Thursday, January 21, 2010

Love means never having to say....



So here is a random marriage\life post that I plan to get out every now and again. I dont know who in the world came out with this quote but its WRONG! I believe its more like, "love means saying your sorry....even if your not". When your married (or really in any relationship) I think you really need to ask yourself, by "winning" this argument are we losing our time\love\etc? I mean, I do not believe that anyone should let themselves be run over however, what I am saying is why is it so hard to say those 3 little words to someone we love? I really think it takes a stronger person to just apologize and swallow their pride\anger than to be the one to hold out and win. I could go on about this some more but instead I think I will just end it with a quote from Muhammed (peace and blessing be upon him):

"I guarantee a house in Jannah for one who gives up arguing, even if he is in the right; and I guarantee a home in the middle of Jannah for one who abandons lying even for the sake of fun; and I guarantee a house in the highest part of Jannah for one who has good manners.''

[Abu Dawud]

*Jannah=Heaven\Paradise

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Food, Inc




PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch this movie!!! I am praying I can get Dhia to watch this and switch over with me, I know we dont have the money, but if anything is worth the money, I believe our health, our childrens, and the worlds is a good cause. If you cant see this anywhere here you go:




There is part 1 of 6 you can see the rest there! If you watch it let me know in the comments!

No one should be forced



France moves closer to banning full Muslim veil

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 15, 4:55 am ET

LA VERRIERE, France – The man she married is French, her four children were born in France and she speaks French with only a trace of her native Arabic tongue. Faiza Silmi contends her clothes — a head-to-toe robe and filmy tissue covering her face — are the reason France has denied her citizenship in her adopted land.
The 32-year-old Moroccan may soon be facing an even fiercer blow. A top French lawmaker submitted a draft law this week that would ban such Islamic dress anywhere in public, a measure that would set a European precedent and trap thousands of women between their religious convictions and the law of the land.
"They say I'm too attached to my religion," Silmi told The Associated Press at an empty restaurant near her home southwest of Paris, her large eyes peering from a slit in her veil. "Lots of Christians live in Morocco and we don't make them wear scarves."
Unlike Muslim headscarves, full-body, face-covering robes are a rare sight in the streets of France, home to an estimated 5 million Muslims, the largest such population in western Europe. France's main Muslim leaders have declared that Islam does not require women to cover their faces with niqabs or burqas.
In a country whose national emblem is Marianne, a bare-chested woman, there is deepening concern over the all-encompassing garb, often black or brown and worn with gloves, attire typical in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Here, it is widely viewed as a gateway to radical Islam, an attack on gender equality and other French values, and a gnawing away at the nation's secular foundation.
President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the door to a possible ban in June, telling a parliament session in Versailles that such dress "is not welcome" in France. A parliamentary panel set to work in July on a six-month mission gathering information on the garments.
On Tuesday, the head of Sarkozy's conservative UMP party in parliament's lower house, Jean-Francois Cope, jumped the gun before the panel's report was finished, and filed draft legislation on a ban. "No one may, in spaces open to the public and on public streets, wear a garment or an accessory that has the effect of hiding the face," the draft text reads.
The document cites public security concerns, thus includes all face-covering clothes, in a bid to head off challenges from those who might claim such a law would violate constitutional rules on individual rights — a major concern along with how such a law would be enforced. It foresees fines for those who break the law.
The initiative, unlikely to go to debate before spring, would be the second time France targets Muslim dress. A 2004 law born in acrimony bans Muslim headscarves and other "ostentatious" religious symbols in the classrooms of French public schools. Sarkozy's party dominates parliament and the president reiterated Wednesday his wish for a law on full veils, though it's too early to say whether it will pass.
Europe's growing Muslim population has bred tension across the continent. Wariness is pervasive since deadly attacks in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005 by Islamic radicals living in Europe. And some non-Muslims sense a threat by a foreign culture to their way of life. It took only four minarets on Switzerland's 200 mosques to push the Swiss to vote "no" to minarets in a November referendum.
However, France, which wants an Islam tailored to the West, would be the only western European country to target the all-enveloping robes and niqabs, the cloth hiding the lower face. "We're going to become the laughing stock of democracies" should France ban the clothing, said Raphael Liogier, a sociology professor who runs the Observatory of the Religious in Aix-en-Provence.
He is among critics who say a ban would be a violation of basic rights and "transgression of the fundamental principles of our republic."
Muslim leaders of all tendencies have warned that a ban risks stigmatizing all Muslims, and anti-terrorism judge Marc Trevidic told Sunday's Journal du Dimanche that a ban "will maybe push impulsive people to want to commit attacks."
However, Andre Gerin, who heads the parliamentary panel, says the full-body veil is an "attempt to instrumentalize Islam for political ends" via a "fundamentalist and barbaric ideology" that oppresses women.
Gerin, a communist who served for years as mayor of Venissieux, a suburb of Lyon known as a haunt for Muslim fundamentalists, insists the phenomenon is growing.
But at Friday prayers recently at a mosque northwest of Paris in Argenteuil, considered a bastion for Salafists who adopt a literal reading of the Quran, only a handful of fully veiled women were seen. Some expressed fear of a ban.
"We won't be able to leave the house," said Oumeima Naceri, a 19-year-old convert draped in black garments, including a filmy "sitar" veil covering even her eyes. "That frightens us enormously ... It's like asking us to go naked."
Official statistics on burqas are impossible to gather. A 2004 report by a French intelligence service put the number of women in full veils at some 4,000. More than a quarter had converted to Islam, some experts estimate.
Silmi, the Moroccan woman seeking French citizenship, began veiling herself completely only after coming to France in 2000. She said she and her husband Karim, who was born in Paris to Moroccan parents and has French citizenship, discovered a deepening of their faith through books and cassette recordings not available in Morocco. She insists her partner did not impose the veil on her — and says she is in the process of divorcing him after 10 years of marriage.
Silmi was refused French citizenship for what authorities said was her failure to assimilate into French culture. Assimilation is most often defined by a candidate's ability to speak French, though not in her case.
In each of three reports following interviews with Silmi, officials described her clothing. Her pro bono lawyer, Ronald Sokol, an American living in France, said that is what kept her from becoming French.
Silmi lost an appeal to the Council of State, in June 2008, which ruled that she "adopted a radical religious practice incompatible with essential values of the French community." She has now turned to the European Court of Human Rights.
"A woman must cover herself. It's writtem in the Quran," Silmi told AP.
Lawmaker Daniele Hoffman-Rispal, member of the parliamentary panel, said she sees women clad in all-encompassing robes on market days in her district in eastern Paris and is bothered that "they have a right to look at me ... see my eyes, my smile" but she cannot look at them.
But if a ban were passed, "Will we hire dozens of police to put them on street corners?" she asks. She worries, too, about women who could become shut-ins to avoid getting caught.
As for Silmi, she said she will consult a Muslim sage on the Internet about what to do should a legal ban be passed.
"If he tells me not to remove my veil, I prefer to return to Morocco" rather than break French law, she said.


