{"id":80568,"date":"2018-08-30T00:37:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T07:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=80568"},"modified":"2018-08-30T00:37:43","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T07:37:43","slug":"mmda-need-to-be-implemented-with-or-without-acju-a-rejoinder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/08\/30\/mmda-need-to-be-implemented-with-or-without-acju-a-rejoinder\/","title":{"rendered":"MMDA need to be implemented with or without ACJU – A REJOINDER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr.Reffai\u00a0Sri Lankan Association of Muslim Women & Girls<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Assalamu alaikum.<\/p>\n

I am shocked by this scathing attack on one of the oldest leading organisation of the community – namely ACJU. This article\u00a0 has nothing to do with MMDA rather a vitriolic run down on ACJU.<\/p>\n

Before responding to the accusations, though I am not a member of ACJU, I would like to ask the erudite writer where in the world\u00a0 did he get this notion that “MMDA\u00a0 …..\u00a0is misused\/misapplied\u00a0 by ulemas<\/strong>\u00a0 to make girls victims as they are given in ‘marriage’ easily to fun-seeking\u00a0 foreign ( mostly from the Gulf) men mulch older<\/strong> and, in some cases\u00a0 married to many others back in their\u00a0 countries.”\u00a0 – <\/em>as\u00a0 much as I am familiar with\u00a0the grass root level girls and\u00a0 women, I have not\u00a0come\u00a0across a single\u00a0case where any\u00a0 ulema did\u00a0anything of the sort. I would\u00a0expect the writer to give\u00a0 actual details\u00a0of\u00a0such cases if there are any.\u00a0 Or else he is committing a grave slander against the ulemas of this\u00a0country.<\/p>\n

That\u00a0being\u00a0said, yes it is\u00a0true ACJU is far from a perfect organisation\u00a0of\u00a0theologians\u00a0but\u00a0 it is unfair to expect it to be,\u00a0since we are in a country which has various\u00a0 aqeeda and anyone passing out from any madrasa, not only from\u00a0 Srilanka but from\u00a0 any country,\u00a0 can become\u00a0a member of ACJU – so it is anything\u00a0but homogeneous\u00a0– as it will consist of ulemas with a variety of views on any matter and usually the view of the head of the ACJU prevails or is presented.<\/p>\n

However, the Srilankan Muslim community has\u00a0no proper leadership. Politicians have miserably failed to\u00a0give leadership and even organisations\u00a0such as MCSL and NSC are sorely lacking in leadership due to various reasons mainly due to a lackadaisical\u00a0attitude and lack of perseverance\u00a0in any matter. Obviously knee jerk reactions, that\u00a0too, very delayed at times, only when some\u00a0problems crop up and then going\u00a0into slumber back again, is not a sign of leadership.<\/p>\n

In this back\u00a0drop the only semblance of leadership\u00a0we have\u00a0is from the ACJU. It does have many strengths,\u00a0 and is performing many meritorious acts, which\u00a0I suggest Mr. Latheef to inquire\u00a0from the head of ACJU and find out.\u00a0 Meanwhile\u00a0on matters\u00a0which\u00a0need absolute thorough knowledge of\u00a0theology – a he calls it – which\u00a0means really a knowledge\u00a0of Quran and Sunna – when it comes\u00a0to the MMDA,\u00a0 if we are to call on every Jill, Jane and\u00a0Mary to come\u00a0forward to give verdicts (sic. fathwas), we certainly will be doomed.<\/p>\n

MMDA matters are not simple matters\u00a0like road traffic rules to change as and when we fancy. These will have long lasting\u00a0impact on the society specially the\u00a0female sector. They\u00a0have\u00a0to be changed, if at all,\u00a0\u00a0having\u00a0studied the problems properly and knowing\u00a0the reality in today’s\u00a0context\u00a0and having\u00a0the Quran and sunna as the back drop. I spoke to one of the spokes –\u00a0 person in the ladies group which\u00a0had a press conference regarding\u00a0this matter and when asked\u00a0how many\u00a0 children\u00a0she knows who are married\u00a0younger than 18, she said\u00a0 very\u00a0 few but when asked how many she knows who were married at an older age and\u00a0are\u00a0miserable, she said many many. She did accept the fact that we have\u00a0no records of any figures of the number\u00a0of child\u00a0marriages or how they are fairing.<\/p>\n

Pray, I’D LIKE TO KNOW, what\u00a0 the writer implies\u00a0by ” If Muslim women’s\u00a0views are not respected and required changes to MMDA are not made they (Women) too are likely to show their displeasure at the next polls and, as the trend goes they\u00a0cannot be dictated even by their husbands about how they will vote.” – <\/em>What in the world has the voting\u00a0 \u00a0to do with change\u00a0to MMDA? WHEN DID\u00a0THE HUSBANDS DICTATE\u00a0 THE WIVES HOW TO VOTE? And if they did, is it a good thing we should preserve? Confusing.<\/p>\n

What we need\u00a0 is really\u00a0not a total change\u00a0just because\u00a0some\u00a0feel so. We must remember\u00a0the maxim ” It is important\u00a0to change when it is important\u00a0to change and it is important\u00a0not to change, when it is important\u00a0not to change.”<\/p>\n

First of\u00a0all, what we need to do is a proper study on the situation at present; number of child\u00a0marriages actually\u00a0 taking\u00a0place, and how they have fared\u00a0in the past, what is the number\u00a0of divorces among Muslims relating to marriage\u00a0ages, the despicable situation of\u00a0the qazis, the number of polygamy taking place and why etc. etc. With these hard facts in hand\u00a0we can decide whether we do need a change or not.<\/p>\n

More than anything, what we need to do most is to continuously educate the public specially the men, who will be the fathers and husbands of the girls,\u00a0on the\u00a0importance\u00a0of\u00a0 giving\u00a0the rights of the women in their families,\u00a0 as well as fulfilling\u00a0their\u00a0obligations\u00a0according\u00a0to shariah laws in order to please Allah. This\u00a0can be done only\u00a0\u00a0through ACJU – just castigating\u00a0them and shunning them will only aggravate the situation.<\/p>\n

On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 7:19 AM, Latheef Farook <almfarook19@gmail.com<\/a>> wrote:<\/p>\n

Dr.Reffai\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Almuslimaath<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lankan Association of Muslim Women & Girls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr.Reffai\u00a0Sri Lankan Association of Muslim Women & Girls Assalamu alaikum. I am shocked by this scathing attack on one of the oldest leading organisation of the community – namely ACJU. This article\u00a0 has nothing to do with MMDA rather a vitriolic run down on ACJU. Before responding to the accusations, though I am not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}