C ourt Upholds Equal Access to Special Education for Religious Schools in California
Reviving Tradition Within Islamic
Taxes Are Never Zakat
Black Moses: Black History
The Tragic Case of Imam Marcellus
40 Breaking the Silence: Understanding Muslim Mental Health MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD
42 From Kakul to Castles 44 An Agency Gone Rogue MUSLIMS LIVING AS MINORITIES
46 China Continues to Stifle Turkic People
48 The Rohingyas’ Ongoing Ordeal Continues
50 Muslims Are Integral to India MUSLIMS LIVING UNDER OCCUPATION
52 India Attempts to Stifle Kashmir Freedom
54 Striving for Equality and Empowerment for the Disabled in Canada’s Muslim Community CULTURE
56 Urdu — The Most Elegant, Refined, and Concise Language
58 Study of English Literature is Dying in the West
MEMORIAM
Green Mosques and an Eco-friendly
The Dangerous Path of Islamophobia
60 S alahuddin Malik
61 10 Muslim-Centered Fiction Books To Fill The Void of Mainstream Representation
Microaggressions against Muslim Students Are Taking Over High School Classrooms
20 Are You Ready for Your Ramadan Revelation?
The Genocide of Education in Occupied Palestine
The Genocide in Gaza continues. However, the barbarity against Lebanon has gotten a qualified break. Ostensibly, the United States celebrated it with another $860 million arms shipment for Israel (The Times of Israel, Nov. 28, 2024). As we go to press with this issue of Islamic Horizons, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 45,000 with more than 700 reported deaths in the West Bank — the bodies buried under the rubble yet to be counted. In addition, we would be excused for counting the seriously injured and disabled (an additional 104,000 peoples) as dead when medical facilities are so incapacitated as those in Palestine today. Israel is culpable for these crimes yes, but the accomplices to these murders are none other than the United States and other countries allied with Israel from Australia to Canada. As a result of these partnerships, Israel uses lethal weaponry supplied by the West to destroy residential areas, schools, and hospitals. It is sickening to hear claims that Israel has yet to achieve its goals, and that the weapons pipeline from the West should continue gushing unabatedly. What makes these stated aims even more troubling is that they are not the same as the actual goals envisioned by the occupying power. Slaughtering the Palestinians and the Lebanese is Israel’s true goal, a genocidal intention supported by other settler-colonial governments who shamelessly serve as accessories to these crimes.
In the U.S., politicians – would any human standard qualify them as “leaders”? – generously bribed by legally-accepted fronts like AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee), and their similarly-intentioned forms around the world, would like the world to believe that the Zionist entity is a peace-loving state and that it has the right to hit any individual or group it describes as terrorist. It would take these politicians a tremendous effort to regain any iota of their conscience which might lead them to protest the Zionist entity’s destruction of civil facilities. Is it necessary to commit mass murders for targeting of one so-called terrorist? Are the goyim, as the savage killers call them, not human?
It is a timely reminder that the U.S. carried out the first operational use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), also known as the “Mother of All Bombs,” in Afghanistan in 2017 when Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack Hussein Obama was president. Since then, such bunker busters have become
a standard instrument of mass murder in the American arsenal. Predictably, generously gifted to the Zionist entity, these have even been shamelessly autographed by American politicians like former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Innocently described as a means of causing a psychological impact, the bomb, which penetrates 100 feet of earth and 20 feet of concrete, produces a large mushroom cloud that can be seen for miles. Naturally, these clouds obey no borders, nor are they restricted by passport controls.
In this issue, as ISNA hosts its West Coast Education Conference (Jan.18-19, 2025), British journalist Charlie Jaay – associated with Canary, a British news website which carries analysis, investigations, features, opinion, reviews, and news – who has spoken with students and teachers from Gaza who have survived the ongoing violence and destruction, writes about the devastation Gaza’s education system.
It is also important to note though, that this kind of inhumanity is not melanin specific. In both the U.S., and U.K., some of the most inhumane politicians have African roots. Dr. Khaled Abou el-Fadl, the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, said on the Usuli Institute YouTube channel in January 2024, that “some of the worst massacres committed against Palestinians in Gaza are by Indian soldiers serving in the Israeli army,” adding, “Indian Hindu nationals are volunteering to fight in the Israeli army for the joy of killing Muslims.”
In a 2014 op-ed to the Australian ABC News, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, he expounded, “The Germans blamed the Jews for their own slaughter. The Germans insisted that what they did in the countries they occupied wasn’t their fault. It was always the fault of the occupied.
“The rhetoric of the Germans is indistinguishable from the rhetoric that Israel uses about Palestinians and from the rhetoric that the United States uses about Palestinians – and indeed, the rhetoric that so much of Europe uses about Palestinians.”
He further stated that the Palestinians are considered “subhuman, something less than human, exactly like the narrative and the language of the Nazis” [January 21, 2024].
Traditionally, some adopt New Year resolutions. Surely, the yearning to regain conscience or some semblance of humanity wouldn’t be anywhere in the list of resolutions for western politicians in 2025. ih
PUBLISHER
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PRESIDENT Safaa Zarzour
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Basharat Saleem
EDITOR
Omer Bin Abdullah
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Bareerah Zafar
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Iqbal Unus, Chair: M. Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Saba Ali, Rasheed Rabbi
ISLAMIC HORIZONS
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COMMUNITY MATTERS
Congress Has a Fourth Muslim Member
U.S. Representative-elect Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), representing California’s District 12, became the fourth Muslim member of House of Representatives.
Simon is a current member of the Bay Area Rapid Transit board of directors. She also served as the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in the San Francisco Bay Area and was appointed to the California State University Board of Trustees by former Governor Jerry Brown.
In 2003, at age 19, she received a MacArthur Fellowship for her leadership of the Center for Young Women’s Development (now the Young Women’s Freedom Center), receiving the Genius Grant of $500,000 — a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to people working in any field who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction” and are citizens or residents of the United States.
She earned a BA in public policy at
Hanadi Nadeem was elected to the Nevada State Assembly, making history as the first Muslim woman in the state legislature.
Nadeem, CEO of the Southern Nevada clinic Shifa Medical, is a past president of APPNA Alliance, which is an advocacy and philanthropic organization whose mission is to provide medical relief and support women and children in both Pakistan and the United States.
Nadeem, who has lived in Nevada for more than two decades, serves as a board member of the Nevada Equal Rights Commission. She also founded the nonprofit Save Gods Special Children, devoted to providing education to children of special needs with intellectual disabilities.
Hanadi is married to a physician Nadeem Tariq.
she is a supporter of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Calibike, a pioneering electric bike company — led by Rafe Husain, a Muslim American — dedicated to promoting sustainable transportation, officially launched its product Sept. 14, 2024, at the Corona City Council Hall. This event was headlined by
Mills College, where she was the 2017 commencement speaker, a MPA from the University of San Francisco, and was a 2014 Social Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Fellow at Stanford University.
Muslim Representatives André Carson (D-Ind.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) retained their seats for the 119th Congress.
Simon’s husband, Kevin Weston, a recognized journalist and activist, died from leukemia in 2014. They have two children.
CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert McCaw said, “Lateefah Simon’s election is a powerful reminder that American Muslims are making strides and finding their voices in the halls of Congress. Especially during a time when many in our community feel the weight of rising Islamophobia.” ih
Corona mayor, Tom Richins, underscored Calibike’s commitment to eco-friendly commuting, while aligning with California’s progressive environmental and electric vehicle (EV) policies.
Mayor Richins praised Calibike’s vision, said, “I’m proud that Corona can be a part of this movement towards a cleaner, greener future.”
“Calibike is more than just an electric bike—it’s a critical part of the broader shift toward sustainable, integrated transportation solutions,” said Calibike founder, Rafe Husain, the only South Asian involved in the electric bike (EV bike) industry. Calibike is the #1 seller of E-Bike Batteries in the United States, and are similar kind of batteries used in Tesla cars.
California’s EV tax rebate programs, under the California Clean Vehicle Rebate
Project (CVRP), made electric vehicles, such EV bikes, more accessible and affordable for residents.
In line with its sustainability goals, Calibike donated electric bikes to the City of Corona for use by the city’s Park Rangers.
Husain (MS, University of Michigan, Ph. D., University of Southern California), an inventor and entrepreneur, holds multiple patents, including a removable eyeglass-mounted ptosis crutch for Blepharospasm patients, a high-speed parallel Golay encoder for Xilinx FPGA, and an ice thickness sensing device that earned him the New Inventions Award from the University of Michigan.
Al-Maghfirah Cemetery Association in Castle Rock Township near Farmington (Minn.) broke ground for the state’s first Muslim-exclusive cemetery.
The 72 acres of land were purchased in 2014 but there was a legal battle against the development by the township before it was struck by vandals in 2017 and 2021. A failed arson attack in 2021, resulted in over $200,000 in damage.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR-Minnesota, said this was always a dream of the Muslim community to have its own cemetery.
Mohamad Osman, project leader of the Al-Maghfirah Cemetery Association, hopes that cemetery that will cover the needs of a diverse Muslim community for the next two hundred years. The cemetery will open in May 2025..
Once open, the cemetery will offer nearly 50,000 burial plots and will serve Muslims from the Twin Cities metro area. The cemetery association spent $900,000 on the land. It will cost another $1.5 million for the development stage, according to Osman.
Detroit’s 36th District Court has been officially renamed “Honorable Adam A. Shakoor Judicial Center,” honoring the late Judge Adam Shakoor (1947-22).
Groundbreaking took place on Oct. 8, 2024
According to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and CAIR, Shakoor is recognized as the first Muslim judge in the United States.
Shakoor was born and grew up on the northeast side of Detroit. After high school, he attended Wayne State University, earning his bachelor’s degree, followed by a master’s and a law degree. Shakoor converted to Islam while attending Wayne State University.
The late Gov. William Milliken (d. 2019) appointed him as the Common Pleas Court judge for Wayne County in 1981. His dedication to justice and fairness was particularly evident during the peak of the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s.
Shakoor served as the chief judge of the 36th District Court in Detroit for two terms. After retiring from the bench in 1989, he took on the responsibilities of deputy mayor of Detroit under Mayor Coleman A. Young, and served till 1993.
After serving as a judge and deputy mayor, Shakoor returned to private legal practice in 1994. Shakoor then eventually would serve as the personal attorney for civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks from 1995 until her passing. In 2004, he established his law firm, Adam Shakoor & Associates.
Shakoor dedicated over 45 years of his career to teaching business law and African American Studies at Wayne County Community College. Throughout his tenure, he achieved significant milestones by securing landmark legal victories that dismantled barriers for the Muslim community in Michigan.
For more than 40 years, Shakoor received over a hundred proclamations, awards, and honors from federal, state, and local government agencies and community groups. He also served on the boards of various local organizations, including New Detroit, Inc., Boysville, and Operation Get Down.
His wife, Gail Lawrence-Shakoor, said, “The renaming of the 36th District Court is a big deal and a testament to Adam’s significant achievements and dedication to Detroit.”
Tibyan Center Gets Its Home
On Oct. 22, 2024, After a prolonged debate, the St. Anthony (also known as Saint Anthony Village, a city in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, a suburb of Twin Cities in Minnesota) City Council agreed to allow a mosque and Islamic youth center to operate inside a former bank building.
The building will house the Tibyan Center For Quranic Sciences, which offers Islamic studies and programming for school-aged children, especially hifz Quran, plus a masjid and space for community events. The center bought the building that previously was zoned to allow for a 76-unit affordable housing development, a project that has stalled.
“The center has been growing and is in need of a facility that can provide this education,” Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR- Minnesota chapter, adding that it aims for the educational programming to help address closing the achievement gap among Minnesota’s students of color and their white counterparts.
The project gained more attention earlier last year after vandals damaged the building, and stole computers and other valuable items. The vandals had broken into the building eight times, causing more than $20,000 in damage.
“We want to continue to be a welcoming, inclusive community,” Mayor Wendy Webster said.
The center hosts an annual American International Tibyan Quran Competition. ih
Houston Airports inaugurated their first wudu (ablution) room and prayer facilities at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) on Oct. 29, 2024. As one of the first airports in the U.S. to offer such amenities, Bush Airport is setting a new standard for inclusivity and traveler comfort.
A special recognition ceremony was attend by CAIR-Houston Director William White, the Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH), and IslamInSpanish.
These new facilities, located within IAH’s Terminal D, are designed to accommodate travelers’ spiritual needs. The new space includes benches, coat racks, and space for luggage and is fully ADA-accessible. ih
Israel Has Devastated Gaza’s Education System
Emergency Education Efforts Threatened by Israeli Restrictions
BY CHARLIE JAAY
Education is a fundamental human right according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet Israel’s occupying forces have, in one year, damaged or destroyed over 90% of Gaza’s schools (Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster, Report April 25, 2024) and all its universities (Dr. Ibrahim Rabaia Dr. Lourdes Habash, “Destruction of higher education (educide) in the Gaza Strip: Assessment and support mechanisms,” The French Institute of the Near East, July 2024). In addition, the Ministry of Education says that more than 12,000 students and 560 teachers and administrators have been killed, and almost 19,000 students and 3730 injured throughout Palestine since Israel’s invasion of Gaza on October 7. As well, more than 560 teachers and administrators have been killed and nearly 3730 have been injured throughout Palestine during this period. More than 440 government schools, universities and their buildings, almost 130 schools, and 65 affiliated with UNRWA (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) have been bombed and/or vandalized in Gaza. This systemic and widespread destruction and the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, has led UN experts to ask that Israel’s comprehensive destruction of the Palestinian education system be labeled as “scholasticide” (UNHCR “UN experts deeply concerned over ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza,” 18 April 2024”). There is also evidence to suggest this is part of a wider campaign to make Gaza uninhabitable and erase Palestinian life from there.
Learning has been severely disrupted for all of Gaza’s 625,000 school-aged children,
and the lives and livelihoods of its almost 23,000 teachers have been hugely impacted. More than 70,000 tons of bombs have been dropped turning Gaza into a vast wasteland of rubble. Massacres have become the norm, with entire families wiped off the civil registry. At least 17,500 of the more than 44,000 people killed have been children, leading the UN to declare Gaza as the most dangerous place in the world to be a child (UNICEF Geneva Palais briefing note – Gaza, Dec. 19, 2023). The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said in a report released October 21, 2024, that if the war ends tomorrow and Gaza returns to the status quo before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, it could take 350 years for its battered economy to return to its precarious prewar level.
A new report, “Palestinian Education Under Attack in Gaza: Restoration, Recovery, Rights and Responsibilities in and through Education” is the first to quantify the toll Israel’s genocide in Gaza has had on children, young people and teachers, and includes many interviews with vital actors in the field (Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Sept. 2024),.
LEARNING LOSS HAS ACCUMULATED IN GAZA
Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education and the Centre for Lebanese Studies, in collaboration with UNRWA, found that between 2019 and August 2024 schoolchildren in Gaza had already lost the equivalent of two academic years because of Covid-19 and Israel’s 2021 bombing campaign. As a result, “learning poverty,” the proportion of children unable to read a basic text by age 10, has increased by at least 20%.
“We have accumulated a loss of learning. That which accumulated before the war, and another new loss that is happening now. The younger you are the more difficult it is to make it up. If this is prolonged — and we are moving into a protracted conflict, we are basically saying that a whole generation will be uneducated. It is not known when children will go back to school,” says Professor Maha Shuayb, director of the Centre for Lebanese Studies.
“Schools have been systematically attacked, and huge numbers of children systematically killed or disabled, yet we seem unable to do anything. We are facing a really, really serious issue,” Shuayib said.
If Israel’s war on Gaza continues until
Some may see education as a luxury, especially when people are dying from hunger, and essential food and medical aid is blocked from entering Gaza. But the report reminds us that education offers much more than just academic achievement for these children. Children in Gaza have just been surviving — nothing more. There is a real need for some normalcy, a future vision and, in this respect, education is extremely important.
GAZA – A CHILD’S MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN THE MAKING
“Teachers told us of the difficulties they face when trying to educate their students about democracy, human rights, and international conventions in law, when all they see on a daily basis is that they are being abandoned,” says Yusuf Sayed, Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge.
The international community has failed Gaza’s children. More than 19,000 are orphaned, and many thousands have life changing injuries (“Over 22,500 have suffered ‘life-changing injuries’ in Gaza: WHO,” UN News, Sept. 12, 2024). Even before last October 7, 98,000 children already had a disability (“‘They Destroyed What Was Inside Us’: Children with Disabilities Amid Israel’s Attacks on Gaza,” ReliefWeb, Sept. 30, 2024). Their challenges have now worsened due to inaccessible shelters, lack of essential services and loss of assistive devices, which are now entirely unavailable, as Israel has prevented their entry into the Strip (“Gaza: Israeli Attacks, Blockade Devastating for People with Disabilities” Human Rights Watch, Nov. 1, 2023). Before Israel’s latest military offensive, more than 500,000 children were already in need of Mental Health and Psychosocial support in the Gaza Strip (“Stories of loss and grief”, Feb. 2, 2024, UNICEF Press Center). Today, the figure is one million.
of depression, stress, anxiety, and trauma among the people they serve - one that is especially noticeable among children, who have been bearing the brunt of this brutal war. In Gaza, every second person is a child. So, this is a children’s mental health crisis,” says UNRWA Spokesperson Jonathan Fowler.
EDUCATION BRINGS HOPE TO GAZA’S CHILDREN
Palestine has one of the world’s highest literacy rates, and Palestinians invest a huge amount in education as it provides their young people with the skills and knowledge needed to advocate for their rights, and contribute to their communities, and gives them hope (“Spread the word: Palestine has one of the world’s highest literacy rates”, Middle East Eye, Sept. 7, 2018). It also helps preserve Palestinian history, culture and identity, and is a source of pride and identity for the population.
Some may see education as a luxury, especially when people are dying from hunger, and essential food and medical aid is blocked from entering Gaza. But the report reminds us that education offers much more than just academic achievement for these children. Children in Gaza have just been surviving — nothing more. There is a real need for some normalcy, a future vision and, in this respect, education is extremely important.
2026, the report suggests students would lose five years of education, and this is without taking into account the additional effects of mass displacement, hunger, disease, and trauma which are affecting the vast majority of the population. Life is being decimated in Gaza. Children have witnessed horrific things, which have left them with deep scars, and they are losing so much in terms of hope, a future, and human rights. This will change the way they see the world.
“Adults and children alike have undergone tremendous shock and suffering, with physical and mental scars that are shaping their world view and threatening their faith in any future, let alone in human rights. The consequences of constant military operations and forced displacement are taking a heavy toll on people’s mental health, and have exacerbated a preexisting mental health crisis, which was conditioned by years of blockade and recurrent hostilities. UNRWA social workers report a surge in symptoms
School buildings which have not been destroyed have been repurposed as emergency shelters, for some of Gaza’s 1.9 million internally displaced people, but these are extremely overcrowded and lack basic resources. They too have become the targets of Israeli attacks even though, under international humanitarian law, schools are protected during conflict.
Salem Abu Musleh, Ph.D., works for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and is the Gaza coordinator of the Palestine Astrophysics Program. He
After it was bombed, the Israeli army came in and destroyed laboratories and university archives, bulldozed lecture halls and looted the new laboratories.
and his family have been displaced several times due to the bombing and have been forced to travel backwards and forwards between Khan Younis and Rafah, looking for a safe place to stay. His son had been offered a scholarship to study in Turkey but has been unable to take up the offer due to the border closure. Abu Musleh is now in Khan Younis, teaching 14- to 18-year-olds. There is no longer a school for him to teach in so, until recently, his classes took place outside, but because of the wet weather, a tent has now been converted into a classroom. Abu Musleh says his lessons aim to not only increase his pupil’s knowledge, but also help with their psychological rehabilitation.
“We use astrophysics to help our students express their feelings. By teaching them about the sky, the stars and the galaxies, we try and give these girls and boys hope, and show them they can do, they can learn, and they can continue their lives, in spite of the war and the bad situation here in Gaza,” he says.
EMERGENCY EDUCATION EFFORTS THREATENED BY RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED BY ISRAEL
Although their rights are constantly violated, Palestinians are known for their resilience, and Israel’s attempts to erase them are constantly thwarted. Emergency education efforts are now on the rise all over Gaza. Small-scale initiatives, like Abu Musleh’s, aim to keep children learning and minimize the impacts of the genocide on their mental health. And Temporary Learning Spaces provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs now provide over 30,000 school-aged children not only with mental health support but also essential literacy and numeracy skills. Before Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, UNRWA was running 50% of the entire education system in Gaza, including the majority of primary schools, provided learning to over 300,000 boys and girls. In August, it began its “back to learning” program, which includes games, drama, arts, music and sports activities to try to the war’s impact on children’s mental health and this has, so far, benefited more than 16,000 children, including almost 430 with disabilities.
But these emergency education efforts also face serious problems. They are not only threatened by ongoing Israeli violations, and the recent Israeli Parliament vote to prevent UNRWA from operating in the occupied
territory- which if implemented, would further deprive children from learning and also have potential consequences for stability in the wider region, but also by the weather. Current restrictions on the entry of waterproof tents, and similar materials, mean that not only are many of the 40 shelters used in the “back to learning program” expected to face flooding without proper protection, rendering makeshift schools inaccessible due to heavy rains during winter, but Abu Musleh’s pupils will also suffer.
“Now we are looking for plastic to cover some of the places, to protect our students from rain. We face such a great problem. There are no materials here, no plastic comes here. We have found some old plastic, but it’s not enough to cover the main area, so the problem still exists,” says Abu Musleh.
University students have also suffered greatly. Sixth year medical student, Mohammed Al Zebda attended Gaza’s AlAzhar University but, like many, was unable to take his final exams and graduate this year because Israel bombed his university. His educational journey took a drastic turn for the worst.
Sixth year medical student, Mohammed Al Zebda attended Gaza’s Al- Azhar University but, like many, was unable to take his final exams and graduate this year because Israel bombed his university. His educational journey took a drastic turn for the worst.
NO SAFE PLACE IN GAZA
“As a student, my primary focus shifted to finding a safe place for me and my mother, and ensuring we had enough food, water and other necessities. It was nearly impossible to think about education while the Israeli army was bombing everywhere, and there was no safe place in Gaza,” he says.
Al Zebda, who says he used to live in a beautiful area near to Al Shifa Hospital in Central Gaza, was displaced from his home within the first week of Israel’s bombing campaign, but initially thought they would soon be returning.
“We took only the most necessary things — passport, essential papers, laptop, phone and some clothes. I remember each of my family members carrying a bag filled with clothes and important documents, nothing more. Every previous war had lasted only one or two months, but we soon found this war was far more aggressive and unimaginable. My family and I were displaced four times, and this was an extremely tiring and stressful
situation. During this time, I wished I could die, and my family and I witnessed death multiple times,” Al Zebda confides.
In August 2023, he had traveled to London to take part in a plastic surgery course, so decided he would volunteer to help the injured, and put his new skills to good use. For five months, Al Zebda assisted in a hospital emergency room and burns department.
“I saw and witnessed massacres right before my eyes- children without hands, without ears, and without legs, dead people, and injuries I had never studied before. I encountered difficult cases, including children with burned-out skulls, with their brains exposed outside their skulls,” he says.
In May, after waiting a month for his name to be called out, and paying $5000, Al Zebda eventually managed to leave Gaza for Egypt, where he is now continuing his studies and working with Children Not Numbers, to help injured children travel outside Gaza to receive treatment. He adds that he is very grateful to this NGO for supporting his education, and now feels safe, although he had been “forced to start from zero.”
IMMENSE SUFFERING OF FACULTY STAFF AND STUDENTS
Dr. Mohamed Riyad Zughbur has been dean of the Palestine Faculty of Medicine at Al Azhar University for the past five years, and is one of Al Zebda’s lecturers. His home was blasted at the start of Israel’s bombing and he was displaced many times before reaching the safety of Egypt, where he is now living. While recounting the university’s
destruction, and the many deaths of faculty, students, and staff, Zughbur says he feels “indescribable sadness and pain.” Two of his own relatives had attended the university, but lost their lives when they were bombed by American-made F-16 aircraft. Ten months later, their bodies were pulled out from the rubble.
“Some students are the last in their family to be killed by Israel, and that family is then permanently removed from the civil registry. And there are students whose family members have all been killed, and they remain alive alone, struggling to survive. And there are students in the Faculty of Medicine who had limbs amputated after the bombing,’’ he says.
Al-Azhar’s Faculty of Medicine, which was established in1999, was the first medical faculty in the Gaza Strip. But last year Israeli forces bombed the building, destroying Zughbur’s dream of further developing the facility. He says, “it is now 75% destroyed, and the infrastructure including sewage, communications and electricity, like everywhere else in Gaza, is no longer functioning.”
“After it was bombed, the Israeli army came in and destroyed laboratories and university archives, bulldozed lecture halls and looted the new laboratories,” he adds.
The university managed to restart clinical training in late April, and an e-learning platform has been available for the rest of the university since June. Lectures are either through Zoom meetings or recorded and uploaded for students. However, there are still huge problems to face, with many faculty
members struggling to protect their families and often not having enough food and water. Most are living in tents and some also struggle to charge their mobiles and phones, and lack internet.
But Zughbur says despite the bombing, killing, and forced displacement, those students who have stayed in Gaza are committed to their training, and are continuing their studies despite all the difficulties in their daily lives. No doubt, these students will play an important part in helping to rebuild Gaza’s health system when rebuilding starts, yet again.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IN SHORT SUPPLY, EVEN BEFORE OCTOBER 7, BECAUSE OF 17-YEAR BLOCKADE
Dr. Mohammed Albaba is the dean of AlAzhar University’s Faculty of Dentistry, and the only staff member from his faculty who is still in Gaza. The others have left to safer places, such as Egypt.
