JAN 2005|DHUL-QA’DAH 1425| NO. 359 UK£.2.50 | US$5.00 |RM10.00
SONIA MALIK
END OF THE BLUNKETT AFFAIR TARIS AHMED
“THE HIJAB IS A SWASTIKA SYMBOL” MEGAN ADDIS
ID CARDS: A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY KHALIDA KHAN
THE PHONEY DEBATE ABOUT MULTICULTURALISM RANEEM AZZAM
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND HIS NEW WORDS
PLUS GILLES KEPEL IN CONVERSATION THE LURE OF MAKKAH BABAR AHMED’S JIHAD
IT’S SHAYKH’S-PIR, SILLY! ISLAM COMES TO THE GLOBE
FAREENA ALAM
EDITORIAL
FROM THE PULPIT W
hen I was growing up, my mother had several uncompromising rules - have a glass of milk with a banana twice a day, oil your hair every week (something I never really got used to) and believe it or not, donate blood regularly. You see, Mom was often entrusted with the guardianship of patients, and their troubled families, many of whom would travel from impoverished parts of Bangladesh to seek treatment in the worldrenowned hospitals of our then home-city, Singapore. I’m Bengali and that usually means that through some genetic miracle, I am ‘related’ to every other Bengali on this planet. However remote this relation is, I assure you my people always find a connection. As a result, foreign patients and their families often found themselves being delivered home-cooked deshi food by my mother, to be eaten at bedside. On occasion, my parents would invite visiting families to stay at our home, helping them to save on exorbitant hotel bills. I have vivid memories of being compelled to share my own bedroom with an elderly dialysis patient whose health necessitated that my bedroom be turned into a mini dialysis centre. Looking after the welfare of people my mother had taken under her wing was difficult because for the longest time, it was her mission, not mine. I was just a kid who wanted to be left alone. I didn’t want to take the bus to the hospital with bags of food. I didn’t want to smell like a twice-daily-dettol-sanitised kidney centre. I didn’t want to get up at seven am everyday to help my mother prepare breakfast for all these people. Blood donation, changed the way I felt about all of the above. I gave blood for the first time in my late teens. A Bangladeshi father had flown in with his dying child who had a rare blood disease. On his last pennies, the father couldn’t afford to pay for a bag of blood, which due to the incredible national shortage cost about £25. The only way to help him was for donors to donate blood at the hospital and then signed a form bequeathing the gift to that particular patient. My mother, who was described as Singapore’s Florence Nightingale in an essay written by a patient who has since passed away, got the whole family, and all our friends trooping off to the blood donation centre, hoping to save the life of this little boy. Alhamdulillah, he lived. Somewhere along the line, as I began to learn more about my faith and the example set by the Prophet, peace be upon him, and my priorities became clearer. I realised, those years working under my mother’s command were priceless. The dogged determination and imagination with which she made others care about those in need had, what I now see as an immensely spiritual dimension. I have no doubt that all the big and small blessings I enjoy can be attributed to Allah’s reward for the good deeds of my parents. I have rarely had to donate for a specific patient, so I donate for the general blood bank now. The needle scars on my arms are something I have always been proud of. Not only is blood always in short supply, the process is proven to be medically beneficial for the donor because it encourages your body to gear up and produce new, fresh blood. I recently met an imam from Cameroon. In 1990, both his mother and aunt died because they didn’t receive blood transfusions in time - no one would give blood except to members of their own family. Since then he has been on a mission. He set up the first voluntary blood register in Cameroon, establishing offices across the country. He organises for the blood to be tested regularly for HIV and pays for students to be taken by bus, in journeys taking up to four hours, to give blood at regional hospitals. He has been working with people of all faiths to expand the blood register so that anyone who needs blood will have safe donors. He is now raising funds to build Cameroon’s first independent blood centre. We will be carrying his amazing story in Q-News in the New Year. But, he told me with great sadness that the least amount of help and support for his project has come from Muslims - they are the worst at coming forward to donate blood. In the United Kingdom, the National Blood Service has recently launched a campaign aimed at ethnic and religious minorities. Whilst only 6% of the eligible population in the UK currently gives blood the vast majority of these volunteer blood donors are white. With Ramadan behind us and the blessed time of Hajj on its way, Muslims know something about giving. Our Prophet, peace be upon him, was the most generous of people and our faith is based on being merciful to others. This year, resolve to do something amazing and save the life of another by giving blood. The National Blood Service has blood donation centres in every part of the country. Visit them at www.blood.co.uk where you can easily find the clinic nearest to you or call 0845 7 711 711. In this time of giving, there is no better gift. I want to wish all those who are going on the Hajj, a safe and blessed pilgrimage. May all your prayers be granted and may you find Allah’s mercy showered upon you. To our Christian friends, I extend our best wishes for a happy, safe and joyful Christmas and holiday season. May the mince pies be warm and the halal cider flow plentifully!
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C O N T E N T S REGULARS
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CLASSIC Q
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Q-NOTES
Let’s hear it for the curry! It inspires devotion and disgust, but curry is now Britain’s favourite dish. JOHN EVELYN traces its unlikely history.
on environmental sins, watching Othello, being chaste, taking the plunge and why detoxing is tougher than Ramadan.
AFFAN CHOWDHRY Editor-in-Chief FUAD NAHDI Managing Editor FAREENA ALAM Contributing Editors ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK FOZIA BORA NABILA MUNAWAR Art Director AIYSHA MALIK Events Coordinators WAHEED MALIK SABA ZAMAN FEATURING Megan Addis Taris Ahmad Raneem Azzam Affan Chowdhry Yvonne Deutch Khalida Khan Wojtek Kosc Sonia Malik Nabil Marmouch Shamim Meah Raania Rizvi Iqbal Siddiqui Naushaad Suliman Ruhul Tarafder Svend White Farrukh Younus Head Office Q-NEWS MEDIA LTD P.O.BOX 4295 London,W1A 7YH United Kingdom International Office Q-NEWS MEDIA SDN BHD 173b, Jalan Aminubdin Baki Taban Tun Dr Ismail 60000 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia www.q-news.com General: info@q-news.com Editorial: editor@q-news.com Subscriptions: subs@q-news.com
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SCRUTINY Babar Ahmed’s jihad RUHUL TARAFDER. A false sense of security MEGAN ADDIS. Is Iran next? IQBAL SIDDIQUI. Private lives, public responsibility SONIA MALIK. A Dutch disaster NABIL MARMOUCH.
SPECIAL REPORT: US ELECTION tries to find the silver lining in the dark cloud of George W. Bush’s second term victory. RANEEM AZZAM tells a modern-day fable about “The President and his new words...” SVEND WHITE
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TRAVEL: ISLAM IN POLAND After six centuries, Poland’s Muslims still struggle to be understood, writes WOJTEK KOSC. FARRUKH YOUNUS explores Poland’s countryside mosques in the company of blessed strangers.
CORRESPONDENCE seeks to reconcile two peoples from the abode of peace - Jerusalem. YVONNE DEUTCH
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WRITE MIND The American people have voted for the salvation of Muslims (so don’t look so glum), argues, NAUSHAAD SULIMAN. CONTRIBUTORS 6 FIQH 47
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SUBSCRIPTIONS 49
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POPULI 48
COVER
FEATURES
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“The hijab is a swastika symbol”
As Europe’s most populous nation struggles with the presence of minorities, the message to German Muslims, reports TARIS AHMAD, is clear: assimilate or suffer the consequences.
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Multiculturalism: a phony debate
It’s about time we had a real debate about multiculturalism. But, argues KHALIDA KHAN nothing will change until we give up the outdated politics of the race industry.
28 Portfolio: Shakespeare and Islam FUAD NAHDI on a spectacular year. PATRICK SPOTTISWOODE looks to the future. SHAMIM MIAH on an evening with Dr Martin Lings. RAANIA RIZVI experiences the magic of a souk.
36 Hajj:The Lure of Makkah
Makkah was once a mysterious forbidden city that captured the imagination of intrepid European travellers who spared nothing to get inside one of the holiest places on Earth.
41 Gilles Kepel in Conversation For 25 years Kepel has challenged conventional wisdom about the Muslim world. Now, he tells ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK, the future of Islam rests with Europe’s Muslims.
“Okay, so the bard wasn’t really Shaykh Zubair; Romeo and Juliet wasn’t a direct plagiarisation of Leila and Majnoon. But who really cares so long as Othello is a great play and the sonnets are a pleasure to read.”
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C O N T R I B U T O R S SVEND WHITE
SONIA MALIK
RANEEM AZZAM
IS AN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT AND MUSLIM ACTIVIST IN WASHINGTON DC.
IS A LAW GRADUATE CURRENTLY WORKING AS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST. SHE SPEAKS FIVE LANGUAGES AND HAS TRAVELLED EXTENSIVELY THROUGH EUROPE, ASIA AND SOUTH AMERICA
IS A SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHER IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CREATIVE WRITING IN TORONTO, CANADA
MEGAN ADDIS
IS A LEGAL OFFICER IN LIBERTY’S LEGAL DEPARTMENT. PREVIOUSLY, SHE HAS WORKED AS AN ADVISER AT LIBERTY AND AS A SOLICITOR IN NEW ZEALAND.
FARRUKH YOUNUS
IS A FRIENDLY GUY WHO TRAVELS ALOT. EDUCATED IN TRADE HE DESIRES WORLD PEACE AND BELIEVES THAT LIFE BEFORE CHOCOLATE SIMPLY COULDN’T HAVE BEEN COMPLETE.
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AFFAN CHOWDHRY
IS AN AWARD-WINNING CANADIAN BROADCASTER. HE LIVES IN LONDON AND IS COMPLETING A MASTERS DEGREE AT THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES.
RAANIA RIZVI HAS AN MSC FROM THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS. SHE IS A VOLUNTEER WRITER AND RESEARCHER FOR GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR CHILDREN.
KHALIDA KHAN HAS BEEN A COMMUNITY WORKER FOR OVER TWO DECADES. SHE IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE AN-NISA SOCIETY, A WOMEN-LED ORGANISATION WORKING FOR FAMILIES.
IQBAL SIDDIQUI IS THE EDITOR OF CRESCENT INTERNATIONAL AND A MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC THOUGHT
CLASSIC Q
LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE CURRY! hat’s in a curry? Almost anything and everything the cynic might reply. But tales of disappearing cats and freezers full of canines (deceased) appear to be long past their sell-by date. John Evelyn chronicles the curry revolution. Curries, it seems, are definitely in (the Edwina variety, fortunately, is the current exception). Chicken tikka is now the most popular ‘ethnic’ meal sold in supermarkets in Britain; one company alone gets through twenty tons of boneless chicken for the 300,000 meals produced weekly. Add to that the proliferation of ‘Indian’ restaurants all over the place and you can easily see why the humble curry is so much in demand. But where does it come from, this special dish? I am reliably informed that there is no word in Urdu, and that it is in fact, a Tamil word meaning ‘rice’. Although it is probably safe to say that ‘curries’ come from India, any well-spiced dish could be worthy of the name. Curry itself is a generic term which covers a multitude of dishes. ‘Going for a curry’ is probably one of the vaguest of statements imaginable; such is the variety of curries available. For your average cor blimey guv’nor English-person (I hate this PC language!) a curry may well be the only contact ever made with foreigners. Since most of these ‘foreigners’ will be Muslims, the possibilities for dawah are immense if only the owners could be persuaded that selling alcohol is not an essential requisite for selling good quality curries. Nobody knows when the British first met their vindaloo, but one can imagine the gasps of delight when those early adventurers - reared on the rather bland diets of pre-Renaissance Europe - first tasted the fabled spices of India. The journals of 16th century travellers are scattered with references to delicious meals of kari and by the early 1600s recipes for curry dishes had started to appear in European cookery books. Curry had started its long, slow campaign for the hearts and minds of the British eating public. The process received a considerable boost during the days of the British Raj, of course, when a generation of soldiers and administrators discovered first hand the pleasures of pulao and popadoms, and why Bombay Ducks don’t quack! However, in spite of the whetting of
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imperial appetites, Indian restaurants at home remained exotic rarities. Curry historians believe the first was Salut-e-Hind in Holborn, which opened in 1911. The Veeraswamy in Regent Street followed in 1927 and is still going strong (its around 250 yards away from the offices of QNews). But curry remained on the fringe. In the battle for the British stomach, it made little headway against the traditional roast beef and fish and chips. It was not until the dawn of the sixties, that age of so many revolutions, that curry moved into the mainstream and the first Taj Mahals and Stars of India started to appear: once the bridgehead had been secured, the victory was swift. Indian restaurants are opening at the rate of one a day. There are now more than 7500 spread across the country - for each mosque there are at least eight curry houses! Curry houses form an impressive conglomeration in Bradford, Birmingham, Leicester and London - the latter boasting more curry houses than Delhi. Without doubt, Britain is curry-rich. Many gastronomists would argue that British curry is, in fact, the best in the world. The ubiquitous Indian take-away offers such a good service that one recently faced a demand of “Your curry or your life!” (or words to that effect). Masked gunmen mugged the curry delivery man and stole the meals he was transporting. Let’s hope that the intended recipients are not still awaiting their “curry-in-a-not-sohurry”. And let’s hope that the miscreants don’t suffer the same fate as an East London family who curried some deadly laburnum pods in the belief that they were green beans.
Quick thinking saved their lives. Muslims have come to be identified with curry, rightly or wrongly. There have been many occasions when a well-meaning Muslim from the sub-continent has smiled benignly and asked whether I like “Islamic food” as he ladles copious quantities of lamb from a cleverly disguised bath of ghee. The smell of curry is a contentious issue and, in some cases, is a total misnomer. A few years ago objectors to the expansion plans of Islamia Primary School included those who felt that “cooking smells” would be too much to bear. (They would also have been miraculous, since no cooking of any kind took place onsite!) My wife knows better than to serve me one particular vegetable because we both know that my armpits will have peculiar aroma over the following days if she does! I sympathise with the brother whose colleague recently sprayed him with deodorant “to stop him smelling of curry”. And listen to this: a couple of years ago, a Religious Education survey of children at schools in Richmond upon Thames revealed that one boy’s knowledge of Muslims was limited to “they wear funny hats and smell of chicken curry.” It’s true, honest; but why chicken curry? Perhaps the lad in question attended a school which serves “halal” meals, since that invariable means curried this or that. Certainly, that is the case in some prisons, where our incarcerated brethren rebel against prison food so that take-away curries are plat du jour for many a con. Such devotion to curry is not limited to guests of Her Majesty. One British nurse in Florida was so desperate to have her favourite dish that she arranged for a portion of keema masala to be flown to her from Bradford. The cost? A snip at £903.20 (£900 for the air tickets, £3.20 for the keema). I kid you not. Vindaloo or mild curry is big business. Britons spend $20 million a week in “Indian” restaurants - making curry a growth industry employing more people than coal, steel and shipbuilding. So let’s hear it for the curry, the pride of Bradford and doyen of “ethnic” grub. What would we do without it? ! Q-John Evelyn Q-News Vol. 3, No. 19, 5-12 Aug 1994
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DIARY AFFAN CHOWDHRY
his morning, the cleaning lady cleared the rubbish bin. A jam jar, an Evian bottle, yesterday’s Guardian, along with drooping celery sticks, egg shells, carrot tips, and soggy tea bags. I sighed and felt a pang of guilt. Old habits die so easily. In my native country, I used to be a man with impeccable ‘green’ credentials. I would pile-up old newspapers, crush plastic water bottles, and hold my nose at empty tuna cans. Then I would go downstairs and dump them in the big bins - one for the papers, the other for cans, plastic and glass. Walking back to my apartment, I would feel that I had done my part. Not that I was in the plus. Just back to zero. When you drive a thirteen-year-old Golf that burns oil and coughs out black smoke, it is a long way up to zero. Here in London, I can feel the flames of hell licking at me for I am an environmental sinner. During my first few weeks here, I would leave my room with my recyclable rubbish and dump them in large, poorly labeled metal bins. Then one morning, I left my room, and left the papers and bottles behind. I guess I fell off the environmental wagon. But is anyone really surprised? This country doesn’t strike me as serious about recycling. I felt a little odd walking around with empty bottles and bundles of newspapers. It got a little lonely on the wagon.
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went to see Othello recently at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. It was a Cheek by Jowl production. Maybe I should have chosen a more appropriate and uplifting play for my birthday. By the end of it, I felt as heavy as lead, what will all those characters lying listless on the bed. I tried hard to see the so-called ‘union with the divine’ symbolism in the final scene. “Didn’t quite have the - how shall I say? - the purgatorial effect that I had hoped,” said a man to his partner. They
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were sitting behind me. “Not at all,” she replied. Later that night, I flipped through the program. A quote by the Marquis of Halifax caught my attention: “A man may dwell so long upon a thought that it may take him prisoner.” t’s so hard to find a nice pool in London. At the first gym where I signed-up, a Cannon’s health club, the pool felt too much like a spa sedating soft light, warm water. This other pool, however, has slow, medium and fast lanes. People make like dolphins and motor through the water, back and forth. I love swimming. When I dunk my head in the water, I feel a release - as though I’ve been holding my breath all day. Suddenly, I can finally breathe, although, in truth, I can’t. There’s always a feeling of aaaahh as you push off the wall. Soon, the body goes on auto-pilot, and the mind begins to untangle all kinds of problems. I do my best thinking in the pool. It’s bliss - until I develop a cramp in the arch of my foot. And then it is pain like I have never felt before.
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ey, I’ll join you guys. We could all do it together, I cried out. Blithering fool. And just like that, I had signed-up to a week-long detox. Perhaps it was the promise of new-found vigor - what I would give for boundless energy and some sunshine. I have never seen so many shades of grey in my life than I have these few weeks. It was going to be a strict diet: miso soup, short-grain brown rice, beans, seaweed, herbal tea, fruits and green, leafy vegetables. We were full of determination and spirit. On Day One, we sat in an Indian restaurant and drank tap water while others ate chicken tikka. By Day Two, I felt like a fakir on a hunger strike - light as a feather, drifting from my room to school, forsaking caffeine and sandwiches for broccoli and apples. By Day Three, the smell of miso soup made me nau-
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seous and dizzy. This was harder than Ramadan. At 5 p.m. on the same day, alone in my room, I stared at the fridge for a long time. I opened the door, closed it. Opened it again, and started making a sandwich. Too ashamed of my failure, I waited till the next day to tell my friends. By then I had downed a proper dinner, and devoured a scrumptious breakfast. uslims have trouble with my name. They think it’s Irfan. That’s a nice name except it’s not mine. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor is asked why he won’t sign his name to a false confession. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!” he cries out. We seldom get to choose our names. Even when we try to change them - there is always that first name - un-erasable, like you could never be called by any other. I love my name. But just don’t ask me what it means. Here in London, I have been asked about my name’s meaning more times in a month than I have in all my life. What does it matter? My name means me. There is nothing else to say. Yet, the question had to be answered. A close friend asked Shaykh Hamza Yusuf during one of the nights at the Globe Theatre. As the Shaykh explained, Affan meant mild, temperate, chaste. My friend, with his arm around my shoulder, looked at me - his eyes bigger than ever, “Oh my God, that’s so you!” Well, maybe. But why chaste? What did that mean? It sounded puritan. I went home and looked it up in the dictionary. There were several suggestions. I checked a thesaurus: pure, innocent, uncorrupted, virtuous, unblemished, faithful. Man, that’s a lot of pressure. I went back to one of the suggestions in the dictionary. Chaste: plain, simple, and unadorned in style. It’s a little dull, but I guess I can live with that. !
