Selamatkan bumi

Seluruh dunia sedang menghadapi satu krisis besar kebelakangan ini. Perubahan cuaca yang tidak menentu dan kemunculan pelbagai penyakit yang sebahagiannya belum diemui kaedah perubatannya.

Tahun lalu dan baru-baru ini negara kita dilanda banjir besar. Banjir bukan luar biasa. Apa yang menegejutkan ialah kawasan yang dilanda banjir telah berubah dari kebiasaan. Sejak dahulu banjir musim tengkujuh hanya dikaitkan dengan kawasan pantai timur terutama di negeri kita Kelantan. Keadaan telah berubah apabila kawasan baru seperti Pahang, Johor, malah Selangor, Kedah dan Perlis kini lebih teruk dilanda bencana ini pada musim di mana keadaan ini lazimnya tidak berlaku di tempat berkenaan.

Di tempat kita keadaan turut berubah. Banjir boleh berlaku tanpa amaran. Selalunya banjir berlaku dengan dimulakan hujan lebat yang berlaku beberapa hari. Keadaan ini berbeza apabila banjir baru-baru ini, khususnya di Kota Bharu tiba-tiba berlaku dengan limpahan air sungai secara mengejut sedangkan hujan hampir tidak turun di kawasan kita. Keadaan ini menyebabkan mereka yang dilanda banjir berhadapan dengan keadaan tidak bersedia sama sekali. Sebagaimana kita semua alami, ini menyebabkan berlaku kerosakan yang agak besar kali ini walaupun skala banjir tidak begitu besar. Dan apa lebih memilukan kita, begitu ramai anak-anak dan rakan kita menjadi korban bencana banjir pada tahun ini.

Tuan-tuan, puan-puan dan para hadirin sekelian

Mungkin ada di antara kita yang belum menyedari apa kaitan ini semua dengan program kita pagi ini. Hari ini sekali lagi kita lancarkan program untuk mendidik orang ramai untuk menanam lebih banyak pokok. Kita namakan program penghijauan bumi. Program ini amat penting kerana masalah yang dihadapi oleh seluruh dunia sekarang ialah kawasan yang masih dilitupi tumbuhan semakin sempit. Kekurangan kawasan hijau merupakan satu petanda bencana yang manakutkan.

Menurut satu laporan, hampir setiap saat satu ekar hutan di dunia ini dimusnahkan dan setiap tahun sejumlah 74 ribu ekar hutan lenyap akibat aktiviti pembalakan, pertanian dan pembangunan. Keadaan ini menyebabkan berlaku fenomena-fenomena berkikut:

1. Atmosfera sekarang mengandungi sekitar 40 peratus lebihan karbon dioksida berbanding 1000 tahun lalu.

2. Purata paras laut meningkat dari 10 hingga 20 sentimeter (CM) sejak abad lepas – Di Malaysia para pengkaji alam sekitar menjangka bandar-bandar Klang, Miri dan Pekan akan tenggelam dalam jangka 50 tahun lagi jika fenomena ini berterusan.

3. Cuaca panas di kawasan habiatat haiwan meyebabkan kepupusan lebih sejuta spesis hidupan darat dalam tempoh 50 tahun yang lalu.

4. Belaku kekacauan dalam fenomena cuaca di mana sejak 1981 berlaku musim salji di bebrapa bahagian Afrika dan musim musim panas melampau di Eropah di mana pada tahun 2003, 29 dilaporkan mati akibat panas melampau manakala berpuluh-puluh ribu lagi dijangkiti pelbagai penyakit yang dikaitkan dengan cuaca panas.

5. Sejak 2005 pelbagai jenis taufan dan puting beliung yang dahulunya seperti Katrina, Rita, Wilma dan pelbagai nama lagi mengganas hingga ke kawasan yang begitu ramai di diami manusia. Dahulunya tufan-taufan ini hanya di kesan di kawasan lautan yang jauh dari kawasan yang di diami manusia.

Tuan-tuan, puan-puan, saudara saudari yang di hormati sekelian,

Perkara-perkara yang saya sebutkan tadi hanyalah sebahgian kecil dari pelbagai kemusnahan akibat aktiviti manusia yang tidak menghiraukan bencana yang bakal menimpa mereka sendiri. Hari ini kita mahu membangkitkan kesedaran bahawa setiap kita perlu beranding bahu dalam mencari penyelesaian kepada masalah ini.

Islam mengajar kita bahawa manusia adalah agen yang mampu melakukan perubahan.

Firman Allah,

”Telah berlaku kerosakan di lautan dan di daratan akibat perbuatan tangan manusia”

Setelah menyedari kerosakan yang telah berlaku kita perlu mengambil isiatif untuk memperbaiki keadaan. Hari ini kita sekali lagi akan memulakan langkah untuk megembalikan kehijauan bumi. Kita bersyukur kerana Allah memberi anugerah kepada kita kawasan bumi yang begitu mudah ditumbuhi dengan pelbagai jenis pokok-pokok. Kita perlu mengambil kesempatan ini untuk menjadikan setiap inci kawasan sekitar kita menjadi kawasan hijau. Tanamlah apa juga pokok boleh tumbuh subur walaupun dari segi jangka pendek tidak nampat sebarang hasil seperti buah-buahan atau untuk dijadikan hasil jualan. Pokok adalah pembekal oksigen dan membawa lemmbapan yang mampu menyejukkan persekitaran kita.

