What it means to be Muslim at Columbia

BY NOREEN MAYAT • MAY 15, 2024 AT 9:56 PMShare

“Good morning distinguished guests, faculty, family members, and above all, the class of 2024—congratulations! My name is Noreen Mayat, and I am honored to be here today as a graduating Barnard senior representing the Muslim community at Columbia.”

That’s how I’d hoped to open my speech as the Muslim senior representative at Columbia’s Baccalaureate Service on Sunday.

Baccalaureate, Columbia’s “multifaith celebration of undergraduate commencement,” is intended to showcase the University’s supposed inclusivity and diverse set of religious communities. As former president, vice president, and social chair of Columbia’s Muslim Student Association, I was excited to speak as the Muslim senior representative. I was looking forward to sharing my experience building, nurturing, and cherishing the Muslim community here at Columbia, and what it means to me. For a moment, I felt like my identity was being recognized; it felt like I mattered.

However, after experiencing several rounds of censorship of my speech by Religious Life staff, and the University’s carceral response toward pro-Palestinian student protestors, I no longer felt comfortable being a part of this service, nor representing this University.

This decision wasn’t easy. I carried the weight of this decision for months. I struggled with whether or not delivering a speech at a Columbia-sponsored event would allow me to stay true to myself, and to my community. But it wasn’t until these last few weeks at Columbia—my last few weeks as a graduating senior—that I realized there was only one choice I could make, while still maintaining my morals.

I realized this year that Muslims do not matter to Columbia. And while that remains true, I cannot let myself be a diversity token for this service.

It just isn’t true to who I am.

During meetings with Religious Life staff leading up to Baccalaureate, I was told not to mention Palestine, nor name any specific regions of the world where my community was suffering. I was told there will be many communities in the room, and that it was just too sensitive to talk about.

I was told that Baccalaureate is meant to be celebratory, and so I shouldn’t center such heavy topics.

I was told, that even as the Muslim representative, that I should be talking about all communities’ suffering, not just mine. As if it simply wasn’t fair to shine a light on Muslim suffering and on the 40,000 Palestinian lives lost without also simultaneously condemning the loss of all life. It seemed as if as a Muslim speaker, if I didn’t explicitly state and defend my belief that all human life is precious, the world would assume I meant otherwise. Somehow, even just talking about our suffering was made to be “political.”

This all stung.

I felt like a puppet.

FULL ARTICLE FROM COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

Opinion: A Jew, Muslim and Christian condemn the violence in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9. CREDIT: NAAMAN OMAR / PALESTINIAN NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY (WAFA) IN CONTRACT WITH APAIMAGES, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

In late October, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement saying that Oct. 7 “did not happen in a vacuum.” At the same time, he added “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

He was severely criticized for his statement and asked to resign by the Israeli government and the Israeli UN ambassador.

We applaud his statement for its honesty and forthrightness. We shine a light below on some of the context that Secretary-General Guterres was referring to. We do not offer justification for war crime murders of civilians. But we do live with the peril of explosive rage when the human rights of an entire people is denied, when their oppression is ratcheted up with every passing year, and when their voices are stifled by the world’s strongest powers.

Our own American complicity in supporting this oppression and stifling these voices is morally indefensible.

The three of us, a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian traveled together a few years ago on a trip of witness to the West Bank and Israel. Each of our faith traditions shares an historic link to that suffering land. And they each contain ethical perspectives that shine a light on our current situation, calling us toward the work of peacemaking. Wherever we went, we were received with joy, food, dance and friendship by West Bank Palestinians and Israeli Bedouins. But over and over, we learned of the suffering caused by widespread state and settler violence, a denial of basic human rights, and a racist denial of humanity. It left us heartbroken.

We encountered checkpoints within the West Bank that restrict or delay children from walking to school, workers from going to their jobs, women from journeying to give birth in a safe environment, and family members from visiting one another. We saw the black containers on top of Palestinian homes used for collecting rainwater for essential needs, while Israeli settlers have unfettered access to aquifer water to fill their swimming pools. We saw the sights where homes were demolished. We heard of children arrested and dragged from their homes in the middle of the night. Everywhere we turned, we saw evidence that confirmed the assessment of human rights organizations such as Amnesty International: apartheid was being enacted before our very eyes.

But that is not all. We visited farms and villages where the settlers, with Israeli Defense Force (IDF) complicity, used violence against their Christian and Muslim neighbors, destroying their fruit and olive trees in an effort to make life unbearable. So too, we learned of the humiliation of having Palestinian places of worship desecrated by Israeli Defense Forces. Al Aqsa, the holiest mosque in Jerusalem, is deliberately targeted by the IDF, causing brutal violence in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims gather for night prayers.

FULL ARTICLE FROM CTMIRROR.ORG

Guest Contribution: Experiencing Islam as an outsider

Exploring Aggieland’s diversity

After the popularity of my last article in The Battalion about Breakaway, I knew I wanted to contribute again to share some more experiences as an outsider while at Texas A&M. This time, though, I wanted to shed light on a segment of our university that I, a Hindu-origin atheist, have often been presumed to be a part of: the Islamic community.

Most likely due to my skin color, there have been countless times that I was presumed to be a Muslim and these perhaps innocent mistakes have led to both positive and negative outcomes. Despite this, like probably most Americans of non-Islamic background, I really had no knowledge of what it meant “to be a Muslim” besides what is often portrayed in Western media — which we can all agree is usually less than flattering. Therefore, I determined to do better by learning more about this major group that exists both on this campus and in the world.

The first person I contacted was a close friend, Hashim Amir. Though I knew he was very active as an officer in the Muslim Student Association, or MSA, I had never sought to find out more and discover more about his identity. His help in navigating this journey was so impactful that I wanted to make him a part of your journey while reading this article; as such, you will be able to hear from a true insider through commentary by him.

In contrast to my experiences with the Aggie Christian community where my first taste was the zeal of Breakaway, my initial steps into the College Station Islamic Community Center mosque could only be described as tranquil. Taking off our shoes as if to deaden even those noises that could occur from the bottom of our feet, Hashim led me to the bathroom to cleanse my extremities. 

He explained that “the purpose of washing [ourselves] before [we] enter the prayer room of the mosque is to purify and clean [ourselves]. Cleanliness is a very important part of Islam.” 

Thus purified, we went to the prayer hall called the musalla. I was surprised that there were people there praying in the mostly empty room given that I knew Muslims were already prescribed five regular times of prayer during the day. But I would soon realize this inspiring dedication would manifest itself in many of the folks I would meet: a commitment to going above and beyond what is “required” that, from my experience, not many practitioners of other religions could attest to.

Soon enough, I witnessed the room fill up as the adhān, or call to prayer, was recited for the fourth or sunset prayer called Salat ul-Maghrib. As the men in front of me (women have their own prayer space) performed the actions of their faith almost in synchronous motion, I was necessarily reminded of a well-choreographed meditative routine, clearly learned over thousands or tens of thousands of repetitions over the years in worship to Allah.

Later that night, I was fortunate enough to sit in on a meeting between the imam, or prayer leader, and new converts to Islam. While I was astounded when I heard that the imam volunteers his time every week to drive from Houston to lead the mosque, I was more surprised by the proselytes in attendance. In the small group, there were people from every religious background you could think of: Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, atheism and more. Though we mainly talked about a section of the Quran during the meeting, in all my time at A&M, I had never been in proximity to such a diverse set of backgrounds. It truly made me wonder what other diverse voices on this huge campus were not able to speak loud enough to be heard except in places like this.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE BATTALION (TEXAS A&M BLOG)

Inside Biden’s Broken Relationship With Muslim and Arab American Leaders

Even as the president piles new pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza, those who have called most passionately for him to change course say it is too little, too late.

Abbas Alawieh, one of the leaders of a protest vote movement against President Biden that began in Michigan this year, center, speaking alongside Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn, right, in February.Credit…Jeff Kowalsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Seven months into Israel’s war in Gaza, Muslim and Arab American leaders say their channels of communication with President Biden’s White House have largely broken down, leaving the administration without a politically valuable chorus of support for his significant shift on the conflict this week.

