Al-Imam uz Zina: The Fornicating Imams

By Dr. Aslam Abdullah

The title in English means the fornicating Imam. It is not a symbolic title. It refers to an emerging trend in Islamic centers and mosques, especially in North America. Imams and religious leaders take advantage of their positions in the Muslim community and indulge in what they describe as consenting fornication with vulnerable females, young and old. The news of their flirtatious behavior trickles, and the board covers it up. Still, when the more significant segment of the community becomes aware of the stories, and the females come forward with their ordeal, the management quietly removes the Imam or religious leader from its institutions. .
In the process, the victim is often advised to keep quiet and let the matter go. Some members refuse to admit the victim's complaint and quote the sharia to justify their silence with the argument that four witnesses were not present to corroborate her story. Others do not want the story to go public to save Islam from being misrepresented. Still, others ignore it as they do not regard it as a severe issue.
Often, the community becomes split on the issue. Some people take the side of the Imam and others to oppose him. Finally, the matter comes to an end when the management makes a compromise with the Imam, assuring him that it would not disclose his deviant behavior to his future employer.
It is an irony that the Imam uses Islam to fornicate, the victim sees it a divinely sanctioned act, the management believes that covering of the deviant behavior is according to Islamic Sharia. The community feels that the veil of secrecy is necessary in these cases.
The whole process gives clear evidence of the inability of the community to deal with its problems rationally and reasonably. It also speaks of their ignorance of Islamic guidance in such cases.
Islam does not want evil to prosper and grow. It provides clear guidance on issues that often lead to fornication. The Quran acknowledges the right of a victim to air wrongs done to him/her. The Quran also admonishes the believers, including religious leaders and Imams, not to go closer to evil.
The Quran demands protection of the identity of the victim.  Simultaneously, it requires preventive measures to minimize the chances of fornication by those who are in the position of power. Human beings are prone to error, and there would always be individuals who would transgress the divine limitations in their behavior. However, in institutions run on the foundation of divine guidance, one can hope to see rules to minimize the transgression if not eliminate it.
By and large, Muslim institutions in North America or elsewhere in the world have failed to develop policies and measures to prevent the occurrence of fornication or illicit sex.
There is no policy document to be found in any reputable Muslim institution in North America or elsewhere that gives details of the process of investigating such cases and taking appropriate actions if the Imams are found guilty. There is no Muslim institution that provides training to Imams on dealings with people of the opposite gender and following a religious protocol in their demeanor.
In an environment, where the Imam or religious leader is in full authority to use his position to influence the opinion of the members who approach him for consultations, the possibilities of deviant behavior are enormous unless there are checks and balances.
It is this absolute freedom that becomes the leading cause of the behavior that violates the divine guidance. This behavior is evident in many religious seminaries in almost all over the world where religious leaders, teachers, and other influential members take advantage of a vulnerable community to satisfy their lustful be4havior.
The Muslim community must not hide from facing reality. It should acknowledge that the number of fornicating Imams is rising.  It should look at the practices others follow in dealing with similar situations.  It should adopt policies backed by regular training on the issue. It should stop believing that the title Imam or religious scholar guarantees perfect behavior.

