Egyptian Gumbo

Ghetto Abdullah Makes His Theme Song

shirien — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:32:55 +0000

This was originally supposed to be just us making the intro to all his future videos. However, this is what ended up happening (we couldn’t resist):

Ghetto Abdullah: My Next Endeavor, InshaAllah

shirien — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:38:29 +0000

Bismillah,

I’m the type of person who’s always on the lookout for the next project I want to complete. I find something I believe to be beneficial, fun and challenging all at the same time.

So what’s my next big project? Producing an Islamic kids show.

After doing research, I decided to see where I could cut costs for production. After seeing where all the costs would be coming from, I determined the best way to save money would be to make the puppets for my show myself. Typically, a custom-made puppet professionally done cost around $1,000.

I went to an arts and craft store yesterday to pick out my supplies and while my husband was asleep, I spent a good three hours working so hard and so diligently.

I had to figure out how to make the mouth part to move and somehow put it all together into the puppet. And after all the gluing, cutting and planning I take a good look at my final product and…. I BUST out laughing.

I couldn’t help it. The puppet was just so pathetic. My husband had awoken to my laughing and I showed him what I made — only for him to cover his eyes and tell me how scary it looked.

I asked him to take a picture of it and put it on his Facebook and his reply was, “I don’t want to for the safety of the people.”

Anyway, after much convincing he reluctantly decides to make a video for fun of my masterpiece and this was the result:

We decided to use this as a means to raising funds for our REAL kids show (which I’m happy to say will NOT have beat boxing, and will not feature a character such as Ghetto Abdullah).

Find out how you can invest in our project soon.

Let us know what your thoughts are.

Open Letter to MuslimMatters, We Are Disgusted and Appalled.

shirien — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:11:04 +0000

Bismillah,

*MuslimMatters.org has since issued a public apology on their website.

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmitullahi wa Barakatuh,

To the anonymous person who wrote the recent article on MuslimMatters.org regarding Br. Tarek:

I and many other Muslims are in complete disbelief as to what we have read with our own eyes. I understand that the attempt was a public relations stunt aimed at disassociating the writers of that blog with “links to terrorism” but this went beyond anything tasteful.

Instead, you decided to throw your brother under a bus, and give him no chance at all to be freed of charges. What gain have you benefited from doing this? Did you know that there were other ways to accomplish being disassociated with “terrorism” that did not include writing something horrendous in the eyes of Allah? SubhanAllah.

For the record we do not know Brother Tarek, we only know what has been accused of him. Has not Allah ‘az wa jal said in Surat An-Nur, “Why then, did not the believers, men and women, when you heard it (the slander), think good of their own people and say: “This (charge) is an obvious lie ?”

He may or may not have said what you have quoted, but leave that for Allah. Leave a person who may have done something wrong to repent to Allah and seek His aide.

We are all so quick to be afraid of other than Allah that we will do whatever it takes to save our own necks even at the expense of the life of another Muslim.

I implore MuslimMatters to remove the article and issue an apology. The author may have gained the acceptance of federal agents, but until he apologies publicly, he will not gain my acceptance nor the acceptance of other Muslims who feel likewise. However, our acceptance does not mean anything, but it is the acceptance of the repentance to Allah that matters.

Further, we’d like to apologize to the other writers on MuslimMatters.org who have nothing to do with the article. And we do not wish to see their dawah work be affected by this.

I come knowing the ins and outs of the Op-Ed section of a newspaper and understand there is something called “our view” in which the editors come together and write a piece with no one’s name attached made to represent the voice of the paper as a whole.

I’m almost certain this article was not reviewed and agreed upon by the other authors, so it was in more bad taste to post it under a psudonym.

We ask Allah to have mercy on you and that any damage done you can reconcile.

Wassalamu Alaikum,

Shirien Elamawy

*This article is the view of EgyptianGumbo.com and may or may not represent the views of others.

The “Wild Things” Are On Prozac

shirien — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:56:53 +0000

How well do you know the story of The Tortoise and the Hare? If Spike Jonze, the director and one of the writers of “Where the Wild Things Are,” decided to put it on the silver screen — the story would go a little like this:

Tortoise gets Alzheimer and speaks to everyone in an incoherent fashion, and makes his way across the finish line drunk.

“Where the Wild Things Are” is a movie I wish never existed. If you are even thinking about going to see this movie with the hope of reminiscing on the enchanted nature of one of your favorite childhood books, DON’T. It will kill your childhood memories.

The film was certainly not for kids — not because of any obscenities but because of the dark, depressing nature of the film and not to mention the scariest looking monsters ever.

