Islamic Horizons January/February 2023

The Good News from Malaysia

As we were finalizing this issue, an auspicious bit of news emerged: King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah of Malaysia appointed Anwar Ibrahim, 75, prime minister after his party Pakatan Harapan, which has emerged as the largest one in Parliament, formed a political coalition to attain the majority.

It was the crowning moment of his 22-year struggle to lead the nation to a better future.

This news is of special significance to ISNA, given Anwar’s long association with its predecessor MSA, when the student Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia organization was thriving under his leadership.

Anwar has continued to maintain close relations with Muslim American organizations, and they have returned the favor. For instance, after he fell out with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and was jailed, ISNA invited his wife Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to address its annual convention. Interestingly, Mahathir, aged 97, ran against Anwar in this recent election and lost.

Anwar is one of the few contemporary Malaysian leaders who enjoys worldwide recognition. ISNA and Islamic Horizons wish him the greatest success with his stated mission of SCRIPT: Sustainability, Care and Compassion, Respect, Innovation, Prosperity and Trust. Indeed, this futuristic document could put Malaysia on the path to inclusive democracy and economic progress.

Unfortunately, domestic violence (DV) is perpetually in the news, especially in a society where quite a few people consider owning guns as essential as breathing. Domestic Violence Awareness Month, launched nationwide in October 1987, is always carefully observed. However, DV remains, showing no signs of decreasing.

We invited Dr. Basheer Ahmed (former professor of psychiatry, Southwestern Medical School, Dallas) to enlighten our readers about this issue. Hopefully, the wisdom he shares will inspire us devise

more effective efforts that transcend intervention.

Abusive behavior, he points out, is most likely learned at home. If abusers grew up in an abusive home environment, their children might consider it a domestic norm.

Quran 9:71 proclaims that all human beings — without exception — are equal, that men and women are spouses and that no one has a level of authority over others. Quran 4:19 describes the marital relationship as one of tranquility, kindness, mutual love and affection, respect, caring and mercy. Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “The perfect believer is one who is the best in courtesy and amiable manners, and the best among you people is one who is most kind and courteous to his wives.” And yet many Muslimas continue to experience these tragedies. Domestic violence does not end until outside intervention takes place.

Despite serious attempts to educate and help both the abusers and the abused, however, intimate partner violence (IPV) prevalence rates are rising. In the Islamic context, an “intimate partner” refers only to the husband or the wife.

Although many avenues of healing are available, among them psychiatric consultation, the most important antidote is to help Muslim achieve taqwa — being conscious and cognizant of God, truth and piety, and holding God in awe (commonly mistranslated as “fear”).

As is often the case, good and bad came together. The sad news is the demise of Dr. Mohammad Nejatulllah Siddiqi, 92, the eminent economist and truly the father of Islamic banking. In addition to spending his career sharing his knowledge and guiding banking and finance practitioners, he has left many learned treatises, article and speeches behind that will help Muslims institutionalize Islamic banking in their countries.

Other articles focus on Francophone and Native American Muslims, colorism within Muslim communities and the role — positive or negative — of matchmakers. ih

PUBLISHER

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)

PRESIDENT Safaa Zarzour

EXECUTIVE

DIRECTOR

Basharat Saleem

EDITOR Omer Bin Abdullah

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Iqbal Unus, Chair: M. Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Saba Ali

ISLAMIC HORIZONS

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ISNA 2022 Scholarships

In 2022, ISNA awarded a total of $26,000 from various scholarships

— Amana Mutual Funds, Abdul Munim Shakir, Hajja Razia and Plainfield Muslim Women for a Better Society — to the following individuals:

• Amana Mutual Funds ($2,500): Mohammed Lashuel

• Abdul Munim Shakir ($1,000 ea.): Adam Almaleky, Bilal Chaudary, Falak Asad, Falisha Quayum, Fatima Zaidan, Hannan Mozip, Hafsa Sheikh, Hamza Rahmoune, Heza Shahbaz, Leen Bader, Madinabonu Ashurova, Manaal Zubair, Maymuna Mohamed, Momina Shinwari, Momna Ahmed, Rana Eltahir, Taqwa Siddiqui, Zayaan Khan and Gheed Nafea

• Hajja Razia Scholarship ($1,500 ea.): Kenny Solis and Ulaa Kuziez

• Plainfield Muslim Women for a Better Society Scholarship ($500 ea.): Eshal Khan

• ISNA’s scholarship committee comprises Dr. M. Affan Badar (chair), Dr. Asim Ansari, Dr. Samina Salim and ISNA executive director Basharat Saleem. Anjum Khan helped the committee, which reviewed applicants in the Awardspring system. ih

George Mason University Renames Its Center for Global Islamic Studies

George Mason University announced on Sept. 29 that in recognition of a $3 million donation, it would rename its Center for Global Islamic Studies the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies.

“This gift helps solidify the center’s position as a global resource for the study of Islam. This will advance scholarship and the public’s understanding of this global religion that touches so many,” said Mason president Gregory Washington. “The center and its relationship with the Mirza Family Foundation is a testament to Mason’s commitment to diversity of thought and its growing reputation in Islamic studies globally.”

Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman (chairman, the International Institute of Islamic Thought), an early advocate of studying Islam from a global perspective, passed away in August 2021.

M. Yaqub Mirza, Ph.D. (member, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Dean’s Advisory Board and a former George Mason University Foundation trustee) said AbuSulayman was “a giant among giants” whose doctoral thesis, “Towards an Islamic Theory of International Relations” (1993), was revolutionary in its countering of the field’s traditional, Eurocentric view, which often overlooked the impact of Muslim countries and cultures.

The gift will create new community

resources, produce research and support undergraduate and graduate students. Mirza said he expects the center, which is currently exploring connections with centers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Bosnia and South Africa, will become a “hub of exchange for Islamic students across the globe.”

“We want to begin trying to reflect this global Islamic studies paradigm in new international, institutional partnerships, where we begin connecting ourselves with similar centers that do Islamic studies research with a common approach in other countries around the world, including Muslim-majority ones,” said Peter Mandaville, the center’s outgoing director and Mason professor of international affairs. “These new international partnerships will enable things like exchanging faculty, students and researchers.”

Mandaville will return as the center’s director after his leave of absence. ih

CISNA Achieves Lead Accreditor Status with Global Accrediting Agency

The Council of Islamic Schools in North America (CISNA), the world’s largest and only Islamic accreditation organization for Islamic schools, is now the lead accreditor due to its partnership with Cognia (previously AdvancED), an international nonprofit organization that accredites schools in 90 countries.

While the accreditation standards of a state or regional agency address general areas of institutional quality, said CISNA executive director Sufia Azmat, CISNA standards address all areas through an Islamic lens and a process focused on the school’s spiritual life. CISNA standards were revised in 2020 and again in 2022 after consulting education experts. These standards are categorized under four domains — governance, school leadership, teaching & learning, and school culture & environment — that provide a systematic framework for self-evaluation and improving programs and services.

In 2011, CISNA established a partnership with AdvancED to accredit Islamic schools with an added Islamic component. It began providing accreditation services the following year. Since 2020, CISNA has been working through a rigorous standards alignment process.

CISNA announced that member schools may now apply for accreditation, follow its standards and process for their visit, and be accredited by Cognia without hosting a separate visit or responding to a different set of standards. CISNA will conduct accreditation engagement review visits and assign the team members. Cognia will no longer be involved in assigning team members, and schools won’t have to go through its training and engagement review process.

All schools meeting CISNA accreditation standards and approved by its board now automatically qualify for Cognia accreditation. ih

Four Muslims in DHS Faith-Based Security Advisory Council

to establish a distinguished chair in the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics that will support its multicultural students in their studies and innovations, reported The American Muslim Today, Oct. 6, 2022.

Salam Al-Marayati (Muslim Public Affairs Council), Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali (director, ADAMS Center), Imam Talib Shareef (imam, Nation’s Mosque) and police department chief Issa Shahin (Dearborn, Mich.) were named to the 24-member Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Faith-Based Security Advisory Council.

Reflecting on his appointment, Al-Marayati stated, “I look forward to working with faith leaders of other communities to determine the best steps in protecting houses of worship and our communities against any form of violence. I also look forward to developing relations with these faith leaders to develop a united stand for a pluralistic democracy.”

The council will provide organizationally independent, strategic, timely, specific and actionable advice to the secretary on diverse

homeland security matters. Specifically, its contributions will enhance the department’s efforts to protect houses of worship; improve coordination and information sharing of threat information with the faith community and, through the faith community, within the broader communities that they serve; increase access to DHS resources by building trust and addressing potential barriers; and prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from acts of targeted violence, terrorism and other threats.

The council’s membership, which reflects President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas’ priorities on diversity, equity and inclusion, will ensure a wide range of diverse voices across various faith traditions. The council members represent various faith communities and a diversity of denominations, as well as law enforcement. ih

Speaking at the Sept. 30, dedication, Basheer said, “I always had a desire to support the institutions which promote teachings of sciences and technology. Allah has given me the opportunity to accomplish this goal by supporting UT Dallas which is a great teaching institution and has a great potential to be a top-grade university.”

Basheer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center Southwestern Medical School for several years before moving on to serve as the director of psychiatry departments in various Fort Worth hospitals, retired from the practice in 2005. He helped found the Institute of Medieval and Post-Medieval Studies, the Institute of Quranic Knowledge and IntraFaith Religious Acceptance, as well as the Muslim Community Center for Human Services, of which he currently serves as chairman emeritus.

His wife Shakila is a board-certified radiologist.

In 1968, the couple migrated to the U.S. from Hyderabad, India.

On Sept. 24, ten months after the Naperville City Council unanimously approved plans for the Islamic Center of Naperville (ICN) mosque-complex, a groundbreaking ceremony was held. Guests included Naperville city manager Doug Krieger and several city council members. The facility is expected to be completed by October 2023.

The expanded ICN will have a 28,400 square foot mosque.

The center, which has owned the 13.3 acres of open land for about 10 years, faced opposition and rejection, especially by its neighborhood Hindu residents.

Hearings before the Planning and Zoning Commission on the proposed mosque began in January 2021. After 15 meetings held over

nine months, in October 2021 the commission voted 6-1 to recommend the city council allow the center to build a mosque hall, school, multipurpose hall and gymnasium in phases over several years. Included in its recommendation were a dozen conditions seeking to appease some of the concerns about traffic, parking, occupancy, fire safety and noise raised by residents of the neighboring subdivisions.

ICN president Kashif Fakhruddin said the elders and leaders started the journey with its first center in Naperville 31 years ago.

Dane Richardson (assistant dean, School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics) said this is the first time the university has dedicated a structure to a practicing Muslim. UTD serves a significant Asian-American student population (32%) and has an international population of 17% with students from South Asia, China, Iran and Vietnam.

Azhar Azeez (CEO, Muslim Aid USA; a former ISNA president), highlighting the Ahmeds’ extensive list of organizations they have founded and their efforts to build interfaith relationships, said, “They both are shining examples of commitment, dedication and outstanding service to humanity and our beloved community. All their life they have strived to build bridges and break barriers.”

Dr. David Hyndman (dean, School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics) said the gift will fund opportunities for growth in science and mathematics, as well as enable thousands of students to engage in research.

To leave a legacy to inspire generations of students, Dr. Basheer Ahmed and his wife Dr. Shakila Ahmed donated $1 million to The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)

The American Islamic College announced the establishment of the Dr. Shakeela and Dr. Zia Hassan Institute for Interfaith Encounter (SZHIIE).

The institute will enable meaningful, life-changing inter- and intrareligious encounters within Chicago and beyond. The scope of its vision and activism will include research, teaching support, faculty fellowships, student internships, public lectures and workshops, community outreach, educational trips and public programs to promote transformative encounters between diverse believers and faith communities.

The Hassan Interfaith Fellowships will be an integral part of the new institute’s mission and vision.

events. Most recently Qur’an was co-chair of its writing contest, “Celebrating African and African American Muslim History.” An Atlanta native, Madame Q is passionate about education and building strong relationships, families and communities.

A second-generation Muslim in a family with at least four generations of Muslims, she worked as an educator for more than 25 years: as a principal and, earlier, as a teacher in the Mohammed Schools of Atlanta and as an educational consultant to local public and private school educators.

Shakir is helping ISLA develop its strategic plans to provide research, resources and relationships to full-time Islamic schools in North America.

manager and manufacturing plant manager, is well known among North American Muslims. Over the past 36 years he has actively served in the leadership roles and board membership of several local, national and international Islamic organizations. AHI offers a transparent and authentic halal certification, training, research and advocacy of halal goods and services.

Azam Nizamuddin, NAIT’s former chief compliance officer of AAA and deputy executive director and general counsel, has left the organization to concentrate on his political campaign in Illinois.

NAIT has moved its headquarters to 8925 S. Kostner Ave., Hometown, Ill. 60456.

An immigrant from Burkina Faso, Ouedraogo is an alumna of New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, (M.P.A.’20) with a specialization in advocacy and political action. She’s also a graduate of The College of New Jersey School of Humanities and Social Sciences (B.A., ’18).

In a statement, she said, “As a staunch advocate for social justice and a proud Burkinabè-American, Black, Muslim woman, I am honored to utilize my skills and talents to serve my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters.

“Through my new role as the government affairs manager at CAIR-NJ, I hope to foster meaningful change for New Jersey’s diverse and vibrant Muslim umma in the political, advocacy, civic engagement, legislative and public policy arenas.”

Qur’an S. Shakir, a seasoned educator, community activist, school administrator and vibrant voice in Islamic education, has joined the Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA) board.

Shakir (B.A., Georgia State University; M.A., National University; doctoral candidate, Fielding Graduate University), affectionately known as “Madame Q,” brings over 30 years of experience in education. A long-time ISLA supporter, she has been involved in many of its workshops and

Maqsood Quadri (M.S., Aligarh Muslim University, India) assumed charge at NAIT’s new executive director during October 2022.

Quadri is a familiar name in the Muslim American community, especially across Chicagoland and Illinois for his valuable contributions as a community leader.

A hydrogeologist by training, Quadri brings his multifaceted professional and management experience to NAIT. He has managed multimillion-dollar portfolios and held high-responsibility posts, solution-focused and senior management positions for 30+ years. In those positions, he delivered results and helped achieve organizational objectives by catalyzing new approaches, transforming culture and bringing the best out in team members.

Prior to joining NAIT, he was the chief operating officer at the Council of Islamic Centers of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) for four years. He also heads and sits on the boards of various prominent Islamic centers and community organizations in the U.S. and India.

Salah Obeidallah moved from executive director to president of Allied Asset Advisor (AAA) NAIT’s wholly-owned subsidiary. He remains the point person for Islamic centers’ investments through the Islamic Center Cooperative Fund.

Qadri Abdullah now leads the American Halal Institute (AHI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NAIT, as director of operations. Abdullah, who has spent 26 years in the food industry as a food scientist, quality

On Oct. 29,

mel, Ind., broke ground for their mosque.

Nadeem Ikhlaque, Al Salam’s founding president, along with mayor Jim Brainard (R), Rep. Victoria Spartz (R) and Pastor (ret.) Jerry Zehr of Carmel Christian Church and a founder of the Carmel Interfaith Alliance, attended the ceremony.

U.S. Rep. André Carson (D) and state Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D) spoke at the joyous community event.

Located on a 15-acre site, the Center will feature a minaret, a prayer area, classrooms, office space, a gymnasium and a kitchen. Faisal Khan, a board member of the Al Salam Foundation, said that construction will take place over the next two years. The grand opening is planned for late 2024.

After years of resistance and litigation with the city, on Oct. 28 DeSoto County’s (Miss.) first mosque broke ground.

The Abraham House of God started as a vision between two friends who have been working since 2019 to get the mosque built in Horn Lake, Miss.

“We were talking about we needed a mosque or facility for us to go and practice our faith,” said founder Riyadh Elkhayyat, who said it’s been an unexpected journey to get to this point.

Madina P. Ouedraogo was appointed CAIR-New Jersey’s inaugural government affairs manager.

after years of overcoming legal challenges and governmental hurdles, members of the Islamic Life Center in Car-

“I was so shocked and surprised [by the opposition], because this is my community. I was shocked that these people were so biased against Muslims. It has to be [the case]. There are churches wherever we are building our mosque.”

Finally, Elkhayyat got legal representation from the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, and they sued the city for discrimination.

“It’s very historic because that would be the first mosque in north Mississippi. I think it’s historic for all the Muslim community in that region,” Elkhayyat told News3, WREG, Memphis.

The mosque is expected to be completed in about a year.

of the world’s most pressing challenges in the areas of education, global health and sustainability in the service of the entire human family,” said the Galileo Foundation. The Vatican’s GCE, the WCMP, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, JFN, as well as UBS, worked toward launching the new Human Family Fund, which will provide capital for new interfaith partnership projects to deliver opportunity and equality for the world’s most marginalized. During the summit, leading philanthropists Jeff Bezos and Laura Turner Seydel were brought together with key religious leaders, including the Pope’s secretary of state.

Participants in the Muslim philanthropists’ mini summit discussed the role of philanthropy, current obstacles to human well-being and how philanthropy can impede those obstacles and result in a better future for everyone. Other topics discussed included the role of Islam, theology and religious practice in philanthropy. The discussion will culminate in an MPI-published white paper. ih

ACHIEVERS

M. Affan Badar, PhD, CPEM, IEOM fellow, ISNA secretary and board member, was named associate editor of the Engineering Management Journal (EMJ) on Oct. 20, 2022.

Anwar Khan (president and founder, OBAT Helpers), participated in the Muslim Philanthropists Mini-Summit (MPMS) at the Vatican in October. This October summit, part of the inaugural “Faith and Philanthropy Summit,” was organized by the Galileo Foundation in partnership with the Global Compact on Education (GCE), the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists (WCMP), the Jewish Funders Network (JFN), the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and UBS AG. It brought together 145 of the world’s leading philanthropists from five different faiths. The MPMS, held in conjunction with the Faith & Philanthropy Summit, was co-hosted by the Galileo Foundation, the WCMP and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (MPI).

“Pope Francis hopes that this convening will inspire new philanthropic partnerships across traditional faith lines, to tackle some

This official journal of the American Society for Engineering Management (https://www.asem. org), is published by Taylor & Francis Group, London and indexed in Web of Science (Clarivate) and SCOPUS. In 2021, its impact factor was 2.548.

Badar, who has been employed at Indiana State University (ISU) since 2002 and is currently a tenured professor in its Applied Engineering and Technology Management Department and interim director its doctoral program in Technology Management, has an impressive career of service: professor and chair, Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management Department, University of Sharjah (2016-18; on leave of absence from ISU); an ISU interim associate dean of the ISU College of Technology (2014-15), AETM department chair (2010-14) and program coordinator (2007-10) and a member

of the University Faculty Senate and College Faculty Council.

In addition, he is an ABET/ETAC commissioner who started as a program evaluator (EAC and ETAC) in 2010. He has published over 85 articles on reliability, quality, lean manufacturing, coordinate manufacturing, design and supply chain; secured over $1M funding from NSF, other agencies and industries; and served as editor-in-chief or for International Journal of Forensic Engineering & Management, editor of the journal Advances in Mechanical Engr, associate editor and editorial board member of several journals, among them the Int. J. of Quality & Reliability Mgt and NED Univ. J. of Research: App Sciences; and reviewer for various journals and conferences.

Selected in the 2022 IEOM Academy of Fellows, his name will be announced as a new fellow at the organization’s annual conference in Istanbul on March 7-10, 2022.

The Fellow distinction is the highest level of membership to recognize an individual’s contribution to industrial engineering and operations management. Fellows have distinguished themselves by conducting theoretical and applied research, implemented proven industrial engineering and operations management tools, improved the productivity of manufacturing and service industries, and created jobs and career opportunities for the betterment of humanity.

These individuals are expected to represent their profession and the IEOM Society, advise the IEOM Board of Directors, use their professional experience and skills to promote industrial engineering and operations management, as well as propose and lead strategic objectives that could increase membership and recognition of the organization and its members worldwide.

Badar (B.Sc. [Hons], industrial engineering, 1988, Aligarh Muslim University [India]; M.Sc.; industrial engineering 1990; MS, mechanical engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, 1993, Saudi Arabia; and Ph.D., industrial engineering, 2002, University of Oklahoma) has published one edited book and two book chapters, as well as 80+ articles in refereed journals and proceedings on lean manufacturing, quality, reliability, engineering economy, healthcare and supply chain. He has received funding from, among other institutions, the National Science Foundation,

COMMUNITY MATTERS

Indiana Campus Compact, the Small Business Administration, ISU (Lilly Foundation), NATO, Union Hospital, Columbia House and Tredegar Film Products.

His co-authored proceedings papers received the Best Track Paper Award at the IEOM conferences in 2021 and 2020, and his co-authored journal paper was selected as a Highly Commended paper by the International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management in 2017. He received IEOM’s Teaching Excellence award at its 2020 conference in 2020 and was recognized with its Outstanding Service award and Outstanding Contribution award at its 2021 and 2020 conferences, respectively. He received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement award in 2017 and Epsilon Pi Tau’s Warner Professional Practice award in 2015.

In addition to all of this, he has found time to organize several national and international conferences in the capacity of program, track, or technical chair and organizing committee member. He is chairman of Salfia Paramedical Institute (India); served on the Operations Management Board of India’s Jahangirabad Inst of Technology (2014-18); been a member of IISE, IEOM, ASEM and ASEE; president of AMSET (2016-17); vice president of the ATMAE Manufacturing Division (201217); a member on the Board of Directors of the IISE Engineering Economy Division (EED) (2012-14) and director of EED (2005-07).

Kamran M. Riaz, M.D. has published a textbook, “Optics for the New Millennium: An Absolute Review Handbook of Clinical, Surgical and Testable Relevance,” coauthored with G. Vike Vicente and Daniel Wee (Springer Publishing, 2022).

Earlier in January, he published “A Clinical Atlas of Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography” (SLACK Publishing) with B. Levinson and F. Woreta Riaz (B.A., University of Illinois at Chicago, ’03; M.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, ’08; Phi Beta Kappa honor society), who memorized the Quran before high school, is a clinical associate professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Dean McGee Eye Institute.

Among his honors are “Top Doctors List 2022” (405 Magazine, January 2022), “Achievers Under 40, Class XVII” (The Journal Record, August 2021) and “40 Under 40, Class of 2021” (Oklahoma Magazine, March 2021).

He and his physician wife Sanaa have three children. He is fluent in Spanish, Urdu and Arabic.

CAIR recognized Ohio student athlete and activist Noor Abukaram as its American Muslim of the Year at its 28th annual banquet on Oct. 29.

Abukaram was an athlete on the cross-country running team at Ohio’s Sylvania Northview High School in October 2019 when she was disqualified from her track meet for wearing the hijab. She worked with Ohio senator Theresa Gavarone (R) to write Senate Bill 288, which prohibits schools and interscholastic organizations from adopting rules that ban the wearing of religious apparel during athletic events. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the bill into law.

Abukaram’s story has inspired nationwide efforts to protect the right to wear religious clothing in athletics.

Sabaa Tahir a young ADULTS novelist best known for her New York Times-bestselling “An Ember in the Ashes,” its sequels and the novel “All My Rage,” became the first Muslim American to win the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

These two novels were listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time in 2020. In 2022, “All My Rage” won the 2022 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Tahir, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has also published non-fiction reviews and essays in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Vox, during which time she interned at The Washington Post. After graduation, she took a job there as a copy editor. ih

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The Psychology of Perpetrators of Domestic Violence

The Underlying Factors: An Islamic Perspective

BY M. BASHEER AHMED

Intimate spouse violence (IPV) affects the lives of millions of women, children, families, and societies worldwide.

In the Islamic context, intimate spouses refer only to a husband and a wife. Despite serious attempts to educate and help both the abusers and the abused, IPV prevalence rates are rising. Data suggest that the pandemic and its associated lockdowns might have led to further increases (https://doi. org/10.1136/bmj.m1712).

There is comparatively little information available on IPV’s prevalence among Muslims. Physical IPV is reported to be approximately 30-55% in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, and Bangladesh. Many Muslims living in the West also experience it.

Quranic teachings state that all human beings — without exception — are equal, that men and women are spouses and that no one has a level of authority over others. The most righteous person is the most honored in God’s sight (9:71). The marital relationship is described as one of tranquility, kindness, mutual love and affection, respect, caring and mercy, “O believers, treat women with kindness even if you dislike them; it is quite possible that you dislike something which God might yet make a source of abundant good” (4:19). Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “The perfect believer is one who is the best in courtesy and amiable manners, and the best among you people is one who is most kind and courteous to his wives.”

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF PERPETRATORS

No single theory explains why men show such aggressive behavior. Abusers present psychopathological traits that could cause them to unleash violence on their spouse. Holzworth-Munroe and Stuart identified three types of abusers:

■ Family-only abusers are described as

less deviant on impulsivity, alcohol and drug abuse, criminal and other behaviors. They show poor social and communication skills, are dependent on their spouse and have a history of abuse in the family. Their relationships tend to be relatively stable, and they show higher levels of post-assault remorse.

■ B orderline/dysphoric abusers tend to get involved in moderate violence and show impulsive behavior, anger and jealousy. They show a hostile attitude toward women and low levels of post-violence remorse (DOI:10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.476).

