MAY 2006| RABI’ AL-THANI 1427 |NO.366

MAY 2006|RABI’ AL-THANI 1427|NO.366 UK£2.50 | US$5.00 |RM10.00

NAZIM BAKSH

Carnival of Caricatures MUHAMMAD AL-YAQOUBI On Returning to God SUMA DIN The Promise and Peril of the Nasheed Industry SEAN GALLAGHER Muslim China’s Modern Face HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES Celebrating a Common Treasure AMINA NAWAZ Heckling for Allah

Habib Ali al-Jifri

The Mercy Warrior

FUAD NAHDI

EDITORIAL

FROM THE PULPIT P

erhaps the biggest challenge facing Muslims in contemporary times is to enunciate the role and status of the Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be blessings and peace, in the religious consciousness of Muslims.

As the Danish caricature fiasco has shown, failure to understand, appreciate and respect the high regard all Muslims have for their Prophet has led to a lot of misunderstanding, pain and conflict.

To a certain extent the problem is historical: no other historical figure has had such bad press in the West as the Prophet of Islam. From the Middle Ages up to very recent times, depiction of him in European controversial literature has been obnoxious, depraved and irresponsible.

This, coupled with the culture of cynicism, has desperately clouded the minds of most Westerners from understanding the great importance of Muhammad in Muslim religious life.

Failure to comprehend the reasons and depth of Muslim veneration for the Prophet is a serious flaw in appreciating the essence of Islam. It is the love of the Prophet that makes the faith extraordinary: it is the spontaneous human emotion, repressed at some point by the austerity of the doctrine of God as developed in theology, that has its full outlet - a warm human emotion which the peasant can share with the mystic, the learned with the student.

Modern men, especially those who come from a secularised Christian background, find it difficult to understand both the veneration of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and his role as the prototype of Muslim religious and spiritual life. The reason for this difficulty is that the spiritual nature of the Prophet is hidden in his human one and his purely spiritual function is hidden in his duties as the guide of men and the leader of a community. It was the function of the Prophet to be, not only a spiritual guide, but also the organiser of a new social order with all that such a function implies. And it is precisely this aspect of his being that veils his purely spiritual dimension from foreign eyes.

Outsiders have understood his political genius, his power of oratory, his great statesmanship, but few have understood how he could be the religious and spiritual guide and how his life could be emulated by those who aspire to sanctity. This is particularly true in the modern world in which religion is separated from other domains of life and most modern men can hardly imagine how a spiritual being could also be immersed in the most intense political and social activity.

Today, however, the biggest responsibility for Muslims is to redress the situation. But we can only convince our neighbours of the status and honour of the Prophet, peace be upon him, if we honour him ourselves first. Qadi ‘Iyad ibn Musa al-Yahsubi points out that someone who loves a person prefers them and prefers what they like. Otherwise, he is a pretender, insincere in his love. Someone who has true love of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, will manifest the following signs - “that he will emulate him, apply his sunnah, follow his words and deeds, obey his commands and avoid his prohibitions and take on his adab in ease and hardship, joy and despair.”

No other aspect of Islam is more powerful, more potent and more attractive than our love for the Messenger of God for it reflects our status, represents our reality and ensures our Hereafter.

And there is no better way of preparing and nurturing this love - and expressing it - than through the mawlid, the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday.

Muslims, particularly those living in the West, must harness their intellectual and creative resources and find new imaginative ways in which to articulate and share our love for the “Mercy upon mankind” with our neighbours. It should be clear among our young people that love of the Prophet is incumbent upon all and especially those who aspire towards a life of success. This love must not be understood in an individualistic sense. Rather, we love the Prophet because he symbolises that harmony and beauty that pervades all things, and displays in their fullness those virtues, the attainment of which allow man to realise his theomorphic nature.

“Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet, O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation” [33:56]

Q - NEWS

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CONTENTS 6 Vox Populi Q-Readers take on the Danish cartoon controversy the Muslim reaction, Afghan apostasy, anti-semitism and the GayMuslim divide.

9 Classic Q

Publisher Fuad Nahdi Editor Fareena Alam Contributing Editors Abdul-Rehman Malik Affan Chowdhry Nabila Munawar Fozia Bora Art Director Aiysha Malik Administrative Assistant Rizwan Rahman Events Coordinator Waheed Malik Featuring Farzina Alam Nazim Baksh Suma Din Sean Gallagher David Gillett Mohamed Hussain Amina Nawaz Farish Nour Adam Goren Chris Sands Muhammad Yaqoubi Mujadad Zaman

It’ss the natural way!

Tawfiq Khan says like he sees it: boys and girls are different, and no amount of social engineering or verbal tinkering can change alter that. Fair enough, but what does he actually mean?

10 Upfront The Sultan’ss Elephant A extarordinary theatrical event fantastical, mechanical and counterintuitive - takes to London streets. Prepare to be amazed and enchanted.

11 Diary Amina Nawaz on London’s dwindling Samaritans, growing old and the dangers of mixing coffee and procrastination.

12 Q-Notes Remembering Ali Farka Toure; Celebrating Muslim women; and Ayaan Hirsi Ali gets her tongue in a knot again.

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15 Scrutiny Who’ss the most knowing thinker of all?

Mohamed M. Husain on which public Muslim intellectual deserves our ear.

When heckler ruin a good night. Amina Nawaz takes on her local loud-mouth Muslim hecklers and finds that a deft touch and bit of wisdom go a long way.

So who’ss living in the ‘gghetto’ now?

Farish Noor find on why European intellectuals are obsessed with whether Here Muslim go to the opera or not. “H nothing is safe; there is no freedom”.

Chris Sands reports from Afghanistan on the state of religiosu freedom in the aftermath of the Abdul Rahman apostasy case. Why I will not send my children to an Islamic school. Farzina Alam recalls her eager rush to experience spiritual enlightenment at a Muslim faith school.

Years later, she is still jaded by the experience.

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Remembering Ali Farka Toure, Page 10

Muslim China’ss modern face, pg 23

Muslim China’ss Modern Face Sean Gallagher is a photographer who chronicles the intersection of the sacred and the profane, the ancient and the modern. His remarkable pictures document the coming-out of contemporary Islam in China.They show a confident people who aren’t afraid to wear the faith on their sleeve.

27 We do it because we love God” “W The Right Revd David Gillett, Chair of the nascent Christian Muslim Forum says he and his partners are undeterred by their critics.This is a partnership of equals whose members are under no illusions they have a long road to travel before they earn the legitimacy they desire.

30 Carnival of Caricatures Muslims are told being laughed at is the price you have to pay to be included in modern society.It’s time to think again. Nazim Baksh explores the deadly politics of humour.

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37 Habib Ali al-Jifri, The Mercy Warrior Abdul-Rehman Malik reports from London, Copenhagen and Abu Dhabi about a spiritual activist on a mission to unite hearts across the so-called East-West divide.

The Day the Music Died Are contemporary Muslims performers recreating the same MTV-style hype that their brand of religiously-inspired music was supposed to spurn? With nasheed music become increasingly slick and corporate, Suma Din reports on a growing concern that this promising industry has lost its bearings.

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The Day the Music Died, pg 33

The Loss of a Common Treasure A remarkable group of people came to honour the legacy of the late Dr Zaki Badawi. In his moving eulogy, HRH The Prince of Wales spoke of Dr Badawi’s desire to reconcile hearts to the way of God and to see faith not just as a common treasure but a means to give beauty and truth back to the world.

44 Remembering Al-Hajjah Farizah Rabbat Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi mourns the loss of his wife and shares his “grief and sorrow upon the loss of my heart.”

46 Review Film: The Family That Walks On All Fours. Adam Goren finds a new

documentary examining a family of Kurdish Muslim “quadrupeds” a disturbing attempt to legitimise scientific voyeurism.

aesthetics and beauty in the built environment. It’s something, he contends, Islamic civilisation has a lot to say about.

Books: Infrastructure Mujadad Zaman finds that Brian Hayes’ examination of the urban landscape provides a much-needed starting point for re-examining

Write Mind: What International Community? Farish Noor puts on his detective cap and searches for the mysterious International Community.

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V O X

P O P U L I Muslims and gays Letter of the month

Got something to

SAY? We have something to

GIVE! The writer of the Letter of the Month receives a DVD copy of Le Grand Voyage by Ismael Ferroukhi, on general release from 27th February 2006.

Write to Q-News, PO Box 4295, London W1A 7YH or letters@q-news.com Letters may be edited for length and coherence.

6 | Q - NEWS

Reading a recent story in The Times, I was intrigued by a remark attributed to Peter Tatchell, the well-known spokesperson for the gay rights movement. The context was a report on some comments made by a senior Muslim cleric in which he questioned the wisdom of legal recognition for gay partnerships. I have my own opinions on this subject, but they are not the point at issue. In general, of course, it is inappropriate to take a view about other people’s personal lives, and I shall certainly refrain from doing that.

What struck me, however, was that Mr Tatchell was quotes as saying it was “a tragedy that one minority should attack another".

This seems to me very much a case of confusing the categories falsely comparing things that are intrinsically different. I myself am neither Muslim nor gay and so would hope to be credited with some objectivity in the question.

But nevertheless I recognise that Islam is a religious faith, fourteen centuries old. Since its birth, it was been the inspiration for art, poetry, music, architecture, scientific discovery, military conquest and the foundation of great civilisations such as Muslim Spain and the Mogul Empire in India.

The Muslim religion has been for countless millions of people a path by which they sought eternal truth and purpose in their lives.

At the present time, millions and millions throughout the world, from professors of physics to peasant farmers, are united by Islam in prostrating themselves everyday before Almighty God and praying for understanding and peace and the wisdom and patience to accept sufferings of life.

It seems to be inconceivable that Muslims in Britain or anywhere else should think of themselves a “minority” in any sense comparable to Mr Tatchell’s minority, the gay community. The one is an ancient and beautiful religious

faith, the other a section of society with sexual tastes not shared by the majority. The story reminded me of something else that appeared in one of the “quality” newspapers recently, an article by a regular columnist in which she expressed the view that when young women wear the Muslim veil, that is a gesture of youthful rebellion similar to the fashion for girls to display their knickers above the waistline of their jeans.

I would be surprised if I were the only person to find this opinion eccentric to say the least.

In a free society such as ours some people believe in God and some do not, and each individual is at liberty to believe in and practice a religious faith, or not, as he or she sees fit. But it is surely depressing when we have p[public figures and journalists, people who would presumably see themselves as playing some part in moulding opinion, who do not actually know what a religious faith is, and are incapable of distinguishing it from a teenage fashion fad or a minority sexual appetite. Or in other words, have no concept of the difference between what is serious and abiding and what is not.

Patrick G. Lee, Surrey, UK

Muslim anarchists I read with great interest and appreciation the fine comment by Fareena Alam entitled, ‘Why I reject the anarchists who claim to speak for Islam’ in the Observer newspaper. I have worked all over the world in many Muslim countries. I wish more people understood your wonderful faith, ancient culture (you taught us everything), and dedication. My best wishes to Q-News.

Diana de Marco, Umbria, Italy Fareena Alam’s article in the Observer was an excellently balanced piece. I was particularly drawn to some of the exciting ideas put forward by the Islamic scholars you quote, such as Abdallah bin Bayyah, Zaid

Shakir and Hamza Yusuf. After 9/11 and the hysterical reaction in the media and amongst the general public to Islam, I decided like many people that I would like to know more about Islam, as both a civilisation and a faith.

I was brought up a Catholic but now consider myself an atheist.

What I discovered in my reading was what I had already been told elsewhere - that Mohammed was a remarkable man, wise, peaceful and charitable. The story of how Mohammed finally came to take Mecca, armed with nothing more than white robes and accompanied by thousands of fellow disciples, was a particular favourite and reminded me of the modern achievements of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. However, I feel that we in the ‘West’ need to hear those stories of Islam and come to know them as well as any concerning Moses, Jesus or St. Paul. I get the impression that many people here in Britain and in America have little understanding of Islam and therefore, find it all to easy to think of it as alien and different, when as you point out in your piece, we are all children of Abraham. I assume that a narrow minded media, who are more interested in scaremongering and hearsay than history and fact, provide the major obstacle to greater understanding of Islamic culture.

However, the greater our understanding of the Islamic narrative, the greater the harmony that can be achieved between different communities. I’m sure you and your colleagues at Q-News already work on these types of projects, but I just wanted to add my thoughts to the debate.

Brian O’Hagan, Worthing, UK

Afghan Convert I cannot hear enough of my fellow Muslims complaining about the double standards of the West in their dealing with the Muslims. Although many of the complaints are valid, it is worrying that we Muslims have

stopped looking at how we behave. Whereas western Muslims are enjoying the fruits of freedom of speech and belief, Abdul Rahman an Afghan convert to Christianity is being tried for apostasy. Many organisations (MCB, FOSIS, MAB etc.) which pretend to act as flag bearers of Islam have not spoken out against this and it is only the ‘silent majority’ which seems to have more humanity in them is complaining. Moreover it is interesting to see how ‘Islamic’ jurists prefer a couple of unspecified ahadith reports and the opinions of some of the most hard-line medieval jurists over clear and emphatic Quranic verses (2:256, 10:99, 11;28, 88:2122, 42:28, 13:40, 27:92, 18:29) exhorting freedom of belief. This just goes on to show the huge gap between the archaic formulations which some extremists insist on enforcing on others and the Islamic spirit which is in the hearts of millions of peaceful Muslims. In the end we are all children of Adam and as a Muslim I believe that any religious belief is not meaningful if it does not if it does not come through personal conviction, contemplation and a conscious effort to love and obey God. Hariz Aziz, Coventry, UK

Cartoon Poll I just saw the poll on the QNews website which asks if the cartoons or the reactions of some Muslims has caused more damage to the reputation of the Prophet (saw). I am surprised at the number of people who think the cartoons did more damage than the reaction of those few Muslims who committed a gross misconduct of adab, whilst exercising their legal right to protest.

Those whom I have met and are familiar with Q-News usually have opinions that are considered and well thought through, attributes that I would not associate with those who would think the cartoons did more

harm than those few Muslims during the protests. In my experience such people don’t even know that Q-News exists, so this current result of 22% has come as a real shock. I just needed to express my thoughts and question who is actually voting.

May Allah reward you all for the amazing work that you do and for all the events that you organise.

Kelly Walsh, London, UK Let us reflect before we publish Polls. You have a poll asking if the Danish cartoons or the Muslim reaction was more damaging. The poll already presupposes that the image of Islam and the Holy Prophet PBUH was damaged. If you choose the “Danish Cartoons”, then you are automatically telling the perpetrators to continue publishing such cartoons because it is a good way to defame the Prophet PBUH. If you choose “The Muslim Reaction” then you are agreeing that Muslims are to blame even though the Kuffar were the instigators. The polls are therefore biased from the very outset. Such polls do nothing except help propagate biased opinion. The fact is that the western press and their supporters have neither the factual justification nor the moral standing to defame anyone, not to speak of Prophets (peace be upon them). If a dog barks at you, it does not mean you are a thief. It is a dog’s job to bark. The fact is that the protest was justified and Muslims exhibited their unity and disdain through the justified protests. Don’t believe all that the media projects. Don’t try to become part of the media by projecting biased polls.

Uzair, California, USA For me, the violent reaction of Muslims to the Danish cartoons demonstrates why so many people see Islam in precisely the way one cartoonist suggested ... as a bomb about to go off.

Philip Clarke, London

My suggestion for campaigning concerning the Danish cartoons is this: have a good group like Shaam or someone stand outside the Houses of Parliament dressed in white and sing the Burda. And then have people giving out leaflets with its translation and explaining why the Muslims love Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him).

Asma Khawaja, London

The right to react Imam Zaid Shakir’s good articles Clash of the Uncivilized: Insights on the Cartoon Controversy and The Ethical Standard of the Prophet Muhammad advocate peaceful actions in the face of intentional insult to Muslims worldwide.

He condemns violent behaviour and Muslims showing their anger. Perhaps, he also advocates freedom of press.

But please think: Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, the threats to Iran and the offensive cartoons - and all you want is peaceful dialogue? Ok, but dialogue with whom? Who is ready to sit and listen and if anyone was listening believe me these flash points would have been solved.

If European countries want to use ‘freedom of expression’ as an excuse to humiliate Muslims, then what Muslims are doing in response is also ‘freedom of expression’.

When you push someone to the wall, he will only start pushing back in any which way that comes to mind at that point in time. This letter is not supporting violence but I believe economic boycotts are just. This, after all, is my freedom of speech and thought.

A mumin

Is it Anti-Semitism?

A recent poll conducted by Populus surveyed 500 British Muslims about their attitudes to

Jews. The results, published on the front page of the Jewish Chronicle on 10 February, contain some results that are deeply shocking to most Jews.

According to the survey nearly half of British Muslims believe the British Jewish community to be “in league with the freemasons to control the media and politics” (46% v 22%). As many (37%) think that the Jewish community is a legitimate target in the struggle for justice in the Middle East, as disagree with this sentiment (35%).

I and many other British Jews are deeply worried about these wrong perceptions of us and would like not to believe it, but the survey took a large sample and seems fairly clear. The idea about “Jews and Free Masons” seems to come from deeply hateful anti-Jewish propoganda - in particular the infamous Tzarist police propogandist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which, much to Jewish concern, has been widely reproduced and broadcast recently in Arab countries like Egypt and Syria and has been included in the Hamas charter.

I would expect that a few deranged or hate-filled people would go for such conspiracy theories but to think that over half of British Muslims believe this nonsense is very troubling.

The latter question was either mis-understood by those who answered it (I hope) or else means that British Jews really do have good reason to fear unprovoked violence from the British Muslim population.

Dr Richard Stone of Alif-Aleph, has suggested this situation arises from British Muslims having little or no contact with British Jews.

I would like to hear the views of intelligent Muslim commentators whether some urgent action is called for to mend interfaith relations between British Jews and British Muslims.

Jonathan Samuel, London Q - NEWS

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C O N T R I B U T O R S MOHAMED M. HUSAIN

NABILA MUNAWAR

AMINA NAWAZ

is currently studying for an MA in Islam and Middle Eastern politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

is an educator and government policy analyst in Toronto, Canada. She is an the executive member of the IHYA Foundation and a contributing editor at Q-News.

is a student of history and devoted observer of London life. She is completing her Masters in African and Asian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

ADAM GOREN

NAZIM BAKSH

is an independent consultant in occupational therapy and special needs. He also writes for specialised health and education publications.

is a Toronto-based journalist and a radio and television producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

RT REVD DAVID GILLETT

CHRIS SANDS

is the Bishop of Boltonx and Chair of the Christian Muslim Forum, which was founded in January 2006.

is a British journalist who has lived in Kabul since August 2005. Before this he spent four years reporting from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE.

