Online Clinic Session 2: Crouching Brother, Hidden Stalker


Welcome back to the Online Clinic, where the patient complaints are fake and our doctors’ medical degrees are even faker. Muslim Medicine is proud to offer the second installment of our critically-disapproved HIPPA-violating public medical consultation!

“Solvitolol” writes:

Dr. O it’s a pleasure to seek advice from your website. I was wondering if you have come across any studies that describe “crouching brother, hidden stalker syndrome” among MSA members who rarely come to MSA events. I need to compile pertinent demographic information on that patient population. Kind regards.


Thank you for your submission, Solvitolol!

For generations, the age-old gender battle between hormonally-repressed stalker brothers and utterly creeped-out sisters has been waged from college campuses to Masjid common areas, and to this day you can usually find this war waged almost exclusively amongst our youth.

Little is known about elder uncles being MSA creepers, partially due to the fact that a 50 year old man who’s still in college and is peeking through the dividers in the university prayer room just cranks up the creepiness factor to haramarifically fitnatastic levels. Alhamdulillah, thankfully our MSAs don’t have to deal with that, though apparently to society’s dismay, sisters shockingly fantasize about these sort of things:



Yeah, no thanks. I’m not a girl, but at least I have enough standards to know that a sparkly vampire guy who needs to repeat high school 92 times clearly doesn’t rank very high on the intelligence scale.




Now then, “crouching brother, hidden stalker” is a secret ancient ninja art passed down from creeper master to creeper pupil for generations. How do I know so much about this secret art? Because shut up. I know what you’re implying with that question. I’m not a creep, don’t even try pinning that on me, this entire article is NOT from experience. Stop judging me with your cold, accusing eyes.




1 – Divider-peeking

I see yooouuuuu

Place any sort of object or barrier in front of a man’s field of vision, and he’ll naturally want to see what’s behind it. “Dividers” have been a classic defensive structure constructed by sisters in order to keep the overwhelming wave of testosterone and Axe body spray smells at bay.

So naturally, curiosity builds in the brothers, and imaginations run wild as to what exists in the other-world dimension of the “sisters section.” Are there possibly manicure and pedicure parlors, mini shopping malls, and a roller coaster in the 7-square-foot closet that we’ve allotted the sisters for their prayer section? There’s only one way to truly know, according to Captain Kirk- “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”


2 – Overly-Enthusiastic Volunteer




Brothers need help carrying a bunch of boxes? Meh, whatever. Sisters need help carrying a bunch of boxes? I’LL VOLUNTEER! Someone needs to bring a bunch of food trays to the sisters side during an event? I’LL VOLUNTEER! A sister needs a bit of assistance finding a hijab pin she dropped? I’LL VOLUNTEER! A brother needs a bit of assistance finding a hijab pin he dropped? I’LL VOL- wait. What?


3 – Proxy Creeping

women only

Unlike the other two styles of creeping, this is the sneakiest and most subtle form of stalking because the brother doesn’t do any of his own “creeping.” That’s where the proxy comes in- his own big and/or little sisters who also attend college are perfect for being spies, due to their possession of a magical second X chromosome.

The creeper brother essentially relies on his own sister to venture into “no mans land” and report back to him on her reconnaissance mission. What girl would cast suspicion on her own fellow sisterhood of the traveling hijab? Stand back CNN and Al-Jazeera, you guys are amateurs compared to how extensive the news network is amongst sisters. And that’s what makes this technique so dangerous- giving a brother access to that network via a proxy router sister could be disastrous.

Or so you’d think. The greatest opponents to creeper guys are their own sisters, who are able to give them a mahrem-powered slap of reality. Creeping requires subtlety and espionage, and creeper bros often discover that it’s easier trying to convince Nicki Minaj to not look like a kids’ party clown than it is getting their own sister to be complicit in their stalking.




There really isn’t much subtlety to Facebook creeping, since everyone’s personal info is right there- literally anything and everything, ranging from birthdays and hometowns to terribly instagram’d pictures of what you ate this morning. Stalking has become so easy that all it really takes is just a few clicks and perhaps even a twitter search for more thorough creepers.

Limited profiles are such a bore for most creepers- it’s like slapping a niqab on your profile, so the only thing people are able to see is that you’re a human being who’s alive. But public profiles? That’s like a creeper’s lucky day! Four albums of 300 photos each? Well now, it’d be a shame to let all those pictures go unappreciated!



Yeah yeah, I know I know- this article seems a bit too gender biased. What about creeper sisters? Don’t they exist too? You better believe it, and unlike guys, creeper sisters put the FBI to shame with how effectively they’re able to gather information on their targets.

Beware fellow brothers- most of you are probably being stalked at this very moment, but your creepers are so masterfully elusive that you probably won’t ever realize it, nor be able to discover who it is. Or it could be entirely possible that you’re just a lonely loser, and there’s no one who wants to stalk you, but the idea is kinda flattering. If you feel that might be the case, then I feel bad for you. You deserve a bro-hug and a double-cheeseburger as consolation.

I feel you bro

Ultimately, whether you’re a brother or a sister, practicing the art of a hidden stalker is just creepy and off-putting. Islamically, the privacy of your fellow believers are paramount, and loving for your brother what you love for yourself is a lesson that rings true once again. If you’d personally feel uncomfortable with some stranger gawking at you in public or at your profile pictures online, then don’t justify committing those same invasions of personal space and privacy yourself.

If you think creeping will score you marriage points, then I’d say you’re sadly mistaken- showing respect and reverence for the honor of others is a virtue far more attractive than memorizing all of the status updates someone makes over the course of a month.