TT: More on the "Muslim villages"

Speaking of the plan yesterday Maulana Imran Hosein said it was born of the need to protect and preserve Islam from the ills of society such as alcohol, fornication, adultery, illegitimate children, homosexuality, lesbianism and murders.

Somebody ought to tell this man that all of these things occur in Saudi Arabia, especially the alcohol (ask King Fahd), the homosexuality and lesbianism. All of these -- except for alcohol, unless its use is immoderate, and illegitimate children (being illegitimate is not a sin in itself) -- are sins, and all men sin. There is no way to ensure that men will not sin; not even imposing the most draconian measures, such as chopping off hands, will keep men from sinning. Besides, is Islam some kind of weak sister that it needs to be "protected"?

Hosein, who was earlier this year accused by ASJA of promoting "terrorist-type" ideologies, gave the lecture on the establishment of The Muslim Village in Trinidad and Tobago during a public session at the San Fernando Technical Institute yesterday....

At yesterday's function Hosein said the PNM's "black political and economic nationalism" had damaged the body politic through racial polarisation. "Unless we find a way out of the racial dilemma, the country will eventually capsize. "

He said the Muslim village would transcend the politics of race to seek to establish and sustain healing the balm of a racial fraternity.

Darfur has shown us the Islamic view of race. So instituting "Muslim villages" will compound rather than dilute the problem. Islamic countries are far more racist than Western ones, and that is a fact of life that people in the West have not begun to appreciate at all. So, this is pure double-speak by a guy who is a promoter of terrorist ideologies.

Hosein said the village should consist about" 200 or 300 families,"and should be outside the city and the majority of the residents will be Muslims, but non-Muslims will be welcome on condition that they are not hostile to Islam, and that they can conform with the norms of public conduct in the Muslim Village.

He said non-Muslims who visit the village will not be able to "walk with a bottle of beer or walk half-naked down the streets ." He said that "non-Muslims will be welcome to live with us in the village in the way they liven in the past."

This is double-speak for "non-Muslims will be welcome if they are prepared to wear full hijab like women in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia." Who in TT has been hostile to Islam? TT is the most tolerant of nations, so to suggest otherwise is an out and out lie.

He said there would be no mansions and since toilets were considered unclean places, buildings in the village will have no toilets. The village will have its own markets "and all stalls would be free of charge," but people from outside the village would be encouraged to come to the market to shop. The cemetery must be located within the residential area, so that people could visit as often as possible, he added.

Back to the dark ages. This guy's idea of a perfect Islamic society is a backward Pakistani village. Way to go! Pssssttt! don't tell Maulana Hosein, but toilets are unclean when you don't keep them clean. So, Hosein wants to be separate from the infidels but he still wants their money, eh?

The Village will establish its own primary school and combine to establish a secondary school, "but the Muslim schools would not accept any state funding, hence would not be subject to any state control," Hosein said. Education, he added, will be based entirely on a system established ed by To establish the village, Hosein spoke about three stages, including a mass programme of public education, the establishment of week-end villages as a prelude to the permanent fixture.

How many girls will be allowed to attend this school? What else, besides rote memorization of the Koran, will be on the curriculum?

However,

The Anjuman Sunaat-ul- Jamaat Association (ASJA) is against the establishment of Muslim villages in Trinidad and Tobago.

"I cannot support and ASJA will not support Muslim villages in a multi-plural, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society such as the one in which we live," Yacoob Ali, ASJA president general, said.

He said Muslim villages in this society "can only be divisive and we are not for separation." Ali said ASJA, the country's largest Muslim organisation, believes in living and surviving in mainstream society "and we will continue to do so".

Such moves, he stressed, could not augur well for this society. "We are for integrating society, but we cannot pass judgment on the rest of society to say they are sinners," he said.

Muslim villages are not a medium for the preservation of Islam, he said, adding that "we cannot create a society within a society in this country and it should not be allowed".

Nevertheless,

Hosein found support for his idea from members of his audience.

Maulana Siddiq Ahmad Nasir, who spoke at the lecture about the spiritual dynamism of such a situation, said he experienced the life in two such villages in Pakistan. In such an environment, he said "no one smoked, or played music loudly." He described his experience as "exhilarating" but stressed that such villages cannot be established overnight as serious planning must go into them.

Most likely music was not loudly played because there either was no radio or no music to be played since the Wahhabists frown on music.

Frankly, if nutty Utopianists Hosein and Nasir want their followers to live in Pakistani-like conditions, perhaps they should ship out to Pakistan.