Source URL = http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/burq-j14.shtml

Originally published on 14 July 2009

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy and the French bourgeois left are jointly mounting an anti-democratic campaign to illegalize the minority of Muslim women in France who wear body-covering clothes, the burqa or the niqab. In addition to setting a dangerous precedent of banning personal religious conduct, this measure aims to fan the flames of anti-Muslim racism, dividing the working class and promoting a fascistic political atmosphere in France.

In his June 22 speech to assembled parliamentarians at the Palace of Versailles, President Sarkozy declared, “The burqa is not welcome on the territory of France.”

Sarkozy was picking up an initiative of André Gerin, a Communist Party (PCF, France’s Stalinist party) deputy and mayor of the poor suburb of Vénissieux, near Lyon. Gerin’s petition for legislation banning the wearing in public of the burqa and the niqab has the support of deputies from all the parties represented in the National Assembly.

Immediately after Sarkozy’s speech, a parliamentary mission to study the issue was set up. It started its deliberations July 8 and is due to report at the end of December.

As the composition of the mission makes clear, there is support throughout the French political establishment for the victimization of France’s Muslims. The mission comprises 32 deputies: 1 PCF, 1 Green, 11 Socialist Party (PS), 17 UMP (the ruling conservative Union for a Popular Movement), and 3 others. The mission’s reporter will be UMP deputy Éric Raoult, and it will be led by Gerin.

Jean-François Copé, the leader of the UMP parliamentary group in the National Assembly, set the tone. He told the press July 8 that what was needed was “a banning law preceded by six months to a year of dialogue and explanation.”

He suggested that Muslim women’s wearing of the burqa or niqab was the sign of a vast conspiracy: “The extremists are trying to test the Republic.” He insisted that the burqa poses “a problem of security and public order and promised that “anyway, the response will be strong.” He absurdly suggested that criminalising personal conduct based on religious opinion had nothing to do with religious discrimination. “The burqa is a political issue,” he said, “not a religious one.”

Broader media commentary has given the lie to Copé’s assertion that the aim was not for state interference into the freedom of religious opinion. Reporting depositions at the first session of the mission, held July 8, French news agency AFP cited anthropologist Dounia Bouzar: “Mme. Bouzar explained that the full veil was imposed by the Salafists who say they base themselves on the original Islam and keep apart from the exterior world, which is considered to be impure. She spoke of ‘sectarian behaviour.’”

Another significant factor in the anti-burqa campaign is the growing anti Muslim hatred in the French ruling class as it expands its imperialist interventions in the Muslim world. France has sent troops to Afghanistan to bolster the neo-colonialist US occupation there, hypocritically presenting its intervention as a defence of women’s rights. It also recently obtained military basing rights in the Persian Gulf.

Thus UMP deputy Pierre Lellouche, who specialises in military matters and is France’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said, “If I fight daily for the rights of women in Afghanistan, you will understand that I would wish that all women in France should have the right to their bodies and their persons.”

The Stalinist Gerin argued in the same vein in an interview with conservative news magazine L’Express on June 18. He said the sight of women wearing the burqa or the niqab “is already intolerable to us when it comes from Iran, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia.... It is totally unacceptable on the Republic’s soil.”

It is no accident that the media and the politicians constantly refer to the “burqa,” which is seen extremely rarely in France, rather than the niqab, which, though also very rare, is seen somewhat more often. The burqa, a single garment covering the whole of a woman’s body, with a grid for the eyes, is worn in Afghanistan and conjures up images of terror in that war-torn country. The niqab, which also covers the whole body, involves material covering the face, leaving a slit for the eyes. It is mostly connected with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

Though disguised under a hypocritical cover of secularism and protecting women’s rights, the anti-burqa campaign is a racist assault on basic individual liberties. It is also particularly dangerous in that it sets precedents whereby the state can outlaw political or religious beliefs it deems contrary to its interests.

No credence can be given to claims that Muslim women’s rights can be defended by whipping up an anti-Muslim atmosphere and forcing women to modify their beliefs and conduct under the threat of punishment by the state.

The attempt to justify this measure with appeals to secularism (laïcité) is likewise both false and reactionary. From a legal standpoint, laïcité is a principle of conduct by the state, holding that the state will adopt a neutral position towards religion. Singling out and persecuting an oppressed minority like France’s Muslims for their personal conduct directly violates this principle.

The anti-burqa campaign also falsifies the main political experience that led up to the passage of the 1905 laïcité law: the Dreyfus Affair. Then, a coalition of socialists and intellectuals gained mass support to overturn the victimization by the Catholic Church, the army and the state of a member of a persecuted religious minority—Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer falsely convicted of spying for Germany. Today, the most powerful elements of the state are victimizing members of an impoverished and oppressed minority, while attempting to hide their racism with a pseudo-secularist fig leaf.

Such a right-wing campaign is only made possible by the collaboration of the Stalinist PCF—a long-standing party of government of the French bourgeoisie—and the so-called “far left.” Their support for the measure gives the lie to the conventional belief that they somehow represent the left. In fact, after a political degeneration and a shift in their social orientation and composition that has spanned decades, these parties now find themselves in the camp of the political right.

Gerin’s role is particularly significant in highlighting the national chauvinism that runs rampant inside the Stalinist PCF. An admirer of Fidel Castro, he joined the PCF in 1964 as a trade union activist and was elected to the PCF central committee in 1979. Elected as PCF town councillor in 1977, he became mayor of Vénissieux in 1985 and has been the National Assembly deputy since 1993.

Having attracted national attention for his enthusiastic support of Sarkozy’s 2005 repression of the suburban youth riots, his racist statements symbolize the alignment of sections of the PCF on the neo-fascist politics of the National Front. In his 2005 book The Ghettos of the Republic, published with a preface by Éric Raoult, he wrote, “I am gradually becoming aware of the problem. It’s a question of the differences in ways of life, cultural differences between the Judeo-Christian world and the Islamic world.”

In an October 5, 2007, interview with Riposte laïque (Secular Counterattack), he attacked “problem families” and singled out immigrant families. He said, “I’ve been asking the authorities for a year: make these families leave for everyone’s good, and if they’re foreigners, don’t hesitate to expel them. In fact, I’m for strong, radical methods, which will set an example.” In another interview, on December 7, 2007, Gerin lamented the “mortal danger represented by anti-white, anti-France racism.”

The response of the so-called “far left” in France has again demonstrated its inherent tendency to adapt to the vilest initiatives of France’s political establishment. Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle) issued a denunciation of women wearing the burqa, on the ludicrous grounds that they force others to wear the burqa: “To recognize the ‘freedom’ to wear the burqa, would be to help to deny freedom to thousands of others to reject the pressure which pushed them to wear it.”

LO added, “Religious freedom, which is also invoked, cannot be accepted as an argument.” In short, from LO’s standpoint, religious freedom only applies to some—and it does not apply to the most oppressed layers of the working class in France, among which most burqa-wearing Muslims are found.

The Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA, New Anti-capitalist Party) of Olivier Besancenot has maintained a deafening silence on this issue. The party’s Web site contains not one commentary on the question of the burqa. This is particularly significant in that they are preparing an electoral alliance with the PCF in next year’s regional elections.

None of these parties has raised an obvious issue: the implication of such a dangerous measure for broader political freedoms in France. If political or religious beliefs can be declared illegal because they are deemed noxious to the ideological bases of the French Republic, the state is making a major step along the road towards banning revolutionary proletarian politics and preparing direct class repression.

Such concerns—automatic for any party seriously concerned about the danger of its repression by the state—do not occur to the PCF and “far left,” however, because these parties are thoroughly integrated into the bourgeois establishment and the state.

The anti-burqa campaign is a stark warning to the working class of the degeneration of the French bourgeois establishment and its petty bourgeois satellites. The campaign will supply endless media coverage to divide workers along ethno-racist lines and poison the atmosphere against Muslims, precisely as economists predict deepening tensions due to the economic crisis, with rising unemployment and the arrival of a new graduating class on the job market. Class-conscious workers must oppose the anti-burqa campaign and break with all parties that promote or sanction it. No Trackbacks

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Originally published on 27.05.2009

Source URL = http://english.pravda.ru/business/finance/27-05-2009/107631-islam-0

Many analysts said that the Islamic financial system would suffer least from the financial crisis. Islam bans the interest rate, which is the basis of wealth and the source of trouble for the traditional world of money.

The interest collection ban and complicated financial tools helped Islamic banks avoid huge losses under the default on debts, which made the world financial system collapse.

“Islamic largest banks enjoy a much more stable position than the largest banks of the USA. My calculations said that the return of sales of four largest banks of the Islamic world was twice as much as those of five largest banks of the United States. The return of assets and the capital of the Islamic banks turned out to be considerably higher in comparison with US banks,” Zarina Saidova, an analyst with Finnam Investment Company told Bigness.ru.

Equality is one of the peculiar features of the Islamic economy, which makes it different from the Western style of the financial system. The Islamic economy is not based on the principle of deriving as much profit as possible. It also excludes all most popular forms of financial speculations which are so typical of the traditional system of economic relations.

As for mortgage services, an Islamic bank and its client agree on the period of the loan, the outpayments and the final price of the house before the loan is issued to the client. If the client is unable to pay for the house, the latter will be put up for auction, and the profit will be divided between the bank and the client. Therefore, both the bank and the client bear responsibility for the deal.

“It is worthy of note that the debt burden of the largest Islamic banks, just like the activity rate to attract borrowed funds, is lower than that of American banks as of 2008. It gives Islamic banks an advantage in terms of credit risks,” Saidova said.

All of the above-mentioned data do not mean, of course, that the crisis has not affected the financial system of the Islamic world. However, the Islamic economy suffered a lot less as opposed to the West.

“The financial indexes of the Islamic banks worsened during the time of the crisis due to the general decrease of the consumer demand and because of massive job cuts in the companies of the world. Low crude prices also affected the situation at this point. Many economically developed Islamic countries are based on crude exports and therefore depend on the fluctuations of prices on black gold,” the specialist said.

“Nevertheless, there were no significant losses reported in their economy. The governments of Islamic states did not have to take urgent measures to rescue their economies. The Islamic banking sector taught a good lesson to the Western financial system at this point,” the expert concluded.

Bigness.ru


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Terry Holdbrooks stood watch over prisoners at Gitmo. What he saw made him adopt their faith.

By Dan Ephron

Marfch 24, 2009 "Newsweek" -- -Army specialist Terry Holdbrooks had been a guard at Guantánamo for about six months the night he had his life-altering conversation with detainee 590, a Moroccan also known as "the General." This was early 2004, about halfway through Holdbrooks's stint at Guantánamo with the 463rd Military Police Company. Until then, he'd spent most of his day shifts just doing his duty. He'd escort prisoners to interrogations or walk up and down the cellblock making sure they weren't passing notes. But the midnight shifts were slow. "The only thing you really had to do was mop the center floor," he says. So Holdbrooks began spending part of the night sitting cross-legged on the ground, talking to detainees through the metal mesh of their cell doors.

He developed a strong relationship with the General, whose real name is Ahmed Errachidi. Their late-night conversations led Holdbrooks to be more skeptical about the prison, he says, and made him think harder about his own life. Soon, Holdbrooks was ordering books on Arabic and Islam. During an evening talk with Errachidi in early 2004, the conversation turned to the shahada, the one-line statement of faith that marks the single requirement for converting to Islam ("There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet"). Holdbrooks pushed a pen and an index card through the mesh, and asked Errachidi to write out the shahada in English and transliterated Arabic. He then uttered the words aloud and, there on the floor of Guantánamo's Camp Delta, became a Muslim.

When historians look back on Guantánamo, the harsh treatment of detainees and the trampling of due process will likely dominate the narrative. Holdbrooks, who left the military in 2005, saw his share. In interviews over recent weeks, he and another former guard told NEWSWEEK about degrading and sometimes sadistic acts against prisoners committed by soldiers, medics and interrogators who wanted revenge for the 9/11 attacks on America. But as the fog of secrecy slowly lifts from Guantánamo, other scenes are starting to emerge as well, including surprising interactions between guards and detainees on subjects like politics, religion and even music. The exchanges reveal curiosity on both sides—sometimes even empathy. "The detainees used to have conversations with the guards who showed some common respect toward them," says Errachidi, who spent five years in Guantánamo and was released in 2007. "We talked about everything, normal things, and things [we had] in common," he wrote to NEWSWEEK in an e-mail from his home in Morocco.

Holdbrooks's level of identification with the other side was exceptional. No other guard has volunteered that he embraced Islam at the prison (though Errachidi says others expressed interest). His experience runs counter to academic studies, which show that guards and inmates at ordinary prisons tend to develop mutual hostility. But then, Holdbrooks is a contrarian by nature. He can also be conspiratorial. When his company visited the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Holdbrooks remembers thinking there had to be a broader explanation, and that the Bush administration must have colluded somehow in the plot.

But his misgivings about Guantánamo—including doubts that the detainees were the "worst of the worst"—were shared by other guards as early as 2002. A few such guards are coming forward for the first time. Specialist Brandon Neely, who was at Guantánamo when the first detainees arrived that year, says his enthusiasm for the mission soured quickly. "There were a couple of us guards who asked ourselves why these guys are being treated so badly and if they're actually terrorists at all," he told NEWSWEEK. Neely remembers having long conversations with detainee Ruhal Ahmed, who loved Eminem and James Bond and would often rap or sing to the other prisoners. Another former guard, Christopher Arendt, went on a speaking tour with former detainees in Europe earlier this year to talk critically about the prison.

Holdbrooks says growing up hard in Phoenix—his parents were junkies and he himself was a heavy drinker before joining the military in 2002—helps explain what he calls his "anti-everything views." He has holes the size of quarters in both earlobes, stretched-out piercings that he plugs with wooden discs. At his Phoenix apartment, bedecked with horror-film memorabilia, he rolls up both sleeves to reveal wrist-to-shoulder tattoos. He describes the ink work as a narrative of his mistakes and addictions. They include religious symbols and Nazi SS bolts, track marks and, in large letters, the words BY DEMONS BE DRIVEN. He says the line, from a heavy-metal song, reminds him to be a better person.

Holdbrooks—TJ to his friends—says he joined the military to avoid winding up like his parents. He was an impulsive young man searching for stability. On his first home leave, he got engaged to a woman he'd known for just eight days and married her three months later. With little prior exposure to religion, Holdbrooks was struck at Gitmo by the devotion detainees showed to their faith. "A lot of Americans have abandoned God, but even in this place, [the detainees] were determined to pray," he says.

Holdbrooks was also taken by the prisoners' resourcefulness. He says detainees would pluck individual threads from their jumpsuits or prayer mats and spin them into long stretches of twine, which they would use to pass notes from cell to cell. He noticed that one detainee with a bad skin rash would smear peanut butter on his windowsill until the oil separated from the paste, then would use the oil on his rash.

Errachidi's detention seemed particularly suspect to Holdbrooks. The Moroccan detainee had worked as a chef in Britain for almost 18 years and spoke fluent English. He told Holdbrooks he had traveled to Pakistan on a business venture in late September 2001 to help pay for his son's surgery. When he crossed into Afghanistan, he said, he was picked up by the Northern Alliance and sold to American troops for $5,000. At Guantánamo, Errachidi was accused of attending a Qaeda training camp. But a 2007 investigation by the London Times newspaper appears to have corroborated his story; it eventually helped lead to his release.

In prison, Errachidi was an agitator. "Because I spoke English, I was always in the face of the soldiers," he wrote NEWSWEEK in an e-mail. Errachidi said an American colonel at Guantánamo gave him his nickname, and warned him that generals "get hurt" if they don't cooperate. He said his defiance cost him 23 days of abuse, including sleep deprivation, exposure to very cold temperatures and being shackled in stress positions. "I always believed the soldiers were doing illegal stuff and I was not ready to keep quiet." (Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said in response: "Detainees have often made claims of abuse that are simply not supported by the facts.") The Moroccan spent four of his five years at Gitmo in the punishment block, where detainees were denied "comfort items" like paper and prayer beads along with access to the recreation yard and the library.

Errachidi says he does not remember details of the night Holdbrooks converted. Over the years, he says, he discussed a range of religious topics with guards: "I spoke to them about subjects like Father Christmas and Ishac and Ibrahim [Isaac and Abraham] and the sacrifice. About Jesus." Holdbrooks recalls that when he announced he wanted to embrace Islam, Errachidi warned him that converting would be a serious undertaking and, at Guantánamo, a messy affair. "He wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into." Holdbrooks later told his two roommates about the conversion, and no one else.

But other guards noticed changes in him. They heard detainees calling him Mustapha, and saw that Holdbrooks was studying Arabic openly. (At his Phoenix apartment, he displays the books he had amassed. They include a leather-bound, six-volume set of Muslim sacred texts and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam.") One night his squad leader took him to a yard behind his living quarters, where five guards were waiting to stage a kind of intervention. "They started yelling at me," he recalls, "asking if I was a traitor, if I was switching sides." At one point a squad leader pulled back his fist and the two men traded blows, Holdbrooks says.

Holdbrooks spent the rest of his time at Guantánamo mainly keeping to himself, and nobody bothered him further. Another Muslim who served there around the same time had a different experience. Capt. James Yee, a Gitmo chaplain for much of 2003, was arrested in September of that year on suspicion of aiding the enemy and other crimes—charges that were eventually dropped. Yee had become a Muslim years earlier. He says the Muslims on staff at Gitmo—mainly translators—often felt beleaguered. "There was an overall atmosphere by the command to vilify Islam." (Commander Gordon's response: "We strongly disagree with the assertions made by Chaplain Yee").

At Holdbrooks's next station, in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., he says things began to unravel. The only place to kill time within miles of the base was a Wal-Mart and two strip clubs—Big Daddy's and Big Louie's. "I've never been a fan of strip clubs, so I hung out at Wal-Mart," he says. Within months, Holdbrooks was released from the military—two years before the end of his commitment. The Army gave him an honorable discharge with no explanation, but the events at Gitmo seemed to loom over the decision. The Army said it would not comment on the matter.

Back in Phoenix, Holdbrooks returned to drinking, in part to suppress what he describes as the anger that consumed him. (Neely, the other ex-guard who spoke to NEWSWEEK, said Guantánamo had made him so depressed he spent up to $60 a day on alcohol during a monthlong leave from the detention center in 2002.) Holdbrooks divorced his wife and spiraled further. Eventually his addictions landed him in the hospital. He suffered a series of seizures, as well as a fall that resulted in a bad skull fracture and the insertion of a titanium plate in his head.

Recently, Holdbrooks has been back in touch with Errachidi, who has suffered his own ordeal since leaving the detention center. Errachidi told NEWSWEEK he had trouble adjusting to his freedom, "trying to learn how to walk without shackles and trying to sleep at night with the lights off." He signed each of the dozen e-mails he sent to NEWSWEEK with the impersonal ID that his captors had given him: Ahmed 590.

Holdbrooks, now 25, says he quit drinking three months ago and began attending regular prayers at the Tempe Islamic Center, a mosque near the University of Phoenix, where he works as an enrollment counselor. The long scar on his head is now mostly hidden under the lace of his Muslim kufi cap. When the imam at Tempe introduced Holdbrooks to the congregation and explained he'd converted at Guantánamo, a few dozen worshipers rushed over to shake his hand. "I would have thought they had the most savage soldiers serving there," says the imam, Amr Elsamny, an Egyptian. "I never thought it would be someone like TJ."

With Dina Fine Maron in Washington  No Trackbacks

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Posted: 20 Zulhijjah 1427, 10 January 2007

I am an American woman who was born in the midst of America's "Heartland." I grew up, just like any other girl, being fixated with the glamour of life in "the big city." Eventually, I moved to Florida and on to South Beach of Miami, a hotspot for those seeking the "glamorous life." Naturally, I did what most average Western girls do. I focused on my appearance and appeal, basing my self-worth on how much attention I got from others. I worked out religiously and became a personal trainer, acquired an upscale waterfront residence, became a regular "exhibiting" beach-goer and was able to attain a "living-in-style" kind of life.

Years went by, only to realize that my scale of self-fulfillment and happiness slid down the more I progressed in my "feminine appeal." I was a slave to fashion. I was a hostage to my looks.

As the gap continued to progressively widen between my self-fulfillment and lifestyle, I sought refuge in escapes from alcohol and parties to meditation, activism, and alternative religions, only to have the little gap widen to what seemed like a valley. I eventually realized it all was merely a pain killer rather than an effective remedy.

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10/10/2007


source: CagePrisoners

Leaves are falling again. The land left bare, a skeleton of its former lush, living self. Birds who accompanied me in my dawn prayer are leaving, in groups departing. The moon marking this blessed month of Ramadan wanes slowly. I see the sun, in the western horizon, dip, deep red, behind a grey ridge. And I feel deserted, lonely.

Such are the days of life. But through these signs, God, in His mercy, gently stirs our inner consciences, prodding us to come to terms with ourselves and our realities. Loss, such an integrated, inescapable part of our earthly existence.

But life, in all its patterns, ever returns.

I know, witnessing it 20 times already, that the barren land will once again bloom with such thriving zest, so complete in its return, I am left bewildered: How did it ever leave before? And day after day I see the sun returning slowly, leaving a faint pink and purple trail behind her ascent across the eastern skies. A new moon, I also know, fast approaches, yet another sign of return.

God does not create these patterns we see in His creation whimsically, for each creation is a sign leading to the truth of God Himself. We ever witness the pattern of return. And then we celebrate it.

This night returning moon brings a celebration of the end of the blessed month of Ramadan, Eid. Eid, stemming from the Arabic root word ‘to return,’ so called for it returns every year. And so, decreed from the High Heavens, we celebrate return.

I will, God willing, celebrate this return of Eid in my home, with my family and friends, surrounded by comforts. I will celebrate, returning some of that love, gratitude, and generosity people have shown me throughout this year. And I will remember, surrounded by emotional and material comforts, those barred from return. The detainees of this War on Terror, unjustly taken, inhumanly treated, deprived of breathing in the return of a crisp October breeze, unable
to gaze a luminous returning crescent and, most cruelly, prohibited from returning to their homes.

Under normal circumstances, the human heart yearns for return: We are not so different from our fellow creations. We know deep-down that, as sure as the sun rises, the new moon is born, the bare, brown branches bud with their first green, we too will return. And, of course, the ultimate return will be to our Lord, when our bodies return to the earth from which we were first formed. So that this ultimate return may be one of security and reward, we work
and strive in this short and many times painful life: The beacon of light and the end of a seemingly never-ending tunnel. The knowledge of this return compels the human heart to do good, to uphold those godly commandments of justice. It frees our higher consciences from the trappings of corruption, greed and selfishness.

But for these captives of the War on Terror, living in sub-human conditions, this yearning for wholesome return to family, to love, to life, to God deepens in quiet desperation. Such cruel severings have happened before though, and God has given his response as well. When the Makkan tribe of Quraysh drove out—through incessant persecution—the Prophet Muhammad, God’s final messenger to humanity, and his followers, God revealed a promise to the Prophet:

“Indeed, He who has made adhering to and conveying the Quran binding upon you, O Prophet, shall, most surely, bring you back to Makkah, the place of return that your heart longs for”(28:85).

This verse, a particular favorite of mine, shows the humanness of the Prophet, peace on him, his heart yearning to go back to his home of many sweet memories,
to the precincts of the Sacred House. It also shows the compassion of God, uplifting and reassuring His creation of Humankind, ever weak and imperfect, promising return.

As this month of Ramadan comes to a close, we feel that twinge of sadness at its loss. But God assuages it by reminding us not to grieve: It will, indeed return, and so celebrate in its stead. So too, must we remember the prisoners, those deprived of that natural, godly path of return. We must pray that they return soon, and assist them along that way.

If ever you read this, captives of injustice, know that preserved in His book, long even before the earth made its first return around the sun God has promised: He shall, most surely, bring you back to the place of return that your heart longs for.
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The head of America’s largest Jewish denomination last week became the first top Jewish communal leader in recent memory to address a major American Muslim
organization.

****

A "profound ignorance" about Islam in the United States had helped spread the image of Muslims as the enemy, Yoffie said, pushing for a more active denunciation of those promoting such beliefs.

Source URL: = http://www.forward.com/articles/11554/ 

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Is Music Haram? Is Music Halal? Music, Haram or Halal?

 

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.


All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and
peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

First of
all, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you have in
us. We hope our efforts meet your expectations.

Given that
your objection revolves mainly around music and why it is
permissible, here is the clarification for that in the light of
fatwa issued by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi :


The whole issue of singing is controversial, whether it is
with musical accompaniment or not. Some issues succeeded to gain the
Muslim scholars' agreement, while others failed. All scholars have
unanimous view on the prohibition of all forms of singing and music
that incites debauchery, indecency, or sin. As for musical
instruments, given the weakness of the evidence indicating that they
are forbidden, the rule to be applied here is the one states that
all things are originally deemed permissible as long as there is no
Shari`ah text that prohibits them.

Singing is no more than
melodious words; if these are good, singing is considered good; but
if they are bad, such singing is deemed bad. Talk that contains
forbidden content is prohibited. What if that talk is accompanied
with rhythm and melody?

Scholars agree on the permissibility
of singing without instrumental accompaniment and where the content
is not prohibited. This sort of singing is allowed only in certain
occasions such as: weddings, feasts, welcoming a traveler, and the
like. This is based on the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessing
be upon him) that states: “He (peace and blessings be upon him)
asked, ‘Have you given the girl (i.e., the bride) anything as a
present?' They (the attendants) replied, ‘Yes.' He asked, 'Did you
send a singer along with her?' 'No', said `A'ishah. The Prophet
(peace and blessings be upon him) then said, 'The Ansar are a people
who love poetry. You should have sent along someone who would sing:
Here we come, to you we come, greet us as we greet you.'" In this
case, we can say that a woman can sing only in front of women and
her non-marriageable male kin.

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DUBAI, Oct 18 (IPS) - Ramadan is traditionally a month of piety and abstinence, marking the revelation of the Quranic scriptures, but many Muslims now worry
that it is being turned into a huge opportunity for business.

While the month (ending this year on Oct. 24) is characterised by dawn-to-dusk fasting, it is also a period of increased social interaction, community prayers
and sumptuous ‘iftars' (meals ending the fast at sunset) that businesses are eyeing.

Of late, businesses have reached the point of devising innovative Ramadan offers and promotions, giving rise to a debate about the commercialisation of
a sacred tradition.

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Muslims in the country are outraged by revelations, uncovered by a TV sting, that clerics take money for their religious rulings
By
ARAVIND ADIGA/NEW DELHI

Thursday, Sep. 21, 2006
Last week, many Muslims in India, like their counterparts around the world, gathered on the streets to burn effigies of the Pope and shout slogans denouncing
him for his remarks on Islam and violence. Even before that fully died out, however, a new controversy erupted — one that has turned Muslim ire against
some of their own local clerics.

India's "cash-for-fatwas" scandal broke out last weekend when a TV channel broadcast a sting operation that showed several Indian Muslim clerics allegedly
taking, or demanding, bribes in return for issuing fatwas, or religious edicts. The bribes, some of which were as low as $60, were offered by undercover
reporters wearing hidden cameras over a period of six weeks. In return for the cash, the clerics appear to hand out fatwas written in Urdu, the language
used by many Muslims in Pakistan and India, on subjects requested by the reporters. Among the decrees issued by the fatwas: that Muslims are not allowed
to use credit cards, double beds, or camera-equipped cell phones, and should not act in films, donate their organs, or teach their children English. One
cleric issued a fatwa against watching TV; another issued a fatwa in support of watching TV.

Adding to the shock in India, home to the world's third-largest Muslim population (approximately 150 million), is that some of the clerics apparently caught
in the sting operation teach at important institutions — one belongs to India's most famous Islamic seminary, the Darul Uloom at Deoband. At least two
of the clerics have been suspended from their posts, but that hasn't satisfied everyone. Students at one madrassa in north India denounced the clerics,
and in the city of Meerut, where a mufti, or cleric, had been caught on camera, the congregation at one mosque refused to offer prayers until he came before
them, admitted to taking the money, and apologized.

The "cash-for-fatwas" scandal has also led to a renewed debate on what constitutes a fatwa, and who has legitimate authority to issue one. Fatwas — like
the one passed by Iran's Ayatullah Khomeini in 1989 against the novelist Salman Rushdie, or those issued by Osama bin Laden in 1996 and 1998 against America
— have come to epitomize the intolerance of Islamic fundamentalists. Yet many Muslims argue that the purpose of fatwas has been misunderstood: A fatwa
is, technically speaking, a ruling on a point of Islamic law made by a recognized Muslim scholar in response to a question put to him. Since Osama bin
Laden is no Islamic scholar, many deny his right to issue a fatwa. The sway that fatwas hold over Muslims is also not as great as many outsiders think.
Last year, a Muslim cleric issued a fatwa stating that it was un-Islamic for Sania Mirza, India's most famous tennis player and a Muslim, to wear sleeveless
tops or short skirts on court. Mirza simply dismissed the ruling; indeed, many, if not most, urban Indian Muslims do not take fatwas seriously. However,
in rural communities, a well-respected mufti's fatwa — on issues ranging from marriage to health to women's rights — can carry considerable influence.
India's Muslim leaders announced that they will soon create a new body that will monitor the passing of fatwas in the country, in a bid to preserve that
influence, and nip the popular anger swirling around this scandal.
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