Avicenna - The Stanford Journal on Muslim Affairs 3.1

winter 2013 vol 3 no 1

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THE STANFORD JOURNALthe ON MUSLIM AFFAIRS stanford journal on muslim affairs 1

avicenna THE STANFORD JOURNAL ON MUSLIM AFFAIRS

WINTER 2013 VOL 3 NO 1

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Irteza Binte-Farid ’13 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Sahar Khan ’13 Hana Al-Henaid ’14 Ayesha Rasheed ’14 Jessica Ward ’13 Afia Khan ’16 DESIGNER Justin Calles ’13

Avicenna—The Stanford Journal on Muslim Affairs would like to thank the ASSU Publications Board for their support.

All images in this journal are in the public domain with Creative Commons copyright licenses unless otherwise noted.

More information about these licences can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.

Front cover image by Ravi Patel ’13 in Kashmir Back cover image of Bosphorus waterfront in Istanbul by Samra Adeni ’14

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CONTENTS Editorial Note IRTEZA BINTE-FARID

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Living Under Drones Interview with OMAR SHAKIR

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Kramats in Cape Town: Telling Stories of Slavery, Defiance, and Identity IRTEZA BINTE-FARID The Vale of Kashmir Photos by RAVI PATEL

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Unveiling the Dynamics of Abuse: Building Strategies for Equality JOSIANE MENGUE

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History and Hüzün: Remembering Istanbul Photos by SAMRA ADENI

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Love: What’s Islam Got to Do with It? ARIN MANGO

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Editorial Note “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Thus reflects Mark Twain in his book Innocents Abroad, published in 1869. Recounting his travels aboard a retired Civil War ship, the USS Quaker City, which is on its way to the ‘Holy Land,’ Twain ponders the conflict between history and modernity, and the petty trivialization and profiteering that occurs when historical stories are exploited for profit.

Yet, despite the banal, repetitive travel descriptions he endures, Twain also remains humbled by the fresh experiences he encounters, and finds inspiration in his travels to write his first book.

Like Twain, we, as students, must also learn to distinguish between artificial forms of travel and true intellectual exploration. We can choose to accept traditionally crafted notions of history and power, or we can attempt to fashion a new worldview for ourselves that has emerged only after great introspection, diligent scholarship, and exposure to the way that the real world operates.

Faced with a complex array of world problems that we are forced to intellectually grapple with during our time as Stanford students, we cannot remain blind to the idea that conflict is a constant factor that will affect the way in which we construct our world. However, instead of being disillusioned by the inevitability of conflict, we can resolve to learn more about the multiple perspectives. It will take time to distill for ourselves which perspective truly resonates with us, but resolving to become active scholars about problems that we care about is the only way to overcome disillusionment, apathy, and ignorance about important issues of social justice.

Scholarship, however, does not and should not, simply originate from within the classroom. Exploring the world, traveling, meeting new people, and truly being willing to expose oneself to new ideas may be just as intellectually meaningful and may be a frightening, yet strangely exhilarating experience.

In this issue of Avicenna, we have attempted to exhibit the incredible growth that purposeful travel can produce. Samra Adeni speaks of her personal journey through Istanbul, highlighting how a shared conversation can overcome cultural barriers, while Ravi Patel uses photographs as a way to grapple with the issues of poverty and exhaustion that confront the people of Kashmir, who are caught in a web of geopolitical power plays. I, myself, tried to examine how Islam in Cape Town allows individuals to confront issues of imprisonment and slavery by creating resilient, faith-based communities. These articles stemmed from our personal travels, during which each of our prior experiences became the groundwork on which new stimuli were incorporated into, sometimes altering our pre-established schematic framework.

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Travel and exploration, however, does not need to be spatially correlated – one does not have to travel to exotic places to find oneself. Deepening one’s knowledge can be just as valid a form of exploration; and this form of engaged, scholarly exploration, in fact, prompted Josiane Mengue, Arin Mango, and Omar Shakir to address some very difficult topics. Whether it is having the courage to address issues of domestic violence in Islam and suggesting solutions (Mengue), complicating the established notion of romantic love in Islam (Mango), or conducting interviews with Pakistani civilians about the socially and psychologically devastating effects of drone strikes (Shakir), these articles complicate accepted schemas of social actions and phenomena.

Our actions have profound repercussions beyond our limited area of impact, and only by exposing ourselves to new ideas can we break out of constrained models of thoughts and actions. We hope that the thought-provoking articles and photo essays presented in this issue help you reevaluate your accepted understandings and develop ideas that extend beyond unquestioned boundaries.

Yours sincerely, Irteza Binte-Farid ’13 Editor-in-Chief

Signal Hill in Cape Town, South Africa, with the Muslim kramat in the foreground (photo by Flickr user warrenski)

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Living Under Drones: Interview with Researcher Omar Shakir Interview with Omar Shakir ’07, J.D. ’13 Conducted by Hana Al-Henaid ’14

After nine months of research, including more than 130 interviews with victims, witnesses and experts, the September 2012 release of the academic study Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan presented evidence of the damaging and counterproductive effects of current US drone strike policies in Northwest Pakistan. Stanford Law Student Omar Shakir 3L conducted fieldwork in Pakistan and was one of the student researchers on the report. Avicenna Associate Editor, Hana Al-Henaid, interviewed Shakir about the report’s findings, and discussed some of the greater implications this report has for US legal and strategic considerations. Living Under Drones was published through the efforts of members of Stanford Law Schools Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic, under the supervision of Professor James Cavallaro and Clinical Lecturer Stephan Sonnenberg.

AVICENNA: Why was the Clinic initially interested in researching the United States’ use of drones in Pakistan? What did you believe could be contributed to the debate?

SHAKIR: As a clinic, we are a team of faculty

and students who work on human rights issues across the world. As part of the work we do, we think it’s important to focus on instances that involve the United States. At the time, the prevailing discourse about the United States use of drones was that these were surgical weapons that eliminated only terrorists, without damage to civilian populations. But that narrative wasn’t necessarily based on much evidence. However, despite the lack of evidence, it wasn’t being challenged. We felt it was important to in6

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vestigate what the consequences of drones were based on accounts on the ground. We believed our contribution might be to listen to some victims of drone strikes and survivors and be able to basically share their narratives of what took place when the drone struck. We also wanted to assess legal conclusions.

Although those two elements were certainly part of our study, what ended up being the main focus of the report was what we kept hearing from interviewee after interviewee: the daily reality of what it’s like to live under drones. To our surprise, interviewees told us that drones in some parts of North Waziristan, the area of Pakistan in which the campaign has been focused, fly overhead 24 hours a day and in some areas there are four or five drones at a time. People told us how terrifying it is to always have these drones overhead. They told us about the harrowing everyday experience of leaving home — going to school, going to work — and not knowing when it will strike, if it will strike you, if it will hit family members, or if there will be other effects in your community.

We were able to hear about some of the ways in which that fear pervaded many aspects of everyday life. For example, parents told us about how they had to withdraw their children from school. They were ashamed to tell us that because schools have been targeted by drone strikes, and they were afraid that their children’s schools would be targeted too. Others told us about how they

were reluctant to go to funerals because funerals have also been a common target of drone strikes. And I should mention that we spoke with more than 130 people, including 69 direct victims of drone strikes, meaning the individual either survived a strike, lost a direct relative in a strike, or lived in a community in which drones fly overhead.

Some told us, for example, about being injured in a strike and how nobody came to rescue them immediately afterwards because people in the community had known a common practice of US drones was to do secondary strikes. Others told us about how they were afraid to congregate in groups; tribal leaders told us how their traditional dispute resolution body, the tribal jerga, wasn’t meeting as frequently because a prominent jerga was struck in March 2011, which we document in our report. Of course we also talked to doctors and mental health professionals about the different health impacts, especially mental health impacts, of drone surveillance. And we report the breakdown of community trust and the effect on economic livelihood for the region. That actually ended up being one of the largest focuses of the report.

In addition, we catalogued the narratives of three strikes in which civilians were killed.

For these three instances, we talked to multiple survivors, and we supplemented that with a lot of secondary research looking at legal documents. We looked at thousands of pages of news reporting, and we sifted through physical evidence. We also did a lot of quantitative research on the different sources of information about drone casualties. Based on that, we put forward some conclusions about the number of civilians that have been killed in drone strikes and the way the debate in the United States may or may not be representing the reality on the ground. We also considered the legal and strategic implications of drone surveil-

lance and the drone campaign. We raised many questions and doubts about the legality of many aspects of the drone campaign under international humanitarian law, under international human rights law, and under US domestic law. And finally regardless of the civilian consequences or the legality the drone campaign, we looked at whether or not the drone campaign actually is effective in making the United States and its allies safer.

AVICENNA: Can you go into more detail about the narratives that were highlighted?

We included three narratives in our report. One of them was a story of the first drone strike under the Obama Administration in January 2009, three days into his presidency. This drone strike injured a 14-year-old kid, and we spoke with that individual. We spoke to another individual who was also in his teens at the time and lost relatives in that strike but who wasn’t personally there.

SHAKIR:

Another one of the strikes we focused on was from March 2011 that struck a gathering of tribal elders and killed many members of one community. It was an economic dispute over a mine that affected the whole community, not just those particular families. And before the gathering, the Pakistani authorities had been notified of the meeting.

The third strike was from June 2011 that took out a car full of people who were coming home to their village from the market.

There were no survivors of that strike, but we were able to talk to quite a few direct relatives of those who were killed. And that’s representative of many typical strikes: it’s people in the car coming back at the end of the day who get struck and killed. They’re men — in that case they were all men — so it’s easy to write them off as combatants because according to a New York Times article the stanford journal on muslim affairs

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based on leaks from the Administration, the Administration’s calculus regards all military aged men to be combatants.

AVICENNA: How did your team choose which narratives to include in the report?

Shakir: It was a very difficult deciding which narratives to focus on. It’s part of the difficulties of doing fieldwork in Pakistan.

I should mention that we were not able to go to the federally administered tribal areas, which is the area in which drones actually are, because the Pakistani military has sealed this area off. Pakistanis who aren’t from that area can’t even go there, let alone foreigners.

However, we were able to arrange for people who live there to come meet us in other parts of Pakistan, like Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, and other areas. We tried to focus on strikes for which we had spoken with a wide range of people and for which we had multiple accounts. We didn’t want to write an account based on a single narrative, and we wanted to choose ones in which we had multiple firsthand accounts.

At the same time, we looked at secondary evidence to see whether or not we could actually find support for what people were telling us because we were not going to rely strictly on the eyewitness testimony. I will give one example of a strike we did not end up including in the report: an incident was reported in which 15 different people told us about a particular drone strike that took place. But because we could not verify their accounts with any secondary information or physical evidence, we actually ended up not even counting that as a drone strike in the report. So in our whole tabulations and identification of witnesses, we didn’t count this particular event as a drone strike because we weren’t comfortable enough — even though many aspects of their accounts were similar, we couldn’t corroborate that with secondary evidence. For these three 8

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strikes, civilians were injured and killed.

But it was also a matter of having enough accounts and enough secondary evidence to be able to definitively tell a story about what took place on that day.

AVICENNA: What was the most unexpected or controversial findings of the report?

One of the more startling revelations that have come out about the nature of the drone campaign has been the practice of secondary strikes, and there is evidence that suggests this practice continues.

This was something we documented but something that others have documented as well. Secondary strikes, or double-tap, involves striking one particular area multiple times, sometimes minutes later, sometimes more than that. We heard different things on the ground. We heard from one individual who is part of a humanitarian organization. His organization now has a policy of not sending rescuers to the site of the drone strike up to six hours after the strike from fear of getting caught up in a secondary strike.

SHAKIR:

AVICENNA: What is the legality of secondary strikes?

The authority on this, Christof Heyns, who is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said that if secondary strikes are actually happening, it’s a war crime. However, the problem with international law in general is that there are limited venues for these legal disputes to be raised.

This is especially because the US court system has effectively been closed off and made itself immune to legal prosecutions involving drones or most post-9/11 type abuses associated with the “War on Terror.”

SHAKIR:

AVICENNA: According to the people you interviewed, what is the biggest concern of the people who live in this region of Pakistan?

The accounts of the everyday fear people face was pervasive. People talked about even the most routine activities causing tremendous anxiety and fear. People talked about the sound of drones — some say like a mosquito — you hear them overhead. That it’s not just a noise, it’s something overhead that could strike anytime. A lot of the discussion and the press has been about personality strikes which target high-level leaders of armed non-state groups.

SHAKIR:

Increasingly, however, the Obama Administration, according to many different accounts, has been using what is called signature strakes, which are strikes that target based on profiles of behavior. On the ground, that’s the most scary thing for the people because it’s not only that they could kill this particular high-level leader, (so you want to stay away from that guy), or that strike could miss and kill people around them. The scary part is that in spite of all that, just your behavior, without anything else, could make you a victim of a strike.

So then you start thinking, “How is that person acting? Maybe they were struck because it was ten guys in a room, so we don’t want to have ten guys in a room. So we’re not going to go to that dinner we were invited to. Or we’re not going to send our kids to school because they’re young military-aged men who meet…that’s what a school is. Or we’re not going to go work in the factory.”

And we document many cases of economic workplaces being struck, so you can imagine the crippling effects on many aspects of everyday life for people who live under these circumstances.

AVICENNA: What do you think of the efficacy of the drone campaign?

Shakir: Under international law, or even in terms of basic strategic calculations, if there is an individual who is about to fire a nuclear weapon on a major US city and

is in that moment literally pushing the button to detonate the bomb, you would have a right under international law to kill that person. But there are reasons to question whether or not that is actually what’s happening here. Let me give you a few reasons to doubt the efficacy of the drone program: The first is intelligence. There have been many well-documented instances of faulty intelligence, including in Afghanistan, where a drone has killed a US soldier.

Here’s a good way to think about it: over 90% of those people who were detained in Guantánamo Bay were never found to be a member of Al Qaeda and over 80% were never charged in a court of law. We are using worse intelligence to kill people than we used to detain people.

Secondly according to a White House study, only 2% of those who were killed are actually members of armed non-state groups on the ground. What that means is 98% of people are either low-level fighters or civilians. So how effective is a campaign where only 2% of those killed are high-level targets within groups? Even if it’s only 2% — and again most studies say about 50 or so high-level leaders have been killed — we know from much of the research that has been done on Al Qaeda that it’s not a very vertical group. Decade after decade, it has been proven that a decapitation strategy is not the most effective way of dealing with a guerrilla war organization.

