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Friday, December 11, 2009

[mukto-mona] Let put aside our differences at Copenhagen [1 Attachment]

[Attachment(s) from Ripan Biswas included below]

Dear Editor,
 
Hope you are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write ups.
 
This is an article titled "Let put aside our differences at Copenhagen". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article.
 
Thanks
 
Have a nice time
 
With Best Regards
 
Ripan Kumar Biswas
New York, U.S.A
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Let put aside our differences at Copenhagen
 
Ripan Kumar Biswas
Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com
 
The other weekend I went to AMC theatre at times square, Manhattan, New York to watch director Roland Emmerich's sci-fi apocalypse movie "2012." The movie may end up being a cheesy or freaky movie or it makes a mockery of science as the world will not definitely end in 2012. But how far we are at the end of our beautiful planet as we are altering the environment far faster than the prediction of the consequences?
 
Climate change is already affecting worldwide. People are living with the consequences of climate change- from the families of Bangladesh, who are forced to leave their flooded homes, to the women in parts of drought-hit Ethiopia, who are forced to walk miles after miles to collect water for their families. A one-meter sea level rise would submerge about one-third of Bangladesh's total area, uprooting 25-30 million people. By 2050, 70 million people of Bangladesh could be affected annually by floods and 8 million by drought, with increasingly intense cyclones hitting the coast. By 2020, some countries across Africa could see the yields from rain-fed agriculture fall by a half. As temperatures have increased by between 0.15 and 0.6 degrees Celsius each decade for the last 30 years, parts of the Himalayan glaciers, a 2,400-kilometre range that sweeps through Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, provide headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers, lifelines for the 1.5 billion people who live downstream, could have disappeared by 2035.
 
What makes the difference between the plot of 2012 movie and the real time facts and figures of damage from climate change as NASA predicts a sharp increase in the number of sunspots and sun flares in 2012, which is surely a cause for electrical failures and satellite disruptions?
 
Around 15,000 delegates, environmentalists, business lobbyists, journalists and others are now in the huge convention center at Copenhagen, Denmark for the pivotal talks to discuss climate change and forge an action plan for the future, along with thousands more outside, arranging protests, street theater, and scholarly discussions. Millions both at Copenhagen and in the world are appealing to the world's leaders that the Earth's climate is the future of everyone and the future of everyone is now in their hand. "Dear leaders of the world, why waiting till tomorrow, if you can change the future today," Jan De Shutter from Belgium. "Dear leaders of the world, world is watching you and your decision impacts all," Prashant Yadav from India. "Dear leaders of the world, please remember that the Earth can live without us, but we can't live without the Earth," Kirsti Susanna Barrineau from the United States of America. And millions of people from Bangladesh and many small island states that could become submerged by rising sea level if world temperatures increase by another two degrees centigrade.
 
"The world leaders are not just here to talk -- they are here to act," Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, said the audience during the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 on December 7, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. World leaders, Politicians and environmentalists including US and Chinese head of states meet for the conference that runs until December 18. Terming the conference an opportunity that the world shouldn't afford to miss, the conference president, Denmark's Connie Hedegaard, called it a last, but best chance. "If the whole world comes to Copenhagen and leaves without making the needed political agreement, then it's a failure that is not just about climate, it's the whole global democratic system not being able to deliver results in one of the defining challenges of the century," she said.
 
While thousands of proposals are struggling to narrow the score down to something playable, two important requirements must be fulfilled. Politicians, including heads of state, need to become more actively involved with specific declarations and plans about greenhouse-gas emissions. And developed countries need to come forward with specifics on finance.
 
Primarily, whole world from Copenhagen conference is expecting individual countries' pledges of emission reductions, which should be incorporated in some final agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, whose modest emission cuts for 37 nations expire in 2012. 16 countries that together represent 85% of the global economy and 80% of global greenhouse-gas emissions are more or less responsible for rising temperature, according to the environment scientists. The European Union (EU) is expecting to slash ambitious 20 percent reduction in gases by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, and 30 percent if other nations also aim high. Japan has offered a 25 percent cut against 1990, an almost 30 percent cut from 2005 levels, and Australia up to 25 percent. India offers a 20 percent to 25 percent slowdown in emissions growth.
 
But according to the EU environment spokesman Andreas Carlgren and many others, the endgame in Copenhagen will mostly be on what will be delivered by the United States and China, the world's two biggest greenhouse-gas emitters. Before the conference, China said that it would reduce gases by 40 percent to 45 percent below "business as usual" — that is, judged against 2005 figures for energy used versus economic output by 2020 while White House officials promised to cut greenhouse gases to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 after eight years of inaction under the Bush administration.
 
US's offer is provisional and a pending action in Congress and U.S. lawmakers will resist making cuts at home, fearing that new regulations will drive manufacturing jobs to cheaper markets such as China and India unless emerging countries including China and India agree to their own robust reductions and make movement toward a global agreement. On the other hand, without congressional action or at least the promise that a Senate bill will come soon, other countries will be unwilling to make their own reductions. China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has long resisted adopting binding emissions limits. Similarly, in 1997, lawmakers in U.S voted to reject any international deal adapting any climate treaty that exempted developing nations. It was a vote that effectively killed U.S. participation in the Kyoto climate treaty.
 
While China and the US is continuing their barbed exchange whether China is eligible or not for acquiring American public climate aid money as China is grouped together with the developing nations in the climate talks, the Copenhagen conference must have the sufficient amount in hand or have promise by the heads of  developed states or respective authorities before they leave the podium as the lack of clarity on financing for tackling global warming in developing countries always holds back the process at climate negotiations. According to the United Nations, the private sector will need to provide more than 85 per cent of the roughly annual $200 billion investment required to help meet global carbon emission reduction needs in 2020.
 
World Bank estimates developing countries need $75 billion to $100 billion per year over the next 40 years to adapt to climate change. On Thursday, December 3, 2009, EU declared to fund 7.2 billion euros (10.8 billion dollars) during the next three years that accounts for a third of the total 30 billion dollars that the UN estimates is needed for the current period. US President Barack Obama said last week that the US was ready to pay a fair share of that amount. Developed countries are expected to propose jump-start financing closer to $10 billion per year through 2012.
 
More than 110 heads of state, including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, US President Barack Obama, China's Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the heads of the European Union, will attend the climax of the Copenhagen summit on December 18 with a common goal, a common interest--to save our beautiful planet.
 
