HAPPY BAKRID TO ALL OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS MUSLIMS

Salam Akbar, manmoon.  I am honored by your presence here and glad to know that this blog honors you and has your seal of approval.  : )

Ariela, thank you I am the same way.  I would like to experience Mecca.  Here where I live I have joined and attended services from Mandirs.  Their pranam at the end of the service is always so good and delicious. 

Maybe one day on a different occasion other than the Haaj, they would probably have a pigrimage for non Muslims who would like to experience such a pilgrimage. 

we are all one,
Samme

Akbar wrote this on my grapevine and I would like to put it here:

“Walai-kum-Salaam Samme! “As-Salaam-walai-kum” is the wish meaning
“Peace be upon you”. When one wishes ‘As-Salaam’ (peace be upon you),
the other one must reply ‘Walai-kum-Salaam’ (Also upon you be the
peace). This wish will be said to a person who is safer than the
speaker in position, i.e. by saying ‘As-Salaam’ one’s attention should
not be diverted to an unsafe position. For example, a pedestrian is in
a safe position than a cyclist, so the cyclist only should wish
‘As-Salaam”, first.”

Thank you Akbar for this honor,
Samme

I believe that all religions and spiritualities are peaceful and that anyone has the right to choose their faith when they have grown up from what they have been born into.  It is only the clash of minds of ordinary people, their ego, their misunderstandings, their fears, their influences and confluences throughout history that “religion” and the people practicing them got blamed.  We are all one.  We have different cultures and thus have different names for that which we all or some of us believe.  We are born into different cultures so it is fitting that our gods and goddesses will have different names, faces, costumes, garbs, stories and mythologies.  And yet we find similarities and connections but a lot of people are blind to those and there are some who “gets” it.  We are all born peaceful and our nature is love.  May we all realize our oneness and be in unity with diversity. 
love and peace,
Samme

Yes indeed Ariela, that is a wonderful thought!  Thinking about it gives me goosebumps.  I have seen coworkers do this, pray.  Can you imagine the world energy all around the globe Muslims facing Mecca?  That is to me outstanding and faithful.  I actually have been looking at Mecca at Google Earth earlier and was fascinated by the sights on the Mecca surroundings as shown on Google Earth.  There I had my pilgrimage.  : )
Samme

I knew it that that is what you meant, the National Geographic Special ~ Inside Mecca.  I was eyeing that at Borders and would like to buy the DVD but thanks to you, I do not have to.  I am glad to be able to see this online.  This is a wonderful gift.  Thank you so much Ariela, yes the link works.
Samme

Thank you Ariela, yes I am downsizing not just a bit but a lot and that is great.

I am happy for this news and would like to include this here;

President-elect Barack Obama
says he will try to “reboot America’s image” among the world’s Muslims
and will follow tradition by using his entire name — Barack Hussein
Obama — in his swearing-in ceremony.
The U.S. image globally has taken a deep hit during President George W. Bush’s
two terms in office, primarily because of opposition to the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq, harsh interrogation of prisoners, the indefinite
detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and mistreatment of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Obama
promised during his campaign that one of his top priorities would be to
work to repair America’s reputation worldwide, and that one element of
that effort would be a speech delivered in a Muslim capital.
He pledged anew to give such a speech, though he declined to say whether it would happen during his first year in office.
“It’s something I intend to follow through on,” Obama said in an interview published Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. “We’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular. So we need to take advantage of that.”
Obama
said his message would be twofold: that his administration will be
unyielding in stamping out terrorist extremism but also “unrelenting in
our desire to create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership
with countries.”
“I think the world is ready for that message,” he said in the interview, conducted Tuesday.
During
the campaign, Obama repeatedly faced questions about whether he is a
Muslim, particularly in whisper campaigns that noted his middle name, that his father is Kenyan, and that he lived for a time as a child in Indonesia. Obama is a practicing Christian.
Asked if he would drop his middle name during his inauguration on Jan. 20, the president-elect said he would not.
“The
tradition is that they use all three names and I will follow the
tradition, not trying to make a statement on way or another,” he said.
Obama also talked about the spiritual support he sought during his White House bid, particularly since he and his family left Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ after inflammatory comments by its pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a campaign issue.
Obama said he set up a “sort of prayer circle
across the country” of pastors who would pray for him every morning on
a conference call. Obama said he sometimes joined the call, which
involved leaders from various Christian denominations and other religious faiths.
“I’m
not even sure that all of them voted for me,” Obama said. “But they
were willing to pray for me, and that’s something that was wonderful.”
On other topics:
_Obama
would not put a timetable on issues important to organized labor, what
he called his promise to “put an end to the kinds of barriers and
roadblocks that are in the way of workers legitimately coming together
in order to form a union and bargain collectively.” Among other things,
he has promised support for a card-check system for unions trying to
organize a new workplace and for adding labor and environmental
protections to the North American Free Trade Agreement. “I don’t want to anticipate right now what sequences will be on these issues,” Obama said.
_The man about to be the nation’s first black president said he will make enforcing civil rights laws and making the criminal justice system color-blind top priorities for his administration. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division “over the last eight years has had a lot of problems and really declining morale,” he said.
_Obama
said he, his wife Michelle and their two young daughters will make
frequent visits during his presidency back to their home in Chicago,
perhaps as often as every six weeks. “My Kennebunkport is on the South
Side of Chicago,” he said. “Our friends are here. Our family is here.
And so we are going to try to come back here as often as possible.”

Thank you,
Samme