Most studies on the psychopathology of male domestic abusers have focused on personality disorders. People showing these disorders often have dysfunctional social relationships and don’t seek help unless the court orders them to do so. The commonly identified personality disorders are borderline, narcissistic, antisocial, and paranoid. About 25% of abusers may have depressive disorders. While these personality traits may not cause violent behavior, they may show resistance to the psychotherapeutic

approach. One study found that head injuries were significantly associated with domestic abuse (DOI: 10.3109/00207450108994235).

Abusive behavior is most likely learned at home. If abusers grew up in environments where abuse was common, domestic violence may be passed down to children as a standard of behavior to be expected in intimate relationships. Boys may become violent adults, and girls may not identify violence as abusive, but accept it as normal adult relationship behavior (Jaffe P. & Suderman, M., Child Witness of Woman Abuse, in Stith S. and Strauss M., eds., Understanding Partner Violence,” 1995; https://doi. org/10.1037/0003-066X.50.9.782).

Most abusers feel an inner satisfaction from having total control over their spouse by humiliating her persistently. Similarly, the spouse learns to submit, which reinforces the abuser’s violent behavior and lets the cycle of violence continue. This attempted accommodation reinforces the abuser’s aggressive behavior and renders it more frequent and intense. Many women remain silent or do not report it to the authorities, considering it a private family matter. The lack of consequences only encourages the abuser to continue.

Abusers often justify their behavior and minimize its seriousness by blaming their wives for instigating it, which reinforces their belief that force is the only option: “She made me hit her.” They avoid guilt or shame and minimize their personal responsibility by saying, “It happens in every marriage,” and often dehumanize her by saying, “She deserved it.” Denial is the abuser’s most common defense mechanism. Some abusers even blame the victim, saying, “She self-inflected the injuries” (Ordoxa T., “Understanding Domestic Violence,” Iowa Medicine, Jan. 1995).

Abusive men come from a variety of backgrounds, religions, races, and occupations. Rigid sex role stereotypes are pervasive, as abusive men attempt to place their spouses in

a submissive role. Their belief that they have the right to control the wife’s behaviors may be reinforced by the religious belief that she should be obedient and subservient.

There is a sharp divide between traditional interpretations of 4:34, which stress female obedience and male authority, and contemporary interpretations, which emphasize the financial component of men’s marital duties and limits a husband’s power over his wife (https://www.brandeis.edu/ projects/fse/muslim/diff-verse.html).

Most often abusers justify their behavior by quoting religious teachings, saying they’re the head of the household and the wife must submit. In public, many of them appear to be “gentlemen.” They come to religious institutions and show generosity, believe they have a good knowledge of the Sharia, often keep a good public appearance, may have a stable work record, are good providers and appear to be caring family men — all of which give a false perception to the community members. Most abusers lack insight into their problems.

COMMON ANGER VS. POWER, CONTROL AND ABUSE

Arguments occur at some point between all spouses over childcare, housework, financial and other matters. Domestic violence, however, differs from routine arguments and expressing one’s anger. Similarly, in certain cultures women are encouraged to stay home, walk behind their husbands and forbidden to drive. These examples of inequality and oppression shouldn’t be confused or equated with domestic violence, for the latter employs a complex verbal and/or physically aggressive pattern of behavior to control the victim, such as constant criticism, verbal abuse, threats, throwing objects, kicking, punching, and even stabbing.

The abusive and violent behavior continues and becomes more pronounced when the victim attempts to leave. IPV revolves around controlling another person. The spouse’s departure further enrages the perpetrator, who tends to show extreme violence and uncontrollable behavior. When such a person loses control, he may try to kill his wife because “If I can’t have her, no one can.” This possible fate increases significantly after she leaves.

Unfortunately, despite Islamic teachings of compassion, justice, and kindness, many Muslimas experience these tragedies. Domestic violence does not end until outside intervention takes place.

RAISING NON-ABUSIVE CHILDREN

During the last four decades, many religious and cultural organizations have sought to eradicate this menace. They have been successful in Tertiary Prevention, focusing on post-violence victims to deal with its consequences and offender treatment interventions. And yet IPV’s incidence and prevalence has increased because primary prevention efforts were not made to change those sociocultural norms that allow and condone violence.

Change will occur only by changing the

influencing factors for abuse and violence. As students 13 years and older have achieved a cognitive understanding of social and sexual issues, this is the right age to discuss these issues in joint classes. As such, they must develop an understanding of aggressive behavior and its consequences on self, family, and community; learn healthy ways to develop interpersonal relations; learn how to express their feelings, communication skills and power sharing; and be aware of attitudes that promote violence.

relevant attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and promoting those that stop them. We need to promote a culture in which all relationships are built on respect, dignity, equality, and peace.

Islam categorically forbids violence against women for any reason. Verses 2:22937, 4:19 and 4:25 proclaim that male-female relationship is to be one of kindness, mutual respect and caring. And yet the abusive behavior continues.

EDUCATION, THE BEST PREVENTIVE MEASURE

Reducing or eradicating domestic violence depends upon starting educational programs in all mosques, Islamic schools, and social organizations. These should be regular programs, not the result of some incident reported by the media. They must be tailored for men and women aged 6-13, 13-18 and adults 18 and above and cover Islamic teachings of gender equality, respect, and dignity; establishing a home environment of love, caring and mutual understanding; how disagreements develop and should be resolved; and how to make decisions on financial matters, child-rearing, and other issues via mutual consultation.

Childhood experiences are the major

All Quranic verses supporting gender equality, respect and love must be emphasized at an early age if we hope to eradicate IPV.

Maintaining relationships requires discipline, which isn’t the same as forcing one’s spouse into submission. Instead, it means that both spouses must tolerate each other’s imperfections, thereby resisting the temptation to engage in behavior that leads to IPV. Another major issue is the lack of effective communication skills. In my practice, I found this to be the major reason why people turn to abuse and violence to resolve conflicts. Both spouses need to adhere to Islam’s teachings that promote love, peace, kindness, and gender equality.

Sometimes it may be necessary to confide in family members, friends, and colleagues. Many professionals can also help improve an abusive relationship. But if there is no improvement and if the spouses aren’t compatible, it may be more practical to get a divorce.

In sum: The head of the family has no right to abuse his wife emotionally, verbally, or physically. This is a crime, and there are legal consequences. ih

Dr. Basheer Ahmed, a former professor of psychiatry at Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, is chairman emeritus at the Muslim Community Center for Human Services, Dallas.

Maintaining relationships requires discipline, which isn’t the same as forcing one’s spouse into submission. Instead, it means that both spouses must tolerate each other’s imperfections, thereby resisting the temptation to engage in behavior that leads to IPV.

A Call to Action

Documenting and honoring the lives of Muslim victims of domestic homicide

BY DENISE ZIYA BERTE

From June 2022 to Sept. 2022, there were six publicly reported incidents of domestic homicide and suicide with over 14 lost souls in the Muslim American community. In examining these cases, the most frustrating and terrifying commonality is the absence of identifiable patterns. Six of the perpetrators were men; one was a woman. The victims ranged in age from an unborn fetus to grandparents in their 60s. All but one incident included a firearm. Some of the victims were married; others were divorced or separated. Among them were those who wore the hijab, had children and/or college degrees, were immigrants, had family support and/or good economic standing, and those who had sought

spiritual, legal and social assistance. The incidents occurred in environments from suburbs to cities. In most cases the perpetrator took his/her own life as well that of the victim, children and extended family members.

Domestic homicide, defined as a murder that occurs in the context of an intimate (spousal) or family-based relationship, is a tragic but well-established phenomenon among Muslim Americans as well as in Muslim-majority countries worldwide. In the Americas, the rate of domestic homicide of women/girls has increased 9% over the past two years. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, 2021) reports that over 47,000 women and girls internationally

were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2020, a figure equal to someone being murdered by a family member every 11 minutes of that year.

Sadly, these numbers have remained stagnant over decades despite numerous programs and legislation. Women and girls make up only 10% of the general homicide rate but 58% of domestic homicides, demonstrating that they are safer in the street than in their homes.

While domestic violence (DV) doesn’t always reach the level of homicide, the potential for lethality is always there. This crime is built on the premise that one person in the family or relationship, because of their status (e.g., parent, husband or primary financial

Women and girls make up only 10% of the general homicide rate but 58% of domestic homicides, demonstrating that they are safer in the street than in their homes.

The American Muslim Intimate Partner Violence Study

How people can contribute to efforts to gain knowledge on DV

BY TAHANI CHAUDHRY

Anas ibn Malik reported: The Prophet said: “Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim” (“Sunan Ibn Majah,” 224).

The Peaceful Families Project (PFP) deeply values and prioritizes the efforts to seek knowledge and make it accessible to the Muslim community. PFP has a long history of engaging in scientifically based investigations, alone and with partners who seek to increase Muslims’ knowledge of the range and impact of domestic violence (DV), child abuse, sexual violence, gender-based violence and other related topics on our community, both here and abroad. Our research and resource development program aims to utilize this knowledge to explore our community’s unique strengths to deal with these social issues and utilize an integration of Islamic teachings and psychological knowledge to serve as a foundation for the prevention activities and resources (evidence-based practice).

To eliminate DV from our community, we must first know what it looks like. Unfortunately, due to stigma and lack of resources, this knowledge is limited. In a 2009 survey of 241 American Muslims conducted by Sound Vision and Islamic Social Services Association USA, 70% of respondents knew someone who had experienced DV. In 2011, PFP and Project Sakinah launched a national survey of DV in our community. Half of the 801 respondents had experienced some form

of DV, and one-third of respondents had experienced abuse in an intimate relationship. In this sample, men tended to report having experienced child abuse, whereas a majority of those reporting intimate partner abuse were women. The scarcity of data limits our ability to address this problem.

In an effort to increase and update our knowledge, Dr. Olubunmi Basirat Oyewuwo and PFP have launched a survey to study DV in the Muslim American community. One of its goals is to learn the attitudes, beliefs and experiences of DV in our community in order to inform the creation of new ones, and to support existing, intervention and

prevention strategies. The lack of relevant data presents funding challenges to those who desire to prevent, intervene and inform our knowledge of DV.

As a reader, you can, among other things, support such efforts by taking the American Muslim Intimate Partner Violence survey. Anyone who identifies as Muslim, is aged 18+ and lives in the U.S. is eligible to participate. The survey takes about 30 minutes to complete and can be completed by phone, tablet, or computer. Your voice is essential, and we want to hear from you. ih

Tahani Chaudhry is a graduate research assistant in clinical psychology at George Mason University.

contributor), has the right and responsibility to control others through force. This is diametrically opposed to the leadership based in love, compassion and mutual consultation described in the Quran and demonstrated by Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam).

DV may start as a pattern of behavior directed at managing the life of another individual through restricting his/her finances (e.g., if the individual can work, where they can receive funds from and

what they can use their own money for), movement (where and when he/she can leave the home), legal status (withholding passports, marriage contracts, immigration visas and other important documents) and association (what friends and relatives he/ she can see). DV includes emotional (humiliation, continual criticism), verbal (cursing, threatening and name calling), sexual (forced sexual activity) and physical abuse (biting, hitting, pushing).

Historical data has established that those

who seek help and try to actively stop the pattern of abuse are most at risk in terms of serious injury, the kidnapping of their children and even death. This leaves victims little hope of escape or change. Domestic homicide occurs when the perpetrator feels that the situation is out of his/her control and becomes convinced that the mere right of existence of the other person(s) outside of his/her “governance” is unacceptable. Sadly, the perpetrator’s family and friends may even increase the pressure by framing

To eliminate DV from our community, we must first know what it looks like. Unfortunately, due to stigma and lack of resources, this knowledge is limited.

the situation as an embarrassment to the family, the work of Satan or the spouse “getting away” with something, instead of helping him/her accept reality and reform his/her behavior.

The Peaceful Families Project (PFP) is a 22-year-old U.S.-based national nonprofit organization working to eliminate family-based violence in Muslim homes using Islamic values and teachings through training research, resource development and affiliated partnerships. The Quran and Hadith are clear on women’s rights (4:1); the model of a marriage based on love, compassion and mercy creating peace for all involved (30:21) and the prohibition of oppression and maltreatment (4:19) — yet somehow our communities aren’t upholding these most basic tenets.

The level of denial seems to be the biggest obstacle: “Not in our community,” “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” “It’s a Western problem” are the most common responses to the presented data. If people don’t acknowledge a social reality, it’s almost impossible to address or prevent it.

In 2011, PFP, in coordination with Project Sakinah, conducted a community-wide survey of DV in the Muslim community. It found that 53% of Muslims had faced violence perpetrated by family members

and 66% knew of a Muslim that had been physically abused by a family member (parent, sibling, or spouse), despite Islam’s clear mandates and models for leadership, conflict resolution and peaceful partings.

PFP offers a wide variety of relevant programs, resources and curriculums focused on Peaceful Parenting (non-violent child rearing), Peaceful Futures (curriculum on Muslim identity and developing healthy relationships for middle school, high school, and university-aged youth), Peaceful Partners (Male Allies programs), Muslim Abusive Patterns Intervention (a faith-based curriculum for those engaging in family-based violence), Peaceful Partings (programing for divorce and co-parenting), as well as Peaceful World (international initiatives to spread Peaceful Families’ mission to Muslims worldwide).

These programs are open to all and generated locally through PFP trainers and supporters. PFP holds an annual training of trainers workshop for interested individuals as well as several community-based trainings and activities — both virtually and in person — monthly for organizations willing to host events.

Incidents of domestic homicide cast a shadow on Muslims by tarnishing Islam’s reputation as the perfect religion and plant

seeds of doubt in Muslims, who begin to consider leaving Islam due to this misrepresentation and the support given to the perpetrators. In 2013, the Pew Foundation reported that 25% of individuals raised in Muslim homes abandon Islam. Victims of domestic and family-based violence, especially where the perpetrator uses the Quran or Hadith to justify their brutality, often become confused and believe that

The Strength of Brotherhood

More men need to step up

BY JASMINE ALI

A person should help his brother, whether he is an oppressor or is being oppressed. If he is the oppressor, he should prevent him from continuing his oppression, for that is helping him. If he is being oppressed, he should be helped to stop the oppression against him” Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) (“Sahih Bukhari,” Vol. 3, Hadith 624).

“

The Peaceful Families Project (PFP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing violence in Muslim homes within the framework off Islamic principles. The most common type of such violence is domestic violence (DV), defined as a method of physical, sexual, verbal, psychological, emotional, financial and/or spiritual abuse conducted by an adult member of the home, most often the husband. DV can be described as a cycle of intentional behavior designed to, either consciously or unconsciously, obtain and maintain power and control over another family member.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, oppression is

an “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power.” As such, we can see an almost parallel concept. What, then, does our faith instruct us to do when faced with the knowledge that individuals in our community are oppressing others? We are instructed to stop the oppression.

Our Peaceful Partners program is working to do just that by utilizing our not-so-secret weapon: Male Allies, Muslim brothers from across the country who meet monthly to brainstorm ideas and develop relevant curriculum components for fellow Muslim men. Through DV studies and research, we as a country have learned that interventions led by men who are trusted and respected by those men who engage in DV tend to have the most impact on behavioral change. This reality led to the creation of Peaceful Partners, the backbone of our curriculum development to directly prevent and address this practice.

Being a faith-specific organization, our organization transcends

Islam promotes oppression, injustice and violence against the innocent.

Due to the recent tragic events, PFP is initiating a national and international project to recognize, document the stories of and honor all Muslim victims of domestic homicide. Data will be collected to help DV experts identify the critical factors that lead to domestic homicide and how we can prevent any more loss of life. Equally, as a

community we will be able to hear the victims’ names and stories, make du‘a for them and place their lives in the high regard — as they so rightly deserve.

While we are aware of and deeply understand the effects of the pervasive Islamophobia faced by many Muslims worldwide, community members cannot use this as an excuse to deny the reality of domestic homicide in their midst. PFP is committed to gathering information about these narratives, for increasing our knowledge about the dangers of family-based violence and honoring its victims is part of the basic Islamic obligation to oppose oppression. Having definitive data will increase our community’s awareness and create more effective responses.

PFP asks everyone who is aware of a Muslim victim or incident of domestic homicide in the North American community to participate in this critical activity. The data will be analyzed in its conglomerate form, and no personal narrative will be used in an identifiable manner without the appropriate family members or representative’s explicit desire and permission.

DV is a form of oppression, and we are responsible for confronting oppression in all of its forms.

“I heard the messenger of God say

‘Whoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand: and if he is not able to do so, with his tongue, and if he is not able to do so, with his heart. And that is the weakest of faith (Muslim, 34; “40 Hadith an-Nawawi”).

In contemporary terms — with our hands (offering direct support to victims, donating to organizations like PFP, volunteering at a local DV shelter, physically stopping domestic violence when it occurs in front of us), with our tongues (speaking out against DV in our masjids, at community events and within our families; teaching about healthy relationships in youth programs and in pre-marital classes, etc.), and in our hearts (making du‘a for the victims of family-based violence, researching and learning more about DV in our community and studying the verses and hadith that address family relationships).

Three things you can do immediately: • Muslim Men. Take the peaceful partner pledge: (https://www.peacefulfamilies. org/ppp) • Muslims aged 18+. Complete the American Muslim Intimate Partner Violence Survey (bit.ly/AMIPVsurvey) and • All Muslims. Learn more about DV, support PFP’s efforts to eliminate DV in our community by following us on social media, sharing resources and donating. ih

the clinical research and pulls in guiding principles that originate from the Quran and Sunnah. Our Male Allies both discuss ways to address change and shoulder the roles of change-maker and role model. They dedicate themselves to their communities as representatives of Islam and peaceful foundations in relationships. Using Islamic principles, they consult with local imams, demonstrate peaceful interactions and showcase how to change the contrary cultural narrative of how Muslim men are “supposed to” act toward their wives, children and family members.

In conjunction with Peaceful Partners, PFP has been working to launch Peaceful Futures, Peaceful World, Peaceful Parenting and Peaceful Partings. Peaceful Futures, launched in 2022 for middle school, high school and university/college-aged individuals, explores Muslim identity, gender, family, healthy relationships, emotional management, diversity/tolerance and cyber citizenship. Peaceful World offers the Peaceful Family curriculums and trainings to our global partners in Canada, Palestine, Pakistan and beyond. Peaceful Parenting, which will be launched in a few months, works to enhance the development of strong Muslim individuals through positive, effective behavioral management skills and an increased understanding of children’s emotional, cognitive and spiritual development. Peaceful Partings, to be launched later this year, explores the gift of family restructuring via divorce or separation by focusing on how to manage grief, co-parenting and re-building trusting collaborative family systems to support children and adults through the challenges of change.

By utilizing all of our current and upcoming programs, the Peaceful Families Project is working to holistically stop DV. With our community’s support, the professional knowledge of our curriculum developers and the dedicated effort of our Male Allies, we are dreaming of a violence-free future. We are dreaming of peace, insha’ Allah. ih

Denise Ziya Berte, Ph.D., is PFP’s executive director.

Through DV studies and research, we as a country have learned that interventions led by men who are trusted and respected by those men who engage in DV tend to have the most impact on behavioral change.

Honoring Our Legacy through Medals and Coins

Muslim Americans should understand the cultural and political implications of the Congressional Gold Medal award and other honors

BY IRSHAD ABDAL-HAQQ

We honor and preserve our cultural and religious legacies through books, photographs, oral traditions, rituals and our artistic expressions — music, dance, clothing, poetry, paintings and culinary delights. We even convey them through massive monuments fashioned from stone and bronze, perched high upon a pedestal.

But there is another type of monument, one we often disregard. Medals and coins may seem like crude bits of metal that are not worthy of much attention. When carefully examined, however, you may discover that many of them are miniature monuments testifying to remarkable people, historic change and lofty ideals. You may discover that many are precious gems of gold, silver or bronze dedicated to honoring our cultural and religious legacies just as effectively as any the other method we use.

The Congressional Gold Medal bestowed upon Bangladesh native and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus is a case in point of particular relevance to Muslim Americans. This award is the U.S. Congress’ highest expression of appreciation for achievements and contributions by individuals and institutions. In the case of Yunus, it was in recognition of his contributions to fighting global poverty through the microcredit lending programs he established or inspired throughout the world.

In opening remarks presented during the award ceremony on April 17, 2013, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) highlighted the fact that it was the first time in history the award was being conferred upon a Muslim (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwxUfng99Lc).This comment’s significance — greeted with thunderous applause — by a politically astute senator cannot be overstated. It indicates that in Durbin’s mind, who cosponsored the legislation authorizing the award, Yunus represented more than just himself — he represented Muslims. As such, the award honors not only Yunus’ achievements as an individual, but also as a representative of the Muslim community.

For this reason, it behooves Muslim Americans to understand the cultural and political implications of the Congressional Gold Medal award and other honors that may be conferred upon fellow Muslims in the form of medals or their numismatic relative: coins.

Like paper currency and postage stamps, the artistry, imagery and inscriptions on medals and coins tell a story about the civilization that produced them. For thousands of years, societies have honored leaders, historical events and the accomplishments

of talented individuals by engravings on their numismatic materials. In this respect, the U.S. is no different. Future historians, anthropologists and archeologists will most certainly study its current medals and coins as they now do those of earlier societies — treating them as pathways through the tunnel of time. There is an extensive literature on this concept. See, for example, Amy McKeever’s “What can the faces on its currency tell us about a country?” (National Geographic, March 15, 2021).

Yunus had previously been awarded

Prior to the late 20th century, anyone relying on official American government numismatic materials as indicators of the people and events that mattered would have had received a distorted view of reality. They would have concluded that real-life Muslims, women, African Americans, Native Americans and members of other ethnic groups played only a marginal role, if any, in the evolution of American culture and its democratic principles

Bronze duplicate of the Congressional Gold Medal presented to Prof. Muhammad Yunus on April 17, 2013. The Bangla inscription on the reverse (back) translates as “Let us send poverty to the museum.”

the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Unlike the Congressional Gold Medal, those medals neither display the recipient’s image, nor do they include inscriptions reflecting his/her philosophy. Lastly, the government doesn’t issue duplicates of them for distribution to the public. The Congressional Gold Medal bears Yunus’ image on its front and an inscription quoting him on the back.

Importantly, the law authorizing the award also authorizes the U.S. Mint (the Mint) to issue bronze duplicates for sale to the public as collectibles. In this respect, the 3-inch and 1.5-inch diameter bronze duplicates of the gold medal are like the other commemorative gold, silver and copper clad coins routinely issued by the Mint. Typically, such coins aren’t used in everyday financial transactions but are retained, resold and perhaps displayed by collectors, hobbyists and others with a special interest in the subject matter or message reflected by a particular coin.

Without question, the Yunus bronze duplicate is an appealing work of art. It represents a further breakthrough in the U.S. government’s effort to reflect racial, cultural and gender diversity in its numismatic artistry and legacy. To possess such an emblematic artifact and simply store it away in a dresser drawer or jewelry box would limit its potential in relating the Muslim American story. By displaying and discussing the medal’s significance with our youth and others, however, Muslim Americans can help preserve our collective cultural heritage.

There are several ways to display a medal or coin. It can be preserved in a jewelry box or other container and brought out during family gatherings for viewing and discussion; mounted on a display holder and placed upon a shelf or mantel; or framed and hung upon a wall, accompanied by related illustrations or descriptive statements in a similar manner as the framed El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) postage stamp collage commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service in 2002. Since the Mint has not commissioned a comparable collage for the Yunus bronze medal, owners would have to compose their own collage or engage an artist to do so.

Obviously, medals and coins honoring a person who happens to be Muslim shouldn’t be embraced indiscriminately. For example, many Muslims wouldn’t give the same consideration to the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Yunus as to the one authorized

Islamic Horizons (May-June 1999) celebrated when El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was the first Muslim honored by the U.S. Postal Service when it issued this 33-cent stamp on Jan. 20, 1999.

posthumously for Anwar Sadat in 2018. Not every medal honoring a Muslim has the same significance for everyone. An individual’s values and political philosophy play an important role in determining whether a government honor is suitable for display within their household or place of business.

Ultimately, however, Muslim Americans probably should embrace the Muhammad Yunus gold medal and bronze duplicates as hallmarks of achievement and inclusion for Muslims in America. Since the Mint’s founding under the Coinage Act of 1792 until the 1980s, with rare exception, the only real-life people appearing on American medals and coins were exclusively powerful or famous men, who also happened to be white and Christian.

Prior to the late 20th century, anyone relying on official American government numismatic materials as indicators of the people and events that mattered would have had received a distorted view of reality. They would have concluded that reallife Muslims, women, African Americans, Native Americans and members of other ethnic groups played only a marginal role, if any, in the evolution of American culture and its democratic principles. Thus, in nearly 200 years of issuing medals and coins, the Yunus medal is the first that even hints at acknowledging the historical presence of Muslims in this country.

The Mint’s issuance of commemorative

medals has evolved from a tradition of excluding real-life women and non-whites to embracing a policy of full inclusion. The motivation behind this change is debatable. It may involve a sincere desire for equity in official numismatic creations, but it most certainly also includes a profit motive. As the demographics of the U.S. changed, the Mint realized that its very survival as a sales outlet depends on appealing to a wider customer base (United States Mint 1995 Annual Report, pp. 17-18). But whatever the motive, the outcome has been a cultural and artistic bonanza for women, people of color and others.

In addition to the Yunus medal, other noteworthy examples of numismatic diversity include the 1978 Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the late singer and activist Marian Anderson — the first conferred upon an African American — and its companion bronze duplicate; the 2000 Sacagawea brass one dollar coin, the first depicting a real-life American Indian; and the 2022 Anna May Wong quarter depicting an Asian American on a coin for the very first time in the Mint’s history.

While digital and credit card use will continue to replace paper currency and coins in financial transactions, the Mint’s issuance of commemorative medals and coins in honor of prominent individuals and historic events also will continue. Thus, although the Yunus bronze medal is the Mint’s first to feature a Muslim, many more are sure to follow. And whenever such miniature monuments honor the Muslim community, Muslim Americans should include them among the ways we transmit our legacy.

Irshad Abdal-Haqq is a Washington, D.C.-based author who published “Dash: Young Black Refugee and Migration Stories” in 2021. He is completing a book about African American images on coins and medals, while working on a collection of short stories about the African American Muslim experience.

Muslims in Houses

Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison, the first and only Muslim elected to a statewide position, won reelection, as did representatives Andre Carson (D-Ind.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

A total of 82 Muslim Americans won seats in the 2022 U.S. midterm election, and 21 incumbent state legislators who were up for reelection also won. They were joined by16 new members, thereby increasing the total number of Muslim state lawmakers to 43 nationwide.

STATE REPRESENTATIVES

CALIFORNIA

A Hayward City Councilmember since 2018, Aisha Wahab, 33, defeated Fremont mayor Lily Mei for a seat in the state Senate — the first Afghan American woman elected to public office in the U.S.

The closely watched race was subject to over $7.7 million in spending, after several special interest committees flooded money into a shadow campaign to get their preferred candidate elected, and featured attack ads on both sides.

The business community, which includes health care provider DaVita Inc., the California Charter Schools Association and the California Chamber of Commerce, backed Mei, while the labor unions helped Wahab get elected.

Wahab lost her father to homicide and then her mother at an early age — she was placed in foster care and personally experienced economic instability. Her experience led her to commit her career to public service.

Born in New York City and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Wahab and her sister were adopted by a young self-employed Afghan American couple who taught them

the value of hard work, perseverance and a strong sense of pride as Americans with great respect for their Afghan heritage.

Wahab, who is currently pursuing her doctorate, has an MBA (Cal State University East Bay) and B.A. (San Jose State University).

GEORGIA

Ruwa Romman (D) (B.A., Oglethorpe Univ. ‘15; M.A., Georgetown ‘19), the first Muslima in the state house and a granddaughter of Palestinian refugees, was born in Jordan. Her family moved to Georgia when she was 7 years old.

Last year, this senior consultant for a professional services company leveraged her platform to inform thousands of Georgians about how to get involved in the 2020 elections. In addition to working as a field organizer for the Asian American Advocacy Fund, Romman helped establish the Georgia Volunteer Hub to train the influx of Georgian and national volunteers while connecting them to local organizations.

Having volunteered in every election cycle since 2014 to help flip Georgia blue, Romman also worked as a field organizer for the Georgia Muslim Voter Project and served as CAIR Georgia’s communications director.

Nabilah Islam, 32 (B.A., Georgia State University, ‘12), founder of NAI Consulting LLC and former worker for Jason Carter’s Gubernatorial Campaign in 2014, served as Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Southern States Finance Director in 2016, as well as with the Democratic National Committee’s Southern States Finance Director (2018) and ran a historic campaign for Congress in Georgia’s 7th district (2020).

A child of Bangladeshi American parents, she played a critical role in flipping Georgia Blue in 2020 by serving as senior advisor to the Gwinnett County Party and increasing

the margin for Biden by 2% in the general election and an additional 2% for Ossoff and Warnock in the 2021 run-off special election.

Farooq Mughal (B.A., Mercer University in Macon, 2000), a son of Pakistani immigrants who arrived in Lawrenceville, Ga. in 1995, grew up in Gwinnett County.

In 2008, Mughal founded his own governmental affairs firm, MS Global Partners – Government and Business Advisors, and has grown it into a premier bipartisan public policy firm.

Mughal’s first job after graduating from Mercer University was at King & Spalding LLP, Atlanta’s largest and most prestigious law firm. He then served for over two years as a legal aide to Gwinnett County chief assistant solicitor general, where he conducted legislative research and coordinated seminars for the prosecuting attorney’s Council of Georgia and Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

He was recognized by Georgia Trend Magazine’s “40 Under 40” in the areas of Government in Politics, 25 Most Influential Asian Americans by Georgia Asian Times, 100 Most Influential American Muslims in Law and Government by the Islamic Speakers Bureau and “People on the Move” by Atlanta Business Chronicle.

ILLINOIS

Nabeela Syed, 23 (B.S., business administration; B.A., political science, University of California, Berkeley, ‘21) became the youngest member of the Illinois state senate.

The Illinois-born Syed has worked with many organizations, including EMILY’s List, to raise money to elect Democrats to Congress. Currently, she works for a nonprofit in digital strategy that supports various civic engagement efforts, including voter mobilization, ending sexual assault on college campuses and promoting gender equity.

Alabas Farhat Ambureen Rana Deqa Dehlac Hamida Dakane Ismail Mohamed

Syed, who has been engaged in her community serving as a mentor for youth as a high school debate coach, is active at the Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs and a strong advocate for promoting interfaith dialogue and empowering young Muslimas to lead.

As a Berkeley student, she was president of a pro-bono consulting organization that assists local businesses and nonprofits.

Abdelnasser Rashid (D) (B.A., Harvard) was born in Chicago. Fifty-five years ago, his parents moved to the U.S. from Palestine. They were among the first in their rural village to send their daughters to college.

Rashid grew up helping his mother run a booth at the local flea market and his father operate a small retail business in Chicago. After graduating, he returned to Chicago and joined the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to fight for immigration reform in the state and nationwide.

In addition, he was the field director for Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s mayoral campaign and served as deputy chief of staff to Cook County Clerk David Orr.

Rashid led a successful effort to help senior citizens save time and money by passing legislation to automatically renew the senior exemption, instead of forcing them to apply for the exemption each year.

He is married and has three children.

MAINE

Deqa Dhalac (D), 54, the first Somali American and Muslim mayor of South Portland — a city that’s 90% white — has made headlines again by being elected to the Maine House of Representatives.

Dhalac (M.S, University of New Hampshire; M.S.W., University of New England ‘17) began her political career in South Portland in 2018 by running — and winning — for the South Portland City Council. She was reelected in 2020.

Dhalac, who fled Somalia in 1990 just before the outbreak of civil war, immigrated to the U.S. in 1992.

She has served as intercultural program manager for the Maine Center for Grieving Children.

Mana Abdi (D), 26, who ran unopposed after her Republican challenger dropped out during August, is one of the two Somali Americans elected to the Maine Legislature.

Born in a Kenyan refugee camp, Abdi's (B.A., University of Maine at Farmington ‘18) family immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 when she was 11. Arriving without knowing how to read or write in English or any other language, today she’s a trilingual college graduate who has helped other first-generation students at Bates College adjust to higher education. She has also served as legal advocate at Disability Rights Maine.

One of the stars of Lewiston’s immigrant community, Abdi has overcome adversity. In May 2013, the high school track and field athlete lost everything when her apartment building burned down. More than three weeks later, she was among the three athletes who qualified for the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship.

MINNESOTA

Zaynab Mohamed (Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party), 25, became the youngest — and one of the first — Black women to be elected to the Minnesota senate.

Mohamed, a Minneapolis resident and former policy aide (B.A., University of Minnesota, ‘19), grew up in south Minneapolis after her family immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia. She remembers helping her family pay essential bills by working jobs at a young age and navigating public services while taking care of her younger sister and grandfather.

Mohamed, who previously worked as a policy aide for Minneapolis City Councilmember Jason Chavez, also served as Minnesota-CAIR’s community advocacy manager.

NORTH CAROLINA

Mujtaba Aziz Mateen Mohammed (D), 37, was reelected for a third term in the North

Carolina State Senate, securing 81.74% of the votes.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, to immigrant Hyderabadi parents and raised in Charlotte, Mohammed (B.A., University of North Carolina, Charlotte; J.D., North Carolina Central University School of Law) has worked as a children’s rights advocate and public interest attorney. In addition to defending the rights of the underprivileged, she has functioned as a staff attorney for Council for Children’s Rights (2014-16).

NORTH DAKOTA

Hamida Dakane (D) (B.A., North Dakota State University, ‘19, M.P.A.; University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D.), became the first woman of Somali descent elected to the state House.

A community organizer who serves as the Fargo Human Rights Commission’s commissioner, she is a YWCA Woman of the Year Award winner and Fargo Human Rights Award winner.

Born in northeastern Kenya’s Somali region, Dakane arrived in the U.S. in 2011 with just a briefcase of clothes, a couple dollars — and the hope that her life would get better and faith in the American dream. Eight years later, she is fulfilling those dreams.

She co-founded the Afro American Development Association, was appointed to the Fargo Human Relations Commission, helped lead the local Somali community and was the educational chair for the North Dakota State University African Student Union (now the Black Student Association) when she was a student there. Dakane has also worked to engage other new American citizens in the political process.

OHIO

Munira Yasin Abdullahi (D), 26 (B.A., The Ohio State University ‘19), became the first Muslima and Somali American to win a seat in the Ohio legislature.

The city, Columbus, has the nation’s

Suleman Lalani Mana Abdi Mujtaba Mohammed Munira Abdullahi Nabeela Syed

second-largest Somali population behind Minneapolis.

Abdullahi spent 10 years working at the Muslim American Society, advocating for and promoting youth development, leadership and community service. An IGNITE national fellow, she is dedicated to increasing civic engagement and legislative presence among young women. As a person with type-1 diabetes, Abdullahi is also passionate about making sure healthcare and medications are affordable and accessible.

Ismail Ali Mohamed (D) (B.A., The Ohio State University, ‘13, J.D., The Ohio State University ‘17), a Somali refugee and one of Columbus’ first Somali-born attorneys licensed to practice in the state, is founder and managing attorney of Ismail Law Office.

Minneapolis’s decision (2022) to allow a temporary call to prayer during the remainder of Ramadan prompted him to push for a similar approval in central Ohio. In 2020, the Columbus-based Al-Rahma Mosque attained official permission to broadcast the adhan daily.

With the help of local organizers, he orchestrated the effort to allow the adhan to be called outside a mosque. His office reached out to elected officials, city officials, clergy and others. Residents and the mosque leadership signed petitions to show their support. Organizers notified non-Muslim residents about the prayer in advance and asked for their blessing.

PENNSYLVANIA

Tarik S. Khan, MSN, RN, is the immediate past president of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association and a Philadelphia family nurse practitioner who served on the frontlines of the pandemic while completing his Ph.D. in nursing at the University of Pennsylvania.

Khan currently serves as chairperson of Enabling Minds, a nonprofit in Haiti focusing on children with developmental disabilities. He has won several awards for his advocacy,

among them the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities’ Champions of Equal Opportunity Award for Advocacy, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Influencers of Healthcare Award and Billy Penn’s Who’s Next: Community Leader Award. He also has been cited by Philadelphia City Council and The Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Khan, who has analyzed topics ranging from health disparities to nursing advocacy for the White House and media outlets, is a frequent guest on local news programs to discuss health care issues affecting the community.

TEXAS

Suleman Lalani, M.D., who has been in private practice in the Greater Houston area for the last two decades and in Sugar Land for 17 years, migrated to the U.S. during the early 1990s.

Lalani completed his fellowship training at Baylor College of Medicine and has attended courses at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University College of Physicians. He has been triple board-certified in internal medicine, geriatric medicine and hospice and palliative medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine, certified by the American Medical Directors Association and recognized by the National Register of Who’s Who for Excellence in Geriatric Medicine.

He’s also a board member for the Alzheimer’s Association and has served as its ambassador to the U.S. Congress.

A former chairman (four years) for the Aga Khan Foundation USA’s regional committee, locally he serves on the Fort Bend Rainbow Room, a resource room stocked with emergency and transitional supplies to meet the critical needs of Fort Bend County’s abused and neglected children and adults. He also serves on the board of the Exchange Club Exchange of Fort Bend, the country’s premier service club, working to make our communities better places to live.

He and his wife have three children.

Salman Bhojani, founder of Bhojani Law PLLC., worked three minimum-wage jobs to help support his family. He gradually climbed the ladder from convenience store cashier to successful business owner, attorney and Euless City Councilman.

The first Muslim and South Asian ever elected to the Texas legislature, he’s also the first person of color ever elected to represent House District 92.

His parents immigrated to the Lone Star State when he was 17 years old. After becoming a naturalized citizen, Bohjani earned a B.S. ’03 (University of Texas at Dallas), J.D. ‘13 (Southern Methodist University Law) and became a small business owner by purchasing convenience stores across the DFW Metroplex. ih

Nabilah Islam Ruwa Romman

Samkab Hussein Zaynab Mohamed Aisha Wahab

An Heirloom Jewelry that Represents the Beauty of Marriage

Seven tips to a happy relationship

BY YASMEEN QADRI

Human beings have nurtured positive actions, which communities and families have always passed on through the generations.

One unique Hyderabadi tradition is passing on the seven-strand pearl saat larra (or lada) necklace as a reminder to brides to represent the beauty of the marriage she will create with her husband.

During the 42 years of my marriage, I created my own seven strands of advice, made my own recipe for a content home and value it deeply — especially after I lost my husband Syed Najeeb Qadri in June 2021.

Each strand is held together with seven tsavorites (a garnet in shades of green), which represent tips for a happy marriage that holds together the seven strands of the pearls …. one’s family on both sides.

STRAND #1: TAQWA

Marriages are said to be made in heaven, and so are thunder and lightning. Carry your taqwa as you’d carry an umbrella so it will protect you from the thunderstorms in your marriage. Your umbrella is made of sincere du‘a, as only the Almighty can protect your marriage and home; taqwa (struggling against your nafs); and belief in self-improvement, for God won’t change the people’s conditions unless they change themselves.

STRAND #2: TEA-TIME TALK

Practice honest communication skills — crucial during challenging times — during good times. The saying that “speech is sliver, but silence is golden,” is not an advantage in marital conflict.

Spouses often misunderstand “silence,” extending it for days on the grounds that “I was silent because I was practicing patience.” Many don’t realize that this is a form of emotional abuse and can cripple the family.

Common wisdom holds that 10% of conflict is due to a difference in opinion, and 90% to delivery and tone. As a couple, we

didn’t breeze through conflicts or arguments. Rather, we learned the art and relevant skills by attending conflict transformation workshops and reading both Islamic and psychology materials.

Try to have regular open and honest communications at teatime, instead of waiting for problems to escalate. If they do escalate, call it the 3 Cs: Crucial Conversation on Chai.

Preparations Tips: Renew your intention

Author’s daughter Sumayya as bride © Yasmeen Qadri

and then select a convenient time and relaxing place, like a natural environment; initiate your conversation by taking refuge in God; treat each other in the best possible manner; listen deeply and take a big sip of the hot drink to help control your anger when you feel like yelling back; and don’t get discouraged if things become difficult. Return to the intention — pleasing God — and try again!

STRAND #3: TEMPER MANAGEMENT

The key to anger, a natural emotion, is knowing how to express it. In any relationship, but more so in marriage, learning how to manage one’s temper is important. Adults commonly throw temper tantrums at home, in the workplace or on the road.

To control your temper, try to direct it at the situation and focus on your spouse’s strengths; your reaction is in your control. Instead of seeking to control others, remain

you value your relationship, respect and love; share with your close family the good things your spouse does for you and don’t always highlight the limitations; and invest time in each other. Presence is more important than presents, so try to give more than you can take!

Shukr (gratitude) is a recurring theme in the Quran and Sunnah. Research shows that gratitude not only affects one’s mental, emotional and physical health, but also builds relationships with both the Creator and His creation.

STRAND #5: TIME

“Time is free, but it is priceless. You cannot own it, but you can use it. You cannot keep it, but you can spend it. Once you have lost it, you can never get it back” (Harvey MacKay).

Quality time requires much patience, wisdom, cooperation and certainly belief in God’s power. For example, I miss my

a couple couldn’t touch each other affectionately or hug – let alone in public, but even before family. We have a beautiful example in Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and his physical contact with Ayesha (radi Allahu ‘anh).

STRAND #7: TAQDEER (DESTINY)

Our marriage did not begin on a bed of roses. Shortly after my wedding, my husband returned to Iran. While anxiously waiting to welcome his new bride, things turned sour when the revolution broke out. We lost communication. Thank God he returned home in a few months. But he had lost his job and his savings. At times we wondered if we had made the right decision to get married.

A supportive family and a mother gently reminded me of “Another of His signs is that He created mates of your own kind of yourselves so that you may get peace of mind from them and has put love and compassion between you. Verily there are signs in this for those who reflect” (30: 21).

Here are some simple tips to help you see the benefits of believing in your destiny (taqdeer): Trust in God’s plan, but make a responsible and informed choice when selecting a spouse; don’t act as a victim to misery, but as the designer of your own happiness, for happiness is an attitude, not a state; believe in changing yourself before expecting your partner to change; and given that the spouses’ families can be great supporters, especially in times of crisis, keep your kinship relations alive.

calm; be wary of involving a third person and of casting yourself as the victim and your spouse as the villain; recognize your triggers and warning signs before your temper escalates; and don’t dwell in the past or generalize it. Avoid words such as “never” and “always.”

STRAND #4: THANKFUL

Like most young couples, unrealistic expectations can lead to being ungrateful to each other. “… And if you should count the favors of God, you could not enumerate them” (14:34).

When we strive to show gratitude to our Creator, we eventually learn to show it to His creation, especially to our spouse. Discover what makes your spouse feel appreciated. You may feel you’re doing a lot, but your spouse might have other ideas; admire what your spouse is passionate about and offer support; praise each other by showing that

baghbaan (gardener), my companion and supporter who took the time to nurture our family into a beautiful garden! You never know when your last moment will come!

You can beautify your own garden by prioritizing and nurturing your relationship, reflecting on Surat al-Asr; trying to “be the change you wish to see”; and nurturing positive cultural values and shedding negative ones. Make Islam the common value.

STRAND #6: TOUCH

“Touch is far more essential than our other senses … It’s ten times stronger than verbal or emotional contact” (Saul Schanberg).

Touch plays a role in feeling understood, accepted and cared for, as it triggers the release of the hormone oxytocin, which promotes emotional bonding. Touch and displays of affection differ across cultures. In most South Asian homes of my generation,

In addition, gain knowledge to strengthen your faith and learn, for example, God’s many attributes; attend workshops to learn communication skills, conflict transformation, relationship development, counseling and so on; and believe in destiny, for it’s one of Islam’s six articles. Imam Shafi describes it as: “My heart is at ease knowing that what was meant for me will never miss me. What misses me was never meant for me.”

Upon reflection over the past 42 years, I realize that neither my husband (may God reward him the highest abode in heaven) nor I was perfect. The credit for making our marriage blissful goes to both of us holding tight to the One who brought the two of us together. ih

Dr. Yasmeen Qadri, a mother of three and grandmother, is a tenured professor at Valencia College, advisor to the Muslim Ambassadors for Peace Student Club, as well as a board member of the Peace and Justice Institute.

Trust in God’s plan but make a responsible and informed choice when selecting a spouse; don’t act as a victim to misery, but as the designer of your own happiness, for happiness is an attitude, not a state.

Dreaming about a Future Spouse

Are matchmakers becoming a nightmare?

BY YASMEEN QADRI

Matchmaking through such institutions like the South Asian Rishta [matchmaker] Ladies/ Rishta Aunties is an age-old tradition in all Muslim cultures and, surprisingly, in Orthodox Jewish and Christian families as well. As a young woman 50 years ago, I also hated this practice of women making matchmaking a career or a community service.

The intended groom’s families would visit the intended bride’s home and stare at her with ten eyes (at least five people would visit), one looking closely at her walk while others engaged her in conversation and asked tons of questions that would make her freak out. The girl’s family was pressured to serve refreshments or even dinner if the candidate was a sought-after professional like a physician, lawyer or IT worker. The country where he worked also mattered, thus raising standards even higher for candidates residing in the U.S. than in Saudi Arabia or other countries.

Today the trend continues; however, there has been recently a big resistance to it. During last year’s ISNA convention, I was surprised to witness a booth and placards waving and huge posters held by young women that said: “Save us from Rishta Aunties.” ISNA and ICNA matrimonial services invite the many single attendees to their matrimonial banquets. ISNA’s matrimonial service has been in place since 1985. Other matrimonial services consist of a large variety of virtual sites and apps like Muslim Matrimony.com, Eharmony.com, Muslima. com and Single Muslim.com.

Sadaf Farooqi’s blog, “Before You Roll Out the Red Carpet: Be on Red Alert for these ‘Rishta’ Red Herrings & Red Flags” (Jan. 30, 2018), lists five major issues with matchmaking: helicopter parents (domineering/overprotecting parents), the entitled lady (pampered girls and their attitude), too much haste (foreign candidates who visit for 10 days and rush), an overemphasis on

cooking and food and, finally, the deliberate cover-up of mental illness.

Meet the Muslims Falling in Love on Instagram (Muzz Blog, Aug. 2022) describes other challenges, among them the following:

◆ “For a young Muslim it can be more comfortable meeting someone online because there’s no family, there’s no restrictions. You can talk normally; you don’t have to meet in person. It has made it easier; there is less pressure.”

◆ “Someone requested to follow her on Instagram. When she accepted, he liked 20 of her photos in one go.”

◆ “ That should have been ‘a signal’ to doubt him. They were together for a year, until she noticed he was liking selfies of many other hijabi girls. There is a code of conduct. When you’re with someone, you don’t like other girls’ photos. That is shameful” (http:// www.muslimmarriagesites.com/).

The highest divorce rates are as follows: Muslims (31%), Jews (30%) and Born-Again Christians (27%). Two primary causes are cited: relationship compatibility and a lack of religious knowledge (https://www.maselliwarren.com).

Matrimonial practices among families vary from those whose parents chaperone the meeting to those who take total charge through apps and websites. Candidates also resist — most complain that their parents don’t understand the new generation and impose their own cultural practices. This conflict creates barriers, and most women are reaching their 40s and with no further hope of finding a suitable bachelor!

Samreen, a beautiful young hijab-wearer with a full-time job, is facing parental pressure to get married soon. “Your sister married who we had proposed with no issues, even when the boy was from India. She was only 19 years old, and now I am getting very worried about my second daughter who is rejecting every proposal.” Samreen, on the other hand is frustrated. “Rishta

Aunties tend to push their own agenda onto boys and girls, instead of listening to what we would have to say. I totally dislike this process, as Rishta Aunties care more about making a match than seeing if it is a good match.”

Maria, a medical school student, says she hasn’t pursued the Rishta Auntie route due to its lack of a wide network, which results in limited people and those who aren’t of the best quality. Meena, 40, a tall hijab-wearing pharmacist, was waiting patiently to find her Prince Charming. “I am tall, and I can’t marry someone shorter than me. Neither H-1 (work) visas nor someone fresh off the boat (fob). I am fed up with this process, and I am not interested in marriage now!”

Rizwana from Canada surprisingly stated: “I do not mind the process itself, in fact I highly value aunties going out of their way to help us hijabis for reward from God. My frustration is that the boys (and sometime girls) are not on the same page as their parents. I also do not appreciate the long time they take to decide. Once we talk, 2-4 weeks are sufficient to know the compatibility; if it prolongs for months and years and parents are not brought into the picture, then you know there is a problem.”

Some hijabi girls are frustrated with the double standards of the boys’ mothers. She added the Desi [South Asian] culture find beauty in the white, slim and tall girls and decline proposals even before sharing with

their sons. Mothers would initially say “What is more important is a good religious hijabi girl but then they would ask: “Is the girl light skinned?”

Hooria, 30, a highly qualified physician, daughter of a successful physician, had a very unique response: “Al hamdu lillah, our generation is blessed with many privileges, wealth, education, status, career, and whatnot and we assume that we will find a guy of our choice as easily.” After the challenges of pressures from age and time, Hooria states that delaying marriage helps build one’s relationship with God and bring you closer to Him. “Kun fa yakun. Only God knows when and whom I will get married to. Whether it is Rishta aunties or apps or other tools, without His will nothing can happen. This lesson may also help us build a

strong marriage in the future. I am content with this belief, but others may think I have given up!”

The challenges are numerous, as many women are highly qualified and can move easily in the larger society, whereas men are less qualified and more willing to lead a simple life.

Young men too resist Rishta aunties, but they handle it in a more diplomatic way by saying “They are not yet ready” or “Let me first reach my goals,” or even better “Auntie, it's hard to find good girls. I would rather stay single than regret later.”

If young adults don’t like the Rishta Aunties, they must be prepared to find their own spouse. In a way, this makes it more difficult — either virtual dating or “halal dating.” There is a very small number of success stories of finding spouse online; however, the majority feel unsafe with this process.

I believe that a partnership between parents or a trustworthy adult and the candidates may be a safe and better choice. Most young adults can make hasty or decisions based on their emotions. Their intention of finding a spouse may not be realistic or may be aligned with some fantasy world.

The first part of my six-part YouTube video series “Not Yet Married?” offers some useful tips in Episode 1:7 Easy Tips to Begin Your Journey: select an advocate, make a list of characteristics, share your list with your advocate, use marketing strategies, mobilize with common circles (show your etiquette), make a marriage timeline and conduct a background check & verification of the candidate.

Marriage is a very serious matter, and the matrimonial process even more so. The free mixing of genders can weaken our Islamic cultures and impact the marriage process. As a community, Muslims must lay down parameters to manage this undertaking. Although most of us may believe that marriage is a part of our destiny, it’s important to first tie your camel and then trust God.

“The greatest test of faith is when you don’t get what you want, but you are still able to say, ‘Thank you, Lord.’” ih

A matrimonial search conducted with one’s parents or an adult mentor who can be a good advocate for the candidate might help bridge the gap between immigrant parents and their born-and-raised American children. Despite the high divorce rate, both groups are frustrated because there is no onesize-fits-all process, given the many family variations; wide diversity in ethnicities, languages and cultures; as well as vast cultural differences among reverts, Arabs and South Asians. Children raised within liberal families may be no different than reverts and reject matrimonial services. My three born-and-raised American children were married through our Hyderabadi culture’s traditional matrimonial process. Yet there was diversity within the same culture, as each child was raised differently.

www.isna.net • (317) 839-8157

Convenient.

Dr. Yasmeen Qadri, a mother of three and grandmother, is a tenured professor at Valencia College, advisor to the Muslim Ambassadors for Peace Student Club, as well as a board member of the Peace and Justice Institute.

Matrimonial practices among families vary from those whose parents chaperone the meeting to those who take total charge through apps and websites. Candidates also resist — most complain that their parents don’t understand the new generation and impose their own cultural practices.

How Safe is Your Drinking Water?

Subhead. A community guide to address forever chemicals pollution

BY HUDA ALKAFF

What can you do when you learn that your drinking water is contaminated with a toxic substance? I asked myself this question when my city, West Bend, Wisc., issued a press release in June 2022 that at least one groundwater well, the source of drinking water for many residents, had been shut down because of PFAS (per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) contamination. In the past, the other two wells that are now the drinking water’s main source have also had elevated PFAS levels. So how can we ensure that our water is safe to drink? This is something I’m still trying to answer.

WHAT IS PFAS?

Fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS are a class of about 9,000 man-made toxic chemicals used in a vast number of water-, heat- and stain-resistant products. Having been around since the 1940s, they are also known as “forever chemicals” because they stick around in our bodies and the environment. We are talking about this now in part because DuPont, 3M and other chemical manufacturers have covered up evidence of PFAS’ negative impacts since the 1960s.

PFAS can last for years in our bodies, leading to a dangerous build up over time. Some of the most studied ones, such as PFOA (per-fluoro-octanoic acid) and PFOS (per-fluoro-octane-sulfonic acid), do not degrade naturally in the environment. Even wastewater treatment plants cannot break them down. This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to some people, given that PFAS are a group of chemicals used to make fluoropolymer coatings and products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease and water.

Experts are still learning about how bad PFAS are for us. So far, studies show that at high enough levels, some PFAS chemicals have serious health effects, including

decreased fertility, hormonal changes, increased cholesterol, weakened immune system response, increased cancer risk, higher risk for high blood pressure and growth and learning delays in infants and children.

If you are wondering how to avoid PFAS chemicals, the answer is simple: you cannot.

PFAS are found everywhere from cosmetics to outdoor gear, non-stick pans, food wrappers, sunscreen, shampoo, electronics, wires, cables, computer chips, dental floss and countless other everyday items. They’re also present in the firefighting foam used on military bases and commercial airports.

As a result, over 95% of U.S. residents have PFAS in their bodies. Drinking water is one of the most common ways we get exposed to them. In fact, PFAS has been found in the tap water of at least 16 million people in 33 states — including in the drinking water supplies of major cities like New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago — as well as in the groundwater in at least 38 states. In fact, PFAS are found in rainwater worldwide.

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL?

The U.S. government is increasingly looking at ways to address PFAS at the state and federal levels. However, after decades of widespread exposure, these measures are still too little too late.

In the early 2000s, regulators divided PFAS into two groups: long-chain compounds (1st generation PFAS like PFOA and PFOS) to be phased out by manufacturers by 2015, and a new generation of short-chain PFAS (e.g., GenX, PFBS and PFHxA) used as replacements. Chemical manufacturers claim that the latter are safer because they tend to leave our bodies quicker. However, early studies suggest they might be just as bad as long-chain PFAS.

Most recently, the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) took a bold step forward by dropping the interim “safe” threshold for PFOA and PFOS from 70 ppt (parts per trillion) and 20 ppt to 4 ppq (parts per quadrillion) and 2 ppq respectively, which is essentially zero. While this new threshold, technically established through a drinking water advisory, is voluntary, the EPA encourages the utilities to test for both of them periodically and inform consumers of any detectable levels.

Testing for PFAS is crucial, because it allows both residents and agencies to know the levels of PFAS pollution and exposure, which then informs the measures that will be taken. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021 provides $10 billion in funding to address PFAS: $5 billion to help small and disadvantaged communities, $4 billion to help drinking water utilities remove PFAS from water supplies or connect well owners to local water systems, along with $1 billion to help wastewater utilities address PFAS in wastewater discharges.

Several agencies are actively addressing PFAS around the country. The Biden administration’s PFAS Action Plan, launched in early 2022, aims to prevent and clean up pollution while speeding up

research to better understand the problem and inform consumer protection efforts.

Congress introduced bills declaring PFAS as contaminants eligible for cleanup funds (under the Superfund law) and providing the U.S. Geological Survey with funding to develop new ways to detect PFAS and conduct testing.

Although these efforts are going in the right direction, the best way to keep PFAS out of our soil and water (and our bodies!) is to stop using them. Unfortunately, the federal government is not currently considering a PFAS ban.

Averting exposure to dangerous chemicals like PFAS helps save hundreds of millions of dollars annually by eliminating

the health care expenses, lost wages, work absences, decreased job productivity and treatment costs that the water utilities are required to spend to meet federal drinking water quality standards. Preventing and addressing toxic pollution in our waters is a major national priority to protect public health. Regulators and legislators must do much more to protect us.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN WISCONSIN?

In addition to federal efforts, state governments are taking action to regulate PFAS. Wisconsin and other states have passed laws restricting the use of firefighting foam and banning state agencies from purchasing food containers with PFAS. Wisconsin and other states are pursuing litigation against PFAS manufacturers for contaminating water supplies.

An increasing number of Wisconsin communities are wrestling with PFAS in their water supply, among them Adams, Eau Claire, Marinette, Madison, Marshfield, Milwaukee, Wausau, West Bend, Peshtigo and Campbell. The worst contamination has been found in Marinette County around the Tyco Fire Products testing facility, which

right direction, but, like the federal government, Wisconsin has not yet implemented a PFAS ban.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO ACT NOW?

➤ Widespread PFAS use has created an irreversible toxic legacy of global contamination.

➤ PFAS are accumulating in our bodies and those of our children every day. This reality poses an immediate threat to human health through our drinking water and places a major burden on wildlife.

➤ PFAS disposal is an unnecessary toxic waste problem (with no solution in sight) because safer chemicals are available.

What can communities do? Be a PRO.

See PFAS in Your Water Supply? A Quick Guide for Wisconsin Communities at https://wisconsingreenmuslims.org/water/

PROTECT:

➤ Minimize use of stain-resistant fabrics and non-sticking cookware ; beware of certain fast-food packaging and dental floss brands.

➤ Prevention is better than cure. The most appropriate solution is to prevent PFAS from entering our bodies in the first place. Protect our drinking water from forever chemicals.

RESEARCH:

➤ Check data from the EPA testing results or look at this map by the Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University to know if your water supply has PFAS.

➤ Call your water utility or city administrator to ask about whether PFAS has been found in drinking water in your area.

➤ Learn about PFAS in drinking water in your city, state and nationally.

was used to test firefighting foam until 2017. PFAS have also been detected in wildlife across the state. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has issued advisories for fish in Peshtigo, Monroe County and Madison lakes, as well as in the Yahara River.

The DNR recently adopted a 70 ppt standard for drinking water and an 8 ppt standard for most surface waters that can support fish. These state standards are meant to limit the amount of PFAS that can be dumped into state waters and municipal water systems. To comply with this, water utilities will be required to test their drinking water for PFAS starting this fall. All of these actions are going in the

ORGANIZE:

➤ Create a list of water-concerned organizations, groups, and residents and reach out to them to learn about their work and identify shared interests.

➤ Follow recommendations regarding filtering water (e.g., consider installing reverse-osmosis filters, which are the most effective at filtering PFAS out).

➤ Join a PFAS-free coalition or, if there is none, form one.

➤ Talk and write about your experience / story with PFAS and demand a PFAS-free environment. This is what I am doing here today! ih

Huda Alkaff is founder and director, Wisconsin Green Muslims.

Preventing and addressing toxic pollution in our waters is a major national priority to protect public health. Regulators and legislators must do much more to protect us.

Islamic Education Continues to Advance

The Global Association of Islamic Schools meets in Istanbul to map future

BY SILMA IHRAM

As a former principal and founder involved in education since the 1980s, it has been a joy over the years to connect with other pioneers in the newly emerging field of Islamic education. Most of them, whether from post-colonial Muslim-majority countries or Western countries, have struggled independently with secularism’s pervasive existence in the public education sector as Western education became the essential requirement for professionals globally. Although facing similar challenges and difficulties, many of these individuals had little contact with each other — myself included.

One exception was the First World Conference on Muslim Education (Makka, 1977), which represented a rising awareness of the need for Islamic education and its related challenges. Luminaries of the time grappled with the global decline of holistic Islamic education: Naquib al Attas, the Malaysian philosopher who pioneered the Islamization of Knowledge concept; Syed Ali Ashraf (director-general, World Center for Islamic Education, Jeddah, d.1988), Ismail al-Faruqi (murdered in 1986), Abdullah Mohammed Zaid (member, editorial board, Islamiyat Almarifah) and others.

The 350 Muslim scholars who attended — more than practitioners — planted seeds of inspiration, identified key areas to address (e.g., religious vs secular education, perennial

and acquired knowledge) and discussed how education could help meet the needs of the umma, society, Muslim minorities, as well as for educating women and youth.

As the development of Muslim schools gathered pace throughout the late 20th century, subsequent world conferences focused on specific areas of concern, such as resources, training and curriculum. However, many of these discussions didn’t filter down to those involved in establishing Muslim schools in the West, Africa and Muslim-majority countries. Nearly 50 years later, the key points raised in that first conference have yet to be resolved.

In 2022, now that Islamic education has become a prominent addition to many countries’ private schooling systems, the Global Association of Islamic Schools (GAIS) was established “to coordinate the work of emerging international Muslim schools.”

GAIS began in November 2021 as a small group of committed Muslim leaders in education who agreed to meet weekly online to discuss a possible global initiative. Within weeks a steering committee was established, along with a WhatsApp group that now includes 200+ international members. While its strategic vision is still being formulated, the organization has determined its overarching aim: to renew and transform Islamic education by providing thought leadership, networking

opportunities and action-research focused on developing a holistic and relevant education for all students.

Much of the inspiration was drawn from and built on previous projects, such as the International Board of Research and Resources, formed to implement the 1977 conference’s aims and objectives in primary, elementary and secondary schools. However, its impact on the growing number of Islamic or Muslim schools globally was minimal.

After nearly a year of online meetings, GAIS held its first in-person retreat in Istanbul on Oct. 3-79, 2022. Over 80 delegates from 11 countries engaged in workshops, presentations and collaborative planning. The program was divided between strategic planning for GAIS and planning for the 2025 World Conference on Muslim Education. An extra day was allocated to visiting local schools.

One highlight was the gala dinner held in a former madrasa adjoining the historic Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Over a magnificent dinner and surrounded by ancient texts on well-used bookshelves, notable education leaders such as Ismail Tavman (president, Sultan Ahmet Mosque Waqf), Recep Şentürk (rector, Ibn Haldun University Istanbul), Nazif Yilmaz (deputy education minister), Mohamad Abdalla (founding director, The Centre for Islamic Thought

Zaffar Ahmad, Chair of GAIS Steering Committee

Turkish Deputy Minister of National Education Dr. Nazif Yilmaz

and Education, The University of South Australia) and Yusuf Islam addressed the delegates. Zaffar Ahmed (principal, Al Falaah College, South Africa), who has driven much of GAIS’ organization, and Sheikh Abdul Mabud (director general, Islamic Academy in Cambridge, U.K), related the previous conferences’ history.

The concluding event of traditional art and music performances lifted everyone’s spirits with new hope, strengthened collegial bonds and built a shared sense of groundbreaking history.

As one delegate from Australia — where registered Muslim schools enjoy significant recurrent and capital funding, unlike many Muslim schools elsewhere — said, it was wonderful to connect with like-minded passionate educators. Despite the event’s tight schedule, participants managed to share success stories, discuss resources and distill what GAIS could and should provide to enhance the Islamic school sector.

Islamic curriculum and resources, along with the given country’s unique political, funding and training challenges, remains a significant barrier to Islam’s successful integration into a largely secular Western syllabus. As many countries have not yet developed an internal collaborative approach among their schools, there is significant duplication of resources and neglect of other areas.

The ongoing workshops and presentations generated a real sense of trust and openness, mixed with the passion for resolving common and pressing issues, among the attendees — even for the first-timers like myself. Those running the workshops inspired each other with anecdotes, lofty aims and examples of how they are seeking to bring Islam into the schooling sector.

Istanbul itself was a significant inspiration. Surrounded by six centuries of magnificent, beautiful mosques and madrassas, the history of each individual’s contribution is displayed at each location. Seeing

its people’s high standards of adab and care for the poor (and even the many cats frolicking in mosque gardens and streets) was a reminder and realization of a Muslim society at its peak. We were delighted to see its students’ achievements, but also become aware of the constraints imposed by our own governments and education departments as to what Islamic content can be taught, the allocation of time for Islamic teaching as well as methods of integrating Islam.

Part of the challenge is whether such subjects as fiqh, ‘aqida, seera and Quran memorization and understanding should be added on as separate subjects, integrated with appropriate references or form the

substrate of an Islamic pedagogy. The latter may necessitate a completely new approach to teaching in primary and high schools, one that can develop of new curricula across most subjects and supported by specific training for teachers. Such a task, which calls for significant time and resource invests in, will be impossible for many schools, given their current government’s restraints on registered schools.

In one of the keynote addresses, Zaffar Ahmed mapped out GAIS’ past and the future, giving the example of sea hibiscus or mahoe, a South African flower that changes its colors daily. GAIS may have started out as a collaboration among a few schools and school leaders, but like the sea hibiscus it continues to inspire those involved with new colors as it develops.

Like the umma, Islamic education’s many significant challenges mean that its final colors and potential won’t be realized anytime soon. Through GAIS and similar initiatives, however, a bond has been developed to strengthen and maintain the ongoing efforts to develop well-researched solutions. These solutions will be trialed, shared, expanded on and presented at the next World Conference of Muslim Education in 2025. To nurture and support our future generations, GAIS is focusing on the tarbiyya of its leaders in education. This requires striving for ikhlas (sincerity [working for God’s sake]), ihsan (excellence), istiqama (steadfastness) and divine guidance and mercy. If successful, Islamic education has the potential to provide realistic alternatives to the prevailing secular education system.

As GAIS is still in its early stages of formation, we welcome input and support from all individuals and organizations committed to making Islamic education transformative. For further information, contact Zaffer Ahmed (chair, GAIS Steering Committee) at mzahmed@gais.network. ih Silma Ihram, University Liaison Officer, University of Adelaide, Australia.

As the development of Muslim schools gathered pace throughout the late 20th century, subsequent world conferences focused on specific areas of concern, such as resources, training and curriculum. However, many of these discussions didn’t filter down to those involved in establishing Muslim schools in the West, Africa and Muslimmajority countries.

GAIS Retreat’s attendees, representing over 10 countries

Another First for New York

For more than a few, the New York Public Library is a gem hiding in plain sight

BY KIRAN ANSARI

When the world’s third largest public library, the New York Public Library (NYPL), appoints its first curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, it’s important to take note. Within the U.S., this massive and prominent organization is second only to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

When Dr. Hiba Abid applied for the curator position, she was enthusiastic about the NYPL’s goals and mission. Although she only started this new job in October 2022, she has always been interested in Middle Eastern manuscripts. In 2017, Abid earned her PhD in Islamic art history and codicology in Paris. Her research focuses on the material culture, art history and historical anthropology of early modern North Africa. She has a special concentration on devotional books dedicated to the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).

“The Middle Eastern and Islamic history collection was built in the early 20th century and made The Library one of the most important and interdisciplinary research institutions in New York City,” Abid said. “To this day, I wish more scholars and the broader communities were aware of its importance and richness.”

Applying for this position seemed like a natural step in her career, since the most enjoyable parts of her previous positions were librarianship and public programming. Fluent in Arabic, French, English and Italian, she has also worked in manuscript libraries and museums such as the Louvre (Paris) and the Pergamon (Berlin), where she curated exhibitions on Islamic art. Prior to joining NYPL, Abid was a faculty fellow at the Silsila: Center for Material Histories, a research center founded by Prof. Finbarr Barry Flood at

New York University (NYU). She also taught Islamic art history and codicology of Arabic manuscripts at NYU and the Institute of Fine Arts.

Abid has published several articles and book chapters on devotional books dedicated to Prophet Muhammad. She demonstrated a methodology that lies at the intersection of art history, textual analysis and anthropology. In addition, she suggested that analyzing the manuscripts will help us uncover the intimacy of a private practice lying at the heart of Muslim piety.

Her vision is to promote the NYPL’s extensive interdisciplinary collections, reflecting not only the region’s cultural and religious diversity, but also the diversity of the region’s communities and diasporas in New York City.

“Our collections include manuscripts of unique historical, social and art historical importance, from the Persian, IndianIslamic, Turkish and Arab worlds,” Abid said. “These include early maps of the region, rare books of poetry, law and religion, illustrated lithographs and printed volumes, travel accounts and archaeological expeditions.” In addition, the Library houses extensive special collections, with 400+ Islamic manuscripts and 3,000+ miniatures. The collection includes art ranging from classic Islamic architecture to works by contemporary painters and photographers.

NYPL seeks to build on its collections documenting diasporic communities from the Middle East and the Islamic world in North America, particularly in New York City.

“Many people within New York City or the academic community don’t think of The New York Public Library as a place for Middle Eastern and Islamic culture and history. This is what I would like to address in my work through a solid study and use of the collection and public programs, in collaboration with scholars and my colleagues,” Abid noted.

She believes there are people in New York City who wish to understand their roots, the history of their community and identity. People outside of these communities are interested in learning more about the Middle East’s culture, even though they might feel intimidated or not know how to navigate the vast sea of resources available. She hopes to help them by providing the keys to these collections.

The Library has 92 locations, with branches in the boroughs of The Bronx,

Manhattan and Staten Island. In these branches, librarians have been collecting materials — poetry books, novels, children’s literature, cookbooks and so on — from the Middle East and North Africa to serve the local communities’ needs.

Abid finds it very rewarding to work with experienced curators covering other faiths or regions, for this allows her to learn from their experiences and challenges. For instance, Bogdan Horbal (curator, Slavic and East European collections) oversees the

development of collections in vernacular languages, provides reference assistance to researchers and does outreach to the scholarly world.

Lyudmila Sholokhova (curator, the Dorot Jewish Collection), originally a specialist of modern Eastern European music, said that her work at NYPL led her to cover a much wider range of materials, including rabbinic literature from much earlier periods and other parts of Europe and the U.S. Through her work on the Library’s Jewish collections, she gives voice to this religious and cultural diversity and opens it to the broader public in New York City and beyond.

For both the general research library as well as its branches, Abid’s goal is to collaborate with librarians and other curators to present a wide range of materials. She plans to expand their collection from mainstream literature to materials echoing underrepresented ethnic, linguistic, geographic and religious voices, thereby serving communities from toddlers to scholars. Naturally this process will take time and evolve as the community and its diversity changes; however, she remains very optimistic.

“The Library is a fundamental part of New York. However, many of today’s New Yorkers — particularly immigrants — do not necessarily know that they have such valuable resources at their fingertips,” Abid said. “I hope I can help change that.” ih

Kiran Ansari is a freelance writer in suburban Chicago.

Canadian Muslim Francophones

Lessons from a minority within a minority for present Muslims in the West

BY ZAINEB SURVERY

History is not everyone’s cup of tea. Yet, it does provide lessons for a contemporary society to progress. At the same time, it also offers guidelines as to what choices resulted in a society’s downfall.

The history of Canada’s Francophone Muslims offers vital lessons to our current and challenging times. Muslims in the West face many barriers to integration within mainstream society due language, faith, religion and overall mindset. Frankly, these Muslims are parallel to Muslims overall: The percentage of primary French speakers in Canada’s provinces, outside of Quebec, is 1-3%, whereas Muslims represent only 1% of the country’s population — a minority within a minority.

Their influence, however, is nationwide. The timeline can be divided into three main parts, as per the main mode of transportation available: ship/boat (the 1600s to the late 1800s), railroad (the late 1800s to the 1950s) or plane (the 1960s and onward). In other words, primarily during the Trans-Atlantic slave period, the building and expansion of the Trans Canada railway and the airlines.

French spoken nationally in Canada is at a minimal - with the exception of Quebec. French Muslims in Canada area a minority within a minority

Each period provides information, varying from wholly negative to positive, to Francophone Muslims’ residence in Canada and is vital to contemporary Muslims overall in the West.

Period 1. Islam didn’t survive among the enslaved Muslims arriving in Canada because of the forced separation and breakdown of families imposed by the early colonizers who moved to the Maritimes. Currently, Muslims in the West are facing a breakdown of their own: family members separating due to technology overload.

Period 2. Islam was established in Canada during the 1890s to the 1950s among those who were resilient enough to earn an independent living (owning businesses) amidst significant racist hurdles and times, parents using limited resources to teach children

their faith, cultural intermarriage and community collaboration regardless of large rural land distances. Their effects live on this day: The al Rashid Mosque in Edmonton, Alberta, has operated since the 1930s, and the Lac le Biche Muslim community, originally part of the North West Territories, has been active since the 1940s.

Period 3. The Islam that most of us relate to, spurred from the 1960s onward, is now found in the heaviest Muslim-populated provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, thanks to the modern aviation industry. This era’s positive points: Muslims from various cultural backgrounds collaborate together, earn professional livelihoods and establish the “Muslim identity”

by building mosques, creating a political presence through legislation, as well as by acquiring professional recognition via governmental employment. Sadly, there are also negative points: disunity and a lack of understanding/cooperating due to differences in schools of thought, contrary to the Hadith literature.

MUSLIM FRANCOPHONES

The Slave Trade Era. Nationally, Canada has yet to officially (via government) and socially (by mainstream) acknowledge that it took part in slavery. According to Government of Canada, Cultural Heritage, almost 4,000 slaves were forcibly transported to the country from 1629 to 1834. Globally, however, 1 in 3 slaves who survived the Middle Passage were Muslim, according to scholar and historian Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick (see Deeper Roots (2007). That means, more than likely, that 1,200 Muslims would have been living in Canada.

Unfortunately, there are no existing indications (yet) as to how many of them spoke French. However, the first recorded slave who landed in Canada was 6-yearold French-speaker named Olivier le Jeune from Madagascar; his original name is unknown. Madagascar had been exposed to Muslim Arab and Indian traders 600 years earlier. Islam left a residual influence there, given that 5% of the country’s population is still Muslim.

Sources of Early Muslims in Canada; more research is needed on influence of Canadian Muslim Francophones

The question remains: Why didn’t Islam survive among these 1,200 Muslims’ descendants? Say Olivier was Muslim. How much about Islam and its practices could he have known, given the forced early separation from his parents? Multiply that with other young Muslim children arriving as slaves. Similarly, adult slaves were also separated from their children when the latter were still young. Thus, knowledge transmission became impossible.

In our current times, the greatest threat facing Muslims in the West is the parent–child communication divide due to technology overload. The Muslim family system is evaporating steadily due to parents being more swamped in their daily livelihood and financial stresses, while youth acquire the attention and social acceptance from peers who are unknowingly negatively influenced from social media platforms. Ultimately, the foundational pillars of Islam to understand the Quran, maintain social ties and helping the vulnerable is being lost within our youths.

The Railway Era. Surprisingly, Canada’s earliest Muslim immigrants settled in prairie lands. The Hudson Bay’s interconnected river systems and resulting fertile lands allowed the Indigenous Peoples to settle in what is now Winnipeg, Manitoba, centuries before being displaced by European settlers during the 1800s. As a result, Indigenous Peoples found alternate means of living more in the northwest: the fur trade. Enter Muslim entrepreneurs.

The earliest Muslim immigrants came from the Levant — modern-day Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. French culture was a significant influence in Levantine culture, particularly Lebanon. In fact, the Frenchcreated term Levant means “lever” or “to rise,” — a reference to the East and the rising of the Sun.

