isna islamic horizons magazine - Islamic Shura Council of Southern

Transcription

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016/1437 | $4.00 | WWW.ISNA.NET
EVIL GIVES WAY | WRITING OUR OWN NARRATIVE | SHOULDER TO SHOULDER
GREATEST
OF ALL TIME
1942 – 2016
CONTENTS
VOL 45 NO. 5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 visit isna online at: WWW.ISNA.NET
COVER STORY
22
Muhammad Ali –
A Canary in America’s Coal Mines
28
What Muhammad Ali Means to Me
30
Punching to Inspire
22
CONVENTION #53
17
Turning Points: Navigating Challenges,
Seizing Opportunities
ISLAM IN AMERICA
32 Writing Our Own Narrative
33 The Conversion and Second Resurrection of the
Nation of Islam
35 Sharia Online
36
MUSLIMS IN ACTION
36 Planting the Seeds of Anti-Poverty Work
38 The Case against Fossil Fuels Investments
40
42
44
45
INTERFAITH
Evil Gives Way
In the Wake of Exclusivist Political Rhetoric
Lessons Learned
Facing Fear and Acting for a Better America
42
HEALTH & WELL-BEING
46 The Addictions Epidemic
THE MUSLIM WORLD
48 Kashmir for Kashmiris
50 Cooperation Serves Democracy
SPECIAL FEATURE
6
8
10
58
60
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial
ISNA Matters
Community Matters
New Releases
Food for the Spirit
52 The Great Age of the Seljuqs
54 Exhibition of “The Art of the Quran”
IN MEMORIAM
56 Abdul-Sattar Edhi
57 Asad Husain
ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
DESIGN & LAYOUT BY: Gamal Abdelaziz, A-Ztype Copyeditor: Jay Willoughby. The views expressed in Islamic
Horizons are not necessarily the views of its editors nor of the Islamic Society of North America. Islamic
Horizons does not accept unsolicitated articles or submissions. All references to the Quran made are from
The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Amana, Brentwood, MD.
5
EDITORIAL
Strengthening the
American Muslim Narrative
T
his Labor Day weekend in Chicago,
Muslim Chicagoans will welcome thousands of their kin and friends at ISNA #53.
This year’s theme, which builds on the
ISNA #52 theme, challenges attendees to
move beyond their comfort zones: “Turning Points: Navigating Challenges, Seizing
Opportunities.”
During the closing weeks of 2015 and on
into 2016 [and as things show, predictably
onward], anti-Islamic bigotry continues
its caustic buildup, despite concerted and
collaborative efforts by Muslim communities and organizations to promote Islam’s
teachings and engage, partner and ally themselves with their non-Muslim counterparts.
This relatively new approach represents a
“turning point” in how the community and
mainstream North American society both
perceive and are willing to learn more about
each other, despite the ongoing fear mongering from certain quarters. ISNA #53’s theme is broad enough to
allow serious and realistic deliberations at
the various sessions and roundtables. The
focus is simultaneously historic, both from
the vantage point of past and recent turning
points in Islamic history. The uplifting message will be: “Yes, there are challenges, but
we can navigate them even as we organize
and empower our communities to seize the
opportunities to deepen our faith, impart
its teachings, and address socially complex
issues facing all North Americans, regardless
of their faith or lack thereof.”
In this regard, the following words
from First Lady Michelle Obama’s address
to the Democratic Nation Convention in
Philadelphia on July 25 are a guide on how
to stand against hate, against Islamophobia
and against ignorance.
“…That is what Barack and I think about
every day as he tried to guide and protect
our girls from the challenges of this unusual
life in the spotlight. How we urged them
to ignore those who question their father’s
citizenship or faith. How we insist that the
6
hateful language they hear from public
figures on TV does not represent the true
spirit of this country. How we explain that
when someone is cruel or acts like a bully,
you don’t stoop to their level. Our motto is,
when they go low, we go high.
“With every word we utter, with every
action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are the most important
role model.”
In the summer of 2015, preceding ISNA
#52, Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists began
to publicly challenge politicians — including
the presidential candidates — to state their
positions on BLM issues. This movement
began when George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted
in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a
seventeen-year-old African-American teenager, during the summer of 2013. BLM has
touched Chicago in a personal way: the
police shootings of Ronald “Ronnie Man”
Johnson, Pierre L. Loury, Bettie Jones and
Rekia Boyd.
Yes, #BLM is as much a Muslim American
and Canadian issue as is standing up against
hate, intolerance and ignorance.
Taking ISNA #53’s theme to heart, we
must finally move beyond our communal
concerns or things “back home,” thereby
proving our oft-stated assertion that we are
Americans or Canadians. We must “navigate the challenges” that face us where we
actually live and “seize the opportunities” to
get involved and ally ourselves with those
working for social justice, instead of just
concentrating on our own issues.
As the next issue of Islamic Horizons
(Nov./Dec. 2016) will reach many after they
have voted, we again refer to the First Lady’s
convention address: “Make no mistake about
it. This November, when we get to the polls,
that is what we are deciding. Not Democrat
or Republican, not left or right. In this election, and every election, it is about who will
have the power to shape our children for the
next four or eight years of their lives.” ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
PUBLISHER
The Islamic Society of North America
(ISNA)
PRESIDENT
Azhar Azeez
SECRETARY GENERAL
Hazem Bata
EDITOR
Omer Bin Abdullah
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Faryal M Khatri
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Parvez Ahmed (Interim Chair), Iqbal Unus,
M. Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Hazem Bata.
ISLAMIC HORIZONS
is a bimonthly publication of the Islamic
Society of North America (ISNA)
P.O. Box 38 • Plainfield, IN 46168‑0038
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ISNA MATTERS
AN END TO VIOLENCE
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, National Director
of the ISNA Office for Interfaith & Community
Alliances, participated in the June 16th Orlando
shooting-related observances hosted by Dr. Susan
Crowe, director of the General Board of Church
and Society — a general agency of the United
Methodist Church — in Washington, D.C.
The joint statement stated: “This and other
acts of hate and terror cannot be blamed on
Muslims. Those who perpetrated this tragedy are not reflective of Islam or of the larger
Muslim community. During this holy season
of Ramadan, we know that Muslims around
the world are peacefully fasting, reflecting and
praying in praise and love of God.
“Persons from any culture who are radicalized
must not be allowed to claim the integrity of the
world’s great religious traditions. As persons of
faith we must stand with all religious persons
and communities who seek peace, compassion,
and a brighter future for all.”
The statement also reminded those in the
audience that “addressing gun violence must
be a priority for our leaders at every level of
government. Doing nothing is to be complicit
in the continued murder of innocent people.”
On June 15, Syeed joined faith leaders from
across the country in Washington, D.C., to pray
for the victims and families of the Orlando massacre and for another issue critical to our safety and
security: The reform of those systems responsible
for raising the number of currently imprisoned
Americans to 2.3 million, the highest incarcerated rate in the world, by changing the federal
sentencing guidelines.
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act
of 2015 (S. 2123), which landed on the desk of
Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) after
receiving wide bipartisan support, has languished
there since Oct. 2015 — almost one year. Faith
leaders met with Senators and Representatives
to urge that both this stalled reform and others
move forward.
Syeed said that while Muslim Americans
constitute hardly 3 percent of the nation’s total
8
population, they now make up over 10 percent
of those incarcerated. He proclaimed, “We need
to see how the criminal justice in America is
reformed to take justice its course in integrating
people with light crimes back in our society.”
This event was sponsored by the National
Council of Churches (NCC), the Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the
Interfaith Criminal Justice Coalition and the
Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism
(RACRJ).
“In the face of a tragedy like we experienced
this week, we people of faith come together to
bear witness that the world as it is, which is broken
with suffering and oppression, is not the world as
it need be,” said Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Director of
RACRJ. “And so we lift up our moral voice today
in outrage and in prayer.”
In a time of bitter partisanship, sentencing
reform has been perhaps the single issue that
has received support from both Republicans
and Democrats.
“Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all spring
from a story of freedom, of a God who liberates the enslaved and gives second chances,” said
Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President
of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
“We believe this is a matter of faith and morality,
and we urge Senator McConnell to do the right
thing and bring this bill to a vote.”
Senate Bill S. 2123 reforms the “Three
Strikes” rules, which can sentence a person to
life in prison for minor offenses, and changes
some of the mandatory minimum sentences for
nonviolent drug offenses.
“We have been supportive of this bill since
the beginning, and still feel that it is the best
chance we will have to see meaningful change
for years to come,” said Aundreia Alexander,
Associate General Secretary of the NCC. “If this
legislation is not brought to a vote in the next few
weeks, it likely will die. Time is of the essence.
We urge Congress to act now.”
The prayer vigil was led by faith groups from
across a wide spectrum of Christian, Jewish,
Muslim and civil rights groups.
“This campaign is neither conservative nor
liberal, left nor right. It involves something we
all agree on: Every person in prison is made
in the image of God and deserves just punishment and the opportunity for restoration,”
said Craig DeRoche, Senior Vice President of
Advocacy & Public Policy, Prison Fellowship.
”The disproportionate sentences that contribute
to federal prison overcrowding infringe on our
freedoms, are expensive, and do not represent
our values.” MYNA LEADERS MEET
The outgoing and incoming
Muslim Youth of North America
(MYNA) National Executive
Committee, Regional Executive
Committee, Advisory Board,
Majlis Youth Council and several ISNA staff members met for
their annual Summer Leadership
Summit from June 15 to 21 in
Flint, Mich., where they were
hosted by neurologist Jawad
Shah, a MYC member.
The weeklong summit, a crucial part of MYNA, lays the foundational training for the youth
involved. Thus 35 of the 2016-17
MYNA officers cooperated with
each other to devise a program
of leadership and position training, along with spiritual training
through khatirahs, taraweeh and
ibadah in honor of Ramadan.
The summit was an opportunity
for participants to learn and ask
questions about their roles and
improve their departments, as
well as to work on new events,
initiatives and programs by utilizing the expertise of past EC,
MYC and staff members.
MYNA held five summer
regional camps nationwide so
that as many youth as possible
could attend at least one of
them. Under the theme of “Stop,
Submit, and Serve,” the camps
took participants through a
weeklong process of submitting
to God and improving their
selves in order to serve the
community. The camps helped
connect campers to the importance of the deen after just saying
goodbye to Ramadan, the need
to establish and maintain community ties and to becoming
agents of service and change
within their wider spheres of
activity. The programs included
such recreational activities as
zip lining, canoeing, swimming,
hiking, archery and bonding
around campfires. ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
PHOTO NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
WORKING FOR THE COMMON GOOD
Coinciding with the Democratic
National Convention, ISNA and the National
Religious Campaign Against Torture
(NRCAT) co-sponsored a breakfast in
Philadelphia on July 27 for fellowship and
to talk about issues of concern to Muslims
during this election year.
The event highlighted how ISNA has
2016-17 MYNA OFFICERS TAKE CHARGE
MYNA welcomed its new officers for
2016-17.
The incoming Executive Committee and
Regional Executive Committee will begin
their training and take office at the ISNA
Convention during Labor Day weekend.
President: Alaa Abdeldaeim (Crown
Point, Ind.), Vice President: Sana Khan
(Carbondale, Ill.), Program Chair: Zeba
Kokan (Carmel, Ind.), Outreach Chair:
Hadeel Abdallah (Lexington, Ky.),
Treasurer: Sana Baban (Gainesville, Fla.),
Secretary: Sarah Siddiqui (Dayton, Ohio)
and Public Relations Chair: Yaseen Najeeb
(Milwaukee, Wis.)
Chair: Mariam Soliman (Cincinnati,
Ohio) is chair of the Midwest Regional
Executive Committee; Program Chair:
Ozair Hasan (Dayton, Ohio), Secretary:
Izza Ghani (Flint, Mich.), Finance Chair:
Nabiha Mushtaq (Louisville, Ky.) and
Public Relations Chair: Hoda Shalash
(Lexington, Ky.).
Yousef Abdeldaiem (Crown Point, Ind.)
is chair of the North Central Regional
Executive Committee; Program Chair:
Ameer Qadri (Naperville, Ill.), Secretary:
Nabila Qadri (Naperville, Ill.), Finance
Chair: Haroon Khan (Lindenhurst, Ill.)
and Public Relations Chair: Dina Hussein
(Crown Point, Ind.).
Mouadh Ayachi (Dallas, Texas) is chair
of the South Central Regional Executive
Committee; Program Chair: Aisha Ahmed
(Dallas, Texas), Secretary: Dalia El-Giar
(West Monroe, La.), Finance Chair: Aseel
Atalla (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Public Relations
Chair: Hammad Husain (Wichita, Kan.).
All officers of the Midatlantic Regional
Executive Committee are from Washington,
D.C. Ameenah Habib is chair; Program
Chair: Duha Salem, Secretary: Hasib Zaman,
Finance Chair: Abduelwahab Hussein and
Public Relations Chair: Amani Hagmagid.
Juveriyah Salat (Fremont, Calif.) is
California Regional Executive Committee
Chair; Program Chair: Aliyah Rasheed
(Fremont, Calif.), Secretary: Azza Abid
(Fremont. Calif.), Finance Chair: Zainab
Khan (Fremont, Calif.) and Public Relations
Chair: Shayan Bawaney (Dublin, Calif.).
MYNA inaugurated it newest chapter,
MYNA Milwaukee, which has been meeting
and planning for local MYNA events since
Feb. 20, 2016. On June 24 its members hosted
their first event, a MYNA Qiyam. Nearly 40
fostered inter-religious partnerships to
address domestic and international issues
that are critical to our country’s future. The
danger of proposals advocating the exclusion
of Muslims is palpable and leads the nation
away from achieving the “common good.”
It was reiterated that anti-Muslim rhetoric
makes America less, not more, safe.
Speakers included Rabbi Nancy
Fuchs-Kreimer, Director, Department
of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives and
Associate Professor of Religious Studies,
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College,
Wyncote, Pa., Catherine Orsborn, Shoulderto-Shoulder, Patricia Anton, graduate student, Hartford Seminary, Sayyid M. Syeed,
Rev. Ron Stief, executive director of NRCAT,
Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New
Evangelical Partnership for the Common
Good, and Dr. Christopher Bail, assistant
professor of Sociology at Duke University.
NRCAT, based in Washington, D.C., is a
decade-old national interfaith coalition of
over 300 mainline Protestant, Evangelical,
Catholic, Muslim, Sikh, and other faith
organizations. youth turned out, including some from out of
state, and the feedback was overwhelmingly
positive. Among the featured sessions were
a workshop on using your time wisely, some
exciting icebreaker games to get to know
each other and a talk about youth activism
by Qari Noman Hussain, imam/religious
director at Masjid-Al-Huda in Greenfield,
Wisc. and founder of Ilm Oasis. In July, this
new chapter hosted a community service
outing at St. Vincent de Paul’s Soup Kitchen
in downtown Milwaukee. MedicalAudits.net
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9
COMMUNITY MATTERS
Quranic Guidance
For the third time in three years,
the joint 41st Islamic Circle of North
America (ICNA)-Muslim American Society (MAS) convention,
entitled “Quran: The Divine Guidance,” was held in Baltimore, Md.,
on May 28-30.
Speaking at the opening session, ICNA President Naeem
Baig remarked that they chose
this theme in order to explore
the sacred text’s beauties while
dispelling misinterpretations of
Islam and Muslims in the country’s mainstream media and various politicians’ rhetoric.
“We feel our duty as Muslim Americans
[is] to talk about our faith, to talk about our
being, to talk about the book of God,” Baig
said. He added, “It is our belief that this
Book is divine and that it has the answers
to everything that we face in our lives.”
Imam Hassan Amin, who serves at
the Johns Hopkins University and as a
Baltimore Police Department chaplain,
told the Baltimore Sun on May 27 that
ICNA’s willingness to hold its convention
in this city after the Freddie Gray riots last
spring testified to the organization’s — and
Islam’s — values.
Oussama Jammal, secretary general of
the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations,
said that now is the time for Muslim
Americans to unite against the growing
threat of Islamophobia. To stress the importance of voter registration, former ICNA
president Zahid Bukhari manned the event’s
voter information/registration booth.
Topics addressed during the three-day
convention included how to deal with the
on-the-ground realities faced by Muslims
living in North America, Islamophobia and
discrimination. The dawah workshop led
by Hamza Tzortzis and Fahad Tasleem was
followed by street dawah at the Inner Harbor.
Two sessions on Hispanic Muslims were also
held, one in English and the other in Spanish.
On Sunday, a group of Muslim volunteers sought to give back to the community
by handing out 700 “Mercy Bags”
filled with toiletries and other
essentials to the area’s homeless,
low-income residents and seniors.
Baig told the Baltimore Sun that
these items were chosen based
upon the products looted from
convenience stores during the
Freddie Gray protests.
The convention featured a
bazaar, a Quran recitation contest,
a career fair, sisters’ events, youth
sessions, a revert session, children’s
activities, dawah workshops and talks by
Islamic scholars and imams. In addition
to the available food options, there was
an outdoor halal food court with a wide
selection of traditional Muslim foods.
This year’s entertainment session featured Karim Jabbari’s “Light from the
Heart,” which consisted of using handheld light and long-exposure photographic
techniques to capture the transient form
within a real setting. Youssef Edghouch,
Preacher Moss, Khalil Ismail and winner
of spoken word contest, also performed. Philadelphia and New Jersey School Districts Recognize Eid
The Jersey Journal reported on May 20 that
built on the idea that while we may be different in
Jersey City (N.J.) public schools will close for Eid
nationality and ethnicity, the city welcomes all to
al-Adha, as the school board has voted unanimously
worship and practice the faiths of our culture or
to add this holiday to the school calendar. “On behalf
our choosing.”
of the Muslim community, we made history,” said
“Because the calendar for the 2016-17 school year
Jessica Abdelnabbi, a Muslim mother who lobbied
has already been finalized, those who wish to take
the day off will be given excused absences,” Schools
for the holiday. “My [three] children will not be
excluded.”
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said, adding that
Jersey City joins other districts around the
in the future these holidays will be treated like any
other holiday.
state, including in Paterson, Trenton and Atlantic
City, by officially recognizing Eid al-Adha. Board
Michael Rashid, chair of the Philadelphia Eid
of Education president Vidya Gangadin said the
Coalition,
said citywide Muslim religious leaders
William R. Hite Jr.
unanimous vote acknowledges the city’s diverse
have agreed on the relevant dates for the next five
population. The board will create a committee, which will include years. In the 2017-18 school year, Eid al-Fitr will fall during the
religious leaders of various faiths, to determine what holidays the summer and Eid al-Adha on a Saturday, meaning the first new
district should add to its calendar starting in 2017-18.
holiday that the entire district will have off will be Eid al-Fitr (June
The Philadelphia School District has added the two Eid holidays 14, 2018).
to its calendar and, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the city
Philadelphia contains an estimated 200,000 Muslims. Mayor
will create a task force to look into following suit for its own calendar. Kenney noted that making the days city holidays will require buy-in
“Philadelphia’s history is based on being a place where religious from the city’s municipal unions and that the newly created Mayor’s
freedom is part of its founding ethos,” Mayor James Francis “Jim” Task Force on Cultural Inclusion will focus “first and foremost”
Kenney (D) said at a news conference on May 31. “Our city was on that issue; however, the focus could broaden in the future. 10
COMMUNITY MATTERS
Report Exposes U.S. Islamophobic Groups
On June 20, 2016, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Center for Race and Gender at University of California Berkeley released their joint report,
“Confronting Fear” (www.irdproject.com).
In addition to revealing that during 2008-13,
33 Islamophobic organizations spent approximately $206 million to incite hatred
against Islam and Muslims, it presented a
four-point strategy designed to achieve a
shared American understanding of Islam in
which being “Muslim” is something positive
and in which Islam has an equal place among
this country’s other faiths.
The report documents the negative
impact of Islamophobia, including: (1) AntiIslam bills became law in 10 states; (2) Florida
and Tennessee passed laws revising how they
approve textbooks for classroom use; (3) In
2015, mosques were targeted in 78 recorded
incidents. Seventeen such incidents each were
reported during November and December,
numbers almost equivalent to an entire year’s
worth of reports from 2103 and 2014; and (4)
The appearance of “Muslim-free” businesses
and armed anti-Islam demonstrations, both
of which raise deep concerns.
Corey Saylor, director of CAIR’s
Department to Monitor and Combat
Islamophobia, stated: “The counter-Islamophobia strategy presented in ‘Confronting
Fear’ offers specific advice on how to push
back against the well-funded effort to
promote and exploit anti-Muslim bigotry
nationwide. By advocating positive action on
issues that are not necessarily directly about
Muslims, but are nevertheless about the preservation of justice and human dignity, we
Hajj Inspires Multiuse Jacket
Haroon Pasha, who graduated from
Hood College in May, told the Frederick
(Md.) News-Post on May 10 that going on
the hajj inspired his idea
for the “Backet,” a combination backpack and jacket
that he and other members
of Hood’s Enactus group
designed for the homeless.
Inspired by a post-hajj
video showing a Syrian
woman and her children
in a refugee camp inspired
him to think about what
those refugees would need, he focused on
a developing an appropriate item that would
combine various functions.
Several months later, Pasha pitched his
idea to the Enactus group. David Gurzick, an
assistant professor of management and the
group’s adviser, said they recognized that he
was offering more than just a product concept, for the Backet would be water resistant
and provide warmth, while the users could
12
wear their clothes in layers underneath it.
It appears to be a normal winter jacket, but
one with a difference: One can fold it into a
compartment, leaving only
the backpack visible. This
latter portion, which has
foam padding inside, can
also be used as a pillow.
The students raised
$10,000 for startup costs.
The next step is to hire four
homeless people to make
50 Backets, thereby giving
them the chance to gain
job skills and earn a paycheck. Pasha said
that they are working with the Religious
Coalition for Emergency Human Needs to
bring that program to life in the fall. The
finished Backets will be handed out through
community organizations. The team hopes
to develop a premium version that can be
marketed to the general public. For each
one purchased, a basic version would go to
a homeless person. remind our nation that Islam is a force for
good in the society. The contributions of
Muslims to America are significant, and we
plan to expand that positive work.”
Hatem Bazian, director of the
Islamophobia Research and Documentation
Project at the Center for Race and Gender
at UC Berkeley, noted: “The work of the
Islamophobia Research and Documentation
Project at UC Berkeley is enriched and
inspired by the partnership and the hard
work undertaken jointly with CAIR to produce another annual report that exposes
the bigotry-producing industry in America
while providing opportunities and strategies
on how best to reclaim an open, democratic
and religiously inclusive society.”
He added: “The hope is that this report
and others like it will provide the needed
grounding for communities across the
country to use for effective engagement
with policy makers, educators, civil society
leaders, and media outlets. Education and
applied research is the best avenue to uplift
and bring about a social justice transformation in society and this report is a step in
that direction.” Piscataway, N.J., teen Saheela
Ibraheem, 16, who was accepted by
six Ivy League schools and eight other
colleges, has started school
at Harvard. She is one of its
youngest students.
This Wardlaw-Hartridge
School, Edison, N.J., graduate and daughter of Nigerian
immigrants, wants to major
in either neurobiology or
neuroscience and plans to
become a research scientist
who studies how the brain
works. Not only did this
hijabi athlete play outfield
for the school’s softball
team, defender on the soccer team and
swim relays and 50-meter races for the
swim team, but she also sang alto in the
school choir, played trombone in the
school band and served as president of
the school’s investment club.
Her father Sarafa is an analyst and
vice president at a New York City
financial firm. ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
Conference on Islamic Bioethics
by discussing approaches for “Rejuvenating Islamic Theological
Ethics.” She emphasized two recurrent themes: The Muslim community is a “work in progress” and being a Muslim is “fundamentally
more about becoming than being.” She suggested that the current
state of flux in which we find ourselves is both a challenge and
opportunity, which is certainly true in terms of bioethics. Mattson
also touched on themes that commonly remain unaddressed, such
as gender justice in clinical care and research, the key role of chaplains within Islam’s ethico-legal and theological traditions, as well
as in administering “healing” to patients, care givers and families.
