Kuffiyah Kraze Spotting: In My Iris

A poem inspired by the sight a red and black kuffiyahs hanging underneath a "10 minute Cellphone Charge Service" in a tourist's haven on 6th avenue in between 15th and 14th street:

What is the power in a cultural symbol?
Do I honor what it was
What it became
Or what it is becoming?

I said: what is the power in a cultural symbol?
Function, freedom, or freemarket

Function
Asr jahiliyah

Bedouins roaming South Arabia
covered head in kuffiyah in deserts
to protect from blazing heat
and air replete with sand grains


Freedom
1930s
With the threat of land stolen,
nationalism emboldened
by the wearing of the hatta
Palis try to put a halt on British forces
and divorce from European cultural imperialism

Freemarket
2000s

viva la revolicion to co-option and sometime cold weather solution
On the necks of olsen twins cheney's daughter
That soho boho making urban outfitters Richer
ignorant of a time when the same scarf belonged to a resistor
Riviera scarf, anti-war woven cloth,

U changed its name:
Kuffiyah, hatta, shemagh
Added fluorescent colors
Magenta, sunburst, lime green
Pounded your foot on it to stomp out its Arabness to make it more saleable to Americans

What happens when your promise of (and inspiration for) freedom turns into a cultural capitalist commodity?

Would i buy a Che shirt
Cause jay rapped about it?

Parade red, black green
To go with my Jordans, baggy jean, and a gangsta lean?

Tie a red string on wrist
to add Kabalah to my spiritual list?

Buy a gold and diamond Jesus piece
To demonstrate how i walk with his pauper swagger

People do u understand?
How offended do u feel?
When people co-opt for cool your cultural symbols of freedom?

Even more extreme than what it seem
u love our scarves and hate my people

I'm sorry but u cant have both.

Next time u stroll on canal, chop it up with vendors on 14th street, peruse urban,
Ask them if know the about

white miraculously unsullied in sandstorm
the black pain tattooed on a white landscape

Ask them if they know
that woman who wrapped it over her face to conceal her identity from the IDF's terror squad,

that Bedouin man who braved the Levant wind and desert storms
The Iraqi refugee who sells red pistachio on damascene sidewalks
The fellayeen covering their heads with red-checkered shades while doing fieldwork,

the Pali man proudly wearing and asserting his Arab nationalism in the face of a duplictious, abhorrent British imperialist army.

Ask them if they know what this fucking scarf means!

Tell me, What is the power in a cultural symbol?

What is the power in a cultural symbol co-opted to commodify for consumption?

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Muhajabats in America: Over-exposed?

Why does every Western representation, photo-essay, primetime special feature on Muslims in America exclusively focus on the muhajabat when portraying the American Muslim woman experience?

Time magazine's online photo-essay "Muslim in America" features 16 pics of "ordinary" Muslim activity in New York. Ironically, I have a good amount of friends featured in this pictorial account of Muslim life in NYC.

The only scene with a hijab-less Muslim woman is one in which girls who look to be between the ages of 5-8 are playing in elegant dresses at a Muslim wedding reception.*

And this is only a small ounce of the super-sized meal America has been fed of muhajabats doing "ordinary Western things." From Jordanian boxers in profiled in a salon.com article titled "Muslim women head to head, hijab to hijab," to a little covered Pali girl getting surfing lessons from world-renowned surfer (and Arab!) Kelly Slater, and lastly to a muhajabat fashioning a rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" on the oud, there seems to be an implicit campaign to prove that "Muslim women" too "can be all they can be."

Within this context of a monolithic representation of female Muslim American identity, where does that leave me and others like me who don't choose to veil? Where are our voices and images? And why you ask, is it important to include us in the Muslim American narrative?

Well, for one, I am tired of ignorant-ass, non-Muslim people CONSTANTLY coming up to me judging my Islamic authenticity based on the fact that I don't wear a hijab. The overall perception in my experience with those unfamiliar with the religion and culture is that a Muslim woman's obligations are to:

1. Veiling: to cover one's head and body.
2. Abstain from eating pork and drinking liquor
3. Subordination to men: obedience towards one's husband/men in a woman's life.

For them, Americans unfamiliar with Islamic religious and cultural practices and expressions of faith, these outward performances become primary indicators of a woman's level of devotion to her Islamic faith. Although I shouldn't and don't necessary care how dominant culture perceives me, what I am concerned about is how we as a Muslim community encourage and accommodate this monocular exoticism of our women. Islamically, it is acceptable to cover, and it's permissible not to. But, have our Muslim American marketing strategies failed because we follow suit with how the West wants to represent what appear to be "exotic" religious practices, instead of pushing for a more diverse representation. I am awaiting the day when a Muslim female public intellectual/talking head/ pundit or sitcom/drama character who does not veil makes it onto our flat and silver screens.

