Iowa Town Named for Muslim Hero Extols Tolerance

ELKADER, Iowa — Amid an expanse of undulating farmland, deep in the steep valley carved by the Turkey River, the town of Elkader sits most of the year in remote obscurity. Population 1,200 and gradually shrinking, it is the seat of a county without a single traffic light.

Improbably enough, this community settled by Germans and Scandinavians, its religious life built around Catholic and Lutheran churches, bears the name of a Muslim hero. Abd el-Kader was renowned in the 19th century for leading Algeria’s fight for independence and protecting non-Muslims from persecution. Even Abraham Lincoln extolled him.

This weekend, for the fifth year in a row, Elkader will welcome a delegation of Arab dignitaries to celebrate this rare lifeline of tolerance, spanning continents and centuries. Coming less than three weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings, which the authorities say were committed by two Muslim brothers, the Abdelkader Education Project’s forum stands more than ever for an affirming encounter between the United States and Islam.

“Our audience is the people who are compassionate already,” said Kathy Garms, 63, a retired human-resources administrator who is the driving force in the Abdelkader project. “But there are so many people who are ignorant or scared or even hateful. We just hope that once they get across the starting line, they will listen.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

Don’t scapegoat a faith for bombings

Editor’s note: Farhana Khera is the president and executive director of Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting freedom, justice and equality for all, regardless of faith.

(CNN) – Like so many Americans across the country, I was shocked when I heard of the attacks at the Boston Marathon. A part of me immediately traveled back to when I was cheering runners myself as a student at Wellesley College, the midpoint for the marathon, a time when such dangers as bombings never crossed our minds.

Boston is an indelible part in the personal history and identity of those who have lived or attended school in the city. That someone had detonated bombs at an event that symbolized unity in a place known for its rich diversity and as a birthplace of our nation’s freedom was heartbreaking.

This last week has seen a whirlwind of fighting in a dramatic manhunt, leaving an entire city on lockdown and lives in danger. I am heartened to hear stories where the human spirit rose above the ugliness and absolute horror facing the community. Law enforcement officers and other first responders risked their lives to help others. Several marathoners ran straight to the hospital to give blood, and doctors rushed to hospitals. A restaurant opened its doors and offered free food to its neighbors while they were stuck in a lockdown.

It is these testaments of unity and heroism that make us stronger. Bostonians are coming together and helping each other because, as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, “When tragedy strikes, we are … one family. We hurt together, we help each other together.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM CNN 

What Constitution? Anti-Muslim Rep. in North Carolina Pushes for Christian Prayer in Government Meetings

Should local officials be able to start their meetings with prayers that endorse a particular faith? North Carolina State Rep. Michele Presnell thinks so, with one tiny caveat: the faith endorsed must be her own. When asked by one of her constituents whether she would be comfortable with a prayer to Allah before a public meeting, Presnell responded, “No, I do not condone terrorism.”

Despite the disturbing anti-Islamic bigotry in her statement, this illustrates the problem with these religion-specific prayers: someone is always going to be excluded or offended by them, and they can’t possibly account for everyone’s beliefs.

No one should be made to feel like a second-class citizen by his or her own local government, but for the past six years the Rowan County Board of Commissioners have sidelined and excluded Americans of other faiths through the systematic use of prayers specific to only one religion – Christianity.

As if that weren’t enough of a reason to stop or change the prayers, the practice is blatantly unconstitutional. The government generally can’t sponsor prayer at all, but the Supreme Court has carved out a narrow exception to this rule that allows legislative bodies, like a county board, to open meetings with invocations, so long as they do not promote one faith over others.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE ACLU BLOG 

Can a Muslim be God’s Voice to an Evangelical Christian?

I once lived with a Muslim family for two years. It was extremely challenging, but not in the ways I expected it would be.

I lived with the Muslim family in their house near the center square of the capital city of Albania. There were nine of us in a relatively small space. Added to the cramped conditions was the fact that running water flowed only a few hours a day, electricity was intermittent, and food variety was limited. But I found none of this too difficult, even though Albania (Muslim, Balkan, post-Communist, poor, Mediterranean) could not have been more jarring to my affluent, American, “white,” Baptist upbringing.

What I found most challenging was this: They loved me. They loved me not only in a pat-you-on-the-back landlord sort of way. My Muslim family loved me like a son, which included caring for me as their spiritual responsibility.

