America and Islam

When the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon occurred, resilience, resolve, and renewed sense of faith in the nation came to the surface. Rather than sinking, the spirit of Americans rose (Sosnik 2006: 135). That’s what turned America into a role-module for most of the countries in the world. Many countries were in the race to be more organized, trying to fight and stabilize back their own economy like America. click here

The American people developed an intense individualism. Democracy is not individualistic but it highly looked socialistic (Moore 2008: 48). This is what Americans think about and today the world thinks like America. They want to be like America, to be highly developed through democracy and to be highly socialistic that leads to advance economy.

But what the people do not know or less give attention about America, is the increasing numbers of crime rates in America’s cities. David Levinson wrote:

New York City’s approach has become a crackdown on quality-of-life offenses. This crackdown has increased in the last several years. In 2000 for example, criminal court summonses for offences such as drinking alcohol in public and not paying a public transportation fare increased more than 16 percent when compared to the previous year (2002:1763).




To be more exact, the issue that needs focus is the number of rape cases in America. As a highly developed democratic country, why can't the American government overcome this issue? Is there something wrong about how they fight against crime?

According to a report in America, violence against women and rape rates are increasing throughout the year and statistics are made annually, but the most important thing is, how do we fight against these crimes.

From 2005 until 2007 the crime rate has increased up to 23%. Such a short period of time yet the number that has increased is shockingly high, and the number of sample that has been studied is only 73,600 from a mere 41,500 households which is only 0.9 percent of the total U.S population ( 307,006,550 people).


According to the U.S Department of Justice, somewhere in America a woman is raped every two minutes and at least 45% of rapists were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It is a big problem when the government is less concern about human rights or more accurate women rights. At this point imagine what is the amount of adultery that’s happening in America.

The difference between adultery and rape is only a matter of whether somebody is improperly suggestive/willing to give herself or not, and this is happening all over the world, and more embarrassingly is that zina is also an issue in the Muslim society, despite the severe punishment yet less are alarmed by it.

To build a law against crime is not enough to prevent crime. A much highly rated effort should be done. So as a Muslim country and Islamic Government, what is the root to solving this problem?

According to Zulkifli Mohamad that there are number of facts that drives a man to commit adultery. By recognizing these facts, it will be a guidance to avoid doing zina.

The first thing is the eyesight. Without looking, how can a man be tempted to commit such a thing? When there is no limitation in looking, then everything is please to see. For example, looking at a girl or women by looking comes desire. As said by the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w, the eyes in one of satan's arrow.

The fourth reason that leads to zina is our self or in other words it’s our libidinous character (hawa-nafsu) . In the Holy Quran Allah s.w.t has explained that a man's nafs is divided into three categories. One of them is nafs-mutmainnah, which is the best among the three of them, a kind of character that has desire but the desire has been covered with iman (spiritual belief), that whenever the heart thinks of a sin, in an instant it will remind the heart of fear to Allah s.w.t.

The human heart works in two ways, either for good or for evil, but it can only act upon one way at a time, so the desire of a human heart is always fighting between good and evil. If the taqwa of ones heart is strong, then surely the willingness to do good will prevailed.



Muhammad Syukri Salleh wrote (2003: 28)

Rohul-tamayyiz plays a big role in life, when it thinks it is called akal (sense), when it feels it is called qalbu (the heart) and when it desires for something it is called nafs (lust). The king of ones body is the heart, while sense and lust is the people of the kingdom. The heart is called the king because it is there where the iman is located. The higher the level of ones iman is, the closer it gets to truth and it also works the way around. When the level of ones iman falls, then the nafs will take over as the king to the human body, which ends up in damaging the human mind.

The fifth fact that is written in the article is highly rated as a part of our life. Free-interaction is one of the huge social problems that is happening every where. In schools, universities, and even the place where we work for example offices and factories. It seems that almost everybody is trapped in this issue and surely it is hard to avoid it, but the least is not to interact with non-mahram women or men without unreasonable purpose, like going for lunch together, giving a ride or something that would lead to open behavior. Allah s.w.t said in the Quran

Translation: Come not near to unlawful sex, verily, it is a fahishah (a great sin) and an evil way that leads one to hell, unless Allah s.w.t forgives him. al-Isra 17. Ayah 32.

Allah s.w.t said do not come near! instead of do not do! It's because in Islam, anything that leads to a sin, is considered a sin.

The last factor that's been mentioned by Zulkifli Mohamad is the influence of the media and that's a big problem, nowadays there is no control on the worldwide network. Everything is at your finger tip and no boundaries at all and this does not mean that the Internet or any type of media should be ban, but there should be parental or adult guidance while using it, or else this will lead to bad behavior and habits.

To create a peaceful country, a good government and a good leader is needed. In reality the law might be perfect, but the people behind the law could be criminals.


The only government that has shined and proved to be the best in the world, is the one that use to exist in the period of Muhammad s.a.w. He showed the way of leadership and compatriot, an actual example for all humankind. The thing that made Islam great during those days were only two, al-Quran and al-Hadith. So, if a government like Medina is to be administrated, then these two things should be hold strong.

If there is any type of development in the modern Islamic world, then the Muslims should refer to the teaching principles of Islam as contained in the Quran. As a revival to the fundamentals of Islamic belief, this action will not only be a refreshment of the iman for the Islamic ummah , but also provides opportunities to deliver effective teaching of Islam to the West in doing research to find a way out of the tangles that have narrowed modernism and the modernization of Islam, in the need to find a solution to combat the power that threatens the existence of Islamic civilization (Nasr 1975: 11).

Only then the objective of Islam can be achieved the way the Muhammad s.a.w wanted and according to Allah's s.w.t will.





Bibliografi

Douglas B. Sosnik (2006). Applebee’s America. New York. NY: Simon & Schuster.

John Bassett Moore (2008). Four Phases of American Development: Federalism-Democracy-Imperialism-Expansion. Printed in America: BiblioBazaar, LLC.

David Levinson (2002). Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment. Printed in America: Berkshire Publishing Group. LLC.

Muhammad Syukri Salleh (2003). 7 Prinsip Pembangunan Berteraskan Islam. Kuala Lumpur: Zebra Editions Sdn Bhd.

Zulkifli Mohamad (2010). Solusi isu # 10. Zina: Faktor dan Penyebabnya.

Http://www.hrw.org (2008). US: Soaring Rates of Rape and Violence Against Women.