Us Shia people are in the news a lot lately. What with the groups and countries that are directly resisting Israel outside of Palestine being Shia, and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City being Shia as well. And since it's the start of the Islamic Month of Muharram, which is an incredibly important time for us. It's a good time to talk about what that means.
The three month countdown to the book launch officially began two days ago and I wish I had more in the hours in the day to do the novel justice in my marketing efforts. Still it is what it is and Alhamdulillah there is so much that I was able to do in this month.
So here we are less than four months away from the launch of my book and I'm five days late in making my monthly post.
It's kind of reflective of where I find myself. It's been a very busy month for me personally but my book marketing has suffered as a result.
So instead of giving an overview of how my month went as I usually do I want to talk about why I think I haven't been focusing on getting the word out about "Under the Full and Crescent Moon".
On the 21st of May 2025, two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were gunned down in what seems to be a premediated attack in Washington D.C, the capital of the United States of America. The two were not armed, they were not combatants.
It should go without saying that causing any injury to non-combatants is horrific and an act worthy of condemnation.
There are three takeaways here though, that if not realized and acted upon will keep the situation of the world degrading further and further.
The problem is that it's European.
People who say that it's the Jewish side of Israel that is causing it to be a murderous ethno-supremacist genocidal apartheid state are being anti-Semitic. All of that comes from the European part of Israel's nature.
In my end of March blog post I stated that I wanted this month to be far more focused on marketing my book.
That mostly did not work as expected. But still I was able to get stuff done and it has been an eventful month.
If you do not wish to read further then the TL;DR is:
Summary: This is a collection of short form poetry and prose by one of the many shining lights of Palestinian literature, Refaat Alareer. It feels like both a journal and journalism as it describes the reality of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation and oppression.
My conclusion: This book proves one thing more than anything else. Israel is built on myths that shatter on contact with Palestinian reality. Refaat Alareer's words, demonstrate that reality with stunning clarity and is necessary reading.
This review has been posted on other platforms with code words to avoid suppression. The version here does not.
Ramadan started a week after my last monthly post, please accept my belated congratulations for all those who celebrate the blessed month. And since Eid will be in a week from now please accept an early Eid Mubarak!
Ramadan has gone well this year, not only did all denominations start Ramadan on the same day, which is rare, but it also coincided with the month of March. This has made tracking the days of the month incredibly easy. It has also not been a particularly hard three weeks as this year the month has fallen between the long and thirsty days of summer and the shorter and far more pleasant winter fasts.
That last sentence of the paragraph is the second sentence from my novel, only slightly re-written. Think of it as a little preview six months out from launch!
I took a bit of an unplanned break from social media since I made my cover reveal and preorder opening posts. Life has been happening pretty fast and there were a few family things to take care of. I've learned from Palestinians to say Alhamdullilah for it all and get back to it. I'm blessed to be able to rest for a bit but I do not want to let it lead to stasis or despondency.
So what I want to do here is to write out my ideas as 'scripts' for the short videos that I want to make. That way I'll get my thoughts out of my head and onto paper and it might make for interesting blog content as well. It'll definitely shed some light on how I approach social media posting. More after the click.
The deathly silence that surrounds the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people has been to a significant degree dented since the 7th of October 2023, but, here in January 2025, more than fifteen months in, it has proven to be still resilient.
If we are fortunate enough to have a future in which honest histories get to be written, there will be volumes written about all of the reasons that the people of conscience in the West were not able to voice their condemnation of the genocide happening in the name of their values and with their tax dollars, let alone organize against it.
So there's way more than three reasons for the silence, but I feel the need to express my thoughts on why I feel so lonely when I'm wearing a kuffiyeh out in public in Canada and why the topic is so repelling to so many. I have three.