UNITY

Bismillah. 6 Billion Ways: Making another world possible

Saturday 5 March 2011, 9.30am-Midnight, Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1

http://6billionways.org.uk

Organised by: Friends of the Earth, War On Want, World Development Movement, People & Planet, City Circle & others

Bismillah. Received from ONE.org – work like this is of course promoting goodness & correcting evil:

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We’re all appalled by Gaddafi’s oppression of the Libyan people – and wondering what we can do to help. Well, one thing we can do is help stop the flow of funds to such oppression.

Gaddafi has been able to fund his regime in part because of a lack of transparency in the deals between the government and the oil companies operating in Libya. Mubarak’s regime in Egypt also exploited this lack of transparency. It is for precisely this reason that we need to call for a law requiring companies to disclose how much they pay governments to extract natural resources. It’s a critical measure to help people hold their governments to account on how money is being spent.

Please click on the link below to ask George Osborne to ensure all European oil and gas companies must disclose their payments to governments:

http://one.org/international/actnow/uk/transparency/o.pl?id=2174-5297101-y_b5efx&t=2

Dear George Osborne,

Please make a public statement in support of laws across the EU that will require big oil, gas and other extractive companies to declare exactly how much they are paying developing country governments.

Gaddafi has clung on to power by using the proceeds from hidden international oil deals. Companies that have wanted to extract oil in Libya have had to deal with him for years and as a result some of the payments they’ve made have gone to help finance his oppression of the Libyan people.

Due to the wider work that ONE has been doing as part of the Publish What You Pay coalition, real momentum is building to get this payment information made public. The United States has already passed a law requiring its companies to publish what they pay other governments and French President Sarkozy recently declared his support for similar laws across the EU.

Thank you for taking part.

Stuart McWilliam, ONE.org

Bismillah. Received from the Christian-Muslim Forum.

*Can Religious and Secular Values Complement each other in the Public Arena?*

A Conversation between Julian Bond (Director, Christian Muslim Forum), Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra (MCB and President, Christian Muslim Forum), Peter Cave (Chair, Humanist Philosophers)

The evening began with a welcome from Marianne Zeck to the beautiful and atmospheric St Ethelburga’s Centre .

Each of the three panellists then set the scene, giving their own initial response to the question.

Julian Bond

As a Christian, Julian was optimistic that as both religious and secular communities have their share of visionary people and activists, they can work together to propose change. Concern for issues of justice and care for the marginalised is central to Jesus’ message, and his ‘manifesto’ issued at his sermon at Nazareth proclaiming the words of Isaiah ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor, ..liberty to the captives….sight to the blind’ is one which suggests that social justice ought to be at the heart of Christian action.

Read more here.

Peter Cave

Peter was next to speak, and picking up on the question of values asked ‘does the meta-value which enhances the quality of our society come from the secular humanist or the religious side?’ For Peter this was a rhetorical question. He asserted that we should have some values imposed on us (if we are not be at the mercy of rape, pillage, murder etc), and was keen to disassociate Humanism from any charge of relativism, subjectivism or nihilism. Peter went on to explore ‘What are religious values? What are secular values?’

Read more here.

Ibrahim Mogra

Ibrahim’s response was a strong assertion that he feels that as a Muslim he has a slight advantage in following the common universal human values we all share, as he is encouraged to put these into practice and encouraged that his Creator commands him to do this. Ibrahim argued that the belief in reward for doing this, is the push and some people might need this when tempted to overlook the needs of their fellow human beings.

Read more here.

Barbara Usher

Some Reflections

I am grateful to Barbara Usher (one of the Forum’s volunteers) for producing the above account which captures much of what was said. I am all too conscious that the conversation was only beginning and that we are not quite on a level playing field together, in fact sometimes we are trying to argue the other team off the pitch!

Read more here.

Julian Bond

Director

Christian Muslim Forum

Bismillah. From a friend (John Butt is well-known to many Cambridge University students over the last decade, since he served there as Muslim chaplain):
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Please listen to this excellent Radio 4 programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xpng0

“Nadene Ghouri profiles John Butt, an Englishman who travelled to South Asia on the hippy trail, converted to Islam and trained as an imam. For the last few decades his mission has been to spread a message of peace and tolerance across Pakistan and Afghanistan. He set up a series of radio stations across the Swat Valley in Northern Pakistan and established a madrassa in Jalalabad in Afghanistan, preaching his own version of a moderate inclusive Islam. Now this work is getting tougher. The Swat operation was hit by last year’s flooding while militants attacked his madrassa, burning down a building. The jihadist threat means it is too dangerous for John Butt to travel to the Swat Valley or to visit his project in Jalalabad. Nadene Ghouri asks who’s winning – John or the extremists?”

Bismillah. Apologies for the short notice, but this has been announced via the mosque website, email list & Friday prayers over the last few days.

Lecture + Q&A: Islam & the theory of evolution

By: Dr. Usama Hasan

Saturday 22nd January 2011

5-8pm, al-Tawhid Mosque, 80 High Rd, Leyton, London. E15 2BP

Bismillah. Remember the Standard Model?

See http://www.particlezoo.net – soft toys for physicists! 🙂

With thanks to the wonderful people at the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy for pointing us to this.

Bismillah. Received from a friend, with thanks.

With the Name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful

QUESTIONS FOR A FITNAH-MONGER

AN OPEN LETTER TO “ABU ABDULLAH” OF THE SO-CALLED “SAVE MASJID TAWHID” PETITION

To Abu Abdullah,

As-Salamu ‘alaykum.

I have the following comments and questions for you, in response to your foolish petition.  I will also publish this letter on my blog (https://unity1.wordpress.com).  Please note that any reply from you may also be published there, since you have made this a public matter.

1. Who are you?  What is your real name, and do you worship at MT?  Did anyone else help you write the petition and set up the website?  If so, who? Real men and women do not hide behind pseudonyms and kunyahs, except when absolutely necessary.
2. Your petition is despicable and rejected because it is based on a pack of lies, as detailed below, and upon a hasty and ill-advised fatwa from an overseas-based sheikh who had not listened to the other side of the debate, and furthermore appears to have no grounding in modern science, a prerequisite for anyone giving a fatwa on the subject.  (For example, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim establishes in his I’lam al-Muwaqqi’in that anyone giving a fatwa on a subject must be grounded in that subject matter as well as in the foundations of Islam.) As I have already mentioned on my blog, my father has sent a five-page handwritten letter to Sheikh Sadlan, politely demanding that he reconsider his fatwa.  Personally, I do not care whether he retracts it or not, for he had no right to give it in the first place, and I shall continue to ignore it.
3. It does not matter how many people sign your petition: these signatures will not strengthen your argument, since its foundation is based upon a collection of falsehoods.  Your petition is like a fabricated hadith that remains fabricated, no matter how many isnads are provided for it.
4. You and the petition-signers do not represent the “community of MT” as you falsely claim: another lie.  Evidence for this is the fact that the petition has been circulated by email and texts around the UK and overseas, as I know from people who have received it.  One person who has been living abroad for years emailed me to say that he had signed it, illustrating that it has very little to do with the community, but more to do with ignorant fanatics and extremists.  Further evidence for this is the fact that the petition has been promoted by the notorious, extremist website so-called “Islamic Awakening,” run by someone who is accurately described by a fellow neo-kharijite of his as “the tantrum-throwing takfiri toddler from Tooting.”
5. Were you involved with procuring similar fatwas in the past from sheikhs in Madinah and Kuwait?  We heard rumours about such things.  Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad told me that he heard alleged fatwas from some sheikhs about me but ignored them since he knows me.  Were you involved in circulating the false rumour for over a year that Sheikh Ahmad Owais the Somali had given a similar fatwa?  When my father eventually asked him about it, he said that he had said no such thing.  Congratulations on obtaining your fatwa finally from Sheikh Sadlan, after two years of failed efforts with lesser sheikhs.  But this will backfire on you, as you will see insha’Allah.
6. Another huge lie and massive slander is that you accused me of denying the Qur’anic account of the creation of Adam a.s.  As I made clear in my Guardian CIF article and BBC Radio 4 “Thought for the Day” on the subject, the theory of evolution agrees with the Qur’an in that the creation of humanity began from water, earth, clay and dust.  Evolution, as a scientific theory, describes the kayfiyyah of this creation, i.e. how water, earth, clay and dust eventually became moulded into the human form.  Therefore, I have been reconciling the scientific theory with the Qur’an, something that you have failed to understand and therefore fallen into circulating serious lies.
7. I imagine you are well-intentioned in attempting to prevent disrespect to Prophet Adam a.s.  But do not you, I and all Muslims believe that all of the great Prophets and Messengers of Allah, except Adam and Jesus Christ, peace be upon them, were created from a human sperm and ovum, the “despised fluid” (ma’ mahin) mentioned in the Qur’an?  Believing in the humble origins of humanity that we can see for ourselves is not the same as insulting or disrespecting the Prophets!
8. Are you aware that it was Muslim thinkers that produced many of the ingredients of Darwin’s theory, and that some researchers believe that Darwin was influenced by these Muslim writings?  Ibn Miskwayh, Ikhwan al-Safa, Jahiz, Ibn Tufayl, Rumi, Ibn Khaldun, etc.  And if you say that they are unorthodox, then you must disown all of the glorious history of “Islamic science” as unorthodox, and never again quote the scientific achievements of Muslim civilisation in your da’wah.  Evolution is essentially a Muslim theory – Darwin’s genius lay in synthesising the strands and collecting overwhelming evidence for it from the Galapagos Islands and elsewhere.
9. The new Muslim Marriage Contract was written by Mufti Barkatullah, who is also associated with the Islamic Sharia Council.  It is thus a matter of disagreement amongst Muslim scholars and jurists, and I advise you not to poke your nose into matters that are beyond you.
10. About veiling, you have again lied by misrepresenting my view.  Are you aware that Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, in his book Sina’ah al-Fatwa (“The Crafting of Fatwas”), under the section, “The Issue of Veiling in the West,” goes out of his way to quote Ibn ‘Ashur’s statement in his tafsir that the ‘awrah of women possibly does not include the head?  A minority opinion admittedly, but nevertheless there, and probably worthy of being magnified in the West.  Veiling is a cultural and religious practice, and I have tried to raise the level of debate about it in Western societies, for Islam has always manifested itself according to different cultural contexts.  i.e. I am asking the simple question, “How should the Eastern and Islamic practice of veiling be manifested in the West?”
11. Are you aware that many muftis of the recent past and present have a similar view to mine about veiling?  These include Zaki Badawi and Javaid Ghamidi.  I am also told that the Azhari Sheikhs Tantawi and Sha’rawi had a similar view, but have not been able to confirm this yet.
12. Are you aware of the numerous cases of extra-marital sex involving bearded Muslim men and headscarf-wearing Muslim women?  Of bearded, practising Muslim men being addicted to porn? Of women wearing a headscarf along with revealing and provocative clothing for the rest of the body?  In one case, a niqab-wearing sister left her husband and ran away with another man (who was not Muslim btw).  In other cases, young men who serve as imams and khatibs committed adultery (Alhamdulillah, I was not one of them), as did headscarf-wearing Muslim women.  Do you think these problems could be related to my point that the noble Qur’anic concept of hijab, which at its zenith refers to the reality that creation is veiled from God, is usually reduced to a headscarf, with an unhealthy obsession with how women dress?  Would you agree that we need to move beyond an obsession with headscarves and niqabs, and focus on the values of modesty, chastity and spirituality that can help to solve these problems?
13. Have you discussed any of these matters with me over the past few years?  A number of decent, honest and courageous young men have come to me after Friday prayers to discuss these matters, rather than engaging in cowardly backbiting and gossiping.
14. Are you aware that my father asked me to translate for Sheikh Sadlan at MT, but that I was unavailable?
15. You refer to my father as “our sheikh” more than once.  How is he your sheikh? How long have you been studying, serving and/or accompanying him?  Alhamdulillah, I have been doing these things for over 30 years. For a start, did you consult him about any of these matters or before launching your petition?  If not, what kind of a student are you?
16. What formal knowledge or tarbiyah have you gained from my father?  In terms of the latter, it is very little, evidently.  In terms of the former, I doubt that it is very much – besides, it would be useless without your learning any tarbiyah from him.
17. Are you aware that my father has suffered from serious loss of sleep since you began your campaign via Sheikh Sadlan and then the petition?  That one person forwarded your petition to Sheikh Manwar Ali of JIMAS (who, like many others not with you, has done far more for MT by the grace of Allah than you and your supporters could ever dream of doing) along with an insult directed at my father?  All of this proves that my father is not your sheikh, and your claims otherwise constitute another enormous lie.
18. There are many other matters that I could address, but I shall stop here due to a lack of time.  Thank you for complimenting me, at least in the past.
19. If you are a man of courage, you will identify yourself to me next time you see me.  We can then have a civilised discussion about these matters.
20. I advise you to withdraw the petition, for your own good in this life and the Hereafter.  Beware of the Divine Promise, “Whoever shows enmity to My friends, I declare war on him.”

May Allah forgive me and you.

Was-Salam,

Usama Hasan

London, 11^th January 2011.

Bismillah. In NY for the first time, Praise God, for discussions at Google Ideas & the CFR on countering religious & racist extremism.

Amazing city! Sobering to realise that 9/11 happened here. Similarities, differences and affinity between here and our beloved London are interesting.

Took the subway from JFK to Manhattan. There was a passenger reciting a rap loudly to himself all the way! Even the subway announcer sounded as though he was rapping. I keep thinking I’m in a movie, and that something action-packed & spectacular is going to happen at any time. Everyone here talks like those people in the movies. 😉

From the hotel windows, I can see a river (the Hudson?), the Empire State Building, Orion and Sirius.

Peace. 🙂