Theophany of perfection – Ibn El-Arabi

Hey Everyone,

One of the most amazing pieces of spiritual writings I’ve ever read or heard for Ibn El-Arabi:

Listen, O dearly beloved! 
I am the reality of the world, the centre of the circumference, 
I am the parts and the whole.
I am the will established between heaven and Earth,
I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of my perception.
If then you perceive Me, you perceive yourself.
But you cannot perceive Me through yourself,
It is through my eyes that you see Me and see yourself,
Through your eyes you cannot see Me.

Dearly beloved!
I have called you so often and you have not heard Me.
I have shown myself to you so often and you have not seen Me.
I have made myself fragrance so often, and you have not smelled Me,
Savorous food, and you have not tasted Me.
Why can you not reach Me through the object you touch
Or breathe Me through the sweet perfumes?
Why do you not see Me? Why do you not hear Me?
Why? Why? Why?

For you my delights surpass all other delights,
And the pleasure I procure you surpass all other pleasures.
For you I am preferable to all other good things,
I am Beauty, I am Grace.
Love Me, love Me alone.
Love yourself in Me, in Me alone.
Attach yourself to Me,
No one is more inward that I.
Others love you for their own sakes,
I love you for yourself.
And you, you flee from Me.

Dearly beloved!
You cannot treat Me fairly,
For if you approach Me, It is because I have approached you.

I am nearer to you than yourself,
Than your soul, than your breath.
Who among creatures
Would treat you as I do?
I am jealous of you over you,
I want you to belong to no other,
Not even to yourself.
Be mine, be for Me as you are in Me,
Though you are not even aware of it.

Dearly beloved!
Let us go toward Union
And if we find the road
That leads to separation,
We will destroy separation.
Let us go hand in hand.
Let us enter the presence of Truth.
Let it be our judge
And imprint its seal upon our union
Forever.

View on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVqLShfyrzc

Sharing: https://abdomagdy.com/kvfba3

I’m my neighbor’s Qur’an

Salam Everyone,

This is a very interesting video posted by a new Muslim sister who reverted to Islam and facing opposition to her decision by her family, I enjoyed watching all her videos so far and has so much respect for her, you can subscribe to her channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/justmissmarla

Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ndFVZAoG88

My Neighbors Quran

I am my neighbors Quran;
He reads me when we meet.
Today he reads me in my home—
Tomorrow in the street.
He may a relative or friend
Or slight acquaintance be;
He may not even know my name,
Yet he is reading me.

And, pray, who is this neighbor
Who reads me day by day
To learn if I am living right
And walking as I pray?

Oh, he is with me always
To criticize and blame,
So worldy-wise in his own eyes,
And Sinner is his name.

Dear Muslim sister, friends and brothers,
If we could only know
How faithfully the world records
Just what we say and do;

Oh, we would write our record plain
And come in time to see
Our worldly neighbor won to Allah
While reading you and me. ¯Author Unknown

Please note that I did not write this poem but if anyone knows who did I’d be happy to list it. InshAllah.*

* Copied from Video description by justmissmarla

Sharing: https://abdomagdy.com/esgfey

Leadership – Long Before We Know Ourselves!

I loved these words:

Long before we know ourselves,
Our paths are already set in stone.
Some may never figure out their purpose in life,
And some will.
There are a lot of us who are caught up in this hell we all live in,
Content with being blinded by rules and judgment.
We live in a world where it’s more okay to follow than to lead.
In this world being a leader is trouble for the system we are all accustomed to.
Being a leader in this day and age is being a threat.
Not many people stood up against the system we all call life,
But toward the end of our first ten years into the millennium we heard a voice.
A voice who was speaking to us from the underground for some time.
A voice who spoke of vulnerabilities and other human emotions and issues never before heard so vividly and honest.
This is the story of a young man who not only believed in himself,
But his dreams too.
This is the story of The Man On The Moon.

-KiD CuDi,

Family outing, enjoying your time?

Hi there,

I’m currently outing with part of my family in 6 October city club, while having loads of work back home, that got me thinking a bit of our concept and activities while having a family outing! I think a typical family outing since childhood haven’t change much, as you can imagine I do find time while outing for writing a blog post, would that be an indicator that it’s not so much fun for an old 22 years old guy like myself.

The most amazing trip and outings I had lately was to Alex, with only the guys around my age in the family, we all agreed that we had amazing time and we all enjoyed ourselves. So, why don’t we enjoy family outing with the family including older members of the family as much as with the peers. does it have to do with the activities we can involve in, freedom? or is it about selfishness of the young ages who want to just fly or blog?

Is it supposed to be like that all the time, or family outing is something we usually do wrong? We should enjoy our time with the older members of our family, right?

What do you guys think?

P.S. this is not to be understood that I’m not enjoying my time, I’m just having thoughts about how to make outing with the family a better experience for everyone. I’ll get back with my suggestions later on ..

– Abdo

Sharing: https://abdomagdy.com/c2vh8e

You’ll become the books you read and people you hang out with

Hello Everyone,

Yes, right, choosing which media we expose ourselves to and which friends we hang out with is very important as that will determine who we’re going to be! Guys, pick the right friends and expose yourself to the media that will make you a better person.

I can relate to that in multiple phases in my life and I think in your own life as well. I find some who I thought to be conservative and practicing when they get withing a community that approve a specific negative behavior like flirting for example, they do indulge in that and change themselves by being a part of that community.

Regardless of how hard and may be offensive it might be to trim yourself from a community, it might be the only choice to keep going towards the goals you set for yourself at first place.

Be yourself and don’t be so easy to influence, chose your friends and media, ideas you expose yourself to. You only have the choice to be what you want and you’re deciding that NOW!

Thanks

– Abdel

Remembering #Gaza

Hi Everyone,

Today reminds us with the Israeli aggression against #Gaza last year, which ended with more than 1300+ kills majority among women and children.

