Islamic Horizons November/December 2016

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016/1437 | $4.00 | WWW.ISNA.NET

SHARED LUNAR CALENDAR FOR MUSLIMS | STANDING AGAINST ISLAMOPHOBIA IN CALIFORNIA | BECOMING AN AMERICAN

Ibtihaj Muhammad

Redefining the Muslim American Image

CONTENTS

VOL 45 NO. 6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 visit isna online at: WWW.ISNA.NET

COVER STORY 28 Ibtihaj Muhammad Redefining the Muslim American Image 30 Gold Muslim American Marathoner in Hijab Finishes 31 on the Cover

28 16 18 21 23 23

CONVENTION #53

Navigating Challenges and Seizing Opportunities On the Sidelines & More Interfaith Understanding The Deen Chasers If Not You, Then Who?

EDUCATION

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32 Islamophobia in California School Curricula 34 Timeless Teachings for Young Readers 36 Tackling Technology Tactfully 38 40 42 44

ISLAM IN AMERICA

A New Scouting Experience Guiding the Youth Amidst Islamophobia Becoming An American Is Mass Distribution of the Qur’an Useful?

MUSLIMS IN ACTION

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46 Muslims in the Halls of Justice

HEALTH & WELL-BEING

48 The Unbreakable Relationship

SPECIAL FEATURE

52 Jerusalem 1000 – 1400

FAMILY LIFE

54 Distorted Feminism

6 8 10 58

DEPARTMENTS Editorial ISNA Matters Community Matters New Releases

IN MEMORIAM

56 Ahmed H. Zewail 56 Hanif Mohammad

THE MUSLIM WORLD

59 A Shared Lunar Calendar for Muslims 60 A Merciless Occupation ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Islamic Horizons thanks Kathy Bullock, PhD, Director of Research, The Tessellate Institute, and lecturer, The University of Toronto, for copyediting this issue of the magazine.

DESIGN & LAYOUT BY: Gamal Abdelaziz, A-Ztype Copyeditor: Jay Willoughby. The views expressed in Islamic Horizons are not necessarily the views of its editors nor of the Islamic Society of North America. Islamic Horizons does not accept unsolicitated articles or submissions. All references to the Quran made are from The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Amana, Brentwood, MD.

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EDITORIAL

An Expansive Embrace

By

the time some readers receive this issue of Islamic Horizons, they may have already voted, some may even have heard the results. However, one thing remains that 2016, like the years before, was a grueling year for Muslims in the U.S. and overseas. Denigrating Muslims became a means of seeking public popularity. The forecast seems to be as grim.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Muslim world witnesses the continuing demolition of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan. Muslims are being killed as collateral damage, as victims of friendly fire, and other innumerable pretexts, not just by others but also by Muslims who devise their own legitimacies to kill their brethren.

Blood flows and guns sell. The cry for gun control goes unnoticed. Even as the outgoing President, Barack Obama preached for gun control at home, he found no qualms in selling arms to others. Mother Jones (July 30, 2016) noted, “… the Obama administration has gone to great lengths to build a defense relationship with India, a development guaranteed to benefit US arms exporters. Last year [2015], Washington and New Delhi signed a 10-year defense agreement that included pledges of future joint work on aircraft engines and aircraft carrier designs.” A massacre of Kashmiri Muslims rages in Indian-Occupied Kashmir.

And in September, President Obama, perhaps as parting gift, committed Washington to a 10-year $38 billion taxpayer paid grant to the Tel Aviv junta.

Palestinians remain an enslaved people.

British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, Sept. 5 defended his country’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, saying the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen was not “in clear breach” [emphasis added] of international humanitarian law. In the past year alone, reported the Guardian, March 25, that Britain had sold around £6 billion (nearly $8 billion) worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. Scores of Yemenis, most of them

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civilians continue to die, even medical relief such as Médecins Sans Frontières have been bombed.

Despite the gloom, there were a few glimmers of light. When Donald Trump and his fellow right-wingers insulted the Gold Star couple Khizr and Ghazala Khan, sane Americans stood up in their support. When Ibtihaj Muhammad did not compromise on her preferred Islamic attire, she was not left out but represented her country at the Rio Olympics — signaling that like other Americans, Muslims too can attain their dreams. And the icing on these positives was Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson becoming the first American cabinet member to address a Muslim American event.

It is for Muslim Americans, and specifically the younger generation, to seize the opportunities and work toward more than streaks of hope.

In organizations founded by immigrants from the pre- and post- Hart– Celler Act (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965) generations, leadership is moving to the new generation of Muslim Americans. They have the skills and the cultural competence to build upon the founding generations’ initial work. It is these leaders who need to reach out and fully involve Muslim communities with traditionally sidelined in mainstream America: African Americans and Latinos.

For its part, Islamic Horizons has always striven to be as inclusive as possible, highlighting the issues, concerns, and achievements of all Muslim communities. It will continue in this stance and everyone is invited to contribute and to support this effort.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

PUBLISHER The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) PRESIDENT Azhar Azeez SECRETARY GENERAL Hazem Bata EDITOR Omer Bin Abdullah EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Faryal M Khatri EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Iqbal Unus, M. Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Hazem Bata.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS is a bimonthly publication of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) P.O. Box 38 • Plainfield, IN 46168‑0038 Copyright @2016 All rights reserved Reproduction, in whole or in part, of this material in mechanical or electronic form without written permission is strictly prohibited.

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ISNA MATTERS

ISNA ELECTS 2016-18 MAJLIS ASH-SHURA

ISNA President Azhar Azeez, ISNA Vice President USA Dr. Altaf Husain and ISNA Vice President Canada Pervez Nasim were reelected for a two-year term, 2016-18.

Azeez, who currently serves as the Senior National Director of Islamic Relief USA, has been a member of the ISNA Executive Council since 2002; he served as ISNA Vice President twice (2010-2014) and was first elected ISNA President in 2014.

Dr. Husain, who was elected ISNA Vice President in 2014, formerly served as a board member and chair of the Leadership Development Committee. He served as a two-term national president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA-National) and an executive committee member of the Muslim Alliance in North America.

Nasim, a founding member and Chair of the Board of the Islamic Co-operative

Housing Corporation Ltd., was elected ISNA Vice President Canada in 2014.

Dr. Asra Ali, a practicing dentist and a clinical faculty member/assistant professor at Midwestern University, was a recipient of the Muslim Women’s Alliance 2016 Inspiring Women Award. She is a member of ISNA’s 5 Year Strategic Planning Committee, ISNA Narrative Committee and ISNA Sustainers Circle. She is currently serving as the Co-Chair of the ISNA Annual Convention Steering Committee.

Dr. Julie Belz is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, English, and World Language and Cultures in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts, and the Director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She was a Community Representative on the ISNA Majlis-Ash-Shura from 2013-15.

Sehrish Siddiqui, who counsels on corporate finance, compliance and governance, has served as an organizer for MSA National and MYNA Annual Conferences.

Zeyn Patel, a member of ISNA Founders Committee and ISNA Masjid Development Committee, is also co-organizer of ISNA Young Professional Banquet at the Annual ISNA Convention and ISNA Entrepreneurial Competition. He is a board member of Risala Foundation in Houston.

Dr. Iqbal Unus has served as ISNA director of administration, assistant secretary general and secretary general from 1977 to 1990.

He has had a wide-ranging volunteer service experience in the Muslim American community for 44 years. In 2011 he was recognized with a lifetime service award from the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and in 2012 by ISNA.

ISNA MANAGES & AWARDS SCHOLARSHIP ISNA is entrusted with four scholarship programs.

Dr. Abdulmunim A. Shakir Scholarship Given his strong belief in the value education, Dr. Shakir arranged for a scholarship fund to be established to support freshmen students.

Subsequently, ISNA awards $1000 each to 22 qualified students in any field of study.

The winners are Lamees Abdallah, Latifa Aboeid, Abdul-Ghalib Agboola, Sumayah Algaradi, Basil Baccouche, Mohammad Hossein Rajabi Bakhshandeh, Syed Hussain, Ruba Iqbal, Hala Kassar, Afeefah Khan, Ammar Khan, Zain Khera, Menatalla Mohamed, Abubaker Muneer, Moin Nadeem, Mina Al Shikhly, Naima Sikandar, Ramla Sufi, Hamza Yacoob, and Soundousse Zouani.

Aziz Jamaluddin Scholarship The Jamaluddin family, with their commitment to communicating the true meaning of Islam in all types of media, arranged for a scholarship fund to be established to support ten students with an award of $4000 each throughout their education in the fields of journalism and political science.

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The winners are Yasmeen Azam, Salman Habib, Faisal Hamid, Danya Hussain, Ahmad Keshk, Roshni Khan, Eman Mozaffar, Asma Noray, Sahar Omer, and Shonnan Usman.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Loan Scholarship The five IDB Scholarships, each worth $15000 per year for four years, are offered mainly for medicine and engineering, but the also include following areas of study: pharmacy, nursing, nutrition, veterinary science, dentistry, medical technology, agriculture, food technology, forestry, fishery and computer science. (If engineering is chosen, the branch of engineering preferred must be mentioned as well.)

Students need to provide proof of admission in the above areas in order to be eligible.

Amana Mutual Funds Scholarship Amana Mutual Funds, which follows a value-oriented approach consistent with Islamic finance principles, offers a $2500 scholarship in finance, economics or mathematics, provided through ISNA. The winner is Ayman Hussein.

ISNA hosted 40 students of various faith backgrounds August 5 at the ISNA Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances (IOICA) in Washington D.C. The event provided youth an opportunity to understand and meet their Muslim neighbors.

Dr. Sayyid Syeed, IOICA Director, discussed Muslim American contributions, particularly to the American government system.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

ISNA OUTREACH

Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, National Director, ISNA Office for Interfaith & Community Alliances, addressed the plenary session of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) at their triennial assembly, Aug. 10-13 in New Orleans.

ELCA voted 751-162, calling on the U.S. government to end all aid to Israel if Israel does not stop building settlements and “enable an independent Palestinian state.”

The church also sought to halt all investment in companies that profit from Israel’s occupation and called on the president of the United States to recognize the State of Palestine.

The aid vote urged church members to “call on their US Representatives, Senators and the Administration to take action requiring that to continue receiving US financial and military aid, Israel must comply with internationally recognized human rights standards as specified in existing US law, stop settlement building and the expansion of existing settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, end its occupation of Palestinian territory and enable an independent Palestinian state.”

The resolution also called on the president not to prevent the application of the State of Palestine for full membership in the United Nations and, in coordination with the United Nations Security Council, to “offer a new, comprehensive and time-bound agreement to the governments of Israel and Palestine, resulting in a negotiated final status agreement between Israel and Palestine leading to two viable and secure states with a shared Jerusalem.”

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

In the divestment resolution, which passed 821-92, the church adopted a human rights-based investment screen for its social responsibility funds to ensure the church is not profiting from human rights abuses, and mentioned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by name. It also called for the church to “increase positive investment in Palestine.”

The resolutions were spearheaded by a group within the church called Isaiah 58, which bills itself as “a group of Lutherans working for peace and justice in the Holy Land.”

The ELCA, a close partner of ISNA, claims about 4 million members in nearly 10,000 congregations.

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COMMUNITY MATTERS International Institute of Islamic Thought & Fiqh Council Collaborate on Muslim Issues The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding July 20 at the IIIT headquarters in Herndon, Va. They will collaborate on issues relevant to the Muslim American community.

IIIT, which is not a fatwa-issuing body, has named Dr. Zainab Alwani as the lead person in communication and coordination of all joint IIIT- FCNA projects.

IIIT will provide FCNA research and recommendations on contemporary issues.

Periodically, IIIT will host Fiqh Fora. The first Fiqh Forum on Organ Donation held July 20 was attended by FCNA Chairman Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, FCNA Executive Council members Dr. Jamal Badawi, and Dr. Mohammad Adam El Sheikh.

The meeting was also attended by IIIT President Dr. Hisham Altalib, Dr. Ermin

American Islamic College Appoints New President

Sinanović, Director of Research and Academic Programs, Obay Altaleb, Director of Marketing, Saber AlKilany, Director of Library, and Dr. Jasser Auda, a new member of FCNA.

Teaching about Muslim Americans

Edward Curtis IV, Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts and professor of religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has received a National

Endowment for the Humanities grant for conducting a three-week seminar entitled “Muslim American Identities, Past and Present,” for K-12 teachers in the summer of 2017.

It is the second such grant for Curtis, who conducted a similar program in 2015. He is the author of eight books on Islam and Muslims in the U.S. and the African Diaspora.

The seminar aims to strengthen teaching about Muslim American history and contemporary life in U.S. schools. Seminar participants, who will come from across the country, will examine dozens of Muslim American texts in addition to visiting two local mosques in hopes of learning more about what it means to be both Muslim and American. The seminar will demonstrate the essential role that the humanities play in nurturing our national life and the common good.

The Islamic Center of Hunterdon County, N.J. (established in 2005), performed the groundbreaking for its 13,000 sq. ft. mosque, with a 45-foot tall standalone minaret, Sept. 24. It currently has a religious center and its Sunday school with about 60 students meets at Hunterdon Central High School. The township Planning Board approved the mosque about two years ago.

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Daoud Stephen Casewit has been appointed President of the American Islamic College (AIC), a Chicago-based institution of higher education offering the B.A. and M.A. in Islamic Studies and the Master of Islamic Divinity Degree with operating and degree granting authority from the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Casewit, originally from Colorado, holds degrees in Arabic Language and Linguistics from the American University in Cairo and brings to AIC decades of experience as a senior administrator of educational institutions. He headed the binational U.S. Fulbright Commission in Morocco for many years and previously served as Director of the Arabic Language Institute in Fez. Casewit has extensive experience in the study and teaching of the Arabic language, a deep grounding in traditional Islamic Studies, including the recitation of the Qur’an, and years of immersion in Muslim cultures. Casewit embodies AIC’s aspirations to be an intellectual center for the study of Islam in the nation, a bridge between the U.S. and Muslim societies, and a resource for interfaith and intercultural understanding.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

COMMUNITY MATTERS

Canadian Mounties Can Wear Hijab Muslim women joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police can wear hijabs as part of their uniforms, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office told the Agence France Presse Aug. 23 in Ottawa.

“This is intended to better reflect the diversity in our communities and encourage more Muslim women to consider the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a career option,” he said.

Recent figures show women make up about a fifth of the RCMP but it is not clear how many this measure will affect.

The RCMP officer’s uniform — a red serge tunic, leather riding boots and wide-brimmed felt campaign hat — is an iconic Canadian symbol.

It dates back to the 1800s, when the RCMP’s forerunner, the frontier North-West Mounted Police, policed Canada’s western provinces and Arctic territories. Inspired by British military uniforms of the period, it has since undergone only minor changes.

Amidst great controversy, in 1990, the RCMP allowed Sikh officers to wear turbans as part of their uniforms. With the latest uniform change, the RCMP becomes the third police force in Canada to add the hijab option after Toronto and Edmonton. The Canadian Armed Forces also allow Muslim women to wear it.

The Metropolitan Police in London approved a uniform hijab

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more than 10 years ago. Police in Britain, Sweden and Norway, as well as some U.S. states, have adopted similar policies.

Also, Police Scotland announced Aug. 23 that the hijab will become part of its official uniform; in the past, Muslim police officers in Scotland were allowed to wear the hijab, but only once it was approved by senior staff members.

Hijab-wearing Marzana Ali, 27, has been a full time Deputy Police Officer at the Wayne County Jail Systems (Ohio), a first for the Sheriff ’s office, since June 6 - the first day of Ramadan this year.

Ali, who is married with a 2-year-old daughter, has a Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy management and plans to do a master’s degree in her field.

In another rebuff to Kemal Ataturk’s “secularization” (launched in 1923), Turkey has for the first time allowed policewomen to wear the hijab under their caps or berets as part of their uniform, according to the official gazette Aug. 27.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has long pressed for the removal of restrictions on hijab in the officially secular state.

Turkey lifted a ban on wearing the hijab on university campuses in 2010, in state institutions in 2013, and in high schools in 2014.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Anniversary of a Successful Outreach Muslims in Illinois are enjoying certified halal meats thanks to the adoption of the Illinois Halal Food Act (SB 750/PA92-394), which was introduced to the 92nd Illinois General Assembly in 2001 with broad bipartisan support.

Leading the efforts was Republican state Sen. Christine Rodagno and among the other sponsors was the then state senator Barack Obama (1997-2004). When Governor George H. Ryan, Sr. (R; term 19992003) signed the bill, only New Jersey and Minnesota had preceded Illinois. .

The Halal Food Act prohibits mislabeling of halal products and makes it illegal to falsely advertise products as halal. Fines are imposed on any establishment falsely claiming and representing food as halal. It is also intended to create uniformity in halal

standards. The act includes provisions that require compliance by operators, for example, to prevent cross contamination, an establishment that prepares halal food must use slicers and utensils used only for the preparation of halal foods. Muslim Americans statewide mobilized to advocate and ensure the law’s passage.

For many Muslims, it was their first introduction to the Illinois General Assembly and working with lawmakers. Having attained a diverse array of supporters, this legislation demonstrated that Muslim Americans were and are still today standing with all Americans as equal partners. Bipartisan support and civic engagement were critical to the passage of the act then, and it is just as important today to continue to be engaged.

Yusuf Tours U.S. and Canada

moniker “Yusuf,” Tell ‘Em I’m Gone in 2014.

He debuted the new single “You Are Not Alone” in June 2016 as part of his fundraising campaign for child refugees and performed the song at a charity concert in London the same month, marking his first live set in more than a year. A portion of all ticket proceeds for “A Cat’s Attic” will benefit Yusuf ’s U.K. charity Small Kindness, as well as UNICEF and International Rescue Committee.

In Service to the Community

He is best known for the Feed the Hood program, where the first Sunday and third Saturday of the month, volunteers hand out canned and dry food to needy neighbors.

Another long-standing program is the Brothers’ Huddle Fish Fry every Friday night for neighbors.

The closest to Abdul-Ali’s heart is the prison service project, where books are sent to prisoners and aid is given when they get out. A recent partnership with the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF) on prisoner’s civil freedoms is also an important aspect of his work.

The imam is also re-launching Ar-Rashidoon Program which includes a free clinic, an Islamic community center, GED training, job prep, basic education, marital counseling, drug abuse and alcohol abuse counseling; many other programs are planned that aim to help people get their lives back.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Yusuf, formerly Cat Stevens, toured the U.S. and Canada for his “A Cat’s Attic,” a limited run of stripped-down shows that coincided with the 50th anniversary of his 1966 debut single “I Love My Dog.” The brief trek included his first public shows in New York City since 1976.

It was launched in Toronto Sept. 12, running through Oct. 7 with stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.. Yusuf also played at New York City’s Global Citizens Festival Sept. 24.

He released his third record under new

Imam Abdul-Ali (Avon Twitty) received the first ever Exemplary Community Service Award given by the Muslim Democratic Caucus at the 5th annual John A. Wilson Building Iftar June 20. Washington, D.C. City Council chairperson Phil Mendelson and Mayor Muriel Bowser were co-hosts, reported the Muslim Link.

The award, given in recognition of his work done without any governmental support for the city’s most underserved, was presented by Amin Muslim, the political advisor at the Muslim Democratic Caucus and the director of constituent services at D.C. City Council Ward 7 in the office of Councilwoman Yvette Alexander in the presence of city and civic leaders. Accepting the award, Abdul-Ali said, “In the heart of [Washington] D.C. are people that need Islam the most.”

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Colorado Upholds Muslim Workers Rights Colorado’s labor department has ruled that more than 100 Muslim workers fired from a meatpacking plant are eligible for unemployment benefits because a company cannot force workers to choose between their religion and their jobs, reported The Denver Post, August 4.

The workers filed for unemployment payments after Cargill, Inc. fired them in December 2015, amid a dispute over whether the Muslim employees could take prayer breaks during their shifts. Cargill challenged the claims, but the company withdrew its appeals this summer after losing 20 cases, officials with the state Department of Labor said.

While the ruling declined to enumerate what is to be paid to the workers, Cher Haavind, the agency’s director of government, policy and public relations, said the average maximum benefit per claim was $8,841. The payments could cost Colorado’s unemployment fund nearly $1 million.

Unemployment benefits are funded by the state’s employers. Much like an insurance policy, a company’s rates rise with the number of claims filed from its former workers.

Cargill fired more than 150 Muslim workers, most of them from Somalia, after they walked off the job because of the dispute.

The Colorado labor department found that the company’s change in policy led to the walk out.

In a joint statement, attorneys for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Denver’s Rathod Mohamedbhai law firm said, “Cargill’s decision to suddenly forbid Muslim employees from praying at work, after years of allowing the practice, reveals a company embracing odious and obvious discrimination. Fear and prejudice cannot be allowed to violate our nation’s founding principle that all may practice their religion free of persecution.”

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COMMUNITY MATTERS

California Muslim Appreciation Month The California State Assembly proclaimed August 2016 as “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month” (House Resolution 59 adopted Aug. 1). Assemblymember Bill Quirk (D), who introduced the resolution, said the U.S. benefits greatly from the expertise, patriotism, and humanitarianism of Muslim Americans, who represent 10 percent of America’s physicians, helping to heal hundreds of thousands of Americans each year; who have long distinguished themselves as courageous and dedicated members of the United States Armed Forces, fighting and sacrificing in every major war from the American Revolutionary War to

present-day conflicts; and who regularly contribute to the health and vitality of their communities, giving food to the hungry, sheltering the needy, and providing inexpensive or free health services, among other community services…”

“I am proud to celebrate the first ever Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month by honoring generations of Muslim Americans for their many social, cultural and economic contributions to California,” Quirk said in a statement.

California is home to approximately 240 mosques — more than any other state in the U.S.

Alabama City Approves Mosque Montgomery, Ala., Board of Adjustment unanimously approved an exemption Aug. 24 to allow building of the East Montgomery Islamic Society (EMIS) mosque, reported the Montgomery Advertiser.

Only two people spoke against the 6,000 sq. ft. mosque, but its supporters included Immanuel Presbyterian pastor Elizabeth O’Neill, to whom the mosque’s president offered the final word, and whose church will be the mosque’s neighbor, said “I speak in favor of this mosque and I welcome our new neighbors.” Area resident Lynda Wool, who delivered an impassioned speech, declared “I’m Jewish and I want this mosque,” adding that Montgomery should look at this as an opportunity to grow.

EMIS President Dr. Mahmood Zaied said, “I’m happy for myself, for the community, for everybody. I was expecting this from this city. I came here 16 years ago. I love this city, I love the people, I love my neighbors, and I love Deer Creek [development].”

Similar projects have met with opposition in recent years in other cities including Mobile and metro Birmingham.

University of Wisconsin Law School professor Asifa Quraishi-Landes won the Marygold Melli Achievement Award, named for Professor Emerita Marygold Shire Melli, the first woman to earn tenure at UW Law School, which is given annually by the Wisconsin-based Legal Association for Women. The award recognizes extraordinary achievement in the legal profession, including contributions toward eliminating bias in the legal system 14

and advancing women’s opportunities in the field.

Quraishi-Landes, who has taught constitutional law at University of Wisconsin since 2004, specializes in comparative Islamic and U.S. constitutional law, with a focus on modern Islamic constitutional theory. She speaks and writes extensively on Islamic feminism, western advocacy for Muslim women, and human rights for Muslim women.

Quraishi-Landes co-founded the National Association of Muslim Lawyers and serves on the governing board of the Association of American Law School’s Section on Islamic

Islamic Art Displays in Irving

Contemporary Islamic art was on display at the Irving (Tex.) Arts Center Sept.17 – Nov. 13. The 5th Annual Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Islamic Art presented by the Islamic Art Revival Series in partnership with Irving Arts Center, is a program of the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation. Dr. Maryam Ekhtiar, Associate Curator of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York served as juror for the exhibition.

