A Fresh Start

What is democracy?

Is democracy synonymous with freedom? It is quite easy to look at countries trying to enforce democracy and ones in which democracy freely flows, but still look at the undertones and see some harsh similarities, so I suppose it is up to the readers to answer such questions…may God bring what is best for society and politics.

Politics is one beautiful gem of a subject that the real thinkers of this world, the truly knowledgeable people, us teenagers, seem to have many opinions about. After engaging in many informal debates and discussions, you slowly start to realize the circular nature of such practices. It is not essence of the practices in themselves, but more of the people practicing. There are many fruitful discussions to be had at the right time, place and atmosphere but controlling said factors amongst enthusiastic youth, eager to spew our opinions to the world, can be quite difficult. I may speak for others, but I certainly speak for myself when I regretfully think back in hindsight to regular instances when I did not use this logic.

It is much like religion. The fact that people abuse religion should not in any way speak negatively of it. Sheikh Hamza Yusuf describes religion as being like nuclear power. It is clean, efficient and so much good can come of it. However, if not used with great care, it can lead to dangerous toxic waste.

I also wish to point out how horrifying today’s media reports were. It must seem like I am completely anti-media, which is completely false. I do appreciate the hard work that goes into reporting and journalism, and I use the media regularly as a means of keeping up to date with the world. It is however, a means I can keep coming back to for recurring disappointment. I will ignore the main headlines and skip to what should be far more important. Chinese train wreck. Mass murder in Norway.  Al-Qaeda suspected…Al-Qaeda denounced, muslim extremists suspected…denounced, it is actually an anti-muslim conservative; We do apologise. We are ashamed of our disposition of jumping to conclusions. We should be more aware that millions of people rely on our news articles, and we should also be more sensitive when it comes to potentially misinforming the families of such a horrible tragedy. Once again I repeat, we are sorry.

 It is amazing how times keep changing. I wonder if we are in a special time, almost a landmark time. If I were to look at my parent’s generations, religion was something that was passed down to most people, even if it were just the title of being ‘Muslim’ or ‘Christian’ without any of the practices. Not taking any standpoint over here, it is quite different now, when an increasing number of children are going to be born without any sort of religion. Perhaps life will be different, perhaps not much will change whatsoever, but it is definitely a new scenario to that seen before.

These are issues that are far too complex for me to write about, and I will admit to biting off more than I can chew for simply blogging about them, but it is quite interesting. I have heard many anti-religion arguments simply because of the way people use it. Sectarianism and murder in the name of religion is completely a flaw of the people, and how that can be attributed to an ideal in anyway precedes me.  Either way, I do wish to remain impartial and move to lighter hearted topics

The Isoc Executive are officially at work. It is amazing to be a part of a team that is responsible for such large-scale events. We have a number of people working ever so hard behind the scenes to prepare for the holy month of Ramadaan. Alhamdulillah we have already gotten some innovative and unique ideas from our team and inshAllah this Ramadaan may be even more successful and helpful than the last. More facilities like crèches for children are being introduced to encourage brothers and sisters to dine together for Iftaar. It is really a testament of how hard our fellow brothers and sisters are working whilst juggling PhD and Master’s Degrees.

For now, the exec  is directly concentrating their efforts on Fresher’s Week. Fresher’s Week is a chance to really represent ourselves to a new group of students and for this reason; it may possibly be our most important event. Once more, our hopes are to organize some solid events, to create some really fun times where we can all socialize as well as convey what the Islamic Society could potentially do for them, and what they could do for us.

We officially have our first online meeting tomorrow, where we can hopefully finalise the fine details and start being as productive as possible. It is in these next few weeks where we will also discuss plans for the entire year, and how we wish to improve upon our very talented predecessors. It is truly incredible how people from different parts of the globe can come together for the same purpose, and sacrifice their free time for the sake of benefitting others. I pray that this mentality grows stronger and may these people all be blessed by Allah swt. I also pray that this serves as encouragement to people that whilst relaxing is a nice part of the summer vacation, the truly rewarding work is that done with the best and purest of intention.