Think! Think! Think: Every Human Being Would Seem A Living Introduction To The Creator

By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan for New Age Islam

06 January 2016

If a man were to emerge from out of a sealed-up cave all of a sudden, everyone would be completely astounded. They would think this to be some sort of very strange miracle.

An infant emerging from its mother’s womb is a similar sort of miracle. But even though people witness this event, they don’t think it to be anything extraordinary at all.

Why this difference? It is because rarely, if ever, does a man emerge from out of a sealed-up cave, while an infant emerging from a woman’s womb is an everyday thing. The latter is something that people have got used to. They take it for granted. They do not think it necessary to give it any thought at all.

If people were to really seriously reflect on the phenomenon of a child emerging from a woman’s womb, they would discover the existence of the Creator. When they see and deeply reflect on a living human being born, a being that can move, see, hear and make sounds, they would realise that every human being is a mobile sign of the Creator’s existence. Every human being would seem a living introduction to the Creator.

When a human being is born and comes into this world, he finds that there is an elaborate life-support system in place for him. This life-support system is so complete that it magnificently fulfills every need, small or big, of human beings. From the earth to the sun, everything in the world, without exception, is engaged in the service of man.

Then the day arrives when a person suddenly dies. Man desires eternal life, but generally within a hundred years he dies, against his will, leaving behind this world forever.

Every human being who comes into this world faces two things: first, life, and, after that, death.  If you seriously ponder on this, you will discover a really important reality—and that is, our receiving birth and coming into this world is not for us to be rewarded for something, but, rather, for us to be tested. Life in this world is a test, not a reward.

In this world, we humans have freewill. We have been given freewill in order to know who among us uses our freewill properly and who misuses it, or, in other words, who among us leads a principled life and who does not.

If you seriously think about the issue, you will discover that death actually is the day of our appearing before our Creator. We human beings are eternal beings, our lifespan being divided into two parts: the pre-death period, and the post-death period. The pre-death period is for us to be tested, while the post-death period is for us to be rewarded or punished, according to our previous record.

Today, we find ourselves in this world as living, conscious beings. When we die, we are taken away from this temporary world and are transferred into the next world, which is an eternal world.

This moment is sure to arrive for all of us. This is an unimaginably serious moment. In the post-death period of our lives we will still be the same beings, but all our possessions would have been left behind. Left behind forever, too, will be this world. And extending before us will be the eternal world where we will reach without any material possessions at all.

Wise is the person who prepares himself for that impending day.

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-spiritualism/maulana-wahiduddin-khan-for-new-age-islam/think!-think!-think--every-human-being-would-seem-a-living-introduction-to-the-creator/d/109623

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Mythology of Mother-Goddess among Muslims

By Rashid Samnakay, New Age Islam

06 January 2016

It is a well known fact that all communities have some concept of reverence attached to motherhood, often extending into ritual worship of female figure depicting fertility, nurture and being the source of propagation of mankind. Thus the female person, the woman, is worshiped as the life source.

Among Muslims this Hadith- Apocrypha is a popular quotation when discussing the place and status of the female as the mother and her motherhood status in some communities:-

“The Messenger Muhammad said: Your Jannah lies under the feet of your mother”. This Apocryphal report is attributed to Ahmad and Nasai among others. Though for many this Hadith is classified as ‘weak’ and by some others as ‘false’.

In spite of that, it is considered as an important statement by the Apostle Muhammad in this context, and is justified from many verses in Quran, but mainly from verse 4-1 as translated differently, by different translators of the Book.

The issue is the place and status of the female species accorded in Muslim society as a whole. Traditionally, culturally and religiously though, the female falls far short of the above reverential position of a goddess. Considering that the mother, who after all is a female person and in time may acquire motherhood, her treatment in society is anything but reverential and falls far short of even decent respect that the Book calls for her!

In many Muslim communities with their religious laws, the above statement that it ‘falls far short’ may be a gross understatement as seen from their practices! The treatment meted out to the female, is nothing short of inhuman, cruel and outright humiliating! It is like Spanish matadors and picadors torturing hornless bull to death.

These practices for the treatment of female are derived from the hearsay Apocryphal books and ancient and modern one-eyed and myopic translators of Quran. The present day or the so called modern scholars have and are, merely regurgitating their ancient predecessors. With many of them, the ancient imams and scholars are the ‘unquestionable authorities’, and therefore in present days too edicts are pronounced from so called higher institutions of learning and backyard rulers, endorsing these dehumanising Fatwas; often reported in the media shaming the nation.

At the very source the mythology associated with the creation of man and a woman – Adam and Hawaa is nothing but a fairy tale, as all myths are in their nature. Following the senior religions, for example humanity’s mother Eve- was extracted by god “from the ribs” of forefather Adam. This has no reference in the Book.

Not wishing to confuse the issue with the contentious aspect of brother/sister incestuous propagation of mankind from then on; may not one ask as to why did the Creator who in the first place had created Adam, could not have similarly created Eve, as a partner and playmate for Adam when he was lonely and bored to tears in paradise?  Why would He – the god, have put the poor soul Adam through the trauma of prolonged anaesthesia and the surgical operation? Based on this fairy tale therefore it should be the ‘fatherhood’ of Adam, the man which deserves the status of reverence as father god-figure since it was he who gave birth to Eve.

But Lo! The man of the mankind has latched on to this argument and established himself as the ‘god on earth’, at the immense cost to the earthly eves and mothers.

Frivolity aside, it is a serious issue. A society that believes in such Apocrypha and attributes it to a person who simultaneously is also held as an Apostle who reiterated the age-old established code for mankind not to worship any other god but God; should then propagate that paradise lies under the feet of the mother and further opine that if he the messenger of God, had been permitted, he would have asked women to worship men as god-on-earth. Alas! such ignorant communities do still exist in the world!

In the Book, it never singles out one parent against the other. Innumerable verses extol mankind to respect both parents, particularly in their old age. Unquestionable obedience to them is not part of it when the offspring is fully grown and mature to think and judge for itself. Apostle Abraham (Ibrahim) condemned his father on account of his idol worship. But in all circumstances respect, kindness, gratitude and protection to parents is a duty imposed on mankind:

31:14- And We have enjoined on mankind concerning its parents – mother bears the childbearing trauma upon trauma and the (child’s) weaning takes two years – saying: give thanks to Me (God) and to your parents. To Me is your eventual return.

The physical pain and trauma endured by the mother – the woman -- is highlighted to impress upon the child what the mother, in her motherhood suffers for it to come in the world. She being burdened by this natural handicap, the male of mankind is equitably burdened to protect and provide for her 4-34. But not to worship her as a deity.

