MR's Blog » Entertainment

Kareem Salaama – Generous Peace Music Video

MR — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:18:36 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

I want to see this on MTV.

Arabic version:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Amir Khan takes down Jewish Boxer Dmitriy Salita

MR — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:15:05 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Skip to 5 minutes. Dimitriy Salita is actual an orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, New York. Here is a video about him:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Makkah safe from 2012 Apocalypse Movie

MR — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:24 +0000

But Emmerich was thinking of something even more explosive: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building at the heart of Mecca, the focus of prayers and the Islamic pilgrimage called the Hajj; it is one of Islam’s holiest sites.

Really?

“Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit,” Emmerich says. “But my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right. … We have to all … in the Western world … think about this. You can actually … let … Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have … a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it’s just something which I kind of didn’t [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out.”

Source

No offense, but I wouldn’t care if the movie portrayed it. It’s not real. And even if something like that was to happen, Muslims don’t have to protect it. God protects it. We also don’t worship it. We worship God. Also the article forgot about Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and all non-Christian holy sites. The movie doesn’t attack any of those.

UPDATE: Qaradawi to oversee – Producer of Movies, “The Matrix” and “The Lord of the Rings” in discussions for a movie about Prophet Muhammad (s)

MR — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:37:39 +0000

UPDATE: Sh. Yusuf al-Qaradawi will be overseeing the filming. (source)

Here is a list of Barrie Osborne’s movies he was part of.

The only other movie I can think of was the old school 70s movie, “The Message” (or “Muhammad: The Messenger of God”) by Moustapha Akkad. I liked it and it does a good job with respecting the teachings of Islam as well as the historical accounts. I hope this one goes in to a bit more detail

A film about the Prophet Mohammad backed by the producer of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Matrix” is under discussion, a Qatar media firm said on Sunday, aiming to create an English-language blockbuster for the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

Filming of the $150 million movie is set to start in 2011, with Barrie Osborne as its producer, Alnoor Holdings said.

Alnoor said the film – in which the Prophet would not be depicted, in accordance with Islamic strictures – was in development and talks were being held with studios, talent agencies and distributors in the United States and Britain.

The company launched a $200-million international film fund on Oct. 31 to invest in film projects amid tight financing in the wake of the financial crisis and plans to focus on Hollywood.

Alnoor said it aimed to attract the “best international talent” to star in the motion picture.

The company was set up this year to take advantage of economic opportunities in the entertainment industry, focusing on international film production, Arabic production and animation.

Source

America still has a long way to go – People still think Obama is a Muslim – LOL!

MR — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:56:38 +0000

I can’t believe these people exist today.

Amir Junaid formerly known as Loon (from P. Diddy’s Bad Boys) on AlJazeera English

MR — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Related posts:Remember Loon (Rapper from P. Diddy’s “I need a Girl”) – Meet Amir Junaid Native Deen Shines! 786 Boys Whines. Amir Khan takes down Jewish Boxer Dmitriy Salita

ISNA 2009 – Video Blogging – Pork Sucks, AlMaghrib, AlMadina, and Baba Ali

MR — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:38:53 +0000

Pork Sucks with Br. Haroon:

AlMaghrib Booth with Br. Mobeen (Ameer of Qabeelat Nurayn):

AlMadina Booth with Br. Irfan:

Baby Ali takes my camera:

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf on the Death of Michael Jackson

MR — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:54:19 +0000

Shock Dead, Everybody’s Gone Mad: Reflections on the Death of Michael Jackson
By Hamza Yusuf

On the news
Everybody’s dog food
Bang bang
Shock dead
Everybody’s gone mad…

From “They Don’t Care About Us” by Michael Jackson

As a little boy, Michael Jackson had an extraordinary charisma — as well as an absolute innocence — that was disarmingly charming. It captivated millions of Americans and eventually people around the world.