Shafaq Ahmad, Art Director for the Islamic Art Revival Series, said the exhibition showcased the work of artists from diverse backgrounds, offering a window through contemporary art to one fifth of the world’s population, spread out over five continents. Representative of that diversity, among the 68 pieces from the exhibit, 23 states are represented with works from 9 countries including France, Bahrain, Iran, Italy, Korea and India.

The exhibition included guest lectures, a musical performance, and workshops presented by experts.

Law. She has held several senior leadership roles with Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, a nonprofit organization committed to promoting human rights globally, especially gender equity, religious freedom and civil rights in the U.S. Walid Sankari, who has worked through various Muslim social institutions in communities all throughout the Chicagoland area since high school, was appointed programs coordinator of the

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Malek Bendelhoum assumed charge as the new associate director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California late August.

Bendelhoum, a graduate of the University of California, Riverside, who has also undertaken Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia, is co-founder of the San Bernardino, Calif. based Sahaba Initiative, a social and community service organization. He has also been involved in many organizations including IslahLA, Inland Congregations United for Change, San Bernardino Clergy Association, Inland Empire Interfaith Coalition, and Youth Counselors of America in various capacities. He has been committed to community development for years and has received several awards from private as well as governmental agencies for his continuous commitment to service. Bendelhoum also gives khutbahs and halaqas around the country. He is married and makes his home in the Inland Empire.

Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) in July. Sankari, a Loyola and DePaul graduate, he has collaborated with people from diverse national backgrounds in many of Chicago’s neighborhoods. He is passionate about youth development and believes that the talents of our young people are the community’s greatest assets. He has worked on international humanitarian and educational projects in several countries and wishes to continue cultivating the Islamic spirit of social service in Chicago and abroad.

Sacred Learning — a Muslim nonprofit organization — started construction of the first mosque in Lincolnwood, Ill., in August on the site of a former steakhouse, reported Natalie Hayes of the Pioneer Press Aug. 25. Sacred Learning remains on schedule to open the 16,000 sq.ft. mosque and religious education center, which will serve at least 500 families, next summer, said Executive Vice President Sayeed Shariff.

In 2015 village trustees approved zoning variations, which gained clearance from

the Illinois Department of Transportation last May. Despite the prevailing anti-Muslim sentiment in some areas of the country, Lincolnwood resident did not voice noticeable opposition to the mosque. No one from the public turned up at the board meetings last year, when Sacred Learning received the village’s permit. Lincolnwood Police Chief Bob LaMantia said he hasn’t noticed any negative feelings among the community.

The Muslim community of Fishers, In. hosted the Muslim Hoosiers Pack Away Hunger Sept. 10, where over 150 people — including some Syrian refugees — came together to package 30,000 meals that would be distributed to the needy in Indianapolis. The bags were labeled with a sticker identifying that Muslims Hoosiers packaged it.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

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CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES

Navigating Challenges an Muslims gather at the ISNA Convention to share and learn together

BY SAMIYAH NAGEEB & MATTHEW DAVID ABDULHAQQ NIEMI

ISNA President Azhar Azeez accepts a scouting award as Saffet Catovic, Scoutmaster of Troop #114 (2nd left) and Ehtesham Haider Naqvi, Executive Director of the World Islamic Committee on Scouting (first right) watch

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hile ISNA had been announcing leading up to their 2016 convention, held Sept. 2-5 in Chicago, that 48% of the speakers would be women what was even more refreshing was an opening day Friday panel that was made up entirely of women, yet was not limited to discussion of token “women’s issues.” It included Dr. Larycia Hawkins, a Christian, who was fired from her teaching position at the evangelical Wheaton College, when in solidarity with Muslims she wore a hijab throughout the Advent season, and had the courage to teach that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. While news media constantly exposes us to a certain type of Christian using the Bible as a blunt object to insist on their bigoted views, it was pleasant to hear from Hawkins. A Christian who is politically engaged, progressive, and at the same time deeply knowledgeable of her scriptures, she spoke of her experiences. She was moved how she felt that her faith community expanded to include Muslims due to the outpouring of support she received from Muslims during the controversy.

The panel, expertly moderated by Mariam Sobh of WBBM, 780 AM, an all-news Chicago radio station, stood out in the convention as one of the most thorough and productive sessions. With a focus on media relations, it dealt with issues that continued to be revisited in various sessions throughout the rest of the convention. The panelists discussed with searing candor the blessings and burdens of being made into a spokesperson for the Muslim community, by virtue of their position as public figures and their visible connection to the community through their hijab. While many watch on television in awe as these women verbally duel with hostile journalists, deflecting their loaded questions with confidence, the panel members took the opportunity to share their very human struggles. Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, shared, “I know that I’ll be second-guessing everything that I just said, there’s always at least 40% that I wish I could redo. This is not a lack of gratitude.

I am privileged to represent this community on the world stage but it is a very heavy load and it’s hard to do it justice.”

Ibtihaj Muhammad, an Olympian sabre fencer medalist and fashion designer for her company Louella, discussed her unorthodox path through life that led her to success. She stressed that it was not due to 16

Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security Department Jeh Johnson

a unique position in life that allowed her to take this path, but rather she simply looked for opportunities, making a conscious decision to work hard. She saw that fencing was a sport uniquely modest in its dress and it presented a path to athletic scholarships at good schools.

Unfortunately, she pointed out, there are many paths to success that we neglect when “we put our children and ourselves in a box. We have cultural boxes.” Not only has she found success for herself, but also many young Muslims, both girls and boys, are inspired by her struggle. Fellow panelist, Mogahed announced that she was the “proud mother of two boys in fencing, and they take inspiration from Ibtihaj, so yes, our boys are taking inspiration from our women!”

Muslim Americans have been struggling with having to react constantly to incidents and defend themselves against Islamophobic suspicion and hostility. While the panelists agreed that the community needed to move past this stage to start producing its own stories and narratives. Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, showed how indeed Muslims have begun to succeed in this. During the 2016 presidential primary race, Muslim voters caused one of the biggest political upsets in modern history by coming out to vote in large numbers in Michigan for Bernie Sanders, a Jew, shocking those who assumed that Muslims were usually anti-Semitic recluses. The hijab wearing Sarsour also personally made a historic statement by speaking at official Sanders’ campaign rallies — not to speak about Muslim concerns, but to address issues that interest all Americans, allowing people to see her not simply as a poster-woman for Islam, but as a holistic human being.

Kameelah Rashad, 38, Muslim Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania, an attendee, said, “It’s great to see the diversity on the panel and weave together the threads around race, religion, and politics and to have women from different backgrounds deliver that message. It made it even that more powerful.”

Another attendee, school teacher Hope Sweeney, 46, said, “It’s nice to see empowered Muslim women, just wonderful role models, not only for me but for the men in our community. I was really excited to see the allegiance with the one Christian speaker (Hawkins) and that she was given a place here. That shows growth on the part of the Muslim community.”

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

nd Seizing Opportunities

Jesse Jackson

TRIBUTE TO MUHAMMAD ALI Prof. Sherman Jackson of the University of Southern California declared that Muhammad Ali stands as an inspiration for other young people and a challenge for the older generation. Just as many of the Companions of the Prophet (‘alayhi rahmat) who paved the way for the Ummah’s success, including giants among them such as ‘Aisha, Ibn Masud, and Abbas, were teenagers when the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) passed away, the Champ was only 25 when he stood up and refused military service out of principle. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were both 39 when they were killed. Rosa Parks’ predecessor in standing up against bus segregation was the 15-year-old Claudette Colvin — arrested on March 2, 1955 in Montgomery, Ala. Jackson reminded us, “You don’t have to wait ‘til you get some grey in your beard to know that you can change the world. As Muslims, you will have to find out what your Islamic principles are and then you will have to live them with conviction, whatever the cost may be.”

He urged young people to realize that older people have much wisdom and experience to benefit from, but at the same time they don’t know everything. Keeping this balance in mind can give young people courage to act even though they still have much to learn.

Jackson challenged, “For those in their 70s and 80s, I ask, ‘If not now, when?’” He added, “America has a tendency to sanitize and reduce [past heroes] to a holiday. We forget that these people were about business...Muhammad Ali was about serious business.” He warned against making empty salutes to Muhammad Ali without truly advocating for the racial justice that he stood for. Muslims should never think that Black rights are only a Black issue, for all the prejudices of the world stem from the same root of arrogance, foreshadowed

by Iblis’ refusal to bow before Adam (‘alayhi as-salam), and that it is a collective religious duty to fight this arrogance wherever we see it.

Signing with The Champ

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY: TURNING THE TIDES OF FAITH Sheikh Yasir Fahmy, imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center reminded us of the Prophet’s foretelling of this time, when killers know not why they kill, and their victims know not why they are killed, just as a 60-year old Bangladeshi Muslim American woman was brutally murdered in Queens, N.Y. Many Muslims feel numb from empathy burnout, and many of us look around and feel despair at our apparent helplessness. Fahmy reminded us about the Prophet’s example when he was faced with the Year of Sadness (620 CE) — a year in which his beloved wife and supporter, Khadija, passed away, followed by his political protector and dear uncle, Abu Talib. While overcome with grief, he still knew that he had to fulfill the mission given to him by his Lord. He and his companions worked without quitting, even when results were slow to show in this life, knowing that their faith and work were building palaces for them in the Hereafter.

Prof. Jamillah Karim, an author and former Professor of Religion at Spelman College, shared her insights from her study of history, that Islam has been so successful throughout history because when it comes to a society, it addresses the core issues that that society is struggling with. In the case of the African Americans, they have long suffered from a double-consciousness (in the words of WEB Dubois) from being told that they are Americans and citizens of a democratic utopia, yet living their everyday lives in a world where, when they are not being openly feared and hated, they are being pushed into ghettos by a million subtle social pressures, where they are then blamed for their own suffering and ignored when they speak for themselves. For many Muslim African Americans who take inspiration from Dubois, Islam replaced this double-consciousness with God-consciousness and gave them the direction and the courage to stand up and make a difference. Historically, immigrant

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT ‘TIL YOU GET SOME GREY IN YOUR BEARD TO KNOW THAT YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. AS MUSLIMS, YOU WILL HAVE TO FIND OUT WHAT YOUR ISLAMIC PRINCIPLES ARE AND THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO LIVE THEM WITH CONVICTION, WHATEVER THE COST MAY BE.” —Prof. Sherman Jackson of the University of Southern California ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

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CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES communities have adopted anti-Black racism in exchange for being accepted as part of the mainstream American community, but Karim is hopeful that things will be different with the Muslim immigrant communities, in whose hearts God has placed love for Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, and “to truly love these men is to love their people.” She asked, “Is there a community better to show solidarity than ours — a community made of immigrants and minorities?”

While other religions may claim to be God’s beloved by birthright or belief, Muslims are only His beloved community to the extent that they command the good and forbid the evil, and strive to do what is beloved in His sight.

The Companions of the Prophet did not come to him as clean slates, they came to him full of baggage and ingrained habits, both personal and cultural, yet due to the intense love that they had for him, his words changed their hearts. After years of being a person who believed it to be just and proper to beat his slave, Masud abandoned this practice forever with a single admonishment from his Prophet and Beloved, Muhammad. Karim said, “May Allah make us like the Ansar — those that replaced their old hearts with new hearts...May we struggle for your sake as Hagar did so our kids can make their home in this land.”

Prof. Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University reminded us that

ISNA Secretary General Hazem Bata

Muslims must act justly with both their friends and enemies. While it is hard to stand up to one’s enemies, it is even harder to stand up to one’s friends. This is why, when supporting someone, people tend to do it blindly and overlook dangers, and when they oppose someone, they let their hatred push them too far in the opposite direction.

Rather, Muslims must adhere uncompromisingly to their principles and know that their reward is not with people but with God.

On the Sidelines & More

M

ORE THAN 20,000 ATTENDEES CAME from all over the country. The Convention, besides catering to a wide range of interests and needs, offered much needed services such as health and wellness care.

ISNA Director of Conventions, Marketing & Special Projects, Basharat Saleem, said the Bazaar had some 550 booths with vendors selling varied products and services from books and investment resources, to homemade honey, clothing and paintings. And of course, nonprofit organizations seeking support for their welfare projects.

There was a basketball tournament for boys and girls; a women-only fashion show displaying new styles; and a job fair.

DUE RECOGNITION Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star parents of (late) Army Capt. Humayun Khan, both spoke, to the chagrin of the Right wingers. Ghazala Khan, directing her address at young people prayed that God would give them power to fight their challenges, adding, “You are all my children, I love you all.” She added that although she lost her son, the community outreach has made her feel like she has gained a million more.

Khizr Khan roared that the smear of Islam ends today. He said, “We will be silent no more.” He said that to live in a democracy, the first principle is participation. Muslims, he said, should be part of democracy so their voices are heard. He stressed: “Participate, register, and vote so our children don’t need to hear the ugly political rhetoric we have to hear. We should care for our new immigrants. We should each take in a refugee family. We should care for them and register them at school, for medical services, etc. I appeal for all communities to adopt 18

a new family and be their mentor and caretakers in this time of need.”

ISNA recognized them with a special Outstanding Ambassadors of Islam Award.

The ISNA Founders Committee recognized ISNACanada President Dr. Syed Imtiaz Ahmad with the Community Service Recognition Award. Dr. Ahmad is now focused on rebuilding ISNA-Canada after a difficult period in its history.

Dr. Ahmad, who moved to Canada in 1970 after teaching in Pakistan, was elected President of the Windsor Islamic Association in the mid-70s, which he says “was a watershed moment in my life, reawakening in me an urge to develop a deeper understanding of Islam and speak on it preferably to the larger Canadian population.”

He volunteered with the Council of Muslim Communities of Canada (CMCC), the MSA, and as President of the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers (now the Association of Muslim Scientists, Engineers and Technology Professionals (AMSET).

In the 80s, he was involved in the formational stages of ISNA. Moving to Ann Arbor, Mich. as a visiting professor at Eastern Michigan University, he became involved in the activities of the Muslim House there.

His EMU career spanned 35 years till his retirement.

Dr. Ahmad, who served as ISNA Vice President several times and subsequently as President, was in the company of scholars engaged in developing a rationalized approach to moonsighting, looking at choices of Itihad al Matalih and Ikhtilaf al Matalih.

He also chaired the ISNA Personnel Committee, when the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), a service division of ISNA at that time, had key responsibilities for ISNA in matters of ISNA employees.

Living in Canada, he has been ISNA Canada

President and Vice President more than once.

He also worked as dean of engineering at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM).

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS The Young Professionals Luncheon jointly hosted

by Muslim organizations such as American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP), Muslim Urban Professionals (MUPPIES), Muslim Advocates, and Counsel for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals (CAMP) featured speakers with inspirational stories about the intersection of Islam and their careers reported Osama Abdul-Salaam. Dr. Tahani Amer, a manager at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), provides leadership and oversight for numerous NASA Centers, Mission Directorates and Offices. She discussed the demanding and high-profile nature of her role supporting one of the nation’s premier scientific organizations, while also raising four children, would, she added would not have been possible without constant du’a, and a persistent belief that everything she did was an important part of supporting her family.

Tariq Ramadan

RECOGNIZING DIFFERENCES, STRENGTHENING BONDS Rami Nashashibi, founder and executive administrator of the InnerCity Muslim Action Network (IMAN) and member, President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, gave some starting points on activism, stating, “We have great opportunities of privilege, so we must understand that we are part of the problem...we cannot pretend that the protest issues are not connected

Ahmad Nassar, President of National Football League (NFL) Players Inc., the licensing arm of the NFL Players Association, provided an illuminating discussion of the complexities of sports law, highlighting the ways in which his understanding of how Muslims are often the target of misinformation and preconceived notions has informed him in representing NFL players, who can also be grossly misunderstood. The theme of competing towards good was especially evident in one of the most unique and exciting additions to this year’s convention, ISNA’s first ever Entrepreneurial Competition whose prizes were sponsored by Guidance Financial. Seven startups pitched innovative business ideas in the fields of healthcare, children’s books, education, virtual reality, data analytics, mobile applications and others.

Four judges with more than 57 years of combined leadership, management, and law experience evaluated the presentations. The winner was BeyDesigns (Beydesigns.com), a design company focusing on all-natural, recyclable novelty items that has sold more than 250,000 units, while supporting the local economy of Srebrenica, the location most devastated

Syed Imtiaz Ahmad receives his award from ISNA President Azhar Azeez and a former ISNA President Shaykh Abdullah Nur. Dr. Khondkar (first left) and Hazem Bata and ISNA VP USA Altaf Husain

to the choices we make — where we live, where we send our kids to school, and who we relate to. These add to the inequities.” He proposed three steps to activism: Mind, Body, and Soul. With our minds, we should choose one of the many issues and devote time to learning about that issue and to learn from real people who are impacted. With our bodies, we should “make a sustained investment with resources and time and commitment on one variable that can make a big difference.”

Soul means that we “spiritually invest and pray for that issue, that we can be a relevant transformational force for good.”

Ingrid Mattson, a former ISNA president, now professor at the University of Western Ontario, spoke about the importance of labor issues and reminded us that Prophet Muhammad’s teachings show that it is not the label of “Muslim” that is important, but rather the living behavior, ethics, and character of the sunnah. These virtues are summarized in Qur’an 4:36: “Serve God, and associate naught with Him. Be kind to parents, and the near kinsman, and to orphans, and to the needy, and to the neighbor who is of kin, and to the neighbor who is a stranger, and to the companion at your side, and to the traveler, and to what your right hands possess. Surely God loves not the proud and boastful.” Mattson made a connection between arrogance and certain types of fanaticism: “There is arrogance in saying ‘my way is the right way’ and thinking everything else is wrong. This way we squander our

during the Bosnian War. While BeyDesigns won, all teams got advice from judges, the opportunity to network with other like-minded Muslims, and exposure to investors that could potentially take their products to the next level.

Four other events that highlighted both the diversity of Muslim contributions, were “Finding your Signature Story,” hosted by MUPPIES, “Ascending to the C-Suite: A Conversation with Healthcare Executives,” hosted by AMHP, “Partners of Progress: Muslim Lawyers Billing for a Better Community,” sponsored by Muslim Advocates, and “Meaningful Connections: The Muslim Professional, The Mosque & The Ummah” sponsored by CAMP. It was inspirational to see Muslims doing amazing work across the country, in so many fields, and helping so many populations.

HEALTH & WELLNESS The Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA), a long-standing partner of ISNA, besides helping with the health clinic, hosted educational sessions such as the gender-segregated sessions on Sexual and Reproductive Health for high school and college students.

IMANA also presented a panel on Organ Procurement and Transplantation; a panel on women’s health issues and their social context in different Muslim cultures; a Community Health Clinics Roundtable; and a structured networking session where pre-med students, medical students and residents as well as practicing physicians and medical faculty from various institutions connected and learned from one another to further their disciplines.

The issue of organ donation and transplantation has been a matter of great debate and dispute for many years amongst Muslims. This session was a follow up to a national Fiqh Forum titled: Reaching Consensus on Organ Donation: A Call to the American Muslim Community. Organ donation advocates Imam Johari Abdul-Malik and Lesley

Compagnone discussed the importance of donating and what it might mean for millions of Muslim Americans. Gloria and Samuel Shareef spoke about their decision to donate their daughter Danielle’s organs after she was killed in a car accident ten years ago. Danielle saved four people’s lives that day, something that brings Gloria and Samuel both a sense of peace and immense pride. The panel examined the very real and dire shortage of organ donors in this country, and the need to educate communities of all faiths about the opportunity for everyone to be able to give the ultimate gift: the gift of life.

IMANA joined the Compassionate Care Network (CCN), the American Muslim Health Professionals and the Heartland Blood Centers in offering a free Health Fair at the Convention, which was staffed by volunteers who included physicians, dentists, chiropractors and medical students.

More than 500 attendees were able to obtain free health screenings for blood sugar, blood pressure, dental health, body fat, obesity and counseling for weight management, as well as brief physician consultations over a variety of their concerns. Certified navigators offered counseling for Affordable Care Act (called Obamacare by its detractors). Free enrollment in the Bone Marrow Registry was provided, to improve survival chances for cancer patients needing matching donors.

Simultaneously a blood drive was conducted to help local hospitals meet increased demands during summer, when regular donors are on vacations. A First Aid station was also organized to serve the needs of the conventioneers.

CCN hosted a training workshop on “Screening for Better Health” aimed at teaching how to organize free health screenings in a mosque or community setting. Azher Quader, MD, Executive Director, CCN, Fatema Mirza, Program Director, CCN, and Abrar Quader, Esq., Director of Government Relations & Community Partnerships, CCN conducted the workshop.

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CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES

Former ISNA President Dr. Ingrid Mattson

efforts... Even Companions had major disagreements. Anyone who is searching for a utopian political order in Islam will make themselves miserable because a utopia can only be a fantasy.” We must be involved, of course, she added, but we must know that the universe is in God’s hands and that our relationship with God is not based in our measure of success, but in our sincerity and constancy of striving.

Prof. Jackson exhorted Muslims to recognize shared interests with other communities yet not forget their moral identities as Muslims, quoting a word of wisdom from the Bible (Mark 8:36; King James version), “For what does a man profit to gain if he should gain the whole world but lose his own soul?” When it comes to basic human rights such as education and housing for the LGBT community, Muslims must stand with them, but must also be able to say, “We do not stand with you in supporting your lifestyle which goes against our moral identity. And we should be able to expect them to say the same thing [to us].” Jackson compared the Black community to the Banu Hashim that the Prophet dealt with during his mission. He was able to sustain his mission in Mecca because, while they did not believe in his prophecy, he continued to connect with them to such an extent that they still saw him as one of their own, and they used their clout to protect him.

When Muhammad Ali stood up to refuse military service, the Black community (largely non-Muslims) supported him, yet thirty years later when Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf — also an African American — refused to stand for the national anthem, the Black community saw it largely as a Muslim (immigrant) issue. For too long now, immigrant Muslims have used symbols of Black American Muslims to bolster their own narratives without truly standing in solidarity with and assisting the Black community whence the black Muslims came.

In addition, Jackson called for Muslims to “reconnect to a civics of khilaaf (disagreement) that accommodates disagreement In step for future Muslim — principled disagreement.”

American Muslim Americans, he pointed events out have a bad habit of trying “to turn every issue into a religious issue that is a litmus test [for legitimacy as a Muslim] and we want to turn our position into the Islamic hukm (ruling).... [However], voting for a certain candidate may be stupid, but that doesn’t mean it’s haram! We need to develop a civics that accommodates that...What happens when there is a candidate who has a good position on Palestine 20

Dr. Asra Ali addresses the opening day press conference

but not Affirmative Action or vice versa? This will divide us unless we allow this civics of disagreement.”

An attendee Usamah Farooqi, 19, student, commented, “I found it interesting how Sherman brought up issues from history, to show the progression of support getting better and better for African Americans coming together with Muslims more than they used to. He showed that it doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you’re Muslim you should be able to come and connect with others. Having more diverse environment will prevent us from being close-minded.”

Another attendee, Valery Shirley, 48, responded saying, “It really hit home. The things he is saying are so necessary, we say we stand for what’s right but we are not standing for that inside our masajid and we are not combating that. We stand for justice unless it comes to standing against Muslims. In order to combat injustice we need to stand up to people within our own communities. In white communities, some say they stand up, but how do they behave in their own communities versus when they’re with people of color.”

CARPE DIEM: A CALL TO ACTION Perhaps the central session of the whole convention, “Carpe Diem: A Call to Action,” featured a long list of spiritual and intellectual giants.

While less technically deep than some of the other great lectures, this session was interesting for an entirely different reason. The mood of the massive main convention hall fluctuated throughout the session from boredom to awkward tension to tearful emotion to righteous fury to pride and excitement.

The first to take the stage was a controversial one, Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama Administration, who elicited mixed reactions from the crowd.

While he spoke, protesters stood in silence with signs and props, occasionally yelling a statement in defiance of the Israeli occupation, which the administration supports.

Johnson took the opportunity to share his empathy for the Muslim community, being African American himself, and his understanding of their frustrations from constantly having to denounce violence.

