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Today, all thoughtful men are disgusted both with materialism as well as religion (madhhab), for neither of these offers a way out of humanity's present predicaments. The only solution is through the deen that is expounded in the following pages. -- Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez | |
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Introduction: Islam - A Challenge to Religion by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez
The first few chapters of this work comprise a historical discussion of the concepts of God and religion. It should not be taken for a, discussion of deen; nor is it an attempt to compare Islam with other religions and establish its superiority over them. From the observations made earlier in this Introduction, it should be clear that a comparison between Islam and the existing religions is out of question. Islam is a deen, or a way of life, which can be compared only with another way of life, and not with any religion, for religion as such, has nothing at all to do with the problems of human life on earth. This explains why the Qur'an does not present Islam as a rival to any religions. On the other hand, it asserts that this deen (system of life) shall ultimately prevail over all the man-made systems (9: 33). I would, therefore, entreat you, kind reader, not to treat this work as a book of religion; it should be studied only from one point of view and that is: whether or not the way of life that it expounds offers a solution to the grave difficulties and problems with which mankind is faced at present.
The future belongs to Islam
| Write-ups like these feed Western Islamophobia Sept. 11, 2001, was not "the day everything changed," but the day that revealed how much had already changed. On Sept. 10, how many journalists had the Council of American-Islamic Relations or the Canadian Islamic Congress or the Muslim Council of Britain in their Rolodexes? If you'd said that whether something does or does not cause offence to Muslims would be the early 21st century's principal political dynamic in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, most folks would have thought you were crazy. Yet on that Tuesday morning the top of the iceberg bobbed up and toppled the Twin Towers. ... The Muslim world has youth, numbers and global ambitions. The West is growing old and enfeebled, and lacks the will to rebuff those who would supplant it. It's the end of the world as we've known it. -- MARK STEYN (An excerpt from 'America Alone') | |
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Syed Asadullah
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Introduction: Islam - A Challenge to Religion by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez
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Today, all thoughtful men are disgusted both with materialism as well as religion (madhhab), for neither of these offers a way out of humanity's present predicaments. The only solution is through the deen that is expounded in the following pages. -- Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez | |
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Syed Asadullah
Is Pakistan A Failed State? Asks Ijaz-ul-Haq
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Washington-based Fund for Peace, an Independent Research Organization has conducted a worldwide survey to index the failing states wherein Pakistan has been placed at 10th position in the International Community. Our country has been categorized as insecure, unstable and breeding ground for terrorism and spreading extremism that will affect everyone. ... The question that causes a stir is: are we a failed state in the real sense of the word? Good enough, the surveys / findings may prove us so, but is the ground situation really bad enough for us to be bracketed with tiny African states like Chad and Guinea? -- Ijaz-ul-Haq, former Minister for Religious Affairs of Pakistan. | |
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Syed Asadullah
Friday, July 17, 2009
Killing of Non-Combatant Civilians Is Against Islamic Jihad
| Once, in a battlefield, the Prophet came across the corpse of a woman. Driven to anger, the Prophet exclaimed, 'What sort of war was she fighting that she was killed?' Then, he sent a message to the man who was leading the Muslim forces, Hazrat Khalid, instructing him to ensure that henceforth no woman, labourer or slave must be slain in the course of the war (Sunan Abu Daud 2669, Masnad Ahmad 17158, Sahih Bukhari 3015). The Prophet repeatedly forbade the killing of women and children during war, as is mentioned in the books of Hadith. According to one hadith report, the Prophet declared: 'Do not slay any old, infirm person, nor any child or woman. Do not cheat in matters of war booty. Be kind and charitable. God loves those who are charitable.' -- Maulvi Yahya Nomani (Translated from Urdu by Yoginder Sikand) | |
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Syed Asadullah
All roads lead to Bihar’s town with a view, Patna, July 15, 2009
Taregana is buzzing with activity.
The National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), the US space research and exploration agency, has declared after 20 years of research that this nondescript town, 25 km south of Patna, is the best location on earth from which to watch the largest solar eclipse of the century on July 22.
NASA has also listed it among the best places from which to observe the stars.
Aryabhatta (476-550 AD) had figured this out a long time ago.
