http://ummadam.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/why-are-we-so-easily-offended/
Why Are We So Easily Offended?
I bet you guys are happy my business computer is broke – now I’m back to blogging until it’s fixed or I get a newe one, insha’Allah.
On to the topic.
I majored in psychology so human behavior fascinates me. Actually, the way I said that is backwards, it should have been, human behavior fascinates me so I majored in psychology. I’m always wondering what makes people tick. I think, I ponder, I reflect, and I ask questions. I am a naturally curious person, but not nosey!
One of the things I’ve always asked myself is, “why do people get offended so easily?”
Today I stumbled across an Islamic reference to this(and I cant vouch for the website…I just found this piece and I don’t have the time or the desire to run a background check on the website. I hope we are all mature enough in or deen and knowledgable enough to know what to take an/or leave. However, if you aren’t then do not click on the link just read the quote…it’s safe – insha’Allah):
THE PROPHET: NOT OFFENDING AND NOT BEING OFFENDED
H. Kamil Yilmaz, PhD
http://www.lastprophet.info/en/names-and-attributes/the-prophet-not-offending-and-not-being-offended.html
The Quran refers to the kindness of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) towards all creatures and his compassion and grace for humans: “There had come unto you a Messenger, one of yourselves, unto whom whatever that you are overburdened is grievous, full of concern for you, for the believers full of pity, merciful.”
In this verse, Allah gives the names Rauf (very compassionate) and Rahim (very merciful), both of which are of His names, to the Prophet. No other prophet before Muhammad had been given both of these names.
In human relations, the most important characteristic of understanding the other is being kind. Thanks to the Prophet’s kind character, he was welcomed by people and had a special place in their hearts. After all, it is not genius or intellect, but character and consistency that affect people in human relations. In this respect, Allah orders: “It was by the mercy of Allah that you were lenient with them, for if you had been stern and fierce of heart they would have dispersed from round about you.”
The basis of human relations is to comprehend the addressee and realize that they too are human beings. Living a self-centered, egocentric life, disregarding other people is one of the weakest points in human relations. The people who are interested in human relations and personal development say that the basic point of human relations is “empathy”, which means being able to step into some else’s shoes. When we look from this perspective, we see that the people who lived in the Age of Happiness always tried to please Prophet Muhammad with a feeling of compassion and love in their heart due to the fact that they admired his character and personality. The fact that the Prophet did not use his position to his own advantage, that he took the first step in meeting a common hardship and that he took the last slice when bread was shared out was noticed by others. When a loud noise was heard in Medina he asked: “What has happened? What is that noise?” while other people were looking in fear at one another. He was the first to mount a horse and ride to the place where the noise had come from. After examining the situation, he comforted his Companions by saying “There is nothing to be afraid of.”
Moreover, he served food to hundreds of his Companions during a meal given by Jabir ibn Abdullah while a trench was being dug during the Battle of the Trenches and he was the last one to eat his meal. His altruistic, content attitude and his refusal to avoid risks were greatly admired by his Companions.
We see that Prophet Muhammad treated his Companions and all the people around him, starting with his family members, with compassion and mercy; he never caused anyone any harm.
When warning people of the mistakes and wrongdoings that he observed in their behavior, Prophet Muhammad would say “What occurs to me that I see some of my brothers in such situations” implying that he might have made a mistake in his observations. With these words, he was saying: “My brothers should not act in this way, I may have misunderstood the situation.”
Prophet Muhammad would respond with great maturity to all kinds of injustice and wrongs that were committed against him and would forgive errors. Moreover, when a Bedouin asked for more than his share of loot when it was being divided up, going so far as to grab the Prophet by the collar, the Prophet only smiled at him, satisfied his request and forgave him. This was because Allah had ordered: “(O! My Prophet) Follow the path of forgiveness; forgive; order what is right; mind not those who are ignorant! Having continuous tolerance for people who crossed the line, not being offended and not offending others in these sorts of relationships is a difficult task. It could even be said that not being offended is more difficult than not offending others. This is because the act of offending someone is something that is dependent on the individual. You can control your hands, tongue and eyes, you can refrain yourself and you will not hurt or offend anyone. However, it is not possible to remain unaffected by the rude and curt behavior of others. This is can be an impediment of desires and can only be overcome by a very great heart. Prophet Muhammad never offended anyone as he was never offended. Among the Companions there were those who acted without control, having a Bedouin background. There were even people who attempted to urinate in Al Masjid al-Nabi. However, the Prophet did become angry with these people and he showed great care to not offend those who had acted in such a way. He warned any of the Companions who overreacted to such behavior and he invited them to tolerance and to inoffensive and kind behavior. When a young man came to him to ask for permission to commit adultery, the Prophet, without offending the young man, asked him several questions and convinced him that such a deed was wrong and discouraged him.