He shared a powerful story about his own grandfather, Dr. Charles S. Johnson, who had a moderate, gentle approach to civil rights activism. His loyalty ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

was often called into question not only by the conservative U.S. Congress, but also by his fellow activists who felt he was too conservative. Tragically, Jeh Johnson narrated, his grandfather died a second-class citizen in 1956 before the Civil Rights movement. Perhaps he could never have imagined that his grandson would be in the cabinet of a Black president.

Johnson encouraged Muslims saying, “Aspire, and engage, so that Muslim Americans also become Zaki Barzinji, liaison to the Muslim full members of American sociAmerican community under the White ety...Look to Muslims that are House Office of Public Engagement shining examples: Muhammad Ali, Dalilah Muhammad, Captain Humayun Khan... Like those who came before you, do not lose hope and despair, we will continue on the path towards a more perfect union.” He urged Muslims to take comfort in knowing that Americans will eventually accept Packing food for the needy them as they have all previous waves of immigrants, closing by saying, “On behalf of myself and the President, I ask for your help.

Light a candle and show others the promise and wonders of this country.”

Many stood enthusiastically to applaud while others hesitated, uneasy at being addressed by a representative of such an infamous institution as the Department of Homeland Security.

Ghazala and Khizr Khan came next, encouraging Muslims to get involved at all levels of democracy, and to step up to the plate to host and care for the Syrian refugees settling in America. Hazem Bata, ISNA’s secretary general, pointing out that Trump’s approval rating began dropping significantly after his mockery of the Khans, said, “Who would have guessed that the Islamophobes’ undoing would come from a modest couple speaking at the DNC [Democratic National Convention]?”

ISNA President Azhar Azeez reinforced the call to get involved in American politics, when he declared, “Chanting and protesting is not enough. We need to rise and go above and beyond. This is the need of the hour.”

Sheikh Yasir Qadhi of al-Maghrib Institute, in perhaps the most passionate speech of the convention, praised the Khans, saying that “Trump attempted to smear Islam, but Ghazala Khan’s dignified silence was more profound than anything Trump has uttered with his mouth.”

He pointed out that while many senior Republicans are denouncing Trump, they only have themselves to blame for the monster they have created. “For years, Republicans have supported racism and xenophobia without actually becoming fully racist and xenophobic, but now they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.”

Qadhi also blamed President Obama and his administration for contributing to the racism and xenophobia as well. He called upon the President to fulfill the campaign-trail promises he made eight years ago and has still failed to fulfill, such as closing Guantanamo ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Interfaith Understanding

BY ISLAMIC HORIZONS STAFF

ISNA President Azhar Azeez presented the Interfaith Excellence Award to Susan Thistlewaite, Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed and Safaa Zarzour (second and first right)

I

SNA, WHICH INHERITED THE INTERFAITH MANTLE FROM MSA, ITS root organization, continues to develop it. Interfaith sessions are integral to all ISNA events. And Sunday at the Convention was ISNA Interfaith Banquet day.

This year, Dr. John Andrew Morrow (Ilyas ‘Abd al-‘Alim Islam), an Aboriginal Canadian and member of the Métis Nation, delivered the keynote address. While discounting the Islamic credentials of ISIS, Morrow pointed out that the Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) never described his system as a State, Caliphate, Sultanate, Republic or Democracy. On the contrary, he described it as an Ummah, Motherland, Homeland, Federation or Confederation. Thus, he said, the Prophet wanted to create a Union of Free People under the precepts derived from the Qur’an that he conveyed in the Covenants he made with Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians: freedom of movement, freedom of work, freedom of study, freedom of religion, and freedom of choice.

Dr. Morrow, who undertook the publication of the Covenant of Madinah (al-Sahifah al-Madinah), said that as a result of its publication in 2013, and the proclamation of the Marrakesh Declaration in 2016, later endorsed by the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, Muslims are becoming increasingly aware of the Covenant, Constitution or Charter of Madinah.

The Prophet proclaimed the Covenant 1400 years ago, to bring together Arabs, Jews, Christians, and pagans. In fact, the first thing he did after arriving in Madinah was to protect the rights of all citizens of his newly formed Ummah. He prepared a Constitution for his Commonwealth in consultation with all of his constituents - the first political charter in history governing the relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. According to the Constitution of Madinah, identity is not based on race, religion, kinship, class, gender, or tribal affiliation: it is based on membership in the Ummah. It is what we today call “citizenship” said Morrow, and quoted: “To the Jew who follows us belong help and equality. He shall not be wronged nor shall his enemies be aided.”

The Covenant, he said, clearly stipulates: “God’s protection is one.”

Dr. Morrow concluded: “I believe in the Ummah of Muhammad, the Confederation of Believers that is based on the Covenant of Madinah and the Covenants of the Prophet; an Ummah based on justice, tolerance, and diversity.”

Professor Christopher Bail, assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who also addressed the banquet, spoke about his book, Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream (Princeton University Press, 2016) Prof. Susan Brooks Thistlewaite, former president of Chicago Theological Seminary, who has dedicated herself to promoting a better understanding of Islam and the Muslim community, was recognized with the Interfaith Excellence Award. Under her leadership, ISNA was able to bring Muslim theologians and social scientists for several retreats together with their Jewish and Christian counterparts to deliberate on the role of faith in promoting peace and defining just war. It took hard work and perseverance to organize and inspire these discussions in New York. A well-documented book that has become a popular, authentic textbook and reference for these difficult issues is the result.

Dr. Irfan Ahmad Khan, founding President of the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations, Chair of the Interreligious Engagement Project, and a trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, was recognized for his lifelong contributions to understanding Islam in relation to other faiths, inspiring a subsequent generation.

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CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES Bay prison. “Guantanamo has been symSecurity come here and having him address bolic of the stalemate in politics — names us, and Sheikh Yasir Qadhi talking very openly and standing up against injustice and faces may change but policy stays the same, the Patriot Act has been renewed here and around the world in an open way several times, entrapment of innocent is really inspiring.”

Muslims has continued, and the unethREIMAGINING MUSLIM SPACES: ical tactic of drone strikes has increased ten-fold since President Obama’s election CREATING WELCOMING MOSQUES in 2008. “Mr. President,” he called, “Not AND CARING FOR CONVERTS all hope is lost...You can still leave a posi- Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed addresses the Anse Tamara Grey, founder of Rabata tive legacy. Close down Guantanamo Bay, ISNA Interfaith Banquet (that promotes empowerment of women scale back drone strikes, support Syrian in Muslim culture and Islamic scholarship) refugees, and the Palestinian people’s right gave advice for caring for convert women, to live in dignity!” urging the community not to pressure While many people have said that this is them into name changes or sudden and the worst time to be a Muslim in America, ill-conceived marriages, especially when Qadhi declared that in fact it is the best that might entail being one of multiple time. Not only should we be grateful for wives. She said, “The Prophet did not the blessings of freedom and privilege that marry any women from among the Ansar, we enjoy in America, we should appreciate and when asked why, he said that they find that difficulties force us to struggle for our polygamy distasteful in their culture, and Khizr and Ghazala Khan address the religion, and this strengthens our faith. he would hate to do anything to them that ISNA Interfaith Banquet He closed with a bold call to reclaim the they found distasteful.” She also addressed term “jihad,” which has been so maligned the need to make mosques welcoming by sensationalist media and so misused by for converts’ families so they do not feel violent extremists: “In fact, I stand here embarrassed bringing their families (espeand say in front of the largest gathering cially mothers) to their places of worship. of Muslims in America and unabashedly Shaykh Ubayd Allah Evans of the American Learning Institute for Muslims call for a Muslim American jihad! What will this jihad be? Not the false jihad of (ALIM) shared part of his personal story bloodshed of al-Qaeda and ISIS… that is and called for nuance and sensitivity in bloodshed and chaos...Our jihad will be to dealing with converts and their families, respond to [the Islamophobes’] evil with as every convert’s situation is different. good, [their] ignorance with education, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi Shaykh Khalid Latif, executive director [their] bigotry with love…to stand for jusand chaplain for the Islamic Center at New tice, to preach truth to power...especially York University shared successful elements of his converts care program. He begins tyrannical power, as the Prophet said this is the best jihad, and to make America by interviewing the converts to find out great again by the blessing of God.” He what they need. Being sensitive to their closed his speech by directing the attendwork schedules, he plans classes that are ees in proudly and unashamedly declaring, announced well in advance. The classes Allahu Akbar! (God is Great!). consist of long sessions on a single day, Mogahed followed Qadhi with words rather than short sessions on multiple of empowerment for those gathered: “Our days, because converts may be working fellow citizens are not overlords to appease ISNA Vice President USA multiple jobs and may have lost support Dr. Altaf Husain and beg for approval, and at the same time, systems by being cut off by their families, our audiences and those we engage are not enemies to conquer. They presenting work-class scheduling issues. He hosts a regular brunch are our equals — our fellow human beings that we have something to at his home for converts and their families. He tearfully recalled offer: truth telling.” She urged Muslims to continue making outreach having a Black convert lady at his wedding who thanked him for and da’wa to reach the large numbers of Americans who are receptive inviting her, as that had been the only wedding she had ever been to our message but who have not yet been reached. invited to. Latif called for Muslims to consider the purpose behind Talha Ahmed, 27, medical student commented, “I thought Yasir religious gatherings such as walimas and Eid feasts, and to include all Qadhi was inspiring and had lots of energy, it is an important mes- segments of our communities. An audience member pointed out that sage to be proud of being a Muslim and not be afraid. I think it was in Pakistani culture, it is uncomfortable to go up to strangers, talk to really cool, taking back words that American media has maligned.” them and introduce oneself. Latif pointed out that this is an excuse, Dexter, Missouri internist Reza Jalal, 47, remarked that “ISNA has emphasizing that these selective habits need to be acknowledged a good feel and has felt the pulse of the American community and the and overcome in order truly to live out the vision of an inclusive pain that they are going through with the Islamophobia and... not being Islamic society. included in trying to address the social issues of the country, so having Samiyah Nageeb is a learning and behavior specialist and diversity facilitator for SEED felt that, all of the speakers — Uncle Khizr and Aunty Ghazala — having Foundation, currently teaching English at Downers Grove North High (Illinois) School. them come and recognizing them, putting the passing of Muhammad Matthew David AbdulHaqq Niemi is a doctoral student in Islamic Studies at the University Ali into the limelight, having the Secretary of Department of Homeland of Indiana with a focus on early Islamic history.

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ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

The Deen Chasers If Not You, Then Who? MSA National Continental Conference is an opportunity to spirituality

MYNA Convention is a time to learn and to earn fulfillment through serving others

BY NIMRAH RIAZ

BY MYNA CONVENTION COMMITTEE

T

his year’s MSA National Continental Conference — traditionally held in conjunction with the ISNA Annual Convention — was as usual attended by people of all ages. They could be called the Deen Chasers who came to increase their knowledge about their religion, and boost their spirituality especially with today’s political climate.

The speakers brought gems of knowledge, tips, stories, that resonated with the audience in very session. Reminders of balancing the deen and the material caught their attention of the audience in heavy topics such as civic engagement, the current elections, the refugee crisis, the late Muhammad Ali, Nouman Ali Khan and Islamophobia. However, the midnight reflection sessions touched the audience’s hearts REMINDERS reminding us that God is the OF BALANCING ultimate Planner.

The opening day, Friday night THE DEEN AND started off with a powerful panel THE MATERIAL with Imam Khalid Latif, the New York University Chaplain, Amani CAUGHT THEIR Al-Khatahtbeh, founder of ATTENTION OF Muslim Girl, Ibtihaj Muhammad, 2016 fencing Olympian medalTHE AUDIENCE. ist, and Chris Blauvelt, founder of LaunchGood, who spoke on combatting Islamophobic stereotypes by being public Muslim figures and trailblazers who have broken glass ceilings with what they have accomplished. These winners had a conversation on what drives them and inspires their identity.

Saturday was a jam-packed day with a range of sessions with topics such as leadership, marriage, networking, provision of halal food on campus, mental illness, and being unapologetically Muslim in the media. During lunch, MSA leaders from universities all over the U.S. come together and discussed ideas that they can implement at their campuses.

On the final day, MSA National broke down taboos with topics on sexual health #BlackinMSA. Hosting these sessions was step forward on tackling these issues that the Muslim community has been so hush about. The night ended with a powerful reminder from Linda Sarsour, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, and Nouman Ali Khan on moving beyond normative standards and Islamophobic rhetoric to reclaim the Muslim voice as prominent, relevant citizens in America.

Every year, MSA National brings new topics to the table, new ideas, new speakers, and breaks down more barriers. This year was no exception.

Nimrah Riaz, chair for the Texas Regional MSA Chapter, is a master’s student at Texas A&M University, majoring in nonprofit management.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

“If

Not You, Then Who?” was the theme for this year’s convention of the Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA), which ran concurrent with the 53rd ISNA Convention in Chicago.

‘For the youth, by the youth’ is the MYNA motto, an organization dedicated to increasing youth involvement within their own communities, building leadership skills, and strengthening the pride felt for the deen. For the past 31 years, MYNA has worked hard to accomplish this by developing a multitude of programs and activities for youth aged 12-19, programs that were initiated with a youth track at ISNA’s annual convention and later expanded to establish seasonal camps, educational forums, conferences, local chapters, regular online halaqas and more.

The program focused on transcending the ordinary in all aspects of life — from having a say in the decisions made by local mosques, excelling in academics and extracurricular activities, to being at the forefront of national and global initiatives for change — all while maintaining a strong spiritual connection with God. Sessions tackled societal hot topics such as drugs, mental health, and addressing LGBTQ, as well as other relevant topics including reproductive health, Islamophobia, spiritual numbness, and the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).

MSA Executive Director and ISNA Convention Chair Fatima Salman said, “I love and admire the MYNA youth and the way they take charge and lead. They are an inspiration to me and so many others. In preparation for upcoming sessions, they carried around boards advertising their sessions and chanted M-Y-N-A. They are indeed hope for our future.”

Nationally recognized individuals led the MYNA sessions: Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan speaking on Islamophobia; New York University chaplain Khalid Latif on drugs and mental health; Shaykh Yasir Qadhi on LGBTQ; Chicago author and youth educator Habeeb Quadri; Brooklyn activist Linda Sarsour; Team USA’s fencing Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad; Muslim Girl founder, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh on today’s rising heroes; Bayyinah Institute’s Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan on spiritual numbness; and over twenty 23

CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES additional role models from today’s Muslim youth. Together, the speakers inspired youth from a wide range of ages and backgrounds to be the best versions of themselves that they can possibly be.

“Where else can youth meet their heroes of today?” MYNA Convention Speaker Chair Izza Ahmed-Ghani declared. “Not only did I have the honor to hear some of the world’s most acclaimed leaders speak, but I also had the pleasure to work with them. I wasn’t listening to them in my living room on CNN. They were right in front of me! Very few youth organizations, like MYNA, can do that for kids my age.”

MYNA’s entertainment portion, an open performing arts showcase, featured contributions from a wide range of participants — some of whom had the audience in fits of laughter, others who prompted pindrop silence. Convention Program Chair and MC of the open mic session, Mona Hagmagid, expressed, “MYNA youth took the stage by storm. From comedy sketches, spoken word, and rap, to card tricks, MYNA kids flaunted their skills. The room surged with MYNA chants, laughter, and quiet reflection. One of the highlights of the weekend, it impacted every audience member and offered performers the opportunity to share their passions in a safe and supportive community.” Hagmagid summed up with a chant that continues to ring in the ears of hundreds of MYNA youth: “When I say MYNA, y’all say NATION!” Entertainment, however, was not the only weekend’s highlight.

Following MYNA tradition, attendees took part in Open Spaces, where youth to spoke up about various personal issues they face daily. Topics such as peer pressure, family relations, and social media arose throughout the various circles around the room, sparking input from attendees and MYNA mentors alike. They were provided with an invaluable opportunity not only to address problems relevant to their own lives, but also to come up with potential solutions for others in the same shoes - all in a judgment-free zone.

“Walk the Walk” was another workshop featured during the convention, encouraging youth to take action by being part of national movements for justice, equity, and inclusion. MYNA collaborated with Helping Hand for Relief and Development to give youth the chance to write letters to Syrian refugees and discuss matters that grip the current global society.

Yasmeen Atta, one of two MYNA Bazaar Chairs, who attended one of these workshops, said “I walked into this workshop expecting to learn something new — which I did, no doubt — but I definitely didn’t expect to be moved so heavily. There was one picture during the presentation that affected me most, involving a ring of volunteers protecting the refugee children from the supply trucks that awaited them. This image alone instilled an even stronger resolve in me — a

resolve that began with my MYNA involvement — to get out into the world and help others in need, no matter the way, shape, or form.”

As convention attendees reached the top of the escalator on their way to the “MYNA Zone,” an extensive bazaar — both eye-catching and inviting — awaited them. Tables and cubbies displayed MYNA merchandise galore, both vintage and limited edition — from the perpetually demanded t-shirts to lanyards, notebooks, magnets, phone cases, bumper stickers, and more. Beyond an area of commerce, however, the MYNA bazaar booths provided an atmosphere of engagement.

“The activity at the booths had an energy that has been unmatched in recent years and became integrated with the convention experience,” said former Executive Committee Program Chair Zainab Kahloon.

Regarding the convention as a whole, Kahloon shared that “[it] had a vibrant culture that permeated beyond the sessions and into the MYNA area.”

Yet the convention could not have been possible, or even remotely functional, without the help of its dedicated volunteers. Over 60 youth devoted a portion of their time, some even their whole weekend, to help set the theme in motion and ensure the program ran smoothly and efficiently. They worked behind the scenes, directing people around the convention center, taking shifts at the bazaar booths, and moderating sessions. As always, this MYNA event was put together for the youth, and completely by the youth. One of two volunteer chairs, Yousef Abdeldaiem, commented, “I think what made my experience so great was meeting so many people with different personalities.

Even though I didn’t know 90 percent of the volunteers, after the first day, it felt like I’ve known them my whole life. That’s just something MYNA has always done.”

The convention’s theme “If Not You, Then Who” emphasized that Muslim youth are not tomorrow’s leaders, but rather are today’s leaders, shaping important voices in both local and national organizations.

In God’s eyes, they are responsible for their own actions. MYNA youth believe it is time for youth empowerment and engagement in adult conversations, because Islamophobia, racism, violence, debt?, poverty, addiction, women’s issues, and love for the Prophet matter to young people too.

“This year’s program was original and unparalleled compared to previous years; we made sure not to shy away from subjects pertinent to our audience,” Sarah Siddiqui, MYNA’s Convention Chair, said. “I hope each person who attended a MYNA session walked away with a better sense of self and a heightened awareness of the role they play in their community and in the world.”

Next year’s convention planning is already underway and MYNA can’t wait to see even more youth at an even more exciting venue.

THE CONVENTION’S THEME “IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO” EMPHASIZED THAT MUSLIM YOUTH ARE NOT TOMORROW’S LEADERS, BUT RATHER ARE TODAY’S LEADERS, SHAPING IMPORTANT VOICES IN BOTH LOCAL AND NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS.

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ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES

Medicine for the Heart and Mind Muslim American physicians convene to learn and share

BY IMANA STAFF

Abdul Rauf Mir (center) received the Dr. Elkadi Award

T

he award and the awardee synchronized perfectly, the 2016 ElKadi Memorial Award — founded in the memory of Dr. Ahmed ElKadi, an Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) founder, a life member and its president from 1974-75, who had spent the 69 years of his life serving and leading Muslims through this and other pioneering achievements — was awarded to none other than Kansas City, Missouri nephrologist Dr. Abdul Rauf Mir — IMANA president 2002-03, and ISNA Founders Committee member, who

personified and commanded the respect of IMANA board and members.

From July 23-27, over 100 IMANA members and their families flew in from a dozen different states into Mile High City — Denver, Colo. to the uninitiated — for a 4-day getaway at IMANA’s 49th Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly.

Attendees received 8 hours of Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits, enjoyed three essential Colorado tours, the annual IMANA Banquet, a silent art auction by artist Lubna Zahid, the presence of and speeches by ISNA President Azhar Azeez

and Ryan Harris, one of the first Muslim football players to be a Super Bowl champion, and the pleasantness of a 5-star private resort and hotel.

Offensive tackle Harris, who started with Super Bowl-winning Denver Broncos in 2015, has inked a two-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The convention began with a CME conference and 40 people in attendance. With eight presentations and four panels over the span of two days, the presentations explored various subjects and health matters that led to deep conversations and questions by both the audience and other presenters. Often a healthy controversial debate emerged, keeping everyone engaged. Dr. Ayaz Samadani, a Beaver Dam, Wis. family physician and IMANA president 2012-13, and Dr. Khalid Qazi, a Depew, N.Y. internist, and IMANA president 1990-91, introduced presenters with a warm welcome, and added humor to brighten the day. Dr. Samadani is vividly remembered endorsing IMR with a hat, saying, “IMR is for Instant Mental Relief,” (read: IMANA Medical Relief). The audience erupted in laughter, making it feel like a true IMANA family learning environment.

CME presenters included Dr. Aasim Padela, assistant professor of medicine and director

THE EXCELLENT CHEMISTRY BETWEEN ISNA AND IMANA CONTRIBUTES TO SPROUTING YOUNG, SECOND GENERATION OF MUSLIM LEADERSHIP AT THE HELM IN BOTH, AND OTHER SUCH ORGANIZATIONS. —ISNA President Azhar Azeez (L-R) Asif Malik, Ryan Harris, and Azhar Azeez 26

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

of the Initiative on Islam and Medicine at the University of Chicago, Chicago diagnostic radiologist Dr. Aizaz Shaikh, Boston pediatrician Dr. Umbereen Nehal, Atlanta, Ga. radiologist and IMANA executive committee member Dr. Nabile Safdar, New York urologist Dr. Naeem Rehman, North Carolina gastroenterologist Dr. Najeeb Rahman and Dr. Samadani.

After enjoying a tour of the Mile High City, IMANA families attended the IMANA Banquet at the Inverness. Dr. Safdar, who served as emcee, invited Harris, a valuable IMANA member who has financially supported IMANA’s SaveSmile Mission initiatives and stood publicly with the Muslim community, to the podium. He spoke of the benefits IMANA provides for the domestic and international community, and the role that Muslims need to play today. Signed footballs were auctioned towards fundraising.

The IMR Humanitarian Award honoree was Michigan internist Dr. Mohammad Nadeemullah, which was not a surprise considering his sincerity, passion, and dedication to the IMR cause.

As the night advanced, Dr. Safdar introduced the evening’s main speaker, ISNA President, Azhar Azeez. He spoke of mentorship and leadership. “Having good mentors and great friends are important in life because they act as mirrors and shadows.

Mirrors don’t lie, and shadows don’t leave,” he said.

The excellent chemistry between ISNA and IMANA contributes to developing the young, second generation Muslim leadership now at the helm of both, and other such organizations. Azeez spoke of how the first generation laid the foundations and how the new generation is bringing its own unique Muslim American vision to the forefront.

The strong foundations have ensured stability, while the energy of the current crop has enabled a successful take off. The results are there for everyone to see: IMR activities in the last decade are an apt example.

The evening was well spent and became a wonderful opportunity to spend time with family and friends from all over the USA. The following day was spent completing CME sessions and later touring the historic Georgetown Loop Railroad. The railroad was completed in 1884 and follows a corkscrew route that slowly gains 600 feet in elevation connecting Georgetown and Silver Plume. A conductor illustrated the history and making of the railroad. The trip was gorgeous and especially enjoyable to families with younger children.

The meeting’s last and final day in Colorado was one of the most memorable. IMANA families were able to taste a full day tour of Rocky Mountain National Park — a whopping 12,005 feet above sea level in the alpine tundra of Rainbow Curve. Views were spectacular as elk climbed over a passing, a few hundred feet away from IMANA families who made it to the peak.

That night, back at the Inverness, families were able to enjoy dinner and relax while silent-art bids were finalized.

