The [[Tipton Three]] are the focus of this film. The film is mainly based on their account and is accompanied by their on camera narrative, although their parts are played out by actors. Their story overall matches well with what their written accounts have been. Although there are some discreprencies for example in their written accounts they talk about being given injections whose contents were never shared with them. This is not shown in the movie at all. The level of sexual harassment is almost downplayed in this movie while accounts from other Britons say that prostitutes would be bought into the cells of pious younger males in order to crack their faith. That isn’t mentioned in the film. Although they show a brief scene where one of the three is being interrogated and is given a dirty magazine which he chucks and then is riddiculed for his action.

The most touching part of the film for me was seeing them make prayer in Jamaat (collective prayer) from their cells which were pretty spread out. After seeing guards try to discourage people from practicing thier religion, even those who were irrelegious started to gravitate towards a more spiritual mindset. That is an amazing thing, after all the unfounded abuse and punishment faith is what allows them to go on. On a television interview I saw the three explaining that they would see people go insane, and would think I can’t let them get to me, I can’t let myself go crazy. I mean what else would happen when people would be hog tied and put into a chamber which music would be blasted on a level beyond what the ear drums can bare for 1-5 hours. Or when a group of Guards would storm in wearing Riot gear and pounce on someone who in in an anorexic like state.

Alot of Muslims are amazed that these guys are actually being able to tell their story through a full length theatrical film. I think everyone needs to see this. This film gives a human face to these so called “[[enemy combatants]]” especially ones who clearly were not even fighters. Even those who were fighting, do they deserve the type of abuse they have received? These three lost 3 years of their lives. All for what? Going off into a foreign country to explore what was out there. As one of the tipton three said.. he doesn’t regret that this happened because this experience has made him a better, stronger person. I feel ashamed at not having been able to shed a tear after watching this film twice.
You can’t help but wonder what you would do if you were in their shoes. They were really smart to admit to things which were IMPOSSIBLE for them to do (which could be proven otherwise). I believe the fact that they were British really helped them alot because if they were American theres no way that anyone would have tried to find out if these guys were innocent or not. They would have been quickly chalked up as another victory in the war on terror, and the media spin applied to a government announcement today is almost irreversible.

If you can’t find a theater playing this film, make sure to get the DVD when it comes out. Btw the MPAA banned the poster above. Make sure to download it from the official site and post it on your blogs.

Relevant Links: Official Site | Google Video Trailer | Denounce Torture Action Guide by Amnesty International

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All the technology and the weaponry that will take a few years to
develop won’t be ready to be used in our current conflict areas. So
obviously this means that there must be future wars in which these new
weapons will be made use of on the battlefield (if such a concept even
exists in the modern world). These weapons won’t be replaced with new
ones till these become obsolete. People who are getting paid will be
used to getting paid. Defense contracts can’t be a short term thing for
them. Its sad to see so many people in the technology sector
(including Muslims) chasing that “911 money”. I’m coining that term,
all rights reserved.

I also recently saw Jarhead which sucked, but did a decent job of showing how soldiers think. I wonder if soldiers would like to watch a film which breaks down why they really get sent all over the world. You can imagine that most wouldn’t want to know because knowing would make their lives really difficult.

Relevant Links: Purchase at Amazon | Official Movie Site

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Here is the synopsis from the official website :

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation’s grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a “person” to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?” Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

[yeah I was too lazy to use my own words :)]

I personally thought the usage of the most popular/powerful leftists out there (Chomsky, Zinn, Moore) was total overkill. If they stuck to the interviews of the industry insiders the documentary would not and could not simply be tinged as leftist propoganda. The intended audience is unclear… is this film supposed to be a startup packet for wanna be hardcore leftists, or is it supposed to appeal to those who just don’t know about the nature of corporations?

The ammount of research and effort which went into putting this film together is pleasantly surprising (unlike most independent films). The quality of artwork and animation are even more surprising. My favorite part of the documentary is when all the traits of a psycopath are attributed to modern day corporations. The idea was borrowed [plug and play] from a book written by Joel Bakan. The most powerful part of the film was definitely the interviews which were done. You can see a list of all the people interviewed and thier backgrounds on the [url=http://www.thecorporation.com]official website[/url]

I didn’t get the DVD yet, but I am thinking about it. It has many extras which may be worth checking out. You can add this to your collection of films to lend to your ignorant Gungho Republican neighbor. Also for those involved in education this would be great for a classroom environment. I am hoping someone does some documentaries on things like the stock market, its culture, its flaws, and weak points and also I would love to see a film about the mysteries surrounding how interest rates work and effect the world. When Greenspan makes a statement it has an immediate impact on the stock market. I am wondering if this is too dry of a subject to do a film on. Afterall ecnomics is boring as hell.

