islam today - Issue 16 - February 2014

issue 16 February

UK ÂŁ3.00

vol.2 2014

Cutting free from dependency Towards reforming Muslims When words become weapons Pope Francis, Islam & the Virgin Mary

Editorial team February 2014 Issue, 16 Vol, 2

Published Monthly

islam today magazine intends to address the concerns and aspirations of a vibrant Muslim community by providing readers with inspiration, information, a sense of community and solutions through its unique and specialised contents. It also sets out to help Muslims and non-Muslims better understand and appreciate the nature of a dynamic faith.

Managing Director

Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour

Chief Editor

Amir De Martino

Managing Editor

Anousheh Mireskandari

Political Editor

Reza Murshid

Health Editor

Laleh Lohrasbi

Art Editor

Moriam Grillo

Layout and Design

Sasan Sarab – Michele Paolicelli

Design and Production

PSD UK Ltd.

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Alexander Khaleeli

Hannah Smith

Ali Jawad

Hassan Lotfi

Batool Haydar

Mohammad Haghir

Demian Akara

Sabnum Dharamsi

Elham Ostad-Saffari

Tahereh Shafiee

Frank Julian Gelli

Taraneh Eskandari

Hamid Waqar

Back Cover Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary at the foot of Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

It is regarded as the burial place of Holy Mary(a), Mother of Jesus(a).

Publisher: Islamic Centre of England 140 Maida Vale London, W9 1QB - UK

ISSN 2051-2503 Islamic Centre of England

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Disclaimer: Where opinion is expressed it is that of the author and does not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of the publisher or islam today. All information in this magazine is verified to the best of the authors’ and the publisher’s ability. However, islam today shall not be liable or responsible for loss or damage arising from any users’ reliance on information obtained from the magazine.

From the Editor

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A long road ahead

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News from around the world

In the Spotlight Barbara and Zafer Baran - photography

News

Painting Athier Mousawi – British/Iraqi visual artist

Life & Community 10

Tahereh Shafiee traces the development of RE in the UK and asks the Muslim community to do more to support it

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More still to do on the RE front

Najwan Darwish

Politics 22

Counselling within

Towards reforming Muslims

Feature 26

In an effort to ‘blend in’, Muslims run the risk of diluting their faith. Batool Haydar believes Muslims should stop being apologetic and try to live according to their beliefs

The place to BE

Gen. Sisi and his So-So allegiance to democracy The Islamic Brotherhood’s failure to deliver Egypt through its transition to democratic governance may help the military to return to its erstwhile position at the helm of Egyptian politics, says Demian Akara

Arts 18

Three years on, why no change for Bahrain?

Three years after the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry promised an end to repression of the country’s people, little seems to have changed in the island monarchy, says Hannah Smith

Counselling can provide a great opportunity to help resolving life’s problems.

Sabnum Dharamsi believes that Muslim counsellors are better equipped when dealing with Muslim patients

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Poetry

Cover

The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art

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Cutting free from dependency Despite attempts to delegitimise the Iranian government by the West, Mohammad Haghir believes people’s participation in political life in Iran provides proof that the management of the public domain in the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on a democratic visionn

Mixed Media Layla Juma - Red Circle 2009

Opinion 19

Masterpiece

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Painting ‘Jamal Al Mahamel’ [The Bearer of Burdens] 1973

Heritage Tughra - Ink, opaque watercolours, and gold on paper; 52.1 x 64.5 cm

Outside looking in, inside looking out Hassan Lotfi, a professional sports personality and migrant from Iran now living in the UK, recalls how attitudes towards him changed overnight after the Iranian revolution

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When words become weapons Referring to the words of Ali ibn abi Talib(a) ‘Speak and you shall be known, for the person is hidden under his tongue’, Ali Jawad explains why it is important now more than ever for Muslims to be mindful of their ‘language’

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Faith

What & Where 42

Save for the love of my relatives Alexander Khaleeli elaborates on the role of the Prophet’s Household as a shining example of how to overcome our differences, without trying to pretend they don’t exist

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When abortion is the last resort Hamid Waqar explains the general Islamic position on the issue of human abortion

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Listings and Events Friday Nights Thought Forum - Islamic Centre of England Islamic civilisation and the Islamic tradition - Edinburgh University Intensive Course in Islamic Beliefs - Islamic Centre of England The quest for cultural authenticity and the politics of identity – University of Durham Spiritual Mysteries and Ethical Secrets - Islamic Centre of England Preview film screening: A World Not Ours - Frontline Club

Interfaith 48

Pope Francis, Islam & the Virgin Mary: where dialogue really takes off The respect and veneration for the Virgin Mary in both Christianity and Islam can be a common ground for dialogue between the two faiths. Frank Gelli thinks this is what the incumbent Pontiff believes

Health 52

The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet

Disciplining the Soul and Breaking the Two desires: Food and Sexual Desire- Leeds Met University 13th Annual Islamic Finance Summit - Euromoney Seminars IslamUK Lecture Series 2014 - Cardiff University, School of History, Archaeology and Religion The Warm-Up Fundraising Dinner - Muslim Hands The Theological, Philosophical and Mystical Dimensions of Imamology - Islamic Centre of England Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series: Exploring Identity - Woolf Institute

Over the past 50 years, the idea that the Mediterranean diet can improve our health has found many advocates. Laleh Lohrasbi enumerates its manifold benefits

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Sitting or squatting; that is the question!

Many scientists in the West have come to the conclusion that toilet posture can affect our health. Laleh Lohrasbi explains how using conventional western toilets could cause irreversible health problems

Erratum In the article ‘Is Islam really responsible for the rising incidence of Multiple Sclerosis?’ (islam today -issue 14 December 2013) the sentence: “between 1989 to 2006 Iran experienced an 8.3% rise in cases of the disease” should have read: “between 1989 to 2006 Iran experienced an 8.3-fold rise in cases of the disease.

Science 58

Written in your blood A single drop of blood reveals a wealth of information about one’s health and habits. Elham Ostad-Saffai reflects on the infinite power of God as science uncovers new mysteries about the human body

Places 62

Mesopotamia: the cradle of civilisation Taking us through two exhibitions at the Royal Ontario Museum, Taraneh Eskandari discusses the impact of the looting and destruction of the National Museum of Iraq where a major portion of Mesopotamian artefacts were kept

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Glossary of Islamic Symbols The letter (s) after the name of the Prophet Muhammad(s) stands for the Arabic phrase sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam, meaning: “May God bless him [Muhammad] and grant him peace”.

The letter (a) after the name of the holy Imams from the progeny of the Prophet Muhammad(s), and for his daughter Fatimah(a) stands for the Arabic phrase ‘alayhis-salaam, ‘alayhas-salaam (feminine) and ‘alayhimus-salaam (plural) meaning respectively: (God’s) Peace be with him/ her/ or them.

From the

Editor

A long road ahead Middle East have shown that the desire of the Muslim people of the region to self-determination is no different to that of other nations in this respect.

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ccording to a famous saying of the Prophet Muhammad(s) Muslims are like one body. If any part of that body falls ill, the rest of the body suffers along with it. This tradition provides us with the conceptual basis by which we understand the sense of community within Islam.

The Qur’an encourages Muslims to unite in faith: “Verily this community of yours is a single one, and I am your Lord and Cherisher” (Qur’an 23:52).

While spiritually the Islamic community transcends national boundaries, in reality, today, we are obliged to talk in terms of Islamic communities within specific nation states. Having assessed that there are Muslim communities across the entire globe we can also observe that they are faced with difficulties and problems.

In countries where Muslims are a minority their future is intrinsically connected with that of the larger population, of which they should form an active component.

On the other hand Muslim communities who are part of a determining majority in Muslim nation states have a greater say in determining their future according to their own concerted efforts.

After their liberation from colonial powers many Muslim nations have been unable to fully take advantage of their freedom, ending up in situations where despotic leaders have replaced the old colonial ones. Recent events in the

No great degree of political acumen is necessary to understand that geopolitical interests are at stake in the Middle East. The players are the same who have dictated policies around the world for the last 50 years. Unfortunately their interests do not conform to the interests of the people of the region who by rights should be the makers of their own destiny.

In the cover story of this issue Muhammad Haghir looks back to 1979 when the first successful national movement for self-determination was established in Iran in the form of an Islamic government, relying on the country’s religious and cultural heritage. Since then the Iranian nation has had to face all kinds of boycotts and bullying

by Western powers for the path it has chosen. Muhammad Haghir shows how undermining the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic has been a key feature of Western strategies.

Democracy is mostly associated with Western societies. Obviously democracy cannot be understood in its literal sense since all citizens do not have the right to participate in all decisions. These are representative democracies where the electors choose the representatives to take political decisions on their behalf.

Democracies are also legitimised by the electoral process.

The famous sociologist Max Weber has distinguished three types of legitimate authority: traditional, legal and charismatic.

Charismatic authority finds very little support in western political discourses today and somehow it is the model attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran by western scholars. This is a grave misrepresentation. It is true that the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, was a charismatic religious leader but his vision of a new

political order for Iran was based on public participation. His advice that the new system should be called a republic is well documented and the institutions that formed the Islamic Republic can be found in Weber’s model of legitimate legal authority.

There are several essential features a society must have to be a democracy: a good level of economic development, a control system to check the power of the state, the absence of fundamental differences, tolerance of criticism, access to information for its citizens and the distribution of power (no monopoly).

The ability to develop such features is also dictated by the level of external threats that exist and in the case of the Islamic Republic these have been many and frequent.

The success of the Islamic Republic of Iran in producing a model Islamic State for the 21st century can be of great benefit to other Muslim peoples yearning for self-determination.

The people of Iran have come a long way but there is much more to do and with resolute determination and trust in God this project for the 21st century can be realised for the benefit not only of Muslims but other nations too.

Iran has contributed in many ways to world civilisation and its ability to continue to do so must be recognised and acknowledged. It’s people’s desire to establish a government based on religious principles must be respected and the legality of their choice accepted.

We have no reason to fear a nation that believes in what God has stated in the Qur’an: “Oh mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may know one another (not that you may despise one another).

Verily, the most honoured among you in the sight of God is the one who is the most righteous. And God is AllKnowing, All-Aware” (Qur’an 49:13). •

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News BAHRAIN

‘Tear gas is used by Bahrain’s police force only as a necessary and proportionate measure and in public order and riot control situations. It is used entirely in compliance with international law,’ it said in a statement.

Bahraini and international groups welcomed the move.

S Korea Halts Shipment of Tear Gas to Bahrain South Korea is suspending exports of tear gas canisters to the Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain amid pressure from human rights groups.

Bahraini Opposition Holds Meeting with Future King

The move by Seoul comes after months of campaigning by rights groups who say the Bahraini authorities’ misuse of tear gas has led to dozens of deaths of protestors campaigning for political reform. The authorities say that the use of tear gas is necessary to maintain order.

Human rights groups had launched a campaign called Stop The Shipment after leaked government documents appeared to show that Bahrain, a country of 1.3 million people, had ordered around 1.6 million tear gas canisters.

In October, the US-based group Physicians for Human Rights reported that ‘weaponised tear gas’ had caused the deaths of at least 39 people since February 2011 in an ongoing crackdown on anti-government protests, a claim the government disputes.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said it had not been informed of any such ban by Seoul.

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Deena Mohamed, the creator of the comic, says that when she put the comic online a few months ago, she did not expect such a positive reaction.

rights

Bahraini rights activist Maryam al-Khawaja said: ‘We’re starting with tear gas but we expect to see countries who say they are concerned about human rights stop the sale of all types of weapons to Bahrain.’

‘We’ve decided to suspend (the shipment of tear gas) because of the unstable political situation in Bahrain, requests from human rights groups and civilian deaths,’ said an official from South Korea’s state-run Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA), which oversees the country’s military trade.

it is picking up a growing fan base.

Bahrain’s state television has broadcast images of the crown prince meeting with top opposition leaders one week after reconciliation talks were suspended.

The opposition bloc al-Wefaq released a statement after the face-to-face session with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa saying that it hoped the meeting would result in concrete steps.

A participant in the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said no foreign diplomats attended the meeting that took place at the prince’s palace.

It was the first time in nearly three years that a member of the ruling family had met opposition leaders.

Bahrainis began protesting in early 2011 to seek greater political rights from the nation’s ruling family.

EGYPT

Comic Depicts Superwoman Hijabi Meet Qahera - the hijab-wearing Egyptian comic-book character fighting back against crime, misogyny and prejudice.

She is the brainchild of a young Egyptian artist who created the first ever Egyptian superhero in a web comic, and

Her website got hundreds of thousands of hits. Egypt tops the list of nationalities of people visiting the site, followed by the US. Deena also found enthusiasm among local publishers who asked her to create a printed version as well.

The name Qahera is the Arabic word for Egypt’s capital, Cairo. It also means the conqueror or the vanquisher.

Deena says she had her superheroine with the all-powerful name wear a hijab to combat a widespread stereotype that women wearing the Islamic attire cannot be strong.

‘There is already so little representation of women who wear the hijab, although that is the majority of women I see around me, and it did not make sense not to make her wear hijab,’ she said.

Deena says she had her eye on a Western audience from the beginning, another reason why her character wears a hijab, and episodes are written in English.

‘I wanted to send a message about the general Islamophobic backlash, and if I were going to address that, I needed to make a statement. Women who wear hijab usually bear the brunt of Islamophobia,’ she told journalists.

Egyptian regime cited for crimes against humanity The Egyptian regime killed at least 1,120 civilians and committed ‘crimes against humanity’ while crushing protests

against last year’s coup, according to lawyers seeking an investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Mohammed Morsi, the elected president of Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood, was overthrown last July by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief, and replaced by a military regime.

In the days after the coup, Mr Mursi’s supporters gathered at protest camps across Cairo. The army and police responded by forcibly clearing them.

The operation claimed at least 1,120 lives in 15 separate incidents between July and November last year, according to evidence gathered by lawyers instructed by Mr Mursi’s overthrown government.

According to complaints handed to the lawyers, one eyewitness saw a police bulldozer run over between 20 and 30 people. Another described how he was shot four times as the army opened fire on demonstrators with live rounds.

‘The evidence suggests that Egypt’s military regime has carried out crimes against humanity on a horrendous scale, including murder, persecution, torture and enforced disappearances,’ said Tayab Ali of ITN solicitors in London.

‘Our inquiries have verified 1,120 killings since the coup in July last year, although the real number is likely to be substantially higher.’ The bloodiest incident took place in Rabaa el Adaweya square in Cairo on August 14 when at least 638 people were killed.

A witness at the same protest said that he was shot ‘in the head, chest, back and right arm’. He was rushed to a field hospital by demonstrators, where he said the facility was filled with ‘injured

protesters with gunshots to the head’ and ‘in some cases, their brains were spilling out’.

movement said, ‘Supermarkets are now starting to realise that there’s a really big reputational risk involved here.’

Another witness said that snipers were used to kill demonstrators and that shots were fired from military helicopters. Among the victims was the witness’s son.

Recently Israeli rights group Peace Now revealed Tel Aviv’s plans to build more than 1,800 new settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories despite the opposition of the United Nations and the international community.

Mr Ali said the clearance of the protest camps amounted to a ‘systematic campaign of repression carried out by the Egyptian army and police, with the approval of the people at the very top of the regime’.

He added: ‘The Egyptian regime must be held accountable for its crimes.’

Egypt is not a member state of the International Criminal Court, so whether there are sufficient legal grounds for the ICC to investigate the complaints is unclear.

OCCUPIED PALESTINE

Israel Hit By Global Boycott Campaign

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

The UN and most countries regard Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

PAKISTAN

An international campaign to boycott Israeli products is taking a heavy toll on illegal settlers in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank.

The income of the settlers who grow fresh products dropped by more than 14 percent or $29 million in the last year, mostly because Western European markets avoided buying the products.

The boycott is particularly stronger in Britain and Scandinavia where people are shunning peppers, dates, grapes and fresh herbs produced by the settlers.

‘The damage is enormous,’ said David Elhayani, the head of the Jordan Valley’s 21 settlements with 7,000 settlers.

