Suburban Capitalist girls love to shop at fancy malls with designer labels, don’t exclude Muslims from that!
For them, and the discerning Suburban Capitalist Muslim man, there are new designer fashions and catwalks to watch. Give them press, coverage, and a spot on the Today Show. American as apple pie.
““Sexy Rediscovered”: Meet the team behind Muslim fashion line, Eva Khurshid”
Tackling yet another field in which Muslims have not – yet – dominated are Nyla Hashmi and Fatima Monkush, the creative forces behind the most buzzed-about fashion line for Muslims, Eva Khurshid…Q: How did your backgrounds prepare you for your career and hands-on involvement (with both the Muslim and American communities)?
A: Because of our mixed heritages, we grew up in non-traditional yet conservative homes. Having American mothers has definitely shaped both of us and helped us take ownership in our American identity. Our Muslim upbringing is a huge part of our lives where it has served us with a strong foundation on how we live our day-to-day lives and conduct our business.Q: Do you think fashion is an area Muslims need to explore and work in?
A: We really encourage Muslims going into the arts; there are not enough of us in this field. If we don’t represent ourselves, who will? It’s so important for Muslims to branch out into non-traditional fields like fashion, even working with other Muslim artists in collaboration to help one another and giving support.”
Soon to appear on your Shop Rite checkout counter
For Muslim fashion designers, the market potential is enormous
Ausma Khan, chief editor for Muslim Girl, a young women’s lifestyle magazine that was started last year in the United States, believes that dedicated brands would have added appeal for many Muslim consumers. “The potential to design Muslim fashion for women and girls and to market to this audience is enormous,” Khan said. “Imagine the clothes you see in most contemporary and popular fashion outlets – Muslim girls and women are buying them and then creatively filling in the gaps. But they would absolutely buy the same clothes with higher necklines, longer hemlines, a more voluminous fit and so on,” she said.
Even in fashion sportswear and activewear, start-up companies like Hasema from Turkey and Ahiida from Australia have tickled market observers with the advent of functional Islamic swimwear. Aheda Zanetti, Ahiida’s founder, trademarked her designs as the “Burqini,” playing off the words bikini and burqa to describe her two-piece loose-fitting tracksuit.
“I think the Islamic fashion market is going to explode in the coming years. There are signs of it already,” said Gulsen Aydemir, editor of Modest Flair, a U.S.-based Web site that sources style trends and news for its Muslim readers.
America.gov shares this video about “American Islam” – Brooke Samad – . A graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Brooke and her business, Marabo Fashion, were featured in Muslim Girl Magazine in April 2008.
While fashion shows etc are all Western inventions, they aren’t limited to the Americas. Cultural Hegemony predicts we’d find them all across the globe:
Spiked hair or long hair, dramatic camera stares, lots of spinning around, pointing, music videos, lip synching, concerts and ticketmaster assimilation. Suburban Capitalist Islam brought us the Muslim boy bands and pop stars.
SEVEN8SIX (786) – The group performed as SEVEN8SIX for the first time at the 2002 ISNA convention in Washington, DC. Most of the group’s subsequent public appearances have been at large concert events organized by Muslim groups, including major events co-sponsored in part by the Islamic Society of North America and other community organizations around the United States… This group is working far and wide to please Allah (SWT). As Shahaab says, “We are using SEVEN8SIX as a tool for propagating Allah’s message. (from their website)
Native Deen – Native Deen came about through M.Y.N.A. or Muslim Youth of North America. The project was a gathering of amateur recording artists who’ve written their own work and MYNA featured these artists on the MYNA RAPs’ album.
Dawud Wharnsby – From his FAQ “What Is Dawud’s Reigion? Islam? Christianity? Buddhism? Bahai? Sufism?…. In 1993 Dawud was impacted by the words of Al Qur’an (The Recitation) and has made the best effort, since that time, to privately study and act upon their teachings. Dawud does not however, accept all of what has become connected to Al Qur’an through cultural and traditional interpretations of it. Though Dawud respects the efforts, lives and opinions of religious scholars (those who have studied the Torah, Talmud, Bible, Qur’an, Hadith, etc) he is not devoted to any specific institution of learning, religious school of thought, group, religious movement, teacher, guru, sheikh or saint — nor does Dawud accept a universal system of man-governed religious law derived from any one scripture.”
