American Muslims Mix Modern, Traditional Routes to Marriage

From the Sacramento Bee - October 31, 2010


Sarah Moussa, 23, and Mahmoud Abdelmaged, 25, are soon to be married in a traditional Muslim ceremony.
By Stephen Magagnini
smagagnini@sacbee.com

A mosque in northeast Sacramento recently hosted a speed-dating event for 48 singles looking for love American Muslim style.

Every four minutes, the men played musical chairs, moving one seat to their left to chat up the next woman across the table. Each took notes on whether they'd like to continue the conversation.

Call it "speed mating" – Muslims don't date without chaperones and aren't allowed to have premarital sex. Dancing, kissing and drinking also are off limits.

Similar "matrimony events" are unfolding at Islamic centers across the country to help Muslims – many of them career-driven professionals – find spouses before the pool of good catches dries up.

A growing number of Muslim religious leaders and parents believe young Muslims should marry as soon as they are adult – and before they give in to sexual temptation.

Some young adults and their parents want to wait until they've earned their professional degrees and launched their careers.

Imam Mohamed Abdul-Azeez of Sacramento suggests that young Muslims start trying to meet potential spouses in college through Muslim student associations that do charity work.
"Once you put the idea in your mind, it will take a couple of years to find the right person," said Azeez of the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims, which hosted the SALAM Muslim Singles Matrimony Event earlier this month.

Couples who marry early form a tighter bond by sharing hardships and challenges as they build a life together, said Azeez, who married at 24. "Every single bit of bitterness we went through solidified our relationship."

But more and more Muslim kids "are rebelling against conventional ways and all of a sudden, I'm 50 and forgot to get married," Azeez said. "It's a bigger problem with girls than it is with guys."

Hard to meet men

Women, many of of them professionals, outnumbered men 25 to 23 at the SALAM speed-dating event. They ranged in age from 18 to 50. Some wore hijabs to cover their heads, others came casually dressed in slacks and without head coverings. The men tended to be older – and divorced.

Muslim men are allowed to marry non-Muslims; women can't marry outside the faith. Non-Muslim men who want to marry a Muslim woman can convert – a process that takes months.

Women have few chances outside of college to meet men on their own and often depend on friends and relatives to introduce them to potential suitors.

"A lot of Muslim women are living on our own, extremely competent professionals with limited opportunities," said Tanya Ali, a 34-year-old management consultant who drove to the SALAM event from the Bay Area.
Matrimony events are much better than online dating, she said. "At least here you get to say hello to somebody and you know exactly how they look, so you can get that factor out of the way."

She met a couple of men who showed interest, both engineers. "Let's see what happens," she said. "The next step is to meet for coffee."

Sacramento civil engineer Younes Idrissi, 37, called the professional women he met "refreshing" because they too are "hybrid Muslims" who have embraced American culture.

"I was married at 34 for two years to a woman I met in Morocco arranged by my sister," he said. They divorced because "it was too hard for her to blend in here and accept my American friends who drink," he said. "I don't drink, but I don't have an issue with that. She just wanted to stay home and wasn't engaged in my lifestyle."

Most American Muslims enter arranged marriages initiated by relatives or friends and agreed upon by their parents, Azeez said. Few arranged marriages end in divorce.

Children have veto power if the match doesn't feel right.

Ali said her "aunties" and friends have tried to set her up with a dozen potential suitors over the years, but there was no chemistry.

Medical consultant Ahmed Abedin, 39, knows the feeling.

Like other Muslim professionals in their 30s, he's feeling the pressure from his parents – "every single day they say, 'Give us grandkids before it's too late.' "

He's gone to matrimony events in Irvine and Chicago and has dated non-Muslims, "but ultimately, what I'm looking for is a Muslim age 25 and up," preferably a Palestinian American who shares his culture and tastes in food.

Supporting traditional marriage

Azeez welcomed the singles to the event, calling traditional marriage one of the wonders of the world and the bedrock of Muslim culture.

"You might not find your mate today, but showing Allah you are willing to embark on this path, he will reward you," Azeez said.

Allah "reminds you your happiness might not necessarily be with a person who fulfills your preconceived ideas of the perfect mate," Azeez said, encouraging them to consider mates of different ethnic backgrounds.

The couples shared stories about their hobbies, careers and tastes - one Bosnian from San Francisco recommended her favorite, potato pizza.

Loqman Khemici, one of the organizers, said his oldest daughter married her karate instructor at 24. "He was a Brazilian American who became a Muslim three years ago."

If his 19-year-old daughter wants to marry early, "I'll even support them financially," Khemici said. "When you reach puberty, you start having those sexual feelings, and if you don't want your kids to break, we make it easy for them to marry."

Sarah Moussa, a 23-year-old UC Davis grad who works as a field representative for Sacramento Assemblyman Dave Jones, plans to marry Mahmoud Abdelmaged, a 25-year-old network engineer.

