Muslim role model and uproar in the Middle East

It feels good when one read or experiences every day heroes and role models, people that stands out like a lighthouse and gives this good gut feeling that there are after all some people that has courage and self-sacrifice to make a better world for all of us. Nowadays I am sure that the nuclear plant workers in Japan are such role models, but I have also just had the immense pleasure of reading a very inspirational interview in Times (March 21^st 2011) with Shaista Gohir, a British Muslim feminist and an advisor to the government. I myself take an agnostic stand towards religion, to me religion is a personal thing, nothing that one should impose on others or use as a political instrument, those that fights the religious moral police should be supported and Shaista Gohir is such a brave woman.

Traditionally the moral police has been scholars, persons (read males) that had the better understanding of the religious guidelines that you would find in the religious books like Koran, Bible etc., but lately there are more and more people (males again) using these religious guidelines out of context for their own purposes, typically to achieve their own goals and to control other people (women or “subjects”). Ms. Gohir is herself a well educated scholar in the Koran and has many examples of British Muslims that has approached her believing it is the husbands right to hit them and that men are superior to women etc – and Ms. Gohir explains that there are no support for these medieval interpretations of the Koran – its just male interpretations. I have never read the Koran, but I am sure she is right, it does not make sense; I mean if one should have a religion it must be based on respect and tolerance, why should one have a religion if those basic human social qualities are not there. I am sure it is in the Koran, it must be, I myself have lived among a majority of Muslims and has never experienced more tolerant people (Bangladeshis), much more than my “local” Christian protestants that cannot tolerate homosexuality or a priest that publishes a book about sex in the Bible. I shiver when I think about those men that need to control everyone else, specifically their women.

Ms. Gohir has an interesting story about an argument she had with a British imam. The imam told her that “most inhabitants of Hellfire were women” and to back it up he quoted a Hadith. Hadiths are accounts of words and deeds of the Prophet, categorized as strong, i.e., likely to be accurate, or weak, i.e., likely to have been made up. Ms. Gohir argued that it was a weak Hadith and reminded the imam about a verse in the Koran that describes the inhabitants of Hell, “and nowhere does it say that there are more women than men”. The imam then began to list his intellectual credentials. “He was trying to make me feel unsure about my knowledge. But I was sure! So I kept pressing him and eventually he admitted it was a weak Hadith”, explained Ms. Gohir.

I say that this story is repetitive in possibly all other religions – its been used by Christians millions of times over!

Ms. Gohir has received numerous threats to her person, but has relentlessly taken the position to fight for the Muslim women and against the male suppressive interpretation of the Koran, “there is nothing in the Koran that prohibits women to wear trousers” and Ms. Gohir also does not agree to the veil; “in other countries women are fighting to take off the veil, in Britain they are fighting to put it on”. “Young men who think they are the moral police have reduced Islam to a piece of cloth”. Also, she says, those who wants to use the veil should be left alone.

I have hereby put down Shaista Gohir as one of my inspirational and brave everyday hero’s that is dedicated to make the world a better place!

Ok, so here comes the punch; In lieu of what is just now happening in the Arab world, a world of Muslims, why have they tolerated the suppressive dictatorship for so long? I am not only happy for their liberation, but also very impressed by their courage and bravery, but why not earlier? They (read men and women) have clearly demonstrated that they have it in them, is it the religion that has been misused by their leaders to misguide the people to sustain oppression? The leaders themselves have obviously prospered since they all have and are very, very wealthy? Moreover, now that the courageous Libyan people are liberating themselves from their mad dictatorship, where are their Arab and Muslim brothers? It’s only the oil-hungry west that is spending vast their resources in helping them out.

Just like the Chinese and Russians (members of the ‘abstain’ club) it appears that their Arab brothers are just saving their funds till ‘the others’ have fought the battle and then they come creeping to ‘invest’ and put their straws into the resources of the liberated Arab countries.

I think there is a final battle to be fought; lets liberate all nations from the religion instrument!

Paradise, marine life and democracy

Yet again I have had the opportunity to experience a close encounter of the fascinating gigantic manta rays in the Maldives, specifically at the Conrad Rangali resort on the Ari atoll. Two years ago, at exactly the same time of the year, I got to see the first one, now I encountered a giant of something like 5-6 meters wingspan (pictured by my dive buddy Nigel Hossack) – its nothing less than breathtaking – literarily as the encounter happens around 10 meters under water and only 1-2 m away from us. In general, experiencing the amazing marine diversity is in itself awarding. Nobody knows how vast this diversity really is, but the recently published Ocean Census is at least trying to record and find out, so are the scuba divers in the Maldives. Counting only those species being recorded with photos by scuba divers at the Maldives, we already have around thousand fish species, but of course, the reality is much higher, no wonder this marine diversity is important to the diversity of the whole globe, us included.

The Maldives is truly a paradise, but reviewing a few facts may present a different picture in retrospect, not only consists this paradise of about 1200 coral islands and 26 atolls, but the Maldives is the lowest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 2.3 metres, with the average being only 1.5 metres above sea level, it is the country with the lowest altitude in the world!

Politically, Tunisia is possibly not the first Arab/Muslim country in recent time where the people has successfully overthrown the government and its dictator who where exploiting the people and the country for decades, the Maldives did it already in 2008 when a ‘bloodless revolution’ occurred and the people of the Maldives got a democratic constitution and a President elected fairly by the people. It’s a pleasure and with great admiration I have observed what their young President has achieved in terms of creating a contagious enthusiasm for the Maldives by us who visits the Maldives and by the Maldivians themselves and their hope for the future!