Let go off pride and status, let be humble enough to preserve Earth for our future generations. Let put aside our differences and join together for one of the greatest battles of our time.
 
Saturday, December 11, 2009, New York
Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York


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[ALOCHONA] NYT - An Immigrants Tale



 Very Sad!!!

 

December 13, 2009

Night and Day

By COREY KILGANNON

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/nyregion/13sherpa.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

 

PEMA SHERPA was opening the door of his rented yellow cab when the first blow came. A meat cleaver sliced open the back of his head and everything flashed white. The sun had not yet risen over the stretch of attached brick two-story houses on 62nd Street in Woodside, Queens; it was 5 a.m.

 

The cleaver came down again, this time on Mr. Sherpa's chest, chopping through the layers of clothing he had donned against the early-morning chill. And again, slicing gashes into the rubber soles of his sneakers.

 

Bleeding on the pavement, Mr. Sherpa beheld his attacker: Debindra Chhantyal, his mild-mannered partner and countryman.

 

Each man had come from Nepal over the past decade, and attended the same taxi-training school in Jackson Heights. For a year, they had split the $1,400-per-week leasing fee on a yellow cab, Medallion 6M83, trading 12-hour shifts behind the wheel, seven days a week.

 

They seemed to be running side by side on an all-too-familiar treadmill. But their lives were actually mirror images of the immigrant experience in New York.

 

Mr. Sherpa, 28, drove days, chauffeuring strivers bound for business meetings, power lunches and auditions. Mr. Chhantyal, 30, shepherded the denizens of New York's nightlife, the decadent and the dangerous.

 

Mr. Sherpa, also known as licensed taxi driver No. 5301202, had succeeded in attaining his asylum visa, and recently married a cheerful Nepali woman here who encouraged his Buddhist faith. He adored playing with their baby daughter, and spent evenings on the soccer field with friends. Mr. Chhantyal, driver No. 5303727, had grown increasingly worried that he would be deported after his coming immigration hearing. He had few friends, shared a small, spartan apartment with two other night cabbies, and suspected that his wife, back home in Nepal, had taken up with another man.

 

And Mr. Chhantyal was about to start being Mr. Sherpa's employee instead of his partner. Mr. Sherpa had just secured a loan to buy a 2010 Ford Escape hybrid for $30,000, and a small metal medallion riveted to its hood: a city-issued concession that cost him $575,000 but turned the vehicle into a 24-hour money-making machine.

 

Nepali people pride themselves on being peace-loving, but also fierce fighters if provoked. They cite their countrymen known as Gurkhas, after the eighth-century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath, who have been part of the British Army for decades.

 

That September morning on a Queens sidewalk, Mr. Chhantyal finally had the upper hand, swinging the cleaver that he and his roommates used to chop vegetables. Until Mr. Sherpa, on his back, somehow managed to kick the big blade from his hands, sending it skidding under the cab.

 

Bleeding profusely, the day driver leaped to his feet and ran to a nearby gas station; he spent five days in the hospital, but survived. The night driver hopped back into their cab and drove three minutes to the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, where he pulled over mid-span and leaped to his death in the East River.

 

A short account of the attack appeared in The Everest Times, which comes out every other week and has a circulation of 2,000 — it was the newspaper's first New York City crime story. At first, the rumor among Nepalis was that the attacker had used the traditional kukri dagger; soon, the details were well known and much discussed among the patrons of the Himalayan Yak and other Nepali restaurants in Jackson Heights that double as community hubs.

 

Friends and relatives of each driver said there was never any bad blood between them. Still, Mr. Sherpa stunned Mr. Chhantyal's relatives when he turned up at his memorial service, cuts from the cleaver still fresh.

 

"There was never any problem between us," Mr. Sherpa said. "We are both Nepali, but we never had much to say to each other — he kept to himself."

 

MR. SHERPA received Mr. Chhantyal's usual wake-up call at 4 a.m. on Sept. 12. He said his morning prayers before the Buddhist shrine he had built above the TV set, then grabbed the bag with his soccer gear, for after his shift.

 

Typically Mr. Chhantyal, to avoid complications from one-way streets, would park and wait for Mr. Sherpa on busy Broadway, which comes to life early with cabs and service vehicles headed toward Manhattan. But on this morning, Mr. Sherpa saw that his partner had parked on deserted, residential 62nd Street. As usual, Mr. Chhantyal stepped out to give Mr. Sherpa the driver's seat. But, strangely, he let the door close and lock. As Mr. Sherpa fished for his duplicate key, he recalled, he felt the first blow.

 

"I could not understand what was happening," Mr. Sherpa recalled later. "This man, my partner from my own country, he's trying to kill me. He was a crazy man, like he didn't know me. He said nothing — he just kept chopping me."

 

The two men had shared little of their personal lives, but Mr. Sherpa had never seen his partner excited or unhinged, not even the one time Mr. Chhantyal visited his home. He came with a mutual friend, stayed late and left drunk on the homemade rice wine that Nepalis call chhaang, Mr. Sherpa said. Mostly, they exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes twice daily; each Wednesday, they went together to Woodside Management on Roosevelt Avenue, passing $700 apiece under the bulletproof glass to Sabur, the dispatcher.

 

The two were from different sectors of Nepali society. But both came from big families whose political affiliations had made life difficult amid the country's current civil strife. And both left small villages in the country's midsection to seek political asylum in the United States. They were most comfortable speaking different dialects but would chat in Nepali while handing off the cab each dusk and dawn.

 

As Mr. Sherpa's name implies, he belongs to the renowned tribe of mountain people who have helped many a foreign adventurer up Mount Everest. The Sherpas' reputation for being trustworthy, tireless and devoted guides translates well to the profession of ferrying people around the more flat — but perhaps equally daunting — streets of New York.

 

Mr. Sherpa grew up in the Sindhupalchok District, in the Bagmati Zone, not far from Katmandu. He arrived in New York in 2001 and had been driving cabs pretty much since. He and his wife and baby live with his sister-in-law and nephew, paying $1,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment on 62nd Street furnished with a small sofa and two junior mattresses on the floor covered with faux tiger-skin quilts; idealized illustrations of the Manhattan skyline hang on the walls.

 

Mr. Chhantyal was a member of the Chhantyal caste, which boasts its own proud heritage of valorous copper miners and mythical origins. He came from a village in the Myagdi District.