As the years went by, his career took strange turns and he slowly turned white, transforming his face eerily into a pale and ghastly masque, perhaps to conceal the pain of alienation from his own self and family. He was also rumored to have unsavory predilections that would never have been suggested if one used the rigorous criteria of Islam before hurling an accusation. Despite the rumors, he appeared to have had a genuine concern for children, wanting to provide them with a world that was denied to him as a child due to the abuses he claimed to have suffered.

I was very happy for him last year when he reportedly became a Muslim. He had apparently followed the footsteps of his dignified and intelligent brother, Jermaine, who converted to Islam 20 years ago and found peace. It seemed befitting that Michael sought refuge from a society that thrives on putting people on pedestals and then knocking them down. He was accused of many terrible things, but was guilty of perhaps being far too sensitive for an extremely cruel world. Such is the fate of many artistic people in our culture of nihilistic art, where the dominant outlet for their talents is in singing hollow pop songs or dancing half-naked in front of ogling onlookers who often leave them as quickly as they clung to them for the next latest sensation.

In the manner of Elvis or the Beatles, Michael is unwittingly both a cause and a symptom of America’s national obsession with celebrity, currently on display in the American Idol mania. Celebrity trumps catastrophe every time. Far too few of us make any attempt to understand why jobs are drying up, why mortgages are collapsing, why we spend half-a-trillion dollars to service the interest on the national debt, why our government’s administration, despite being elected on an anti-war platform, is still committed to two unnecessary and unjust wars waged by the earlier administration, wars that continue to involve civilians casualties on an almost daily basis. Instead, we drown in trivia, especially trivia related to celebrity. And the response to Michael’s death is part of the trivial pursuits of American popular culture. The real news about death in America is that twenty Iraq and Afghan war veterans are committing suicide every day. But that does not make the front page nor is it discussed as seriously as the King of Pop’s cardiac arrest.

Nevertheless, Michael’s very public death notice is a powerful reminder that no matter how famous or talented or wealthy one is, death comes knocking, sometimes sooner than later. Michael has now entered a world of extraordinary perception, a world that makes his “Thriller” video seem mundane. It is a world of angels and demons, and questions in the grave, a world where fame is based upon piety and charity. Given Michael’s reported conversion to Islam last year, Muslims count him as one of our own, and we pray that he can finally find the peace he never found in this world and that he is in a place, God willing, of mercy, forgiveness, and solace.

Imam Zaid Shakir – Upon The Passing of Michael Jackson

MR — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:00:05 +0000

Like the light of a meteor streaking across the crisp, cold, clear sky of a winter’s night, Michael Jackson, streaked across the sky defining this country’s cultural horizons. None of us coming of age in urban America will forget Michael’s debut onto the public stage with his brothers as part of the phenomenally successful Jackson 5. Hit after hit, “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” “I’ll Be There,” rocketed up the Billboard Charts to number one. I can still reel them all off from memory some forty years later. For better or worse, they are indelibly etched into my mind, and have played a part in defining my soul.

Although I was a couple of years older than Michael, I joined the ranks of unsuccessful Michael Jackson wannabes. At the time it seemed worth the effort as all of girls had gone head over heels for Michael, and just a fraction of his dynamic appeal could reap huge dividends in terms of one’s popularity. The ‘hood was in love with Michael and he apparently had the talent to fulfill the lofty and ever increasing expectations placed upon his slim young shoulders.

However, as the sixties rolled, or limped, into the seventies and the Jackson 5 began to cool off, eventually leaving the Motown label that had launched their incredible success, many of my friends, as well as myself, were attracted to different musical genres, more mature fare. Topping my personal list was WAR, Stevie Wonder, Santana, and Mandrill. I also began to listen to a lot of jazz, and accumulated quite a large album collection. Whenever, I received my weekly wages from whatever job I was engaged in at the time, and I had many in my youth –security guard, lathe operator, UPS warehouseman—I would head straight to the record store and add to my collection.

