Egyptian Gumbo

Mr. Dreher,

Your latest article on beliefnet.com has recently come to my attention — partially because of the subject matter being about me and my work with The Daily Reveille.

I’ve done a little bit of research about you and your past and have discovered that you are currently a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, are a contributor to the National Review and The American Conservative. It also appears that you were previously a columnist for The New York Post and have authored a book titled, “Crunchy Cons.”

However, regardless of your “credentials,” I am not impressed. While it does seems that you are a journalist by definition, you failed to do the most fundamental and obvious thing any journalist should do before writing an article: research. You’ve been an opinion columnist longer than I have. So it seems rather odd to me that you would neither do your research nor ask me for an interview before assuming certain things.

In your article, “Dhimmitude on the Bayou” you wrote:

“Favog discovers, to his chagrin, that our alma mater in journalism, the LSU Daily Reveille, allowed itself to be mau-mau’d by a Muslim Student into giving her a column, which she used to proselytize for Islam.”

Mr. Dreher, it seems as though you did not take the time to even look through or read any of my columns before rushing to judgment.

You later said, “Now, just imagine a state college newspaper giving a column to a fundamentalist Christian who uses it solely for the purpose of evangelization. Wouldn’t happen. Shouldn’t happen. But anything can be justified in the name of diversity. Ms. Elmasraya may be a pushy activist with a one-track mind, and a mediocre, jargon-dependent writer to boot, but the lady obviously knows a thing or two about how American newsrooms work. I predict she’ll go far.”

I challenge you to find any instances in any of my columns i’ve written in the past 1.5 years in which I blatantly call people to accept Islam. If someone accepted Islam as a result of reading my columns and seeing the truth nature of Islam, than this is by the Will of Allah alone and I’m very happy that I could help someone see the true nature of a true religion. And yes, this has happened before but I still challenge you to find an instance of what you call, “Evangelization.”

So again, for a journalist it’s surprising to see that you did little-to-no research on my past columns before you decided to dish out your “George-Bushy” words.

You claim that I somehow admitted my columns were for proselytizing Islam in my “Farewell Daily Reveille” post - which again, has no basis. I told a story of how I was hired. And in order to understand my post you need to understand a concept called “Divine Decree” or Qadr. And that is to say that Allah (or God) had everything that we will do in our lives already written before we were even born and that everything that happens in the world is by His will. It was by the divine decree of Allah that I was at the right place and the right time which led me to get my job. Much like it is by the Qadr of Allah that we wake up every morning.

I also take offense at the notion you have made by implying The Daily Reveille felt threatened or pressured into hireing me. If that were the case, then why would they re-hire me for two more semesters in which about 100 other people were competing for that one spot every semester? I did have to re-apply and go through the interview process every semester with different editors and different managers each time — just so you know. And tell me Mr. Dreher, how can this be when I had no idea they were accepting applications at the time and the editor himself was the one who suggested I apply? Hmm…

You also said, “Now, just imagine a state college newspaper giving a column to a fundamentalist Christian who uses it solely for the purpose of evangelization. Wouldn’t happen. Shouldn’t happen.”

It did happen. Again, this shows your lack of research because if you did any at all the name “Emily Byers” would come to mind. Byers is a friend and ex-Coworker of mine. She, too, was a columnist for The Daily Reveille who — more often than not — would talk about Catholicism. So nice try.

I’d like to thank you for being an example to the Muslims (and to the rest of the world) the very problem with the mass media today. People are quick to write and speak publicly without doing any investigations or without knowing anything at all about the topic they talk about.

Your use of the words “Dhimmi,” “Evangelical” and “Proselytize” are poor attempts of persuasion, to say the least. And I think most of your readers caught on to that based on the comments they left you on your site. But to reiterate, I thank you for being a prime example for my readers as to why they should NOT trust everything a journalist and someone with so-called “credentials” spews out at them.

Perhaps the problem, Mr. Dreher, is not that The Daily Reveille hired me to write about Islam, but perhaps you, as a strong conservative, are merely threatened by the spread of the true nature of Islam. For even the idol-worshipers during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to attack him not because of him as a person, but because it was Islam and truth that they hated.

And Allah knows best.

Sincerely,

Shirien

I know a secret. A secret that led to over 1500 subscribers to my blog in just 2 days. And if you pay attention and do what is required, you too can get the same results. (Only by the Will of Allah, of course)

Do you have a blog that’s kind of slow with traffic? Want more people to review your posts on Stumble Upon? Need more Muslims to come to your website? Read on…

Let’s be honest with each other: why would I want to expose my awesome secret to everyone for free? Well, for one, I too have something to gain. (And because I’m nice. And if you disagree, I hate you.) As all of you now know, I have just officially registered my PR company, Minbar Media. This is a PR company aimed at doing public relations work for Muslims.

