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10 CRUCIAL QUESTIONS ON ISLAM

1. Why don’t Muslims donate their eyes or other organs?

I am a Muslim and I have already written a will to donate my organs on my death. As such we don’t find any mention of this issue in the original scriptures of Islam. The issue was never raised till late 20th century.  In every conservative society, people take their own time to accept any new phenomenon. When a new technology or a new practice comes before them they will be reluctant to accept it because they are not sure whether their religion approves it. Some times it happens in relatively modern societies too. A few centuries ago when coffee was first introduced by Arabs in Europe, there was great resistance.  When tractors were introduces for the first time in US there was resistance. Those who used horses to cultivate their farms took quite a long time to accept tractors. As the tractors are not capable of reproduction, using them may not be financially feasible in the long run. That was the logic behind the resistance.  When loud speaker was discovered not only Muslims but people belonging to different faiths were reluctant to use them in religious places. Rushing to accept everything new without considering the consequences is obviously not a very good approach. It is always safe and better to take all factors into consideration before accepting a new phenomenon. It is true that  during the early years when the debate had just begun, many Muslim scholars and Islamic institutions had a lot of reservations on the issue. Many of the had openly opposed to organ donation on various grounds. But today Most of the Muslim scholars and Islamic institutions not only accept donating organs but they encourage it too. As far as selling Human organs is concerned all Islamic scholars unanimously stand against it.  

2. Why are Muslim ghettos dirty?

Ghettos do not have any religion. Ghettos normally are dirty, irrespective of the faith of their dwellers. Nobody lives in ghettos by choice and the hygiene levels of the ghettos are not in their control. The general condition in any ghetto is of sub human level.  In most of the ghettos people have difficulty in finding safe drinking water. Hygiene is luxury for them. It is the responsibility of the Governments and the members of the civil society who are better off than the ghetto dwellers to  help them resettle in better places and gradually eliminate such ghettos.
3. Why don’t Muslims do family planning?

It is not at all true that Muslims absolutely do not practice family planning. There is a verse in Qur’an :”And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Indeed, their killing is ever a great sin.” (17:31). It is quite a straight and simple verse. Some have wrongly assumed it to be a decree against family planning. Quran has strongly opposed infanticide in general and female infanticide in particular. This in any way does not go against family planning. At best one may quote these verses to oppose abortion or feticide but not family planning. Under cirtain circumstances, regulating or delaying or even avoiding pregnancy is not only been permitted but encouraged too by many Islamic scholars. For instance (A). it is the right of the child according to the holy Quran, to be breastfed at least for two years (2:233, 31:14, 46:15). Therefore measures to avoid pregnancy is unanimously recommended during this period. (B) If the health of the mother requires delaying pregnancy, again such measures are unanimously recommended. (C) If pregnancy or delivery is likely to risk the life of the mother or is likely to cause major harm to her  health avoiding pregnancy becomes compulsory. There is no dispute among Muslim scholars on these issues. Every Muslim country has its own family planning policy, These policies may not be similar in all the countries. Policies of the Governments and responses of the masses depends on the socio economic conditions of each society. 

4. Why do Muslims hate Modi?
People  who love Modi and those who hate him are found across communities in India and elsewhere.. You read newspapers or watch news channels and you will see that most of the bitter critics of Modi are not Muslims. Whether you love a person or hate him depends upon your own perception of that person. those who see him as responsible for the 2002 genocide in Gujarat hate him irrespective of what community or party they belong to. There are people, including Muslims who give him benefit of doubt on this issue. And there are people who look at that genocide from an entirely different perspective. They associate Modi with the progress of Gujarat and adore him for the way he grew from being a politician in Gujarat to be the Prime minister of the country. Finally, Modi is a political leader and whether anybody loves or hates Modi depends on their political outlook and has nothing to do with their religious affiliations. 
5. Why do Muslims hate dogs and pigs?

Muslims do not eat Dogs and Pigs. That in any way, does not amount to hating these animals. People who do not eat chocolates for various reasons do not hate chocolates. According to the teachings of Islam, every living being (including dog and pig) deserves to be treated with mercy and compassion. Torturing animals, mutilating them in any form, overburdening them, compelling them to work beyond their capacity, using animals for target practice, keeping them tied or caged etc. (unless it is for the security of those animals) are clearly prohibited by Islam. Muslims consider feeding any hungry animal, including dog and pig as an act of piety that will be rewarded by God. Committing any act of cruelty against any living being, including dogs and pigs is considered to be a sin in Islam. Contrary to the common belief that keeping dog is prohibited in Islam. 

