muslim.genderqueer.algerian 
You probably know me as Sepharone or Eli. I love my wife. I have madskillz--read about my life here. Sean and Eli united on 6/13/11 and it lasted until 6/17/11. I used to DLS (still do once in a blue moon), and here is my DLS Award, lol. Our childhood. Click here if you still haven't found what you're looking for.
These pictures are mine, the rest are not. Some of these are mine. I reblog when something really makes me laugh or touches me. :)
Read this before you leave me tidbits, yeh? And check these out instead of asking me about my views.
GRYFFIN | PUFF |
i’m so serious though. the vibes i get from some of these tumblrs:
aw that’s cute, a muslim convert
but that’s all we are ever to them, and then posts start flowing about how some people convert to try and “be arab” and we are just seen as these novelty things. we aren’t muslim enough to run any islamic blogs or have anything worthwhile to say. we are just these random converts that showed up to the party and no one wants to tell us what they are talking about.excuse you. i was invited to this party, and i am not gonna waste my time waiting around for you to take me seriously, i’m just gonna start talking.
i know this sounds crazy but i swear i could start naming popular muslim bloggers that do this.
yeah and it’s like they don’t even know they do it
and they’ll swear up and down they like converts that they appreciate us
some of the stuff they say without thinking is a hand across the face
like when people say they’d not marry someone who wasn’t from their country or wasn’t arab or desi
thanks we’re damaged goods thanks.
and then they wonder why people burn out on the deen and say they feel alone.
there are popular muslim bloggers?
I do agree with all of this, though. The bias seriously shows, when muslim bloggers argue points with me, and then their worst insult they can muster is, “WELL YOU’RE A STUPID CONVERT YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING.” and I’m not even a convert. I was born into the religion, same as you.
So I wrote this for my wife. It’s supposed to be calling out the misogyny in Islam towards the sisters, but it can double as a lament of my wife (because she left Islam), but I do not wish to presume to speak on her behalf, so let’s just go with the first interpretation.
Anywho, it’s untitled so far.
If you have the audacity to call a hijabi out on doing something “haram” while you don’t even wear Hijab, get out of my sight.
Wearing the Hijab doesn’t make me a spokesperson for all Muslims or Islam. If I make a mistake I shouldn’t be judged by a fellow Muslim, especially if they themselves don’t even wear the Hijab. “You’re making Muslims look bad.”
BIIITCH WHO are YOU to tell me that I’m making Muslims look bad?
WTHI don’t care if you’re telling me I’m “slut shaming” or whatever the hell. I am following one of the commands of Allah SWT, and you have no right to tell me that I’m making Islam look bad.
Ainee just made a post talking about how Hijab.≠ Halo and she’s right. It doesn’t.
& for your information not wearing Hijab doesn’t stop you from being a Muslim, I don’t give a fuckkk if people don’t assume you’re Muslim. You still have to do your Muslim duties to Allah, hijabis are not perfect and not wearing Hijab doesn’t give you an excuse to call them out.
Stop putting Hijabis on a fucking pedestal.
We’re human beings too.
this
Thank you to Eli, aka Strawberreli, for allowing us to share these personal answers and experiences. As you can see from some of the questions asked below, genderqueer people face a lot of different challenges to LGB people, especially where people feel as if they have the right be to know the answer to extremely personal information and are extremely disrespectful. We hope that sharing these experiences, will raise awareness about the issues that genderqueer and asexual people face.
For the sake of ease, I have summarised the gist of each post/ask and linked it to the post on Eli’s blog.
Click here to read Eli’s post about coming out to friends as asexual
Question: How do you balance being genderqueer with being Muslim
Question: Are your parents ok with you being gay and Muslim
Question about genitals
Question about the hijab, and how Eli presents themselves
Questions about Eli’s gender identity 1, 2, 3, 4
Message about coming outCredit for all posts go to Eli at strawberreli.tumblr.com
Thank you again to Eli, who is most certainly NOT Haraam.
