HUMOUR: Boycott ...

As part of the belated response to the publication of a dozen cartoons, I now call upon all Muslims to boycott Danish beer and pork products!




Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


Bookmark this on Delicious

COMMENT/EVENT: Hirsi Magaan on enlightenment ...

The (to-the-right-of-) Centre for Independent Studies is holding its big ideas forum tomorrow night at the Sydney Opera House. I'm going, as is a mate of mine with left-of-centre leanings. Hopefully, he'll be buying me some Turkish pide afterwards since I managed to secure him a ticket!

The topic of this forum is Protecting the Legacy of Freedom: The Ideas of The Enlightenment in the 21st Century. Among the last minute entries is pseudo-refugee queue-jumper, self-confessed migration fraudster and disgraced former Dutch far-Right MP Ayaan Hirsi Magaan (or, as she falsely wrote on her asylum application, Ayaan Hirsi Ali).

Ms Magaan's first book, The Caged Virgin, consists largely of speeches and articles written during her term as a Dutch MP. It's hard to tell how much of this is her own work. We all know that MP's often don't write their own speeches or even articles, but rather delegate this task to their staff. It certainly would be an interesting issue for a literary sleuth like Malcolm Knox or Hanifa Deen to investigate.

I interviewed Magaan during her last visit to Australia as a guest of the Sydney Writers' Festival. She has become a darling of the far-Right, lavished with praise by bloggers who would otherwise have despised her as a dangerous "Islamist". Cultural warriors have also treated her as the final word on the experiences, cultures and religious views of 1.3 billion people who regard themselves in some way as Muslim.

I'd be interested to see how this woman, whose presence in Europe is based on defrauding Dutch migration law, will talk about enlightenment. It will be interesting to know whether she still believes that faith schools should be closed down altogether and that those wishing to teach intelligent design be imprisoned.

Among other speakers at the forum are former speechwriter for former PM Gough Whitlam and now Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court Jim Spigelman and rightwing commentator apologist for the Iraq debacle Arthur Herman.

Also appearing are a Christchurch-based academic in music and an English sociologist who, like so many other cultural warriors, castigated the Archbishop of Canterbury in a manner which showed he clearly hadn't bothered to read Rowan Williams' speech first.

I doubt all the speakers will agree on exactly what the enlightenment was, is and should be. I'd love to see Arthur Herman defend the Iraq war before an Australian audience. Even more humorous will be seeing him call for the United States to become Israel's proxy by invading Iran. I guess his kids won't be risking their lives in any such military adventures.

If I am not mistaken, Justice Spigelman has a relative who has served on the front line in the Middle East. His Honour's views certainly don't reflect the kind of intellectual siege mentality so many on the alegedly conservative side are affected by. Indeed His Honour was one of the first Australian judges to publicly criticise the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


Bookmark this on Delicious

MEDIA: Am I Enlightened?

I've just received my copy of the new-look glossy Illume magazine. Illume is an effort of a group of young American Muslims and gathers an impressive array of writers including Hesham Hassaballa, Zaid Shakir, Wajahat Ali and Shahed Amanullah, together with other writers whom I've not heard of and who are clearly much better than the ones I have!

Is that a fair assessment? Well, you'll have to subscribe to find out! Subscription is US$40 a year or US$72 for 2 years. If you're stupid and place no value on your brain cells, you will not subscribe.



One essay I'm looking forward to reading is Naeem Randhawa's Tea With The Taliban, an account of the author's 30 days in Afghanistan. The photos are fantastic. There's also an article by Antonio Graceffo on the Muslims of Cham in Cambodia, as well as an interview with New Yorker columnist Seymour Hersh.

Anyway, I'd better stop writing this post and start reading the magazine!



Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: Dudes and Hijabs …

I’ve just received a report about the Ayn Academy in Adelaide holding a conference to launch a book by Afroz Ali, a Sydney architect who claims to be a qualified imam with ijaza certificates kept at the Zaytuna Institute. Mr Ali's book is entitled UnVeiling Hijab.

Mr Ali’s biography on the Ayn Academy website includes a claim that he is “on the Board of Advisors at Markaz Aleem in Cairo, Egypt”. So what is this “Markaz Aleem”? What is its role in Islamic studies or in the accreditation of imams in Egypt? No details are given.

My concern isn’t so much with Afroz Ali’s claims about himself. At least, not in this post. Rather, I have another concern.

The issue of hijab is an extremely sensitive one. There are differing views on the subject. I have read various interpretations and rulings on the issue of women’s dress and the extent of their covering as required under the sharia or sacred law of Islam.

I have read views that state that women are required to cover their faces in the presence of non-mahram men (i.e. men whom they can marry) at all times except at the Haj. I have read views that state that women are required to cover everything except their face and hands in the presence of non-mahram men. I have read opinions that state that it is permissible for women to show the front part of their hair (as is common in South Asia, Central Asia and Iran). I have also read opinions that state that women need not cover their hair all the time in the presence of non-mahram men.

Each of these opinions has some scholarly basis. I have a preference for one of these views. However, I am not qualified to give any authoritative expression as to which view is correct.

And neither is Afroz Ali.

But there is another reason. Adelaide’s Muslim community, like that of Sydney and Melbourne, is going through a slight adjustment. A number of prominent Muslim women have chosen to cease wearing the hijab in public on a full time basis.

The choice of these women needs to be respected, whether we agree with their choice or not. Further, it is not for unqualified men with only rudimentary knowledge of Islamic sacred law to be writing on this issue.

I have every respect for Muslim sisters who choose to wear hijab, whether full-time or part-time. I also have every respect for sisters who choose not to.

Men have absolutely no idea how difficult it is walking out their front doors and being ambassadors of their faith in an environment when so much hatred is invested in that faith. We are living in a time when many people who claim to follow Jesus actively degrade and despise women who choose to dress like his mother just as much as (if not more than) they despise people who look like they might have been born in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem.

Muslim women need to be free to make their own choices. We may not agree with their choices, just as much as they may not agree with ours.

I’m no hadith scholar, but I do recall reading a hadith in which the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) remarked:

There will come a time when holding onto Islam will be harder than holding onto hot coals.

Are we in that time right now? I’m not sure.

I do know that making a commitment to wear the hijab is an enormous one. Many of our sisters last the distance. Some stop for a break before continuing. Some choose to walk on leaving the issue by the wayside.

The confusion in the metaphors I have used in the paragraph immediately preceding this one is but a partial indication of just how difficult this issue is. I think it is a matter that should be left to our sisters to decide among themselves. If they need our advice and opinion, we should offer it honestly and with respect. We should keep in mind just how difficult this issue is.

It might also make it easier if our men decided to wear some openly Muslim symbol or dress. Perhaps our lectures to women on hijab should be accompanied by lectures to men about wearing caps and/or kufiyyeh's and/or sporting beards. In the present environment, what’s good for the gander should be just as good for the goose.

I myself used to lecture sisters on wearing hijab. I even considered sisters who didn’t wear hijab to be inferior Muslims or not worth talking to. At one stage, I even stopped returning their salams. We all make mistakes. We live and we learn.

There are Muslim women making enormous sacrifices in the cause of human rights and civil liberties in their countries. They are women like Irene Khan and Shirin Ebadi. In Australia, Muslim women with or without hijab are making enormous contributions to Muslim communities and the broader Australian community.

Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab, whether on a full or part time basis, must be respected. Muslim women who choose not to must also be respected. Whether hijab is compulsory or not under Islamic sacred law should be left to qualified scholars prepared to outline the full extent of their qualifications and provide clear proof of same. Everyone else should just shut their mouths.

That includes both Irfan Yusuf and Afroz Ali.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

NEWS: Gulen now a US permanent resident ...

Muhammad Fethullah Gulen, an influential Turkish religious scholar and educator, has had the refusal of his application for permanent residency to the United States overturned by a US court.

Gulen is influential in Turkey and Central Asian republics as well as Western China. His followers run a network of schools and educational establishments across the world, including Australia.

Previously, Gulen's Australian followers distanced themselves from Sufism. This was consistent with their claims to being followers of Said Nursi al-Kurdi, popularly known as Bediuzzaman (literally "wonder of the age"). Gulen claims to be a student of Bediuzzaman, although the two men are believed never to have met. Bediuzzaman was known to have had mixed feelings about sufi orders.