This took particular force in the person of my hunched and humming Albanian grandmother. She was the first face I saw each morning, and at night she would lovingly touch my shoulder and say “sweet sleep.” She also pastored me. She encouraged me when I was low, blessed me as I went about my work (which, by the way, was Christian missionary work) and she told me about God’s love for me. She challenged my Christian training and my American pragmatism. She was a dawdling, superstitious Muslim. How could I allow her to be God’s voice in my life?

Tough questions

What am I to do? Seriously.

How do I understand all the folks who cross my path and don’t fit my theological categories? As a devout Christian, what am I supposed to do with the non-Christians I have known who are kinder than most Christians, purer than most Christians, and seemingly more connected to God than most Christians? Even more troubling, what am I to do with religious outsiders who are spiritually wise and speak that wisdom into my life? Am I allowed to accept their wisdom or am I required to sit in perpetual suspicion?

FULL ARTICLE FROM LEADERSHIP

Detroit conference for gay and lesbian Muslims aims for inclusion, empowerment

Gay and lesbian Muslims are holding a two-day conference in Detroit this weekend featuring a gay Muslim leader who grew up in Detroit.

Called the “Queer Muslim Gathering,” the event is hosted by Kick, an African-American gay and lesbian group based in Detroit, and Muslims for Progressive Values.

“We feel it is important for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) Muslims to be included as equals into the straight Muslim society,” said Imam Daayiee Abdullah of Washington, D.C., director of LGBT outreach with Muslims for Progressive Values, based in Los Angeles.

Abdullah, who grew up a Southern Baptist in Detroit and later converted to Islam, is the imam of Light of Reform Mosque in Washington, D.C., which has gay members.

He said he wants to empower gay Muslims, “to educate them on their Islamic rights, to debunk homophobic theories.”

The conference starts tonight with a meet-and-greet followed by an all-day workshop. Topics to be discussed at the conference are homosexuality and the Quran, Islam’s holy book; how to develop prayer spaces for gay Muslims; and debating what is halal, or legally permissible in Islam.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE DETROIT FREE PRESS

A Way to Bridge the Christian-Muslim Gap

“If any Church or other place of worship stands in need of protection, they will find us standing shoulder to shoulder with them.” His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad – the worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the fifth successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian and the only existing Muslim caliph – said this to Pope Benedict XVI in a hand-delivered letter on Nov. 10, 2011.

These words of mutual understanding and protection fostered a true building of an interfaith bridge in the future between Christians and Muslims so that they can work together for peace and absolute justice in the world.

Recently, Ahmad echoed further words of mutual understanding to Pope Francis I by congratulating him on his election: “First of all, I would like to offer congratulations to Pope Francis I and to Catholics across the world.” In the same spirit, I reiterate these words for Pope Francis, too.

Some people might be shaking their heads when reading this and equating it to a utopian fantasy. Any reasonable person would be dismayed by analyzing the current Christian-Muslim situation that exists around the world.

This bleak outlook begins in Pakistan, where recently a mob of 3,000 Pakistani Muslims went to a local Christian town, aptly named Joseph Colony, and burned down 150 homes without provocation. Not only is this a very tragic incident, but it has created a sense of distrust between the Christians and Muslims.

This can be labeled as just another isolated incident, but then it would be tantamount to being dishonest to what is really going on here.

FULL ARTICLE FROM MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL 

Muslims in America; Christians in Pakistan

I don’t know much of the specific background of the anti-Christian rampage last week in Lahore. But is there anything I don’t know that would mitigate or excuse it?

A major theme of my writing and public speaking is an insistence on distinguishing between what I call the Pakistan I know and love – a rich, diverse, fascinating smorgasbord of humanity – and the distorted, two-dimensional Pakistan that most Americans see on TV. But when what they see on TV is Muslim Pakistanis burning crosses in a Christian neighbourhood, it makes it even harder than usual for me and other friends of Pakistan to make a case.

It’s all too true that Pakistanis and other Muslims are unfairly stigmatised and victimised in America. But anyone who would point that out in this particular context, as any kind of excuse would be playing a shameful politics of distraction. As an American, I feel shamed by the ways that my society mistreats Muslims here. By exactly the same token, Pakistan and all Pakistanis are shamed by mistreatment of Christians in Pakistan.

