Islam is the religion of cat lovers.
Five months and a South African adventure later Umm Lol Cats is back and she is here to stay. For starters I would like to dedicate the first post to Ruqaya of Bahrain who made all Muslim women proud by winning a Gold Medal in Beijing.
Of course here is the mandatory Korean picture. 🙂
P.S: That’s not me, its Han Ga In, a Korean Celebrity.
Is it just me or many Korean celebs like to dress exactly like their American counterparts? And I do mean exactly. You can see examples of these this phenomenon at Popseoul, here, here, here, here and so on and so fourth. I don’t know what to make of it. Is it just coincidence or they are actually copying their style? I don’t want to get all too philosophical with the pop industry but what does this phenomenon imply?
Yet another example of how technology can change our perception of reality. Meet JoA (I think they named her after BoA, a famous Korean singer) a digital actress. She even has an official biography according to which she was born on December 20, 1986, is 169cm tall and weighs 48kg. This makes me wonder if I can trust the digital media anymore. With the internet anyone can pretend to be anyone. Who knows who the person on the other side of the blog is. Here is my list of conspiracies:
May be Aafke is actually Chinese veterinarian living in the African Savannah? What if Lofter actually lives in Mexico city? Stinger is an Urdu Speaking Russian living in Taiwan? Shahrzaad is actually French? What if Baekho is a marine biologist studying whales near the coast of Chile? Darvish is James Bond.
People of the blogsphere, heed my advice. If you are from country A and decide to live in country B so that your kids grow up in country B and never went back to country A AND you also don’t teach your children about your culture AND also do not teach them much about YOUR language then don’t complain if they take country’s A language as their own. Its NOT their fault that they have to use English subtitles to watch a movie or a TV drama in their supposed mother tongue. Ok? got it? Are we all clear? Kapish? May Allah guide us all. Ameen.
Regarding the picture, I was looking for a picture of a furious looking Korean girl and Kim Seon-Ah here fits the bill. The poster is from the Korean Movie, “She’s on Duty.” Here is the synopsis of the movie from IMDB.
“The film deals with a boisterous undercover female cop who gets sent to an all-girl’s school in order to get close to a criminal in hideout by befriending his teenage daughter. The general set up and the fighting antics of the female cop play close resemblance to Stephen Chow’s classic Fight Back to School.”
Addition #1:
P.S: How do I know this? From experience of course!
Addition #2:
Since its not obvious to some people then let me be more clear substitute country A with Korea and substitute country B with the United States. Do you get it now people? Kapish?
That’s Jun Ji Hyun and actress Jung Ryu Won dressed in green Rudolph the Reindeer costumes. Speaking of animals, people usually associate animal rights with hippies but there are many people of faith (hippies and non-hippies) out there who are concerned about animal rights and draw inspiration from their faith. Many Muslims like UMM lol Cats (see I told you not all of us are hippies) are also included in this category. Here are some references to support our position in Islam. Thus the beloved prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) stated “If someone kills a sparrow for sport, the sparrow will cry out on the Day of Judgment, “O Lord! That person killed me in vain! He did not kill me for any useful purpose.” (Nisai). The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Whoever kills a sparrow or anything bigger than that without a just cause, Allah will hold him accountable on the Day of Judgment.” The listeners asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is a just cause?” He replied, “That he will kill it to eat, not simply to chop off its head and then throw it away.”
(Nisai, Hakim).
Here is Yun Eun Hye wearing a T-shirt in support of the environment. She started her career as a pop singer in the group Baby V.O.X. but later moved to acting which has proved to be more successful. Despite initial skepticism her role in the drama Princess Hour was able to win over her critics. So she is not just another pretty face. Speaking of environment, environmentalism is not something which people usually associate with Islam or with prophet Muhammad (pbuh) but there are ample examples from the life and saying of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that can bolster the claim for an Islamic idea of environmentalism. Consider the following sayings of prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
It makes me wonder, we do see the effects of urban sprawl run amok in many parts of the Muslim world and environmental degradation also. We should learn from the example of the prophet (pbuh).
Here is Ivy, a Korean singer. She has a nice voice but her debut was via the “sexy route.” The record company that launched her decided to promote her in this manner which is too bad. She was later able to reverse some of this image but her albums did not do that well so she again took the controversial route. If you get a chance, check out here songs. And you all pervs out there the whole video thing is just made up. :p Speaking of controversy, one of things that frequently comes up in the media is women in the Muslim world. To some extent Muslims are to be blamed e.g., according to Islamic law the possessions of a women after marriage do not get transferred to her husband and she has no obligation to spend money on her family. However the same does not apply to a Muslim man who is required to spend money on his wife and his family. In theory the wife can keep her money AND spend money from her husband. In reality this rule is not followed by a lot of Muslims but interesting ain’t it.
Still confused about the K-pop and Muslim remix?
(Image: Korean Pop Singer JJ)
Muslims are presented in the West in a rather one dimensional manner and to make matters worse some interpretations of Islam mainly originating from KSA also wants to paint Islam in a one dimensional manner but there is far from the truth and reality of Islam. In the mainstream media and even outside of the mainstream media Islam and Muslims are usually presented in a rather boring manner which paints the picture that Muslims are robots who just follow certain rules. Thus we have such absurdist pronouncements by the media like do Muslims have a sense of humor? This is such a stupid question that the stupidometer should go off the charts while measuring its stupidity, it implies that there are a billion people in the world who do not have a sense of humor. Its as if Islam is something genetic which renders people immune to jokes instead of it being a belief system. Now you may wonder, what is the link between Muslims and K-pop? K-pop refers to Korean popular music. It is also something which is not quite unknown in America. So I thought I may combine two of my interests – Muslims and K-pop. Some may find it strange, some may find it absurd, but this is my take on the Muslim world, the people, a guide through Korean pop. Hopefully it won’t be boring. And to my Muslim brothers reading this post, I ‘ll say “Lower your gaze.” 🙂
So anyway watch out for this space in the future — K-pop guide to Muslims. Don’t be too alarmed by the images, I like to remix stuff. :p
Umm LOLCats 
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