--Just as no one should be forced to wear a certain kind of clothing, no one should be forced to remove it.

One mans garbage....




is another mans:

a)treasure
b)livelihood
c)next meal
d)all of the above


So, once a year in Germany (at least where I live) there is a day called "Sperrmüll" (müll is garbage) and its like any rest of garbage that doesnt fit in your garbage can or go into the other days (there is another day for electronics, and another for wood, once a month old papers, etc). Sooo its next Mon. and the race is already on. I see my neighbors put there things out already and I have already seen 2 people thoroughly digging through it for their next.....? On Sun. and Mon. I am sure I will see the normal barrage of huge vans with blacked out window from Poland roaming the streets looking for things to bring back to Poland and sell, or at the next flea market. Now, I am not saying I have never taken anything I have found on the street (sometimes there are some really cool things, like last year I found a scooter totally new but needed a new tire), however I wonder when you stop feeling ashamed doing it? I mean, the people are laying out their garbage and their are other people just standing like vultures around it ready to dig in through the bags. Now, I dont mean these are like street people, they just live in the house next to ours, but I believe they just are looking for some more ways to raise money (flea markets). I dont know, there is nothing wrong with it, but I am ashamed to watch it. I am ashamed to be a part of it, and I dont know if I find it more shameful to be on the side throwing out or the side taking in?