Imam Jihad Turk, an actively engaged community member with the

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Muslim community in Southern California, presented on the establishment of Bayan Claremont. Bayan Claremont is an institution in California aimed towards educating Muslim scholars to better their community impact. Imam Jihad Turk left a positive impression on the hearts of many.

It was announced that IMANA’s 50th Anniversary will be on a Mediterranean Cruise, July 23-30, 2017.

IMANA, an ISNA constituent organization for 49 years, provides resources and networking opportunities for Muslim American health care professionals as well as medical relief programs.

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COVER STORY

Ibtihaj Muhammad Redefining Do Muslim Americans realize the long-lasting impact Ibtihaj Muhammad has made by demolishing stereotypes and setting an example for Muslim-American girls unsure if they can succeed or fit in playing sports?

BY RISHAT FATIMA

I

btihaj Muhammad, read in any order — African American, hijab-clad, Muslim woman — became the first American Olympian in any sport to compete in a hijab. She tweeted: “Opening Ceremonies! One of the best days of my life.”

At the Democratic Convention, Hillary Rodham Clinton projected a video showing herself cracking the glass ceiling. But Ibtihaj has gone a few miles yonder: she has sabre shattered the reinforced glass ceiling!

President Barack Obama, addressing the first White House Eid celebration on July 21, jested that there was “no pressure” on Ibtihaj’s shoulders in competing at the Olympics “proudly wearing her hijab.”

Meeting with her in Baltimore in February, the President pointed out that, “One of the Americans waving the red, white, and blue will be a fencing champion wearing her hijab in the next Olympics.”

Cindy Boren noted in The Washington Post, (August 8), “She knows that, win or lose, her presence in Rio is significant.”

“I’m hopeful that, in my efforts to represent our country well as an athlete — that they change the rhetoric around how people think and perceive the Muslim community,” Ibtihaj told CNN. To Luke Meredith of the Associated Press (Aug. 8), Ibtihaj said “… I love my teammates and I believe in them. I believe in myself.

I believe in us, and I want us to win a medal more than anything. I want us to do it for our country.”

She came home to the U.S. with a bronze in the women’s sabre.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Rosenberg (Aug. 8), was on the dot when she wrote: “Ibtihaj Muhammad will not be your punching bag. She will also not be your rabble-rouser, your wallflower or the knife in your political knife-fight. Muhammad just became the first American woman ever to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab, and the fact she did this and did it in the Age of Trump means this is her Story, capital S, the way she is discussed in America today: Did you hear the Story of the fencer in the hijab?”

Who else but Ibtihaj could express it better? She told Rosenberg, “I think that anyone who has paid attention to the news at all would realize the importance of having a Muslim woman on Team USA,” she said. “It’s not just any team. It’s the United States of America. It’s in light of what’s going on in this country. It’s the political fuss that we hear.

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ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

the Muslim American Image WHILE THERE HAVE BEEN PLENTY OF GREAT MUSLIM ATHLETES IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE PAST, THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED ONES ARE MEN. MUHAMMAD ALI. KAREEM ABDUL-JABAAR. HAKEEM OLAJUWON. WITH IBTIHAJ AS A ROLE MODEL FOR MUSLIM WOMEN, THAT CAN CHANGE.” —Maggie Hendricks, usatoday.com

All these things, I feel like, kind of circle back to my presence on Team USA, and again, just challenging those misperceptions of who a Muslim woman is.”

She stressed, “How can you not see that Muslims are like every other group? We are conservatives and we are liberals. There are woman who cover and women who don’t. There are African-American Muslims, there are white Muslims—there are so many different types of Muslims.”

Talking to CNN, Ibtihaj said, “Um, you know I want people to know that Muslims come in all shapes and sizes. We do various things and we’re productive members of society and we’re even present here on the United States Olympic team. This dream of mine wouldn’t have been able to come to fruition were it not for the support system I have, not just in my town but also from my friends and family. This has been a beautiful experience. This is the America that I know and love. The America that is inclusive, that is accepting, and that encompasses people from all walks of life.”

Rosenberg also noted: “Most sportswriters are not in the habit of asking fencers for their thoughts on presidential elections. But we live in strange times [emphasis added]. And so there was Muhammad, still processing the end of her dream of an individual Olympic medal (she has another chance in the team event), being asked about her religion.”

He aptly concluded: “Very few athletes in Rio will become famous, and it usually takes a medal to do it. Ibtihaj Muhammad has not won a medal [later she took a bronze medal]. She gained attention by being herself. She didn’t ask for it. She didn’t come here with a political angle. She came with her sabre, her dreams and her sense of self, and she used all three to represent her country extraordinarily well. I hope Donald Trump did watch. I hope everybody did.”

Of course, the [un]Grand Old Party may have needed high blood pressure treatment. CNN host W. Kamau Bell’s suggestion that Michael Phelps relinquish his Olympic flag-bearer role to Ibtihaj Muhammad, because ours is “a time when we could use some more symbols of unity and togetherness” sparked controversy. Many commentators attacked not only Islam and Muslims, but also Ibtihaj’s choice of a sword-related sport. Ironically the Games’ first gold medal was awarded to America’s own Virginia Thrasher for 10-meter air rifle, which involves the use of a gun.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

29

Gold Muslim American COVER STORY

At

THE 2016 RIO OLYMPICS, Dalilah Muhammad, 26, won the women’s 400m hurdles — becoming the first American woman to win a gold medal in the event.

The Queens, New York native, who celebrates her birthday February 7, was one of the popular track and field stars competing in the Olympics.

The 5’7” tall, 121 lb. Muhammad, who finished ahead of Denmark’s Sara Petersen and fellow American Ashley Spencer, clocked 53.13 seconds to win by a margin of 0.42.

Muhammad’s haul was the nation’s 99th Rio medal. With her victory, the United States won gold at every Olympic event with starting blocks.

In 2007, she won a gold medal in the World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Two years later, she got silver at the 2009 Pan Am Jr. Championships in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Her junior career began running for the Trojans, when in 2008, she join the USC on sports scholarship from where she majored in business.

Muhammad, who started running competitively when she was 7 years old, grew up in Rochdale Village, N.Y, graduating from the Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, N.Y. She attended the University of Southern California from 2008 to 2012, on a sports scholarship, while majoring in business. There she began running for the USC Trojans. Muhammad chose USC over Texas A&M, Miami, South Carolina and Florida State.

At the 2015 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, she was placed 7th with 57.31. In July, 2016, she won the 400m hurdles in 52.88 at the 2016 United States Olympic Trials.

Muhammad made her professional debut in the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, where she earned a silver medal in the 400m hurdles. That same year, she also won her first national title at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a personal record of 53.83.

In fact, Muhammad owns three of the five best times in the world this year.

Dalilah’s parents Nadirah and Askia Muhammad are very proud of their daughter’s accomplishments. “A lot of people don’t realize how much work that goes into producing an Olympic athlete,” Askia Muhammad told NY1.

Evan Klocinski @EvanKlocinski tweeted: “I’m so glad a real American [Phelps] carried OUR flag during the opening ceremonies.”

While Watch Clinton Cash @JaredWyand tweeted: “Question @ ibtihajmuhammad... Can you confirm that you denounce [Prophet] Muhammad’s call to kill me? Yes or No?” Terresa Monroe-Hamilton at Right Wing News blasted: “CNN host wanted a Muslim to carry the American flag, Americans disagreed.”

Monroe-Hamilton quoted some tweets as evidence and lambasted “liberals and the biased media,” claiming they only want Muhammad because “she’s a diehard Trump basher and hater and she’s far more to their globalist, politically correct liking.”

Chicks on the Right said liberals were prejudiced against Phelps because “he’s a tall, talented, rich white guy. He doesn’t count.”

“Obviously, Phelps has worked very 30

hard since his childhood to become the best in the world,” said Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit, whereas, he charged, Ibtihaj Muhammad got on the team as part of a Muslim affirmative-action program.

Notwithstanding so many spewing hate , there are sane voices trying to preserve America’s real values who proudly tweeted that they had voted for Ibtihaj as flag-bearer.

Bell had reminded Phelps, “During these Olympics, you can win more medals to add to your all-time winning number of medals. But no medal will compare to making room for this [standing aside for Ibithaj].” According to the Los Angeles Times, the vote was close [emphasis added].

In February this year, after Ibtihaj took bronze in the Women’s Sabre World Cup, in so doing earning enough Olympic qualifying points to represent the U.S. fencing team in the Rio games, she said, “I want to compete in the Olympics for the United States to prove that nothing should hinder anyone from reaching their goals — not race, religion or gender. I want to set an example that anything is possible with perseverance.”

Ibtihaj, with firmness of resolve due to her values, has done more for Muslim Americans (and Muslims in general) than many others. After she was announced for the U.S. team July 30, reporters crowded around her for the better part of an hour, standing two and three deep, pushing close — a jostling mass of cameras, lights and microphones.

Time magazine listed her among the 100 most influential people of the year. At the time of her selection, Ibtihaj Muhammad ranked second in the U.S. and 7th in the world in fencing;.but that is not what the media asks her about — rather, concerning her religion.

Alexander Massialas — the top foil fencer in the world — looking at all the reporters surrounding his teammate, shook his head, telling the Los Angeles Times (July 30): “It has to be tough, but she’s handling it extremely well. She’s never been one to shy away from a fight.”

While competing for Duke (Class of 2007), she was a three-time AllAmerican while earning degrees in international relations and African studies with a minor in Arabic. She also attended the School for International Training in Rabat, Morocco (Summer 2006) where ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Marathoner in Hijab Finishes on the Cover

In she completed courses in Moroccan culture and intensive Arabic.

As Ibtihaj chased a spot on the U.S. team, the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino made nightly news and Trump proposed “a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the country. American mosques were being vandalized and Muslim passengers kicked off commercial airlines. How true is Massialas’ evaluation, “She’s never been one to shy away from a fight.”

While preparing for the big moment in Rio, she fasted during Ramadan, adjusting her training regimen, and making up for lost time by practicing five or six hours into the night.

Maggie Hendricks of usatoday.com (July 29) noted, “While there have been plenty of great Muslim athletes in the United States in the past, the most accomplished ones are men. Muhammad Ali. Kareem Abdul-Jabaar. Hakeem Olajuwon. With Ibtihaj as a role model for Muslim women, that can change.”

Ibtihaj’s mother Denise said that she often hears from other Muslim parents, many of whom are from countries where girls were not allowed play sports. They did not think their daughters could wear hijab and still participate. Seeing Ibtihaj Muhammad fence changed their minds.

“There’s kids who can convince their parents, at least let me try.

Sports is all-inclusive. It gives you an introduction into a community where sometimes it’s difficult, when you’re a minority — be it nationality or religious minority,” Denise Muhammad said.

Her father Eugene is a retired African-American police officer from New Jersey. However, the right-wingers cast aspersions as to where the family came from. To spare the birthers, Ibtihaj was born in Maplewood, N.J. Johnette Howard, writing in ESPN.com (Aug.8) observed, “Muhammad pulled off her masked helmet and began talking to the referee after Berder went ahead, 11-7. Scoring is always highly subjective in fencing, especially when both fencers clash blades or trade touches at nearly the same instance. The athletes often both pump a fist at the same time, trying to buy a call or lay claim to the same point. But this time, Muhammad got a yellow card warning. Her early 6-2 lead and the match had changed to the rallying Berder’s favor now, and a few moments later, the ninth-ranked Frenchwoman, who sat one slot behind Muhammad in the world rankings, stopped Muhammad’s Olympic run two wins short of the medal round with a 15-12 loss.”

Howard concluded, “Her time in the 2016 Olympic spotlight is ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

OCTOBER 2016, MICHIGAN marathoner Rahaf Khatib became possibly the first hijabi woman ever to appear on the cover of a U.S. fitness magazine — Women’s Running.

It was she who approached the magazine citing a lack of Muslim hijabi women represented in women’s magazines and challenged it to change that.” The magazine’s editor-in-chief Jessie Sebor said, “We couldn’t help but hear her.”

She told Sebor while passionate about running; she might be even more passionate about the visibility of Muslims and hijabi women in her sport. Sebor appreciating her spirit, said, “We love everything she stands for: Pushing yourself, challenging stereotypes, and motivating others along the way.”

Khatib told the magazine that during one of her first races, she noticed few other women in hijab on the course. Additionally, when she ran the Paris marathon in 2015, she didn’t see one other hijabi in the race, where tens of thousands of runners finish.

She said, “I feel like I need to represent the underrepresented. We should all be accepted no matter your identity, no matter your race, no matter your sexuality, and no matter your religion. We’re all crossing the same finish line, literally and figuratively.”

She told the magazine that Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) would ‘race’ or ‘sprint’ with his wife Aisha.

Even though she calls herself “an average (but persistent!) runner,” she has finished five marathons, and ran her sixth marathon Sept. 25, 2016 in Berlin, Germany - rated one of the world’s big six best marathons.

“It’s gotten a great response and there have been no negative comments yet,” the magazine quoted Khatib.

She added that even though there’s a “negative climate with all the rhetoric about Muslims” right now, she believes that, especially as the presidential election approaches, her cover can make a statement about Muslims in the US. “We are here, we are present, and we are in these fields just as any other athletes are,” she said.

Khatib, the magazine said, is confident that if Muslims get mainstream media coverage and brand sponsorships, there will be a “positive and overwhelming response.”

Originally from Damascus, Syria, Khatib (Instagram handle@runlikeahijabi), 32, who moved to the U.S. in the 1980s with her parents, lives in Farmington Hills, Mich., with her husband and their three children.

almost over. But Ibtihaj Muhammad is not the kind of woman who’s inclined to sit on the sidelines for long. Already, she has made the conversation about race and religion in America more intelligent with her voice and example. It will be fascinating to see what she undertakes next.”

Jeff Eisenberg (Yahoo Sports Aug 8,) remarked appropriately: “If Muhammad is still discouraged by Monday’s 15-12 loss to France’s Cecilia Berder, she can take solace that the sting will someday fade.

What will endure far longer is the impact she has made demolishing stereotypes and setting an example for Muslim-American girls unsure if they can succeed or fit in playing sports.”

Rishat Fatima is a freelance writer.

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EDUCATION

Standing against Islamophobia in California School Curricula Muslim Americans thwart scheme at incorporating Islamophobia in California state school curriculum

BY MUSADDIQUE THANGE

I

f you thought that these two sample sentences are from some Islamophobic literature peddling its own benighted version of history, you would be right.

“Arabs, who were nomadic tribesmen from Arabia, converted to a new religion, and inspired by that religion, fought wars against other cultures.”

“Muslims often did not force Christians or Jews, “people of the book,” to convert, but people of other religions were more often forced to convert.”

They come from edits proposed to the California state curriculum framework that is used by textbook publishers there and beyond. Moreover, they represent only a small portion of the Islamophobia being proposed for inclusion in the curriculum by groups ranging from avowed Islam-haters to U.S.-based Hindu nationalist groups.

The edits covered a broad spectrum of Islamophobic ideas from depicting Muslims as enslavers of non-Muslims to projecting Muslim rulers as tyrants and bigots routinely engaging in forced conversions.

The state’s open review process and the Indian American Muslim Council’s (IAMC) persistent efforts alerted the Muslim American community; and timely engagement helped contain much of the damage.

However, the struggle to keep Islamophobia out of textbooks is far from over, as publishers use this framework to develop content and school districts customize how history and social sciences are taught. This engagement has important lessons for the community and its shared concern over Islamophobia in the public square.

Before being finalized, the California curriculum goes through a fairly involved review process every six years. The openness of the review process to public input inevitably results in a public debate between opposing views of history, often between groups seeking to push an ideological narrative and scholars or activists seeking to improve integrity of the content.

IAMC leads the effort to ensure the accurate portrayal of Islam and Muslims at the California Department of Education.

Working as part of the multi-faith coalition South Asian Histories for All (SAHFA), IAMC took up debate with Hindu nationalist

organizations on various aspects of history covered by the middle school curriculum, and in advocating for Islam and Muslims before the Board.

Leading the Hindu charge were the Hindu American Foundation, the Hindu Education Foundation and the Uberoi Foundation.

While claiming to seek a “fair” portrayal of Hinduism, the changes they sought included projecting Muslims as “invaders” and Islam as an inherently war-mongering religion while also delinking the caste system — a rigid system of social stratification — from its origins in Hinduism — an idea that is not universally accepted in India.

They also sought to appropriate the shared heritage of several countries in Asia, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka through use of the term “ancient India.” Notably Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), the only Hindu in the U.S. Congress as well as California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom (D) were pulled into the fray, and somehow convinced that the proposed changes were about the “accurate and fair” representation of Hinduism.

To further the supremacist Hindutva narrative — an ideology seeking to establish the hegemony of Hindus and the Hindu way of life in India —, these organizations introduced edits referring to the “hegemony and persecution of the Mughal rulers.” An

The South Asian Histories for All (SAHFA) coalition assert their stand 32

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

op-ed penned by the SAHFA coalition correctly called out this historical fallacy, flying as it does in the face of several well-known facts (Indian Express, July 10, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Abdullah Momin, Harjit Kaur and Anasuya Sengupta: California textbooks: The next stage of the battle). For instance, the Muslim Emperor Aurangzeb’s army that faced the Hindu king Shivaji’s Maratha warriors in the seventeenth century comprised mainly of Rajput Hindus. The emperor’s greatest ally against Shivaji was Mirza Raja Jai Singh, the Hindu ruler of the kingdom of Amber. Likewise, Shivaji appointed a Muslim, Darya Darang as the chief of the navy, and a significant portion of Shivaji’s army and navy comprised of Muslims. In one of the largest massacres in the history of India, the Maratha invasion of Bengal that lasted a decade starting in 1741 resulted in the slaughter of about 400,000 Bengalis —mostly Hindus — by their Hindu coreligionists.

These facts demonstrate that history is complex, and requires a more nuanced understanding than the simplistic and binary “Hindus versus Muslims” view the Hindu nationalist organizations espouse. In the context of Indian history, that both Mughal and Hindu rulers embraced diversity, or that Hindu kings fought each other just as often, are facts that those seeking to push a narrow ideological narrative purposefully ignore.

The Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies, which seeks to raise awareness of the four major Dharmic religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, sought other anti-Islam edits. For instance, the Grade 7 textbook says: “Muslims did not force Christians or Jews, ‘people of the book’, to convert, but people of other religions were sometimes forced to convert.” Uberoi Foundation’s suggested change: “Muslims did not force Christians or Jews, ‘people of the book’, to convert, but people of other religions were forced to convert most of the time in India as well as in other countries such as in central Asia,” pushing the false narrative that a large portion of Hindus were subjected to forced conversions.

In this charged setting, at the penultimate public hearing on May 19, 2016 before the Instructional Quality Commission, the SAHFA coalition won important victories in ensuring the curriculum framework accurately depicted the origins of the caste system, and of Sikhism as a distinct religion. Several Islamophobic edits, however, especially those proposed by the Uberoi Foundation

THE STATE’S OPEN REVIEW PROCESS AND THE INDIAN AMERICAN MUSLIM COUNCIL’S PERSISTENT EFFORTS ALERTED THE MUSLIM AMERICAN COMMUNITY; TIMELY ENGAGEMENT HELPED CONTAIN MUCH OF THE DAMAGE. remained. Moreover, there was Islamophobic content in the existing framework. The July 14 public hearing before the Board of Education became the last opportunity to deal with it all, and to convince the Board to go with scholarship instead of ideology.

In the intervening two months, IAMC marshalled 25 scholars of Islam and Muslim civilization from premier institutions like Harvard, UCLA, Georgetown University and Berkeley to write a joint letter to the Board of Education. Among them were John L. Esposito, (Georgetown University), William Albert Graham, Jr. (Harvard University), Dr. Hatem Bazian (Berkeley) and Jonathan Brown (Georgetown University).

The letter said, “contrary to the treatment given to other religions, Islam has been introduced in the curriculum primarily under a narrative of war and conquest. The curriculum text in its current form is prejudiced in its references to alleged forced conversions of non-Muslims to Islam, often when no such forced conversions are even reported in historical sources.

“The Umayyad dynasty, for example, not only did not force people to convert to Islam, but in fact, discouraged conversion to Islam,” the letter stated adding that the narrative that “the primary teaching of Islam is to wage war and destroy other cultures… is a gross misrepresentation of historical reality and feeds into the contemporary wave of Islamophobia in the country.”

A separate letter from leading Muslim American organizations, including ISNA, summarized the Muslim community’s grave concern: “As representatives and stakeholders in American Muslim policy we are concerned that the current California curriculum and the proposed edits reflect an inaccurate and biased narrative on our historical identity, contributions and legacy. Moreover such bias is likely to lay a foundation of anti-Muslim sentiments among the student populace eventually perpetuating the growing Islamophobia in our public discourse.”.

On hearing day, July 14 at the California Department of Education, a large turnout of

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Muslim Americans from statewide, testified to defend their faith and their history from distortions. The efforts bore fruit when the Board decided to accept three of the five recommendations made by the Muslim Studies Faculty Group, essentially overturning several Islamophobic edits and restoring a measure of balance to the coverage of Islam and Muslims in the curriculum framework. The outcome was largely a rejection of the Hindu nationalist narrative on caste and Islamic history, although the Board ruled in favor of the term “ancient India” to refer to the shared history of at least six countries in South Asia.

“It is ironic that while publicly claiming to seek a fair portrayal of Hinduism, Hindu nationalist organizations expended considerable resources in order to inject Islamophobia into the California curriculum,” an IAMC press release stated. “The State Board of Education’s courageous stance in resisting political pressure and a well-funded PR machinery demonstrates that those seeking to normalize anti-Muslim bigotry are running a fool’s errand,” it further added.

The outcome of the California curriculum controversy is significant and has repercussions on how textbooks cover important subjects in history and social science in several states across the U.S. It has highlighted the need for Muslim Americans to be vigilant against creeping Islamophobia, not only in media and politics, but also education.

The next stage of the process involves review of the textbooks written by publishers based on the approved curriculum framework.

The Muslim community can no longer be complacent in assuming that only scholars are providing content that will shape their children’s worldview. Well-funded groups and their organized attempts to influence how Muslim history is taught pose the risk of education turning into insidious indoctrination for the next generation of students. Unless American Muslims take timely preventive action, public schools could become contributors to the growing Islamophobia around us.

Musaddique Thange is Director of Media Relations, Indian American Muslim Council.

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EDUCATION

Timeless Teachings for Young Readers Imam al-Ghazali’s writing offers children of all ages the spiritual guidance they need at a time when their values are being formed

BY GRAY HENRY

S

haykh Abdal Hakim Murad (T.J. Winter), Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity at University of Cambridge, and dean and founder of the Cambridge Muslim College, notes, “If the Qur’an tells us that the heart is the essence of man, so that the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) on his Ascension saw the highest perfection with his heart [Quran 53:11], and if revelation itself descended ‘on his heart’, then the heart is the unique interface of the eternal and the finite realms…”

The Louisville, Ky. based Fons Vitae, working in collaboration with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson, has undertaken the monumental task of publishing Imam al-Ghazali’s 11th century 40-volume magnum opus, The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din) as an educational package re-crafted for families and schools. Regarded in the Muslim world over the centuries as the greatest compendium of Islamic spirituality and ethical behavior for everyday life, it lays down practical teachings and explains how the outer aspects of Islam can, through their inner spiritually transformative meanings, change every situation into one that strengthens the innate human nobility of character. Prophet Muhammad said, “I was sent only to perfect good character.”

Hamza Yusuf explains, “The Ghazali Children’s Project is nothing less than a revolution in developing humane, ethical and committed Muslim youth, who are in dire need of guidance in these troubled times.

Imam al-Ghazali is the Proof of Islam, and these teachings, presented in a beautiful life-affirming way, will prove to be a major shift in the way Islam is taught to young people. As a community, we owe much to Fons Vitae for bringing them to fruition.

Let the transformation begin!”

Ingrid Mattson, the London and

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Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at Western University in Canada, and a former ISNA president, says, “The Imam Ghazali Children’s series is a gift to our children who deserve a pedagogy of Islam that allows them to develop the innate goodness which God has placed within each human being so they

can become moral, kind and happy adults.”