More than that, many of these individuals who are part of these groups have simply moved out of the tribal areas that the drone campaign focuses on. Where was Osama bin Laden? He wasn’t in the tribal areas — he was in Abadabad, a major city in Pakistan. Where was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? He was in Rawalpindi. Where is Mullah Omar? He is supposed to be in Karachi. They are simply moving out of arthe stanford journal on muslim affairs

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eas where drones are because drones aren’t everywhere.

In addition to all that, there is significant evidence that drones are actually facilitating recruitment to armed non-state groups.

We have many quotes of people and interviews who basically told us, “Look we don’t know much about the United States. Before we were ambivalent, but now we hate the United States and want to take revenge.” According to a PEW study, 75% of Pakistanis consider the United States to be an enemy, even though the United States gives a significant amount of foreign aid to Pakistan.

Even the New York Times has written that drones have replaced Guantánamo as the major recruiting tool for militants.

We also know that drones undermine the credibility of the United States. In most of the rest of the world, people find drones to be very unpopular. In 17 of 20 countries that were surveyed, significant majorities of the population believe that drones are illegal and counterproductive.

We know that 76 countries currently have unmanned vehicle technologies. It was announced last week or two weeks ago that China was thinking about using an armed drone to kill a person who is suspected of being involved in the murder of 13 Chinese people in Burma. So imagine a world in which every country uses armed drones to kill those it considers to be enemies to it.

Even if you’re comfortable with this President using drones, the question to think about is this: whether you would be comfortable with the next US President or the leader of a foreign country (and take whatever foreign country you find the least savory) and imagine them having drones.

Furthermore, drones undermine our cooperation with many foreign governments.

Take one example: Pakistan is one of three 10 avicenna

countries in the world that the WHO has identified as having an endemic polio problem. When polio first became an issue, many reactionary elements in Pakistani society said it was a Western conspiracy and advised people not to get a polio vaccine. But people fought hard, and in the last several years, significant progress had been made to combat polio in Pakistan. However, one of the ways in which the CIA got information about bin Laden is that they set up a bogus hepatitis B vaccination station where they gathered the information that eventually killed bin Laden. When this announcement came out, many armed non-state groups in Northwest Pakistan and many community organizations said that they no longer wanted to administer the polio vaccine until this kind of militarized approach to the War on Terror stops.

Though the WHO declared in September 2012 that the world is at a critical juncture in fighting polio, because of the tactics described, now they are losing a lot of ground in Pakistan.

Finally the reasons to question the implications hinge on the rule of law. I mentioned earlier that John Brennan, who was nominated to be head of the CIA, said that there are no known instances of civilian casualties from drone strikes. We know from great reporting that was done by Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and Daniel Klaidman of Newsweek that by day three of the Obama Administration, the President himself knew that a drone had struck and killed civilians. What kind of world are we entering if US government officials, without any sort of check or any sort of limitation, can not only kill people anywhere in the world, at any time, without any external review, but can also then give misleading information about it and never be called into question?

Is that a world we want to live in?

This is how extreme it’s gotten: Senator Ron

Paul has said in the last couple days that he will filibuster John Brennan’s nomination until Brennan can officially say that the US legal argument for drones does not include the right to kill United States citizens in the United States. That’s how extreme the debate has become. Even Senators are asking, “Can you kill US citizens in the US with drones?” and no answers are coming from the Administration.

This is not to say they actually want to do this. There have only been a handful of Americans that have been killed, but the point is that the power there is enormous.

As Glenn Greenwald has written, if you believe that the US president should have this power, what power do you think he should not have? The question is the nature of power, and executive power, as the president claims it, tends to stay for the future Administration. The question for people to think about is this: even if you trust this president, and you believe he is using drones legally and following the rules of war, would you trust a future president and give him the same unchecked power?

And would you trust other countries with the same power?

Essentially, we could be entering a world just like we thought when we first used nuclear weapons in World War II. Without Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there may not have been a consideration of what a world with multiple countries having nuclear weapons would look like. We’re doing the same thing now. The United States and Israel are the only countries that we know of that have used armed drones to kill people.

Technologically going from drones that are used as surveillance to ones that are armed is not a significant jump. Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution writes about it being similar to the jump between having an airplane and having a weaponized airplane, which didn’t take very long technologically.

It’s not a significant jump.

AVICENNA: Has public discourse about the use of drones changed since the report came out?

The narratives of those people living under drones hasn’t been adequately factored into the public discourse about drones and targeted killings. A lot of the debate was how surgical are strikes, do they kill only militants (devoid of the meaning of militant under international law) or do they kill civilians? It was a strict numbers game: if we kill the right number of folks then it has to be legal. Which is somewhat akin to the following analogy: imagine 80% of people in US prisons have not been tortured. So that might sound like a great statistic, but of course that shouldn’t be the take away. The take away is that a lot of people are being tortured, and having any torture happening is terrible.

SHAKIR:

So we wanted to change the debate surrounding the calculation of those percentages. We felt one valuable way of doing that is actually to incorporate into the debate the narratives of what it’s like to live under drones. We wanted to find out about drone surveillance and the effects drone surveillance has on people.

A lot of the thrust of our reports came from just drones flying overhead, which is being done in more than a handful of countries. That’s part of what we felt needed to be incorporated into the discussion, and this is what people came to tell us.

Even for those who survived strikes or lost family members, what seemed to be most on their consciousness was, “I’m here, and I’m going to go back tomorrow and still have drones overhead.”

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The full report, Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan can be read at livingunderdrones.org. the stanford journal on muslim affairs

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Kramats in Cape Town: Telling Stories of Slavery, Defiance, and Identity Irteza Binte-Farid B.A. History ’13

In the Cape Town Islamic tradition, a prophecy made 250 years ago predicts that there would be a “circle of Islam” around the Cape. According to local beliefs in the predominantly Muslim Bo Kaap region of Cape Town, that circle is now complete.

Comprising the shrines of various Muslim leaders who were brought as slaves to the Cape in the later half of the 17th century and 18th century, these approximately 23 shrines, known as kramats, mark holy sites of pilgrimage for Muslims from both Cape Town and around the world. Whether it’s the kramat in Klein Constantia, in forests of Constantia, or in Tuan Baru, Cape Town, for South African Muslims, each of these twenty-three kramats honor the courage of these auliyahs, ‘friends of Allah’ and stand as a testament to their rich contribution to the Islamic identity of South Africa.1 Not surprisingly, much of this Islamic identity is intertwined with the history of slavery in the Cape. Although West and East Africa had a flourishing slave trade, Southern Africa remained largely untouched until 1652, when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established their base in Cape Town under the leadership of Jan van Riebeeck, who later became the first governor of Cape Town. Van Riebeeck came to the Cape to establish a halfway

supply station for trading vessels in the Europe-East Indies route. In order to produce enough food to supply the ships that stopped to refuel at Cape Town, the VOC distributed land to Dutch settlers, who were under the obligation to grow food.

These Dutch settlers or ‘free burgers,’ however, demanded cheap labour in return for supplying food, and thus the VOC began to import the first slaves from the East Indies to the Cape Colony. 2 Many of the first slaves were, in fact, political prisoners who were exiled from the East Indies to Cape Town for defying Dutch rule in their native lands. One such prominent leader from the East Indies who played a major role in establishing Islam in South Africa was Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe Shah, the last of the Malaccan Sultans of Indonesia. Sheikh Shah was regarded by the Dutch as an “Orange Cayen,” a title which means a ‘man of power and influence; and viewed as particularly dangerous to the interest of the Company.’ Therefore, in 1667, after a fierce battle, when the Soeroersang region in Malacca fell to the Dutch, the Sultan, Sheikh Shah, and his two religious advisors were captured. Since their execution would have made them a martyr to their people, Sheikh Shah and his advisers were banished to the Cape and became the first political exiles there.3 Worden, N., Van Heyningen, E., & BickfordSmith,V. Cape Town: The Making of a City. David Philip Publishers. Cape Town. 1998.

3 No Author. “Community Histories of Cape Town.” South African History Online. South African 2

No Author. “Cape Mazaar Society.” Kramats of the Western Cape. Cape Mazaar Society, 01 Nov 2004. Web. 18 Sep 2012. <http://www. capemazaarsociety.com/index.html>.

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Kramat at Robben Island, Cape Town, South Africa (photo by Flickr user meghamama)

Though a prisoner, the Sheikh befriended the slave population in Constantia and taught them Islam, becoming one of the first leader to bring Islam to South Africa.

In honor of his memory, his kramat is the gateway to Klein Constantia, an estate in Constantia region of Cape Town, while the kramats of Sheikh Abdul Mutalib and Sayed Mahmud, the Sultan’s religious advisers, also remain a symbol of the early struggles of the Islamic community in the Cape.

Other Islamic leaders also emerged closer to Cape Town, such as Imam Abdulla Kadi Abdus Salaam, better known as ‘Tuan Guru’ (which means Master Teacher). The son of a qadi (Islamic religious scholar), Tuan Guru was born in Indonesia in 1712 and was a Prince of the Muslim Sultanate of Tidore of the Tinnate Islands. He was captured by the Dutch in 1780 for allegedly working in alliance with the English to overthrown Dutch rule and exiled as a prisoner to Robben History Online, 18 Sept 2012. Web. 18 Sep 2012. <http://www.sahistory.org.za/people-south-africa/ cape-malay>.

Island, a place infamous for being the prison of President Nelson Mandela for 18 years during Apartheid.4 Though imprisoned for years as one of the first prisoners of Robben Island, Tuan Guru used his extensive knowledge of Islam to write a book on Islamic law, which formed the basis for Islamic teaching and philosophy of Cape Islam until the midto-late nineteenth century. Tuan Guru also transcribed the Quran from memory, and when copies of the Quran were later brought to the Cape, very few mistakes were found in the original version that Tuan Guru had transcribed.5 A great scholar and teacher, Tuan Guru, after his release in 1792, established the first madrasa (Islamic school) in the history of South Africa. This madrasa proved No Author. “1700–1799.” South African History Online. South African History Online, 18 Sept 2012. Web. 18 Sep 2012. <http://www.sahistory. org.za/archive/1700-1799>.

5 Mahida, Ibrahim Mahomed. History of Muslims in South Africa: A Chronology. Durban, South Africa: Arabic Study Circle, 1993. Print.

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extremely popular among the slaves due to the Islamic emphasis for Muslims to treat their slaves well. Islam also gained great popularity amongst the free black community because the tradition of literacy in Islam allowed educated slaves to gain better positions within their masters’ households.6 In addition, the madrasa became the center of the emerging Islamic community in Cape Town. It was the place where the language of Arabic-Afrikaans emerged, establishing Islam as a part of the local culture of Cape Town, and the madrasa became attached to the first mosque of Cape Town, the Auwal Mosque on Dorp Street. To this day, the Auwal Mosque and Tuan Guru’s kramat, erected in his honor in Tuan Baru, continue to be sacred sites, standing testament to the early history of Islam in South Africa.

Tuan Guru’s students also continued to shape the practice of Islam in the Cape.

Achmat van Bengalen [Ahmad of Bengal] was sent to the Cape from Chinsura, one of the upper provinces of Bengal, during the 1780s. Though a slave, after Tuan Guru’s release from prison in 1793, van Bengalen became his trusted friend and student, and Tuan Guru appointed van Bengalen as his spiritual successor and assistant imam of the Auwal Mosque.7 Under Achmat van Bengalen’s leadership, the madrasa flourished with 491 students in 1825. Van Bengalen, however, served not only as a teacher but also as an advocate for social justice, often providing evidence to the Colebrooke and Bigge Commission that served to investigate the conditions and treatment of Worden, Nigel. “The Changing Politics of Slave Heritage in the Western Cape, South Africa.” Journal of African History. 50.1 (2009): 23-40. Web. 18 Sep. 2012.

7 Ibid. 30.

people of color in the Cape Colony. Van Bengalen further secured land from the authorities to establish a burial site for Muslims, which he demanded be registered in the name of the Muslims of Cape Town. Always fighting for the downtrodden, van Bengalen also enforced strict Islamic rules with regard to slaves, stating that “No Mahometan [i.e. Muslim] can or ought to sell a Mahometan as a slave. If he buys a slave from a Christian and that slave becomes a Mahometan, he is entitled to sit down as an equal in the family, and cannot be sold afterwards. He is allowed to earn the means of redeeming his freedom if he chooses, or remain connected with the family of the original owner.”8 By standing up for the vulnerable people of his community, Achmat van Bengalen continues to be honored in the Islamic history of Cape Town.

These Auliyahs, or friends of Allah as they are known in local culture, and countless other Muslim leaders have shaped the Islamic identity of South Africa. Though originating from different places, such as Indonesia, Bengal, and even South Africa itself, these leaders helped create a cohesive and culturally vibrant Islam unique to South Africa. For their contributions and their ability to retain their Islamic identities, despite enslavement by the Dutch authorities, these individuals have continued to serve as inspirations during periods of slavery, apartheid, and times of turbulence in South African history. Their kramats remain as symbols of resistance to political powers and serve as markers of religious identity, defiance, and pride in a history proudly preserved.

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Ibid. 35.

The Vale of Kashmir Text and photos by Ravi Patel B.S. Biology ’13

Located between the Himalayan and Pir Panjal Mountain ranges, the Kashmir Valley has served for centuries as the gateway to the Indian Subcontinent. The source of South Asia’s major rivers lies in the glacial peaks of the mountain ranges surrounding the Kashmir Valley. As a result of these geographic features, Kashmir is a verdant valley layered with lush vegetation. The natural beauty of Kashmir was so pronounced that Mughal Emperor Jahangir famously claimed “Gar firdaus, ruhe zamin ast, hamin asto, hamin asto, hamin asto.” (If there is ever a heaven on earth, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here.)

Despite the region’s physical beauty, in recent times Kashmir has been far from being heaven on earth. As part of giving British India independence in 1947, the former colony was divided into two nations, India and Pakistan, so that there would be a Muslim majority homeland for the subcontinent’s Muslims. British India was divided on the principle that Muslim majority regions would accede to new nation of Pakistan.

At the time of independence, the Hindu Maharaja, Hari Singh, ruled the Muslim majority region of Kashmir, and he sought to preserve the independence of his kingdom by not acceding to either Pakistan or India. However, the Pakistanis believed that the region should become part of Pakistan. As a result, Pakistani militarybacked tribesmen launched an invasion of

Kashmir, prompting Hari Singh to accede his kingdom to Hindu majority India. Ultimately, some parts of Kashmir became part of the Pakistani province of Azad Kashmir, while the other parts of Kashmir became part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The dispute over Kashmir has been at the heart of the four wars that India and Pakistan have fought since independence.

In addition to fighting wars over Kashmir, the region itself has played host to a bloody insurgency that began in 1989.

Pakistan based militant groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been accused by India of supporting and intensifying this insurgency. The insurgency in Kashmir has devastated the region’s economy, which is focused on tourism. Most importantly, the insurgency has wreaked havoc on the lives of the people living in Kashmir.

After finishing up a research project in Gujarat, I arrived back at New Delhi’s International airport with a few days before my flight back to the United States. I walked up and bought a ticket up to Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir. Having traveled extensively in India and Pakistan, my intentions with this spontaneous trip to Kashmir was to understand the region that had brought India and Pakistan to fight four wars since 1947. Furthermore, I wanted interact with the Kashmiris to see how they felt about the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. the stanford journal on muslim affairs

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The photographs from Kashmir reveal the physical beauty of the region. In addition to the beauty, I was able to experience the hospitality of the region and its war-weary people. Almost every Kashmiri I met described the poverty that they experienced during the height of the insurgency in the 1990s. However, these people were more interested in moving away from conflict and insurgency toward better times. To them, it did not matter if their homeland was part of Pakistan or India. The people

Photo by Ravi Patel â&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

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simply want peace so that they could move away from the poverty that has plagued them since the start of the insurgency. The photographs of Kashmir reveal that there is more to the region than just bloodshed and conflict. The potential of the region can only be unleashed if India and Pakistan move toward improved relations.

Only through lasting peace can these countries even begin to address the poverty that their citizens, including those living in Kashmir, face.

Photo by Ravi Patel â&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

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Photo by Ravi Patel â&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

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Unveiling the Dynamics of Abuse: Building Strategies for Equality Josiane Mengue Masters of Public Health, Community Education afrikfranss@yahoo.com

“Who gave you the power to talk about Muslim and Middle Easterners? You are an outsider and therefore, you have no business talking about our problems.”

Those were the words that I could hear so loudly with such dissonance! I won’t stop now, not at this point. I am ready to share an uncensored part of me to the world; I hope you’re ready for this journey.

A few years ago, I abandoned a promising career in law by dropping out of law school in France. It turned out to be the best decision of my life; going to one of the most reputable schools in the country yet lacking passion is insane. Shortly after my coming to the US, I decided to focus my energy on the social work field.

I have been helping homeless and lowincome families on a wide array of issues for 15 years. Among the services provided were assistance with housing, immigration, health care access, education, job readiness, job search, substance abuse, and many more. I worked with many Muslim, Middle Eastern and North African families originally from various parts of the world, including Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, North Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and India.

At the time, I was neither culturally competent nor culturally aware, but I was able to connect with families and single individuals and provide them with guidance, em20 avicenna

pathy, support and referrals. As I became aware of their pain and trauma, I could establish trusting relationships with individuals of different cultural backgrounds. Now, my professional area solely concentrates around domestic violence — specifically intimate partner violence. In my experiences with social work aiding Muslim families, I found several systematic strategies Muslim abusers, males or females, but generally men, use to control their predominantly female partners or wives.

Intimate partner violence can be defined as a way for one person, the abuser, to exert some power and control over another one: the victim. These partners could be husband and wife, dates, fiancés, lifepartners, or people who share some form of intimacy with one another. According to Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA), a non-profit organization in the Bay Area of California, domestic violence is defined as the intentional and repetitive behavior from the abuser to maintain power and control over an intimate partner.1 They are many ways in which abusers, males or female adults, youth or older adults, exert their power and control over their victims. When we think of abuse between two intimate partners, the first term Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse. www.corasupport.org.

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“Fade to Grain” by Flickr user slimmer_jimmer

that usually comes to mind is physical abuse. It is the most visible and eloquent in court, and is the diamond proof of abusive behavior that frequently sends perpetrators to jail. There is also the psychological abuse used precisely by abusers to make the life of their partner a living nightmare.

This latter form of abuse can be even more pervasive and more devastating in the life of the victims. It leaves scars not only on the surface of the survivors’ skin, but imprints its marks on the soul of the survivor.

There are other forms of abuse, such as harassment, sexual, emotional, financial, spiritual, and cybernetic abuses. Here are few tools used by abusers coming from Muslim backgrounds, and how they use their religion to incorrectly justify their mis-actions.2

Alkhateeb, Sharifa. Muslim Power and Control Wheel. Adapted from the Duluth Model Peaceful Families Project. <www.peacefulfamilies.org> 2

The Weapon of Emotional Abuse Emotional abuse, I have found, consists of calling the wife an unfit Muslim mother and making fun of her “inadequate” knowledge of Islam. The victim will often be repeatedly insulted and called crazy.

The problem which arises after hearing this constantly is that the survivor may start believing that she is actually crazy, and that something is really wrong with her. The violent partner may also try to stem the idea that his victim is incapable of directing her own life. Survivors will be forced to remain quiet, docile and to obey to uphold family honor. The abuser will also choose to encourage his wife or partner: to lie to the extended family about visible wounds inflicted by him to the victim; not to tell the truth about his excessive control; or to conceal any shift of mood from the victim to their family, whether this mood expresses sadness, fear, insecurities, or other the stanford journal on muslim affairs

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feelings. Another form of emotional abuse is for the perpetrator to argue that the wife is underperforming in bed. Abusers will tend to compare the victim’s lovemaking to the American female counterparts.

The Tool of Isolation Isolating the victim is another powerful tool used by abusers. Muslim perpetrators may claim that they are the qawwanum, the manager of their partner. This fact is perceived by abuser as giving them the “God-given” right and power to know exactly the entirety of the movements of their partner; monitoring whom she talks to, what she thinks or reads. Muslim abusers may also force their wife to get permission to: use the phone; visit her family members, especially her parents; and go to the stores to buy food for her family. The marriage contract between a Muslim man and woman usually offers women freedom to go wherever she wants. Nevertheless, the manipulator might distort it by refusing to allow her to exercise this right.

The Use of Children Children play an intriguing part of the parent abuser’s manipulative process to create denial and blame in their relationship with their spouse. Children are encouraged to lie about the abuse or to ignore it. Physical abuse is also renamed and called “discipline,” and victims are blamed and accused for causing it. Additionally, the abuser will make sure that sharing an abusive story with others is a sign of the victim’s disrespect of the Islamic responsibility towards their family’s privacy. Last but not least, children are encouraged to insult and dishonor their abused parent, which tends to be their mother.

Children themselves are also manipulated and abused. They are victims of physical 22 avicenna

abuse from their abusive parent to avoid any “Americanization.” The abuser, usually the father, may threaten to get custody of the children through Islamic court. In some extreme cases, children may also be sent overseas by their abusive parent; it is said that they marry them at a young age and/or kidnap them. As children may start to develop and exhibit traumatic symptoms, the abuser may use this excuse to justify further beating.

Male Privilege The male abuser may hide behind the Qur’an to expect full obedience from his wife or partner. Any opinion, feedback, or dreams from his victim could be perceived as westernized values and an un-Islamic way to think. As a Muslim father, the male abuser may use this power to emotionally and physically abuse their children. The wife may also be encouraged to fear her husband and, in complete disregard for the principles of Islam, even bow to him.

Resorting to Economic Abuse Economic abuse is observed when the abuser refuses to allow his partner to go to work, school, or to attend any professional training. If the victim successfully gets a job on her own, the abuser tends to demand that she quit that job. Her paycheck could even be taken away from her, despite the fact that Islam allows wife to keep their earnings. The perpetrator of domestic violence could also hide family income whether the victim works or not.

Coercion, Threat, and Intimidation Female victims of abusive behaviors may experience serious psychological abuse.

Some of them could face the threat of bigamy or polygamy from their husband; the God-given legitimacy to be chastised by

their husband (Quran 4:34); the fear tof being abandoned without any money at their disposal; the threat of spreading rumors of infidelity; or forcing the victim to drop the charges and not to cooperate with the police in order for the abuser to preserve his reputation among extended family members.

Intimidation is a weapon that has proven to be very effective in manipulating victims of domestic violence. In a Muslim family where domestic violence is present, making a dreadful mess in the kitchen several times a day is our first illustration for intimidation. The abuser usually goes beyond the level of tolerance by coercing the Imam to inform their victim that she is the only person to blame when abuse occurs. The victims can also have all her important documents destroyed and her jewelry taken away and sold. The abuser may also play the role of the victim when he apologizes and at the same time stress the victim’s disobedience. The presence of weapons in the house is another form of intimidation. Abusers may also decide to stalk their victims.

Discussion Being a survivor of domestic violence leaves scars for life. Being mistreated or treated like a servant or object destroys any ounce of self-esteem for the victim.

Abuse can also cause depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and many other problems.

Violence is used as an easy fix for abusers.

It is the best tool for them to use because they lack communication skills, respect, honesty, a sense of equality, and other social skills. Hitting, punching, slapping, emotionally abusing the victim, playing mind games or sexually abusing their partner to teach them a lesson seems to be the

logical action in response to the abusers’ definition of “misbehavior.” The illogical double standard is that while it is acceptable for them to hit others, it is unacceptable for that same victim to hit them back.

I believe that it is our life-long mission not to do to others what we wouldn’t want done to us. This rule of reciprocity should not only be a concept in physics but also in our relationships. Violence shuts people down by undermining their human right for respect and dignity. It also creates long lasting trauma, which tends to persist throughout generations to come if there is no intervention conducted for victims and their children.

Non-violence is the perfect solution for abusers. It is important to underline the fact that abusers should refrain from using violence when they don’t know how to solve a conflict in a healthy way. I believe that we should all aspire to become or continue being community peace officers.

Domestic violence is progressive in nature.

It usually gets worse throughout the years.

A victim should never have the false hope that they can change their abuser’s mind, behavior, or attitudes towards them. The only person who can make change happen is the abuser him- or herself, and nobody else. Not even sending an abuser to jail for 10–25 years can even miraculously guarantee that this person will come out of it a truly changed person.

One can fairly wonder if this miracle could ever be achieved in our lifetime. When I was working at the sheriff ’s department in an American county, I realized that our society can send abusers to jail, or we can force them to attend anger management classes and therapy for 52 consecutive weeks. Our good intention is to heal abusers, but it may be against their consent.

However, if this abuser in not willing to the stanford journal on muslim affairs

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change; if he hasn’t taken the personal decision to look at the person in the mirror, seeing the reflection of a person making his partner’s life one of pure misery and a living hell, nothing will change. Victim, family members, friends, society, and other stakeholders could never claim to have changed the life of an abuser. A change comes from within and nowhere else. If abusers welcome change in their life to become a healthy partner, here are a few tips they should have in mind:3 1. Communicate with your partner. Instead of screaming, cursing, threatening ,or actually matching their words with actions, the partners are now able to talk openly to one another, to listen and hear each other and willing to compromise once issues arise.

2. Respect your partner. Instead of intentionally overlooking the partner’s feelings and depriving them of physical safety and integrity, both partners will value one another. Culture, beliefs, and opinions will be valued and they will be able to perceive each other with high esteem.

3. Trust each other. Instead of facing false and unfounded accusations of flirting, cheating and harming the other partner by using verbal and physical abuse, they will mutually trust one another. This trust needs to be earned.

4. Be honest with one another. A shift should occur: instead of avoiding responsibility for the abuse by denying, or minimizing his or her actions, the partner should accept responsibility for these actions. Each person involved in the relationship should subscribe to this verbal agreement to be honest with one another.

Equality Wheel. National Center on Domestic Violence (production and distribution), Domestic Abuse Intervention Center (Development). <www. ncdsv.org> 3

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5. Be equal. Instead of controlling the other partner and being abusive, both partners will make decisions together and each one will mutually be held accountable to the same standards.

6. Enjoy personal space. Instead of micromanaging the partners’ life, such as controlling where she goes and who she talks to, and isolating the partner from everybody, both partners will enjoy spending time alone, apart, and respect the fact that one partner feels the need to get some personal space.

7. Make decisions on sexual activity together. Instead of having only one partner deciding the date, time, location and so forth regarding intimacy and/or using threats and violence as vicious tools during sexual activity, both partners will talk together about what is acceptable or not, and about the consequences it can generate, such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Both partners will decide how to address issues that may involve birth control.

Having power and control over another person seems to provide a short satisfaction to the abuser. Deciding whether there is joy or sadness, peace, or living hell seems to please many abusers who may not have had this sense of control otherwise in their life. One thing that may be true for some abusers is the fact that they were also victims to some extent of some of trauma in the past. This doesn’t justify any of their poor behavior or choices of action. This past experience of abuse should or could have given them the incentive and the opportunity not to repeat and perpetuate sadness around them.

When I was working with pregnant women, there were a few of them who were homeless and who had no place to stay for

the night, no food in their stomach, and no hope for their future. Nevertheless, these women envisioned a bright future for their unborn child. They never envisioned their unborn child to become a delinquent, go to jail or use drugs. I am sure that no abuser has ever dreamt of becoming an abuser.

We all like to be loved, and we like to see happiness around us. Kindness, warmth, joy, and everything that is the opposite of non-violence are tools that bring us internal peace and tranquility. This peace heals all wounds, the invisible ones and the ones deeply rooted in our soul.

Happiness is possible. Joy is reachable. The fear to do so, to look at ourselves and heal from our wounds has always been and will remain the primary and only obstacle to start this process. This process is painful for abusers. Why? Because it forces them to acknowledge that they have a problem.

It encourages them to objectively look at painful memories that they would rather forget. It also allows them to virtually travel into their mind by trying to remember past traumas that have moved from their awareness into their subconscious. This work is crucial and needs to be done for abusers to start fresh and have healthy relationships in the future.

Religious Healing through Islam for Muslim Families Community faith leaders, especially imams for the Muslim population play an instrumental role in the fight towards ending domestic abuse between intimate partners. There are some ideal strategies which Islamic faith leaders can use.4 Imams are the first link to safety for survivors of intimate partner violence. Their behavior can save life and empower survivors who are Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. Ideal Response of Community Faith Leaders to Domestic Violence. Adapted from the Duluth Model Power and Control Wheels.

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entrenched in a situation that is technically “abnormal.”5 1. Use the sacred book: our faith leaders, in this case, imams, can radically oppose the use of theological justification for domestic violence. Despite the fact that power from a man toward their wife can be mentioned and justified, our leader must prevent abusers to use the Qur’an to legitimize their poor behaviors to oppress and control their partner.