Understandably, post-9/11, Muslim groups and organizations worked overtime on publicity campaigns to alter America's perception of muhajabat. Very visibly, these women, empowered because they "can do anything a Muslim man or Independent, modern American woman can do," became the poster-child of the American Muslima movement, and I dare say, the face of Islam in America. I feel like in pre-emptetively tempering hostility towards muhajabat, us un-veiled sisters' suffering has gone unaccounted for. Besides the fact that our devotion to our faith is constantly questioned by both Muslims and non-Muslims alike; our experiences are regarded as invalid in the discourse and visual representation of what it means to be a Muslim in America. All I'm asking is to include our voices and experiences in the construction of this narrative.

*For a more detailed, on point breakdown of the shortcomings of this latest attempt by American to "understand" Muslims, check out
this brilliant post by Melinda at Muslimah Media Watch.

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God Called On Him to Follow Britney Spears

Founder of 24-hour paparazzi-driven celebrity stalker service website, Hollywoodtv, proclaimed in a Nightline news interview on a story on "The Britney Economy"(prefaced by a fiercely uncool middle-aged, stiff, anchor intro-ing the story with the phrase "fo real") that he was divinely inspired by God to follow Britney Spears. On a pligramige to Hajj, the British-born Muslim founder of the website, Sheeraz Hasan, said that during a trip to one of the remote mountain tops in Saudi Arabia, a message appeared from God. The message?

Follow Britney Spears.

Convinced that only divine intervention could position a Western pop culture magazine with Britney Spears gracing the front cover on a deserted hillside in Saudi Arabia during a time of spiritual awakening, he took this as a clear indication from God as to what his calling in life would be; founding a webstie dedicated to round the clock surveillance of the tabloid queen. I wonder if when I go Mecca to complete the Hajj I will be directed by the divine to produce a company devoted to making a profit out of manipulating someone's bad fortunes-nice representation of the faith Sheeraz! Keep up the iman!

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Muslim Music Videos: Outlandish and Kareem Salaama

It is refreshing to see a video that says "America you terrorize us and dehumanize us" instead of one that carries the message of: "Guess what we are not all terrorists; we human beings just like you as evidenced by our love for Justin Timberlake." What I am speaking of are the different messages embodied in Danish hip hop group Outlandish's "Look Into My Eyes" (2005)music video and Egyptian American country music singer's "A Land Called Paradise" (2007) music video. Both of the videos, in their most general form, attempt to tackle the American post-9/11 perception of Palestinians/Arabs and Muslims.

Outlandish's video:


Kareem Salaama's video:


I'm not trying to hate, but I feel like Outlandish's creative interpretation of a Gihad Ali poem is a more effective portrayal of the America's role in dehumanizing Muslims and Palestinians. Salaama's video does not inject this variable, the American role in dehumanizing Muslims and Palestinians, as part of his equation. Succumbing to the "we are human like you too" message puts the burden of responsibility on Muslims as they are forced to prove their humanity to Americans. It feels like a problematic to dispel commonly held stereotypes about Muslims without contextualizing where those stereotypes come from. And another problematic is that it the video forwards American's definition of normative behavior-like shopping at Victoria Secrets. No offense Kareem Salaama. I actually, to my great shock, love the song (who knew twangy spiritual ruminations could strike a chord in me!), but the video feels counterproductive, as it assigns Muslims to the strata of unhuman, and the people in your video, ones who espouse the similar American values, that are materialist in nature, "I too shop at Victoria Secrets" or ones who are "good Muslim assimilators" who would rather "watch "Grey's Anatomy" than "help the less fortunate." Interesting enough, the manufacture of Victoria Secrets merchandise is the product of prison labor at slave labor prices. Thank you ma'am, you have financially contributed to the maintenance of slave systems and the nourishment the prison industrial complex. Does that make you "human" or just "American"?

Although I do agree that Muslims and Palestinians have to take responsibility for our actions, we do not have to prove our humanity to a country that continues to rob our humanity.

Here are some choice lines that stood out for me from Outlandish's song:

Your biggest fear is getting a ticket
As you cruise your Cadillac
My fear is that the tank that has just left
Will turn around and come back

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Has our world gone all blind?

See I've known terror for quite some time
57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe
It's the checkpoint on my way to school
Terror is the robbery of my land
And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father
The bullet in my baby brother
The bulldozers and the tanks
The gases and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door
All due to your funds
You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of my enemies
I'm terrorized in my own land (what)
And I'm the terrorist?

