Women leading prayer By Hamza Yusuf

At the 2010 Rethinking Islamic Reform conference, Islamic scholar, Hamza Yusuf, gives his audience a glimpse into the Islamic tradition that supports female-lead prayers:

“Now, in terms of what is legitimate renovation, or tajdeed, I would argue that the Islamic tradition is a vast tradition. The Islamic tradition is largely unread. Even people now that are studying in madrasas, studying at shariah colleges, do not go deeply into this tradition. This is simply a fact. I will give you one example: when I wrote a paper on female prayer – because this was an issue a few years ago. Years ago, when I was a student in Mauritania, I remembered in a book that Ibn Ayman from the Malaki madhab considered female prayers was permissible in that madhab. And I remember as a 21 year-old student underlining that. I actually went back to that book and found my underlining of that statement. When I studied the prayer issue, I was so struck by the fact that not only was it debated early on but there were multiple opinions. Imam Tabari considered it permissible for women to lead the prayer if they were more qualified than men – to lead men in prayer. Ibn Taymiah himself permitted women to lead men in prayer if they were illiterate and she was literate. He just said that she should lead from back because she might distract the men if she was leading from the front. Ibn Taymiayah permitting a woman to lead men in prayer. This is the tradition. It’s all there. People have no idea how many of these issues were already examined and discussed. And incredible erudition and energy went into this. So if you look, I would argue that the Islamic tradition has within itself all of the needs to renovate the house. But it’s going to take an immense amount of intellectual energy. It’s going to take very, very highly qualified people which necessitates institutions that can train and produce the types of people that are needed to engage in this activity.”

Cornel West stops by campus to celebrate diversity

by Saira Sumbal on Feb 26, 2012 • 8:11 pm
Published by the Miami Hurricane - the student newspaper of the University of Miami, all rights reserved, copyright

Cornel West spoke to students at the BankUnited Center on Thursday as part of the University of Miami’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of desegregation on campus. During the event titled “Diversity & Democracy: An Evening with Dr. Cornel West,” the notable intellectual and advocate for social justice spoke to a packed audience of UM students, faculty and staff.
West spoke to the crowd tackling issues of race and society in the United States.

A call for self-realization or “learning how to die” was a major part of West’s message to the crowd.

“The one thing that I took away from it is that he said that we were born to live to die. We are here on this earth to make an impact. I think basically he was saying that we should not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in. We should always be engaging in discussion and not be silent,” said Kristyn Greco, a junior majoring in creative advertising and international studies.

The lecture kicked off with an introduction from associate professor Edmund Abaka of the history department who spoke about the 50th anniversary of desegregation at the University of Miami. Following professor Abaka was an introduction of West by President Donna E. Shalala.

University of Miami Board of Trustees made history when in 1961 they made the decision to eliminate a color barrier and admit students regardless of their racial background. Since this effort to admit students “regardless of race, creed or color” the university has made it a priority to have a diverse student population. The University of Miami is reported to have a student body that represents over 90 different countries today alone.

The lecture given by West is part of an effort by the university to celebrate this diversity and the institution’s anniversary of desegregation.

“There was not a negro problem in 1961, there was a catastrophe problem called Jim Crow,” exclaimed West in his lecture when talking about the monumental event in civil rights.

In an intimate gathering prior to the lecture, a select group of students, faculty and administrators were able to meet West. Professor Amanullah De Sondy, visiting assistant professor in the department of religious studies, was present at the gathering and talked about why it is important to have a speaker like West come to campus.

“He’s so inspirational and he pushes us out of our comfort zone and has the ability to give us the drive to move forward,” De Sondy said. “I think that drive for me as a professor is important because students need to have that push in their academic life because one’s academic life goes hand in hand with life.”

West made a surprise appearance prior to his lecture at a vigil held by Student’s Towards a New Democracy. The Vigil was being held in solidarity with Black History month and to address issues of inequality that exists for University of Miami’s Chartwells workers. The organization invited West as a guest but had heard no confirmation that he would appear.

Students were surprised when West voluntarily took to the podium to say some words.
“I was told there are some precious, priceless food workers who are not being treated as they ought, let’s salute them,” he said.

West continued to speak upon desegregation as he surveyed the crowd.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see people from all different colors and cultures here to fight for justice. You can’t talk about desegregation over 50 years ago – of course, by desegregation you’re talking about the vicious legacy of white supremacy – you can’t fight the vicious legacy of white supremacy without also fighting the vicious legacies of male supremacy and the vicious legacies of imperial arrogance and vicious legacies of class exploitation and vicious legacies of homophobia and anti-Semitism and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim and anti-Latino and these racist immigration policies and practices around the nation.”

Senior Ryan Williamson said it was important to him to have West come and speak.
“It’s important to have public intellectuals in our lives,” he said. “Cultural gurus like Cornel West have a message to bring to students. I think his message is one that’s more relevant today than ever.”

A new phase

I'm delighted to announce that I have accepted the position of Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies within the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Miami (FL). I have thoroughly enjoyed working here in a visiting capacity for the last two years and am eager to move onto the next phase of my academic career. As always, I miss my beloved Scotland, never far from my heart and thoughts. God bless.

