My Journey To Islam
August 23, 2008BASIC QUESTIONS ON ISLAM
August 23, 2008
BASIC QUESTIONS ON ISLAM
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GENDER EQUITY, NOT EQUALITY
August 23, 2008GENDER EQUITY, NOT EQUALITY
written by Khalid Baig
You are the best of peoples evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right,
forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah.
(Aal-e-Imran, 3:110)
Muslims are witnesses to the Truth for the mankind. It is incumbent upon them to stand up for what is right. This is a logical consequence of one’s belief and one’s love for humanity.
For the need of one’s own protection, others ought to be informed about what is right. We live in a world where each others thoughts and acts influence others; when a people stop calling other to the right path, they themselves become the target of their urge to follow the other paths.
The results of our collective dereliction of responsibility in this matter are all around us today. The campaign launched internationally in the name of women’s rights and gender equality, which has recently gained lot of momentum, is one example of this.
Equality is a slick and catchy slogan. But what does equality actually mean? In mathematics, two variables can be swapped without affecting the result in any way. If men and women are equal in this sense, then a woman can do anything a man can do, and vice versa. You can substitute one for the other anywhere. Thus a woman can be a truck driver, a coal miner, a prison guard, or what have you. Similarly, a man can become Mr. Mom, replacing the mother taking care of the children.
Such mathematical equality between men women is manifestly absurd. One only needs to look at the biological and psychological differences between men and women. Yet, this is precisely the direction that the so-called gender equality campaign has taken blindly. It aims at replacing the complementary relationship between men and women with that of an adversary.
The civilisations and societies that for centuries refused to consider women as human beings, or to give them any rights, have now gone from one extreme to another. Islam has never had anything to do with such nonsense. When women had no rights in the world it declared;
And women shall have rights, similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable.
(Al-Baqarah, 2:228)
That still remains Islam’s command today and forever. Similar rights, not same rights. Qualitative, not quantitative equality. Both men and women are equal in their humanity and in their dignity; in their accountability before Allah; in their responsibility to perform their assigned tasks and be judged according to their performance.
However, their assigned tasks are not the same. They have been given different capabilities by their Creator: the tasks are based on those capabilities.
This distinction is not an error that needs to be corrected. It is the only basis for building a healthy and prosperous society. Islam liberates a woman from the modern tyranny of having to become a man in order to get a sense of self worth and achievement.
If Muslims had done their job, they would now be asking for universal rights for women as given by Islam, generally ignored in the world. Based on our dismal performance, and the current discourse on the subject, that would be a revolutionary – and liberating – act. Islam’s universal declaration of women’s rights would include the following:
1. The Creator has given men and women dignity, but forces of immorality and darkness attack it in many ways. One such pernicious attack on women is pornography. It is an affront to the respect and honour of women. And it produces an atmosphere where other crimes against them become possible.
In some countries it is a multi-billion dollar ‘industry’, and they are exporting this filth to other parts of the world. Newer technologies, especially the Internet, have also become mediums of choice for the purveyors of filth. Thus posing a serious threat to morality everywhere. Pornography must be rejected and all trade in porn outlawed universally in the same way as dangerous drugs are banned.
2. Prostitution must be recognised as a despicable act of exploitation of women. No one who condones it can be taken seriously in their claims to respect women’s rights.
3. It is men, sons, fathers, husbands and brothers, to defend and to provide for their mothers, daughters, wives and sisters. Islam frees women from slaving outdoors, so she can queen over the better half of the empire. All efforts to snatch this freedom and economic security from the women, forcing them out of the peace and dignity of home into the harsh and often cruel labour market, must be rejected.
4. Homemaking is a very honourable task and a serious responsibility; it is the foundation for a healthy society. The societies that show disrespect for homemaking lose their homemakers which leads to broken homes and broken societies. Belittling the task of homemaking is anti-family and anti-society; it must be recognised as such and curbed.
5. It is a Muslim woman’s right to dress modestly, wear hijab, and refuse to be put on display. This right must be accepted universally and any effort to restrict this right must also be recognised for what it is: r religious discrimination and/or persecution.
6. There is only one legitimate form of the family, that which is created by a legitimate union between a man and woman, as provided in all revealed religions. Any other form is not only immoral, but also poses a serious threat to humanity.
7. Families should be protected from outside intrusion, especially intrusion by governmental as well as non-governmental institutions. This also includes intrusion in the name of providing help. For resolution of family Disputes, Islam suggests a three-phase procedure,
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Resolve the conflict within the home.
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Resolve it within the family by involving elders from the families of husband and wife.
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As a last resort, resolve it through courts of law.
There is great wisdom in this approach. Sayyidna ‘Umar, Radi-Allahu anhu, said in a directive to the qadhis (Islamic judge): ‘Refer the family disputes to the families (so they can resolve them within the family with the help of elders), for the judge’s verdicts create hatred and malice.’
Ignoring such scheme can only hurt the families that this new plan purports to help.
Islam admits of no blind gender equality; for bad women cannot equal good women, nor can bad men be superior to good women.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY BY DOUG COPP
August 23, 2008EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP’S ARTICLE ON THE: “TRIANGLE OF LIFE”
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the
American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world’s most experienced
rescue team. The info rmation in this article will save lives in an
earthquake.
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams
from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a
member of many rescue teams from many countries.
I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I
have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for
simultaneous disasters.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City
during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child
was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survi ved by
lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary
and
I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn’t at the time
know that the children were told to hide under something.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings
falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving
a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the “triangle of
life”. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the
object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that
the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next
time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the “triangles” you
see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see,
in a collapsed building.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply “ducks and covers” WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE are
crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are
crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position.
You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct.
You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa,
next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void
next to it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during
an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake.
If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created.
Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick
buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries
but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply
roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve
a
much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on The
back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor,
next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out
the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to
a sofa, or large chair.
6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is
killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or
backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls
sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be
killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different “moment of
frequency ” (they swing separately from the main part of the building).
The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each
other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get
on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads – horribly
mutilated. Even if the building doesn’t collapse, stay away from the
stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if
the
stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when
overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety,
even when the rest of the building is not damaged.
8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible
– It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than
the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the
building the greater the probability that your escape route will be
blocked.
9) People inside of t heir vehicles are crushed when the road above falls
in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened
with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of
the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were
all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or
lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they
had
been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the
crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that
had
columns fall directly across them.
10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices
and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact.
Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.
Spread the word and save someone’s life… The Entire world is
experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!
“We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly”
In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be
correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of
Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical,
scientific
test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten
mannequins did “duck and cover,” and ten mannequins I used in my
“triangle of life” survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse
we
crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the
results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under
directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building collapse,
showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck
and cover.
There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using
my method of the “triangle of life.”