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Barack Obama on Families & Children
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Teach both abstinence and contraception to teens
Q: In talking about your own daughters and talking about sex education and contraception, you made the jarring comment that you would not want your daughter "punished with a baby" if she made a mistake. Could you explain what you meant?
A: Keep in mind, on that same day, I said children are miracles. What I was saying was that my daughters are 9 & 6. And so if, at the age of 12 or 13, they made what I would consider to be a mistake, in having unprotected sex, and ended up getting pregnant. And so all I meant was we want to prevent teen pregnancies. And what we don't want to do is to be blind to the possibility that kids will screw up, just like, surprisingly enough, we as adults screw up sometimes. We want to make sure that, even as we are teaching responsible sexuality and we are teaching abstinence to children, that we are also making sure that they've got enough understanding about contraception that they don't end up having much more severe problems because of a dumb mistake.

Source: 2008 Democratic Compassion Forum at Messiah College Apr 13, 2008

Expand flex-work & Family and Medical Leave Act
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act:The FMLA covers only certain workers in businesses with 50 or more employees. Obama will expand it to cover businesses with 25 or more employees. He will also include allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs; and to expand FMLA to cover leave for employees to address domestic violence.
Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave:As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems. Obama will provide a $1.5 billion fund to assist states with start-up costs.
Expand Flexible Work Arrangements: Obama will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules; help businesses create flexible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request flexible arrangements.
Source: Campaign booklet, "Blueprint for Change", p. 10-15 Feb 2, 2008

Parents should control what's coming over the airwaves
As a parent, I am concerned about what's coming over the airwaves. Right now, my daughters mostly are on Nickelodeon, but they know how to work that remote. The primary responsibility is for parents. I reject the notion of censorship as an approach to dealing with this problem. It is important for us to make sure we are giving parents the tools they need to monitor what their children are watching. Obviously, the problem we have now is not just what's coming over the airwaves, but what's coming over the Internet. So for us to develop technologies and tools and invest in those technologies and tools, to make sure that we are, in fact, empowering parents is important. It is important for those in the industry to show some thought about who they are marketing some of these programs being produced to. I'm concerned about sex and some of the violent, slasher, horror films that come out in the trailers. It is appropriate, in a cooperative way, to work with the industry to try to deal with that problem.
Source: 2008 Democratic debate in Los Angeles before Super Tuesday Jan 31, 2008

Restore dream of making children's lives better than parents
Q: A recent report found that middle class black families were not able to carry their children into the American middle class; many had fallen out of the middle class and into poverty. What can the president do?
A: One of the reasons that I'm running for president is that the American dream has always meant that if you worked hard if you invested in your children then their lives could be better than yours. And that dream that so many generations fought for feels like it's slipping away, not just for African Americans increasingly but for all Americans. And so what do we need to do? We have to have a tax system that's fair. I will take away tax breaks from company's that are shipping jobs overseas and put tax breaks in the pockets of hardworking Americans who deserve it. We've got to invest in education. If we can invest and understand that this is a crisis that doesn't just effect black and brown people but all of America I'm confident that we can make a big difference.

Source: 2007 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum Dec 1, 2007

July 19, 2008 | 2:40 PM Comments  0 comments
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The lord is good
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Since last night my young son has been unwell. When I got back from work this evening I decided to take him to hospital despite my exhaustion. There were many waiting; perhaps we will be delayed by more than an hour. I took my number and sat down in the waiting room. There were many faces, young and old, but all silent. Some brothers made use of the many booklets available in the waiting room. Some of those waiting had their eyes closed, while others were looking around. Most were bored. Once in a while the long silence was broken by a nurse calling out a number. Happiness appears on the one whose turn it is, and he gets up quickly; then silence returns.

A young man grabbed my attention. He was reading a pocket-sized Quran continuously; not raising his head even once. At first I did not think much about him. However, after one hour of waiting my casual glances turned into a deep reflection about his lifestyle and how he utilizes his time. One hour of life wasted! Instead of making benefit of that hour, it was just a boring wait. Then the call for prayer was made. We went to prayer in the hospital's Masjid. I tried to pray close to the man who was reading the Quran earlier in the waiting room. After the prayer I walked with him. I informed him of how impressed I was of him and how he tries to benefit from his time.

