Letters To The Editor

I am a regular reader of Islamic Voice. I read your editorial “Retrograde” in the October 2004 issue. I and some of my friends agree with the views expressed therein. Only women know how important it is to bring up children well, giving them good education and taking care of their health. Just giving good food is not enough which even animals do. Let us not ignore this aspect of life. One feels that atleast you have given importance to the dignity of life by supporting family planning. As you have pointed out, we have to give priorities to the socio-economic realities around us in the present modern world where we are facing many challenges and nobody cares for anybody. We wish that you will continue this jihad for the sake of Islam.

I read Islamic Voice regularly and found the articles on the workshop-”Discover Yourself” very inspiring. I hail from an economic background where I cannot really afford to spend on expensive books I need for my research. I will be grateful if readers of Islamic Voice can send me or share their wealth of Islamic books, like Islamic history, etc with me. Books can be sent to me on this address: Md Saribah, S/O Aboybi, H.Lairakhong, P.O Litong, Thonbal District, Manipur.

I am a matriculate and a regular reader of Islamic Voice. The language in Islamic Voice is too high and hard for people like me to comprehend. There may be many readers like me. Kindly make the language simple. Also, have an article on Wahhabism in detail.

Hetero-cum-myopic views have emerged over the indispensable announcement by the Andhra Pradesh Government to grant five per cent reservation to the Muslim community in educational institutions and public sector. The most authentic historic fact is that Indian Muslims were getting reservation in legislatures and public sector from 1909 upto 1947. After independence, the constituent Assembly abolished the Muslim reservation in legislatures and government services. The so-called secular government today should enact the law of 10 per cent reservation for the Muslim minority on the national level including the private sector. If the 15 per cent dynamic Muslim community lives in slums and below the poverty line, how can India be developed?

E-mail: Zulfiqar04@yahoo.co.in

Apropos the letter of Mr Mirza Yawar Baig published in the November 2004 issue of Islamic Voice, I would like to say that his criticism of your editorial “ Retrograde” is meaningless. We quite agree with your views on family planning. Almost all the Muslim countries have encouraged their citizens to adopt family planning. How can a poor person with a meagre income think of having more children? But it is happening in our community also as among the non-Muslims. Is it not clear to Mr Mirza why the poor Muslim girls are married to foreign tourists who desert them after two or three months of marriage? Has any Muslim association or Board ever raised any objection to such heinous things? If our leaders have seen the atmosphere prevailing in the slums, they will not talk against family planning. We thank you for this excellent and thought-provoking editorial.

This is with reference to the article by brother M. Hanif Lakdawala on “Isolation or Islamic Learning”-( Islamic Voice, October 2004). I as a revert have studied the Islamic way of life and found it to be more effective when it comes to personality traits like positive thinking. I am amazed at the pessimism of a seasoned writer like him. The Qur’an and Hadith are the subjects that will really bring changes in the entire society. When he says memorisation should not be given importance, is he propagating that children should not be made to memorise poetry or mathematics tables? I am also a teacher for the past ten years and I would like to ask him, “ has he come across any text book in school syllabus which teaches values like modesty or honouring women, like in the Qur’an? So let us not look down upon Islamic schools by degrading them. Islamic schools are needed today to imbibe the moral code of conduct among youngsters which no glamorous course can offer.