Tag: Muslims

  • The anxiousness continues to build inside of me, while I wait to feel suitably guided on how to deal with this. I have no reason to believe that any engagement with the local Ulema will be productive given that the last time I presented proof of the despicable origins of the moon and star as symbols of Islam, they hurled verbal abuse at me, raised their voices in the masjid and dumped a calendar of pictures of mosques from Saudi in front of me as proof that the embellishment of our masjid with such symbols is acceptable in Islam.

    Subsequent to that distasteful experience, I challenged the Jamiatul Ulama on their stance around the Soccer World Cup in 2010 versus their position on the moon and star. At the time of the World Cup, they were exceptionally vociferous in their condemnation of the religious symbols that were incorporated into the logo designs for the various countries which generally represented the Christian faith, and they made a point of speaking out from the pulpit on Fridays, having publicity campaigns in the form of talk shows on radio, compiled posters for the mosque boards, and even put in significant effort in emails and on their website to raise the awareness of this apparently Kufr practice if those soccer tops were worn by Muslims.

    So I thought it was an appropriate time to raise the issue of the moon and star being incorporated into the designs of so many mosques in South Africa and the world over. I presented them with proof that the crescent symbol originated from the pagan worship of the goddess of the hunt known as Diana, and that the star was in fact the symbol of King Richard who conquered Constantinople before the Ottomans did. The invading Ottoman army saw these symbols all over the city, and because of its congruence with a dream that the leader of the army had before they entered the city, they took it as an omen of good fortune and adopted it as the symbol for their army. Being the head of the Islamic state at the time, this was quickly adopted as the symbol of Islam and not just the Ottoman army, and so was the beginning of the embellishment of the houses of Allah with these symbols of utter blasphemy!

    So after much evasiveness, the Jamiatul Ulama finally conceded that the symbols had no place in Islam, suggested that a subtle program of awareness would be adopted at some point to avoid creating consternation in the Muslim community, but they refused to respond to my questions about the disparity between their response to the soccer tops versus these symbols. That was over a year ago. To this day, I have yet to see even the semblence of an awareness campaign to highlight the fact that we worship Allah while placing our foreheads on symbols deifying Diana, or standing beneath symbols of Christianity that have been placed on our domes and minarets. And for this reason I cannot bring myself to enter that masjid again. The more I contemplate ignoring it, the more I wonder if I’m succumbing under internal pressure to be seen as a respectable Muslim in the community, and would therefore not want people to judge me wrongly for not attending salaah with congregation! But that reminds me that my intention would then be performing salaah to be seen of men, and not to sincerely worship and praise Allah.

    So I found another mosque close by that is not adorned with these symbols, and I’ve chosen to perform my Jumu’ah salaah there at least. However, in the meantime, I have resorted to performing the rest of my salaah alone in a quiet dimly lit corner of my own home, and I pray that this effort is accepted from me. But I also pray that Allah guides me towards a means to get others to realise the gravity of this evil innovation that has been adopted as an innocent embellishment of supposedly Islamic architecture.

  • When Will We Awaken

    I received an e-mail from someone earlier today about a certain Dr van der Hoven from the Netherlands that supposedly did some research about the effect of reciting the word ‘Allah’ compared to the recitation of other Arabic words. This e-mail has been doing its rounds for some time now, but this time I decided to see if there was any way to determine the authenticity of this claim.

    So I Googled it and was not surprised at all by the results. The exact same article was published on numerous Islamic web sites as if it was a testament to the relevance of Islam and the truth about our way of life. I am a Muslim first and foremost, but the last time I checked, Islam taught us to verify the accuracy of information about others before we repeated it…and for good reason as well. As can be seen from this article, we’re so desperate to prove to the West that we’re on the right path and that they’re missing the point or the truth or both, that we’ll grab the tackiest piece of information without question just to satisfy our own doubts.

    Yes, doubts! We’re so doubtful about our beliefs that we search for miracles every chance we get. We need these miracles to confirm our faith, as if faith is supposed to be based on miracles that we can witness in our own time. What is wrong with us??? We went from being the greatest nation, greatest culture and most revered group of human beings to being the most punished, abused and helpless nation on earth. There was a time when everyone else imitated US! Now we’re like mad dogs looking for the scraps of the icons of the West so that we can appear to be ‘with it’ or ‘accepted’ or ‘cool’. We’ve become despicable in so many ways.

    We used to teach the world about hygiene and manners and truth…now they’re teaching us after they took the accumulated knowledge of our pious and knowledgeable predecessors and adulterated it to make it appear as if they were responsible for it. The contribution of Muslims to every great endeavour is lost to history because we have very few, if any scholars that are capable of being ranked amongst the great Muslim intellectuals of the past. We established civil societies, human rights, social and welfare structures and amazing architecture when the rest of the world was still experiencing the Dark Ages.

    What are we now? A group of weak excuses that have to resort to suicide bombings, guerilla warfare and politicing just to make a point. I respect and honour the brave Muslim men, women and children that are fighting to defend the lives that are being abused and trampled on by the corrupt politicians of the West. But that wouldn’t be necessary if we had leaders with backbone. Leaders who practised and understood the PRINCIPLES of Islam and not just the literal interpretation of the traditions and Quranic injunctions and enforced it when it suited them.

    The honourable Sahaabah (companions of the Prophet Muhammed S.A.W.) spread Islam to parts of the world that couldn’t even understand a word they said. But people saw their ways and admired what they stood for, because their behaviour was exemplary. Just the way they carried themselves was a good enough example for people to immediately realise that their way of life was superior.