Sophisticated Purity....

A warning we should heed: Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad

2009-10-13T17:05:00.000-07:00

The message of Islam is that pursuit of money for its own sake is unnatural, inhumane, and will lead us to catastrophe

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/oct/12/islam-economics-religion

O you who believe! Let not your wealth nor your children distract you from remembrance of Allah. Those who do so, they are the losers. (63:9)
This verse in the Qur'an is an invitation for humanity to make a relatively small effort in this world, in return for the eternal reward of the hereafter. It is a call to save ourselves from becoming fixated on our wealth and on providing our children with the latest gadget and games, which ultimately are mere distractions from our remembrance of the creator.
But humans are short-termist; we think primarily of our pleasures now rather than the harmony and serenity of the world to come. Chapter 102 of the Qur'an says that we are distracted by competing in worldly increase, until we finally end up in our graves where we will be questioned about our excesses.
Does this mean that it is wrong to own things? Of course not, as money and offspring can be positive things in the life of a believer, and we do of course have basic needs which need to be met. But we must remember that the pleasures of consumption are quickly gone, while lasting benefit comes only from using our wealth to uphold the rights of others; namely the orphan, the traveller, and the needy. Wealth is thus truly ours only once it has been given away.
Those who are genuinely distracted by worldly increase, and who make it an end in and of itself rather than as a means towards something better are in effect guilty of a form of idolatry. Ours is an age that has made idols of the great banks and finance houses, driven to frenzy by competition amongst billionaires who are kept awake at night by the thought that a rival might make a business deal more quickly than them. A banker who can asset strip companies and throw its employees out onto the street is someone who is in the grip of an obsession that has thrown him beyond of the normal frontiers of humanity.
Neo-classical economics has traditionally focused on four things: land, labour, capital and money, the first three of which are finite, while the fourth, money, is theoretically infinite, and is therefore where human greed has been particularly focussed. Thus arose a system where someone could, with approval, set up a bank with only £1, and then lend £100 using property and other assets promised by others as security.
The lender now has £100 including interest, which they earned by just sitting there and doing nothing. On the basis of this £100, they can then lend £1000, and on and on, until the cancerous growth lubricated by greed becomes so huge that it leads to a fundamental breakdown in the system. Such a system based on usury, with interest as the bizarre "price of money" which itself becomes a commodity, was once prohibited by all faiths. People had a simple and natural intuition that the commoditisation of a measurement of value would open the door to trading in unreal assets, and ultimately to a model of finance that would destroy natural restraints and even, potentially, the planet.
In the classical Islamic system, by contrast, money is the substance of either gold or silver. With a tangible and finite asset being the only measure of value, there is a great deal more certainty about the value of assets and the price of money. This basic wisdom was though not just a theoretical ideal; it succeeded. Muslim society at its height was mercantile, and it was successful. Never was money assigned its own value and never was it seen as an end in and of itself.
Since the abolition of the gold standard however, theoretical limits on the price of money were removed. Last year's meltdown, whose final consequences were unguessable, was a sign of the inbuilt dangers of a usurious world. Humans are naturally short-termist but in times of crisis we must take stock. As with the related environmental crisis, now is the time to be smarter and more self-restrained. The believer is in any case allergic to the mad amassing of wealth, since he or she expects true happiness and peace only in the remembering of God and in the next world.
Now is the time to think seriously about finding an economic system to replace the one whose dangers have just been revealed. Upon the conquest of Mecca, a verse of the Qur'an was revealed commanding people to give up what remained of their interest-based transactions, upon which a new system based on the value of gold and silver was initiated.
Those who relied so heavily on the old system would of course have been unable to understand a system without banking charges, but not only was such a system created but a successful civilisation was created using these ideas.
Last year we peered into the abyss; now we must apply self-restraint and wisdom, before complete catastrophe ensues.

Praise of Shaykh ‘Abd Allah Bin Bayyah

2009-10-12T03:05:00.001-07:00

Praise of Shaykh ‘Abd Allah Bin Bayyah (b. 1935) By Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī (b. 1926)(May Allah preserve them both)

Published by Suhaib Webb on April 14, 2009 — 7 Comments

Praise of Shaykh ‘Abd Allah Bin Bayyah (b. 1935) By Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī (b. 1926) (May Allah preserve them both)

Indeed it is from God’s blessings upon a person that they be acquainted with great people—those who have their scholarly importance, their religious importance, and their intellectual (fikrī), spiritual (sulūkī), and reformist (islāhī) importance. This is a blessing that deserves gratitude, and I believe that among the favours of God (Most High) upon me, and from His beneficence towards me, is that I know one of the unique scholars the like of whom time is rarely generous [in bringing forward].

Indeed he is none other than the supremely erudite (al-‘allāma) Shaykh ‘Abd Allah ibn Bayyah, whose renown in knowledge and eminence has reached the horizons, and whom [people] far and near have come to know. I have known him for many years in the context of conferences and councils in which he participated with his knowledge, ideas, and efforts.

The reality is that the more I have come closer to him and got to know him better, the more I have loved him and [the more] he has risen in my estimation. Rarely does a person combine both love and esteem for an individual: there are people whom one esteems and respects but does not love, and there are those whom one loves and has a strong emotional [attachment] to, but one does not esteem them and respect them.

As for those for whom one combines [both] love and esteem, they are few [in number], and among these few is the Shaykh ‘Abd Allah ibn Bayyah, who God has given numerous excellent qualities. He combines [religious] conservatism and liberalism: he is a conservative individual, but he is not closed; and he is an individual who facilitates, but he is not lax. He is a Mālikī: he has memorized the fiqh of the Mālikīs, their texts (mutūn), their commentaries (shurūh), their supercommentaries (hawāshī), and their various poetic codifications of disciplines (manzūmāt), but he is also supremely erudite in fiqh in general, and comparative fiqh. He is Salafī in creed, but he is also a Sūfī, with spiritual inclinations, without monasticism, just as our Shaykh Abū al-Hasan al-Nadwī said that he adopts Sūfism on the basis that it is spirituality, and purification for the soul, and connection with God, Blessed and Exalted is He. Shaykh ‘Abd Allah ibn Bayyah is [thus] between Salafism and Sūfism.

He also combines what people in our age call purity of origin (asāla), and being contemporary (mu‘āsara), for he is a man of authenticity, connected to the [Islamic intellectual] heritage, cognizant of it, well aware of its various treasures in fiqh, exegesis, hadīth, history, literature, and other [disciplines], but he is [at the same time] not distracted from the [present] time, for he lives the time, its problems, its various currents, unlike many of our scholars who live alone in the past, and do not know anything about the present, while Shaykh Ibn Bayyah knows the past, lives with the present, and peers into the future.

Perhaps it is his knowledge of the French language, on the one hand, and his assuming [positions] of great responsibility in his country—more than once he was a minister, and more than once he bore great responsibilities—perhaps all of this has made him open up to the age and look to it with an eye, and look to the [intellectual] heritage with the other eye. For this reason he has concerned himself with the aspects of Islam pertaining to reform and renewal, and the necessity of changing the umma to that which is more blessed and better, by means of changing its thoughts, changing its learning, changing its aspirations, or what the Qur’an has expressed as “souls”: “Indeed God does not change the condition of a people until they change their own souls” [13:11].

The reality is that the excellent qualities of Shaykh ‘Abd Allah ibn Bayyah are [so] many [that] this place does not have the room for [their enunciation], and the [aforementioned comments] are simply passing thoughts by means of which I express the eminence of the Shaykh, and express my love for him; and [they are also] a prayer that God brings us together with him, for I believe he is one of the righteous (sālihūn), one of the doers of good, God willing, and I say, as Imam al-Shāfi‘ī has said:

I love the righteous, and I am not one of them;

Perhaps through them I will attain intercession.

And I dislike the one whose wares are sins

Even though I am equal to them in wares

I ask God, Glory be to Him and be He Exalted, to shower blessings upon the life of Shaykh ‘Abd Allah ibn Bayyah, benefit the umma through him, benefit the religion, the religious, Islam, and the Muslims through him, and bless all his family and progeny, and that He raises us [in the Hereafter] together, with those [around] the Messenger of God, may God bless him and give him peace, with “Prophets, the veracious (siddīqīn), the martyrs, and the righteous (sālihīn), and how blessed they are as companions! [4:69]”

Translated from http://www.binbayyah.net/ by Usaama al-Azami for suhaibwebb.com

Advice on Studying in Syria By Sidi Saqib Hussain

2009-10-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

Learning Arabic

My experience of foreign students is that they tend to rush into Islamic Studies without first having put in the necessary groundwork in terms of their Arabic. This is to some extent understandable, as most people have only a limited amount of time they can be away from home. However, it is definitely worth doing some focused language studies before embarking into the Islamic Sciences, especially if one is willing to study for a number of years (6 or more), as really is necessary to understand all the main sciences at a good level. I suggest that a beginner might find it useful to go through the following steps:

1 – Work through an English-Arabic textbook, or two, and learn the vocabulary and grammar systematically.

The majority of people tend to start either with a basic classical Nahw text (like al-Ajrumiyyah) or a modern Arabic textbook for teaching Arabic to foreigners (e.g. al-Kitab al-Asasi or The Medina University course). My experience of learning Arabic and seeing how much progress people who have taken various different routes to the language have made, has demonstrated to me beyond doubt that both of these approaches are grossly deficient.

Classical Nahw texts were written by Arabs (or scholars of the Arabic language) who spoke fluent classical Arabic, for Arabs who spoke fluent classical Arabic, as a means to analyse the language. It was never intended that texts like al-Ajrumiyyah would be used to teach foreigners Arabic! This is clear from even a cursory look at the way the books present the information – the focus is entirely on abstart theorising of grammatical categories, rather than practical usage.

