by Wael Abdelgawad
Here’s an article from the BBC that says that Bangladeshi girls in the UK who wear traditional clothing are happier than those who wear Western clothing. Personally I think they’ve kind of missed the point. But read it yourself and see what you think:
by Somayya Gefori
When I was a young child, my family listened to the likes of Yusuf Islam in the car. Nowadays there are many nasheed artists, and over the last decade the industry has practically exploded with new talent: Native Deen, 786, Sami Yusuf, Zain Bhikha and Mesut Kurtis, to name but a few. Nor does this trend in entertainment come without controversy.
April 2007
by Abdul Malik Mujahid
Reprinted from Soundvision.com
Exact source URL: http://www.soundvision.com/Info/parenting/tvtips.asp
Not everything that comes through TV is bad. However, because the average child between two and 11 years old watches over 27 hours of poorly supervised television per week; because the only thing that kids do more than watch television is sleep, and because most parents are unaware of the indecent liberties that television takes with our children, you must control this 19 inch Shaytan, as a friend of mine calls it.
by Shezena T. Mohammed
This last Ramadan, as with every Ramadan, my family and I spent a lot of time at the masjid. I don’t know how it is with any other masjids but with mine, and the ones that I have gone to in the past, usually every night of Ramadan someone will host a dinner at the masjid and the community will all get together and eat. This is a nice thing to look forward to every Ramadan. It builds unity and people get to know each other and form bonds and relationships. I usually like going and seeing the people working together and treating each other like how our Prophet (saaw) taught us. It makes me smile seeing it and I feel good that I am in a such a good Muslim community. But not this Ramadan.
by Shezena T. Mohammed
As I start to get older and begin to experience adulthood, I don’t think any aspect of growing up has hit me so hard as the concept of marriage. Not only marriage, but marriage and me. The first time someone I considered to be one of my peers told me that she was getting married, I couldn’t believe it. No one our age ever got married.
by Shezena T. Mohammed
Everyone wants to go to heaven. It’s just something that every God-fearing person wants. Some people realize what they need to do to get there, and do it, but most of us, in my opinion, don’t. Maybe they think they’ll do it later in life or how they are leading their life isn’t really that bad, even though God has explicitly told them to lead it a different way. I was in seventh grade when my mother decided that she was going start wearing a hijaab.
by J.K.S.
Muslim teenagers in America are confused. They live in two worlds: one of Islam and one of their un-Islamic, or at least non-Muslim surroundings. In these two worlds, clashes are inevitable. It can be difficult to maintain an Islamic identity as a teenager in America because of many surrounding factors that prevent us from practicing our Deen.
Some factors come from the American educational system. In my high school, during physical education classes, students are required to participate in activities that include swimming and square dancing. Swimming requires students to wear bathing suits, which forces our Muslim sisters to dress in an immodest way. Square dancing includes activities such as swinging, in which the boy and the girl are close together and touching in inappropriate and immodest ways, prohibited by our Deen. Students who do not wish to participate risk a failing grade.
The media also causes clashes between Islam and our surroundings. The media portrays the teen in a world where not only boyfriend-girlfriend relations are permissible, but also pre-marital sex (usually not showing sad effects such as teen pregnancy which can lead to dropping out of high school). Soap operas such as Friends and Alley McBeal and teen magazines are corrupting our brothers and sisters. The media, through advertising, portrays teens with the latest revealing fashions, making other teens believe that in order to be “popular”, they need to purchase and wear such Islamically detested clothing.
A huge cause of culture clash is peer pressure. The friends we attend school with! All of them are going to the next dance! Everyone wearing the latest fashion! He or she is asking us out! Going to (alcohol) drinking parties! Our fellow classmates engage in such activities, most of the time allowed by their own parents, that are Islamically detested. In such an environment where most adults are giving the green light for these activities, we Muslim teenagers can’t help becoming confused.
Sadly Muslim teens are being corrupted into conforming to non-Muslim ways. We as Muslim teenagers should try to teach our Muslim friends not to blindly imitate those around us.
Unfortunately, some Muslim parents give the green light for these activities in the name of “modernization”. Muslim parents need to become friends to their children and explain to them the path that Allah (S.W.T.) has chosen for us and the teachings of our Holy Prophet Mohammed (Peace and Blessings be Showered Upon Him). Muslim parents and educators should not leave the Muslim teen ever confused. They should allow them to consult their elders and not follow them blindly. Confusion must be ended in the youth. Otherwise, our American Muslim community may disappear in the next generation as it had in earlier times.