In order for me to better serve you, we need to develop a way to reach the Muslim masses quickly and efficiently. What does this have to do with my secret? If done properly, not only will this help YOU drive traffic, subscriptions and potential customers to your websites but this will help develop a new era of Islamic Marketing and Advertising.

So what did I do to get these results?

Welcome to the beginning of a HUGE, genius campaign - and it all starts here at EgyptianGumbo.com.

So, bloggers, stumblers and Muslims, this one’s for you:

A couple of days ago I wrote my “Hijab Challenge” post. The attention it got afterward was not what I expected. That, in turn, lead hundreds of people to my site (by the way, welcome :P.) Afterward, I did what I normally would do and submit my posts to Stumble Upon, only this time instead of submitting it to the usual “Islam” category I submitted it to a different category. (you’ll only be able to know the category if you follow the next steps)

Anyway, the result was over 2,000 new people coming to my site via Stumble Upon in a period of 2 days (hey Stumblers :).)

And just to see if this method really worked, I tried it again with some of my previous posts on the Leechon Films Blog. Sure enough, 20 minutes later about 127 people had already come via Stumble Upon.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET THESE RESULTS? Just keep reading:

OK, so what exactly IS this campaign? We need to educate Muslims on Stumble Upon. Why? The very fact that posting my posts in a category other than “Islam” –which in turn drove so much more traffic to my site– shows the lack of Muslims using these social networking sites.

The result was in an increase in traffic and subscribers (which is all great), but not my primary target audience; Muslims.

The more Muslims that use Stumble Upon and  who are active in pressing the “Thumbs up” or “Thumbs down” button, the more our content will be read by our target audience; the Muslim masses all over the world. Thus, driving more traffic, subscribers and consumers to our sites.

More importantly, in order for Muslims to really get stronger — especially in the West — we need to know how to take advantage of these sites and use them to their full potential- so those Islamic articles you’ve written for the Sake of Allah, imagine how many more people will be able to read them and how much more ajr you can get, truly this is the best way to utilize these sites. So, after consulting with the PR team, we agreed that we should launch a PR campaign aimed at educating Muslims on “new media”– specifically, Stumble Upon.

WHAT TO DO:

Alhamdulillah, I had already written a post on the Leechon Blog on what Stumble Upon is and a tutorial on how to use it.

So if you haven’t already registered with Stumble Upon, go ahead and read this post I made and follow along:

“Stumble Upon Something Addictive: New Media Part 2”

Once you have the Stumble Upon Toolbar, go ahead and add the “Islam” category to your interests. Then, go ahead and give this post a thumbs up (to spread it around) and then post something on YOUR blog or website about this campaign. And tell all your friends that also have blogs and websites to do the same. Finally after this done, let me know and i’ll let you know exactly which categories I’ve observed get the most traffic via Stumble Upon.

The potential result?

-immediate attention to the campaign, increase in traffic and subscriptions to your blog, very rapid educating of Muslims around the world, and the ability to reach and connect to our brothers and sisters everywhere

Long post, I know. But it’s sooo worth it… inshaAllah.

Shirien

Presenting…

Minbar Media Inc.

… Coming Soon, InshaAllah

Get excited. This is going to be BIG by the tawfeeq of Allah, inshaAllah.

Yesterday was a really awesome experience, alhamdulillah. A couple of weeks ago I challenged the women on LSU’s campus to wear hijab for a day. If you want to know how this deals with viral marketing, read on.

I wrote a column called surprise, surprise: “Columnist challenges women to wear hijab for a day.” And that day was April 25th. Writing my columns I really had no idea how many people read them. I know I get a lot of hate mail, and a lot of hate comments, and I knew at least a couple of thousand people read them every week, but this hijab challenge took it to a whole new level.

Melissa and Sarah B. sitting in front a fountain in the Quad at LSU

I got several emails from girls saying they wanted to participate. So I helped them out; I met with some of them and showed them how to wear the hijab. and I even ate lunch with a couple of them yesterday while they sported their hijabs. They were all some of the sweetest girls I’ve met so far at LSU.

Soon after lunch, I got a call from my friend Sarah M. who reverted to Islam about two years ago and she’s telling me that even someone at a coffee shop on campus asked her if she was wearing the hijab because of the challenge. There was a buzz already going around campus. I go the masjid later that night and some of my friends are telling me that so and so was talking about how they read my column and so on and so forth.

