A Syrian woman reacts to a bombing in Aleppo in August 2016 that killed at least 15 civilians.
I've changed my profile picture on social media many times since terror came in horrific waves, drowning the world in sorrow over the last year. But I could only use the official Facebook profile filter to show solidarity for Paris since a filter wasn't available for Aleppo, Lahore, Istanbul, or many other attacks.
I am a Syrian Muslim living in Dubai; I lost my home in Damascus at the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011. It saddens me when I read on Facebook that someone on the other side of the world thinks that because of who I am and where I live, I'm used to bombs and terror and therefore not as worthy of sympathy. Maybe that's because the West is a place where war has been a foreign concept and red is the color of nothing but love. But let's be clear: the sound of bombs and bullets will never be something I become immune to.
"In the end, compassion shouldn't be measured by miles, doctrines, or economic relations."
I have also read comments on social media that suggest that since ISIS claims they are "Muslim," all Muslims are bad. ISIS is nothing but a group of assassins and they do not represent my culture. I believe most of these commenters fear us because they're different from us — they think we are less civilized, less educated, less free, or less human just because we have a different lifestyle or look different from them. But we are so similar. I like my cup of coffee as much as you do, I struggle to pay my bills and support my family every day, and I have dreams that I can't wait to recognize.
I will gladly tell you about the story of orange and lemon trees in our backyards and sing you my grandmother's song of patience that she taught us while bringing up bright generations of hard workers. My fellow humans forget that the vessel of life is our blood traveling through our veins and that we share this vessel that has the same color and bears the same message of life in all of us all around the world. Life is precious.
We Muslims do have extremists in our religion just like in any other religion or even any social or political idea with a large base of followers, but most of us just want to live peacefully and hopefully make some friends on the way. In the end, compassion shouldn't be measured by miles, doctrines, or economic relations. Compassion matters. Because when I know you're standing up for me, my sorrow becomes lighter, and I have hope for a more peaceful future.
Entertainment Weekly During the star-studded Ryan Murphy and Friends panel at EW’s PopFest Sunday, moderator Tim Stack quizzed Murphy about comments he made earlier this month about American Horror Story possibly revisiting its third season Coven, which famously followed witches in New Orleans and is arguably the series’ campy cult-favorite season. Stack asked if such a Coven return would be a prequel, sequel, or something entirely different. Turns out, it’s the latter, and Murphy already knows what that entails. “We do know what we’re going to do,” Murphy revealed to the crowd in Los Angeles. “It’s not going to be next season, but we are going to do a season that’s a crossover between Murder House and Coven together, which is very bizarre.” Naturally, the packed house cheered at the news (including Emma Roberts, who played Madison Montgomery on Coven and spoke about her desire to return to the show earlier in the panel). Then Murphy clarified his vision, saying, “There will be characters from Murder House and characters from Coven together.” Because of the planning, Murphy reiterated that it won’t be the show’s seventh season, simply out of scheduling, but really, the wait is a good thing if it means the return of Murder House alumni like Connie Britton, who has not returned to the series since, or Dylan McDermott, who disappeared after season 2, Asylum. “I’ve [already] started going to actors from both of the seasons, quietly, saying, ‘I think in this window, if you could fit us in,’” said Murphy. “So yeah, it’s fun. It’s weird.” Murder House premiered in October 2011 and followed the Harmons (Britton and McDermott) after they relocate from Boston to Los Angeles, hoping for a new lease on life for their family, only to discover that they’ve purchased a haunted mansion and are surrounded by suspicious neighbors. Coven, the third season of AHS, premiered in October 2013. The current season, Roanoke, is nearing the end of its 10-episode run; new episodes air on FX on Wednesdays at 10 pm.
Rae isn’t actually a huge Harry Potter fan, but friends who are noticed that Delores was the spitting image of the beloved house elf. Being half Scottish fold and half Sphynx, she has the perfect little folded ears.
“Friends of mine all suggested it, I have a lot of friends that are really into Harry Potter,” Rae told BuzzFeed Canada. “I looked at what a house elf was and I was like, yeah, she really does!”
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It’s uncanny, honestly. “She nailed it,” Rae told BuzzFeed Canada. “I’d like to take credit for it, but it was mostly her.”
Rae made the costume by cutting up on an old jacket and tying it to fit Delores. The whole thing took about an hour, but Delores was very patient about it.
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“She’s the most affectionate, sweetest little angel baby you’ve ever met in your whole life.”
This comic book author isn’t laughing. Chelsea Cain, the writer of Marvel’s recently canceled feminist comic series “Mockingbird,” deactivated her Twitter account midweek, after she said she received “thousands” of mean-spirited tweets celebrating the end of the series. The tweets attacked her personally, she explained in a blog post on Thursday, and celebrated the end of “Mockingbird.” “Mockingbird is canceled,” Cain had tweeted early last week. “But we need to make sure @Marvel makes room for more titles by women about women kicking ass.” She also tweeted out the cover of the last “Mockingbird” issue and encouraged followers to buy that issue and “send a message to @marvel that there’s room in comics for super her stories about grown-up women.” The cover features the superhero main character sporting a T-shirt that reads, “Ask me about my feminist agenda.”
Marvel
On the cover of the last issue of “Mockingbird,” the main character wears a T-shirt that reads, “Ask me about my feminist agenda.”
She’s used to a certain level of online abuse and understands that those who engage in such negativity comprise only 1 percent of comics readers, Cain said in her blog post. But after the cancellation news, the rush of hatred-spewing tweets came in far greater numbers. “The tweets that bothered me were never the ones concerned with content,” she wrote, “they were the ones that questioned my right to write comics at all, and were disgusted by the idea of a female hero having her own series.” She noted there had been a surge of such tweets this week: “Strangers, yelling at me because I wrote a comic book that they didn’t like, and because I was a woman.”
I did not leave Twitter because of rape threats or because someone had posted my address ... I left Twitter because of the ordinary daily abuse that I decided I didn’t want to live with anymore.Chelsea Cain
It kept getting worse: “I woke up to find that my Twitter feed had exploded. Comments were coming in, fast and furious, every second. I’d never seen anything like it.” Some messages were supportive, some were just “people yelling at one another,” and “a lot of them just seemed mad at women in general.” So, she wrote, “I deactivated my account. I got up. I walked my dogs.” In response, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso spoke out against the harassment and voiced his support for Cain, as did several other Marvel employees, according to company spokesman Joseph Taraborrelli. As for why Marvel canceled “Mockingbird,” Taraborrelli told HuffPost that the decision to continue or scrap a series is less about subject matter and more about numbers.
“If a series is not making money due to low sales,” he said, “then it’s cancelled.” Taraborrelli noted that Marvel has 22 other female-led series currently in production, including “Ms. Marvel,” “Jessica Jones” and “Black Widow.” (See a slideshow of some of the covers below).
Female-Led Comic Books From Marvel
Marvel
In the end, Cain wrote, “know that I did not leave Twitter because of rape threats or because someone had posted my address ... I left Twitter because of the ordinary daily abuse that I decided I didn’t want to live with anymore.” “That’s the power we have, right?” she added. “If a stranger yells at you on the street? You walk away.”
