AMERICAN MUSLIMS AND THE TRAUMA OF ANTI MUSLIM BIGOTRY

Source: muslimmatters.org

By: Kameelah Mu’Min Rashad

In Aug 2011, Associated Press journalists Chris Hawley, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo began publishing a series of detailed reports exposing a decades long secret surveillance program. This program was engineered by the NYPD (with assistance from the CIA) to gather intelligence on entire Muslim communities. Operating under the auspices of the “Demographic Unit”, law enforcement spied on American Muslim citizens all along the Northeastern seaboard— from New Haven, CT to Philadelphia, PA. The extent and reach of this suspicion-less spying extended far beyond the boundaries of New York City; with local officials and police departments seemingly unaware that the NYPD was conducting such far-reaching clandestine activity outside of its jurisdiction.

This series of Associated Reports revealed the surreal and sordid details of a program that read more like a Hollywood Spy/Crime drama- filled with informants, undercover police officers (“rakers and mosque crawlers”), monitoring of masjids, bookstores, homes, cafés, halal meat markets, and other businesses. Muslim Students’ Associationswere also targeted for surveillance –including Yale MSA, City College of New York, Rutgers New Brunswick and UPenn MSA. NYPD informants infiltrated MSA student meetings, chat rooms, online forums and group outings. Based on information obtained by the Associated Press “Student groups were of particular interest to the NYPD because they attract young Muslim men, a demographic that terrorist groups frequently draw from. Police worried about which Muslim scholars were influencing these students and feared that extracurricular activities such as paintball outings could be used as terrorist training.”

Proof that press conferences are a sham, bankers are dishonest (Video)

 Proof that press conferences are a sham, bankers are dishonest, and there are still some excellent real journalists out there.

Here’s a handy tip for any international bankers traveling to a press conference: don’t try to pretend you understand the anger and frustration of ordinary people by telling a cute anecdote about a conversation with a local taxi driver…it could spectacularly backfire, as the above video shows.

Sabotage Your Self-Sabotage

This is the seventh of a series of eight articles on ‘Productive Thinking’. The series aims to address the challenges that Muslims face on many different levels when it comes to productivity. These levels include: the mental, emotional and physical levels. This series will tackle thinking and mindset on the mental level; negative emotions like anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, fear, etc. on the emotional level; and habits on the physical level. (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6)

This article will explore the DISC behaviour profile and offer solutions on how to overcome associated self-sabotage to maximise your productivity and actualise your potential. It also includes an exercise that will help you identify your real values.

Behaviour Styles and Self-Sabotage Patterns

Your behaviour profile, or personality profile as many people like to call it, is a profile that indicates how you normally see the world and function. I think calling it a personality profile is restricting because the profile does not define who you are as a person. Besides, your personality is a combination of your values, beliefs, identity, habits, attitudes, motivations and emotions. Behaviour profile mainly shows your unconscious thinking style, behaviour and communication styles. It shows how you behave under certain situations and shows your strengths and weaknesses (areas of improvement). Behaviour can be changed, but if you say this is my personality and this is who I am, then your behaviour becomes your identity and it becomes a challenge to change.

The purpose of this section is to highlight the aspect of productivity that people rarely talk about and are unaware of: The four major behaviour styles and how each style affects productivity. It is often what we are not aware of that trips us up.

Imam Sakhawi said: “Whoever knows themselves knows their Lord”. It is only through knowing ourselves that we learn to appreciate the wisdom of our Creator. It is even more than that. It is through knowing ourselves that we can maximise our strengths, mitigate our weaknesses and reach our full potential.

By knowing the different behaviour profiles, you will get insight into why some people have challenges seeing a vision or setting goals for themselves and why some people have challenges following through.

“And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge.” (Qur’an: Chapter 30, Verse 22).

It is from Allah’s  wisdom that people are created to be different, everyone with his/her strengths and weaknesses, so we all learn from and complement one another and work together. It is about knowing where your strengths lie and maximising them, then learning the strength of others and how they think and view the world, so that we can model different aspects of their behaviour to achieve our higher purpose. The key is to be flexible in our thinking and action.

“The first step towards change is awareness,” says Nathaniel Branden, author of The Psychology of Self-Esteem.

For the sake of simplicity and for the purpose of this article, I will be generalising quite a lot to make the behaviour profile and patterns simple to understand. There are so many levels to this and many nuances and combinations, which is not within the scope of this article.

DISC Profile

The DISC profile includes four main behaviour profiles:

1. Dominance: the type who wants to win
2. Influence: the type who wants to be liked
3. Steadiness: the type who wants to be comfortable
4. Conscientiousness: the type who wants to be right

An individual has a behaviour profile that is a combination of at least two types and at most three, but he/she can usually be identified by one dominant type.

Please keep in mind the following three thinking patterns (motivators) as we move forward:

• Moving away or moving towards (Pain/pleasure motivated)
• Detail or big picture thinker
• People-oriented or task-oriented

The answer to your problem lies within you, beneath the surface of frustration lies the answer to all of your problems.

 The answer to your problem lies within you, beneath the surface of frustration lies the answer to all of your problems.
 La respuesta a su problema se encuentra en que, bajo la superficie de la frustración se encuentra la respuesta a todos sus problemas.
 Het antwoord op uw probleem ligt in je, onder de oppervlakte van frustratie ligt het antwoord op al uw problemen.
 La réponse à votre problème se trouve en vous, sous la surface de la frustration est la réponse à tous vos problèmes.
 Die Antwort auf Ihr Problem liegt in dir, die unter der Oberfläche der Frustration liegt die Antwort auf alle Ihre Probleme.
 Huídá nǐ de wèntí chū zài nǐ, wúnài de biǎomiàn zhī xià jiù zàiyú huídá nín suǒyǒu de wèntí.
 Svaret på ditt problem ligger inom dig, under ytan av frustration ligger svaret på alla dina problem.
 Otvet na vash vopros lezhit vnutri vas , pod poverkhnost’yu razocharovaniya lezhit otvet na vse vashi problemy.
 Senin sorunun cevabı, içinizde yatıyor hayal kırıklığı yüzeyinin altında tüm sorunları için cevap yatıyor.
 La risposta al vostro problema si trova dentro di voi, sotto la superficie di frustrazione si trova la risposta a tutti i vostri problemi.
 Jawaban untuk masalah Anda terletak di dalam diri Anda, di bawah permukaan frustrasi terletak jawaban untuk semua masalah Anda.

Action is the cure for frustration, you need to move through negativity, to reach your goal.

 Action is the cure for frustration, you need to move through negativity, to reach your goal.
 La acción es la cura para la frustración, lo que necesita para moverse a través de la negatividad, para alcanzar su meta.
 Actie is de remedie voor frustratie, je moet door negativiteit heen, om je doel te bereiken.
 L’action est le remède à la frustration, vous devez passer par la négativité, pour atteindre votre objectif.
 Aktion ist das Heilmittel für die Frustration, müssen Sie durch Negativität zu bewegen, um Ihr Ziel zu erreichen.