The couple met six years ago in Egypt. When she visited her ancestral home, he'd look out for her and tell her if she was staying out too late.

"Last year, we had a falling out over a relationship he'd had, and then he told me, 'I don't want to lose you – if it means flying across the globe to make you mine I'm going to do that,' " Moussa said.

Before families sign off on a match, "there's a background check like you're going through the FBI," Moussa said. "We value not just what the person can bring but what the family contributes – it's like two families marrying each other."

Many of the Sacramento region's 70,000 Muslims still hold to the belief that a man should marry only when he can support a family.

"If my daughter comes to me and says, 'I want to marry this person,' I will ask, 'Who is this person – is he of good character and what does he do for a living?'" said Rashid Ahmad, co-founder of the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. "Many families would not consider marrying their daughter to someone who has not finished their degree or who is unemployed."

His daughters married at 25 and 28 after they had finished medical school and law school, and their spouses were professionals.

If you wait to get married, you're not as likely to fall for a crush and can make a more mature, responsible choice, Ahmad said. "If a daughter gets married too soon, they have children, don't finish their education and their whole life changes."

Finding a Religious Common Ground

Sectarian Hostility Lies Beneath Hajj Spirit, Pilgrims Say

Muslim pilgrims pray in a street near Mecca as part of the hajj celebrations. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

Despite display of unity, visits to holy sites in Medina can be fraught, with some Shia Muslims from UK reporting victimisation

Full Article from The Guardian - November 16, 2010

Daisy Khan, an Eloquent Face of Islam

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Daisy Khan.

Full Article from the New York Times - November 12, 2010

Op-Ed by Nicholas D. Kristof: Here’s a Woman Fighting Terrorism. With Microloans.

Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times

Parveen Baji, left, in front of the restaurant she started with a loan from the microfinance organization started by Roshaneh Zafar, right. Jobs and economic development can be a more effective way to fight extremism than firepower.

Full Article from the New York Times - November 13, 2010

Women and Islam

From the Los Angeles Times

Eastern Islam and the 'clash of civilizations'

Globalization is giving a harder edge to the softer strain of Islam in East Asia. Meanwhile, China's rising economic activity in the region is importing a glitzy capitalism and fueling consumerism.

October 24, 2010|By Robert D. Kaplan

Islam has been an American obsession for at least a decade. The 9/11 attacks and the intractable violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan — however much we have been the cause of it — have left us bewildered and terrified by this seemingly austere and martial faith.

Islam was spread quickly by the sword from Arabia westward across North Africa, the history books tell us, and is supposedly prone to the extremities of thought to which deserts give rise. But there is a whole other side to Islamic history that has been obscured, even as it illuminates a key strategic geography of the 21st century. While we in the United States have concentrated on the western half of the Islamic world in the Middle Eastern deserts, there is an eastern half in the green forests and jungles of the tropics where global energy routes and merchant sea traffic now intersect.

Islam is only partly a desert religion; it is just as much a seafaring faith, the harbinger not of narrow soldierly thought but of a cosmopolitanism spread by sophisticated merchants over the centuries in the Far Eastern seas. The legendary Sinbad the Sailor was an Arab from Oman based in Basra, in what is now Iraq. His Homeric voyages of the 8th through the 10th centuries encompassed East Africa, the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, testimony to the maritime reach of Islam across the longitudes as far as East Asia.

Whereas 20% of Muslims live in the Middle East, 60% are in Asia, according to the Pew Research Center. The Arab world plus Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan — the geographical summation of our own wars and trepidations — comprises 632 million Muslims. But in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and the southern Philippines, there are an additional 565 million Muslims. And as the burgeoning middle-class fleshpots of East Asia require increasing amounts of oil and natural gas from the Middle East, China has been aggressively courting the eastern Islamic world, which sits astride the main sea lanes of communication to the Middle East.

Throughout the seaboards of South and Southeast Asia, China provides military and economic aid and is building harbor and container facilities, and Chinese warships pay port visits. The Chinese government considers the South China Sea a "core interest" (much to the consternation of the United States and its allies) partly because it is the gateway to this tropical Muslim cosmopolis that the Chinese know well from the medieval trading networks of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties.

When Islam, as the late anthropologist Clifford Geertz explains, swept through Arabia and North Africa, it moved into "an essentially virgin area, so far as high culture was concerned," so that it constructed from scratch an entire civilization. But as wave upon wave of Arab and Persian merchants plied the eastern seas between the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia in the Middle Ages — before the voyage of Vasco da Gama — bearing spices, cotton fabrics, precious stones and minerals, Islam became merely one layer of a richly intricate Hindu and Javanese cultural stew.

