Special Features
Introduction
Admin, Wednesday 23 February 2005
 Welcome to our new section titled 'Special Features', we are in the process of providing you with insightful articles focusing on four main areas:
Islamic Science - the dramatic achievements of Islamic Scientists, the history of Islamic science and its influence on modern science today.
Islamic Finance - Islam's approach that finance must serve all members of society, encouraging unlimited creation of wealth under certain rules. How Islamic finance is affecting Muslims and non-Muslims today with new Islamic financial products being introduced from several banks all over the world.
The Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) Medicine - This traditional form of medicine has been practiced by Muslims for centuries, choosing a variety of natural remedies combining good food and lifestyle. And the affect this has had on science and medical techniques in the East/West and what sort of developments we are able to bring to your attention.
With this we feature Ali Omar Ermes' artworks and his photos capturing the beauty of nature at large, Islamic art, crafts and architecture. Along side this there are occasionally, cultural, social and political issues being discussed here. This section is constantly updated so we hope you'll benefit from it again and again!
According to the website's LiveStats Service Provider, from January 2004, Ali Omar Ermes' website has brought over 1.09 million hits as well as over 134,000 individual visits.- a considerable amount from universities, museums, research institutions, business and financial organisations.
Therefore, we welcome writers and specialists particularly in these fields to submit articles to be published in this section, where a large number of people could read and benefit from them.
To get the most out of this section, select a category from the drop-down list on the right-hand side, the system will provide a listing of the various articles within that category, alternatively, you could use the date drop-down to select an article by year.
Thank you very much and we hope you will enjoy and benefit from this every time you visit aliomarermes.co.uk, please find a welcome note by the artist himself below.
Nafisah Ali, Head of Research Team. Akwan Strategic Media. nafisah@akwan.co.uk
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The Language of Human Civility
Concepts like modernity, globalisation, westernisation and clash of civilisations preside concepts such as colonisation, consumerism, secularisation on the other hand. Freedom of conscience, which lacks protection from powers without conscience, freedom of speech eloquently exercising its powers except when is needed to speak for people who lack the freedom to speak and the freedom of choice which is granted only if choice meant agreeing with the aggressor, the corrupt, the immoral and the unjust.
Most of us if not all are aware that we live in a very complicated world, and are inclined to share benefits or suffer tragedies from what is happening in this magnificently bitter sweet world.
And we in this forum are part and parcel of our world, as we engage in debates about all sorts of issues where human affairs are the natural habitat and variably touch all of us in our various stands in life, as we might be students, workers, industrialists, financiers, lawyers, doctors, artists, scientists or farmers etc, we might be males, females for that matter, we could be black, white, brown or yellow, some could be Hindus, Christians, Jews, Sikhs or Buddhists, while others might be Turkic, Hindi, Persian, Bengali, African, European, Arab or Chinese Muslims, on the other hand we might be speaking in Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Malay, Farsi, Zulu, Hindi, Mandarin, German, Howsa, English, Urdu, Spanish, Swedish , Arabic or French. We could have come from Argentina, Indonesia or Alberta, we could come from Uganda, Ukraine, Mongolia, Japan, New Zealand, New York, Sicily, Swaziland, Libya, Lithuania, Mali, Mauritius, Korea, Pennsylvania or Bangkok we all need to engage with the world, we are all humans under God's mercy and in Islam and Muslims' point of view, that we are universal citizens and we all are brothers and sisters.
Though we all understand more than one fundamental language first of all, the language of time and space, the language of human civility towards all other beings and the human need for a just world, a clean world, a moral world, a kind world, we all see that some of us were not treated kindly for the last few hundred years, our lands have been invaded, our wealth has been confiscated, our heritage has been destroyed and our lives have been shattered right, left and centre, slavery is one example, colonisation is another and genocide is a third. Muslims and others in different parts of the world were and still are the main victims of all of this.
Yet we still strongly think that humans are brothers and sisters, and should treat each other as such, however, we forget not the detrimental effects of colonisation, slavery or genocide, neither we forget wars like the Opium War against the Chinese or the genocide wars against the native Americans and the Palestinians or the holocaust against the European Jews, or the 40 million plus souls lost in the two World Wars in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, the Far East and North Africa and so many millions of lives lost since then across the killing fields of Cambodia or similar fields in and around the Horn of Africa and several parts of the world, Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, north and south Africa, South and East Asia, North and South America and Europe, etc.
And we still believe strongly that there is a lot of goodness in humanity as a whole and we also believe that most of those who forward themselves on behalf of the West do not truly represent the Western public who still maintain a lot of humanity, and as fairness is our choice and motto, we need to acknowledge and applaud the fact that aside from others in various parts of the world, there are a large number of good people and good practices in the western hemisphere (some who are very courageous and working hard in many fields of human dignity restoring some of what the main establishments managed to destroy across the globe) in spite all of that, the majority in the West suffer from these inferior methods of managing societies.
And all this at large is against the poor, the weak, and the environment, all that is in the West itself as much as it is in the rest of the world, but we know that sooner or later, ours and all other sensible people s common aims are to be realised, God willing, for a better world, a just world, a safe, secure and more prosperous world for all.
If we all work together to be truly just, truly considerate and truly moral, then we can achieve this in real terms in times when we all need it most and we can be assured to gain a lot of what has been lost by those irresponsible incompetent managers of society and enjoy freedom with responsibility, prosperity with fairness, justice with kindness and dignity without arrogance as this is part of God's law in all of us and ultimately deserving to be called human once and for all.
Our entity is universal, our identity multidimensional and our stand is positive and justice is the natural soil for peace.
So let me welcome you as a partner, a colleague, a neighbour, a friend and hopefully a dedicated participator in a mature, ethical and responsible forum of discussion and intellectual contribution in various fields.
Ali Omar Ermes, August /2004
The artwork featured in the introduction is by Ali Omar Ermes titled 'Meem, Tha, Alif (1994), this artwork is in the collection of the Artist.
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