Ghazali Children’s Series provides authentic quality guidance for children of all ages at a time when their values are being formed. Imam al-Ghazali’s systematic approach for developing virtuous character is provided in an educational package that includes beautifully produced children’s books, source texts for parents and teachers, workbooks with activities, and a school curriculum, all supported by an interactive parent-children’s website and Pilot School Program. These materials offer a creative, enjoyable, and spiritual supplement or alternative to standard Islamic Studies curricula with a strong focus on the purification of the heart.

Regarding the purification of both the outward and the inward, Abū Hāmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) wrote that one should know with certitude that the purification of the

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Heart comes through ridding the soul of its vices and reforming it with virtue, and that a person who stops at outward purification alone is like someone who wants to invite a king to his home, then busies himself with decorating its front door, while leaving the inside full of rubbish and debris.

The project aims to establish, from the start of a child’s life, reflexive habits such as humility, patience, love, altruism, gentleness, forbearance, and respect for other faiths while providing children with real and effective tools to address such failings as selfishness, backbiting, arguing, laziness, envy, bragging, hypocrisy, greed, wasting time, and pride.

Children need to be raised as spiritual beings who are self observant and self correcting. The project has seen how 4 and 5 year olds are drawn to spiritual truths.

Teachings need to engage the imagination and the spirit of children and attract

CHILDREN NEED TO BE RAISED AS SPIRITUAL BEINGS WHO ARE SELF OBSERVANT AND SELF CORRECTING.

their enjoyment and love. A child needs to be handed back his or her dignity and religion in a way that he or she can understand what it is really for and therefore truly desire consciously to keep his or her innate goodness of character intact.

The project envisages that children, for generations to come, will be able to understand that their faith is about the interior process of perfecting the Spiritual Heart and eliminating base character traits, which accumulate when the true nature of the Heart is neglected.

Fons Vitae is experiencing the global Muslim community coming together enthusiastically endorsing and supporting this series. A major grant from the John Templeton Foundation has contributed to the publication. The Ghazali Project has been officially launched in Morocco, Indonesia, Great Britain, Canada, and the U.S. It is becoming part of imam training programs and is now used in prison outreach. Currently, translations are underway in Arabic, Urdu, German, Swedish, and Malay.

This educational package is supported by: • A team of recognized Islamic scholars and educators; • An instructional DVD included in the Children’s Book of Knowledge (which also includes showing how the stories may be adapted for small children); • A Pilot School Program; • An interactive website http://ghazalichildren.org (currently active and is expected to be completed in late Fall, 2016); The website offers: The educational package book sets and other relevant children’s books, also available in e-book formats; A meeting place for children with a variety of activities, including story time, contests, videos by children, and other ways to interact using the ideas they are being taught about Ghazali’s teachings; A venue for parents and teachers, providing a variety of resources, and a place for discussion, curriculum updates, and feedback.

Gray Henry, Director, FonsVitae, authored this article with the help of Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, Calif.

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THE PLAN The first two book sets, The Book of Knowledge and the Book of Belief, are now available with the Book of Purity and The Book of Prayer nearing completion.

Each set contains a complete translation, in readable English, of Ghazali’s original text for parents and teachers accompanied by a beautifully illustrated version adapted as stories for children ages 7–11. It is also appropriate for other ages and for parents. The accompanying workbook includes activities and even comics, which reinforce Ghazali’s teachings, as well as a full school curriculum.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

www.isna.net

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EDUCATION

Tackling Technology Tactfully It is the parent’s’ job to ensure their children’s safety and to shield them from detrimental life experiences that offer no value

BY HABEEB QUADRI

T

he Internet has opened up the world and connected people like nothing else. However, along with its socioeconomic benefits have come some grave detriments to its youngest of users, the children.

In the last 25 years, as an educator, youth activist and parent, I have interacted with thousands of children. Today, children as young as second and third grade are given cell phones with Internet connection and have free and full access to computers in their bedrooms. Parents use the latest children’s cell phone apps to lull their progeny into silent and happy submission. In fact, rarely will you see a family dining out together without half of them sitting at the table captivated by some sort of electronic device awaiting the delivery of their dinner. Technology has pervaded our lives; and children feeling the greatest impact.

An Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) convening held on June 6-7, 2015, in Washington D.C., brought together 31 Muslim American experts and stakeholders, aged 18 to 68, on the state of the community’s youth, the problems facing them as they navigate adolescence and the fact that these problems are compounded because their lack of any profound knowledge on key aspects of Islam.

In the discussions, the one area that really piqued the most interest was Online Safety and Engagement. Everything a child sees, hears, discusses and experiences impacts their development, affecting him or her emotionally, socially, physically, mentally and spiritually.

A mere 15 years ago, children would typically only interact with individuals personally. Those obvious relationships that took place in real time, in the real world, witnessed and sanctioned by adults, were those that shaped a child’s life. However, in the last decade, with the rapid emergence of technology, and the “gift” of the World Wide Web, children now have the global community at their fingertips, in front of

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their faces, on screens between their hands, and in the privacy of their bedrooms. The benefits of such access are obvious, but do we take time really to contemplate the drawbacks and disadvantages? When a child or teenager is averaging more than three hours a day of screen time, how is this shaping their development?

Statistics collected by GuardChild show soaring cases of pornography, cyberbullying, radicalization, identity theft, and kidnapping related to children’s use of computers. 90% of children between the ages of 8-16 have seen online pornography. 70% of children 7-18 years old have accidentally encountered online pornography, often through

a web search while doing homework. The largest group of Internet porn consumers is children ages 12-17. Approximately 116,000 child pornography requests are made daily on the Internet. 69% of teens regularly receive online communication from strangers. Cyber-bullying is a new issue facing children today — 65% of 8-14 year olds have been involved in a cyberbullying incident. Law enforcement officials estimate that more than 50,000 sexual predators are online at any given moment.

Approximately 89% of sexual solicitations of youth were made in chat rooms or through Instant Messaging. Another rising issue of modern times is identity theft. More than

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

10 million Americans a year are victims of identity theft. The latest disturbing global phenomenon is radicalization of our youth through online enticement. According to Think Progress, ISIS has an extensive social media network that delivers at least 500 million messages a day through more than 46,000 Twitter accounts. All of these statistics on the misuse and mistaken use of the Internet among children and teens are very high, and as adults and caretakers, we need to make certain we are constantly monitoring our children’s activity on the web.

In addition to these incredibly dark and scary dangers, the more pervasive issue, one that is common practice among our impressionable youth, is seeking out Islam via “Sheikh Google.” Muslim youth look for explanations for aspects of faith that can be confusing or controversial and often the first place they turn for answers is the Internet, and often those answers are quite off base or skewed. This misinformation can lead a child further away from his or her faith and cause them to ascribe practices to Islam that are wholly un-Islamic. Additionally,

they can be terribly affected by the barrage of negative commentary that often accompanies the misinformation and stereotypes being perpetuated online. This negativity only works to derail a child’s spiritual life and no good can come of it. This is where our institutions can come into play to provide accurate Islamic education and safe places

from detrimental life experiences that offer no value. They must be fully aware of the virtual world their wards are visiting every day to make certain it benefits them. Yes, WWW is the World Wide Web, but it also informally stands for Whatever, Whenever, and Whoever: Whatever you want to see, read, and discuss; Whenever you want to see,

RELATIONSHIPS THAT TOOK PLACE IN REAL TIME, IN THE REAL WORLD, WITNESSED AND SANCTIONED BY ADULTS, WERE THOSE THAT SHAPED A CHILD’S LIFE. for learning and developing one’s faith.

While we are utilizing technology to simplify our lives, to communicate, organize, display, express, purchase, research, market, and so on, better and more easily, we also need to remember that it is just as simple for children to access purposefully or accidentally the seedy side of the Internet where many dangers lurk. As an educator and youth activist, I have seen how technology can enhance a child’s development, especially in terms of furthering educational goals, but I have also seen how the Internet especially can literally destroy a child’s intellectual, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual aspects. Parents don’t need to ban the Internet but the primary caretakers (parents, community and youth activists, religious scholars, educators, mental health professionals) need to educate themselves and their children about the benefits and dangers of the Internet.

There are too many parents who give their children and teenagers full access to cable TV, laptops, and smartphones to use in the privacy of their bedrooms with no safety protectors whatsoever. At the very least, devices accessible by children should be outfitted with filtering or blocking software to make sure they are not encountering things they shouldn’t see or interacting with people they have no business connecting with. Parents must pay full attention to their child’s online activity. GuardChild’s research shows that only 33 percent of households have devices containing filtering or blocking software.

Online interactions affect children. Their growing identity and developing spirituality is at stake. It is the parent’s’ job to ensure their children’s safety and to shield them

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

read, and discuss; and, Whoever you want read, see, and discuss [with]. It’s all out there in cyberspace, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Since there is no way to police one billion users at once, parents must police those within our realm, their children and those whose well-being is their responsibility.

Habeeb Quadri is school principal, community activist, author and lecturer on Islam, society, and social problems confronting Muslim youth and the community at large.

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ISLAM IN AMERICA

A New Scouting Experience National Muslim Boy Scout Jamboree scores a successful debut

BY SAFFET A. CATOVIC

F

rom July 31 - August 6, Camp Minsi in the Poconos in Pennsylvania hosted more than 275 Boy and Girl Scouts, their adult leaders and representatives from 16 Muslim countries for the first National Muslim Boy Scout Jamboree. The Islamic Council on Scouting of North America, the National Islamic Committee on Scouting (NICS), and Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organized the camp.

Muslim American scouts from across the country joined scouts from Muslim countries at the camp whose theme was “ISLAM means PEACE — Building Peace through Duty to God.” They prayed in congregation in the musallah set up on site for the Jamboree, shared each other’s fellowship, and appreciated the halal meals. The participants worked together on various conservation projects around camp, along with other activities and assignments. The

Scouts attended Merit Badge classes, enjoying sing-alongs after meals and at campfires, while cooking s’mores.

Campers also attended an interfaith session in which a minister, a priest, a rabbi and an Imam inspired them and gave them advice on working toward peace and unity.

The Imam, Walead Mossad, who is from the Islamic Society of Central Jersey and Noor-Ul-Iman School, Allentown Penn, elaborated how various Abrahamic faiths charge us with the moral responsibility to care for the earth — our common home.

The scouts planted a “Peace Tree” as a sign of their commitment to work with one another for a better future with justice and peace for all. Messengers of Peace (MOP) Badges were given to qualifying Scouts, who were deputized as BSA Ambassadors of Peace.

Muslim Scouts – New Jersey 38

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

The closing campfire was awesome!

The participating troops performed skits and songs, and stood and rocked together shoulder–to-shoulder with the camp staff in song and solidarity. Scouting Movement founder Baden Powell envisioned an international and universal brotherhood of scouting that included all faiths and nations: the first National Muslim Boy Scout Jamboree is an example of this vision.

Mohammad Arif served as acting Scoutmaster in absence of this author, who handled the bigger responsibility as the camp’s Jamboree Director. Khaled Nadi, the Senior Patrol Leader for the Camp, and other senior scouts worked tirelessly to make sure everything went well within the troop. Parent volunteers and adult leaders also spent many nights helping out. This commitment paid off, as the hardworking and disciplined NJ

NOT ONLY DID THE SCOUTS DO ALL THEIR PRAYERS IN CONGREGATION IN THE MUSALLAH BUILT ON SITE FOR THIS WEEK; THEY ALSO SHARED HALAL MEALS AND EACH OTHER’S FELLOWSHIP. host troop was recognized and profusely praised by camp staff and Jamboree organizers. Among other honors they received was the Cleanest Campsite Award from the Camp Minsi and Minsi Trails Council Administration. They were also recognized as one of the Honor Troops at Camp. These awards and Merit Badges were presented at the Troop’s Court of Honor and Awards Ceremony in September.

BSA is part of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), which recognizes scouting programs in at least 216 countries. The Muslim Troops from different countries who attended the Jamboree are also members of the International Union of Muslim Scouts (IUMS), a constituent body of WOSM. Syed Ehtesham Haider Naqvi, Executive Director of the World Islamic Committee on Scouting, stated that NICS fully subscribes and adheres to The BSA Declaration of Religious Principles included in its Charter and By-laws which states: “The Boy Scouts of America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God. In the first part of the Scout Oath or Promise the member declares, ‘On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law.’ The recognition of God as the ruling and leading power in the universe and the grateful acknowledgment of His favors and blessings are necessary to the best type of citizenship and are wholesome precepts in the education of the growing members.”

Walter Witucki of the BSA Minsi Trails Council, owner and operator of Camp Minsi, and in charge of all Minsi camp activities, assisted the Muslim campers. Witucki is Catholic and offered the following reflection on the camp: “I believe what happened last week was the physical incarnation of the meaning and spirit of the Messenger of Peace program. From this point forward, when one speaks of the Messenger of Peace they will no longer visualize a badge and the

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

associated requirements. Rather the image that will come to mind will be that of the wonderfully beautiful event of last week …

Thanks for letting me and the greater “us” be part of this.”

The second jamboree, Naqvi said, will be held at the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reservation in West Virginia July 19-28, 2017, under the theme “Live Scouting’s Adventure.” The World Scout Jamboree is to be held in 2019 at the Summit under the theme “Unlock a New World.”

Saffet Abid Catovic, Scoutmaster of Troop #114, is a member of the Drafting Committee of the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change, a board member of ISNA Green Masjid Task Force, a GreenFaith Fellow and chairman of Green Muslims of New Jersey.

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ISLAM IN AMERICA

Guiding the Youth Amidst Islamophobia Are Muslim Americans working to guide the youth toward engagement with the larger community?

BY NOOR ALI

C

onversation regarding Muslims in America rages in the present political and social environment. A hyperactive lobby seeks not only to marginalize eternally an entire population, but also to demonize them. Such a climate makes it a priority to reach out to our youth and explore avenues that will afford them confidence, strength, and clarity.

Exploring discrimination highlights different layers of the Muslim experience in America. On one front, there is the obvious misrepresentation, hate mongering, and bias that fill mainstream media and politics.

On a more nuanced front, however, we see what Derald W. Sue, professor of counseling psychology at Columbia University, refers to as microaggressions (Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, Wiley, 2010). While outright oppression, hostility, and gun violence has a stark presence, it is microinsults, microassualts, and microinvalidations (together, microaggressions) that become very fabric of society. Because of their microscopic nature they are often ignored, or swept under the rug as “not such a big deal,” or something that one should “get over,” or “not take too seriously.” Creating a pathology of silence around these experiences gives the overt message to our youth that the experience is unimportant, or worse still, invalid.

Microinsults according to Sue, include remarks and comments that are culturally insensitive and rude to a particular demographic. These would include being considered barbaric, aggressive, or violent; bracketed as terrorists; name calling such as ragheads; Osama Bin Laden costumes on Halloween; and slurs insinuating that the entire population is criminal. Microassaults go a step further — verbal and nonverbal attacks are made towards individuals and deliberately discriminatory actions are taken, such as the wide range of Muslims’

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recent flight experiences. A further means of marginality is when microinvalidations take place, and the experiences of an entire population are negated, unrepresented, avoided, or simply ignored. This includes a clear lack of Muslim protagonists in the literature that our students are exposed to in school. Most often the reference made to Muslim characters is limited to stories like The Kite Runner or Malala Yusufzai. Such literature either reestablishes the stereotypes of oppression, or speaks of the formidable strength of people against oppression.

However neither represents the Muslim experience in America, and emphasizes the distant and removed image of Muslims from the nation’s fabric. Conversations about marginalization often speak of the

African American, Latino, or LGBT narrative, but continue to ignore the Muslim experience in America. Hence, it is in the rampant nature of microaggressions that an entire undervalued social group does not just remain institutionally marginalized, but also becomes demonized. Being the youth of a demonized group carries the weight of guilt by association.

Recent work by Bic Ngo, an associate professor at the University of WisconsinMadison, (Education and Urban Society, 42(4), 473-495, 2010) explores the many ways in which youth deal with the burden of being the Other and continued marginalization. Their defense mechanisms often include self-loathing, disconnecting from cultural identity, exclusion, violence, and even suicide. From simple things like needing a hyphenated label of “Muslim American” (how common is the phrase “Christian American”?) to un-Islamicizing their names, to complex issues such as believing in “West-hate” and conspiracy theories. Altogether this places them in emotional and spiritual whirlpools because they are consistently fed the message that theirs is a deficient ethnic background. All of this is common knowledge.

What is uncommon knowledge is the

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consistent failure of mainstream Muslims themselves, within America, to be cohesive, progressive, and relevant for their youth.

Here are a few insights I’ve gained by working in Muslim schools in America over the last decade. (I cite Muslim schools here because they are representative of similar trends in mainstream Muslim households, mosques and community centers.)

Creating an invalidating narrative: Just as in the mainstream, some Muslims create an invalidating narrative for their youth, by not allowing them the freedom to express themselves and question. Oftentimes, the administration, teachers, and parents respond to questions with “because I said so.” Silencing children creates discomfort, teaching them that nobody’s interested in their questions, or listening to their “pointless” opinions.

A masjid youth coordinator recently commented how thankless this job is. Every planned youth event was met with opposition, as if the very presence of youth was getting on their nerves.

Creating a judgmental environment: Within Muslim schools there is consistent negative judgment on character, clothing, speaking too loudly, having creative expression — oftentimes the free spirited ones are shunned as being a “bit too much.” The

dichotomy that emerges here is that the students are being given the message in school or home that they are not Muslim enough, yet as they step outside, shunned for being too Muslim. Disapproving of their hairstyles, choice of clothing, tastes and trends, from both sides, systematically piles up barriers.

Creating a fearful environment: More than fifty years ago, the earlier Muslim immigrants chose to avoid drawing attention to themselves. This meant remaining on the peripheries and avoiding public engagement.

That same defense mechanism, arising from language barriers and cultural dissonance, has been handed down to second-generation Muslims, who are taught that it is best

elementary, middle, and high school, and college. Walking on the street, playing soccer on the field, eating at the cafeteria, are all simple yet terribly complex tasks for them, and we are forever widening the gap between them and us. In conversations with eighth graders over the last five years, I have repeatedly heard how they feel guilty about 9/11 even though they were born after it, and are stressed in public places where there is media coverage of a terrorist event. Having these conversations at home, and sharing your own public and workplace experience of Islamophobia, and how you dealt with it, are tools that need to be passed on to our kids. Often in my interaction with youth

CONVERSATION AND ENGAGEMENT ARE ACTS OF COLLABORATION THAT ENABLE YOUTH TO MAKE SPACE AND CREATE A VOICE FOR THEMSELVES IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THEY FEEL DISTINCTLY UNCOMFORTABLE. to prefer mediocrity and disengagement, than hope big. Relatedly, careers in hip-hop, stand-up comedy, and media, are all considered too “alien.”

Creating Cliques: The Muslim American community is full of immense segregation and discrimination. Racial slurs against African American Muslims, who represent the nation’s indigenous Muslim experience, bias against Latino Muslims, White Muslims, Arab Muslims, Desi [South Asian] Muslims — depending on which subset you belong to — is an exercise in hostility and judgment where no one is Muslim enough, or ‘really’ Muslim until they are exactly your brand.

This is experience of exclusion is being passed on to the youth.

Choosing silence over activism: While getting adept at clicktivism and re-posting videos and articles that speak to the Muslim cause, Muslims are afraid to provide support for their youth’s community engagement.

Whether it’s an Earth Day clean up, or a movie at the park, the community has been taught to exclude and be excluded.

My experience with the youth has taught me that the most important step in reaching out to kids is just that — reaching out. Neither silencing, nor shunning, nor judging. Much confronts them as they navigate through

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I’ve learnt that they feel they are alone in this identity struggle and that their parents wouldn’t understand. It is also important to reach out to your children when they return from school, to check in with them about how their day was. Reaching out to teachers and counselors at school can be another way of creating a comfortable space for our kids.

Our youth see our involvement within the Muslim community, but less so in the larger community, hence they do not see much modeled behavior of civic engagement. To this end, increasing a community presence with volunteering and social projects outside the Muslim community are steps to becoming a seen demographic as opposed to a silenced one, as well as providing our youth with the means to develop ownership and belonging in their own land.

Conversation and engagement are acts of collaboration that enable youth to make space and create a voice for themselves in an environment where they feel distinctly uncomfortable. Whether our youth go to public or Islamic schools, it is imperative that we open up a world of possibility to them, and not hold them back from opportunities because of fear and hatred.

Noor Ali is a teacher and doctoral candidate in the Ed.D. program at Northeastern University.

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ISLAM IN AMERICA

Becoming An American Muslims need to get involved; staying involved is a success for all Americans

BY AZIZ M. AHSAN

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PHOTO (C) JOHN PENNEY, THE POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL

hanging the place of residence is something that many do and some quite often. Such moves are led by the choice of living space, the choice of neighborhood, often the need to trim commuting time, and of course where one prefers to raise their children.

Like you, assembled here, I too am a

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naturalized U.S. citizen, and I am a Pakistani by birth, a Muslim by being born in a Muslim family, and an American by choice.

Migration is not a new experience for my family. My father was born in British [occupied] India, where he joined the British army and fought alongside American soldiers in Burma (now Myanmar) in WWII. He was near Rangoon when the war ended,

and then, in 1946, he was posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In 1947, when Pakistan and India were created out of British India, he was given a choice to go back to his ancestral lands in India — where his family had lived for centuries — or to Pakistan, a new country carved out of the subcontinent for its Muslims. My father, who was a young Captain in the British army, and single, had heard and read about the refugee crisis of Muslims coming to Pakistan from India.

He decided to go to Pakistan, and help with the settlement of those Muslim refugees. As a result I grew up in a household that felt passionately about the plight of refugees, and this allows me to relate to the current global refugee crisis on a very personal level.

On August 5, 2016, this son of a refugee, now a Muslim American, has been honored as the keynote speaker for the August 2016 Citizenship Oath-taking ceremony. The main “conspirator,” behind this unforgettable move is Bradford Kendall, the Dutchess County Clerk, and a fellow Republican.

I believe that I can confidently talk about what it means to be an American today.

Pakistan, as quite a few of you know, has been through several wars — even today it fights a prolonged war against terrorists — a few of these conflicts were with India, originating in how the departing British drew boundary lines and the partition documents. So, the dream of Pakistan has had its challenges. The political climate changed drastically under army dictatorships and the country suffered. I can thus understand the dilemma of people seeking political asylum — while they love their country of origin, they do not have the space to speak their mind there and to contribute.

During wars, conflicts, political turmoil, the economy also suffers, and thus some people have to seek job and economic opportunities elsewhere. In 1971, after a major war with India, Pakistan was reduced to what was West Pakistan, while East Pakistan became Bangladesh, and so the future prospects for me in Pakistan as a 17-year-old looked extremely bleak. Thus, after finishing high school in 1972, I sought to go to college in the U.S., but my parents could not afford it, so I started to look for a job. My objective was to go to Turkey, and then onto Germany, and then somehow find my way to the U.S. — just like today, with many people from the rest of the world trying to find a path to this land of opportunity.

My father did not have enough money

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

to support me for the full four years of college, but then as a retired Pakistani military officer, he dipped into his army pension to give me sufficient funds for at least one year of college in the U.S. Once I got my admission to the University of Minnesota to study aeronautical engineering, I went to the international students’ office to seek their guidance regarding my precarious financial situation. Quickly understanding my circumstances, my counselor arranged my on-campus work authorization. I started working at the Wilson Library, shelving books, for $1.80 per hour. Having arrived in a new country with practically nothing and then having the courage to ask for help, I sympathize with others doing the same and appreciate the generosity of Americans to understand and help all people in need.

same one I had gone up against in front of an immigration judge in St. Paul, Minnesota.

As he flipped through my citizenship application paperwork, I felt sure that I had no chance. But, after a minute or so he looked up and asked, “So, how is law school?”

Racing with nerves, I meekly replied that it was going well. He then pushed my application towards me, and asked me to write

we should not be afraid to share our experiences.

The key is to remember that every migrant has a story to tell, and that each should be proud of their heritage and journey and share it beyond their own communities. They should share their journeys with their neighbors, co-workers, relatives, friends, and in equal measure, to also ask them about their story, or their parent’s story, or their grandparent’s story of coming to America.

To reduce misunderstandings and suspicions that may exist, the new citizens should participate in at least one public service that appeals to them. This may take the form of writing a letter to the editor of their local newspaper on issues that they are concerned about, or going to a town board meeting and having a say on how their taxes are being spent, or facilitating

THE KEY IS TO REMEMBER THAT EVERY MIGRANT HAS A STORY TO TELL, AND THAT EACH SHOULD BE PROUD OF THEIR HERITAGE AND JOURNEY AND SHARE IT BEYOND THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES. THEY SHOULD SHARE THEIR JOURNEYS WITH THEIR NEIGHBORS, CO-WORKERS, RELATIVES, FRIENDS, AND IN EQUAL MEASURE, TO ALSO ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR STORY, OR THEIR PARENT’S STORY, OR THEIR GRANDPARENT’S STORY OF COMING TO AMERICA. After obtaining my B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering, I wanted to increase my job prospects in the U.S., and so I got a MS degree in mechanical engineering.

After getting a job as a marketing engineer, and receiving my “green card,” I was still thirsty for knowledge, so I went to night school and got an MBA, and then a law degree. While in law school, I worked with their legal clinic to assist people with immigration related issues. This gave me a further understanding of people who were less fortunate than me, struggling on the same path to citizenship. I prepared and pleaded their immigration cases under the guidance of an immigration attorney.

Pleading those immigration cases did not endear me to the opposition and, in 1984, when I applied for my American citizenship, and went for my citizenship interview, I got the shock of my life: the interviewing officer was the U.S. government attorney, the very

“It is a nice day” on it. I wrote it as clearly as I could, passed it back, and he declared, “OK, you can leave.” Bewildered, I asked if everything was alright, and he responded, “You will get your papers in the mail.”

For almost a week I checked my mail on a rather frequent basis, and then I got an official letter in the mail from the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service, now United States Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS]). The letter stated that three weeks later I had been scheduled for my citizenship oath-taking ceremony, similar to this one. So I, myself, have had several levels of interaction with USCIS, and know the stresses that one goes through while interacting with the governmental authorities and procedures.

My journey and my path to citizenship are unique but we all can relate to each other’s path. Each of us has had a different reason, a different path, a different motivation for coming to America and becoming a citizen;

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

dialogue by inviting their elected official or town officials to their community centers or their places of worship.

Such local collaborations will help naturalized citizens to get to know the born citizens and help build ties, and this would substantially reduce the apprehension and fears that may exist.

Getting involved, and staying involved, is a success for all Americans!

[Editor’s note: Edited by the author from his keynote address to new U.S. citizens on August 5, 2016, and lightly copy-edited for publication.

Aziz M. Ahsan, Esq., a patent, trademark, internet, and intellectual property law attorney, who worked as an engineer before he became a lawyer, has published articles and opinion pieces on a variety of issues for local, regional, national, and international publications.

A 9/11 survivor, he was a subject of two PBS TV documentaries. He is a recipient of numerous honors, awards, and patents. He was elected President and Trustee for the Wappingers Central School District, 2009-2012; and serves, or has served, on a variety of community and civic boards, including trustee of the Mid-Hudson Islamic Association.

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ISLAM IN AMERICA

Is Mass Distribution of the Qur’an Useful?

Muslim Americans need to think about today’s communications tools in effectively sharing their faith with others

BY SHAKEEL SYED

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ouisville’s Wave 3 News headline proclaimed: “Thousands of Qur’ans given away at Kentucky State Fair.”

Reporter Natalia Martinez observed that there are a lot of “freebies” for those walking around the Kentucky State Fair. She noted that one of the booths was “a little different,” for here you would find Imam Eesaa Wood of the Furqaan Project, giving away copies of the Qur’an. Wood told Martinez: “Most people are just here to get by as quickly as possible so they can see all the stuff but if they get a chance to stop by, they are usually like, ‘Thank you guys very much for coming and being here. We’re really glad you’re here.’”

Martinez said that by Aug. 22, 2016, the booth had distributed more than 2,000 copies of the Qur’an. The fair ran August 18 to 28.

Wood, who believes that giving away copies of the Qur’an pays off in the end, hoped to hand out 5,000 copies in total.

The issue of distributing books for free, especially those requiring serious reading, has its pros and cons. Do recipients really value them and read them?

A Muslim recalls that in the early 1970s, when he enrolled at a university in the northeast, he confronted a strange sight when emerging from the registration hall: on one side were beer tankers with plastic cups stacked on tables, while on the other side was a container full of paperback Bibles, “The Good News.” However, a few steps later, he saw these paperbacks littering the lawns, pavements and overflowing the trash cans.

Having been taught to respect all holy books, he collected as many copies as he could hold and took them to the library, which of course politely advised him that it could not accept them. They most likely ended up in a landfill in an era when recycling was not in vogue.

Another Muslim relates that he was passing by a community garage sale

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and was attracted by a board full of military medals on offer; nearby on the ground lay a plastic encased untouched copy of the Qur’an — a freebie on sale!

A community worker who attended the 1998 opening ceremony of the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, Calif., recalls that the organizers had arranged a formal dinner at the fabled Beverly Hills Hotel, which is closely associated with Hollywood celebrities and rock stars. It seemed as if the organizers had received advice from a public relations agency, and had invited the area’s glitterati and media. The hosts, with the event being attended by numerous Saudi princes, had set up tables at the hall’s entrance, and were handing out copies of the Qur’an. The Muslim guest recalls his horror later at seeing these copies lying at people’s feet under the tables. In addition, the translation that was used was the Taqi-ud-din Hilali and Muhsin Khan version, known for reflecting some specific interpretations of Saudi Salafism that could cause offense to non-Muslim readers.

Even if the Hilali/Khan factor is overlooked, was such distribution of any value?

VARYING VIEWS The issue of giving copies of the Qur’an to non-Muslims has divided opinions. Some favor it without restraint, while others favor some limitations.

Khalid Iqbal, founder of Rahmaa.org, favors mass distribution, saying, “There are four things that touches the heart of the people and Qur’an is one of them. So many people became a Muslim only because of reading [the] Qur’an.”

Habibe Ali, ISNA Chief Operations Officer, says such distribution could be effective “because it gets the text into people’s hands.” However, she does wonder, “Will they read it?”

Canadian attorney and law professor, Faisal Kutty, has mixed feelings about this issue. He says, “It depends on the translator and commentator. Some versions — such as Muhammad Asad, Leilah Bakhtiar and the New Study Qur’an, etc., — would be helpful while others may be counterproductive.”

ISNA Canada President, Dr. Syed Imtiaz Ahmad, believes that the Qur’an should only be given to those interested in receiving it.

Another scholar (who prefers to remain anonymous) believes that “Muslims’ intent

THE ISSUE OF GIVING COPIES OF THE QUR’AN TO NON-MUSLIMS HAS DIVIDED OPINIONS. SOME FAVOR IT WITHOUT RESTRAINT, WHILE OTHERS FAVOR SOME LIMITATIONS.

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

behind Qur’an mass distribution is admirable but it simply cannot produce the intended outcome.” He takes this position from a PEW study, which claims “Muslims

are the least liked people among religious groups in America.”

A theory in social psychology is the “mere-exposure effect,” that is, the idea that familiarity breeds fondness. As long as Muslims remain unfamiliar, the fondness factor will remain low. Instead of investing time and money in Qur’an distribution, perhaps Muslims could spend time meeting Americans, and taking them out for a coffee or a meal. Such personal interaction[s] (hopefully pleasant) may in fact lead a person to enquire more about Islam.

Here are some other ideas along these lines: 1. Do not delegate your individual responsibility of sharing Islam to the “specialized community organizations” engaged in mass distributions; 2. Americans love celebrating birthdays and anniversaries. Send them a greeting card with Islamic art and a Quranic verse, or Hadith; 3. Invite friends to your home. Personal interaction and conversation over a meal changes hearts faster.

And if you wish to use the scripture as

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a medium to share Islam’s message, then try these: 1. Instead of distributing a complete copy of the Qur’an, share an easy translation of the 19 th chapter, “Maryam (‘alayhi as salam),” as “The Story of Mary and Jesus in the Quran;” 2. A simple page or two on the very basics of Islam with a resource website and/or the distributor’s personal telephone number; 3. Donate copies of the Qur’an to neighborhood public and school and college libraries and schools of higher learning.

The new millennium has brought some important changes to reading habits: print and long expositions are an exception; now, e-books and 140 character communication is a norm.

Muslims must embrace creativity and become better messengers to disseminate the best message ever made freely available for the entire humankind. Mass distribution of print copies may not be the most creative.

Shakeel Syed, a southern California resident, serves as a volunteer chaplain in state and federal prisons.

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MUSLIMS IN ACTION

Muslims in the Halls of Justice Muslim American judges are making their mark in the nation’s justice system

IMAGE CREDIT: SNOPES

change we want to see in the world” when she assumed charge of a community-based nonprofit named after her father: The George Walker Jr. Community Coalition, Inc. She’s also combined her passion for the law and the community by creating the East New York Youth Court, which trains youth aged 13-18 to serve as judges, attorneys, clerks, bailiffs and jurors in real cases involving their peers.

Of course, various pundits were quick to scapegoat her. The ongoing harassment, threats and intimidation recently prompted her to take down her campaign page and website and avoid additional public interviews and statements. She now prefers to keep a low profile, lest she become a target of additional hate and fear mongering by Islamophobes.

BY JANET KOZAK

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mpartial justice is a central Shariah theme, and both the Quran and Hadith literature stress fairness, equality and forgiveness.

The U.S. Supreme Court has also made space to honor the Quran’s teachings and principles. One chamber of its building features Adolph A. Weinman’s decorative marble bas-relief sculpture. The 80 foot-long and 7-foot 2-inch high frieze on the south wall depicts eighteen influential lawgivers, among them Menes, Hammurabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius and Octavian. A similar mural featuring Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), painted along the dome of the Library of Congress building, pays homage to other historical figures who have greatly influenced the nation’s ethical foundations.

These honors, when combined with Thomas Jefferson’s original copy of the translation of the Quran with which such Muslim public officials like Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota are sworn in today, pays testament to the history and legacy of Islamic teachings. Ironically, in keeping with its availability at that time, this Quran was translated by the Orientalist George Sale (d. 1736).

America’s founding fathers, some of

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whom were trained in law (e.g., Thomas Jefferson), had respect and tolerance for the civic inclusion of “Mahamedans,” as he called them, and the underlying teachings of Quran. In keeping with these inspirational themes, Muslims are being appointed to judicial positions in a country that was founded on these same principles as well.

Amidst the ongoing Islamophobia and anti-Islam rhetoric, Muslim justices are breaking barriers and making their presence felt on the bench. Carolyn Walker-Diallo, Sohail Mohammed and Halim Dhanidina are breaking stereotypes and challenging existing biases.

SOHAIL MOHAMMED

CAROLYN WALKER-DIALLO Carolyn Walker-Diallo, who was appointed to the 7th Municipal District and sworn in as a civil judge, took her oath of office at the Brooklyn Borough Hall, New York on Dec.10, 2015, on a Quran that she chose.

“All is [sic] praise is indeed due to the Most High! I am humbled that my community has entrusted me with the immense responsibility of ensuring that EVERYONE has notice and a FAIR opportunity to be heard in the halls of justice,” Walker wrote on her website, according to U.K.-based Daily Mail.

Walker-Diallo, who says she saw her parents play a proactive role in their communities, walked the family’s path of “being the

Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim justice who now serves as a sitting judge, is an IndianAmerican specialist in immigration law. He was appointed to the New Jersey Superior Court of Passaic County in 2011 on his third attempt to join the state judiciary.

Justice Sohail speaks after being sworn in as Superior Court Judge at the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson, N.J. on Tues., July 26, 2011 (Governor’s Office/ Tim Larsen) Born in Hyderabad, the 17-year-old Mohammed immigrated to New Jersey with his mother and brother. after being

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

sponsored by a relative. He was raised in New Jersey and eventually became a naturalized citizen.

Mohammed followed an unusual path to his current position. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering cum laude from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1988, he was inspired to pursue the study of law after serving as jury foreman. He worked full-time as an electrical engineer while pursuing his Juris Doctor, which he earned from Seton Hall University’s School of Law in 1993.

After 9/11, Mohammed worked as a critical liaison between local law enforcement and New Jersey’s Islamic community and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and the FBI to build bridges of understanding and improve public relations with the Muslim American community. In addition, he helped train over 7,000 law enforcement community members on Muslim culture and practices.

His timely and helpful efforts caught the attention of Governor Chris Christie, then working as the state’s top federal prosecutor.

Speaking to The Huffington Post in his capacity as a spokesman for the governor, Michael Drewniak stated that “Sohail worked effectively and very appropriately with the U.S. Attorney’s Office (of New Jersey) and the FBI in bridging relations and providing outreach with the Muslim community. And he did it at a time when federal law enforcement in New Jersey needed someone like him to do that.”

Mohammed represented dozens of detainees pulled in by law enforcement after 9/11; by 2003, he had represented 29 individuals detained for minor immigration law violations.

His 2011 nomination met with substantial backlash from racists and conservatives.

People like Pamela Geller even accused Governor Christie of being “in bed with the enemy.” To his credit, Christie defended his appointment by proclaiming that it was unnecessary to accuse Mohammed of things because of his religious background. Sohail Mohammed became New Jersey’s second Muslim judge after being sworn into office on July 26, 2011.

HALIM DHANIDINA Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina is first Muslim to be a judge both in L.A. County’s Superior Court and in the entire state of California, something that he

learned only after he filed his petition. As he explained to Dawn News, Karachi, Pakistan, “For there to be only one Muslim judge in a state as big and diverse as California came as a surprise to me.” His peers also remained unaware of this until it was mentioned in all of the news reports, which soon caught the attention of the governor’s office and was subsequently broadcast even further afield.

Understandably, his appointment in May 2012, prompted numerous calls and emails from all over the world congratulating him on this milestone and wishing him well. “I didn’t know that apart from myself, my appointment would be momentous for so many people all over the world,” he remarked.

His appointment was actually a long drawn-out saga, partly because he had to apply under two different governors: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown.

Only under Brown was his application thrust forward, after which he was quickly appointed.

Halim Dhanidina is very outspoken when it comes to inspiring youth to pursue civic engagement. He enjoys public speaking, including at the 2014 American Muslims in Public Service conference organized by the Center for Islamic Thought, Culture, and Practice. In his interviews and talks, he constantly reminds students to push past objections and get involved, even if that means trailblazing in their own communities. Dhanidina believes that Muslims who participate in society have the chance to display their real values and personalities — a sharp contrast to negative stereotypes perpetuated in mainstream media.

In an interview with The Ismaili, and noting the struggle that some youth may

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

face in this regard, Dhanidina commented, “I know there may be resistance to a career in law because it is a public career path with visibility. But it’s easy for the purveyors of bigoted beliefs to say what it would be like if Muslims got involved when there’s an information vacuum or no counter examples.”

Dhanidina also believes that providing examples of active Muslims in civic life and having more diverse representation in our legal system gives it more legitimacy.

Speaking to the youth, he emphasized,. “I encourage you to participate in civic institutions where you live to provide an example of performing these roles with honor and distinction.”

Although these three individuals come from different cultures and backgrounds, they share a unifying love for justice and fairness in their rulings and have sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution to the best of their ability. Their collective wisdom promotes not only evenhandedness in the courtroom, but also an equalizing message of inclusivity for all Muslim Americans.

Janet Kozak, founder and COO of Resoulute.com, has established an online advocacy and support group: Muslim Women Against Domestic Violence and Abuse.

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47

HEALTH & WELL-BEING

The Unbreakable Relationship Are Muslims aware of the Islamic bioethical perspectives on human breast milk banking?

BY MOHAMMAD H. BAWANY, AHAMED MILHAN, AND AASIM I. PADELA

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esearch has demonstrated the many positive health benefits that breast-feeding confers upon infants, from lower incidence of various infectious diseases to benefits in mother-child bonding.

Studies about premature infants have linked breast-milk feeding with enhanced short- and long-term health outcomes for premature infants when compared to infants fed with formula (Feldman and Eidelman, 2003; Furman et al 2003; Hylander et al, 2003; McGuire and Anthony, 2001; Schanler et al, 2005) .

When a mother suffers from lactation failure, the inability to nurse her newborn, she has the ability, if she so chooses, to procure breastmilk from other sources.

In the West, this alternative source is often a milk bank offering pasteurized donor (or purchased) human milk (PDHM). In the U.S., a system of 10 human milk banks function to collect and store PDHM from lactating mothers who have extra milk after feeding their own infant. After medical history screening and laboratory blood testing for viral and bacterial diseases, including HIV and syphilis, the milk is collected and cold-stored until it is ready for processing. Before distribution, it is subjected to defrosting, pooling, pasteurization, and cultures to rule out bacterial growth (Human Milk Banking Association of North America, 2009).

Pasteurized donor human milk also has demonstrated health benefits for newborns (neonates), compared to babies fed formula.

PDHM seems to reduce the rate of several neonatal infections (Narayanan et al, 1980;

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Narayanan et al, 1981), including clearly reducing the risk for necrotizing enterocolitis, a destructive intestinal bacterial disease (Lucas and Cole, 1990).

Milk banking is also common in other developed and developing countries. For example at the International Congress of

Human Milk Banks in 2001, France was reported to have 18 milk banks while Brazil had 154 (Ghaly, 2012). In the Muslim world, milk banks are rare and highly controversial.

This is because kinship might result from individuals sharing the same milk nurse.

According to Islamic law, consumption of breast milk from the same milk mother leads to a special type of kinship that bars marriage between individuals who shared the same milk. As the Qur’an states: “Prohibited to you [for marriage] are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your

father’s sisters, your mother’s sisters, your brother’s daughters, your sister’s daughters, your [milk] mothers who nursed you, your sisters through nursing… (4:23 — Sahih International).”

Further, a hadith cites a case where a man was advised to divorce his wife after being informed they shared a milk mother: “Narrated ‘Abdullah bin Abi Mulaika: ‘Uqba bin Al-Harith said that he had married the daughter of Abi Ihab bin ‘Aziz. Later on a woman came to him and said, “I have suckled (nursed) ‘Uqba and the woman whom he married (his wife) at my breast.”

‘Uqba said to her, “Neither I knew that you have suckled (nursed) me nor did you tell me.” Then he rode over to see God’s Apostle at Medina, and asked him about it, who replied, “How can you keep her as a wife when it has been said (that she is your foster-sister)?”

Then ‘Uqba divorced her, and she married another man (al-Bukhari volume 1, book 3, hadith 88).

These and other scriptural sources ground the notion of milk kinship in Islamic law. The general rule, as mentioned in another prophetic narration, is: “…what becomes mahram (forbidden for marriage) through breastfeeding is that which is mahram through blood ties” (al-Bukhari volume 3, book 48, hadith 813).

Thus, a boy nursed by a woman other than his own mother will be prohibited from marrying the woman who breastfed him, her mother, daughters and sisters, and whoever else she nursed (Shah, 1994). The breast-mother’s sisters become his maternal aunts, and her husband’s brothers become

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

ACCORDING TO ISLAMIC LAW, CONSUMPTION OF BREAST MILK FROM THE SAME MILK MOTHER LEADS TO A SPECIAL TYPE OF KINSHIP THAT BARS MARRIAGE BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS WHO SHARED THE MILK. his paternal uncles (Islam Q & A). A similar situation applies for a baby girl and male relatives and “breast-relatives” of her wet nurse. The issue with using human milk banks for Muslims is that they run the risk of entering into illicit marriages: a person who consumes donated milk may eventually unknowingly marry one of his milk-relatives (Clarke, 2007).

In the West, the concept of milk-kinship justifiably raises eyebrows. No medical or scientific curriculum discusses the idea of establishing such a relationship. Yet in the Muslim world, most especially in the Arab world, milk kinship is a social reality and a scholastic hot topic. In pre-modern times, women living in the same household or locale would breastfeed each other’s infants as need or convenience required.

Moreover, professional wet nurses were available for urban and upper class women (Clarke, 2007). Today, the practice persists and questions abound regarding its legality.

Islamic discussions on human milk banking center around three components of establishing milk kinship: the wet nurse, the milk, and the nursling (i.e. the baby).

The result is a stark contrast in ethico-legal regulations: in the Muslim world, milk banks appear to be categorically prohibited; yet in the West, prominent Islamic authorities permit Muslims to donate to and receive PDHM from milk banks (Ghaly, 2012).

In order to understand how fatawa have been issued both for and against milk banking, an overview of the legalities surrounding the three components of milk kinship is warranted. When considering

Position Statement on Milk Banking Breast milk can save lives. However, milk banking as practiced in the North American mainstream can introduce issues that may be problematic for Muslims. In some Muslimmajority nations such concerns have prompted the creation of alternatives to milk banking such as “milk sharing,” in which there is clarity regarding milk-based kinship, in addition to long-standing practices such as the use of wet nurses. While various fuqahā (Islamic jurists) dealing with this issue have stated the permissibility of using existing milk banks, the permissibility of a practice should not be confused with it necessarily being a normative one.

For Muslim Patients Muslims faced with the need to utilize milk banking should know that there has been an ongoing scholarly conversation about the issue, and that resources like the article published in this issue of Islamic Horizons magazine by Bawany, Milhan, and Padela can help them navigate the nuances of that conversation. Patients should feel comfortable asking their health care providers, religious leaders, and chaplains about all potential benefits and harms of milk banking. As a part of that process, Muslims should feel comfortable raising all concerns they may have with milk banking, including those related to kinship, and inquiring about available alternatives.

For health care providers and organizations that offer milk banking Health care providers and organizations that offer milk banking should be aware of the concerns their Muslim patients may have associated with this practice. Having this familiarity will better enable health care providers to consider their Muslim patients’ preferences and values in a shared decision making process. Health care providers may explore which milk banking alternatives, if any, are available in their local area.

For the Muslim Community Leading Muslim scholars and organizations in North America should continue working to develop their capacity to explore such issues in a skillful manner. Supporting high-quality scholarly research, education, and development of appropriate alternatives will require an interdisciplinary approach involving health care providers, medical ethicists, Islamic jurists, patients, and community leaders. Imams, chaplains, physicians, and community leaders should be given the tools to feel comfortable responding to inquiries about health care issues, including milk banking, and developing options that suit their community’s needs.

IMANA Medical Ethics Committee • Chair: Tanveer P. Mir, MD, MACP, Director of Outpatient Palliative Care at the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University Langone Medical Center, Immediate Past Chair, Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians • Asif M. Malik, MD, pediatric anesthesiology, Henry Ford Health System, President IMANA • Dr. Mohammed Nadeemullah, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Brighton, Mich.

• Dr. Aasim Padela, Director, Initiative on Islam and Medicine, Associate Professor, Section of Emergency Medicine, Faculty, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, University of Chicago.

• Dr. Faisal Qazi, neurologist in Pomona, Calif.

• Nabile M. Safdar, MD, MPH. Vice Chair for Imaging Informatics, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine • Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah Executive Director of the Fiqh Council of North America and Director Religious Affairs of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee September 2016

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

49

HEALTH & WELL-BEING the first component of milk kinship — the wet nurse — the concepts of jahalah (ignorance) and shakk (doubt) are brought into play. When milk from different donors is mixed and pooled together, as is the case in already established milk banks in the West, the identity of wet nurses cannot be

and the mother or wet-nurse supplying the milk. Since donated milk from milk banks is typically given via methods other than breast suckling, al-Qaradāwī concluded that kinship cannot be established. Finally, he considered the component of the nursling with a broader, public health mindset. He

IN THE WEST, THE CONCEPT OF MILK-KINSHIP JUSTIFIABLY RAISES EYEBROWS. NOWHERE IN THE MEDICAL OR SCIENTIFIC CURRICULUM IS THE IDEA OF ESTABLISHING SUCH RELATIONSHIP EVER BROUGHT UP. established. There is no kinship established in such situations because the other party with whom kinship would be instituted is unknown or doubted (Al- Khalil et al, 2016; Uthman, n.d.).