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SCRUTINY
BABAR AHMED’S JIHAD BEATEN AND ASSAULTED BY ANTI-TERROR OFFICERS, BABAR AHMAD TOOK HIS QUEST FOR JUSTICE TO COURT AND LOST. NOW, HE AWAITS EXTRADITION TO THE US ON ALLEGATIONS HE IS NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO CONTEST. RUHUL TARAFDER EXAMINES THE BIZARRE CASE THAT IS TURNING JUSTICE ON ITS HEAD. he surprising success of the UK Independence Party in recent local and European elections re-sparked a nationwide debate over the future of Britain in Europe. Critics declared that we were sacrificing sovereignty under the new European constitution. Why then have the same pundits been so silent as Britain gives up sovereignty to the United States? If the case of Babar Ahmad is anything to go by, handing over our power to the United States is not a problem. Home Secretary David Blunkett fast tracked the Extradition Act through Parliament in 2003 with little debate or public consultation, allowing the UK to extradite any individual to the US without the need for the US to provide prima face evidence to support the extradition request. This means that an individual cannot challenge any evidence provided by the US government in a UK court of law and therefore does not have a chance to defend himself. The UK is the only country in the EU who has signed
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such a treaty with the US. Other countries have refused, saying the US herself refuses US citizens to be extradited to the EU on the same basis. The proceedings against Babar Ahmed will be the first test of this new legislation. Babar Ahmad was born and raised in South London. His father, originally from Pakistan, is a retired civil servant and his mother a qualified Science teacher. The father of three highly educated children with professional degrees, Babar is a British citizen with no criminal record. Babar himself obtained a Master’s Degree with Honours in Engineering and has since worked at Imperial College, London. During a dawn raid in December 2003, Anti-Terrorist Police broke into Babar’s house and arrested him. He was brutally assaulted in front of his wife, sustaining over fifty injuries, two of which were life threatening and which have been verified by two independent doctors’ reports. During the attack Babar was placed in a prayer position and asked, “Where is your God now?” After six days of gruelling interrogation, Babar was released - without charge. On his release, Babar filed a complaint against the police officers who had assaulted him. Even though there were independent medical reports, photographs, and eyewitness statements, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute any of the officers involved. Babar’s MP, Tom Cox raised this incident with David Blunkett, stating there was “very clear medical and photographic evidence that he had indeed been assaulted. Many people will need a great deal of convincing that there was no case to answer against these officers.” The Home Secretary chose to do nothing. On 5 August 2004, Babar was rearrested on an extradition warrant from the United States. With the new extradition law in place, a perfect opportunity now existed for the US administration to accuse Babar of being part of AlQaeda and therefore, insist he stand trial on American soil. The tabloid media, not to be left out of a sensational new twist to the Babar Ahmad story, dramatically pounced on these charges.
Few questions were asked about whether the allegations were true. Babar has since been held in Woodhill prison, Milton Keynes. Even though he faces no charges under British law, if extradited to the US he could face a sentence ranging from fifty years to life imprisonment. Under the Extradition Act 2003, Babar cannot challenge any of the “evidence” against him in a British Court. Human rights campaigners are arguing that Babar should be entitled to an open, fair trial in the UK, if there is evidence of any crime committed and that British citizens should not be denied the right to defend themselves in a British Court. The US does not have a good record of treating its detainees in a humane, never mind just and fair, manner. The Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Guantanamo detention centres are now emblematic of the America’s human rights record during its continuing “war on terror”. At a press conference to launch the Foreign Office’s 2004 human rights report in November, Jack Straw himself stated, “The government had serious concerns about the conditions in which the detainees were being held, and their prospects for a fair trial,” and has previously described the plight of detainees at Guantanamo as “unacceptable.” Furthermore, a country whose intelligence services are now in dire crisis and whose “war on terror” has ground to a standstill, has little basis on which to ask for the extradition of foreign nationals based on mere accusations without giving defendants an opportunity to challenge such accusations in their home countries. Babar is not the only prisoner to be held in Woodhill and Belmarsh prisons without any charges or trial under such laws. Amnesty International has described these cases as “a Guantanamo in our own back yard” and conditions at Belmarsh as being “cruel, inhumane and degrading.” Babar is now fighting extradition and is demanding allegations first be proven in Britain. His lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald QC has expressed reservation over whether Babar will get a fair trial in the US. ! www.freebabarahmed.com Q - NEWS
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SCRUTINY
A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY THE GOVERNMENT WANTS US TO THINK THAT IDENTITY CARDS WILL KEEP US SAFE. THINK AGAIN. THE PROPOSED SCHEME IS COSTLY, HASN’T WORKED ELSEWHERE AND WILL INEVITABLY TARGET MUSLIMS, ARGUES MEGAN ADDIS. n the Queen’s Speech on 23 November 2004, the government confirmed what Liberty had long suspected - the introduction of an Identity Card scheme was just around the corner. Days before the Queen’s Speech, a large Union Jack flag had appeared on the Labour Party’s website, which boasted about “safe and secure communities” and about being “proud to be British”. It is clear the government thinks ID cards will not only keep us safe (from terrorism, illegal immigration, crime, benefit fraud, antisocial behaviour, drug taking, and so on), they will also protect “british identity”. It is also clear that the government has a narrow view of what constitutes “british identity” and a definite idea of where the threat to it comes from. Liberty has long been opposed to the introduction of the ID card and we have been campaigning for years to stop their introduction. Identity card schemes are often proposed as a “magic bullet” to cure many of society’s ills. However, close scrutiny has always highlighted the dangers inherent in any national ID proposals as well as an almost complete absence of evidence that they would help solve any of the problems which their proponents claim. On the contrary, the scheme will only
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impose a large financial burden on both taxpayers and individual citizens and serve to alienate further minority ethnic communities. THE SCHEME The ID card scheme has two key features. First, will be the creation of a National Identity Register, which will hold identity information about individuals who have been registered on the database: name, previous names, date and place of birth, current and previous addresses. Second, individuals who have been registered will then be issued with an ID card. The cards will contain a biometric indicator such as a fingerprint, face scan, or DNA sample. Everyone over the age of sixteen will be entitled to register and initially registration will be voluntary, although one wonders why anyone would volunteer to register. The Home Secretary will have the power to make certain groups of people register. Initially, this will be foreign nationals, but eventually this will extend to everyone who has not yet registered voluntarily. LIBERTY’S CONCERNS Liberty has a number of concerns about the government’s ID card scheme,
not least of all the impact that it will have on people’s privacy - we are alarmed at the amount of personal information that the card will hold and we certainly don’t trust the government to keep that personal information secure. We are not reassured when the government says it will limit the type of information on the card and the uses to which the cards will be put. By the end of the Second World War, wartime ID cards had been extended from their three original uses (rationing, conscription and national security) to thirtynine. THE EXHORBITANT COST The government has estimated that it will cost £1.3billion, but given the government’s history of failed IT projects, there is no reason why this one should be delivered within budget. There will also be ongoing running costs of the system, for example, through the updating information for a mobile population and the reissuing of lost or stolen cards. The government believes that ID cards will help reduce crime, but the money earmarked for ID cards would be better spent on recruiting additional police officers.
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The personal cost of an identity card predictably will fall disproportionately on those groups least able to bear them. The cost of updating the information as required by the scheme - for example, when moving house as those who rent tend to do regularly - and the cost of replacing lost or stolen cards, will impact significantly on lower-income groups. Those who regularly require state benefits and public services will be considerably more reliant on the card than those who do not. Will pensioners who lose their card be unable to access health services or draw a state pension while waiting for a lost card to be replaced? STATED AIMS WILL NOT BE FULFILLED People seeking refuge from persecution will not be deterred from escaping intolerable situations by the existence of an ID card in the UK. Most will not be aware of the existence of an ID card scheme when they leave. Countries which already have an ID card also receive people seeking asylum from persecution. Insofar as individuals who seek asylum “go missing”, this is an administrative failure on the part of the Home Office, which again, will not be solved by requiring every UK resident to have an ID card. Nor will an ID card will assist in reducing the number of people employed illegally in the United Kingdom. Many illegal immigrants are employed with the employer’s full knowledge that they do not have employment rights in this country. The black and grey economy will not be thwarted through the introduction of an identity card. An ID card system will continue to be ignored by unscrupulous employers so long as there is money to be made by exploiting an illegal workforce. The government has told us that ID cards will help protect us from a terrorist attack. The perpetrators of the 9/11 atrocities were all either in possession of legitimate identification documents or held compelling forgeries. Sadly, ID cards in Spain did not prevent the train bombings in Madrid. Additionally, organised terrorist groups will have little difficulty in forging even relatively sophisticated cards. The French government discovered that fraudulent production of their new “unforgeable” smartcard quickly became one of the most profitable criminal activities in the
country in the mid-1990s. Privately, the UK government has admitted that there is little that ID cards can do to prevent terrorism. MINORITIES MOST AFFECTED One outcome of an ID card scheme is however very certain. Given that two of the key aims of the bill are to combat terrorism and illegal immigration, and initially only foreign nationals will be required to register, it is inevitable that the scheme will have a disproportionate, negative effect on people from ethnic minority communities. The current bill contains a prohibition on a requirement to produce identity cards and will not give the police new “stop and see” powers. However, it would be a relatively simple matter to add police powers to the scheme at a later date. Had an identity card been in existence at the time of the terrorist atrocities on 11 September 2001, provisions could well have been made to make it mandatory for members of the public to produce the card upon request by the police or security forces. Crucially, the current prohibition does not extend to situations where a foreign national has been compelled to have a card. If foreign nationals will be compelled to have and carry an identity card, it is inevitable that people who look foreign will be stopped and asked to produce their card. Statistics already show that police use their stop and search powers disproportionately against black and Asian youths. Statistics from France show that it is young men of Algerian origin who are asked to produce their ID cards more often than any other person. Operations on public transport identify “foreign looking people” for questioning about their immigration status. There is no reason to think that it would be any different with ID cards.
WHAT YOU CAN DO Liberty has given evidence to Parliamentary Committees on the draft bill and submitted a formal response to the Home Office. We are building a coalition of people and organisations to campaign publicly against the ID card proposals and working on a series of campaign events to start shortly. But there is plenty that individuals can do to oppose the introduction of ID cards. ! Write to your MP - tell him or her that at the next general election, you plan to vote for a party which doesn’t intend to introduce ID cards. ! Spread the word - talk to your friends and colleagues to get them thinking and talking. ! Build contacts - you may want to set up a small group of local people who share your concerns. ! Contact your local paper and radio station and get your voice heard. ! Keep in touch. We have produced some campaigning information that we can send you, including a guide ID Card Fiction and Fact. ! www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk
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IS IRAN NEXT? IN NOVEMBER, THE US GOVERNMENT DEMANDED THAT IRAN BE CENSURED FOR DEVELOPING A COVERT NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM. WHILE SOME LAST MINUTE POLITICKING DIFFUSED A POTENTIAL CRISIS, THESE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS FEEL LIKE DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN. IQBAL SIDDIQUI EXPLAINS. ran appeared to win a victory of sorts on 29 November when the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution accepting its assurances of co-operation with international inspectors. How long the respite will last remains to be seen. The IAEA’s decision was based on an agreement, reached between Iranian officials and European Union negotiators, by which Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment pending further negotiations. Crucially, the IAEA resolution described the Iranian suspension as a voluntary, confidence-building measure on Iran’s part, rather than a legally binding commitment, meaning that any future resumption of enrichment by Iran will not automatically trigger a referral to the Security Council. The US had been eager to have the matter referred to the Security Council so they could push for a UN resolution legitimising their attempts to isolate Iran. After all, Iran is a key member the axis of evil and many American officials consider it a greater enemy than Saddam Hussein. Significantly, however, the EU and other members of the IAEA were also eager to reach an agreement with Iran and avert
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Security Council involvement. Even, traditional allies of the United States abhor its international political dominance and are nervous that Bush’s second term will see another marked turn to more extreme neo-conservative policy. Under the circumstances, it was hardly surprising that Iran should greet the IAEA resolution as a success. Hujjatul Islam Hassan Rowhani, an influential member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and the man responsible - as Chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, for dealing with the West regarding Iran’s nuclear program, said, “Iran has not renounced the nuclear fuel cycle, will never renounce it and will use it... We have proved that we are capable of isolating the US within an international institution. And that is a great victory.” This was not, however, a position shared by all in Iran. The Jomhouri Islamic newspaper said in an editorial on 1 December 2004 that “if Iran does not insist on the right to have nuclear fuel cycle technology, it will be deprived on this technology for ever... the Europeans achieved what they wanted and the resolution realised their main objective: depriving Iran of uranium enrichment.” The editorial also pointed out that, although the suspension is understood, even in the IAEA resolution, to be voluntary and provisional, it is unlikely to be viewed as such by the West in the future, and any Iranian moves to end it will be seen as unacceptable and provocative. “The ‘voluntary suspension’ in this resolution is meaningless and its opposite is understood. They have imprisoned us in a room and will attack us if we try to escape, even though we have supposedly entered the room voluntarily.” Despite western suspicions, Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful intended to generate electricity for its growing power needs and to protect its oil reserves from rapid decline. Many also argue that if the country does not have a nuclear weapons program, it should as a deterrent at a time when the US has proven willingness and ability to ignore international opinion and law to attack those that it regards as its enemies. The US has far deeper reasons for hating Iran, dating back to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when Iran became
the first Muslim country to overthrow a modernising pro-American dictator, in favour of an Islamic movement. Iran has since been the only Muslim country to maintain an independent stance on international issues, by say, supporting the Palestinian intifada and rejecting the peace process as being hopelessly weighted in favour of Israel. The IAEA resolution was passed despite US pressure but many feel Iran’s respite will not last long. There is evidence of the US using the same tactics against Iran as it used against Iraq. Just before the crucial IAEA meeting, the Pentagon announced that it had intelligence proving that Iran was converting long-range missiles to carry nuclear warheads. It was forced to withdraw the claim, when the Washington Post revealed that this accusation was based on the uncorroborated claims of a single “unverified” source. At a time when the US is bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, both militarily and politically, many have argued that it is in no position to attack Iran. That is perhaps true, but only in the short-term. It should be remembered that the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was preceded by a long campaign of propaganda, demonisation, political isolation and economic sanctions, which created a sense of Iraq as a threat. This atmosphere first justified the US maintaining a massive military presence in the Middle East - something for which they will need another reason when (or if) some measure of peace is restored in Iraq; and later made it easier for the US to justify an invasion of Iraq when it decided that the time had come. Iran may not be facing invasion just yet - the US knows that it would face even greater problems invading Iran than it has faced in Iraq. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that Iran will be subjected to the same sort of softening-up process over the next few years that Iraq faced during the 1990s. It is too soon to know whether this will result in invasion; the US and its allies, for different reasons perhaps, will both be hoping that Iran can be brought back into the fold of co-operative, pro-Western Muslim regimes without it coming to that. Either way, Iran faces a difficult path, returning to its role as the Middle East’s bogeyman. !
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PRIVATE LIVES, PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY IN THE AFTERMATH OF DAVID BLUNKETT’S HUMILIATING RESIGNATION AS HOME SECRETARY, SONIA MALIK FINDS OUT EXACTLY WHAT
- AND IMPLICATIONS, OF
THE ETHICS
REPORTING THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PUBLIC PEOPLE ARE. he business of government - its procedure and processes - takes place behind closed doors. Official secrets, departmental dealings and internal audits are protected in the name of public interest and national security. It is a system that is largely self-ruling, selfregulating and subject to scrutiny by the public in only exceptional circumstances. Press conferences are usually highly staged and controlled environments and even Prime Minister’s Questions are often more about theatrics, than about honest, spirited debate on the issues of the day. Information is given selectively and, particularly after the Iraq war, treated with suspicion. The role of the journalist is to uncover the real story and tell the truth, especially when dealing with government. The Jolly Journalist’s number one rule is that the public has a right to know everything. Under the brazen banner of newsworthiness, it would appear that censorship belongs to an era of book-burners,
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freedom of speech is paramount and privacy belongs to no one. So, what exactly are the ethics of reporting the private lives of public people? Public figures try their best to conceal while the media takes sheer delight in exposing their dirty laundry. Consequently, the situation clearly begets the question of where to draw the moral line. David Blunkett’s resignation, and the sordid affairs that preceded it, forces us to explore the public versus private minefield and the implications of Blunkett’s actions on the future of public ethics. To what extent is an intrusion into the private affairs of a politician such as Blunkett and his custody battle over his alleged children justified? Dr Margaret Scammell, an LSE Media & Communications lecturer, with a background in political journalism, felt the question was primarily one of legal principles, “The UK is subject to the European Convention on Human Rights which protects both individual privacy and freedom of speech. Although there are journalistic codes which prohibit an untoward invasion of privacy for most individuals, politicians are generally seen as fair game since as they tell us how to live, they cannot expect their own conduct to remain unquestioned. As for their children, more protection is afforded. Restraints are in place to prevent, for example, any harassment of the Prime Minister’s children.” However, many Muslims question whether this moral standard is sufficient. Shaykh Dr. Zaki Badawi, Principal of the Muslim College, says, “In some respects such cases did arise in early Islamic history, particularly with General Khalid ibn Walid, who was accused of misdemeanour. Sayyidina Omar, who was at that time advising Sayyidina Abu Bakr, suggested that Khalid be tried and consequently dismissed. Abu Bakr responded that he would not deprive the Muslims of the
genius of Khalid and that it was probable that the accusations had been exaggerated, and so simply sent a rebuke to Khalid. “Human beings are bound to commit errors. This shouldn’t necessitate the termination of their career, because if they are still useful, then society should allow such people to continue to contribute.” Were the processes and regulations of early Islamic governance open to public scrutiny? Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, Chair of the Mosque and Community Affairs Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, believes that government ministers are answerable to the public today and have been so in past Islamic civilisations. “In one particular case in early Islamic history, when the war booty was distributed by the Caliph Omar, may Allah be pleased with him, everyone was given one shawl each. On the following Friday, Caliph Omar stood before the people to deliver the khutbah and was seen wearing two such shawls. A member of the congregation protested against this - Muslims believed in accountability and even questioned the Caliphs. At this point, Caliph Omar’s son, Abdullah explained that he had given his own shawl to his father, which was why Caliph Omar had two. “In the same way, the governors of Banu Ummayyah were questioned by the public despite being appointed by the Prophet, peace be upon him, himself. But when the Caliphate was replaced by the kingdoms of individual rulers no one dared to question the kings. Unfortunately, this trend has prevailed over the centuries and now, the possiblity of holding Muslim state leaders accountable does not even arise.” Dr Badawi agrees. “The Muslim government was not secretive under the Caliphate. Public scrutiny was regarded as normal. Secrecy did not arise until family dynasties were created, when such rulers started guarding matters such as finance closely. Once a ruler
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decides that he owns the assets of the state, the nation under him not only loses control over him, but also the state interests and property.” Blunkett was asked to resign almost immediately after the first revelations were reported. The Tories were adamant in this regard, with Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, asserting that he should resign even if no conclusive evidence was found of misuse of influence. Liberal Democrat Leader, Charles Kennedy, declared that Blunkett had done irreparable damage to his own and the government’s reputation. Blunkett’s spokesman alone argued that the results of the inquiry should determine Blunkett’s resignation, since he was entitled to the presumption of innocence. Which one of Blunkett’s actions was deemed most objectionable? Many would assert that is was the combined effect of the professional allegations and a messy court case pertaining to his relations with a married woman which caused the outcry. However, Keith Dowding, Professor of Political Science at LSE and a specialist in ministerial resignations and accountability, believes that it was the child custody battle which caused the most damage. His recent paper, The Corrective Effect of Ministerial
Resignations on Government Popularity, purports that government popularity falls during scandals, but when ministers resign, government popularity not only rises, but increases. Perhaps Blunkett did Blair and New Labour a favour. On the importance of good reputation and actual guilt, Shaykh Mogra said, “If a leader acknowledges a wrong action, then out of courtesy he should resign. This is not a question of Islamic law, but one of common decency. But, if no guilt is proved, and he is able to perform his role as before, then he should do so while cooperating with an inquiry into the allegations so as to clear his name.” Nevertheless, Muslims are also concerned with the rulings against backbiting. What is the impact on the public’s right to know and speak out against the personal misconduct of a political figure? Shaykh Mogra explains that, “an official needs to be prepared for scrutiny. However, the Quran requires people to refrain from acts such as spying, ‘digging up dirt’ and backbiting. Sometimes the press use the ‘public interest’ to justify unethical means of obtaining information but this is wrong.” Dr Badawi was more emphatic:
“The behaviour of prominent persons should not be exposed. One of the most damaging features of modern society is the debunking of everybody in high office. Islam abhors the spread of rumours about such individuals as this desensitises the community to misdemeanour and it starts losing its moral values. “Many people would say that this is hypocrisy, but such hypocrisy is important in order to uphold the standards of a society. Obviously, where there is a public interest in exposing a person flouting the rules of his own office or harming the interest of the people, it is a different matter.” Blunkett’s pursuit of access to his alleged son, William Quinn and Mrs Quinn’s as-yet unborn child, raises interesting issues regarding the rights of a father over the children of a woman married to another party, and the recognition of lineage in Islam. Would an Islamic judicial system also order DNA testing, such as the case was for Blunkett, in order to establish paternity? Shaykh Badawi explains that “according to Muslim law, a child belongs to the mother’s husband and nobody else. Therefore, such DNA testing applied to find a biological relationship with another male is unacceptable.” “Testing each child to determine paternity causes social anarchy,” he continues. “In Islam, parties outside a married couple have no right to the child. This means that all children take the name of their mother’s husband. If the husband himself denies the paternity of the child then the matter would be reconsidered.” In assessing how damaging the involvement of a politician in an adulterous relationship is for the society at large, and whether his position requires him to possess certain character traits, Shaykh Mogra believes that “if someone is not a good role model then they should not be in such a privileged role. Nobody is perfect, but people in that position need to make that extra effort and have self-control. If one person is able to do a public role really well but is a bad role model then it is better to use a person who is a good role model but does the job slightly less well. It is a principle within the Shariah that the avoidance of harm takes priority over acquiring benefit.” !