8 | Q - NEWS

HUMERA KHAN is a veteran consultant on social policy and race and gender inequalities. She is also a co-founder of The An-Nisa Society.

FARISH AHMAD-NOOR is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist currently based in Berlin. He is a prolific writer and has a particular interest in Islamist political movements in South East Asia.

CLASSIC Q

It’s the natural way! quality is all the rage, and every modern person (see, a few years ago I would have said “man") likes to think that, yeah, we’re all the same, men and women, boys and girls.

It’s chic to be so and don’t we all know it.

But who are we fooling?

Ourselves more than anyone else. For a Muslim man to say that boys and girls are different is courting disaster; such an admission is red meat to the feminists of this world, and they are most certainly not akin to your average vegetarians.

Never mind here goes: boys and girls, males and females are different, and no amount of verbal tinkering or social engineering can alter that.

There. I’ve said it. And don’t I feel better. But now I have to justify what I have said. How did this earth-shattering view come about?

Right under my nose, so to speak.

My daughter is now four years old (and the apple of my eye, as all little girls are for their fathers) and her personality is already well developed. She is confident, demanding, questioning and cute all at the same time. Allah blessed my wife and I with this one, Al hamduli-Llah. She does all the things little girls are supposed to do without any prompting from us. If things go according to plan (oops, I’ve given the game away!), my wife will have a grand little helper in the house in the not too distant future, in sha’Allah.

And my son? At two, he is also developing a strong mind and personality of his own. He is slower than my daughter was with his walking and talking, but his way with words (or, rather, his lack of a way with words) is so endearing he just makes you want to pick him up and cuddle him. (But are dads supposed to do that with their sons? Hey, who wants to be a graduate of the Prince Philip Academy of Childcare?) Although he has a tendency to want to play with everything his sister has in her hands, what he does with the Barbie dolls is light-years away from what she does. But that’s another story. And, yes, he is going to be helpful around the home, because when

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he is in the mood, he does as he is told.

The point is, though, his way of walking is different from hers. So is his style of talking. His behaviour is more brusque and where his sister might at least give us a fair hearing he brushes us off with a curt “No”.

When he tumbles, he picks himself up and dusts himself off and starts all over again, (sounds familiar; could it be the cue for a song!), unlike my daughter who is prone to hypochondria.

And their likes and dislikes are different down to the food they eat. No amount of sibling monkey-see, monkeydo business has any effect.

In a week when reports suggest that girls are now out performing their male counterparts at every academic level, and more and more women are beating men to the top in business and the professions, how much longer can the charade of equality continue?

It is plainly obvious that differences exist from year one, even to the most untrained of eyes. And this is how it is meant to be! We are different because we have been made different so equal clearly does not meant “the same".

Biological functions apart, male and female attitudes, outlooks and aspirations differ so greatly that only fools (but not horses) would think otherwise.

Where a male might see a hill to be climbed, a female might see an easy ride down the other side. When a female imagines a fully-fitted kitchen, the male sees merely a lot of sweat installing it.

And when a male sees something to be repaired, the female pictures the mess on the kitchen floor.

But back to the children. My two have bonded in a way which suggests that the difference in attitudes to relationships is formed at a very early age.

Where they pick it up from, Allah alone knows, but watching the two interact is an education in itself. Yes, my daughter mothers her little brother (sometimes to the point of it being smothers!) and the little tyke laps it up. How do feminists explain that? Nothing really changes. Males will do what males gotta do, and females will do as they’re told.

Only joking!

When my daughter hits my son for some reason he usually hits her back. She does not like this status-threatening retaliation and despite my attempted explanations that bullying pays no dividends worth having, she remains unconvinced.

Even telling her that she had better be careful, “because when he is bigger than you…" is of little use; she looks at me with uncomprehending eyes. “How can Bhai be bigger than me, Papa? I’m four!”

That’s feminine logic for you. Which proves my point, precisely.

Tawfiq Khan, in Q-News, Vol 3: No. 30, 21-28 October 1994.

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The streets of London are to host the biggest piece of free theatre ever staged in the capital this month. The Sultan’s Elephant is a fairy-tale for adults and children alike, and features a vast, moving, wooden elephant the height of a three-storey house.The spectacle is the work of French company Royal de Luxe. Established for thirty years but hardly known in Britain, the company has performed all over the world. It is particularly known for a series of extraordinary shows involving gigantic, moving figures up to forty feet high.This is the first time one of their ‘giant’ shows has appeared in London. It places, according to Artichoke Productions’ Helen

Marriage, “an extraordinary, moving, yet approachable, piece of art at the very centre of a capital city’s life, stopping the traffic and closing roads wherever it goes.

Although London’s streets are closed to traffic for political demonstrations, road works, ceremonial events and sporting triumphs, they are rarely closed for art.”

Unmissable!

The Sultan’s Elephant begins on 4th May and continues until 7th May in major streets, squares and outdoor venues in Central London. It is a free show and more details are available on www.thesultanselephant.com.

DIARY

DIARY AMINA NAWAZ

f anyone stands on a street corner in Colorado with an open map, the likelihood of someone stopping to ask if you need help is almost inevitable.

Thus when, in my first few months in London only one person offered to help me as I stood on corners and in undergrounds trying to read foreign symbols and hidden street names, I quickly realised that ‘I aint in Kansas no more.’ I learned that in London, when you need something, you ask for it, no one offers it to you: unless it’s the Evening Standard. A few mornings ago I was feeling particularly joyful. I made my way to uni, navigating my way on now- familiar streets, when I saw a young girl, probably my age, standing a ways away, on the street corner looking around anxiously, and nervously glancing at a semi-concealed map. This all-too-familiar scene aroused in me a sense of sisterly responsibility and I quickened my pace to offer her some help. I had just reached her when I saw something remarkable. In the time that I had taken to walk towards her, an incredibly old man with a cane standing opposite, had hobbled across the street and now tapped the girl on the shoulder saying, “Excuse me love, can I help you find your way?” The look on her face, relief mixed with gratitude, resonated in my entire soul, and I couldn’t help it: the tears just came.

The girl looked up at me, as I walked past her, tears now flowing in a steady stream, and I beamed at her. She smiled back and in that moment I think we both knew that the world would be all right because an old man had crossed the street, and that goodness existed, and that yes, indeed we all eventually find our way.

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ours melt into days and days melt into months and the gentle hum of conversation here in the post-grad common room lulls me into a fog of reflection. Meeting up with old friends

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always makes me sleepy with happiness.

We had our lunch at Planet Organic and walked around for a bit before I returned back to ‘get some work done’ but instead I sit here, languid with peace and ready to only breathe in and out. Reunions with old friends always force you to re-examine where you were, where you have been, where you are and perhaps even dare to declare where you ‘will be’. The funny thing is with how much conviction we bellow our plans for the future, vaguely aware that perhaps four months later when we see each other again, we may be heading in new and exciting directions, hours and days away from where we were only months ago…but hours, days, months they are all the same in the end, when epochs of time will seem like only ‘a day or part of a day’. y parents are growing older.

Of course I should have known that, but only after being away have I begun to see what that means. There are of course, the usual health and physical changes that accompany age, but along with those are more subtle and quiet alterations in manner. In the autumn of their lives, together my parents have found a unique rhythm of their own. Their lives, like most suburban families synthesise the fast efficiencies of the urban center, with the slow motion of non-city living. They commit to everything and yet maintain time for their own persons. When I was home, we spent whole days reading together in the living room, hardly speaking but communicating all the same, bringing each other tea, snacks, blankets and hot chocolate. I once heard that the Mauritanians are the best hosts because they can anticipate what the guest wants before they request it.

I felt that my parents have tapped into this magical awareness of another, that perhaps only comes from understanding the divine

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rhythm of selfless love. When I was with them, my cares and worries seemed distant somehow; remote and even childish. I saw in what I perceived as far too much to do, a vibrant partnership that anticipated the others’ need. I asked my dad how he did so much, and he replied, “Because I have your mom as my blanket.” People are afraid of aging and I sometimes wonder why. With age comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes rhythm, and in rhythm is the divine.

May God bless all our parents both living and past with tranquility and peace.

April 24, 2006 2:45am rocrastination. Every time, I vow I’ll never do it again. I promise my poor, tired bones, that this is the last, the absolute last time that I will make you stay up all night and work to meet a deadline. I promise, tired eyes, that you will rest easy next time and not be pried open at 4:00 am to edit vapid collections of humdrum words strung together. Poor stomach that ingests obscene amounts of earl grey and coffee mixed with orange vitamin C and questionably green Echinacea tablets.

Drowning in a sea of scattered papers covered in scribbles, books strewn across the floor, and post-it notes sticking up from all available desk surfaces. Falling asleep with chocolate wrappers stuck to my face and keyboard marks etched in my cheeks. No food in the fridge other than a decaying box of yogurt, one clove of garlic, and half of a green chili. Ten minute power naps and races against time, is it really almost 3:00?

Twenty five jumping jacks to get the adrenaline flowing. Flat mate’s banana looking awfully inviting right about now. Is the sun really coming up in a few hours? I need more time! Oh sun, procrastinate just this once…I promise you’ll never have to do it again!

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Affan Chowdhry is away.

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O T E S The Freedom of Speech Conundrum hinking about living in the Netherlands? No problem.

You just have to make sure you intend to stay for the long haul, obtain full-time employment, pay your taxes and stay out of trouble.

Oh, there’s one more little thing… you have to watch a short film, available on DVD for your convenience. As the Chicago Tribune recently put it, the new compatibility test for foreigners applying for Dutch residency is “is very Dutch".

Prospective residents have to watch a topless woman frolicking in the surf and two men kissing warmly. The target of this new message is clearly the growing number of Muslim migrants, whose conservative values are condemned by the liberal fundamentalists who’d like to see them stay out rather than come in.

In the wake of the murder of Theo van Gogh, the rising right-wing has hijacked The Netherlands’ ordinarily progressive consensus. As one reactionary local councillor in Rotterdam angrily declared, “If you want to live here, you have to accept that girls are allowed to wear miniskirts and can stay out until three in the morning. You don’t have to behave this way yourself, but you have to tolerate it.”

Funny then how the venerable Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid (Scientific Council for Government Policy or WRR) has just released a three-year study saying (authoritatively, we might add) that there is little conflict between Islam and Dutch values, including human rights, gender equality and democracy.

The report, now with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, for discussion and response, argues completely against the growing public opinion in the Netherlands that sees Muslim minorities as a dangerous fifth column.

What does the Islamophobic intelligentsia have to say about all this? Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali was so apoplectic that the only argument she could muster was that the report was ‘against free speech’. Hmm… enough said.

Finally, on the frontiers of free speech we find the cunning and usually offensive American satire cartoon South Park the show that makes The Simpsons look like Blue Peter (or Sesame Street). South Park is well known for its rude, crude and lewd humour. It’s even better known in America’s Bible Belt as the blasphemy that has prevented its creators from travelling to certain Southern US States for fear of their lives.

Recently the show poked fun at Scientology (the mysterious cult-cum-religion that has gotten a ludicrously large amount press recently due to the matrimonial shenanigans of Tom Cruise and his silent bride).

After having cussed and heaped unpleasantness on Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, doing the same to Scientology was the last straw for American actor Isaac Hayes. When South Park was enjoying hilarious hijinks at the expense of other faiths the good times rolled. When his faith was attacked, the 63 year-old Hayes got sensitive. In an Ayaan Hirsi Ali moment, Hayes got all moral and left the show. This is no defence of South Park, but the creators have disposed of his character with great aplomb.

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Dawah Dames and Top Guns hen it comes to explaining the role of women in Islamic civilization, eager Muslims love to recount stories of Islam’s classical period, where female scholars and saints taught, wrote tomes and were a critical element of the development and transmission of sacred knowledge.

Fast forward to 2006 and ask about the current dearth of female scholarship and Muslims get tongue tied. Some murmur excuses about colonisation, others about socioeconomic disadvantage and there’s always a few who hiss under their breaths, “damn feminists asking bloody difficult questions again.”

The question of why there aren’t more female scholars is an important one. Thus, the news from the Kingdom of Morocco is certainly welcome. The Islamic Affair Ministry has approved 50 women Imams who attended this year’s training program the first time women were allowed to do so. They studied jurisprudence, philosophy and the history of religions as part of their Moroccan wire services reported that the newlyappointed spiritual guides will preach in prisons and on television, as well as in mosques and Islamic institutions.

In Pakistan, the Ministry of Religious Affairs hasn’t quite gotten around to certifying woman Imams, but the Armed Forces, nay the Air Force is proceeding at supersonic speed.

After three-and-a-half years of training, Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Khalil and Saira Batool - who wears a hijab were among 36 cadets who received their wings. Dressed modestly in long tunics, the new recruits earned the praise of their superiors. “Above above all, Almighty Allah, helped me achieve this success,” said Saira Batool.

The women had their physical training separately from their male colleagues. Their training was 100% halal reporters on hand for the parade were assured.

Now only if those Moroccans murshidahs had fighter pilot training, and the Pakistani fighter pilots had some rigorous Islamic scholarship, the naysaying, tut-tutting men would really be in trouble.

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Africa’s Bluesman li Farka Toure was an African, Mali’s most beloved son, and a Muslim. At his last London concert, he began an electrifying concert with a joyful song in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. He threw back his head and smiled broadly, teeth gleaming under the light. When he played his guitar, he drew a global audience to his distinct ‘bluesy’ sound. Perhaps it was not so surprising, then, that his death on 7th March 2006 produced a global response.

“I learnt of your death with great sadness,” wrote Stephen Ayme of London, among the hundreds of condolence messages sent to the BBC web site. “You touched my life to such an extent that because of you I visited Mali and discovered a vibrant and beautiful land and people.” Toure’s guitar-playing attracted the attention of US blues guitarists like Ry Cooder. Their 1994 album Talking Timbuktu won them a Grammy. This year, he won another Grammy for the album In the Heart of the Moon, recorded with fellow Malian Toumani Diabate. Toure always insisted that the blues he played did not originate among blacks in the southern United States. Rather, it had its roots in Mali.

His guitar playing could be hauntingly sad. At other times, it could bring a smile to faces. As his music became increasingly popular among fans of world music, Toure kept his international tours to a minimum. Instead, he devoted himself to farming, fishing, and raising cattle. In 2004, he became mayor of Niafunke and sought to improve the lives of Malians.

He worried about the quality of the farmland and the encroaching desert.

As for international fame: “I don’t know what a Grammy means,” he once said, “but if someone has something for me, they can come and give it to me here in Niafunke, where I was singing when nobody knew me.”

Before he died of cancer, Ali Farka Toure had recorded one last album. Look out for that album on the World Circuit label whenever it is released. It’ll make you want to book a plane ticket to Timbuktu.

Incidentally, Toumane Diabate returns to London’s South Bank Centre on 27 May 2006 to perform with his Symmetric Orchestra. The sounds of his kora will seem just a little bit empty without Ali’s magnificent guitar by his side.

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Protecting Children: a Matter of Faith he nightmare faced by the Catholic Church in the wake of child sex abuse scandals could visit itself upon Muslims too if safeguards aren’t in place to protect the over 100,000 Muslim children who attend over 700 unregulated madrassahs regularly. That’s the warning from Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Leader of the Muslim Parliament. A report launched in March calls on the government to establish a national registration scheme for informal and supplementary religious schools, so that they can be monitored and forced to meet their legal obligation under The Children Act. Siddiqui said, “If nothing is done now we may face an avalanche of child sex-abuse scandals, decades afterwards, similar to those that rocked the Roman Catholic Church. To protect the integrity of these valued institutions it is important that all madrassahs put in place transparent and accountable polices and procedures.” The report received the (predictable) support of Keighley MP Ann Cryer, but was criticised by some leading imams. Speaking to The Muslim Weekly, East London Mosque’s Imam Abdul-Qayyum said that “the child abuse in madrassahs debate was “created to divide... and humiliate the Muslim community unnecessarily.'" Much of the report deals with putting in place policies, procedures and “best practice” guidelines for preventing child abuse. Nevertheless, the issue is a serious one. Madrassahs and seminaries based in other major Muslim urban centres in the West have already faced major criminal investigations into the abuse of children, most notably in Toronto which saw proceedings begin against several senior local imams and schools.

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MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL.WHO’S THE MOST KNOWING THINKER OF ALL? 9/11, 7-7 and the ‘war on terror’ have spawned an entire Islam industry. But which shoot-from-the-hip, angry and self-important Muslim spokesmen should we listen to, asks Mohamed M. Husain. left Britain in March 2003. I had booked a one-way ticket to Syria, to study Islam with women and men who have been servicing the faith and its rich tradition of scholarship and spiritual nourishment for centuries. After two years in Damascus, I relocated to Saudi Arabia. Admittedly, I did not last long in Jeddah, packing my bags and returning home to London in September 2005. While I am delighted to be home again in the city of my birth and upbringing, something, has not been quite right.

Islam and Muslims have been in the news almost every day.

The dark cloud of the ghastly events of 7/7 still hangs over us.

National media outlets are busy promoting previously unknown individuals as ‘experts on Islam’ and ‘spokesmen for Muslims’ after all they are mostly men. Sadly many of them are out of their depth, desperately struggling to posit an argument.

‘Why don’t they speak to T J Winter?’ my wife occasionally asks, annoyed. ‘Or Abdullah Trevathan from Islamia school? Or Humera Khan from Wembley?’ I know I am not alone in feeling misrepresented. Many of my Muslim friends feel the same way.

However, the malaise is deeper than a handful of publicitycraving ‘spokesmen’. During my early teens, I was involved with political Islamist organisations, working up the ranks of youth wings of Islamist organisations in London with their roots in movements in the Muslim world. Then, I spent two years as an angry foot soldier of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, before my exposure to calm, traditional Muslim scholarship. I resolutely turned my back on political Islam. Now, almost seven years later, I know that my fury-ridden life in Islamism was not Islam, but politicking in the name of Islam. Since then, I have been blessed to have sat at the feet of some of the most illustrious Muslim scholars in Madinah, Damascus, Istanbul, Cairo, Jeddah, and London and, consequently, know only too well that Islam-'ism’, a political ideology, is the perversion of a religious tradition, the destructive politicisation of a time-honoured spiritual path.

Distributing leaflets for an Islamist organisation, or attending secret meetings in council estates, and plotting to support a socalled jihad against the West does not qualify anyone to speak in the name of all Muslims. Anjem Choudary and his brigade of yobs, the irate orphans left behind by the self-exiled Omar Bakri, know that they are on the fringes of an extremist minority, but their sensationalism is too tempting for certain sections of the British media to ignore. Today, the mainstream, moderate, mosque-going majority of Muslims is not only threatened by Islamist extremists of all shades, but also a new breed of ‘liberal’ Muslims.

This latter category is also represented by those who, among other things, call for the ‘democratisation of the Koran’ and a ‘Do-it-Yourself’ approach to understanding Islamic scripture. At a recent debate at the London School of Economics, there were two high-profile public Muslim intellectuals calling for reform within

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Islam. One, Tariq Ramadan, called for new modes of ijtihad while the other, Zia Sardar, advocated a complete severance with the past and an individual return to the Koran by ‘each and every Muslim’.

Tariq Ramadan, Oxford-based scholar and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, reiterated what is in his books: a new reading of Islamic texts, comprehending scripture within a historical context and the role of Western Muslims as citizens of their nations. Undoubtedly, Ramadan has much to offer and asks pertinent questions in his publications. However, there are those Muslims who mistrust his approach - questioning whether he is an apologist for Islamist organisations and whether his approach to ijtihad is just too broad.

Sardar, on the other hand, referred to his brand of Islamic knowledge as ‘democratisation of the Koran’. To the young ears of budding academics at the LSE, this may have sounded rather attractive but it is a discourse fraught with peril. Where Ramadan’s starting point was re-reading texts, Sardar’s was abandoning the texts. If re-reading scripture results in the loss of the word and spirit of the text, why bother with the text? At this stage of their mutual evolution, Tariq Ramadan, to be fair, was a little more respectful of traditional scholars, or the ulama, whereas Zia Sardar was scathing in his vitriol against the ulama.

Ten years ago I too was an angry, motor-mouthed activist raging against the ulama. I recited a litany of grievances against them whenever I was given the opportunity. Today, subdued and more aware, I beg to differ. The ulama are not a monolithic, homogenous body. Contrary to Ramadan’s assertions, they do not represent ‘only text’. It is a fallacy to argue that the ulama are detached from reality and are merely ulama al-nusoos, or ‘textual specialists’ as Ramadan argued. Anyone who sat with well-grounded ulama will agree that meaningful exposure to serious scholarship is refreshing, challenging, nuanced, spiritually lifting and intellectually humbling.

During the 1950s in Egypt and Pakistan, most of the ulama stood boldly against the politicisation of Islam. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, if we Muslims are serious about living our faith, then we must stand by those who have inherited a holistic Islam from our ancient spiritual master, the noble Prophet Muhammad. Granted, the ulama are not faultless, but dismissing their contribution and vital role would be a case of throwing out the baby with the proverbial bathwater.

The Islamists did exactly that and then unleashed a beast of terror, underpinned by the freewheeling interpretations of jihadi Salafis, which is now beyond the control of Islamist organisations.

In the wake of 9/11, 7/7, the invasion of Iraq and other events, there is real concern among non-Muslims and Muslims to understand one another and bring relative peace to our shared world.

And in the midst of this renewed interest in Islam, a whole Islam industry, not unlike the race industry in Britain and the US, is in its nascent stages. It is a phenomenon from which few us will be immune.

The Islam industry, like its ‘Islamist movement’ predecessor of the last century, is dominated by urbanite professionals who are not remotely familiar with the thousand-year-old Islamic tradition of deep thought, training, nuance, tolerance and spirituality.

Today, we run the risk of accepting DIY Islam, already manifest in the actions of tube bombers and plane hijackers, who validate their terror on their own terms, their ‘democratisation of the Koran’ and not with reference to the understanding of generations of ulama. Sardar and his ilk may appease his New Statesman readership, or Sky News viewers on Friday evenings, but philosophy Q - NEWS

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In the midst of this renewed interest in Islam, a whole Islam industry, not unlike the race industry in Britain and the US, is in its nascent stages.The Islam industry, like its ‘Islamist movement’ predecessor of the last century, is dominated by urbanite professionals who are not remotely familiar with the thousand-yearold Islamic tradition of deep thought, training, nuance, tolerance and spirituality. of open, unregulated ijtihad - void of scholarly guidance - leaves the possibility of that very literal reading of the text that has been used to support ‘sacred’ acts of violence in the first place.

Sardar’s ill temper was on display during the Q&A session at the LSE. Sardar lacked the kudos and courtesy of an erudite Muslim, frequently raising his voice and taking personal jibes at Ramadan and members of the audience. This spirit of vitriol also litters the pages of his most recent book, Desperately Seeking Paradise. Middle-aged male anger, coupled with an arrogant intellect, were defining ingredients of the destructive Islamism of the last century. If we Muslims are serious about change, then those two traits must perish from our midst.

It was the great Imam Malik (d.795) who said that half of one’s knowledge was the ability to confess la adri, which means, ‘I don’t know’. Imam Malik was indicating to an intellectual state of humility. At the LSE debate there was no inclination of ‘not knowing’, a modern symptom of an intellect that refuses to acknowledge the existence of a realm beyond its comprehension.

WHEN HECKLERS RUIN A GOOD NIGHT OUT They are young, brash and rudely interrupt even the most respected Islamic scholars. So how are you going to handle your local Muslim loud-mouth when he heckles you? A deft touch and bit of wisdom goes a long way, as Amina Nawaz explains. e smiled at me on the way inside the hall. Perhaps that’s what first caught my attention, for I had not expected to see such a pleasant grin from that guy. You may know the one I’m talking about: big beard, black and white checkered scarf draped loosely over the shoulders, and a cleanly pressed white Arabian thawb that stops just above the ankle. My friends and I had entered the London School of Economics theatre to find a group of university-age young men, congregated outside the door, jocularly discussing with one another. Their boyish laughter filled the foyer and as we passed them to enter the hall, my guilty conscience whispered that I should be ashamed of myself for stereotyping and

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expecting austerity.

The hall was crowded and Dr. Tariq Ramadan was just beginning his speech. About 10 minutes into the talk the interruptions began. The same young men who I had seen outside laughingly teasing one another, now angrily posed their questions and interrupted the speaker (confirming my initial stereotypes). We were reminded continuously that any comments or questions we had should be held until the Q/A session but this request fell upon deaf ears; the interruptions continued and grew increasingly more hostile and untamed in nature. The tension in the room increased during the Q/A session as the chair fielded questions from the audience, scrupulously avoiding all those raised hands belonging to the young men.

As they continued to heckle and shout out comments, the exasperated chair, upon the crowd’s urging, finally gave the boys the floor for five minutes. For people so desperate to speak out during the lecture and unable to contain their comments, they now stared at each other expectantly and pushed one another to take the floor. Finally, one of the louder among them began a lengthy diatribe on Dr. Ramadan’s position regarding hudud laws, and his lack of quotes from the Qur’an and hadith literature in his speeches.

Dr. Ramadan passionately tore through the young man’s hollow argument’s one by one discussing his stance on various issues.

The victims of hudud laws, the innocent woman and children, particularly those of south Asian descent in Middle Eastern prisons. Between hearty applause from the audience, he argued that there was no justice in the administering of hudud punishments if the imprisoning system itself was unjust. He began to speak of his meetings with the Mufti of Egypt when the young man interrupted with, “Oh, Al-Qaradawi?” and Dr Ramadan responded angrily, “No! Dr. Ali Jum’a! You want to speak out yet you are totally ignorant!” The audience burst into laughter as we all felt a kind of satisfying fulfillment in watching the boys, who ultimately had nothing of relevance to contribute, get blasted. In the midst of the laughter and applause from the audience, one of them shouted, not in the angry voice of a man, but in the hurt exclamation of a young boy, “Stop laughing at us! Listen to us!” Another, the boy who had smiled at me, shouted loudly, “Astaghfirullah for all you!” These were not the voices of reasonable people attempting a logically coherent discussion. Rather, these were the voices of estranged adolescents. For the second time that evening, my conscience chastised me for chuckling and participating in their ridicule.

The ‘heckling boys’, I was informed later have recently reemerged to protest many Muslim events and may be members of a group called al-Muhajiroun. The sole purpose it seems of their presence is to heckle if seated in the audience, and when not permitted inside, to distribute leaflets harshly condemning various Islamic scholars and organizations.

In the recent Amal Press book launch of al-Hidaya (a classical manual of Islamic jurisprudence recently translated into English) which Shaykh Hamza Yusuf attended as the keynote speaker, about ten of the same young men I had encountered at the Tariq Ramadan lectures, were standing outside the hall distributing flyers slandering Shaykh Hamza. One among them, the same young man who had been slammed by Dr Ramadan a few weeks earlier, shouted angrily that we would be held responsible for what our ears heard that night and that we should be careful who we take our knowledge from. He obviously did not realise the irony in his own vociferous clamouring.

Aftab Malik, founder of Amal Press, spoke at length with a

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group of them that evening and notes that “the most striking thing about my impression from these bothers is that the stereotypes are true. They were aggressive, high in rhetoric and painfully oblivious to secular history, politics or Islamic history and its intellectual development.”

In the course of discussion Malik asked the boys if they upheld hadith transmitted from al-Tabari to which one said “No!”, and was sheepishly reminded by his friend that they in fact do. “This underpins the very nature of this group’s inconsistent understanding of knowledge,” says Malik, “They had no idea about the classification of knowledge or about Islamic history, and saw the world in a bi-polar view. They hadn’t studied anything themselves.

They were merely regurgitating what was in the pamphlet.”

The aims of the young men are clear: be as loud and in-yourface as possible, even when on logically tenuous ground. In fact, as demonstrated by the nature of their conversation and hollow arguments, logic seldom plays a role. Thus it’s not what they say that poses a problem, but rather, why and how it is said.

It is said that, “Anger is a natural, adaptive response to threats; it inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and to defend ourselves when we are attacked.” Most often, anger represents the presence of another deeper emotion: hurt, fear, pain, embarrassment, and most often, frustration. The Muhajiroun boys are angry, there is no doubt about that, but we will continuously fail in our attempts to deal with them, unless we track the source(s) of this anger.

It would not be such a daunting challenge were they anyone else. After all, anger is present in every household, every community and even every individual, but the Muhajiroun boys are Muslims which means that in their attempts to combat their deepseated insecurities, they cling to the familiar, their security blanket called Islam. They hold on to it with an inflexible grip not realizing that as with any relationship that becomes controlling, the thing you cling to most, is often the one you drive furthest away.

Our task then is to first and foremost recognise that we do in fact shoulder responsibility for these young men. In laughing and ridiculing them, we accomplish nothing other than increasing pain and humiliation, furthering their sense of alienation, and continuing the vicious cycle. Second, we must continuously uphold the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who when faced with an angry person, turned with his whole body to face them and put his hand on their heart. There is much wisdom in this tradition, the principle of active listening, of gentility, of mercy and even the insight of using touch as a diffusive tool.

Imagine, if instead of being ridiculed for his own rambling, Dr Ramadan has invited the young man, put his arm on his shoulder, sat him down for a chat and perhaps even a cup of tea. Some may think this a naïve course to pursue with such overzealous young men but the goal is not to convince them or persuade them, or ourselves be exhausted by their rhetoric, but rather to guard the deeper issue here - the inbuilt insecurities these boys have and use religion to fill.

At the Amal Press event, as I stood in line and saw my own anger level rising at the undignified rhetoric in use, one of the boys came up to me and ordered, “Iqra!” as he handed me one of his leaflets. “No thanks,” I said coolly, and unable to resist added, “Actually if you are talking to a girl, it’s Iqra-eee! [the feminine version of iqra]” I said with patronising sweetness. He towered above me, and bellowed, “Sister, do you know its haram to correct somebody who’s giving you knowledge?” I stared blankly at him assessing the best course of action. “What?” he demanded angrily. In response I held up my fingers in a peace sign and said,

Malik asked the boys if they upheld hadith transmitted from al-Tabari. One said “No!”, and was sheepishly reminded by his friend that they in fact do. “This is typical,” says Malik. “They had no idea about the classification of knowledge or about Islamic history, and saw the world in a bi-polar view.They hadn’t studied anything themselves.They were merely regurgitating the pamphlet.”

“Peace dude,” with a smile. He didn’t stop handing leaflets, or suddenly say to himself, “What am I doing here? This can’t be right!” But he did smile slightly and say thank you. And that, is a start.

WHY I WOULDN’T SEND MY CHILDREN TO AN ISLAMIC SCHOOL Teenagers are like Scud missiles - lots of energy, no sense of direction. In the midst of a profound spiritual revival and on the cusp of her sixth-form years, Farzina Alam was looking for some direction.

Expecting a teenage spiritual experience and a little hijabi camaraderie, she ended up at an Islamic school and it was almost enough to break her spirit. ge 17 with some decision to make. Which sixth form school should I apply to? I’d recently moved to London and had spent the first few months frantically researching my options.

Where was I to spend perhaps the two most important years of my education? My father, ever the optimist, offered the idea of an Islamic school. It was a flat-out “no” from me. I was raised a Muslim and considered myself a practising one - but faith as a public identity marker was alien to me. It was my religion, but not so much my community. To me, hijabis were either old ladies or very spiritual, good hearted ‘born again’ Muslims (i.e. people who, at the time I thought, had gone ‘fundy').

In the meantime, while deciding “what school?” (yes, I used the handbook extensively - it didn’t help) I spent a few months working at the office of Q-News. For four months I was surrounded by lovely, intelligent and fun - and most important for me, women who had all made the active choice to wear the hijab during their adulthood, rather than through family pressure.

These women were cool. They travelled, they appreciated the arts, they were articulate and they were strong. They didn’t wear the hijab and immediately shrivel up into homely wives whose only passion was to cook a different cuisine everyday. These women were out to inspire others and to change the world. They

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I came out of my Islamic school experience feeling bitter. I was very naïve, expecting my time here to be full of barakah and light, but my question is, if it isn’t,why bother going to an Islamic school in the first place? Academically it did me no favours. Spiritually, it made me look down on fellow believers and people in general. Is the only purpose of such schools gender-segregation? were out there to be heard. My understanding of what it meant to be a Muslim changed completely. I realised for the first time, embracing my religion didn’t mean confining myself to Quran classes in a madrassah. Instead, it was about marrying Islamic ethics and values with all the good that our societies in the West had to offer.

I found myself occasionally wearing a scarf loosely over my hair and performing my prayers on time. I liked what was happening to me. And I knew it was down to me having spent so much time around these women. It was something I had never experienced before.

I then made a decision that surprised my family. I announced that I’d give the Islamic school a try. I figured that if my brief contact with these women brought me this far, then why stop?

Attending an Islamic school, being surrounding by fellow Muslims, would do wonders!

I started sixth form with high expectations. It would be a holistic education I assured myself, surrounded by fellow students who like me, were seeking an alternative, more a teenage spiritual experience, than just A-levels.

At first, all went according to plan. I experienced, with emotional awe, the conversions of two well-known footballers to Islam in our school mosque (one of whom, for a number of years thereafter, I assumed had been Thierry Henry, to the bemusement of my sceptical friends - yes I admit, I know nothing about football). I loved watching adorable little hijabi girls run around in the school yard during breaks, and I grew attached to a little boy, half my size, called Ali who I called ‘Ally Potter’ because of his round oversized glasses. Exchanging jinn stories in the common room was one of my favourite past times. I was thrilled - I was finally among people my age who believed in the same weird things I believed in.

After that though, it all went downhill. The school never bothered to fix the plumbing so we had to make wudu twice a day with freezing cold water. There was no halal food for our grade and so we had to walk 500 metres outside our campus to grab lunch. The Prophet-esque horse-riding and archery lessons I had heard rumours of never materialised. I had had particularly vivid dreams about our class of sixth-formers galloping through Hyde Park on Wednesday afternoons with our jilbabs flowing behind us. In fact, there were no provisions for sixth-formers in terms of extra curricular activities whatsoever. Did administration see no need? Or was the idea to simply dump girls in an all-Muslim environment and leave us at it. Who cares how we fare so long as we’re segregated and veiled?

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I was condescendingly put down by my teacher when I suggested our class visit a kibbutz (alright, I later found out they were located mainly in Israel, but it was the sentiment that counts). I told her I found it fascinating that a community could self-subsist on its own labour and produce, but all my mentor could see in my innocent suggestion was an evil plan to “live among Jews". I was shocked to find out once that a fellow classmate had never heard of Starbucks - how sheltered must you be to not know of the existence of a coffee joint that has a branch, if not two or three, on every London high street? She lived 5 minutes away from the school and had never been to another school or even another neighbourhood evidently.

Where were the inspirational Muslims I needed to look up to?

Where were the Muslims who had experienced life on both sides of the spectrum, and had chosen Islam because they knew better?

I was finding myself surrounded by the opposite of ‘the ignorant Westerner’. I was among ignorant Muslims and it was depressing.

These girls had lived in Britain all their lives, but most had never known a non-Muslim friend. How could one expect to know about world affairs when they’d never ventured out of their local borough? These girls, unlike my Q-News heroines, had never been ‘liberated’ by Islam - they were being severely stunted under some kind of pious pretence.

Eventually, talk of university applications came up. There was fear and disdain at the thought of going to school with nonMuslims. The most popular ambition was interestingly, midwifery. Was it because it fit with the idea of a woman being solely a baby-making machine? There is much talk of how nonMuslims didn’t understand us, but never any thought to how to rectify that by not pandering to stereotypes.

And regarding my hopes of surrounding myself with peaceful, God-fearing Muslims? The bitching, arrogant and general knowit-all attitudes prevalent at the school could have matched any inner-city school in London. There was no love in the air. Sunni classmates constantly made remarks about an Iraqi-Shia classmate. Fed up, one day I asked the girls, in her presence, what it was they’d just been saying before she entered the common room, and no one had the guts to say anything.

September 11th passed and the confusion in me grew. A classmate went around our common room showing us email forwards instructing Muslims to “defend our faith” - the same girl who sported an image of Osama Bin Laden on her Nokia phone. I was stunned into silence. All my life I was known as the cheery and loud one. Now, increasingly I just wanted to isolate myself further and hide under a niqab.

It finally took an inter-faith conference which my college participated in to make me realise how isolated I had become. I was deeply embarrassed to realise that in the five months since 9/11, I had not heard the opinion of a single non-Muslim about the tragedy.

I left the school after my first year and decided I would stay at home and study for the A-Levels by myself. I ended up with better grades than most of my former classmates (forgive me for gloating a little).

I came out of the whole experience bitter about Muslims. I admit I was very naïve in the beginning, expecting my time at this school to be full of barakah and light, but my question is, if it isn’t why bother going to an Islamic school in the first place?

Academically it did me no favours. Spiritually, it made me look down on fellow believers and people in general. Is the only purpose of such schools gender-segregation? Do people fear that these Muslim girls, brought up in conservative households in the first

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place, will start obsessing about boys the minute they turn eleven?

If they wanted to, I assure you, they would do it anyway - like one of my classmates who used to meet her boyfriend around the corner from the school on a regular basis.