Worship in obedience is only due to the Creator; which in religious teachings and edicts of the churches and religious professionals has lost its meaning and essence.

As one Urdu poet had begged the operatives of the ‘church’:

تُجھے مذھب مٹانا ہی پڑٰیگا رُوۓ ہستی سے

تیرے ہاتھوں بہت توہینِ آدم ہوتی جاتی ہے!

You have to eliminate religion from the face of the earth—(for) at your hands mankind is suffering gross humiliation!

The lower status of female in most communities is common, but among Muslims has deteriorated to such an extent that to elaborate on it would cause any thinking person to sweat with shame. This is despite them making ad nauseam claim that Islam via Quran has given womankind the equality, equity and status in the society that no other community has. It is a deafeningly hollow claim as is seen from their practices!

The list of contradictions to the Book by Muslim nation is miles long. Some of the items on it are common to other communities but the most shameful ones are ascribed to Muslims. One such example is …… no it is not honour killing, yet more embarrassingly one to “wash the dirty linen in public” and refer to it:-

‘Halala’ practice, as it is the one practice that engulfs the whole family. The divorced woman, who seeks to re-unite with her former husband, who is most likely a mother by then, and therefore the Garden of Eden – Jannah, is under her feet. God forbid if this goddess wishes to go through the religious edict to re-unite with her former husband she has to commit the sin of prostituting herself for one-night-stand and get divorced the next morning, at the hands of a professional or a religious Halala priest; who most piously performs his sin in the name of Allah; the exclusive deity he thinks sanctifies all such sins as holy.

All the while the children of the unfortunate mother-goddess suffer the humiliation in silence along with their father.

The noble institution of marriage that was the cause of raising the woman to the status of goddess, under whose feet lies the Jannah, that same institution is now used by their religion to grind her personality in dirt, and not only of the unfortunate mother but the honor of the whole family – the father, the children and all those associated with the sordid event.

A nation that enacts and obeys such inhuman religious laws is not fit to be included in the community of human beings. So is there any hope for recovery for such a degenerate nation? May be 4-150,151 of the Book can answer that.

One can only take solace in a poet’s lament on being humiliated in love affair:

نِکلنا  خُلد  سے آدم  کا  سُنتے آۓ ہیں  لیکن

بڑے بے آبرو ہو کر تیرے کوچے سے ہم نِکلے

We hear of the expulsion of Adam from the paradise—yet it is with the greatest humiliation we depart from your neighbourhood!

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A regular contributor to New Age Islam, Rashid Samnakay is a (Retd.) Engineer

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/rashid-samnakay,-new-age-islam/mythology-of-mother-goddess-among-muslims/d/109624

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Thinking In Stories: Problem Of A Fundamentalist Reading

By Tabish Khair

January 04, 2017

Say the word ‘thinking’, and the image evoked is that of abstract ideas, facts, numbers and data. But what if I say that this is our first and most common error about the nature of thinking? As religions have always known, human thinking is conducted primarily in stories, not facts or numbers.

Human beings might be the only living animals that can think in stories. Facts and information of some sort exist for a deer and a wolf too, but fiction, and thinking in fiction?

Now, stories are celebrated for many things: as repositories of folk knowledge or accumulated wisdom, as relief from the human condition, as entertainment, as enabling some cognitivist processes, even as the best way to get yourself and your children to fall asleep! But all this misses the main point about stories: they are the most common, most pervasive, and probably the oldest way for humans to think.

Problem Of A Fundamentalist Reading

Having missed this point, we then proceed to reduce stories — and their most complex enunciation, literature — to much less than what they are or should be. For instance, a good story is not just a narrative. It does not simply take us from point A to point Z, with perhaps an easy moral appended. Religious fundamentalists who see stories only in those terms end up destroying the essence of their religions.

Let us take one example: the Book of Job. The fundamentalist reading of the Book of Job stresses Job’s faith. In this version, the story is simple: Job is a prosperous, God-fearing man, and God is very proud of him. Satan, however, argues that Job is such a good man only because God has been kind to him. Give him adversity and you will see his faith waver, says Satan. God allows Satan to test Job, by depriving him of prosperity, family, health. But Job’s faith does not waver, and finally all is restored to him. The fundamentalist reading — which reduces the story to a narrative — is simple: this is a parable about true faith.

To leave the Book of Job there is to stop thinking about it. Because the narrative of Job is secondary to its problematic. One can even argue that the narrative is misleading: in the restoration of Job’s children, health and wealth, we have a resolution that fails in our terms. We do not expect such miracles in real life. Hence, it is not the narrative of Job that is significant.

What is significant and useful are the problems of the story. For instance, when the righteous, believing Job is afflicted with death and suffering, such questions are raised (in the story and by Job’s friends): Who is to be blamed? Is God unjust or uncaring? Has Job sinned in hiding (or ignorance) and is therefore being punished? Does it all make any sense?

Job adopts a difficult position throughout the story: among other things, he neither blames God, nor does he blame himself, but he demands an answer. When one thinks of this, one comes to the kernel of the thought of this story: how does one live best in a world where undeserved suffering sometimes befalls the good? It is not the unbelievable narrative which makes this a significant story; it is the way Job’s reactions, his friends’ prescriptions and the problematic of the entire story make us think. Moreover, as God’s incomplete ‘answers’ to Job indicate, stories can make us think in very complex ways.

Religions have always known that human beings think best and most easily in stories. That is why religions consciously think through stories: the ‘facts’ and ‘details’ of these stories change with changing human circumstances, but what does not change is the bid and ability to make us contemplate, imagine, reason, induce, examine — in other words, think.

Strangely, politicians have also known this. All major political movements have depended on the power of stories. In the decades when the Left was on the ascendency, it had a powerful story to tell — of human exploitation, human resistance and eventually human achievement in the shape of a ‘classless’ society. In recent years, the Right has managed to tell us stories that, for various reasons, seem more convincing to many: inevitable state-aided neo-liberalism, for instance. Narendra Modi’s victory in India, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s in Turkey, and Donald Trump’s in the U.S. — all three are driven by powerful narratives that explain the ‘past’ and promise a ‘future.’

Failure Of Academics

Unfortunately, the one area where thinking in stories was taken seriously — and not just reduced to mechanistic explanations — has lost confidence in itself. The Humanities have been too busy trying to justify stories in all possible terms — entertainment, discourse, narratology, cognitivist structures, reader response, etc. — instead of working on how to best think in stories. The total failure of academics, publishers and editors to talk of literature as literature — not just what sells, or a set of ‘reader responses’, or a soporific, or passing politics, or ageless ‘Darwinism,’ etc. — is an index of this failure.

