consumer crusades

There is something sinister about fairs. And I don’t mean the usual run of the mill fun fair chocfull of creepy clowns and crying kids – I mean Muslim fairs. And we wont mention names, but the one held this weekend had its fair share of weirdness and seemed to bring out the daredevil shopper in each visitor and summoned up the youth in some old women who elbowed their way to the bargains. The same fair the night before though, was calm and void of all signs that it would bring about the consumer crusade it did the next day, when all items gleamed in the daylight and people could see where they were going, spotting bargains a mile away and rushing through the crowd in some manouevres only rugby players would be proud of. And then you get the shielded warriors, the pardah aunties who will use their anonymity as a way to push through – not forgetting those using prams as weapons to block your path t the bargain you’ve spotted three miles away and threaten all hopes of ever reaching the destination. Yesterday was no exception, when MissQ was trying on a cloak and this old lady pushed past and said, ‘you taking that?’ and I was like,er..i don’t know yet,’ looking at the lady who obviously would not fit all parts of her into it at the same time. And I did take it, which brought out the savage in her and she gruntled away. And then azaan went and I spotted my bargain while all these ladies stopped to out their scarves on, I struck! And found the cutest cloak. Since it was the last day of the fair and the plummeting prices threatened to unleash a new onset of shopping euphoria and a good dose of rage, I left before it could escalate. But it just makes me wonder – for all the Muslimness we try to exhibit to non-Muslims and the holier than thou attitudes we wear around like coats of armour, when we’re all together this seems to give way to another dimension (which squishes people). Really though. How odd is it to see people dressed all holy and peaceful looking and there they go, pummeling into the crowd reminiscent of the some angry warthogs. And yes, we do think we’re better than others – I don’t know when or why we started thinking that way, but maybe it’s the whole money thing. And we think we have a right to act these ways when we think nobody’s looking. And it’s more than pushing people around at fairs…its deeper, it’s about morals and pushing your way through life. And often if there’s a Muslim pharmacist or doctor consulting with patients, a Muslim patient that came last will cut through and use Salaam as a way of saying. ‘Hey, im your sister/brother and we’re connected through this religion so serve me first.’ Don’t get me wrong…im not embarrassed to be Muslim, neither am I saying that everyone is like this. All im saying is that somewhere, we lost the plot.