US Congress passes Ramadan Bill

[Mrmuslim]

salaam alikom,


RAMADAN BILL - US CONGRESS


This is historic for American-Muslims and Muslims around the world. This is the first time in history that the United States Congress will commemorate and recognize the month of Ramadan as the Islamic holy month. The language from the bill text is below for your viewing.

110th CONGRESS
1st Session - H. RES. 635

Recognizing the commencement of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual renewal, and commending Muslims in the United States and throughout the world for their faith.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 5, 2007

Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas (for herself, Mr. MEEKS of New York, and Mr. ELLISON) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs


RESOLUTION

Recognizing the commencement of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual renewal, and commending Muslims in the United States and throughout the world for their faith.

Whereas since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, threats and incidents of violence have been directed at law-abiding, patriotic Americans of African, Arab, and South Asian descent, particularly members of the Islamic faith;

Whereas, on September 14, 2001, the House of Representatives passed a concurrent resolution condemning bigotry and violence against Arab-Americans, American Muslims, and Americans from South Asia in the wake of the terrorist attacks;

Whereas it is estimated that there are approximately 1,500,000,000 Muslims worldwide;

Whereas Ramadan is the holy month of fasting and spiritual renewal for Muslims worldwide, and is the 9th month of the Muslim calendar year; and

Whereas the observance of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan commences at dusk on September 13, 2007, and continues for one lunar month: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That--

(1) during this time of conflict, in order to demonstrate solidarity with and support for members of the community of Islam in the United States and throughout the world, the House of Representatives recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world; and

(2) in observance of and out of respect for the commencement of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and spiritual renewal, the House of Representatives acknowledges the onset of Ramadan and expresses its deepest respect to Muslims in the United States and throughout the world on this significant occasion.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr110-635

 

[BintMuhammad]

Wa alaikumussalaam,

Jazakallaahu Khayr for the info akhi. Inshaa'Allaah the US govt. approves this bill. It's about time they accept that Muslims have to exist in their country and will grow in number Inshaa'Allaah.

 

[huda2]

:salam2:


Jzk khairah good news, so I hope we dont have to write request letters to our professors when we missed classes fr our Islamic holidays any more since our univ required.:mashallah:

 

[Abdul-Raheem]

:salam2:

Well, that's a start. Lets hope they pass a bill which puts an end to the massacre of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan..

wasalam

 

[justoneofmillion]

:salam2:

Well, that's a start. Lets hope they pass a bill which puts an end to the massacre of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan..
wasalam

Assalam,recognition and reward,will be from Allah swt inschallah exalted as he is!!their whole laws and system are nada,useless, until their criminal little hypocrites pay theBill for Iraq and Afghanistan.
I do not really care what these folks say or do,they are irrelevant to me and i hate it when muslims take them into consideration and,do so as if we were begging for acceptance or waiting for some petty reward ,am not waiting from any president any king any Parliament or emperor to confirm that my religion is the greatest of them all ,as it is the one and only religion that matters to Allah swt!

I don`t mean to under mind or disrespect anybody`s tought in this matter ,i ask forgiveness if it is felt this way..inschallah. .However, i really can do without this new trend that tends to put us Muslims in a position to justify ourselves all the time ,turning the fact of us being Muslims merely into another number ,another way of expressing our belonging to "one" of the worlds many many "so called" pseudo religions, another motivation to be contempt, kept busy ,neutralized and even tickled with as i see (what a timing!), while striving for esteem in the eyes of the global decider`s wannabe Arena and while comforting it in its vision of hu-money-T !!.But i can`t do without regarding our Muslim existence as an exclusivity, a privilege , a leading role requirement , a benchmark setters responsibility,and a threat to the destruction and to the disguised destroyers of humanity ,everything else would be sickening and unacceptable to me.and who knows if it is acceptable for Allah swt to be satisfied with us, he certainly knows best.