American , do you realize that the taxes that you pay
Feed the forces that traumatize my every living day
So if I won't be here tomorrow
It's written in my fate
May the future bring a brighter day
The end of our wait

[Tarboush tip: Buydatti]

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An Open Letter to Obama From An Arab American

I wanted to believe in you.

More so, I desperately wanted to believe in you.

Blue all over the city of New York.

Giants jerseys and Obama buttons

I wanted to be one of the sea of blue-decked out in buttons and holding posters bearing your name, in support of your bid for the Democratic nomination. Celebrations applauding the under-dog victory faded into the night's sky. Everybody underestimated the Giants, in the same way everyone underestimated you. But on the game day, the unmatched spirit of the moved triumphed, as it tends to.

This past weekend, I couldn't avoid the impressively orchaestrated out-reach campaign, Operation Vote Obama, that hit the media, cyber and interpersonal battlefields in America.

It's the 11th hour-and you're campagin is mounting an aggressive attack on the undecided psyche and bolstering demonstrable support from people you have already won over. From Superbowl and other TV commercials, web videos, emails, political rallies on CSPAN, phone calls from pollsters, buttons, flyering and poster displays from supporters, ive seen and been a recipient of all these efforts. The Oprah, Caroline Kennedy, Michelle Obama rally at UCLA aired on CSPAN during the Superbowl game. Caroline Kennedy, who in an op-ed piece for the New York Times, asserted her support for you by comparing your inspirational leadership to her father's:

"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."

Interesting enough, the most inspiring thing in our collective memory about JFK, his ideological call to national service arms, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country," was first said by an Arab-American poet Kahlil Gibran (to be more specific, a Syrian-born American). Additionally your online video "Yes We Can: Si Se Puede" featuring a cornucopia of socio-politically consciously-minded entertainment heavy-hitters like Hill Harper, Will.i.am, a pussy cat doll, common, bombarded me from all online avenues-circulated over myspace bulletins, prominently featured as a link in email messages, sent out by Moveon.org to members in a mailer, and as a topic of discourse in personal conversations with friends. I can't deny, it was so inspiring and moving, but I couldn't help but wonder, is it true? I desperately wanted to be the email forwarder, the rally attender, the pollster, the proud supporter, but I couldn't.

I consider myself as someone who downs a healthy spoonful of skepticism minus the bitter cynicism chaser, so I didn't think you were not capable of the messages you laid out in an oratory style reminiscent of the great MLK, but my doubts lied in the impasse where your words and actions where separated by. In the rhetoric of change and hope lay the recycled actions of condemning Arabs and selling America's freedom, security and livelihood to the state of Israel. In this instance, hard for me to reconcile my support for you.

So, the true character and silhouette of my reservations with you stepped out of the shadow of doubt and became visible to poor pollster calling in for my support for you this past Saturday night. It was funny getting calls from pollsters all day. As a got those calls, misprouncing my name, I couldn't help but think to myself: "I would have been him a couple of months ago." So as I spoke, without knowing the power and the pull of the forceful current and i think i projected onto him everything I had bottled up. I caught myself in the middle of my rant, thinking, he what good is it for me to unload on him, and how unfair? Instead, I will re-direct what I began to say to him to the man who my opinions are targeted at, you:

I can't reconcile the rhetoric you use to talk about Arabs, to talk about my innocent family who could have been the "human shield" in Lebanon that was "ok" to kill in the interest of "Israeli security." About the salt to the wound you put in Gazans' misery-no food, no water, no electricity-punishment of 1.5 million people for rockets fired by a few, because Israel, with the most impressive military, nuclear weaponry and intelligence in the world are somehow threatened by Gazans???? This is the salt rubbed deep into the wound that I speak of:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=865078


Obama: Israel was forced to close Gaza

The letter from the Senator to the Ambassador speaks for itself:

Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,

I understand that today the UN Security Council met regarding the
situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be
forthcoming from the Council in short order.

I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and
pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condenm the
rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in southern
Israel...

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on
Palestinian families. However, we have to understand why Israel is
forced to do this... Israel has the right to respond while seeking to
minimize any impact on civilians.

The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the
rocket attacks... If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense
points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

My heart bleeds as I fully comprehend the implications of this statement. Beacuse in essence, what you are basically saying is that UN should not be bound to respect the human rights of Palestinians, and as he comments about Lebanon prove, Arabs. These are an oppressed people! What if I said the same about the Civil Rights Time? About the Jim Crow South? What if I encouraged the US to continue fire-hosing little girls at Birmingham, to sick dogs on them, because America has a right to defend itself. What if I said the US has "every right to respond" to civil rights activists? To people protecting themselves from disappropriate assaults? To a people who are forced to collectively suffer for the renegade actions of a few?