The Demise of Hinduism in India
by Aslam Abdullah

The practice of asteya in Hinduism demands that one must not steal, nor have the intent to steal another's property through action, speech, and thoughts. Asteva is one of five major vows of Hinduism and Jainism. The other four are:
Nonviolence - Ahimsa.
Truth - Satya.
Celibacy/Chastity - Brahmacharya.
Non-attachment/Non-possession - Aparigraha.
Additionally, six sins lead the soul to hell for eternity. They are 1) Anger  2) Greediness or corruption, 3) Illegal sex, 4) Fascination to the world, 5) Ego, and 6) Jealousy.
In his Deivamani Malai, the most famous Tamil poet Saint Vallalar says that seven qualities keep us from reaching God. Kama, Anger, The mean man, Laziness, ego, and  envy
 What is evident in the movement of reclaiming the Babri Masjid for building a Ram Temple is that Hinduism lost its soul. Violence was used to intimidate people. They subverted the Truth and sought worldly gains. Their leaders at the forefront were the ones implicated in rape and sexual abuse cases.   Anger was their lifestyle, and the meanness was their behavior. Egos were high, and jealousy towards Muslims was well known.
Hindus, who were claiming that they believe in Satya concocted and promoted lies. Religious leaders who vowed in the sanctity of their faith indulged in violence and used dubious means to capture the land where the Masjid stood for almost 500 years. The people swearing on their religious texts, instigated their followers to commit destruction and murder.
Every vow that Hindus make to follow their faith was broken. It is on these broken vows, Hindus would build the Temple they would dedicate to Ram, their deity, or the manifestation of Shiva.
What an irony that the Temple would now stand on the debris of Hindu values.  It is the debris piled by the people who claim to be devotees of Hinduism.
Muslims must understand that God is not their God only. He is the God of every human being. Any place that remembers him as the sole creator of the universe is sacred. The Masjid was sacred, and its destruction is the desecration of the divine sanctity. Those who plotted to defile it and changed its identity are the ones who would be held accountable. In our lifetime, we will see these people experiencing the divine wrath. It will come at the choosing of God. A Temple built on deception and violence can never be called a place to worship him. It would always remind people of the injustice, fraud, injustice, and abuse as long as that Temple remains in existence. Ram Temple would be associated with the broken vows of Hinduism.
The idea that the land allotted to Muslims instead of Babri Masjid is a symbol of injustice. Muslims are capable of building hundreds of Masajid and welfare institutions without the dole coming from those who engineered the demise of Hinduism. They should reject it and work with those Hindus who believe in the sanctity of their religion to build institutions dedicated to justice and fairness.

Hinduism in Crisis

by Dr. Aslam Abdullah

The Supreme Court verdict on Babri Masjid-Ram Temple dispute not only exposed the judicial biases against Islam and Muslims, but also highlighted the crisis Hinduism as a religion and Hindus as a nation have been going through for quite some time.

The verdict admitted a few significant findings.

1. Muslims did not demolish the Temple to build the Babri Masjid.
2. Muslims did not build the mosque on the site of the Temple, whose existence is not proven.
3. The idols of Hindu deities did not emerge miraculously in the Babri Masjid; rather, they were placed under the Masjid dome by miscreants.
4. Hindus, under the leadership of the current ruling party, religious saints, and Hindu organizations, demolished the Masjid brick by brick. It was not the first time that the Hindus harmed the Masjid. Several attempts in the past were made to demolish the Masjid.  

All these recognized facts prove one point. The Hindu religious and political leadership used fabricated facts, lies, and concocted myths to promote their claim on a piece of land they allegedly called Ram Janam Bhoomi.

It proves beyond doubt that to justify their claims, the Hindu leadership can go to any length. A religious leadership that uses deception, lies, concoction, and violence to satisfy its self-perceived ideas cannot claim to represent the faith or deities they want to serve. The leadership thrives on falsehood, violence, and lies.

 It is an internal crisis of Hindus and their faith. It is a crisis that is destructive to its core values.

Hindus always have claimed their faith to be truthful, tolerant, and peaceful. But the narrative they concocted to take control of the land of Babri Masjid was built on hatred and violence. They did it in the name of Ram and other religious deities.  

The construction of Ram temple would not save Hinduism. Anything built on falsehood does not last. Even though the Hindu leadership might have succeeded in winning a piece of land for Ram, but they have initiated the process of the destruction of their faith.

Babri Masjid 's conversion to Hindu Temple 

There is no need to lament and no need to cry foul over the Indian Supreme Court's decision to award the land of the Babri Masjid to Hindus to construct the Ram Temple. There is also no relevance to accept the five acres of land elsewhere to rebuild a new Masjid. Injustice is done, and injustice should be resisted and fought back.

We know the reality that under the present government, every state institution would serve the interest of the political elites, belonging to upper-caste Hindus who believe in a militant and resurgent interpretation of Hinduism

We know that there would be many more Muslim places of worship that would be taken away and awarded to upper-castes under the pretext that their gods and goddesses were born there.

We also know that the government institutions would be used to create a narrative of history to negate the Muslim presence in India.
We also know that the Court succumbed to the political demands of Upper-caste Hindus despite the fact that it could not prove that there was a temple on whose land the Babri Masjid was built. The Court said that there was a structure under the mosque, but it did not say that the structure was that of a temple. There is no evidence that after the demolition of a temple, a mosque was built. On the basis of what archaeological insight can court decide that after 500 years. But the fact is that the court decided to favor Hindu's claim to build a Temple on the land where the Babri Masjid once stood and destroyed by the fanatics.

