Saudi Arabia - Conscience takes a back seat � by Tariq Al-Maeena

Conscience takes a back seat | WorldMuslimCongress.com

As an American Muslim, I appreciate this piece. Stereotyping is one of the things I have been fighting all my life for people to rid their prejudices.

Pieces like this are eye openers, particularly for American Muslims, so many are prejudiced towards Saudi�s without realizing that there are individuals alike everywhere. Saudi bashing is fairly common, and I always remind them the man they adore, admire and call Rahmatul Aalameen comes from that region. 

 The white majority who mistreated the Black people in America are the very same people who supported them to have full rights as equal citizens.  

Not all Saudi�s are Wahhabis, and I don�t have any problem with Wahhabism, provided,  they keep their tradition to themselves and not push it on others.  

Let the followers of Islam spread peace through friendships and caring for others, and not creating chaos through fanaticism, extremism and violence.  If we sincerely believe Islam is the religion of peace, our talks, acts and behavior should express peace and nothing but peace.  The non-Muslims should see that we are for peace and building cohesive societies with freedom and not compulsion and chaos.

Your piece opens the eyes to the people � hey the Saudis are like us, with their conscience governing them and constantly struggling between right and wrong.  Likewise, don�t judge us Americans by Trump but by Bernie Sanders.
 

Conscience takes a back seat � by Tariq Al-Maeena
http://saudigazette.com.sa/opinion/conscience-takes-a-back-seat/#comment-23739

Tariq A. Al-Maeena

As children, most of us were taught the difference between right and wrong and good and evil, and how one path would take us toward righteousness while the other would led to damnation.  And we held on tightly to that childhood creed in order to make us better human beings.

But along the way as we got older, wires seem to have got crossed, and the solid line between right and wrong became a little blurry to some people.  They remain good people, but as I see it, their conscience has taken a back seat.

I was at Farid�s office when he received a call from his son.  I could only hear one side of the conversation, but the gist of it seemed to be that some rental contract was needed.  When he hung up, Farid looked perplexed.  I asked him if all was okay.  �Yes, it�s just that my son needs a house rental contract from me and I don�t know if a real estate office will provide one.�

�Your son is living in the duplex you built for him in the back of your residence.  Is he paying you rent?�

�No, but he needs a rental contract to avoid paying the SR3,500 university fees as an external student.  You see, if he has a rental contract, the university foregoes the fee requirement to alleviate additional financial burdens,� Farid explained.

�Wait a minute, Farid.  Your son has a good paying job, he is living at home for free, and you want to get him a fake rental contract?  Isn�t that cheating?  The university�s intent is to help students with financial burdens and not someone like your son.  He should not ask for an exception and neither should you provide him with a contract,� I admonished.

Looking at me with a wry smile, Farid replied: �Tariq, the system teaches everybody to do it.  So why shouldn�t I?�  I left before I blew a fuse.

Every year prior to the month of Ramadan there is a huge demand for household help.  Ads are everywhere as desperate housewives seek helping hands for the month of fasting when more food is prepared and served than at any other time of the year.  Not to mention that most food is probably thrown away during the holiest of all Islamic months.  Many domestic workers also take advantage of the situation by leaving their sponsors unannounced and searching for the highest bidder.

I had been invited to Mohamed�s house for an Iftar (breaking the fast) gathering last Ramadan.  His household was in disarray a few weeks earlier when his two housemaids decided to quit and left the country.  Looking at the wide array of dishes prepared for the guests, I remarked to Mohamed that his domestic help issue must have been resolved and that he must have recruited and received new help from overseas.

�No, I haven�t yet.  The visas are with the recruitment agency, but it is taking a long time.  That is why we had to hire locally at exorbitant wages.  We were lucky to find two women, one a Sri Lankan and  the other an Indonesian who agreed to work for us.  Thank God, otherwise my wife would have gone crazy.�

�Are these workers on legal work visas,� I asked.  �Have you checked and verified their documents?  Are they legal?  They could have run away from their previous sponsors.�

�Who cares, Tariq?  They are here right now and they are being paid.  They are providing us a service that we are desperately in need of.  You know the household demands during this month with family and friends dropping by.  We needed help.�

�Mohamed, did you ever stop to wonder if these workers left another home in dire straits by disappearing without notice?  Perhaps there is hardship in a home that desperately needed them.  It could have been an elderly lady they worked for, or a young divorced mother with children who needed to be looked after while she was at work.  Not all sponsors are bad.  You and I know that greed has caused many domestic workers to desert their lawful sponsors, especially prior to Ramadan.�

I wanted to ask him how he and his family could sit there and enjoy food prepared by someone who could by her presence in their home have been the source of anguish to the household she left behind.  How can we justify such actions and satiate our hunger while others somewhere else may be suffering?