Where is the human factor to your campaign? All I wanted Washington to ever do was to acknowledge the human toll that has been waged-not only the almost 4,000 of American troops killed, but the more than a million Iraqi lives lost!!!!!! The change is one of the heart, where we begin to see humans as humans, and not as props and background scenery in the world stage of war play. I know this is the change you speak of when you oppose the war, but does the value of an Arab life stop at Iraqis? How can a Palestinian death or a Lebanese one have less value and be cause for less concern than an Iraqi, American or Israeli life?

Obama, despite all these statements, it appears that a majority of Arab Americans, according to a poll conducted by Zogby International, support you. Miracluously, they too believe in you. In the past couple of weeks, I have probed and listened to the rationale from the two camps-the ones who wholeheartedly supported you until you publically supported Israel, and the ones who critically support you eventhough they disagree with your stance on Israel. I have Arab-American friends who have campaigned for you in New Hampshire, ones who waited in a formidble line to see you speak at the Apollo, ones who use your image as their facebook and myspace profile picture, ones who are at your campaign headquarters making the polling calls, ones who wear their support for you on their sleeves literally and figuratively. And I have others who tell me stories about their immigrant parents who early-on contributed to your campaign and later reneged on their support for you (after your statements on Gaza and Lebanon became public knowledge), ones who have written critical pieces addressing your hypocripsy, ones who can't seem to jump past the last hurdle to celebrate with you and your supporters at the finish line-because their moral conscience can't reconcile the way you have written off the lives of Palestinians and Lebanese people-as if 1.5 million punished this past month and 800 killed in the summer of 2006 can be logically rationalized as means for Israel to feel safe. But in all, it seems that, as demonstrated by the aforementioned poll and the personal conversations I have had with Arab Americans, that a majority lift you up as a banner of change and vocally proclaim their support you.

I say this all to say, despite writing off of 1.5 million Gazans, your orientalist assumptions about Middle Eastern civilization (that, as you stated in a speech at NYC's Washington Square Park in Fall 2007, "we (the US) need to build schools that teach math and science instead of hate (in the Middle East)"), and your shift of blame for the 800 Lebanese lives lost in the summer of 2006 from Israel to Hamas (calling them "human shields"); I support you, critically so. Why? Because, being the enduring optimist with a healthy dose of skepticism, I want to believe in the change you speak of.

I am here to support you because I want to make sure you live up to your promise of change.

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Iraqi Refugee Situation Part II: The Strain on Syria

A country that vehemently opposed the war and didn't bend it's Arab ass to be used as a military outpost, is paying the heaviest price for it-and a poor Arab country at that! Syria! I mean it's pockets are lined with...wait what does Syria have in plentiful production? Oh yeah, fisto ahdar! Suffices to say, they not are sitting on comfy cushions rested on top of oil fields or piles of dough from USAID-ahem Mubarassment and King Abdummba!

In an article on the Seattle Post Intelligencer's website entitled "Syria sinking in flood of refugees from Iraq," astonishing figures regarding the refugee situation in a Syrian context are brought to light:

• 2.6 million Iraqis have fled their homeland since the start of the war in 2003.
• Syria has taken in 1.5 million Iraqi refugees from 2003 to present
• Iraqi refugees make up about 10 percent of Syria's population.
• There are 1 million refugees alone in Syria's capital, Damascus.
  
• The refugees are costing the government $1.6 billion per year in free education, health care and other benefits.
• Of the 1,608 Iraqi refugees admitted by the United States (as Hanaan mentioned),, only 242 came from Syria.
  
• While the UNHCR referred 4,004 Iraqi refugees in Syria for resettlement in the United States in 2007.
  
• The United States is spending $1 billion a day on the war in Iraq, while it has contributed only $70 million to aid refugees.

So, if there are an estimated 2.6 million Iraqi refugees, and approximately 1.5 million have settled in Syira, that comes to over 50%-around 57-58% of the worldwide population(yeah Arab math genes for quicker-than-an-abacass- "in my head" calculations!) of Iraqi refugees living in Syria right now. This is a startling statistic considering other statistics Syria is trying to grapple with-namely limited resources. Let me not forget to mention the fact that when when I last visited Damascus, there was a water and electricity shortage situation (exceeding regional averages in power outages and water shortages by almost double), that limited the use and access of aforementioned utilities. How is Syria going to handle a ballooning population with such limited resources and aid? And why is a country with abundance only accepting 1,608 Iraqi refugees for a war it started to "save the Iraqi people"????