This is poignantly expressed by the Sufi Muslim saints or auliyas (protectors) who are believed to have helped found the Bangladeshi port of Chittagong, and who are often confused with Hindu deities; and by the throngs of Muslim schoolchildren, the girls' hair covered with jilbabs, who flock to the Buddhist temple of Borobudur in central Java.

Although democracy barely exists in the Arab world, it is commonplace in the Islamic societies of South and Southeast Asia. In the Arab world, Islam's determination to construct a complete, morally perfect civilization has left too little room for secular political legitimacy, with all its messy compromises, to take root. The result is that outside of the traditional monarchies and sheikhdoms, there needs to be frequent recourse to extremist ideology, or, for example, to the sterile Brezhnevite dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.

But Islam in the eastern tropics is liberated from all that: It shares the moral space with other traditions, so that secular politics flourish. Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country in the world, yet it is not an Islamic state.

But this benign version of Islam is now being challenged by modern technology, which allows for the influx of Saudi money and religious ideology. There is also the dynamic influence of Middle East-based global television networks such as Al Jazeera, which has introduced tropical Islam to both Arab and European center-left political sensibilities, making Indonesians, Bangladeshis and others, for example, intimately familiar with the struggle in the Palestinian territories thousands of miles away.

Then there is the effect of commercial air travel, which allows 200,000 Indonesians each year to make the hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Yemeni Airlines flies to Indonesia four times a week, strengthening the historic Indian Ocean links between the Hadhramaut region in Yemen and Java in Indonesia. Previous generations of tradesmen from the Hadhramaut and from the Hejaz in Saudi Arabia brought liberal and heterodox Sufi influences to the South Seas. But today, Wahabi money translates Hitler's "Mein Kampf" into Bahasa Indonesia, the official language of Indonesia.

This truly is globalization, in which various strains of thought are homogenized by mass media, in turn influenced by determined interest groups, into a monochrome worldview.

Yet this new, postmodern Islam with a hard Middle Eastern edge is ramming up against another import: the glitzy materialism that in Malaysia and Indonesia is associated with nominally communist China. This is the real "clash of civilizations" going on. Americans thought they owned the face of global capitalism after the collapse of the Berlin Wall; it turns out that in Islamic East Asia, the Chinese do. Ethnic Chinese own many of the spanking new malls packed with Louis Vuitton, Versace and other designer stores, the places to observe women in the most fashionable silk jilbabs and the most revealing, sophisticated dress. In Muslim Southeast Asia, modesty often stops at the neck.

While Americans understandably fret over the rise of an authoritarian China, it is China's dynamic capitalist model that is largely responsible for the consumerism in the Muslim Far East, which is hard to disaggregate from the free flow of ideas in the region.

Who will win the battle for the hearts and minds of Muslim East Asia — the extremist Saudis or the materialistic Chinese? We should be rooting for the Chinese.

Robert D. Kaplan is the author, most recently, of "Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power." He is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a correspondent for the Atlantic.

Ending the Culture of Hate - By Sharon Stapel

Posted on Advocate.com October 22, 2010 02:17:08 PM

Ending the Culture of Hate

Teen suicide, hate violence in the street. New York City Anti-Violence Project's executive director Sharon Stapel wonders: Can we end the culture of hate?

By Sharon Stapel

Suicides. Gay bashings. Targeting and torturing people just because they are gay. It has been a difficult time for any of us who love our kids, our friends, our families, and our neighbors — to watch people we love beaten and killed because of who they are. Yet this is every day for some people — lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who have lived with fear and violence each time they leave the house, go to work, walk down the street, or kiss their partner goodbye. 

Violence against LGBT people has not suddenly increased — it has been increasing all along. In 2008 we had the most violent year for LGBT people since Matthew Shepard was murdered 10 years earlier. October 2009 was the most violent month of the year and the same month that President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. During the latter half of 2009 and early 2010, a gay or transgender person was killed every month in Puerto Rico. What has increased alarmingly is the severity of the violence — anti-LGBT violence becomes more brutal each year. 

Why is this happening? At the Anti-Violence Project we know that the more visible we are, the more vulnerable we are to those who would act on their anti-LGBT prejudice. Over the past 10 years we have seen a historic increase in visibility around LGBT civil rights — we are regularly included in national, state and local debates about politics and policy. For every person who speaks to the necessity to achieve equality and respect for LGBT people, there is another who spews anti-LGBT rhetoric. With bus tours preaching against gay folks or signs that promote nooses as the "solution" to same-sex marriage, these are dangerous times. Tens of millions of dollars are spent by so-called community leaders and antigay groups each year to denigrate and denounce LGBT people, creating a culture of hate that results in attacks and suicides. 

Antigay rhetoric promotes the stigma and isolation that drives LGBT youths to take their own lives and encourages violent gay bashings, and we've seen the very real harm this does. Hate speech creates a hostile environment that demeans LGBT people and encourages physical attacks against our communities. Anti-LGBT hate speech is dangerous, it is ignorant, and it is wrong.

