Medina Safe Havens - 700 word version
When the Prophet Muhammad and his early followers were faced with immense persecution in the city of Mecca, Muhammad instructed his followers to escape rather than continue to suffer. Under the Prophet’s instruction, the Muslims migrated from Mecca to Medina in AD 622, thus leaving the birthplace of the Prophet and of the religion of Islam. After this migration, Muhammad signed a treaty with the Meccans that, despite providing peace and safety for the Muslims, proved to be a great compromise on their part. Thus, the concepts of migration to escape persecution, re-establishment of communities, and compromise for peace were all central to the Prophet’s life and to the experience of the early Muslim community and provide strong precedents that modern-day Muslims facing oppression can follow in order to maintain liberty, dignity, and progress.
Today, there are millions of Muslims facing persecution as they struggle to survive in war zones and refugee camps throughout the world. It has been reported by the UNHCR that the ideal solutions to these refugee populations are voluntary repatriation to the country of origin, local integration into the country of asylum, and resettlement in a third country; thus, it makes sense for stable Muslim countries to serve as the “third country” in which these refugees can resettle. Furthermore, given that Muslims are commanded by their religion to migrate in order to escape persecution and that the hosting of refugees is an integral part of Islamic tradition, every Muslim country should be more than willing to lend a portion of its uninhabited land to refugee populations. I refer to this concept of providing refuge for those escaping persecution as creating “Medina Safe Havens,” and I call on both world leaders and oppressed populations to support the creation of Medina Safe Havens across the globe so that there may be sanctuaries like the one Medina provided the Muslims fourteen hundred years ago.
In order to create Medina Safe Havens, host countries should allocate unused areas of land to refugees and simply provide each refugee family with enough land to establish a self-sustainable farm and access to a small amount of water. These Safe Havens would not even require any infrastructure like electricity, sewers, or roads. Homeschooling could be encouraged, thus allowing children to stay home to help on the family farm, and health care could be provided nearby, via mobile clinics. Green technologies, like wind turbines, solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and LED lighting, would allow these new communities to quickly increase their standard of living and, at the same time, become practical models for functional, low-impact, sustainable housing. Finally, each host country could very well experience an influx of financial assistance from international charities as the safety of and easy access to Medina Safe Havens would make them ideal targets for organizations looking to optimize their humanitarian relief efforts.
In conclusion, it is my dream to see a world where large countries establish Medina Safe Havens for refugees and wealthy nations fund their establishment. I hope that Muslim countries in particular support refugees through the creation of Medina Safe Havens; that oppressed Muslim populations follow in the footsteps of their beloved Prophet Muhammad, migrating away from their oppression; and that, in due time, these refugees dedicate themselves to adopting their new homes or else returning to their homelands with the aid of nonviolent treaties and other means of influence, as Muhammad did with both Medina and Mecca.
By: Amer Haider. Email: amerhhh@gmail.com. Blog: http://medinasafehavens.blogspot.com/
Today, there are millions of Muslims facing persecution as they struggle to survive in war zones and refugee camps throughout the world. It has been reported by the UNHCR that the ideal solutions to these refugee populations are voluntary repatriation to the country of origin, local integration into the country of asylum, and resettlement in a third country; thus, it makes sense for stable Muslim countries to serve as the “third country” in which these refugees can resettle. Furthermore, given that Muslims are commanded by their religion to migrate in order to escape persecution and that the hosting of refugees is an integral part of Islamic tradition, every Muslim country should be more than willing to lend a portion of its uninhabited land to refugee populations. I refer to this concept of providing refuge for those escaping persecution as creating “Medina Safe Havens,” and I call on both world leaders and oppressed populations to support the creation of Medina Safe Havens across the globe so that there may be sanctuaries like the one Medina provided the Muslims fourteen hundred years ago.
In order to create Medina Safe Havens, host countries should allocate unused areas of land to refugees and simply provide each refugee family with enough land to establish a self-sustainable farm and access to a small amount of water. These Safe Havens would not even require any infrastructure like electricity, sewers, or roads. Homeschooling could be encouraged, thus allowing children to stay home to help on the family farm, and health care could be provided nearby, via mobile clinics. Green technologies, like wind turbines, solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and LED lighting, would allow these new communities to quickly increase their standard of living and, at the same time, become practical models for functional, low-impact, sustainable housing. Finally, each host country could very well experience an influx of financial assistance from international charities as the safety of and easy access to Medina Safe Havens would make them ideal targets for organizations looking to optimize their humanitarian relief efforts.
In conclusion, it is my dream to see a world where large countries establish Medina Safe Havens for refugees and wealthy nations fund their establishment. I hope that Muslim countries in particular support refugees through the creation of Medina Safe Havens; that oppressed Muslim populations follow in the footsteps of their beloved Prophet Muhammad, migrating away from their oppression; and that, in due time, these refugees dedicate themselves to adopting their new homes or else returning to their homelands with the aid of nonviolent treaties and other means of influence, as Muhammad did with both Medina and Mecca.
By: Amer Haider. Email: amerhhh@gmail.com. Blog: http://medinasafehavens.blogspot.com/
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