What happened in Lahore is not political or religious terrorism, although surely it has the effect of terrorising Pakistani Christians, but simple bigotry and bullying. Pakistani Christians are not Americans or Westerners, and to mistreat them as if they were somehow responsible for America’s sins is the crudest and ugliest kind of scapegoating.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE 

99 Names Exhibit at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center

(This is the first of a five part series by the artist introducing the project – an artistic endeavor focused on bringing to light the essence of the Islamic 99 “names” [attributes] of God)

99 Names Project Introduction (Part 1)

When 9/11 happened, I was in something of a mental fog attending an art history class at BYU.  My mother had passed away a few months earlier and I was her executor–with all the good vibes that position brings with it in a family of four strong-willed brothers and their equally strong-willed wives–and I was realizing I had to actually graduate.  The realities of what happened in New York and elsewhere had a difficult time breaking into the net of the mundane filling my mind.

I had been taking a couple classes each term as I was slowly approaching my thesis project; because stained glass is not an official emphasis in the art program, I had worked out with the Powers That Be to take the one repeatable stained glass class over and over, and support my academic efforts with special projects in my job working full time at a stained glass studio.  With my mother’s passing, I had to finish up and graduate as per her last request and I was busily mentally adjusting to the full time student mindset.

It was startling how quickly that receded into the background as the magnitude of what had happened unfolded onto the American conscious.  It was also startling how quickly someone–a surviving someone–had to be blamed.  I fully supported military efforts to punish the guilty, and joined my fellow Americans on the lookout for any and all who acted suspiciously.

Then something started nagging at my conscience.  It wasn’t a group of evil people being blamed, it was an entire religion.  A quarter of the world’s population, I was regularly told, wanted me hurting and dead.  This was becoming socially sanctioned, media-driven religious persecution–something against which this country was originally formed.  And it bothered me greatly.

People who are different can be frightening, and many times we react to fear through aggression.  If we can warn off, threaten, or terrify the object of our fear, the situation (we think) is resolved.  But the fear itself remains.

When fear is attached to a group of people, this aggressive reaction can quickly become the ugly realization of prejudice.  When people in a neighborhood are afraid of losing jobs folks can become antagonistic towards immigrants, for example, and this behavior may become extended towards any group perceived as being unusual, different, or in any other way threatening.

FULL ARTICLE (WITH PHOTOS) FROM THE GHOST RIVER STUDIOS BLOG 

 

Is the Lenten Season Awkward for Muslims? Not at Georgetown University

I’ve often heard that the Lenten Season is the most awkward time between Christians and Muslims. This is probably because the end of Jesus’s (PBUH) story is one of the major differences between our two religions. In Islam, Jesus ascended directly into Heaven and was not killed while the Romans crucified another man who was “made by Allah to appear like Jesus” (Quran 4:157-158). For many Muslims, engaging with Christians around the time of Easter is especially challenging because the Christian belief in Jesus’s crucifixion is central and frames much of Christian identity.

However, since Muslims and Christians often find common ground in Jesus’ teachings, I believe that a holy period focused on Jesus provides opportunities to reinforce the commonalities between our faiths. Indeed, attending Georgetown University showed me the enormous potential for interfaith dialogue about common values during the Lenten season.

Georgetown is a Jesuit-Catholic institution, but the university greatly supports other chaplaincies and actively encourages other religious groups to host their own events during the Lenten season. For example, virtually all chaplaincies (and even some secular organizations) host spring retreats which emphasize personal reflection and spiritual growth. Retreats are part of the university’s Ignatian heritage, but people of all faiths (and non-faith, as well) are invited to engage with the Jesuit value of Contemplation in Action. Also, Georgetown hosts a large number of community service and interfaith events designed to bring the campus together around Jesuit values ofWomen and Men for others and Community in Diversity. Although these principles are officially part of Jesuit spirituality, I have found many similarities between them and my personal values as a Muslim. Through Georgetown’s many forums for inter-religious dialogue, I have grown stronger in my own faith.

White Evangelicals, Islam and American Values

According to the Public Religion Research Institute’s survey, “What it Means to be American: Attitudes towards Increasing Diversity in America Ten Years after 9/11,” “Nearly 6-in-10 white evangelical Protestants believe the values of Islam are at odds with American values, but majorities of Catholics, non-Christian religiously unaffiliated Americans, and religiously unaffiliated Americans disagree.”

If the percentage is accurate, what does this say about American Evangelicalism? That white Evangelicals’ skin color often shapes their perception of Islam? Could it be that white Evangelicals are biased against Arabs and that this prejudice shapes their view of Islam, even though there are, I believe, more Asian Muslims than Arab Muslims? Could it be that white Evangelicals often have nostalgic and/or narrow views of what it means to be American—’white and Christian like me’?

FULL ARTICLE FROM PATHEOS