veiled4allah

caucusing for Obama

Today were the caucuses in Washington state (the February 19 primary is non-binding for Democrats). The procedure is very similar to that in Iowa, which may be familiar to some people. People gather at a set time and list their preference among the candidates, then the caucus chair determines how many delegates each candidate will get. There is a chance for everyone to change their minds (especially if their candidate did not have enough support to get a delegate) and a final count of delegates is done. These delegates will go to the next level up and the process continues until the state-level delegates are chosen.

About a dozen or so precincts caucused at a school in our area. I caucused for the first time in 2004 so I was familiar with the process and had something to compare it to. The caucuses were held in the school cafeteria.

The first thing we realized is that turnout was incredibly high. The caucus officially started at 1 pm, and the voting process at 1:30 pm. But at 1:30 pm, people were still lined up down the hall and outside of the building. In 2004, my precinct had only 4 voters show up - this year it was 16. Looking at the site as a whole, I think turnout was up that much for every precinct. It was just amazing to see so many people taking a couple hours out of their Saturday to take part in what can be a confusing process. African-American turnout was very high, and the crowd as a whole was incredibly diverse, all ages and races (this is one of the things I like about the area where I live, although we are not usually very politically engaged). When I told this to my (Republican) mom, she was actually silent a moment in shock, then said how great it was that democracy is so vibrant here.

We filled the school cafeteria!

My precinct was overwhelmingly for Obama. Of the 16 voters present, 12 voted for Obama and 4 for Clinton. We had five delegates, and four were for Obama and one for Clinton (which represents 80% Obama and 20% Clinton). Overall at the site, there were 66 delegates for Obama, 24 for Clinton, and 1 uncommitted (72.5% Obama, 26.4% Clinton). The Obama supporters in my precinct were black, white, and Native American, and young, middle-aged, and old. The Clinton supporters were three white women and a white man.

This was an incredible experience, to see so many people come out to take part. There was real energy in the room and real passion, especially for Obama. Everybody waited patiently throughout the process even though it took longer than expected because of the number of people.

Because I was the only one in my precinct who knew what to do, I ended up as the caucus chair. I never expected when I went today that I would end up leading 15 other people through the process of making sure their vote counts in this crazy system and also of selecting delegates. I am also a delegate for Obama to go to the next level, the legislative district caucus in April.

I am so proud of the people here!

Update: It turns out that my experiences were mirrored across the entire state. Obama won Washington by a 68-31 margin and he took all 39 counties in the state. Usually there is a lot of variation between the urban centers of Western Washington and sparsely populated Eastern Washington, but there was no such variation on Saturday. I have never seen anything like this before in state politics!

As an aside, looking at the pictures in the papers of the Republican caucuses, it appears that the average age of the voters there was about 70. I am not joking.

Fired up and ready to go in Seattle: my experience at the Obama rally

What an incredible time I had today! Barack Obama held a campaign rally at Key Arena (home of our local NBA team) in Seattle today. I got up really early (for me) and took the bus into Seattle, then walked up to Key Arena. When I arrived at 8:46 am, there was already a line snaking around several buildings.

More than 2 hours before doors open

They started letting us in around 10:30 am. It was cold and very windy at times - my face felt numb after standing outside for nearly two hours (plus the walk up from downtown).

I was on the floor of the arena. We had to go through a metal detector to be on the floor and they made me take off my cloak just like at the airport. They also hand-checked my purse.

I was about four or five deep in the "mosh pit" on the floor. Unfortunately, I can't been seen in any pictures of the crowd, because I am too short!

Obama in Key Arena

Obama did not enter the arena until a little after 1 pm, so we had a pretty long wait inside. At least it was nice and warm, although of course I was on my feet the whole time. They played music interspersed with Obama campaign ads, which were shown on the big screen above the arena.

The first speakers were two campaign organizers who educated everybody about the caucus (I wish it was an easier process - why can't the state Dems get their act together and have a primary instead?). Later, two musicians came out. One of them was from the rock band Pearl Jam and the other is a song-writer. He had written a song called "Fired Up, Ready to Go" about Obama, and pulled together the Total Experience Gospel Choir here in Seattle and other musicians to record the song and a video. They spoke about the making of the song and why they had done it, then the music video played on the big screen.

