Who are your Muslim heroes? (virtual, creation, attending, America)

[Djamila]

MUSLIM HEROES

In this thread, please share one of those people who inspires you, and who has had a significant impact on another person, or millions of others.

I want to use my first post in this thread to honor Fatima Orlovic.

I'm certain I've shared her story before, so I'll summarize her story and share instead why I consider her to be a Muslim hero.

Fatima Orlovic's village was conquered by Serbian soldiers during the genocide. If you can imagine what it's like to one day wake up and see that virtually everyone you've ever known has been killed, then you can imagine what it's like to be Fatima Orlovic. Her brothers and sisters, her husband, her children, her grocer, her baker, her dentist, her neighbors, her gas station attendant, her electrician - all executed because they were Muslim.

Fatima, though, managed to survive. When the war had finished, she returned to her village - now populated entirely by Orthodox Christian Serbs. Where her home once stood, they had constructed an Orthodox Church with a plaque that explained her village was now a gift to the great Serbian people. Fatima didn't see it that way.

A decade later, in 2006, the Church still stands and Fatima is still embroiled in a lengthy court battle to get it destroyed, and her land returned to her. She's dealt with threats, violence, everything you can possibly imagine - but she still keeps fighting on and will fight until that Church is gone, or she is.

And that's why I consider her to be a hero. So many of our communities were destroyed. So many of our mosques literally (not metaphorically) turned into public landfills, toilets... so many of the places where thousands of our people were slaughtered blessed with brand new Orthodox Churches to commemorate their "victory"... I just can't help but look at one brave, old woman fighting one single, illegal Church and feel proud.

[robtex]

interesting. need to google her.

[Djamila]

Another of my Muslim heroes was recently presented with the 2007 Person of the Yearand 2007 Woman of the Year awards of my country.

Her name is Jasmila Zbanic and she's a film director. Her latest film, Grbavica (a district in Sarajevo), is about a Muslim woman raped during the war. The daughter that resulted from this rape, just as the thousands of other Bosnian children born of rape, doesn't know the real story behind her creation.

Her mother tells her that her father was a Bosnian Muslim soldier, killed on the front lines defending Sarajevo from the Serbs. This lie holds together for years until the school the girl is attending offers a trip, one the mother cannot afford to send the daughter on. However, there's a discount for the children of martyrs so the girl asks her mother for the papers to prove it, so she can go.

The lie unravels in a film that will probably be Bosnia's second Oscar winner - a film that has already won dozens of the top awards from film festivals around the world, including the Golden Bear or the Berlinale.

This film has opened up a public discussion about this in Bosnia that did not exist before. These raped women were not outcasted, our Islamic clerics declared them heroes to the same extent of any male soldier, but many were still ashamed and worried for their children.

The social consequences of the systematic rape of Muslim women during the war, which - for the first time - resulted in rape being declared a war crime in international law - were severe. The documentary "Children of War" offers some insight when a mother, who refuses to be identified, is talking, and says:

"It's hard. Sometimes she makes a face or something and she looks like him. Then I want to kill her. But I don't. I just go have a smoke or something, and the feeling passes."

The film has made it okay to talk about these things, which is very important.

When she was presented with the awards for Person and Woman of the Year, she said:

“These awards, unlike the “Golden Bear”, which was awarded for the film, are awards for human engagement and they mean a great deal to me, although I always stress that there are many people that deserved this before me, although they are not very much exposed in the media and are not well known”, Jasmila Zbanic said.

She also announced the upcoming American premiere of “Grbavica” and distribution in eight U.S. cities.

[robtex]

Mila do you have any links we could follow for the posts you are making?

[Djamila]

Sure, RobTex.

Here's a synopsis for the film "Grbavica" by Jasmila Zbanic:
http://www.coop99.at/grbavica_website/film_en.htm

An article about the response to the film in Bosnia:
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setime...0/reportage-01

And about Fatima Orlovic, here is an article about one incident during her fight:
http://iwpr.net/?p=bcr&s=f&o=155696&...te=henibcr2004

[Hema]

Inshan Ishmael from my country - Trinidad. He inspired most of the businesses in my country to shut down on Thursday and Friday last week to protest the escalating crime situation in the country. (Jan. 25th & 26th.) He is the head of the Islamic Broadcasting Network (IBN).

Some (not all) of the police officers treated him in a disgusting manner. When they first came to arrest him, it was the day before the shutdown. He was taken away in a manner which made the people around him think that he was being kidnapped. A ridiculous, stupid charge was laid against him and definitely did not warrant him being taken away like that. There was an abuse of power and efforts to intimidate him. He was scheduled to hold a rally on the Saturday afterwards at a large savannah and his booking was revoked because of an "error in scheduling". I don't know if they think people in Trinidad were born yesterday. His rally was held at the Hindu Credit Union Convention Centre free of charge. Now that's unity.

Inshan Ishmael's rally was a resounding success. The shutdown was widely supported. He took a brave stance for the people of my country.

There is more info on his story at:
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,51336.html



Inshan, you go boy!

[Djamila]

Very nice, Hema! Thanks for sharing. I'm especially happy to see where the get-together was eventually held. I love when people get along.

At the end of the article about Fatima Orlovic that I posted for robtex, the linked article, there are quotes from two Bosnian Serbs and one Bosnian Muslim that make me really hopeful too:

The radio cited one local Serb, Koviljka Petrovic, saying the church should not have been built there in the first place. “This is someone else’s land,” Petrovic told the radio. “That is Fata’s land.”

Ranka Madzarevic-Petkovic, another Serb, who lost her husband in the 1992-5 war, agreed. “My Muslim neighbours are wonderful to me,” she told the radio. “We must build a new life, and at least live next to each other.”

Ranka’s neighbor, Fatima Mehmedagic, a Bosniak who lost three sons in the war, said, “Reconciliation would be much easier if everybody was like me and Ranka. We take care of each other. Serbian neighbours cultivate my piece of land - we get along.”

That kind of thing makes me very happy, and proud. Like your story!

[EiNsTeiN]

Im sorry to say, that in our countries, good muslim models are very rare
that I dont really have a hero in my head right now..
But my muslim hero for all times is Khaled Ibn El Walid, the famous military leader
And another one is Omar Ibn El Khatab as well...

And Im very sorry for not seeing many in our countries as good muslims (I dont want too to be a negative person!)

[YmirGF]

My Muslim "heroes" constitute a rather short list.

At the top of the list is Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, known to many in the "west" as simply Rumi. He was a magnificent poet regardless of what yardsticks are applied.
People can read about him here on the mighty Wicki: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Second on the list is a staggering fellow known as Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi or simply Hafez or Hafiz. The Wicki article on him is pretty good too:
Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi

[EiNsTeiN]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

My Muslim "heroes" constitute a rather short list.

At the top of the list is Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, known to many in the "west" as simply Rumi. He was a magnificent poet regardless of what yardsticks are applied.
People can read about him here on the mighty Wicki: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Second on the list is a staggering fellow known as Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi or simply Hafez or Hafiz. The Wicki article on him is pretty good too:
Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi

Seems you are interested in Suffism...
Can you send me more about these two heros, I want to know them better,and I couldnt find references to them in Arabic