I’m a little busy to write posts these days, but I just wanted to tell all of you EID MUBARAK! Taqqbal Allah minna wa minkom!
InshaAllah, there are some great things to come after I settle down with all my work– so stay tuned.
P.S. Don’t forget to pay Zakaatul Fitr before Eid Salah 
Shirien
This post is for all of those brothers and sisters who are thinking about approaching someone for 
marriage.Take heed from this post. Do everything differently from what these guys did.
I was thinking about the typical harassment in Egypt and wondering how guys keep trying over and over again to use the same pick up lines with no avail. And I started wondering out of how many times they harass a girl, how many actually amount to anything more than a girl hitting the guy with her purse. “Hmm…,” I wondered. I also was curious if at any point in time it resulted in the harasser marrying the harassed.
That led me to think about bad marriage proposals, but I thought it’d make for a good post.
I asked a couple of friends to share any stories they may have about them or someone they know. I’ll list a couple here, but I’d be very interested in hearing stories from the rest of you in the comments section.
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1. “The Choo Choo” sister.
A friend of mine told me this story of a brother who was interested in his friend’s sister. He convinced his friend to let him “observe” the sister in her natural surroundings by letting him hide behind a door in his 
house. The interested brother hid, while his friend sat down and called his sister to make him some tea.
The girl went into the kitchen made the tea, and as she was coming with the tea she started to head towards her brother making ‘train noises.’ “Chooo choooo,” the sister came howled as she came toward her brother.
By this time both the interested brother and his friend were trying as hard as they could not to laugh. As soon as the girl left the room, they busted out laughing.
If i were that sister I would have killed my brother, if I had one.
2. The Bollywood Big Shot
A friend of mine related this story to me:
“Thankfully, my parents never put me in a rishta-like situation after the first one went disastrous:
My mom was being super nice to me, and so my sister and I got really suspicious –my mom’s generally a sweet and jolly lady, mashaAllah, but it was a little off this time. Anyway, next thing we know some limo pulls up in front of our house and it’s this dude my dad knows - guy doesn’t even drive it on a regular basis. So after laughing till our sides ached (who pulls up in a limo?! just for the getting-to-know and check-the-larhki-out?!), we snook out of the house, hopped into my sister’s car and didn’t come home till late in the evening when we were sure mr.im-oh-so-impressive would be gone. so aside from the bummy look as totally not attractive, overdoing it on the bling-bling side is a bit of a throw-off (if not ridiculous), too 
4. The Playing Hoops Brother.
There was a brother who went to go propose to a sister. When he came to meet the parents, not only was he extremely nervous as he was sweating like crazy, but he looked like he just came back from playing basketball because he had jeans, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes on. Not only that, he had the nerve to be “In a rush because he had to go somewhere.”
Needless to say, the answer was no.
5. The Single Guy in New York.
A brother approached a sister but wanting to get married ASAP, meaning like two weeks from when he started emailing her. The sister was in no rush and likewise couldn’t move in with the brother even if she wanted because she lived far and had to finish college. She was to be done in only a year. He told her that a year was wayyyy too long and that he’s a single guy living in New York. And although the girl was “Everything he would look for in a wife” he told her he didn’t want to come see her because if he liked her, he didn’t want to be “stuck” in an engagement just in case he found someone who was willing to get married sooner.
So the brother told her that if in another year he doesn’t find someone, he’ll come back. (!!!!!!!!) Not only did the sister laugh really hard and sent him an email telling him he’s got to be kidding (not to even bother), the sister also gave him naseeha telling him not to ever tell another sister something like that, or else he’ll have a hard time getting married.
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Brothers, if you want to propose to a sister, please don’t do what these guys did. I want to hear all your stories if you have any that happened to you or a friend of yours. Please don’t put any names. Enjoy
Assalamu alaikum everyone,
Really quick,
Barak Allahu feekom for your dua. Alhamdulillah Allah ‘az wa jal saved us from what could have been a huge disaster. The scene here in baton rouge is unbelievable. I feel like I’m in TV. The number of trees that have fallen and been uprooted, the fact that 1.4 million people without power, wallahi it’s truly a huge test during ramadan.
