Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Leaving the Compassion at Home

Looking at my title you'd think this was about hurricane Katrina or former first lady, Barbara Bush's totally inappropriate comments while visiting hurrican victims in Houston, http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/katrina.presidents.ap/index.html (which I still can't believe she said, clearly she is starting to lose it. The White House needs to watch her, she is becoming a loose cannon, as if Karl Rove doesn't have enough fires to put out, but I have to say Rove has been masterful in trying to deflect blame for poor hurrican response to the Louisiana Governer).

No this post is about my trip this weekend to Chicago, to a Muslim conference, ISNA. This is an annual conference that has been going on for years and I have never gone. I have found that many of the people who go there are hyprocrites who say they are going to learn about Islam but really just go to flirt with boys. Well this year, in my ongoingly desperate attempts to find a mate, I bit the bullet and signed up for the event. I was excited, I thought there would be tons of Muslim guys there and hopefully in such a crowd, I'd find my Mr. Right. I should have known from the second I entered that conference center, this was a mistake. So many of the people there were nauseatingly evangelical (if you think Christian evangelicals are nuts, you ain't seen nothing, meet Muslim "born-agains."!) . People were rude and unfriendly. The matrimonial event which I signed up for specifically was a diasaster, despite meeting close to 70 guys, not one showed an interest in me, which left me feeling like less than dirt, unworthy of being loved. Sigh.

What I learned from this conference is that the spirit of Islam is in the action not in the display - many of these people "looked" like "good" Muslims, but when push came to shove they behaved not in compassion, kindness or modesty but as inpolite, offensive and self-rightious. I'll never go again.

Oh God,You are Peace.
From You comes Peace,
To You returns Peace.
Revive us with a salutation of Peace,
And lead us to your abode of Peace.
- Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

10 Comments:

Blogger PissedOffPencil said...

Well, I never drew any conclusions,I only presented the facts and only those that could be verified through media. Facts speaks for itself. The rest is up to him. But I did point out that GWB has the outermost responsibillity for everything, like any company's MD.

10:22 AM  
Blogger PissedOffPencil said...

On the other hand, my personal view is that since GWB created the Departement of Home Security, under which FEMA is sorted, the lion part of the blame still goes to GWB. Even more so, since fundings to FEMA have decreased a lot.

FEMA was treasured very highly by many governors, among them GWB, but as soon as he came to power he decreased it's fundings. And then he put Mike Brown to lead FEMA.

And yes, there seem to have been many mistakes from various people in all kinds of positions, but GWB is still The President, isn't he?

My personal impression is that he doesn't dare to make any decisions of his own but relys on others, all the time.

10:31 AM  
Blogger Pax Romano said...

VG,
I'm sorry your weekend was a bust ... yes, people can screw up most spiritual things - it's human nature I suppose.

You should come to Utopia, I'll make it my mission to find a nice guy for you! (ie one who is rich!!!).

10:36 AM  
Blogger Random Kath said...

Virgina Gal,

I've been to conferences like that on other subjects and I do hate wasting my time at them . . . however, if you never went, you would have never known.

The best thing you can do is spread the word about it, and if you are extremely enterprising, write a scathing letter to the conference planners - you might be surprised and be asked to plan something for the next conference that would be more to your liking. I am sure that if you felt that way, there are others who came who feel the same way.

My dad always told me, "If you think something is wrong, make some noise about it" . . . because others won't for whatever reason, and then things never get fixed.

I wish I knew some nice single guys for you to meet, but everyone I know now is either partnered or looking for a partner of the same gender. Keep hope alive, my dear! I am sending lots happy vibes your way - so that your Mr. Right comes into your field of vision soon! :-)

10:50 AM  
Blogger Tony said...

Did someone be mean to you? Do I gotta bust a cap in some ass?

**hug**

Tony

10:58 AM  
Blogger Pax Romano said...

I just love when Tony goes gangsta' LOL!!!

2:27 PM  
Blogger ninjapoodles said...

Oh, my...you have so many of the same issues as me! It really is a small, small world, and people are really more same than different, if only they'd realize.

If I went to a SBC conference, I'd probably wind up being dragged out screaming about how women are good enough to be on the forefront of groundbreaking missions work, teaching Sunday School, and basically being the backbone of the church....but not capable of being ministers, oh, nooooooo.......

Yeah. We should probably both stay home and pray. Sorry your trip was a let-down.

2:33 PM  
Blogger Virginia Gal said...

POP - fascinating observations, I concur that GW doesn't make many if any decisions himself.

Pax - I'm going to have to take you up on that offer, I'm sure there are tons of rich Indian single guys in NJ!!

RandomKath - good suggestion - I will definitely let them know how I felt, cause I don't want anyone else to go through that again!

Tony - yes, bust a cap - love it!

Belinda - thanks, I'm glad to know its not epidemic in Islam only. Your right we should just stay at home and pray.

3:47 PM  
Blogger Virginia Gal said...

Belinda - these things just boil my blood (and interestingly enough) so many of the male centered/chauvnistic (sp) stuff you were talking about in Southern Baptists, totally true about Muslims. I always find it funny that the fanatics of both religions hate each other so much, they have so much in common!

3:49 PM  
Blogger ninjapoodles said...

Yeah, ya gotta remember whoit was writing most holy texts back in the day...the ones who were allowed to read and write--the men! pretty convenient to be able to get some scripture in there to keep those females in line. The King James translation of the Bible is my least favorite--he was a notorious chauvenist, even for his time!

5:24 AM  

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