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A DUTCH DISASTER COMMUNITY RELATIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS WEREN’T MUCH BETTER BEFORE THE MURDER OF THEO VAN GOGH. SO, NABIL MARMOUCH WONDERS, WHY ALL MUSLIMS ARE EXPECTED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS MURDER WHILE THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF SOCIAL DIVISION ARE IGNORED. n 2002, an environmentalist murdered far-right, anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn. Despite this, society found excuses to blame Muslims. Unlike Fortuyn’s murder, the killing of Theo Van Gogh was committed by a Muslim. The young man, born and raised locally, is of Moroccan descent. He was reacting to Van Gogh’s movie, Submission, which itself was a manifestation of tense community relations and hypocrisy on the part of native Dutch people. In it are vulgar and offensive images of nude women in translucent clothing, with Quranic text etched on their bodies. Why did van Gogh feel he could humiliate an entire group of people in this way? With his friend, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch MP and ex-Muslim, Van Gogh claims he wanted to raise awareness about domestic violence in the Muslim community. Ali also claims she wants to put domestic violence back on the public agenda. She has been in Parliament for two years and yet, has not achieved anything for the same people she claims to speak for. The movie is not her first insult - every social plague, even the most ridiculous ones, are blamed on Islam. She called the Prophet, peace be upon him, a pervert. She thinks that by insulting
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Muslims, she will help the weak amongst us. She claims 90% of Muslim women experience domestic violence. Yet, according to the Justice Department, the Turks and the Moroccans have lower figures of domestic violence compared to native Dutch people, 65% of whom suffer from domestic violence. According to the Justice Department, one in nine native Dutch women report their abuse to the police. In the Moroccan community, one out of six women take their abuse to the police. Not only do Muslim women suffer from less domestic violence, they are more likely to report it. Ali insists all Muslim men are evil and with that, she pitches women against men, and men against women, attempting to break the backbone of the community by stoking mistrust. She should have known the negative implications of this film. Now, she is hiding because she has been threatened. She wonders how this could happen in a democracy. Frankly, I don’t care about her fear because there are over one million Muslims who are afraid to send their children to school because the school may be petrol bombed. There have been 800 attacks against Muslims since van Gogh’s murder. Nevertheless, the protective attention is on Ali. Muslims have lived in the Netherlands in large numbers since the 1970s but they have never managed to organise themselves to enhance their par-
ticipation in broader society. We cannot keep blaming others. It is purely our fault. We fight each other on the length of our beards, on whether the women are wearing the veil properly and constantly comparing each other to see who is a better Muslim. At the end of the day, we are distracted from the real agenda. When a Muslim organisation is formed, it receives government subsidies which it soon becomes addicted to. The government uses these subsidies like a drug to control these organisations. Frustrated, second and third generation Dutch Muslims set up the Arab European League (AEL) two years ago. We respect freedom of speech. Nothing can be a defence for what this killer did. But van Gogh and members of Parliament participated in creating this environment. Van Gogh called Muslims “goat *******”, a fifth column. Politicians remained silent. If we made a movie that insulted the Dutch, would it be warmly welcomed, in the name of freedom of speech? Unlikely. Imagine going into a bar and calling black people ‘monkeys’. At some point, one of them will punch you. A backlash is inevitable. Insulting others is not normal behaviour. Why create a hostile environment? Ali has a past; men acting in the name of Islam traumatised her in her youth. Now, she is on a personal and irrational crusade. The Dutch think other cultures and religions aren’t human enough. Is it hard to believe Muslims are normal people who are also against instability and killing? Instead, the Dutch try to keep democracy for themselves. They see the new generation of Dutch Muslims and Arabs as being more assertive, more willing to be politically active, and to use their citizenship. The Ditch try to block this; they never imagined ‘immigrants’ would demand their civil rights. People must realise that even though we are Muslim, we have a red passport. We are Dutch citizens. If people don’t respect our passport, they don’t respect the law. We will keep on asserting our citizenship without conflict. They need to get used to it. ! Q - NEWS
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“THE HIJAB IS A
SWASTIKA TYPE SYMBOL” “I
STILL CANNOT IMAGINE A ‘BLACK’ ON THE GERMAN OLYMPIC TEAM,” A GERMAN
STUDENT ADMITTED RECENTLY OVER DINNER. THE SENTIMENT IS WIDESPREAD AS EUROPE’S MOST POPULOUS NATION STRUGGLES WITH THE PRESENCE OF MINORITIES AND ITS TREATMENT OF FOREIGNERS
-
MOSTLY MUSLIMS. THE MESSAGE TO GERMAN
MUSLIMS, REPORTS TARIS AHMAD, IS ASSIMILATE OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.
f the political rhetoric of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU) is anything to go by, integration in Germany now means assimilation. The upper echelons of the Conservative opposition party recently attempted to define German leitkultur as a mix of humanism, Roman law, Judeo-Christian tradition, ancient philosophy and Enlightenment thinking. There is no mention of the Islamic philosophy, theology and spirituality that profoundly influenced German Romantics like Goethe and Lessing. German intelligence officials tackled the question of integration in a more practical way by declaring in July 2004 that a local Muslim boys’ group was a threat to the constitution because they were inviting their peers for a swim in “Islamic swimming trunks”. Bermuda shorts worn for religious purposes are apparently a threat to the Federal Republic. Parliamentary secretary Thomas Goppel went even further and suggested deporting all foreigners who are not willing to “integrate”. Perhaps integration will soon require Muslims to wear Speedos and get drunk in beer halls. Professor Dr. von Thaden, director of the Evangelische Akademie, proudly boasted on German news Channel Phoenix: “Let us be honest. We feel closer to our fellow secular European citizens, than to a religious Muslim. The God of Islam is not our God.” Germany, it seems is in a kulturkampf. The debate over the headscarf has catalysed German popular opinion about Islam. In September 2003, addressing the case of a Muslim teacher wearing the hijab in school, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court held that a ban of religious symbols in schools, such as the headscarf must mean a ban for all religions indiscrimi-
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nately - no to hijab means a no to the crucifix and the kippa. The court held that the prohibition, in this particular case, simply did not have a legal basis. Parliament was allowed to enact a prohibition, but the court did not see such a ban as mandatory. Germany’s constitution leaves open the option to ban the hijab. Politicians get to make the choice. Seven states including Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are now independently passing laws to forbid religious headwear. Lower-Saxony’s Minister of Culture Bernd Buseman proposed introducing a ban on the hijab, while allowing Christian symbols. Former constitutional judges ErnstWolfgang Böckenförde, Ernst Gottfried Mahrenholz and Dr. Bertolt Sommer however, insist that the ban should not be one-sided, that is banning the symbols of one religion but not another. As a result,Christian nuns are now also forced to abandon their habit. Minister of Culture Annette Shavan attempted to declare the Christian headscarf as “work clothing” in order to evade the ban. Perhaps the Federal constitutional court should have learnt from the decision in the Iyman Alzayed Case in 2002 which ruled that the hijab had no adverse effect on the neutrality of the teacher. Only a few hundred women of Islamic faith were teaching with the headscarf. German Embassy spokesman in London, Ludwig Linden explains that “unlike in France, where the controversy is about pupils wearing headscarves, in our country it is limited to teachers in state schools.” That could change. The daily Die Welt quotes Mr. M. Braun, CDU-Berlin’s spokesperson on legal affairs, demanding a hijab ban for pupils. Conservative states such as Bavaria, BadenWuerttemberg, Hesse and the Saarland drafted a bill to
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bar women in hijab from all public services, implying that female Muslims such as judges, prosecutors, politicians, and hospital doctors would be acting illegally if they wore a headscarf. The press is largely undisturbed by this. Quite rightly the Jewish German newspaper Jüdische Nachrichten harshly criticised the ban of the hijab knowing what religious discrimination led to sixty years ago. Prof. Dr. Christian Pfeiffer, Minister of Justice of Lower-Saxony, invoked Germany’s past in a more disturbing way. He declared that “the hijab is a swastika type symbol”. Nobody went on record to decry his statement. Politicians win elections bashing foreigners and Muslims. The German radical right Deutsche Volksunion party (DVU) won a historic 17 % in Eastern Germany in the 1990s. In 1999, the state elections in Hesse were won on a purely xenophobic platform. The party collected signatures asking people to sign up en mass “against the Turks”. The recent signature campaign against Turkish EU membership is perhaps an attempt to repeat the successful signature campaign. The 2002 local elections in Hamburg were won by the radical right Schill-party
Politicians claim a Muslim woman faces domestic oppression, yet the same politicians deny her a job and defame her chosen faith.
founded by a former judge on a platform that promoted a crushing crack down on “criminal” foreigners. The neo-Nazi electoral success of DVU and the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) in Autumn 2004 reflected growing German xenophobia. However, it is not the far right, or the CDU alone who are propagating xenophobia or limitation of religious rights. In 1998, the SPD Minister of Culture, Mr. Hartmut Holzapfel was in fact the first minister to announce that he would join a hijab ban. This year the extreme left Partei des demokratischen Sozialismus backed a hijab ban in coalition with the Social Democrats. “People talk to us in broken German,” a German female convert told me. Germany is the only home she has ever known. Her grandfather fought during World War II. “Because I am now wearing the hijab people think I am Turkish.” Germany’s converts are made foreigners in their own home country. Carrying a pram in Germany’s public transport can be tricky, because nobody will help you on and off the bus. Experiences range from being spat at, receiving rude comments to simply receiving scornful looks. Daily harassment on the streets and shops is normal for many scarf-wearing women. Young women born and bred in Germany want to be active, work, live and be an integral part of society. Naturally, Muslim women sense a double standard. On the one hand, politicians claim the Muslim woman is facing domestic oppression and on the other, the same politicians deny her a job and defame her faith. Politicians act as if they know better: “The problem is your husband and your God.” Twenty-three year old S. Bahtiyar fled from Turkey to Germany in the search of religious freedom. The Turkish government declared her degrees invalid because she decided to wear the headscarf. In Germany she had to study all over again. Now she faces social exclusion again for her religious conviction. “Where in the world can a woman be free to live her faith if not in Europe?” she asks quite rightly. Feminist authors like Alice Schwarzer maintain that Muslim men impose the hijab on women. This prompted a Muslim female demonstration in Hesse, with protesters carrying banners that read “Alice Schwätzer, wir sprechen für uns selber” - “Alice the Waffler - we can speak for ourselves”. A failure to achieve understanding at this critical point in German history will only cement the feelings of xenophobia and further push Germany’s significant Muslim minority to the margins of society - leading to polarization and social division. It is a dangerous course for a Germany that just a decade ago was set to embody the spirit of a new, inclusive Europe. Now, the future of Germany and Europe will be tested by how well it is able to make citizens out of its “foreigners”. The track record so far leaves the future of the German national project in serious doubt. ! Taris Ahmed is a former member of the German regional parliament and former member of the Advisory Council at the Council of Europe. He is currently studying at the London School of Economics. Q - NEWS
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MULTICULTURALISM THE PHONY DEBATE IT’S ABOUT TIME WE HAD A REAL DEBATE ON THE FUTURE OF MULTICULTURALISM. BUT, ARGUES KHALIDA KHAN, NOTHING WILL CHANGE FOR BRITISH MUSLIMS UNTIL WE GIVE UP THE OUTDATED POLITICS OF THE RACE INDUSTRY.
t seems quite incomprehensible to the general public that despite the resources that appear to have been targeted towards equal opportunities, Muslims continue to lag behind. But, what is seldom acknowledged in the public sphere is that rather than our internal failings being the cause of this downward spiral into social decline, the culpability really lies at the door of three decades of anti-racist and equality policies. This reality continues to be played down by government and public bodies as it is a convenient cover up for the failure of the anti-racist and multi-cultural agenda towards the Muslim communities, making the garbled rantings of people such as Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission of Racial Equality, all the more insincere and confused. Multiculturalism in itself is not a negative concept if what it means is the ‘doctrine that several different cultures (rather than one national culture) can co-exist peacefully and equitably in a single country.’ However, another definition suggests that ‘being multicultural involves tolerance towards racial and ethnic minorities, mainly in the areas of dress, language, food, religious beliefs, and other cultural manifestations.’ The latter is how multiculturalism is generally manifested - in terms of toleration of superficial issues such as dress and food the infamous ‘steel bands and saris’ approach. Multiculturalism was only a part of the equal opportunities strategies that were put in place following the riots in the early eighties. The need for tackling equality first appeared on the agenda in response to the virtual uprisings in 1981 in the inner cities. It was the first time the issue had been taken seriously despite the Race Relations Act being in force since 1976. Thus it was reactionary, haphazard, disjointed and ill thought out. There was no national debate bringing together the communities concerned to devise strategies to resolve the problems. The local authorities, faced with unrest on their doorstep, were forced to react to the anger and resentment of the oppressed minorities although they also lacked the will, any analysis and real commitment to deal with the issues. They turned to the provisions of the Act, the advice of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) the gatekeeper of the Race Relations Act 1976, and antiracist theories and strategies to address the discrimination and the inequalities experienced by the minorities
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including the provision of services to them. However, by the end of the 1980’s these municipalised anti-racist policies and the solutions offered to tackle the problem of the disadvantaged were already criticised from various quarters. Not just because of inadequacies of the response but for the irrelevance of it to the needs of very significant groups and numbers within the minority communities. Since the Act focuses on race and colour there was neither the incentive nor the mechanism to consider other forms of discrimination - noticeably those on the grounds of religion. Indeed, the new anti-discrimination policies carefully cut out any reference to faith identity, faith-based needs, religious discrimination and the experiences of the various faith minorities. Thus, denying them even the right to expression through their religious identities. We could no longer speak of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Rastafarians, and Christians - it was deemed too “divisive.” Yet we could be divided on racial lines. Overnight the country was divided into two racial blocs - white and black. ‘Black’ was a political identity formed by the secular left anti-racist movement to define those united in the anti-racist struggle without any regard to the diversity within that sector. This was nothing but a recipe for disaster. ‘Race’ became the only prism with which society was viewed in every area of life. This was an anathema to most Muslims as it contradicts the Islamic view of human beings as equals who belong to one ‘race’ - the human race. It was not long before the political term ‘black’ became dissected into ‘Asian’ and ‘Afro-Caribbean’ in response to the pressure to recognise the differences in the sector. However, the African community then protested that the broad generic term Afro-Caribbean did not reflect their aspirations and needs - hence the campaigns for the term to be separated to African and African-Caribbean. There was discontentment within the so-called ‘Asian’ community at being defined as ‘black’ not because of any disillusionment about the colour of their skin but because the term failed to identify their needs and allocate commensurate resources in employment, services and in funding. So sections of them, operating within the ‘racial’ constructs already determined, wished to be recognised as ‘Asians’.
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The Irish (mainly Catholic) community protested that they were subsumed under the broad term of ‘white’ and fought relentlessly for the term ‘Irish’ to be separately categorised. When the Bosnian, Kosovan and Albanian refugees arrived the ‘white’ classification became even more problematic. What was ironic however, was that these groups were all intent on making the same mistake as the previous generic terminology of ‘black and white’. The use of the terms ‘Asian’ and ‘African’ when identifying how people see themselves and determine their needs and aspirations are in themselves meaningless. There was no understanding for the need to go back to basics and determine the identities that really made sense; the various communities were vainly attempting to rescue a badly baked and inedible cake. In reality, the minorities tend to be from very strong faith backgrounds. One only has to note the overflowing black churches, Hindu temples, Sikh gurdwaras and mosques. Hence, the voluntary sector left to their own devices traditionally tended to divide along religious lines, such as the Hindu Council, the New Testament Church of God or the Muslim Welfare Association, not for any reason of religious fundamentalism but this is how the communities view themselves. This is how their needs and lifestyles are determined. In order to access funding, many organisations did camouflage their faith identities by using generic names, such as ‘Asian’ and ‘African-Caribbean’ but such groups were almost always managed by and provided for a specific faith group and did not, as their names suggested, make faith and culturally sensitive provision for all Asians, or all Africans or all Caribbeans. Although other communities were able to work within the constraints of race equality strategies and make advances in terms of equality, community development and access to resources, for the Muslims it was catastrophic. For a start, many of the anti-racist mantras were incompatible with Islamic thinking. Firstly, for Muslims fighting oppression and injustice, in whatever form, is an Islamic duty. Secondly, Islam does not differentiate on the basis of race. Thirdly, Islam also teaches that the sins of the fathers cannot be visited on the children. Whilst, Muslims wished to participate fully against anti-racism they were uncomfortable with many of the philosophies and strategies of anti-racism such as the premise that all white people were racist and responsible for the oppression of their ancestors. Race Equality strategies were also often punitive and vicious. The McGoldrick affair and the race advisers, nicknamed ‘race spies’ by the media, who were appointed by some local authorities to deal with institutional racism demonstrated the thinking that it was all about ‘changing behaviour and not attitudes.’ Again, Islamic thinking is that, even though legislation may be required as a sign of intent and a deterrent, it is by engaging with people and changing their hearts and minds that behavioural changes automatically follow. The appointment of race workers and advisors, many of whom had halfbaked ideas, absolved managers and institutions of all responsibility for dealing with racial discrimination which was off-loaded onto the advisors who were usually hated and loathed.