If you’re on Twitter, at the moment, you should participate in a campaign about #Gaza by placing #Gaza in your tweets and keep #Gaza a trending topic as much as you can.

Here is a reminder of some writings I wrote before about Gaza:

War on Gaza, background for truth seekers:
https://abdomagdy.com/war-on-gaza-background-for-truth-seekers/

Had you been to Gaza? founder of IfAmericansKnew did:
https://abdomagdy.com/had-you-been-to-gaza/

Had you been to Gaza? Rachel Corrie did:
https://abdomagdy.com/had-you-been-to-gaza-rachel-corrie-did/

Media lies: Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land:
https://abdomagdy.com/peace-propaganda-the-promised-land/

Keep the spirit up

– Abdelrahman

Sharing: https://abdomagdy.com/qtm4mr

Choosing friends …

The prophet Mohamed PBUH said:

‘A good friend and a bad friend are like a perfume-seller and a blacksmith: The perfume-seller might give you some perfume as a gift, or you might buy some from him, or at least you might smell its fragrance. As for the blacksmith, he might singe your clothes or at the very least you will breathe in the fumes of the furnace.”

[sahih al-Bukhari, vol 3, #314 & Muslim]

Ambition to meaning; relating to the definition of Islam

I watched a touching movie lately where the concept the movie going around is simply the definition of Islam and Wayne the wise man in the movie is presenting the concept as the idea way to lead our lives.

So, just like Islam teaches us we’re not supposed to lead our lives with ambitions other than focusing on why we’re here; the meaning of our existence and other than stressing over the results will come out of what we do, we should focus on the intention and as Wayne said surrender to the Will of God.

It comes out very beautiful when some non-Muslim man relate to an Islamic concept without knowing that more than 1.3 billion people on earth are supposed to be living this way!

Check that clip form the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdA-v9lzHMY

Playlist Full Movie:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Amagdy1#g/c/99A82A37AC9C6A67

What do you think?

Double-faced people!

Hi All,

Following up with some of the virtual problems I had from a while, I found that Hadith from ILoveHadith.com touching and expressive to meanings I felt:

Narrated Abu Huraira (Radiyallaahu `anhu) that the Messenger of Allah (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) said,

“The worst people in the Sight of Allah on the Day of Resurrection will be the double faced people who appear to some people with one face and to other people with another face.”

Sahih Al Bukhari Volume 008, Book 073, Hadith Number 084

Source: http://ilovehadith.com/social-dealings/double-faced-people.html

What a derogatory quality to be a hypocrite and what an ugly behavior is it? Be yourself and tell the people you dislike that you dislike them, take a solid situation and then be yourself.

I can bring some screen shots of Twitter direct messages expressing ultimate respect to my logic and situation and then public posts mocking me from the same person, who present herself as righteous, freedom and truth fighter!

Understanding that our religion is more about how you behave to people is an essential component of the belief of every Muslim. As I wrote before about the essential and religious ethics and how our religion focused on planting these essential ethics deeply inside every individual, this Hadith comes to confirm that boldly!

Whatever happens, don’t deceive, manipulate or use anyone. Not only that’s wrong, but it’ll put you under a lot of troubles on the Day of Resurrection

– Abdelrahman

Sharing: https://abdomagdy.com/va4y2f

Answer to a Question of Faith, Philosophically Speaking!

Hi All,

I wrote that comment as a reply to an Ecademy blog entitled: “A Question of Faith, Philosophically Speaking” and as keeping my content in one place is what that blog is all about, had to publish it here too.

Link: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=132840

As a Muslim, we do have a reply to that question. Simply, God or Allah or whatever you call it, will never subject people to punishment and reward without giving them a physical evidence to make them believe both in his existence and the way he wants them to lead their lives.

So, for people to follow God’s guidance, prophets had been sent with visual miracles that convince everyone watching it that, this is something extraordinary and the person presenting it and claiming that he’s a messenger of god, had to be right, accordingly. So, in this case as you saw yourself Jesus returning the dead back to life (by god’s will) and telling people what they’re keeping in their homes, without visiting it.

If you or me had been personally in that situation, we’d find it easy to follow Jesus (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him), or if we attended miracles of Moses (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him), we’d definitely believe him, because that’s something extraordinary, and we saw it with our eyes.

So, for our situation currently, if there were a God shouldn’t he give us a miracle that should drive us to believe in his existence and guidance?? Is it fair to be judged the same way, the followers of Jesus, Moses and Mohamed attended such VISUAL miracles?? And we didn’t saw it with our own eyes?? So, Is god or Allah fair, to put us in such doubtful situation and others before us attended miracles visually and lived it??

As Muslims we believe that God is fair and he did send an ever remaining miracle to the end of the world with prophet Mohamed, which wasn’t only VISUAL, for the attendees of the miracle to believe and then tell the others what they’ve saw and they believe.

No, God sent via the final messenger PBUH, a miracle that will remain to the end of the world, which is the holy Qur’an. Oh! Ya! So you believe that it’s a miracle so should everyone just believe that is a miracle like you do.

Absolutely not, the Qur’an hold scientific facts that had been revealed 14 centuries by a man who can’t read or write and still till today, scientific research is coming with these facts and finding it in a book from more than 1400 years! So, isn’t that an evidence that make people believe in that book, that the person told these facts is the messenger of God?

Not only scientific facts, while it might be the sharpest for a non-Arabic speaker, the words itself and the combination of verses is a miracle in itself, that no one was ever able to come with a writing that approach it, either in style or content. The concept of miracles is presented here in that video from minute 4:00 to 13:00 after that they continue their talk about how the Qur’an is the miracle of our age.

So, as a simple reply to your question, there is is a miracle that’s not visual and still miraculous, from every angle it’s approached from and sincere study from someone trying to find the truth, will drive to the believe in God and his messengers peace be up on him, including the final messenger Prophet Mohamed PBUH.

