The American Dream

[IAmZamzam]

You think? Not if all the street is shouting : "USA USA USA USA"
Because "America's Enemy" which happens to be a forgeiner , which also happens to be the enemy of "World" is dead.
I thought "Americans" just Love "America" Don' they?? I mean isn't it the Land of Gold?
Beside i don't think resigning from my job if i am faced with such a situation( an i already have millions of dollars in my bank account) would be that hard , would it?

Congratulations, May, you have finally succeeded in genuinely offending me and getting me on your case for real. Dressing up stereotypes in polite, gentle words and constantly covering yourself by saying that you're hoping not to offend does not change a flipping thing in regards to what you're still doing, and all the quotation marks in history won't do a danged thing either. You're not fooling anyone, you're just blowing hot and cold with the same breath. I didn't think the entire Middle East was in favor of the 9/11 attacks after I saw footage of one street in celebration because of it because unlike you I bothered to use my gray matter instead of letting my anger lead me to frame people as guilty by association due to a mere shared nationality. I am done trying to open your mind, which is impossible until you start being honest with yourself about your own bigotry, and until the day when you see me, the one individual person talking to you right now, standing in the street and shouting "USA! USA!" you have no right to put me on the defensive for things other people have done, especially since I'll bet you wouldn't want people talking the same way to you about anything wrong your own country's government has ever done. Don't be grateful for the tolerance of others if you're not willing to show any yourself.

EDIT: I accidentally pressed enter mid-note while deducting reputation from you so let me finish it here instead: you want a formula? Here's a formula.

Condescending overgeneralizations + euphemisms + quotation marks + apologies = condescending overgeneralizations

 

[May Ayob]

Salaam

Congratulations, May, you have finally succeeded in genuinely offending me and getting me on your case for real.

No , you should say shame on you, I didn't know that the above comment was going to intimidate you to this extent.

Dressing up stereotypes in polite, gentle words and constantly covering yourself by saying that you're hoping not to offend does not change a flipping thing in regards to what you're still doing, and all the quotation marks in history won't do a danged thing either

I didn't know that i was a hypocrite .... that's sad ..
You should have pity for me as if i was sentenced to be so no one can be saving me from Hell Fire, not get mad or be offend by my comments.
I thought qoutations do make a difference ...

You're not fooling anyone, you're just blowing hot and cold with the same breath.

I didn't mean to fool anyone... I was merely exchange my points of view... I you don't like my comments this much i assure you i will be editing it and saying something better.

I didn't think the entire Middle East was in favor of the 9/11 attacks after I saw footage of one street in celebration because of it

Why the Middle East? Why not the Islamic World .. You know Arabs only make 20% of overall Muslims..at least that's what statistics say..

because unlike you I bothered to use my gray matter instead of letting my anger lead me to frame people as guilty by association due to a mere shared nationality.

May be my grey matter is too thick, Did you ever consider that? I assure you i am not angry at all ... My above comment was nothing but another attempt to use "sense of Humor" but i knew things like that never would work for me as it would make misunderstandings .What more did you expect from a stereotypical, generalzing "anti-American" freak?

. I am done trying to open your mind, which is impossible until you start being honest with yourself about your own bigotry

Patience my brother, is one of the most important qualities a teacher should posses , I am not against you trying to open my mind about this issue but you have to realise undoing "opinions" of other people is quite a hard thing. About my self you are correct i do need to start being honest with my self.. I hope God helps me to do so.

and until the day when you see me, the one individual person talking to you right now, standing in the street and shouting "USA! USA!"

May God forbid that from ever happening , I have a good opinion about you , I hope to never see you nor any one else irrationally calling for Patriotrism.

you have no right to put me on the defensive for things other people have done

Yes you are right, I am sorry if i acted like a bully and took advantage of your nationality.

especially since I'll bet you wouldn't want people talking the same way to you about anything wrong your own country's government has ever done

I assure you I am by all mean an Anti-Patriotic person , I do not support the Government of the country which i happen to come from , it is accused of many Horrific crimes against it's people , nor do i have any support for the " people of "my" country" there is enough in the culture and Society that would make me willingly denounce my nationality or belonging to it.. I do not see at all that i belong to any country in this planet , nor Do i believe in " countries" or Patriotism. I never celebrate or participate in National days and honestly i didn't touch "my" country's flag since i was 8 years old.
As for your Question : It depend i don;t really think i will actually be offended if someone has " accused me " of being responsible for what "my" country has done because i simply do not recognize it as "my" country...

