Former prime minister Tony Abbott is calling on the Human Rights Commission to do more to tackle radical Islamist groups that condone violence against women.

HRC should tackle radical Islam: Abbott

The Human Rights Commission is facing calls to do more to help stop violence against women being condoned by radical Islamist groups in Australia.

Former primer minister Tony Abbott says the commission needs to be "all over" groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir to stop women being "monstered" by men.

Two women from the local arm of the radical Islamist group were roundly condemned by Australian politicians, police and prominent Muslim leaders last week after a video emerged showing them discussing men "disciplining their disobedient wives" by striking them with a short stick or piece of fabric.

Mr Abbott on Monday joined those condemning the group, which is banned in many other countries but not Australia.

"Why isn't the Human Rights Commission all over Hizb ut-Tahrir for denying the human rights of women by appearing to condone wife beating," he told 2GB's Ray Hadley.

"If the Human Rights Commission is to justify the $50 million a year that taxpayers spend on it let's get them on to Hizb ut-Tahrir and some of these other extremist Islamist organisations.

"What about inviting Muslim women who have been monstered by their husbands or boyfriends to get on to the Human Rights Commission so that these people can be properly brought to book?"

His call for action coincided with a wide-ranging pinion piece he wrote in News Corp Australia tabloids about what the government needs to do to restore voter confidence, including the scrapping of the Human Rights Commission.

Mr Abbott said the radical Islamist group was still legal in Australia because it had always managed to keep itself "just within the law".
 

The Fourth Sister
Shagufta Yaqub

On Friday evening I attended a talk in Birmingham by Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf. It was the first talk I had attended in a long while, having taken a spiritual sanity break from the general weirdness of Muslim-organised events. A decade ago, I had been at the heart of the religious events scene with Q-News and memories of overly reverent Sufi groupies and self-styled male gatekeepers to the Shuyukh had not quite left me. But that was a long time ago and things have certainly moved on in some parts of Muslim community.

This event, despite being part of the traditional Sufi mosque scene, was surprisingly pleasant to begin with. It was running reasonably on time and men and women were seated in the same hall, albeit with a segregation barrier that granted women much less than half of the space. The speaker entered and sat centrally, equally visible to both sides of the room. It looked like a promising evening, before it all went downhill.

Prayer time came in before the talk could begin and just as we got settled, women were told to go downstairs so that men could stay where they were and pray comfortably. In the scurry of it all, those on the female side of the divide lost their spaces and everything was set off course. The short journey back up those two flights of stairs took more than half an hour. All the while, over 150 women, children and babies — most of whom had arrived on time and waited patiently — were crammed on a stuffy narrow staircase and corridor with little ventilation and no idea what was happening.

The problem, I was eventually told, was that men were still strolling in late and praying on the women’s side of the hall so we had no choice but wait for them to leave. This went on, and on and on. The two-hour event was now running over an hour late as women and children continued to stand in a hot, confined space while men stayed seated, waiting for more of their brethren to arrive and take their places on what had been the women’s side of the hall. This continued to the point where it was decided that as so many men had arrived late, the women wouldn’t be allowed back into the hall at all.

Tired, frustrated but surprisingly compliant, the women quietly expressed their disappointment among themselves and returned downstairs to a room where they would not be able to see the speaker deliver his talk or be part of the event experience. The only reassurance they received was that the Shaykh would briefly visit them after the talk and perform tahneek on their babies. There were whisperings of discontent but no real objection. Had that been evidence of spiritually elevated souls accepting a misfortune without complaint I would have been in awe of them. Instead there seemed to be an acceptance that this kind of treatment was part and parcel of being a woman at a religious gathering — a humiliation I am sure many of them would not stand for in any other aspect of their lives.
But it was not a humiliation I was willing to bear on behalf of half the ummah of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

My friends and I remained in the main hall, in sight of the speaker, and the three of us politely refused to be relegated as second class citizens to a space that even the event organisers themselves had not initially deemed appropriate for their guests. We politely refused to accept that late-coming men had priority over all women and children at the gathering, regardless of how early they had arrived and how long they had waited. We politely refused to accept that what the Shaykh had to share was more important for men to hear than women, that their quest for knowledge in this life and salvation in the next was above ours, that even in matters of the deen, we should put their needs above ours. We politely refused to accept that gender as a hierarchical distinction was at all relevant in a context where the purpose is so much higher.

