Who will sit on the throne of the lingua franca?

Last night, I was reading the WSJ. The front page carried an article about the Chinese demanding technology transfers as part of doing business in China. GE, for example, had to share its expertise on building turbines (they put the R&D bill at half a billion US$) with their Chinese partners. Of course, no one's forcing them to sell to the Chinese and hence share their knowhow, but obviously the leverage that the Chinese have due to their huge market is enormous. Anyhow, I was thinking that if the Chinese continue to play smart, perhaps my children would learn Chinese in schools for the same reason I learned English: you can't go anywhere in the job market of 2030 if you can't speak Chinese, the language of the new economic powerhouse. Just as the US drives the world economy now, the Chinese may be driving it in the latter half of the century, not due to a decline in the US economy per se but due to the tremendous explosion of economic activity in both China and India. Lo and behold, this morning CNN carried a well-researched article on just this topic!

Expert: New 'must learn' language likely to be Mandarin

The resilience of Tony Blair

CNN coverage of Claire Short's comments

Ok, so either this lady is lying through her teeth, or Mr. Blair has some explaining to do. You know, I kinda like the guy. He has a bit of charisma, something I sure can't say about GW. Call me shallow; I like my leaders to carry themselves like leaders. So, as I was saying, if Ms. Short is speaking the truth, that she saw transcripts of Kofi Annan's phone conversations, then someone's gotta 'fess up. And here's Blair: "Whether intentionally or not, those who do attack the work our security services are doing undermine the essential security of this country, ... The fact that those allegations were made, I think, is deeply irresponsible."

Hmph. You are confusing me, man. Learn some lessons from your alleged Texan buddy's alleged shooting-from-the-hip mantra. Speak straight. Are you saying Short's lying? Or are you saying that she isn't lying, but if someone in the government asks the intel guys to do something ultra vires, you just clam up and say nothing? Au contraire, my friend. The damage will not be to national security. The damage should be to those who ordered this illegal act. Unless, of course, it's you ;)

"Blair said intelligence agents "always act in accordance with domestic and international law." " (CNN article above). Very funny. We know how law-abiding intel services are, esp. when asked by the PM to do something.

British politics must be pretty staid. The leader of one of the parliamentary houses resigns in protest on your policies, so does another cabinet minister, you commit soldiers to an internationally condemned war based on questionable evidence in spite of widespread domestic opposition, can't find WMDs you were so certain of, and now, another former cabinet minister says she saw transcripts of the UN Sec General's phone conversations, tapped on your govt.'s orders by your security agencies. And you are still the PM? Nice job, Tony, nice job!

Rebuttal to "How Birthday Parties Started"

IMHO, this argument is flawed. Let me take it one step at at time:

The misrepresentation of birthdays as an occasion with religious connotations:
Look at the dictionary definition of the word "festival": An occasion for feasting or celebration, especially a day or time of religious significance that recurs at regular intervals.

"Festival" has a decided religious undertone, and mostly a public one as well. All the ahadith quoted here and the sunnah mentioned is clearly aimed at establishing an identity for the Muslim ummah through quashing public celebrations that contravened the religous spirit of Islam. Different practices relates to different modes of worship, different focii of public life. All the events mentioned are "festivals of the people", and Muslims are warned against these because they infringe on our identity. Truly, if we celebrated Christmas in the same spirit as Christians do, then what will be the difference between us?

A birthday is mostly a private, family-oriented celebration. You can find the roots of any current human practice in ancient religions. Of course, it is very well documented that nearly everything that people of the pre-Rennaisance world did was guided by religion or superstition, whatever you want to call it, because so little was understood of the world. Lightening, sunrise, floods, crops, everything was accorded to some supernatural entity or force. But my celebration of a birthday is has no pagan religious overtones. In fact, I thank Allah for His gifts to my loved one and me. It is an event only in that I take time to convey to a person my appreciation of them, to explicate that I care for them, and no more. I do not wish to please Artemis.

Is a birthday always "kosher"? I don't believe so. Islam gives us guidelines, and it is quite clear from the extravagances around us that we don't always obey those guidelines. A wedding can be true to the Islamic spirit, or it can abuse it to no end. So it is with birthdays. On my mother's recent birthday, our family gave her gifts, wished her, told her how much we loved and appreciated her and her role in our life. We cut a simple cake, not to please Greco-Roman gods but to satisfy our own sweet tooth. The tradition of eating sweetmarts on an occasion of joy transcends religion. The Prophet (PBUH) himself encouraged the giving of gifts, because it increases our love and affection of each other. And how does it contravene Islamic spirit, or incur Allah's anger, to appreciate our loved ones and make them happy? One can argue against spending excessive amounts of money on lavish gatherings and even the practice of sending birthday cards, but is it too much to set one token day apart in a year to appreciate our friends and family?

Is it the choice of a particular day that bothers us? We have many other secular, non-Islamic celebration days. Each Muslim country has its own independence day. The celebration of August 14th sets Pakistani Muslims apart from their Ummah, and yet objections are never raised against nationalism. In fact, I don't think any religous leaders ever denied sending the Pakistani people a congratulatory message on the birth of their country, their nation. If this does not ruffle any feathers and generates no email chains, why do we take pleasure in condemning a private celebration of our loved ones?