This is a lesson alhamdulillah I’m so greatful to Allah to be able to go through. Because wallahi it’s made me so much more greatful to Allah for His blessings he has bestowed upon us.
I will update everyone soon with everything. But everyone is OK, we are just living without electricity for a long time, which had truly been difficult. WAllahul Musta’an. walhamdulillah.
Keep us in your dua.
Wassalam,
Shirien
p.s. I’m currently writing things from LSU. Practically the only place I know of with it’s power restored
Well, I’m on my last vacation here in Egypt before I leave back to Louisiana. I’m here for two weeks, and If I seem a little MIA these days it’s because I’m relaxing here in Marina. It’s truly one of the most beautiful places on this earth, MashaAllah, la qowwita illa billah.
The key to surviving in Marina if you’re somewhat religious is to go out at awkward times of day. So you should go out after fajr to about 12 pm then maybe again before maghrib time.
Anyway, below are some pictures. I have my tripod here so i’ll try to get more professional shots soon. I have video also but for some reason Egypt and YouTube uploading don’t get along, so inshaAllah when i get back to the states I’ll post the videos. Enjoy!
If there’s one thing I dislike more than someone calling me extreme, it’s calling me extreme in front of my 
face as if I’m not even in the room.
Yesterday, I went to this jeweler we go to every year in Alexandria. I was outside the store looking at the display in the window while my mom, aunt and cousin made themselves comfortable inside.
I was happy my mom did her routine warning of telling men, “My daughter doesn’t shake hands (with men).” It’s actually kind of funny; I’m not the one that gets embarrassed to tell a guy if he puts out his hand that I won’t shake his hand. I think my mom is the one that feels awkward in that situation. Sometimes, I’d actually rather the guy be a little embarrassed so he’ll think twice the next time he’s about to try to shake a random woman’s hand.
Anyway, I was looking at some rings with my mom when the owner comes up to me and asks me, “Shaking hands with men, halal or haraam?” (Typical Egyptian question. Look at number one on my past post about Egypt)
“Haraam,” I answered.
“No wallahi, it is not haraam,” he said.
At this point I’m thinking. ‘Who are you? And why did you just swear by Allah on a fatwah you just pulled out of the air?’
I knew exactly where this conversation was going. I knew they typical Egyptian mentality in which anything non-Egyptian like is considered extreme or abnormal. I figured before he says something else that’s extremely haraam, I’m not going to respond because 1. Any response may lead him to say more dangerous statements, so it’s better I stay quiet and 2. That mentality is very hard to convince otherwise.
But no. He wanted to try to “change my mind.”
“Wallahi I’m telling you it’s not haraam. Believe me, this is what I say. It’s all about intentions,” he went on to say.
At this point I begin to open my mouth to try to correct him, in which he asks, “Who told you it was haraam?”
“Rasool Allah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam did. In a hadith…” And before I could even site the hadith.. he turns to my mom and asks her, “Where does she get these ideas? Probably from America and the people she hangs around over there.”
At this point I’m thinking of the irony of that statement. That I can learn something correct in the deen in a non-Muslim country, while people here, in a Muslim country, are clueless. Alhamduliillah for the guidance of Allah. In the end he continued telling my mom I was extreme and that a “sheikh on religious TV channel” told them it wasnt haraam. (See number two on my list.)
Today, being called extreme is a compliment. I don’t want to be liberal and wishy washy. A friend of mine told me a long time ago of this matrimonial service in which one of the main questions they ask is:
“How religious should your partner be?”
A. Liberal
B. Moderate
C. Extreme
Extreme…seriously? Haha. Sadly, that’s what I’d circle.
