The latest big gulp

Catching a glimpse of the front page of one of most popular British tabloids a few mornings ago, was a sight a little too shocking for even the most liberal in British society. Every once in a while, British society manages to throw up a case which has pushed the values of liberalism to such an extreme, that even the staunchest advocates of the famous freedoms, need to take a big gulp.

The picture shows thirteen year old Alfie Patten sitting on a hospital bed holding his tiny, fully formed newborn baby girl in his arms. Without the bold text across the page informing you, anyone would have assumed he was her older brother or cousin – but never father. But it is true, that baby Maisie was conceived by this young boy and his fifteen year old girlfriend apparently after a single episode of promiscuity. And the public have been further shocked by the mad scramble that has presented itself in the media as other young boys have come forward, claiming to actually be the baby’s father.

Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary as well as the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, have been among the politicians swift to show their disagreement with this event. Cameron said that it was worrying that in the UK ‘children are having children’ and this is something that has to be put right. Ed Balls further urged that society had to do everything possible to try to bring the level of teenage pregnancies down. Additionally the local MP in Eastbourne, where both Alfie Patten and his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman are from, has called for an urgent assessment of the actions that have been undertaken by the children’s (and yes, you cannot call them anything but this) parents and everyone elses’ attempt to make as much money as possible out of this PR dream.

The problem is, although the public have been overtly horrified by this latest story, there really should not be a problem. The liberal pioneers amongst British society should actually not take a big gulp, or even sigh for that matter! As Alfie Patten and Chantelle Steadman, amongst thousands of other young teens, have just been following the way of life that everyone else in the society they live in, follows. The society that they have walked into teenagehood with, is one where everyone is urged to live life to the full and believe they are free to do what they want. After all, freedom is the enshrined value which their nation felt important enough to export to the rest of the world.

And according to the values that David Cameron himself has so staunchly advocated in the past, little Alfie has just exercised his freedom to live the way he wants to, in a society which has urged him to do so. The fact that he can barely look after himself, forget another human being by exercising his freedoms, is not something I have heard many British politicians discuss deeply when they have so impassionately defended the untouchable freedoms before.

Therefore British politicians should stop being hypocritical and stand by what they constantly ram down the throats of the rest of the world. That if freedom and liberalism is your yardstick, then Alfie and his latest escapade is absolutely fine - damn the consequences to society - Even if we get a horrible feeling in the bottom of our stomach as we foresee an innocent baby girl face a life ahead of family instability. As her father, who when asked about how he would support her financially had to ask the journalist what that very word meant.

The reality is that we are done damning consequences to society. Not just for Alfie Patten’s innocent baby girl, but for each and every individual in this society. We are done living in an increasing hell hole, where your property, the innocence of your children, your very lives are not at all sanctified.

It is high time we realize that freedom and liberalism will only deliver a society with social degradation. Rather it is Islam that enshrines the values of honour, security and a strict social code to deliver a society which functions with harmony. It reminds every individual in that society, that in fact you are not at all free, rather you are accountable to your Creator and he will account you for all the responsibilities and relationships you undertake in this dunya. Maintaining your rights and responsibilities to your family is a key facet of the Islamic social system. As the noble Prophet SAW:
"There is no sin more deserving of having punishment meted out by Allah to its perpetrator in advance in this world along with what He stores up for him in the next world than oppression and severing ties of family." [Tirmidhi]
Hence it is without a doubt, that the Khilafah and the society it creates, is what the world needs today for the return of a harmonious, responsible society.

Our neverending desires

The recent report from the Children's Society has only reaffirmed the doubts many of us have had about the effects of the society we live in on our precious, innocent children. That the impact of living in a society where the adults amongst us have been led by an ever growing need to appease our own desires, has been catastrophic. Family break-ups, working mothers, excessive materialism are all factors which, in three years of research by the Society, were found as contributing to children today being more anxious and troubled.

Ideas such as liberalism and freedom we see are cornerstone in Western society, people live by them, politicians and the media advocate them. These values, are the values which are said to make people happy and content - People have the freedom to eat, dress, live and worship whatever and whoever they want, as long as they do not directly harm anyone else. We are all individuals in this society who have the freedom to live however we want to. These values have not only be thoroughly adopted here, but have been exported to the Muslim world as the values which should be adopted if those societies wish to progress.

However, there is a big but, the but, which whilst everyone has been busy being in the relationships they want, and walking when they want, being in the job they want and career they want to trying to have all the material things they want; has been silently festering away. The but of the impact of continually self-indulging behaviour.

