We, in India, pour our hearts out when we hear of an old octogenarian Arab man that comes to India hunting for a young bride for himself. How often Muslims, Islam and all Arabs are painted black with the same brush without giving a thought to the causes that lie below these despicable acts of some Arabs.
Cause...What causes...??!! No one even seems to have time to think about this word anymore.
So, when a young Indian woman was sentenced to death in UAE for murdering her octogenarian UAE national husband when she was 15 years old, was scheduled to fly back home on 22 Feb 2005 after her compatriots helped her raise the blood-money to escape the death sentence...it was a cause for the whole humanity to celebrate.
“I am very glad to go back home although I know that the community at large will keep looking at me as a criminal and the whole experience will remain a stigma in my life. I will heed only my conscience and try to live the rest of life as a good citizen and try to forget this dark period in my life,” said 22-year-old Fatima Begum en route to her home town of Hyderabad in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Most interesting patr was that Fatima was seen off at the airport by Sainul Abdeen Saleem, President of the Ras Al Khaimah Indian Association (RIA) that handled the difficult negotiations with the family of the deceased to bring down the blood money and later to raise the amount through a fund-raising campaign.
The story goes that Fatima’s husband was found murdered in their house, following which the Court of First Instance convicted her for murder and sentenced her to death in June 1997. The Shariah Appeals Court upheld the verdict.
After the victim’s relatives dropped their demand for capital punishment in favour of blood money, the court ordered her to pay Dh150,000. In response to Fatima’s request, the RIA intervened and managed to get the demand reduced to 40,000 through prolonged negotiations with the victim’s family.
The amount was donated by the Indian community members following a campaign organised by the RIA in association with the Indian Consulate in Dubai.
At the end of her conversation with one local newspapers, an emotional Fatima thanked her compatriots for their kind treatment and generous contribution to her cause.
That's what makes us good Muslims but more important than this all is the alleviation of poverty which is part government and part our responsiility so that no parents ever entertain requests by these handful of corrupted people in the Middle East, who consider poor Muslim families of Hyderabad as a place to give vent for their untamed desires.