Perhaps the school I attended is an exception to the rule, but I have a suspicion it isn’t. Maybe things have changed in the last few years and Islamic schools have become the kind of places that provide a real value-added alternative to state schools (they are certainly doing better in the league tables if nothing else).

Nevertheless, a community which celebrates and defends its right to faith education must, once in a while, question the vision which its schools are imparting. If they are helping create a myopic, insular generation that is uncomfortable in modern multicultural, multi-faith Britain, then I think I’d rather have my kids take theirchances in a mainstream comprehensive any day.

SO WHO’S LIVING IN THE ‘GHETTO’ NOW? Leave your religious ghettoes behind, Muslims are being told, and embrace European culture. But first, European commentators need to step out of their own intellectual ghettoes, as Farish A. Noor argues, and into the light of class and power relations. urope, apparently, has discovered that it has Muslims living in its midst. This re-discovery of Islam in Europe has sent shock waves among some: for decades it was assumed that Europe was simply home to several million disparate immigrant communities, - Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Arabs and Africans. But who had any idea they were all Muslims?

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these groups on the basis of race-relations: an assembly of ideas and practices premised on the compartmentalizing logic of interethnic communal managerialism.

Now suddenly the veil has been lifted and a resounding cry can be heard: “A-ha! We are all Muslims! We were hiding in our kebab take-aways and Indian restaurants, and we were waiting for the right moment to spring the news on you guys! We are Muslims, that’s right - Muslims, and we are here to stay!”

Undoubtedly the faint-hearted have already taken to the hills and are preparing themselves for this great civilisational assault on the Occident. Some Europeans, we have been told, were so spooked by this sudden emergence of Muslims that they even emigrated to Australia, only to learn that there are Muslims there too!

Much of this talk of ‘Islam in Europe’ has been sparked by recent events of geopolitical import: 9-11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq (and the protests that ensued), the bombings in London and Madrid, the riots in Britain and France. These events have been catalysts that have spurred academics, politicians and policy-makers into action, prompting an array of research meetings, seminars, conferences and new laws and regulations that impact directly on the civil liberties of Europeans in general.

(At present, I am personally familiar with four academic projects on Islam in Europe being undertaken in earnest. While such academic access may border on the overkill, it does at least provide some employment for otherwise unemployable researchers and students. Studying Islam is therefore big business as well.)

My own contention with this spurious debate over Islamor Muslims in Europe is that much of it has been unimaginative, unintelligent, non-intellectual and fundamentally un-academic.

While former research on areas dominated by social anthropology, history and political science at least required some semblance of academic scruple and objective analysis, the study of Muslims and Islam in Europe has been conducted on the basis of anecdotal evidence, hearsay, conspiracy theories, grand abstract concepts (such as the ‘Clash of Civilizations') and an essentialist understanding of cultural difference.

Indeed, the shift from the study and discourse on ethnicity and race to the more general study of religio-cultural differences has opened the way for essentialism to return with a vengeance. So when a Muslim does something stupid (like dressing up as a suicide bomber during a protest rally), his actions are immediately explained in termsof Islam or his Muslim identity. No one would suggest the same when young Prince Harry dresses up as a Nazi at a costume party. No one attributes his idiocy to his personal religious beliefs.

As a political scientist, I am amazed by the near-total absence of sound philosophical and political concepts such as class and power relations in this contemporary discourse on Islam and Muslims in Europe. There seems to be the unstated assumption that Europe’s Muslims enjoy the same degree of class agency, representational power and access to opportunities like everybody else. There is a tacit agreement to overlook the very specific class and subject-positions of the Muslims themselves, who are almost entirely made up of former poor migrants from the former colonies of Europe. This oversight is a fatal one, and leads us to disastrously wrong conclusions at times.

‘Muslims don’t like Opera’ One of the conclusions that arises from this willful blindness to the class and subject positions of Muslims in Europe is the view that Muslims are a community apart, and that they deliberately choose not to integrate into the mainstream of European social

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Even normally level-headed intellectuals can sometimes ask the most stupid questions, like: “Why don’t we ever see Muslims in the art galleries or the opera?

Why don’t Muslims participate in nonreligious events and activities?”

Nonsensical non-discourse on ‘cultural difference’ has to give way to real, grounded analysis of class, wealth distribution and allocation of resources. and cultural life. Even normally level-headed intellectuals can sometimes ask the most stupid and asinine of questions, like: “Why don’t we ever see Muslims in the art galleries or the opera?

Why don’t they (Muslims) participate in non-religious cultural events and activities?”

Well, if Muslims seldom go to the opera here in Europe, it is not because they have a disdain for Wagner for reasons of political correctness, it is simply because they cannot afford to. And on that same note, it should also be noted that many of the so-called ‘mainstream’ aspects of European culture remain closely tied to elite interests and practices; and ordinary poor, unemployed, homeless and professionally less advanced Europeans do not go to the opera either. It is class, and not culture, that determines the parameters of our circles of alienation and civic participation above all else.

Between the individual and society there is an array of subject relations that needs to be understood and negotiated: We need to begin from the simple premise that everyone’s relations to society as a whole is subjective, historically-determined and parochial in their own way. Muslims in Europe may have a limited engagement with ‘Europe’ as a whole, but this is no different from the subjective understanding and experience of Europe that is in the heart of every other European. (Where, pray tell, can we ever find the ‘perfectly constituted European citizen’ who appreciates the entirety of Europe in all its cultural and historical depth?)

Linked to this is the very idea and ideal of Europe itself, which for many is seen as a limited and already-defined concept. In contrast to some other countries like South Africa where the idea of the ‘nation’ is kept open as a fluid concept that is ever-evolving, the idea of Europe has been frozen and made rock-solid by nationalists and Pan-Europeanists who would prefer to think of Europe as a completed project.

This is a dangerous assumption because it overlooks the fact that European culture is always evolving. It also forestalls any meaningful engagement between Europe and the wider globalizing world. Worst of all, it spells the end of any integration movement because it means that newcomers to Europe will have nothing to contribute, whether it is on the level of culture, ideology, life-practices, economics and politics. This is the impression that many minorities in Europe have today: that they have nothing to contribute to Europe, save for kebabs and samosas and fried rice.

To seriously deal with the issue of Muslim migration and settlement into Europe, we therefore need to return to basic economics and political fundamentals. Muslims are not asking for any special treatment or privileges, certainly not at the expense of

Europeans or other minorities.

But like other minorities they need to have their circles of alienation minimised and their circles of civic participation expanded. This can only be achieved when we take into account the genuine class and economic disparities between minorities and the majority dominant group of any society. Here nonsensical non-discourse on ‘cultural difference’ has to give way to real, grounded analysis of class, wealth distribution and allocation of resources instead. If it is politically correct to take into account the specific needs of disabled people, gendered minorities etc. then why does the rule no longer apply to minority groups as well?

Muslims have contributed to the cultural, economic and political life of Europe at all levels and in many different ways, and they will continue to do so. Some have chosen to do so as active believing Muslims while others have put their religious identities behind them and participated primarily as citizens of an abstract Europe. The ease with which Muslims - and any minority group for that matter - ‘step out’ of their communal groups into wider society depends precisely on the obstacles they face at the threshold between the private and public spheres, and the glass ceilings and other hindrances they may encounter in wider society.

This process can be accelerated and aided further via a network of helpful initiatives that may include positive discrimination, affirmative action and the like. But in the end, Muslims’ contribution to Europe as Europeans will only be noted when we recognize them for what they are today: Europeans who happen to be Muslims as well.

“HERE NOTHING IS SAFE; THERE IS NO FREEDOM” Chris Sands reports from Afghanistan on the state of religious freedom and how deception and subterfuge has become the norm for a small group of activists who see their country falling deeper into grip of an extreme theology at odds with human rights.

ABUL - Ali Mohaqiq Nasab fingered some prayer beads while he waited for permission to talk. Afghan President Hamid Karzai looked down from a picture on the jail wall. A few minutes went by, then the police finally let him speak.

“There is no freedom here, absolutely no freedom. I am not saying bad words about Islam. Whatever I say is according to our holy book. I am a Muslim, it’s my religion and I should be allowed to talk about it,” he said.

Nasab was jailed last Autumn for publishing blasphemous articles in a magazine called Women’s Rights. His case sparked diverse outrage across the country - some called for his execution and others demanding his immediate release.

“They did not allow me to employ a lawyer and when I was talking [in court] my speech was being cut off. It was useless. They did not decide my sentence according to justice, they decided it according to politics and still I have not accepted that decision,” Nasab told me at the time.

“I am a knowledgeable person. I want to work for the people of Afghanistan, I want Afghanistan to live in peace and I want the Islam here to be based on law, not fundamentalism.”

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When I first met Nasab he was just a few weeks into what was meant to be a two year prison sentence. The scholar talked with a quiet rage about the way religion was being used as a tool of repression. And he wondered aloud why the international community seemed unwilling to help him.

“Here nothing is safe, there is no freedom. Afghanistan is still being controlled by Islamic extremists 100 per cent. Arab countries, Pakistan and Iran still have huge influence,” he said.

Those words of despair were spoken more than four months ago and a successful legal appeal means Nasab has long since been released. But only now is the world finally taking notice of the conflict between Afghanistan’s newfound democratic status and its age-old dependence upon strict Islamic values.

“I was not scared, I just felt I wanted to bring freedom to the people of Afghanistan, to let them live peacefully and openly.

What I wrote is true. I have discussed this with other people and they agree with me,” he said.

The editor had published an article saying Muslims who convert to other religions should not be killed. For that, as well as other stories deemed blasphemous, he was put behind bars.

But the nationwide fury caused by Nasab’s case was nothing compared to the international anger that engulfed Afghanistan when a man faced the death penalty for doing exactly what the magazine had dared discuss.

Abdul Rahman was denounced by his family in March for converting to Christianity 16 years ago. Some clerics demanded he be beheaded, people walked through the streets baying for his blood and Western governments were outraged at the prospect of a friendly state killing someone for their religious beliefs. He was eventually spirited away to Italy.

Nasab, a Shia Muslim, saw a conflict like this coming and he had tried to put himself on the frontline before anyone else. He told me as much from inside jail: “I am an ordinary Muslim. I love Islam, I am a pure Muslim. But I just wrote that every religion should be free to live in Afghanistan. This is in accordance with human rights. I am discussing an Islam… that is about human love.”

Islam has grown and flourished here ever since it was introduced by Arab armies some time during the seventh century.

However, the current battle between religious fundamentalism and values imposed from abroad can be traced back to 27 April 1978, when communists seized power in Kabul.

The repression that followed sparked a revolt from Afghans who became known as the Mujahideen - ‘holy warriors’ - and the Soviet Union subsequently invaded to protect its puppet administration. But with massive support from America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Muslim insurgents drove out the Russians after almost a decade of brutal occupation.

The ensuing power vacuum was filled by the victorious fundamentalists - of varying degrees - and a bloody civil war began in 1992. This gave rise to the Taliban who captured Kabul four-years later and imposed strict shariah law across the country, killing an economy and education system that was already crippled.

When the US-led coalition successfully deposed Mullah Mohammed Omar’s government in 2001, it was thus hailed by the West as Afghanistan’s liberation from decades of oppression. The reality, as the Nasab and Rahman cases show, is not so simple.

Waheed Warasta knows all too well the dangers non-Mulsims still face here in his homeland. In such a deeply conservative nation he must keep many of his beliefs under wraps if he wants to survive.

“If you give me a form to fill in I will immediately write that

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I’m a Muslim because I have to live in this society. Otherwise, like Abdul Rahman, if I convert to Buddhism Hinduism, Christianity or anything else, I will have to leave this country,” he told me.

“A normal Muslim has to pray five times a day, read the Koran in the morning. I wouldn’t consider myself a Muslim, but in this society my answer to you would be completely different.”

Warasta is Afghanistan’s executive director of International PEN, a worldwide association of writers. The 30-year-old spoke out against Nasab’s arrest and continues to campaign for free speech.

“In my opinion, even if someone wants to worship a tree it’s his own right. My mind can never accept that someone is killed for believing in this or that,” he said.

“I would say I’m a humanist, I believe in human values. I’m not against religions. I respect the different religions as long as they’re not a means of hatred, fighting and conflict among human beings.”

The insurgency here is growing rapidly and security is now worse than at any other time since the invasion. Suicide bombings have become common in southern provinces, with militants often crossing the border from neighbouring Pakistan.

Islamic extremists also still walk Afghanistan’s corridors of power, only now they have international legitimacy. The newly opened parliament may have been hailed as a beacon of democracy by Britain and the United States, but includes controversial figures like Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi, once a senior Taliban commander, and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a warlord implicated in numerous human rights abuses.

The constitution does little to protect religious freedom.

Although article two promises to let followers of other faiths act “within the bounds of law”, article three states that “no law shall contravene the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam".

While poverty, illiteracy, security problems and the legal system are all reasons that issues surrounding faith are rarely discussed, the widespread opposition to American foreign policy is another significant factor.

Even people who despise the Taliban are disillusioned with the United States, so anyone who questions the role Islam plays in public life is often just regarded as a cheerleader for an imperialist crusade.

“I also have Afghan friends who confide in me. They’ve clearly said they believe in Christianity, but when they sit with other Muslims they show they are devout Muslims,” said Warasta.

“They also send their children to the mosque to recite the Koran because if you can’t do that it’s a source of shame.”

When insulting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, upon whom be peace, were published by the European press, the fiercest reaction occurred inside Afghanistan. Embassies were attacked in Kabul and riots broke out across the country. That uproar again showed how the vitriol directed towards those who criticise Islam does not just come from clerics, politicians and the judges, it also comes from public opinion.

Warasta is the father of a nine-month-old girl called Nirvana, a name taken from the Buddhist and Hindu faiths. Despite all the problems existing here, he still hopes she might one day be free. “I believe that in the very far future we can have a good society where even people who convert can get their rights,” he said.

“But you can’t expect that in the near future, firstly because of the [lack of] knowledge of our people and secondly because of neighbouring countries like Pakistan who are even worse than us.”

In modern China, Islam is widely accepted and attitudes towards Muslims have been relaxed due to government liberalisation. Observers note that Islam is undergoing a modest revival, with unofficial estimates putting the total number of Muslims in the country at 15million, worshiping at some 30,000 Mosques. One source of concern to the Chinese government however, is the push by Uighur Muslims in the west of the country to form their own state. Fearing people are being influenced by ‘Islamic fundamentalists’ forced out of Central Asian countries such as Afghanistan, this is the only factor that could harm relations between Muslims and the ruling Communist party. For now though, Islam - which has been present in China for over 1400 centuries, is alive and well. Much overlooked for many years, Chinese Muslims are now of huge relevance on a global scale. As the world’s fastest developing country and the world’s most topical religion combine, the resulting out-come should be of great interest to the global community.

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This page and opposite: (1) A Muslim woman prays in the bedroom of her home. (2) Acrobatic performers prepare to go on stage in the Muslim district of Niu Jie during Eid al-Fitr. (3) Women at Niu Jie Mosque during Eid. (4) Young Muslim worshipers at Niu Jie Mosque during Eid. (5) An old man at Niu Jie Mosque, the largest mosque in Beijing. (6) Young Muslim girl. (7) A Muslim woman selling clothing during Eid. (8) A mural on the outside of a Muslim nursery school representing ‘Uighur’ Muslims from the west of China. (9) A young Muslim cooking in the kitchen of his family’s restaurant. (10) Muslim men at Niu Jie Mosque during Eid. Previous page: The outside of the Chinese National Headquarters for Hui Muslims, in the Muslim district Niu Jie. Next page: A Uighur Muslim from the west of China, who moved to Beijing for work, prays at sunset in a back-alley, just off Tiananmen Square.A man tries to sell an animal fur on the street in the Muslim area of Niu Jie. Muslim men at Niu Jie Mosque during the festival of Eid. All photographs were taken in Beijing, China during October and November 2005 by Sean Gallagher, an up and coming freelance photographer based in London. He has had work selected for The Ian Parry Scholarship Award 2003 for young photojournalists, in association with the Sunday Times Magazine. During 2004/2005 he was chosen to undertake a 1-year internship at the prestigious photojournalism agency, MAGNUM Photos. He is now working on projects investigating environmental and social issues in Asia, with specific emphasis on China.

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FEATURE

“We do it because

we love God” “Interfaith is dialogue is a waste of time!” Since becoming the Chair of the Christian Muslim Forum earlier this year, it’s a cynical sentiment that the Right Revd David Gillett hears more often. He and his partners are undeterred. According to Revd Gillett the nascent forum is a partnership of equals whose members are under no illusions - they have a long road to travel before they earn the legitimacy they desire.

he process of establishing this Forum began with the Archbishop of Canterbury who, in 1997, spoke of the importance of dialogue between Christians and Muslims in this country: “For the sake of the health of this country, we need to find ways in which members of our two communities can meet regularly together in a more structured way than has been possible up to now.” His remarks were received warmly by Muslims in England and since then a group of Christians and Muslims has worked together to see the Forum established.

The launch itself was a grand event hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and attended by a wide range of leading figures from both the Muslim and Christian communities. Our guest of honour was the Prime Minister who was there to wish us well. In his speech he brought a touch of realism to all of us who were celebrating this new beginning. He warned: “It’s not always easy I know, and there are a few critics and cynics within each community that will always raise question marks as to what a forum like this can achieve, but I think it can achieve a very great deal.”

I do not always see eye to eye with what the Prime Minister says but on this point I agree. While there are many who wish us well and have high hopes for the Forum, there are those who have questioned whether it won’t all be a talking shop that achieves very little. And I agree; at all costs we must avoid becoming just a talking shop. But then talking - dialogue - is important. As Winston Churchill once remarked, we need more jaw, jaw and less war, war.

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Talking together helps us walk together At the first residential meeting of the Christian Muslim Forum in March of this year we spent a lot of time talking. There needs to be far more personal relating across the wide spectrums within both our commu-

nities and between them. The Forum has been deliberately constructed to reflect this wide breadth that exists in both our communities. The Christians are not all the same sorts of Christians - and the Muslims also come from all sorts of traditions and opinions. Intra-faith dialogue is as important as inter-faith. A journalist from one of the leading daily newspapers recently said to me, “I hope you are not just going to agree all the time on the Forum because if that is how it looks we won’t believe you!” And of course he is right. However, I believe that we shall find occasions when all 20 of us can speak with one mind, and we shall want to say clearly to the media that Christians and Muslims are united at this point. But we shall not be afraid to speak of differences of opinion between us - and often times this will mean some Christians and Muslims agreeing together about something while another mixed group disagree. That is maturity. Hopefully our friendship will be deep enough so that we continue to value each other’s friendship, respect the deeply held convictions of those with whom we disagree, and work together for God’s glory.

