Asian youth: No real strategy in sight

EFFECTIVE youth provision that meets the requirements of Asian youth, particularly Muslim youth, in Kirklees is all but shambles! It is now time for the Council to work closely with community organisations and put in place a constructive and relevant youth programme that will stop the young people hanging around street corners.

Young Muslims are caught up in the middle of a cultural dilemma - they want to develop their potential through involvement in youth activities but are restricted because many of the youth facilities offered at youth clubs are not compatible with their cultural and religious practices. Their parents are increasingly becoming suspicious of youth workers trying to lure them into youth clubs that may affect their identity.

However, there are community organisations actively involving hundreds of youngsters in positive and practical activities. The question that needs to be asked is if these voluntary groups can gather massive numbers why is the Council failing? There is potential for getting the Asian youth off the streets and into valuable pursuits without compromising their religious or cultural beliefs and practices.

Kirklees Young People’s Services need to work much more closely with community groups. But this of course means the local council will need to commit resources to help these organisations to develop. If the will is there it could be done.

It is time the silent cry of ‘get us off the streets’ is heard.

How halal are halal school meals?

KIRKLEES Council is in the process of conducting a comprehensive review on the provision of halal school dinners and it is important that it results in all round quality provision for all our pupils.

It is comforting to know that the Council is committed to meeting the needs of Muslim pupils and is exploring all possible ways of providing halal, healthy and authentic dinners. We hope that council officers responsible will involve local people and businesses at all levels in their pursuit for quality provision.

It is also encouraging to know that there is a certificate verifying the authenticity of halal food and the fact that local Muslim scholars have inspected the suppliers in North Shields. However, there doesn’t seem to be any certificate verifying what happens between the delivery of the meat from the suppliers and the prepared meal reaching the school dinner plate. How is the meal prepared?

Is there any contamination of cutlery or dishes? What are the actual ingredients used? As far as we are aware, no Muslim scholars have certified the whole process.

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

Think about a typical holiday: after months of hard work, you have your two weeks' vacation and arrive at your favourite holiday resort after an exhausting eight hours' ride. The lobby is crowded with holidaymakers like you. You even notice familiar faces and greet them. The weather is warm and you do not want to miss one moment enjoying the sunshine and the calm sea, so without losing any time, you find your room, put on your swimsuit and hurry to the beach. At last, you are in the crystal-clear water, but suddenly you are startled by a voice: "Wake up, you will be late for work!"

You find these words nonsense. For a moment, you cannot grasp what is happening; there is an incomprehensible discrepancy between what you see and hear. When you open your eyes and find yourself in your bedroom, the fact that it was all a dream astonishes you greatly. You cannot keep yourself from expressing this astonishment: " I rode eight hours to reach there. Despite the freezing cold outside here today, I felt the sunshine there in my dream. I felt water splashing on my face."

The eight hours' drive to the resort, the time you waited in the lobby, in short everything related to your vacation was actually a dream of a few seconds. Though indistinguishable from real life, what you experienced in a genuine way was merely a dream.

This suggests that we may well be awoken from life on earth just as we are awoken from dream. Then, disbelievers will express exactly the same type of astonishment. In the course of their lives, they could not liberate themselves from the misperception that their lives would be long. Yet, at the time when they will be recreated, they will comprehend that the period of time which appears to have been a lifetime of sixty or seventy years was as if it were merely a few seconds' duration.

Life is short; the human soul is eternal.

HARUN YAHYA (born Ankara 1956):
The Truth Of The Life Of This World (Ta-Ha Publishers)