The 200-km-wide shadow of the eclipse will cover places as distant as Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh in India: Prof Vikrant Narang, AstronomerThe famous 6th Century astronomer-mathematician from India's Golden Age — who first proposed that the earth rotates on its axis and developed the concept of zero — had located his observatory at the sun temple that existed in Taregana (literally, song of the stars) then.
Following unknowingly in his footsteps, scientists, tourists and eclipse chasers from across the world suddenly want to visit Taregana.
The problem: Taregana does not have hotels or other facilities to receive so many guests.
The solution: The Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation will put up tents and temporary cottages to cope with the rush.
The July 22 eclipse, which will begin at 5.29 a.m., will be the longest in the 21st century and last 6 minutes and 39 seconds. It will not be surpassed in duration till July 13, 2132, ie, 123 years from now.
"The 200-kilometer-wide shadow of the eclipse will cover places as distant as Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh in India and extend to China and Japan. It will be most intense in and around Taregana's Sun Temple (built recently on the location of the one that existed in Aryabhatta's time)," said Professor Vikrant Narang, an astronomer associated with the Space Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators, a non-governmental organisation working to popularise science among the masses.
Scientists from NASA, the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Indian Space Research Organization will start arriving in Taregana from July 17.
They will stay at the local hospital where the rooftop is being converted into a temporary observatory.
Many others are expected to stay in Patna and drive down to Taregana very early on July 22 to view the eclipse.
Source: Hindusatan Times
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Syed Asadullah
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Does the Hadith have a Solid Historical Basis?
All Muslims, even including those who champion the Hadith, accept the fact that after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, false hadith reports about or attributed to the Prophet Muhammad "mushroomed" into hundreds of thousands. The compilations that were made more than two centuries after the Prophet's death were done after sorting through mountainous piles of individual hadith reports. Bukhari, for example, made a selection of some seven thousand traditions (including repeated ones) out of reportedly six hundred thousand he found in circulation – roughly one out of every one hundred. That means that he discarded all but a tiny fraction of the hadith in circulation as false. This factor alone leaves open the question whether his selection has been foolproof. -- Abdur Rab Editor's note: This is all the more important at a time when Jihadis are stealing our children away from us and turning them into sacrificial goats in their war of supremacy over other sects on the basis of patently concocted and fabricated Ahades. One of the funniest I found in a manifesto of a Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir-based terrorist organization Al-Badr claiming that the Prophet (PBUH) said that Jihad against India is Jihad-e-Afzal, that is greater in importance and reward than even the Jihad against the Meccan enemies of Islam that the Prophet himself fought. But apparently our children, some of them even the most highly educated and intelligent ones are not able to differentiate between a correct and a fabricated Hadees. The moment you ascribe a quotation to the Prophet, it acquires a certain sanctity in the eyes of a devout Muslim. However the knowledge of the fact that authentic compilers like Bukhari and Muslim discarded hundreds of thousands of Ahadees should help Muslims understand that they just cannot attach much sanctity to Ahadees unless they find that they are merely elaborating an injunction of the Quran while maintaining the same spirit inculcated into us through the Quran. This makes Mr. Abdur Rab's study very valuable. | |
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Syed Asadullah
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Asad Farooqui responds to Maulana Nadeemul Wajidi’s view of Hijab
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… but to stretch it to justify the inhuman practice of putting women under the leash of the burqa is truly a travesty of Islam. It amounts to demeaning and belittling the great religion of Islam which came in the world to liberate and not to enslave humanity. But the Maulana is so grateful to Allah for making him an 'Islamic scholar' that he doesn't want to leave anything to Him. He makes his own lexicon of what is good and what is bad and in his own imaginary world keeps manufacturing a 'unanimous' opinion of 'Islamic scholars'. -- Asad Farooqui | |
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The one defence of this inhuman practice of the Burqa, making Muslim women one-eyed creatures, is the Aya 53 of Surah Al-Ahzab. Obviously, the Maulana doesn't seem to understand or is probably being mischievous when he ignores the fact that this Aya only came to teach good manners to the uncouth and illiterate Bedouins among whom Islam came to begin with and addressed them directly in the first instance. Why I, as a British Muslim woman, want the burqa banned from our streets
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| Much to my amusement, I find men very vehement in their fight for female "modesty and rights" in choosing to wear the burqa. But sadly, their voices seem to choke when it comes to family planning, triple talaq, a widow's right to the guardianship of her minor children and other such matters. ... I have heard since childhood that Islam is more about intent – to become a good, god-fearing human being – rather than the peripheral rituals that change from place to place and culture to culture. When, for instance, one is praying to god almighty, it is actually the connection with the supreme creator that is at the centre of it all. The way one prays is perhaps of lesser consequence but a certain method and manner have evolved over the years for the sake of uniformity and possibly even for the health benefits to be reaped from the exercise. -- Zohra Javed | |||||||
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'The veil is a tool of oppression used to alienate and control women under the guise of religious freedom'. 'Nowhere in the Koran does it state that a woman's face and body must be covered in a layer of heavy black cloth'.Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The Shia-Sunni divide: How real and how deep? Can we move towards genuine unity?