 

He landed in the United States in 2004, and lived for three years with an uncle in Milwaukee, delivering fast food at night and working at a gas station, where he was held up in a violent armed robbery. He grew depressed after surgery for a collapsed lung, and some traffic tickets and fender benders, then moved to New York in 2007.

 

He and his two roommates paid $400 apiece in rent for an apartment on 80th Street in Elmhurst, spending their days sleeping on the floor, the old Venetian blinds leaking sunlight.

 

Both men, at different times, joined the crowded classes run by AJ Yellow Taxi Tutors in a basement under a Thai restaurant, opposite the Himalayan Yak. A framed photograph of the Dalai Lama hangs next to a sign that reads "Cell Phone Rings: $5 Fine" Mr. Chhantyal also attended the taxi-driver training institute at LaGuardia Community College, and scored a 92 on the city's taxi licensing exam.

 

He met Mr. Sherpa through a mutual friend who knew both needed a driving partner. Mr. Chhantyal embraced the night shift's less frantic pace, lighter traffic, fare surcharge and good tips from partygoers.

 

"He liked driving at night," Mr. Sherpa said. "He said the daylight was too bright for him."

 

Splitting a leased cab is a common arrangement among new immigrants with little money and a willingness to work long hours, said Andrew Vollo, the director of the LaGuardia program.

 

"But we tell our students, 'If you drive seven days a week, you will not be in your right mind," Mr. Vollo said. "This is a tough job at night — a lot of strange people come out," he said. "You find yourself in corners of the city that even the police don't want to go. For a new immigrant, that's culture shock."

 

MR. CHHANTYAL and his two similarly nocturnal roommates awoke around 2 p.m. on Sept. 11, a Friday. He went out for coffee and sandwiches with one of the roommates, Tak Chhantyal, 32, whom he had known since high school in Nepal.

 

Mr. Chhantyal seemed fine, the roommate recalled, and indeed, his shift started out normally. But, according to a satellite system and the fare box in the cab, Mr. Chhantyal stopped picking up passengers around 10:30 p.m. and just roamed the city, idling for long stretches. Then he stopped home around midnight to type an e-mail message to his uncle in Milwaukee. It read like a suicide note.

 

The e-mail, in Nepali, listed Mr. Chhantyal's disappointments and failures. He had lapsed in his Hindu faith and become obsessed with following the political turmoil in Nepal online. He feared that his asylum hearing, scheduled for December, would result in deportation because of traffic violations, foiling his plans to send for the wife and two grammar-school-age children he had left in Nepal five years before.

 

"I think that in one man's head, all these troubles of the immigrant came together," said Mr. Sherpa's wife, Yangji Lama. "And then he sees things going well for my husband."

 

Mr. Chhantyal wrote in the message that he was distraught that he could not keep his parents, back in Nepal, from divorcing, nor help pay for his siblings' educations. These goals, he said, "in coming here will not get fulfilled."

 

He thanked his uncle for all his help in America. Then, an ominous warning: "Even though there are many who have caused me pain, giving pain to the ones I am able to has become my obligation."

 

The uncle, Ram Chhantyal, said in an interview, "I read it and I could only assume the worst."

 

New York had made his nephew paranoid and desperate, he said. Mr. Chhantyal was furious with his parents for splitting, and, suspicious she was cheating, began calling his wife in Nepal constantly and even asked acquaintances to keep an eye on her.

 

"He was a very hard worker and a perfectionist, and things weren't going well," the uncle said. "All the frustration was too much for him to handle. He living a very uncertain life here — he was afraid of being deported."

 

"He thought people were gossiping about him and slandering him," he continued. "Often he wouldn't make sense and was convinced people were talking behind his back."

 

Mr. Chhantyal never came back to the apartment, and the roommates realized later that the biggest blade in the kitchen was missing from its drawer.

 

KEVIN CHANG, a 17-year veteran of the New York Police Department, arrived at the 108th Precinct station house in Long Island City around 8 a.m. that Saturday, and climbed the aging staircase to the detective squad room. He took over Case No. 883 from the overnight-shift officers who had responded several hours earlier to a 10-34, an assault in progress.

 

He knew he had an injured victim at Elmhurst Hospital Center with no rap sheet; he thought he had a maniacal killer out there somewhere with a meat cleaver. The son of Chinese immigrants who grew up in Flushing, Detective Chang had last dealt with Nepali immigrants the year before when helping guard Pushpa Kamal Dahal, then the prime minister, in town for a United Nations event.

 

Since Mr. Sherpa remained conscious at the hospital — doctors told him the cleaver had narrowly missed severing nerves and arteries — Detective Chang interviewed him there, hearing details of the attack and the background of the two immigrants' relationship.

 

Then he got a call from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, whose police officers had found a yellow cab abandoned in the right lane, midbridge, keys in the ignition, engine running, lights on, two hack licenses inside.

 

"To have someone stab someone is unusual here," Detective Chang said. "But to have the stabber jump off the bridge is even more so."

 

Mr. Chhantyal apparently drowned in the waters of Hell Gate, Detective Chang said, though his actions were not captured on the bridge's surveillance cameras. Police boats and helicopters searched for a body; it was days before the Coast Guard found it, miles away, near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

 

The case was officially closed after Tak Chhantyal identified his roommate at the morgue. "The cleaver was never recovered," Detective Chang said.

 

Mr. Chhantyal's body was cremated, and his ashes remain at St. Michael's Cemetery, just off the Grand Central Parkway near the entrance to the R.F.K. Bridge. About two dozen people came to his memorial service, including his wife, who flew in from Nepal and fainted when she saw his photograph.

 

Mr. Sherpa walked in gingerly and shook hands with Mr. Chhantyal's Uncle Ram. The two men concluded that the suicide provided some closure to the bewildering attack.

 

"People there said it was beyond comprehension that he showed up," the uncle said later. "Pema had no anger. He said, 'I would like to know if I did anything wrong.' I told him, 'Listen, both of you had a loss.' "

 

Mr. Sherpa returned to work last month, driving his shiny new Escape, its new medallion gleaming. For spiritual protection, he has draped a ceremonial Buddhist shawl over the steering column, and hung traditional pendants on the rearview mirror. He has not yet chosen a new driving partner.

 

"This time, I am more careful," the Sherpa said the other day. Then he drove off toward the mountains of Manhattan.