Outlandish – Outlandish did their first U.S. tour in Summer 2008 with the “Voices for Change” tour hosted by the Muslim American Society – Youth
Sami Yusuf
Girls can get into it also, heartbreak song – Liza Garza and Gritz & JellyButter “Swift’s Song”, featured at the IMAN concert at the Apollo (ISNA’s Mattson and Imam Zaid Shakir’s family were in attendance):
A healthy dose of self-criticism is a good thing. God knows I’ve engaged in my fair share on these very pages. But scholars writing in Arabic have differentiated between self-criticism (naqd al dhat) and self-flagellation (jald al dhat).
A number of emboldened voices, frequently of second generation Arab and Asian émigrés to western countries, continue to vie for a hearing in western periodicals and news media, boldly telling fellow Muslims just “what they really had better start understanding”, and dispensing marching orders, irreverently pronouncing on what Islam ought to be: usually some pale mimesis of Western liberal sensitivities.
It’s really beginning to get tiresome. Who are they talking to, anyway? The Muslim public doesn’t read the periodicals they write in. Are they trying to save the integrity of a beloved heritage or merely carve out a place of inclusion for themselves at the head table?
For a people who never had time for more than a thin relationship with Islam before September 11 2001, they sure do have a lot to say now. As a western convert to Islam this type of self-loathing really mystifies me. What is the motivation, then, to become the self-styled hero of offended western sensibilities?
Is it an attempt to reconcile a passion for all things western with an inescapable link in name or ethnicity to things “foreign”? Or does cashing in on this very affiliation promise a shot at relevancy as an “area expert” in the valley of the uninformed? Otherwise, were it not for the accident of ethnic circumstance, the Muslim social scientist would be relegated to competing with a vast and level playing field of his or her peers: a potential recipe for obscurity.
Or is it just that the incessant accusations of right-wing fear-mongers have at long last begun to penetrate the insecure psyche of shallow self-awareness? Whatever it is, it’s weak, uninteresting and borderline embarrassing. Well, maybe beyond borderline.
However, once these darlings of the cable media circuit or liberal information outlets have fulfilled their mission, establishing the utter banality of Islam, they too will be marginalised and forgotten.
But my challenge to these self-appointed spokesmen for Islam is this: You’ve told us everything that is wrong with Islam and Muslims, can you tell us now what is right and good about Islam? No, they cannot; because they themselves really know nothing of any depth about their own tradition.
But just you all wait and see. The end will be for those with confidence, hope, patience and fortitude. For those who envision a reading and living of the Way of Islam that adds value to the global conversation and contributes authentically and significantly to solving the dilemmas that challenge the human community as a whole.
From http://abudhabikhutbas.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/it-is-really-starting-to-get-tiresome/
PROPHET MUHAMMED’s Letter to the Monks of St. Catherine Monastery from Haqqani OSMANLI on Vimeo.
The Letter Reads:
This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them.
Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).
–
St Catherines monestary has this to say about their letter:
“According to the tradition preserved at Sinai, Mohammed (AS) both knew and visited the monastery and the Sinai fathers. The Koran makes mention of the Sinai holy sites. In the second year of the Hegira, corresponding to AD 626, a delegation from Sinai requested a letter of protection from Mohammed (S). This was granted, and authorized by him when he placed his hand upon the document. In AD 1517, Sultan Selim I confirmed the monastery’s prerogatives, but took the original letter of protection for safekeeping to the royal treasury in Constantinople. At the same time, he gave the monastery certified copies of this document, each depicting the hand print of Mohammed (S) in token of his having touched the original. ”
The previous post addressed the general categories of the people, and their authorized actions with regards to the condemnation of wrongs.
Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (R) then addresses the five preconditions for those who believe they are fit to speak about wrongs:
On the five preconditions that must be met
by anyone who intends to enjoin what is right
and fair and to forbid what is wrong and unfair.
Before a person can be considered fit for the task of enjoining what is right and fair and forbidding what is wrong and unfair, he must satisfy the following five preconditions:
1. He must have expert knowledge of what he is going to enjoin and what he is going to forbid.
2. His aim and object must be to win the favor of Allah, to fortify the religion [din] of Allah, and to exalt the word of Allah and His commandment, with no intention of putting on a show, of enhancing his own reputation, or of furthering his personal interests. Only if he is honest [sadiq] and sincere [mukhlis] will he receive support [from Allah] and be enabled to succeed [yuwaffaq], so that he may serve as the instrument by which the wrong can be eliminated. As Allah (Exalted is He) has said:
If you help Allah, He will help you and He will make your foothold firm. (47:7)
Allah (Exalted is He) has also said:
Surely Allah is with those who are careful of their duty to Him, and those who are doers of good [muhsinun]. (16:128)
Provided, therefore, that the person concerned is scrupulously careful to avoid the sin of attributing partners to Allah [shirk], that he refrains from trying to impress his fellow creatures while striving to correct what is wrong, and that he conducts himself with true sincerity [ikhlas] in all his efforts, he will enjoy triumphant success.