Honour for Teen Who Sacrificed Himself to Save Schoolmates

‘In effect, today, we are almost not selling to the European market anymore,’ Elhayani added.

A Pakistani teenager who sacrificed his life to stop a suicide bomber, thereby saving the lives of hundreds of students, has been accorded the country’s highest award for bravery.

Michael Deas, a Britain-based coordinator for the international boycott

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News Aitzaz Hassan, 15, a student in majority-Shi‘a Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has become a national hero after tackling a suicide bomber who was about to enter the school and blow himself up among hundreds of students.

Hassan died in hospital after the bomber blew himself up at the school gates. No one else was wounded or killed in the incident.

The office of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said it had advised President Mamnoon Hussain ‘to approve the conferment of Sitara-e-Shuja’at (star of bravery) to Shaheed (martyr) Aitzaz Hassan.’

‘Shaheed Aitzaz’s brave act saved the lives of hundreds of students and established a sterling example of gallantry and patriotism,’ it said in a statement.

intercepting the bomber and saving the lives of hundreds of his fellow students,’ he said.

‘I am happy that my son has become a martyr by sacrificing his life for a noble cause.’

Bangash works in the UAE and was only able to reach Ibrahimzai village the day after his son’s funeral.

Police official Shakirullah Bangash told reporters that Aitzaz intercepted the bomber 150 metres away from the main gate of the school, which has around 1000 students.

European intelligence officials sent to hold talks with the Syrian government despite the West’s calls for it to stand down and international sanctions levelled against it.

They have allegedly met President Bashar al-Assad’s security adviser.

Faisal al-Miqdad, Syrian deputy foreign minister, told the British media that Western intelligence officials have been to Damascus. He refused to say which countries were involved but he said: ‘I will not specify but many of them have visited Damascus, yes.’

The growth of militant groups among rebels fighting President Assad has caused international concern.

SYRIA

The UK government denied allegations its intelligence officials had been

News of Hassan’s act led to an outpouring of tributes on social media.

Pakistani newspapers, TV channels and social media sites had demanded recognition of Hassan’s bravery, calling him a hero and calling for him to receive the nation’s highest award.

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban for championing girls’ right to education, paid tribute to the teenager, describing him as ‘brave and courageous’.

‘In sacrificing his own life, Aitzaz protected hundreds of innocent young students from being killed,’ she said in a statement.

‘I wish that in giving his own life he helps to bring peace to my people and my country,’ she said.

Malala, who was last year nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, has also called for the government to award Hassan its ‘highest national award’.

‘His bravery must never be forgotten,’ she said.

Hassan’s father Mujahid Ali Bangash, 55, told the press he felt not sadness but pride at his son’s martyrdom.

‘Aitzaz has made us proud by valiantly

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Western Intelligence Agencies Visit Damascus Over Militant Fears A retired MI6 officer has allegedly led British and European efforts to re-engage with government in Syria, visiting Damascus to discuss mutual approaches to combating militants, according to British press reports.

The officer is one of a number of

involved in such cooperation. But the same government is clearly apprehensive about the return of militants who have been trained in the crucible of Syria.

Last month British Home Secretary Theresa May stepped up the removal of citizenship of British dual-nationals who have gone to fight in Syria in a bid to prevent their return to the United Kingdom. The Home Secretary has so

far revoked the British citizenship of 20 people this year, more than the past two-and-a-half years combined. In total, May has removed the citizenship of 37 people since spring 2010, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Security sources fear the repercussions of Syria’s civil war because of its proximity to Europe, making it easier for violent UK citizens to travel to and from the country. Between 40 and 240 Britons are estimated to be fighting in Syria.

UK

British Writer Says Britain Should Not Fear Hijab

Dawkins Attacks Marks and Spencer ‘Faith Policy’

At least 500 EU citizens are fighting in Syria, as well as some 100 Australians, and an unknown number of Americans.

Western security officials around the world fear the conflict could radicalise foreign fighters, increasing the risk of terrorism when they return home.

Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins has attacked Marks & Spencer over its policy of allowing Muslim and Jewish checkout staff to refuse to serve customers alcohol and pork products.

French President Francois Hollande recently told a press conference in Paris that 700 French nationals had joined the ranks of foreigners fighting in Syria.

The growing numbers of foreign fighters from Europe means there are common concerns but it is not clear how far the West is prepared to make common cause with a government it holds responsible for the Syrian civil war.

A number of Americans have joined the war in Syria, which has raised concerns among many US officials that returnees pose a security risk to the nation due to their potential exposure and involvement with militant groups while abroad.

During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, US Senator Thomas Carper stated, ‘We know American citizens as well as Canadian and European nationals have taken up arms in Syria, in Yemen and in Somalia.

The threat that these individuals could return home to carry out attacks is real and troubling.’

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has also stated that he ‘[was concerned about] the associations [American fighters in Syria] will make and, secondly, the expertise they will develop, and whether or not they will utilise those associations, utilise that expertise, to undertake an attack on the homeland.’

Self concluded by suggesting that, instead of promoting ‘an anxious and self-lacerating kulturkampf’, British educators should try to promote ‘a culture of confidently evolving and genuine enquiry. It is this that the students - whether in hijabs or hoodies - hearken to.’

Renowned British author Will Self has penned an opinion piece for the BBC website in which he has criticised the fear of all forms of hijab in the British society.

The matter arose after an unnamed customer trying to buy a bottle of champagne told the media they had been ‘taken aback’ when an ‘extremely apologetic’ Muslim worker asked them to wait for another till to become free.

Eating pork and drinking alcohol is forbidden in Islam, as well as Judaism, and practising Muslims refuse to handle them.

Self began his piece by quoting Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his inaugural speech as US President: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’

Amid a rash of online opinion on the matter, much of which he shared on his own Twitter feed, Dawkins wrote: ‘These Marks & Spencer tweets may seem frivolous. But they are serious examples of the kind of RIDICULE religious discrimination deserves.’

He then went on to criticise the French policy of banning the headscarf in public places, going on to say that Britons who fear the hijab are not truly at ease and at peace with themselves.

M&S recently issued an apology, stating that where employees have religious beliefs that restrict what foods or drinks they can handle, it tries to place them in a ‘suitable role’.

Self also revealed that he himself has been teaching Muslim students, including women in hijab: ‘I teach classes in which heads are covered with hijabs.’

An M&S spokeswoman said: ‘We regret that in the case highlighted we were not following our own internal policy.’

He added that the students observing hijab are no different to those without in relation to learning: ‘There is absolutely no correlation between the ostensible cultural allegiance of a student and her interest or engagement with the matter at hand.’

Muslim checkout staff at Marks and Spencer have been told they can refuse to serve customers alcohol and pork products.

The directive from company bosses means people wishing to buy these items will have to wait for an alternative till to become available.

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More still to do on the RE front Tahereh Shafiee traces the modern history of RE in Britain suggesting a few areas in which Muslims can contribute to its further development as an educational subject

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T

he provision of religious education has been a heated debate across Europe with the focus often being on the place of faith schools within the education system. However questions have also arisen across the continent over the place of religious education within state educational provision. With the rise of increasingly multicultural societies different nations have responded in different ways according to their respective histories and religious landscapes.

Today in the UK, religious education is seen from a perspective of noncommitted multi-religious learning and has undergone a transformation over the years.

Religious education in Great Britain was formalised as early as 1944 with the landmark Education Act when religious education was defined as Religious Instruction (RI) divided into classroom subject and worship at school. This was to be available to all students on a nondenominational basis. However parents were given the right to withdraw their children from these classes if they did not want them to be taught RI. The act represented an educational shift whereby the subject was seen not as an opportunity to inculcate Christian values in a mostly Christian society but the opportunity for pupils to develop their own views in relation to their faith.

Visible changes in the religious make-up of the UK population meant that the old arrangement of Christian based RE was no longer justified. In the 1970s, RE incorporated teachings on humanism and later included world religions removing the confessional aspect from the teaching curriculum.

The1988 Educational Reform Act was a landmark in the history of RE in the UK. Religious education was renamed with its new classroom subject to RE. Teachers were to teach the main religions represented in the UK but reflect the fact that the religious tradition of the UK was mainly Christian. Controversially this meant that the main focus of RE should be on Christianity. But Britain was changing and in some inner city schools, non-Christians formed a majority.

As a subject, RE was left outside the national curriculum but included in the “basic curriculum” - a term that even now is not clearly understood. The difficult task to prepare a form of assessment similar to other subjects was then undertaken. During the 1990’s the evolution of RE focused on new theories. This theory was to help children to explore their inner spirituality and to be encouraged to ‘learn about religion, from religion’.

The National Framework of RE was introduced in 2004, and although it was highly influential in developing locally agreed syllabuses, it was not entirely accepted.

RE is currently a statutory subject, meaning that state schools are obliged to offer it. However recent government policies have undermined the teaching of RE (See islam today June 2013 ‘Moving forward with RE’). Statutory provision is not enough to ensure high standards in teaching, examination provision and above all that the subject should cover.

Reverend John Pritchard, the Bishop of Oxford, was particularly incensed that RE was left out of the English Baccalaureate by the government’s new reforms and by the halving of specialist RE teacher training places and cuts of bursaries for trainees.

The religious education syllabuses, produced by the Local Education Authorities, are generally based upon a world religions approach, and usually include the study of Islam amongst other religions. The majority of Muslim parents have not chosen to remove their children from RE, since every new agreed syllabus includes Islam.

Current legislation has provided a degree of flexibility and each school can adapt its teaching of RE. Hence there is no reason why schools with a majority of Muslim students should not have an emphasis on Islam in their locally agreed syllabus.

understanding of various religions and in doing so to encourage their general educational development, particularly their spiritual and cultural development.

As Muslims we should take more interest in the development of RE teaching and join with the RE community in the campaign against the marginalisation of religious education and demand improvements in its content and form.

Many Muslim organisations have already shown their commitment to ensuring that RE moves forward. They have given financial and moral support to the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, a non-government organisation which last year undertook an independent review to assess the current status of RE in the UK. Fortunately the review succeeded in changing the mind of the current education minister Michael Gove who admitted that the coalition government might have underestimated the importance of supporting RE education.

But the work has just begun, and as the review highlights, more work should be done in the field of assessment which is relatively weaker in relation to other subjects. It goes without saying that work of this sort requires substantial funding and governmental help.

What Muslims can do, besides providing financial help, is to engage in the production of high quality educational material that presents our faith in an objective and inclusive manner.

We should develop close ties with organisations and institutions that are committed to RE. We can monitor their work to ensure that factual and correct information is provided in teaching materials. Also, more Muslims should get involved in RE teaching to ensure that Islam receives the recognition it deserves as an integral and important faith in British society. •

But the objective of RE teaching is not to instruct individuals on how to practise their religion but to leave youngsters with some knowledge and

11

Counselling

Within

Often people feel inadequate and guilty when things go wrong in their lives. What if they had some help along the way?

Sabnum Dharamsi describes the process of Islamic counselling

E

veryone goes through ups and downs in life. When we are stuck, struggling with a relationship or making sense of a loss, sometimes we can get through on our own, but there will be times when we need help from others. Physical pain can seem easier to deal with and accept than pain that comes from the inside.

There is a general misconception that things have to get really bad before we address the problem, as if once you go down this road you have acknowledged there is a problem and then it is hard to back out. We can be really hard on ourselves, feeling that if we had prayed enough then bad things wouldn’t have happened to us. We can even be hard on people who seek help, as if it’s a crime.

Life is a journey, and we were created in toil (Qur’an 90:4), so there are bound to be heartaches and temptations, regrets as well as leaps of happiness.

It’s through life’s challenges that we mature, God willing, to a greater understanding of true contentment. But sometimes keeping quiet is not right.

As the Prophet(s) said, tie your camel and then trust in God.

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What is counselling?

Counselling is a therapy and the word therapy originally comes from the ancient Greek therapeia, meaning divine grace. This reminds us that to seek help or to help another to do so is a beautiful and healthy thing to do.

Islamic Counselling is a spiritual model of healing the human heart, based on the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions.

There are many ways to heal the heart, and counselling, sometimes known as psychotherapy, is one of them.

One can say that the development of Islamic Counselling begun with the Holy Qur’an and the embodiment of its teachings in the humanity of the Prophet Muhammad(s).

Islam places strong emphasis on inward reflection. When the Qur’an says”; In the earth are signs for those who have

conviction and in your souls [as well].

Will you not then perceive?”(51:20-21), it’s mind-blowing! And we are guided again and again, to focus on purification of the heart (26:89).

These, and many other verses in the Qur’an, are the foundation for a rich vein of knowledge within Islam, known as nafsiyyat, the science of the self.

You can find many individuals offering different models and understandings of Islamic Counselling. There are Muslims who offer western models of counselling which are faith sensitive and culturally competent. However there are those who offer western-based models of counselling but also incorporate prayer and supplications within their sessions, services which are based on tibb medicine (ancient natural treatment) and those who base their counselling on the teachings of tasawwuf (the inner

Often we desperately want advice, not just to listen, and yet even then, what is most needed is to work out the right questions and see things differently.

Counsellors will work with you to help you work out the answers for you in your own life, and they do this by emptying their hearts and being with you, rather than bombarding you with sympathy or their own solutions. In this way you find your way, the one your heart knows!

Answers for your life come from within,

by God’s Grace, not someone else. This is not to say that advice, especially from a trusted companion, isn’t useful – it can be. But you have to be in a place to hear…and what is more, we often find it hard to open up, perhaps because we’ve been judged before, or been given advice that we already know.

God tells us in the Qur’an that he wants to lighten for us our difficulties, for we’ve been created weak (4:28). It means that He intends for us to be imperfect, to make mistakes and learn from them, and long for His Forgiveness and Perfection.

Wisdom - life learning - comes not from someone telling us the answers, but from our journey, perhaps with a trusted counsellor to hold up a mirror so we can see ourselves clearly and compassionately. wisdom of Islam).

I remember in the 1990s when together with a colleague I set up the first accredited Islamic Counselling Training in the UK in the hope of developing a model that wasn’t about aping Western traditions of counselling, but embodying the profound teachings of Islamic tradition at its core. Already practising counsellors, we were inspired by teachings from the tradition of tasawwuf, and discovered how transformative these were.

Not all models of counselling are concerned with that spiritual aspect of human being, but as the Qur’an says, “those who have faith, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God.’ Look! The hearts find rest in God’s remembrance!” (13:28).

People enter counselling for different reasons; they should all feel safe to

explore their thoughts and feelings.

And that’s the point – if it’s important to you, it matters.

In counselling, a person’s emotional safety is important – and a big part of that comes from confidentiality. The word confidentiality means ‘with faith’.

The Arabic word amana is very similar – it means a trust, which is rooted in iman or faith. ‘Safe’ also means trustworthy.

A counsellor is someone who doesn’t have an axe to grind and as h/she is not a family member, the patient does not feel the need to keep sensitive things private.

Islamic counsellors are not scholars who will instruct patients in Islam – their role is to work with patients in the depth of who they are, through valuing their hearts and what God puts in front of them.

Usually the first session of counselling is to see if this is right for you. In this session they’ll listen with their heart and without judgement, to hear whatever is going on, good, bad or uncertain.

They aim to see and bring out the best in you, and they give you the space in which to be sad or angry, hateful or scared. Maybe they will remind you of your inner truth when you feel unclear.

One thing is certain; being part of a strong Muslim community we should take action and get the help if and when we need it. •

Sabnum Dharamsi is a therapist and co-founder of Islamic Counselling Training. www.islamiccounselling.info

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Towards reforming Muslims 14

Over the past few years there have been many voices both within and outside our faith declaring that Islam is in need of reform. The debate is current and covers many areas of one’s faith. Batool Haydar believes that it is not Islam, but rather Muslims who need reforming

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uslims generally feel sorry for themselves and obliged to be apologetic about their faith. There is a trend to be more liberal in the implementation of their principles in order to ‘blend in’. Islam today is being watered down, diluted, assimilated and morphed into a faith that can be considered acceptable

by Western standards.

