By Anime Abdullah

Sep/Oct 2024

Did you hear about the seismic tremor of faith that shook the sands of Makkah as the tide of pilgrims across the world converged upon the Ka‘ba in June 2024? 

The scorching sun, exceeding 122°F (50°C) from June 14-19, was overshadowed by millions of Muslims thrumming in unison and demonstrating submission to God, humility, and unity — Islam’s true essence. The death of over 1,300 from heatstroke and dehydration, and the heat-related illnesses of thousands more (Aya Batrawy, www.npr.org, June 23) couldn’t deter them. The Saudi host’s inadequate accommodations, transportation, or even drinking water (Zahra Fatima and BBC World Service, www.bbc.com, June 22) couldn’t prevent them from responding to Islam’s call. Only a minuscule 8% received the needed care (Magdy Samaan, www.cnn.com, June 25), which confirms these pilgrims’ unwavering faith.

However, beneath their radiant display of peace were those who exploited them. Given that the pilgrims aren’t too vocal about such things, every year the unscrupulous prioritize profit over piety. This has gradually eroded the hajj’s sanctity, with creeping commercialization peaking this year, albeit ambivalently portrayed.

Unregistered Pilgrims: An Obvious Outcome of Nusuk Frustration 

Shirking responsibility, Saudi authorities sweepingly attributed 80% of the hajj fatalities to “unregistered” pilgrims (Vivian Nereim and Emad Mekay, New York Times, June 24), who didn’t register via the problematical Nusuk —  a centralized web platform (https://hajj.nusuk.sa/) launched in 2021 by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. 

However, Western pilgrims still had to handle visas, hotels, air tickets, and evident troubleshooting through Nusuk, all without human assistance. This tedious and overwhelming digital odyssey also increased prices (ranging from $13,000 to $20,000 per head), required deposits months in advance (even before packages were available), and provided no guarantee of completion. If this registration process fails at any step, even due to Nusuk’s fault, a 1.5% refund fee and a 45-day waiting period apply. Moreover, Nusuk’s proffered autonomy unintentionally hinders the hajj spirit — the connection forged through shared experiences.

These are merely the procedural problems of the current 11-step registration process; technical issues aside. Logins work only when the system wills. Picking a package is more like pulling teeth. Verification delays or e-wallet dilemmas are not user-friendly, and the payment option is an act of faith itself. The demands on time, tolerance, and tech-savviness, along with the paramount uncertainty, are enough to make a saint swear or, in this case, seek alternative routes.

Promising “alternative” streamlined processes, dozens of hajj agencies rushed to rescue this year’s pilgrims. They undercut the Nusuk prices, but dangled the carrot of tourist or business visas (legality? Shhh, don’t mention it!). 

Many of these agencies have provided affordable and reliable services for decades, and their promised convenience was very tempting. They guaranteed no pesky registration, verification woes, package or flight selection hassles, and, most importantly, no “pre-paying months in advance without any certainty” nonsense. Who wouldn’t jump at that oasis? 

Over 325,000 unregistered pilgrims were expelled (Adil Faouzi, www.moroccoworldnews.com, June 10), and other thousands, if not a million, pilgrims continued without registering with Nusuk. Many, including myself, succumbed to the illusion, not knowing those promises were a desert mirage shimmering with cool water. 

      The unresolved Nusuk issues and the substantial number of unregistered pilgrims underscore the prevalent frustration and escalating demand for reliable alternatives. The proliferation of alternative agencies, further misled by the insiders within the Hajj ministry, is a direct consequence that I witnessed firsthand.

Extent of Suffering and Uncertainty of Unregistered Pilgrims  

The anticipation of a trouble-free hajj quickly turned into a chilling fear of human trafficking as I was put on a backroad to Makkah and forced to cross the desert corridor on foot. Promises of a streamlined experience were replaced by constant anxiety and uncertainty. Many pilgrims couldn’t even make it to Makkah and returned home (Christian Peña, www.yahoo.com, July 1). 

Upon reaching Makkah, I clutched my Nusuk permit, the golden registration ticket. Unaware of its illegitimacy, I eagerly prepared for Mina. Lacking legitimate permission, my U.S.-based agency merged with a South Asian hajj group, whose tent was already overcrowded. So, we huddled outside under the blistering sun, desperately seeking the shade that wasn’t there. To my surprise, a security guard spotted me, informing me that my Nusuk permit was useless. Expelled from the tent, I wandered around Mina like a lost soul in a spiritual Disneyland.

Unfamiliar with Mina’s premises, I contacted my group leader. Bless his frantic heart, he offered dubious advice: avoid security, catch a bus in the middle of the night to Arafat, and pray for the best. Like a drowning man grasping at a straw, I did so, only to bounce among Arafah tents like a game of leapfrog with security. Exhausted, sunbaked, and barely coherent, I spent the Day of Arafat muttering supplications under the relentless, blazing sun. 

As we prepared to leave for Muzdalifah at sunset, there was no transportation. After waiting six hours — until 2:00 a.m. — we landed on a purgatory bus ride, praying for divine intervention to reach Muzdalifah in time for the maghrib and isha prayers. Nothing happened. We barely made it to fajr and offered make-up prayers for maghrib and isha. 

Already sleepless and drained for the past two days, we began the arduous trek to the Jamarat, a relentless 4-6 miles. Like a churning mass of humanity teetering on the edge of a stampede, the first round of stoning left me dehydrated, disheveled, and missing a sandal. 

Yet the ordeal wasn’t over. No transportation awaited, forcing another 3-4 mile trek back to Makkah on foot. Although several Nusuk service centers were visible from Muzdalifa or Mina to Jamarat, none were found from Jamarat to Makkah; not even drinking water. 

No official permit to return to Mina obliged me to find refuge in my hotel for the remaining stoning rituals. While Islam offers leniency in dire situations, my predicaments stemmed from the agency’s illegal acts, which fostered a false sense of security until the final minutes. 

These are just tidbits, and such realities don’t belittle the hajj’s sanctity. However, the humiliation, deception, and constant betrayal forced a touch of dark humor into my experience. It serves as a cautionary tale for future pilgrims as well as a plea to hajj officials to acknowledge the pilgrims’ rising desperation. 

The Unnoticed Shift toward Commercialization and Commodification 

Beneath this year’s surface grief due to deaths and tragedies lingers a somber shadow in the Muslim collective memory, a gradual shift that’s transforming Islam’s spiritual cornerstone into a commercialized spectacle.

Historically, Makkah thrived as a commercial hub and pilgrims engaged in modest trade to offset their journey’s costs. But today, a starkly different narrative unfolds. The Saudi government and corporations have poured billions into erecting five-star hotels, opulent malls, and designer boutiques. In contrast, no significant visible efforts have been made to alleviate the pilgrims’ suffering in Arafah, Mina, Muzdalifa, or the Jamarat rituals — the pilgrimage’s most strenuous tenets — even for the Nusuk-registered ones. This tragic reality has slowly shifted the hajj’s focus from spiritual renewal to tourism, severing pilgrims’ deep-rooted connection to Islam and ceasing its spiritual essence. 

Luxury and convenience, and the growing focus on opulent accommodations, carefully curated packages, and modern amenities, have overtaken spirituality. Even tawaf, traditionally a moment of communing with God, is now often overshadowed by the urge to capture and share the experience. This disturbing trend reduces hajj to a mere commodity and Makkah to a meticulously crafted commercial product.

The responsibility rests on the pilgrims, due to their growing consumer demands, and the Saudi government, whose recent prioritization of hajj as a revenue stream next to oil (Abbas Al Lawati, www.cnn.com, July 6) overshadows its spiritual dynamics.