We must realize the fact that the Supreme Court is not the ultimate agency of justice. There is an authority higher than every human authority that imparts justice to all those who are forced to accept injustice. That authority has yet to implement its verdict over this Court injustice. Until that happens, the believers in Him must not lose hope and work harder to make their lives meaningful.

But the resistance must go on, and we must fight back the injustice.

How to fight back the injustice is the issue?

To educate every Muslim and empower each one with an understanding of faith that leads them to make their existence relevant to society and the time they live in.

It is the only way forward. 

Mosques are symbols of Muslim's commitment and dedication to one God and the Guidance He has given to humanity. But the education and using it under the guidance of God to serve humanity are the real manifestation of our true faith.

We need to think outside the box to rejuvenate our community. We need to take steps to inspire ourselves for a future that is meaningful to us and others.

Not only in India but elsewhere, we must organize ourselves to ensure that no Muslim child remains uneducated in modern sciences. Simultaneously, we must also ensure that each Muslim child receives a basic religious education to empathize with humanity as part of a commitment to God.

To achieve, we must create educational and social funds to finance higher education as well as to create institutions such as schools, colleges, hospitals, and orphanages, etc. We must also develop a religious and social curriculum that liberates us from focusing on non-issues and empower us with the capabilities of serving all the people around us to improve their living standards.

It is possible only when our youth take the leadership role in our organizations and institutions. It is possible only when we think critically and challenges every tradition that has shackled us for centuries.

It is time to build the present and the future rather than curse the past. We have to change the reality for ourselves, and we can no longer depend on anyone else other than God and his guidance to show us the path and the path of God is the path of progress.

Faith over Justice

On the day, when Kartarpur opened its arms to welcome people from all over the world to worship in the newly rebuilt birthplace of the founder of Sikh religion, the land where once stood the Babri Masjid in the north Indian city of Ajodhya for almost five hundred years was shut for Muslims forever.

One of the oldest disputes over the ownership of land finally came to an end when the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision decided to rescind the Muslim right over the land and handed it over to Hindus to reconstruct the Temple under the supervision of the Ramjanambhomi Trust. It is an irony that while Pakistan announced the decision to renovate 400 Hindu Temples in Pakistan, India's highest court decided to take away the Babri Masjid from Muslims.

 The Supreme Court explained that its decision is based on the basis of law, and not on the basis of belief and traditions. Yet, the decision exposes the biases and the reliance on traditions and beliefs. This is how the Court's biases become clear.

Ram Lalla was the only part whose right to the land was acknowledged and accepted. It is part of the belief system and traditional accounts. It is not a historical fact as there are scores of places that claim to be the birthplace of Ram.

Sunni Waqf Board that has managed the mosque for centuries was not considered a legitimate body to contest the land ownership, yet the Court awarded five acres of land to the board to reconstruct a new Masjid elsewhere.

Nirmohi Akhara was not considered a party to the land dispute, yet the newly formed Trust was asked to include its members on the board.

The Court acknowledged that no temple was demolished, but the Babri Masjid was not built on vacant land.

The Court relied on the Archeological Survey of India's recommendation that said that the mosque was built on the structure that did not look like an Islamic structure, yet did not prove beyond doubt that the structure mentioned above was part of the Hindu Temple.

The Court failed to establish that there stood a Temple dedicated to Ram, yet decided to accept the traditional belief that a Temple existed on the land where the Babri Masjid was built.

The Court described the demolition of the Masjid in the 1990s unlawful, yet failed to restore the mosque to Muslims.
The Court admitted that 1949 idols of Ram were placed and they did not emerge miraculously as claimed by Hindus, yet decided to consider the mosque a place of worship for Hindus

The Court claimed that its decision is based on law, but failed to present any legal document in support of the belief that the land was the birthplace of Ram.

The Court failed to explain the existence of the Masjid for almost 500 years as a place of worship.

The Court claimed that the mosque was not used as a place of worship until the beginning of the 19th century, yet restored the right of worship to a Hindu claimant in the Masjid land where there was no proof of Hindu worship.

The court decision is based on politics and is not unbiased. But it is a decision of the highest legal institution of India. Muslims have announced their intention to accept the claim. But the acceptance does not mean that injustice is accepted. History would always record the decision of the Court a political one rooted in majoritarianism.