Since withdrawing its forces from Gaza in 2005, Israel has carried out five bombing campaigns there, and continues its 17-year land, sea, and air blockade, heavily restricting many imports and virtually all exports, further isolating the strip. As a result, there is a complete lack of educational resources including books, pens, and paper. This problem has been exacerbated since 7 October.
“In terms of education, the blockade really affects our faculty’s improvement, and therefore our education level in Gaza. If I want some equipment for our university, it may take months or even years to get them here, if it arrives at all. But the blockade doesn’t just include equipment and goods, but also people. We faced, and continue to face, a real problem in travelling. For example, if there is a dental conference abroad, this would be impossible to go to,’’ says Albaba.
There are two options for those wanting to leave Gaza — either to cross the border with Israel, which is almost impossible for Palestinians, or to cross by the Rafah Crossing, the border with Egypt. Even before Israel’s latest military attack, those crossing the Egyptian border had to pay the authorities thousands of dollars, but Albaba says this cost has now risen sharply.
COST OF LIVING CRISIS HAS LED TO A STAFF SHORTAGE
“The cost of crossing the border has now tripled since the start of the war. This is a total mess, and it’s impossible to improve
anything. It does not only affect education. Many patients from Gaza face death, as they cannot afford to cross the border to seek medical treatment. Considering the situation people face, it’s also impossible for many of them to afford to leave Gaza, if they wanted to,” he says.
This latest Israeli aggression has changed the lives of the people of Gaza beyond recognition, and they are exhausted. In common with Zughbur, Dr. Albaba has lost his home and has not been paid any wages but is continuing to volunteer as a Dean of the faculty because he is trying to help his students finish their education.
“People have lost their lives, their homes, their money, so there is no income. But at the same time, we are trying to educate the students. Most of the University’s staff have now left Gaza, and are seeking jobs abroad, but we need staff, and they need financial support to continue their lives, and continue to work with their students.” he says.
The huge financial problems have led to a staff shortage, so Albaba is looking for volunteer staff outside of Gaza, through Academic Solidarity With Palestine , a non-profit which has proven invaluable to the many educational facilities in the region looking for volunteers at this difficult time. Al-Azhar used to be financed through student tuition fees, and some international support for the educational system, but this has all stopped. The university has been destroyed and the fees are not being paid. This is an extreme challenge as circumstances are especially difficult, and prices extremely high, while employees still need to support their families. But it is not only staff members who are suffering from financial hardship.
CONSIDERING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE GOING THROUGH, MY SITUATION IS PERFECT!
“Even if students have internet connections, many students don’t have the equipment. You at least need a laptop, but due to the financial problems people are facing they are now selling their laptops and their phones. They are even selling their clothes,” he says.
Lecturers and students alike are facing severe problems, not only with lack of internet, water and electricity, but also finding safe spaces to stay. Albaba has been displaced nine times since last October.
“You keep moving because you are running from the ground invasion, from place
to place, looking for somewhere safe. I have stayed with relatives, lived in a tent, rented a room for US $500 a month- which was not suitable for human beings, and now there are 10 of us, including my wife and son, staying in a store. This is my situation. It isn’t easy but considering what other people are going through, it’s perfect!” he says.
Albaba considers himself lucky because he can, at the moment, cope with the financial problems he is facing, but says many other people unfortunately do not have this ability. He is, as yet, undecided about his future.
“This is my job. I want to stay in Gaza, but unfortunately after the war there will be nothing left here. It’s a very difficult situation. I can’t explain in details what we are facing, but for now I am trying to do my best to help the students, as I am still in Gaza now- although the other staff outside of Gaza are also supporting them,” he adds.
The future outcome of Gaza’s young people depends on when this war ends, and how quickly the education system is restored.
LACK OF FUNDING FOR EDUCATION
Once this genocide ends, there will be significant challenges in resuming the educational process. A permanent ceasefire is essential as a first step to rebuilding the education system. The blockade also needs to be lifted, and the occupation ended. But, as the report states, children and young people cannot wait. They need access to safe educational spaces and learning activities now, to ensure their wellbeing. For this to happen there also must be increased educational funding. But funding has not been forthcoming. Every year, since 2003, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has launched a humanitarian appeal to support the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but education continues to be one of the least funded sectors. In this year’s $3.42 billion flash appeal, education received only 3.5% of the appeal funding. The United Kingdom only gives just over 2% of the appeal funding for education, while major donors such as the U.S. and Germany have completely neglected education in their aid packages.
When people are focused on a dire situation with loss of life, they think of the immediate emergency context, and not about education. But the report argues that there should not be a choice between one or the other. There needs to be adequate funding for both (“Palestinian Education Under Attack in Gaza: Restoration, Recovery, Rights and Responsibilities in and through Education,” Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Centre for Lebanese Studies & UNRWA, Sept. 2024 ). For 76 years the international community has turned its back on the Palestinians, and their children. They should be given more than just the bare minimum to live, and need a secure future, with equal rights.
Education is central to stabilizing the decline in Gaza, and Sayed is still hopeful that the challenges can be met. “Things are bad, but if and when we get a permanent ceasefire, and allow things to stabilize, there is a strong possibility that with time, commitment and reconstruction that has Palestinians at the heart of it, we might be able to make up for some of the learning loss,’’ he says. ih
[Editor’s Note: Republished with permission. An earlier version of this report was first published in UK publication The Canary on 8 October, 2024, https:// www.thecanary.co/long-read/2024/10/08/israel-gaza-education/).
Charlie Jaay is a freelance journalist with special interests in the environment, human rights, and civil liberties.
EDUCATION
Microaggressions against Students Are Taking High School Classrooms
School Administrators and Teachers Are
BY MARIUM ZAHRA
After Sept. 11, 2001, Muslims across the country faced hate crimes and bigotry. There was an increase in racist attacks, and xenophobia against people who identified as Muslim, came from Muslim countries, or simply looked brown (“Combating Post9/11 Discriminatory Backlash” Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, October 19, 2011).
Consequently, the years following 9/11 have been a time of distress, fear, and discrimination for Muslims. But in recent years,
against Muslim Taking Over Classrooms
Contributing to The Problem
as blatant Islamophobic bigotry is correctly acknowledged as socially unacceptable, this open discrimination has been transformed into microaggressions across the country, especially in school classrooms.
Microaggressions are a form of inconspicuous discrimination. These are behaviors, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile or negative attitudes
toward culturally marginalized groups. In classrooms, microaggressions can look like small jabs or pointed comments singling out the race, religion, or ethnicity of a student or a group of students. These remarks often stem from essentializing misconceptions, presumptions, and/or stereotypes.
With the rise of Islamophobia in recent months due to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, Muslim high school students living in the West feel the effects in their everyday lives (Indlieb Farazi Saber, “‘Seen as less human’: Why has Islamophobia surged amid Israel’s Gaza war?” Aljazeera, Dec. 21, 2023). Many no longer view school as a safe place to learn and grow. Instead, classrooms are tainted with discrete discrimination from peers and sometimes even administration and teachers. For example, Muslim students, especially women and girls across the country, deal with a condescending view of Islam that casts them as oppressed and forced by religious commandment. These stereotypes
are both deeply harmful and based on incorrect, orientalist tropes.
“My peers have made fun of me for practicing salah and for wearing the hijab, mocking my religious practices,” said Homa Massood, a senior at Skyview High School in Billings, Montana. “Some self-proclaimed ‘concerned’ teachers have openly criticized my belief system, calling practices like wearing the hijab and fasting during Ramadan ‘barbaric.’”
Hana Haque, a senior at Folsom High School in Folsom, California said she has also been attacked with religiously motivated actions and comments that seek to demean her faith as a Muslim woman.
“I am more often the target of sexual or lewd comments during school,” she said. “[A male student] taller and bigger than me [grabbed] my arm as I walked by his friends and his table during lunch and [called] me ‘cute’ and [asked] for my number. I wear hijab and have never seen them before in my life. I looked visibly uncomfortable.”
For some Muslim students, like senior Suleikha Hakim of Columbus, Ohio, academic spaces are more unforgiving when they make mistakes. Discrimination is something they have become used to.
“I can feel how differently [students] treat me compared to others,” Hakim said. “People will act normal around other people, but when it comes to me, [they’re] harsher.”
California sophomore Syeda Ali admitted she’s used to this treatment. “Peers and elders often make these religious jabs at me, but I’ve become desensitized,” she said.
Ali also noted the familiar feeling of being a Muslim in America, as though you should be ashamed of your culture and religion and should feel compelled to suppress your origins to feel accepted and included.
“I was targeted as a victim of bullying at a young age due to my appearance and identity,” she said. “Growing up, there wasn’t much I could do as. . . I was pretty much an outsider.”
Some students said that they’ve been classified with incorrect racial categories, ethnicities, or nationalities due to stereotypical assumptions from authority figures. This type of racism, whether intentional, is a result of the ignorance that many Americans have regarding Islam and/or Muslim culture and tradition. This discrete discrimination is also primarily rooted in the way Muslims have been either misrepresented or completely ignored by mainstream media ("Riz Ahmed calls for urgent change in ‘toxic
EDUCATION
portrayals’ of Muslims on screen", June 11, 2021, The Guardian").
“Teachers and administrators often reference me in discussions about Middle Eastern countries I’m not from, like Iran or Saudi Arabia,” said Massood. “A few have even made comments about me being from the desert.”
When school officials incorrectly generalize Muslim students, it demonstrates to other students that they can make the same ignorant or harmful assumptions, all of which contribute to making the class-
made me feel isolated, misunderstood, and unwelcome in spaces that should have been supportive,” said Massood. “When Muslim students are constantly questioned or belittled for their beliefs, practices, or appearance, it sends the message that their identity is something to be scrutinized.”
Haque agreed with this sentiment. “They repress Muslim students’ personalities and silence their voices. Muslim students won’t be as comfortable if they’re constantly attacked in school,” she said.
When school officials incorrectly generalize Muslim students, it demonstrates to other students that they can make the same ignorant or harmful assumptions, all of which contribute to making the classroom an unsafe or an unwelcoming place for Muslims.
legislation designed to repeal protections for vulnerable groups like Muslim Americans throughout the American school and university system (https://www.insightintodiversity.com/). Predictably, the result of this legislation was that discrimination against marginalized students increased throughout the year (Kelsey Sanchez, “‘This is just the start of it’. UT Austin students feeling effects of DEI ban,” January 24, 2024, KVUE-TV/ ABC). Now, more than ever, we must combat microaggressions against Muslim Americans in our schools.
Educators can help by promoting diversity and inclusivity inside their classrooms instead of ignoring or suppressing racial, or religious, or ethnic differences among the student body. Educators should foster an environment where every student feels like their cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds are recognized, instead of ignored.
room an unsafe or an unwelcoming place for Muslims.
As a Pakistani American, Muslim high school student from Texas, I know firsthand how damaging microaggressions can be, and how normalized they have become. While working on a portrait of my father in class in December of 2023, an instructor approached me and asked if I “was drawing Hussein” with no other context. At the time, I didn’t even know how to react, so I brushed it off. Later, I realized my teacher had just said the first “brown name” he could think of.
Throughout ninth grade, I was threatened by school coaches during Ramadan while participating in my school’s volleyball program. On an out-of-season conditioning day, I let my coach know that I could not run because I was fasting. Instead of allowing me to sit out, he implied that if I didn’t play, some of the newer girls would take my spot.
This experience showed me that my identity as a Muslimah was not respected in my school environment. And I am far from alone in these experiences. High school students across the country say that microaggressions take a toll on both their mental health and their ability to perform in school.
“The constant mockery and disrespect
While microaggressions might be brushed off as harmless by teachers, administrators, or other school officials, they should not be overlooked given their detrimental effects on Muslim students. These actions make students feel like they shouldn’t participate in class discussions, that their opinions don’t matter, or that they simply don’t belong in an American classroom. Most of all, microaggressions against school-aged Muslim Americans make students feel like outcasts in environments that should be inclusive. Worse still, silent discrimination of this kind makes students feel like they can’t respond, fight back, or stick up for themselves out of fear of facing further discrimination or being labeled as overly sensitive.
“When I reported the incident to my teacher, rather than receiving support or intervention, I was told to ‘get thicker skin.’ This lack of support from school staff only heightened my sense of vulnerability and fear for my safety as a Muslim student,” said Massood.
COMBATING MICROAGGRESSIONS AGAINST MUSLIM STUDENTS
To make matters worse, in 2024, Republican lawmakers in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina introduced anti-diversity
With the recent rise of anti-Critical Race Theory laws and book bans, it is also important to allow students to have open discussions in the classroom (Katharina Buchholz, “Anti-CRT Measures Adopted by 28 U.S. States,” Apr. 19, 2023, https:// www.statista.com/). Students should never be silenced for speaking out about their culture. Schools should diversify the curriculum in a way that doesn’t whitewash or antagonize the history of Muslim countries or overlook the unique contributions made by Muslim Americans. Teachers should discuss the practices and beliefs inherent to Islam while also identifying what microaggressions look like in order to reduce these occurrences and the harm they cause. Most importantly, schools should give students the ability and confidence to take action against discrimination instead of brushing off their experiences.
“Having a classroom that places diversity and inclusivity at the foundation is paramount. Students need to know that they are valued in their classes. It makes them feel seen, heard, and safe,” explained Rebecca Prado, an educator from El Paso, Texas.
Microaggressions against Muslim students have been prominent and normalized in classrooms for far too long. The time to end discrimination is now. ih
Marium Zahra is a 16-year-old independent journalist working from the frontera in El Paso, Texas. Marium works with local magazines, nonprofits, anthologies, and organizations that protect social justice. Her work has been seen in Business Insider, Yes!, The Nation, PrismReports, Chalkbeat, The Progressive Magazine, El Paso City Magazine, and more.
Court Upholds Equal Access to Special Education for Religious Schools in California
A Win for All Faiths
BY FAISAL KUTTY
On Oct. 28, in a landmark decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California cannot exclude religious schools from receiving special education funds under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
This decision in Loffman v. California Department of Education, is a major victory for Orthodox Jewish families seeking to use state funds to support their children’s education in schools aligned with their faith. Beyond its immediate impact, the ruling sets a precedent for equal access to public benefits, ensuring that families of all faiths are not forced to choose between essential educational support and their religious beliefs.
At the heart of the case are Orthodox Jewish families who argued that their faith compels them to educate their children within a religious setting. California’s longstanding policy barring religious schools from special education funding, they asserted, forced them to choose between their child’s educational needs and religious values.
Writing for the unanimous panel, Judge Kim Wardlaw emphasized this point. Such a requirement, the court found, violates both free exercise and equal protection rights.
Muslim, Catholic, and Hindu communities, may now seek similar access to special education funding if they qualify.
California, with its history of progressive inclusion and diversity, has an opportunity to honor this ruling by embracing equitable policies for all religious families.
In fact, California’s diverse religious landscape has made cases like Loffman especially relevant. State data shows that California has one of the country’s most religiously diverse populations, and a significant number of parents value educational settings that align with their cultural or faith-based values. By extending IDEA funds to religious schools, the state would reaffirm its commitment to all Californians, providing needed support without requiring parents to sacrifice deeply held values.
The court’s decision is grounded in recent Supreme Court rulings, including Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020), which clarified that once a state provides funds to private schools, it cannot exclude religious institutions. By ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor, the Ninth Circuit affirms that California’s policy must uphold federal constitutional standards of religious neutrality and equal treatment.
This means families seeking religious-based education for their children with disabilities can now access public resources previously limited to secular schools.
The financial impact on California from this ruling would likely be modest. IDEA funds are already allocated to support children with disabilities in private secular schools when public schools cannot meet their needs. Now, the inclusion of religious schools will redirect some of these funds without creating entirely new expenses.
Furthermore, this funding is available only to families who qualify under strict criteria and receive local district approval for private placement. This means the ruling should not result in an influx of new claims but will ensure that existing funds are used equitably.
In California, where approximately 500,000 students attend private schools, about 80% of these schools are religiously affiliated, representing a significant share of families for whom this ruling could be meaningful. Families from various faith traditions, including
This decision also comes at a time when anti-religious discrimination, particularly against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab American communities, has been on the rise in California. Following recent conflicts in Gaza, discrimination and hate incidents have reportedly surged. California’s leaders, including Governor Gavin Newsom, have spoken out against such discrimination and affirmed their commitment to protecting all religious communities. This decision is a critical step in reinforcing that commitment, showing that California’s dedication to inclusion extends to all religious families seeking to provide the best education for their children.
The Ninth Circuit’s decision, while expected to face further legal challenges, sets a valuable precedent on religious liberty and public funding. By promoting equal access to special education for religious schools, it underscores the need for government policies that serve all constituents fairly, regardless of their faith.
For California, a state long known for championing civil rights, this ruling aligns with core values of equity, ensuring that children with disabilities can receive the education they deserve without forcing their families to compromise their beliefs.
The court’s decision is not only a victory for the Jewish families who fought for their children’s rights but also a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting freedom, equality, and religious diversity in our public systems. In doing so, California can continue to lead the way in upholding the principles that make it a home for people of all beliefs and backgrounds. ih
Faisal Kutty is a lawyer, writer, public speaker, and human rights advocate. He currently teaches at Southwestern Law School and is an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Security, Race, and Rights at Rutgers University. He also holds the title of associate professor of Law Emeritus at Valparaiso University. Follow him on X @faisalkutty.
Reviving Tradition Within Islamic Education
The Global Association of Islamic Schools’ Malaysian Retreat is an Important International Discussion
BY AHMED A. MAHOMEDY
For four days, esteemed scholars and hundreds of participants from around the globe gathered to exchange knowledge and perspectives on Islamic education at the Third Annual Global Association of Islamic Schools’ (GAIS) Leadership Retreat in Malaysia which was held from September 30 to October 3, 2024. The retreat included over 300 delegates from over 28 countries. For that diverse group of delegates, each morning commenced with a Fajr Khatira by a group of scholars from around the world which was connected to the theme of the conference. Details of the daily activities from the 2024 GAIS Leadership Retreat are provided below.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Day 1 of the GAIS retreat kicked off with an impactful address by Dr. Samir Mahmood, Academic Director at Usul Academy and Lecturer in Islamic Psychology at the Cambridge Muslim College. He discussed the human element in education, emphasizing the need for educators to meet students at their level, tailoring education to each learner, whether we’re working with young children or teenagers. According to Dr. Mahmood, it’s the relationships we build that make the real difference in Islamic education.
Next, Dr. Osman Baker, the director of the International Islamic University of Malysia, hosted a workshop on the importance of tradition, breaking down various aspects of the common struggles we face, no matter where we are in the world.
Habeeb Quadri’s address on nurturing Islamic character beyond the classroom resonated deeply with audiences. He stressed the importance of interacting with learners,
highlighting how we must bring about values within the classroom that extend beyond academic achievement.
The gala dinner, a highlight of the retreat, was a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues and celebrate our shared journey in education.
The day concluded with Zachariah Matthews, Director of Just Media Advocacy and an instructor at Deen Academy, who shared his journey of renewing Islamic education in Australia. He spoke about the balance between evolving educational systems while remaining true to traditional values.
His experiences reminded us that we, too, can adapt our systems to the times while staying grounded in our core beliefs and our faith in Islam.
Day 2 of the Third Annual GAIS Leadership Retreat was filled with activity. Attendees commenced the day with a four-hour workshop conducted by William White, a leadership trainer, coach and consultant, and founder of William White Consulting, LLC. White led attendees through an interactive, practical, and hands-on session which emphasized the importance of being a leader rather than just a manager connecting corporate leadership strategies with educational leadership within an Islamic context.
Day 3 featured a keynote address by Dr. Jasser Auda, who discussed the revival of the principles of Maqasid Al-Quran in shaping a holistic educational environment. His insights tied together various themes that had been explored over the retreat emphasizing the importance of aligning our educational practices with these Quranic principles.
Day 4 was a fitting conclusion to an enriching experience. Attendees visited various Islamic schools in and around Kuala Lumpur before touring the International Islamic University in Malaysia. This experience allowed conference attendees to see educational practices in action both at the school-aged level as well as in the university classroom. Walking through the halls of these institutions, attendees were struck by the blend of modern educational strategies and traditional values set within a refreshingly Islamic context.
At the end of Day 4 of the conference, as I sat preparing to return home, I found myself profoundly moved by the experiences I had shared in Malaysia. The humility and dedication of the Malaysian people resonated deeply with me from the eager students filled with curiosity to the esteemed scholars who generously imparted their vast knowledge upon conference-goers from the international community.
One of these generous scholars who bears mentioning is Yahya Van Rooy, leader of Islamic Pedagogy and Community Relations at the Next Generation School in Dubai. During his presentation, he reminded audience members that educators and leaders should be “deep-sea divers, not shallow water survivors,” urging us to embrace depth in
our work rather than merely floating on the surface. This calls for the utmost dedication, commitment, and hard work in order to shape the educational institution for the maximum possible benefit of educators and learners. Van Rooy went on to break down the various aspects of Sunnah, reminding us of the Sunnah of God, the Sunnah of the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), and the Sunnah of the Ummah. He spoke with such clarity and passion about how we should never stray from these core principles, even as we innovate and adapt our schools to modern challenges.
Later, attendees heard from Dr. Necati Aydin Associate Professor of Economics at Al-Faisal University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
He introduced audience members to his concept of 5-D thinking within education that encourages multi-dimensional thought processes when tackling diverse logistical and/or pedagogical problems within educational contexts when addressing colleagues and students alike
I return to my own community with a renewed sense of purpose, eager to implement the insights gained during this retreat, to engage more deeply with my students and colleagues at home, and to foster an environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to learn. ih
Ahmed A. Mahomedy is a teacher at the Johannesburg Muslim School, Johannesburg, South Africa. (Note: His participation was sponsored by the board of the Johannesburg Muslim School.)
Are You Ready for Your Ramadan Revelation?
Fasting for True Freedom and Divine Interaction
BY RASHEED RABBI
For over 1,400 years, Muslims across the world have been observing Ramadan — a sacred month of fasting and spiritual renewal, a timeless journey of faith that rekindles the soul and strengthens the bond with God.
Growing up Muslim, I embraced Ramadan rituals wholeheartedly: fasting from dawn to dusk, engaging in extra (tarawee) prayers, and cherishing the warmth of community gatherings. Yet, one encounter forever changed how I experienced this holy month. That moment marked the beginning of a new relationship with Ramadan — one not merely observed but truly lived.
It was a Friday afternoon. I’d just stepped out of the Jummah prayer at the masjid when I bumped into a community member. A very familiar face, yet his radiant smile and sparkling eyes betrayed an uncontainable excitement. Before we could even exchange pleasantries, he leaned in and, with the intensity of someone sharing a secret, asked, “Are you ready for your Ramadan revelation?”
I dismissed his dramatic question as overzealous enthusiasm and responded casually, referencing pre-Ramadan programs in our masjid and that day’s khutbah. However, his glowing demeanor lingered in my thoughts, stirring a deep curiosity.
Turning back to him, I asked, “What excites you the most about Ramadan?”
His enigmatic smile deepened as he replied, “Can you guess?” What followed turned my assumptions into profound lessons:
“Is it because Satan will be chained?” I asked. “That’s to check if our bad habits persist without Satan’s influence,” he replied.
“Is it that our good deeds will be multiplied seventy times?” He nodded, “that’s to assess how eagerly we compete to level up our spiritual deficits?”
“Is it the gates of Paradise open and hellfire close for an entire month?” “That’s to see how sincerely we can embody the manners of Paradise during this given period” he answered.
“Is it that, every Ramadan night, some
people will be freed unconditionally from the hellfire out of Allah’s Mercy?” He smiled, “That’s to introspect what can we forsake to free ourselves from hellfire?”
Still intrigued, I pressed on, quoting familiar Quranic verses.
It must be “the arrival of Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Decree, greater than a thousand months (Quran 97:1-3)?”
Or the de-facto Ramadan verses quoted in all sermons (Khutbas):“O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may attain taqwa” (2:183)?
QURANIC CONTEXT OF RAMADAN
With a smile, he said, “Close, but not quite there!” He went on explaining: From verses 2:40 to 182, God explicitly called out the Children of Israel, recounting the countless blessings He had bestowed upon them despite their repeated refusal of His commands. As a final mercy, fasting was prescribed to purify their hearts and cultivate God-consciousness (2:183). Even specifying it as only “a few days” in the verse (2:184) confirms that it’s not Ramadan’s month-long fasting. Still, the Children of Israel failed to grasp the transformative potential of fasting.
God, then, moves deliberately from ancient narratives to offer the timeless decree specifically for Muslims in the next verse: “Ramadan is the month for the Qur’an revelation as guidance for humanity and clear proofs of guidance and criterion” (2:185). My
friend paused, eyes glinting with meaning, he stressed: “This verse is the very heart of Ramadan, only if you care to reflect.”
I blurted out, “I know this verse, the only one that mentions Ramadan and marks when the Quran was first revealed. I also recite and complete (khatam) Quran every Ramadan.”
His lips broke into an encouraging smile: “It’s neither merely a historical reference point for the Quran’s first revelation nor about competing to complete reading of the Quran for extra barakah (blessings) during the month. It’s about preparing yourself to let the Quran descend upon you anew.”
His words gave me pause. Before I could dismiss them as overly abstract, he continued with clarity and conviction: all the attributes of Ramadan — 70+ fold rewards, the closure of hellfire, the opening of paradise — are merely teasers. They set the stage to settle our hearts and harvest the greater goal of fasting: achieving God-consciousness (taqwa), a free
Today, the idea of freedom is distorted to beguile us into misconceptions of self-indulgence. We frequently mistake freedom for our unchecked pursuit of desires. While seeking such freedom, our indulgences — food, drink, distractions, fears, and countless other habits — become invisible shackles that bind us to a false sense of liberty.
heart capable of communicating with God and receiving revelation from Him.
