An American Muslim Journal

Salam Al Marayati: Blasphemy Laws Are Against Islam

Blasphemy laws or laws prohibiting defamation of a religion are incompatible with Islamic thought and philosophy. The concept of Defamation of Religions denies a person their free will to choose -- one of God's greatest gifts to humanity -- and deprives individuals of their right to free speech and expression. It also creates a climate of intolerance that can breed discrimination and violence.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Thank you Salam Al Marayati for writing this essay. I hope it gets circulated widely. This message needs to be shared.

I agree with your reasoning. I agree with your conclusion. It's because I so fully and wholeheartedly believe in my faith that I am willing to suffer the outrageous lies and insults that are unjustly levied against it and our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).  To allow for blasphemy laws or laws that prohibit the defamation of religion is to somehow say that Islam cannot withstand criticism.  If our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) could endure it in his own lifetime and if the Holy Quran makes it clear that there is no compulsion in religion, then it would be a grievous error on our parts to allow blasphemy laws to exist.

While I think very highly of Salam Al Marayati, I do wish this same position was taken, explained and disseminated by Muslim scholars. Maybe they have said this and written on this and I simply haven't seen it. If that's the case, please share the writing with me so that I can share it with others.

These are matters of religious doctrine and while I don't need an imam or Islamic scholar to tell me what to think, I do believe that this understanding as articulated by Salam Al Marayati would be so much more persuasive if it came from a well known Muslim scholar.

Halloween is Haram! No, Halloween is Halal! Halloween and American Muslims

 

Right about now there is a raging debating over whether or not Muslims can participate in the American holiday called Halloween.  It’s a major issue and Muslims in America are divided.

Okay, the debate isn’t exactly the main focus of the 6 million strong American Muslim community but it is accurate to say that its raging among those who feel very passionately about the subject.  I’m not one of them but some of those who are amuse me and so I’ll use my little corner of the blogosphere to talk about it.

This is a teachable moment.  No, I’m not talking about the underlying theology that buttresses the various arguments for and against participation in Halloween.  

I believe Halloween provides us with is an opportunity to see the diversity of outlooks within the Muslim community and to view in real time the different ways in which Muslims from different backgrounds approach the subject.  This is another chance to chip away at the absurd notions of monolithic Islam and of Islam being an amalgam of rigid and irrelevant religious edicts.

There is nothing in the Quran, Hadith and Sunnah that explicitly says “Halloween is forbidden”, and to be fair, there is also nothing that says “A Muslim must partake of Halloween”.  It comes down to teasing out a set of values and principles from the guidance that is found in the Quran, Hadith and Sunnah and applying it to this particular holiday.

I’ve read and listened to the arguments against Halloween.  I don’t disagree with the basic values and principles that are often marshaled in support of the “Halloween is impermissible” view (but I can’t say that I’ve heard them all so don’t take this as my endorsement of some kooky or whacked out view issued from some remote cave in Tora Bora or elsewhere).  It’s the application of these rules and principles, however, that I find unpersuasive. 

The origins of Halloween are not relevant to the holiday that we partake of in 2010 (or even earlier in 1975 when I first started).  Halloween is a non-religious American cultural event.  Halloween has zero religious significance in the United States.

Also, by participating in Halloween I’m not copying non-believers.  I am an American and this is an American custom.  This is a part of my culture.  It’s not the most sophisticated part of it but it’s a part nonetheless!

As Muslim parents my wife and I diligently work to teach our children about the core beliefs in Islam and we work to reinforce what we teach through our actions.  We’ve looked at Halloween and there is simply nothing in Halloween activities that contradicts our Islamic beliefs.

Recently I posted a comment about Halloween on my Facebook wall and a Muslim friend asked me to cite the Quran, Hadith and Sunnah that support my belief that I can participate in Halloween without being in conflict with my faith.  I told her that I cannot help her.

I cannot cite to revelation or other religious sources to confirm the permissibility of participating in Halloween.  I also cannot cite to the permissibility of writing a blog, drinking soy milk or running on treadmill either.  And yet no one has asked me about the religious authority upon which I base my partaking of these things.

