23 Safar 1442 A.H. - October 11 2020 Issue # 41, Newsletter #1884
Guest Editorial
A United Ummah is Unstoppable. Islamic men and women united.
by Sis. Aisha [Jamaat al-Muslimeen New York]
I have always believed that Muslims in America would need to
strengthen our Ummah here before we can aptly challenge this
(or any other) government's foreign policy in Muslim Lands.
The most egregious act is sexism of any kind. In this
instance, I am speaking of male chauvinism. This has divided
and weakened the Ummah by creating an oppressive environment
filled with female resentment. The place where women should
feel welcomed and safe is the masjid. The masjid should be
the place where myths and lies are dispelled by the truth
using the best sources: The Holy Qur'an and Authentic
Hadith. Just as Bother Salahuddin stated, in his recent New
Trend editorial, "our sisters must be included in all
aspects of the masjid because they are the other half of the
Ummah."
During a khutba, an Imam relayed a story about a sister who
came to him for advice. He tried to show her the answer in
the Qur'an but she backed away telling him that, in her
country, Muslim women are not allowed to even touch the
Qur'an. But he strongly encouraged the sister to read it,
anyway. He said that the next time he saw this sister she
was so thankful because she did not realize how much she was
missing in her life until she picked up a Qur'an and read
it! Al-humdulillah she overcame an oppressive obstacle to
the Qur'an. However, this was not someone who converted from
a kuffar lifestyle to an Islamic one. This woman was already
a Muslim!
There is an old male chauvinist saying, "keep them barefoot
and pregnant." This is the role for the modern Muslim woman.
I have attended Islamic conferences, excluding the Shoora,
where women's issues have only been about two things: Being
a dutiful wife and a Muslim mother.
Now, hold on! I am not insulting marriage or motherhood
because Allah holds these roles in very high esteem! But
what "Muslim" men have done is severely limit a Muslim
woman's role to being only a wife and a mother to fulfill
his will, not Allah's. Women, such as Ayesha Siddiqa (ra),
Mother of the Believers, was a foster mother, a scholar, and
a general who led successful Jihads. Superwoman has nothing
on her!
I never learned about strong Muslim women at the Islamic
school I attended. For me, being a Muslim female student was
no different than being a Black student in public school
who's told that Africans have never been anything but slaves
only to discover that was a lie. Well, my miseducation
caused me to consider leaving Islam when I was nineteen
years old...then, I read the Qur'an for the first time.
Another book I read was Dr. Kaukab Siddique's "Liberation of
Women Thru Islam." This is when I learned that the true
definition of a Muslim was one who bows to the Will of the
One True God, not a man's.
Womanhood exists before Motherhood can and it is only
effective when the message of the Qur'an is being applied.
How effective can a woman be, in any role, when she has been
dehumanized to the point where she is told that her hands
can never touch a Qur'an?! Or, she is told to sit behind an
iron curtain in a masjid? What will any children she has
learn but this same male chauvinist dogma. This is why the
Muslim Ummah is so weak. If Muslim women are ignorant of the
Qur'an then, Islam stops progressing!
Pakistan
Murder of leading Islamic Scholar. October 10
Dr. Adil khan, a top scholar of the Deobandi school of
Islamic thought, was murdered today in Karachi by gunmen who
escaped. His driver was also shot dead.
He was the leader of the Jamia Farooqia islamic
seminary.
PMLn, JI, Imran Khan and many others have condemned the
murder and called for capture and punishment of the
killers.
Imran Khan's Blunder on Azad Kashmir.
JI Setting up Free Services for the Needy
by Qaiser Sharif
KOHAT- October 10: Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Senator Sirajul Haq
has highlighted the need to change the system, saying the
country could not be put on the path of development with the
same faces in power again and again.
Talking to journalists after inaugurating "Aagosh Centre"
here on Saturday, he said it remained never a difficult task
to send the governments packing in Pakistan but the
challenging task was the revamping of the entire system. The
JI, he added, was only struggling for the latter.
The JI charity al-Khidmat Foundation established the centre
to provide free shelter, food and education facilities to
orphan students of the area. The foundation has already been
running the project in different cities of the country.
"The JI wants to transform Pakistan into an Islamic welfare
state," said Senator Siraj, adding the days were not so
ahead when the masses would witness the real change and get
rid of the mafias who looted the country for decades.
The JI chief said that PTI government badly failed to
fulfill its promises and virtually handed over the country
to international lending agencies. He said the inflation and
unemployment turned the life of people miserable and they
were unable to meet their ends. He said education, health,
agriculture sectors were on the verge of collapse and the
Imran Khan tried his best to make the institutions
controversial.
Senator Siraj demanded the third-party audit of the Crona
funds and called for launching an independent and across the
boards accountability drive.
MUZAFFARABAD: October 10: Jamaat-e-Islami Deputy Emir Liaqat
Baloch has warned the government against making decision to
disturb the territorial unity of the Kashmir region by
changing the constitutional status of the GB and AJK.
Addressing "Kashmir Solidarity Seminar" here on Saturday,
he, however, called for giving more rights and autonomy to
the areas and introducing projects for the betterment of the
masses. He said any decision to change the status of the AJK
and GB until the freedom of Indian held Kashmir would be
tantamount to damage the Kashmir cause.
Baloch also condemned the FIR registered against the AJK
Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haidar on sedition charges. He
said the Prime Minister Imran Khan should seek apology from
the AJK Parliament on the step which provided opportunity to
India to start propaganda by making mockery of the people of
the AJK. He also talked about the recent wave of
sectarianism in the country, saying enemies of Pakistan
wanted to destabilize it by creating peace and order
situation. He said people of Pakistan should remain alert
from the conspiracies of the anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan
lobbies.
The Milli Yakjehti Council AJK chapter organized the sitting
which was also addressed by JI leader Abdur Rasheed Turabi,
MYC AJK President Maulana Imtiaz Siddique and others.
New Trend note.
Imran Khan's charges against the Kashmiriri leader have been
withdrawn after the JI protest.
War News and Civil Discord
Mali
How did they get 100 people released?
October 9.
In a victrious move, Islamic group
al-Qaida got 100 of its supporters released frm the regime's
prisons. In exchange they turned over 4 Europeans they
captured. In ints report BBC did not mention tye names or
families of Islamic prisoners but it gave details of the
lives of the 4 Europeans, thus giving the impression of
savages exchanged for civilized people.
Iraq
Clashes in Kerbala.
Al-Sumaidai, Mufti of Iraq, questions the validity of
elections next year. He said "45,000 Sunnis are in prison
and 8000 have been sentenced to death."
Erbil and Baghdad power centers have agreed to bring back
200,000 Yazeedis for re-settlement in Sinjar. Previously the
western powers said the Yazeedis had been killed by ISIS.
Protestors and pilgrims clashed during the Arbain cermonies.
Police interfered and protestors threw stones at the police.
Local sources say 50 protestors were injured as well as some
pilgrims and some police.
Protestors had brought pictures of their loved ones killed
by police.
Usually Arbain brings huge columns of shia pilgrims from
Iran but they could not come this time because the regime
closed the border owing to Covid 19
Iran
October 9. Anti- regime crowds for Shajarian, famous musician.
Famous musician Shajarai passed away from cancer.
Crowds gathered in front of the hospital . They came for
mourning but soon began anti-regime protests.
Police dispersed them violently.
Burial in Tehran was refused and body was sent to far away
Mashhad to evade crowds
Syria
Shelling and clashes around the country. October 5 to 11.
Turkish force opened rocket fire on Communist Kurds
positions in northwestern Aleppo province. (10.11)
Mujahideen of Hayat Tahreer exchanged heavy fire with
Assad forces in Jabal Zawiya area of Irbid province.
(10.10.)
Also clash with regime in northeastern Latakia province.
(10.10)
Kurd Communists exchanged heavy weapons fire with Syrians
supporting Turkey in northeast Aleppo province (10.09)
Series of IS raids on pro-US troops in Deir ez zor
province. (10.7 and 8 .)
Islamic State advanced in southern Raqqa province in
heavy clashes with Assad forces.
IS clashed with regime force in al-Sukhna desert, east of Homs .
Russian air strikes in Deir ez zor on advancing IS force
Eastern Hama province. IS advanced against Assad forces.
(All these on October 6)
Syrians supporting Turkey clashed with Communist Kurds
near El Bab, central syria. (Oct.5)
(Syrian Observatory which is the source for all Syria news
also noticed that on October 5 another Syrian from Deraa has
died under torture in Assad's prison. By now 104,000
Syrians have died in Assad's horrific prison system. Of
these SOHR has been able to document the names and
identities of 16,215.)
Canada
Muslim Stabbed.
Muslim from local mosque in Rexdale area of Toronto was
stabbed to death.
1 In 4 Female Cadets At Canadian Military Colleges Report
Being Assaulted
A new Statistics Canada report that paints a picture of
widespread sexual misconduct at the country's prestigious
military colleges is prompting fresh criticism as well as
promises of action more than six years after the Canadian
Armed Forces first committed to rooting such behaviour from
the ranks.
The report follows a survey of 512 officer cadets at the
Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., and its
French-language counterpart in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu,
Que., in which 68 per cent of students said they had
witnessed or personally experienced what was described as
unwanted sexualized behaviour. That included sexual jokes or
comments about a student's appearance.
That was not far off the 71 per cent of students at other
post-secondary institutions across Canada who reported
witnessing or experiencing such behaviour. But the military
ordered a crackdown on such activities across the Armed
Forces after a series of media reports about sexual
misconduct in the ranks was first published in 2014.
And 28 per cent of female respondents said they had been
sexually assaulted during their time at the military
colleges — nearly twice the rate among students at
post-secondary institutions in the rest of the country.
Egyptian Canadians denouncing the mass execution of
Egyptians without due process
The Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy (ECCD) and the
Egyptian Canadian Home Organization (ECHO) are Calling for
an action in front of the office of the Prime Minister of
Canada*
This action is among several actions taking place across
canada, Egyptians and Human Rights defenders in Montréal
will rally in front of the office of the Prime Minister of
Canada Mr. Justin Trudeau demanding that he denounces the
mass unjust execution taking place in Egypt by dictator
regime of Sisi.
7 years of unjust detention of tens of thousands, neglecting
of detainees rights and execution of tens of them without
any juridical due process
Several international Human Rights organizations including
HRW, AI, and the UN Human Rights Council denounced this
unjust treatment and the executions, Canada did not yet!
The rally and letter delivery took place on October 6, 2020,
in front of Prime Minister office located in Montréal, Québec
Invitation to Think
Planets more hospitable to life than Earth may already have
been discovered.
At least two dozen planets outside the solar system might be
better for life than Earth.
These planets are just a little older, a little wetter, a
little warmer and a little larger than Earth is, researchers
wrote Sept. 18 in the journal Astrobiology. All of these
factors could mean that some of these planets are the best
places to search for extraterrestrial life.
"We have to focus on certain planets that have the most
promising conditions for complex life. However, we have to
be careful to not get stuck looking for a second Earth
because there could be planets that might be more suitable
for life than ours," University of Washington astrobiologist
Dirk Schulze-Makuch said in a statement.
Seeking superhabitable planets
Astronomers have discovered more than 4,000 exoplanets, or
planets outside our solar system, so far. Most of these are
not particularly conducive to life. For example, planet
KELT-9b is so hot that its atmosphere is constantly melting.
The darkest known planet, TrES-2b, has an atmospheric
temperature of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (980 degrees
Celsius). On the other end of the inhospitable spectrum is
GJ 433 d, whose discoverers described it as the coldest
Neptune-like planet ever discovered.
But there are also many planets within their star's
habitable zone, or the "just-right" distance conducive to
surface temperatures that aren't too hot or too cold for
life as we know it to evolve. Schulze-Makuch and his
colleagues aimed to identify exoplanets most likely to be
"superhabitable," or not only in the habitable zone but also
boasting other features that might make them a good place
for life to blossom.
Amazing visit to Gaza!
Kids need a Dignified Mother, not a Society Woman.
Lauren Booth, broadcaster and journalist, is former
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's sister-in-law, who
converted to Islam in 2010.
Here below is her journey to Islam and the heart-warming
reaction of her family in this translated
version of a recent interview:
I thank Allah for giving me the chance to spend a month
with the greatest Muslims alive in this 'Ummah' today!
At the end of Ramadan, I went to a family home in Rafa
one of the poorest refugee camps in the poorest areas,
of the over populated city in the entire world.
I had 'Iftar' with a family there who had about 16 mats,
which were used at night to sleep on.
In the middle of this tent area the mother places
the meal if she has any for her children to eat...
This lady greeted me at the door and it was as if she
was welcoming me to the Taj Mahal not a hellhole
in the Gaza strip...!!!
"Sallam Alaykum!" she says with a smile that lights
up the whole area. I asked her:
"What is it like in Rafa at Ramadan with very little food
?"
She said: 'Alhamdulillah!' with such joy I couldn't help
but smile. And as I sat there on the floor of this home eating
what little leaves that they had; a bit of hummus, a pita bread
that was our 'Iftar'. I got angry ... really angry !
I thought what is this God that makes hungry people
even hungrier ? What is this God Who creates a fast
for the poorest of the oppressed people in the world.
So, I turned to this sister and I said:
"With all due respect I want to ask you, why does your God
starve you in Ramadan ? Why do you fast in Ramadan
sister, just explain to me?"
This lady who never owned a handbag, whose children didn't
have, never had shoes. Whose children I was sitting with didn't
have pen or paper to do any drawings,bshe said to me:
"Sister we fast in Ramadan to remember the poor."
And a key went to my heart and unlocked it...!!!
But of course Islam wasn't for me that was for somebody else
so I put the thought of how great Islam was to one side and
said so what ...
I like the Palestinian people but it has nothing to do with Islam.
Then last year in Ramadan again I went to Iran as a journalist
and I visited a mosque there, it's the Bibi Fatima Mosque
and I made 'Wudu' because I knew how to do it and I put on
a 'Chadur' and I made a simple prayer:
'Allah - and I used the word Allah. "Allah, don't give me
anything. I have everything. Thank you for this journey,
but Allah, don't forget the people of Palestine."
Then I sat down in this busy mosque with women feeding their
children, pilgrims coming and going; but when I sat down,
this immense feeling of peace came over me.
Peace and tranquility that I never knew before, such a
calm that the tension in my heart went.
There was no sound in my head for the first time in my life
as an adult - just deep, deep joy and calm.
I sat there for a long time in this place of calm knowing
that somewhere in the universe everything is like this.
Over the course of that evening women kept coming over to me
holding me by the shoulders and saying:
"I love you." At one point a child came over and held my
hand and just said in Farsi (Persian): "I love you."
I said to my friend Nadia, "Is this what it is like in the mosque?"
She said, "Not really. I think something is happening."
I slept that night on the floor of the mosque with a lot of other
pilgrims and the next morning, Fajr sounded and I was inside
the mosque and I prayed Fajr. Then I came outside and had a
cup of chai and the sun was coming up and I had one very
specific thought... "O, no... not Islam, please not Islam."
I just want to say that a couple of strange things happened to
me after that. I took the plane back to London from Tehran.
As the plane was coming into London the pilot said:
"Thank you for flying Tehran airways we'll be in London in 20
minutes." And at that point every Iranian Muslim woman
took off the hijab and made out like she was from Sex in the
City even showing some cleavage. I thought great !
Thank goodness, my hands wouldn't take off the hijab.
My hands wouldn't take off the hijab !
and I thought I was having a nervous breakdown !
Seven days later I said my Shahada in a London mosque and
it was time for me to return to the Qur'an.
This time I opened the Qur'an, and Surah Al-Fatiha
(the opening chapter) look like saying to me:
'Hello Sarah where have you been, welcome to the religion
of peace, joy and tranquility,' and I couldn't put it down.
Someone once told me, and I feel much like that before Islam
I had given up on God but God never gave up on me.
Alhamdulillah.
The question everyone wants to know is how did your family
or children react. My two daughters who are very practical and
are aged 8 and 10. They came to me with three questions:
Mummy when you're a Muslim will you still be Mummy?
I said: When I am a Muslim you know what, I will be a better
mummy, they said: "Horrayyy!" Mummy will you drink alcohol?
When I am a Muslim I will never drink alcohol again
and they said "Horrayyy!"
When you're a Muslim will you show your chest?
I said why would you ask such a question?
They said when you come to the school and your chest is
showing we are embarrassed and we hate it and we want you
to stop it.. When I am a Muslim I will cover all this area
and to which they said: "We love Islam."
It was that easy. When you look at those 3 questions
the basic female womanhood is summarized in those
3 questions from the purity of children.
Question no. 1. Will you be the center of our household?
Can we rely on you as a mother to be there for us rather than
putting your work, your colleagues/friendships or the bar
in front of us ?
Question no. 2. Will you remain in the limits that Allah has
described for all of us in behavior ?
Question no.3. Will you be a modest dignified woman in
Islam?Alhamdulillah that is all I have to say.
What I have learnt this year in being a Muslim is this,
when you have problems don't tell to your friends or family...
if you can read the Qur'an every night or read 10 min. everyday
your Imaan is much, much higher. If you live in a non-Muslim
country those of us who do it can go very low very quickly,
you must read the Qur'an.
If those who are not on the path of Islam if they come to Islam
like me; or, if you're a Muslim -you are on the path as well, so
make sure that you don't miss those signs in everyday life.
All praise is to Allah (Almighty).
~ My 'Salaams' to all ~
Y A S M I N.
Hadith of the Week
Narrated 'Aishah, r.a.:
"The first of what the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)
initiated with of Prophethood, when Allah wanted to honor
him and grant His mercy upon His creatures, was that he
would not see anything (in a dream) except that it would
occur like the break of dawn. So he continued upon that for
as long as Allah willed for him to continue, and seclusion
was made beloved to him, such that there was not anything
more beloved to him than being alone."
Destruction of Islamic architecture in China.
1 out of 3 Mosques demolished since 2017.
Reports about the Chinese persecution of Uyghur and other
other minorities by the Chinese Communist Party are not new
anymore, and they have always been denied by the Chiese
authorities.
However, a new report by the Australian Strategy Policy
Institute titled Cultural Erasure and prepared by a team of
researchers including Nathan Ruser , Dr James Leibold ,
Kelsey Munro & Tilla Hoja avers that the Chinese Government
has embarked on a systematic and intentional campaign to
rewrite the cultural heritage of the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region (XUAR). It's seeking to erode and redefine
the culture of the Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking
communities—stripping away any Islamic, transnational
or autonomous elements—in order to render those
indigenous cultural traditions subservient to the 'Chinese
nation'.
The reserachers using satellite imagery, have estimated that
approximately 16,000 mosques in Xinjiang (65% of the total)
have been destroyed or damaged as a result of government
policies, mostly since 2017. An estimated 8,500 have been
demolished outright. A further 30% of important Islamic
sacred sites (shrines, cemeteries and pilgrimage routes,
including many protected under Chinese law) have been
demolished across Xinjiang, mostly since 2017, and an
additional 28% have been damaged or altered in some way.
As-slamu alaikum,
We have a beautiful deen and a beautiful community MashaAllah.
Our community members always come together when facing by difficulties.
Of course we are all different and it is important to be
different - that's what makes a successful community.
If Allah willed, He would have made us all the same.
O Allah, make us of Your righteous Servants.
Ya Allah, guide us, unite us, reduce the suffering and
hardship of every Muslim.
Ameen.
"Saudi" Arabia
Al-Huwaitat tribe seeks UN help to stop Saudi forced displacement
Request for UN investigation comes after months of alleged
harassment, arrests, and abductions by Saudi forces.
Saudi Arabia's al-Huwaitat tribe has sent an urgent
communication to the United Nations calling for an
investigation into allegations of forced displacement and
abuse by Saudi authorities.
Suleiman Mohammed al-Taqique al-Hwaiti, a prominent activist
from the Indigenous tribe, was arrested and imprisoned in
the week starting September 21, and his social media
accounts were deactivated.
Thirteen other tribe members were allegedly abducted -
apparently by the security forces - around the same time and
are still being held in incommunicado in prison, according
to an al-Huwaitat activist that spoke to Al Jazeera.
On October 1, a further two tribe members were arrested, one
taken by Saudi security forces outside Fahad Bin Sultan
University, after they had criticised the Saudi government
and the NEOM project on social media. Their whereabouts are
unknown, according to members of the tribe.
NEOM (standing for "New Future") is a planned mega-city in
the northwest of Saudi Arabia which aims to be "an
accelerator of human progress", according to its
website.
The project is one of the cornerstones of Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed Bin Salman's Vision 2030 initiative, which aims to
reinvigorate and diversify the Saudi economy.
The planned mega-city would cover an area of 26,500 square
kilometres (10,232 square miles) in the northwest of Saudi
Arabia, also covering part of Egypt's Sinai region which the
Saudi government has leased from Egypt for a fee of about $10bn.
The total cost of the city is estimated to be more than
$500bn, with financial backing supplied by the government's
Public Investment Fund.
Some 20,000 al-Huwaitat tribe members face eviction to make
way for the project.
Though early marketing materials on the NEOM project claimed
it would be built on "virgin land", the al-Huwaitat tribe
has been settled in the northwest Tabuk province for
centuries, as well as in areas of Jordan and the Sinai.
"Mohammed Bin Salman [MBS] has decided to place this project
in the northwest corner of Saudi Arabia - the mainstay of
the al-Huwaitat tribe," Dawn Chatty, professor of
Anthropology and Forced Migration at Oxford University, told
Al Jazeera.
"But it's not even trying to settle the tribe, it's
pretending they don't exist. This is typical of the way
Mohammed Bin Salman operates."
This is not the first time the project has faced controversy.
SubhānAllāh, may Allāh protect us from those
who studied Arabic & then belittle those who are weak in
Arabic.
Alhamdulilâh, learning & understanding Arabic is a blessing
from Allāh, but where are the manners of a student? The
most important thing isn't how much knowledge & books you've
memorised, rather it is your truthfulness & sincerity,
acting upon everything you learn with a pure heart.
Some people enjoy making fun of others, may Allāh keep
our intentions pure in everything we do, the layman who
knows very little about Islām but acts upon what he
knows from the Qur'ān & Sunnâh is more beloved to
Allāh than someone who has memorised the Qur'ān &
Sunnâh, but doesn't act upon it.
May Allāh(سبحانه
وتعالى) make from among
us 'Ulemā' that are upon the right methodology & with
the character of the Prophet(صلى
الله عليه
وسلم). We should listen to others,
not just impose what we have studied in a particular topic,
this is blind ignorance, because there are things others
might have learnt which you haven't come across, so let's be
humble Inshā'Allāh. The Qur'ān isn't supposed
to merely be recited, but rather to learn from the lessons
from it, and in our case the story of Mūsa & Khidr, so
let's be the best we can & help others Fee Sabeelilah
without looking down upon anyone, and don't ever backbite
anyone, I don't want to hear it at all, unless that person
is present, or else it's a Major Sin.
#Reminder to myself first
Outreach
New Trend's September 27 issue reached 118,143 people.
