A Year in Review: My Reading Habits and Highlights

This year has been a great year for reading, and I've had the opportunity to dive into a wide range of books. From thrillers like The Final Twist by Jeffery Deaver to nonfiction books on personal development like Dare to Lead by Brené Brown, I've had a diverse mix of genres and authors on my list.

One of the things that I've really appreciated about my reading this year is the opportunity to learn and grow. The nonfiction books I've read have provided valuable insights and techniques that I've been able to apply in my personal and professional life. For example, Think Again by Adam Grant has helped me to challenge my assumptions and think more critically, while The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel has given me a deeper understanding of the psychological and emotional factors that influence our financial decisions.

In addition to the personal growth I've experienced through my reading, I've also had a lot of fun with the fiction books I've read. Born Standing Up by Steve Martin and Still Foolin' Em by Billy Crystal are both hilarious memoirs by comedians, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about their careers and getting a behind-the-scenes look at the world of comedy.

Overall, my reading this year has provided a great balance of entertainment and personal growth. I'm grateful for the insights and enjoyment that I've gained through my reading, and I'm looking forward to continuing to expand my horizons in the coming year. Whether it's through fiction or nonfiction, ebooks or audiobooks, I'm excited to see what new insights and adventures the written word has in store for me.

On Freedom of Speech and Europe

Let me begin by saying that I am against any act of violence and firmly stand against terrorism in all its forms. What happened in France on the 16th of October 2020 is indefensible.

A 47-year-old teacher Samuel Paty showed children in his class two caricatures of Prophet Mohammed PBUH published by the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. The very same images that sparked the 2015 incident, where terrorists murdered 11 staff members of the magazine and six bystanders in Paris. After some parents protested this incident and called for Paty to be fired from the school, a terrorist beheaded the teacher and posted it on social media before the authorities shot him dead. It goes without saying that this is considered an act of terrorism, and we as Muslims condemn this heinous crime. It stands against everything that Islam represents.

In reaction, the President of France Emanuel Macron called the incident an attack on the republic and their secular system, and projected the caricatures on government buildings under tight security. Two Muslim women have been stabbed in Paris since then.

The caricatures in question were designed particularly to cause offense and hurt the Muslim population, and depict racist, bigoted stereotypes of Muslims. The popular opinion in Europe has been that the caricatures represent freedom of speech, and that making fun of the Prophet PBUH is permitted under such freedom. But this incident is marred with controversy because of the double-standards that can make this defense seem discriminatory and prejudiced.

For example, to become more inclusive of marginalized groups, European countries have established official bodies to ensure certain words that used to be commonly used are not spoken or published anymore (‘political correctness’). Anti-Semitism, denial of the holocaust, or hate speech towards LGBTQ are also frowned upon. In 1988, when Salman Rushdie published his book The Satanic Verses, the book which sparked protests in many Muslim countries, the English court did not deem the work as offensive. But in that same period, it deemed an 18-minute video that was against the church offensive and banned it from distribution. In 2005 France's Catholic Church won a court injunction to ban a clothing advertisement based on da Vinci's The Last Supper fresco. The court's judge ruled that the display was "a gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs" The advertisement featured a female version of the fresco, which consisted of a female Christ. French lawyer Thierry Massis said "When you trivialize the founding acts of a religion, when you touch on sacred things, you create an unbearable moral violence which is a danger to our children. Tomorrow, Christ on the cross will be selling socks."

Any kind of freedom has to have limits. Without limits it would infringe on other people's rights. No freedom is absolute. If I am free to play music in my own house, there is a limit to how loud I can play. The moment I cause discomfort to my neighbors, I am infringing on their rights.

Lawyers should advocate for laws to ensure that rights are established to protect all religions and faiths, to spare people's feelings from hate. We need to create a world where we all live in peace, to learn to co-exist, and help each other to live without hate in our hearts.

Sources:

BBC NEWS- French court bans Christ advert

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4337031.stm

Michigan Journal of International Law – Volume 32 Issue 4 - 2011

Islam in the Secular Nomos of the European Court of Human Rights - Peter G. Danchin

University of Maryland School of Law

https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=mjil

Stay Home...Stay Safe...Stay Sane

So I haven’t left home for 76 days.

These are my thoughts on the situation:

Nothing is going to be the same ever again. This has put a halt on the whole world. It shocked the world into a state that I don't think it can ever fully recover from.

We went through some of the 5 stages of grief, it began with DENIAL. No one thought this could ever affect them. It will never reach this far. It will never impede upon our lives. This is in one city far away in China. It began with a little murmur in the news. Now there isn't anything else on the news except about this.

The second stage was ANGER when it came here, and it started to affect our lives. Tourism sites, mosques, malls, restaurants, all shut down. People were angry about the person who began this, the bat-eater.

The third stage is BARGAINING, where we are staying put at home, but we're trying to live life as normal as we can, by shopping online and laughing it up, thinking this might blow by quickly.

The fourth stage set quickly after, the DEPRESSION. Being stuck for days, and it seems without an end in sight.

We are just embarking on the fifth stage, and that is ACCEPTANCE. We finally can conceive of the idea that this might last a long time, and it's imprints are going to last for a very long time. Hearing of people you know testing positive, people you know dying. We are finally there, at the point of realization that this is not going to be so easy. People's lives have been touched by this, and it can never be truly 100% undone.

Masks and physical distancing will be part of our lives for a while.

Stay Home as much as you can,

Stay Safe,

and most importantly Stay Sane.

Book Project

My mind is finally set on accomplishing one of my goals in life, which is to publish my first book. The poetry book which I when I was interviewed back in 2000 by Kul Al Ousra magazine said I was ready to publish, and I never had the time to do so.

I am currently reviewing all the poems so that I can see which will make the cut. Upon reading my old poems, sometimes I feel like I was a different person. Like someone else wrote those lines, and felt those feelings. Mind you, I haven’t written in a very long time, and I think I should. Specially if I want to have a suitable number of poems in the new book.

So here is to trying to invigorate my passion for poetry writing. Wish me luck.