You will not need to persuade me to denounce extravagance and waste, at birthday parties, weddings, Eid celebrations, or anything else. You do not need to warn me against blindly following every tradition I come across. But birthdays, celebrated with simplicity within the spirit of Islam to appreciate our loved ones and with gratitude to the Creator, are misplaced targets of our search for a Muslim identity, our quest to be better Muslims. The falsehoods are in our minds, not in the birthday. My identity does not lie in a close-minded negation of everything else around me. Islam enriches my life by offering me intellectual freedom to judge what is not explicit in the primary sources of religious law, which is opposite of the stifling dogmatism of orthodox Christianity, Jewism, etc. We spend too much time on the minutia of others and are often blind to the big things that are wrong with our lives :(

Ah, and yes, regarding the brilliant ending note of the forwarded email: With due deference to the Sahaba and the Islamic tradition, I ask you - would you like a United States, a Canada, a Great Britian, where you would be prohibited from celebrating Eid? Read that line again, but in a different light now: "If the Muslims have agreed to prevent them from celebrating openly, how could it be right for the Muslims to celebrate them?"

This article was sent to me by some family members. I am usually passive/lazy, take your pic, but then sometimes I like venting. Here's the article. The response is in the next post.

How Birthday Parties Started

The tradition of birthday parties started in Europe a long time ago. It was feared that evil spirits were particularly attracted to people on their birthdays. To protect them from harm, friends and family would to come be with the birthday person and bring good thoughts and wishes. Giving gifts brought even more good cheer to ward off the evil spirits. This is how birthday parties began.

At first it was only kings who were recognized as important enough to have a birthday celebration (maybe this is how the tradition of birthday crowns began?). As time went by, children became included in birthday celebrations. The first children's birthday parties occurred in Germany and were called Kinderfeste.

The Greeks believed that everyone had a protective spirit or daemon who attended his birth and watched over him in life. This spirit had a mystic relation with the god on whose birthday the individual was born.

The Romans also subscribed to this idea. This notion was carried down in human belief and is reflected in the guardian angel, the fairy godmother and the patron saint. The custom of lighted candles on the cakes started with the Greeks. Honey cakes round as the moon and lit with tapers were placed on the temple altars of (Artemis). Birthday candles, in folk belief, are endowed with special magic for granting wishes. Lighted tapers and sacrificial fires have had a special mystic significance ever since man first set up altars to his gods. The birthday candles are thus an honor and tribute to the birthday child and bring good fortune.

These birthday celebrations also involve imitation of the Jews and Christians in their birthday celebrations. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, warning us against following their ways and traditions: "You would follow the ways of those who came before you step by step, to such an extent that if they were to enter a lizard's hole, you would enter it too." They said, "O Messenger of Allah, (do you mean) the Jews and Christians?" He said, "Who else?" (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim). The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said: "Whoever imitates a people is one of them." (Fataawa Islamiyyah, 1/115)

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his commentary on the ayah (interpretation of the meaning), "And those who do not witness falsehood (al-zoor)" (al-Furqan 25:72): As regards the festivals of the mushrikeen: they combine confusion, physical desires and falsehood, there is nothing in them that is of any religious benefit, and the instant gratification involved in them only ends up in pain. Thus they are falsehood, and witnessing them means attending them.

This ayah itself praises and commends (those who do not witness falsehood), which has the meaning of urging people to avoid taking part in their festivals and other kinds of falsehood. We understand that it is bad to attend their festivals because they are called al-zoor (falsehood).

It indicates that it is haram to do this for many reasons, because Allah has called it al-zoor. Allah condemns the one who speaks falsehood (al-zoor) even if no-one else is harmed by it, as in the ayah forbidding zihaar (a form of divorce in which the man says to his wife "you are to me like the back of my mother"), where He says (interpretation of the meaning): "And verily, they utter an ill word and a lie (zooran)" (al-Mujadilah 58:2). And Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): "So shun the abomination of idols, and shun lying speech (false statements) (al-zoor)". (al-Hajj 22:30). So the one who does al-zoor is condemned in this fashion.

In the Sunnah: Anas ibn Maalik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came (to Madinah) and they had two days in which they would (relax and) play. He said, What are these two days? They said, We used to play (on these two days) during the Jahiliyyah. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Allah has given you something better instead of them: Yawm al-Duha (Eid al-Adha) and Yawm al-Fitr (Eid al-Fitr). (Reported by Abu Dawood).

This indicates clearly that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) definitely forbade his ummah to celebrate the festivals of the kuffar, and he strove to wipe them out by all possible means. The fact that the religion of the People of the Book is accepted does not mean that their festivals are approved of or should be preserved by the ummah, just as the rest of their kufr and sins are not approved of. Indeed, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went to great lengths to command his ummah to be different from them in many issues that are mubaah (permitted) and in many ways of worship, lest that lead them to be like them in other matters too. This being different was to be a barrier in all aspects, because the more different you are from the people of Hell, the less likely you are to do the acts of the people of Hell.

The first of them is: The hadith "Every people has its festival, and this is our festival" implies exclusivity, that every people has its own festival, as Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): "For every nation there is a direction to which they face (in their prayers) (al-Baqarah 2:148) and to each among you, We have prescribed a law and a clear way" (al-Maaidah 5:48). This implies that each nation has its own ways. The laam in li-kulli (for every, to each) implies exclusivity. So if the Jews have a festival and the Christians have a festival, it is just for them, and we should not have any part in it, just as we do not share their qiblah (direction of prayer) or their laws.

The second of them is: one of the conditions set out by Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allah be pleased with him) and agreed upon by the Sahabah and by all the fuqaha after them is: that those of the People of the Book who have agreed to live under Islamic rule (ahl al-dhimmah) should not celebrate their festivals openly in Daar al-Islam (lands under Islamic rule). If the Muslims have agreed to prevent them from celebrating openly, how could it be right for the Muslims to celebrate them? If a Muslim celebrates them, is that not worse than if a kafir does so openly?