Sebagai sebuah negeri yang meletakkan Islam sebagai asas pentadbiran, pentabirandi bawah Tuan Guru Dato’ Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat akan terus memberi sokongan sepenuhnya kepada program seumpama ini.

Bagi pihak kerajaan negeri dan Majlis Perbandaran Kota Bharu Bandar Raya Islam, saya mengucapkan berbanyak terima kasih kepada semua pihak yang turut sama menjayakan program penting ini.

Semoga usaha kecil kita ini memberi sumbangan ke arah mencari penyelesaian terhadap masalah yang dihadapi umat manusia pada masa ini dan masa hadapan.

Marilah kita sama-sama berdoa kepada Allah SWT agar menjauhi kita dari segala malapetaka di dunia dan di akhirat abkibat keingkaran dan kemusnahan yang dilakukan oleh tangan-tangan manusia sendiri.

DEARBORN, Mich. - Dewnya Bakri loves her faith — and the feeling of sinking a three-pointer.

For much of her life, the 20-year-old Muslim has found a way to balance practicing Islam and playing basketball, including wearing a head scarf and long pants on the hardcourt, even if it's meant taunts as she blazed trails on her middle school, high school and college teams.

Now a college senior at University of Michigan-Dearborn preparing for law school, she spends free time coaching Muslim girls and sharing what she experienced in Dearborn, home of at least 40 mosques, to help give them the confidence to follow in her footsteps

As more covered Muslim girls take up competitive sports, Bakri and others say it's time to get beyond merely allowing the hijab — the traditional Muslim head scarf worn for modesty — and help those wearing them feel welcome.

"It's not like accommodating for one person anymore, it's a group," Bakri says.

Experts and advocates say the number of Muslim girls wearing the hijab on the court, track or field is rising because girls are growing more comfortable pursuing mainstream activities while maintaining religious traditions.

"They don't see the barriers," said Edina Lekovic, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council. "They take it for granted they can play in competitive sports ... and work out the clothing issues at the same time."

Even so, Bakri and current players at her former school, Fordson High, players say they've heard trash-talk that goes beyond the usual on-court chatter — calling them terrorists, telling them to go back to their own country.

Bakri said some coaches and referees have questioned whether she could play in a scarf and sweat pants, relenting only when her coach produced a letter from the Michigan High School Athletic Association allowing the uniform modification.

More recently, she said referees wouldn't let her play in one out-of-state college tournament. The coach told her later that it was because of her uniform modification.

That was reminiscent of a case in February when an 11-year-old Muslim girl was pulled off the field in a soccer tournament in Quebec because she refused to remove her head scarf. The Quebec Soccer Federation backed the decision, saying rules forbid wearing anything that could cause harm during a game.

In the U.S., the National Federation of State High School Associations' rules say state associations may allow a player to participate while wearing a head covering for religious reasons as long as it isn't dangerous to another player and unlikely to come off during play. The rule-making federation also allows pants, shorts or skirts.

School districts in Michigan must ask state high school athletic officials for permission to modify uniform requirements.

They always grant the district's requests, said Mark Shooshanian, Fordson High School's athletic director, but he'd like to see it become enshrined in the rules.

"The hardest part for me is within our league there are 27 teams and still some of the coaches question the uniform," said Shooshanian, who has been sending the requests for 15 years. "Why do I have to keep doing it?"

State athletic association spokesman John Johnson said the system "almost rubber stamps" requests, but requiring the case-by-case letter provides a safeguard against misunderstandings.

At Bakri's middle school, Lowrey Middle School, she was the first athlete of the year to wear the scarf and earned letters in basketball, volleyball, track and swimming.

Swimming required the most creativity. She couldn't wear a swimsuit in front of men, so she worked out a deal with her coach and athletic director to practice daily with the team but not compete in meets. The coach timed her during practice and awarded her the letter based on performance.

Now, Lowrey students hug and thank Bakri when she visits.

"It made me feel so good about what I'm doing," said Bakri, who coaches summer leagues and teaches physical education part-time at a private school. "I never really realized how hard it was, especially at the middle school level. I figured I'm going to play basketball. ... I never thought people might have a problem with it."

Her 17-year-old sister, Hyatt Bakri, is a starting shooting guard at Fordson High, and wears pants and long sleeves on the court.

"Some schools are used to seeing girls in the hijab, but other schools find it different, odd," Hyatt Bakri said during a break from a recent practice. "After Sept. 11, they feel like we're a threat to them even though we didn't have anything to do with it. So they look at us differently."

Teammate Fatima Kobeissi, a senior reserve guard, said she's worn the hijab since she was nine.

"Nothing in our religion says we can't go out and do other things just like everybody else. It's just while we're doing it, we have to be more modest maybe than everybody else," she said.

Dewnya Bakri lets young players know there are ways to deal with the taunts that don't mean getting rolled over, like the time when opposing players insulted her scarf-wearing teammate during a high school tournament.

"I looked at (one of them) and said 'This is for you.' I shot six threes in that game. I was guarding her and she scored zero.

"That shut her down."