I just want to add that it took me quite a while to finish watching this… because either it was too much info to digest in one sitting, or I couldn’t find three hours to just watch it. So one day at work. I left it playing in the corner of my screen while I did my work.

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I thought it was well written although there were some typos. If I can catch on to typos then you know that’s bad. It doesn’t seem like an editor proof read this before publishing it. The publisher is a new kid on the block and is clearly trying to put out some good quality works so I will give them support for that. http://www.faithpublications.org/ is their website.

Back to the book. This book is from a sisters view who gets a Marriage proposal. Hands down the best part of the book was the exchange between the sister who was being proposed to and her mother. The sister was not happy with the fact that the person proposing was not practicing Islam yet her parents liked him. The mother threw a fit accusing her of thinking that she knows all about Islam while she knows nothing. And she went on and on to say that she had single handedly ruined her dreams and aspirations (because she wasn’t interested in this guy). This was the best part because it captured the real life drama which takes place in homes when the issue of marriage comes out. It showed that the sister was appalled that her parents who are active in the community could even entertain a proposal from someone who doesn’t have slightest care in the world about the akhira and his relationship with his lord.

The weird part of the book was how the daughters were all goody two shoes. It almost gave the impression that Islam is supposed to turn your family relations into that of the Brady Bunch. Even the fights between siblings were sappy. The daughters were all into helping the mother cook and do chores. My sister said “this book is so patriarchal” that seems to be her favorite word at the moment.

Finally, what was up with the missing happy ending? It was clear that the other brother was an ideal candidate for the main character but we get left hanging at the end. And what if the father never witnessed the bridegroom to be purchasing liquor? In real life that coincidence would probably not have occurred and realistically speaking her life would have been ruined if she ended up with that guy. Also his mother was made out to be totally evil. I don’t think those kinds of villainous characters really exist except for maybe in Disney movies.

I know this was a work of fiction but in reality issues like marriage have real life consequences. This point wasn’t driven home that well. Although the author did a great job of highlighting the expectations of a practicing Muslim sister going into marriage or the marriage process. I think this book would be a good read for parents who don’t have a clue, brothers who want to marry a religious sister but aren’t practicing, and everyone who is obsessed with marriage (because they aren’t married yet)

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There is over an hours worth of video of the show on the site. It’s really worth watching. If you care about the issue even if you don’t watch the film and watch this documentary you would be better off.

I had actually watched this (ghosts of Rwanda) before so I knew a lot about the political issues they tried to cover in the film (Hotel Rwanda). I thought it was excellent how they quoted word for word statements made by U.N. and U.S. officials in Hotel Rwanda. Some of the things coming out of the white house are just horrific to hear. Politically this film has good timing because it coincides with what is going on in Darfur and brings attention to the issue of ethnicly motivated massacres/genocide.

There is a segment on the PBS film called “The Man Everybody Remembers” it’s about a Senegalese (Muslim) U.N. peace officer who helped save an incredible amount of lives. Which is very similar to the main character in the Hotel Rwanda.

There was something that really annoyed me about the film. They show alcohol being consumed and served so many times… I dont know maybe its just because I’m such a Muslim. It was really irritating to see it continuously. It was like a subliminal message to get drunk or something. I wonder if I would be as offended if they kept eating pork.

This might sound really weird. But I think this film could have been a little bit more graphic. I don’t think we can truly ever understand how horrible it is to have half of your neighborhood coming to kill you and your entire family. Actually try to picture that for a moment. Reminds me of what happened in Gujrat. If theres anything we can learn from this situation is that we all have the potential to do spectacular things if God blesses us. But just as their is potential for good to take place anywhere, there is potential for ignorance and mischief to spread. I couldn’t believe how the hutus took over the radio waves.. that is super scary stuff… things like that make you appreciate living in a liberal society in the west where most propoganda is done subliminaly and not overtly.

Also its very very interesting to note that in Rwanda after the genocide took place the number of Rwandans who are Muslims Doubled! Now they are at 14% of the entire population. Muslims helped hide people during the massacres and many Tutsis were killed in churches where they fled for safety. You can read a Washington Post article about that here. One of the segments of the pbs documentary also covers in great detail some massacres which took place at a church.

