There is a sweetness in marriage. Wholesome. Yet dizzying. Like when your diabetic grandmother eats a kilo of burfee on Eid day. Burfee is like crack for old Indian ladies with diabetes. We dont get a lot of crack this side. All the kids are killing themselves with deodrant and mr min.
Sai Baba passed away two months ago and I was quite disappointed with the forwarded crap I got on BBM (I get a lot of crap, but thats for another blog) Lots of jokes and things from some of my muslim friends. I didnt agree with some of Sai Baba's philosophies (I agreed with a lot of what he preached too) but i'm sick of the intolerance shown by Muslim friends towards other religions.
And its not just the jokes about Sai Baba, but this general culture of forwarding unverified nonsense. It is so easy to click retweet, or share or broadcast something that often people do it without thinking. We dont even realise that some of these forwards lead us away from Islam - I got one today about the Mayan apocolypse (I was hoping the crappy John Cusack movie would have stifled these forwards) and the guy ended the broadcast message with - this is no joke - qiyamat is on 21 December 2012. No one apart from God knows when the last day will come. No one.
Then we have all the 'this is haraam, that is haraam' forwards - some of which dont even make sense. McCain peas are haraam now? really. Which idiot thinks that the peas are contaminated by pork?
This is a double edged sword - The internet as a medium differs from traditional media - in many way it is like (spoiler alert) the deformed baby at Kings Cross in the last Harry Potter book - sometimes you just need to ignore it. By making a big noise about websites just creates awareness. The internet is a pull media, meaning that you actually seek out what you want - like when you google a product. This is different from traditional media which is push - like television. Internet sites depend on hits, and this increases their value. However, sometimes making a noise works - some asshole created a facebook page called 'My name is Khan 2010' to slander and insult Hindus. Not many people knew about it at first, but once it was publicised, the groundswell was enough for the admin folks at facebook to sit up and take notice.
We live in an information age, yet the degree of ignorance and intolerance is shocking. Black eyed Peas asked - Where is the Love?, As my boy Zain Bhikha says - First we need the love. As Sai Baba said - The mind sees separateness, LOVE sees unity.
My name is Khan and I am not a bigot
MJ
And its not just the jokes about Sai Baba, but this general culture of forwarding unverified nonsense. It is so easy to click retweet, or share or broadcast something that often people do it without thinking. We dont even realise that some of these forwards lead us away from Islam - I got one today about the Mayan apocolypse (I was hoping the crappy John Cusack movie would have stifled these forwards) and the guy ended the broadcast message with - this is no joke - qiyamat is on 21 December 2012. No one apart from God knows when the last day will come. No one.
Then we have all the 'this is haraam, that is haraam' forwards - some of which dont even make sense. McCain peas are haraam now? really. Which idiot thinks that the peas are contaminated by pork?
This is a double edged sword - The internet as a medium differs from traditional media - in many way it is like (spoiler alert) the deformed baby at Kings Cross in the last Harry Potter book - sometimes you just need to ignore it. By making a big noise about websites just creates awareness. The internet is a pull media, meaning that you actually seek out what you want - like when you google a product. This is different from traditional media which is push - like television. Internet sites depend on hits, and this increases their value. However, sometimes making a noise works - some asshole created a facebook page called 'My name is Khan 2010' to slander and insult Hindus. Not many people knew about it at first, but once it was publicised, the groundswell was enough for the admin folks at facebook to sit up and take notice.
We live in an information age, yet the degree of ignorance and intolerance is shocking. Black eyed Peas asked - Where is the Love?, As my boy Zain Bhikha says - First we need the love. As Sai Baba said - The mind sees separateness, LOVE sees unity.
My name is Khan and I am not a bigot
MJ