Don't be grateful for the tolerance of others if you're not willing to show any yourself.

This is wonderfull indeed, Can i qoute this?, May i use it as a Proverb?
Masha' Allah you seem to have been gifted with words.

EDIT: I accidentally pressed enter mid-note while deducting reputation from you so let me finish it here instead: you want a formula? Here's a formula.

Do as you like , reputation points shouldn't matter anyway.

Condescending overgeneralizations + euphemisms + quotation marks + apologies = condescending overgeneralizations

Thank you i didn't know most of the definition of the words you used .. I used a dictionary , so thank you for increasing my vocabulary.. By the way .. I think you are right you are not the only one who told me in this forum that I am generalizer, I think i have to change my ways .. But i have to admit it isn't going to be easy because i am a stubborn person.

I am sorry for real , I think we should sort this out I need to be more considerate towards you feelings and you need to have a little more Patience with me
Did we reach an agreement? Are we at peace?

P.s- What do you think of Republicans? ...another joke
Please don't reply as I am no good in Politics this is why I choose the Medical field.

Salaam

 

[IAmZamzam]

Of course we're at peace, May, and I'm as to blame for overreacting as you are for doing any of those things. Although I will still have to take it that "intimidate" is another word you're not 100% on. Perhaps you meant "irritate". To answer your questions, though--or at least the ones that don't seem rhetorical:

Why the Middle East? Why not the Islamic World .. You know Arabs only make 20% of overall Muslims..at least that's what statistics say..

I couldn't remember which country that street was in and since the analogy already involved a large area and group being blamed for what smaller ones did I figured I may as well go ahead and say the whole Middle East. The news media was actually more or less trying to push that specific idea.

This is wonderfull indeed, Can i qoute this?, May i use it as a Proverb? Masha' Allah you seem to have been gifted with words.

Or course you may.

Listen, self-dishonesty is the most universal trait in the world. It's the fuel of all sin, and therefore probably the only sin that's automatically universal. I have paid the price, perhaps, in focusing too much on my own machine's fuel level by letting it run while I check it. I'm not a negative person, I just have a problem with repetition and routine. I made a resolultion to that end to stop doing anything on the board that doesn't directly involve dawah but old habits are so hard to kill and without thinking I keep clicking on links to threads whose titles pique me. Really, this whole dang this is all my fault in the end for being here at all.

 

[Tyrion]

I made a resolultion to that end to stop doing anything on the board that doesn't directly involve dawah but old habits are so hard to kill and without thinking I keep clicking on links to threads whose titles pique me. Really, this whole dang this is all my fault in the end for being here at all.

A lot of the things you've said here really needed to be said, so it's good that you clicked on the thread to say them...

 

[Who Am I?]

Alright, so apparently I said some things that offended people. I'm not used to that. I normally don't participate in these type of discussions and I keep my thoughts to myself for precisely that reason. I don't like to offend anyone. I don't want to be known as a "typical arrogant Yank". It makes me feel bad as a Muslim and as a human.

I should have known better, but my inner history nerd and my USA patriotism got the better of me. Next time I will know better, I promise.

In short, I apologize to anyone I have offended, and I will make my not so graceful exit from this thread stage left.

Salaam, brothers and sisters.

 

[GuestFellow]

^ Salaam,

You didn't offend me. :/

 

[SFatima]

American dream is not ideal

Funny thing I am scared to be rich and if I will be given a chance to choose, I want to be middle class forever

I've already experience it all, when my income was (lets say) 10$ and now I am getting 10x of that at age of 25, nothing change in me. The way I dress, the food I eat, I still like to go by bus rather than taxi if husband is not available. It is where I find happiness in living with simplicity. Many of my batch strive to get huge house, 1 or two, but I always say that, Big house is harram if nobody will live.

Maybe it is bcoz I came from a poor family, besides I am preparing myself in case Allah take all the wealth we have. Inshallah not but I am not so afraid to be poor again.

MashAllah , may everyone have this outlook on the life of this world, and may we learn the value of this worldly life as is, in the eyes of Allah swt,which is like " a dead defected decaying calf".

"I have nothing to do with this world. The parable of me and this world is like a rider who rests in the shade of a tree, then he passes on and leaves it." Hazrat Muhammad Saww (Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah)

 

[truthseeker63]

Thank You to all for your posts.

