UstaadKhan Blogs

Flood victims returning to their homes in Basera, Punjab, as the waters recede

Up to a million people have fled their homes in the past two days, as floods, never seen on such a scale, continue to sweep south.

A month after devastating floods first brought havoc to Pakistan, thousands of people were still fleeing surging water yesterday as the Indus broke its banks close to a historic city in the country’s south.

  Officials said water had breached the river’s defences close to Thatta and had also flooded a second canal that feeds from the Indus. Yesterday evening, officials estimated that the 20ft breach in the levee, which happened early in the morning, could cause flooding in the outskirts of the city by nightfall.

 Most of the 200,000-strong population of Thatta, 75 miles south-east of Karachi, have already left the city, camping out by the sides of roads or trying to move to cities out of the flood zone. Hundreds of families were taking shelter in an ancient Muslim graveyard and in a nearby Hindu temple.

Up to a million people have been forced to flee their homes in the past 48 hours. With so many needing help and so little relief reaching the southern parts of Sindh province, scores of people blocked a road in Thatta to demand more assistance. They complained that the scant supplies available were usually thrown from the backs of trucks, resulting in crowds of people fighting among themselves for food and water.

 ”The people who come here to give us food treat us like beggars,” an 80-year-old woman called Karima (who has just one name) told Associated Press. “They just throw the food. It is humiliating.” (more…)

Aslamu alaikum

I would like to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan. As we enter this month, we are encouraged to keep the sufferings of the destitute and starved in mind. Since a good act is appreciated greatly by Allah, it is encouraged to give one’s Zakat in this month.

As I write this email, there has been a severe devastation in Pakistan. Due to the raging water of the floods many people have lost their lives, houses and livestock. The loss of the seasons’ crops is spelling the impending doom of a fast approaching famine. There have been cases of people who stood on the roofs of their houses and were drowned to death along with their small children and wives.

I have been able to find a very reliable person (Haroon Agha) in Pakistan to distribute this year’s Zakat. I would wish that everyone who gets this message pool something in by Ramadan 15^th so that the money can arrive promptly to those who deserve it. You are encouraged to give Zakat and Sadaqah. The money however will only be given to people who deserve Zakat with a preference to those who have been hard hit by the floods.

Please reply to this email or see me in person to contribute to this cause.

Hassan Mian.

Assalamoalikum,

I am writing this email with great sorrow and anguish in my heart.
There seems to be no end to the floods, bringing misery, death and
destruction to millions in Pakistan. It has become extremely difficult
to see  women, children, men struggling to keep alive, and the worse
thing is that there seems to be no end in sight.

For some time now, I had my suspicions that Pakistan was/is under a
great calamity from Allah SWT. There has been one calamity after
another, and the earth has been shaking nearly every week (if not
every day ) in Pakistan.

My suspicions were confirmed when I came to know that Mufti Taqi
Usmaani also told a congregation to recite Surah Shams (Surah 91)
excessively to avoid azaab from Allah (SWT). Maulana sahib in his
bayan (24th May 2009), said that one of his respected elders saw
Prophet(SAW) in his dream. Prophet(SAW) told him that Pakistan may
soon be  under azaab from Allah(SWT), and in order to avoid the azaab,
the people of Pakistan should recite Surah Shams 70,000 times.

I have found the bayan. It can be found here
http://www.deeneislam.com/ur/horiz/sotiyat/mufti_taqi_usmani/288_M_M_TAQI_ZIKR_E_KASEER_HAR_JA_AUR_HAR_WAQT_HO_24_05_2009.wma.
He talks about the dream at around 34 mins into the bayan. In his next
speech, he presents the tafseer of Surah Shams. It can be found here
http://www.deeneislam.com/ur/horiz/sotiyat/mufti_taqi_usmani/Tafseer-Surah-Shams-(27-05-2009).wma

Tomorrow is the start of Ramadam, indeed a  blessed month specially to
seek Allah Karim’s mercy. I request that we recite Surah Shams
excessively and include it in our daily supplications.
The condition is Pakistan is very dire.

For those who are not familier with Mufti Taqi Usmaani, he is a
leading fiqh scholar, son of Mufti Shafi Usmaani, and is the current
head of Dar-ul-Uloom Karachi. Among other things, he is also
considered a world authority on Islamic finance. I have personally
benefited from his lectures immensely and recommend him highly.

Assalamoalikum, and as always remember me in your duaas.
Abdul Hannan Ahsan.

