Thanks to Farooq Khan for expressing his concerns repeatedly at Dallas Pakistanis about the upcoming Milad parade in Down Town Dallas on 1.11.15.
I just spoke with the organizer of the event, Maula Babar Rahmani and asked him to reconsider holding the parade in down town Dallas. He said due to weather, it is postponed to 1/25/15 at 1:00 PM
He assured me that they are doing this for the last 13 years and it will be a positive event with the presence of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and other dignitaries. Mayor of Dallas had presided the event last year.
The major concern I have is the possibility of a counter rally – what if a few people show up with placards showing Prophets Cartoons in support of the freedom of speech and victims of Paris? I hope the organizers will be prepared for such eventuality and pray for goodwill to prevail in the tradition of Prophet Muhammad, a mercy to mankind, and following him, we become kind, merciful and generous to our fellow being no matter how much they irritate.
Banners to read (samples below)
“We support freedom of speech”
“We condemn terrorism”
I hope we prepare the participants to resist all the temptations. You know the Taif example, and I hope you do. Now, let me share another example to make the point – there is a legend that the enlightened Buddha sat under the Banyan tree and was committed to exercise his Jihad of the will power, where no one controlled his behavior but himself. He sat naked amidst several dancing naked girls around him without his manhood getting affected. He chose to be beyond temptations.
Now, if you want to build your will power, you have an opportunity to ready yourselves for such eventualities. However, I warn you, please do not open the following link to Prophet’s cartoons, but if you want to do your Jihad, want to practice controlling your anger, and developing the ability to say prayers instead of throwing temper tantrums – open the link. http://tohellwithislam.com/the-mohammed-cartoons-everyone-should-flood-the-web-with-them/
It was difficult for me but I did, and now I can handle any provocation with grace and prayers. FYI, this is the mildest one.
If you have the time, we are making a movie on the attempted Quran burning event last year by Terry Jones. It is about skillfully managing what is sacred, sacrilege and freedom of speech. The story is big and is at – http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2014/04/reestablishing-right-muslim-attitudes.html
The purpose of this event is education, information and activism. We hope to learn and acknowledge our failings and make a personal commitment to do our individual share of saying “Never Again
mike
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 text/talk
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is a staunch defender of human rights and his book standing up for others will be out soon, and a movie “Americans together” is in the making. He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links atwww.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.