When considering the second component of milk kinship — the milk itself — the term rada’ (suckling) is discussed.

The majority of jurists do not differentiate between the milk being imbibed through suckling from the breast, drinking from a cup or bottle, or through a nasogastric tube (a tube inserted into the stomach through the nose) (Ghaly, 2012). In contrast, a tradition within the Shia school and a minority among Sunni jurists deem that only suckling from the breast directly creates milk kinship (Muhaqqiqal-Hillı, 1987).

When considering the third component, the nursling, Sunni and Shia jurists agree that milk kinship applies for nurslings under two years old (Ghaly, 2012).

In 1983, Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī, an Egyptian scholar, explored the three aforementioned components and concluded there was no religious problem in establishing or using milk banks and issued a fatwa detailing his argument. Regarding the component of the wet nurse, he concluded that since there is jahala (ignorance) regarding the milk bank’s milk origins, in that it may be pooled from numerous unidentified women and in various amounts, then any milk-based kinship cannot be established. When considering the component of the milk itself, al-Qaradāwī noted that the term rada’, as used in Qur’anic verse above, is exclusive in the sense that it requires physical contact, mouth to breast, between the nursling 50

deemed establishing, using, and donating to breast milk banks permissible, because a contrary opinion, prohibiting them, would cause unnecessary hardships and health consequences for a sizable portion of the population (Ghaly, 2012). His reasoning is not unfounded, as, in the U.S. alone, 1 in every 10 babies are born prematurely (National Prematurity Awareness Month, 2015).

The International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) discussed al-Qaradāwī’s fatwa in 1985, surprising many with a contrary ruling: “the establishment of milk banks should be prohibited in the Muslim world… it is prohibited to feed a Muslim child from these banks” (al-Khodja, 2000). These scholars, along with other critics of milk banking, argue that as no milk banks have yet been established in the Muslim world, allowing them would essentially indulge jahala (ignorance) and shakk (doubt), since donors would be unidentifiable and the milk mixed. Scholars ask “why should we establish them in order to create doubtfulness by ourselves, and then argue that in a case of doubtfulness, there is no milk kinship?” (Ghaly, 2012). Further, milk banking opponents also take the majority position on the interpretation of rada’ (suckling) — breast milk transmitted in any mode leads to kinship. These scholars also held that milk banks are a “western” phenomenon unneeded in the Muslim world where wet nurses and neighboring lactating mothers (family and friends) are readily available (Ghaly, 2012).

In 2004, amid continued questioning around utilizing already established milk banks for Muslims living in the West, the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) revisited the issue and judged that

making use of established milk banks was Islamically permitted stating that such usage does not implicate milk-kinship (SRECFR, 2004). Among the key points in their ruling was the fact that the 1980’s AIDS outbreak resulted in a rapid shrinkage in the number of functioning milk banks, and the health experts and scholars that spearheaded the IIFA ruling against establishing milk banks were aware of the public health issues that promoting milk banking in the Muslim world could potentially cause because screening technology was not as advanced as in the West,.

By the 21st century, a substantial decline in new AIDS cases and a concurrent spike in the number of milk banks around the world essentially made them “commonplace” in Western healthcare systems.

Thus for Muslims living in the West, the question of “establishing milk banks” was inapplicable, whereas the question of utilizing already established milk banks took center stage (Ghaly, 2012). With this in mind,

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In Muslim countries, the authors have proposed an alternate to milk banking that has been dubbed “milk sharing.” These programs utilize only a limited number of milk donors, ensure there is no mixing of their milk, institute that donated human milk is marked with the donor’s ID, and confirm that all donors and the parents of the recipient infant know each other. These programs are currently set up in Kuwait and Malaysia (Hsu et al, 2012; al-Naqeeb, 2000).

The debate over milk banking, with its seemingly contrasting opinions, gives us a clear picture of pluralism in Islamic jurisprudence. Before issuing a ruling, multifaceted issues like milk banking, should be

the ECFR noted that the concepts of shakk (doubt) and jahala (ignorance) once again come into play. Milk banks combine the milk of several donors and then pasteurize it before packaging it for distribution. For this reason, each provider is unidentifiable and is individually probably not providing a full feeding to the baby. Thus, usage of milk from already established banks will not lead to kinship. Further, the ECFR recognized that the absence of wet nurses in the West is unlike the case in the East, and thus milk banks often provide the only alternative source to acquire human breast milk for a baby whose mother cannot produce it on her own (Ghaly, 2012).

In spite of this ECFR fatwa, some Muslims in the West still hesitate to use established milk banks, worried that it may lead to unwanted, milk-based kinship. Thorley (2016) suggests that families offered banked milk first determine if a family member, friend, or someone known to the mother, can be arranged as a donor instead.

approached from angles that include different analyses of source texts, such as the Qur’an and the hadith, considerations of public benefit and harm, and, health experts’, scholars’, and other key players’, viewpoints.

This piece gives our readers an insight into the intricacies of the milk banking debate, and also highlights the fact that, like those surrounding milk banking, fatawa are context driven: what may be deemed prohibited in one part of the world may be deemed permissible in another.

Mohammad H. Bawany, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Ahamed Milhan, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Aasim I. Padela, The Initiative on Islam and Medicine, University of Chicago

REFERENCES: Clarke, M, 2007. “The Modernity of Milk Kinship,” Social Anthropology, 15: 287–304.

Feldman R, Eidelman AI, 2003. “Direct and Indirect Effects of Breast Milk on the Neurobehavioral and Cognitive Development of Premature Infants,” Developmental Psychobiology, 43(2): 109–119.

Furman L, Taylor G, Minich N, Hack M, 2003. “The Effect of Maternal Milk on Neonatal Morbidity of Very Low-birth-weight Infants,” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 157(1):66–71.

Ghaly, M, 2012. “Milk Banks Through The Lens Of Muslim Scholars: One Text In Two Contexts,” Bioethics, 26(3): 117–127.

Hsu HT, Fong TV, Hassan NM, Wong HL, Rai JK, Khalid Z, 2012. “Human Milk Donation is an Alternative to Human Milk Bank,” Breastfeed Med, 7(2):118-22.

Human Milk Banking Association of North America, 2009. Guidelines for the Establishment and Operation of a Donor Human Milk Bank, 6th ed. Fort Worth, TX: Human Milk Bank Association of North America, Inc:28 Hylander MA, Strobino DM, Dhanireddy R, 1998. “Human Milk Feedings and Infection Among Very Low Birth Weight Infants,” Pediatrics, 102(3). Available at: www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/ full/102/3/e38.

Islam Q & A, https://islamqa.info/en/147971.

Khalil A, Buffin R, Sanlaville D, Picaud JC, 2016. “Milk kinship is not an obstacle to using donor human milk to feed preterm infants in Muslim countries,” Acta Paediatrica, 105(5):462-7. al-Khodja, Mohamed Habib Ibn, ed., 2000. “Resolutions and Recommendations of the Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy,” Islamic Development Bank & Islamic Fiqh Academy, Jeddah: 10.

Lucas A, Cole TJ, 1990. “Breast Milk and Neonatal Necrotising Enterocolitis,” Lancet, 336(8730):1519–1523.

McGuire W, Anthony MY. “Formula Milk versus Term Human Milk for Feeding Preterm or Low Birth Weight Infants, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (4): CD002971.

Al-Muhaqqiqal-Hillı. 1987. Shara’i‘ al-Islam fı Masa’il al Halal-waal Haram, Isma‘ilyan, Iran: Mu’assasat Matbuatı, vol. 2: 227. al-Naqeeb NA, Azab A, Eliwa MS, Mohammed BY, 2000. “The Introduction of Breast Milk Donation in a Muslim Country,” Journal of Human Lactation, 16(4):346-50.

Narayanan I, Prakash K, Bala S, Verma RK, Gujral VV, 1980. “Partial Supplementation with Expressed Breast-milk for Prevention of Infection in Low-birth-weight Infants,” Lancet, 2(8194):561–563.

Narayanan I, Prakash K, Gujral VV, 1981. “The Value of Human Milk in the Prevention of Infection in the High-risk Low-birth-weight Infant,” Journal of Pediatrics, 99(3):496–498.

National Prematurity Awareness Month, 2015. Retrieved July 09, 2016, from http://www.cdc. gov/features/prematurebirth/.

Schanler RJ, Lau C, Hurst NM, Smith EO, 2005. “Randomized Trial of Donor Human Milk versus Preterm Formula as Substitutes for Mothers’ Own Milk in the Feeding of Extremely Premature Infants,” Pediatrics, 116(2): 400–406.

Scientific Review of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, 2004. “Making Use of Milk from Milk Banks in Western Countries for [Muslim] Babies,” 4–5: 463–464.

Shah, Sayed Sikander, 1994. “Fosterage as a Ground of Marital Prohibition in Islam and the Status of Human Milk Banks,” Arab Law Quarterly, 9(1): 3.

Wizarat al-Awqaf wa al-Shu’un al-Islamiyya bi al-Kuwayt. No date.

Al-Maws u‘a al-Fiqhiyya. Vol. 22. Kuwait: Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs: 247–248.

Thorley, V, 2016. “Milk Kinship and Implications for Human Milk Banking: A Review,” Women’s Health Bulletin, 3(3).

Uthman b. ‘Alı al-Zayla‘ı. No date. Tabyınal Haqaiq’ Sharh Kanz al-Daqa’iq. 2nd edn. Vol. 2.

Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Islamı: 181.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Jerusalem 1000 – 1400: Every People Under Heaven New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts a remarkable exhibition

BY MISBAHUDDIN MIRZA

N

ew York City residents and visitors can savor the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (The Met) exhibition “Jerusalem 1000 — 1400: Every People Under Heaven”, Sept. 26, 2016–Jan. 8, 2017.

The Met explains: “Beginning around the year 1000, Jerusalem attained unprecedented significance as a location, destination, and symbol to people of diverse faiths from Iceland to India. Multiple competitive and complementary religious traditions, fueled by an almost universal preoccupation with the city, gave rise to one of the most creative periods in its history.”

The exhibition, it states, demonstrates “the key role that the Holy City, sacred to the three Abrahamic faiths, played in shaping the art of this period. In these centuries, Jerusalem was home to more cultures,

religions, and languages than ever before.

Through times of peace as well as war, Jerusalem remained a constant source of inspiration that resulted in art of great beauty and fascinating complexity.”

This exhibition examines a critically important time period, examining why Jerusalem acquired importance during this period and not during earlier centuries/millenniums when it was under the jurisdiction of a series of wealthy, military superpowers such as the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Romans.

Jerusalem was never important as a commercial center. According to Karen Armstrong (Jerusalem One City Three Faiths, Ballantine Books, 1997) even during the Crusaders’ brief span of 87 years, “Jerusalem could never become a trading center, since it was too far from the main routes. Merchants

14th century brass, gold, silver and black compound – Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar 52

from the Italian cities, who established communes in the coastal towns and played an important role in urban life there, did not bother to establish themselves in Jerusalem.”

The Holy Land wasn’t always the most fertile place. So, the Jews (Bani Israil) accepted Prophet Joseph’s (‘alayhi as salam) invitation to migrate to the bountiful land of Egypt, leaving behind the Holy Land to the indigenous people. Prophet Moses (‘alayhi as salam) never set foot on this hallowed land.

None of the superpowers that ruled the area were kind to the Jews, except for the Muslims. In 597 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II, the Chaldean king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, executed Zedekiah’s sons, then blinded and carried Zedekiah, the last king of Judah before its destruction by Babylon, along with thousands of Jews, into slavery to Babylon. The temple and all the city’s buildings were systematically destroyed.

Similarly, in 67 CE Rome’s most able general, later Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus devastated Jerusalem beyond recognition, massacring the Jews, and wiping out every trace of life that had ever existed there.

In 130 CE when the Roman Emperor Hadrian decided to build Aelia Capitolina over the ruins of Jerusalem, he was faced with a revolt. Rome mercilessly put down this revolt, laying waste to most of the province of Judea. After Aelia Capitolina’s construction was complete, Jews were banned from Jerusalem and Judea.

On March 21, 629, the victorious Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (d. 641 CE) entered Jerusalem, banning Jews from Jerusalem — yet again executed Jews, and prohibited the public recital of Sh’ma. In 634 he ordered all Jews be baptized.

The millenniums of indescribable persecution and horror suffered by Jews ended when in February 638 CE the Muslim armies took possession of Jerusalem from the Byzantine Romans bringing law, order, and justice to the Holy Land.

The Muslims allowed complete religious freedom to the Christians and permitted the Jews to come and settle in Jerusalem.

The Masjid Al Aqsa area held no religious significance to the Christians, and was thus used as a landfill for the City’s garbage. The Muslims cleared up the site and rebuilt the Qibli Masjid— Muslims first prayed facing the mosque in Jerusalem — on Al Aqsa’s southern edge. Armstrong explains “The Muslims had established a system that

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

Mosque Lamp of Sultan Barquq, Egypt or Syria, ca. 1382-99.

The Met – Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan

Saladin’s Treatise on Armor – Syria Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

THE MUSLIM RE-CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM

BY SALAH AD-DIN AYYUBI (SALADIN) RETURNED THE HOLY LAND TO JUSTICE, PROSPERITY, AND TOLERANCE.

enabled Jews, Christians, and Muslims to live in Jerusalem together for the first time.”

After about 460 years, this harmonious society would be violently disturbed.

The Crusaders, whose idea of Christianity was quite narrow, mercilessly slaughtered Muslims and Jews. Diambert, the archbishop of Pisa, the Pope’s official legate to Jerusalem, who made himself patriarch after deposing Arnulf, banished all the local Christians — Greeks, Jacobites, Nestorians, Georgians, and Armenians from the Anastasis and the city’s other churches. Pope Urban’s Crusaders, who had come on the pretext of helping the Oriental Christians, were now persecuting people of their own faith.

Armstrong writes about the Crusaders’ attempt at changing Christian theological concepts pertaining to the Al Aqsa mosque area: “Once settled, the Franks started to convert Jerusalem into a Western city. They began in 1115 with the Dome of the Rock….

The Crusaders had no clear idea of the history of the building. They realized that it was

not the Temple built by King Solomon, but seem to have thought that either Constantine or Heraklius had graced the site of the holy Temple with a building which the Muslims had impiously converted for their own use.”

In the Met exhibition, manuscripts and rare documents demonstrate that medieval Jewish pilgrims focused most of their attention on the city’s gates and the Mount of Olives, rather than the Western Wall.

The unrefined Crusaders interacted with locals, adopting many lifestyle habits from the more advanced Muslim societies. Fulchers of Chartres, a chaplain in the Crusader army, had excitedly informed the Europeans that they, the Crusaders who settled in Palestine, had become people of what later identified as the Orient and men of Galilee and Palestine. Armstrong elucidates, “A whole generation had grown up in the East with no memories of Europe. They took baths — a practice that was almost unheard of in the West; they lived in houses instead of wooden shacks and wore soft clothes and

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

the keffiyeh. Their wives wore veils, like the Muslim women.”

A section of the exhibition deals with Persian miniature paintings depicting various perceived scenes from the ‘Isra and Miraj event in which Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi was sallam) traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem, and then ascended to the Heavens. In this aspect, Persian miniatures differed from the majority of Islamic scholars, who considered such visual depictions of the Prophet Muhammad sacrilegious. T. W. Arnold (1864-1930), a British orientalist and historian of Islamic art, wrote: “Islam has never welcomed painting as a handmaid of religion as both Buddhism and Christianity have done. Mosques have never been decorated with religious pictures, nor has a pictorial art been employed for the instruction of the heathen or for the edification of the faithful.”

The Muslim re-conquest of Jerusalem by Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (1137-93 CE), known as Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, returned the Holy Land to justice, prosperity, and tolerance. The Ayyubbids, the Mamluks, and the Ottomans embellished Jerusalem with beautiful art and architecture, restoring it to the earlier Muslim atmosphere of an all-inclusive and tolerant Jerusalem — an atmosphere that one hopes to be reestablished in the Holy Land.

Misbahuddin Mirza, M.S., P.E., an avid student of history, and Islamic numismatics, works for the New York State Department of Transportation.

53

FAMILY LIFE

Distorted Feminism Are Muslims taking the message to the mainstream that its brand of feminism strips women of their dignity?

BY SUMAYYAH MEEHAN

T

he French ban on the modest burqini swimwear has sparked a heightened debate on feminism. Ironically, the feminists in the West and their twins in the East are applauding the ban on the assumption that men often force such garments upon women. Of course, there is no consideration of the fact that many modestly dressed women also have female family members who do not cover.

Feminism is defined as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.”

However, in our modern world it is interpreted very differently depending upon the interpreter’s agenda. Quite often the interpretation undermines its definition. In the West, for example, many believe that for a woman to be a bona fide feminist, she must reveal her body and expose as much skin as possible.

Isn’t that the message that is splashed on countless magazine covers and forced upon a willing audience? The message is so powerful, that it’s nearly impossible to watch a movie without seeing a woman exposed in her nakedness. It’s quite ironic to watch the publicity for some of these movies. The actresses are often called “brave” or “courageous” for their willingness to reveal their bodies to the public.

This is ironic, for if a woman feels that stripping down to her birthday suit is liberating, or even remotely about feminism, then she is not truly emancipated. Instead, she has become part of a bigger machine that ridicules, humiliates and degrades women as mere toys of men. Think of Kim Kardashian and her siblings, who have become multimillionaires several times over by dealing in the flesh trade.

A closer look at their so-called “feminism” reveals the ugliness that lies just beneath.

with ensuring a woman has equal rights as a man whether in society, at home or in the workplace. This is one of the major reasons that non-Muslim women are converting to Islam in droves.

Islam gave women rights over 1400 years ago. During the Dark Ages women’s plight became more dire than before. Women in those times were treated like cattle and were completely reliant upon men for everything.

A woman was a commodity, and could be bought, sold, traded or even inherited amongst family members. There was no such

thing as women’s rights or even a basic form of democracy. The Christian religion blamed women for the “original sin” and demeaned them for their “crookedness.”

SAVING GRACE With the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and the revelation of the Quran as the Final Message, a new era of true feminism was born. Women were given a newfound voice in the Muslim society. They were allowed to own property, get an education, seek a divorce and deal in trade amongst other things. Islam raised women up out of the pre-Islamic era’s ashes, where they remain to this day. Islam’s core precepts uplift Muslim women as the nurturing, thinking, believing and intelligent women that they are. For example, the Divine Decree for a Muslim woman to cover her head in public or when among non-relatives, is not a means of control or deprivation: “O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) all over their bodies. That will be better, that they should be known (as free respectable women) so as not to be annoyed. And God is Ever OftForgiving, Most Merciful” (Quran 33:59).

Instead, Islamic guidance removes the differentiation from the equation, so that women can be seen as a true equal to men in all aspects of society.

FULL CIRCLE Now while Muslim women were elevated to the status of true feminism centuries ago, we live in a time that has taken us

MODERN FEMINISM Feminism today, by and large, is a means to an end that keeps women in their places as the playthings of men. It has nothing to do 54

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

back to the Dark Ages, where once again a woman is only as valuable as her flesh and willingness to exploit it. Our Digital Age has done little to give women a voice, or even to earn the same amount as a man holding the same job.

TRUE COURAGE AND REAL FEMINISM It does not require courage to take off your clothes. It only requires weakness to be a slave to men and deny the Creator’s Will.

Courage can best be seen in young women like Malala Yousafzai, who risked her life to get an education and continues to elevate others seeking learning.

True bravery can be seen daily on the streets of America, where Muslims are the minority and often cast under a cloak of mistrust. Muslim women in the U.S. bravely wrap their hijabs around their heads in full submission to their Lord and Cherisher, knowing that other Muslim women here have been attacked or even murdered for doing the same thing.

A VERY FINE LINE There is so much focus in western society over a woman’s right to wear what she wants to wear, that all the other rights she should be laying claim to are tossed to the wayside.

In many ways, it is a distraction keeping women in their closets fussing over their wardrobe, when they should be focusing their attention on real things in life. It is not hard to believe that this is true when you take a look at men. Traditional men’s fashion and business wear is overtly modest in the western world. You do not hear anyone

WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (SALLA ALLAHU ‘ALAYHI WA SALLAM) AND THE REVELATION OF THE QURAN AS THE FINAL MESSAGE, A NEW ERA OF TRUE FEMINISM WAS BORN. encouraging a man to show a little more leg, or pump up that cleavage.

For this reason, the Muslim dress code for both women and men levels the playing field.

There are restrictions on both of the sexes in terms of clothing and these boundaries categorically set a tone for equality between men and women. And this concept applies in all aspects of life, whether in the workplace or elsewhere.

A SPIRIT OF REINVENTION From time to time we hear about so-and-so woman who has aged and seeks to reinvent herself through plastic surgery or other methods that torture the flesh. Again, this has nothing to do with feminism and is steeped heavily in vanity. The reality, as it exists in the Islamic faith, is that a woman, regardless of her age, should always be deemed as the capable partner she is to man,

whether as leading a company or a state. For a lasting reinvention to take place, it must be of the mind and spirit rather than the flesh.

“IMPORTED FEMINISM” Due to the speed with which information is shared today, whether on social networks or text messaging, many Islamic societies are facing a scourge of “imported feminism,” which has clearly set its sights on our Muslim youth. In places like Bahrain and Pakistan, the young are being influenced on an unprecedented scale to adopt Western ways and, as a result, are at risk of losing their Islam while chasing this misguided plague of so-called feminism. The reality is stark as many Muslim youths, and even adults, are falling prey to the foolish whims of those who promulgate a false sense of feminism that is far removed from the basic principles of true feminism.

MUSLIM TRAILBLAZERS LEADING THE PACK You do not have to go too far to witness Muslim women who embody both feminist ideals and the pillars of the Islamic faith.

This summer, the world had the privilege of meeting Olympic bronze-medalist and world class sabre fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad at the Rio Olympics. Handling herself with poise and dignity, Muhammad not only wore her hijab as a stunning badge of faith and courage, but she also proved that women can rise to the occasion to share the same stage as their male counterparts without having to forsake their dignity and honor.

Sumayyah Meehan, a Waynesburg University graduate majoring in criminal justice, who resides in Cary, N.C., recently launched Fly Chick Solutions that helps small businesses build their brands.

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SHAFFE 2011 4th St. • Sac, CA 95818 Donate online: http://www.shaffe.org ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

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IN MEMORIAM Ahmed H. Zewail A Gift to Chemistry 1946 – 2016

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hmed H. Zewail, who won the 1999 Nobel Prize for his work on the study of chemical reactions over immensely short time scales, died August 2 at the age of 70.

Zewail’s body was flown to Egypt for a state funeral.

He was Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

Zewail, the first Egyptian and Arab to win a Nobel in Science, was born in Damanhur, Egypt and was educated in the University of Pennsylvania (1969–74), and Alexandria (Egypt) University. He did his postdoctoral research at University of California Berkeley.

Over nearly 40 years at Caltech, Zewail and his students pioneered the field of femtochemistry, the use of lasers to monitor chemical reactions at a scale of a femtosecond, or a millionth of a billionth of a second. Using Zewail’s techniques, scientists can observe the bonding and busting of molecules in real time. The research could lead to new ways of manipulating chemical or biological reactions as well as faster electronics and ultra-precise machinery.

Zewail authored about 600 scientific articles and 16 books. He was showered with honors from around the world, including France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, Egypt’s Order of the Grand Collar

of the Nile, and the American Chemical Society’s highest honor, the Priestley Medal.