The diverse range of attendees, speakers and facilitators indicated that this event is the platform from which a discursive and
enriching environment can be formed to propel future work and
collaboration. This nascent field requires a careful and balanced
articulation of the right questions in order to provide the necessary
substrate for on-going debate and discussion. The presenters’ candid
perspectives, which included their personal stories of scholarship
and being part of an organic process of forming a community of
respectful disagreement to enable a cross-pollination of ideas, were
particularly valuable. (By Mehrunisha Suleman, DPhil candidate,
Nuffield Department of Population Health, Oxford University.) Yet Another Hijab Controversy
Nisreen Eadeh, Arab America staff writer, reported on June
1 that some parents and Medford, Mass., residents created enough commotion to get Medford High School’s Hijab Day, scheduled in conjunction
with the Feb. 1, 2017, World Hijab Day, canceled.
The event, sponsored by the Arabic Club’s
Arab, Muslim, and non-Arab/Muslim students, was approved by Principal John Perella
after due process. Medford School District
Superintendent Roy Belson had also appreciated the idea, which Parella said “was really [to]
develop empathy and to give voice to a minority
group in our building that does not typically
have voice.”
In keeping with the country’s rising Islamophobia, the complaints
alleged that the event was a “proselytizing mission” and a “latent religious
exhibition.” Some even went so far as to say that it was part of a plan to
destroy America [emphasis added].
World Hijab Day founder Nazma Khan has stated that the event
“hopes to counteract some of the controversies surrounding why Muslim
women choose to wear the hijab” by fostering a shared experience of
wearing it together.
Ironically, the Medford City Hall hosted an iftar. ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
CITY OF LOS ANGELES HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
The Initiative on Islam and Medicine (II&M) at the University of Chicago held a multidisciplinary conference on Islamic
theology, law, and biomedicine on April 15-17. Entitled “Interfaces
and Discourses,” the event built upon the organization’s annual
Islamic bioethics workshops. Director Aasim Padela, an assistant
professor of medicine, and his II&M colleagues arranged an insightful pre-conference workshop on Islamic bioethics to provide
attendees with a comprehensive and realistic understanding of the
deeper philosophical and epistemological challenges encountered
by those involved in the field.
The conference itself was a stimulating balance of presentations,
discussions and informal conversations that brought key scholars,
theologians and practitioners into dialogue on theological and
biomedical issues. Shaykh Amin Kholwadia, founder and director of the Darul Qasim Islamic Institute, emphasized the “Role of
the Ulama in Expounding an Islamic Theosophy” and argued for
balancing scientific forays with insights gleaned from revelation.
His presentation was complemented by Prof. Ebrahim Moosa,
professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame and
co-director of the Contending Modernities project, who cautioned
against “Paradigm Idolatry.” He challenged the notion that the
traditional pre-modern seminarian paradigms can solve the moral
problems encountered in modern science and modern societies.
The future of Islamic ethics and bioethics, he opined, depends upon
continued scholarly flexibility, which is likely to lead to positive
ethical approaches to the inherently difficult bioethical problems
articulated by the presenters during the sessions.
Ingrid Mattson, a former ISNA president and chair in Islamic
Studies at Huron University, summarized and closed the conference
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Los
Angeles Human Relations Commission awarded Muslim
Public Affairs Committee president Salam Al-Marayati
with a Community Leadership Award on June 14 at the
mayor’s Annual Interfaith Iftar. He told the over 100 attendees that the “Muslim community thanks you for being
Los Angeles, not a part of Los Angeles, being Los Angeles.”
Also honored were psychologist and counselor
Shamin Ibrahim, founder and executive director of Niswa
Association, which provides resources, information and
support for Muslim families in Southern California, and
Atila Kahveci, Pacifica Institute, which develops social
capital. Haroon Azar, regional director for Strategic
Engagement, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security was the
keynote speaker. 13
COMMUNITY MATTERS
LA Footies Live the Dream
Ruqaya and Qassim Azam, eight-year-old Los Angeles twins who attend Al Huda Islamic School, were selected as Chevrolet Mascots for the Manchester United
team. The twins, who share a love for the game, received
their jerseys from Denis Irwin, a Manchester United legend during the early 2000s. At the end of August, they
will walk a game along with the players at Old Trafford,
the team’s home ground, in front of approximately 75,000
fans and millions more watching via various media outlets around the world. As part of the mascot experience,
they will meet the players and legends, attend Manchester
United Soccer School, tour Old Trafford among participate
in other activities.
Their father Ahmad, a senior professor at DeVry
University, is president of the Islamic Center of Hawthorne’s
board of trustees, a member of the Shura Council of Southern California and a long-standing
leader of the Muslim American Society. Their mother, an active member of the Muslim
community, has taught at Al Huda Islamic school for many years.
Each year, the Manchester United Football Club of U.K. honors 11 children who live
by the spirit of play as Chevrolet Mascots — the team’s official sponsor. Those selected
are rewarded with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take the pitch with their heroes at
the team’s home ground. Hawthorne Police Department’s Sergeant Chris Cognac started
Qassim and Ruqaya’s initial selection when he invited them to start the process on behalf
of the community. World Refugee Day
U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry
and actress Angelina Jolie spoke at the interfaith iftar held by the All Dulles Area
Muslim Society Center of Sterling, Va., on
June 20. The goal was to encourage interfaith leaders to continue to do all they can
to welcome refugees displaced from wartorn countries.
Kerry and Jolie were among the estimated
375 people and several area religious leaders
at the World Refugee Day event.
Kerry asserted that the world is looking
to the West for leadership and compassion
toward refugees. He noted that the U.S. will
accept 80,000 refugees this year and 100,000
next year, and that each of them will have
to undergo stringent screening before they
can resettle here.
“There is absolutely zero evidence that
refugees that make it through our process
14
pose more of a threat than members of
any other group,” he said, prompting loud
applause. “Let me be clear: There is nothing
ideological about coming to the aid to someone in need. … Americans say here we are
what can we do to help. That’s who we are.”
Jolie, the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees Special Envoy who has dedicated
much of her time during the past 15 years
to the world’s refugee crisis, stressed that
those who are accepting of people of different
religions, cultures and backgrounds do not
do away with their own identity. “When we
are at our strongest is when we draw on our
diversity as people, to find unity based on
our common values and our identity... We
are not strong despite our diversity; we’re
strong because of it.”
Board chairman Rizwan Jaka commended those in Northern Virginia, especially the faith community, for accepting
refugees with open arms. Muslim Canadians
Help Fire-Ravaged
Fort McMurray
On Eid al-Fitr (July 6), the Toronto-based Muslim charity International
Development and Relief Foundation announced a gift of Can $250,000 to the people
of fire-ravaged Fort McMurray. This gift,
raised during a pre-Canada Day dinner in
Markham, Ont., was attended by local MP
and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
minister John McCallum. It will be sent to
Habitat for Humanity to rebuild and repair
the homes of residents with minimal or no
insurance coverage.
In early May, a massive wildfire forced
the evacuation of more than 80,000 residents, destroyed 2,400 buildings and damaged thousands more. They were allowed to
return in June, but only in early July did the
Alberta government declare the fire under
control — thanks to recent rains.
In a press release, IDRF board chair Zeib
Jeeva asked “What better way for Canadian
Muslims to celebrate both Canada Day and
Eid than to join hundreds of thousands
of other Canadians in helping the fellow
Canadians who’ve had their lives turned
upside down in Fort McMurray?”
The Financial Post noted that IDRF,
founded in 1984, was one of Canada’s top
25 charities.
Meanwhile, on July 9 the Muslims of
Halifax donated Can $10,000 dollars worth
of stuffed bags of food for families who rely
on Feed Nova Scotia, under their Share the
Spirit of Ramadan program. The Council of Islamic Organizations
of Greater Chicago convened its 19th Annual Catholic-Muslim iftar on June 27. This
event, hosted by member organization the
Zakat Foundation of America, was held in
Bridgeview, Ill. The topic of discussion was
coming together to stop Islamophobia. Over
200 Catholics and Muslims attended. For
Archbishop Blasé Cupich, the guest of honor,
it was his first iftar since he became the Archdiocese of Chicago’s ninth archbishop. ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
For the first time ever, according
to WCAX News report on May 24, Norwich
University, the nation’s
oldest private military
college, has allowed an
incoming freshman
class (Class of 2020) to
wear the hijab as part of
the student’s Corps of
Cadets uniform. Sana
Hamze had requested
the religious accommodation to cover her
hair and neck while in uniform, and for uniform accommodations that allow her to cover
her arms and legs.
The policy change at this nearly 200-yearold private school located in Northfield, Vt.,
will also allow Jewish cadets to wear the yarmulke with their uniform.
Norwich president Richard Schneider,
who declared that “Norwich University is
a learning community that is American in
character yet global in perspective,” noted
that it is not the first senior military college
to grant such religious accommodations.
Her father, Nezar Hamze, a deputy sheriff, is also regional operations director for
the Council on American-Islamic Relations
Florida.
On June 10, the Islamic Center of
Maryland (ICM) hosted a groundbreaking
ceremony on the 48,000 square-foot multipurpose building. This is the first building
of a three-building, three-phase expansion
project that dates back to 1990. Each phase
is devoted to one building: a multipurpose
community center building, a mosque and
a full-time school, respectively. ICM, which
raised $4 million to reach this goal, expects
the mosque to be completed in 2020.
Montgomery County Executive Ike
Leggett, who addressed the approximately
300 community members in attendance,
said, “What you are doing here today, what
you are building is a symbol against all the
hatred today, and we are confident it will
stand for generations to come.”
Wael Elkhoshairi, chairman of ICM’s
Board of Trustees, served as the master of
ceremonies. County council members Sidney Katz and George Leventhal, Reverend
Mannsfield Kaseman, and Montgomery
County Police District Commander Nancy
Hudson also spoke at the event.
Teaneck, N.J., swore in Mohammed
Hameeduddin as mayor on July 1 after he
was selected for the
job. He was not the
only Teaneck council
member nominated
for the position at the
reorganization meeting, called in the aftermath of Mayor Lizette Parker’s unexpected
death in April.
He had previously served as mayor from
2010 to 2014 — the first Muslim American
to hold this post in Bergen County. The new
mayor was sworn in by the likely 2017 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jersey City
Mayor Steven Fulop.
The New York Police Department reinstated Masood Syed, who was suspended
without pay for refusing to shave his beard.
He said that he grew it
for religious reasons.
On June 22, a little
more than a week later,
Syed, 32, was allowed
back on the force and
permitted to keep his one-inch beard when
U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel ordered the
NYPD had to reinstate his pay and benefits,
according to NBC News.
Syed, a law clerk to administrative judges,
said that he loved his job as a police officer
in the nation’s most diverse city, but that
as a Muslim, he was also very attached to
his beard.
The NYPD, insisting that it was more
than 1 millimeter in length, claimed that
it breached regulations. Syed said he had
worn the 1-inch beard for most of his 10-year
career and had only occasionally drawn critical comments. Brooklyn patrol officer Rohail
Kahlid, whose beard is about a half-an-inch
long, said that enforcing the rule could often
be arbitrary, depending on who the boss is.
Syed’s lawsuit, which seeks class-action
status, would help more than 100 police
employees who find the religious exception
to the department’s no-beard policy insufficient because they say the length allowed
is not reasonable.
On June 13, the Axelson Center for
Nonprofit Management presented its 2016
Excellent Emerging Organization Award to
the Muslim Women’s Alliance. The MWA’s
representative, upon accepting the award,
proclaimed: “We are rejuvenated by this
recognition and renew our commitment
to building a stronger organization that
develops women leaders, serve the community, mentor women and empower the
community through awareness and action.”
Cobb County approved a proposed
12.5 acre Muslim cemetery that will be run
under the leadership of East Cobb Islamic
Center (ECIC). The land for what has turned
out to be Georgia’s largest Muslim cemetery
was acquired in May 2015 for $335,000 and
paid for by donations raised by the center in
collaboration with other mosques located in
the county: the East Cobb Islamic Center,
Masjid Ibad-ur-Rahman, Masjid Al-Hedaya,
Masjid Furqan, Masjid Al-Farooq, the Roswell Community Masjid and Masjid Suffah.
Metro Atlanta has long been served by
a six-acre Muslim cemetery operated by
Masjid Al-Farooq that was established in
early 1980s. About 60 percent of that cemetery has already been used. The other significant cemetery is located in the northeastern
metro-Atlanta suburb.
The property, to be named ECIC Cemetery, will be professionally maintained,
fenced off and gated from the adjacent
roadway. Arrangements for funeral services
will be outsourced, and alternatives are being evaluated at this time. It is anticipated
that this property can accommodate over
9,800 burial sites. Burial plots will not be
sold to individuals, but rather offered for a
reasonable price to members of the Muslim
community who need a plot for their recently
deceased loved ones.
Indiana University Research and
Technology Corp. protects, markets and
licenses intellectual
property developed
at Indiana University so that it can be
commercialized by
industry. It reported
that during Fiscal Year
2015-16, four startups
were launched by IU
researchers through the Spin Up program,
a nonprofit business accelerator focused on
technology-driven businesses.
15
COMMUNITY MATTERS
One of them, Emission System Solutions
Inc., was founded by Sohel Anwar, associate
professor of mechanical engineering in the
School of Engineering and Technology on
the IUPUI campus. The company seeks to
improve the fuel efficiency of diesel engines
by offering an innovative, accurate soot load
sensing system to optimize the regeneration
operation of the particulate filter.
Anwar, a faculty member at the Purdue
School of Engineering and Technology at the
IUPUI campus in Indianapolis, is vice president of the Association of Muslim Scientists,
Engineers, and Technology Professionals
(AMSET) and program chair of the AMSET
Conference 2016 at the ISNA Convention.
In addition, he is a member of the board of
trustees of the Al-Huda Foundation (Al-Huda masjid), located in Fisher, Ind.
Arab Termite & Pest Control, an Indianapolis-based business owned by Syed
Anwar and Janet Shah, received the Mayor’s
Minority Business Enterprise of the Year
Award on July 11. During January 2005, it
also received the Consumers’ Choice Award,
presented by Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.). In
2007, it had been nominated by Indiana
16
University–Purdue University Indianapolis
among the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin; and the National
Minority Supplier Development Council
recognized Arab as Supplier of the Year.
A small business started in 1929 in
Indianapolis, it has survived wars, economic
depressions and even a tornado. The Shahs,
who have been married for 41 years, have,
coincidentally, been associated with this
company for the last 41 years.
In 1994, Anwar Shah helped establish
the Masjid Al-Fajr Cemetery. In addition
to being head of the cemetery committee
and Muslim burial services, during 2001
he was treasurer of the Indianapolis MTI
School of Knowledge building construction
committee and, for three decades, served
the Indianapolis Muslim Community Association as vice-president and treasurer.
The Islamic Society of Greater Lima
(Ohio), which comprises about 200 Muslims, formally inaugurated its newly built
mosque on July 6 and held an open house
two days later. Established as a non-profit religious organization in the late 1990s,
members held the Friday congregational
prayer in a small two-bedroom apartment.
In 2011, they joined Lima’s Al-Muwahideen
Society and began observing the prayer in
a small house. Houston’s Planning and Development
Department has instituted The Mohdudul
Huq Excellence in Customer Service Award
to both honor its namesake and to recognize
staff members who provide outstanding service to its customers. Not surprisingly, the
first recipient is Mohdudul Huq, a senior
planner in the department.
53 RD ANNUAL ISNA CONVENTION
Turning Points: Navigating Challenges,
Seizing Opportunities
ISNA #53 offers a new format to enhance the Convention experience
BY FATIMA SALMAN & ALTAF HUSAIN
By
the time this issue of IH magazine reaches
you, some of our readers will already be in Chicago’s
Rosemont Convention center for the 53rd annual ISNA
convention. We want to welcome you; to encourage
you to make the most of this weekend, which is full of insightful
lectures, parallel sessions and roundtables; and to network with
other attendees to help each other escape from the usual anti-Islamic
bigotry for a weekend.
In this article, we explain some of the thought process that went
into developing this year’s convention theme and program. Please
let us know what you think of it so that we can improve and build
upon the progress that we have made so far.
IS EVERY WORD OF THE CONVENTION THEME
REALLY DELIBERATED AT LENGTH?
Each year, members of the ISNA majlis, executive committee, and
staff represented on the Convention Program Committee (CPC) exert
a tremendous amount of effort to formulate the convention’s theme.
Uppermost in all of our minds is the need to examine the prevailing
on-the-ground realities in order to deepen our understanding of the
trends and patterns impacting the Muslim American (and Canadian)
communities. Input is also sought from community members. A
similar process was followed for the 53rd annual convention.
Participants noted that although there had been a tremendous
rise in anti-Islamic bigotry during the last part of 2015 and the
early part of 2016, Muslim communities and organizations had
PLANNING THE CONVENTION: (L-R) Mukhtar Ahmad, Hind Makki,
Hazem Bata, Fatima Salman, Basharat Saleem
done their best, on their own and with other organizations, by to
promote Islam’s teachings and engage other Muslims as well as
allies and partners within society at large. This remarkable approach
represents a turning point in terms of how our community views
the mainstream society and how the latter is coming to terms with
the growth of Islam and Muslims.
THE THEME
The CPC eventually decided to build upon last year’s successful theme: “Stories of Resilience: Strengthening the American
Muslim Narrative.” Thus, this year’s theme is “Turning Points:
Navigating Challenges, Seizing Opportunities.” Feedback from
our stakeholders was varied. Some suggested that “navigating”
was not assertive enough; others suggested replacing “seizing” with
“embracing.” Ultimately the CPC recommended, and the leadership
approved, the wording that you see today. However, selecting a theme
early in the year so that the necessary marketing and promotion
campaigns can be conducted means that later events can either
help sustain the gist of the theme or, perhaps, challenge its premise.
We intentionally chose a broad theme so that we can deliver
a high-quality program that is both interesting to our attendees
and allows for robust deliberations during all of the plenary, main
and parallel sessions as well as the roundtables. The focus will be
at once historic, both from the vantage point of turning points in
Islamic history as well as in recent times. The uplifting message
will be, “Yes, there are challenges and we can navigate them while
53RD ANNUAL ISNA CONVENTION
CHECK OUT WHEN YOUR FAVORITE SPEAKERS ARE SCHEDULED,
BUT ALSO MAKE TIME TO LISTEN
TO NEWER SPEAKERS, FOR ONE OF
ISNA’S PRIORITIES IS TO KEEP INTRODUCING UP-AND-COMING SCHOLARS
AND COMMUNITY LEADERS.
simultaneously organizing and empowering our communities to
‘seize the opportunities’ to strengthen our faith, to impart its teachings, and to address socially complex issues facing all of us.”
The last part of this process included selecting a verse from the
Qur’an that most closely reflects the convention’s overall general
focus. The CPC discussed this matter at length, and we are grateful
to Dr. Muzammil Siddiqui, chair of the Fiqh Council of North
America, for recommending Q. 2:148: “Every community has its
direction to which it turns, so race to do good deeds…”
KEEPING THE PROGRAM RELEVANT
By the time our program was finalized, CPC members were working
hard to find a way to incorporate the events that had unfolded later
on in the year. As naming all of them would be quite a challenge, we
advise everyone to attend the “NewsMakers: The Year in Review”
session to meet and hear from fellow Muslims who have made us
all proud. We have done our best to fill that session with speakers
who will share their insights on the most critical turning points
in Islamic history, Muslim American history and, of course, contemporary society. Throughout the weekend, speakers will address
how Muslims have “navigated challenges and seized opportunities”
historically and share their insights on how we can apply those lessons
in our lives at the individual, family and masjid/community levels.
Yet another historic event occurred as this issue was going to
press. Moments before Secretary Hillary Clinton accepted her historic nomination as the first female presidential candidate of a major
party, as the address by Khizr Khan, father of Capt. Humayun Saqib
Muazzam Khan, 27, who was awarded the Bronze Star and the
Purple Heart for his bravery in protecting his fellow soldiers. This
University of Virginia graduate and former active member of its
Muslim Students Association chapter, is among the 14 other Muslim
Americans who have died in the line of duty. Many Americans agree
that his father’s speech was one of the most powerful prime-time
speeches delivered at either party’s convention.
diverse perspectives, there was a high level of frustration because
each speaker did not have enough time to delve deeper into the topic.
To deal with this, this year we are introducing a “plenary” session
in the largest hall available, during which time there will be almost
no other parallel sessions. Each speaker will be given more time to
present his or her own perspective. In addition, the former “main”
session will now feature one speaker who will talk for 45 minutes.
Attendees will be able to select one of three main concurrent sessions. We hope this format will afford them the opportunity to hear
their favorite speakers deliver a more in-depth lecture in a slightly
more intimate setting.
Feedback also indicated frustration over the large number of
concurrent parallel sessions. A unique feature of the ISNA convention
is that each year we invite various community members to propose
a parallel session that reflects the event’s theme. This year, we purposefully limited these categories to three: focus on the individual,
FINE TUNING THE PROGRAM FORMAT
Attendees have been very forthcoming with feedback and ideas to
improve the program format. This year, we have sought to incorporate your feedback by making several fundamental changes.
Throughout our history, ISNA has been honored by the participation
of preeminent scholars and both local and national community
leaders. Offering each of them an extended speaking time was
not feasible, in part because of the program format. We received
mixed feedback on the main sessions, which often featured three
and sometimes four speakers: While the attendees appreciated their
18
family, and the masjid/community. CPC members devoted long hours
to selecting the five best proposals for each category. Realizing that
nonprofit organizations had often been disproportionately represented in the proposals submitted, this year we created a new track
for non-profits. We hope that they will submit competitive proposals
that present their successful projects, initiatives and programs so
that the community can consider supporting them.
WELCOMING YOUNG PROFESSIONALS
In order to accommodate yet another reality, this year’s convention
also includes the Young Professional Track. This track highlights
Muslim professionals in various fields, what kind of work they are
doing and their contributions. Along the same lines, the Association
of Muslim Scientists, Engineers and Technology Professionals has
organized a job fair for Saturday and Sunday. Several employers and
businesses have reserved booths in the designated area so that job
seekers can meet employers, network with professionals and learn
how to grow in their careers. A tandem business development fair,
which will enable aspiring Muslim entrepreneurs to network with
each other and perhaps obtain the resources and guidance they need to
start and develop their envisaged businesses, has also been arranged.
ROUNDTABLES: TACKLING MAJOR
CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES
Finally, we will continue the roundtable format introduced in 2015
to address such ongoing challenges and contemporary topics as
“Drugs, Gangs and Human Trafficking,” “Critical Thinking and
Engaging with Scholarship,” “Civic Engagement,” “Race Matters,”
“Masajid,” and “Social Justice.” Once again, attendees will have the
chance to sit face-to-face with other Muslim Americans who care
about that particular challenge/topic, listen to insights from experts
and, most critically, develop those skills needed to move beyond
words and towards achieving the desired goals and objectives at
all levels of society.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME AT
THE CONVENTION
Take a minute to check out the ISNA App, which contains the entire
convention program. Check out when your favorite speakers are
scheduled, but also make time to listen to newer speakers, for one
of ISNA’s priorities is to keep introducing up-and-coming scholars
and community leaders. Remember that your ISNA convention
experience will be enhanced by shopping in the bazaar, viewing
the art exhibit and film festival entries, meeting authors of recently
released books, listening to the top young reciters of the Qur’an,
enrolling your children (6-11 years old) in their own program,
observing the entrepreneurial competition, joining the basketball
tournament or maybe stopping by the health fair for free health
screenings conducted by our health professionals from the Islamic
Medical Association of North America.
We pray that you and your family will have an enjoyable experience at this year’s convention. To ensure that the next one is even
better, please complete and return the evaluation forms! Fatima Salman, Chair of the Convention, is the Central Zone representative of ISNA,
the Chair of this year’s convention program committee (CPC), and the newly appointed
Executive Director of MSA National.
Altaf Husain, Vice President, ISNA-US, is Co-Chair of CPC.
