He was definitely father of modern Turkey. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born in Salonica in 1890. One of Turkey’s greatest modern military minds and the saviour of Gallipoli. After the end of the first world war like many of Turkey’s generals he saw their country being carved up like a roast dinner. France got the leg, England the breast, Greece the ribs, The Russians were happy that Istanbul was an international city, the Armenians were praying for the scraps. And in 1919 at the Treaty of Sevres, Turkey was ultimately humiliated and all that remained was inner Anatolia. This was a bitter pill to swallow for 11 million proud Turks.
In the meantime elsewhere in the empire there were more deals being made. In Palestine there was an apparent agreement made between Lawrence of Arabia and the Arabs that they would receive their own independent state if they assisted the British in fighting off the Turks. In Arabia an even sinister plot had hatched by the Saud clan.
There is a great misconception that Ataturk was the architect behind the abolition of the caliphate. After the war ended in 1918 the Arabs were rewarded for their treachery against the Turks (fellow Muslims) after siding with the British. They were promised Palestine and the Hejaz. Sherif Hussain was made the Emir of the Mecca and Medina. However, Hussain made a hasty error by declaring himself Caliph of the Muslim world. To the chagrin of the British.
Sayyid Hussein bin Ali, (1854-1931) was the ruler of the Hejaz and of Mecca from 1908 until 1917, when he proclaimed himself king of Hejaz, which received international recognition. In 1924, he further proclaimed himself Caliph of all Muslims. He ruled Hejaz until 1924, when, defeated by the Abdul Aziz al Saud and he abdicated the kingdom and other secular titles to his eldest son Ali.
The British were not expecting Hussein to announce himself as Caliphate after all the plan had been from the start to destroy it forever. They had partially succeeded by partitioning the Ottoman empire and placing the Middle East under British and French control. When the Turks had finally announced that the Caliph in Turkey was no more Hussein saw this as an opportunity to proclaim the title. He controlled both Mecca and Medina and in effect was the new caliph.
The problem with this is that the Caliph should be an elected position. Nonetheless, the British had no intention to tolerate such a brash move, especially after they had installed Hussein into power in the first place. They then pushed the Abdul Aziz Al-Saud to lead a campaign, reinforced with british weapons to oust Hussein and take control. The only condition was that Abdul-Aziz was not to proclaim himself Caliph nor were any of his descendants. To this day, we have never ever heard of a Saudi King declaring himself Caliph.
In the meantime, the nasty Palestinians placed all the blame on Mustafa Kemal. They said that he hated the Arabs and he abolished the Arabic script, he secularised Turkey and abolished the caliphate.
What Ataturk did was remove the Caliph as an obstacle his grab for power, having already lost the Hejaz which was a fundamental requirement for holding the title of Caliphate. Officially the Caliphate was declared over in Turkey as the last known Caliph was actually Sultan Mehmet Vahdettin who abdicated in 1922 and was exiled to Malta. His successor Abdul Mecid II was briefly Caliph until 1924 when it was formerly abolished by parliament.
However, the real architects of the end of the caliphate were the Saudis. They had already made a deal with the British to fight the Turks in return for their military aid. The Saudis came near to extinction until they were saved by the British. In 1924 the Saudis made another deal to take over control of the Hejaz and depose of Sherif Hussein.
Bearing in mind all along the British were planning to create a new “Jewish Homeland” under the agreement of the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs were tricked into believing that they too would receive their own homeland which would include Jerusalem and most of the Westbank.
It was foolish to have trusted the British for in the end not only did Hussein lose all his power, the Arabs were placed under British and French mandates. They lived under colonial rule for almost half a century until one by one they gained independence but only to be ruled by puppet regimes chosen by the British and French.
In the end it was the House of Saud that abolished the last Caliph of Islam. In return for taking power the British were promised that they would never claim the caliphate themselves. And to this day it is as so. The Muslims have no leader, and as long as Arabia is called Saudi Arabia we will never see another caliph lead the Muslims out of the depths of darkness.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Uyghurs Celebrate Landmark Ruling
Uyghurs Celebrate Landmark Ruling on the Release of Seventeen Uyghurs from Guantanamo to the United States
In a landmark ruling on October 7, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina paroled the remaining seventeen Uyghurs detained at Guantanamo Bay to the United States. The federal judge ordered that the Uyghurs in Guantanamo be present in Washington, DC on Friday October 10 for a hand over to the Uyghur community in the United States.
The Uyghur American Association (UAA) welcomes Judge Urbina’s ruling and views the parole of the seventeen Uyghurs as a damning indictment of the Chinese government’s assertions that Uyghurs are connected to global terror groups. The ruling also reaffirms the inherent justice of the United States legal system.
In response to the ruling, Uyghur democracy leader Ms. Rebiya Kadeer said: “On behalf of all oppressed Uyghurs, I want to thank the people of the United States, as well as their legal system and government, for exercising the rule of law, something which Uyghurs have not come to expect in China. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Mr. Sabin Willett and his fellow lawyers, who have worked tirelessly on behalf of the Uyghurs in Guantanamo. Justice has finally prevailed in this case, and the United States has once again exemplified the traits that are so deeply admired by Uyghurs around the world.”
UAA believes the decision will raise the profile of the Uyghur human rights cause, as well as awareness of the human rights conditions in East Turkestan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China) that compelled the Guantanamo Uyghurs to flee to Afghanistan. In addition, the ruling exposes as baseless the Chinese government’s exploitation of the Guantanamo Uyghurs’ case to justify a broader crackdown on Uyghurs in the name of the “war on terror”. Together with recent media reports casting doubt on the Chinese government’s version of a recent violent attack in Kashgar (a major city in East Turkestan), yesterday’s ruling is a major blow to the Chinese government’s claims regarding Uyghurs and terrorism.
UAA asserts that the ruling puts to rest any Chinese government claims that the seventeen Uyghurs in Guantanamo would receive fair treatment if returned to China. Ms. Rebiya Kadeer added: “The fact that today’s proceedings did not even consider returning these men to China shows that they would face certain torture and even execution upon their arrival in China. While it took nearly seven years for this ruling to come about, these Uyghurs would have been executed within two months of being returned to China. Uyghurs in East Turkestan and in exile thank the American people for not sending the seventeen Uyghur men to China to a terrible fate. In the United States, the Uyghur community can offer the support these men need to lead productive lives.”
None of the twenty-two Uyghurs originally detained in Guantanamo were picked up on a battlefield, and most of them were captured by Pakistani bounty hunters and sold to American forces for $5,000 each. They had fled to Afghanistan from East Turkestan and escaped to Pakistan once coalition bombing began. However, since their detention, the US government has determined that the Uyghurs are non-enemy combatants. Five Uyghurs were released into Albania in 2006, but no third country has expressed willingness to accept the seventeen men remaining in Guantanamo, reportedly due at least in part to Chinese pressure. As early as 2003, most of the Uyghurs in Guantanamo were cleared for release. Earlier this year, U.S. congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle called for the release of the Guantanamo Uyghurs to the United States.
In its annual country reports on human rights abuses, the U.S. State Department has highlighted human rights abuses by Chinese government authorities in East Turkestan, including the use of the legal system as a tool of repression against Uyghurs who voice discontent with the government and the fierce suppression of Uyghur religion, a moderate form of Sunni Islam that is a vital part of their ethnic identity. Uyghurs in East Turkestan face a wide spectrum of human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention and execution, torture, and the suppression of their language and culture. In the past year, Uyghurs have been subjected to an increased rate of execution and detention, in addition to forced relocation, police monitoring, passport confiscation, and the destruction of places of worship.
In a landmark ruling on October 7, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina paroled the remaining seventeen Uyghurs detained at Guantanamo Bay to the United States. The federal judge ordered that the Uyghurs in Guantanamo be present in Washington, DC on Friday October 10 for a hand over to the Uyghur community in the United States.
The Uyghur American Association (UAA) welcomes Judge Urbina’s ruling and views the parole of the seventeen Uyghurs as a damning indictment of the Chinese government’s assertions that Uyghurs are connected to global terror groups. The ruling also reaffirms the inherent justice of the United States legal system.
In response to the ruling, Uyghur democracy leader Ms. Rebiya Kadeer said: “On behalf of all oppressed Uyghurs, I want to thank the people of the United States, as well as their legal system and government, for exercising the rule of law, something which Uyghurs have not come to expect in China. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Mr. Sabin Willett and his fellow lawyers, who have worked tirelessly on behalf of the Uyghurs in Guantanamo. Justice has finally prevailed in this case, and the United States has once again exemplified the traits that are so deeply admired by Uyghurs around the world.”
UAA believes the decision will raise the profile of the Uyghur human rights cause, as well as awareness of the human rights conditions in East Turkestan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China) that compelled the Guantanamo Uyghurs to flee to Afghanistan. In addition, the ruling exposes as baseless the Chinese government’s exploitation of the Guantanamo Uyghurs’ case to justify a broader crackdown on Uyghurs in the name of the “war on terror”. Together with recent media reports casting doubt on the Chinese government’s version of a recent violent attack in Kashgar (a major city in East Turkestan), yesterday’s ruling is a major blow to the Chinese government’s claims regarding Uyghurs and terrorism.
UAA asserts that the ruling puts to rest any Chinese government claims that the seventeen Uyghurs in Guantanamo would receive fair treatment if returned to China. Ms. Rebiya Kadeer added: “The fact that today’s proceedings did not even consider returning these men to China shows that they would face certain torture and even execution upon their arrival in China. While it took nearly seven years for this ruling to come about, these Uyghurs would have been executed within two months of being returned to China. Uyghurs in East Turkestan and in exile thank the American people for not sending the seventeen Uyghur men to China to a terrible fate. In the United States, the Uyghur community can offer the support these men need to lead productive lives.”
None of the twenty-two Uyghurs originally detained in Guantanamo were picked up on a battlefield, and most of them were captured by Pakistani bounty hunters and sold to American forces for $5,000 each. They had fled to Afghanistan from East Turkestan and escaped to Pakistan once coalition bombing began. However, since their detention, the US government has determined that the Uyghurs are non-enemy combatants. Five Uyghurs were released into Albania in 2006, but no third country has expressed willingness to accept the seventeen men remaining in Guantanamo, reportedly due at least in part to Chinese pressure. As early as 2003, most of the Uyghurs in Guantanamo were cleared for release. Earlier this year, U.S. congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle called for the release of the Guantanamo Uyghurs to the United States.
In its annual country reports on human rights abuses, the U.S. State Department has highlighted human rights abuses by Chinese government authorities in East Turkestan, including the use of the legal system as a tool of repression against Uyghurs who voice discontent with the government and the fierce suppression of Uyghur religion, a moderate form of Sunni Islam that is a vital part of their ethnic identity. Uyghurs in East Turkestan face a wide spectrum of human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention and execution, torture, and the suppression of their language and culture. In the past year, Uyghurs have been subjected to an increased rate of execution and detention, in addition to forced relocation, police monitoring, passport confiscation, and the destruction of places of worship.
Violence in Islam and the hideous schizophrenia
The Qur’an says:
"O ye who believe! Remain steadfast for Allah, bearing witness to justice. Do not allow your hatred for others to make you swerve to wrongdoing and turn you away from justice. Be just; that is closer to true piety." – (The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 5:8)
The Qur’an also clearly states:
to take one’s life without justification is as if he has taken the lives of all humanity
(The Holy Qur’an chapter 5 : verse 35)
Jihad is the notion of striving which is derived from the Arabic word jahada which means “to lift” or to “make an effort”.
The concept of jihad is a predominant view in Islam which encompasses every aspect of one’s struggle against the temptations of life, including the battle with the ego and the desires of the soul.
The jihad, in the first thirteen years for the Muslims of Mecca (623 - 632 CE) meant strictly practicing non-violence. The Holy Qur’an ordered them to:
Restrain your hands and establish regular prayers and pay Zakat. (The Holy Qur’an Chapter 3: Verse 77)
In 623 a revelation from the Prophet allowed Muslims to defend themselves from the aggressive and violent acts of the Meccan forces, who had persecuted every Muslim and their families as well as martyring many others. The Muslims mobilised themselves into well - organised militant groups in Medina and as a result took up arms to defend their territorial rights:
Permission is given to those against whom war is made, because they are oppressed, and God is able to help them. These are the people who are expelled from their homes without cause because they said, ‘Our Lord is Allah’.
(The Holy Qur’an Chapter 22: Verse 39)
The Medinan Muslims engaged in a militant struggle to force the Meccans into a treaty which saw almost ten years of peace in which time Islam spread amongst the Arab tribes unhindered and consequently the pagan Meccans submitted to the will of the Muslims without a drop of blood being shed.
The revelation came that changed the jihad from a defensive struggle to an offensive one:
Fight against those among the people of the book who do not believe in God and the Last day, who do not forbid what God and His messenger have forbidden, and who do not consider the true religion as their religion until they are subdued and pay jizyah.
(The Holy Qur’an chapter 9: verse 29)
This directly changed the way the new Muslim empire viewed itself. Within a few decades the Arabs had attained newfound wealth never imagined and a civilization that was exemplary and one to emulate in centuries to come.
The concept of an “offensive” jihad cannot be any act of aggression, which is clearly forbidden. More importantly, in the minds of the Muslims, theirs was not a material gain but one in which justice and morality were preserved. The common misconception of jihad meaning holy war is still popular today, this concept is alien to Islam and the early conquests were not holy wars.
Modern Islamic reformer Khaled Abou Fadl states categorically that:
Islamic tradition does not have a notion of holy war. Jihad simply means to strive hard or struggle in pursuit of a just cause. Holy war (Ar. al-harb al-muqaddasah) is not an expression used by the Qur'anic text or Muslim theologians. In Islamic theology war is never holy; it is either justified or not.
Egyptian scholar Sayyid Qutb born in 1906 in his essay on jihad advocates that in order to obtain a just society one must be free to choose his faith and to attain such freedom, Islamic states were required to use force. He says:
The very purpose of this movement (Islam) is to set human beings free from the yoke of human enslavement and make them serve the One and Only God.
It is true that the early Muslims embarked on a Just War in which it saw the liberation of certain areas as an obligation. This was not only to ensure the survival of Islam but to create a lasting and just peace.
Majid Khadduri in Islamic Concept of Justice, notes that:
The state was the instrument with which Islam sought its ultimate objective; the establishment of God’s will and justice over the world.”
Wright in the Nature of Conflict says, “Islam began a career of conquest in the Seventh century with the thesis that it was the only true faith and was necessarily in conflict with all other religions. This was represented by the doctrine of the jihad or the perpetual war of the “world of Islam” (Dar al-Islam) with the “world of war” (Dar al-Harb).
This concept stated that the world was split into two divisions or abodes: the abode of Islam (Dar al Islam) and which may be called pax Islamica consisting of the territory over which Islamic justice ruled supreme and the rest of the world, Dar al-Harb, or the abode of war, over which public orders prevailed.
According to Qutb a Muslim must enter a movement and perform jihad to restore the true religion in the world. But Qutb stresses that there is a distinction between a jihad to free the world and the idea of enforcing Islam on the world. Religion was and still is to be carried out by peaceful means as:
there should be no compulsion in the spread of the word of God.
(The Holy Qur’an chapter 2: verse 257)
He says, “Islam in order to translate this ideal into reality, does not forcibly compel people to accept its faith but provides them with a free atmosphere to exercise their choice of faith.”
This view was supported by the great scholar and jurisprudent, Imam al-Shafi who believed that the expansion of the state carried out by jihad, was an entirely different matter. Imam al-Shafi who laid down a framework for Islam’s relationship with non-Muslims and formulated the doctrine that jihad had for its intent for the waging of war on unbelievers; for their disbelief and not only when they entered into conflict with the Islamic state.
However, prevailing interpretations based on the notion that Islam is a political community endowed with a public order designed to govern its internal affairs as well as to conduct its relationship with others in accordance with a scale of justice determined by the will and Justice of God, see the doctrine of the jihad as obsolete and in a state of dormancy.
In early Islam scholars like Abu Hanifa (founder of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence) and Shaybani made no explicit declarations that the jihad was a war to be waged against non-Muslims. On the contrary they stressed that tolerance should be shown to unbelievers, and prescribed war only when the non-believers came into conflict with Islam.
Islam prohibited all kinds of war except in the form of jihad in defence of your faith. Jihad was not necessarily a requirement for all able-bodied Muslims to fight, Jihad could be made in the form of your actions, or your words and even in your heart. The only legitimate war was a just war. All other wars were prohibited.
The classical doctrine of the jihad made no distinction between defensive and offensive war, for in the pursuance of the establishment of God’s sovereignty and justice on Earth the difference between defensive and offensive was irrelevant. However, although the duty of the jihad was commanded by God, (Qur’an chapter 61:10-13) it was considered to be binding only when the strength of the believers was theirs. That is when Islam was in the ascendancy.
Khadduri says,
When Islamic power began to decline, the state could obviously no longer assume a preponderant (greater in number) attitude without impairing its internal unity.
The ultimate objective was to establish peace and justice with communities which acknowledged the Islamic public order, Islam regulated its relationship with other states through the branch of law called the Siyar. The Siyar was a set of rules with the same textual sources as the sharia, possessing its own scales of justice based on Islamic principles and its experience with other people.
Vryonis, writes in The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor;
By 10th C jihad wars had expanded the Muslim empire from Portugal to India. Subsequent Muslim conquests continued in Asia, as well as on Christian eastern European lands. The Christian kingdoms of Armenia, Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania, in addition to parts of Poland and Hungary, were also conquered and Islamized. When the Muslim armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1683, over a millennium of jihad had transpired.
This great achievement still bewilders many scholars today. There are many who use this point to illustrate that Islam is a violent religion and that jihad is based on offensive battles of expansion.
However, the early expansion of the Muslim Arabs, were not offensive imperialistic manouvres as historians like Vyronis, Lewis, Cook and commentators like Pipes have interpreted. The Arabs were compelled to protect themselves from threatening empires like Egypt, Persia and Byzantine. It was obligatory for Muslims to fight polytheists and to purge the Arabian peninsula of polytheism. The world was seeped in ignorance and practiced barbaric customs. It was incumbent on Muslims to free the oppressed people from the shackles of barbarism and allow people to develop in an environment of spiritual freedom. In the context of the time, this was seen as permissible. Even under latter ruling empires such as the Ottoman’s the expansion of the Islamic state was based on defensive wars or pre-emptive attacks against aggressor states such as Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
It is a simple case of just looking at Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Armenia where the Christians retained their faith and their identity more freely than under the Catholic Genoese or Venetians or under the Orthodox Byzantines. The subject people preferred the just rule of the Ottomans than their own Christian counterparts. The saying goes “better the Sultans turban than the Pontiffs cap”.
The complex nature of European developments of violence, however, was inevitably exported to Islamic societies in the early 20th century.
Berman in his book Terror and Liberalism espouses the view that Europe’s secularization led to a violent pathway. The advent of Liberalism meant total freedom that resulted in murder and suicide. In citing Tariq Ramadan and Albert Camus, he states there are fundamental clashes in view between European and Islamic approaches to violence through totalitarianism:
Ramadan observes that in looking for the roots of totalitarianism in mythology and literature, Camus confined himself to the myths and literary classics of the West. Civilisation to Camus meant Western culture and did not mean Islam.
However, both philosophers, he claims, “recognized that totalitarianism and terrorism are one and the same. If only we could discover the roots of totalitarianism, we would have discovered the roots of terror.”
The Promethean view of life that is prevalent in Western society is based on the rebellious attitude of man. Ramadan explains that the basic difference between Muslim thought and Christian is that “In Islam there is no tendency to rebel. Submission is the road to social justice, to a contented soul, and to harmony with the world.” Islam’s greatest model of submission is exemplified in the compliance of Abraham the father of Islam. There was no rebellion, no questioning, strictly submission to the will of God:
Camus invoked the myth of Prometheus the Titan, who goes further than Abraham and in a spirit of radical action, takes that final step into full scale rebellion. Prometheus steals Zeus’ fire and gives it to man. He is punished horribly for his transgression – and yet the Titan’s transgression is man’s benefit.
The development of Europe towards the separation of religion from the affairs of the state was the turning point in which Islam and Christian Europe diverged.
“That was the new twisted impulse in Europe- the rebellion that begins with freedom and ends with crime.”
Berman believes that once Liberalism took root on the continent great leaps in progress occurred in the West. It “was due to one all-powering principle. It was the recognition that all of life is not governed by one single all-knowing and all-powerful authority - by a divine force.”
Modern day Islamic nations have inherited a libertarian view towards violence:
Then again during its first 500 years of world domination Europe did export innumerable customs and ideas to every corner of the globe; and having exported everything else, why should Europe have been unable to export its spirit of self destruction, too?
In the Twentieth century many European ideologies spread to Islamic societies; Marxism, socialism, fascism and in particular nationalism in the form of pan-Arabism. Whilst many of these ideologies never really made lasting impacts on these societies, modernity’s pressures and the shrinking world placed pressures on the systems that these nations were to operate under. The socialist movements of the early Twentieth century influenced Arab politics for the most part of their existence after independence from colonial rule but a concurrent movement which Berman refers to as Islamist was also developing with greater emphasis on social welfare and religious quality. They remained for the most part apolitical although their influence was great. These movements were inspired by scholars like Afghani, Maududi and Hassan Al Banna who started the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sayyid Qutb wrote in Milestones:
“In this unfortunate fashion the schizophrenic aspect of Christian thought… spread into the realm of scientific knowledge. Everything that Islam knew to be one the Christian Church divided into two.” This is why secularism would not work in Islamic societies as they could not see the difference between politics and religion, they were inexorably one.
He truly believed that Islam, if correctly followed, possessed the answer. Qutb described Islam as:
a religion that does not deny man any of his natural tendencies or instincts, or pretend to achieve human purity by suppressing or destroying man’s basic human needs. Rather Islam disciplines, guides and fosters these desires and needs in a manner that reinforces man’s humanity and invigorates his consciousness of, and relationship with God. It further seeks to blend physical and sensual tendencies with human and religious emotions, thus bringing together the transient pleasures and the immutable values of human life into one harmonious and congruent system that will render man worthy of being God’s representative on Earth.
He was very critical of the West and Christianity, especially in their dominance of Islamic societies and their resources.
Freedom in a liberal society seemed to Qutb no freedom at all:
Secularism has largely failed in Islamic societies. This hideous schizophrenia for Muslims has caused instability over the past decades and is a major contributor to the violence that plays out each day. While Muslim societies could theoretically establish peace in a secularized fashion, it is a recipe for conflict. In Iraq and Afghanistan as the war on terror continues we are witnessing this failure today.
The world is gradually realizing that it is a war of ERROR. And Australia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan makes it doubly erroneous. We are complicit in the deaths of nearly a million Iraqis and thousands of Afghanis. The error in terror is fast becoming the dominant paradigm.
The War of Error started shortly after the attacks on the WTC buildings and the subsequent deaths of over three thousand of US citizens. In hindsight we may see that taking revenge against poor Afghanistan was a foolish step towards making the world more unsafe and unstable and then the invasion of Iraq totally tipped the scales and has made the region more volatile and unpredictable. Since the declaration by the US president that “you are with us or you are with the terrorists” we have seen bomb attacks in peaceful cities like Madrid, Istanbul, Indonesia, London and foiled attempts in Berlin. The errors have not ceased, we have had accidental bombings of wedding parties and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. And even our own soldiers have been coming home in coffins, now four in the past two years. The AWB scandal highlighted the corruption and the cruel undertaking to which the Australian government has committed our nation.
In Iraq there are gross injustices and violation of human rights, there is extreme poverty and the terrifying reality that almost every Iraqi faces on a daily basis; the bombings, shootings, unemployment, no access to education and a bleak future ahead.
The war of error is the greatest tragedy of this century and unless sanity prevails we will spiral further into anarchy and bedlam.
Islam seeks peace with God, this is not contrary to democracy.
In the West we seek peace without God.
To force Muslim societies to take the latter path could just be one more error in a chain of errors.
"O ye who believe! Remain steadfast for Allah, bearing witness to justice. Do not allow your hatred for others to make you swerve to wrongdoing and turn you away from justice. Be just; that is closer to true piety." – (The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 5:8)
The Qur’an also clearly states:
to take one’s life without justification is as if he has taken the lives of all humanity
(The Holy Qur’an chapter 5 : verse 35)
Jihad is the notion of striving which is derived from the Arabic word jahada which means “to lift” or to “make an effort”.
The concept of jihad is a predominant view in Islam which encompasses every aspect of one’s struggle against the temptations of life, including the battle with the ego and the desires of the soul.
The jihad, in the first thirteen years for the Muslims of Mecca (623 - 632 CE) meant strictly practicing non-violence. The Holy Qur’an ordered them to:
Restrain your hands and establish regular prayers and pay Zakat. (The Holy Qur’an Chapter 3: Verse 77)
In 623 a revelation from the Prophet allowed Muslims to defend themselves from the aggressive and violent acts of the Meccan forces, who had persecuted every Muslim and their families as well as martyring many others. The Muslims mobilised themselves into well - organised militant groups in Medina and as a result took up arms to defend their territorial rights:
Permission is given to those against whom war is made, because they are oppressed, and God is able to help them. These are the people who are expelled from their homes without cause because they said, ‘Our Lord is Allah’.
(The Holy Qur’an Chapter 22: Verse 39)
The Medinan Muslims engaged in a militant struggle to force the Meccans into a treaty which saw almost ten years of peace in which time Islam spread amongst the Arab tribes unhindered and consequently the pagan Meccans submitted to the will of the Muslims without a drop of blood being shed.
The revelation came that changed the jihad from a defensive struggle to an offensive one:
Fight against those among the people of the book who do not believe in God and the Last day, who do not forbid what God and His messenger have forbidden, and who do not consider the true religion as their religion until they are subdued and pay jizyah.
(The Holy Qur’an chapter 9: verse 29)
This directly changed the way the new Muslim empire viewed itself. Within a few decades the Arabs had attained newfound wealth never imagined and a civilization that was exemplary and one to emulate in centuries to come.
The concept of an “offensive” jihad cannot be any act of aggression, which is clearly forbidden. More importantly, in the minds of the Muslims, theirs was not a material gain but one in which justice and morality were preserved. The common misconception of jihad meaning holy war is still popular today, this concept is alien to Islam and the early conquests were not holy wars.
Modern Islamic reformer Khaled Abou Fadl states categorically that:
Islamic tradition does not have a notion of holy war. Jihad simply means to strive hard or struggle in pursuit of a just cause. Holy war (Ar. al-harb al-muqaddasah) is not an expression used by the Qur'anic text or Muslim theologians. In Islamic theology war is never holy; it is either justified or not.
Egyptian scholar Sayyid Qutb born in 1906 in his essay on jihad advocates that in order to obtain a just society one must be free to choose his faith and to attain such freedom, Islamic states were required to use force. He says:
The very purpose of this movement (Islam) is to set human beings free from the yoke of human enslavement and make them serve the One and Only God.
It is true that the early Muslims embarked on a Just War in which it saw the liberation of certain areas as an obligation. This was not only to ensure the survival of Islam but to create a lasting and just peace.
Majid Khadduri in Islamic Concept of Justice, notes that:
The state was the instrument with which Islam sought its ultimate objective; the establishment of God’s will and justice over the world.”
Wright in the Nature of Conflict says, “Islam began a career of conquest in the Seventh century with the thesis that it was the only true faith and was necessarily in conflict with all other religions. This was represented by the doctrine of the jihad or the perpetual war of the “world of Islam” (Dar al-Islam) with the “world of war” (Dar al-Harb).
This concept stated that the world was split into two divisions or abodes: the abode of Islam (Dar al Islam) and which may be called pax Islamica consisting of the territory over which Islamic justice ruled supreme and the rest of the world, Dar al-Harb, or the abode of war, over which public orders prevailed.
According to Qutb a Muslim must enter a movement and perform jihad to restore the true religion in the world. But Qutb stresses that there is a distinction between a jihad to free the world and the idea of enforcing Islam on the world. Religion was and still is to be carried out by peaceful means as:
there should be no compulsion in the spread of the word of God.
(The Holy Qur’an chapter 2: verse 257)
He says, “Islam in order to translate this ideal into reality, does not forcibly compel people to accept its faith but provides them with a free atmosphere to exercise their choice of faith.”
This view was supported by the great scholar and jurisprudent, Imam al-Shafi who believed that the expansion of the state carried out by jihad, was an entirely different matter. Imam al-Shafi who laid down a framework for Islam’s relationship with non-Muslims and formulated the doctrine that jihad had for its intent for the waging of war on unbelievers; for their disbelief and not only when they entered into conflict with the Islamic state.
However, prevailing interpretations based on the notion that Islam is a political community endowed with a public order designed to govern its internal affairs as well as to conduct its relationship with others in accordance with a scale of justice determined by the will and Justice of God, see the doctrine of the jihad as obsolete and in a state of dormancy.
In early Islam scholars like Abu Hanifa (founder of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence) and Shaybani made no explicit declarations that the jihad was a war to be waged against non-Muslims. On the contrary they stressed that tolerance should be shown to unbelievers, and prescribed war only when the non-believers came into conflict with Islam.
Islam prohibited all kinds of war except in the form of jihad in defence of your faith. Jihad was not necessarily a requirement for all able-bodied Muslims to fight, Jihad could be made in the form of your actions, or your words and even in your heart. The only legitimate war was a just war. All other wars were prohibited.
The classical doctrine of the jihad made no distinction between defensive and offensive war, for in the pursuance of the establishment of God’s sovereignty and justice on Earth the difference between defensive and offensive was irrelevant. However, although the duty of the jihad was commanded by God, (Qur’an chapter 61:10-13) it was considered to be binding only when the strength of the believers was theirs. That is when Islam was in the ascendancy.
Khadduri says,
When Islamic power began to decline, the state could obviously no longer assume a preponderant (greater in number) attitude without impairing its internal unity.
The ultimate objective was to establish peace and justice with communities which acknowledged the Islamic public order, Islam regulated its relationship with other states through the branch of law called the Siyar. The Siyar was a set of rules with the same textual sources as the sharia, possessing its own scales of justice based on Islamic principles and its experience with other people.
Vryonis, writes in The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor;
By 10th C jihad wars had expanded the Muslim empire from Portugal to India. Subsequent Muslim conquests continued in Asia, as well as on Christian eastern European lands. The Christian kingdoms of Armenia, Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania, in addition to parts of Poland and Hungary, were also conquered and Islamized. When the Muslim armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1683, over a millennium of jihad had transpired.
