How Does One Go From Ordinary to Extraordinary?

*Inspired by Mohammed Bouazizi*

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” - Jimmy Johnson 

When I was in primary school, my teacher asked the class 'Do you believe that one person can change the world?' We all thought for a few seconds and NO was the resounding answer. At the grand old age of eight or so, Princess Diana came to mind and I remember pondering 'well, she's just one person and she has changed the world', of course at eight though, the world is not much bigger than my My Little Pony lunchbox. Then I reconsidered that she was royalty and from money, she was no ordinary person so therefore she didn't count. It's 17 years later and I still wonder if our answers would have been the same. Even more importantly, do I think, now, at 25 years old, older but apparently none the wiser, if one person can truly change the world?

Some of the most famous figures in history and in the present whom I think have changed the world are people such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Ghandi. They suffered injustice and assassination but moreover changed the entire political landscapes of their racist countries. And without actually becoming politicians.

'Stop injustice with your hands, if you cannot, try to stop it with your tongue, if you cannot even do that then at least hate injustice with your heart, although that is the lowest degree of faith'. Prophet Muhammad (saw).

There have been countless times when I have had time to myself, whether on the bus or waiting in a queue, that I get into such a tizzy in my head over various injustices around the world, to the point where my face is in a full blown frown and heart starts physically straining. Now I am an adult, how do I go about from simply hating wrong with my heart to stopping it with my hand? Actually changing the world?

Class doesn't equal classy

One of the things you can describe Britain as is as a nation of animal lovers. This makes me proud, especially coming from a minority background who generally do not care for the welfare of animals, to put it mildly. Walking friend's dogs even when they were puppies, I noticed the ethnic divisions between those who hated dogs and those who adored them (British). Generally speaking, those from a South Asian background and East African background react in the following ways, say things like 'I don't do dogs fam' or have a look of absolute terror in their eyes, or simply run away, there was even a time where a mother started throwing stones at the sight of a friend's pug (pictured below). Children are not naturally scared of animals, they generally love them, it is their parents' prejudices from back home which influences their prejudices, where there are stray and dangerous animals, then when these kids grow up they end up feeling the same as their parents. God love em but parents can also be stupid sometimes.

On a different note, in Islam we are meant to treat all animals well, the Prophet (saw) would even take ants out of harms way and in one Hadith (stories) a woman's sins are forgiven because she gave a thirsty dog water from a well. The animals we slaughter are free range, and are meant to be treated well. They also have a quick, relatively painless death through severing a jugular vein. Muslims are seen as 'hating' dogs but that is simply not the case, or it is not meant to be. Dogs have only been domesticated in recent years and so were previously unhygienic and unsuitable to keep as pets. The last time I checked all animal and human saliva and excretion were impure and unhygienic so how the perception of dogs came from simply being unclean to almost evil is beyond me. In any case, just because it is not advisable to keep certain animals for matters of convenience and hygiene this does not mean it is ok to hate an animal. This was the jist of my rant at my own dad a few weeks ago when my sister and I mentioned the cute German Shepherd puppy next door, to which my dad retorted that it looked like 'a black pig'. Speaking of pigs, they are not detested either, they are simply not permissible to eat because of their digestive nature i.e. eating their own faeces and anything they can get their trotters on. This is mentioned in the holy books of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

But even in 'indigenous' Britain there appears to be a division when it comes to fox hunting. When the bill to ban fox hunting was going through, it was the most debated bill of that entire year, consuming hundreds of hours of parliamentary time, and I thought the French parliament was bad... In the Metro last week, there were those defending fox hunting, the theme which I can pick out amongst the drivel is that in rural areas especially, fox are pests... Poor poor rich people... a Parliament filled with toffs should probably mean the amount of time spent debating the issue should come as no surprise. I wonder what fox hunting defenders think of Spanish and Portuguese bull fighting where the animal is repeatedly stabbed, as opposed to getting torn to shreds alive by a pack of dogs, both for the sport and amusement of the real beasts; elitist humans.