Nusuk, an enabler of pilgrims’ convenience, has indeed benefited many of them. However, it shouldn’t be constricting pilgrims. Its always-late release (2-3 months before hajj) causes unnecessary uncertainty. For example, pilgrims must spend sleepless nights to secure their desired packages and flights. Precious pre-hajj soul-searching moments are sacrificed to addressing logistics and amenities. Moreover, it ultimately defies the pilgrimage’s essence: detaching oneself from earthly entanglements to invest in godly endeavors.

The hajj is not isolated from daily religion or rituals that may require such grand tourist exposure, like luxury hotels. Rather, it’s the culmination of one’s achieved spiritual maturity. Leaving worldly affairs behind, hajj is a chance to reflect on one’s shortcomings with a promise to purge them and restore the highest connection with God so that one can return home with a pure and resolute heart like a newly born person. Current socio-cultural settings challenge such an essence of pilgrimage.

However, hope is still there. This trend of commercialization is just a few decades old. Traditionally, pilgrims were welcomed as “Guests of Allah,” with no mandatory packages or labeled groups. Their hearts still beat with reverence and longing for the Divine, waiting to flourish, as was evident during this year’s hajj. We must not allow the passage of time to erase that spiritual pulse of pilgrimage. Let the administration, religious authorities, and travel agencies work with each other to preserve the sanctity of Hajj in the sands of Saudi Arabia to avoid tension or tremor, and foster unity, piety, and a transformative experience for all pilgrims, as it has been for centuries.

Anime Abdullah is a freelance writer.

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By Sanaa Asif

Sep/Oct 2024

In this rat-race-like existence, Muslim women sometimes find it hard to balance work, family, and religion. More women are pursuing full-time careers after marriage and children. Yet the bulk of household duties still fall on them, a reality that leaves little time for uninterrupted worship. In addition, not all mosques have welcoming spaces for women and/or children. 

Thus the emergence of women-led Muslim community centers has been a welcome development. Two prime examples are the Rabata Cultural Center (www.rabata.org), which has a heavy online presence and an in-person center in Arden Hills, Minn. — about eight miles from the downtowns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul — and the Aisha Fatima Community Center (AFC; aishafatimacommunity.org), which offers in-person classes and social gatherings in Chicago’s suburb of Lombard. Both organizations aim to build and reinforce spiritual knowledge and community through deen-centered, female-focused learning and activities. 

“The inspiration for AFC basically came from the lack of Muslim women’s physical spaces, where we can interact and learn from female scholars, and also build community,” said co-founder Juwairiyah Kholwadia (founder, The Hijab Vault; https://thehijabvault.com/). Their main goal is to create a warm, welcoming and non-judgmental environment to integrate both the old and new communities of Chicago’s suburbs and provide a safe space for them to learn and grow together.

Rabata, from the Arabic words “to connect,” “form bonds of friendship,” and “composure”, had a similar starting point. Manager Michelle Sekusky describes how Anse Tamara Gray, EdD (founder, Rabata), an Islamic scholar, author, educator, and popular speaker, became inspired after noticing a void in women’s needs. “Education is really a key to positive cultural change, which is our vision and mission statement. It’s creating positive cultural change through creative educational experiences,” Sekusky said.

AFC started off with brainstorming sessions, involving input from women of various ages, backgrounds, and stages in life. They used the feedback to curate their programs. “We always knew that the core of AFC would focus on spirituality and religion, but we really wanted to incorporate and integrate discussions of taboo topics within the mental health field, the community health field, women’s wellness and health,” Kholwadia explains. 

For instance, in June they convened a session about the Islamic views on cosmetic procedures. In addition to faith and learning, they also host social events such as watercolor night, geometric design workshops, and tatreez classes to give women a chance to connect.

Rabata had a similar journey, evolving from a simple bookstore to a center for in-person and hybrid programs. Their academic wing, Ribaat, has dozens of courses, classes, certifications, and ijazahs to choose from. “We went from just having random events to now having multiple regular monthly events. We also offer childcare for women taking classes,” Sekusky added. Rabata’s very ethnically diverse all-women board of directors feels more representative of our ummah’s diversity than many other centers — even mosques. 

A Day Inside 

Each day brings new experiences. “Truthfully, no day looks the same, even if it’s the same event,” Kholwadia states. However, some days need to be split between events and administrative work. Their planning days are more of a mental workout during which they focus on program ideation, creation, marketing, and registration. They reach out to their team to find the right instructor or connect with others to collaborate. They like to plan events ahead of time. For instance, Ramadan planning begins roughly six months in advance. 

“We’re continuously looking for ways to improve and expand our offerings,” Kholwadia notes. “We welcome anyone who would like to join the AFC admin or volunteer team. We are actively looking for women with interest and knowledge of marketing, event planning, outreach, and fundraising.”

On the other hand, event days look very different. “On the day of an event, we’ll typically arrive 1 to 3 hours early. Volunteers help move tables, chairs, and even sofas to accommodate the crowds. AFC often provides refreshments and snacks during its events, which also need to be picked up. They also need to set up any technical equipment and other resources the presenter may need. 

“Most importantly, we’ll have people ready to greet every attendee as they walk in, so they have someone to connect with even if they came alone,” Kholwadia remarks. Throughout the event, the team continuously makes sure attendees are comfortable and have everything they need.

Successes and Obstacles

As female-focused community centers develop a wider audience and attract larger crowds, they also experience both successes and obstacles. A major obstacle both centers faced was increasing their staff base. Sekusky started managing Rabata in 2021. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, much of its programs were online. But as the center continued to grow, many programs started becoming in-person. “In 2022 we grew so much at the Center that we were able to expand into the space next door. But as fast as we grew, we needed more people, right? Getting great staff always takes time,” Sekusky says. Rabata now also offers Rabateen classes for teenage girls and Dragonflies for 6–12-year-olds. 

AFC has similar struggles. While they love their volunteers, they also know it’s hard to expect them to commit to something long term. Another issue was that people were asking for virtual programs, even though at its core AFC was all about their physical space. “We really wanted women to come out and get to know each other and learn in person,” Kholwadia explains. While they stayed true to their mission and continued encouraging in-person attendance for events, AFC also started hosting some virtual events to expand their presence nationwide.

As both community centers have continued to grow, they have learned to adapt to their audience’s preferences. Sekusky says that the online Rabata Academic Institute (www.facebook.com/rabataribaat/) attracts a wide variety of people. “It’s a serious program to dive into Islamic studies, and the reason I think it’s attractive for most of the students is that online classes are recorded,” she states. Having the flexibility to watch a lesson at a more convenient time can be attractive to busy parents, college students, or working individuals. 

However, Sekusky also observes the appeal of in-person programs for others. “You find different crowds in different spaces — some people really need that social aspect; especially reverts need that family and bonding.” Overall, she sees value in both the online and in-person communities.

The AFC staff believes that the speaker plays a valuable role in attracting audiences. They have their regular speakers, to whom a lot of women have listened. Many attendees have a favorite speaker they connect with, and if they see her name they are quicker to register. “We really like to focus on the content of our events and want our attendees to feel a sense of personal development, but also [for them to] enjoy the space,” Kholwadia remarks. “Everybody loves food. Whenever we invite outside vendors with fancy bubble teas and coffee, it’s a hit. It’s great because we also get to support other small Muslim businesses within the community.” 

Rabata and AFC strive to make women feel welcome and seen, whether through their programs or their environment. “Our teachers have dedicated their lives to being ‘forever students’ and knowledgeable teachers. They have studied traditionally and from so many paths that you’re learning from a well-rounded female scholar who is knowledgeable in whatever field of Islam she’s teaching,” Sekusy says. The wide variety of programs covered through Rabata and the welcoming, humble teachers play an important role in helping Muslim women located all around the nation gain knowledge and community. 

Sanaa Asif, a senior at Hinsdale Central High School, is an avid reader and loves to learn and write about others and their experiences.

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By Mona Islam

Sep/Oct 2024

I can speak for the generation that grew up in the 80s and 90s, whose parents were immigrants from the East. Most of us went to public schools while our parents settled down, got us educated, and often scrambled to convince us of our Islamic identity, faith and practice. Some gave up upon arrival; others strove to pass them down via gatherings, books, clubs, and learning relevant languages. 

Our parents would struggle to form a sense of community and meet other Muslims they would not normally meet, all to preserve their faith in a clearly very attractive un-Islamic environment. These realities motivated them to build community centers, mosques, organizations, and Islamic schools, as well as to increase their own Islamic knowledge and teach it to their children. Falling in love with their deen, they dropped their cultural baggage and planted the seeds of taqwa (God consciousness) within themselves and their children. 

We, their children, were often the only Muslims at our public schools.  As minorities, we struggled to deal with the generational cultural gap, our parents’ academic expectations, and to hold onto our basic Islamic identity, faith, and practice. Among our dilemmas were Islamic attire, gender relations, intercultural marriage, and finding non-interest-bearing loans for major life purchases. 

We witnessed ethnocentric gaps in our mosques when Arabs and Pakistanis didn’t see eye to eye, women had no voice on any board, and youth were viewed as sources of anxiety to their parents. We watched our mosques and schools struggle to lay the groundwork, pay the bills and hire qualified and competent personnel. We witnessed everything from mosque politics to racial discrimination. 

Finally, after years of dedication and effort, our communities started getting it right. Mosque spaces became more inclusive, fair and welcoming, treating both converts and indigenous Muslims with equal respect. Women gained a voice and position in traditionally male dominated religious spaces, and youth work was seen as valid and worthwhile. During the next phase, we saw more integration with mainstream society due to their increasing awareness of our civic responsibilities and understanding of how government and politics affect us. 

The 9/11 tragedy provided a re-entrance for Muslims into the American landscape. “Mosque Open Houses” sprang up across the country. Da‘wah and outreach were at an all-time high. News of conversions and removal of barriers with non-Muslims filled the air. 

As our generation embraced parenthood in the early 2000s, there was a notable rise in the demand for full-time Islamic education. This transition compelled us to reaffirm our commitment to nurturing faith and Islamic values in our own offspring. Concurrently, initiatives to foster creativity saw the emergence of vibrant youth groups, media platforms, and Islamic schools among them. 

Recognizing the significance of preserving our predecessors’ institutions made us acutely aware of the pressing need for Islamic schools and community centers. As our population expanded and the era of social media dawned, we encountered unforeseen challenges, such as religious and ethical dilemmas stemming from social media and advancing technology. We had new terrain to navigate.

Despite electing the first African American president and the Black Lives Matter movement, widespread discussions about racial injustice and police brutality continued, beckoning Muslims to take an ethical stand. COVID-19 abruptly displaced us from our once-familiar seats, reshaping the landscape of our lives in unexpected ways. 

As we strengthened our faith, our separation from congregational activities to youth group activities and Islamic conventions and camps, forced us to find new ways to fill the void of community support. We rediscovered ways of learning, connecting, and experiencing our deen. Our determination to preserve what we could force us to design online conventions, seminars, and classes. Online opportunities invited teachers, students, and peers to meet those whom otherwise we would never have met.  When social distancing finally left us, we resumed our activities with newfound appreciation, only to be tested once again with global tragedies that tested what we are made of. 

Our Greatest Anchors

As Muslim Americans move forward, our greatest anchor lies in the timeless guidance of the Quran and Sunnah. The greatest lesson the past few decades have reminded us of the depth and relevance of Islam’s truth. The more questions fill the air, the answer is always the same: Go back to the deen, the authentic sources, and the examples of the Messengers, and you will never go wrong. 

Among the many things to consider in this regard are the following. 

• Believing in the two authentic sources. “We hear and we obey. [We seek] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the [final] destination” (2:285).  As a child, I recall the deep reverence our parents’ generation held for them. However, this adherence, especially to the Sunnah, seems to have waned over time, particularly among my generation. It’s disheartening to see how worldly pursuits have led to their neglect of the Sunnah’s guidance. This is a major dilemma for our community.

Have they perhaps forgotten the repeated statement that “There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of God an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers God often” (33:21)? We must strive to rekindle our reverence for the Quran and Sunnah so we can navigate the complexities of contemporary life with confidence and guidance. Failing to do so puts our faith and identity at risk, which could cause us to lose our spiritual foundation.

• Reviving Islamic etiquette in family dynamics. One of our greatest losses exists in our family values and family roles: The once tight-knit fabric of familial relationships has unraveled. During my upbringing, these bonds of trust ran deep and were nurtured with care. Mentorship flourished, fostering a sense of belonging and security that shaped our identities. Reflecting on the past, I remember when extended family couches were familiar sanctuaries for after-school naps, and their kitchens extended an open invitation. 

However, today these once-vibrant relationships have dwindled into mere shadows of their former selves, replaced by a noticeable distance and sense of estrangement. The younger generation has noticed this, for they bear the brunt of its impact and yearn for the connection and guidance that family should provide. The resulting void in their lives deprives them of invaluable guidance and support and, in addition, impacts their sense of identity and belonging.

• Engaging ethically with the world. We need to strike a balance between preserving and strengthening our identity while striving to establish justice and make meaningful contributions to mainstream society. Reflecting on the experiences of previous generations, we find that neither extreme isolation nor complete assimilation are recommended solutions.

To cultivate and rejuvenate our roots, we have to educate ourselves and our children. By deeply understanding our faith, its teachings, and its rich history, we can foster a sense of pride and belonging. We must continue to build strong communities to support ourselves and reinforce a shared identity. Engaging with mainstream society through interfaith dialogues, community service, and professional collaborations enables us to share our values and perspectives while enriching our own experiences. Another remedy is balancing modernity and tradition. Harmonizing traditional values with modern realities ensures that our faith remains relevant and dynamic. 

We’re inspired by the example of Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), whose commitment to ethical conduct and the pursuit of justice uplifted the darkest corners of society. We can emulate him in this regard by advocating for the marginalized and justice, opposing discrimination and oppression, addressing systemic inequalities, and ensuring that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. We must also strive to emulate the Prophet’s leadership style, which was characterized by humility, selflessness, and a genuine concern for his community’s well-being. 

Our Legacy

As my generation buries our elders and pioneers, the legacy we will leave for our children dominates our thoughts. Will they be assets on our scales, or will our deficiencies as parents cause us to face agony on Judgment Day?

On a broader scale, the future demands us to reflect: Are we fulfilling our potential as da‘is and standing for justice and fulfilling the rights of the oppressed? Is our devotion and worship increasing or waning compared to our elders?

Despite these pressing questions, our path forward should be clear: living our lives in a way that pleases God. This includes seeking and acquiring authentic knowledge, worshipping Him sincerely, following the Sunnah, reviving and strengthening our family relationships, and engaging with our communities as ethical and just contributors. 

Moreover, it’s our duty to leave behind a generation that will carry Islam’s vision forward and make this world a better place. By doing so, we can ensure that our legacy is one of faith, justice, and positive contribution, thereby fulfilling our responsibilities to both our Creator and our fellow human beings.

