VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH

VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH

Volume 57, Dec 07, 2008
St. Louis, Missouri

Editors: Mohamed & Rashida Ziauddin

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful

CONTENTS:

(1) WOMEN:
(a) First All Female Saudi Rock Band
(b) Economic Downturn Hits Women the Hardest (What can the Ummah do to help their sisters)

(2) MUSLIM SOCIAL SERVICES:
"Muslims Visiting Muslims" Groups: (A Model that needs to be replicated among all Muslim communities across the western world)

(3) POINT OF DEBATE:
Yoga Ban: Don't question FATWA, says Council.

(4) MEDIA:
Turkey Bans "blog spot" - The World's Largest Blog Hosting Service: (Sorry our Turkish Brothers and Sisters you would not have direct access to this E-Zine: Voice of Global Ummah)

(5) FAMILY: President Elect Obama's daughters will still have to do house chores: (What an average family can learn from above)

(6) CHILDREN: When Children Become a Commercial Commodity - Sale of baby through Internet: "INTERNET BABY PUT IN TEMPORARY CARE"

(7) Welcome to the World of Islam: "Pop singer Michael Jackson Becomes a Muslim and Changes his name to MIKAEEL"

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(1) WOMEN:

(a) Saudi Arabia's First All Female Rock Band: (Dina, Dareen, Lamia and Amjad)

An interesting article was published by New York Times about an all-female Saudi Rock Band named "The Accolade". There are no photos of this band because of Saudi prohibitions for public posing. They do have a My Space page, where you can listen to their first single, "Pinocchio."

Edmund Blair Leighton's "The Accolade", from which the band takes its name. "I liked the painting because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man" said Accolade's founder, Dina, age 21.

The band is led by sisters Dina, 21, and Dareen, 19, and they are hoping to play live shows to all-female audiences in private homes, but currently they get their exposure through their My Space page. Dina expressed hope to the New York Times that the band would eventually be able to play "real" concerts: "It’s important for them to see what we’re capable".

It is historic that these four young Saudi women made music and publicly broadcast it while not displaying their identifying photos and last names.

Condensed version of below article by ROBERT F. WORTH

Nov 23, 2008, JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — "They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom.

The band’s first single, “Pinocchio,” has become an underground hit here, with hundreds of young Saudis downloading the song from the group’s My Space page. Now, the pioneering foursome, all of them college students, want to start playing regular gigs — inside private compounds and of course — and recording an album.

In a country where women are not allowed to drive and rarely appear in public without their faces covered, the band is very different. The prospect of female rockers clutching guitars and belting out angry lyrics about a failed relationship — the theme of “Pinocchio” — would once have been unimaginable here.

“The upcoming generation is different from the one before,” said Dina, the Accolade’s 21-year-old guitarist and founder. “Everything is changing. Maybe in 10 years it’s going to be O.K. to have a band with live performances.”

Dina said she first dreamed of starting a band three years ago. In September, she and her sister Dareen, 19, who plays bass, teamed up with Lamia and Amjad, the keyboardist.

They were already iconoclasts: Dina and Dareen wear their hair teased into thick manes and have pierced eyebrows. During an interview at a Starbucks here, they wore black abayas — the flowing gown that is standard attire for women — but the gowns were open, showing their jeans and T-shirts, and their hair and faces were uncovered. Women are more apt to go uncovered in Jiddah than in most other parts of the country, though it is still uncommon.

“People always stare at us,” Dareen said, giggling. She and her sister are also avid ice skaters, another unusual habit in Saudi Arabia’s desert.

The band gets together to practice every weekend at the sisters’ house, where their younger brother sometimes fills in on drums. In early November, Dina, who studies art at King Abdulaziz University, began writing a song based on one of her favorite paintings, “The Accolade,” by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Edmund Blair Leighton. The painting depicts a long-haired noblewoman knighting a young warrior with a sword.

“I liked the painting because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man,” Dina said.

She had thought of writing a song based on “Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci but decided that doing so would be taking controversy too far.

Dina held out her cellphone to show a video of the band practicing at home. It looked like a garage-band jam session anywhere in the world, with the sisters hunching over their instruments, their brother blasting away at the drums and Lamia clutching a microphone.

“We’re looking for a drummer,” Lamia said. “Five guys have offered, but we really want the band to be all female.”

What we’re doing — it’s not something wrong, it’s art, and we’re doing it in a good way,” Dina said. “We respect our traditions.”

All the members are quick to add that they disapprove of smoking, drinking and drugs.“You destroy yourself with that,” Lamia said. (nytimes)

(b) "ECONOMIC DOWNTURN HITS WOMEN THE HARDEST"

(ED NOTE:

"What can the Ummah do to help their sisters ? There are some who would argue against us even bringing up above topic with focus on helping our sisters. They would argue that men are the head of households and men too have been impacted by the economic downturn and therefore being head of households and having greater responsibilities, they should be the focus, not women".

Broadly speaking, we all know that women as females are more vulnerable than men and specially in situations where the females are single parents and have no males in the household, who among the UMMAH could argue that they are not vulnerable and what are we doing to assist our sisters in general anyway ?

In many Board Sponsored meetings by Islamic Centers, for elections of Board Members, you observe in their speeches, almost a generic format of activities that they plan to support and implement on an annual basis. However very rarely you see them address issues relating to assist victims of domestic violence or assist female headed households who in most situations literally have more than TWO FULL TIME jobs in terms of working at their real jobs in the workplace and also taking on the dual roles of both father and mother at home.

At times a single mother's situation gets further worse, if she had to also deal with medical problems not only of herself but also of her children or elderly parents and it could be overwhelming for her.

AS AN EXAMPLE:

Instead of reaching out to assist a particular single mother facing multiple stressors, some of the Muslims are so disconnected with the realities of her stressors that they complain of her not frequently visiting and participating in the various activities of the Islamic Center. Based on their verbalizations, all they are concerned about is to ensure that she comes frequently to the Islamic Center and attend the various activities.

Somehow in their magical thinking, once she does regular prayers and the above "ALL HER PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED". As an added bonus, they would also pray for her. While we hundred percent agree that doing regular prayers, participation in Islamic activities and praying Allah to give relief for the needy is very important, what we argue is that above is not an end in itself. Above spiritual and religious aspects need to be SUPPLEMENTED by the realities on the ground.

Above advice can be given by anybody, but what is difficult is to implement an active outreach program to reach out to the most vulnerable individuals undergoing extreme stress, assess their situation, draw up a plan of various ways to assist, while maintaining the confidentiality of the needy person, and actively seeking help from fellow Muslims and through other resources to assist the needy.

From the above example of the Muslima who is a single mother, it is obvious that they (Muslims in her social circle) have no clue of her work schedule and her minimum wage earned in two sometimes three different jobs besides other problems that she as a single parent has to face. Her immediate harsh realities are to prevent her electricity and/or gas to be disconnected for nonpayment of past dues, fear of eviction for being behind in her rental payments, needing help with transportation to drive her kid with high fever to the hospital and difficulty in deciding whether she should risk losing her job for chronic absences or plead with others to take her child to the hospital, so that she could continue her job uninterrupted and have the money to pay the past due rent to prevent eviction.

Above are the stressors and realities faced by the vulnerable Muslims, that the Ummah through their organizational structures such as SOCIAL SERVICE COMMITTEE of their local Islamic Centers need to reach out and assist.

The concept of BIG BROTHER AND BIG SISTER could be of tremendous help, especially to single parents, but it is alien in practice in the Muslim community . But most of us would not get tired to repeat again and again that WE ARE ONE UMMAH and we should help each other, while in our practice ignoring the sufferings of our most vulnerable populations.

As a side note, before the next election cycle for nominating the BOARD MEMBERS OF THE ISLAMIC CENTER, when Board Members give you multiple reasons of why you should VOTE for him or her, we encourage all members of Islamic Centers to ask their Board Members of what concrete plans they have in place to assist abused and homeless Muslim women and their children?

We encourage all Muslims to seriously consider steps to help ALL OTHER MUSLIMS in whatever feasible ways possible specially in the current situation of severe economic downturn. Needless to say, the vulnerable population including Women and Children should be given a priority in terms of Ummah's assistance (through Zakat and Social Service Funds from Islamic Centers) in their respective local communities.

We realize the common complaint we hear about LIMITATION OF FUNDS, but can anyone argue against limitation of EMOTIONAL SUPPORT, limitation of ability to ASSESS & REFER TO VARIOUS GOVERNMENTAL AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL RESOURCES. Needless to say above two non-financial supports cannot be implemented optimally without A CONCRETE ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT structure which could be developed and implemented by the Islamic Centers through their MUSLIM SOCIAL SERVICE Committee).

Below article is condensed version: "Economic Downturn Hits Women the Hardest"

By Brittany Schell, One World.
November 28, 2008
(alternet.org)

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 -- Women are being disproportionately affected by the U.S. mortgage crisis and economic plunge, said a panel of women leaders Wednesday, urging a strong woman-focused response from the federal government.

In Rhode Island, the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country, one woman has not been able to find a job for the past eight months and is losing her house to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Another, struggling to take care of her 14-year-old granddaughter because her own daughter is in jail, is a tenant in a building that is being foreclosed. She is being evicted by the bank, even though she is willing to pay rent.

These women's stories, told by Sara Mersha, the executive director of Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) in Rhode Island, are part of what she calls the "economic Katrina."

DARE is doing a local research study concerning the crisis. While visiting homes being foreclosed, Mersha noticed another disturbing trend: "There are disproportionate numbers of women behind those doors," she said.

The effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis on women are exacerbated by other, pre-existing problems, according to the panelists. Sara Gould, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation, said that out of the 37 million Americans living in poverty, 27 million are women and children. In fact, she added, single mothers and their families are more likely to live in poverty than any other demographic group in the United States.

Panelists agreed that there is not an adequate support system to help these women living in poverty. Fully two thirds of the minimum wage and below-minimum wage workforce in the United States are women, said Gould. For many of these workers, the laws are inadequate to protect their rights.

Ai-jen Poo, a lead organizer and founder of Domestic Workers United in New York City, advocates on behalf of a huge low-wage workforce: domestic workers. Ai-jen said that in the city, 200,000 women are employed as domestic workers.

She told the story of a woman who worked for a family for three years before she was called and told not to come to work the next day. She was replaced by someone who would work for half the amount she had been paid. Without notice and with no severance pay, this woman was left to figure out how to put food on the table for her own four children.

Ai-jen said she gets calls like this every day from women wondering what their rights are. The truth is, she said, there are no laws in the domestic work sector concerning severance pay or notice.

Mersha said that even half the money devoted to the $700 billion government bailout for banks could have a huge impact on housing, jobs, health care, education, and other social programs that would benefit women and communities.

(2) MUSLIM SOCIAL SERVICES:

"Muslims Visiting Muslims" Groups:
(As published in the forum of AMHP- American Muslim Health Professionals)

A Model that needs to be replicated among all Muslim communities across the western world

"At our group of "Muslims Visiting Muslims" (a group of volunteers who visit Muslim patients in hospital and Long Term Care facilities) alhumdulillah we have made a very professionally looking and nice brochure for Muslims patients and their families.

It is a 8.5x14, 4-fold, compilation of du'as from Qur'an and Sunnah as well as Islam's view of illness. We think this will be good resource for patients, their families, as well as non-Muslim chaplains who really don't know much about Islam".

We wold love to share them with you and with the Hospital chaplains that you are working with. If interested please contact me. (TamimSaidi - at - yahoo . com, no spaces) Tamim (from Minnesota)

(3) POINT OF DEBATE:

Yoga Ban: Don't question FATWA, says Council.

(ED NOTE:
Structurally many Muslims have a problem in dealing with difference of opinion. You can get a good sample of it during family get togethers, parties or during Board Meetings at Islamic Centers. Such dismal response to difference of opinion has nothing to do with Islam per se, but more to do with cultural and other related aspects.

In reality their response is more unIslamic than Islamic. Islam ultimately stands on its long term vision of universal brotherhood and not a mentality based on US Versus THEM. It is the golden aspects of exercising maximum tolerance, patience, perseverence that could ultimately make a positive change in the long run. On the other hand, being rigid, intolerant, close minded only helps to foster more hatred among the two differing individuals or groups.

If you carefully observe how they interact on a situation where there are marked difference of opinion, many of them are quick to give labels such as: he or she "is an hypocrite", "khafir" et.c.

Structural change may not come until we realize that each issue may have two or more perspectives. While nobody can force us to change our individual perspective, it does not hurt to LISTEN and genuinely attempt to understand the opposing perspective. Even "listening" is a form of respect you are giving to the other individual and statistically you have a better chance of him or her reciprocating on the same lines than if you attempt to quickly dismiss his or her perspective even without listening to what he or she has to say".

Below is a ban called upon by a FATWA. We encourage the readers to give their perspective either supporting the ban or opposing such a ban).

Yoga Ban: Don't question fatwa, says Council
Nov 23, 2008
Condensed version by : Farrah Naz Karim

Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin says yoga can erode the belief of Muslims.

PUTRAJAYA:

As expected, the National Fatwa Council yesterday announced that Muslims are prohibited from practising yoga. In declaring yoga haram, the council said it could be traced back to Hinduism and concluded that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

Council chairman Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin said the decision was made as yoga involved elements that were against the beliefs of Islam in its physical movements, chanting and worship.

"Many Muslims in the country fail to understand the ultimate aim of yoga.

"It combines physical movements, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with God," he said at a press conference to announce the decision yesterday. Shukor said once the fatwa was gazetted, it would be passed on to the states to decide on the enforcement.

Malaysia, he said, was not alone in prohibiting yoga among Muslims as the Singaporean and Egyptian Islamic councils had done the same.

Shukor said renowned Islamic scholars were also of the view that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

Asked if practicing yoga with the intention of promoting physical health was also against the fatwa, he said although it did not include the chanting and beliefs, it was discouraged.

This, he said, was because the physical movements of yoga were a component of the practice which was haram.

"In Islam, one must not do things which can erode one's aqidah (belief). Yoga, even the physical movements, is a step towards the erosion of a Muslim's belief, hence they must avoid it."

Muslims, he added, should be careful and conduct thorough studies before embracing rituals and practices that could threaten their faith.

He said Islam had long paved the way for Muslims to achieve spiritual peace and health and they should stick to these teachings, which included praying five times a day.

The Islamic Development Department (Jakim), he said, would start a programme to educate Muslims on why yoga was against the teachings of Islam.

Expecting a backlash from Malaysians on the decision, Shukor reminded non-Muslims not to question the fatwa.

"We respect the harmony and freedom of practice of other races. This is not something for non-Muslims to interfere in or question as this matter involves Muslims and their faith.

"It may not be acceptable to other races, but this is about Islamic teachings," he said.

Yoga practice among Muslims recently became an issue when Professor Zakaria Stapa of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Faculty of Islamic Studies said the practice could cause Muslims to deviate from Islam.

He had pointed out that yoga could be traced back to Hinduism and urged Muslims who practised it to stop and return to the teachings of Islam.

Yoga, which dates back more than 5,000 years and is a form of spiritual practice in India, is one of the six classic systems of Hindu philosophy that stresses self-control, discipline, postures, breathing, restraint of the senses, steadying of the mind, meditation and contemplation.

(NEW STRAIT TIMES www.nst.com.my)

Facing up: Malay women in attire printed with premier Mahathir Mohamad's face wait for his meet-the-people session. Mahathir is wooing young Muslims after anti-Islamic laws drew protests from women's groups. Photo: AP

Voters: Kashmiri women wait to vote during the fifth phase of state elections in Indian Kashmir, in Kakpora, India. Photo: AP

(4) MEDIA:

Turkey Bans "blogspot" - The World's Largest Blog Hosting Service:

27 October 2008

A court in south-east Turkey on Friday banned Turkish Internet users from accessing Blogger, the world's largest free blog hosting service.

Internet users in Turkey discovered on Friday afternoon that the site, which hosts millions of blogs, or web logs, had been blocked. When users tried to view a blogger's page they were redirected to a message which said: "Access to this website has been suspended in accordance with decision no. 2008/2761 of the TR Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace."