FASTING IS THE GATEWAY TO TRUE FREEDOM/FITRA
My friend reminded me that the word for fasting, sawm, literally means “to make oneself free.” This freedom isn’t confined to abstaining from food or drink; it’s a liberation from the souls’ baggage. It’s a freedom from sensory appetites, freedom from errors and sins, and a state of lasting emancipation of our hearts from the grip of whims and desires.
Today the idea of freedom is distorted to beguile us into misconceptions of self-indulgence. We frequently mistake freedom for our unchecked pursuit of desires. While chasing such freedom, our indulgences — food, drink, distractions, fears, and countless other habits — become invisible shackles that bind us to a false sense of liberty.
It’s not the poison of the devil that derails our longing for the divine, but the dribble of plain water that we drink in routine. It’s not the banquet of the wicked that diverts us from being noble, but the endless nibbling at our dining table. It’s not the toxin of Satan that turns us away but it is the indulgence into the gracious gifts of God that distances us from His love. True freedom, however, lies in breaking this mundane serfdom that binds our habits.
Abstinence from food and drink ends overindulgence and silences the clamor of sensory whispers. By embodying abovelisted lessons of fasting mindfully for an entire
month, our souls rise above the dominion of the carnal self to retain its pure essence, fitra, or innate inclination to God (30:30). Thus, fasting is not mere deprivation; it’s an act of releasing the sensory appetite to soar our souls for divine communion.
RAMADAN AS A PATH TO REVELATION FOR LIBERATED SOULS
The link between fasting and freedom began to resonate with me, but the idea of revelation still felt elusive. Sensing my confusion, my friend challenged me to think beyond the narrow interpretations of divine revelation exclusive to prophets through the Angel Gabriel.
He continued: “And it is not for a man that God should speak to him except by direct revelation, or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger to reveal by His command what He pleases. Surely, He is Mighty, Wise. And thus, have We revealed to thee the Word by Our command. Thou didst not know what the Book was, nor what was the faith. But We have made the revelation a light, whereby We guide such of Our servants as We please. And truly thou dost guide mankind to the right path” (42:52-53).
This verse explains that our current context and form of revelation may differ, but the essence endures unchanged. Revelation is a light (42:52), a divine insight into life, descending into the heart (26:192), not just in the mind or intellect. Fasting enforces a distinct setting to liberate our hearts, where some Quranic verse will be settled forever, sensing lights descended from the Light (24:35) anew to illuminate a reality beyond words and letters.
The Quran itself isn’t a destination, but a direction (2:2, 3:4) to look through the essence of God that animates all existence, every parable of life (18:54; 30:58). We will feel urged to look through our life in with the newly anchored verses.
Revelation, whether Quran (2:185, 25:1), Torah (2:53; 21:48), or personal inspiration (42:51), is Furqan, a Criterion (2:53, 185; 25:1), to distinguish right from wrong. For hearts refined in Ramadan, the light descends, and life takes on new meaning through the lens of Quran. It compels inspiring actions and insights that sustain the soul until the next Ramadan when the cycle of renewal begins anew.
Such a righteous way of life ensures glad tidings, another synonym of Revelation (10:64). Thus, receiving personal revelation
during Ramadan means nurturing a lasting inspiration within our hearts to elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary, the mundane to the divine — a cyclic pattern.
FASTING FOR FREEDOM AND REVELATION ACROSS FAITHS AND ERAS
All prophets and leaders across almost all major religions, embrace fasting as a primary spiritual practice. Hinduism (est. 5000 BCE), despite lacking a founder or a sacred scripture, prescribes fasting to achieve the Hindu Trinity of purity, passion, and inertia (Tridevi). Judaism (est. 1500 to 1350 BCE) holds that Moses (‘alayi as salam) fasted for 40 days before he received his prophethood. Jainism (600 BCE) teaches that Mahavira attained nirvana while he was fasting. Around the same period, in 550 BCE, Buddhism emerged, and Buddha fasted for 49 days and nights to attain enlightenment.
Confucius, the founder of Confucianism fasted, and encouraged mass fasting for purification within the Chinese empire. Similarly, Shintoism, an ancient Japanese religion that emerged around 500 BCE stressed purification through fasting. In Christianity (est. 1-33 CE), Jesus (‘alayhi as salam) received the scripture after fasting for 40 days. His example established the practice of the Lenten Fast.
Finally, in 570-632 CE, Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) received his Revelation while meditating on Mount Hira to proclaim the foundations of Islam. All these prophets and leaders fasted not only for self-discipline but to receive individual revelation, whether in formal scripture or informal inspiration and to transcend the ordinary in their lives.
Ramadan comes with the same promise of individual revelation. “Allah intends for you ease, [and]not burden” (2:185) with this holy month, which is not a test of endurance but a divine invitation for a monthlong transformation of our hearts to receive divine light and lasting insights that will alter our lives forever. With this sacred season on the horizon, may we rise to meet its universal call to open ourselves to the illuminating light of God’s timeless revelation. ih
Rasheed Rabbi is an IT professional who earned an MA in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry from Boston University and is also the founder of e-Dawah (www.edawah.net) and secretary of the Association of Muslim Scientists, Engineers & Technology Professionals. He serves as a khateeb and Friday prayer leader at the ADAMS Center and is a certified Muslim chaplain..
Taxes Are Never Zakat
Taxes Are the Price We Pay for Civilization
BY AHMAD HASAN LATEEF
Western economies have made outstanding progress during last couple of centuries. The taxation model pursued by them has been one of the major reasons for this success. Although taxation under capitalism is heavy, it has provided for efficient delivery of services in the developed world. The levy, collection, and expenditure has been so efficient that, so far, it has warded off the inherent problems associated with capitalism. The most significant of these problems are huge amounts of debt and great disparities in wealth.
For most people living in the western world, these taxes are the final contribution towards the society. Not so for most Muslims who are under religious obligation to pay zakat as prescribed in the Quran (generally 2.5% of their wealth after one year of ownership). The word “zakat” appears nine times in eight different Makkan surahs, including in early revelations received by Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam ). The Quran, 9:103, says, “Of their goods, take zakat, so that you might purify and sanctify them.”
or businesses (class exemption). Although such exemptions should be based on specific economic needs, lobbying plays a significant role in such exemptions.
Wealth tax, a yearly tax on accumulated net wealth, is a mechanism of transfer of wealth from the rich to the general revenue pool. Wealth tax laws also provide for income tax like exemptions. The United States has eliminated wealth tax other than tax on real estate (property tax) from its taxation system. This is a significant benefit for the wealthy.
These direct taxes should be the major sources of revenue in current economies, but direct taxes are difficult to collect.
NEVER ZAKAT
INDIRECT TAXES
The incidence of these taxes is usually transferred to other entities i.e. the payer collects it from the consumer. Sales tax, customs duties, and tolls fall into this category. Their main objective is to control consumption of services. Collection of revenue is a secondary objective but in many developed and most underdeveloped countries they become the main source of revenue because they are easier to collect.
Although it is a small percentage of their accumulated wealth, many Muslims feel that this as an additional burden after paying heavy taxes under the prevailing taxation systems. Consequently, some Muslim scholars have issued rulings (fatwas) allowing Muslims to adjust their zakat obligation into the current government taxes i.e. the percentage of federal/state/local taxes spent on poor and indignant can be treated as discharge of zakat liability. This has generated significant controversy about the philosophy and practical consequences of such practice. To resolve this issue, some basic knowledge of the differences between capitalist taxation and zakat are essential.
DIRECT TAXES
Taxes are generally classified into Direct Taxes and Indirect Taxes depending on their incidence. The incidence of these taxes is on the person or entity on which this tax is levied i.e. it cannot be transferred to others. Income tax and wealth tax fall into this category. Income tax, which is a tax on the total world income of a person/ entity as it accrues, is a tax on the flow of income and not on accumulation. Income tax codes all over the world are similar, where tax laws grant exemptions to certain areas (territorial exemptions)
Most of the capitalist world has eliminated Wealth Tax, and income tax and indirect taxes have become the main revenue source. This adversely affects the less wealthy because their consumption of goods is heavily taxed whereas the wealth/investments of the rich are barely taxed if at all.
The current tax model and the interest based financial system has led to accumulation of wealth in few hands — 62 of the richest people own more wealth than the world’s bottom four billion inhabitants.
ZAKAT
Zakat is a Quranic concept of basic taxation with both spiritual and financial elements different from the capitalist taxation models.
At the heart of it is the concept of sadaqah — paying a part of one’s wealth as an act of submission to The Creator, God. He has made zakat, a type of sadaqah mandatory. However, the concept of sadaqah also includes non-obligatory acts of worship not conditioned to amount, time or type of expenditure.
Zakat is primarily a tax on all wealth (personal and corporate etc.), above the nisaab and excluding exemptions, at a rate of 2.5% (agriculture and minerals have different rates). Importantly, exemptions in zakat are fixed and unalterable i.e. they cannot be influenced by lobbying.
Zakat is the foundation of a fair and equitable financial system which has been determined by Allah and His Prophet. Its primary aim is the equitable re-distribution of wealth according to a more individualist approach (Morse, G. and Williams, D. Davies: Principles of Tax Law (6th edn, Sweet & Maxwell, London 2008).
Although there are similarities with the wealth tax of capitalism, the two are different both in philosophy and collection and expenditure.
To elaborate a fundamental difference between zakat and prevailing taxes one must consider what zakat does not tax:
❶ Income — zakat does not tax income at all.
❷ Business/professional tools — these are exempt from zakat
❸ Tools of industrial production — these too are exempt from zakat
❹ Items of personal use: homes, cars, even personal airplanes. And there is no limit to these items. (A contrast with western taxation philosophy)
❺ It does not tax consumption or sales i.e. it’s not a sales tax.
❸ Administrators and their salaries — this relates to all the planning and execution under other seven heads.
❹ Strategic planning
Two of the expenditure heads are immediate or tactical. The remaining six are strategic or long-term, which require implementation of long-term plans and systems. Thus, this verse provides for the fundamentals of a financial system and governance.
The primary financial objectives of zakat in Islam are twofold:
❶ Provide revenue for the state to take care of the needy and underprivileged.
❷ Prevent accumulation of wealth and power in a few hands.
The capitalist taxation model has failed in both sectors. Despite a progressive income tax structure, the world’s biggest economy has accumulated a debt of more than $33 trillion. It is simply disparity of wealth, when 62 people own more wealth than bottom half of global population.
ZAKAT AS THE FOUNDATION OF A SOCIOECONOMIC SYSTEM
Zakat is a Quranic concept of basic taxation with both spiritual and financial elements different from the capitalist taxation models.
WHAT DOES ZAKAT TAX?
After going through the list of what zakat does not tax, a question arises: What does zakat really tax?
Zakat is only due on unconsumed assets after one year of ownership. This essentially makes zakat, a tax on hoarding of wealth. Although Quranic injunctions do not prohibit accumulation of wealth, and encourages savings, thoughtfulness in expenditure, and generational transfer of wealth (wirasah - inheritance), they do set out a share for the underprivileged and needy. This is very different from the capitalist philosophy of taxation. In capitalist taxation model there is no mechanism which taxes hoarding of wealth and assets. There is no such intention in capitalism, which is essentially hoarding of assets and wealth.
Wealth tax structures in other countries, with their own distortions and exemptions, are not the same as zakat. They cannot be because both the philosophy and objectives are different.
UTILIZATION OF ZAKAT
Verse 9:60 provides guidelines for expenditure of the money collected as zakat: “Sadaqat are for the poor and the needy, and those employed to administer the (funds); for those whose hearts have been (recently) reconciled (to Truth); for those in bondage and in debt; in the cause of God; and for the wayfarer: (thus is it) ordained by God, and God is full of knowledge and wisdom.”
This verse establishes eight heads for expenditure of zakat. More than merely mentioning these categories, it provides for some principles and structure:
❶ Care of needy
❷ Budgeting for each category
The system of zakat is not a mere transaction of money from the rich to the poor, but the foundation of a fair and equitable financial system. It creates a continuous flow of 2.5 % of wealth per lunar year from the wealthy to the needy. This ensures that the essential needs of the needy are taken care of. It also is a mechanism of some continuous flow of capital in the society.
An important injunction about zakat is that payer should not be the beneficiary of his own zakat. This contrasts with prevalent tax systems where payers are supposed to be their taxes’ primary beneficiaries. Muslims must understand these fundamental effects of the system of zakat. It cannot be substituted or amalgamated into any other system.
VALUATION OF ASSETS
Some may argue that zakat will be difficult to collect i.e. it will be difficult to value the assets regarding collection of zakat. Interestingly, valuation of assets is very sophisticated these days. Real estate is valued yearly by local governments. Investments and corporations are valued every day by Market Capitalization in the stock market. Average daily market capitalization for the preceding year can serve as a very good reference for this purpose. It will help control the unnecessary volatility in stock market.
ZAKAT AS ITEMIZED DEDUCTION IN TAX RETURN
Federal income tax law allows deductions based charitable donations to certain registered 501(c)(3) organizations. This results in reduction in tax liability depending on one’s tax bracket. Should refunds based on such deduction should also be given as zakat? The technical point is that once zakat has been calculated and paid, the liability is taken care of. Afterwards, any government refund will become an asset for the next year and will be included in calculating zakat the following year.
To summarize, there are fundamental differences between the concepts of zakat/sadaqah and other taxation models and in their practical implications. Therefore, it is against the intent of Islamic law to adjust the liability of zakat into ant other taxes.
Taxation models have significant effects on individuals and society. ih
Ahmad Hasan Lateef is a physician and a student of economics with interest in taxation and zakat.
Black Moses: Black History Month Reflections for Muslims
BY JIMMY E. JONES
“‘Remember’ when your Lord called out to Moses, ‘Go to the wrongdoing people—, the people of Pharaoh. Will they not fear Allah’?” (Quran 26:10-11)
The terrorism, death, and destruction that has rained down on the noble, resilient Palestinian and Lebanese people recently has caused many of us to draw parallels between the current situation in the Middle East and the iconic confrontation between Moses (‘Alayhi as salam) and Pharoah. Ironically, it is those who claim to be spiritual and biological descendants of Moses who appear to have adopted a Pharaoh-like attitude toward the sufferings of the Palestinian and Lebanese people.
The fact that God mentioned Prophet Moses in the Quran more than 50 times should cause us to reflect on the lessons we can learn from the Moses-Pharaoh confrontation. Hopefully, such reflections can help
us to craft Quran-centered responses to current crises that involve what appear to be obvious, blatant examples of oppression. The Moses-Pharaoh confrontation story is an important narrative shared in the sacred texts of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Given this fact, perhaps we can glean concepts from this epic saga that may prove helpful in our understanding of and engagement with current crises. Additionally, February’s designation as Black History Month provides us yet another lens through which to assess the importance and impact of the MosesPharaoh narrative in our contemporary times. This is because African Americans, according to Pew Research Center (2019), represent about 20% of the total 3.45 million Muslims in the United States (Pew Research Center 2018). Consequently, I believe that it would be useful to look at one way Moses’ name is deployed in African American history as a moral exemplar for all peoples.
“BLACK MOSES”
Wes Moore, the first black governor of the state of Maryland recently posthumously promoted a Maryland native to the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard. This designation was extraordinary for at least two important reasons. First, it was bestowed on someone who was not even recognized as a citizen of the state or the United States when she was born. Second, it was bestowed on a woman. Even today, women’s role in the U.S. military is still being hotly debated in the political arena. Therefore, Harriet Tubman’s promotion to the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard was quite an unexpected event.
According to Wikipedia, General Harriet Tubman was “an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known
On Veterans Day 2024, Harriet Tubman was posthumously commissioned as a brigadier general by the Maryland National Guard. Tubman was the first woman in the U.S. to lead an armed military operation during a war.
On Veterans Day 2024, Harriet Tubman was posthumously commissioned as a brigadier general by the Maryland National Guard. Tubman was the first woman in the U.S. to lead an armed military operation during a war.
Formal portrait of Tubman taken after the Civil War.
collectively as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage.”
This extraordinary life was lived at a time (1822-1913) when African Americans were considered to be biologically, morally, and intellectually inferior. This negative demeaning view of African Americans was a byproduct of the institution of slavery which was subsequently supported by the pseudo-science now known as scientific racism that followed the abolition of slavery. It is small wonder that she came to be known as “Black Moses” both within and outside of the African American community. Her heroic efforts to free her people has not only been recognized by the state of Maryland but by the U.S. federal government. This is evidenced by the designation of three national parks/ monuments in her honor. Also, in 1978, she was the first African American woman honored with a U.S. postage stamp. Further, since 2016, there have been plans to honor Tubman with her image on the front of the $20 bill. As Governor Moore stated at the Veteran’s Day 2024 promotion ceremony held at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center in Maryland,
we should not be shy about enlisting the leadership talents of Muslim women in our efforts to bring about social justice in the Muslim community and the broader community at large.
Reflection #2 “As we face the current wave of Islamophobia and xenophobia in the U.S., we should remember that African Americans in our midst often have transferable strategies and tactics honed during the Civil Rights Movement that might prove useful in the current context.”
I have often sat in Islamic spaces where discussions about appropriate protest strategies are held without consulting people like myself who have “been there, done that.” This is part of what it means to use/place people in authority based upon their individual capacities. Our beloved Prophet (‘salla Allahu ‘alayhi was sallam) was absolutely masterful when it came to picking and/or consulting the right person for a particular job. We should try to emulate this sunnah when it comes to using the talents of African Americans in our midst.
“And with each act of courage, Harriet Tubman helped bring us together as a nation and a people. She fought for a kind of unity that can only be earned through danger, risk, and sacrifice. And it is a unity we still benefit from to this day.”
The bridge between the “Black Moses” of African American history and the Moses of the Quran is quite clear. In both instances, the name and personage of Moses is used as a symbol for extraordinary courage and action in the face of oppression.
REFLECTIONS
“Let there be a group among you who call ‘others’ to goodness, encourage what is good, and forbid what is evil—it is they who will be successful” (3:104).
Even though she did not profess Islam as her religion, “Black Moses” stands out as an example of the good that Muslims can take from African American history. Against all odds, Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery; facilitated the escape of other enslaved people; and helped end the institution of
slavery through abolitionist activities and formally working for the Union Army. As a Union Army veteran, she received a federal pension and continued fighting for justice through her work in the women’s suffrage movement which was aimed at securing the right to vote for American women.
As a Muslim educator, I offer three reflections for Muslims on this extraordinary life:
Reflection #1 “Leadership in the fight against injustice is not gender bound.”
From Sumayyah bint Khayyat (‘radi-Allahu ‘anh), the very first Muslim martyr, to 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Muslim women have consistently demonstrated their ability to make a powerful, positive difference in confronting oppression from both outside and inside the Muslim community. Muslim men should remember this. Unfortunately, men often confuse modesty, a core value of Islam, with misogyny which the Quran teaches that God inherently dislikes. Therefore,
Reflection #3 “Deen, Discipline, and Direction are 3 things that made people like General Harriet Tubman successful.”
If you read one of the several biographies of “Black Moses” General Harriet Tubman, you will find that she was a person of deep faith who believed that her social justice activities were “guided by God” based on her “Deen” as she understood it. Further, the tremendous “Discipline” and tenacity that she demonstrated during her rescue of enslaved people and Union Army work are reminders to us about value of focused consistent hard work. Finally, as we face the various crises of the moment, we should never forget that our ultimate “Direction” is that fateful meeting with our Lord when we will have to account for whatever we have said and done.
In Black History Month and beyond, Muslims would do well if they emulate the words of “Black Moses” General Harriet Tubman when she reportedly said, “I am at peace with God and all mankind” (Harriet Tubman to Mary Talbert, on the occasion of their last visit, 1913 from Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life by Lowry, Beverly, 2007). ih
Jimmy E. Jones, D.Min., is a community chaplain and executive vice president of The Islamic Seminary of America (TISA).
The 13-cent Harriet Tubman stamp was issued on February 1, 1978.
Official $20 bill prototype.
MANA’s ITSFAAM Program Supports Muslim African American Families and Communities
Building and Sustaining Strong Structures
BY JOSHUA SALAAM
The African American Muslim community has a deep legacy of organizing and advocating for justice. From the resilience of enslaved Africans to the Civil Rights Movement, the African American Muslim community has been a cornerstone in the fight for freedom and equality. Today, however, systemic racism continues to create unique challenges for African Americans.
The Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) is dedicated to addressing these challenges. MANA, founded in 2005, was developed from conversations among various Muslim leaders in the United States including Siraj Wahhaj, imam of Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York, and others. The group started working in late 2005 when Wahhaj was leader of MANA. A collaboration of the Islamic communities of Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, Imam Jamil Amin, the community of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, and others, MANA held its first planning meeting and conference in 2006-07.
Through its Initiative to Strengthen Families of African American Muslims (ITSFAAM), launched in October 2023, MANA focuses on building and sustaining strong family and community structures. Guided by MANA’s five-step methodology, ITSFAAM prioritizes three key areas identified through community input: youth, young adults, and healthy marriages.
MANA’S
FIVE-STEP METHODOLOGY
MANA’s approach to addressing community needs is grounded in a five-step process to ensure meaningful, collaborative, and impactful solutions:
❶ Community Input
MANA begins by listening. Through surveys and partnerships with research institutions and community organizations, MANA collects demographic data and personal insights. ITSFAAM identified youth, young adults, and healthy marriages as top concerns via a national survey in collaboration with five Muslim organizations.
❷ Promotion and Engagement
Findings from the data are shared with the community and are
used to spark discussions and build collective momentum. MANA engages leaders, families, and other stakeholders to ensure everyone has a voice in shaping solutions.
❸ Action on Solutions
With input from the community, MANA mobilizes its network to act. For ITSFAAM, three specialized cohorts — Youth, Young Adults, and Healthy Marriages — were formed to be able to develop actionable strategies tailored to the community’s priorities.
❹ Assessment and Adjustment
Ongoing evaluation ensures that each initiative remains relevant and effective. ITSFAAM is continuously refined to meet the community’s evolving needs.
❺ Reporting and Re-engagement
MANA closes the cycle by sharing results with the community, creating opportunities to reconnect, and identifying new priorities.
ITSFAAM’S CORE FOCUS
❶ Youth
The survey revealed a pressing need to engage youth who feel disconnected from their communities. ITSFAAM’s youth cohort is developing a comprehensive template to help masjids and organizations establish youth groups. These groups have as their core remit the creation of community spaces where young Muslims can grow in their faith and find belonging.
❷ Young Adults
Navigating young adulthood is challenging, particularly in areas of identity, career, and social life. The young adult cohort is creating a national directory of resources tailored to African American
Members of the Youth Engagement cohort convened a strategic meeting in Atlanta in April 2024.
Muslim young adults, connecting them with mentors, opportunities, and community networks to help them grow and thrive.
❸
Healthy Marriages
Stable family life is critical for community strength. In response to concerns about marriage and family, the healthy marriage cohort is organizing a summit and developing a marriage manual for the African American Muslim community. These efforts will provide tailored guidance and tools to support healthy relationships and to build strong families, addressing a key need in the community.
participant in the marriage cohort praised the resources as transformative, while a youth organizer shared how ITSFAAM’s guidance has made community programs more effective and engaging.
CHALLENGES AND VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Like many grassroots initiatives, ITSFAAM faces challenges such as funding and maintaining long-term engagement. However, MANA remains steadfast in its commitment to the initiative’s two-year timeline, with the potential for extensions as needed. Future
ITSFAAM is already creating positive change. Community members are energized by the initiative’s focus, with testimonials highlighting the practical tools and emotional support it provides. One early participant in the marriage cohort praised the resources as transformative, while a youth organizer shared how ITSFAAM’s guidance has made community programs more effective and engaging.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE CHANGE
Collaboration is central to ITSFAAM’s success. MANA partners with experts, organizations, and individuals to amplify its impact. For example, the initial ITSFAAM survey was a collaborative effort with organizations like the Muslim Wellness Foundation and the Muslim Journal.
MANA is also exploring partnerships with groups such as The Community Impact Fund (TCIF), which supports youth mentorship in underserved areas like Los Angeles, Flint, and Detroit. These collaborations provide ITSFAAM with additional resources and connections to sustain its efforts.
IMPACT AND COMMUNITY RESPONSE
ITSFAAM is already creating positive change. Community members are energized by the initiative’s focus, with testimonials highlighting the practical tools and emotional support it provides. One early
projects may address other critical areas like financial literacy, religious education, and masjid management, ensuring MANA continues to adapt to the community’s needs well into the future.
ITSFAAM reflects MANA’s unwavering dedication to uplifting African American Muslim families and communities. Rooted in the prophetic teaching of unity and compassion, ITSFAAM embodies the mission of creating a broad alliance of Muslims committed to justice and support. By listening, engaging, and acting with purpose, MANA paves the way for a stronger future where African American Muslims can thrive and lead with resilience and faith.
MANA, as founding member of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USMCO), participated in the National Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill. ih
Joshua Salaam, PhD., is the Director and Chaplain at The Center for Muslim Life at Duke University. He is the president of the Muslim Alliance in North America.
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The Tragic Case of Imam Marcellus “Khalifah” Williams
A Reflection on Racial Injustice in the American Judicial System
BY SAFFET CATOVIC
On September 24, 2024, the State of Missouri committed an irreversible and grievous act: it executed Marcellus Williams, a black man who maintained his innocence until his last breath.
Imam Marcellus “Khalifah” Williams’ unjust execution starkly highlights the systemic racism and deep-seated biases that plague the American judicial system – issues rooted in a painful history of discrimination against African Americans. While the United States has made strides toward justice, this tragedy serves as a poignant reminder of the distance we still must cover in dismantling the legacy of racial inequality that persists in our society.
Despite compelling evidence suggesting his innocence, Williams – wrongfully convicted of a 1989 rape and murder – was denied clemency even as the prosecuting attorney and the victim’s family appealed for the execution to be halted. This heartbreaking outcome underscores a system that often prioritizes punishment over justice, silencing the voices that seek truth, healing and accountability.
DISPROPORTIONATE INCARCERATION RATES
Williams’ plight is not an isolated incident; it reflects a broader pattern of racial injustice in the United States. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white Americans. In 2021, black men made up approximately 33% of the male prison population, despite comprising only 6% of the U.S. population. This stark disparity reveals a system that disproportionately targets black individuals.
A study by the Prison Policy Initiative found that black Americans are more likely to be sentenced to prison than white Americans for similar offenses (“Black Disparities in Youth Incarceration,” Factsheet created by Josh Rovner, director of Youth Justice at The Sentencing Project. December 2023). For instance, black individuals receive sentences
that are, on average, 19.1% longer than those given to their white counterparts for the same crimes. This disparity is further exacerbated by racial profiling, which leads to higher arrest rates and, consequently, higher incarceration rates among black communities.
JUDICIAL MISCARRIAGES AND THE INNOCENCE PROJECT
The Innocence Project highlights another layer of injustice: wrongful convictions. According to their data, over 70% of the 375 DNA exonerations in the U.S. involved people of color. Racial bias in jury selection
and prosecutorial decisions significantly contribute to these miscarriages of justice. For example, a study by the Equal Justice Initiative found that Black defendants are more likely to be wrongfully convicted than white defendants, with the risk of wrongful conviction being 2.5 times higher for Black individuals (“Study Shows Race Is Substantial Factor in Wrongful Convictions”, Dec. 28, 2022).
This heartbreaking outcome underscores a system that often prioritizes punishment over justice, silencing the voices that seek truth, healing, and accountability.
In many cases, these wrongful convictions arise from faulty witness identifications, coerced confessions, and/or prosecutorial misconduct. The Innocence Project reports that mistaken eyewitness identification contributes to nearly 75% of wrongful convictions (“In Focus: Eyewitness Misidentification”, Oct. 21, 2008). Furthermore, the prevalence of implicit bias among jurors can result in unfair judgments against black defendants, leading to longer sentences and, in extreme cases, the death penalty as in the case of Imam Marcellus Williams.
In Williams’ case, the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office filed a 63-page motion to vacate his 2001 conviction for the killing of a journalist in her home. The prosecutor noted new DNA evidence that exonerated Williams along with growing doubts about the credibility of key witnesses heaped upon violations of Williams’ constitutional rights during his trial. Among these were ineffective counsel provided to
Williams and racially discriminatory jury selection all of which prompted the reviewing attorney to request the circuit court to “correct this manifest injustice” (“St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Concedes Constitutional Errors in Marcellus Williams’ Conviction and Death Sentence, Urges the Court to Vacate His Conviction”, Sept. 6, 2024, Death Penalty Information Center; Jordan Smith, “His Best Chance to Get Off Death Row Was DNA on the Murder Weapon, But Prosecutors “Contaminated” The Evidence,” The Intercept, Aug. 31, 2024).
THE DEATH PENALTY AND RACIAL DISPARITIES
Williams’s execution exemplifies the racial inequities present in the judicial system. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, black defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants. In fact, a 2019 study found that Black individuals made up 41% of those on death row, despite representing only 13% of the U.S. population. Moreover, cases involving white victims are more likely to result in a death sentence for black defendants, highlighting a racial bias that permeates capital punishment (“Racial Disparities Persisted in U.S. Death Sentences and Executions in 2019”, Death Penalty Information Center, Jan 21, 2020).
Imam Williams’ execution is a tragic example of how this bias can manifest. His trial, along with mountains of statistical evidence cataloguing judicial discrimination in the U.S., indicates a deeply flawed process that often prioritizes racial bias over justice. His unjust death at the hands of the State of Missouri raises important questions about the integrity of a system that allows such stark disparities to continue.
THE ROLE OF SYSTEMIC RACISM
The injustices faced by individuals like Williams stem from a complex web of systemic racism, which manifests through structural and institutional biases. Racism is not merely an individual prejudice but a pervasive system that impacts policies, practices, and social norms. As Ruth King explains in Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out, racism is a societal “heart disease” that can only be addressed through awareness and education (published by Sounds True, 2018).
Culturally enforced norms rooted in the past of wrongful enslavement of Africans
continue to fuel structural and institutional racism today. For instance, racial profiling and discriminatory policing practices contribute to the over-policing of black communities. A 2020 American Civil Liberties Union report states that black individuals are three times more likely to be stopped by police than white individuals despite similar rates of drug use and other criminal activity across racial groups.
Another example of these systemic and systematic racial injustices is that of Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown), a prominent Muslim American leader and civil rights activist. He gained recognition in the 1960s as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and later as chairman of the Black Panther Party. In 2002, Imam Jamil was convicted of murdering a sheriff’s deputy in Atlanta, Georgia, a crime he has consistently denied committing.
His case further underscores systemic racism and failures within the criminal justice system. Many observers argue that his conviction was influenced by racial bias, including the context of his activism and the prejudiced perceptions of black leaders at the time. According to a report from the Center for Constitutional Rights, Imam Jamil’s trial was also marked by significant irregularities, including inadequate legal representation and questionable witness testimonies.
Moreover, the prosecution’s reliance on racial stereotypes and the media’s portrayal of him as a violent radical contributed to a biased narrative that overshadowed the evidence. The racial dynamics at play in his case exemplify how the justice system can disproportionately affect African Americans, particularly those with a history of activism. This highlights a broader pattern of injustice, where race and social standing significantly influence legal outcomes (for more info on Imam Jamil https://imamjamilactionnetwork.org/).
BUILDING SOLIDARITY IN THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
As an organization dedicated to supporting African American Muslims, Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA, https:// manajustice.org/) recognizes that the Muslim community is intertwined with this struggle. They must come together to address these injustices and advocate for reform within the judicial system. The fight for justice is
not solely the responsibility of marginalized communities; it requires solidarity from all who seek equity and fairness.
In the wake of tragedies like Williams’ execution, we are reminded of the ongoing work needed to combat systemic racism, judicial inequities, and social injustices. All people must continue to raise awareness, educate themselves and others, and stand in solidarity with those affected by these injustices.
Williams’ case serves as a painful reminder of the systemic injustices that persist in the American judicial system. As one reflects on his life and the injustices he faced, one must remain resolute in their vision for an America where justice, equality, and compassion reign. The statistics surrounding racial disparities in incarceration, wrongful convictions, and the death penalty underscore the urgent need for reform.
Believers are commanded in the Quran, “O you who believe, be upright for God, and be bearers of witness with justice!” (5:8), They are further commented, “O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both” (4:135).
In the spirit of justice, let all people unite against these injustices, hold accountable those who perpetuate them, and work toward a judicial system that serves all individuals fairly. Together, all people can strive for an America that embodies the principles of fairness, compassion, and the unwavering protection of innocent lives. ih
Imam Saffet Catovic is director of UN Operations for Justice For All (www.justiceforall.org) and board member of Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA)
Addressing Hispanophobia and Embracing Our Latino Neighbors
Latino Muslims are The Fastest Growing Group of Muslims in the United States, Making Up 8% of the Muslim American Landscape
BY WENDY DÍAZ
In the September 10, 2024 U.S. presidential debate, both the Democratic and Republican nominees took turns taking shots at one another during primetime. One of the more outrageous claims made during the debate came from Republican nominee and former president, Donald Trump, who alleged that Haitian immigrants in towns like Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs. This outlandish claim went viral, resulting in internet memes, reels, and even catchy musical parodies. But this false assertion was not the first time that Latin America immigrants became the subject of contentious debate. In his first foray into presidential candidacy, Trump, speaking at Trump Tower in Manhattan on June 16, 2015, claimed, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best ... They’re sending people with a lot of problems … They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.” Such inflammatory and hateful rhetoric fuels Hispanophobia, an irrational fear, hatred, or bias against people of Hispanic or Latino origins.
Among Muslim Americans, the ummah is diverse; various ethnic groups coexist under the banner of Islam. However, just because Islam emphasizes equality does not mean that prejudice is nonexistent amongst Muslims. In a society where leading politicians fan the flames of bigotry, it is common to see the same type of prejudice manifested in religious spaces. For Latino Muslims, these prejudices can take various forms, from microaggressions to the lack of inclusion of Latinos in leadership or decision-making roles within Islamic institutions.
Prejudices often come from a lack of understanding or exposure and Muslims from immigrant backgrounds may be less familiar with Latin Americans compared with other American communities. Stereotypes about Latino Muslims often contribute to a limited perception of their role within the community,
At the booth at the 22nd Annual Hispanic Muslim Day at North Hudson Islamic Education Center (NHIEC) held on October 13, 2024
including assumptions about their level of religiosity, education, and/or their socioeconomic status. Likewise, the broader American Muslim community may experience separation from their Latino neighbors due to competition for communal resources, differences in historical struggles, and/or misunderstandings stemming from linguistic barriers.
The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU)’s American Muslim Poll 2019 survey showed that Latino Muslims are the fastest-growing group of Muslims, making up 8% of the Muslim American landscape (Proctor, Andrew, Flores, Alex, and Mogahed, Dalia. Latino Attitudes Toward American Muslims and Islam: Key Findings.
ISPU, 2023). Yet despite the growing number of Latino Muslims, discrimination and lack of awareness about the Islamic influence on Latin America persists. Many Latino Muslims find themselves having to navigate a space where they are either assumed to be newcomers to the faith or perceived as less authoritative on Islamic matters because of their cultural background. This erasure of the Latino Muslim identity reinforces the idea
American history, particularly through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which brought enslaved Africans, including many Muslims, to the Americas. This African Muslim influence, deliberately erased by colonial powers, left its mark on cultural and spiritual practices throughout the Americas. Additionally, waves of South Asian and Middle Eastern immigration to Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced
It is no surprise that cities with the largest Muslim populations also have the highest numbers of Latino Muslim converts. Active community outreach, dawah efforts, and resources like Spanish language Quran translations have helped bridge the gap for those interested in learning about Islam.
that Islamic knowledge and leadership are reserved for certain ethnic groups, a misconception that runs counter to the universal message of Islam. Additionally, language barriers can exacerbate these feelings of exclusion when resources are unavailable in Spanish, leaving Latino Muslims feeling discouraged and disconnected.
To combat Hispanophobia, Muslims everywhere should be reminder of Islam’s teachings on racial equality. In the Prophet Muhammad’s final sermon (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) he declared that no Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab and vice versa, demonstrating that racial and ethnic biases are alien to Islam. To continue to resist Hispanophobia, this message must be regularly reinforced, not only during the Friday sermon, but through everyday interactions.
MORE IN COMMON THAN WE THINK: ISLAM’S HISTORICAL TIES TO LATIN AMERICA
The historical presence of Muslims in places like the Iberian Peninsula (where Muslims ruled from 711 to 1492) profoundly influenced art, architecture, language, and culture throughout Latin America. But connections between Islam and Latin America go beyond the Iberian Peninsula. North and West Africa also played significant roles in shaping Latin
additional Islamic influences, as migrants from countries like India, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine became integral parts of Latin American society. These migrations continue to this day, contributing to the presence of millions of Muslims in Latin America. Currently, Latino Muslim organizations are serving their communities in Islamic centers, as Latino imams, and as Muslims activists, contributing positively to the American Muslim community. These contributions must be acknowledged and celebrated as they provide models of leadership, activism, and scholarship that enrich the broader Muslim American discourse while also combating Hispanophobia throughout the country. By educating Muslim Americans on these shared historical and cultural links, we can foster a greater sense of connection between Latino Muslims and the rest of the ummah.
GROWING VISIBILITY
Every year, there are Latino Muslim events in New York, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, and beyond, reflecting the Latino Muslim community’s vibrant growth across the U.S. These events range from cultural celebrations to conferences and educational seminars, providing spaces for Latino Muslims to connect, learn, and contribute to
the ummah. In parallel, new organizations continue to emerge and to serve their communities through social work, dawah, education, and publishing. Organizations such as the Latina Muslim Foundation in San Diego, Ojalá Foundation in Chicago, the Latin American Institute of Muslim Women (ILMM) in Atlanta, and IslaminSpanish in Houston are examples of Latino-led initiatives dedicated to outreach, community development, and educational programs.
Additionally, Islamic educational institutions in the U.S. such as Zaytuna College, Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Qalam Institute, and Mishkah University have seen an increase in Latino representation among their student bodies. Students attending these institutions are actively engaging with Islamic scholarship gaining the knowledge and skills needed to contribute meaningfully to their communities. Upon completion of their studies, these students, will have mastered Arabic and become familiar with sacred Islamic texts. They can then return to their communities to teach and provide guidance grounded in both Islamic tradition and a Latino cultural understanding.
ALLIES AND FRIENDS
Latinos and Muslims often live side by side in cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and San Diego.
Naturally, this proximity leads to interactions and shared experiences through positive curiosity and productive dialogue. As a result, many Latinos in the United States can explore Islam through their relationships with Muslim neighbors, friends, classmates, and co-workers. In these environments, exposure to Islamic practices and values becomes a catalyst for Latinos to explore the faith more deeply.
It is no surprise, therefore, that cities with the largest Muslim populations also have the highest numbers of Latino Muslim converts. Active community outreach, dawah efforts, and resources like Spanish language Quran translations have helped bridge the gap for those interested in learning about Islam. Organizations like IslamInSpanish in Houston provide vital support for Latino converts, making the transition smoother by offering culturally relevant guidance. This growing connection between Muslims and Latinos, particularly in cities with large Muslim communities, is driving a notable rise in Latino Muslim conversions.
The ISPU report, “Latino Attitudes Toward American Muslims and Islam,” revealed a nuanced view that can serve as a foundation for fostering understanding and collaboration between Latino and Muslim communities (https://ispu.org/latino-views/). It indicates that Latinos generally exhibit lower levels of Islamophobia compared to other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Participants in the study frequently identified commonalities between their immigrant experiences and those of
American Muslims including aspirations for liberty, a desire for financial stability, and a better life for future generations. Moreover, the report highlights the importance of personal interactions in shaping positive attitudes and identifies many Latinos reporting meaningful relationships with Muslim Americans.
The report goes on to suggest that educational initiatives providing foundational knowledge about Islam can significantly alter perceptions. For example, when participants were exposed to information about the pillars of Islam and the experiences of Muslim women, they were more likely to view Islam as a faith with similarities to their own beliefs. By amplifying Latino voices and experiences in mosque activities and leadership, Islamic communities can cultivate a more inclusive atmosphere that honors diversity and promotes unity.
SUGGESTED WAYS TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Building fruitful relationships with the Latin American community, starts with creating spaces for open dialogue and meaningful interactions. Mosques and Islamic organizations can play a pivotal role in this process by hosting cultural exchanges, offering Spanish language resources, and engaging in outreach specifically tailored to Latino communities. Inviting Latino Muslim speakers and subject-matter experts to Islamic conferences, educational events, and community gatherings also ensures that the voices and contributions
of Latino Muslims are amplified and celebrated. Additionally, sponsoring Latino Muslim students and volunteers to pursue Islamic education, locally, or abroad helps empower the next generation of leaders, scholars, and community advocates. These efforts can combat the isolation that Latino Muslims may feel and build solidarity with non-Muslims who may harbor misconceptions about Islam. By focusing on shared values, Muslims can build bridges that dismantle prejudice and highlight the diversity that strengthens the ummah.
Addressing Hispanophobia within the Muslim community requires intentional efforts to reflect on our own biases and to take active steps to uplift Latino Muslims. When we create communities that honor the diversity of the ummah and actively work to erase prejudices, we can not only better represent Islam’s values but also build more inclusive, empowered, and united Muslim communities. The findings from the ISPU research emphasize this potential for collaboration and cooperation. By recognizing shared experiences and fostering open dialogue, we can combat not only Hispanophobia and build a more cohesive and resilient community where all individuals, regardless of their background, can thrive together in mutual respect and understanding. ih
Wendy Díaz, a Puerto Rican Muslim writer, poet, translator, and children’s book author, is the Spanish content coordinator for ICNAWhyIslam. She is also the co-founder of Hablamos Islam, a nonprofit organization that produces educational resources about Islam in the Spanish language.
AI and Islam
What Muslim Americans Should Know
BY MAARIYA QUADRI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the newest technology taking the world by storm, in classrooms, offices, and even our homes. As with any societal change, some people are apprehensive of it and while there are some cons to the rise of artificial intelligence usage, this technology can impact society beneficially as well.
For instance, when you look something up on Google, you leave a carbon footprint because each search requires electricity. The same is true when inputting a question into a generative AI platform like ChatGPT. However, emissions from an AI search are much greater due to its more complex functions.
A search engine simply shows you all the websites that relate to your question, making you search for the answer yourself. A generative AI platform takes all the information that exists about your prompt and generates a new product entirely, giving you a more direct response.
For example, when someone types the word “Kaaba” into a search engine, the results show websites that provide more information on what the holy site is, as well as photographs taken over the years. Generative AI, however, takes all the images that already exist of the Kaaba and creates a completely new one based on what it has seen.
This requires much more energy. According to the International Energy Agency, generative AI sites such as ChatGPT use about 10 times the amount of electricity than a Google search (“Will A.I. Ruin the Planet or Save the Planet?” The New York Times, Aug. 26, 2024).
Before this AI boom, fossil fuel plants were on the route to closing, cleaning our air and benefiting our environment. Now, big tech companies like Google and Microsoft are ensuring that these large coal plants keep running in order to accommodate their AI systems. However, they continue to make grand promises about the clean future their AI will bring while neglecting to mention the usage of heavily polluting fossil fuel plants required to operate this new technology. These limitations say nothing of the time it will take to get to that improbable future (“Project Green Light’s work to reduce urban emissions using AI,” Oct. 10, 2023, Yossi Matias, VP, Engineering and Research, Google Research).
In short, society is moving forward at least in part because of this new technology, but at a great ecological cost. Yet as Muslims, we should make an effort to take care of the planet Allah has provided as the
Quran tells us: “It is He Who has produced you from the Earth and settled you therein” (Quran 71:17-18).
MUSLIMS AND AI
Some Muslim AI users utilize this new technology to seek answers to questions of fiqh (Islamic law). Some scholars strongly advised against getting fatwas, or specified rulings, from such platforms.
Some Muslims are cautious of this innovative technology when it comes to learning about their own religion. To raise awareness on the topic, the DarusSalam Seminary in Chicago held a weekend retreat in May that included experts in both Islamic sciences and technology to discuss the implications of artificial intelligence (“Making an Impact: Muslim Entrepreneurship Today | Islam & AI”).
One of the big takeaways from this retreat was that AI, while functional, does not work in every situation. For example, when one has a general question, a simple Google search is enough. When it comes to matters of Islam, though, it is hard to get a clear answer from Google as it has a multitude of results which may or may not be factual or helpful.
AI, on the other hand, scans the internet for the user and generates a more direct and instantaneous response. As a result, some Muslim AI users have utilized this new technology to seek answers to questions of fiqh (Islamic law). And yet many Islamic scholars
have strongly advised against getting fatwas, or specified rulings, from such platforms.
Mufti Abrar Mirza, the Head Mufti of Darul Ifta in Chicago, encouraged Muslims to turn to human scholars, rather than AI platforms, even if getting the answer takes longer.
“A mufti is not just sharing his own opinion,” he said. “He has extensively studied both academic and spiritual sciences.”
On the contrary, according to Mufti Wahaajuddin Mohammed of the Tawheed Center of Farmington Hills, AI is not something to be feared. “AI is a tool and can be used responsibly or irresponsibly. But it doesn’t behoove us to turn away from it,” he said.
Waleed Kadous, PhD, chief scientist of California-based AI developer Anyscale, said the benefits of AI outweigh the harm. He cited the hesitation when calculators and cars were introduced as examples of previous new technologies that are now cornerstones of our society. “There is always a fear of a loss of skill with the arrival of new technologies,” he said.
Mawlana Tahseen Khan, who, while working full-time as a chemical engineer, is pursuing advanced studies in Islamic theology, said it is up to Muslims to be more proactive
in learning matters of the deen. “The challenges of today are only going to increase,” he said. “We must ensure we’re equipped to face the fitnah (trials). If you’re connected to the masjid, the ulama, Quran and sunnah, you’ll get through the storm.”
Khan reminded attendees of the verse of the Quran: “Or have they associated with Allah partners who ‘supposedly’ produced a creation like His, leaving them confused between the two creations? Say, ‘Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Supreme’” (13:16).
Khan explained God is the only being who can create without any prior material. “No matter how intelligent humans are, no matter how quick the processing of a computer may end up being, the fact of the matter is this creation is not similar to Al-Khaliq, The Creator,” he said.
AI CAN STILL BE ADVANTAGEOUS TO MUSLIMS
While Muslims should be cautious about using AI to better understand the deen, they shouldn’t completely dismiss its usefulness. The Tarteel app, for example, uses AI to assist users in memorizing the Quran. It listens to users as they recite the Quran and uses artificial intelligence to alert them when they make a mistake in real time and offers corrections.
This is a wonderful example of utilizing new technologies to continue to preserve the traditions of our past. This app uses artificial intelligence to preserve the sacred chain of knowledge and hifz all the way back to Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) in a more accessible way.
Artificial intelligence can also be used for questions about Umrah and Hajj, like Saudi Arabia’s Guidance Robot. There are also virtual reality simulators that can be especially beneficial for people who are unable to visit these holy sites in person. In both these endeavors, AI is helping Muslims become closer to their Lord instead of taking them away.
During a khutbah about AI and ChatGPT at the Yaqeen Institute in Texas, founder Shaikh Omar Suleiman encouraged the Muslim community to have hope in God and to find joy and reward in doing everything for His sake and the benefit of mankind, even if it is a little less convenient than becoming completely dependent on new technologies. With continued beneficial efforts and intentions, AI has the potential to assist the Muslim community. ih
Maariya Quadri, an avid reader and nature lover, lives in Illinois with her family. A pre-law student pursuing communications and technology, she volunteers as a community relations commissioner for her village and works as a youth mentor.
Green Mosques and an Eco-friendly Environment
A Rroad Map for An Eco-friendly New Mosque that Blends Green Energy with Islamic Values
BY UZMA MIRZA
Green buildings are designed and built with a more thoughtful, inclusive, holistic, and systems-based approach that take long-term environmental and human impacts into consideration and offer a solution. They have been shown to reduce energy use by up to 50%; reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 33%; reduce solid waste by up to 70%; and reduce water use by 40%. They also lower maintenance costs by over 10% and can significantly increase the occupant’s satisfaction with occupant, economic, and environmental benefits of the building (https://gba.org/resources/ green-building-basics/)
DESIGNING A GREEN MOSQUE
The greenest mosque is one that is retrofitted, or is an existing building renovated into a mosque. This strategy minimizes the embodied energy of its material use, and helps maximize its inhabitants’ comfort and well-being while minimizing energy consumed.
Broadly speaking there are four climate regions in the U.S.: cool, temperate, hotarid, and hot-humid. Understanding climate zones helps determine energy-saving passive design strategies, which vary by region. The following is a brief guide to of what will necessarily be a complex strategy , depending on the climatic region.
➤ Orientation. This means to position a building in relation to the Sun’s path during winter and summer based on the climate zone to optimize heat gain. It should be oriented east/west to improve control of heat gain and shade. A south-facing façade factors heavily in passive designs, especially in cool regions. Having orientation options for a building allows one to reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 80%.
➤ Site/ Landscape features to advantage. A passive solar design considers summer/
winter comfort and careful positional location of the structure based on the building’s climate region and shade requirements. Shading and evapotranspiration from trees, shrubs, and ground cover lower surrounding temperatures up 6°F and reduces the asphalt paving and heat island effects. Use landscape windbreaks (i.e., deciduous trees for shading, and evergreens for protection against the wind). Xeriscaping for water conservation and landscaping is good in arid regions.
➤ Energy Efficient Building Envelope. The building’s exterior walls and roof are important in passive design. Depending on the climatic region, use good insulative thermal ratings for exterior walls and to enhance air quality. Use cool roofs or green roofs that feature reflective materials as a light colored, or a garden roof. Manage stormwater runoff from the roof. Vent pitched roofs to avoid heat loss. Install vapor barriers correctly. Use a modular building design.
➤ Wind. Design the building first to naturally ventilate. Wind generally moves at 10-15 mph, thereby creating positive and negative pressures on a building that impacts
air leakage in and out. Use the “Chimney Effect,” which is an internal wind. Hot air rises and cold falls due to the differences in atmospheric pressure. This effect can be used to create a naturally comfortable temperature within the mosque by taking advantage of the movement of air from the top to the bottom of the building due to temperature variances.
MATERIALS AND BEST, GREEN PRACTICES
High-efficiency windows are those that are properly installed and air-sealed, thereby creating a good thermal performance. Typically, double-glazed or triple-glazed windows with insulating glass composed of air, argon, or krypton gas between panes and a low-E coating are considered high-efficiency. By preventing radiant heat from crossing the window plane, they improve window performance and minimize a building’s energy consumption.
Interior materials should be selected with an eye towards low emissions to include low-volatile organic compounds (VOCs),
which eliminate material off-gassing and thus result in healthier indoor air. The interior materials’ recycled content and end-oflife recyclability should also be considered in order to reduce future waste to landfills as well as lower the extraction of virgin natural resources for mosque construction — also called the embodied energy of a product. Using sustainable building materials like bamboo, recycled steel, and low-VOC paints is therefore an essential component in green
Green power refers to environmentally preferable energy and technologies garnered from renewable sources, such as solar, wind, and geothermal, and hydropower. Biomass, or organic plant and waste materials can also be applied to energy consumption in lieu of coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear energy. Replacing each kilowatt hour (kWh) of traditional power with renewable power eliminates more than one pound of emitted carbon dioxide (EPA).