Many Muslims throughout the world, both Sunni and Shia, are working towards dialogue and reconciliation between the two sects. They argue that it is just not possible to fully comprehend and much less to judge the historical figures of Islam and their motivations today, 13 or 14 centuries after the event, which led to the schism in Islam. Indeed, it is not possible to judge people even when events take place now in full view of the world media… India's Shia and Sunni communities can serve as a beacon of hope in this process. Let us follow up on recent initiatives by Mohtarma Syeda Hamid and Maulana Kalb-e-Sadiq and keep moving in the direction of genuine, frank dialogue leading to real unity, says Sultan Shahin, editor, NewAgeIslam.com
URL: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1857
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The Shia-Sunni divide: How real and how deep? Can we move towards genuine unity?
By Sultan Shahin
The revolutionary initiative of Maulana Kalb-e-Sadiq in bringing Indian Muslims of the two Shia and Sunni sects together on the occasion of Eid has gladdened the hearts of many Muslims in the country. So did Mohtarma Syeda Hamid's first ever act recently as Qazi in a Sunni couple's nikah ceremony. This may be the right time and it seems to have engendered the right atmosphere to discuss Shia-Sunni ideological differences and real prospects for unity in as objective a manner as possible.
It seems in order to explain at the outset that having come from a Sunni background I may have inherited and imbibed some Sunni misgivings and prejudices but on a conscious level I try to remind myself that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was neither Shia nor Sunni and we are essentially followers of the Prophet and Prophet alone. Every other revered figure in Islame only comes after him. Also, primarily Shia-Sunni differences were political in nature and ideological constructs came much later, probably just to invest these differences with a greater permanency, and perhaps again in pursuit of political goals.
I also feel that if it is so difficult in this day and age, with all sorts of media following us all around 24/7 to know exactly what is happening and who is doing what under what political motivation, it would be futile for us to participate in 6th century battles all over again. As we cannot go back in time and fight with Prophet Mohammad in the battle of Badr and Uhad, we can also not go back and save his family from the massacre at Karbala.
The choice before us today is whether we keep fighting this 14-centuries old battle or desist from it and make peace in order to be free to focus on other challenges and goals that may be more relevant for the times we live in. One of these being mapping an agenda for the 21st century Islam, rethinking each and every postulate of Islam in the light of present-day realities, despite all the opposition this would evoke from the obscurantist elements of our society.