When you start to change and start becoming more religious, often times you’ll see the first people to call you extreme are your family and friends (i.e. those closest to you.) Then it’ll slowly progress to random people and jewelers you hardly know.
Be patient. The more your endure the more your eman will increase and the firmer you’re feet will be planted in the deen. Wallahu alem. Just my two cents/rant for the day.
Wallahu alem.
The follow are just some of the observations I’ve made over the years, and I think it’ll be a great preparation for those who have yet to visit Egypt :). I think you guys who come to Masr regularly will agree:
1. “Is this Halal or Haram?”
Anyone who asks a fiqh question will start off by saying “I heard so and so…” and then follow it up with “Is this halal or is it haram?”
It could be the most indepth question, but in the end “howa dah halal wala haram?”
2. Everyone is a “scholar” on T.V.
Believe it or not most Egyptians enjoy watching religious programming on T.V. Usually the people will call in the show, ask their “Is this halal or haram” question and you will have the sheiookh answer the question. The problem? The problem lies when there are TOO many of these shows on, and a VARIETY of different views and the people at home watching listen attentively for the rulings and make up their mind by the random sheikh or sheikha on T.V.
3. If you see graffiti you have to remember Allah.
The weirdest thing about graffiti on the walls in Egypt is that most of them are deen reminders. So you’ll see things spray painted on walls that say “Ithkur Allah- remember Allah” or you’ll see “La illaha il Allah” and anything else that if you read and repeat will give you good deeds. Someone should tell them that spray painting good things on other people’s property doesn’t make it right.
(Allahu Akbar spray-painted on thing construction site thingy in Alexandria)
4. There is always urine, stool, vomit or spit on any street or sidewalk.
It’s bad enough when you actually catch a hobo do it in public and you run away from disturbance. But when you’re randomly taking your walks on the beach (cournaish) and you can’t enjoy the scenery of the ocean because you have to look to where you are walking for fear of stepping on something disgusting… it’s a problem.
(Believe it or not i ACTUALLY had a picture for this, but decided to be kind to my readers and not post it up. Haha.)
5. There is always just this “one sheikh of al-Azhar”
Anytime you try to tell someone the evidence behind why something is wrong, they will always reply, “But the sheikh of al-Azhar said so and so.” If you ask them the name of that “one sheikh” they can never tell you.
6. You will always see sunflower seeds or any other type of seeds on the ground.
It doesn’t matter where you are. You know you’re in Egypt when there is “lib” all over the streets.
7. Every man in Egypt has the same B.O. smell.
One of the first signs you’re in Egypt is when you step off the plane and smell that wonderful Egyptian B.O.
I’m guessing because everyone pretty much eats “fool and taymiyyah” every day that’s why their sweat all smells the same. InshaAllah one of my goals is to raise national awareness of deodorant here in Masr… put my PR skills to work.
8. The masajid can be normal buildings but the minaret has to be absolutely beautiful.
MashaAllah one of the most amazing things to look at is the skyline. Because towering above all the buildings are the minarets of the masajid. But when you look at the masjid itself, most of the times it’s just a normal building. Pretty cool.
9. Some of the best Quran reciters are here.
There are too many amazing voices here to count. MashaAllah, if you want to pray in jamma3ah you can be assured that at least one of the masajid on your street has an amazing qari.
10. Honk if you feel like it.
Everyone who drives in Egypt honks for no reason. If you’re stuck in traffic, people will honk and hold for 10 seconds and think that that will actually make a difference in the cars moving.
Someone once told me that honking in Egypt in like a language, you can say “sabah el-khair (good morning)” and “Go to hell” all by honking. Haha.
11. One person per square inch.
Especially in summer time, Egypt is CROWDED. Whether you are in Cairo or Alexandria get ready to see oceans of people who apparently never go to sleep. My cousin’s friend’s mom, came to visit them in Alexandria during Eid (she happened to be Palestinian). Her reaction to the crowd of people in the streets was, “Yowm Al-Hashr… Egyptians are ready.”
