Minaret of Freedom Weblog

“As anti-Muslim hysteria in the US reaches a peak, its intellectual accomplices should start to reconsider their actions”:

• When Will Those Brave Critics of Islam Decry This Mob Hate? (Guardian)

Are we talking about Abercrombie and Fitch or Hooters? Confronted by the EEOC, company lawyers said allowing the employee to cover her hair “‘would have created an undue hardship’ for the company’s business”:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Sued Over Muslim Scarf (San Fransisco Chronicle)

The negative reaction displays disagreement among French “Muslims about what foods are really halal, who is qualified to decide, and whether the certification agencies are” sufficiently rigorous …

• Paris Mosque Slams Burger Chain’s Muslim Outreach (Washington Post)

… meanwhile, as with his move to ban the burqa, Sarkozy’s “actions against the Roma and his proposals relating to foreigners … have divided the country and his government”:

• France And Its Deportation Of Roma (Gypsies) — Echoes Of The US? (Christian Science Monitor)

“There’s already a mosque four blocks away. Should it be moved?” asks NYC Mayor Bloomberg; and what of the Christian Science Reading Room, the Churches and the off-track betting?

• Community Near Former WTC Almost Like Any Other (NPR)

Gates thinks that the problem with the Iraq War “is that for many Americans … the premise on which we justified going to war turned out not to be valid”:

• Gates: Iraq War Premise ‘Not Valid’ (Al-Jazeera)

Paranoia and ignorance leads to the detainment of members of a Pakistani delegation by the Transport Security Administration en route to Washington, all because another passenger “did not feel safe”:

• Military Officers Cancel Trip After Humiliation At US Airport (Dawn)

As an IDF officer was acquitted on the charges of killing a 13-year-old Palestinian girl; the military court ruled that he had “not acted unethically” …

• Not Guilty. The Israeli Captain Who Emptied His Rifle Into A Palestinian Schoolgirl (Guardian)

… the State Department and express the view that Hamas’s attack on settlers from Kiryat Arba and Beit Haggai. was really aimed at the “peace process”:

• Hamas Targets Israeli-Palestinian Talks By Killing Four Israelis (Christian Science Monitor)

““By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor.” — Taliban operative Zabihullah:

• The Taliban vs. the Mosque (Newseek)

In the face of increasing hate crimes, a spokesman for the planned Nashville Islamic center says, “that there should be a law enforcement presence at prayer services but that it should be police, not the FBI” …

• Muslims Debate FBI Presence At Mosques (Washington Post)

… but we have received an an unpublished “special message” from American Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections’ chairman Agha Saaed that, contrary to the above cited article, he “NEVER welcomed FBI’s presence in the Nashville mosque.”

You catch more flies with “non-coercive intelligence interviewing” than you can with waterboarding:

• Guide Tells How Terrorism Suspect Became Informant (Washington Post)

Sharing the archaic view that marriage conflicts with education, lawmakers move to address the problem by taking the right to marry away from young women 15-17, adults under Islamic law but not under Jordanian law:

• Jordan Marriage Law Challenged (al-Jazeera)

“In other parts of Tennessee, including Chattanooga, Knoxville and Memphis, Muslim leaders reported that they had experienced no hostility and saw no reason to increase security”:

• Incidents at Mosque in Tennessee Spread Fear (New York Times)

Pan Arab Research Center in Dubai “estimates advertising spending by financial services companies in the Arab region is likely to grow by 40 percent this Ramadan compared with the previous season”:

• Banks Step Up Ramadan Marketing Campaigns to Spur Growth: Islamic Finance (Bloomberg)

“For the sake of the values we hold dear in this country, we must resist the temptation to fear and hate those we may perceive as ‘the Stranger,’ but instead make a place at the table for all members of the American family”:

• The Spiritual Convergence Of Rosh Hashanah, Eid al-Fitr And 9/11 (Washington Post)

“My Faith, My Voice”, a web forum initiative, enables Muslim Americans to respond directly to controversial issues regarding Muslims in America:

• Muslim Group Wants a Voice on Mosque Debate (Fox)

One very young Iraqi earned an American officer’s  fond respect …

• As U.S. troops Leave Iraq, an Officer Honors the Memory of a Young Interpreter (Washington Post)

… but Iraqis have little confidence in politicians who “fight over positions and have no idea what we eat and drink and where we live”:

• As U.S. Withdraws, Iraqis Still Live in Crisis (Reuters)

After “far-right activists threw missiles and smoke bombs,” the police say, “the way all the people of Bradford, particularly the Muslim people, reacted, was wonderful”:

• English Defence League Rally in Bradford Leads to 13 Arrests (Guardian)

“It aint what you don’t know that kills you; it’s what you know that aint so.” — Mr. Dooley:

• Five Myths About Mosques in America (Washington Post)

Hitherto silent, Imam Faizul says the dispute is “not between Muslims and non-Muslims, but between moderates of all the faith traditions and the radicals of all the faith traditions”:

• Imam Says Islamic Center Dispute Politicized (Reuters)

Everyone “thinks it is all very funny,” the owner says as he points to a poster of Yasser Arafat in his kaffiyeh and Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in a green baseball cap standing in front of the Dome of the Rock mosque:

• Hamas Headband? Fatah Keychain? Gaza Strip Gift Shop Has It All (Christian Science Monitor)

“The last few weeks have seen an intense push by the Israeli right and their neocon enablers in the US to essentially ‘jam’ Obama into either attacking Iran or letting Israel do so;” Jeffrey Goldberg’s  Atlantic cover is Exhibit A:

• Iran Bomb ‘Not Imminent’ (Al-Jazeera)

The “level of rhetoric has become so poisonous that we could end up turning the very moderates we seek to bring into the fold against us”":

• Radical Islamists Try to Exploit Islamophobia (VOA)

“If you’re going to say that we’re separate from people, you’re going to do what the radicals want — on both sides,” says President of the American University Muslim Students Association, Tanim Awwal:

• Hostility Across U.S. Jars Muslim College Students (Washington Post)

As the National Association of Evangelicals urges Terry Jones to call off his Qur’an burning “in the name and love of Jesus Christ,” Prof. John Esposito exposes the flaws in the argument that “Islam is the enemy”:

• One Church’s Reasons to Hate Islam, Challenged by an Expert (NY Times)

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force “officials are aware of civilian casualty allegations as a result of the engagement and are conducting an investigation”:

• NATO kills Afghan children, loses three soldiers (Radio Netherlands Worldwide / ANP / AFP)

Is the euphoria of the holy month reflected in a Muslim world stock surge?

• Muslims See a Ramadan Rally for Stocks, Investments (Huffington Post)

Even as NYC Mayor Bloomberg offers to meet with the cabbie stabbed yesterday, and urges Americans not compromise “our faith in the freedoms that have sustained our great country for more that 200 years” …

• American Muslims Praise Mayor Bloomberg Over ‘No Compromise’ Speech (Examiner)

… in yet another disturbing instance of flared tensions, a  drunkard, cursing,  trespassed into a mosque in Queens:

• Drunk Shouts ‘terrorists,’ Urinates On Mosque Rugs (MSNBC)

Lady Ashton is concerned that imprisonment of the nonviolent  human rights activist intends to deny Palestinians from “their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the separation barriers in a non-violent manner:”

• EU Rebukes Israel for Convicting Palestinian Protester (BBC)

Robert Reich blames the current rash of intolerance on economic fear and “demagogues who redirect the fear and anger toward people and groups who aren’t really to blame but are easy scapegoats … It has happened before”:

• Economic Fears Breed Intolerance (Christian Science Monitor)

In Buffalo, as in many other American cities, even amidst tensions, good people still come together for good things:

• Mosque to Host Interfaith Gathering (Buffalo News)

The eponymous Christian militia “Right Wing Extreme” providing private security to the incongruously-named Dove World Outreach Center on “International Burn a Quran Day” fits the Islamophobe stereotype well (almost too well):

• Pastor Says Armed Militia to Protect Church During Quran-Burning Event (CNN)

One Palestinian women says, “Go ahead and make your political point, but for us we’re breaking the law so that we can enjoy ourselves and remember how life was before the checkpoints and the wall;” and another says, “I just want to be able to breathe again”:

• Israelis Risk Jail to Smuggle Palestinians, 600 Sign Up For Campaign Of Disobedience (Media Monitors)

The poll indicates opposition to the Park51/Cordoba project is down to 51% from the 61% reported by Time last week:

• Americans Conflicted On Islam: Poll (AFP)

The “strictly academic” presentation originally intended to educate Westerners becomes a source of “cultural pride against a contemporary backdrop of conflict and suspicion between the West and Muslim countries”:

• 1001 Inventions: Science in Muslim Lands (Washington Post)

If Franklin “Graham really wants to pick at genealogical grubs, what’s he to make of the fact that Obama’s father’s father was a Christian who converted to Islam?”:

• Obama a Muslim: How Silly Can We Become? (CBS)

As terrorists strike in Somalia …

• Somali Militants Attack Hotel, Target U.S.-backed Lawmakers (Washington Post)

… a hate crime murder is attempted in New York City:

• Police: NY Cabbie is Asked if He’s Muslim, Stabbed (Washington Post)

The little boy was beaten at school and called a terrorist, but only months earlier “his mother had been killed in a roadside bombing by a real terrorist”:

• The Burden Of Being a Young American Muslim (Washington Post)

Ismail Haniyeh’s declaration, “all Palestinian citizens must prevent all harm to all Christian churches on Palestinian land. Our Christian brothers are citizens of Palestine”  has a Christian Objectivist asking …

• Is the Muslim My Neighbor? (Pro Libertate)

… while columnist Richard Cohen observes, “” I am a Jew, but do not judge me by Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 murdered 29 Muslims in Hebron…. [Daisy Khan's] fight is no longer her fight. The fight is now all of ours”:

• No Compromise on Religious Freedom (Washington Post)

FOX’s McCarthyesque attempt to link Imam Rauf with the Saudi royal family member who heads the Kingdom Foundation backfires when the Daily Show points out that the prince is also co-owner of FOX:

• Stewart: FOX Failed To Mention Co-Owner Is One They Accuse Of ‘Terror Funding’ (Huffington Post)

Bangladesh takes another step towards a secular democracy with a ban on requiring religious dress, allowing for people to choose their own dress, but, restricting businesses which wish to keep a pious character from doing so:

• Bangladesh Bans Enforced Islamic Dress Code (BBC)

Unlike his Senatorial candidate son Rand, Congressman Ron Paul compares opposing the Muslim community center in lower Manhattan to opposing a soccer field because “the suicide bombers loved to play soccer”:

• Ron Paul to Sunshine Patriots: Stop Your Demagogy About The NYC Mosque! (Ron Paul.com)

A dangerous situation: the percentage of urban Iraqis living in slums has skyrocketed from under 20%  before the American invasion to 53% today and unemployment is over 25%:

• What You Will Not Hear About Iraq (Counter Currents)

The worst side of nationalism, and of nativism meet in a recent Israeli government effort to “preserve the Jewish character” of the state:

• Israel Mulls Deporting Migrant Kids (Al-Jazeera)

“’Yo, we’re against Muslims, not each other man,’ someone in the crowd yells” …

• Man Mistaken for Muslim Draws Confrontation at Mosque Protest (Wall Street Journal)

… but in “the heart of the U.S. military machine …religious tolerance is part of what it means to be American”:

• At Pentagon, A Lesson in Tolerance N.Y. Mosque Debate Should Heed (Washington Post)

“The wrecking ball they’re wielding is not merely pounding Park51 …, but is demolishing America’s already frail support for” a war to nation-build in a country “whose most conspicuous asset besides opium is actual mosques”:

• How Fox Betrayed Petraeus (New York Times)

NOTES FROM THE IIIT CONFERENCE ON APPROACHING THE QUR’AN AND SUNNAH #19

[This is the nineteenth in a series of my notes on the International Institute of Islamic Thought conference on approaching the Qur'an and Sunnah held in Herndon, VA. These notes are raw material for an edited report I will write on the conference later and represent my perception of the discussion. The proceedings will be published by IIIT at a later time. The Minaret of Freedom Institute thanks IIIT for the grant that makes the publication of these notes possible. Responsibility for any errors in the notes is mine alone.]

