March 28, 2005
LONG TIME COMING:
Re-examining practice of faith: Emotions run high in debates on gender roles, homosexuality, extremism; Progressive Muslims spark dialogue on Islam in the U.S. (Jack Chang, 3/28/05, CONTRA COSTA TIMES)
Ahmed Nassef stood at the front of a Stanford University classroom packed with hundreds of Muslims who had come from all over the Bay Area to hear him speak."I begin with the greeting of peace," Nassef said. "Some of what we'll talk about tonight will be painful to hear."
He wanted to discuss issues he said Muslims in the United States have avoided but can no longer ignore as American society scrutinizes their community:
Why do only about 10 percent of U.S. Muslims regularly attend prayer at mosques? How long can the religion's leaders treat women as second-class citizens? When will Muslims respond forcefully to strains of extremism?
"It's difficult being a Muslim in America today," said the New York activist and native of Egypt, who has prominently advocated re-examining how the religion is practiced. "We need to deal with these issues openly."
Many U.S. Muslims, especially those who have grown up in this country, are asking the same questions.
They are successful, professional women who chafe at having to pray in dark, secluded rooms at their local mosques while men enter through the front doors and worship in comfort.
They are professors at U.S. universities who object to attempts by religious leaders to enforce strict interpretations of Islam on others, labeling those who don't obey as fake Muslims.
They are African-American converts who see similarities between discrimination in the segregationist South and the cold treatment of blacks in some mosques run by immigrants.
"In my circles, this has been a long time in coming," said Oakland resident Moina Noor, director of the Bay Area group American Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism.
"There are angry people out there who have had bad experiences at mosques or have had people judge them," the 34-year-old said. "People have been disengaged with Islam for a long time because they don't think it's for them.
"Now, finally, there's something going on where people think, 'Wow, this is something I can belong to.'"
The ultimate irony of 9-11 is that it will affect not just the political arrangements in the Middle East but the religion of Islam itself. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 28, 2005 7:53 AM
Good for them! This is--at first glance, anyway-- what many of us have been waiting for.
The whole point of Boxer-Leninism was that the Western idea (sometimes known as "Christianity") is so superior to the rest that it exerts an inexorable pressure on lesser cultures. The Boxer-Leninists sought to harnass the resentment felt by adherents of the surpassed ideas to create sources of power for the "vanguard," i.e, themselves. But of course, the violence and brutality necessary to sustain maladaptation simply makes the maladaptation less attractive, than it had been before and hastens its collapse.
Posted by: Lou Gots at March 28, 2005 4:12 PMCuriously enough, the changes in Islam that Orrin foretells are in the direction of secularism.
Not a lot of representative self-government in the Koran, is there?
Or teaching girls to read. Won't find that there.
Credit cards?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 31, 2005 9:28 PMHarry:
Of course they are. We're Reforming Isl;am in the image of Christianity and secularism is Christian doctrine.
Posted by: oj at March 31, 2005 9:34 PMNo, Orrin, secularism has tamed Christianity by forcing it, in many cases, to abandon its longheld savage doctrines. Cf our discussion about marriage.
Secularism is, indeed, Christianity's enemy, not because it wishes Christianity positive ill, but because Christianity cannot, as you so often remind us, live tolerantly with others.
The tension is about the best we can hope for, since we cannot expect to get rid of religion.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at April 1, 2005 2:39 AM