As a disclaimer before I write this post, I am not (yet) a niqaabi. However, recent events have widened my eyes and moved me to a point I decided that I should write about it.

In Baton Rouge, there are probably only three niqaabi sisters. One of them is a good friend of mine and the other two I’m just adding on for wishful thinking. My sister recently came down to visit for a week, and it was the first time she came down since she started wearing niqaab, mashaAllah.

I started wondering if my world as a girl who wears hijab and abaya is really much different than a girl who wears niqaab/khymar. I’m not talking in terms of shariah, I’m talking about society’s treatment of Muslim women; specifically the western society. I thought that people who dislike (or even hate) Muslims would hate us just the same amount whether we cover our faces or not. I figured we’d probably get an equal amount of dirty looks.

What I noticed was vastly different reaction from society as well as the effect of the niqaab on the sister wearing it. Now, I’m speaking directly in terms of the interaction and reaction of the people down here in Louisiana. It’s probably much different in other places like Philly and New York, because people are more used to seeing diversity in those areas.

In Louisiana I noticed 2 different reactions:

1. People gasping out of disbelief

2. People trying their best to be so friendly to you, because they know how prejudice the rest of society is toward you.

The people who gasped out of disbelief were the true southern hicks. Almost immediately when she arrived, there was a guy with a mullet sitting outside with his buddy staring at her like he was watching the most interesting thing he had ever seen on TV. My sister turned to me and was pretty ticked off and told me how obvious it was that they were staring at her. I turned around and they didn’t even pretend they weren’t looking straight at her. They pointed and whispered. My brother-in-law ended up giving them dawah and in the end they were actually pretty nice.

The guy asked my brother-in-law where he and my sister were from. And they were pretty shocked when he told them that my sister was born and raised in Baton Rouge, La.

“You got me!,” mullet guy responded with a hick accent. Then they inquired why I didn’t cover my face by my sister did.

That’s true Egyptian Gumbo right there.

The stares and whispers happened everywhere we went. It didn’t really bother me, because as Muslims you need to be strong and you need to not care what society says or thinks about you — especially if you are doing something for the sake of Allah.

I asked my sister if this was normal. She replied, “It’s gotten to a point that if they don’t stare, I think something is wrong with them; It’s like, ‘Why aren’t you staring?’”

Which brings me to a very important message that can’t be delayed:

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MESSAGE TO ALL NON-MUSLIMS:

Niqaabi Women can SEE. They are not blind. They can see you staring, they can see you praying for your life and they can see you trying to figure out how they eat. Thank you, that is all.

——-

The second type of people were the ones that were the nicest of people and just want to make you feel welcome no matter what. People would come up and tell my sister that (mashaAllah) her baby was really good on the plane, and other people would just be extra nice when talking. It’s treatment I never saw (or never noticed) as a sister who wears abaya.

Now, for the transformation within.

Subhanallah, I really admire anyone who wears niqaab — especially here in the States. You really have to be strong and you just have to put your trust in Allah.

I was pretty shocked with the strengthening of my sister’s personality, mashaAllah. When people would say something or stare at her for very long she’d basically go up to them and ask them “What’s your problem?” She told me how there was this one ghetto girl who basically was trying to mock my sister and her husband. My sister told the girl that surprise, surprise, “I speak better English than you.” The girl backed off. Alhamdulillah.

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There are always sisters looking to take the next step, but are always afraid of the result. For that sister out there who plans to wear hijab “one day” make that day today. Most of the time our fears just come from shaytaan and not putting our priorities in the right place. Why should we fear society and fear the things they may (or may not) say?

Allah tell’s us in the Quran that the disbelievers will never be pleased with us. In fact, in surat Al-Maeda verse Allah ‘az wa jal says,

“This day, those who disbelieved have given up all hope of your religion, so fear them not, but fear Me. This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islâm as your religion.”

Allah ‘az wa jal has more right to be feared. And as long as you are doing something for His sake, He will protect you and give you strength.