The rhetoric is all that more dangerous because it is supported by national anti-LGBT policy. Every national law in this country, save one, either excludes LGBT people or discriminates against us. The only law that protects us, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, is the one meant to prosecute those who would harm us because of this culture of hate. And in what has become a painful irony, the government's failure to repeal the laws that actively discriminate against us — "don't ask, don't tell," the Defense of Marriage Act — and refusal to pass those that would acknowledge our equality, such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or a fully inclusive Civil Rights Act, contributes to this culture of hate.

So what is the solution? We have to change the culture of hate. We have to demand immediate equality because we have been put on notice: It is, literally, deadly to wait. Our laws must not only protect LGBT people but also proclaim our equality to everyone and denounce those who would target us for discrimination and violence. We have to stop the anti-LGBT rhetoric, from the jokes to the nooses. The government must do that through policy, but so can we by word and deed. 

This is everyone's issue. If you were affected by the stories of gay kids killing themselves, if you were horrified to see gay people targeted and tortured, if you think that people should be able to walk down the street without being jumped and beaten simply for being who they are, then this is your issue. And now, more than ever, we need our straight allies to say, "I will not tolerate this anti-LGBT rhetoric. I will not allow another gay joke to go unchallenged. I know how dangerous it is and I will stop it." The people who are dying, who are harmed, are our children, our friends and neighbors. Stand up. Stand up against homophobia. Stand up against violence. Stand up for those who can't and with those who can.

- Sharon Stapel is the executive director of the NYC Anti-Violence Project and coordinates the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects.

Adam Lambert Too Gay for Malaysia?

From the Advocate - October 11, 2010

By Advocate.com Editors

A fundamentalist Muslim political party in Malaysia is demanding the cancellation of an Adam Lambert concert near the capitol city of Kuala Lumpur because the group says his show will promote gay culture.

According to Reuters, the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party — Malaysia's second-largest political party — plans to protest Lambert's Thursday concert at the Putra Indoor Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

A youth organizer for the party is quotes as saying Lambert's shows "are outrageous, with lewd dancing and a gay performance that includes kissing male dancers," which is "not good for people in our country."

The party has previously protested concerts by Rihanna and Mariah Carey, and a representative says the party plans to send "many of its members and supporters" to proselytize at the concert.

A rep for Malaysia's arts, culture, and heritage department said Lambert agreed to a set of rules, including not removing any clothing and maintaining a distance of about 25 feet between his stage and the audience.

Gay Muslim Film Festival Opens in Indonesia

Only Gay Muslim Film Fest Set for Weekend

By Advocate.com Editors

The largest gay film festival in Asia and the only one in the Muslim world will take place this weekend in Indonesia, reports news websiteMSN. The Q! Film Festival will showcase 150 films from more than 20 countries that focus on such issues as gay rights and HIV/AIDS.

While organizers don't anticipate public opposition, they prefer to keep the event fairly low-key due to the "stigma against gays" among conservative sections of the mainly Muslim population, according to festival director John Badalu.

Badalu also says that the festival is being discussed on social networking sites such as Twitter which indicates it has already achieved one of its goals, "let people know that the queer community exists in Indonesia"

The festival will launch today and hopes to attract 15,000 viewers to screenings and other events.

Gay Film Festival Opens in Muslim-majority Indonesia

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 9/24/2010

A gay film festival hailed as the biggest in Asia and the only one in the Muslim world kicks off in Indonesia on Friday, hoping to draw 15,000 viewers to screenings and fringe events.

In its ninth annual edition, the Q! Film Festival (www.q-munity.org/) will showcase 150 films from more than 20 countries including France, Japan and the Philippines, highlighting such issues as gay rights and HIV/AIDS.

Festival director John Badalu said organisers do not expect public opposition but prefer to keep the event low-key due to the "stigma against gays" among conservative sections of the mainly Muslim population.

"We don't want to publicise the event in the mainstream local media as they're still very conservative," Badalu said.

Social networking sites such as Twitter (twitter.com/Qfilmfestival) are abuzz with chat about the event, however, signalling it has already achieved one of its chief aims -- to "let people know that the queer community exists in Indonesia", he added.

Indonesian Muslims are often categorised as "moderate" but such generalisations, favoured by Western diplomats, upset religious and other minorities who have to endure the daily opprobrium of Islamic conservatives.

In March, a regional gay and lesbian conference was forced to cancel when scores of Islamic radicals stormed the venue and reportedly went from room to room hunting participants.

A month later, Islamic vigilantes burst into a civil rights awareness session for transsexuals held by the National Commission for Human Rights and sent the participants fleeing in panic.

Homosexuality is technically legal in the country of 240 million people but it remains a taboo, especially among the 80 percent of the population who are Muslims.

