Wednesday 20 June 2012

Learnings from the US Mosque Survey 2011

The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch (June 2012) cites a report called the US Mosque Survey, the second instalment of which was released today:

"A coalition of major American Muslim and academic organizations sponsored the comprehensive study of mosques and the attitudes of mosque leaders in the United States from which the latest report, titled "The American Mosque 2011: Activities, Administration and Vitality of the American Mosque," was compiled.

Major findings of the report released today include:

* Full-time Islamic schools have experienced significant growth in the past decade.

* Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of mosques indicated that they have hosted an open house for their neighbors of other faiths in the past 12 months.

* The majority of mosques (70 percent) use only English for the main message of the khutbah (sermon).


* The vast majority (88 percent) of American mosque leaders say domestic abuse should be addressed.


* In terms of social services, mosques compare very well with other religious congregations. For example, surveys show that only 26 percent of congregations of other faith traditions are involved in providing some type of health programing as compared to 45 percent of mosques. Only 29 percent of other religious congregations are involved in community organizing activities, while 47 percent of mosques are involved in these types of activities.


* A majority of mosque leaders (71 percent) agreed that their mosque is working for social justice. African American mosques are the most likely (87 percent) to be active in social justice.


* The role of the religious leader (Imam) is becoming more professionalized.

* The percentage of mosques unaffiliated with any national organization has increased significantly over the past few decades."


You can read the full article here.

You can access the original report here (PDF).

Islam and Feminism

ABC's Religion and Ethics has an interesting article by Rachel Woodlock on Orientalism and perspectives on Muslim women:

"It is precisely because Western Orientalists were refused access to the inner sanctum of the harem that they made up the most fanciful tales, and that the feminine in Islam is still the most poorly understood and misrepresented of all femininities.

This is not to say that feminism has no place in the Muslim world - far from it. From the earliest days of Islam, women and their supporters have been battling misogyny and oppression, from both within and without.

Nor is modern feminism necessarily a Western "import" into the Muslim world. The brilliantly inspiring Nana Asma'u (d.1864), for example, initiated a massive campaign of education and female leadership in northern Nigeria. And while second-wave Western feminism only really captured the attention of secular elites in the Muslim world, there also exists a strong Muslim feminist movement that reclaims the right to draw inspiration from Islamic textual and historical sources, to challenge patriarchal strictures on their lives.

The tale of Hagar is told through Islamic traditions and her search for life-saving water is re-enacted and celebrated by every Muslim who completes their life-time's obligation of performing the hajj. It is perhaps the only example of a woman-initiated ritual from any of the world's great religions that is obligatory for both men and women

Hagar is not the only female role-model to which all Muslims, men and women, look for inspiration. There is Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, who makes liars out of those who claim Muslim women cannot be leaders (Qur'an 27:23-44).

The Yemenis claim Bilqis as their own, along with the much-beloved Queen Arwa (d.1138). The latter, known as a wise and just ruler, is as fondly recalled today as ever before, something I discovered for myself when I visited Yemen in 2002.

There is Jochabed, the mother of Moses, who was given divine inspiration and strength from God (28:7-13).

There is Asiya, long-suffering wife of Pharaoh, who adopted and protected Moses. She was tortured and finally martyred by Pharaoh, but given a paradisiacal reward by God (66:11). Islamic tradition holds her as one of the most holy women in human history.

Then there is the pre-eminent Mary, mother of Jesus, after whom a whole chapter (19) of the Qur'an is named. She was brought up in the holy of holies, under the guardianship of Zechariah, and miraculously supplied with provisions (3:35-37).

Then we have Rabi'a al-Adawiyya (d.801), one of the greatest Sufi teachers of all time, known for developing a theology of selfless love for God; Imam Shafi'i's teacher Nafisa (d.824), who was so highly respected and honoured, that the eponymous founder of Islam's second-largest school of law asked her to perform his funeral prayer; and the various women that inspired one of the greatest Islamic thinkers to have lived - Ibn 'Arabi (d.1240)."

