Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
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| amatullah |
| 01/23/02 at 15:25:46 |
| Bismillah and salam, I have been a part of an email list for people involved with refugee and immigrant rights groups. There has been the whole time some really nasty comments about islam by IFIR(The International Federation of Iranian Refugees) I think it is located in Germany. They have been constantly feeding these people lies. I have fed up. But i feel i am not the best at rebuttling what they are saying. Please keep in mind the purpose of the email list. So my response to them should dispell the misconceiptions about Islam without minimizing the plight of the refugee. I will give you a sample of the kind of stuff they say this was the most recent ok * Condemning Islam isn't Racist January 16, 2002 Ex-MP Jackie Ballard who recently moved to Iran states it is racist to be anti-Islam and says it is 'time "liberal" opinion started to try to understand Islam better and to learn something about the culture of the Middle East...' (January 7 article in The Guardian entitled 'Another kind of freedom'). She further asserts that women in Iran have 'freedoms denied to many in the west', including that a friend can breastfeed in restaurants, that Iranian women 'keep their own names after marriage' and because she feels safer in Iran ['If women dress in a sexually provocative or attractive way, perhaps it is not surprising that men respond to them as sexual beings.']. Ballard's pathetic examples of so-called freedoms overlook the real and bleak status of women living under Islamic laws. In Iran, veiling is compulsory for women in all public places; even children aged nine to 11 are forbidden from wearing 'flashy hues'. They are subject to harassment, imprisonment and fines if their dress or behaviour is deemed inappropriate. They are segregated in public places, including buses, schools and health care. Women can only work in an occupation that is not contrary to Islam; the law, for example, prohibits women from becoming judges since they are believed to be swayed by emotion rather than logic. Women are not allowed to travel without the permission of their husbands. In court, the number of witnesses required to prove a crime is higher if the witnesses are female. A woman's right to divorce and child custody are limited. The legal age for girls to 'marry' is 9. Any form of friendship or association between the sexes outside marriage is punishable by flogging, imprisonment, forced marriage and stoning to death. For Ballard, however, these are merely 'another kind of freedom'. For her, women living in Iran and Islam-stricken societies have different freedoms because of their place of birth and 'their' culture and religion. Ballard even goes so far as to credit Islam for the facts that 'women in Iran are in many ways among the most assertive and socially independent' or that 'more women take engineering degrees in Iran than in the UK' though these have nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with women's own resistance and transgressions. Ballard says blaming religion for the denial of women's rights in countries like Iran 'disguised as concern for human rights' is tantamount to 'blaming Protestantism in Britain or Catholicism in Mexico for endemic domestic violence' and to seeing 'paedophilia as a symptom of a Christian or western culture'. This is nonsense. Islam is in political power in Iran and many countries of the Middle East and North Africa and cannot be compared to Protestantism in Britain. The Bible is not the law of the land in Britain, while the Koran is in Iran; it is not in the constitution and penal code nor enforced in the courts and by morality police in Britain, while it is in Iran. Nonetheless, according to Ballard, to condemn Islam is racist. Ballard conveniently ignores the distinction between anti-Islam sentiments and racism against Muslims. While racism is unacceptable, an attack on Islam and Islamic states and laws is not only permissible but a requisite given the indescribable violence and misogyny meted out by Islam in political power. Progressive norms and secularism are the results of enlightenment and just struggles against this very sort of reaction. Ballard's rebuke only attempts to silence those who speak out for civil rights by labelling them as racists. In fact, however, it is her culturally relativist assertions that are racist. By justifying and excusing women's status as cultural, she denies women and people living in the Middle East and Iran universal rights and freedoms. * KDP must Free Hadi and Sheikhi Mohiaddin Hadi and Salam Sheikhi, two Iranian asylum seekers, have been detained and imprisoned under inhumane conditions by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, for the past several months. Hadi and Sheikhi are amongst thousands of Iranians forced to flee the Islamic regime of Iran. Many head towards the city of Soleimaniyeh to approach the UNHCR office in that city. This city has increasingly become unsafe for Iranians due to the collaboration between the ruling party in the region, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and the Iranian regime. Fearing for their lives, Hadi and Sheikhi fled to Erbil, only to be arrested by the ruling party in that city - the KDP. any help is appreciated |
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| amatullah |
| 01/22/02 at 20:09:00 |
| Bismillah and salam, anyone? Please consider this forbidding evil. we are obligated to do it and to defend islam. anything may help me i am still struggling in writing it. |
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| akbalkhan |
| 01/23/02 at 03:54:25 |
| Wa Lakum as Salam, Sr. Amatullah, I am sorry that you are wrapped in feeling the need to respond to such criticism. The premise of this persons sentiments appears to be anti-Islam first and foremost. "Nonetheless, according to Ballard, to condemn Islam is racist. Ballard conveniently ignores the distinction between anti-Islam sentiments and racism against Muslims. While racism is unacceptable, an attack on Islam and Islamic states and laws is not only permissible but a requisite given the indescribable violence and misogyny meted out by Islam in political power." When someone takes it upon themselves as a requirement to criticise Islam, or anything for that matter, their analyzation of Islam becomes a search for every controversial matter that can present itself. Of course condemning Islam is not racist, as Muslims are comprised of many different ethnicities and groups of people. But being anti-Islam is anti-Semitic, anti-God, anti-social. Any Muslim, not specifically interested in seeing the agenda of Iranian politics advanced, recognizes that Iran is not a model Islamic country. In fact taking the example of Islamic countries today, as a critique of al-Islam, is unfair, given the common knowledge that Islam as a physical social structure has been on the decline for centuries, and with even Muslims literally divided into groups about interpretation of the Quran and how its laws are best applied. But Islam as shown us by the Messenger, SAWS, entrusted with this religion and the society he built, gave to all humankind the best example to follow, and the most righteous way of conducting society. Since all rulers and lawgivers in Western countries like Britain and the U.S. are Christians and Jews, if we use the same logic as the person criticizing Ballard, we would have to believe that any mistakes they make in administering and writing laws, reflects upon the religion they follow that helps them determine right and wrong. Those with authority in Muslim countries must apply the Quran to the best of their ability, and they derive much support in their interpretation from the sunnah, or authentic traditions of the Prophet Muhammed, SAWS. Any corruption and injustice in Islamic societies (not that perceived by non-Muslims' rejection of Islam, but that of Muslims who believe in the injunctions and guidance of the Quran) is as a result of the rulers adherence or divergence to/from the laws of Islam. It is no secret and statistics are abounding for the worse treatment of women under non-Islamic rule, as regards, to rape, gender wealth indices, domestic violence, depression, the killing of children by mothers, chauvanism, and gender oppression. Blaming Islam for Islamic countries application of the laws of God with regards to women, is the same as blaming Christianity for the ills of Western society, because although Western democracies have a separation of church and state, its laws and constitutions were developed and based upon people's interpretation of what was considered right or wrong according to the Bible. There was never an openly atheist ruler of any Western country, in fact their has only been two non-Protestant presidents of the U.S., and has never been any Catholic leaders of Britian, but we still do not blame Christians for any misgivings of innocent people being sent to death, the spread of violence among the youth, destruction of clinics, federal buildings, and the assassination of Dr.'s by Christians in the name of Christianity, no that would be irrational. There is a difference between perceiving a wrong, and something actually being wrong. What this person sees as wrong about what's happening in Islamic countries has more to do with their rejection of the message of Islam, than any real contention with the application of the Quran and sunnah in society. Hope this helps you organize your thoughts even if you don't use any of this for your response. Regards, Qamar Akbal Kaan |
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| Anik |
| 01/23/02 at 03:56:34 |
| ASALAMU ALAIKUM that's like saying anti-Jewish sentiments and anti-Semetic statements aren't racist. asalamu alaikum. abdullah,. |
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| akbalkhan |
| 01/23/02 at 12:52:21 |
| Jews and Semites are defined by linguistic and religious terms, not genetic (except for one definition which is post Darwinistic anyway). Whatever genetic similarities are still shared by Jews and Semites, have been over shadowed by a large acceptance of the religious tenets and subsequently the languages of Semites by many other peoples both in Africa, Indonesia, Central Asia, and other parts of the world where there is not necessarily a homogenous 'race' of Semitic peoples. Sem·ite (smt) n.1.A member of a group of Semitic-SPEAKING peoples of the Near East and northern Africa, including the Arabs, Arameans, Babylonians, Carthaginians, Ethiopians, Hebrews, and Phoenicians. 2.A Jew. 3.Bible. A descendant of Shem. Semite \Sem"ite\, n. One belonging to the Semitic race. Also used adjectively. Semite adj : of or relating to or CHARACTERISTIC of Semites; "Semite peoples" n : a member of a group of Semitic-SPEAKING peoples of the Near East and N Africa. As you can see, in most of the definitions of Semitic, it is the linguistic and other characteristics that defines someone as Semitic, and it does not preclude even Semites from being anti-Semitic. But generally homogeneity is necessary in order for racism to really be advanced as the driving force of a tenet as such. Just like being anti-Jewish, could be taken to mean 'against those people who practice the Judeaic religion' which because of a general lack of knowledge of the religion and its books, most people who say they are anti-Jewish really don't know a whole lot about what they study as a religion. It could also be taken to mean 'against a certain race of people' and people who claim to be anti-Jewish on that basis, have only stereotypical Jewish features to base their bigotry on, and even those features are limited to a particular group of people who most likely are from a particular region of the world genetically, that region not being what is historically known as the land of Judah, but rather Russia, or Poland, or elsewhere. Lastly anti-Jewish can be taken to mean, 'against the policies and injustices caused by a group of Jews who claim to be representative of Jews world wide' and it is people who are anti-Jewish in this regard that are often mistakenly labeled as anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish in the other contexts. These errors can be made in reference to terming someone racist on account of a greater mixing between cultures, languages, and genes today. At the time of Darwins' and others' classification of people into races, there was a homogeneity that could be found, and actually the invention of races took place in order to substantiate claims that certain races were superior to others, in fact I would stipulate that to deliniate groups of people in 'race' categories is in and of itself presumptuous of genetic make up based on surface physical features, language, and culture, which is in and of itself 'racist.' Some people are just plain filled with hatred and merely claim to be anti-something, when in fact they just wish that everyone was like them, and they hate all cultures, languages, and people from other regions of the world not their own. And that's not racist, that's just plain stupid, or xenophobic, something psychologically wrong. I hope that this makes some sense. Regards, Qamar Akbal Kaan |
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| amatullah |
| 01/23/02 at 15:27:12 |
| Bismillah and salam May Allah reward you for your help, i have used most of that information and I hope it makes a differece to someone. I pray that we all get the rewards. |
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