'Free to be Me' empowers young Muslim-American women

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Muslim Women of Influence

Muslim Women of Influence from Life of This World Media on Vimeo.

A Muslim Looks at King

By Eboo Patel
Named by US News And World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders

One of the great teachings in Islam is to learn from and respect the traditions of others while remaining committed to your own. The Quranic line that God made us different nations and tribes that we may come to know one another sums this up for me.

And one of the people who I see embodying the teaching of learning from others while staying true to your own is not a Muslim.

I speak of Martin Luther King Jr., who learned from the Hindu leader Gandhi, was inspired in his marches with the Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and nominated a Buddhist, the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

King's ability to deepen his roots while broadening his wings is exemplified for me in one of his statements toward the end of his sermon "A Time to Break Silence." King identifies the deepest value across all traditions, and then uses language from his own to express it:

"I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: 'Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.'"

Reading King makes me constantly ask the question: How do I more fully submit to the will of God? What does it mean for me to be a better Muslim?

Follow Eboo Patel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EbooPatel

Woh Jo Hum Mein Tum Mein Karaar Tha

This video shows two poems "voh jo hum mein tum mein qaraar tha" and 'I am not that woman' enacted by Mallika Sarabhai in her production 'The Colors of the Heart' with British-Pakistani composer, writer, singer Samia Malik, based on their common commitment to issues of human rights and women's freedom.

Momin Khan Momin's poem "voh jo hum mein tum mein qaraar tha" is one of the most famous poems of Urdu literature.

The message of her poem 'I am not that woman' is that males and females are not always equal and that people especially women are dominated by men and this poem helps to vent their thoughts and feelings.

About the poets

Momin Khan (1800-1851) was an Indian poet famous for his Urdu ghazals and used "Momin" as his takhallus (the Urdu word for nom de plume). Momin is known for his particular Persianized style and the beautiful use of his takhllus.

Kishwar Naheed, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (born 1940) is an Urdu poet from Pakistan known for her pioneering feminist poetry. Born in Bulandshahr, India, Kishwar was witness to the violence (including rape and abduction of women) associated with partition, and herself moved with her family to Pakistan in 1949.

Should art really be for its own sake alone?

If art museums are the new churches, perhaps they should end the veneration of ambiguity and start serving our inner needs

Alain de Botton
guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 January 2012 05.00 EST
Article history - All Rights Reserved, Copyright.


You often hear it said that "museums of art are our new churches": in other words, in a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion. It's an intriguing idea, part of the broader ambition that culture should replace scripture, but in practice art museums often abdicate much of their potential to function as new churches (places of consolation, meaning, sanctuary, redemption) through the way they handle the collections entrusted to them. While exposing us to objects of genuine importance, they nevertheless seem unable to frame them in a way that links them powerfully to our inner needs.

The problem is that modern museums of art fail to tell people directly why art matters, because modernist aesthetics (in which curators are trained) is so deeply suspicious of any hint of an instrumental approach to culture. To have an answer anyone could grasp as to the question of why art matters is too quickly viewed as "reductive". We have too easily swallowed the modernist idea that art that aims to change or help or console its audience must by definition be "bad art" – Soviet art is routinely trotted out here as an example – and that only art that wants nothing of us can be good. Hence the all-too-frequent question with which we leave the modern museum of art: what did that mean?

Why should this veneration of ambiguity continue? Why should confusion be a central aesthetic emotion? Is an emptiness of intent on the part of an artwork really a sign of its importance?

Christianity, by contrast, never leaves us in any doubt about what art is for: it is a medium to teach us how to live, what to love and what to be afraid of. Such art is extremely simple at the level of its purpose, however complex and subtle it is at the level of its execution. Christian art amounts to a range of geniuses saying such incredibly basic but extremely vital things as: "Look at that picture of Mary if you want to remember what tenderness is like"; "Look at that painting of the cross if you want a lesson in courage"; "Look at that Last Supper to train yourself not to be a coward and a liar". The crucial point is that the simplicity of the message implies nothing whatsoever about the quality of the work itself. Instead of challenging instrumentalism by citing the case of Soviet art, we could more convincingly defend it with reference to Mantegna and Bellini.

This leads to a suggestion: what if modern museums of art kept in mind the example of the didactic function of Christian art, in order once in a while to reframe how they presented their collections? Would it ruin a Rothko to highlight for an audience the function that Rothko himself declared that he hoped his art would have: that of allowing the viewer a moment of communion around an echo of the suffering of our species?

Try to imagine what would happen if modern secular museums took the example of churches more seriously. What if they too decided that art had a specific purpose – to make us a bit more sane, or a little bit wiser and kinder – and tried to use the art in their possession to prompt us to be so? Perhaps art shouldn't be "for art's sake", one of the most misunderstood, unambitious and sterile of all aesthetic slogans: why couldn't art be, as it was in religious eras, more explicitly for something?

