Making Islamic sense of free speech

By Harris Zafar

While many celebrated the winter holidays, news broke of the arrest in Saudi Arabia of liberal writer Turki Al Hamad for allegedly insulting Islam on Twitter.  We also heard of another Saudi activist, Raif Badawi, who was arrested in June and will now continue with his trial, accused of apostasy for ridiculing Saudi Arabia’s religious police and making other comments that officials found insulting.  These incidents have re-ignited the age old debate about the use of freedom of speech, especially with regards to Islam.

The difference between Islam’s view on free speech and the view promoted by free speech advocates these days is the intention and ultimate goal each seeks to promote.  Whereas many secularists champion individual privileges, Islam promotes the principle of uniting mankind and cultivating love and understanding among people.  Both endorse freedom for people to express themselves, but Islam promotes unity, whereas modern-day free speech advocates promote individualism.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST 

Mennonites Reach Out to Build Positive Christian-Muslim Relations

SALUNGA, Pa. — Eastern Mennonite Missions’ new Christian/Muslim Relations Team wants to equip Christians around the world for life-giving interaction with Muslims.

Eastern Mennonite Missions’ Christian/Muslim Relations Team, from left: Jonathan Bornman, David W. Shenk and Andres Prins. — Photo by Kim Winey/EMM

The team’s tagline is “Peacemakers Confessing Christ.”

“Globalization and immigration have resulted in the 2.4 billion Christians and the 1.6 billion Muslims of the world interacting and relating to one another in new settings,” said team member Jonathan Bornman, who served among the Muslim people of Senegal in West Africa for 10 years. “We want to equip Christians to open doors of friendship and good relations with their Muslim neighbors.”

Other team members are David W. Shenk, EMM global consultant known worldwide for encouraging Muslim-Christian dialogue; and Andres Prins, who has 30 years of experience in North Africa and the Middle East.

Shenk notes that many Christians in North America worry about having Muslim neighbors. Recently he discovered similar concerns in Neuwied, Germany, where he led a seminar on being good neighbors to Muslims and sharing the good news of Jesus with them.

The Christian sponsors of the seminar went to every mosque in the community with an invitation to the final evening session on the peace of Christ. A number of Muslims came and then lingered after the session for conversation.

FULL ARTICLE FROM MENNONITE WORLD REVIEW 

Wholly American, Wholly Muslim

All across this country—and the world, in fact—there are numerous people who seek to define Islam and Muslims in a specific and (frequently) negative manner. Islamophobes have, in fact, staked their careers on this task. There are also criminals, so-called Muslims, acting in the name of Islam in such a wrong way that provides a “definition” of the religion wholly inconsistent with its principles. The actions of these criminals are just that: criminal and twisted and do not reflect the truth. Islamophobes claim that these deviants are, in fact, only representing the truth, and any claim to the contrary is a “lie.”

Hence the importance of Muslim voices owning their faith. These voices define Islam; they represent the truth. This is why the “I Speak For Myself” series is so important. Starting with the first book, I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim (White Cloud Press, 2011), American Muslim women got the chance to tell the world their story, in their own words. Now, it is the brothers’ turn with All American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, edited by Wajahat Ali (a Patheos contributor and former blogger) and Zahra T. Suratwala.

FULL ARTICLE FROM PATHEOS.COM

2012: Another Hard Year for American Muslims

 A woman tells police she shoved a man to his death off a New York subway platform into the path of a train because she hates Muslims and thought he was one.

- A former Marine from Indiana admits that he broke into a mosque in Ohio and set fire to a prayer rug because he wanted revenge for the killings of American troops overseas.

- New York Times says the 9/11 attacks have led to what’s essentially a separate justice system for Muslims. In this system, the principle of due process is twisted and selectively applied, if it is applied at all.

- In the spirit of interfaith, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a leading civil advocacy group holds its annual convention at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California amid fierce criticism of the church by Islamophobes

These episodes reflect the dilemma of the seven-million strong American Muslim community which remains under siege more than 11 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York Trade Center and Pentagon.

On December 29, the American Muslim community was shocked at the horrendous murder of Sunando Sen, who was pushed by a women to his death on the tracks of a New York subway station because she thought he was Muslim. “I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up,” Erika Menendez, 31, told police. She was charged with second degree murder as hate crime. India-born Sunando Sen was raised as Hindu. The murder of Sen at a New York Subway Station of Queens comes only weeks after Pamela Geller placed hate-ads targeting the Arab and Muslim community in subway stations across New York.  One of the ads insinuated that Arab and Muslims are “savages” and another ad has an image of the World Trade Center exploding next to a quote from the Quran.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS

Islam in America: A Christian Perspective

A good video resource to introduce Christians to our Muslim neighbors in America.

Ask a Muslim: Law and Order

Muslims in Conneticut Mourn Rampage Victims

CAIRO – Muslims joined fellow Americans Sunday, December 16, in mourning 20 children slaughtered by a gunman who forced his way into their school in the northeastern state of Connecticut.

“The Muslim Community at the Al Hedaya Islamic Center in Newtown CT and at other area Masajid in Danbury CT (Danbury Masjid & Baitul Mukarram) share in the grief of the families of the children in today’s tragedy,” the center said in a statement on its website.

“This is an especially painful time for all of us across the Greater Danbury Region.”

- US Muslims Pray for School Victims- Children Massacre Shocks America

At least 26 people, including 20 children aged 5 to 10 years old, were killed when a heavily-armed gunman stormed into their school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday.

FULL ARTICLE FROM ONISLAM.NET

Correcting Misperceptions about Islam in Iowa

There are more than 5,000 Muslims in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area alone. Dr. Mohammed Fahmy is one of them.

He is an active member of the Muslim community and has been working as a professor at the University of Northern Iowa for 30 years.

“From its meaning from the word Islam comes Salaam,” Fahmy said. “Salaam is Shalom — that means peace.”

But peace is not a word that many associate with the religion.

Dr. Fahmy believes that images of violence, terrorism and hatred have fueled a shift of the entire idea of what Islam really is and what Muslims really believe.

“Some people say, ‘Are you Muslim first, or American first?’ And I say, ‘I am an American Muslim,’” Fahmy said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m a person who has chosen to be an American. I live in this country. I defend this country.”

One of the biggest misconceptions about Islam is the role of women.

“I have studied Islam for myself. I read a lot of Koran, and I just find that Islam elevated the status of women,” Salma Akbar said. “Fourteen centuries ago, the Prophet came and he liberated them from those practices. People used to bury their daughters alive and this is a religion that came and said if you raise your daughter well you will go to Heaven. I think Prophet Muhammad was the first feminist.”

FULL ARTICLE WITH VIDEO

 

American Muslims Back Obama in Election, but by Smaller Percentage than Before

NOTE:  This article was written right before the election.  It is being published now to counter claims often made that Muslims all think alike and walk in political lockstep.

(RNS) Nearly nine in 10 Muslim American voters pulled the lever for the Democratic candidate in the last two presidential elections, partly because of Republican policies and rhetoric that many considered anti-Muslim. In 2008, they also thought President Obama would usher in an era in which Muslims would be more accepted at home, and relations between America and the Islamic world would see improvement.

But this year, Muslim American support for President Obama shows signs of waning, which could be enough to affect the 2012 election in key swing states where a few thousand votes could have a big impact.

Several of those swing states — most notably Virginia, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Ohio — have enough Muslim voters to turn a tight race, experts say.

According to a poll of 500 Muslim American voters released Wednesday (Oct. 24) by the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Washington, 68 percent of Muslims said they would vote for President Obama, while 25 percent were undecided. The poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, also found that 91 percent of Muslims intend to vote.

While Muslim Americans continue to place high importance on civil rights and foreign policy, the CAIR survey shows that they, like other Americans, have ranked the economy and jobs as their top concern, followed by education and health care.

“We came to this country for the opportunities it offered us, and we need to be focused on domestic issues that impact all Americans because now this is our home,” said New Yorker Zeba Iqbal, an Obama supporter and former executive director of the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST 

How Arabs and Muslim Americans Will Vote in the US Elections

For Arab Americans, the presidential election between the democratic incumbent Barack Obama and his republican challenger Mitt Romney is less pivotal than the one in 2008. Then Senator Obama stood in to restore hope to Americans and to right the course of America after 8 years of war and economic disasters. Arab and Muslim Americans are not one issue voters; they are as diverse in their political leanings as any other ethnic or religious group in the country. But the one single issue unites both Arab and Muslim Americans is how the president of the United States deals with the Arab Israeli conflict and whether he can or cannot implement the U.S. policy position of having a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine.

Although there are no accurate figures about the numbers of Arabs and Muslims Americans, there are estimates that put their numbers between 2 million to as high as 8 million.

Upon the election of Barack Obama four years ago, Arab and Muslim American voters saw in him a rare hope that America can finally be this mythical “fair broker” in the Middle East and act more justly toward the Palestinians, as well as end its historic support for the Arab world murderous dictators and finally stand on the side of Arab citizens as opposed to siding with their tormentors.

FULL ARTICLE FROM AL ARABIYA