If you’re a sister who “wants to wear abaya one day” then subhanallah even from my own experience, a sister who lives in Louisiana, you have nothing to be afraid of except for Allah. There is really nothing to it. Have I gotten hateful comments before? Yes but rarely. The guys that do say something to me, I follow them asking them to repeat what they said directly in my face… but they run away from me. (true story lol)

In general, I feel like people are truly shocked when you show them you are not weak like they think you are. If you stand up for yourself you gain that respect and they in turn are the weak ones.

If you shy away from taking the next step, then you shy away from a lot of ajr and a lot of dawah opportunities. Because as i’ve noticed the higher you go in the level in which you want to please Allah and go that extra mile to do something for His sake, the more opportunities for dawah you get.

I mean just in the week that my sister spent here there was not a day that went by that dawah wasn’t given to the people that interacted with her or even stared at her! Compare that to the sister who is afraid to even put on a hijab, subhanallah society looks at her and thinks she is just one of them, although she is not because she worships Allah and believes in His Oneness.

Think of the group of people you want to be with on the Day of Judgment — would you want to be with the society that you blended into in this world, or would you want to struggle a little to be with the society of the righteous Muslims from every generation? Wallahi I would chose to be with the salaf and those that follow the manhaj of the salaf any day.

Just some food for thought. And to the girls that attend our youth halaqa, think deeply about this and more importantly I know many of you have something that has held you back in the past. But really, now is the time to act. Take that next step to become closer to Allah and become the Muslim you’ve expressed you want to become. InshaAllah we’ll talk soon

WAllahu ta’ala alem.

Insha’Allah I hope I won’t get in trouble for this post. Because this is going to be some juicy goodness right here.

For those of you who don’t know, I do a lot of the PR work for Message Mastery. I really only do PR work for projects I really, truly believe in. MM is one of those projects that subhanallah, not only I have full faith and support in, but sheiookh like Yusef Estes, Muhammad Alshareef and Yasir Qadhi have also all showed interest and support in.

(If you know about Message Mastery, we want to know your thoughts and/or how you heard of the program. So be sure at the end of this post to leave a comment letting us know.)

If you knew the amount of work that goes into making something like MM successful (by the Will of Allah) then subhanallah, you too would find this to be something rare and a great opportunity for all Muslims.

Some of you have seen the Message Mastery videos, some of you haven’t. I’m not going to talk about things you might already know (from the videos and the website) but rather, I’m going to tell you the “backstage” stuff that goes on; things we discuss and only insiders know and things that will be released publicly soon, but you hear it here on my blog first

But before tell you the inside stuff, here’s just a little bit about Message Mastery: It’s all about training Muslims to be well-rounded in several areas of the media; not only for the sake of their own work, but for the betterment of Islam, inshaAllah.

10 things you might or might not know:

1. Plans for the Message Mastery System:

The upcoming film making class (on May 31st) is NOT Message Mastery. That is just ONE CLASS in the Message Mastery system. The plan is that we are establishing this as the first webinar of many to come in the future. There will be other classes like marketing/viral marketing 101, photography , and surprise, surprise — a media writing/PR writing 101 class taught by none other than yours truly, inshaAllah. Those among many other classes, bi’ithnillahi ta’ala. So this really is going to be an all inclusive “getting Muslims in the media” system. Awesomeness, no?

2. Special Deals Still Under the Rug… Until Now:

Shh, word on the street is that if you sign up for the first class (film making) you’ll get into all the other future classes free. Why is this genius? It’s genius because only 200 people will get this deal. Everyone else will have to pay for every other webinar they want to take when they come out.

3. People Who Actually Make Awesome Projects/Films Will Have the Opportunity to Get Client Work in the End. There is more work being sought out then there are the Muslims with the skills to do it. We know who’s looking for promo videos, news articles, marketing for their projects/companies. And inshaAllah those people who show the best work will be given these opportunities.

