Religion of Love

My heart has become capable of every form;
It is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'ba
And the tables for the Torah and the book of the Qur'an.
I follow the religion of Love, wherever way
Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith.
Ibn al-'Arabi

I studied this poem in a poetry class at the American University in Cairo and recently came across it once more in the introduction to The Essential Writings of Gandhi. The love poetry of Ibn al-'Arabi always has a double meaning, one literal the other esoteric. Much of his poetry was charged for being overly lustful, yet many scholars, such as William Chittick and Frithjof Schuon, believe his love poetry to transcend romance between man and woman and described a deeper love between humankind and God. These lines from the collection, Interpretor of Desire, I feel reveal the true nature of his poetry to be more than just lustful words. Instead, his poetry describes a philosophy of oneness in being and love for all mankind.

In our world today, religion's exclusivist nature has led to fear, manipulation and war, when in actuality, all religions share the universal characteristic of love for others. Humankind's inability to recognize the universiality of all religions, is in my opinion, the root of conflict today. Any system of exclusivism or hierarchy creates the dichotomy of us and the other. If this dichotomy, this manner of dividing mankind could be replaced with a recognition of the unity among man, conflict in this world would cease to exist.

Structural Violence

Structural violence, a term which was first used in the 1970s and which has commonly been ascribed to Johan Galtung, denotes a form of violence which corresponds with the systematic ways in which a given social structure or social institution kills people slowly by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Institutionalized elitism, ethnocentricism, classism, racism, sexism, adultism, nationalism, heterosexism and ageism are just some examples of this. Life spans are reduced when people are socially dominated, politically oppressed, ore economically exploited. Structural violence and direct violence are highly interdependent. Structural violence inevitably produces conflict and often direct violence including family violence, racial violence, hate crimes, terrorism, genocide, and war.
Wikipedia

Trapped in a Prison

Put me in a cage and I will resist.

Sum of Us

If you wanna fight the power
Get the power to fight
Cuz some of us judge without knowing the man's inner
And some of us find fault in the sin and not the sinner
Jurassic Five

Human Shield Tactic

Palestinians' high-risk human shield tactic
A beautiful example of nonviolent resistance. Gandhi has said violence is a tool of the weak, and non-violence is a tool for the strong, a philosophy I am proponent of. The Palestinian response to IDF violence should be disclosed to the world as the poster-child for peaceful resistance.

The Bottom Rung

"Today's conventional portrait of international politics thus too often ends up looking like a Superman comic strip, whereas it probably should resembler a Jackson Pollock painting." Cynthia Enloe, Curious Feminist.

Enloe referring to the simplification of international politics by solely recognizing power centers and ommitting the voices in the margin.

Our World Needs a Mother

I recently attended a lecture by USC Professor of International Relations, Ann Tickner. The lecture included an exericse in which those attending were told to describe male/masculine qualities in juxtoposition to female/feminine qualities. She then asked the audience, who were prodimently women, to state which qualities they saw in themselves or wish to see in themselves. I was disheartened to see the majority of women identifying with the "male qualities" which included but was not limited to income earner, career oriented, controlled, leader, autonomy, reason and power. One female in the audience went so far as to rebuke any female who would ever want to identify with feminine qualities such as passivity, soft spokenness and indecisive. It blew my mind that 1) she chose the qualities of femininity with the most negative connotations and 2) held reverence for male qualities and a glimmer of shame towards female qualities. To address my first conundrum I plea for all to think twice about the judgement of qualities. Aggressiveness is considered comendable in a work environment while passivity is condemened. Maybe passivity is wise while aggressiveness is foolish? Aggressivenss in foriegn policy for instance has left the US a debt and a pariah in the New World Order. Passiviity, the feminine quality may have served us better, and therefore should not be considered negative. And what of autonomy? I would think any man or woman who could think he or she could make it in this world alone or independent has failed to understand how greatness was achieved. No great leader ever achieved success alone, not Gandhi nor Mother Theresa, nor any great president. Many women feel that they must adopt masculine qualities to be successful in our male dominent world of today, but I question the need for leaders seeking more power and money or policy based on toughness and reason. In my opinion, the world is in need of the so-called feminine qualities of empathy and caring. I plea for all women to develop the qualities in them regardless of their gender associations, but I plea more for any man or woman to recognize that maybe our male chavuanistic world is need of a mother of unconditional love and fierce maternal protectiveness.