19
ISNA CANADA CONVENTION
Leading with
Love and Faith
The 42nd Annual ISNA Canada Convention was
the climax of months of planning and engagement
with over 200 volunteers
BY ISNA CANADA CONVENTION TEAM
T
he 42nd Annual ISNA Canada
Convention was held under the
theme “Principles of Success:
Leading with Love and Faith”
at its headquarters in Mississauga, Ont.,
on May 15-17.
In response to a community survey,
the convention team assembled a fusion
of concepts and topics referencing, among
others, youth engagement, strategic community building, personal development, social
justice, family dynamics and strengthening faith. Based upon careful analysis and
insight, the emerging theme sought to combine creatively all of these valuable ideas
into an essential reality present in the divine
guidance and care, as well as the teachings
and comprehensive example of Prophet
Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).
Thus the event focused on the wisdom and
power of love and faith as tools with which
to lead and achieve specific results and success, aspects of successful leadership and
such more pressing topics as the Muslim
presence in Canada.
Prominent speakers came from across
ISNA Secretary General enjoys company from the Down Under
20
the nation: Shaykh Daood Butt, Shahina
Siddiqui, founding member and chair of
the Federation of Canadian Muslim Social
Services, Jamal Badawi, emeritus professor at Saint Mary’s University, Mohamed
Zeyara, outreach director at PiousProjects,
Dennis Edney, the lawyer for Omar Khadr,
Imam Hamid Slimi, resident scholar and
founder of the Sayeda Khadija Centre,
Katherine Bullock, a founding member
of the Federation of Muslim Women,
Keith Neuman, Executive Director of the
Environics Institute, First Nations Elder Cat
Criger, ISNA Canada Executive Director
Shaykh Abdalla Idris and ISNA Canada
director of religious affairs Shaykh Alaa
Elsayed.
ISNA President Azhar Azeez, ISNA Vice
President Altaf Husain, ISNA Secretary
General Hazem Bata, Imam Siraj Wahhaj
and Imam Mohamed Magid, All-Dulles Area
Muslim Society — all of whom came from
the U.S. — were also present.
Edney, a champion of justice and human
rights, spoke about “The Rule of Law in an
Age of Fear,” held a Q&A session, and concluded with a personal account entitled
“Leadership in Adversity.”
The second annual entrepreneurial
networking session, managed by the ISNA
Compass program, enabled aspiring entrepreneurs to meet with other like-minded
individuals. The successful entrepreneurs
elaborated upon how they had conceived
their vision, brought it to reality and what
they had to deal with along the way. The
would-be entrepreneurs then got together
to share their ideas and network.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj captivated the attendees by encouraging them to look inward and
improve internally in order to better help
our communities and the world at large.
Bata focused on mosque management, the
importance of women and youth involvement, and excellence in management practices. He emphasized the need to adhere to
the model laid down by the Prophet in this
regard, as well as the necessity of reversing
the “un-mosqued” phenomenon.
The ISNA Canada Business Session was
held on Sunday to review the presented 2015
annual and financial reports. Several members suggested ways to serve the local and
national community more effectively. All
members of the ISNA Canada Board, as well
as other interested people, attended this session, which was chaired by ISNA-Canada
President Syed Imtiaz Ahmad.
Elder Cat Criger
The convention recognized the First
Nations’ land upon which the convention venue is situated, with a special note
in the Convention Program booklet:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: OUR ISLAMIC
OBLIGATION TO ESTABLISH JUSTICE
REQUIRES THAT WE ACKNOWLEDGE
THAT WE ARE ON TRADITIONAL LAND
OF A FIRST NATION
We acknowledge the Elders and
Leaders of the Mississaugas of the
New Credit First Nation as Traditional
Custodians, past and present of the land
where we live and work. We give honour
and respect for their enduring stewardship
of this land, and recognize their continuing love and care for the environmental,
social, cultural, political and economic
fabric of our society. We arm our shared
humanity, our brotherhood and sisterhood, and confirm our mutual responsibilities to one another and the Earth.
During a special session entitled “Righting Wrongs: Learning &
Relationship Building with the New
Credit First Nation of Mississauga,”
Elder Cat Criger, Muneeb Nasir, Asmaa
Maryam Ali, Dawood Zwink and Shaykh
Abdalla Idris highlighted the current and
historical injustices experienced by the
Indigenous peoples through European
colonization and centuries of successive European immigration. Elder Cat
explained the historical significance
of this particular community and the
land upon which the convention was
being held. ISNA Canada is committed
to building relationships and vibrant
strong dialogue with First Nations in
order for us to grow stronger together
as a united community. There was ample opportunity to enjoy
tasty food at the exhilarating bazaar,
where the community experienced some
timely Ramadan season shopping and light
Imam Siraj Wahhaj
IMAM SIRAJ WAHHAJ CAPTIVATED THE ATTENDEES
BY ENCOURAGING THEM TO LOOK INWARD AND
IMPROVE INTERNALLY IN ORDER TO BETTER HELP
OUR COMMUNITIES AND THE WORLD AT LARGE.
entertainment. Parents could relax, assured
that their offspring were well attended to
in our free and unique children’s program.
The organizers said that the ISNA Canada
Convention is truly a community affair, one
suffused with barakah. We’d like to thank
our distinguished speakers, sponsors and
incredible team of staff and volunteers, all
of whom worked tirelessly throughout the
weekend and, above all, our vibrant and
dynamic community that came together
in celebration and education.
The convention continues to offer a full
range of accessibility. Our vision is to create a
truly inclusive event in which all community
members can participate, enjoy themselves
and derive benefit. For the third year in a
row, ASL interpretation, designated seating
and attendant care were made available. We
encourage and promote learning and growing together as a strong, fully represented
and accessible community.
This event was the climax of months of
planning and engagement with over 200
volunteers. It was led by Convention Chair
Mohamed Bekkari, a child clinical and
school psychologist and vice-president of
ISNA Canada.
The weekend concluded with a beautiful
fireworks display presented by the ISNA
Canada team against a full-moon backdrop and nasheeds celebrating Prophet
Muhammad and the soon-to-begin month
of Ramadan.
The attendees, especially the younger
ones, greeted rescued animals from a
Toronto-based shelter — an experience that
gave them first-hand insight into caring for
animals. A surprise guest was an Australian
native: a kangaroo. Donate Sadqat & Zakah
Help poor & Needy
Build School
in rural area of
Pakistan
SHAFFE
2011 4th St. • Sac, CA 95818
Donate online:
http://www.shaffe.org
21
COVER STORY
I AM AMERICA. I AM THE PART
YOU WON’T RECOGNIZE. BUT
GET USED TO ME. BLACK,
CONFIDENT, COCKY; MY NAME, NOT
YOURS; MY GOALS, MY OWN; GET
USED TO ME.” —MUHAMMAD ALI
22
LIKE THE COAL MINERS’ CANARIES,
MUHAMMAD ALI PLAYED THE ROLE OF
SAFETY SENTINEL FOR ALL AMERICANS
MUHAMMAD ALI –
A Canary in America’s Coal Mines
BY JAMES JONES
L
est anyone think that Ali really thought he was
“the greatest,” he declared, “This life is not real. I conquered
the world and it did not bring me satisfaction. God gave me
this illness to remind me that I’m not number one. He is.”
Canaries, despite their striking beauty and singing talent, were used by
humans until 1986 as easily expendable “collateral damage” to protect
America’s coal miners from the undetectable toxic gases that could easily
accumulate in the mines’ deep interiors and elsewhere. Countless canaries died as sentinels for safety in an industry that once fueled America’s
industrial revolution and rise to economic prominence. Hence the origin
of the phrase “canary in a coal mine.”
23
COVER STORY
These often dark, foreboding places were
the energy backbone of this country from the
early 19th to the first half of the 20th century.
Without coal, the 1,907-mile first transcontinental railroad would have been impossible.
Without coal, the North would have had a
tougher time winning of America’s bloody,
brutal Civil War. The emblematic coal-fired
transportation and industrial systems of its
superior economic and resource capabilities
made a decisive difference.
Kentucky, which had tried to remain
neutral, joined the North for the duration
of the conflict after an aborted attempt by
the Confederacy to take it over. Coal mining
was an important economic engine for the
state that lasted from the mid-18th century
until railroads and households switched to
376 in a class of 391, by the time he turned
18 this handsome young man had already
made his mark as a successful amateur boxer.
Like the canary, he was beautiful and vocal.
THE U.S.: COAL MINES
EVEN AS HE WAS IN HIS LAST DAYS ON EARTH,
MUHAMMAD ALI WAS A CANARY WARNING
US OF YET ANOTHER TOXIC IDEA IN THE U.S.
POLITICAL COAL MINE.
oil and gas during the 20th century. In addition, the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act made its
medium-to-high sulfur content coal even
less profitable.
CLAY: AN UNLIKELY CANARY
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in the
coal-mining state of Kentucky on Jan. 17,
1942. Growing up as a handsome, eloquent,
quick-witted young man in his hometown of
Louisville, one cannot help but wonder what
kind of life he would have had if he had been
born in a different place at a different time.
Despite his dyslexia, had he not been born
in a Jim Crow state, his sharp intelligence
may have led him to choose a profession
other than boxing. Unfortunately, during
these years only certain forms of athletics
and the still very segregated world of entertainment were open to black people seeking
fame and fortune.
As in most Jim Crow states, the local
school system was racially segregated by law.
If they were anything at all like the segregated
public schools I attended in Roanoke, Va.,
from 1952 to 1964, this meant that the
“colored” school’s books and equipment were
almost always second-hand. Consequently,
our black teachers always had to do more
with less. The so-called “separate but equal”
24
segregationist Jim Crow doctrine, enshrined
into law in 1896 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s
ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, was a thinlyveiled cover for the continued subjugation
of this nation’s former slaves. Sub-standard,
segregated schools were just one part of an
overall plan to continue dehumanizing the
country’s darker-skinned people. Like coal
miners, black people were expected to work
long hours with low pay in poor working
conditions so that richer (usually white)
people could live more comfortably.
Even though the dyslexic Clay graduated
Muhammad Ali died on June 3, 2016, as
a man who was beloved by Americans.
However, like the coal miners of his native
Kentucky, his economic success was a mixed
blessing. Similar to the black lung disease
that once plagued the state’s coal miners,
racism was always lurking in the background
of his many successes. Nevertheless, between
1942 and 2016, the 74 years that Muhammad
Ali lived in this country, things changed a
great deal. For black people, the America of
2016 is not the America of 1942.
In his eye-opening book Disintegration:
The Splintering of Black America (Anchor:
2010), Eugene Robinson points this out by
entitling the first chapter: “Black America
Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” He persuasively
shows that the socioeconomic make-up
of the African-American community has
shifted dramatically since the Civil Rights
movement. Between the gains that it sparked
and the elimination of race-based immigration laws, also spurred by this movement, we
find a “Black America” that is, economically
speaking, somewhat better off than it was
over a half century ago. However, in spite of
this apparent progress, Ali still had to function in a coal mine of lingering racial injustice. An example occurred in 2014, when
he tweeted his support for the #Black Lives
Matter movement in the wake of the fatal
shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
So even though African Americans
have seen major changes in discriminatory legal and institutional policies, in
Ali’s extraordinary boxing career is but one
part of this extraordinary man’s national and
international impact. The three-time heavyweight champion of the world dominated
opponents both inside and outside the ring.
In doing so, like the coal miners’ canaries,
he played the role of safety sentinel for all
Americans. Unlike those doomed canaries,
who signaled the presence of toxic gas by
going silent as it killed them, Ali managed
to warn us again and again in at least four
important ways.
First, he warned us about racism’s corrosive effects on the American psyche. He
famously said, “My enemy is white people”
in 1967 during his Vietnam draft refusal controversy. In this statement, he was reflecting
the hurt and pain of a people who had been
released from slavery into a legal Jim Crow
system that continued to debase them. This
was the Black nationalist Nation of Islam
phase of his life, which he had long left
behind at the time of his death. However, this
voice and sentiment is one that still needs
to be heard and understood when dealing
with race in America today. A quick Google
search on the Internet reveals that many
black “spokespeople” and ordinary black
citizens are still expressing this angry feeling.
Like his mentor Malcolm X, this “canary”
ultimately embraced a different understanding of race relations and humanity.
Second, he warned us against uncritically accepting our country’s foreign policy
decisions, particularly when they impact the
human rights of others. Most famously, he
empathized with his “brothers and some
other darker people” in Vietnam by refusing
to be drafted. However, few remember his
statements in solidarity with the Palestinians.
For instance, in 1985 he traveled to Israel/
Palestine in an attempt to secure the release
of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in
Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon. In addition, he made several public statements in
support of the Palestinians. As a canary in
the U.S. militaristic coal mine, once again
Ali managed to warn us and survive.
Muhammad Ali always kept ICNA pamphlets on Islam with
him so that he could sign them and give them to autograph
seekers. He was a regular volunteer at ICNA’s dawah booths
and always followed the same procedure.
Muhammad Ali joined the
ICNA Chicago team to distribute meat on Eid al-Adha in 1990
or 1991. Standing beside him is
current ICNA president Naeem
Baig and a young Aisha Yusuf.
In the early 1990s, Muhammad Ali volunteered at ICNA Chicago’s meat distribution’s event at Masjid Al-Faatir. (L to
R) Imam Misbahuddin Rufai (now urban
development director, Council on Islamic
Organizations of Greater Chicago),
Sikander Bajwa, Mahmood Hussani,
Taufeeq Ahmed, Muhammad Ali, Abdul
Malik Mujahid (president, SoundVision),
Jaber Muhammad (brother of Imam WD
Muhammad), and unnamed.
PHOTO COPYRIGHT ISLAMIC CIRCLE OF NORTH AMERICA
ALI: A CANARY IN
THE COAL MINES
An Unreported Aspect of The Champ
PHOTO COPYRIGHT ISLAMIC CIRCLE OF NORTH AMERICA
2016 the country remains just as dangerous for African Americans as coal mines
used to be for canaries and coal miners
in Kentucky. When it comes to justice for
African Americans and other marginalized
groups, the U.S. can often be seen as one
type of dark foreboding coal mine or other.
Ikram Hussain, then president of the Islamic
Circle of North America’s (ICNA) Chicago
chapter reported that during the mid-1990s,
when the chapter organized information
booths on Islam outside the Dan Ryan train
station, Muhammad Ali “would always ask
for a pack of 250 of his favorite ICNA pamphlets: ‘Islam Explained’ and ‘You Should
Know This Man.’ He would distribute them
Muhammad Ali invited Abdul-Malik Mujahid in about 40 minutes, while it took the rest
to “punch” him.
of us 2-3 hours.”
Muhammad Ali was also part of ICNA’s Bosnia Task Force, which was formed to
call attention to and demand an end to the Bosnian genocide. As part of the national
Muslim leadership delegation that met with UN Security Council members in 1993,
Ali addressed a packed press conference on Bosnia at the UN headquarters. Of course,
The Champ was the main attraction for both the diplomats and the reporters. ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT ICNA
25
COVER STORY
Third, he warned us by his courageous
example that participating in such a lucrative and brutal sport as boxing has a very
real downside. His very public battle with
Parkinson’s should serve as a clear warning
to athletes in the well-established National
Football League and the relatively new up
and coming mixed martial arts “sport.” The
prevailing view of the medical professionals who treated him is that his Parkinson’s
was likely induced by the head trauma he
had suffered as a boxer. He was particularly
vulnerable to such trauma at the end of his
career, when his speed and skills had eroded
dramatically. Clearly, concussions can have
serious consequences. Athletes in sports that
involve continuous head trauma should
pay particular attention to this “canary’s”
warning in the “coal mine” of professional
“contact” sports.
Fourth, in one of his last public statements, Ali spoke out against radical Muslims
and Islamophobia. In response to the now
Republican presidential nominee Donald
Trump’s proposal to “temporarily” ban all
Muslims from entering the U.S., he proclaimed, “I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in
Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in
the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists
goes against the very tenets of our religion.
“We as Muslims have to stand up to
those who use Islam to advance their own
personal agenda. They have alienated many
from learning about Islam. True Muslims
know or should know that it goes against our
religion to try and force Islam on anybody...
I believe that our political leaders should use
their position to bring understanding about
the religion of Islam and clarify that these
misguided murders have perverted people’s
views on what Islam really is.”
Even as he was in his last days on Earth,
Muhammad Ali was a canary warning us of
yet another toxic idea in the U.S. political
coal mine.
ALI: HIS LEGACY
Muhammad Ali’s body was barely cold
before people took to social media arguing
about “Whose Muhammad Ali was he?”
Did he belong to Black people, Muslims,
social justice activists, or his legions of
sports fans? In my view, such arguments
are a waste of time, for this exceptional
human being clearly transcended all such
distinctions. He informed, entertained,
26
Azhar Azeez (second from left), Mohamed
Elsanousi (third from left) and Hamza Yusuf
(fourth from left) await The Champ’s janaza
and inspired millions. His many humanitarian acts included securing the release of
hostages from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and
talking a suicidal man off a 9th floor ledge
in Los Angeles. For many, he was “the Black
Superman.”
Superman or not, one thing we know for
sure is that the federal government (National
Security Agency) saw fit to spend our tax
dollars on a secret operation code-named
“Minaret” that intercepted his communications as well as those of other leading
Americans (e.g., the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. and Senator Frank Church), journalists, and many others who criticized the
U.S. war in Vietnam. In addition, King, Ali,
and others were targets of the FBI’s more
famous and more intrusive COINTELPRO
(Counterintelligence Program), which sought
to prevent the rise of a “Black Messiah” among
the leaders of the Civil Rights movement.
Yes, it is true that Muhammad Ali symbolized many things to many people. Upon
his death, the outpouring of accolades and
affection were overwhelming. The crowds
that descended upon Louisville for his July
9th funeral and the following day’s memorial
attest to this. So many foreign and American
celebrities and dignitaries attended that you
could be forgiven if you thought that a head
of state had died.
Muhammad Ali, born a canary named
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. 74 years earlier,
warned all Americans about the deadly and
dangerous effects of racism, militarism, traumatic brain injury and Islamophobia. While
acting as a diplomat humanitarian and philanthropist, his life appears to have exemplified
the very difficult human struggle to live by the
high principles reflected in Quran 4:135: “O
ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as
witness to God, even as against yourselves, or
your parents, or your kin, and whether it be
(against) rich or poor: for God can best protect
both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest
ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline
to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted
with all that ye do.” (A. Y. Ali trans) James Jones, a tenured associate professor of world religions with a concurrent appointment in African studies
at Manhattanville College, Purchase, N.Y., is secretary of
CAIR’s national board PO SITION AVAIL AB LE
Resident Islamic Scholar
Islamic Society of Western Maryland
Located in Hagerstown, MD
(about 70 miles from Baltimore and Washington D.C.)
We are seeking a Resident Scholar with the following qualifications:
• Legal ability to work with in the U.S.
• Fluency in the English language
• Excellent communication skills for the media and greater
community
• Strong Quranic recitation and understanding
• Extensive knowledge in Fiqh and Sharia
• Must be able to relate to youth in the struggles of being
raised in the U.S.
• Salary will be based on qualifications.
Please send your resume to: [email protected]
COVER STORY
WHAT MUHAMMAD ALI MEANS TO ME
Muslim Americans and others speak from their hearts about The Champ
THE DEFINITION OF “HERO” IS
A PERSON WHO IS ADMIRED
FOR COURAGE, OUTSTANDING
ACHIEVEMENTS OR NOBLE
QUALITIES. MUHAMMAD ALI
(1942-2016) WAS A HERO IN
EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD.
FROM HIS STANCE ON CIVIL
RIGHTS ISSUES TO HIS GRACE
IN THE BOXING RING, ALI WON
Ali Bin Omer’s prized
possession
THE ADMIRATION OF MILLIONS.
BY ISLAMIC HORIZONS STAFF
Islamic Horizons magazine
offers a collection of
spontaneous reactions to the
Champ’s passing away.
28
A
yah Kutmah, 18, of Louisville (University of MichiganAnn Arbor, ‘20), who read the translation of the Quranic recitation at
The Champ’s memoriam, told CNN, “As an American, as a AfricanAmerican, as a Muslim, he really inspired me to fight and to stand
for what was right and what was strong.”
Bashar Qasem, president and CEO of the northern Virginia-based Azzad Asset
Management, wrote: “His fame stretched across borders. Having grown up in
the Middle East, I can tell you firsthand that he was a superstar there. Everybody
wanted to be friends with you if you had Muhammad Ali memorabilia — a photo,
a magazine article, anything. You hoped that something of his greatness had found
its way into those things and could transform
apologized profusely. Then he ordered tea for us
you simply through proximity. We implicitly
and the other visitors and left for practice with
his sparring partner.”
understood his magnificence as an athlete. But
as Muslims, we were even more impressed with
Writer Kathleen Miller Abed states, “I was not
his behavior outside the ring. We found in him
the grandchild of slaves, as was Muhammad Ali.
the exemplar of the Islamic exhortation to speak
Nor did I suffer from racism as did Muhammad
truth to power and to uphold the principles of
Ali, when he was refused service in an all-white
human dignity.
restaurant and was called ‘nigger’. But as a white
“I felt compelled to pay my respects in
woman in the United States, I have received less
Louisville at Ali’s janaza (funeral prayer). I at
pay for doing the same job as a man, and I have
least owed him this ... for being a role model not
felt the sting of sexism. I cannot compare myself
only in my life, but for countless others who were
to a great man, but I understand the bitterness
of inequality.
inspired to be better than their circumstances
might have allowed.”
“Muhammad Ali suffered from a terrible illAli Bin Omer of Herndon, Va., writes: “Many
ness — Parkinson’s — but he bore his suffering
with dignity. This disease impaired his speech
famous greats have passed over my lifetime, but
and made him a prisoner in his own body. But
yesterday’s news felt different. It hurt, I couldn’t
hold back the tears every time I read a tribute
with the grace of God, he still communicated
or thought about what he meant to us.
with the world. He converted to Islam and was
“There was no one like him, a pioneer, and we
a champion for the religion. I am also a convert.
can’t predict if we’ll ever see another human like
“Muhammad Ali was a fighter and helped
him. His impact reached far past the four corners
people with his courage. He boycotted the
Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviet
of the ring. What he did for human rights, civil
invasion of Afghanistan. He promoted the
rights and the less fortunate is immeasurable
and priceless.
Palestinian cause, negotiated for the release of
“As a young Pakistani-American Muslim
American hostages in Iraq, and supported Native
growing up in America, he was everything to
American rights. Even though he was a champion boxer, he advocated peace and equality.
me. His poster hung on my wall from childhood
to college, he was a real hero I could look up to
“I also suffered from a terrible disease, which
and relate to on a certain level.
impaired my vision and left me unable to see in
“He made it cool to be different, to be ageless,
a normal fashion. So this man taught me that
to be black and proud, to be Muslim, to be outI should also be a fighter. He taught me not to
spoken, to be you. He influenced certain aspects
give up. So, even though I cannot see the way
of my personality and my contrarian attitude,
others do, I see what he was trying to say, and
that I should continue speaking and writing as
‘I know where I’m going and I know the truth,
I used to do.”
I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m
free to be what I want.’
Bonnie Greer, writing in The Independent
“Muhammad Ali, thank you for everything
on June 4, 2016, summed it up succinctly, “The
U.S. always wanted Ali to be its hero, but it had
and setting the example with your heart of gold,
‘service to others is the rent you pay for your
to be on his terms. He never abandoned his faith;
room here on earth.’ I will do my best to pay it
he never became Cassius Clay again; he never
(From top) Ayah Kutmah, Bashar Qasem walked back to what he had been in his youth.
forward. “Rest In Power, King Ali.”
Texas attorney Saira [Ali] Shah, reminisces, and Abidullah A. Ghazi
“His honesty, self-belief, insight and courage
“In high school I would enter the classroom and
were, after all, American values. The Republic’s
the kids would joke ‘Saira Ali floats like a butterfly stings like a bee.’ best. Like all great Americans, he reinvented the nation in his image
I was smart, but super shy and quiet. That was my first memory of and gave it back refreshed and re-dedicated. He made us embrace
Muhammad Ali. Secretly I loved being compared to him. He was change because he had.