2. Undertake routine assessment of domestic violence before and after marriages.

Imams have the sacred authority to promote peace in the community and among one another. The Muslim community will never negatively perceive assessment of any form of abuse before and after the wedding. The imam may see it as a routine wellness check-up in Muslim families.

Doctors usually perform similar checkups when they assess for breast cancer risk with their patients. This assessment is an instrument to increase prevention of domestic violence.

3. Reject dominance and promote peace.

Our faith leaders are encouraged to be or continue being agents of change by actively rejecting any form of dominance, hegemony, or control from one partner, male or female, over another one. The pattern in vogue among intimate partners will be prevention of abuse and promotion of equality in the relationship. I prefer the term “equality” rather than “complementary” because the threshold between respect and abuse is a little clearer when I mention equality.

4. Develop a learning and referral support -relationship with local domestic violence Eshqaidef, Layali & Mona Farrouk. Power and Control Wheel in Muslim Families, translation in Arabic Language, from the Duluth Model Peaceful Families Project. <www.peacefulfamilies.org> 5

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programs in the community. Faith leaders are trained to master the scriptures, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;sourates,â&#x20AC;? the religious and sacred texts and books. However, they are not necessarily prepared to deal with domestic violence incidents. As community members, we should all learn about the dynamics of domestic violence and its intricacies. Once we master successful strategies to empower domestic violence survivors, we have the moral duty to share these techniques with the rest of the community. Survivors can be females, males, teens, or older adults. Therefore, the more we know about domestic violence, the better advocates we will be for people who need us.

5. Work with the community to strategize or enhance a community response team.

The presence of a group of advocates to end domestic violence under the patronage of faith leaders is one of the most powerful messages that imams can share with their faith community. It shows a reverent commitment and a tireless dedication from imams to solve a problem that is affecting their community. Faith leaders should be encouraged to officially take a stand on this issue in collaboration with their faith community and the broader community in general. Creating a task force on how to respond to domestic violence is key to encourage people to come forward and share any form of intimate partner violence. It usually saves lives, and it better equips us to respond to this dire need for services in the faith community.

6. Form a coalition, work in collaboration, and learn together. This tool of collaborative advocacy, effort, and awareness around domestic violence will guide faith leaders who are providing support to survivors of domestic violence within their faith community. Organizing ecumenical or inter-faith coalitions through meetings, conferences, presentations, and webinars 26 avicenna

are excellent ways to learn more about the topic. We may belong to diverse and eclectic faith groups but we are facing similar issues (here, domestic violence), and we all have one thing in common: the supreme power, the high power, whether it is Allah, God, Buddha, or Shiva. All of them focus and target positivity, and none of them would ever want anything bad to happen to any community faith members or leaders. This high power is not oppressive, and the essence of the message revolves around love, kindness, and wellness for one another as well as for oneself.

7. Exercise sacred authority. Faith leaders have a sacred authority, for they represent the high power. They are sacred ambassadors on earth for life, and they hold the knowledge of the sacred books or philosophy they preach and/or teach. Imams have this undeniable power. Because of it, they are encouraged to voice or continue voicing their opinion on domestic violence.

They are also strongly advised to take a public stand against domestic violence in their faith community and in the community in general.

8. Support survivors of domestic violence within the faith community. Survivors of domestic violence tend to be isolated and may not have support system within the faith community they love so much. It can be challenging for a victim to share personal and horrific tales of abuse. Having a safe environment to discuss and share with other members from the faith community, their trauma and experience is the first step towards healing. Nonprofit organizations tend to provide support to survivors and yet, do not do so by infusing spiritual or religious healing.

This task is the appendage of faith leaders.

Once imams feel comfortable addressing the issue of domestic violence in their faith community, they should later share

their successful intervention techniques with other non-profits. This will benefit survivors and the community as a whole around awareness promotion and prevention. As an old proverb says, “knowledge is power.” Non-profit organizations will never replace an imam, a priest, a rabbi, or any other faith leaders. Faith leaders are pillars to our society, and their role in this fight to end domestic violence in the community along with other stakeholders in the community is, and will always remain, crucial.

Conclusion Studies have proven that men and women are all created the same way, that they are born the same way, and they die the same ways. We are all equal at birth and in death. Therefore, no one must be treated differently for being a male or a female, for being an abuser or a victim of domestic violence. No one ever has the right to legitimately hurt someone else. If things don’t change, we are teaching our partners, our children and many generations to come that violence is acceptable and that it is fine to use it when issues arise. We are then guilty of giving mixed messages to young people: they hear at school that it is not acceptable to hurt someone else and that abuse should be reported. At the same time at home, they are receiving messages stating that hitting someone you love is perfectly fine and can even be justified. I think that having an open and honest dialogue is key in any relationship rather than using physical or emotional punishment to teach someone

a lesson. Inflicting wounds, visible or invisibles ones, has never been the dream of any clients that I have seen throughout the years, independent of their ethnicity, religion, class, education, gender, age, and physical ability. We all belong to the human race, and we all deserve to be happy, instead of being oppressed or hurt. We all have the right to make our dreams come true, to have healthy partners and families around us. Domestic violence can happen everywhere, in every household. To stop it, we need to start raising awareness in our own community and speak up against it. We will provide our children with a healthy way to relate to one another, to their peers, to their future co-workers, to their future partner and to their children. By doing so, we are cutting any intergenerational cycle of violence that has proven so far to be resistant across years, decades and centuries if no intervention is ever made.

Deciding to be blind about this modern plague is not an option, as we are all impacted by intimate partner violence directly or indirectly. This is our community, and we, men, women, youth, older adults, and community faith leaders should define the kind of community we want to live in, the sort of community we want to raise our children in. We all have something to say on what it takes to have a community free of any form of violence.

Together, stronger, we must always strive to reach the goal of having peace among us, having peace in our home, having peace in our community! Is it too much of a dream? I don’t think so.

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History and Hüzün: Remembering Istanbul Text and photos by Samra Adeni B.A. International Relations ’14

Confluence of cultures is not just a catchphrase in Istanbul. It’s when shopkeepers at the Grand Bazaar ask me if I’m American and I am, but that’s not all I am. They ask me ‘are you Indian,’ and I am, but that’s not all I am. And I am not all of that.

Istanbul is the ancient capital of the globalized world that I live in, and it’s a city that I could see even myself calling home one day. “If the Earth were a single state,” Napoleon once said, “[Istanbul] would be its capital.” There is never a dull moment in this living, breathing city. Every turn is a new delight, every site teeming with fascinating ancient history. I wandered around buildings that had seen more history than I could conceive of, of roads that saw empires and armies and kings all rise, and all fall. I spent multiple evenings at the Bosphorus, knowing that I could feel the lifeblood of Istanbul inside my blood too.

For me, Istanbul is more about the people who happened to us, the experiences that were, the events and feelings that read between the lines of our itinerary. Our chance encounters and conversations: with Sefket the weaver, and our nameless friend from the Grand Bazaar, the German carpet-seller. I wish I’d been able to go back and talk to him, to ask him more about Turkish and German, and what he feels about English.

What does he feel about his profession, and does he want to do this for the rest of his life. Does he ever want anything more, and what are his hopes and his fears and his thoughts and his dreams?

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I remember talking with the Imam of Sultanahmet, whom I stumbled upon in the Blue Mosque on Friday — the Imam spoke to us about religion and his work with the utmost kindness and humility. I remember Ferhat the bookshop-owner, with whom we spent 2 hours, talking about books and Istanbul and his job and the economy and something about his parents that I couldn’t understand. We skipped over the language barrier like it wasn’t even there, and I fanned the barrier away like it was made of smoke. I embraced this cultural stranger, who didn’t speak my language, but gave us all parting gifts as we left his store.

I remember the kind old man on the train who talked to me about India’s politics and warned us all to be safe on the tourist buses; and I remember the shopkeeper in Kadikoy, who spoke my language and swapped stories with me?

And how could I forget the promises wrought to us by the fantastic guest lectures from the Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Laki Vingas, and the photojournalism of Josephine Powell?

Istanbul has touched my heart in a way that no city has before. Perhaps it’s because Istanbul is so much more than just a city.

Where past meets present, where multiculturalism is the order of the day, where a Muslim, Jewish, and Christian look like the blood brothers that they truly are, where east and west are indistinguishable.

This is Istanbul.

Women in the arcades of Yeni mosque (photo by Samra Adeni â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14)

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Family in the Greek Orthodox neighborhoods of Istanbul (photo by Samra Adeni â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14)

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Scenes from Istanbul: buildings and streets and the ever-present minarets (photo by Samra Adeni â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14)

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Detail of the Sultanahmet interior domes in Istanbul (photo by Samra Adeni â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14)

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Love: What’s Islam Got to Do with It? Arin Mango M.A. French Language and Literature Stanford Affiliate mangoa@hotmail.com

San Valentino says ‘Basta’1 We’ve all been there: it’s the most awkward day of the Gregorian calendar and all your strategies for dodging fell apart. It’s Valentines’ day: when every moment your senses are assaulted by unstoppable images, sounds, and smells of what true love is supposed to be about. Every media outlet blurts out mushy news we can’t use: from Italian Alps’ corny marriage proposals to Thai kissing records. But if Valentine’s Day means to you no more than “75% off chocolate,” or if lush red hearts is not your scene, do not attempt to challenge the orthodoxy. You know you will be hissed at to ‘shut the love up;’’ labeled as the bitter closet romantic who should come out and smell the flowers. But don’t despair! You might be surprised to know that by skipping all the Valentines’ Day celebrations you are, according to most historical accounts, honoring the memory of St Valentine better than any of the amorous souls parading in red.

There are many versions of St Valentine’s story. Yet the most popular one revolves around the martyrdom of a starryeyed priest who defied Roman Emperor Claudius II’s ban on marriage. He secretly arranged matrimonies between Christian couples and was eventually arrested and beheaded. His martyrdom on February 14, 270 AD, was not intended to be a day for love or lovers. For thousands of years, 1

‘Basta’ means enough in Spanish.

the Catholic Church kept its liturgical commemoration as a tribute to his sacrifice and courage in reestablishing what he viewed as the natural order of love: conserving it through commitment.2 Where’s the love?

So why do we need a day when we are obliged to splurge and buy diamonds, or at the very least, exchange candy and roses in order to prove that we love and are loved? Does love need a special homage or a special appearance on only one day of the year? People of all shades of belief and non-belief attest to the significance of love in our existence. Islam also gives it a certain place of pride, and the Quran mentioned it 93 times.

Let’s examine the concept of love and the idiosyncrasies that come with the territory. But before we do that, you need to be forewarned: if you wish to get into the spirit of the season and learn about the “unconditional love” that “lasts ever after,” (Read Barbie: Love is in the Air) or wish to analyze the perplexing mystery of male/ female chemistry (read Introduction to Human Biology), I shan’t cater to you. The love we are about to explore here is not the one that comes from the minds of advertising executives or banal Hollywood romance flicks. It is the one that derives from the divinely natural order of our lives, as Story of St. Valentine: http://www.history.com/ this-day-in-history/st-valentine-beheaded.

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manifested in the Quran and the prophetic tradition of Mohammad (PBUH).

What’s in a name?

Despite all the hoopla, we all know that love has quite a bad track record. The four letter word has been used in English to describe and justify an array of sentimental, physical, or brotherly emotion. On the other hand, Arabs did not attempt to squeeze all of it into a few small letters as their fellow Anglophone wooers. They gave love many names that conjured its different stages and aspects. It starts with the very common “hoob” (simply love) to the delirious adoration: “hayam” all the way to “jawa”: the “hopeless” one and many many more.

Let’s examine which words the Quran uses to describe the loving relationship between a male and a female: And among His signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that you may dwell in peace and tranquility with them, and He has put love [mawadda] and mercy between your hearts. Undoubtedly in these are signs for those who reflect. (Quran 30:21) This word that describes love in the above verse is “Mawadda.” According to the Lisan Al Arab dictionary, mawadda is: “love substantiated by action.”3 It is clearly not a random linguistic preference. It’s an enthralling word because it comprises not only inner feelings but also invokes the love and the proof of it as well.

In the verse above, mawadda is coupled immediately with rahma (mercy). Many scholars say that mawadda and rahma refer firstly to the love one substantiates through actions towards their beloved, then secondly to mercy as being the reThe Lisan Al Arab dictionary is a classical book of lexicology called The Arabic Tongue.

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sponse to any shortcomings of those aforementioned actions. In other words, this divine recipe of love has two ingredients: one is intended for good times and the second is a necessity for navigating difficult times.

When the couple faces conflicts and the harsh realities of life, “rahma” or mercy, is their key for “dwelling in peace and tranquility.”

Giving love a good name This inter-connectedness and interdependence of the attributes of love and mercy manifests itself throughout the Quran and prophetic tradition hundreds of times.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the embodiment of love and mercy in action. He showed compassion to all those around him: family, orphans, friends, and strangers. He practiced that love in many forms.

At home, he engaged himself in the service of his family: sewing garments and patching sandals. All the while, his smile never left his face. He also did not shy away from conveying his love verbally and instructed his companions to express their love to one another. When he was once asked about the most beloved person to him, he said it was his wife, Ayesha.4 What’s Islam got to do with it?

But what has faith got to do with love, and how do they relate to one another? If Mawadda or “love substantiated by action” is the divinely acknowledged form of love, then it is no wonder that God has chosen “Aldawood” (the All-Loving) amongst his 99 names for himself. “Alwadood” is the superlative adjective derived from the word mawadda, and Allah (SWT) is AllLoving to mankind because He creates love and casts it among us all. It’s an infinite attribute implying that His love is continHadith from Sahih Bukhari: http://www.sahih-bukhari.com.

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ual and perpetual, always and everywhere.

Therefore, He deems love essential to our belief (in Him), a belief which is the most important pillar in Islam. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said: “you will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another.”5 Not only do matters of the heart have a decisive impact on matters of belief in Islam, but the centrality of that love integrates the individual’s mind, body, and soul and impacts the world around them. Islam Hadith No. 96 from Sahih Muslim: http://www.sahihmuslim.com.

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acknowledges love’s sensual aspect and considers intimacy with a lawful partner an act of worship. Yet, like other spiritual practices, Islam disciplines this love through commitment: a spiritual connection that has to be sustained rather than consumed to extinction. This bonding, like raindrop creating ripples on water, parallels how love can steadily grows to encompass family, community, universe, and the whole creation.

So what’s Islam got to do with love? Just about everything.

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“Love Quran” by Flickr user insansains

the stanford journal on muslim affairs

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A P E O P L E ’ S P U B L I C AT I O N

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STANFORD UNIVERSITY