Is a Feminist Muslim-Hijabi-Academic-Activist a Walking Contradiction?
By by Irtefa Binte-Farid
 

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology. My job is to read, write, and think critically about the world, including but not limited to issues of gender, race, citizenship, and power. I am also a brown hijabi Muslim woman. For some people, these two identities are mutually exclusive.

I am often asked how I can hope to be an academic—an “objective” expert—when I have clearly been conditioned by Islam and therefore am not even willing to challenge my own oppression by Islamic patriarchy. To answer these people, I wanted to share some thoughts about my faith, my career, and my commitment to justice as an activist.

…AS A MUSLIM, I WAS EXPLICITLY TAUGHT THAT BELIEF DOES NOT EQUATE TO BLIND FAITH.

I chose to start covering my hair in 2003 during America’s intervention in Afghanistan on the premise of the “war on terror.” My parents were quite surprised by my decision as no one in my family covers their hair. They asked me reconsider because they were worried for my safety in an era of rising Islamophobia, but I was adamant.

In part, my decision to wear the hijab was fueled by the American media. For the first time in my life, I was inundated by images of veiled (and therefore oppressed) Muslim women who needed saving—deliverance from the grasp of brown Muslim men by the white male savior. As the rhetoric of “just” war played out on television sets in America—centering the images of covered Muslim women—I remember being deeply disturbed by the simultaneous silencing of Afghan women’s voices: never once did I actually hear an Afghan Muslim woman talk about whether she wanted to be saved.

Perhaps these images bothered me so greatly because I had grown up surrounded by strong Muslim women in Bangladesh. Many of them did suffer under a patriarchal system, but they relied on Allah and their Islamic faith to give them the strength to keep fighting—for themselves and for their families. They were not silent victims. Therefore, to be suddenly told that Islam was the source of the Afghan women’s oppression was quite disconcerting for my teenage self.
    

Muslim reform
By Kamran Siddiqui, professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada

ISLAM, with about 1.6 billion followers all over the globe, is currently the second largest religion in the world. Despite its prominent presence on the world map, its followers are performing poorly on the global indices of education and literacy, scientific advancements and innovation, and social development.

The poor performance on these global indices highlights serious challenges for Muslims in coping with the modern world and moving along with progressive societies. While this needs immediate attention and a comprehensive evaluation of the causes for the poor performance as well as corrective action, Muslim masses in general do not take it as a serious matter. Poor performance on those indices appears to be of least concern to them.

This attitude seems to be rooted in a strong sense of belonging to religion; this is further augmented by the belief that questioning is forbidden in religion and one must accept whatever is conveyed. Consequently, any misery, humiliation or decline faced by Muslims, individually or collectively, is blamed on their lack of adherence to the framework conveyed by religion.

The current religious framework was evolved over several centuries. Many concepts and practices were developed as Muslim societies were evolving and were influenced by the circumstances they encountered. While many of these practices were introduced to address specific issues of that era, they were later codified into Muslim jurisprudence and became essential components of the religious framework. There could be a possibility that the decline and poor performance of Muslims as measured by the global indices of scientific and socioeconomic development may partially be due to some of the concepts and practices that were later added to the religious framework.

Muslims do not take their decline seriously.

Now as Muslim societies are exposed to the new, transformative era, there is a need to analyse once again the circumstantial practices developed in the later period and that do not belong to the fundamental religious framework of the Prophet’s (PBUH) time. While these circumstantial practices were the best solution at one time, they may not address present-day issues effectively, and hence, may need to be reviewed.

A first step towards such a reform initiative in the Muslim world is the acknowledgement that not every concept and content conveyed in the name of religion is authentic or perfect, and consequently, the ability to recognise the need to identify such content that may partially be responsible for their current state of misery and decline. However, such an initiative faces fierce opposition not only from the masses but from educated Muslim classes as well.

Educated Muslims have embraced modern education and social awareness. They have developed an aptitude for rational thinking and logic, which they implement effectively in their professional work as well as in other affairs of life that are not related to religious beliefs. However, in dealing with religious matters, their attitude is generally not different from the common masses.

This attitude is primarily due to the diametrically different learning approaches adapted for modern and religious education since childhood. While modern education emphasises rationality and logic, religious education for the most part hinges on faith without questioning.

The reform initiative needs to see the adoption of a rational approach using divine and credible sources to identify and filter out circumstantial practices (from the religious framework) that were defined for specific eras in the past and that do not have the qualities of adaptation and flexibility, and that hence may be creating hurdles in aligning with the socioeconomic norms of today’s evolving world.