The strongest Muslim Francophone connection during this era didn’t come from the young male Lebanese migrants, but by their marrying into the Métis Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Peoples within the prairies/ Rockies stem from a Métis background — a mix of Indigenous (e.g., Cree or Ojibway) and Europeans (including the French, the original fur traders) and their offspring. As a result, the Cree language contained French words and phrases — just enough to break the ice between the Lebanese male trade-post owners and Indigenous populations looking to buy their goods. The two

French Muslims in Canada teach almost four hundred years’ worth of lessons in practicing Islam today due to legislative and socially amalgamative ease, but also potentially destructive if we do not forgo our differences.

groups eventually established strong sociopolitical ties.

Lac le Biche, in what was then part of Northwestern Territories but is now in northern Alberta, is to this day a stronghold of committed Muslims who have both an Indigenous and Lebanese/Syrian lineage. What enabled this Francophone Muslim–Indigenous community to thrive for over a century? Culture, tradition, family and monotheism. They have shown great persistence in upholding community collaboration ties and keeping their youth grounded in Islam, both of which have enabled them to be part of the mainstream. In fact, one Lac le Biche resident — defenseman Ismail Abougouche — is part of the Kelowna Rockets, a major hockey league team. A community truly worth having coffee with!

The Flying-In Era. Quebec has set the

precedent for both Francophone and other Muslims to participate in the Canadian political system. Irrespective of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, the growing city members cooperated effectively and thereby paved the life of ease we enjoy today. The community’s longest lasting contribution was getting a private member’s Bill — Bill 194 — approved by the Quebec Legislature in 1965 that recognized Islam as a minority religion. Before then, births had to be registered and marriages had to be held at the province’s churches.

We now take our nikahs for granted, attending marriages that have been registered at a mosque or through an imam. Imagine if we still had to get married in a church, under the Trinity. Imagine the spiritual misery and thinking about how we could even begin to break away from such a system? This creativity, unification and persistence of letting go of the ego and power grab, even of a small masjid, needs to be enacted by each of us for Muslims in the West to truly succeed in spreading Islam.

By and by, contemporary Muslims of all ages can acquire vital lessons if we take the time to study how the sacrifices of earlier Muslims engendered the life of ease that we have today as Muslims in the West by acquiring selfless bold ambitions to serve the mainstream at large, by being open-minded and persistent in learning French (Canada) or Spanish (the U.S.). Family disunity, which threatens Islam’s spread in the West, must be counteracted by having meals together and turning off smartphones to acquiring anger management and communication skills, as well as spending more one-on-one time with our children. Cultural intermarriages need to be more broadly considered by tunnel-vision families, and prejudices need to be tossed aside and replaced by the deen as the primary influence in our lives.

French Muslims in Canada teach almost four hundred years’ worth of lessons in practicing Islam today due to legislative and socially amalgamative ease, but also potentially destructive if we do not forgo our differences. We need to significantly reprioritize and instill the Prophetic tradition where real unity is maintained despite our differences if we truly want to pass Islam on to the next generations. ih

Zaineb Survery, a Canada-based community writer and educator, is the founder of Indigenous and Muslim Education (IME) and a freelance writer on Indigenous history and social inequality.

The La Biche Muslim community (once part of Northwest Territories) is where the first French Canadian Muslims flourished as early as 1905 with Cree/Indigenous tools (Photo © iHistory/Hassam Munir)

Living the Languages of the Land (Vivre Les Langues Du Territoire)

A minority within a minority: Francophone Muslim Canadians are as diverse as Islam itself

BY ZAINEB SURVERY

Prophet Muhammad ( salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam ) said, “Indeed, God created Adam from a handful of collected earth; thus, the children of Adam are also of the earth. Some are (of shades) red, white, or black and whatever is amongst them is of the ease, difficult, evil, and good” (“Sahih al-Tirmidhi,” 2955).

Islamic Horizons (Sept./Oct. 2022, p. 58) included an article entitled “Learning the Languages of the Land” on the need to become bi- or multilingual. In the North American context, this means learning Indigenous languages, Spanish or French. Such knowledge can help us progress professionally, improve societal values and increase other people’s understanding of Islam.

Specifically, Canadian Muslims need to learn French, their country’s co-official language. At the same time, this enables more French-speaking Canadian Muslims to become civically engaged, which can

help deter the nationwide anti-Muslim xenophobia and fill the large gap in Frenchlanguage Islamic literature for children. This article offers glimpses of eight Francophone Muslims and the challenges they face.

Coming from all walks of cultural, professional and provincial life, they are are diverse as Islam itself. Muslims welcome and work around linguistic differences by speaking a common language. However, their most important shared traits are remaining resilient and proud Muslims while being civically engaged in a bilingual society.

NEW BRUNSWICK: CHEIKHOU MOCTAR DRAME

Cheikhou Moctar Drame, a French-speaker who hails from Senegal, lives in the coastal city of Moncton. He has lived in Canada for nearly a decade, working in the telecommunications sector, co-founding an import/ export company and serving as the Moncton

Muslim Association’s vice president. French is the official language of New Brunswick, which has the largest Francophone population — over 30% — outside Quebec. This demographic is higher in the interior and the regions bordering Quebec. However, English’s influence is stronger, which can be a significant challenge.

Moctar says, “French doesn’t pass with most of the population; it’s truly a minority language. Private services require us to speak English. It’s difficult when you can’t or don’t want to speak English.” In fact, his primary form of correspondence for this article was French, for he “wants to understand and be understood. In English, for the moment, this isn’t the case.” He continues to outline that he “wants an Islamic education for [his children], which is currently absent. The environment doesn’t offer Islamic values.”

English-based Islamic education required three generations to be firmly planted in North America, with organizations such as ISNA, the Muslim Children of North America (MCNA) and the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) leading the effort. Right now, the only French-based MAC school is in Quebec. Francophone Muslims in New Brunswick are a minority; for now, their children’s education is family-driven.

QUEBEC: NERMINE BARBOUCH, OMEMAH AND AREEJ AHMED

Nermine Barbouch, who has lived in Montreal for 30+ years, graduated in French literature. She is conversational in French and Spanish and understands German, Italian and Russian. Originally from Tunisia, she grew up with French as her second language. She leads the Forum Musulman Canadien, which collectively voices Muslims’ rights in Quebec; is a case worker at Sakeena Homes, a women’s shelter; and an interpreter at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

Barbouch is in the thick of xenophobia, given her various working roles. She openly admits that many Euro-Quebecers consider Muslims ignorant and uneducated and are surprised to hear a visibly Muslim individual speaking French. She argues that Quebecers need to realize the challenges faced by refugee families from a war-imposed country: learning a new language, dealing with significant trauma, raising a child(ren) with physical challenges and struggling financially with rising city costs and a limited income.

Unfortunately, Canada is currently racism-galore, be it via legislative bills or subtle interactions. However, sometimes an industry is bureaucratically exempt due to the limited supply-and-demand of professionals. One such field is healthcare.

Omemah (last name), a hijab-wearing clinical nurse born and raised in Laval, Quebec, has Pakistani roots. She talks with her patients in French, English or Urdu. For her dialysis-assisted patients, aged 19 to 90 years old, her hijab is likely the least of their worries. Rather, occasionally an elderly

patient feels at ease in warmly “considering her a Quebecer” for speaking in French with them. In fact, the only times she has experienced racist attitudes in Quebec was while working in retail customer service during her teens. She would speak to customers on the phone in French, only to hear the same customer in-person saying they want “to speak to the white girl they spoke to on the phone.” She would politely reply with, “That’s me.”

Currently, Canada faces a countrywide nurse shortage due to Covid burnout — and Quebec is being severely affected. Its xenophobic and politically France-inspired laïcité law, Bill 21, outlines who gets to work in the public eye while wearing a “religious symbol.” Essentially, this depends on who hands over the pay check, if it's a glamorous or intensive decision-making role or if the job market is already saturated.

For example, according to Bill 21 (schedule 3, section 7, clause 10), physicians, judges and public school teachers working in Quebec cannot wear the hijab, whereas those working for the government as a nurse (health

care is “free” here) or in IT can. This bureaucratic cherry-picking gets awfully confusing even for the Québecor. One tries not to take Bill 21 personally, challenging as that is for Muslims. In the meantime, IT offers Muslim Francophones opportunities in Quebec.

The Quebec government is currently hiring 3,000 French-speaking overseas IT workers (Montreal Gazette, April 2022). Incidentally, Areej Ahmed is pursuing IT in Montreal, having moved there from Egypt with her family over seven years ago. She is currently learning French. Her husband, who learned it in an Egyptian primary school, quickly found work as a data architect. But he feels that French, as an industrial language, is dying. The perk: Quebec pays one to learn the language! Provincial Bills 96 and 101 have been pivotal in pressuring private businesses to operate officially in French.

However, that is a significant pressure on the typical older adult recent migrant. Ahmed notes of her French classmates, aged between 18 to 60: “Few succeeded (in the older age) ... many became fed up; went to Arab stores, restaurants or bakeries to look for jobs and forgot about the language.” Thus this demographic hasn’t progressed either financially and/or intellectually.

Barbouch noted the same problem a generation earlier. As a high schooler in Montreal, her immigrant friends were dragged out of class by their immigrant parents who refused to or could not learn French and used the child as a translator. She states, “The older generation does whatever possible to not speak French, resulting in some of my friends not getting past a high school education” and thus being stuck in

Ultimately, Islam teaches us to not limit ourselves or others to stereotypes. Who are we to judge another’s challenges? We must increase our empathy toward our Francophone co-religionists and be willing to learn other languages.

Eid gathering at the United Church of Canada in 1962.

CREDITS: ISLAMIC CENTER OF QUEBEC/INSTAGRAM; HOGBEN, M., 2021, MINARETS ON THE HORIZON , MAWENZI HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD., MONTREAL”

labor-based work. Currently, as Muslim communities have no internal organizational leadership to bridge this gap, the onus is on the youth to forgo higher education.

ONTARIO: ANONYMOUS AFGHAN MAN, SARA MOHAMMED, ASUMANI SERUGENDO AND SUMRA

Muslims outside Quebec are also pursuing French. Among them are an Afghan man choosing to remain anonymous and Sara Mohammed. This man, an Ontario resident since his youth, earned a Teaching French as a Second/Foreign Language certificate (Université Laval, Quebec). Since 2012, his various public service roles have helped him progress professionally in Toronto.

Also living near Toronto is Sara Mohammed, who has a Trinidad and Tobago background. Neither of her parents speak French; yet she graduated with honors in French linguistics from the University of Toronto, attends teachers’ college and has been a visible Muslim teacher in the Ontario public school system for over 12 years.

Currently, Ontario has a major shortage of French teachers because its government has reduced French’s cultural (and political) impact by reducing the French immersion

school curriculum from 90% to 50%. In the long-run, this decision is very unhealthy for Ontarians and even more so for Muslims here, who are already caught in the crossfire, given Canada’s linguistic polarization.

Yet some seek to make the best of such difficulties. Cosmopolitanism, comfort and community appear to have led Asumani Serugendo and his family to live in Englishdominant Toronto for the last 15 years, despite French being their mother tongue and their Rwandan roots. They moved to Toronto mainly due to the supportive network of friends.

Serugendo, whose nutrition experience in Rwanada was dismissed, is a nutrition manager acquiring Canadian credentials. He says that given the competitiveness, the Ontario government’s bilingual opportunities aren’t an option, for hardly 5% of Ontario jobs require such a skill.

Pairing his children’s quality education with the Muslim community’s lifestyle is a blessing. His children attend French immersion school. Living in Thorncliffe, Toronto’s most Muslim-oriented region, he has access to indoor prayer congregations in his building complex. French is not a lost cause for him for his family, for “it’s good to know any

other language. French is safe, being another international language used by UN. With 300 million French speakers in the world, a global perspective is good.”

International experiences cannot be devalued, a fact that the Canadian mentality still needs to realize. Having lived in France as a youth for two years, Sumra pursued French at the university level after returning to Pakistan and participated in an exchange program to Paris. Within a year of moving to Canada, she acquired a bilingual HR consultant role at a major Canadian financial institution in Toronto, where she has now worked for seven years.

Such a pace of professional success is unheard of for many immigrants — even Anglophones. She (re)learned French on her own via movies, friends and on the job, such as starting at the United Way as a bilingual fundraiser. Occasionally she has to deal with the shock her new Euro-centric colleagues or clients display when hearing her converse in French.

Ultimately, Islam teaches us to not limit ourselves or others to stereotypes. Who are we to judge another’s challenges? We must increase our empathy toward our Francophone co-religionists and be willing to learn other languages. Overall, we should at least try to offer a greater understanding of Islam.

As Moctar stated (in French), “We obviously try to deal with the negative things [while living in a predominantly Englishspeaking country] by looking for alternatives. The positive experiences are always welllived, and that makes us overcome the negative ones.” Central to Islam is recognizing the blessings all around us. And so finding positivity in a challenging society, regardless of language, is the only way forward. ih

Zaineb Survery, a Canada-based community writer and educator, is founder of Indigenous and Muslim Education (IME) and a freelance writer on Indigenous history and social inequality.

Asumani Serugendo (Rwandan; Ontario) Areej Ahmed (Quebec; Egyptian) Nermine Barbouche (Tunisian; Quebec) Sara Mohammed (Trinidad; Ontario)

The Death and Rebirth of a Sea

The mystery of the disappearing Aral Sea

BY FAWZIA MAI TUNG

“ One of the planet’s worst environmental disasters,” according to former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (2007-16), is the shrinking and eventual drying up of Central Asia’s Aral Sea. Islamic Horizons traveled there to investigate its recovery by Kazakhstan.

“I want to take pictures of those rusting fishing boats standing in the desert,” I told my guide, Serik Dyusenbaev. “You won’t find them anymore,” he replies matter-offactly. What? I feel disappointment seeping in. Lured by those iconic images depicted in Pink Floyd’s 2014 “Louder than Words” music video, I’d traveled halfway around the world to see them — and they aren’t there anymore?

“What happened to them?” I ask, hanging on to some shred of hope. “[U]nemployed people cut them up and sold them as scrap metal. But I can show you what’s left of them.” I sat back, deflated. Little did I know that I was about to stumble upon an even greater mystery.

During the 1960s, Moscow diverted the sea’s Amu Darya and the Syr Darya tributaries to irrigate immense cotton fields. Over the next decades, the cotton industry bloomed in Uzbekistan; however, the sea dried up to leave just a few puddles, the two larger ones being a long one in the South or West Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, and the North Aral Sea, a smaller one created by a sand dike on the northern edge lying in Kazakhstan.

REVIVING THE ARAL SEA

In 1991, newly independent Kazakhstan acquired US$87 million from the World Bank and built a permanent dam across the narrow entrance to the North Aral Sea. The 13-km long Dike Kokaral was completed in 2005 and yielded results much faster than expected. Within a year — instead of ten years — this tiny puddle eventually grew back to about 75% of its original size. Slowly, the water’s salinity dropped from over 90-100 g/L to 10g/L (this slight salinity was why the Aral was always called a sea rather than a lake), and is now at a mere 2 g/L. In effect, it’s now a freshwater lake.

The flounders, brought in by the river, were the first to return. But the locals, unfamiliar with this fish, didn’t eat it. Two Danish tourists, one of whom was a fisherman, visited in 1991. Realizing that the fishermen didn’t understand that this bottom feeder couldn’t be caught with the local floating nets being used, they went home, secured a $1.9 million grant and returned in 1996 with truckloads of supplies from nets to motorboat engines. Organizing and showing the region’s fishermen how to fish for flounder proved to them that the sea was still alive.

The Danish Society for a Living Sea used a

grant from 2004-08, just as the sea was returning, to help the fishing industry develop into a business exporting fish to Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and other Baltic countries. As of now, the North Aral Sea annually produces 8,000 tons of flounder, bream, carp, walleye, pike and catfish, most of which were sold to Russia and Ukraine before the war.

Industrial fishing season is wintertime. By January, the surface becomes thick enough to hold the sledges that, drawn by either a camel or a horse, stand in the outdoor exhibit area of the Aral Fishermen Museum. Holes are cut in the ice, and nets are used to catch fish below the ice and snow. Small boats are used for spring/ summer fishing for personal consumption.

The effects on the 14 villages surrounding the North Aral Sea are obvious as we drive through two of them. Buildings are going up, for “sons getting married and moving out of their parents’ home.” Descendants of those who moved to cities have slowly trickled back. In one village, the original 90 households shrank to just four during the years of the sea’s disappearance. Now it contains 40 households.

Electricity has been installed, and televisions are available in all homes. Russian jeeps are in the streets. Today, every home owns a motorcycle, whereas in the past every village used to own just one or two motorbikes, which are quite vital for rounding up herds of camels, horses or sheep. Although fishing is the main industry, all households still raise animals.

In the late afternoons, everywhere in Kazakhstan the villagers’ flocks return by themselves to get milked, each animal knowing to which house to go. In the day, they graze on public land. As I was marveling at this great fraternity among ranchers, my guide sighed that it’s soon coming to an end, for land is now being sold to farmers, and disputes over grazing rights have started.

The health problems caused by inhaling salt-and-pesticide-laden winds have vanished, along with the changes in the climate. Summer is less hot; winds less strong and spring rains have returned. The salt industry continues to thrive, mainly through Araltuz, which has been mining the salt lakes since 1925.

Despite all this success, the Aral Sea hasn’t returned to its original size. In fact, water needs to be released from its sluices to prevent overspill. For some years already, two options have been proposed: (1) raise the Kokaral Dam by 20-22 feet or (2) build a second dam

Aral environs, camels grazing

During the 1960s, Moscow diverted the sea’s Amu Darya and the Syr Darya tributaries to irrigate immense cotton fields. Over the next decades, the cotton industry bloomed in Uzbekistan; however, the sea dried up …

across a narrow channel in the northeastern part of the North Aral Sea, thus creating a two-level sea and causing the northernmost part to reach its original pre-1960 borders, at the threshold of the town of Aralsk.

“Are the people giving up on the government moving forward with either plan?” I ask. “No,” replies my all-knowing guide, a local resident. “Once, they didn’t believe any human effort would ever bring the sea back. Yet it has. So, they now believe that as long as they wait patiently, one day, their sons will again dive into the canal that reaches behind the museum over there.”

Indeed, Director Madi Zhasekenov of the Aralsk Regional Museum and Fishermen Museum confirms this. Opening the closed museum on this Sunday afternoon, behind it he showed me an immense rectangular pit stretching away into the distance. “This was a canal,” he explains, “connecting the sea to the town. The boats could come all the way to this pier to unload their fish. When I was young, I used to dive here with my friends and swim.”

THE “ARAL ATLANTIS”

A few minutes’ walk away, in the Regional History Museum, I found what I was looking for: artifacts — ceramic tiles, grinding stones, remnants of a brick plant, copper coins, jewelry and domestic utensils — from the “Aral Atlantis.” So it was true! I had refused to believe it when Serik mentioned how archaeologists confirmed the existence of three cities, or settlements, on the dried seabed, at 60 feet or more above sea level. He claimed the pottery shards dated to the 14th century. “No,” I had exclaimed, “that’s impossible! There was a sea there 700 years ago.” Well, apparently not.

Archaeologists, who had been digging around the Aral Sea’s northern shore since the 19th century, had ascertained the existence of a thriving sedentary civilization

dating back to antiquity. This in itself was astounding, since historians had assumed this entire steppe area had only been populated by nomadic tribes. Then in 2000, some villagers from Karateren went hunting in the now dried up area surrounding what used to be the island of Barsa-Kelmes (meaning “I shall not return”), a nature reserve. There, they were astounded to see, delineated in white salt, the remains of a city! This finding was reported to the local government, which contacted the archaeological staff at the Kyzylorda University and other institutions.

This almost 15-acre city, soon named “Aral-Asar” (The Aral Trail) and likened by the initial researchers to Kazakhstan’s Atlantis, had a central residential zone, an industrial zone on the side and a necropolis consisting of two mausoleums later named Kerderi I and Kerderi II, which had foundations of stone slabs and walls of baked bricks over a meter thick. The facades were decorated with glazed tiles, and the entrance bore Arabic inscriptions in golden letters, clearly showing that Muslims lived there.

However certain artifacts, such as gold earrings in the form of bars, biting their own tail, indicate a strong pagan influence. Agricultural instruments and millstones, along with rice irrigation patterns, showed that the inhabitants grew and milled rice into flour, which was probably exported along the Silk Road. At least two more similar settlements were subsequently found.

THE MYSTERY

But what caused the sea to cover up these cities after the 14th century? An archaeological report (Climate Management Centers — the CLIMAN Project) published in 2002 suggests climate change and the disappearance of irrigation following the Mongol invasion. They mentioned the 1960-90 irrigation policies as an example of irrigation practices affecting the sea level.

If this theory holds, never mind the fact that the Mongol invasion happened in the 12th century, shouldn’t the sea have existed before settlements and farming? Herodotus (5th century bce) writes that the Caspian and the Aral seas used to be a single body of water. However, the 6th century ce Byzantine historian Menander Protector describes the area as “a system of lakes” with a city on its banks.

The plot thickens: A big sea in antiquity, several small lakes in the medieval era, flooded into a sea again sometime in the 15th or 16th century, only to dry up again in the late 20th century. Is it simply, really due to climate changes and agricultural practices? Quite by chance, in my travels I stumbled upon a rumor: Over-irrigation was only part of the story. Such large, mighty rivers as the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya could easily withstand diversion into cotton fields. No, said the rumor, the real reason lies elsewhere.

Between 1949-91, Moscow exploded 456 nuclear bombs in Kazakhstan, mostly in the northeast and various central areas, treating the Central Asia steppes as uninhabited. The rumor mill claims that these explosions caused a shift in the tectonic plates that, in turn, resulted in the Aral Sea leaking its waters away, possibly partially into the Caspian Sea, which rose by 2.5 cm during those years.

There is definitely some geothermal activity in the area. In 1986, a geological team drilling on the former seabed had to abandon whatever they came for, because a hot spring gushed out. The area was built up to allow the 60-degree water to flow into a basin before returning into the ground.

No one knows why the Aral Sea disappears every so many centuries. And thus this phenomenon remains a mystery. ih

Current scence – two fishing boats

Dr. Fawzia Mai Tung is executive director of Tung Education Resources; leader of Equity and Inclusion Team, the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Arizona Chapter (SCBWI-AZ); and secretary of the executive board and translation team consultant, Dimash USA Fan Club.

Aral shore, soft thick layer of white over black

Residents of a fishing village

Beware of Impersonators

Dangers lurk as scams are all over the internet

BY LISA KAHLER

Iassume you’ve heard of phishing, identity theft and hacking. But have you heard of “social engineering”? This term has two meanings: the development of society and future societal change (the social sciences) and scammers impersonating trusted officials to steal people’s money (information security).

My friend “Fatima” was recently scammed. During a virtual staff meeting, her second monitor started blaring. A big white pop up appeared, the noise/alarm wouldn’t stop. Turning down the volume, she soon switched to her phone until the meeting was over.

Like most of us on a busy weekday afternoon, my friend’s schedule was full. When she finally had time to focus on her muted monitor, Fatima read the screen and called the number it displayed for Apple support. The person who answered verified that he was with Apple. The representative was obviously “off-shore” — very common for support centers — so she wasn’t concerned. She was transferred to Apple’s fraud department, which asked about her online banking accounts and the name of the bank most used. Informed that all her online accounts, emails and cellphones had been hacked and were being controlled by cyber thieves, she was advised to hang up so they could call her back on a secured line. The agent called back, told to remain on that line at all times and neither make nor receive any other calls.

After the agent transferred Fatima to Chase, her primary online bank, she was put in touch with its fraud department. The representative confirmed that her account had been hacked and several thousands of dollars had been removed from her checking account to purchase porn — an illegal activity that’s considered a felony. The agent told Fatima to remain on hold while he prepared and filed a report immediately with the FTC to document the fraudulent transactions. Finishing this in a few minutes, he

then transferred her to the designated FTC representative in New York City.

The FTC representative, “Mike,” said he’d be handling her case and would communicate directly with her banks. He remarked that speed was essential to document her statement, help prove her innocence and track down the criminals. She was told to remain on the secured line at all times, using the speaker, and not to talk to others as thirdparty voices would make the evidence inadmissible in court filings. And finally, Mike told her, the fraudulent charges made would need to be duplicated in the exact same amounts to quickly track down the culprits.

You may be thinking “This sounds rather odd” — and you would be correct. Essentially, the scammers were preying on her belief in the “system,” the authorities, her incomplete understanding of cybersecurity measures and her naivety.

Unfortunately, for the next few hours she followed instructions: withdrawing the funds and sending them via cryptocurrency to re-deposit them in a secure location. After making the final transaction at the end of

the business day, Mike said he would call her the next day and update her about the transactions status on locating the hackers.

At the beginning of this ordeal, Fatima had texted her supervisor that her computer had been hacked and that she’d be unable to work until she resolved the issues. Mike became irate, saying that any communications with third parties would compromise the FTC’s investigation and the recorded documentation.

When she went home, her teenage son “Sammy” said he’d tried to call her several times that afternoon and was worried that she hadn’t picked up. Before leaving the house, she had left him and his sister notes on their desks: “Internet hacked, don’t use computer.” Upon catching the tail end of her conversation with Mike, Sammy realized she’d been scammed.

He insisted that they go to the police station immediately and file a report. When the officers on duty arrived, they told their story. The police captain listened patiently, jotted down a few facts and said they would check out the phone numbers the scammers had used. He also advised Fatima that people report such scams every day and there was little the police could do, as the phone numbers were most likely temporary, Fatima had withdrawn the funds willingly, the cryptocurrency was legally sent and it would be almost impossible to identify the end receiver.

When Mike called her, Fatima handed her phone to the captain, who started talking with the scammer. Mike repeatedly asked to talk to Fatima. After the policeman identified himself as an officer, Mike still brazenly asked to speak to Fatima and insisted that he would call her back in the morning to update her on his investigation.

Back home that evening, the captain called Fatima and said that none of the phone numbers used that day could be traced, except the one used by the cryptocurrency company, which was a legitimate number registered in the U.S.

According to the FBI’s 2021 Internet Crime Report, over 300,000 individuals in 2021 reported being victims of social engineering attacks, with over $45 million in losses.

Fatima’s son told her to file a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a collaboration between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) at www.ic3.gov. While there is little to no chance of getting the money back, these incidents can be investigated and the resulting data may help prevent future crimes.

WHAT DID FATIMA LEARN?

God is the best of planners. The money she lost was from a recent inheritance, not part of her daily living funds. In the end, it wasn’t meant for her.

While the situation was traumatic and made her feel emotionally exposed, her son was very supportive. In fact, it actually helped rebuild their fragile relationship.

Although this was a case of fraud, her banks refused to even note it because she’d withdrawn and transferred the funds willingly. Fortunately, she hadn’t given any personal financial information, so the scammers couldn’t access to her funds directly.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

According to the FBI’s 2021 Internet Crime Report, over 300,000 individuals in 2021

reported being victims of social engineering attacks, with over $45 million in losses. There are things you can do to prevent this from happening to you.

➤ Reach out. If an (extended) family member is tech savvy, designate him/her as your cybersecurity point person. Have him/her investigate the family’s systems and explain the overall workings to them in simple terms. Empower him/her, even if a youngster, and rely on his/her advice. This trust may help him/her develop confidence and a better family relationship. Install a security program on all digital devices.

➤ Change passwords regularly; use password protection, manually monitor online banking and credit cards and check regularly for discrepancies; educate yourself on existing scams; and don’t rush or blindly follow any tech support advice, calls or emails. Wait and ask your family expert or a trusted friend for advice.

FILING A COMPLAINT

Report all such attacks: fraud (https:// reportfraud.ftc.gov/), identity theft (https:// www.identitytheft.gov/#/), computer or network vulnerabilities (www.us-cert.gov or

1-888-282-0870 [hotline]), forward phishing emails or websites (phishing-report@us-cert. gov), online crime victim (www.ic3.gov), Social Security Number theft (https://oig.ssa. gov/report-fraud-waste-or-abuse/ or 1-800269-0271 [hotline]), consumer complaint with your state attorney general (https://www. consumerresources.org/file-a-complaint/).

If you are a teacher or a school administrator, do the following:

➤ Inform students and staff at the beginning of the year of common cyber dangers (similar to other stranger danger programs), among them scams, bullying and hacking; establish appropriate and inappropriate (e.g., bullying, stealing and threats) conduct and protocols.

➤ Designate appropriate employees that students and staff can go to discuss their cyber- and IT-related concerns (e.g., prevention, training, maintaining and updating systems, reporting and providing tech information and investigating incidents).

➤ Arrange social and emotional support (e.g., provide safe spaces to talk, vent, complain, report and heal), handle the aftermath of a crime, emotional trauma and moving beyond.

➤ Provide discipline and legal assistance (e.g., guidance in reporting, determining the incident’s seriousness and when a crime may have been committed), support for the perpetrators and the victims, be they students, staff or community members.

➤ Initiate public relations (e.g., communicating with the school or broader community when incidents happen, maintaining student and staff privacy, dealing with the parents and community’s right to know, educating the school and general community on prevention and train students and staff to deal with such a situation through role playing).

➤ Be suspicious, don’t open or click on suspicious/unknown messages, protect and change passwords often, and “see something / say something.”

➤ Implement the following protections: develop school/board policies for those who are involved in serious attacks, either as victims or perpetrators; protocols for obtaining legal advice and counsel; understand pertinent local, state and federal laws for cybercrime; and develop effective relationships with law enforcement for reporting crimes, lodging complaints and assisting with legal investigations. ih

Lisa Kahler is program manager, The Islamic Schools League of America.

A Voice of Reason for Palestinians

Since the horrors of 1948, the Quakers have sought justice for Palestinians

BY SANDRA WHITEHEAD

At their last stop on a seven-city American book tour, two Palestinian authors spoke about the “on-going nakba,” an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” referring to the destruction of the Palestinian homeland that began in 1948.

“We relive it every day,” Yousef M. Aljamal told the Milwaukee audience.

The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, solicited writers from Gaza to contribute to “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire” (Haymarket Books, 2022), an anthology published last August to raise awareness of the 2 million Palestinians living under Israel’s more than 15-year military blockade of the Gaza Strip. The AFSC organized the book tour to bring some of its authors to meet Americans face-to-face.

“Palestinian stories need to be heard!” exclaimed Jennifer Bing, director of the organization’s Palestine Activism Program. “Without that connection, there’s no empathy. And with no empathy, there’s no hope for anything getting better.”

Quakers have championed Palestinians since 1948, when the UN asked Quaker volunteers to manage the influx of Palestinian refugees into Gaza. They set up housing, food stations, clinics and schools. At the end of the war, these volunteers tried to accompany Palestinian refugees back to their homes. Zionist militias fired on Quakers and Palestinians alike.

What started as humanitarian work soon shifted into advocacy.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning AFSC’s “long-term goal was repatriation of the refugees, and conciliation and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians,” writes Nancy Gallagher in her book “Quakers in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: The Dilemmas of NGO Humanitarian Activism” (The American University in Cairo Press, 2007).

The organization’s license to operate in Gaza, as well as its Palestinian staff onsite, give it the means to do humanitarian work. “But we’re not interested in Band Aid® solutions,” Bing stated. “It’s not a humanitarian crisis; it’s a political crisis.”

SECURING PEACE WITH JUSTICE

“Quakers oppose war — all wars,” she explained. “But I was always taught instead of just saying, ‘I’m not going to pick up a gun,’ it’s our duty to take away the occasion for war, to address the underlying issues that drive people to be violent against one another.”

In 1982, on a university study abroad program in Jerusalem, Bing saw “how U.S. tax dollars funded Israeli settlements and Israeli soldiers. As an American, I had some responsibility for this conflict continuing,” she confessed. “It’s been 40 years and it’s only gotten worse, both for the people there and also in the U.S., being very clearly one-sided and fueling a militaristic approach.”

The Quakers’ long history of relief work, assisting Europe’s Jewish and non-Jewish refugees during World War II, led to a concern with the plight of Palestinians turned into refugees by the 1948 war and to a series of AFSC projects in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, Philip S. Khoury wrote in his review of the AFSC’s 1982 book “A Compassionate Peace: A Future for the Middle East (Journal of Palestine Studies,1983). British Quakers established the Friends School in Ramallah before World War I.

The AFSC’s pamphlet “Search for Peace in the Middle East” (1970) called for an independent Palestinian state, noted Jim Fine, a former Quaker International Affairs Representative and humanitarian worker, and lobbyist with the Friends Committee on National Legislation. “It was a watershed moment for the character of AFSC’s involvement in the conflict,” the product of a Quaker working party that had shuttled among Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel and the occupied territories in Jordan to listen and make recommendations. “It was met with a firestorm of criticism, and AFSC paid a heavy monetary price when Jewish contributors canceled their donations.”

A PALESTINIAN AMERICAN AT THE HELM

In 2017, the AFSC hired Palestinian American Joyce Ajlouny to lead its global

An AFSC staff member in Gaza with Palestinian refugees in 1949 (Photo: AFSC)

program. Its general secretary, who has spent much of her life in Ramallah, has an “empathy born of experience,” then AFSC board clerk Phillip Lord told The Philadelphia Inquirer (Nov. 3, 2017).

In the West Bank, she “was exposed to violence, harassment and humiliation,” the Inquirer reported. “A childhood girlfriend was shot. Her husband was detained in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers.”

“I was born there. I raised my children there,” Ajlouny said in an interview with

Israel; and its Gaza Unlocked (https:// gazaunlocked.org/) campaign.

Its No Way to Treat a Child campaign succeeded in having three bills introduced to Congress to ensure that no federal funds go toward the detention of Palestinian children. By the time the third bill was introduced, the organization had a coalition of 180 organizations supporting it, including the Jewish Voice for Peace, other faith groups and human rights organizations like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.

In 1982, on a university study abroad program in Jerusalem, Bing saw “how U.S. tax dollars funded Israeli settlements and Israeli soldiers. As an American, I had some responsibility for this conflict continuing,” she confessed. “It’s been 40 years and it’s only gotten worse, both for the people there and also in the U.S., being very clearly one-sided and fueling a militaristic approach.”

Islamic Horizons. “I’m not a refugee. I never had my house demolished or my trees uprooted, but I know what it is to live under military occupation.

“Just yesterday, a 14-year-old child was shot. Two weeks ago, my dear friends’ 16-year-old was abducted from his home and beaten in front of them. They took him barefoot with his pajamas on.

“Every day there are atrocities against children, against innocent men and women. Israel continues to violate every human right of Palestinians with impunity.”

The organization’s “strong stand on Palestine, its compelling work on the ground and advocacy in the U.S.” attracted Ajlouny. “I want to be clear. They were already doing this work—none of it is because of me,” she said. Nevertheless, she is proud of its record.

She pointed to the Israeli Military Detention: No Way to Treat a Child (https:// nwttac.dci-palestine.org/) campaign, which the AFSC co-leads with Defense for Children International-Palestine; AFSC’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against

“Palestinian rights advocacy groups abandoned D.C. politics for a while,” Ajlouny observed. “It’s very hard to infiltrate that space. But we found partners in Congress, and this work is succeeding more than we could imagine.”

Two years ago, AFSC and partners launched No Dough for the Occupation. The BDS campaign called on General Mills to stop manufacturing Pillsbury products on stolen Palestinian land. In June, General Mills announced it divested its Israeli business altogether, selling its stake in its Israeli subsidiary and ending production of Pillsbury products in an illegal settlement.

Gaza Unlocked “lifts Palestinian voices to the general public and to decision makers,” Aljouny noted. In 2019, the campaign organized a U.S. speaking tour for Gaza writer and peace activist Ahmed Abu Artemah, one of the founders of the Great March of Return.

“That tour opened up Americans’ hearts and also impacted him,” Bing recalled. “He went back to Gaza with a whole new

perspective about solidarity with other struggles in America.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic halted plans to bring other Palestinians to the U.S., Bing’s colleague Jehad Abusalim suggested bringing voices from Gaza in an anthology, and “Light in Gaza” was born.

SUCCESS IN SOLIDARITY

“In the past four to five years, the solidarity community has managed to link the dots, realizing the intersections of the struggles in our world,” Ajlouny said. “We did not just look at the military occupation of Palestine, but also [at] other oppressions in the world — the prison industrial complex, militarization of borders, systemic racism and others — and how corporations are profiting from them.

“Many mainline Protestant denominations have already passed divestment resolutions. They’re asking, ‘What’s next?’

“We plan to build energy around an anti-apartheid movement,” Ajlouny continued. “The goal is to have 200 faith communities pledge to join the ‘Apartheid Free Community’ and take action through boycotts, divestment initiatives and educational activities.”

What exists now between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River “is apartheid,” Fine said. Attitudes in the U.S. today remind him of the decades before the Civil Rights movement, “where awareness of the repression, injustice and inequality existed in some quarters but was not widespread enough.

“We are doing things that need to be done — challenging injustices, calling out human rights violations, supporting BDS against companies that profit from the occupation, building awareness and the conviction that the status quo is unacceptable, and forming alliances with contentious Jewish groups, of which there are many,” said Fine. “There are many groups working to challenge injustice. One of the things that makes me optimistic is the community of Jews, Muslims and Christians who are essentially on the same side.”

And young Palestinian Americans “who aim to change U.S. policies and are well connected with other movements that bring a justice frame to the conversation,” added Ajlouny. ih

Sandra Whitehead is an author, journalist and long-time adjunct instructor of journalism and media studies in the Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University, Wis.

Managing Muslim Cultures and Identities as an African American

We must move beyond binary categorizations

BY JIMMY E. JONES

God proclaims, “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for God as witnesses to fair dealing and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just, [for] that is next to piety, and fear God, for God is well-acquainted with all that you do” (5:8).

Exactly 78 days after I was born in Baltimore, feminist Alma Bridwell White died on June 26, 1946, in Zarephath, N.J. While not well known, her biography reflects the racially toxic times into which I was born.

As a feminist. she was likely involved in the effort to gain American women the constitutional right to vote; it was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920. In this, the 21st century, we usually find feminists involved with other inclusive progressive movements. But this wasn’t the case with Alma White. As co-founder and ultimately bishop of the Pillar of Fire community of 61 Christian churches, she was indeed a progressive trailblazer as the first female bishop in the U.S. Unfortunately, this legacy is tainted by her antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, nativism and racism. Much of her xenophobia was evident in her radio broadcasts over her two radio stations and her alliance with the infamous Ku Klux Klan, about which she wrote three supportive inflammatory books: “The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy (1925), “Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty” (1926) and “Heroes of the Fiery Cross” (1928).

While speaking at a Klan gathering (as she often did) during a 1929 “Patriotic Day” camp meeting, she preached a sermon entitled “America: The White Man’s Heritage.” In the version of this sermon published in “The Good Citizen,” one of her 10 periodicals, she stated, “This is white man’s country by every law of God and man and was so determined from the beginning of Creation. Let us not therefore surrender our heritage to the sons of Ham [black people].”

In the same sermon, she advocated the repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted African American men the right to vote. Meanwhile, further north at what was to become one of my alma maters, from 1921 until 1938 Yale University served as the

headquarters for the American Eugenics Society (AES), which was dedicated to educating the populace about the genetic basis of social problems. This elitist approach was used by Nazi Germany in its attempt to exterminate the Jews.

This world, influenced greatly by the likes of Alma White, the KKK and the AES, was the one into which I was born on April 9, 1946. Despite such racial animus, which, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, caused more than 4,000 African Americans to be lynched across 20 states between 1877 and 1950, we, as Muslims, are still called on to “Be Just.”

BE QURANIC

Verse 4:1 states, “O humanity! Reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, his mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women. Reverence God, through whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (that bore you), for God ever watches over you.”

Being just under such circumstances is extremely difficult. We, as human beings, are prone to lash out emotionally and seek revenge against those who have wronged us. This thought pattern is often manifested in what I call the post-victimization ethical exemption (PVEE) syndrome. Much like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), its impact is often subtle yet powerful. Many of those affected by either condition are unaware that they have it or, if they are aware, when or how they got it. The PVEE syndrome gives those who have it a proverbial “pass” when it comes to being fair and just to members of groups who have oppressed “their people” — or worse.

When one talks to such people, one will find that their unethical position is the result of “their people” being or having been victimized by one or more groups. This is the Golden Rule turned on its head: “Do bad to others because they or someone else did something bad to you and/or ‘your people.’” Such persons often defend, rationalize or minimize the most outrageous attitudes held and/or acts carried out by themselves or members of “their group.”

In several places, among them 30:22 and 49:13, the Quran prohibits such attitudes and actions. Unfortunately, many of us who profess to follow Islam take on the language, attitudes and actions of the larger society to “fight fire with fire.” Consequently, we see many Muslims going beyond the bounds when it comes to fighting prejudice inside or outside the Muslim community. According to the Quran, we must always stand for justice in all circumstances and with all people (see 4:135). Therefore, we should not employ tactics that objectify and/or demonize members of other groups. A prime Quranic example is the story of Prophet Moses (‘alayhi as salam), the most frequently mentioned prophet in the Quran. Throughout his encounters with Pharoah, he was steadfastly respectful while always insisting on putting God first. Thus, when it comes to supporting modern movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM), Muslims should always remember Moses’s example. In other words, “BLM” should also mean “Be Like Moses.” Essentially, in all cases, no matter how oppressive, we are called to be Quranic in our approach.

BE COLLABORATIVE

Verse 2:148 states, “To each is a goal to which God turns him [her]; then strive together (as in a race) toward all that is good. Wheresoever you are, God will bring you together, for God has power over all things.”

The Prophet’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) hijra from Makka to Yathrib (the future Madina) changed not only the Muslim community, but the history of the world. Whether you call yourself a Muslim or not, the conquest of Makka and subsequent events led to what the 2000 PBS three-part documentary called “The Empire of Faith.” Historically speaking, Islam’s profound impact on world history, politics and economics continues to this day. Any unbiased intellectually honest observer has to affirm this fact.

On this topic of navigating Muslim cultures and identities, the Prophet’s seera is very instructive in several important ways.

First, the communities that formed around

him in both cities were obviously multicultural. Any review of the lists of the Companions will bear this out. Consequently, we should, like the Prophet did, ensure that people who don’t look like us or share our cultural background feel comfortable joining us in worship or other community activities. You must be intentional and proactive in this regard.

Second, the Prophet, known as “the walking Quran,” collaborated with the two cities’ non-Muslims for the common good. The Constitution of Madina is a prime example of this. Even up until the day that he left Makka, its non-Muslims honored him with the nickname of “the Trustworthy One” (al-Ameen). Surah al-Kahf, which millions of Muslims read every Friday, provides diverse models of civic collaboration for believers. It’s clear that the Quran and the seera call on us to work for the common good. In other words, to “be collaborative.”

First, the communities that formed around him in both cities were obviously multicultural. Any review of the lists of the Companions will bear this out. Consequently, we should, like the Prophet did, ensure that people who don’t look like us or share our cultural background feel comfortable joining us in worship or other community activities. You must be intentional and proactive in this regard.

Verses 7:28-29 say, “Whenever they commit a shameful deed, they say, ‘We found our forefathers doing it and God has commanded us to do it.’ Say, ‘No! God never commands what is shameful. How can you attribute to God what you do not know?’ Say, [O Prophet,] ‘My Lord has commanded uprightness and dedication [to Him alone] in worship, calling upon Him with sincere devotion. Just as He first brought you into being, you will be brought to life again.’”

As a Muslim American of African descent raised in the segregated South, nurtured in the Black nationalist campus milieu of the 1960s-70s and who converted in 1979, I believe that many of us are using unhelpful approaches in navigating cultures and identities in the U.S. Many of these approaches were tried by our forefathers and mothers — and failed. For instance, in his book “How To Be an Anti-Racist” (2019), well-known public intellectual Ibram X. Kendi argues persuasively that you are either “racist” or “anti-racist.” He opines that there is no such thing as “not racist.” Given that words matter, particularly regarding complex sensitive topics, I beg to differ.

As an African American, I would urge the Muslim community to avoid what I regard as simplistic tropes like this one. We have a lot of collaborative work to do. Sorting each other into confrontational binary categories (e.g., immigrants versus indigenous) is not going to get us where we need to be when it comes to trying to be just, Quranic and collaborative in navigating Muslim American cultures and identities. We should heed the just Quranic collaborative words of Malcolm X, which he stated in his “Autobiography” near the end of his life, “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” ih

Jimmy E. Jones, DMin, is executive vice president and professor of comparative religion and culture at The Islamic Seminary of America, Richardson, Texas.

The History of Islam in Africa and African American Communities

Islam has attracted Africans since its earliest days

BY AMINA ABDULAH

Contrary to the belief that the history of black Muslims in the U.S. began with immigrants, the long-standing genealogy of their presence actually dates to the colonial period. This specific population, which now consists of almost 1 million people nationwide, “comprises the single largest ethnic group amongst Muslims in America” (Amina McCloud, “African American Islam,” 1995, 1). So why is this population so large, and how did they get here in the first place? To answer these questions, we must go back to the founding of Islam.

Soon after the revelation came to Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) in 610, Islam was first introduced into Africa by Muslims who left Makka in 615, upon the Prophet’s recommendation, to escape Qurayshi persecution. They went to Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia), where the Christian king welcomed them and allowed them to practice their religion freely. Some of the indigenous population converted. After this introduction, Islam began to spread throughout the continent.

The first substantial conversions began in East Africa. The sultans of regional countries encouraged migration to the East African coast for trade. These expats, however, never fully integrated with the Swahilis, whom they considered inferior. The Arabs separated themselves via an exclusive, culturally inspired version of Islam that angered the locals: “Swahilis cared nothing for Islamic revivalism or Pan-Islam, which bore an Arab stamp” (Randall L. Pouwels, ed., “History of Islam in Africa,” 2000, 18). Thus Islam didn’t spread beyond the coast until the 19th century, when Muslim merchants from the coast settled further inland and converted members of their entourage, relatives and employees.

In West Africa, where Islam was introduced later in the eighth century, it spread to virtually every major country. Kings became Muslim, and their people followed, to further trade with the Berbers, a group of North African Muslims, and to establish their nations,

which grew steadily with the diplomatic bond forged from their shared Islamic identity. Uthman Ahmad states that “Contrary to what is commonly propagated, the religion of Islam (specifically in Africa) did not spread by the sword. The conversion of the people of these places to Islam was a process, extending over decades and sometimes centuries” (Uthman Sayyid Ahmad Al-Bili, “Some Aspects of Islam in Africa,” 2007, 35).

Although Muslim Africans did conquer other territories, they tolerated other religions as long as they didn’t turn against the ministry. Moreover, Islam was often incorporated into the people’s cultural aspects to make it more appealing. Over time, the religion started to affect everything from music to dress and became permanently intertwined in African culture. Al-Bili sums it up like this, “The greatest and most obvious aspect of the impact of Islam on Africa is certainly this: there are so many Muslims in Africa that the ratio of Muslims to all Africans is unrivalled by any other continent” (44).

West African rulers grew wealthier with trade, and with their conversion came the prestige of associating themselves with North African Muslims who had large established kingdoms. Europeans gradually heard the stories of these rulers’ wealth. One such story concerned Mansa Musa, the ruler of Mali (r. c. 1312 - c. 1337), who is said to have gone on a great pilgrimage in 1324 with a large caravan — 60,000 men and dozens of camels loaded with gold — that extended as far as the eye could see. His enormous wealth caused inflation when he traveled to the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The ruler’s opulence became so well known in Europe that he was illustrated on a medieval European map, The Catalan Atlas, holding a golden nugget. Some believe that this was one of the starting points that led to Europe’s subsequent colonization of Africa.

Two centuries later, when Africa was slowly being colonized by European invaders, the transatlantic slave trade began. Although there is some evidence of early Spaniard and African explorers possibly

being Muslim, the best documented account of Muslim life in what would become the U.S. starts with the slave trade. From 1526 onward, roughly 12 million men, women, and children were captured, of which 10 million were transported to the U.S. The majority of all people enslaved in the New World were stolen from West Central Africa (https://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/ aaheritage/histcontextsd.htm).

McCloud states that “it’s becoming increasingly clear through the translation and interpretation of Arabic slave narratives that a large portion of the Africans brought to this country as slaves were Muslims” (1). Some Muslims managed to retain their religion after being enslaved. However, Christianity was forced upon them during this time and many of their descendants lost touch with Islam’s spiritual side.

But Islam continued culturally through African American communities by parents giving their children Islamic and Arabic names like Bilal. According to Sylviane A. Diouf, “Islam in the Americas has been the religion of some people of African origin in

an almost uninterrupted manner for the past five hundred years” (S. Diouf, “Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas,” 1998). Sadly, this population has been relatively small compared to the numbers of Muslim slaves who were brought here.

During the civil rights period (1954-68), Islam quickly began to grow again among African Americans. This period, one of great tremulation for black Americans, saw many needing a community to fall back on. The rise of movements like the Nation of Islam began to consolidate this need for belonging and spirituality. McCloud states, “Historically, Islam comes to already formed cultures, moralizes them, and directs them to the worship of God. For African American leaders, however, nationhood was not pregiven, and their primary concern was building a nation for their oppressed people” (39). The rise of Islam, particularly in connection with the Nation of Islam, was furthered by notable people like Muhammad Ali converting and joining the Nation, and Malcolm X, one of the country’s most notable civil rights leaders who, initially, was closely associated with the movement and preaching its values. The Nation of Islam declined, however, after his assassination in 1965, and the death of other prominent figures around the organization. Imam WD Mohammed led many members of the Nation into mainstream Sunni Islam. Although the Nation no longer has such a large influence on African Americans, the number of black Muslims continues to grow. Other events, namely 9/11, have unexpectedly engendered even more conversions by African Americans and Americans in general. Black Muslims have also founded strong Islamic communities, with the traditions of their forefathers and foremothers, that continue to nurture spiritual awareness among their youth. Although today the majority of black people in the U.S. are Christian, African Americans convert to Islam at a higher rate than they do to any other religion. ih

Amina Abdullah is an undergraduate student and freelance writer.

McCloud states, “Historically, Islam comes to already formed cultures, moralizes them, and directs them to the worship of God. For African American leaders, however, nationhood was not pregiven, and their primary concern was building a nation for their oppressed people” (39).

