Maid and poison

This refers to your report about the recent arrest of an Asian housemaid for serving tea with traces of dead rat to her sponsor’s son (Nov. 11).

Wait! How old was the poisoned son? Was the maid yet another of the many, many women who have been abused and debased by their sponsors or employers? Too many see their employees as nothing more than concubines or playthings, without rights, without dignity. Powerless, desperate, and with no protector, it is conceivable a maid may protect herself in any possible way open to her. This tragedy is a repeated problem. Let us not condemn this woman until we know who, in this sad story, is the actual victim.

John Costley, By e-mail published 14 November 2009

Maid and poison

This refers to your report about the recent arrest of an Asian housemaid for serving tea with traces of dead rat to her sponsor’s son (Nov. 11).

Wait! How old was the poisoned son? Was the maid yet another of the many, many women who have been abused and debased by their sponsors or employers? Too many see their employees as nothing more than concubines or playthings, without rights, without dignity. Powerless, desperate, and with no protector, it is conceivable a maid may protect herself in any possible way open to her. This tragedy is a repeated problem. Let us not condemn this woman until we know who, in this sad story, is the actual victim.

John Costley, By e-mail published 14 November 2009

Let there be peace

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. Peace is basic to all religions. Let us all strive then to establish peace in the world, for that is the bedrock on which all human progress rests. Think what we could accomplish if we all worked together to create a true world economy. We could end starvation, reduce poverty, create jobs and work toward common goals such as worldwide justice, peace education, and pollution control and planet management.

There are many ways to promote peace in the world but perhaps the best way is to promote it within us. Peace is a gradual and wonderful event that occurs because compassionate people are inspired to help others discover the joy of peace! Helping others also has the direct effect of increasing our personal peace and well-being, but this is merely one of the many bonuses that come from sharing our kindness with our fellow human beings.

Syed Shabbir Husain, Riyadh published 14 November 2009

Racist state

With regard to the opinion piece, “How Israel won settlement battle” (Nov. 11), I must say that Israel undoubtedly is the most racist nation on the earth. It is among the few countries that refused to sign Non-Proliferation-Treaty and determined to increase the size of its nuclear stockpile.

It has shaken the very foundation of UN by refusing to abide by its many resolutions. It has been abetting oppression and cruelties on innocent Palestinians for many decades; yet the responsible leaders of the world refuse to put any pressure on this rogue state. US President Barack Obama also seems to be following the policies of his predecessors. How long the Arab states are going to bank on the West to solve this conflict?

Mohammad Imran, Jeddah published 14 November 2009

Islamization of Europe?

It comes as no surprise that people like Francis Andrew are defending the indefensible (Nov. 5).

Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time, the BBC’s flagship political discussion program, was resented by many people, but it was exactly what was needed to expose the racist and fascist views of the BNP. Griffin did very poorly even in the eyes of his own party and supporters who tried to oust him afterward. What Islamization of Europe/Britain is BNP talking about? One million Muslims taking over a country of 67 million? Sheer nonsense!

BNP has had electoral success because the mainstream political parties have neglected the underclass white voters, which is a political mistake. The BNP have capitalized on this and concentrated their efforts in high immigrant areas to bolster their support.

This style of governance of pushing different races into ghettos is also wrong, as the immigrants are unable to integrate into the community and also seek high number of housing stock from local authorities that causes resentment amongst the white locals who feel left out of their own country.

BNP message is deceptive as the people voting for them are doing so for different reasons and not necessarily because they are racists, some are just nationalists who feel neglected in their own country.

This is fair, but it should not be the BNP, which represents this view, as they are only using this opportunity to better their chances and push their racist agenda. We live in a much better society in Britain now than we did 30/40 years ago when there was racism everywhere you went. Life became unbearable for the foreigners that is why minorities need protection from the majority. In some areas there is still widespread racism by the uneducated and underclass.

For goodness sake, the total immigrants represent about five percent of the total population, so I don’t know what all the fuss is about.

Zafar Raja, London published 14 November 2009

Niqab: Customs and obligations

I do not agree with Nusratunissa Abdullah’s comments (Nov. 10) suggesting that covering of the entire body from head to toe (including the entire face) is mandatory (fard). I do not profess to be an Islamic scholar nor I have studied Islam in depth to enter into a religious dialogue. However, first of all, what I understand very well is the fact that we are not allowed to declare anything illegitimate or legitimate (haram or halal) unless it has been declared as such in the Holy Qur’an. By putting forth the argument that head-to-toe covering is mandatory, she is trying to declare that all women who do not wear such types of niqab are indulging in a practice which is forbidden in Islam and we know that a huge majority of Muslim women living in different parts of the world do not abide by such a custom (I purposely call it a custom).

Admitting my religious ignorance about the matter, I would like to tackle this matter from a logical point of view. If we see the literal translation of the Qur’anic verse which urges women that they should not display beauty and ornaments expect what (must ordinarily) appear thereof, it is quite clear that there is no harm in exhibiting what must ordinarily appear and if the body is to be covered from head to toe, nothing will be visible. Secondly, the clearer and explicit order is to cover the bosoms and if Allah were to command “head-to-toe covering”, the verse would have been written so. Further, as we all know, women have to keep their faces and palms uncovered while in a state of ihram. If the ordainment were to keep the face covered in front of non-mahram males, it would conflict with the aforesaid obligation to keep it uncovered while performing Haj or Umrah.

Having said that, I believe that women have all the right to dress more cautiously, but let it not be considered as a religious imposition or obligation.

Farida Taher, By e-mail published 14 November 2009