What issues are dominating the Somali blogosphere? Let's take a quick tour: Kenya-Somali writes about the new Kenyan cabinet and the Somali representation in it:
It's good to see many Somalis who are serving in the Grand Coalition. Mr. Yussuf Haji as Defence Minister, Elmi as Minister for Northern Kenya & Arid Lands, Aden Sugow Assistant Minister of Public Works while Farah Maalim serves as a deputy Speaker. A Mr. Mohamud of Mandera also serves as an Assistant Minister.
Royal Somali comments on a Youtube video showing a brave, young Somali girl speaking out against generalizations about Muslims:
Somali young Girl talks at the Melbourne Speakers Forum about people generalizing about Muslims, the twin towers, and the concept of Jihad, the greater struggle with the "NAFS" or the SELF. Melbourne speakers Forums is just similar to speakers corner in Hyde Park London, Vancouver speaker's corner.
Native Female attends the wedding of fello belogger White African, she writes:
Highlight of the week was going to White African’s wedding party. It was beautiful…..mashaAllah. I enjoyed myself immensely and the bride looked gorgeous……mashaAllah. It was a chance for me to meet the gang. It has been a while since we were all under the same roof at the same time. Made some new friends. Picked up some new dance moves. And all this while looking hot (hey….I gotta stroke the ego….I need it lol)
East African Philosopher considers cities to study a semester in:
I have been thinking about spending a semester in Cairo, Egypt for a while now, not because I have romantic ideas about Egypt but rather it is a place that I can relate to a “little” bit in terms of culture and closeness to my native home. It also helps that I have friends and distant family members living there. Plus I’m learning Arabic and what place is better than that? Yes, Damascus is also an excellent choice too.
But back to Cairo. The other day I read this article in the New York TImes that talks about a recent scientific study of “noisiest” cities in the world and Cairo was the unparalleled champion of the noisiest city in the world at 85 decimals on an average day - that is, as the study suggests, a jackhammer at full power running 3 feet away from a human being from 7am to 10pm at night. Seriously. Yet this is only an “average” day. I wonder what an above average day sounds like in Cairo. Perhaps two jackhammers?
Somali poems have many forms, Shafi describes one form performed as part of wedding ceremonies called Gaaf (usually performed in the 7th day after the actual wedding):
Once the drumming starts and the Gaaf is initiated, silence fills the air. Every ear is tuned towards the person reciting the poetry or singing, in order to assess and judge the worth of his/her words. Addressing everyone present, the young girl starts the ceremony with these lines:
Hoobe hobaala hoobala hoobalow
Ee hoobe hobaala hoobalayey hadaba
Salaamu calaykum safiya iyo daahirow
Salaama calaykum safkan meesha joogayow
Salaama calaykum soomaaliyey dhamaan
Hoobe hobaala hoobala hoobalowEe hoobe hobaala hoobalayey hadaba
Peace be upon you O’ Safiya and Daahir
Peace be upon you O’ who have assembled here
Peace be upon you Somalis in your entirety
Send this by E-mail
Veronica Khokhlova5084 posts 
Oiwan Lam2752 posts 
Razan Ghazzawi7 posts 
May Hnin Phyu40 posts 
Deborah Ann Dilley181 posts 
Ayesha Saldanha146 posts 
Solana Larsen39 posts 
Sinisa Boljanovic23 posts 
Hyejin Kim182 posts 
Tharum Bun34 posts 
Ethan Zuckerman85 posts 
Filip Stojanovski8 posts 
The Muslim girl has a lot of guts….she was clearly not in a very welcoming crowd.
I think it should be pretty clear that a lot of the Western hatred that’s directed at religions, not just Islam, there is a lot directed at Christianity in Australia, for example. It should be pretty clear that a lot of it is clearly being done IN SPITE of the teachings of these religions.
To a lot of Westerners, Christianity is simply an uptight religion that is against homosexual people and fornication whereas anyone who has studied the bible knows that there are only 2 major commandments….to Love God and to Love your fellow man AS MUCH as you love yourself.
The same thing can be said of Islam (which I understand means “peace”). I think once and for all we should decide as a global community that we will not equate the actions of people who claim to do something in the name of a religion with the religion itself.
Almost all religions are centered around love…you don’t have to look too far to see that in the “War against terrorism” people are violating the principles of their alleged religion by slaughtering each other.
My two cents