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[ALOCHONA] Ibn Battuta, larger than life



Ibn Battuta, larger than life
The new IMAX film "Journey to Mecca" successfully captures the essence of Ibn Battuta's travels to the holy city of Islam: a physical journey which emulates the spiritual one in search of the divine through enlightenment and knowledge.
 
 
 For many Muslims worldwide, the name Ibn Battuta evokes a sense of great pride and conjures up a golden era of Islamic history. The Rihla, one of the greatest travels journals ever recorded, has been greatly responsible for passing on the tales of the 14th-century explorer, who followed the sun and stars to reach Mecca. Over the past year, this 700-year old story has made the transition to the big screen, being shown at over twelve IMAX theatres in locations around the world. "Journey to Mecca: In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta" is shot on a set in Morocco and combines dramatic performances with documentary footages to re-tell a classic adventure.

The
British Film Institute recently put on a special screening of the film at their London IMAX theatre to mark Eid al Adha. Prior to the screening, the films producer Jonathan Barker spoke to the audience filled with Ibn Battuta enthusiasts and explained his vision behind the film which was "to celebrate a well known Muslim hero" and to "provide a better understanding of a historical figure that is unknown to many non-Muslims." As the film began to roll, expectations were undoubtedly high for one of history's greatest explorers whose legacy has led to a crater on the moon being named after him. But how would a 45 minute documentary drama do justice to a journey that took almost 30 years to complete?

Those who cherish the timeless tale of Battuta's exploration will find that the film is dramatically condensed to fit a time frame of three quarters of an hour. Key experiences and relationships in his travels through Algeria and Alexandria are completely bypassed. His travels to nearly 40 other countries following the completion of Hajj are a mere mention. But it successfully captures the essence of his travels to the holy city of Islam: a physical journey which emulates the spiritual one in search of the divine through enlightenment and knowledge. The central theme of "pride", which runs through the unfolding drama successfully conveys this.

Filmed in a format which displays images that are greater in size and resolution than conventional film systems,
IMAX creates a unique visual experience that is larger than life. The dramatic scenes of desert landscapes and breathtaking moving aerial shots take the viewer on a journey along side Ibn Battuta from Tangier to Mecca. It even brings to life his re-occurring dream of "flying to Mecca." With scenes of the "valley of death", the caravan community on route from Damascus to Mecca and the modern day Hajj remain unforgettable and etched on the mind.

By interposing scenes of 14th century Hajj with those from the 21st century, the viewer is invited on an expedition that takes them to parallel worlds: the past and the present. The power of the visual illustrates a ritual which has remained the same for centuries. This topped with beautiful imagery narrated by the familiar voice of
Ben Kingsley provide explanations that are both simplistic and symbolic of the spiritual significance of acts like circling the Kaaba: "We mirror the movements of the heavens seven times".

The filmmakers took a bold step to choose to shoot the first ever IMAX shots at two of Islam's holiest sites. Gaining access was a long drawn out process of trust building and red tape for Barker, who has previously been involved in productions out of space (
Mission to Mir) and to the bottom of the ocean (Into the Deep). He describes this project as "one of the greatest challenges" in his IMAX career. The efforts of which resulted in unprecedented footage, fulfilling the ethos of IMAX of bringing the audience to a world they cannot access. This is true of the Great Mosque which is restricted to followers of Islam.

An eye for detail is evident both visually and in the story plot of "Journey to Mecca". Lines such as: "If I should die then let it be on the road to Mecca" are taken from Battuta's collection of notes and embedded into the narrative giving an authentic tone to a modern day recreation. The Kaaba, a centre of worship for Muslims globally was painstakingly re-produced in Morocco to represent the actual 14th century look. Furthermore, the lead of Ibn Battuta was faithfully and convincingly portrayed by the Moroccan actor
Chems Eddine Zinoun. His performance possessed gravitas reflecting one of the Muslim communities most revered heroes. His portrayal is his own legacy to the world, as he tragically passed away two weeks after completing the film.

The Message, Lion of the Desert, and the character of Saladin in Kingdom of Heaven have been a few of the limited portrayals of historical figures and themes from Islamic history by Western filmmakers. The tale of Ibn Battuta possesses the perfect blend of an epic tale mixed with entertainment to join such a list. Whilst it succeeds in celebrating a "well known Muslim hero," it remains to be seen whether it can cross over to the mainstream as the others have done. The limitation of the IMAX medium is that it is restricted mostly to viewers attending museums and science centres because such large screen theatres are traditionally linked to such bases. The target audience is very specific. With 75 percent of audience members at a Toronto IMAX screening being Muslim, its popularity will depend largely on grassroots promotion and efforts by leaders of the Muslim communities to generate interest. Such efforts would be well worth the trouble.

 
Nabila Pathan is a British writer and broadcaster. She hosted Press TV's flagship discussion series "Women's Voice" and writes for the blog Word Play.
 
 
 



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[ALOCHONA] Emerging China and the Bay of Bengal




THE mariners always feared the Bay of Bengal for its turbulence. However, the advancement of science and technology made the turbulent water the backyard of many powerful navies. The key to control of the waves is innovation. With the technological emergence of China, the Bay of Bengal is slowly gaining a different momentum. It still is a long shot for China to contest the international maritime order. However, if China emerges to its potential, the vitally important Indian Ocean will feel its presence. The maritime security of the narrow Malaccan strait between Malaysia and Sumatra of Indonesia will be the chokepoint of China's maneuver towards the Indian Ocean. The Bay of Bengal will provide the bridgehead of its westerly thrust.

China has the option of avoiding the dangerous Malaccan strait by directly entering into the Arakan coast of friendly Myanmar by land from the Yunnan province. The military regime of Myanmar is leaning on China for its survival. However, allowing direct access to the Bay of Bengal will destabilize the maritime order and provoke the west. All depends on how China grows and weaves its growth internally and internationally.

In the global financial meltdown, China has converted the difficulty of slower growth into an opportunity to pump in hundreds of billions from its surplus to correct the internal structural and economic disparity unattended so far. The economic discrepancy between the prosperous coastal south and the 1.34 billion nationalities of the west and north China is too enormous to correct on a short-lived glutinous feed. The attention given to the infrastructure when world economy was buying 'made in China' less has given solace to the China lovers. The third quarter growth of 8.7 % and promising performance in this quarter is a clear sign that it is growing again. The danger of internal combustion nevertheless remains high until disparity of economic benefits is mollified by sustained effort.