Regardless, of all the propaganda from haters and envious to the truth, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, especially the USA, where millions of dollars are invested in anti-Islam propaganda.

Feel free to ask about anything ambiguous in my post and the concept itself, these are one of the subjects that interest me.

– Abdo

Sharing Link: https://abdomagdy.com/5npqhy

Why do you kill, Zaid?

Hi,

This is a comment I posted on a blog on Ecademy and thought to share it on my blog too, the comment is a reply to a topic about torture

Check it out here: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=132933#c645421

Hi John, Yes, I understanding what you mean and I’m not personally offended or anything, the point is just, when referring to torture and wrong doing in warfare in the last 100 years, how much of that wrong was coming from those you’re referring to as your people. Taking war on Iraq as an example?

In the video from 6:00 to 8:00 :

“We created a great lie to live with, the lie was, we’re the good ones, we’re the idol, we’re the ones who help others, But that’s not the case. I think we in the west didn’t control the world because of our great way of thinking, or for our great values, or for our great religion. But, because we used merciless violence more than others.

If I can be more serious. Muslims weren’t who slaughtered 4 million people during the crusade. Muslims weren’t the people who slaughtered 50 million people during imperialism. Also, Muslims weren’t the people who killed 70 million people during WWI & WWII. Muslims weren’t the people who killed 6 million Jews either.

But, that had been the result of western invasion, and when we talk about the victims of Al-Qaeda, and here I repeat that Al-Qaeda to me are murderers, then we need to talk about the victims of the western policies in Iraq & Afghanistan”

By the way, I’m pretty open minded and while I proudly belong to Egyptian, Arabs and Muslims. I had been in close personal relationships with westerners, including a Jew, and quite sense that they’re my people too, as long as they don’t do or wish any harm to anyone.

And I’m being religious and following my religious teachings while doing that:

8 Allah does not forbid you respecting those who have not made war against you on account of (your) religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely Allah loves the doers of justice

9 Allah only forbids you respecting those who made war upon you on account of (your) religion, and drove you forth from your homes and backed up (others) in your expulsion, that you make friends with them, and whoever makes friends with them, these are the unjust.

English Translation of the Holy Qur’an [60:8 ~ 9]

– Abdo

Hollywood seeking Muslims and Arabs

Hi All,

That guy keep bringing me incredible laughs!

Just to clarify something, Muslims does come from every ethnicity and background so you can’t define someone as Muslim by look, and Arabs make 18% only of the total population of Muslims.

– Abdo

Sharing Link: https://abdomagdy.com/g78hzb

Write: Something about yourself!

Hi All,

Just stumbled upon this Facebook profile and brought me a laugh. You’re supposed to write something about yourself in the box below your photo in your Facebook profile.

She has done it right:

write (“something about yourself.”);

We used to do that at school a lot!

Have fun!

– Abdo

Sharing Link: https://abdomagdy.com/ygm26b

God bless America, Palestine .. or Saudi Arabia?

Hi All,

Being subscribed to clevonamerica YouTube channel from a while, I really liked his latest video addressing Nationalism:

It made me remember a movie “Head of State“, in which two individuals were going for presidency. One’s motto was “God bless America … and no place else” the other replied “God bless America .. and everyplace else!

Human nature will keep inside us a sense of belonging to the people, culture and land where we grew up. And a desire to see it the best, which might be obvious in Football matches for example. But what the heck might be the problem for me, you or anybody else if god also blessed the other countries!!

I still meet some people who are going with the mentality of the first motto! And really don’t know what to say!

– Abdo

Sharing Link: https://abdomagdy.com/79wpev

From Braveheart to Brokenheart!

Dear All,

I started working with Adobe Premiere Pro producing some videos for YouTube. As I’m starting to talk about unity, picked up that scene from Braveheart, showing how could calling for unity might be deceptive.

Leave you with the video:

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITwL-nqC3ic

Calling for unity against a common enemy among people that share a religious belief, country or even a business is very logical and a sign of maturity of whom calling for unity.

But that’s not always the case, some people will sharply betray when it’s the real time. some for a piece of land, some money and others for their own political agenda.

In this clip from Braveheart, I try to communicate that meaning, Wallace won the first battle by himself and the people loved him and followed him as they saw his goal is freedom for all of them.

When it came to the critical preparation for a battle in which he’ll need the help of the other group, he called for unity and actually been promised.

At the hardest time when he sent the sign for the other group to attack, he discovered that he had been betrayed, look into his eyes to realize how it feels when discover that you had been betrayed and learn the lesson and make sure who are you uniting with.

This is a lesson to learn when calling for unity, is that person or group of people actually want to unite for the best of the community, or they’re doing that for their own agenda!

Sorry for the incorrect dimensions and low quality, I’ll fix it in the upcoming videos. Hit the HQ button for now for better preview.

Unite yes, but keep your eyes open for whom you’re uniting with.

Hope you enjoyed it and found it beneficial.
– Abdo

Lessons In Unity – Outlines

Asalamo Alikum (Peace be upon you) All,

Three weeks ago, I decided to start Vlogging and actually provided an Ice-Breaking video, expressing my intention to start Vlogging starting with the topic of “Unity of Muslims”. Since then I had been thinking of the ideal way to presented the topic and came to some ideas, that I’ll be trying to get clear in that post.

The series’s title will be “Lessons In Unity” and its goal is to explore incidents – usually battles – throughout our Islamic History where we united and show different situations, concepts and analogies related to the unity of Muslims.

Out of brainstorming, I structured the series in 10 lessons that will communicate the meanings we need to understand today, in order to conceive and seek unity between us Muslims the right way, I focus on having a certain logical flow of information so each lesson adds a new concept we’re prepared to understand from the last one and wider our view in a certain way.

The lessons is structured as follows:

1. Unity as a Concept

In this light introduction, I’ll present why unity is important by couple of very famous analogies, then will discuss 3 main concepts that goes against unity of Muslims. The concepts are Racism, Nationalism and Sectarianism.

