• Muslim Families - Challenges and Expectations.
  By Muhammad Abdul Bari. Ta Ha Publishers Ltd, London, 2002
  Pp. 90 ISBN 1-84200-041-1
  
  Keeping the family intact and raising children in Islam are becoming increasingly daunting prospects for Muslims used to strict moral codes and extended families who have settled in the West, where the older generation is struggling to cope in a society that seems to have given up its religious and cultural values and has become amoral and permissive. With premarital sex, 'living together', and separating off from parental establishments becoming common as an acceptable alternative lifestyle, one major purpose of this book is to raise awareness among Muslims of the ever-increasing importance of creating desirable and genuine marriages and safeguarding a happy relationship, building families and raising children in true Islam.
  Unfortunately, quite a few Muslims in the UK suffer from the same problems as the general population with regard to domestic violence, family breakdowns, one-parent families, sexually transmitted diseases, and general social disintegration (often resulting in a almost total lack of education, alcohol and drug addiction, theft, and virtual uselessness as a citizen). Added to all this certain Muslims contribute their own problems - forced and false marriages, the heartbreak and strains of un-Islamic polygamy, abuses of mahr provisions, divorce proceedings and so on. Bari tackles these issues with a refreshing bluntness and honesty, and desire to alleviate the misery these abuses cause.
  The third aspect is the lack of proper Muslim education and knowledge in a population that has a paucity of established scholars running local mosques, who can deal with all the problems of a cross-cultural community clinging to remembered traditions but unable to access much in the way of Muslim sources for themselves.
  Abdul Bari acknowledges that his book is mainly addressed to the Asian immigrant Muslim community and their descendents, but it is informative and useful for any Muslim from any other culture, including white converts totally unfamiliar with the mindset of their Pakistani/Bangladeshi neighbours. It does not attempt to deal with the terrible family problems caused by such things as female genital mutilation in Somalia and other regions of the divorce abuses of several Arabic cultures. In any case, it educates Muslims of, say, Turkish, Iraqi, Kurdish, Iranian, English, and Irish backgrounds (and all the others, of course) in awareness of some of the problems encountered by the Muslims of Asian backgrounds who tend to form the majority of Muslim communities in several areas of the UK.
  The book is a useful and thoughtful summary of the traditional teachings of Islam about marriage and the family, and the rights and duties of members, and the important qualities to realise and nurture.
  This work grew out of the 'Islamic Aspect of Parenting' course which the author inaugurated in 2000. A valuable and informative contribution.
  
  Hull, Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood
  UK