Black Spirituality Religion : AIDS in Islamic Black Africa

Dual Karnayn

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The Muslim population in Africa represents about 65% of all the African people. AIDS kills some 6,000 people each day in Africa, which amounts to more deaths than caused by wars, famines and floods. Africa is home to 70% of the adults and 80% of the children living with HIV in the world. The estimated number of newly infected adults and children in Africa reached 3.5 million at the end of 2001. It has also been estimated that 28.5 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS in Africa by the end of the year. AIDS deaths totaled 3 million globally in 2001, and of that total, 2.2 million AIDS deaths occurred in Africa alone.
(source:UNAIDS)

In some countries, most notably Uganda and Senegal, there have been notable successes in the fight against AIDS, but a lot remains to be done.

Senegal: Senegal, where 92% of the population is Muslim, has one of the lowest rates of HIV infection in Africa. This is due to strong political support for prevention programs from the very beginning of the disease. Senegal stands for one of Africa's success stories in the fight against AIDS. An estimated 2% of the population (10 million) is thought to carry the HIV infection. This compares to rates of between 20% and 30% in other countries of the continent. Instead of denying the reality of the danger of the disease, Senegal's government began to take energetic measures to prevent the spread of the infection, as long ago as 1989. The country's religious leaders tolerate an open discussion about sex education and do not discourage programs, which make condoms available to young people. Prostitution is carefully controlled. The prostitutes are required to have regular medical check-ups and are thoroughly educated on the risk from HIV/AIDS. It is a country where people are tolerant and accepting. It is not a taboo for the Muslim Senegalese to talk about condoms and safe sexual relationships in the marriage boundaries. Condoms are even discussed in schools during classes about "Family Economy". The tolerance and the existence of institutions as JAMRA (i.e spark), a highly successful Islamic organization, which started off working against drug use and youth delinquency among young people, now mainly, focuses on HIV/AIDS. These are just some of the reasons for the low rate of HIV infected people in this country.


http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/october02_index.php?l=4
 
I have maintaned that AIDS is major crisis in Christian/English speaking countries in Africa and this article is confirmation. As one example. However, is this also true in Islamic societies as a whole, inside and outside of Africa?
 
Omowale

I have maintaned that AIDS is major crisis in Christian/English speaking countries in Africa and this article is confirmation. As one example. However, is this also true in Islamic societies as a whole, inside and outside of Africa?
I believe for the most part Islamic countries have a much lower AIDS rate than the rest of the so-called "third world" for the same reasons Cuba and North Korea does.....they don't trust the WHO and are suspicious of foreign intervention.
They aren't as quick to accept contaminated medical aid or malicious health-care workers as most non-Muslim African, East Indian, and Latin American nations.

Too often we carelessly put our lives in the hands of our open enemies then bust a blood-vessle trying to figure out why were're plagued with so many diseases and disorders.


I should also point out that AIDS is a tricky word because it simply means your immune system is funcitioning inefficently.
But that can be cause by anything from malnutrition to cancer to a bad cold....not just HIV.

So a lot of our people said to be dying of "AIDS" are actually HIV negative and are dying from conventional diseases, but since there immune systems were compromised they were classified as AIDS victims.
 
AIDS: Islam’s Point of View

AIDS (Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome) is a fatal disease that weakens the resistance of the body against the invading germs, and makes it defenseless against all kinds of infections. As a result even an ordinary infection like malaria sounds the death knell for an AIDS patient.

AIDS-infected patients normally die within a few years of time, and the death is likely to be most horrific and painful. Until today, there is yet no cure in sight for this dreaded disease.

Sex is nature’s in-born, biological urge that must find expression in mankind; as clearly seen from the following verse in the Qur’an:

“Your wives are a tilth for you, so go to your tilth (have sexual relations with your wives), when or how you will, and ask Allah to bestow upon you pious offspring.” (Qur'an 2:223)

And Prophet Muhammad (saw) advised the young generation, saying:

“O Young people !Whoever among you can marry, should marry, because it helps you to lower your gaze and guard your modesty (that is keeps you away from adultery).”