Lawmakers in deeply Islamic Aceh province last year voted to make homosexuality punishable by up to 100 lashes under local religious by-laws which the provincial government has refused to approve.

Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, chief of an Islamic party, in June implied a link between pornography and HIV-AIDS, and questioned whether state funds used to fight the disease could not be better spent.

"The country has dispersed 180 billion rupiah (20 million dollars) to curb HIV-AIDS. The budget should actually be reduced so the money can be allocated for other things that are beneficial for the country," he told reporters.

Despite these attitudes, communications ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto said the central government had given its assurances that the Q! festival could go ahead.

"We have no objections. As long as the content is not too sexually explicit, not too vulgar, we're OK, we can tolerate it," he said.

"This festival has been taking place for many years already. I'm sure the organisers know the do's and the don'ts and consider the ethical and normative nuances in Indonesia," he added.

Organisers are not taking any chances and have taken steps to ensure the festival takes place without incident.

Screenings, which are free, will be held in private clubs and foreign cultural centres in six cities including Jakarta and Yogyakarta.

International backing also provides a protective umbrella and cosmopolitan legitimacy that radical fringe elements would be reluctant to challenge, Badalu said.

"Funding for the festival comes from foreign groups. We hold screenings at foreign centres. The radicals won't dare to attack us. If they do, it's like attacking several countries at one go," he said.

He said Indonesia's "double standards" on issues of sexuality, morality and privacy left space for events like Q! and what organisers jokingly refer to as the "Q-munity".

"Indonesians are generally tolerant towards gays because you see, people have double standards. Some claim to be religious but surf porn websites at home, some say no to piracy but still use pirated goods," Badalu said.

"Anyway, whatever happens, we'll still be around. We can't disappear just like that."

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Young Muslims Seek Understanding in Controversial "Mosque"

30 Mosques in 30 Days

Ramadan road trip: Moving melting pot finds peace, love and animosity

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Two young Muslims are traveling to 30 mosques in 30 states for Ramadan
• CNN joined Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq for three days
• Two mosques welcome CNN; a third kicks group off property
• Mississippi police officer pulls over the 2 Muslims, asks opinion of "ground zero mosque"

(CNN) -- As the blue Chevy Cobalt crept toward the edge of the property in Chula, Georgia, a palpable nervousness wafted through the cramped car.

Three men, straight out of central casting from "Deliverance," craned their necks toward our vehicle. A 30-by-50-foot Confederate flag waved 120 feet in the air. Nothing says "Welcome to the South" quite like the old battle flag.

We were quite the sight for this rural stop along Interstate 75: two olive-skinned Americans on a mission; an African-American photographer; and me, a white boy from the Bible Belt.

Even I, a lifelong Southerner, wondered about the wisdom of stopping here. Should we pull up to the Confederate souvenir shop or keep on going?

Full Article from CNN - August 30, 2010

National Religious Leaders Respond to Proposition 8 Ruling

From the Washington Post - August 5, 2010

Below is a roundup of religious responses; this list will be updated as more congregations and religious organizations weigh in.

Catholic Church Statement by USCCB President Cardinal George:

"Marriage between a man and a woman is the bedrock of any society. The misuse of law to change the nature of marriage undermines the common good," Cardinal George said. "It is tragic that a federal judge would overturn the clear and expressed will of the people in their support for the institution of marriage. No court of civil law has the authority to reach into areas of human experience that nature itself has defined."

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regrets today's decision. California voters have twice been given the opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage in their state and both times have determined that marriage should be recognized as only between a man and a woman. We agree. Marriage between a man and a woman is the bedrock of society."

Family Research Council:

"Marriage is recognized as a public institution, rather than a purely private one, because of its role in bringing together men and women for the reproduction of the human race and keeping them together to raise the children produced by their union. The fact that homosexuals prefer not to enter into marriages as historically defined does not give them a right to change the definition of what a 'marriage' is."

Jewish Orthodox Union:

"Traditional Jewish values recognize marriage as being only between a man and woman. In addition to our religious values - which we do not seek to impose on anyone - we fear legal recognition of same-sex "marriage" poses a grave threat to the fundamental civil right of religious freedom."

Episcopal Bishop Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles:

"Justice is advancing thanks to today's ruling affirming Californians' constitutional right to marriage in faithful, same-gender relationships."

Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism:

"Proposition 8, adopted by ballot initiative in 2008, effectively denies gay and lesbian individuals the same rights afforded heterosexual couples under the law. Judge Walker's decision reaffirms the strong commitment to equality upon which our nation is built."