“If we have failed him, it’s because we are not champions. Rest
truly great. Our collective hero and conscience. May he rest in peace.”
Abidullah A. Ghazi, founder of the Chicago-based Iqra in power and in peace, The Greatest.”
International, recalls, “When my wife Tasneema and I met
Even an anonymous racist gave Ali respect. Gator61, who
Muhammad Ali in London, just before his bout with Henry Cooper self-identifies as a “Friend of [the white supremacist organization]
in 1963, he subscribed to that [Nation of Islam’s racist] ideology. Stormfront” and a “Sustaining Member ... living somewhere in
He warmly welcomed us and offered a £20 (at that time a two-week North America,” harshly criticizes George W. Bush and Bill Clinton
salary for a teacher or medical doctor) to come oversee his practices. for avoiding the draft and then proclaims, “His [Ali’s] stand on
However, he rejected shaking hands with a very fair Lebanese man Vietnam was admirable. He disagreed with the war, refused to go
there, saying: ‘I don’t shake hands with whites.’ The poor fellow and accepted responsibility for his actions,” after which he laments
embarrassingly withdrew his hand saying, ‘But I’m a Lebanese that a Black “is a better role model than two White presidents”
Arab Muslim.’ Muhammad Ali grabbed his hand, hugged him and (https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t1104526/). ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
29
COVER STORY
PUNCHING TO INSPIRE
The Champ was a teacher and guide whose
presence was taken away by illness
W
hen a seven-year-old
once asked Muhammad Ali
what he would do when he
retired, he gave one of the
best explanations ever. After pretending to
fall asleep on stage, he replied, “Just sleep
is all I want to do.”
He then talked about the importance of the
amount of time people actually spend living
their lives. (The following account available
on www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QE9XBovMk0 has been condensed.)
“When I retire from boxing, I really don’t
know. I want to say something right there.
This might make you all think.
“Life is not really long. Let’s say the average person is 30 years old. If you’re 30 years
old, you’re not but about seven years old.
Add up all the seven, eight, nine hours you
slept for 30 years. Out of 30 years, add up
all the nights when you went to bed and this
morning doesn’t remember a thing.
“You’ve been unconscious for about eight
years if you’re 30 years old. You’ve slept for
about eight years.
“How much traveling have you done in
30 years — from the television station to
home to another country to another city
to school to church? You’ve probably spent
two years of your life just going back and
forth to where you’re going.
“So there’s eight years of sleeping and
two years of traveling. That’s 30 years out
of your life before you accomplish anything.
“How long do you sit in school in
America? We stay in school from the first
grade to the 12th grade, six hours a day, six
hours a day for 12 years. Break it down. You
sit in the classroom for three years without
leaving.
“Okay, two years of travelling, eight years
of sleeping, three years of school. How many
movies have you went to, how many wrestling matches, how much entertainment,
how many movie theatres, live plays, baseball
games? Probably two years of entertainment.
“So by the time you have children, by
the time you’ve made way for your children,
by the time you pay for your home, you’re
pushing 60 years old.
“So life is real short. So you add up all
your traveling, add up all your sleeping, add
up all your school, add up all your entertainment. You’ve probably spent half your
life doing nothing.
“So I’m 35 years old. Thirty more years
I’ll be 65. We don’t have no more influence.
We can’t do nothing much at 65. Your wife
will tell you that.
“So what I’m saying is when you’re 65,
ain’t too much more to do. Did you know I’ll
be 65 in 30 more years? In those 30 years, I
have to sleep nine years. I don’t have 30 years
of daylight. I have to travel back to America.
All my traveling, probably four years of traveling, about nine years of sleeping, about
three years of entertainment.
“Out of 30 years, I might have 16 years
to be productive. So that’s how we can break
our individual lives down.”
He then says the best thing he can do in
the next 16 years is “get ready to meet God,”
LIKE OTHER CONTACT SPORTS, THE BOXING
INDUSTRY SEEMS TO HAVE DONE A GREAT
JOB OF COVERING UP AND GLAMORIZING
THE EFFECTS OF REPEATED HEAD TRAUMA.
30
before going on to speak about his belief in
divine judgment, heaven and hell.
He adds: “He [God] wants to know how
do we treat each other, how do we help each
other. So I’m going to dedicate my life to
using my name and popularity to helping
charities, helping people, uniting people.”
WAS HE A PRISONER OF THE
CHOICE HE MADE?
Ali, who admitted to being hit over 29,000
times, was not naive about the hazards of his
profession. “I think boxing is dangerous,” he
said on an episode of “Face the Nation” in
1976. “Any man who’s been hit in the head…
the brain’s a delicate thing.”
An Islamic Horizons reader recalls that
the first time he ran into the Champ in 1974,
he was able to shake his hand and get his
June 4, 2016
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle
Obama on the Passing of Muhammad Ali
M
autograph before a horde of fans descended
upon him. It seemed as if his hand has been
engulfed by a rock. When he met Ali again in
1991, he once again shook his and requested
an autograph. He recalls how his eyes moistened when he felt how weak The Champ’s
grip had become.
Only Ali and his doctors know if his
Parkinson’s may have been posttraumatic
encephalopathy. A man who had once said
that he was so mean he’d make medicine
sick, a man who made his promoters wealthy,
had become a man who was now virtually
unable to speak or to walk
Like other contact sports, the boxing
industry seems to have done a great job of
covering up and glamorizing the effects of
repeated head trauma. After all, the sport’s
very objective is to cause a concussion in
uhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d
tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d “handcuffed lightning,
thrown thunder into jail.”
But what made The Champ the greatest — what
truly separated him from everyone else — is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.
Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I
mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for
how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a
while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest
chose to grace our time.
In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep
a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic
photograph of him — the young champ, just 22 years
old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to
understand who he was — still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet
to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the
peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar
to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to
cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.
“I am America,” he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to
me — black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my
own. Get used to me.”
That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age — not just as skilled a poet on the mic as
he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought
for us. He stood with King and Mandela, stood up when it was hard, spoke out when
others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing.
It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send
him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America
we recognize today.
He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his
words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even
innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes — maybe because in him, we hoped
to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more
powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he
was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot visiting children with illness and
disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched
a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle
against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.
Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for
it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest
fighter of them all finally rests in peace. one’s opponent or to render him/her incapable of self-defense.
Repeated significant head impacts —
concussions — take a terrible toll on the
brain, as the National Football League (NFL)
is finally beginning to admit. But in boxing
and some of the other martial “arts,” it’s not
even acknowledged. At least in football, the
players get to wear highly engineered, but
still imperfect, helmets.
Most likely, those involved with the
glamorized and protected role of boxing
as a “sport” will acknowledge the effects of
repeated head injuries only when the “industry” as a whole is confronted with a court
ruling that it is forced to make monetary
settlements, as happened to the NFL.
As for what Ali suffered, his friend Tim
Shanahan, author of “Running with the
Champ: My Forty Year Friendship with
Muhammad Ali” (Simon & Schuster: 2016)
claims that over the years, The Champ’s
acquaintances relieved him of some $80
million based on pity to investments. 31
ISLAM IN AMERICA
Writing Our
Own Narrative
Are Muslim Americans creating and promoting
literature that echoes their real self tothe mainstream?
BY HENA KHAN
A
s both a Muslim American and a parent of two
children, the negative narrative about Muslims dominating the media terrifies me. I worry about what my
children are hearing and how it’s impacting them. Are
they internalizing the hateful rhetoric? Do they live in fear of facing
discrimination? Have they heard any disparaging comments or crude
jokes? Do they feel alienated or even ashamed of who they are?
As their mother, I can’t always be around to protect them from
what others may say or do. But as a writer, I can work to counter
Islamophobia in a small way by telling stories that reinforce the
notion that Muslim Americans are an important part of society
who share the core values of our fellow Americans.
I first realized the need for children’s books
about Muslims over a decade ago, when my older
son was in pre-school and I was writing books
about space, spies, and other topics. At the time,
our family owned a decent collection of Islamic
children’s books, most of them picked up at ISNA
conventions or gifted to us. The books all shared a
common quality and an important purpose — they
were written by Muslims for Muslims, and taught
the basic tenets of the faith, Islamic etiquette and
stories from the Quran.
But when the Pakistani teaching assistant at
my son’s Montessori school decided to throw a
Ramadan party at school, we couldn’t read any
of those books to the children. And so she found
a short explanation of Ramadan on the Internet.
I watched as the children stared at her, their eyes
glazed over, as she discussed the “revelations of
the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)” and
the “gates of heaven and hell.” Ramadan didn’t
sound like anything they would want to celebrate.
At that moment, I wished we had books that were
appropriate for use in a public school or library
setting, ones that introduced our traditions in an
accessible, relatable and fun way.
I was grateful that my editor at a mainstream
publisher agreed with me about the need to produce more books reflecting Muslim American
children before the current push for diversity in
children’s literature. Night of the Moon, my first
picture book, is about a little girl named Yasmeen
and her family observing Ramadan and Eid. It
focuses on the changing shape of the moon, the
32
night of the moon celebration and the festivities of the month. I
was relieved when the book came out in 2008 and got the reviews
I had hoped for, including one from Publisher’s Weekly that said it
portrays “Muslims as another vibrant thread in the great American
tapestry, emphasizing the bonds of family, community and spirituality rather than details of a particular belief system.”
My next book, Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, was a non-holiday book directed toward a younger audience. Suitable for yearround use, it introduces a prayer rug, hijab, the Quran, a mosque
and other common objects through the use of color. The illustrator
did an incredible job drawing in Muslims and non-Muslims alike
through her gorgeous art. Being cited as a “notable book” by the
American Library Association helped propel it into the hands of
librarians and be added to Scholastic Book Fairs. This actually led
one man in Georgia to protest it, after his daughter, with his wife’s
approval, purchased it at her public school and brought it home.
He drummed up some media attention for himself; however, the
school fair organizers’ vow to fight his attempts to block it, along with
librarians who rushed to buy it, reaffirmed my faith in our country.
I regularly receive photographs and notes from people whose kids
spot my books at schools nationwide. Each time, I’m so thankful
that these children get to see something that reflects them on the
shelves. I never had this experience while growing up in America,
and it is even more important today. But I’m also
grateful that kids of all faiths are looking through
a window into Muslim American culture.
When I share my books with children during
school visits, I always notice how Muslim children
in the audience react as I read. They sit up taller,
smile, nod, and wave their hands at me, eager to
report that “I celebrate Eid,” or “My mom wears
hijab,” “My brother fasts” or “My name is Hamza!”
At the same time, I’m glad that non-Muslim kids
also relate to elements that we all share, like parties and presents, and hope that they come away
thinking, “Maybe Muslims aren’t as different from
us after all.” Teachers and media specialists do a
wonderful job of facilitating the conversations,
appreciating the work and building excitement
around a guest speaker.
Last year, I was ecstatic when the publisher of
the Curious George books inquired if I’d be interested in writing a book about everyone’s favorite
monkey celebrating Ramadan. It was to be the
latest in a series of books where George celebrates
different holidays. It’s Ramadan, Curious George
follows George and his friend Kareem during the
month, including a trip to the mosque, breaking
the fast, spotting the moon and celebrating Eid.
The response to It’s Ramadan, Curious George,
which was published in May, has been overwhelming. People from all backgrounds are marveling at
finally being included and represented by a major
brand. They express their love for Curious George
and their excitement at seeing him with us, doing
the things that we do, like it’s the most normal
thing ever — which it should be! In the midst of
The Conversion and
THE ONLY WAY TO
COUNTER THE NEGATIVE
NARRATIVE OUT THERE
IS TO TELL OUR OWN, IN
OUR OWN WORDS AND
THROUGH CHARACTERS
OLD AND NEW.
the ongoing condemnation of Muslims, the
simple gesture of this beloved character sharing in the traditions of his Muslim friends is
a refreshing change, one that helps counter
the negative and destructive narrative with
one of understanding and acceptance.
As a community, we need to make sure
that established and aspiring Muslim authors
produce all varieties of books for our own
community and mainstream American society. The only way to counter the negative
narrative out there is to tell our own, in our
own words, through characters old and new.
And we need these books to be visible and
to be read. The more successful books about
Muslims are, the more publishers will be
encouraged to produce, promote, and get
them into children’s hands (and those of their
parents and educators). I’ve been humbled by
the creative ways in which people have used
mine and shared them with others, including:
1. Donating the books to local school classrooms, libraries and community centers,
as well as using them as giveaways in
auctions, fundraisers, and other events.
2. Volunteering to read the books in their
kids’ classrooms and bringing in items
for show-and-tell or special snacks.
3. Organizing an author visit at their local
school or community center.
4. Gifting the books to friends and neighbors, especially to non-Muslims.
5. Sending sample books to the media,
influencers and policy makers, including
those who design elementary-age curriculum, writing reviews, sharing the books
on social media and blogging about them.
Let’s continue to drown out hateful voices
with our own and empower our children
with the confidence and tools they need to
wear their faith with pride. Hena Khan is a Pakistani-American author who lives in
Maryland. You can learn more about her at www.henakhan.
com. Follow her on twitter @henakhanbooks
Second Resurrection
of the Nation of Islam
Imam WD Mohammed shed the trappings of
the past to embrace mainstream Islam
BY AMADOU SHAKUR
D
uring the 1930s, America’s
Jim and Jane Crow racial landscape ruled the disempowered
African American community.
Segregation and discrimination were two
elements in the black-white paradigm that
distinguished America from European colonialism in Africa and Asia. Although race,
religion and the colonial arm were unleashed
in the East, America developed its own style
of oppression and suppression.
In response to this landscape, the Nation of
Islam (NOI) developed a religious mythology
that molded a neo-Islamic African American
identity that caused a radical ripple through
America’s northern inner cities. Elijah
Muhammad (1897-1975) inherited the
neo-Islamic movement begun by Noble Drew
Ali (1886-1929), which operated in the fumes
of the first cargos of African Muslims during
the colonial era, the 1730s. His nationalistic, as opposed to religious, call attracted the
attention of many underprivileged African
Americans who desperately sought a resolution to their disenfranchisement in a racialized America. His movement was not a civil
rights movement, as they were not seeking
assimilation but a mental and physical departure through the resurrection of conscious
black minds. Perhaps the most visible voice
that contradicted the Christian strain, it circulated through the veins of lower America.
THE FIRST CHALLENGE
Elijah Muhammad’s death marked another
dramatic disembarking into the deep religious waters of America. His death created a
second act, a rewriting of a script that required
new actors. Elijah Mohammad would never
have expected such. The NOI did not have
to look too far for a new director, actors and
script. His son Wallace Deen Mohammed
(1933-2008), who later emerged as Warith
D. Muhammad (later spelt as Mohammed;
a.k.a. WD), was called upon to lead the
charge up the hill and defeat the enemy on
his own home ground. His appointment
startled many, for he had been suspended
several times for various statements and his
unyielding position against neo-Islam. To
accomplish this task, he enlisted the support
of those familiar with Sunni Islam’s major
orthodox tenets and history.
At the following annual convention,
which invited such high profile characters as Muhammad Ali, Abass Rassoul and
Raymond Sharrieff, another page was turned
in the first rewriting of the second script.
Even though WD was the only son born
under the star of Fard Muhammad, he could
33
ISLAM IN AMERICA
no longer allow this man to be regarded as
divinely inspired. This ongoing belief had
to be critiqued, and the former compliance
with to the old “nobility” fully criticized.
Nevertheless, in their attempt to remain
close to the “golden era,” they nominated
Warith Muhammad as the “Honorable WD
Muhammad.”
Part of this departure from his father’s
worldview necessitated the sale of NOI properties to private investors, the dismantling
of the famed military arm (i.e., the Fruit
of Islam) and the de-mythologizing of the
traditional ideology — all of which were
declarations that the previous forty years of
theology had been spurious. These “hangings” of the past leadership were public
sacrifices done in the name of Sunni Islam.
autonomy. In the Muslim Journal of 1995,
WD emphatically reported, (from a speech
entitled “The Priorities of an Advancing
People”; Muslim Journal 17, March 1995)
“Because I am not believing in the theology
of the Nation of Islam that we were before,
should not make anyone believe that I do
not like seeing us do doing for self.”
UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP
The foundation for the NOI’s “Second
Resurrection” was laid. “We have been
taught many things in the teachings of the
great master W[allace] F[ard] Muhammad
and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that
have prepared us for this time — the time
of the Second Resurrection…” (Muhammad
Speaks, April 1975).
EVEN THOUGH WD MOHAMMED WAS THE
ONLY ELIJAH MUHAMMAD’S SON BORN
UNDER THE STAR OF FARD MUHAMMAD, HE
COULD NO LONGER ALLOW THIS MAN TO BE
REGARDED AS DIVINELY INSPIRED.
In short, they debased a program that had
carried the community through the Second
World War and the beginnings of the 1950s
civil rights movement. Devastated members
spoke of “treason,” cried “traitor” and “deviant” and “fallen member,” of WD no longer
being a son of the prophetic head ordained
by God. And the son, in turn, lambasted
his father’s followers and declared that they
still did not know the true Islam: “You don’t
yet know the reality of God” (Muhammad
Speaks, 1975).
By this time, many Sunni Muslim groups
were contesting the NOI’s history and leading the momentum toward working with the
global Sunni community. The NOI’s leadership marched rather quickly and did not
contextualize their new position in terms of
mainstream Islam, but within the context of
the African American struggle. With this 360
degree swing, the new praxis forged a new
chapter in the African American text. But
they never fully denounced the old nobility by portraying Noble Drew Ali or Elijah
Muhammad as frauds, who remained deliverers from the hell-fires of discrimination,
race and poverty as well as champions of
black self-help and “do for self ” through
34
Upon the cusp of the civil rights and
Black Power movements, and with over
60,000 paying adherents, WD renamed the
NOI the World Community of al-Islam in
the West (WCIW). The move was in accord
with other ethnic groups, such as Syrians,
Turks, and South Asian Americans, who also
identified with Islam in the West. The WCIW
stood tall as the African American representative of Islam in America, not a heretical
group of cast-offs from a previous neo-Islam
erroneous and deceitful organization.
Later on in 1975 WD skillfully, and without destroying his father’s fallacious historical messages, placed Elijah’s remarks about
black origins in a different context. Elijah
was free to deliver his version of history to
the African American NOI. The NOI had
relied upon a historical mythology that few
of its members contested. Former supporters
were neither historians nor able to access
the educational and intellectual resources
of universities, scholars or local academics.
Consequently, NOI dogma about the birth of
the “Black Man” and the “Asiatic figure” were
not challenged. As a result, what appeared to
be scholarly and sounded historical prevailed
for decades. “When we say the original man
is the Asiatic Black man… we are referring
to the man who was born in darkness and
out of darkness and whose mind developed
so strongly that it was able to bring light to
darkness…” (from a speech entitled “Who is
the Original Man?” in Muhammad Speaks,
Aug. 22 1975, pp. 16-17).
During the 1970s, WD’s goal was to substitute racial language for religious modes in
order to heave his father’s original message
behind. However, he did not attempt to dissuade the old nobility or create or assume
an Arab-American identity.
Thus, he had to surgically remove the disease and at the same time offer a medicinal
way to recover in post modernity.
His rhetoric sought to lay the foundations for a new African American identity
with a dignified umbilical cord to the global
Dar al-Islam, one that legally permitted
this group the luxury of its own identity,
but not that of African American writer C.
Eric Lincoln who, in his book The Black
Muslims in America (Beacon Press, 1961),
for the first time declared them to be “Black
Muslims.”
“When I was following my father’s teachings,” said W.D., “I felt it strongly. I felt that
Allah had plans for us…it is not popular for
an African American race to embrace the religion of the White race, when that religion is
imaged in a White man, the ‘Word’ and ‘God’”
(Al-Islam: Unity and Leadership, 1991).
NAMING THE SECOND
RESURRECTION
While trying to bring his followers into
mainstream Sunni Islam, WD Mohammed’s
greatest hope was that the world community
would identify them as “American Muslims.”
While engaged in the long arduous process
of reinterpretation, he relabeled the new
group four times: “Bilalians,” “the American
Muslim Mission,” the “American Society of
Muslims” and, finally, the “Mosque Cares.”
The Second Resurrection held its weight
in the Middle East. They initially demonstrated this by aggressively departing from
Louis Farrakhan’s (b. 1933) resuscitation of
the old Elijah Muhammad aristocracy. The
movement became a major beneficiary of
Saudi, UAE, and Qatari funds. Seeing WD
Mohammed at the hajj repositioned his community and made it easy for these donor
countries to provide financial backing to
the NOI’s Second Resurrection. Amadou Shakur, executive director, Center for the African
Diaspora, Charlotte, N.C.
Sharia
Online
Will Harvard’s SHARIAsource
online documentation help
correct the misinformation
surrounding Islamic law?
BY NOOR ALI
I
n this era of Islamophobia and
fear mongering about the Shariah,
SHARIAsource, a new initiative of
Harvard Law School’s Islamic Legal
Studies Program, hopes to provide an online
portal of primary resources and commentaries. Supported by Harvard’s Berkman Center
for Internet & Society and a grant recipient
of the Henry R. Luce and MacArthur foundations, SHARIAsource is the brainchild of
tenured Harvard professor Intisar A. Rabb,
a prominent expert in Islamic law and legal
history who directs the Islamic Legal Studies
Program.
Sharon Tai, fellow research editor
with Rabb, has been involved with the
SHARIAsource project for over a year.
During her recent interview with Islamic
Horizons, we discussed the magnitude of this
endeavor. Tai manages the project’s content,
which, they both hope, will become an indispensable tool for those scholars, policy and
lawmakers who are interested in acquiring
accurate information about the Shariah.
SHARIAsource seeks to utilize the digital
revolution and make sure that Islamic law is
part of the integration of law and technology
necessary in today’s age. Tai explained that this
initiative hopes to grow into a go-to tool and
reference source for academics, journalists,
policymakers and scholars who want to delve
deeper into Harvard University’s impressive
collection of primary sources. SHARIAsource
is to serve an online repository for this literature, which is often not easily accessible.
While the portal is not tailored to meet the
needs of everyone, it does hope to become an
invaluable resource for academicians, media
producers, and lawmakers.
Rabb and Tai are supported by a few
research assistants as they collaborate with
senior scholars around the world. Because
the nature of this portal is specific to its
target demographic, Tai informed us that a
conference was held during September 2015
to introduce the project to media producers
and scholars. About twenty people gathered
to look at what was available at that time
and provided critical feedback about the
kind of information they would find useful
while researching a sample case with legal
implications. A Twitter and social media
outreach campaign is planned to further
introduce the target audience to this online
repository. Tai explicates that the intention
of SHARIAsource is not to be a purely academic ivory tower, but rather an endeavor
that utilizes technology to improve accessibility to a deeper understanding of Islamic
jurisprudence at a time when digitizing
available information is a means for developing a more efficient and comprehensive
resource with simultaneous potential for
contemporaneous growth.
The model for collaboration is to crowdsource scholars from across the world,
thereby enlarging the project’s scope to
inclusive participation. These on-board
scholars assist and produce commentaries
on each other’s work, hold symposiums to
explore legal intricacies, engage in meaningful discourse, and then upload the information on to the website. The result is a global
network of scholars in Islamic law and legal
history who then manage the portal’s content. Part of this process includes creating
new content while bringing diverse scholars together, as opposed to remaining just
a portal of classical and primary resources.
SHARIAsource keeps its eye on dynamic
growth within the legal field while exploring
the primary sources at hand.
According to Tai, this effort’s team members have remained deeply cognizant of
the complexities that arise in a project that
exhibits such a wide-ranging diversity. They
have tried to ensure that all Muslim voices
are represented equally, regardless of where
they come from, by gathering scholars from
across the globe to ensure a balanced debate.
This representational diversity is also
being sought in terms of Islam’s various
sects and schools of thought. For example,
SHARIAsource has a tagged search system
that enables one to access any particular
school of thought. The history of sects and
jurisprudence is also explored. Tai explained
that the portal, which does not have a political or religious alliance, is purely an academic endeavor. Scholars on board share this
vision and have joined the project because
they agree with this approach. No personal
or political agenda is being pushed; rather,
a space is being created for legal discourse
integral to the times. While the editors are
aware of potential controversies in this
regard, they want to ensure that multifaceted information is made available with a
diverse commentary and analysis that allows
us to become better learners. Conferences
and debate sections on the website will disseminate and share the resulting knowledge
with all interested parties.
The mainstream media often discusses
current affairs and legal issues about Islamic
law in the mix with bias, misrepresentation
and misinformation. Cases ruled by renegade and oppositional groups are often scrutinized with a skewed lens to provoke further
fear, hostility and resentment. Whether it is
news stories regarding stoning or “honor”
killing, incorrect views about the Shariah
continue to be disseminated to the public.
SHARIAsource not only hopes to provide an
alternate balanced vision, but also to explore
how media outlets discuss cases and use language, as well as how discourse shapes and
perpetuates stereotypes and prejudice.
Tai shared that the team is aware of the
magnitude of this endeavor and has goals
in mind that will make the portal as useful
as possible for its users and also manageable
by keeping up with the project at a steady
pace. She explained that the project is still
in its early development stage, and that the
editors are cognizant of potential controversy and hopeful that the project’s academic
potential and significance will not be compromised. The soft launch date for access to
SHARIAsource was the summer of 2016. Noor Ali is a teacher and doctoral candidate in the Ed.D.
program at Northeastern University.
35
MUSLIMS IN ACTION
Planting the Seeds of
Anti-Poverty Work
What are Muslim Americans doing about our own
community’s pockets of poverty?
BY KHADIJA GURNAH
F
orty-seven million (about
14.5 percent) of all Americans currently live below the poverty line. In
other words, a significant portion
of fellow Americans face daily debilitating
economic insecurity and ensuing fears for
their future well-being. We have seen a troubling trend of politicians purporting to voice
the concerns of those who sit precariously
in the middle class, all the while supporting
policies that favor those at the top of the
economic stratosphere. As this election cycle
progresses, it has also become more commonplace to leverage the fear of personal and
36
national economic decline at the expense and
by blaming black and brown communities.
Brexit is one such example. To garner
support for exiting the European Union
(EU), British politicians used the rallying cry
of using limited immigration as an economic
fortress. While some politicians made legitimate economic arguments for this proposal,
the focus on immigration and immigrants
as a source of various economic woes only
escalated the people’s anti-immigrant and
anti-Muslim rhetoric. Unsurprisingly, the
number of alarming incidents of xenophobia
and violence increased.
While the majority population routinely
scapegoats minority populations for its own
increased rates of economic insecurity, in
reality it is the minorities who actually experience the most precarious lives in terms
of economic resources and political voice.
In the U.S., poverty rates align closely with
economic and political disenfranchisement: Native Americans, almost one-third
of whom live below the poverty line, have
the highest rates of poverty, followed by
African Americans (27 percent) and Latinos
(24 percent). In comparison, only 10 percent of non-Hispanic Whites fall below the
poverty line.
Poverty and political disenfranchisement are seldom discussed in relation to
the Muslim community, even though it
comprises a significant number of African
Americans and Latinos. There is a stereotype of Muslim Americans being first- or
second-generation immigrants, middle class
and economically upwardly mobile — a
picture that does not include the economic
circumstances of many Muslim immigrants,
particularly those of the growing refugee population. In his paper for the California Law
Review, Between Indigence, Islamophobia, and
Erasure: Poor and Muslim in ‘War on Terror’
America (2016), Khalid Beydoun — assistant professor of law at the Barry University
Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law — reports
that nearly half of all Muslim Americans are
caught between indigence and anti-Muslim
animus, with 45 percent of the population
earning less than $30,000 per year.
This troubling dynamic means that
Muslim advocacy cannot be centered solely
on confronting the ongoing anti-Muslim
animus. If we are to truly serve the community, dealing with poverty and its related
issues must become a focal point, one that
will enable us to become part of the larger
advocacy movement. We do not have to
stand alone as others seek a more just and
inclusive country. By extending our advocacy beyond the scope of our own needs, we
will be able to see and respond to the needs
of our fellow Americans.
Project Ejaba’s (www.projectejaba.com)
mission is to help young Muslim Americans
develop the confidence to live authentically at a time when many feel pressured
to respond to the pervasive misconceptions
POVERTY AND POLITICAL DISENFRANCHISEMENT
ARE SELDOM DISCUSSED IN RELATION TO THE
MUSLIM COMMUNITY, EVEN THOUGH IT COMPRISES
A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF AFRICAN AMERICANS
AND LATINOS.
about Muslims and the practice of Islam in
America. As the demographic groups with
the highest poverty rates are children and
young adults, one of our focal points has
been to address poverty on a systemic level.
Thus Project Ejaba supports the work of
RESULTS (www.results.org), a nonpartisan
organization that convenes meetings across
the country so people can speak up in solidarity with all people who need basic health
care, education, and the means to rise out of
poverty. They provide tools to help advocates
take action with those who represent them
in Congress. RESULTS teaches that one of
the most effective ways to get senators and
representatives to pay attention to reducing
hunger and poverty is to meet face-to-face
with them while they are in the state. The
organization’s website contains appropriate
letter templates that people can use to formulate and then send their own letters to
those bureaucrats who schedule their elected
representatives’ daily activities.
RESULTS is just one of many organizations working to ensure that our country
moves toward creating a more inclusive
economy. As the Muslim community continues to grow its organizing capacity, finding advocacy partners that transcend the
bandwidth of faith is an important step to
ensuring that our children transcend political and economic marginalization. Yes, our
community is currently facing tremendous
challenges, but it is often through such challenges that transformation occurs. Khadija Gurnah, MPH, is founder of Project Ejaba
37
MUSLIMS IN ACTION
The Case against Fossil
Fuels Investments
Muslims support the UN approach of capping the
global temperature increase at 1.5 degree Celsius
The Interfaith Climate Change Statement to world leaders was officially handed over to
Mogens Lykketoft, President of the United Nations General Assembly
BY SAFFET ABID CATOVIC
M
uslims involved in the
environmental “green”
movement often cite two of
Prophet Muhammad’s (salla
Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) hadiths: “Indeed
the world is green and sweet, and indeed
God has left you to remain to see how you
behave. So beware of the world, beware of
the world” and “People have common share
in three (things): Grass (herbage/vegetation
for humanity and animals), water and fire
(light, heat and power, which includes the
electrical power derived from burning fossil
fuels and other sources of energy).”
Most conflicts throughout history,
regardless of their size, can be tied, in one
way or another, to one side’s access and/
or control over these finite life-sustaining
resources. Currently, these resources are
not being shared equitably, in terms of the
present members of creation and those yet
to come. Just as the global faith communities
and their leaders have declared their intent to
battle climate change by releasing statements
and declarations (e.g., the Papal Encyclical
on the Environment and Climate Change
and Laudato Si), local faith leaders must
continue to mobilize their congregations
to pursue this cause.
38
Meeting in Istanbul on Aug. 17-18, 2015,
over 60 Muslim scholars, academics, and
environmental activists from around the
world adopted an Islamic Declaration on
Global Climate Change ((http://islamicclimatedeclaration.org/islamic-declaration-on-global-climate-change/). This bold
grassroots initiative was driven by various
NGOs, including Greenfaith, Islamic Relief
Worldwide, the Islamic Foundation for
Ecology and Environmental Sciences, the
Climate Action Network International, the
OurVoices campaign, and others. It was formally presented to the president of the UN
General Assembly just prior to the signing by
175 parties (174 countries and the European
Union) of the COP 21 Paris Agreement on
April 22, 2016 (Earth Day) in New York.
Specifically, this declaration affirms
the UN position that seeks to limit global
warming to 2, or preferably 1.5, degrees
Celsius by reducing and limiting the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels and the
resultant greenhouse gas emissions. It calls
for the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and a
switch to 100% renewable energy, as well as
increased support by the major greenhouse
gas emitters, primarily the Global North and
China, for vulnerable communities, located
primarily in the Global South. Wealthy
oil-producing nations, of which the U.S. is
now the leading one, are urged to phase out
these emissions by 2050. All people, leaders and businesses are invited to commit to
100% renewable energy in order to tackle
climate change, reduce poverty and achieve
sustainable development.
As renowned environmental leader Bill
McKibben, founder of 350.org reminds us,
“when environmentalists [traditionally]
talked about climate policy, it was almost
always in terms of reducing demand”:
Change your light bulb (ISNA’s multifaceted Our Masjid is Greening Ramadan
campaign with its theme of “Ramadan:
When Less is More” is a community-level
example of implementing ecological friendly
practices) and put a price on carbon (on the
governmental level). These excellent ideas
are making slow but steady progress. Given
enough time, these practices will lower
carbon emissions gradually but powerfully.
He continued, “Time, however, is precisely
what we don’t have.”
As Quran 10:3 states, time is running
out for humanity to believe and do what
is right. A growing number of respected
environmental scientists and economists
have stated that to stem a global warming
disaster, we must stop burning fossil fuels
and keep at least 75% of all carbon dioxide
in the ground to prevent overwhelming the
planet’s physical systems.
This concept of not disturbing Earth is
in keeping with the Quranic injunction “to
walk softy on the earth” (25:63). Quranic
exegetes explain that the Prophet exemplified this by placing his feet firmly as if he
were always walking downhill, as opposed
to penetrating or disrupting it. Hence a
more “green” reading of this verse is to not
harm Earth, which includes reducing our
carbon footprint. It is also a general Shariah
principal to cause no harm/injury to one
another. The mechanism of harming or violating Earth is fasad (corruption), which
contemporary Muslim scholars like Yusuf
Qaradawi (b. 1926) have interpreted as “pollution.” Quran 30:41 defines this as the result
of what “the hands of man have wrought.”
The divestment “Keep it in the Ground”
campaign asks both institutional and individual investors to consider replacing fossil fuel
stocks with renewable stocks. But how can
Muslims accomplish this goal? Arguments
such as saving the planet for future generations, while correct and generally appealing,
will not by themselves be effective in this
regard. Religious language, however, can be
very persuasive in inspiring Muslim investors who are concerned about ethical halal
investments to join this movement.
Another method could consist of calling
attention to the following facts (abstracted
from http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/
the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/). First, the Shariah influences
the legal code of most Muslim countries.
Second, the Pew Research Center’s 2013
survey findings indicate that most Muslims
believe that it is God’s revealed word, rather
than a body of law developed by men based
upon His word. While many Muslims say it
should be the law in any Muslim-majority
country, there is no consensus on the precise
methods of how to implement it.
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 1350)
states, in part: “The Shariah’s foundation is
wisdom and the safeguarding of people’s
interests in this world and the next. In its
entirety it is justice, mercy and wisdom.
Every rule that transcends justice to tyranny,
mercy to its opposite, the good to the evil, and
wisdom to triviality does not belong to it. The
Shariah is God’s justice and mercy among
His people. Life, nutrition, medicine, light,
recuperation and virtue are made possible by
it. Every good that exists is derived from it,
and every deficiency in being results from its
loss and dissipation, for the Shariah, which
God entrusted His prophet to transmit, is
the pillar of the world and the key to success
and happiness in this world and the next.”
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) lists its
purposes and objectives, also referred to as
the five categories or essentials: the preservation of faith, life, lineage (i.e., posterity and
family), intellect and property (i.e. wealth
and material resources). He states that “these
were to be protected as absolute priorities,
for whatever ensures the safeguard of these
five principles serves public interest and is
desirable, and whatever hurts them is against
public interest and its removal is desirable.”
Developing such investments initially
requires a great deal of scholarly work by
competent and qualified jurists, thinkers and
environmental leaders. Individual scholars
and scholarly institutions/associations, fiqh
councils and national fatwa councils must
come to understand the need to expand the
language of the Shariah’s objectives so that
it can be sensitive to and include current
environmental realities and the damage
being done to all of creation. In reference
to these categories, Mohammed Hashim
Kamili (b. 1944), founding chairman of the
International Institute of Advanced Islamic
Studies in Malaysia, and others have observed
“that Al-Maqasid Al-Sharia is still open for
further development and enhancement. The
nature of this development and enhancement
must reflect the priorities of our age and the
(to them), and that they should not become
like those to whom was given Revelation
aforetime, but long ages passed over them
and their hearts grew hard? For many among
them are rebellious transgressors. Know you
(all) that God gives life to the earth after its
MOST CONFLICTS THROUGHOUT HISTORY,
REGARDLESS OF THEIR SIZE, CAN BE TIED,
IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, TO ONE SIDE’S
ACCESS AND/OR CONTROL OVER THESE
FINITE LIFE-SUSTAINING RESOURCES.
change of circumstances that we encounter
as a result.” In fact this “renewal of mind
and understanding” is vital if we are to deal
effectively with the negative side effects of
modernity, industrialization, over-consumption and environmental degradation.
Once the theological/ideological groundwork has been laid, new Shariah-compliant
financial investment instruments that avoid
all fossil fuel-based stocks should be formulated by Islamic finance/investment professionals for society as a whole. These will
provide alternative halal investments in, for
example, renewable energy and clean energy
projects and stocks.
As McKibben observes, money is a key
part of the “Keep It in the Ground” strategy.
From its humble beginnings, with small institutions like Unity College in Maine selling
the fossil fuel stock in its $13 million portfolio, this global divestment movement now
includes colleges from Stanford to Oxford,
from Sydney to Edinburgh. The message is
loud and clear: It makes no sense to educate
young people and then destroy the planet that
they will inherit from us. Allied medical and
physician associations worldwide have committed themselves to this goal on the ground
that one cannot pretend to be interested in
public health if one is investing in companies that are destroying it. Various Christian
denominations have made similar commitments, insisting that caring for creation is
incompatible with causing such destruction.
It is time for Muslim to wake up and
assume their God-given responsibilities as
caretakers of this planet. As Quran 57:1617 states: “Has not the Time arrived for the
Believers that their hearts in all humility
should engage in the remembrance of God
and of the Truth which has been revealed
death! Already have We shown the Signs
plainly to you, that you may learn wisdom.”
Further information on this vitally
important topic can be found at www.greenfaith.org/programs/divest-and-reinvest. Saffet Abid Catovic, member of the Drafting Committee
of the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change, is a board
member of ISNA Green Masjid Task Force and a GreenFaith
Fellow as well as chairman of Green Muslims of New Jersey.
Fatima’s Touch, by Tamam Kahn,
told through narrative and poetry, is a
bridge between our time and seventh
century Islam. Fatima’s story, her
words and her life, serve as a hedge
against fundamentalism.
Years of research support the stories of
Fatima’s life and her loving connection
with her father, Prophet Muhammad;
Islam and the feminine are honored.
— Daisy Khan, Founder, Women’s
Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and
Equality (WISE)
On Amazon September 2016
39
INTERFAITH
Evil Gives Way
Muslim Americans are certainly threatened but
there are Americans of other faiths standing by them
BY UMBERINE ABDULLAH
W
hen D onald Trump
repeated his anti-Muslim diatribe shortly after
the massacre at Orlando’s
Pulse nightclub, President Barack Obama
reminded him that such rhetoric undermines American values: “And if we fall into
the trap of painting all Muslims as a broad
brush, and imply that we are at war with
the entire religion, then we are doing the
terrorists’ work for them . . .We now have
proposals from the presumptive Republican
nominee for president of the United States
to bar all Muslims from immigrating into
America. And you hear language that singles
out immigrants and suggests entire religious
communities are complacent in violence.
“Where does this stop? The Orlando
killer, one of the San Bernardino killers,
the Fort Hood killer — they were all U.S.
citizens. Are we going to start treating all
Muslim Americans differently? Are we going
to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating
them because of their faith? ... That’s not the
America we want.”
Nathan Wellman, a Los Angeles-based
journalist, author, and playwright, noted in
the U.S. Uncut.com June 13 that “[S]ince yesterday’s horrific massacre in Orlando, conservatives have been dodging the gun control
debate by blaming Islam (and utterly ignoring the LGBT aspect of this latest attack).”
He added that this rhetoric will undoubtedly
only encourage the recent spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes that has coincided with
Trump’s presidential campaign.
Saying that this trend is discouraging, he
shared a young New Yorker’s uplifting
story on her Facebook page of a diverse
group of Americans who came together to
protect two Muslimahs from an enraged
bigot. The post picked up over 2,000 “shares”
in just five hours.
The full text of Amaira Hasan’s post is
as follows: “Just now, on my way to work,
a man got on my F train yelling as he came
onto an incredibly packed train for the ‘two
terrorist foreigners to go back to where they
came from.’ These two ‘terrorist foreigners’
were two (understandably terrified) hijabi
Muslim women. Before I could say anything,
the entire train erupted in anger. A black
man, a Romanian, a gay man, a bunch of
Asians and a score of others came to their
defense demanding that he leave them alone
and get off the train. The man insisted that
the two women go back home and take their
bombs with them.
“After some back and forth, one man
declared, ‘This is New York City. The most
diverse place in the world. And in New York,
we protect our own and we don’t give a ****
what anyone looks like or who they love, or
any of those things. It’s time for you to leave
these women alone, Sir.’
“I couldn’t have said it better. Sure
enough, our train was stopped, someone
had called the conductor. This royal douche
was escorted off the train to the sound of
cheering.
“I say all this to say that in light of all
the bad happening around us, remember
that there’s so much good and so much love.
“I’m late to work, but it was for the best
reason.”
Handan Shami (second from right) thanks Seattlearea Quakers and others at the Islamic Center of
Federal Way.
(Photo copyright Alex Garland)
A group of approximately 15 members
of the Seattle Quaker community and peace
activists recently took matters into their own
hands to combat Islamophobia. They visited
the Islamic Center of Federal Way, which
40
AMID ALL OF THIS ONGOING
ISLAMOPHOBIA, ONE NEEDS TO ASK,
PARAPHRASING PRESIDENT OBAMA:
“DO AMERICANS SINCERELY AGREE
WITH THIS HATE?”
serves the south Puget Sound area, to surround them with solidarity
and support on the final Friday of Ramadan.
The visitors split into two groups, for the men’s and the women’s entrances, holding signs wishing the congregation members a
“Blessed Ramadan” as they lined up and removed their shoes. Other
signs proclaimed that “I see dignity in ...” or “I see light in…” with
an arrow pointing left or right.
The Kent, Wash., mosque attendees, who come from a wide range
of ethnic backgrounds, clasped hands with some of the Quakers
and thanked them profusely.
“I feel so good, so good. I have friends who are younger girls and
attend college. They cannot go to the college alone; they always go
together because they’re scared. This support makes me feel so good,
confident and safe,” said Handan Sharmi, originally from Turkey.
Megan Fair of the Washington state chapter of Council on
American Islamic Relations Washington (CAIR-WA) said that
the event was organized after several area mosques were threatened during the past month. One case actually led to an arrest.
“For the past year or so, with the elections, there has been a
lot of negative rhetoric focused on the Muslim community. We’re
working with the #lovethyneighbor campaign, which focuses on
saying: ‘The things you see in the media are not necessarily who
American Muslims are,’” she said.
Polly Jirkovsky Gual, a Quaker and member of the South Seattle
Friends Meeting, explained why she joined in Friday’s event: “It
seems like there’s a real sense of fear and threats, even in Seattle,
in this place that’s supposed to be really progressive. Personally, I
wanted to show that not all American’s feel that way, not all white
people feel that way, and not all people of Christian-derived faith
feel that way. It was important for me to come out here and say
that I think we are all neighbors.”
One Christian group in Minnesota has set out to change the
ongoing negative political rhetoric about Islam and Muslims. The
Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC) , a group of more than
25 churches from various denominations, carried out a “Blessed
Ramadan” campaign and asked community members to put signs
in their front yards wishing Muslims a blessed holy month.
Rev. Jerad Morey, MCC’s project organizer and program and
communications director, said they have provided signs to 53 interfaith groups, as well as Catholic and Jewish houses of worship,
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church
of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist
Church, and Episcopalian, Universalist, and Community of Christ
congregations.
Amid all of this ongoing Islamophobia, one needs to ask, paraphrasing President Obama: “Do Americans sincerely agree with
this hate?” Umberine Abdullah is a freelance writer
41
INTERFAITH
In the Wake of Exclusivist
Political Rhetoric
Do Muslim Americans know that a united front of religious
denominations and faith-based organizations is standing
together against anti-Muslim bigotry?
BY CATHERINE ORSBORN
T
he stories we hear matter.
When we hear stories of violence, exclusion, and hate, it’s
hard not to see the world through
that lens. And there are a lot of those stories, both around the world and in our own
nation. And yet in the midst of all the hate
we’ve been experiencing and witnessing,
particularly over the last year, I’ve been
encouraged by the stories of people from
multiple backgrounds — in simple and elaborate ways — coming together to hear one
another and working together to oppose
hate by building more inclusive, respectful
and justice-centered communities. The story
of Shoulder to Shoulder (www.shouldertoshouldercampaign.org) is one of those
stories that we need to keep telling during
these critical times.
This coalition, based in Washington, D.C.,
comprises 32 religious denominations and
faith-based organizations that came together
in 2010 to say that, despite our religious differences, we oppose anti-Muslim bigotry
in this country. From the beginning, this
campaign has asserted that such bigotry is an
affront to its members’ religious and moral
values of hospitality, love and the injunction
to refrain from “bearing false witness,” as
well as an insult to our American values of
religious freedom and equality, as well as
our diversity of background and belief. As
religious communities, each of our own freedoms depends upon those same freedoms
being extended equally to other religious
communities, for curtailing them for some
puts all of our freedoms at risk.
As a coalition, we work at the national
and local levels to help educate, equip, network, and mobilize faith communities to
stand up against anti-Muslim bigotry in its
many forms. At the national level, we keep
our member denominations and organizations current on what the Muslim American
communities are experiencing, how research
42
and activist organizations are understanding this particular form of bigotry, and help
coordinate multi-religious responses to
especially egregious acts of hate, bigotry or
discrimination that flow from it. In addition,
we work with our member organizations and
denominations so that they can better equip
their clergy members with the knowledge,
relationships and tools they need to stand
in solidarity with and to get to know their
Muslim neighbors.
At the local level, we have a community
membership network made up of groups
that are active in their own communities.
We help connect them to useful educational and action resources to improve
their performance, and also bring them
together for support and networking. For
instance, during the fall and winter we
helped a Muslim community in Irving,
Texas, that had experienced high levels of
bigotry during 2015 start a multi-religious
community dialogue at the Islamic center.
They are now putting together an interfaith
council that will continue to address these
ongoing realities.
The long-term effort of any such undertaking must be national and local in scope
to produce resilient and active inter-faith
communities while also shifting the political and media rhetoric that so often affects
individual perceptions and beliefs.
As a coalition of religious leaders, we call
upon our public officials to stand against
anti-Muslim rhetoric because we need
to hear from those in positions of power,
whether religious or political, when people
are being targeted. Last October, we gathered over 100 religious leaders from diverse
Shoulder to Shoulder Beyond Tolerance press conference
backgrounds at the National Cathedral in
Washington, D.C., for a multi-faith service
and to launch the Religious Freedom Pledge.
This pledge asked our elected officials to
uphold the country’s national commitment
to religious freedom by speaking out against
discrimination, bigotry, harassment and violence based on religion or belief.
In July 2016, we hand-delivered copies of
this pledge with a cover letter to each and
every office of the House and Senate. We
will continue to make this call to Congress,
and are launching a grassroots campaign for
local communities to call upon all of their
elected officials to make this commitment.
Disparaging rhetoric and the failure to call it
out have real-life consequences and only bolsters those who promote hate against Muslims.
Because much of the political conversation around Syrian refugees has been
influenced by anti-Muslim sentiments, we
are currently working with our members
and a number of refugee resettlement organizations on a multi-faith initiative called
Refugees Welcome. This effort pushes back
against the anti-refugee rhetoric that has
been so strong over the past year in particular. Through statements to Congress and
the Obama administration, combined with
community-level work, we have added our
voices to the chorus of faith leaders and
communities that are calling for welcome,
rather than exclusion, in this time of crisis.
For the last couple of months we’ve been
the challenge of inter-religious understanding. As such, no single approach or organization has a hold on “solving” it; rather, all of
these different groups have to join together to
challenge it. We’re doing one part of this by
helping to reframe the narrative, both within
religious communities and in the broader
discourse, in an attempt to show that this
AS A COALITION, SHOULDER TO SHOULDER
WORKS AT THE NATIONAL AND LOCAL
LEVELS TO HELP EDUCATE, EQUIP, NETWORK
AND MOBILIZE FAITH COMMUNITIES TO
STAND UP AGAINST ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY
IN ITS MANY FORMS.
especially focused on helping religious congregations and other groups organize welcoming dinners to host refugees in their
towns. This has been an opportunity for
people to come into direct contact with other
faith communities, especially in terms of
encouraging them to work with Muslim and
Syrian American communities to put on such
events. Such personal contact makes this a
human issue, rather than a political debate,
and enables the involved faith communities
to build mutually collaborative relationships.
We’ve invited political officials and media
to observe and participate in these dinners
and continue to compile the stories of those
communities that welcome refugees to show
members of Congress that people across the
U.S. want to welcome more of them.
Additionally, we are still engaged with
and preparing faith leaders for this undertaking. This September is our third year
of bringing together emerging Jewish,
Christian and Muslim leaders at the ISNA
Convention as part of our Emerging
Religious Leaders Seminar. Participants
will discuss anti-Muslim bigotry and how
to deal with it as emerging members of the
clergy or interfaith leaders. This experience
will expose them to the Muslim American
community’s diverse experiences and concerns so that they can acquire the relevant
knowledge and skills, as well as to form the
networks, necessary for building multi-faith
relationships and oppose anti-Muslim bigotry in their own communities.
Such bigotry is, of course, a complex and
multi-layered reality connected to broader
issues of racism and xenophobia, as well as
issue affects all religious communities and
challenges the foundation of our country’s
pluralistic democracy. We are grateful to
be able to work collaboratively with many
other organizations that are approaching
these same concerns from other angles or
in other community settings.
This effort is not just about being good
allies to those experiencing discrimination
and bigotry; it is about joining forces to
ensure that everyone has equal access to our
national ideals of liberty and justice for all.
We know that discrimination and bigotry,
regardless of where we find them, affect the
targeted group and society as a whole.
The recent tragedy in Orlando was deeply
painful for so many in this country, particularly for LGBTQ and Latino/a persons. And
yet we’ve also seen politicians try to capitalize
on this as still another opportunity to push
anti-Muslim bigotry. While the responses
have been less than perfect and there are
many issues we could discuss, we’ve also
seen outpourings and moments of love and
solidarity. Many have sent a clear message
that the marginalization and targeting of one
identity group as a response to the marginalization and targeting of another identity
group is not the way to make our country a
safer and more welcoming place for everyone. Our country has not lived up to its own
ideals at all times, and it requires all of us
working together — looking out not only
for our own rights, but also (and perhaps
more importantly) for the rights of others
— to help push us in the right direction. Catherine Orsborn is campaign director for the Shoulderto-Shoulder Campaign
43
INTERFAITH
Lessons Learned
A non-Muslim’s first experience of fasting during Ramadan
BY JENNA WIESENHAHN
I
checked my watch and glanced
at the rose sky — Is it 8:47 yet? All I
could think about was water.
I’d fasted before for medical exams,
but could usually schedule it for a weekend,
when the majority of my fasting was done
while I was asleep — not much of a trial.
Fasting in June, at the end of the school
year, during a workday and constricted by
a celestial schedule, however, is an entirely
different experience, one that I know tens
of millions of people elect to do every year,
but which I had never done myself.
I have always made it a point to understand other peoples’ experiences, especially
if they are different from my own. I am a
30-year old white woman who grew up in
Northern Virginia, where it has been incredibly easy to find ways to realize such a goal. I
was raised Christian, but didn’t identify with
or practice a particular religion as an adult.
I studied religion for a while in college and
formed my own particular faith by drawing
upon many belief systems.
I enjoy talking to friends and coworkers about their faith systems, cultures, and
ethnic backgrounds. I love experiencing
them even more, for this is how I believe
that we can truly come to understand one
another as people. So when one of my favorite coworkers, a Muslim Senegalese man,
teasingly suggested that I fast with him (after
I fumbled through wishing him, “Mubarak
Ramadan … or is it Ramadan Mubarak?”),
I thought about it and replied “Ok!”
Three years ago, despite my knowledge
of different religions and having friends of
all faiths, all I vaguely knew about Ramadan
was that it is a Muslim holiday. However, I
could never remember when it occurred.
Two years ago, due to my friendship with a
Muslim man, I knew that this month-long
holiday involved fasting from pre-dawn to
sundown and that the timing changed every
year. I learned that he and his family woke up
at 3:00 a.m. to eat, since that year it occurred
during June. I learned that they often met
with friends and family to break their fast,
and that going to a mosque to pray is an
44
I CAME TO UNDERSTAND MORE DEEPLY
WHAT MUSLIMS EXPERIENCE DURING
RAMADAN, AND WITH THAT HAVE AN
EVEN GREATER RESPECT FOR THOSE
WHO PARTICIPATE IN FASTING.
equally important part of the holiday. I also
learned that just like in Christianity, there
are varying levels of participation.
This year, I learned that Eid is the celebration that marks the end of Ramadan —
Ramadan itself is not a “holiday.” I learned
that it is based on the crescent moon. I
learned that there is both “dry” and “wet”
fasting; I did both – but for Muslims it is
abstaining from all nourishment. I learned
that the purposes of fasting and Ramadan
are similar to what I understand to be the
purposes of the Christian season of Lent: to
give up certain comforts as a way to deepen
your faith, to understand what the prophets experienced during their faith journeys,
to remember that these comforts are of
the body, and to remind us that there are
people everywhere who go without every
day because they have neither the choice
nor the comfort of a scheduled end.
I came to understand more deeply what
Muslims experience during Ramadan, and
with that have an even greater respect for
those who fast. I did a beginner’s version:
I only fasted 2 days, didn’t incorporate the
spiritual part (i.e., praying and going to the
mosque), and chose when I was going to
fast. More than once, my coworker teasingly
chastised me for not fasting certain days, like
the last day of school when we have a staff
luncheon, or on the weekend when there are
no work-related distractions. This luxury of
choice is not lost on me.
Waking up earlier than usual was difficult. Eating and drinking enough to get me
through an entire day of teaching 3- and
4-year-olds with autism, and then through
after-school meetings and a second job was
tricky; I hope I learn how to do this better
next year. Missing my mid-day coffee and
water was the worst part. But that’s kind of
the point: Missing my mid-day coffee and
water was the worst part. At the end of the
day, when the sky darkened and the clock
struck 8:47, I got to greedily gulp down my
cold water, go home and eat my food. I got
to go to sleep knowing that I wouldn’t have
to go without food the next day.
This year I learned that both my body and
spirit are strong and capable of more than
I had expected; they always are. I learned
that it’s not so bad to go without food or
drink for 15 hours for a couple of days, and
that there are parts of the deprivation I even
enjoy: I don’t over-indulge or stress eat, and
my body had an opportunity to recover from
any previous poor eating.
This year I learned, as I learn over and
over again, that I am so blessed, so privileged. That the things I struggle with for
my survival — mostly a tight budget due
to grad school loans, being a teacher, and
living alone — are small struggles compared
to what so many others endure. Spoiled
struggles, even. I learned that I enjoy
being reminded of this. Sometimes I need
a reminder of this.
I try to stay grateful and humble every
day, but the concrete, visceral reminder that
comes with fasting is powerful. It is a renewing reminder, a renewing call to remember
others’ struggles, especially at the end of the
long, exhausting school year, when all I can
think about is surviving until summer break.
Again: I have a scheduled end.
Next year I will fast again. I hope to do
more, participate longer and more deeply,
and choose to experience more of what
others can’t choose. Today I celebrate that
I can chose, and I continue to try to use
that privilege to work to give others their
own ability of choice. Ramadan Mubarak! Jenna M. Wiesenhahn, M.Ed.H.D, a public school teacher,
specializes in early childhood special education and acquired
brain injuries.
Facing Fear and Acting for
a Better America
Do Americans realize that rather than stir up fear and hatred of the
“other,” their challenge is to help bring out the best in all people?
BY RON YOUNG
P
ublic controversy sometimes
erupts when a Muslim American
community announces plans
to build a mosque. Opposition
is often fueled by well-funded national
anti-Muslim organizations that shamelessly
target the general public’s ignorance and
fears about Islam. This is a story about one
such incident in a community near Seattle
and how Muslims and Christians came
together to support this undertaking. It is
also a story about challenging an anti-Muslim group and how love and truth can defeat
fear and hate.
I first learned of this by reading an op-ed
article by Rick Larsen (D), our local member
of Congress in support of the Muslim community’s right to build the Islamic Center of
Mukilteo in the small, nearby city of Mukilteo,
located in Snohomish County. The owner of
a local engineering company that contracts
with Boeing had sent postcards to all city
residents, raising fears about the project,
with a return address of “Mukilteostaysafe.”
I attended a meeting called by Larsen with
members of the Muslim community and the
director of CAIR. After Muslims met with
the head of the engineering company, he
publicly announced that he had changed his
mind and now supported the project. Not
surprisingly, the situation was complicated
by behind-the-scenes agitation of the activist
anti-Muslim group Act for America.
Christians and Muslims organized two
community meetings, including an iftar
at a local Lutheran church. Press coverage
was positive, and Mukilteo’s Mayor Jennifer
Gregerson (D) was quoted as supporting the
Muslim community. Unfortunately active
opposition, including posting hateful protest placards posted on the proposed site,
continued. Clearly, some of this opposition
was being organized by Act for America.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has
designated Act for America, which claims
to have 1,000 local chapters nationwide, a
right-wing “hate-group.” At one of the promosque public meetings held at the Lutheran
church, a member of Act for America spoke
up angrily during the question and answer
period, waving and emotionally referencing a multi-tabbed copy of a thick book
entitled The Reliance of the Traveller, an
English translation of a 14th century guide
to Islamic teachings. For Christians to reference a medieval guide to Islam is especially
shocking and sad, for that was the era of the
Crusades and the notorious Inquisition.
Referencing such interpretations and
then exclusively citing the most extreme
teachings, which are held by only a small
minority of contemporary Muslims, is also
disingenuous and very misleading because
such tactics completely ignore the vast literature on contemporary Muslim teachings
IF WE ARE HONEST AND
EVEN SLIGHTLY SELFCRITICAL, WE HAVE TO
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT
JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY
AND ISLAM HAVE BEEN
USED IN THE PAST AND
EVEN TODAY BY SOME
OF THEIR FOLLOWERS
TO INSPIRE EXTREMISM
AND VIOLENCE.
and statements issued by mainstream Islamic
scholars and organizations.
While Act for America’s appeal effectively
plays upon people’s ignorance and fears and
helps raise a lot of money, this prejudiced
practice provides a grossly distorted view of
what the vast majority of Muslims believe.
In fact, it is no different from judging what
all Jews believe by quoting only the most
extreme and violent Jewish settlers in the
West Bank Palestinian territory or judging
Christianity by the crude, extreme statements by some American Christian fundamentalist leaders who view Islam as “a
religion of war” and enthusiastically supported the Bush administration’s disastrous
invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq
as a morally justified modern-day crusade.
Let me cite just a few of the major contemporary documents that present an authentic
and reliable view of Islam. The ongoing and
growing international interfaith initiative
“A Common Word,” launched by Muslim
and Christian scholars in 2007, emphasizes
the fundamental commonalities between
Muslim and Christian teachings on two
central religious imperatives: “to love God
and to love our neighbors.” Two brand new
books offer a great deal of insight and useful
information to anyone seeking a responsible and serious understanding of Islam:
The Study Quran: A New Translation and
Commentary (2015) and The Quran with
References to the Bible (2016).
During September 2014, 120 prominent
Muslim scholars from around the world
issued a letter to the fighters and followers of
ISIS on religious extremism. Citing classical
teachings from the Quran, they denounced
the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s extremist ideology and practices as fundamentally
“un-Islamic.”
If we are honest and even slightly
self-critical, we have to acknowledge that
Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been
used in the past and even today by some
of their followers to inspire extremism and
violence. Rather than stir up fear and hatred
of the “other,” our challenge is to help bring
out the best in all people. In fact, it is actually
very logical to act compassionately and constructively in order to bring about a better,
safer America and a better world. Ron Young serves as consultant to the National Interreligious
Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East (NILI;
http://www.nili-mideastpeace.org). This commentary represents his personal views, not the views of NILI. A regular
speaker on interfaith cooperation and Middle East issues,
he can be contacted at [email protected].
45
HEALTH & WELL-BEING
The Addictions Epidemic
Are Muslims doing enough to educate their children about the
dangers of addictions and violent behavior?
BY SHAIKH ABDUL RAHMAN
U
sually the deaths of popular figures like Prince bring a
new focus on addictions. In the
last three years there has been
steady and excessive demand for heroin,
cannabis and narcotic medications.
Every fourth patient who calls at my
southeast Indiana medical office, even those
with actual medical problems, is actually
looking for addictive narcotics, tranquilizers and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)
medication. During the initial screening, I
ask about their physical problems and the
medications they are taking. If I notice that
they are looking for addictive medications,
I tell them upfront that I do not prescribe
such medications.
However, a lot of patients are very clever
when it comes to explaining their physical
problems and how they are only taking overthe-counter medications. After I evaluate
them and perform the appropriate tests, I
give them non-habit-forming alternative
medications. I also try to get help for their
THE CURRICULA
OF ISLAMIC
SCHOOLS AND
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
SHOULD INCLUDE
THE DANGERS OF
ALCOHOL AND
DRUG ABUSE AND
THEIR ASSOCIATED
CONSEQUENCES.
46
addiction problems from neurologists and
community mental health practitioners.
However, to my surprise such specialists
say they cannot see a patient for at least
3 to 4 months. This shows the strain on
psychiatrists, psychologists and the associated staff.
If patients do not follow my instructions,
I politely bow out from their care after giving
them a 30-day notice. This is especially true
when a patient’s friend or family member
calls me anonymously to let me know that
the addictive medications were not only
being abused, but also being sold on the
black market.
Alcohol in the refrigerator and habit-forming prescription medications not
kept out of the reach of family members,
especially young children, do not help matters. Some middle and high school-aged
children have become binge drinkers.
Statistics are not exactly known for teenage binge drinkers and drug abusers, but
the matter is made worse by unsupervised
slumber parties and proms.
Let me give you two examples. A high
school student had straight “A”s and was
very ambitious in terms of becoming either
a doctor or a certified nurse. Unfortunately
she fell in with a bad crowd. Later, a physician
prescribed ADD medications to improve
her grades. I also tried to get help from the
mental health practitioner and counseled
her and her parents. However, she became
pregnant and dropped out of school. During
one of her visits I noticed finger marks on
her neck. She told me that her boyfriend had
tried to choke her after an argument. I sought
urgent mental health care for her drug addiction and domestic violence. However, she did
not follow my instructions and the parents
decided to take her to a different physician.
This was sad, but nevertheless a relief — at
least for me.
In the second case, I was treating was a
grandmother who had diabetes, high blood
pressure and other medical issues. Her
10-year old granddaughter would accompany her to my office. The grandmother
remarked that the girl probably had ADD
and that I should give her some medicine.
I examined her and found her to be a really
brilliant girl; however, she was not working
hard enough to keep up her grades. I just
gave the girl some vitamins and counseling. I then told the grandmother that ADD
medication would actually hurt her granddaughter in the long run.
This happened about 15 years ago. Last
July, she brought the girl to my office after
she had graduated from a reputable nursing
school as a registered nurse. She showed me
the photograph of her graduation. Both of
them were in tears and grateful for my putting the girl on the right track. Now she is a
chief registered nurse at a university hospital.
This was a very gratifying experience.
Some Muslim students and adults drink
alcohol and abuse drugs. Indeed, divorces
are taking place because of these horrible
habits. Our university and college students
are under a lot of peer pressure, and some
of them eventually succumb. The MSA
(Muslim Students Association), which has
chapters in most colleges and universities,
continues to monitor them and offer counseling and psychiatric help. However, some
fall through the cracks if they do not associate themselves with the association.
I continue to engage pastors, priests,
social workers and imams to be persistent
in informing our young people that these
habits are both physically and spiritually
harmful, for Satan always tries to get the
best of humans. We should always remain
vigilant, closely monitor our young people
and make sure they stay away from those
people who are lost so that they and their
own children will not succumb to this curse.
The curricula of Islamic schools and
Sunday schools should include the dangers
of alcohol and drug abuse and their associated consequences. We should also educate
them about domestic violence and bullying
and provide an atmosphere in which they
feel free to discuss their emotional problems. Our young people should be tested
on these topics via written exams, just as we
test them in math and science. There should
be clear communication among teachers,
students and parents and appropriate (yet
compassionate) measures designed to guide
them toward taqwa (God-consciousness) so
they can make good choices as they become
older. Once our children leave their Islamic
or public high school and pursue their
higher education, they can easily get lost
in the liberal atmosphere, especially if we
did not train them while they were under
our watchful eyes. Shaikh Abdul Rahman is a Lawrenceburg, Ind., internist.
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47
THE MUSLIM WORLD
Kashmir for Kashmiris
Is independence a legal option for Kashmir?
BY GHULAM NABI FAI
A
people’s right to self-determination, a basic principle of
the United Nations Charter that
is reaffirmed in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, has been used
to settle many international disputes. The
U.N. has explicitly recognized its applicability to the specific case of Jammu and Kashmir,
as did both India and Pakistan when they
placed the Kashmir dispute before the U.N.
Security Council in 1948. With the establishment of India and Pakistan as sovereign
nation, New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to
allow the inhabitants of the Muslim-majority
princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which
now stood alone, to exercise their right of
self-determination under impartial auspices and in a coercion-free environment.
Their official agreement to this undertaking
is embodied in the two resolutions of the
U.N. Commission for India and Pakistan
(UNCIP). As it is binding on both of them,
neither one can render it null and void by
alleging that the other is not adhering any
of its provisions.
Part III of the resolution, dated Aug.
13, 1948, stipulates: “The Government of
India and the Government of Pakistan
reaffirm their wish that the future status of
48
NO SOLUTION TO
THIS DECADES-LONG
INJUSTICE WILL BE
JUST OR VIABLE IF
IT IGNORES THIS
INTENSE, POPULAR
SENTIMENT.
agree to enter into consultations with the
Commission to determine fair and equitable
conditions whereby such free expression
will be assured.”
Contrary to assumptions, this provision
does not deny the Kashmiris complete and
total independence. Although understandable, the impression is erroneous because by
definition the right of self-determination is
unrestricted. By entering into the agreement,
India and Pakistan excluded and therefore
rendered inadmissible each other’s claim
to the state until its people had voted to
endorse it under an impartial authority. As
no agreement between two of the interested
parties can lay down what options should
be available to the third interested party,
thereby restricting the latter’s right of free
and uncoerced choice, all options have to be
made available. This is an elementary principle of law and justice that no international
agreement, if legitimate, can possibly flout.
India and Pakistan were within their
rights to pledge to each other that they would
not fight over Kashmir. and would let its
people decide its status. However, it would
have been wholly illegitimate for them to say,
“Let’s go through the motions of a plebiscite
to decide which one will get this land,” for
such an approach would be no more than a
plot to provide the form while denying the
substance of self-determination, a mockery
of democratic norms: “You have the right to
make an independent choice, just as long as
you do not choose independence.”
NOT A NOVEL VIEW
the state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be
determined in accordance with the will of
the people and to that end, upon acceptance
of the truce agreement, both Governments
This is not a novel view. When India first
brought the issue to the U.N., its representative set out three options: (a) accession
to India, (b) accession to Pakistan and (c)
Betaab Valley, Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir
independence. The wording of more than
one Security Council resolution reflects the
possibility of the third option. For example,
the resolutions adopted on March 14, 1950,
and March 30, 1951, refer to “the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir (to
be) made in accordance with the will of the
people expressed by the democratic method
of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted
under the auspices of the United Nations.”
The phrase “final disposition” is inclusive and
has a wider meaning than “accession to either
India or Pakistan.” The Security Council used
this expression not for the convenience of
drafting, but to explicitly prevent the foreclosing of any option for the Kashmiris. These
resolutions, adopted after India and Pakistan
concluded the agreement, do not detract
from the latter’s binding nature, as far as their
obligations are concerned. However, they do
imply recognition of the Kashmiris’ inherent
right to decide their future independent of
India and Pakistan’s contending claims.
The idea of independence for Kashmir, if
not for all of its zones, has, in fact, never been
beyond its people’s mental horizon. But the
demand for it was either suppressed or somewhat muted because of (1) the Cold War,
which generated the fear that an independent Kashmir would be a likely victim of foreign aggression, subversion or intrigue and
(2) the supposition that small states would
be unable to sustain their independence.
Both of these inhibiting factors have now
dissipated. The Cold War has ended, and
scores of states, even smaller in size and
population than Kashmir, have taken are
now fully sovereign members of the U.N.
This explains the widespread and resurgent desire for independence. No solution
to this decades-long injustice will be just
or viable if it ignores this intense, popular
Rising Kashmir one of the media banned by the
Indian occupation administration
sentiment. Justice and pragmatism require
that no option should be excluded.
An independent Kashmir would be
expected to have close links with both India
and Pakistan, some of them established by
trilateral treaty provisions. Indeed, a free and
independent Kashmir would provide both
of them with a meeting ground as well as
make a serious contribution to an enduring
peace in South Asia, something that no other
entity can do.
THE ARGUMENT AGAINST
INDEPENDENCE
There only standing argument against independence is that the emergence of another
sovereign entity in the Subcontinent would
encourage existing secessionist tendencies
and lead to the collapse of both India and
Pakistan’s existing federal structures. This
may be based on a genuine fear or only
a stratagem to avoid a just solution; in
either case, however, this view proves to
be untenable because it ignores two vital
considerations.
First, Kashmir is a sui generis case. All
the former provinces, states or territories —
except for Hyderabad, which India invaded
and annexed in 1948 — that today constitute India and Pakistan legally became parts
of one or the other through a process that
harmonized with the expressed will of their
people. Only Kashmir was never allowed
to decide its own status or affiliation. What
therefore applies to Kashmir does not apply
to, for example, Assam, Punjab or Tamil Nadu
in India or to Sind or Baluchistan in Pakistan.
Also, both nations solemnly accepted an
international obligation regarding Kashmir
that they would reject in any other case: the
obligation to withdraw their forces from the
territory. This demilitarization, which is the
Kashmiris’ first demand and to which both
India and Pakistan are committed legally and
morally, cannot be interpreted as secession
or encouraging separation either, for the
former princely state cannot be regarded
as having seceded from what it had never
acceded to in the first place.
Second, Kashmir can emerge as an independent nation in the context of implementing an international agreement to which both
India and Pakistan are parties. Removing
this perennial cause of conflict and establishing their relations on the firm basis of
good-neighborliness, cooperation in facing
their common problems and a mutually recognized frontier would increase their mutual
respect for each other’s territorial integrity
and strengthen their internal cohesion. Only
reliable conditions of peace can constitute
an effective safeguard against disintegration.
Jayaprakash Narayan (1902-79), who
enjoyed great esteem in India for his intellect
and integrity, once referred to the argument
that “the verdict of the people of Kashmir”
would “start the process of disintegration of
India” in the following terms: “Few things
have been said in the course of this controversy more silly than this one. The assumption behind the argument is that the states
of India are held together by force and not
by the sentiment of a common nationality.
It is an assumption that makes a mockery
of the Indian nation and a tyrant of the
Indian state.” Ghulam Nabi Fai is secretary general of the World Kashmir
Awareness.
49
THE MUSLIM WORLD
Cooperation Serves
Democracy
Rivals adjust to work together to democratize
and deradicalize Tunisia
BY RUBY AMATULLA
I
t is encouraging to watch the
ongoing transformation in Tunisia
of Rachid al-Ghannouchi, the Arab
Spring’s spiritual leader and revered by
many as the founding father of post-revolutionary Tunisia, and Ennahda, the country’s
largest and most popular Islamic political
party that is now widely expected to be
re-elected in the next election.
Ghannouchi (b. 1941) recently took the
biggest risk of his political career by declaring during May, at his party’s 10th congress,
that political Islam no longer had any place
in the country. The participants replaced
fasl (separation) with takhassus (specialization) as regards the movement’s religious
and political activities.
While keeping its Islamic character,
Ennahda is now set to become a purely
political party and thus sever its connection
with dawah and the mosque. Ghannouchi
said: “Some religious preachers are members
of our party. Once elected to Parliament,
they will now have to choose either to be
in Parliament and stop being an imam, or
remain an imam and not go to Parliament.”
Ennahda’s decision was a Tunisian one,
50
he stressed. Political Islam could still work
as a revolutionary model for those states
where Islam is still oppressed, he conceded,
but no longer in Tunisia. Referring to ISIS
(Daesh), he said, “I am a Muslim democrat
and they are against democracy.”
Coming from a once-diehard leader,
a member of the International Union of
Muslim Scholars and the European Fatwa
Council, this change is notable. Ghannouchi’s
visionary leadership of remaining flexible
without compromising Islam’s fundamental
values and principles has played a major
role in helping Tunisia become a vibrant
democracy, whereas other countries in the
region have failed.
Time and again he has demonstrated
this vision. While Ennahda was in power,
mass protests broke out in 2013 after two
opposition leaders were assassinated. To
restore the people’s trust and confidence,
the party resigned and handed power over
to a neutral caretaker government until the
next election. The secularist party Nidaa
Tounes received the majority of votes in the
October 2014 election and decisively beat
Ennahda, which readily conceded defeat
and pledged its cooperation. Interestingly,
Ghannouchi was among the very first to
congratulate Beji Caid Essebsi, the new president, who had been a minister under the
hardline secularist Habib Bourguiba (19032000). This democratic spirit and dignified
political tradition helped break the region’s
usual violent succession battles.
Interestingly, one of Bourguiba’s final acts
as president before he was deposed 30 years
ago was to order Ghannouchi’s retrial. Life
imprisonment was not enough; he wanted
to execute the man. And now this same
man is helping Tunisia nourish a political culture of power-sharing and willingly
stepping down for the sake of the nation.
Though his actions he is setting the political
standard, one that is becong entrenched and
defies the pressures put on it by the region’s
undemocratic powers. For example, David
Hearst (Middle East Eye, June 13, 2016),
reported that the Emiratis offered Tunisia
between $5bn-$10bn if Essebsi would ditch
his power-sharing agreement with Ennahda.
To his everlasting credit, he refused to do so.
The people’s trust was restored. Even
the parties that had lost out in the last two
national elections wholeheartedly confirmed
that the elections had been free and fair and
the system is working well. A vibrant civil
society is now playing a critical role in bridging the nation’s political and religious divides.
In 2015 the National Dialogue Quartet, a
consortium of organizations of lawyers,
human rights activists, labor unions and
others, was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
Even the old-time rigidly secularist
groups have softened and started to accommodate religion. However, these transformations of both sides did not come about
overnight. In June 2003, representatives
of three major secularist political parties
undertook a courageous move: They met
representatives of Ennahda, then in exile,
to negotiate and sign the “Call from Tunis”
(issued from Paris). This joint declaration
laid down the rules of future political engagements to ensure the upholding of democratic
principles, respect for religious traditions
and guaranteeing religious freedom. Over the next decade or so, constructive
engagements and protracted negotiations
produced a progressive constitution that
included terms of gender parity, a proportional representation electoral system,
extensive monitoring prerogatives given
to international electoral observers, and so
on. The end result is a conducive political
culture and political system that the rest of
the Muslim world should emulate.
Ebrahim Moosa, professor of Islamic
studies at the University of Notre Dame
and who spent time with Ghannouchi
during the latter’s exile, was not surprised
that Ghannouchi had learned from what
had happened in Turkey and Egypt before
his return to Tunisia. Moosa said that
“Islamic groups in Tunisia have shown
that they can think differently … There
has been a theological tradition in North
Africa, maslaha, truly Islamic in spirit, to
give priority to what is in the best interest
of the community and the public” (Tom
Heneghan and Celeste Kennel-Shank, The
Christian Century, May 24, 2016).
This is an enormous achievement for a
previously divided society that had been
ruled by autocrats ever since its independence from France in 1956 and torn
between modernity and religious traditions.
Since the Jasmine Revolution that ended
President Ben Ali’s 23-year autocratic rule
in January 2011, an event that also started
the greater Arab Spring movement, the society has experienced various difficulties but
has survived with amazing resiliency. The
main contributing factor is the constructive engagement of the opposition and the
consequent changes in the greater society,
all of which has led to optimism and public
trust in the political process.
The key factor behind this new democracy is the power-sharing arrangement,
which is based upon proportional representation. Right after the revolution, Ennahda
was very popular and widely expected to win
about 90 percent of all Assembly seats. As
that would have been unacceptable by the
secularist and liberal parties, it accepted the
ensuing drastic reduction of its number of
seats in order to avoid dissension and turmoil. In fact, in the October 2011 election
Ennahda acquired only 41 percent of the
seats. And despite being the largest party,
it formed a coalition and shared power with
the two secularist groups. Paradoxically, the
constraints and compromises of power sharing have been the key to establishing Tunisia’s
functional democracy.
On the other hand, Egypt could not hang
on to its own successful revolution after
ending Husni Mubarak’s long repressive rule
around the same time as Tunisia’s Jasmine
revolution (January 2011), for the military
overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of
the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) on July 3,
2013. Now former defense minister Abdel
Fattah el-Sisi, who led the last coup, sits on
the throne claiming to have received over
90 percent of the votes in the last election.
Egypt has come full circle, meaning that
nothing has changed.
regimes find more excuses to continue their
repression in the name of fighting “terrorism.” But in reality, they just imprison opposition leaders at will and violate the citizens’
civil rights, thereby blocking democracy. The
western powers, in the name of “stability,”
THE KEY FACTOR BEHIND THIS NEW
DEMOCRACY IN TUNISIA IS THE POWERSHARING ARRANGEMENT, WHICH IS BASED
UPON PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.
The main reason why Egypt failed is
because the secularist [although Muslim]
and Islamic parties failed to reach out to
each other. Their long adversarial and distrustful relationship, which benefits neither
side, caused President Morsi to ignore the
secular voices, adopt an uncompromising approach and quickly try to consolidate his power. Thus he sent a signal of yet
another authoritarian ruler assuming power.
Seizing upon the opportunity offered by the
ensuing massive nationwide protests and
increased level of turmoil, the military and
some regional powers eagerly sought to sabotage the nascent democracy. And so Egypt
lost a historic opportunity for self-rule — a
lose-lose outcome for everyone. The Islamic party bears a lion’s share
of the blame for this failure. However, in
hindsight the secularist forces are also
responsible. Ever since the presidency of
Gamal Abel Nasser (1956-70), the country’s
secularist autocratic rulers have persecuted
Muslims. And secularist groups and civil
society, while giving lip service to pluralism
and democracy, remained silent, looking
away as Muslims were being oppressed and
having their rights violated.
Many western and eastern scholars
have repeatedly pointed out that whenever
the constructive work in which Muslims
involve themselves is ignored and they are
persecuted, extreme radical forces spring up.
Ghannouchi says that extremists emerged
during the long years of rigid secularist rule
in both countries for this very reason. We
should not forget that Daesh sprang up in
Iraq, where Sunni Muslims were marginalized and could not make any headway with
the Nouri al-Maliki regime.
Growing radicalism causes autocratic
continue to support and do business with
these ruthless undemocratic regimes, realities that only reinforce the negative status
quo. Moreover, their obvious hypocrisy creates cynicism and distrust among the people
and, in turn, only engenders more sympathy
for radicalism. Radicals thus begin to find
support for their vicious work, and the gap
between the West and the Muslim world
widens even more.
This vicious cycle continues due to the
reckless way in which “de-radicalization”
is being pursued. Recent events in many
countries testify to the fact that the “war on
terror” has failed, despite the expenditure of
hundreds of billions of dollars by the U.S. and
other powerful western countries. There is
no military solution to radicalism, especially
in this global society that has an ever-higher
intolerance for subjugation and humiliation,
not to mention the ever greater availability
of arms to anyone who wants them. It is long
past time for the world powers to focus on
devising a deep-rooted agenda to address
radicalism, part of which might be to help
establish power-sharing democratic rule.
A prominent western leader succinctly
points out that the counterproductive strategy of pursuing stability at the expense of
democracy ends up achieving neither. That
has been the unfortunate course of events in
many Muslim-majority countries.
Tunisia seems to have avoided this quagmire. Democracy is thriving, radicals are
being transformed or marginalized, and
both Muslims and secularists are finding
common grounds. Ruby Amatulla, a human right and peace activist, political
analyst and a writer, is executive director of Women for Good
Governance and editor of www.consultquran.com, which
focuses on indexing the Quran.
51
SPECIAL FEATURE
First Major U.S. Exhibition of
“The Art of the Quran”
This cultural exhibit showcases exquisite manuscripts and folios
from Istanbul and the Freer and Sackler galleries’ collections
BY DEBORAH ZISKA
“T
he Art of the Quran: Treasures from the Museum of
Turkish and Islamic Arts” will be on display at the Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery (asia.si.edu) Oct. 15, 2016 through Feb. 20,
2017, in Washington, D.C.
This historic event, the first such major exhibition in the U.S., will feature more
than 60 of the most important Quran manuscripts ever produced in the Arab
world, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Celebrated for
their superb calligraphy and lavish illumination, they
range from eighth-century Damascus to 17th-century
Istanbul. Many of these works, which will be displayed
outside of Turkey for the first time ever, are critical to
the history and appreciation of the “arts of the book.”
This exhibition tells the stories of some of these
extraordinary manuscripts, their makers and their
owners. Visitors will learn how the Quran was transformed from an orally transmitted message to a written, illuminated and bound text produced by highly
accomplished Muslim artists. One of the main themes
is the development of different scripts for transcribing
the divine message, beginning with late-seventh to
early eighth-century examples of the more informal
and individualized hijazi script, named after the region
in northwestern Arabia, which is believed to be its
place of origin. Examples of subsequent scripts, such as
angular kufic and the more cursive naskh, muhaqqaq,
and thuluth, evolved with the spread of Islam and the
efflorescence of regional styles.
Another important aspect is that illumination that
not only marked the holy scripture’s divisions and sections and aided worshipers in reading and recitation,
but also embellished the text itself. Together, calligraphy and illumination transformed these human-produced volumes into exceptional works of art valued
for their content and artistic refinement.
These manuscripts were originally created for
some of the Islamic world’s most powerful rulers.
As the finest of their kind, long after their completion
they were sought out and cherished by the Ottoman
ruling elite as prized possessions, gifts given to cement
political and military relationships or recognize special acts, and donated to public and religious institutions to express personal piety and secure political
power and prestige. Female members of the royal
family would send them to libraries and public institutions as expressions of their personal commitment
to religious and social life. When Nurbnanu (d. 1583),
52
THESE MANUSCRIPTS WERE ORIGINALLY
CREATED FOR SOME OF THE ISLAMIC
WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL RULERS.
wife of Selim II (r. 1566-74) and Sultan Sülayman’s (r. 1520-66) daughter-in-law,
built a mosque in Üsküdar, she donated many copies of the Quran and employed
148 Quranic reciters to recite specific chapters after the morning, noon and
evening prayers.
Shortly before 1914, when the Ottoman Empire was in political turmoil, its
government decided to transfer to Istanbul all of the valuable art works that had
been donated to mosques, schools, shrines and other religious institutions across
the empire. These included thousands of Quran manuscripts and loose folios,
which are housed today in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, located
opposite the Blue Mosque.
“This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see Quran [manuscripts]
of different origins, formats and styles and begin to appreciate the power and
beauty of the calligraphy as well as intricacy of the illuminated decoration,” states
Massumeh Farhad, the Freer and Sackler’s chief curator and curator of Islamic art. “Although each copy of
the Quran contains an identical text, the mastery and
skill of the artists have transformed it into a unique
work of art.”
The exhibition is being organized in collaboration
with Istanbul’s Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts,
which Julian Raby (the Dame Jillian Sackler Director
of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery
of Art), states “has one of the most extraordinary
collections of Quran in the world, yet its holdings are
little known even to many experts.” Raby, a scholar of
Islamic art, believes that the exhibition provides “an
unparalleled opportunity for audiences in the United
States to appreciate the artistry of Muslim scribes and
craftsmen over more than a millennium, in regions
from North Africa to Afghanistan.”
The Freer and Sackler galleries have one of this
country’s most comprehensive collections of Islamic
art. A number of important Qurans from their permanent collections will be on display. Their multiauthor
full-color catalog will feature a series of essays on the
Quran, its calligraphy, illumination and organization as a text; an introduction
to the formation of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts; and detailed discussions of each of the artworks displayed.
A website will offer additional resources on the art of the Quran, among them
videos, “closer looks” at several manuscripts, an interactive map and curriculum
plans. In addition to extensive public programs, an international symposium on
The A of the Quran” will be held from December 1-3, 2016.
The exhibition’s principal sponsor is Koç Holding. Major support was provided
by Turkish Airlines and the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, and additional
support came from the El-Hibri Foundation. Farhad and Simon Rettig, assistant
curators at the Freer and Sackler, have curated it.
The Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, located
on the National Mall and together comprise the nation’s museum of Asian art,
contains one of the world’s most important collections of Asian art, featuring
more than 40,000 objects. Deborah Ziska, who served as chief of press and public information at the National Gallery of Art for 20
years, currently works as a cultural communications consultant and teaches in the museum studies graduate
program at Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, DC.
53
SPECIAL FEATURE
Court and Cosmos: The
Great Age of the Seljuqs
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
showcased enthralling art from the Muslim heritage.
BY MISBAHUDDIN MIRZA
T
he name “Seljuq” (Seljuk)
always inspires awe, respect
and nostalgia among Muslims.
In the 10th century, when these
nomadic Oghuz Turks from the Central
Asian steppes entered Islam, the world rolled
out the red carpet for them: military victories beyond belief and political fortunes that
kissed their feet at every step. They brought
the mighty Byzantine Empire to heel by capturing Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes at
the battle of Manzikert, which paved the
way for the Turks to move into Anatolia.
The Seljuq Empire extended from the Hindu
Kush mountains to the Aegean Sea, and from
the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
When the First Crusade (1096-99)
started crossing into the Anatolian Seljuq
sultanate, incorrectly referred to in popular
parlance as the “Sultanate of Rum,” Sultan
Kilij Arsalan waited patiently for all of the
warriors to cross over, he surrounded and
eliminated them, and then departed for
another battlefront — completely unaware
that the real army was still waiting on the
other side of Constantinople to cross over.
He and several later Turkic sultans would
have to correct this intelligence lapse at a
substantial cost. However, their power did
lay down the essential groundwork from
which other Turkic generals would launch
their own mighty empires: the Ottomans
(1299-1922) in Turkey, the Mamluks (12501517) in Egypt and the Mughals (1526-1857)
in Delhi.
Each Turkic empire converted insurmountable military challenges into glorious victories that had serious consequences.
For example, the battle of Ain Jalut tamed
the Mongols, Sultan Baybars eradicated
the Crusader menace, and the Khilji and
Tughluq sultans fought and eventually
pursued the invading Mongols right into
the very Mongol lands, instilling dread in
the hearts of those brutal killers. The list of
54
civilizations saved by the Seljuqs and their
successor Turkic dynasties is seemingly
endless.
In addition to being highly disciplined
and fearless fighters, the Seljuq Turks were
extraordinary administrators and extremely
cultured people who left their mark on the
world through great art and architecture.
They presided over a cosmopolitan culture that made great strides in sciences,
technology, astronomy, poetry, art and
architecture and also built huge mosques,
seminaries, caravanserais and hospitals. The
mosques. Among the most typical Seljuq
monuments there is the Alaeddin Mosque
the Ulu Mosque in Konya. The Medrese-s
(schools and universities), mosques, inns,
bridges and roads and many other artefacts
of the daily life of the Seljuqs can be observed
in any part of Turkey until present time.”
One of the exhibits was a cenotaph with
finales. Ögel explained that the Central Asian
tradition of mummifying and then storing
corpses in tents for six months gave rise to
the construction of tombs and turbes.
Exhibits included statues of palace guards
as well as metallic handicrafts depicting
scenes with human and animals. Ögel
remarked that “shamanism, on the other
hand, the oldest and most widespread of
the religions adopted by the Asian Turks,
endowed natural forces with human or
animal form, and various Shamanist symbols appear in Anatolian stone carving and
handicrafts bearing the full weight of their
inherent significance. It was as if, in the
Anatolian Seljuq period, the universe was
carved in stone.”
Also on display was an astrolabe, an
THE MET IS RICH IN SELJUQ ARTIFACTS,
SOME OF WHICH ITS OFFICIALS PERIODICALLY
SELECT FOR DISPLAY.
Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition:
“Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the
Seljuqs,” which ran from April 27 to July
24, 2016, showcased almost 270 artifacts:
ceramics, glass, stucco, works on paper,
woodwork, textiles and metalwork from
American, European and Middle Eastern
public and private collections. Many of
these institutions had never lent works from
their collections before. Curated by Sheila
Canby, Deniz Beyazit and Martina Rugiadi,
this exhibition and its accompanying video
projections recreated the splendor of this
vanished empire.
Semra Ögel, professor emeritus of architecture at Istanbul Technical University,
stated, “The outstanding characteristics of
the Seljuq architecture were tall gateways
with ornamental stalactites, ogival archways and ceramic tiling. The exterior of the
mosques of the Seljuq period are impressive, although not as decorative as Ottoman
important instrument that Muslims had
perfected and used for such essential tasks
as navigation and determining the prayer
direction.
Pages from the earliest extant manuscript
of the controversial Persian “Shahnama”
were also on display. Firdausi’s (b. 935)
60,000 couplet epic poem, the longest in the
world and three times longer than Homer’s
“Iliad,” presents a romanticized view of
Zoroastrianism and laments the Muslim
Arabs’ victory over the Sassanid Empire.
This epic had — and according to some still
does — a negative impact on Muslim society, for some members of the Seljuq royalty
adopted the names of its heroes. Even worse,
its villain is an Arab. This carried over to
the Subcontinent, where a short-lived Delhi
sultan bore the name of one of its heroes.
The Met is rich in Seljuq artifacts, some
of which its officials periodically select for
display.
IMAGE: ©THE TRUSTEES OF THE CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY, DUBLIN, ‘COURT AND
COSMOS: THE GREAT AGE OF THE SELJUQS’ METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NY
Qur’an Copied by Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Jabali al- . . . Illuminated by ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad
al-Sufi Iran or Iraq, ca. 1200 Ink, colors, and gold on paper 15-3/8 x 13 in. (39 x 33 cm) Trustees of the
Chester Beatty Library (Is 1439).
Astrolabe Muhammad b. Abi-l-Qasim b. Bakran
al-Najjar alIsfahani al-Salihani Iran, Isfahan,
dated A.H.. 496/A.D. 1102–3 Brass 7-1/4 in. (18.3
cm); Diam. 4-3/4 in. (12.2 cm) Museo Galileo:
Institute and Museum of the History of Science
(1105) Image: Museo Galileo, Florence.
madrasas and mosques, and sponsoring the
production of Qur’ans and other religious
texts. A number of rare and beautifully ornamented examples of the book arts from the
time of the Seljuqs are on view.
Vaso Vescovali—a lidded bowl engraved
and inlaid with silver and decorated with
complex astrological imagery—features
eight personifications of planets on the lid
along with the 12 signs of the zodiac and
their associated planets on the base, within
a profusion of other ornamentation.
IMAGE: © THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON. ‘COURT AND COSMOS:
THE GREAT AGE OF THE SELJUQS’ METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NY
PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANCA PRINCIPE. ‘COURT AND COSMOS: THE GREAT
AGE OF THE SELJUQS’ METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NY
The Seljuqs played extremely critical
roles on multiple fronts. They contained
the Shi’i influence of Fatimid Egypt, repeatedly beat back the combined might of the
Crusader kingdoms, defeated the seemingly undefeatable Mongols and tamed
the haughty Byzantines. The world’s political map would look very different and
bleaker today if these valiant people had
not embraced Islam.
The Seljuqs actively promoted Sunni
Islam throughout their territory, building
The Vaso Vescovali Iran, Khurasan, ca. 1200
High-tin bronze; engraved, inlaid with silver H.
8-1/2 in. (21.5 cm); Diam. 7-1/4 in. (18.5 cm)
Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum
(1950,0725.1)
Folios from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)
Anatolia, dated A.H. 30 Muharram 614/A.D. May 9,
1217 Ink on white glossy Persian paper 18-7/8 x 125/8 in. (48 x 32.1 cm) Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
di Firenze (Ms Magl CI.III.24; fols. 125v-126r) Misbahuddin Mirza, M.S., P.E. and a licensed professional
engineer, is the regional quality control engineer for the
New York State Department of Transportation’s Structures
Division, New York City area. He is an avid numismatist
and passionate student of history.
ISNA Monthly Sustainer –
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55
IN MEMORIAM
1928 – Forever
Abdul-Sattar Edhi’s first name was philanthropy
and his religion was humanitarianism
T
he third time that Pakistan
conducted a state funeral for a
civilian, one that included a
guard of honor and a 19-gunsalute, it was for Abdul-Sattar Edhi.
As he left this worldly abode on July 8,
a man and a woman regained their sight
through his corneas. He had donated all of
his organs, but due to health issues only his
corneas could be used.
Ironically, this shunner of privilege was
honored in way that would have shocked
him: his close aides and workers were barred
from his funeral when “important people”
were given the two front rows, which were
separated by a wide gap from the back rows.
He once remarked, “People have become
educated, but have yet to become human.”
Even when seriously ill, Edhi refused help
from illicit sources. When Pakistan’s corruptto-the-core former president Asif Zardari
offered him treatment anywhere in the
world in June, this man of integrity replied
that he would rely on indigenous facilities.
Diagnosed with kidney failure in 2013, he
died in the same Karachi medical center that
had been treating him for some weeks.
This philanthropist, scion of a family of
Gujarati traders who migrated to Pakistan in
1947, began his charitable work as a young
man after a stint as a street vendor and
oddjobber. After the state failed to help his
family care for his paralyzed and sick mother,
Edhi opened his first clinic in 1951. Now the
country’s largest welfare organization, the
Edhi Foundation runs schools, hospitals and
ambulance services nationwide, in addition
to making available a broad range of free
social services and support for the elderly
and disabled.
Some viewed Pakistan’s most respected
figure as a near saint. Known for his humble
lifestyle and being content with just two sets
of clothes, he refused any sort of payment
and slept in a windowless room adjoining
the foundation’s office. Sparsely equipped, it
contained only a bed, a sink and a hotplate.
This welfare organization, the country’s largest, has over 330 free-of-charge
rural and urban welfare centers operating
as orphanages, food kitchens, rehabilitation centers for senior citizens and drug
addicts, nursing homes, shelter homes for
abandoned women, hospitals for mentally
handicapped poor people and even clinics
that treat injured animals.
To date, it has rescued over 20,000
abandoned infants, mentored over 50,000
orphans and trained over 40,000 nurses. Its
most prominent symbols are 1,500 ambulances — Pakistan’s largest ambulance
service — that are deployed with unusual
efficiency to any sort of emergency.
Considering the socioeconomic
PEOPLE HAVE BECOME EDUCATED,
BUT HAVE YET TO BECOME HUMAN.”
—ABDUL-SATTAR EDHI
56
challenges that some women face, Eidhi set
up a series of cribs in which unwanted babies
could be left. This initiative has reportedly
allowed over 20,000 children to escape being
thrown out with the trash or killed because
their parents couldn’t take care of them.
The Foundation has run relief operations
in Africa, Middle East, the Caucasus, eastern
Europe and U.S., where it sent aid in 2005
following Hurricane Katrina.