2. Sahaba’s Perception of Unity:

To form a solid, stable structure; you had to make sure that the units you use in that structure is actually solid and stable at first place. The strength of a wall you’re intending to build, is directly dependent on the strength of every single building block you’ll use in it.

The same concept applies to building communities, to unite people you had to make those people ready for unity before trying to unite them. By changing their mentalities and as a result their behaviors, attitudes and qualities towards the their brothers and sisters who share their religion.

As such concepts had been sharply clear in the way the companions of the prophet (PBUH) united after Hijra. The brotherhood, personal qualities and attitudes between Mohajereen & Ansar would be the subject of the 2nd episode of this series Insha’ Allah (God Willing).

3. Sahaba’s Different Interpretations

Could Muslims have different approaches to a certain Islamic ruling or a in finding a solution to a certain problem, we do have different schools of thoughts, so how those people who started these schools of thoughts conceived unity of Muslims? what’s the red lines that should not be crossed when we talk about different approaches, when a certain approach should be considered excessive and unacceptable in a Muslim community.

The feasibility and flexibility to have different approaches to a problem,  had been obvious in a certain situation when Sahaba (RA) interpreted an order gave by the prophet (PBUH) differently and how they dealt with each others upon their difference and how Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) reacted to the issue.

By discussing that, I want to bring to our attention that among us Muslims, we should have the flexibility to accept others’ opinions and interpretations and be mature enough to maintain our brotherhood with those who conceive things differently. And at the same time we should never tolerate those who ruin our Islamic teachings by having unacceptable approaches.

4. Ohod’s Unity Pitfalls

The battle of Ohod is rich with unity lessons, it shows two types of deviations. Among the Muslims one third of the Muslim army left the battlefield because of the heads of hypocrisy within the Muslim community itself. Then those who preferred this life and didn’t obey Prophet’s orders, caused a lot of harm to Muslims.

I’ll present those two deviated groups in the battle of Ohod in order for us to understand ourselves and how practically things get to work. To know that there is among us may be those who can harm us more than our enemies and among us those who’ll go for their own agendas.

Presenting that in the context of Unity will give us the maturity we need, not to be easily fooled or deceived while sincerely seeking unity. As Allah SWT says in the holy Quran:

Had they marched out with you, they would have added to you nothing except disorder, and they would have hurried about in your midst (spreading corruption) and sowing sedition among you – and there are some among you who would have listened to them. And Allah is the All-Knower of the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers). [Quran 09:47].

5. Hussein (RA) & Muslim Unity

We can’t deny that disunity had taken place at some point after prophet Mohamed’s death, and there had been some battles within the Muslim community itself. I’ll present that subject not by getting back to what historically happened, who was right and who was wrong. But how should be conceive it and how what happened should even bring the Muslim community closer and unite us upon righteousness.

A lot of emotional energy from the martyrdom of Imam Hussien (RA) is being manipulated to misguide Muslims, especially new Muslims and those with no access to appropriate Materials. We’ll see how Hussien (RA) in Karbalaa have done everything possible for the unity of Muslims, and the disunity had been actually caused by those who betrayed him.

6. Saladin’s Leadership Model

Had the Muslim unity been just something of the past when prophet Mohamed (PBUH) and the righteous companion been there, we’ll explore how in medieval Islam, Muslims united against crusades under the leadership of Saladin.

I’ll focus on exploring the issue of Leadership, taking Saladin as a leadership model and focusing on couple of incidents that shows how strong, wise and righteous he was and the Muslim leader should be. And also, how the Muslim community united under his leadership.

7. Unity Against Mongols

Mongols is considered one of the greatest dangers faced the Muslim community since its existence, politically Muslims had been totally and completely disunited during the beginning of the attacks from the Mongols, even some was helping the Mongols killing Muslims and occupying Muslim lands.

But how Muslims united at such circumstances, even inside the single country there had been fights between different groups. How Kotoz the Muslim leader was able to unite all Muslims against their enemy and win the battle of Ain Jalot.

I’ll be focusing on Kotoz as an excellent politician dealing with different groups seeking power, and then as a fighter by shouting Wa Islamah (O! My Islam) in the battlefield.

8. 1973 War’s Unity

No one can deny that in our Modern history the limited victory in 1973 war was a result of a limited unity, In a trail to bring hope and show that unity isn’t something dates back to centuries. I’ll show some signals of unity between Egypt, Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia and different Muslim countries in this war against the Zionist occupation.

9. Muslim Resources

Who are we? This is going to be statistics and representation to the ability of us Muslims and how powerful the Muslim world could grow if we really united.

10. Personal Roles

Finally, how could me and you participate in the Unity of the Muslim community, what’s the values and qualities should we live with. Out of the ideas we’ll discuss, we’ll get to a certain points that we should all keep in mind to achieve unity on the long run. And work for unity between even the local Muslim communities.

Just adding general points about the publishing of the series.

Publishing Format:

The nature of videos is being quick, light and persuasive and It won’t be practical to cover every lessons in a 5 ~ 10 minutes video! and make all points clear enough for the audience; thus, I’ll be considering the videos as the conclusion and will use it for what It should be eye-opening, persuasive and light, while the technical points and the detailed description of the incidents will be published as articles on this blog Insha’ Allah (God Willing), while the videos will be published on YouTube and Muxlim mainly.

By the end of the series, I’ll collect my writings and the ideas generated out of research and interaction and produce a PDF document including all the ideas discussed and all the lessons learned.

The main publishing framework though, is going to be my personal blog here, so If you’re interested in the series the ideal way to keep yourself updated is to subscript to the blog feeds, or you can connect with me on different social networking sites.

Qualification & References:

What makes me qualified to talk about this subject, I was grown up in a religious family and had a considerable amount of religious education, so all these incidents I studied before, plus the series is “Practical Lessons” all what I do is having access to authentic information and use my logic in communicating with the audience taking the context and our current status as Muslims into account, and highlighting the points that will be beneficial.