Zewail held U.S. and Egyptian citizenship and maintained close ties with his place of birth long after moving to the U.S. in the late 1960s. Displaying commitment to his native Egypt, he founded Zewail City of Science and Technology, a university and research center based in Cairo, described as “a Caltech in Egypt.” Zewail City, which opened its classrooms to students in 2013, now enrolls 535 students.

In 2009, President Barack Obama named Zewail to the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and later that year made him the first U.S. Science Envoy to the Middle East. He joined the UN Scientific Advisory Board in 2013.

To celebrate Zewail’s 70th birthday in February, Caltech held a symposium titled “Science and Society.”

Caltech President and CEO of the American Chemical Society, Thomas Connelly Jr., described Zuweil as “an exemplary scholar and statesman who will be greatly missed.”

Zewail is survived by his wife, Dema Faham, daughters Maha and Amani, and sons Nabeel and Hani.

broadcast on radio, he turned cricket in Pakistan from the preserve of the elite into the mass sport it is today.

The right-handed opening batsman played 55 Test matches for Pakistan between 1952 and 1969, averaging a fine 43.98 runs, comprising twelve centuries.

Pakistan secured the coveted Test status after Pakistan rode on Hanif ’s invaluable 64 run innings to win a first class contest against Marylebone Cricket Club, chasing down a daunting 288-run target at Karachi.

Regarded as the world’s most compact batsman during his playing days, Hanif could also bowl with both arms. He served as wicket keeper at the competitive level too on various occasions.

In all, Hanif made 55 first-class centuries and finished with a strong average of 52.32.

In his long career, he had the distinction of playing alongside his three brothers: Wazir, Mushtaq, and Sadiq. Hanif ’s son Shoaib Mohammad also played for Pakistan.

In 1968 Hanif was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year. In January 2009, the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame included Hanif, along with two other Pakistani players (Imran Khan and Javed Miandad) as part of the inaugural batch of 55 inductees.

He is survived by his wife Shamshad, son Shoaib, daughters Seema and Shahzeb, and by his four brothers.

Hanif Mohammad End of a Legend’s Innings 1934 – 2016

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akistani and international cr icket ing legend Hanif Mohammad, 81, died in Karachi, Pakistan, Aug. 11, after a longdrawn battle with cancer.

He was among the golden greats of the 1950s putting Pakistan in the international cricketing league. In 1952 Hanif played a vital role in helping Pakistan achieve election to the International Cricket Conference.

Hanif was the first star of Pakistani cricket, whose short stature (5’ 6”) and immaculate technique earned him the sobriquet of “Little Master.” He played the longest innings in Test cricket history — his 970-minute 337 run against the West Indies in January 1958 in Bridgetown, Barbados — then followed it a year later with the highest first-class innings to that point, 499 run out attempting his five hundredth run — a record that stood till 1994. With such feats

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ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

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NEW RELEASES ENLIGHTENING YOUNG READERS The Ghazali Children’s Project 2016. 6 books (sets 1 and 2) plus an instructional DVD. $125 Fons Vitae, Louisville, Ky. any scholars consider Ghazali’s Revival of the Islamic Sciences (Ihya Ulum Al-Din) the most important literary contribution after the Qur’an and the Hadith.

Fons Vitae, who have been translating and publishing Al-Ghazali’s works for many years, have re-crafted those books into a children’s book series. The Ghazali Children’s Project seeks to inculcate prophetic character and values in children through storytelling, guided reflection, and instruction. For example, Book Two presents profound concepts about belief and the afterlife, and in the Book of Belief, the imam makes imaginary visits to children to answer their questions.

The sets include two illustrated children’s books, workbooks, and parent-teacher manuals with games and activities. The stories are written for a parent to read to a child, so the sets also contain an instructional DVD. The 2-volume full editions of Al-Ghazali’s books are included, with corresponding page numbers listed in the children’s books’ index. This allows a teacher/parent to look up an idea for deeper understanding if needed.

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ESSENTIAL PARTNERS Muslims and the Making of America Amir Hussain 2016. Pp. 142. HB. $24.95 Baylor University Press, Waco, Tex. n this book, Professor Hussain focuses on contemporary Muslim societies in North America, arguing that America has never been without Muslims, and contending that Muslims played an essential role in the nation’s creation and cultivation.

Hussain addresses current negative stereotypes that stem in part from the fear that Muslims are violent extremists wanting to overturn the American way of life. Inherent to this stereotype is the misconception that Islam is a “new” religion to America.

Hussain, who includes all shades of Muslims in his description, contends that the U.S. would not exist as it does today without its Muslim citizens’ vital contributions.

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Anger and Domestic Violence: Prevention Guide for the Muslim Community Khalid Iqbal 2016. Pp. 121. PB. $24.95 Rahma Institute, Flint, Mich. halid Iqbal, an engineer by training and trade, who has served on the boards of several nonprofit and professional organizations, including ISNA, has dedicated the past 20 years of his life to nonprofit work. His passion for family development led him to found the Rahma Institute.

This book grew out of his 16-week course on domestic violence and anger prevention that bore positive results. The book offers plenty of exercises that help readers understand the consequences of anger, and practice dealing with these repellant aggressive reactions.

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Islamic Design Workbook Eric Broug 2016. Pp. 64 + 48 loose-leaf sheets. PB. $24.95 Thames & Hudson, New York, N.Y. he Workbook offers a collection of Islamic patterns, helping users learn about these works as they produce their own. The portfolio includes 48 geometric compositions from around the world that artists at all skill levels will relish to replicate, or create their own. The workbook invites the user to consider a composition in the book, take an enclosed corresponding loose leaf, and figure out which sections of lines to trace to make the composition.

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Dreams of a Refugee From the Middle East to Mount Everest Mostafa Salameh 2016. Pp. 256. HB. $27.00 Bloomsbury, New York, NY alameh explains that the morally reprehensible Balfour Declaration robbed his parents of their birthright, and thus he was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Kuwait. Through a chance meeting he went to Scotland where he had a profoundly religious experience which altered his life’s direction: he saw himself standing atop Mount Everest calling the adhan. Conquering Everest in 2008 after two failed attempts, he later became the first Jordanian Palestinian to reach the North Pole and to climb the summits of the world’s seven highest peaks.

Through climbing he has raised funds for charity. 2016 will see him reach the South Pole to become the first Muslim ever to complete the full distance.

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Memories Of My Future Ammar Habib & Anil Sinha 2016. Pp. 308. PB. $18.99 Sinha Medical Devices, Lake Jackson, Tex. ogether, Anil Sinha, a surgeon practicing in Texas for more than two decades, a Hindu, and Ammar Habib, a Texas-born young writer still in college, a Muslim, have crafted a historical/inspirational novel about the abortive 1857 Indian war of independence against British occupation. Some of the novel’s historical aspects are inspired by Sinha’s family’s history. In the book, they highlight the depth of ordinary people’s despair and the revolutionaries’ nerves which held through the extreme torture inflicted on the non-white Indians by depraved colonists.

The book has major themes of different religions and cultures working together for the common good of humankind. The book is set in both present day New York City, as well as the Indian subcontinent in the 1250s and 1857. The story shows Islam, as well as many other religions, in a very positive light.

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Road Map to Power Syed Arshad Husain, A. Darius Husain 2015. Pp. 186. PB. $12.95 MSI Press, Hollister, Calif. he authors examine the true source of personal power, how our quest for success and achievement originates, and how it affects us today.

They use real-life stories to discuss what authentic power is, how to construct one’s own narratives, and how to become humanitarians instead of self-absorbed, power-hungry, and materialistic shells of ourselves. This book offers a message that could be a starting point for transforming readers’ lives.

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ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

THE MUSLIM WORLD

A Shared Lunar Calendar for Muslims Rejoice! The Muslim world advances toward adopting a Unified Hijri Calendar

BY KHALID SHAUKAT

Görmez said that the Congress preparations started three years ago, with the formation of a commission of scholars in astronomy Unified Hijri Calendar became one step closer and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to discuss on an international level, when representatives of Islamic countries and Muslims different perspectives on the issue in the Islamic world. He said, “The living as minorities, meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, commission paved the way for this congress to be a meeting where decided to adopt a single international lunar calendar. a solid decision is made, rather than it to remain an event where Turkey’s official Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB; Diyanet the issue is merely discussed.” Referring to a separate calendar for İşleri Başkanlığı) announced the momentous step at the International the western hemisphere or specifically, for Muslims in North and South America, he said, “We had two proposals in the end, a dual Hijri Calendar Union Congress they hosted in 2016.

Attendees included Islamic scholcalendar system or a single calendar.” ars, like Prof. Ali Mohuddin al-Qurra However, he pointed out that “A dual Daghi, professor of Jurisprudence in calendar would not end the problems the Faculty of Shari’a Law and Islamic and we focused on a single calendar Studies at the University of Qatar, which Muslims in every part of the an expert on Islamic jurisprudence, world can observe, so that Ramadan scribes, scientists, astronomers such can start on the same day.” as Mohammed Shawkat Awda, chairGörmez hopes that with this deciman of Islamic Crescent Observation sion — the product of three years of hard work — the 60 year old dispute Project and prominent astronomer Zulfiqar A. Shah (second from right) and Khalid Shaukat (third from right) represented the Fiqh Council of North America. in the Islamic world will come to an from the United Arab Emirates, and end. Muslims all over the world can decision makers from 50 countries celebrate their Ramadan and Eidain including Egypt, England, France, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, CALENDAR CORRECTIONS [two Eids] on the same day.

Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, The congress confirmed the NORMALLY TAKE TIME South Africa, Turkey, , United Arab decisions of former congresses and AND WE NEED TO Emirates, and the United States.

Islamic law academies. Thus the BE PATIENT TO LET PEOPLE Also present were related ministries basic principles and criteria adopted of Islamic countries, fatwa councils, by the 1966 Mecmeu’l-Buhusi’lUNDERSTAND THE NEED FOR and representatives of various Islamic CHANGE: REMEMBER THAT WHEN İlmiyye, the 1973 Kuwait, and the 1978 İstanbul Congresses, as well law councils.

GREGORIAN CORRECTION WAS as those of the 1986 Organization The Congress had hosted a similar INTRODUCED TO THE CHRISTIAN for Islamic Cooperation (OIC)’s event in 1979, only to see an agreeMecmeu’l-Fıkhi’l-İslami (Islamic ment to reach a unified calendar fall SOLAR CALENDAR IN 1582 C.E., apart in the following years.

Law Academy), the European Fatwa IT TOOK ENGLAND AND THE This year the congress opened and Research Assembly and the 2012 COLONIES NEARLY 200 YEARS TO Rabıta Islamic Law Academy have with discussion of the issue of Ru’yat al-Hilal (observing the moon through been confirmed. The most important ADOPT IT.” astronomy to determine the days principle and criterion among these —Mohamed Ilyas, a professor at of Eid and the start of the Islamic are that the basic rule to determine the University of Malaysia Perlis months) from astronomical and the start of the lunar month is the Islamic legal perspectives. The social sighting of the crescent whether this is done by the naked eye or through and political aspects of using different calendars were also discussed. On the second day, the Scientific modern methods of astronomy. The sighting of the crescent in Council — formed beforehand — presented its proposals for a different places at different times, which is called “İkhtilaf-ı matalia”, Single Calendar and a Dual Calendar (one calendar for Americas will not be valid. If the crescent is sighted in one place it will be and another calendar for the rest of the world). accepted as having been seen everywhere.

At the closing session, the participants were required to vote The congress’ decision will now be referred to the OIC, the for a “single calendar,” a “dual calendar,” or vote “undecided.” The group of 57 Muslim-majority countries, for official adoption in the majority voted for a single calendar. Görmez declared, “the congress Muslim world. Görmez said a few countries might have difficulty has ruled for unity. It has decided for the application of a single adopting the new calendar, but the OIC may be influential in its calendar. May this bring blessings to the Islamic world.” worldwide adoption.

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ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

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THE MUSLIM WORLD “This is an ongoing process, but God willing, we hope to put an end to this debate,” he said. For Muslim minorities, especially those in the West, a single calendar means securing a right for observing a religious holiday. Muslim “[m]inorities fought for decades to earn their right to observe their own religious holidays, and they finally gained it. The single calendar will end Muslims’ challenge on this issue as well,” Görmez said.

The congress advised that the DIB units in Western countries and the European Council for Fatwa and Research be considered the authorities on scientific and religious issues for Muslim minorities living in Western countries to create unity and solidarity among Muslims, protect their interests and avoid discord among them regarding the religious holy days and the start of the lunar months.

A predetermined single calendar will allow Muslim minorities in Western countries to demand Eidain holidays from their governments. It will also erase notions that are being created that Islam is closed to science whereas in fact it is in harmony with science. The Quran’s first verse starts with “read” which emphasizes science and knowledge.

Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) declared: “The day you fast is the day when you all fast, the day you mark Eid is the day when you all celebrate together and the day you sacrifice (animals) is the day when you perform this ritual all together.”

In his welcome message, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “I believe that the road map which will be revealed by esteemed scientists and astronomers will help to find permanent solutions and to serve in unity the Hijri calendar.”

Mohamed Ilyas, a professor at the University of Malaysia Perlis, reminded us that “Calendar corrections normally take time and we need to be patient to let people understand the need for change: remember that when Gregorian Correction was introduced to the Christian Solar calendar in 1582 C.E., it took England and the Colonies nearly 200 years to adopt it.”

Source: http://turkishsquare.com/ muslim-countries-agree-on-common-calendar/

Khalid Shaukat, a scientist and astronomer, is founder of moonsighting.com

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A Merciless Occupation Indian occupation forces keep hospitals and medical personnel under siege in Kashmir

BY ABDUL RAUF MIR

On

Sept. 5, 2016 Saqib Ahmad, 16, a 10th grader who volunteers as an ambulance driver with the Social Reform Organisation (SRO), was shot at with “pellets” (a euphemism for birdshot) at Palpora, a village near the Kashmir capital Srinagar. Abid Bhat, another driver who was accompanying him, related,“We dropped a female patient who was accompanied by her three attendants at her residence.

On the way back, Saqib was shot at with pellets when he rolled down the ambulance window. I dragged him to one side, took over and hurriedly drove away to save our lives.”

This wasn’t the first instance that one of the million-strong Indian military and paramilitary Occupation Force in Kashmir has shot at an ambulance driver.

On Aug. 18, 2016 ambulance driver Ghulam Mohammad Sofi was shot in the arm in the Safa Kadal area of Srinagar as he was taking patients, but he still managed to reach the hospital.

The youngest victim of Indian pellet birdshot Also in August, ambulance driver Mukhtar Ahmad reported that when Indian soldiers noticed that he was taking injured people that show evidence of having a 9-year-old boy injured in Natipora area of been in the line of fire somewhere. There is Srinagar to the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh clear intent to disable physically anyone who Hospital (SMHS), they smashed his vehicle’s is perceived as a threat to the Indian farce windshield and windows. that Kashmir is their “integral” part.

In another incident an ambulance driver, One of India’s widely circulated newspawho had taken the bullet-ridden body of pers (known for its pro-government stance), a teenager to the hospital, was attacked on The Hindu, reported on Aug. 22, 2016 that his return journey and he and the boy’s Srinagar’s main hospital, SMHS provided attendants who were riding with him were it information showing that “pellets” had dragged out of the ambulance and beaten up. injured more than 900 Kashmiris. The term Indian military personnel and police “pellets” is a euphemism for the birdshot often enter hospitals hunting the injured as fired at protesters with pump-action shotthough in pursuit of animals of prey. To pro- guns. Almost half had been shot in the eyes, tect them, hospitals transfer patients to other causing blindness: 14 percent of these viclocations not designated as medical facilities. tims are under the age of 15. These are very Only two days after the extrajudicial exe- conservative numbers published by a news cution of freedom supporter Burhan Wani outlet that is known for its Indian bias. Other on July 8, 2016, Indian armed forces raided estimates are much higher. the Islamabad District Hospital, Primary With the massive number of injuries, the Health Center Lalpora and SMHS hospital hospitals have been unprepared for such an in Srinagar. The hospitals, overwhelmed with emergency. Staffing is simply inadequate, treating a massive number of injured and and many of the injured do not get the care also in desperate need for medical supplies they need. Doctors and nurses have gone to keep up with the volume, are sitting ducks into the streets themselves to protest, with for such attacks. many wearing eye patches to symbolize their The victims of Indian atrocities again disgust with the use of shotguns against become victims when Indian troops target unarmed civilians. ambulances because they are carrying the The hygienic conditions at the hospitals ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

are also deplorable, as the local Indian-foisted government pays no attention to it. Moreover, government hospitals as a routine do not supply most of the medicines and supplies, and patients have to buy their own. Under the current circumstances almost all of the medications are provided by local NGOs. Because of the stringent curfew, communities have been not only without medical supplies but also basic supplies. They are imprisoned in their own homes, and all stores are closed.

Trucks supplying food and other goods have been set afire, their windows broken, and their drivers beaten mercilessly. In consequence, many fearing for their lives have stopped bringing in these supplies.

Rising Kashmir in its report “Fired Above The Waist: Trail of bullet casualties reveal intent to kill” (Aug. 31, 2016) says that the [Indian occupation] military forces aim is to kill or at least maim, not simply injure, “According to the data compiled by SMHS hospital where majority of the injured are undergoing treatment, ‘From July 9 to Aug 29, the hospital has received 1537 patients and conducted 1316 surgeries. After the eye injuries caused by pellets, the number of bullet injured patients who have received injuries above waist forms the second majority’.”

Kashmir is the most militarized place in the world with more than 700,000 Indian army troops standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder on many city streets. The intrusion of such a massive number of troops cannot be conceived of as anything but state terrorism.

There is no threat of an invasion: India is a nuclear-armed state with a well-stocked conventional arms arsenal. And more arms are flying in as the world’s arms sellers are lined up with their wares. Mother Jones (July 30, 2016) noted, the “ Obama administration has gone to great lengths to build a defense relationship with India, a development guaranteed to benefit US arms exporters. Last year [2015], Washington and New Delhi signed a 10-year defense agreement that included pledges of future joint work on aircraft engines and aircraft carrier designs.”

Syed Ali Geelani, Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference said on Aug.11, 2016: “Converting the whole vale [Kashmir] into an army garrison and a big prison stands testimony to the fact that [the] rulers and their local collaborators have lost the moral standing, which they never had in the first place, and only reason they are here, is by their military might.”

Nine-year-olds are not terrorists. They are children. The terrorism is being committed by a much more powerful state that has abandoned all appearances of civilized

INDIAN MILITARY PERSONNEL AND POLICE OFTEN ENTER HOSPITALS HUNTING THE INJURED AS THOUGH IN PURSUIT OF ANIMALS OF PREY. behavior, let alone anything called democracy. Shooting one’s political opponents to stop them from protesting is nothing but barbarism. Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution makes the right to freedom of speech and expression a fundamental right.

However, the [Indian] Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives the military and the police the right to kill at their own discretion, is applicable to Jammu and Kashmir. Racism can produce a hatred that provokes outspoken rudeness and sometimes violence in many places in the world, but what we have here is an evil far more rampant that runs deeply throughout the Indian establishment towards Kashmiris. It is something that represents a huge irony, since India wants Kashmir so badly.

An Indian from Pune, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, Rahul Sharma, posted on Facebook on Sept. 11, 2016, “On 6th September I was on way from [my] hotel to [the] airport with my two Kashmiri colleagues. We were stopped at Rangrath, our identity cards were checked by CRPF men [Central Reserve Police Force, the largest of India’s central armed police force]. I was asked to proceed towards [the] Airport but my two Kashmiri colleagues were stopped and beaten ruthlessly for almost 10 minutes by almost mob of 15 CRPF men. I tried to pacify the situation and tried to rescue my colleagues. I was also kicked by CRPF [men] and they abused me…their only crime is that they are Kashmiris…I lost all respect for security persons deployed in Kashmir.”

Vandalism is used also to terrorize Kashmiris. Mobs of soldiers routinely go through neighborhoods breaking windows with rocks, upending cars and motorcycles, setting fire to trucks, and anything vulnerable

ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

to their attack. Occasionally they will shoot at the people inside homes, and many have been killed or injured with buckshot in their own homes. Children and housewives have frequently been victims.

The curfew was lifted briefly but with the celebration of Eidul Adha (Sept. 12), mobile phone and the Internet were cut off in all of the state’s 10 districts. The people imprisoned in their own homes have little or no contact with the outside world. Many Kashmiris are not taking it sitting down. Despite the dangers, they are going out to protest. The injuries continue to mount.

Meanwhile getting the attention of the international community remains a challenge.

The U.S. has taken a hands-off stance, and the UN is doing only a little better in having asked India for permission to send in a team to investigate.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein elaborated on Sept. 13, 2016 during the Human Rights Council in Geneva, “We had previously received reports, and still continue to do so, claiming the Indian authorities had used force excessively against the civilian population under its administration. We furthermore received conflicting narratives from the two sides as to the cause for the confrontations and the reported large numbers of people killed and wounded. I believe an independent, impartial and international mission is now needed crucially and that it should be given free and complete access to establish an objective assessment of the claims made by the two sides.”

Speaking on behalf of the people of Kashmir during this debate in Geneva, Altaf Hussain Wani, vice chairman, Jammu & Kashmir National Front, from Kupwara, Kashmir told UNHCR that it was not time to show mere concern over the bloodbath of Kashmiris rather “it is time to act before it is too late to control the situation. He said that it was not matter of conflicting and competing claims made by India and Pakistan. It is matter of human rights of the people of Kashmir who are under siege and are killed, blinded and tortured by the army and paramilitary forces day in and day out.”

The New York Times on Aug. 28, 2016 published an article titled “An Epidemic of ‘Dead Eyes’ in Kashmir as India uses Pellet Guns on Protesters.”

It’s time for the United States to shoulder its responsibility as leader of the free world and speak out in support of values that the world has long respected it for.

Abdul Rauf Mir is a U.S. based physician and community worker.

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ROAD MAP TO IMPROVE THE IMAGE OF MUSLIMS/ISLAM in USA Your mosque can do it, but you can do it by yourself Today, the image of Muslims is under attack. However, we should not forget, that it is our responsibility to correct it collectively and individually: it is every Muslim’s responsibility. YES, if we do it seriously we can see positive results emerging in a few years. Muslims, who are spread out across the United States, should place this ad. in their local newspapers and magazines.

Below is a sample text for the ad. that you can use:

Islam is a religion of inclusion.

Muslims believe in all the Prophets of Old & New Testaments.

Read Quran — The Original, unchanged word of God as His Last and Final testament to humankind.

More information is available on following sites: www.peacetv.tv • www.theDeenShow.com www.Gainpeace.com Or 877whyIslam • www.twf.org Such ads are already running in many newspapers in the United States but may not be in your area of residence yet. Placing these ads can be a continuous reward (sadqa-e-jaria) for yourself, your children, your loved deceased ones and with the prayer for a sick person that Allah make life easy here and in the Hereafter. Please Google the list of newspapers in your state and contact their advertising departments.

Such ads are not expensive. They range for around $20 to $50 per slot and are cheaper if run for a longer time.

Call your local newspaper and ask how many print copies they distribute, and run it for a longer period of time to get cheaper rates.

Don’t forget that DAWAH works on the same principles as that of advertisement, BULK AND REPEATED EXPOSURE CREATES ACCEPTANCE. Printing continuously for a long period of time is better than printing one big advertisement for only once. Let your advertisement run for a longer time even if it is as small as a business card.

NOTE: If you are living East of Chicago, choose in the ad 877-whyIslam, but also please call 877-WHYISLAM before putting the ad and check if someone is already running an advertisement in the same newspaper as yours. If that is the case choose another newspaper. And if you are living West of Chicago, choose www.GainPeace.com and also call GainPeace.com before putting your ad. Also, after the ad appears, please send a clipping to the respective organization.

If you have any questions, or want copies of the ads that others have already placed in their area newspapers/ magazines, please contact me, Muhammad Khan at: mjkhan11373@yahoo.com so that I can guide you better.

You can also contact 1-877-why-Islam or Gainpeace.com

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) P.O. Box 38 • Plainfield, IN 46168-0038

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