My plan worked.

I was able to start dialog all over campus about the hijab. Afterward I got a various people emailing me wanting interviews, I gave a talk about women in Islam to a Women and Gender Studies class; It’s definitely the type of dawah opportunity no one could turn down. That was a lot of potential ajr to pass up. People would ask the girls why they are wearing it, and they would tell them and explain to them why Muslim Women wear the hijab and how we are not oppressed. It was a mass dawah effort. A lot like viral marketing/PR. It’s no wonder why people are all about getting more Muslims in the media. The potential is HUGE for dawah. Imagine, A hijab day on campus could turn into a nation-wide awareness day, which is very possible once we get more Muslims to be trained in media and marketing work.

That’s why I’m starting my own PR company soon. Business proposal should be done tonight and my company should be legally registered soon. There is so much potential out there and so many ideas on how to tap into this field. I’ve seen It work and have felt the sweetness of Allah ‘az wa jal making my efforts successful. Wallahi it’s only by the Will of Allah. And I realize as well, that this is all a test from Allah.

Melissa, Michelle, and Maggie posing for a picture at Atcha Bakery (mmm’ Atcha.)

The Fruits And Veggies of your Efforts:

Melissa was perhaps the sweetest of them all. She was very enthusiastic and excited to take on the hijab challenge, and told everyone she knew about it. We ate lunch and at night she came to our masjid. I stole about 10 girls (unintentionally) away from the youth halaqa to join in our discussion about the hijab. Subhanallah, although I’ve taught these girls before *shout out to you girls :P* and I see them all the time at the masjid, I learned so much about them just from that discussion.

One of the girls came out with the news that she had just started wearing hijab officially last Sunday. Another told of how she started wearing the hijab a couple of months ago, and came with the new news that she had given up listening to music. MashaAllah, la qowwita illa billah. I couldn’t have been happier.

Alhamdulillah, Allah ‘az wa jal gave me such a blessing to be able to change people’s lives. They jokingly (but truthfully) told Melissa how I used to chase after them like herds of sheep and how I wouldn’t start the halaqah until I swung my lasso and reeled them all into the room (that’s southern talk, y’all). They said how at first they ran away from lectures. Then When I would gather them they would come for half the time then leave, then they said that the more they listened to the words of the lectures, the more they wanted to stay on their own, until it lead them to change.

Conclusion?

Don’t give up on what you are doing even if you don’t see immediate results. Never give back or refuse to accept a gift Allah is offering you (i.e. opportunities for dawah). It could be that if we turn down these opporunities and freebies that Allah gives us, that He ‘az wa jal will in turn never give you that opportunity again and give it to someone more greatful.

It is an amazing feeling seeing the fruits of your actions and the potential that is to come, but only if you remember that it was all done by the Will of Allah. and Allah is truly the one that guides the hearts.

Stay tuned for my follow up column in The Daily Reveille next Friday about the results of the Hijab Challenge, inshaAllah. It will inshaAllah be the last column I write for the paper. It’s been a good 1.5 years, alhamdulillah and an awesome way to end that chapter of my life. Wallahu ta’ala alem. So, what are YOU going to do to spread the deen of Allah? (And, do you need a PR person? :P)

I’m sure just by reading the title of the post, you know exactly what this is. It’s something we all notice but no one ever talks about. A white woman goes missing, it’s national news. A black woman goes missing, it’s not even local news. And upon looking further into this you’ll realize that the news media isn’t a medium aimed to spread real, important news but rather, it’s a medium for reporting entertainment stories. And If you want to know what Dave Chappelle has to say about this subject, keep reading.

Shelton Sanders, a magistrate’s son who worked at the University of South Carolina medical school, was on track for his degree when he disappeared in June 2001. To date, no metropolitan newspaper outside his hometown has written an article about him.

Missing persons is big news. So let’s say (la qaddar Allah) that you get kidnapped and no one knows of your whereabouts. And while you are distressed no one knows where you are, you have a little hope that the media will report that you are missing and they will find you in no time! But wait, before you get excited I have a checklist for you. If you meet all of these conditions then you can be certain your story will be all over the news:

1. You have to be a woman

2. You have to be white, (sorry Latinas)

3. It will help a lot if you are either pregnant or a child

4. You have to be beautiful

5.You have to be under 35 years old

6. You have to be of middle or high-class status in society (poor people, you’re out)

If you don’t meet these conditions then consider yourself forgotten.

