Guest Name

IOL Correspondent Marwan  Mohammad

Subject

A Trip to Japan- Live Chat

Date

Thursday,Aug 23 ,2007

Answer

Name

mahmoud    - Palestine

Profession

student

Question

Can you describe to us the most important tradition in this country**

Answer

As salaam alaikum,

From my experience, I think the main tradition of Japan is one of respect.

Respect of the rules can be seen through the life of the society, with a very low rate of delinquency and a feeling of efficiency of the public transportation, of the administration,etc

Respect of the people, with people coming from all around the world to live in Tokyo, whatever their color and religion.

Name

abdoِ    - Egypt

Profession

Alown Humanitarian Network Site Admin

Question

In The Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

"Peace be upon you."

We all know that the Japanese people as they want to live in a peaceful life especially after the disaster of the atomic bombs which had bombered their country My question is How can the Islamic culture spread in the Japanese society as the Islamic culture also spreads easily in the peaceful communities and How they look at suffers of the Muslims minorities and the oppression of the Zionists on the Palestinian people . Do they feel the suffers of the children and cries of the babies who lose their parents in the Zionist aggressions finally I hope Islam spread alot in this respectable country and if we can present any volunteering efforts through the internet to address the Japanese people if so e-mail us at info@alown.or Alown humanitarian network aims to help the charitable foundations which do the non-profitable work and for serving the society to find helpful volunteers
Thanks and Regards,

Alown Editorial

 

Answer

wa alaikum el salaam Abdo,

Thank you so much for your question, as it is one of the most important thing I have been thinking about during my stay in Japan. As you said, Japanese are peaceful, but they did not forget what the US did to them with the atomic bomb, and are quite conscient about the terrible injustice in which our brothers and sisters live in Palestine, Chechnya, Afghanistan and other countries where Muslims suffer, day after day.

Japanese people do a lot to help humanitarian initiatives and, as you might remember, a lot of them went to Iraq as volunteers (not with the army) to help reconstruct the country after the US attack. They also give a lot of money to participate in the humanitarian effort.

About their vision of Islam, I have to say that their way of life, full of respect and honesty, is really close to the Muslim way of life, but the Japanese society, as a whole, gives too much credit to sectarian movements and new religious groups.

I still believe that, if a strong effort is make on da'wa in Japan, there is a good chance that they accept Islam massively insha Allah. Translating books like Ali Tantawi's "Knowing Islam" could be a first step...

During my stay there, I also met a lot of Japanese who accepted Islam and became true believers wal hamdulillah.

wassalaam alaikum

Name

Mohamed    - Algeria

Profession

Engineer

Question

I learnt that Islam reach Japan by the translation of the life of Muhammed PBUH to Japanese.I want to know are these books still available in stores. To be more precise i want to say are Muslims doing what should be done to display today these books!

Answer

As salaam alaikum Mohamed

As I told Abdo in my previous answer, I think the da'wa effort is not sufficient in Japan. Of course, there are some Turkish, Malaysian and Indian brothers who really do a great job there in transmitting the message of Islam, but it is a huge task for them, and they really do need help.

To answer your first question, there is a variety of reference books translated in Japanese that are available in the Islamic centers and Mosques in Japan.

Also, in the Tokyo Camii (the Turkish mosque), the friday Khutbah is said in Japanese, English and Turkish (with the Quran and Hadith in Arabic) al hamdulillah.

Japanese visitors are welcome and can visit the mosque and ask questions whenever they feel like.

wassalaam alaikum

Name

Samah    - 

Profession

Question

Salam Brother

Can you tell us about the Muslim community in Japn? how are their problems?

jak

Answer

wa alaikum el salaam Samah,

One of the main reason that lead me to Japan was the growing islamophobia in France (where I lived at that time), especially toward my wife.

During our stay in Japan, we had absolutely no problem to practice our religion. Muslims are respected. Women wearing a headscarf are not disregarded or discriminated. Halal meat is not as frequent as in France or in an Arab country, but there are plenty of spots where you can get halal food, even in the business areas.

Mosques are beautiful and welcoming, and the relationship between brothers are strong, due to the fact that they are not so many. We have to keep in mind that Muslims are mainly concentrated in major cities like Tokyo, in which they are very few compared to the huge Japanese population.

There are more and more Japanese converts, and I can remember my first friday prayer at the Saudi mosque in central Tokyo: a Japanese brother was speaking with other brothers after the salat, and his knowledge of Islam and his Arabic were masha Allah.

wassalaam alaikum

Name

Faiz    - Sri Lanka

Profession

A/cs Executive

Question

Brother Marwan,
Assalamu Alaikum.

Can U please shed some light on the spread of Islam in Japan. Is there any barriers to practising Islam? What about the availability of Muslim Intellectuals and if any what about their joint effort to make the 'ISLAMIC SUN' rising in that land.

Answer

Wa alaikum el salaam Faiz,

As I said previously, there has been no massive initiative to spread Islam in Japan. The island situation of the country partly explain this fact, in addition to the proximity of China and Russia, who have traditionnaly played a role in limitating the geographic spread of Islam.

Also, the place of religion in the Japanese society is also far different from what we know in Western or other Asian/Middle Eastern countries.

To summarize the spread of Islam, I would say that it is strong but slow. It is progressively strenghten by the immigration of Muslim families in Japan and the marriage of Muslims with Japanese converts to build new families.

There are no barriers in practising Islam in Japan.

There are very few Muslim intellectual public figures in Japan. The islamic centers occasionaly have some guests coming from all around the world during Ramadan for example, or for the Eid.

The main islamic material is therefore found on the internet, where speeches of well known Muslim intellectuals like Amr Khaled, Tariq Ramadan or Zakir Naik can easily be found.

An translation work has also been started by the islamic centers in Japan to make the main books and reference material available in Japanese insha Allah, in a context where very few Japanese citizens speak another language.

wassalaam alaikum

Name

Emdad    - United Kingdom

Profession

Journalist

Question

Please tell us a little bit about your experience in Japan

Japan is a country of great heritage & history.

I am much interested in finding out if the japanese worried about how rock & roll culture has taken over the lives of the youth or are they happy to embrace modernity?

Answer

salaam alaikum Emdad,

Thanks for you question. As you said, there is a dangerous American and Western influence on the Japanese youth. This youth does not remember what their parents have been through in the past decades to re build their lives after WWII and reconstruct the country.

Rock & Roll, rap music and the "californian way of life" have spread in the main cities' Japanese youth, with terrible consequence. Older generations of Japanese are really concerned about this situation, and try to limitate this western influence, but it is difficult for them to promote an alternative way of life when the whole world seems to accept the "American way of life" and the Hollywood subculture as a standard.

Al hamdulillah, some Japanese youth remain truthfull to their culture and try to save the Japanese way of life.

Some other also feel concerned about the injustice made in the name of Freedom everywhere in the world and engage themselves in humanitarian initiatives.

wassalaam alaikum

Name

Nada    - Saudi Arabia

Profession

Journalist

Question

Salamu `alaikum. I'd like to thank the editor of the nice idea of the live dialogue.

I'd like to ask brother Marwan about Japan and the Islamic centers there, are they active in their work?

I have another question if you don't mind. Are there many Japanese who convert to Islam?

Answer

Marwan: Wa alaikum el salaam Nada,

There are some Islamic centers in Japan. Al hamdulillah, they do a lot of work: Islamic lessons, introduction courses, some conferences, activities during Ramadan, etc

But they are not enough to cover the huge population living in the main cities.

I hope some of us will insha Allah go to Japan and help these brothers and sisters who already do so much for the cause of Islam. May Allah bless them for this. Amine

wassalaam alaikum

Rasha Mohammad, IOL editor: Thanks Nada. Yes, it is so interesting session. Please keep following the coming sessions on IOL, as we will highlight how Muslims' travels are a means to get them closer to other cultures and how they, through their travels, find the Muslim communities in these far countries: their problems, challenges, and advantages.
Wasalam

Name

Zeinab    - Egypt

Profession

Question

What is the situation of Muslims in Japan and what do they need? And what are the meeting points between the Islamic rules and the Japanese culture?

