Assignment for Tues, Oct 27

The Topic I have chosen for my practical proposal paper is over the Legislative system of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston. This is of interest to me because I am a active Muslim. The Islamic Society of Greater Houston heads the majority of masjids, otherwise known as mosques, in Greater Houston. My father is a elected voting member of the shura, which is the equivalent to congress in that every one votes on proposed issues. That being said, Politics always has a way of bringing out the bad traits of people. There are many things that are going on that would be considered un-islamic behavior, and as Muslim based organization I feel that it should be adhering to Islamic principles. As a solution to this I want to propose a shura based of sheikhs, not elected citizens. This will solve the solution in many ways. First and foremost it will rid the organization of corrupt officials and be replaced with persons that have their morals set, and have the Religion in their best interest. These Sheikhs are also the heads of their masjids, so they will have direct involvement with their local community on a daily basis, and be able to reflect their community’s best interest in the wisest and most Islamic manner when attending shura meetings. This will most be able to be solved more simply because you cannot trust politicians; however you can trust a man of god. True this may be a radical changed to the entire organizations structure. However many people in the Muslim community have felt a need for a change in the legislation and some even don’t plane trust them. This will not affect the current elected officials because the Islamic Society of Greater Houston’s shura is based of volunteer services and is non-profit. So there will be no loss to the current officials if they were to be removed. The only problems I can foresee are the sheikhs becoming corrupt themselves. The only problem with this is that it is highly unlikely to happen. Sheikhs are the role models of their community, the children, they are people that have a true understanding of the religion and are least likely to fall to the evils of politics.

Assignment for Thurs, Oct 22

“Houston 101: summer of the Candy Man” from the houstonpress.com and “Roy Morales: Crime a major concern for Houstonians” from thedailycougar.com were two articles that jumped out at me. They sparked an interest because being a student who lives one block down from Scott Street; the street with the highest murder rate in the US, there seems to be a growing concern for crimes in the city of Houston. Even the Candy Man’s mass murders took place many years ago, the idea that they are even bringing this ups is to get people more concerned over crimes in Houston. Even Roy Morales, who is running for mayor in the next election, stresses his concern for Houston’s Crime rate.

Now one possible question I could use is “why is the Houston Police Department doing such a poor job at preventing crimes?” I think this is a great question to raise because it affects everyone in Houston.

In order to research this, I would have to look at the current rates of various crimes, as well as the rates at which officers of the Houston Police Department are apprehending criminals that are breaking those laws. I would probably look into a specific crime such as murder. Then I would have to find out why Houston Police are not apprehending criminals to reported crimes.

Persons that I could interview is Houston Police officers. I could even ask Houston Homicide Investigators what are the popular reasons why they aren’t solving homicides, and what they think should be done to improve that.