Colorism in the Muslim World

This unfortunate reality’s prevalence among Muslims has implications for their education and mental health

BY HAKIM M. RASHID

The brotherhood [and sisterhood] of Muslims mentioned in the Prophet’s (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) last sermon can, at a philosophical level, be considered an ideal in the minds of most Muslims. This pervasive ideal had a particular hold on the minds of African American reverts, thanks in large part to El Hajj Malik Shabazz’s (Malcolm X) transition from the Nation of Islam’s race-centered views to a Sunni Muslim worldview.

Viewing Islam as a psycho-cultural refuge from the U.S.’s unique brand of white supremacy, Muslim African Americans have often been quick to embrace their fellow Muslims, an embrace that has often overlooked the racism and colorism rampant in the latter’s homelands. While white supremacy has a uniquely European origin and quality (Frances Welsing, “The ISIS [YSSIS] Papers: The Keys to the Colors,” 1991), the Muslim world is no stranger to color consciousness and colorism.

INDIA, PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH

The Indian subcontinent, home to 500+ million Muslims, is historically and culturally rooted in the Hindu-based caste system, which views skin color as a measure of one’s worth. Colorism, evident in some of the ancient Vedic texts, established the later Hindu caste system of lighter-skinned Brahmans at the top and darker-skinned Shudras at the bottom.

This now-solidified color consciousness, which long predated the lighter-complexioned Mughal and even lighter-skinned English rulers, ultimately become an integral component of the Hindu nationalism that coexisted with British colonial rule. “Because race and language are commonly understood as ingredients of national identity, the idea of the Aryan race easily fed into the idea of the Indian nation… Indian nationalist discourse of the 19th century

completed the development of the Aryan idea by equating the Aryan with the Hindu, and the Hindu with the Indian” (C. Upadhya, doi: 10.1177/0038022920020102, p.35). The result was the institutionalization of a previously unknown type of hierarchical color-based society.

Pakistan and Bangladesh remain entrenched within this system. For example, Asma Elgamal’s 2016 essay on tempest.co describes the pervasive use of skin whiteners in Pakistan based on her own experience, as does Maria Sartaj’s 2015 essay on www. dawn.com.

entrenched as Hinduism spread via Java’s powerful Majapahit kingdom in the 13th century.

As early as the late ninth century, Aryan Indian domination of high culture and the ruling class had already imprinted its lightskinned beauty standard upon Java, as seen in the oldest surviving Indonesian literatures. When Dutch colonialism peaked in the 19th and through the early 20th century, preference for light skin was strengthened through specific gendered racial projects. Particularly since the late 1960s, U.S. popular culture has become one of the strongest influences in this regard.

COLONIALISM, COLORISM AND THE MUSLIM WORLD

Colorism, defined as the elevation of European standards of beauty and a psycho-cultural issue in the Muslim world, can largely be traced to European colonization’s economic (e.g., resource exploitation) and cultural (e.g., elevating European beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors) consequences.

The same is true in Bangladesh. Golam Rabbani’s 2015 essay (https://en.ntvbd.com) states, “Apparently, our use of the Bangla word shundar, as a determiner, refers to someone with lighter skin tone. We use the word in a way which poses a discriminatory status, as if we are locating someone special within a crowd of average brown skin tones.”

INDONESIA

In her “Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race in Transnational Indonesia,” L. Ayu Saraswati (2013) notes that the ancient symbolism of “lightness” and “darkness” as metaphors for good and evil, for enlightenment and ignorance, was transformed into simplistic notions of a skin color-based hierarchy. This basic Hindu belief entered the archipelago in the seventh century and became further

Tayyab Mahmud writes that “many foundational constructs of modernity — reason, man, progress, and the nation — were developed in contrast with a racialized ‘non-Europe,’ with the latter posited as pre-modern, not fully human, irrational, outside history. The process culminated in a modern grammar of racial difference, whose primary building blocks were the constructs of history and the development of liberalism against the backdrop of colonialism” (p.1221). Thus, by default, Europe “had the right, nay the duty, to govern other races, to impregnate them with reason, progress and the rule of law” (p.1223) (1999; digitalcommons.law. seattleu.edu).

COLORISM AMONG MUSLIM ARABS

Arabs, who comprise approximately 20% of all Muslims, have an outsize impact due to the Arabic language, containing Makka and Madina and oil wealth. But to which race do they belong?

The region’s identification as a distinct land mass coincided with removing Arabs from their Afro-Asiatic roots. Rodolfo Fattovich and Lamya Khalidi’s research

suggests that the “original” Arabs were darkskinned and virtually indistinguishable from Ethiopians and Sudanese. The lighter complexions of the Arabian Peninsula’s current inhabitants is attributed to the migration of Turks and other more Caucasoid groups during the Ottoman Empire’s dominance, the ongoing influx of lighter-skinned people into the holy cities and the peninsula and their gradual supplanting of the darker-skinned Arabs.

Malik describes the contradictions experienced by many Sudanese when navigating these dual identities: As a child, darker people were called ‘abd (slave). Moving to East Africa in the 1980s and despite being “blacks” of North African descent, he family seamlessly transferred ‘abd to the locals with whom they interacted, for “my family believed its Arab roots were somehow genetically dominant, giving us smaller features and a marginally lighter skin tone — thus

aljazeera.com in 2015, states: “Far from merely a racial designation, whiteness still stands as the paragon of social citizenship in the US and a gateway to a myriad of privileges … Socially constructed in opposition to blackness, whiteness remains eternally associated with prestige, power, access, and opportunity … Early Arab immigrants desperately pursued whiteness and performed it in immigration proceedings. The law officially mandated whiteness as a prerequisite for US citizenship until 1952. Key judicial decisions in 1915 and later 1944, solidified the legal designation that Arabs were white by law.”

CONCLUSION/FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The Muslim world’s pervasive denial of color bias prevents an honest intra-Muslim dialogue about marriageability, social relations, economic development and other issues. Communities in Muslim-minority countries are excellent contexts to begin this dialogue, for they often comprise Muslims of varied ethnicities and skin colors.

In many ways, Egypt has become the Arab world’s prime example of colorism. Many Egyptians are loathe to consider themselves “African.” Sami Magdy, writing for apnews.com on Jan. 2, 2020, stated that centuries of colonization by Arab, Turkish and European imperial powers have caused lighter skin to be identified with the elite. Movies have long portrayed darker-complexioned Egyptians and sub-Saharan Africans as doormen, waiters and cleaners. Some Egyptians still unabashedly address people by their skin color: “black,” “dark” or “chocolate.” Historically, many have preferred to think of themselves as Arab, rather than African.

This colorism is most visibly manifested vis-à-vis Nubians, the original “Egyptians,” the people of the earliest Pharaonic dynasties and the population base of Nile Valley civilization (Cheikh Anta Diop, “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality,” 1974). There’s a clear distinction between Nubians and those Egyptians who consider themselves “white.”

Sudanese colorism manifests itself in the dual cultural identities of “Arab” and “African.” Many of the north’s predominantly Arabicspeakers see themselves as both, whereas others identify much closer with the Arabs of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

In her March 5, 2008 article, Nesrine

deeming ourselves to be an entirely a different race from the ‘pure’ Africans” (www. theguardian.com).

Her self-identity was “cast into doubt” in Saudi Arabia: Skin color and the ability to trace one’s lineage back to the clan’s founding father determined one’s “Arabness.”

In her 2016 essay, Sudanese author Leena Habiballa remarks, “To be authentically Arab, it wasn’t enough to speak Arabic or have facets of Arab culture syncretised into my own. My Blackness needed to be invisible. … It wasn’t until my mid to late teens that I was forced to see Blackness and Arabness as ontologically separate. This was the result of being introduced to the Western concept of race” (mediadiversified.org).

COLORISM AND ARAB AMERICANS: IMPLICATIONS FOR MUSLIMS

The U.S. Census Bureau classifies Arabs as “White,” and thus as belonging to the racial group responsible for white supremacy and white privilege, denying Africans’ contributions to establishing a global civilization and perpetuating European beauty standards. Thus, many Muslim Arab Americans may have internalized their home countries’ imported colorism and express it here by manifesting the U.S.’s pervasive racism and colorism.

Khaled Beydoun, writing for www.

National Muslim organizations might use the Unitarian Universalist Association’s “Examining Whiteness” (2015; www.uua. org) to analyze colorism’s destructive social impact. Only coordinated, multidimensional approaches — built on studying its roots in the Muslim world, the contributions of Africa and Asia’s ancient civilizations and white supremacy’s historical and cultural origins — that are integrated into education and mental health perspectives can eradicate this poison and lead to effective interventions.

Explicit anti-colorism hiring and advertising policies, along with local media outlet saturation, must be started. Qualified educators, researchers and mental health professionals should develop anti-colorist curriculum materials for all school grades and provide professional development training opportunities. Islamic scholars must speak out and publish their research on how to eradicate this scourge.

Muslims can help by placing colorism on the same level as eating pork, drinking alcohol or committing adultery. This color-based “less than” attitude has no basis in Islam and in a Muslim world that wishes to move forward in inclusive, productive ways. ih

Hakim M. Rashid is professor and former chairman of the Department of Human Development and Psychoeducational Studies, the School of Education, Howard University; former Fulbright Scholar at King Saud University; former Visiting Professor at Khartoum University; and a former Summer Fulbright Fellow in China. He received his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The Muslim world’s pervasive denial of color bias prevents an honest intra-Muslim dialogue about marriageability, social relations, economic development and other issues. Communities in Muslim-minority countries are excellent contexts to begin this dialogue, for they often comprise Muslims of varied ethnicities and skin colors.

Indigenous Faith: The Native American Muslim Experience

Islam arrived in the “New World” before the Europeans

BY KARIM HAKIM

Alife based on peace, worshiping the Creator, respect for natural resources and honoring elders. Muslims practice all of these values, which just happen to be common across the Indigenous people, among them those who lived on Turtle Island, now known as North America, long before the Europeans’ colonized their lands. Native people lived and flourished across many lands and tribes. Today, thanks to colonization’s negativity, so much of the Native population was decimated that only remnants of the original tribes remain.

Readers should research the atrocities that took place during colonization, such as the war against and ethnic cleansing of what became this county’s Native populations, because this often-ignored part of our nation’s history paints the picture of a people’s plight that continues even today. Topics such as Columbus’ genocide against the Native populations of the Caribbean, the Trail of Tears (1830-50), and abusive Church-run boarding schools, also known as American Indian Residential Schools, should be learned about and discussed by all Americans.

Many Muslims will be pleased to know that Islam is not only a growing faith among Indigenous people, but also that it was introduced to this land’s first inhabitants centuries ago. In fact, American historian and author Leo Weiner has documented that Muslims reached and engaged with these peoples well before Columbus arrived (Leo Weiner, “Africa and the Discovery of America”, Mar. 1921, p. 84). But such interactions weren’t the only ones with Islam that these people had experienced.

Of the many Africans forcibly brought to the “New World” as slaves, an estimated 30% of them were Muslim (Khaled Beydoun, “Antebellum Islam”, Dec. 2014) and many enslaved Africans eventually interacted with and began building close relationships with Indigenous populations. American historian William Loren Katz explained that although

their history isn’t well documented, Black Indigenous people have existed and moved around what became the U.S. (William Loren Katz, “Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage”, 1986). It’s reasonable to believe that at least a small fraction of these interactions involved African Muslims sharing Islam.

While these historical ties and Indigenous faith legacies may be one reason why some Native Muslims feel connected with Islam, the reality is the vast majority of Native or Indigenous Muslims seem to have learned about and embraced Islam on their own, as opposed to having it passed down from a previous generation.

Take, for example, LaTanya Barlow, a Native American Muslim of Diné descent who grew up on a reservation and now resides in Southern California. Barlow eloquently describes what drew her to Islam: “I feel that Islam relates to me as a Native American largely in part to what is known as the fitra, the natural pattern on which Allah made humanity with the guidance to follow.

“Native Americans believe in the natural and innate way of being inwardly and outwardly, along with the knowledge that it is up to us, individually and collectively, to fight for this way of life. There is a deep understanding that one should not upset the balance (natural order of things), because that is how Creator intended it to be and

upsetting that balance creates chaos and discontent. So preserving life for all creatures is always at the heart of indigenous actions and speech. This is a balance which must remain intact for the future generations.

“In Islam, the natural way of life is what is commanded upon Muslims in the Quran and further detailed in the authentic Sunna of Rasul Allah (saw) and is the ancient way of all our messengers and prophets sent by Allah throughout time. In al-Tabari’s tafsir (commentary) of 4:119: ‘[Iblis said] and indeed I will order them to change the nature created by Allah.’ As Muslims, we are to ensure that we are not ‘upsetting’ the balance within ourselves nor upon others, including all of creation. We must respect the divine order and do our part to establish ourselves firmly upon this balance.”

Many Native Americans are raised in a cultural system that honors spirituality and an attachment to nature. Not only physical nature, but also humanity’s internal nature. Islam provides this kind of connection with oneself and the surrounding world, as well as with God, the Creator. Jamilla Southwind, a member of the Keeseekoose Tribe, provided an amazing insight as to what made her interested in Islam after learning about it from Iraqi refugees she had met decades ago: “Well, for me I have a lot of reasons why I believe Islam is the easiest and most logical religion,” she explained, “because our people have only prayed to the One and Only Creator. No pictures of blonde, blue-eyed guys or worshiping statues and pictures. Our people call Allah (swt) the Creator, and that is one of the 99 names of Allah: Al-Khaliq.”

Southwind went on to describe some of the parallels in ritual practices and beliefs she noticed between her Native traditions and Islam.

“And the way we would use the sweet grass and sage, it’s just like how we do our wudu. I personally found it to be like a person doing wudu. And I find Islam to be so logical because of how our people never put reverence on idols and symbols, and we respect the land and do our best to respect nature because all of it is given to our people by Allah (swt).”

It may seem like Native converts are few and far between, but Jamilla herself is part of a group of local Native Muslim converts of 60+ members. This includes members who have lived both on and off “The Rez.”

Another noteworthy aspect of the Native Muslim experience is how they are viewed by

their fellow tribal members on the reservations. Reservations are considered sovereign lands within the U.S., and local Natives can conduct their daily lives within them without needing to leave. This includes practicing their faiths, whether they maintain traditional tribal “beliefs, attend local churches set up by missionaries, or a combination of both. Although there may not be any restrictions on religions within reservations, you will be hard pressed to find many masajid within tribal lands. Despite Islam growing rapidly amongst Indigenous people, there is still a great lack of information and opportunities for dawah.”

Southwind shared an interesting insight surrounding her experiences on her reservation after she converted: “In the beginning, the elders saw

Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi

The Father of Modern Islamic Banking 1931-2022

Dr. Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi, who left behind an astounding legacy, lived the life of an ordinary person. He was the embodiment of humility, and yet his works proudly display his mastery of the subjects he wrote on. Thousands benefitted from his expertise and scholarship, yet he was like a teenager while sitting with his children and grandchildren, enjoying every moment of their company.

it as a rebellious stage or that I was possibly possessed. But my family hated that and would stand up for me and my kids. But after years passed, everyone realized I had changed and they were happy for me. I received a great amount of respect, as did my kids. They love us. Our chief holds me in high regard, and others from our region have become Muslim in recent times after I embraced Islam. Al hamdu lillah.”

One positive note of the Native Muslim experience has been our reception within the mosques of Muslim communities. Although our numbers may still be relatively small, many of the Native American Muslims we know are active in their communities and treated respectfully.

Those aware of the historical and ongoing plights of Indigenous people throughout our continent seem to hold Native Muslims in high regard. Many of us have found common ground and solidarity with Muslims from Palestine, Kashmir and other occupied and oppressed lands.

The subject of Native or Indigenous Muslims throughout North America is a vast one with many topics, stories and discussions to be enjoyed and benefited from. We must delve even further into this important part of our heritage as Muslims and shed more light on who we are and where we have been.

As a Muslim with Native heritage myself (the Yacqui and ApacheChiricahua tribes), it’s important that we understand that the history and experiences of Indigenous Muslims provide a great narrative for Islam in the U.S., because they show that Islam has been part of North America’s fabric for much longer than most people realize. And also, this fact further exemplifies that Islam truly is the natural disposition and way of life for all people, including those deeply in touch with nature and pursuing peace and preservation for all people within their Native lands. ih

Karim Hakim is a Los Angeles native and has contributed to Muslim Vibe, OnEarth Magazine, SalaamCal, The Highlander, Fight! Magazine and more. Representative of Helping Hands Relief & Development, co-founder of Bros and Arrows, and performer of #SpokenFlows.

Born in the small Indian town of Gorakhpur in 1931, on Nov.18, 2022, hundreds of scholars and leaders across the globe assembled through Zoom to pay tribute to this giant of a leader not only in economics, but also in the worldwide Islamic movement. This father of modern Islamic banking’s legacy will enable millions of the deprived to secure a dignified existence. He left this world on November 11 in San Jose, Calif., having spent his adult life enabling countless poor people to access interest-free loans to achieve their dreams. Nejat means salvation, and his work brought salvation to people who could not advance their financial growth due to their lack of capital. Who would have thought that young Nejat, growing up in colonial India, would one day teach in two of the world’s most prestigious universities: India’s Muslim University of Aligarh and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz University? Indeed, India’s colonial officials were reluctant to help hard-working aspiring students translate concepts into institutions that might one day be able to launch and finance thousands of development projects worldwide.

Laboring hard to pioneer an economics based on the divinely eternal principles of justice and equity, he authored 63 significant books, published hundreds of articles and gave thousands of lectures worldwide.

His most widely read book is “Banking Without Interest,” which was published in 30+ editions between 1973 and 2022. His other English-language works include “Islam’s View on Property” (1969), “Recent Theories of Profit: A Critical Examination” (1971), “Economic Enterprise in Islam” (1972), “Muslim Economic Thinking” (1981), “Banking Without Interest (1983)”, “Issues in Islamic Banking: Selected Papers” (1983), “Partnership and Profit-sharing in Islamic Law” (1985), “Insurance in an Islamic Economy” (1985), “Teaching Economics in Islamic Perspective” (1996), “Role of State in Islamic Economy” (1996) and “Dialogue in Islamic Economics” (2002).

He received two major awards: the King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islamic Studies (1982) and the Shah Waliullah Award for his contribution to Islamic Economics (2003).

Describing the future of Islamic economics, in 2013 he wrote that the changing world would call for five strategic changes in approach: • The family, rather than the market,

Those aware of the historical and ongoing plights of Indigenous people throughout our continent seem to hold Native Muslims in high regard. Many of us have found common ground and solidarity with Muslims from Palestine, Kashmir and other occupied and oppressed lands.

is the starting point in economic analysis • Cooperation plays a significant role in the economy, complementing competition • Debts play a subsidiary rather than the dominant role in financial markets • Interest and interest-bearing instruments play no part in money creation and monetary management and • Purpose-based thinking supplants analogical reasoning in Islamic economic jurisprudence.

Reaching these conclusions involved spending sleepless nights to absorb every significant book on economics and finance he could lay his hands on while simultaneously interacting with divine guidance. In the passage below, he describes this journey:

“I have been involved in Islamic economics most of my life. At school, however, I studied science subjects but switched to economics, Arabic, and English literature for my BA degree at Aligarh Muslim University, which I joined in 1949.

“My reading habit influenced my decision. I was devoted to al-Hilal and al-Balagh magazines, published under Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), poet, critic, thinker, and one of the great leaders of the Independence Movement. I also read al-Tableegh and was influenced by the Deobandi scholar Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi (1863-1943), the author of the famous book on belief and correct conduct (for women), Heavenly Ornaments.

“And as most young people of my age and time, I studied the works of Maulana Abul Ala Maududi (1903-79). Two of Maududi’s pieces deeply impacted me: lectures at Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, and a scheme he proposed to Aligarh Muslim University, both in the mid-1940s, later published in a collection titled Taleemat. Under the influence of these ulama – religious scholars — I abandoned science and the engineering career I had planned. Instead, I wanted to learn Arabic, gain direct access to Islamic sources, and discover how modern life and Islamic teachings interacted. I stuck to this mission, even though I had to take several

detours stretching over six years — to Sanwi (secondary) Darsgah e Jamaat e Islami, Rampur, and Madrasatul Islah in Saraimir before I arrived eventually at Aligarh to earn a Ph.D. in economics.

“The years spent in Rampur and Saraimir were full of lively interaction with Ulama. We spent most of our time discussing the Qur’an, the traditions of the Prophet, commentaries on the Qur’an, fiqh (jurisprudence), and Usul-e-Fiqh, or principles of jurisprudence. That this happened in the company of young men my age, fired by the same zeal, was an added advantage. We had each chosen a subject ii political science, philosophy, economics — that we thought would enhance our understanding of modern life. We combined modern secular and old-religious learning to produce something that would right what was wrong with the world. We received a warm welcome from Zakir Hussain (1897-1969), the former President of India, then Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University; Mohammad Aaqil Saheb, Professor of Economics at Jamia Milliyah Islamia, Delhi; and by eminent teachers at Osmania University in Hyderabad.

“Our mission was to introduce Islamic ideas to economics. These were at three levels: A background provided by Islam’s worldview places economic matters in a holistic framework, a set of goals for individual behavior and monetary policy, [and] norms and values should lead to appropriate institutions.

“Maududi argued that this exercise performed in critical social sciences would pave the way for progress toward an ‘Islamic society.

“I believed in the idea. I was aware of the extraordinary times through which Islam and Muslims were passing worldwide. Islam was ‘re-emerging’ after three centuries of colonization, preceded by another three centuries of stagnation and intellectual atrophy. The great depression had just exposed capitalism’s darker side, and Russian-sponsored socialism was enlisting sympathizers. We thought divine guidance, as introduced by Islam, had a chance, provided the case was convincing.”

He worked hard to develop a convincing case for Islam via three monumental contributions to giving the Islamic movement a new shape and direction: delving deep into theology to change the paradigm of thinking, concretizing concepts into institutions to improve the social economy and introducing objectivity into the polity.

Siddiqi devoted a book to the Sharia’s objectives (maqasid al-Shari‘a). Disagreeing

➤

Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi’s Accomplishments

Academic Honors:

■ King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies (1982)

■ American Finance House Award (1993)

■ Ph.D. in economics, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India (1966)

■ Arabic and Islamic learning, India (1954)

Work Experience

■ Professor of economics, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 1978-present

■ Professor of Islamic studies, AMU, 1977-78; on leave 1978-83

■ Reader (associate professor) in economics, AMU, 1975-76

■ Lecturer (assistant professor) in economics, AMU, 1961-74

■ Super vised several Ph.D. dissertations at AMU; Ummul Qura University and Imam Saud University, Saudi Arabia; and Sokoto University, Nigeria.

Editorial and Advisory Positions

■ Member, Editorial Board, Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, Saudi Arabia, 1983-present

■ Member, International Board, Review of Islamic Economics, International Association of Islamic Economics, U.K., 1991-present

■ Member, Advisory Board, Islamic Economic Studies, Islamic Research, and Training Institute, Islamic Development Bank, Saudi Arabia

■ Member, Board of Trustees, Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, Bahrain, 1999

■ Member, Editorial Board, IQTISAD Journal of Islamic Economics, Indonesia, 1999

■ Member, Advisory Editorial Board, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, AMSS & IIIT, U.S., 1985-91

■ Member, Advisory Board of the Journal, Humonomics, Canada, 1985-present

■ Member, Advisory Board, MASS, Journal of Islamic Sciences, India, 1985-97

■ Editor, Islamic Thought, India, 1954-59.

List of Published Books English

■ “Economics, an Islamic Approach,” 1999

■ “Teaching Economics in Islamic Perspective,” 1996

■ “Role of the State in the Economy,” 1996

■ “Insurance in an Islamic Economy,” 1985

■ “Partnership and Profit-Sharing in Islamic Law,” 1985

■ “Banking Without Interest,” 1983

■ “Issues in Islamic Banking,” 1983

■ “Muslim Economic Thinking,” 1981

■ “Contemporary Literature on Islamic Economics,”1978

■ “Economic Enterprise in Islam,” 1972

■ “Some Aspects of the Islamic Economy,” 1972

■ “Muslim Personal Law (Edited),” 1972

■ “Recent Theories of Profit: A Critical Examination,”1971

Note: Some of these books have also been published in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Indonesian, Malay, Hindi and Bengali.

Urdu

■

“Tahreek Islami Asr Hazir Mein”(Contemporary Islamic Movement), 1995

■ “Quran awr Science” (Excerpts from Syed Qutb’s Tafsir with a Detailed Introduction), 1978

■ “Nash’at Saniyah Ki Rah”(Toward the Islamic Renaissance), 1974

■ “Insurance Islami Ma’ishat Men” (Insurance in Islamic Economy), 1974

■ “Ghair Sudi Bank Kari” (Interest-free Banking), 1969

■ “Shirkat awr Mudarabat Ke Shar’i Usul”(Sharia Principles of Partnership and Profit-sharing), 1969

■ “Islam Ka Nazarriyah Milkiyat” (2 vols.) (Islam’s Theory of Property), 1969

■ “Islam Ka Nizam-e-Mahasil”(Translation of Abu Yusuf’s Kitab al -Kharaj), 1966

■ “Islam Men ‘Adl-e-Ijtimat‘i”(Translation of Syed Qutb’s al-‘Adalah al Ijtima iyah fi’l Islam),” 1963

■ “Islami Adab” (ed.) (Islamic Literature), 1960

with al-Ghazali’s five categories of objectives, he suggested there were many additional goals, among them humanity’s honor and dignity, fundamental freedom, justice and equity, poverty alleviation, sustenance for all, social equality, bridging the rich–poor gap, peace and security, preserving of system and cooperation at the world level. He supported his stand with Quranic verses and Hadith, especially in dealing with non-Muslims.

To him, the concept of the Sharia’s objectives has existed from the very beginning of Islamic history. Al-Juwayni (d.1085) was the first one to use the term, and his disciple al-Ghazali (d.1111) divided it into five categories: the protection of religion, life, reason, progeny and property. Ibn Taymiyah (d.1328) replaced progeny with the protection of dignity and argued that these objectives shouldn’t be limited to protecting people from the forbidden, but should also include securing their benefits. Thus, the number of objectives has no limit.

Ibn al-Qayyim (d.1350), following his teacher Ibn Taymiyah (d.1328), included justice among the objectives. He examined the opinions of al-Shatibi (d.1389) and Shah Wali Allah al-Dihlawi (d.1763), and conducted a quick survey of the contemporary literature.

THEOLOGY

Siddiqi challenged the prevailing notion that poverty is a divine blessing and that Islam has little to do with physical resources, because the life of the hereafter is far more important. Instead, he argued that material resources are open for those who explore the universe and that inequality and injustice will prevail if the world ignores the rules based on divine principles. He urged Muslims to follow the Quran, which states that creation exists for humanity’s betterment and benefit. He also rejected the theological premise that the material world belongs to non-Muslims and the world to come to Muslims, and strongly contended that Muslims will achieve their proper spiritual dimensions only when they begin exploring the universe.

SOCIAL ECONOMY

Siddiqi believed that marginalized and poor people should have equal opportunities to improve their lives. He argued that their ability to access capital will enable them to somehow grow financially and bring about meaningful change in their families. He labored hard to concretize the rules of the usury-free lending system and urged financial institutions to develop a mechanism to uplift marginalized people by making resources available in a non-exploitative manner. Today, 2,600+ financial institutions practice usury-free banking systems in the organized sector and thousands more in the unorganized sector. Millions of Muslims have benefitted.

POLITY

Siddiqi strongly advocated for an egalitarian, classless society. However, this idea is meaningless if only certain classes have access to financial resources. Restructuring the economy to serve and uplift society’s weakest sections will cause social engineering to fail. He referred to the Quran’s proclamation that creation’s physical resources are for everyone. Classes will cease to exist only when the social structure ensures everyone’s dignity. Pride will come only when everyone has autonomy and access to the tools needed to improve their living conditions. He described the current capitalism-based system as brutal and a significant obstacle to real economic growth.

Having reached the age of 91 when he breathed his last surrounded by his life-long wife and children, Siddiqi’s legacy has ensured him a perpetual reward. Due to his work, there are now 500+ Islamic banks and thousands of other non-interest-bearing financial institutions. His nephew Dr. Ahmadullah Siddiq (professor, media studies, Illinois) said, “It is not a loss of a family, but a loss of a generation that always looked at Uncle Nejatullah as a shining source of inspiration.” ih

Contributed by Aslam Abdullah, editor-in-chief of Muslim Media Network Inc., publishers of “the Muslim Observer” and the resident scholar at Islamicity.com.

An Extraordinary Scholar’s Amazing Gift to the Umma

The death of a scholar is a loss for the entire world

Aged 91, my uncle Mohammad Nejatullah Siddiqi breathed his last on Nov. 11 at his son’s home in Palo Alto, Calif. He is survived by his wife, three sons, two daughters and 14 grandchildren.

As I received the news, I recalled the Prophet’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) words [Al-Hasan reported Ibn Mas’ud cited]: “The death of a scholar is a loss that cannot be replaced for as long as the day and night alternate” (Shu’ab al-Imān 1590).

During two Zoom meetings held in remembrance, his relatives, friends, colleagues and students from around the world paid tribute to his pioneering intellectual and scholarly contributions to Islamic economics, finance, banking and contemporary thought.

Khursheed Ahmad, one of his closest friends and another towering figure in Islamic economics, as well as a former chairman of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, described my uncle’s departure as an irreplaceable loss for both Islamic economics and contemporary Islamic thought.

Sadatullah Husaini (president, Jamaat Islami of India) said that Siddiqi was a long-time leader of India’s Islamic movement and that his work in Islamic economics has benefitted hundreds of thousands of people by saving themselves from interest-based economic transactions. “This is indeed a perpetual charity on his part,” he added.

Aslam Abdullah described my uncle as a reformist in his demeanor but a revolutionary in his ideas. “He challenged some of the notions that Muslim scholars have held for centuries.”

Zaki Kirnani (chairman, Center for Studies on Science, India) pointed out that three of his works — “Maqasid-e-Sharia” (2d ed., 2017), “My Life as an Islamic Economist” (2015) and “Islamization of Knowledge: Reflections on Priorities (AJISS, Summer 2011) — are critical to understanding his thought process, adding, “He wanted Muslims to develop the capacity to critically think, reflect, and relate to the issues faced by humanity today. In his view freedom to express one’s views is essential to critical thinking.”

Imtiaz Yusuf (associate professor, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Malaysia) said they will honor him by publishing a book consisting of articles by his colleagues, friends and former students highlighting Siddiqi’s contributions to Islamic economics and contemporary Islamic thought.

Among the many other tributes were the following:

■ Muzammil Siddiqi (chairman, the Fiqh Council of North America): “Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi impressed me very much by his personality and his demeanor. He was a very simple, humble but a very dignified person. He

was a prolific writer and published more than 60 books and hundreds of papers on Islamic economics as well as Islam.”

■ Sen. Sirajul Haq (president, Jamaat Islami Pakistan): “We are deeply grieved to learn about the sad demise of illustrious scholar, Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi. His services for Islam and the Muslim Ummah and for the promotion of Islamic economy will always be remembered with great reverence.”

■ Ishrat Aziz (former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the UAE and Tunisia), a fellow Aligarh Muslim University classmate:

about 20 years at King Abdul Aziz University’s International Center for Research in Islamic Economics.

■ Yaqoob Mirza (trustee and chairman, Amana Mutual Fund) offered: “I have greatly benefited from the knowledge, vision and wisdom of Dr. Siddiqi. He was kind enough to write a foreword for my book; he asked me to write down about the experiences and history of the growth and development of Amana Mutual fund which has become the largest mutual fund with more than six billion dollars in assets.”

■ R amatullah (chairman, Jen Sava

to establishing many Islamic banks and cooperative societies in South Asia and the Middle East.

Arshad Siddiqi, the deceased’s eldest son, thanked everyone, especially those who expressed their thoughts: “It is very comforting to see so many of my dad’s friends, colleagues and students highlighting various aspects of his life. He was a very gentle, loving and caring person at home. If I had to say about one thing that my dad would have been looking for, it would be a just economic system which becomes a means to uplifting the umma and the community, and he would have liked us to take a very pragmatic approach to attain this goal.”

Khalid Siddiqi, another son, also reflected: “He would take time to answer our weirdest questions. He taught us things by way of examples, instead of just telling to do this or that. Dad would love to play cards and chess. As a 15-16-year-old youngster, I would have lots of questions while reading the Quran. So, together we went through the English translation … [and] he would answer our questions and explain the context of a particular verse.”

A PERSONAL NOTE

“Apart from his great intellectual and scholarly contributions, he was a brilliant student. Not only he topped the class in my batch, but he also received a gold medal in economics. From his student days he was a thinker and an intellectual who impressed both the students and the faculty.”

■ Iqbal Masood Nadwi (chairman, the Canadian Council of Imams; a former president, ICNA-Canada): “Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi was a very versatile person. He and his work are an asset of the Islamic movements across the world. His work will help them establish their priorities. He was an intellectual and a thought-provoking leader.”

■ Mumtaz Ali (professor, Faculty of Revealed Knowledge, International Islamic University, Malaysia): “Nejat sahib has argued that the project of Islamization of Knowledge and the movement for Islamic resurgence should not be explained in terms of power, dominance and superiority of Islamic leadership. They must be put in their proper perspectives of ethics, spirituality, morality and humanity.”

■ Anas Zarqa: “One of the earliest works of Dr. Siddiqi that impressed me and the professional community was a survey of literature on Islamic economics spanning more than sixty years. He was a brilliant scholar and lovely colleague and had the capacity to present complex ideas in simple terms.” Zarqa also shared his memories of their working together for

Cooperative and Credit Society, India), who was his student: “He was not only a teacher but my guardian too. I feel it a personal loss at his passing away. After completing my Ph. D. in economics, I incorporated my knowledge and the wisdom I gained from Dr. Siddiqi to establish two organizations, the All India Council for Muslim’s Economic Upliftment and Jan Seva. The former has been serving the community for over four decades, while Jan Seva, established in 2010, is serving people in various parts of the country. So far, its yearly turn around is about three crore Indian Rupees [$548,240].”

■ Ammar Ahmed (deputy CEO, Dar Al Shariah Dubai Islamic Bank) stated that Siddiqi explained modern economic concepts very well, adding: “His vision was that the activities related to banking and economics should be run by Muslims based on Islamic Shariah. Dr. Siddiqi was a great visionary and a courageous Islamic thinker. He encouraged us all to continue our journey towards perfection and do not get disheartened by setbacks. The more than two trillion-dollar Islamic finance and banking industry owes a lot to Dr. Siddiqi’s vision, efforts, and guidance.”

■ Joining from Chennai, India, Abdur Raqeeb (general secretary, Indian Center for Islamic Finance): “Dr. Siddiqi was a dreamer and one of his dreams was that interest-free banking societies are established in every part of India to benefit the common people.” He also discussed my uncle’s contribution

Last but not least, Nejatullah Siddiqi was my paternal uncle, benefactor, mentor and guide. I spent many years at his house while studying at Aligarh Muslim University during the late 1960s and 70s. I learned a great deal from his strict discipline in time management, hard work to enhance his knowledge of Islam and contemporary issues, humility, courage to express opinions on matters he considered important, willingness to accept criticism, ability to forgive people, readiness to help his students and others, as well as from his focus on finding goodness in people.

My uncle believed in sharing intellectual thoughts and ideas, which he considered a trust from God. He wanted Muslims to learn from our heritage, but to live in the present and strive for a bright future, and to engage common people in intellectual discourses, for he saw no “scholar” and “ignorant person” division. Some of his many dreams have been fulfilled; others he left for us to realize.

Once he said to me: “At the time of my departure from this world, I want to be like Allah has described his servants in these verses of Quran: ‘O you satisfied soul, return to the (mercy of) your Creator in such a manner that you be pleased with Him, and He be pleased with you. So, enter the company of my (esteemed) slaves and My Paradise’” (89: 27-30).

Let us hope the Almighty will embrace him with His Forgiveness and Mercy. ih

Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Ph.D. is professor emeritus, journalism and public relations, Western Illinois University-Macomb.

Nejat sahib has argued that the project of Islamization of Knowledge and the movement for Islamic resurgence should not be explained in terms of power, dominance and superiority of Islamic leadership. They must be put in their proper perspectives of ethics, spirituality, morality and humanity.”

The Top 10 YA and MG Books to Read This Winter

BY AMANI SALAHUDEEN

With daylight savings times happening, the days are shorter and the nights longer, which means it’s the perfect time of the year to read a good book.

When it’s cold out, there’s nothing better than grabbing a fleece blanket and a good book. This winter there are so many options to pick from, both Young Adult (YA) and Middle Grade (MG) fiction and nonfiction books that can be read by anyone (for the age listed and above).

I read each book listed below. They will appeal to different readers. Graphic novels are included for those who prefer them.

AS LONG AS THE LEMON TREES GROW (ZOULFA KATOUH)

This YA novel is about the situation in Syria after the ‘Arab Spring’ and the ensuing civil war. A young Muslima’s life is turned upside down by the war. The story depicts how life was before, during and after the war. When Salama’s sister-in-law Layla gets pregnant, Salama needs to make the difficult choice to leave Syria to keep everyone safe.

This book, an eye-opening and compelling debut, is good for tenth graders and up.

BHAI FOR NOW (MALEEHA SIDDIQUI)

Pakistani-American Maleeha Siddiqui enjoys telling unapologetically Muslim stories for people of all ages. “Bhai for Now” is a ParentTrap inspired MG book with twin boys Ashar and Shaheer. As Shaheer and his father are always on the go — the latter ends up working in many places — Shaheer stops believing he can find someplace to call home and just be in one place.

Ashar and Shaheer are complete opposites. When they meet on Shaheer’s first day of school, the resemblance is astonishing. It doesn’t take them long to figure out that they’re twins, separated at birth. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to get to know the missing parent, even if it means switching places. This is a book about two long-lost brothers who hate each other but eventually acknowledge how much they need each other. The two boys’ personalities clash.

PUNCHING THE AIR (IBI ZOBI AND YUSUF SALAAM)

Told in novel verse, the authors tell the tale of sixteen-year-old Amal, an aspiring artist with a bright future — until he’s imprisoned for getting caught in a fight. The book highlights how the odds were always stacked against him and that he’s living in an unsympathetic and prejudiced world. This is for ages 14-17 and above.

QUEEN OF THE TILES (HANNA ALKAF)

Hanna Alkaf’s newest book is a mystery with a Scrabble competition featuring protagonist Najwa Bakri, a talented Muslim player determined to win this year’s annual championship. When her best friend Trina dies during a match, the death is presumed to be due to natural causes. But when Najwa returns for next year’s competition, she realizes there was more to it than she’d been led to believe. Moreover, if she can’t figure out what happened, she could be next! This fast-paced page turner will keep you up reading from the very beginning to the end.

This book, set in Malaysia, is perfect for ages 14 and up.

LOVE FROM MECCA TO MEDINA BY S.K. ALI

“Love from Mecca to Medina,” the sequel to the author’s “Love from A to Z,” follows the story of Adam and Zeyneb, a married couple. Adam is in Doha, making plans for Umrah and worried about where his next paycheck will come from, and Zeyneb is a stressed-out grad student living in Chicago. But then they are given a marriage gift: to attend Umrah together during Thanksgiving break. The trip, which is nothing like they expected it to be, will test their faith and marriage. Can they make it work?

This book is ideal for ages 16 and up.

GROUNDED (ED. AISHA SAEED)

This anthology contains contributions from Aisha Saeed, Jamilah Thompkins Bigelow, Huda Al-Marashi and S.K. Ali. After a thunderstorm strands Feek, Sami, Nora and Hanna at an airport, Hanna persuades the other three to help her find a lost cat. This is a zany middle grade adventure with a group of Muslim characters. I loved its family dynamics.

This book, which comes out on May 9, 2023, could be the perfect Eid gift for young children or teachers to add to their classroom libraries.

AYESHA DEAN: THE ISTANBUL INTRIGUE (MELATI LUM)

Ayesha Dean is perfect for Nancy Drew fans. During a trip to Istanbul with friends, Ayesha uncovers a note about a treasure that has been missing for years. Unfortunately, she isn’t the only one looking for it. Even worse, her vacation is about to get more dangerous than she had anticipated.

This is for ages 10-13 and up. It was recently announced that this book, one of the first I’ve read set in Turkiye, will be adapted into a manga publication.

HUDA F ARE YOU (HUDA FAHMY)

This graphic novel was written and illustrated by Huda Fahmy, known as @yesimhotinthis on Instagram. She tells the story of how after Huda and her family move to Dearborn, Mich., Huda realizes she’s not the only Muslim at school anymore — a realization that causes an existential crisis. This graphic novel is a hilarious exploration of self-discovery and what it means to be a Muslim.

“Huda F Are You” is perfect for high school students and up.

YOU TRULY ASSUMED (LAILA SABREEN)

Sabreen’s debut novel follows three African American Muslimas as they make a digital space for others and break common stereotypes on their online You Truly Assumed blog. This is a heartbreaking and eye-opening book. When one of the girls is threatened, they have a hard call to make: shut down the blog they’ve worked so hard on, or stand up for what they believe in, even if it means endangering themselves.

“You Truly Assumed” is for ages 13 and up.

SQUIRE (SARA ALFAGEEH AND NADIA SHAMMAS)

This graphic novel, set in the Ottoman Empire, follows Aliza, a young girl who has an epiphany: Battlefield glory is not as glamorous as she thought it would be. It’s also a story about creating a home with strangers who eventually become a close-knit family to her.

This novel, which also includes bonus scenes, is perfect for middle and high school students. ih

The Muslim, State and Mind: Psychology in Times of Islamophobia Tarek Younis 2022. Pp. 120. HB. $62.00. PB. $15.00

SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Mental health is positioned as the cure-all for all of society’s discontents, from pandemics to terrorism. But psychology and psychiatry are not apolitical, and neither are Muslims. Younis bares where the politics of the psy-disciplines and the politics of Muslims overlaps, demonstrating how psychological theories and practices serve state interests and perpetuate inequality — especially racism and Islamophobia. Viewing the psy-disciplines from the margins, he illustrates how these necessarily serve the state in the production of loyal, low-risk and productive citizens by offering a modern discussion of three underlying paradigms: neoliberalism, security and the politics of mental health.

Heavenly Returns: What the Abrahamic Faiths Teach Us About Financial & Spiritual Well-Being

M. Yaqub Mirza, Gary Moore 2022. Pp. 84. PB. $4.99 Center for Islam in the Contemporary World Leesburg, Va.

Mirza and Moore argue that more religion is needed in finance and more finance is needed in religion — a radical premise that goes against the grain of much conventional theology.

This unlikely pair, a Muslim and an evangelical Christian, show that the Abrahamic faiths are replete with wisdom about wealth management. Drawing on their knowledge of Islamic and Christian teachings, they call for believers to align their spiritual lives and investing choices toward a more holistic, integrated and compassionate existence.

While discussing their faiths and approaches to financial management, they found that more connects them than separates them. “Heavenly Returns” mixes practical advice on topics such as career planning and charitable giving with practical tips from Moore’s and Mirza’s lives. For example — Is it okay for Christians and Muslims to aspire to become rich? What are “sin stocks,” and is it okay to own them?

Islamic Finance in Africa: The Prospects for Sustainable Development Aishath Muneeza, Karamo N.M. Sonko, M. K. Hassan (eds.) 2022. Pp. 358. HB. $165.00 Edward Elgar Publishing, Northampton, Mass.

The editors have put together a comprehensive overview of this field by exploring legal, regulatory and governance challenges while balancing the issues and innovations found in both Islamic commercial and social finance.

Its content can be broadly classified into three parts: legal, regulatory and governance developments and issues; issues and innovations in Islamic commercial finance; and issues and innovations in Islamic social finance. The editors use a case study format to present each topic and provide insight into actual or potential areas of growth.

Scholars and Islamic finance stakeholders, including research and education institutes, should find this book useful in understanding this important topic and region.

Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion Evelyn Alsultany

2022. Pp. 320. HB. $30.00. Kindle $16.50 New York Univ. Press, New York

Alsultany argues that even amidst institutionalized Islamophobia, diversity initiatives fail on their promise by focusing only on crisis moments.

Muslims, she says, get included through “crisis diversity,” where high-profile Islamophobic incidents are urgently responded to and then ignored until the next crisis. In the popular cultural arena of television, this means interrogating even those representations of Muslims that

Amani Salahudeen (BA, The College of New Jersey, ‘20) is pursuing a master’s degree in education from Western Governor’s University.

others have celebrated as refreshingly positive. What kind of message does it send, for example, when a growing number of “good Muslims” on TV seem to have arrived there, ironically, only after leaving the faith?

In the realm of corporations, she critically examines the firing of high-profile individuals for anti-Muslim speech — a remedy that rebrands corporations as anti-racist while institutional racism remains intact. Muslim university students, she points out, get included in diversity, equity and inclusion plans; however, such plans get disrupted if they’re involved in Palestinian rights activism. She also notes how hate crime laws fail to address root causes.

In each of these arenas, Alsultany finds an institutional pattern that defangs the promise of Muslim inclusion, thereby deferring systemic change until and through the next “crisis.”

Living Where We Don’t Make the Rules: A Guide for Muslim Minorities

Ebrahim Rasool (ed.) 2022. Pp. 236. PB. $28.00 Claritas, Swansea, U.K.

Today, 90% of all countries have significant minorities that constitute at least 10% of their populations. One in four Muslims lives in minority situations in almost every part of the world. Some have assimilated and forfeited their practices and identities to “belong”; others have isolated themselves with those who share their language, national origin, culture or religion. However, some Muslims have been able to manage both their Islamic identity and other elements of identity that come with their new places of residence.

This guide pursues the third option — balancing theoretical rigor with practical direction. It includes the minorities’ lived experience as well as the scholarship of those who apply the synthesis of Islam’s timeless values, norms and principles with the exigencies of these minority communities. It provides leadership that can guide everyday life, manage our faith and direct partnerships with fellow citizens and campaigns for inclusivity.

Mohamed Zakariya

A 21st century Master Calligrapher

Mohamed Zakariya (ed. Nancy Micklewright) 2022. Pp. 184. PB. $29.95 (CAN$ $39.95)

Independent Publishers Group, Chicago

This book studies the life and impact of the contemporary American artist Zakariya. His pursuit of Islamic calligraphy has earned him an international reputation. Along the way, he played a major role in bringing this art form to the U.S. and, through his teaching, public appearances and work, has created a uniquely American style.

The account of Zakariya’s life, told from his students, colleagues and scholars’ perspectives, results in a nuanced, thoughtful presentation of a complex and brilliant artist. Essays by leading scholars in the fields of Islamic art, calligraphy and Islamic religious studies unpack the complexities of this art form through history. In addition to placing the calligrapher and his work in a centuries-long historical context, they also explain why he is a maverick at the forefront of a global resurgence of traditional Islamic calligraphy.

Islamic Ethics: Fundamental Aspects of Human Conduct

Abdulaziz Sachedina 2022. Pp. 224. HB. $39.95. Kindle $26.49

Oxford University Press, New York

The Islamic tradition contains two main traditions of writing

on ethics: (1) philosophical and related to the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, represented by thinkers such as Ibn Sina, and (2) theological, represented by such figures as al-Qadi Abd al-Jabbar (d.1025). Some later scholars attempted to combine these two traditions. For the most part, however, the jurists’ views have been ignored.

Sachedina calls attention to this third tradition, which has its home in legal literature. However, the jurists didn’t produce a genre of ethical

manuals, and their form of ethics, which the author terms “juridical ethics,” must be derived or extracted from works that ostensibly treat legal rulings and obligations, or scriptural hermeneutics and legal theory.

Presenting an outline this third tradition, he argues that juridical ethics is an important, even dominant form of ethics, in modern Islam. He notes that it has been challenged by modernity and examines how legal ethical thinkers have reacted by asking: How do Muslim religious leaders come to grips with modern demands of directing their communities to live as modern citizens of nation-states? What kind of moral and spiritual resources do their scholars garner to respond to the new issues in the sciences, more immediately in medicine, and constantly changing social relationships?

Sachedina argues that one must go beyond the philosophical ethics of virtue and human character to answer these pressing questions and acknowledge the importance of ethics in formulating Muslim interpretive jurisprudence of religious and moral decisions based on reason and revelation.

Out of Place: An Autoethnography of Postcolonial Citizenship

Nuraan Davids 2022. Pp. 174. PB. $30.00 African Minds, Oxford, U.K.

Davids offers an in-depth exploration of experience as a “colored” Muslima traversing a post-apartheid space. Her book centers on and explores several themes, which include her challenges not only as a South African citizen and within her faith community, but as an academic citizen at a historically white university. This is her story — an autoethnography, her reparation.

By embarking on an auto-ethnography, the author not only tries to change how others have told her story, but also to transform her “sense of what it means to live” (Bhabha, 1994). She is driven by a postcolonial appeal, which insists that if she seeks to imprint her own way of life into the discourses that pervade the world around her, then she can no longer allow herself to be spoken on behalf of or to be subjugated into the hegemonies of others.

The author’s argument is that “coloured” Muslimas are subjected to layers of scrutiny and prejudices that have yet to be confronted. What we know about these women has been shaped by preconceived notions of “otherness” and attached to a meta-narrative of “oppression and backwardness.”

By centering and using her lived experiences, the author takes readers on a journey of what it’s like to be seen in terms of race, gender and religion — not only within the public sphere of her professional identities, but also within the private sphere of her faith community.

Rethinking Islam in Europe: Contemporary Approaches in Islamic Religious Education and Theology

Zekirija Sejdini 2022. Pp.180. HB. $60.00

De Gruyter, Berlin

I t took a long time for Islamic theology to be granted a place in European universities. This start occurred in German-speaking areas, leading to the development of new theological and religious pedagogical approaches. Sejdini presents and discusses one such approach from various perspectives. He analyzes different theological and religious pedagogical themes and reflects on them anew.

The primary focus is on contemporary challenges and possible answers from the perspective of Islamic theology and religious pedagogy. It discusses general themes like the location of Islamic theology and religious pedagogy at secular European universities. The volume also explores concrete challenges, such as the extent to which Islamic religious pedagogy can be conceptualized anew, how it should deal with its own theological tradition in the contemporary context and how a positive attitude toward worldview and religious plurality can be cultivated.

At issue here are foundations of a new interpretation of Islam that considers both a reflective approach to its tradition and the contemporary context. In doing so, it gives Muslims the opportunity to further their own thinking. ih