My thoughts were quickly interrupted by Mohamed.  �Dive into your food Tariq before it gets cold.  Besides, if we didn�t hire them, believe me there are thousands who would.  Now enjoy yourself.�

How could I?  The line between right and wrong has not been blurred to that degree.

 � The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter@talmaeena

Virtually Islamic

Virtually Islamic, my main research website, has been restored after a brief technical interlude.

'Islamic State is no longer so formidable on the battlefield'

Hugh Naylor, Washington Post, Islamic State is no longer so formidable on the battlefield, 8 Feb 2016 "The Islamic State�s recent defeats on the battlefield signal that its once-vaunted militia army has been hobbled by worsening money problems, desertions and a dwindling pool of fighters, analysts and monitoring groups say." Opinion.

Two British Members of Islamic State 'Beatles' Have Been Identified

Vice News, Two British Members of Islamic State 'Beatles' Have Been Identified, 7 Feb 2016 On Sunday, a Washington Post and BuzzFeed investigation named a member of the group known as "Jihadi Ringo" as 32-year-old Londoner Alexanda Kotey, while an ITV News investigation
also named Kotey as well as identifying a third member of the group
as Aine Davis, a drug dealer who converted to Islam and

How the Islamic State would Rise - Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani

The following is a chapter from the English translation of the book, 'The Islamic State' by Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani (rh).

The strength of the Islamic thought coupled with its methodology would be sufficient to establish an Islamic State and to resume the Islamic way of life, provided that this thought is deeply rooted in the hearts and deeply embedded in the souls, and provided it materialised itself in the Muslims and became a living Islam working in all walks of life. However, despite all this, some colossal tasks have to be achieved before the existence of the State, and phenomenal efforts must be made in order to resume the Islamic way of life. Desire and optimism would not, therefore, be sufficient for the State to arise, nor would hope and enthusiasm be enough to secure the resumption of the Islamic way of life. The mother of all duties would be to duly assess these colossal obstacles which stand in the way of Islam in order to make their removal possible.

It is also most important to warn the Muslims about the heavy load which awaits those who rise to this objective and to bring to the attention of the people, especially the intellectual ones, the serious consequences of any opinion which is voiced concerning this hugely serious issue, so that words and actions move together with awareness, desire, resoluteness and courage. Those who tread the path in order to resume the Islamic way of life should be aware that they would be carving their way into hard stone, but that with great resolve and dedication they would be able to break the stone. At the same time they should be aware that they would be treating a delicate matter, however, their kindness would help them treat it perfectly. They should be aware that they would clash against major problems, yet they would overcome them. They should not deviate from the path because it is the path which the Messenger of Allah (saw) trod, and if the path is trodden correctly the results would be inevitable and victory would be certain without a shadow of a doubt. It is this path which the Muslims should tread carefully today, provided that the example of the Messenger of Allah (saw) is carefully followed, and his steps carefully and correctly copied so that anyone who treads upon this path does not stumble, because every error in the analogy and every deviation from the path would result in a stumble and introduce sterility into the work. It therefore follows that holding conferences on the issue of the Khilafah would not of itself lead to the establishment of the Islamic State, nor would a federation of countries ruling Muslim peoples be a legitimate method to establish the Islamic State, nor would congresses of Muslim peoples help in the resumption of the Islamic way of life. None of these, nor anything similar to them, should be considered correct, instead they would merely represent rhetoric aimed at soothing the anger of the Muslims. Rather, these would contain their feelings and neutralise their zeal, and consequently lead them astray from the real task, in addition to the fact that they contradict the Islamic method. The only way to establish the Islamic State is to carry the Islamic Message and to work towards the resumption of the Islamic way of life, this necessitates taking the Islamic countries altogether as one unit because the Muslims are but one Ummah, which represents a human group linked by one �aqeedah from which emanates her system. Any task carried out in any Muslim country, touching on the emotions and concepts, should therefore have its effects in all the other Muslim countries, thus, it is imperative that all Muslim countries be considered as one and that the da�wah is carried to all these countries so that it affects their respective societies. This is because, the one society which represents the Ummah would be like water in a pot, if a fire was lit under it the water would warm up and reach its boiling point, then the boiling would cause the society to move and work. This is why the da�wah should target the Islamic world so that work towards resuming the Islamic way of life could be initiated; this would be done by means of publications of books and leaflets, and by means of communication and all other means of publicity, especially (direct) contacts since they are one of the most successful methods of da�wah. However, the initiation of da�wah in this open manner is merely a fuel for the society in order to turn the frozen state, which it suffers from, into energy. It cannot reach the boiling point unless the practical da�wah is confined in its political orientation within one single country from where the work would begin. Then the da�wah would be launched from there to mushroom all other parts of the Islamic world. This country, or several countries, would be taken as the support point where the Islamic State would be established, following which work would begin to expand and establish the greater Islamic State, which in turn would carry the Islamic Message to the whole world. This would be just like what the Messenger of Allah (saw) did; he (saw) conveyed his da�wah to all the people and the steps of conveyance reached the practical phase. He (saw) invited the people of Makkah and all the Arabs in the hajj season. His da�wah spread all over the Arabian Peninsula, as if he (saw) had lit a fire under the society of the Peninsula, a fire which was aimed at releasing the energy in the Arabs as a whole. The Messenger of Allah (saw) called the Arabs to Islam by directly contacting them and by inviting them to Islam during the hajj season, and by visiting the tribes in their homes and calling them to Islam. The da�wah reached all the Arabs as a result of the clashes which took place between the Messenger of Allah (saw) and Quraysh, the echoes of those impacts reached the Arabs and triggered their curiosity and their desire to learn more about the da�wah. However, although the da�wah targeted all the Arabs, the scope of the da�wah was confined to Makkah, then it stretched to Madinah until the Islamic State was founded in Hijaz. Only then did the heat of the da�wah and the victory of the Messenger of Allah (saw) cause boiling resulting in real action, so that all believed and the Islamic State grew until it engulfed the whole of the Arabian Peninsula from where it carried its Message to the world.

We ought to adopt the carrying of the da�wah and the work towards resuming the Islamic way of life as our method to establish the Islamic State. We ought to consider, also, all the Muslim countries as one single society and as a target for the da�wah. We must, however, concentrate our scope of work to one province or specific provinces where we undertake to educate people with Islam so that it springs to life within themselves and so that they live by it and for it, and we ought to create public opinion by Islam and for Islam so that a response is generated between the carriers of the da�wah and society, a response which would be fruitful, effective and moving, and which would be able to transform the da�wah into interaction and result in output. Interaction of this nature would be translated into a struggle aimed at establishing the Islamic State, which emanates from the Ummah, in that part of the Islamic world. The da�wah would then have developed from being an idea in the mind to existing in society, and from a popular movement to a State. By then it would have concluded its stages and moved from the starting point to the launching point, and then to the point of support where it would be rooted in the State, which fulfills all elements of the State and the strength of the da�wah. Then the practical task, which Shari�ah commands the State and the Muslims who live outside its authority to fulfill, will have begun. The duty of the State would be to rule comprehensively by that which Allah (swt) has revealed and to make the merging of the other provinces with it or its merger with the other provinces part of its home policies. It would therefore initiate the conveying of the da�wah and the call for the resumption of the Islamic way of life all over the other provinces. It would lift the imaginary political borders which the colonialists drew up between them and who were responsible for making the rulers of those provinces the watchdogs of the borders. The State must therefore remove and cancel the borders even if the other provinces choose not to follow suit. Visas would be canceled, so would the customs checkpoints, and its doors would be left wide open to the citizens of the other provinces. This would make the citizens of the other Muslim provinces feel that this State was indeed an Islamic State, and it would make them witness the implementation and the execution of the Islamic rule. As for the duty of the Muslims, they should work towards turning their land where Islam is not implemented, and which is considered as Dar al-Kufr, into Dar al-Islam. This would be achieved by aiming to merge their household with the Islamic State by means of da�wah and publicity. This would ensure that the whole of the society within the Islamic world had reached boiling point, which would drive it towards the right action and which would ensure in turn the unification of all the Muslims under the one State. Thus, the greater Islamic State would be established, and so the Islamic State, which represents a universal intellectual leadership, will have come back into existence. By then it will have gained its stature and the weight necessary to enable her to convey its Message and to work towards saving the world from the evils it has been plunged into.

If the Muslim Ummah, had in the past, lived in a country which did not stretch beyond the Arabian Peninsula, and which at that time numbered only a few millions, and despite that when she embraced Islam and carried its Message she represented a world superpower in the face of the two major camps at the time, whereupon she struck them both simultaneously, conquered their lands and spread Islam over almost the whole of the inhabited parts of the world at that time, then what are we to say about the Ummah today - numbering more than one billion, spread over countries that are geographically linked together - if she were a single country, stretching from Marrakesh to India right up to Indonesia, occupying the best part of the world in terms of resources and strategic points, and carrying a single ideology which is the only correct ideology in the world? She would undoubtedly form a front which would be stronger than the two present camps put together, in every domain.

It is therefore the duty of every Muslim to work from this moment on in order to establish the greater Islamic State which would convey the Message of Islam to the world. Ones work should start by carrying the Islamic da�wah with the aim of resuming the Islamic way of life in all the Muslim countries; concentrating ones practical scope in one country or some selected ones in order to achieve the point of support so that this serious task can be resumed. Such a cause with its high objective, which the Muslim should aim to achieve by treading this practical and clear path and which he must follow, should be worth enduring all types of hardship and should be worth sparing no effort for. One should rely on Allah�s help, seeking no reward for it except to gain the pleasure of Allah (swt).

Al-Hamdu lillahi Rabbil a�alameen.

True Revival is Impossible Without Establishing an Islamic State

The following is the translation of an Arabic leaflet from the time of Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani (rh).

How Will the Islamic Ummah Revive Today?

Revival is the intellectual elevation. While the economical elevation is not a revival. An evidence of that isKuwait which is economically much more elevated than some of the European states like Sweden, Hollandand Belgium: Yet Sweden, Holland and Belgium are elevated and Kuwait is not. The ethical elevation is not a revival as well. An evidence of that is that Madina today is superior to any country in the world ethically (morally), yet it is not elevated. Thus revival is the intellectual elevation.

But this revival could be true (proper) revival or untrue. So America, Europe and Russia are revived countries, but their revival is incorrect. Because it is not established on a spiritual foundation, since the true revival is the intellectual revival which is established on the spiritual foundation. If the intellectual elevation is not based on the spiritual foundation then it is not a revival but an incorrect one. Thus there is not any true revival except that based on the foundation of the Islamic thought, i.e. except the Islamic revival, because it is alone the intellectual elevation based on the spiritual foundation.

The way to initiate this revival is to establish the ruling (government) upon a thought, not upon systems and laws and legislation. Establishing the state upon canons and laws will not create a revival, on the contrary it will be deluded and a distraction from the revival. Revival will not occur unless the ruling and authority is established upon a thought, then the daily solutions (treatments) of life's problems emanate from this thought; that is the systems and legislation and laws emanate from it. So when Europe revived this was upon a thought which was the detachment of the religion from the State, adding the liberties (freedoms) as well. The revival of Russia was based on a thought, which was materialism and the materialistic evolution, that is the transference of things (naturally) from one situation to a better situation. So Russia established the ruling (government) on this thought in 1917 and thus revived. When Arabs revived they also revived on the Islamic thought which the Prophet (SAW) brought as a message from Allah (SWT), and established the ruling and authority (sultan) upon it. So the revival occurred to the Arabs when they embraced it and established the ruling (government) upon it. All this is (decisive) evidence that the way for initiating the revival is establishing the ruling upon a thought.

The evidence that establishing the ruling on systems and legislation does not initiate revival is what Mustafa Kamal made in Turkey where he established the ruling (government) on systems and canons to create a revival. So he adopted the Western systems and laws and started to implement them, and implemented them actually by force, but he did not create a revival, and accordingly Turkey did not revive; rather it declined from the level which it held before. Look at Turkey nowadays, it is one of the most declined countries. While Lenin who came in the same period in which Mustafa Kamal came managed to elevate Russia effectively, and look at it today as one of the strongest states (N.B. before its recent collapse). The reason for that is that Lenin established the ruling on a thought which is the communist thought. From this thought the solutions of the daily issues emanated, i.e. the systems and the canons. That is to say, he started to treat the problems by laws adopted from the thought, upon which he established the ruling. Therefore Lenin established the ruling inRussia in 1917 upon a thought thus he revived Russia. And Mustafa Kamal established the ruling in 1924 upon systems and legislation to revive Turkey but he failed, rather it declined. Establishing the government upon the systems and legislation was the reason that prevented Turkey from revival because it was deluded with it.

The most recent example of this is what: Jamal Abdul Nasser has done in Egypt. Since 1952 he established the government on systems and legislation. At the beginning he established it upon hanging the ruling system by replacing the monarchical system with the republican system and upon distributing the farming lands. Then he moved further to adopt social systems of what is called the state socialism, but he did not initiate a revival. On the contrary, Egypt nowadays from intellectual, economic and political aspects is more declined than it was before 1952, i.e. before the military coup. When comparing its members of parliament today, i.e. the National Council, with its parliamentary members before 1952 from the angle of their intellectual and political capability, the intellectual and political difference appears quite clear. The situation in Egypt prevents the revival, because establishing the ruling upon the systems and legislation does not initiate revival. What creates the revival is only establishing the ruling upon a thought.

However, establishing the government upon a thought does not mean to make a military coup and seize the power and establish the government upon the thought, since this will not found a revival, and moreover is unlikely to settle in power. Rather it means to explain to the Ummah or the stronger group of the Ummah the thought upon which it is intended to revive the Ummah, and direct itself in the battle of life on the basis of this thought; then the government is established upon this thought by the Ummah and thus the revival occurs surely. So the essence of the revival is not seizing the power, rather it is unifying the Ummah on the thought and making it direct its life on this thought. Then the power is taken and the government is established upon that thought. Seizing the power is not an aim in itself, and it is incorrect to be an aim. Rather, it is a method for the revival by establishing the government upon the thought. Therefore the ruling is taken to establish it upon the thought, in order that the revival ours. The proper example for that is that which the Prophet (SAW) did. When he was sent by Allah the Supreme with the Message of Islam, he invited the people to the Islamic creed, i.e. to the thought. And when he gathered the people of the Madina, Al Aws and Al Khazraj, on the Islamic creed, i.e. on the thought, and made them direct their life according to it, he took the ruling (power or authority) in the Madina and established upon the Islamic creed and started to say: "I was ordered to fight against the people until they say: La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur Rasool Allah. If they said it, they protected of me their blood and property except for the right upon their property." Thus he started to call for the thought, and accordingly the revival occurred in Madina, then in the Arabs, then in every people who entered Islam, i.e. embraced the thought and had the authority which takes care of its affairs established upon it.

Today, the Islamic Ummah in all its countries is undoubtedly declined, and it was trying to revive for more than two hundred years, and it failed to revive until now. The reason is because their governments are built on systems and legislation. And the ruling whether established on non-Islamic systems, i.e. kufr systems as it is the case in most of the Islamic countries, or established on Islamic systems and divine rules as was the case in some few countries as Yemen before the revolution of As-Sallal, they are all declined, and have no revival. The reason of this is that the ruling is established on systems not on a thought. Even establishing the ruling upon Islamic systems and divine rules does not create a revival. That which initiates the revival is establishing the ruling upon the Islamic thought, i.e. upon the Islamic creed. So establishing the State upon "La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur Rasool Allah" is that which creates the revival. But establishing it upon the Mazhab of Abu Hanifa or upon the book of Tahtaoui or upon the divine rules does not create a revival. Instead, it must be established upon "La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur Rasool Allah", then after that the divine rules are adopted in their capacity as commands from Allah, and they are implemented as His orders and prohibitions, not because they are good and beneficial or because they contain a benefit or the like. Rather because they are revealed from Allah, that is derived from "La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur Rasool Allah", and by such the revival occurs.

So in order to revive the Islamic Ummah today, she must make the Islamic creed the basis which directs its life, and establish the ruling and authority upon it, and treat the daily affairs by the rules which emanate from this creed, i.e. by the divine rules in their capacity as prescriptions from Allah only not due to any other description. Thus the revival definitely occurs, rather the correct revival not any revival. Thus the Islamic Ummah returns back to hold the seat of the highest glory and to take the initiative to the world again.

This is the way to revive the Islamic Ummah truly, and along this path Muslims have to proceed.

'Twitter suspends 125,000 'terrorism' accounts'

BBC News, Twitter suspends 125,000 'terrorism' accounts, 5 Feb 2016

"In a blog, the US-based firm said the accounts "primarily related to ISIS" (the so-called Islamic State group)."

Racism in India: Why Indian news channels don't have dark complexioned anchors, news readers?

The mob attack on a girl from Tanzania and the alleged misbehaviour with her, has once again led to a debate over racism in India.

We may not acknowledge but racism--colour prejudice is deeply ingrained in our minds.

So deep is the prejudice against dark skin--ironically, in a country where majority is brown, that we don't even realise, while practicing it ourselves.


The first thing that people talk about while fixing a marriage is about the complexion--is the girl or boy fair? Words like 'fair and very fair' are commonly used in matrimonial advertisements.

Comments on looks on common in households, on streets and everywhere. People who are dark are mocked at, 'in jest', and these comments are taken as 'humour', not as racism.

It is common knowledge that fair people have advantage in getting jobs. And, there are certain fields where ONLY THE FAIR get a chance. Imagine, this happening in the country that is not perceived as a land of 'Whites' or 'Fair-skinned'.

So not just caste, religion, linguistic, gender and other sectarian forms of discrimination that are prevalent widely in our country, we also practice this form of apartheid, which is--'discrimination on the basis of skin complexion'.

WHY RARE TO FIND DARK COMPLEXIONED ANCHORS IN INDIAN MEDIA?

Tune in foreign news channels and you will find people from diverse backgrounds as news readers and anchors.

Not just US that has 14% blacks, a country like UK that has far less population of the blacks, it is common to see anchors of all nationalities. However, in a country of 'browns', it is difficult to find a person with dark complexion on our screens.

Of course, there are dark complexioned reporters but isn't it a discrimination that they are not the ANCHORS! Why dark skinned people are not chosen as news-readers. It's a big question for Indian media.

DISCRIMINATION WITH DALITS, TRIBALS EVEN MORE RAMPANT

As we all know, Dalits and Tribals also have NIL representation in Indian media. While there are reporters who are dark complexioned, Dalits and Tribals are nowhere even in the newsrooms.

Repeated surveys have shown how it is just the forward castes and some historically privileged and dominant castes that have representation in Indian media.

In US, the newsroom audit

FIRST WE MUST ACCEPT THAT RACISM, DISCRIMINATION ARE PREVALENT

After the Tanzanian girl was attacked by a mob in Bengaluru, TV channels were shouting--is our society racist? There were panelists who termed it just as an isolated incident, despite the fact that Africans are attacked repeatedly.

Students from Africa face harassment, abuse and have difficulty in finding houses on rent. The incident in Bangalore was just another example. We have seen such incidents in Delhi and other cities in the recent past.

People from North East face similar discrimination. Clearly, we practice racism and don't want to acknowledge that we are Racists. A problem can be solved when we first accept that it exists. Ostrich-like attitude won't help. 

' ISIS release chilling video of English-speaking child beheading hostage and threatening America '

Daily Mirror, ISIS release chilling video of English-speaking child beheading hostage and threatening America, 4 Feb 2016

'Hijab Barbie'

Rachel Lubitz, mic.com, This "Hijab Barbie" May Be the Cutest Style Star on Instagram "Adam, who lives in Nigeria, uses her Instagram account Hijarbie to showcase "mini hijab fashion." That means photo after photo of the Barbie-style doll we know � tall, thin, long-legged, probably blonde � wearing clothes we're less used to: Instead of princess gowns or hot pants, it's all hijabs and abayas."