I’m from the mainstream Muslims and don’t associate myself with any Muslim group or school of thought, except following the authentic teachings of Islam from the Holy Quran & Sunnah, that’s why I won’t be using that series to Market for a certain group or a school of thought.

Of course, I prepare from references that I’m adding in this post, The majority of my preparations if not all of it is from Arabic sources, which include mainly the following books and taps:

* الرحيق المختوم. بحث في السيرة النبوية – فضيلة الشيخ صفي الدين المباركفوري

* دروس وعبر من سيرة خير البشر – دروس في غزوة أحد – الدكتور محمد المختار محمد المهدي

* أباطيل يجب أن تمحي من التاريخ – الدكتور إبراهيم شعوط

* سيرة صلاح الدين الأيوبي – القاضي بهاء الدين المعروف بإبن شداد

* و اإسلاماه – علي أحمد باكثير

* التتار – دكتور راغب السرجاني

May Allah SWT accept our work, and hope that would be beneficial in somehow Insha’ Allah (God Willing)

– Abdelrahman

Sharing Link: https://abdomagdy.com/g6g992

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

As a part of my blog yesterday War On Gaza, Background for Truth Seekers! I meant to provide some documentaries as a reference for whom might be feeling that something isn’t right in his perception of the conflict, or what the western media is presenting to him/her.

For someone who’s watching Aljazeera!, then reading western media articles online, it’s sometimes hard to tell that it’s the same incidents being covered, or the weight given to each incident is somehow close to fair or normal, a certain techniques, including making use of people’s perception to the conflict (which is one-sided and formed by the previous propaganda from the beginning of the conflict) to get the new incident as an evidence to that perception maybe, but when it gets up to 1000 kills, most of which are purely civilians, shooting ambulances, aid workers, and killing journalists. Isn’t it the right time to double check your information? or question your perception?

Of course that’s in case you’re searching for the truth, not someone blindly supporting a certain project and somehow involved in promoting the massacres, and spreading false information to intentionally cover what he/she know is the truth.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land is a 2004 documentary by Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff which—according to the film’s official website—”provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and which “analyzes and explains how–through the use of language, framing and context–the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media” – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace,_Propaganda_&_the_Promised_Land

The official page from Media Education Foundation, the producer of the video is here: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=117

Here is a clip as an introduction to the video: [8:33 Min]

As the video is protected by Fair Use Clause, which allows the broadcast of the video for the purposes of commentary, criticism and education. here is the full video [80 Min]

Finally, truth and facts isn’t things that someone – including myself – say it’s the truth and the facts, everybody should form his own opinion after listening to both sides and understanding what they’re trying to communicate, and bypassing the propaganda from both sides.

Regards,
Abdo

Had you been to Gaza? Founder of IsAmericansKnew did ..

Hi All,

We won’t get the truth, until we demand itFounder of If Americans Knew

While clouds of incomplete information, and propagandized reports and news coverage flooding to the western media, which not only hindering western’s ability to understand the root causes of the conflict in the middle east, but most times find sick reasons behind killing children, destroying homes, and the use of prohibited chemical weapons against civilians.

Back to 2001, a journalist in a small town in the US, thought something is wrong about the coverage she gets about that conflict, and decided to go to Gaza herself to have a first hand experience on what’s going on. When she came back and read the articles and news coverage in the American media, she didn’t find anything from what she has seen. And realized that she and all of her follow Americans is getting a very one-sided view of the conflict.

Decided to found If Americans Knew, and conduct research and get statistics about the conflict, and started getting her voice to public.

Here is she, telling her story herself, and showing some of the statistics she got from an Israeli organization. In the documentary by Alternate Focus http://www.alternatefocus.org/

Part I, [9:29 Min]
Part II, [9:30 Min]
Part III, [1:02]

That’s their website http://ifamericansknew.com/, Just imagine how the statistics will be after the recent terrorist attacks on Gaza?!

Not sure about your media sources, and how you’re being misinformed. Check; Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land movie posted earlier: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=120619

We won’t get the truth, until we demand itFounder of If Americans Knew

Abdo

Had you been to Gaza? Rachel Corrie did ..

Hi All,

That blog had been originally published by myself on Ecademy.

Away from the current situation in Gaza, I’ve tried to give an introduction to the root causes of the conflict, and the distortion in most western media, and as a result in westerner’s views about the conflict.

I’ve posted couple of blogs, and was intentionally presenting westerner’s views who visited the occupied Palestine, conducted research or collected statistics. because as we say here a blue eyed can only believe a blue eyed – that was obvious lately having no formal western media in Gaza during this massacres. It was justified to say we don’t hear, don’t see and don’t believe -.

Today, here is an Interview conducted by Middle East Broadcasting Company on March 14th, 2003, two days before Rachel Corrie was murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces, she talk about water well being destructed – water that people drink -, houses people live in being flattened with the ground .etc May be someone will come-up with the idea that some terrorists was drinking from the water wells, or may be hiding inside, and the house of a physician was, hmmmm , was whatever a sick, silly imagination can bring!

Duration [4:00 Min]
———————————————

Content and photos from: MIFTAH “The Palestinian initiative for the promotion of global dialogue and democracy”:
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=1866&CategoryId=23

Peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, is a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She died Sunday, March 16, 2003, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah while trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from tearing down a Palestinian physician’s home. She fell in front of the machine, which ran over her and then backed up, witnesses said. Israeli military spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal called her death an accident. State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said the U.S. government had asked Israeli officials for a full investigation.
1. Protecting a water well in Rafah, Gaza, Rachel Corrie is on the far right.
2. Rachel Corrie, right, and other members of the ‘International Solidarity Movement’ hold up a banner reading ‘Israeli army stop shooting children’ in protest of Israeli military actions at the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza in this photo taken Friday March 14, 2003.
3. Rachel Corrie chats with a Palestinian friend, living in a dire situation in Rafah, Gaza.
4. Rachel Corrie stands in front of an Israeli army bulldozer wearing an orange jacket so that she can be easily identified and seen.
5. Rachel Corrie uses a loudspeaker as she stands between an Israeli bulldozer and a Palestinian physician’s house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
6. The Israeli bulldozer ran over her and then backed up, crushing her chest and skull.
7. Friends try to aid Rachel Corrie after she was run over by an Israeli army bulldozer.
8. Palestinian doctors try to save the life of Rachel Corrie at the Najar hospital in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
9. Alice, a friend of Rachel Corrie, holds her friend’s passport as she break down upon hearing the news of Rachel’s death at Najar hospital.
10. Two volunteers of the International Solidarity Campaign to Protect the Palestinian People comfort each other after the killing of U.S. citizen Rachel Corrie.
11. A Palestinian medical worker carries a mock coffin covered by a Palestinian flag for Rachel Corrie, during a memorial service in Gaza city.
12. Palestinian children carry a mock coffin covered by an American Flag commemorating Rachel Corrie.
13. Palestinians put flowers at a mock coffin of Rachel Corrie, a member of the ‘International Solidarity Movement’ during a memorial service at the Unknown Soldier square in Gaza city.
14. Palestinian children light candles for Rachel Corrie.
15. Olympia, Washington, residents stand in silent vigil around a mock casket at a candlelight vigil Sunday evening, March 16, 2003, for Rachel Corrie.
16. Students at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, gather around a shrine for Rachel Corrie. Friends and college faculty are mourning what they are calling the senseless murder of Corrie.
17. An unidentified man cries next to a shrine in honor of peace activist Rachel Corrie during a protest outside the Israeli consulate in downtown San Francisco on Monday, March 17, 2003.

Content and photos from: MIFTAH “The Palestinian initiative for the promotion of global dialogue and democracy”:
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=1866&CategoryId=23

———————————————

We’re very acquaint with Palestinian burning the US flag, as a natural result of being killed by a US weapons and the US supporting whatever might happen to them under whatever silly reason. But we see here the Palestinians themselves carrying the American flag. So, in case of Palestine, it’s not the evilness of some people who want to hate others, it’s people’s actions and situations that make them loved or hated by others.

Rachel’s family started Rachel Corrie Foundation For Peace & Justice http://www.rachelcorriefoundation.org/. More resources on http://www.rachelcorrie.org/, International Solidarity Movement: http://palsolidarity.org/.

For me as an Arab when I engage with someone in a discussion who’s taking a tough view against the US people, I tell him that they don’t know the reality on the ground and don’t understand what their country is doing on their names and usually find Rachel Corrie a brilliant example of people still alive! far away from others who suffer and can feel their pain. Unfortunately, In today’s world those are few.

Regards,
Abdo

So, who is really behind #ElMashrou3?

So, who is really behind #ElMashrou3?

Since my first post Among criticism from entrepreneurs, USAID-funded Bamyan Media Launches Egypts first reality TV Show for entrepreneurs I was contacted by a few people who worked closely with Bamyan Media and shared some insider stories about their experience which will be valuable in analyzing behind the scenes. Also, as four episodes aired, thats 1/3 of the show, that gives a reasonable amount of materials for analysis after the initial feedback and observations.

As the same feedback is repeated for the rest of the entrepreneurs who didnt catch up with the show early on, it became evident that the feedback of majority of actual entrepreneurs is merely the same, viewership rates getting even LOWER after first episode as most people lose interest! Formation of a circle of a few hundreds who are mostly involved with the teams behind the show for a basic form of engagement. And seems like the staff itself doesnt mind getting its hands dirty in feedback war as boiling criticism to a Shabi song they produced starts to surface, Asim Haneef, The show Executive Producer called it the best song ever. view it HERE

Though, a valuable debate also took place on the comments of the above song, with Peter Guirguis seemingly one of the song producers mentions an intellectual monopoly on entrepreneurship and captivating the concept from being commercialized and going mainstream, assuming that Egyptians are already practicing entrepreneurship on their own way from his point of view. Thats worth and intellectual debate on defining entrepreneurship and how it shall be transferred to mainstream audiences. You can view the conversation HERE

Also, as the investment on developing digital assets in the past 1+ year through aggressive advertising didnt pay off  in actual viewership, it seems like they decided to go guerilla marketing, they visit popular mainstream cafes like Downtown El Borsa, shift the channel to AlNahar and tried to encourage viewership, the funny bit is that in some of the photos shared in social networks form the exercise, it shows their team sitting to watch it, while people around paying absolutely no attention! They even called on their page for more people to join these campaigns!

As I wrote in my last post, feedback is only a factor in impact assessment, but an actual impact assessment should be based on identifying and analyzing variables, its about finding the variables that matter the most and digging deeper on analyzing them. The first variable of any Impact Assessment project is defining the background and motives of organization, entrepreneur and decision makers behind whatever project being done.

In this post well try to dig down to who is really really the decision maker behind the show, next post will get more into further analysis

So, who is really behind #ElMashrou3?

who_is_behind

If you check out their website or their social media profiles, youll see the who is behind El Mashrou3 is presented as TV network, production company, Bamyan Media and organizations working on entrepreneurship in Egypt such and such and such. Even my team noticed couple of channels where Egypreneur is still mentioned, which shouldnt be the case as we terminated partnership back in 2012, so as youre reading this fellows, take it off or would you like to get yourself a reminder?

ElMashrou3_Egypreneur2

Furthermore, in a communication they have sent to their subscribers and shared on their page labelled The Story behind El Mashrou3, they seemed to be doing everything possible to cover up on the reality of the ownership and funding behind the show and just mention that a bunch of Egyptian youth with a few Khawaga, Arabic word for foreigner who produced the show in Belad Barra which is usually used to refer to the west and developed countries to actually refer to Afghanistan.

egyptian_youth

So, why are they so keen on covering up on that and how truthful is the way they present themselves with? And what is the nature of involvement with these partners?