Sufi groups have played a controversial role in Turkish politics. Most were banned during the early days of the Turkish republic. One Turkish sufi and religious scholar, Muhammad Zahid Bursawi, was close to a number of conservative and Islamist politicians, including former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan who was overthrown by the military in a coup.

With the election of a new conservative small-'i' islamist government in Ankara and with aggressive secularism in retreat, sufi orders are again becoming influential. Gulen's followers are now beginning to be more open about their teacher's sufi heritage. Gulen is author of a number of sufi works, including Emerald Hills of the Heart, a primer on Naqshbandi sufism.

Gulen was recently elected by two influential publications as the world's most influential intellectual and thinker. Editors of both publications claim the results were skewed by Gulen's followers, who are said to have voted en masse.

However, Gulen's influence in the Turkish-speaking world and in former Ottoman colonies (now modern European states) such as Albania and Bosnia should not be underestimated. Some paranoid observers claim Gulen's growing influence is evidence of Turkey being in the possible throes of an Iran-style Islamic revolution. Yet Gulen has rarely shown signs of support for any Islamist party. Unlike other religious figures, Gulen isn't known to have instructed his followers to get behind any party or coalition in elections.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

Comment policy ...

Some time ago, I changed the postings on this blog to only allow comments I had moderated to appear. I've now decided to remove the moderation situation and will allow all comments in. However, I will reserve the right to remove any comments that I deem offensive, abusive or that contain threats of violence or are in some other way undesirable.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

LETTERS: Some nice feedback ...

One reader recently send me this e-mail ...

I wanted to take a few minutes to give you feedback on your writings; I try to read your writings as much as I can ... but when I do read them, I usually find them to be very informative and sensible. I’ll be honest, there have been a few occasions when I haven’t agreed with your views but I guess this is to be expected and quite natural. But you certainly help to clarify many misconceptions and shed light onto many misunderstood issues an events.

I think you are fulfilling a very important responsibility by creating awareness of some realities by responding to ridiculous media stories about Islam and Muslims. Keep up the good work!

I'll be honest and say that I sometimes read what I've written in the past and cringe!

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: Cohesion or incoherence?

I've just visited the blogsite of the so-called Centre for Social Cohesion, started by the allegedly conservative and allegedly liberal UK thinktank Civitas.

And what is the common theme of this blog? Any mention of the British National Party? Any discussion on developments in Northern Ireland? Any word on poverty? Unemployment? Any comments on the recent controversy concerning the Australian staffer of the London mayor?

Nope. It's all about Muslims, Islam, sharia, honour killings, caliphate websites, public libraries conspiring with al-Qaeda, etc etc. The implication is clear - these dirty dark-skinned ugly Mozzlems are a threat to social cohesion. Charming.

Is this the best that so-called conservatives in the UK can come up with? Have they completely lost the plot? Are they obsessed with finding Muslim conspiracies as some Germans (and at least one Austrian) were with identifying Jewish conspiracies some 60-70 years ago?

This kind of thinking seems to have become mainstream in the United Kingdom. It isn't helped by irresponsible comments by self-declared Muslim spokespeople. But it also isn't helped by the hysteria generated by wacky media commentators and thinktanks.

Reuters recently reported comments made by Britain's first government minister of Pakistani Muslim heritage, Shahid Malik ...

Muslims in Britain feel like aliens in their own society and say they are targeted like "the Jews of Europe", the country's first Muslim government minister said.

International Development Minister Shahid Malik painted a bleak picture of the integration of 1.8 million Muslims, three years after Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system ...

Malik, who has been the target of race attacks including a firebombing of his family car, said some media coverage "makes Muslims feel like aliens in their own country."

"If you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he told a documentary to be shown on Channel 4 television next week, marking the third anniversary of the attacks on July 7, 2005.

"I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost -- still is in some parts -- to target Jews. Many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way."

An ICM survey done for the documentary shows a narrow majority of 51 percent of Britons blame Islam to some degree for the bombings.

Islam is to blame for the bombings? Which Islam? The Islamic heritage of the 5 or so people who died in the bombings? The Islam of the first victim to be buried?

Are groups like the Centre for Social Cohesion really promoting social cohesion? Or are they really just adding oxygen to the fires of hatred and prejudice?

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf