Pro-Beardism

Who could have ever predicted,

That a few chin hairs,

Could ignite so much fear,

That everywhere,

You walked, people stared,

Waiting for you to declare,

That you want to kill everyone there?

My eyes become teared,

That nobody cares,

That you are innocent, if it appears,

From your thick beard,

That you LOOK like a terrorist.

Why is it socially acceptable to be outraged ONLY on social media?

I wrote this piece a while ago, when there was huge uproar on Facebook and social media in general, over specific wars going on throughout the world. This took place at the same time as some of the necessary, but limited conversations about our obsession with technology. Here is a biopsy of my understanding at the time...

I sit and ponder,

And cry and scream.

A peaceful world is far,

Beyond my hopes and dreams.

But now I find myself living,

Inside a computer screen.

I’m trapped inside of this cube.

I try to smash the glass, but I can’t break through.

If I don’t get out how will things improve?

I turn to God who is outside all of this,

Outside the bad and the good and whatever the rest is,

Outside this technological abyss.

I understand the one who said ignorance is bliss,

Because now I know of so many problems that are bigger and beyond me!

Being fed truth and choking on lies,

My brain and heart start to desensitise.

When we see faces, shapes and colours we begin to stigmatise,

Trying to see through the lenses the media glued to our eyes,

While money and power makes those who can change things,

Their souls turn to ice,

And then a tear of every mother and every child,

Surrounds me and I begin to drown,

In the regrets and the mistakes I make on a daily basis,

Then reality… How am I supposed to face this?

Now my five-a-day are different social media platforms,

Where one click, one like, means solidarity,

But that doesn’t mean I’d replace you with me!

Would I give up my home, family and safety?

Or is it enough for me to click, like and share,

While you get blown to smithereens, can I still say that I care?

Unless I lie on the ground and hold you while it all comes down,

How can I pretend to know or empathise?

It's all well and good to scream and shout,

But my thirst is quenched while you are still in drought,

And I sit in a hospital with a migraine,

While you weep for medical supplies so you might see again.

I won’t pretend to know, to understand.

No amount of google images can put your pain into my hand.

I am sorry that I am a coward, I am lazy, I am weak,

For staying in my serenity and not feeding you, clothing you, keeping you warm!

But I know in my heart that Allah Ghafoor ur Raheem,

Will make a reality of what is now just a dream.

So have faith in him and stand in rows for salah,

Because the All Knowing knows and justice will be done!

Whose lens are you looking at the world through?

I am so sick of Fox News’ fatwas,

And BBC bid’a!

And for those of you who don’t understand,

It means their rulings and innovations,

Of which we have become a nation!

We criticise before we question.

What source did they mention?

Did it hold any weight?

Before we begin to hate,

And blame a population of more than 1.6 billion,

For something someone said,

Was done by someone who looked like one of them,

But we can’t negate the importance of ‘them’,

How else can we justify our ‘us and them’ foreign policy?

Of the self-proclaimed Global police, I see,

The gaps in the stories and the unanswered questions,

Like army generals they scream ‘attention’!

And we stand in line and march to their tunes,

When we are no longer in tune,

With human nature and its inquisitive mind.

What about justice?

‘Innocent till proven guilty’… What a line!

Is that all it is now?

Or all it ever was?

Maybe one day we will implement this and rise above,

Their demeaning tactics of divide and conquer,

When the things they make us believe are absolutely bonkers,

And common sense is no longer common,

Maybe common senselessness is less foreign,

Than we think!

And maybe it is our attitudes that stink,

And our ideals and ideas that contradict,

Justice for all as long as they fit our immigration policy!

Conservative, Labour or UKIP?

No No, just for those within our borders?

Loophole! Lets export them! Sorry, I mean extradite.

That way we can destroy their legal rights.

How about Guantanamo Bay?

I heard there is a vacancy,

An inmate died of pneumonia recently,

Something to do with being left on the floor with no clothes,

Don’t worry that news is now old.

No one cares about that any more,

They are too busy queuing up for the new PS4,  

Game where you get to play American Sniper!

Shoot anyone with brown skin, 

And get an automatic win.

Its just harmless fun,

Because pretending to kill people is fine

As long as you don’t practice Islam,

Or have any lineage that might,

Or have ever been pictured outside a mosque,

Or come from a potential muslim country,

But the list goes on and on!

'Such is the suffocation injustice brings...'

I am trapped in a dystopian world and remain overwhelmed with claustrophobia. The only emotion which overtakes this is my yearning and excessive desperation for justice. I am blessed to live far away from war and poverty, yet my heart has broken up with my body and run away in search of those who are suffering, leaving behind a bruised and battered shell. I am a carcass, a thin, translucent, plastic bag thrown about by the wind, with no place of belonging. Every pain riddled story I hear adds a drop to the ocean in which I am drowning. Such is the suffocation injustice brings. Every spare second is a silence in the remembrance of the human condition... Tonight my tears fall for every person who has faced oppression, pain and suffering. I pray these tears could wash away the tensions and conflicts and engulf everyone in the warmest peace. I run into the rain and press my bare feet into the grass, breathing in the fresh air in one of the safest cities in the world and yet I find myself restless and lost. Truly, 'this world is a prison for the believer' [Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace)]. 

               I am the Palestinian father who’s homeland you stole,
               I am the black teenager who’s spine you broke,
               I am the Pakistani child who goes to work instead of school,
               I am the African family who is starving and only dreams of food,
               I am the Iraqi civilian who became your collateral damage,
               I am the Muslim tortured in your Guantanamo Bay,
               I am the French journalist you shot dead, 
               I am the woman on her way home who is raped,
               I am the refugee who is not safe, even though from you I have escaped,
               I am the orphan child who can’t sleep at night,
               Who mistakes a camera for gun,
               Who thought a selfie could give me such a fright?
               I am every slave and every colonised land,
               I am arrested even though I am an innocent man,
               I am suffering, because human being are suffering,
               I fail to understand,          
               How we can be so vile to each other,
               Do you not see that we are all sisters and brothers?
               Do we not share the same flesh and bones?
               And planet earth none of us own?
               Do we not smile in the same language,
               and breathe the same air?
               So I feel humanity’s pain,
               Even though to care now is rare!

               Give us justice!

               Give us freedom!

               Give us peace!

               Put the human back in humanity….

               #HumanLivesMatter

Subjective Liberty

Liberty lies in the eye of the beholder,

and behold the liberty of mine.

Encased in a protective seal,

my body is concealed 

from perverse eyes.

My speech is controlled by my tongue,

and my lips restrain many secrets,

but my eyes scream volumes,

to those without prejudice, who can still hear them speak up.

I hear the blunt words of ignorance,

like knives they pierce my ears.

Ignorance upon ignorance,

fuelling irrational fears.

Yet, I find myself surrounded,

by those who pretend to care,

but care not about my emotions,

or how uncomfortable I find their stares,

or the way they proudly declare,

their divine right to see my hair.

So I repeat some words,

Which may, or may not, fall upon deaf ears.

Liberty is in the eye of the beholder,

and behold the liberty of mine.

It fits me, so flawlessly perfected

as, by me, it was designed.

About me...

Talking about yourself is probably one of the most difficult tasks! You feel the need to exaggerate your strengths while putting yourself down in areas only you have noticed a weakness. I shall attempt to give a third person gloss over who I am, who I ought to be or who I ought to think I am.... If you understood that, then you are definitely in the right place!

My creative works and online presence is under the mystique of Aishah ARTivist. The first name being my own and the second being that of my soul. To be honest, there is nothing mysterious about it... I am a recent graduate of Law and in order to escape the traumas of Contract Law and Equity I have allowed myself to unleash the creative beast which was trapped between very large and unused textbooks!

I have written poetry since I could write, a few published as a child, most of them buried in diaries saturated in self love and emotion and some recently escaping the four walls of my chest through my very small spoken word ventures. I have decided to return to my writing ways and filling your screens, with my ideas, internal conflicts and views on the world.

I have always maintained an interest in philosophy and finding the eternal truth, combined with an intense and unbreakable love of logic, hence the Mathematics and Further Mathematics I took for A-level . I also studied English Literature and History if you must ask. I would say my journey was very turbulent due to the undiagnosed chronic conditions harbouring within, leaving me with homeless symptoms and 'funky' medication which began as a child. Since then my health has been on a downward spiral, but the deterioration of the physical has had the opposite impact on the mental. I am so alive in my head and with my emotions it as though I have another colour spectrum. Resilience is brilliance!

I made a logical stipulation a few years back stating that 'either all religions are wrong or only one is correct'. After years of questioning, querying, reading and criticising, my search for the eternal truth ended in a a triumphant and smooth acceptance of Islam as the correct religion. I can happily say that starting to practice Islam was the best decision of my life! Every problem which before haunted me, became so small and trivial in the grand scheme of things. My worldview is different, I am much more content and find an inner peace in a world of outer chaos.

However, things have not been entirely 'dandy' considering all the negative press, islamophobia, terrorism and the ongoing wars and destruction of the Middle East. I was thrown into a whirlwind of scenarios knowing one thing, Islam is peace, love, respect and human dignity and it is my duty to convey this to whoever will listen.

That is probably the best way for me to describe how the artist in me met the activist I wanted to be. My goals with this blog are to share my genuine and honest thoughts on justice, but more so injustice, social constructs, the media and the human condition. I would absolutely love for you to read my ideas and to let me know what you think. I really hope you tag along for the ride and lets see where my heart takes us!