I love Islam and cream soda

As I come up on my 49th year and my 26th as a Muslim, I'm reflecting on the amazing fact, and a fact that a lot of our older grumpy uncles and aunties don't realize, that our future lies at the feet of our youth. I became Muslim because of Hip Hop, Black Culture, and Prison - three things that most of the Muslims of the world do not want to even recognize as sources of Islamic culture itself. Despite their ignoring, discriminating, and even abject horror, droves and droves o f people enter into the religion through these very avenues. In our pop culture, Islam is extremely prevalent - something that would make Trump and his ilk lose a lot of sleep if they even knew. If you watch the last episode of season 8 of The Walking Dead then you know that Rick's quote at the end comes from a Hadith of the prophet Muhammad. If you listen to the Jon Jones interview with Joe Rogan at the end of his last fight, you heard him make an Islamic exclamation - the same one made in ASAP ...

This year, inshaAllah (God willing) I am going to launch an anti-violence initiative based on the jailhouse culture of settling beefs by entering an empty cell and engaging in fisticuff negotiations - as opposed to resorting to using homemade weapons, etc. I'm old school in the belief that in the event that people feel they have to resort to physical confrontation to settle a conflict, that a line be drawn at the use of guns. In my personal opinion, most of today's wannabe  thugs are emotional weenies who are too quick to pull a trigger, further compounding their immature state of mind with life-shattering violence and death. (I blame this on skinny jeans). In jail, the idea alone of walking into a small space one-on-one was enough to make a lot of dudes think twice to avoid behaviors that lead to the thunderdome, and for those who had to get down, they got to walk away, with only a bruised ego if they lost, less thinner skin, and often more respect for the person they ju...