Voices in the Making

Very enticing response Uzma- it’s lovely to hear your point of view and comeback. And you’ve done amazinggggg work on The Infidel. Great example to many aspiring filmmakers, especially from the Muslim community who don’t often go into this field. Thanks!

Ummah Fatigue?

I absolutely agree with you Amatullah. There’s lots to be said about the Palestine issue for example, but we seem to turn a blind eye to multiple human disasters, which is something against the principles of Islam. Every brother/sister in humanity counts.

Muslims in the Media: Appreciating the Imperfections

Very interesting viewpoint Tamanna and interesting seeing your perspective from the inside. But I’m just wondering, is being entertaining the way to go? True, we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously, and need some anger management sessions sometimes, but throwing yourself in the public eye is a risk. A big risk! I’m just not sure it would be right to do a kind of reality TV show about Muslims when we already have a pile of negativity to our name…perhaps something more intellectually-stimulating would work…

Travelling the Tapestry: Colours and Cultures from Around the World

These are truly brilliant, please carry on doing stuff like this Suleman! So colourful and inspiring. My favourites were the water ones (”Life” and the rice plant ones). Pathways was also great. Fantastic stuff!

Spicing up the Melting Pot

Sadia, fantastic points. And great writing style. I look forward to more of your articles!

I especially agreed (and unnerved) with this line: “where I can wake up in the morning, read my Muslim newspaper, change into my Muslim designer hijab/jilbab, and pump out Muslim-music on the way to work (for a Muslim organisation). When home, I can watch a Muslim television channel, or perhaps read a Muslim novel or magazine.”

Muslims are often living in a bubble and need to broaden their horizons. They’re MAINSTREAM whether people like it or not. But they need to start acting it.

CHANGE

Basmah, fantastic poem! You have great talent.

Agree with your point. I hate this obsession with “the system” as if it’s some major conspiracy which can’t be changed. It can change. We haven’t even tried yet!

"Muslims Don't Mix"

This is SO funny, made me laugh out loud for real! You have a great writing style. As for the subject matter – all too familiar unfortunately. If only there was more to life than alcohol!

The Hijaab: 20 Years On?

Well let’s just say the nation at large that you know are, thankfully, not the ones I have come across.

Whilst I take your point that there are immigrant communities who need to broaden their horizons a bit more, your stereotypes of Pakistan and the world are deeply flawed. I have Pakistani friends who say that Pakistan is more westernised than here. So let’s let go of this superiority attitude please, it’s getting old.

Yes we’re not “in Pakistan” and most of us never claimed to be. This is home. Let’s get over it and learn how to live alongside each other.

The Hijaab: 20 Years On?

Manfred- the only person living in a ‘cuckoo’ land is yourself, consumed in your hazy alcoholic stupor, in the blessed boozer you refer to. I’m not even going to begin on your historical perceptions, which completely lack any speckle of understanding.

The fact is that British Muslims are here to stay, they are part of the fabric of the society, whether you like it or not. This is their home. The women are not going to come to their local boozer to get your approval, they’re going to do what they do best- make a positive, constructive contribution to their society.

I lived in London and had the most amazing high-school experience. I made life-long friends with white,black, malaysian, sri-lankan and iranian friends. And *shock horror* they weren’t all Muslim. It’s this exciting, wonderful diversity that I experienced here, which I am incredibly proud of.

These comments about what ‘your average Joe’ thinks and judges are completely irrelevant. If you’re average Joe is a bigot living in his/her close circle of pub-friends, then I guess you should be more seriously concerned about the future of these kind of average Joes, than the problems of Muslims.

You really need to get out more.

The Hijaab: 20 Years On?

I agree on this use of language. Islam is not totalitarian or dictated, it encourages choice -and good choices.

"Respectable" Racism

[Matt] Unfortunately, you’ve failed to acknowledge all the points I put above. But anyway, I’ll try my best to address yours one by one:

I think in a nutshell, what you’re trying to say is that criticism of Islam is okay and being Islamophobic is valid? – while criticism is welcome, it should be initiated with respect and reason, be it Islam or otherwise. You’ll find most Islamophobic attacks are initiated by ignorant people who fear and hate Islam and don’t know the first thing about it. Their spite is no different to racism.

Then there’s people like yourself, who are heavily influenced by western and Christian accounts of Islam. Your words echo exactly those in ‘The History of the Turks’ written around 1617- can be found in British Library. A hilarious book with wonderfully spiteful and fantasized ideas and exaggerations, with no evidence of historical accounts. People like you do not only criticise your own version of Islam, but in your apparent justifications are normalising the spite, as part of being a ‘free’ society. That is where we need to be careful here.

My argument is that it is not totalitarian at all. I really do not intend to go into a comparison with Christianity, we’ve already seen what Christian empires have done to the world, and I’ve read enough about how medieval Christianity entered the UK. Such comparisons are redundant.

You then go on to a list a whole load of arguments based on your own historical understanding and NOT on the accounts of the historians from the same century as Mohammed.

– “subjugation and persecution of unbelievers.” ‘Unbelievers’ or kuffar represent quite a specific group of people at the time of the Prophet, and the verses are clearly directed at the prophet (it is for us to extract values of the stories and implement them in our lives). In Arabia, these ‘disbelievers’ were oppressors, killers of baby girls, promiscuous and indulgent by culture. This is what Mohammed came to revolutionise. It is these disbelievers whom God instructed the prophet to stand up to. ‘Persecution and subjucation’ are again sweeping statements.
-”An example of this from the life of Mohammed would be his ethnic cleansing” What a joke. You really need to read up what Mohammed did to unite the racial differences of his time. ***Recommendation: Karen Armstrong ‘Prophet of Our Time’.
- “—by expulsion, slaughter, or enslavement—of the Jews of Medina.” Where did you get this from? I haven’t studied the Jews of Medina and cannot comment on this, maybe E+ can enlighten us on the de-fantasized historical perspective.
- “regular raids carried out against non-Muslim caravans”. – This statement is so distorted that I don’t even know what you are referring to. *** Recommendation: ‘The Message’, 1976 (Film).
- “However, none of them are held up as perfect and timeless examples by a major religion.” Well that says something about the figures you are referring to and the lesser influence they have had on modern society.
-” the infallibility and timelessness of the example of a man who was a brutal—and in large part because of that, highly successful—warlord.” You are regurgitating an opinion here, and it means nothing. Mohammed lived for 40 years in Mecca before he became Prophet- he was nicknamed the “sadiq al ameen”, i.e. “most trustworthy, most reliable”. People absolutely adored him wherever he went.
…But when he was appointed Prophet the oppressors of Mecca didn’t appreciate his astounding influence. Even the Quran recognises his initial status amongst the people, i.e. “O people, we have sent to you a Prophet from AMONGST YOURSELVES”.
As for Quran 9.29: Again refers to the disbelievers, a specific group of people – and says that these people do not forbid what God has forbidden, i.e. they allow those atrocities and acts, some of which I have listed above, including murder, oppression, indulgence. “feel themselves subdued.” -doesn’t say that on my translations. Says that one should stand up to them.

I personally don’t agree with all Caliph Umar’s ways of ruling the Islamic state, nor have I studied this period in a huge amount of detail, so cannot say that all that took place then was right. This applies to all so-called Islamic states after Mohammed’s death.

-”in the 17th century, Christians were being forced to convert to Islam because they could not pay the jizya.” Which countries were these? How can you tell if they converted via force? As for Christians from the UK, their stories started a whole plethora of English literature about pirates and conversion, because so many of them were traveling, converting, and choosing to live in Turkey. King James didn’t fancy that much in the early part of the century. And some of the “Turk plays” (that’s the genre) were created to counteract this conversion. They’re a real fun read. *** Recommendation: Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish embassy letters: short book, she was the first woman, wife of an English ambassador, to report back about Ottomon Turkey in print. There is a fascinating and enlightening page about the treatment of the Jews in Turkey.
-” Much of this oppression is enshrined in the laws of the respective countries, but it all is found in orthodox Islamic teaching right back to the Koran.” Ignorant justifications for some negative actions can be found in the Quran- it can be twisted, just how every text can be twisted. But I’ve said this before, oppression is what Islam fought against, and this value is contained in every nuance of the Arabic Quran, so it is contradictory to press on with this assertion.
-”and we don’t even need to go into the ideas of women being property which it contains—that equality is very much equality between Muslims.” You’ve evidently also bought into the whole ludicrous ‘women’ argument, which is really getting pathetic now. People who have studied women in Islam will understand the beauty of gender equality implemented by God. Not really the place for this debate now.

The equality is on the level of gender, race, religion etc. Being a believer has its superiority, but no one can judge what a believer is, except that they do good deeds in this life. Besides which, the origin of all world religions are from God and this is acknowledged. Therefore they are not depicted as inferior religions by origin, it is the actions of people which defines them.

State obligations such as lesser jihad, capital punishments, can only be carried out within a perfect-like Islamic state (none of which exist today). Jihad against ‘disbelievers’, again a very specific term, cannot be waged whenever one fancies. It is actually very unlikely to happen officially, until the return of Jesus on earth, where it will be done for ultimate justice, not for the fun of war.
And by the way- punishments are for preventative purposes, not for punishment and there are a huge number of conditions for them to be carried out. E.g. over 40 conditions for cutting a hand for stealing, allowing way for motives, and eventually repentance. In Mohammed’s time, punishments were hardly used.

Hate to break it to you again, but we’re following Islam and its values as they are laid out. Just going to paste what I already said before, and you ignored: But even to the simplest mind, times do differ (something that the Quranic and hadeeth texts recognise and draw upon) and the beginnings of Islam differ from the requirements of the modern context. … an implementation of the universal values of God, Islam and Mohammed, in the context of the contemporary age.

-back to your words, “we will need to confront the fact that the terrorists are not some radical nutcases that are completely out of tune with Islamic thought, but rather that they grow out of the very heart of Islamic orthodoxy.”
Those radical nutcases are just the same as you. They have taken things out of context, show no understanding of historical accounts, and no undertaking of contemporary requirements.

Muslims’ uphill struggle today is conveying the true and beautiful message of Mohammed to the mainstream world. Their uphill struggle is working against the afore-mentioned nutcases, and working against people like yourself. Both who have their own undoubtedly negative motives.

Why is Palestine Important?

A quick note on this quite ridiculous assertion: “In terms of Right of Return – Israel affords this because it is the historical jewish homeland and after the holocaust this had added impetus. ”

We might as well give back England to the Ancient Romans.

And, Europe had no right to alleviate its guilt at the expense of thousands and thousands of people.

Right of return is all good and jolly, but there are peaceful ways of co-habiting without creating an apartheid state with jewish-only state, roads and settlements. Something went seriously wrong right from the establishment of Israel, (perhaps the notion that you can forcefully remove a bunch of people and draw a couple of borders) – as such, peace is an unachievable cry today.

“So no more settlements in the WB? Agreed? No more silly rocket attacks into Israel ”

It’s not a little game of tit for tat, and certainly not a proportionate game. You might as well be comparing the tragedy of Haiti with Michael Jackson’s death. Your perception of levels of proportion, blame, and the Palestinian situation are seriously skewed.

"Respectable" Racism

Fantastic article Hilary, thanks for saying it as it is!

Stephen Gash- “Across the world Muslims have declared war on non-Muslims.”
Really? Where? The only declaration of war that I’ve seen in the last 10 years is ‘the war on terror’ – which is, by the way, an abstract entity. But with a very non-abstract result. On Muslim nations. Whose ‘wonderful’ dictators and leaders were supported by the West.

“No reports are made in the Western media.” That says more about Western universal values than Muslim ones.

Forget ‘kuffarphobia’ – countries like Egypt are starving their own nations and neighboring nations such as the Gazans, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. They are violating human rights and that needs to be addressed before anything. I can’t comment on the Coptic Christians as I haven’t studied in any detail.

“Islam, by its very nature is divisive and discriminatory.”
An empty point and sweeping statement. What’s “by it’s very nature?” Within Islamic law? Or the way Muslim-majority countries act? There is a huge difference. Anyone who has studied Islam for 5 minutes will know that it transformed Arabia from what was a backward system of values into equality of the greatest kind. 1400 years ago it managed to tell people that there was no superiority in gender, race or wealth. I cannot think of another contemporary example at the time to achieve such milestones in thought.