Mr. Biden’s announcement that he had paused a shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel and would not help with a ground invasion of Rafah was a sea change in U.S. policy that Arab American and Muslim leaders have demanded for months. But those who desired it the most have long ago written off the administration as complicit in a war that Gaza officials say has killed more than 34,000 people, arguing it was, essentially, too little, too late.

“The president’s announcement is extremely overdue and horribly insufficient,” said Abbas Alawieh, one of the leaders of a protest-vote movement against Mr. Biden that began in Michigan this year. “He needs to come out against this war. Period. That would be significant.”

Mr. Biden’s White House aides engaged in considerable outreach at the outset of the Democratic primary season, when the movement to cast protest votes in early states emerged as a surprising political headache. A cadre of high-level aides traveled to Dearborn, Mich., and Chicago to demonstrate their interest in listening, but Arab American leaders told them that without a momentous shift in U.S. policy — such as support for a permanent cease-fire — there was no need to keep talking.

By and large, prominent Muslim and Arab Americans have now concluded that they are irrevocably at odds with the Biden administration over its foreign policy, according to interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the talks. And many of them say they are tired of hearing that they should vote for Mr. Biden simply because former President Donald J. Trump would be worse.

“I have told them frankly: ‘Don’t waste your time anymore unless you have something substantial. This is a waste of time,’” Osama Siblani, the publisher of The Arab American News, an influential newspaper in Dearborn, said of White House officials.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

How U.S. Muslims are experiencing the Israel-Hamas war

Related: How U.S. Jews are experiencing the Israel-Hamas war

U.S. Muslims are more sympathetic to the Palestinian people than many other Americans are, despite the fact that relatively few Muslims in the United States are Palestinian themselves, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February. And only about a quarter of Muslims in the survey identify as Arab or of Arab ancestry.

Muslim Americans are also highly critical of President Joe Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Meanwhile, a majority of Muslim Americans (70%) say discrimination against Muslims in our society has increased since the start of the war, and about half (53%) say news about the war makes them feel afraid.

Here’s a closer look at these and other findings from our new survey.

How we did this

How U.S. Muslims view America’s role in the war 

Only 6% of Muslim adults believe that the U.S. is striking the right balance between the Israelis and Palestinians, according to the February survey.

Most Muslims (60%) instead say Biden is favoring the Israelis too much, while just 3% say he is favoring the Palestinians too much. Another 30% are not sure.

Muslim Americans have been strongly Democratic in the past and remain so – 66% of Muslim registered voters in the survey identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party. (The survey includes 298 Muslim registered voters for an effective sample size of 94 and a margin of error of plus or minus 10.1 points.) But Biden’s handling of the war has led some U.S. Muslims to cast protest votes against him in Democratic primaries this year.

FULL ARTICLE FROM PEW RESEARCH

Overcoming Historical Amnesia: Muslim Contributions to Civilization

People who forget or ignore major events in world history can be said to suffer from “historical amnesia.” Though this mindset cannot be cured in one short blog post, I hope to dispel some of the stereotypes and misperceptions by highlighting the contributions that Muslims have made to civilization.

In his recent article, Sam Harris, a popular critic of Islam, referred to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education activist, as “the best thing to come out of the Muslim world in 1,000 years.” Hidden in this comment is the idea that Malala’s fellow Muslims are backward and that her religion, Islam, is not conducive to change or progress.

Conversely to the beliefs of Harris and others like him, Muslims have actually made enormous contributions to civilization, perhaps due to the heavy emphasis that Islam places on knowledge. People who forget or blatantly ignore major trends or events in world history can be said to suffer from “historical amnesia.” Though this mindset cannot be cured in one short blog post, I hope to dispel some of the stereotypes and misperceptions exacerbated by Harris and other anti-Islam activists by highlighting the contributions that Muslims have made to civilization over the years.