Rude behavior that is essentially caused by immaturity and coarseness, and excessive behavior offend and sadden people and can break their hearts. The Prophets, who were the fountains of the Prophethood, and principally Prophet Muhammad, became models for humankind for how not to offend people and not to become offended. Moral virtues can only be learned from role models. The beauty experienced by the ummah (Islamic community) throughout Islamic history contains the traces of the divine personality and superior character of the Prophet of Allah. People can acquire socially acceptable traits as long as they can attain such characteristics. The philosophy of not offending and not becoming offended also form a different form beauty in the literature and many poets have reflected their feelings on this issue. Of these, Pertev Pasha describes this as follows:
Do not take the scent of the rose that the nightingale is in love with, nor be hurt by its thorn; if you are hurt by the thorn or fear it, you should not smell the rose. Whoever loves the rose must bear its thorns.
Do not take interest in the lovers of someone other than Allah, nor become offended by those who are considered strangers other than Allah. If you are entranced by that which is mortal, you are hurt; this is because you trust something that is mortal and which will ultimately betray your trust.
Do not become cursed for your deeds nor become offended by the cries of others. The person who commits deeds that receive the curses of others does not have the right to be offended by the curses of others.
The right path is not being offended by others and not offending them. In one word this is being prudent.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Top Media Lies about Iran
http://www.islamicinsights.com/news/international-news/top-media-lies-about-iran.html
The Peace Prize President in the White House continues to increase his empty, but angry rhetoric in an attempt to garner enough support for a strike on Iran. The propaganda juggernaut is in full action, and thousands of articles, TV shows, and politicians are beating the drums for a war against Iran. If this sounds eerily familiar, it's because it is. In 2001, the London Observer ran a series of reports linking Iraq to the September 11 attacks and going as far as to claim there were secret bases in Iraq that produced anthrax as a weapon of mass destruction.
In late 2009, The Times of London published a now admittedly forged document it asserted revealed "a four-year plan [by Iran] to test a neutron initiator." On the same day, Catherine Phillips, another writer for The Times, quoted Mark Fitzpatrick barefacedly saying, "Is this the smoking gun? That's the question people should be asking. It looks like the smoking gun. This is smoking uranium." To the naïve, this would be a shocking use of the media to garner support for a war that is pre-emptive and unjustified. To everyone else, it's a repeat of 2001 and the pre-Iraq war legacy of the two biggest war criminals of our generation: George Bush and Tony Blair.
Not surprisingly, very few members of the corporate owned media have bothered to ask: does Iran have nuclear weapons? Does Iran even want nuclear weapons? It doesn't matter. When the media is as prostituted as it is now, the sole aim is to convince the masses that Iran threatens our very existence and must be dealt with in a manner that disregards every single international law and charter. The Times of London is part of the seasoned propagandist Rupert Murdoch publishing empire that owns Fox News, the Sunday Times, and the New York Post. As expected, each and every Murdoch-owned media outlet views Iran from a decidedly pro-Israeli lens and disregards the need for evidence in making claims against a country that has fulfilled every clause of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT or NNPT). You know, the same one Israel refuses to sign.
Below are the top myths the media tells us daily about Iran.
Iran Has or Wants Nuclear Weapons
To date, no concrete evidence has been presented about the existence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran. Each and every inspect report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the National Intelligence Estimate has confirmed that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. Additionally, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in Iran on such issues, has denounced nuclear weapons as un-Islamic and stated unequivocally that Islam forbids the "production and stock piling of nuclear weapons." The Iranian fatwa against nuclear weapons is a registered document with the United Nations. Iran has been the only country to lobby for a nuclear-free Middle East. In contrast, Israel has yet to agree to a single IAEA inspection, and its nuclear weapons plant in Dimona is an open secret used to intimidate the Palestinians and neighboring countries.
Iran Threatened to Wipe Israel off the Map
The world hears incessantly how Iranian president Ahmedinejad threatened to "wipe Israel off the map." Ironically, not a single translation of this speech has been made to clearly prove he made this statement. In 2005, the newly-elected Ahmedinejad was giving a speech at a conference in Tehran about Zionism. He quoted the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, and said, "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad." A direct translation of this is: "The Imam [Khomeini] said [the] regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." The words "wiped off the map" are not to be found in that sentence, and any amateur translator will tell you nagsheh, the Persian term for map, is not found in that sentence. In the speech, Ahmedinejad further stated that just as the Soviet regime had fallen, the Zionist one would too. He did not say Israel was going to be wiped off any map. Obviously when the Soviet regime collapsed, was Russia wiped off the map? In the same infamous speech, Ahmedinejad called for a Middle East where Muslims, Jews, and Christians would live in a real democracy and in liberty.