12. Every taxi is unique.
Taxi drivers LOVE to decorate their taxis to be differentiated from all the rest. You will see everything from skulls, girly stuffed bears, to lights and stickers all over the place. But one thing in common, is that a taxi will ALWAYS have something funny written on it (mostly things you can make fun of.)
Yesterday, I saw a bumper sticker that stated: “Of course I don’t have cash, I’m MARRIED.”
13. They’re not trying to commit suicide, they are just crossing the street.
Sometime I wonder if some of the people crossing the crazy streets here are TRYING to commit suicide. My heart drops every time a person does a James Bond move and crosses in front of our car. Sad thing is, they are really ABOUT to get hit! It’s not some thing that you have to get used to… it’s just that they are really about to die.
I will post pictures and videos soon, inshaAllah.
Bismillah,
His eyes had mischief in them. He looked like he was on the beach all day long. I was with my cousin and her friend getting gelato ice cream from this famous place in Alexandria that sits right across the street from the ocean. It’s the type of shop where you just park and have waiters come to your car and you sit in your car and eat. With sand covering his feet he walked toward my rolled down window.
I was getting ready to pay so I had my wallet in my lap. I see he has some beach items in his hands. He came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy them from him. We all declined. He was selling toys for kids. He insisted, but he kept looking into my eyes. My cousin Asmaa replies, “As you can see, we don’t have kids. What would we do with them?”
View of Mediterranean Sea with an umbrella blowing in the wind from Le Prince, a restaurant I went to today in Alexandria.
I looked down at my lap and realized why this 7-year-old boy was mischievously smiling at me. I had my wallet in my lap with some American dollars showing. I couldn’t help but laugh. The kid was mashaAllah adorable. His face, the way he tried to persuade us was just too cute to let go. So I told him to wait while I gave him some money. I pulled out two Egyptian pounds. He takes them, puts them in his pocket, pauses and then says, “No I want one of THOSE.”
“What? You want WHAT exactly? A Dollar?” I asked. “Yes.” He replied. So I agree, give him a dollar and tell him it’s worth about 5 Egyptian pounds. Next thing I know he yelled, “MUHAMMAD!” And goes running to tell his little friends to tell them what had just happened. Right then is when I realized we were about to get mobbed by a bunch of kids — so we jetted off.
MashaAllah, I don’t think I’ll ever forget his smile. Poverty here really gets to you. It was funny because my cousin was telling me how one of her professors at AUC (American University of Cairo) when he has to turn in something if for any reason and it’s past deadline he always jokes and says he could always use the “Third-World Excuse.” You know the excuse where you say since you live in a third-world country, everything always “comes late” and communication is “not that great.”
Then it hit me, “We’re in a third-world country…” The images here are enough to make you cry. An ayah from Surat Ya-Sin came to me:
“And when it is said to them: ‘Spend of that with which Allah has provided you,’ those who disbelieve say to those who believe: ‘Shall we feed those whom, if Allah willed, He (Himself) would have fed? You are only in a plain error.’”
Allah ‘az wa jal could have indeed made everyone rich in this world. But there is hikmah (wisdom) that only Allah knows why such things are done. But one thing is for sure, I wouldn’t have felt so humbled and grateful to Allah if I never saw these images or interacted with the people.
My cousin was also telling me how one time she went to this bakery and wanted a piece of cheesecake she saw on display. She ordered it and the woman behind the counter told her it was sold out. My cousin asked her about the one that was in the display, and the woman told her that wasn’t for sale, that it’s “just for display.” My cousin ordered something else but was very bothered and asked the woman what she would do with it to which she simply shrugged and told her “throw it away.”
Wallahul musta’an.
