Our Stance on Social Issues
Childcare
_ The Bahamas
is a small nation with a total population of over 300,000. Of the 700 islands,
stretching from the tip of Florida to the border of the Atlantic Ocean and the
Caribbean Sea only 20 islands have populations and some degree of development.
The island of New
Providence in which the capital city of Nassau
is situated is one of the smallest Islands in
the whole archipelago. It is only 21 miles long and 7 miles wide, yet it holds
about 65% of the entire population. Because the country is dependent on tourism
and banking as its main sources of revenue, the majority of people move from
the Family Islands which have more land mass but are less developed in terms of infrastructure to
Nassau which is the seat of Government and is where most of the jobs and opportunities for growth and
development lie. Despite the fact that majority of the people profess
Christianity, their lifestyles do not reflect what is considered to be
Christian principles. One alarming observation is the fact that some 70% of
children born in the Bahamas
are born out of wedlock, i.e. the parents are not married to each other when
the child is born. To further complicate the problem, over 50% of these unwed
mothers are teenagers between 12 and 18 years old. These teenage mothers are
usually not well-educated and not socially equipped to raise children in a way
that they need to be raised. As a result, the society has to endure the vicious
cycle of uneducated teenage mothers trying to raise children in an environment
where those children will grow up to become unwed mothers themselves. The Muslim community can serve as a means
of helping to break the cycle if and when these young mothers come to embrace
Islam and are willing to reform. Childcare fundamentally consists of making
provisions for the child’s health, education, and welfare.
Health, Education, and Welfare
The Bahamas Government presently provides health care in the form of immunization and basic treatment for chronic diseases which may affect children. However if children need major surgery or treatment for some major illnesses, they may not be able to afford it unless they have some type of health insurance that will cover their illnesses. It is our intention to develop a type of health assurance scheme which does not involve riba (interest). This can go a long way toward helping not only our Muslim children but also the non-Muslim children who come to us seeking help.
We have in the Bahamas the Muslim expertise that can do the necessary work to construct a sound health assurance plan and with assistance we can develop such a plan. Health is essential for the growth and development of children in any society. A child’s education and welfare are both hindered by lack of access to the provision of good health care.
In the area of education, we have plans to develop a pre-school curriculum for our young Muslim children. This will help Insha’Allah (god willing) help prepare the Muslim children for primary and secondary schools which are planned for development in the near future. Some of the children today attend the primary and secondary schools provided by the Bahamian Government and private institutions while others are educated in the homes.
Our objective is to provide complete education (Islamic and Secular) to our children and to ensure that they develop strong Islamic characters needed to progress as Muslims in a non-Islamic environment. The education and welfare of our children is something our community concerned about.
Family Life
The Bahamas prides itself as being a Christian nation. As such, the Christian ideals of a family consisting of husband, wife and children is the standard which family life are measured. However, the reality of the situation is that family life as it existed several generations ago, no longer exists today. The men of his nation have fallen short of their responsibilities as providers for their wives and fathers of their children. The family life which was fairly strong in the decades of the 1950’s and 1960’s has been in rapid decline.
Since the 1970s, drugs (illegal) and alcohol (legal) in the Bahamas became more prevalent in the 1970s and moral values declined. Criminal activities are on the rise and effects the fabric of the society in a country where the people are generally peace loving and family-orientated.
When Jamaat-ul-Islam first became organized in the 1970s we knew enough to be able to compare the lifestyles of Muslims in countries where Islamic law was practiced and implemented among the people, to what we saw happening to the people of the Bahamas. This promoted us to speak out against crime and corruption in the Bahamian society and to warn the society that the situation was at a crisis and a spiritual revolution was needed.
In this society, we know that we need to establish a Muslim Community. We have made recommendations for Crime and Punishment in the Bahamian Society and presented these documents to the Prime Minister and his Government in 1995. See Appendix 6. In it, we proposed a number of solutions based on Islamic principles to the problems of crime and the society, prevention and detection of crime, the need for punishment, retaliation and compensation and the social elements that lead to crime. The family unit, which is the cradle of human society, has been neglected for too long not only in the Bahamas but throughout the Western World.
Since we live in the Western World, we are constantly challenged to view daily events from an Islamic perspective. We present Islamic solutions to the problems that are present around us and try our best to avoid the pitfalls of a growing degraded and immoral society.
Health, Education, and Welfare
The Bahamas Government presently provides health care in the form of immunization and basic treatment for chronic diseases which may affect children. However if children need major surgery or treatment for some major illnesses, they may not be able to afford it unless they have some type of health insurance that will cover their illnesses. It is our intention to develop a type of health assurance scheme which does not involve riba (interest). This can go a long way toward helping not only our Muslim children but also the non-Muslim children who come to us seeking help.
We have in the Bahamas the Muslim expertise that can do the necessary work to construct a sound health assurance plan and with assistance we can develop such a plan. Health is essential for the growth and development of children in any society. A child’s education and welfare are both hindered by lack of access to the provision of good health care.
In the area of education, we have plans to develop a pre-school curriculum for our young Muslim children. This will help Insha’Allah (god willing) help prepare the Muslim children for primary and secondary schools which are planned for development in the near future. Some of the children today attend the primary and secondary schools provided by the Bahamian Government and private institutions while others are educated in the homes.
Our objective is to provide complete education (Islamic and Secular) to our children and to ensure that they develop strong Islamic characters needed to progress as Muslims in a non-Islamic environment. The education and welfare of our children is something our community concerned about.
Family Life
The Bahamas prides itself as being a Christian nation. As such, the Christian ideals of a family consisting of husband, wife and children is the standard which family life are measured. However, the reality of the situation is that family life as it existed several generations ago, no longer exists today. The men of his nation have fallen short of their responsibilities as providers for their wives and fathers of their children. The family life which was fairly strong in the decades of the 1950’s and 1960’s has been in rapid decline.
Since the 1970s, drugs (illegal) and alcohol (legal) in the Bahamas became more prevalent in the 1970s and moral values declined. Criminal activities are on the rise and effects the fabric of the society in a country where the people are generally peace loving and family-orientated.
When Jamaat-ul-Islam first became organized in the 1970s we knew enough to be able to compare the lifestyles of Muslims in countries where Islamic law was practiced and implemented among the people, to what we saw happening to the people of the Bahamas. This promoted us to speak out against crime and corruption in the Bahamian society and to warn the society that the situation was at a crisis and a spiritual revolution was needed.
In this society, we know that we need to establish a Muslim Community. We have made recommendations for Crime and Punishment in the Bahamian Society and presented these documents to the Prime Minister and his Government in 1995. See Appendix 6. In it, we proposed a number of solutions based on Islamic principles to the problems of crime and the society, prevention and detection of crime, the need for punishment, retaliation and compensation and the social elements that lead to crime. The family unit, which is the cradle of human society, has been neglected for too long not only in the Bahamas but throughout the Western World.
Since we live in the Western World, we are constantly challenged to view daily events from an Islamic perspective. We present Islamic solutions to the problems that are present around us and try our best to avoid the pitfalls of a growing degraded and immoral society.