American Muslima Writer -Daring to Work Towards Jannah

PS: As I'm on vacation I wont be replying to the interesting comments i recieved on my last post until I get back to Emirates at the end of Feb.  SO keep the discussions coming.

It seems more clear recently how things go full circle.
I was in a shop buying a notebook (ever the writer needs) and it stuck me how just four years ago i was kneeling on the dusty floor of this shop trying to buy enough files for my new file cabinet and was making sure I had enough labels and tags for each folder and I was buying about 100 of the file folders so I had them quite spread out around me on the floor.  I never imagined four years later I would have accomplished all I have done or how changed a person I would be.  Even further in the circle would be the first time i set foot in that shop and smelled the beautiful scent of stationairy proucts....ahh it was love at first smell.  Time fades so fast and we never know what is around the next bend, you know.

It was also in this shop years ago, i was looking for a grave leaf vine stencil to paint a shelf I had gotten as a gift. I wanted to paint it and give it as a gift to another friend of mine. I looked and searched and shook my fist at the lack of stenciling options.  This last time i was in there getting my notebook I saw it a beautiful grape vine stencil, i thought wryly, ahhh NOW you get it...four years too late... it's just as well though for Allah is the best of planner and my friend no longer lives in Lebanon anyways, she went back to Sweden.

Looking around the city the western influence has crept swiflty into place.  Lingiree clad women on bilboards and seductivly posing around the more "developed" and more glamourous sections of the cities. Hijabi girls who could hardly be called hijabis. Double the amount of cars on the road and more noticably the better and newer imported cars on the road.  Buildings popping up and new streets directions being changed from two way to one way now.  It's amazing how cities change.

Nationalism is increasing here in Lebanon. Every other commercial is a nationalistic patriotic song or theme. They are quite stuck in my head.... Especially the opera one...... LUBNAAAAAN!!!!!
They think this is the solution for the wars to end here in Lebanon, having everyeon identify themselves not by religion but by the common thread that they are Lebanese.  To a point this would work...
EXCEPT... for the fact that Lebanon has the most DIEHARD extremests from EVERY RELIGION.  NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE is going to forget theat their religions come fist and their nationality second....
hmmm but then I double think.... the rise in Western influence is really leading people away from their religions into a consumerism age where people become confused about who they are and what they stand for....  SO I guess as always the debate is up in the air, the DIE HARDS are here to stay and the whishy washy LUBNAAAAANi people always meet head to head.  I enjoy the political sketches showing the stupidity of the politicians here.  They have about three or four weekly programs and no one misses them.  They are HILARIOUS!!!

I love my Lebanon, do I love Lubnan? Hmmm....  that's a question to think on.....