“Umm Tayyab” — aka Judge Judy aka Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal

You seem to have a lot to say running around the internet telling everybody how to be holier than thou. Might I suggest you start your own blog where you can join up with the oppressors of women in order to distort the image of Allah and His Prophets into the greatest misogyny. My blog is where I speak freely about my interests and feelings. I already suggested you might not want to read it since I am not inclined to your party line. Now I am repeating that. Think it over. You have no mission here.

And no, I will not delete these posts to cover the “sins” of “Muslims”. Get your own blog and delete anything you like.

PS: You’re not MM are you? LOL!

The Plot Thickens: Thanks Alexandra for pointing out who the illustrious “umm Tayyab” is. I found this particular article quite interesting. Now it appears that Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal was herself an illegal 2nd wife according to the Globe and Mail (which explains a lot about her attack on Safa and defense of the engineer Ali Hindy):

As for how and why Mr. Jamal came to Canada, it’s unclear. He is from Karachi, and had a first wife who died of an unknown illness. One of the mosque’s board members told The Globe that this is how Mr. Jamal met his future second wife, a Caucasian, Canadian convert to Islam who was tasked with looking after Mr. Jamal’s dying wife. The wedding was performed in front of the first wife before she died, the board member told The Globe. His second wife, Cheryfa Macaulay Jamal, 44, is very devout.

Is The Internet Supposed To Hurt?

I don’t understand a lot of what goes on in this blog world. I have cyber-friends who I’ve met in real life — a fair number here in Qatar — and share my social circle with. But for the most part my clogging buddies are the ones I read up on most days and who I may exchange emails with. Still others are my IM buddies and we catch up a few times a week. What I dearly love are my sisters who have done all of this with me and taken it to the next level of talking on the phone.

I am 8 to 10 hours ahead of many of my blogging sisters. That means I am not online when many of them are. We also have problems with our internet service fairly frequently here in Qatar, so I may not be able to read people’s blogs for a day or so — and in this fast-paced blogging world that means you can be out of the loop in just a 24 hour period, like I have been over the last day.

Something apparently happened with someone who I considered a dear friend in the last 24 hours that has turned her against me and caused her to write a very hurtful email to me. I suspect there is some kind of misunderstanding because this person thinks I — or a close friend — has done something to her. The problem is, I don’t know what or who she is referring to so I cannot correct my error (if I have made one) or similarly she cannot correct hers (if that is the case) since she asked that I never contact her again.

The reason I am writing this post is because I just think we should be able to disagree about things without taking it to such a personal level. I recently became aware of a disagreement between brothers in the US that was being played out with all kinds of accusations on blogs and via email. I suggested to the brothers involved that they not let their political disagreements sink to the level of character assassination. I would also ask this of my blogging sisters.

I have been accused of causing fitna all over the Internet in order to fill my “void in life”. I’m not sure exactly what that is referring to — whether it is the nature of some of my posts, my comments or my emails. I am a seriously flawed human being and have no delusions about that you can be sure. I don’t mean to be causing pain, suffering and conflict in anybody’s life or on their blog. So if you think I am doing that, please tell me so I can rectify the problem.

How Did You Find Me?

I was over at Umm Adam’s blog and the issue came up about what searches lead people to your blog. You can track these searches through various programs or in the case of WordPress, they track it for you. Someone very “special” had entered the search “ignoramous umm adam - salafis in ksa” — nice, huh?

But that got me to thinking about my own blog so I checked. I got the standard stuff like:

diet

polygyny women

hijaab

segregation against women in the Middle East

But others were a little more perplexing:

most horrifying video clips on capital punishment

prison rape

And then there was the truly hilarious:

private parts

touching my private parts

You have to wonder what I wrote that brought that one up and maybe more importantly you have to wonder what the person was hoping to find!

A Word About This Blog And Free Speech

This has come up due to the persistent responses posted to various topics in the past few days on my blog. I have always reserved the right to choose what I want to publish when comments are made. The only time I have deleted comments in the past have been because they were obscene, extremely rude or simply personal attacks.

Now I have a “reader” who has been actively posting on a few threads and said some things which I found to be patronizing and in line with the typical Muslim male patriarchal bullshit that I have had to deal with so much recently. I have no problem with his opinion but I did have a problem with his attitude so I have chosen to ask that person to not bother posting here anymore.

My blog is like my journal. I write what is going on in my life, what I think about and what is going on in the world around me. I almost always choose to publish my readers responses to my thoughts — whether I agree with them or not. But being published in my PERSONAL JOURNAL (aka blog) is not a right. I don’t force anyone to come to my blog and I won’t lose sleep if anyone decides not to read it anymore.

Anyone can have a blog. If you want to start a “PM is a Nazi” blog then you can. That will be YOUR personal space and you can write whatever you choose.

This one is mine — and I am not surrendering control of it.

Password Protection

UPDATE: I have had many people writing and asking me for the password to my private posts. Please be aware that I will still blog publicly on most issues but will use this security measure on the most personal posts and those that I fear may bring me more threats and trouble.

I do NOT intend to give out the password to everyone, as it would not serve its purpose which is to make my blogging more secure. Therefore, if I don’t know you personally (via internet is fine) and you don’t want to clearly identify yourself in a manner that I can confirm (so that I can feel secure giving out the password to my personal posts), please don’t ask for it. Likewise, if you are a colleague or a student of mine — or a potential student of mine — please do not ask.

I appreciate those among you who have used this opportunity to write me and tell me a little about yourself, including why and how long you have been reading my blog. I love the way the Internet allows us to widen our circle of friends. But as we have all learned, it also widens the circle of potential stalkers. So in that famous line from Hill Street Blues: Stay safe out there!

The Wackos Chased Me Out Of My Old House And I Have Moved

Blogs, that is. This new house has a security system and in this day and age, it seems a straightforward, progressive thinking Muslimah needs a good alarm system and panic room. I’m going to put my more personal posts in the panic room but will give you all the combination if you ask nicely — and I know you are not a freak. Just send me an email at the link and I will send you the code. But remember, you’ll need to memorize it and swallow it to keep it out of the hands of my Fan-atic Club!

UPDATE: If I don’t know you personally (via internet is fine) and you don’t want to clearly identify yourself in a manner that I can confirm so that I can feel secure giving out the password to my personal posts, please don’t ask for it. Also, if you are a colleague or a student of mine — or a potential student of mine — please do not ask.

PS: I’ll be making this site purtier, too, in the coming weeks, insha’Allah.

Happy New Year!

Point of Tranquility by Morris Louis (1959-1960)

Hola to my Blurkers in Chile!

And greetings to my other faithful blurkers. When I check my site meter I know a lot of you folks that stop in regularly but there are a few who I haven’t been introduced to yet. Like:

Anchorage, Alaska
Gretna, LA
Morocco
Amman, Jordan
Kuwait
Dubai
Riyadh
New South Wales, OZ
Victoria, OZ
Singapore
Philipines — I think I know who you are
Norway
Finland
Germany

Thanks for stopping by and hope to hear from you.

FYI: About Comment Moderation

If you use comment moderation like I do, you will no longer need to have the word verification system on since you will have to approve all comments for publishing. You won’t have to publish those icky spam comments, and the people trying to post real comments won’t get tangled up with the word verification. I notice that I often have to redo the verification 4-5 times before my comment will post. Hope this helps!

OK Blurkers, I know you are out there. Can I get an Ameen?

I have my site meter now and love to see who is checking me out. Do you mind telling me why you are reading me? What is it you like to read about? What stuff bores you? When did you start reading my blog? Come on! Spill! Don’t worry — I’ll protect your anonymity.