Muslim Apple

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I’m Muslim, yet I find the incessant attention paid to the Palestinian conflict by Muslims off all stripes particularly converts to be overbearing and the current political stalemate over there has turned me off that conflict. There are horrible situations everywhere in the world, many worse that those in Gaza and the West Bank.

It seems that for some converts, attention and emotion and talk of Palestine and identifying with the issues of Palestine becomes a litmus test for one’s Islam. If you are a true believer you should be at the marches, wearing protest clothing, support the evil of suicide bombing and terrorism, dislike like Jews who if you refer to as “yehud” garners bonus points.

To me, Palestine is just one of many conflicts in the world where there is great injustice and suffering, I hope and make dua that there will eventually be a more just and equitable solution, but I don’t hate Jews. I think oppression, injustice, terrorism, and anti-semitism are rank and vile and no one should be given a pass to get away with this kind of stuff.

I changed my birth name to a stereotypical Muslim sounding one because of the incessant questions and pressure of my new found, well-intentioned, and sometimes misinformed brothers and sisters in Islam. Read more »

In the questions raised about Barack Obama’s blackness or his appeal to various segments of the electorate, I see a reflection of my own experience as a young black woman that was born and raised in a predominantly white college town suburb in upstate Western New York that later converted to Islam. I have faced and continue to encounter questions from various sources about what others perceive as my blackness, my Iboness my acting whiteness, my Muslimness.

Criticism of race is mostly subjective and prone to stereotypes, which negate the individuality of life experience and personal choices. Barack Obama is biracial, yet is seen by most people as a black man, and he himself identifies as black. His family background has traces of Muslim, Christian, and secular atheist beliefs yet he sees himself as a Christian and belonged to black church until it became politically unpalatable for his political ambition and aspirations.

In the children of the African immigrants that I grew up with and continue to be surrounded by, I saw three distinct patterns. Those who try to assimilate wholly into white culture and aspire to become honorary whites through imitation and a rejection of their background, those that try to assimilate wholly into black culture and aspire to become honorary blacks through imitation and a rejection of their background, and those that try to merge the disparate influences by trying to take the best of their experience and leaving off the worst.

I like to read, reading was always emphasized in my family, from books to newspapers to whatever, the process of reading, comprehending, and writing well formed a pivotal part of my upbringing. I was sometimes criticized by black students bussed in from a nearby city at school about my reading habits and my speech pattern, and my taking of Advanced Placement classes. I can remember the exclamations and surprised looks by more than one teacher when they realized that I read, that I had read many of the books they had read or were currently reading and could converse fluently with them about those books. On the phone, people sometimes think I am white until they hear my name and then they get confused.

I also love some of the speech patterns, mannerisms, and slang of the black city kids I grew up with and from listening to hip-hop back in the day, and the pidgin English spoken by Africans so I incorporated some of that into my speech, sometimes deliberately but mostly unconsciously. I could never stand the word “ask” mispronounced. And of course, the politics of who and what determines “correct” and “incorrect” speech is another discussion. Read more »

I was a Richardson supporter until he dropped out of the race. Then I was an ardent Hillary supporter after I listened to a rally for Hillary in California with Maxine Waters and a lot of other enthusiastic Clinton supporters and the debate between Clinton and Obama at the Kodak Theatre. Now, after listening to Obama’s speech on race, he’s got my vote in sha Allah.

I need some quiet time. In sha Allah, I’ll be back. I’m just going to go inside my head for a while. What does that look like? I would like to think my mind looks at bit like this picture of Yursil’s dergah.

I am Ify Okoye or more precisely, one of the many people with the name Ify Okoye. Ify is a nickname for about 5 different Ibo (also spelled Igbo) names for both genders and my last name Okoye is also very common amongst Ibos.

Why did I add my real name? I don’t feel that I have anything to hide by claiming ownership of my blog and I disliked to see people (several people have done this so I’m not referring in particular to any one individual) refer to me as “Muslim Apple” in quotation marks as if I was hiding or disguising my identity. Since I’ve added my real name to my blog I have seen an increase in the number of incoming google searches looking up Ify Okoye.

Ify is pronounced like “E-Fee” and there is nothing iffy about it, remember it’s not an English name. Okoye is pronounced something akin to “O-coy-yeah” just don’t elongate either of the names and you’ll be okay.

Oh, that’s a beautiful/unusual name, I like that, what does it mean?
My full name, Ifeoma, is pronounced like “E-fum-ah” and means “something beautiful” or “something good” and my last name is a conjunction of the name of one of my ancestors and the day he was born, which happened to be one of the four market days called Oye.

I am not related to Christian Okoye, the football player. Read more »

The other day, I was praying fajr in a local masjid and I saw a sign that had been left over from the previous week.

Update: I just came back from the masjid and the signs were still there so I took them down as Ramadan is now over and I didn’t see the imam but I’ll try again tomorrow in sha Allah.

The sign read:

“For Sisters performing I’tkaf,

May Allah reward your intention and bless you for your actions.

In sha Allah, please remember that the small musalah will be used as the Brother’s overflow during Jumaah today.

Please fold your items and store them in classroom #6 by 11Am until after Jummah.

May Allah reward you for your cooperation with this request. Jazakum Allah khayran!

The sign doesn’t seem like much of a request, it’s more like a command. Requests can be refused, I wonder what would have happened had the sisters declined that “request”.

I stopped going to one masjid because it was their habit to kick the sisters out of the entire masjid and make us pray in an adjacent building. Alhamdulillah, the sisters fought back and took half of the masjid on both the upper and lower levels, which is more than we had before.

I was a bit surprised by this sign at this particular masjid because it is well-known to have one of the nicer prayer areas for sisters, in fact it is much nicer then the men’s section, which is rare especially as anyone who has been to the Islamic Center in DC for jumu’ah knows. I refuse to go to the Islamic Center for jumu’ah because the prayer area for women is so limited.

I don’t see why women should be asked or rather forced to give up their space in the masjid if we are truly valued as everyone especially those involved in public speaking or dawah love to give lectures and make a big fuss about the status of women in Islam and quote this or that ayah or hadeeth about the equality between men and women. Read more »

at Dar us Salaam and over at Empty Stomach, Full Heart as the month of Ramadan progresses.

Ramadan Mubarak!

Yesterday, while commuting to work I was listening to the hourly news bulletin on a local NPR radio station which mentioned the $660 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and hundreds of victims abused by clergymen.

One woman that had been abused said, “I love God but I love me more.” And I thought to myself what an asinine comment. I’ll admit that I can barely comprehend much less imagine what it must be like to be sexually abused by a family member or a man of the cloth but I do know something about loving God.

Islam speaks about loving Allah, the Prophets, and our fellow human beings. And to say that you love yourself more than you love your Creator is an act of supreme arrogance and disbelief.

Allah says: “Say: If it be that your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your mates, or your kindred; the wealth that you have gained; the commerce in which you fear a decline: or the dwellings in which you delight - are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, or the striving in His cause;- then wait until Allah brings about His decision: and Allah guides not the rebellious.” [Surah al-Tawbah: 24]

Say: ‘If you love Allah then follow me: Allah will love you and forgive your sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’ [Surah Al Imran: 31]

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I saw the movie A Mighty Heart about the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl. I thought the title of the movie referred to Danny Pearl but after seeing the film, I think the title is meant to refer to his wife Mariane, now raising their son as a single mother.

Asra Nomani complained that she thought the film was “A Mighty Shame” although she says that she didn’t mind that her own role in the events had been reduced in the film to a small almost incidental supporting role but that she didn’t like that her friend Danny seemed to have a “cameo” in his own movie. But I disagree.

The actor Brad Pitt bought the rights to the film several years ago to be a vehicle for Jennifer Aniston and then for Angelina Jolie not for Dan Futterman who played Daniel Pearl nor for Archie Panjabi that played Asra Nomani. The movie’s central character was the pregnant Mariane Pearl.

The film is neither that great nor a classic but can provide some decent details into the behind-the-scenes resources and effort that went into trying to locate Daniel Pearl. And for me that was the most interesting part along with the emotional strength and composure of Mariane Pearl because I did not follow the story at that time closely in the media.

I had the opportunity to view the murder of Daniel Pearl as the video was circulated widely on the internet but declined because, I think what happened to him was horrible and horrifying and not Islamic and I think viewing such material is vile and dehumanizing and of no benefit.

From the Storehouse: To Publish or Not To Publish