China has a habit of moving cautiously and patiently. It invested generations of hard labour for centuries to build and improve the Great wall to stop invasion from the north. It waited for Hong Kong to join back and designed two economies in one country. If history has any lesson to offer, China is likely to take guarded steps in the world arena while trying to expand its zone of influence. It is soon going to overpower Japan as number two economy of the world. It may add some prestige but China will not be anywhere near challenging the USA and the west combined. Maritime order for another quarter of a century will safely remain in the hands of the aging west. With India as the strategic partner of America, the west is getting ready to meet the future challenges. China is likely to continue adopting soft diplomacy than demand accommodation immediately in the high seas.

Meanwhile, China has bought nearly a trillion dollar worth of treasury bond to bail USA out of the ongoing economic crisis. President Obama visited China recently and assured that America will not stand in the way of its growth. Cautious optimism is afoot that a new era of China-US cooperation is in the offing. Such optimism has its drawbacks. Sensitive issues like the integration of Taiwan with the mainland can blow out of proportion anytime. The danger is the value system of China is not compatible with the west.

China appears to have established some communication facilities on Coco Island in the Arakan coast of Myanmar, not very far from Bangladesh maritime boundary. Although no major Chinese naval armada has called on Coco Island nor any facility built for any large ships, her communication facilities, radar station, and presence of some personnel has put the west on alert. Many observers are of the view that it is kind of a listening post to observe the naval movements in the Bay of Bengal.

It is difficult to predict the future of China at this stage. With the adopted market economy shinning as the driving force, the inevitable growth of rich and middle class will ask for freedom of choice - individually, ethnically and politically. Is China ready to accommodate all these? It is too big to be destabilized from outside; but the economic affluence will invariably ask for liberal values and political choices. If Beijing behaves like Moscow of erstwhile Soviet Union the friction within is unavoidable.

There is growing realization in the world that war cannot resolve the problems but cooperation can bring mutual accommodation. The world is moving faster, many state of art technologies are at fluid state now. Modern technologies will decide the future of conflicts. With the existing stockpile of nuclear weapons and delivery system, direct confrontation is already unthinkable.

If China is assured of its maritime routes in the vitally important Bay of Bengal towards energy rich Middle East and in the Indian Ocean littoral states, it will have less compulsion for show of force in this area. As people are demanding more value for their money cheaper merchandise has added an irresistible dimension in the international strategy. For this very reason the USA has become the most attractive market of Chinese products. China is showing remarkable flexibility and caution outside its territory.

Bangladesh has barely three hundred miles of coastline that opens to sea-lanes with rest of the world. Between Indonesia and Bangladesh, the countries have high stakes in the peace and security of the water of Bay of Bengal. Littoral countries should take proactive strategy to provide maritime security of the area. Bangladesh has a small naval flotilla but not all the time on the waters of the Bay of Bengal. It is the right place for Bangladesh to participate in the collective maritime security.

The author is the founder DG of SSF
 



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[mukto-mona] Re. Fwd: Imam wins landmark battle against 'Muslim McCarthyism' (Telegraph)



 
   Re. Fwd: Imam wins landmark battle against 'Muslim McCarthyism' (Telegraph)
From: omarali502000@yahoo.com
To: asiapeace@yahoogroups.com, abdalian@yahoogroups.com, shaheryar.azhar@gmail.com
CC: crdp@yahoogroups.com, Pakistan_Futures@yahoogroups.com, kirfani@aol.com
Sent: 12/11/2009 11:46:12 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Fwd: Imam wins landmark battle against Muslim McCarthyism (Telegraph)
 
In the United States, progressive Muslims are much more likely to face hostility from neocons and Zionists than from fellow Muslims. Even organizations like ICNA (affiliated with the Jamat e Islami and maodoodism) have climbed aboard the interfaith bandwagon (perhaps unwillingly) and will no longer publicly issue fatwas against Muslims who disagree with their theology.
But in this matter, Britain is a little closer to Pakistan than it is to the US; orthodox Islam has a powerful hold in the Muslim community and Pakistani style accusations of apostasy and "qadianiat" are much more common. Still, being closer to Pakistan is not the same as being Pakistan, as the Muslim weekly has discovered to its cost....Dr Hargey will make it possible for other progressives to articulate alternative understandings of Islam....

Omar


From: Kirfani@aol.com <Kirfani@aol.com>
Subject: Fwd: Imam wins landmark battle against 'Muslim McCarthyism' (Telegraph)
To: Kirfani@aol.com
Date: Friday, December 11, 2009, 8:25 AM


 
<<..."This historic case highlights the right to freedom and dissent within the British Muslim community and represents a crushing defeat for Muslim McCarthyism in this country.

"Just as US politicians terrorized the American electorate by unfairly labelling their foes as communists or communist sympathisers, the Muslim clergy uses the same intimadatory tactics to impose theological uniformity and cultural compliance in the community.

"Iconoclastic thinkers, liberals and non-conformists who dare to challenge this self-assumed religious authority in Islam by presenting a rational or alternative interpretation of their faith are invariably branded as apostates, heretics and non-believers."

Dr Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (MECO), had brought proceedings in London's High Court against the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Muslim Weekly, a leading newspaper within the community...>>
 
From: jcs3366@rcn.com
To: kirfani@aol.com
Sent: 12/11/2009 8:05:33 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Imam wins landmark battle against &apos;Muslim McCarthyism&apos; (Telegraph)


Imam wins landmark battle against 'Muslim McCarthyism'

An imam who supports women not wearing a full veil has won a landmark legal battle against "Muslim McCarthyism" after being accused of holding non-Muslim beliefs.


By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor
Published: 5:35PM BST 08 Apr 2009

Dr. Hargey won substantial damages from the Muslim Weekly newspaper in a High Court libel case after it accused him of not being a true Muslim.

Dr Hargey, who previously backed a school's legal battle over its refusal to let a pupil wear the niqab in class, claimed the attack reflected tactics by the "Muslim Establishment" to smear those who question their authority.

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK, Dr Hargey sued and won a five-figure sum from the newspaper.

Dr Hargey said: "This historic case highlights the right to freedom and dissent within the British Muslim community and represents a crushing defeat for Muslim McCarthyism in this country.

"Just as US politicians terrorized the American electorate by unfairly labelling their foes as communists or communist sympathisers, the Muslim clergy uses the same intimadatory tactics to impose theological uniformity and cultural compliance in the community.