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Top Ten (Plus 2) Reasons Why Having Your Phone Stolen Doesn't Suck Too Much

Last Thursday night/early Friday morning, I learned the hard lesson that the dangerous cocktail of bartop dancing and a carefree attitude towards material possessions in a club don't mix too well.

During my "intoxicated" state of mind, as I was shimmying what "my momma gave me" to some Hakim, someone swiped my purse (with the contents of a cellphone, digital camera, IDs, credit card, and house keys) from the bar top I had placed it on.

But that's not the real story. The real story is adjusting to a life without a cellphone. And you know what? It really isn't that bad. And here are my "Top Ten plus 2" reasons why it doesn't suck that much:

1. No one more split second heart murmurs upon the suspicion that you lost or misplaced your phone.

2. Don't have to deal with lazy stalkers-the kind that blow up your phone with no responses for months, but all too lazy to follow you home in an unmarked car.

3. Shows you who really cares. No one has access to you by phone-and those who care enough will take more initiative to communicate with you in other ways.

4. You reclaim the lost art of memorizing numbers!

5. You don't have to worry about your phone's ring-tone of "What's Your Fantasy" going off in class, during a movie, or at meetings with your professor during office hours

6. You have a legitimate reason not to give your phone number out to someone who hollers at you-cause you don't have a working one to give!!!

7. You don't have to deal with people make judgments of your socio-economic background and status based on your cellphone selection.

8. You finally have a suitable answer for the annoying query of: "Why didn't you return my call?" How can I return something I never received in the first place!?!?!?!

9. An end to Text Messagitis!

10. One less thing to carry around.

11. You don't have to deal with your father's complaints about the inappropriateness of your voice message.

And Lastly:

12. You don't have to worry about anyone stealing your phone.

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Fox News' Wisdom on "Apple Dubai"

Some of you might have already heard or read about the breaking financial news story about Mubadala Development Company's, Abu Dhabi's state-owned investment company, landmark purchase of 8.1% of the world's second largest chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices, AMD. By "some of you", I mean all you non-Fox News Money For Breakfast show hosts, hosts who inexplicably confused "the Arabs" with "the Apple."

Here's how the legendary, worthy-of-youtube-featured video-status faux-pas went down:

After minutes of applauding Apple's move to buy out a significant percent of AMD and of additional minutes devoted to analyzing the financial history of the two companies, conversation is suddenly by more "breaking news."

As the token polished, professional eye candy drone, The Fox News version of Miss Teen South Caroline, receives the feed from her ear piece about the mistake, her face is puzzled by the name of the non-apple coporate powerhouse with the muscle to buy out AMD, as she verbally constipatedly utters:

"Apple Dubai?"

Still fumbling:

"Apple Dubai?"

And the third time is a charm! She scores the touchdown:

"Abu Dubai????"

Still perplexed, polished drone looks to the other "experts" for guidance. The most knowledgable of all the experts, elucidates all:

"Oh, the Arabs"

When the compound mismash of two different emirates finally sparked a light in their heads; you couldn't stop the informed opinions from jumping on the expert bandwagon:

"You know, they got to put their petro dollars somewhere!"

So there you have it, "the Arabs", and not specifically the Mubadala Development (I mean why would you expect "the Arabs" to have formal institutions and companies? They're a little too backwards for that. That's why we have to teach them democracy and freedom), from "Abu Dubai" who are "put(ting) their petro dollars somewhere" to buy AMD, were mistakenly represented as Apple.

Of course, the whole scenerio is more laughably price-less in its video clip form.

This is Maytha XX-XXXXXX, signing off from United States of Arabia!

*Sidenote InRANTation: Interesting how the hosts of the show portrayed the buy out as a laudable and savy economic move when they thought it was orchestrated by Apple, ie "This is a very significant statement from Apple" and "This is a very smart buy by Apple." But when "the Arabs" got their greasy hands (I mean, if you are handling all those petro dollars, I assume that oil would be hard to wash over) on the powerhouse tech company, it sounded more like the cheap and random victory of a 5 year old in a game of Connect 4 (my favorite childhood game!)

"He only won because he started first and picked red!"

"The Arabs were only able to secure the deal because of all the wealth unfairly (and not to mention undeservedly) accumulated from oil revenues"

[Tarboush Tip: Nimr]

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Border Agitators: We Come To US Soil To Steal Your Jobs and Kill

According to ult-conservative Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who is incidently running for US President; he is the one of the few politicians courageous enough to save our good, wholesome country from illegal aliens and Islamic Terrorists;

Hi I’m Tom Tancredo, and I approve this message because someone needs to say it.

There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who’ve come to take our jobs.

