Dialogue with Brad - Part I

Recently I started a discussion with a Kiwi reader named Brad (I've changed his name to protect his anonymity). With his permission, I want to share that dialogue with readers uncensored. I'll be doing this in a number of instalments. I'll start with his initial inquiry to AltMuslim.com and my response.

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Hello

I have read articles by Irfan Yusaf in the NZ Herald and I wonder if he would be able to answer the 10 questions about Islam (or perhaps just the first 9) posed by the writer here.

Our extended family has assisted with the resettlement of Muslim (and other) refugees in New Zealand, we have eaten together and prayed together, however I\'m aware that inter-marriage and at times developing friendships outside of the Islamic community is actively discouraged. I sense this will lead to a ghetto type isolation for Muslims in our communities which will lead to the possibility of fear and resentment from both \'sides\'. How do you think both the Islamic community and host communities can resolve this?

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Dear Brad,

Thank you for your e-mail.

Let me start by saying that all of us have multiple layers of identity. Religious affiliation is just one layer.

If you were to ask different Muslims why they regarded themselves as Muslim, you would receive many different answers. Some would say it was because they have Muslim parents. Others would say it was because they believed in Islam. Yet many of them would probably believe in different things, and their beliefs may even conflict.

We all need to stop pretending Muslims are some kind of uniform monolith. We also need to stop pretending that Muslims are a recent addition to Europe and the West.


I know of Muslim families who have lived in New Zealand since the 1920's. I know of Australian Muslims whose families have lived in Australia since the 1850's. Muslims have lived in Bosnia since the 12th century, in Europe's heartland. Yet in many parts of Indonesia, Islam only became the dominant faith 2 or 3 centuries ago.


If you took an Indonesian Muslim to Turkey, he probably wouldn't recognise Turkish Islam as Islam.


If I were to say that Catholics all nail themselves to crosses at Easter time, you would probably think I was nuts. Yet this is what many Catholics do in the Philippines. Does this mean all Catholics do this?


If we studied each other's faiths seriously, we would realise we have more in common than we think. Although I believe Judaism and Islam have more in common that Islam and Christianity. That might explain why the reasons cited by many allegedly conservative Christians to object to a Muslim presence in the West are almost identical to the objections their ancestors had to a Jewish presence.


I'll have to read the questions you have linked to carefully and then respond. However, you might some answers to your questions here and here.

Regards
Irfan

COMMENT: Tibetan terrorists? Don't hold your breath ...

On pp2-3 of the Weekend Financial Review on August 9-10 2008, there was a story by Andrew Burrell reporting from Beijing headlined "Beijing: the greatest security ever!". Here is an excerpt ...

Look fown from a high-rise building and Beijing's eerily quiet streets are being patrolled by more than 100,000 bristling police and soldiers prepared for terrorists and human rights protestors.

So there is a distinction between the two groups - terrorists and human rights protestors. Is the distinction based on the actions of the two groups? Or on their cause? Or on their ethno-religious background?

The article continues describing the tight security in Beijing.

With such a suffocating security presence, moving around the Olympic city can be a nightmare.

But that still doesn't answer the question - how do we distinguish between human rights protestors and terrorists? Perhaps an example might explain ...

Yet a US group that monitors militant organisations released a new video made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, which is seeking to create an independent state in China's heavily Muslim Xinjiang province. In it a masked, turbaned speaker warned Muslims to keep children away from the Games "or any place Chinese are".

A US group? Which US group? Why not name the group? Why can't we know whether this is a proper monitoring group or just another sectarian or evangelical front? And what is the difference between wishing to establish a separate state in Xinjiang and desiring the same in, say, Tibet?

As always, you can get away with assuming that all terrorists are Muslim and vice versa. This kind of imbecilic simplistic thinking manages to seep into even the reporting of sensible papers like the Fin Review. The people of Xinjiang might have their villages bulldozed, their women raped and their children murdered by the Chinese military machine. But when these people campaign for independence, it is always presumed they are terrorists. Why? It isn't hard to guess.

More thoughts on this media hypocrisy can be found here.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT/VIDEO: On faith and dishonesty ...

I watched this video on the Dutch-Somali neo-Conservative activist Ayaan Hirsi Magaan/Ali. The video provides a thought-provoking discussion on the background to her memoir Infidel. The main issue of the review is whether Hirsi Magaan/Ali should be the subject of negative judgments because she was not truthful to Dutch immigration authorities.

I can't help but wonder whether Hirsi Magaan/Ali would agree with the reviewer's assessment if he were talking about another asylum seeker. Hirsi Magaan/Ali's term in the Dutch Parliament was characterised by what could only be described as extreme disdain for asylum seekers. She supported the expulsion of a Bosnian asylum seeker who had been less than truthful in her application.

But there's more to this story than meets the eye. There are many more incredible stories of Muslim women who faced horrific cultural experiences and who overcame amazing odds to secure freedom. However, these women chose not to attack their religious beliefs or the religious beliefs of others. However, their books haven't been promoted so heavily by rightwing thinktanks with religious scores to settle.

Hirsi Magaan/Ali's lies about her migration status may be forgiveable. But when she lies about the beliefs of 1.3 billion Muslims, pretending that her experience is necessarily reflective of the experiences of others, and when she uses those lies to incite hatred against ordinary people with some link to Islam, her lies become unforgiveable.