6. Why do Muslims kill animals to eat?
The population of the vegetarians world over is estimated to be between 10% to 21.8% (that includes those who eat eggs and do not think that makes them non vegetarian). The rest are non vegetarians. Therefore obviously killing animals for food is not an exclusively Muslim phenomenon. For Muslims, God is the creator of all things and all beings and it is His prerogative to decide what is permissible as food and what is not. The mercy based arguments against non vegetarianism does not hold much water because, the plants have life too. In fact plants being totally dumb and immobile, deserve more mercy. Almost all vegetarians consume milk. That again is not a very merciful act because, animals produce milk for the consumption of their own calf and not for human consumption. Those who talk of mercy when it comes to non vegetarian food, should logically extend their mercy to pests, germs, bacteria, fungus etc – all various forms of life. Can any human being survive if he /she decides not to kill any of them, based on the mercy factor ?
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/06/14/how-india-eats_n_10434374.html
7. What is Muslim view on Karma?

The concept of ‘Karma’ (a cycle of repeated birth and death) has its roots in the Indian mythology. according to karma theory the pains and pleasures experience in this life of ours are the results of our deeds and actions in our past incarnation and the pains and pleasures of our next life will be in accordance with our deeds in this life. In Islam every person is born with a clean slate, absolutely free of any burden of the past. This short lived, temporal life is an opportunity to do the best of deeds with the best of intentions and the next life is eternal, wherein one will face the consequences of his / her deeds in this life, in the form of Heaven or Hell. 

8. Can one change his own destiny?
Destiny or fate is nothing but God’s prior knowledge of what a person will do in this life. Obviously there is no question of changing God’s knowledge.
9.Why do the Muslims oppose patriotic slogans like Bharat mata ki Jai and vande mataram?

Patriotism has little to do with slogans. There is absolutely no dispute regarding the slogan Bharat Mata ki Jai. No Muslim has ever opposed, resisted or even criticised this slogan. If at all there is any dispute, it is only regarding Vande Mataram. Significantly, Muslims do not have a unanimous or universal stand on this issue.  Not all the Muslims but some of them have reservations about it. How do the Muslims treat Vande mataram in fact depends upon their understanding of the word Vande and its definition. Muslims are strictly monotheists. They consider only Allah or the God Almighty as worthy of worship. That in fact is the foundation of their faith and belief.  Some of them believe Vande means worship and Vande mataram means, I worship my mother or motherland. Those among Muslims who go by this definition see this slogan to be going against their faith. Because, according to the Muslim faith, nobody other than God the Creator of the universe is worthy of worship. Therefore there is no question of worshiping the Motherland regardless of how much they love their motherland.  But Muslims who think the word Vande stands for salute, Vande mataram means I salute my motherland (Remember, AR Rehman’s song, Maa tujhay salam ?). They see absolutely nothing wrong in uttering this slogan.  

10.Why Muslims show so much of hatred towards Israel?

