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ஜமாஅத்தே இஸ்லாமி நடத்தி வரும் முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட விழிப்பு உணர்வு பரப்புரைக்கு சமுதாயத் தலைவர்கள் பேராதரவு!

2017-04-27T15:16:00.000+05:30

நம் நாட்டில் முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்டம் (இஸ்லாம் எடுத்துரைக்கின்ற குடும்பவியல் சட்டம்) ஒரு பக்கம் வெளித் தாக்குதல்களுக்கு இலக்காகி நிற்கின்றது எனில், மறுபக்கம் சமுதாயத்துக்குள்ளும் சவால்களைச் சந்தித்து நிற்கின்றது. வெளித் தாக்குதல்களின் ஒரு பரிமாணமாக நீதிமன்றங்களில் வெளியிடப்பட்டு பிற்பாடு சட்ட அந்தஸ்தைப் பெற்று விடுகின்ற ஷரீஅத் விரோத தீர்ப்புகள் இருக்கின்றனவெனில், இன்னொரு பரிமாணமாக மக்களவை, சட்டப்பேரவை போன்ற சட்டங்களை இயற்றுகின்ற அவைகளின் வழியாக பிறப்பிக்கப்படுகின்ற ஷரீஅத்துக்கு எதிரான சட்டங்கள் இருக்கின்றன. மூன்றாவது பரிமாணமாக இந்திய அரசியல் அமைப்புச் சட்டத்தின் நாற்பத்தி நான்காவது பிரிவு இருக்கின்றது. இந்த அரசியல் சட்டப் பிரிவை மேற்கோள் காட்டித்தான் சில சமயம் நீதிமன்றங்களும் சில சமயம் மத்திய அரசாங்கமும் சில அரசியல் கட்சிகளும் பொது சிவில் சட்ட சர்ச்சையைக் கிளப்பிக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றன.

இந்த மூன்று வகையான தாக்குதல்களிலிருந்தும் முஸ்லிம்கள் தங்களைப் பாதுகாத்துக் கொள்வதற்கான சாத்தியங்கள் இருக்கின்றன. ஒரே ஒரு நிபந்தனை என்னவெனில், அவர்கள் முதலில் தங்களின் வாழ்வில் ஷரீஅத் சட்டங்களை முழுமையாகப் பேணி நடந்துகொள்வதுடன் அவர்களின் சமூகமும் ஷரீஅத்துக்கு நேர் எதிராக நடப்பதிலிருந்து முற்றிலும் விலகி இருத்தல் வேண்டும். மேலும் அவர்கள் குடும்ப வாழ்வு தொடர்பான தங்களின் வழக்குகளை நாட்டின் நீதிமன்றங்களுக்குக் கொண்டு சென்று அங்கு அவற்றைத் தீர்த்துக்கொள்வதற்குப் பதிலாக தாருல் கஸாக்கள், ஷரீஅத் பஞ்சாயத்துகள், கவுன்சிலிங் சென்டர்கள் ஆகியவற்றின் மூலமாக அவற்றைத் தீர்த்துக் கொள்ள முன் வர வேண்டும்.

இதே போன்று நிகாஹ், தலாக், வாரிசுரிமை, மஹர், நஃப்கா மற்றும் முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்டம் தொடர்பான பிற விவகாரங்கள் அனைத்திலும் முஸ்லிம் சமுதாயம் ஷரீஅத்தின் அடிப்படையில் செயல்படத் தொடங்கிவிடுமேயானால் அது அமைதியும் நிம்மதியும் நிறைந்த நந்தவனமாக மாறிவிடுவதுடன், அதற்கும் மேலாக, சகோதர சமுதாயங்களைச் சேர்ந்தோரும் இஸ்லாமியக் குடும்பவியல் சட்டங்களின் பயன்பாட்டையும், மனித இயல்புக்கு இயைந்து போகின்றவையாய் அவை இருப்பதையும், மனித வாழ்வில் அவற்றால் முகிழ்கின்ற நற்கனிகளையும் பார்த்து உணர்ந்து தாக்கம் பெறுவதற்கான சாத்தியங்களும் இருக்கின்றன.

ஆனால் வாய்ப்புக்கேடாக, இறைவனாலும் இறைத்தூதராலும் வகுத்துத் தரப்பட்ட சட்டங்கள் இன்று முஸ்லிம் சமூகங்களிலும் வெளிப்படையாக மீறப்படுகின்றன. இந்த மீறல்களுக்குக் காரணம் ஷரீஅத் சட்டங்கள் பற்றிய அறிவின்மையானாலும் சரி, இந்துக் கலாச்சாரத்தினால் விளைந்த பாதிப்புகளால் உருவாகின்ற சமூகச் சீர்கேடுகளானாலும் (வரதட்சிணை, மணமகன் ஊர்வலம், திருமணங்களின்போது கடைப்பிடிக்கப்படும் வீணான சடங்குகள், வீண் விரயங்கள் முதலியன) சரி, சமூகத்துக்குள் நிகழ்கின்ற இந்த அவலங்கள்தாம் முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்டம் மீது தொடுக்கப்படுகின்ற வெளித் தாக்குதல்களை விட மிக அதிகமாக பாதிப்பை ஏற்படுத்திக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றன. இன்னும் சொல்லப் போனால் சமுதாயச் சீர்கேடுகளும், ஷரீஅத் சட்டங்களைப் பற்றிய அறிவின்மையும், ஷரீஅத்துக்கு எதிரான நடத்தைகளும்தாம் பெரும்பாலான வெளித் தாக்குதல்களின் வித்துகளாய் இருக்கின்றன.

இந்த நிலைமைகளில் முஸ்லிம்கள் அனைவரும் தங்களின் வாழ்வின் அனைத்து விவகாரங்களிலும் எந்தவிதமான தயக்கமோ, தடுமாற்றமோ இன்றி இறைவனுக்கும் இறைத்தூதருக்கும் கீழ்ப்படிந்து நடப்பது அவசியமாகும்.

நாம் அனைவரும் ஒன்றிணைந்து முஸ்லிம் சமுதாயத்தைச் சீர்திருத்துவதில் நம்முடைய ஒட்டுமொத்த வலிமையையும் சக்தியையும் செலவிடுவது கட்டாயம் என்பதைத்தான் தற்போதை நிலைமைகள் உணர்த்திக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றன. மேலும் குடும்ப வாழ்வு தொடர்பான சட்டங்களையும் நெறிமுறைகளையும் முஸ்லிம்களுக்குப் போதிப்பதிலும் நாம் கவனம் செலுத்தியாக வேண்டும். மேலும் குடும்ப வாழ்வில் வெடித்துக்கொண்டிருக்கின்ற சீர்கேடுகளையும், வெளிப்படையாக அரங்கேறி வருகின்ற விதிமீறல்களையும் களைவதற்காக பொருத்தமான வியூகங்களை மேற்கொள்ள வேண்டியதும் அவசியமாகும். எல்லாவற்றுக்கும் மேலாக குடும்ப வாழ்வு தொடர்பான தங்களின் வழக்குகளை இஸ்லாமிய ஷரீஅத் சட்டங்களின் அடிப்படையில் ஷரீஅத் பஞ்சாயத்துகள், தாருல் கஸாக்கள் வழியாக தீர்த்துக்கொள்வதற்காக முஸ்லிம்களை ஆயத்தப்படுத்துவதும் அவசியமாகும்.

மேலும் குடும்ப வாழ்வு தொடர்பான இஸ்லாமியச் சட்டங்கள் உண்மையில் மனித இயல்புக்கு இயைந்து போகின்றவையாய் இருக்கின்றன என்கிற தெளிவு பிறக்கின்ற வகையிலும் அன்பு, ஒழுக்கம், நீதி, நியாயம், நடுவுநிலை ஆகியவை நிறைந்தவையாய், குடும்ப வாழ்வில் இனிமையையும் பெருமகிழ்வையும் அளிப்பவையாய், நலமான குடும்ப அமைப்பைத் தோற்றுவிப்பவையாய், தூய்மையான சமூகத்தைக் கட்டி எழுப்பக்கூடிய வல்லமை படைத்தவையாய் முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்டங்கள் இருக்கின்றன என்பதை அறிந்துகொள்கின்ற வகையிலும் சகோதர சமுதாயங்களைச் சேர்ந்தோரிடம் இந்தச் சட்டங்களை அறிமுகப்படுத்துவதும் அவசியமாகும். இன்னும் சொல்லப்போனால் பெண்ணின் மானத்தையும், மரியாதையையும், மாண்பையும் உரிமைகளையும் பாதுகாக்கின்ற சட்டம்தான் முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்டம் என்பதையும் பெண்ணின் பிறப்புரிமையைக் பாதுகாக்கின்ற கேடயம்தான் முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்டம் என்பதையும் நாட்டு மக்களுக்கு உணர்த்துவதும் அவசியமாகும். இந்த விஷயத்தில் எல்லா மார்க்க ஜமாஅத்களும் மத்ஹப்களைச் சார்ந்தோரும் தனிக் கவனம் செலுத்துவதும் அவசியமாகும். மேற்படி நோக்கங்களை அடைகின்ற நோக்கத்துடன் ஏப்ரல் 23 முதல் மே 7 வரை ஜமாஅத்தே இஸ்லாமி ஹிந்த் நடத்தி வருகின்ற முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட விழிப்பு பரப்புரையில் இயன்ற வரை அனைத்து வகையான ஒத்துழைப்பையும் அளிப்பது அவசியமாகும்.

ஜனாப் மௌலானா சையத் முஹம்மத் ராபே ஹஸனி நத்வி சாஹிப்
(தலைவர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(நாஜிம், நத்வத்துல் உலமா, லக்னௌ)

மௌலானா சையத் ஜலாலுத்தீன் உமரி
(துணைத் தலைவர் அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(அமீர், ஜமாஅத்தே இஸ்லாமி ஹிந்த்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா முஹம்மத் ஸாலிம் காஸிமி சாஹிப்
(துணைத் தலைவர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(காப்பாளர், தாருல் உலூம் (வக்ஃப்) தேவ்பந்த்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா காகா ஸயீத் அஹ்மத் உமரி சாஹிப்
(துணைத் தலைவர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(ஜாமிஆ தாருஸ்ஸலாம், உமராபாத்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா சையத் கல்பே சாதிக் சாஹிப்
(துணைத் தலைவர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா முஹம்மத் வலீ ரஹ்மானி சாஹிப்
(பொதுச் செயலாளார், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(அமீரே ஷரீஅத், பீகாரி, ஒரிஸ்ஸா)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா சையத் அர்ஷத் மதனி சாஹிப்
(செயற்குழு உறுப்பினர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(தலைவர், ஜமிய்யத்துல் உலமா ஹிந்த்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா அபுல்காஸிம் நுஃமானி சாஹிப்
(நிர்வாகி, தாருல் உலூம் தேவ்பந்த்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா சையத் மஹ்மூத் அஸத் மதனி சாஹிப்
(பொதுச் செயலாளர், ஜமிய்யத்துல் உலமா ஹிந்த்)
(செயற்குழு உறுப்பினர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா காலித் சைஃபுல்லாஹ் ரஹ்மானி சாஹிப்
(செயலாளர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(தலைவர், ஃபிக்ஹு அகாடமி)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா ஃபஸலுர் ரஹீம் முஜத்ததி சாஹிப்
(செயலாளர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(நிர்வாகி, ஜாமிஆ ஹிதாயா, ஜெய்பூர்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா அலீ அஸ்கர் இமாம் மஹ்தி சாஹிப்
(செயற்குழு உறுப்பினர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(பொது நிர்வாகி, மர்கஸி ஜமிய்யத் அஹ்லே ஹதீஸ் ஹிந்த்)

ஜனாப் டாக்டர் ஜஃபருல் இஸ்லாம் கான் சாஹிப்
(ஆசிரியர், மில்லி கெஜட்)
(முன்னாள் தலைவர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் மஜ்லிஸே முஷாவரத்)

ஜனாப் நவீத் ஹாமித் சாஹிப்
(தலைவர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் மஜ்லிஸே முஷாவரத்)

ஜனாப் மௌலானா காலித் ரஷீத் ஃபரங்கி மஹல் சாஹிப்
(செயற்குழு உறுப்பினர், அகில இந்திய முஸ்லிம் தனியார் சட்ட வாரியம்)
(துணை இமாம், ஈத்காஹ், லக்னௌ)

Disciplining The Soul by Ibn Jawzi

2014-03-17T22:01:00.001+05:30

Inspiring book by Ibn Jawzi.
More Here

Leadership qualities and Dhul Qarnain

2013-03-23T18:25:00.001+05:30

It is well-known that a very small percentage of mankind go on to become leaders who rule over their masses. Yet, those who do, exercise considerable influence (good or bad) during their tenures. This story of Dhul Qarnain that Allah has narrated in the Quran serves to be a beacon for anyone who occupies, or intends to ascend to, a position of authority and leadership over a large number of people.

There are scores of articles and blot posts on the Internet that list and describe desirable leadership qualities for the benefit of the innumerable, young, ardent and wannabe ladder-climbers out there, which list the prerequisite innate as well as acquired traits of successful leaders.

Life coaches, authors, motivational speakers and corporate trainers have made lucrative careers out of giving conferences on sustainable leadership, and “how to become successful managers/CEO’s” et al. No surprise that self-help books on this topic penned by so-called gurus abound online and in print, many of them going on to become bestsellers.

The greatest book of all, the Quran, also throws light upon just what it practically means to be a leader, by narrating this story of Dhul Qarnain in Surah Al-Kahf, without mentioning any of his traits in the form of a list that we can all immediately start to incorporate into ourselves, but rather, by describing his actions and behaviors during his successful conquests; in particular, how he dealt with the people he came to rule over.

These people included those he had never even met before, nor (as in one particular case), whose language he even understood; people whose towns he traveled hundreds of miles to reach and eventually preside over.

Yet, Dhul Qarnain was so successful in influencing his subjects, that he was able to convince them to submit to and worship Allah as the only god,- and he did this without shedding any blood!

Sadaf Farooqi in her blog. Here

Indian News channels are a security hazard?

2013-01-15T21:32:00.001+05:30

Instead of questioning the narrative, news television and some print outlets have instead blatantly beaten the drums of confrontation, hyping even relatively calm statements by the army chief into belligerent displays of national machismo. Coming at a time when the government is attempting to move forward on dialogue with Pakistan that is very much in the national interest, the question should be asked: are some of India’s news channels, and their pursuit of eyeballs, turning into a national security hazard?

A handful of bellicose television supremos cannot be allowed to dictate a foreign policy that hurts the interest of India’s citizens.

Editorial in Business Standard. Here

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind to produce films and TV serials

2013-01-15T20:15:00.001+05:30

The Kerala unit of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is getting into production of commercial films and serials, which will be telecast on its new venture, Mediaone TV. The Malayalam-language news and entertainment satellite channel is to go on air next month.

This is the first time a state unit of the Jamaat-e-Islami is venturing into visual media. Incidentally, Jamaat mouthpiece Madhayamam itself does not publish film advertisements, a policy it has followed since its launch 25 years ago.

The channel would be floated by the Kozhikode-based Madhyamam Broadcasting Corporation. A tie-up has already been worked out with Al Jazeera.

Jamaat’s ‘assistant amir (Kerala)’ Sheikh Mohammed Karakunnu, an Islamic scholar, said Mediaone would follow the same principles practised by Madhyamam. “Like the daily, the TV channel will give due space to issues of minorities, Dalits and the marginalised. The TV channel will also have regulations on accepting advertisements, (and on) content of the programmes,” he said.

Karakunnu confirmed that Mediaone would also produce its own films apart from sourcing films from outside. “Work on a film has begun,” he said.

Mediaone group editor O Abdurahiman said their aim was to give voice to the voiceless. “We want to develop an alternative media culture as our daily has done. Mediaone TV has entered into a tie-up with Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, mainly for sharing content on world affairs. The channel would be hived into news and entertainment after six months.”

Noting that the bar on film advertisement in Madhyamam had no link with Mediaone airing films, Abdurahiman pointed out that the Jamaat mouthpiece didn’t skirt film news either. “Our daily gives film reviews and covers film festivals exhaustively,” he said.

Among the film proposals the channel is considering, Abdurahiman said, was one based on the life of Kunhali Marakkar, a local king’s naval chief who had fought against Portuguese invaders after Vasco da Gama’s arrival on the Malabar Coast in the 15th century. The story falls neatly in line with Jamaat’s pet campaign: anti-imperialism.

Writer and social critic Prof N M Karassery said that as it strives for more space in the mainstream, it was but natural for the Jamaat-e-Islami to turn to new media. Films, which could be used for ideological campaigning, were an obvious choice. “The Jamaat is not a mere religious outfit, but a political one in disguise,” he noted.

Karassery, however, added that the move could also backfire on the Jamaat. “I do not think that the channel would make that organisation more liberal, but may expose their anti-women approach and their capitalistic intentions,’’ he said.

Prof Hameed Chendamangaloor, who studies Muslim organisations, too isn’t surprised by the Jamaat’s foray into TV media as it wants to wield more political clout and foster Islamic politics. “No Muslim organisation can stick on to the days when watching TV or enjoying music was taboo. Even if the ideology is for conservatism, political motives would spur the Jamaat and other organisations to embrace changes, he said.

A report by Shaju Philip in Indian Express Here.

My Kafeel has my passport : Travails of Indians in the Gulf

2013-01-15T14:25:00.001+05:30

One evening, I walked into a small Internet café near my hotel. Two young Indian men managed the café. After I had answered my e-mails, I bought a coffee and we chatted. They were from Faizabad, a small town in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Sohail, the younger, a wiry man who served coffee and tea and cleaned the place, had been working there for a year. When I told him that I had been to his town several times as a reporter, his eyes brimmed with tears. “I worked in a garage as a mechanic, but I didn’t make enough. I got married and had a child. So I came here. I thought I am going to Mecca. I will get to perform the Hajj and earn a lot more than I ever would,” he said. “I didn’t know people here would treat us like dirt.” He pointed to a chubby Saudi boy, who was a regular at the café and called himself “Funky Monkey” (his video-game username). “Every time he feels like, he would slap me. It is the same with other local customers. You are a little late complying an order and they bark at you, slap you.” He added, “Here you can’t appeal to anyone. My passport is with my kafeel and I can only go home when he allows me to.” Imran, the older counterman, consoled him. “You are here now! Get used to it. Do I cry? I haven’t been able to return home in three years,” Imran said.

“Why not?” I asked Imran.

“My kafeel has my passport. He keeps making excuses, delaying it. He doesn’t want to lose business if I go away. And he has to pay all my money that is with him and buy me the return ticket home.”

And yet, Imran said, “We still have it easy. Working here is much worse for the maids.”

There are about one-and-a-half million female domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

Basharat Peer in The New Yorker. Here

Eat that Frog!

2013-01-12T21:27:00.000+05:30

"Procrastination is attitude's natural assassin. There is nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task."

William James, one of the founders of modern psychology, spoke those words. And how true they are!

A few years ago, I heard a tip about procrastination that I never forgot. For me, it truly was an "a-ha moment!"

Well, here it is...with a warning: Once you see this 2-minute movie, it'll be hard to forget!

Watch This movie Here

Jamaat leader discusses with Sagarika Ghose on evils of co-education

2013-01-10T11:23:00.000+05:30

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind's proposals to JS Verma Committee

2013-01-10T11:11:00.001+05:30

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind welcomes the government decision to set up committees to review the present anti-rape law and find out measures to make the society safe for the women. Jamaat expresses hope the committees will reach the root of the disease and find out the cure.
Following are the suggestions for kind consideration of the committee headed by Justice J.S. Verma regarding ensuring safety and security to woman:-

1. Only proper marriage contracted by free will of man and woman should be recognised as legally permitted form of legal sexual intimacy. All sex outside marriage including live-in-relationship should be declared illegal and punishable.
2. There should be provision for capital punishment for heinous crimes such as rape. These punishments should be given in public and there should be opportunity for people to witness the same so that it might act as deterrent to such heinous crimes.
3. Co-Education should be abolished and proper education facilities meant for only women only should be available at all level of education.
4. Educational institutions should prescribe sober and dignified dress for girls.
5. Services of religious institutions and religious leaders should be sought to reform society, inculcate moral values and awareness against crimes especially in the new generation.
6. Proper transport facilities for woman with proper safety measures be made available particularly in the town and cities.
7. Marriage should be made easy and it should be encouraged to have timely marriage, all forms of dowry be abolished and all unnecessary expenditures be curbed and made punishable.
8. The electronic and print media, TV programmes, Films and advertisements should avoid improper exposure of woman and it should be made punishable.
9. The alcohol is in the root of all evils and crimes particularly against women it should be completely banned in the whole country.
10. The criminal laws in this regard should be made more stringent, the judicial procedure be simplified and made faster.
11. The police reforms should be implemented soon and especially the complaints of not lodging FIRs or delaying of FIRs are made punishable offence.

More Here

Abolish Co-education says Jamaat Chief

2013-01-10T11:01:00.000+05:30

Ameer-e-Jamaat Moulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari speaks about the recommendations submitted to JS Verma committee. Here

Arundhati Roy on Indian rape culture

2012-12-22T12:46:00.001+05:30

Arundhati Roy: Why is this crime so clearly such a lot of outrage because it plays into the idea of criminal poor. You know the vegetable vendors, bus driver, gym instructor actually assaulting a middle class girl. Whereas when rape is used as a means of domination by upper caste, by the army or the police. It is actually go unpunished. Not even talked about.

TV Anchor: Is there any chance this kind of big protest lead to genuine change? Will the political class change?
Arudhati Roy: I think it would lead to certain laws perhaps. It may also lead to increased surveillence. But all of that, I will repeat, all of that will protect middle class women. But in other place when we are looking for laws there are laws. But when the Police themselves go and burn down villages and gangrape. I have personally listened to so many testimonies from women who were subjected to such heinous crime. I have heard so many testimonies from eye witnesses that how women were killed.

TV Anchor: This is such a contrast from the image being projected of a modern India by the film industry in Mumbai and by a new Tech India. It makes one feel there are many world competing one another here.
Arundhati Roy: There is one section of film industry which projects bubble gum chewing modern India. There is another section of film industry with rap singers, films porno films where they show bestial violence against women. Celebrating murder and rape.. etc. The idea of 'them' being criminal is.. Poor are projected as...

Urban Young women are vulnerable....

To watch Arundhati Roy Here

Hitler, Hindutva and Indian elite

2012-12-06T20:09:00.001+05:30

My wife teaches French to tenth-grade students at a private school here in Mumbai. During one recent class, she asked these mostly upper-middle-class kids to complete the sentence “J'admire …” with the name of the historical figure they most admired.

To say she was disturbed by the results would be to understate her reaction. Of 25 students in the class, 9 picked Adolf Hitler, making him easily the highest vote-getter in this particular exercise; a certain Mohandas Gandhi was the choice of precisely one student. Discussing the idea of courage with other students once, my wife was startled by the contempt they had for Gandhi. “He was a coward!” they said. And as far back as 2002, the Times of India reported a survey that found that 17 percent of students in elite Indian colleges “favored Adolf Hitler as the kind of leader India ought to have.”

In a place where Gandhi becomes a coward, perhaps Hitler becomes a hero.

Still, why Hitler? “He was a fantastic orator,” said the 10th-grade kids. “He loved his country; he was a great patriot. He gave back to Germany a sense of pride they had lost after the Treaty of Versailles,” they said.

"And what about the millions he murdered?” asked my wife. “Oh, yes, that was bad,” said the kids. “But you know what, some of them were traitors.”

Admiring Hitler for his oratorical skills? Surreal enough. Add to that the easy condemnation of his millions of victims as traitors. Add to that the characterization of this man as a patriot. I mean, in a short dozen years,

Hitler led Germany through a scarcely believable orgy of blood to utter shame and wholesale destruction. Even the mere thought of calling such a man a patriot profoundly corrupts—is violently antithetical to—the idea of patriotism.

But these are kids, you think, and kids say the darndest things. Except this is no easily written-off experience. The evidence is that Hitler has plenty of admirers in India, plenty of whom are by no means kids.

Consider Mein Kampf, Hitler’s autobiography. Reviled it might be in the much of the world, but Indians buy thousands of copies of it every month. As a recent paper in the journal EPW tells us (PDF), there are over a dozen Indian publishers who have editions of the book on the market. Jaico, for example, printed its 55th edition in 2010, claiming to have sold 100,000 copies in the previous seven years. (Contrast this to the 3,000 copies my own 2009 book, Roadrunner, has sold). In a country where 10,000 copies sold makes a book a bestseller, these are significant numbers.

And the approval goes beyond just sales. Mein Kampf is available for sale on flipkart.com, India’s Amazon. As I write this, 51 customers have rated the book; 35 of those gave it a five-star rating. What’s more, there’s a steady trickle of reports that say it has become a must-read for business-school students; a management guide much like Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese or Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking. If this undistinguished artist could take an entire country with him, I imagine the reasoning goes, surely his book has some lessons for future captains of industry?

Much of Hitler’s Indian afterlife is the legacy of Bal Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena party who died on Nov. 17.

Thackeray freely, openly, and often admitted his admiration for Hitler, his book, the Nazis, and their methods. In 1993, for example, he gave an interview to Time magazine. “There is nothing wrong,” he said then, “if [Indian] Muslims are treated as Jews were in Nazi Germany.”

This interview came only months after the December 1992 and January 1993 riots in Mumbai, which left about a thousand Indians slaughtered, the majority of them Muslim. Thackeray was active right through those weeks, writing editorial after editorial in his party mouthpiece, “Saamna” (“Confrontation”) about how to “treat” Muslims.

On Dec. 9, 1992, for example, his editorial contained these lines: “Pakistan need not cross the borders and attack India. 250 million Muslims in India will stage an armed insurrection. They form one of Pakistan’s seven atomic bombs.”

A month later, on Jan. 8, 1993, there was this: “Muslims of Bhendi Bazar, Null Bazar, Dongri and Pydhonie, the areas [of Mumbai] we call Mini Pakistan … must be shot on the spot.”

There was plenty more too: much of it inspired by the failed artist who became Germany’s führer. After all, only weeks before the riots erupted, Thackeray said this about the führer’s famous autobiography: “If you take Mein Kampf and if you remove the word Jew and put in the word Muslim, that is what I believe in.”

With rhetoric like that, it’s no wonder the streets of my city saw the slaughter of 1992-93. It’s no wonder kids come to admire a mass-murderer, to rationalize away his massacres. It’s no wonder they cling to almost comically superficial ideas of courage and patriotism, in which a megalomaniac’s every ghastly crime is forgotten so long as we can pretend that he “loved” his country.

In his acclaimed 1997 book Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Daniel Goldhagen writes: “Hitler, in possession of great oratorical skills, was the [Nazi] Party’s most forceful public speaker. Like Hitler, the party from its earliest days was devoted to the destruction of … democracy [and to] most especially and relentlessly, anti-Semitism. … The Nazi Party became Hitler’s Party, obsessively anti-Semitic and apocalyptic in its rhetoric about its enemies.”

Do some substitutions in those sentences along the lines Thackeray wanted to do with Mein Kampf. Indeed, what you get is a more than adequate description of … no surprise, Thackeray himself.

Yes, it’s no wonder. Thackeray too was revered as an orator. Cremated, on Nov. 18, as a patriot.

Dilip D'Souza in The Daily Beast Here

I can't hug my Ferrari forever..! : Dr Richard Teo

2012-12-04T07:49:00.001+05:30

Consultant surgeon Richard Teo in Singapore who was 40 years old passed away on the 18th of October due to a lung cancer. He had reached success and had become a billionaire by following the vision that happiness is in the hands of money. He had been working as a popular cosmetic surgeon in his final days, earning huge sums of money.

Yet he had become very disappointed after knowing the disease he had been inflicted with. When, he realized that he was left with a short period of time then, he decided to serve the people during that short period of time. He finally mentioned that: “I can’t be holding on to my Ferrari all my life.” Few days before his death, he addressed medical students and shared his experience which is very popular in the internet these days. Few lines extracted from his speech are as below:

“I am a product of the modern society. I was able to adapt to the modern world since my childhood days. I come from a middle class family. I was constantly told that happiness could be reached by success and that success is all money. Thus, I was very competent since my childhood. I wanted to go to the best school and I wanted to be the best. I won awards, medals and became the first at everything. You may be aware that becoming an eye surgeon is a very popular field. I went after that and I was also selected in this field. I have won an award for using laser to cure problems related to the eye. I got two patent licenses as well. One was on using medical equipment and the other was for using laser but I didn’t earn any money. So as soon as I finished, I decided that it was enough.

I realized that private medical practice will help me to earn a lot of money and my interest shifted to cosmetic surgery as it was very popular in the world. I stopped my practice on the way and started a private clinic for cosmetic surgery.

Unfortunately, people don’t pay respect to their family doctor. Instead they respect popular doctors. People who are reluctant to pay S $20 are ready to pay thousands and ten thousands to beautify themselves. So I decided to become a cosmetic surgeon instead of being regular doctor. Accordingly, the business reached utmost success. At first the clients had to wait for a week to get an appointment, later they had to wait for months. I had work on a full time basis. People were so interested on improving their physique. It was such a flourishing business. Then I hired another doctor, gradually the number of doctors increased and seven doctors to work under me. We earned about a million dollars during the first year. Yet that wasn't enough for me as I was crazy about money. I worked in Indonesia to serve the richest Indonesians.

When I earned such a lot of money, I wandered as to what to do? I joined a racing club. Then I started to go to Malaysia on weekends for races. When I earned more money, I bought a Ferrari. They didn't have 458 models those days. So I bought the latest 430 model. I had a friend of mine working in a bank, he bought a red one and I bought a silver one. Afterwards, we were looking for houses or rather bungalows.

Whom did I associate? I thought that we need to associate rich people. So we associated people who were very rich and popular like beauty queens and businessmen. We had a very busy life schedule going to parties and clubs. I reached the peak of success, I got everything I wanted and everything was under my control. But, was everything under my control? In March 2011, I got a backache and I thought that it is a result of me doing heavy exercises. So I met one of my friends to do MRI scan at the Singapore National Hospital. That was to know whether there was a fracture in the spinal cord. My friend called me that evening that there is a change in the bone marrows. I asked him as to what he is saying even though I knew exactly as to what it was.

We did another scan on the next day and we diagnosed that I was having a 4th grade cancer. I was wondering as to how this could happen. By that time, it had already spread to lungs, liver, brain and adrenal glands and other internal organs. For a moment I was thinking that everything was under my control but the whole world disappeared in front of me.

Look at my CT scan. All these dots are where the cancer had spread. They told me that chemo therapy can be given but I will survive only for about 3-4 months. I broke into pieces. I was very disappointed and utterly depressed.

Think of my unfortunate fate…When I was utterly depressed none of the money, vehicles, bungalows or awards was able to console me. Can I hug and embrace my Ferrari and go to sleep? No. Even though I believed that they would bring me happiness, they didn’t.

What brought me happiness during the last ten months was the friendship through inter personal relationships. My friends supported me and helped me to come out of my misery; they shared my sorrow and cried with me. None of my materialistic goods brought me happiness. If they did, I could have shared my sorrow with them.

You all are aware of the Chinese New Year. What did I do during last years? I visited my relatives in my expensive car. I thought it was happiness but for a second I didn't think that they cannot share my happiness as they were working hard to balance their expenses with their earnings.

When I showed off my expensive car, they used public transport to balance their expenses. They would have hated me. I thought that I could fulfill my ego by showing off them my materialistic values. None of them has brought any happiness to my friends or to my relatives.

Everybody knows of the fact that they will die one day but nobody believes in what they know. That is because; if we know that we would do everything in a different way. When I knew that I was dying, I got rid of all the unnecessary things and concentrated only on what was necessary. What is sad is the fact that we realize and learn how to live, when we get to know that we are dying. I know that this brings sorrow to you but that is the truth and that is what I am experiencing.

Don’t let the society teach you how to live. Don’t let the media say how to live because I too once believed in what they said and lived. I wish that you can decide for yourselves and live a happy life. You should decide whether you will live by serving yourselves or others. Real happiness lies when you serve others. That was something I realized from my own experience.”

TAKEHOME MESSAGE:

Everyone shall taste death. And only on the Day of Resurrection shall you be paid your wages in full. And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception (a deceiving thing). (Holy Quran 3:185)

O you who believe! Fear Allah and keep your duty to Him. And let every person look to what he has sent forth for the morrow, and fear Allah. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what you do (59:18)

Missing Salah (Prayer) Intentionally

2012-12-04T04:56:00.000+05:30

Nothing we can do is worse than missing Salah. Check this out:

A woman came to Prophet Musa and said, "I committed a grave sin. Please pray to Allah that He forgives me."
Prophet Musa: "What did you do?"
Woman: "I committed fornication and later gave birth to a boy whom I killed."

Prophet Musa: "Go away from here, you wicked woman, lest a fire from Heaven destroys us all because of your sin!"

The woman left broken-hearted. Then Angel Jibril descended and asked, "O Musa, why have you turned away a repentant woman? Have you not found anyone worse than her?"
Prophet Musa: "Who can be worse than her?"
Angel Jibril: "The one who abandons salah intentionally and persistently."

[Al-Kaba'ir, Adh-Dhahabi, Book of Missing Salah]

Who Milks This Cow?

2012-11-12T13:05:00.000+05:30

Nearly two thousand people died in the Bhagalpur riots. Many more were rendered homeless. Although Muslims were less than 20 per cent of the population, they constituted more than 70 per cent of those who had been killed or displaced. We visited a once-flourishing village of Muslim weavers, or julahas, whose homes and looms had been totally destroyed by a mob of Hindus. The survivors were being taken care of by a prosperous Muslim weaver in Bhagalpur town, who had laid out tents in his garden. Other refugees were being provided food and shelter by a Muslim religious organisation. Of government work in the resettlement and rehabilitation of the refugees there was not a sign.

I was shaken to see that my fellow Hindus would willingly partake of such savagery, and that my government would take no responsibility for the victims. Till then, the politics of religion had no place in my scholarly work or writing. My principal field of research was the environment. I had just published a book on the social history of the Himalayan forests, and had written scholarly essays on environmental conflicts in Asia and North America. However, I was now provoked to write an essay on the Bhagalpur riots for the Sunday Observer.

Ramachandra Guha in Outlook Here

The story of our Fathers

2012-11-10T22:37:00.005+05:30

IN the heart of Berlin this summer I walked on stage at the Babylon Theater and began telling stories.

I was nervous. I’m a practicing Muslim, and I didn’t know how a German audience would react to an awkward, hairy brown kid.

I talked. I talked about my life, and how as a child I’d bring home a report card with a 95 percent on it, and my father would say, “Why isn’t this 100 percent? If you weren’t slacking off, you’d have 100 percent.”

An old story, perhaps, but one that gets laughs.

It still drives me nuts because he still does it.

I did a TV interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour after I had launched “30 Mosques in 30 Days” — a blog on which a friend and I chronicled the Muslims we met during a road trip to all 50 states. My dad e-mailed me afterwards: “Very good, I’m proud of you. But why didn’t you wear a tie? Your haircut already makes you look like a drug dealer, at least look like a drug dealer that knows how to dress.”

My dad is 67 years old, in worsening health. He refuses to retire, despite how hard my four brothers and I try to get him to relax. I have a younger brother in college still, and my father fiercely insists that he be the one who provides for him. “My eyes might not work anymore, but my hands still do, right?” he tells me. “So I’m going to work.”

My father, as remarkable a man as he is to me, has a story shared by millions of immigrants the world over who fled poverty, dictatorships and other horrid living conditions to make better lives for their children.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in May that for the first time, most of the children born in the United States are members of a minority group. What does that mean? Simple: More and more people are coming to America to work hard because they love their families the way my dad loves mine. So why are we still “minorities”?

Some conservatives may react to that statistic with xenophobic fear. Some of those same people, when speaking on other issues, will say the structure of traditional families is falling apart — when they are surrounded by immigrants who come to this country to preserve their families.

On stage, my father’s story is always with me. He went to college in India, majoring in civil engineering because he dreamed about designing bridges and roads. He wanted to go to America to find better opportunities. He moved to Chicago to pursue a degree in civil engineering. He worked at a factory assembling screws onto blades used for milling machines. It paid $240 a week. He’d take classes during the day and work 10-hour night shifts at the factory.

Then, he found out his friend was working at Dunkin’ Donuts making $250 a week. That extra $10 meant $10 more he could send home every week to his mother and brother in India. After a year of juggling Dunkin’ Donuts shifts and master’s classes, my dad was offered a manager position and an opportunity to own doughnut stores. Newly married to my mom and a child on the way, he quit school.

More than 40 years has gone by since my dad quit school to focus on Dunkin’ Donuts full time. I didn’t know how much that decision still hurts until a recent conversation.

“Every time I drive on a highway or bridge, I start to feel sad,” he said. “I was really good at designing bridges, and that could have been me.”

These are the sentences I cannot forget: “That’s why I push you to work so hard. I don’t want you to ever say to yourself, ‘That could have been me.”’

This year, I performed stand-up comedy in England, Denmark, Belgium and Germany — countries I knew very little about.

Germany had me the most nervous. I was reading about how widespread anti-Muslim sentiments were in Europe, especially in Germany, where the country’s interior minister had said, “Islam has no place in our country.” It’s a country that has one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe.

Still, I headed to the land of chocolate with an open mind (and stomach).

And that’s how I found myself in Berlin, a bit nervous on stage at the Babylon Theater. To my surprise and delight, the crowd really did warm up. But the show didn’t become unforgettable until I walked offstage.

A non-Muslim German guy walked up as I was tying my shoe. He had a blond faux hawk with streak marks buzzed along the side of his head, a leather collar with studded spikes wrapped around his neck and tattoos that spelled “David” etched onto his fingers. He reached out to shake my hand.

“Hi, my name is David,” he said.

“So I’ve heard ... or should I say read,” I said, nodding to his fingers.

“I just wanted to tell you that I ... really enjoyed your performance,” he said, a bit nervously.

He paused for a moment, and it seemed as if he were hesitant to say what he wanted to say next; he kept opening his mouth before closing it and shaking his head. Finally he spoke.

“I’ve never met a Muslim before.”

He continued: “And I’ll be honest with you, I’m really afraid of you guys. I hear about all this stuff in the news, and the idea of Muslims living here really used to scare me. But then I saw your performance and learned about who you were, and I realized I forgot that we are all human beings. Now I feel ashamed to have ever been afraid.”

David told me his father was born in Poland and immigrated to Germany in the same way my father did — with dreams to make a better life for his children. Like my father, David’s dad was incredibly tough on him growing up, forcing him to attend private school and hold down a job since he was 14. He didn’t really think about why his father did that to him until he heard my story.

“I never thought about how much our fathers are willing to suffer, just so we never have to lose the ability to smile,” he said. “You make me want to go home and give my father a hug.”

“Hearing your story makes me want to do the same,” I said.

Little did my dad realize how beautiful a bridge he had designed.

AMAN ALI is a storyteller, commentator, stand-up comedian and traveler.

In the New York Times Here

Maryam Jameelah : 'With an eyeful of Madina's dust'

2012-11-03T14:59:00.001+05:30

“You have to read these”, my friend compelled me, giving me a couple of yellowed, printed-long-ago sort of books. That gave me my first glimpse into the fascinating life and inspiring works of Maryam Jameelah.

Born as Margaret Marcus into an American Jewish family who cared little for religion and were active believers in the American Way, it was curious how that little girl refused to fit into that life and culture and came to realize it wasn’t the glittering American Dream, after all. She sought answers and found herself interested in the exotic and oriental. Young Maggie Marcus’s fascination with oriental cultures led her to meet many New York Arabs and Muslims, from where she was introduced to Islam.

At a relatively young age, Maryam began to study and to read up on Islam and Muslim culture. She found in Islam what the society around her lacked and never could give her. She found herself heartily in agreement. From then on, there was no going back. After her reversion to Islam in 1961, it became clear to her that New York couldn’t be her home any more. The odds were too many.

Soon after, Maryam began regularly corresponding with Muslim leaders and scholars throughout the world including Maulana Maudoodi, in whose ideas she found a close kinship. At his invitation, Maryam shortly moved to Pakistan and settled in Lahore. Here, she lives with her husband, four children and the extended family members, spending her days reading and writing regularly for the Muslim World Book Review on a wide range of issues and subjects related to Islam and the West, and the resurgence of Islam.

Maulana Maudoodi had once called Maryam Jameelah ‘a tropical sapling planted in the Arctic.’ Reading through the details in the biographies my friend had lent me, there was so much that truly moved one. What inspired me was how a young mind, with no Islamic influence around, grew to develop such a seasoned vision of Islam, such courage to enable her to resist all the tempting glamour of developed society. Her search was honest and it rested only after having achieved that which alone fulfilled. Masha Allah!

After her arrival in Pakistan, Maryam had to grapple with a totally different lifestyle and cultural milieu. She reminisces of the linguistic barrier, the climate she was totally unsuited to, the large family structure and the hygiene conditions. It could hardly be called ‘home’ for a young New Yorker. However, this cultural ‘leap’ Maryam Jameelah had undertaken was in fact also a ‘leap of faith’, making her amazingly resilient.

Some of the most beautiful passages in Maryam Jameelah’s biography which taught me much were about how the young New York girl seeks and appreciates the beauty in the simple ways of Muslim culture. For her, eating out of a common earthenware dish is beautiful for the warm sharing it involes; walking barefoot on a dirt floor and making ablution out of a clay pot are the simple, natural pleasures of life, the rare delights of the unsophisticated simplicity_ uncorrupted by materialism and artifice_ that is essential to Islam. She warms up to the largesse, generosity, hospitality of values engendered by Islam.

The flies, the heat, the dirt, the discomfort and inconveniences fail to bring low the indomitable spirit. Surely, the eyes beholding so much beauty in something a ‘Westernised’ mind would sneer at must be beautiful_ ‘wearing in the eyes the dust of Madina’, as Iqbal would have said.

Getting a fuller view of Maryam Jameelah, I ended up reading several of her works on Islam and the West, which were certainly deeply insightful, incisively critical_ the product of an analytical mind and a passionate heart. It was around then that my friend called up, and in high pitched tones of excitement, told me of a rare discovery: she had actually traced Maryam Jameelah to her home! She had simply followed the publishers’ address given at the back of one of her books_ printed back in the 70s, and praying ardently that they hadn’t shifted since then, actually sought out the place!

Next Saturday evening we were both threading our way through the streets of Sant Nagar_ not to forget stopping at the florist’s on the way to get a bouquet of ‘Nargis’_ decidedly ‘Nargis’_ we had to be as ‘oriental’ as would suit the occasion.On the way, observing the narrow, bumpy and dusty streets and the barefooted children playing around, I thought I could feel that beauty Maryam had sought in there too. This was so removed from the urbanized quarters_ an island within a monstrosity of ‘development.’ The car halted before an old house much like the ones around. We brightened up when a bright, cheerful and warm face appeared_ Moon Apa’s, who had facilitated the visit. She made us feel welcomed- rather, at home. I think I understood how Maryam Jameelah had so effortlessly managed to say ‘I belong.’

To my left, I saw a huge courtyard which immediately aroused the feeling of ‘dejavu’_ it clicked… I remembered a page from Maryam Jameelah’s biography… suddenly, the room filled up with gaily dressed women from the 70s laying out traditional sweetmeat dishes to welcome their guest from New York who had chosen to live among her companions in faith…

We said our Maghrib prayers in the drawing room where we were waiting adjacent to Maryam Apa’s room. Folding up the prayer mat, my heart thumping wildly, I couldn’t keep from looking at the dear old profile etched across the open window, at the head of silvery-white hair draped in a white dupatta’ (scarf), lowered on the prayer mat in sajdah. I felt the unspeakable blessdness of the moment filling up my veins. Some things just cannot be expressed…

Most of what we heard Maryam Apa say, we had already read in her books. But to see it come alive in the full-throated voice which had in it the energy and vitality of her rich heart; to see that ‘undying flame’ of the unbeaten spirit in the fine old eyes, and the deep-seated gratitude and thankfulness for the life she has lived was an experience unsurpassable. She brightened up sharing memories of the past, shyly smiling like a little girl, her beady eyes twinkling even though she was frail and volatile with age, exhausted and not very mobile any more.

Since she settled in Lahore, Maryam Jameelah has been a prolific writer. Her work reflects a deep, incisive and analytical understanding of Western culture and civilization. Being an ‘insider’, and not having lived in a colonial or postcolonial set up, she digs deep into the very foundations of American society and with a rare, refreshing vision and raw honesty, exposes it down to its bare bones. She feels intensely its spiritual bankruptcy and the toll materialism has taken on the life of the average American, reducing life to a struggle for material prosperity and comfort, no more.

However, the deeper questions remain unanswered, unresolved, and the inner self unsatiated:

It is this distressing evolutionary process that has today made America a slave of machines. The supremacy of the USA is accepted all over the world and its hand is seen in everything that happens anywhere. No country, Muslim or non-Mulsim, is altogether free from its control and domination. Today America has enslaved the world with its way of life but it has itself become the slave of machines. It is a prisoner of its lifestyle, of material progress, factories, laboratories and of fancy goods and gadgets. Man here has got so completely cast in the technological mould of life that his ideas and emotions have also become mechanical. The properties of rock and iron have entered into his soul. He has become narrow and selfish, cold and unfeeling. There is no warmth in his heart; no moisture in his eyes. This is the reality I have sadly observed during my stay in America.(As quoted by Maryam Jameelah in ‘The Resurgence of Islam and Liberation from our Colonial Yoke).

It is this dissatisfaction and disappointment with the deceptive sheen of the Western humanistic tradition and all it could ever offer that makes Maryam Jameelah embark on a search for meaningful life true to the purpose we are sent with, in tune with the ebb and flow of nature, imbued with simplicity and spirituality. She finds this fulfilment in Islam and Muslim culture, and this is where the seeker in her finds the anchor to hold on to. They say, ‘beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’. The vision that rejected the emptiness of the culture of materialism and narcissism finds out the beauty of the ‘Muslim’ Way of Life:

The remedy for the problems of the modern world is the adoption of absolute transcendental values. The fallacy that everything must change with changing times makes life devoid of meaning and purpose since there is nothing of permanent worth. It is responsible for our ‘throw-away’ culture which considers everything disposable. The relativity of values is responsible for the unprecedented epidemic of vulgarity and obscenity in the mass media, of arts and entertainments, the generation gap, widespread alcohol and drug addiction and suicide as a leading cause of death. If everything must change with the changing times, human dignity and the nobility of character are almost impossible to achieve since these are based upon permanence and stability in the moral order.

Modern man desperately needs a Supreme Authority for reference to distinguish between what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is ugly. This does not mean totalitarian dictatorship but the Rule of Law in the highest sense. Only the Divine Law of the Shariah is impartial and just; where ruler and ruled, rich and poor, young and old, celebrities and ordinary anonymous folk are equally subjected to its jurisdiction… the authority of the Shariah proceeds from Almighty Allah. Thus it is feared, esteemed, loved and obeyed simultaneously. It combines the internal sanctions of fear of Allah and His retribution in the Hereafter with severe but just punishments for violation of that law on which the health of the individual and society depend.

Her belief in Islam as the panacea and the absolute Good is powerful and authentic:

The call of Islam to modern man is the call to stability and inward peace. A society based on the precepts of fear and reverence for the Divine Law will not be troubled with crime, violence and lawlessness.…Individually, Islam would bring a direction, meaning and purpose to life which materialistic cultures cannot provide; an inward serenity and peace even in the midst of external frustrations and adversity… the ugliness of our environment would be supplanted by beauty…” (Islam and Modern Man)

Again, being originally an outsider, she does not take the ways of Islam dully as a habit but delights in its refreshing distinction from the materialism and artifice she has known and come to detest. Observing the contrast directly, closely and first hand, Maryam Jameelah’s later works show a seasoned understanding of the inner dynamics that make post-Enlightenment secular-liberal Western society what it is and the influences_ direct and indirect_ it exercises on what it calls the ‘developing’ predominantly Muslim world. She studies and presents an analysis of Western philosophy and traces its evolution till the point where a secular, capitalist-materialist social structure was realized. She analyzes the motives and methods of Western imperialism, colonial rule and the state of perpetual neo-colonialism the Muslim world labours under. She is bitterly critical of modernist Muslims who believe that in the Westernization and ‘modernization’ of Islam lies its hope for survival and progress:

The earliest modernizers in the Muslim world were dismayed by the contrast between the material backwardness of the Muslims and the dazzling energy and concrete accomplishments of Europe. They thought that if only the Muslims could imbibe modern knowledge through modern education, their people would become just as strong, progressive and prosperous.

Some, like Jamaluddin Afghani and Shaikh Muhammad Abduh sincerely believed that this was the proper road to Islamic revival in its call to modern man. The leaders of the Muslim countries accepted this advice without question. More than a century has passed since then but although all Muslim countries have adopted the Western s7stem as their own, they remain poor, weak, backward…

Yet the Orientalists and the modernizers insist that the Muslims are weak because they are not Westernized thoroughly enough and prescribe another dose of the same harmful diet. Those who merely imitate and not create, those who are always passive receptors instead of active givers are defeated in the inevitable course of events because their initial position is one of failure. The call of Islam to modern man can succeed only if it proceeds from a position of strength, independence and self-confidence.

Why is Westernization so attractive to the Muslims as it is for everyone else? It is irresistible because it is easy. Contemporary civilization is based upon self-indulgence while that of Islam requires sacrifice, altruism, discipline, self-control and endurance which are difficult. But self-indulgence leads to decadence and decline while the opposite qualities, which Islam demands, lead to superior strength, unity and virtue. If practiced in its right spirit, Islam leads to social integration. Self-indulgent materialism leads to social disintegration an ultimately collective suicide…

The times in which Maryam Jameelah’s writing is placed, the 1960s to 80s were when the groundwork for contemporary politics was being laid taking shape. Her analysis and observations therefore, help one understand the roots and implications of contemporary socio-political issues. Her work bears striking relevance to current-day dilemmas and issues_ certainly the vision of an eye gifted with foresight.

Although placed in times when the Muslim world was ravaged by modernist post-Kemalist reform movements like President Nasser’s in Egypt, Maryam Jameelah’s work is set apart, shunning all such influences, safely cocooned in her firm fidelity to the fundamental sources of Islam and her sensitive appreciation of Islamic tradition. She passionately defends this ignored treasure, showing it to the world in its unclouded, natural splendour. She believes in the eternal dynamism of Islamic tradition, its eternal relevance as a means to establish a viable egalitarian, peaceful, just and welfare-oriented society in the present day, modelled on the insights provided by the first Muslim community in Madina. She pleads her case convincingly and passionately:

“It is often asserted by orientalists that the values and ideals of traditional Islamic civilization have no relevance, even for Muslims today because, like all non-European cultures, it was the product of an antiquated tradition of the pre-scientific age. They assert that only secularity is relevant to modernity, to change, to continual technological innovations, and their social consequences. Since the genuine Muslim is a traditional man, he can therefore have nothing of relevance to contribute to the daily life of the modern man. But despite the drastic environmental transformation brought about by modern technology, the basic human drives and needs remain unchanged. Therefore modern man is just as thirsty for the spiritual sustenance which alone gives life its meaning, direction and purpose as was his ancestors, even if he is not consciously aware of it.

It is the purpose of those who call modern man to Islam to awaken him to the urgent intensity of these needs, not only for the individual but for the whole of human society. Unfortunately, there remains another great obstacle in the path of a modern appreciation of Islam. Islamic civilization was not only remote from modernity in the technological sense; it seems even more remote from the modern mind in its moral ideals, which cannot be appreciated by the secular man or even regarded by him as desirable. The spiritual ideals of Islam can be understood only by truly God-fearing people, who yearn for God’s mercy and salvation in the Hereafter.

Those who wish to call modern man to Islam must make him understand and appreciate such virtue which is utterly foreign and incomprehensible to the materialist. By an effective presentation of the profound richness of Islamic culture as an historical acuality in the life of the Muslims until the recent past, he must make the modern man appalled by the spiritual poverty in which he must live and long for a better life not limited to this world.” (Islam and Modern Man)

In the context of the contemporary dilemmas of achieving ‘liberation’, ‘pluralism’, ‘enlightened moderation’ outside of Islam and remoulding Muslim societies to toe the Western line and achieve the Western ideal of Secular-liberalism, Maryam Jameelah’s works have perhaps a relevance more than ever before.

While Muslims debate which ‘brand’ of Islam be adopted to appease the imperious demands of Western imperialism; while we concoct the smothering labels of ‘extremist’, ‘secular’, ‘modernist’, ,moderate’, ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ and seek an identity alien to our real, true essence, we need to rediscover the beauty and quiet superiority of the pristine ‘Muslim’ way as lived by the Prophet (S) of Islam and the earliest generation; we need to make that legacy speak to us again of our problems and dilemmas and provide a way forward.

Maryam Jameelah, in throwing overboard the naive presumptions she was socialized into, prejudices she inherited and wholeheartedly choosing to live by the way of Islam with pride and passion, has a lot to teach us as we still grope in the darkness for an identity.

Maryam Sakeenah in Defiance Here and Here

Expat Ride: A book on Gulf NRIs

2012-11-01T07:46:00.001+05:30

For long, the Middle East, which is commonly termed as 'Gulf', has been considered an El Dorado for Indians. The first wave of prosperity came in many parts of India, particularly, in South India, when lakhs of Indians got jobs in Middle East in 70s and 80s.

It is a fact that despite 5-7 million Indians working in Gulf countries, there is not enough focus in India on either their contribution to our economy or their problems.

For the record, the number of Indians in West Asian countries is at least four times the number of NRIs in America. Mohammed Saifuddin's book Expat Ride sheds light on the issues pertaining to Indians in Gulf.

Contrary to the belief that every person who goes to Gulf, manages to make moolah, it tells us how large number of people fail to save adequate money.

The semi-skilled workers face pathetic conditions, work hard by spending more hours in duty but don't get as much return for their efforts. From facing extreme weather and psychological issues due to living away from families, the book tells a lot about the situation on the ground.

The book tells us about challenges faced by expatriates in getting good education to their children. That they have to pay exorbitant fees to get admission in colleges in India and the quota initiated by AB Vajpayee-led BJP government remains limited to just a few educational institutions in India.

Saifuddin also touches the issue of taxes apart from exploitation by money-lenders and depression among Indians working in the region. As many as 70% of those who commit suicide in Dubai, are Indians! This is a shocker for everybody.

The author suggests that India should conduct surveys and take more steps to redress the issues of expatriate community. Another myth is busted in the book. Muslims are not favoured in Gulf countries. In fact, in key positions non-Muslims outnumber Muslims.

The number of Muslims among powerful Indians in GCC countries is just 18%. There are other serious issues like problems faced in repatriation of dead bodies to India.

These things need to be taken up on priority. It is true that Indian newspapers and Television channels seldom pay attention to these important aspects which affect a large number of people.

But when it comes to sudden disappearance or crime against an NRI in America or Britain, our media forgets all sense of proportion and lap it up, showing it for hours.

But there is no such interest visible in Gulf. This is despite the enormous regular contribution in terms of remittances--sending money back home on regular basis, that runs millions of households in India.

Saifuddin, who hails from Hyderabad, has over the years penned articles for Yahind.com portal. The book comprises these articles. One hopes that the book would draw the attention of policy makers towards Indian expatriates in the GCC countries--United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabic, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

By Indscribe in AnIndianMuslim. Here and Here

How do we treat Islam in our life: S J Habeebullah

2012-10-28T19:30:00.000+05:30

A comprehensive book on marriage in Islam

2012-10-28T14:01:00.001+05:30

There are many books on the Islamic religion and many more on the institution of marriage. Sheikh Muhammed Karakunnu wrote a book in Malayalam where he combined the two. It is this book on matrimony which K.M. Muhammed has translated into Tamil. It is more or less a textbook with instructions on the various aspects of marriage based on the tenets of Islam and Hadees (sayings of the Prophet).

Quoting heavily from the Holy Book, the author exhorts youth to get married. He deals with the pitfalls of bachelorhood in the second chapter where he cautions those who are not married, to observe fasts to resist evil thoughts and temptation. Marriage is aimed to regulate human life, he believes.

From choosing the bride to the rituals, the writer says that if a man intends to marry a woman after having conducted enquiries, he may take a look at her preferably without her knowledge. This is because in the event of his not liking her, her feelings should not be hurt. He cannot meet her alone. Most of the Islamic scholars opine that he can look only at her face and forearm.

It is the girl who has to decide on her alliance, and her consent for marriage is imperative. If however the marriage takes place without her consent, she has the right to cancel it.

Solemnising a Muslim marriage is simple. Of the two parties, one expresses consent and satisfaction for the alliance known as ‘Ejab’ while the other party conveys acceptance or ‘Khabool’. In the presence of two witnesses, the bride’s father or guardian gives away the girl. Once the groom conveys his acceptance, the marriage agreement stands completed. Supplication for the well-being of the newly weds follows and then the feast.

Explaining the concept of Meher, the author says it is gift to the bride from the groom and a portion of it should be paid at the time of the Nikkah (marriage). Islam prohibits wasteful expenditure during weddings.

The content is packaged in good prose and coherent language that is practical and contemporary. There is a sense of purpose and passion throughout, and the book is a comprehensive and exhaustive study.

MOB Habib in The Hindu Here and Here

Drop the Prefix, I’m Just Muslim

2012-10-23T20:00:00.001+05:30

What kind of Muslim are you? The question seems odd, but for those who seek to divide and conquer Islam, the answer has become increasingly important. Even more disturbing are the labels we assign ourselves.

In our families few of us can say we’ve never disagreed with our siblings. But when a family member makes a mistake—even a big one—or has a view we don’t agree with, even fewer of us decide to divorce that family and change our name. Today, the same is not true of our Muslim family. Today, we’re no longer just ‘Muslim.’ We’re ‘progressives,’ ‘Islamists,’ ‘traditionalists,’ ‘salafis,’ ‘indigenous,’ and ‘immigrant.’ And each group has become so alienated from the other, that we’ve almost forgotten that we share a common creed.

While real differences do exist within our ummah, something very serious has gone wrong. Within the fold of Islam, differences are not only tolerated—they’re encouraged as a mercy from God. But as soon as we label and marginalize any who disagree with us, our downfall begins. Once we accept and internalize these labels as our main source of identity, the result is disastrous. As a result, we create our own camps, attend only our own gatherings and conferences; soon enough, we’re talking only to those who agree with us. Dialogue within the ummah disappears, our differences become only more polarized and our views become more extreme. Before long, we stop caring about what happens to the ‘other’ group of Muslims around the world, as we amputate limbs from the unified body our prophet taught us we were. The ‘other’ (who happen to still be our brothers) become so foreign—even despised—that we no longer wish to be referred by the same family name, and even join our enemies against them.

Suddenly those differences, that were once a mercy, become a curse–and a weapon to defeat Islam. Our enemies “summon one another to attack [us] as people, while eating, invite others to share their food.” (Abu Dawud)

On March 18, 2004 RAND, the influential U.S. think tank, released a report to help ‘civilize’ Islam by effacing it and remaking it in the image of Western secularism. In the report, Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, Strategies, Cheryl Benard writes, “Modernism, not traditionalism, is what worked for the West. This included the necessity to depart from, modify, and selectively ignore elements of the original religious doctrine.”

In order to “depart from, modify, and selectively ignore” elements of Islam, Benard suggests a simple strategy: label, divide, control. After labeling each group of Muslims, she suggests pitting one group against each other. Among other strategies, Benard suggests “encourag[ing] disagreements between traditionalists and fundamentalists,” and “discourag[ing] alliances between traditionalists and fundamentalists.”

By succeeding at this division and supporting the ‘Modernist’/ ‘Progressive’ Muslims, Bernard hopes to invent a ‘civil democratic’ Islam that is less backwards and problematic. More specifically, she hopes to create an Islam that will surrender itself to the hegemony of the Neo Conservative Agenda.

So if the first step to deforming Islam is to exploit the labels that exist, let’s say: “Thanks, but no thanks.” God tells us: “And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided” (Qur’an,3:103). So although we really appreciate this effort to ‘civilize’ us and our religion—we’ll have to pass. You only reform something that’s corrupt or outdated. And you only fix something that’s broken.

And while it’s nice of you to want to call us ‘modern’ or ‘moderate,’ we’ll do without the redundancy. Islam is by definition moderate, so the more strictly we adhere to its fundamentals—the more moderate we’ll be. And Islam is by nature timeless and universal, so if we’re truly Islamic—we’ll always be modern.

We’re not ‘Progressives’; we’re not ‘Conservatives.’ We’re not ‘neo-Salafi’; we’re not ‘Sufi’; We’re not ‘Islamists’; we’re not ‘Modernists’. We’re not ‘Traditionalists’; we’re not ‘Wahabis.’ We’re not ‘Immigrants’ and we’re not ‘Indigenous.’ Thanks, but we’ll do without your prefix.

We’re just Muslim.

Also published at Infocu s News.

The Prophet of Islam and a feature film

2012-10-21T20:17:00.001+05:30

It is the maiden attempt by V S Mohammed Ameen, a young lad with a dream and passion to form a just, God-fearing, loving society.

It is a fitting reply to the dirty film (The Innocence of Muslims) which evoked massive upsurge throughout the world. Peaceful demonstrations were held in more than 800 cities and more than 50 brothers and sisters lost their lives in police shootings.

It is a just 14 minute feature film. The story is simple.

Ganesan a fruit vendor starts his day with parking his cycle ladden with fruits in front of a Madrasa. Suddenly he gets the news that his only son has met with an accident. Ganesan instantly abandons his fruits and cycle and rushes to his home.

On his way he gets the news that his son is okay. He returns with lots of apprehensions about his shop, fruits which he left unattended in a hurry. Thoughts and fears continue to creep in his mind. 'Somebody might have stolen my bicycle', he murmurs himself. 'The students might have eaten out all of my fruits', he fears. 'What to do for my livelihood, I should not have left it unattended' fearful thoughts bombard his beleagured soul. And with mixed feelings of joy, fear, sadnes he rushes back to the place where he left his 'shop' unattended. He felt happy because nothing serious happened to his son. He was afraid of losing all his fruits, bicycles. The thought of the loss of his 'shop' made him sad.

With these thoughts in his mind he returns the place. To his astonishment he sees his bicycle, fruits safe. Moreover he sees the students taking fruits and placing five rupee, ten rupee notes in the basket itself. He was simply perplexed.

Out of curiosity he asks a student. 'Why didn't you simply take away the fruit? What made you to place the money in the no man's shop?'. The student replies, 'Even if the shopkeeper or nobody is here, Allah is there Who watches us'.

Ganesan was dumbfounded by the reply. Who told you so? he asks. 'Muhammad the mercy to mankind has taught us this lesson'.

Then the student takes him to his teacher. The teacher welcomes him and explains the life and teachings of the Prophet of Islam.

Rest of the story could be seen in this 14 minute feature film.

It is aptly titled as Oru thuli kadal (One drop of Ocean).

Here

India doesn't need FDI in retail to grow : Joseph Stiglitz

2012-10-21T10:30:00.000+05:30

Inequality is bad for economy, democracy and society. Much of the inequality in the US arises out of rent-seeking -monopoly, exploitive practices by banks and corporate exploitation of public resources. In the Indian context, you will call it corruption but we call it corruption American-style, where you give away natural resources below market prices. India is doing it now but America has a long history of doing this.

There is a clear association between inequality and instability. People at the top don't spend too much, they save a lot but people at the bottom spend everything. So you redistribute income from the bottom to the top and demand goes down. That makes an economy weak. That is what happened in the US. We would have had a weaker economy, but the Feds stepped in by creating a bubble that created more demand to offset the demand that was going down. Of course, creating a bubble was creating instability.

The advocates of FDI have probably put too much emphasis on it. India is in a different position than a small, developing country. You have a large pool of entrepreneurs. They are globally savvy, have access to global technology and they have a lot of wealth. So, if there were large returns to large-scale supermarkets, the domestic industry would have supplied it. Not having access to FDI is not an impediment in India. Wal-Mart is able to procure many goods at lower prices than others because of the huge buying power they have and will use that power to bring Chinese goods to India to displace Indian production. So the worry is not so much about the displacement of the small retail store but displacement further down the supply chain.

Joseph Stiglitz in The Times of India Here

Life, surprises and the Prophet of Islam

2012-10-21T09:12:00.004+05:30

Life is always full of surprises, twists and turns.

It is God who shapes our lives. It is He who directs us.

The Prophet of Islam used to pray: "Oh God! Bless me with sudden, instant pleasant surprises and happiness. Protect me from sudden, instant unpleasant, tragic happenings and accidents"

திடீர் திருப்பங்களையும் ஆச்சரியங்களையும் கொண்டதுதான் வாழ்க்கை. நம்முடைய வாழ்வையும் செயல்களையும் இயக்குவது இறைவனே. கண்காணிப்பவனும் அவனே. ஆட்சியாளனும் அவனே. அண்ணல் நபிகளார்(ஸல்) பிரார்த்தித்து வந்தார்: "என் இறைவனே! திடீர் சந்தோஷங்களையும் இனிய ஆச்சர்யங்களையும் எனக்கு அருள்வாயாக. திடீர் திருப்பங்களிளிருந்தும் ஆபத்துகளிலிருந்தும் விபத்துகளிளிருந்தும் என்னைக் காப்பாற்றுவாயாக. "

Four steps to rule the world : Quranic Style

2012-10-19T18:42:00.002+05:30

The Four steps shown by the Quran to rule the world.
1. Criticize the Ideas (Afkar par tanqeed)
2. Change the Values (Aqdar ki tabdeeli)
3. Encounter the Issues
4. Transform the existing system.
Listen to the brilliant analysis by Br Ameenul Hasan. Jazakallah, Khalil Zuhair for uploading it in youtube

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Here