There is no doubt than like many other religious communities, Muslims too are in a crisis and we are responsible, subtly growing more and more desperate with time. The important question that we should all be asking ourselves is what can we do about it?

A couple of relevant items to hit the social media scene recently help to highlight how deep the challenges we face - and will continue to face - run.

In December 2013, a group of young women labelled ‘Mipsters’ (Muslim Hispters) earned themselves a hashtag and became the topic of some debate between liberal and more traditional Muslims. The group released a video titled ‘Somewhere in America’ which was set to the backdrop of a song by a famous American rap-artist. The video showed clips of stylish young Muslim women wearing ‘hip’ clothes and head scarves, in the hope that it

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would promote the image that Muslims - Muslim women in particular - could be cool.

In their effort to imitate American standards of popularity and fashion, however, these young women completely misrepresented the true meaning of hijab in their reinterpretation of it. Did they then succeed in making Muslims look less threatening /more appealing or did they end up creating a new version of Muslim that may be more familiar to the non-Muslim, but is foreign to the true Islam?

Just a few weeks later, Al Jazeera America ran a story about Daayiee Abdullah, believed to be the first openly gay imam in the Americas. The overall response to this story from Muslims was divided into either extreme ‘burn-inhell’ reactions or apologetic ‘condemnthe-sin-love-the-sinner’ ones.

There seemed to be a sense of confusion, however, as to what exactly the Islamic stand should be. How hard-line could a condemnation be before the person issuing it was tagged fundamentalist or extreme?

While Islam does not encourage spewing threats of fire-and-brimstone, the gradual softening of stance by other formal institutions, such as the Church, on matters previously regarded

as unconditionally unacceptable has left Muslims floundering as to whether they should pander to the prevailing fashion or not. How much should we compromise? How much should we give in? How do we make Islam seem more appealing? How do we retain our existing flock? These are questions that Muslims have to seriously consider.

Historically, when the Prophet Muhammad(s) brought the message of Islam, he established it as a new code of life, abandoning all the purely negative aspects of the existing culture. There was no compromise to be made on basic fundamentals. In the story of the Quraysh who suggested to the Prophet that they should all worship their own deities and God for alternate years, God’s response is clear and simple: “To you, your religion and to me, my religion.” (Qur’an 109:6) The whole idea of bringing about reform through religion was to create boundaries for social and spiritual behaviour; to rein in those habits and practices that both overstepped the limits of fitrah (human disposition) and undermined it. This was in recognition that success in any area requires a certain level of discipline.

Islam in its pure form is what created the revolution in the hearts and souls

of the idol-worshippers during the dark ages. It was the idea of having an Omniscient, Omnipresent God who had provided clear and distinct guidelines for His creation that gave society a solid foundation upon which to build themselves individually and as a community. It was faith in the belief that He only asked of His creation that which was best for their own growth that bred fierce loyalty in the hearts of the faithful, allowing them to have the courage to follow the Prophet without hesitation into mosque or battlefield.

the matter. Take the case of Daayiee for example; those commenting on the issue have little knowledge of the scientific studies conducted on the issue of homosexuality whilst also having a very basic understanding about the Islamic stand on how to treat the gay community on a social level. Equipped with only personal opinions and external influences, they speak on behalf of the Muslim community and it is their voice that is taken as representative of the more modern Islam that the world considers palatable.

For Muslims today, seeking out answers has to involve going back to the sources of their faith i.e. the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad(s) and his AhlulBayt(a). Rather than using public opinion as a benchmark for our own reactions and stand on matters, we need to form independent conclusions based on our beliefs.

That a reformation of Muslims is needed is definitely true, but it is not the religion that needs reform, it is the followers. As Muslims, we need to sit down and re-assess our loyalty to the faith we proclaim. Why are we Muslims? What does it mean to be a Muslim? Are we really willing to submit to the God of Islam without argument?

Can we defend the stand of our faith on controversial issues even if the rest of the world disagrees with us? Are we willing to be the small, stubborn minority that will always speak out even when the dissenting shouts of those around us threaten to drown us out?

The challenge of course is when the lay person forms an opinion based on the limits of his own knowledge. Given that Islam is so vast and inclusive, it is impossible to imagine that an individual un-schooled in religious studies can form judgements without some guidance from scholars. Our downfall comes in that we often we make statements without enough knowledge on

cowering behind popular opinion when our fundamentals and principles are challenged. When the Bedouins of Arabia came out of the desert and proclaimed faith, God told the Prophet Muhammad(s) to tell them: “…”You do not have faith yet, rather say, ‘We have embraced Islam’.”(Qur’an 49:14) Until we nurture an unfaltering imaan (faith) within ourselves, we too will only have ‘accepted Islam’ in name and tradition. Islam needs us not just to embrace it, but to internalise it. We have to be willing to use the Qur’an and the prophetic traditions as the benchmark for our affiliation or detachment from any issue. This is the responsibility of every human being who sees him or herself as a khalifa (vicegerent) on this earth: to represent the faith and its ideals.

The trouble with Muslims today is that we see Islam as only a part of our whole worldview, a part that provides direction in some areas of our personal lives.

Until we shift perspective and begin to see the world as being an aspect of the Islamic View of Creation and Existence, we will remain adrift on the greater tides that constantly shift popular opinion. •

As long as our loyalty to God is half-hearted and reluctant, we will continuously face the dilemma of

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Art Editor Moriam Grillo

The Place to BE Istanbul Modern Also known as the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul Modern opened in 2004. This contemporary art space predominantly features the work of Turkish artists.

Constructed from a converted warehouse, it is located on the Bosphorus in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul.

Istanbul Modern features two floors of exhibition space, which incorporates permanent and temporary collections.

It also accommodates a cinema, arts library, shop and restaurant.

Mixed Media Layla Juma - Red Circle 2009

Born in 1977 in Sharjah, Layla Juma is an international mixed media artist.

Her work, which is conceptual, has been likened to that of Hassan Sharif and Mohammed Kazem.

The former is renowned for relative approaches to drawing and construction, while the latter has influenced an examination of natural processes.

A graduate in Architectural Engineering, Juma places much emphasis on form and structure. Her finished work, although by appearances simple, is rooted in deep study. Her formal

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education has led to a dissecting of shape and scrutiny of form, which inevitably leads to a unique assemblage for which she has become renowned.

For her series entitled ‘Red Circle’, Juma has produced an installation based on a study of the circular shape.

Using over 70 separate canvases, Juma successfully creates a series of unique ‘instances’ in which the qualities of this simplistic form are realised. Her work, which often takes an approach that is characteristic of scientific study and logic, conveys ideas of form and sequence.

She has managed with great dexterity to produce something that is simple but also arresting. She is able to engage the viewer, who no doubt is trying to establish meaning or visual linkages by darting from one image to the next.

The colour red has permitted Juma to emphasis the curved nature of each

form, whilst her choice of scale enables the truth of each shape to be presented in abstraction.

Each painted form rests on a square base, alluding to the geometric nature that rings through in much of her work.

Juma is a member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society and has exhibited her collection in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Egypt, Japan and Switzerland.

Heritage Tughra Ink, opaque watercolours, and gold on paper; 52.1 x 64.5 cm

Masterpiece Painting ‘Jamal Al Mahamel’ [The Bearer of Burdens] 1973

“Mansour’s art delves into the traumatic experiences of exile and military occupation [in Palestine]” Gannit Ankori, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Suleiman Mansour was born in Birzeit, Palestine in 1947 and studied Fine Art at Bezallel Academy in occupied Palestine.

For 40 years, the paintings of Suleiman Mansour have been a pivotal and historic marker in the Palestinian struggle. Not only did his artwork play a fundamental role in empowering Palestinian society, it also reflected the identity and struggle of its people whilst offering hope and inspiration through the creation and promotion of Palestinian visual arts across the world.

Through his work, Mansour reinforces the cultural heritage and traditions of Palestine. Using iconic symbolism, he addresses crucial moments in geographical history, documenting for posterity a narrative that has been bombarded by external forces hoping for its demise.

Mansour’s approach to creativity is described as a non-violent, geopolitical standpoint which reinforces what has been lost but will never be forgotten.

Mansour was born a year before the Nakba or Catastrophe of 1948 when the establishment of Israel led to the uprooting of 800,000 Palestinians. His work pays testimony to the tensions that existed in his youth. The ‘Nakba’ made the pictorial references of Palestinian traditions which existed before 1948 mostly inaccessible.

Through his paintings, Mansour has immortalised these native traditions such as olive picking, embroidery and pottery, and the strength and resilience of the people and their desire for liberation and justice.”

Olive trees are symbolic of the 1967 war and occupation of Palestine. Through the use of orange groves, a symbol of agricultural production in the establishment of Israel, Mansour recalls memories of the Al Nakba [The Catastrophe].

These symbolic references are conveyed in his other works such as ‘The Olive Field’ and ‘The Watch Tower’. But it is ‘The Bearer of Burdens’ with which I am currently enamoured. It epitomises the struggle of occupation; the burden of shouldering a heritage under siege. But the masterpiece that I write about here is more a mastery of defining an age. Or, more accurately, an ability to articulate the voice that emerged from a visual language and called a generation of Palestinian artists to rights. Through his paintings and his educational pursuits Mansour has inspired an army of creatives from refugee camps and urban centres to stand up for truth and fight a strategic battle for homeland and heart.

Tughra [Seal] of Sultan Mahmud II known in Europe as Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled .1520 –1566), ca. 1555; Ottoman Turkey (Istanbul)

This tughra has been drawn on heavy paper in bold lines of cobalt blue - brilliant blue lines. Three strong verticals and a great sweeping loop to the left, and a tail that runs off to the right, and inside those lines, what looks like a tiny meadow of colourful golden-blue flowers. It’s been cut from the top of an official document, and the whole design spells out the name and the title of the sultan whose authority it represents. The words combined in this elaborate pattern in Arabic translates to: “Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious.” This simple Arabic phrase, elaborated into an emblem made out of lavish and opulent materials, reflects a heritage of immense wealth and power.

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In the Spotlight Barbara and Zafer Baran Barbara and Zafer Baran are artists who have been producing art in collaboration since 1988. Working mainly with photography, their work has been exhibited internationally.

Barbara, of Polish heritage, studied photography at postgraduate level. Zafer, of Turkish origin, studied Fine Art in Istanbul before also taking photography at Goldsmiths University in London where they initially met.

Their work explores the subtleties of everyday life, by observing elements that are easily overlooked and often forgotten. Combining images from the macro and microcosmic dimensions of life, the Barans recreate a visual analysis ranging from the smallest forms of life to the expanse of the sky. Their approach is experimental, beautiful and above all, subtle.

At first glance, it looks simple but upon closer inspection it becomes clear that what is being observed is the underlying reality that exists beyond our normal field of vision.

The Barans have established a distinct visual language strongly driven by beauty as well as colour which blurs the boundaries of nature, science and aesthetics.

Seeking to capture the simplest forms and movements in nature, Barbara and Zafer Baran bring together the minutiae latent in everyday life. Transferring pared down life drawings to the photographic medium allows us to observe our world in a new and exciting way.

Painting Athier Mousawi Athier Mousawi is a British Iraqi visual artist and graduate of the prestigious Central St. Martins School of Art. Mousawi’s work, which is mainly paintings, centres on himself.

It reflects thoughts relating to his origins in Iraq and the fragmented relationship he now has with his homeland.

This, in turn, has led to Mousawi’s work conveying the undefinable. And, in his own words, “posing unanswerable questions against undefined answers and forming a visual narrative between the two”.

Observatory - Barbara & Zafer Baran: a retrospective is at Istanbul Modern until end of April 2014

To regard his work as beautiful is a clear underestimation. Mousawi’s work is a collection of colour and energy, which lends itself to many possible and whimsical narratives. For me, his work embodies imagination and story, hope and possibility. In both technicolour and monochrome, Mousawi’s work commands attention. An artistic eye spies hints of cubist origin, from Braque to the further afield Russian Constructivism, with a smidgen of Fauvism replicated in his use of colour.

[Observatory is an exhibition featuring the artists’ collaborative work from 1999 to the present and includes both photographs and videos.]

Some of his monotone pieces relate strongly to Mexican folk art. His work

In their photographs the Barans often deal with the ephemeral, just as they do with objects that go unnoticed because of their ordinariness. They are able through their photographs to realise the majesty in the mundane, bringing our attention to objects that are captivating because they are ordinary and complex due to their simplicity.

When one looks at these photographs, one’s point of view changes. The botanical, geographical and celestial elements of each subject come together as parts of a whole. Each photogram begins to relate to the next, looking alike as if of the same genus.

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Poetry Najwan Darwish “Darwish manages to overcome the false dichotomy between poetry and social and political reality” - Bashir Abu Manneh, professor of literature at Columbia University.

AWAKE

Awake for longer than forever and since before eternity: My waking is the wave that froths and foams Awake in hymns and the mailmen’s passion Awake in a house that will be destroyed and in a grave that will be dug up by machines: My country is the wave that froths and foams is certainly a fusion of style that weaves a tale of an artist whose road to selfdiscovery has taken many turns. But it is with the subtle use of text as well as form that Mousawi comes into his own.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then Mousawi has masterfully composed a novella with each canvas.

Ayyam Gallery in collaboration with Edge of Arabia Projects, presents the first UK solo exhibition of paintings, drawings and editions of Athier entitled ‘Athier; Man of War’.

Time: 17 February 2014 6:00pm - 29 March 2014 5:00pm Venue: Edge of Arabia, 40 Elcho Street, SW11 4AU Free entry More Info: info@edgeofarabia.com

Awake so that the colonisers might leave Awake so that people can sleep “Everyone has to sleep sometime,” they say I am awake and ready to die.

sharing the machinations of his mind and articulating the challenges of surviving occupation. By reference to a range of sacred texts without prejudice, he is able to speak a universal language and enunciate a specific struggle.

Through the use of metaphor and allegory, Darwish conjoins past and present, struggle and succour. Like a weaver, his poetry makes beautiful tapestries which not only create colourful representations of life but also motifs that present new ways of seeing. They are signposts that elucidate the possibilities of new and unwritten tomorrows. Darwish is a dreamer of the highest calibre, a man whose imagination has not been tapered by the ways of the world and personal experience.

His poetry has the ability to open the hearts of the most closed minded, planting seeds of hope in baron hearts.

For these reasons he has a similar language to that of Maulana Rumi and deserves to be read by one and all.

Born in Palestine in 1978, Darwish is a poet of extraordinary talent and one of the foremost Arabic poets of his generation. He is the literary advisor to the Palestine Festival for Literature and has directed and advised on literature, visual arts and theatre internationally.

TAKE OFF

Darwish’s first collection of poetry was published in 2000 and has been translated into ten languages. His writing highlights the everyday profundities of life under occupation, a task that Darwish approaches with equal measures of wit and proficiency. His writing has been compared to that of the ancient mystic Jalaluddin Rumi.

Reading his work, it is easy to see how this type of comparison can be made.

your pieces, your atoms

Darwish has a unique skill with his writing that enables him to compose his words in such a way that they take flight. The reader too is escorted on a journey that soars from earthly planes to ephemeral heights, skimming the heavens and making associations with the metaphysical. Despite his young age Darwish has mastered the skill of

You take off from the earth but can’t help falling back again You’ll land on your feet or on your face, you’ll land Even if the plane explodes will still land You’re nailed to it: the earth, your small cross. •

Moriam Grillo is an international artist. She holds Bachelor degrees in Photography, Film and Ceramics. She is also a freelance broadcaster, photographer and writer.

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In 2011 hundreds of thousands of Bahrainis rallied together proudly to demand democratic change. Now three years later, on the anniversary of the people’s revolution of 14th February, Bahrain is wracked by vicious reprisals and a political stalemate, says Hannah Smith

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very night families in Bahrain go to bed wondering whether they will be awoken in the middle of the night by security officers and dragged off to a prison or torture house. For many Bahrainis, life has becoming a living hell. Since the popular uprising that began on February 14th 2011, the Khalifa monarchy, which has ruled Bahrain for 230 years, has seemed hell-bent on weeding out and crushing every whiff of political dissent.

