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How do the current events around the world affect Muslims? What is the Islamic perspective on the issues in the media? These concerns and more are addressed in Jamiat News and Views.
This week in the news:
Let concord replace conflict – Abdullah
MADRID – King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, twice received a standing ovation Wednesday at the opening of the three-day World Conference on Dialogue in which he called for “constructive dialogue” to end disputes amongst the world’s major religions.
“We all believe in one God... We are meeting today to affirm that the religions that God Almighty desired for the happiness of man, should be a means to ensure that happiness,” the King said in an inaugural speech at the three-day World Conference on Dialogue.
“My brothers, we must tell the world that differences don’t need to lead to conflict and confrontation,” King Abdullah said, speaking through a Spanish interpreter. The tragedies throughout history were not the fault of religion but because of the extremism that has been adopted by some followers of all the religions, the King said.
More than 300 people of different faiths rose as one to applaud King Abdullah after he called for a “constructive dialogue” to “open a new page for humanity in which...concord will replace conflict.”
Read more. . .Jamiat Comment: King Abdullah must be commended by the Muslim Ummah for his efforts. Most of the negativity toward Muslims these days is rooted in ignorance about Islam, and every Muslim should do his or her utmost to ‘win over’ as many non-Muslims as possible by educating them about true Islam, not the Western-Media version. Furthermore, Islam teaches us to live in harmony with all, members of other faiths included.
A word af advice, though: ‘concord’ does not mean ‘compromise.’ Let that be very clear. Interfaith dialogues should not mean accepting a creed other than Islam to be true and correct. As Allah says: “Verily the (only) religion (acceptable) in the court of Allah is Islam.” Nor should it mean the inability to propagate the truth to adherents of other faiths.
Last but not least a humble reminder to King Abdullah and others: the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan , Somalia, Palestine and Darfur are not due to religion but it is to prevent the west from usurping the riches of the Islamic world.
It sounds nuts at first, but the trend is catching on - and not just at mother-and-baby-related business such as baby carrier manufacturers or Mothering magazine. According to a new lobby group called the Parenting in the Workplace Institute, babies are now a feature at work stations in dozens of design companies, advertising agencies, law firms, banks and food manufacturers.
Generally, the rule is that the babies are welcome until they are old enough to crawl - at about six months, usually. Mothers keep them in bassinets right next to their desks, and either breast-feed them right there, if they have enough privacy, or else take them to a special room to avoid squirming glances from co-workers or clients.
If the mothers are on a strict work timetable, they can sometimes be asked to clock off during the time they are tending their little ones, so employees without babies don't feel they are picking up any slack.
This being America, many company lawyers ask mothers who bring in their newborns to sign a waiver, so anything that might befall the baby at work is strictly the mother's responsibility.
Read more. . .Jamiat Comment: Not to sound too negative, we have this to say: It's not going to work. Mother and baby will both be stressed out by baby's being at work; mum will not be able to give baby the attention she wants to, nor will she be able to concentrate on her work. As for baby, well who is going to explain to him that mum is busy working right now, and your cravings for mum's attention can wait?
This much credit can be given to these mothers: they realize the importance of spending time with their children, giving them that much-needed love and attention. Nonetheless, they are going about it all wrong, and their plan is doomed to failure despite their good intentions. So what is the solution? Stay at home. Look after your kids. Give them all the love and attention they will ever need. And not just till they are old enought to crawl, but through their teens too.
The unfortunate part about the nature of human beings is that they are stubborn; give them good advice, and they'll reject it, prefering to 'find their own way.' And when they make mistake upon mistake and things start going horribly wrong, and they suffer untold grief in the process, they eventually start doing what they were advised to do in the first place! Hence when Islam asserted that a woman's place is at home, what did people in the West say? 'Islam oppresses women.' Now they have a whole generation of delinquent children to deal with, children who would have been assests to society had they received the love and care that only a mother can give. And now that they realize the extent of the damage, they conjure up half-baked measures to try and rectify the situation.
There are, however, a number of intelligent women in the West who have awoken to the gravity of the situation, and have done the unimaginable: they left their careers, some rather lucrative ones, to look after their babies. And the best part is, they have no regrets about having done so. But that's what Islam said in the first place. . .
Engineer: We can use food waste to generate electricity
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The apocalyptic tales of nature's impending demise are as well worn as they are numerous.
But while our leaders wrangle over quotas for greenhouse emissions over banquets at lavish summits, there are remarkable individuals who are doing their small bit to prevent our planet from peril.
Take Nigerian civil engineer, Dr Joseph Adelegan for instance.
He firmly believes that the world's future fuel demands can be met through renewable energy.
And he is using increasingly innovative methods to achieve these results.
Three years ago Adelegan won plaudits for his "Cows to Kilowatts" project, which used effluents and waste products from abattoirs to produce cooking gas.
The project was a winner of the prestigious 2005 Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) International Awards.
It is still going strong and being used to provide cooking fuel for nearly 6000 homes in Ibadan, southern Nigeria. Adelegan tells CNN there are now plans to roll it out across most of Africa, including Zimbabwe, Kenya and Egypt.
This time he's back with another groundbreaking idea to use waste from the cassava plant, a staple food of Nigeria, to generate electricity.
His project "Power to the Poor: Off-Grid Lighting from Cassava Waste in Nigeria," was awarded a $250,000 grant in May from the World Bank after being named one of the best projects in Africa.
According to Adelegan, Nigeria produces over 20 percent of the world's output of cassava, it is a $5 billion industry and provides the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food.
However, waste from cassava refining is a major public health problem in Nigeria, causing water pollution and emitting noxious greenhouse gases.
Through innovative biogas technology, zero emission bioreactors at specially constructed plants treat the cassava waste and produce biogas which drives microturbines for low cost, safe and reliable off-grid efficient lighting to thousands of rural homes.
Using this method, Adelegan says he hopes to generate 200kw daily, which will provide basic electricity for more than 2000 households initially.
Read more. . .Jamiat Comment: Jamiat Comment: There was a time, many centuries ago, when Muslim scientists were the best in the world, because they dedicated their lives to increasing their knowledge of Allah's creation, and using that knowledge to benefit mankind. Today there is no shortage of Muslim scientists; just a shortage of Muslim scientists with the spirit of the Muslim scientists of old. The primary motivation for career choices these days is money. Parents and children alike are guilty of this, and the outcome is that Muslims have become comfortable in mediocre careers because ‘the money is good.’ Where are the great Muslim minds who are not concerned about trinkets, but are focused on something money can never buy: achieving excellence in the fields of science and technology, and becoming the Muslim versions of Thomas Edison by inventing something that benefits people all over the world? When will a Muslim take home the Nobel Science prize for the first time in history?
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