No reason for the ban was given. Turkish Internet users are used to court-ordered bans of a large range of websites, including the video-sharing site Youtube, which was barred for hosting a video insulting the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Adnan Oktar, an Islamic creationist has also been successful in getting a variety of sites banned by court decisions, including blog hosting website Wordpress and the personal website of renowned biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins. - Sapa-dpa

(5) FAMILY:

President Elect Obama's daughters will still have to do house chores:
(What an average family can learn from above)

Obama girls still have to do their chores

November 28 2008

Chicago - US President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle say their young daughters would still have to do chores in the White House, and wouldn't get out of doing homework just because they were the president's children.

In a television interview with Barbara Walters on Wednesday, the Obamas said Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, would have lives as normal as possible. That meant helping out around the house.

"That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit," Michelle Obama said. "I said, 'You know, we're going to have to set up some boundaries', because they're going to need to be able to make their beds, and clean up."

Obama has said in an interview that he hopes to make the White House environmentally friendly. He identified a couple of easy, everyday ways people could help make their home a greener place - such as turning off lights and unplugging chargers for electrical devices when not in use.

Showing he may be the first US president to embrace the green movement at home since Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House roof, Obama said he intended to confer with the chief usher about the building's energy efficiency.

Sapa-AFP

(6) CHILDREN:

When Children Become a Commercial Commodity - Sale of baby through internet: "INTERNET BABY PUT IN TEMPORARY CARE"

'Internet baby' put in temporary care

Nov 28, 2008

A Dutch judge on Thursday granted child care authorities temporary guardianship of a four-month-old Belgian boy allegedly sold by his parents to a Dutch couple over the Internet.

"The court accepts the request by the Child Care and Protection Board for temporary guardianship of Baby J," Judge Willem Miltenburg told reporters at the end of a closed hearing in the north-eastern Dutch town of Zwolle.

The Dutch couple "had acted in contravention of the rules," the judge said. "They took a child from abroad without permission, to absorb into their own family."

The pair, who are unable to have children of their own, made contact with the boy's biological mother after seeing an advertisement on the Internet, and took receipt of him a few hours after he was born in a Belgian hospital in July.

Dutch media have claimed that they paid the child's biological parents between €5 000 and €10 000 (about R64 000 and R128 000).

Belgian television reported on Wednesday that the natural parents now want the child returned.

The lawyer for the couple told Flemish VTM television that they felt bad about their decision and had come under pressure from family and friends to change their mind.

He said the financial situation of the couple, from Ghent, northern Belgium, had improved but they did not know whether they would be able to get the boy back.

Prosecutors in Ghent have opened an investigation into the couple for agreeing an adoption without official authorization, an offence that carries a five-year prison sentence in Belgium.
Sapa-AFP

(7) Welcome to the World of Islam:

"Pop singer Michael Jackson Becomes a Muslim and Changes his name to MIKAEEL"

Michael Jackson 'becomes a Muslim and changes name to Mikaeel'

Daily Mail Reporter
Nov 21st 2008

Beleaguered pop star Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel, it has been claimed today.

The 50-year-old singer, who has previously been photographed wearing a traditional Arab women's veil, reportedly became a Muslim in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles.

The singer, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, is said to have sat on the floor and worn a small hat while an imam officiated at the home of Steve Porcaro, who composed music on his Thriller album.

Michael Jackson, pictured here wearing a traditional Arab women's veil in Bahrain in 2006, is said to have become a Muslim

He is said to have been encouraged by Canadian songwriter David Wharnsby and Phillip Bubal, a producer, who both approached him after he appeared 'a bit down'.

A source told The Sun: 'They began talking to him about their beliefs, and how they thought they had become better people after they converted. Michael soon began warming to the idea.

'An imam was summoned from the mosque and Michael went through the shahada, which is the Muslim declaration of belief.'

His brother Jermaine Friday, previously hinted Jackson was considering converting to the religion.

'When I came back from Mecca I got him a lot of books and he asked me lots of things about my religion and I told him that it's peaceful and beautiful,' said Friday, who embraced the faith in 1989.

'He read everything and he was proud of me that I found something that would give me inner strength and peace.

'He could do so much, just like I am trying to do. Michael and I and the word of God, we could do so much.'

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