Paradise in Our Homes - II
Episode 14
Hemaya Campaign
In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad (SAWS).
I would like to welcome you to the 4th week of our Protection Campaign where we are trying to revive our spirit. You might think that we have focused on that enough already. However, I insist that there is still so much to be done. You have no idea how exhausted we all are while shooting this episode, but we are also so excited because of the amount of energy we get out of it. I would like to reassure you that our campaign has been a huge success, glory and grace be to Allah (AWJ). We have targeted 1 Million stickers; we have achieved 3 Million stickers. We have hoped for 5000 activities; we have achieved more than 20,000 activities. We were aiming at reaching 5000 of people with drug addiction problems; we have reached 4000. All due to Allah’s grace as well as your dedication and hard work. With such so impressive results, I find it so appropriate that we aim at a new goal that we can reach by end of this week.
First of all, let’s recap how well we did so far. I can express my congratulations for the first time to our team and all who have participated to this campaign. We have achieved tremendous results. This campaign has achieved and produced so many positive ideas. It has reintroduced the spirit of “Life’s Makers’, which was introduced many years ago. It has revived the concept of interactive positive TV watching because for the longest time we have believed that watching TV is a passive negative activity. Here is something brilliant coming out of it. I also need to remind viewers that this campaign was initiated by cooperation of Dubai Police Forces and the United Nations. Through their assistance, we have trained 1000 young people to be able to assist young people with drug addiction problems. This is amazing, but how do we measure whether or not we have been successful? We simply followed a British example. We examined a British Campaign led by the British Ministry of Internal Affairs. Their measure of success of a similar project was to receive 1000 application from people with drug addiction problems every week. That is how we designed our campaign. Now, have reached our target? YES. Have we done so much compared to what the British has achieved and with less means and power? Absolutely YES! I am dedicating this huge success to the governments of our Arab countries. I am presenting them with this great example of young youth of almost no power compared to the British means assisted be UN and Dubai Police Forces, yet still were able to achieve results similar to or exceeding the British results.
I am aware that our campaign is almost over. Its end is going to be a beginning for a new project. However, at its end, we would like to hand the great results we have achieved over to the authorities and request that they keep up the good work and maintain the results.
Now that we have come so far, I would like to address a new but related issue. Now that we have come in touch with people with drug addiction problems and now that we have seen them and spoken to them, we have found that almost in all cases, drug addiction leads to crime. So, are we prepared to deal with those who started with drug addiction and ended up in jail with criminal record? How does a person who has experienced drug addiction and who was jailed feel? How will s/he deal with the concepts and labels s/ he is brushed with? I believe that such a person would be like a human time bomb and a continuous danger to everyone around him. What I am aiming at is to highlight the high importance and the need for training and treatment programs for those who are jailed for crimes resulting from drug addiction problems. Those people are more danger to themselves and to societies around them than those who are still fighting their drug addiction. I am inviting you now to listen to our guest today who had a drug addiction problem that led to him committing crimes. Let’s listen to what he has to say.
Guest speaker: “My names is Mohamed, I was involved with drug addiction for 10 years. It all started with someone giving me a pill saying that it would make me happy. I took it and I got high and happy. That was the start of it all. It led to drug addiction and later crime. I remember that I was a person who had no involvement whatsoever with smoking or any bad habits. I never expected myself to go down that path or to do any other things I did under the influence of addiction. I am shocked how I used to steal from anybody and everybody. I used to cause problems to my family and to the closest people to me. I even stole a piece of my sister’s wedding gift jewelry. I was a source of shame to my family and I spoiled many people around me. I tried to quit many times and finally was able to and I am very grateful to Allah that He Has Helped me to the healing path. Now I have been drug clean for 3 years, 7 months and 18 days. Today, I am working hard to fight drug addiction to help those who are in the same boat I found myself in before. I am trying to reach out to people now that I am trained and I even go to them wherever they are no matter how near or far. They are in need of great help and I will be glad if I can assist them in any way to quit their dangerous life. I have been able to assist 90% of those with drug addiction problems in my community.”
This goes to show that there are no small problems. Small ones lead to bigger ones and then to disasters. Drug addiction leads to crime which leads to jail. Are we treating and training those in jail? We have made great efforts with the people who are the target of our campaign to convince them to report to our treatment centers where they will be voluntarily locked up to receive treatment. What about those who are jailed involuntarily? What about those in jail, who are weak and broken? Isn’t it the main purpose of jail to correct? If you have been following our programs, you will notice that we are looking for several layers of protection. Those who are jailed because of crimes they committed as a result of drug addiction have escaped several layers of protection. They have escaped through the supportive protective family, caring friends, supportive society and finally they escaped through protection campaigns like the one we are conducting. So, nothing was able to help them and they ended up in jail. Isn’t it up to the authorities now to try to conduct the appropriate programs to help those people?
Today I would like to send some messages in this regard. My first message is to those who are in jail. Even if they can not hear me, I hope their family or friends can deliver it to them. I would like to tell them about one of the great Muslim scholars, Ibn Taymyah, who was jailed for a period of time. He saw that jail time to be an opportunity to connect with Allah and to enjoy the company of His Grace. I am telling you that today you are in a small cell in your jail, but if you connect with Allah, your cell will be more spacious than our homes. I am assuring you today that Allah Will Love to hear your voice in supplication to Him asking for forgiveness and help. Allah Rushes to the side of those in need even if they have sinned beyond all reason. It is between you and Him. Even if everyone else views you as a criminal, you have a big space in the court of his generosity and mercy. You have a chance that is not available to those who are out there still struggling with their drug addiction and being dragged in every path of evil. You have the chance of being alone to reflect and to take a beak from all that madness. I am requesting that every mother who has a son in jail delivers this message to her son personally from me.
Now it is my turn to ask a few questions about those who go to jail in our Arab countries; do those people get tested as they are admitted to jail to see if they have a drug addiction problem? If they test positive, do they get treatment? Are there statistics in our Arab countries showing how many drug addicted people are among those jailed? I am not aware of any! My message now is for those in authority. I am hoping and requesting that they develop a program to those jailed with a drug addiction problem because the pose a huge threat to our security and our people. And again I am resorting to every one of us for help. If you have been touched by our topic today and if you care and fear for the security of your property or that of your children, please respond. In what way? You can request the same from your government. You can send a letter to your representating Member of Parliament requesting the development of programs to help those jailed with drug addiction problems. If you are worried about using appropriate wordings, you will find drafts on http://www.amrkhaled.net/ or http://www.hemaya.ae/ . It is a very simple message anyway that you can send in your words and in your own way. Write a letter today to those in authority or one of the wealthy Arab figures who are known for love of charity. I am requesting 1 Million letters this week. We are requesting this for our security and benefit. You can also send a letter to a prisoner if you know one. You can ask them to ask for treatment which might have more impact. I am asking again for 1 Million letters this week. We will post a meter on our website to reflect the number of letters that were sent so far. I am waiting for the results. We are not trying to offend any one, we are just sending gentle friendly reminders to those in authority.
Finally, I would like to remind viewers to document their achievements big or small on our List of Honor on our website as we will be honoring some of the participants after we are done with our campaign. Also we are going to be resorting to those on that list when we think of future projects. Thank you for being with us today and thank you for making this a successful campaign.
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