People should ask themselves this simple question: If Hirsi Ali/Magaan had chosen to expose the evils of the cultural practices she grew up in WITHOUT inciting virulent hatred against other Muslims, would she have been taken so seriously?

We don't see far-Right thinktanks promoting Shirin Ebadi or Irene Khan or Mukhtar Mai. We don't even see them promoting Waris Dirie, a Somali woman with a similar story. I certainly won't be holding my breath waiting for the Centre for Independent Studies inviting Shirin Ebadi or Waris Dirie to speak about Islam or the enlightenment or women's rights.

Why is this so? Think about it.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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COMMENT: Jewish union leader negotiates religious holiday for American Muslim workers ...

The New York Times reports that a poultry plant in the American state of Tennessee has decided to award Muslim workers a paid holiday for its 1,200-strong workforce, a large proportion of whom are of Somali Muslim background.

Unfortunately, the move has been met with prejudice by some ...

“You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and prayer room?” one person wrote the union. “A union in the U.S.A., a country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you forgotten 9/11?”

Another wrote: “You had no right to drop Labor Day. Muslim employees must integrate Labor Day into THEIR lives if they are going to live in America.”

The move to allow Muslim workers to take Eid as a holiday instead of Labor Day was negotiated by Stuart Applebaum, who also serves as President of the Jewish Labor Committee. It only applies in one of Tyson's many hundreds of factories.

The usual array of far-Right fruitloops, including chronic Muslim-hater Robert Spencer, have condemned the move. Read this paragraph and wonder ...

The problem is that the accommodation of Islamic holidays and practices abets, however unwittingly, an avoudly supremacist agenda that is directed toward supplanting American laws and mores and imposing Islamic law here.

Using this logic, any legal accommodation to American Muslims must be opposed. Next, Spencer will be calling upon planning authorities not to grant Muslim groups with permits to build mosques. But more than that, Spencer is actually accusing the President of the Jewish Labor Committee of being a conduit for the imposition of Islamic law in America. Applebaum should get legal advice about commencing defamation proceedings against Spencer.

You can read echoes of Spencer's imbecilic rants in the comments section to this article. You can read more such comments here. Adolf Hitler will be smiling in his grave.

One so-called Christian questions whether Tyson's Foods can still call itself an American country. Don Swarthout , President of Christians Reviving America's Values (Crave), provided this hysterical response ...

What makes this particularly upsetting is that Tyson is replacing a secular holiday with an Islamic Religious Holiday. If we wanted to replace a secular holiday with a Christian holiday the company or the courts would not allow us to do such a thing.

That may be true, except that Christmas day is already a public holiday! The last time I checked, American Jews weren't lining up to celebrate Christmas day.

After all this hysteria, the company issued this press release. The press release sets out the background behind the decision ...

This change came about as a result of union demands brought to the negotiating table, and was agreed upon by Tyson in an effort to reach a contractual agreement with the union. The contract that calls for this change was unanimously recommended by the 12-person union bargaining committee, which included three Somali employees. The contract was then overwhelmingly agreed to by 80 percent of the rank and file membership of the union at the Shelbyville plant.

Imagine that. Four out of five union members supported this proposal. Democracy in action. But don't expect cyber-fascists like Spencer and Schlussel to have any respect for democracy.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

EVENT: Islamic Awareness Week across the Tasman ...

While the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has just about completed yet another round of expensive litigation, across the Tasman New Zealand's peak Muslim body is spending its money on organising a nationwide Islamic Awareness Week. The theme of the IAW 2008 is "Strong Families - Better Society", hardly the sort of theme which far-Right allegedly conservative fruitloops (such as the nutters that produce Investigate (or should that be Investi-hate?) magazine) could complain about.

Among the events being held are a women's fashion parade and a number of dinners for students and staff hosted by various Muslim Students Associations (MSA's). A number of prominent New Zealanders will also be awarded for their contributions to relations between Muslims and the broader community. For some reason, nobody thought of providing an award to someone in the NZ media.

And in case you wondered who were the first recorded Muslims in New Zealand, read this ...

The first identifiable Muslims resident in New Zealand are 15 Chinese gold diggers working in the South Island, recorded in the government census of April 1874. Little is known of them and it is assumed they either moved on to Australia or returned to China.

The Muslim Heritage part of the website includes biographies of prominent Muslims, among them Mazhar Krasniqi, a Kiwi of Albanian origin who (if I am not mistaken) has a very prominent son-in-law.

Well done, dear Kiwistanis!

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

VIDEO: Tribute to an Indian sufi master

The following video is a tribute to the great Arab scholar Muin ad-Din Chishti, who is believed to have travelled from Baghdad to India after seeing the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) in a dream. The Prophet is said to have instructed Shaykh Muin ad-Din to take the message of Islam to a place in the wilderness called Ajmer. The Shaykh established a centre there, where he focussed on alleviating the near-chronic poverty of that area. He and his disciples set up a kitchen where vegetarian food was served (out of respect for Hindu sensitivities).

Because of his devotion to the poor, the Shaykh was given the title of Gharib Nawaz (literally "succour to the poor"). His grave at Ajmer has become a place of pilgrimage for people of all faiths. Gharib Nawaz is loved by Indians of all faiths, and his Urs (death anniversary) is attended by millions.

The music in this clip was produced by Allah Rakha Rahman, perhaps India's greates living composer. The music is taken from the soundtrack of the movie Jodha Akbar which deals with the marriage of the Mughal King Akbar to the Rajput Princess Jodha.



Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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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


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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


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