(Photo: Flickr/JMC Photos)

As university students, we tend to be unfailingly overwhelmed with homework and studying which may cause us to spend our precious so-called “sleeping-hours” awake, cooped up in study lounges, pulling “all-nighters” at the library or at a friend’s place.

While I fully encourage and support our sisterly bonding times and animorphing oneself into a studying beast until us and our books are one, and we become Jedi masters of say Physics 6C, I strongly urge everyone to be safe when walking home at night.

There is a re-occurring sentiment that has been passing through the sisters’ community: that sisters can and should walk home alone.

The most common mindset related to this can be expressed in a proud/defensive manner like, “I can walk home alone. I don’t need protection. I always do this. Nothing has happened to me. If someone attacks me, they will be the one in pain. You don’t think I’m strong? Feel my guns!” which tends to be followed by exuberant flexing of one’s biceps.

Sisters, I do not doubt your strength. I fully believe you have the ability to S.I.N.G.,  But it is the unpredictable night that worries me. Most have heard countless stories of women being attacked for reasons that range from sexual assault to hate crimes.

According to the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault, “At least 1 in 4 college women will be the victims of a sexual assault during her academic career”.

Assault, whether it be sexual or otherwise does not happen on the victim’s terms. Though you may have walked home safely plenty of times, it will only take one harsh experience to bring the reality of this risky act into existence. Why not take the easy and necessary steps towards prevention instead?

We have a responsibility towards those who may look up to us and those who value our opinions. Do not make the mistake of walking home alone or refusing to wait for a walking partner or ride. You have an influence on those around you that you may not be fully aware of.

Walking in pairs is not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, the fact that you utilize the buddy system for walking home at night should be seen as a respectable and commendable act. Offer to walk with your fellow sisters, and ask others to walk with you.

If there are no sisters around, ask a brother to walk you home. It is a blessing to be in a community whose members welcome helping/looking out for each other.

When you find yourself wanting to return home on foot with no one around to walk with you, you have the following options:

• Use the Evening Van Service, which runs from 6pm-11pm Monday-Thursday. (310) 825-9800.
• Use the Evening Walking Escorts. 15 minutes before you need to leave, call (310) 794-WALK.
• Call your roommates and have them walk together to walk you home. I know this sounds a bit extravagant, but I’m sure they love you and would be more than willing to sacrifice a brisk walk for the safety of their sister.
• Call me. I will come with another sister to where you are. If I am not available, it will not be difficult for me to find a couple sisters who will gladly come to your side.

UCLA also recommends the following crime preventative measures:

• Stay in well-lit, well-populated areas. Take the safest route, not the fastest route.
• Be aware of your environment. Don’t be afraid to look over your shoulders. It’s not rude to maintain a safe distance between yourself and others.
• Avoid blind corners. Take wide turns so that you have room to react to what’s ahead.
• Carry your keys in your hands. They may be used as a weapon if necessary.
• Do not fall asleep in isolated areas or if there are unknown persons in the room with you.
• When running alone, do not wear earphones, as this eliminates hearing as a defense mechanism. Try to run with a friend in the evenings, or have them watch you as you run. Keep your keys in your hand while running to use as a  weapon.
• Advise someone of your whereabouts and how long you expect to be out. Inform that person if you end up staying longer than expected. (A text message will suffice; do not post your whereabouts on social networking sites).
• Learn to use and carry mace or pepper spray. Take a self-defense workshop.

For more information about these services, visit this site.

Take these safety precautions seriously, if not for yourself, then for those around you whom you love and whom you have an influence upon.  Support safe-walking habits.

“The believers, both men and women, are awlia (helpers, supporters, allies) to each other.” (Al-Tawbah, 71)

We asked students where they love studying the most. Here are 10 study spots (in no particular order) around the UCLA campus you should check out.  (A map is included at the end.)

Book stacks at the Young Research Library (Photo: Flickr/AlaskanLibrarian).

1. Young Research Library

The newly renovated first floor study lounge has a modern look that students will appreciate. In case you start feeling too cozy while studying, there’s also a cafe on the first floor.