Modern art museums typically lead us into galleries set out under headings such as "the 19th century" and "the Northern Italian School", which reflect the academic traditions in which their curators have been educated. A more fertile indexing system might group together artworks from across genres and eras according to our inner needs. A walk through a museum of art should amount to a structured encounter with a few of the things that are easiest for us to forget and most essential and life-enhancing to remember.

The challenge is to rewrite the agendas for our art museums so that collections can begin to serve the needs of psychology as effectively as, for centuries, they served those of theology. Curators should attempt to put aside their deep-seated fears of instrumentalism and once in a while co-opt works of art to an ambition of helping us to get through life. Only then would museums be able to claim that they had properly fulfilled the excellent but as yet elusive ambition of in part becoming substitutes for churches in a rapidly secularising society.

• Alain de Botton is founder of The School of Life and the author of Religion for Athesists. He will present a Sunday Sermon The School of Life on Religion for Atheists on Sunday 22 January at Conway Hall, WC1

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Does Islam Forbid Even Studying Evolution?

By Nidhal Guessoum
Professor of Physics and Astronomy at American University of Sharjah, UAE
Published in the Huffington Post, Copyright, All Rights Reserved
Posted: 1/4/12 03:18 PM ET

A few weeks ago, a story broke in the media about British Muslim students "increasingly" refusing to attend biological evolution classes. Even medical students, it was reported, were part of that worrisome development. The story quickly went quasi-viral; even the BBC and Al-Jazeera International ran shows about it.

Before I discuss this, I must note that one should be careful not to take sensational stories for a general trend, thus one should ask how many Muslim students in the UK and elsewhere are opposing evolution classes.

Evolution, while largely rejected as a paradigm by Muslims, including highly educated ones, is nonetheless studied in countries like Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and the UAE. No case of students boycotting evolution classes in those countries has ever been reported. There have been occasional reports of students "resisting" the study of evolution in some western universities (in Holland, more specifically), but nothing widespread to make it a general trend. Perhaps Muslim students elsewhere are also rejecting evolution but pragmatically "compartmentalizing" its study as simply part of the curriculum, without turning it into a political issue.

Secondly, one must keep in mind other cultural aspects of this attitude by Muslim students in the west, issues of identity, minority, and law, as in the case of the hijab and niqab debates, for example. Or perhaps Muslim students consider evolution as a purely western theory, one which embodies a materialistic, atheistic philosophy; they then target it as an expression of a very different worldview. The rejection of evolution can perhaps be seen as an insistence on the part of a minority to its right to abide by its religious decrees (assuming this is established) even in educational curricula.

Surveys have shown Muslims almost everywhere largely rejecting the main concepts and results of the theory of evolution, particularly when it applies to humans. Even educated Muslims - and this is where today's Muslim culture stands out - consider evolution as "only a theory" and refuse to accept that we humans share common ancestors with apes, and that all creatures (animals and plants) came from an original cell.

In my recent book, I reported on surveys that I conducted at my own university among students and professors, where not only did 60 % of the respondents state that "evolution is an unproven theory", some 80 % of them either did not wish to see it taught or accepted that it be taught "but only as a theory".

Among physicians, a survey was conducted in 2005, where 29 of the 40 Muslim doctors agreed more with Intelligent Design than with the evolution. Currently, Salman Hameed has been leading a project investigating the views of Muslim physicians and medical students Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey; the preliminary results show that most Malaysian doctors reject the theory of evolution, particularly with regard to humans, though the picture is much more complex than one might infer from such stunning numbers.

Indeed, there is no uniform Islamic position on the theory of evolution. Ever since its earliest formulation by Darwin (and subsequent improvements on it), Muslim scholars have reacted to it with a variety of viewpoints, including sometimes a full acceptance of its scenario on the origin and history of humanity. In such cases, religious scholars insist on a theistic interpretation: God planned that whole evolution, by writing it in the laws of nature, and perhaps even "guided" it.

But there are also strongly creationist positions in today's Muslim culture, the clearest and strongest one being expressed by Harun Yahya and his group, who for the past decade or more have launched an aggressive campaign targeting Muslims throughout the world, including the UK and France, where lecture tours are organized and books (such as the infamous Atlas of Creation) are massively distributed either freely or in subsidized sales. A full review of the spectrum of Islamic positions can be found in my book, including a detailed critique of the claims made by Harun Yahya.

So if there is a large spectrum of Islamic position vis-a-vis evolution, why do those students claim that "it is against the teachings of the Qur'an"?

First, this attitude is a confusion of genres: the Qur'an should not be a reference against which any scientific theory or result is checked; the Qur'an is a book of spiritual, moral, and social guidance, and while it encourages people to explore the world and derive from it a worldview, one which conforms to its theistic teachings, it does not claim to present descriptions, much less explanations for how the world works.

Secondly, stating that evolution is "against the teachings of the Qur'an" stems from taking certain stories, particularly the creation story of Adam, literally and accepting the interpretations of the Holy Book by old scholars as the definitive meaning of those verses. As I've often told people, just as we do not reject the sun-centered model of the solar system just because the Qur'an says "the sun rises" and "the sun sets", we must not reject evolution just because the Book says "God created Adam from clay".

The openness of the Qur'an to (re-)interpretation was recently underlined by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, perhaps the most influential Muslim scholar of the past few decades, who stated that: "If Darwin's theory is proven, we can find Qur'anic verses that will fit with it..."

The rejection of evolution in today's Muslim culture is then a reflection of the dominance of the literalistic, fundamentalist conceptions of Islam in many parts of the world, including among Muslim minorities in the west. And campaigns by Harun Yahya and the like are counter-productive and do not bode well for Muslims, whether with regard to science or modernity, more generally.

Last but not least, it is very unfortunate that Muslims keep claiming that knowledge and science occupy a high place in Islam but then many of them turn dogmatic, close-minded, and selective when they must at least learn a theory which challenges their old conceptions. How can knowledge and science be upheld and promoted when one insists on sticking to pre-adopted, un-informed positions?

Muslims everywhere must open their minds to all new ideas. They must be confident that their faith and worldview are robust enough to deal with modernity in its various facets; indeed, new viewpoints can help fine-tune beliefs and worldviews. Islam not only does not forbid studying evolution or any other theory; it welcomes new knowledge and deals with it objectively. Muslims are called upon to engage with science, philosophy, and art with confidence and open minds.

'The Secret Love Lives Of American Muslim Women': A Muslim Woman's Experience With Dating, Sex And Growing Up

By Madeleine Crum, Published in Huffington Post, All Rights Reserved, Copyright
First Posted: 1/5/12 08:25 AM ET Updated: 1/5/12 03:55 PM ET

The American perception of Muslim women is sadly narrow: We imagine heavily cloistered beauties, submissive to their male counterparts who, we assume, they married because of an agreement between parents rather than love. To expose readers to the true spectrum of Muslim American dating experiences, Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi compiled "Love, InshAlla: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women," [$15.95, Soft Skull Press] an anthology of romantic relationships, gay and straight, arranged and spontaneous, monogamous and not.

In this telling excerpt, "The Birds, the Bees, and My Hole," Zahra Noorbakhsh rehashes her mother's brusque sex talk and how it changed the way she perceived her male friends:

Finally. My first year of high school was over, and summer was here. My mother was dropping me off to go to the movies with Jen, Kim, Laura, and Ryan. Wait. Oh, crap, I had forgotten about Ryan! There he was, walking with my girlfriends to the ticket booth. I knew that if my mom saw him, she would never trust me again and would confine me to the house for the rest of the summer.

My parents were so strict that I couldn’t go anywhere without their practically doing a background check on everyone who would be there. Regardless of how chaste the event was, they had to be sure there wouldn’t be any boys present to tempt me down the path of loose women. The thing is, I was a late bloomer and had absolutely no interest in dating—what I knew of it, anyway, based on Molly Ringwald’s characters in John Hughes films like Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink. Though I could barely admit that I “liked” guys, my days of blissful ignorance about the world of dating were about to be over.

I had told my mom that it would be just my girlfriends and me at the movies. How could I forget that Ryan was coming? There was no adjective in the world that would make my mom see past my geeky, lanky, pasty, computer nerd, Mormon classmate Ryan’s Y chromosome. She was totally going to freak. She was going to remind me that we were Iranian Muslims, not Americans. These lectures always reminded me of when she’d explained to me in kindergarten that Christians believed in Santa and got presents, and we didn’t . . . so we simply didn’t. It just wasn’t fair.

There was no way she was going to let me go to the movies with a man. Ryan was only fourteen, but to my mom, he was a man. He could’ve been eight or forty; it was all the same. When I was in middle school, she didn’t approve of all the “men” exercising with me in gym class. She didn’t like that I was friends with so many of the “men” in my sixth-grade history class, or that girls and eleven-year-old “men” were playing coed T-ball at recess.



As we made our way through parking-lot traffic in our Danville, California, suburb, I strategized about ways to navigate our argument. I could already hear her in my head: Zahra, what do you mean this man is just your friend? A young girl is not friends with a man! It is not right. Mageh Kafir hasti? You want to be like these filthy American ladies who go home with dis guy and dat guy, and blah blah blah...?

This is such bullsh*t! I thought to myself.

I had a pretty good feminist rant stashed away that just might hit home: “Mom,” I’d begin, “you didn’t raise your eldest daughter to stay quiet and avoid making friends or talking to people because of creed or stature or even sex...” Wait, I can’t say “sex.” She’ll flip out. “Gender.” Remember “gender” . . . Forget it. Take the easy way out: Lie. Just lie and say you don’t know him. He’s not with you. You don’t even know whose friend he is.

I snapped back to reality when I realized how close we were to where my friends were now standing . . . without Ryan. I looked around, scanning the crowds feverishly, but couldn’t see him anywhere. Perfect!

“Zahra! Hey, Zahra!” It was Ryan, tapping on my window. “I got your ticket.”

Godamm*t, Ryan, you polite-a** Mormon, I thought. You don’t need to come say hi!

My mom rolled down the window.

“Is this your mom? Hi, my name’s Ryan! I’m a friend of Zahra’s. We’ve got Algebra together. Hey, Zahra, I got your ticket already and saved us seats. You saved me on my math test, so I figured I owe ya. Anyway, great to meet you, Mrs. Noorka-baba-kaka-kesh.”

He shook my mom’s hand, gave me my ticket, and ran into the theater, waving.

Thanks, Ryan. You just ended my summer and any hope I had of a normal adolescence. I couldn’t even look at my mother, so I kept staring straight ahead. I could feel her glaring at me.

“Zahra,” she began.

Here we go, I thought.

“Zahra, are you going to go?” she asked.

“What?” I asked, confused. Was this some kind of reverse psychology?

“Maman jaan, there’s traffic behind me—get your bag,” she complained.

I grabbed my bag, undid my seat belt, and reached for the door handle of salvation.

“Wait,” she said.

F**k! I waited too long.

A spot opened up in front of us, so she rolled in and parked the car. We sat in silence for what felt like forever. What the hell was going on? She didn’t seem mad. I didn’t know what to think or what to prepare for.

Maybe Ryan’s politeness impressed her, I thought. Maybe she’s going to take back everything she’s said about men. Maybe she’s going to apologize for all the times she yelled at me, because she now realizes how great my friends actually are. Wow. I really underestimated my mom. I guess the toughest thing about being the firstborn daughter of immigrant parents is that they have to catch up to you as they assimilate into a foreign culture.

Maybe I needed to initiate this dialogue, to tell her it was okay if she felt bad about all the mean things she’d said before about my guy friends or the “American ladies.”

“Mom—”

“Zahra,” she cut me off, “I just wanted to tell you...” She had a distant look in her eyes, but then suddenly zeroed in on me with intense concentration.

“Zahra, you have a hole. And for the rest of your life, men will want to put their penis in your hole. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, who is your ‘friend.’ Even at the movies, maman jaan, wherever—it does not change. Ri-anne seems like a very nice man, but he is a man. And all he wants is your hole. So, I will pick you up here at five o’clock. Have fun, maman jaan,” she said.

I got out of the car and staggered toward the theater. I was horrified and astounded. I have a what?! A hole? Where? Was that what I had missed in sex ed the one day I had the flu? Was I the last girl on Earth to find out about my hole?

I’d never felt so completely clueless about or protective of my body in my entire life. I’d thought I had a pretty clear idea of sex. It didn’t look all that complicated: a lot of kissing and touching and groping and people mashing their bodies together under bedsheets. There were no “holes” in Sixteen Candles!

Suddenly, crossing the parking lot to the theater was like being a scared, limping animal in a wide-open meadow with sleazy holehunters lurking about. I couldn’t look a single guy in the face.

I busted my way through the double doors of the theater and accidentally made eye contact with the concessions guy, who was lasciviously filling up a large swirly snow cone and staring at me. I imagined him halting mid-ICEE, flinging it in the air, and then leaping across the counter, making a beeline for my hole.

I had to find my friends.

I saw Ryan sitting third-row center, with an empty seat saved for me next to him. Nothing about my relationship with him felt platonic anymore. I felt awkward and clumsy. I felt like... like... like I was on a date. Omigod, was this a date? My vision was
blurring. I couldn’t think fast enough.

He bought me my ticket.

He met my mother.

We’re sitting next to each other.

Did he ever really need help with algebra?

I sat through all of Johnny Mnemonic with my jeans pulled up to my waist and my legs crossed tightly together. Every time my legs started to relax and slide open, I felt like I was exposing my hole to the world, and clamped them back together again. The longer I held my legs together, the angrier I became at Ryan. Look at him, all stupid-faced and smiling, sitting there dipping his disgusting hands into the greasy popcorn. This movie sucks. Why is he smiling? He’s probably thinking about holes. Gross! All I knew at that point was that, date or not, he’d better not be thinking about my hole, or I was going to kick his a**.

Thatcher and Bhutto: Courage of Convictions

BBC Radio Scotland
Thought for the Day
Dr. Amanullah De Sondy
Monday 9th January 2012

Mention the name Margaret Thatcher to many Scots and you won’t be surprised at how colourful the choice of words are in response. Last Friday I went to the opening night at the cinema of The Iron Lady, the movie starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher. I was intrigued to watch this movie for all sorts of reasons. Prime Minister Cameron had earlier responded that the acting was top notch but wished that the movie had come out ‘another day’.



Regardless of what side of the political spectrum we find ourselves, the portrayal of a powerful women who fought through in a man’s world of politics was greatly moving. Watching the once powerful prime minister who led the Falklands war, turning frail and confused, suffering dementia, left me with mixed feelings and thoughts. It reminded me of the untimely death of Benazir Bhutto, the first Muslim prime minister of Pakistan, assassinated in 2007. In similar fashion to Thatcher, thoughts and feelings on Bhutto are not always positive. I remember reading Bhutto’s autobiography, ‘Daughter of the East’ in 4th year at Hillhead High School and being moved whilst reading how she wanted to continue the iron mantle of her Father against social injustice.



Yet this is the very nature of politics – friend or foe, we can easily highlight the best and worst in anyone but do we truly appreciate the significance of standing firm on a point of view, regardless of what that view is? As a Muslim I have been influenced by the many traditions that highlight Islam’s commitment to justice and peace yet I easily find such traditions supporting the actions of all types of political leanings. It is then not surprising that understandings of justice and peace often differ from one person to the other and differences may not always be tolerated. I am greatly challenged by the way in which Thatcher and Bhutto carried out the courage of their convictions, especially as women. As Eleanor Roosevelt once proclaimed, ‘When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted.’

Shaykha Halima Krausen "Among God's Signs" // Oct 2009 // Radical Middle Way

I'm Sexy and I Know It!

BBC Radio Scotland
Thought for the Day
Thursday 29th December 2011
Dr. Amanullah De Sondy

It’s been difficult to get away from Christmas carols and hymns being sung and played this festive season. Thinking about music and lyrics, I’ve been comparing different types of music lately. Growing up in a house where Pakistani and Indian music was always played, I’ve been continually challenged when comparing music from India and Pakistan to western pop.



The song that has really struck me in the last few days is, ‘I’m sexy and I know it’. The video is a parody to those who believe that sexiness is linked to a muscled, perfect body. And to strengthen this message the average bodied men frequently shout, ‘I work out’. At face value, it’s quite hysterical but the academic in me sat back and thought, ‘this is actually quite clever’. Especially when I compared it to a hit Bollywood single titled ‘Munni badnaam hui, darling teray li’ay’ which basically translates as ‘Munni was disgraced, for your sake darling’. In this video you see Malaika Arora shifting the focus of ‘badness’ from her to all the men dancing around her.



Both of these songs seem to be making statements about how we look to define and understand male and female bodies. In a world where ‘body’ seems to be taking over from ‘matter and mind’. I’m all too aware of this important message living in South Beach Miami these days where everyone and their dog is rollerblading down ocean drive, and I do mean that literally. These two songs seem to draw a bridge in values from western pop to eastern bollywood. It reminds me of the powerful statement that Lady GaGa made at an awards ceremony when she wore ‘raw meat’ as a dress, pushing us to think about who we are and what we wear.



As a Muslim, I believe that a healthy body is important for me to carry out the obligations I commit to, yet finding that balance between healthy body and a cosmetic body is a challenge to us all today, especially after we may have indulged in a little too much Christmas pudding. So let’s all start the New Year with, ‘I’m sexy and I know it’!

Nine Lessons and Carols with a Reading from the Qur’an

This year St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow is including a reading from the Qur’an alongside readings from the Bible at one of its main Christmas service. It is traditional for churches to have Carol Services at Christmas with nine readings which usually come from the Bible. This year, a reading from the Qur’an is being included which speaks of the birth of Jesus to Mary.

It can be difficult to find a seat at the hugely popular Service of Nine Lessons and Carols for Christmas in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, but this year an extra seat will be in place for this new dimension to this annual service. The reading from the Qur’an will be given by Dr Amanullah De Sondy, Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies at the University of Miami. Dr De Sondy will read Sura al-Imran 3:42-48 which is just one of the passages in the Qur’an which refers to Jesus and Mary. (Full text below)

The Service will take place at 7.30pm on Thursday 22 December in St Mary’s Cathedral at 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow.

The Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, is delighted to welcome Dr De Sondy to share in the Service with him and says “it is important for us to recognise that lots of people in our society enjoy the Christmas story and give honour to the birth of Jesus. Amongst those doing so are our Muslim friends and it is fitting that Dr Sondy is able to join us in our lessons and carols service.”

St Mary’s Cathedral is one amongst a number of religious groups in the West End of Glasgow and recently was one of the stopping off points in a pilgrimage which took over 50 people to a Christian Cathedral, a Sikh Gurdwara, a Hindu Mandir and a local Muslim Mosque.

Dr De Sondy says “I am particularly pleased and honoured to present a Qur’an reading that builds bridges between Muslims and Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I have been greatly enlightened by the interconnectedness between Islam, Christianity and Judaism in our shared traditions yet I’m saddened to see that many bridges are being burnt between faiths today. This is my small contribution as a Scot in strengthening our shared values and wisdom for a prosperous and beautiful Scotland.”

The Christmas Service at St Mary’s continue with Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at 11.15 pm. The Cathedral Bells will ring out in celebration before the Christmas Day service which takes place at 10.30 am.


Qur’an Sura al-Imran 3:42-48
And mention when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds. O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord and prostrate and bow with those who bow in prayer."

That is from the news of the unseen which We reveal to you, O Muhammad. And you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should be responsible for Mary. Nor were you with them when they disputed.

And mention when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary - distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near to Allah.

He will speak to the people in the cradle and in maturity and will be of the righteous. She said, "My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?" The angel said, "Such is Allah ; He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, 'Be,' and it is.

