This was on Front page of CNN website. SubhanAllah I can not believe they claim to be muslim while they are performing in bikinis. Astaghfirullah.
Arab-Americans react with delight to Lebanese-American Miss USA.
(CNN) -- Arab-Americans expressed delight Monday, a day after 24-year-old Lebanese-American Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA.
"For once, we're talking about beauty and not terror," said Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab-American News, in Dearborn, Michigan, who knows Fakih and her family.
He and about 150 other Arab-Americans watched the pageant unfold on a 100-inch television screen at La Pita Restaurant in Dearborn, which was packed with her friends.
The place erupted in applause when she took the crown, he said.
"This sends a signal that we're part and parcel of this great country ... this is a part of being American. The American dream is still alive and kicking. Nobody can tell us that a Muslim cannot make it. Yes, we can make it."
"We couldn't hear ourselves," said Mohamad Dbouk, general manager of the restaurant. "Everybody was screaming."
Dancing continued until 2 a.m., said Siblani, who text-messaged Fakih after her victory. "She was very excited."
He said Fakih and her family describe themselves as Muslim. Asked if conservative Muslims might be offended by the pictures of the young woman wearing a bikini, he said, "Only stupid ones. It's like all religions: They have conservative, they have liberal, and they have in the middle."
He added, "If you're asking those conservatives, yes, they'll tell you that it's forbidden. But I'm a Muslim, and if you ask me would my sister wear a bikini or a swimsuit, I'd say yes, of course."
A Lebanese friend downplayed the issue. Though her name is Muslim, "Rima was raised in a family that's moderate, and they practiced both religions," including Christianity, said Rami Haddad, who said he helped with Fakih's publicity campaign in Michigan.
"She's American first, and I don't think religion has to play any role in this."
He also downplayed the impact of the pictures, including those showing a scantily clad Fakih dancing on a pole. "I don't think they are anything bad," he said.
A spokeswoman for Miss USA said pageant officials are not certain that Fakih is the first Arab-American to win the title, since such records are not kept, but she said she thought that was the case.
Either way, Samar Boulos, 23, was proud of Fakih's victory. "I would really hope that she would raise the Lebanese name up high," said the Beirut native who teaches Arabic at Kennesaw State University in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. "Instead of always showing the terrorism part of it, maybe she could show the good side of it, the beauty."
Similar sentiments surged across international borders: "9 years after 9/11. America has a president of Muslim origin and a Muslim Miss America," tweeted Khalid Alkhalifa, the foreign minister of Bahrain.
But it was not all positive. Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor of Middle East affairs, said criticism was emerging on some websites. "It's a mixed bag," she said.
Arabs are quick to adopt someone who becomes successful, even if their country of origin played no role in their success, she said.
"Arabs usually flee their land to find opportunities elsewhere. Until they make it, their countries of origin do nothing for them," she said.
Nasr said others took issue with the judges' decision, pointing to one blog entry. "Anyone who says she ain't pretty is lying, but I'm not sure she's all that," it said. "She is a very typical Lebanese beauty, nothing too out of the ordinary, but I may be wrong."
Fakih's victory came as no surprise to Linda Bement, who had just turned 18 when she won the title of Miss USA in 1960.
"I picked her out," said Bement, who watched the program from Salt Lake City, Utah, where she lived then and lives now. "She just looked like she was going to be the winner."
Bement said that though the bathing suits have gotten smaller and the promotional pictures more risque, little else appears to have changed in the half-century since she took home her pearl-encrusted tiara.
"The girls are still pretty," said Bement, who had to return the tiara and went on to work as a model for Max Factor and Royal Crown Cola after her pageant victory. "It's a business, it's big money," she said.
After her victory, Bement too was subject to criticism from conservatives -- in this case from Mormons -- though it had little impact.
"I just heard it secondhand that somebody said a Mormon girl shouldn't be showing her body off in a bathing suit," she said. "But I would say overwhelmingly the Mormons were just thrilled that I won. The president of the church at the time invited me to meet his wife, and I, of course, met with him.
"There's always a little tiny group of people who are even more conservative than the average bear."
Then how can you avoid the punishment, if you disbelieve, on a Day that will make the children grey-headed?
Sura Al-Muzzammil 73:17
Well it's unislamic for her to dress like that but why do people care? She's clearly not a practicing Muslim. Dumb media picking controversy where there isn't any o.o.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
-Plato
Stories involving Muslims are usually good sellers.
Stupid media
Yes they always look for great chance to just blast these kind for stories. She is a shia anyway. Also her family supposedly celebrates christian holidays aswell.
Then how can you avoid the punishment, if you disbelieve, on a Day that will make the children grey-headed?
Sura Al-Muzzammil 73:17
She's isn't a practising Muslim, and to be honest, most Arab Americans are Christian, not Muslim. This may just be confusion between the two terms 'Arab' and 'Muslim'- she's Arab, but not Muslim.
He said Fakih and her family describe themselves as Muslim. Asked if conservative Muslims might be offended by the pictures of the young woman wearing a bikini, he said, "Only stupid ones. It's like all religions: They have conservative, they have liberal, and they have in the middle."
He added, "If you're asking those conservatives, yes, they'll tell you that it's forbidden. But I'm a Muslim, and if you ask me would my sister wear a bikini or a swimsuit, I'd say yes, of course."
flippin idiots, I wouldn't even say they're muslim, they're suggesting its permissable to go out naked infront of the whole world, they're making their own rules so they're as good as kaffirs, they can burn in hell along with all filthy americans they want to suck up to
if they're soo desperate to act like kaffirs why don't they just stop holding onto the title of 'muslim' and become christians or something, that way they can do what they want and still get salvation
Last edited by aadil77; 05-18-2010 at 11:55 AM.
He it is Who sends blessings on you, as do His angels, that He may bring you out from the depths of Darkness into Light: and He is Full of Mercy to the Believers. [Quran {33:43}] www.QuranicAudio.com www.Quran.com
Absolutely ridiculous. They practiced both religions. Let's just say they took the easy option/path; Christianity.
One confused family though - she was raised as a Shia.
To think that these 'Muslims' call this progress - they must be stupid. Being naked in front of pervy men & women.
Brothers & sister don't forget the 6 fasts of Shawwal
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari(ra) narrated, the Prophet(SAW) said, "Whoever fasted Ramadan with the then connect with the (fasting) six days in Shawwal, the (reward) as he was fasting for a year." (Muslim,Abu Dawood,al-Tirmidhi, al-Nisaai & Ibn Maajah).
She's isn't a practising Muslim, and to be honest, most Arab Americans are Christian, not Muslim. This may just be confusion between the two terms 'Arab' and 'Muslim'- she's Arab, but not Muslim.
Majority of American Arabs are not Muslims. Majority of American Muslims are not Arabs.
The article said, she is a Muslim. But you right, she is not practising Muslim.
Majority of American Arabs are not Muslims. Majority of American Muslims are not Arabs.
The article said, she is a Muslim. But you right, she is not practising Muslim.
she's a shia, small chance she is muslim
He it is Who sends blessings on you, as do His angels, that He may bring you out from the depths of Darkness into Light: and He is Full of Mercy to the Believers. [Quran {33:43}] www.QuranicAudio.com www.Quran.com
I did not watch the Miss USA contest, nor do I ever, but I did look at the website to see the winner after someone mentioned her on another forum..... and wow, those pictures of those ladies look like audition photos for a porno. It was disgusting. I was appalled.
And that article above in this thread, talking about how it's just money, it's just business........ right, women selling their bodies for money, or prostitution, has been "business" for a very long time. (Shhhhh... I did not just compare this to prostitution.)
She's isn't a practising Muslim, and to be honest, most Arab Americans are Christian, not Muslim. This may just be confusion between the two terms 'Arab' and 'Muslim'- she's Arab, but not Muslim.
I am an Arab American and am Muslim.. most of the Arab Americans I know are Muslim, about ten percent of those I know are maronites or copts and that reflects on the population at large although certainly they are favored for immigration because they like to cry foul more often than their Muslim counterparts!
all the best
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
Majority of American Arabs are not Muslims. Majority of American Muslims are not Arabs.
The article said, she is a Muslim. But you right, she is not practising Muslim.
Yeah. True.
I am an Arab American and am Muslim.. most of the Arab Americans I know are Muslim, about ten percent of those I know are maronites or copts and that reflects on the population at large although certainly they are favored for immigration because they like to cry foul more often than their Muslim counterparts!
I'm struggling to see what your empirical experiences have in relation to statistics, or indeed with relation to this thread.
I'm struggling to see what your empirical experiences have in relation to statistics, or indeed with relation to this thread.
you wrote and I quote:
most Arab Americans are Christian, not Muslim..
