Jamaat Launches Islamic Family Campaign

Dr. M. Abdul Haq Ansari, Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, launched the Islamic Family Campaign at India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi on November 30. The 10-day countrywide campaign, from December 1 to 10, aims at educating and creating awareness among the large segments of masses in the length and breadth of the country about the various aspects of Islamic family system.

The Jamaat Ameer stressed the need of a healthy family system and delineated the salient features of family in Islam. The Western culture has started negating the need of the family itself and in this process gay and lesbian cultures are being propagated and legalised. Negation of family system leads to loss of all positive values as it is against human nature.

Dr. Ansari categorically said that a system against human nature cannot survive for long because the collective human psyche will ultimately reject it. He cited the case of atheism that is finally being replaced by religions. Human nature demands positive values for survival and growth of human society. The Islamic family system provides those desired high values.

The learned speaker referred to the propaganda by several writers and leaders against Islamic family system. “Some of them are ignorant and it is our duty to provide them with correct information so that they may appreciate the virtues of Islamic system,” he stressed.

However he said many of these propagandists are bad people who have their own vested interests in maligning Islam and Muslims.

Dr. Ansari talked at length about the status of women in Islam. Islam treats women equal to men as human beings. They are equally accountable before God and both of them will be equally rewarded for their good deeds. The differences are only functional and God has provided men and women with different physical built and psychological traits in consideration of the separate functions assigned to them. The prevalent practice of treating women inferior to men has no place in Islam.

He lamented the onslaught of the Western culture and warned that if nothing worthwhile is done to contain the imitation of all that is coming from the West, the consequences will simply be disastrous. The so-called free society is laden with promiscuity and erosion of all positive values is the natural outcome of this development. Legalising gay and lesbian relationships, leaving have-nots and needy persons at the mercy of the State or Non-Governmental Organisations and consigning old persons to the mercy of old age homes will be catastrophic for human society, he said.

Addressing the inaugural session, Dr. M. Rafat, Zonal President of Jamaat, Delhi and Haryana, called upon the Muslims to shun external pressures that put hurdles in shaping their families on Islamic footing. He said some of the problems are quite imaginary and they can solve them with strong will and determination. Some Muslim women do not observe purdah due to the fashion and culture imposed by the West. He said Muslim women should assert their identity and observe purdah as ‘Islamic fashion’. “Muslim women in some European countries are doing so.”

Similarly, some people think that they cannot at the same time educate their children and improve their economic condition. Dr. Rafat said that this is also an imaginary problem and can be solved just by pledging to do that.

Syed Ghulam Akber, Jamaat’s Assistant Secretary-General, underlined the need of creating an Islamic environment in the society.

The Jamaat has chalked out an elaborate, detailed and painstaking plan to reach out to the masses with the message. Thousands and thousands of activists all over the country are contacting the masses through group contacts, family gatherings, seminars, symposia, corner and public meetings, counseling sessions, tea parties, etc.