And He will teach him writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel

Faith, Certainity and Uncertainity

BBC Radio Scotland
Thought for the Day
Dr. Amanullah De Sondy
Wednesday 21st December 2011



A primary school in Ellon, Aberdeenshire brought in real camels for their nativity parade on Monday. The headteacher of the school said that pupils were excited about what they had organised. Reading this piece of news made me think about the various ways in which we Scots look toward Christmas. For some it is a moment of religious significance as the birth of Christ and for others a time for parties and exchanging gifts. As a Muslim, I must say I was rather excited about coming back home from Miami this Christmas. I guess I was finding it difficult to celebrate Christmas in 25 degree heat with palm trees – somehow it didn’t seem ‘right’.



The different ways in which Christmas plays a role in our lives made me think about how just one religious tradition can be understood in a variety of ways. I still remember how confused I was when my colleague told me about Santería, a mixture of Caribbean culture, African Yoruba traditions with foundations rooted in Catholicism. For some religion, others heresy and for the vast majority just life, leaving us to wonder who has the authority for the authentic interpretation? I see similarities when I think about different ways of living and interpreting Islam. Take for example the Scottish governments proposal on same-sex marriage, which has ignited a heated debate amongst all Scottish society, including Scottish Muslims. I guess, dealing with something radically different from the ‘mainstream’ will always be a challenge, especially when trying to understand religious texts in modern times.



I’ve been invited to St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral tomorrow to present a Qur’an reading in between their Carol service with Bible readings. It’s something I’m really looking forward to. In a world of differences, I’ve learnt through travel and seeing how we’re all muddling through, trying to live good lives, balancing ancient wisdom and modern living, that in the end we don’t all have to be the same. Maybe our very own Robert Burns hit the nail on the head in his challenge to us Scots when he said, ‘there is no such uncertainty as a sure thing’.

Al Ghazali: 900 Years Later and Still Relevant

by Farah Jassat, Freelance Journalist
Published in Huffington Post, Copyright, All Rights Reserved
December 18th 2011

Exactly 900 years ago today, on Dec. 19, 1111, the world bid a sad farewell to one of its most influential contemporaries: Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. That same world still has a reason to be nostalgic.

Al-Ghazali was a Persian theologian, philosopher, jurist and mystic, acclaimed in both East and West as the most influential Muslim after the Prophet Muhammad. His works shaped how generations of Muslims would understand their religion and even influenced European theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas. His great feats include bringing orthodoxy and mysticism into closer contact and leading Islamic theology into an epic battle against Arabic Neo-Platonism.

But perhaps he is most relevant to us today in terms of his personality. Great religious figures transform society by who they are, as much as what they say. His life was one of fame, doubt, confusion, introspection and searching. His journey was riddled with the eternal questions of life and meaning which still face us today.

As a young lad he excelled in all the disciplines of his education and so took the route of academia. By the age of 38 he was at the pinnacle of his career as a university professor in Baghdad, with hundreds of students sitting at his feet and a reputation as a religious scholar that carried far beyond the city.

It was at this point in his life, when he apparently had all the answers, that he realised all he had was questions. He underwent a traumatic spiritual crisis riddled with doubt and confusion. Did he really believe in existing doctrine? Was he sincere in his profession or massaging his ego? Was he ready for the mortal journey of death?

Al-Ghazali later relayed this existential crisis in "Deliverance from Error," a sort of autobiographical account. His inner turmoil culminated in his dramatic exit from the classroom where, in front of his students, the falsity of his state dawned on him, rendering him speechless. He walked out of the class to start a journey of self-discovery and didn't return for 10 years. He left as an academic who had just had a breakdown and returned as a holy man who had tasted the fruits of faith.

He sold most of his possessions, leaving enough to sustain his family and set out for the wilderness. Thus began his spiritual odyssey. Al-Ghazali and Odysseus have more in common than one might think. Both their epic journeys were in order to return home. Whilst Odysseus sought the island of Ithaca, al-Ghazali looked towards his spiritual origin. They both took 10 years to find their way home but never lost sight of the final goal. As we admire Odysseus for his shrewd schemes to outwit the Cyclops and survive hearing the songs of the sirens, we too must admire Al-Ghazali's strategies to master the ego and insatiable search for knowledge which spurred on his journey.

He knew a truly informed decision on how to live his life would first entail understanding the alternatives. He studied the ways of theologians, philosophers and authoritarians before deciding to walk down the mystic path as one which not only knew about faith, but experienced it. His search for meaning was not just ethereal and his great corpus of 40 volumes, "The Revival of the Religious Sciences," explores how to practically tame the ego and foster a good character.

In the noisy rat-race of the 21st century, it's sometimes hard to take a step back. The world we live in seems to function as a great big machine for competition and ego. A sort of envy culture permeates, leaving us always asking for more but not necessarily making us happier. In a time of economic instability and talks of measuring the Happiness Index of nations, it might be a thought to look at the vision of a man who has been known to be the Alchemist of Happiness.

