who is the clarion fund?

As you’ve probably heard, a mysterious group called the Clarion Fund has been waging a propaganda war through the media, distributing millions of copies of the extremist DVD Obsession through paid advertisement supplements in major newspapers throughout swing states. The movie, in case you haven’t seen it, is a modern day Der Ewige Musselman, featuring high-value propapaganda tactics, quickly interspersed shots that clearly link through adjacentness Islam and Fascism, and lots of neocon talking heads debating the seriousness of the Muslim presence on earth and how best to deal with it (Mark Steyn’s “if you can’t outbreed ‘em, cull ‘em!” Final Solution seems to be a popular option). Here’s a sample cutscene:

• Shot one: Actors in pantomime Arab costume feast on Jewish babies while shaking their scimitars.
• Shot two: Overview of the Nuremburg Rally.
• Shot three: A fifteen minute solliloquay by Robert Spencer screaming through spittle-encrusted beard that Muslims are Nazis who eat babies.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it so I may have made some of that up.

Regardless, coming this close to the US elections, where our neighbors to the south will carefully look over each candidate, evaluating individual policies for the good of their families and neighbors, and then vote for the white guy, the timing is suspect. So who’s doing it, anyway?

Hard to say. The Carion Fund sure ain’t saying. Their site doesn’t have much on it. They do list a 888-number (1-888-610-2221) for “general information and screening requests,” but when I called to see if they’d show it at my mosque they hung up on me. Their “Online Education” section just links to a site called radicalislam.org (naturally). There, you’ll find all kinds of fun facts, including:

• Fuelling Terror, which directly links fossil fuels to radical Islam and terror
• Sharia Law, which explains that your Muslim neighbors are really just waiting for the right opportunity to impose hand-amputatin’, woman-beatin’, dhimmi-bootin’ Sharia on you…so watch out!
• The Death Sentence for Converts, which kind of backs up Mark Steyn’s position that the only good Muslim’s a dead Muslim
• Where are all the Liberal Muslims? See above–they’re dead! Haha!
• Set America Free, a gripping Q&A on why America is currently dhimmified, and what you can do about it

And probably the most important one, which I’ll quote outright:

• Vote 2008: As the 2008 Presidential election approaches, the threat of radical Islam is the defining issue of the campaign. What are the positions of the Presidential candidates?

Wanna guess which side they’re on?

More fun stuff: The radicalislam.org site includes a link to Tell Your Story: Post your experiences with radical Islam, but alas, the link’s dead letter. I had a doozy for them too, about how this one time, I was riding a bus, and I saw these terrorist Arabs, and they were talking Muslim, and I snuck up behind them and knelt behind their seat and recorded their conversation on my cell phone, but then this LIEberal dhimmi feminazi who was sitting there got mad and accused me of taking upskirt photos and I got kicked off the bus even though its THEM who should be kicked off the bus!

But I’ve got hopes the link will be up again soon, and once it is, please feel free to share.

the heart of muslim

Note: The theme of this post is poached almost entirely from Dr. Akber Mithani’s lecture on the night of 3 Muharram 1429.

In the 60th year of the Hijra, 680 CE, Imam Husayn ibn Ali (as) dispatched Hazrat Muslim ibn Aqeel, his cousin and trusted friend, to Kufa in modern-day Iraq to investigate the circumstances of its people, who had pledged him allegiance through a series of letters he had received while in Medina. Hazrat Muslim and his two sons left Medina in Husayn’s service, and arrived to a Kufan public eager to receive Husayn as their Imam, their Mawla, their Caliph. Thousands of Kufans implored Hazrat Muslim to send Husayn without delay, and he did his duty and sent for him.

Yazid, the son of slaves, the usurper, heard about Kufa, and immediately sent the governer of Basrah, Ibn Ziyad, to secure the unrest he saw unfolding there. Ibn Ziyad therefore fulfilled his role as another cog in the machine, another strongman, supported by thieves and foreigners, airlifted into power in Iraq to knock some heads about. And in perfect strongman fashion, Ibn Ziyad informed the people of Kufa that what Yazid willed for them was compliance, not insurrection. Hazrat Muslim, after having dispatched Imam Husayn, once the bringer of hope for Kufa, was hunted for money and fame in the service of Yazid–and the transformation of the people of Kufa was a singular moment, a breath, a turning away, and it set into motion the machine of history.

Hazrat Muslim is alone for days in the streets of Kufa. His heart is heavy because he knows his cousin has already left, is marching toward Karbala and what happens there. On the outskirts of town, he finds a house and knocks on the door–hoping for what, I don’t know. What’s left to hope for in times like this? And he finds kindness, a lover of God in the form of a mother. She quenches his thirst, but he cries for the Imam. This mother feels for Muslim, as any mother feels for any son. And that is the last good person Hazrat Muslim finds in Kufa, the last person he will know that is capable of seeing feelingly with a pure heart full of real love, love for God, the protection of what is right and rejection of what is wrong.

Her son sees with eyes guided by a heart consumed with something else–our hearts can hold only one infatuation at a time–and he hurries to Ibn Ziyad, to dunya for a little bit of money, and for that money he sells Hazrat Muslim. Ibn Ziyad catches Muslim and summarily executes him, lopping off his head, the standard M.O. of terrorists. Before he is killed, Hazrat Muslim has three last wishes. Look at this man, look at the purity of this man’s heart:

1. He knew he owed a debt, so he requested his sword and armour be sold to pay that debt.
2. He requested a proper burial so that he would face the House of God.
3. He requested Ibn Ziyad to send word to Imam Husain (as) to turn back to Medina.

His heart desires only to fulfill his obligations to God. Ibn Ziyad grants his first wish, but disregards the rest: Hazrat Muslim’s headless body is dragged through the streets of Kufa tied to a donkey. His head is mounted at the gates of the city, as if to warn the people: “This is the end of the path of God. Obey Yazid, and save your skin!”

The moment in Hazrat Muslim’s story that captures me more than any other–more than the moment of his death, or the last precious last minutes he spent with the Imam, or the elation or the betrayal of the Kufans, is that brief moment when a son who loves dunya makes a commitment to sell the Good for particles of gold. What drives that man? It’s not greed–greed is a means to an end, it’s an emotional tool we use to turn the most expedient thing, the most profitable thing, into the right thing. It’s not ambition or arrogance either–all of these are merely tools we use with our minds to explain the world to us in a way that benefits us. What drove this mother’s son to sell Hazrat Muslim was the absence of God in his heart.

In the Supplication of Kumayl, Imam Ali (as), Husayn’s father, tells God of his real fear of the Fire. It’s not torment or physical pain. It’s the absence of God. Astaghfirullah. Conversely, the drive he feels toward Paradise isn’t for the streams and the meadows and little bunches of grapes, it’s for nearness to God. Subhanallah.

Now think about why we pray, and fast, and give in charity. We’re like children–we do it for the promise of Paradise and the avoidance of the Fire, to gain reward and avoid punishment. Prayer and fasting and charity aren’t highways to Heaven. They’re conduits to seek nearness to God. We think of reward as Paradise–reward is being near to God. We think of punishment as the Fire–punishment is separation from God. If only we knew.

This mother’s son, who sold Hazrat Muslim to the sons of slaves for dunya, turned away. That’s what turning away does to you. You take this life, in which you can be anything you want to be–a scholar, a doctor, a soldier, a carpenter–this precious gift from God, you take your potential, you take your nafs, and you practically give it away. Even worse, you sell it for a little bit of money. You might as well be an assassin or a whore.