 

[May Ayob]

Salaam

Of course we're at peace, May, and I'm as to blame for overreacting as you are for doing any of those thing

AlHamdulilah, thank you. You're just being Humble , there is nothing to blame you for because it is obvious who was doing the wrong thing--Me.

I'm not a negative person, I just have a problem with repetition and routine. I made a resolultion to that end to stop doing anything on the board that doesn't directly involve dawah but old habits are so hard to kill and without thinking I keep clicking on links to threads whose titles pique me. Really, this whole dang this is all my fault in the end for being here at all.

I never thought/ or had the impression that you are a negative person. Nor was I offended by any of your posts. And actually I have to thank you because you saved me in one way or another from hurting any of the 300 million people that happen to be living in the Imaginary Line you happen to be living in, that is if I met any in the future .. So Just like brother Tyrion had said you did say somethings that needed to be said.. Jazak Allahu Kahir

Sorry for the late reply.
Salaam

 

[May Ayob]

Alright, so apparently I said some things that offended people. I'm not used to that. I normally don't participate in these type of discussions and I keep my thoughts to myself for precisely that reason. I don't like to offend anyone. I don't want to be known as a "typical arrogant Yank". It makes me feel bad as a Muslim and as a human. I should have known better, but my inner history nerd and my USA patriotism got the better of me. Next time I will know better, I promise. In short, I apologize to anyone I have offended, and I will make my not so graceful exit from this thread stage left. Salaam, brothers and sisters.

Salaam Brother Kind of Nines
You are not serious , are you? Beleive me All that I have said regarding that former post was not meant to be a reaction of Offense at all , I'll explain:
- I wanted to say that I thought History was supposed to teach us about the Past.. not the future.. That's all.
-The Scenario I gave was a terrible one .. and I think it resulted into me falling into a sin.
- What I meant by regarding how i would feel as a Ethnic Japanese from the region ..Even though it may not seem like it but i was trying to remind my self and others (pretty much everyone) that we should all atleast put some sympathitic speech when we are discussing sensitive Political Issues .. That's All
I am the one here who probably offended you so I am sorry for that . Please accept my apologies for the mis-understandings.

Thank You to all for your posts.

You are welcome

 

[GuestFellow]

- I wanted to say that I thought History was supposed to teach us about the Past.. not the future.. That's all.

History can also give us an idea what might happen in the future, if you have knowledge about current affairs.

 

[Mister Agenda]

I know it's a little pedantic, but quotes for 'American People' to show that their will isn't unanimous or necessarily reflected in the action of their government is appropriate. Usually no quotes needed for American Military or American Government.

Our system is corrupted because special interests spend millions of dollars to influence our politicians. Even if it isn't outright bribery, it's hard not to be influenced by such efforts. Election campaigns in the USA are very expensive, even if there is no tit-for-tat, a politician whose election fund had very generous contributions from, say, military contractors, is likely to feel beholden to them and if he acts against their interests had better think about how his re-election campaign is going to be financed.

Various laws have been aimed at reforming the process, but their flaw is that they miss the root of the problem: our legislators and other politicians have too much influence over how resources are distributed for big companies and other well-heeled special interests NOT to try to throw considerable resources into influencing our legislative process. They have a huge incentive to figure out ways around laws restricting their access. Unless we restrict their power to change the tax code on a whim and select which contractors are hired, we will continue to have the tail wagging the dog: the government being run for the interests of the politicians instead of the people.

Another factor in the equation is the state-of-the-art propaganda machine used to get popular support for wars. When our 'leaders' want us to go to war, any incident is exagerrated as an excuse; when they don't want us to go to war, no provocation is enough. When I was arguing against the Iraq War I heard everything from 'the president must know what he's doing' to 'they shouldn't have attacked us'. The latter particularly made me want to scream, because whatever really happened, we weren't attacked by the countries Afghanistan and Iraq (or Libya or Yemen or Somalia or Pakistan). We were attacked by terrorists. Much as we wanted to strike out and 'get even' it was a matter for police action not military invasion. It was also an opportunity to reflect on how our policies in the Middle East had contributed to our problems there. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul spoke out on this, the other candidates used the 'blame America' slogan to marginalize him. It doesn't pay for politicians to speak out against the policies of our government.

End of rant.

 

[SFatima]

Agree with the above post .

p.s your avatar is giving me strained eyes hehe :uuh:

 

[Mister Agenda]

LOL, I may be starting to get tired of it myself.