Mona Islam, EdD, a visiting faculty member at the Islamic Seminary of America, serves on the board of Rabata, the MultiCultural Center in Houston, and MAS Houston. She is actively engaged in the community on various fronts. 

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The post The Muslim American: Forging Faith and Action appeared first on Islamic Horizons.

By Iqbal Unus

Sep/Oct 2024

Thank you for attending ISNA’s 61st Annual Convention. It wouldn’t be a convention without you. But all good things must come to an end, and so does a convention.

If you are a frequent or an occasional attendee, you must surely wonder “What now?” You may have listened to several distinguished speakers and experts, asked questions, and analyzed their responses. You may have roamed the hallways connecting with old friends and making new ones or meandering the bazaar’s alleys wondering about all that it offered in stimulation, opportunities to get involved, and, yes, bargains. At the end of it all, when you got into your car to drive back or struggled through an airport security line, you must have wondered what’s next. 

Let’s help you with that. Wonder no more.

First, ask yourself how do I go from the motivation, knowledge, and experience I have gained to action that might enhance my personal development and desire to benefit others?

The first step in this regard actually precedes the question itself. Ask yourself what your goals and expectations were for being at the convention. Remember that you may have fine-tuned or even changed your goals as you savored new experiences and new inspiration. That’s alright. You didn’t start with a blank slate, but used your eraser and chalk to keep yourself tuned to what this convention meant as you went along.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. You experienced the convention attentively and recorded your experiences when you could, positive or otherwise. You stayed focused. When there were options, you choose a session thoughtfully. You took notes when you could, asked questions when permitted, and discussed with others after the session about what you had heard. Your objective was to understand, refine, and remember what the session was about. When possible, you connected with speakers. 

And yes, you didn’t sidestep social opportunities around a lunch table perhaps or just while walking around. You were surprised at what you learned in a relaxed setting. It was a good opportunity for human connection as opposed to a screen.

Now that you have time to reflect on goals you’ve identified as worthy of your effort and commitment, fine tune them so they become specific and achievable. Have you heard about how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course. Break your goals down to smaller “chewable” bites that you can accomplish. Setting goals is great; achieving them is what matters.

You know that nothing can be achieved unless we make it a habit and set up a way to schedule it in our routines. That wouldn’t be of much use, unless we also track how we are progressing toward achievement. Celebrate each significant success on the way.

But wait a moment. You’re not doing it alone. That’s where the convention experience comes into your plan again. Remember the sessions you attended, people you met who showed a similar interest, and shared your passion for making a change. Connect with them. Exchange information and aspirations. Identify those who could mentor you or whom you could mentor. Above all, pass on what you learned to those who could not attend. Share your inspiration and aspiration with them. Seek to grow your circle of associates in driving toward the goals you set for yourself during and after the convention.

Remember old friends you met at the convention and the new ones you made, whom you promised to stay in touch with. You had a good time socializing with them then; now stay connected to strengthen your friendships. 

Let all this be between ISNA and you working together. Let’s hold hands and move forward in service to our community and the community at large around us, with no higher motive than to seek the pleasure of God. In the process, let this convention be a vehicle to enhance our own capacity to serve and our own desire to advance each day in service to others. 

Remember the Prophet’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) advice, as reported by Ibn ‘Umar: “One whose two days are equal is at a loss.”

Iqbal Unus is an ISNA Convention enthusiast.

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The post The Convention and I appeared first on Islamic Horizons.

By Crystal Habib

Sep/Oct 2024

On July 13-14, in collaboration with YMTA (Young Muslim Talent of America), ISNA hosted an inspiring regional conference in Duluth, Ga.

Around 400 attendees and dozens of vendors and sponsors made the venue buzz with excitement. The event’s sponsors Islamic Relief USA and The Zakat Foundation added a touch of generosity and community spirit. 

Session topics included “Transformative Personal Change,” “Cultivating Love and Tranquility in the Family,” “Empowerment through Education,” “Prioritizing Personal Health and Mental Well-being,” “Being a Prophetic Voice: Mercy as a Tool for Uniting Communities,” and “Standing in Solidarity with the Victims of Gaza and Palestine.” 

“Marriage is half of our deen, but what does that mean to us?” asked Shaykh Saad Tasleem (instructor, Al Maghrib), in the session on Cultivating Love and Tranquility in the Family. “There is so much more that needs to go into this relationship. A marriage that is established for the sake of Allah is a gift from Allah. Our Creator gifts this relationship with love, affection, and mercy. And that needs to be maintained, that needs to be nurtured, and that needs to grow,” he added.

A parallel session on” Islamic Finance Halal Money Master: Empowering Your Wealth Ethically” was addressed by Islamic finance speakers, among them Hud Williams (AMANA Mutual Fund) and attorney Bukhari R. Nuriddin. Youth parallel sessions included topics about the foundations of faith, personal transformation, dealing with doubts, and the power of du‘a. 

In a session about education in the AI age, Nabile Safdar (division director, Imaging Informatics) stated that “It is a necessity for us to be dealing with the media and this degree of information. There is a risk with new tools like AI, but it is about the decisions we make as individuals about how we interact with these tools because they can be good and bad depending on how we use them.” 

The Community Service Recognition Award ceremony concluded Saturday evening by recognizing award recipients Raheem Shah and Zareenah Naushad. Shah, an international philanthropist, has been recognized by the Georgia senate. He is the founder of Voices of Muslims, the Georgia Pakistan Council, and other organizations. 

In addition to excelling in robotics and AI, high school honors graduate, Zareenah Naushad. founded Autistry Studio and has partnered with major universities. She completed Georgia Tech’s computing research program, serves as a WIT ambassador, and interns at Innova Solutions. 

Shaykh Saad Tasleem delivered a powerful keynote address. As the event ended, a heartwarming concluding session honored the dedicated volunteers and organizers who made it all possible. The young stars of the Children’s Program received well-deserved awards for their outstanding accomplishments. On display during this session was a beautiful diorama created by the children showcasing their creativity and talent. 

Crystal Habib is ISNA’s communications and social media coordinator.

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By Wendy Diaz

Sep/Oct 2024

The groundbreaking documentary film “New Muslim Cool,” produced by PBS, debuted in 2009 and offered a glimpse into the lives of Hamza and Suleiman Perez, two Puerto Rican American brothers who embraced Islam during the late 1990s. Fifteen years after the film’s release, the brothers, particularly Hamza, have evolved from youth to influential community leaders. 

Nevertheless, a non-Muslim audience who comes across it through streaming services such as Amazon Prime would never know about Hamza Perez’s growth beyond the film. Even if a curious spectator scans the internet for more information, news articles, video clips and academic papers focus mostly on his life in 2009. “New Muslim Cool” continues to be used as an educational tool in classrooms worldwide. However, his post-documentary growth and impact on his local community deserves more recognition. 

Cradling his newborn grandson in a Facebook post, the grinning Hamza looks vastly different from his depiction as one of the infamous Mujahideen or M-Team duo performing revolutionary hip-hop vocals while wielding machetes portrayed in the documentary. He sports a gray pinstriped thobe, a burgundy velvet fez hat and noticeable traces of henna color the tips of his salt and pepper beard. Although visibly more mature, his demeanor remains vibrant and youthful.  