He told me that most of our time is wasted without any benefit. These are days that go from our lives without being conscious of them or regretting their waste. He said that he started carrying the pocket-sized Quran around when a friend encouraged him to make full use of his time. He told me that in the time other people waste he gets to read much more of the Quran than he gets to read either at home or in the Masjid. Moreover, besides the reward of reading the Quran, this habit saves him from boredom and stress.

He added that he has now been waiting for one and a half hours. Then he asked, when will you find one and a half hours to read the Quran? I reflected; how much time do we waste? How many moments of our lives pass by, and yet we do not account for how they passed by? Indeed, how many months pass by and we do not read the Quran? I came to respect my companion, and I discovered that I am to stand for account and that time is not in my hand; so what am I waiting for?

My thoughts were interrupted by the nurse calling out my number; I went to the doctor. But I want to achieve something now. After I left the hospital I quickly went to the bookshop and bought a pocket-sized Quran. I decided to be mindful of how I spend the time.

If this information is beneficial to you, then please do forward it to your friends and relatives. Our Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said; "Whoever guides or directs to good, then he gets the same amount of blessing (reward) as the one who does it" The Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wasallam) also said "Pass on knowledge from me even if it is only one verse"



March 30, 2008 | 3:58 PM Comments  0 comments
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Shaykh al-Islam Ibrahim Niasse
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The following biography is based on “Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse: Revivalist of the Sunnah,” a paper presented by Shaykh Hassan Cisse to a Northwestern University conference on Muslim Scholars in Africa (1984).


Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (1900-1975) was West Africa’s most renowned Islamic scholar in the twentieth century. His followers numbered in the millions and comprised the largest single Muslim movement in West Africa (Hiskett, 1984). He was also well-known among the ulama and leaders of the broader Muslim world and a member of such organizations as the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-‘Alam al-Islami based in Saudi Arabia, of which he served as Vice President), the World Muslim Congress (Mutamar al-‘Alam al-Islami; Karachi, Pakistan), the Islamic Research Assembly (Majma’ al-Buhuth al-Islamiyya; Egypt) and the High Council of Islamic Affairs (Majlis al-‘Ala li al-Shu’un al-Islamiyya; Egypt). Following a trip to Cairo, Egypt, in 1961, he became widely known as “Shaykh al-Islam” after having led the Friday prayers in the prestigious Azhar mosque.

Shaykh Ibrahim also maintained close relations with several prominent leaders in the independence movements during the 1960s, such as Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmad Sekou Touré (Guinea) and Gamal Abd al-Nasser (Egypt). He campaigned tirelessly for governments to respect the rights of Muslims and the oppressed world-wide. He spoke out on several international causes, such as Israeli aggression toward the Palestinians, but he was also interested in interfaith issues and maintained good relations with Vatican representatives. He also became involved in social concerns, stressing racial equality and the rights of women. In regards to the latter, the Shaykh encouraged women to “compete with men in knowledge.”

Shaykh Ibrahim Abdullah Niasse was born in rural Senegal, the son al-Hajj Abdullah Muhammad Niasse. Al-Hajj Abdullah (d. 1922) represented the culmination of a long line of Islamic scholars in the Senegambia region, and was himself a well-traveled and consummate shaykh, attracting students from all around the region as far away as Mauritania. Shaykh Ibrahim was educated primarily at the hands of his father, with full access to his father’s extensive library. Shaykh Ibrahim mastered at an early age from his father the full range of Islamic sciences: the Qur’an and its interpretation, the Hadith and their explanation, jurisprudence and Sufism.

In reference to his educational background and achievements, Shaykh Ibrahim said, “I learned Qur’an and Hadith first from my shaykh, my father, and he, from his father. I received an ‘ijaza (diploma from the majalis al-’ilm) first from my father in both Qur’an and Hadith, then from Abdur-Rahman b. al­Hajj-1-’Alawi (Mauritania) and another ‘ijaza from Shaykh Ahmad Sukayrij (Morocco) who himself had earned some six hundred ‘ijazas from six hundred dif­ferent shaykhs whose names are mentioned in his book, where he writes, ‘The first one to whom I gave authorization in all these chains of transmission was the Khalifa al-Hajj Ibrahim Niasse.’” Shaykh Ibrahim once said concerning his scholarly credentials: “What I have in the way of ‘ijaza and muqaddam authorizations would indeed fill a book.”