2. Engineering Library

“They have that calm, cozy, and silent-stormy mood and atmosphere,” says  one student. The library is less packed during study season, as not many people know about it.

3. Powell Library

The library is beautiful inside and out. Some say it’s easy to focus here. But this is one of the first places people hit up to study. So during midterms and final seasons, try to exhaust your other options before looking for space here!

4. Kerckhoff Study Lounge

The study lounge can be found on the 2nd and 3rd floors of Kerckhoff, an ideal place for MSA-ers to study if they want to stay close to the Mozlums. It’s also one of the few study spots close to the prayer area behind Kerckhoff.

5. SAC (Student Activity Center) Basement

Good place to study during finals week as they have study hall hours until 3 a.m. They also have their own Vanpool service to drop students off at their dorm or apartment (available only if you study there for at least 1 hour).

6. Lawn next to Janss steps

If you need some fresh air or Vitamin D, you can study in the lawn next to Janss steps. Plus, the view is fantastic!

7. Botanical Garden

A view you will see at the Botanical Garden at UCLA. Can you spot the sunbathing turtles? (Photo: Flickr/cindylu)

The Botanical Garden is a beautiful place every student must visit before graduating (the garden even holds some very rare species). It’s open to public during certain hours, students are free to study there. My personal favorite spot is the “tropical” section. If you are close enough to the water you might spot a few turtles!

8. Kerckhoff Patio

It’s out in the open, you get fresh air (and still remain relatively close to your second home, the MSA office). It’s also right next to the Kerckhoff Coffee shop. Go here only if you are not easily distracted.

9. Starbucks in Westwood

If you are sick of studying on campus, there are plenty of cafes in Westwood (many of them come with free wifi). One student’s favorite is the Starbucks.

10. “Cafe Med” at Center for Health and Sciences

View Study Spots on Campus in a larger map

These three declarations –rather, these three absolutes– popped into my head one after the other during my first juvenile detention site visit through the Incarcerated Youth Tutorial Program (IYTP).

SubhanAllah

The drive up to Camp Fred Miller is a long, slow uphill trudge. You wind through the hills of Malibu, going higher and higher until the neighborhoods below you look like plots of land and grass nestled in the mouth of one giant valley. When you get to Camp Miller and step out of the car, you notice two things.

One: it’s very cold and it’s barely 5:00 pm. Two: the high barb-wire fences; the old, military-style intercom and the uniforms–the guards, the parole officers, the students.

Everyone is in uniform, 1,800 feet in the air, at a chilly 40ºF and miles away from the nearest cul-de-sac, the nearest movie theater, the nearest restaurant, the nearest street light. Miles away from anything fun, or happy, or even normal.

At this point, you try to imagine yourself in their shoes, but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t. At this point, you have merely been introduced to their plight, you’ve only barely become acquainted with their circumstance. Glory be to Allah.

Alhamdulilah

When you first see the students, many of the truths you were once told about the inherent injustices of our government’s socio-economic tendencies and educational policies finally materialize, and any of the skepticism you once held against this fact vanish.

You witness for yourself the failure of the education system, the intricate racism of the institutional society we live in. You see the Black and the Brown, but not the White. The only white you see is the Porsche in the Warden’s parking spot. Then you sit down to begin your session.

You meet your student and start working on his trig, but then you hit a wall. We all believe firmly in our hearts and minds that we should be grateful for all that we have, but what about all that we know? When was the last time we felt grateful for knowing what a ‘ratio’ was, for what a ‘radius’ is? When was the last time we thanked Allah for knowing how to add and subtract, multiply and divide, because some of these kids sure wish they could.

How blessed are we to know these things and to have had the opportunity to learn and grasp these simple concepts? We are very blessed, but many of us are completely oblivious to this blessing of ‘knowing’ because we really truly take it for granted. All praise is due to Allah.

Allahuakbar

You sit down with your student with the intention of getting through 2 or 3 sections, but by the time you must get up to leave you’ve only gone through 2 or 3 problems. You think to yourself: Is it really that hard for him to solve that question, to even understand what it’s asking?