The so-called post-truth society is not primarily the result of our inability to focus on facts; it is due to our failure to read stories deeply. Just as there are ways in which facts can be used positively or negatively, there are ways in which stories can be read — to make us think or to prevent us from thinking. Literature — even in the days when it was written with a capital ‘L’ — was the one area of the Humanities where this was a serious endeavour. This has changed at great cost to human civilisation.

Humans still think primarily in stories. But the failure of standards in education and literary criticism has combined with the rise of fundamentalism (which is not piety or religious thought), scientism (which is not science) and numerical neo-liberalism (which is not even capitalism) to deprive more and more people of the ability to think critically, deeply and sensitively in stories. This explains many of our current political and economic woes.

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Tabish Khair is an Indian novelist and academic who teaches in Denmark.

Source: thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/Thinking-in-stories/article16983832.ece

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/tabish-khair/thinking-in-stories--problem-of-a-fundamentalist-reading/d/109604

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The Excellence And Might Of The Night Prayers

The Muslim Vibe

28 December 2016

It goes under may names, depending on the traditions (hadiths) you wish to address but the goal is one; to rise in the middle of the night and to remember your Lord during the hours where everyone else is asleep.

“And from [part of] the night, pray beyond what is incumbent on you; maybe your lord will raise you to a position of great glory.” – Surat al Isra, Verse 79.

Realistically, it may prove to be difficult to do so at times, particularly in the summer where the nights are short, and we have to juggle work, family and general life commitments along side our religions duties. However, “Allah does not impose upon any soul a duty that it cannot bear.” (2:286) With this, what are the rewards and benefits of making that commitment and waking up in the night?

The Most Beloved Of Actions:

Narrated Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin Al-‘As: “Allah’s Apostle told me, “The most beloved prayer to Allah is that of David and the most beloved fasts to Allah are those of David. He used to sleep for half of the night and then pray for one third of the night and again sleep for its sixth part and used to fast on alternate days.” – Sahih Bukhari: Volume 2, Book 21, Number 231

In The Words Of Allah (Swt):

Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) has said: “The reward of every good action that a person with true faith performs has been mentioned in the Quran, except for Salatul Layl, since due to the importance (and high status) of it, Allah (SWT) has not explicitly mentioned it and has only said the following (in regards to it): “Those who forsake their beds to cry unto their Lord in fear and hope, and spend out of that which We have bestowed upon them.” Surah as-Sajdah (32:16)

The Most Beloved Of Actions:

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) has said: “Two raka’ats of prayer recited in the darkness of the night are more beloved to me than the world and all that’s in it.” – Biharul Anwar: Volume 87, p. 152

Praying Together For Great Reward:

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) has said: “If a man waked his wife and orays during the night, or they pray two rak’ats together, they will be recorded among those who constantly make remembrance of Allah (swt).” – Sunan Abu Dawud

The Time For Prayer:

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) has said: “Indeed Allah added a prayer for you, it is Witr (Witr is one of the names for Tahajjud), so pray it between Isha and Fajr.” – Shaikh al-Albanee: Al-Saheehah, p. 108

Reasons For Not Praying It:

The commander of the faithful (peace be upon him) has said: “Committing sins is one of the reasons for one to be unsuccessful in the performance of Salatul Layl.” – Biharul Anwar: Volume 87, p. 152

The 24 Benefits:

Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq quotes Imam Ali (as) as saying that the Prophet (saws) said that a person who prays Salatul-Layl gets the following twenty-four kinds of benefits:

Secures Allah’s pleasure.

Makes friendship with Angels.

Is the Sunnat of the Prophets (a.s.)

Provides the means to pursue knowledge.

Constitutes the root of our faith.

Keeps one physically fit.

Drives Shaytan away.

Protects one from enemies.

Serves as a means of acceptance of one’s Duas and good deeds.

Increases one’s livelihood.

Intercedes with the Angel of Death.

Lights up the grave.

Provides comfortable bedding in the grave.

Helps answering with ease the questioning of Munkar and Nakir in the grave.

Gives companionship in the grave.

Provides shelter on the Day of Judgment.

Crowns one on the Day of Reckoning.

Clothes one on the Day of Resurrection.

Provides one with light on the Day of Judgment.

Forms a barrier against the fire of Hell.

Gets Allah’s pardon on the Day of Judgment.

Increases the weight of good deeds on the scale.

Helps one crossing the Bridge of “Siraat” without any difficulty.

Forms the key to the Paradise.

Source: themuslimvibe.com/faith-islam/the-excellence-and-might-of-the-night-prayers

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-spiritualism/the-muslim-vibe/the-excellence-and-might-of-the-night-prayers/d/109605

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Divorce And Workingwomen

By Samar Al-Mogren

Jan 5, 2017

A REPORT issued recently by the General Authority for Statistics showed a 72.9 percent increase in the divorce rate among workingwomen.

This means that the highest percentage of divorce in the country is among employed women. It is strange that one of the local newspapers has attributed this high percentage of divorce to women’s work.

I believe anyone who blames women’s work as the cause for this high percentage of divorce is facing the issue with a very shallow mindset.

Whoever tries to ponder on the issue from different angles to see the real causes will find that the matter is much deeper than women’s work.

It is easy to see an attempt to make women’s employment a scapegoat and blame workingwomen for all the illnesses in society.

First among these is the institution of marriage, its components and methods. Statistics also indicate that the determinants of this institution in our society are a total failure.

Divorce in itself is not a failure as much as the absence of any serious and positive efforts to stop a failure. Actually, the real failure is in continuing a tattered marital life due to fear for others, including children or the extended family. This is despite the fact that continuing a failed marital life is the one that will have a negative impact on those around the couple than a divorce.

Returning to the subject of high divorce rate among workingwomen, I see that a woman’s economic independence and the rise in the level of awareness and education have made a woman refuse to live a half-life with a man she does not love. Even greater awareness among men makes them refuse to continue an uncomfortable marital life. Both parties or one of them has the right to put an end to this tragedy.

Women used to continue a half-life due to social considerations because society looks down on a divorced woman. Society has changed and the level of awareness has risen. In my opinion, society no longer treats a divorced woman with aversion because she is not a burden on others. Now she can bear her own economic responsibilities and those of her children. So long as she is not a burden on others, she is safe. Other members of society will not look down on a divorcee as they used to do in the past.

Economic empowerment of women has granted them social empowerment as well. This has qualified a woman to make decisions on her life. She is now capable of deciding her future – whether to continue a marital life or decide to separate from a man with whom life has become unbearable. It is her job that has enabled her to win this status.