Green power refers to environmentally preferable energy and technologies garnered from renewable sources, such as solar, wind, and geothermal, and hydropower. Biomass, or organic plant and waste materials can also be applied to energy consumption in lieu of coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear energy.
mosque construction and should be a priority for all new builds as well as retrofit projects.
Harvested rainwater and site runoff from roofs and other horizontal surfaces can be reused on the property itself. This recycled water can replace grey or black toilet water if permitted by the local jurisdiction. The construction and implementation of systems to collect and reuse rainwater for ablution or irrigation is, therefore, crucial for greening Islamic centers.
These practices can be integrated with purchased energy from fossil fuels, or electricity and natural gas, to keep buildings comfortable. This purchased energy can then be applied to such mechanical system components as air-conditioning, heat pumps, radiant heating, heat recovery ventilators, electric lighting/LED, and Energy Star rated appliances.
Integrating energy systems generated from renewable energy sources, such as solar power systems, wind turbines, biomass energy, hydropower, or geothermal sources is an integration strategy that will maximize green energy usage in mosques for the foreseeable future, “[c]onventional electricity generation is a significant source of emissions and the single largest source of U.S. air pollution. Green Power generates less.” (EPA).]
GREEN-E-ENERGY AND CARBON OFFSETS
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) certify energy products as green in a competitive electricity market. These tradable instruments, used to meet renewable energy targets and comply with energy policies, can be purchased directly through a green electricity supplier or via local or state government vendors. An REC certificate represents the generation of one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity from an eligible renewable energy source (Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) | US EPA). Onsite green power systems can be installed directly on site or purchased outright or via a third party Each method leads to green energy generation or green energy credit via the accumulation of RECs.
Carbon offset practices help organizations lower their emissions by storing carbon to reduce GHC and a different instrument than a RECs., i.e. land/forest restoration used to store GHC in trees/soil, and trees stabilize soils, afforestation increases biodiversity. Designing a green mosque should apply a good mix of both passive and active strategies, and should take into account the most appropriate renewable energy sources based upon the climate and government policies of the mosque’s specific community. This
In the 2024 ISNA Convention, Green Ramadan 2024 Awards went to First Prize: Islamic Center of Evansville, Ind., ($500); Second Prize: Roswell Community Masjid. Roswell, Ga. ($300); and Third prize: Masjid Al-Quran, Milwaukee, Wisc. ($300)
mixed approach should also include the purchase of green energy certificates and carbon offsets to reach the goal of building a zero-energy mosque.
Finally, it is highly recommend that community leaders contract professional consultants at every stage of this process.
Therefore, a green mosque is one that uses as little energy as possible, by first minimizing embodied energy of the building’s materials, and minimizing energy use with passive design and on-site power generation. Then renewable technologies and active design can be applied to generate power for internal use in addition to power pulled from the grid.
Next, carbon emissions can be minimized by using outside renewable sources to reach a net-zero building via green power as RECs and offsets. Hence, we need to move towards net-zero buildings, remaking the local mosque into a “building that has low embodied energy, energy efficient, does not emit greenhouse gases and powered solely by clean energy” (“National Definition of a Zero Emissions Building”, DOE, June 6, 2024).
HONORING GOD
Building green mosques reflects the community’s gratitude to God for the gifts He has temporarily blessed humanity with as part of His mercy. The environment in which we live and which we call home is an intrinsic part of these gifts. Thus, we must regain control of our nafs [self] and remember to balance our carbon and ecological footprint when designing our mosques in order to instill green values in our spiritual centers. In so doing, we would be participating in a revival of the Prophet’s (salla Allah ‘alayhi wa sallam) sunnah. ih
[Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this article was published in Islamic Horizons Nov.Dec. 2024 issue under the title “Green Mosques and an Eco-friendly Environment.”]
Uzma Mirza a registered/licensed architect and is LEED AP BD+C certified member of the ICC and AIA, andthe ISNA Green Initiative Team. That team includes Huda Alkaff, Saffet Catovic, Nana Firman, Uzma Mirza, and S. Masroor Shah (chair).
The Dangerous Path of Islamophobia In India
A conversation with Dr. Audrey Truschke
BY MISBAHUDDIN MIRZA
Audrey Truschke, professor of South Asian History at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, talked to Islamic Horizons about her work, and about the danger that Hindutva — rampant Hindu nationalism — poses for Muslim Indians, and the future of India’s democracy.
She is author of three acclaimed books: Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court (2016), Aurangzeb (2016), and The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule (2021). Her fourth book, India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent, is forthcoming in June 2025 and was written with the support of a NEH [National Endowment for the Humanities] Public Scholars grant.
In 2017, she was conferred with the John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History by the American Historical Association for her book, Culture of Encounters which was considered as the “most distinguished work of scholarship on South Asian history”. She received the Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence in 2020.
Truschke (BA, Religious Studies from the University of Chicago ‘04, MA from Columbia University ‘07, MPhil ‘08, both in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, PhD from Columbia University ’12) was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Cambridge from 2012 to 2013, and at Stanford University from 2013 to 2016.
In addition to her erudite writings on South Asian history, she has been assiduously vocal in opposing the Islamophobia being spread in India, and in the U.S., and Canada, by right wing Hindu organizations. She has written and spoken against Hindutva,
the fascist ideology of Hindu nationalism, offering comments at a protest against Indian Prime Minister Modi during his U.S. visit in 2019. For this courageous stand,
she has paid and continues to pay a hefty price — from a torrent of abusive emails, tweets, and death threats, to an unsuccessful lawsuit. Armed guards are needed at some of her events. The October 22, 2022’s Huffington Post article “Far-Right Hindu Nationalism Is Gaining Ground in The U.S.” details the difficulties she has faced in this righteous journey.
In the recent groundbreaking book Global Islamophobia and the Rise of Populism, edited by Sahar F. Aziz, and John L. Esposito (Oxford University Press, 2024), Truschke has authored a chapter “Displacing and Disciplinining Muslims in India’s Burgeoning Hindu Rashtra.”
Dr. Audrey Truschke
India’s Hindutva frenzy will not last forever, but it may well do extensive damage to Indian religious minorities before it falls apart. I am not sure what lies ahead for Indian citizens, but there is no path towards inclusion, diversity, and peace so long as Hindu nationalists rule.
In your chapter,“Displacing and Disciplinining Muslims in India’s Burgeoning Hindu Rashtra,” you identify Hindutva proponents as a major source of Islamophobia in India. Could you please speak about this?
From its inception about a century ago, Hindutva ideology has demonized Muslims. In fact, Islamophobia is one of the core defining features of Hindu nationalism. In the article, I discuss this briefly as seen in the writings of V.D. Savarkar, the godfather of Hindutva ideology who was fiercely pro-violence and anti-Muslim. I then explore the real-world consequences of Hindutva’s version of Islamophobia through the case studies of Kashmir, the CAA (The Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 that provides a fast track to Indian citizenship for certain religious minorities from neighboring countries), and the 2020 Delhi riots.
Could we draw any parallels between Savarkar and the Loyalists/Tories/Kings Men of the American Revolution?
Certainly it is fair to draw parallels between Hindu nationalists and other far-right movements. That said, I think the specific parallels you suggest here are a tad misguided. Perhaps it helps to state explicitly that Savarkar was not pro-British. Rather, after his articulation of Hindutva ideology, he did not see British colonialists as the primary enemy of Indians (instead, projecting Muslims into that role). The RSS largely sat-out the Indian independence movement as a result, a point of history that occassionally proves embarassing for them today.
Could you speak on the three issues
you discuss at length in “Displacing and Disciplinining Muslims in India’s Burgeoning Hindu Rashtra.”
The article centers three case studies: Indian state policy changes in Kashmir in 2019, the passage of the CAA and protests against it 2019-20, and the 2020 Delhi riots. These three events all occurred within a year of one another. I show how Muslims are oppressed and targeted in each example. The Hindutva goal of targeting Muslims is singular, but their methods are many.
Could you also touch on the topics of “Love Jihad,” Cow Vigilante killings, revision of history textbooks in India, and the ongoing Gyanvapi controversy.
These are all additional examples of Islamophobia-in-action in India under BJP rule. Each case has its own specifics, but the goal is to declare Muslims and everything associated with them not Indian. The negative consequences for Indian historical preservation and Indian Muslim communities are horrific and ongoing.
Muslims constitute 14.61% of India’s population, but they have a low share of government jobs. For example, Muslims make up only 3% of the IAS (Indian Administative Sevices – the elite admistrative group), 1.8% of the IFS (Indian Foreign Service), and 4% of the IPS (Indian Police Service). For low paying jobs, the share of Muslims working as regular wage employees has declined more than the majority Hindu population in the last five years. In 2018-19, some 22.1% of Muslims worked as wage employees, but by 2022-23, that number had fallen to 15.3%. Steps like this keep Muslims in a perpetual cycle of poverty and misery. Is this reflective of the malaise in current Indian society?
Certainly, those numbers seem to suggest a problematic state of affairs. That said, there is not a single malaise in current Indian society, in my view. Rather, India is suffering from a variety of issues, including hunger, child malnutrition, poor governance, corruption, problematic environmental policies, limited economic opportunities, and human-driven climate change. Pervading all of those issues and more, Hindutva hate and intolerance—especially of Muslims— continues to grow and to hamper Indian society overall.
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton (founding president and chairman of Genocide Watch), who predicted the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda [April 7 to July July 1994], said during the January 2022 U.S. congressional briefing, said that
there were early “signs and processes” of genocide in the Indian state of Assam and Indianoccupied Kashmir. What can and should be done to avoid a genocide in India?
India’s Hindutva frenzy will not last forever, but it may well do extensive damage to Indian religious minorities before it falls apart. I am not sure what lies ahead for Indian citizens, but there is no path towards inclusion, diversity, and peace so long as Hindu nationalists rule.
In the conclusion of “Displacing and Disciplinining Muslims in India’s Burgeoning Hindu Rashtra,” you suggest ways to combat Hindutva and Islamophobia. If you could please expound on this.
At the end of the article, I suggest that one way forward is to document what has happened in India, what is happening now,
and to refuse to be silent about oppression and atrocities. I understand that these suggestions mean different things for different people. Umar Khalid — an Indian activist and researcher – has been imprisoned since 2020 by India for his identity and activism. In contrast, I am neither an Indian citizen nor resident, which curtails the ability of the BJP to silence me. I take inspiration from those like Khalid who have paid a heavy price for doing the right thing to contribute, in my own small way, to the fight against Hindutva hate. ih
Misbahuddin Mirza, M.S., P.E., is a licensed professional engineer, registered in the States of New York and New Jersey. He served as the Regional Quality Control Engineer for the New York State Department of Transportation’s New York City Region. He is the author of the iBook “Illustrated Muslim Travel Guide to Jerusalem.” He has written for major U.S. and Indian publications.
Illustration explaining the workings of the highly discriminatory NRC and CAA acts that are designed to single out Muslims for punishment.
Breaking the Silence: Understanding Muslim Mental Health
Lessons from Baltimore, Md., Community Survey
BY MOHAMMED YOUNUS, SAAD AHMAD KHAN, AND ATTAULLA KHAN
Islam, as a community-based religion, specifically emphasizes selfcare and community support. Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) spoke about the value of kindness to oneself and others, emphasizing compassion and the importance of seeking help when in need. Islamic principles encourage addressing mental health issues with the same seriousness as physical health, emphasizing that seeking medical or psychological assistance is not a sign of weakness. This underscores the crucial role of the community in supporting individuals facing mental health challenges.
Abu Huraira (radi Allahu ‘anh) reported that the Prophet said, “The strong believer is better and more beloved to God than the weak believer, while there is good in both. Strive for that which will benefit you, seek the help of God, and do not feel helpless” (Sahih Muslim 2664; Book 46, Hadith 52). This hadith encourages Muslims to be proactive in seeking solutions to their problems, and to rely on God’s help while also acting. Such problems would include but would not be limited to mental health challenges. Muslims of medieval times strove to advance sciences and medicine. Ibn Sina (d.1037 CE), credited as the founder of modern medicine, codified symptoms and treatments of various diseases in his famous Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn fī l-tibb; pub.1025 CE). As a result of his efforts, Muslims of that period not only understood diseases of the body but also had a keen understanding of diseases of the mind. Ibn Sina’s work included psychiatric disorders such as dementia, depression, mania, and melancholia. In fact, Muslims in medieval Baghdad had hospitals with some of the first in-patient mental health treatment facilities in the world (S. Sadik, AM Al-Jadiry, “Mental health services in Iraq: past, present and future.” Int Psychiatry. 2006 Oct 1;3(4):1113). Claiming such a rich legacy, one may ask
the question, what are the attitudes of contemporary Muslims towards mental health today? Have Muslims kept pace in modern times, matching our predecessors’ tempo?
Mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, and stress affect millions of people worldwide, and Muslims in the United States are no exception (H. Gibson, N. Carroll, J. E. Clague, & R.H. Edwards (1993). “Exercise performance and fatiguability in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome”, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 56(9), 993–998). However, there is limited research specifically focusing on the mental health of Muslims in the United States. “Among Muslim American adults who were born abroad, more come from South Asia (35%) than any other region. An additional 23% were born in different parts of the Asia Pacific region (such as Iran, Indonesia, etc.); 25% came from the Middle East-North Africa region, 9% came from sub-Saharan Africa, 4% were born in Europe and 4% come from elsewhere in the Americas” (PEW Research Center. “Demographic Portrait of Muslim
Americans.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, 26 July 2017). Mental health issues in Muslim communities can vary based on social and cultural factors. Countries of origin have a particularly significant impact. Despite these cultural differences, the Muslim communities can unite over some standard social features and several shared life experiences.
To better understand these issues, we wanted to study Muslim attitudes towards mental health in the U.S. We surveyed our local Baltimore, Maryland-area mosques both in person and through and online questionnaire in summer of 2023.
Our mental health survey of the Muslim community received 288 responses, with a gender distribution of 70% males and 30% females. This survey provided valuable insights into how Muslims perceive and experience mental health.
Respondents were asked to self-rate their mental health, with the majority describing it as “good” (40.4%) or “excellent” (37.6%). A smaller proportion rated their mental health as “fair” (16.4%) or “poor” (5.6%).
However, when assessed using the PHQ-9 — a well-established tool for measuring depression severity — discrepancies arose. Several respondents who rated their mental health as “excellent” or “good” exhibited moderate to severe depression symptoms according to the PHQ-9, indicating underlying mental health concerns that were not self-reported.
These findings suggest that a significant portion of respondents may either be unaware of their existing mental health condition, or may be hesitant to acknowledge symptoms of depression, presumably due to social stigma or cultural barriers. The gap between self-perception and clinical assessment underscores the need for greater education and awareness to help individuals better understand their own mental health and to seek appropriate care should mental health crises arise.
The survey also revealed noteworthy gender differences in mental health perception. Men were more likely to rate their mental health as “excellent” (32.1%) compared to women (4.2%). Conversely, women were more likely to describe their mental health as “fair” (16.7%) compared to men (7.3%). There was no significant gender difference in the percentage of respondents rating their mental health as “poor.” These findings suggest gender-based variations in terms of how mental health issues are experienced and reported with, men possibly underreporting symptoms due to cultural expectations around masculinity. Women are also more likely encounter barriers when accessing appropriate care (Sean Tackett, et al. “Barriers to Healthcare among Muslim Women: A Narrative Review of the Literature,” Women’s Studies International Forum, vol. 69, no. 69, July 2018, pp. 190–194). This highlights the importance of gender-responsive support to mental health crises in the Muslims. There is a need to create safe spaces within masjids and community centers so that individuals can discuss mental health concerns openly and without fear of judgment.
The survey touched on gender identity as well, with relevance to the Muslim Americans. Data showed that men were significantly more likely to dismiss the importance of discussions involving gender identity and the congruent disparity between sexes. The survey’s results regarding this issue then confirm that cultural awareness is paramount when addressing mental health
These findings suggest that a significant portion of respondents may either be unaware of their mental health condition or hesitant to acknowledge depressive symptoms, likely due to stigma or cultural barriers. The gap between selfperception and clinical assessment underscores the need for greater education and awareness to help individuals better understand their mental health and seek appropriate care.
in the Muslim community, especially concerning gender-specific issues.
In conclusion, the Baltimore area mental health survey for Muslims living in the U.S. highlights significant gaps between self-reported mental health and clinical assessments within the Muslim community, revealing potential issues of social stigma and/or a distinct lack of cultural awareness. Gender differences in perceptions of mental health as well as attitudes toward gender identity further emphasize the need for culturally sensitive, gender-responsive approaches. Addressing these nuances is crucial for improving mental health education and support in these communities. Open dialogue is also critical in breaking down barriers and ensuring equitable access to mental health care within this diverse population. We believe community leaders can be pivotal in providing a mentally and emotionally healthier Muslim society.
Keeping these items in mind, it is of utmost importance that community leaders assess the public’s mental health and bring forth recommendations that support seeking help, thereby reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness. The use of mental health services and therapy should be encouraged, emphasizing that seeking professional help aligns with Islamic principles of self-care. Equipping Imams and community leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide initial support, counseling, and referrals to mental health professionals is also essential. Additionally, sharing culturally sensitive educational materials that address mental health from both Islamic and psychological perspectives can further
enhance awareness. In the end, we hope our survey serves as a conversation starter to openly discuss and navigate the mental health needs of the contemporary Muslim community. ih
Mohammed Younus, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist in Baltimore area, is involved in social activism, mental health research, and runs a free psychiatry clinic at the Islamic Society of Baltimore.
Saad Ahmad Khan, PhD, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), works as a data scientist in the Health Data Lab. His research focuses on hospital readmissions, psychiatry readmissions, and the effects of social determinants of health on healthcare.
Attaulla Khan (BS, and MBA University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne), an IT professional, works for a Baltimore-based firm, and is cofounder of the US India Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. based research think-tank. Raza Hasan and Syed Abid Hussain are officer bearers at Muslim Citizens of Maryland (MCM) and Jannah Bukhari is a graduate student volunteer.
MCM is a group of Muslim volunteers in Baltimore, dedicated to promoting social welfare and community development. Their focus is on charity, volunteering, research, and public service, aiming to enhance the well-being and unity of the community www.muslimcitizens.org
MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD
From Kakul to Castles
Pakistani Army – The New East India Company or a Trojan Horse?
BY FEROZE PERVEZ
Pakistan’s formidable army, known for its discipline and resilience, can be divided into two groups — second lieutenant to colonel (group 1) and brigadier to general (group 2) — that operate as separate entities within the military hierarchy, with distinct roles and experiences that shape their perspectives and duties.
To comprehend the army’s rank and structure, one must delve into its officers and soldiers’ characteristics and lives. Unfortunately, many within the army and the public are unaware of the stark contrast primarily because the Pakistani Army effectively shields its inner workings from public scrutiny. This practice also ensures that officers up to the rank of colonel remain largely unaware of broader realities.
Within the army, there is a prevalent belief that commanders must be strict, vigilant, and controlling. From the outset, officers are trained to keep their subordinates continuously occupied with ambitious plans and activities so that the army’s strict
criteria won’t be challenged. This relentless approach ensures that troops formations and exercises are engaged year-round without respite.
In Group 1, the officers and soldiers spend their careers moving from one challenging post to another, often in harsh and isolated environments. The army relies heavily on instilling a sense of extreme religious and national motivation to keep them going. Such realities take a significant toll on the officers’ mental health. Many come from humble backgrounds and have faced severe deprivation. The iron discipline enforced by the military leaves little room for personal reflection or dissent. The perpetual uncertainty and fear of ostracization weigh heavily upon them. An infantry officer is considered fortunate if he spends even six years out of a 26-year career in a peaceful posting within a major city. These conditions’ cumulative effects often leads to mental strain, making officers eccentric, mentally impaired, and/or highly sensitive to either internal or external scrutiny.
THE UNSEEN STRUGGLES AND TRANSFORMATION OF ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL
Life for all armed forces personnel is tough. They face physical, administrative, mental, and financial challenges. This strain is particularly pronounced for married officers ranging from captain to colonel, who often struggle to make ends meet. Unlike many professions, the Pakistani military offers no opportunities for personal financial gain. It remains a strictly professional field, like many other military organizations worldwide. However, noteworthy that high ranking officers in the U.S. can become millionaires if not at least hundred thousand-aires.
From the outset of their training at institutions like the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) at Kakul, the cadets are groomed to uphold honesty, ethics, and loyalty to their nation and profession. These values become their hallmark
However, a significant shift occurs at the major general rank, when an officer’s status transforms into something almost untouchable. From that point forward he is often referred to as a “holy cow,” beyond the usual bounds of accountability. Around 2% of a given cohort achieve this rank.
This elevation comes with profound changes — newfound authority, a presumed infallibility, and the constant presence of sycophants can foster a detrimental “above the law” mentality. For many, this marks the beginning of a troubling transformation. Once paragons of integrity and professionalism, they may start flexing their newfound power, morphing into a figure akin to a hungry crocodile always looking for opportunities to assert dominance and accrue personal gain and wealth.
This transformation underscores the critical need for sustained accountability and ethical vigilance, regardless of rank, in the military hierarchy. While most officers retain their integrity, the few who succumb can tarnish the entire institution’s reputation. Ensuring that honesty, ethics, and discipline are upheld at all levels is crucial for maintaining the armed forces’ honor and respect.
BUSINESS EMPIRE — THE GENESIS
In the pre-Partition era, the British Indian Army allotted agricultural land ranging from 100 to over 1,000 acres to its regiments, contingent upon the regiment’s operational performance and its reputation). This land was intended to generate revenue for the troops’
Battalion Senior Under Officer Raja Aziz Bhatti (Maj. Raja Aziz Bhatti who was martyred Sept. 12, 1965 and was posthumously awarded the Nishan-e-Haider – the highest military honor) receiving Sword of Honor from the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan during the Passing Out Parade of 1st PMA Long Course at PMA Kakul on Feb 4, 1950.
welfare, ensuring a good standard of living in the barracks and during wartime.
Following World War 2 and before Partition, the army established a welfare fund to support troops who were wounded, or troops’ families if they were killed in action. Upon independence in 1947, this fund was divided based on the proportion of the British Indian army troops allocated to each country created by partition. Pakistan’s share was approximately 18% of the total.
The Pakistani Army utilized its share to establish projects aimed at supporting soldiers and their families. Among the initiatives was the Fauji Foundation and smaller projects. is a charitable trust founded in 1954 to provide employment opportunities to Pakistani ex-military personnel and to generate funds for the welfare of widows, and families of martyrs. Today, it runs more than 18 industries, the income from which is utilized to serve about 9 million beneficiaries (5% of country’s population).
These ventures have grown into a vast business empire generating billions of rupees in profit, a significant portion of which constitutes a private reserve fund at the COAS’s (chief of army staff) disposal. He has unfettered discretion over its use.
GENERAL MUSHARRAF – THE START OF ORGANIZATIONAL CORRUPTION
During Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s tenure (both as COAS and president, 2001-08), this fund was notably misappropriated and manipulated for the top military brass’ benefit. Adjusted to favor senior and high-ranking officers and ensure their loyalty to COAS via bribery, their financial status became significantly enhanced. A major general, typically a grade 21 officer, the second highest rank in government employment, could amass assets worth more than $3,600,000 while a 3-star lieutenant general, a grade 22 officer, could acquire assets worth approximately $18 million, all within legal frameworks. All services operate within a hierarchical structure, with officials categorized into different grades, typically delineated by a basic pay structure.
The COAS could accumulate assets valued between $362 to $542 million, excluding any corrupt practices. Furthermore, lieutenant generals serving as corps commanders often held the position of president of the Defense Housing Authority (DHA) within their domains. The DHA, particularly in Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad, can acquire substantial wealth accumulation through
The Spring 2022 Dubai Leaks published on May 15, 2024, showed 17,000 Pakistanis are listed owners of real estate worth well above $12.5 billion. Unsurprisingly, more than a few of the listed owners are retired military officers and their families, some of whom have passed away.
Originally, the DHA was intended to provide military officers with housing benefits, helping them cover various personal expenses. The number of lots in DHA developments was initially based on the number of cadets graduating from the military academy, ensuring that each graduate could potentially receive a lot.
Under Musharraf, these ethical guidelines and allocation criteria were abandoned. Subsequent army chiefs, notably Ashfaq Parvez Kayani (2007-13) and especially Qamar Javed Bajwa (2016-22) took advantage of these relaxed policies, further expanding DHAs regardless to the number of serving officers
New rules stipulated that each new phase of DHA development must include an 1,100 sq. ft. residential lot for lieutenant generals and a 2,200 sq. ft. lot for the COAS. Senior officers were also allotted commercial lots. Reports suggest that under these rules, Bajwa acquired as many as 104 lots.
In the most lucrative DHA developments such as those in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, the most expensive lots are reserved for the COAS, which are kept available and allotted to the new chief as part of their service benefits. The question arises: How can the same piece of land be allotted to multiple chiefs successively? The answer lies in a specific practice. For example, in
Lahore, a 2,200 sq. ft. lot behind the city’s much sought after The Mall of Lahore (officially the Shahrah Qaid-e Azam) near the famous Rahat Bakery remains officially classified as residential, despite the vicinity’s commercial development decades ago. This land, valued at more than $100,000 per 1,100 sq. ft., amounts to over $4.3 million for the 2,200 sq. ft. lot. This sum was allotted to the COAS and a month later, the DHA in Lahore bought it back for another $4.3 million, ensuring the Chief receives the money while the land remains available for future allotments. Since Bajwa had two tenures, he was allotted this land twice.