Bismillah,
I thought for a while before I decided to write this post as this topic goes way out of my comfort zone. I stumbled upon an article written in the International Herald Tribune, which quite frankly shocked me, disgusted me and confused me all at the same time. So here’s the article, then I’ll give my comments below that:
**If you like the post, go ahead and Stumble it**
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For Muslim women in Europe, a medical road back to virginity
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
PARIS: The surgery in the private clinic off the Champs-Élysées involved one semicircular cut, 10 self-dissolving stitches and a discounted fee of $2,900.
But for the patient, a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent from Montpellier, the 30-minute procedure represented the key to a new life: the illusion of virginity.
Like an increasing number of other Muslim women in Europe, she had a “hymenoplasty,” a restoration of her hymen, the thin vaginal membrane that normally breaks during the first act of intercourse.
“In my culture, not to be a virgin is to be dirt,” said the student, perched on a hospital bed as she awaited surgery Thursday. “Right now, virginity is more important to me than life.”
As Europe’s Muslim population grows, many young Muslim women find themselves caught between the freedoms that
European society affords and the deep-rooted traditions of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
Gynecologists report that in the past few years, more Muslim women are asking for certificates of virginity before marriage.
That trend in turn has created a demand among cosmetic surgeons for hymen replacements, which, if done properly, they say, will not be detected and will produce tell-tale vaginal bleeding on the wedding night. The service is widely advertised on the Internet; there are medical tourism packages to countries like Tunisia where the procedure is less expensive.
“If you’re a Muslim woman growing up in more open societies in Europe, you can easily end up having sex before marriage,” said Hicham Mouallem, a doctor in London who performs the surgery. “So if you’re looking to marry a Muslim and don’t want to have problems, you’ll try to recapture your virginity.”
There are no reliable statistics on how many women undergo the procedure because it is mostly done in private clinics and in most cases is not covered by tax-financed insurance plans.
But the subject of hymen repair is becoming so talked about that it has become the subject of a film comedy that opens in Italy this week. “Women’s Hearts,” as its title is translated in English, tells the story of a Moroccan-born woman living in Italy who takes a road trip to Casablanca for the operation.
“We realized that what we thought was a sporadic practice was actually pretty common,” said Davide Sordella, the director. “These women can live in Italy, adopt our mentality and wear jeans. But in the moments that matter, they don’t always have the strength to go against their culture.”
The issue has been particularly charged in France, where there has been a renewed and fierce debate about a prejudice that was supposed to have been buried with the country’s sexual revolution 40 years ago: the importance of a woman’s virginity.
The furor followed the revelation two weeks ago that a court in the northern city of Lille had annulled the 2006 marriage of two French Muslims after the groom discovered his bride was not the virgin she had claimed to be.
The domestic saga has gripped the nation. The bridegroom, an unidentified engineer in his 30s, left the nuptial bed and announced to the still-partying wedding guests that his bride had lied about her past. She was delivered that night to her parents’ doorstep.
The next day, he asked a lawyer to annul the marriage. The bride, then a nursing student in her 20s, confessed the truth to the court and agreed to an annulment.
In its ruling, there was no mention of religion. Rather, it cited breach of contract, concluding that he had married her after “she was presented to him as single and chaste.”
In secular, republican France, the case touches on several sensitive subjects: the intrusion of religion into daily life, the grounds for dissolution of a marriage and the equality of the sexes.
There were calls in Parliament this week for the resignation of Rachida Dati, the minister of justice, after she upheld the ruling. Dati, who is a Muslim, backed down and ordered an appeal.
Some feminists, lawyers and doctors warned that the court’s acceptance of the centrality of virginity in marriage would encourage more French women from Arab and African Muslim backgrounds to have their hymens rebuilt. But there is much debate over whether the procedure is an act of liberation or repression.
“The judgment was a betrayal of France’s Muslim women,” said Elizabeth Badinter, a feminist writer. “It sends these women a message of despair by saying that virginity is important in the eyes of the law. More women are going to say to themselves: ‘My God, I’m not going to take that risk. I’ll recreate my virginity.”‘
The plight of the rejected bride persuaded the Montpellier student to go ahead with the surgery.