Rev. Welton Gaddy, Baptist minister and President of Interfaith Alliance:

"We are pleased to see that Judge Vaughn Walker was sensitive to the concerns of people of faith who oppose same-gender marriage on religious grounds but that he recognized, as do we, that their religious freedom will not be impacted by the legalization of same-gender marriage. America's diverse religious landscape leaves room for a variety of theological perspectives on same-gender marriage; indeed, some faiths enthusiastically support it and others vehemently oppose it. Under this ruling, as with any constitutionally based marriage equality law, no religion would ever be required to condone same-gender marriage, and no member of the clergy would ever be required to perform a wedding ceremony not in accordance with his or her religious beliefs."

Domestic abuse campaign targets mosques in Scotland

Glasgow Central Mosque is taking part in the campaign

Islam can't be used to justify domestic violence against a partner.

That's the message being given to Scotland's Muslim communities with the help of a new campaign.

It's come after concerns were raised by Glasgow-based Muslim scholar Amer Jamil and Strathclyde Police that religion is being used by some men to justify their behaviour.

Full Article from BBC News - July 21, 2010

Saudi Arabia: Cleric's support for men and women mingling in public sparks furor

• 

Two women and a man looked through books at the Riyadh International Book Fair in March.
In Saudi Arabia, genders are currently required by law to remain separate as much as possible.

Fahad Shadeed/Reuters

From the Christian Science Monitor - April 13, 2010

Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, a Saudi cleric in the holy city of Mecca, recently declared that nothing in Islam bars men and women mingling in public places like schools and offices. For the first time in decades, religious scholars are debating the previously untouchable hallmark of gender segregation.

Full Article.

Saudi Cleric: OK to Uncover Face in Anti-Burqa Countries

From the Associated Press - July 24, 2010

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- A popular Saudi cleric said Saturday it is permissible for Muslim women to reveal their faces in countries where the Islamic veil is banned to avoid harassment, while deploring the effort to outlaw the garment in France.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, is one of the few Muslim countries where women are forced by custom to cover their hair with head scarves and their bodies with cloaks called abayas in most parts of the country. It is also common to see Saudi women wearing full-face veils.

So Sheik Aedh al-Garni's religious advice, delivered in response to a question from a Saudi woman in France, generated some opposition from those less compromising. One cleric said it was better for Muslim women to avoid traveling to such countries unless absolutely necessary.

''We should not confront people in their countries or elsewhere,'' al-Garni was quoted as saying in the Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat. ''In case a ban is enforced against a Muslim woman there -- and as a consequence there is a reaction or negative implications or harassment or harm -- it is better for the Muslim woman to reveal her face.''

France, Belgium and Spain are debating legislation that would ban the veil. Other nations in Europe too have struggled to balance national identities with growing Muslim populations with cultural practices that clash with their own.

Some secularists as well as those who argue the veil is oppressive have applauded the movement for a ban. Others say it is a ploy to win over right-wing voters.

In France, the lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a ban on wearing burqa-style Islamic veils, with proponents of the law saying such attire is incompatible with the French ideal of women's equality or its secular tradition.

In September, the bill goes to the Senate, where it also is likely to pass, though it could be thrown out by France's constitutional watchdog.

''It is illogical and unreasonable for the French government to do this,'' al-Garni said, according to Al-Hayat. ''Objective non-Muslims have also criticized it because the secular state respects freedom of religion. It should respect religious rituals and rites, including those of Muslims.''

Not all Islamic clerics agree that the face veil is an obligation, with some calling it a tradition. But most clerics agree a head scarf is a religious requirement.

Beyond Saudi Arabia, the face veil is quietly spreading in other Arab countries. Some governments, like Egypt and Syria, have taken measures to limit its spread, such as barring it in universities and academic institutions.

Al-Garni's religious guidance, or fatwa, is an advisory opinion and not a law. It is significant because it comes from a Saudi cleric whose writings are widely read. But other clerics in the kingdom did not see eye-to-eye with al-Garni.

Mohammed al-Nujemi, a Saudi professor at the Institute of Judicial and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, said it is best to avoid countries were the ban is enforced.

''The Saudi woman should not go on tourism to non-Muslim countries,'' he told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television network. ''Going to a non-Muslim country without a necessity is not permissible according to the sharia,'' he said, referring to Islamic law.

Burqa Bans From an American Muslim's Perspective

d

by Sumbul Ali-Karamali

Author of "The Muslim Next Door: the Qur'an, the Media, and that Veil Thing"

Posted: July 20, 2010 03:58 PM

Yesterday, Syria banned women wearing a full face veil from university campuses, both public and private. France, of course, voted last week to ban the full face veil (the niqab) from all public areas. The reason cited by both countries is that the face veil as a threat to their secular identity.

I am a practicing Muslim, and I dislike the niqab. But my reasons for disliking it are not xenophobic, as France's are, or fearful of overthrow by the conservative element, as Syria's are. I do not like the niqab because it compromises the public safety. It perpetuates the patriarchal, cultural idea that women must bear the responsibility for men's lustful urges. It hides women and leaves men unhampered. But the Qur'an states clearly that both men and women -- not just women -- should dress and behave modestly.

Full Article from the Huffington Post

Polygamy makes for unhappy families: Malaysian study

A Malaysian husband and his four wives and child



From AFP - July 23, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR — Men in polygamous relationships find it difficult to meet the needs of all their wives and children, and the result is unhappy and cash-strapped families, according to a landmark Malaysian study.

Polygamy is legal for Muslims, who make up more than 60 percent of Malaysia's population, allowing Muslim men to take up to four wives.

Full Article.

Video: Amnesty International's discrimination expert says ban would violate freedom of choice

France votes to ban full-face veils | Amnesty International

France votes to ban full-face veils | Amnesty International:

'As a general rule, the rights to freedom of religion and expression entail that all people should be free to choose what - and what not - to wear. These rights cannot be restricted simply because some - even a majority – find a form of dress objectionable or offensive.'

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BBC News - Specialist unit reports more male forced marriages

BBC News - Specialist unit reports more male forced marriages - June 30, 2010

Some men are forced to marry to protect the family reputation

Article: Afghanistan's 'Oprah' helps heal country's wounds – Afghanistan Crossroads - CNN.com Blogs

Afghanistan's 'Oprah' helps heal country's wounds – Afghanistan Crossroads - CNN.com Blogs

Mozhdah performed at the White House earlier this year and met President and Mrs. Obama.

Video: Afghanistan's 'Oprah' helps heal country's wounds – Afghanistan Crossroads - CNN.com Blogs

The Case for 'Faith', not 'Belief' - by Karen Armstrong

"To quarrel about religion is counter-productive and an impediment to enlightenment. When we are talking about God, nobody has the last word because what we call God lies beyond the reach of speech. It also violates the Western rationalist tradition: a Socratic dialogue was a spiritual exercise and, Socrates insisted, would not work unless it was conducted throughout with gentleness and courtesy. Nobody 'won' the argument: a Socratic dialogue always ended with participants realizing that they knew nothing at all, an insight that was indispensable to the philosophic quest."

On Faith Panelists Blog: The Case for 'Faith', not 'Belief' - Karen Armstrong: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Helping U.S. reach out to young Muslims worldwide - Los Angeles Times

Helping U.S. reach out to young Muslims worldwide

The State Department's representative to Muslim communities travels the globe. Those at home can play a supportive role too, she says.

BELIEFS

June 05, 2010|By Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times

Soon after Farah Pandith was named last year as the State Department's first special representative to Muslim communities, she sat down with the editor of an independent Muslim website for her first official interview.

Full Article from the Los Angeles Times - June 5, 2010

Pro-Gay Rights Muslim Wins Primary in Iowa

Pro-Gay Rights Muslim Wins Primary

Posted in: Features
Jason Hamza Van Boom

Tom Vilsack speaks with Iowa State Representative Ako Abdul-Samad at the 2009 Hall of Fame Ceremony.

Religion has always been part of the same-sex marriage debate, but it was part of this campaign in a unique way.

Ako Abdul-Samad, a Muslim incumbent in the Iowa state legislature (and one of nine Muslim state legislators in the entire United States) easily defeated his challenger Clair Rudison Jr, a Christian minister, in Iowa's Democratic primary on June 8. In the battle to represent House District 66 in Des Moines, Abdul-Samad got 74% of the vote to Rudison's 25%.

The newspaper Iowa Independent called this primary battle "ground zero for gay marriage debate." In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Rudison attacked Abdul-Samad for not supporting a state referendum that would overturn the court's decision.

Consequently, major Iowa organizations on opposite sides of the marriage debate took sides. Iowa Family Political Action Committee, an arm of the socially conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, gave Rudison his largest single donation. In response, Iowa's largest LGBT-rights organization One Iowa, supported Abdul-Samad through its Fairness Fund PAC.

"This race is important and marriage equality is at the center of it," said Ashlan Shaw, an intern at Fairness Fund. "This election is crucial for keeping a pro-equality, community advocate in House District 66 and preventing discrimination from being written into the constitution."

Religion has always been part of the same-sex marriage debate, but it was part of this campaign in a unique way. Abdul-Samad is Iowa's only Muslim to hold an elected state office. He is the CEO/Founder of Creative Visions Human Development Center, has published a book of spiritual poetry, and helped produce an Islamic DVD with Lisa Killinger called "Men are from Marwa, Women are from Safa." Rudison is an ordained Christian minister who served as pastor of a Baptist church in Fort Dodge, Iowa, before moving to Des Moines to serve with Iowa Missionary and Educational Baptist State Convention.