 

 

Fired Up, Ready to Go

Awhile after this, the actual rally started. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels opened it, followed by Washington Congressman Adam Smith, then they introduced Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, who endorsed Obama today. Finally, Gregoire introduced Obama. I think he spoke for around 45 minutes or so (but I wasn't watching the time!). The crowd were on their feet the whole time, even the people in the stands, and he was frequently interrupted by cheers and chants.

A girl who was standing on the floor, though some distance away from me, fainted partway through. Obama saw this and went to get a bottle of water that was on the stage for him. He tossed it to some people standing near the girl and then over the microphone called for paramedics and some people to get a chair and help the girl. I noticed Nickels hurry off the stage during this, so I think he was helping to coordinate the assistance and he returned later. Only after the girl had been helped did Obama continue his speech. He had to ask the crowd what he had been talking about last, but then picked it up smoothly. I was really impressed by how he took the time to make sure the girl was helped.

After Obama finished the speech, he walked around the floor surrounding the stage to shake hands with people on the floor. I got swept up and was literally nearly crushed. I was too far away and too short to have a chance at him even if I was not having the breath crushed out of me, but at one point I could see him through the crowd only about six feet away!

After the rally was over, I walked back downtown. It started to rain during this and eventually would be pouring but fortunately I was under a bus shelter by then. It was probably around 5:15 or 5:30 by the time I finally back my apartment. I had caught the bus into Seattle at 7:25 this morning so a very long day!

The crowd there was largely young people. I bet they came down from the University of Washington in droves and I was standing in line with some high school students. Apparently, some teachers were giving extra credit to kids who attended the rally, to encourage them to become more interested/involved in politics. I bet a lot of classrooms were empty in Seattle today.

The crowd was mostly white, as one would expect given Seattle's demographics, but there were many African Americans. There was also a guy wearing a Ron Paul sweatshirt, but he later went away. I don't know if it was a stunt or something.

According to the newspapers, they closed the Arena with 18,000 people inside - the official capacity is 17,000 but apparently they got another thousand of us on the floor and in the aisles. Apparently there were at least 3,000 people in various overflow areas. They set up speakers so these people could hear the speech, and it turned out that part of the reason Obama was late was that he stopped to speak to the crowd outside so they didn't feel so left out.

It was an incredible experience and I had a wonderful time. Hopefully I will not come down with a cold after all that standing around and walking in the cold, wind, and rain. I had been favorably inclined towards Obama for a long time and really became interested after he won Iowa so when my original favorite Dennis Kucinich (yes, I am very, very liberal) dropped out the other week I knew that I would be supporting Obama. Everything he said in his speech today I agreed with. I am also impressed by the character he displayed in helping the girl who fainted. Many politicians would keep right on talking, at best assuming that somebody else would help her. I will be voting for Obama at the caucus tomorrow and feel both happy and proud to do so.

P.S. He is really good-looking in person, especially when he smiles. Two girls next to me were giggling about this.

A Time to Break Silence, by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For the sixth year running, a tribute to some of the most important parts of Dr. King's legacy, which are usually overlooked. Here are some highlights of a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967. The speech is far too long for me to post here (even the excerpts that I've selected are quite long), but you can read it in its entirety here. I think Dr. King's words speak very eloquently to our situation today.

"A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us... ...All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?... ...What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts... ...Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours... ...If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways... ...Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

Barack Obama

Returning briefly from the dead... As long-time readers of this blog know, I supported Kucinich in 2004 and have been supporting him this year as well, though not as actively (in part because I was unemployed last time around, but now my work schedule keeps me busy). This has always been because I agree with his positions and I want them to be part of the debate, so as to encourage other Democrats to move in that direction. I'm realistic enough to know that he's not going to win, in part because too many people who otherwise agree with him don't bother to support him at all thinking he can't win (thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy). So even while supporting Kucinich, I continue to look at the leading candidates to decide which, if any, of them I think would be the best nominee for the Democrats. In 2004, I wasn't very inspired by any of the candidates. And while this year's race is better in many ways, I was still holding back. I've liked a lot of what I've seen about Obama - and to be completely honest, every time the Republicans try to make a smear out of claiming he's Muslim, that makes me support him more. But I've also had reservations about his positions on some issues and that held me back. However, after watching his win in Iowa and the sense of hope it's given so many people, I've decided to support him over Clinton and Edwards as far as he can go. I want to see our country be bold enough to choose him over the Clinton machine, to look forward instead of back. Because of the way the caucus system works, I still plan to caucus for Kucinich here in Washinton on February 9, to help him stay in the race and hopefully get a few delegates so he can participate at the convention and represent his issues. But if/when he's not viable (based on my experience from 2004, this will be at the district rather than precinct level because I'll probably be one of only a handful of people from my precinct) then I'll switch to Obama and I'll definitely be rooting for Obama in New Hampshire and other races. And hopefully, if Obama gets the nomination he will choose a great running mate to make the Democrats really solid on the all the issues!

