Why these people became Muslims?

I am a born Muslim but real conversion to Islam( Internal Spiritual Conversion) happened only a few years ago. This is the time that we were being called Kalar (even though I do not have the Indian blood) and the western islamophobia is at its peak.

Lets see how some of the famous people revert into Islam. My point here is status of Islam is nothing to do with these people conversions. Islam is the religion, and only the practice of its people other way round effect the Image of Islam.

Read about brief Biography of these two famous guys, then I hope to discuss about the Faith (Imam) in the next post. I hope you will enjoy Yusuf Islam homepage which is linked in my blogroll.

Mohammed Ali

Boxer, born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. As an amateur boxer (1954-60), winning 100 of 108 matches, he became the 1960 Olympic light-heavyweight champion. Financed by a group of Louisville businessmen, he turned professional, and by 1963 had won his first 19 fights. He won the world heavyweight title in 1964, defeating the purportedly invincible Sonny Liston when he retired at the end of the sixth round.

At that time he joined the Black Muslims and adopted the name Muhammad Ali. After defending the championship nine times within two years, in 1967 he refused to be drafted into the army on religious grounds, and was stripped of his title and barred from the ring. His action earned him both respect and anger from different quarters, but he did not box for three-and-a-half years; he took his case to the Supreme Court and had his boxing licence restored in 1970. In 1971 he was beaten by Joe Frazier, but beat him in 1974 in Zaire, and went on to meet George Foreman later that year, knocking him out in eight rounds to regain his title. He was beaten by Leon Spinks in a split decision (Feb 1978), but regained the title the same year – the first man to win the world heavyweight title three times.

Famous for his flamboyant manner, his boasting predictions of which round he would defeat his opponent, and his doggerel verse (‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’), he was also recognized as one of the all-time great boxers with his quick jab and footwork. His slogan ‘I am the greatest’ became a catch phrase. He compiled a career record of 56 wins, five losses, with 37 knockouts, before retiring in 1981.

During the 1960s and 1970s he was arguably the best-known individual in the entire world due not only to his controversial career but also to his travels and deliberate reaching out to the Third World. Ali was President Carter’s special envoy to Africa in 1980 (attempting to persuade nations to boycott the Olympics). He has starred in two films, The Greatest (1976) and Freedom Road (1978), and an Oscar-winning documentary film, When We Were Kings, recounting the 1974 Ali v. Foreman fight, appeared in 1996. Ali retired in 1981, and during that decade it was revealed that he was suffering from a form of Parkinson’s disease. He was an almost universal choice as the 20th-century’s most important sportsman, and at the end of 1999 was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Century. In 2005 he attended the opening of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, KY, and also that year was honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Yusuf Islam (Cat Steven)

Yusuf Islam , (1948 – )

Musician. Born Stephen Demetre Georgiou on July 21, 1948 in London, England. The teenager of restaurateurs, Stevens attended Hammersmith College, where he blessing began performing strain music. He pdq signed with Decca Records subservient the instance Cat Stevens, releasing the chart-topping hunt for I Love My Dog in 1966. Though this original rush affection the skillful classical stir certified his complexion as a songwriter, Stevens failed to ride invitation increase with his prime two albums.

It wasnt until the American destruction of Tea for Tillerman and the unlike Wild World in 1971 that Stevens became a bona fide star. The album, proficient to A&M Records, went beans and his previous recordings subsequently enjoyed coinciding success. Stevens was hailed as one of the markedly crucial figures in rap music, and coextensive seminal hits as Moon Shadow, Peace Train and Morning Has Broken followed. During the meridian of his success, Stevens recorded songs for the breakout cult film, Harold and Maude, followed by his glaringly flourishing album, Catch Bull at Four.

Throughout the 1970s, Stevens elongate to grave albums and query singles, including Oh Very Young and Another Saturday Night. After issuing a best kind hits compilation in 1975, he entrench out his tenth album, Izitso, which again went gold. His eleventh and later album, Back to Earth, was released in 1978 to backward reviews.