The answer is yes. It really is that hard for these students to evaluate problems we would find very easy. As you walk out and return to the van, you notice all the inmates are gone. It’s nearly 7:00 pm and they’ve been herded back into their dorms–it’s almost their bedtime.

One more time you try to envision yourself in their shoes, and again, you fail to. You wonder why they’re in the situation they’re in. You ponder why you’re in the situation you’re in. You think about the freedom Allah has given you to control your life (to some extent) and fix your own schedule. You think about the knowledge Allah has gifted you, even if it’s as small and simple as knowing what a diameter is.

And you think about the greatest favor Allah ever gave you: guiding you to Islam, and how that guidance kept you out of incarceration camps as this. Allah is the Greatest.

(Featured image credit: C.M. Gonzales)

Part 1: “Non-Violent Movement”

Part 2: “Revolutionary Ideas”

Part 3: “Tangible Demands”

Part 4: “Direct Action”

Part 5 & 6: “Bruins in Tents”

Part 7: “The State of Our Education”

(Photo: Filckr/decade_null)

The American incarceration system has made it a point to imprison people, bar them from outside contact, isolate them from society and bunch them together to have “tea-parties”. Meanwhile, they fail to provide them with proper rehabilitation programs and a safe environment to foster development and change.

Put simply: this system just does not work.

How effective can prison be if its only purpose is to house criminals for the duration of their sentence and after their sentence is complete, release them back into society? Not very effective at all.

The fact that up to 60% of inmates are rearrested within 3 years of release only attests to the flaw in the incarceration system. Prisons need to be places that encourage and facilitate change and development within each inmate on a personal level.

Their primary purpose should be to provide inmates with rehabilitation programs, counseling services, educational forums, and real-world mentoring.

Their secondary purpose is to be the medium for criminals to serve their sentences. What happens if the incarceration system continues to fail to invest in inmate refinement? Well, the average cost to house a single adult inmate is nearly $50,000 a year. With nearly a quarter-million inmates (217,000 to be exact) of which over 80% serve more than 5 years, 70% serve more than 10 years, and 40% more than 15. You do the math.

And don’t forget that there’s a 67% chance they’ll go right back in. This system hurts everyone, taxpayers pay from their pockets while inmates pay with their lives.

How do you try to tackle this problem? Changing the system entirely will quite literally take a national revolution. The corporate grip on the government will not loosen easily, there’s just too much money to be made.

But there is another way.

We can target the at-risk youth who would otherwise grow up to become the adult inmates that fall into the hole of cyclic incarceration. We can provide them with the services, skills, and environment they need to develop and mature into productive people will prevent them from filling up prisons and becoming a burden not only upon society, but also upon themselves.

***

(Flickr/ EU Social)

Al-Talib interviews Kelsey Paxton, a second year Psychobiology major at UCLA, about her experience living in post 9/11 America. Although she is not Muslim, she feels the need to defend Muslims and encourages others to be more accepting and understanding towards people of all faiths and backgrounds.

A-T: Did you feel the effects of 9/11 right away?

Paxton: At first, no. I was shocked, I didn’t believe it was happening. As I watched, and we saw the street view of the people crying, I felt the effect. I have a family of people who served in the military, served the country working as police officers and firefighters. My father was in the military so my family is very prideful for this country. We have this love for the country, even though it has things that it needs to work on. It was very disheartening because not only was this happening to your country all of a sudden, these are your fellow American citizens, even though you may not know them, you automatically feel sad for them.

A-T: Did you start seeing changes in your environment?

Paxton: I did. People are more kind where I come from compared to Los Angeles. Everyone was even more kind to each other, trying to help people. The community came together and tried to help people. We put care packages together for the firefighters. We saw more patriotism in my town, flags, people wearing American colors. It united my community.

A-T: You’re not Muslim?

Paxton: No, I’m not.

A-T: So when did you learn the attackers were Muslim and how did you react to that?