As for the content of his teaching, it was nothing more or less than the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad and its revitalization. Throughout his life, the example of the Prophet was his means and end. Shaykh Ibrahim used to say, “If the best of mankind, the Prophet is moving, even I shall follow him step by step; and the day he stops from there I shall never move.” Elsewhere in a poem, Shaykh Ibrahim wrote, “If I am asked, what is your madhhab (school of jurisprudence) and who is your beloved, I can answer that it the Prophet, and none other.”

Shaykh Ibrahim was the best example of a Sufi according to the description “The Sufi is the son of his hour (ibn waqtihi).” He will respond to the needs of the time. At every moment he is dealing with the requirements of that moment. The Muslim who is greatest in understanding is he who submits to the rule of his hour. That is, he gives everything the position it requires in action and speech. He is a person moving with time in a circle. He does not attempt to stop time, not to become stagnant in it, nor to regress in it. His effort is aimed at continually moving forward. In the season of Ramadan he reads Qur’an and Hadith and presents their explanations. In the season of Hajj, he expounds the virtues of the Muslim pilgrimage. At the time of Mawlid, he recites the Prophet’s Sira or Biography.

All of this behavior characterized the Sufism of Shaykh Ibrahim. It was based on action and practice, traveling all over the Muslim world, giving speeches, writing pamphlets. In every endeavor, his goal was to direct Muslims to the right path (siratul mustaqim). Sickness did not bother him unless it halted his activity in behalf of spreading Islam. Indeed, his tasawwuf was not characterized by heedlessness and neglect (ghafla). It was based on real Islam, mastering the self (nafs) and rul­ing over it with Qur’an and Sunnah. His Sufism was producing and working in various fields of life on the farms, and so forth.

In a speech in the 1960s, Shaykh Ibrahim addressed a group of Muslim youth and said, “For the youth, I thank you all for your papers. And I am here to tell you to go ahead and be in the vanguard of things. Surely the future of every nation is based on its youth. But it is not based upon all of them, not upon every individual, but only on the in­tellectual ones, the educated ones with good character, good manners, and zeal. As for the youth lacking education and good character, he is like a seed unfertilized. So make every effort to seek and do your best to acquire more knowledge, not only Islamic knowledge, not only mathematics and its branches, but also be part of and cooperate with those whose zeal is to discover the unknown and unseen things of this world.”

Throughout his life, Shaykh Ibrahim’s character was based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, a fact verified by prominent Muslim leaders who knew him. For example, we note in the letter of Shaykh Muhammad al‑Hafiz al‑Tijani - the Egyptian who was known as the foremost man of Hadith in his age - the words:

“Praise belongs to Allah, after Allah has blessed us by binding us in love: this humble servant Muhammad al-Hafiz al­-Tijani and the Hujja, the cornerstone of the religion, the sea of con­fidence, the believer in Allah, my brother and the brother of my spirit, my master Abi Ishaq, Shaykh Ibrahim ….”

In his greeting, it is important to note that Shaykh al-Hafiz uses the word Hujja, or “the proof”, as a form of address. The scholars of hadith have ranked the scholars who work in this field. Each rank has a specific name. For example, the muhaddith is the narrator of hadith who reads traditions based upon narration and report. The hafiz has memorized hadith to the number of one hundred thousand along with their explanation. But the Hujja has memorized three hundred thousand hadith with their explanations and chains of transmission from the Prophet. Likewise, a 1961 letter from the Secretary General of the Muslim World League in Mecca, the late Shaykh Muhammad Surui Al‑Sabban, addresses Shaykh Ibrahim as follows:

“The Owner of Virtue, The Member of the Islamic Con­ference, Brother Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse well‑respected, Assalamu Alaikum. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah, and His Bless­ing be upon you. The pioneers have left the Hijaz, along with the propagators of the religion. They also left with the jurisprudence/understanding (fiqh) of the Hijaz, and now it remains with you, Shaykh Ibrahim. The old style of reading the Qur’an has also left the Hijaz, but you have remained reading the word of Allah with this same style of Hijaz, the style of Nafi Mawla Abi Nu’aym. Indeed, you are of the real people of Medina in both Fiqh and Qur’an. These are the proofs of your steadfastness, and it is not the pride from within me, but the pride is for you and by Him. You have believed and steadfastly you have protected and spread the religion and become victorious.”