Lawmakers in Belgium recently approved a draft law to ban the wearing of the Muslim full-face veil in public places

Barcelona plans to be the first large city in Spain to ban the use of the full-face Islamic veil in public buildings, its mayor announced Monday.

Jordi Hereu said he will sign a decree which will apply in all public spaces such as the city hall and municipal covered markets and creches.

“It should not be possible that someone enters into a place without being identified,” the Socialist mayor said.

He said the measure is not aimed at “any particular religious group” and would also apply to people wearing crash helmets and balaclavas.

Two other towns in the northeastern region of Catalonia, Lerida and El Venrell, have recently imposed bans on the use of the Islamic veil in public buildings.

Two more, Tarragona and Gerona, are considering similar measures, as is Coin in the southern region of Andalucia.

Spain’s conservative opposition Popular Party has said it plans to present a proposal in Catalonia’s regional parliament to ban the full-face veil in public places throughout the region.

Authorities in 11 mosques in Catalonia have vowed to challenge the bans in Spain’s Constitutional Court.

Immigration from Muslim countries has grown dramatically in Spain since the 1990s, with Catalonia in particular being home to a large community of Pakistani origin.

There are now about one million Muslims among Spain’s population of 47 million.

Last month, lawmakers in Belgium approved a draft law to ban the wearing of the Muslim full-face veil in public places, including streets — creating a controversial first for Europe, although it is still subject to a senate vote.

Debate is raging in France as well, where the cabinet has approved a draft law to ban the Muslim full-face veil from public spaces, opening the way for the text to go before parliament in July.

FBI special agent Richard J. Kolko confirmed the arrests of the New Jersey suspects.

The arrests of two more Americans as would-be jihadists recently, as they were trying to board flights from New York City to Somalia, is a warning that the face of terror may be changing. Threats not only come from abroad; they can be homegrown.

Domestic terrorism is not new … as this area, home to the late Timothy McVeigh, is all too aware. And the two New Jersey men unmasked by an undercover New York City police officer and arrested as they headed toward hoped-for terror training were just the latest episode in domestic arrests that started with the Lackawanna Six shortly after 9/11.

So far, there have been 49 cases of radicalization and recruitment to jihadist terrorism within the United States, and 133 arrests. And so far, the would-be terrorists have proven, thankfully, inept.

But it only takes one. And America must not let down its guard.

“There is no long mile between the terrorist wannabe and the lethal zealot,” Rand Corp. analyst Brian Jenkins testified May 26 before the House Homeland Security Committee.

America’s Muslim-American community plays a huge role in maintaining our guard. It has indeed been helpful … the local chapter of the Muslim American Public Affairs Committee has been recognized for its work with the FBI … but there must be no let-up in community condemnation of terrorism and the organizations that support it. (more…)

AN ISLAMIC group broke with tradition yesterday when a woman led afternoon prayers.

Author Raheel Raza, above, from Canada, became one of the first Muslim-born women to deliver a sermon in the UK — a move opposed by many Muslim clerics. She spoke at the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford’s prayers in Summertown Hall, Banbury Road.

Ms Raza appealed to Muslims to discuss “difficult” issues like homosexuality and immigration or “risk losing their children.”

Meco chairman Dr Taj Hargey said: “I think it went brilliantly.

“She is a very erudite and important person and I think this was a very historic event.”

Ms Raza has received death threats for trying to progress the role of women in Islam. She said: “If people open their minds, women leading prayers could become an achievable goal throughout the world.”

A proposed ban in Quebec's public service against the niqab, a veil worn by some Muslim women, stirred up fierce debate

A proposed ban in Quebec’s public service against the niqab, a veil worn by some Muslim women, stirred up a fierce debate this week in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province.

Widely supported in Canada, Bill 94 would require Quebec public servants and anyone accessing a provincial government service to show their face.

But Indian-Canadian Tasneen Mughal, who wears the veil, says it is “an attack on Muslims.”

She told AFP she would rather leave Quebec with her husband and their two children and move to neighboring Ontario province than give up her niqab.

The 27-year-old woman, born in Montreal, is among 100 or so women in Quebec who have garnered much attention for wearing a niqab as committee hearings are held in Quebec City on the bill that is expected to become law.

“People should be seen… in order to identify a person, for security reasons,” Quebec Justice Minister Kathleen Weil said of her brainchild.

Louise Beaudoin, spokeswoman for the opposition Parti Quebecois, would like the law to go even further.

“For the rest of Canada, multiculturalism is a virtue,” she said. “For us, it’s different. We try to find a way to all live with one another, without a return to segregated communities (or ethnic ghettos).” (more…)