As I get back to my email archive April 2012 as Bamyan Media was starting its operations in Egypt, they presented other entrepreneurship-focused organizations with a basic partnership, I was only asked for approval on using Egypreneur logo on the brochure below and approved it, by then the way the partnership was presented was fairly professional and straightforward. Though, they have used this approval to post our brand in every possible channel without permission afterwards.

early_partnerships

Well, obviously Bamyan Media was gaining legitimacy by using these organizations brands, it is a straightforward market entry strategy, you want to befriend those already with good reputation and track record and get their support in what youre doing, a potential massive exposure through TV is a good point to start. Then use that to sell on others that you already have everyones support and that this thing is actually co-created and approved by everyone, which might not be the real case,  some of the visible feedback from my last post was from founder of entities presented as partner organizations.

What happened to partnerships afterwards was quite amateurish and superficial, when only numbers matter, even if you run a starting student activity you can get your logo as a show partner and you count as vote of confidence on the show. As its shared by Omar Aysha, I can understand the motives behind such a move as at some stage they were trying to hide the massive USAID involvement, as it might fire back as they go mainstream, they started sticking any logos they get their hands on, so if you want to, you cant find someone to blame!

The point is, none of these partners has any decision to take regarding the show, they might be invited to nice events and focus groups but its only done as much as it serves the objectives of the owning company, Bamyan Media, which hired a team to polish their image within the community and attract beneficiaries who, knowingly or not knowingly, will back their mission and even defend them in return for direct benefits. Add to it the fact that the community working on entrepreneurship support in Egypt still didnt reach the maturity to decide and the critical thinking to accept and reject, often no one will reject anything from anyone while struggling with finding their own next steps.

Truth is, the TV Network is just a TV Network that hosted the show and offered it a standard promotion package, the production company was just a production company hired to produce the show, partners except for USAID and Silatech are just a logo exchange and superficial involvement, mostly to gain legitimacy in front of main sponsors and strategic partners.

For critical analysis, we have to look for ownership, who has the power for decision making and influence.

Thats what matters and thats when we are driven back to where it started:

Anna_Afghanistan2Courtesy of http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com

In 2007, while David Elliot was working as a Senior Development Consultant for USAID in Afghanistan, his daughter Anna Elliot, 23 years old student at Hampshire University and part time Bartender came for a visit to Afghanistan, observing the popularity of Reality TV Shows at the time, with American-style Afghan Star and others. Anna had an interesting conversation with her dad regarding doing a similar show focusing on entrepreneurs.

As per his Linkedin Profile, at that time, David Elliot was managing a $54 million USAID project for Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED). After the US-led war on Afghanistan starting 2011, the US government directed lots of Aid money into rebuilding Afghanistan, obviously, it seems that senior USAID consultant David Elliot didnt find it hard to secure $500K USD to fulfill his daughters ambition to launch an American-style reality TV Show for social entrepreneurs, probably at the least competitive and non-transparent market, Afghanistan. This Devex page explicitly shows USAID as the organization executed the show.

Surprisingly the only official videos from the Dream & Achieve TV Show produced in Afghanistan was hosted on the YouTube channel of the ASMED fund Mr. David Elliot was leading, showing even that the project might have been funded by funds he personally managed for USAID, checkout the USER NAME of the hosting channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ASMEDInfo/videos

Anna Elliot seemed to postpone her studies and get involved with producing a Pilot series of her Reality TV Show, managed under the umbrella of USAID, the show was hosted on Afghanistans most popular TV Network TOLO TV Wikipedia shows a 41% of viewership market share while the owning company itself claims 59% viewership share HERE, the TV Network claim to have 17 Million constant viewers (NBCNews).

It is claimed that the pilot series attracted 7 Million viewers in Afghanistan, which while looking good for PR, technically speaking, even if the claim is true, given the hosting TV Network statistics, it means that 10 Million constant viewers to the channel has either switched off their TV or shifted to another channel as the show aired, comparably to another TV Show hosted on the same channel Afghan Star they are claiming 11 Million viewers per episode.

But anyway, relying on the pilot series a PR campaign was launched in Western media and the show seemed to gain coverage from media outlets like Fast Company and New York times.

Something here to note that at this time, US media companies, seemed to working on dominating the scene in Afghanistan, a virgin market created after the war on Afghanistan, according to this NBC News Article Why Afghanistans election campaign may look familiar to American TV viewers, it shows that Afghanistan has become a comfy bed for US media companies and aspiring media entrepreneurs.

 This entry on USAID website itself, claims that the show was a success story and promises a second season that never came to be and of course shows the muscles of the US development agency in creating entrepreneurial revolutions where it is needed the most: http://www.usaid.gov/results-data/success-stories/afghan-entrepreneurs-%E2%80%9Cdream-and-achieve%E2%80%9D

Though this KabulPress.org article seems to disagree, entitled American corruption and mismanagement threaten Afghanistan’s future under headline Suspect American AID projects in Afghanistan, it lists the TV Show by the Elliots as one of the projects USAID claims has created impact while its  not actually sensed on the ground. As per Wikipedia (KabulPress) is Afghanistans most read news site.

DreamAchieve

I found it extremely difficult to track any proper digital footprints resulting from the show in Afghanistan. I was even told by a producer Bamyan Media worked with when they came to Egypt that they didnt want to show him the produced show in Afghanistan, because it was very amateurish. Furthermore, on the tongue of Anna Elliot herself, she stated that the show was boring but 7 million people watched it before one of her team members intervene to mention that she is just not good at selling herself.