“‘New Muslim Cool’ was released in about 2009, but we really started filming in 2004, so that is a 20-year stretch. A lot has changed,” Perez said. Indeed, plenty has changed for Latin American Muslims in the U.S., whose visibility has steadily increased since 9/11. A Pew Research Center demographic portrait of Muslim Americans from 2011 reported that 6% of U.S. Muslims identified as either Latino or Hispanic. In 2022, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding’s (ISPU) American Muslim Poll found that 9% of the approximately 3.5 million Muslims in the U.S. are Latino — approximately 315,000. As more Latinos convert or are born into Islam, Muslims who converted in the late 1990s and early 2000s are aging into new roles. 

“New Muslim Cool” followed the Perez family as they settled in Pittsburgh and navigated the intersections of Puerto Rican urban culture and new Muslim identities. During filming, Perez got married, had his third child with then-wife Rafiah and the FBI raided the Light of Age/North Side Mosque, which he helped co-found. 

Perez has since divorced and remarried in 2011, and is now the father to a total of eleven children. He recently became a grandfather after his eldest son Ismail, who appears in the documentary, started a family of his own. 

Giving Up Music

Shortly after the film’s international success, he stopped performing and left the music industry to focus more on religious studies. His mother, who seemed to show concern and even disapproval for Perez’s decision to abandon his Christian upbringing, converted, along with his father, grandparents and other extended family members. Perez traveled to West Africa to study Islam, received certifications in religious sciences and became an imam. He attributes his personal growth to the study of Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).

Although the audience sees a dedicated Perez beginning to study and even teach Islam to the inmates at his local prison in “New Muslim Cool,” he was still in the initial stages of his conversion. He moves from Massachusetts to Pittsburgh to start a new life with his family. The post-9/11 atmosphere of suspicion presents a series of hurdles to his professional and spiritual growth. His career as an outspoken rapper and songwriter calling for revolution and rebellion haunts him as he begins working in the prison system as a chaplain. 

Perez begins studying Islam in depth at the local mosque and attempts to distance himself from some of his songs’ contentious lyrics. These initial stages of his evolution are portrayed in the documentary film, but the audience is left with a half-hearted portrayal of the Latino convert experience. 

He believes that the Muslim experience for Americans in general, and for Latino Muslims in particular, differs from that of foreign-born Muslims. He now feels like he’s more connected to his Islamic identity than his culture after having been Muslim for over a quarter of a century.  

More Than Conversion 

Media coverage and academia often focus on the “phenomenon” of new conversions and ignore the presence of decades-old converts as well as second- and third-generation Latino Muslim families. Harold Morales, author of “Latino and Muslim in America: Race, Religion, and the Making of a New Minority” (Oxford University Press, 2018) said, “There is so much more to Latino Muslims than conversion, yet this is the most dominant emphasis in news stories on Latino Muslims. The myopic focus on conversion is evident through a quick reading of headlines.” 

Converts like Perez and his family, who accepted Islam a few years prior to or after 9/11, have now been Muslim for over two decades. And yet they rarely receive any attention from the news or academia on how their roles have changed.  

“I’m very respectful of my family’s culture, and I teach certain aspects of it that are good, but I don’t compromise on the aspects of it that are haram and toxic,” Perez said. “Islam is everything to me, and it is way more important to me than being Puerto Rican.” He cautions against prioritizing cultural heritage over Islamic principles. Emphasizing Islam’s core importance in his life, Perez urges fellow Latino Muslims to uphold its teachings above all else and not to compromise religious beliefs for cultural acceptance. 

Perhaps motivated by Latino Muslim resonance with Islamic Spain, he encourages them to study works like “Ash Shifa” (Diwan Press; 7th ed., 2010; trans. Aisha Bewley), written by Andalusian scholar Qadi Iyad ibn Musa al-Yahsubi (d.1149-50), to deepen their understanding of Islamic principles and prophetic manners. Perez envisions a transformative potential if Latino Muslim leaders prioritize spiritual purification and sincere intention above all. 

Shortly after the release of “New Muslim Cool,” Perez was permanently barred from the jail in which he interacted with inmates as a Muslim chaplain. However, his outreach work did not end there. For over two decades, he has been instrumental in pioneering initiatives to uplift children, particularly those from Pittsburgh’s low-income neighborhoods. His work as the coordinator of BOOTUP (Building Our Own Technology, Uplifting People) and establishing the Ya-Ne Youth Alliance for Networking and Empowerment at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh highlight his dedication to empowering youth through education and mentorship. 

When a young Perez detached himself from music completely after “New Muslim Cool,” he cited concerns for his spirituality. Surprisingly, M-Team’s controversial Clash of Civilizations album is still available on platforms like Spotify. However, this former M-Team member is far removed from the militant lyrics from 2005. Twenty years later, his primary focus is community building, social welfare and peaceful dialogue. 

In an April 14 Facebook post, Perez wrote, “Our community consists of 98 percent converts who have dedicated their lives to helping spread and teach Islam.” Attached to his post was a crowdfunding drive for Masjid Anisa, the “First ever ‘Built from The Ground Up’” mosque in Pittsburgh, home to many reverts or converts. 

A closer, unbiased exploration of Latino Muslims’ lives reveals that they are indeed more than their conversion stories. A decade and a half after the documentary graced the screens, Perez has transitioned from a seemingly overzealous and admittedly “ignorant” youth to an indispensable leader and mentor to hundreds of fellow Muslims and non-Muslims, both Latino and non-Latino. 

The story of Hamza Perez reflects a broader trend within both the Gen X and Millennial Latino Muslim communities. Across these generations, numerous converts have emerged as influential figures, assuming roles as imams, educators, advocates and social servants. 

Echoing the words of Morales, “The new generation will read about the historical and cultural links between Latino ethnicity and Islamic religion from websites and social media and from journalists and scholars. They will be a new kind of Latino Muslim, one whose central narrative will lie beyond the scope of conversion.” 

By leveraging their unique backgrounds and experiences, Gen X and Millennial Latin American leaders are shaping the present landscape and laying the groundwork for a vibrant and more inclusive Muslim American community.

Wendy Díaz is a Puerto Rican Muslim writer, poet, translator, and children’s book author. She is the Spanish content coordinator for ICNA-WhyIslam. She is also the co-founder of Hablamos Islam, a nonprofit organization that produces educational resources about Islam in the Spanish language.

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By the ISNA Green Initiative Team

Sep/Oct 2024

The barbaric and genocidal onslaught in Gaza, among the worst cases of slaughter and destruction in history, has been extensively covered in the media and Islamic Horizons. It now sits in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns, as evidenced by a group of satellite images taken from the U.S. space technology firm Maxar Technologies (Julia Frankel, Jan. 11, https://apnews.com/).

Environmental and Ecological Impact

The coastal territory’s orchards, strawberry fields, and sandy beaches that were once the Gazans’ pride are now a dehumanizing landscape of military bases, craters, and ruins. Two-thirds of the land in northern Gaza was agricultural, but not much of it is left. Israeli bulldozers have razed fields, destroyed centuries-old olive trees, and orchards to clear a buffer zone more than one-kilometer-wide (0.6-mile) inside Gaza along the northern border between Israel and Gaza. 

The army has built dikes and earthen mounds to protect its tanks and clear the view. In addition, 2,000 agricultural buildings have been razed — including 90% of all the northern districts’ greenhouses. 

According to a June 18 United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) report, the Gazan slaughter’s environmental impact has created unprecedented soil, water, and air pollution problems that have destroyed sanitation systems. Explosive weapons have generated some 39 million tons of debris. Each square meter of Gaza is now littered with more than 236 pounds of debris. The report also found that water, sanitation, and hygiene systems are now almost entirely defunct, because Gaza’s five wastewater treatment plants are no longer operational.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 67% of Gaza’s water and sanitation system, poor at the best of times, has now been destroyed (Jon Donnison, June 21, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd119dz515wo).

