ramadan mubarak!

i don't know why i haven't posted in a while. i have had posts floating around in my head... even had an emotional hour after fajr lying in bed one morning where i composed a whole deep philosophical passionate post in my head and vowed to write it when i got up, but it faded away. it was probably too personal anyway.
but i figured i should at least say ramadan mubarak. and maybe post a picture of musa or something. this one is from his cousin's aqiqah down in raleigh sept. 16. the little shalwar kamiz is issa's, too. but i loved it on him! (issa got stuck wearing one of his dad's old shalwar kamizes... how cute!)



i hope everyone is off to a good start this month inshallah. i'm fasting while still breastfeeding nearly exclusively (he only eats a serving of cereal or two a day, and that is mixed with my milk so i'm still pumping). yesterday was our first day, and it went fine alhamdulillah. i'm so glad.
may Allah keep you all safe and healthy and accept all your prayers...

a note: the Wpost has an article today about how support for israeli settlements in the west bank is now reviving. not until the article’s 17th paragraph does it mention that all these settlements are considered illegal under international law. that’s called “burying” a fact. but maybe, being an american media outlet, the post simply does not find this aspect of international law with regard to the settlements important enough to establish early on... nobody really talks about it, anyway. i point it out just because when i worked for islamonline, and we wrote our articles about the conflict, it's the sort of thing we would always have mentioned up front. does that just make us biased in the other direction? how can you ever be objective if simply the placement of a fact in a story makes you biased one way or another, depending on the location of placement?
still, i have to say, in a story about the revival of popular support for AND construction in the west bank settlements, i think it would be better journalism to let readers know early on, when they are more likely to read it, where those settlements stand in the eyes of the law. particularly when they are pretty much the prime cause of palestinian suffering...

just to point out the fact that this is a purely political concern for me, i also want to say that i think it is cool the jewish high holy days are starting at the exact same time as ramadan! i sort of miss my muslim-jewish women's dialogue group from college park, coz we'd be able to learn so much from each other now. anyway, the coinciding of these two holy times started last year... i wrote this article about it for the laurel, md. community last year. back when i was a full-time journalist. what a different world. i am freelancing now, btw, for the same paper, as a dining reviewer. fun! especially for someone who doesn't eat non-zabiha meat or drink, and is not going to be eating or drinking anything at all during daytime for the next month :) but i'll make it work inshallah!