Haji 2003

Lots of bad language and people get wounded and die etc. This falls into the same sub-genre of war movies where you have a small band of Americans killing a quadzillion Muslims. Other films that come to mind from the same genre are '13 hours' (set in Libya) and 'Black Hawk Down' (Somalia). However. [Plot spoiler] Unlike the others, in this one the Americans do have to evacuate - so there is that. There's a Russian movie I reviewed here some years ago about them meeting the same fate at the hands of the Afghans. And Kajaki deals with British soldiers fighting Afghans (a

If you think back to childhood you went places (like school) did things like play/study and you met people, some of whom became friends. You just need to repeat the process as an adult. Go places, do things and some of the people you meet there will become friends.

Nowadays it's no longer a matter of finding them (very easy), look at duas.org. Finding nice compilations with good recitations etc. is a bit harder. There's a collection here of Al-Sahifa Al-Sajjadiyya by Imam Ali ibn Al-Husayn (Zayn Al-Abidin) (عليه السلام). So not a full corpus of Shia duas, but an important group done well.

anti vaxxing - the gift that keeps giving:

p.s. BLM=Bureau for Land Management

Canada: Four members of a Muslim family were killed and a child was injured Sunday evening in a "premeditated" attack by a man driving a pickup in southern Ontario, local police said Monday #AFP

Not terrorists.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/7/irans-muslim-scholar-who-helped-found-hezbollah-dies-of-covid-19?sf145278181=1. إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

We're inching our way there. Global corporations can take advantage of tax rates being set by countries independently of each other. The only response that countries have and effectively the people living in them have, is to collude in taxation. Otherwise the rich and powerful will take advantage of them. We've seen the same issues around a global response to climate change. https://www.ft.com/content/a308bbff-5926-47a1-9202-6263e667511e

Bill Bryson wrote up an account of his drive on Route 66, I think. Yes you can do the following in 4-5 days. You could take a flight to Tashkent, and then a local flight to Khiva. From there you drive back to Tashkent (with a driver) and you go through Bukhara and Samarkand. History all the way. Cheap food, halal and pretty well maintained sights. It's an authoritarian police state so very safe. [EDIT]: direct return fares from JFK are US$1500, so a bit pricey, but hotels etc are cheap. [EDIT2]: you can take a private hire minibus from Bukhara down to Merv in