The British allotted agricultural land to reward officers and troops who performed great feats of valor for them against their own people. However, in some countries, allotment of such land might be part of the welfare package to war veterans, soldiers, and officers performing exceptionally well in military operations. These allotments are made based on both field and peacetime performance. The criteria for receiving such awards are stringent, with a board deciding based on points calculated from field, peacetime, and operational performances.
However, the less significant officers and soldiers are mostly given arid and poorly irrigated lands in far-flung areas, especially in southern Punjab. This system is also manipulated at the highest ranks. Upon promotion, a major general automatically reaches the required points to receive at least 50 acres of agricultural land, with lieutenant generals and full generals entitled to 100 acres.
At the higher ranks, this system is often manipulated to provide valuable estates. Outstanding officers up to the rank of brigadier are given land in deserts where cultivation is impossible, while general officers, especially those in key positions like corps commanders and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), receive land in urban areas like in Lahore. This land, officially termed “agricultural,” is worth a fortune due to its location within expanding housing localities. For example, land valued at $18,000 per 1,100 sq. ft. can translate to $7.2 million for a major general and $14.4 million for a full general.
The army sells back this land to the source, paying the incumbent the equivalent market value, and ensuring future officers’ benefit from this system. If a COAS receives an extension, he can claim these benefits twice, potentially amassing assets beyond
MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD
$180 million all legally and in accordance with existing regulations. Importantly, none of this money comes from the national exchequer as it is all internally managed within the army, ensuring clerical transparency.
Selected general officers, such as those on key appointments in the General Head Quarters – Pakistan’s equivalent to the Pentagon — are also entitled to 1,100 sq. ft. residential lots and one commercial lot in any new DHA development throughout the country. This ensures that a general in a two-to-three-year tenure can accumulate significant assets. For a COAS, this legal package could easily reach $108 million for a regular three-year tenure.
The Spring 2022 Dubai Leaks published in May 15, 2024, showed 17,000 Pakistanis are listed owners of real estate worth well above $12.5 billion. Unsurprisingly, more than a few of the listed owners are retired military officers and their families, some of whom have passed away.
THE LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE FIELD ARMY
In contrast, the field army up to battalion or brigade level is kept in deprived conditions. Their professional training and commitments ensure that they have little
time for personal matters. Young officers, especially married ones, often live in poor conditions without proper accommodation. They receive inadequate allowances, making it difficult to meet basic needs. For instance, a major receives only $80 a month for his housing allowance, an amount which is insufficient for renting even one room. This leads to depression and hopelessness. Bachelor officers face even worse conditions, with minimal and often dilapidated accommodation provided.
LIONS FOR LAMBS
One must distinguish between the field army and the upper echelon of generals. Unlike civilian promotions, the path to becoming a general is highly competitive and unpredictable. Success requires not only hard work but also manipulation, deception, and self-promotion.
Very few officers achieve the prestigious rank of major general or higher. Out of a cohort of 600 officer cadets, only three to six typically reach this level. However, hard work and dedication alone are insufficient. To move beyond the rank of brigadier, one also needs to employ deceit, cheating, sycophancy, and manipulation, not to mention using others to climb the ranks, subtle tactics
An Agency Gone Rogue
MHowever, few are aware that as an institution, it’s far superior to other Pakistani institutions.
It is crucial to understand that the army is being managed or utilized by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Founded in 1948 with the contribution of three services – army, air force, and the navy — the ISI, whose director-general theoretically reports directly to both the prime minister and the COAS (Chief of Army Staff), has evolved into a powerful juggernaut that controls all the county’s institutions, including the judiciary, bureaucracy, the private and corporate sectors, and its economy and politics.
This subtle spy organization has become so vast that its boundaries are now indiscernible. Given the popular belief that the country’s troubles are rooted in the army, only a few realize that the ISI is in control. The officers and soldiers know that it is detrimental to the army itself. The field army, including its officers, remains antagonistic and indifferent to this spy organization. This is a significant source of frustration for the entire army, for the ISI is at odds does with the field army. Not surprisingly, the current army-backed coalition government formally legalized intercepting wiretapping on July 8, 2024, giving ISI, the authority under Section 54 of the 1996 Act that gives the government broad powers to intercept calls and messages or trace communications
and skullduggery, and pleasing superiors through flattery and deception .
Thus, major generals are skilled manipulators, deceivers, and flatterers. Masters in the art of lying and pleasing their superiors, they join a group that values money above all else. This group disregards ethics and boundaries in the pursuit of accumulating wealth and privileges.
Having lost touch with their comrades and brothers-in-arms, they use military jargon only rhetorically and have little regard for other soldiers, officers, or the field army. Their primary concern is acquiring wealth, including overseas properties, luxurious mansions, and businesses. They have no genuine regard for their country or its people, speaking of patriotism only for appearances. These hypocrites have no sense of belonging and use their position to deceive their subordinates.
The generals, a disconnected group posing only for optics, are pretentious, hypocritical, and more concerned with personal gain than with institutional and national welfare. They exploit the young officers’ sacrifices, often as young as 18 or 20, who lay down their lives in encounters. ISI and the ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations) play politics with these young officers’ lives,
through any telecom system in the name of national security, regardless of existing privacy protections in other laws (“Pakistan authorises spy agency to intercept phone calls,” July 10, Reuters). Ironically, collation partner Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had contested their chief, Benazir Bhutto phone tapping in 1997, the Supreme Court had termed the Act “reprehensible, immoral, illegal and unconstitutional.”
No area of life is free from the influence of the intelligence agencies. On March 26, six Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges wrote to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), urging it to convene a judicial convention over the alleged interference of intelligence agencies in judicial affairs (“Pakistan SC to hear case about ‘interference’ in judicial matters by powerful intelligence agencies,” PTI, April 1, 2024). The letter by the IHC judges’ letter came days after the Supreme Court voided the firing of IHC judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui who SJC had sacked on Oct. 11, 2018, based on a speech at the Rawalpindi Bar Association where he accused ISI of influencing court proceedings and forming benches of choice. On May 1, the Peshawar High Court told the SC that some judges had reported direct approaches
using their widows and children for media appearances to manipulate public sentiment.
The role of ISPR has significantly developed. ISPR chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif now has increased structural and logistical support, including two major generals working under him. This strategic move of Pakistani military aims to fully control the story.
These generals understand the poor peoples’ psyche and manipulate their emotions by showcasing the deaths of young officers killed in the line of duty. Meanwhile, they focus on formulating rules to benefit themselves, eyeing the army’s vast private funds. Young officers, on the other hand, face inadequate facilities, insufficient salaries, and other challenges that make it difficult to support their families.
The generals cleverly exploit these young officers’ motivations in the name of nationalism and patriotism. The 2007 Hollywood movie Lions for Lambs aptly depicts the army’s situation. This group of generals remains beyond accountability. Even after retirement, a lieutenant general enjoys the services of several army paid servants and chauffeurs. When a general dies, these services are transferred to his wife until her death.
The COAS bears a resemblance to the ancient sultans who ascended thrones by
vanquishing all their contemporary rivals. This ascent, however, as explained above, is far from easy. Once at the apex, the COAS becomes the supreme authority over all matters. Armed with immense power and infkuence, he can eliminate any entity that might challenge his autocratic decrees, which are issued solely based on his personal whims and desires. Thus, he becomes a figure akin to a demigod with no obligation to heed dissent. Existing above the law and beyond religious, social, and moral constraints, he effectively becomes the embodiment of the law and authority.
One must distinguish between the military as a whole and certain generals’ immorality. The former is a vast and diverse
from intelligence officials seeking favors in political cases. The Sindh High Court told the SC the necessity of investigating interference in the judiciary by intelligence agencies and suggested prohibiting direct access to judges.
The Methodology
The spy organization’s unique methods enable it to hide behind the army. In fact, they resemble the East India Company’s tactics. A small entity, it controlled all that region’s 500+ princely states through blackmail. The Company stationed a resident in each state to oversee their governance. However, one of the resident’s covert jobs was to entice the rulers or maharajas into wrongdoing while secretly gathering evidence against them and converting the same into personal files. These files were then used to blackmail them into compliance. Similarly, the ISI entices and encourages institutional heads to engage in misconduct. This includes arranging stays in five-star hotels and providing escorts and liquor, in addition to hefty bribes. The organization maintains compromising videos and corruption files on not only military officers, but also judges, bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen, artists, actors, writers, and journalists.
institution, comprising hundreds of thousands of individuals who have dedicated their lives to serving their country. They perform a wide range of duties, from defending the borders and maintaining peace to providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Most of these service members are apolitical, focusing solely on their duty to protect and serve their nation.
However, a small subset of the military leadership — namely, some generals — may become entangled in political affairs or engage in unethical behavior. These actions are examples of their personal failings. Conflating the military with the actions of a few can lead to widespread misunderstanding and undeserved criticism.
When “military” is loosely used for criticism, it unjustly tarnishes the 99% who are uninvolved in politics and serve with honor and integrity. This broadbrush approach not only disrespects them, facilitating the generals to deflect criticism and hide behind the military’s good. Such an approach effectively addresses the issues, and the public remains informed about the misconduct of this group without unfairly implicating the entire military. ih
For generals, ISI employs a different strategy. It owns and maintains numerous palace-like safehouses in various cities, with young female models and actresses on its payroll, also maintaining secret files on them to ensure their compliance. They are assured of the safehouses’ safety and secrecy. These compromising encounters – which are videotaped — typically happen on weekends under the guise of official duties to ensure their future compliance.
A Political Accessory
Ironically, ISI’s political wing – headed by a brigadier within Directorate C — was established (and abundantly used) by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who became Pakistan’s “elected” prime minister by default when the country split in the aftermath of the 1971 war that India waged to carve out Bangladesh.
The India-based Indo-Asian News Service quoted defense minister Ahmed Mukhtar of then ruling Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party May 4, 2018, that ISI has always had a political wing. During Gen. Kayani’s tenure, it was stated that like the ISI, the Military Intelligence (MI) too had closed its political wing (“MI closes its political wing”, Sept. 20, 2010, The Express Tribune).
Dawn newspaper, drawing from a declassified U.S. embassy source quoted the then national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani telling visiting U.S. ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli on Nov. 28, 2018, that ISI, is an “institution that can change based on how the political leadership chooses to use it” (“2008: Deactivating ISI`s `Political Wing`”, May 23, 2011). ih
Feroze Pervez is a freelance writer.
Entrance gate of PMA at Kakul
China Continues to Stifle The Turkic People
U.S. And Several Other Countries Pay Lip Service To Protesting Against Human Rights Violations Of The Uyghur
BY UMBERINE ABDULLAH
Since 1949, October 12 has marked a solemn day of national mourning for the Uyghur who originate from East Turkistan – which China calls Xingang.
In 1955, China administratively changed its name to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
In remembrance last October, dozens of Uyghurs and their supporters gathered outside the White House to commemorate and protest 75 years of China’s military invasion of East Turkistan.
For 75 years and going, China has enforced a regime of genocide, systematic colonization, and mass oppression upon these Turkic people. Officially China recognizes 55 ethnic groups such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other mostly Muslim minority groups in addition to the Chinese Han majority.
China’s claims over East Turkistan are not rooted in historical truth. On October 12, 1949, Chinese communist forces invaded East Turkistan — which borders Russia, Pakistan and several Central Asian nations — with Soviet support, initiating one of the longest and most brutal occupations in modern history.
Despite recognition of China’s atrocities as ongoing genocide by the U.S. and over a dozen Western countries, as well as recognition by the UN as “crimes against humanity,” it is business as usual with China. For instance, Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign expressed deep concern about the findings in the report titled “Side Effects: The Human Rights Implications of Global Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Linkages to XUAR,” authored by Mishel Kondi of C4ADS (Uyghur Times, Oct. 8, 2024). It exposes significant connections between the global pharmaceutical industry –where India is a dominant force and implicated in these supply chains — and forced labor practices in East Turkistan.
75 years after China invaded
East Turkistan – now a population of 26 million people — and over a decade since it launched its campaign of genocide in May 2014, the Uyghur and other Turkic people continue to endure mass incarceration, enslavement through forced labor, forced sterilizations, and the systematic erasure of their cultural and national identity.
An example of such erasure was cited by Human Rights Watch and the Norway-based organization Uyghur Hjelp (also known as Uyghuryar) documents about 630 communities that the Chinese government has such renamed, mostly during the height of a crackdown on Uyghur that several governments and human rights bodies have called a genocide (Helen Davidson, “China has renamed
75 years after China invaded East Turkistan – now a population of 26 million people — and over a decade since it launched its campaign of genocide in May 2014, the Uyghur and other Turkic people continue to endure mass incarceration, enslavement through forced labor, forced sterilizations, and the systematic erasure of their cultural and national identity.
hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, say human rights groups” (The Guardian, June 18, 2024). The report adds, “The new names removing religious, historical or cultural references are among thousands of otherwise benign name changes between 2009 and 2023.” The report quotes Rayhan Asat, a Uyghur human rights lawyer and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, whose brother disappeared into the Xinjiang detention regime in 2016, told the changes were part of Beijing’s “overarching objective to eradicate the Uyghur culture and people entirely and create a system of apartheid.”
Repression under Communist rule, particularly during the violent and xenophobic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, stirred deep animosity in Xinjiang toward the government, aggravated further by the migration of Han to the region and their domination of political and economic life.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report on August 31, 2022, which concluded that “[t]he extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity (Nick Cumming-Bruce, Austin Ramzy, “U.N. Says China May Have Committed ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in Xinjiang”, Aug. 31, 2022. The New York Times). The Chinese government denies having committed any human rights abuses (Joanne Finley, “Why Scholars and Activists Increasingly Fear a Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang”, Journal of Genocide Research. 23 (3): 348–370, 2020).
The U.S. and others have labeled China’s policies against Xinjiang minorities as “genocide.” China, however, has always denied targeting Uyghurs and others for their religion and culture, denouncing the accusations as a confection of lies by the West and saying its crackdown was aimed at quashing separatism, terrorism and religious extremism (“Why is China so angry over UN report on Xinjiang?”, AP, Sept.1, 2022).
For China, this northwestern region that is about three times the size of France, is of strategic importance. The ancient Silk Road — established during the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago — trade route linking China and the Middle East passed through Xinjiang, a legacy that can be seen in the traditional openair bazaars of its oasis cities, Hotan and Kashgar. Xinjiang is an important link in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, and in China known as the One Belt One Road, a massive development plan stretching through Asia and Europe, involving more than 150 countries and international organizations.
The region is also important to China because, with the second largest pastureland, it is one of the major sheep farming areas and China’s finewool production base. It is rich in energy resources, and has the largest reserves of oil, natural gas and coal in the country. Its coal reserves account for 40% of China’s total (https://research. hktdc.com/), and the largest natural gas reserves.
Unsurprisingly, mindful of these riches, the Chinese government has used violence against groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to point to a larger problem with terrorism in the region, especially in the wake of events like the 2009 mass riots that broke out in Urumqi, which killed
194 people and injured thousands more. To address these concerns, Beijing has progressively strengthened its security presence over the last decade. In 2010, domestic security spending in Xinjiang increased by 90% (Cui Jia, “Xinjiang security funding increased by 90 percent”, Jan. 13, 2010, China Daily).
On Feb. 1, 2018, XUAR revealed a stunning 92.8% increase in its domestic security spending: from 30.05 billion RMB in 2016 to 57.95 billion RMB in 2017 (Xinjiang Net, Feb. 3, 2018). Within a decade, this figure has increased nearly tenfold, up from 5.45 billion RMB in 2007.
Interestingly, it was only in 2020 that the U.S. removed ETIM from its list of terrorist organizations.
East Turkestan has experienced two brief periods of independence, The first republic (East Turkestan Republic) was established on Nov. 12, 1943, and was disestablished on April 16, 1944. The second republic was a shortlived satellite state of the Soviet Union in northern Xinjiang (East Turkestan), which existed from 1944 to 1946. It emerged from the Ili Rebellion in three districts of Xinjiang Province: Ili, Tarbagatay and Altay.
The East Turkestan Independence Movement first began
to take shape in 1933. Every historical event has its elements of chance, but how was the unprecedented East Turkestan Independence Movement able to so quickly mobilize the population, and erupt ubiquitously and simultaneously across the territory of Xinjiang? These circumstances indicate that early modern Xinjiang society harbored simmering ethnic problems (Wang Ke, “The East Turkestan Independence Movement, 1930s to 1940s”, 2019, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press).
After unrest in the region and a series of riots and attacks by the Uyghur between 2014 to 2017, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, launched his Strike Hard Campaign Against Violent Terrorism, leading to the establishment of the camps. The UN has estimated that since then about one million people have been detained in these extrajudicial centers.
Beijing, however, calls them vocational education and training centers. But critics say they are used to indoctrinate Uyghurs and other minority ethnic groups with the goal of transforming them into devotees of
the Chinese Communist party. In a statement, Mamtimin Ala, Ph.D., president of the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) – who is self-exiled in Sydney, Australia — declared: “The time for words alone has passed. We call on Canada, the U.S., and all nations that champion freedom and human rights to act decisively. Recognize East Turkistan for what it is: an occupied country. Support our right to external self-determination and our struggle to recover our sovereignty. Anything less will allow China to continue its genocide with impunity.”
China’s atrocities in Occupied East Turkistan are not isolated human rights abuses — it is a deliberate strategy of genocide. The goal, ETGE contends, is to wipe out an entire people and their rich cultural heritage, a campaign that the international community can no longer afford to ignore. China’s ongoing campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan must be recognized as part of a broader global threat posed by authoritarianism and unchecked state violence.
To note, ETGE, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., was founded on Sept. 14, 2004, at the United States Capitol.
In December 2021, U.S. enacted into law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), establishing a rebuttable presumption that goods produced wholly or in part in the XUAR or by an entity on the UFLPA Entity List are made with forced labor and prohibited from importation into the U.S. under 19 U.S.C. (11).
The U.S. intentions for Uyghur rights do not seem so altruistic when, not only looks aside, but in fact supports far worse human rights abuses in Occupied Palestine. ih
Umbrine Abdullah is a freelance writer.
The Rohingyas’ Ongoing Ordeal Continues
The UN has designated the Rohingya the World’s Most Persecuted Community
BY UMBERINE ABDULLAH
On August 6, 2024, the Arakan Army’s (AA) drone strike killed about 200 Rohingyas, mostly women and children, attempting to escape to Bangladesh. The UN-based NGO Justice For All’s sources confirm that the AA’s brutal attacks continue on Rohingya villages.
At the Naf Riverbank, the Bangladesh Border Guard arrested refugees fleeing the mostly Rohingya town of Maungdaw (Avery Schmitz and Helen Regan, CNN, Aug. 13, 2024). 116 genocide survivors are at risk of being forcibly repatriated to Rakhine state. This has renewed fears of ethnic cleansing against the stateless Rohingya.
This army asserts that it’s trying to unify Arakan’s two native groups: the mostly Buddhist Rakhine and the mostly Muslim Rohingya. It has also promised to support Rohingya citizenship, even though leader Twan Mrat Naing claims that they’re Bangladeshis, a charge much promoted by the genocidaires.
The Rohingya trace their origins to the 15th century, when thousands of Muslims came to the former Arakan Kingdom. Many others arrived during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Rakhine was governed as part of British India. Despite living in Myanmar for generations, they’re not recognized as an official ethnic group and have been denied citizenship since 1982, making them the world’s largest stateless population.
On July 22, 2022, the 13-judge ICJ bench rejected Myanmar’s objections to the genocide case lodged against it, paving the way for the case to be heard in full. Myanmar, ruled by a military junta that seized power in 2021, had argued that Gambia, which brought the suit, had no standing to do so; the top UN court ruled that “Gambia, as a state party to the genocide convention, has standing” (Toby Sterling and Poppy McPherson, www.euronews.com/, June 23, 2022).
Gambia took up the cause in 2019, backed by the 57-nation OIC. Following the bloodshed, nearly one million Rohingya found safety in Bangladesh, with a majority of them living in the Cox Bazar’s region — home to the world’s largest refugee camp.
BANGLADESH AND OTHERS’ EFFORT TO HELP
Since 2021, Bangladesh has tried to decongest the 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar by relocating nearly 30,000 refugees to the 15 square mile Bhasan Char Island. Like other coastal regions, this island emerged 20 years ago and is known for its vulnerabilities to cyclones. Its lowlands are submerged under 3 to 4 feet of water at high tide. Bangladesh intends to relocate another 70,000 Rohingya there.
The Rohingya have sought refuge in other countries like Thailand (92,000) and India (21,000), with smaller numbers settling in Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, and other regional countries.
“Our government will persist in its support for the Rohingya people [refugees],” Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s transitional government, stated during a briefing with foreign diplomats in Dhaka. “We require continued international assistance for humanitarian operations and for ensuring their safe and dignified return to Myanmar” (www.yenisafak.com/en, Aug. 19).
The AA is a Rakhine state-based ethnic armed organization. Founded in April 2009, this military wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA) is active in a few states, especially at the Bangladesh–Myanmar and China–Myanmar borders. They seek Arakanese self-determination and confederalism.
August 25 marked the seventh anniversary of the start of the Myanmar military’s massive anti-Rohingya offensive in Rakhine state. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the then High Commissioner for Human Rights, called it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” (Thomson Reuters, www.cbc. ca, Sept. 11, 2017). In all, over 1 million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh seeking international refugee protection; approximately 600,000 remain within Rakhine state, where they suffer severe rights restrictions and threats of further violence.
Tom Andrews, the special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, appealed to world leaders Aug. 23, 2023, to end a “deadly paralysis of indifference” and act to hold its architects and perpetrators accountable. He added, “The
August 25 marked the seventh anniversary of the start of the Myanmar military’s massive antiRohingya offensive in Rakhine state.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the then High Commissioner for Human Rights, called it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
Rohingya are tired of empty promises. Their children cannot eat political rhetoric or UN resolutions that go nowhere. They need and deserve the world to end the deadly paralysis of indifference. We cannot let another year go by without principled and decisive action to support justice and accountability for the Rohingya” (https://www.ohchr.org/).
His post was established in 1992 under the Commission on Human Rights Resolution 58 and is extended annually.
A former Maine state representative and senator who served as general secretary of “The Nobel Peace Laureate Campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi and the People of Burma” in 2001, Andrews was a consultant for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma and the Euro-Burma Network.
As fighting has intensified in Arakan, the Myanmar military, which led the 2017 genocide, has been forcibly recruiting Rohingya out of desperation. The AA responded on May 17 by capturing the mostly Rohingya town of Buthidaung, massacring hundreds of civilians, and forcing an estimated 150,000 to flee. Even town elders who came out to negotiate with them were butchered. The AA’s recent violence in both Maungdaw and Buthidaung have shown that it’s no better than its military opponents. Some are calling this latest period a new wave of genocide ( Washington Post, “Opinion ‘Never again’ is not enough to stop the genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya,” Sept. 13, 2024).
The ten-member ASEAN has been
attempting to negotiate between the military and opposition. Different members have taken different sides.
THE INFLUENCE GAME
China and the U.S. have different priorities in Myanmar, given its resources.
Forests cover over 40% of the country and contain teak, which is highly prized for its durability and beauty. Timber exports generate billions of dollars in revenue each year.
Kachin state accounts for most of the world’s production of jade, while the Mandalay Division remains a leading source for rubies and sapphires. Reserves of gold, silver, copper, tin, nickel, coal, limestone, and other minerals are available. The mining of precious stones and metals provides employment and generates significant revenue.
Myanmar’s oil and natural gas make it an important energy sector player. Its offshore gas fields are a significant source of revenue for the government. Myanmar is the largest exporter of natural gas to Thailand. The oil and gas industry is a major employer, and many international companies are investing in Myanmar’s energy sector.
China’s substantial economic investments causes the U.S. to fear that China would make Myanmar a “pseudo-Chinese state” or satellite. Also, many of these investments flow from Myanmar’s geostrategic importance as an unfettered access point to the Indian Ocean, which would increase China’s regional sphere of influence and offer
it a new strategic advantage. This Western narrative is quite old.
In return for access to natural resources in border areas and the advancement of its strategic economic interests, China has used its veto power at the U.N. Security Council to shield successive Myanmar military regimes.
Washington welcomed Myanmar’s quasi-civilian government in 2011 and the reform process. After the National League for Democracy (NLD) government took office in 2016, the U.S. lifted its economic sanctions imposed two decades ago. After the 2021 coup, it reimposed them.
Typically, after the NLD government’s investment projects, including the ChinaMyanmar-Economic Corridor and China’s pushing its economic and strategic interests, “civil society groups” in Myanmar raised their voices against the negative impacts. The United States’ interest in China is not secret.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), often referred to as the “White Gloves,” is a Congress-funded nonprofit foundation established in 1983. Its efforts are aligned with U.S. economic and security interests, creating trade and investment opportunities while reducing the influence of competitors in target countries.
Since its establishment, NED has received massive funding from the Congress through the Department of State. In 2023, it has received $315 million in appropriations; however, undeclared funding is provided to support special initiatives in specific countries of interest, especially China.
ISRAEL’S ANTI-ROHINGYA ROLE
Haaretz’s Eitay Mack reported that the then declassified Israeli Foreign Ministry documents detail how the Israeli regime armed and trained the Burmese army from the 1950s until the beginning of the 1980s. In March 1954, Foreign Ministry DirectorGeneral Walter Eytan wrote to IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, “Burma is Israel’s most faithful friend in Asia, and the ties between the Israeli army and the Burmese army could be extremely vital, at least diplomatically. I am bound to say that, with the current state of the relations between Israel and Burma, it is not in fact possible to refuse the request of the Burmese Army” (Eitay Mack, “Israel Saw Brutal Myanmar Regimes as a Business Opportunity, Documents Reveal” Oct. 6, 2022. Haaretz). ih
Umberine Abdullah is a freelance writer.
Hundreds of thousands Rohingya Refugees have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar.
Muslims Are Integral to India
Changing Names Of Places Cannot Wipeout Indian Muslim History
BY SYED UBAIDUR RAHMAN
History is being re-written in India, and textbooks are steadily being erased of medieval history dealing with the Muslim period. A fictional Hindu history is being developed that omits all references to Muslim history, although Islam has been in India since the 7th century. In 712 Muhammad bin Qasim (d. 715), the commander of the Umayyad kingdom, defeated and killed Dahir, the ruler of Sindh, in the battle.
This was followed by Mahmud of Ghazni’s (d. 1030) conquests and Muhammad of Ghur’s (d.1206) establishment of Delhi sultanate. The spread of Islamic rule to South India came during the reigns of Alauddin Khalji (d.1316) and Muhammad bin Tughluq (d.1351). Not only the Mughals, but also the Muslim ruling dynasties in Kashmir, Bengal, Malwa, Khandesh, Gujarat, Sharqis of Jaunpur; the Bahmanis of Gulbarga/ Bidar; the successor Deccani Sultanates of Ahmednagar, Bijapur, and Golconda; as well as Nizam of Hyderabad and Mysore Sultanate of Hyder Ali (d.1782) and Tipu Sultan (d. 1799) were part of this expansion.
Since gaining independence in 1947, and especially after the extreme right wing Hindu majoritarian party Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ascension to power, the names of cities, gardens, and monuments have been changed to rewrite medieval India’s history. Fortunately, books authored by reputed scholars are still available and referred to. Muslims are integral to India, and their history will never disappear.
Such name changing is groundless. For example, the BJP wants to change Ahmednagar’s name to Ahilya Nagar, honoring the 18th-century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar. The Sultanate of Ahmednagar or the Nizam Shahi Sultanate was a late medieval Indian Muslim kingdom
located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur, ruled by the Nizam Shahi or Bahri dynasty (John Horace Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance, the University of California Press. p. 246, 1981). It was established when Malik Ahmed (d.1510), the Bahmani governor of Junnar, declared independence after defeating the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on May 28, 1490, and established the Nizam Shahi dynasty of the Sultanate of Ahmednagar (Shailendra Sen, A Textbook of Medieval Indian History, Primus Books. p. 118, 2013). There was no town in existence there. So, what is the basis of this desired change? His father Malik Bahri, prime minister in the Brahmin empire, had converted and Ahmednagar was the empire’s most important state.
Similarly, Aurangabad is a historic town, a new city founded by Malik Anbar (d. 1626), prime minister of Murtaza Nizam Shah II (d.1610), sultan of Ahmednagar. Changing its name to Sambhaji Nagar after Sambhaji, Shivaji’s son who was killed in war with the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, is illogical.
It is important to teach the young generation about Muslim history and heritage and the great past. Over the past ten years, the author published six books on medieval Indian history, among them Biographical Encyclopedia of Indian Muslim Freedom Fighters,” “Forgotten Muslim Empires of South India,” “Ulema’s Role in India’s Freedom Movement,” and, most recently, “Peaceful Expansion of Islam in India. This 2024 book has become a talking point across India and beyond, as it debunks the fallacious notion of the local population’s forced conversion. Through meticulous research, it shows that Islam came to South India long before its arrival in the north, and spread due to the efforts of Arab and Persian merchants, along with the many Sufis who settled throughout India.
Name changes cause historic places to lose their importance and people to forget them. Its background, the reason for giving the original name, and its founder will be forgotten. This is what the ruling junta desires — to wipe out our ancestors’ contributions and take away their credit for creating marvelous cities and monuments. BJP rulers thus
Some of the references to the Mughals are being purged in school and college textbooks. However, books by Irfan Habib (professor emeritus, Aligarh Muslim University) and Richard Maxwell Eaton (Professor of History, University of Arizona) which are referred to in books at the international level, will not disappear. They will remain in libraries, and the world will criticize India for fudging history.
separate them. The known earliest mention of Muslims in Kerala is in the Quilon Syrian copper plates of 9th century CE, granted by the ruler of Kollam (C.G. Cereti, [2009]. “The Pahlavi Signatures on the Quilon Copper Plates” In W. Sundermann, A. Hintze, and F. de Blois, [eds.], Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, Germany).
Muslims have and continue to make contributions to India. For example, the
Since gaining independence in 1947, and especially after the extreme right wing Hindu majoritarian party Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ascension to power, the names of cities, gardens, and monuments have been changed to rewrite medieval India’s history. Fortunately, books authored by reputed scholars are still available. Muslims are integral to India, and their history will never disappear.
Habib, among other books, has authored The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 15561707, An Atlas of the Mughal Empire”, and “Atlas of Ancient Indian History. Eaton, known for notable books on India’s pre-1800 history, focuses on the Deccan, the Bengal frontier, and Islam in India. Some of his notable works include Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States, India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765, Essays on Islam and Indian History (Oxford University Press: 2000), Approaches to the Study of Conversion to Islam in India in Religious Movements in South Asia 600-1800 (Oxford University Press: 2005), and Temple Desecration and Muslim States in Medieval India
The new history will be worthless once India’s original history reappears. It is important to circulate authentic and authoritative books on this history.
country’s oldest college, Zakir Husain Delhi College (renamed to honor Zakir Husain, a distinguished educator and president of India [1967-69]) was established in 1693, when Ghaziuddin Khan , one of the Aurangzeb’s leading Deccan commanders and the first Nizam of Hyderabad’s father, founded a madrasa.
aim to make Muslims irrelevant, which will have catastrophic impact. Although Muslim Indians are Indian citizens, they will feel let down and completely disconnected.
India should rise above such bias and appreciate scholars like Ram Puniyani who was a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and has been involved with human rights activities and initiatives to oppose Hindu fundamentalism in India.
Muslims history in India dates back hundreds of years. Muslims are an indisputable and integral part of India, and no one can
The upheavals that weakened the Mughal empire during the 18th century resulted in the madrasa’s closure in the early 1790s. However, with the support of Delhi’s wealthy citizens, a college for literature, science and art, was established at the site in 1792. Instruction was provided in prose, literature, rhetoric, logic, philosophy, jurisprudence, astrology, and medicine. In 1824, it was engrafted onto this institution by the British East India Company’s government. Nawab Itmad-ud-daula, the Oudh Vazir (chief executive), provided an endowment of Rs. 1.7 million in 1829, which would be an estimated Rs. 80 million today, to promote learning. Instruction was imparted chiefly in Persian and Arabic, and there was also a Sanskrit department.
Muslims are here to stay. ih Syed Ubaidur Rahman is director of Global Media Publications, New
Delhi, India.
Jami Masjid in Champaner historical city, Gujarat state, India.
India Attempts to Stifle Kashmir Freedom
Resolution of the Dispute Requires a UN Referendum Not a Local Election under Occupation
BY TARIQ AHMED
Settler-colonialism continues to rampage across Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region of some renown located between the states of India and Pakistan on the South Asian subcontinent. Considered to be illegally Indian-occupied territory, Kashmir remains steadfast in resisting India’s moves to subsume their identity into the Indian identity. Between Sept. 18 and Oct.1 of 2024, a three-phrase election process appointed 90 members of a new state Indianoccupation sham assembly. But these elections did nothing to ameliorate the fault lines that separate the provinces of Jammu and Kashmir from India. Nor have they addressed the regional divide that has reemerged between the territory’s two provinces.
Writing about India’s abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution, which granted Kashmir regional autonomy (pending UN-promised referendum), Ragini Puri of London School of Economics and Political Science, said that the Indian state has made a “serious attempt to transform Kashmir’s Muslim majority into a tiny political minority within the rubric of Indian electoral politics” (Ragini Puri, “Kashmir in the Twenty-First Century: Democracy, Identity, and Elections.” Webster Review of International History 2, no. 1 (2022): 24-32).
the elections against the BJP and in support of a Kashmir-based political party, the National Conference (NC).
Whether or not to participate in the elections conducted by India this year has been a veritable Hobson’s choice for the voiceless Kashmiris. Choosing between two evils, Kashmiris participated in the elections in large numbers to keep the BJP at bay. Kashmiris knew that India would inevitably conflate electoral participation with consent to Indian rule, but the alternative was the repeat of an electoral boycott that would have supported the BJP’s ultimate goals of erasing Kashmir altogether. By electing a new assembly, the Kashmiris demonstrated that they are not willing to assist India in realizing this dream. Instead, by defeating Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ultra-nationalist BJP, the Indian government has been dealt a death blow. Electing the National Conference party to power still puts Kashmiri sovereignty in the hands of an inherently India-leaning political group, but they are clearly seen amongst Kashmiris as the lesser of two evils.
HISTORICAL GRIEVANCES
Kashmiris have boycotted the Indian-conducted local elections for decades, seeing such participation as anathema to their aspirations for freedom. During the 2024 elections, however, Kashmiri voters of all shades of political opinion chose a different path by uniting against the Hindutva-driven erasure of Kashmir and increasing repression of their freedoms by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As such, Kashmiris considered participation in the 2024 elections as a de facto referendum against Indian rule. The Associated Press reported that Kashmiris believe that “while the election won’t resolve the Kashmir dispute, it will give them a rare opportunity to express their frustration with Indian control” (Aijaz Hussain, “Many in Indian-controlled Kashmir plan to vote this time to deny Modi total control,”, Sept. 17, 2024).
The resulting 2024 elections were a clear message to Hindu nationalists who want to disempower Kashmir and amalgamate it with India: end the occupation and stay away from Kashmir!
In a damning admission, Hindu nationalist leaders have complained that they have credible evidence that freedom fighters, seeking an end to Indian occupation, have been campaigning in
These elections have another equally telling aspect, one that is largely concealed by political strategists in New Delhi and Srinagar. As if to vindicate the inconvenient truth of the much maligned two-nation theory, Jammu and Kashmir’s two provinces again displayed the historic religious divide that led to the 1947 Partition. Kashmir, a Muslim-majority territory, voted for the NC, trashing the Hindu nationalist BJP and its allies. While, in Jammu, with a majority Hindu population, the BJP won, and the NC and other Kashmir-based political parties lost. In a campaign rally led by the Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah, he shouted into a crowd of supporters: “Tell me: Is Kashmir ours, or not?!” (Omkar Khandekar, “In Kashmir, voting begins in first local elections since India revoked autonomy” Sept. 18, 2024, https://www.opb.org/). According to the election results, the answer was a firm no.
The significance of these electoral consequences could not be louder or clearer: Jammu’s largely Hindu voters supported a rabidly anti-Muslim, anti-Kashmir Hindu nationalist party, while Kashmir’s largely Muslim voters voted against it. There were even defeats for the relatively secular Indian National Congress party in Kashmir. This Jammu versus Kashmir sentiment, unmistakably religiously
driven, surfaces more often than the self-interested political class publicly acknowledge. Since partition in 1947, both provinces have been suspicious of each other. There are still haunting memories of the macabre August 1947 Jammu massacre in which hundreds of thousands of Muslim men, women, and children were butchered, raped, or burned alive. A chilling account of this massacre is the subject of Khalid Bashir’s book Kashmir: A Walk-Through History (Gulshan Books Kashmir, 2018).
Memories of this butchery linger on. In the mind of Kashmiris, the national parties of India cannot establish themselves in Kashmir except by chicanery, repression, or both. More than seven decades into the conflict, Kashmir refuses to oblige India’s desire to dominate the Kashmiris. Truth be told, Jammu has never been a problem for India. The problem and the prize, according to late Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru (PM from 1947 to 1964), was Kashmir.
The recent elections are not the first in Kashmir’s history. Throughout its electoral saga, two factors have always been relevant and equally critical in Kashmir politics: the first has been the incessant calls for a referendum on the final status of the territory. A second factor, expressed through minimal participation in previous elections, has been the people’s aspirations for greater economic opportunities and higher standards of living which have been trampled under brutal state repression. The demands for roads, water, and electricity have been on the politicians’ agenda seeking votes. Kashmir has been bleeding politically and economically for decades. In days gone by, tourists used to flock to the area’s postcard-pretty meadows, lakes, and snowcapped peaks. Now, political conflict proliferates, and Indian state repression of Kashmiri identity is rampant. As a result, the economy of the region badly suffers, and job opportunities are simply not available.
between India and Pakistan, nor can they erase the scars of so many years of strife. Elections can, however, be a first step in a broader process that begins to address Kashmiri grievances and leads India and Pakistan back to dialogue” (Ron Synovitz, “Asia: Powell Says U.S Committed On Kashmir, Calls For ConfidenceBuilding Steps,” July 29, 2002, Radio Free Europe). A number of United Nations resolutions have also called for an impartial referendum adhering to Kashmiri political aspirations on both sides of the India-Pakistan divide. Such a referendum could confront the longstanding Indian position that Kashmiris have chosen to side with the Indian democracy by participating in elections with a single, simply-worded question asking: “Do you want to remain with India?”
The recent elections are not the first in Kashmir’s history. Throughout its electoral saga, two factors have always been relevant and equally critical in Kashmir politics: the first has been the incessant calls for a referendum on the final status of the territory. A second factor … has been the people’s aspirations for greater economic opportunities and higher standards of living.
In the 2024 elections, however, there was a single issue in the Kashmiri political agenda. This issue was aptly described by a former finance minister and a BJP ally Haseeb Drabu who said: “This [was not] a vote for something… [it was] a vote against the BJP” and its anti-Kashmir policies” (Omkar Khandekar , “In Kashmir, voting begins in first local elections since India revoked autonomy”, Sept.18, 2024, NPR).
THE STATUS OF KASHMIR: AN INTERNATIONAL ISSUE
In addition, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference — a united political front to raise the cause of Kashmiri independence — leadership has consistently insisted that elections in the territory are not a substitute for resolving the long-standing Kashmir dispute. This has historically also been the enduring position of the European Union which continues to emphasize “a solution that respects the interests of the Kashmiri population on both sides of the IndiaPakistan border” (Akanksha Saxena, “What is the EU’s stand on the Kashmir conflict?” February 19, 2021, DW.com).
Officially, the United States shares this position. In his remarks on record, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (2001 to 2005) stated that these “elections alone… cannot resolve the problems
Even the famous Nehru confirmed this position in his telegram to Liaquat Ali Khan, the Pakistani Prime Minister on Oct. 27, 1947, saying, “I should like to make it clear that the question of aiding Kashmir in this emergency is not designed in any way to influence the state to accede to India. Our view which we have repeatedly made public is that the question of accession in any disputed territory or state must be decided in accordance with wishes of people and we adhere to this view.”
The certain clarity of the Kashmiri response to the questions of sovereignty and identity is feared by the Indian government. There is no doubt in the Indian strategists’ mind: Kashmiris will not vote for India. Kashmiris never have been and never want to be a part of India. Instead, they are being held at a gunpoint in the largest prison on the planet.
Kashmiris’ total rejection of Indian control is widely known as the quintessential fault line between India and Pakistan. Multiple wars, innumerable attempts at dialog, and a multitude of civic elections for governance — however toothless — have not repaired this fault line but rather have led to corrupt political maneuvering, militaristic repression, and largescale bribing of client politicians.
Elections to run local civil governments are not a viable substitute for mandated UN-sponsored referendums. Democracy requires granting Kashmiris their wishes or else risk a nuclear nightmare for billions of people in South Asia. The sooner Indian leaders realize this, the better. ih
Tariq Ahmed is a political analyst and a freelance writer.
Striving for Equality and Empowerment for the Disabled in Canada’s Muslim Community
One-on-One with Rabia Khedr
BY SUNDUS ABRAR
The Canadian government has announced its goal to create a barrier-free Canada by 2040. Toward this end, Canada has passed multiple legislative acts aimed at supporting Canadians with disabilities including the Accessible Canada Act (ACA, 2019) and the Canada Disability Benefit Act (CDB Act, 2023). For its part, the CBD Act establishes a framework for an annual, income-tested benefit for eligible working-age people with disabilities living within the Canadian provinces.
Muslim Canadians are doing their part toward helping those with disabilities, too. An example of these efforts is the Muneeba Centre which, some would say, is tucked away in plain sight. “Everybody misses it the first time,” said Rabia Khedr, CEO of DEEN, the Disability Empowerment Equality Network.
During a visit to the Muneeba Centre in Mississauga, Ontario this summer, I saw a focused service and a determined energy even on a quiet Friday afternoon. I appreciated the artwork created by program attendees that was proudly displayed on the
walls which included handmade cards neatly stacked on a folding table. There was also a detailed schedule of activities and pictures of past cooking programs pinned on the kitchen bulletin board. While I perused the artwork, the DEEN staff took turns completing training and attending Jummah prayer while ensuring the care of individuals who participated in programming activities in the facility’s backyard.
A SUBSET MINORITY
Muslims with disabilities experience discrimination that is further amplified given
that they constitute a subset minority. Khedr, who lives with blindness, recounts taking her brother to urgent care, a trying situation which quickly became even more challenging given that her brother is limited in expressing his needs. According to Khedr, their attempt to seek medical attention was further aggravated by a nurse’s dismissive approach in ensuring accessibility. Racial bias became clear as she attempted to educate the nurse about her brother and family’s circumstances and was met with patronizing disdain. Khedr recognized that there was a gap in the health care system for minorities with disabilities that needed to be addressed. Yet despite the severe shortcomings she experienced with her brother, she broached the incident as an opportunity for education and tactfully reported the interaction. “I didn’t want her to lose her job, I just wanted for her and others to be informed about how to accommodate individuals with disabilities,” said Khedr.
Similarly, when approaching the Muslim community, Khedr’s initial focus was on education. This led her to engaging a khutbah campaign highlighting the concerns and needs of those with disabilities and their families: “Disability in the community is an invisible problem — if we don’t see people with disabilities there’s often this assumption that well there must not be any,” said Khedr. Concerns of people with disabilities are often overlooked as lack of access often translates into lack of interaction with the broader community. Khedr also shared her personal experience with this communal invisibility as her own family retracted from attending the local mosque in Mississauga after a deeply impactful event during her childhood. “My brothers, who have developmental disabilities, made involuntary sounds. The imam announced, “Sisters if you can’t keep your kids quiet, then keep them at home.” My mother took that literally and we didn’t go back for years until my grandfather’s janazah (funeral),” said Khedr.
Besides, Rabia Khedr, in attendance were community leaders and members as well as political representatives, including Ontario’s Finance Minister Charles Sousa, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie and Mississauga-Lakeshore MP Svend Spengemann.
Khedr’s focus shifted in the early 2000’s when she realized her shared concerns with other members of the community in similar circumstances. She discovered other community members who either had a disability themselves or had family members with special needs. Khedr’s family originates from a small village in Pakistan and she came to Canada as a four-year old. She acknowledges her circumstances would have been different if her family had stayed in Pakistan: “I
conducting DEEN’s ongoing work which consists of several daily, weekly, or biweekly programs. DEEN also hosts special events and webinars to address relevant topics such as filing taxes for disabled adults. DEEN’s programming offer respite to adults with disabilities by creating opportunities for them to socialize, learn essential skills, and interact with other individuals outside their family “The biggest fear parents have is who is going to look after my child when I am no
There’s this common misconception, that if you live in Canada, you are taken care of by the government,” said Khedr. In fact, benefit funding for Canadians with disabilities is limited while the services that are offered are often not mindful of the culturally sensitive requirements across Canada’s diverse communities.
would have had a very different life living there, probably would have been washing someone else dishes,” she said. However, relatively better circumstances don’t mean that enough is being done to support people with disabilities in Canada. Thus, Khedr and her peers started actively working to address their needs. And while DEEN has a focus on addressing the specific cultural and religious needs of disabled members of the Muslim community, they welcome people belonging to other faiths as well.
Initially DEEN planned to rely on area mosques and other community spaces to offer programming, but a lack of consistency in securing these spaces led to establishing the Muneeba Centre. In addition to their Mississauga center, DEEN also operates chapters in Scarborough and Ottawa and is currently striving towards raising funds for a facility in Scarborough.
People with disabilities and their caregivers face a severe dropin support and opportunities to socialize once they age out of the education system at the age of 21. DEEN is dedicated to filling this gap by supporting adults with disabilities “It’s not healthy for adults to be around their parents all the time, and its hard on the parents too,” said Khedr. The Muneeba Centre is crucial in
longer able to,” said Khedr. These programs aim to overcome the isolation, frustrations, and worries of families whose membership includes adults living with disabilities. DEEN has steadily grown in their ability to meet the needs of adults with disabilities by employing a wide range of thoughtful services. But these services are not entirely visible on social media platforms. This is by design. Khedr’s determined patience in educating the Muslim community would not be successful without careful consideration of the hopes and expectations of those that seek support in DEEN “I am interested in helping people and serving others. I want to be sure that we can meet the needs of people. We don’t want to get their hopes up,” she said. Khedr has been tactful and shared DEEN’s efforts cautiously on social media to avoid any potentially discouraging scenarios so that families and caregivers are protected from potential disappointment.
BUILDING CAPACITY
Muslim immigrants have realized tremendous potential and undergone financial growth in Canada, yet there is a lack of sustained focus in addressing the needs of subset minorities within that community. As a result, DEEN’s focus has been to build
and maintain trust by consistently aligning services with the expectations of those that seek support “Everybody jumps on a headline cause, but we need to build capacity by collaborating on a big picture plan,” explained Khedr. “We don’t build capacity. We build these schools and mosques that only meet the needs of a very specific ethnic group or a very small part of the community. Disabled people are not a priority. No one is willing to commit substantially and even maintaining visibility requires significant resources.”
All of DEEN’s staff and board members either have a disability themselves or have family members with disabilities: This attachment to and understanding of the cause has certainly contributed to the consistency with which DEEN has continued to grow and serve. Armed with her trademark patience, Khedr is undeterred and is optimistically moving forward “The big dream is respite residential services, an Islamic model of long-term care for folks with disabilities.” Currently Muslims with disabled family members in respite care, a short-term care that provides temporary relief for caregivers, are not given the assurance that their loved ones will receive care that aligns with Islamic values. For instance, caregivers tending to personal and hygiene needs may be from the opposite gender.
The challenge that DEEN faces is sustaining funds and visibility. While it has received some government grant funding, it’s not enough. Khedr urges consistent collaboration from other organizations to invest in DEEN to sustain and grow the services to continue offering care and programming which is mindful of Islamic values.
Khedr holds an acclaimed position in her field. “I work in a space I created,” she said. In addition to being a mother of four and CEO of DEEN, she currently also serves as National Director of Disability with Poverty. Previously she was a Commissioner with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. She has also been awarded Daniel J Hill Human Rights Award for distinguished service. She is not hesitant in persistently advocating for disability rights and support: “I always say I can’t see any dirty looks people may give, so I will keep at it.”
To learn more about DEEN Support Services and donate, visit: https://deensupportservices.ca ih
Sundus Abrar is a freelance writer.
CULTURE
Urdu — The Most Elegant, Refined, and Concise Language
Urdu is Disappearing in
India
BY MISBAHUDDIN MIRZA
Devta apni pujaran ka khud pujari ban baetha (The deity becomes his own devotee’s worshiper). As a teenager, when I read this headline on the cover of an Urdu magazine highlighting what was then considered the most sensational story, I was immediately awed by Urdu’s power. In one brief sentence, the editor had conveyed what was on the mind of many — Why would the most famous and already married middle-aged movie actor secretly wed one of his fans?
Addicted to obsessive marathon reading in English since the age of eight, now I had discovered that Urdu was just as graceful and as powerful — if not more so.
I soon Learned that it was Urdu’s brief, concise, and poetic qualities that had quickly made it so popular in the Subcontinent. To be specific, it was the Urdu sher (couplet) that propelled it to universal popularity and ubiquitous usage. The first line of the couplet sets the stage, and the second completes the message. This was an utterly revolutionary way of communicating. If you had a good vocabulary and knew how to string words together in a melodious way, keeping in mind the delicacy of the situation, a single couplet could convey your thoughts better than an entire book. The more I learned about
Urdu, the more I fell in love with this gorgeous and stunning language.
On the secular front, poets like Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), and Mirza Asadullah Ghalib (d.1869) developed Urdu prose and poetry to incredible sophistication. However, the many Urdu poets like them glorified wine and women and corrupt religious teachings, such as Ghalib’s “Masnavi” (spiritual poem)
about Benares, a Hindu holy city. Some later writers attempted to justify these poems by saying that the poet really meant to praise God and not a woman.
But there were prominent religious poets like Mohammed Iqbal (d.1938) who, with the awesome power of his poetry, revived the ummah’s sagging morale that resulted from the Ottoman Empire’s defeat to the collapse of Muslim rule in India.
URDU’S ORIGIN
From religious texts to secular writings/ poetry, movies, songs, mushairas (poetry recitals), ghazals (a form of amatory poem or ode), and government correspondence, it was inconceivable to use any other language to better articulate your thoughts. Today, it’s unimaginable for Bollywood, which makes twice as many movies as Hollywood, to release a “Hindi” movie or song without a substantial amount of Urdu vocabulary.
Urdu, from the Turkish word ordu (camp), was created in India during the initial contact period between its inhabitants and the newly arrived Persianized Turks who spoke a Farsi already Arabicized by the Rashidun Caliphate. Urdu was initially called Hindawi, Khariboli, or Hindustani. Mughal Emperor Shahjahan (1628-58) named his military cantonment “Urdu-eMuaalla,” where soldiers coming from various regions used to speak in Hindustani.
Urdu and Hindi are considered mutually intelligible languages. Indian novelist Devdan Chaudhuri, writing on Sept. 29, 2020, said, “Hindi was devised by a Scottish linguist [John Gilchrist (d.1841)] of the East India Company — it can never be India’s national language” (https://countercurrents.org/). He stated that Gilchrist split the language into Urdu and Hindi to linguistically segregate the Hindus and the Muslims to further the British divide and rule policy. He used the Perso-Arabic script and Arabic, Farsi, and Turkic vocabulary for Urdu, and the Devanagari/Nagari script and Sanskrit vocabulary for Hindi.