What I couldn’t afford to buy, I would get from the radio, my preferred listening hours were three and four o’clock in the morning, when the brother manning the controls at an FM station coming out of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut would put out some serious jazz. I would stay awake listening until just before dawn, sleep a couple of hours and drag myself off to work.

As the years went by I lost that passion for music. Perhaps my waning interest was aided by my little nephews who turned part of my album collection into a stack of customized frisbees when I went off to the Air Force in 1976. It was definitely aided by Islam. After my conversion in 1977, there was no one around to tell me that music was Haram (forbidden). However, as I grew in the religion, the enchanting melodies of the Qur’an became far more appealing than the increasingly commercialized musical fare. For example, George Benson’s offerings starting sounding more like Muzak than the rifts of a jazz purist who rivaled Wes Montgomery.

I would eventually give away what was left of my record collection. At the time I had left the Air Force and was studying in Washington DC at American University. However, I lived a few blocks from Howard University. I drove over to one of the used music vendors on the edge of the campus and made his day as I unloaded a box of cassette tapes and albums.

During those years I had lost touch with what Michael Jackson was doing. I knew he had “blown up” as the young folks say today and that as a solo performer he was reaching heights of fame and popularity that not even Elvis had obtained. I would also read in the tabloids that caught my eyes as I waited to check out at the grocery store of the increasingly strange exploits Michael was involved in, the plastic surgeries, something about the bones of the Elephant Man, sleeping in a transparent, refrigerated crypt, the allegations of sexual abuse, the fantasy ranch in California, and on and on.

It was obvious that Michael was troubled. For sure the physical and psychological abuse visited upon him by a sick father was a large part of the problems that were plaguing Michael as he moved further into his adult years. Surely, the childhood that was denied him as he was thrust into the sinful rigors of show business at the tender age of eight, opening for strip tease acts on the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” in smoke-filled rooms wreaking of alcohol, was part of his troubles. Surely, the confusion of being caught between a devout mother struggling to raise her children as Jehovah’s Witnesses and a fanatically strict, violent and profligate father was part of Michael’s problem.

But I was only able to catch glimpses and snippets of Michael’s life from a distance, hearing a bit here from a well-meaning niece, or catching a bit there on television, before I would take Jerry Mander’s advice and relegate my television to the garbage heap. If Michael was becoming a side show he wasn’t performing for me. Caught up in Islamic activism, during a time my friends and I refer to as “the heady days of the revolution” I had little time to reflect on such matters, I was too busy doing my part to change the world.

However, last year Michael’s name came up again. A good friend who is a reliable source of information called and said that Michael had become Muslim. Allah knows best if he did or did not. However, Michael was no stranger to the religion, having been exposed to it by his brother Jermaine, who had converted to the faith in 1989.*

Now Michael is gone. Hopefully, he had found peace in Islam. Hopefully, the tears he cried in the privacy of his oftentimes lonely world, tears described by Smokey Robinson as those of a clown, shed when no one’s around, had dried. Michael was an icon, a pain-filled, troubled icon, and like many of comparable stature before him, and inevitably many after him, his fall was sudden and unexpected. Hopefully, his faith, if he did indeed convert to Islam, helped to cushion that fall.

* An earlier version of this article mentioned that Dawud Warnsby had assisted in Michael Jackson’s conversion to Islam. He has denied that. This article has been amended to exclude that claim. In writing this essay, I was given information from sources I considered reliable that Michael had indeed become Muslim. Obviously, the part about Dawud Warnsby is not true. However, there have been many reports throughout the media concerning Michael becoming Muslim. Allah knows best as to their veracity.

Source

Jermaine Jackson – “And may Allah be with you Michael always. I love you.”

MR — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:35:26 +0000

Speaking on behalf of Jackson’s family, his brother, Jermaine, said doctors had tried to resuscitate the star for more than an hour without success.

He added: “The family request that the media please respect our privacy during this tough time.”

“And Allah be with you Michael always. I love you.”

Source

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon.