Entries from October 2007 ↓

Regardless of whether you celebrated Eid yesterday, are celebrating it today or will celebrate it tomorrow, and regardless of whether you did/will do so based on moon sightings, astronomical calculations or the proscriptions of a foreign government, we’d like to wish you all Eid Mubarak! Taqabbal Allah minna wa minkum (May Allah accept it from us and from you)

Consider these: A British Muslim checkout operator refusing to deal with customers who buy alcohol; Muslim medical students refusing to learn about diseases related to alcohol or promiscuity; and the Muslim dentist who insisted his patient put on a headscarf before agreeing to treat her.

Sainsbury’s response, it has been reported, was to permit their Muslim staff to refuse to handle customers’ alcohol purchases on religious grounds, and is also allowing its Muslim pharmacists to refuse to sell the morning-after pill to customers.

Now let’s just state that the majority of the British Muslim public find some of these claims ridiculous; they are not supported by Islamic teachings and worse, they could jeopardise legitimate religious claims in the future. Islamically, it’s obligatory for Muslim doctors and students to learn all prescribed content and there’s a significant difference between learning about alcohol consumption and consuming it. It does our community no favours to stay ignorant about such issues. As for the Muslim checkout operators, the best solution would be to work in a shop that doesn’t sell alcohol.
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In July, 2007, Sydney’s Mustapha Kara-Ali appeared in the media touting his taxpayer funded “research”  into Islamic extremism in Sydney’s south west.  According to this “research”, he had discovered a remarkable 3,000 Muslims in Sydney were members of a “sleeper cell”. As The Australian reported at the time:

Mr Kara-Ali – who was given a $200,000 grant by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in June last year to investigate the radicalisation of young Muslims in Sydney’s southwest – told The Australian there were up to 3000 young Sunni Muslim in that region of the state who were part of “ideological sleeper cells” on the brink of becoming radicalised.

He’s received $200,000 of taxpayer’s money and yet three months later the “research” still hasn’t been published.  Nothing.  Instead, each month, we check the website in anticipation and we find the publication date for this much awaited report has been pushed further and further out.  Last month, the website said it would be released in September but now it’s meant to be released in October/November 2007.

We’re all waiting to see the basis for his fantastic claims about sleeper cell membership in Sydney and Melbourne.  So where is the report?

1. Ibn Al Haitham created the scientific method. Prior to the Islamic Enlightenment there was no science; it had not been invented.

2. The scientific method is an instrument of logic that is used to test a hypothesis. It is not (as its disciples believe) a explanation of the world.

3. One does not need to attack or undermine science to affirm Tawheed (an Islamic understanding of God). i.e. Harun Yayhaism is an unnecessary bidah. Not only is it intellectually bankrupt, it is fundamentally dishonest and an affront to our own contribution to civilization.

4. Most disciples of scientism, believe it to be an all encompassing explanation for everything without understanding the limitations of the scientific method.

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At the Friday sermon today, the Imam exhorted the congregation to conserve water when performing wudu’. He advised us to perform only one repetition instead of the recommended three, and to wipe over our socks instead of washing our feet, citing Stage 3 Water Restrictions.

Stage 3 Water Restrictions!

You know what, this is actually commendable on the imam’s part. I didn’t realise our imams were becoming so green. But I don’t see why we should stop there. Our religion gives us license to perform tayyammum when water is scarce, which allows us to purify ourselves with pure sand or dust. Taking the imam’s advice to its logical conclusion, we should disconnect the water from our wudu’ areas, and just have buckets of sand with which to prepare for the prayer.

What do you think?

Note: feel free to send us your own Friday Follies. We’ll post the more interesting ones for you to comment, kind of like a peer review for the community.

It’s been a while since we had some comic relief so here’s Saeed Khan, Marrickville Greens councillor and vice chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of New South Wales, explaining the real reason why the Saudis have been building mosques around the world:

If Muslims around the world are to become free thinking, progressive and engaged, the mega business of Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca will be in trouble. It is no surprise that many mosques and religious schools in Australia and around the world have been, and continue to be, funded by Saudis.

Ah yes, of course. The promotion of the pilgrimage to Mecca as one of the five pillars of Islam is really all just part of a nefarious plan by the wily Saudis to protect their tourism industry.

Their website is now up.  There isn’t a great deal of information there yet but it does list the members of the various state councils and describes some of their activities to date.