Contributions to education

Malala’s quest for universal education follows in Muslims’ long and proud history in the field of education. Two Muslim women, Fatima and Miriam al-Firhi, created the world’s first university, Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco, in 859 AD. For several years, students were schooled here in a plethora of secular and religious subjects. At the end of their education, teachers evaluated students and awarded degrees based on satisfactory performances. The concept of awarding degrees would spread from Fez to Andalucía, Spain, and later to the Universities of Bologna in Italy and Oxford in England, among other places of learning.

Spanish Muslims of Andalucía were especially strong advocates of education and helped to dispel the gloom that had enveloped Europe during the Dark Ages. Between the 8th and 15th centuries, Andalucía was perhaps the world’s epicenter for education and knowledge. Spanish universities such as those in Cordoba, Granada, and Seville, had Christian and Jewish students who learned science from Muslims. Women were also encouraged to study in Muslim Spain. This educational environment that stressed tolerance would not reach the “Western world” until the 19th and 20th centuries.

Contributions to philosophy

One of the greatest Muslim contributions to civilization began in the 8th century when Muslim scholars inherited volumes of Greek philosophy. The wisdom in ancient Greece texts, which had been lost to Europeans, was translated from Latin to Arabic by Muslim scholars, thus creating one of the greatest transmissions of knowledge in world history. Muslims scholars would eventually bring the ideas of great ancient Greek minds such as Socrates, Aristotle and Plato into Europe, where their philosophy was translated into other European languages. This is why Muslims are the main threshold behind the European Renaissance and the Enlightenment, two movements that resurrected Greek philosophy and gave new life into a European continent that was bogged down with religious dogma and bloody internal conflicts.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST

Khamenei’s Failed Legacy: Iran’s Youth Reject Political Islam

On Teacher’s Day, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic often boasts that teachers “are the architects of Iran’s future.”

In Ali Khamenei’s myopic worldview, this future likely entails today’s young Iranians carrying on the torch of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, along with its tenets of political Islam.

But, the ruler’s decades-long endeavor to indoctrinate and shape post-revolution generations of Iranians through the education system and dozens of state and religious propaganda outfits has failed, tarnishing the legacy of the Islamic Republic.

From widespread secularization to the populace’s resolute anti-regime stance and protests, Iran has witnessed profound transitions over the past decade. In the process, it’s evident that the people have turned their backs to the aspirations of both Supreme Leader.

Today’s youth, thoroughly detached from the state, often lead dual lives: experiencing pervasive oppression at schools and universities while encountering contrasting narratives of pre-revolutionary life at home. Despite crackdowns on internet access amid protests, Generation Z has found a window into life in the West, solidifying their rejection of their daily reality.

But, Khamenei can’t take all the credit for this rejection – after all, he is only the second Supreme Leader. His predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini, did his share to try and forcibly imprint his worldview onto Iranian youth through school curriculums.

Khamenei, though, is unlikely to cease his efforts. Recently, the regime’s education officials have hinted at several overhauls, indicating a further tightening of control over what is taught to children and students.

Here is a brief overview of what you need to know about the Islamic Republic’s quest to mold the future Iranian generations through schools and universities – and how they failed in their goal to establish Iran as a successful example of political Islam.

Islamic ‘Revolutionary’ Overhaul of Iran’s Education System

Let’s take a step back.

For a period after the revolution in 1979, after the ouster of Iran’s monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iranian universities were shut down to completely alter the country’s education system according to the new government’s ideological framework.

“Iran’s new revolutionary authorities are engaged in a massive upheaval of the country’s educational system from the primary grades through the universities,” reads a Washington Post article from 1980.

FULL ARTICLE FROM IRAN INTERNATIONAL

‘Green Islam’ Drew a Reporter to Indonesia

An environmental movement is growing in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Sometime early last year, I stumbled across an article by two scholars that described the rise of the “Green Islam” movement in Indonesia. One phrase in particular stood out: Muslim environmentalists there saw themselves as “khalifahs,” or guardians, of the earth.

As the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The New York Times, I knew this was a story I wanted to tell. It melded religion and environmentalism — two themes that I wanted to focus on in my coverage of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation and a top greenhouse gas emitter. And in a sea of negative headlines, it was a hopeful story.

