Islam's Green

Don't open the School Topic!

Shabbr Shabir made hijra to Dubai some years ago and with his wife has set up an educational institue there called "edutiliy."
He writes.....

Mashallah, oh dont't open the school topic......

Where do I start?

The evolution of the current factory style schooling system?
How did the early Muslims study or educate their kids?
The brain-dead memorizing of the Muslim countries school systems of today?
What do we want to teach our kids?
How the transfer of knowledge from the Muslims to Europe took place in the 12th and 13th century?

Well I’m gonna just leave a few appetizers,

Lets start here;

“I've come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us. I didn't want to accept that notion--far from it--my own training in two elite universities taught me that intelligence and talent distributed themselves economically over a bell curve and that human destiny, because of those mathematical, seemingly irrefutable, scientific facts, was as rigorously determined as John Calvin contended. The trouble was that the unlikeliest kids kept demonstrating to me at random moments so many of the hallmarks of human excellence--insight, wisdom, justice, resourcefulness, courage, originality--that I became confused. They didn't do this often enough to make my teaching easy, but they did it often enough that I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.

Bit by bit I began to devise guerrilla exercises to allow the kids I taught--as many as I was able--the raw material people have always used to educate themselves: privacy, choice, freedom from surveillance, and as broad a range of situations and human associations as my limited power and resources could manage. In simpler terms, I tried to maneuver them into positions where they would have a chance to be their own teachers and to make themselves the major text of their own education.”

John Taylor Gatto was voted New York State teacher of the year in 1991. He worked for 26 years as a New York City school teacher. The above is from his book Dumbing Us Down:The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling.

Lets look at it from another angle, Industrial Revolution, factories poping up every where, people moving from the countryside to new towns, now where do the kids go? And what about the future factory workers, so here come the schools, just like the factories, in at age 5 and ready to work in the factory at age 9 to 10, until 1930’s when the age was changed to 13 or 14. The current schooling system is just an extension of this and how to prepare the sheep for the green pastures.

Sending kids to a good Christian school is a good point, as most good Christian based schools have similar conservative moral values as Muslim schools and are generally better run and organized, and of course  most Christians don’t believe in their own belief system so there would be very little chance of Muslim kids getting influenced by their beliefs.

“It is worth making clear from the outset that Patrick Henry College in rural Virginia is not your average American university. At Patrick Henry, the students - about 75 per cent of whom have been taught at home rather than in schools - are required to sign a statement of faith before they arrive, confirming (among other things) that they have a literal belief in the teachings of the Bible. At Patrick Henry, students must obey a curfew. They must wear their hair neatly and dress "modestly".”


The Christian’s were the ones that began the whole home-schooling system because they realized early on the bad influence and very liberal methods of the schooling system. We don’t have to do our own research on how bad the school system is the Christians have done all the research and developed excellent home-schooling systems.


We are using and have used some US home schooling systems, they are well organized, lesson plans, down to day by day, reading books, projects, online resources, all a parent has to do is follow the instructions and spend no more than 2 hours a day, which means you are able to give your child the more important education of Quran, Arabic, etc, because they have time.


The best thing is when you get to subjects like Greek methodology, or Christian beliefs, you can deal with them from an Islamic perspective, and of course your child sends tests back to the US and they accredit the grades just as if he was attending a regular school.


“Students must also obey a rule stating that if they wish to hold hands with a member of the opposite sex, they must do so while walking: standing while holding hands is not permitted. And at Patrick Henry, students must sign an honor pledge that bans them from drinking alcohol unless under parental supervision.
Yet these things alone do not make the college special. There are, after all, a number of Christian establishments across the United States that enforce such a strict fundamentalist code for their students.
No, what makes Patrick Henry unique is the increasingly close - critics say alarmingly close - links this recently established, right-wing Christian college has with the Bush administration and the Republican establishment as a whole. This spring, of the almost 100 interns working in the White House, seven are from Patrick Henry. Another intern works for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, while another works for President George Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove. Yet another works for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. Over the past four years, 22 conservative members of Congress have employed one or more Patrick Henry interns. Janet Ashcroft, the wife of Bush's Bible-thumping Attorney General, is one of the college's trustees.
And this is no coincidence. Rather, it is the very point. Students at Patrick Henry are on a mission to change the world: indeed, to lead the world. When, after four years or so of study, they leave their neatly-kept campus with its close-mown lawns, they do so with a drive and commitment to reshape their new environments according to the fundamentalist, right-wing vision of their college.”