A study titled, “A Multitemporal Snapshot of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Israel-Gaza Conflict,” conducted by an international team of researchers and published on June 6, details the significant environmental impact of the ongoing genocide. Co-authored by Benjamin Neimark (senior lecturer, Queen Mary University, London) and Patrick Bigger (research director, the Climate and Community Project), it provides a comprehensive estimate of the ensuing enormous greenhouse gas emissions. This report says the additional emissions associated with rebuilding Gaza are projected to be higher than many countries’ annual emissions (www.researchgate.net/).

Environmental and ecological impact is among the immense problems that Palestine will have to deal with in the coming decades. The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of Israel’s genocidal campaign was greater than the annual carbon footprint of over 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations. In addition to its water supplies and food security already being threatened by sea level rise, drought, and extreme heat, Israel’s indiscriminate bombing has rendered Gaza’s environmental situation catastrophic. 

During this and previous military campaigns, Israel has prioritized weaponizing water, gas, electricity, and other resources. It has also targeted the environment by destroying essential infrastructure. For instance, during the genocide’s first days, Israel limited Gaza’s water, electricity, and fuel supplies. As electricity and fuel are essential for water pumps and desalination, raw sewage continues to flow into the Mediterranean Sea (Zeinab Shuker, Dec. 19, 2023, www.tcf.org).

Besides the severely damaged public water supply systems, wastewater treatment facilities, and drainage networks, the toxic oil and other chemicals leaking from demolished plants into surface and groundwater has brought risks of soil erosion and triggering long-term health disasters, including sanitation crises and the spread of waterborne diseases. 

The rockets and missiles not only cause immediate humanitarian crises, but also have long-lasting hazardous impacts worldwide. Specifically, toxic residues, including those from metals, plastic, and electronic waste, heavily contaminate the soil with widespread pollution. As a result, local agricultural areas will suffer from desertification, soil erosion, and land degradation. 

Since 1967, Israel’s military actions have induced the uprooting of over 2.5 million trees — more than one million of which were olive trees — an essential source of income in the region. This ongoing destruction of native trees and crops has worsened the habitat fragmentation of local species and accelerated biodiversity loss and desertification. 

Heavy bombardment has not only decreased the amount of human habitat, but has also increased air pollution, as toxic and hazardous compounds are released into the environment from burning buildings and industrial facilities. Green spaces and agricultural land have also been heavily damaged. The generational and other profound health effects in children are unknown. The same goes for how exposure to toxic chemicals affects pregnant women. 

Ana Rule, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told Grist.com, “These microparticles can be kicked up by footfall or vehicles or lofted to other places on the wind” (https://www.scientificamerican.com, Jan. 29). Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to climate solutions and a just future.

Inhaling silica, a key ingredient in cement and glass, also increases the risk of cancer. The long-term projections of cancer and pulmonary diseases will not be known for some time. These typically have lag times. For cancer, it’s 20 to 40 years, a period that could be accelerated by repeat exposures. Intensive bombing, demolition, and damage to multistory buildings has spread huge amounts of cement particles and other particulates over both Israel and Egypt. These will be inhaled by people and deposited on farmland, with as-yet long term and unknown dire consequences.

The Future

Air and water pollution, as well as soil contamination, have no geopolitical boundaries and thus also affect global natural resources and ecosystems for generations. Therefore, recognizing the urgency of environmental preservation and ecological responsibility even amid warfare is crucial. 

Forty public health scientists have called for an immediate cessation to the violence. The authors have drawn attention to the urgent need to rebuild Gaza’s health care system and restore the physical and human infrastructures that make a livable environment possible and promote human health and well-being (Environmental Health, June 28). 

In addition, these individuals say that environmental remediation should form one of the most important parts of international effort to assist reconstruction, through which it is hoped lasting peace could be achieved. Health and sustainable development are among the accepted international human rights obligations. 

They have also urged that the global community support Gaza and the Palestinians in its post-war recovery and reconstruction, including the rebuilding of the health system, the remediation of environmental pollution arising from Israel’s extensive use of weaponry, and the implementation of population-wide mental health programs to address the current, future, and intergenerational effects of trauma.

Sadly, the quieting of the bombs and guns will merely mark the end of one chapter of Gaza’s suffering. Once this genocide ends, the UN and the international community must find a way to launch and scale up reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. Such a collective commitment to post-war environmental restoration will contribute to a sustainable and resilient future by rebuilding the linkage of global well-being and environmental governance.

In Palestine, there will be a special need for investment in water storage facilities, both for domestic consumption and agricultural use. Ecosystems will require additional protection, because saltwater will likely push into coastal aquifers. Endemic species are now under threat (Israel and Palestine are part of the Mediterranean Basin biodiversity hotspot, https://tcf.org/). The Mediterranean Basin hotspot is home to about 515 million inhabitants, 33% of whom live on the coasts. But Gaza’s in a weaker position than ever before for providing any of these protections. Any lasting peace in Gaza must go beyond a ceasefire and political solution, difficult as the latter may be to attain. Peace will also require environmental justice.

Given that climate change doesn’t recognize borders and political arrangements, Israel will also experience environmental degradation. For instance, Ashkelon (originally al-Majḍal), a mere eight miles from Tel Aviv (originally Yafa), one of Israel’s desalination plants has been shut down several times during the past few years due to pollution from Gaza. As the genocide will increase the amount of pollution in Gaza, Israel’s water security will also be jeopardized. Without enabling the Palestinians to protect their own environment, Israel cannot protect itself from a cross-border environmental disaster.

The current movement among universities to divest from those companies that produce these armaments and supplies to Israel is encouraging. We, as supporters of peace and justice for the Palestinians and other oppressed people, should raise our voices against production and profiting from such destructive armaments. A sovereign Palestinian state must be established as soon as possible so that its people can live with dignity, honor, and peace. But this can only be achieved if the U.S. becomes an honest broker. For a lasting peace to hold, environmental justice must be part of any solution.

ISNA Green Initiative Team members include Saffet Catovic, Nana Firman, Uzma Mirza, and Saiyid Masroor Shah (chair)

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Sep/Oct 2024

Many of our readers will be traveling to Dallas to join the thousands of North American conventioneers for ISNA’s 61st Convention: “The Muslim American:  Forging Faith and Action.”

Iqbal Unus (board chair, Islamic Horizons), a long-time convention enthusiast, reflects on how he has both experienced and benefitted from this event over the decades. He advises attendees to ponder on their goals and expectations, for “nothing can be achieved unless we make it a habit and set up a way to schedule it in our routines.” He reminds us, that “you’re not doing it alone. That’s where the convention experience comes into your plan again.”

While we are at the Convention, the Genocide continues due to the money siphoned off from our taxes — continues unabated. According to Julia Conley, “a poll found that 67% of Americans of all political affiliations want the United States to join the international call for a permanent cease-fire (www.commondreams.org, Feb. 27). Democracy at work! 

The usual hypocrisy rages as the meaningless words and phrases fill the airwaves, despite our front-row seats at the Biden administration’s seeming indifference to “the only democracy in the Middle East’s” nonstop slaughter of the innocent with American-made artillery. But only one side is “militant,” as usual.

This being an election year, American politicians fueled by lobbying funds (a misnomer for bribes) not only maintain a deathly silence, but actually seem to hope that the “chosen people” will be able to inflict the Last Days on all of Palestine.

Come November, Americans will again be asked for to vote for the “lesser evil,” after hearing again and again the thoroughly discredited assertion that “this is the most important election in American history,” as if doing so will humanize genocide, reclassify it as “a normal part of life.”