This contradicts some of the opinions published in several newspapers in reaction to the statistics. These strange viewpoints are no longer in tandem with the phase we are going though because they consider a woman’s job to be a cause for her inability to fulfill her marital duties.

If we take a quick look at conditions in our society, we can see with our naked eyes where the negligence takes place: The husband is swaying between negligence of his duties and staying up the nights in the courtyards of rest-houses.

Meanwhile, a workingwoman with prick of conscience strives to compensate for her period of absence from her family.

However, I am not absolving all women here. The way men have shortcomings, women have shortcomings too. But in general and as we usually hear and see, it is men who are the negligent party.

Marriage is a holy relationship. If one of its pillars is violated, then separation remains the best, most courageous and safest option.

Source: saudigazette.com.sa/opinion/local-viewpoint/divorce-and-workingwomen/

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/samar-al-mogren/divorce-and-workingwomen/d/109606

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The Istanbul Attack Marks A New Age Of Terror In Turkey

By Yavuz Baydar

4 January 2017

The heinous terror attack in the heart of Istanbul, targeting more than 500 guests celebrating New Year’s Eve in a popular nightclub on the Bosphorus, marked the peak of a series of massacres that has shaken Turkey to its core over the past year. These have partly been attacks against security forces claimed by offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK); and partly attacks by jihadi groups, imported from Syria.

The bloodbath has now been claimed by Islamic State. But – and it is a big but – there was a particular significance to the target. Jihadi terror has previously targeted Kurds, Alevis and leftists in Turkey, leaving hundreds dead. But, for the first time, a venue representing the secular lifestyle of the urban upper-middle classes was chosen. And the attack came at a critical time when Turkey’s ruling AKP party had made the basic secular tenet of republican Turkey vulnerable.

Weeks before New Year’s Eve, banners were hung by pro-government Islamist organisations in Turkey’s cities, telling people that “Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas”, followed by photos depicting groups of young men in local dress, chasing Santa Claus with guns and knives.

The icing on the cake was the sermon by Turkey’s powerful directorate of religious affairs (Diyanet) – which represents the pious Sunni majority (roughly 70% of Turkey’s population), though it is financed by all taxpayers.

The statement told Turks not to waste money on new year celebrations. Secular Turks saw it as an undue intrusion on their lifestyles. But the sermon had already encouraged widespread hate speech on social media in the final days of 2016, including death threats towards those planning to celebrate New Year’s Eve. (For this reason, Mehmet Sönmez, the head of Diyanet, is now being asked to resign by the pro-Kurdish HDP party for “incitement to hatred”, probably to no avail.)

Remarkably, no minister or bureaucrat has resigned; nor were any removed from their posts, despite the fact that the death toll of the seemingly endless series of terror attacks since July 2015 – when the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan terminated peace talks with the PKK Kurdish militant group in reaction to PKK-linked violence – has risen to nearly 1,800, out of which more than 600 are civilians. The government’s arrogant disregard of calls for resignations raises suspicions that the AKP will never leave power peacefully, adding to the tension felt by many Turkish people.

While Turkey has seen several mass killings over the past 18 months, it was during the second half of 2016 that the acts of terror somehow became routine: while the PKK targeted security forces en masse, jihadi terror crept into major urban areas. The pattern clearly shows that the state’s intelligence network is now at its weakest.

Observers claim there is a correlation with a massive purge of the security apparatus that Erdoğan launched before the failed coup of July 2015. The ruling AKP blamed that exclusively on military officers affiliated with Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive cleric based in Pennsylvania, although outside experts largely question this official narrative. This “institutional cleansing” of otherwise highly qualified officers who were indiscriminately labelled as Gülenists led to hasty replacements. The suspicions are that their posts were filled by recruits sympathetic to jihadi movements, or, at best, people unqualified for the job. The Turkish state’s security deficit leaves the country vulnerable to further acts of destruction.

The terror in Istanbul left few in doubt over the connection with Syria. Less than 24 hours after the massacre, it was Numan Kurtulmuş, the deputy prime minister and spokesman of the AKP government, who said: “It is a message against Turkish cross-border operations. The operations in Syria obviously stirred unease among terror organisations. We will take measures at home and across the border.”

The deadly equation is apparent. Once seen as a “regime changer” in Syria, Turkey has long been far too supportive of murky elements of radical Islamism, partly in an attempt to realise a neo-Ottoman dream of turning Syria into a Sunni-dominated hinterland and partly to use them in a combat to prevent Syrian Kurds to establish autonomy on the Turkey-Syrian border. And now, Turkey has fully reversed its Syria policy, ceasing its logistical support for the Syrian opposition to Bashar al-Assad, as a result of shrewd Russian moves and the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara.

Turkey will inevitably come into greater conflict with Isis and al-Qaida elements from now on. Murder in Ankara and the bloodbath in Istanbul may only be overtures that tear apart Turkey’s already explosive social faultlines. The battle of al-Bab, and the imminent siege of Idlib, both very close to the Turkish border, promise more trouble ahead.

Source: theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/04/istanbul-attack-terror-turkey-erdogan-syria-jihadi

URL:  http://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/yavuz-baydar/the-istanbul-attack-marks-a-new-age-of-terror-in-turkey/d/109607

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Erdogan Finds Himself Besieged On Many Fronts

By Mahir Ali

January 5, 2017

The heinous bloodbath at a swanky nightclub on the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul brought what had already been a terrible year for Turkey to an exceptionally brutal conclusion.

It was a year peppered with terrorist attacks, but its centrepiece was arguably a coup attempt in July that apparently came close to succeeding, followed by a sweeping wave of state repression that has deepened fractures in Turkish society amid shifting allegiances on the Syrian front that have resulted in a Nato stalwart effectively allying itself with Russia.

If the idea behind the assassination a fortnight ago of the Russian ambassador to Turkey was to precipitate a stand-off between Moscow and Ankara, it has predictably failed. The assassin, an off-duty policeman, was killed immediately afterwards, so his precise motivations may never be known, but his “Remember Aleppo!” slogan while performing his dastardly act offers obvious pointers.

Syria’s largest city was recently wrested from rebel control by forces allied to the government of Bashar al-Assad, with the Russians and Iranians instrumental in producing this result. It has been claimed that Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped out by persuading his Islamist allies among the Syrian rebels to facilitate the evacuation of eastern Aleppo.

The Erdogan government was involved in the Syrian conflict long before its troops directly stepped in, and its assistance to Islamist factions included turning a blind eye to international recruits — many of them attracted by the militant Islamic State group — entering the war-torn country through the Turkish border. ISIS turned against Turkey once this route became a lot more restricted, and after Ankara had second thoughts about its initial refusal to permit American and other Nato forces to use Turkish bases as a launching pad for airstrikes against IS on Syrian territory.