But it’s often young people that moan about yet more dialogue - they are often impatient with talking.

They want action - and now. But even young people can see the point of in-depth talking together. One of the young people’s specialists on the Forum puts it like this, ‘We do it because we love God. Not because it’s worthy or the “right thing to do". It’s also at its best when people who are passionate about their faith meet together… We do dialogue because we care about others. We want to get to know them, become friends with them, stand up for them, help them, as they are also doing for us... Stereotypes are broken down, friendships are built and people work together for the good of society. It also shows the rest of society that when people of different faiths get together it doesn’t have to lead to trouble - it can lead to peace.’

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But, talking alone is not enough. The main reason for setting up the Forum is to help Christians and Muslims, as people of faith, to work together to improve the society in which we live. We believe that we have values we share which are given to us by God. Both Muslims and Christians believe that God inspires us and empowers us to make this world a better place, to help our country become a more harmonious and healthy place in which to live.

God calls us to both prayer and to action I hope that both Muslims and Christians will pray with conviction that God will bless our country and guide our leaders in both local and national politics to make decisions that reflect the values which God has established to enable communities to flourish. But, in our increasingly secularised world, many in our land are not always impressed by Muslims and Christians who say that we are praying for our country. They want to see some action.

The central task of the Christian Muslim Forum is to encourage joint action - so that everyone can see Christians and Muslims working together day by day for the good of the whole of our people, and not just for those who come to our mosques or churches week by week. Here lies the significance of the six specialist groups which form part of the Forum - Community and Public Affairs, Education, Family Issues, International Affairs, Media, and Youth. In each of these areas we have already begun our work. We are committed to fostering joint action at national and regional level where it can influence policy with government and opinion formers, and also to encourage working together at local level where it can make a difference on the ground. So we have begun to turn dialogue into action: We are planning to bring together Christian clergy and Muslim religious leaders for both regional and national conferences so that they can learn from one another how to help churches and mosques work together for their local area. We will also produce a document outlining good practice for local working together.

We are launching a project for young people to be engaged with some crucial aspects of the media in our sound-bite age where pop music, T.V. and magazines do so much to mould the values of our society.

We are beginning projects in various locations in schools to bring together children from both communities.

The Forum is sponsoring a conference of scholars to look at a religious contribution to values and citizenship.

We are starting to link up local initiatives in Muslim Christian encounter to help strengthen what, in some areas, are often struggling to get off the ground.

The Forum is beginning to produce guidelines and policy documents which we hope will help in defining the role of the two faiths in the wider community.

We have held a press reception for those involved in both religious and secular media, and forum members are undergoing media training to equip them for the vital task of raising the true profile of the reli-

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In our increasingly secularised world, many in our land are not always impressed by Muslims and Christians who say that we are praying for our country. They want to see action. gious contribution to our society rather than the unhelpful stereotypes that often dominate.

We have begun to explore the possibility of bringing together trainee Christian and Muslim clerics to encourage interaction and dialogue.

We have also identified further needs which we will begin to address over the coming months: To bring together Christian and Muslim development agencies to learn from each other’s ways of working and to create possibilities for greater co-operation.

To commission research into the issues which affect Christian and Muslim families which have an effect on their faith or its practice.

To provide resources for youth workers to enable them to understand the needs and aspirations of Christians and Muslim young people.

To organise a national day for young people 1418, including those already involved in more local dialogue events, that will produce significant resources for inter faith work among young people.

To sponsor a Christian-Muslim family conference to would affirm and resource families, especially parents.

At the heart of all our work is our faith in God. We believe that faith has an important contribution to make in our society. If faith is marginalised and does not have a place in our national discourse then - in place of faith - we will see yet more fear or extremism.

We need to find a wholesome space for faith in our society and work towards each of our faith traditions creating space for the other. It’s a long road to travel, but with God’s blessing, I believe we can journey together and see results.

FEATURE

Carnival of Caricatures The Deadly Politics of Humour

efending the right of Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten to publish a set of caricatures that Muslims believed denigrated the Prophet Muhammad, its culture editor, Flemming Rose, argued that “humour, even offensive humour, brings people together. Because by making fun of people we’re also including them in our society. It’s not always easy for those concerned, but that’s the price they’ve got to pay.”

Rose is correct to observe that humour has an innate ability to unite people. Though the fact that a large number of people will laugh at the same jokes during an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm or a Woody Allen film for example, indicates only that humour can lure people into a false assumption that they have a lot more in common than they actually do in reality.

What passes for humour today, whether from sitcoms or stand-up comedians, is a chain of trite, oft repeated jokes that are meant to ‘crack us up.’ And if this serves to ‘bring people together’ it is no wonder that conflict resolution in our litigious society is a booming business. We are told to “lighten up” and take a “chill pill”, that is until we can’t take it anymore. We have created an industry out of humour and by doing so perverted it. Instead of making us happy it has made us frivolous.

In seeking to justify his decision to publish the depictions, Rose mentions two types of humour as if they were equal - ‘humour’ and ‘offensive humour.’ Muslims can get downright silly when it comes to humour. After all, Islam has a rich humour tradition. In the post 9/11 years we have even seen a wave of Muslim comedians emerge and quickly gain prominence in both Europe and North America.

‘Offensive humour’ is a different story; it is irony that aspires to be humour and fails because it is a weapon forever aimed at someone else, never at oneself. Irony’s laughter wounds - it is sarcasm, parody, mockery, and ridicule.

Irony’s laughter is cruel and it inevitably humiliates others because it holds everything other than itself in contempt.

This genre of humour is alien to the Islamic tradition.

The Danish cultural intelligentsia, in contrast, holds that satire - which normally employs irony as its weapon of choice - is part of their national identity. Rose and others argue that when satire is used against a person or a particular group of people they should feel privileged, not insult-

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ed, integrated and certainly not excluded from Danish society. If this reasoning sounds loopy, chances are it is.

Offensive humour emerged and gained ascendance during carnival season, particularly in Europe, where the twoweek festival leading up to Lent gave free reign to ritual spectacles, bacchanalia, comic verbal compositions and relaxed social rules that allowed bawdy and abusive language to be spoken openly. During the carnival season the comedian was allowed the freedom to mock, ridicule and scoff at those in authority as well parody and laugh at the hegemonic ideals upheld by the rich and powerful.

The message of the carnival was undeniable - ‘so long as I can laugh at the rich and powerful, I am free.’

Carnivals not only nourished a culture of offensive humour, it gave it life beyond the carnival season.

Publications embraced caricatures because they used artistic techniques to exaggerate a person’s physical features to make him or her look grotesque or ludicrous. Whether a person was literate or not he knew instantly that the person caricatured was to be scorned, ridiculed and reviled.

Not surprising, in the 18th and 19th centuries the French and Spanish monarchs sent their caricaturists to prison, exile or, worse still, to the executioner.

As the tradition of journalism emerged and matured in Western Europe and the United States in the mid to late 19th century, newspapers gradually drifted away from caricatures and adopted what is known today as political cartooning. Cartoons resemble caricatures but they aim to specifically crystallize a point of social protest or sway public opinion. It is not all that surprising therefore that cartoonists are regarded as journalists in today’s mass media.

Thomas Nast (1840-1902) is regarded as the ‘founding father’ of modern day political cartooning. His legacy includes the GOP Elephant, a standard symbol of the Republican Party in the United States, and an unrelenting attack against the corruption of William Marcy Tweed and the infamous Tammany Hall corruption ring in 1860s New York City.

Tweed despised Nast because Nast’s cartoons mobilized people who demanded the smashing of the Tammany Ring and the removal of Tweed from power. Tweed was eventually brought to trial and found guilty of 104 counts and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He appealed the decision

Flemming Rose of the now infamous Jyllands-Posten opined that any offense caused by the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the price Muslims had to pay to be included in modern society. In other words, you had better get used to being laughed at.

Nazim Baksh sees things differently. While offensive humour can sometimes be a blunt instrument employed against the powerful, its use more often than not - is indicative of deep spiritual crises.

Islamic philosophy. While it is not one of the four main and while awaiting re-trial fled the country. virtues identified in Islamic thought, it is impossible to be Tweed was later arrested in Spain because someone rechumorous without hikma or wisdom. When humour is ognized him from a Nast cartoon. Before he died in prison present it leads to a balanced temperament. The ability to a pauper, Tweed is reported to have said: “I don’t care what laugh appropriately, even at oneself, neither too much nor they print about me, most of my constituents can’t read too little, at the right time and place, for the right things, is anyway-but them damn pictures.” a sign of courage, good health and well being. This is the From its genesis in the carnival, offensive humour has sunnah of the Messenger of God. always been a blunt instrument in the hands of the comHumour, like all other virtues, is subject to the mon man to be used against the powerful. The JyllandsAristotelian ‘golden mean.’ Humour is a balance between Posten caricatures came from the intellectual elites that two extremes; it arises neither from sense nor nonsense, but represent the dominant culture and targeted a harmless and rather in the vacillation from one to the other. In other marginal religious minority in Danish society. This is not words, it occurs when meaning changes from absurd to what the tradition of satire was meant for. meaningful or from serious to frivolous. Humour reveals A relatively intelligent person knows that humour, the frivolousness in all things serious and the seriousness in offensive or not, is culturally determined. What is funny to all things frivolous. When it takes itself too serious it some may very well be an insult to others. Albert Brooks reverts to irony and if too frivolous, buffoonery. went Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World and nearAccording to Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, haply ended up sparking off nuclear armageddon between piness is the greatest desire of the rational mind. Without it India and Pakistan. That’s hardly amusing, goofy yes, pera person might sink into anger, wallow forever in the mishaps even stupid, but not necessarily offensive, unless you ery of sadness. Ahmad Ibn-Muhammad Miskawayh in his are an Indian or a Pakistani who doesn’t like to be characTahdhib al-Akhlaq explains that inner happiness must be terised as trigger-happy. Some comedians, even Muslim given an outlet and that’s what humour is. In the Quran the ones, straddle the fence that divides humour from offensive word for happiness is sa’ada. humour. When they like someSyed Naqib Al-Attas says thing they use humour and The Danish cultural that to understand what sa’ada when they don’t they use irony. intelligentsia, in contrast, holds means one must ponder on its A Muslim will never accept opposite - shiqawa. Shiqawa, that humour can be at the that satire - which normally explains Al-Attas, is the condiexpense of a person’s beliefs or employs irony as its weapon of tion of a person so mired in ideals, whether the Muslim choice - is part of their national disobedience to God that his believes they are valid or not. heart is perpetually in a state A person who fails to laugh at identity. Rose and others argue of anxiety, anguish, fear, grief, a crude or racist joke might say that when satire is used against a misery, and regret. The sum “I don’t share your sense of person or a particular group of total of these symptoms is not humour.” That’s what a lot of merely a state of sadness, but Muslims should have said people they should feel one of ‘tragedy.’ Shiqawa is a instead of torching Danish privileged, not insulted, result of hubris, haughty pride, flags, storming embassies or that prevents submission to the banning Danish products. integrated and certainly not Creator.

Humour - the kind that excluded from Danish society. If In Imam Al-Ghazali’s defuses hatred, anger, resentthis reasoning sounds loopy, philosophical schema, shiqawa ment and fanaticism - is a is a characteristic of a person virtue in both western and chances are it is.

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who is so overwhelmed by the Messenger. When the merFrom its genesis in the seductions of this world that it chant demanded payment carnival, offensive humour has costs him the pleasures of the form Nu’ayman he directed always been a blunt instrument next. Sa’ada, on the other him to the Prophet. The hand, arises out of obedience in the hands of the common man Prophet was surprised that the to Allah for His pleasure alone. merchant was asking for payto be used against the powerful.

A person may laugh or ment since he was told that The Jyllands-Posten caricatures ‘play the fool,’ watch endless Nu’ayman had sent him the hours of Comedy Central, yet honey as a gift. Nu’ayman came from the intellectual elites deep in his soul there is a showed up to explain himself that represent the dominant shiqawa that no amount of and insisted that since the laughter can erase. On the Prophet had eaten the honey culture and targeted a harmless other hand, a person of sa’ada he should pay for it. Laughing and marginal religious minority may laugh little and weep at Nu’ayman’s prank the in Danish society. This is not much - a Prophetic ideal - yet Prophet paid the merchant. deep in his soul the torch of Nu’ayman later said that he what the tradition of satire was happiness is flaming red. In had done two good deeds, he meant for. other words, laughter alone got the Prophet to eat his proves (and provides) nothing. favourite food and he made Our blessed Messenger was him laugh. the most balanced in all affairs. One of his names is adThere are many legendary Nu’ayman pranks.

Dahhak, the Smiling One. He smiled because he embodied Nu’ayman played a significant role in Madinah. There is happiness. When he smiled, those who knew him tell us, no record of the Prophet forbidding him to cease his pranks there was no mistaking the radiant joy he created when he even though some of them were slapstick. This indicates entered a room. that Nu’ayman had Prophetic sanction. It is reported that He used to say “I joke but I always tell the truth.” His he only stopped laughing and playing pranks when the wife Aisha is reported to have said “the Messenger was Muslim community was rocked with internal dissent duralways making us laugh at home.” He also said “Those ing the reign of Muawiyya. who sin while laughing will enter hell crying.” It is a sin in If Nu’ayman didn’t exist Muslims would have had to Islam to lie, deliberately insult, mock, ridicule, or revile invent him. Any culture where humour does not exist lacks others. the virtues of humility, generosity and mercy. Scratch the An old woman came to the Messenger to ask him a veneer of seriousness and you will find extremism and vitally important question: “Will I go to paradise?” The fanaticism. Humour peels away at self-deception and the Prophet said “no, old people don’t go to paradise.” glum satisfaction that the pious-looking bearded and turDejected, the woman looked up at the face of the baned brother is better than the one without.

Messenger and saw him smiling and quickly realized that Nu’aymaniyya became the springboard for a flourishwhat he told her was in jest. He then comforted her, “God ing tradition of humour among Muslims. Today Muslim will restore your youth before you enter paradise.” parents and teachers narrate the tales of Mulla Nasruddin The humour of the Messenger of God was contagious. in order to establish simple truths with their children.

He was once sitting with two Bedouin women who had Humour, because it can only laugh at what it loves or raised their voices in the presence of the Messenger respects, is a useful tool that should be used to teach othdemanding spoils of war when Umar ibn al-Khattab passed ers about our tradition. by and overheard them. He knocked on the door of the Muslims have to stop making rage their first instinctive Prophet’s home and was asked to identify himself after reaction to an offence. Members of Quraysh poked fun at which he was given permission to enter. He saw the the Prophet by making reference to him as “Mudammam” prophet sitting alone and asked who was with him. At (a play on Muhammad) which means ugly. This offensive which point the Prophet identified the two women who humour, irony if you wish, was done at the expense of the had gone into hiding. Umar chided them: ‘Do you hide real name of the Prophet and so it was exceptionally from Umar and you raise your voice in the presence of the painful to his companions. Muhammad was a unique name Messenger?’ The women responded: ‘Yes, indeed, because in Makkah at that time and it means “the one who is you are rough O Umar and the Messenger of God is gen- praised.” It is the most popular name in the world today. tle.’ The Prophet laughed. He had to break this standoff The companions complained to the Prophet with tears in between Umar’s poignant observation and the women’s their eyes. His response was that they should ignore the reasonable fear of Umar. He said: ‘Indeed Umar, even if mocking laughter associated with “Mudammam” because Satan was coming down a road and encountered you, he his name is Muhammad and “Mudammam” can only be would take another path.’ someone other than Muhammad. He defused the irony, One of the central comedic characters in the time of the neutralized it, pulled the rug out from under it, with genProphet was the companion An-Nu’ayman ibn `Amr. To tleness, wit, and humility. Muslims too could have looked put things in perspective, Nu’ayman fought with the at the offensive depiction and simply said: “That’s not our Muslims during the battles at Badr, Uhud and Khandaq. Prophet.”

Nu’ayman had an infectious laughter. He once convinced a merchant to send honey on his behalf to the home of the

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The Day the

Music Died How do you feel about going to a nasheed concert? Elated? Cautious?

Determined (especially if Sami Yusuf is coming) to get in to the venue at any cost? Are contemporary Muslims performers recreating the same MTV-style hype that their brand of religiously-inspired music was supposed to spurn? With nasheed music become increasingly slick and corporate, Suma Din reports on a growing concern that this promising industry has lost its bearings - a victim of its own phenomenal success.

hat contemporary nasheed music has had a major impact on young Muslims in Britain and North America and beyond is undeniable. It has provided a soundtrack for the emergence of a distinctly religious cultural identity and has provided an aesthetic artistic expression and language that is deliberately at odds with the bling-bling, bump-and-grind vulgarity that is the hallmark of so much popular music today. The pioneers of this “Islamic sound” worked against the odds to create what today is an emerging industry and yet many of those same pioneers are now declaring that the scene today is no longer one that they recognise.

A decade ago, there was no argument over how an artist’s image was to be marketed - one would be lucky to get hold of a tape, let alone catch a glimpse of the artists themselves.

Nowadays, concerts - filling major venues like Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Arena - have brought a new public dimension to ‘Islamic entertainment’. When I started listening to nasheeds, it was a way of creating a musical connection to my spirituality. Now it’s about screaming fans, autographed CDs and tickets selling on eBay. I’m not trying to “bah humbug” the genre - but I want to know how the nasheed industry - its artists, promoters and producers - maintain its core purpose and value when the savvy consumers are obviously demanding and expecting a product that is thoroughly at home among HMV’s chart toppers.

When Dawud Wharnsby-Ali walked on stage for his first live musical performance since becoming Muslims, it was with some trepidation. It was 1997 and he was singing at the

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first major ‘Islamic music’ concert in Toronto, Canada not far from his hometown of Kitchener. At one point during the second set, he doubled over gagging. What he later described as a profound lack of “spit control”, seemed to the audience a moment of raw emotion. He had stopped his performance in the middle of poignant verse on the sacrifice of the Prophet Ibrahim. Quickly recovering his breath and clearing his throat Dawud continued. Most of the audience couldn’t hold back their tears. An unlikely star was born.

Wharnsby-Ali is often introduced with two words - total humility. One of the first popular nasheed artists in English, his lyrics are introspective and catchy. Working with Soundvision, a US-based producer and distributor of Islamic education products - Wharnsby-Ali produced his first four albums of spiritual songs for Muslim children doing few live performances. “I was totally against live performances,” he recalls, “because I had a tremendous fear that live shows would lead to songs about Allah being treated like some sort of ‘alternative’ to mainstream music. For me, music has always been a spiritual tool. My songs about Allah or Muhammad were never meant to be just a form of entertainment, but a form of worship and learning. It’s the case with all the songs I write. I have always considered myself a ‘writer’, not a ‘pop singer’.”

The growing popularity of his folksy nasheeds meant he was invited to sing and talk to young people and soon began to oblige. At one concert organised for a children’s group he arrived only to find, five hundred adults and fifteen children.

Perhaps they were looking for their “inner child".

With the recent proliferation of slickly organised nasheed

concerts, Wharnsby-Ali has been reticent to perform. “I wanted to assert my own vibe on the medium - bringing more than just ‘songs’ to the stage, but also the ‘in between song khutbahs’ reminding the audience to focus on issues, not just the songs or the artists. When I started performing in the UK with The Fletcher Valve Drummers I was directly aiming to buck the whole lip-sync trend, where audience members pay to see a live concert and end up seeing singers with phoney backing vocalists and pre-recorded music. I truly wanted audiences to feel the power of music and rhythm, and experience a ‘live’ show and not a ‘lie’ show.”

Zain Bhika from South Africa is another one of the nasheed scene’s well known performers. His work with Yusuf Islam’s Jamal Records label secured him international exposure. He too is jaded by current trends. After a recent performance with Wharnsby-Ali at a small recital organised

by Q-News at London’s Goodenough College, he explained how promotional appearances start to impinge on the creativity of an artist, putting pressure on them to think of what the audience now wants to hear. “It’s the ‘the flavour of the month’ phenomena which defeats everything a true artist is all about.”

And what is the artist’s real passion? Wharnsby-Ali answers without missing a beat: “My songs are a reflection of my life, my faith and my observations of the world around me. I write about life, death, love, hope, social issues, spiritual struggles, identity, belonging... in the end, there is no telling how it will be interpreted. Some listeners will find some sense of peace, or motivation to better their relationships with their families, communities, or most

importantly, with God. Some people may interpret my work as ear candy, while others may let the messages penetrate more deeply into their hearts. As an artist though, I know I am not a puppet. I don’t write for an audience, I don’t write for a specific faith group, I don’t write to sell CDs. I write what feels true to me.”

The sentiment is admirable and important. Nasheed writing is a genuine attempt to connect with a community that needs a sense of belonging and a positive self image. A few years ago going to a nasheed concert was less fun than going to a wake. There was no clapping, cheering or public expression of support or appreciation for the artist except the occasional ‘takbeer’. The scene during the recent Meem Music organised nasheed tour was completely different - a crowd of more than a thousand young people cheered and laughed their way through a dizzying array of performers from both sides of the Atlantic. For some such displays of youthful fervour is a little too pop-concerty. On this point, Dawud disagrees with the naysayers, saying he feels privileged to be part of young people “expressing themselves” and sharing an atmosphere of warmth, and feeling they belong by clapping, calling out and “connecting” with his message.

What bother him are the faux trappings of an invented stardom. He is dead set against “being whisked off stage like a pop diva afterwards by over- the-top security crews, then being hidden in a pretentious hotel like some sort of Middle Eastern dignitary, being told I can’t chat with friends and audience members because time won’t permit... I dislike the vibe backstage where artists expect they deserve royal Q - NEWS

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treatment or more money for before he embraced Islam, gets right shows and a host of volunteers to the heart of these concerns: Issues around fame, having a to make them tea at the snap of “authentic nasheed that will fan following, audience a finger.” provide by both content and Wharnsby-Ali wants Islamic context. The proper Islamic reactions open up music to take a different path, understanding is essential. By way philosophical, theological where artists, promoters and the of context, the presentation of such music companies are more nasheed should be in an debates. There are still those accountable to listeners and to environment that encourages the within Muslim communities the original intent of the music. best Islamic conduct and character.

Consumers and listeners too This should become an excellent who condemn music as being have to stop “stop acting like alternative, particularly to our prohibited. To them the sheep and ask, ‘Who is this youth - to learn about the principles artist...really?

Are they of Islam from the content, and the nasheed scene with its legitimate? Does he or she really conduct and adab of the Muslims concerts, CDs and promotion represent what I believe in and by way of context.” are an anathema. stand for, or am I just hyped on Nevertheless, Shah - who them because they are all the manages five nasheed artists and The recent decision by rage?’ Eventually I hope we see three nasheed groups - knows that Dawud Wharnsby-Ali, Zain young artists get out there with it’s difficult balance to achieve. He’s their self-penned songs, in an got to produce quality, marketable Bhikha and more importantly effort to change the world for entertainment, while retaining Yusuf Islam to pick up their the better, not just cash in on humility and sincerity on stage and some CD sales.” in promotion. The challenge is not guitars again has raised the Tayyeb Shah knows a thing much different that that facing hackles of this vocal minority. or two about the music ‘Christian Rock’ or other religious industry. He started his career musical genres. with Mountain of Light label in Tayyeb observes that “artists its early years and was instrumental in a number of landmark have in recent years moved more and more away from delivering projects including Yusuf Islam’s I Have No Cannons That outstanding vocal performances to providing an ‘entertaining’ Roar compilation of Muslim music of Bosnia that came out stage act and have sought to competitively outdo one another in at the height of the ethnic cleansing campaign. the things they do on stage. Moreover, oftentimes I fear they fail Shah is now the successful Managing Director of Meem to see the effects of their words and actions on stage - these can Music, one the world’s leading nasheed record labels. be detrimental to nasheed scene as a whole.”

Undoubtedly the most experienced producer in Britain, Shah As one veteran Muslim activist remarked to me recently, the has produced nearly fifty albums as well as organising organisers have a whole minefield of issues to deal with. Their concerts across the world. The recent Celebrate Eid Tour earnest efforts are to deliver something of benefit and quality to featured American “boy band” 786, Malaysian nasheed the listeners. In reality though, they have to juggle a range of pioneers Raihan, Aa’shiq al Rasul and comedians Azhar views in their own organisation, record label stipulations, the Usman and Preacher Moss. Tayyeb sees the concerts as “a artists’ well being and choices, as well as a host of practicalities. means for the collective remembrance of Allah and His Issues around fame, having a fan following, audience reactions Prophet (saw). It allows the audience to consume an art form open up philosophical, theological debates. There are still those more in keeping with their deen and one which hopes to within Muslim communities who condemn music as being imbibe good, positive messages. I’ve been involved in this prohibited. To them the nasheed scene with its concerts, CDs and scene for over a decade and I can honestly say everyone I’ve promotion are an anathema. The recent decision by Dawud met from the artists, labels, producers, organisers, down is Wharnsby-Ali, Zain Bhikha and more importantly Yusuf Islam to involved primarily for spreading God’s message and pick up their guitars again has raised the hackles of this vocal promoting it through the medium of nasheed, sacrificing minority. work, holiday time, family time, money and much effort.”

It was the alternative sound and message that first attracted However, he too sees the need to reassess things when me to ‘nasheed artists’. The words and delivery were all about the asked about artist promotion, image and concert atmosphere. values that mainstream music had lost - simplicity, sincerity, This young industry, he says, “will understandably go humility. I never thought the music would ever be a scene. through a learning process where the influence of the Western Frankly, neither did the devotees of grunge or rap. Nasheed music music industry impinges in a negative way… but these are is certainly following the trajectory of its irreverent ‘once-wereteething issues and very pale imitations of what goes on alternative’ cousins. Perhaps that’s the way of the industry on elsewhere in mainstream society. All of us need to be wary of either side of the line that divides sacred music from profane. too much imitation of the mainstream music scene. We need I was recently given a gift - a brand new nasheed album, by a to involve and enlist the better help of our scholars in the brand new artist. It’s got all the qualities that drew me to the West and preferably those who have a background and genre years ago. Maybe I’m nostalgic, but it’s his first album. He’s affinity for music and nasheeds.” never had a photo shoot and doesn’t seem to have a PR agent Advice coming from Imams such as Johari Abdul-Malik either. If his sound is as exciting to others as it is to me, it’s only of Washington, DC. Imam Johari, a singer and musician a matter of time, alas, before he’ll have all that and more.

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he first thing people notice about Habib Ali al-Jifri is his smile - broad, welcoming, honest.

But beneath his gentle demeanour is a steely determination to engage in a genuine dialogue on the meaningful role Islam and Muslims must play in the West. He’s no pushover. Well read and well travelled, Habib Ali is a compelling religious scholar who brings a keen sense of social justice and relevance to his teaching. A critic of the economic and political policies that have brought misery to places like Iraq, Palestine and Africa, he is a spiritual activist who calls on Muslims to reject the path of anger and seek a higher moral ground.

Abdul-Rehman Malik reports from London, Copenhagen and Abu Dhabi on the man and his mission.

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ith all due respect, I simply cannot understand the nature of the devotion you have for your Prophet,” the journalist said incredulously.

“There is simply nothing I think of that holds that kind of sacred value for me. Perhaps, my love for my children is the nearest thing I can think of.”

“Yes,” exclaimed Habib Ali alJifri, smiling. “We both love our children and would sacrifice anything for their well being. We feel even more love and adoration than that for our Prophet. He is dearer to us even than our own children, even more than ourselves.”

Sitting in a Turkish restaurant in London’s Farringdon Road, Habib Ali al-Jifri was meeting with a group of journalists, free speech defenders and human rights activists to discuss the now well-konown bayan or declaration of Islamic scholars issued in the aftermath of the global Muslim outrage following publication of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, across Europe. The landmark declaration condemned the violent demonstrations and the resulting attacks on Danish embassies, affirmed the principle of freedom of speech and ideas as something enshrined in Islam, while calling on the Danish government and the international community to enact the necessary legislation to protect sacred symbols and prevent libellous attacks on recognised founders of religious traditions. Signed by some of contemporary Islam’s most important scholars - including the Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Jumua, Mauritanian jurist Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah and Syrian theologian Dr Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti - the document had come about as a result of painstaking negotiation and shuttle diplomacy much of which was carried out

by Habib Ali himself.

Habib Ali listened carefully to the sharp criticisms of the declaration raised during the meeting. When one participant exclaimed that there were parts of the document that “just didn’t make sense” and were “simply incompatible” with a modern understanding of free expression, Habib Ali responded, “then you must write down your concerns, so I can take them back to the signatories. This declaration is not the end of a process but its beginning. We need intelligent people to respond to it, criticise it.

Your comments will help clarify our perspectives and make them stronger.”

One leading free speech rights campaigner remarked to me after the meeting, “I like your Shaykh. He’s young, he’s energetic and - I’m not sure I should say this - he’s very handsome. He smiles a lot and I usually don’t trust people who smile too much, but he’s different.”

Since he started coming regularly to Europe and North America to teach and speak, the thousands who have come to listen to him would certainly not disagree. Even though he speaks only in Arabic and his lectures are understood by most of his listeners through translation, his message resonates profoundly with young Western Muslims.

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abib Ali Zain al Abideen ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Jifri hails from the Hadramawt Valley in southern Yemen. His father Abd alRahman al-Jifri was one of Yemen’s most influential political figures. Now in exile, he remains an important opposition leader and serves as chair of the National Opposition Front.

Abd al-Rahman al-Jifri has consistently rejected violence and advocated national unity on the grounds of human rights and democracy.

Habib Ali took a decidedly different path. Studying in Tarim, a historic city known for its community of Islamic scholars, Habib Ali studied and served some of the most illustrious scholars of the modern age. In the valley of Hadramawt the descendents of the Prophet Muhammad himself settled generations ago and it is his example that is celebrated in rich local poetry and devotional music. The studies in Tarim are more than just academic pursuits - they represent a rigorous lifestyle of prayer, study and service. At the heart of the rigorous training is a gentle spirituality that constantly reminds the young scholars to be mindful of the Prophetic example and to place his merciful, generous ways at the heart of one’s faith. Western students returning from Tarim describe it as a place that reminds them of the Madinah talked about in stories of the Prophet.

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itting in Habib Ali’s modest hotel room overlooking a quiet Copenhagen street, I glance at the morning edition of Politiken, Denmark’s leading progressive daily. A picture of Habib Ali kneeling in prayer almost covers the entire front page.

Few outside of Denmark would have understood the significance of the image. The previous night Habib Ali had debated representatives of the right-wing Danish People’s Party (DPP) and the country’s governing Liberals. Alongside him were the Kuwaitibased Tariq Suwaidan and the dynamic Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled, who like Habib Ali are popular figures on Arab satellite television. The debate took place in a cavernous hall that was once home to the Politiken’s antiquated printing presses and has recently been turned into a venue for public debate and discussion. For Danish freedom of speech advocates this is hallowed ground, where the Politiken’s campaigning journalists took on Denmark’s political establishment for decades.

Habib Ali’s very public prayer in the hall raised the eyes of many. One Danish journalist later confided to me, “That picture had more impact than the debate itself. Here was a Muslim scholar - with a turban and robes - completely at home in the temple of free speech. It was like he was honouring our holy ground.”

Politiken’s editorial line on the cartoons has been praised by Danish Muslims who have had few public defenders in the last few months. During the heated exchange, DPP parliamentarian Soren Espersen shouted down criticisms from young Muslims calling them “pathetic complainers.” “Just get on with it,” he bellowed to the jeers of the predominantly young Danish Muslim crowd. “We are not here to be your welcoming committee, if you

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say you are Danish then you have all the rights of citizenship. I’m sick and tired of this nonsense!”

When Danish Muslim activist, Imran Hussain, reminded him that senior DPP members had called Danish Muslims “cockroaches” and a “cancerous growth” that needed to be excised, he merely shrugged.

Habib Ali’s response was pointed. “It is this attitude of arrogance and this kind of dismissive behaviour that divides people. You do not consider these young people part of your nation and your society. It is you who are creating a ‘them’ and ‘us’ and yet you don’t even realise that there are people who look like you and have your ethnicity, yet they are Muslims. Your idea of who is Danish and who isn’t is confused.”

Habib Ali asked for all those Muslims in the audience who were ethnically Danish to stand up - these were converts themselves, or children of converts. At least two dozen audience members stood up to the thunderous applause of the crowd.

Espersen shook his head and seemed for the first time that evening to be at a loss for words.

“The Prophet is not alive in people’s hearts, he’s not alive in their spiritual wayfaring or in the way they do things and even in the way they list their priorities, and how they deal with others around them. This is what we’re missing, this is the real problem,” Habib Ali contends. “We are angry about the cartoons, we showed the world that. We showed them our anger but we didn’t show them the love for the Prophet Muhammad. So through this year’s mawlid celebrations, it’s important that people find out why we love him, and through the remembrance of his noble characteristics they will know the reasons for our love.”

abib Ali walked into the room and greeted me, smiling, immediately asking if he could get me some coffee or breakfast. Dressed in an immaculately pressed, white jalabiyya and wearing an equally unblemished skullcap, he shows his youthfulness in his broad gait and energetic, eager manner.

This morning however, his altogether pleasant and welcoming demeanour cannot hide the tiredness around his eyes. Since arriving in Copenhagen he has maintained a punishing pace - meeting, speaking and doing press appearances from fajr prayers to late into the night. He has waded into a deeply fractured Muslim community and is seeking to help create a forum where disparate and clashing parties can at least talk to each other. When he is not in meetings or on a stage, he is on his mobile keeping in touch with his many projects all over the world.

His reason for being in Denmark is the launch of a dialogue initiative organised by Amr Khaled’s RightStart Foundation and the Danish Institute for International Relations, involving some 50 young people from Denmark and the Muslim world.

“We all have to stop speaking about ‘Islam and the West’,” he says. “There is no longer any ‘us’ and ‘them’. Islam is in the West.

It is part of the fabric of the West and it is a reality which is not going to go away. The question is when will Europeans realise this and deal with Muslims as people who are no longer outsiders, but part of them?”

Habib Ali is full of passion as he speaks and his exhaustion seems to melt away as he reflects on the dialogue: “This trip has assured me of something I already suspected that the Danish people are good people, that they are reasonable people. I am convinced that we have to make a distinction between those in the government and who supported the publication of the cartoons

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and the Danish people themselves.

Dialogue must address the ignorance people have about Islam. But we cannot treat them as they treat us as all the same.”

He has particular praise for the Danish Youth Council, an important national organisation seen as the training ground for future politicians: “Many of the Danish youth who took part are activists and future leaders who can go and help change public opinion. This dialogue has opened the door for a cultural exchange between us and the future intellectual class here. In turn, these young Danes have been surprised by our openness and by how little they really know about Islam. I feel that much of the press here does not highlight the positive contributions that Danish Muslims are making. It is like there is a sort of general insistence here of not really keeping the people in the picture, sort of clouding their opinion so that the only road that can be seen leads towards clash and conflict.”

day earlier Habib Ali had delivered the Friday sermon at a storefront mosque in the heart of Copenhagen’s Arab community belonging to the Wakf organisation whose leader Ahmed Abu Laban has been at the head of the campaign to internationalise the cartoon controversy.

Habib’s message was short and direct: we love our Prophet more than we love ourselves, but loving him means never compromising his high ethical standard and it means never being controlled by our anger and rage.

After the sermon I met Musa, an Eritrean with Danish citizenship. He was heartened by Habib’s words, “al-Jifri is a very astute and clever man. I enjoyed his khutbah - it was short, effective and to the point. The Prophet demanded a lot from us and I think we have let him down. It’s hard not to be angry though, we go through a lot here.”

Musa works as a lab technician and has been in Denmark for 35 years. I ask if he feels Danish. He laughs sceptically, “Danish?

I feel like a stranger, I feel like an outsider. I feel like people will not reach out to me so I won’t reach out to them. I can never run away from my faith and it’s my faith that concerns the people I work with. They are always poking fun. I just keep quiet.” Musa is angry. He says that while Muslims may be divided about what Abu Laban did, “we are united against munafiqs like Naser Khader [leader of the secular Muslims who claim to be moderates.

The government uses people like him against us. At least Abu Laban reflects my anger.”

I tell Habib about the young men at the largest London rally who weren’t just talking about the cartoons but about Iraq, Palestine, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. One young person from East London declared that, “There is no Britain! There is no America! There’s just La ilaha ilallah!” How do we deal with an anger that simmering and feels like it could boil over at any

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COVER

of observation, but one that seems to moment?

There is always something on inform his interactions with others.

“We need to emphasise that offer when Habib is around. He Like every good teacher, he lets his while there is legitimate reasons for eyes take the scene in. anger it must be mediated by the makes sure there are gifts for There is always something on sacred law. Anger is no excuse for guests, food for visitors and the offer when Habib is around. He ignorance of our principles and our makes sure there are gifts for guests, way of life. We have to revive the offer of help and assistance food for visitors and the offer of help spirit of brotherly connections, whatever the situation. Sitting in and assistance whatever the situation. whether it is to neighbours, family or friends to bring back this connection on one late night strategy session, Sitting in on one late night strategy session, I noticed him quietly open a between people, and to do it in a I noticed him quietly open a box box of chocolates, and proceed to lob manner that is informed by the them at those assembled urging them Prophetic guidance. Connection of chocolates, and proceed to lob to step lively and have a sweet. It with others on a brotherly level or a them at those assembled urging broke the seriousness in the room neighbourly level eventually leads to and everybody started laughing. a lessening of the anger, because we them to step lively and have a The process of initiating these see when these connections are built sweet. It broke the seriousness in cross-cultural and international diaup and further developed. We need the room and everybody started logues hasn’t been easy. Some leading to renew our core belief in the personalities in the Arab world have unseen - that is why we make sincere laughing. dismissed these attempts at exchange supplication to Allah, because we as simply misguided and Habib Ali’s have certainty about Him. If somescholarly credentials have been quesone feels frustrated and he feels all tioned: stick to preaching, say the naysayers, and talking about doors are closed, then the door of Allah is the one that is always matters of the soul, and leave the big issues to people who underopen. Frustration should guide one to look to Allah for guidance stand global politics. on what he should be doing.”

Habib Ali is undeterred. He embraces the idea that the world is now no more than a global village and is acutely aware that his abib Ali is not just a spiritual teacher detached from the message is not just the right one, but that it is resonating with concerns of Muslim communities. At a major public lecyoung Muslims. ture in London last December he took a strong political line, calling on people of justice to oppose the occupation of Iraq and Palestine and use every political means of opposing policies at ast month, in Abu Dhabi, Habib Ali invited a group of home and abroad that are unjust. His message of civic action is Danish youth leaders - with several Muslims amongst them guided though by Prophetic principles. The high moral ground and a group of young Muslims from Europe, North and ethics of faith can never be compromised in the struggle for America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, to come together social justice and peace. His is a spiritual activism borne of noble for a four day gathering entitled Litaarafu: The Search for Mutual conviction.

Understanding organised under the direction of the Tabah “The Prophet is not alive in people’s hearts, he’s not alive in Foundation, the UAE-based think-tank and research centre of their spiritual wayfaring or in the way they do things and even in which Habib Ali is the director. Over four days of discussions, the way they list their priorities, and how they deal with others debate, and an evening under the desert skies, the participants around them. This is what we’re missing, this is the real problem,” eventually reached some common ground. Strong difference Habib Ali contends. remained, but what Tabah hoped to accomplish through the ini“We are angry about the cartoons, we showed the world that. tiative was to create an example of good practice, documenting We showed them our anger but we didn’t show them the love for why such dialogues really do work. the Prophet Muhammad. So through this year’s mawlid celebraIt’s easy to be cynical, after all a handful of well-educated, tions, it’s important that people find out why we love him, and largely liberal minded students aren’t going to change the opinions through the remembrance of his noble characteristics they will of nations. However, the fruits of the exchange were seen in little know the reasons for our love.” He has recently adopted the ways.

Arabic slogan Hayyun fi Qulubina (Alive in Our Hearts) as a ralThe night before the closing ceremonies, a small group of dellying cry for this call to adopt the Prophetic values. egates gathered around a laptop in the darkened conference cenHow do you explain to someone, like the journalist at the distre trying to negotiate the text of the resolution that would be precussion in London, why we love the Prophet? “People love in gensented to the press in the morning. After several hours of horse eral for three reasons jamal, kamal, and ihsan. Jamal is beauty, trading words and phrases, the declaration seemed like it was in kamal is completeness or perfection and ihsan is excellence. We hand. That was until one of the Danish student leaders suggested have to get out the message that we see all these three aspects in that there should be a phrase stating that the Danes had learned the Prophet and it’s these attributes that people actually need in about Muslim faith and practice and had also begun to undertheir lives today.” stand the depth of love and devotion Muslims had for the Habib Ali is an impeccable listener. When others are speaking, Prophet. The objections surprisingly came from some of the he’s completely focused and just to be sure, he asks questions that Muslim draftees who felt such a statement would seem lopsided in show that he’s been paying attention. Habib Ali is also a keen favour of the Muslim delegates, but the Danes were adamant. observer; he notices body language and pays attention to all those “We want to demonstrate support for Habib Ali’s vision. We want non-verbal cues that communicate so much. It’s not a sneaky kind people here and abroad to know that it has been a success.” In the

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end the naming of the Prophet Muhammad in the declaration was followed by “peace be upon him” - included, again, at the insistence of the Danes.

At the closing ceremonies, the delegates gave Habib Ali al-Jifri and fellow guest renowned scholar Dr Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti three standing ovations. One of the delegates, a young Danish woman, said, “Without Habib Ali we would never have had this opportunity. He is our friend and a true teacher.” abib Ali continues to teach for several weeks a year at Dar al Mustafa, one of the many seminaries in Tarim. He still studies with several master scholars and returns to his teachers for guidance regularly. During an unusually quiet moment during his whirlwind Copenhagen trip, I asked Habib Ali what he remembered most about his teachers.

“When I was ten years old, I remember spending time [with my teacher] Habib Abd al-Qadir Saqqaf. I saw the shama’il of the Prophet Muhammad reflected in him before I even read about them in a book. When I was with Habib Abd al-Qadir he reminded me of the mercy of the Prophet, the gentleness of the Prophet and the patience and forbearance of the Prophet, peace be upon him. When I think of Habib Ahmed Mashhur Al Haddad, I remember his presence with Allah. He was always present with his Lord, and this awareness was palpable. It affected us deeply. I’d find stories in the books of tasawwuf that speak of how some of the great masters were in a constant state of witnessing the presence of Allah - I felt that in him.”

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fter the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi dialogue, Habib Ali prepared for another long stretch of traveling - Syria to Kenya to the United Kingdom for the Uniting for the Prophet 2006 program at Wembley Conference Centre. He feels a great responsibility to help others spiritually. I ask aloud, what sustains him in his work?

“There is an authentic narration of the Prophet Muhammad that after he is first granted intercession on the Day of Judgment, they will still remain some people in hellfire who are Muslim, and so the Prophet, peace be upon him - not wanting this to happen will prostrate himself before the throne of Allah and ask Allah to take them out. Allah would grant his request and still some would remain. So he would return to Allah a second time, and a third time, until one last person would remain in the hellfire. And Allah would then say that anyone who just said ‘La ilaha ilallah’ with honesty even once in their life should enter Paradise. So seeing that after all of the struggles and all of the strife, and all that the Prophet, peace be upon him, sacrificed for this ummah, he didn’t want to go to Paradise - he wouldn’t feel comfortable there - while even one of the people who believed in him remained back. This gives the impetus and the inspiration to continue calling to Allah and the truth. We have to do this for the sake of the Prophet, peace be upon him, because we don’t want him to feel this discomfort on the Day of Judgment.” He smiles and asks, “It just makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Habib Ali’s spiritual activism seeks to bridge the false gap between Islam and the West, Muslim and non-Muslim. His call to his brothers and sisters to seek a higher moral ground without giving up their commitment to their faith, their Prophet and social justice is just the kind of difficult challenge that many young Muslims - jaded by circular, angry and impotent political rhetoric - might be willing to embrace.

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Photographs courtesy of Peter Sanders.

MEMORIAL

A Loss of a Common

Treasure

The late Dr Zaki Badawi was loved well beyond the Muslim communities he served over his long and extraordinary career. The morning of 16 March 2006 saw a remarkable gathering of men and women who came to London’s School of Oriental and African Studies to remember this legacy. In his moving eulogy, HRH The Prince of Wales spoke of Dr Badawi’s desire to reconcile hearts to the way of God and to see faith not just as a common treasure but a means to give beauty and truth back to the world. our excellencies, Archbishop, Chief Rabbi, Lady Badawi - ladies and gentlemen. There are many people here today who are infinitely better qualified to speak about dear Zaki Badawi than I am and who can speak with far greater authority on the role he played within our Muslim community.

All I can contribute is the deep sense of affection and admiration which I felt for, first and foremost, a truly remarkable character whose genius lay in the way he could communicate the wisdom of the heart across so many boundaries - boundaries of culture, religion and ethnicity.

Zaki had come to play such a vital role in the life of our country and in the lives of so many people like myself that his sudden and unexpected departure from our midst has merely heightened our immense sense of real loss; the kind of loss we experience when a noble and veteran tree is uprooted from a much loved landscape.

It takes us a long time to become used to the terrible gap left behind; to the absence of the reassuring sound of the wind through its old, familiar branches. If we feel this sense of emptiness, then how much worse it must be for his devoted wife and family, to whom my heart goes out on this special occasion.

Thinking back, I must have come across Zaki Badawi quite some years ago - perhaps fifteen - at a time when I felt it was essential to establish a small group of people

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who could help advise me on issues surrounding the Muslim Community in this country and on wider Islamic matters elsewhere in the world.

I wanted to learn and understand as much as I could about the rich complexities within Islam; about the subtle nuances surrounding a whole framework for life; about the origins and history of one of the three great Abrahamic faiths founded, above all, on the profound mystery of divine revelation.

And, of course, it is divine revelation that forms the central tap-root from which the Abrahamic traditions draw their inspiration. Zaki understood this so well and taught me so much about the Islamic heritage - what he described to me in a letter prior to my visit to the Muslim College two years ago as “a common treasure from which we take its most precious jewels to enrich our life and advance our knowledge.”

He went on to say that “our programme realizes that the common language of faith is that of beauty and spiritualism.” He told me that he knew these aspects were close to my heart, along with a love of Islamic and traditional architecture. And why do I have a love of such things?

Because of an awareness that the beauty of form, pattern and colour (as manifested in Islamic and other traditional arts) is not simply aesthetically pleasing or demonstrative of good design, but is representative of a more pro-

MEMORIAL

astrous conflicts around the world found universal order.

- such as in the Balkans - to see Likewise, that the intricate and how people who had lived side by subtle patterns of Nature transcend side for generations, and whose the purely decorative realm and mosques, synagogues and churches embody a profound and timeless had shared the centres of their beauty. It is all to do with beauty, as towns and cities were suddenly Zaki so well knew - or with truth, inflamed by passionate hatred goodness and beauty, as Plato towards each other. should persistently remind us.

Distorted versions of divine Have you noticed that the revelation in the hands of distorted more we tear down the beauty leadership inevitably engender around us which has sustained appalling violence, hatred and people’s souls for generations, the destruction of other people’s lives uglier our souls become; the less and most sacred shrines and treascourteous and considerate our surured objects. roundings are, the less courteous Zaki devoted so much of his and considerate we are to one life to an investment in enlightened another; the more the ego predomleadership for the future because he inates in everything, the more knew that, ultimately, it was not offensive we become to Nature the fault of the great religions herself, and then literally nothing is themselves that so much death and allowed to be sacred? destruction occurs, but the leaderAnd yet to have any chance of Have you noticed that ship that causes the misinterpretarepairing the bridges between our tion of the original divine inspirafaiths and to restore the harmony the more we tear down tion and the deliberate obfuscation that is surely God’s greatest and the beauty around us of the profound truth that we are most mysterious gift to the whole which has sustained all following slightly different paths created universe and the essence of to the same ultimate, universal Man’s relationship with the Divine, people’s souls for Truth that all the greatest mystics surely we have to try to understand generations, the uglier throughout human history have and to respect what is sacred to each of us? our souls become; the less defined as residing in the divine attributes of mercy, love, compasThis, of course, was Zaki’s courteous and considerate sion and, indeed, beauty. The great great genius, as exemplified in his programme for the Muslim College our surroundings are, the 14th century poet, Hafiz, wrote: Every edifice you see in the world is which seeks to produce leaders less courteous and flawed subject to destruction, who not only master Islamic subExcept the edifice of love, which is jects, but who also have a full considerate we are to one flawless and indestructible. appreciation of other faiths and another; the more the ego Zaki knew that there could be cultures, especially British culture. no true peace between us all withOne of the main objects for my predominates in out peace in our own, individual being here today is to pay tribute to everything, the more hearts. His life’s work was surely Zaki’s noble, compassionate and offensive we become to dedicated to nurturing that percepfar-sighted vision - a vision that tion and realization of inner peace. understood, above all, the crucial Nature herself, and then We owe him a profound debt of importance of a heart-centred, literally nothing is gratitude for his heartfulness - a enlightened Muslim religious edudebt I am only too proud to owe to cation that he believed so passionallowed to be sacred? a man whose wise and sympathetic ately would help Muslims to intepresence we miss so much. May grate into British Society without God rest his dear, departed soul. and here is the crux of the matter - losing their identity.

I am also here today to beg you to ensure that his legaPictured opposite: Dr Rowan Williams, The Archbishop cy is protected and nurtured - a legacy made manifest in of Canterbury; Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks; Dr the graduation of competent Imams, responsible journalMohammed Sherif; and HRH Princess Badiya El Hassan ists and enlightened political leaders such as the minister of Jordan. responsible for religious affairs in Malaysia, Dato’ Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin, and a member of the Afghan This memorial was organised by the World Islamic Call Constitution drafting Committee, Fatima Gailani.

Society, the Muslim College and an organising committee Zaki understood so well that at the end of the day leadchaired by Fuad Nahdi. Other guests included Home ership is the key to everything. After all, it was Napoleon Secretary Charles Clarke, Prof Fawzi Elzefzaf of Al-Azhar who said that there is “no such thing as bad soldiers, only University and the Muftis of Australia and Nigeria. bad officers.” You only have to look at so many of the disQ - NEWS

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MEMORIAL

REMEMBERING

Al-Hajjah Farizah Rabbat Umm Ibrahim Al-Yaqoubi Al-Hasani

By Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi Al-Hasani

‘Grief and sorrow upon the loss of my heart’ y Dear brothers and sisters, relatives, friends, students and supporters throughout the world: AsSalamu `Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakatuh.

“Indeed, we belong to Allah, and to Him we must surely return!”

With grief and sorrow, I share with you the tragic loss of my beloved wife, my companion, and the love of my heart AlHajjah Farizah Aal Rabbat, known as Umm Ibrahim, Rahimaha Allah, who is also the mother of my three children (Aisha, Ibrahim and Ismael).

Allah chose her out of this world to enter al-Jannah on the very birthday of His Beloved Prophet (sallalahu ‘alayhi wasallam) through the door of martyrs. I do not object to His Will: we belong to Him and our return is to Him; whatever He takes is undoubtedly His, and whatever He gives is undoubtedly His. She left this world on Monday 12th of Rabi’ Al-Awwal, 1427 (April 10th 2006), around 5:00 pm in a car accident while she was driving from our home outside Damascus toward the city to visit her family and attend a mawlid. At the same time, I was leading a mawlid feast in the city. She died at 37 years of age, and was approximately five months pregnant with a baby boy who also died. Just a few hours before the accident we had agreed to name him Shareef.

With her in the car, she had our three children, Aisha, Ibrahim and Ismael who are 8, 6, and 5 years old respectively; and her maid Nour. By the Bounty of the Most Generous, they survived the accident but were all injured at various levels. They are still in hospital being treated. Please continue to make du’aa for them.

On Sunday night, (the night of 12th of Rabi’ Al-Awwal), we had a blessed mawlid gathering in our home. Monday, the day she died, we had brunch together with the kids and I told her I wanted to take her and the kids in August to al-Madina al-Munawwara, where she can deliver her baby. She was extremely happy and took my word that I will name the boy Shareef.

I left home at 1:30 pm on Monday for a dars and a mawlid in the city. At 5:15 pm I received the news of the accident and immediately headed to the hospital, only to find out that she had given her last breaths. Later on, the rescuers told us that when they reached her she was still alive moving her

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lips (presumably with shahada, and dhikr) but could not make it to the hospital.

As an English teacher, Umm Ibrahim worked in a neighboring school teaching the first three grades. She has had this job for the past three years and always considered it an important mission; it fulfilled her ambitions. She liked to improve herself through reading and training, through which she acquired many skills in recent years, including NLP and Homeopathy. She loved social activities and had a strong personality. She was an excellent housewife and a great cook.

But most of all, what distinguished Umm Ibrahim, and the reason for which I had chosen her as a wife, was her righteousness, persistence in worship, and her sincerity to the deen.

For instance, in the last few months of her life, she used to pray 100 rak’as of salah everyday. She recited Surat al-Baqara everyday, oftentimes with Surat al-An’am. Qiyamullayl decorated her nights, and was something she would hardly miss.

She always had new ideas to promote da’wah and attract people to the true way of Islam. She devoted her life to her family and to students of sacred knowledge. After prayer and recitation of al-Qur’an, nothing was dearer to her than serving the students, cooking for them, and taking care of their needs.

The night before she died, she prepared food for my guests as we were having a feast in our home on the occasion of 12th of Rabi’ Al-Awwal, the anniversary of the Birth of the Beloved of Allah. Six days earlier, on Tuesday 6th Rabi’ AlAwwal, she cooked for 150 guests, insisting she did not want to order the food. She used to prepare the most delicious food at our weekly dhikr session for 50 people. One week before she died, she said, when I was trying to convince her to order food, “I find cooking for the students light and easy, and I don’t want to be deprived from its rewards. I know what they like, and the food brought from the market is fatty for them".

Such was her amazing dedication.

Moreover, she liked jabrul Khawatir, so at Eid times, she used to prepare bags full of sweets and gifts to hand over to kids in poor neighborhoods. She used to make Eid parties for the foreign students and organise special programs for their children.

Some 3000 people attended her funeral, which took place on Tuesday after Zuhr prayer at Jami’ al-Badr in Damascus.

MEMORIAL

the children. Make du`aa espeThree years ago, upon a visit to cially that Allah help the three Bab al-Saghir cemetery, where children cope with the loss of my ancestors are buried, she said their mother, and that the shock, to me, “When I die, bury me in when they learn the news, may the graves of your family, I want easily be absorbed. Make du’aa to be with Ahlul Bait.” for her parents, as the tragic loss By the Grace of Allah, she is indeed difficult for them. And was buried bearing a grandson of please do continue to make spethe Beloved Messenger of Allah, cial du`aa for Umm Ibrahim that in the grave of my mother, AlAllah grant her Mercy and Sayyida Ameenah Mansoor alForgiveness and reward her with Jaza’irly al-Hasani, who passed Jannatul Firdaws. away also in the month of April I end with the following in 1996, just a few months before dreams. A Syrian sister saw myself and Umm Ibrahim got Umm Ibrahim coming into a married. Umm Ibrahim had met room, filled with light. Umm my mother one week before my Ibrahim said to her, “Don’t mother died. Her grave is only a worry about me; I am in the best few meters away from the daughstate". A brother by the name ter of Imam al-Husain, Sayyidah Zahir saw her calling Imam Abul Fatima al-Sughra.

Hasan al-Shadhiliy, which shows I am happy with her now, the blessings in the attachment to and I was happy with her before our great shadhili silsila, as she she died, as she was happy with was part of it, took tariqa over a me. In the past few weeks before year ago. Another sister saw on she died, she told her mother and the same morning she died, that a few friends over the phone, a righteous woman passed away even the morning of her death, in Damascus, during the day, she how happy she was in her mar‘I would like to offer my deepest learned of the death of Umm riage. According to a Prophetic thanks and gratitude to all the Ibrahim. statement when a woman dies Yes, indeed Umm Ibrahim did while her husband is happy with scholars, the friends, the not survive the accident but in her she will enter al-Jannah. I students, male and female, in fact she did survive in my heart have seen several signs that she and I am sure she will survive in will be in al-Jannah. Obviously, Syria and throughout the world, the hearts of those who love her. the servants of the Ahlul Bayt will who supported me and my May Allah grant her the highbe in al-Jannah, let alone the children and Umm Ibrahim’s est ranks in al-Jannah and the wives or mothers of Ahlul Bayt. company of my Grandfather, our Many outstanding personalifamily in this difficult time.

Master, the best of creation, the ties and scholars spoke during the Nothing is enough to thank the Beloved Messenger of Allah, three-day sessions of condolences Salla Allahu ‘alayhi wasallam. held on her behalf. They includmany thousands of brothers and May Allah give her her book in ed: Sayyif al-Fatih al-Kittani, sisters in Damascus and around her right hand and let her enter Shaykh Dr. Sa’id Ramadan alJannah without reckoning. May Bouti; Shaykh Krayyim Rajih, the globe who stood with us He make her grave a garden from Shaykh Dr. Abdullatif Farfoor, during this trial.’ the Gardens of Paradise. May Shaykh Abdullah Rabih, Shaykh Allah reward all brothers and sisAbdul Aziz al-Khateeb, Shaykh ters, and shaykhs and ‘Ulama, and everyone who made Du’a Abul Hasan al-Kurdi, Shaykh Ahmad Ramadan, Shaykh for her and for me and for the children in the best way. May Na’im al-'Araqsoosi, Shaykh Sariyah al-Rifa’i, and many othAllah protect them and their families, their parents and their ers. children and allow us all to meet in Jannatul Firdaws in the Last but not least, I would like to offer my deepest thanks company of the Elect and the Beloved of Allah, Rasulullah and gratitude to all the scholars, the friends, the students, Salla Allahu ‘alayhi wasallam. male and female, in Syria and throughout the world, who supported me and my children and Umm Ibrahim’s family in Allahumma Ameen. this difficult time in every form. Nothing is enough to thank the many thousands of brothers and sisters in Damascus and The unworthy servant of the people of Allah, around the globe who stood with us during this trial.

Muhammad.

I beg you to continue your du’aa for the full recovery of

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REVIEW

The Family That Walks On All Fours Adam Goren finds a new documentary examining a family of Kurdish Muslim “quadrupeds” a disturbing attempt to legitimise scientific voyeurism. Yet confronted with poking, prodding and egodriven researchers, he finds a family struggling against the odds held together by love, faith and a forgiving way of life.

s the camera tracks across a set of sandy footprints on a glittering night-blue shoreline, a woman’s voice begins, “about four million years ago our distant ancestors did something amazing… It is the moment, for many, that we made the leap from ape to man” If you didn’t know the title of this BBC commissioned documentary you would be forgiven for assuming it was another flashy reconstruction of how we supposedly used to be, using hairy extras, digital enhancement and lingering shots of backlit fossil remains. But this is no reconstruction.

“Imagine”, continues the woman, “that there are human beings who never made this leap". The next shot is the astonishing sight of a fully-grown woman walking on all fours; back arched, arms and legs extended, feet and hands splayed.

This is one of the six disabled children of Regit Ulas, a humble farmer eking out a living from the land. His wife had nineteen children in all. One died, twelve others survived to be perfectly healthy adults. The film, screened on BBC2 last month, is entitled The Family That Walks On All Fours. It immediately, and deliberately, one suspects, conjures an image of a family unit living like apes. So begins a piece of sensationalist documentary filmmaking. It concludes that four of the six brain damaged adults, who have been intermittently prodded, poked, assessed and scanned, cannot walk upright for lack of physiotherapy and a Zimmer frame.

Two of the six adults are able to walk unaided. From a Pediatric therapist’s perspective, their clumsy uncoordinated gait looks like a disorder called Ataxia, although they do not mention this in the film. Indeed, all these adults have damage to the cerebellum, a part of the brain involved in maintaining balance and strongly associated with Ataxia.

The fact that Mr Ulas is closely related to his wife makes it more likely that their children have a genetic disorder. It appears to have an ataxic component. There are many children and adults living amongst us with inherited forms of Ataxia, for example, the single gene disorder Ataxia Telangiectasia. There are even a few cases of developmental disabilities of unknown genetic origin. But here is the rub of it. No one would ever dare suggest that such people are

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genetic throwbacks or the missing link between ape and man, let alone make a documentary film about their apelike walk. It would never pass the ethics committee. One is left asking whether such a voyeuristic film was able to be made because the family is poor and from a remote region of the world.

This would be contentious enough if it was not for the fact that this particular family is Kurdish and living near the southern border of Turkey with Syria. Here, Islam is the weft and warp that binds people’s lives. It would be easy to jump into the Adam and Eve versus Evolution debate the producers raise with striking graphics and claps of thunder.

Indeed, teaching Darwin is a serious issue and not only in Turkey, as they rightly point out. What is perhaps more interesting is the contrast between the family and the scientists examining them. For you get a striking and paradoxical sense that faith and limited means nurture far greater humility, mutual respect and self-acceptance than science and prosperity.

Scientists can be particularly competitive and cantankerous. Asked to comment about “truth”, they usually talk about objective or observable empirical data. But they can sometimes ignore the glaringly obvious when it does not accord with their worldview. In 1925, for example, a young female astronomer, Cecilia Payne, submitted her PhD paper showing that the sun was predominantly composed of hydrogen and not iron. But her Harvard supervisor rejected the evidence on the grounds that it was simply not possible.

The sun must be composed of a similar proportion of elements to the earth. He made her re-write her paper to declare that what she observed was “almost certainly not real". She was later spectacularly vindicated. One of the scientists on this documentary, Esteban Sarmiento, in alluding to the biblical story of creation, says, “We often accept stories that allow us to view ourselves in a positive light". Yet, throughout the programme it is shown that scientists are hypothesising about these disabled individuals in print without substantive evidence to support their claims. They are working on it, they say, and it may take months or years to achieve a breakthrough.

Teams of them from England, Germany and Turkey and

Photograph © Passionate Productions

REVIEW

the US examine the blood, brain scans, gait, neurological responses, speech and hand function of Mr Ulas’s children.

What comes across is a kind of avarice, a drive to discover and possess a new truth. They want to be the first in their field and their hubris is staggering. One of them speculates irresponsibly about a ‘super-balance’ gene, another names the syndrome he supposes he’s discovered after himself and a third is convinced he has found, in these people, a recessive trait for human quadrupedality.

It comes as no surprise to find one academic, Professor Nicholas Humphrey of the London School of Economics, describing a fellow scientist’s study as ‘trivial’. It gets worse.

Four zealous paleo-anthropologists are pictured grouped around a TV screen, analysing footage of the disabled adults as if they were lab specimens. They sneer at each other’s views and engage in petty squabbles. One of these scientists, William Harcourt-Smith of the American Museum of Natural History, is encouraged to admit that, of course, he would like to pick over the skeletons of the Kurdish Quadrupeds, slickly adding “but that’s just not ok ethically".

The Gollum-like pawing of these respected academics, as they look for what one of them calls ‘the glittering prize’, could not contrast more starkly with the humble ways of Mr Ulas and his children. At no point in the documentary does he ask why this has happened to his family. For him, it is the will of Allah and the way in which he is tested. All he wishes for, he says, is that his children are cared for once he leaves this world. And he is sure this will be the case since he and his wife have done good deeds in this life. For her part, his wife describes her children as the most intimate part of her. “They are like my insides” the Turkish psychologist, Fefne, falteringly translates. Whilst their village community has partly ostracized them, they continue to treat each other with respect and acceptance, as they do the scientists and the film crews despite the risk that this might infuriate the locals or the authorities. With the relentless testing and continued hypothesising, the Turkish psychologist’s frustration boils over. She tells the eminent Professor Humphrey that she could not care less about how these people came to be like this. The important question is what can

be done for them? It turns out that some parallel bars and a Zimmer frame can transform their lives. It is potentially possible that they will all walk upright. When Mr Ulas discovers this he is clearly overwhelmed with gratitude.

Scientific progress provides the kind of prosperity, longevity and comfort that we enjoy whilst watching the plight of this family from our living room sofas. But it does not and cannot eradicate suffering. In my work as a children’s therapist I see a good deal of it. Parents love their children just as this Kurdish family does, and would do anything to help them. But they may still be left with the prospect of a child who will never be able to walk or write or get a job or have a family. This is something that many parents find painfully difficult to accept. Some never do.

Our prosperous secular society seems to foster an expectation of life with limited suffering and bright prospects.

There is little or no room for the Islamic concept of maktub or “what is written". The downside is an increased intolerance to adversity. As Professor Frank Furedi, of the University of Kent, makes clear in his book, Paranoid Parenting, this difficulty coping with bad stuff is not limited to things that actually happen to us like the death of a loved one or the birth of a severely disabled child. It is also, he says, leading to a morbid fear of imagined disasters that could befall us at any moment, and which we must guard against with diligence in daily life. He asserts that parents are much more anxious than they used to be. Paradoxically, despite unprecedented levels of health care, personal choice and wealth, they feel more out of control.

As the makers of this documentary recognise, to their credit, Regit Ulas and his children possess something that the scientists do not: a faith that teaches acceptance. Whilst there have been leaps in technological progress to alleviate and even eradicate certain disabilities, suffering continues to be an integral part of the human experience. And if our only council is Jean-Paul Sartre’ bleak existentialist philosophy or Dylan Thomas’ bitter exhortation to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”, then we may want to turn to Mr Ulas for an example of a more forgiving way of living.

This film is a production by Passionate Productions.

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BOOK REVIEW

Wielding the Hammer of Discontent Mujadad Zaman finds that Brian Hayes’ latest examination of the urban landscape provides a much-needed starting point for re-examining aesthetics and beauty in the built environment. It’s something, he contends, Islamic civilisation has a lot to say about. tility makes purity - thus intoned Immanuel Kant arguably laying down the standard for aesthetic judgment that has lasted for almost three hundred years. The use-value of an object, according to Kant, is in direct correlation to the beauty and charm it delivers to its audience. Whether or not you have a proclivity to Kant’s position, most find it hard to deny that beauty confronts us everywhere and its decorous allure is one that people find hard to shun. For example, despite Blake’s claims of abhorrence in industrialised England he finds elsewhere it to be a place of “pleasant ponderous". Ruskin who wrote of the “black clouds” that stork the effervescent skies, spoke well of the potentials of modern industry. Orwell cogently exclaims the “tools” of modern society are not pernicious per se, rather we ought to fear the intent of the hurdy few.

Today we seem to have assimilated in our judgements of what is beautiful and what is not. Thus, even though we may discuss the individual merits of particular works, a statue of Winston Churchill in a straightjacket for example, we nonetheless agree that the ostensible category to which it belongs is ‘art’ even though we may regard it as unacceptable or belligerent.

Such ossified presumptions fall into the gaze of Brain Hayes, who approaches aesthetics, as Nietzsche did with philosophy, with the hammer of discontent.

When Hayes travels abroad he does not go to the galleries, museums or highlights on the “heritage trail”, but goes straight to the power stations, pylons and motorways the country has to offer. An acquired taste without a doubt, yet one that alludes to the project Hayes sets out to accomplish: that of bringing the latent forms of architecture in industrialised societies to the consciousness level of appreciation. It is a project worthy of our attention.

His latest book Infrastructure is divided into fifteen chapters, each dealing with a specific element in the jigsaw of modern infrastructure: roads, bridges, ships, planes, power plants and power girds. Hayes’ discussion of concrete is particularly instructive. Concrete, the engineers dream substance, has all the benefits of stone without

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its drawbacks, thus the Sydney Opera House has a curious angular disposition that stonemasons can only dream of imitating. The very nature of the material has created the conditions for its vast use.

Hayes asks us to ponder into the haphazard development of one of the most benign condiments of modern infrastructure, the paved road. The earliest attempts began by merely dropping walls on their sides, the results were too bumpy. Having bricks titled on their sides (cobbled streets), still made little difference. Frenchman Pierre-Marie-Jerome Tresaguet and English engineer Thomas Telford both suggested laying a foundation of set stone blocks and have finer pebbles for a smooth surface.

However, not until John Loudon McAdam did the modern form of road surface appear.

Stone, broken into fine segments, is extremely durable when laid down on a natural road-bed. It should be noted that as visionary an engineer McAdam was, an ethicist he was not: his road-crews routinely included poorly paid women and children to hammer stone into this fine substance.

This original ‘McAdam’ had no adhesive to set it into place; however its modern ancestor (asphalt) binds stone with bitumen - the tarry residue of petroleum refining.

As edifying as the lessons in modern engineering techniques may be, the wider import of Hayes’ work may at closer examination prove its importance to the themes that run through Islamic aesthetics. For example, within Islamic art there has not

been a distinction between fine art and craft.

Traditionally this dichotomy was not needed as the poet or carpenter both had the skill to produce objects of sensible delight, as beauty was to be found from the souk to the mihrab. Thus ‘art’ was never considered the a priori property of art college students or even artists. Furthermore if we consider artistic merit, we may draw a broad generalisation between Western art as inherently ‘expressive’ and ‘individual’ and Islamic art as inclining towards communal interests and as such moulding itself on the precepts of tradition and thus does not become faddish or outmoded, in the manner these appendages can be applied to Western art.

With such reflections, what then are we to make of the lessons from Hayes’ work?

One may be the complementarity of art to civic life (a truth known in Homer’s day) and as such the objects, which protrude our landscape, have a logos (purpose), yet as Emerson wrote, they also tell us something of the purpose of those who made them.

Another may be that our surroundings are the result of experiments by humans to edify their environment.

The evolution of our infrastructure, Hayes reminds us, is often predicated by its motivations. Take the current debate as to what is to happen when our oil resources finally dry up. In a way we have been down this road before. A 200-year transition took place from the use of whale to crude oil whale oil being a 19th century staple for industry and one over which wars were fought. A final, and more definitive, point may be that whether one enjoys this book or refuses to traverse the benignantly of its content, one is left with a newfound inspiration for the labours of our engineers. So the next time you’re walking down Oxford Street and come across unlikely individuals discussing the merits of ‘McAdamean’ techniques of pavement construction or pondering over the pylons that manse the sky, you will do well to know that ‘use’ of an object may still conjure reverence. Perhaps Kant was wrong after all.

Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape by Brian Hayes is published by W.W. Norton and Co.

What International Community?

Everyone’s talking about it. It counts amongst its closest confidantes many world leaders, including George W Bush and Tony Blair. It’s obviously authoritative, pithy and clairvoyant - it never appears but is always eager for others to mention it.

Farish Noor puts on his detective cap and searches for the mysterious ‘International Community’.

olitics, particularly of the international variety, is often best served on a bed of dubious generalities. Witness the spectacular affront on human rights worldwide occasioned by the so-called ‘War on Terror’ - a dubious construct if there ever was one. Thus far we have been fed a steady dose of lukewarm political dishes likewise predicated on amorphous concepts like ‘freedom’, ‘liberty’, ‘humanity’ and the like. Little effort has been put to filling out these grand concepts.

At the moment there is in circulation yet another grandiose concept that sounds too good to be true: the ‘International Community’. We don’t exactly know who or what this community is, but apparently this community is quite annoyed with the government of Iran for doing what other governments in other parts of the world have been doing all along: developing the know-how and technological base for the development of nuclear energy as well as nuclear weapons.

In this respect Iran is merely the latest member of a steadily growing club of nations that includes the United States of America, Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel (who tried laughably to conceal its membership for fear of courting jealousy from its neighbours).

Nonetheless it would appear that the entry of Iran into the global nuclear club has incurred the wrath of the ‘International Community’. The current occupant of the White House seems to have intimate knowledge and relations with this ‘international community’ as he keeps referring to it in his speeches and diatribes against intransigent Iran. The ‘International Community’, the President informs us, is deeply worried about Iran’s nuclear capability. Then came the warning that the ‘International Community’ would not rest till the question of Iran’s nuclear status is “satisfactorily” resolved.

The ‘International Community’ has now declared that Iran’s nuclear programme will not be tolerated and that decisive steps will be taken to ensure that Iran does not go fully nuclear.

Where does this near-mythical ‘international community’ reside? One wonders how come President Bush alone seems so close to this shadowy community and knows so much about its secrets. Could President Bush actually be a secret member of this ‘International Community’ himself? Is such membership constitutionally sanctioned? Could, God forbid, the

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‘International Community’ actually be hiding in a cupboard in his office?

If so, then this mysterious community has to be rather small indeed. Analysts and researchers have been looking for this fabulous international community for some time now.

Apparently it is not found in the UN General Assembly, for thus far the members of the UN have not spoken with a unilateral voice on the issue of Iran and her acquisition of nuclear arms and technology. At international forums the Community has been talked about but never seen.

As time wears on, it has become evident that the ‘International Community’ that President Bush keeps talking about is made up… of himself, his aides and allies and a handful of subservient middling (or is that meddling) European states. One can easily point out that it hardly amounts to anything international at all (they could have at least paid lip service to political correctness and invite at least one petty African or Asian state to join in the gang - just for optics).

So it would appear that all the rhetorical pyrotechnics about the concern and efforts of the ‘International Community’ boils down to the unilateral efforts and ambitions of a sole superpower with a handful of other willing crony states in tow. Like the other grand notions and cloudy ideas that have been bartered by the US of late, it would appear as little more than a guise for American unilateralism thinly dressed in rainbow colours to lend it an air of diversity.

The rest of the real world on the other hand - meaning of the planet that doesn’t figure prominently on Bush’s mental map - seems to be more ambivalent about the Iranian nuclear programme. Few Asian, African, Arab or Latin American countries have shown any discomfort at Iran’s new status.

Listening to the rhetoric of the ‘international community’ that bears the heavy stamp of America and Americanism, one cannot help but make the same comparison with the title of the American sports tournament dubbed ‘the World Series’.

The title sounds typically American and pretentious enough, with its claim to global significance and import. But someone ought to remind the Americans that when they play out their ‘World Series’ they are in fact playing only with themselves. It makes talks with the “International Community” look like a case of deja vu all over again.

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