In 2009, Anna and David Elliot established Bamyan Media to take the concept further and launch the show in different countries, Bamyan Media uses a mix of a non-profit and for-profit business model to launch the same format of the TV Show in different countries with market for entrepreneurship, mostly developing countries in transition. 

But did Bamyan Media drop the USAID umbrella the project started through?

After launching the pilot season, Anna Elliot was being celebrated in western media as a hero who went to Afghanistan to empower its entrepreneurs and was even being hosted in a conversation at The While House 

BamyanMedia_WhiteHouse

What a second target after Afghanistan would it be other than Egypt post 25 revolution? Yes, that was it, Bamyan Media presented USAID with a proposal to move to Egypt with the backing of USAID funds and it seemed they were able to secure a big check to get their operation started, the deal is supposedly to cover 2-3 years of operating costs for Bamyan Media to initiate their TV Show and business in Egypt.

I can claim having insider information at this part, because at this time, I was working on a similar TV Show for entrepreneurs in Egypt through Egypreneur, that was not an idea or a hunch, but a production-ready concept with agreement with a TV Network and initial agreement with a major sponsor.

abdelsamad-estimation

The TV Network was sold after the revolution and I was left alone searching for alternatives, passing the 6 months mark in formatting the researching options to produce the show to trigger the entrepreneurial energy of Egyptian youth post 25th revolution and part of a strategy to setup Egypreneur as an independent institution that supports entrepreneurs in Egypt. I was approached by USAID employees who offered support and accordingly was given details about what Im working on.

us2email

In the process of communicating with USAID around my TV Show project, I was forwarded an email that was sent by Anna Elliot March 17th 2011, which was a thank you note for USAID support an a promise of follow-up on next steps. I skipped it as the attached format targeting social entrepreneurs didnt seem close to what we have arrived at at that time. 

But it seems that it wasnt the case, a few months later, I heard that USAID contracted Bamyan Media to execute a Reality TV Show for entrepreneurs in Egypt, getting busy and overwhelmed with other initiatives we started at Egypreneur, I decided to learn from the experience and completely ignore the matter, but it didnt seem to want to ignore me.

The newly established Bamyan Media out of a spin-off from a USAID project, was able to secure a three years contract with USAID to initiate  and replicate their model in Egypt, Omar Aysha, former editor at wamda.com claims a $5 Million USD check was given for their project in Egypt, having no source to confirm or deny, what can be confirmed is that USAID was committed to providing the operating cost for Bamyan Media for 2-3 years, meaning you have 40 employees, 8 services contracts per month, USAID just pay the bills for Bamyan Media allowing them to get cozy while working on their project for two to three years?

Anyway, Bamyan Media created a for-profit company El Mashrou3 LLC through which it handle its operations in Egypt, well, some people might have issues with getting funded as a non-profit then using this money to create a for-profit business, but entrepreneurially speaking youre fine to do whatever you wish as long as you are not breaking the law or any business or personal commitments, I was told that Bamyan Media owns 99% of El Mashrou3 LLC.

ElMashrou3_Header

Accordingly the controlling element in all activities and actions related to #ElMashrou3 comes from Bamyan Media and El Mashrou3 LLC which received enormous backing from USAID, it seems that Bamyan Media are doing some PR efforts lately to present the involvement as an Egyptian company called El Mashrou3 LLC, which is nothing but an interface to Bamyan Media in Egypt to expand on its commercial benefit. According to their website, Bamyan Media seems to be working hard on expanding the operation of El Mashrou3 to be Pan-Arab reality TV Show for entrepreneurs. 

With very little impact and massively low viewership created by the show, added to a few cases of misconducted by Bamyan Media that made one of their former contractors mention to me in a private communication that they are the most horrid unprofessional scam bags I have ever worked with.

It seems that Bamyan Media have got very arrogant given the massive backing from their government money that they not only felt comfortable enough to screw up for two years, but they choose to violate interest and intellectual property of local entrepreneurs on their way to complete dominance on the MENA entrepreneurship landscape.

David_Yemen

The questions that comes to our mind as we analyze the leadership behind the show is, are they qualified with a track record to run this kind of thing? Do they have actual pressing desire to create impact through their TV Show, real one? Is the way in which they secured funding for the show and the way they dealt with their contractors and local entrepreneurs represents a social enterprise seeking to create positive impact? 

To be continued

In hindsight, Anna Elliot’s reality TV series might seem like a media mogul’s strategy to build market share in developing countries. Source: Milton Magazine

Anna_Elliot_1

Courtesy of Bamyan Media on Facebook

DISCLAIMER: Information provided is available on public channels, reference is provided for the most part, no personal offense was intended and no ones privacy was violated in the process of carrying out this research/analysis.

Chakras, a holistic 7-steps approach to balance and wellbeing

Chakras, a holistic 7-steps approach to balance and wellbeing

I had been fascinated with the topic of healing and becoming the best version of ourselves…

I found Charkra’s approach to be the most holistic and probably the simplest approach to pursue healing…

You connect what you thought as intellectual into your own body to certain “centers of energy” called Chakras…

This is possibly the best resource in the topic of Chakras:

My notes book simplified the video and the 7-steps healing journey to the below:

  1. Spine -> Earth -> Survival (Blocked by Fear): Let your fears flow down the creeks
  2. Genitals -> Water -> Pleasure (Blocked by Guilt): Release all blame and guilt within you
  3. Stomach -> Fire -> Will Power (Blocked by Shame): Release all letdowns and disappointments
  4. Heart -> Love -> Love (Blocked by Grief): Release all sadness and loss
  5. Throat -> Sound -> Truth (Blocked by lies): Release denials and lies
  6. Forehead -> Light -> Insight (Blocked by Illusion): Release illusions and separation
  7. Crown -> Thought -> Cosmic Energy (Blocked by attachment): Release all early attachments (attachment to all that you love)

 

The continuous pursuit of healing all these parts of us is the only guarantee that we keep living from our higher self…

The continuous pursuit of surrender…