She insisted that she had never had intercourse and said that she had discovered her hymen was torn only when she tried to obtain a certificate of virginity to present to her boyfriend and his family.
She said she had bled after an accident on a horse when she was 10.
The trauma of realizing that she could not prove her virginity was so intense, she said, that she quietly took out a loan to pay for the procedure.
“All of a sudden, virginity is important in France,” she said. “I realized that I could be seen like that woman everyone is talking about on television.”
Surgeons who perform the procedure said they were empowering their patients by giving them a viable future and preventing them from being abused - or even killed - by their fathers or brothers.
“Who am I to judge?” asked Marc Abecassis, the plastic surgeon who restored the Montpellier student’s hymen. “I have colleagues in the United States whose patients do this as a Valentine’s present to their husbands. What I do is different. This is not for amusement. My patients don’t have a choice if they want to find serenity - and husbands.”
A specialist in what he calls “intimate” surgery, including penile enhancement, Abecassis says he performs two to four hymen restorations a week.
The French College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians opposes the hymen procedure on moral, cultural and health grounds.
“We had a revolution in France to win equality; we had a sexual revolution in 1968 when women fought for contraception and abortion,” said Jacques Lansac, the association’s president. “Attaching so much importance to the hymen is regression, submission to the intolerance of the past.”
But the stories of the women who have had the surgery capture the complexity and raw emotion behind their decision.
One 32-year-old Macedonian-born Muslim said that she had chosen the surgery to avoid being punished by her father after her relationship with her boyfriend of eight years ended.
“I was afraid that my father would take me to a doctor and see whether I was still a virgin,” said the woman, who owns a small business and lives on her own in Frankfurt. “He told me, ‘I will forgive everything, but not if you have thrown dirt on my honor.’ I wasn’t afraid he would kill me, but I was sure he would have beaten me.”
In other cases, the woman and her partner together decide on the surgery. A 26-year-old French woman of Moroccan descent said she lost her virginity four years ago when she fell in love with the man she was now planning to marry. She and her fiancé decided to share the cost of her $3,400 hymen replacement surgery in Paris.
His extended family in Morocco is very conservative, she said, and required that a gynecologist - and family friend - in Morocco examine her for proof of virginity before their wedding.
“It doesn’t matter for my fiancé that I am not a virgin, but it would pose a huge problem for his family,” she said. “They know that you can pour blood on the sheets on the wedding night, so I have to have better proof.”
Meanwhile, the lives of the young French couple whose marriage was annulled are on hold. The Justice Ministry has asked the Lille prosecutor for an appeal, arguing that the court decision “provoked a heated social debate” that “touched all citizens of our country and especially women.” At the Islamic Center of Roubaix, the suburb of Lille where the marriage took place, there is sympathy for the woman.
“The man is the biggest of all the donkeys,” said Abdelkibir Errami, the center’s vice president. “Even if the woman was no longer a virgin, he had no right to expose her honor. This is not what Islam teaches. It teaches forgiveness.”
Katrin Bennhold contributed reporting from Paris and Elisabetta Povoledo contributed from Rome.
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When I first read this article, I was pretty disgusted. First, I found it interesting from a journalistic perspective the authors didn’t even bother to go into detail of what is the Islamic stance on such issues — whether it be on the procedure itself or even just the Islamic view of illegal sexual intercourse. It was all this talk about feminism and how some Europeans think that it’s oppressive to Muslim women because they are somehow “backward” in thinking that their virginity is important. The whole article was written in respect of culture; not religion.
I’m not even sure how to feel about this if the woman is truly repentant and wants to hide her sin from everyone — at least she repented before Allah. Likewise, I can understand doing a procedure like this in cases of rape.