Al-Ghazali speaks to us because he was just as human and confused as us all -- but he never stopped searching. Faith could not be defined by academia, but was a complicated journey of realisation. He wasn't afraid to admit that despite his reputation, he didn't know. Such humility was, and still is, a rarity in a world of both religious and secular arrogance.

On Wednesday, Karen Armstrong spoke at London School of Oriental and African Studies and claimed that despite our technological advances, "our understanding of religion is very simplistic -- even primitive." We are bombarded with political discourse which confines God and religion to a box labelled with sound-bites, as though it is quick and easy to understand.

As Aquinas mentions at the end of his great exposition on the five proofs for the existence of God, we have no idea what has actually been proved because we can't comprehend what we mean when we say God. Armstrong draws an analogy with the end of a great musical symphony. There is a profound beat of pregnant silence before the applause erupts. Perhaps contentment is this serene yet weighty moment of realisation that we have transcended our own understanding and submitted to what has been found.

Al-Ghazali tried to live in this beat of silence.

Muslim Christmas Celebrations Recognize Jesus In Islam

by Jaweed Kaleem, published in the Huffington Post, 16th December 2011.
Copyright, All Rights Reserved

Ani Zonneveld recently invited a dozen families to her Los Angeles home for a festive Christmas party, where guests mingled over shiny red and white desserts while others belted Christmas carols and kids crafted tree ornaments for her family's brightly lit evergreen. There's little unusual about such a gathering this time of year, except for one thing: Zonneveld, a practicing Muslim, had invited mostly Muslim friends, and she had a unique highlight for the evening: a lesson for the kids on the role of Jesus in Islam.



"I think there are a lot of Muslims that celebrate Christmas, but they do it quietly. We believe in not leading that double life," says Zonneveld, 49. "Celebrating Christmas is not really a contradiction to Islam because Jesus is our prophet, too."

As the most-commercialized religious holiday in the United States, Christmas can be a difficult time for Muslim families with kids who grow up surrounded by the holiday's traditions, from Santa and songs to Christmas trees and gifts. It's not uncommon for Muslim parents to take on some cultural aspects of the holiday to help their children feel included. Yet, Muslims such as Zonneveld are taking it further and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

This is the fourth year that Zonneveld -- a singer-songwriter who was born in Malaysia and co-founded a national network called Muslims for Progressive Values -- has hosted such a Christmas get-together for her 13-year-old daughter and family friends.

At her party, she says parents talked with their kids about the "similarities and differences between the Islamic and Christian Jesus," to teach them that Islam is "not all about Muhammad."

The comparisons and contrasts include Muslims believing in Jesus as a prophet and in his miraculous birth, but not seeing him as divine or the son of God. The Quran, in which Jesus is referred to in Arabic as "Isa," also says that Jesus was not killed or crucified, but that God raised him to heaven. Similar to the Christian doctrine of the Second Coming, Islamic teaching also says that Jesus will return to earth near the end of time.

"It would be typical of mosques to have a sermon on Jesus at this time of year, praising him as one of the great prophets but distinguishing Muslim belief from Christian belief, as Muslims must believe and love Jesus Christ as a prophet and Messiah," says Ihsan Bagby, an Islamic Studies professor at the University of Kentucky who researches American mosques. "But in terms of practice and observation of Christmas, that's an on-going debate among Muslims."

For Muslims such as Shireen Ahmed, a 34-year-old social worker and mother of four who lives in the Toronto suburbs, the holiday is a time to teach her kids about their religion and how to respect other religions. While Ahmed does not celebrate Christmas at home, she says she is "open and interested" in the idea. In recent years, she has observed Christmas by attending Catholic Midnight Mass at the invitation of friends.

"I love the Mass, I find it inspiring and uplifting," says Ahmed, who doesn't have a Christmas tree or decorations but does let her young children take photos with Santa. "I'm not accepting of Jesus as the Son of God, I don't take communion, but I will attend, I will respect, and I will kneel when they kneel."

"I look at it from a cultural tolerance perspective. We live in a society that's diverse," she says, adding that she recently used the Christmas season as a chance to talk about Jesus to her 7-year-old. "I explained the Holy Trinity, and my son said 'What do you mean? Allah doesn't have a father or son.' I said "that's what we believe, but others don't and you have to respect that."

Islamic doctrine is strictly monotheistic and some Muslim scholars view any significant celebration of any prophet as risky. Nonetheless, in many Muslim countries, large celebrations mark Mawlid, the lunar holiday for the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, so celebrating Jesus isn't without precedent.

Nouman Safi, a 36-year-old filmmaker who lives in Chicago, says that one reason he doesn't celebrate Christmas is because of its date. Most Biblical scholars agree that Jesus was not born in the winter. Safi, who has four elementary school-aged kids, says he uses the holiday to talk to coworkers and Christian friends about his Islamic beliefs.

"I have spoken to many Christian Americans who have no idea that we believe in Jesus and that we believe he is the savior. We believe will come back and unite everyone together," says Safi. "I say to them, 'I hope you know he is as holy to us as he is to you. We don't believe he is the Son of God, but he is a very important prophet.'"