1 MUSLIM NATION

The case of Rizana Nafeek - a teenage Sri Lankan housemaid sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia after inadequate legal proceedings - has made a sensation in the island nation. This article is about her from a circulating e-mail in Sri Lanka.

Background

Rizana was born on 4 February 1988 in Muttur, a war-torn and impoverished Muslim majority village in eastern Sri Lanka which was also affected by the recent Tsunami. She was still a schoolgirl when she was compelled by poverty to go to Saudi Arabia as a maid in May 2005. Though she was only 17 years old at that time, her passport, obtained by an irresponsible employment agent under false pretenses, gave her date of birth as 2 February 1982.

A few days after her arrival in Riyadh , Rizana was transferred by her sponsor to work in his family household in Dawadami, about 390 km west of Riyadh . She was sent to the house of Mr. Naif Jiziyan Khklafal Otaibi, whose wife had a baby boy who was then four months old. Soon after she started working for this family she was assigned to bottle feed the baby - she was left alone when doing this task. Rizana Nafeek had no experience of any sort in caring for such a young infant, as she was only a child herself.

Rizana’s Family In front of their home

Mohammad Razeena, center, mother of Rizana Nafeek, with her two sisters

Rizana’s House in Muttur, Sri Lanka

The Incident

On 22 May 2005, while Rizana was feeding the child, he started choking. Panicking, she tried to soothe the child by rubbing his chest, neck and face, while shouting for help. Hearing her shouts the mother came running, but by that time the baby was either unconscious or dead. The family handed Rizana over to the police, accusing her of strangling the baby. At the police station there was no translator so she did not understand the charges brought against her. Rizana was made to sign a confession and later charges were filed in court of murder by strangulation.

The Case

On her first appearance in court she was told by the police to repeat her confession, which she did. Later, when she was finally able to talk to an interpreter, sent by the Sri Lankan embassy, she explained in her own language what actually happened. This version was also stated in court thereafter. According to reports, the judges who heard the case requested the father of the child to use his prerogative to pardon the young girl. But, the father refused to grant such pardon. On that basis the court sentenced her to death by beheading. This sentence was made on June 16, 2007.

The last date of appeal was July 16. The total cost of the appeal is 40,000 US dollars or 150,000 Saudi Riyals. 13,333 US dollars has been given to the lawyers by the Asian Human Rights Commission as the Sri Lanka government has not given money for the appeal. A Sri Lankan government delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila is hoping to travel to Saudi Arabia to press for Rizana’s release.

The question is what can be done for someone who has not received proper legal representation, and from all accounts, appears to have been wrongly convicted. There are a number of human rights organizations working on the issue, including Amnesty and the Asian Human Rights Centre. Please do visit the AHRC site as it includes a call for ordinary people to take action on this issue. The site also goes in to more detail about the background of Rizana’s situation.

What We Can Do

• Inform world-wide of the case and get them to relay pressure on the governments of the countries they live in to intervene. People in Europe and Australia could be very effective.
• Approach the British High Commission in Riyadh that a Commonwealth citizen needs assistance.
• Contact the Foreign Commonwealth Office and inform them a Commonwealth citizen needs assistance in Riyadh .
• Encourage the media, especially the international media, to give publicity to this case.
• Fax or email the Special Reporter on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to take action.
• Ask ‘civil society’ groups such as Centre for Policy Alternatives what they are doing about the case.

I sincerely pray and hope that Sri Lanka’s efforts to save Rizana bear fruits when the deputy foreign minister meets the victim’s father.

The world community can do lot of things to help save the life of this girl. There are many petitions being filed. You can find some petitions at

YOUSHOUT

AMNESTY

SAVE RIZANA

URGENT APPEALS

SUPPORT RIZANA

Please take a moment to sign these petitions in order to help her to get a pardon.

May the world unite to save this innocent girls life.

The Plight of Rizana in the News

Sri Lanka in bid to save teen facing death penalty in Saudi Arabia (Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News)

Sri Lanka ’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hussain Bhaila will fly to Saudi Arabia this week in a bid to save a Sri Lankan teenage girl who was sentenced to death, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Death Sentence Draws Near as Maid Waits for Appeal (Arab News)

JEDDAH, 9 July 2007 — Time is clearly running out to file an appeal in the case of Rizana Nazik, the 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid who — without legal representation — was found guilty by a Saudi court for the strangulation death of a four-month-old Saudi boy in May 2005.

Maid’s Family Petitions Victim’s Father for Clemency (Arab News)

RIYADH , 7 July 2007 — the father of a Sri Lankan maid facing the death penalty in the Kingdom has appealed to the victim’s father for clemency in a sensational case that has made headlines in the island’s newspapers.

Here is an interesting story I came across in an Islamic magazine. It was in Sinhala language and I’ve translated it as best as I can. Enjoy!

Happiness

“Tak, tak, tak”
The British officer in colonial Indian who was drinking tea asked loudly, “Who is that?”
“Its me sir, your cloth-washer, I came to take the cloths to wash!”
“Ah… good, how are you?”
“I am fine sir, a thousand thanks to Allah!”
“How are your children? How is the sick child now?”
“Their fine sir, alhamdulillah. One has got malaria and has a fever. But he’ll get well, inshaallah! The other child is fine. All praise to Allah, He is looking after us!”
“Hmm… how is your husband? Until now I couldn’t ask about him.”
“Oh…he died sir, it’s been six years since Allah took him back. Allah does everything according to a plan sir.”

That British official said later this conversion was the reason he embraced Islam. A Muslim reader wouldn’t see anything new here. Like many this sensitive British official was trying to understand the purpose of life, thinking of the best way to succeed in life, still not satisfied from it, a little defeated and unhappy, unable to comprehend the reasons for it, was engaged in a struggle. The contentment and thankfulness radiating from that woman’s face was unusual as well as captivating, he had later said.

Her old cloths and smudged face, her sick child and dead husband, her small income and unsure-ness of the future, yet, with all these things she lived a content life. She couldn’t finish a sentence without thanking almighty Allah. She had many things the noble, wealthy, powerful official didn’t have. He found it difficult to even comprehend this.

We all wish for happiness. But that is a rare thing. Failing to attain it man resorts to crimes, suicide and violence. Craving happiness he strives to live in upper classes of the society, ruthlessly pursuing more power, cruelly taking away others rights. Striving with great difficulty for happiness man sometimes forgets what he was searching and gets mesmerized with lust and luxury. He tries to get happiness in mistaken ways with things like money, respect, power, entertainment, beauty etc.

Someone asked a great Abbasid Caliph “who is the happy man?”. Letting out a long breath he said “A happy man…? I don’t know him. He doesn’t know me either.”

What is the secret of happiness? What is it; many in the world cannot understand, did that unnamed woman know? Feeling secure without any insurance, or feeling safe without any danger signs or locks, in short without any of these she lived happily. But she didn’t keep any secrets. It was revealed from every word she expressed. Understanding the worthlessness of creations she turned towards The Creator with the aspiration of becoming a mu’min (i.e. firm believer). Almighty Allah says

“Those who believe, and whose hearts
find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah:
for without doubt in the remembrance
off Allah do hearts find satisfaction.”
[The Quran 13:28]

Assalamu Alaikum,
These are two photos that caught my eye in a collection of Iraq war photographs. The first one shows a group of American soldiers having a rest inside a Iraq mosque. The second is a photograph of 2 British soldiers guarding a half built Iraq church.

Bismillah,
The Islamic Law blog has a post on arguing about faith. Basically what it says is to avoid religious arguments. This is a sound advice and I agree with it because faith comes by understanding and not by arguing.

But sometimes I come across Muslims who take this into the next level and altogether avoid engaging in religious discussions. Maybe this is because they don’t have the knowledge or ability to discuss and explain Islam. Or maybe they don’t have much faith! Or maybe they think that the truth about Islam and reasons for various religious rules is obvious so everyone will see it and assume that there is no need to explain it.

Be it whatever the reason this attitude among some Muslims towards discussing religion is one of the main reasons why there are so many misconceptions about Muslims and why many non-Muslims strongly believe that Muslims are intolerant and fear to talk with Muslims about religion.

So the position of a Muslim should be to avoid arguments but engage in discussing religion.

Misc: When discussing religion or aspects of it, it is important to explain them so that people understand the reasons and benefits of them too.

Bismillah,
I came across a article this post called, “Killing Animals and HALAL” in the blog called All About Buddhism. It contains several misconceptions about the Muslim way of killing animals, so I left a comment in it explaining them. I think it is good to post it here too, so I am reproducing that article below together with the comment I left in that blog. I would be happy if you joined in this disussion and share your views and any experiences you have had or heard on this topic through the comments section below. Thanks in advance.

Killing Animals and HALAL

In Buddhism, killing a living being is always considered to be a sin as we have no right to take some other living creature’s life. But as I can see in other religions there are variations for this.

Muslims do believe in animal welfare “Whoever is kind to the creatures of God is kind to himself” (Wisdom of Prophet Mohammad; Muhammad Amin; The Lion Press, Lahore, Pakistan; 1945)

They have regulations in meat. But… He hath forbidden you only carrion and blood and swine flesh and that which hath been immolated to any other than Allah.. (Quran Chapter II , Verse 173) The prophet has forbidden flesh only if it is not a sacrifice for himself. Does that mean he always expect sacrifices from men?.NO. Obviously he can’t be that much cruel to accept meat from billions of people per day!.

That sacrifice ritual is called HALAL ( correct me if i am wrong ). As I know the original ritual of killing an animal is, the killer should be on a plate which is heated to become red and kill the animal. That ritual make sense, as no one would do such a commitment to kill another. So, he meant not to kill ( in an implicit way ). But the time has changed, you wouldn’t believe how the ritual carried out now. They use a red colored plate as the seat when killing animals. You really can’t symbolize a ritual in that way. But they perform other ritual there. That is never show the weapon to the animal before being killed :).

The religion should sometimes be adapted to the current society , but not in a selfish manner like this. I don’t think this post would hurt Muslims ( as I didn’t criticize holy prophet ) . This is what I see as truth. Always open for debate.

The comment I left in that blog in reply to the above article follows…

Hello,
I would like to bring to your notice some factual errors in this post.

Firstly it says, “The prophet has forbidden flesh only if it is not a sacrifice for himself. Does that mean he always expect sacrifices from men?.NO. Obviously he can’t be that much cruel to accept meat from billions of people per day!.”

Correct me if I am wrong but this statement implies that Muslims kill animals as a sacrifice for Muhammad! This gives me the feeling that the writer of this post is ignorant of Islam. FYI - prophet Muhammad is just a human being like you and me. God (’Allah’ in Arabic) choose Muhammad as a messenger (prophet) to mankind to guide them in the correct path for our benefit in this world and the hereafter.

And this path (Islam) allows us to kill animals for our benefit in this world and hereafter. In Islam killing a animal is not a sin provided you have a good reason. We our allowed to kill animals for 1) for Food, 2) as a sacrifice to God, 3) for protection (e.g. like killing a snake) I don’t need to explain about killing animals for food or protection but I’ll expound about sacrificing animals.

You may already know that Muslims sacrifice animals on occasions like Haj festival or when a new baby is born etc. If a animal is killed as a sacrifice that should only be in the name of God not for any human being or anything else. And also God is not in need of our sacrifices like this article tries to imply. A animal sacrifice is done only as an act of worship through which the person/s sacrificing the animal intends to seek God’s pleasure and gain good deeds for them. (note: What matters here is the intention. You can eat the meat of the sacrificed animal just like you would if you had killed it for food but it is encouraged to be distributed among the poor and needy.)

And what is this rot about Halal procedure that a plate needs to be heated etc. etc. Halal means anything that is permissible for a Muslim to consume or use be it clothing, employment etc. not only meat or flesh.

In the natural state meat or animal flesh is not Halal. If a Muslim wishes to eat meat it should be made Halal (i.e. lawful) through a simple ritual. This ritual requires that you kill the animal by cutting its throat and when cutting you invoke God. (you invoke God by saying “Bismillahi Allahu Akbar”). After this ritual the meat is Halal and you can consume it.

Also you must remember that only a few animals are Halal (lawful) to eat. These include camels, cows, rabbits, some birds, goats, horses among a few more. It should also be noted that fish or any creature that lives only in the water need not be made Halal. They are suitable for consumption whatever way they are killed.

Animals that have claws, or sharp teeth and prey on other animal (e.g. cats, dogs, vultures, tigers , lion etc) and repulsive animals like snakes, lizards etc. and animals that eat dirty things (e.g. pigs etc) are not permissible to eat even if you do the Halal ritual on them.

I hope I have explained about Halal. If you have anything about it I would be glad to discuss it with you.

I remained silent

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; for I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.

Finally when they came for me, there was nobody left; nobody left to speak for me.

I recently came across this English translation of the German poem called, ‘I remained silent’. It is believed Pastor Martin-Niemoller wrote this haunting poem to highlight the complicity and cowardly behaviour of German intellectuals and the media during the rise of Nazis.

After reading this poem I asked myself, ‘Today, aren’t the Muslims repeating the same mistake the Germans did?’ The answer my mind gave me was, ‘Yes’

Today in all Muslim countries people are being killed and abducted by Muslim Governments and various agencies linked to it. This is happening everywhere be it Pakistan, Central Asia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia or Sudan. If the majority of the Muslims didn’t remain silent their governments will not do these things.

If at all Muslim don’t remain silent, just think, whom do Muslims blame for these abductions and crimes?  They blame the Americans and Israel and come up with all sorts of excuses for the state of the Muslim world. True, other countries esp. America play a huge role in the things happening in the Muslim world but it is ultimately the incompetent Muslim Governments and rulers who are responsible for these crimes. Where is the protests against the Muslim Governments? Why are Muslims silent?

“The cruelest crimes in history was not done by the tyranny of a few but the silence of the majority at the face of tyranny.”

PS. Shall I tell you a secret? Do you know who these ’silent Muslims’ are?… It is no one else but you and me…

See also
The Problem (with the Muslim World)

Bismillah,
Everyday I hear Muslims grumbling about Sunni Shia violence in Iraq. Coupled to this in the Internet almost every Muslim blog or forum I surf, I hear remarks against Sunni or Shia Muslims and occasionally come across brothers and sisters engaged in endless Sunni-Shia debates and telling everyone how bad the other is. In this kind of situation, my usual reaction has being to ignore them and hope Allah gives them better understanding to ignore such controversial subject because I believe our priority today is not the sunni/shia issue but our incompetent Muslim governments and the lack of knowledge among the Ummah.

But now I think my ignoring the Sunni-Shia issue is like the ostrich burying its head in the sand. I think I can no longer afford to ignore this bloody reality. I think I must help to reconcile the two sides. But how or what can I do? These are the questions that haunt me

Well, when I was in this state of mind, last week I heard from Abu Sinan about this great article about Shia in the ‘Eloquent Incoherence’ blog.

Click here to read the article - Myths and Misconceptions about the Shia. It explains in detail about 6 common misinformation (or misconceptions) many of us Sunni Muslims have about Shia.

This is a article I think everyone should read. Thanks to it I was able to correct several misconceptions I had about Shia Muslims like the problems I had about their Kalima (Shahadah) and their Salaath (prayers). Also I thought they believed that Allah intended for ‘Ali (rali) to be given Prophethood, but the Angel Jibril made a mistake and gave Muhammad the revelation instead and Shia pray only three times, both of which turned out to be wrong.

Bismillah,
The following is the ‘Filasteen’ article by Abdul Rahman Hilmi from the Future Islam Journal January/ February issue.

The following article is written not as an advice, but as a warning to the Muslim ummah of their neglected duty towards Islam and themselves. First I will go through a quick refutation of all the excuses used to justify Zionism before I speak of the solution. This is because we cannot know what the solution is when there is doubt as to the legitimacy of the Zionist state.

Historical Homeland of the Jews

The claim that is being made is that Palestine has always been homeland of the Jewish people and thus they have an ancient claim to the land. Several of these people would tend to go as far as to say that it was their land until the Muslim invaders conquered it and threw them out.

Before I refute this claim, I would just like to state that the simple fact that a Zionist would actually use this as an excuse shows clear and obvious signs of desperation. It is absolutely pathetic for a group of people to lay claim to a land on the sole excuse that several thousands of generations ago, their ancestors used to live there. However, putting that aside, the claim is still inaccurate.

Firstly the people who lived in the land of Palestine were initially the Canaanites who weren’t Jewish. They were invaded by the 12 Hebrew tribes who conquered the land and established the Kingdom of Israel. This Kingdom was later divided into two kingdoms; Judah and the Kingdom of Israel, both of which were soon afterwards destroyed by the Babylonians and Assyrians respectively (around 500 BC). By then, the Jews were exiled and Jerusalem destroyed. The Persians later conquered the land and permitted the Jews to return. Persian rule was then replaced by Greek rule and Greek rule was later replaced by Roman rule. It was not until around 600 AD that the Muslims took over the land from the Romans.

Land Promised to the Jews by God

I only need to say one point about this. Before the creation of Israel (and it is
arguable that even to this very day) Jews are a minority in the region. So with all due respect, the majority of the population (Muslims) cannot even pretend to care what a God worshipped by a minority promised them.

The Jews Bought the Land

According to the official website of the Jewish National Fund the Jews purchased about 7% of the land of Palestine. The truth is, however, even this 7% is technically not “purchased” in its true meaning of the word since some of these lands were concessions made by the British during their mandate of Palestine in the 1930s.

And even, for the sake of argument, if we take the Zionists for their word and their claims that they purchased alot more lands from the Arabs, that still gives no one the right to establish a state. I own a house in a foreign country, do I have the right to establish my own state with laws and elections within that is completely independent of anyone else? Certainly not! But then they argue that the land was under the British mandate (which supported the creation of a Zionist state) and not under Arab or Turkish rule, thus technically no laws were broken. Well, this leads us to the next point.

The British Mandate

There once was a snake called Thomas Edward Lawrence and this snake spoke to the desert Arabs and made them lust for the forbidden fruit of Nationalism. The First World War was fought between the Allies (mainly UK, France, US and Russia) against the Axis (mainly Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottomans). The British employed their agent Lawrence to harvest a discomfort the Arabs were already feeling towards the Ottomans and make it erupt into a full scale war against the Ottomans to aid the British. This however only came at a promise made by the British very well known to the Arabs. The promise of an independent and united “Arab” Islamic state – as compared to the current “Turkish” state. This promise, which was made to the gullible, foolish and arrogant Sherif Hussein and later his son Faisal, was in return for an “Arab revolt” against the “Turks”. In reality what the British, together with the French, had in the form of reward towards the Arabs for their blood was nothing more than the division of the Arab states into more than a dozen states each colonized by a European mandate. What was also in store was the loss of Palestine and the ironic, yet fitting, coronation of Faisal as king of Iraq (after he was slapped out of Syria by the French) under the British national anthem!

So not only was the British mandate the result of back stabbing the Arabs after they helped the Allies win the First World War, but a second point could be seen. Resistance to the British mandate and later the Zionist state has not stopped since the Arabs realized that the Europeans betrayed them. It was ongoing and remains ongoing with the same determination, if not more, until this very day. We never stopped claiming for the land and kept on fighting for it. This alone symbolizes that the land is under occupation. The Red Indians of the New World fought for the Americas but failed and gradually gave up after they were almost completely annihilated. For a Red Indian to come today to reclaim his land is absurd. However if the Red Indians never stopped fighting for their land, then certainly they would still have a claim to this day and it would never sound so absurd as it does in today’s reality.

The Problem

So that was a very quick overview to give anyone a simple understanding as to why the very creation of the state of Israel was not only a mistake and a crime, but was also based on lies, betrayals and blood. Blood, mainly blood - a lot of blood and since the Arab revolt of 1916 until this very day the cost in blood for that mistake by the Muslims did not cease. The mistake that triggered all our woes of today, the very reason why we are currently in the lowly state that we are. The mistake of siding with a non-believer against our Caliph, however much the Caliph might be an oppressor. Never was a day under the Ottomans as horrible as we are today. Never were we in a lower state than we are today. Umar (ra) once said: “We are tribe whom Allah has given honour through Islam and the day we search for honour elsewhere, Allah will humiliate us.” And by Allah Umar spoke the truth.

So now back to the main topic of this essay; what is the solution? All of what I said was history and long gone. The important question is what is required of us at the present to correct our forefathers’ mistakes? Well, if we understand that the Israeli state has no right to exist under any law and most importantly, under Islamic Shariah law, then we understand that we cannot accept its existence on our soil. If the US wishes to give a state of its fifty states to the Zionists and let them establish Israel there, then hey, they have my blessings. But to come to a foreign country and give land away, or as someone once said; “one nation giving the land of another nation to a third nation”, is simply not acceptable. What is more this state is openly aggressive against the original inhabitants and without any shame continues to prosecute the Palestinians. For how long will there be stateless people on the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan? When will their homes and lands return to them?

Our last caliph, Abdul Hamid II, replied to the Zionist movement when they attempted to contact him with the aim of purchasing land in Palestine saying what follows.

“Advise Dr. Herzl not to take any further steps in his project. I can not give away a handful of the soil of this land for it is not my own, it is for all the Islamic Nation. The Islamic Nation that fought Jihad for the sake of this land and they have watered it with their blood. The Jews may keep their money and millions. If the Islamic Khalifah State is one day destroyed then they will be able to take Palestine without a price! But while I am alive, I would rather push a sword into my body than see the land of Palestine cut and given away from the Islamic State. This is something that will not be, I will not start cutting our bodies while we are alive.”

Thus the solution cannot be simpler. It certainly is not a two state solution whether on the current borders or the borders of any point in history. The solution is a one state solution where the rightful owner returns to his land. Now by no means am I attacking Jews or saying we should butcher them or throw them out of the country by force. My attack is not on Jews, but on Zionists. Zionism which aims to establish a non-Islamic state on Muslim soil is what is being attacked and it is this which should be eradicated. If non-Zionist Jews wishes to stay then they are welcomed to stay just like the Christians are. Zionist, be they Jews, Christians or even so-called Muslims, certainly have no home amongst us.

The Solution

So now we know what the correct solution is to the Palestinian problem, the next question would now be; how do we get there? Any sane man would agree that any nation under occupation has a right to resistance. This rule has been almost literally experienced by all major countries in the world. The simple fact is; civilians (people like you and me, with jobs, education, families, etc.) will only resist an occupation if they were prosecuted. Some nations welcome invaders, others fight but after a short while calm down due to the benefits they see coming of the change. Both examples are not new to Muslims who know the history of Islamic conquests. Those who resist an occupation for almost 80 years (like the Palestinians) are without doubt under severe oppression. And still yet all this weighs to nothing when compared with the hadith that says “he who gives away a hands-span of Muslim land will have its like in hell fire.” Therefore as Muslims, speaking of a two state solution or of any compromise less than returning the whole land to the rule of Islam is a grave error which should be corrected.