 

Notorious Tory boy asked me if I was for or against.
Me: 'to be honest I don't know much about the subject but as a general principle I'm against the lynching of and unnecessary cruelty towards animals'.

TB: 'did you know that when the government banned fox hunting there had to be so many beagles put down because they (rich land owners) then had no use for them.'

Dazed and confused I said 'nobody forced beagle owners to put them down.'

TB: 'they had to because those dogs were specifically bred and trained for hunting.'

So not only did these fox hunters indulge in this blood sport but they also did not want the hassle of keeping beagles alive if they were no longer useful for this game! Thus proving that 'class' doesn't equal class.

An excerpt from a piece about fox hunting
Due to frequent hunting, the fox population has significantly dropped. Hunting is nowadays confined to merely chasing the animals to holes in the ground. On the other hand, in early times the earth was blocked up overnight to prevent the foxes from escaping into the ground. They were chased for hours so that they die in extreme stress and fatigue. If at all they escape, they gradually die of heart-lung bleeding, brain injury or pneumonia. Once they are dug out from the ground, instead of shooting them, men throw them to the waiting-dogs to tear them alive. Sometimes they are killed simply by bopping their heads with spade. 


See also http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/

Obedient Wives Club

"In Islam, if the husband wants sex and the wife is not in the mood, she has to give in to him. If not, the angels will curse her."

So says the Obedient Wives Club, the Muslim Malaysian group. The name of the club itself sounds like a parody, haven't they seen the absolutely epic comedy First Wives Club? I have to admit I fell into that trap of overreacting when I read the reports on them but as I read further I wasn't so abhorrently offended. As can be inferred from the name, their book is about their version of 'Muslim' sex, which includes being a '1st class prostitute', they also claim that only 10% of women satisfy their husbands in the bedroom. I would be interested to know how they collected this data.


Why does the media always seem to find and publicise the Muslim loony bins of the world but not the others? These stories inevitably provoke a barrage of ignorant and disgusting comments on websites including, 
'Let's see now if the wife is only supplying 10% of the woman's needs; so even with the maximum allowable of 4 wives only 40% of his needs are satisfied, there's still another 60% to be supplied by slave girls, boys, livestock or some combination of these'.
  
Muslims are clearly unfairly held up by the media and people who think they have enough knowledge to comment, as if Muslims are another human species, if human at all. If you are a Muslim, you did that bad thing because you are a Muslim. My Name is Khan anyone?? 'There are two types of people in the world - good and bad' No?... They are not infallible, and are clearly human and of course behave like complete retards sometimes just like everyone else (although that would be offensive to retards). Hence the title of their book 'Islamic Sex, Fighting Jews to Return Islamic Sex to the World', which is obviously indefensible. Someone actually woke up and one day and though hmmmm this title is appropriate and such a good idea!


Aside from the offensive and unnecessary title, if someone thinks that with all the problems going on in the world, that the effort to persuade women to be subservient makes their life worthwhile than fine. But I would like to let them know of a quote from Lord Byron in 'Don Juan' 
'Man's love is of man's life, a thing apart, 'tis woman's whole existence'. Sad but apparently true in this instance.



With regard to the introductory quote, it is a manipulation of a Hadith - sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, some of which are more verified than others according to legitimacy of the source and how many people heard it etc, inevitably some are just pure poppycock; a Chinese whisper of sorts. The actual quote is not about sex but making your spouse angry, basically a ye olde variation of 'don't go to bed angry'. I don't know whether it is verified, but whether it is or not, it is also applicable to the husbands. Which was SO conveniently missed out, surprise surprise mainstream media, whenever would they do such a thing?! 

As I've said previously, women all over the world fall into the trap of conforming to what men want or dismiss them to be. Let's look at what Islam really says, that husbands and wives should appease each other MUTUALLY and start an OBEDIENT HUSBANDS CLUB.


See http://raraproductions.blogspot.com/ & http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/