With Hasya Nindita, one of The Times’s freelance reporters in Indonesia, I started looking for ways to explain the movement. I am based in Bangkok, and at first, I was not sure whether we had enough for a story. I had learned about several initiatives by Muslim activists to promote environmentalism in Indonesia, but it was difficult to tell how broad their reach was. So we kept gathering information.

Then in early November, we heard that Muhammadiyah Green Cadre, the environmental arm of the second-largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, was co-hosting a seminar about Islam’s attitudes toward climate change. Hasya got in touch with the founder of Green Army, a group of tree-planting volunteers, who told her that even though the group did not push an explicit religious message, they were motivated by Islam.

I decided to travel to Indonesia, knowing there would be more stories to tell.

After obtaining a journalist visa, I traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia’s sprawling capital, in early December. On a Thursday morning, I dropped by the Istiqlal Mosque, which had recently installed solar panels and was the first place of worship to win a green building accolade from the World Bank. But when Hasya and I arrived, the staff told us we could not see the solar panels; we needed to make an appointment first.

“OK,” I replied. “But could we talk to the grand imam?”

A few hours later and I was sitting with Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar, the leader of the mosque, who told us how shocked he was when he began his job in 2016 and saw trash in the river surrounding the mosque. He said he wanted to help transform 70 percent of Indonesia’s 800,000 mosques into “eco-masjids,” or ecological mosques.

Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar, the leader of the largest mosque in Indonesia, has embraced an environmental message.Credit…Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times

The next day, I returned to the mosque for Friday prayers. During his sermon, the grand imam listed all the ways people have been careless toward the environment.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

Most priests in Sierra Leone are sons of Muslims, bishop says

There are now more than 100 priests in the four dioceses of Sierra Leone. | Credit: Shutterstock

By Walter Sánchez Silva

ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 26, 2024 / 16:15 pm

Bishop Natale Paganelli, 66, arrived as a Xaverian missionary in 2005 in Sierra Leone. In an interview with the Catholic magazine Omnes posted April 25, he noted that the majority of Catholic priests in that African country are sons of Muslims.

“Most priests are sons of Muslims. Why? Because of the schools,” explained the prelate of Italian origin, who also spent 22 years in Mexico and who was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Makeni in Sierra Leone from 2012–2023.

“When the Xaverians arrived they used a very interesting strategy. Since there were almost no schools in the country’s north, they began to establish them, first primary schools, then secondary schools. Evangelization came through the schools,” he continued.

Regarding Muslims who study in Catholic schools, Paganelli explained that “the majority of them, attending our schools, which have a lot of prestige, thanks be to God, come into contact with Christianity, with priests, and at a certain point they ask for baptism and take a catechumenal course at the same school. Generally, there is no opposition from parents.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

Catholics in Gaza are burying dead in Muslim cemeteries

Jerusalem, Apr 16, 2024 / 06:00 am

In the chaos of the Israel-Hamas war, where any movement can be fatal, even burying the dead is not guaranteed. Hundreds still lie under the rubble across the Gaza Strip, and transporting bodies to cemeteries is nearly impossible. This is compounded by the heartbreak of mass graves.

The challenge is even greater for Christians, whose cemeteries are all in the northern part of Gaza, next to their places of worship. For those who die in the south, receiving a Christian burial is impossible.

Recently, two Christians passed away in the South of Gaza — Hani Suhail Michel Abu Dawood and Haytham Tarazi. Their families could not bid them a final farewell and, for now, have been unable to return their loved ones’ bodies to Christian cemeteries in the north. However, the doors of Muslim cemeteries have opened to receive their bodies and give them a dignified burial.

Reuters reported the testimony of Ihsan al-Natour, a worker at the Muslim cemetery in Tal al-Sultan in Rafah, who mentioned the burial of a Christian, Abu Dawood. 

“He’s buried amongst Muslims and there are no signs that indicate he is Christian,” al-Natour said. “He is a human being; we respect human beings and appreciate humanity and we love every person on earth.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY