The Hijab Project

The following is an introductory message from the administrator of a new project encouraging Muslim women to see their unique identity as a source of pride, pushing back against those who misunderstand or denigrate their decision to wear hijab.  Anyone who recognizes the need to show respect for people’s life-style choices as an expression of their religious identity should applaud this effort.  You are encouraged to visit the website linked below the message from Amara to hear what these women wish to share about that identity.

A MESSAGE FROM ADMINISTRATOR AMARA MAJEED

As a Muslim living in America, the gaping gap of ignorance exists between myself and others: my headscarf, otherwise known as the hijab. I pleat, fold, and fasten a piece of cloth over my head everyday before I go out, but the hijab means more to me than merely concealing my hair. In the religion of Islam, both Muslim men and women are expected to preserve their modesty, and from an Islamic point of view, the hijab contributes to the creation of a modest atmosphere. In an era where women are universally sexualized, Muslim women believe that the hijab can prevent this from happening. The Hijab Project is a social experiment that I’d like girls—both Muslim and non-Muslim—to begin. Try on your own headscarf to school, the mall or other public place, and observe the reactions that people give you. Are you looked at differently? Do people treat you differently? Then, share your experience here! If you currently wear a hijab, tell us your hijab story. A bridge of understanding needs to be built between Muslims and non-Muslims, and experiencing the lifestyle of a growing and often misunderstood culture in America is vital to shedding the lack of knowledge that many people have regarding Islam as a religion. I’m looking forward to hearing your hijab stories! السلام عليكم–[May peace be upon you]

LINK TO THE HIJAB PROJECT WEBSITE 

5 Things to Know About ISIS and the Theology of Evil

As an evangelical theologian and pastor, I want to say that ISIS is evil. Evil is a term we don’t normally hear in the media or politics, which is likely a good thing given our lack of public morality and civility these days. Indeed, judgementalism was condemned by Jesus, but is still often practiced by many churches — so humility is always called for. But it is still a responsibility of the faith community to name evil where it clearly exists in the world. And by any standards, the actions of ISIS are evil.

The latest report issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, on “The Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq,” catalogues the human rights atrocities committed by ISIS, making it abundantly clear that this group is evil. They include:

• attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure,
• executions and other targeted killings of civilians,
• abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and gender based violence perpetrated against women and children,
• slavery and trafficking of women and children,
• forced recruitment of children,
• destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance,
• wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms.

The report goes on to identify the targeting of ethnic and religious groups — such as Christians, Yazidis, Shi’ite Muslims, and many others — and subjecting them to “gross human rights abuses, in what appears as a deliberate policy aimed at destroying, suppressing or expelling these communities permanently from areas under their control.” The report describes the actions as possible “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM SOJO.NET 

Supreme Court hears anti-Muslim bias claim against Abercrombie

Case against clothing store centers on question of whether job applicant must ask for religious accommodation for hijab

February 25, 2015 1:41PM ET

by Renee Lewis

The U.S. Supreme Court indicated Wednesday that it will side with a Muslim woman denied a job at an Abercrombie & Fitch Co. clothing store in Oklahoma because she wore a hijab, or headscarf, for religious reasons.

Nine justices heard a one-hour argument as part of an appeal brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that sued the company on behalf of Samantha Elauf.

Elauf was 17 when she was interviewed for a “model” position, as the company calls its sales staff. She impressed the assistant store manager, but her application was rejected over her headscarf that apparently contradicted the company’s “Look Policy,” centered on an East Coast preppy style.

The dress code prohibited caps or hats, and Abercrombie & Fitch had argued that was the reason Elauf was not hired — not religious discrimination. Abercrombie has since changed its policy on headscarves. But it maintains a ban on black clothing.

The justices on Wednesday aggressively questioned Abercrombie’s lawyer on the premise that an employer must take steps to accommodate the religious beliefs of a job applicant or worker.

“What the Supreme Court is now confronting is how courts should sort out the duty to show that respect: must the job applicant specifically make her private religious needs known up front, or must the company make its policies clear, so that an applicant knows what is required and can ask for an accommodation,” said a post on the SCOTUS blog.

Elauf did not explain that she was wearing the hijab for religious reasons during the interview for a sales job at the store in 2008 in the Woodland Hills Mall in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

FULL ARTICLE FROM AL JAZEERA AMERICA 

Beating Back ISIS by Martin Accad

Every few days, we seem to wake up to another massacre committed by ISIS. And these are, of course, only the ones that the media reports. ISIS, in reality, is committing massacres on a daily basis. We have become familiar with their crimes in Syria and Iraq since last summer. But now their latest playfield, we are learning, is Libya. And their latest scapegoats are the Copts of Egypt.

In a recent, 21-page long analysis in The Atlantic, entitled ‘What ISIS Really Wants,’Graeme Wood argues that the ISIS interpretation and application of Islam is one of many ‘legitimate’ manifestations of Islam. He nowhere argues that this is the only, or even the main, interpretation of the religion. Therefore, though it is important also to read and be aware of Wood’s critiques, it seems to me that many have been too quick in accusing him of contributing to the stereotyping of Islam. For instance, the article of Jack Jenkins, on the website thinkprogress.org, ‘What the Atlantic Gets Dangerously Wrong about ISIS and Islam,’ dismisses him far too quickly. In my opinion, his dismissal is based on arguments that he reads into Wood’s analysis, rather than on actual affirmations Wood makes. We all need to form our opinions based on our own analysis of the arguments offered, but here are 5 takeaways that I propose, taken from the most recent events and their analyses:

1) It would be far better for everyone if Muslim apologists stopped dissociating ISIS from some supposed ‘true Islam.’ As critics of Wood have argued, Islam is far from uniform. But this fact argues as much against the stereotyping of Islam as entirely violent as it does against claiming that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. What the claim about Islam’s vast diversity (which I endorse vividly) argues for is that ISIS adherents are ‘legitimate’ Muslims, by the mere fact that they claim so themselves. Muslim apologists should stop feeling like they have to defend Islam by saying ISIS has nothing to do with Islam.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE INSTITUTE OF MIDDLE EAST STUDIES 

Lent: Muslims stand in solidarity with Christians by tweeting what they will give up until Easter

In a show of solidarity, Muslims are standing with Christians and giving up guilty pleasures for lent.

For Christians, lent is a period of self-restraint, marked by fasting, repentance, prayer and self-control. Luxury or rich foods, such as meat and dairy are often avoided by those taking part.

Abstention from personal “bad habits” such as watching television or eating too much sugar is also commonly practised.

The observance starts on Ash Wednesday and lasts until Easter, as Christians imitate the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in a desert before being blessed by John the Baptist.

Using #Muslims4Lent, followers of Islam are tweeting photos of themselves in which they declare what they will be giving up.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE INDEPENDENT (UK) 

Norwegian Muslims volunteer to protect synagogue

In the wake of a deadly shooting attack at a synagogue in Denmark last week, a group of Norwegian Muslims intends to hold an anti-violence demonstration at an Oslo synagogue this coming weekend by forming a “peace ring” around the building.

One of the event organizers, 17-year-old Hajrad Arshad, explained that the intention was to make a clear statement that Muslims don’t support anti-Semitism.

“We think that after the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen, it is the perfect time for us Muslims to distance ourselves from the harassment of Jews that is happening,” Arshad told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK in an interview cited by The Local News website on Tuesday.

She noted that the group aimed to “extinguish the prejudices people have against Jews and against Muslims.”

The demonstration drew praise from the local Jewish community.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Obama: Terror, Not Islam, Is the Enemy

After months of delays and weeks of internal and external discord surrounding the White House’s Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, President Barack Obama finally got to tell officials from more than 60 countries that terrorism, not Islam, is the enemy.

“We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam,” Obama said Wednesday, the second day of the summit. He later called on Muslim leaders “to do more to discredit the notion that our nations are determined to suppress Islam.”

Obama’s sentiments were welcomed by the audience, which politely applauded throughout his speech. But they did little to overshadow the controversy surrounding the buildup to the summit or the fact that not much is expected from the three-day event.

The White House has taken heat from all sides in the run-up to the summit. Within the administration there was discord because the White House waited until Jan. 11 to tell the State Department it would be participating. Muslim leaders criticized the White House for focusing narrowly on threats from Islamists. Meanwhile, Republicans blasted the administration for approaching the threat too broadly and called on it to focus on threats from Muslim extremists.

FULL ARTICLE FROM FOREIGN POLICY 

A Letter Concerning Muslim Toleration

ISTANBUL — Over the past decade, headlines from the Middle East have reintroduced Westerners to terms from centuries past. “Heresy,” “blasphemy,” “apostasy” — these are some of the charges that the radical Salafist group known as the Islamic State invokes when it executes its enemies, sometimes by crucifying or burning them alive.

Some Muslim governments, including United States allies, also mete out harsh punishments for similar offenses. The liberal blogger Raif Badawi was publicly flogged in Saudi Arabia last month on a charge of heresy, which he allegedly committed by criticizing the oppressive Saudi religious establishment.

