and haafiz Quran himself.  They took the news fairly well, asking for time to think. Istikharas were had all around and the green light came about a month later, at which point his mother called my mother.

From where I stand, and stood a decade ago, Muhammad*** didn’t give me a chance. I gave him a chance.  He was still studying, I was a licensed attorney.  He owned no property and had no wealth, but I knew my sustenance was written so didn’t pay attention to that. I knew how to run a household, balance a checkbook, cook for over a hundred people, write a resume, raise a child, network with new people, and essentially be an adult.  He was on the verge of learning all of those things.  Which he did.  Initially I supported us financially, and after a while he took the reigns and has held them since.  I introduced him to pad thai and sushi, foreign films, kathak dance, parenting, qawwali concerts, foreign policy, and a world of ideas that a 21 year old me could never have.  He found me in my prime, while I found him in the beginnings of his maturity.****

When I imagine the scene in which our Prophet ﷺ ran home in terror after Gabriel’s first visit (ra), and how Khadijah (ra) covered him, I see a certain dynamic. I see the dynamic of Khadijah being his rock and his stability, I feel his need for her, not her need for him.   Of course, as we all know, the chance that she took on him was repaid to her in this world and the next in ways she could have never imagined.  Not only was he a loving, kind, faithful husband in the first 15 years of their marriage, he remained so even after Prophethood.  After her death, she remained in his heart.  I’m sure it had to do not only with her being a wonderful wife, but the fact that she had married an orphan with nothing to his name, supported him and helped him grow, even though she could have married any man of her choice.

And ladies, I ask you to please, don’t overlook the young men who may be struggling with studies, with finances, who may not have a house or even a car, who don’t necessarily have all the material trappings or the pedigree of a dream husband.  Don’t let it feel beneath you to marry such a man, let your maturity guide you to what’s important in a human being – character, faith, kindness. The lesson of Khadijah (ra) for us should be this: give Muhammad a chance. You never know what he’ll become with you by his side.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/splitthemoon/2014/04/give-muhammad-a-chanc…

To my fellow young brothers seeking marriage, ask yourself an honest question. If a sister were to offer you a proposal, and she was wealthier, more educated, and more accomplished than you, but older as well and previously widowed (or divorced) with children, would you seriously consider that proposal? And would your family approve or be supportive of that kind of proposal?

It's not surprising if your answer is no – and perhaps you have some legitimate concerns, but I would wager that most brothers would probably reject that proposal in a heartbeat because that's not the kind of woman they or their parents envision when they think of the ideal spouse.

But if the question is reworded to, “Would you consider a proposal from Khadijah  [raḍyAllāhu 'anha (may Allāh be pleased with her)] ?” the answer suddenly changes – what brother would say no to this hypothetical, out of reverence for one of the most honored mothers of our ummah - but considering the previous question asked, this answer feels disingenuous because truthfully, in our day and age, women with the same disposition as Khadijah  [raḍyAllāhu 'anha (may Allāh be pleased with her)]  have immense difficulty trying to marry.

Place yourself in the mindset of a young Muḥammad  [ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him)]  and for just this moment consider how radically different his sunnah was from the current stigmatization of sisters in the same position as Khadijah  [raḍyAllāhu 'anha (may Allāh be pleased with her)] .

Khadijah  [raḍyAllāhu 'anha (may Allāh be pleased with her)] 's Age A sister's age is a huge determinant of her eligibility, as societal constructs strike points against her for merely being older. Our cultural norms and traditional standards dictate that wives should always be younger than their husbands, and age gaps as wide as a decade between them are still seen as acceptable, whereas a wife who is more than a couple of years older is seen as an anomaly – something unusual and frowned upon.

To add to the pressure, the notion of “biological clocks” is usually brought up as the supporting argument for why elder sisters are seen as less desirable, because apparently a woman's fertility is somehow paramount to the success of her relationship. As a medical student, I can see how this could be a legitimate concern when a woman is reaching physiological menopause or when her advanced age could increase the risk of fetal congenital conditions, but simply as a man – a sister's fertility is not something she can control on demand, and to dismiss her as arbitrarily being “past her prime” is not only hurtful and insensitive, but demeaning to her womanhood.

Khadijah  [raḍyAllāhu 'anha (may Allāh be pleased with her)]  was reported to be older than the Prophet  [ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him)] , and our beloved Rasul  [ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him)]  was not repulsed in the slightest by that fact, nor did he call into question her fertility or subtly suggest that she was past her prime – he nobly reciprocated her respect for him.

http://muslimmatters.org/2014/04/21/would-you-reject-a-proposal-from-kh…

I'm not one for petitions normally, but it is embarassing that there havent even been 500 signatories.

Petition Link (avaaz.org)

Let's get this moving - tell your friends, tweet, add to facebook. atleast make it respectable.

An interesting side note is that while this injustice has been happening, international aid to Burma/Myanmar has increased from around $1billion to around $4billion - outside voices can have an effect, but its not fashionable on this occasion.

Thats the latest rumours, and Man Utd are silent on rumours that Moyes is a goner.

Except that this should have happened back in November, before Moyes destroyed everything.

From The Guardian: Happy British Muslims: the video that made me dance for joy

From Jerusalem to Jamaica, feelgood video homages to Happy by Pharrell Williams have spread like a fit of giggles on social media – and now British Muslims have their own version.The Happy British Muslims video was put together by a group of young British Muslims called the Honesty Policy, with a very simple aim: to spread positivity and a bit of empowerment along the way.

What do you make of it all?



A video humanising Muslims?



Or a trojan Horse trying to ruin Muslims by suggesting they change their ways?