Friday, April 26, 2013

Call It What It Is

My cousin went on a rant on facebook and I thought that I'd take the privilege and repost it here.  It makes perfect sense and I just wanted to hold on to his thoughts:

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's the reason why we live in this country. But now if you are like me you can't even send your kids 500 bucks in Yemen without getting declined and or told the system is down. Is this the cost of fighting terrorism that we alienate law abiding citizens of basic rights based on faith or national origins? I tried today again from another location and it went thru so I thought it was probably procedures that we all must follow now especially after this Boston Marathon thing. Then the lady at western union tells me they asked for a whole lot of info and she had to fill in from the top of her head and that this only happens when sending to Yemen. I scratched my head and said why did you fill in the information from your head and is this going to affect me sending my family money in the future? She said no but really? We have to bullshit now so we don't look like criminals? It's time we stand on behalf of all Muslims in this country who are feeling alienated by this crap. It wouldn't happen to any other race or creed only us because we are afraid to fight for our rights. We are afraid to speak up about being discriminated against. We need a new civil rights movement in this country. Don't be afraid Muslims you have nothing to hide. Don't let these terrorists hijack your rights. And don't let these racists in our government belittle you. LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. I THE MUSLIM, JUST LIKE THE JEW AND THE CHRISTIAN AND GAY AND THE ATHEIST DEMAND MY RIGHTS! I understand it's not an easy job but we need our elected officials to extend a hand to those law abiding citizens who feel like they will one day all be put in concentration camps and or get stripped of their citizenship and deported because of the actions of a few. Stop this fear mongering in the media. Call it what it is "racist"

Thursday, April 25, 2013

If I get Struck by a Drone

I'm going to Yemen in a couple of weeks to visit family and to have a well deserved vacation.  I will be in Abyen for a few weeks (home of the best predator drone strikes in Yemen).  I'm afraid of being killed in a drone strike by the US government.

I was reading Jeremy Scahill's new book "Dirty Wars" and I've come to the conclusion that if Abdurahman Al-Awlaki, a 16 year old US citizen, can be killed by a drone strike from his very own US government (without a charge of a single crime), then I too, can be killed in a drone strike.  The only difference between him and I, is that I've already been visited and interviewed by the FBI on March 30th, 2010.  I don't know if they think that I'm a terrorist but I believe that they wouldn't have stormed into my home and my workplace if they had thought I wasn't a terrorist.


I've only told a few people about my encounter with the FBI only because I feel that people might look at me differently.  I feared being ostracized by people (friends and family alike).  Maybe now my comments and tweets would be put under a microscope for the simple fact that I've been visited by the FBI.  Some people (haters -- we all have a hater or two in our lives -- some we know and some we don't know) might utilize this information against you.  Anybody can call the FBI and claim that you're doing suspicious activity and it would seem plausible if your name is Mohammed or Ahmed or Mohammed Ahmed and if you've been visited by the trench coat boys (the FBI).

So I've decided to just up and say to the world that I've been "visited" by the FBI.  In my own eyes, I'm not guilty of any crime nor can I be accused of any crime in the past or in the future (I say future because my intentions are not to commit a crime in the future).  But these things haven't stopped the US government from killing (purposely and/or accidentally) its own citizens abroad.  So in essence, this is my message to the world if I happen to get killed by a drone or a US missile while I'm in Yemen visiting my family.