Dinarstandard.com reports that a Turkish company, Ulker has bought out Godiva Chocolates. I hope this means that all their products will become 100% halal! Dinarstandard.com is an online e-zine which reports on businesses operating in the Muslim World. I just cracked open a box of these dark chocolates…mmnnn dark chocolate!

Belal Khan of leechonfilms is doing FREE videos teaching how to make great online videos. Belal Khan produced and edited the infamous YM Promo Video. He has also done alot of small promos for Al-Maghrib. My favorite al-Maghrib trailer that he has done is for their Seerah course.

Check out this video about his journey on video editing and subsequent intro to his anti-ordinary Webinar:

I got this in an email over a week ago:

> The National Desk at NPR is posting a two-year
> reporting position to focus on coverage of Muslims
> in America. We are looking to develop a significant
> body of work that explores the political, cultural,
> religious, sociological and demographic trends in
> this community.
>
> This position will involve significant domestic
> travel and possibly some international travel.
>
> Qualifications for this position include a
> demonstrated expertise and experience covering
> Muslim cultures, history, political trends.
>
> Fluency or a working knowledge of Arabic is highly
> preferred.
>

When a news story pops up which would make Muslims look not very sophisticated, educated, or even rational all the media outlets eat it up. You may recall recent news stories such as the Muhammad Teddy Bear incident and Honor Killings in the US.

Well I received an email recently from angry Muslims asking me to sign a petition to ask Wikipedia to remove images of Muhammad from its page on Muhammad (S) linked under the entry on Islam. I refrained from commenting on it at the time. Now Nytimes has picked up on it. So I guess its time to speak up. Like most stupid Muslim issues, ignoring them is not enough in hopes of having them go away. So sometimes these issues need to be responded to. Many times to help Muslims understand what the correct Islamic viewpoint is on a situation.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which allows users to contribute to its pages. Wikipedia has set guidelines to follow for its users. The issue at hand is that after the Cartoon Controversy stirred up by a Danish Cartoonist Muslims have become very sensitive about any and all depictions of the prophet (peace be upon him).

In an effort to gain support for his children’s freedom from slavery, the newly freed American slave Abdul Rahman once wrote out what was supposed to be the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic.

Years later, it was discovered that he had actually written out Surah Al-Fatihah, the opening chapter of the Qur’an.

After forty years of crushing servitude in a strongly Christian land, this former African prince still remained faithful to Allah, with the memory of His words still in his heart and mind.

After the ICNA Convention I was doing some searching on youtube to see what people put up. I found this. after subscribing to this user I got hooked on their videos. They have come up with one of the funniest home made videos sketches I have seen in a while:

A team of 3 brothers: Ismaeil, Hassan + another brother (don’t know his name) and their friend Abdullah are really creative and deserve to be commended, and have their videos subscribed to. I love how Ismael makes stuff up as he goes along.

Here’s some more videos from Shadibadoo that I really like:

I have seen this film in its entire length. It’s really good. So good that it won at the Tribeca Film Festival this year for Best Documentary Short. I also had the pleasure of working with Musa Sayeed and Yoni Brook (the producers and director) of this film on a short documentary of the AerosolArabic USA Arts and Islam Tour. You can view an early version of the documentary they working on for that tour here.

A Son’s Sacrifice is about:

 Today I decided to visit the Manhattan Toyota dealership located on 645 11th Ave. I was responding to the following advertisement:

{gallery}toyotaad/{/gallery} 

I saw the fine print and shady wording being used. It states it has 0%
deals for up to 60 months. In the fine print it says only on select
models. So my wife calls in and specifically asks if "Camy Hybrids are
available at 0% apr for 60 months). So the sales person says come right
in tomorrow and schedules an appointment with the manager (Genie).
When I get there around noon time Genie is busy and asks me to talk to
Jean, a West African gentleman who seemed pretty likable.  

Right off the bat I tell Jean that I am only interested if they are
offering the Camry Hybrid at 0% apr for 60 months. He first takes us to the showroom to look at the car. A Muslim finance guy says salaam to us and tells Jean to come to him if he needs anything and he wants to take care of us. Jean takes the advert
and goes to discuss it with someone. He comes back with a sheet which
more or less looked like this. 
So he says the Camry, Hybrid in particular is not part of this specific
sale. So then he looks into my credit and comes back praising my credit
score and says that maybe they can do something because of my great
credit history. He asks me if I want to make a downpayment and I agree
on paying $500 as a down payment. Then I go for Jummah (Friday Prayers)
and come back.

In an attempt to come out with more posts which are less maintenance
heavy, I'm starting a new category on my blog where I'll just post a
bunch of cool links every few days. 

"What Polls About US Muslims Don't Tell You "
http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=P1923_0_24_0

Republication Presidential Candidate causing controversy by saying blow back caused 911:
This is how it started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7d_e9lrcZ8
More here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD9eO7qToTk

The Nation coverage of Republication Conference.. this thing is hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByLqJD36F7E

Simpons Mock Fox News and Fox itself:
http://www.hahmed.com/blog/2007/05/22/the-simpsons-on-fox-news-vs-the-liberal-media/

{mos_sb_discuss:15}

I was able to take the wife to see Game 2 of the Subway Series this Saturday at Shea. It was a real fun game to watch and experience live. Mets won 10 to 7. There were many yankee fans in attendance which made the back and forth chants interesting.

David Wright blasted home runs in first two at bats. Then he was intentionally walked his next 3 batting appearances. Everytime they chose to walk him, the fans chanted: “Yankees Suck! Yankees Suck!” That took the cake for me. I loved it! When the game was over the chants continued while the mass mob was exiting the stadium, on the ramp all you heard was a thunderous echo of a chant which went a little something like this: “Sweep, Sweep, Sweep!”

I overpaid $50 per ticket on stubhub (including commission and shipping) but I think it was well worth it. Thank God the weather complied. Sitting in the upper deck towards the back does have its caveats (a little roof to block out the rain!)

One thing that annoyed was that we had seats in the Non-alcoholic section, but all these people were buying beers from inside and bringing them to our section. May Allah Guide them. Shea should be a little more strict about that. I also had real problems trying to find kosher hot dogs even though their site does say they have them in some select places. Fan services pointed us to section 12 in Mezzanine, but we didn’t find anything there. Can’t wait till the day they have halal hot dogs.

I’ll put some pics up when I get a chance.

{mos_sb_discuss:7}