For the record, Iran has not launched an attack on any nation in the past 300 years, but it has defended itself against assaults by other countries. Compare this track record to that of the biggest war monger in the Middle East, the same one that uses cluster bombs to take out innocent children.
The Iranians are Eagerly Awaiting the Arrival of "US Democracy"
American-style democracy has taken over the Middle East; just ask the Iraqis and Afghans how happy they are post-American liberation of their countries. Operation Iraqi Freedom has only cost 1.3 million Iraqi lives to date. In the last Iranian elections, an overwhelming 85 percent of voters turned out to pick the next president, and practically every pre-election poll showed President Ahmedinejad with a significant lead over his opponents. However, the West continues to claim Iran is not a democratic country despite it being the only Middle Eastern country with transparent elections and a fully functional parliament. Western hypocrisy of this magnitude must be respected, and the West has yet to call its allies (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia) for throwing political opponents in jail and never holding elections.
By all instances, Iran is a democratic society, but to the United States and its allies, the very existence of a democracy in Iran is a threat. They removed this threat in 1953 when they overthrew the democratically-elected government and put in the totalitarian Shah. Speaking of democracy and sovereignty, the US would know a thing or two about those terms, considering for the past 30 years we have tried to overthrow the Iranian government and laid siege upon siege on the Iranian people. More recently, Congress voted to allocate 120 million dollars for anti-regime media broadcasts into Iran. It doesn't end there. The US also generously donated 60-75 million dollars to fund and support violent underground extremist groups like Mujahiden-Khalq (MKO), one of the largest terrorist organizations in Iran. Democracy in the Middle East is synonymous with murderous and catastrophic regime change.
Iran Is Five Years Away from a Nuclear Bomb
Every few months, the United States and Britain try to scare us out of sleeping at night by saying Iran is five years away from a nuclear bomb. Here's the problem: Iran has been "five years away from a nuclear bomb" for the past four decades, since the Shah began the peaceful nuclear program with US help. Those Iranians don't seem to be getting any closer to a nuclear weapon, which they don't seem to want by the way, but that won't detract the propagandist and war criminals. When the Qom facility was "exposed" by the United States last year, the neocons were quick to hawk it as proof of Iran's nuclear weapons program. However, they neglected to mention that Iran had openly revealed by it in a voluntary letter to the IAEA days before the US announced it. In addition, the Qom facility is incomplete and non-operational, and if the United States knew about the facility and did not reveal this information, then it too is in direct violation of the NPT. Unless, of course, the facility was not illegal, and thus there was no need to report it.
On April 13, President Obama was asked by a Washington Post reporter if he would "call on Israel to declare its nuclear program and sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty." The usually eloquent Obama stuttered his way through a response once he finally regained his composure and stated, "And, as far as Israel goes, I'm not going to comment on their program."
Maybe he should leave Iran's peaceful program alone and worry about the nuclear warheads Israel have.
The Peace Prize President in the White House continues to increase his empty, but angry rhetoric in an attempt to garner enough support for a strike on Iran. The propaganda juggernaut is in full action, and thousands of articles, TV shows, and politicians are beating the drums for a war against Iran. If this sounds eerily familiar, it's because it is. In 2001, the London Observer ran a series of reports linking Iraq to the September 11 attacks and going as far as to claim there were secret bases in Iraq that produced anthrax as a weapon of mass destruction.
In late 2009, The Times of London published a now admittedly forged document it asserted revealed "a four-year plan [by Iran] to test a neutron initiator." On the same day, Catherine Phillips, another writer for The Times, quoted Mark Fitzpatrick barefacedly saying, "Is this the smoking gun? That's the question people should be asking. It looks like the smoking gun. This is smoking uranium." To the naïve, this would be a shocking use of the media to garner support for a war that is pre-emptive and unjustified. To everyone else, it's a repeat of 2001 and the pre-Iraq war legacy of the two biggest war criminals of our generation: George Bush and Tony Blair.
Not surprisingly, very few members of the corporate owned media have bothered to ask: does Iran have nuclear weapons? Does Iran even want nuclear weapons? It doesn't matter. When the media is as prostituted as it is now, the sole aim is to convince the masses that Iran threatens our very existence and must be dealt with in a manner that disregards every single international law and charter. The Times of London is part of the seasoned propagandist Rupert Murdoch publishing empire that owns Fox News, the Sunday Times, and the New York Post. As expected, each and every Murdoch-owned media outlet views Iran from a decidedly pro-Israeli lens and disregards the need for evidence in making claims against a country that has fulfilled every clause of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT or NNPT). You know, the same one Israel refuses to sign.