And for anyone who read the article and is wondering the Islamic view on the issue go ahead and read the detailed fatwah on Islam QA:
Another part of this article that shocked me is this notion of having a “certificate of virginity” — seriously? Like are you really serious? That’s when you know society is corrupt, when your word and assuming the best of the girl is no longer acceptable. That a girl has to go to the doctor before the marriage is done and get this “certificate.” I don’t know about the girl but I think I’d be pretty offended if someone told me I have to go to the doctor and give the family proof.
And to the guy’s family, if you really are unsure about the girl then:
1. You should assume the best
2. If her character gives you doubts, isn’t that a SIGN?
Everything about this article shocked me, from the “Valentines Day gift” to the MAN who performs this surgery three or four times a week.
WAllahul musta’an. This is scary to think that this is the state of Muslims today. May Allah protect us from his wrath. Ameen.
Wallahu alem.
“You Know it’s True,” is a new series I’m starting. It’s basically everything that everyone notices but no one ever talk
s about… until now.
This “You Know it’s True” post is about: The Masjid.
1. Brothers wish the sisters in the masjid would stay quiet. Women talk to much.
2. Mama, if your child is crying during salah, it’s OK to pick the baby up– please, prevent the distractions if you can. You can tell when most of us are annoyed after salah, because as soon as we do our tasleem it’s all eyes on baby… and mama.
3. We all want people to stop stepping on our feet. When we’re in line in salah, please stop stepping on my feet. And when I move my foot away, for some reason you feel the need step on it again. There is a reason I moved it away!
4. Sisters, you too, are not supposed to talk during the Jummah Khutbah– and yes that includes the time when people stand up for salah — not a time for chitty-chatty.
5. Sisters again, please don’t enter the masalah if you cannot pray. Sitting down and listening to the lecture in the masalah area and then going outside when salah starts is still wrong.
6. The masjid is usually completely separated until it comes to parking lot time. And while there is no interaction between the sexes (for the most part) everyone is standing outside searching for their spouses or future spouses. Stop guys, just stop.
7. Most of us cringe when we find someone that comes to the masjid interested in Islam and when we ask, “What got you interested?” The girl responds, “Oh my boyfriend is a Muslim.” Brothers, if you have a girlfriend and bring her to Islam, we’ll find out who you are through her randomly telling us your name. So no matter how secretive you are about it, she’ll accidentally expose you. Trust me, happens all the time. Her sins will be erased and you in turn, are in troubllleee.
8. There’s always this one sister or brother you really hope you don’t end up standing next to in salah. You love them, but they just distract you in prayer with either their swaying, their whispers or their attachment to your hip.
9. The line does not start at the very right of the masjid — unless the imam is standing there. Please stop trying to drag us away from our ajr. The line starts directly behind the imam, even for sisters. So stop pulling my clothes, please… you stretched them :(.
10. Every masjid has board problems. No matter where you are, your masjid has “politics.”
11. If you’re Egyptian, please stop reading the Quran in Egyptian dialect. If you’re desi, it’s “‘A’oothu,” not “‘A’oozu.”
12. Kids in the masjid are crazy no matter which masjid you go to.
13. Sisters, it’s kinda embarrassing when you cut off the speaker and yell really loudly from behind the divider or the 2nd floor “Excuse me, the sisters can’t hear!” Solution: get one of the crazy kids running around to tell someone on the brother’s side the problem.
14. There is always a car illegally parked outside.
15. There always has to be a basketball net outside for brothers to play.
16. Some people’s socks are stanky, with a capital STANK.
17. Masjid bathrooms are like public bathrooms (unfortunately.)
18. No one wants to hear that Arab song or techno in the Masjid. No matter how many times the imam reminds people to “turn off cell phones” a cell phone will always go off, and people will get mad.
19. There’s always someone that brings a prayer rug, even if the carpet is perfectly clean. Really guys, you don’t need a prayer rug.
20. There will always be sisters in every masjid who demand to have a place on the board.
You know it’s true.
I love the masjid.
Wallahu alem.
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
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shirien | 
09 29th, 2008| 