It also provides technical education for
the disadvantaged, religious education for
street children, family planning consultations and maternity services, as well as free
legal aid and financial and medical support
to prisoners and the handicapped.
Revered by many as a national hero, Edhi
created a charitable empire out of nothing,
masterminding Pakistan’s largest welfare
organization almost single-handedly and
entirely with private donations. “He never
established a home for his own children,” his
wife Bilquis, who manages the foundation’s
homes for women and children, told AFP
in an interview this year.
Thanks to him, something of a safety net
exists for the poor and destitute, realities that
have caused the nation to donate and help
out, thereby filling a gap that has grown out
of official indifference. Such was the trust
in him that no donor ever asked him for
a receipt.
Acts that defined Eidhi:
• The Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi
wa sallam) said, “The one who cares for
an orphan will be with me in Paradise like
this,” and he held his two fingers together
(Bukhari 5659). Eidhi cared for and assisted
hundreds of thousands of orphans.
• The Prophet said, “The person who
strives on behalf of the widow and poor is
like one who strives in the way of God and
like one who fasts in the day and prays at
night” (Bukhari, Muslim). Eidhi cared for
millions of widows and the poor.
• The Prophet said, when informed
about a widow who was taking care of her
two daughters, “Whoever looks after these
girls in any way and is good to them will
have them as a veil from the Fire” (Bukhari,
Muslim). Eidhi looked after millions of girls.
• The Prophet said, “Whoever removes
a worldly grief from a believer, God will
remove from him one of the griefs of the
Day of Judgment” (Muslim). Eidhi lifted
the grief and worry of millions.
Edhi taught the world how an ordinary
Asad
Husain
Educator, Interfaith Leader and
Rights Activist
A
1925 – 2016
person can change the world with only passion and dedication. He once mentioned that
when he was young, his mother would give
him two coins, one for himself and to spend
on someone else.
He remained involved in his Foundation,
from raising funds to helping wash the
corpses of the poor. He once recounted,
“I drove no vehicle in my life but the
ambulance.”
His service to humanity earned him
many awards and honorary degrees,
including the Ramon Magsaysay Award
(together with his wife Bilquis; 1986), the
Lenin Peace Prize (1988), Nishan-e-Imtiaz
(Order of Excellence; 1989), the Balzan Prize
(2000), the Hamdan Award for Volunteers
in Humanitarian Medical Services (2000),
an honorary doctorate in social service
management from the Institute of Business
Administration Pakistan (2006), the Gandhi
Peace Award (2007), the Seoul Peace Award
(2008), the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh prize
(2009), an honorary doctorate from the
University of Bedfordshire (2010) and the
London Leadership and Peace Award (2011).
During the early 1980s, Israeli troops
arrested him as he entered Lebanon. In 2006,
he was detained in Toronto for 16 hours. In
Jan. 2008, U.S. immigration officials interrogated him at New York’s John F. Kennedy
Airport for over eight hours and seized his
passport and other documents. When asked
by BBC News about his frequent detentions,
Edhi replied, “The only explanation I can
think of is my beard and my dress” (Jan.
29, 2008).
He is survived by his wife Bilquis, a nurse
working at the Edhi dispensary whom he married in 1965, two daughters and two sons. sad Husain, who retired
as a professor and head of
Northeastern Illinois University’s
Department of Political Science,
died in Chicago on July 1 and was laid to rest
the next day amidst a large number of family
members, friends and community members
and leaders.
Born in Bihar, he came to the U.S. with
an MA from Patna University on a Fulbright
Scholarship from India in 1954. He earned
two more master’s degree and a doctorate in
international relations from the University
of Minnesota.
After Bangladesh became independent,
he served as the founding vice-chairman
of the Committee of Stranded Pakistanis
in Bangladesh. “Dr. Husain was our greatest advocate for the cause of [the Eastern
Pakistanis’] repatriation and rehabilitation
... [he] visited camps of Bangladesh several
times and met with the officials of government
of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Today we lost
the champion of our cause,” said Haroon ul
Rashid, the organization’s current chairman.
In 1996, the Parliament of World’s
Religions conferred their Order of Merit
upon him for his distinguished contributions
to peace in the Holy Land. In 2005, he was
recognized as the Times Now ICICI Bank
Non-Resident Indian of the Year.
In addition to writing several books, he
taught at King Abdul-Aziz University in
Jeddah and at several American universities. In 1975, King Abdul-Aziz University
invited him to set up the Institute for Muslim
Minority Affairs. In 1983, he established
and then directed Northeastern Illinois
University’s Summer Institute of Islamic
Studies and for two decades. Four years
later, Husain was elected president of the
American Islamic College (AIC), the Muslim
American community’s first liberal arts
college, where he continued his extensive
interfaith activities. “As president of AIC
for more than 15 years, Dr. Husain worked
tirelessly for accreditation and recognition
of the College by Illinois Board of Higher
Education. During his time the College
gained national prominence,” said Dr.
Ahmadullah Siddiqi, AIC vice president
from 1988 to 2001.
Among the founding organizers of the
Council for a Parliament of the World’s
Religions, he was a member of the Islamic
Host Committee that designed interfaith
programs for the 1993 Parliament. He also
served as a member of the Parliament’s Board
of Trustees and was appointed one of its
presidents.
Husain, who assisted the Chicago
Archdiocese in its interfaith activities, was
chosen to be one of the judges of the Interfaith
Awards during the Sesquicentennial of the
Archdiocese. He was also a founding participant in the Jewish/Muslim Dialogue of
Chicago.
M. Raja-ullah Quraishi, who retired as
chief engineer of City of Chicago, recalls
how they worked together since about mid1966 after their initial meeting at an MSA of
U.S. and Canada consultation in Chicago.
According to him, Husain “founded and
motivated us to support the Consultative
Committee of Indian Muslims in U.S. and
Canada, the first U.S. organization to work
for Indian Muslims. He was its first president. He was a senior member/leader of the
Chicago Muslim community.”
He was also active in founding the Muslim
Community Center of Chicago (MCC), the
Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims,
and the American Federation of Muslims
from India.
Husain spearheaded many initiatives,
including a fruitful relationship with the
KAU, especially for projects such as the first
“Communities Development Conference”
for Muslim Americans, held Chicago during
1978, a joint MCC-MSA undertaking,
during which he presented paper about
Muslim community building in America.
An involved worker for MSA and MCC,
he is survived by his wife Asifa and sons
Imran, a long-time Radio Islam host, and
Haroon. 57
NEW RELEASES
ACCESSORY TO BULLDOZING HUMANITY
Extraordinary Rendition: American Writers on Palestine
Ru Freeman (Ed.)
2016. Pp. 452. HB. $60.00 PB. $25.00
Olive Branch Press, Northampton, Mass.
his anthology on Palestine brings
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the Palestinians’ human rights and dignity both in
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They cover such issues as the erasure and
reconstruction of histories; the examination of
identity; the rights, privileges, and responsibilities
of speaking out as artists; the conditions of occupation; and the potential for activism. This anthology, which also explores how U.S. foreign
policy toward Palestinians regularly mirrors the harsh realities faced by
many of America’s own minorities, counters the dominant and dehumanizing media-supported narrative about Palestine that has taken
hold in the U.S. T
THE RIGHT WAY
My Halal Kitchen: Global Recipes, Cooking
Tips, and Lifestyle Inspiration
Yvonne Maffei
2016. Pp. 224. HB. $ 20.95
Agate Publishing, Evanston, Ill.
n her new book My Halal Kitchen: Global
Recipes, Cooking Tips, and Lifestyle Inspiration,
Yvonne Maffei, founder of the cooking blog and
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be full of diverse flavors.
The author breaks down the basics of halal cooking and outlines
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holistic living and using locally sourced, organic ingredients, for every
part of each tradition’s the farm-to-fork cycle has a particular importance. This book is a useful resource both for anyone who is looking for
delicious and healthy recipes from around the globe. I
time to move forward in Quranic translations. It is not in spite of so
many translations already existing, but because so many translations
already exist that we must build on those older attempts and take a leap
forward to produce a Quran translation that is modern, clear, and better
researched than any previous version.” The Origins of the Concepts of
Shi’ism and Sunnism
Spahic Omer
2016. Pp. 208. PB. $18.95
amana publications, Beltsville, Md.
mer deals with the factors, personnel
and circumstances that were most decisive in
the creation and evolution of Shiaism and Sunnism,
and discusses the nature and scope of some early
institutionalized Sunni-Shia conflicts. The author
offers an intellectual discourse aiming to promote and advance the prospect
of constructive Sunni-Shia dialogue.
O
Women in the Qur’an:
An Emancipatory Reading
Asma Lamrabet
(trans. Myriam Francois-Cerrah)
2016. Pp. 212. PB. $19.95. HB. $89.97
Kube Publishing Ltd., Leicestershire, UK
amrabet, a Moroccan pathologist,
argues that while equality and liberation are
at the heart of the Quran, this message is often lost
due to the almost total absence of female commentators on the sacred text’s meaning and the overreliance on commentaries written or compiled centuries ago. She demands a rereading of
the Quran by women, one that focuses on its spiritual and humanistic
messages in order to alter the current lived on-the-ground reality. She
defines a new way forward in this regard: The refusal of women to
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S
Islam: A Brief Look at Faith & History
Hafiz Ikhlas Ansari
2015. Pp. 152. PB. $13.95
Light Upon Light, Chicago, Ill.
slam is the world’s most misunderstood
and maligned major religion. However, such
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and ignorance when it comes to their own faith.
Ansari directs his book toward those who have
little or no familiarity with either Islam or its followers’ history. He succinctly presents this history’s general political flow in the hope of fostering a better understanding of the present-day conflicts. The Clear Quran: A Thematic English
Translation
Mustafa Khattab
2016. Pp. 658. PB. Can. $8.00
Siraj Publications,
St Catharines, Ont., Canada
n presenting this new translation of the Quran, Mustafa
Khattab, an al-Azhar post-graduate, adjunct Muslim chaplain at Brock
University, member of the Canadian Council of Imams and a Fulbright
interfaith scholar argues that “the development of linguistics, current
events, and the gradual drift of the English language puts us in an important
Threading My Prayer Rug:
One Woman’s Journey from Pakistani Muslim to
American Muslim
Sabeeha Rehman
2016. Pp. 352. HB. $25.99
Arcade Publishing, New York, N.Y.
n this well-crafted debut memoire,
Sabeeha Rehman relates in her own lighthearted
way her personal journey toward becoming a practicing American Muslim. Her explanations of various
practices, which even some Muslims may consider
“religious,” seek to clarify what is Islamic and what is cultural. Unfortunately,
toward the end her book is marred by her acceptance of several ways that
can only labeled “controversial” and rather questionable. Shifting Sands: The Unravelling of the Old Order
in the Middle East
Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson (Eds.)
2015. Pp. 208. PB. $8.95
Olive Branch Press, Northampton, Mass.
hifting Sands brings together fifteen
informed voices to analyze various aspects of
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effects of how imperial Europe carved it up after
World War One to the hopes and struggles of the
Arab Spring in relation to Egypt, Iran and Syria. I
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FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT
Persevering Through
Challenging Times
How do you stay motivated to achieve when you’re faced with a turbulent path?
BY ALI ALTALIB
“
Man, I don’t wanna do dialysis
today, it’s my birthday!” Ahmad begrudgingly told the nurse at the University of
Pennsylvania Hospital, which has unfortunately been like a second home to him for the
past six years. He turns back to FaceTime and
jokingly asks me, “Ali, can you please convince
her to let me skip this one? I’ll consider it my
birthday present!”
Ahmad Alsardary was born with Nephrotic
Syndrome, a condition that causes progressive
kidney failure. Initially given only two years
to live, his original kidneys functioned for five
years. He spent the next three years on dialysis.
A near heart attack and a few surgeries later,
he received a kidney transplant. Despite taking
immunosuppressants and having to deal with
the side-effects of the transplant, he lived a relatively “normal” life for twelve years thereafter,
until the transplanted kidney failed. Forced to
resume dialysis for three four-hour sessions
per week, he has nevertheless managed to earn
a Bachelor’s degree in health sciences and a
Master’s degree in occupational therapy (OT).
He currently practices OT with the geriatric
population in the home health setting.
As I try to imagine myself in such a situation, one persistent question comes to mind:
How does he do it? And so I asked him.
He replied, “Sometimes I feel broken and
alone. The sickness becomes too much to bear
and I go to a very dark place. In those moments,
I can only rely on God. I get reassured when
I read His guarantee in the Quran 2:186 and
60
13:28: “And when My servants ask you, [O
Muhammad], concerning Me - indeed I am near.
I respond to the invocation of the supplicant
when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to
Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they
may be [rightly] guided” and “Unquestionably,
by the remembrance of God hearts are assured,”
respectively.
Ahmad continued, “Look at your phone. It
probably has a manufacturer’s warranty on it.
If it breaks, you can send it back to the manufacturer to be fixed. They know the product
inside and out, and will likely diagnose and
fix the problem quicker than anyone else. We
are also created with lifetime warranties, and
when we feel broken or alone, we can return
to our manufacturer at any time to get fixed.
All we have to do is ask.”
“How do you stay motivated to achieve
when you’re faced with such a turbulent path?”
I asked.
“The way I see it, God already has my book
written for me, and I’m just living through
the pages.” I already know that God does not
charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity (Quran 2:286) and But perhaps you hate a
thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you
love a thing and it is bad for you. And God
Knows, while you know not. (Quran 2:216).
So what good is it for me to just sit around
feeling sorry for myself? Every trial comes
with an opportunity — it’s just harder to find
when you’re in a state of despair. Given my
condition, I’ve learned to look for the silver
lining in everything, and it has opened my
eyes to so many of God’s blessings.”
Ahmad then explained how his condition
had led him to become an OT, a career path
dedicated to helping others overcome debilitating challenges similar to his own. He discussed
how his life’s journey afforded him the rare
opportunity to speak at Al-Maghrib Institute’s
IlmFest 2016, an event that inspired him to
become a motivational speaker. He dreams of
one day speaking at venues like The Pearls of the
Quran, Reviving the Islamic Spirit and ISNA,
for motivating even one person to improve
upon their path in life means that “it wasn’t
all in vain,” he said.
Coincidentally, ISNA’s theme for 2016
is: Turning Points: Navigating Challenges,
Seizing Opportunities. The current state of our
ummah is in dire need of Ahmad’s motivation.
If being a Muslim in 2016 were a Facebook
profile, the relationship status would read: “It’s
complicated.”
Although it’s revitalizing and invigorating
to be in a state of submission to the Creator,
being Muslim comes with many difficulties: the
Trumpsters, the “un-Islamic” Staters, the silent
majority, the billion dollar Islamophobia industry and so on from one side, and a serious identity crisis, as evidenced by the disunity among
our leaders and scholars, as well as the broad
spectrum of extreme ideologies practiced on
the other. Other than possessing the Quran,
we’ve come up flat on many levels. Muslims
have been coasting on their past contributions
to astronomy, mathematics and medicine ever
since the end of our “golden age” during the
13th century.
Currently, a large portion of the ummah is
living in uninhabitable, war-torn conditions
and needs major infusions of humanitarian
aid. The wealthy portion, however, is paralyzed
by political affiliations and selfish agendas.
We compete over erecting the tallest buildings, not realizing that we are only digging
ourselves into a deeper hole, abandoning any
compassion for human life and “otherizing”
or “takafuring” those of our own brothers
and sisters who don’t agree with us. Far too
WHAT SPIRITUAL TOPICS
MATTER MOST TO YOU?
Please help “Food for the Spirit” better
meet your needs by completing a
2-minute survey at:
www.isna.net/foodforthespiritsurvey
many of our religious scholars remain crippled
by unhealthy disagreements over trivial fiqh
and aqeedah-based issues, while such relevant
topics as the hyper-sexualization and growing
extremism among our youth are avoided.
So how do we “navigate these challenges
and seize the opportunities”?
We can start by finally acknowledging that
we’re broken and should have exercised our
“manufacturer’s warranty” long ago by returning
to our Creator through the Quran, prayer and
repentance. Each one of us needs to make sincere
dua for our ummah, curb our rampant “someone else’s problem” mentality and take personal
accountability for our condition, for “surely God
does not change the condition of a people until
they change what is within themselves” (Quran
13:11). This accountability eventually affords us
the independence to pave our own path, reduces
interference from parties who have conflicting
interests and unifies us as one entity.
Next, we need to find the silver lining in
our current state and capitalize on it. Now that
Islam is in the spotlight, what better time to
learn (or re-learn) our religion so that we can
explain it to ourselves and others? Moreover,
this is a great time to equip ourselves to be qualified interfaith participants and inform others
of what Islam actually says, as opposed to the
distorted version that boosts ratings and elects
politicians, and to learn about other religions
from the people who actually practice them.
Ignorance of Islam and the Quran will not
be accepted as a valid defense in the afterlife
and should not be used as a reason to disengage from religious discussions in this world.
This is especially true now, given that accurate
knowledge is, for many people, so easily accessible. After all, does not God Himself repeatedly
condemn those who blindly follow a faith?
If we call ourselves Muslim, we should know
why. This will help shrink the extreme polarization of ideologies and encourage tolerance
and empathy.
Finally, we need to practice tawakkul as
described by Quran 14:12, “And why should
we not put our trust in God when it is indeed
He Who has guided us to the ways of our life?
We shall surely continue to remain steadfast in
face of your persecution. All those who have to
put trust, should put their trust only in God.”
Our trial as an ummah is truly great, but our
Lord is greater. Let’s “navigate the challenges and
seize the opportunities” to become the ummah
of Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)
through prayer, accountability and tawakkul. Ali Altalib is an active member of the All Dulles Area Muslim
Society Center, Sterling, Va.
Why I Am Who I Am
Revealed religion provides us with an absolute basis for our soul
BY SYED IMTIAZ AHMAD
T
he words “Why I am who I am” to the physiological “heart.” Two other Quranic
came to my mind several years ago words, lubb and sadr, signify the innermost
when I started reading the Quran workings of the heart, such as the desirable attriwith the intention of actually under- butes of the ability to discern or the arising of
standing what it was saying. I focused on the various apprehensions that require our attention.
oft-repeated words Rahman and Rahim, which
The Old Testament and other Biblical literaare commonly translated as “beneficent” and ture also use “mind” and “heart” as synonyms.
“forgiving,” respectively. However, each one Equating these two words draws our attention
also has a fuller meaning. For the former, it is to the need to be alert when receiving sensory
“entirely merciful” in the sense of providing signals that, if not processed correctly, can put
guidance for actions; for the latter it is taking us on the wrong track. Shakespeare asks, “Tell
care when things go wrong, as long as one me where fancie is bred; Or in the heart or in
recognizes what has happened and intends to the brain.” We may call it “heart” or “mind,”
correct it. These two words serve as sources of but it is the place where things are thought
light for shaping our daily affairs.
and imagined. Sensory signals should engage
Our story as human beings begins with God thought processes, and imagination involves
informing us that all other members of creation seeing or hearing things within the mind, a
were afraid to accept the trust of free will, but phenomena known as the “heart’s eyes” or the
that humanity had agreed
“heart’s ears.” Interestingly,
to assume this trust and
“heartless” is defined as a
ONE NEEDS TO
therefore was endowed with
complete lack of feeling and
FIND THE TRUTH
certain faculties. However,
consideration. The Quran
over the ages we have been
talks about the qalb saleem,
OF RELIGION BY
acting against of our own
who shows good judgDISCOVERING HOW one
interests because the vast
ment and reasoning.
TO TRANSLATE
majority of us have forgotOne needs to find the
ten “who we are.”
truth
of religion by disRELIGIOUS BELIEFS
The Quran defines itself
covering how to translate
INTO PRACTICAL
as a book of guidance, one
religious beliefs into practithat shows us how to discal action by engaging one’s
ACTION BY
tinguish between right and
heart and mind. Socrates
ENGAGING ONE’S
wrong and makes its case
said that it is not good
HEART AND MIND
within various easy-to-unenough for one to merely
derstand perspectives and
understand the surroundcontexts. Some of these words, however, may ing universe, but that one must also understand
inhibit practical benefits if they are not under- and examine the universe that dwells within
stood correctly. For example, taqwa is often one’s soul, as a way of reaching out to the events
translated as “fear,” a word that is now generally around us. I mention Socrates in the Quranic
associated with unpleasant emotions. One may spirit of looking at the surrounding world from
argue that “fear of God” should not have that different perspectives and in various contexts.
connotation, because God is free of all wants The Quran emphasizes ihsan, defining oneand worthy of all praise. However, a broader self in terms of goodly deeds to others. The
meaning is to be “mindful” of God, Who guides Renaissance philosopher Hegel echoed this
us entirely and especially for our benefit alone. when he said that the spirit can achieve self-conIn the Quran, God identifies hearing sciousness only through humanity.
(sama’), seeing (basar), and intelligence (fouad),
Revealed religion provides us with an absowhich receives and processes the sensory sig- lute basis for our soul. It is our responsibility to
nals through the eyes and ears, as the key human bring forth from it an objective spirit that will
faculties. Fouad, also commonly translated as enable us to live an ethical life. In his “On the
“heart,” requires further reflection. In Arabic, it Freedom of the Will” (1839), Schopenhauer
is taken as “intelligence,” that which processes advises us not to follow our free will blindly for
the sensory signals received by one’s ears and “Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will
eyes. This critical faculty requires a guiding what he wills.” God tells us that even though
framework within our mind, one that can He created human beings with the greatest
interpret whether the incoming information possible positive potential for goodness, they
sits well with our choice of acceptable behavior, can nevertheless descend into the lowest abyss
a play of free will.
once they let their guard down. Another common Quranic word is qalb,
again in the sense of one’s “mind” as opposed Syed Imtiaz Ahmad is president ISNA-Canada
61
ROAD MAP TO IMPROVE THE
IMAGE OF MUSLIMS/ISLAM in USA
Your mosque can do it, but you can do it by yourself Today, the image of Muslims is under attack. However, we should not forget, that it is our responsibility to correct it collectively and individually: it is every Muslim’s responsibility. YES, if
we do it seriously we can see positive results emerging in a few years. Muslims, who are spread
out across the United States, should place this ad. in their local newspapers and magazines.
Below is a sample text for the ad. that you can use:
Islam is a religion of inclusion.
Muslims believe in all the Prophets of Old & New Testaments.
Read Quran — The Original, unchanged word of God as His Last
and Final testament to humankind.
More information is available on following sites:
www.peacetv.tv • www.theDeenShow.com
www.Gainpeace.com Or 877whyIslam • www.twf.org
Such ads are already running in many newspapers in the United States but may not be in your area of residence yet. Placing these ads can be a continuous reward (sadqa-e-jaria) for yourself, your children, your loved
deceased ones and with the prayer for a sick person that Allah make life easy here and in the Hereafter. Please
Google the list of newspapers in your state and contact their advertising departments.
Such ads are not expensive. They range for around $20 to $50 per slot and are cheaper if run for a longer time.
Call your local newspaper and ask how many print copies they distribute, and run it for a longer period of
time to get cheaper rates.
Don’t forget that DAWAH works on the same principles as that of advertisement, BULK AND REPEATED EXPOSURE CREATES ACCEPTANCE. Printing continuously for a long period of time is better than printing
one big advertisement for only once. Let your advertisement run for a longer time even if it is as small as a
business card.
NOTE: If you are living East of Chicago, choose in the ad 877-whyIslam, but also please call 877-WHYISLAM
before putting the ad and check if someone is already running an advertisement in the same newspaper
as yours. If that is the case choose another newspaper. And if you are living West of Chicago, choose
www.GainPeace.com and also call GainPeace.com before putting your ad. Also, after the ad appears, please
send a clipping to the respective organization.
If you have any questions, or want copies of the ads that others have already placed in their area newspapers/
magazines, please contact me, Muhammad Khan at: [email protected] so that I can guide you better.
You can also contact 1-877-why-Islam or Gainpeace.com
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
P.O. Box 38 • Plainfield, IN 46168-0038
NON PROFIT ORG.
US POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT #15
KENT, OH

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