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New Year but old habits die hard as they say. I still haven't learned to NOT go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. Oy!

1 hr and 32 mins into the new year and I'm in bed. Here's to a great start to the new decade. Hehe

13, 12, 11, 10

You may say that I'm a dreamer... I'm not the only one... Happy New Year to one and all! xxoo

3 NYE events canceled. Bye bye 2010. Good riddens! ;-)

New rule: No more emails requesting donations and how I only have 12 hours left before your organization goes bankrupt.

Wondering if I should be worried that co-pilot has feet up on cockpit dashboard.

Ok no judgments or anything but Asian people playing Japanese version of Dungeons and Dragons at the airport are just weird. Just sayin. :-p

Is it just me or are Saudi men either really really skinny or really really obese? Just saw a Saudi guy with the thinnest legs in the history of humankind.

Families - can't live with them... Can't live with them... Etc etc :-)

Happy Kwanzaa. Today is the first day (Umoja - Unity).

Just saw a baby Jesus and camel at the Peachtree Presbyterian Church. Swear to Allah! :-)

I'm sorry but South Asian men just look weird with baseball caps.

I have a dream where militaries and nuclear weapons will cease to exist. Will you help me achieve this reality?

Is it just me or is it ironic that president DADT bill same day as Senate ratified START.

You know you're stuck in really bad Atlanta traffic (where every one drives) when the 2 people walking are getting to their dest faster!

ink queers l

Don't have words for folks who are quoting MLK on the repeal of DADT. King stood for peace not endless war and destruction. And shame on democrats who th

Harry Reid tweeted Lady Gaga after DADT vote. CNN calls them the "power couple." Lord!!

So I feel like we were JUST celebrating 2008. Crazy!!

Hate going to grocery store and walking out with everything BUT the one thing you came to get.

As much as I live CA, I'm ready to head home. Bills, boys, and more bills await. :-)

SF truly has some "animated" folks!! Woman and man humming, singing and clapping "Patridge in a pear tree" sheesh!

RIP Richard Holbrooke. Thank you for your service and dedication to creating peace in our world.

Now entering Quam-e-Shaitan (Nation of Satan) aka San Francisco. :-)

Elizabeth Edwards passed away this morning. V sad.

Rental car found. Disaster averted. This calls for organic home mad Santa Cruz ice cream!

I kinda sorta lost my rental car. Yikes!

Downtown Monterey has a creepy number of foot massage places. One was called "Happy Foot Massage" with a surrepticious looking older Asian man standing outside!

"I fought next to them (Muslims). There is no difference between any men or women of any faith; it's about their integrity." - young soldier in audience

in response to question about what comes to mind when you think of Muslims.

Happy Islamic New Year! :-)

Clearly I've been traveling too much. I just tried to return a rental car to the wrong agency!! Ha!

I'll be speaking at Cal State Monterey Bay on Monday evening. http://ping.fm/ocJ0C

Hello Saaan Diaaago. :-)

I LOVE URVASHI! She was the first out South Asian activist I ever met and her brilliant analysis on social justice and LGBT issues continues to inspire and agitate.

"My contention is that it is exactly this narrow and limited focus that is not only causing us to stall in our progress towards formal equality, it is leading us to abandon or ignore large parts of our own communities, with the consequence of making us a weaker movement."
http://ping.fm/rhph5

2+ hrs to drive 30 miles. I need to set up laptop AND change!! AAH!!

If you think your city has a traffic problem you haven't seen anything close until you've been to LA!!

"Human rights need to be extended to everyone - not just LGBT people... that's why we call ourselves queer..." - gay activist in New Delhi.

Thousands celebrate queer pride in Delhi and Banglore! Reports of 4,000+ people in Delhi alone! Amazing!

I'm always surprised and moved by straight people relating to my story of identity conflict, challenges with family support, community, etc. Spoke at Univ. of Akron today and had a lovely professor who is Zoroastrian tell me about how her Hindu husband was "outed" to his family (for marrying a Zoroastrian) and the struggles they faced together. His family eventually accepted his marriage but only after the extended family said they didn't have a problem with it. :-) Our communities are complex, diverse, strange, funny, sad... but at the end they are "our" communities after all. *smile*

You know you travel way too much when you can't remember if you've been to the city you just got to. Ugh.

If you thought only gay men liked Dolly Parton you haven't been to Sugarland Bar in Brooklyn where the dykes and trans boys are having drag king show and

Complete chaos at Atlanta airport. Trains between terminals not working. Thousands of people walking. Ridiculous!

75+ folks at Agnes Scott Tonight. Met 3 lesbian Muslims and a guy who knows Queen Noor of Jordan. Amman here I come.