Turkey’s relations with the US have frayed markedly since the abortive coup in July, partly over Washington’s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of having masterminded the attempt to overthrow his former ally Erdogan. Whether the advent of the Trump administration will improve relations remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Turkey had visibly bristled at Russia’s intervention in Syria on behalf of Assad, and things came to a head after its forces shot down a Russian warplane that had allegedly strayed into Turkish airspace. Vladimir Putin resisted any temptation he may have had to ramp up the confrontation, instead using the incident as a lever to forge an unlikely informal alliance that had the twin advantage of facilitating his aims in Syria while driving a wedge between leading Nato members.

It was thus Russia and Turkey, alongside Iran, that jointly announced a truce in Syria shortly before the Istanbul atrocity, and successfully sought the imprimatur of the UN. The cessation of hostilities does not include ISIS, and is anyhow not expected to last very long, but it apparently does cover Al Nusra, an organisation once formally allied with Al Qaeda that has played a key role in the rebellion against Assad and enjoyed Turkish favours in the bargain, but is also likely to have borne the brunt of Russian bombing campaigns.

By some accounts, the primary purpose of Erdogan’s Syrian adventure has always been to forestall the likelihood of a de facto Kurdish state on Turkey’s border, and he strove hard to prevent Turkish Kurds from aiding their Syrian comrades. A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) broke down in 2015, and the latter claimed responsibility for some of last year’s terrorist attacks, directed chiefly against security forces — the PKK claims not to target civilians and roundly condemned the Reina nightclub massacre.

The Americans have heeded some of Erdogan’s concerns while broadly backing the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in their fight against ISIS (and potentially Assad). But then the US strategy in Syria has anyhow been all over the place, and last month’s truce announcement conspicuously excluded Washington, demonstrating the extent to which it has been sidelined.

Turkey under Erdogan, meanwhile, finds itself besieged on three fronts — by the Gulenists, Kurds and ISIS, which belatedly claimed responsibility for the 39 deaths and dozens of injuries at the Reina nightclub.

The president’s reaction to Turkey’s multiple woes has largely revolved around clamping down on all dissent and extending the breadth and depth of his autocracy, blaming everyone but his own often contradictory policies for all that is going horribly wrong in a nation that not long ago seriously aspired to become a fully fledged European state but has lately been sucked right back into the Middle Eastern cauldron, with its present blighted and its future increasingly uncertain.

Source: dawn.com/news/1306194/whither-turkey

URL: URL: http://www.newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/mahir-ali/erdogan-finds-himself-besieged-on-many-fronts/d/109608

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Trials By Terror: The Vulnerable Often Face Fake Charges, Leaving Them To Fight State Might Alone

By Jyoti Punwani

January 4, 2017

Imagine the feelings of the two ex-informers of the Intelligence Bureau on being acquitted last month of terror charges — eight years after the CBI itself had exonerated them. Those eight years were spent fighting appeals, right up to the Supreme Court, by the Delhi special cell which had arrested them. Finally, despite the clean chit by the country’s premier investigative agency, Irshad Ali and Mauruf Qamar had to face a full trial.

In Maharashtra, the government, backing its Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), appealed against the discharge of eight men framed for a crime committed by others who owned up to it. The eight Muslims discharged in April from the offence of perpetrating the 2006 Malegaon blasts must again undergo the trauma of appearing in court as terror-accused.

In both cases, severe injustice has been done to innocents. Arrested in 2005, ex-IB informer Irshad Ali had, in a detailed letter to the PM written in 2007, outlined how the IB traps young Muslims by planting fake “maulanas” in their ghettoes. No one contradicted his letter. The CBI confirmed that he and Qamar were framed only because they refused to obey the IB.

Malegaon’s Muslim accused were cleared only after Swami Aseemanand, in widely-reported confessions made voluntarily, revealed that his team of Hindus had apparently carried out the 2006 Malegaon blasts. The blasts were investigated first by Maharashtra’s ATS, then the CBI, finally the NIA, which gave a clean chit to the Muslim accused, based on Aseemanand’s confessions, arresting four Hindus.

But it was only six years after the Swami’s confessions that the Muslim accused were discharged. They had to spend a decade branded as terrorists, before a special court dismissed the ATS story that they had bombed a Muslim cemetery to cause riots. It seemed “highly impossible that they would have decided to kill their own people,” said Judge V.V. Patil. The accused had been “made scapegoats,” he said.

Their discharge conforms to the pattern; most persons arrested by Maharashtra’s ATS since its formation in 2004 walk free. But this case took a curious turn after the BJP came to power in the Centre and Maharashtra. The NIA, despite having given the accused a clean chit, began opposing their discharge. But the special judge found no “prima facie evidence of commission of the alleged offence.” Even the CBI admitted in court, three years after it took over the investigation, that it had found no evidence. It wasn’t just Swami Aseemanand’s confession that exonerated the accused. Even the families of the 37 Muslims killed in the blasts, and Malegaon’s Shiv Sena leader, vouched for their innocence. At least two had strong alibis — one was in police custody, another at a wedding 500 km away.

Recently, another set of accused arrested by the Maharashtra ATS were acquitted. Four Hindus charged with throwing bombs in 2003 on a mosque in Parbhani, which killed one, injured 35 and sparked off a riot, were acquitted in August for lack of evidence.

But, in this case, the government did not appeal. Its unusual decision is explained when one reads the orders passed by the court over the trial. They criticise the prosecution for “dragging its feet; making a mockery of the court proceedings; either deliberately attempting to derail the conduct of the trial in this very old matter or (not being) interested in going ahead.” Now, the original complainant, the imam of the bombed mosque, has appealed against their acquittal. Will he succeed? Not likely, going by previous experience.

Anti-terror outfits have repeatedly framed innocents. Despite that, governments, whether Congress or BJP, keep backing these outfits — but only when those framed are Muslim, not Hindu. Irshad Ali and Mauruf Qamar, please note.

