RAPE
AND RELIGION
ISLAM
AND HIV
Positive Muslims:
An Awareness-Raising & Support Group for HIV+ Muslims
Positive Muslims is a group founded with the support of the Muslim Youth
Movement in June 2000. We are committed to raising awareness about Aids
and offering support to Muslims living with HIV/AIDS. What are our basic ideas on HIV/AIDS ? We want to create and deepen an awareness among Muslims about the prevalence
of HIV / AIDS in all communities including ours. We want to educate our
community about what HIV/AIDS is, the ways in which it is contracted,
ways of avoiding it and the fact that no one is ‘above’ acquiring it.
And to find and implement ways of supporting Muslims living with HIV/AIDS
in personally meaningful ways. This will involve counseling, helping accessing
affordable treatment, providing a ‘buddy’, (a one-on-one friend who will
be around on an ongoing basis) and offering spiritual support.
We want to lobby all the relevant structures both in government and in
civil society, particularly our own religious leadership for greater support
for people living with HIV/AIDS and a deeper awareness of the need for
openness and non-judgmental support.
How would we like to run Positive Muslims? We conduct our affairs in
a spirit of accountability (muhasabah), transparency, and collective decision-making
(shura). Our gatherings are safe spaces for all our members to be prayerfully
inspired and to feel personally supported. We want to at all times uphold
the integrity of those who come to us for support and maintain the absolute
confidentiality of the support/counseling process through clearly laid
down guidelines.
How can we be contacted? Fahmeeda Miller (Deputy Convenor)
We are committed to developing a theology of compassion; a way of reading
the Qur’an and understanding the Sunnah (the path of Prophet Muhammad
- peace be upon him that focuses on Allah who cares deeply about all the
creation, this is Allah who, according to a Hadith, said at the time of
creation "Indeed, my mercy overcomes my anger"
While there is no known cure for HIV/AIDS at the moment, it is but an
illness among other illnesses. In other words, it is not a peculiar disease
for which a particular group had been singled out by Allah or by nature.
Those in our
community who are living with HIV/AIDS are not "victims" to be pitied,
avoided or despised. They laugh, cry, watch TV, argue, perform salah,
are sometimes too lazy to perform salah, some have jobs while others are
unemployed. They are of us and we are of them.
We believe
that a non-judgmental approach should be adopted when dealing with people
who are HIV+. Our concerns are not related to how one became infected;
instead we believe that those who are HIV+ must be accepted as they are.
Our primary focus is to provide support for those who have already been
affected and to educate our communities so as to prevent the spread of
HIV/AIDS. Our approach to prevention includes, but is not limited to abstinence
from sex outside marriage, faithfulness during a relationship and the
use of condoms in appropriate circumstances.
The Qur’an warns us against despair: "And do not despair of the mercy
of Allah; for He is the most Compassionate of those who show compassion".
There is light at the end of the tunnel. However, we through our caring,
solidarity and humanness are required now to remove the fog in order that
that light can become visible.
Abdul Kayum Ahmed (Convenor)
Cell phone : +27 (0) 82 400 2192
E-mail : ahmed121@yebo.co.za
Telephone : +27 (0) 21 953 0308
Cell phone : +27 (0) 82 594 4354
E-mail : fuzie@worldonline.co.za
© Speak Out Terms of use