Barely a family exists that has not been affected by the brutal reprisals of the regime - thousands have seen family

members killed, tortured, jailed and sacked from their jobs. Many of those targeted have no record of political or civil activism.

Bahrain’s revolution began soon after events in Tunisia and Egypt, yet while the rest of the other Arab revolutions ignited, a dark cloud settled over Bahrain. Despite three years of peaceful protest and rallies, Bahraini citizens have seen no reform or improvements in civil rights. Instead they have seen their fundamental human rights to freedom of expression, assembly, religious practice, life and safety endlessly violated.

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How did Bahrain become, in the words of a British reporter, the “Cinderella of the Arab Spring”? It certainly isn’t through lack of effort; the people of Bahrain have been unwavering in their persistent calls for change. In the past six months alone, 1500 rallies and protests have been held. The scale of the protest movement has also been tremendous considering the size of the 1.2 million population, with the biggest rally drawing 500,000 participants.

Neither can the opposition movement in Bahrain be blamed for invoking the wrath of the national security forces.

The opposition coalition of seven parties, each with differing political demands, has been careful to avoid giving the regime’s security forces any excuses to intervene; its political leaders continually call for peaceful non-violent conduct, and unity in speech and external representation.

The national focus of the movement has become symbolised by the red and white national flag which can be seen flapping in the hand of every protester. It represents national unity and Bahraini sovereignty without regard for religious, socio-economic, or ethnic background.

Frustration and disappointment at the government’s policies can be traced back to the 1920s, with ongoing grievances relating to unfair distribution of wealth, discrimination, and illegal naturalisation of foreigners. Tensions escalated following the extra-constitutional imposition of a State Security Law in 1975. It lasted until its repeal in 2001 when the accession of a new king ushered in a wave of reforms and an amended constitution. However a large majority of the people were dissatisfied that a new constitution which did not rectify long term grievances was imposed upon them rather than passed via a referendum. Eventually, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the Bahrainis began their own uprising to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 2001 National Charter.

Although the political demands of the Bahrain opposition movement are varied, there are core central themes. These include transferring the majority of the power to the people of Bahrain and their elected representatives. This is in contrast to the current situation in which the king’s power extends far beyond a typical constitutional monarch due to his control of all the key offices and security apparatus and by his appointment of the cabinet and an unelected council with effective veto powers. Some parties such as the largest Al Wefaq National Islamic Society still see a role for the monarchy in a reformed polity but with limited, ceremonial powers as is the case in Britain, while other parties and young revolutionaries demand the overthrow of the royal family entirely and the constitution of a republic.

Following a long and vicious series of reprisals against its citizens, the Khalifa regime is leaving itself less and less room for a political solution in which it could play a part. There is a growing feeling that the regime cannot be reformed, even from those who have called to keep the constitutional monarchy. In the past six months alone, over 8000 human rights violations have been committed by the security forces

including 1800 house raids, 200 cases of cruel and degrading treatment, of which 450 resulted in injury, and 1100 arrests, many of which were of women and children. Recently Amnesty International published a report detailing the sickening manner in which security forces have been systematically targeting and subjecting children as young as 10 to illegal detention and torture. It is hard to imagine how the ordinary people of Bahrain will be able to forgive and forget such a dark period in their history and trust a group of leaders who have continued to flaunt the international human rights and covenants they themselves ratified.

The situation in Bahrain wasn’t always so gloomy. At the beginning of the revolution the international community looked on aghast, horrified by the brutal crackdown, and it seemed that political reform was inevitable, especially following the landmark publication of the findings of the 2011 Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), a 500-page document detailing the human rights violations recorded in the first three months of the revolution. Following the acceptance by the regime of the BICI report, which made 126 recommendations for reform, it was expected that all human rights violations would cease, especially considering the widespread condemnation of the abuses in the international arena. Three years on it has become clear that the regime’s acceptance of BICI was an empty gesture. Having seen the regime commit the same violations documented in BICI time and time again, Bahrainis have lost all faith and trust.

Without the compliance of the Bahrain authorities to human rights conventions, the people of Bahrain are left adrift and unprotected. The political opposition and human rights organisations including those with a significant international presence have made numerous representations to international leaders to take the necessary measures to end the humanitarian crisis in the country. However the international community has failed to

institute any substantial deterrents that are likely to persuade the regime to stop its campaign of terror and embark on a programme of political reform. In fact, in most regards it has been business as usual for the international community, especially the US and UK, which both have key strategic and economic interests in Bahrain.

Bahrain is home to the US 5th fleet which keeps a watchful eye over the Persian Gulf while the UK benefits from lucrative business and trade. The UK’s economic relationship with Bahrain includes significant ongoing arms deals. It is publicly known that weapons built in the UK and sold just before the uprising of February 2011 were used against peaceful protesters. Continuing to sell arms to Bahrain, as Britain does, sends the regime the message that the UK cares more about profits than the human rights of the Bahraini people.

if we upset relations or cut ties, that such losses cannot be offset by trade in other parts of the world, or rebuilt with new political leaders. Considering the changing political dynamics in the Middle East and the relative failures of the other Arab revolutions, perhaps it is a good time for Western governments to live up to their rhetoric as defenders of human rights and democracy and save the people of Bahrain. •

In the run-up to the third anniversary of the revolution on 14th February the pressure is on to end the political stalemate. The anniversary is marked each year by exceptionally large rallies and these will be followed by foreign scrutiny when the world descends for Grand Prix season in March. The race is on to reach a compromise that will satisfy all parties but most importantly the people of Bahrain. With increasingly desperate measures, which at the time of press include enforcing travel bans on opposition leaders, the Khalifa regime is displaying all the signs of an administration that is running out of ideas. Unfortunately many political commentators expect the regime’s brutal repression to lead to more casualties as it attempts to intimidate and wear down the opposition.

Perhaps it is about time our politicians stood up for the people of Bahrain and put their lives above the profits of big business. We wouldn’t accept this if it were on our soil or against our citizens, so why should we accept it for our fellow human beings in Bahrain? Putting economic interests before human rights is not only wrong from a moral standpoint but also economically unsound for it assumes our economy will suffer

Hannah Smith is Executive Secretary for SALAM for Human Rights in Bahrain.

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Feature

Gen. Sisi

and His So-So Allegiance to Democracy Unable to find a much needed unity, the Egyptian people have handed back the reins of government to the once feared and despised military. Demian Akara explains how General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is preparing the ground to become Egypt’s next president

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t was exactly three years ago that Cairo’s Tahrir Square became a household name. After valiant anti-Mubarak protesters stood their ground on the famous plaza and hundreds were martyred in the fight against pro-Mubarak goons, the revolution against autocracy, nepotism and corruption prevailed and jubilant Egyptians hoped that they may soon begin to enjoy the fruits of their revolution.

The first free elections were held and Muhammad Mursi became the first democratically elected president of Egypt. Mursi certainly had his own faults and his faction, the Muslim Brotherhood, did not always make the right decisions in running the country.

A mixture of hubris and self-righteous arrogance made the Muslim Brotherhood blind to the swelling discontent among the people.

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Had the Muslim Brotherhood played its cards right, perhaps Egypt, the most populous Arab nation and a country that has been the centre of the Arab world in modern times, could have provided a shining example of a successful transition to democratic governance. Mursi was toppled last July after the army intervened to end days of mass demonstrations against the government.

put down. The Muslim Brotherhood has been designated a terrorist organisation and thousands of pro-Brotherhood activists have either been killed, incarcerated or fled the country for fear of their lives. This is perhaps the darkest hour in the Muslim Brotherhood’s existence. Until the revolution of 2011, it had to defend itself against the government.

But now, after a disastrous spell in government, the movement also faces the wrath of the people. For example,

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who led the coup, has declared that he may consider running for president after Egyptians voted to accept a Had the Muslim Brotherhood newly drafted constitution. cards right, perhaps Egypt, [……]

‘If I run, then it must be at the request of the people and with a mandate from my army... We work in a democracy,’ Sisi said recently during an army seminar in Cairo.

themselves been on the receiving end of repressive measures in the past eight months, demonstrating how far the balance of power inside Egypt has shifted again in favour of the country’s deeply entrenched security apparatus.

Self-Serving Constitution

The draft constitution will replace the now-suspended 2012 Constitution, itself approved in a referendum. It strips out the Islamist language of the old while giving the upper hand to state institutions that opposed Mursi’s rule: the military, the police and the played its judiciary. could have

provided a shining example of a successful transition to democratic governance.

Unfair Advantage But the General forgot to mention that in the democracy that he envisions there is no room for debate over the merits as well as the deficiencies of the new constitution.

immediately following the bombing of a police station in Mansoura last December claimed by another militant group in which 17 policemen were killed, enraged vigilantes torched homes of prominent Muslim Brotherhood officers and destroyed some 20 businesses allegedly owned by its members or affiliates.

In all democracies around the globe, the defence minister is chosen by the highest executive power in the country, either the prime minister or the president, but in Egypt Article 234 accords the army this power. Other articles in the constitution make it mandatory for civilians who have assaulted members of the armed forces in military zones or military-owned properties to be tried by military rather than civilian courts.

The Egyptian army reportedly controls In such an environment, the only domiat least a quarter of the country’s nant narrative is the one supported by economy, effectively making the The Brotherhood and many other the army. In the run-up to the referarmy a state within a state. endum, Cairo was plastered Considering the vast shadow with posters saying ‘Yes to economy that the army has the constitution’ alongside been running, you could step a photo of Sisi in army into any gas station, restauuniform. But there were All indications are that the new generation rant or wedding hall in Egypt, few saying no. Opposition in Egypt, […..] will sooner or later reject any and it is quite likely that you leaders were rounded up and are in an army-owned zone. lingering affection for the military. jailed. Activists who tried to If you happen to get into a peacefully campaign for a no scuffle with a waiter in an vote were arrested and prosarmy-owned restaurant, you ecuted on charges of trying could find yourself being to change the constitution’s hauled before a military tribunal. groups boycotted the constitution “principles.” Public demonstrations referendum viewing it as a ruse to were banned, and police killed tens Another President for Life? legitimise the restoration of military of people and arrested hundreds who rule. Plenty of secularists who took part The new constitution legitimises the tried to protest against the constitution. in demonstrations against Mursi’s rule, position of the armed forces at the counThe sheer scale of the repression made and those who were appealing to the try’s helm and will exempt the security a fair and free ballot impossible. army to remove Mursi from power, are agencies from civilian control. It is the The fact is that following the military now apprehensive about the sweeping centrepiece of the military’s so-called coup last July, all voices sympathetic to powers that the army stands to gain. “road-map” towards democracy, which Mursi and his cause have been brutally Indeed some of these secularists have

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in reality is nothing but a smokescreen covering the restoration of the pre-2011 military regime. The army-orchestrated yes vote was also seen by military chiefs as an endorsement for General al-Sisi to declare his candidacy in parliamentary and presidential elections the army says will follow but which, importantly, are not guaranteed by the constitution. So it is conceivable that 60 years after the officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser took over the reign of the state in the land of the Pharaohs, and just months after the first democratically elected leader was ousted, the Egyptian military will soon be back in power with the blessing of the so-called ‘democratic process’.

During the early days of Egypt’s military rule, the presence of the army top brass in the highest executive office could perhaps be justified because the country was fighting British colonialism and later the neighbouring Zionist state. There is no justification now for any fondness for the men in uniform even though Egyptians may yearn for some stability and normality after three years of revolutionary turmoil.

Whatever support the military retains will almost certainly vanish in the years to come as it returns to its old corrupt, authoritarian and self-serving ways.

All indications are that the new generation in Egypt, empowered by the liber-

ating potential of the new information technologies, will sooner or later reject any lingering affection for the military.

So even if Sisi becomes President and sits on the same Pharaonic throne as Egypt’s previous presidents-for-life (Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak), he will probably be the last general to rule over Egypt. •

Demian Akara is a political analyst with a keen interest in Middle East affairs. He lives in Lansing, Michigan

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Cutting free from dependency On the eve of 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, Mohammad Haghir assesses Western attempts to delegitimise the Iranian government on the basis of constructed myths

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ince the Islamic Revolution in 1979 one of the West’s principle objections to the Islamic Republic of Iran has been the Western claim that the latter has no legitimacy for its existence. Indeed, the fiasco thrown up by Western politicians and the media after the 2009 Iranian presidential elections is a very good example of the legitimacy argument put forward by the West (notwithstanding its own hidden role in that event). How true is the Western claim that the IRI is not a legitimate representation of what the majority of Iranian people want.

We know from experience that Western attempts to label ‘Others’ with various adjectives (fundamentalist, illegitimate, non-democratic, etc., see Islam Today, November 2013) are, in reality, normal but hidden exercises in Orientalism which the West employs to achieve its geostrategic goals. This is no different in the case of the IRI. Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett (both former members of the US National Security Council, with Flynt also a former CIA analyst), in their 2013 book, Going to Tehran, reveal how even highly educated Americans’ perceptions of Iran and the Iranian people are simply ’wrong’. The Leveretts attribute this ignorance of any reality about the IRI to a process of myth-making prevalent in American foreign policy applications vis-a-vis the ME in general, and in ‘Orientalism’, and ‘Zionism’ in particular.

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According to the Leveretts, there is ‘...a campaign to remake the Middle East in line with American preferences’. In order to achieve this objective the US makes use of concepts and slogans such as ‘manifest destiny’, that is, the American destiny to remake the Middle East; “Imperialism of righteousness” to make the world “safe for democracy”...“the forward strategy for freedom”...”leader of the free world”’. These are slogans in the name of which American foreign policy has been enacted throughout its short history. In the 2009 Iranian presidential elections the green movement became the face of all these and other similar concepts. Thus, for example, statements about the status of human rights in the IRI are issued due to their, primary myth-making value rather than any inherent truth in these statements. All of these slogans and concepts are ultimately representative of the Orientalist approach to the IRI. The Leveretts identify four political groupings that actively pursue a hostile policy towards the IRI: ‘neoconservatives on the right, liberal internationalists on the left, the pro-Israel lobby, and Iran[ian] expatriates.’ It is through the work of these groups and all that they can control (economy, media, politics, culture, etc.) that Americans have come to understand everything about the IRI. These groups have conjured up and propagated a mythical and imaginary image of the IRI using Orientalist ideology and language.

As to how falsities could be propagated to acquire the status of knowledge, this is exactly where myths and myth-making come into their own. It is not difficult to understand the role of myths in recent Middle Eastern history. Indeed, Israel was formed utilising a series of myths (see Islam Today, April 2013).

In this context, we can see how using the same strategy, the legitimacy of the Iranian government has also been mythologised on the basis of the claim that all Iranian people support the green movement. It is not the case that the green movement has no supporters. The point is, that in the Western representation, the truth regarding the 2009 presidential elections was lost in the myth that the green movement had won it.

The Leveretts write that the (Zionism’s) and ‘America’s Iran mythology continues long-established patterns of thinking...about the Muslim world. This is where Orien-

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talism ...construct[s] summaries of Islamic culture and societies, ascribing qualities to them that [are] the diametric opposites of modern Western values like rationality, equality, and individuality’, meaning that the Middle East and its peoples are irrational and alien to the concept of equality. Thus, from the Orientalist perspective, the world of Islam has little, if any, legitimacy in the modern, Western-created world.

In this deliberate creation, that which is Western is legitimate and, therefore, that which is not Western is illegitimate. For the Leveretts, this is how ‘...the British and French...helped legitimise their interventions [in the Middle East]’. Now the US is doing the same thing, with the IRI as its main target.

Interestingly, when it comes to the politics of the Middle East the West does not tolerate any indigenous involvement other than that of Western puppets. This line of Western behaviour is not new and has historical precedents. Thus, just as in the ‘...1919 Paris peace conference Britain worked to keep Iranian delegates who had the opposite view from being seated’, so too now, in 2014, Western powers problematise the IRI’s inclusion in the Syria Geneva 2 conference. As can be seen, with a gap of nearly a century, these two different events have given rise to the same kind of Western behaviour towards Iran.

So, given the inadequacy of Western knowledge about the IRI, it follows that we cannot rely on its understanding of the country. How could we ascertain whether the IRI is, in reality, a legitimate state with its own style of government, chosen by its own people? Perhaps the most obvious area to look at for an answer is the power base of the IRI. In this regard, consider Imam Khomeini’s ‘message to the pilgrims’ delivered on the occasion of Hajj in September 1979, when the revolution was barely seven months old.

‘It is undeniable...that...Islam, the religion of divine unity, condemns individualism.

Islam is the religion [that]...liberates [human beings] from the bonds...of material nature...both in [their] inner being and in [their] outward life.’ ‘...unfortunately, the Muslims throughout history have never been able to make proper use of the divine power represented in...[Hajj]...’ ‘...summon the people...to unity; overlooking the differences between the various Muslim groups...Such a united front...could...overcome all their problems on the basis of Islamic brotherhood.’ ‘...in whatever country you may live...defend...the peoples and countries of Islam against their enemies – America [and] international Zionism...’ ‘... superpowers...are plundering all our...resources, and have placed us in a situation of political, economic, cultural, and military dependence. Come to your senses...

Endure oppression no longer...’

Even a superficial understanding of the above message highlights the broad base from which the IRI was born and has been drawing its power. It is not just Iranian Muslims that have been on the receiving end of Western bad behaviour, it is nonWestern civilisation in general, including the whole Islamic umma (community) in ‘whatever country’ they are. Thus, Imam Khomeini prescribed a ‘united front’ by all Muslims of all creeds. Only then could and would the Muslims of the world ‘liberate’ and ‘defend’ themselves against the onslaught of those who wish to dominate them.

This basic tenet of voicing the plight of the downtrodden everywhere and calling them to action remains an integral part of the philosophy of the IRI. It is this same philosophy (the presentation of an all-encompassing Islamic world unity) that in Iran has produced the most democratic state in the Middle East, even by Western standards, as evidenced by the election of Hassan Rowhani in the 2013 Iranian presidential elections. In this light, the Arab spring of the early 21st century can be

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traced back to the ideals of the Islamic revolution.

If the Islamic unity which Imam Khomeini called for becomes a reality it would mean that all the oppressed Muslims (and non-Muslims) of the world would take control of their own resources, affairs, and destinies. And this is the IRI’s power base today. It is therefore not at all surprising that Western powers, headed by the US, should engage in all kinds of machinations and trickery in order to prevent such unity amongst Muslims. The principle of ‘divide and rule’ is very much in operation here.

People’s participation in political life is an expression of democratic ideals.

It is true that the Iranian constitution includes a concept of religious order within the state, based on divine precepts, but the bottom line is that the management of the public domain in the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on a democratic vision. The Iranian constitution as it was formulated by the founding fathers envisages people’s participation in the political process.

The Iranian system has an elected parliament. Taking into consideration that the West has no monopoly on democracy and that a democracy can have many shades, it follows that democracy can be constructed also within a religious framework and does not necessarily have to be a facsimile of the Western liberal model. •

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Outside looking in inside looking out Migrating from Iran to the UK in 1978 Hassan Lotfi describes how people’s perceptions about his identity changed almost overnight as a consequence of the events in Iran and the way they were reported in the media.

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arrived in England as a keen Iranian sportsman at the end of 1978, receiving my student visa at the airport. Besides this there was not much else I could claim for myself. I wanted to study and given the global reputation of the UK for providing the best education, I chose Britain. Thus, I arrived full of hope and the desire to do my best. I felt happy; I was in control of my own destiny in the land of opportunity and meritocracy.

Growing up in the Iran of the second Pahlavi regime, other than excelling in sports, I learned very little about the world, including Iran itself. Because of my sporting focus, I grew up developing a non-view of the world and my place within it. At the same time, having come from a working class family background, I was involved in the cultural life of people like myself. Hence, as a Muslim, I took part in religious gatherings throughout the year.

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However, partly because of my own lack of curiosity, I had never been introduced to the historical role of religion in all areas of Iranian life (personal as well as political, national, and later, international politics). Schools did not teach this history and even in the mosques I had never seen it referred to directly until 1978. By the time I left for the UK, people were rising up against a government that appeared invincible. Although I did not understand what was happening, having spent part of my childhood in the then impoverished south of Tehran, I understood why people wanted change. As the name of Ayatollah Khomeini became better known, I became increasingly determined to learn more. I arrived in Britain well aware of the injustices that were affecting all levels of Iranian society.

With the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and its thundering reverberations around the world, a new and more meaningful chapter of my life began. At first and for some

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years afterwards, this was accompanied by an identity crisis. Who was I? What did it mean to be an Iranian in Europe as the Islamic revolution unfolded? I had good reason to ask these questions: on arrival in the UK a few weeks before the revolution I was treated with courtesy. Within weeks of the revolution changing attitudes in England became visible. I was branded an Iranian Muslim with revolutionary ideas and a suspicious ideology. I was amazed at how easily events over which I had no control could make people see me so differently. I had become an outsider, since in Iran I had missed the revolution and in England my perceived status ranged from untrustworthy to terrorist.

I had many questions. I thought that if a society like Iran before the Islamic revolution could collapse almost overnight, then that society must have been built on very shaky foundations. I thus became interested in finding out how societies were built and what their constituent parts were. I wanted to know what made one society different from another, what made one stronger or weaker than others. For this reason, I decided to study sociology. After a 17-year delay, it was here that I developed some understanding of what it means to be an outsider. The outsider has the disadvantage of being a perpetual foreigner but s/he also has the advantage of possessing a wider, deeper picture of reality (George Shultz, The Outsider).

As I began my sociological education, I quickly became aware that sociology itself was a modern child of a much older parent: philosophy. I followed this path, obtaining an honours degree in philosophy and sociology in 1997. Unfortunately, none of my official education had answered any of my questions. All I had learned was how to research, rather than learn about social philosophy or how societies are built.

After the revolution, the Western political establishment and mass media portrayed the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian people in a negative light, a trend that has continued ever since. In response, I became even more determined to learn about the role of Western powers in the modern world, particularly in Iran.

I needed to learn more in order to develop a better understanding of human and social sciences. Thus, I embarked on my private study which continues to this day.

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Importantly, my research revealed the compelling and irresistible pull of religion in all cultures. Indeed, many doctoral theses published in Western universities make a direct comparison between the influence of religion and that of philosophy on human existence. By and large, they conclude that religion is infinitely more powerful than philosophy. Thus for me the discourses coming out of the Islamic Republic of Iran represent an alternative voice and an essential message for Muslims and nonMuslims alike. To expose powerful countries that influence our everyday lives seems to be the first step in understanding them. I have become an observer looking at the world from my (outsider’s) philosophical, social, cultural, and political perspective.

This has also turned me into a polemicist.

Today, thirty-five years after my arrival in the UK, I understand a good deal about the role of the West in having shaped the current world order (or disorder). I have learned about how societies are built. For example, society, at least in the West, relies on a rigid, stratified system, and, despite all pretentions to the contrary, is an unfair and restricted system for the majority of its own population, never mind outsiders. Yes, there are many opportunities here but little meritocracy (at least for an outsider). I also understand that there are definite and visible interests that specifically plan social programmes, (especially in areas of economy and culture) precisely for the purposes of maintaining those interests. This is why most global wealth has ended up in the hands of a tiny minority. From the viewpoint of home affairs, just one deep and careful look at consumer, popular, and political culture is enough to enable us to recognise who the beneficiaries are in that culture. Similarly, on a larger scale and from the viewpoint of foreign affairs, one look at the war industry is enough to tell us who benefits from wars. All of this is a far cry from my imagination, thirty five years ago.

Incidentally, as a by-product, my private studies have enabled me to learn a good deal about modern British history too because this history is intimately bound to the history of modern Iran, as is the case wherever the British Empire went. Thus, I have utilised my outsider status to positive effect in order to increase my knowledge of the world and my place within it.

Hassan Lotfi was the national Iranian diving champion for fourteen years, a participant in the Tehran 1974 Asian Games and many world class competitions. He is a two times world masters diving champion.

Having integrated into English society and culture (as well as being a professional sports instructor, I am also a primary school music teacher), yet having kept my Iranian identity, I am still the outsider, recognised through a constructed, distorted image that the media have produced about Iran and the Iranian people during the last thirty-five years. •

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When words become weapons

‘Speak and you shall be known, for the person is hidden under his tongue’, Ali ibn Abi Talib(a)

Ali Jawad discusses the power of language in defining how one expresses faith, focusing particularly on the rise of intolerant rhetoric across the Muslim world

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anguage and thought are like two sides of the same coin. For how we think influences what we say, and what we say shapes how we think. Words offer an important window into the world of our thoughts. When thoughts are narrow, language becomes constricted and polarising. In such situations, words can mutate into arrows of discord that in turn give birth to a language that communicates negativity and division.

We recognise this relationship between words and thought in our daily lives, especially in examples of discrimination. The vile thoughts of racists and bigots of different kinds can often be deduced from their hostile language aimed at some ‘other’. Inherent in this is a deeply entrenched ‘Us versus Them’ discourse. Whereas we often imagine language to be a medium of communication, in such instances language not only becomes a vehicle to reinforce division, but it is also the means through which one identifies and gives form to the ‘Other’. It justifies attitudes and beliefs, and in turn, fortifies and intensifies them.

The late twentieth-century British author and critic George Orwell famously wrote an essay titled ‘Politics and the English language’ in 1946 in which he observed: ‘if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought’ because an effect can become a cause in a repeating sequence leading to an amplified end-result. To illustrate this, he posed the following example: ‘A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks.’

In light of the deep bond between thought and language, Islam places great emphasis on speech. Indeed the cornerstone of the faith – the Holy Qur’an – is the Divine Speech to humanity. Through it, God speaks to human beings and introduces amongst many other concepts, the idea of ‘dialogue’. In numerous verses

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of the Holy Qur’an, we are audience to different dialogues: God and the angels, God and Satan, God and His prophets, prophets and their nations, parents and their children, believers and unbelievers, the inhabitants of Heaven and those of Hell etc. Throughout these verses, the actual words in the dialogue are detailed or descriptive adjectives are used to either describe the form of speech or established as conditions for the same. Some of the adjectives used to describe the speech are: honourable (2:235), upright (4:9), far-reaching (4:63), noble (17:23), gentle (17:28), soft-mannered (20:44) and so on.

Similarly, in the Prophetic example we find endless references to the nobility of the personal conduct and speech of the Holy Prophet(s) in his interactions with various people and groups. In addition to narrations about the importance of ethics, Prophetic sayings such as ‘No one achieves true faith unless he controls his tongue’ disclose the relationship between our speech (including the lack thereof) and faith.

Given the Islamic stance on speech, how then are we to rationalise the mortal sickness of intolerance that is currently plaguing the Muslim world? The precarious condition that surrounds us today cries out for sober selfcritique and deep examination. Whilst being cognisant of the profound effects of politics and power on culture and thought, as well as the impact that the imperial power game of the last decade has had on radicalisation, sectarianism and the ... as well as the impact budding of takfeeri (exclusivist extremists) currents, we must that the imperial powerstill pause to ask some serious questions about the language that today falsely poses in the name of Islam. game of the last decade All one has to do is run a quick search on YouTube to find countless clips of preachers of hate who poison minds with speech that could not be more distant from Islamic teachings.

Running the fear of pressing on raw nerves, what else does a discourse peppered with words such as rafidi, majoos, anjaas, bakri, et al. seek to achieve other than intentionally stoke division? Is this a language that aims to communicate, or to achieve its anti-thesis, non-communication? More importantly, what does such language divulge about the thoughts of its speakers?

has had on radicalisation, sectarianism ... we must still pause to ask some serious questions about the language that today falsely poses in the name of Islam.

Aside from a handful of sectarian ‘hate-scholars’ from the Shia and Sunni community, this discourse is a particular feature of the takfeeri currents. Notably, these currents have an extremely constricted understanding of faith. So perilously narrow is the ‘Straight Path’ that one is either in the Absolute Truth or sunk in Absolute Falsehood – there exists no room for anything between the two extremes. What is worse, one who is not deemed to be on the Absolute Truth (as they understand it to be) at once becomes a kafir (unbeliever) and can be attacked at will. To create this mindless worldview, language plays a critical function. It distorts established terms, gives them new meaning and utilises their original symbolism to catastrophic effect.

Thought and language are thus divided in a Manichean sense: those who share the same convictions are spoken to through a positive discourse and those who do not are exposed to a hostile, visceral negative discourse filled with hate and abuse.

In this sense, language is used to preclude thought and teaches its followers to ‘un-think’. It promotes a bunker mentality, cocoons its advocates in pretentious selfcontained bubbles of righteousness and targets anyone who holds a different view. It is exactly for this reason that infighting between takfeeri groups almost immediately follows a military logic of wiping out the other. When words are instinctively used as weapons and all possible mediums necessary to construct dialogue are burnt down, there can be no hope for anything but physical retaliation. Any group that deviates however so slightly from one’s specific understanding of the ‘Truth’ must

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immediately be confronted in order for the ‘truth to be victorious’.

This phenomenon is not entirely novel in human history. In his acclaimed book, Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution, Alastair Crooke examines the philosophical origins for the standoff between ‘Islam and the West’, primarily focusing on the inter-related themes of power, thought and language. He traces the use of language as a tool of power by the Protestant and Puritan struggle in order to ridicule and depict its rival, Catholicism. Language, in such contexts, is used as a tool to inhibit dialogue and to sketch a false image of the ‘Other’.

Today, we notice this style of discourse both internally at a sectarian level as well as in the Islam-West discourse. As western political powers resort to the traditional imagery of Islam and the Orient as fundamentally irrational and bloodthirsty, the mainstream media outlets give fanatics centre stage in order to vindicate these assumptions. Through their hostile language and distortion of terms such as jihad and kufr (disbelief), these individuals not only fulfil the above function but also give rise to a situation in which Islamic terms are used to promote conduct that the faith categorically forbids.

It would seem that more than ever Muslims must be mindful of their ‘language’ in this age in which many powerful forces have vested interests to promote hatred and intolerance. In my experience, we are often needlessly drawn into divisive talk that is distant from the Islamic model: be it unnecessary sectarian polemics or funny ‘jokes’ with a sectarian twist. To be dragged this low is to do a disservice to our own minds. Just as foul language invariably corrupts minds, the language of hate strikes at the purity of our faith.

Our discourse is an inseparable part of who we are. In the words of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib(a), ‘Speak and you shall be known, for the person is hidden under his tongue’. This is as true of individuals as it is of nations and ideologies, for the language of the latter disclose their deepest convictions and moral standards.

In our present context, we are witness to ‘competing languages’ within the fabric of the Islamic community - these articulate distinct understandings of faith in terms of thoughts, values and ideological foundations.

It would seem that more than ever Muslims must be mindful of their ‘language’ in this age in which many powerful forces have vested interests to promote hatred and intolerance.

As individuals, we are constantly making a choice with respect to the language we use and the discourse we align toward.

Language is vitally important because it offers a means for regeneration. Words and meanings provide an important medium through which to imagine and construct a different reality. Language wields immense power in defining the thoughts and conduct of millions and how they express their faith. As such, people of faith have an obligation to ensure that the words they use are in harmony with the convictions of their hearts. Equally importantly, they must remain vigilant about the (mis)use of words by their co-religionists who may utilise the very same language of faith to an altogether different end. •

Ali Jawad is a human rights activist and political analyst with a keen interest in international diplomacy.

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Alexander Khaleeli discusses the sacred position of the Ahl al-Bayt in Islam and how this should be a source of unity for Muslims of all schools of thought at a time when the extremists are trying to cause division

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he Prophet’s Household (Ahl al-Bayt) occupy a special position in Islam. God instructs His Messenger(s) in the Qur’an: ‘Say, ‘I do not ask you any reward for it except love of [my] relatives.’ (42:23) In other words, the only reward the Prophet was told to ask in return for delivering the message of Islam was that the people show respect and affection for his relatives – his Ahl al-Bayt. And it was this very verse that, in the aftermath of the massacre at Karbala, that Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin(a) appealed to during his captivity in Damascus to decry the terrible injustice that had been perpetrated against his father, Husayn(a), the grandson of the Prophet.

The Ahl al-Bayt are given honours in the Qur’an not bestowed on any of the other believers, when God says: ‘Indeed God desires to repel all impurity from you, O Ahl al-Bayt, and purify you with a thorough purification.’ (33:33) Some interpreters have said that Ahl al-Bayt refers to the wives of the prophets, who are being addressed both before and after this statement. However, we see that when this verse was revealed the Prophet(s) himself took ‘Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn beneath his cloak and said: ‘O God! These are the people of my household!’ This is famously known as the tradition of the cloak (hadith al-kisa’) and is narrated in the collections of Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi and Nasa’i (four of the six most reliable Sunni books of hadith), as well as the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the Tafsir of Tabari. Of particular interest is the account related by Ibn Hanbal, Tabari and Tirmidhi from the Prophet’s wife, Umm Salama, who – when she heard the Prophet utter these words – asked, ‘Am I not of your Ahl al-Bayt, O Messenger of God?’ And he replied: ‘No, but you will have a good outcome.’

In another well-known tradition, the Prophet(s) told his followers at the end of the farewell pilgrimage: ‘I am leaving

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two weighty things amongst you, the Qur’an and my Ahl al-Bayt.’ Variants of this account appear in Muslim, Tirmidhi and Ibn Hanbal’s Musnad.

And while Sunni and Shi’a Muslims disagree about the significance of this statement, with the latter believing that this implies leadership while the former argue that it merely denotes a position of respect, both agree that it singles them out as having a position of particular importance for Islam and Muslims.

Indeed, the Ahl al-Bayt are not only connected to the Prophet by blood, but by oneness of spirit as well. The Prophet famously said: ‘I am of Husayn and Husayn is of me’ and ‘I am of Fatima

….there is absolutely no disagreement about their [Ahl al-Bayt] pre-eminence amongst Muslims; it is for this reason that we see all the classical schools of the Islamic intellectual tradition held the Prophet’s Household in the highest regard.

and Fatima is of me, so whoever upsets Fatima has upset me and whoever upsets me has upset God.’ That is why when God instructed His Messenger to challenge the Christians of Najran after they disputed the Prophet’s proclamation on the non-divinity of Jesus(a), He told him to say: ‘‘Come! Let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then let us pray earnestly and call down God’s curse upon the liars.’ (3:61) All accounts agree that for his “sons,” the Prophet brought Hassan and Husayn, for his “women,” he brought his daughter Fatima and for his “self,” he brought ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib(a). And it is this connection of blood and spirit to the Prophet that means the faithful must have ‘love for my relatives.’ This principle is further emphasised in

numerous traditions, such as when the Prophet told ‘Ali(a): ‘None will love you save a believer, none will hate you save a hypocrite,’ (Nasa’i). In another account, the Prophet saw Fatima and her two sons, whereat he turned to Zayd ibn. Arqam and said: ‘Whoever loves them, loves me, and whoever hates them, hates me.’ (Ta’rikh Damishq).

On one occasion he saw Hassan and Husayn and said, ‘Whoever loves me and loves these two, their father and their mother, will be with me at my level on the Day of Judgement.’ (Tirmidhi) Ibn Hanbal narrates in his Merits of the Companions: ‘Whoever dislikes us, the Ahl al-Bayt, is a hypocrite.’ And the Mu’tazilite scholar, Zamakhshari, reports in his Tafsir al-Kashshaf: ‘Whoever dies hating the Household of Muhammad has died a disbeliever, and whoever dies hating the Household of Muhammad shall never smell the scent of Paradise.’

All of these traditions show that loving and venerating the Household of the Prophet are an essential component of the Islamic tradition.

In fact, we can see that loving the Prophet’s Household and faith are inseparable, as illustrated by the words of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir(a): ‘Is it enough for a person to embellish himself as one of our followers by claiming to love us? By God our followers are only those who fear God and obey Him…’ before going on to enumerate their moral qualities.

So while the Sunni-Shi’a debate is rooted in a disagreement about the status and rights of the Ahl al-Bayt, there is absolutely no disagreement about their pre-eminence amongst Muslims; it is for this reason that we see all the classical schools of the Islamic intellectual tradition – whether Sunni or Shi’a – held the Prophet’s Household in the highest regard. Imam Shafi’i – the founder of one of the four schools of Sunni law – was arrested, accused of harbouring Shi’a sympathies. When the Caliph, Harun al-Rashid, interrogated him, asking: ‘Are you a rafidi?’ He is

said to have given the memorable reply, ‘If loving the Household of Muhammad makes me a rafidi, then let the world bear witness that I am a rafidi!’ [rafidi was derogatory term used to describe the followers of Ali ibn Abi Talib(a)] Indeed, at a time when there are extremists on both sides eager to stoke the fires of sectarian hatred, the Prophet’s Household represent a powerful source of Islamic unity; not only are they revered by all Muslims, but they themselves lived by the principle of unity and set an example for us all to follow.

Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq(a), in particular, represents an immensely important figure of Islamic unity. Far from being hostile to those who did not recognise his position as a divinely-appointed leader, he focused his energies on disseminating the true teachings of the Prophet. We are told that his school in Kufa was attended by more than four thousand students, the majority of whom were not Shi’a. Moreover, a number of major Sunni scholars are counted amongst his students. One of these is Abu Hanifa – the founder of the Hanafi School – who famously said of his years studying with al-Sadiq: ‘Were it not for those two years, Nu’man would have perished!’ Another is Malik b. Anas – the founder of the Maliki

Imam Ali(a), in spite of his well-attested dispute with Abu Bakr, Umar and ‘Uthman, nevertheless advised them and admonished them in the interests of Islam and Muslims; his efforts to mediate between ‘Uthman and those who had rebelled against the latter’s rule clearly show that he was …. the shared love and reverence that committed to maintaining a all Muslims feel for the Ahl al-Bayt can unified Islamic polity. Despite the keen sense of injustice he serve as a common ground and source of felt, he did not press for his unity at a time when the extremists are rights without regard for the desperately trying to divide Muslims. well-being of the Muslims, but spent his life and his Caliphate striving to hold together the Muslim community. It is tragically poetic that a man who devoted his life to unity was murdered school – who, as well as narrating the by the member of an extremist sect Imam’s legal opinions in his Muwatta’, who considered all other Muslims to be is reported to have said: ‘No eye has disbelievers. seen, nor ear heard, nor mind conceived Husayn ibn Ali(a) too, provides a striking [of a man] better than Ja’far al-Sadiq, model of unity in the face of adversity; whether in merit, knowledge, worship when he rose up against the tyranny of or piety!’ And all later Sunni scholars Yazid ibn Mu’awiya, he did not use the and authorities had only praise for him. language of sectarianism, but promised While nothing can erase the distinction to bring about reform in the community between the Shi’a and Sunni traditions of his grandfather, the Prophet, and and nor would it be desirable to do so, revive the latter’s teachings. That is why the shared love and reverence that all Muslims of all persuasions, including Muslims feel for the Ahl al-Bayt can some like Zuhayr ibn al-Qayn, who had serve as a common ground and source been known for their opposition to of unity at a time when the extremists Imam ‘Ali(a), joined his cause. And that are desperately trying to divide Muslims, is why his brutal massacre and that of whether in Britain, Syria, Bahrain, Pakihis followers at Karbala evoked outrage stan or elsewhere. We must remember amongst all Muslims, delivering a moral that the same extremists who desecrate defeat from which the Umayyad dynasty and vandalise the shrines of the could never recover.

Prophet’s descendants are doing the

same to the graves of the Prophet’s companions and the famous scholars of Sunni Islam wherever they find an opportunity; and the same extremists who broadcast hatred and vilification of Sunni religious figures direct that same hatred towards Shi’a religious scholars who disagree with them.

In these dire times, the Prophet’s Household do not only provide a shared object of love and respect, but they also provide a shining example of how it is possible to overcome our differences, without trying to pretend they don’t exist. •

Alexander Khaleeli is a researcher and student in the Hawza ‘Ilmiyyah of Qum. He earned his BA and MA at the Islamic College in London.

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When abortion is the last resort The issue of termination of a pregnancy by medical intervention has long been the battleground of the pro-life and pro-choice campaigners, both claiming moral validity. Hamid Waqar explains the general Islamic position on abortion

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bortion is one of the most contested issues in the contemporary world. Every year there are heated political debates and even acts of terrorism surrounding this issue. According to

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the famous moral philosopher Peter Singer, the issue of abortion is currently one of the most bitterly disputed of all ethical issues. The debate has been long-running, and neither side has had much success in altering the opinions

of its opponents.

The term abortion usually refers to the induced termination of a human pregnancy. Throughout history, religion has prohibited abortion. This can be seen in many religious scriptures

and the words of religious scholars.

For instance, according to the Hindu scholar Chandrasekhar, the Hindu scriptures from the Vedic age down to the Smritis (100 BC to 100 CE) called it “bhrunahatya” (“foetus murder”) or farbhahatya (“pregnancy destruction”), and condemned it as a serious sin.

The major monotheistic religions have also condemned the practice of abortion. In Judaism, the ruling prohibiting abortion is based on the verse, ‘Whosoever sheddeth the blood of man in man, his blood shall be shed.’ (Genesis 9:6). Here, ‘man in man,’ is considered to be a foetus, and aborting this foetus is equated with murder.

be a probable threat. This permission is based on an interpretation of the halachic term rodef, meaning pursuer.

This principle allows someone to kill a thief who is breaking into one’s house, because of the possibility that the thief is armed and may kill him or her. The foetus is considered a “pursuer,” which is threatening the mother’s life. This threat must be stopped, even if it means killing the pursuer.

Islamic scholars have provided insights into this issue. For instance, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei states: “[Aborting the foetus] is not permissible at any count, barring pregnancy which poses danger to the mother’s life. In this case, there is no objection to terminating the pregnancy before the soul has entered the foetus. When the spirit enters the

that there are three consecutive stages, each equalling 40 days, totalling 120 days before ensoulment occurs.

This view is based on a famous tradition where it is reported that the Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad(s), said: “Every one of you is collected in the womb of his mother for the first 40 days, and then he becomes a clot for another 40 days, and then a piece of flesh for another 40 days. Then God sends an angel to breathe the soul into its body.”

(Muslim, tradition number 2643) Although abortion is a heated topic from an Islamic point of view it is a settled issue.

When the foetus is considered a human Abortion has also been an important being it is given the rights of a human and highly debated issue in Roman being. Therefore, aborting a 120-dayCatholicism. Pope Pius XII said: “Even old foetus is equivalent to the unborn child is a human murdering a new-born child being in the same degree in the eyes of God. • and by the same title as its mother.” This supports the Catholic opinion that aborAlthough abortion is a heated topic from an tion is illegal due to the right of life given to a foetus.

Islamic point of view it is a settled issue.

The Islamic opinion regarding abortion confirms its sinful nature. Islamic scholars unanimously prohibit abortion in the majority of cases. But the question about the universality of these religious opinions on abortion is often raised. Do these religions prohibit aborting one’s child in all cases, or are there exceptions to the rule?

One oft-mentioned example is the case where the mother’s life is in danger. In some pregnancies, a mother’s life will be put in danger, meaning that if she gives birth there is a serious chance she might die. In other pregnancies both the lives of the mother and the child are in danger. This means that if the mother gives birth there is a serious chance both she and the child will die.

This is a controversial topic with varying opinions amongst the religions.

For instance, Jewish law allows abortion when the mother’s life is in danger. The danger to the mother’s life does not even have to be definitive; it can merely

foetus, it is not permissible to abort it, even if the pregnancy spells danger to the mother’s life, except in the event where carrying on with the pregnancy could prove fatal to both the foetus and the mother, and there is no way to save the baby’s life, but it is possible to save the mother’s life through abortion.”

Here, an important distinction is raised regarding ensoulment. Before ensoulment, if the mother’s life is in danger she can abort, but after ensoulment, only if both the mother and child’s lives are in danger can she abort.

The period of ensoulment is also a debated issue. Some religions consider ensoulment to occur at conception.

This is the opinion of the Catholic Church which states that human life begins at the moment of conception.

In Islam there are varying viewpoints.

The most prominent opinion suggests

Hamid Waqar is an American Islamic scholar, graduated from Islamic seminaries.

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Interfaith

Pope Fran & the Virg where dialogue really takes off

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ncis, Islam gin Mary:

Interpreting recent statements made by Pope Frances I, Frank Gelli sees signs of openness and a greater disposition towards dialogue in the new pontiff

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he Pope got some flak recently. By a fellow Jesuit, the Egyptian scholar on Islam Samir Khalil Samir. The charge? In a recent papal exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, the paragraphs concerning Islam have been a bit too friendly, too positive and appreciative towards the fellow monotheist religion. Professor Samir has censured Pope Francis and advised caution…

It is interesting that both the Pope and his critic are members of the Jesuit Order.

The famed religious community founded by one of the giants of Christian spirituality, St Ignatius of Loyola. At the very start of his vocation St Ignatius had a significant

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personal and theological encounter with a Muslim. A most dramatic episode, well worth recounting.

Spain, March 1522. A pilgrim, a former knight called Inigo is on his way to pray at the shrine of Our Lady of Aranzaru.

As he rides along, a Muslim on a mule comes up to him, so they go on talking together. The Virgin Mary of course interests the Muslim – more verses speak of her in the Qur’an than in the New Testament and the Book attests to Mary’s holy virginity. Yet the Muslim, contrary to Catholic belief, declares: ‘I cannot see how she could have remained a Virgin after giving birth.’

Despite giving reasons to the contrary, the pilgrim fails to budge him. After that the fellow rides on away.

of his life Ignatius saw himself as being chosen by God for a sacred purpose.

So it is fitting that at the start of his mission God’s finger should have saved him from committing an act of violence.

Did the Virgin Mary intercede for him?

It would certainly have been an insult to Mary if her name had given cause to shed innocent blood. Much more fitting instead that she should be the occasion for dialogue, debate, common entente, even mutual love. That is in fact what the Pope seems to be advocating.

The Jesuits are a tough lot. They used to be like the Pope’s SAS. Ordinary monks take the traditional three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The Jesuits take a fourth, unconditional obedience to the person of the Pope.

It was then that Ignatius conceived his famous image of the world as two great battlefields, two armies facing one another in mortal, never-ending combat. Two standards flew – one Christ’s, the other Satan’s.

A master of the art of the discernment of a person’s spiritual development, St Ignatius in the Exercises guides the director how to do his job. And how, to discern whether and in what manner a candidate is really fit for the great combat. It is a bit elitist, perhaps. The Exercises were for the warriors. They were not meant for the ordinary, run-ofthe-mill Christians, any more than any Army recruit is fit for serving in a crack unit.

St Ignatius’ influence is vast. Writer Italo Calvino has claimed that Ignatian methodology, the work of the imagination in the Spiritual Exercises – a As befits a good Jesuit, Pope Francis’ spirituality kind of inner, holy computer game – has shaped a whole gives high value and emphasis to the figure of subsequent tradition of the Virgin Mary. That, I submit, must make his mental picturing. I have especially alert to the honour that the Qur’an often wondered whether Ibn Arabi was trying to do accords to her. something similar, though in a non-iconic way, with his vast opus, the Futuhat al-Makkiya. The Sufi master Eventually he decides: ‘I An obedience that St Ignatius himself had his share of mystical visions and his will let my mule go with the reins slack stipulated should be absolute, like that writings could well be seen as a gigantic as far as where the road divides into of a walking stick in the hand of a blind composition aimed at the direction and a fork. If the beast takes the left side, man, following his will and directions. elevation of a devotee’s soul… the direction where the Muslim went, I So a Jesuit supposedly has no will of will pursue him and avenge the Virgin’s We know that St Ignatius had a special his own but is totally subservient to the honour. If not, it will be a sign from God devotion to the Virgin Mary. The Exerwill of the Pope as the supreme head of that I should let him be.’ Well, though cises also contain several references the Church. the left side of the road was broader to the mother of Christ. A Hail Mary Inigo wrestles with his emotions. Has he done wrong? The former knight’s code of honour demands that he should avenge the perceived slight to his celestial Lady. A strong desire seizes him to go after the Muslim and strike him with his dagger. But he is conflicted: shouldn’t a Christian pilgrim recoil from violence?

and better, the mule chose the other, narrower way. Thanks be to God! Inigo the pilgrim later became St Ignatius of Loyola. He is commemorated in the Anglican Lectionary – pretty amazing, considering for centuries his name was anathema to Protestants.

This is because he founded one of the most militant and combative religious orders in the history of the Catholic Church, whose motto is that all things are to be done and dedicated to the greatest glory of God. Indeed, to the end

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Of course, the Jesuits sought above all to win souls. The chief text they employed was that of a celebrated manual, a mystical classic, The Spiritual Exercises. A series of shrewd notes, meditations and instructions compiled

by Ignatius himself. A distillation of his own ascetic trials. While doing harsh penance in a cave the Saint underwent a series of spiritual visions and illuminations. Some, he realised, were deceptive, coming from the Evil One. Others, more comforting and enduring, came from God.

is one of the prescribed prayers to be said after a particular contemplation.

And the meditations often consist in visualising the Virgin with her son, both as a child and as an adult.

One indeed is particularly moving: Jesus’ farewell to his mother, as he leaves Nazareth to embark on his salvific mission. Such an event is not mentioned in the Gospels but St Ignatius thought it symbolised the call of God to be ready to transcend even the most natural human ties for the sake

of the kingdom of Heaven. Moreover, the Saint also daringly shows Jesus appearing to and consoling his mother after his resurrection, because she was greatly distressed. St Teresa of Avila, another notable Spanish mystic, also relates a vision to the same effect.

As befits a good Jesuit, Pope Francis’ spirituality gives high value and emphasis to the figure of the Virgin Mary. That, I submit, must make him especially alert to the honour that the Qur’an accords to her. Indeed, the document he was criticised for states that in the Book ‘Jesus and Mary…are the object of profound veneration’. And even the Pope’s critic mentioned above, Father Samir, had to concede that in Islam ‘Mary is venerated, especially

by Muslim women, who willingly go to places of pilgrimage.’

So, the Pope has often expressed his sorrow for the sad plight of Christians in places like Syria and wherever they are persecuted and killed by fanatics but he has also incessantly affirmed the importance of religious dialogue ‘as a contribution to peace.’ That the Blessed Virgin Mary should play a key role in such an interfaith exchange is surely very uplifting. Something that both Muslims and Christians can rejoice for.

Lastly, I cannot help wondering about the person of that unknown Muslim St Ignatius conversed with on the way to a Marian shrine half a millennium ago.

He fascinates me. He did not get angry with the pilgrim for asserting his Christian beliefs about Mary. Nor did he try to convert him or kill him. Instead, he argued with him rationally, in a friendly way. Isn’t that wonderful? •

Revd Frank Julian Gelli is an Anglican priest, cultural critic and a religious controversialist, working on religious dialogue. His last book “Julius Evola: the Sufi of Rome’ is available on Amazon Kindle.

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Health Medical Editor Laleh Lohrasbi

The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet

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he Mediterranean diet incorporates the traditional healthy eating and living habits of people from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea which include Italy, Greece, Morocco, Spain and part of the Middle East. This is not to be confused with the three/four course meals and abundant use of wine quite common nowadays in some of these countries but should be identified with the region’s traditional eating habits, characterised by low meat consumption and an extraordinary intake of beans and legumes.

The Mediterranean itself has been the meeting ground of many cultures and the introduction of new foods has contributed to the development of a certain culinary style. For example when southern Europe become part of the Islamic dominion, Muslims introduced new plants species such as sugar cane, rice, citrus, eggplant, spinach and spices that transformed the local diet.

Another addition was the introduction of tomato brought to Europe from South America by the Spanish. Some variations of the original tomato became extensively produced and used in southern Italy Over the past 50 years, American and other nutritionists have altered the idea of the Mediterranean diet to make it more compatible with modern lifestyles and tastes. They have concentrated on reducing meat, saturated fat, and calories, replacing them with the region’s traditional fruits: vegetables, beans, nuts, seafood, olive oil and small amounts of dairy produce. In general the objective has been to try to supplant the unhealthy diet high in animal fat, preservatives and low consumption of fruits and vegetables. Research shows that if it is followed for a number of years the Mediterranean diet is able to reduce the risk of developing heart disease, cancer, high bood pressure, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. It could also form part of a

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Mediterranean diet sample Here is an example of a day menu for a Mediterranean diet. Other menus can be easily tailored according to individual eating habits simply by adding more pasta, unrefined bread, lots of legumes, fruits, salads, olive oil, fish and less red meat as possible.

Breakfast:

Lunch

Dinner

1 medium or 1/2 cup of fruit

1 cup of juice, soya milk or healthy drink

1 cup of juice, soya milk or healthy drink

1 cup of juice or soya milk 1 & 1/2 cup of vegetables

1/2 cup legumes, 30gr of fish (minimise low fat cheese white meat & eggs)

Nuts or seeds - 15gr

1/4 cup legumes 1 fish (minimise low fat cheese white meat & eggs)

1 & 1/2 cup of vegetables

1 cup of whole grains 2 slices of whole grain bread 1 tbsp olive oil/flavour

1 tbsp olive oil/flavour 1 cup whole grain

Snacks

A healthy drink 1 medium fruit or half cup 1 medium fruit or half cup 30 gr nuts or seeds

To avoid

Cheese

Red meat

Chocolate bars

Sweets

Sweets Fried food/ kebabs hamburgers

Fizzy drinks

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successful strategy for healthy weight reduction.

A study led by Ancel Keys of the Mayo Foundation examined the diets and health of almost 13,000 middle-aged men after World War II. This study which was done on Americans, Japanese, Italians, Greeks (including from Crete), the Dutch, Finnish, and Yugoslavians, indicated that remarkably, well-fed American men had higher rates of heart disease than those in countries whose diets had been restricted by the deprivations of war. It was the men of Crete, arguably the poorer people in the study, who enjoyed the best cardiovascular health.

Professor Ancel Keys then investigated the lifestyles of the long-lived Mediterranean people to see if there was anything he could learn from them. He found out that their unique diet had played an essential part in keeping these communities healthy.

Ever since then the Mediterranean diet has been the subject of intensive research and led to development of the Mediterranean diet pyramid.

The Mediterranean food pyramid is different from the classic food pyramid. In the classic food pyramid all foods are classified into four main groups which are: 1. Bread, wheat, cereals, rice and pasta 2. Fruit and vegetables, 3. Meat, seafood, legumes, eggs, beans and dairy 4. Oil and sweets These four groups are located in different layers from the base of the pyramid to the top. The shape of the pyramid indicates the importance of the food group, which means that diet should contain a higher proportion of grains than vegetables and so on.

In the Mediterranean pyramid wholegrain bread, rice, cereals and wheat, as well as fruits, vegetables and legumes, are located in a single layer (first layer), followed by fish and seafood for the second layer. Poultry, eggs and dairy are in the third layer with oil, meat and sweets making up the last layer.

It means that in the Mediterranean diet fish and seafood are more important than poultry and red meat while fruit and vegetables alongside legumes and grains assume greater importance.

The Mediterranean diet is a healthy model that fits with the WHO and UK recommendation to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. The Mediterranean diet also increases the intake of essential nutrients and healthy ingredients, whilst reducing the amount of ingredients associated with health risks. That is why those who follow the diet are less likely to develop life-threatening and chronic diseases.

Fibre used in the Mediterranean diet slows down digestion and prevents huge swings in blood sugar, which is why it is a good choice of diet for diabetic patients and also a good diet to follow in order to prevent developing type 2 diabetes. Foods like refined bread, processed food and red meat which are all linked to heart diseases are strongly limited in this diet. Mediterranean diet also contains high levels of antioxidants which protect cells from being damaged by the oxidative reaction of free radicals. Consuming a Mediterranean diet, therefore, can reduce the risk of cancer and Parkinson’s disease by half. •

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Sitting or squatting; that is the question!

Scientific studies suggest that the late 19th century introduction of the sitting toilet in the western world may be the cause of increased pelvic and bladder disorders. Laleh Lohrasbi discusses the West’s re-evaluation of the traditional squatting toilet posture

P

eople in Asia and most of the eastern countries are accustomed to using toilets which are built flat on the floor rather than raised above ground level.

So squatting rather than sitting is the norm when going to the loo. Having lived in Europe for a while I have often wondered how developed western countries have until recently failed to realise that squatting is much healthier and natural for our human anatomy than forcing our bodies to defecate while sitting down. Although I had strong reservations about the use of sitting toilets I was constantly reminded that it is better for the knees and that one would get used to it.

quoted as saying: Man was not meant to sit on a toilet, but to squat in a field.”

Believe it or not the use of raised porcelain commodes is a relatively new invention. It was during the industrial revolution that some people found it more dignified to sit instead of squat.

Today in the larger cities of Asia many residents have abandoned their traditional customs, believing that Western practice is more progressive. Despite the reservations, eastern doctors were unable to change the growing use of ‘western style toilets’ mainly because they have been unable to support this old tradition with evidence.

I am now delighted to read that many western scientists have come to the conclusion that toilet posture can affect our health and the fact that using conventional western toilets may result in irreversible lifetime health issues.

In April, 2002, an Iranian radiologist, Dr Saeed Rad, published a study which compared the effectiveness of sitting versus squatting for evacuation. Dr. Rad measured the angle where the end of the rectum joins the anal canal in both sitting and squatting positions using X-ray imaging.

Dr. Michael I. Freilich, a retired colorectal surgeon from California, recently commented that: “Back in 1979, when former President Carter had a haemorrhoid problem, Time Magazine called and asked me to explain the cause of haemorrhoids. In the magazine, I was

There is a muscle called the puborectalis which in standing and sitting positions, forms a natural kink in the rectum and keeps the faeces inside. Dr Rad found out that when the subjects used sitting toilets the average angle of the kink caused by puborectalis muscle was 92

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degrees, forcing the subjects to strain.

When they used squat toilets, the angle opened to an average of 132 degrees.

At times it reached 180 degrees, making the pathway perfectly straight. It is now clear that defecating in sitting position may cause several problems.

Constipation Constipation can have very damaging effects on the colon especially when it becomes chronic. It has been shown to increase the risk of colon cancer and has been implicated in appendicitis.

Cumulative lifetime use of commercial laxatives was also associated with increased risk of colon cancer. Squatting relaxes the puborectalis muscle and opens the faeces pathway. On the other hand the ileocecal valve, between the colon and the small intestine is properly sealed, allowing the colon to be fully pressurised. The pressure creates a natural laxative effect.

Squatting also lifts the sigmoid colon to unlock the kink at the entrance to the rectum. This kink also helps prevent incontinence, by taking some of the pressure off the puborectalis muscle.

Haemorrhoids Pushing out hard stools puts lots of pressure on the rectum which can cause its veins to swell and become inflamed varicose veins. These varicose veins are painful and may even bleed.

Surveys suggest that in countries using western style sitting toilets, as much as half the population over 40 years of age may suffer from haemorrhoids. When squatting the pathway of the rectum is straightened, making defecation passive, with no risk of straining.

Colon disease Eliminating completely is a very important factor in the colon’s health. Buildup of faeces in the colon can cause colon diseases like colitis, Crohn’s disease and cancer. In the squatting position colons are squeezed empty by the thighs.

Incomplete evacuation causes wastes to stagnate in the lower regions of the colon. In these areas, virulent bacteria can establish colonies, inflaming the surrounding tissues. An article published in 1997 on the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease, reported that: “The last half of this century has seen a rising incidence of inflammatory bowel disease in developed countries,”

but also noted “... the apparent absence of IBD in developing countries.”

Small intestine disease If fecal matter is being forced backwards into the small intestine during evacuation, it can cause inflammation.

This movement is prevented if the ileocecal valve, located in the junction of the small intestine and colon, is completely closed. In the sitting position this valve is only partially sealed so there is a possibility of toxic backflow due to straining for defecation, while in the squatting position the valve is supported by the right thigh and helps the valve to withstand the pressure caused by elimination. The pressure of the right thigh in the place where the small intestine and colon are connected (cecum), also helps to squeeze the cecum empty so the faeces will not have the chance to get into the appendix. If the waste matter gets into the appendix it will cause infection and inflammation requiring urgent surgery. If the infected appendix remains untreated it may burst and cause irreversible complications.

Pelvic floor issues and Urinary difficulties/infections Professor Ajay Rane, uro-gynecologist and pelvic reconstructive consultant surgeon at James Cook University of Medicine (Australia) believes that there is much evidence proving that the squatting technique used in Asian countries is much better than the sitting technique adopted in the west, mainly in maintaining pelvic health.

According to Rane, a study on women living in Hong Kong showed that they had more urinary incontinence and bowel problems than women living in the countryside. “The basic differences in these women were not their body weight, or how many children they had, but their toileting habits,” he says.

Squatting causes the angle of the pelvis to relax much better and give better pressure. When sitting, the angle of the pelvis is not right and the muscles are not relaxed. He further states that the

squatting technique has tremendous beneficial effects on the pelvis.

Pelvic floor is formed by a group of muscles which support the intestine, bladder and uterus. The toilet sitting position places lots of downward pressure on these muscles while straining and weakening the pudendal nerve responsible for bladder control. When the nerve is injured and weakened the brain is unable to control the urethral sphincter muscle.

150 years ago nobody could have predicted that the sitting toilets would affect human health. With the increase in different forms of bowel, bladder and pelvic diseases – previously rare or unknown – scientists have been able to identify a single common reason.

For those of us who are too accustomed to sitting and find squatting veritably painful or uncomfortable, there is a solution. Companies now offer accessories such as bathroom stools on which you perch your feet to simulate a squatting position. However, while raising the thighs with the aid of a stool partially corrects the pelvic angle it is still not as effective as natural squatting. •

Dr Laleh Lohrasbi is a pharmacologist. She has worked as an editor for the medical section of “Hamshahri”, a daily newspaper in Tehran.

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Science

Written in your blood

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A single drop of blood is able to open a window into our past as well as our future. Arguably perhaps this complexity within us all is a sign of a greater being with unfathomable abilities, says Elham Ostad Saffari

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W

e are currently able to know a lot about a person from a single drop of their blood through looking at the sequence of their DNA. From a solitary drop a doctor can identify numerous diseases and disorders.

Similarly police are able to create a comprehensive profile of a suspect.

Such analysis can reveal our sex, ethnic background, hair colour, eye colour and even skin colour. Indeed scientists now believe they have the technology to also decipher a range of other things about a person…to ‘hint’ at more personal traits such as if you are a risk-taker, an early bird or night owl or if you have a behavioural disorder. This technology could also uncover whether one eats the wrong types of food or suffers from stress.

A single drop of blood could also reveal a wealth of information regarding one’s health and habits, state of mind and socio-economic status. It could even reveal details of one’s life from decades ago, even as far back as one’s childhood.

within the UK and US including with people from high and low social classes.

Researchers believe these patterns may also be a window into our past. Adults with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have distinct methyl marks long after their scars have faded. Interestingly these marks are more pronounced in people who have had traumatic childhoods compared to a traumatic adult incident.

Importantly the level of detail one can gain from examining these patterns still remains unclear. Indeed while we can tell from a person’s (methyl) profile that they experienced something stressful, what we cannot do currently is to say what that stressful episode was. For the future, examining multiple patterns within the same person will undoubtedly provide far more information.

As such it may be possible to identify someone based ‘only’ on blood found at a crime scene. Indeed in some countries police are already using genetic tests to predict hair and eye colour. Moving forward police could also add DNA labelling pattern clues to their crime prevention arsenal thus gaining information on a person’s age, social status and perhaps even where they live. Doctors also hope to be able to gain information regarding one’s state of health as methyl patterns have also been linked to diseases such as diabetes and psychiatric disorders such as depression.

A single drop of blood could also reveal a wealth of information regarding one’s health and habits, state of mind and socio-economic status. It could even reveal details of one’s life from decades ago, even as far back as one’s childhood.

This approach is only possible because the world we live in and the experiences we share all leave subtle traces on our DNA. Scientists are only now beginning to decipher how these traces work and how we can look for them.

This is because as we go through life a range of ‘labels’ attach to the DNA in our cells; the most common of which is a methyl group (CH3). Our primary source of methyl groups comes from our diet, where nutrients from our foods are broken down into these groups and ultimately get put onto our DNA. Consider our DNA as a recipe book for humans - methyl groups would be the additional notes and tips you had received from friends and family. Some recipes would be highly complex with multiple notes and tips on them, while others are straightforward and require little advice to achieve.

Most of these labels are added while in the womb as a developing embryo as

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well as shortly afterwards. The reason for this is thought to be because cells at this time are beginning to become specialised; as such methyl groups ensures genes which aren’t needed are switched off. This ensures that heart cells do not express lung cells and vice versa. Importantly if we take the same cells from two individuals and compare their DNA labelling pattern there will be many similarities as these changes are genetic in nature. However, as there are tens of millions of sites within our genome where methyl groups ‘could’ be added, the vast majority of these sites between individuals will be unique irrespective of whether they are related or not, leading even identical twins to become distinct as they age.

As such this variation is thought to at least partly be impacted by lifestyle, and will by extension, reveal a whole host of things from our life history as we accrue these label changes throughout our lives.

Using such tools, researchers are looking at connections between methyl label patterns and specific experiences or environments. While all cells are being examined, blood cells appear to be the most common due to their easy accessibility. Researchers search for patterns which indicate if someone is a smoker, an ex-smoker or has never smoked. This approach can also reveal if someone has or has ever had cancer.

Differences in methyl patterns have also been seen in more abstract studies

Taken one step further such analysis could also be used to predict one’s medical future.

Some would argue that perhaps as we learn more and more about human genetic complexity surely this is a sign for the existence of a greater being.

“Indeed, within the heavens and earth are signs for the believers. And in the creation of yourselves and what He disperses of moving creatures are signs for people who are certain [in faith].”

(Qur’an 45:3-4)

Few would deny that this newly generated knowledge is of benefit to humanity, from catching criminals to saving lives. Importantly however, it is also accompanied by concerns for personal privacy. Indeed such tests and knowledge could be used by unscrupulous insurance companies, employers, the government or other malicious parties. Within the UK and US it is currently illegal to analyse someone’s DNA without their consent.

Similarly the law also protects against genetic discrimination by employers and insurers. Worryingly however there is currently no such legislation for analysing someone’s labelling pattern.

However as always with greater knowledge and understanding comes greater responsibility.

The way our DNA is able to reveal a wonder of secrets about us is reminiscent of a passage from the Holy Qur’an where we are told that God knows all that we do. “And it is He who takes your souls by night and knows what you have committed by day. Then He revives you therein that a specified term may be fulfilled. Then to Him will be your return; then He will inform you about what you used to do” (6:60).

In the same chapter the Holy Qur’an assures us that for every piece of information and news there is a destination where it can be saved or stored and prophetically tells us that we will know that this can and will happen. “For every happening is a finality; and you are going to know.” (6:67).

Some would say that part of this prophecy has been fulfilled in our lifetime already, through capturing sounds and pictures of people as well as their environments and broadcasting these through the TV, radio and internet.

Perhaps in the future some of the topics mentioned in this article too will add to this prophecy. As a final remark, I leave you with this thought: if humans are able to discover all the things mentioned here, then perhaps it is a given that God is more than capable of accomplishing this and much more beyond our wildest dreams. •

Dr Elham Ostad-Saffari has a PhD in Medical Genetics from Imperial College London. She is currently working in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Places

Mesopotamia

The Cradle of Civilisation ‘Mesopotamia’ and ‘Catastrophe of the Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past’ were the titles of two complementary exhibitions put on by the Royal Ontario Museum. They remind us of the devastating effect of wars on people’s culture and history, says Taraneh Eskandari

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M

esopotamia or “the land between rivers� originally referred to the narrow region between the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, flowing from Turkey down to the Persian Gulf.

The term was later used to refer to a wider area including the lands adjoining the two rivers including northeast Syria and portions of southeast Turkey, but the majority of the land is part of present day Iraq.

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Mesopotamia is the birthplace of many great inventions such as agriculture, written language, long distance communication, law, trade networks, and many others that have remained useful even today. The invention of the wheel and the demarcation of time into hours, minutes, and seconds in 60 intervals are examples of the major influence of the Mesopotamians in the life of all humans around the world. Being the homeland of the great empires such as Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian, as well as the flourishing early Islamic empire of the Abbasids, Mesopotamia continued to be a centre of world civilisation.

The tragedy of wars Several archaeological excavations throughout Iraq during the 19th and 20th centuries revealed numerous signs of Mesopotamian urbanisation, agriculture, writing, etc. A major portion of these collections where later gathered and kept in the National Museum of Iraq, forming the world’s largest and most complete collection of ancient Mesopotamian artefacts, as well as documentation for all past archaeological excavations in Iraq.

most important place to protect after the Central Bank. Looters made off with artefacts ranging from gold bowls and ritual funeral masks to elaborate headdresses. It is estimated that the number of looted artefacts was around 15,000, around 8,000 of which have since been found and returned to the museum.

The catastrophe!

On the tenth anniversary of the looting of the museum, in June 2013 the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto presented the exhibition: “Catastrophe!

Ten Years later: The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past”, displaying the looting as “a shocking event which devastated one of the world’s most important museums of ancient culture.”

According to exhibition organisers, the most favourite artefacts for the looters were the most commercially desirable ones, such as cylinder seals and tablets with cuneiform writing, because collectors value them. Most of the stolen objects ended up in Europe, North America, and elsewhere in the Middle East. The market for antiquities is huge and the price of Mesopotamian artefacts has skyrocketed in recent years.

During the U.S.-Iraq war in 2003 major looting took place from the unprotected museum, only two days after U.S troops entered the city. The incidents were over in less than 48 hours but proved disastrous for Iraq’s (and the world’s) cultural heritage. The rampage, which earned front-page headlines across the world, was entirely preventable.

Various scholars and organisations had warned of the potential damage to Iraq’s cultural heritage prior to the war. Archaeologists had even visited the Pentagon to provide military officials with detailed coordinates of all major cultural heritage areas in Iraq.

The exhibition also points to the fact that some of the stolen artefacts may have ended up in museums. In fact American museums accept donations in an exchange for a tax deduction, a financial encouragement which increases interest in collecting and drives the prices of stolen artefacts higher, encouraging more looting. The exhibition contrasted the museums which actively encourage donations without questioning the artefact’s origins with many archaeological museums which have strict policies against purchasing antiquities.

The museum officials took some steps to safeguard the collection. Many of the most valuable artefacts were hidden underground and some others were sealed in the vaults of the Central Bank in Baghdad. However that didn’t mean they were safe from danger. The U.S. was sharply criticised for not protecting the museum, which was the second

Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World

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This exhibition was a complimentary addition to the major exhibition held at the ROM “Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World”. It presented extraordinary collections from the British Museum and ROM’s collections as well as University

of Chicago Oriental Institute Museum, the University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

More than 3,000 years of accomplishments by the civilisations were explored

TORONTO - The Royal Ontario Museum

TORONTO - The Royal Ontario Museum

the Mesopotamians in our life and how much we owe to them by highlighting the fact that many of the things that we rely on today have their origins in ancient Mesopotamia.

Starting with an introductory section, the exhibition was then separated into three main sections, organised along the edges of the schematic representation of the Tigris and Euphrates. Each section corresponded to one of the main Mesopotamian empires, Sumer, Assyria, and Babylon.

The Sumerian section contained numerous tablets representing the invention of written language (Cuneiform) and the first ever counting method, as well as early musical instruments and jewellery. There were also some artefacts from the Royal Cemetery of Ur which is one of the most important Mesopotamian excavations of all time.

in this exhibition. More than 170 priceless objects were showcased from the outstanding collections of the British Museum, augmented by the artefacts from ROM’s own collections. The exhibition aimed to show the importance of

The Assyrian section was represented in a more dynamic way. The most interesting feature of this section was the incorporation of screens presenting animations corresponding to the story of each tablet. Combining the scenes from the story with some Cuneiform text explaining it, these tablets were known to be the very first examples of “comic” story telling on earth. The other highlight of this section was the statue of the Assyrian King, Ashurnasirpal II, which is a rare surviving example of Assyrian sculpture in the round.

Striding Lion - The Royal Ontario Museum

This section of the exhibition was accompanied by a documentary video dedicated to the looting of the Baghdad’s Museum and the destruction of numerous archaeological sites throughout Iraq during the war in 2003 and the catastrophic impact on Iraq’s cultural heritage.

The Babylonian section of the exhibition featured a 3D reproduction of the entire city of Babylon, including the Famous Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon which were known to be one of the world’s seven wonders of ancient times.

One of the most significant artefacts in this section originally decorated Babylon’s most important street, the Processional Way, from the ROM collection, and is made up a wall relief of a striding lion from the famous Ishtar Gate to the temple of Marduk.

The exhibition was concluded with the termination of the Babylonian Empire by the conquest of Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, the beginning of another flourishing era of advancements in science and culture, making the city the administrative capital of the Persian Empire. •

Taraneh Eskandari is a Master of Architecture Candidate at the University of Toronto. She holds an undergraduate degree in Civil/Structural Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

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Through February

3rd, 7th, 8th & 9th February

Friday Nights Thought Forum London’s weekly open gathering.

Intensive Course in Islamic Beliefs

Venue: Islamic Centre of England, 140 Maida Vale, London W9 1QB Time: 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm Web: www.ic-el.com Email: education@ic-el.com Tel: 02076045500

A new comprehensive crash course covering the major aspects of Imami Beliefs including Cosmology, Knowing God, Theological and Philosophical Anthropology, The Prophets, The Prophet of Islam, The Hereafter and Salvation.

Tutor: Shaikh Shomali

Through February

IMES Seminar series - Islamic civilisation and the Islamic tradition: Past and present 3rd February Harry Munt - University of Oxford Pre Modern Arabic and Persian local historiography: genre and readership

10th February Saeko Yazaki - University of Glasgow Zionism and the Judaeo-Islamic tradition: A.S. Yahuda and his Andalusian vision

17th February Emanuele Intagliata - University of Edinburgh Late antique and early Islamic Palmyra: an archaeological and historical reassessment

24th February Robert Hillenbrand - Universities of Edinburgh & St Andrews Light in Islamic architecture

Time: Mondays, 5:30pm Venue: Room G2, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, 19 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD Web: www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/ literatures-languages-cultures/islamicmiddle-eastern

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Course fee: Regular rate: £30 Student rate: £20 Venue: Islamic Centre of England, 140 Maida Vale, London W9 1QB Time: Weekdays 7:00 pm- 9:30pm Weekend 2:00pm - 9.30pm Web: www.ic-el.com Email: education@ic-el.com Tel: 0207 6045500

5th February

BRISMES Annual lecture: The quest for cultural authenticity and the politics of identity An exploration of differences between Muslim/national cultures and ‘the West’, and the resistance to perceived cultural invasion in relation to religion, national culture, sexuality, music and food.

Speaker: Sami Zubaida

Time: 6.00 pm followed by Award Presentation and Reception Venue: Institute for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, University of Durham, Elvet Hill Road, Durham, DH1 3TU Web: www.brismes.ac.uk/events

5th & 12th February

Spiritual Mysteries and Ethical Secrets Ongoing course on Muslim ethics and spirituality based on Fayd Kashani’s famous book al-Haqa’q fi Mahasin al-Akhlaq which is one of his most

significant books on akhlaq (Character development).

Tutor: Shaykh M.S. Bahmanpour

Venue: Islamic Centre of England, 140 Maida Vale, London W9 1QB Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm Course fee: Regular rate: £30 Student rate: £20 Web: www.ic-el.com Email: education@ic-el.com Tel: 02076045500

7th February

Preview film screening: A World not Ours A World Not Ours is an intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile, based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage. It is a sensitive and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Mahdi Fleifel who spent his formative years in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in Lebanon and based the film on his relationship with his childhood friend Abu Iyad, their obsession with football, the World Cup, and Palestinian politics.

Venue: Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Tickets: £10 Web: www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/events

9th February

Disciplining the Soul and Breaking the Two desires: Food and Sexual Desire A course based on Ghazali’s ‘The Revival of the Religious Sciences’ (Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din) on how to acquire good character traits, which goes on to show how the sickness of the heart may be disciplined to the middle way.

Tutor: Shaykh Muhammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy

Cost: £25 Venue: Leeds Met University (Full details upon registration) Time: 10:30am - 7:00pm Registration: 9:45am onwards Web: www.alburujpress.com

10th -12th February

13th Annual Islamic Finance Summit Euromoney Seminars has organised an event with the world’s leading Islamic scholars and industry stakeholders.

The seminar will provide networking opportunities with over 300 industry stakeholders and decision-makers from the top Islamic and conventional banks, law firms, asset managers, insurance companies, and embassies Discover the thoughts, views and opinions of those at the top of their industries in the annual Heads of Islamic Finance panel discussion

Venue: Marriott Grosvenor Square, London Time: 8.00am - 5.00pm Registration Fee: £1.599 Web: www.euromoneyseminars.com

11th - 25th February

IslamUK Lecture Series 2014 The IslamUK Centre runs a free annual public lecture series each Spring. Speakers come from across the UK and overseas to give details of the latest research available.

11th Feb - Friendship and Hospitality - Challenge or Route to Integration?

Speaker: Mona Siddiqui Chair: Chris Williams Head of School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University

18th Feb – Plural Identities and the Islamisation of Public Space in Britain Speaker: John Eade

Chair: Kevin Morgan, School of City

The qualities of an Imam.

and Regional Planning, Cardiff

The powers of an Imam (Religious Authority/Spiritual Guidance/Governance (Wilayat)).

25th Feb – Muslim Family Life in Britain: Between Ideals and Reality Speaker: Ajmal Masroor Chair: Saleem Kidwai

Venue: Glamorgan Building, Glamorgan Council Chamber, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WT Time: 7.00 PM - 8.00 PM Web: www.cardiff.ac.uk/share/ newsandevents/events/religion/islam-uklecture-series-2014.html Booking Required

12th February

The Warm-Up Fundraising Dinner A fund raising dinner organised by Muslim Hands. Proceeds will go towards providing simple items such as fuel for heating, high calorie food and warm blankets for the needy in Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Sheffield Venue: Double Tree by Hilton Chesterfield Rd S, Sheffield, S8 8BW Bradford Venue: 144 Woodhead Rd, Bradford, BD7 1PD Time: 6:00 PM (Doors Close 6:30 PM) Ticket: £15 Dress Code: White/Blue Web: muslimhands.org.uk/events/2014/thewarm-up-fundraising-dinner/

Connecting with an Imam.

Tutor: Shaikh Haneef

Venue: Islamic Centre of England, 140 Maida Vale, London W9 1QB Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm Course fee: Regular rate: £30 Student rate: £20 Web: www.ic-el.com Email: education@ic-el.com Tel: 02076045500

25th February

Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series: Exploring Identity The second in the Muslim-Jewish Relations series of panels, this event will address the theme of Exploring Identity.

Including contributions from Shana Cohen (Woolf Institute), Uradyn Bulag (University of Cambridge) and Oskar Verkaaik (University of Amsterdam) the panel will examine contemporary and historic themes in Muslim-Jewish relations and is open to all.

Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Woolf Institute, Wesley House, Jesus Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8BJ Time: 5:00 PM More Info: Dr Shana Cohen (sc736@cam. ac.uk)

19th & 26th February

The Theological, Philosophical and Mystical Dimensions of Imamology Six session course that will cover: The definition of imamate and its status (the relation between Prophecy and imamate).

Theological arguments for the existence of Imamate.

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