CNN and USA Today both examined the reactions of parents who took their children to see the movie. One reaction from CNN:

“[The film] was joyless. There were maybe 15 minutes of the hour and a half that my kids were into it,” said James Griffioen of Detroit, Michigan. His 4-year-old daughter asked, “Why is this movie so sad?” in the middle of their family’s matinee viewing, while his son, a 20-month-old who normally can’t get enough of the 1963 children’s classic, was simply bored, he told CNN.

The main character in the movie was a boy named Max. He is a lonely boy looking for acceptance and has some rage issues.

The kid is just as weird in the movie as he was in his interview on Conan. But than again, I’d turn out weird too if my real name were “Max Records.”

In one scene he actually bites his mom out of anger and runs into the forest, onto a little boat, crosses the ocean and lands on an island where the “Wild Things Are.” He thinks he is a wolf and howls and growls a lot in the film which is all pretty annoying. Everyone in this movie, including the monsters, are either suffering from loneliness, feeling different, sadness or anger. The mother in the movie is losing her job, the older sister cares more about her friends than her little brother Max and at one point in the movie the “wild things” ask the boy, “Can you make the sadness go away?”

It was also very incoherent and had the worst story-line and dialog ever. Nothing made sense in that movie. It was so boring and finally when you think the conflict is finally here, it just becomes more disturbing.

Throughout the whole movie you are trying to understand where the conflict is and what the real story is. Finally, when the real conflict comes in it’s about the boy not being able to keep the “sadness” away, and thus out of his anger, one of the “wild things” rips off the arm of another monster.

When the movie ended I turned to Belal and said, “I want two hours of my life back.” The guy walking out behind us told his friend, “This movie was so depressing I feel like committing suicide.”

It’s like they always say, the book is always better than the movie.

I’m Sorry, But That’s Not Marketing

Belal & Shirien — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:19:44 +0000

Egyptian Gumbo is back, and I’ve decided to let my husband have a little taste of my online gumbo recipe – a little sas, a little attitude, much needed information, and a lot of fun. So welcome Belal as the newest writer for EgyptianGumbo.com.

Last week, we read an article on MuslimMatters together which got us tossing and turning at night. “Surely we cant just let it go, can we?” We’ve debated with this question for a while, and the result is, yup — this blog post. We couldn’t let it go. So MuslimMatters, this one is for you:

This is specifically in response to part three of the Islamic marketing series, which is written by ibnabeeomar.

We’re sorry for having to do this, but there are some major mistakes in the article.

Let’s start with the basic understand that public relations and branding are two completely different facets of marketing.

The article states,

Marketing is also closely tied to branding – or the perception that people have of your organization

For example, if you run an organization closely tied to youth activities, people’s perception of you will always be of being youth focused. Even if you later try to brand yourself as something tailored for adults, it is hard to shed that reputation.

Just like Nike may brand itself one way, but people invariably associate its “brand” with sweatshop abuse.

The reason this is important to keep in mind is because I strongly believe certain types of marketing practices can brand an Islamic organization one way or another (most often in a negative fashion).

Branding has to do with the image in the minds of the people that has been built over a period of time supplemented with symbolism, colors, and emotions. Its a one-way communication from the company to the masses.

PR has to do with managing the communication between the company and its publics, therefore it’s two-way communication.

Let’s give the example of a company’s “image.” More specifically, lets look at cars since that’s the example you used in your article.

You posted these four videos —

Two of the videos were straight branding and the other two were straight sales — no PR or branding involved.

If we’re talking branding with the Infinity and BMW commercial, the branding is PURE, FAST, SPORTY, and THRILL.

Notice the white background in both videos. Notice the focus on speed and sharp turns.

How do we turn that into PR?

Lets say one of the cars has a transmission problem and people are questioning the quality of these expensive cars. A PR rep might hold a press conference assuring customers the vehicle is safe. Also, PR reps could recommend the company extend its warranty on the transmission — sort of like what Acura did with the CL and TL models from 2001-2003.

Another PR stunt would be to get reviewers from car magazines to test drive and give their thoughts on the different facets and benefits of what this car has to offer in comparison to the others in its class.

By the way, Nike didn’t have a “branding issue” with the sweat shops. They had a PR issue. No one questioned the quality of Nike shoes. They questioned ethics which is a PR issue. If Nike hadn’t taken care of the issue, over an extended period of time it would eventually turn into a branding issue.

To an extent, branding and PR are closely related, but we cannot mix the two and say they are the same.

– –

Strategy vs. Tactics

Throughout the article the word “strategy” was used in place of the term “tactic.”

Every single Islamic program nowadays is doing the best it can to showcase itself as the best program on the planet, being as flashy as possible, and utilizing whatever strategies are at its disposal to convince people to attend.

