I love Islam and cream soda

23 Questions ... There is an old saying often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Whether Lincoln actually said those words is beside the point. The lesson remains timeless. Far too often, Muslims enter discussions about Christianity armed with conviction but lacking preparation. Likewise, many Christians critique Islam without first understanding what Muslims actually believe. Instead of meaningful dialogue, both sides frequently speak past one another, repeating familiar slogans rather than engaging the evidence. This book was written to address that problem. It is not intended to mock Christianity. It is not intended to insult Christians. Nor is it intended to discourage respectful dialogue between people of different faiths. Rather, it is written from the conviction that every Muslim should understand both his own religion and the questions most commonly raised abou...

By Brother Taj   - June 2019 In 2007 and 2008 while working as a political market research manager I had the privilege of having then–candidate Barack Obama as a client. However, I would have voted for him anyway on the basis of one consideration: he was Black. Voters who would admit to this motivation are decried as reverse-racist and a traitor to the idea of post-racism, but given a national culture that rides on 4 centuries of enslavement and exclusion, no apologies are needed. We have had enough of inhumane consideration and treatment. Enough of institutionalize bigotry. Enough of racially motivated violence and murder. Enough scourging by drugs and brutal policing. And, enough of mass incarceration. It should all cause Black Folk to rise up in protest, refusing to perpetuate anything similar with our own hands. What more effective repudiation to white supremacy and its insidious effect, then for a Black person to refuse to shoot, rob, assault, rape, chea...

#aSipOfIslam ...the Arabic word we generally use for prayer is " salat ", which at it's root has many different meanings, including "connection" (like how a hinge connects a door and a doorway) and "attention"... Salat therefore implies a connection between man and God whereby both turn attention to each other. Man seeks God's mercy, help, healing, forgiveness, etc. And God listens and responds. In Islam salat is a formal prayer ritual that is to be performed repeatedly and perpetually. Doing as such creates a constant connection between man and God and also instills a constant sense of paying attention to God. One of the worst things that we do, besides not actually praying, is when God gives us the things that we ask for, we become distracted buy those achievements/gifts and we forget to continue our connection and attention. Even though we get what we asked for we must continue to ask for the things that we need and or we must be sure...

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...

While locked down fighting (and beating) a frame-up, I read books and did pull-ups... Here's what I polished off in 10 months (Feb-Dec '18) *disclaimer, I absolutely did indeed read every title listed. Aries Decision (Ludlum/Mills) White Rage (Carol Anderson)  must read! Black Pain (T. Williams) Rules of Betrayal Naughtier Than Nice Anthology of American Poetry (Rita Dove) Aces High

In the pit of my belly, John Wick's dog just got killed - but presently, the dominate feeling up in my heart is freedom - and gratitude. There is an ayat of Quran that quotes Zakariya praying, stating to God that "I have never been unsuccessful in my prayer to You" - It is a verse that rings throughout my mind in context to my ordeal. I have questioned a lot during the last 10 months but my faith in Him seeing my thru did not waver. I am first grateful to Him, good times and bad.

Back on September 10th, I posted an admittedly provocative picture on my Twitter, of me cutting a gag off of my mouth - one that had "Dom" written on it - with the caption "#48Days". To most, it was an obvious reference to my then-countdown to the day that I would be off of parole and able to talk freely about my ordeal with my ex-wife, Dominique. But to my man, Theo Wilson, it was an opportunity to cape for Dominique and attempt to call me out on Facebook and both get back in her good graces and look like Black-Women's-Best-Friend. All the while, he claimed to be "brotherly" to me. He must've meant "brotherly" in the sense that Cain was "brotherly" to Abel. Some background: In August, the Kasbah nightclub hosted its poetry night on a Thursday and a sister recited a poem about being molested and then pointed out an audience member (and fellow open mic performer) as apparently being the one her poem was about. This s...

On November 26, minding my own business, I got an interesting Facebook friend request.  At first glance, it looked like the typical spam request that would eventually direct me to a porn site.  Except for the locale of the person.  Generally, the spam requests come from a locale either from my profile like where I grew up, but this one was from Colorado.  It took about 4 seconds of a closer look to realize that it was my ex-wifey Dominique, after old shenanigans. And I do mean “old”.  She had only just recently catfished to me taking on the guise of a weather person working at 9News.  The same 9News that had just exposed her as a fraud and a house thief.  Dominique intended for me to click on a link that she sent that would record and send her my IP address.  Not that she could do anything with that info, especially given the fact that I don’t have a static IP address; the perks of having more than one or two hacker friends. First, I sn...