Update 1/24/08: Since Kucinich has withdrawn from the race, I will support Obama from here on out and caucus for him on February 9.

Eid mubarak!

Eid mubarak! Taqabbala Allahu minna wa minkum. (Happy Eid! May Allah accept from us and from you).

Ramadan mubarak!

Ramadan has begun with the fasting starting tomorrow morning at dawn. Ramadan mubarak! May our fasting and prayers and other worship this month be pleasing to Allah. May He make it easy for us and strengthen us by it.

What to the slave is the 4th of July, by Frederick Douglass

Bumped up from last year and will be as long as the words still need to be spoken The following is a speech given by Frederick Douglass (pictured at left) on July 4, 1841. It's a reminder that what makes America great is the ideals of liberty and justice that we stand for, and that we must always work to make sure that America lives up to our ideals. There are times when America has not done so. Slavery will forever remain a dark blot on our record. When we see America doing wrong, we need to speak up as Douglass did to set it right. I post this as a reminder that sometimes the most patriotic act, the one that shows the most love, is to criticize. No, America is not doing anything today that approaches slavery for its injustice, but there are things happening in this country, laws being made, actions being taken, that take us away from our ideals. I have spoken up against these laws and actions and will continue to do so because I want us to turn back from this path before we have gone very far down it. Without further ado, here's Frederick Douglass:

Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that the dumb might eloquently speak and the lame man leap as an hart. But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn that it is dangerous to copy the example of nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorry this day, "may my right hand cleave to the roof of my mouth"! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine. I do not hesitate to declare with all my soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery – the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate, I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, shall not confess to be right and just ... For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not as astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, and secretaries, having among us lawyers doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; and that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!... What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.... What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms – of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

my blog is five years old

It's getting to the point where I post only once or twice a year, but the blog isn't completely dead, and it is now 5 years old! Hard to believe, but the first posts were on May 24, 2002. Where did the time go? If anybody is still reading this, thanks for sticking with me. I can't promise more frequent posts in the future, as my job keeps me busy and after working with blogs all day, I often don't feel like updating my own. Mostly I don't get any further than bookmarking stuff on del.icio.us so you might want to subscribe to that if you're looking for something to read! Life is going well. This is going to be a busy summer for my family. My dad is retiring at the end of May, my sister is getting her Ph.D. in mid-June, and my grandmother will (inshallah!) be turning 100 at the start of August. I'll be going down to California for the second event and to Minnesota for the third. Thanks again to everybody who still checks in, I hope you're doing well and getting what you want out of life. Peace and blessings to all :)

in the footsteps of the Prophet

I just finished reading In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad by Tariq Ramadan. This is an excellent book that tells the story of the Prophet's (sAas) life, with a focus on the moral and spiritual lessons to be learned from episodes within it. I highly recommend it both to Muslims, to deepen your understanding of the model that the Prophet (sAas) is for all of us, and to non-Muslims to learn more about Islam. There are many misconceptions spread about the life and teachings of the Prophet (sAas) and this book is an excellent rebuttal to those misconceptions. It also conveys the beauty of Islam and why Muslims find spiritual sustenance through this religion. Mashallah.

British right-wing terrorist plot update

Awhile ago, I posted about an apparent terrorist plot in Britain that wasn't getting any news coverage, apparently because the suspects are white right-wing extremists. When we last heard anything about this story, the suspects were scheduled to go on trial in February. So now it's February and the trial has begun, with one of the suspects pleading guilty. And now it's getting a lot of coverage in the mainstream media. These headlines give an idea why: Ex-BNP man 'wanted to shoot PM' Former BNP candidate wanted to shoot prime minister, court hears Former BNP candidate 'said he would shoot Tony Blair' Other coverage: Ex-BNP candidate admits stockpiling weapons BNP candidate who feared civil war 'had hoarded explosives' Ex-BNP candidate 'had cache of explosive chemicals' Some bloggers commenting on this story include BlairWatch, Rachel from North London, and Iain Dale. There is also a Wikipedia page devoted to the story.