After converting to Islam in 1977, Stevens mismated his present to Yusuf Islam (the mention beneath which he released his fated album). In September 1979, he entered passion an arranged married with Fawzia Ali, with whom he has five children, and founded a Muslim demonstrate approaching London. For the surpassingly part, he wasnt heard from until the unpunctual 80s when he down pat antagonistic publicity for supporting the heaven resolution of novelist Salman Rushdie for his abdicate The Satanic Verses. Despite the incident, the musician has remained common on both sides of the Atlantic, proven by the successful grave of his compilation The Very Best of Cat Stevens in 2000.

Albums

Tea for Tillerman

The Blogger’s note, Currently Yusuf Islam is banned to travel to US as he is in  the CIA watch list. Yusuf Islam who is a Revert to Islam seems to be a threat to US national security in the eyes of the US authorities.

Past History of Military Junta’s violent discrimination against Burmese Muslims

This news has posted in Islam Online in the year 2002 , however it still serve as a summary of the Plight of Burmese Muslims in Junta ruled Myanmar.

(IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar to take up the plight of the Southeast Asian country’s embattled Muslim community when he visits next month.

In a 12-page report released prior to the visit, the New York-based rights watchdog listed a spate of attacks on Myanmar’s Muslims and the steady erosion of their religious freedoms, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

“The government must protect the rights of Muslims. Instead, it has imposed restrictions on Muslim religious activities and taken no action to punish those responsible for destroying Muslim homes and mosques,” AFP quoted HRW director Mike Jendrzejczyk as saying.

Violence against Myanmar’s Muslim minority was triggered by anger among the overwhelmingly Buddhist population at the destruction in March 2001 of ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan by the hardline Islamic Taliban regime then in power.

In some cities outside the capital, Yangon, there were credible reports of military intelligence officers “stirring up anti-Muslim violence,” the human rights group said, AFP reported.

The worst violence occurred in May and September last year when Myanmar’s economic crisis was at its most severe.

In Taungoo north of Yangon, more than 1,000 people led by “robed Buddhist monks” attacked Muslim shops, homes and mosques.

There were beatings and at least nine deaths, according to witnesses cited in the report.

Since then, Muslims nationwide have complained of restricted freedom to travel and to worship.

The U.N. special envoy, former Malaysian ambassador Razali Ismail, is due to make his eighth trip to Myanmar August 2.

He is expected to meet with ethnic leaders as well as members of the ruling military junta and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

A recent human rights report has accused Myanmar’s military junta of using systematic rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority women in eastern Shan state.

The report, prepared by the Shan Human Rights Foundation and Shan Women’s Action Network documents the rapes of 625 girls and women in Shan state by Myanmar troops, mostly between 1996 and 2001.

But the government on July 10, 2002, accused the two rights groups which reported on the rape claims of allegedly conspiring with the Shan United Revolutionary Army to scupper its rapprochement drive with Washington.

The U.S. State Department said it had raised its concerns with the regime over the report.

“We are appalled by reports that the Burmese military is using rape as a weapon of war against civilian populations in Shan State,” AFP quoted a U.S. spokeswoman as saying, using the country’s former name.

“We have raised our concerns with the Burmese regime and urged them to fully investigate any and all allegations of the systematic rape of ethnic minority girls and women in Burma and appropriately punish those guilty of such heinous crimes,” she added.

“The report in question presents all sorts of details including dates, and places and battalion numbers and names of individual perpetrators involved,” she concluded, casting doubt on Myanmar’s government’s version of events.

The Role of Muslims in Burma’s Democracy Movement

November 12, 2007

Although the September protests in Rangoon were led by Buddhist monks, Burmese Muslims were among the first to offer water to the monks as a means of showing support for the peaceful demonstrations.

“I saw some Muslims kneel down and pay respect to the Buddhist monks,” said Pan Cha, a Burmese Sikh businessman who arrived at the Thai-Burmese border in early October after being involved in the September demonstrations.

Over a month since the junta cracked down violently on the monks and their supporters in the streets of Burma, Pan Cha forcefully said in an interview with The Irrawaddy that “The Burmese people are not afraid-nationwide demonstrations are coming back again soon!”

