The Gitmo Guard Who Found Islam

Terry Holdbrooks stood watch over prisoners at Gitmo. What he saw made him adopt their faith. Writes Dan Ephron from NewsWeek.

Meaning of Islam

Every religion of the world has been named either after the name of its founder or after the community and nation in which that religion took its birth. For instance, Christianity takes its appellation from the name of its prophet Jesus Christ; Zoroastrians from its founder zoroaster; and Judaism, the religion of the Jews, from the name of the tribe Judah (of the country of judea) wherein it took its birth. Similar is the case with other religions. But not so with Islam. This religion enjoys the unique distinction of having no such association with any particular person or people. The word ‘Islam’ does not confer any such relationship-for it does not belong to any particular person, people, or country. It is neither the product of any human mind nor is it confined to any particular community. It is a universal religion and its objective is to create and cultivate in man the quality and attitude of Islam. Islam, as a matter of fact, is an attributive title. Whosoever possesses this attributive, may he belong to any race, community, country, or clan, is a Muslim. According to the Qur’an (the Holy Book of the Muslims), among every people and in all ages there have been good and righteous people who possessed this attribute of them were and are Muslims.

Source: Towards Understanding Islam by Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi

Quran Connections

I am quoting the sender:

I don’t know much about the guy, nor I saw the whole movie, but the idea sounds real good. Please comment if you know more.

Online Petitions

You probably have signed many online petitions for wonderful causes. However, I am yet to see any feedback or results from such petitions which led me to question the value of online petitions. Do they reach their goals? I wonder. Let us take a deeper look at this:

1. Signatures on online petitions are not exclusive. I can sign an online petition a 100 time.
2. Online petitions seldom reach their destination. I have not received any feedback from any signed online petition.
3. Online petitions are giving people the feeling that they have done their job and a false satisfactory feeling of accomplishment.
4. Online petitions seem to be nothing more than online polls which serves as an imprecise barometer for how people feel at a specific moment. They are by no means an action plan.. which leads to…
5. Online petitions are taking place of action plans. Instead of signing a petition, why not do a rally or organize an event to educate people or get some media attention, etc. But what is the difference between online petitions, real petitions and rallies?

With rallies and real petitions, you are reaching your goal of reaching to people and you can see and measure and talk to people to make sure that the message reaches the destination.

How online petitions could be more effective?

• Add resources: if you say “Wikipedia” is asking for 100,000 signatures to do something, then provide me the reference link for this piece of information. Add the date so that we know the age of the petition.

With this effort insha’ Allah, we will be perfecting our work and channeling it correctly and Allah knows best.