20+ LGBT Rights Groups & Allies Join Outcry Against Anti-Immigrant Measure in Arizona

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights groups and allies join outcry against anti-immigrant measure in Arizona

(New York, June 7, 2010) — More than 20 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality groups and allies today issued the following joint statement:

Arizona's S.B. 1070 takes the state down a path that will lead to racial profiling, discrimination and anti-immigrant extremism. We stand in solidarity with other individuals, organizations and local governments in rejecting the misrepresentation of immigrants put forth in this unjust and ill-conceived measure.

S.B. 1070 essentially declares an entire class of people to be inherently criminal on the basis of their race and appearance. The consequences of S.B. 1070 are grave and troubling: the inevitability of racial profiling and infringement of civil liberties; the strong probability of violence and harassment against individuals and their families; and the reversal of progress toward creating a more inclusive society.

We also note that this bill was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer, the same governor who last year stripped away earned health insurance benefits from the same-sex domestic partners of state employees. Brewer's actions as governor demonstrate, at best, callous indifference—and at worst, willful malice—toward immigrants and LGBT people alike.

All Arizona families—lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight—have reason to be alarmed. The state's new law threatens to tear apart families, separate children from their parents and rip apart loving couples who are building their lives together. The LGBT community knows all too well how easily people who "look different" or "act different" can be singled out for harassment and persecution. LGBT immigrants will be doubly vulnerable under this law, which gives license to discriminate.

We are united in our determination to stand for political and legislative change that will ensure just treatment of immigrants, people of color, and all people in Arizona. Such justice requires the repeal of S.B. 1070 and the passage and implementation of comprehensive federal immigration reform.

Today we join with groups such as Service Employees International Union, League of United Latin American Citizens, Asian American Justice Center, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Council of La Raza, National Action Network, the National Puerto Rican Coalition, and many others in the boycott against the state of Arizona until S.B. 1070 is repealed, overturned by the courts, or superseded by comprehensive federal immigration reform.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund
Human Rights Campaign
GLAAD
Immigration Equality
National Black Justice Coalition
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
Out & Equal Workplace Advocates
International Foundation for Gender Education
Family Equality Council
Two Spirit Press Room
Equality Federation
National Minority AIDS Council
National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce®
Freedom to Marry
Gay Men's Health Crisis
Lambda Legal
BiNet USA
International Federation of Black Prides, Inc.
Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals
UNID@S
SAGE
Atticus Circle
National Center for Lesbian Rights

###

Contact: Jonathan Adams 212-809-8585 ext 267; jadams@lambdalegal.org

AP Yogyakarta panel pics

Twilight Zone / The Moroccan Model - Jewish & Muslim Coexistence

A visit to the Jewish community of Morocco reveals surprising coexistence.

By Gideon Levy

In a small room within a large house − its construction nearly complete − with a breathtaking view of a valley of argan trees, a Moroccan carpenter planes doors made of local cedar wood. It seems unlikely that he knows exactly what he is making. In fact, for the past few weeks he has been building the holy ark for the synagogue of the Moroccan community of Kfar Sava. When the ark is ready, the owner of the house, Claude Senouf, a Jewish painter and journalist, will ship it to the central Israeli city, where it will be dedicated in honor of his grandfather, Raoul, who was one of Morocco’s moneyed elite. By then, too, the construction of Senouf’s magnificent home in western Morocco, not far from the town of Essaouira on the Atlantic coast, will be finished.

Full Article from Haaretz in Israel - May 7, 2010

Afghan Airforce Includes Female Pilot

Female Pilot Helps Afghan Air Force Take Off

From CNN - May 7, 2010

Decades ago, Afghanistan's air force was in full operation. Today, that air force is being rebuilt, with some of the same helicopters and some of the same pilots as well - including the first woman in the Afghan Air Corps and currently the only one.

The only time Capt. Latifa Nabizada left the force was to flee to Pakistan when the Taliban took over in the 1990s - a woman pilot was a prime target for them.

"I wanted to be a pilot since I was a child," she says. "I also, as a woman, felt it was a responsibility to serve my country. So I joined 20 years ago. ... I stayed in because it's the love of my life, and I still feel the responsibility to not give it up."

Today, she is one of about 50 pilots training in Kabul, with a few others elsewhere in Afghanistan. And U.S. forces are helping mentor the pilots, training them on modern air force techniques for the 50 or so aircraft in the Afghan air force fleet.

Nabizada revels in the new training: "I've seen remarkable changes since we started this. We get training in air traffic control, pre-flight checklists, English language, instruments, navigation. These are skills we didn't have before."

On the training base in Kabul, a regular sight is Nabizada's 4-year-old daughter Malali.

"Being a pilot and a mother is hard, actually," Nabizada says. "My husband is a doctor in the air force and we have no one to take care of her, so she comes with me every day. One day I'd like to see childcare in the air force."

Until then, Malali learns first hand about her country's air force and her mother's groundbreaking role. Will she follow in her mother's footsteps in the future? "Exactly," says Nabizada. "She will be a pilot in the future."