It is very important to understand that questioning or analysing the content that was added centuries later and portrayed as part of the religious framework does not imply questioning the tenets of faith. For a religion to maintain its universality, it is important to keep religious practices distinguishable from local social norms.

Similarly, in order to maintain the effectiveness of a religion in any era, it is important to ensure flexibility when evaluating the norms and practices that connect a community in a social setup with its permanent religious values, and readjusting interconnected norms and practices as necessary to maintain effective religious bonding while embracing contemporary social evolution and advancements.

The improvement of Muslim societies on the global scale of scientific advancements and human development cannot be effectively achieved by externally imposed factors. The real improvement will only come through initiatives within Muslim societies and through realisation, awareness and the desire to advance alongside the progressive world. Today’s world will not slow down for Muslims. The sooner the Muslim societies embark on this journey, the sooner they can attain the required pace for advancement. Otherwise they will be left behind and will need centuries to catch up.
 

The various kinds of ‘pretzel dogs’ sold at Auntie Anne's. The local chapter of the US pretzel chain has confirmed that it has changed the name of its ‘pretzel dog’ to ‘pretzel sausage’

Muslims care more about halal food than halal income, deputy minister says
By Zurairi AR

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki lamented today that Muslims here care more about the halal status of their food, compared to the status of their source of income.

The deputy minister in charge of Islamic affairs said the public perceives Islam as only related to worship, while the issue of halal and haram — what is permissible and forbidden in Islam — is seen as only related to consumption.

“The concern over halal food and halal labels is paramount. But the similar concerns may not be true when it comes to where the money comes from to buy that halal food,” Asyraf said in his keynote address at a seminar on Islamic financial institutions and charity here.

The senator said when it comes to consuming meat, the public are very concerned about ensuring that the slaughter is Shariah compliant, but not as much as the money involved in the purchase.

“The money they received to buy that food, even if coming from usury, interest, corruption, they don’t care.

“This is something very much the reality in our society today,” said the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

On Monday, minister Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom had said that the authorities will not issue halal certification for non-alcoholic “beer” or any product that uses “haram”-related names like ham or bacon.

According to state news agency Bernama, the minister in charge of Islamic affairs said the term “halal beer” went against the manual procedure for Malaysia’s halal certification.

Under the Trade Descriptions (Certification and Marking of Halal) Order 2011, only the federal Islamic Development Department — better known by its Malay abbreviation, Jakim — and state Islamic departments and councils can issue halal certification.

The report also said that fast food chain A&W switched to calling its signature root beer drink, “RB”, in 2013, in order to get the halal certification for all its outlets.

The issue of halal certification surfaced last October after an executive with US pretzel chain Auntie Anne’s revealed that their application for halal certification had failed due to, among others, concerns over “pretzel dogs” on the menu.

Some fast food restaurants in Malaysia use non-pork alternatives for ham and bacon, such as turkey ham and beef bacon. There are also vegetarian versions of “bak kut teh”, a pork ribs soup.
    

From Man Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Hisham Matar, a memoir of his journey home to his native Libya in search of answers to his father's disappearance.

In 2012, after the overthrow of Qaddafi, the acclaimed novelist Hisham Matar journeys to his native Libya after an absence of thirty years.

When he was twelve, Matar and his family went into political exile. Eight years later Matar's father, a former diplomat and military man turned brave political dissident, was kidnapped from the streets of Cairo by the Libyan government and is believed to have been held in the regime's most notorious prison. Now, the prisons are empty and little hope remains that Jaballa Matar will be found alive. Yet, as the author writes, hope is "persistent and cunning".

This book is a profoundly moving family memoir, a brilliant and affecting portrait of a country and a people on the cusp of immense change, and a disturbing and timeless depiction of the monstrous nature of absolute power.

"A good novel tells us the truth about its hero;

but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."       

- Gilbert K. Chesterton -

KB says: Crescents of Brisbane will be running their famous CresCafe cupcake stall next week (30 April) at the Islamic School of Brisbane's Annual Fete. They are looking to raise money for the school through sales of cupcakes donated by members of our community. Here is an easy recipe if you wish to help out.

Princess Lakshman

Writer, Clarity Coach, Founder and Facilitator of Healing Words Therapy - Writing for Wellbeing

To contact Princess,  
Email: info@healingwordstherapy.com  Phone: 0451977786