Posted By Asadullah Syed
Monday, July 13, 2009
From Fatwa to Jihad by Kenan Malik
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THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE By Saif Shahin VALENTINE'S Day is usually an occasion to write mellifluous letters of love. But 20 years ago, a letter penned that day was so vile in its content and so bilious in temperament that, almost like some talisman out of magic realist literature, it tore apart relations between communities and changed the course of history in its wake. That letter was the fatwa issued by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the head of Salman Rushdie, a little less than five months after the publication of 'The Satanic Verses'. And yes, it was that succinct four-paragraph letter – and not the literary tome itself – that stirred up the maelstrom which continues to (mis)shape life and death for many across the world. | |
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Malik claims this was a calculated move by Khomeini – then facing the ignominy of withdrawal from the war in Iraq – to subvert reformist voices within Iran and gain political ground across the Muslim world. "The fatwa sowed confusion and division among supporters of the Saudi regime," writes Malik. "A number of militants who had taken part in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union and who had been within Riyadh's orbit now pledged allegiance to Tehran… The reformers were forced to denounce Rushdie."The Practice of Veil in Islam – Its Obligation and Utility
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Maulana Nadeem Al-Wajidi explains in this article (Translated from Urdu by Syed Raihan Ahmad Nezami) why in his and other Islamic scholars' view the veil is essential for Muslim women. Supporting his arguments from Quranic verses and Hadees, he explains why a woman should not only be veiled from head to toe but no more than one of her eyes should preferably be allowed to see the world, and that too, of course, from behind the netting in the veil. The Uighurs and China: lost and found nation by Yitzhak Shichor
The reports of violence and deaths in the city of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province in northwest China, draw renewed attention to this comparatively neglected region of China and of central Asia. The exact details of what happened there on the night of 5-6 July 2009 are unclear and (inevitably) disputed, though the background may include the assaults on Uighur migrant workers at a toy factory in Guangdong province on 26 June (in which two are reported dead and dozens injured).
Uighurs are a Turkic-Muslim ethnic group which has been living in East Turkestan for centuries. This region, reoccupied by the Qing dynasty in the mid-18th century, had become a Chinese province named Xinjiang in 1884; in 1955, after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, was reorganised as the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region. The official statistics for 2007 suggest that Uighurs now number more than 10 million, and thus constitute Xinjiang's largest minority at almost 50% of its population - though this is a sharp reduction from 95% at the time of the communist takeover in 1949, the result of significant Chinese settlement in the region. The numbers of Uighurs and Han Chinese are now roughly equal.
Uighurs, claiming Xinjiang as their historical homeland, have repeatedly tried to gain independence and set up their own state - but just as repeatedly failed. Beijing, considering them a separatist and "splittist" group, has used a variety of means - cultural, social, economic, political and military - to crush any sign of restiveness among Uighurs (see James A Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang [C Hurst, 2007]).Sunday, July 12, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
THE LEFT AND ISLAM
The Liberal would dismiss Islam as sinister for its take on human rights and women in particular. The Left would fall into the trap of denouncing religion in general as 'reactionary'. Maybe without realizing it, both Lib and Left are falling here into a clear supremacist argument. Since both Islam and Judaism are more than just religions, they convey a 'way of life' and stand as a totally thorough answer to questions regarding being in the world, the Western Lib-Left are at danger of a complete dismissal of a large chunk of humanity. | |
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Colonizing Iraq: The Obama Doctrine?
In 2007, Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve, told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward that "taking Saddam out was essential" -- a point he made in his book The Age of Turbulence -- because the United States could not afford to be "beholden to potentially unfriendly sources of oil and gas" in Iraq. It's exactly that sort of thinking that's still operating in U.S. policy circles: the 2008 National Defence Strategy, for example, calls for the use of American military power to maintain "access to and flow of energy resources vital to the world economy." | |
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Pakistan admits creating “Islamic” terrorists that it is battling now
| THERE will be a tendency in India to take President Asif Zardari's remarks on how Pakistan itself created religious extremists "to achieve some short- term tactical objectives", with a generous dose of salt. The ever- smiling Pakistani leader is known to come up with dramatic statements and gestures. But even so, there is some value in the man who is president of the country saying it like it is. It adds to creating a climate of opinion which sees these extremists for what they are — terrorists — and not, as the president himself pointed out, as "heroes". Even today, there are sections of public opinion in Pakistan who lionise these extremists out of some misguided patriotism. – Editorial in Mail Today, New Delhi President Zardari has also had the courage to speak up in favour of unconditional peace and normalisation with India. In a sense, he is carrying the torch forward from where General Musharraf himself left it in 2007 after a radical about- turn in strategic thinking in 2004 about the nature of the threat from India and the future prospects of Kashmir. But there is one difference. Even as both say that the Taliban is the real threat rather than India, Mr Zardari makes no bones about the need for an unequivocal about- turn in India policy while General Musharraf hums and haws tactically in deference to decades of carefully nurtured " anti- India sensitivities" in the military. -- Najam Sethi, Lahore |
Friday, July 10, 2009
New Age Islam battles fundamentalists in cyberspace
A LONG STRUGGLE AHEAD: Sultan Shahin set up a website that has taken on the religious right head-on.