Answer

As salaam alaikum sister Zeinab,

As I said earlier, the situation of Muslims in Japan is good al hamdulillah. They mainly need to be more numerous and to make more contacts with the rest of the Muslim community worldwide insha Allah.

The main meeting points between the Islamic rules and the Japanese culture I can think of right now are the respect of the human being, honesty, cleanliness, a certain distance between men and women, hospitality and a sense of extreme dedication to what they truly believe in (when they do believe in something).

wassalaam alaikum

Name

Felicity    - 

Profession

Journalist

Question

If you ever become knowledgeable about the history of the Japanese blame for the Second World War, you would realise that it was they who started the war with America and Britain with a sneak attack on Pearl Harbour. The battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa proved that the Japanese warlords did not want to surrender even when their country was being blasted into oblivion. They even attempted a coup against Hirohito to prevent the radio broadcast of the surrender. The lives that were destroyed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved millions more who would have perished when the Allies invaded the home islands. Many Japanese are ignorant of the bestial conduct of their Army in Nanking and throughout Asia and the Pacific. Of course, the Palestinians headed by the Grand Mufti backed Germany (another unwise decision), so you would not have heard of this. Hopefully in the future, the Palestinians will eventually make wise decisions in their best interests by requesting peace instead of death.

Answer

Thank you Felicity for your statement (I did not see any question actually).

Being an aggressive country during wartime is a fact. Bombing civilians with a nuclear weapon is another fact.

I'll try to analyse your statement point by point, so that the IOL audience can get a clear picture of what the reality of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is, based on facts and not on the US/British freedom propaganda.

I am not questionning here the reason for which WWII started, and am not a supporter of the Japanese government in the 30's and 40's. Of course the Japanese army did not want to surrender, but the American wanted primarily to save the life of their soldiers and not those of innocents.

They still had the choice of wether to use or not the nuclear weapon against Japan, but the fact is that this decision was already made when the ask Japan to surrender. The conditions under which Japanese were supposed to surrender were simply unacceptable (absolute humiliation for the Emperor, for which Japanese have a kind of deep religious devotion) and the US knew it. It was a smart move to present the japanese army as responsible for the mass murder that was planned.

As you said, if you ever become knowledgeable of the Japanese history, like for example by visiting the city of Hiroshima like I did, you will see that the whole US plot was to test their new nuclear toy. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were no threat to the US army, as they were civilian cities, but they were on the top of the list of 16 "selected towns" that met the scientific requirements for the bombing experience in a live situation.

Why Hiroshima first?

Just because Hiroshima starts with a H and Nagasaki with a N.

So, of course, we can still say, as usual, that the US killed hundred of thousands to save millions, but these reality only exist in you average hollywood movies. The truth is that is was a mass murder, specially designed and organised to test the nuclear weapon in "live conditions" and to justify the spending of bilions in its construction.

Now, you also mentionned Palestinians: I think the word you were looking for was RESISTANCE. Because that's what it is all about. If you truly believe in peace, go see for yourself what the US and UK citizens pay for : extermination of a Nation: history, people, soil.

Thanks again for asking...

Name

Rehmat    - 

Profession

Question

What was the most humorous event that you witnessed in your travels?

Answer

Salaam alaikum Rehmat,

I think the funniest moment in my Japanese experience was when I first arrived. I was doing a lot of things that seemed "normal" to me, but were very rude in the Japanese context, like asking one's age, or sneezing in public.

There are plenty of funny stories also when you go on the country side, because almost nobody speaks english there, and you try to make yourself understood, with very little success.

You really need to experience this for yourself. You will realize how welcoming the Japanese people really is.

wassalaam alaikum