4. The Awesomeness and WEIRDNESS of Our PR Team.

If there was ever an example of a “mastermind group” this would be it, mashaAllah. I must say, we have all different types of personalities on the team but somehow we all compliment each other’s ideas and thinking in the end.

We have the social members of our group — the ones who love to give input on everything (which is great) and we have the silent ones who out of no where “bust out” with their great ideas. We have the nice members of our group and we have that one sarcastic “mean” member of the group who makes us all gasp in disbelief at some of the things he says . Ahem… see (www.themanoffewwords.com and www.islamify.com.) –Oddly enough, he too, brings forth great ideas and puts his words to action… so we’re all happy to have him on the team.

5. More Weirdness:

We all make fun of each other’s grammar and spelling, we have about 30 posts for every topic we discuss and we all read them — it’s the nerdiest group you will ever come across, and I love it. Hafsa will email me all my mistakes in this post (which I love), the poor brother and sister from the UK stay up all night just for our conference calls, Manoffewwords always insults all members of the group only for all of us to end up laughing at it, despite its meanness, and several members of the group keep trying to get Belal in trouble with the authorities by suggesting project names like “Youtube Jihad.” Sorry Belal, you have bad friends.

6. Taking Over Ideas and Us Acting Like We Know What Br. Belal is Talking About:

Belal, who makes the videos, usually has a specific vision for what he wants his next videos to turn out like. He usually has it all planed out until we, his PR team, decide that he should do something completely different. And subhanallah, he doesn’t hesitate to go with our advice. He also likes to make up a lot of words — i.e. “ordinatory, UPPOPPR” — and uses them a lot, expecting we know exactly what he’s talking about.

7. If You’re Worried About the Cost, You’re Worrying Over Nothing.

I don’t work for scams. If I truly didn’t think that people would get their money’s worth, I wouldn’t be promoting it. ESPECIALLY with this first class (since you’ll get all the other ones free.) We debated and debated over the cost, and really $247 was what we came up with due to all the things we KNOW that will be provided for those who register. Trust me, people pay thousands of dollars for less than you would get with Message Mastery.

8. Most of Us Just Want to See His Little Sisters in the Videos…

…share the spotlight. All up in their “grill” like that.

9. We’re all Becoming Masters of Viral Marketing.

Seriously, we’re discovering so many secrets and techniques that will blow anyone’s socks off. We also have so many ideas that are being worked on right now with regard to viral marketing, all of which will be taught inshaAllah in one of the future Message Mastery webinars.

10. None of Our Success Could be Possible Without the Will and Help of Allah.

Walhamdulillah.

OK, this post became a little too long. If you haven’t already go ahead and check it out and TAKE the opportunity while you can, inshaAllah.

To be honest, hate using the word “opportunity.” I’ve too been jaded way too much by that term. “You have the opportunity to go to outer space! Oh, did we mention you just have to have 20 million dollars.”

However, this really is an opportunity for any Muslim with some interest in any of the areas within mass media. So I suggest you check it out at www.messagemastery.com.

P.S. before any of you label me as stupid, I wouldn’t really write a post if I knew it was something that could get me in trouble and cost me my job .

Let us know your thoughts. A new video will be coming out any day now, inshaAllah — stay tuned.

Hmm, what can I say about Bill O’Reilly?

Someone sent this to me a couple of days ago via StumbleUpon (just another reason why everyone should use StumbleUpon!) Some of you may have seen this before some of you haven’t. Keep in mind that this is someone who is supposed to be respected and “honest.” Fox News junkies love him. I’ve always hated his program not only because it’s Fox, but because he never lets anyone speak. He yells at everyone and he’s very good at taking control of the conversation and twisting things around.

It’s a video of Bill O’Reilly going crazy on the floor director in the studio: (warning, there is graphic language):

Here’s another clip of him claiming he only told someone to shut up once in the past 6 years: