For my last article at kih, I thought it  fitting to write about Somalia, as its Independence Day was this past week, (though the validity of an Independence Day for any country is debatable).

July 1st was Somali independence Day. The country has been free from physical imperial occupation for 50 years. However, it's been mired in war and opposing international interests since.

The state of Somalia is unique in Africa. The population is the most homogeneous on the continent. It shares the same religion (the same madhab, even), the same language, and the same basic features. With the exceptions of Ogaden and Djibouti, the large part of the Somali population is actual within the borders, thereby making Somalia the only true nation state in Africa.

Despite that fact, Somalia is still in a constant state of war. Why? Despite all the common ground, clans are the main cause of division. Clans are groups of people that can trace their ancestry to a common patriarch.

Not to bash the values of Somalis, because Allah created diversity so that we learn to appreciate each other. Allah says in the Qur'an (translation): “O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another." [al-Hujuraat 49:13]

However, it's a curious thing that in a continent of artificial states that the one legitimate nation state is tearing itself apart from what, on the outside anyway, seems like really minor differences. Although, it might just be that clan relations are used for political leverage so that existing hostility is exacerbated.

May Allah unite the people of Somalia and this Deen. And may He (swt) bring peace to Somalia, and victory to this Deen.

I've heard it said about Arabia that Allah purified it with the blood of martyrs. May He (swt) grant the same to Somalia, and hasten the coming of peace.

In April 2010, Masjid Toronto began offering a class on Islamic Studies for deaf Muslims. This class, held for the first time in 15 years, aims to teach these Muslims, who are usually cut off from accessing religious information, the basics of the faith.

The students, translators and teachers face special challenges. For example, because the student body is so diverse, many are used to having different symbols for the same word. Students who learned Pakistani, Turkish or Arabic sign language have to develop new symbols as a group to accommodate each others knowledge. Moreover, the class is taught in American Sign Language, a medium that is itself limited because it has no symbols for Islamic terms.

Despite those challenges, the attitude of those involved seems to be optimistic. An attendee of the class even states “in a way, with every class, we are kind of making up a new language on the spot.” That spirit of innovation combined with the thirst for religious knowledge seems to be what drives the class.

May Allah (swt) accept their efforts and give them increase.

Source: The Toronto Star
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Here is an unrelated video of the Qur’an in sign language. 

The story of the Americas is usually taught as follows: the Native peoples were organized into tribes that lived off the land and these tribes lived a very basic life. They, as the story goes, lived isolated from all of humanity for thousands of years until they were ‘discovered’ by Europeans who brought them civilization. Occasionally, it is mentioned that some civilizations did exist in a few parts such as those of the Aztecs and Mayans.

However, what is omitted in the common telling of the history of the Americas is that the Native people had very sophisticated societies with advanced economies, science and architecture. Also neglected is the Aboriginal contact with Muslim explorers, primarily from West Africa and later Andalusia (Muslim Spain). Evidence of Muslim contact and settlement in the Americas is still being researched and some of the discoveries are detailed in this book. Some of the discoveries are linguistic—Arabic and African roots of Aboriginal words—while others are economic, coins and gold alloy from Muslim Caliphates in Africa. Still other discoveries are cultural and they including Andalusian inspired dress and Arabic/African place names and settlements of African people before the time of Europeans and slavery.

Although it is a short read of 80 pages, the information presented in this book has profoundly changes my view of the Americas and world history as a whole. It is common knowledge that genocide of the Aboriginals in the Americas took place after the arrival of Europeans. However, what may not be considered is the cultural genocide that the Europeans vigorously pursued as well. The written records of Aboriginals were systematically erased, all African people, regardless of their status and origin were declared slaves and Arabic and Islam was outlawed in many places. Therefore, it is clear that the history of Islam in the Americas was not so much lost as it was stolen and suppressed.

It may be that to some reclaiming lost history is unimportant. However, consider the social trauma that exists in communities with a history of subjugation. If people are allowed a real opportunity to discovery where they come from and investigate the roots of the social diseases that plague them, they will undergo profound positive change, insha'Allah.

I personally believe that part of the mental emancipation that all peoples suffering from Post-Colonial trauma and modern Imperial propaganda must undergo includes a re-assessment of history. Whether we admit it or not, we are those people who suffer from Post-Colonial trauma and modern Imperial propaganda. In pursuance of riding ourselves of it, we can all start by reading this book!

And it is little wonder that Muslim exploration has become the catalyst which has opened up this Tawhedic understanding of Human civilization and development.

Allah says in the Qur’an:

For We assuredly sent amongst every People a messenger, (with the Command) "Serve Allah, and eschew Evil": of the people were some whom Allah guided, and some on whom Error became inevitably (established). So travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who denied (the Truth). [16:36]

Below, I have quoted some passages from the book Deeper Roots.
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The Garifuna People- Descendants of the Early Mandika

            Another part of the stolen pre-Colonial legacy that has been coming to light in the past few years is the origin of the Gafrifuna people, sometimes knows [sic] as Black Caribs. The Carib people are usually identified with the Native (Indian) group that populates parts of South America and the Caribbean…P.V. Ramos in an article that appeared in the Daily Clarion of Belize, Central America, on November 5, 1946, wrote:

When Columbus discovered West Indies about the year 1493 CE, he found there a race of white people (i.e. half breeds) with woolly hair whom he called Caribs. They were seafaring hunters and tillers of the soil, peaceful and united. They hated aggression. Their religion was Mohammedanism (Islam) and their language presumable Arabic. (32)
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In Retrospect

The Colonialisation of the Americas by the Spanish was an extension of the Reconquista (reconquest) of the Iberian Peninsula. Muslims had ruled much of Spain for over 700 years, dominating Europe culturally, educationally, and economically. The early explorers were, in many cases, Spanish soldiers who had fought in Spain or Africa and sailed the seas to destroy the power of Islam. They recognized the influence of Islam wherever they journeyed an ddid everything in their power to convert the people to Catholicism. When Hernan Cortes (the ‘Conquerer’ of Mexico) arrived in the Yucatan, he named the area “El Cairo.” The men of Cortes and Juan Pizarro (the 'conqueror' Peru), some of whom had taken direct part in the struggle against Muslims, called the Indian temples “Mezquitas” (Spanish for masjid). Ironically, the first Christain to see American land, Rodrigo de Triana or Rodrigo de Lepe, on his return to Spain became a Muslim, abandoning his Christain allegiance. Columbus did not give him credit, nor did the King give him any recompense.

During the rule of Ferdinand, the Catholic, in spite of excesses against Islam in Spain, some of the Moriscoes (Muslims in Andalusia who were forced to convert to Catholicism), who travelled to the Americas as explorers, soldiers and labourers, began practising their true faith and succeeded in propagating Islam among the Indians. A series of laws was decreed in order to stop the flow of Muslims, free or enslaved, to the Americas and to win back the Muslim native Indians. (35-36)
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Slavery: Cultural Genocide

Bryan Adwards, author of a well known work on the history of the British West Indies, considered Muslim slaves (especially Mandingos) to be a sizeable proportion of those taken to the British islands. One such example of a Muslim slave reads as follows:

An old and faithful Mandigo servant, who stands at my elbow as I write this, relates…of his national customs and manners he remembers little, being at the time of his captivity, but a youth. He relates that the natives practise circumcision and that he himself has undergone that operation and he has not forgot the morning and evening prayer which his father taught him. In proof of this assertion, he chants, in an audible and shrill tone, a sentence that I conceive to be part of the Al-Koran. La illa, ill illa. (i.e La ilaha illa Allah, there is no god but Allah) which he says they sing aloud at the first appearance of the new Moon. He relates, moreover, that in his own country, Friday was a strict fasting day. It was almost a sin, he observes, on that day, to swallow his spittle. Such is his expression.

Here we go again. That was my reaction when Quebec Premier Jean Charest introduced Bill 94 in March. Bill 94 is a law proposed by Quebec’s Liberal government that would prohibit women in niqabs from accessing government services. Some services that would be barred to the women are: healthcare, university, community health and daycare centres. While like many of you, I’m familiar with the position of France on the issue, it was still a shock to me that such a law would be passed in Canada.

Charest maintains that the purpose of the law is to facilitate efficient identification, security and communication.  Additionally, Christine St-Pierre, Quebec's minister for the status of women, claimed the Bill promotes gender equality.

However, both those claims have inherent contradictions. Firstly, Charest’s claims that the niqab hinders identification is without basis. In most cases, women in niqab are willing to remove it in order to identify themselves to female attendants. His other claims are that women in niqab somehow are a danger to security and communication.

As explained by Rosie DiManno in an April Toronto Star article, one answer to that is the Sikh kirpan. The kirpan is a small dagger that Sikh men wear and it is not supposed to be unsheathed. However, there have been recent circumstances in which the kirpan has been used in a violent attack. I wonder, why is it that this dagger is not banned as a threat to security, but the niqab is?

Also, I wonder why a niqab wearing woman was removed from a Montreal language class in March? There seemed to be no complaint by the instructors that it hindered any communication.
So, the question of true intention, true purpose comes to mind: what is the purpose of this Bill? Surely, not to achieve the goals that Premier Charest has claimed, nor is it to achieve  gender equality, because isn’t a fundamental goal of feminism to secure the right of women to choose?

Maybe it’s the distinctness of Quebec society flaring up again. The distinctness which includes strictly secular principles that some Quebecois may think are unique only to them. But were those principles not championed by that famous Frenchman who once said, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it?” Would the same not apply to clothing choice?
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Speak up and Speak out
http://nonbill94.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/updates-on-the-nonon-bill-94-campaign/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Quebec-Niqab-Ban-Petition/112128325465063

It is sad that these brave Muslims, who’ve been striving against a brutal enemy for decades, receive more attention from non-Muslims than from Muslims. We need to include the struggle of other places, as well as Palestine, in the Ummah’s consciousness. 


How we can Help:

- make dua'a for them and other Muslims facing oppression
- spread the word and inform others about the true situation in Chechnya
- Donate: Islamic Relief in Chechnya

Sources:

BBC
IslamOnline
The Guardian

Yup, it’s that time of year again. Most university students are just finishing exams and starting their summer and high schoolers will be done in a few months. It’s at this time of year that a lot of students look forward to working, whether full time or part time, and earning some money. However, when one actual starts the process of job hunting, the person may find what seems to be a brick wall and the excitement quickly fades.

Why is it that door-to-door knife selling enterprises are so abundant while solid opportunities are so few? I’d say it’s a recession,  but that’s been done. Instead, here are a few tips on effective job-hunting from the professionals.

With determination (because the search can get disheartening) and the right intention, your search will lead you to find a good job, earning halal income, insha‘Allah.

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UPDATE: good job search resources are

YES Employment Services
Jobbank

A recent Toronto Star article asked Lauren Friese, the founder of TalentEgg.com--a student and recent graduate job site--to explain the Dos and Donts of a student job search:

Do's
• Cast a wide net! Job boards, career centres and job-finding agencies are a great place to start, said Friese. But students should take advantage of their personal networks, though tools such as Twitter and Facebook. It only takes one or two really well-connected friends to get the word out to hundreds of people that you are looking for a job.
• Blow your own horn! Friese said many students let companies know they are available and stop there. They need to use the web to boost their personal profile and include that in their application package.

• Go to them first! Even if companies do not appear to be hiring, it doesn’t hurt to pitch your skills and interest, said Friese. That way, if something comes up, or their budget allows for an internship or summer hire, you will be on their radar.

• Search outside the lines! Don’t think that your summer job has to fall exactly in line with your future plans. Just because you want to be in finance doesn’t mean you have to work at a bank. The chance of you getting your summer job at one of the Big Five Banks is actually very, very small, so you need to seek out jobs that will give you marketable skills outside that area, she said. At the very least it adds depth to your resumé.

Don’ts
• Don’t overlook retail! One of Friese’s early jobs was at the Gap: “I didn’t understand how useful that could be. Now, from the employer’ side, I am seeing how valuable those skills are.” Being able to work successfully in retail demonstrates responsibility and an ability to be persuasive, she said. “Sales skills are extremely valuable for entry-level positions,” said Friese. “It shows you have an ability to organize.”

• Do not get the company’s name wrong! Friese said she is amazed when this happens, but it does. TalentEgg recently received a job application from someone who applied to the company, but submitted a letter with the quotation, “I am interested in a position with your company, Town Shoes.”

• Don’t cut-and-paste! Generic cover letters are obvious and demonstrate a lack of genuine interest, said Friese. Take a minute to find the right person to address it to within the company and have a line or two that shows how your skill-sets align with the organization’s mandate or goals.

• Don’t pad your resumé! “Not only is it obvious, but it’s unproductive,” said Friese. One thing that makes students interesting is their youth and willingness to be moulded to whatever work is available.

• Do not leave it to the last minute! Larger corporations will start posting jobs in January, said Friese. So don’t wait until all the good positions are gone. Small and medium-sized businesses are more flexible and tend to post opportunities as they arise, she said.

Once a man came to one of the early Muslims, Ibrahim ibn Adham (rahimahullah), asking about disobedience to Allah:

The Man said: "Oh Abu Ishaaq (Ibrahim ibn Adham), I have many sins, and I turn away from everything that invites me to improve my way of life."

Ibrahim said: "If you can fulfill five conditions, then sinning will never harm you, and you can fulfill your desires as much as you want."

"Tell me those conditions," exclaimed the man.

"As for the first, if you want to disobey Allah, then do not eat from His sustenance," said Ibrahim.

"What then will I eat, for everything on the earth is from His sustenance?" said the man.

"Listen," said Ibrahim "Are you being sensible when you eat from His sustenance while you are disobedient to Him?"

"No," said the man. "What is the second condition?"

"If you want to disobey Allah, then do not live in any of His lands," said Ibrahim.

"This is even worse than the first. All that is in the East and West belong to Him. So where then will I live?""Listen," said Ibrahim.

 "If you insist on disobeying Him while you eat from His sustenance and live in His lands, then at least look for some spot where He cannot see you, and disobey Him there."

"O Ibrahim!" exclaimed the man.

"How can I do that, when He even knows the deepest secrets that are in the breasts of men? What is the fourth condition?" he asked despondently.

"When the angel of death comes to take your soul, then say to him, 'Give me some respite, so that I can repent sincerely and perform good deeds.'"

"When the time comes, the angel will not accept that plea from me," said the man.

"Listen," said Ibrahim.

"If you cannot put off death in order to repent, then how do you expect to be saved?"

"Tell me the fifth condition," said the man.

"When the guardians of Hell-fire come to take you away on the Day of Resurrection, don't go with them."

"They won't let me!" exclaimed the man.

"Then how do you expect to be saved?" asked Ibrahim.

"Stop, stop! That is enough for me," said the man.
"I ask Allah to forgive me and I indeed repent to Him."

The man then dedicated his life to the worship of Allah from that day.

Guilty until proven innocent; that is the conclusion that the Obama administration has made in regards to the American Imam Anwar al-Awlaki. The New Mexico born man of Yemeni descent is known to preach violence and is “suspected” of associating with people who have tried--and some who have succeeded--in carrying out violent attacks in the United States.

Since being released from a Yemeni prison in 2007, after 18 months in detention, “for suspected ties to terrorism,” many have noticed that his views have taken a more extreme edge. However, despite innuendos and anonymous official claims of al-Awlaki’s guilt, there has been no concrete evidence to prove it. Despite that lack of evidence, Barack Obama-- the Nobel Peace Prize winner--has issued an order to kill an American citizen with no regard for due process.

Not even Mr. George W. Bush ever took such an unprecedented step. What are we to make of the fact that a man who came to power by proclaiming change has now firmly put himself on the path of regression, in terms of civil liberties, by not only upholding the draconian measures introduced by his predecessors but by upgrading them. What does the Patriot Act compare to ordering extrajudicial executions of citizens?

What I’ve noticed about this order to kill/murder/assassinate given by President Obama is that overall protests from the left have remained remarkably at a low level. In contrast, every time former American President George W. Bush would so much as sneeze in a way people considered unconstitutional, you would have heard howls of protest from the left. Where are the howls for this action that strips an American citizen of not only his constitutional rights but his peace of mind now that he’s been marked for death?

Also, with the recent leak of a video showing an American air strike that killed a group of journalists in Iraq in 2007, the still unresolved issue of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s case etc. one would think that the Obama Administration would be taking steps to reduce possible recruitment material for those calling to violence, not increasing it. That exactly is what this assassination would achieve if and when it is carried out. The murder would immortalize, and justify the words and view of al-Awlaki.    

And for us non-Americans, especially if we’re living in the West, what does this action mean for us? We’ve all heard of the stories of people being detained in foreign countries, tortured because of “suspected ties to terrorism,” only for them to be later discovered as not-guilty. Given that Western governments have been known to detain and torture or condone the detention and torture of their own citizens, what else might these governments condone given this precedent set by Mr. Obama?

May Allah keep the Muslims safe and sound, wherever they are.

Canadian diplomats have historically had a positive role in negotiating settlements to world crises; the obvious and much cited examples are of Lester B. Pearson and the first UN Peacekeeping force during the Suez Canal Crisis and Canada’s role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Recently, however, the country is earning a more dubious diplomatic reputation. For example, activists criticized the Canadian government for what they considered to be its obstruction to progress at the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen in late 2009. That criticism from Climate Change activists is a reflection of the regressive stance that the minority Conservative government has on many important diplomatic issues. At Copenhagen, Canada was awarded “fossil of the year” by environmental groups for the regressive and obstructive position of the conservative government. This trend of diplomatic embarrassment, it seems, is being doggedly pursued by the brilliant and progressive Tory government--not just in Climate Change, but also in many other avenues. Take for example cutting off aid to KAIROS, a charity group that criticizes Israeli policies (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/740510---anti-semitic-charge-angers-aid-group) and blocking the entry of the Palestinian Politician Dr. Barghouti into Canada http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/782681--palestinian-mp-s-visa-too-late-for-visit. 

Given such diplomatic stratagems that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have used so far in their illustrious reign, it comes as no surprise then that their recent move had so impressed the American Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that she could not bear to stay in the same room with the geniuses that devised it.

On Monday March 29, Canada hosted a one-day Summit on the Future of the Arctic, a side-endeavour to the wider G8 Summit. The Summit included the United States, Russia, Norway and Denmark. However, the summit, likely a result of the Tories’ impeccable efforts to include only relevant parties, left out three other members of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council is the established international policy-making body on Arctic Matters and it also includes Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the Inuit Circumpolar Council (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/787178--canada-gets-cold-shoulder-at-arctic-meeting).

Mrs. Clinton, undoubtedly impressed with such due diligence, felt obliged to leave the gathering early. She is reported to have chastised the Tory organizers by dismissing the Summit as not including all parties “who have legitimate interests in the region.”

Obviously, such a strong diplomatic rebuke by a country that is considered Canada’s closest ally is further proof of the diplomatic prowess and wisdom of this Tory government. 
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*That was my lame attempt at sarcasm. This was written tongue-in-cheek, but the Hilary Clinton walkout did happen. I wonder how many international and domestic diplomatic blunders the Tories have to make before Canadian voters wake-up and kick them out? But what’s the alternative? The Liberals have become a shadow of the party they once were. I dunno…the NDP is looking mighty fine right about now.

Early this week, I attended an event on campus. It was called ‘Palestine: Personal Reflection on Oppression.’ It featured Reverend Dale Finch who worked in the West Bank for nine months from 2007-2008, and Dr. Abdul Rahman Lawendy a surgeon who worked in Gaza during the Israeli assault of 2008-2009. With the aid of pictures, they recounted the stories of Palestinians struggling to live normal lives under occupation. Overall it was very good, though sparsely attended, event.  
Dr. Lawendy’s accounts were especially harrowing. His experience living with a civilian population under siege was accompanied by picture slides of the destruction--mosques and hospitals that were deliberate shelled, cattle that were intentionally killed, civilians that were incinerated and maimed. His verbal testimony and visual evidence of the living conditions of Muslims in Gaza during last year’s assault provided the listeners with an intimate view of a war whose narrative is often dictated by the most powerful party.  

Israel’s media campaign is very well organized and very well funded. Even today as the Israeli Air Force launched fresh air strikes on Gaza,  the dominant analysis of events puts rocket attacks that killed a farm worker un Isreal, which is said to have been launched from Gaza, as the reason for Israel’s renewed aggression (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8577492.stm).  
However, you will hear very few news reports on the continual siege of Gaza that started well before last year’s assault and that continues until the present. And you will hear very few news reports on policies that are designed to further the system of Apartheid in Israel, policies that are intended to squeeze Muslims out of living space and establish the Israeli population as dominant. The only recent publicized example of this policy is the expansion of settlement building in East Jerusalem, and elsewhere in the West bank, a process so flagrantly begun that even the United States protested forcefully--for a time (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8573760.stm).

The last example makes plain that this conflict, as it is so flippantly called, is actually not a conflict. It is a humananitarian and moral tragedy, calling it that is not being dramatic. Take a look at the evidence: a displaced population living under continuous military occupation, people subjected to arbitrary violence and detention, the destruction of livelihoods and the general subjugation of an entire people.

Given that reality, it is clear that the oppression of Muslims in Palestine cannot simply be called a ‘conflict.’ Would Apartheid South Africa be called a ‘conflict?’ or the British repression of Indian independence, or Stalin’s various purges ‘conflicts?’  Each of those examples differ from the current situation in Palestine, but are fundamentally alike in that they all involve people that have been subjugated and besieged by a government force more powerful than they are. However, in all of these cases, though it took some time, the world called oppression as it saw oppression. Unlike now when the Israeli Defence Force bombs a school, the justification of the act is accepted from them without asking for any evidence.  

Thinking back on the sparsely attended Palestine event on campus this week, the media and government newspeak, general public apathy and the Canadian Tory government’s blatant pro-Israel policies--yeah, they’re still the government--(http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/740510---anti-semitic-charge-angers-aid-group), I wonder what our level of commitment to Palestine is? Is it greater than commitment to Starbucks? 

When Dr. Lawendy and Reverend Finch recounted their experiences and we listened and we were shocked and we were sympathetic. But what is caring if we don’t at least take steps to make a change? Upon reflection of the event, I found myself asking when was the last time I made du’aa for the Muslims in Palestine? When was the last time, I bothered to join a boycott of companies complicit in the occupation and home demolition?  When was the last time I at least signed an online petition? When was the last time I gave charity for the Muslims in Palestine?

And Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta’ala) has said in the Qur’an: (translation)  

‘By no means shall you attain Al-Birr (piety, righteousness — here it means Allaah’s reward, i.e. Paradise), unless you spend (in Allaah’s Cause) of that which you love"  [Aal ‘Imraan 3:92]

And He (Subhanahu wa Ta’ala) has said in the Qur'an: (translation)  “But if you remain patient and become Al-Muttaqoon (the pious), not the least harm will their cunning do to you. Surely, Allah surrounds all that they do” [Aal ‘Imraan 3:120]