Something to cheer you up today

If you’ve been following news concerning Salman Rushdie you would know that he pulled out of a literature festival being held in India this week following reports of a direct threat to his life.

Imagine my amusement this morning to see the following message in my timeline…

One can only respond with a LOL at this news.

If anyone lives in Rajasthan, please send the cops a box of mithai!

The accompanying news article is great for lulz too

Marriage Bandits

The discussion regarding the crazy marriage antics of some salafis is still ongoing in some areas of the web, and it’s good to see that this discussion is shedding light on support groups for the victims of this abusive practise and also leading to suggestions on how to prevent it from happening in the first place.

I thought that this problem – by virtue of the fact that it seems to happen almost exclusively within the madkhali-salafi communities – affects only a small proportion of Muslims. However, threads on IA and discussions on FB and elsewhere have thrown up story after story of this sort of abuse happening.

Then, I’ve also been privy to emails which have made me realise that while one group seeks to curtail this evil by exposing the culprits involved, another group  has chosen a completely different strategy altogether. It’s a two-step strategy consisting of (a) denouncing those who are shedding light on this problem as fitna-mongers and confusion-makers, and (b) closing your ears and burying your head in the sand. By following this strategy, I assume, they believe that the problems will disappear, and everything will be ok again.

This strategy is not without it’s attractions: it’s simple, doesn’t involve much effort and saves you from having to hear these horrible stories. What I’m wondering is why don’t we put these guys in charge of us so that they can fix all our problems?

Now obviously, I’m being sarcastic, but ironically, we find that such people ARE in positions of leadership in our community. For other than Umar Lee, salafiburnout and phillymuslimoon (of which none is an Imam) has any popular speaker or da’ee or mainstream organisation addressed this issue, let alone proposed a solution for it?

The evil of the few is made possible by the silence of the many, the old saying goes.

One of the more popular solutions mentioned (and the nafs is always inclined towards scandal) is to name and shame, but this is an area that is fraught with danger because one severe problem that comes into play is the minefield that is marriage politics. Do you notice how often a person who is having difficulties in their marriage sounds so convincing in their claim that they are the oppressed party? And how awful their life is? And how horribly they are treated? and they carry on going on and on … right until you hear the other side of the story which fills in gaps that were deliberately left out. What I’m saying is that when it comes to marriage problems, a hijabi sister is perfectly able to match, nay, to outdo, the vileness, the viciousness, and the spite of any next woman, muslim or non-muslim.

Or haven’t you heard of women who have denounced their (ex-)husbands to the cops as terrorists or played the religiously oppressed card? So if one practising woman is able to make this up, then what prevents another from making allegations of sexual shenanigans against another Muslim man?

So this should give pause for thought to people who want to pursue a blanket name-and-shame policy. While there is no doubting the truth to some of these stories, it would behoove us to ask people who have patience, investigative resources and a shari’ah background to take the lead in fixing this problem.

Check out SOLACE and Marriage Bandits

An Islamic Spring at IA?

A few months ago an attempt was made on the Islamic Awakening forums to start a discussion about the activities of certain individuals on the Islamic speakers circuit, who donned the cloak of Islamic knowledge in the masajid and conference centres while preying in the dark on some of the most vulnerable members of our communities – women.

These speakers, by a combination of smooth talk and shows of outward piety, were able to dupe unsuspecting Muslim women into horrible marriages. Not marriages as you and I understand them, but marriages which I’d prefer to describe as joy-rides: women would be married and discarded with ease. And while the newly discarded and divorced sister went about picking up the pieces of her shattered life, the speaker was priming himself for his next victim.

I’ve generally liked the no-holds-barred approach to discussion on IA, because anyone is free to voice their opinions (as long as they aren’t declaring stuff which is against the law). In the free market of ideas, the strongest and most substantiated arguments will win the day, and the opinions of those speaking out of their arse will get shot down.

In any case, what surprised me in July last year was that discussion of this topic of Predator Shaikhs was shut down completely. I wrote about it here.

I have since learned that the reason the discussion was deleted was because of a specific allegation made therein – an allegation that in Islamic law requires four witnesses to substantiate or else the accuser is the one that carries the sin. Fair enough, but that does not explain why the entire discussion was deleted when deleting just the offending post would have sufficed.

So it was with a measure of surprise that I noted yesterday that an IA mod had restarted the same discussion, mentioning by name the same culprit whose name has been associated with so many scandals. What changed?

The thread on IA has thus far been a good discussion and there has even been input from a sister working for the wonderful organisation Solace for Revert Sisters in Difficulty which is a charity set up to deal with this problem among many others affecting convert women. I pray that such discussion leads to awareness of the problem and appropriate solutions.

In the meantime entertain yourselves or otherwise with this latest video…

Postscript

Kudos to Umar Lee who first shone a light on this evil in our midst in his Rise and Fall of the Salafi Da’wah series. It was only after his addressing these problems that discussion has ensued with a view to stopping it.

Halal meat from Brazil?

Late one night about a year ago coming back from a friend’s house I popped into a local restaurant that serves Oriental food. I ordered a seafood dish but the guy behind the till asked me to consider one of the meat dishes. I said, no, it’s not halal. The guy understood what halal meant but said that they cook with halal meat from Brazil sometimes. “Halal meat from Brazil?! lol” I thought to myself, but I smiled at him and waited for my food.

I mentioned this some time later to a friend living in Saudi who then proceeded to tell me that Brazil is well-known for it’s production of halal poultry and that the Kingdom imports lots of poultry from there. He also dug out an article from an Arabic newspaper discussing halal-meat production in Brazil complete with photos from one of these slaughterhouses. Unfortunately, I’ve since lost that email.

Then this past weekend I saw a selection of meat products in the freezer at our local halal butcher’s with a halal stamp on it and signage saying it originated from Brazil. So after googling about this I came across the following very interesting, and very official looking document describing Brazil’s halal-poultry production. It talks about the history (decades long), the certification process, the Muslim organisations involved and other stuff. All in all it looks pretty convincing. Click here to view it.

But then further googling showed discussion on some Muslim boards casting doubt on the halal-ness of  Brazilian poultry but providing nothing concrete to backup these doubts, just a lot of hearsay.

Probably the most serious allegations against Brazilian halal poultry are those made in this document from the HMC which in summary says that after carrying out inspections of about 2/3rds of Brazil’s main slaughterhouses they concluded that the meat could not be trusted to be halal. My problem with this HMC investigation is that after describing this epic journey consisting of flying “12,500 miles by air and covering 1,800 miles by land, working through the night across the vast terrains of Brazil” (that’s a direct quote from the newsletter), all they have to show is a single page article which is one-third background, one-third self-promotion and five bullet points pertaining to the actual investigation itself. Is that it?! Surely they must have more to show! The irony is that the HMC surveyed 2/3rds of Brazil’s main slaughter houses, while, the document states that Brazil’s halal output makes up 1/3rd of it’s gross poultry output. Coincidence?

On the other hand, in addition to the official looking document, I also found this quite compelling video on YouTube showing exactly what the document describes: Muslim staff on the production line with a closeup of them saying bismillah during the slaughtering of chickens, prayer rooms for Muslim staff, inspections by some cleric, all of it. Take a look for yourself:

The last thing I wanted to check was the perception of Muslims in Brazil. The reason is that some Muslims ascribe to Sh. Ibn al-Uthaimeen (rahmatullahi alaih) a ruling making permissible food in places like McDonalds in Western countries because according to the ruling the meat slaughtered in places like the UK and the US is meat of the people of the book. Muslims native to the US and UK would obviously disagree which is why we have organisations like the HMC to certify halal meat. The Q&A with Ibn al-Uthaimeen is reproduced here but also check out the interesting comments later in that thread, in particular the quote attributed to YQ.

Anyway, back to perception and I asked myself what do Muslims in Brazil say about this halal-meat produced in Brazil? Because after all, if they perceive it to be halal that would be a big green light for the rest of us, whereas, if it was the opposite, it would give serious backing to those who claim it is not halal.

So I contacted the Sociedade Beneficente Muçulmana do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil who put me in touch with one of the people in charge at  Masjid an-Nur in Rio. Straight off he started naming names of companies from the document which I had downloaded earlier saying that they are well known for producing halal meat. I then asked whether the halal-certifying authority in Brazil, CDIAL (and which certifies these companies that are exporting under the halal badge), was an authority that could be trusted and he confirmed that yes this was the case.

So on balance I’ve concluded for myself that poultry that is marked as halal from Brazil and issued from a company that is certified by CDIAL or CIBAL is safe to eat for Muslims.

If anyone has additional information related to this topic please add to the comments section. (NB. hearsay will be removed).

UPDATE 1: Please click here to view an article about the SADIA chicken company in Brazil and their halal production. Again very convincing!

UPDATE 2: Please click here for a 2-page article with the results of an investigation into halal meat from Australia & New Zealand.

Who is Islam found with in our times?

“If you want to know which people Islam is found with during your time, then do not look at the crowds flocking to the doors of the masajid (to listen to their talks), nor pay attention to the volume nor the roar of their cries of labbaik, but instead look at the position of these people with regards to those who oppose the shari’ah.”

- Abul-Wafa ibn Aqeel

Letter from Abu Taubah

I’m reproducing below a letter from AlKauthar instructor and head of The FIKS, Abu Taubah. Emphasis is mine:

From: Abu Taubah
To: Everybody else

As-salaamu ‘alaykum,
Al-hamdulillahi Rabbil-aalameen and salaatuhu was-salaamu on the Prophet Muhammad.

To Proceed:
During the last few days of the month of Ramadan of this past year, towards the end of August 2011, I was arrested by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and eventually charged with, “Constructive Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon.”

Constructive Possession means that a firearm was found in an area that a convicted felon had access to and that the convicted felon had knowledge that the firearm was there.
It is not a condition that there be a motive to commit a crime.

A “Convicted Felon” anyone previously convicted of a Felony offense, any crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.

Fact: The firearm was found in my home. My home is an area I have access to.
Fact: I had knowledge of its whereabouts.
Fact: I am a “Convicted Felon”, having previously been convicted of a felony offense. And I have agreed to plead guilty in this case as well.

This crime holds a sentencing range of “zero to ten years.” Meaning, the minimum sentence could be, “probation”, or “time served” and the maximum sentence could be, “ten years.”

What factors are taken into consideration in determining the sentence?

1- The length of time since last conviction:
Fact: “My last conviction was more than 20 years ago.”

2- The characterization of the person:
This is where my case becomes a battle of perception.

The Prosecution is attempting to characterize me as a “Teacher of Terrorists.” Google, Bill Warner/Marcus Robertson as he has an investigative company and an entire site dedicated to this case. The FBI is using him to set the tone.

They are attempting to twist my statements to fit into a terrorist plot.

Field Office: Tampa Date of Report: 2011-03-04
Report: “Robertson is using the computer to recruit a bunch of soldiers, the real Mujahideen who guard the Quraan.”

My statement:
“Go study in Mauritania” field office perception is it means go train at a terrorist camp.
“Memorize Quraan” field office perception is it means -this is initiation for future suicide bombers and assassins.

My counselling a troubled young man who said he was “ready to die” to go make Hajj was spiritual training and to fulfil his worldly rights so he could comfortably give his life in some future un-named terrorist act.

Sadly this is not a joke. They have their Islamic experts who agree with their conclusions, as well as a number of Muslims who strategically slander me in order to weaken support and “radicalize” me in court. Thats right! Certain statements have been pulled from the chat-blogs wherein some Tom, Dick & Harry is saying I am a Hizbee and they use this in court to show how Modern Muslims view me.

This is why I need the Muslims to write letters to my Attorney and to the Court. These letters must reflect what you have understood when I said, “Go to Mauritania, Quraan and the like.” What messages have I given you? What have you learned from my classes and lectures? I do not need letters attacking the system. And you do not have to be American to write and you do not have to be an adult.

Just tell the truth about me, and what my teachings are. In reality, they know I am not a terrorist teacher. The gun case just gives them the opportunity to stop me from teaching.

Please understand I did not have an illegal firearm in my home, even though I am a convicted felon. I am still a member of the Special-Operations Community, and on more than one occassion during the past 20 years, at the behest of the Government, I have been in the physical and constructive possession of firearms. This, in and of itself should have been enough to prevent my arrest, but as we are Muslim, our contributions are marginalized and our actions are looked upon with suspicion.

To continue, the Judge in this case, The honorable Judge Pressnel of the Middle District of Florida has to hear a view of me and my teachings other than that presented by the Prosecution.

What is at stake?
1. If the Prosecution is successful at defining, “going to study, memorizing Quraan and making Hajj as having relevance to terrorism, they will be successful in at least discouraging those actions.
At most, determining when it is illegal to perform them.
2. I will get an aggravated sentence, probably as much as 20 years.

As I have always tried to be honest with you all. I would like to say that you people ask us to teach. You say, “come back to the West and share that knowledge that Allaah has blessed you all with.” But when we come back we mostly get emotional support. And even in that, everytime some scandal comes wherein we are being tested many of you all leave us flat. You want us to sacrifice but you are not willing to even be bothered. You ask us to teach class and you only come half of the time or don’t even prepare. This has to change. The Prophet said that knowledge will disappear through the disappearance of the people of knowledge. Those possessing authenic old-fashioned Islamic training and cultivation are rare in the world today and even rarer in the West. Get it before its gone.

I need you all to be my heroes. Do not let the Prosecution turn a simple gun charge into the Terrorist case of the Decade. Do not let Islamic terminology be defined by those who have a pre-conceived dogmatic opinion about it.

In closing, I would like to thank all of you all for being a part of the learning process. Especially the senior students. Keep the good work. Makeen, Mahdi, Mr. Edwards, my wives and all my children. I do not want you all to think I do not appreciate the many letters I have received, thank you. I am trying to write you all back. Ask Allaah to help me in that. And of course, I would like to thank Allaah for giving me such as large international family.

this walHamdulillaah
Abu Taubah

As salaamu alaykum rahmatulah,
This is Umm Haajar, please send all letters to Abu Taubah’s attorney: Donald R. West (Esq)
201 S. Orange Avenue Suite 300
Orlando, Florida 32801 (USA)
email: don_west@fd.org

Please send a copy of all emails to admin@myfiks.org

or The FIKS
PO Box 72-1874
Orlando, Florida 32872 (USA)

Those wishing to write Abu Taubah directly can do so by writing: Marcus Robertson bkg#201100011051 (H-2)
John E. Polk Correctional Facility
211 Bush Boulevard
Sanford, Florida 32773 (USA)

Please remember that all correspondences to the attorney have to be received before January 5, 2012, as this is the court date for Abu Taubah.
The court hearing is January 5, 2012 at 1pm, located at the US Court building 401 West Central Boulevard, 32801.

walHamdulilah

Umm Haajar

“then there will be a Khilafah upon the way of the Prophet…”

The Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said…

“There will be Prophethood for as long as Allah wills it to be, then He will remove it when He wills, then there will be Khilafah on the Prophetic method and it will be for as long as Allah wills, then He will remove it when He wills, then there will be biting Kingship for as long as Allah Wills, then He will remove it when He wills, then there will be oppressive kingship for as long as Allah wills, then he will remove it when He wills, and then there will be Khilafah upon the Prophetic method” and then he remained silent.

– the blessed people of ash-Sham

What the Ummah of Muhammad is

“Muslims have been put on this earth to worship Allah and to engage society, to engage civilization. We are not an Ummah that recedes and retracts and puts up the barriers and nor do we stick our head in the sand and live the life of an ostrich. This is not the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ. Rather the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ is one that challenges the status quo and changes it so that it submits to Allah’s law and submits to worship Allah. That is the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ. It is dynamic. It engages life. It is NOT retreating, weak, cowardly, and ostrich-like. That is not Islam. And that definitely not the way of as-Salaf as-Salih even there are some who try to portray it that way.”

Dr. Ali al-Timimi (may Allah free him).

More great PR!

There is a shocking story on the BBC site of a man who cut off the fingers of his wife.

When I saw the headline I thought most likely some Muslim guy is the culprit in the story, but it seems bizarre enough that perhaps it might not be. Well unfortunately it was. According to the news article the woman’s husband chopped off her fingers as punishment for disobeying him and pursuing higher education.

Another fine example of Muslim manhood if we ever needed it.

And to make things worse, his name is Mr Islam!

4:45

I blogged some weeks ago here and here linking to a couple of stories from Wired which caused shock to the Muslim community in the US. The articles exposed a deep-rooted anti-Muslim and anti-Islam bias in the material that the FBI was and IS  using to train it’s agents. Along with anti-Islamic material, they were also calling in “experts” with a long track record of anti-Muslim bias.

At the time I felt that such news severely undermines the case for those who are in favour of working for or with the FBI. And that is putting it lightly. The FBI has a long record of planting agents in masjids, compelling Muslims to spy on other Muslims under threat of deportation, entrapping weak-minded Muslims, and just a general pretty shite treatment of the Muslim community. Forget the question of Muslim dignity for a moment, for human dignity alone demands that one does not team up with someone who hates you and undermines you at every turn.

Yet some Muslims (and others who have committed apostasy but still fast and pray) continue to work with the Feds out of their own free choice for political ends or a nice paycheck, or whatever reason.

So it came as no surprise when I read news that the FBI is now being accused of using Muslim community outreach programs at masjids and conferences to gather information about attendees: names, number plates, appearances, social security numbers and political views.

What an immense slap in the face for those who still sing the praises of the FBI and talk about the need to work for them and TRUST them when the very events that are being billed as bridge-building are being used as a cover to gather information covertly.

Suckers!

ACLU Link