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-09.htm

Now home schooling is just the beginning, in essence there is a unique opportunity as mentioned by Abu Zakariya, a new method of learning, using technology, blended learning systems and new pedagogy.
Smaller institutions rather than large schools that specialize in subjects like languages (Arabic/ English), Quran, sciences (math’s, physics), sports, character development and arts, so these intuitions become specialized and experts in their areas which would be based close together, this is something that can be achieved in the UAE because education is private business here, and people will pay for good education, the better your institute the more money you can make, which in turn should attract better qualified people. Already there are specialists institution in languages, math’s and sports but for after school programs.

Why in today’s world when children spend 6 to 7 hours at school, should they have to get extra tuition or go to institutions, this alone is a question mark on the schooling system.

One thing that I feel is clear and the case is closed, the current schooling system developed, designed and implemented is not the best for our children, and our children have a right over us to educate them, and we will be asked about it.

We currently have a education institute in Ajman and have developed a program from research in the US, the program is for 3 to 5 year olds, and helps them develop their language skills in both Arabic and English, because the accent picked up by a 4 year old will stay with them for the rest of their lives. as well as Quran and manners; 

Its a start, make du’aa.

May Allah(swt) help us learn the truth, understand the truth and implement the truth.

All the information is out there, I suppose it’s a matter of someone clearly researching this from Muslims perspective and writing a book, or developing a website about the history of education and how to educate Muslim children.

Passport Control.

I'm off skiing today, inshallah! My dear brother has got himself a flat in the Alps so I baggsied this weekend. However, my passport expired in July and I still hadn't got round to renewing it until three days ago. Now why on earth would I leave it that long?
Procrastination.
Not an endearing quality or a particularly Islamic one. I guess the ideal characteristic of a Muslim in this regard would fall somewhere between not being hasty (haste as we all know is from Shaitaan) and not procrastinating. All I can remember in regards to this is an advice that I remember being related to Umar, (raa) "Don't delay today what you might not be able to do tomorrow."
Now I have to admit, and I'll try not to get too gushing in these days when we as a nation are involved in some fairly atrocious matters as my ultra-radical friends will remind me...but, no, I do have to admit (reluctant radical sighs) its just one of those brilliant things about the UK! Now, I don't know about anywhere else, but how many places can you get your passport renewed in four hours! Not many Muslim counties that's for sure. Oh how easy "living the life" is made here.
Well anyway that's what they guarantee. Fours hours.
It didn't quite happen that way with me. I was of course half expecting it. Moi, "the Radical", having been stopped a couple of times, and most probably am on a watch list, was expecting some delay/interview/refusal.
When I met my brother last night to get the keys for the flat where we are skiing he wondered why they wouldn't give you, a British citizen a passport. Well exactly! And in fact I have done nothing wrong at all, I think! Still, it's really about perceptions. What was commendable years ago could be a crime today and vica verca. Well in the end, I didn't get my passport four hours later, because "there was something about my file! I'm really sorry! I'm sure you'll get it before you travel."
Well I did. The next day actually. Which is still pretty good.
My advice if you need to renew your passport is just prepare your self a little. It only takes a few weeks by post, and is so incredibly easy to renew a passport. I had this image of form after form, documents which I'd have to dig out etc..etc...It was making me ill just thinking about it! But in the end, it was all in my mind. If I'd realised it was that simple I'd have done months ago. Oh, another thing, it'll also save you about £50. A same day renewal costs around £110.
Now, I don't won't to leave this on toooo positive a note, because I have been thinking why do we need passports anyway? Hey, and boarders and countries for that matter! I mean really! I don't remember reading in the travels of ibn Battuta or students in search of ilm anything about passports and boarder controlls!OK maybe a bandit here and there, but subhanallah, imagine being able to travel from one end of the world to the other without any of that! And they complain that we want a Khalifa! Well that of course is another story! Better stop now before I get too radical. My God, I might even suggest that we Muslims need to rule ourselves so that people stop killing us! I mean how radical can you get? What's wrong with letting yourself get slaughtered here and there? I mean whatever next?
They got a de-tox diet, I think I need a de-radical diet.
Ah, what better that a nice week of X-treme skiing? Oh dear, there I go again. Just can't get away from it.
Gosh I think I'll never loose this extremist radical fundamentalist mind set!

Scientists are human..

This really is a gem of an article for all of us involved in Dawa, and that is of course all of us! I hope!
It's one of those matters that really is so important to remember when confronted by that edifice we call "Science". It can, rather like Musa witnessing the trickery of the magicians, seem rather daunting. We just have to remember that there is a difference between Haqq (truth) and dhunn (speculation).
I remember reading  "A Brief History of Time" by Stephan Hawkins some years ago, and noting how scientists in the former USSR, a self proclaimed atheist state, rejected any scientific theories that suggested that there might be a God. So much for scientific impartiality!

Of course advocates of science as the ultimate means to truth claim that false theories and data is eventually weeded out, but in this age of consumerism and ideological extremism (including secular fundamentalism expounded by the like of Richard Dawkins of the present "God Delusion" best seller fame) unbiased science is looking like it might become a rare commodity. The moment research becomes based upon results that promote the interests of those providing the funds for the grants for research, all we end up having is "science" that supports the ideals and aims of big business and multi-national corporations that have the big bucks! 

A justice system only accessible to those who can afford it, its not a justice system. So "science" that only supports the ideals of a particular interest group is no longer science, since one of its defining characteristics is supposed to be objectivity and the means for any theory and data to be falsified. Hardly possible on such a financial one way street, especially as scientific research becomes more specialized and complex.

Anyway read and enjoy:

http://imuslim-uk.blogspot.com/2006/12/newsflash-scientists-are-human.html

What will you get from this Ramadan?

The month of Ramadan is now well underway.
We were waiting, like Captains of the ships of old, for the right breeze to come and take us forward on our journey. We should have been preparing, but in our hustle, bustle life style I'm sure that most of us were ill prepared. We've hastily hoisted sail and the strain of fasting and praying at night is taking its toll.
This breeze that is Ramadan will only last so long. It is a great chance to take on provisions for our journey through this life to the akhira, but some of us will come back to the same port empty handed, with nothing in the hold. We will have got nothing from this breeze except exhaustion from hoisting the sail and running around the deck, and hanging on as the waves of thirst and hunger and desire try to wash us overboard. Perhaps we attained some remote feeling of satisfaction that at least we got out to sea, and experienced the hardship of those for whom this is a daily ordeal!
Allah sends this breeze every year, and Allah ordained that we should set sail in it for a reason and purpose.

"Oh you who believe! Fasting has been prescribed for you and those who came before you that you may acquire taqwa."

Allah has ordered fasting that we may attain taqwa.
If you leave port in your ship with the hold and coffers empty and return home with the hold and coffers empty, what did you get from that voyage?
Indeed, nothing!
Make an assessment of your level of iman, your sins and good deeds.
How much charity have you been giving the past year, how about your prayers at night? How much Quran do you read everyday?
Have you been keeping up with the sunnah prayers?
When you see evil do you try to stop it, or how much have you let slip by?
Have you been giving dawa, telling others at school, work, neighbors about Islam?
Where do your eyes wander and at what do they look? And your tongue, and what topples people on their faces into the hell fire like the harvest of the tongue? Have you restrained it from lies and deceit and foul language and argumentation.
Have you done extra fasts, made the adhkar of the morning and evening. Have you set for yourself a routine of dhikr to make everyday?
How has your treatment of your parents and family been? What have you done for the suffering ummah and humanity and planet?
Have you been a spendthrift, a waster?
Make an assessment now. Take stock now. Look into that hold and see what you've got.
Know this...
This breeze that takes you on this voyage of 30 days is an unprecedented opportunity stock up on the most important provision of all. Taqwa.
Taqwa is that which will guard you like a shield from Allah's wrath, anger and punishment. Taqwa is that which will lead you the safety of the harbour of His good pleasure from the furious crashing waves of His displeasure.
We seek refuge in Him from Him, in His Mercy from His wrath.
In these days Allah has chained those devils and thus restrained them form harming us. The gates of paradise are opened and the gates of hell are close.
So obedience is made easy.
In this a great benefit and blessing and lesson. If you can restrain yourself over these days, we can acquire a habit, we learn the ropes of obedience to Him again. We climb the rigging and begin to feel the breeze in our hair and the smell of the fresh clean air.
Yes it is hard, but life is hard. Life is a test, and in Ramadan we are learning the patience, restraint and self discipline that is essential to succeed in this life's voyage to the akhira.
When this month ends make sure my brothers and sisters that it does not end with you having gained nothing for what follows in the year ahead.
Make sure that in some way at least your life is different and improved and stays that way.
Make sure that you have increased in some way in obedience to Allah, and have decreased in disobedience to Allah, and you maintain that course, and that if Allah allows us to see another Ramadan then that one will see a change for the better in us also, until we meet our Lord!

Something to break your fast on....

By Asim Qureshi
www.cageprisoners.com

This Ramadhan we will be sitting down to eat with our families. Father,
husband, mother, wife and children, all together partaking in the barakah
of the month. Then they will recite the Qur’an and encourage each other to
do good for the sake of taking the most from the month in anticipation of
bettering themselves for the rest of the year, Insha Allah.
How will the detainees and their families be spending this Ramadhan? In
what state will they eat their food? To what extent will the Ummah relate
to their plight and connect these helpless hearts to the body of the
faithful.

The mothers and wives

Ismet Siddiqui currently sits under house arrest in her home in Karachi.
What is her crime? Actually nothing…The authorities are scared that she
will raise awareness about the disappearance of her daughter Aafia
Siddiqui along with her young grandchildren at the hands of the Pakistani
authorities. Ismet was threatened soon after their disappearance that her
grandchildren would permanently disappear if she spoke about the events.
Since 2003 mother and children have all been missing, and none can gain
access to Ismet.

For those mothers who have the ability to do something for their children,
their lives become the campaign to get their children home to safety. Abbi
Nawaz, mother of one of the Egypt 3, after being hit with innumerable
difficulties kept her courage, “They want to crush our spirits but they
are not going to succeed. If I have to go back there again, I will go back
there again and make sure this does not rest.” As Bisher El-Rawi rots away
in Guantanamo Bay, his mother Jahida Sayyadi was similarly writing to
highlight the cause of her son,

“I am not urging you to devise special rules to help my son out of his
torment. I am not seeking sympathy and soothing words. All what I beseech
is that go by your own books and help us implement your rules. Allow him a
fair trial. Deal with him in accordance with the rules which you take lots
of pride before the whole world on setting out and embracing. Go back to
the Geneva Conventions, to human rights declarations, and to hundreds and
hundreds of documents that have been signed and endorsed to secure the
human dignity and rights to a decent living.”

It is however in her capacity as a mother and wife that Farhat Paracha
embodies the difficulties faced by these women. Her husband, Saifullah
Paracha, has been illegally in US custody since July 2005. At the age of
60 with multiple illnesses, the US authorities decided to kidnap him on
his way to attending a business meeting in Bangkok. Their torment however
is amplified by the recent sentencing of their son, Uzair, to 30 years
imprisonment in the US on evidence that has been internationally seen as
being flimsy at best. Despite the ever increasing costs of running
campaigns for her loved ones, she manages to hold together her family and
run the family business.

With Ramadhan upon us, many wives will have to wake for Suhoor (the pre
dawn meal) without their husbands, as explained by the wife of one of the
UK detainees, “Life’s a lot harder now…we used to pray together, eat
together, wake up together…Now it’s like only half the family is waking
up. I wake up alone at sehri time…the girls are too young to fast anyway.
It’s sad…I miss the days he was waking up with me.”

The fathers and husbands

There are many fathers currently locked up all over the world; they all
remember their children and families with a longing that is the one thing
which keeps them going. For those such as Moazzam Begg, there was
particular cause for heartache, as he had never met his youngest child
until released from Guantanamo Bay. In a similar circumstance was the
released Guantanamo detainee Mamdouh Habib, who had never met his 4 year
old daughter. His wife, Maha Habib, said that on his return, the very
first thing she had in store for her husband was an introduction to their
daughter.

However they are not the only fathers who have been forced to suffer such
an injustice. Currently still sitting in the cages of Guantanamo remain
Jamil El Banna, Shaker Abdur Rahman Aamer and Omar Deghayes. All three
have yet to meet their youngest children who were born after they were
forcibly kidnapped and shipped off to Guantanamo Bay.

Here in the UK, the men that exist (for living would be a glorification of
their situation) in Belmarsh and other prisons, are cut off from the ones
they love so dearly. Daily they have to deal with the horror of knowing
that their wives and children are facing some of the harshest treatment
without any hope of help. Mustapha Labsi during his time in UK prisons had
minimal contact with his wife. He said of her situation, “My wife who is
not from this country was shocked mentally and psychologically and she
wanders in the streets without care or protection.”

For those under control orders, the husbands and fathers have the added
worry of having their entire households turned upside down beyond their
control. The family of Mahmoud Abu Rideh are faced with the prospect of
having their home and life raided by a large contingent of the police on
any random night. Already the police have raided their homes over 30 times
and they have major restrictions placed on their lives. For any
self-respecting father or husband, such infringement into their daily
lives is an insulting and degrading situation to be placed in. With
Ramadhan around the corner, the family face the prospect of having their
home raided during their Suhoor every single day.

The children

Johina Aamer, Michel Aamer, Saif Aamer, Faris Aamer, Anas El Banna,
Mohamed El Banna, Abdul Rahman El Banna, Badeeah El Banna, Mariam El
Banna, and the 2 children of Ahmed Errachidi are the children of just 3
British residents still in Guantanamo Bay. Unlike their fathers, these
children actually have British citizenship and thus the legal right to be
represented by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when abroad and
complete rights to consular protection. Their fathers have not been
afforded this same right, for although being longstanding British
residents in the UK, they have not as yet been able to take citizenship.

Another child who has never known his father, is the son of Omar Deghayes,
who is also currently being held in Guantanamo Bay as one of the British
residents who face deportation to their countries of origin. The father of
Omar Deghayes was executed for political reasons by Colonel Qaddafi and
now Omar faces torture and political imprisonment for a crime he never
committed at the hands of the US administration. One thing is certain –
Omar’s son will grow up in a world where dictators like Qaddafi killed his
grandfather, and dictators like George W Bush took away the sight of his
father in one eye.

For many Muslim children, Ramadhan comes with the certainty of the immense
joy that comes with Eid. The children of the detainees have yet to
experience this pleasure, their Eid is spent trying to remember a man they
hardly know and in some cases do not know at all. 9 year old Anas El Banna
describes the hurt which comes with each Eid,

“Eid after Eid has come and gone and my Dad is still in chains. Two weeks
ago was the small Eid and in two months, it will be the big Eid. The best
and most wonderful Eid for me will be the Eid when my dad comes back to us
and brings back our happiness with him.”

These children have the right to grow up knowing their fathers, they have
the right to understand what fair and open trials mean, and yet they will
in all likelihood grow up knowing that these things are merely
philosophical ideals which belong to a bygone era. Meeting these children
only brings recognition that the Ummah has completely failed in its
obligations to its brothers and sisters, for the sadness in their eyes is
something that most of us will never experience.

DONATE TO SUPPORT YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS

This Ramadhan these families will not be complete and will have to spend
the month in the saddest of circumstances. For so many families,
Cageprisoners.com serves as their reference point to what is taking place
to their loved ones, wherever they may be in the world.
Cageprisoners have been campaigning for the rights of these brothers and
sisters and will continue to do so. However the priority is to get them
help, regardless of the organisation people wish to contribute to. The
fact will always remain that this work requires the spiritual, physical
and financial support of the Ummah. Please donate generously to help our
work continue inshallah, Jazakamullahkhayr:
Cageprisoners: http://www.cageprisoners.com/campaigns.php?id=378
HHUGS: www.hhugs.org.uk/donate.htm
(Helping Households Under Great Stress)

Many paths to the Mountain Peak? Not likely.

This comment on my review of Karen Armstrong's book on Buddha deserves front page.
It covers some very important issues, and ultimately expresses the very reason I gave up on Buddhism. Jazakallah khair Ejaz!  (blue_stratos@hotmail.com)

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,

JazakAllah for that enlightening review (no pun intended). I myself have also studied the Buddhist religion somewhat, yet throughout their numerous sects spread about Asia, the core is still the same. From what is observable, to many people it may seem like the perfect set of beliefs i.e. you mentioned, "humanist".

Unfortunately for them and any other proponents of this view, a brief examination of the human condition shows how unstable the teachings of Buddhism and Humanism really are. Humanism, Atheism and Agnosticism are all fundamentally flawed in the same way simply because they make Insaan the reference point, the centre of their universe and the standard by which morality and a "good life" are defined. Such issues can be and undoubtedly are extremely complex because of the nature of mankind i.e. individuality and the free will given to us by Allah. No two people are alike. Some people like different foods, have different favourite colours, prefer different methods of transport, have separate styles of clothing, possess different thought processes, have different levels of education, have different sets of beliefs and have grown up in different environments which will undoubtedly affect their ways of thinking and also influence for them what they believe to be right and wrong. Thus everyone’s view of the right thing to do will undoubtedly differ to some degree. How can any harmony be attained in such a society?

These are all facts and you will not find anyone who will deny this. Yet at the same time when it comes to morality, what one judges to be good or bad and what one believes to be his or her purpose in life there are still countless who reply with "it's up to you" or "it's a personal matter and it's decided by the individual". How can anyone with an ounce of common sense reconcile the two points just made? Firstly acknowledging diversity and individuality and then attributing true morality's measure to beings that are so vastly different from each other?? For these people it seems, adding two and two refers to nothing more than a simple mathematical calculation.

Giving an example would better illustrate this point. We can make a comparison between current thoughts of morality among many disbelievers, with certain scientific facts. Say for example two scientists debated over the speed of light, which is known to be 300,000 km/s. One argued that it was 300,000 km/s; the other argued it was 400,000 km/s. It is obvious that one is clearly wrong. Yet if we were to draw parallels between this and how humanists and buddhists attempt to attribute the definition of morality and "good" to the ever varying human race, it would be like someone telling the two scientists, "Oh, your both right as long as you both agree that the speed of light is extremely fast". 

Well..... Unfortunately "extremely fast" doesn't quite cut it. "Extremely fast" won't enable you to study relativity, "extremely fast" won't enable you to further the study of almost every field of physics, "extremely fast" will not allow you to calculate dates, chart the cosmos and build telescopes, "extremely fast" will not allow you build fibre optic circuitry and so on and so forth. I think you get the idea. This simple "constant", because that is what it is and has been accepted as without question, has enabled us to further countless other areas of science. We wouldn't be with a lot of things we have today, without it.

In the SAME way, accepting every single wayward ideology, thought, belief, deity, set of morals and definitions of "good" CANNOT be accepted as universal truths simply because they “sound right” or are pleasing to an individual or set of individuals. Not only is this belittling the difference between true right and wrong, but its also ultimately a figurative middle finger gesture towards the most important issue in existence whether it is acknowleged or not, "What is our purpose in being?". Accepting every belief (by which I mean as mentioned, ideology, thought, religious belief, deity, etc..)  will NOT solve mankind’s problems today. Accepting every belief will NOT allow society to flourish and further itself in every way. Accepting every belief will not allow us to move beyond “me” and live as an Ummah. Accepting every belief will not bring us peace, happiness and salvation in our lives. Most importantly by accepting everything we will ultimately be rejecting truth, making us unable to save ourselves from the Hell-Fire and enter His Jannah.

Ironically, those who accept this way of thinking are the ones who point the finger at religion as the root cause of violence and war in the world today. How blind has Allah made them, when in fact it is what they believe that is the real reason that the people fight each other.  We must reflect upon this if we are to truly understand it. "And none will reflect except people of understanding" as Allah the All-Mighty says in the Qur'an.

SubhanAllah when the arguments of the disbelievers are broken down in such a manner, we are able to see how deep in error they really are. The point made is so basic yet remains something they chose to remain so blind to. "Deaf, dumb and blind they are, and so they do not return (to the straight path)" Allah says at the beginning of Surah Baqarah.

As Allah created us, so He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows the nature upon which we were created. He shaped us and moulded us both in mind and body to be different in every sense. It is for this reason that from the creation of Adam right until the death of Muhammad (saw), the Creator periodically would send a Prophet to guide mankind out of the darkness their nature eventually took them back into without His guidance. The fitrah that one is born with can only take one so far. It is not the be all and end all but rather something that interacts with the teachings of it's Creator, setting the vessel it is within firmly upon a rightly guided path to success both in this short life and most importantly in the life that has no end. Without this guidance, it must compete with the equally if not more powerful desires each and every person has. This coupled with the whisperings of Shaytaan will eventually lead the individual to complete destruction and society as a whole into moral and social decay. If the disbelievers are to rely solely upon the shattered remnants of their fitrah for guidance and moral coding, then this indeed is great folly. Eventually what little direction one had towards good will only give way to following one’s lusts and desires since there will be no sense of recompense for doing the right thing even though one many recognise an action to be right or just.

On a side note, actual Satanism is far more sinister than heavy metal bands, goat sacrifices on stone altars, rituals intending to summon the devil etc. Satanism is the only religion that is the complete antithesis of Islam. It demands that one submits him/herself totally only to him/herself, a complete worship of one’s desires. There is no concept of community or obedience. It is a belief system centred around the one individual who must do all he/she can to make sure he/she furthers themselves in their life regardless of the methods they employ . In fact the most important celebration in Satanism is none other than a person’s birthday as it is I quote “birthdate of one’s own god”. Aa’udhubillah. Believe it or not, but without Guidance from Allah this is exactly where everyone will eventually end up and much of mankind already has whether or not they take the Satanist title. May Allah save us from such a worthless and self-destructive existence. They wrong no-one but themselves.

The ultimate conclusion? It is clear that acceptance of all beliefs is nothing but a convenient way of sidestepping the most important and fundamental questions facing humanity. What are doing here? Do we have a higher purpose? Who beyond mankind can or will judge our actions? When we die will we ever again be anything more than just dust?

They are in desperate need of our da’wah, they are in desperate need of the Qur’an and they are in desperate need more than anything else, of the One who created them and will bring them back to life. Will we step up to the challenge of calling them away from the worship of either falsehood or themselves?

“But if they answer you not, then know that they only follow their own lusts. And who is more astray than one who follows his own lusts, without guidance from Allah? Verily! Allah guides not the people who are Dhalimun” (28:50)

53% Brits fear Islam

Says a YouGov survey conducted by the Telegraph. Read the article.

They fear Islam mind you, not Islamic Fundamentalism!
I was discussing this with a brother and he said: "Is that all?"
I guess an optimistic way of looking at it would be that despite of all the propaganda and disinformation from misguided Muslims and the sensationalist media 47% still do not look at Islam as a threat.
Still, to me 53% is a way to a scarily high number. Now the government is questioning the whole "multicultural experiment." Since when did it become an experiment?
I thought it was a quintessential park of what makes this country what it is.
I thought it was all part of true democracy? Respect for minorities and all that.
Now its and experiment that isn't working and can be done away with. Nice move!
What shocked me the most were the postings on a blog on AOL. I spend virtually the whole night reading the 1000 comments posted. If you had any doubts about the hatred out there, this should jolt you out of your complacency. It did me!
Be warned, it contains some seriously offensive material!
Reading this has made me realise how very desperately we Muslims need to reach out and make ourselves and our religion understood by ordinary people. Londoners live in a multicultural bubble. Most people "experience" of Muslim is basically not to experience them at all. They just see and hear them from afar in their ghettos. The biggest challenge in my opinion is changing the attitude of those ghettoized Muslim communities who no only exasperate the problem, but arguably are the problem. We all know that plenty of those who label themselves Muslims are more racist, xenophobic, ignorant and ill educated than their detractors in the BNP.
It was being explained to me that when "our people" came here they saw the white man with his drinking, gambling and girlfriends and were shocked. They isolated themselves to protect themselves from the objectionable behaviour they saw.
Hmmm....but we still happy to send our kids to their schools for some free education/indoctrination, and to open shops that sell booz 'bacco and porn.
I just wonder what chance we have while there are some Muslims who imagine its OK extradite their to get their 13 year old daughters forcefully married. Talk about extraordinary rendition!
Just look at what a hard time the Prophet Mohammed (swas) had trying to convince the Arabs, and he was the best possible example! So what if those who are supposed to represent the deen are the opposite! May Allah guide us!
All of this just increases my determination to make more effort to get the true message of Islam out and counter this misguided hatred of this most perfect way of life. It really is, and must be our no. 1 priority!
May Allah forgive our shortcomings and save us from laziness and a mean and base life. Ameen

Wag the Dog...

I can't help but voice my skepticism at the timing of the exposing of the liquid explosives bomb plot. Was it just coincidence that it happened just as Israel was getting bad press and the Blair/Bush alliance was reaching unprecedented unpopularity with their disgraceful failure to condemn Israeli terrorism.
We are all reminded (so timely) that we under threat from the real terrorists, the Islamofacists!
How far are governments ready to go to achieve their propaganda objectives?
Slander innocents?
Arrest them, jail them?
Let their citizens be killed?
How about killing their own citizens?
These are crimes almost too terrible to contemplate. People trust their governments to protect them, their lives and property. It is a trust we could equate to that of a parent over the child. We all expect and recognize the need for wayward children to be punished, but one of the most horrific crimes is when a parent sexually or otherwise abuses a child. Well, it seems even the Israeli government doesn't mind sacrificing a few of its citizens for the propaganda effect...
Skeptical?
Read this...

Kurtz: One other note. On Reliable Sources two weeks ago, "Washington Post" Pentagon reporter Tom Ricks said he'd been told by U.S. military analysts that Israel was leaving some Hezbollah rocket launchers intact because the killing of Israeli civilians provided an image of moral equivalency in the war. "Post" editor Len Downie, responding to a letter from former New York mayor, Ed Koch, says he told Ricks he should not have made those statements.

Ricks told the New York Sun that he accurately reported the comments from analysts but that, quote, "I wish I hadn't said them, and I intend from now on to keep my mouth shut about it."

(for the full article http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14646.htm)

...And I wasn't supposed to commenting on current events. Oh well.

Muslims, its not time to wake up. The time for waking up is long gone. No, by now we should be out of bed, finished breakfast and on the way to work!

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

Ralph W. Sockman

Free in our time?

I don't know if I am going to make this a habit, but here is an excellent article from an excellent web site.
I have linked it simply because it echo's something that I have been saying in my talks for years, which of course echo's what Allah teaches us...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14649.htm

Allah is the best of planners!

A comment on the last comment that also deserves front page treatment!
by Umber
May Allah swt guide her to Islam ameen! 
Yes, I totally agree with you. The media or those in charge of the media can plot and plan but verily Allah is the best of plotters and planners! 
A similar thing happened last year!  I work in an Islamic book shop and for some time this one lady would come in every other week.  She would shiftily look up at me and perhaps ask a couple of questions here and there.  I would invite her to sit and talk with me! 
One day she came in asking for a book on the Muslim prayer so I showed her one and then asked her if she had become a muslim.  She replied in the negative. I arranged to meet her for lunch the next day where we spoke in great deal about women and Islam and we then went to Regents Park Masjid as she had not been to a mosque before. 
That day, after our lunch, by the grace of Allah, she took her shahadah, alhamdulillah, after which she had said to me:
"I have a confession to make to you.  The only reason I started coming into your shop was because I had heard so many negative things about Islam and Muslims and how Muslims hate all non muslims that I wanted to see for myself how you would treat me as a non-muslim.  I was ready to argue with you and battle it out but each time I came in you were so hospitable and nice that I wanted to learn more and more and now, alhamdulillah, I too am a Muslim!"
Allahu Akbar! 
That day I was left with a tremendous feeling of awe of Allah swt how He is the best of planners!