For Shahin, the experience was transformative. "It became clear to me that the Islam that I believe in was under serious threat," he says, "and that I would have to do something if the religion I loved was not to be demeaned by the evil that was being spoken in its name."
Last year, Shahin set up a website that has taken on the religious right head-on. Though run on a shoestring budget and without the help of full-time staff, New Age Islam ( http://www.newageislam.com/) is visited by hundreds of readers every day. Its electronic newsletter has over 29,000 subscribers.
New Age Islam provides its audience to a wide range of original theological and political writing that does not figure in the mainstream media. In recent weeks, New Age Islam has seen debates on Niyaz Fatehpuri, a twentieth-century literary figure with unconventional ideas on the concept of divine revelation, as well as the neo-conservative televangelist Zakir Naik.
In a recent essay, Shahin argued that the Islam of the neo-fundamentalists was in fact a "a completely new religion" theologically founded "on a wilful misinterpretation of the Islamic concept of jihad."
Electronic journals like New Age Islam reach out to a small, but influential, section of India's Muslims: an emerging class of Muslim professionals and entrepreneurs who are finding that the traditionalist practices of the parents offer few solutions to the struggles of life. Islamists have been adroit at capitalising on their anxieties. Many of India's jihadists — among them, the leadership of the Indian Mujahideen — came from urban middle class backgrounds and had received a privileged elite education.
Read More at: http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/24/stories/2009032450460900.htm
http://syedmdasadullah.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-age-islam-battles-fundamentalists_24.html
Thursday, July 9, 2009
India’s syncretic Sufi Islam: Visiting Khawja Moinuddin Chishti’s Dargah at Ajmer
Sufi traditions powerful expression of people's Islam in our subcontinent
Once inside, we seemed to have entered a medieval world. Men, women, and children in all kinds of attire hurried about here and there. There was a long line of people trying to get inside the shrine to pay their respects at the saint's tomb. We too were ushered into the rather full, even sticky chamber....
It was interesting that Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and his Begum were unable to visit this dargah of Garib Nawaz during their first visit to India . ''How could they,'' someone said, ''the Khwaja did not call him because he did not come with peace in his heart.'' -- Makarand Paranjape | |
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This dargah, representing years of Sufi traditions, which is open to everyone regardless of caste, creed, faith, age, or gender, twenty-four hours a day, not only posed a powerful challenge to the Hindu orthodoxy of the time, but also to the Muslim orthodoxy represented by the ulema (orthodox Islamic clerics). While the dominant Hindu practices emphasized caste hierarchies and exclusion, the dargah of the saint was the refuge of the most lowly, humble, and oppressed people of the land. While the Muslim priestocracy preached the supremacy of Islam, the religion of the conquerors, the Chistis demonstrated their love and acceptance of people of all faiths.
The Chistis, unlike many other Sufi traditions or orders, always kept a healthy distance from the power politics of the court. They practiced extreme poverty and simplicity. Their fondness for music soon endeared them to the masses. Like the shrine of any Hindu saint, the dargah of the Sufis became a centre not only of the worship of the pir or guru, but also a place of healing, refuge, and wish fulfilment. No wonder, people of all faiths, Hindus and Muslims alike, flock to these shrines even today.....
Sufi traditions of peace and coexistence are indeed very powerful as an expression of people's Islam in our subcontinent, but unfortunately the ruling clergy has never given them either recognition or validity. IRAN: Unravelling of a revolution
The very system of an unelected Supreme Leader ruling the country with the help of an elected president of his choice is being challenged.
