Asalaam mu aleikum!
Sorry its been awhile since I've updated my blog but I aim to try and regularly do this from now on. I send an email out regularly containing articles, news, culture etc of interest. But for those who don't get the emails, then I will be posting them here in my blog. I hope that this can be of a productive nature and feel free to air your views and opinions and engage in healthy debate on the important issues of our time. I hope that this can be a start of something good inshallah. May Allah swt help us all, grants us forgiveness, guidance, help and success in this world and the Akhirah ameen.
I am starting with the first post below that I sent awhile ago. Then I'll send the next recent one until the last one that I've sent to catch up.
Jazak-khalla khair,
Imran
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After Sweden bombing, British media targets ‘radical views’ in an echo of McCarthyism
For understandable reasons, the airwaves have been full of news of the bomb that killed one, and injured two people in Sweden last weekend.
It has being alleged that a Muslim from Sweden who lived and studied in the UK was responsible, and that he cited Sweden’s role in the insulting cartoons of the Prophet (saw) episode and its role in occupying Afghanistan as reasons for his actions. We know it is forbidden for Muslims to undertake such actions.
However, the British media has once again focused on the issue of ‘radicalisation’, again ignoring the issues that are said to cause the grievances.
It has been proposed that the alleged bomber expressed ‘radical’ views – though it has not been said violent views – in a mosque in the UK, and that the mosque officials should have reported him to the police.
Once again, what constitutes ‘radical views’ conveniently remains undefined. The media has been unashamed in calling for Muslims to report other Muslims to police whose political or religious views they have decided are unacceptable – calling for the policing of thoughts amongst this community alone. Media organisations have even added that advocating a Caliphate in the Muslim world was ‘extreme’. Others presented arguments that the alleged bomber wanted a second wife, who was a ‘good believer’ and who sought ‘Jannah’, implying that these were somehow stepping stones towards violent action. The effect of the media reporting is to encourage mosques to report people’s personal religious and political views to the police, regardless of their links to violence, never mind incitement to violence.
Questions have even been put to mosques suggesting they have done something wrong by failing to report these issues to the police. The same has been said of University lecturers who fail to report people with ‘radical views’.
There is no difference between this and the climate of the 1950′s in the USA under Senator McCarthy and his House Committee for ‘Un-American’ activities.
The media’s response is utter hypocrisy. They will defend leaks, and insults of religion and the sacred as ‘free expression’, but clamp down on legitimate Islamic views, labelling them ‘extreme’ or ‘radical’.
Muslims should know what their agenda is. It is imporatant that we do not allow ourselves to be fooled into accepting terms such as moderate or extreme following the whims of the British media.
While we clearly know that these violent actions are prohibited in Islam we must never allow ourselves to be bullied into denouncing any political opposition to violent western occupation of Muslim lands, the right to resistance in those countries or condemnation of insults to the Holy Prophet (saw).
Taji Mustafa
Media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain
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Muslims do not need freedom of speech, they have enjoining the good and forbidding the evil
Whenever Muslims engage themselves in a debate with non Muslim journalists and media outlets on free Speech, the conversation ends up with the Muslims being told that the only reason they are able to speak is because of the freedom of speech they are entitled to in democracies and that this is the reason they can be critical and disagree in the west.
This whole argument is based upon a premise which assumes that the reason Muslims speak out against the injustices which they see around the world is because that they have the freedom to do so and for this reason Muslims should be grateful. This could not be further from the truth!
The fact of the matter is that even before the birth of the concept of free speech in the west, Islam had given Muslims a concept more precious and worthwhile then free speech, enjoining the good and forbidding the evil.
Islam made an obligation upon Muslims to enjoin the good and to forbid the evil no matter where they lived and how big or small the good or evil maybe. This is why you find Muslims all across the global enjoining the good or speaking against injustices regardless of whether they live in democracies or dictatorships. Organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir have been known to speak out against tyrant rulers in the Muslims world, for which reason their members have been tortured and in many cases murdered like in Uzbekistan. The point here being, it is not freedom of speech that motivates Muslim to raise their voices against injustices; Muslims are motivated by the words of their Lord when He says,
كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ
"You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah." (Quran 3:110)
It is this that is the driving engine behind a Muslims that makes him/her speak out against any injustices that they may witness whether in the West or in the Muslim world.
I said earlier that the concept of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil is more worthwhile than freedom of speech and there is a very good reason why this is the case. Freedom of speech in itself is a right which a citizen of a democratic state is able to uphold and discard when the individual likes. This is because free speech gives you the choice to decide if you wish to speak up against injustices or if you wish to ignore and we see this everyday in the streets of London.
You will find that yobs and criminals are causing all sorts of problems for local people, but every a few people intervene or attempt to intervene to stop these types of acts. One famous example being when a few years ago a couple of teenagers were breaking the glass door of a store in a public market in board daylight, with many people walking the streets and nobody intervening to stop this vandalism, except an elderly man who confronted these teenagers and was then attacked by them and even still no one from the public came to his aide, with this elderly man fighting of these thugs. Where was the good sense of the people to come and stop this or even aid this elderly, rather people just ignored and continued on with their travels. This is the type of mentality freedom of speech creates, a passive mentality to crime, a passive mentality towards other people's feelings and sentiments, a mentality of I will only use freedom of speech when it benefits me.
The concept of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil is mandatory on Muslims hence it creates a proactive mentality where the Muslims will involve themselves in stopping the injustices and if necessary in many cases put their own lives at risk for others. Anybody who has been to the Muslims world would know that when any incident occurs of injustice people from the street involve themselves to resolve these issues and if necessary stop the injustice, even if both the perpetrator and victim are complete strangers. This creates a level of security within the society where people can feel a sense of peace that people will help them in their time of need. The reason Muslims feel the need to enjoin the good and forbid the evil is because it has been placed as an obligation upon them by their Lord for which they will be immensely rewarded or punished if not undertaken, and this is why it is not subject to being discarded at the whims and desires of people.
So next time western commentators see a Muslims speaking out injustices against governments in the west or Muslim world, let them remember that it was because of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil and not freedom of speech.
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Pakistan flood doctor
There was a very good documentary that was shown on the BBC about the work of a Doctor in Pakistan. It is now shown on the BBC iPlayer. Here is the description of the program:
Doctor Shershah Syed is a man with a mission - a famous surgeon from Karachi who has spent his life caring for vulnerable women in Pakistan. Now he's caught up in the greatest disaster to hit his country in living memory - the floods. Jane Corbin travels with Doctor Shershah through flood ravaged Sindh province as he performs life-saving operations and delivers medical aid to desperate people.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wwf2r/This_World_20102011_Pakistans_Flood_Doctor/
If you haven't seen it, try and quickly watch it as its only available until 8pm Monday 20th December.
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