Chaudhury quotes Santosh Kumar Khare’s statement that “the notion of Hindi and Urdu
as two distinct languages crystallized at Calcutta’s Fort William College in the first half of the 19th century” and “their linguistic and literary repertoires were built up accordingly, Urdu borrowing from Persian/Arabic and Hindi from Sanskrit’ (Khare (2002), Truth about Language in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 37(50), 4993-4994).
Dutch historian Thomas De Bruijn agreed that Fort William College was “more or less the birthplace of modern Hindi.” And
Bilal Kuchay’s “Hate campaign in India against Urdu for being a ‘Muslim’ language,” article quotes Nivedita Menon (professor, Center for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University) as saying “the Hindutva project sees Urdu as a ‘Muslim’ language, and invisiblizing Urdu is part of the larger project of marginalizing the Muslim community, in fact, physically eliminating it” (Al Jazeera, Oct. 27, 2021).
Indian census figures show that Urdu
Urdu used to be the common language of all educated people in India till 1947. The revival of Urdu is as important as the revival of Sanskrit … if the nation is to progress. Urdu was the language of free thinkers; the poetry was often about voicing protest against injustice and inhumanity.”
Urdu academies in several Indian states now offer certificate courses, and some individuals with large social media followings are attempting to promote Urdu. Yoginder Sikand’s article “Urdu in India and a man with a mission: Arif Iqbal and his Urdu Book Review” (June 14, 2007, twocircles.net) details Iqbal’s 30 remarkable years of dedication, publishing a bimonthly Urdu Book Review journal, and serving as the production manager for Markazi Maktaba Islami, a leading Islamic publisher. Mohammed Aslam Parvaiz (former vice chancellor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University) has been doing a phenomenal job of publishing the Urdu Science magazine.
Sanjiv Saraf (chairman, Polyplex Corp. Ltd.) fell in love with Urdu — not his mother tongue — and established Rekhta. org, a resource read in 180 countries with a monthly readership of over 2 million. Rekhta has already digitized 200,000 books and built digital products such as dictionaries and transliteration engines. For those interested in learning to read Urdu or in expanding their vocabulary, Rekhta Learning platform (previously aamozish.com) offers free eCourses.
finally, Chaudhury quotes George Abraham Grierson, the Irish linguist, that the standard or pure Hindi which contemporary Indians use is “an artificial dialect the mother tongue of no native-born Indian, a newly invented speech, that wonderful hybrid known to Europeans as Hindi and invented by them.”
Gilchrist’s massive efforts paid off. During the final stages of India’s independence struggle, Urdu became a casualty. When the Muslim League was founded in 1936 to demand a separate Muslim homeland, radical Hindu groups started a campaign to remove Arabic and Farsi words from Hindi, making it more Sanskritized. Muslims also started removing Sanskrit words from Urdu.
While Urdu is Pakistan’s national language, due to several factors after independence it became almost extinct in Indian educational institutions. For example, around 1965 a private Catholic boys’ school in Hyderabad, which used to be subsidized by the Nizam’s Princely State of Hyderabad, stopped offering Urdu as one of the three mandatory languages required from K-10. Such steps have raised generations of people with no formal study of Urdu. New York Times’ Bernard Weinraub, writing in “Decline of Urdu feared in India,” commented on the state of Urdu in India (Aug. 5, 1973).
speakers have steadily doubled from 1971 to 2001. The 2011 census, however, showed a decrease despite a significant population increase, especially in Uttar Pradesh, once considered Urdu’s heartland: only 28% Muslims recorded it as their primary language. However, the same 2011 census showed an increase of Urdu speakers in southern India, indicating a shift in the language’s spread. Linguist Ganesh N. Devy told Al Jazeera that “when the [2021] census takes place, my fear is that many speakers of Urdu might simply report Hindi as their mother tongue.”
URDU DOES HAVE ITS PROMOTERS
In recent years, several individuals have been striving to preserve and promote Urdu. Islamic Horizons spoke to Kashif Ul Huda (former executive director, TwoCircles.net), who started Urdustan.com — the earliest Urdu website to publish Urdu articles, podcasts, and forums discussing Urdu poetry, and an Urdu web directory — from 1996 to 2006. He teaches Urdu poetry in his hometown of Cambridge, Mass., and has developed a novel method of teaching a person to read the script (nastaleeq) within four weeks. He is encouraged to see people both in India and expatriates taking the time to learn Urdu.
Writing on tribuneindia.com , Saraf said, “When you use it (Urdu) socially or among friends, you feel more sophisticated, come across as more intelligent and wittier. Whatever reason attracted you to Urdu, once you taste it, you are hooked.” Saraf told the Economic Times, “Urdu was born here in India. It developed here. In no other country in the world do you have Urdu. There is so much of Hindi in Urdu” (Dec. 27, 2015).
Justice Markandey Katju (retired Supreme Court of India judge; former chairman, the Press Council of India) says that in India the two languages that define the country are both neglected: Urdu and Sanskrit. “Urdu used to be the common language of all educated people in India till 1947. The revival of Urdu is as important as the revival of Sanskrit … if the nation is to progress. Urdu was the language of free thinkers; the poetry was often about voicing protest against injustice and inhumanity” (tribuneindia.com). Rizwan Ahmad writing in The Wire on Dec. 23, 2018, cautions, “As we celebrate Urdu, let’s not ignore the signs of its decline in India.” ih
Misbahuddin Mirza, M.S., P.E., is a licensed professional engineer registered in the States of New York and New Jersey. He served as the regional quality control engineer for the New York State Department of Transportation’s New York City Region, authored the iBook “Illustrated Muslim Travel Guide to Jerusalem” and has written for major U.S. and Indian publications.
Study of English Literature is Dying in the West
The Salvific Value of Islamic Perspectives on English Literature
BY MD. MAHMUDUL HASAN
Many believe that Islam and English literature are mutually exclusive. Some people may even shudder at the thought of integrating one into the other.
English literature’s global reach is often greeted with disquiet, as it’s considered a corollary to Britain’s colonial expansion. What’s more, its study is generally believed to be unsuited to the needs of non-British or non-Western readers. In a 2019 essay, Esmaeil Zeiny of Tehran’s Kharazmi University argues that reading this literary tradition is interpreted as “celebrating the Anglo-American canonical literature” (Interventions 23.6 [2021], p.88).
British-Zimbabwean writer Doris Lessing, the 2007 Nobel laureate in literature, had limited formal schooling. In Doris Lessing: The Poetics of Change (1994), literary scholar Gayle Greene (professor emerita, Scripps College, Claremont, Calif.) states, “When she was seven Lessing was sent to school at the Roman Catholic Convent in Salisbury [now Harare], and at thirteen she transferred to the Girls High School, also in Salisbury, but withdrew at fourteen” (p.6).
Simply stated, Lessing was largely selftaught. In 1982, when asked if she regretted not studying at a university, she responded, “But I’m glad that I was not educated in literature and history and philosophy, which means that I did not have this Eurocentered thing driven into me, which I think is the single biggest hang-up Europe has got. It’s almost impossible for anyone in the West not to see the West as the God-given gift to the world.”
Clearly, Lessing detests the replacement of indigenous knowledge systems with Eurocentric education and correlates humanities subjects like English literature with colonial hegemony over the (formerly) colonized.
Similarly, in Culture and Imperialism (1993), Edward Said characterizes
imperialism as “an educational movement” (p.269). In the same vein, in her essay “Currying Favor: The Politics of British Educational and Cultural Policy in India, 1813-1854” (1988), Said’s student Gauri Viswanathan of New York’s Columbia University states, “The English literary text functioned as a surrogate Englishman in his highest and most perfect state… The split between the material and the cultural practices of colonialism is nowhere sharper than in the progressive rarefaction of the rapacious, exploitative, and ruthless actor of history into the reflective subject of literature” (p.103).
During the British colonial period, Englishmen acted as colonial administrators and harbingers of imperial modernity in different parts of the world. Since their departure, the cultural role of spreading British values has partly been played by English literary texts. This approach makes the colonized glance away from imperial
plunder and pillage and immerse themselves into various strands of literary and philosophical musings.
According to John McLeod of the University of Leeds, “The teaching of English literature in the colonies must be understood as part of the many ways in which Western colonial powers such as Britain asserted their cultural and moral superiority while at the same time devaluing indigenous cultural products” (Beginning Postcolonialism, 2000, p.140).
All these arguments suggest that introducing English literature helped reinforce the notion of British cultural dominance. As a result, it reduced indigenous literature to the level of a provincial, inferior and inchoate culture.
Indigenous Canadian but Westerneducated scholar Marie Battiste discusses the (ir)relevance of English literature to postcolonial societies. She “speaks with an authoritative double consciousness” and
“provides important empirical perspectives aligning Western educational systems with coloniality” (James S. Wright).
In her 1998 essay, Battiste argues: “We cannot continue to allow Aboriginal students to be given a fragmented existence in a curriculum that does not mirror them, nor should they be denied understanding the historical context that has created the fragmentation” (“Enabling the autumn seed,” Canadian Journal of Native Education, 22.1 [1998]).
In 1968, Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o and his colleagues Taban Lo Liyong and Peter Awuor Anyumba at the University of Nairobi’s English Department wrote a note titled “On the abolition of the English Department.” They sought to make a case against the dominance of English literature in Africa and, by extension, other non-Western societies. As a result, the university’s English Department was renamed the Department of Literature.
In that memo, the three formidable Kenyan literary scholars stated, “For any group it is better to study representative works which mirror their society rather than to study a few isolated ‘classics,’ either of their own or of a foreign culture.” (quoted in Killam, “African literature and Canada, The Dalhousie Review,” 53 [1973-74]).
The word “mirror” in the above quote and in Battiste’s paper is important. The literary texts — Western or Eastern — taught to students should mirror their present-day, pervasive concerns as well as the life and struggles of their time’s underprivileged people.
OLIVER TWIST AND OTHER CLASSICS
Moreover, the literature should reflect comparable social realities in the wider world that we inhabit. The literature classes’ content should be relevant to the students’ lives and encourage their engagement and interest. For example, in terms of the context and reflection of reality, Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” (1839) is relevant to our time and retains its own historical context. Its major themes — such as corruption, criminality, injustice, poverty and an unfeeling society — resonate with present-day social conditions in many parts of the world.
Thus, the novel can be characterized as a global text of enormous scope and with worldwide appeal. It compels readers to contextualize the titular protagonist’s
experiences in their surroundings and acknowledge that the kind of life in which the novel was produced is not unique.
When teaching “Oliver Twist” to Muslim students, an educator can easily relate Dickens’ portrayal of oppression, exploitation, and degradation of vulnerable groups in society to Islam’s strong, primordial emphasis on justice and ending all forms of injustice: “Say: My Lord enjoins justice” (7:29).
Another verse reads: “And how could
Islam will establish its relevance and context for the Muslim audience and ground them in Muslim societies.
In light of the decolonizing or indigenizing of Eurocentric education, providing Islamic perspectives on English literature will establish this literary tradition’s importance, significance, and applicability to Muslims. In other words, interpreting English texts through the lens of Islam has a salvific value in terms of continuing their
But I’m glad that I was not educated in literature and history and philosophy, which means that I did not have this Eurocentered thing driven into me, which I think is the single biggest hang-up Europe has got. It’s almost impossible for anyone in the West not to see the West as the God-given gift to the world.” — Doris Lessing
you refuse to fight in the cause of God and of the utterly helpless men and women and children who are crying, ‘O our Sustainer! Lead us forth [to freedom] out of this land whose people are oppressors, and raise for us, out of Thy grace, a protector, and raise for us, out of Thy grace, one who will bring us succor!’” (4:75).
Therefore, correlating this novel’s central thesis to Islam lends the text greater legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of Muslim readers.
In March 2023, The New Yorker published Nathan Heller’s essay “The End of the English Major.” As the title indicates, the essay argues that enrolment in English departments at U.S. universities is “in free fall.”
While subjects in the humanities are losing out to the bread-and-butter fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in the West, the field of English literature in Muslim-majority countries is at risk for its underlying Eurocentrism, foreignness and irrelevance to Muslim realities.
In a time when this field is at risk of dying out or disappearing from the syllabi, seeing English literary texts through the lens of
teaching and learning in Muslim-majority countries.
The pinnacle of the glory and global prestige of English literature is perhaps behind us. Therefore, learning its texts from Muslim perspectives may generate new insights and provide it with new trajectories of academic research. This new lens will make those works relevant to, and prolong their prevalence in, Muslim societies by way of exploring points of convergence and divergence between Islam and the literary tradition.
Any literary tradition bears the risk of becoming anachronistic if it loses relevance to its audience’s real world experiences or fails to enrich its readers’ understanding of the meaning of life. What students encounter in the text should offer an analysis of the past and present (oppressive) social conditions and have a perennial appeal to the reader globally. This will spare English literature the charges of Eurocentric bias, disconnect, or anachronism. ih
Md.
Mahmudul Hasan, PhD, is professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia. He edits Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature. An earlier version of this essay appeared on https://www.islamicity. org/ on May 20, 2024.
Salahuddin
Malik
Professor Emeritus of History
1935-2024
Salahuddin Malik, PhD – professor of history, scholar of Muslim nationalism and British imperial history, pioneer in the local and national Muslim community, advocate for building bridges between Muslims and other religious communities, and dedicated husband and father, died November 4, 2024, at the age of 89. A scholar and a gentleman, Malik’s life was a testament of service to God, family, and community.
Born in pre-partition British India in 1935, his outlook on life was shaped, in part, by his experience during the mass migration that occurred across the newly formed border between India and Pakistan when he was just 12 years old. While many migrants encountered mayhem and violence, Malik’s maternal grandfather – Sheikh Ghulam Farid, president of the Gurdaspur Muslim League –was able to peacefully lead a caravan of nearly 70,000 refugees from the city across the border into Pakistan because he was well-respected by both political leaders and religious figures across all traditions in the region during this time.
The lessons from this experience were not lost on him and he grew to admire his grandfather’s ability to engage and earn the respect of a wide swath of leaders across the community. He followed in his grandfather’s footsteps after immigrating to the United States in 1966, becoming a leader in the local Muslim community and standing as a strong advocate for interfaith dialogue and communal bridge building.
Malik was not only a loving and devoted husband and father, but he was also a pillar in the local Muslim community. He was founding president of the Islamic Center of Rochester which ensured that local Muslims would have both a place of worship and community center for generations to come. He also supported the work of Barakah Muslim Charity, a local food pantry dedicated to helping community members in need.
He studied history at Punjab University (Lahore, Pakistan) before earning his Ph.D. in British Imperial History at Montreal’s McGill University in 1966. Following teaching stints at Rosemont College and the Rochester Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty at the State University of New York, Brockport where he taught for 50 years before retiring in 2020.
His fascination with Muslim responses to British colonial rule in India resulted in the publication of many journal articles and book chapters. Over the course of his academic career, he presented of his research at the Sorbonne, Oxford University, the King Faisal Center for Research in Islamic Studies, and other renowned institutions. His crowning scholarly achievement was his book 1857: War of Independence or Clash of Civilizations? British Public Reactions published in 2008 by Oxford University Press. He also lent his scholarly expertise to revising history textbooks on Islam and the Muslim world used in the educational system in the United States.
Deeply committed to building bridges and engaging in dialogue on contemporary issues, he was a generous donor both intellectually and financially to the Salahuddin and Sarwat Malik Lecture Series to help foster greater understanding between East and West, as well as to the Malik History Scholarship and Malik Family Fund. He was also a founding member of the Rochester Interfaith Alliance, which brings together local Jews, Christians, and Muslims for productive and peaceable interfaith dialogue. His other leadership roles included serving as the president of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, the vice president of the Pakistani American Congress, and in roles serving other local and national organizations including Majlis-e-Shura in the Islamic Society of North America, The American Institute of Pakistan Studies, The Council on Islamic Education, and The Pakistani American Society of Rochester. His focus on improving the lives of Muslims in America was paired with a passionate drive for political advocacy striving to better the lot of Muslim in the United States as well as in communities across the globe.
Beyond the walls of the classroom, Malik was also a convener. He chaired several international conferences bringing together social scientists and thought leaders from all over the world to debate and dialogue. In addition, he actively advocated for causes dear to him, including human rights issues in Pakistan, Kashmir, Palestine, and for the participation of Muslims in the U.S. on Capitol Hill and at the State Department.
It was because of a paper he wrote in the 1960s on the rights, roles, and responsibilities of women in the three Abrahamic faiths that his wife, Dr. Sarwat Malik, came to fully appreciate the opportunities and rights her faith gave her. With this foundation, she became a lifelong advocate for Muslim women and girls for the rest of her life.
Ever the historian, Malik published some of his most pioneering research on the history of Rochester and Monroe County’s Muslim community. In addition, future scholars will benefit from the Salahuddin Malik Islam in America papers archived at the University of Rochester.
His wife Sarwat Malik, a physician and women’s rights advocate, preceded him in death in 2013 (see Islamic Horizons Magazine, Sept/ Oct 2013). He is survived by his daughters Nadia and Sumaiya. ih
Speaking at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh.
10 Muslim-Centered Fiction Books To Fill The Void of Mainstream Representation
For readers who yearn for authentic Muslim stories with heart, grit, love, and faith
BY ANMOL IRFAN
If you’re anything like me and simply need to be reading a book at all times, you know that finding a good Muslim-centric book that isn’t racist, problematic, or stereotypical is incredibly difficult. And with the current state of representation of Muslims in mainstream media being what it is, sometimes you just need an unapologetically Muslim story to connect to. Here are 10 Muslim-centric novels that will scratch that itch.
HIDDEN FIRES BY SAIRISH HUSSAIN
Sairish Hussain’s second novel Hidden Fires is a gripping tale that moves between the 1947 IndiaPakistan partition and the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in West London in 2017. Hidden Fires is a story that connects generations. The relationship between grandfather and granddaughter is at the heart of the novel, and it speaks to all immigrant, multicultural families for whom family ties can be a source of both identity and heartbreak. Pain, loss, and trauma in South Asian, Arab and Muslim cultures can sometimes be swept under the rug, and this novel is a reminder of the work we still need to do on our way to healing.
ALIF THE UNSEEN BY G. WILLOW WILSON
YOU
THINK YOU KNOW ME BY AYAAN
MOHAMUD
For fans of The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas, Ayaan Mohamud’s debut novel follows Hanan, who is considered to be the perfect Muslim student by her teachers. When a horrifying attack increases Islamophobic abuse, Hanan decides she’s had enough. Hanan and the characters around her are relatable and well-written which makes the message of the book even more powerful for Muslim teenagers who may be able to see themselves in Hanan’s shoes. By the book’s end, readers come to understand that in this world, hate and violence are unfortunately not far off realities, but instead everyday battles we need to fight.
HANA KHAN CARRIES ON BY UZMA JALALUDDIN
Alif the Unseen is possibly my favorite book on this list because every part of it was so unexpected. Perhaps the only Muslim fiction book out there that links Islamic teachings, the Quran, and Islamic beliefs in Djinns to technology, Wilson’s novel constantly leaves you wanting more. Having a confident niqabi female character as one of the leads only adds to the joy of reading this book and getting swept up in a world that blends the mystique and allure of Arabian Nights with the harsh, often unsatisfying grind of modern-day politics.
LOVE FROM A TO Z BY S.K. ALI
On a lighter note, Love from A to Z is the Muslim romance-com we didn’t know we needed. S.K. Ali has long proven that Muslim stories don’t always need to be doom and gloom. Through Zayneb and Adam, she delivers a love story that soothes a long-standing need to read a romance we can relate to. Between illness, anger, angst, and the need to make sense of teenage feelings within the context of Islam, Zayneb and Adam will have you rooting for them the whole way through.
As the character I can relate to the most throughout all these compelling stories, Hana holds a special place in my heart. Despite the book receiving mixed feedback, it was a fresh and interesting take on a young Muslim woman starting her journey into adulthood. From her desire to be the “right kind” of fair, to trying to save her family’s failing business from a handsome rival, to dealing with microaggressions at work, to displaying her fashion choices through her hijab, Hana is relatable, realistic, beautifully flawed, and refreshingly lively. The romance is a bonus.
THE BAD MUSLIM DISCOUNT BY SYED M. MASOOD
Providing equal parts comedic relief and introspection into the struggles of practicing Islam in a modern world, The Bad Muslim Discount covers what it means to be on the journey of finding faith. This book follows Safwa and Anvar, characters from two families who immigrated to America in the 1990s as they navigate American imperialism, identity, and belonging with humor and sarcasm.
WE HUNT THE FLAME BY HAFSAH FAIZAL
We Hunt the Flame is a young adult fantasy novel set in Demenhur, a land inspired by ancient Arabia. It follows 17-year-old Zafira who disguises herself as a man to hunt and provide food for people in her community who view women as tainted and unworthy. Opposing Zafira is an assassin named Nasir, who, like Zahira, kills for his family. The two characters clash when they’re both sent on
a quest to uncover an ancient artifact, but greater forces and an ancient evil make their journey more complicated than either of them were prepared for. This book is well-written, gripping, and full of exciting twists and turns. It’s refreshing to see diversity within the fantasy genre, and to see such a strong female Muslim-inspired lead dominating the story.
THE MAP OF SALT AND STARS BY ZEYN
JOUKHADAR
NEW RELEASES
Palestine in a World on Fire 2024, Pp. 304, HB $50.00, PB $17.95, Kindle
$9.95
Haymarket Books, Chicago, Ill.
EThe Map of Salt and Stars is a beautifully written tale of two girls traveling along the exact same route roughly 800 years apart. The narrative shifts between 13-year-old Nour, who moves to Syria with her mother and sisters only to become refugees during the Syrian Civil War, and 16-year-old Rawiya who dresses up as a boy to become an apprentice to a mapmaker in the 12th century. This book is raw, gripping, and, at times, unbelievably sad. Joukhadar’s writing will make you feel like you are there with both Rawiya and Nour as they look for themselves and a place to call home.
SIX TRUTHS AND A LIE BY REAM SHUKAIRY
Possibly the most intense book on this list, Six Truths and a Lie follows a group of Muslim teens who find themselves arrested for an act of terror. Secrets threaten to ruin the decisions they make about their lives when they find themselves caught in a system where truth doesn’t matter. This novel explores important issues within Muslim communities like guilt, independence, the rule of law, and the journey of navigating your religious beliefs alongside your desires. Each character is unique and far from the stereotypical Muslim stock characters we are used to seeing. The uniqueness on the page provides readers a refreshing diversity in the way young Muslims are represented in contemporary literature. Six Truths and a Lie will play with your emotions throughout the story while the psychological aspects of this book will thrill you , keeping you hooked until the very end.
WHEN A BROWN GIRL FLEES BY AAMNA QURESHI
ditors Ilan Pappé (Director, European Center for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter, UK, and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in the University of Exeter), and Katherine Natanel (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, and Executive Editor, Middle East Research and Information Project) have gathered a collection of interviews with some of the world’s leading progressive thinkers on the movement for Palestinian liberation and its connections to struggles for justice across the globe. The interviewees connect the Palestinian struggle to various liberation movements around the world, simultaneously interrogating and recontextualizing their own positions given the ongoing aggression in Palestine. This incredible group includes Angela Y. Davis, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, Nadine El-Enany, Gabor Mate, Mustafa Barghouti, Yanis Varoufakis, Paul Gilroy, Elias Khoury, Gayatri Spivak, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian.
British parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn, who was ousted from the British Labour Party leadership because of his call for a just peace in Palestine called the book, “A powerful, heart-rendering collection of testimonies that give us hope of peace, freedom, and justice for the Palestinian people.”
Global Islamophobia and the Rise of Populism
Sahar F. Aziz, John L. Esposito (eds.) 2024. Pp. 298. HB $125.00 PB $25.54 Kindle $23.99
Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y. I n recent years, Islamophobia has been on the rise across the globe. Populists politicians from Brazil to Bangladesh have taken to blaming Muslim minorities for a range of economic, political, and social problems in an increasingly common rhetorical strategy. Within these political contexts, narratives of the “threatening Muslim invader” have become troublingly prevalent, regardless of whether the targets of such rhetoric are born citizens or new arrivals to the country.
In parts of Europe and North America, the consequences of Islamophobia are less overtly violent but no less harmful. In the U.S., Europe, and India, Islamophobic rhetoric is increasingly normalized, fracturing ethnically diverse societies as xenophobic, right-wing politicians accumulate followers at an alarming rate. In turn, Islamophobia in the West gives license to discrimination elsewhere, creating a vicious cycle of racism, discrimination, and hate.
Global Islamophobia and the Rise of Populism is the first book to systemically examine the complex factors contributing to the rise in Islamophobia and right-wing populism across three continents, North America, Europe and Asia. As such, this book is an essential contribution to discourse on immigration, racism, xenophobia, and human rights.
When a Brown Girl Flees follows the main character Zahra, whose story starts when she’s faced with an ultimatum after her high school graduation. As a result, she runs away from home, and in so doing, attempts to run away from her darkest secrets. She soon comes to realize though that not everything in life can be solved by outdistancing your problems. The main focus of this book is emotional healing through female friendships, a social dynamic that remains extremely underexplored in Muslim communities. What also stands out is the theme of tawbah that Zahra explores throughout her journey and her own personal attempt at reconnecting with Allah which eventually leads her to finding herself. ih
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy
Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company, New York, N.Y.
Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a theme park school trip on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos — the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge. ih
Anmol Irfan is a freelance journalist and the co-founder of Echoes Media, a slow news platform based on the global south. Her work focuses on marginalized narratives within global discourse including topics such as gender justice, mental health, climate, and more.