Another side effect of our engineered way of living:

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Songs of love




I sing to my kids all the time. Since we dont listen to music (except for some religious things without instruments) anymore, I would say my voice is probably the biggest source of music they get. However it makes me remember my mom. I cant imagine my kids will remember my voice the way I remember my mom's. I dont seem to ever remember hearing her sing bad our out of tune. I also dont know if she ever knew how much I loved listening to her. (Hey, MOM, I loved listening to you sing, thanks for doing it!) Sometimes I am too worried about getting everything done that I forget doing the things that matter most, like playing around and singing with my kids. I spend so much time making sure they are learning all different things and teaching them, but I wonder if I am teaching them to laugh and have fun, to love enough. So today, in memory and dedication to mom, I will make sure to have some fun today just loving them.

Feeding my addiction

This winter in Germany has come more like a typical Minnesota winter. SNOW SNOW SNOW! I have never seen so much snow here last so long. Anyway, I have a new addiction that I cant shake, eating snow. Yeah, I know its gross, but I cant help it. I go out on the balcony in the night when no one can see and scoop up handfuls to eat when I am alone. In the summer I use a spoon and scrape off the frost on the inside of the freezer....I know its even grosser. Sigh whats a girl to do?

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

I lost my heart........




......in Heidelberg. Ahhh Heidelberg, how I miss you! The place where it all happened. My first place living overseas, met my husband, became Muslim. Ahhhh Heidelberg you will always have a special place in my heart. Anyway, there is a classic old song talking about the Romantic city Heidelberg here is a translation of the lyrics:

It was a summer evening,
Just twenty I had seen,
When I kissed ruby lips and
Hair of golden sheen.
The night was blue and blissful,
The Neckar flowed pristine,
It was then I knew, it was then I knew,
What all to me did mean..
I lost my heart in Heidelberg for all time,
On a balmy summer night.
In love head over heels, oh were she all mine,
And like a rose, her laughing mouth my light.
As by the gates she said: "Good-bye my lover,"
That last sweet kiss, it did confirm once more,
I'd lost my heart in Heidelberg forever.
My heart still beats on Neckar's shore.
And once again the vines bloom,
As then, on Neckar's shore,
The years have passed so slowly,
And I'm alone once more.
And if you ask this fellow,
Why he took none to wed,
Then I will tell, then I will tell,
My Friends, what to this led:
I lost my heart . . . .
Whatever happened to you,
Since you and I did part,
Oh Heidelberg of legend,
Oh city of my heart?
I went away and left you,
Left luck and happy days.
I long to be, I long to be,
Back in your arms always
I lost my heart . . . .

Oh, and just for your information, the Neckar is the river that runs through the city. You have to watch this video to see the beauty of this city, if you want to hear the song turn on your speakers, if you dont turn them off(HA!)

The blankets that cover




I see the faces of the people that pass by
their faces are white, and grey
the color of the earth on a snowy day.

They have blankets that they cant see,
covering their hearts, preventing them
from being free.

They remind me of the evergreens, drooping from
the weight.
The snow pilling on crushing, suffocating.

I love to shake them, free them of this burden.

Just like people, its impossible to free them all
but I have two hands, two lips and a toungue
I may not free them all, but maybe I can free some.

A waste




Uggg! This morning I had to go shopping, I brought the kids and the neighbor boy to kindergarten and left Rihem with the neighbor (the boys mommy). I walked the 15 minutes with them there then walked the 40 minutes to the library and waited for it to open (10 mins) then got some new books and went to go shopping. After spending like an hour shopping I got to the check-out and wanted to pay with my card. Dhia gave me the card before he left for Uni. and I thought it was the one he always gave me. Anyway, it wasnt, I entered the pin twice wrong and then called him, entered the pin, and had it blocked because it was entered too many times wrong.....so I walked the whole way home with no groceries and my whole morning gone. Bummer. Not only that now Dhia will probably have to pay a fee for having it blocked and I have to go again tommorrow. Double ugg!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

New Start

Welcome and Salamu Alaikum

I pray this finds you all in the best state of health and faith. This is my new virtual home, I plan to update every morning. This is a place for my thoughts, various happenings in my life, ideas, poetry, favorite videos, sites, and anything else that I want.....please if you are reading, become a follower, if you dont have a google email then at least comment and leave your name. I hope this is an enjoyable time for all!