As for al-Kitab al-Asasi etc., quite apart from the several errors in these books, they were written for use by modern Arabic teachers, who can’t speak the languages of their internationally diverse students. Using them, when one has recourse to much more accurate, much more systematically laid out and much more complete grammars of the Arabic language written in one’s own mother tongue, is I believe a terribly inefficient way to start.
I would suggest Haywood and Nahmad – the grammar covered is to a good level and is systematically presented. You should aim to get through at least the first 35 chapters, which means memorising the vocabulary and being able to do the excercises in your head. Note that this may require you to do the exercises and go over the grammar a number of times (e.g. six, seven or even more). In particular, you should understand and memorise the weak verb tables (e.g. (i) doubled verbs – you should know the difference in verb conjugation between verbs on the patterns radda yaruddu, farra yafirru andmalla yamallu, (ii) defective verbs – you should know the difference in verb conjugation between verbs on the patterns nasiya yansaa, da’aa yad’u andramaa yarmee). As a second textbook, Teach Yourself Arabic, Tritton (published around 1950, not the modern textbook) is very useful – it will reinforce the rules you learn from Haywood and Nahmad, as well as provide extra vocabulary and useful phrases.

2 – After about Chapter 23 of Haywood and Nahmad, you should be able to start reading (with some difficulty at first, and with the help of a dictionary) stories for children in Arabic.

In particular, Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi has a number of books in this genre, such as Qisas al-Nabiyyeen and al-Qira’at al-Rashidah; both series are written especially for foreigners learning Arabic by someone who was an expert of the language. As your reading becomes more fluent, and once you’ve completed up to about Chapter 30, you should start reading as much modern and classical authors as you can. Try various authors – it’s vital at this stage not to pick someone who’s style one finds too difficult, as that can be off putting. It’s important also to vary what you read – it’ll help maintain interest and increase your vocabulary.

Three authors deserve special mention, namely Ramadan Buti, Yusuf Qaradawi and Mohammad al-Ghazali – all have a lot of literature on a fairly wide range of subjects, and, though one might not necessary agree with all of the ideas expressed in their works, as the topics they address are contemporary and interesting, it will certainly help your Arabic. If you want to read something more classical at this stage, then both Abu Hamed al-Ghazali and Ibn Taymiyya should be considered, as they both have a very readable and relatively easy style (except of course in their more technical works, like Ghazali’s al-Mustasfa, his work on Usul al-Fiqh, which should be avoided). May I suggest something like ‘Minhaj al-Abidin’ by al-Ghazali as a starting point? In addition, any small monographs you find on subjects of interest to you would be useful at this stage.

It is imperative, when reading, to take down and memorise the useful vocabulary you come across (i.e. vocabulary that will help you express yourself and converse at a high level with other students and, later your teachers – too high a focus on concrete vocabulary items, such as the names of various vegetables, flowers, will at this stage be a hinderance). Keep the vocabulary sheets for the different books you read separate – this will help you, later on, to indentify the preferred style of different authors, as well as notice mistakes in the lexical usage of modern authors (e.g. many authors like to use the verb tasaa’ala to mean ‘to wonder’, wheras, in fact, it has no such meaning in classical Arabic, and is an entirely modern, and therefore, stricly speaking, incorrect use).

3 – At some point (but not before you’ve learn’t Arabic!) you will have to start working through an Arabic grammar book –

Probably something like ‘al-Durus al-Naywiyyah’, three books in a single volume, which will introduce you to the grammatical terminology used by the Arabic grammarians, as well as introduce you to the science of I’rab (parsing sentences, which the beginner should not concern himself with, despite what any well-meaning Arabic teacher would have you believe!). I suggest that you do books one and two well – memorise all the information and be able to parse the example sentences without difficulty. I strongly advise against studying anything classical at this stage (e.g. ‘Qatr al-Nada’) – it will be far too detailed, and it’s unlikely that you’ll derive significant benefit. At a more advanced stage, as far as advanced Arabic-English grammars go, you should consider ‘Wright’s Grammar’ and ‘A Grammar of Classical Arabic’ (Fischer).

4 – In terms of dictionaries,

For the moment I Imagine Hans Wehr is sufficient – it covers all the usages that you are likely to encounter at the start of your Arabic education, and is very well laid out. It should be noted however that this is, strictly, a modern Arabic dictionary, based on the usage of Arabic in the media and by modern writers. As such, it is replete with errors from a classical Arabic viewpoint, and should not be relied upon by the serious advanced student (although, for the reasons mentioned earlier, he will continue to find it useful). My advice is that once you attain some degree of fluency in you reading, you should use Hans Wehr in conjuction with a dictionary for advanced learners, namely Hava. The latter will give you the classical signification of a term, but the definitions given are sometimes, due to their berevity, not entirely clear, and at other times unwieldy. You should also start using an Arabic-Arabic dictionary as soon as you feel able. I have found ‘al-Mu’jam al-Wasit’ to be the most helpful – it’s published by the Cairo Arabic Language Academy. At a more advanced stage, you should Lane’s Lexicon for Arabic-English dictionaries (an unparrallelled work in 8 volumes), and ‘Mukhtar al-Sihah’ for Arabic-Arabic dictionaries.

Abi Nur

Last year I completed the third year of Abi Nur’s 3 year Arabic program for foreigners (Ta’hili); although it has a number of shortcomings, the most patent of which is the ridiculous number of subjects (seventeen!), many of which are of little to no benefit, I would still recommend it to anyone who wants an overview of the Islamic Sciences and what they involve from a traditional perspective. Subjects covered include Hadith (memorising most of Nawawi’s 40 Hadith and reading a modern commentary), Usul al-Hadith (’al-Bayquniyyah’), Fiqh (Shafi’i – ‘al-Fiqh al-Manhaji’, a modern text by three Damascene scholars) Nahw (’Tahdheeb Qatr al-Nada’) and so on. In the second year, one is expected to memorise Juz 29, and in the third year an equivalent of another 2 Juzs from various parts of the Quran (I don’t know about the first year as I went straight into the third year, but I suspect that you have to memorise Juz 30); opting out of any of the subjects is not an option. The main benefit for me was being able to listen, for 6-7 hours every day, to reasonably good Classical Arabic from the teachers.
Abi Nur also does a 6-level program for beginners, with each level lasting 2 months. I’m afraid I don’t have much detail on this program, but I know it is ongoing. Although Level 1 is in theory for complete beginners, you should work through at least some of the steps above before enrolling to really benefit. The focus is solely on Arabic, although one is obliged to attend Tajwid lessons too (there is no Quran memorization).

As with any course, how much the student gets out of these above-mentioned programs is really down to his dedication, intelligence and organization. Students have been known to start speaking very good Arabic after only a few weeks of studying, and others cannot manage it even after a number of years.

Private Studying

The other option is to study privately, i.e. one teacher to a small group of students, usually in the teacher’s house or else in a mosque. Most long term students tend to try combining studies at an institute with private studies. Short term students usually go for one or the other, depending on how much they’ve done before coming to Damascus – really, to study privately with a good teacher, one would need to have a good grasp of spoken Classical Arabic. The advantage over studying at an institute is that one can just focus on the subjects which are to one’s interest, the quality of the teachers is generally higher, and one gains a much better feel for what studying traditionally would involve. However, it isn’t necessarily very easy to find good private teachers; one needs to be fairly well connected with people who’ve been here a while, and even then people are often reluctant to ’share’ their teachers with others. Even once one has started studying, there is every possibility that things like financial or time constraints on the teachers, or even government restrictions (all private teaching has to be approved!), will mean that the lessons are cancelled, meaning that you have to find another teacher.

There is actually a lot more that could be said on these topics, but I think that’ll do for now! I hope it’s of some use.

Wassalam

Found on the Wall of Mother Teresa Home

2009-10-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

Found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Syed Qutb: Biography, History & Explanation of Notions

2009-10-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

From http://www.spittoon.org/archives/2764

What’s wrong with Syed Qutb? I’ve heard this said many times by different people. Some see him as a hero, others the inspiration behind terrorist movements like al-Qaeda. There are even those, like Inayat Bunglawala, who see him as nothing more than a little controversial. In this article I will be taking a brief look at Qutb’s life and ideas, and why he is still admired by militant Islamist movements today.

Early Career

Syed Qutb was born in 1906 in Musha in the Asyut province of Upper Egypt. In his early twenties he moved to Cairo and worked as a teacher for the Ministry of Public Instruction. During this period he was also interested in literature and became known as a literary critic. It is noted that Qutb was liberal in the early part of his life, at one point he even advocated nudism:

He worked as a teacher and on occasions became culturally confused, as for instance when he started to advocate the concept of nudism
(Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World by Nazih Ayubi, Pg 137, Routledge, 1991)

America

In 1939 he started working for the Ministry of Education and in 1948 he travelled to the United States to study education. Qutb was initially an admirer of Western culture and its secular politics, but after a period of trying to integrate with American society he became disillusioned. He wrote:

It is astonishing to realize, despite its advanced education and its perfectionism, how primitive the American really is in its views on life…Its behavior reminds us of the era of the ‘caveman’. He is primitive in the way he lusts after power, ignoring ideals and manners and principles…It is difficult to differentiate between a church and any other place that is set up for entertainment, or what they call in their language, fun,

In his book ‘The America that I saw’ Qutb wrote about an incident when he entered a church and the pastor was playing the gramophone and women and men were dancing together. For Qutb it was unimaginable for this to be happening in a place of worship. He mentions another incident where he was approached in the street by a prostitute. His darker skin colour also made him a victim of racism in America; Qutb began to believe that it was Western culture that produced such people. He was also upset about the United States’ overwhelming support for the state of Israel. Qutb believed Jews to be the root of all evil. He decided not to stay on in the United States and once he finished his studies he returned to Cairo.

The Muslim Brotherhood

Returning to Egypt, Qutb was determined not to let Egyptian society become like American society. In Cairo he joined Hasan al-Banna’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB) movement and became chief editor of their literature. In 1952 the Egyptian monarchy was overthrown by a group of army generals calling themselves the Free Officers. Qutb initially supported the Free Officers, who were led by Muhammad Nagib and later Gamal Abdal Nasser:

Indeed Qutb’s support for the revolution was so strong that he sent an open letter to Muhammad Nagib asking the latter to establish a just dictatorship
(Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World by Nazih Ayubi, Pg 138, Routledge, 1991)

When it became clear that Nasser wasn’t going to establish the kind of political system the MB wanted they turned against him and in 1954 tried to assassinate him. In retaliation Nasser imprisoned many members; Qutb was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour. In prison he was tortured and witnessed members of the MB being tortured in front of him. It is believed these incidents encouraged him to become a jihadist ideologue.

Ignorance (Jahiliyya)

It is generally acknowledged that Qutb was inspired by Mawdudi. He borrowed and expanded Mawdudi’s concept of Jahiliyya, a pre-Islamic term for ignorance. Mawdudi had used this term to describe the state of Muslims in the Indian Sub-Continent. Qutb claimed the entire world had reverted to an age of neo-paganism, ignorance and Barbarism:

The entire world is steeped in Jahiliyya… this Jahiliyya has transferred the reigns of sovereignty to the hands of man and assigned the overlordship of men to some persons…
(Milestones by Syed Qutb, Trans –S. Badrul, Karachi, International Islamic Publishers, 1981, P49)

The concept of Jahiliyya was taken one step further by Qutb. He believed Nasser had become like the modern day Pharaoh, who thought he was god, whilst his officials had become like pagan worshippers – worshipping Nasser and not god. Hence Nasser and his officials were deemed no longer to be Muslims, despite professing to be so, and therefore they could justifiably be killed. This takfiri logic is the same justification used by militant Islamist groups today like al-Qaeda: any Muslim not working for Islamist goals is a bad Muslim who has not understood his religion properly and is a legitimate target.

Qutb believed the way to rid the world of Jahiliyya was through offensive Jihad:

Jihad is an inherent necessity in Islam, emancipating human beings from the shackles of false and fabricated masters…
(Sayid Qutb. Jihad in the cause of Allah- In Milestones, 2^nd Ed, Translated by S. Badrul Hasan, M.A, Karachi, Pakistan, International Islamic Publishers Ltd, 1988, Pg 107-42)

Qutb also believed only he and his colleagues were proper Muslims:

Since the Ummah is not “genuinely” Islamic, there is no Ummah save that formed by the true believers, that is Qutb and his circle
(Sivan. Radical Islam, esp., chapter 1, quotes pp.14-15)

Women

In an article he wrote about American women, Qutb stated:

…the American girl is well acquainted with her body’s seductive capacity. She knows it lies in the face, and in expressive eyes, and thirsty lips. She knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs — and she shows all this and does not hide it.
(David Von Drehle, A Lesson In Hate Smithsonian Magazine)

Coming from a small village to the big city of Cairo was a complete culture shock for Qutb. His dislike of the way women went around unveiled perhaps explains why he was always a bachelor; Qutb never married because he could not find a woman pure enough for himself, one that had not been contaminated by Jahiliyya.

Conclusion

Like the other leaders of Islamist movements (Banna and Mawdudi) Qutb was not an Islamic scholar. He was, however, an academic with a good understanding of the prevalent ideologies of his time. Qutb recognized the appeal of Marxist thought amongst the poor and displaced Arabs in the Middle East and he set out to design a thought system that would supersede it. Qutb believed that a revolutionary vanguard needed to be created that would not be contaminated by Jahiliyya. This movement would then overthrow the corrupt regimes and establish in their place his political Islamist system. All regimes in Muslim majority countries were jahil and therefore could justifiably be fought.

Qutb was executed in 1966 on charges of treason but his ideas live on and today continue to inspire militant Islamists. Ayman al-Zawahiri was directly inspired by Qutb, Taqiuddin al-Nabhani exchanged ideas with him and Osama Bin Laden studied under his brother Muhammad Qutb in Jeddah University. Militant Islamists still look up to Qutb today and claim to be fighting the same battle that he was; fighting jahiliyya using the same method advocated by Qutb; aggressive Jihad.

Book Review: The Disappearance of Childhood By Neil Postman

2009-09-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today then ever before American culture is very significant. Effectively what American culture does the World will fellow, like it or not. Therefore, with this intention in the back of my mind I picked up Neil Postman’s “Disappearance of Childhood”. From the author’s title and reading the prologue I had a very good either about what the book was about. The title is in reality a question; is childhood disappearing?

After thinking about this for a while even before reading the book I came to the conclusion it is. Think about it, in England we now have Playboy products advertised as child toys, even to the extent of a pole for dancing, which was sold by some shops to children. Children’s clothes are getting even increasingly skimpier, to the extent that thongs and G strings are categorized as child wear. It occurred to me that yes we are losing childhood but we don’t even know it. The whole essence of Postman’s argument rest upon the fact that childhood as a social structure (not biological, but the condition of treating children as fundamentally different from adults) is disappearing from right beneath our eyes, and this is the main result of technology, especially pictorial such as the Television.

Postman uses cogent arguments with a little humor, and argues that in the past the main criterion to differentiate an adult from a child was literature and the ability to read and comprehend. He argues in the modern age we have revealed adult secrets to children through technology as thus as an effect are destroying childhood. For example, the secret of sex, which once only known to adults is now easily revealed to children by watching the television. Whereas, in the past, once children were at the correct age to comprehend this taboo, this secret was revealed to them. Postman takes us through the history of childhood, in this witty book the arguments about if childhood is socially constructed or was always there, nicely put to bed. Postman takes the reader though a history of the term, its etymology, its journey through the centuries, and the psychology of the concept very smartly and succinctly. After this Postman clearly with social and historical evidence expounds his argument that childhood is virtually dying and on life support and he cleverly does this by conveying how children are bombarded with violent and sexually imagery. Which decades and centuries ago could be learned only through reading, analysis, and adults. After reading, the reader I assure you will see how childhood is dying, if not already dead.

Chris Hedges :The War on Language

2009-09-29T01:23:00.000-07:00

By Chris Hedges

There is a scene in “Othello” when the Moor is so consumed by jealousy and rage that he loses the eloquence and poetry that make him the most articulate man in Venice. He turns to the audience, shortly before he murders Desdemona, and sputters, “Goats and monkeys!” Othello fell prey to wild self-delusion and unchecked rage, and his words became captive to hollow clichés. The debasement of language, which Shakespeare understood was a prelude to violence, is the curse of modernity. We have stopped communicating, even with ourselves. And the consequences will be as extreme as in the Shakespearean tragedy.

Those who seek to dominate our behavior first seek to dominate our speech. They seek to obscure meaning. They make war on language. And the English- and Arabic-speaking worlds are each beset with a similar assault on language. The graffiti on the mud walls of Gaza that calls for holy war or the crude rants of Islamic militants are expressed in a simplified, impoverished form of Arabic. This is not the classical language of 1,500 years of science, poetry and philosophy. It is an argot of clichés, distorted Quranic verses and slogans. This Arabic is no more comprehensible to the literate in the Arab world than the carnival barking that pollutes our airwaves is comprehensible to our literate classes. The reduction of popular discourse to banalities, exacerbated by the elite’s retreat into obscure, specialized jargon, creates internal walls that thwart real communication. This breakdown in language makes reflection and debate impossible. It transforms foreign cultures, which we lack the capacity to investigate, into reversed images of ourselves. If we represent virtue, progress and justice, as our clichés constantly assure us, then the Arabs, or the Iranians, or anyone else we deem hostile, represent evil, backwardness and injustice. An impoverished language solidifies a binary world and renders us children with weapons.

How do you respond to “Islam is the solution” or “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior”? How do you converse with someone who justifies the war in Iraq—as Christopher Hitchens does—with the tautology that we have to “kill them over there so they do not kill us over here”? Those who speak in these thought-terminating clichés banish rational discussion. Their minds are shut. They sputter and rant like a demented Othello. The paucity of public discourse in our culture, even among those deemed to be public intellectuals, is matched by the paucity of public discourse in the Arab world.

This emptiness of language is a gift to demagogues and the corporations that saturate the landscape with manipulated images and the idiom of mass culture. Manufactured phrases inflame passions and distort reality. The collective chants, jargon and epithets permit people to surrender their moral autonomy to the heady excitement of the crowd. “The crowd doesn’t have to know,” Mussolini often said. “It must believe. ... If only we can give them faith that mountains can be moved, they will accept the illusion that mountains are moveable, and thus an illusion may become reality.” Always, he said, be “electric and explosive.” Belief can triumph over knowledge. Emotion can vanquish thought. Our demagogues distort the Bible and the Constitution, while their demagogues distort the Quran, or any other foundational document deemed to be sacred, fueling self-exaltation and hatred at the expense of understanding. The more illiterate a society becomes, the more power those who speak in this corrupted form of speech amass, the more music and images replace words and thought. We are cursed not by a cultural divide but by mutual cultural self-destruction.

The educated elites in the Arab world are now as alienated as the educated elites in the United States. To speak with a vocabulary that the illiterate or semiliterate do not immediately grasp is to be ostracized, distrusted and often ridiculed. It is to impart knowledge, which fosters doubt. And doubt in calcified societies, which prefer to speak in the absolute metaphors of war and science, is a form of heresy. It was not accidental that the founding biblical myth saw the deliverer of knowledge as evil and the loss of innocence as a catastrophe. “This probably had less to do with religion than with the standard desire of those in authority to control those who are not,” John Ralston Saul wrote. “And control of the Western species of the human race seems to turn upon language.”

The infantile slogans that are used to make sense of the world express, whether in tea party rallies or in Gaza street demonstrations, a very real alienation, yearning and rage. These clichés, hollow to the literate, are electric with power to those for whom these words are the only currency in which they can express anguish and despair. And as the economy worsens, as war in the Middle East and elsewhere continues, as our corporate state strips us of power and reduces us to serfs, expect this rage, and the demented language used to give it voice, to grow.

Read the full article @

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090928_the_war_on_language/

Sacred Law Quran lecture given by Shaikh J Hashim Brown

2009-09-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYBeK4TyeY

BOOK REVEIW: NO LOGO BY NAOMI KLEIN

2009-09-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

No Logo is really a journalistic savvy inspiring, and altogether pioneering work of cultural criticism that investigates money, marketing, and the anti-corporate movement. No Logo will challenge and enlighten students of sociology, economics, popular culture, international affairs, and marketing; in addition, to changing your buyer behavior. I must admit now after reading it I have changed the way I look at advertising and I am now much more introspective. The book exposes the exploitative measures of branded companies such as Nike, Wal-Mart, Shell et al in a refreshing manner. It argues that People who purchase branded goods are "buying into a life-style" and those who buy, for example, Hilfiger become “little Tommys.” Naomi Klein is very critical of designer clothing companies who exploit its laborers to produce cheaper goods in order to increase sales and have a huge impact. The book is unique and quite personal as it gives you real life case studies as Klein takes you along with her in her travels giving personal and poignant accounts. Its makes you realize that the manner in which our goods are made is inhumane and down right wrong. Designer clothing and sports shoes are examples where multinational companies close down factories and use sweatshop labor in Asia, mainly China, the Philippines and Mexico. With the jobs and wealth these companies bring to the respective countries, many governments just turn a blind eye and therefore let the companies do what they crave. Klein visited several factories and gives horrific accounts of ill treatment of mainly women workers in these factories, such as pregnant girls who are frightened to reveal their condition for fear of the sack and cases where babies are born at work and mothers who have died because working for exhausting periods of time. These sweatshop practices of long hours, banned labor organization takes you straight back to the 19th century industrial revolution. The negative aspects of the book is probably its size, if your not into reading then this book will take you a very long time as it in size 10 Time Roman with an enormous thirty five lines on every page. But even if you read half or twenty five percent of this persuasive advertisement I assure your consumer behavior and thinking will change.

In the Middle of the Night

2009-09-08T05:51:00.000-07:00

Remaining with the One, one night, one’s life

“Umar, are you sleeping ?” he asked through a whispered murmur.

“No !” I answered.

The day had been long and relentless. It was already so late. I was getting ready to sleep, mindful that the day ahead wouldn’t be any less arduous. Twenty or thirty minutes passed by in silence.

“Umar, are you sleeping ?”

“No !” I answered a second time.

It became quiet once again. I didn’t grasp the urgency in his voice but remained silent anyway. Half an hour passed by again.

“Umar, are you sleeping ?”

This time, I didn’t respond at all. I pretended to sleep so as not to bother him. Waiting for a reply and hearing none, he presumed that I had finally fallen asleep. He arose in the still of the night, without making a sound, alone, beside his companion whom he thought was in a deep slumber, and started to perform the night prayer. For God only, oblivious to my attentive gaze, hidden from anyone’s sight.

It is Ustadh Umar Al-Tilmisani, an old time student and travelling companion of Imam Hasan Al-Banna who provides us with this story. The attitude of his master was enough to move him to tears. It exemplified the personality of Hasan Al-Banna: light-giving faith, a deep spirituality, personal discipline, gentle and soft with his fellow human beings. Umar al-Tilmisani wrote it and said it again and again, as I had heard stories of this kind from my father, Dr. Saïd Ramadan, his son-in-law and my mother, Wafa al-Bannâ, his eldest daughter.

The secret of Hasan Al-Banna was the quality of his faith and the intensity of his relationship with God. Anyone who had ever been in contact with him perceived and experienced this. He lived as had the first Sahaba - following the path of the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him).

From the age of twelve, his destiny had been mapped out through the study and dhikr circles of the Husafiya tariqa. There he learnt the importance of being with God, of remembering him with all his heart and soul, permanently. He also learnt the true criteria to success: faith, humility, effort and personal discipline. Within the core of his education, he had a very deep understanding of jihad al-nafs: to exist for God, alongside God, to reform one’s heart, purify one’s intentions, make time for the Most High before wanting to act in His name. The Sufi masters of the Husafiya tariqa were very strict in this regard - they were always concerned to never deviate from the authentic traditions of ahl al-sunna wal-jama’ah and keeping away from heterodoxy. All that really counted for them were the written references of the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the example of the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him), and of the devoted companions (may God be pleased with them). Hasan Al-Banna never forgot this teaching and his entire allegiance to the cause was founded on the same fundamental principles: the Qu’ran is our book, the Sunnah our wisdom, and it is only these basic principles which will awaken our conscience, nurture our heart and intensify our dhikr.

Some years later, Hasan Al-Banna would make a meticulous compilation of all the written texts, uniquely taken from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, which had a spiritual virtue, particularly when it came to the exercise of purifying the heart, of dhikr and meditation. This compilation, otherwise known as Risalat al-Ma’thurat, was the core of spiritual education for all members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They were asked to read it, memorize it if possible, and recite it with fervour and concentration twice a day, morning and evening. At a very young age, and especially during the years of intense Islamic activity in the social and economic spheres, Hasan Al-Banna had understood that there was no future for Muslims if they did not recapture what was essential to their hearts, their personal striving, their conscience and memory.

The world is a trap and it sometimes happens that temptation can, in subtle ways, assail those who are engaged in Islamic activities such as da’wah, education, solidarity and lectures. Drowning in Islamic commitments, activities and projects, what eventually happens is that they forget what is absolutely essential: to give one’s time to be with God, to get to know Him while being intimately attached to tawhid, to remember him (dhikr), to purify one’s heart (tazkiya al-nafs), to feed the conscience of these works (al-muhasaba), to be attached to the Qur’an, to pray, to fast and to do the invocations. This is necessary every day, and in the night.

Al-Ma’thurat is comprised of texts from the Qur’an and the Sunnah which are essential on many levels. Each one of them is strong and precise, with a spiritual function as were the hadith of the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him). Their daily reading guides Muslims and protects them. It involves discipline and fortitude, attention and awakening, faith which illuminates and a conscience which directs everyday practice and action. In this light, Risalat al-Ma’thurat is a teaching, and we understand that Imam Hasan Al-Banna was a mentor (murabbi) who started by fortifying one’s faith and dhikr in order to guide one’s intelligence. This is the spirit of any understanding (al-fahm), which became the first fundamental principle of all of his teachings (al-ta’alim).

Few lines... to give you the possibility to get to know a man, Hasan A-Banna, concerning whom there have been many rumours and lies. He was a man who surrendered and sacrificed his life for God. Those who heard him, changed. Those who accompanied him, loved him. Those who remember him are still moved. Assassinated and taken back by God at the age of forty-two, he left a teaching and a methodology which is simple and luminous: if you want to be loved by God, follow His Prophet (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him), and if God loves you and protects you... then have no fear!

God is with those who persevere and who are patient.

http://www.tariqramadan.com/spip.php?article203

ZAYTUNA COLLEGE

2009-09-07T03:31:00.000-07:00

WHY ZAYTUNA COLLEGE

Islam has never become rooted in a particular land until that land began producing its own religious scholars. There are several million Muslims in the United States and rapidly growing Muslim populations in Canada, Great Britain, and Western Europe. Yet, there are no accredited academic institutions capable of training students in the varied sciences of Islam, while also instilling in them a sophisticated understanding of the intellectual history and culture of the West. Clearly, there is an essential need for Muslim institutions that can wed Islam’s classical texts with the contemporary context.

This reality has led to two lamentable situations. First, there are very few Muslim scholars who can meet the religious and pastoral needs of a rapidly expanding Muslim community in the West. Second, much of our younger generation has become alienated from the mosque and from religious culture.

From Vision to Reality

Since its founding by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in 1996, Zaytuna has been attempting to address these issues through a variety of educational programs. Zaytuna’s  vision has always been to create a lasting institution of higher learning. To that end, we launched a pilot seminary program in 2004 that graduated five students in 2008. Based on our experience with the pilot program, we are moving forward with our plans to establish the first accredited Muslim college in the United States.

Zaytuna College will function at a level comparable to the best of religious seminaries and general institutions of higher education in the United States. We have carefully designed a rigorous curriculum in Islamic Studies and Arabic, as well as in the humanities and social sciences, so our students can confidently navigate the cultural, political, and intellectual currents that are shaping our world.

We are also seeking accreditation from the most demanding accrediting bodies in the United States, as well as recognition from major educational institutions in the Muslim world, such as Egypt’s al-Azhar University. Finally, we are building an endowment that will rival that of comparable academic institutions.

Indigenization of Islam in the West

By aspiring to produce scholars who understand the specific needs of contemporary societies, we believe Zaytuna College has an important contribution to make in the indigenization of Islam in the West. An indigenized Islam is of particular significance at this time when there is so much suspicion directed toward Muslims as illegitimate “outsiders,” while at the same time a demonstrated desire on the part of many in the West, especially in America, to create a more open, multicultural, and tolerant society.

God willing, a Zaytuna College education will prepare students for a meaningful life as compassionate, productive, and educated citizens of the global community who understand Islam as a living, viable, and relevant faith, and who represent that faith with dignity, wisdom, and honor.

"For ten years, Zaytuna has played a key role in helping the Muslim American community rediscover much of the beauty and wisdom of traditional Islam. We look forward to the growth and expansion of Zaytuna’s services so it can further explore and implement, in partnership with other Muslims, the best of this classical heritage in a complex, pluralistic society.”

Dr. Ingrid Mattson
President, Islamic Society of North America

http://www.zaytunacollege.org/

Don't be outraged for Muslim women

2009-08-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

By Nesrine Malik

Western feminists should not assume everyone's struggle mirrors their own – their obsession with the burqa has a patronising whiff

"Did you wear a burqa when you lived in Saudi Arabia?" a young woman I met at a party recently asked. I responded in the affirmative, upon which she inquired again: "But weren't you outraged?" "Not particularly," I said. Fixing me with an earnest stare she declared, "Well if you weren't then I am outraged on your behalf!"

It's tricky to respond to this with equanimity. The sentiment behind the utterance is undoubtedly a sincere and genuine one, free of any deliberate intent to patronise, but it was patronising nonetheless. This seems to be the initial turn-off when western feminism comes to the rescue, the blanket assumption that the victim has no volition nor can respond to adversity with the commensurate degree of outrage because she is so accustomed and desensitised to her own subjugation. It is a strange mix of protective sororal sympathy and smugness.

I could have launched into all the reasons why outrage would have been futile, why, while the burqa wasn't particularly comfortable, it was the least of my concerns in a country of institutionalised misogyny. Besides, there seems to be an assumption that the salvation of Muslim women must mirror that of western women. Inordinate focus on sartorial garb for example misses the point and assumes that all women should want to dress a particular hijab-free way when what we should be trying to ensure is that the choice to do so or not is what is protected. While this very process of choice is murky and itself subject to its own conditions and social pressures, it can be argued that the same applies to women in the west and that we can do little beyond ensuring that the right to choose is not circumscribed by law.

Although basic rights and dignities are universal, there are ways of enshrining them without perfectly emulating a western experience. That is not to say that Muslim women should be left alone and be allowed to choose to be repressed because it is their right, but in deeply traditional societies, women choose their battles and make distinctions between wants and needs.

In addition, treating all Muslim women's problems as monolithically attributable to their religion is a cul-de-sac. There are vast cultural differences and influences that go beyond the simplistic attention-grabbing headlines. Even in diaspora, Muslims tend to perpetuate cultural strands of religious practice; thus engaging with communities, as opposed to with some faceless religious body, might be more productive and focus efforts.

The endeavour to help Muslim women is also undermined and treated with increased cynicism when it is morally hijacked in order to underwrite less idealistic campaigns. The latest developments in Afghanistan prove how easily women's rights can be relegated even under western sponsorship. Is female education, the violin that accompanied the drum beats of war in Afghanistan, no less universal a right than freedom from sexual terrorism?

Western feminism needs to divorce and distance itself from high-profile military campaigns in order to win back goodwill. Neo-colonialist sensitivities run deep in Muslim societies and many a fruitful joint venture can be sabotaged due to such prickliness. Finding local partners and supporting indigenous role models can minimise this effect. While working briefly at the UN mission in Khartoum, I realised that the most influential figure in a campaign to promote contraception and sexual health was a middle aged Sudanese female member of parliament. Young women listened to her, and their patrons, older women and the men in their families, were not alienated and thus allowed her access to their homes. Any whiff of visible western practical support for Lubna Hussein for example, would have robbed her campaign of most of its credibility.

What will help Muslim women is spending less time and effort being outraged on our behalf and more on differentiating the different faces and needs behind the burqa.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/aug/26/muslim-women-feminism-burqas

A day in the life of Shaykh Murabit al Hajj (God Preserve Him )

2009-08-22T03:04:00.000-07:00

This is narrated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf:

During the blessed time that I was fortunate to have lived with him in his own tent, I observed his daily routine: He would usually awake at about 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning and begin the Tahajjud or night prayers. He would often recite for a few hours, and I heard him repeat verses over and over again and weep. Just before dawn, he would sit outside his tent and recite Qur’an, and then when the first light of dawn was discernible, he would walk to the open-air mosque and call the adhan. He would then pray his nafilah and wait for a short period and then call the iqamah. During that time, I never saw anyone else lead the prayer, and he would almost always recite from the last 60th of the Qur’an as is the Sunnah for a congressional Imam to do so according to Imam Malik.

After the sun rose and reached the level of a spear above the horizon, he would pray the sunrise rak’ahs and then return to his tent where he would have some milk brought fresh from a cow. He would then teach until about 11:00 in the morning and nap for a short while. After that, students would start coming again, and he would continue to teach until about 1:00pm at which time he would measure his shadow for the time of the midday prayer. He would then call the adhan at the time his shadow reached an arm’s length past the post meridian time as is the Maliki position on the midday prayer, if performed in congregation, to allow for others to come from their work after the heat dissipates. He would always pray four rakahs before and after the midday prayer and then return to his tent where he would teach until afternoon. He would usually have a small amount of rice and yogurt drink that is common in West Africa. Then, he would measure his shadow for the afternoon prayer, and when he ascertained its time, he would proceed to the mosque and call the adhan.

After Asr, Murabit al-Hajj would return to his tent and usually resume teaching and sometimes listen to students recite their Qur’an lessons from memory and he would correct their mistakes. During any lulls in his teaching, anyone in his presence could hear him say with almost every breath, “La ilaha illa Allah,” or he would recite Qur’an. At sunset, he would go and call the adhan, pray Maghrib, and then sit in the mihrab and recite his wird until the time of the night prayer. He would call the adhan, lead the pray and return to his tent. He would usually have some milk and a little couscous and then listen to students recite Qur’an or read Qur’an by himself. At around 9:00 pm whe would admonish himself with lines of poetry form Imam Shafi’s Diwan and other well-known poets. He would often remember death with certain line that he repeated over and over again, especially the following that I heard him many times:

O my Lord, when that which there is repelling alights upon me,

And I find myself leaving this adobe

And become Your guest in a dark and lonely place,

Then make the host’s meal for his guest the removal of my wrongs.

A guest is always honored at the hands of a generous host,

And You are the Generous, the Creator, the Originiator.

Surely kings, as a way of displaying their magnanimity

Free their servants who have grown old in their service.

And I have grown old in Your service,

So free my soul from the Fire

He often repeats these lines for what seems like an eternity, his voice penetrating the hearts of all those within earshot. He once admonished me with lines of poetry, one after another, until I wanted the earth to swallow me. He said to me, “And what is man other than a comet that flashes brilliant light for a moment only to be reduced to ashes.”

He told me several times, “Hamza, this world is an ocean, and those who drown in it are untold numbers. Don’t drown.”

I have never seen anyone like him before him or after him, and I don’t think that I ever will. May Allah reward him for his service to this din and his love and concern for the Muslims. He was never known to speak ill of anyone. Once when a student was studying Khalil with him and asked what a certain word meant in the text, he explained to him that it was a slow and clumsy horse. The student then said, “like so-and-so’s horse?” At this Murabit al-Hajj suddenly became upset and said, “I don’t spend much time with people because they backbite, so if you want to study with me, you must never speak ill of anyone in my presence.” It is not well known by Muslims that to speak ill of someone’s animals falls under the ruling of backbiting.

Shaykh Murabit al-Hajj is a master of the sciences of Islam, but perhaps more wondrous than that, he has mastered his own soul. His discipline is almost angelic, and his presence is so majestic and ethereal that the one in it experiences a palpable stillness in the soul. As the Arabs says, “the one who hears is not as the one who has seen.” I was told by many people from his family that had I seen him in his youth, I would have been even more astonished at his devotional practices

Book Review : Agenda to Change Our Condition

2009-07-27T01:59:00.000-07:00

First published in 1999,In Agenda to Change Our Condition, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid chalk out a program for all Muslims who want to rectify their current state of apathy and heedlessness of Gods commands. This is a book of Advice.It provides clear practical, effective and guidance for rectifying our states as conscientious and productive Muslims. With an emphasis on Taqwa (God-consciousness) andIkhlas (sincerity), Agenda To Change Our Condition is an indispensable handbook for all Muslims striving for excellence in character and self-refinement. The book is formulated from classical books from past masters such as Sidi Ahmed Zarraq ,Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-`Arabi and al Nawwai. These great scholars who have walk the path of God- Consciousness and left behind their advice and know how to help Muslims walk the path to."Our hope is that you take this manual seriously. It is rooted in the Book, the Sunnah, and the example of our pious predecessors. We hope that you will commit to implementing it to the best of your ability, that you find a group of brothers or sisters, whichever the case may be, and work together"Shaykh Hamza, the author states. Being a small book, it is written in clear and understableable English; making it a must for Muslims that want to self reform their states.In terms of topics covered they include: Taqwa: Its Definition and Its Benefits, The Heart and its Treatment, Practical Steps to Change Our Condition, a series of exercises for achieving Taqwa as well as three new appendices.Another masterpiece from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and ImamZaid Shakir. Finally, I leave you with what the author Shaykh Hamzahas said regarding this treatise
"A believer is given strength through his brother,' according to the Prophetic tradition. "Finally, the way out of the spider's web in which we are all trapped that has been woven by the master weavers of deception: nafs, Shaytan, hawa, and Dunya, is at the end of the Chapter in the Qur'an entitled the Spider: 'And those who struggle in Our way, we guide them to Our paths. Verily Allah is with those who perform acts of excellence and beauty.' ... "This path is indeed arduous, and it would appear to one looking at it that to arrive is too difficult for most of us. Let us set out first and then see how long we can last. A Divine wind will blow on your back, your feet will become light, and wondrous fellow wayfarers will show up with sustenance just when you thought you had none. Our success is by Allah, upon Him we place our trust, and to Him we return."

Deepak Chopra Mini Skirts, Yes. Burqas, No?

2009-07-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

If France had a humane, democratic record in its treatment of Muslim immigrants, one might be bemused by Pres. Sarkozy's attempt to suppress the burqa. But the opposite is true. Arab immigrants are treated as second-class citizens, and the rightist politicians, including Sarkozy, are happy to keep them down. As a form of hyper-patriotism, controlling the dress of Muslim women is obviously unfair. Pres. Obama was right to criticize the policy.

Doesn't it seem strange that women in France have the right to wear mini skirts but not burqas? Both costumes are about sexuality, or if that seems too judgmental, both are about the issue of modesty. In the Arab world this is a religious issue, and it's not as though the Christian world is totally free of that perspective -- as far as I know, a woman will not be permitted inside the Vatican without covering her head. A secular society has no business making decisions based on religion, and that means in either direction. If God is neutral toward the mini skirt, he is neutral toward the burqa and chador, or the wig and head covering of orthodox Jewish women.

As for the argument that the burqa stands for the abasement of women, that is certainly true under the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the abasement revolves around forcing women to dress a certain way, taking away their free choice. Isn't France doing the same thing? In the name if fighting abasement, they are actually imposing another sort.

Finally, there is the simmering social resentment that occurs when a Muslim woman stands out in the crowd by her dress. In decades past, she stood out in an exotic and even appealing way. Since 9/11, Muslim dress is interpreted as a hostile statement. It's time we each become more mindful. The hostility is our own, a projection we impose on the innocent. Let Muslim women be as free to choose as any Western girl with tattoos and piercings. Beauty in this case is in the eyes of the wearer.

Published in the Washington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/mini-skirts-yes-burqas-no_b_221003.html

Former model follows spiritual path at Yale

2009-07-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

At age 26, Dawood Yasin was almost killed. Three times.

Back then, his name was not Dawood. He was not yet a teaching assistant in Yale's Arabic Department, the imam of the Masjid Al-Islam mosque on George Street in New Haven, or the chaplain of the Muslim Student's Association of Yale.

Instead, he was a nation-hopping male model, a man whose face and body splashed Paris billboards and Vogue fashion spreads. His name was David and he was Roman Catholic.

But three near-death experiences in the span of six months changed all that

In 1996 he was living in South Africa modeling in photo shoots. One night, he said, he got into a heated discussion with some South Africans vocalizing their unhappiness with the end of apartheid. Threats were issued. Tensions boiled. Then the aggressors pulled out weapons.

Luckily, a member of the group talked them out of a fight. But just a few weeks later, something else happened. Yasin was driving from Capetown to Johannesburg. At one point the fog thickened dangerously. The car behind him began to pass him and, at the same time, a truck approached from ahead. His own car narrowly avoided the horrific crash that followed.

Not long after, he witnessed another crash -- one he might have been in had he arrived at the scene 30 seconds earlier.

Many 26-year-olds may have brushed off the three incidences as merely unsettling. Not Yasin.

"Thinking that you could check out at any time made me think about spirituality," he said, sitting in Au Bon Pain Oct. 27, a dark beard covering his once-famous face.

Because his cousin had converted to Islam two decades before and become a better person for it, he said, the religion was already in the back of his mind. So when his brushes with death made him reconsider spirituality, he had no qualms about taking a look at the Koran.

"It worked for me," he said. "I find there to be justice. In the prophetic tradition, there's no preference of the Arab over the non-Arab, white over black, black over white."

But not everybody sees that side of Islam. Twice since Sept. 11, 2001, Yasin and his wife, dressed in traditional Islamic garb, have been almost run off the road, he said. Once, the driver shouted at them to "go back to your country."

"And my mother, my grandmother, they were born in America," he said, shaking his head.

Rather than let such ignorance get him down, though, Yasin said he focuses on raising understanding of Islam. His Arabic students said he was always very open about his life and religion. They could ask him delicate questions -- what the Koran says about homosexuality, for example -- and get a straightforward answer.

And because Yasin is American, students seem more receptive to what he has to say, said Bassam Frangieh, a professor in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department.

"The students identify with him," Frangieh said. "He has a very, very beautiful relationship with them."

Yasin has even welcomed his class into his mosque. Last year, 40 Arabic students took a class trip to George Street during the month of Ramadan. They covered themselves appropriately, the women in head scarves. As they walked, they stopped traffic, Frangieh said.

After attending services, which included a sermon by Yasin, the students ate a traditional dinner in his home.

Teaching about Islam and the Koranic tradition is important, Frangieh said. After all, one requirement of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations major is "Arabic and Islamic Studies."

Despite such glowing reports from students and colleagues, Yasin was not always so focused on Yale. When he came back to America after studying Arabic for five years, teaching at Yale was not the job he had in mind, he said.

Hardly the typical teaching assistant, Yasin does not even hold a college degree. He briefly attended Southern Connecticut State University, but he was discovered by a Wilhelmina Models agent during one summer break in Nantucket. At 19, his life turned into a whirlwind of runways in Milan and Paris, photo shoots with Christy Turlington and Brooke Shields.

"It's like, 'Wow, do I shoot a Levi's campaign and make a lot of money, or do I go back to school and get a degree?'" he said, chuckling. "You think about it for about three breaths."

And although he studied at a religious seminary in Damascus for five years after "embracing Islam," the events of Sept. 11, 2001 interrupted his education. In America at the time of the terrorist attacks, Yasin and his then-pregnant wife decided not to return to Syria.

A friend at the Yale Divinity School told him there was an opening in the Arabic department. At the time, Yasin said, he laughed off the suggestion, intimidated by the idea of teaching Yale students in a language that was not his native tongue. But when a few weeks went by and the position remained open, he decided to apply.

Rather than a one-on-one interview, Yasin presented himself to one of Frangieh's Arabic classes. They loved him. Yasin was hired.

This year, though, Yasin is on leave. Recently appointed as imam of Masjid Al-Islam, Yasin said he is now too busy to teach classes. As religious leader of the 300 people in the congregation, he has more responsibilities than he had even expected.

"I'm dealing with everything from the jurisprudence of someone's marriage, to someone asking you on the end-of-life decisions for their two-year-old child," he said.

And he has taken on a new project, as well -- managing a fashion company geared toward traditional Muslim dress. The former model described the clothing line as modest, but sophisticated and practical.

Running a clothing company is only the latest phase in his life. From modeling, to studying, to being a TA, he said each experience has made him who he is today.

But if his now-2-year-old daughter were to grow up and tell him she wanted to strut down the runways in Milan, Yasin knows exactly what he would say:

"I'd say, Tell me when you want to go and we'll go together."

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/12091

The headscarf martyr: murder in German court sparks Egyptian fury

2009-07-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

Please read the story @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/07/german-trial-hijab-murder-egypt

Interview with Kinza Academy founder and home school advocate Nabila Hanson

2009-07-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

Home school is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. According to the U.S. government census in 2007, 1.5 million children are home schooled in the United States. Other estimates put the number much higher.

What is home schooling and why is it so popular? Nabila Hanson, founder of Kinza Academy, answers these and other questions in an interview with examiner.com.

In Part I, Nabila discusses home schooling in general. In Part II, she answers questions about Kinza Academy and its approach to educating children at home.

1. What is home schooling (or home education)?

Home-schooling and home-education literally mean teaching or having your children taught in the home. In contrast to public and most private schools, home-schooled children are taught individually, and to some degree the education is tailored for each child so the child's natural love of learning is allowed to blossom.

2. How has home schooling evolved over the years?

Home-education has always existed, making a name for itself in this country during the past thirty-plus years. There was a general dissatisfaction with state schooling that culminated with its revised “dumbed-down” curriculum in the 60’s. I think this was the turning point when some parents just said, “Enough! If you aren’t going to educate my child, I’ll do it myself!” And they did.

3. Why do you think it is becoming so popular?

I think it became popular because a few people were brave enough to reclaim the right to educate their children, and in so doing produced educated, self-governed, and moral people that made other parents stop and ask, “What’s going on here?” I think it continues to increase in popularity for different reasons.

Some families are concerned about protecting the family’s religious beliefs and don’t want their children secularized in public school; other families are concerned about the total failure of government schooling to produce educated citizens; and safety is also a huge concern now with children becoming the frequent victims of violent crimes and sexual abuse in public and private schools.

Amongst Muslims, I think the first concern is the child’s deen and the second concern is the quality of education.

4. What are the benefits of home schooling?

From a religious perspective, I don’t have to worry about my children’s self-esteem being damaged or their deen being hurt because they are teased about their religion in school. I don’t have to worry they are being taught things that contradict our religious belief, and I don’t have to worry that I will lose them to peer pressure. The Christian home-school studies have shown three out of four children that graduate from public school will no longer share the same faith or beliefs as their family. This is alarming.

From a mother’s perspective, every day I am amazed by my children. They are creative; they march to their own beat; they are eager to learn and interested in so many things, and they are self-motivated. My son memorized all of the US presidents' first, middle, and last names one day without being asked. My daughter memorized all of the states and capitals one day on her own. I am often times astounded by the things they have taught themselves and teach each other in their free time.

I would add that children need down-time, too. Because children educated at home are taught individually, they learn more quickly, and the school day is much shorter, permitting them time to explore their own interests and take part in family life. There is also no homework!

5. How do children who are educated at home compare academically with children enrolled in school?

Most home-educated children are superior in their academic levels to public schooled children. This has been studied, and it is no secret that top universities in this country, like Harvard and Yale, recruit home-educated children.

6. Is there a downside to home schooling?

Giving your children a home-education requires a lot of support. The Christian home-educators are well-established and have endless groups, conferences, publications, etc., so one feels very much supported as a Christian home-educator.

As Muslims, we are still in the beginning stages of our own movement, and it requires a lot of patience for those of us who don’t have much support. We need to have a vision and understand that we are laying the foundation for future Muslim families to educate their children at home. Someone has to be the one to begin, and each of us home-educating today is that person.

The socialization concern, which is often perceived as a downside to home-education, is a myth. There is more about this on our website

7. Do you have to be a teacher or have a background in education to home school?

This is another area that has been studied, and it is known that the educational level of the parent has little impact on his or her ability to teach her own children. I would say that you have to honestly want to teach your own children, and you have to have an interest in learning. It is that enthusiasm for learning that you must nurture in your child. A good teacher enjoys teaching and passes on the love of the subject.

As a home-educator, there will always be your favorite and least favorite subject to teach, but as long as you sincerely want to teach your children, you should do fine. If there really is a subject you can’t teach, you can swap teaching with a friend or hire a tutor.

8. If someone is interested in learning more about home school, what are the first things he/she should do?

The first thing parents should do is really try to understand why schools are not the best place for their children. I know so many people who don’t want to think about it, and ignoring the problem is a luxury we just can’t afford. Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah said years ago in reference to some home-schooling mothers he knew that teaching the children was a mother’s jihad, and if all parents took this as seriously, we could change the world. I firmly believe this.

The book to begin with is by John Taylor Gatto: Weapons of Mass Instruction. If and when they decide to home-school, then the parents need to consider the best way for their family to establish a home-school.

Our website has a lot of valuable information on education and home-schooling, and we also have anAmazon linked bookstore, with a good selection of books on the subject. Your readers are welcome to visit us at: www.kinzaacademy.com.

In Part I of our interview Nabila Hanson, home school advocate and founder of Kinza Academy, discusses home schooling and why you should consider it. In Part II she answers questions about Kinza Academy and its approach to home education.

. What is Kinza Academy and why did you start it?

After Hamza Yusuf spoke in Canada back in 2000 with John Taylor Gatto, he kept mentioning the need for someone to provide a home-schooling curriculum for Muslim families. Around the same time, I had ordered a preschool curriculum for my daughter, which was designed by educational “experts,” and was disappointed with the content. Those two factors were the catalyst for my determination to organize a program that any parent would love to teach and any child would love to learn from.

My greatest inspiration has come from John Taylor Gatto. He is a courageous man who has dared to expose the real purpose behind compulsory schooling. At a time in life when most people would be relaxing and enjoying themselves, he travels and lectures and has quite a demanding schedule. And he does it for the children.

In one of John’s talks, he calls us to put sand in the gears of the machine (compulsory schooling agenda) wherever we find it—I like to think Kinza Academy is some of that sand.

2. There are many different philosophies on home schooling. Kinza Academy uses the classical approach. Briefly, what is the classical approach and why do you use it?

The best description I know of is written by Dorothy Sayers and is entitled: The Lost Tools of Learning. There is a link to the article on our website. Rather than attempt a brief explanation here, I would prefer people read her paper. It is amusing and not at all dry.

