Buzz off Bush: A Time for Change Has Come

It is the season to choose seeds for the mosque garden, the window box, or the backyard. What will you choose to grow, as the days warm and lengthen? What will you watch over?


Surely we are tired of bad news. For peace of mind many of us turn towards nature. But is there peace to be found, when global warming wrecks the balance of nature? Just more bad news!


Newsweek recently reported on a 2006 study in the journal Nature, which estimated that two thirds of the 110 known species of harlequin frogs throughout Central and South America have vanished. Meanwhile, the oyster parasite in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay has crept all the way to Maine because of milder winters. Similarly, invasive plants now compete with native varieties and cause extinctions. And polar bears have become so stressed by their melting habitat that they have shrunk almost to the weight at which they stop reproducing. These are only a few of the many signs of our abuse of nature.


God’ creation is a gift and a responsibility. Our President has only recently admitted that global warming might exist; and extreme right-wing Christian Evangelical leaders criticize him for even admitting it. Therefore, the environment will continue to fall apart. According to a new government report, the Bush administration’s climate policy will result in pollution emissions growing 11 percent in 2012 from 2002, further warming the planet.


Have we learned nothing? “And they said: ‘No matter what sign you bring us with which to bewitch us, we will not be believers in you.’ So We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and blood as distinct signs, but they were arrogant and were a criminal people.” (Quran: 7:130-133)


According to Rushdy El-Ghussein, former president of the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City, when the Prophet taught Muslims to perform ablution, he said to conserve the water even if we are beside a river. So how can we support such wasteful and dangerous policies, by failing to challenge our business and political leaders? How can we be so careless?


We can remind these leaders that the looming crisis affects us economically. How can you have the state of Vermont and not have maple syrup? Scientists say global warming has already contributed to a shift of syrup production to Canada. “In the ’50s and ’60s, 80 percent of world’s maple syrup came from the U.S., and 20 percent came from Canada,” said Barrett N. Rock, a professor of natural resources at the University of New Hampshire. “Today it’s exactly the opposite.”


Now we hear that the bees are vanishing as well. Yes, the bees. So no honey on your pancakes either. In last Saturday’s Times, Entomologist May Berenson alerted us about a “frightening real-life situation-- the disappearance of millions of bees. This winter, in more than 20 states, beekeepers have noticed that their honeybees have mysteriously vanished, leaving behind no clues as to their whereabouts. There are no tell-tale dead bodies either inside colonies or out in front of hives, where bees typically deposit corpses of dead nestmates.” The bees even leave behind empty nests full of honey.


Colony Collapse Disorder has killed millions of bees because of an unusually warm fall and early winter. Parasite infestations kill some, and other bees are mysteriously starving to death, still others may suffer brain damage from pesticides and get lost and starve to death away from the hive. And businesses are ruined. For example, the Times reports that Tassot Apiaries lost more than 91 of 141 hives to colony collapse disorder. With an average of 20,000 bees in a hive, that amounts to almost two million bees lost in one season.


And this is not only a loss of honey. Over 90 crops in North America rely on honeybees to transport pollen from flower to flower and allowing production of fruit and seed. The species is worth $14 billion a year to the United States economy. As May Berenbaum reminds us, “Approximately one-third of the typical American’s diet (primarily the healthiest part) is directly or indirectly the result of honey bee pollination.”


You, reader, may run whenever a tiny bee buzzes near you, and may not realize that our relationship with bees is profound. But the Quran reminds us: And thy Lord inspired the Bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in habitations; Then eat of all fruits, and follow the ways of thy Lord; there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for humanity: verily in this is a Sign for people who reflect.” (16:68-69)


Upon reflection, some of us may suspect that the poor bees have been rendered to Guantanamo or perhaps languish as ghost detainees. Detainee bees? Perhaps they would see our Brother Muslims in those cells without honey and without hope. David Hicks is still one of them. The latest news is that now the Military Tribunal officials are annoyed that his lawyer has been doing his job too well. They have even accused his attorney, Major Mori, of breaching Article 88 of the US military code, which relates to using contemptuous language towards the president, vice-president, and secretary of defense. Penalties for breaching the code include jail and the loss of employment and entitlements.


What sweet, honeyed words can be used about our mighty president and his sinister enablers, to accurately appraise their dedication to justice? Of course it is always better forgive. But evildoers will be punished, as Mr Bush no doubts knows from the Bible. Let him be treated justly as his own Book states.


As Psalms 58 of the Prophet Daoud challenges, “Do you indeed decree what is right, O mighty lords? Do you judge the sons of men uprightly? No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth. The wicked go astray from the womb, they err from their birth, speaking lies. They have venom like the venom of the serpent, like a deaf adder that stops its ear, so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter. O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O lord! Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down and wither. Let them be like the snail which dissolves into slime, like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.”


May Nature soon return with signs of healthy Spring. Let us find courage to drive out evil in our leadership and in the world. And surely God will reward the righteous, Insha’Allah.