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Jyoti Punwani is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist

Source: indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/malegaon-blast-2006-muslim-fake-charges-arrest-ats-maharashtra-4457674/

URL: URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-politics/jyoti-punwani/trials-by-terror--the-vulnerable-often-face-fake-charges,-leaving-them-to-fight-state-might-alone/d/109609

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In the Name of Allah: Thou Shalt Not Treat Women as Equals, says The Sultan of Sokoto

The film shows women in full-face niqabs defying tradition as they enjoy activities like roller blading and riding scooters

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Saudi Arabian Women Release Video Mocking Kingdom's Driving Laws

Evening Courts To Marry Women Without Male Guardians In Saudi Arabia

Pakistan Begins Process to Legalize Hindu Marriages

Female Journalists Face Gendered Forms Of Surveillance In Pakistan, Study Finds

Muslim Woman Walking In UK City Told To Take Her Veil Off And 'Go Back To Your Own Country'

Arab Refugee Women In Germany Torn Over Romantic Relationships

Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/new-age-islam-news-bureau/in-the-name-of-allah--thou-shalt-not-treat-women-as-equals,-says-the-sultan-of-sokoto/d/109613

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In the Name of Allah: Thou Shalt Not Treat Women as Equals, says The Sultan of Sokoto

4th January 2017

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar (111), has made it clear that hatred, inequity, injustice and discrimination against women define the Islamic establishment, which he represents in Nigeria. This was evident in his reaction to the gender equality bill that is currently going through the legislative process at the Senate.

For some time now, there has been an ongoing debate on the status of women in Islam or under sharia law in Nigeria. There have been conflicting views and opinions on the issue. This debate, often provoked by issues regarding family inheritance and marriage in Muslim majority states, has led to confusion as to whether men and women are equal in Islam or if Muslim men are more equal than women under sharia.

However, the Sultan of Sokoto seemed to have sealed this debate. He has actually resolved the controversy. The Sultan of Sokoto has made it clear that it was against the religion of Islam to treat men and women equally. Otherwise, how else would one interpret the outrageous remarks of this head of Muslims in Nigeria on the gender equality bill and his stiff opposition to its enactment as law?

First of all, let us take a look at the provisions under this bill. The bill seeks equal inheritance for men and women. That means female children will not be discriminated against in sharing family property or wealth. It also ensures a widow’s custody of the children unless such a measure conflicts with the interest and well-being of the children.

The bill also permits widows to remarry if they so choose, and women also have the option of living in the home of their late husband. Widows are also entitled to a ‘fair share’ of their late husband’s property.

Now, what is wrong with these provisions that any enlightened practitioner of religion, nay Islam, should oppose them? The Sultan, in his reaction, stated that the bill was “against” Islamic religion and that Muslims would not accept it. But, if I may ask, what is against Islam in this bill? Equal inheritance for women?

Is he saying what is in accord with Islam is inequality and discrimination against women? Should muslims really accept this?

The Sultan further stated that Islam is “our total way of life” and that they would not accept a change of those supposed edicts that Allah himself had provisioned them with.

No one disputes the fact that Islam informs the way Sultan Abubakar 111 and other muslims live, of course. But, and here is what confuses me most, when he said that nobody should alter what Allah had decreed, what did he mean?

Did he mean that Allah permitted discrimination against women and girls in Islam? Can a spirit determine what human beings do? Except for self-styled spokespersons such as the Sultan, has Allah the capacity to dictate or decree how women and girls should be treated or what they should inherit?

The Sultan of Sokoto should stop using the name of Allah to sanction gender inequality and injustice. He should desist from employing the idiom of Allah to legitimise his misogynistic viewpoints and then use such oppressive Islamic formation to undermine a bill that would empower women, and guarantee liberty and justice for all.

I mean, Mr Sultan, why are you afraid of gender equality? What do you stand to lose if women and men are treated equally in all areas of human endeavour? How does discrimination against women dignify you and your Islam?

In addition, the Sultan went further to identify his hateful, discriminatory and anti-woman Islam as a ‘peaceful religion’. Peaceful religion?

Now, Mr. Sultan, do you really understand what a peaceful religion is? Look, justice is a prerequisite for peace, and your misogynistic version of Islam cannot bring or ensure peace among Muslims because it is a form of war against women and against universal human rights. Your version of Islam is ideologically compatible with that of the Boko Haram.

In fact, your position on women’s rights as shown in your reactions to the gender equality bill is extreme, and does worse harm and violence to the dignity and wellbeing of women and girls.

I therefore urge all progressively minded Muslims to speak out against Sultan Abubakar’s misogynistic version of Islam, his opposition to equal inheritance for men and women, and to rally support for a bill that ensures gender equity and justice for all in Nigeria.

http://www.conatusnews.com/-in-the-name-of-allah--thou-shalt-not-treat-women-as-equals-.html

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Saudi Arabian women release video mocking kingdom's driving laws

Jan 5, 2017

Since it premiered online last month, the music video “Hwages” has been viewed more than 2 million times and has become the subject of widespread debate in Saudi Arabia — as well as considerable celebration.

Take a look for yourself and it is clear why.

Not only is the song catchy, the accompanying video, created by director Majed al-Esa of the Saudi production company 8ies Studios, features a group of charismatic women skateboarding, playing basketball, driving bumper cars and much more. At the same time, they wear brightly coloured sneakers and fashionable dresses under their traditional black niqabs.

The song seems lighthearted, but its lyrics make a sharp point. “Hwages” — which roughly translates as “concerns” — is based on an older folk song, which features lyrics such as “may all men sink into oblivion.” In 2014, a video of niqab-wearing women dancing in a silly manner to the song went viral in the Arab world.

The new video, however, takes the political message a step further.

Perhaps the most obvious reference comes at the start of the video, when the women pile into the back of an SUV while a young boy takes the wheel. In Saudi Arabia, of course, women are largely prohibited from driving and are unable to obtain driving licences. Although some women, especially members of Bedouin communities and those in the southern provinces, do drive anyway, the issue has become a touchstone forwomen's rights in the country.

The video also emphasises the hypocrisy of disapproving Saudi men, who can drive freely and travel abroad as they wish. There are also references to President-elect Donald Trump, who leads what the video refers to as a “House of Men.”

“Hwages” has earned high praise from some parts of the Saudi establishment. Shortly after the video was released Dec. 23, Amera al-Taweel, the 33-year-old ex-wife of prominent Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, shared the video on her Twitter account. Later, one of the oldest newspapers in the country, Al-Bilad, offered its own praise for the video, noting that “the new generation of women is different from the past.”

On social media, many praised the song.

The video is just the latest big viral success for Esa and 8ies Studios. Late last year, he released a video called “Barbs” — “untidy” or “messy” in a Saudi dialect — which launched a huge dance craze in the Arab world, even leading to the arrest of two in Abu Dhabi who uploaded a video of their own that showed them dancing in military uniform. That video has been viewed almost 38 million times.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/saudi-arabia-ban-on-women-driving-video-mocking-law-hwages-a7510371.html

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Evening Courts To Marry Women Without Male Guardians In Saudi Arabia

Jan 5, 2017

RIYADH — Justice Minister Walid Al-Samaan, who is the chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), approved a proposal by the council asking courts to hold special evening sessions to marry women who are without male guardians or those who have been subjected to Adl (refusal of marriage by the male guardian).