"Iconoclastic thinkers, liberals and non-conformists who dare to challenge this self-assumed religious authority in Islam by presenting a rational or alternative interpretation of their faith are invariably branded as apostates, heretics and non-believers."

Dr Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (MECO), had brought proceedings in London's High Court against the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Muslim Weekly, a leading newspaper within the community.

His advocate, David Price, told Mr Justice Eady that the May 2006 article alleged that Dr Hargey held himself out as the chairman of MECO and a practising Muslim when he was a Qadiani and therefore a non-Muslim - a matter that he sought to conceal.

It also alleged that he was misleading the public by holding himself out as the chairman of a Muslim organisation and arranging events in that capacity, notwithstanding his true non-Muslim beliefs.

Mr Price said that it also claimed that Dr Hargey was sacked from his post teaching Islamic studies at the University of Cape Town as a result of the fact that he was a closet Qadiani.

He added that the truth was that Dr Hargey was not a Qadiani but had always been a devout and observant Muslim.

He spoke and lectured widely about Islam and had at no stage misled the public or represented himself as anything other than a committed mainstream Muslim.

In fact, Mr Price said, Dr Hargey was well known as a passionate believer of orthodox Sunni Islam and regularly appeared as a key representative of the Islamic faith in academia and the media, including regional and national television and radio programmes.

He was not dismissed from his post in Cape Town, where his academic responsibility was history and not Islamic studies, but left the university of his own accord at the end of his fixed-term appointment contract because he had been offered a better research position elsewhere which he chose to take up.

Afterwards, Dr Hargey said the settlement would also have significant repercussions for those calling for the imposition of Sharia law in Britain.

He said he has been a "thorn in the side of Muslim hierarchy" because he has openly endorsed non-niqab and non-beard-wearing Muslims, sanctioned marriages of Muslim women to men of other faiths, actively promoted mixed congregations in mosques, arranging for the first ever female-led Muslim congregational prayers to be held in the UK last October.

In 2007, he offered to help fund a school's legal battle over its refusal to let a pupil wear the niqab in class.

The settlement was revealed in a statement read out in the High Court. Muslim Media Ltd and Ahmed Malik have apologised and agreed to pay Dr Hargey substantial damages and his legal costs.


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[mukto-mona] Inheritance law in Islam and women



 

Subject heading corrected


 

 


Dear sirs,

 

Assalamu Alaikum.In view of the recent declaration of the present Prime Minister of Bangladesh,Im circulating this valuable article for your perusal

 

Shah Abdul Hannan 

 


-----

 

Dear brother/sister,

 

Assalamu Alaikum

 

Please find my article on Inheritance law in Islam and womenin the following link. it was published in the daily New nation .

 

 

Kaniz Fatima

 

Assistant Professor

Darul Ihsan University

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inheritance law in Islam and women

 

Kaniz Fatima



A source of significant controversy both inside and outside the Muslim community is the Islamic law of inheritance. Whether women can inherit at all is not the controversy. Rather, the dispute centers around the "share" that is to be inherited. The injunction that a male relative (son) receives a share equal to that of two females (daughter) has given birth of a vigorous equality debate. Some argue that the differential treatment on the basis of gender regarding inheritance shares violates international human rights and in Islam women's share in inheritance is unfair and unjustified. Therefore, a number of NGOs and few personalities in Muslim countries have called for equal inheritance rights. On the other hand, Muslims argue that the shares of a male are double than that of a female not because a male is worth more, but because the male has the duty to support his family while the female is exempted from any sort of financial responsibility and can spend it all on herself without the need to share. However, a more dominant position is the general position, even from Muslim women, that what God has ordained for shares cannot be changed and the application of these formal inheritance rules pertaining to designated shares must be understood in a broader socio-cultural and economic context and within wider inheritance systems of practice. If seen as a whole, it would be very clear that in Islamic law women are much more favored financially than males.

One must first realize that Islam revolutionized women's inheritance rights. Prior to the Quranic injunction - and indeed in the west until only recently - women could not inherit from their relatives, and were themselves bequeathed as if they were property to be distributed at the death of a husband, father, or brother. Muslim mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters had received inheritance rights thirteen hundred years before Europe recognized that these rights even existed.

According to the Encyclopedia Americana, in English Common law all the real property held by a woman at the time of her marriage became the property of her husband-he was entitled to the rent from the land and any profit that might be made from managing it. It was not until the late 1870s onwards in Europe that married women achieved the right to enter contracts and own property. In France this right was not recognized until 1938.

During the time of Prophet (SAWS) women themselves were objects of inheritance and they were considered part of the possession of a man. At such a critical juncture of history Islam brought about a revolution in the domain of human thought and outlook towards women and established the right of women to inherit and has distributed the inheritance in a very upright way. This determined share is calculated by Allah Himself and can't be changed. Thus, Islam, by clearly stating in the Quran that women have the right to inherit for themselves, changed the status of women in an unprecedented fashion. The Quran states: "Men shall have a share in what parents and kinsfolk leave behind, and women shall have a share in what parents and kinsfolk leave behind."(Quran 4:7).

Islamic inheritance systems and the equality debate: Reasons for half share for females: The division of inheritance is a vast subject with an enormous amount of details (Quran 4:7,11,12, 33,176). The general rule is that the female share is half the male's. This general rule if taken in isolation from other legislations concerning men and women may seem unfair. In order to understand the rationale behind this rule, one must take into account the fact that the financial obligations of men in Islam far exceed those of women.

Women in Islam receive assets mainly from three sources: inheritance, Mahr and maintenance. On the other hand male receives double on first source inheritance but they need to give Mahr to wives and maintenance to wives and other dependants. A bridegroom must provide his bride with a marriage gift. This gift is considered her property and neither the groom nor the bride's family have any share in or control over it and remains so even if she is later divorced. The bride is under no obligation to present any gifts to her groom. This symbolizes an assurance of economic security from the husband towards wife. "And give the women (on marriage) their dower as a free gift; but if they, Of their own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, take it and enjoy it with right good cheer" (4:4) Moreover, the Muslim husband is charged with the maintenance of his wife and children. The wife's property and earnings are under her full control and for her use alone since her, and the children's, maintenance is her husband's responsibility. No matter how rich the wife might be, she is not obliged to act as a co-provider for the family unless she herself voluntarily chooses to do so. Women are financially secure and provided for. If she is a wife, her husband is the provider; if she is a mother, it is the son; if she is a daughter, it is the father; if she is a sister; it is the brother, and so on. In this circumstances if we deprive the female completely from inheritance, it would be unjust to her because she is related to the deceased. Likewise, if we always give her a share equal to the man's, it would be unjust to him. So, instead of doing injustice to either side, Islam gives the man a larger portion of the inherited property to help him to meet his family needs and social responsibilities. At the same time, Islam has not forgotten her altogether, but has given her a portion to satisfy her very personal needs. In fact, Islam in this respect is being more kind to her than to him.

The fact is that in Islamic law as a whole, women are much more favored financially than their male counterparts for the following reasons:

1. Before marriage any gift given to women is her own and her husband has no legal right to claim on it even after marriage.

2. On marriage she is entitled to receive a marriage gift (Mahr) and this is her own property.

3. Even if the wife is rich, she is not required to spend a single penny for household; the full responsibility for her food, clothing, housing, medications and recreation etc. are her husband's.

4. Any income the wife earns through investment or working is entirely her own.

5. In case of divorce, if any deferred part of the Mahr is left unpaid, it becomes due immediately.

6 . The divorcee woman is entitled to get maintenance from husband during her waiting period (iddat).

Examples

The financial status of women, if maintenance right, inheritance right and right of marital gift are considered together, the Muslim women are in far better position.

We can give some examples-

Imagine Mr Abdur Rahim left one son, Halim and one daughter, Fatima and 30 lac taka (30,00,000/-) to be distributed between them at the time of his death. So according to Islamic law Halim will receive 20 lac taka and Fatima will receive 10 lac taka. Before her marriage maintenance of Fatima will be on Halim's shoulder. At the time of marriage Fatima will receive mahr (for example 1 lac) from her husband and Halim will have to give Mahr (for example 1 lac) to his wife. If a middle class family spends Tk.30,000/- per month (which is legally to be borne by the male for himself, wife and children) and if the married life is for 30 years, Halim will have to spend Tk.30,000/-×12×30=1,08,00,000/- (10.8 million taka ) for his family maintenance. On the other hand his sister Fatima does not need to bear any cost for maintenance for herself, husband and children (if she does spend something it is sadaqa not because of obligation under law or Shariah), rather she entails to receive her maintenance from her husband. For example every month she receives 10,000/- for her maintenance (in terms of residence, food, cloth, treatment and entertainment). So in total she receives for 30 years Taka 10,000/-X12X30= 36,00,000/- ( thirty six lac taka). In the above mentioned case, the man has to spend 109 lac or 10.9 million taka more than her sister in thirty years. If the advantage of man in inheritance of one million is deducted, even then the sister has advantage of 108 lac or 10.8 million.

Halim

 

 

Fatima

 

 

Receives as inheritance           

+20,00,000/-

 

 

Receives as inheritance           

+10,00,000/-

Advantage of Brother

10,00,000/-

Gives Mahr                                 

 

-1,00,000/-

Receives Mahr

+1,00,000/-

Advantage of sister

1,00,000/-

Maintenance expenditure on family

 

-1,08,00,000/-

Maintenance expenditure on family

nill-

Advantage of sister

1,08,00,000/-

Receives maintenance

nill

 

Receives maintenance form husband

+36,00,000

Advantage of sister

36,00,000/-

Sub total

+20,00,000/-

-1,09,00,000/-

 

+47,00,000/-

 

Comparative advantage/disadvantage  of brother/sister (+ -)

 

 

-89,00,000/-

 

+47,00,000/-

Advantage of sister over brother

(1,00,000+

1,08,00,000+36,00,000-10,00,000)=

1,35,00,000/-

 

 


In this example if respective advantages are squired of even then the woman will have an advantage over brother of 1,35,00000 taka (135 lac taka ).

The advantage of the lady will increase if monthly expenditure of family is more than what has been shown in this example If the family is poor which lives on Tk.5,000/-only per month, then he has to spend Tk.1.8.million taka in 30 years. In this case, the inheritance may be very little. As such the advantage of woman obviously remains. I t is evident that, the women are always in better position. Only in the case of some super-rich, men may be in advantage. This is what Allah wanted, that is to make women more secure financially.

Now let's see what will happen if a sister gets equal to her brother in the case of Halim and Fatima. Here we have to remember that if sister (female) claims half of inheritance she will be responsible for half of maintenance of her family and males will not intend to give Mahr.

Halim receives as inheritance           

+15,00,000/-

 

 

Fatima receives as inheritance           

+15,00,000/-

 

Maintenance

(Half)

 

-54,00,000/-

Maintenance

(Half)

 

-54,00,000/-

Total

 

-39,00,000/-

 

 

-39,00,000/-

 

 

 


From these two tables it is obvious that if Fatima follows Islamic law she will be gainer of 47 lac taka. On the other hand if she claims half of inheritance she will be looser of 39 lac taka. Moreover, it would be very difficult for a woman (especially when she is expecting and has small children to take care of) to take half of financial responsibility of maintaining the family. In fact in Islamic inheritance law women are much more favored financially than males.

Exceptional cases

The inheritance law has been given for general cases. The special cases are covered in Islam by inheritance law and by other special laws of Islam dealing with Hiba, Wasiat and Nafqa (maintenance). Let's take examples of two exceptional cases:

Case one:

Imagine the situation that a man dies and leaves no direct heirs but only a brother and a sister. His sister might be a widow with children, without support from others, but she has to feed her children. The brother might be a rich business man and bachalor who has nobody to take care of but himself. Nevertheless, the brother will get 2/3 and the sister will get 1/3 of the estate. The male does get double the female no matter what their respective financial situation is and how many people depend on them. One may raise question that here the sister is in more need of wealth even though she is getting less.

In this case, the deceased may make gift of a part of his/her property (half or one third or more) in favor of the sister. Or he could make wasiat up to one third in favor of the children of the sister (wasiat can not be made for inheritors).Moreover in Islamic law the maintenance of the children of the sister is not on her but on the paternal uncles of the children or other relatives of the paternal side. If there is no paternal uncle or if they fail then responsibility goes to relations of maternal side that means to the rich bachelor brother of the deceased who has received more than his sister.

Case Two:

Imagine a man and a woman where both are about 45 years old, who have married relatively late, e.g. at about the age of 30 and who have a number of children, some of them still young. Suppose also that both have worked or for some other reason have similar estates they leave behind when dying. If the woman dies, the man gets ¼ of the inheritance. If the man dies the woman gets 1/8 of the inheritance. The question may raise that in both cases the surviving partner will have to feed and educate the children. So, how the wife would maintain the children's need if she gets less?

In this case also the husband is responsible for maintaining the children even after death of the wife, so Allah has given him a greater share. On the other hand in Islamic law it is not the duty of surviving wife in case of death of husband to maintain the children. The maintenance of the children will be first met from the property of husband, in case of shortfall, the paternal uncles and relations are responsible for their maintenance.

Half in inheritance does not mean half in status

Sometimes it has been claimed that half in inheritance indicates inferior status of women in Islam. We should keep in mind that in Islam asset or money is not the standard of status.Her share in most cases is one-half the man's share, with no implication that she is worth half a man! This variation in inheritance rights is only consistent with the variations in financial responsibilities of man and woman according to the Islamic Law. The status of woman in Islam constitutes no problem. The attitude of the Qur'an and the early Muslims bear witness to the fact that woman is, at least, as vital to life as man himself, and that she is not inferior to him nor is she one of the lower species. The status of woman was taken for granted to be equal to that of man.

This can be understood when the matter is studied as a whole in a comparative manner, rather than partially. The rights and responsibilities of a woman are equal to those of a man but they are not necessarily identical with them. Equality and sameness are two quite different things. This difference is understandable because man and woman are not identical but they are created equals. It is almost impossible to find even two identical men or women.

This distinction between equality and sameness is of paramount importance. Equality is desirable, just, fair; but sameness is not. People are not created identical but they are created equals. With this distinction in mind, there is no room to imagine that woman is inferior to man. There is no ground to assume that she is less important than he just because her rights are not identically the same as his. The fact that Islam gives her equal rights - but not identical - shows that it takes her into due consideration, acknowledges her, and recognizes her independent personality.

The Quran provides clear-cut evidence that woman in completely equated with man in the sight of God in terms of her rights and responsibilities. The Quran states:

"Every soul will be (held) in pledge for its deeds" (Quran 74:38).

"So their Lord accepted their prayers, (saying): I will not suffer to be lost the work of any of you whether male or female. You proceed one from another"t (Quran 3: 195).

"Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has faith, verily to him will We give a new life that is good and pure, and We will bestow on such their reward according to the their actions." (Quran 16:97, see also 4:124). 9

Woman is recognized by Islam as a full and equal partner of man in the procreation of humankind.

"O mankind! Verily We have created your from a single (pair) of a male and a female,m and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each othert" (Qur'an, 49:13; cf. 4:1).

She is equal to man in bearing personal and common responsibilities and in receiving rewards for her deeds. She is acknowledged as an independent personality, in possession of human qualities and worthy of spiritual aspirations. Her human nature is neither inferior to nor deviant from that of man. Both are members of one another. God says:

"And their Lord has accepted (their prayers) and answered them (saying): 'Never will I cause to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female; you are members, one of anothert "(3:195; cf 9:71; 33:35-36; 66:19-21).

She is entitled to freedom of expression as much as man is. Her sound opinions are taken into consideration and cannot be disregarded just because she happen to belong to the female sex. It is reported in the Qur'an and history that woman not only expressed her opinion freely but also argued and participated in serious discussions with the Prophet himself as well as with other Muslim leaders (Qur'an, 58:1-4; 60:10-12). Besides there were occasions when Muslim women expressed their views on legislative matters of public interest, and stood in opposition to the Caliphs, who then accepted the sound arguments of these women. A specific example took place during the Califate of Umar Ibn al-Khattab.

Historical records show that women participated in public life with the early Muslims, especially in times of emergencies. Women used to accompany the Muslim armies engaged in battles to nurse the wounded, prepare supplies, serve the warriors, and so on. They were not shut behind iron bars or considered worthless creatures and deprived of souls.

Islam grants woman equal rights to contract, to enterprise, to earn and possess independently. Her life, her property, her honor are as sacred as those of man. If she commits any offense, her penalty is no less or more than of man's in a similar case. If she is wronged or harmed, she gets due compensations equal to what a man in her position would get (2:178;4:45, 92-93).

Apart from recognition of woman as an independent human being acknowledged as equally essential for the survival of humanity, Islam has given her a share of inheritance.

"And women shall have rights similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable; but man have a degree (of advantage as in some cases of inheritance) over them" (2:228).

This degree is not a title of supremacy or an authorization of dominance over her. It is to correspond with the extra responsibilities of man and give him some compensation for his unlimited liabilities. It is these extra responsibilities that give man a degree over woman in some economic aspects. It is not a higher degree in humanity or in character. Nor is it a dominance of one over the other or suppression of one by the other. It is a distribution of God's abundance according to the needs of the nature of which God is the Maker. And He knows best what is good for woman and what is good for man.

Some people claim that Islam is unjust towards women because it entitles them to inherit half of what men get. In fact, those people only know one side of the truth. First, the principle of women inheriting half the money is only applicable in 45 percent of the cases. In the other 55 percent, women inherit the same amount or sometimes even more. For example, a mother and a father each inherit the sixth of their son's property when they are not the only inheritors.

In addition, the laws of inheritance in Islam are proportional to the duties of spending. Indeed, a man in Islam has the responsibility of supporting his family, his brother's children (when his brother dies), his parents (when they retire and do not have an income), his children from his previous marriage (if he has them) and his household, including his wife and children. A woman, on the other hand, does not bear this responsibility. She has the freedom to use the money she collects from her dowry or work as she pleases.

In fact, the status of woman in Islam is unprecedentedly high and realistically suitable to her nature. Her rights and duties are equal to those of man but not necessarily or absolutely identical with them. If she is deprived of one thing in some aspect, she is fully compensated for it with more things in many other aspects. Islam gives her as much as is required of her. Her rights match beautifully with her duties. The balance between rights and duties is maintained, and no side overweighs the other.

Finally, the beauty or comprehensiveness of Islamic law of inheritance will be understood if it is read with the law of maintenance, wasiat and hiba. An examination of the inheritance law within the overall framework of the Islamic Law reveals not only justice but also an abundance of compassion for woman.

(The writer is an Assistant Professor at the Darul Ihsan University)


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Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration: 
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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