Let us Americans, irrespective of creed, be human. Let us consider humanity before we cast our votes.

Indeed, The Genocide needs a cover up. The British implantation in Occupied Palestine is de facto — a Western military base to advance their interests. In 1986, Sen. Biden (D-Del.) proclaimed, “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” 

More recently, the House of Representatives passed Rep. Jared Moskowitz’s (D-Fla.) amendment to H.R. 8771 H. Amdt.1052, which prohibits the State Department from citing statistics obtained from Gaza’s health officials. Such realities are hardly isolated. 

NATO governments’ media outlets continue their active collaboration. For example, Muhammed Bhar, a Gazan with Down syndrome, was attacked by an IDF dog and left to die; the headline (July 16) for that atrocity stated, “The lonely death of Gaza man with Down syndrome” — a great job of whitewashing!

Bhar had relied on family members to help him eat and drink. His family had to evacuate 15 times when the IDF entered Gaza City during late June. As we all know, thanks to on-the-ground social media reports, there have been constant similar deliberate tragedies. We should never forget that, according to various organizations, never have so many journalists been killed for piercing the propaganda wall raised by so many to keep the truth hidden.

Former ISNA-Canada vice presidents Syed Imtiaz Ahmed and Kathy Bullock donated their worthy time to inspire several writers in Canada to offer us a look into how that nation’s Muslims are dealing with their own challenges. Let’s learn and be inspired by each other to serve Islam, Muslims, and our neighbors.

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By Ghulam Nabi Fai

Sep/Oct 2024

Displaying a calculated and considered callousness and insensitivity to the Kashmiris’ wishes and aspirations, Indian Home [interior] of Minister Amit Shah announced (following a Supreme Court’s Dec 12, 2023 order) that “[The] Assembly poll will be held in Jammu and Kashmir before September 30, 2024” and that “BJP believes in winning hearts” (Ravi Krishnan Khajuria, Hindustan Times, April 16, 2024). The Indian Election Commission has proclaimed a two-phased parliamentary election schedule: in Jammu on April 26 and in the Srinagar constituency on May 13 in four phases. Chief Election Officer of J&K Hirdesh Kumar said on Aug. 17, 2022, that “We are expecting an addition of (2 to 2.5 million) new voters in the final list,” including non-Kashmiris living in the region (Reuters, Aug. 17, 2022).

 Today, India confronts a Kashmir Rubicon in terms of electing members to its rubber stamp parliament. If it boldly conducts free, fair, and transparent elections that reflect the inhabitants’ genuine sentiments, then a final peaceful settlement of the 77-year-old conflict will be in sight. If  it continues its habit of rigging elections and denying Kashmiri self-determination as proclaimed in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) January 1949 resolutions, then Kashmir will remain beleaguered by repression, misery, and destitution.

India’s colonial and antidemocratic ways in Kashmir have a long history. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell said in 1964, “The high idealism of the Indian government in international matters breaks down completely when confronted with the question of Kashmir.”

Jayaprakash Narayan, known as “The Second Gandhi of India,” confided to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1960, “We profess democracy but rule by force in Kashmir… [The Kashmir] problem exists not because Pakistan wants to grab Kashmir, but because there is deep and widespread political discontent among the people” (“Why we must listen to Jayaprakash Narayan on Kashmir”, Ramachandra Guha, Sept. 26, 2016, Hindustan Times).

George Fernandes (d. 2019), a former Federal Minister of Kashmir Affairs, stated at Harvard University’s [now Weatherhead] Center for International Affairs on Oct. 12, 1990, “In so far as the immediate situation in Kashmir is concerned, I feel that we need to go back to 1984, when an elected government was dismissed by Delhi. The dismissal of the government sent [a] signal to the people of Kashmir that any honest decision that they take in regard to the governance of the State could easily be set aside by the power that is in Delhi. Naturally, the anger against Delhi built up. In 1987, there could have been a fair election. Unfortunately, there was not. A lot of people were roughed up. A lot of young people were subjected to considerable humiliation. The Kashmiris felt that Delhi would prevent for all times any expression of people’s will in a fair and objective election. All this created among the youth a sense of total despondency and alienation.”

Rigged Elections

P. K. Dave, a former Chief Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Government, confessed in 1991 that, “Elections in Kashmir have been rigged from the beginning.”

Booker Prizewinner Arundhati Roy remarked on Sept. 27, 2009, “Elections in Kashmir have had a long and fascinating past. The blatantly rigged state election of 1987 was the immediate provocation for the armed upsrising that began in 1990. Since then, elections have become a finely honed instrument of military occupation, a sinister playground for India’s deep state. It is Intelligence agencies more than anyone else who decide what the outcome of each election will be. After every election, the Indian establishment declares that India has won a popular mandate from the people of Kashmir.”

In his “Twenty Tumultuous Years Insights into Indian Polity,” Shri Prakash writes, “The Kashmiri anger actually began with the mass rigging of elections in 1987…” (p.568;‎ Gyan Publishing House, 2003).

Amy Waldman wrote in the New York Times that “Rigged elections in Kashmir in 1987 helped trigger the armed uprising that India estimates has taken more than 35,000 lives” (Aug. 24, 2002).

The 1987 fraudulent elections extinguished the Kashmiris’ last flicker of hope that India would bow to the UNSC prescribed free and fair plebiscite.

The cure for counterfeit elections is providing genuine democratic articles. Thus, the Kashmiris are eager to participate in the referendum if it’s conducted with the trapping of free and fair choice, monitored, and supervised by a “neutral” agency like the UN.

The status of East Timor was resolved in 1999 by a free and fair vote of the population. The same, championed by the U.S. and the E.U. happened in Kosovo, Montenegro, and Southern Sudan. The solution to Kashmir’s indigenous upheaval is no different. The irresponsible coveting of dignity, liberty, and pride that comes with self-determination knows no territorial or regional boundaries.

The UNSC Resolution 122 of 1957 denounced the Indian elections subterfuge, reminding the concerned governments and authorities “of the principle embodied in its resolution that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the peoples’ will expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under UN auspices.

The resolution further elaborated that “the convening of a Constituent Assembly … and any action that Assembly may have taken or might attempt to take to determine the future shape and affiliation [of Kashmir]” would be no surrogate for Kashmiri self-determination.

The following steps need to be taken to make a referendum happen:

First, demilitarizing the state on either side of the ceasefire line.

Second, creating an atmosphere of peace and security.

Third, annulling all draconian laws, especially the Domicile Law, which is designed to change the state’s demography.

Fourth, releasing all political prisoners, including Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Masarat Aalam Bhat, Aasia Andrabi, Khurram Parvaiz, and others immediately and unconditionally.

Fifth, restoring the rights of peaceful association, assembly. and demonstrations.

Sixth, permitting the Kashmiri political resistance leadership to travel abroad without hindrance,

Seventh, satisfying the democratic principles, rule of law, and security for every Kashmiri, irrespective of religious affiliation.

Eighth, deputing an international and neutral team to conduct the referendum.

Kashmir’s suffering is a rebuke to the UN for its inaction. This decades-long situation is a call on the conscience of the UNSC’s members, particularly in the U.S.

A sincere and serious effort toward devising a just settlement must face and deal with the realities of the situation and fully respond to the people’s rights. Indeed, any process that ignores their wishes and is designed to sidetrack the UN will prove to be not only an exercise in futility, but also a source of incalculable human and political damage.