Press reports on Wednesday said the minister sent a circular on the proposal to the family affairs courts all over the Kingdom.

He said a number of judges pointed out that many bridegrooms felt embarrassed to conclude marriage contracts with such women in public view and preferred the greater privacy of court sessions in the evenings.

The minister said if the bridegroom requested a special evening session, the chairman of the court should appoint a judge to come in the evening for the purpose.

He said the proposal was made to the Supreme Judicial Council by a number of judges who participated in a program for domestic violence held recently in Riyadh.

According to the ministry’s sources, courts in the Kingdom last year documented a total of 10,223 marriage contracts for women who had no male guardians or who were prevented from getting married by their guardians.

They said the marriage contracts for women without male guardians constituted about 6.7 percent of a total of 152,627 marriage contacts concluded last year.

The sources said Makkah with 6,959 contracts had the highest number of marriage contracts concluded without male guardians, followed by Riyadh with 1,233 and Jazan 835.

They said there were 463 such contracts in Najran, 293 in Asir, 207 in Madinah, 45 in Qassim, 153 in the Eastern Province, 21 in Hail, five in Baha, three in Al-Jouf and two in Tabuk.

http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/evening-courts-marry-women-without-male-guardians/

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Pakistan Begins Process to Legalize Hindu Marriages

4 Jan 2017

A Senate panel in Muslim-majority Pakistan has unanimously approved a piece of legislation this week that brings an anticipated Hindu Marriage bill inches closer to enactment.

Earlier in September, the lower house — known as the Natio­nal Assembly, where the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party commands a majority — approved the Hindu Marriage Bill 2016, thus setting the groundwork for the adoption of a comprehensive and widely-acceptable family law for Hindus living in Pakistan.

Now, a panel in the upper house, the Senate, has approved the bill, paving the way for its presentation before the full Senate.

Essentially, the bill is “considered as a comprehensive and widely-acceptable family law for Hindus living in Pakistan, the bill will enable the Hindu community to get their marriages registered and to appeal in courts of law in cases of separation,” reports the Indian Express.

The bill will enable the Hindu community to get their marriages registered and to appeal in courts of law in cases of separation.

There are penalties for violating the provisions of the bill, which allows  Hindus to finally have a proof of marriage document called the shadiparat, similar to the nikahnama for Muslims.

The bill also allows separated Hindu persons to remarry. Clause 17 of the bill states that a Hindu widow “shall have the right to re-marry of her own will and consent after the death of her husband provided a period of six months has lapsed after the husband’s death.”

As with practically any other law, the bill contains some sort of directive.

“Today, we are proud to be Hindu Pakistanis after the approval of the bill. Hindus will now be able to get registered their marriages and also apply for divorce under family laws,” declared Minority member in National Assembly Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani who described the unanimous approval of the bill by the Senate panel as a new year’s gift for Hindus living in Pakistan.

DAWN quotes Senator Aitzaz Ahsan as saying, “the bill is in accordance with the essence of the [Islamic] Constitution” of Pakistan, adding, that “the bill was not in contrast with Islamic jurisprudence as Islam emphasises protection of minorities.”

According to the NGO Aurat Foundation, an estimated 1,000 girls (predominantly Christian and Hindu) are forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan each year, many under 18, primarily through marriage and bonded labor.

It appears some politicians may have been paying attention to the large number of Pakistani residents, many described as human rights activists, who took to the streets in Pakistan for National Minorities Day to protest against the alleged forced conversions of thousands of Hindus and Christians emphasizing their demand for legislative action on the issue to put a rein on the increasingly brutal practice.

Nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and predominantly Indian are known regional rivals. In recent months, the animosity between India and Pakistan has come to bear during their ongoing deadly conflict in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both have competing claims to, along with China.

Nevertheless, the Senate Functional Committee on Human rights in Pakistan voted in favor of Hindu Marriages Bill on Monday while they are fighting Hindus in their Muslim-majority portion of Kashmir.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/01/04/pakistani-senate-panel-bill-creating-pathway-hindu-marriages/

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Female Journalists Face Gendered Forms Of Surveillance In Pakistan, Study Finds

IKRAM JUNAIDI

5 Jan 2017

ISLAMABAD: Female journalists face more surveillance by their audience and readers than by the state and intelligence agencies, research on the ‘Surveillance of Female Journalists in Pakistan’ has found.

The pilot study of gendered surveillance, conducted by the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), found that this surveillance begins when they start their professional careers, as audiences try to keep more of a check on female journalists than male journalists. The focus of this surveillance remains on their gender and appearance rather than their work.

Seven journalists from various media platforms were interviewed during the course of the study.

The research focused on the gendered forms and various sources of surveillance – from the state to the audience to political groups. Women interviewed by the study said they were surveilled by state authorities and subjected to constant social surveillance in the form of abuse on social media.

In addition to mapping the kinds of surveillance female journalists face, the report also explores the impact of this kind of constant monitoring in terms of its psychological toll, self censorship and retreat from digital spaces.

‘Social, state surveillance of female journalists can result in self-censorship’

Saba Eitzaz, who works for BBC Urdu, said social surveillance online has had “a tremendous psychological effect [and] I felt violated”.

Award-winning journalist Kiran Nazish said: “It’s not just one person telling you that you don’t belong here, it’s a number of people, and that constant refrain can be very intimidating and one starts to feel cornered.”

Maria Memon, an anchorperson, said: “Even if I was told that I could tweet about anything without repercussions, I don’t think I would do it because I don’t think that surveillance is completely avoidable.”

Other journalists interviewed included Amber Shamsi, Sarah Eleazar and Ramish Fatima.

DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad said the study took around two months to complete.

She said: “Gendered surveillance is a free speech issue – it lets women know they are being monitored, and discourages them from reporting and participating in digital spaces.”

Luavat Zahid, one of the authors of the study, said: “The issue was very close to my heart because I have worked as a journalist and faced the same kinds of problems. People try to do character assassinations of female journalists, but male journalists are barely affected by character assassination.”

Main findings

DRF’s study found that the experience of surveillance for female journalists is gendered, and therefore different from the experience of their male colleagues. While there is no conclusive evidence of whether women face more surveillance, the form the surveillance takes include sexualised threats and attacks on character and appearance. The report said this gendered form of surveillance is true for both state and social surveillance.

The report identifies the first form of surveillance as surveillance by the state, government institutions and intelligence agencies.

State surveillance is troubling given that it is backed by state machinery, which makes for effective, systematic and efficient monitoring.

On the other hand social surveillance, experienced by all the journalists, is carried out by the audience, political parties, non-state actors, fellow journalists and personal contacts. Some journalists reported that they experienced more social surveillance than state surveillance.

Many of the journalists observed that when it comes to controversial matters, both women and men face equal levels of surveillance, but the form tends to be gendered.

Some journalists said that when the state is attempting to intimidate or discourage them from publishing or reporting particular matters, sexualised threats and personal revelations are often employed.

DRF also found that surveillance has a profound psychological impact on journalists, leaving them paranoid and, at times, traumatised. Many of the journalists said they are guarded about what they say online for fear of surveillance, and thus had to self-censor their opinions and at times, their reporting.

Recommendations

The report recommended that the state and media houses take concrete steps to protect female journalists from particular kinds of gendered surveillance.

It also said that social surveillance needs to be identified as a serious issue, so steps can be taken to control it and to support journalists who face it on a daily basis.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1305891/female-journalists-face-gendered-forms-of-surveillance-study-finds

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Muslim woman walking in UK city told to take her veil off and 'go back to your own country'

5 JAN 2017

A Muslim woman walking along a UK city street was told to take her face veil off and get out of Britain... by an Irishman.

Bert Fahy, 75, told the niqab-wearing victim: "Take that f*****g thing off your face" and "go back to your own country" on seeing her in Swansea, south Wales.

The racist , who claimed he was fearful of the woman because he could not see her eyes, also called her a "black b*****d", magistrates in the city heard.

Fahy, from the Uplands area of Swansea, admitted racially or religiously aggravated public order when he appeared before a district judge, reports WalesOnline.

Lisa Jones, prosecuting, said the victim in the case was a Polish national who wore a niqab for religious reasons, and who had lived in Britain for the last nine years.

On November 22 she was walking on Hanover Street and checking her phone when Fahy approached her and began shouting at her and abusing her.

The court heard the woman told Fahy she would call the police if he continued shouting at her — which he did.

After the encounter the woman followed the man to a block of flats on the road, noted the address and then called the police.

In a victim impact statement read to the court the woman said the encounter had left her feeling "anxious and afraid".

She said she followed her religion, helped in her community, and added: "Just because I follow my religion, I should not be treated like this."

Anthony O'Connell, representing Fahy, said his client claimed he had felt "fearful" because he couldn't see the woman's eyes.

Fahy is a retired builder who was Irish by birth but had lived in Britain for "many, many years".

District judge David Parsons told Fahy that only his clean character and age was saving him from being sent to prison.

Fahy was fined £258, and ordered to pay his victim £200 compensation. He must also pay £85 towards prosecution costs.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/muslim-woman-walking-uk-city-9566950

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Arab refugee women in Germany torn over romantic relationships

03.01.2017

The nature of romantic relationships is different in Germany than in Arab societies, being less restricted and more open.  Concepts of love and marriage differ between Germany and the Arab world owing to cultural norms and traditions.  Sexual relations, cohabitation and having children outside of marriage are normal and acceptable in Western societies. For Arab societies, however, quite the opposite is the case, and even debate on these subjects is taboo. Arab refugees of the younger generation in Germany, particularly young women, are torn between these two perspectives.

Personal freedom

Rama, a Syrian in her twenties, came to Germany with her mother last year to escape the horrors of war.  She's learning German at the advanced level at the moment so she can prepare for university study. Western society and Germany in particular did not really shock her, she explained. She says she has adjusted to the  lifestyle in this country, especially with regard to its openness. She is only not used to seeing small things, such as kissing in public.

"I respect the freedom of this country very much and am impressed by the German view of personal space and the way they live their lives. However I can not act like them regarding romantic relationships, as I am a Muslim from a Muslim family and I want to maintain the customs and traditions that I grew up with.  Even if I were born in Germany, I would have this perspective,” Rama said in an interview with DW Arabic.

She then adds: "Romantic relationships and having kids should be confined to marriage. I will only get married to an Arab man, as a large cultural gap exists between me and the Germans, the easiest part being the language!"

Cultural barriers

Rama knows exactly what she wants, but the situation is different for others, especially teenage girls. They  are surrounded by peers who chat about romantic flings, and must separate their lives at school from life with the family. These younger refugees face a tough cultural barrier - they do not dare ask their families about many of the questions they have about relationships.  

This is the internal conflict that many women face, such as 17-year-old Sara (not her real name) from Syria. Sara has been living in Germany for about two years now. She describes her life as being divided between "at home" and "in public."  On the one hand, she agrees with the customs and traditions she grew up with at home, but she is also is open to the German way of life. This is a source of internal conflict for her:  She is living a Western lifestyle as a teenager in public alongside her friends but at the same time she cannot shake off the more conservative Eastern ideals she grew up with. "Maybe I will decide when I begin university, but in any case, do not tell my mom about this conversation," she told DW.

The role of parents

Renee Abu al-Alaa, director of an Arab family care center in Berlin, explained that the conflict experienced by young women and men  because of the differences between their conservative  families and the more liberal environment surrounding them was significant, and could lead to serious problems. She told the story of  a 13-year-old Iraqi girl who fled from her family to a humanitarian organization for fear of being killed after nude photographs of her had been published. To Abu al-Alaa, this story is a clear example of how serious these problems can be.

Speaking with DW Arabic, Abu al-Alaa stressed the importance of the role of parents at this stage: "Immigration is really difficult, but parents can foster dialogue and understanding with their kids instead of intimidation in order to gain their trust and answer their questions."

On the other hand, there are very few young women who dare to rebel against the customs and traditions of their Arab background and adopt a Western lifestyle.  Hana (not her real name) is a 24-year-old Syrian university student who is critical of the concept of honor and other traditional values in Arab societies. This was one of the most important reasons behind her journey to Germany three years ago to get away from the Syrian war. She feels  that the conservatism of the society she grew up in contradicts her own beliefs.

 Hana has lived with her German boyfriend in a student apartment for several months. This is a step that she would not have dared to take if she were in Syria.  "I wouldn't have made a decision like this in Syria because society would reject it completely and it would tarnish my entire family's reputation. Here in Germany it is different, because people don't look into your personal life and they don't a require a certificate of marriage for a couple to live together. I feel more freedom and confidence to make my own decisions. This is my life and my body," she told DW.

However,  she admitted: "I, of course, did not tell my family back home about this decision to live with my boyfriend."

http://www.dw.com/en/arab-refugee-women-in-germany-torn-over-romantic-relationships/a-36990211

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