Although there are contextual differences for these practices, as well as the sanctions for religious offenses in Iran, Sudan or Afghanistan, they all share one fundamental objective: Punishing people in the name of God.

A 2013 poll by the Pew Research Center showed that while not all of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims approve of this notion, a significant proportion of them do. Majorities in Egypt and Pakistan, for example, support the death penalty for Muslims who dare to abandon their religion.

Looking at this, some Westerners conclude that Islam is inherently more rigid than the creed that has defined their own civilization: Christianity. But they are forgetting that Christianity had its own, no less violent, history of punishing in the name of God. For centuries, churches burned people they thought were heretics at the stake or tortured them to purify their souls. The main difference with Islam is that Christianity gradually outgrew that age of religious persecution by grounding its theology in tolerance, reason and liberty.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES 

Reflecting on Christian Muslim Relations: Dr. Kenneth Cragg

In the years 1957 to 1962, the Near East Christian Council published a sequence of Study Papers under the title OPERATION REACH, of which there were five series, covering some fifty different, and basic, topics in Islam. The whole was intended as a venture in Christian understanding of Islamic belief and practice and as an aid to intelligent, expressive Christian ministry among Muslim neighbors.

This is the third in a series of reflections Dr. Cragg prepared on Islamic themes.  More will be added in weeks to come.

John Hubers, PhD

——————-

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of these studies, which it is hoped to continue from September, 1957 to June, 1958, is to provide material for intellectual and spiritual activity in the Churches and to serve them in their attitudes and duties towards Islam today. There is a very real relationship between a growing mind in Christ and a growing expressiveness towards Muslims.

 

THE QUR’AN ON ITSELF

“Alif, Lam, Mim” so run the first words when we turn out of the Fatihah into Surah ii of the Qur’an, “that Book wherein” as it goes on to say, “there is nothing dubious.” A fair number of other Surahs have these letters of the Arabic alphabet at their head and in four cases “Ta Ha” (Surah xx): “Ya Sin” (Surah xxxvi): Sad” (Surah xxxviii) and “Qaf” (Surah L) these letters provide the Surahs’ actual titles. “Ta Ha” has become familiar as a Muslim Arabic name.

The subject of much fascinating speculation, these letters will serve to provide a useful point of departure into the Quranic doctrine of the Qur’an itself, its status, form and authority. Some have conjectured, though without much conviction, that the letters derive from the initials of the owners or scribes of mss. or fragments on which the original deliverances of the Prophet were recorded. This is unlikely. In one case (that of Surah xix) the suggestion has been made that the five letters there appearing — “Kaf, ha, ya, ‘ain, sad” — have to do with the Christian I.R.N.I. “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews” since His birth is the main topic of this Surah.

But it would seem that we are on firmer ground if we suppose that the Arabic characters serve to remind the reader that the sacred book is “an Arabic Qur’an” (Surah xlii.5 and elsewhere). Here, so to speak, are the mystic symbols of language, the raw material out of which Divine literature is composed. Though recognisably Arabic on earth, they stand for that heavenly tongue of which the pre-existent Qur’an is indited.  For letters are potentially words and meanings: in their order and their sequence they convey sense and serve apprehension. Thus God vouchsafes through His Prophet and in His Book the meanings of His Divine Will. The letters thus become “signs” of the revelation from above, portents, sureties, guarantees of significance. Just as the eye seeing hieroglyphics at once assumes that sense is intended and meaning is accessible, so the reader of the Qur’an sees the tokens of a Divine intention to speak and to do so in literal form.

THE QURAN ON ITSELF

Yes, There Are Christian Terrorists

The anti-Muslim militias in the Central African Republic may not get the same attention as ISIS, but let’s not forget that people are still doing awful things in the name of Christianity.

“There are still nine Christians here. We will capture them. We will kill them. When we finish here, we will go to the next village and kill the Christians there, too.”

If an ISIS leader made a statement like this publicly, Fox News would probably cut into their programming bring you a special report about the Muslims’ “religious war” against Christians. Mainstream media outlets would most likely cover it as well.

But that statement was indeed uttered in 2014. Except there was one simple word difference: “Christian” was replaced with “Muslim.” That is exactly what a Christian terrorist said about his militia’s plan to exterminate the remaining nine Muslims in a village in Central Africa Republic (CAR). But, of course, stuff like that doesn’t really make news here in our country.

Or did you hear about the Christian militant who publicly beheaded a Muslim man in the streets of the CAR capital last year?  That was actually covered by the U.S. media—in a short Associated Press paragraph buried in papers like the New York Times. Anyone doubt that if a Muslim terrorist beheaded a Christian man in the public square it would’ve made the U.S. news?

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE DAILY BEAST