Paxton: I actually found out that same day because my dad likes to analyze everything. I asked him who did it, and he said it was a terrorist group, and they’re Muslims. You saw people throughout my community talk about Muslims like they were bad people. My parents raised me to always defend myself and others who can’t defend themselves. So I said,” just because this person is Muslim doesn’t mean you should talk about them”. I would go home to my mom and my dad, and although I was young, I wasn’t super young, and I would say to them, “People are saying that all Muslims are part of this terrorist group.” I remember my parents sitting down and they said that it’s not true, because it’s like saying that all white people are a certain kind of way.

My dad said, “These particular Muslims are radical, they’re terrorists. Not every Muslim in this country is like that. So you need not to judge people when you first look at them, because you don’t know.” My parents told me that at times when people go into airports and see Muslims, they may get frightened or scared, because they don’t know and terrorist attacks are happening through the airport system. They said it’s only natural but you can’t turn around to that person who is Muslim, or someone who looks of Middle Eastern decent and accuse them of being a terrorist. Just like you can’t accuse someone who looks like you of being a Nazi.

A-T: What do you look like Kelsey?

Paxton: Blond hair, blue eyed, white person. And so, I really took that to heart. My parents raised my to be open minded and understanding towards others of different religions and cultures. They always taught me, you don’t judge other people. That’s not your place, that’s God’s place.

I wasn’t afraid of Muslim people, I always felt bad for them. Even if people wouldn’t outright call them terrorists, they would still make derogatory jokes about them. Some people would say they didn’t really care if they made those jokes, but you could see that others really took it to heart.

I actually have a close friend who’s from the Middle East. She would be upset a lot of the time because she would say, “Just because you’re from there doesn’t mean that you’re automatically a terrorist.”

Many are kept to this one-minded track and I always try to talk to people about it. I say, “Look. what if I came up to you and said, ‘Because you’re Mexican you must mow my lawn.’ You would not like that, would you? So why are you saying that about people who are Muslim?” I always try to play Devil’s advocate and make people look at things in different ways.

Photo: Flickr/ buddawiggi

The taxi driver looked at me in a panicked state and exclaimed, “Quran! Quran!” Frantically attempting to communicate with me in Arabic, he hoped that we would at least understand each other through a commonality of faith. I nodded in agreement and felt a sense of relief.

Although we were worlds apart due to our language barrier, it all disseminated at the sound of the Quranic recitation. Thankfully, I found a hotel.

My Casablancan experience wouldn’t begin until two days later, after spending the entire time between the bed and the bathroom. Once I was back on my feet, I met up with a friend, Oussama, who was suggested to me by Aya, a friend I met in Spain. Oussama eagerly awaited to be a sort of Moroccan tour guide for me.

We began our journey by walking through the maze of the souks, or Moroccan bazaar, which usually signify the existence of a medina, or old city. As Moroccans proclaim, the souks are easy to get into, but very difficult to get out from due to the winding ins and outs of the paths.

I must admit, I had to put aside my American “I’m-an-independent-woman” attitude when following behind him through the souk. I also had to put it aside when I relied on Oussama to translate my bargaining skills while shopping for some Moroccan jillaba, or long dress. Somehow, the bargaining was lost in translation and I paid higher than I felt I should have.

Amelia Noor supplicates in front of the Hassan II mosque.

Compared to Fez, the weather in Casablanca was very pleasant. I felt the oceanic breeze coming in from the Atlantic which was just meters away. Oussama and I ventured to the Hassan II mosque the next day. We decided to walk three kilometers from my hotel to the mosque, which allowed me to observe Moroccans. In the hour long walk it took to reach the mosque, we witnessed a car accident and dusty winds. The minaret of the mosque was visible for at least half of our walk, signifying its grandeur.

I walked around the courtyard of the mosque, imagining how it could hold 150,000 worshipers at once, since it is the third largest mosque in the world. The tile work on the walls of the mosque were intricately connected by a turquoise-green color that dominated the palette vividly. It seemed that the mosque was only one color from this view. The smell of fish from the ocean and the sound of raging waves literally embraced the perimeter of the mosque.

Outside the courtyard, I was hopping off of large stones that were placed to form a man-made beach near the mosque. I sat on one of the stones and watched as some youth in swim shorts dived from the courtyard of the mosque, now a make-shift diving board, into the Atlantic.