Below are the top myths the media tells us daily about Iran.
Iran Has or Wants Nuclear Weapons
To date, no concrete evidence has been presented about the existence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran. Each and every inspect report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the National Intelligence Estimate has confirmed that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. Additionally, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in Iran on such issues, has denounced nuclear weapons as un-Islamic and stated unequivocally that Islam forbids the "production and stock piling of nuclear weapons." The Iranian fatwa against nuclear weapons is a registered document with the United Nations. Iran has been the only country to lobby for a nuclear-free Middle East. In contrast, Israel has yet to agree to a single IAEA inspection, and its nuclear weapons plant in Dimona is an open secret used to intimidate the Palestinians and neighboring countries.
Iran Threatened to Wipe Israel off the Map
The world hears incessantly how Iranian president Ahmedinejad threatened to "wipe Israel off the map." Ironically, not a single translation of this speech has been made to clearly prove he made this statement. In 2005, the newly-elected Ahmedinejad was giving a speech at a conference in Tehran about Zionism. He quoted the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, and said, "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad." A direct translation of this is: "The Imam [Khomeini] said [the] regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." The words "wiped off the map" are not to be found in that sentence, and any amateur translator will tell you nagsheh, the Persian term for map, is not found in that sentence. In the speech, Ahmedinejad further stated that just as the Soviet regime had fallen, the Zionist one would too. He did not say Israel was going to be wiped off any map. Obviously when the Soviet regime collapsed, was Russia wiped off the map? In the same infamous speech, Ahmedinejad called for a Middle East where Muslims, Jews, and Christians would live in a real democracy and in liberty.
For the record, Iran has not launched an attack on any nation in the past 300 years, but it has defended itself against assaults by other countries. Compare this track record to that of the biggest war monger in the Middle East, the same one that uses cluster bombs to take out innocent children.
The Iranians are Eagerly Awaiting the Arrival of "US Democracy"
American-style democracy has taken over the Middle East; just ask the Iraqis and Afghans how happy they are post-American liberation of their countries. Operation Iraqi Freedom has only cost 1.3 million Iraqi lives to date. In the last Iranian elections, an overwhelming 85 percent of voters turned out to pick the next president, and practically every pre-election poll showed President Ahmedinejad with a significant lead over his opponents. However, the West continues to claim Iran is not a democratic country despite it being the only Middle Eastern country with transparent elections and a fully functional parliament. Western hypocrisy of this magnitude must be respected, and the West has yet to call its allies (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia) for throwing political opponents in jail and never holding elections.
By all instances, Iran is a democratic society, but to the United States and its allies, the very existence of a democracy in Iran is a threat. They removed this threat in 1953 when they overthrew the democratically-elected government and put in the totalitarian Shah. Speaking of democracy and sovereignty, the US would know a thing or two about those terms, considering for the past 30 years we have tried to overthrow the Iranian government and laid siege upon siege on the Iranian people. More recently, Congress voted to allocate 120 million dollars for anti-regime media broadcasts into Iran. It doesn't end there. The US also generously donated 60-75 million dollars to fund and support violent underground extremist groups like Mujahiden-Khalq (MKO), one of the largest terrorist organizations in Iran. Democracy in the Middle East is synonymous with murderous and catastrophic regime change.
Iran Is Five Years Away from a Nuclear Bomb
Every few months, the United States and Britain try to scare us out of sleeping at night by saying Iran is five years away from a nuclear bomb. Here's the problem: Iran has been "five years away from a nuclear bomb" for the past four decades, since the Shah began the peaceful nuclear program with US help. Those Iranians don't seem to be getting any closer to a nuclear weapon, which they don't seem to want by the way, but that won't detract the propagandist and war criminals. When the Qom facility was "exposed" by the United States last year, the neocons were quick to hawk it as proof of Iran's nuclear weapons program. However, they neglected to mention that Iran had openly revealed by it in a voluntary letter to the IAEA days before the US announced it. In addition, the Qom facility is incomplete and non-operational, and if the United States knew about the facility and did not reveal this information, then it too is in direct violation of the NPT. Unless, of course, the facility was not illegal, and thus there was no need to report it.
On April 13, President Obama was asked by a Washington Post reporter if he would "call on Israel to declare its nuclear program and sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty." The usually eloquent Obama stuttered his way through a response once he finally regained his composure and stated, "And, as far as Israel goes, I'm not going to comment on their program."
Maybe he should leave Iran's peaceful program alone and worry about the nuclear warheads Israel have.
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