Islamic terrorists now freely roam US soil

Jihadists, who fraught with hate, here to do what as they have in London, Spain, and Russia.

The price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.

I don’t even know where to begin with how agitated this border agitator is with this ludicrous ad. Beyond the sensationalist script, exaggerated claims, and obvious grammar errors; since when did “Islamic Terrorists” fashion their clothing selection after the Unabomber.

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An InCANtation, For a Change!

It may be a touch too attar-y for some, but homeboy, otherwise known as "Parables in The Qu'ran" and "Stairway to Paradise" host Moez Masoud, to my Coelho, al-Ghazzali, Rumi, Kirshnamutri, and Khalil Gibran-inspired sensibilities...that part of me that academia has tried so hard to kill in me!

And, if I can convert at least one person with this clip, with words laced in the message of universal love spoken by an attractive man, maybe then I can secure myself 4o virgins in heaven!

Go me!

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Nostaglic InRANTation: Stop Co-opting My Culture!

Long before (and by "long" I mean, a month before the "kuffiyeh kraze" first graced this lovely blog) I vitriolically slammed New York Hipsters for ignorantly wrapping the ever so dead kuffiyeh around their "red" necks on KABOBfest, I did just that on my myspace blog. Check it out:

Thursday, October 05, 2006

STOP CO-OPTING MY CULTURE!!! Current mood: aggravated Category: Life to serve your desires of journalistic career advancement or to add an avant-garde twist to your sense of fashion (if I see another white chick outfitted in an ode to 80s garb-crushed black flat boots with black tights and an oversized amorphous sweater rocking a Palestinian kuffiyah as a scraf-I'm going to "ka-sar" some "ras"!!!!) One of the most insulting things happened to me today in my Anthropology Principles class. Scene: An overly-crowded classroom of underwhelmed anthro grad students waiting for their caffeine jolt to kick watch the clock tick and tock in the absence of substantive material to write. There's an obvious disconnect between the people's interest and the topic at hand. As such, I'm taking every opportunity to catch up on my email replies and research on Malcolm. However, something did momentarily tear me away from myspace profile browsing practices. In a discussion concerning the difference between interpretation and language, an older Mary Quck Gates-type (okay, only two people at most reading this blog will understand this reference, but the correlation is so pricelessly accurate it's worth sacrificing some level of lucidity) chimed in with a "relevant" example to the discussion at hand. She spouted off a phrase in Arabic which I initially couldn't understand because of the barbaric butchering job her completely off-the mark accent produced. As such, I asked her to repeat herself. And instead of doing that, she decided to translate it for me. And yes, her pronouncement and translation were both off. She spoke and translated it just the way I would expect a white-breed and bread cultural elitist of an American to do...with a false sense of authority and understanding. And I don't expect her to have a hold of the Arabic language comparable to let's say a native citizen who studies medicine at a Syrian university (I say this because Syria is one of the only countries in the Middle East where Medicine is taught in Modern Standard Arabic-imagine the added challenge of learning medicine!!!), but to speak with an heir of authority (and consequently assume an interpretative authority) just because you are on your second year of Arabic study in a university, that is precisely where one's comments come off as exceedingly patronizing. More than my obvious need to expel the nefarious energy brewing inside of me, I wanted to know what people thought of perhaps my overly-culturally sensitive take on this. To be honest, my sensitivity levels have lately been off the richter scale-I mean I did almost cry in class on Monday at the realization of the futility in our discussion (and perhaps of my choice of academic study) and I have been girlishly touched by my father string of text message updates. On a side not, if I hear someone preface any discussion of power with, "Well, taking the Foucauldian notion of discipline into account..." I will mos definitely tear out my hair and resume my rampage of "ka-sar"-ing "ras"-es Fin Currently listening : Follow the Leader By Eric B. & Rakim Release date: 26 April, 2005

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Kuffiya Kraze: Open Debate

With the critically acclaimed "Food & Liquor", last year's breakout hip hop rookie sports a red kuffiya on the front of this month's "Leader's of the New School" XXL mag cover as he discusses his much-anticipated folllow-up. The rest of the "New School Leaders" are dressed in the cover's red, white and black color theme scheme. But even in the sea of blood red hats, white hoodies and chains, Lupe stands out with the patterned clothe wrapped around the rapper's neck.

My question: Does Lupe Fiasco, an avowed Muslim rapper, join the ranks of trend-following celebrity lemmings, like Justin Timberlake, David Beckham, Ashely-Mary-Kate Oslen, Kirsten Dunst, as ignorant cultural consumers or is his decision to wear the kuffiya on the front cover of one of the most popular hip hop magazines carry more significance?

I am not trying to create a spectrum of varying degrees of cultural appropriation and/or cultural solidarity; but given Lupe's religio-cultural background, I would argue come off more as a display of cultural solidarity than an empty fashion statement. I am willing to wager that Lupe knows a little something about the kuffiya's history in the Arab world and its association with the Palestinian Liberation struggle. My perspective on this issue is possibly colored by the fact that I did indeed buy a Yemeni kuffiya on 125th from a devout African American Muslim who was also selling kufis many of whom in the Harlem and Brooklyn area have surprised me how much better their MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) is than someone who graduated with a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies! But, in all actuality, African American Muslims who account for 30 percent of the Muslim population in America (edging out the percentage of American Muslims who are Arab), and especially Muslim hip hop artists, are no strangers to donning Arab/Islamic cultural symbols. Prominent hip hop journalist Harry Allen goes as far to say that Islam is hip hop's official religion. Actor and hip hop artist, Mos Def, who has put on concerts to raise funds for the Palestinian struggle, has been seen on many occasions wearing a kuffiya and the Palestinian flag on stage!

But back to this question of cultural appropriation versus cultural solidarity, of ultimately authenticity; such a claim begs certain philosophical questions about culture: Who really owns culture? Can it be owned? Who determines authenticity? What determines authenticity? Attempting to tackle the first three questions would require more than the five paragraphs I set out to write for this piece (but feel free to wax on about them in the comments section!), so let me address the last of the series of questions. Even though the kuffiya has its roots in apolitical, non-religious beginnings, we cannot deny the symbolic evolution of the kuffiya to an icon for the Palestinian Liberation Movement. So, for me, those who are unaware of its past and current significance, and wear it because they saw it on a goth-ed out Galliano model, in the back pocket, gangsta style of a celebrity, or in Urban Outfitters as a "anti-war woven scarf," those people, would qualify as culturally appropriating the kuffiya versus those knowledgeable of the misunderstood 'clothe's history would on the flip side qualify as expressing cultural solidarity.

Who knows, Lupe could just as easily be one of those ignorant trend-following celebrity lemmings as well...

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Guest Post: Fellow Columbia Anthro Grad Student Weighs In On the Noose Incident

(By Al-Kami)

Let's protest! No, let's not and say we did.

Nooses are so last year. My only issue with the whole noose thing is that it's really uncreative.

Columbia is supposedly a place where everyone is entitled to free speech, right? Why someone would feel that they are not entitled to spew hate at a university where the President insists that he too can be prejudiced is beyond me. Just be yourself! Hate openly. Don't hang a noose and run. Rather than leave nooses out of dislike for a black professor, why not rally like everyone else at Columbia does and spew racist views about black faculty (or whomever) in front of Low library? It's your right! There might even be some good media coverage! And we all know that's really the point of our university protests.

Why we even give these people (or this person) so much attention is beyond me. "Idiot hangs noose outside of black professor's door and incites hundreds to rally and protest in the rain" - seems like a job well done. We are giving this fool way too much credit. I think the only way he/she/it/they would deserve this much attention is if they intelligently (wow, I laughed as I typed that) present their views in front of an audience. (Otherwise, we have no idea what you're really trying to convey chap! You bored? Lonely? Didn't get enough attention at home?) Cowards are at the bottom of the racist pool. Take off the hoods and show your face - the air is so much cleaner when it's not covered by a sheet. And then we
can hear your lovely voice.

I understand that some have conveyed concerns about feeling unsafe due to Columbia's secretive" handling of on-campus hate. Students believe that they should be in the know when there's bathroom graffiti, and nooses-a-hangin'. These are certainly valid concerns when dealing with haters who aren't also cowards. When Jessica wrote "Ann-Marie is a slut" on the bathroom walls, no one feared for their safety. They either laughed at Jessica, with Jessica, or assumed she was immature. An adult at a university promoting hate via bathroom scribble is hardly a person that anyone should fear. Nor is a person who isn't even creative enough to come up with a new and improved hate crime that hasn't been highly publicized on television for the past few months. These people are cowards looking for attention. What we are doing is validating their actions and giving them the attention they need. When those protests take place, the "hater" that did the hating is probably amongst those protesting. In fact, he/she/it/they are probably the ones that come up with the protest chant. Either that or they're sitting inside of a warm room with a cup of cocoa looking at all the "coloreds" yelling in the rain. And at whom? And for what?

It is my opinion that none of these cowardly actions deserve our missing very expensive class time. But, for those that feel something needs to be done, the protest thing will not suffice. We constantly protest in front of Low, and then go for pizza and forget about it. If students really want to do something, a news conference needs to be organized where individuals can express their feelings about the situation. If that route is unavailable, get a video camera and put something on youtube. Express yourselves to the masses - not to random kids on the way to Elementary French. In the message it should be expressed that everyone at Columbia has a right to free speech, and therefore it is unnecessary to hang anonymous nooses. Invite all noose hangers and graffiti writers to stand on the steps of Low and voice their concerns. Invite them out of cowardice and into humanity. Everyone has a right to speak, so secret hate crimes are really unnecessary. I'm sure everyone will find that none of these people will step up, proving their cowardice, and the point that they should be left alone to carry on their uncreative, eighth grade, petty hate as they feel necessary.

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As Much As Arabs Try to be White...Racist Statements and Graffiti Remind Us Otherwise

The old skool generation fucked us over by aggressively pursuing the legal classification of "white." That effort resulted in the legal labelling of Arabs as Caucasian on college admissions forms and exclusion from minority preferences as outlined in and by the Small Business Act. However, if we are "white" enough to be disqualified from any minority privileges, why is it that we are "Arab" enough to be racially profiled at airports, Arab enough to warrant interrogations by the FBI, Arab enough to have our asses sent to Guantanamo Bay? This ethnic ambiguity surrounding the classification of Arab Americas as "white" in the realm of social and economic disadvantage, and "Arab" in the realm of national security concerns, is what I call the Arab America's reality of "double exclusion" from privileges. More than exclusion, these conflicting notions of it limits the Arab America's ability to politically mobilize or build solidarity with other groups, thereby minimizing our political agency in America.

All that said, there are events like these that remind Arab Americans just how we are seen by "our" white brethren, a group of people we have historically tried to be regarded as part of.

Last Thursday, someone discovered racist graffiti written on a bathroom stall at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). According to Columbia University newspaper, The Columbia Spectator, the statement read:

Attention you piko Commie motherfuckers and Arab Towelheads: Ameria will wake up one day and nuke Mecca, Medina, Tehran, Baghdad, Jakarta, and all the savages in Africa. you will all be fucked! America is for White Europeans

And what is even more interesting is that this very same notion was communicated to my face by an older Caucasian woman, this notion that America belongs to whites and we are lucky to be here and eat bread crumbs that fall from the dinner table. Her exact statement:

Just remember that you are not American and how lucky you are to be here. Because, if you lived in Germany, you would be in prison now.

Arab Americans, welcome to America.

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The lies are starting to smell

There was an incident at the Obama rally that none of the mass media reported, which means this is a KABOBfest exclusive:

A one Maytha XX-XXXXXX, female, gorgeous and curvacious, upon hearing the Senator from Illinois utter that "We should build schools! In the Middle East! Where students can learn Maths! and Science! Instead of hatred!", said female individual then belted out like a siren, to the confusion and consternation of all those surrounding, the words: "THAT'S A LOAD OF BULLSHIT!!!!"

Thanks Maytha, good that you spoke up for the ones who were too cowardly to react, like yours truly.

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Arabina-whoops! I mean "Angelina"-Jolie visits Iraqi Refugee camps in Syria

1. Her daughter is named "Zahra."
2. Her arabic tattoo
3. And now this potential political scandal she could cause for visiting Syria (here I am reminded of the vociferious criticism and wide media coverage Congressional Nancy Pelosi received for chilling out with Bashar all Hijabi-style (btw-why do Western women do in his "axis of evil" state).

She clearly wants to be Arab

I rest my case


Look at the poor toothless souls, they were so in need of seeing a mega-gorgeous American movie star. The uber-celebrity, acting as a goodwill ambassador, visited Iraqi refugee camps in Syria and along the Iraqi border to alert UNHCR about the humanitarian crisis. According to the International Herald Tribune, the UN estimates that Syria has taken in 1.4 million Iraqi refugees.
Exhibiting the best display of twisted justice, Syria permits Iraqi refugees to settle in the country, but bans the significant population of Palestinian Iraqis from entering. These are the refugees who are stranded at the border.

But the real story here is the story cowardly, major mainstream publications have shied away from discussing, but here at KABOBfest, we are no stranger to courageous, sometimes unpopular, reporting. Our philosophy is that it is worth it to cover the truth.

Jolie's fashion selection:



I mean, why exactly is she wearing a bulletproof-looking vest with a so totally unfashionable fannypack-like pouch on the front of it in 100 degree weather and in refugee camps? I mean, it's not like she's guarding Bashar's palace or one of the 500 ministry offices in Damascus. And a Kuffiyah wrapped around her head in Sudan? Doesn't she know that the kuffiyah, as imagined by Western fashionistas, is only acceptable worn around the neck or, as the ever-innovative Just