About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

6 Feb 2011

Attacking the Pillars of the Muslim Community

Earlier this month the Toronto Star reported a possible mismanagement of funds by the secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America ((ISNA). The centre - which provides a variety of services including a Masjid, a high school and halal meat certification agency - is being alleged to have misappropriated funds. On the same day the National Post reported that the Salaheddin Islamic Centre received more than $650,000 from foreign institutions for roof repairs and expansion of its Islamic school. Ali Hindy, the Imam of Salaheddin, stated that he had applied for funding twice from the Canadian government but was turned down each time.

Agenda Driven Journalism

The story of ISNA appeared on the front page of the newspaper as the cover story. The question to ask is why would a story about a local masjid and alleged mismanagement of funds take precedence over other stories? Was it the most valuable news item for that day? On the same day, there were reports about the slowdown of the Canadian economy and many other pressing issues which would have been much more relevant to the readers of the newspaper and the Canadian public at large. Why would such a relatively minor story be published as front page news? The other issue is to question why the newspaper did not wait for the investigation of the irregularities to be completed? It was clearly mentioned in the article that ISNA was planning to complete a more thorough audit, yet the news agency did not wait for the results of this new audit to be released. The second audit would identify the recommendations that were implemented based on the first audit and offer a more complete picture of the state of the irregularities at ISNA.

The National Post article about Salaheddin Islamic Centre - which also made the front page - was a biased and terrible piece of journalism. The article used the source of the masjid's funding as a means to smear the image of both the imam and also the masjid. There were repeated references of Muslims who had attended Salaheddin Masjid and had been either charged or accused of terrorism-related charges in order to somehow infer that the two were related. The article attempted to paint the masjid in a negative light by quoting the imam's discussions of issues that are considered controversial by many non-Muslims such as polygamy, Shariah, jihad, and terrorism. This is despite the fact that Justice Gary Trotter, as quoted in the article, noted, “I accept that, over the years, there may have been persons, involved in questionable activities, with questionable associations, who have passed through the centre from time to time, in my view, this in itself is not sufficient to taint the centre in any way.” Why would the newspaper publish such a relatively insignificant story with such sensationalism?

Pillars of the Community

As mentioned in the last issue of the Politically Aware Muslim, by living in non-Muslim countries we as Muslims (especially our youth) carry the risk of losing our Islamic Identity. Aside from the rigorous discipline we must establish at home in learning and maintaining the Islamic culture, the mere fact that we are surrounded by non-Islamic ideas and emotions can have an overpowering impact on our personality. Trying to maintain Islam in isolation from the Ummah is not only difficult but the Prophet (saw) also advised against it:

“Shaytan is a wolf like the wolf that preys on sheep, taking the isolated and the stray among them; therefore, avoid factionalism and keep to the Congregation and the collective and the masjid.” [Ahmad]

Consequently, it is vital that we utilize all means permissible in Shariah to organize the Muslim communities in the non-Muslim lands and assist each other in holding onto Islam and establishing a sense of community amongst ourselves. The masajid, Islamic schools and community centres are excellent tools for achieving this goal as they can serve the function of bringing Muslims together on the basis of Islam and facilitate the dissemination of Islamic ideas and emotions.

Attempts to Pollute Islam
Time and time again, we have seen reports being published by think tanks advising the authorities and those who have leverage in society to use their power and influence to pressure the Muslim community into abandoning Islam in its day-to-day choices and actions. For example in 2003, the Rand Institute (an American think tank) released a paper entitled Civil Democratic Islam where the author suggested that the Muslims who are closest to having Western values should be supported whereas those who call for Islam to be implemented as a complete way of life should be opposed. It is evident from research papers such as this that those who support this idea will utilize all means available to dismantle and damage any institution available to Muslims that will help us maintain our Islamic identity. Allah (swt) has revealed:

“Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their mila (way).” [TMQ 2:120]

With this in mind it is important that we are vigilant about any attempt to attack our beliefs, laws or fellow Muslims. In relation to the events around ISNA that have been brought into the spotlight it is crucial that we do not feel that this is a sincere attempt by the media to highlight the injustice of an individual. Similarly, in the case of Salaheddin, it is also equally important that we do not feel that this is a sincere attempt at reporting the source of foreign funds of an Islamic Centre. We need to examine both events in light of our current atmosphere and the global context that we are living in today. Islam is now under attack in North America, Europe and all the way to the Muslim lands. Attacks are levied against all aspects of Islam with constant calls for Islam and Muslims to “reform” and “enter into the 21st century”. We have witnessed this with the ban on the niqab in many parts of Europe and in Quebec and the ban on the construction of minarets in Switzerland. The Muslim community is now under a microscope and any opportunity to attack or remove aspects of Islam from the public sphere is used with great fervor. As such, it is important for those of us who are part of the Muslim community to keep this in mind and prepare ourselves for increased negativity and scrutiny towards the Muslim community because of the recent coverage of a few community centres. This negativity and scrutiny could ultimately threaten the very existence of our masajid, Islamic schools and community centres.

Advice to Our Fellow Muslims

The recent news on our two community centres provides some lessons for Muslims living in non-Muslim lands:

To the Imams and Community Leaders: It is of the utmost importance when engaging in the day-to-day management of Muslim affairs, to observe the Ahkam of Islam with Taqwa, and to be very meticulous in following the laws and the trade regulations. In this way, it will be extremely difficult for the media to make a news piece about us or the centres we manage. Furthermore, it should always be considered that any information taken by the media will be publicized and will as a result, affect us and the masjid, school or community centre that we are responsible for. More importantly, it could have an effect on the whole community as well. Being a leader in the community also means that we will be under the watchful eyes of the public. Consequently, it would be an extra motivation to examine and implement the example of the Prophet (saw) and of those who emulated him. For example, recall how Umar ibn Al-Khattab (ra) cooked with his own hands after learning that a mother and her children living as citizens of the Khilafah were hungry or how Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz (rh) blew out the state-funded candle when approached by someone on a personal matter.

To all Muslims: Allah (swt) revealed:

“O you who believe, take not into intimacy those outside your ranks: they will not fail to corrupt you.”[TMQ 3:118]

Allah (swt) has strictly forbidden the Muslims to share their confidence with non-Muslims. As such, we should never use any failure that is within the affairs of Muslims against each other. The repercussions are many and it may not only affect you but the whole community. If we ever do read something about a Muslim or Islamic centre, we should always give the benefit of doubt to the brother or sister and verify the news by discussing directly with the brother or sister. Allah (swt) revealed:

“Oh you who believe! If a Fasiq (liar — corrupt person) comes to you with any news, verify it, lest you should harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful for what you have done.” [TMQ 49:6]

We need to guard Islam from all the attacks leveled against it and not fall into traps that only seek to divide us - as we have seen many times before. The Prophet (saw) said:

“The believer is never stung from the same hole twice.”[Bukhari]

May Allah (swt) protect the Ummah from such trials and may Allah (swt) make us of the steadfast.

“And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allah (i.e. this Quran), and be not divided among yourselves, and remember Allah's Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another but He joined your hearts together, so that, by His Grace, you became brethren (in Islamic Faith), and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus Allah makes His Ayat clear to you, that you may be guided.” [TMQ 3:103]

[Taken from PAM Website, February 2011]
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“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']





"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.





[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





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[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”





[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”





[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]