So why is this interesting to viewers? After all, these stories are reported more for entertainment purposes and human interest stories, rather than to actually help the person get found (this is a secondary purpose). The reason it’s interesting is because it appeals to the whole “damsel in distress” story.

You’ve probably heard of one or more of these people:

JonBenet Ramsey, Elisabeth Smart, Lucie Blackman, Laci Peterson, Jennifer Wilbanks (”The Runaway Bride”), Natalie Holloway and Jessie Marie Davis - to name a few

What do all of these women have in common? They are all white. People go missing all the time, but why is it that these select girls get chosen to get covered in the media? To me it’s sickening that the news media blatantly is telling people if you’re ugly and if you aren’t white, you don’t matter and you don’t exist to us.

Here are the real stats for people who go missing:

The fact that most of us would be shocked to learn that there are more men that go missing than women proves my point.

I remember a couple of years back a Muslimah from New Orleans was 8 months pregnant when she was murdered. She was stabbed severely several times, and no one knows who murdered her. The story got no media attention at all. And this was after Laci Peterson’s death, who was also pregnant at the time she was murdered. The difference between Laci and The Muslimah from New Orleans? MWWS.

In my minorities in the media class, A girl showed this video about MWWS. I went on youtube to find the censored version. And this was as sensored as it gets, so I apologize because apparently the FCC doesn’t sensor all bad words. Any thoughts?

So yeah I just registered my new site. It’ll take me a while to redesign and change the header and some aspects of the template but I figured It’s best that I keep it up and running for now.

I’m becoming more interested in learning about NLP or Neuro-linguistic programming. Since my field and specialty is public relations, the art of persuasion is something that I continue to study and try to master in both my writing and speaking for dawah purposes. So by all means if any of you know any good books and videos on NLP, let me know.

Anyway, everyone knows Fox News brainwashes people. But the question is have you ever really analyzed HOW they do the brainwashing? In this video a guy knowledgable about NLP stops a short segment shown on Fox News and describes each time NLP is being used to brainwash not only the audience, but the person being interviewed. Keep in mind that this is only a short segment, and that Fox News is played 24 hours a day. Here are the three videos: (this’ll make you mad)

I don’t know about the whole 666 thing, with the mathematical equation and everything. But it’s still interesting nonetheless. WAllahu Alem, it could really be something used with sorcery.

So I’m no longer writing for Islamonline.net. I was fired hehe. They like to call it “Administrative Changes” I wasn’t very comfortable referring people to that site anyway because of the questionable material and fatawee they had. Why exactly am I not writing for them anymore? read on…

Here was my first (and last) article I wrote for them:
Seeking the Highest

And just to give you some examples of the problems I saw:

1. When I turned in my first article they took out about 4 or 5 hadith that I used to support what I was saying. They said that Youth don’t like a lot of Quran and Hadith because it’s “Preachy.” To be honest, that’s really sad. The people who go to read Islamic articles online, aren’t really the ones who are completely lost. Also it supported what I said, and gave my words more credibility. So that was strike number one.

2. The way they edited my article: I was not made aware of the changes they had made to my article until after it was published. There were a couple of things, but the thing that surprised me the most was this sentence: “If you work toward haram goals in this world, your ultimate goal is lost; the goal of attaining Al-Firdaws; seeking Allah’s grace.”

They had changed “Seeking Allah’s FACE to grace” hmm no, I specifically meant Face. (Jallah wa 3ala.) Which tells me there’s a little bit of denying Allah’s names and attributes going on there. Although there is nothing wrong with seeking Allah’s grace, I’d rather not have people edit my articles as such.

3. They tried to control all email content! (which is actually the reason I believe they let me go):
If you look under the articles they have a generic email address. I asked them how I can check the email that gets sent to me or where it gets forwarded to, and they told me that it’s policy that they don’t let their writers have access to the emails. Instead, they will forward the emails to the writer if it is addressed to them. They also mentioned that they like to “See the feedback, and see how their writers are doing.”

That was strange to me. I’ve never seen any newspaper or magazine or company in general monitor the emails.

If that wasn’t enough:

4. They made me CC them when I would reply to the emails that would be sent to me. It was like Big Brother. Why do they need to see the naseeha that I’m giving to the youth? They come to me for advice and I give it to them.

I kept questioning their policies. And apparently they didn’t like that

Anyway with that said: Me, my sister, and a friend of mine were planning on starting a blog for the youth. Just in Baton Rouge alone, we have around 30 girls that regularly come to the Youth Halaqa every Friday night at the masjid. However, I’d like to make this blog something for all youth. It’ll be awesome, inshaAllah.

More updates on that soon inshaAllah.