Leaving us in a tizzy as yo where you yourself get your stats? a small population in a foreign country should statistically reflect the larger population in the mother country. Christians of the middle east make up 10% of the population, there is no reason therefore for 'most Arab Americans to be christian'
your comment is incorrect, that is where the relevance is!
we don't get to make up statements and pass them as facts because well we feel like it!
all the best
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
Whatever she or anyone else agreeing with her says, won't help them when they have to face Allah(swt). Her loss!
The fact that they hold any sort of traditions with Christianity is shirk in itself. So she's sorta double screwed lol.
*Without Allah, without Islam, life would be meaningless. If I've ever learned patience, it's because of this. Alhamdulillah...*
Leaving us in a tizzy as yo where you yourself get your stats? a small population in a foreign country should statistically reflect the larger population in the mother country. Christians of the middle east make up 10% of the population, there is no reason therefore for 'most Arab Americans to be christian'
your comment is incorrect, that is where the relevance is!
we don't get to make up statements and pass them as facts because well we feel like it!
all the best
OK then, most Arabs who live in America are Christian. I don't know why you persist in getting into debates over such nonsense!
OK then, most Arabs who live in America are Christian. I don't know why you persist in getting into debates over such nonsense!
I don't know why you intentionally dispense with wrong info.? you are not the authority on what the ''majority or 'most' of Arabs who live here are by way of creed!
on a separate matter: I didn't get to reply to you in the previous thread before it was closed! but that wasn't a 'biblical quote' it is from the Noble Quran:
21:105 Before this We wrote in the Psalms, after the Message (given to Musa): "My servants, the righteous, shall inherit the earth."
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
I actually find some of these responses a little disturbing.
Why are people so judgmental? As far as I know, none of us know her personally and there have been some really just mean things said about her. All we know is she isn't dressing Islamically. That's the only action we have witnessed.
For all we know, she prays, fasts, gives zakat.
It is for Allah to judge her.
I don't mean to rub anyone the wrong way but I've seen a lot of judgmental things lately and it just makes me sick everytime I see it.
Also, let's not throw the kaffir word around too loosely. Only Allah knows what is in people's hearts.
"And hold fast unto Allah, He is your protector, the best to protect and the best to help"
I actually find some of these responses a little disturbing.
Why are people so judgmental? As far as I know, none of us know her personally and there have been some really just mean things said about her. All we know is she isn't dressing Islamically. That's the only action we have witnessed.
For all we know, she prays, fasts, gives zakat.
It is for Allah to judge her.
I don't mean to rub anyone the wrong way but I've seen a lot of judgmental things lately and it just makes me sick everytime I see it.
Also, let's not throw the kaffir word around too loosely. Only Allah knows what is in people's hearts.
ukht, it is clear that her profession is haraam, and she has done many haraam things like some "stripping" dance on a show. From beginning to end her life is haraam. So we are to judge based on what her actions are. We would be wrong to judge if we judge a practising muslim. She is shia anyway. So I dont think they care a bit about following Quran and Sunnah.
Then how can you avoid the punishment, if you disbelieve, on a Day that will make the children grey-headed?
Sura Al-Muzzammil 73:17
At-Tirmidhi narrated that Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه reported that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said: "He is not one of us who imitates other than us. Do not imitate the Jews or the Christians."
At-Tabarani and Abu Dawud narrated that Ibn Umar and Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه reported that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said: "Whoever imitates a people, he is one of them."
Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih (book) that Abu Saeed Al-Khudri رضي الله عنه reported that Allah's Messenger صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said: "You will indeed follow the ways of those before you, hand span by hand span, and an arms length after another. Even if they enter into a lizards hole, you will follow them. We asked, is it the Jews and the Christians? He صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم replied, Who else!"
He it is Who sends blessings on you, as do His angels, that He may bring you out from the depths of Darkness into Light: and He is Full of Mercy to the Believers. [Quran {33:43}] www.QuranicAudio.com www.Quran.com
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Media will report anything for to sell papers.
(Shhhhh... I did not just compare this to prostitution.)
ukht, it is clear that her profession is haraam, and she has done many haraam things like some "stripping" dance on a show. From beginning to end her life is haraam. So we are to judge based on what her actions are. We would be wrong to judge if we judge a practising muslim. She is shia anyway. So I dont think they care a bit about following Quran and Sunnah.
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