You can read the full article here.

Monday 18 June 2012

Muslim Players and U.S. Basketball

The Kansa City Star (15 July 2012) carries an article by Omar Sacirbey and John Ngirachu on the Muslim basketball players in the USA, including a number of players in the NBA;

"At least eight Muslims compete in the NBA: four Turks, two African-Americans, one Iranian and one Tanzanian. One of them is center Nazr Mohammed of the Oklahoma City Thunder, now battling the Miami Heat for the championship.

The special relationship between Muslims and basketball goes beyond any particular player or team and embraces the sport itself. It is not unlike the one described in “Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story,” a 2010 documentary film by Ira Berkow, Pulitzer winning sportswriter.

“Every Muslim community I go to, there’s this obsession for basketball. Almost every mosque you go to, there’s a basketball court outside,” said Musab Abdali, a 19-year-old Houston man helping to organize youth programs.

Muslims have competed professionally in football, boxing and soccer, but the number of basketball stars putting their faith in a positive spotlight is unrivaled. These include all-time NBA leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and 12-time NBA All-Star Hakeem Olajuwon, who retired in 2002 after a long career spent mainly with the Houston Rockets.

You can read the full article here.


Thunder center Nazr Mohammed (right) met Lakers guard Kobe Bryant in the NBA playoffs. Mohammed inspires Muslims across the U.S (image source)

Fathers Day: A Love Letter to Muslim Fathers

Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi write for the Huffington Post (17th June 2012)on Fathers Day about Muslim fathers, usually a much maligned group:

"All of my life, Muslim men -- from my father to my uncles, from my cousins to my friends -- are the ones who have nurtured, supported and protected me. They've cheered every success, inspired me to push higher with my personal and professional ambitions, and believed in me even when -- especially when -- I did not believe in myself.

I'm married to an utterly irresistible Muslim man who makes me laugh, respects and cherishes me as an equal partner. I'm the mother of a Muslim son whom we are raising with the Islamic values that will make him a strong advocate of women's rights, just like his father and the other Muslim men in my life.

So this Father's Day, I'm writing a love letter to Muslim fathers.

I begin this love letter with my own Pakistani-American father, who raised three strong, independent daughters, encouraged us to pursue our professional goals, and who made space in his heart for the Albanian-American man I told him I wanted to marry. Though no other woman (or man) in my huge, extended family had ever married someone who was not Pakistani, my father listened to my perspectives and made room for my desires even when they were different from what he had imagined for me."

You can read the full article here.

Monday 11 June 2012

What the Muslims Did for the Jews.

Threre is an interesting essay in the Jewish Chronicle entitled "So, what did the Muslims do for the Jews?" (24th May 2012). It argues that the Jews flourished within Muslim communities and may have died out without them:

"Islam saved Jewry. This is an unpopular, discomforting claim in the modern world. But it is a historical truth. The argument for it is double. First, in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And second, the coming of Islam saved them, providing a new context in which they not only survived, but flourished, laying foundations for subsequent Jewish cultural prosperity - also in Christendom - through the medieval period into the modern world.

Within a century of the death of Mohammad, in 632, Muslim armies had conquered almost the whole of the world where Jews lived, from Spain eastward across North Africa and the Middle East as far as the eastern frontier of Iran and beyond. Almost all the Jews in the world were now ruled by Islam. This new situation transformed Jewish existence. Their fortunes changed in legal, demographic, social, religious, political, geographical, economic, linguistic and cultural terms - all for the better.

The political unity brought by the new Islamic world-empire did not last, but it created a vast Islamic world civilisation, similar to the older Christian civilisation that it replaced. Within this huge area, Jews lived and enjoyed broadly similar status and rights everywhere. They could move around, maintain contacts, and develop their identity as Jews. A great new expansion of trade from the ninth century onwards brought the Spanish Jews - like the Muslims - into touch with the Jews and the Muslims even of India."

You can read the full article here.