There seems to be a viral whatapps message spread over the past few days which seems quite dubious . Its says Obama has agreed to repatriate Aafia Siddiqui if 100k people sign a petition. And that Mufti Rafi Usmani urged people to sign the petition last Fri (18/7)
Petitions do zilch. Does anyone know of ANY case where a petition about Muslims, prisoners, terrorism, global war on Muslims, Palestine etc has made any difference? There's a petition a day as far as I can see. What ever happened to the petition that needed 300,000 signatures and it got something like 700,000+ ? I didn't hear anything of it after. This whole petition business is another political sham in my opinion to keep the civilised at bay thinking they have a choice in their political matters.
I wasnt in any way asking about the effectiveness of petitions etc...was simply trying to find out if (a) Obama's administration HAS agreed the above and (b) if Mufti Rafi, after hearing that, appealed to people to sign.
Maybe to talk about the effectiveness of petitions, lobbying, protests etc feel free to open another thread.
i got the text from two local people who i dont usually get viral texts from. ones an aalim. I texted back the aalim to request verification on both points. he replied back saying he contacted some ulama / students in karachi who confirmed Muft Rafi said it..in what context, was it exactly clear in that they heard Mufti Rafi say that Obama agreed X or Y etc i didnt ask.
Personally i find such texts simply tooooooo far fetched and, with all due respect to the aalim, ridiculous. I mean which government will explicitly agree and make policy decisions solely based on a petition without even a whisper of a public/formal announcement, public reaction, legal implications, setting future precedence etc.
wrt petitions as a tool personally im 50/50. i do sign some and ignore some. Takes a min at most so id prefer doing whatever is reasonably possible.
"In the Scottish parliament, there is a dedicated public petitions committee. Anyone wanting to raise a petition contacts the public petitions office. It is at this point that a petitioner's expectations are managed: they are told how the Scottish parliament works and what the outcomes of a petition can be. There is also no threshold. The public petitions committee looks at every petition, even if it only has one signature, and decides how the issues raised should best be dealt with �" a select committee, a debate, a question or a statement. Often, the organisers of a petition are brought in to the Scottish parliament for the committee to hear their case."
This petition business is naive belief in the efficacy of democracy.
I can see some good in democracy and some bad. It is difficult for me to decide its overall performance on Islamic basis.
On the particular issue I am all for release of this much tortured sister.
I signed a petition once only, that was the case of Indian MP Ahsan Jafry brutally killed in Gujrat 2002 pogrom.
After that I consider it an exercise in futality.
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
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