It is true capitalist systems view their societies in this way and recognise them as being made up of a group of individuals. The reality is however, we don't live in isolation, we live as human beings in communities, come from families and build friends. Our actions not only impact our own selves, but impact those around us. And this could not be more true for anyone than our own children.

The Prophet SAW narrated in a hadith that for the woman, looking after her husband's home and children, is not only rewardable but the weight of this work equates with the work of the men who march forth eager to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Islam. Allah SWT knows the needs of our children and he has thus laid out for us the priority we should hold in securing their needs. He has set out the whole female sex, the mothers, as prioritising the upbringing of children as their primary role. The neverending greed and desires of adults, can never be the basis upon which we decide how to bring up our next generation, as we have seen in this society, if it is; they will always be put second after careers, the latest romance and wanting to have fun.

This report has surfaced the ugly realisation that the grossly individualistic culture that is engulfing British society, is damaging the wellbeing of the next generation. Although the report makes a series of recommendations such as civil birth ceremonies to attempt to combat this ailing culture for our children, nothing recommended actually begins to tackle the real problem at bay here. Giving parents better access to information and trying to curb commercial advertising to children may help the situation, but at the end of the day as long as parents in society believe in freedom and individualism, the danger of individual needs and desires dictating the way family lives are led, will always be. I'm not saying here that everyone in British society are gluttonous ineffective parents, but that the values upheld in society are conducive to adult behaviour which puts oneself first knowingly or unknowingly. We may not all be like parents of Baby P, but unless we have a yardstick and measure with which to judge our actions by and guide us, how do we know whether we are really meeting the needs of those we are responsible for?

The report recommends that our selfish adult behaviour has to stop. But I say, why blame the people who are simply living by the norms of the society and system which propagates them? Rather it is not the average parent we should really be blaming for this particular lifestyle people lead, but we should be looking at the society and values which promote and uphold such ideas of putting oneself continually first. Thus the release of this report has reinforced the need of an alternative system for us to live by which promotes a whole new set of values, not just prioritising the accumulation of capital and wealth, leaving society to rot. A system with values which allows the Creator who created us from nothing to dictate how we manage our relationships, is integral now if we want harmonious and secure family relationships to return to the face of this earth.

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I feel physically, vilely, wretchedly sick to the point where words feel too delicate and airy to actually describe the repulsive feeling. The death of Baby P. How he was trained as a dog by his mother's murderous boyfriend. Trained to kneel on the floor waiting to be punished. The baby lived in a house where human faeces and rat infestations were a normal reality. Where he awoke everyday to a mother who slept routinely till lunchtime not bothering to even acknowledge him, let alone tend to him, breaking his spine like he was the piece of plank from Karate Kid, spinning him on a chair till he came crashing down to the floor. It's excrutiating to read and listen and fill your mind with this. As my husband just told me to stop it, 'I don't want to hear it.' But that's it. We don't want to hear it. We don't want to see it and tomorrow it's another disaster we've ascribed to anomalies of evil in our developed, technologically advanced society.

The Baby P media focus has been quick and harsh to point all the blame on Haringey Social services, who admittedly tripped up badly having not dealt with this case promptly despite all the clues. However this is a very easy scapegoat. A palpable, graspable organisation we can all hound on. Purge our grief on and then walk away tomorrow brushing the dust off our hands. And this is why it's Baby P today, Sharon Matthews kidnapping her daughter yesterday and so many other children being sacrificed due to a bigger problem that yet has not been identified.

Forget the peripheral organisations who have this minimal capacity to try and monitor people and their behaviour; let's actually ask the golden question - Why is it that it is so normal for our society to produce the likes of Baby P every so often, such examples of human irresponsibility, cruelty and utter eradication of the difference between right and wrong? Do we not ask why? Do we not ask what have been the consequences of us living in a culture and society which values as its cornerstone the freedom to lead our lives as we please, accountable to nothing and no one, living for today, forget what happens tomorrow. A society where pleasing our sensual desires becomes the paramount goal in life, like a sniffer dog lured by its goldmine; over all need to construct our lives by a higher calling.

We're not animals. We're mammals with a mind and unless we use it to differentiate ourselves from animals, it seems that society will become a jungle of battling desires and disasters. Let's please begin to point the finger in the right direction. That human beings are made up of a mixture of desires, emotions and particular natures. If we are left to decide for ourselves how are life should be, such cases are inevitable and as we are seeing, are becoming normal. For all those who believed a society based upon Islam was a dilly dallying daydream, I ask do you really still think so? Are you really still happy to settle for this quagmire we now live in? Set aside all the scapegoats and please, I beg of you, just contemplate the realise the viscous, wretched jungle of anguish will we see if we sit back and just passively wait...