Faith is about commonsense

bristol | media and culture | opinion/analysis Saturday August 30, 2008 08:09 by Iqbal Tamimi - NUJ member in Bristol iqbasl at yahoo dot com Bristol 07947650061

Shia Muslim convicted of child cruelty after forcing two boys to flog themselves

As much as some Muslims suffer discrimination and I know that for I was and am still experiencing such acts of discrimination. Such experiences left many of my colleagues ' journalists' with one of two choices, either to show biased extreme views, or be extremely worried about hurting the feelings of people from other minorities. Both choices are wrong, because journalism is about ethics and responsibility towards the society in the first place.

Shia rituals of flogging

Shia Muslim convicted of child cruelty after forcing two boys to flog themselves

Faith is about commonsense
By Iqbal Tamimi

When I first read the news article few days ago, it has mentioned something about grieve rituals in a way that would allow to softening the language and stop us readers from reacting strongly.
As much as some Muslims suffer discrimination and I know that for I was and am still experiencing such acts of discrimination. Such experiences left many of my journalists’ colleagues with one of two choices, either to show biased extreme views, or be extremely worried about hurting the feelings of people from other minorities. Both choices are wrong, because journalism is about ethics and responsibility towards the society in the first place.
If any act would lead to harm a human being regardless of minorities own faith convictions, it should be stopped immediately. There is no God, and no faith will accept or encourage self harm or inflecting harm on others, let alone passing bad habits of aggressive behaviour to young children while their personalities are still under construction and can be moulded easily.
Most faith factions that have developed certain rituals have nothing to do with the basic faith, people created certain rituals along the history, thus diverting from the real message of mercy religions come with. Naming such act of barbarism ‘a Muslim ritual’ will harm Muslims greatly because this act is rejected by Muslims including many Shia scholars.
Should a conflict arise between minorities beliefs and the law of the country, the most commonsense thing to do is to resolve to human rights point of view to protect the vulnerable, because such acts are not considered as an individual choice. Such ceremony happens while many people are present; it conveys a message of violence and aggressiveness that can easily be copied by youngsters, especially those of our Middle Eastern upbringing that encourages boys to show resilience to pain, and charge them with descriptions of manhood for being able to withstand pain, thus immunizing children against compassion.
Any act that will encourage aggressiveness should be abolished regardless of individual’s faith and convictions. From Islam point of view, the lawmakers are responsible in the eyes of God for protecting the society and especially the vulnerable like children and women. No one should shy from taking any action to protect them regardless of whatever religious people would say. We are living here in a Democracy that is promoting human rights and dignity; most minorities came from their original countries to escape persecution, oppression, and violence. We should not give way to those who are willing to plant the seeds of cruelty here. Should they insist on hanging to rituals that glorifies pain I guess they should pack their aggression tools and go back home. We came here dreaming of a safer environment for our children, no one has the right to take that dream away from us.

Iqbal Tamimi
A Muslim journalist – Bristol
Creator of interfaith international Palestinian mothers network
www.palestinianmothers.com