Ghulam Nabi Fai is secretary general, World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Washington, D.C. and chairman of the World Forum for Peace & Justice. He can be reached at [email protected], and www.kashmirawareness.org.

[Editor’s note: No sources were provided for some of the quotations, and therefore IH was unable to verify their accuracy.]

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The post Implementation of UN Resolutions Is Only Solution for Kashmir appeared first on Islamic Horizons.

By Tariq Ahmed

Sep/Oct 2024

Just about everyone who has not cloaked his/her head in the proverbial sand acknowledges that Kashmir’s political history is a litany of betrayal, manipulation, massive state-sponsored structural and militaristic crimes, as well as human rights violations. All this has been enacted by the rulers, politicians, political and military establishments and India’s nationalist media warriors against a hapless people demanding an end to the settler-colonial occupation of their land.

Repression, erasure, disempowerment, invisibilization, a devious combination of assimilationist and eliminationist strategies, along with dehumanization of the subaltern Kashmiri and appropriation of Kashmir’s history, have been foundational to and constitutive of India’s settler colonization project.

These violations, described by international legal luminaries as “crimes against humanity,” have surpassed the threshold of crimes under international law. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has observed, “Impunity for human rights violations and lack of access to justice are key human rights challenges in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.” 

Nonetheless, the international community has largely watched in silence, much as they have done in the case of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In unwitting ways, these amount to sanctioning India’s occupation of Kashmir and the genocide in Gaza. 

Kashmir’s landscape simmers with unease and indignant resignation. Military bunkers, concertina wires, unmarked mass graves, a panopticon of digital surveillance and militarized medical spaces and schools dot the landscape. The people’s memory is soaked with the countless rapes, killings, blinding, murders, tortures, disappearances and imprisonments.

Fear permeates every corner of people’s lives. Indian authorities have targeted human rights advocates, journalists, academics and civil society members in the occupied colony.

Its obsession with entrenching the occupation means that India shows no interest in a form of transitional justice that addresses the root causes of the long-standing discontent and ends egregious human rights violations and impunity for killing, maiming and silencing dissenters. A settlement-colonization enterprise cannot afford such concessions.

Several journalists — some of whom have won Pulitzer awards — have been detained, tortured or denied their right to travel abroad by confiscating and canceling their passports, as detailed in a recent report by the Kashmir Law and Justice project titled “They Should Be Beaten and Skinned Alive: The Final Phase of India’s War on Kashmir Civil Society” (March 21, 2024, https://www.kljp.org/).

The family of prominent human rights advocate Khurram Parvez has endured harassment and incessant house raids during his incarceration in India’s high-security prison. Listed among Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022, Parvez has been described as the “modern-day David” who has been “silenced, for his voice resounded around the globe for his fierce fight against human rights violations and injustices in the Kashmir region” (Rana Ayyub 

May 23, 2022, https://time.com). 

Several academics have been expelled from their university positions and incarcerated. Measures against academics and scholars include close surveillance, intimidation and harassment. For raising Kashmir at a conference 14 years ago, Dr. Sheikh Showkat (principal, Kashmir College of Law) was charged with sedition.

Public Safety Act

In what Haley Duschinski and Sankar Gosh have described as “occupational constitutionalism,” the ruling Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Modi has unashamedly politicized the law and legalized repression in Kashmir. The colonizing authorities have used several laws to suppress Kashmiris and justify repression, including the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA) and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA).

PSA is the primary tool used against dissenting voices to justify capricious and prolonged incarceration. Amnesty International describes it as “lawless law.” Military administrations use the AFSPA, the other equally brutal tool, as a sword and a shield to suppress dissent while shielding themselves from accountability. The law provides them with the cover of impunity.

 In contravention of international humanitarian and human rights laws, the state privileges AFSPA and PSA over India’s Protection of Human Rights Act (1993) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Detention without trial for two years under the PSA violates fundamental principles of justice such as equality before the law, formal charge sheets, due process and access to counsel. Those police and military personnel who misuse this instrument of suppression to win medals for killing dissidents are never held accountable.

 Athar, 16, along with two other civilians, was killed in a staged police encounter in December 2020. A counter-terrorism charge was filed against his parents and other family members when they demanded the deceased’s corpse.

 The military authorities are utilizing technology-assisted surveillance and predictive tools against Kashmiris as a means of force-multiplying their physical repression. They require that in businesses CCTV systems must be installed, filmed daily and submitted to authorities.

 With this unmistakable digital panopticon, the Kashmiris will be surveilled for alleged anti-Indian activities in public spaces and any mass mobilization attempts by people already besieged at gunpoint.

Amnesty International’s (AI) India office has been blatantly targeted by New Delhi for highlighting the human rights situation in India generally and Kashmir specifically. As a result of police intimidation and legal harassment, the UN Special Rapporteur asked India, among other things, to provide proof of allegations against AI, the legal basis for government action and demonstrate that the government will ensure human rights activists, including lawyers, operate in a conducive environment without fear of threats or acts of intimidation and harassment of any kind. 

Indian authorities have intimidated, harassed and detained Kashmiri poets and musicians. Despite being hunted by the government forces, these activists have chosen to go underground to continue making protest music.

 As India’s lawyer community shuns Kashmiri students across India, vigilante groups and law enforcement abuse, harass, intimidate and kill them equally brutally. Among the flimsiest charges against the students are their alleged or actual celebrations of Pakistan’s T20 World Cup victory over India.

Weaponized Media

 Weaponized media is the most incredible soft repression tool. The nationalist press reframes resistance as anti-national. Rather than deliver the facts as they are, allowing for a more neutral and in-depth analysis, the media manufactures the consent of unsuspecting Indians for military violence against Kashmiris by invoking terrorism and generating anti-Kashmiri and anti-Pakistan sentiment.

 Settler-colonial authorities have designated and then banned several resistance groups as unlawful associations. Labeling them as such is meant to stigmatize, discredit and delegitimize them, thereby undermining their recruitment and any attempts at mass mobilization.

As a result of this preemptive repression, paramilitary personnel defile, harass, watch, prohibit, detain, torture and kill members of such organizations to increase the costs of supporting resistance to Indian rule.

 In denial, the colonizing power uses police and army spokesmen as objective purveyors of the reality on the ground, minimizes Kashmiri political resistance and justifies dubiously legalistic and excessively militaristic retaliation as a legal response to the assumed “threatening law-and-order situation.” In Kashmir, any challenge to Indian hegemony is hideously portrayed as a threat to India’s national security and territorial integrity.

Despite what India would have the world believe, the petitioning of national security and preventive incarceration laws against Kashmiri dissenters is not an exceptional and extraordinary or extra-constitutional measure. These cherished cutting-edge tools with which they chisel the settler-colonial Hindu state are constitutive of and integral to their Brahminical colonial-settler enterprise.

Through its deceitful political maneuverings and brutal militaristic doctrine, the Kashmiri political-military establishment has elevated Kashmiris’ resentment to a point beyond repair. Court-sanctioned repression, glamorized by its cabal of anti-Kashmir and anti-Pakistan rhetoric in the media, has stifled all voices of colonized territories.

As Kashmiris are portrayed as pro-Pakistan (and therefore anti-Indian) agents, state-sponsored violence is justified. With its ever-evolving repressive regime, the state has lost its claimed moral authority to rule Kashmiri hearts and minds. 

India’s goal is to hold Kashmir forever, even if that means keeping it at gunpoint. The asymmetrical power relations in Kashmir make Kashmiris vulnerable to colonizers on all three levels: materially, mentally and physically. For them, a long haul is ahead. They are digging their heels in for now. 

Tariq Ahmed is a freelance writer.

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