But is the solution for Palestine an armed resistance? My answer is no. Resistance to occupation is indeed a duty, however in the current state the Muslims are in it is not a solution. Muslims only need to look at their history to find the solution. The only time we were honoured as a people was under Islamic rule. The only time we were respected as a people was under Islamic rule. The only time we had security and freedom to worship Allah in the correct manner was under Islamic rule. Even in times when the Ottomans were extremely weak, they never stopped defending Islam. How can we forget their warning to attack France when a theater in Paris threatened to show a play that insulted the prophet (pbuh)? And today when they insult him what happens? What do our rulers do? A boycott done by the Muslims and a few violent demonstrations that led to the deaths of more than a dozen Muslims in several different Muslim countries? And what, by Allah, what came out of it? Several other newspapers published the cartoons in defiance! Respect us? Certainly not. Not today, not in the state we are in. Remember what Umar (raa) said; without Islam we will never have any honour. Islam here is not meant to be simply your five daily prayers, no. In another quote, Umar (raa) said; “there is no Islam without unity, no unity without leadership and no leadership without obedience.”

It is obvious that no group of people can be united without leadership. We are humans and we have different opinions in different matters according to our understanding. Take Muslims today for example, is there unity? We cannot even agree on when Ramadaan starts when it is just a matter of seeing a physical object in the sky. You would think that something so material and requires almost no personal judgments would be easy to reach an agreement on, yet subhaan Allah, it is as if this matter is a sign from Allah to show us how divided we are as a nation. Thus leadership is vital for there to be unity. The importance of leadership in Islam is further stressed by the prophet (pbuh) when he said “when three or more people travel they should elect one of them to be their amir (leader)” and leadership in Islam is clearly defined. Leadership of a group means that the group should obey their leader which thus implies that the leader gives orders. Therefore the duty of a leader is to give orders to his people in order to guide them to what is best for them. Now if we are talking about leadership in Islam, then we are talking about a leader that gives orders according to Islam. Now if leadership is meant to bring unity, then it is unsensical to have more than one leader for the Muslims since that only brings division. This again is further stressed by the prophet (pbuh) when he said “If the people begin giving baya (pledge of allegiance) to two people then kill the second one of them.” Therefore as far as the ummah as a whole is concerned, it can only have one amir and this amir should rule by Islam. This description fits only one title and we call it khaleefah (caliph).

Returning more directly to the issue of Palestine; what will solve the problem is nothing less than a caliph. A caliph not only implies a united Muslim world, but also implies the implementation of Allah’s deen on Muslim lands; leadership, unity and obedience. The prophet (pbuh) said: “Your leader is but a shield from behind whom the people fight and by whom they protect themselves.” Thus without this leader not only are we divided, but we have no shield to neither fight behind nor protect ourselves.

I will complete this article by a surah from the Quraan may it serve as a reminder to us all;

“And from among you there should be a party who invite to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall be successful.”
[The Holy Quran 3:104]

To contact the author of this article or read more of his writings please visit his blog at, nabahani.blogspot.com

Brother Umar Lee has written a series of articles in his blog about the rise and fall of a vibrant American Dawah movement. Umar was an active participant in it and he tells about it as he saw it in this 10 post series which he has titled, “The rise and fall of the ‘Salafi dawah’ in the US.”

I felt very depressed after reading this series. Some of the things that took place in this movement made me shudder. I can quite well understand if certain things happen in say places like Africa or rural Pakistan but it’s shocking to hear it happened in a small Muslim community in this age in a country like USA!

• Part One: The Beginning
• Part Two: The Competition for Converts
• Part Three: The Brotherhood
• Part Four: E.O. and its satellites
• Part Five: Northern Virginia/DC area
• Part Six: The Decline
• Part Seven: Boycotting and Excommunication
• Part Eight: Social Breakdown
• Part Nine: Post 9/11
• Part Ten: Final Thoughts…

After reading this have a look at Tariq Nelson’s article - Recovering from the “movement mentality”.