If he does not take this approach, on the other hand, he will reap nothing but disappointment and disgrace, humiliation and contempt. As for the wrong he is supposed to be correcting, it will remain quite unaffected, if it does not actually get worse. He will have nothing to show but his own hypocrisy [nifaq], the enthusiastic support of people addicted to sinful disobedience, the willing cooperation of the devils among men and jinn in defiance of Allah (Exalted is He), the abandonment of obedient service to Him, and the commission of unlawful deeds.
3. His manner of commanding and forbidding must be one that is characterized by lenient flexibility and sympathetic understanding, not by boorish impoliteness and harsh insensitivity. To put it even more emphatically, he should approach the task with an attitude of friendliness and good will. He should have a feeling of genuine concern for his brother, considering the fact that he has cooperated with his own enemy, the accursed Satan, who has seized control of his mind, and who has made it seem attractive to him to disobey his Lord and reject His commandment, with the intention of causing him to perish and be consigned to the Fire [of Hell]. As Allah (Exalted is He) has said:
[The devil] summons his party only that they may be among the inhabitants of the blazing inferno. (35:6)
Allah (Exalted is He) also said to His Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace):
It was by the mercy of Allah that you were lenient with them, for if you had been harsh and hard of heart, they would have scattered from all around you. (3:159)
Moreover, Allah (Exalted is He) said to Moses and Aaron [Harun] (peace be upon them both), when He sent them to Pharaoh:
And speak to him gently, for then he may be mindful, or perhaps feel afraid (20:44)
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) once said, according to the tradition [hadith] of Usama:
It is not appropriate for anyone to enjoin what is right and fair and to forbid what is wrong and unfair, until he possesses three good qualities: [He must be] well versed [alim] in what he is enjoining, well versed in what he is forbidding; gentle Irafiq] in the process of enjoining, gentle in the process of forbidding; tolerant [hallm] in his approach to enjoining, tolerant in his approach to forbidding.
4. He must be patient [sabur], tolerant [halim], long-suffering [hamul], humble [mutawadi'], dispassionate [zail al-hawa], stout-hearted [qawi al-qalb], and disposed to be lenient [layyin al-janib]. He must be a physician [tabib] capable of healing the sick, a doctor [hakim] with the skill to treat a lunatic [majnun], and a leader [imam] who can act as a guide. In the words of Allah (Exalted is He):
And We appointed from among them leaders guiding by Our command, when they endured with patience. (32:24)
[They endured with patience] the insults and injuries they had to suffer at the hands of their own people, in order to sustain, strengthen and support the religion [dm] of Allah, so He appointed them to be the leaders, the guides and the physicians of His religion, the commanding officers of the believers [qadat al-muminm].
In the story of Luqman, Allah (Exalted is He) has said:
[And Luqman said to his son:] “Enjoin what is right and fair, forbid what is wrong and unfair, and endure with patience whatever may befall you; surely that is true constancy [min 'azmi'l-umur].” (31:17)
5. He must be someone who puts into practice what he commands other people to do. He must also be personally free of any guilt, untainted by what he forbids other people to do, so that they have nothing to let them gain the upper hand over him, thereby exposing him to blame and censure in the sight of Allah. Consider the words of Allah (Exalted is He):
Will you bid other people to righteousness, while you forget [to practice it] yourselves? And you are readers of the Book! Have you no sense at all? (2:44)
According to the tradition [hadith] of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be well pleased with him), the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) once said:
On the night when 1 was taken on my heavenly journey, I saw some men whose lips were being clipped with scissors, so I said: “Who are these people, O Gabriel?” and he told me: “These are the preachers [khutaba] of your Community [Umma], the ones who gave instructions to other people but forgot [to practice those instructions] themselves, even though they were readers of the Book.”
In the words of the poet:
Do not tell others not to do
the very thing you do yourself.
The shame on you, if you act thus,
is very great indeed.142
Qatada (may Allah hestow His mercy upon him) once said: “We have been told that this is written in the Torah: ‘The human being [ibn Adam] remembers Me and he forgets Me, he calls upon Me and he runs away from Me. In vain is what you are trying to do.’”
Allah (Almighty and Glorious is He) may have been referring here in someone who enjoins what is right and forbids what is wrong, yet leaves himself out of it; but He (Exalted is He) is More Aware [A lam] of the truth of the matter.
142 la tanha ‘an khalqin wa ta’ti mithlahu—’arun ‘alaika idha ataita ‘azimun.
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