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I noticed something disturbing among the listeners. I found them divided into different groups. A question was put to me, as soon as I started my lecture, “What is your view on wasila?” I replied, “I guess you are not thinking about this issue alone. You will want to ask me whether the recitation of Surat al Kahf on Fridays is permissible or not, whether the word Sayyidina be prefixed to the name of the Holy Prophet or not? What is the position of the parents of the Holy Prophet after their death and where do they live now? Does the recitation of the Holy Quran reach the dead or not? Whether the present sittings of the sufis and men of Shari`ah should be considered sinful or a means of reaching Allah?” I related almost all the disputed questions that had divided them in the past. The man who asked the question was stunned by my response. He said: “Yes, I want to know all the answers to these questions!”

I replied, “My brother, I am not a religious scholar. I am just a teacher. I have learnt some verses of the Holy Quran and Hadith. I have also studied some Islamic topics and gained some knowledge of the Shariah. I am preaching Islam voluntarily. If you want to speak to me beyond this area, I would not be on sure grounds. If you like my lectures and feel that you have benefited, then pay attention and if you wish to know more, you are free to approach some other scholars. You can obtain opinions on these issues from scholars who are able to help you. Whatever I know, I have placed before you. Allah assigns responsibility to a person according to his capability.”

The man who had put the question to me was very much impressed by my talk and could not find the words with which to reply. I was thus able to avert the trouble and avoid a disturbance. Most of the listeners were satisfied with my explanation. Without losing the opportunity I addressed them: “My dear brethren, I know very well that the questioner, and most of you, wish to know to which party I belong. You also want to know whether I belong to the party of Shaykh Musa or Shaykh Abd al Sami [two leading scholars of the day representing rival theological camps. This kind of inquiry shall not prove helpful to you at all. You have wasted eight years on party politics and disputes, now you should refrain from it. We have differed on these matters for many centuries, yet the differences still exist. Allah likes our mutual love and unity and dislikes dissension and differences amongst us. Try to learn the principles of Islam and follow the Holy Quran and the Sunnah, so that your hearts are purged. Our aim should be to follow the tenets of Islam and not insist on any particular school of thought. If we have trust and love for one another, we shall be able to express our views in an atmosphere of confidence and understanding. I am sure that you will accept my advice and adhere to it.”

My appeal proved very effective. They agreed a pledge to co operate with one another in the spread of Islam and avoid issues of dispute. Every individual is free to have his opinion, until Allah Himself decides the matter. After this discussion we continued our preaching peacefully. Now, I made it a point to discuss topics that related to mutual love and co operation among men of faith. I tried my best to inculcate into them feelings of Islamic brotherhood. Sometimes I took up issues that were not in dispute among them. I tried to tell them how the pious people of the past exhibited tolerance for others, despite their differences of opinion.

The moral of the story is Fiqh should always be secondary to REAL Work in a communal setting.

This is not a full review, but then again this is one of those 80 page books which would be spoiled if talked about in detail. There are many awesome stories and instances from his life like this which are mentioned. I especially enjoyed reading about how he enjoined good and forbade the evil.

PURCHASE THIS BOOK

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Now for the Review:

First some background info. This new animated series was released in 2003 on MTV. For some odd reason MTV decided to drop it. Season One has 13 episodes.

As you can see from these ultra cool still images… this cartoon isn’t your 60s Spiderman nor is it your 90s Spiderman. CGI was used to make this cartoon. There are some matrix style scenes and there is some nifty new school artwork done to make this a truly modern day Spiderman. A very conscious effort was made to make this series hip to today’s realities. For example everyone carries a cell phone, and there are references to modern day pop culture. There are many little things like this which would be unheard of in the prior series but that’s part of what makes this so cool. Also it not just brings spiderman into the cyberage but also stays true to the original spiderman’s character and outlook. He still has that witty Humor.

Since the intended audience is an older one there are some unnecessarily haram things in this new Spiderman. Haram curvature to begin with. Secondly there are some adult like situations which would never be on the 90s cartoon. There are only a handful in the entire first season. But nonetheless its something you can’t dismiss, unfortunately its there. Again this was made for the MTV audience so that helps explain why. Another thing which would be unheard of in the past is that people actually die.

The Action scenes are really smooth and are very entertaining to watch. The graphic work is excellent. I wish every cartoon today met these production standards. Millions of dollars must have went into this. The entire season is available on DVD. I hope that someone will pick up the series so we can see a season two. Especially since season one ended in an exhilarating manner.

The Plot itself is reallly interesting since they introduce some new characters. Peter, Mary Jane, and Harry Osborne are living on campus at Columbia (off the bat) rather than in flushing, queens. Its interesting how they show a student protest going on at campus (like the real deal). I thought that was pretty interesting. Especially since the issue was about social justice. Most old school cartoons avoid the harsh realities of life (completely). While this was made to be a tad more realistic OR more in tune with our reality. I was surprised to see King Pin so early on. The story was changed up quite a bit from the classical versions. Also there was no aunt May (thank god). What’s even more interesting is that peter gets into a situation with a girl other than MJ, ha. Which was really funny, esp since they portrayed her to be….. OK, I don’t waint to spoil it.

I think this DVD is totally underpromoted. Barely anyone knows about it. Esp since MTV ditched it. It doesn’t even have it’s own website. But I commend it, and I recommend it for you to watch.

Check out these screen shots:

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here’s what he has to say about this DVD, which btw is 6 hours long!:

“I seriously give “One of a Kind” 5 stars and then some and I know that my fans will love it too. In fact, if you watch it, and you ain’t impressed (like, within the first two minutes of watching the menu page,) you ain’t human.”

And now here is what I have to say:

This 2-DVD Disc Set has totally overwhelmed me. I had many expectations of this DVD since RVD is my favorite wrestler.

Here is where it delivers:
-16 full length matches! and it’s against people like Sabu, Jerry Lynn, Lance Storm. Heck even the three WWE matches included were amazing.
-Commentary (alternative audio track) on two of the matches by Paul Heyman and Mr. Pay Per View himself. I wish there could have been commentary for all of the matches.. but hey you can’t expect everything.
-Some of the extras were cool such as the before they were supserstars bit.
- I particularly enjoyed how the film stepped through his career.
-I like the fact that they included one of his tag team matches with Sabu

What I think is missing:
In my opinion some of his best matches ever are missing:
-Summer Slam ‘02 Vs. Chris Benoit when he wins the IC title
-His performance in the first ever Elimination Chamber, he kicked butt
-His match against Brock Lesnar in 2002 King of the Ring tournament. His rivalry against Brock by itself needs was super cool.
-His hardcore match against Undertaker
-He had 2 excellent matches against HHH (one for the Worlds heavyweight championship, and the other a Canadian Lumberjack match). In both matches RVD schools HHH on matt skills.
-His match against the Rock on Smackdown when ECW made its invasion run.
-His ladder match against Eddie Guererro

There could have been a third DVD with all this cool stuff. But I guess they wanted to focus on his hardcore matches and the earlier part of his career. But this list shows how he has faced all the big names in the WWE and has always held his own. It’s a shame that they haven’t let him hold the title yet.

What irked me:
-Watching a clip where him and Sabu frog splash a guy on the table from opposite sides of the ring.. when the table brakes a huge piece tears through RVD’s eyelid.. that was pretty scary and gross. All the ECW hardcore matches made me feel kind of weird… as cool as it was, I couldn’t help but think how stupid it was. I mean sure I enjoyed seeing RVD come running from one side of the ring and leap over the top rope and land a few rows deep into the crowd right on Bam Bam Bigelow but I couldn’t help but feel a little queezy. Especially when RVD tossed Sabu onto a twisted chair.

I think the $14 bucks I paid was really worth it. Like I said it was overwhelming. I did not get to watch every single match in its entire length (6 hours is a long time to commit to watching wrestling matches!). And thats what makes this DVD so great. Since there is so much on it. It will take a long time to get tired of it. My father and grandfather were even really impressed. Usually I’d get yelled at for watching so much wrestling. But everytime I would put it on they would want to watch too.

Full Contents/Tracklist:

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One of my favorite segments on the documentary is when an al Jazeera reporter sits with an Army media correspondent in Qatar during the invasion of Iraq. The reporter poses some really tough questions drilling holes in the almost flimsy arguments put forward by the military officer. You can’t help but wonder if the officer reallly believes in what he is saying or if he is just doing his job. At one point his face totally turns red when he is caught off guard by a tough question.

Al Jazeera’s might is highlighted by showing how they take firm stances on issues like broadcasting images of captured soldiers and bodies of civiliains suffering from collateral damage (not to mention the broadcasting of Bin Ladens videos to the world). This has earned them condemnation from the White house as well as international noteriety. The height of their almost unreal defiance to the biggest military power in the world is shown when the documentary focuses on the death of one its reporters who was killed by an alleged balant U.S. attack on their position.

What was really interesting for me was to see the faces and personalities running the show. Also you get the sense that the people running it are very modernized i.e. most women do not wear hijab, most men do not have beards and smoke cigarettes. You get the sense that they are pretty western themselves yet are still highly critical of the west and its policies towards their turf, the Arab world. They make an attempt to show that they acknowledge that their journalism is biased towards the plight of the arab world therefore they show the pictures which other media outlets won’t. They see this as their moral duty to attempt to shed light on what they see as the eclipsed part of the debate.

For an American watching they would get the feeling of being a little more educated on the world. They may come to respect al Jazeera as a credible news organization. They may even turn to it as an alternate news source (which is truly an alternative), or they can at least go to it to get the Arab world’s prespective on the latest hot issue.

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The set overall was excellent mashallah. At the very end of the set Imam Suhaib revealed all the sources he used to prepare his presentations.. most of them were arabic texts.. so I can’t even remember what they were.

For those of who you have heard Imam Suhaib before are used to him giving very electrified slanged out speeches… but this set does not contain speeches…. you can clearly tell that he sat down and recorded this in a studio… so his style is different from when he is speaking to a crowd. Throughout the set Imam Suhaib attempts to draw paralells between our lives today and instances from the prophet’s (S) marriages in order to extract some lessons. In fact he touches on many issues that we face today (from interaction of the genders to spousal abuse). He attempts to clarify the role of women when it comes to Dawah (Islamic work), Societal Life (politics), and Family Life using the examples of the prophet’s wives. I believe that he successfully does this. He also puts emphasis on character building in light of the character exhibited by our mothers. For each wife, he gives the background of the wife, if she was married before, what her lineage was, under what circumstances was she married to the prophet, what trials she faced, what her personality was like, In what islamic sciences did she excel in, what were her major achievements, how was her relationship with the prophet, what role did she play amongst the believers, and finally how she died. Thats the basic setup he ran through for each wife.

Another criticism I have is that when he was covering Hadrat Aisha (r) he mentions the battle of Siffin… (where she (r) sided with hadrat Muawiyyah who was on the opposite side of Hadrat Ali (r). He mentions the battle but he never even gives the bakground to it. Anyone who doesnt already know about the battle would end up being confused. He could of at least stated where she stood on the issue which led to the conflict. I think this is something very crucial which we need to study. Yes we need to be careful when speaking about the questionable actions of the Ashaab… but if we treat this fact of history as a dark secret we’d only be hurting ourselves.

Inshallah I pray that one day I can retain knowledge the way Imam Suhaib who has been muslim for only about 10 years can!

Ohh yeah on CD01 he keeps quoting the Quran so this really slow reciter comes in… every 10 secs and starts putting me to sleep…. but thats only CD01 where he’s quoting a lot of Quran because he’s laying the foundation of the topic. It sounds much better in subsequent CDs.

Purchase the Mothers of the Believers Set

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Moore doesn’t fail to remind America how Bush got into office. In fact he reveals how it all went down! He shows previously unseen footage to the public where African American Congress members are shut down one after the other in a bid to point out election irregularities. In typical Michael Moorish Fashion he does some of his comical candid camera routines. He chases down congressmen trying to get them to sign up their kids to go to war, reads the patriot act to congress from an ice cream truck, interviews the mother of a fallen soldier, and talks to kids from the ghetto about feeling compelled to go to war to make some money. He does these skits in order to invoke sentiment from the viewers of the film. Many people leave the film feeling upset and angry at our current administration.

What makes this film so effective is the usage of hard hitting facts. Michael Moore has issued a challenge with a prize of $10,000 to anyone who can find a factual error in his film. On his website http://www.michaelmoore.com the references to every single fact presented in the film have been released. What were the Objections raised by Moore’s critics? “Lies?”, “Twisting Truth”, “Propaganda”, “Opinions posed as facts”, and “Personal Vendetta” were some of the many things which were said. A detailed comparison of the facts found in the 911 Commission Report and the facts presented in Fahrenheit 911 will also soon be available on the site.

In case the message behind the movie was not clearly understood Michael made his motives very clear during the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In a gathering not related to the DNC Moore stated: “… my appeal to the Nader voters, to the greens out there, is that we have a different job to do this year”. The prime objective is clearly to GET BUSH OUT. Michael Moore just doesn’t release films. He initiatives his action plans in the form of campaigns which mobilize the masses. Moore has encouraged people to hold group discussions on the film. When asked about file sharing he said that he has no problem with people sharing his film, as long as his message gets out. After 911 the common American has now become politically astute. Films like Fahrenheit 9/11 are ideal for snapping the average major news network watching apathetic American out of it. R&B singer Mary J Blige stated “I have to vote this year. After seeing that movie, I can’t do anything else”. Her sentiments are shared by many who have watched this film. This may have a tremendous impact on the November 2004 elections considering that in the year 2000 only 51.3% of people in the voting age population actually came out to cast their votes! After experiencing 911, and perhaps after watching Fahrenheit 911 this large pool of disinterested nonvoters will likely diminish.

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