Despite all these claims and counter-claims, however, it cannot be denied that a large percentage of Iranian population, including significant portions of the clerical establishment itself, is now fed up with the tyrannical ways of the Iranian mullahs. The educated youth and professionals are far ahead of the general society and thus have particular reasons to be disenchanted with their life under the revolutionary regime. They want much more freedom than is on offer even by the likes of Mousavi or Montazeri. One example could illustrate this. Iran's state-run body for youth affairs said recently that rising numbers of Iranians are spurning marriage and having sex illegally outside wedlock. (See interesting details of an official survey below) So it's not just democracy that Iran's youth are fighting for. They want drastic changes in societal mores. Similarly, with the growth in unemployment and general worsening of economic conditions, despite the oil wealth, a lot of people in the working class are disillusioned. With limited trading opportunities because of bad relations with the West and sanctions on account of the continuing fracas over the nuclear issue, the bazaris (business community) too are angry and disappointed, desperately wanting a change. Clearly, even if the protests are suppressed now Iran will continue to boil, probably creating new and unforeseeable problems for the region and the world for some time to come. Revolutions don't let go of power easily. But since Iranian clerics are not willing to share power even with other clerics with slightly different views and want to run the country as an autocracy, the revolution appears bound to unravel sooner or later. The process may have just begun. ---- Sultan Shahin | |
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It may take weeks or months or even years, but one thing is certain: the unravelling of Iran's Islamic revolution has begun: there will be no return to the status quo. Both the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stand diminished and their capacity to deal with the world as much as with their own people inexorably weakened. What began as a protest over suspected rigging of the elections that are supposed to have re-elected Ahmadinejad as president for another term has now metastasized into a challenge to the very system of an unelected Vilayet-i-Faqih (supreme jurist or leader) ruling the country with the help of a president elected by people from among the choices approved by the Supreme Leader himself. ....Michael Jackson to be buried in Muslim tradition: Report
X 17 online, a celebrity website reported quoting sources close to the family that Jackson's new found will states that he will be buried in the traditions of his new faith.
"The family is considering following the Muslim burial traditions because Michael would have wanted to be laid to rest in keeping with his new-found religious beliefs.
Michael's brother Jermaine is educating the family as to the special rites," the source said Jackson had reportedly converted to Islam in November last year and taken the name of 'Mikhaail'.
Meanwhile, a public viewing of the performer will take place on Friday at his fantasy themed abode California ranch, Neverland. There has been no official confirmation from Jackson's family on the location where his body will be laid to rest.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/michael-jackson-to-be-buried-in-muslim-tradition-report/484047
Islam And Caste Inequality Among Indian Muslims
As this paper has sought to show, although the Qur'an and the genuine Prophetic traditions suggest a radically egalitarian social vision, actual Muslim social practice, including in India, points to the existence of sharp social hierarchies that numerous Muslim scholars have sought to provide appropriate 'Islamic' sanction through elaborate rules of fiqh associated with the notion of kafa'a. This was further boosted by distorted interpretations of the Qur'an and the invention of reports attributed to the Prophet that sought to legitimize social inequality based on ethnicity and occupation. In the Indian context, numerous leading 'ulama, almost all from the 'high' castes, have used these arguments to sanction caste and caste-based distinctions, particularly in matters of marriage. Yet, as Nu'mani's case shows, today at least some Indian 'ulama are willing to critically examine the corpus of medieval fiqh and seek inspiration and guidance directly from the Qur'an and the genuine Prophetic traditions instead, in order to recover the original Islamic vision that is robustly opposed to social hierarchy determined by birth, the very basis of the caste system. -- Yoginder Sikand | |
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Islam, respect for Humanity, Equality and Oppressed Dalit Communities
Dalits should convert to Islam if they want real equality
The author of this article, Maulana Nadeemul Wajidi (Urdu Text below) believes that Hinduism, as a religion is responsible for the degradation of Dalit (lower, oppressed) castes. He says that Dalits have no option but to convert to Islam, if they want real equality. New Age Islam considers this gratuitous advice with incendiary potential and truly uncalled for. Dalits are a very perceptive and alert community, quite capable of making their own choices. They are better off than Muslims in many respects. They have successfully acquired real power in several states and have powerful representatives in the council of ministers at the centre. Many higher caste Hindus believe they are more equal than others among Hindu castes and spend money buying fake Dalit caste certificates in order to partake of the privileges granted to them in the Indian constitutional system. If Dalits feel they are not getting enough respect or equality –– they would know how to fight for their rights in the legal, religious, social and legislative spheres. And if some of them feel they have no option but to leave the Hindu fold, they have a wide open field, full of choices. People belonging to all religions seem to be operating at more or less the same spiritual level. All religions and philosophies have almost equally failed in creating an equal society, a better human race. To single out Islam as the best, as the one that provides the most equality is a travesty. It is contrary to the facts of life in the world today. If anything non-Islamic societies are somewhat better off in this respect. India, for instance, gives religious rights to its minorities –like allowing them to organise their p[personal lives in accordance with their own religious personal laws - that no other democratic society does. Muslim societies come off as the worst in granting human rights to religious minorities. If at all we find some Muslim societies aspiring to become democratic, they are the ones neighbouring India and envy for India's successful democracy is certainly part of the motivation. But even in these countries, granting equal rights to religious minorities or other weaker sections a la India is not part of their agenda. They are merely aspiring to become electoral democracies. | |
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Homosexuality: Islam is better placed to adapt to the ground reality
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Islam is better placed than all other religions to come to terms with continuing or changing ground realities. It has the institution of ijtihad (rethinking, reform), as a part of its orthodox practice. It's time Muslims decided to open the closed gates of Ijtihad and discussed and changed the laws regarding homosexuality, among a whole host of other things. -- Shamshad Elahee Ansari | |
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Clearly, both secular and religious societies have tried to control the practice of homosexuality but failed. It is time now for them to come to terms with ground reality and accept the demand for legalisation of this widespread practice. Though science is still not very clear about its genetic roots, given its spread across the length and breadth of the world spanning all secular and religious societies, it should be accepted as coming to human beings as a natural "affliction." If so, both secular and religious societies should try and come to terms with it. Homosexual exhibitionism will create a vicious backlash
A confrontation is brewing between those making personal sexual and moral choices and those upholding traditional values. While gay pride marches are a regular feature in California, to hold them in traditional cities like Chennai and Bhubaneswar may not immediately serve the cause of creating an inclusive society. Would a colourfully dressed man flaunting his sexuality not, even if it was not intended to be, be too much of a shock for traditional families? While dress codes need to be challenged, yet must Twinkle Khanna unbutton Akshaye Kumar's jeans in public? Expressions of personal sexual freedom and choice are a basic human right of every citizen, but they will only create a vicious backlash if such choices are seen to be exhibitionist and disconnected. After all, the Indian homosexual lives in all spheres of society, not just among the glitterati, and the aam aadmi homosexual needs maximum protection by society and law. He cannot be protected if the more visible members of the gay community fail to create a dialogue with the mainstream. -- Sagarika Ghose | |
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009
CHINA: Muslim minorities’ uprising from the ashes of history
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Iranian Elections: The Anti-Empire Report
| Since the end of World War II, the United States has seriously intervened in some 30 elections around the world, adding a new twist this time, twittering. The State Department asked Twitter to postpone a scheduled maintenance shutdown of its service to keep information flowing from inside Iran, helping to mobilize protesters [2]. The New York Times reported: "An article published by the Web site True/Slant highlighted some of the biggest errors on Twitter that were quickly repeated and amplified by bloggers: that three million protested in Tehran last weekend (more like a few hundred thousand); that the opposition candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi was under house arrest (he was being watched); that the president of the election monitoring committee declared the election invalid last Saturday (not so)" [3] -- William Blum | |
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Monday, July 6, 2009
Looking beyond the burqa
What the Muslim women really need to cudgel against is the gender bias prevalent in Muslim societies. They must realise that the Muslim patriarchy rallies around them when they demonstrate against issues such as the proposed ban on burqa (which could be easily circumvented), but the support of the clergy is conspicuously absent when it comes to pressing problems like instant triple talaq, hedonistic polygyny or child marriage. -- A. Faizur Rahman
URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1526
An Israeli View of Iranian Democracy
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Iranian citizens pour into the streets in order to protest against their government! What a wonderful sight! Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz that he envies the Iranians. | |
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Horrors inflicted in the name of Islam
Repeated use of Islamic phrases underlines the extent to which the faith has been cynically used to spread violence. While Muslims argue that Islam does not condone this kind of terrorism against unarmed, innocent civilians, most do not condemn it in clear, unequivocal terms. After agreeing that such acts are un-Islamic, there is all too often a lingering "Yes, but…" hanging in the air. | |
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