Excerpt of Meet Fatima Al-Fihri - An Inspiration:
Twelve hundred years ago, under the Islamic State, a woman named Fatima Al-Fihri lived to make life for her community better and was a woman with a vision. She was from a prestigious family and had inherited a fortune from her father. As a young, wealthy and well educated woman her interest was neither in shoes or handbags, nor in any celebrity lifestyle, neither to woe a man for marriage, nor in any of the stereotypes that are usually associated with us women folk. There was depth in this woman, she had a vision that was cultivated and allowed to grow because of the Islamic society she lived in and encouraged her. Her vision did not remain a dream but was accomplished and the results can still be seen today. In 859, Fatima Al-Fihri founded the oldest academic degree-granting university existing today, the University of Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco.
The Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque is one of the largest Masjids (mosque) in Africa and one of the world’s oldest universities. Al-Qarawiyyin is the perfect example of how Islam combines the spiritual with education and that Islam is not separate from life’s affairs. This is not only an example of how education and religion merge in this small corner of the globe, but it sheds light on the esteemed role that women played in the Islamic community - an aspect of Islam that is often misunderstood. Furthermore, during medieval times it was regarded as being a major intellectual centre in the Mediterranean. Its excellent reputation even led to Gerber of Auvergne studying at the mosque. Auvergne later went on to become Pope Sylvester II and has been given the credit of introducing Arabic numerals and the zero to the rest of Europe.
Although Fatima Al-Fihriyya is an inspiration and a powerful symbol of empowerment for many Muslimahs, she is also a sad reminder of how much the Muslim community over the world has disintegrated from their ideals. Where women once were encouraged, and actually took high places in society and did many amazing things both for their time and the generations that would come after, the women in present day society have been subjected to years of oppression from a patriarchy that wants them “in their place”, of governments, rulers, systems that seek only to exploit them and make money for themselves while leaving behind and trampling down on the ones who enabled them to be great. Well, woman have great minds and are capable of great things, and our “place” is out in the world. It is out and doing things that matter, it is out and changing the world, it is doing things that we have a right to do, and it is a matter for every woman to reclaim those rights.
THIS is what Islam means for women to do. Know your rights.
Muslim Doodles by Mehreen Kasana
That’s me. While I understand these doodles don’t represent all the problems Muslims face in this age, I thought I’d start off with a few commonly occurring ones. e.g. The pseudo-liberating complex often shoved in front of Muslim women, the ridiculous misconception folks have that all Muslim women wear body coverings like the burqa, niqab, hijab, etc. Of being called “terrorists” by bigots, of putting up with it on a frequent basis. Of having to answer the irritating question pertaining to why some of us choose to cover our bodies. This is the first part. More to come. (Because ignorance thrives in today’s world.)
All this with a dash of my humor. Be well, folks.
I approve highly of this. Going to a school with a decent Muslim population and also an annoyingly vocal and corpulent Bible Fellowship table that probably mutters in secret about how the student-organization table across from them is either taken up by the Muslim Student Association or the Feminist Student Union (never both, because it is a smaller table than that of the Bible Fellowship), and how this is secretly a Feminist-Muslim-Terrorist plot. Still, that notion that everyone wearing a body covering (for religious reasons) is somehow being repressed is…just fucking idiotic.
Very glad the point of these doodles is being received well. Thanks for your input!
My friend (who wears the Hijab) wanted a doodle just for her - and based on an experience she’d often have, in conversation and once in action about her headscarf when some Western feminists told her to “take it off.” It may not be the most original one (I’ve seen excellent doodles on Tumblr about this debate) but I made sure her expression remains genuine as it is.
More power to you, babe.
Anonymous asked: Hello! Okay, so I have a huge favour to ask! I would REALLY appreciate your help. I'm writing a research paper on homosexuality in the Middle East and how and why it's different from Western culture, and I'm looking for a documentary or article on that topic. I seem to be having a REALLY hard time with it cuz my professor strictly requested that religion NOT be involved in the research :c
Oh. Well. I think that’s incredibly impossible. Because whether or not you’re Muslim, when you live in the middle east, laws determined because of the religion prohibit it, so it’s much more dangerous than being gay in a Western society.
Sure, there are red district areas, and gay bars, and gay men (both Muslim and non-Muslim), but it’s not talked about, and if you’re overly open about it, it could mean your life.
There’s this: http://strawberreli.tumblr.com/post/22541818666/curiositycounts-penalties-for-male
And then you could also watch the documentaries I was just discussing with a follower: I Exist (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395588/) and Jihad for Love (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780046/).
The first is not all about Islam (which is one of my only problems with it; pretty much all the people discussing their sexuality in that documentary abandoned their religion), but the second one is.
If you can tell me with a straight face that Islamophobia isn’t directly connected with racism, with White Christians wreaking havoc on entire autonomous continents for the past millennium without so much as a blip of a stain on their faith, I’m just going to assume you live under a rock or on a different planet.
Ok, I am personally not a convert to Islam, but these are the common complaints I hear from them:
1. You act like you suddenly know everything and start to try to teach them.
Reality: You probably don’t even know how to pray Janazah, why don’t you just let the scholars educate them? We don’t need your input.
2. You act all judgemental, like “Oh why do you still have a boyfriend”, “Oh why don’t you wear Hijab”.
Reality: You do realize that Islam came to Arabia over 23 years Gradually.People didn’t suddenly drop alcohol, free all their slaves, and suddenly become The Ten Promised to paradise over night. Let the revert/convert learn Islam at their own pace.
And to be honest, we are all in a way or another learning Islam at our own pace, so chill out.
3. If they don’t follow your cultural habits, they aren’t fully Muslim.
Reality: No they don’t have to kiss your cheek when shaking hands. No they don’t have to eat Biryani with their hands. And no, they don’t have to have Qatayif in Ramadan. It doesn’t make them less Muslim. Islam is completely different from your culture from back home, you should probably know that by now.
4. For God’s sake, stop treating them like they are Disabled people.
Reality: Even disabled people don’t want to be given accommodation, they just want to be treated like everyone else. I believe a fully bodied and capable Muslim revert is more than capable of making up their own mind. Unsolicited advice is not needed.
5. Stop holding their past against them.
Reality: The “are you a virgin”, “did you get high before”, “have you ever had a girlfriend” are completely irrelevant questions to today. They embraced Islam and were reborn again in the eyes of God, let us judge people by their actions starting from when they actually embraced Islam.
6. You make them feel like an outsider no matter what.
Reality: I am well aware of the cultural division Muslims have where it’s “desi” vs “arab” vs “albanian” vs “sunni” vs “shi’a” vs “sufi” and it really is a pointless debate, so the converts/reverts always feel isolated as a result of that.
The Muhajireen were welcomed by the Ansar in Medinah, if we don’t embody the values shown by the early Muslims to newcomers to our faith, what is the point of even following Islam.
7. You want to immediately hit on them.
Reality: A lot of our brown and tan brothers(arabs and desis) have this weird fetish with Europeans and how they are “easy” to get with sexually.
First off, you shouldn’t treat any woman that way or think of them that way as a sexual object.
Second, seeing she’s now your sister in Islam, you should probably treat her like your own blood related sister. With Dignity and respect.
8. You overwhelm them with too much information.
Reality: Your discussions of Qiyas vs Ijma in Islamic Jurisprudence, it’s varying levels of importance in the four Math’habs, your criticism of the Battle of the Camel, and the certain orders of the Sufis is wayyy over the head of most Muslims anyway.
So just stop overwhelming the converts people. Please. And don’t tell them “oh this is the only good sect/tariqah/math’hab they should follow.”
If they CHOSE Islam they are more than qualified of choosing their interpretation of it as well. Back off.
Islam isn’t something you do on Fridays or on Eid. It’s a lifestyle, it’s a code of conduct, and it’s something we should try to enforce in our lives as much as possible.
If you are holding onto your archaic culture more than your religion, you should probably rethink your morals.
every muslim should read this and keep it in mind when meeting converts/reverts
Kitaabgasm.
“Book covers promote Orientalist portrayal of Muslim women”
http://www.arabglot.com/2011/05/book-covers-promote-orientalist.html (via @arablit)
Head covering? Check. Dark kohl? Check. Narrowed gaze of defiance? Check. Juxtaposed with a helpless look too? Check. Tasteless veil pun for the dozenth time? Check.
Wonderful. Now you know all you need to about Muslim women. Here’s your oriental cookie.
every time i see a spread like this i cringe.
‘there is no racism in the book world’, my ass.
Damn, this showed up again on my dash, I guess I have to post these again.
sup
^^you guys are amazing
Hijabis are not the representatives of Islam, all Muslims are.
Stop telling us that! We all have this responsibility, hijab/beard or not.
(Source: faineeemae)