Oh the drama that I bring with me... But on 2nd thought why did they think this threat was because of me coming to their school? http://ping.fm/bUh15

VM threat. Event canceled. Building evacuated. Anti-Muslim hysteria at it's worst. Complete disregard about safety of queer students or speaker. Very sad.

of students or the speaker.

Why am I writing about safety/security? Because my event was canceled today because of a VM threat. But the institution could care less about the safety

Our communities must protect one another and keep each other safe because no one else will. Not the state, not the govt and not anyone in positions of power.

Thinking about safety and security and who's security/security do police and other authorities really want to protect.

God offers one thing that is unconditional... His love. - Asher Brown's dad on CNN

When we bring a child into this world we offer then unconditional love no matter what their preference may become. -Asher Brown's mom on CNN

Asher Brown's parents are on CNN. Asher was 13 and shot himself after being bullied because he was gay.

Proud of Anderson Cooper for having a powerful dialogue with Arkansas school official who called for gay people to commit suicide.

ue story!!

At Cal Univ of PA. ? of day: Can you confirm or deny that a fatwa was issued against you? :-) Confirm! I even called the group in the UK to make sure. Tr

Forced Marriages Prompt UK Government to Respond
http://ping.fm/RUwww

About to start presentation at Carnegie Mellon Univ in the Engineering building. My dad would be proud. :-)

Islamophobia & Homophobia - "If scripture is indeed this powerful, we’re in trouble, because scripture is invoked by intolerant people of all Abrahamic faiths — including the Muslim terrorists who plant the seeds of Islamophobia. And, judging by the past millennium or two, God won’t be issuing a revised version of the Bible or the Koran anytime soon." http://ping.fm/Gcpqn

Alleged anti-gay assault prompts anti-violence rally. "The Muslim community and the gay community are both communities that are under great attack right now, there's a lot of hate directed at both, and I think we need to stick together."
http://ping.fm/cpxlo

Its a bird. It's a plane. No it's Osama hiding with Bush and Pocohantus in the mountain caves of Western PA! :-)

vote faith, vote freedom - it's us versus them - ad I just heard on radio from the faith and freedom coalition. :-(

Driving on inside roads somewhere along border of PA and NY listening to Christian rock. Yup, this queer Moslem is def "lost."

In beautiful but quiet and industrial Binghamton. Speaking at SUNY Oneonta tonight.

ok they have commercials advertising "bore snake cleaners" aka cloth used to clean the barrel of guns... OMG! OMG!

Wondering if I should be scared that I'm in the middle of Pennsylvania where there is a cable channel called "The Sportsmen Channel" - all about guns, hunting, bow arrows, etc. Um... Um...

100+ students at my talk at Bucknell University in beautiful Lewisburg, PA.

Obama will not visit Sikh temple in India because he won't cover his head and may be confused as a Muslim. Absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!
http://ping.fm/tO3hj

Speaking to Widener Law School students about LGBT rights in Muslim countries and international recognition of LGBT rights, laws etc. Wow!

About to speak to graduate psychology students and future psychotherapists about how they can make $ with confused LGBT Muslims :-)

Guy on subway wearing bright red sneakers drinking smoothie and silently break dancing. Gotta love NYC!

Hello NYC. NYU tonight. High school friend who I haven't seen in years is coming. And several straight Muslim allies! I love NY!

Jihad is combating the inner negative. In that sense the whole of Buddhism is Jihad - Dalai Lama

The ultimate source of happiness is within ourselves - Dalai Lama

Waiting to hear Dalai Lama speak at Emory on Understanding and Promoting Happiness in Today's Society.

Back to Atlanta for 1.5 days. Indian buffet tonight; Dalai Lama at Emory tom; NY on Mon. Philly on Tues. Yay! NOT!! :-)

60+ people at my talk at Univ of IL Springfield, home of Abe Lincoln. Saw his house and Obama's old work place (state capitol).

The 1 day my hair is all messed up + 2 day no shave, I get stopped by TSA. Crazy looking witch woman also got stopped. :-)

Carleton College - October 5, 2010

Macalester College - October 11, 2010

From my friend, LGBT Latino activist Andres Duque - on the recent anti-gay attack in Bronx. It’s A Matter Of Hate, And A Matter Of Safety - http://ping.fm/08Gio

Adam Lambert Too Gay for Malaysia? Lambert agreed to a set of rules, including not removing any clothing and maintaining a distance of about 25 feet between his stage and the audience. - http://ping.fm/j0DAp

It Gets Better - Muslim gay teen

The Snazzy Napper

What is ".com" in Arabic?