Sometimes out of our zeal to get people to attend programs and benefit from them, we sometimes use strategies that can degrade the noble thing that we are calling to.

You followed the last statement with what Seth Godin is describing as specific tactics.

What’s the difference you might ask?

STRATEGY itself isn’t an action plan or a formula. Strategy is simply the evolution of a core idea within a company that is operating within changing circumstances.

An effective strategy comes with understanding several things:

What advantages your company has on the ground?

What ways you can suprise the industry?

What are the different approaches one can take to attack an industry?

Who are the people that one can team with to assist in that attack?

What moral forces will come into play?

How you’ll bear focus on a single point within the industry itself?

An effective strategy has to do with having an understanding of who you are and who/what the centers of power and influence are within a given industry and knowing that those are the power centers one has to attack.

Another way you can define strategy is the understanding of:

What is the overall impact that your organizations long range goals will have.

What is the ultimate accomplishment and ultimate position – the perception in the minds of people – you want your organization to have in the market

TACTICS are the specific actions you take to fulfill your organization’s strategic objectives and support the position that is being targeted and knowing that those specific efforts are fulfilling the strategic objectives of the organization individually and together.

– –

As you can tell, that section on strategy was clearly written by Belal alone and I was unsuccessful in Gumbofying it. I gave up. He talks too technical. So to that I say, “Batatis.”

– –

Ibnabeeomar had good and valid points in his article and by no means is this undermining his general thoughts. We agreed and disagreed with him on some issues but we decided not to comment on the main theme of the article but rather the nitty gritty things that may not seem so big or important to most people.

We felt it is important for most individuals to understand the nitty gritty details because whether you are a volunteer or and admin planning events with MSAs you are responsible for marketing just as much as the marketing director.

These things are essential to execution and success after the tawfeeq of Allah ‘az wa jal.

This article is a joint effort of Belal Khan and Shirien Elamawy.

– –

Strategy vs. Tactics

Throughout the article the word “strategy” was used in place of the term “tactic.”

Every single Islamic program nowadays is doing the best it can to showcase itself as the best program on the planet, being as flashy as possible, and utilizing whatever strategies are at its disposal to convince people to attend.

Sometimes out of our zeal to get people to attend programs and benefit from them, we sometimes use strategies that can degrade the noble thing that we are calling to.

You followed the last statement with what Seth Godin is describing as specific tactics.

What’s the difference you might ask?

STRATEGY itself isn’t an action plan or a formula. Strategy is simply the evolution of a core idea within a company that is operating within changing circumstances.

An effective strategy comes with understanding several things:

What advantages your company has on the ground?
What ways you can suprise the industry?
What are the different approaches one can take to attack an industry?
Who are the people that one can team with to assist in that attack?
What moral forces will come into play?
How you’ll bear focus on a single point within the industry itself?

Another way you can define strategy is the understanding of:

What is the overall impact that your organizations long range goals will have.
What is the ultimate accomplishment and ultimate position – the perception in the minds of people – you want your organization to have in the market

TACTICS are the specific actions you take to fulfill your organization’s strategic objectives and support the position that is being targeted and knowing that those specific efforts are fulfillillng the strategic objectives of the organization individually and together.

– –

As you can tell, that section on strategy was clearly written by Belal alone and I was unsuccessful in Gumbofying it. I gave up. He talks too technical. So to that I say, “Batatis.”

– –

Br. Ibnabeeomar had good and valid points in his article and by no means is this undermining his general thoughts. We agreed and disagreed with him on some issues but we decided not to comment on the main theme of the article but rather the nitty gritty things that may not seem so big or important to most people. We felt it is important for most individuals to understand the nitty gritty details because whether you are a volunteer or and admin planning events with MSAs you are responsible for marketing just as much as the marketing director. These things are essential to execution and success after the tawfeeq of Allah ‘az wa jal.

This article is a joint effort of Belal Khan and Shirien Elamawy.

Welcome to EgyptianGumbo 2.0 & Ramadan Gift

shirien — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:46:52 +0000

Bismillah,

Alhamdulillah, as you all can see Egyptian Gumbo has undergone extensive surgery. Belal did a great job with the graphic work mashaAllah, and alhamdulillah I can honestly say I couldn’t have explained a better design to fit my site better than what he executed (so Jazak Allahu Khairan).

Tonight according to us is the 27th night of Ramadan. And I thought to break into my blog and reap the blessings of this night, I thought I’d upload my traditional uploading of beautiful Quran recitations for you all onto my blog for those of you who would like to download them inshaAllah- in return I humble ask that you keep me and my family in your dua.

——————————————

Khalid Al-Juhaim

Surat AlFatiha:

Download audio file (001_Al-Fatehah.mp3)