We could no longer speak of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Rastafarians, and Christians - it was deemed too “divisive.” Yet we could be divided on racial lines. Many anti-racist initiatives only caused resentment and hostility. ‘Race awareness’ training is a prime example. One type of training commonly delivered to workers such as social workers, housing workers and educationalists was offensive and downright stupid. It involved asking people to divide into black and white groups. The trainees were then subjected to crude exercises to demonstrate how racism works. On one such course for local authority staff an Anglo-Indian Christian chose to join the white group Q - NEWS
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much to the disdain of his black colleagues. There was no understanding that perhaps it was appropriate for him as he shared a similar faith and culture with the white Christians regardless of the ‘racial’ difference. At another such training course for social workers, a white English Muslim trainee refused to join the white group as she felt that she could no longer relate to being a ‘white’ person. All the black trainees attacked her as they felt that she could not possibly understand the racism they faced as a result of their colour and refused to accept her into their group. Coincidentally, the next day on her way to college she was attacked and beaten up because she was a Muslim - an occurrence that none of the ‘black’ group on her course had ever experienced. Nothing was more painful and depressing than the ignorance, insensitivity and often-outright hostility accorded to the plight of Muslims displayed by those
Muslim community politics inspire little confidence that those who have the ear of the government have any understanding of anti-racism, its impact on Muslims or any significant vision. who were the guardians of anti-racism. Indeed, the Commission for Racial Equality and anti-racist organisations and workers, apart from a very few notable exceptions, actively opposed or ignored the Muslim struggle for the recognition of Islamophobia, seeing ‘racism’ as the paramount form of discrimination. What they failed to comprehend and acknowledge is that fear of the Muslim ‘other’ has been around for more than a millennia. This fear has become entrenched in the European psyche becoming institutionalised through literature, history, and politics. While the appropriateness of the term ‘Islamophobia’ is debatable, that is whether the current fear of Islam irrational or not, the fact remains that the seeds sown in a previous age continue to have devastating effects on us today. Call it what you like, but the reality is that Muslims consequently are the new underclass trapped in a cycle of poverty, anger and frustration - imbibing the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ and becoming that which they have been projected to be. Anti-Muslim discrimination has a distinct history and manifestation that requires differing solutions and strategies. Although racism and Islamophobia are distinct forms of hatred, they often overlap and Muslims can bear the brunt of both. Therefore, it was only reasonable for Muslims to look to anti-racists as natural allies in the struggle against injustice and oppression. However, they were frequently just as antagonistic to the Muslim experience as non-’blacks.’ Hence, it cannot be emphasised enough that is the secular underpinning of anti-racism and race-equality with its superficial implementation of multi-culturalism,
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which refused to acknowledge the reality of Islamophobia, the relevance of faith and its bearing on needs that has led to the social exclusion of Muslims. One of the most detrimental features of equal opportunity policies was the delivery of race-based services. Anti-racism had deleted faith and its relevance to the minority communities; therefore, it was only deemed logical to apply racial classifications to provide for the ream of services that communities rely on from the public sector. The problem was that Muslims cannot be fitted into neat racial classifications as they cross all racial groups. By doing so they were rendered invisible in race-based statistics successfully disguising the growing Muslim deprivation until it reached alarming proportions. It also ensured that Muslims did not have access to meaningful and relevant services necessary to raise families and support vulnerable members of the community. Moreover, by dividing the Muslims into smaller ‘racial’ components, it fostered division and racial segregation amongst Muslims that effectively disabled them from forging a common agenda and addressing their issues collectively. Multiculturalism ensured that Muslim needs came to be about halal meals and ‘Islamic’ dress alone. But even those most obvious and basic of issues become victims of the ‘Asian’ syndrome. For example, halal meals for hospitals, schools and the elderly come to be about curries and not about the provision of food that is halal and tayyab and Islamic dress about shalwar kamiz. The issues became de-Islamised and instead, ‘Asianised.’ Post September 11th, there has been much interest in the Muslim community. Sadly, it has taken such a tragic event for the government and others to finally take note. Now there are huge numbers of initiatives that are taking place around Muslim issues. Not only is what is being done ‘too little too late’ but it is also trying to incorporate the Muslim agenda and issues around Islamophobia into the failed anti-racist agenda and strategies. Antiracism and race equality simply do not translate into equality for Muslims. If they did Muslims would not be in the plight they are today. A myriad of developments are taking place that have worrying parallels with the anti-racist movement. For example, rather than dealing with institutional Islamophobia, superficial initiatives are being taken forward. There is also the alarming and rapid development of the Islamophobia industry in the same mould as the anti-racist industry. In addition, institutions such as the Commission for Racial Equality, and anti-racist organisations that have an abysmal track record on Muslims and Islamophobia, are only vying to become the champions of Islamophobia for their own preservation. Their fundamental thinking and approach to anti-racism will always make them hostile to any meaningful change. Yet Muslims are allowing them to take the lead in setting the agenda on Islamophobia. The strengthening of the Race Relations Act 1976 with the Race Amendment Act 2000 will only reinforce anti-racism as it has been practiced - hardly promising. The bill against incitement to religious hatred is also another red herring, more to do with the War against Terror and the government’s desire to deal with the likes of Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri than to protect Muslims.
Nothing will make a blind bit of difference for Muslims unless a new way forward is forged that leaves behind outdated philosophies that have failed to deliver equality, community cohesion and true diversity. The time could not be more pertinent as the government will be establishing a new Commission for Equality & Human Rights (CEHR), a single body to deal with all equality issues, mainly race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion and human rights. The Commission for Racial Equality, with the backing of the anti-racist movement, have been strongly arguing against it because they do not wish to see a ‘watering down’ of race issues, only going along with it after gaining concessions from the government to protect the ‘race’ agenda It is imperative that Muslims ensure that faith discrimination will be treated on a par with racism and that anti-racism also takes on board the relevance of faith. It has to be said that Muslim community politics inspire little confidence that those who have the ear of the government have any understanding of anti-racism and its impact on Muslims or any significant vision or ideas as to how what strategies need to be taken forward to tackle Islamophobia. The way anti-racist strategies have been developed has created animosities, tensions and resentments between the haves and have nots within the minority groups and thus feeding the age-old practice of ‘divide and rule.’ Some minority groups began to dominate over others by imposing their view of anti-racism and by determining the way services should be met in the way they interpreted ‘Asian’ needs or African and Caribbean needs. Local authorities never really attempted to analyse where the need lay. They simply responded in an ad-hoc fashion when pressure was applied. These fractions played into the hands of those who did not want see a society based on equality and justice as the minorities began to fight each other rather than the common enemies - injustice and inequality. It is time to reflect and determine where the struggle for equality has gone wrong. It is imperative to steer a new path or be responsible for sowing the seeds of our own demise. The equalities agenda must move away from being onedimensional to being multi-faceted, not threatened by faith identities, celebrating our diversities and catering for it. The time has come to evolve a new dynamic, less rhetorical and more sensible approach towards the manner in which the equality and diversity struggle in Britain is to be conducted in the 21st century. We now find ourselves in a post anti-racism society where there needs to be new rules of engagement, where people must be allowed to define who they are and how their needs must be met. We will have to play our role by putting aside differences that have undermined the struggle for justice and equality. It is time to pull together for the common good - recognising and respecting our differences but uniting on equal terms for the legitimate and noble struggle against injustice. Muslims can and must contribute to this discussion, as we do not see human beings as colour-coded but as the children of Adam who do not merit superiority on the basis of colour, ethnicity, and tribalism but on God-consciousness alone. It is this vision that inspires the belief that it is possible for several different faiths and cultures to coexist peacefully and equitably in the same shared space. ! Q - NEWS
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THAT’S RIGHT, HE’S BACK LIKE A PLAGUE VISITED UPON A SINFUL PEOPLE, GEORGE BUSH IS BACK FOR A SECOND TERM. SVEND WHITE TRIES TO FIND THE SILVER LINING IN THIS DARK CLOUD. ith the impotence of the American Left, the neocons’ worldview of unrepentant jingoism and hostility to rule of law is likely to live on in Washington long after Bush’s second term ends. Thus, the moral and intellectual malaise afflicting the American body politic since 9/11 shows no sign of lifting. Democrats aren’t the only ones with reason to mourn, as Bush’s re-election almost certainly heralds further marginalisation and disenfranchisement of the American Muslim community.
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NADER NO LONGER A CREDIBLE VEHICLE FOR A THIRD PARTY I voted for Nader in 2000. I did so because I was concerned the health of American democracy, which above all requires free and open debate-things Washington has long since ceased being known for on most issues that matter. The rise of Bill Clinton - a politician whose formula for “success” against the Republicans was for Democrats to steal their opponents’ ideas rather than make a case for their own-cemented the party’s near complete drift from its tradition of social justice and advocating the interests of working people. Like many progressives, I felt that a third party was desperately needed. In 2004, I pinched my nose and voted for John Kerry, not because of a change of heart, but because the political context had changed dramatically. Bush’s administration had become a threat to American democracy. My vote for Kerry was less a vote for him or his party than a small an act of sabotage, an attempt to throw a wrench into the neocon political machine that has run amok in my nation. Subsequent events have only confirmed my concerns in 2000. After 9/11, the Democratic Party’s leadership abdicated its responsibility to provide the American public an alternative to the noxious mix of war-mongering and Big Business handouts emanating from the White House for the last 3 years. The result has been a party that does not clearly stand for anything other than ousting Bush, and a humiliating defeat at the hands of a lackluster candidate and weakened leader whose policies are largely discredited and increasingly unpopular. And the party leadership shows few signs of learning any lessons from these failures, pinning its future hopes on yet more “centrism” as opposed to providing voters an alternative. While the political outlook for Muslims under a second Bush term is undeniably bleak, I see a silver lining in the political maturation of American Muslim leadership, which is responding to the continuing inhospitable political climate by challenging themselves, engaging in much-needed dialogue, and engaging actively with the political system. The isolationism of the past is a memory. I see several positive trends: THE POLITICAL EDUCATION OF THE “UNCLES” The three years since 9/11 have been a rude awakening for leaders of many major Islamic organisations, who are often upwardlymobile immigrants with, for all their good intentions, sometimes rather naïve understanding of American society and a tendency to exclude indigenous Muslims who understand America better (especially African Americans) from the decision-making process. The bottom line is that in many Islamic organisations, political policy decisions have long been made by the people least well equipped to make them. As a result, in many important respects,
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the policies of Bush now being decried are the logical result of the political and social vision held until recently by Muslim leaders, who instinctively sided with the Republican Party despite its increasing xenophobia, rampant jingoism (with the demise of the USSR, Muslim nations are the inevitable next target), and increasing dependence on evangelical Christians (whose worldview is not only rabidly pro-Israel but who are also instinctively hostile to Islam, its last remaining competitor in missionary work around the globe). Similarly, by consistently framing politics in terms of “family values” to the exclusion of other, equally Islamic values, many Muslim leaders aligned the community with the unsavory elements within the Republican Party which now plague us. “IS DEMOCRACY HALAL?” HANG-UPS ARE FINALLY BEHIND US Circumstances have forced American Muslims to move on beyond the old circular ideological debates about democracy. Not long ago, much energy was being wasted within the community debating whether Muslim involvement in American politics was haram or makruh (a discussion unlikely to instill much sense of civic duty regardless of one’s conclusion). In an era when Muslims are being imprisoned and deported arbitrarily without due process and when illegal and unjustified wars are being launched on Muslim countries, the consequences of the absence of Muslim voices from policy debates are evident even to an uninformed observer, so the perennial participation debate appears to have been settled for most people. LIMITATIONS OF OLD LITMUS TESTS DISCOVERED The almost complete absence of satisfying choices from a Muslim perspective within the post-9/11 political landscape has forced Muslims of all political and ideological persuasions to abandon simplistic political litmus tests and take up the hard work of democracy, which is dealing with policy nuances, long-term strategies, and balancing conflicting needs and goals. Gone are the days when Muslims could even consider basing their support on a single issue (e.g., a homosexuality, or abortion), as the traditional loyalties have been inverted by a Republican Party which has turned its sights on the Muslim community in order to score points in the War on Terror. Faced with a choice between the architect of the Iraq war and a host of other ills plaguing the community, and a candidate whose party does not support “family values” (and whose pro-gay rights and pro-choice views mobilised millions of rural conservatives to vote for the first time), Muslims voted against the anointed family values candidate by an overwhelming margin. This is an interesting development that one hopes sounds the death knell of single-issue block voting. These are difficult times, but there are opportunities for spiritual growth, both individually and collectively. My hope is that these trials will lead to Muslim unity based not on tactical considerations but rather on mutual respect and appreciation for diversity within the community. We’ve heard enough about the Ummah being divided into “73 sects”. Is it not time for khutbahs on another hadith, “Differences in my community will be a blessing”? Or the many surahs which present diversity as a gift rather than a curse? !
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THE PRESIDENT’S
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WORDS ONCE UPON A TIME THERE LIVED A HEADSTRONG, HEEDLESS PRESIDENT WHO ENJOYED NOTHING MORE THAN BRANDISHING HIS LARGE MISSILES AND RECKLESSLY INTIMIDATING AND STUPEFYING HIS ENEMIES. HE WAS VERY PROUD OF HIS COURAGE AND HIS RESOLVE. OH, THE OTHER THING ABOUT THIS PRESIDENT WAS THAT HE WAS ILLITERATE AND HAD A VERY HARD TIME SPEAKING IN FULL SENTENCES. RANEEM AZZAM TELLS HIS TALE.
he President would swagger through the nation waving contentedly at the mobs of citizens, the smug joy never fading from his lips. Most of his subjects were illiterate too, so they were unaware of his problem. They enjoyed having such a fearless leader because they didn’t recognise that his tenacious force was like that of a terrier, witless and rash. Public speaking was the only part of his job that occasionally made the President feel uneasy. At the beginning he would be fine: he would stride up to the podium, look out at the crowd, and think about how much fun it was to be President. His subjects mistook the glazed, boyish glee on his face for confidence. When the questions began, however, the President would feel himself sweating and his insides sometimes started to turn. He wasn’t sure what this feeling was, but he thought it might be fear. And when he couldn’t find a way to mention his big shiny missiles, he sometimes even thought he might faint. He decided to solve his oratory problem by hiring some speechwriters. Unfortunately, the President had many enemies abroad, though he couldn’t understand why. He thought that waving weapons at people would make them like him, and would make them feel free, but it didn’t. Two French women, angry at the continuing embargo against their country’s toast, decided to teach the President a lesson. They went to the White House to apply for the speechwriting jobs with a clever scheme in mind. “We are going to write a speech so ingenious that you will feel wonderful the entire time you stand on stage. You will feel as excited as you do when you walk through the National Defense Headquarters and stroke the missiles. Only someone extremely stupid will not understand or appreciate your speech, Mr. President.” The President was ecstatic. This was exactly what he needed: a wonderful speech and a way to detect which of his employees and subjects were stupid. He was always suspicious that some of them might be, but he never before had any way to tell. He hired the two French women on the spot, wrote them a large cheque, and showed them to their office so they could begin work immediately. The speechwriters locked themselves in their office and worked diligently for two full days. On the third day, the President
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could not contain his curiosity any longer so he sent the Vice President inside to see how the speech was going. The French women told the Vice President that they were almost finished, cheerfully handing him the papers. He put on his glasses, sat down, and began trying to read the speech. Since reading was very difficult for him too, and there were many big words that he didn’t recognise, the Vice President got to the end of the page without fully understanding a single sentence. He knew that if he confessed his bewilderment, he would prove he was stupid, so instead he congratulated the women on their fine work and assured them that the President would be delighted. The Vice President found the President at the eighth
Since reading was very difficult, and there were many big words that he didn’t recognise, he got to the end of the page without fully understanding a single sentence. hole of the Presidential golf course and let him know how magnificent his speech was turning out to be. The next day the two French women announced that the speech was complete and went to the Oval Office for the President’s approval. They entered the grand room and handed him the papers. He chuckled confidently, reminding them that only weak people and homosexuals read. Instead, he showed them a very neat new gadget he had newly acquired called a wire feed. He told them that they would hook him up to it, read him the speech, and he would simply repeat after them. He thought this was very convenient because he could decide if he liked the speech and he could practice at the same time. One of the women stood out of view, with a microphone in one hand and the written pages in the other. The President sat at his desk, just as he did during the State of the Union Address, but this time with a receiver tucked surreptitiously in his ear canal. The second French woman sat in a chair across from him, playing the role of the audience. They began their rehearsal with the President carefully repeating each word that passed through the wire feed into his ear. The second woman sat before him nodding attentively, but the President’s distress mounted steadily with the growing awareness that he wasn’t sure what he was saying. When he got to the end the two women rushed toward him, clapping and smiling, and congratulated him on his outstanding delivery. “Really?” he asked. “It has to be absolutely perfect.” “Why, yes, Your Excellency! We knew it was a great speech but now that we’ve heard it so eloquently uttered by you, we’re certain you will astound your subjects.” Knowing that an admission of ignorance would prove him stupid, he went along with them and decided to deliver the speech at a press conference the following day. Overnight, the President’s trepidation dissolved, as always, because he was too absent-minded to remember what was bothering him. The French women were right
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too, this did feel as good to him as rubbing his missiles. He was bursting with elation from the time he woke up until the time he marched to the podium, and he became sure that his fear would not return today. As he adjusted his wire feed, he looked out upon the crowd of press and subjects with even more of that youthful energy and selfsatisfaction than ever before. All of the citizens knew that the day’s speech was to be an important one and were happy to see their leader looking even more cocksure than usual. What they didn’t know was that the President’s speech contained many three-syllable words, words that they had never encountered in any of their colouring books. He cleared his throat and began: “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This speech has been long forthcoming. It is time that American obliquity and daftness were openly relayed. It is no secret that I, your leader and the leader of the Free World, possess an intelligence quotient unrivaled in its insufficiency. The only thing more astonishing than my occupancy of the office of President is your immeasurable folly for having elected me twice. It is no secret that our nation’s deficit in literacy and general intellectual vacuity has made us the scourge of the planet. Together, we have done a great deal. I have invented an art form whereby I utter asinine statements that border on genius in their hilarity, evoking currents of laughter that sweep the globe. By following my guidance, you have all embarked on a remarkable plunge to new depths of mental incapacity. The international community jeers at us. We enjoy it. We are American and we are proud. Thank you. I will now take a few questions,” said the President, triumphant. All of the people in the gallery slowly turned their heads right then left, looking for signs of recognition on the faces of their neighbours, but saw none. “Wow, that was incredible,” they whispered to one another, each hoping nobody would notice that he was the stupid one who didn’t understand or appreciate the speech. There was some agitated fidgeting in the press box. Normally the journalists clamoured to get their questions in, but this time they were troubled by an awkward conundrum. Most of them actually had understood the speech, but how could they humiliate the fearless President by pointing out his foolishness? How could they ask questions when they knew he hadn’t understood the speech? What would they report in their newspapers? Most importantly, would the President and his administration continue to cooperate with their publications if they exposed him? As the pregnant pause grew, one shrewd reporter put up his hand, trying to help the whole nation out of the precarious position. “Yes, Mr. Green,” said the President, breaking out of his contented trance. “Mr. President, you talked about literacy. Can you tell us the government’s plan for literacy?” Another journalist caught on to Mr. Green’s strategy for cleaning up this sticky situation. “Mr. President, are you saying that you are concerned about literacy?” “That is an excellent question, Richard. Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning. It’s about time someone asked it.” “So, um… is... is our children learning, Mr.
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President?” “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that. Well, some people say that the literacy level in our country are appalling, but I say our education system is exemplarary.” Another hand shot up. “Can you tell us more about the, um...exemplarary education in our country, Mr. President?” “Without data, without facts, without information, the discussions about public education mean that a person is just another opinion.” The final comment left the press dumbstruck. Even the wiliest of them had no idea how to pick up on this baffling statement, so they all tucked their heads forward and pretended to scribble on their notepads. Amidst the quiet shuffle, some snickering was heard from the very end of the gallery. It grew louder until it rolled into a peal of delighted laughter A little boy fell into the aisle on his back, stomping his feet on the floor in a hysterical convulsion. The President became annoyed. It reminded him of the time last year when he went into a classroom to read a storybook to the boys and girls. They laughed at him just because he said “I know how hard it is for your daddies to put food on your family.” He decided to avenge that class’s affront on this one little boy. “Young man, stand up,” commanded the President. “Is there something funny?” The boy stood up slowly, wiping the tears from his eyes and trying hard to contain his laughter. “Yes, a little bit, Sir,” he said. “Come up here, please.” The boy walked hesitantly up to the front with his head bowed, feigning embarrassment. He climbed the stairs to the stage and stood beside the President, facing him. “Turn around and tell these people what’s so funny.” He turned slowly, revealing his face for the first time to the whole crowd. He was about 9 years old. He wore a purple and red baseball cap, backwards, and a red sweatshirt. “I would rather not say what is funny, Sir,” he said. The smirk on his face and the glimmer in his eye indicated otherwise. “Young fellow, your inso…insolence is not acceptable,” said the President, recalling that his mother used to say that to his brother sometimes. “Now, I am going to have to insist that you tell everyone what you think is so funny.” “Ok, well, for one thing, Mr. President, exemplarary is not a word. Also, it’s ‘literacy is’ not ‘literacy are’.” “Listen here, you… you…boy… I don’t know what you’re trying to imply.”