This great achievement still bewilders many scholars today. There are many who use this point to illustrate that Islam is a violent religion and that jihad is based on offensive battles of expansion.
However, the early expansion of the Muslim Arabs, were not offensive imperialistic manouvres as historians like Vyronis, Lewis, Cook and commentators like Pipes have interpreted. The Arabs were compelled to protect themselves from threatening empires like Egypt, Persia and Byzantine. It was obligatory for Muslims to fight polytheists and to purge the Arabian peninsula of polytheism. The world was seeped in ignorance and practiced barbaric customs. It was incumbent on Muslims to free the oppressed people from the shackles of barbarism and allow people to develop in an environment of spiritual freedom. In the context of the time, this was seen as permissible. Even under latter ruling empires such as the Ottoman’s the expansion of the Islamic state was based on defensive wars or pre-emptive attacks against aggressor states such as Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
It is a simple case of just looking at Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Armenia where the Christians retained their faith and their identity more freely than under the Catholic Genoese or Venetians or under the Orthodox Byzantines. The subject people preferred the just rule of the Ottomans than their own Christian counterparts. The saying goes “better the Sultans turban than the Pontiffs cap”.
The complex nature of European developments of violence, however, was inevitably exported to Islamic societies in the early 20th century.
Berman in his book Terror and Liberalism espouses the view that Europe’s secularization led to a violent pathway. The advent of Liberalism meant total freedom that resulted in murder and suicide. In citing Tariq Ramadan and Albert Camus, he states there are fundamental clashes in view between European and Islamic approaches to violence through totalitarianism:
Ramadan observes that in looking for the roots of totalitarianism in mythology and literature, Camus confined himself to the myths and literary classics of the West. Civilisation to Camus meant Western culture and did not mean Islam.
However, both philosophers, he claims, “recognized that totalitarianism and terrorism are one and the same. If only we could discover the roots of totalitarianism, we would have discovered the roots of terror.”
The Promethean view of life that is prevalent in Western society is based on the rebellious attitude of man. Ramadan explains that the basic difference between Muslim thought and Christian is that “In Islam there is no tendency to rebel. Submission is the road to social justice, to a contented soul, and to harmony with the world.” Islam’s greatest model of submission is exemplified in the compliance of Abraham the father of Islam. There was no rebellion, no questioning, strictly submission to the will of God:
Camus invoked the myth of Prometheus the Titan, who goes further than Abraham and in a spirit of radical action, takes that final step into full scale rebellion. Prometheus steals Zeus’ fire and gives it to man. He is punished horribly for his transgression – and yet the Titan’s transgression is man’s benefit.
The development of Europe towards the separation of religion from the affairs of the state was the turning point in which Islam and Christian Europe diverged.
“That was the new twisted impulse in Europe- the rebellion that begins with freedom and ends with crime.”
Berman believes that once Liberalism took root on the continent great leaps in progress occurred in the West. It “was due to one all-powering principle. It was the recognition that all of life is not governed by one single all-knowing and all-powerful authority - by a divine force.”
Modern day Islamic nations have inherited a libertarian view towards violence:
Then again during its first 500 years of world domination Europe did export innumerable customs and ideas to every corner of the globe; and having exported everything else, why should Europe have been unable to export its spirit of self destruction, too?
In the Twentieth century many European ideologies spread to Islamic societies; Marxism, socialism, fascism and in particular nationalism in the form of pan-Arabism. Whilst many of these ideologies never really made lasting impacts on these societies, modernity’s pressures and the shrinking world placed pressures on the systems that these nations were to operate under. The socialist movements of the early Twentieth century influenced Arab politics for the most part of their existence after independence from colonial rule but a concurrent movement which Berman refers to as Islamist was also developing with greater emphasis on social welfare and religious quality. They remained for the most part apolitical although their influence was great. These movements were inspired by scholars like Afghani, Maududi and Hassan Al Banna who started the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sayyid Qutb wrote in Milestones:
“In this unfortunate fashion the schizophrenic aspect of Christian thought… spread into the realm of scientific knowledge. Everything that Islam knew to be one the Christian Church divided into two.” This is why secularism would not work in Islamic societies as they could not see the difference between politics and religion, they were inexorably one.
He truly believed that Islam, if correctly followed, possessed the answer. Qutb described Islam as:
a religion that does not deny man any of his natural tendencies or instincts, or pretend to achieve human purity by suppressing or destroying man’s basic human needs. Rather Islam disciplines, guides and fosters these desires and needs in a manner that reinforces man’s humanity and invigorates his consciousness of, and relationship with God. It further seeks to blend physical and sensual tendencies with human and religious emotions, thus bringing together the transient pleasures and the immutable values of human life into one harmonious and congruent system that will render man worthy of being God’s representative on Earth.
He was very critical of the West and Christianity, especially in their dominance of Islamic societies and their resources.
Freedom in a liberal society seemed to Qutb no freedom at all:
Secularism has largely failed in Islamic societies. This hideous schizophrenia for Muslims has caused instability over the past decades and is a major contributor to the violence that plays out each day. While Muslim societies could theoretically establish peace in a secularized fashion, it is a recipe for conflict. In Iraq and Afghanistan as the war on terror continues we are witnessing this failure today.
The world is gradually realizing that it is a war of ERROR. And Australia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan makes it doubly erroneous. We are complicit in the deaths of nearly a million Iraqis and thousands of Afghanis. The error in terror is fast becoming the dominant paradigm.
The War of Error started shortly after the attacks on the WTC buildings and the subsequent deaths of over three thousand of US citizens. In hindsight we may see that taking revenge against poor Afghanistan was a foolish step towards making the world more unsafe and unstable and then the invasion of Iraq totally tipped the scales and has made the region more volatile and unpredictable. Since the declaration by the US president that “you are with us or you are with the terrorists” we have seen bomb attacks in peaceful cities like Madrid, Istanbul, Indonesia, London and foiled attempts in Berlin. The errors have not ceased, we have had accidental bombings of wedding parties and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. And even our own soldiers have been coming home in coffins, now four in the past two years. The AWB scandal highlighted the corruption and the cruel undertaking to which the Australian government has committed our nation.
In Iraq there are gross injustices and violation of human rights, there is extreme poverty and the terrifying reality that almost every Iraqi faces on a daily basis; the bombings, shootings, unemployment, no access to education and a bleak future ahead.
The war of error is the greatest tragedy of this century and unless sanity prevails we will spiral further into anarchy and bedlam.
Islam seeks peace with God, this is not contrary to democracy.
In the West we seek peace without God.
To force Muslim societies to take the latter path could just be one more error in a chain of errors.
Friday, September 19, 2008
SHAME ALERT: Irfan Yusuf
Some of you may not know Irfan Yusuf but he is a fellow blogger who tends to attack Muslims who are trying to do good in the community. Why, only God knows his motives, however, I suspect its because of his on inadequacies and inability to do the things that others are achieving.
Recently, he attacked me of double standards after the council elections of which I stood as a Greens candidate. I was unhappy about the mosque allowing another candidate to make an announcement about his candidacy. This was an unfair use of a mosque which is a community asset. However, Irfan has twisted the story to make it sound like I am sore at losing and having a go at the mosque and even making up conspiracy theories.
It is quite sad that the master of manipulation Irfan Yusuf has tried to paint a picture of a conspiracy regarding the council elections.
He counters this fear by writing and putting others down. His smugness comes from the knowledge that he can get away with it. Over the years he has discovered that he can write stuff about people and get some mileage out of it. He even gets paid for it too. What a rort.
If you really look into his writings they are usually a cut and pace job of a few emails and sometimes something grabbed off the net. Rarely have I ever read anything by him with substance or accuracy. The other aspect of his writings is that usually its done at the expense of another person (usually someone that is doing well or trying to do good). One of the first rules of writing should be that your motives are not to degrade or slander another person for self-satisfaction.
If you were to take ten articles at random of Irfan's you will find that half of them are self-gratuitous and self-indulgent rantings of an unstable man, a loose cannon.
I find it incredulous that he gets away with all these various rants that he passes off as "articles".
Irfan's art is to take someone's lines out of context and construct an viewpoint that ridicules his targets. He peppers it with his own brand of "humour" and passes it off light-heartedly to make the whole issue sound like a joke and make himself sound like he's the good guy informing us of this terrible thing that we in the community MUST know about.
It's time that Mr Yusuf take another 2 year sabbatical and go back to having a relaxed beer with his mates at the pub watching the cricket. That way nobody gets hurt by his slanderous tongue.
The elections are over, it was a dirty campaign, but we have got to move on. I am over it and looking forward to pursuing my creative art of film making.
Irfan should not write about something he has absolutely no idea about. He has a duty of care as a person in a position of power and he will be answerable to the back-biting and many of the allegations that he has made wrongly and unfairly.
Recently, he attacked me of double standards after the council elections of which I stood as a Greens candidate. I was unhappy about the mosque allowing another candidate to make an announcement about his candidacy. This was an unfair use of a mosque which is a community asset. However, Irfan has twisted the story to make it sound like I am sore at losing and having a go at the mosque and even making up conspiracy theories.
It is quite sad that the master of manipulation Irfan Yusuf has tried to paint a picture of a conspiracy regarding the council elections.
He counters this fear by writing and putting others down. His smugness comes from the knowledge that he can get away with it. Over the years he has discovered that he can write stuff about people and get some mileage out of it. He even gets paid for it too. What a rort.
If you really look into his writings they are usually a cut and pace job of a few emails and sometimes something grabbed off the net. Rarely have I ever read anything by him with substance or accuracy. The other aspect of his writings is that usually its done at the expense of another person (usually someone that is doing well or trying to do good). One of the first rules of writing should be that your motives are not to degrade or slander another person for self-satisfaction.
If you were to take ten articles at random of Irfan's you will find that half of them are self-gratuitous and self-indulgent rantings of an unstable man, a loose cannon.
I find it incredulous that he gets away with all these various rants that he passes off as "articles".
Irfan's art is to take someone's lines out of context and construct an viewpoint that ridicules his targets. He peppers it with his own brand of "humour" and passes it off light-heartedly to make the whole issue sound like a joke and make himself sound like he's the good guy informing us of this terrible thing that we in the community MUST know about.
It's time that Mr Yusuf take another 2 year sabbatical and go back to having a relaxed beer with his mates at the pub watching the cricket. That way nobody gets hurt by his slanderous tongue.
The elections are over, it was a dirty campaign, but we have got to move on. I am over it and looking forward to pursuing my creative art of film making.
Irfan should not write about something he has absolutely no idea about. He has a duty of care as a person in a position of power and he will be answerable to the back-biting and many of the allegations that he has made wrongly and unfairly.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
From Cronulla to Camden: A Proud History
From Cronulla to Camden: A Proud History
Camden has a proud history. Many may not know that in 1825 John Macarthur and his wife Elizabeth were the first to be granted some acreage in the area and it soon prospered as a small cattle-rearing town. By 1828 90% of the town was inhabited by convicts. It also had a very proud Aboriginal history but sadly many were killed in an attempt to pacify the “natives”. During the drought of 1814 two Gundungurra families were murdered and in 1816 fourteen Tharawal and Gundungurra men, women and children were massacred in Appin.
Today, the town has found itself in a conflict of a different kind. The proposed Islamic school has caused many to come out and protest vehemently and others have been so bold enough as to threaten violence.
I decided to take a look for myself and visit this historic town. As I drove down the country road and across the Nepean river my expectations were far exceeded. There were many historical building still standing, the Council building still in its original structure. The town is full of character, no fewer than four churches; St Paul’s, St Andrew’s, St Johns and Camden Uniting Church. One just as grandiose as each other although none could compare to the majesty of St John’s on Menangle road, high on the hill overlooking the valley. I also noticed that there were two Asian restaurants; the Kum Hor and Fan Thai.
There is no doubt that the people of Camden have a great history and have preserved much of their heritage. Local writer Marjory Prior writes in her memoirs;
For Camden so rich in history cannot deny progress, but retain or teach history equally. Hold onto your wealth of pride, never allow the future to swallow up meanings. Your past will always be your future.
Progress. In 1816 many Aboriginals were killed in the name of progress. Today, the demands of modernity have seen many changes, probably unimaginable to many of the elderly folk. In 1921 there were 80 Chinese migrants from a population of 2000. With progress comes change. Australia’s migrants have helped build this nation into a wealthy and prosperous land and today we all share in that prosperity. The changing face of Australia is what makes this nation unique and one of the few places on Earth that can boast a harmonious and cohesive society, with no less than 120 different nationalities. But in 2005 we got a taste for what tensions and feelings simmer below the surface. Cronulla is not unlike Camden. It’s one of Sydney’s oldest settlements and holds an important place in our nations history. Once again, unfounded community fears about Lebanese and Muslims led to some of the ugliest racist and violent scenes in years. It shocked the nation and the world. Only a few minutes by road brings us to the point where Captain Cook landed and so changed the course of history for the inhabitants of this land and for the millions who were to follow in his steps.
There are also many schools in the Camden area, four of them Christian schools. The building proposal for an Islamic school in nearby Cawdor may attract some Muslims into the area. There are already many Muslims living in Campbelltown, Leppington and close by. Ironically, so many who fear a change to the cultural landscape do not realize just how Muslims can enrich the society, just as the Germans, Maltese and Chinese had done.
In 2003 the building proposal of a prayer centre in Annangrove sparked similar protests which included pigs heads being thrown on the property. However, three years after the opening of the prayer centre, none of the fears that were expressed were warranted and today the locals speak proudly of the centre and all are welcome.
If this school is to go ahead then we must assume that the intentions of the school is to create a place to seek knowledge, educate the children and imbue them with values of goodness, honesty, integrity, mateship and respect for others. This can only be seen as a positive for the area. Muslim Australians have chosen Camden of all places, not Lakemba, not Bankstown or Liverpool. They are breaking out of their comfort zones and embracing something new and willing to meet the proud iconic citizens of Camden.
It must be said that the people behind the school proposal went about this whole matter the wrong way, if they had established contact with the local Aboriginal Land Council and sought their permission to build a school and then gradually built a rapport with local church and community groups, then maybe we would have had less of a commotion. This is a free country yes, but there is a thing called respect. We as human beings must begin behaving as human beings and place reality into perspective. We owe a great deal to God for blessing us with a great nation and we must show that appreciation by respecting the people who have lived here for so long. Without integrity and genuine sincerity we are empty shells of humanity.
Before I left this picturesque village I made one last call to the town museum. As I entered, I noticed a bust of Camden’s favourite lady, Dr Liz Kernohan who became the first female mayor of Camden in 1980 and the first female Liberal MP in 1991. A bronze bust commemorates her dedication to community work and stands at the entrance. Below the bust in typed print it writes “made by Elderslie artist Rizwana Ahmed”. I found it extremely ironic.
In 2008 Camden will be celebrating 170 years of German migration to Camden with a massive reunion party. How wonderful it would be that if in 100 years we celebrate the establishment of an Islamic school in Camden and its great citizens that blossomed from its halls of education.
Camden has a proud history. Many may not know that in 1825 John Macarthur and his wife Elizabeth were the first to be granted some acreage in the area and it soon prospered as a small cattle-rearing town. By 1828 90% of the town was inhabited by convicts. It also had a very proud Aboriginal history but sadly many were killed in an attempt to pacify the “natives”. During the drought of 1814 two Gundungurra families were murdered and in 1816 fourteen Tharawal and Gundungurra men, women and children were massacred in Appin.
Today, the town has found itself in a conflict of a different kind. The proposed Islamic school has caused many to come out and protest vehemently and others have been so bold enough as to threaten violence.
I decided to take a look for myself and visit this historic town. As I drove down the country road and across the Nepean river my expectations were far exceeded. There were many historical building still standing, the Council building still in its original structure. The town is full of character, no fewer than four churches; St Paul’s, St Andrew’s, St Johns and Camden Uniting Church. One just as grandiose as each other although none could compare to the majesty of St John’s on Menangle road, high on the hill overlooking the valley. I also noticed that there were two Asian restaurants; the Kum Hor and Fan Thai.
There is no doubt that the people of Camden have a great history and have preserved much of their heritage. Local writer Marjory Prior writes in her memoirs;
For Camden so rich in history cannot deny progress, but retain or teach history equally. Hold onto your wealth of pride, never allow the future to swallow up meanings. Your past will always be your future.
Progress. In 1816 many Aboriginals were killed in the name of progress. Today, the demands of modernity have seen many changes, probably unimaginable to many of the elderly folk. In 1921 there were 80 Chinese migrants from a population of 2000. With progress comes change. Australia’s migrants have helped build this nation into a wealthy and prosperous land and today we all share in that prosperity. The changing face of Australia is what makes this nation unique and one of the few places on Earth that can boast a harmonious and cohesive society, with no less than 120 different nationalities. But in 2005 we got a taste for what tensions and feelings simmer below the surface. Cronulla is not unlike Camden. It’s one of Sydney’s oldest settlements and holds an important place in our nations history. Once again, unfounded community fears about Lebanese and Muslims led to some of the ugliest racist and violent scenes in years. It shocked the nation and the world. Only a few minutes by road brings us to the point where Captain Cook landed and so changed the course of history for the inhabitants of this land and for the millions who were to follow in his steps.
There are also many schools in the Camden area, four of them Christian schools. The building proposal for an Islamic school in nearby Cawdor may attract some Muslims into the area. There are already many Muslims living in Campbelltown, Leppington and close by. Ironically, so many who fear a change to the cultural landscape do not realize just how Muslims can enrich the society, just as the Germans, Maltese and Chinese had done.
In 2003 the building proposal of a prayer centre in Annangrove sparked similar protests which included pigs heads being thrown on the property. However, three years after the opening of the prayer centre, none of the fears that were expressed were warranted and today the locals speak proudly of the centre and all are welcome.
If this school is to go ahead then we must assume that the intentions of the school is to create a place to seek knowledge, educate the children and imbue them with values of goodness, honesty, integrity, mateship and respect for others. This can only be seen as a positive for the area. Muslim Australians have chosen Camden of all places, not Lakemba, not Bankstown or Liverpool. They are breaking out of their comfort zones and embracing something new and willing to meet the proud iconic citizens of Camden.
It must be said that the people behind the school proposal went about this whole matter the wrong way, if they had established contact with the local Aboriginal Land Council and sought their permission to build a school and then gradually built a rapport with local church and community groups, then maybe we would have had less of a commotion. This is a free country yes, but there is a thing called respect. We as human beings must begin behaving as human beings and place reality into perspective. We owe a great deal to God for blessing us with a great nation and we must show that appreciation by respecting the people who have lived here for so long. Without integrity and genuine sincerity we are empty shells of humanity.
Before I left this picturesque village I made one last call to the town museum. As I entered, I noticed a bust of Camden’s favourite lady, Dr Liz Kernohan who became the first female mayor of Camden in 1980 and the first female Liberal MP in 1991. A bronze bust commemorates her dedication to community work and stands at the entrance. Below the bust in typed print it writes “made by Elderslie artist Rizwana Ahmed”. I found it extremely ironic.
In 2008 Camden will be celebrating 170 years of German migration to Camden with a massive reunion party. How wonderful it would be that if in 100 years we celebrate the establishment of an Islamic school in Camden and its great citizens that blossomed from its halls of education.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Hajj, Chrissie and Cricket
This year is bloody special. Well not only have we a new prime minister as a Christmas present, we have an unusual time when two thirds of the world will be celebrating their festive seasons together. On one side of the globe over 1.5 billion people will be sacrificing a lamb or cow to feed the poor and on the other side another two billion people will remembering Jesus and his miraculous birth.
This year Eid Ul Adha and Christmas fall in the same month, only a day apart. Eid Ul Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice is celebrated by Muslims and is about the story of Abraham who incidentally is the patriarch for both Muslims and Christians. Abraham was tested by God to prove his faith. He was asked to sacrifice his eldest son Ishmael. Abraham who had a very unique relationship with God led his son away to be slaughtered and was tempted by Satan to change his mind, as he walked towards the altar, he saw Satan again and again in the form of a man. Abraham picked seven stones and threw them at Satan in an attempt to ward him off. He repeated this three times until Satan gave up. At the altar Abraham prayed one last time to God before he began his distressing deed. At that moment the knife did not cut the flesh and God sent in Ishmael’s place a sheep once Abraham’s faith was proven.
But there is another significant event that starts around the same time as Christmas and Eid and that is the Boxing Day test. For millions of people this is of great importance and for millions it is their religion.
For Muslims Abraham is regarded as the progenitor of Islam for he was the first to smash the idols of the Babylonians. For Cricket Fans its about their idols of Tendulkar, Ponting and Gilchrist (not Christ). And the Boxing Day test is more holier than holy water. As Muslims come together at the House of God in Mecca to remember God in the biggest event of the Muslim calendar. Fans line up at the MCG to witness a ton by Ricky and Sachin and Lee bag a five for. This year’s hopeful is Kumble who may save the season for the Indians. But off the back of a two nil snubbing of Sri Lanka the Aussies are looking invincible.
In just a few days from now close to two million Muslim pilgrims will be finishing the great Hajj or pilgrimage in Mecca. The Hajj is a compulsory tenet of Islam which signifies one’s highest attainment of faith in this life and is a testament of one’s commitment to God. During the pilgrimage Muslims, dressed in only a white shroud, complete certain rites which includes a parody of the stone throwing of Abraham to ward off Satan.
The Aussies will be doing something similar, dressed in white but throwing down stumps and the Indians will be making a special prayer to ward off that Great Satan Warnie so he does not make a come back.
Also the Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the kaaba (the cubed-shaped building) seven times and we all hope that the Aussies will be doing the lap of honour around the MCG after a close game with India. However, at the end of the Hajj Muslims sacrifice a sheep which is cut and distributed to the poor. This is a hard call to match but rest assured there will be millions of Aussies doing a well-grilled chop and a snag on the barbie as they watch the cricket on their television sets and come Thursday they will be returning their unwanted Chrissie gifts. That’s a great sacrifice. The smell of barbecued fat will drench the air as the boys go up for an LB decision by umpire Mal Brough, who has now turned to a new career option.
The Hajj is one of the world’s greatest religious events next to the Kumba Mela in India and the first test. Islam and sport two of the world’s great faiths. Happy Xmas everyone. Happy Eid and howzat!
Kuranda Seyit is the Executive Director of FAIR, the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations and an ex-opening bowler.
This year Eid Ul Adha and Christmas fall in the same month, only a day apart. Eid Ul Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice is celebrated by Muslims and is about the story of Abraham who incidentally is the patriarch for both Muslims and Christians. Abraham was tested by God to prove his faith. He was asked to sacrifice his eldest son Ishmael. Abraham who had a very unique relationship with God led his son away to be slaughtered and was tempted by Satan to change his mind, as he walked towards the altar, he saw Satan again and again in the form of a man. Abraham picked seven stones and threw them at Satan in an attempt to ward him off. He repeated this three times until Satan gave up. At the altar Abraham prayed one last time to God before he began his distressing deed. At that moment the knife did not cut the flesh and God sent in Ishmael’s place a sheep once Abraham’s faith was proven.
But there is another significant event that starts around the same time as Christmas and Eid and that is the Boxing Day test. For millions of people this is of great importance and for millions it is their religion.
For Muslims Abraham is regarded as the progenitor of Islam for he was the first to smash the idols of the Babylonians. For Cricket Fans its about their idols of Tendulkar, Ponting and Gilchrist (not Christ). And the Boxing Day test is more holier than holy water. As Muslims come together at the House of God in Mecca to remember God in the biggest event of the Muslim calendar. Fans line up at the MCG to witness a ton by Ricky and Sachin and Lee bag a five for. This year’s hopeful is Kumble who may save the season for the Indians. But off the back of a two nil snubbing of Sri Lanka the Aussies are looking invincible.
In just a few days from now close to two million Muslim pilgrims will be finishing the great Hajj or pilgrimage in Mecca. The Hajj is a compulsory tenet of Islam which signifies one’s highest attainment of faith in this life and is a testament of one’s commitment to God. During the pilgrimage Muslims, dressed in only a white shroud, complete certain rites which includes a parody of the stone throwing of Abraham to ward off Satan.
The Aussies will be doing something similar, dressed in white but throwing down stumps and the Indians will be making a special prayer to ward off that Great Satan Warnie so he does not make a come back.
Also the Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the kaaba (the cubed-shaped building) seven times and we all hope that the Aussies will be doing the lap of honour around the MCG after a close game with India. However, at the end of the Hajj Muslims sacrifice a sheep which is cut and distributed to the poor. This is a hard call to match but rest assured there will be millions of Aussies doing a well-grilled chop and a snag on the barbie as they watch the cricket on their television sets and come Thursday they will be returning their unwanted Chrissie gifts. That’s a great sacrifice. The smell of barbecued fat will drench the air as the boys go up for an LB decision by umpire Mal Brough, who has now turned to a new career option.
The Hajj is one of the world’s greatest religious events next to the Kumba Mela in India and the first test. Islam and sport two of the world’s great faiths. Happy Xmas everyone. Happy Eid and howzat!
Kuranda Seyit is the Executive Director of FAIR, the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations and an ex-opening bowler.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The error in tERRORism
The error in terrorism
The error in terror is fast becoming the dominant paradigm.
As the war continues we are gradually realizing that Bush administration's war is a war of ERROR.
But Australia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan makes it just as erroneous. In fact we are complicit in the deaths of millions of Iraqis and thousands of Afghanis. The AWB scandal is just one example of the corruption and cruel undertaking the Australian government has committed our nation to.
The War of Error started shortly after the attacks on the WTC buildings and the subsequent deaths of thousands of US citizens. In hindsight we may see that taking revenge against Afghanistan as a foolish step towards making the world more unsafe and unstable and then the invasion of Iraq totally tipped the scales and has made the region more volatile and unpredictable than ever in the modern period of Middle Eastern history.
But where are we heading with this dangerous alliance with the US? The Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd’s first action as head of the nation was to call George W Bush and reassure him that we were still on the same team. The coalition of the killing. This is where leaders of this nation falter, not able to look outside of our dependence on the US and take a courageous leap forward away from the protective wings of the US eagle, like our Kiwi cousins next door. It is interesting to note that Australia is listed as the 19th most peaceful country in the world, according to the Global Peace Index, but more interesting is that New Zealand is rated the 2nd most peaceful country in the world. How can two countries be so far apart when it comes to peace yet are so close historically and demographically?
Our lack of individuality will be the stumbling block for decades to come unless someone or some party makes a decision.
For now the war of error has continued to confound the average Aussie Joe Blow who does not believe the lies that our governments feed us with, such as an impending terrorist attack in Australia, the demonized refugees and the firebrand imams and the threat from the north. The new world order has seen a world dominated by uncertainty and fear.
Since the declaration by the US president of his war on terror, we have seen bomb attacks in peaceful cities like Madrid, Istanbul, Indonesia, London and foiled attempts in Berlin. Where will the next attack take place? Is the world safer under a US hegemony?
The errors have not ceased, we have had accidental bombings of wedding parties and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. And even our own soldiers have been coming home in coffins, now three in the past two years. How many more Australian soldiers have to die for a US war for oil?
And finally, what about the poor innocence of Iraq. The deprivation of rights, the extreme poverty and the terrifying life that almost every Iraqi faces on a daily basis, bombings and shootings, no prospects of work or education the average Iraqi Ali Hussain has nothing to look forward to. This is a great injustice.
The war of error is the greatest tragedy of this century and unless sanity prevails we will spiral further into anarchy and bedlam. We are seeing more tough talk on Iran and the very high possibility of a strike on its nuclear capabilities. This will not only create more civilian casualties it could even spillover to neighbouring Israel. There has been some significant political changes in the world in the past three years, with the end of Blair, Howard now history and only a year away from the end of a republican dominated USA, this could be the catalyst for change towards reduction of armed conflicts and interventions in other countries.
God Bless America.
The error in terror is fast becoming the dominant paradigm.
As the war continues we are gradually realizing that Bush administration's war is a war of ERROR.
But Australia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan makes it just as erroneous. In fact we are complicit in the deaths of millions of Iraqis and thousands of Afghanis. The AWB scandal is just one example of the corruption and cruel undertaking the Australian government has committed our nation to.
The War of Error started shortly after the attacks on the WTC buildings and the subsequent deaths of thousands of US citizens. In hindsight we may see that taking revenge against Afghanistan as a foolish step towards making the world more unsafe and unstable and then the invasion of Iraq totally tipped the scales and has made the region more volatile and unpredictable than ever in the modern period of Middle Eastern history.
But where are we heading with this dangerous alliance with the US? The Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd’s first action as head of the nation was to call George W Bush and reassure him that we were still on the same team. The coalition of the killing. This is where leaders of this nation falter, not able to look outside of our dependence on the US and take a courageous leap forward away from the protective wings of the US eagle, like our Kiwi cousins next door. It is interesting to note that Australia is listed as the 19th most peaceful country in the world, according to the Global Peace Index, but more interesting is that New Zealand is rated the 2nd most peaceful country in the world. How can two countries be so far apart when it comes to peace yet are so close historically and demographically?
Our lack of individuality will be the stumbling block for decades to come unless someone or some party makes a decision.
For now the war of error has continued to confound the average Aussie Joe Blow who does not believe the lies that our governments feed us with, such as an impending terrorist attack in Australia, the demonized refugees and the firebrand imams and the threat from the north. The new world order has seen a world dominated by uncertainty and fear.
Since the declaration by the US president of his war on terror, we have seen bomb attacks in peaceful cities like Madrid, Istanbul, Indonesia, London and foiled attempts in Berlin. Where will the next attack take place? Is the world safer under a US hegemony?
The errors have not ceased, we have had accidental bombings of wedding parties and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. And even our own soldiers have been coming home in coffins, now three in the past two years. How many more Australian soldiers have to die for a US war for oil?
And finally, what about the poor innocence of Iraq. The deprivation of rights, the extreme poverty and the terrifying life that almost every Iraqi faces on a daily basis, bombings and shootings, no prospects of work or education the average Iraqi Ali Hussain has nothing to look forward to. This is a great injustice.
The war of error is the greatest tragedy of this century and unless sanity prevails we will spiral further into anarchy and bedlam. We are seeing more tough talk on Iran and the very high possibility of a strike on its nuclear capabilities. This will not only create more civilian casualties it could even spillover to neighbouring Israel. There has been some significant political changes in the world in the past three years, with the end of Blair, Howard now history and only a year away from the end of a republican dominated USA, this could be the catalyst for change towards reduction of armed conflicts and interventions in other countries.
God Bless America.
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