Aqsa

The fact that Muslims need reforms in each and every sphere of life is an open truth. Education being the most important one. When it comes to education, I need not give any stats to prove one simple fact that Muslims have a long way to go. Still, education for Muslims is the most politicized one. We have seen enough of drama about the minority status of the most revered educational institution for Muslims in India, i.e. the Aligarh Muslim University. In no time, questions were raised about the seat reservation in Jamia because it offers a 50% reservation for Muslims. What I fail to understand is, why only Muslim institutions?

In a country like India, where we have educational institutes run by different religious organizations like the DAV society, which is a chain of schools and colleges run by RSS, the Khalsa schools and colleges and numerous convent educational institutions. Convent schools and colleges too have a 50% reservation for Christian students. Some Convent schools in Delhi offer a seat to a non-Christian student if the family of the student agrees to bear the expenses of a Catholic child for a year. Whereas colleges under the Khalsa board give a preference to Punjabi students. Even those Punjabi students who are lagging behind academically make it to their desired courses in Khalsa. There’s virtually nothing wrong with these institutes if they give preference to students from their own community, the reason as to why only those institutes that prefer Muslims are put to test is hard to understand.
Can we have the same yard sticks please?

Time and again this issue is raised dramatically, soon acid support is gathered from all nooks and corners of India without even thinking about the rest of the minority institutions that enjoy the same status as AMU and Jamia. What’s wrong with the rationale and the conscience of those who think that everything that’s Muslim is going to prove fatal? The secular identity that India brags appears to be a distant dream when such issues are raised.

 

The way Muslims and Islam is handled by the media the world over is simply commendable!

As they say,

“All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims�

These people very cleverly ignore the red brigade, the ETA, the PKK, irgun, kach, IRA and the recent ones being LTTE, ULFA, Maoists, babbar khalsa, bajrang dal and the naxalites.

Terrorism is simply a destructive ideology. They can use anything and everything to achieve their goals but not even once in the history of mankind, terrorism was associated with any religion the way it has been associated with Islam. So much so that today, Islam is taken to be synonymous to terrorism.

The saffron brigade in India uses religion too; to achieve their political ambitions but no one links terrorism with Hinduism, the religion they claim to follow!

Even I, don’t associate saffron terror with Hinduism, it’s simply insane to taint a religion because a wild mob quenches its thirst of human blood in a vulgar show of communalism.

Millions of people lost their lives in the war of terror waged by the empire. But who cares!

A Muslim’s life has a cheaper MRP than the lives of his counterparts.

This is the picture in Iraq…

“Of the total 655,000 estimated “excess deaths,” 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study. This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.â€?

“The Department of Defense always regrets the loss of any innocent life in Iraq or anywhere else,” said Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros. “The coalition takes enormous precautions to prevent civilian deaths and injuries.”

I was more than agitated when I read this article published by BBC, which is known as the fairer of the fair in terms of media reporting.

I guess, BBC needs to read this.

“The right of minorities to live in the country as equals was increasingly undermined by both state and non-state actors, despite it being clearly asserted in the Constitution. Religious minorities, particularly Muslims, were increasingly targeted for abuse. In Gujarat, Muslims were victims of massacres allegedly masterminded by nationalist groups with the connivance of state agencies. New and stringent security legislation, which gives wide powers of arrest and detention to the police, was misused to target political dissent in areas of armed conflict and elsewhere. Human rights defenders were frequently harassed by state and private actors, and their activities labelled as “anti-national�. The criminal justice system remained extremely slow, under-resourced and difficult to access for people from socially and economically marginalized sections of society, including lower castes and women. Security agencies continued to enjoy virtual impunity for past abuses, thanks to specific provisions contained in security legislation and to political protection. International human rights monitors, including UN independent experts and international human rights organizations, were de facto denied access to areas of armed conflict and were granted only very limited access to the rest of the country.�

May be, this one as well.

The country who was shouting in one voice “release Sarabjeet Singh� hindus and Muslims alike, changed its tone hypocritically when the fate of Afzal Guru was being written by the supreme court of India. Sarabjeet Singh allegedly exploded a bomb in Pakistan. In other words, a terrorist for Pakistan who allegedly claimed innocent lives there. People cried on top of their voices, if Pakistan won’t spare Sarabjeet Singh on humanitarian grounds then India should shun all the diplomatic ties with Pakistan! Surprisingly, Pakistan delayed his “phassi�. And when, Afzal’s case was being considered, people started shouting, in the same vigor… “Hang him without delay!�

Without even knowing, that he is a surrendered militant. Here’s Arundhati Roy’s take on Afzal. We are not asking to spare a terrorist. We are only asking to make sure if he’s a terrorist or not!

“It is Afzal’s story that gives us a glimpse into what life is really like in the Kashmir Valley. It’s only in the Noddy Book version we read about in our newspapers that Security Forces battle Militants and innocent Kashmiris are caught in the cross-fire. In the adult version, Kashmir is a valley awash with militants, renegades, security forces, double-crossers, informers, spooks, blackmailers, blackmailees, extortionists, spies, both Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies, human rights activists, NGOs and unimaginable amounts of unaccounted-for money and weapons.â€?

I don’t remember even a single time when a criminal who happens to be a follower of Hinduism or Christianity or any other faith for that matter was caught, and his religion was the first thing that was mentioned unlike the case with the so called “Islamic terrorists�. It’s pretty disgusting when terrorists are given a community name like that of kashmiris. No religion is criminal in its purest form. The adulterators make it corrupt. So, does that mean the religion or the community in itself is corrupt?

It’s always easy to put the blame on someone without even realizing its pros and cons. We Muslims are a family of around 1.4 billion now; irresponsible is such a small word to define the negligence of the media!

Those people who have nothing else to do in life and consider themselves to be a “criticâ€? of Islam make tall claims about their knowledge of the Quran and the try portraying divorce in Islam as nothing but a joke! The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Among lawful things, divorce is most hated by Allah.” (Reported by Abu Dawud)

Allah Almighty says, “…And consort with them in kindness, for if you dislike them, it may be that you dislike something in which Allah has placed much good.” (4: 19) In the words of Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in his well-known book, The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam: “A husband must be patient with his wife if he sees something in her that he disapproves and dislikes. He should recognize that he is dealing with a human being with natural imperfections, and he should balance her good qualities with her failings. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Let a believing man not dislike a believing woman. If something in her is displeasing to him, another trait may be pleasing.â€? At the same time Allah asked the believing women to please her husband in the best possible manner.

The Qur’an admonishes those men who oppress or ill-treat women: O you who believe! You are forbidden to inherit women against their will. Nor should you treat them with harshness, that you may take away part of the dowry you have given them - except when they have become guilty of open lewdness. On the contrary live with them on a footing of kindness and equity. If you take a dislike to them, it may be that you dislike something and Allah will bring about through it a great deal of good. (4:19)

Islam has given the liberty to a man and a woman to divorce if nothing works out. Divorce is the nothing but the last resort for a Muslim man and a Muslim woman. Though it is quite easy to divorce in an Islamic way but there’s more to divorce then just uttering a few words. All the possible options are tried before taking the big decision. It’s not an easy decision and I haven’t seen people around me getting divorced. Divorce is an option for those who are sure that parting is a better idea than staying together. If both husband and wife decide to get divorced then they are again asked to reconsider their decision. No lawyers or anything is required to make things worse! When they finally agree upon divorcing each other, the waiting period begins. The waiting period lasts for three menstrual cycles to ensure the woman is not pregnant. This period gives some time to the couple to think about what they are doing and if this is what they really want to do. If the woman turns out to be pregnant then it’s the responsibility of the husband to feed and clothe the wife till she delivers. Even if she is not pregnant then too the husband is supposed to feed and clothe her till the waiting period lasts. Muslim women are gifted with all these rights and what is propagated is entirely antagonistic to what the real truth is.

Even though taking divorce is so simple for Muslims but surprisingly Muslims have low divorce rates!

Check World stats on divorce.

Muslims have undoubtedly a low divorce rate, mashaAllah! Despite the simple procedure! It can in no way be compared to the kind of ugly battles that are fought on a daily bases in court rooms around the world. In conclusion, I hope this article helped to clear up the distorted/clichéd image of divorce in Islam to some extent. 

Narendra Modi, an RSS prodigy and chief miniter of gujrat in India, had let loose dance of death and terror on Muslims under the staged precursor of 9/11 like, attack on Hindu pilgrims. The attack has since been established as a case of fire accident rather than a pre-meditated attack by Muslims over Hindus in an enquiry done by Indian government and forensic authorities.

Nevertheless,under the guise of ‘they started it first’, the complete law and order breakdown and active connivance of state machinery to target about 2000 innocent Muslims and butcher, rape and roast them alive, is unique in Indian history.

The wounds lives on as none of the crime perpetrators, involved at any level of executing this pogrom, has been brought to book.

This Film won Best Documentary & Critic’s Choice at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, as well as the Wolfgang Staudte Award & Special Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.