“Um, Sir, it’s just that your speech was an announcement of your whole country’s stupidity and none of you understood it. The only people who aren’t stupid are those reporters over there, but they’re sucking up to you because they want to sell papers.” “Listen you rotten little scoundrel,” shouted the President, “You have no right taking that tone with me and talking such nonsense….” At that, the boy broke out in laughter again. The President carried on, “You are a shame to all Americans! Get out of here!” “Actually, Sir, I’m Canadian.” He smiled and proceeded to leave. When the crowd’s dismayed focus shifted back to the President, the two French women ran over to the boy, patted him on the back, and walked out with him. If anyone had been looking, they would have seen the trio of foreigners exiting with their shoulders shaking with laughter. The audience waited for the President to react but he
“Literacy tests are important. If you teach a child to read, he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.” He nodded at the end, certain he had effectively answered the question. just stood there, frozen, for several moments. He was lost in a web of anger, confusion, distress, and disappointment. He was also concerned that his fear would return. In the gallery people began to whisper. “What did that boy say? Is it true? Are we all stupid? What will happen now?” Suddenly, the reporters broke the silence with a thunderous roar of applause. The President looked up with uncertain hope. He watched as everyone in the audience stood - an ovation to reassure him that, stupid or not, their nation was united against the foreigners. And there he stood, beaming and waving, his pride restored, his shoulders swollen again. That night he went to the Defense Headquarters and located his two largest missiles. “France and Canada will learn not to mess with this cowboy,” he thought to himself. They would pay, that is, if anyone could tell him where France and Canada were. ! Q - NEWS
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Photographs by Peter Sanders
Photograph by Fareena Alam
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE THE SHAKESPEARE AND ISLAM SEASON AT THE SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE THEATRE from top left hand corner
Hajji Noor Deen Jiang, master calligrapher from China awes onlookers at the souk Fuad Nahdi, Dr Martin Lings and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf after Dr Ling’s keynote address HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal at the opening of the season Qari and nasheed singer Hassan Rasool A lamp stall at the souk Khayaal Theatre enthralls young and old Opposite page: For days, the exterior of the Globe Theatre was illuminated with images from the Muslim world by Peter Sanders
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PORTFOLIO
SHAKESPEARE AND ISLAM “HEAVEN HATH A HAND IN THESE EVENTS.” It would be difficult to find another cultural event in contemporary Britain that turned so many hats (or turbans, for that matter) than the Globe Theatre’s season on Shakespeare and Islam. It was not only an exercise in imagination and creativity but also a bold adventure into our shared humanity: an explosion aimed at blowing apart the restricted understanding we have today of the nature and essence of things great and universal. If anything the initiative reiterated the power of culture as a factor for the furtherance of cohesion and harmony within communities. In both the souk and the lecture theatre what was obvious was the goodwill, the energy and the desire for something better - bigger and grander than the mundane reality we are relentlessly being sold in our everyday existence. For the majority of those who participated in the season, the experience was not only uplifting but everlasting: who can forget the atmosphere of brotherhood and exchange in the souk? And is it really possible to erase from the memory the deep understanding of our humanity that Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Dr Martin Lings shared with Shakespeare? Okay, so the bard wasn’t really Shaykh Zubair; Romeo and Juliet wasn’t a direct plagiarisation of Leila and Majnoon. But who really cares so long as Othello is a great play and the sonnets are a pleasure to listen to. The season was a source of great joy to everybody except, of course, the usual cultural fascists who forget to grasp the essence of what civilisation is all about. No other event likely to be organised in the foreseeable future is likely to enrich our sense of Britishness as the Globe’s season has done. No other contribution is likely to be as original, as bold or as relevant in the struggle to define British Islam as the Shakespeare and Islam season. So, what next? We at Q-News have always believed in the power of culture in bringing people together. We are convinced that for Islam to take root and prosper healthily in Britain and
other Western societies, it is vital that we invest and develop a comprehensive cultural agenda. The aim should be to inculcate in our young the desire for what is beautiful and enlightening for both mind and spirit. Our communities must be re-educated on producing and appreciating what is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing: for God is beautiful and loves beauty, said our Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. We need, particularly our young, to reconnect with our rich heritage of arts and crafts, songs and poetry. We need them to know how - when caught in moments of frustration and despair, to seek refuge in prayer and tranquillity as well. This year Q-News plans to intensify and focus even more on the project of creating a cultural agenda for British Islam. In April, Inshallah (God Willing) - we plan to hold a massive mawlid ceremony, a celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, which we hope will be an improvement on a similar event we held ten years ago. Like all our other events it will be ambitious, inclusive and not a snooze-zone. For more details watch this space. But it is enough to warn you that the intention, like always, is to share the joy of being alive, kicking and Muslims. And to do so with our relatives, friends and neighbours. Behind the Season’s immense and unparallel success lies a simple formula: sincerity, openness and respect. From the beginning the whole project was based on a genuine desire to reach out, to embrace the other and, more significantly, to make it a civilised human endeavour. Our sincere thanks to Patrick Spottiswoode and his team at the Globe Theatre for their respect, dedication and professionalism. It was a pleasure to work with a group of people who epitomised all the qualities that Islam encourages. We look forward to many more seasons of sharing, civilisation and joy. !
Fuad Nahdi
PORTFOLIO
“I CAN NO OTHER ANSWER MAKE, BUT,
THANKS, AND
THANKS” O
PATRICK SPOTTISWOODE
JOINED THE
SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE WHEN THE THEATRE
BUILDING WAS JUST A DREAM. NOW, TWENTY YEARS LATER, HE REFLECTS ON A SPECTACULAR YEAR OF SHAKESPEARE AND ISLAM AND FINDS HIMSELF AND HIS BELOVED THEATRE ILLUMINATED AND TRANSFORMED.
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n a cab journey to the Globe one morning, I noticed that my driver had prayer beads hanging from his rear-view mirror. I asked him, “Are you Muslim?” For a moment he flinched, afraid of what I would say or what I would do, if he said yes. The driver knew me since he’d picked me up before, but his immediate reaction was of fear. “Are you a Nigerian Muslim?” Grudgingly, he said yes. Then I asked, “Do you know Dr Dawud Noibi?” This time he smiled and brightly replied in the affirmative. I told him that Dr Noibi - a Nigerian Muslim scholar known for his innovative interfaith work - was speaking at the Globe in three weeks. Everything changed between us and we had a wonderful, animated conversation for the rest of the trip. When I got home that evening, there was a note awaiting from my driver - who had come back sometime during the day - giving me a list of mosques that he asked me to send information about the season to. From a fear and concern, my cab driver had been able to find a way to celebrate and participate in the season. One of my undergraduate students studying at the Globe is an American Catholic who came to the souk and decided at some point in the afternoon to head into the prayer room. She took off her shoes and went to the women’s section. One of the women praying there told her that she needed to tie her hair back and cover her head if she wanted to join. The woman asked my student if she was Muslim. I’m Catholic, she replied. The woman then took her aside and introduced her to the rituals of prayer, explaining what the actions and words meant and why the daily prayer played such a central role in Muslim life. The undergraduate student later told me that it was the most profound experience of her time in London. This young woman had been introduced to a faith and the Muslim woman was able to share and celebrate it with her and build mutual respect. Celebration and understanding were the guiding principles of the Shakespeare and Islam season and I’ve loved the mix activity that brought that about. Who would have thought that the Globe would be lit up, illuminated with beautiful images of the Muslim world taken by photographer Peter Sanders, and I thank Q-News for introducing him to us. The theatre has never been lit up like that before. We wanted Islam to inform and fill the Globe and it has. We transformed our exhibition area into a lecture hall and hosted Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Dr Martin Lings. Hundreds of people came, lining up to hear about Shakespeare, Sufism and
Islam. This was a year of “wow” moments. The souk fed both our intellectual appetite and our aesthetic sensibility. The mix of sixteen talks, beautiful designs and crafts from the Prince’s school, performances from Khayaal - the atmosphere was magical. The individual parts came together beautifully and memorably. I think other institutions will follow our example after seeing how successful this effort has been. Those in the theatre and arts community I have spoken to are incredibly inspired by the whole thing. The aim of the year was to explore the context of Othello. For us at the Globe, using “Shakespeare and…” is a marketing device to get people interested in the work we do. We have had programs on Shakespeare and Spain, Shakespeare and the Jews, Shakespeare and Shoes. We know that Shakespeare hadn’t read the Quran. We don’t know what his knowledge of Islam would have been. But there was knowledge of an Ottoman threat and of treaties England had with Morocco and the Ottoman Empire against its European enemies. I think we addressed some of the most under-researched areas of the 16th and 17th centuries. It wasn’t really until the works of Nabil Matar and Jerry Brotton that we have really begun to explore the relationship between Islam and Shakespeare’s world and the political and cultural negotiations between Elizabethan England and the lands of Islam. As Nabil Matar has said, most scholarship has made us look westward for an understanding of Shakespeare, when much of his inspiration came from the East. The arrival of the Moroccan ambassador in 1600 itself was a major theatrical event. It’s not like a modern ambassador who steps off the plane into a limousine, racing to his embassy and getting on with business. The 1600 visit was a grand arrival. It wasn’t just the ambassador, but his whole retinue. It wasn’t just his retinue, it was their clothing. It wasn’t
just their clothing, but the music that accompanied them. I agree with the current Moroccan ambassador that the visit was a template for Othello. It was a an event rich in sounds and visuals that must have blown people’s minds in the 1600. I think the season is very justified and as a theatre organisation working in the “now” moment, it is particularly justified. We are using Shakespeare and Islam as a catalyst for exploring the faith now and engaging young Muslims with Shakespeare and the arts. I love the idea of the Globe being a meeting ground. That’s what it was built for. People came, from Shakespeare’s time until now, to hear ideas and stories bouncing around its rounded walls. I hope those who came don’t just put the season’s brochure in the drawer and forget about it. It’s a worrying responsibility for this organisation - how do we maintain the mission and energy of this work? We want to inspire others and find a less threatening way for someone who is not a Muslim to understand Islam and Muslim issues on a neutral ground. We have had professors teaching Othello and they’d never been to the mosque. So we took them to a mosque and they were able to ask questions and get answers. I am sure they will never teach the play the same way again. I am not sure how big the ripple will be. It started with Othello and Shakespeare, but it is much bigger than that now. It is about our relationship with our community and understanding who that community is. Although, I have yet to speak to my Board about it, I am absolutely convinced we need a prayer room here. If I am to expect a Muslim to engage with Shakespeare here at the Globe, I have to respect that they may need a prayer room. It’s more than just sending a brochure around to the East London Mosque telling them about our programs. That’s not inviting, that’s just informing. The Globe should promote a sense of hospitality and welcome. These are important questions for public Q - NEWS
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institutions such as ours - if we are aware of a multi-faith community and how we respond. I received more thanks over the prayer room facilities than anything else during the season. We will soon begin our educational outreach program on Othello and Islamic design. We are sending a group of four actors to faith and non-denominational schools to work with kids to explore the story from Othello’s perspective with children playing an active role in the play. The work will culminate with the making of two handkerchiefs - one of love and one of peace - using Islamic designs which so influenced handkerchief design. We intend to collect all the handkerchiefs of peace and sew them together to create a tent of peace that will be used as a place of storytelling, theatre and discussion. It’s difficult at this stage to talk about the future. I haven’t had time to reflect. I am interested in Islamic arts and culture. I am very interested in supporting Luqman Ali’s mission at Khayaal to engage children in the theatre arts. I am also interested in using the arts to engage Muslim children and allow them to celebrate their faith in the classroom and not just outside it. In order to explore Islamic arts, you need to understand the faith. I say take young people to the mosque. Use research into Islamic art and design as a way of introducing the spirituality and faith of Islam to young people. It is such an honour to be part of Shakespeare’s Globe. There was nothing here when I joined in 1984. We didn’t get the building work started until 1990 and we didn’t open until 1997. It’s been quite a journey. We get no government subsidy and I think that should be celebrated - that an organisation which receives no government subsidy has held a season like Shakespeare and Islam. This is the most exciting thing I’ve done in my 20 years here. It’s going to be difficult to follow. I think I might have post-Islam depression!
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Every area of my work - from undergraduate students to teacher training to adult education, has engaged with this project. It has touched everybody. Everybody is going to be changed because of it. It has been a really exciting 20th anniversary project for me. The year created a sense of teamwork and common enterprise within the Globe. I am proud to be part of an organisation that supported this initiative and genuinely backed it during a difficult time for us. There wasn’t a part of the Globe that wasn’t involved in making this happen. One of the great things about working with Shakespeare is that you can conversations with so many interesting people. He reflected the world, not just a little corner of it. He is a very good house playwright to work for! It’s just opened my eyes. I met such fantastic people during the Islam season. It’s a success because of the partnerships, the engagement and the willingness of others to make it work. We have built bridges and fostered relationships with organisations like Q-News and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. We have been enriched by many - from the Khayaal Theatre Company to the brilliant students from the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts to the amazing British-Bengali weaver, Rezia Wahid, whose loom work is called “woven air”. Deep down, I really hope this theatre becomes an agent for change. I look to the Globe as the most exciting theatrical place in the world. It’s where people come together to meet through play and allow playfulness and creativity to excite understanding. Shakespeare was the great observer, the great humanitarian and that’s what our theatre must reflect. Look around. The actor and the audience always share the same light. The actor always sees the audience. We as a theatre must constantly look to our community. If we ignore our community, we’re not doing justice to this building. !
“...AND I SHALL NOT LOOK UPON HIS LIKE AGAIN.”
IN A RARE PUBLIC APPEARANCE, DR MARTIN LINGS, WHOSE BOOKS HAVE CHANGED THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS, BUILDS A BRIDGE
BETWEEN SUFISM AND SHAKESPEARE’S MOST IMPORTANT WORKS. SHAMIM MIAH REPORTS ON A REMARKABLE EVENING.
atrick Spottiswoode, Director of Education at the Globe Theatre, once said that the Shakespeare and Islam season would not have been complete without the participation of Dr Martin Lings. How very true. Martin Lings or Abu-Bakr Siraj Uddin studied English at Oxford and went on to teach, mainly on Shakespeare at Cairo University for 12 years. In 1952, Dr Lings returned to England study Arabic at London University and then began work with the British Museum, eventually becoming the Keeper of Oriental and Arabic Manuscripts. Martin Lings is a contemporary of Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon both of whom had a significant influence on his writings. Dr Lings is best known for his outstanding prophetic biography entitled Muhammad: His life based on the earliest sources. His other writings include: A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century, What is Sufism?, Ancient Beliefs Modern Superstitions, The Secret of Shakespeare and The Book Certainty. The works of Dr Lings are unparallel in their genre. Sublime, poetic, erudite and profound, his work has continues to contribute tremendously towards a deeper understanding of Islam in the West. As Q-News publisher Fuad Nahdi described him in his introduction, Dr Lings is one of the ‘towering Muslim intellectuals of twentieth and twenty-first centuries’. During his Globe Fellowship lecture, Sidi Martin Lings put forward a different reading of Shakespeare, as compared to the post-colonial discourse championed by Edward Said. Dr
P
Lings finds in the writings of Shakespeare similarities and empathy with the Islamic Sufi traditions. His timely contribution helps build a bridge between Sufism and classical English literature giving Muslims, a sense of familiarity, accessibility, appreciation and, above all, respect for the genre of Elizabethan literature. On the other hand, the presentation, gave non-Muslims an opportunity and framework with which to understand Islam and its spiritual message. The event was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Dr Lings is a master of Shakespeare, thus it didn’t come as any surprise that the lecture was sold out weeks before it took place. The theatre was full, with many arriving early to ensure they had the best seats only to be disappointed to learn that others had arrived even earlier to secure the best seats, in anticipation of catching a glimpse of Dr Lings. At 96 years, Dr Lings rarely delivers public lectures. On this occassion, he spoke consistently for an hour and fifteen minutes to a packed audience which included Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Sidi Hasan le Gai Eaton. Listening to and watching Dr Lings speak was an incredible experience. Being in his company was like bearing witness to the years of scholarship that he represents having himself lived through the most tumultuous of times. During his lecture one was left with sense awe, respect and appreciation. Dr Ling’s physical and facial appearance tell a thusand tales about an individual who is extra-ordinary. Listening to him, I was left inspired, moved and fired with a yearning to know. ! Q - NEWS
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PORTFOLIO
A MANY SPLENDOUR’D THING A TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC SOUK IN LONDON OR ANOTHER GLORIFIED ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIR? PERHAPS IT WAS A FAILURE OF THE IMAGINATION, BUT RAANIA RIZVI WAS SCEPTICAL. A VISIT TO THE GLOBE MADE A BELIEVER OUT OF HER (AND THOUSANDS OF OTHERS). he idea of the souk holds so much more magic than the average European street market. After all, most traditional Islamic souks offer exquisite handicrafts - influenced by sacred art, colour and calligraphy, exotic food and ancient tomes for trade and barter. The souk, aside from its material and commercial offerings, is a hub of camaraderie, storytelling, poetry and music; where unknown faces become known by their talent, where neighbours and friends meet and where there is no barrier to lively conversation. Such romantic notions culled from novels and stories told by elders, made me want to believe that the souk heritage had not been totally lost. The souk brought together people in an environment that was a feast for the eyes, nourishment for the soul and always left the purse a little lighter. As I strolled to the Globe with friends, I found myself wondering whether the organisers could possibly deliver a realistic representation of the kaleidoscope of attributes that define the traditional souk. London offers many arts and crafts fairs with goods from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Would this be yet another fair? Would the ‘transformation’ that Patrick Spottiswoode so enthusiastically described actually be only a collection of stalls without much atmosphere? How wrong I was. Climbing down a set of stairs to the exhibition hall - there could not have been a better appetiser than looking down on the souk, buzzing with activity. This souk accommodated so many different aspects of Islamic art and craft - a testament to talent and irrepressible energy of the artists themselves, many drawn from it is a testament to the artists themselves who made their work come alive. Among the many offerings was a calligrapher offering on-the-spot renditions of people’s names. He made his time honoured art look effortless - most calligraphers train diligently for years, even
T
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decades. Students from the Prince’s School for Traditional Arts carried on with their work, oblivious to the hoards of fascinated onlookers. Children were able to enjoy a hands-on experience at a table designated just for them. In Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Santiago, the protagonist had been enthralled by his experiences at a souk where he saw arts, tasted sweetmeats and was met with the kindness from strangers. I imagine many of the young children at the Globe Souk experienced that same enthrallment. The mosaic work, tile paintings, woodcarving and glassware were exquisite. They represented the collective and inspiring diversity ever present in Islam. Like many others I was spellbound. White arches partitioned different areas of the souk and each time I passed under an arch I was rewarded with enchanting sights of tile work and paintings hanging on scaled down white walled corridors. The dim lighting gave a sense of being in a souk at twilight and the stalls were set in such close proximity to each other that it reminded me of almost claustrophobic hustle and bustle of the souks I had visited in the Arab world. In fact, I bumped into several friends from my university years all of whom I’d lost contact with. I stood by stalls and asked merchants about their wares and artists about their craft, making new friends. These were the kind of serendipitous encounters that are bound to occur in a real souk. Intermittently visitors were treated to drumming and live music. The performers remained completely detached from the crowd and absorbed in their music as they wandered through the market. It was as though they totally belonged there with or without an audience. Plays were staged by the Khayaal Theatre Company throughout the day giving visitors a glimpse of Islamic folklore. The souk stories gave timeless moral lessons, just the like the bard who inspired the Globe’s reconstruction. In the words of the Company, the sketches were based on “…tales and anecdotes from across the Muslim world… demonstrating and celebrating the relationship between storytelling and marketplaces throughout Muslim lands”. Children and adults alike sat by the stage on rustic looking benches, devouring Turkish Delight and baklava. “This is amazing, this is Islam,” a friend said, her eyes sparkling. The Globe has covered some important ground. Shakespeare is one of England’s greatest icons. Islamic arts with their intricacy, appeal and diversity, represents one way to revive the simplicity, kindness and wide encompassing values of Islam. The souk at Shakespeare’s Globe rekindled for many the pride of being both British and Muslim. It is daunting to reconcile past and present without losing the spirit of either. The fusing of two great traditions is harder still. Some have claimed that bringing Shakespeare and Islam together is ridiculous. My experience of the Globe events shows that not only can this be achieved, it can be done with intelligence, elegance and spirit which will leave longlasting memories for all who experienced it. !
THE LURE OF
MAKKAH
eking, Lhasa, Timbuctu, Harrar, Madinah, Makkah - these were the forbidden cities that for centuries captured the imagination of the West. One by one they have given up their secrets to intrepid travelers. Until today all are open to anyone with sufficient patience and the right political credentials. All, that is, but Makkah and Medina-the two holiest cities of Islam. By law, Makkah and Madinah are strictly forbidden to non-Muslims. Pilgrims are carefully screened at Saudi embassies and consulates before they leave their homelands and their visas - special visas allowing them to visit only the holy cities and the environs, are inspected at the borders of the holy cities themselves. But that’s now. In the past, although prohibitions were equally strict and although the pilgrimage was long, difficult and dangerous, intruders were not uncommon. Between 1503 and 1931, for example, some 25 Westerners visited Makkah and returned to write about it. They included a Renaissance tourist, an English prisoner of war, a Spanish spy, an Italian deserter, a Swiss scholar, the incomparable Sir Richard Burton, translator of the Arabian Nights, and an Austrian Jew who, after his conversion to Islam, became Pakistan’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations.
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THE RENAISSANCE TOURIST If we accept the confused account of a 15th-century German pilgrim, the first known European to enter Makkah was an Italian named Ludovico de Varthema, a contemporary of Vasco da Gama and Leonardo da Vinci. Nothing is known of his early life and education except that he was born about 1465 and, as the preface to his book of voyages suggests, possessed the curiosity and love of adventure typical of the Renaissance man. “Not having any inclination (knowing myself to be of very slender understanding) to arrive at my desire by study or conjecture, I determined, personally, and with my own eyes, to endeavor to ascertain the situations of places, the qualities of peoples, the diversities of animals, the varieties of fruit-bearing and odoriferous trees of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix [that is, northern and southern Arabia], Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than 10 hear-says.” In the year 1500, De Varthema sailed from Venice to Alexandria. After a short stay in Cairo, he sailed along the coast to Beirut and eventually made his way to Damascus, where he spent two years studying Arabic. On 8 April 1503, masquerading as a Syrian, he joined a pil-
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grim caravan bound for Makkah. It was a harrowing journey - many pilgrims perished along the way but when the caravan reached Makkah, De Varthema was much impressed. He found the markets crammed with the luxury goods of the East-silks, jewels, spices, frankincense and myrrh - and compares the houses favorably to those of his native Italy and the Sacred Mosque, which encloses the Ka’bah, to the Colosseum. He was also astounded by the vast size of the crowd of pilgrims - Muslims from Ethiopia, India, Persia, Egypt and Syria, “Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there.” De Varthema provides the first description in a Western language of the rites of the Pilgrimage. He describes the Ka’bah with its kiswah, or draping of black cloth. He gives an account of the tawaf, the seven circuits around the Ka’bah, notes the kissing of the black stone and comments upon the brackish taste of the water from the well of Zamzam. He also categorically refutes the widespread medieval notion that the tomb of Muhammad was at Makkah (it is in Medina, 277 miles to the north), and dismisses as nonsense the medieval European legend that the tomb of the Prophet of Islam is suspended in mid-air by lodestones. After visiting Makkah, De Varthema joined a caravan to Aden, where he was imprisoned as a Portuguese spy, set free through the good offices of the sultan’s wife (thereby hangs a tale), traveled extensively in the Yemen (he was the first European to do so), and then set off for the Far East. He finally returned to Europe, after circumnavigating Africa, and died in Rome in 1517, the year the Ottoman Turks captured Egypt. It was to be 170 years before another European would provide a description of Makkah to rival that of De Varthema. AN ENGLISH PRISONER OF WAR Joseph Pitts was an English sailor. Unlike De Varthema, Pitts had no interest in “odoriferous trees” or anything else. He was a prisoner of war and all he wanted was to go home. At 17, Pitts had been captured by Barbary pirates, then the scourge of the Mediterranean, and as, a prisoner of war became the property of an Algerian soldier, who treated him well and set him up in business. In time Pitts became a Muslim and in 1680 accompanied his master to Makkah. He was not as enthusiastic about the physical appearance of the city as De Varthema - he describes the buildings as “ordinary” and the inhabitants as “poor” but gives a similar account of the Ka’bah, and the ceremonies of the Pilgrimage. He also describes the trade in
precious stones, Chinese porcelain, and musk that made Makkah one of the great emporiums of the time. From Makkah, Pitts went on to Medina, still in the company of his master, and visited the mosque and tomb of Muhammad, peace be upon him. On the way he met an Irishman who, like Pitts, had been captured at an early age by pirates. Raised as a Muslim, he had been recaptured by Christian pirates and enslaved, but eventually escaped. He was making the Pilgrimage in order to thank God for delivering him out of “hell on earth” (meaning Europe) and bringing him into “heaven on earth,” Makkah. Pitts eventually escaped from his Muslim captors but like the Irish hajji he had met, he may have wished he had stayed with Islam. On his first night back in England, he was impressed into His Majesty’s Navy. He was freed later, however, and immediately wrote an account of life among the Muslims which he filled with what, in 17thcentury Christian Europe, were conventional denunciations of Islam, which, he said, he was forced to embrace. Indeed, few accounts of the subject have been so critical. But with respect to the Hajj, this wholly unsympathetic observer was so moved by the assembly of pilgrims at ‘Arafat that he wrote: “It was a sight indeed, able to pierce one’s heart, to behold so many thousands in their garments of humility and mortification, with their naked heads, and cheeks watered with tears; and to hear their grievous sighs and sobs, begging earnestly for the remission of their sins, promising newness of life, using a form of penitential expression, and thus continuing for the space of four or five hours.” THE SPANISH SPY After Pitts, it was 127 years before another European entered Makkah. This was the mysterious Spanish traveler, Domingo Badia Leblich, alias Aly Bey, who introduces the account of his travels with the following, somewhat equivocal, words: “After having passed many years in the Christian states, studying there the sciences of nature, and the arts most useful to man in society, whatever be his faith or the religion of his heart, I determined at last to visit the Mohametan countries, and, while engaged in performing a pilgrimage to Makkah, to observe the manners, customs, and nature of the countries through which I should pass, in order that I might make the laborious journey of some utility to the country which I might at last select for my abode.” Aly Bey was born in 1766, but all that is known of his early life is what he himself chooses to tell us in his travels. As a young man, he says, he applied himself to the study of Arabic, apparently with success since, in 1803, in setting off, he assumed the identity of a scion of the House of Abbas, which produced the Caliph Harun al-Rashid himself. Aly Bey began his travels in North Africa. He journeyed from Morocco to Cairo, providing detailed descriptions of the countries along the way. In Cairo, Aly Bey joined the pilgrim caravan to Makkah, arriving in the Holy City on January 23, 1807, where he was impressed by the clean, sanded streets, the high stone houses, the terraces and the mashrabiyas, the latticed balconies still a feature of some Arab cities.
He was also impressed by the ceremonies of the Hajj, which he himself performed; his description is much more detailed and extended than the descriptions provided by De Varthema or Pitts. Aly Bey was even able to gain access to the inner chamber of the Ka’bah, and in his character of a descendant of the Abbasids, was given the signal honor of sweeping its floor. Aly Bey was powerfully moved by his first sight of the Ka’bah. “We had already traversed the portal or gallery, and were upon the point of entering the great space where the house of God, or El Kaaba, is situated, when our guide arrested our steps, and pointing with his finger towards it, said with emphasis, ‘Schouf, Schouf, el beit Allah el Haram!’ (Look, look, the house of God, the Prohibited!) The crowd that surrounded me; the portico of columns half hid from view; the immense size of the temple; the Ka’aba, or house of God, covered with the black cloth from top to bottom, and surrounded with a circle of lamps or lanterns; the hour; the silence of the night; and this man speaking in a solemn tone, as if he had been inspired; all served to form an imposing picture, which will never be effaced from my memory.” The travels of Aly Bey, when they were published upon his return to Europe, were studiously neglected by his contemporaries-which is unfortunate but understandable. For although his account was a sympathetic, tolerant and up-to-date description of Middle Eastern lands and politics it came from a man whose motives were distrusted. For Aly Bey was a spy, secretly in the employ of the French Government and the main purpose of his travels was to report upon the political and economic status of the Middle East to the government of Napoleon Bonaparte. In return for his services, Aly Bey, when he returned to Spain, then under French domination, was made governor, first of Cordova, then of Seville. When the French were driven out of Spain, Aly Bey was forced to flee with the retreating French army and lived in exile in France. He later undertook another mission to the Middle East, once again disguising himself as a descendant of a noble family. But he had tempted fate once too often and died in Aleppo in suspicious circumstances, his cover apparently blown at last. Q - NEWS
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HAJJ BY NUMBERS Sources: Saudi Aramco Magazine, Saudi Information Resource, Institute for Hajj Research, Ministry of Information, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Official workers assisting in the administration of the Hajj: 40,000 Number of field groups involved in organising pilgrims: 350 Number of buses involved transporting pilgrims: 13,770; Number of people carried by these buses: 651,371 Number of auto-rickshaws who pick up abandoned pilgrims 24 hours a day during the Hajj: 60 Number of pilgrims visiting Medina after the completion of the Hajj: 251,240 Number of buildings housing Hajj-time visitors to Medina: 1530 residential buildings and 40 hotels Number of hospitals catering to pilgrims: 20, Number of doctors and nurses on hand: 9500 Number of special health centres open during the Hajj: 188, Number of ambulances on call: 155 Number of charitable meals given to pilgrims on the plain of Arafat by the Al-Amoudi charity: 800 000 Percentage of pilgrims arriving by plane who fly Saudi Arabian Airlines: 90% Number of people who visit Mecca to perform the umrah only: 2,300,000 Stones thrown during the days of the jamarat: 88,200,000 Size of the old souks outside the Grand Mosque in Mecca: 180 000 square metres Number of pilgrims daily who need medical attention: 147,373; Trained emergency workers at the Jamarat: 772 Deaths due to exhaustion, old age and illness in 2004: 272 Bags of ice water distributed to pilgrims: 50,000,000 Number of sheep slaughtered for distribution to the poor: 700,000 Number of the people stoning the jamarat every hour: 200,000 Number of CCTV cameras at the jamarat: 1000 Amount of water used by pilgrims: 184,000 cubic metres Total amount of electricity used during the rites of Hajj: 803,090 kilowatts Number of lost pilgrims helped by scouts: 73,091 Amount of money spent by Saudi Arabia to improve Hajj facilities and administration: $14,000,000,000 Total number of pilgrims in 2004: 1,892,710, Percentage of women among them: 45 Number of British pilgrims in 2004: 20,000; Pilgrims from Indonesia: 198,544 Pilgrims from outside Saudi Arabia: 1,300,00; Pilgrims from Saudi Arabia who were Saudi citizens:182,737, Pilgrims from Saudi Arabia who are resident non-Saudis: 592,206 Ratio of pilgrims to year-round residents of Makkah: 2.4:1, Ratio of pilgrims to year-round residents of Jiddah: 1:1 Total number of pilgrims in 1965: 294,000 Minimum number of pilgrims permitted in an international pilgrim group arranged by licenced travel agents: 50 Number of international pilgrims admitted who were not part of such groups: 0 Number of styles of ihram for men: 1, Pieces of cloth in an ihram: 2 Number of times cloth used in ihrams worn by male pilgrims in 2002 could cover New York City’s Central Park: 1.7 Number of flights arriving at Jiddah with pilgrims in 2002: 6226 Number of flights arriving at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, daily average: 2490 Floor area of a standard tent at Mina: (684 sq ft) 64 square meters Number of tents: 43,200, Average number of pilgrims per tent: 40 Percentage of tents that are made of fireproof, Teflon-coated glass fiber: 100 Estimated percentage of pilgrims who camp in their own tents or stay in hotels: 20 Area given over to tents in Mina: (618 acres) 2.5 square kilometers Total area of the Mina valley: (939 acres) 3.8 square kilometers Amount of water misted over the plain of ‘Arafat on the ninth of Dhu al-Hijjah: (2,338,000 US gal) 8850 cubic meters Percentage of this that evaporated before hitting the ground: 100 Average number of degrees by which this reduced air temperature at the ground: (11°F) 6°C Estimated average speed of 2.3 m people moving from ‘Arafat to Muzdalifah after sunset on 9th Dhu al-Hijjah: 2 km/hour Time it takes for all pilgrims to make this journey: All night Estimated percentage of pilgrims who walk rather than take a bus: 16 Number of times by which the floor area of the Holy Mosque exceeds that of St. Peter’s Basilica: 20 Number of times by size of the Holy Mosque exceeds that of Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the world’s largest: 5 Number of floor levels of the Holy Mosque that can be used for prayer: 3 Number of people whose job it is to check that animals sacrificed for Eid meet health and religious standards: 1330 Number of goats and sheep that merchants bring for sale: 1,200,000, Number actually sacrificed: 1,120,000 Percentage of meat processed and shipped as global relief and charity: 50 Government-regulated price of a sacrificial sheep, if reserved in advance: (SR350) $131.57 Number of meals served by commercial organizations over five days of Hajj: 10 million Additional meals distributed by charities: 2 million; Loaves of bread distributed: 40 million Number of postal drop-boxes placed for pilgrims in the Makkah area: 415 Number of garbage trucks in the Makkah area: 550; Number of hours per day that each truck works during Hajj: 24 Number of workers involved in cleaning and trash removal: 14,000 Ratio of garbage storage capacity at Mina to daily garbage output of New York City: 12:11 Percentage by which the government plans to increase the accommodation available in Makkah over six years: 50
THE ITALIAN DESERTER Of all the Western travelers to Makkah, Giovanni Finati is the only out-and-out scoundrel - as the two-volume account of his travels, published in 1830, makes perfectly clear. Even Burton, by no means a prude, disapproved of Signor Finati, and it is not hard for the modern reader to see why. Giovanni Finati began his career at the age of 18 - by deserting from the Napoleonic troops then occupying Italy. Arrested and condemned to death, he was saved by the fortuitous arrival of Napoleon, who decided to free all deserters and send them to Albania to fight the Montenegrans. As the Montenegrans were formidable foes, the prudent Giovanni decided to desert again and eventually wound up, with sixteen companions, joining the Turkish Army, which quickly put him to work in a quarry. Finati, however, embraced Islam and after several scrapes, enlisted in still another army: a contingent of Albanian mercenaries on their way to Cairo to take part in Muhammad Ali Pasha’s wars against the Mamelukes. This time he stayed long enough to participate in Muhammad Ali’s massacre of the Mamelukes in 1811, then joined the Egyptian army just as it was setting out for Arabia. At the great battle of the Jadida Pass, the strategic spot that controlled the caravan route from Egypt, the Egyptians were virtually annihilated, but Giovanni escaped and returned to Cairo. Growing restless, he joined a second expedition to Arabia during which-as the Egyptians suffered reverses-he deserted again, made his way to Makkah and went into hiding until he could escape. As that summary suggests, Giovanni’s life had not left him too much time to cultivate his sensibilities. Yet this is what he later wrote of his entrance into Makkah: “Exulting in my escape, my mind was in a state to receive very strong impressions, and I was much struck with all I saw upon entering the city; for though it is neither large nor beautiful in itself, there is something in it that is calculated to impress a sort of awe, and it was the hour of noon when everything is very silent, except the muezzins calling from the minarets.” Even scoundrels, apparently, are not immune to the impact of the Hajj. THE SWISS SCHOLAR The same year that Finati went into hiding in Makkah another, and far more important Westerner arrived. This was Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, discoverer of Petra, and one of the more illustrious Western visitors to Makkah. Johann Burckhardt was born in Lausanne in 1784, and studied in Leipzig, Gottingen and Cambridge. Hoping to settle what was then one of the burning questions in geography - the true course of the Niger River, he applied to the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa for a grant. His application accepted, Burckhardt set off in 1809 for Aleppo in Syria to perfect his knowledge of Arabic and Islam - in the
belief that he could travel in Africa more easily as a Muslim. Later he made a series of exploratory trips through the Middle East during which he discovered Petra, the fabulous rockhewn city in Jordan that had been “lost” for almost 1000 years. This discovery in itself would have satisfied a lesser man, but Burckhardt, determined to carry out his exploration of the Niger, went to Cairo planning to join a caravan to Fezzan, in Libya. When the caravan was delayed, Burckhardt, hating to remain idly in Cairo, sailed down the Nile to explore Nubia, and then decided to cross the Red Sea and make the Pilgrimage to Makkah. There he so exhaustively described the rites of the Pilgrimage, the Ka’bah, the Sacred Mosque, the history of Makkah, the surrounding holy places as well as the customs and dress of the various classes of Makkan society, that he left little for later travelers to do. Even Burton reprinted Burckhardt’s description of the Ka’bah and the Sacred Mosque as an appendix to his own travels. Burckhardt had the advantage of an extended stay in Makkah - he was there three months, so he had an opportunity for investigation that previous travelers had not. He mapped the city, gathered information from a wide variety of informants about the virtually unknown southern and eastern parts of the Arabian Peninsula and went on to Medina, where he stayed another three months, amassing a great deal of valuable information. But he was also taken ill and had to return to Cairo, where in 1817, worn out by disease and hardship, he died at the age of 33 on the eve of the departure of the long awaited caravan to Fezzan. In 1830, thirteen years after Burckhardt’s death, Richard Lander finally discovered the true course of the Niger River. Unlike some travelers, Burckhardt was a modest and self-effacing man whose careful accounts of his travels in Syria and Arabia are classics, and whose conversion to Islam was apparently sincere. He was greatly admired by Burton, who made a point of visiting his tomb outside Cairo before embarking upon his own pilgrimage to Makkah. SIR RICHARD BURTON The most famous Western traveler to Arabia, of course, was Sir Richard Burton, who in 1853 set off on the Pilgrimage, his knighthood and his fame as the translator of the Arabian Nights still far in the future. At 32, Burton had reached a stage in his life when he felt he must do something spectacular to win the official recognition of his abilities which he had always felt to be his due. When, therefore, the Royal Geographical Society refused him a grant to explore Arabia (on the grounds Q - NEWS
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that it was too dangerous) he decided to go anyway. As he confided to his journal, “What remained for me but to prove, by trial, that what might be perilous to other travelers was safe to me?” Burton originally intended to use Makkah merely as a jumping-off place to cross the Arabian Desert, explore the as yet unknown Eastern Province, take a quick look at that great blank on the map, the Empty Quarter (which would not be crossed by a Western traveler until 1931), investigate the possibility of opening up a market for Arabian horses in order to improve the breed used by the Indian cavalry, settle the vexing question of the hydrology of the Hijaz, and, finally, perform certain anthropological researches among the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula. Instead he produced one of the greatest travel books ever written: A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Makkah. The word “personal” in the title is no misnomer; the book reveals as much about Burton as it does about the two holiest cities of Islam. To get to Makkah, Burton disguised himself as an Afghan holy man and set off on the grueling ride across the desert to the port of Suez. At Suez he booked passage on a 50-ton ship, spent 12 days sailing to Yanbu’ on the Arabian Red Sea coast, where having injured his foot by stepping on a sea urchin, he hired a shuqduf, a kind of closed litter carried on the back of a camel, to facilitate his journey. En route the caravan was ambushed by bandits, but Burton, with his customary aplomb under fire, merely took the opportunity to make some minor repairs to his shuqduf. His companions regarded him as insane. On July 25, the pilgrims caught their first glimpse of Medina, the last resting place of the Prophet Muhammad. “We halted our beasts as if by word of command. All of us descended, in imitation of the pious of old, and sat down, jaded and hungry as we were, to feast our eyes with a view of the Holy City.” Burton spent a month in Medina. He adds a great deal to Burckhardt’s account, for illness had prevented the Swiss scholar from visiting the environs of the city. When the pilgrim caravan from Damascus arrived in Medina on its way to Makkah, Burton joined it. He was excited by the prospect of following the inland route from Medina to Makkah, for this was the route taken by Harun al-Rashid, and no European had taken it since the time of De Varthema, 350 years before. Unfortunately, the caravan traveled at night in order to avoid the summer sun, and Burton was unable to make any but the most cursory observations of the route. Balked in that direction, Burton turned his lively curiosity on his fellow pilgrims. He succeeded in ingratiating himself with the Bedouins who accompanied the caravan by reciting Arabic poetry - always a sure way to the heart of the desert Arab. Then, just before reaching Makkah, caught in a narrow pass, the caravan was again attacked by robbers. Several pilgrims lost their lives, and the camel in front of Burton was shot through the heart. A detachment of troops who were guarding the caravan swarmed up the sides of the canyon and after a fierce battle drove the bandits away. The pilgrims entered Makkah late the same night, and Burton had to wait until the next morning for his
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first sight of the Sacred Mosque and the Ka’bah. This was the culminating point of his journey, “There at last it lay, the bourn of my long weary pilgrimage, realising the plans and hopes of many and many a year. The mirage medium of Fancy invested the huge catafalque and its gloomy pall with peculiar charms. There were no giant fragments of hoar antiquity as in Egypt, no remains of graceful and harmonious beauty as in Greece and Italy, no barbarous gorgeousness as in the buildings of India; yet the view was strange, unique-and how few have looked upon the celebrated shrine! I may truly say that, of all the worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain, or who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none felt for the moment a deeper emotion that did the hajji (pilgrim) from the far-north.” Profoundly moved not only by the sight of the Ka’bah, but by the devotion of the pilgrims, Burton went through the complicated ceremonies of the Hajj, describing in detail the actions and prayers which accompany the various rites. He measured the Ka’bah, entered its interior chamber and sketched a plan of it on the hem of his white pilgrim’s garb. He visited all the places of interest in the country around Makkah, made copious notes on the customs and dress of the inhabitants of the Hijaz and at last took passage to Bombay to write his famous three-volume work considered by many to be the classic English account of the Hajj. SNOUCK HURGRONJE The last great 19th-century European traveler to Makkah was the Dutch scholar Snouck Hurgronje, who spent a year in Makkah in 1884. His two-volume work on the history and ethnography of Makkah is the classic scientific account, and a mine of information about all aspects of the Hajj, particularly about pilgrims from the former Dutch possessions in the East Indies. All the European travelers who made the Pilgrimage to Makkah, from De Varthema to Hurgronje, had dressed in native costume and concealed their original nationality. The first European to enter the Holy City without disguising himself in any way was an English Muslim named Herman Bicknell. Unfortunately, although Bicknell must have had some intriguing encounters, dressed as he was in trousers and boiled shirt, until he put off his English identity with the assumption of the Ihram, he has left no account of his Hajj. But he is important in any survey of Western visitors to Makkah, for he marks a turning point in the relations of the West with the world of Islam. He is representative of the increasing number of Europeans who embraced Islam in the latter half of the 19th century-and embraced it sincerely. The 20th century abounds in sympathetic accounts by Western Muslims of their Pilgrimages to Makkah-those of Eldon Rutter, Harry St. John Philby, Lady Evelyn Cobboldperhaps the first European woman to make the Hajj-and, just thirty years ago, Thomas Abercrombie, a National Geographic photographer and writer who embraced Islam and later recorded the Pilgrimage for the magazine. But the most interesting modern pilgrim of all is Leopold Weiss, who made five pilgrimages between 1927 and 1932. But the story of Muhammad Asad, beautifully, told in his autobiography, The Road to Mecca, is for another day. !
CONVERSATION
THE WAR FOR MUSLIM MINDS GILLES KEPEL IS NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY. FOR OVER 25 YEARS HE HAS RUFFLED THE FEATHERS OF THE FRENCH ACADEMIC ESTABLISHMENT AND ISLAMIST IDEOLOGUES ALIKE. RECENTLY, HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE STASI COMMISSION WHICH PROPOSED THE BAN ON WEARING HIJAB IN FRENCH SCHOOLS. KEPEL SPOKE TO ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK ABOUT HIS LATEST BOOK AND HOW THE FUTURE OF ISLAM RESTS WITH EUROPE’S MUSLIM COMMUNITIES.
What was your motivation in writing The War for Muslim Minds? 9/11 has been described as a symbolic event epitomising Samuel Huntington’s thesis on the clash of civilisations, a notion Osama Bin Laden would agree with but for different reasons. This analysis is a hoax and I attempt to put things into perspective. 9/11, I believe, represents the struggle for hegemony over Muslim discourse. The attacks did not just come out of the blue. We need to reassess the chronology of events leading up to 9/11 from the failure of the Oslo peace process to the War on Terror. There is a link. On one hand, you have Huntington-ites and the Bin Laden-ites, and on the other hand you have conspiracy theorists who say that 9/11 was a Jewish plot or that it was only a pretext encouraged by the US to launch this War on Terror and develop American colonial governance over the Middle East. I want to deconstruct the multitude of discourses, especially Bin Laden’s and Ayman al-Zawahiri’s, Al Qaeda’s so-called ideologue. Bin Laden is the charismatic billionaire backer. But, the man with the brains is clearly Zawahiri. I also write on how the outcome of the Afghanistan jihad in the 1980s was the breeding ground for Bin Laden and his people. The Americans thought that after they stopped paying them, the jihad would end. Of course, it didn’t. Throughout the 1990s, jihadis believed they could duplicate the Afghan jihad model in their home countries. But it failed - in Algeria, Egypt and Bosnia. All these elements form a very complex picture about what is at stake in the Muslim world today - what is the dominant discourse and who is speaking in the name of Muslims and Islam? I avidly read the current ideological literature because they show how people think. In alZawahiri’s pamphlet, Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner, he starts with an analysis of how jihad failed everywhere in the 1990s because the jihadi vanguards of the ummah failed to mobilise the masses because they didn’t have the right slogan nor the resilience to with-
stand the authoritarian regimes. In 2000, I had chronicled, more or less in Zawahiri’s terms, why jihad had failed but I was lambasted in the press and accused of selling out to the Islamists. The Islamists who accuse me of being a Jew and an enemy of Islam. Tightrope walking is the neo-orientalist’s fate. As long as the insults come from both sides, I’m not worried! Zawahiri began to martyrdom operations to shock and generate grassroots appeal. He focused on a small group of devoted yet worldly militants who were educated enough to read flight manuals and who were indoctrinated with a Salafi understanding of Islam. This is precisely what Muhammad Atta was - a schizophrenic character, struggling to live in two worlds. Is the war for Muslims minds being fought as much on European soil, as it is on Muslim soil? How then do Zawahiri’s idealogy and discourse impact Europe? This is something that people do not pay enough attenQ - NEWS
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UOIF’s members started to behave like they were representatives of anyone called Ahmad or Fatima or Yasmin, which is a serious problem because it jeopardises the plurality of identities amongst Muslims and puts them in a box with UOIF written on it. tion to. In Salafist jihad, understanding the Muhammad Atta personality is more important than understanding Zawahiri or Bin Laden. How do we prevent another Atta? The Madrid bombers and the young man who stabbed Theo van Gogh are similar, albeit less sophisticated versions of Atta. It is a worrisome trend. But when two French journalists were taken hostage by the so-called Islamic Army in Iraq, French people of Muslim descent mobilised like never before. They denied the Islamic Army’s right to speak in their name when the Islamic Army said they would only release the hostages if the French ban on the headscarf was lifted. The hostage takers wrongly thought such a suggestion would win the hearts of Muslims in the West. This is indicative of the Zawahiri paradigm - an isolated vanguard seeking slogans to mobilise wider constituencies. Much to their dismay, I’m sure, French people of Muslim descent said, “We have no solidarity with you. Our primary solidarity is with our compatriots, the two journalists.” This public declaration did wonders for community relations. Only the month before, Ariel Sharon declared that French Jews were in danger because of rising anti-semitism amongst French Muslims. He suggested Jews leave France and seek refuge in Israel. This was met with fury from most Jewish organisations who said, “This is our agenda so don’t impose your views on us. Stay where you belong.” Similarly, French people of Muslim descent showed that they were as European and patriotic as their Jewish counterparts. We need French people of Muslim descent in the French Chamber of Deputies. We now have third generation North African Muslims who can become notable political personalities. Yet, their political parties never choose them as candidates. There is resistance at the local level. For instance, the Socialist Party fears losing voters to the extreme right if they select a candidate named, say, Abdal. How, then, does the French state deal with lack of representation? Nicholas Sarkozy, the former Minister of Interior created the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM). There were elections and the number of votes each mosque got was based on the number of square metres
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occupied by it. It was a ridiculous mechanism that allowed the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF), the Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in France (similar to the Muslim Association of Britain and the like) to control the Council and pose as the representative of the community. This body was only supposed to deal with religious functions - halal meat, burial, and mosque administration, but UOIF’s members started to behave like they were the representatives of anyone called Ahmad or Fatima or Yasmin, which is a serious problem because it jeopardises the plurality of identities amongst Muslims and puts them in a box with UOIF written on it. This does not correspond with reality at all. Some of your most influential work has been on the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimun). Are we seeing a resurgence of the Ikhwan. What is their role in Europe? There are different sides to this issue. There is the Ikhwan represented through its various fronts, such as the UOIF. Then there is the Tariq Ramadan phenomenon. Ramadan tried to create alliances with what remains of the extreme left and the anti-globalisation movement, through the European Social Forum process. His ultimate aim was still a Muslim Brother-type ideology. It is like the French communist party creating alliances in the old days, with people they nicknamed ‘the useful idiots’ in order to build up constituencies in support of, say, the Soviet Union. The Brothers are merely interested in becoming the necessary gatekeepers between the state and the populations they claim to represent. It is like the British Raj who would demand to see the village headman (and often used the Muslim headman against the Hindu and Sikh headman, as well as other ordinary Muslims). Within Islam, European Muslims can find the resources to adapt, not only for the sake of survival but to bring about an enlightened perspective that could have a positive snowball effect in Muslim countries. This is also the battle against the salafists who see Europe as a hunting ground. They want to build citadels of salafism, hoping for some kind of revival after the humiliation of the reconquista and the failure of the Ottoman Empire. In Turkey, even though [Erdogan’s ruling] AK Party originally derived its political views from the ideas of the Brotherhood, it is compelled to water itself down due to pressure from the electorate - the upwardly mobile Anatolian middle class who voted them in and who want to be part of Europe. On the other hand the most conservative and radical Islamist elements in Turkey have a number of MPs who believe getting into the European Union will boost those European Muslims who are taking a strong stand on the veil issue. What is the prognosis? I am an optimist. Q-News is such an important publication. I visited your offices almost ten years ago while doing research on an earlier book. Until today, Q-News is still leading a revolution with ideas, about identity and the future of Muslims in the West. Many people of Muslim descent are torn between their European identi-
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We listened to a number of testimonies that worried us. Everytime a salafist imam seized power in a mosque, we found problems developing at schools. Muslim kids started refusing to sit at the same table as ‘the kuffar’.We had to break this trend. When the Stasi commission first convened, most of us were against the legislation which as we thought would create unnecessary problems. However, we listened to a number of testimonies that worried us. Islamist groups were forcing young girls to wear the veil, causing clashes within the classroom. The classroom should be a place for young people to learn and be imbued with a strong sense of citizenship. An explicit divide was developing between the veiled girls, Christians, Jews and atheists. Everytime a salafist imam seized power in a mosque, we found problems developing at schools. Muslim kids started refusing to sit at the same table as ‘the kuffar’. We had to break this trend. This completely contradicts the purpose of schooling. Not because of the veil itself, of course, but because of the process at work behind it. The classroom is not for the development of religious identity. In fact, the vast majority of veiled girls took off their veils off when they entered school grounds even prior to this ban. ty. They feel blackmailed into a sort of closed-in definition of the self. They are told to close ranks against the enemy. If this challenge is not met, we are heading for big trouble. The Dutch have been hiding their head in the sand. They thought that apartheid, incidentally a Dutch word - would work. Everybody lived apart in his own community. Now we have a murdered van Gogh. In retaliation, they are torching mosques and Islamic schools. This isn’t multiculturalism. Everyone deserves a genuine shot at upward social mobility. But, a closed definition of the self, based only on ethnic, racial or religious terms denies the very existence of society because we view people as impervious to change and we take away what creates the splendour of mankind - our capacity to invent and adapt. What about those who choose to identify themselves by their faith? Can a French citizen allowed their faith to inform their Frenchness and vice versa? France has the highest number of citizens of Muslim descent in Europe. The census does not allow you to define yourself by religion because the information is irrelevant on the political level. The state is totally neutral. It does not finance anything related to religion. People should be free to practice or not practice.
Can European society get over the notion that Muslims are something of an indigestible minority? They are not a minority. I live with an Algerian woman and I don’t perceive her as the other. She’s just like me. I am half Czech and half Southern French. I see myself as French and European. What we do with our differences is the main question. I am very optimistic but we have to stop minoritising communities, or even thinking of Muslims as part of a separate community. When the definition of citizenship is encompassing enough, our differences are insignificant. But if we insist identity should be static then we’re in trouble because we become incapable of adjusting to the changing world. Be who you want to be but in doing so, you must accept that your Muslimness, Britishness, or Europeanness could change. France has changed due to the presence of so many nationalities. The notion of being French has changed. We should not let this agenda be hijacked by those who don’t have the best interests of our society at heart. ! The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and The West is published in the United Kingdom by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2004). Q - NEWS
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TARTAR SOURCE
AFTER SIX CENTURIES, POLAND’S MUSLIMS ARE STILL MISUNDERSTOOD, WRITES WOJTEK KOSC. he village’s only street, tightly flanked by two rows of low wooden houses, leads past an insignificant green building, also made of wood. Walking through a pleasant yard, one has to negotiate a path between old cherry trees that lead up to the entrance door, where visitors often catche a glimpse of a crescent shape atop the building before knocking. A jovial keeper opens the door and gestures visitors inside. There are Quran verses on the walls. The keeper points out a window which faces distant Makkah: “You may even see it, if you look hard enough,” he laughs. Welcome to Bohoniki, eastern Poland. Bohoniki, and nearby Kruszyniany, are most often mentioned because of their mosques, an unlikely feature of a village in Poland. Bohoniki and Kruszyniany have been Tartar villages since the 17th century, when King Jan Sobieski III allowed Tartars to settle there as a reward for their loyal service. Descendants of those people still live there, which is evident in the Asian features of the Bohoniki keeper. However, he says, “Our original Tartar blood gets thinner and thinner.” Yet the village mosques are still in operation, as Polish Muslims are not confined to these two villages, and they do not necessarily have to be Tartars, even though Tartars constitute the majority. They are organised in six religious communities: Warsaw, Bialystok, Bohoniki, Kruszyniany, Gdansk, and Gorzów Wielkopolski. They have three mosques: an 18th century one in Kruszyniany, a mid-19th century one in Bohoniki and a new mosque built in Gdansk in 1990. There are also prayer houses in Warsaw and Bialystok. “It’s very difficult to estimate the number of Muslims in Poland, because no census has been conducted thus far. A few years ago, the Polish Muslim Association intended to do it, but the questionnaire they came up with looked more like a police dossier than a declaration of religious creed,” says Marek Szymanowicz, a Muslim from Kraków.
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MISPERCEPTION AND MISUNDERSTANDING Abdulwahab Bouali, 31, takes care of the Bialystok prayer house. He is a member of the Muslim Students Association in Poland, a union of Muslim foreign students. Born in Algeria, he has lived in Poland for seventeen years and is a pilot who graduated of the Deblin Aviation School. “The prayer house I’m taking care of—and live in—will only serve its purpose until the mosque is built here in Bialystok,” he says. “What we’re doing here is ensuring local Muslims get a chance to practice their faith. We also organise lectures for people of other creeds, because the picture of Islam they get from TV is distorted. It is associated with terrorism and a lack of rights for women, but the truth is that Islam is the only creed that does assure women true rights.” The lectures, however, have been scarce, because the people that would potentially organise them are already full members of the Polish community; they have jobs and, therefore, their time is limited. Last year, there was only one lecture. PRESERVING THEIR CULTURE But Abdulwahab Bouali brought his religion from his native country. Most of the Polish Muslims, however, have been here for centuries. They can be considered a minority—not an ethnic, but a religious one. Their cultural and religious life is centered in Bialystok and the sur-
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rounding region, and in Gdansk. A small group of about 5000 people, they have maintained their cultural identity both under Communism and today. The Communist authorities hindered their activity by not allowing them to associate in a civil organisation. Before 1989, the only Tartar organisation was the Muslim Religious Association. In 1992, they formed the Association of Polish Tartars, which is headed now by two scholars: Dr Ali Miskiewicz from the University of Bialystok and Dr Selim Chazbijewicz, a poet and publicist based in Gdansk (who also works in the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, northern Poland). The association’s main goals are popularising knowledge about Polish Tartars using publications and the mass media and also preventing young people from leaving Tartar communities. The Polish Tartars’ Association has 120 members now, but is planning to cooperate with Belarussian and Lithuanian Tartars, as well as with members of other religious minorities. Since the early 1990s, there has been a tendency to underline the Tartar features of Polish Islam. There are other Muslim associations in Poland that are not connected to Tartars, such as the Shi’ite Association of Muslim Brothers, based in Pruszków, and the Association of Muslim Unity (also Shi’ite) and the Ahmadijja Muslim Association, both of which are from Warsaw. But it is the Tartars who seem to be the most active culturally and in terms of presenting Islam to the Poles (or rather, to Christians, as Tartars have Polish citizenship and are as Polish as anyone else). The most prominent cultural event of the Polish Tartars is Orienty Sokólskie, a 20-year-old tradition organised in Sokólka, near Bialystok, under the auspices of the local culture center. The event’s main features are lectures on Muslims’ history in Poland and the problems they face today. FACING THE DIFFICULTIES AHEAD These problems may seem minor, but as such a small community there is always the threat of losing cultural and religious identity. Keeping their faith alive requires educated clergy, and this is what Muslims lack. There is only a handful of people who can conduct religious rituals, and they are aged. In order to educate clergy for the Muslim communities in Central and Eastern Europe, a Koran school is being built in Bialystok. The progress is slow, because construction began without state or local government subsidies, and funds are running low. Another problem is the mosque in Bohoniki. Since it dates back to the mid-19th century and is considered a historical monument, any renovation for pilgrims requires consent from the local authorities. Wider access to the mass media would certainly augment Poles’ knowledge about this little-known community, but getting to the media seems to be tougher than building a mosque. The Polish state did not hear pleas for greater funding for celebrations of the 600th anniversary of the Tartars’ settlement in Poland (possibly because most Poles associate the arrival of the Tartars with their preceding scorched-earth invasions). Selim Chazbijewicz’s idea of guaranteeing Tartars one seat in the Sejm seems totally unrealistic in this context. “Islam is alien to Poles,” says Abdulwahab Bouali. “People are still baffled when they see a Muslim woman on the bus. But a few more years and it will be like in France or Germany; normal, that is.” Less misunderstanding and more respect is what Polish Muslims need—whether they have been here for centuries or just years. !
TRAVEL
WOODEN MOSQUES AND SIGN LANGUAGE FARRUKH YOUNUS EXPLORES POLAND’S MUSLIM COUNTRYSIDE AND FINDS A FAST TALKING, JEAN WEARING TARTAR AND A SMILING HAJJI TO SHOW HIM AROUND. rriving in Bohoniki, I prepared myself for some waiting as the taxi driver asked around for directions to the mosque. Bohoniki is a small hamlet with a cobblestone main street with homes on either side. The mosque is located in the “centre of town”. My timing was perfect - it was Friday and I was in time for Friday prayers. I was expecting a small congregation gathering at the mosque only to find one of the gates to the mosque locked and its front door locked. Maybe, I was late. I snapped some and sighed, disheartened. The driver, in a compassionate gesture of pity, indicated with hand signals that he would approach the nearby houses to find someone, anyone. Moments later, a large Tartar-looking lady with a huge smile emerged from a nearby home, dressed in three-quarter length jeans wearing a hat. She opened the mosque for me. Then she decided that her dress wasn’t quite appropriate and donned a long Turkish style coat and one of those gaudy headscarves, which notoriously lack any sense of design. She launched enthusiastically into a history of the mosque and of Muslims in Poland. The building itself was quite small. To the front, a small window indicated the qibla. The walls were made of timber, which made the building look more like Swedish saunas were it not for the photos of Mecca and framed passages from the Quran on the walls. The floor was covered with aging carpets and prayer mats and the building looked badly in need of restoration, though I wondered whether there would be any real benefit since this pleasant Tartar and I seemed to be the only Muslims in the city. The mosque had a cosy atmosphere and even though I didn’t understand a word the lady spoke, her energetic explanation of the history of Muslims in Poland, brought me incredible joy. The only words we understood when we met briefly in Bohoniki was Salam Alaikum. Driving onwards through the rural hamlets, we arrived in Kruszyniany, a small town again greeted me with the requisite single road going through it. The 18th century mosque was fronted with a large courtyard and, as with the Bohoniki mosque, bordered farmland. A friendly looking man, who of course didn’t speak a word of English, greeted us. Pointing at myself, in a vain attempt to introduce myself, I said, “Farrukh, my name is Fa-rukh”. He replied
A
The mosque looked more like Swedish saunas were it not for the photos of Makkah and framed passages from the Quran on the walls.
with a radiant smile, pointing to himself saying ‘Hajji! Hajji!’ Our sign language seemed to be failing, but a moment later he presented a couple of photos one of him at Mecca, and one of him at Medina. We could not have a meaningful conversation but we became instant friends. There is great pride and heritage at Kruszyniany mosque. Hajji showed me a Quran dating from the 18th century that had been in his family for generations. His daughter Ania aged 15, and his niece Tamara aged 13, took over as my guides. Pleased to see a non-Polish person and eager to practice their schoolbook English, they took me on a tour of the Muslim cemetery (although they were distracted by my camera). In the course of discussions, I managed to nearly insult Tamara. Ania looked very Polish, pale white, with telltale features. Tamara however looked like she was from Southeast Asia. As I communicated these thoughts to Tamara through sign language and broken English, Ania understood exactly what I was saying, as a serious how-dare-you-say-that look Polish look moved across her face. Her glowing smile turned to shock. I bid a hasty retreat from my ethnographic analysis, diplomatically retracting my remark suggesting that I was just teasing her, yet ever fearful that if I turned my back, she might jump me. As we left Kruszyniany mosque, Ania and Tamara waved goodbye, Hajji gleamed happily, and we drove off at speeds likely to shame speedy Gonzalez. ! Q - NEWS
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CORRESPONDANCE
LETTER FROM JERUSALEM come from a troubled and heavy place. Jerusalem is the centre of three monotheistic world religions and yet this heaviness is felt in everyday life. From my home, it takes just minutes to visit the numerous places where suicide bombers have struck. Wherever I am in the world, I call home several times a day to see if my family is safe. There is no denying the evil aspects of Israel. Everyday, settlers harass Palestinians and the army bombs different Palestinians cities. I am a Jew but I am a resister of this occupation. I have been part of the peace movement since the late 1970s, being among the first to initiate a non-violent resistance to the occupation in solidarity with the Palestinians. But the struggle to end the occupation, although necessary, is merely one step to peace. The real question is, how do we build and sustain peace? Peace is not the end of war between states, or the creation of two states but also the creation of social justice for all, including women, children and other marginalised people who are standing on the fringe. When there is a struggle for equality, the main responsibility lies with the people who are in the mainstream, the people with power. As a white, Jewish woman, I am part of this powerful priviledged class in Israel. To bring about change, I must deconstruct part of my power. But these are very troubling times. Problems exist not only between Israel and Palestine, but within Israel as well, where we have witnessed the slow destruction of the welfare state, the rise of fascism, fanatic nationalism and fundamentalism and a dangerous form of militarism. All these have combined to result in destruction of life and the very energy that sustains life. In these times of despair, the resistance movement is working hard yet few know about it. We are marginalised in our own society. We often demonstrate against the wall which is being built using alot of money. It is said the wall is being built to protect Israel but really the wall will cut off the Palestinian states, separate Palestinians from their lands and create ghettos. We often help farmers harvest their
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olives and protect them from Jewish settlers. We have helped rebuild demolished houses. We go to Ariel Sharon’s farm with members of Yesh Gvul (military refuseniks). We demand that Sharon cofesses his crimes during Yom Kippur when the Jewish people fast and ask forgiveness from God, not for their crimes against God but for their crimes against fellow human beings. We attend the trials of refuseniks who refuse to serve and are being held in jail. We attend seminars on the demilitarisation of our society. We try to spread the message that our militarised society is dangerously pervading our daily lives. There are many efforts for a better Israel. Women are in the forefront of these activities. During the first Intifada, we created the first women’s resistance movement. Every Friday, we stand in black saying ‘end the occupation’. We remind Israelis that there is an ongoing occupation. During the first Intifada, we were called ‘whores of Arafat’, ‘Arab lovers’ and ‘prostitutes’. This Intifada, we are called traitors. Some people don’t say anything. They don’t understand us. I may be a resister but I belong to the occupying force. I have no moral right to criticise the ways in which Palestinians choose to fight against the occupation. But this violence, which is an outcome of the violent act and process of the occupation, heightens our existential fear. The government, even Barak, manipulate the public opinion in such a way that many Israelis really believe that in the last
Camp David, we gave them all and they answered with violence. We did not give them all. We did not give them a viable Palestinian state. Israeli society doesn’t deal with root causes. It doesn’t understand that the two state solution, including East Jerusalem is a compromise and there is nothing less than that for Palestinians. We did not properly deal with the issue of ‘right of return’. We need to recognise this right and then deal with it politically. We have a tragedy of two people. When I close my eyes and think of 1948, all I can see is a tragedy. Palestinian refugees expelled, running for their lives. And Jewish refuges coming in. This is where we are connected. We must discuss this openly. I am looking for tikkun - repair, a central value in Judaism, of the world. Spiritually, Jewish Israeli policy is in a very tragic place. Our powerful army became a substitute for our historical feeling of being the oppressed. In Israel, the army’s role as protector, filled the void that victimhood created. This sense of victimhood is justified because we were once victims in Europe but having a Jewish state has not been enough to liberate ourselves from our history. We will never achieve this until we free ourselves spiritually. This is something I hope the Palestinians will learn from us. When they have their own state, it is only the first step to inner freedom. When you don’t genuinely process your inner vulnerability and your history as victims and you cling to armed power, it becomes a very destructive tool. We have a long way to go for peace in our region. Today, more than ever, I fear that we are further and further from the place where we can create deep change. We need your help. Pressurise your governments into creating policies that will influence the Israeli government to choose justice for Palestinians, social justice in Israel and peace. Jerusalem comes from the word shalem. In Hebrew, the word shalem and peace are the same. This has to be the place for world peace. ! Yvonne Deutch
COUNSEL
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate. May His abundant blessing and most perfect of peace be on His Beloved Prophet, the best of creation, and his family, companions and followers. DONATING BLOOD MUFTI MUHAMMAD IBN ADAM AL-KAWTHARI
Are we allowed to donate blood? It is a well known principle of Shariah that all the organs and parts of a human body whether one is a Muslim or a nonMuslim are sacred and must not be tampered with. To take benefit from any part of a human without a need is unlawful. This also includes blood, for it is an integral part of a human. There are two reasons for the impermissibility of taking benefit from another person’s blood. Firstly, it is sacred like all other parts of a human. Allah Most High says:”And verily we have honoured the children of Adam” (Surah al-Isra, V.70). Secondly, blood (when taken out) is impure and to derive benefit from something that is impure is unlawful. Allah Most High says: “Say: ‘I find not in the message received by me by inspiration any (meat) forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, unless it be dead meat, or blood poured forth, or the flesh of swine, for it is impure’” (Surah al-An’am, 145). Sayyiduna Imam Shafi’i states: “If one infused blood under the skin and skin grew on it, it will become obligatory to extract that blood and repeat all the prayers that were performed after infusion”. (al-Umm, 1/54). Due to the above, under normal circumstances it will be impermissible to transfuse the blood of one person in to the body of another. Sanctity of human parts demands this, as well as the impure element in blood. THE EXCEPTION, HOWEVER However, Islam is a religion of mercy and caters for all the problems faced by humanity. It acknowledges the needs of people, thus gives concessions and dispensations wherever needed. Allah Most High says: “On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it can bear”. (al-Baqarah, 286). The famous principle of Fiqh states: “Necessity makes prohibition lawful” (See: Ibn Nujaym, al-Ashbah wa al-Naza’ir, P. 85 ). Although blood is a component part of a human body yet the manner of its transfusion does not require any surgical procedures in the body, rather it is drawn and transfused by means of injection, it is akin to human milk extracted without any surgical procedures. In appreciation of a child’s need, Islam regarded this milk a means of nourishment
WHAT YOU
OUGHT TO
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for it, and the mother is obliged to feed the baby this very milk. Even for adults, women’s milk has been made lawful for medical purposes, as stated in the text of alFatawa al-Hindiyya. THE RULING
Hence, it can be said that blood transfusion is lawful as a necessity just as Islamic law has permitted women’s milk for infants out of necessity, despite it being part of a human body. In light of the foregoing, it would be permitted to donate and transfuse blood under the following conditions: the donor is mature and sane, the donor willingly donates his blood. If he is compelled to do so, it will not be permissible, there is no apparent risk to the life or health of the donor, there is absolute necessity in donating blood in that there is a definite risk to the life of a patient, and in the opinion of the medical expert, there is no other way in saving his/her life, there is a need for it, that is, there is no risk to the life, but in the opinion of the experts, restoration of health may not be possible without it, there is no reasonable alternative, it is not for the sake of beatification or any other additional benefit, transfusion of blood must not be carried out by way of buying and selling, for trading in human parts is never permissible. However, if one is in need of blood desperately and the only means to obtain the blood is to purchase it, then only will it be permissible to pay for the blood. This is discussed further in the following section BUYING AND SELLING BLOOD
It is unlawful to buy and sell blood for the purpose of transfusion. It is part of a human body and all parts of a human are sacred, thus it is contrary to its honour and respect to disgrace it by trading in it”. (alKasani, Bada’i al-Sana’i, 5/145). However, in case of necessity, if one is unable to obtain blood except by purchasing it, then it will be permissible to purchase it, but the provider will still be sinful. (Durr al-Mukhtar, 4/113). This ruling also serves as prevention to the evil of trading in blood, where for the sake of
a small amount of money; poor and desperate people sell their blood. Some go the extent where they put themselves in danger, and as mentioned earlier, it will only be permissible to donate or give blood if the donor’s life or health is not affected. TRANSFUSION OF A NON-MUSLIM’S BLOOD In principle, there is no difference between the transfusion of Muslim’s and a nonMuslim’s blood, thus both are permissible. However, scholars recommend that one should abstain from the blood of unbelievers, transgressors and sinners, when reasonably possible, for there is a risk that the evil effects found in such people may affect the one in whom the blood is transfused. Classical scholars also disliked the breastfeeding of a child by a sinning and transgressing woman. BLOOD TRANSFUSION BETWEEN FAMILIES
Blood transfusion cannot be considered in any way to be a cause of creating blood relationship between the two people involved, thus it is perfectly lawful to transfuse the blood of the husband into the wife or vice versa, and this will not effect their marriage in any way. Similarly, there will be no relationship between the one who donated the blood and the one in whom it was transfused, thus marriage between the two will be permissible, for they are regarded as strangers. The reason for this is that, Islam has restricts relationship and the impermissibility to marry with lineage and fosterage, thus it is not permissible to exceed these two. From all of the foregoing, we learn that donating and transfusing blood will be permissible in cases of need and necessity (along with the other conditions stipulated above). It will not be permissible to use it for the purpose of beatification or merely gaining strength. It is also impermissible to buy and sell blood. Today we see the establishment of blood banks where the blood of different people is stored and used whenever needed. The advantage of these banks is that it gives them an opportunity to store the different types of blood and then match it with the blood of the one in need. From a Shariah perspective, it will not be permissible for one to sell his/her blood to the bank; rather it must be donated freely. Also, one must determine that his/her blood (and the blood in that particular bank) is only used in cases of need and necessity, and not for beatification purposes. And Allah knows best. ! Imam Kawthari, and other scholars answer questions through www.sunnipath.com where the full and detailed answer to the above question can be found. Q - NEWS
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V O X
P O P U L I TRIBALISM
Letter Of The Month
Got something to
SAY? We’ve something to
GIVE! The writer of the latest Letter of the Month receives a copy of Youssou N’Dour’s new album, Egypt
Write to Q-News, PO Box 4295, London W1A 7YH letters@q-news.com 48 | Q - NEWS
Like a number of individuals, I would like to express disappointment at the mindset of almost exclusive self-interest within parts of the Muslim community. This mindset was reflected by the value systems used by some organisations, to varying degrees, through which they graded candidates in this year’s EU elections. By using criteria that accounted only for the impact that a candidates position might have had on Muslims whilst ignoring the rest of humankind (i.e. ‘the other’) and by also ignoring the environment, the deeper message being handed out was that we should care only for our own kind. Indeed if all non-Muslims were to take from this example they would mostly ignore the impact that a candidates policies might have on the Muslim community and on the environment, upon which all of life depends, and they would care only for their own small group. Thankfully, there are nonMuslims who have a mindset that is wiser than ours, that we thus benefit from. Given that one of the greatest threats that humanity faces is climate change (causing 150,000 deaths a year), and that Muslims are but one group of people who can feel pain in a world that is inter-connected, I hope that the Muslim-centric position taken up by certain groups and individuals will, inside and outside elections, transform into a more inclusive, more compassionate and thus more Islamic one. As this infectious, non-competitive attitude based on love permeates throughout our society, only then will the system we live in begin to benefit us all. On this note, I would like to thank Q-news for its sincere efforts in acting as a vehicle for constructive dialogue, discus-
sion and introspection in the challenging times that we face. Muzammal Hussain Brighton
BACHELORS I recently picked up a copy of Q-News, and was particularly interested by Ayisha Ali’s article, Where are all the eligible bachelors? Firstly, can I say that while I was personally concerned by Ms. Ali’s clear opinion that liberal minded, forward thinking Muslim bachelors are a rear breed (as many of my friends and I believe we fall into this category, albeit we don’t fulfill all her stringent prerequisites), I have come to learn that she may have a point. I say this not because the issue has been apparent to me personally, but because I have two sisters, both of whom seem to share exactly the same opinion, and would empathise 100% with what Ms. Ali has written. Let me say, that we are an Iranian family brought up in London. Islam is important in our lives, but we also must live in the realities of daily life in a cosmopolitan city like London. My sisters are very forward thinking people, and have found that many Muslim men find this hard to accept. This has been so much the case, that one of my sister’s returned to Iran for a long time and eventually married there. The other has given up hope all together in the Muslim community. I would be very interested in discussing this issue further with Ms. Ali. It is a real shame that Muslim men generate this perception and I believe it is time that we try to address the issues that she so eloquently has set out. Fariborz Ahmad Tadayon London Ayisha Ali articulated what so many of us think but dare not say. Finding a decent life partner is hard enough. On top of that,
marriages are breaking down left, right and centre. Most of us are just afraid to get married, let alone go through the process of finding someone worth marrying. Nadine Khan Essex
A CUT ABOVE The December edition was one your best in recent times. I have always told my colleagues that your magazine has been at the cutting edge of shaping British Muslim discourse since its founding in the early nineties when many of us were struggling, confused and humourless young people at university. You have never been afraid to discuss the thorny issues which is what makes you credible compared to the other Muslim magazines in this country. I have no doubt that it will be a tremendous loss to British Islam should Q-News be forced to crumble due to lack of funds. Naeem Abbasi Bradford
YOUSSOU Many thanks, to you and your collaborators, for all the hard work that went into the Shakespeare and Islam season. The idea itself was brilliant. To then see the whole thing fall into place so successfully was beautiful, a real pleasure. And it brought lots of Muslims to the Globe, which can’t be a bad thing. Likewise, may you be blessed for giving coverage to Youssou N’Dour and his new album. I am a schoolteacher, and it has been exam time recently. Impressed by the reviews, my wife went out and bought me a copy of ‘Egypt’ for my birthday. Its soulful Afro-Arab sounds have proved a great companion while working through those huge piles of marking! Haroon Shirwani Eton College Windsor, Berkshire
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THE AMERICAN PEOPLE VOTE FOR THE SALVATION OF MUSLIMS FRANKLY, ANYONE WHO FAILS TO SEE THE GIFT AMERICA HAS GIVEN US IS SIMPLY IN DENIAL, ARGUES NAUSHAAD SULIMAN.
he American people have decided and Muslims should rejoice. They have chosen for us the one man who can show the way to salvation. By continuing his father’s New World Order, George Bush Jr has placed Islam and Muslims at the centre of his policy universe. Make no mistake (as Dubya himself often remarks), when the President thinks about the world, we are not far from his thoughts. Who doesn’t know that the ummah is at a low? Terrorism is carried out in our name. Mosques do not deliver the kind of sanctuary that they should. Young people are disillusioned with imams and the sermons they deliver. Older Muslims are disappointed with the lack of tradition and culture in the younger generation. We have let misogyny creep into our thoughts and behaviour. We attach labels to ourselves like they were brand name shirts - Salafi, Madhhabi, TJ, Ikhwani - distinguishing which methodology we subscribe to rather than accepting our differences and realising that the deen is vast and can accommodate many ideas and interpretations. We are willing to come to blows over who we believe is correct. Frankly, we find something as simple as obeying parking laws on jummah difficult. We need help. We need therapy, the kind of therapy that even Dr. Phil cannot deliver. We need George W. Bush-style therapy. And with the grace of God, sent through the fingers of the American voters, we now have the means to salvation. Allah has in His infinite mercy given us different means to get to paradise. Absolute and eternal joy comes at a price. Souls need to be purified before they may enter this blessed place. At the hands of the re-elected Emperor of the Civilised World, we will be subjugated to growing militancy in the world, further conflict, more attacks on civil liberties in the US and abroad - as the far reaching hand of US policy has a bad habit of meddling its way into the domestic politics of other countries, more detentions and deportations, a growing chasm between rich and poor, more cuts to social services for Americans so that the war on terror can be funded, and more death in the name of security. A
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director’s chair is no doubt being warmed for Dubya at Halliburton and The Carlyle Group. On the surface, it looks like we’re in trouble. Perhaps for our earthly state we actually do have serious reason for concern. In spiritual terms, however, this might actually be a moment, not of darkness, but of light. God willing, under the decisive hands of President Bush, Muslims will begin their purification in this life, and God willing, will be spared some hardship in the next. Allah has placed George in the Emperor’s throne once again for a reason. Perhaps this is our kaffara - our expiation for deviating from the straight path. Maybe what we need to do is live with this bully - along with his war on terror and the “New American Century” and we might be a little closer to gaining everlasting felicity. Perhaps Allah is making it easy on us. Imagine, paradise just for living with George. Allah tests those that he loves. Election night was definitely a test for keeping our tongues sweet with dhikr, rather than black with expletives. The next four years will be a test too. And doesn’t God show his love through trial and tests? I made extra dua during taraweeh prayers that night, asking Allah to make it easy on the Muslims by granting us a Kerry victory. But, as we read the results at suhur, we knew that four more years of dysfunctional leadership was unavoidable. After cursing the fifty-nine million that voted Republican (and then asking forgiveness), we need to move on. Accepting Dubya as a kaffara is a way to deal with the Election 2004. When someone close to us dies, we look for a silver lining on the cloud and hope that that person’s passing will take them to a better place. God willing, the tragic death of democracy and freedom as a result of the November election will take us to a better place too. May Allah protect us and give us ease in this time of eroding human rights, yellow alerts and imperial hubris. Ameen. " The writer is a Canadian primary school educator.