I hope the day is not far inschallah, when the whole people of the world will be waiting with bright eyes and well stretched ears,for what actually Muslims would have decided,cause of them being worried of how it would impact their lives.
PS.i understand this to be an informative post, which could be of practical benefit inschallah for Muslims living in that particular country,no more and no less.

Wassalam

Jameel

 

[IslamIsLight]

salam aleikum
MashAllah

Unbelivable !!!!

House of Representatives recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world;

waaleikum salam

 

[lions_den1]

This is one of those things that is suppose to 'win the hearts and minds' of muslims.... while dropping bombs on muslim children and fighting muslim men and abusing muslim sisters.

 

[al-fajr]

:salam2:

Can someone quite clearly please... spell out what exactly this has achieved?

Im thinking its the most pointless pile of rubbish actually...?

the House of Representatives recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world;

...so that took them what...1400 years + ?

 

[Abdul-Raheem]

Assalam,recognition and reward,will be from Allah swt inschallah exalted as he is!!their whole laws and system are nada,useless, until their criminal little hypocrites pay the for Iraq and Afghanistan

:salam2:

Even then Brother, the damage has already been done. They may replace and repair what they have destroyed but the sentiments which their evil actions have created will remain for a long time to come. May Allah subhan wa ta3la help our Brothers and Sisters rise up against these oppressors and purge their land of the transgressors.

wasalam

 

[kayleigh]

Oh please, some of you people are too negative for your own good. This is great news. Now if only they would give us off of work and school for Eid...lol

 

[a_muslimah86]

Oh please, some of you people are too negative for your own good. This is great news. Now if only they would give us off of work and school for Eid...lol

:salam2:

LOL good one sister..
our public-schools and our university and local college here in Nebraska have a deal with the schools' administrations
where teachers/professors would allow their Muslim students to be absent from class on the first day of Eid and it would not count against them..
but absences for the 2nd and third day..are counted like any other absence
so alhamduliallah for that..it's better than *nothing*

 

[kayleigh]

:salam2:

LOL good one sister..
our public-schools and our university and local college here in Nebraska have a deal with the schools' administrations
where teachers/professors would allow their Muslim students to be absent from class on the first day of Eid and it would not count against them..
but absences for the 2nd and third day..are counted like any other absence
so alhamduliallah for that..it's better than *nothing*

Yeah, it's no problem to take it off from work/school here. But, you still miss class. Even if it doesn't count against you, there's material you're missing. Unlike Christmas, where EVERYONE gets off of school, so there's nothing to miss.

 

[Bluegazer]

Assalamu Alaikum,


There are several points that I'd like to clarify:


------------------------------------------------


1- Firstly, I thank brother Mrmuslim for opening this thread and providing this information.


As Mrmuslim has said in post #1, "The language from the bill text is below for your viewing". This means that the text quoted by Mrmuslim was the proposed text. The final text that received the approval of the House of Representatives can be viewed by clicking the following link:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-635


You could see the difference between the proposed bill and the final resolution of the House of Representatives. There were some deletions, some additions and some changes. Even after the changes, there are still phrases like " recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world" and "conveys its respect to Muslims in the United States and throughout the world on this occasion".


However, there might be some drawbacks in this final version of the resolution.


----------------------------------------------------------------


2- Technically, we can't say that the U.S. Congress commemorated and recognized the month of Ramadan, since it's only one of the two halves of the U.S. Congress which recognized and commemorated this blessed month [i.e., the U.S. House of Representatives].


As far as I can tell, the U.S. Senate did not vote on this resolution. If I'm wrong, please correct me.


------------------------------------------------------------------


3- The results of the votes are very astounding. 376 voted "Aye", and there were some "no votes" and another category I didn't understand who are just
"present", but there were no "Nay" [i.e. no] votes.


Click on the following link to view the results:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-928


-----------------------------------------------------------------


4- We Muslims do not need the recognition of any other religion or country to justify our faith or to make us feel good about ourselves. We have the book of Allah, the authentic sayings of His Messenger [peace be upon him] and the example of the Companions in how they applied and understood these two sources, and this is perfectly adequate to us.


Having said that, that does not mean we cannot use positive statements about Islam coming from non Muslims when there's a necessity and with certain caution [such as stating that our belief is not based on these positive statements].


There are Muslim brothers and sisters who are living in the West [the U.S.A and other western countries], and they are facing huge problems. When facing ignorant remarks such as "you are pagans" and "you worship the moon" and other such foolish garbage, a Muslim should quote the verses of the Qur'an which show our belief in God Almighty and His prophets [including Jesus -peace be upon him-].


But, if that does not work, then we Muslims can use statements such as the above resolution of the U.S.House of Representatives to 'shock' some sense into the minds of the people who utter vulgar and ignorant remarks at Muslims.


A few months ago, I was searching the internet for some information when I came upon a forum which discusses a game. One of the threads was started with a poll asking people if Muslims worshiped the same God as Christians and Jews.


Now, we all know that the Muslims' belief in Allah the Almighty is that He's absolutely One and therefore not a 'Trinity' as Christians claim. We also reject some blasphemous verses in the Old Testament and New Testament that ascribe negative attributes to God Almighty.


Having said that, we Muslims do believe in God Almighty who sent the prophets Noah, Abraham, Moses....etc [among others, peace be upon them all].


There was only one Muslim on that forum, and may Allah reward him for all his effort, but he just couldn't convince one Christian lady who was all out against Islam and refused to acknowledge the Muslims worshiped God Almighty [although she admitted that Jews do].


Then, in came a Roman Catholic and he quoted some official documents of the Catholic Church which shows that Catholics -after centuries of calling us Muslims "pagans"- have admitted that we worship God Almighty.


That Christian lady was left in a very bad position. She continued to attack Islam, but her assertions seemed less credible to many of the non Muslim forum members who accused her of intolerance.


If you want to view these official Catholic Church documents, then click on the following links:

http://www.imanway.com/en/showpost.php?p=13419&postcount=1
http://www.imanway.com/en/showpost.php?p=13427&postcount=2
http://www.imanway.com/en/showpost.php?p=13476&postcount=4


Best regards,

Bluegazer

Wassalamu Alaikum

 

[Mahmed322]

:salam2:


Jzk khairah good news, so I hope we dont have to write request letters to our professors when we missed classes fr our Islamic holidays any more since our univ required.:mashallah:

Haha I did this all of last week.Alhumdulillah it just gives us a chance to speak about islam to our professors.
Dawah = Hasanat

Hasanat = makes m e very happy

 

[Mahmed322]

I'm just happy that in NYC the people are a little more open-minded and have a little more knowledge on muslims. So whenever ramadan comes around I'll usually have many professors say "Hey isnt it Ramadan for you this month" to which I'll reply " yes and before i forget. I wont be in class for eid. Thank you for understanding"

 

[xohanifaxo]

Asaalam aliakum

mashallah...that is very interesting!!!

 

[Aapa]

Salaam,

Let us be really honest. It was only a House resoultion. We have to wait for the Senate ( the really big bucks).
Who cares what the US Congress does. We know they can't think..look who is sitting in the White House ( why white is beyond me).
We can not allow ourselves to be bought for a miserable price. This changes nada. I agree with Brother Jameel.
We really have to start hating what the kuffir do. We do not have to hate the people but let us really reflect on their acts. How can we trust anyone who hates our family.
We need to remember we are living for the sake and because of Allah. I will celebrate and pray according to the True Laws of Allah. I do not care what the kuffir do or think.. ( I am begining to think they do not think and their actions amaze me...). We need to become of the mindset that their laws are flawed as is their educational system and everything else. We need to rely on Allah and His Guidance. I thank you for taking the time to read this. Forgive me, but this government sickens me.

 

[OmarTheFrench]

This is one of those things that is suppose to 'win the hearts and minds' of muslims.... while dropping bombs on muslim children and fighting muslim men and abusing muslim sisters.

Very true,bro.