Gang Culture

[London786]

I have been thinking about writing about gang culture for some time and I wanted some feedback.

In the UK usually what happens. The parents give a half decent upbring to the children but when the child goes school from around the age of 11 till the age of 19 or so there are bullies in school. So the child believes he needs to be bad to survive. So due to this he joins a gang, carry weapons etc. Now what will happen is that he might get beaten up one day or mugged by some people and he retaliates etc and this cycle continues. It usually starts off with fists, then with knives and maybe guns...sometimes it starts with a gun too. The point is how does one tackle this? There is a massive problem in the UK with regards to such issues and later on these gangs engage in criminal activities like drug dealing etc.

[caravan of martyrs]

salaam

the gang culture is more prevelent amongst the black people in the uk. they have turf wars ( exclusive rights to sell drugs in certain area) and sometimes silly things like postcode war. other people join gangs due to being influence by pathetic rap songs and gangster movies. they beleive their izzah lies in earning money doing nothing, driving fast cars, fornicating with a new girl everyday, and living life on the edge. walahi these people are never happy and most taste a painful and disgraceful ending.

as for the solution i think parents should really make an all out effort to teach the children seerah and life of sahaba. give them real role models to follow. its impossible for those who love the likes of abu bakr (ra) umar (ra) usmaan (ra) ali (ra) khalid (ra) muawiya (ra) etc to love rappers, pop stars, and drug barons at the same time. you love one or the other. unfortunatly most parent dont teach their kids this and raise them watching tv. if you a kid and see someone on tv who is rich, drives a nice car, sorrounded by luxuries, and everyone fears and respects him due to his reputation of being dangerous you will idolise such a person

[Joshimitsu]

Salam,

salaam

the gang culture is more prevelent amongst the black people in the uk.

I'm not sure where you live bro, but here in London that's not the case. Pakistanis in Walthamstow, Bangladeshis in most of East London, Turks in North London, Somalis in South London, Arabs and Afghans in West London are all involved in gang culture, just as much as blacks. I work in the criminal justice system and this problem is prevalent amongst all ethnicities.

as for the solution i think parents should really make an all out effort to teach the children seerah and life of sahaba.

How, if the parents don't know these things either? As pointed out by London786, parents give a half-decent upbringing up to about 11 years old and that's pretty much all they can manage.

My opinion is that this problem is a manifestation of a bigger problem. I've said it before and I'll say it to anyone who's willing to listen: it is the mass Quranic illiteracy amongst Muslims. When 99.99% of Muslims cannot understand Arabic they are disconnected from the Quran.

I've heard the work-around, "oh people should attach themselves to a reliable scholar" and the likes, but that's simply missing the point. The Quran was not sent for 0.01% of Muslims to understand (i.e. ulema) so that they could filter down the benefits to everyone else. I'm not suggesting people learn Arabic and derive their own fiqh. However, I am saying that as long as the Quran is something we recite in a nice voice, cover up in a bit of cloth and hide away on the top shelf of the room, the sickness amongst the Muslims will remain.

This forum has a lot of clout. I'm sure there are brothers and sisters here who could design and create a free classical Arabic course that people could use in their own time.

I apologise if this was off-topic.

[meelash]

السلام عليكم,

Not go to school?

Honestly, the fundamental problem is that the parents are not even thinking about "how does one tackle this?" until it is too late. If we could even have the majority of parents thinking this question, whatever solution they came up with, it would solve the problem right there.


Once parents are actually paying attention to what their responsibilities are, then you can guide them to bring up their children in the specific manner prescribed by the Qur'aan and Sunnah, think about home schooling, be aware of how bad the schools really are, etc. But what can you do when the people responsible for these children are not asking the question you're asking?

[meelash]

How, if the parents don't know these things either? As pointed out by London786, parents give a half-decent upbringing up to about 11 years old and that's pretty much all they can manage.

The other problem is that parents don't know what a half-decent upbringing is. Honestly, people who are spending some time thinking about bringing their children up correctly are deluded into thinking that means teaching them to recite surah faatiha and how to pray in a monkey-see-monkey-do fashion by age 3. Why not pick up a book and read what Islam really says about the upbringing of children? For some reason we don't think that that same religion that has instructions on how to wash your nose correctly during wudhu has any specific instructions on raising children. So parents make it up themselves ??

Speaking personally, I had an eye-opener the first time and every time I pick up Bahishti Zewar and read the section on bringing up children. The things we give a lot of emphasis to and consider to be "islamic upbringing" are barely mentioned in passing. And I have yet to meet, in my life, a single Muslim child that appears to have been brought up according to the things that are mentioned.

Look for yourself. It's quite shocking. Then parents wonder why children are not coming up correctly. It's Allah's mercy and wisdom that the situation is not far, far worse.

[The Fake Shaykh]

up and down the country its the same, its not just the blacks (afro caribean) who are involved in gangs but all the other ethnic groups. And majority of these gangs are muslims, and majority of them are involved in drugs, a simple fact which is a common trend in most areas in UK. Did you hear about the bent cop who's brother was a drug dealer in preston (lancs), the turf war was between muslims, and i know that because im attached to that area.

I think most of the brothers on this thread (apart from meelash) are from east london, so we all see this trend is becoming part and parcel of life. I was speaking to some brothers the other day and what we were discussing was exactly this, that the age when kids start exploring life is at the age of 11-12, thats when they become impressionable and tend to start picking up bad habits and eventually end up going astray.

So i think that the solution has to lay in targeting them at this age, because once they on on this bad boy flex it usually lasts until their late teens, that's what i have seen and found during my years of being in contact with them. The majority of them then might get bored of doing the same old stuff so they start seeing the light and maybe might come on to islam (start going jammat).

Becuase parents and others dont see that age group doing major wrongs at his age they dont really take notice of the bad habits which their kids are picking up, only when the kids do major wrongs then parents and others usually notice, but them small bad habits slowly but surely end up with them same kids doing major wrongs, these signs have to be spotted earlier and that's the only way that that age group can be saved from getting on the wrong path as years go past.

Normally the masjids cater for kids from the age of 5-12 and other efforts (namely tabligh) target the youth from the age of 15 onwards, so that 11-15 age group usually gets left out and thats the age when most of the effort should be aimed at that age group.

[Aram]

people give their sons too much freedom, they should be straight home after school not hanging around on street corners with their 'friends' mostly people get into gangs because they simply have no other way to spend their time.

From what i noticed it is not really about being bullied etc, it is about popularity and fame. That is the reason kids get into gangs to be noticed and talked about and feared, living the whole lifestyle of a rap-star

[marco100]

To solve the problem on a social level one has to manage the problem on a micro level. firstly, many of these gang members grew up without a father. if they have a father, he's abusive. or they are adopted. one of the 3. In other words, society's problem is an individual problem. How can you not have gangsters when zina is promoted everywhere you go?. Why are people shocked at the outcome of an evil practice like that?

If and when both parents are present, like for asian muslim, albanian muslim and turkish muslim gangsters, they have zero Islamic teaching. Sunnah is COMPLETELY absent in the parents' lives to the point of many even being murtads.

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf did a wonderful lecture on the breakdown of the family unit and it was uploaded here a while back. Well worth watching.

With the steady increase in muslim women who have illegitimate children, I expect these children (if the mother is lost herself) to go on to be the next generation of gangsters. If they think they can stay single for the rest of their lives and raise upstanding citizens, they're kidding themselves. The stats don't support this I'm afraid.

In conclusion: Breakdown of the family unit results in chaos on a social level.

[ahmad12]

The solution is simple

1. The parents should abide by the Sunnah in all aspects
2. No TV
3. Homeschooling

Most parents are terrible. They don't realise that before they get married, they have to learn the fiqh of marriage and divorce. They don't realise before they have children, they have to learn the fiqh regarding them. They don't even pray so how do you think their children are going to stay away from these evils things?

Every paki jokes about getting beatings from home. Is that sunnah? Every paki jokes about the beatings from the Imam in the local masjid. Is that sunnah? When kids get shouted at, abused, and raised poorly, they will join gangs and so on just to have some fun. The problem is within the family unit because society is just an extended family.

[Student.]

Muslim Youth get into gangs for many reasons but one of the main reasons is the media. When young people adore the wrong role models (like singers, actors) they aspire to be like them. They aspire to be a gangster and do immoral things because everyone thinks its "cool" and when one of them falls into the trap, others follow him due to the negative influence. And thus Muslim gangs form.
Every youth wants to be normal in the sight of his friends and peers, and sadly enough normality is immorality nowadays.