Frankly, I haven’t come across any writings or speeches that explain why Halloween is allowed.  But I don’t consider this a reason not to partake of this fall festival.  

I don’t look for religious license before I do most things.  Rather, I try to make my actions and my lifestyle stay within the parameters of acceptable behavior as delineated by a small list of absolute don’ts and an even smaller list of do’s in Islam.

But hey, this is a free country and if some of my Muslim friends (and I’m certain there are some Christian friends who think similarly) don’t think Halloween is compatible with their faith, then I have no problem with their abstinence from Halloween.  I do wish they’d reconsider though.

I do wish some American Muslims would reconsider their participation in Halloween because this is an communal event that helps bring neighborhoods together.  Halloween is a chance for us to walk around the neighborhood and talk to the other families while our children scramble from door to door loading up on goodies.  And since, unlike Christmas, Hanukah or Easter, this is not  religious holiday, it is a great opportunity to bond with those who live within our community. 

It is absolutely critical for American Muslims to be strong in practicing our faith.  But isn’t it important for us to enjoy our American culture and tradition as well?  I definitely think so!

 

Glenn Beck contradicts himself again, praises Dr. King and slams Obama for having the same religious outlook

Everyone knows that Glenn Beck talks about of both sides of his mouth.  At his rally over the weekend he wanted to bring our country "back to God" or "closer to God" and then later, after the rally, used the media attention from his little stunt to continue attacking President Obama's faith.

Today's Seattle Times reported this:

Beck, on his Fox News show last Tuesday, said that liberation theology is at the core of Obama's "belief structure."

"You see, it's all about victims and victimhood; oppressors and the oppressed; reparations, not repentance; collectivism, not individual salvation. I don't know what that is, other than it's not Muslim, it's not Christian. It's a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ as most Christians know it," Beck said.

Really Mr. Beck?  Is that what it is?  So, any faithful Christian who is concerned about the poor and about economic injustice is engaged in a "perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ"?

I wonder what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would think about that Mr. Beck?  Weren't you supposedly trying to honor Dr. King with you tea party rally today?

Well, the good news is, this duplicity by Glenn Beck will eventually make its way onto the John Stewart show and provide us all with a lot of laughs!

Hutaree Militia - Right Wing Extremists - Targeting American Muslims?

 (a photo of Hutaree's 'Christian Warriors')

That extremists Christians on the far Right would see American Muslims as the enemy is nothing new.  Given that Timothy McVeigh massacred over one hundred Christians in Oklahoma City (along with other innocent Americans of other faiths), it should surprise no one that Right Wing militias would target American Muslims.  Honestly, it is a matter of when and not if.

News reports in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times and the Detroit Free Press are all reporting that a fanatical Christian organization called Hutaree (they consider themselves Christian Warriors preparing to battle the Beast in the coming End Times) has been the target of federal investigators and that over the weekend arrests have been made in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.  In Illinois the arrest was made in Clarendon Hills according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Last November I wrote on this blog (click here to read that post) that we need to wary of extremist warmongers and that our concern should extend beyond Al Qaeda and to the right wing militias that seem to operate feely across our country.  At the time I wrote:

You know who these folks are - they are the people you see at rallies and protests, they are the screwballs who call into right-wing talk radio and lace their anti-Muslim diatribes with "God Bless America", "Amen" and "Yee Haa" and they are the entertainers pretending to be pundits and journalists on Faux News and on America Right satellite radio and are on the donor rolls of extremist Christian leaders like Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham.  They are the people shaving their heads and putting bedsheets on their heads and getting swastikas tattooed on their bodies.  They are the people bombing abortion clinics, killing doctors, going on shooting rampages against anyone who is not White and who target non-Christians with gun violence and random thuggery.  They have the blogs that rightly decry Al Qaeda organized violence and then go one indict every other Muslim for good measure.

These extremist Americans have more in common with Al Qaeda than with the rest of America.  Instead of allowing Americans to close ranks and deal with the fanaticism of Al Qaeda together, their hate ideology is extremely effective in keeping American Muslims off balance and consistently in a defensive posture.  Instead of spending time rooting out extremism, hours and hours of time is spent by American Muslims telling America who they are and what they believe.

We will see later today (Monday, 3/29/10) what the indictments allege about these wackos.  Dawud Walid, the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan was contacted by journalists for comment according to the Detroit Free Press.  Why was the Muslim community contacted for comment and not, say for example, the Jewish community or leaders of the Gay and Lesbian community, in this instance?  Perhaps it is because this particular investigation involved plots of violence against fellow Americans within the Muslim community?

I don't know the answer to that but I am concerned.  Whether their targets turn out to be Muslims, Jews, other Christians, gays, immigrants or others, I will remain equally concerned.

Good people need to stand up to this hatred, violence and bigotry right now.  The world's most free and most tolerant society - the United States of America - has allowed religious extremists using Islam as a cover to retard and stunt the growth and development of the Great American Experiment of creating a more perfect nation based on democracy within a religiously, culturally and ethnically plural citizenry.

The tragedy of 9/11 has made us less critical of bigotry in our dialogue and it has allowed us to be less vigilant in protecting our civil liberties.  In that more permissive environment hate groups of varying stripes seem to now be flourishing.  The Hutaree's so-called "Chrisitan Warriors" happen to be the group that's caught our attention today but there are lots of others out there and we need to be wary of them.

A good reminder of the power of Islam - remembering the earliest days of our Prophet (s)

Last night we had a social event at our mosque.  It was meant to bring our children to the mosque for an evening of fun.  We watched the "Muhammad (s): The Last Prophet", an feature-length animated film about the life of Prophet Muhammad (s).

It was amazing to see the enthusiasm with which the children watch and took in this wonderful history lesson.  It was uplifting and empowering to be reminded of all the pain and suffering that Prophet Muhammad (s) and the first Muslims endured at the hands of the Meccans without ever raising a hand even in self-defense.

I need to make it a point to read the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad (s) more often...

Jummah Khutbahs - lets take note of the messages coming from our mosques

Late last year I had another run in with some Hizb ut Tahrir members.  They wanted to post event notices on the mosque (ISNS) listserv and I rejected the posts.  The HT member was very upset and pulled in one of my fellow mosque board members into the debate to lodge a protest.

It turns out that this HT member was so upset because he was not used to being denied in this way.  Afterall, this HT member was an authorized Jummah khateeb (a person who gives the obligatory Friday afternoon congregational prayer sermon and usual then leads the faithful in prayer as well)!

This is simply unacceptable.  If we say we (our mosque) do not support violent extremism, then how is it that we allow members of such groups to use our institutions to promote their hateful and violent ideologies?

One thing I plan to do in 2010 is to be more vigilant about what is being said during the Friday khutbahs (sermons).  This year I hope to write about the khutbahs I hear.  It will be my little effort to bring more accountability to what is being said in mosques and also to highlight and applaud all the positive messages and teaching that is going on.

This last Friday (1/1/10) I attended the Al-Azhar Islamic Foundation in Barrington, Illinois for Salatul Jummah.  The khateeb was of Egyptian origin (as are most of the organizers of this mosque).  He did a great job.

The khateeb this past Friday focused on the importance of remembering that Islam is a middle path that rejects extremism and that it is the duty of Muslims to look inward into our community and address extremism that we find within it.

He used the metaphor of our children.  When our children behave badly we look at their actions and we try to teach them the error of their ways.  What we don't do is make excuses for them and point the external factors and blame those external factors for our children's mistakes.  Yes, we know that there may be external factors that influenced our children's bad behavior but we know that making excuses for their behavior will only entrench negative behaviors in our children.

So then, why, asked our khateeb, do we immediately point to others, to U.S. policies and so forth when our fellow Muslims commit crimes?  He pointed out the Nigerian Muslim who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit, MI on December 25, Christmas Day, and suggested that we are doing ourselves (and particularly the younger generations of American Muslims) a disservice by point the finger at others and skirting the issue of the young Nigerian Muslim's culpability.

The khateeb then went on to discuss the value of ritual worship and its centrality to a Muslim's religious life but noted that ritual worship is a guide and a tool and a resource to help us live our lives and to engage with the world and work and live in the world with others.  His point was that faithful life is more than just steadfast ritual worship and that we need to do more good in the world.

It was a packed prayer hall and there were lots of youth present since it was new year's day.  It was a good message for the community.  I hope others had the benefit of a good khutbah to kick of the new year as well!

President Obama, Muslims and Terrorism - M. Zudhi Jasser thinks Obama is not doing enough

M. Zudhi Jasser recently wrote this:

I hope after Nidal Hasan, after the American jihadis in Pakistan, and now after the Christmas bomber radicalized in London, that you see our need for clear leadership against political Islam and its ubiquitous permeating militant manifestations. We need a leader who recognizes that this conflict is most significantly within Muslim communities as we Muslims struggle with the conflict between theocracy and democracy, sharia and liberty, Islamism and freedom, and salafism and modernity. The longer you squander your leadership and stay silent on this, the more vulnerable we will be.

Via NRO

Didn't Dr. Jasser listen to President Obama's speech to the Muslim world?  In that speech President Obama made it quite clear that America's fight is with violent extremists within the the Muslims world and not with Islam.

President Obama is handling our foreign affairs and our national security a lot better than his predecessor.

Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman: Young, headstrong, sometimes right, sometimes wrong - but 4 years in jail? That is unjust!

I believe in the freedom of expression.  God created humanity with the power to think and the freedom to exercise that power.  Expression is the articulation of person's thoughts and beliefs and he or she must be largely free to do so.

Freedom of expression is not an absolute right though.  There are limits.  American secular law (as well as other nation's laws) creates numerous exceptions to the freedom of expression.  Essentially these exceptions are the result of a balancing between one person's freedom of expression and his obligations to others.

Freedom is at the core of Islam.  And while a Muslim majority state may develop laws to protect (or regulate) the right of free expression based on the principles and commandments of the Quran (and as expounded upon by the Sunnah), God does not prohibit an individual's right to think and believe and express himself.  I'm sure there are many Muslims who would like to muzzle anti-Muslim and anti-Islam expressions but such beliefs run afoul of Islam's core value of freedom.

Blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, then 22, was arrested in 2006 and charged with publishing opinions aimed at disturbing public order, insulting the head of state and defaming Islam. He was expelled from al-Azhar University, Egypt's most prestigious seat of Islamic learning.

via Reuters

I've read some of what Kareem wrote.  He must not have been attending classes at Al-Azhar University because his understanding of Islam is deranged.  I am speaking in particular about his March 25, 2005 blog post entitled "The Naked Truth about Islam..." (it was originally written in Arabic) which has been reproduced, along with his other writings, at FreeKareem.org.

This blog post is the product of a frustrated, angry and demoralized person.  It seems to represent a mix of disgust over some very disgusting things (the looting and pillaging of Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt in 2005) and his angst over studying Islamic Law when that was not what he wanted for himself.  Remember, he was only 21 when he wrote "The Naked Truth about Islam..." and he wrote it a day after seeing some truly horrible things.  I think that's a lot of mitigation.

But regardless of the existence of mitigating factors, Kareem should not be imprisoned for his words.  That is wrong and it is un-Islamic.

In my professional life I've been assailed for holding very strong views on the freedom of expression.  Even to this day people try to use what I've said and what I've done vis-a-vis the freedom of expression to attempt to smear my reputation.  Most recently some extremist Muslims have taken to "outing" my support for freedom of expression in support of allegedly anti-Muslim/anti-Islam speech by sending annonymous emails to my mosque and to the leaders of other mosques in my community.  So, I understand the vitriol that is directed at Kareem as he languishes in an Egyptian prison, jailed for his words.

Thankfully, I live in America and so far most of our civil rights and civil liberties are intact.  So I am going to exercise those rights to speak out for Kareem.  I don't like what he said and I don't share his opinions, but I cannot sit silently while he is imprisoned for his ideas.  That is neither humane nor Islamic.

Visit FreeKareem.org and find out about what has happened to Kareem.  In his case the Egyptian dictatorship is using Kareem's words about Islam as cover to suppress his other, more political commentaries about the Hosni Mubarak regime.  But rest assured that there are extremist Muslims running around in our own communities with some narrow understandings of Islam and these folks too would be keen and eager to mete out similar punishments to those of us who challenge their rigid set of interpretations.

So, regardless of what you think of Kareem's ideas, you should consider adding your voice to help all people around the world who are oppressed for their beliefs and for their words.  Kareem is among them.

_________________________________________________________________

Note: I realize that there are many other individuals throughout the world who are being held by oppressive forces simply because of what they believe and this blog post is in now way suggesting that this person's plight is more or less important than the others.

Countering homegrown radicalization: Muslims Must Reclaim the Mosque as a Center of Religious Life

The news of so many home-grown terrorism schemes and plots being uncovered in the U.S. over the past two months is very disturbing.  The men who stand accused of these plots are not so different from me in age, religious observance and socio-economic status but their outlook on life seems incomprehensible to me.  With all due respect to some of our nation's dedicated American Muslim leaders and institutions who continue to downplay the problem, I do think the problem within our community is more dire than we are willing to state publicly.

When we discovered that British Muslims were responsible for the London bombings several years back and that they were born and raised in the U.K. there was a concern in the U.S. about something similar happening here.  With the exception of Hizb-ut-TahrirI could not think of any other Muslim organizations who were openly hostile to America and the West, and since, at the time of the London bombing Hizb-ut-Tahrir was long gone from the local scene (it had been many years since we had to endure their shouts and taunts in the mosques), I felt confident that the radicalization that took place among the London bombers could not happen here.  After all, we American Muslims are far more integrated into American society and comfortable with our identity as American Muslims.

CIVIC INTEGRATION: A BULWARK AGAINST RADICALIZATION

Even before 9/11 but certainly afterward, American Muslims stepped up their efforts to develop and execute strategies for civic integration into American society.  Unlike most other places in the world, the United States' affords many freedoms which empower American Muslims the ability to become "American" on their own terms.  A lot of us are taking advantage these freedoms to carve out our own unique American Muslim identity. 

The youth and the young adults seem to be the greatest beneficiaries of the freedoms.  Unlike places in Europe and even in a Muslim majority country like Turkey where public expression of one's Muslim faith is increasingly being curtailed, in America the freedom of religion still means something, and that allows American Muslim youth to develop a well integrated and stable identity. 

I see this process of integration taking place among the youth in mosques all over northern Illinois.  My own mosque in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs (ISNS), is a good example of this positive development. 

This seamless melding of American and Muslim is particularly noticeable during congregational prayer.  In my mosque you see the youth lining up for the afternoon prayer with us at the end of Sunday school.  These kids are wearing their Bears and Bulls jerseys and the other trendy fashions.  The shoes, left just outside of the mosque's prayer hall, pretty much run the gamut of Air Jordan's to Transformers and Barbie brands and so on.  During breaks in between Sunday school classes kids will sneak out of the building to shoot some hoops or throw a football around.  This is level of integration is free form and perhaps due in large part to our consumer culture and the pressure to conform and be like everyone else.

Here in Illinois we have some very thoughtful and talent youth organizers who understand the challenges faced by American Muslims.  One youth organizer who rarely gets much attention but is doing outstanding work is Amal Ali.  Ms. Ali is the youth organizer for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago(CIOGC) and she has both the academic training and hands on experience in the field of youth work.  Over the years Ms. Ali has been a personal mentor to scores of young American Muslims and through CIOGC she has developed programs to help build young American Muslims' self-esteem through retreats that feature mentoring, spiritual nourishment and tough physical challenges that blend individual courage with team efforts.   She works with the Muslim Students Associations in the Illinois universities and colleges to help build leadership skills and again, to provide mentoring from young American Muslim professionals and highly respected spiritual personalities that promote positive and constructive integration while also instilling a commitment to serve humanity.

These integration efforts are not just for the youth.  Again, CIOGC has played an important role in promoting civic integration.  Under the leadership of Dr. Abdul Malik Mujahid and now with Dr. Zaher Sahloul, the American Muslim community is effectively developing healthy interactions with civic and philanthropic boards and with elected leaders.  In May 2009 CIOGC took nearly 500 American Muslims from northern Illinois to Springfield for a day of common good advocacy.  CIOGC partnered with Faith in Place and Protestants for the Common Good to develop a common good agenda that went beyond Muslim "special interest" issues and addressed the environment and the inequities of Illinois' public education funding system.  I was there for this event and it was amazing to see the sense of empowerment among every age group from high school through senior citizens!

The idea is to forge an identity that allows American Muslims to be comfortable being American and Muslim.  Seeing and feeling the reality of civic integration is instrumental in building a positive sense of self among American Muslims.  That positive sense of self, that healthy American Muslim identity, is what empowers American Muslims to be passionate about the many injustices visited upon Muslims throughout the world with a sense that they have the power to do something about it within the system.  Civic integration empowers American Muslims to understand the tools and resources available to them and sustains hope that they can make a difference in a meaningful way.  In essence, civic integration can arrest the feelings of hopelessness and fear, and in the absence of these two emotions, American Muslims may be inoculated from radicalization.

NOT EVERYONE IS KEEN ABOUT INTEGRATION THOUGH...

Many American Muslims support civic integration, but there are individuals, groups and even mosques that pride themselves on their lack of integration.  It is not uncommon to hear an Imam shrieking during a Friday sermon about the sinfulness of befriending Christians and Jews.  Some American Muslims use our mosques and our communications tools to promote shallow Muslim supremacist ideas.

Groups like Hizb ut Tahrir are returning to the mosques and promoting a shallow message of top-down theocratic world domination and selling that simplistic notion as the answer to all the ills and suffering faced by Muslims through out the world.  Other groups are less public but equally resistant to integration.  Within our mosques we have co-religionists who are intolerant of others who do not accept other's understanding of Islam.  Reason and freedom of conscience have no place in such people's outlook.  I have had many unsavory encounters over the past 15 years with these types of American Muslims.

Their favored tactic is to attack the sincerity and genuineness of another's faith in Islam.  For example, when I disagree with a point of view or a particular interpretation I am accused of deviating from the Quran and Sunnah (which, in my view, is tantamount to an accusation of apostasy).  This extremist approach has a chilling effect on some mosque administrators.  Rather than cutting off the extremists from institutional power, they are allowed to participate in mosque governance and often times they impose the "hecklers' veto" on programs and projects that do not comport with their particular religious understanding.

BRINGING MORE AMERICAN MUSLIMS INTO ORGANIZED RELIGIOUS LIFE IS ESSENTIAL

As we grapple with concerns over the radicalization of American Muslims it is critical that we recognize that we need American Muslims to be more involved in organized religious life.  At first blush it may seem counter-intuitive, but organized religious life is the best means of inoculating American Muslims from the extremist ideologies proliferating on the internet.

The five young American Muslims who recently traveled to Pakistan in search of jihad were largely radicalized via their exposure to violent extremist propaganda and e-fatwas extolling the merits of terrorism.  Where was their mosque's youth program when it was needed most?  Many mosque youth programs focus on apolitical issues in part because of the presence of the extremist voices that impose the "hecklers veto" on thoughtful discussions.  The educational forums offered by mosques rarely discuss socio-political or civic aspects of American Muslim life as well.  Again, this is due in part to the extremists' "hecklers veto".  As a result, many American Muslims, the vast majority who espouse mainstream and healthy Islamic values, feel either uncomfortable in mosques or feel that the mosques simply do not offer them anything useful (outside of Friday and Eid prayers).  Research on the American Muslim community suggests that only a fraction (perhaps as little as 5%) of American Muslims are affiliated with a mosque.

The isolated religious existence, while protecting American Muslims from the vocal minority of extremists within the mosques, can also become an incubator of extremism as well.  Maj. Nidal Hassan is one recent example.  While he attended the mosque for prayers on a regular basis, Nidal Hassan was not very actively engaged in an American Muslim community environment.  His spiritual and religious outlet came via the internet and blogs and electronic bulletin boards.

Done right, a mosque can provide a wholesome and nurturing environment that promotes an authentic application of Islamic values and creates a community life that supports a healthy Muslim self-image.  But to do it right, a mosque has to be an open and welcoming environment.  Women must be made to feel welcome.  The programming has to be engaging.  It has to be in English (except for the ritual prayer).  The imams who lead the spiritual life of the mosque should be well attuned to and positive about American culture because, at the end of the day, that is the culture of the vast majority of the 6 to 7 million American Muslims today.  The religious education for the youth and the the adults needs to be tailored to an American point of view in order to be effective.  The mosques must serve as a social safety net for a range of issues ranging from unemployment, hunger, substance abuse and domestic abuse.  And of course, there must be a social component within mosque community life (particular for the youth) as well.

SHIFTING PRIORITIES, BEING MORE BOLD

American mosques are largely funded by domestic contributions from American Muslims.  Since Islam forbids interest-based transactions, American mosques are purchased and built with cash.  And the mosques in America are being built in more and more places and existing mosques are expanding all the time.  I suspect that 90% of mosque donations are used to maintain physical structures and to fund expansion projects.  The vast majority of American mosques are also run and administered exclusively by volunteers.

American Muslims need to shift their priorities from bricks and mortar to programming and human resources.  Beautifully titled prayer halls with traditional domes and ornate chandeliers and exquisite Quranic calligraphy adorning the walls are not the antidote to radicalization.  In fact, these things are not even the answer to bringing more American Muslims into the mosque.  And yet, we continue to channel millions upon millions of dollars to support these types of projects.

All the while, mosques have no budgets for youth organizing, hiring trained professional youth workers and counselors, or for attracting more American Muslims to pursue careers as imams and Islamic spiritual leaders.  There is little money allocated to programming to create meaningful and engaging activities for American Muslim youth and young adults.  These are, however, the things that mosques need to spend on in order to create the kind of mosque-centric life that will help counter the radicalization being promoted on the internet and even within our mosques through the unregulated and unstructured study circles and discussion groups held in mosques but without much oversight by mosque administrators.

Moving forward, American Muslim leaders and administrators must be bold.  We have to stop kowtowing to the extremists within our community.  We lament the need to defend Islam and ourselves against the violence perpetrated by our co-religionists, but what we should really be angry about is how mosques have allowed the intolerant behavior of some extremists to stifle ideas, projects and programs that would create a more welcoming environment in our mosques.

If mosques will not provide thoughtful programming and an environment conducive to building a wholesome Muslim community, then American Muslims need to go the route of the Mohammed Webb Foundation in the western suburbs of Chicago.  The Webb Foundation is organization that provides a lot of the civic, social and educational programming in an open and welcoming environment that mosques should be providing but often do not.  We know what our priorities ought to be, and now we need to act boldly in pursuit of them!

ONE VIOLENT EXTREMIST IS ONE TOO MANY

It is true that the vast majority of Muslims, in America and throughout the world, are peaceful and faithful people committed to living an Islamic life of peace and justice.  And in the face of bigots and Islamophobes who viciously malign Muslims and Islam as violent, we are right to point to the billion plus Muslims who categorically denounce violent extremism as a solution.

We must, however, hold ourselves to higher standards.  One violent extremist is one too many.  In a community of 6 to 7 million American Muslims the handful of individuals accused of plots of violence is not even 1% of our community but its still unacceptable.  As American Muslims we have an enormous obligation to the rest of the world.  It is not about American Muslim "exceptional-ism" but rather, it is a simple matter of resources and opportunities.  We have the freedom and the resources to do much good for Islam and for the cause of justice at home and abroad.

We hamstring ourselves by allowing our co-religionists to succumb to the hirabi creed promoted by Al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups.  There is too much at stake for us to allow this to continue.

The veil, the Quran, and the Muslim women's movement / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Islamic feminism faces strong resistance from the faith’s conservatives who want to preserve the male interpretation of Islam. But the movement’s roots in the Koran give it a better chance at changing attitudes than a transplanted women’s liberation movement from the West. In the end, the Koran may be an Islamic woman’s most direct route to equal rights.

This is pulled from the Christian Science Monitor. I'm glad someone is talking about this topic and shedding light on the critical thinking over women's rights in Islam and human interpretation of Islam vis-a-vis the Quran and the Sunnah in general.

Articles and editorials in the Christian Science Monitor are great because it helps the broader community better understand the diversity of thinking among Muslims in America and abroad. I hope Muslim organizations, Muslim thought-leaders and mosques will pick up this issue more often and with greater urgency in the very near future.

I respect Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab. What bothers me is the imposition of segregation and second class status on Muslim women. I am speaking about behaviors in the U.S. and in particular those behaviors that take place in mosques.

I attend and serve on the board of the mosque my father helped found. Things are improving in many facets but women's rights remains a hurdle.

Interestingly, many of my fellow board members agree that the offensive barrier used to segregate men and women in our activity room during events is not religiously required and that it is therefore demeaning. To boot, it impedes participation in the mosque's activities by women.

A few weeks ago we had an Eid dinner at the mosque. We had agreed a few weeks earlier that we would create a space for those women who felt they needed to be segregated and that we would provide them access to the speakers and so forth via a live television feed. The rest of the space (the majority of the space) would be set up for an integrated family seating arrangement.

When I arrived at the mosque an hour early my jaw dropped as I saw the room divider splitting the room in two.  I saw our board president and I asked him what this was all about.

"I knew you'd bring this up" he replied.  He and I had an intense discussion.  I had told my family and friends to come to this event and to become a part of our mosque because, as I saw it, we were really becoming the mosque I've wanted to be associated with.  Now they were going to come and see this room divider. 

Sigh. Same old same old.

My colleagues on the board buckled under the pressure of the vocal members of our mosque who wanted to separate the men and women with a barrier.  My colleagues on the board wanted me to be patient and to go slow and ease into the more open and respectful treatment of women (that's not how they phrased it but that's how I took it).

"No" I told the president.  We ve been dickering around this issue for 2 decades.  We cannot go any slower for fear of going backwards (and going backwards is a real concern since we have made solid strides elsewhere when it comes to civic engagement).

In the end the mosque president pulled out his ace card to end the discussion.  What was his ace card?  Democracy. 

He said the majority of the members wanted the segregation.  That's where we ended our discussion for the evening but frankly, that is not the end of this issue.

I am asking American Muslims who are not already members of a mosque to come and become a member of mine.  I need other like minded folks to join so that we can leverage the facilities and the resources of the mosque for programs and activities that we need and want.  We cannot sit on the sidelines and lament the direction that some of our co-religionists are taking our faith.  If we do not approve of it, then we need to get up and do something about it.  That call to action is a core part of our faith.

That said, I do not believe the majority supports the divider but the majority is afraid of raising the ire of the aggressive and outspoken minority of men whose most articulate argument is "Quran and Sunnah brother" as if uttering the words "Quran and Sunnah" is somehow meaningful as an explanation.  Most members of our mosque are very low key and opt to avoid confrontation, and as a result they keep their head down and avoid getting too involved with the mosque.  They come for Friday prayers, they drop off their kids for Weekend Islamic School and they attend an dinner here or there and that is the extent of their involvement.

I do not blame them for their approach.  Life is complicated and stressful.  Butting heads with the folks who want to keep women behind walls and barriers is frustrating and time consuming.  And who among us has a bunch of spare time on her hands?

I am not interested in getting into arguments and fighting over these issues either.  The mosque should be a place of prayer, reflection, education and social justice.  But I am not afraid to stand my ground either and that is precisely what I am going to do.

My daughter asked me after the eid dinner a few weeks ago: "Baba, why did they put all the girls and moms behind the wall?  That's not fair."  Voila!  There's my inspiration.