If English if your first language, you probably take it for granted that all website suffixes - the .com's, .org's, .gov's and the like - come nicely packaged in Western characters, like the ones you're reading now.
But what if you spoke only Arabic? Or Chinese? Or Russian?

Full article from CNN - May 7, 2010

Dalai Lama Throws Snow at Press in Washington DC

LOVE HIM!! He's really funny.. even in person... He was at Emory last year and it was amazing hearing him speak... He's such a simple, thoughtful, insightful man!

Hijab-wearing Women Rock!

Why hijab-wearing Muslim women have a real affinity for hard rock

• Remona Aly
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 February 2010 19.00 GMT

Hijab-weariing rock fan Remona Aly.

God gave rock'n'roll to you! So US rock band Kiss chanted in the early 90s, a cover of the original song by British group Argent. My relationship with this "divine" gift started early. At 12, I riffled through my brother's vinyl collection and emerged a fan of U2, Faith No More and Led Zeppelin.

Full Article from The Guardian UK.

Gaga for Lady Gaga!

Lady Gaga (with Elton John) at the 2010 Grammys

LOVE this scene!

From Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion

Indian-American Profile Up, From Politics to Film

The years-long wave of Indian immigration is creating a rising tide of visibility for Indian-Americans in the United States, three of whom are shown in file photos. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, left, was picked to give the Republican response to President Barack Obama's speech to Congress. Model and cooking author Padma Lakshmi finished another "Top Chef" TV season, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta is under consideration to be Obama's surgeon general. (AP Photos/Alex Brandon, Matt Sayles, Diane Bondareff, File)

Full article from the Washington Post - February 28, 2009

Joy Behar and Ann Coulter

el KaBong

Comedians Dean Obeidallah and Tissa Hami on ABC's "The View"

Keynote Speech at LGBT Western Regional Conference

UC Santa Barbara - February 15, 2009

Gift Wrap

Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book

From the New York Times - December 22, 2008

Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book

David Ahntholz for The New York Times

Michael Muhammad Knight, the author of "The Taqwacores," which a college professor has called "The Catcher in the Rye" for young Muslims.

By CHRISTOPHER MAAG

Published: December 22, 2008

CLEVELAND — Five years ago, young Muslims across the United States began reading and passing along a blurry, photocopied novel called "The Taqwacores," about imaginary punk rock Muslims in Buffalo.

"This book helped me create my identity," said Naina Syed, 14, a high school freshman in Coventry, Conn.

A Muslim born in Pakistan, Naina said she spent hours on the phone listening to her older sister read the novel to her. "When I finally read the book for myself," she said, "it was an amazing experience."

The novel is "The Catcher in the Rye" for young Muslims, said Carl W. Ernst, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Springing from the imagination of Michael Muhammad Knight, it inspired disaffected young Muslims in the United States to form real Muslim punk bands and build their own subculture.

Now the underground success of Muslim punk has resulted in a low-budget independent film based on the book.

A group of punk artists living in a communal house in Cleveland called the Tower of Treason offered the house as the set for the movie. The crumbling streets and boarded-up storefronts of their neighborhood resemble parts of Buffalo. Filming took place in October, and the movie will be released next year, said Eyad Zahra, the director.

"To see these characters that used to live only inside my head out here walking around, and to think of all these kids living out parts of the book, it's totally surreal," Mr. Muhammad Knight, 31, said as he roamed the movie set.

As part of the set, a Muslim punk rock musician, Marwan Kamel, 23, painted "Osama McDonald," a figure with Osama bin Laden's face atop Ronald McDonald's body. Mr. Kamel said the painting was a protest against imperialism by American corporations and against Wahhabism, the strictest form of Islam.

Noureen DeWulf, 24, an actress who plays a rocker in the movie, defended the film's message.

"I'm a Muslim and I'm 100-percent American," Ms. DeWulf said, "so I can criticize my faith and my country. Rebellion? Punk? This is totally American."

The novel's title combines "taqwa," the Arabic word for "piety," with "hardcore," used to describe many genres of angry Western music.

For many young American Muslims, stigmatized by their peers after the Sept. 11 attacks but repelled by both the Bush administration's reaction to the attacks and the rigid conservatism of many Muslim leaders, the novel became a blueprint for their lives.

"Reading the book was totally liberating for me," said Areej Zufari, 34, a Muslim and a humanities professor at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Fla.

Ms. Zufari said she had listened to punk music growing up in Arkansas and found "The Taqwacores" four years ago.

"Here was someone as frustrated with Islam as me," she said, "and he expressed it using bands I love, like the Dead Kennedys. It all came together."