“I came here [to the border] just to escape for a while and tell the truth about what happened in Burma to the international media,” he said. “After, I will go back to Burma.”

In the context of the pro-democracy movement in Burma, it is important to remember the role of Burmese Muslims.

According to residents and journalists who were at the demonstrations, many Muslims supported and participated in the protests and were badly beaten by Burmese security forces.

In a video clip seen around the world, soldiers beat and kick a young Muslim man who is huddled on the ground. They club him with batons and kick him brutally.

Pan Cha, who helped organize security for the demonstrations, said that a top Burmese minister ordered pro-junta group, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, to beat any Muslim in sight at the demonstrations, because Muslims were never USDA members.

He went on to say that when they first saw Buddhist monks demonstrating on September 18, many Muslims wanted to support the monks, but were worried about repercussions against the Muslim community as a whole. They feared it would cause more Kala Burma Adigayone (Muslim – Buddhist riots) and create problems for all Muslims in Burma (Kala is a derogatory name for Muslims and Indians in Burmese).

Inspired by the resilience of many Muslims in Rangoon, Pan Cha began encouraging them not to fear the government, telling them that they were standing up for the rights of all the people of Burma. On September 19, many Muslims joined in the demonstrations after their prayers and supported the monks by offering water, betel nut and fresh towels.
Some wealthy Muslims supported demonstrators by providing mobile phones to make communications between the protesters easier. Some who were car owners blocked the military trucks that were carrying arrested demonstrators and tried to help them escape when the army convoys stopped. They risked their own lives on behalf of others.

According to the 88 Generation Students group, at least seven Muslims in Rangoon were charged with inciting state unrest by supporting the monk-led demonstrations. They are currently being detained in Pabedan Township in Rangoon.

Pan Cha also confirmed that before he left Burma on October 4, he knew of about 30 Muslims who had been hospitalized from being beaten during the street protests. More than 100 Muslims were still being detained, he said.

Muslims have long played a leading role in Burma’s democracy movement, even dating back to before Burmese independence.

All scholars of Burmese history know the story of Abdul Razak. Better known as U Razak, he was the Muslim headmaster of Mandalay Central National High School and became Minister of Education and National Planning in Burma’s pre-independence government. He was also a leader of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League in Mandalay.

He lost his life at aged 49, when he was gunned down by assassins on July 19, 1947, together with Burmese independence leader Gen Aung San and seven other cabinet members and colleagues. The day is now commemorated annually in the country as “Martyrs’ Day.”

As a minority group, Muslims in Burma regularly suffer from social and religion discrimination. The Burmese government regularly encourages ultra-nationalism and uses religion as a political tool. The Burmese government will not grant citizenship to Muslims and, to all intensive purposes, do not recognize Muslims as being Burmese.

The junta’s top leader, Snr Gen Than Shwe, is known to despise Muslims and Chinese people who live in Burma. However, most Chinese in Burma are business people and were not directly involved in the September uprising. In Mandalay, home to thousands of Chinese immigrants, most doors remained closed during the protests, a sign that the ethnic Chinese were not in support of the demonstrators. The Muslim minority, on the other hand, played an active part in the pro-democracy demonstrations, just as they have throughout the country’s troubled recent history.

“We cannot say that the demonstrations were not related to Muslims just because they were led by Buddhist monks,” Pan Cha concludes. “We were all born and live in Burma and should not discriminate among each other. We must work together toward democracy.”

Burmese Muslim’s Prayer for Freedom of Burma

May peace be upon you

This is my first post in this blogosphere. I would like to highlight the suffering of the Burmese Muslim Minority in the Military rule Burma, now known as Myanmar.

There will be links to the interesting web site for the benefit of Burmese Muslims all over the world. There will be also some discussions about the Identity crisis of Burmese Muslims and role in the future Independent Burma.

I hope those with the genuine interest and respect to the Freedom of Worship and the Freedom of Speech will visit with the Freedom of Fear to my blog in future.

May Allah Bless you