This I think requires a longer answer. 
Muslims do not hate any community or any country. Their faith does not permit them to do so. Muslims have a long history of having lived peacefully along with the members of the Jewish Community in dozens of Arab countries. Muslims had absolutely no role in the holocaust. The way the state of Israel was formed is however a matter of serious dispute. One should know some history to understand this dispute. 
There was no state by name Israel on this planet before 1948. The Jews were subjected to various forms and degrees of persecution by different Christian groups down the centuries through out Europe and in the Asian part of Russia. In response, a few Jewish leaders in 1897 founded the Zionist movement and declared establishment of an independent Jewish state to be their primary objective. They chose Palestine (Falasteen) for this purpose and began their preparations. They raised funds, encouraged the Jews to purchase land in Palestine and organised immigration of Jews in thousands from various parts of the world and began settling them in Palestine. The original inhabitants of Palestine (Muslims and Christians of Arab origin) looked at this development as a conspiracy and their general resentment gradually turned into active resistance, leading to armed conflicts between the Palestinians and the Jewish settlers. Later in 1917, during the World War 1 the British snatched Palestine from the hands of the Ottomans and the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration a public statement announcing support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. The population of Jews in Palestine at the time was about 3%. Following the end of the WW 1 (1918) and the collapse of the Ottoman empire (1920) the Supreme council of the victorious allied forces endorsed the Balfour declaration and later (1922) issued ‘The British Mandate for Palestine’ aka the Palestine Mandate, for the territories of Palestine. Thus the region came under the control of Britain. Obviously there was resistance and all violent means adopted by the British to suppress it, failed. In the meantime, the process of bringing Jews from different parts of the world and settling them in Palestine continued too, relentlessly. Towards the end of the world war, on the one hand, the pace of migration of the Jews to Palestine increased manifold and on the other, the process of ethnic cleansing, in the form of forcibly driving away the natives of Palestine from the areas designated for the Jewish settlements, gathered momentum. From 3% in 1917, the Jewish population in the occupied Palestine rose to 9% in 1922  and to 27% in 1935. in November 1947 UN General Assembly adopted a resolution (Resolution No. 181) proposing partition of Palestine. Under this plan 55% of Palestinian land (which included almost all major cities and towns of Palastine), was allocated to the Jews. When this plan was rejected by the Palestinian Arabs and the other Arab States, it was unilaterally and forcibly imposed on them. This resolution also proposed withdrawal of British forces before 1st August 1948 and final formation of the state of Israel before 1st October 1948. This was followed by an armed conflict between the Jews and Arabs which ended in further displacing the Arabs apart from devastating thousands of them through large scale massacres and forced evictions from their native lands. By the end of 1949 the newly formed Israel had occupied 78% of the Palestinian land.  Out of the remaining 22%,  Palestine ie. West Bank and East Jerusalem came under control of Jordan while Gaza was placed under Egyptian control. The international community only partly accepted this occupation. It recognised the map of Israel based on the 1948 borders. 
20 years later – in 1967 – another Arab-Israeli war broke out. This time, Israel occupied the rest of historical Palestine, consisting of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Besides, Israel occupied the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and the Syrian Golan Heights. With the exception of the Sinai Peninsula, all the other territories remain occupied until today. The UN Security Council members voted unanimously for a Resolution (No. 242) on November 22, 1967stating that Israel must withdraw from the territories it seized in the war. Today, even after 50 years of thatresolution Israel not only continues to violate it, but has committed many more violations by building illegal settlements in the land demarcated for the Palestinian state. In the last 50 years, the Israeli government has transferred not less than 750,000 Jewish Israelis to the West Bank and East Jerusalem who live in about 160 settlements and outposts built illegally by Israel in areas that are beyond its internationally recognised borders. Not only the Arabs and the International Community, but Several groups within the Zionist movement too oppose these expansionist policies of Israel. While some of them are in favor of confining the state of Israel to the 1948 borders, some others favor the 1967 borders.Following the Oslo accord of 1990 Israel had stopped officially building new settlements but expanded existing ones. However, in 2017, Israel once again started building new settlement in the occupied territories. People of Palestine who are refugees and feel enslaved in their own lands see this as a process of colonisation and look at Israel as a Coloniser state illegally occupying their lands. Their dream is to get back their lands and live a free life in their land. All these years they have been experiencing the worst kind of brutality in the hands of the occupying forces, only glimpses of which are witnessed by the rest of the world through some TV channels occasionally. One should look at the number of resolutions passed by UNO and and its various branches and several other reputed international bodies condemning the illegal acts of Israel and urging the Israel to abide by the International conventions which have been totally ignored by the latter.
Between 2012 and  through 2015 UN Nations General Assembly has adopted 97 resolutions criticizing various countries; 83 out of those 97 have been against Israel (86%). Between  June 2006 through June 2016 UN Human Rights Council has adopted 135 resolutions criticizing various countries; 68 out of those 135 resolutions have been against Israel (more than 50%). 
UNESCO  generally  does not criticize any other UN member state in its country-specific resolutions. ( A resolution criticising Syria in 2013 was an exception.) All its resolutions are against Israel.
For one week every year, the UN World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), meets to formulate global health policy. Resolutions are adopted to address global health issues. These resolutions generally do not condemn any specific country. There is one exception: the annual resolution entitled “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.” It singles out Israel for condemnation.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN agency dealing with labor issues, presented their 2014 report on “The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories.” The report, thoroughly condemns Israel for its various misdeeds. Israel and its supporters label these reputed organisations as biased and anti Semitic for this reason. Please find more details here. ; https://www.unwatch.org/un-israel-key-statistics/
How can we expect anybody to love such a rogue state ?