Session 19. Moderator: Iqbal Unus
“Panel on Teaching Islam in American Universities”

Panelist Cemil Aydin:

There are more Islamic scholars in America than any other non-Muslim majority country. When Ismail Faruqi began teaching the Islamic section of the Academy of teachers has only twenty teachers, but now it has grown enormously.  MESA started humbly forty years ago but now has a membership of 3000. Why? America’s imperial interest is one reason, but not the main one. American Universities in recent years have overcome their Eurocentrism at the same time as the boom in the inflow of Muslim immigrants, a nonimperial humanist interest. Muslims are about half of the scholars in the field and may soon become the majority. I think that 90% of the scholars today are in the humanist camp. During the invasion of Iraq the Neocons complained that the scholars of Islam were not helping them. Edward Said’s legacy now dominates the organization that he criticized (MESA). In Continental Europe they want teachers who can explain Islam, but they don’t want them to be Muslims.

In the last 200 years Muslim scholars have strongly been concerned with issues of reform, but they were focused only on Muslim societies and Europe. They ignored other non-Muslim societies. American universities offer an opportunity to consider the issue of reform in a broader global context. Comparative engagement with the non-Muslim societies could help us overcome the limitations imposed by the myth of golden age and decline.

Panelist Mahmoud Ayoub:

I would like to look at the history of Islamic studies in America to see where we are and to where we may move. Islamic studies began in the colonial countries of Europe, with the Germans joining in the 19^th century under the influence of the special relations with the Ottoman Empire. Between the two world wars there was shift of power from Europe to the U.S. and the U.S. adopted a number of European projects, including the study of Islam, as a form of area studies rather than religious studies per se. What may have initiated a change in this approach was the rising European interest in religious civilizations like Islamic civilization and the rise of American imperialism, which differs from the European style in that the Americans wanted to establish business concerns. Their interest in Islam was both commercial and cultural, especially as Islam in America began to grow. People like Gibb and Gruenebaum came to teach on America. Americans also became interested in establishing centers and journals that dealt with areas of special economic interest in the U.S. Things began to change drastically after WWII with the growth of indigenous educated Muslims in America. Jewish scholars including rabbis like Goitien did important work in Islamic studies. The missionaries also took an interest in Islam. The journal Muslim World was founded to understand Muslims better in order to convert them to Christianity. Missionaries started American universities in the Middle East. There were also students like Kenneth Morgan who changed from other fields to Islamic studies. Morgan was interested in all the traditions of the world and wanted them to be taught by people within the tradition, provided only that they did not advocate, i.e. attempt to convert. A final group are the Arabs and Muslims. In the 80s and 90s there was a concern about Muslims taking over Islamic studies. I came to Islamic studies from the history of religion and my view will be different from someone who was a physician or engineer or political scientist, but we played a role in changing the field. After 9/11 there was shift in which we emphasized trying to present ourselves as friendly and good citizens, which is good, but carries the danger of ignoring or watering down aspects of our culture in order to be acceptable to others. We need to be true to our culture and promote peace at the same time.

For a long time universities sought to teach Middle East studies without teaching Islam. I think things have changed. The question is how long will this interest in Islamic studies go on? God knows. We shall have to wait and see.

Panelist Aisha Musa:

One of my pet peeves is the Islam vs. the West dichotomy. I’m of northern European background and changed my name when I converted, but if I knew then what I know now I might not have, since I am now mistaken as being from the Middle East. When students enter my class they have no knowledge that Islam is an Abrahamic faith. Until recently the modality of teaching Islam, as a subset of the study of ancient or modern Middle East, has not helped. Religious studies as an academic discipline is only 20-30 years old. Public universities are trying to study religion as a force in the world without preaching the religion. The highest levels of Islamic studies have mainly been restricted to a few schools in the East. I see a growth of interest in hiring Islamic studies professors at state universities. When Jane McAuliffe gave her talk on “Reading the Qur’an with Fidelity and Freedom” she said twenty years earlier almost all of her students were non-Muslims, but now most were Muslims. I see great hope but we have to move away from the West vs. Islam mentality.

Panelist Khaleel Mohammad:

What I say is purely my own view and has nothing to do with IIIT or San Diego University. I say this because I enforce a stereotype. I am a terrorist. At McGill University there was decision to make at least 40% of the Islamic studies faculty Muslim, but they moved away from that. Despite the increase in vacancies for Islamic studies professors, I do not see a beneficial development. The stereotype still exists that Muslim professors will try to convert people to Islam. In 1898 at the world parliament of religions there was a sustained rhetoric against Islam. A lot of the rhetoric now does not have a positive goal in mind. What is the solution? When we write our texts and they need it be edited, why can’t we have it edited by IIIT? Because of the name. It is still an uphill battle.

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad: When I taught at JHU’s Social Change and Development Program, the head of the Dept. of Middle East Studies objected that Islam was being taught outside of his department.

Ayoub: It is important not to use our position to proselytize.

Abu Baker Al-Shingieti: How do we teach Islam without appearing to proselytize? How can we teach the will of God?

Aydin: Some non-Muslim scholars have done more than the Muslim scholars, for example the history of Sufi tradition. I recall when Faruqi refused to include a panel on Sufism over the objections of the non-Muslim scholars. There should be an intra-scholar conversation outside the classroom where we can talk about the Islamic tradition in turn of creating a better person.

Imtiyaz Yusuf: Everybody asks me if John Esposito is a Muslim. He is not. He is a Hanif. The best you could have.

Ahmad: In  my class on Islamic civilization at the University of Maryland, I tell the students up front this is not a theology class. Of course, you cannot completely eliminate theology from a discussion of Islamic civilization, so I tell them they may ask questions about Islamic theology in the second and third sessions, but not afterward.

Ayoub: We can’t teach the will of God. That is something one must discover. We can only teach the revelation. What we need here, and IIIT is probably the best to do it, is an Islamic Seminary (which is probably not a bad name) that would be respectable in academic standards and thoroughly train religious leaders and imams in a nonsectarian way, not tied to a particular madhhab.

Mohammed: When a Muslim is considered to teach Islamic studies there is a problem that does not arise when a Buddhist is considered to teach Buddhist studies.

Aydin: The links between academia and government are broken not just in the area of Islamic studies. Washington think tanks are the intermediaries between academia and the policymakers in government.

Ayoub: Two days before we were to meet to inaugurate the chair of Islamic studies at Temple the chair yielded to pressure from Daniel Pipes to cancel the chair.

Ahmad:  The importance of think tanks as the bridge between academia and policymakers is why the Minaret of Freedom Institute, IIIT, and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists produced the Directory of Policy Experts on Islamic Studies and Muslim Affairs.

Hisham Altalib: it would be interesting to compare the religious affiliations of the teachers of Jewish, Christian and Islamic studies.

Aydin: There are very few Christians and no Muslims teaching Jewish studies. There are many secularists and atheists teaching Christian studies, leading to the phenomenon of student who “fail for Jesus.”

Ayoub: We all teach Christianity or Judaism in a sense in a world religions course, as historians of religion. Regarding think tanks, they are of different varieties. Some are funded by and belong to government or intelligence agencies.

Ayoub: I think an introductory course in Islam should be an advanced seminar with a focus on the rich civilization.

Mohammed: There is a new thrust that focuses on syllabus design. We have boards that ask the students what they want to learn about.

Altalib: Why call Christianity, Islam and Judaism Western religions?

Ayoub: Because of the influence of Greek thought. We are all heirs of Aristotle.

Musa: You have to be a marketer in designing a course.

Ahmad:  Judith Latham, now retired from Voice of America, has hosted a salon in her home for many years she calls “Aristotle and Abraham: All Their Children.” Even if you teach a course on theology, these other questions will come up.

Yusuf: My students are surprised to learn that Christianity went to Africa and Asia before coming to the West.

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D.
Minaret of Freedom Institute
www.minaret.org