And that’s why Islam has simplified marriage to such an extent that it does not remain a hurdle or financial burden for parties intending conjugal relationships. But at the same time Islam not only forbids sex outside marriage, but also effectively blocks all the possible channels leading to adultery and fornication. The commands pertaining to purdah - the gender-based separation of spheres of activities and severe punishments to the guilty of immoral sex - are few of the deterrents Islam prescribes as measures towards meeting that goal. Illegitimate sex is considered one of most gravest sins, and is condemned in no uncertain terms in all the holy scriptures - because it shatters the social and moral fabric of the society and destroys the family system around which a society is built. The Qur'an says:

“And come not near adultery. Verily it is an indecent (shameful ) act (sin) and evil way.” (Qur'an 17:32)

And the Qur'an strictly warns all those who are involved in any activity that in any way propagates nudity, obscenity, lewdness and sexual immoral practices of grave consequences. Allah (swt) says:

"Verily those who desire (love to see) that the crime of adultery (immoral sexual practices) be propagated among the believers, will have a painful torment in this world and in the Hereafter." (Qur'an 24:19)

But today’s human being has transgressed all the limits, of decency and code of sexual conduct set by their Lord. The consequences in the form of high divorce rates, broken families, single mothers and AIDS, are staring in our faces. It is a well-established fact that AIDS spreads mainly due to indiscriminate sex, homosexuality and drug abuse. And running away from these facts will not help us in finding a solution to this problem. Rather, it is high time that we reflect upon the following warning given in advance by Prophet Muhammad (saw). He said:

"Whenever sexual permissiveness spreads among the people - until it becomes declared - infections and fatal diseases, previously not found among their ancestors, will spread among them."

Homosexuality and sexual perversion is not a new phenomenon to human society. Such was also the case of the people in the time of Prophet Lut (saw) who practiced homosexuality, and were warned by him, as described in the Qur’an:

"And Remember Lut, when he said to his people - Do you commit the worst sin such as none proceeding you have committed among the mankind and jinn? Verily, you satisfy your lust on men instead of women! Nay but you are people transgressing beyond bounds." (Qur'an 7:80-81)

This is because homosexuality is against nature, against common sense, against anatomy, against physiology, against logic, against aesthetics, and yet we find the Western media portraying homosexuality as “freedom of choice,” as if it is an acceptable form of social behavior! As for those homosexual men from among the nation of Prophet Lut (saw), the Qur’an says:

"Verily, they were a people given to evil and were the disobedient." (Qur'an 21:174)

And their punishment was...

“And we (Allah) rained down on them a rain (of stones). And see what was the end of the sinners.” (Qur'an 7:84)

People beware! Do not let such an attitude develop in our society. Parents, teachers, social workers, concerned citizens...remember, it is now up to us to stop this degradation of social values. Prostitution, pornographic literature/films, and all other forms of immorality must be done away with, completely. The real danger is mainly to adolescents and teenagers in high schools, colleges or universities; who, while away from homes, are unaware of the dangers and experiments with sex. Then the only thing that will protect them from AIDS is their faith in Allah (swt), and a firm belief that all forms of illegal sexual satisfaction (outside marital bonds) are totally forbidden. Those Muslims in the AIDS-awareness programs should remember that, unlike others whose slogan happens to be “SAFE SEX” (i.e., the compulsory use of condoms), our slogan would be “NO SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE.”

Research papers on AIDS are in agreement that the only sure way to avoid exposure to HIV is to abstain from sexual intercourse entirely, or to have a mutually faithful relationship with an uninfected person.

(AIDS - Humanity’s Gravest Challenge, Dr. Pushpa Khurana, 1999, p.77)

http://www.islamvision.org/Aids.asp
 

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