The novel's Muslim characters include Rabeya, a riot girl who plays guitar onstage wearing a burqa and leads a group of men and women in prayer. There is also Fasiq, a pot-smoking skater, and Jehangir, a drunk.

Such acts — playing Western music, women leading prayer, men and women praying together, drinking, smoking — are considered haram, or forbidden, by millions of Muslims.

Mr. Muhammad Knight was born an Irish Catholic in upstate New York and converted to Islam as a teenager. He studied at a mosque in Pakistan but became disillusioned with Islam after learning about the sectarian battles after the death of Muhammad.

He said he wrote "The Taqwacores" to mend the rift between his being an observant Muslim and an angry American youth. He found validation in the life of Muhammad, who instructed people to ignore their leaders, destroy their petty deities and follow only Allah.

After reading the novel, many Muslims e-mailed Mr. Muhammad Knight, asking for directions to the next Muslim punk show. Told that no such bands existed, some of them created their own, with names like Vote Hezbollah and Secret Trial Five.

One band, the Kominas, wrote a song called "Suicide Bomb the Gap," which became Muslim punk rock's first anthem.

"As Muslims, we're not being honest if we criticize the United States without first criticizing ourselves," said Mr. Kamel, 23, who grew up in a Syrian family in Chicago. He is lead singer of the band al-Thawra, "the Revolution" in Arabic.

For many young American Muslims, the merger of Islam and rebellion resonated.

Hanan Arzay, 15, is a daughter of Muslim immigrants from Morocco who lives in East Islip, N.Y. In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, pedestrians threw eggs and coffee cups at the van that transported her to a Muslim school, she said, and one person threw a wine bottle, shattering the van's window.

At school, her Koran teacher threw chalk at her for requesting literal translations of the holy book, Ms. Arzay said. After she was expelled from two Muslim schools, her uncle gave her "The Taqwacores."

"This book is my lifeline," Ms. Arzay said. "It saved my faith."

David Ahntholz for The New York Times

Noureen DeWulf and Bobby Naderi, both actors, with Jay Verkamp, center, the sound mixer for the film version of Mr. Knight's novel. The film was shot in Cleveland.

Mumbai Attacks Stun South Asian; North American Muslim Organizations Condemn Terror Attacks

From the Daily Times of Pakistan - November 30, 2008

Mumbai attacks stun South Asia

* Civic bodies condemn attacks, demand swift justice
* Denounce terrorism, term attacks crime against humanity

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: While the Mumbai terrorist attacks have stunned the large South Asian population living in the capital and its adjoining areas, a number of Pakistani-American organisations have issued strong condemnations of the outrage and expressed sympathy for those who lost their lives.

The Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) denounced the brutal attacks that ended in the loss of innocent human lives. The group said it believes that no cause justifies indiscriminate attacks against civilians and no religion endorses terrorism.

The APPNA said it views these despicable acts in the context of global terrorism and considers them a vicious effort to further destabilise the region. While offering its deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and the wounded and expressing its solidarity with the people of India, APPNA urged Indo-Pak physicians living in North America to join hands and work towards bringing peace and prosperity to South Asia.

Expressing its profound sense of grief over the loss of precious lives in Mumbai, the American Muslim Alliance has condemned the co-ordinated terror attacks on India's premier city. The group said, "We urge the authorities to bring the culprits to justice. We also urge all concerned communities and countries to help restore calm and work for the eradication of the root causes of this violence."

The Islamic Medical Association of North America also condemned the terror strikes in Mumbai in the 'strongest possible terms', while expressing solidarity with the families of the victims.

Terrorism: Dr Hafeezur Rehman, president of the association, said, "No religion breeds terrorism and terrorism serves no good cause. Such heinous acts are crimes against humanity and they should be countered with the most severe response. Those responsible for these crimes against humanity must be brought to justice swiftly. Islam considers the use of terrorism for any purpose totally unacceptable."

The Pakistani American Leadership Centre strongly condemned the Mumbai attacks, which have left nearly 200 dead and close to 370 wounded. "Our immediate thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and their loved ones," it said in a statement. The group said it is encouraged by the immediate repudiation of the attacks by the Pakistani government and notes that Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had just concluded talks in India with his Indian counterpart on terrorism, trade, and the loosening of visa restrictions between the two countries.

The statement hoped that discussions aimed at normalising Pakistan-India relations would continue, demonstrating the resolve of both nations to achieve sustainable peace for the benefit of the citizens of both countries and the world.

"Faced with the indiscriminate violence of terrorism, we must find our common humanity and unite to act as one against such acts to bring peace, prosperity, and stability to the region," the group said.