I think the classical approach is the preferred model for Muslims. According to Hamza Yusuf, the Western classical model is the most similar to the Islamic educational model. Imam al-Ghazzali said that each student should learn grammar, logic, and rhetoric, which are the trivium components of the two part classical system.

It’s important to avoid the “public school at home” approach to home-education, where parents use similar or even the same books found in public school.

I was at someone’s house who is signed up with a charter school and she had this reading book for her six year old that was ridiculous. It was about a 400 page book with the most monotonous reading exercises. Learning to read isn’t difficult when the child is ready and doesn’t require 400 pages of instruction.

3. You do not recommend introducing a “formal education” until age seven. Would you explain that a little?

As Muslims, our sunnah advises us to let our children play for the first seven years. Western psychologists agree that postponing formal education until the age of six or seven is preferable, and is even necessary to support a healthy emotional development.

Too frequently, I have people tell me their child is in this class and that class, how they can read long books and do math, and extraordinary things for a young child. But, when I ask how the child’s social skills are, there is always this silence, and then the parent admits it is an area of concern. What does it matter how smart your child grows up to be if he can’t build meaningful relationships and get along in the world? This is what those first seven years are about.

4. How does Kinza Academy work? For instance, do you provide the curriculum, lesson plans, other support, etc.?

Our formal program begins with first grade and goes through the sixth grade. We provide a complete curriculum for each year, a selection of classical literature with each grade, and daily lesson plans. The lesson plans can also be used for record keeping purposes, or if the family needs to submit documents to state officials.

We are available for telephone or email support when needed.

For younger children, unstructured play and being read to are the most important things you can do to prepare them for formal instruction. The Kinza Academy preschool/kindergarten program offers a wonderful selection of mostly classical literature, and some light instructional material that can be used to informally teach your child.

5. How do you choose materials to include in the curriculum?

In general, we look for books that are well written and have substance, do not require unnecessary work from the parent, and are interesting to both teach and to learn from.

Though the curriculum uses a few CDs for stories and spelling, it does not incorporate any computer or DVD learning because of the known dangers to the developing mind of a child. Textbooks are avoided when possible in place of what Charlotte Mason called, “living books.”

6. Currently, Kinza Academy offers curriculum up to sixth grade. Are you planning to expand?

Eventually, we plan to expand our program through high school, in sha Allah. At this point, our focus is in publishing curriculum material for the grades that we do offer.

7. Is Kinza Academy only for Muslims?

The Academy was designed with the Muslim family in mind. With mild modifications, a family of another faith could use the program. Our focus, as I mentioned earlier, is really to serve our own community.

8. Anything else you would like to tell us about Kinza Academy or home schooling?

If you want to home-school, but feel nervous or afraid that it might be too much, just try. It’s almost impossible to get your child behind according to state standards, and you will probably find home-education is much easier than you had imagined.

I find the moms who oftentimes express the most fear about being able to home-school actually end up enjoying it the most.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-9968-Baltimore-Muslim-Examiner~y2009m6d15-Interview-with-Kinza-Academy-founder-and-home-school-advocate-Nabila-Hanson--Part-I

Shock Dead, Everybody's Gone Mad: Reflections on the Death of Michael Jackson By Hamza Yusuf

2009-06-28T03:16:00.000-07:00

On the news
Everybody's dog food
Bang bang
Shock dead
Everybody's gone mad...

From "They Don't Care About Us" by Michael Jackson

As a little boy, Michael Jackson had an extraordinary charisma -- as well as an absolute innocence -- that was disarmingly charming. It captivated millions of Americans and eventually people around the world.

As the years went by, his career took strange turns and he slowly turned white, transforming his face eerily into a pale and ghastly masque, perhaps to conceal the pain of alienation from his own self and family. He was also rumored to have unsavory predilections that would never have been suggested if one used the rigorous criteria of Islam before hurling an accusation. Despite the rumors, he appeared to have had a genuine concern for children, wanting to provide them with a world that was denied to him as a child due to the abuses he claimed to have suffered.

I was very happy for him last year when he reportedly became a Muslim. He had apparently followed the footsteps of his dignified and intelligent brother, Jermaine, who converted to Islam 20 years ago and found peace. It seemed befitting that Michael sought refuge from a society that thrives on putting people on pedestals and then knocking them down. He was accused of many terrible things, but was guilty of perhaps being far too sensitive for an extremely cruel world. Such is the fate of many artistic people in our culture of nihilistic art, where the dominant outlet for their talents is in singing hollow pop songs or dancing half-naked in front of ogling onlookers who often leave them as quickly as they clung to them for the next latest sensation.

In the manner of Elvis or the Beatles, Michael is unwittingly both a cause and a symptom of America’s national obsession with celebrity, currently on display in the American Idol mania. Celebrity trumps catastrophe every time. Far too few of us make any attempt to understand why jobs are drying up, why mortgages are collapsing, why we spend half-a-trillion dollars to service the interest on the national debt, why our government’s administration, despite being elected on an anti-war platform, is still committed to two unnecessary and unjust wars waged by the earlier administration, wars that continue to involve civilians casualties on an almost daily basis. Instead, we drown in trivia, especially trivia related to celebrity. And the response to Michael’s death is part of the trivial pursuits of American popular culture. The real news about death in America is that twenty Iraq and Afghan war veterans are committing suicide every day. But that does not make the front page nor is it discussed as seriously as the King of Pop’s cardiac arrest.

Nevertheless, Michael’s very public death notice is a powerful reminder that no matter how famous or talented or wealthy one is, death comes knocking, sometimes sooner than later. Michael has now entered a world of extraordinary perception, a world that makes his “Thriller” video seem mundane. It is a world of angels and demons, and questions in the grave, a world where fame is based upon piety and charity. Given Michael’s reported conversion to Islam last year, Muslims count him as one of our own, and we pray that he can finally find the peace he never found in this world and that he is in a place, God willing, of mercy, forgiveness, and solace.

From http://www.zaytuna.org/articleDetails.asp?articleID=125

Aql aur Dil (Intellect and Heart) By Muhammed Iqbal

2009-06-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

Found in the book ' The Intelligent Heart; The Pure Heart ' By Dr Gohar Mushtaq, Ta Ha Publications 2006, Page 19-21 Aql aur Dil "Intellect (brain) one day said to the heart: " I am a guide to those who have gone astray Though bound to earth, I reach the heaven above Just see how far reaching is my sway I am cast in the mould of the legendary Khidhr I am destined in the world to show the way I am the interpreter of the book of like I am an attribute of divine display You are only a drop of blood I am the envy of ruby's ray" "This is all true, replied the heart ' But look at me, be as it may You look at life's trauma and drama I see through life's white and grey You deal with outer manifestations And I am aware of the inner fray Knowledge is to you, intuition to me You see God, I show how to pray Limit of wisdom is restless doubting I am a cure for the malady of dismay You are a lantern to illuminate a spot I am a lamp to illuminate the path You deal with time and space I deal with Judgement Day To what lofty place do I belong? I am the pedestal of God Almighty, I say."

Poem by As-Sayyid Ar-Rawwas along with my translation

2009-06-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

by Imam Ahmed Saad

This poem was given to me by our blessed Shaykh Mu`adh Safwat (may Allah bless and enlighten him) I sang it and sent it to him and loved it, and felt it could be good if I translate it so that my brothers and sisters can enjoy the meanings...although the Arabic is far better than my broken English. It is written by As-Sayyid Ar-Rawwas Ar-Rifa`ie (may Allah bless his soul and benefit us with his barakat) InshaaAllah, I will be posting a bio of As-Sayyid Ar-Rawwas soon. The Arabic is here followed by my translation:

رأينا بديباج الوجود خيالَكم = وسرنا إليه لا عدمنا ظلالَكم
وطارت بنا الألبابُ من غير سائقٍ = إليكم وأمَّتْ في المرايا جَمالَكم
وسارت وقد أودى بمجموعها النوى = دجىً مُذ أثار السائقون جِـمالكم
رأيناكمو في كل بادٍ وطامسٍ = كأنّا جلوسٌ كلَ آنٍ قـُبالكم
فيا أيها الغـُيّابُ قد طال عهدُكم = فعودوا جعلنا الروحَ منا حلالـَكم
فإن كان هذا يستحيلُ بحقكم = ولو في الكرى لا تحرمونا مِثالكم
وقد تـُنقـَدُ الأرواحُ منا رخيصةً = لترْبٍ عليه قد وضعتم نعالكم
ألا طيّبوا بالله بالقـُربِ بالنا = على عجلٍ يا طيـّبَ اللهُ بالَكم
على كلِ حالٍ نحن حقاً عبيدُكم = وهذا مُنانا فافعلوا ما بدا لكم

--------------------------------------------------------------

In the beauty of universe, we have seen Your image
So, ran to you, may we never lose Your shades
Our minds have flown, without a driver
To you and looked at the reflection of Your Beauty
Driven with longing, wandering at night
It took every step towards Your to meet Your Caravan
In every obvious and hidden, we witnessed Your Grace
As if we are, in every minute, in Your Presence
Our beloved ones, we have not seen You for long
Return to us, may we sacrifice our souls for You
If impossible is gazing Your Countenance,
Then at least, give us a visit in our dreams
We love to pay our souls, a cheap price
For the dust where You placed Your Feet
By God, bless our life with Your closeness
Soon, may Allah bless Your hearts
In all cases, we are Your salves
Such is our wish, so do what You want

Shaykh Jihad Brown on President Obama’s Speech

2009-06-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

Shaykh Jihad Brown on President Obama’s Speech - A turn of good faith deserves another in kind - The National Newspaper

One Arab observer said this must be the most historic speech ever given by an American president to the Muslim world. In his address on Thursday, Barack Obama extended himself to Muslims in an unprecedented sign of good faith. He laid the reputation of his administration and the veracity of his foreign policy on the line when he proffered the Biblical claim: “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”
An Arab proverb says: “If you honour a noble person you will possess his allegiance.” Meaning that he will feel himself beholden to respond honourably in kind. Granted, these are only words. We anticipate the practical steps that will prove their sincerity. But they are significant words all the same, the like of which the Muslim world has never seen. Whatever the case, the ball is now squarely in the Muslim court. Can we be magnanimous in return?

Read the full article at http://www.seekersdigest.org/?p=472

Obama reaches out to Muslim world: Is this the start of something new or just more US rhetoric

2009-06-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

The following is a text of President Obama's prepared remarks to the Muslim world, delivered on June 4, 2009, as released by the White House.

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world – tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.

So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end.

I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." That is what I will try to do – to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.

As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims." And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson – kept in his personal library.

So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words – within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one."

Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores – that includes nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average.

Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.

So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations – to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God. These things we share. This is the hope of all humanity.

Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.

For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.

This is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes subjugating one another to serve their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; progress must be shared.

That does not mean we should ignore sources of tension. Indeed, it suggests the opposite: we must face these tensions squarely. And so in that spirit, let me speak as clearly and plainly as I can about some specific issues that I believe we must finally confront together.

The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms.

In Ankara, I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.

The situation in Afghanistan demonstrates America's goals, and our need to work together. Over seven years ago, the United States pursued al Qaeda and the Taliban with broad international support. We did not go by choice, we went because of necessity. I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with.

Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case.

That's why we're partnering with a coalition of forty-six countries. And despite the costs involved, America's commitment will not weaken. Indeed, none of us should tolerate these extremists. They have killed in many countries. They have killed people of different faiths – more than any other, they have killed Muslims. Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam. The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.

We also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who have been displaced. And that is why we are providing more than $2.8 billion to help Afghans develop their economy and deliver services that people depend upon.

Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: "I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future – and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources. Iraq's sovereignty is its own. That is why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August. That is why we will honor our agreement with Iraq's democratically-elected government to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all our troops from Iraq by 2012. We will help Iraq train its Security Forces and develop its economy. But we will support a secure and united Iraq as a partner, and never as a patron.

And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.

So America will defend itself respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer.

The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world.

America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.

Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.

On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.

For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers – for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.

That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires. The obligations that the parties have agreed to under the Road Map are clear. For peace to come, it is time for them – and all of us – to live up to our responsibilities.

Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It's a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered.

Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build. The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people. Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist.

At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel's security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.

Finally, the Arab States must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state; to recognize Israel's legitimacy; and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.

America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs. We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true.

Too many tears have flowed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them) joined in prayer.

The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons.

This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is indeed a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build.

It will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point. This is not simply about America's interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.

I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation – including Iran – should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the Treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.

The fourth issue that I will address is democracy.

I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq. So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.

That does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people. Each nation gives life to this principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.

There is no straight line to realize this promise. But this much is clear: governments that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, successful and secure. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments – provided they govern with respect for all their people.

This last point is important because there are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others. No matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion; you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy.

The fifth issue that we must address together is religious freedom.

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it is being challenged in many different ways.

Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of another's. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.

Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.

Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.

Indeed, faith should bring us together. That is why we are forging service projects in America that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews. That is why we welcome efforts like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah's Interfaith dialogue and Turkey's leadership in the Alliance of Civilizations. Around the world, we can turn dialogue into Interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action – whether it is combating malaria in Africa, or providing relief after a natural disaster.

The sixth issue that I want to address is women's rights.

I know there is debate about this issue. I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.

Now let me be clear: issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, we have seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead. Meanwhile, the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.

Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity – men and women – to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams.

Finally, I want to discuss economic development and opportunity.

I know that for many, the face of globalization is contradictory. The Internet and television can bring knowledge and information, but also offensive sexuality and mindless violence. Trade can bring new wealth and opportunities, but also huge disruptions and changing communities. In all nations – including my own – this change can bring fear. Fear that because of modernity we will lose of control over our economic choices, our politics, and most importantly our identities – those things we most cherish about our communities, our families, our traditions, and our faith.

But I also know that human progress cannot be denied. There need not be contradiction between development and tradition. Countries like Japan and South Korea grew their economies while maintaining distinct cultures. The same is true for the astonishing progress within Muslim-majority countries from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.

This is important because no development strategy can be based only upon what comes out of the ground, nor can it be sustained while young people are out of work. Many Gulf States have enjoyed great wealth as a consequence of oil, and some are beginning to focus it on broader development. But all of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century, and in too many Muslim communities there remains underinvestment in these areas. I am emphasizing such investments within my country. And while America in the past has focused on oil and gas in this part of the world, we now seek a broader engagement.

On education, we will expand exchange programs, and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities. And we will match promising Muslim students with internships in America; invest in on-line learning for teachers and children around the world; and create a new online network, so a teenager in Kansas can communicate instantly with a teenager in Cairo.

On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries. And I will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.

On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create jobs. We will open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new Science Envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, and grow new crops. And today I am announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health.

All these things must be done in partnership. Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life.

The issues that I have described will not be easy to address. But we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek – a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God's children are respected. Those are mutual interests. That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together.

I know there are many – Muslim and non-Muslim – who question whether we can forge this new beginning. Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress. Some suggest that it isn't worth the effort – that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur. There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward. And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country – you, more than anyone, have the ability to remake this world.

All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort – a sustained effort – to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.

It is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples – a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian, or Muslim or Jew. It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the heart of billions. It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today.

We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.

The Holy Koran tells us, "O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."

The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."

The Holy Bible tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you.

June 4, 2009
Text: Obama’s Speech in Cairo
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html?pagewanted=print

A Conversation with Tariq Ramadhan

2009-06-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYpXjFXvwN8

Islam and Homosexuality By Tariq Ramadhan

2009-05-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

The Islamic position on homosexuality has become one of the most sensitive issues facing Muslims living in the West, particularly in Europe. It is being held up as the key to any eventual “integration” of Muslims into Western culture, as if European culture and values could be reduced to the simple fact of accepting homosexuality. The contours of this de facto European culture is in a state of constant flux, shifting according to the topic of the day. Just as some insist, as do the Pope and certain intellectuals—often dogmatic and exclusivist defenders of the Enlightenment—that Europe’s roots are Greek and Christian (thus excluding Muslims), so several homosexual spokesman and the politicians who support them are now declaring (with an identical rejection of Muslims) that the “integration of Muslims” depends on their acceptance of homosexuality. The contradiction is a serious one: does Christianity, which forms the root structure of European culture, and which purports to embody European values and identity, not condemn homosexuality? A curious marriage. Unless the contradiction is intended to stigmatize Islam and Muslims by presenting them as “the Other”… without fear of self-contradiction.

We must reiterate, as does Isabelle Levy in “Soins et croyances” [1] that all the worlds’ major religions and spiritual traditions—from the majority view in Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism to Christianity and Islam—condemn and forbid homosexuality. The great majority of rabbis hold the same position, as do the Pope and the Dalaï Lama, who condemns homosexuality. For these traditions, as for Freud (who speaks of “perversion”), homosexuality is considered to be “against nature,” an “expression of disequilibrium” in the growth of a person. The moral condemnation of homosexuality remains the majority opinion of all religions, and Islam is no exception. It would be senseless to wish to deny the facts, to contradict the textual sources and to force believers to perform intellectual contortions so that they can prove they are in tune with the times.

But the question is not whether one agrees with the religious texts, the beliefs and the convictions espoused by individuals. It is to determe what is appropriate behavior in the societies in which we live together. For more than twenty years I have been insisting—and drawing sharp criticism from some Muslim groups—that homosexuality is forbidden in Islam, but that we must avoid condemning or rejecting individuals. It is quite possible to disagree with a person’s behavior (public or private), while respecting that person as an individual. This I have continued to affirm, and gone further still: a person who pronounces the attestation of Islamic faith becomes a Muslim; if that person engages in homosexual practices, no one has the right to drive him or her out of Islam. Behavior considered reprehensible under the rules of morality cannot justify excommunication. There is no ambiguity, and ample clarity: European Muslims have the right to express their convictions while at the same time respecting the humanity and rights of individuals. If we are to be consistent, we must respect this attitude of faith and openness.

Today we are witnessing an upsurge of unhealthy, ideology-driven movements. To affirm one’s convictions and respect others is no longer sufficient. Muslims are now being called upon to condemn the Qur’an, and to accept and promote homosexuality to gain entry into the modern world. Not only is such an attitude doomed to fail (the majority trends in both traditional and reformist Islam, as in other religions, will never waver on this question) but it also reveals a new dogmatism—and a whiff of colonialism, not to mention xenophobia—at the heart of so-called modern, progressive thought. Certain prominent intellectuals and lobbies have ordained a new form of political correctness; they would like to force everyone to be “open” or “liberal” in the same way. At first glance, this open, liberal thought would seem to warrant respect; but it reveals a troubling tendency to impose its own dogmas, leaving little or no room for the convictions of traditional philosophical, spiritual or religious world-views. Betraying the ultimate goal of modernity, which should help us manage freedom and diversity, we are now told that there is only one way to be free and modern. Both dogmatic and dogmatizing, this trend, in the name of liberal thought, is a dangerous one, and should alarm all women and all men, whether atheists, agnostics, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians or Muslims. It strikes at the very heart of our freedom of thought, of the most intimate aspects of our lives, of the ways we strive for social and intellectual emancipation.

Let us not delude ourselves. These developments, along with recent tensions surrounding the return of religion, its accompanying fears, and the social visibility of homosexual “believers” is directly related to the presence and new-found visibility of Muslims in our Western societies. We, as societies, can choose to exacerbate these sensitive issues and to exploit the natural stresses created by the arrival of new immigrants to demonstrate the impossibility of integrating Muslims, and the danger they are said to represent. There are political parties that may win elections by playing on these themes. The long term outcome will be to exacerbate social divisions, and will ultimately prove counterproductive. Social cohesion will become impossible, and daily life will be undermined by mistrust and insecurity. It is time to stop playing this harmful game, and return to a more just and reasonable approach.

The good news comes from the younger generation: cultures and religions cannot stop them from getting to know one another, from living together, and from sharing both spaces and hopes. They are the future; there can be no doubt that they will leave our past fears far behind.

[1] Isabelle Lévy, Soins et Croyances, Guide pratique des rites, cultures et religions à l’usage des personnels de santé et des acteurs sociaux, Editions Estem, Paris, 2002, p.149

http://www.tariqramadan.com/spip.php?article10683