Struggle for Identity Fuels Battle of Civilisations

From the Sydney Morning Herald

Struggle for identity fuels battle of civilisations

Tanveer Ahmed
December 1, 2008

I was born a Bangladeshi-Muslim and, despite growing up in Australia, have seen religion seeping through all people derived from the subcontinent. The grandmother of a Hindu-Indian friend refused to eat food cooked in our kitchen, given its Muslim owners. She saw it not as rude but a natural response to her past: Indian partition was the defining event of her life.

My inner struggle to balance an Islamic background while living in the modern West, and an ancient Bengali identity with the secular, frontier attitude of modern Australia, mirrors the wider struggles within India, and the world. Narrow, fixed identities are at the core of many struggles; the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks invoke being Muslim at the expense of all other aspects of their identity.

Determining our identities is part of modernity, and a key contributor to conflict. It will continue to be a defining issue of the 21st century. Mass migration and mixed marriages help stir the melting pot but the tension between a longing for the tribalism of nation and race, against the newer, more fluid forms of identity will be one of the key conflicts of the modern psyche.

Barack Obama's election to the US presidency has been called a post-racial event. According to this narrative, his biography transcends the normal categories of identity, for it intermingles race, religion and class. He was raised by a white mother but still identified as a black man; he was born poor but graduated from Harvard; he is a practising Christian but was exposed to Islam through his early schooling in a Javanese primary school. The questions Obama has thought about all his life dominate the world today.

Obama's rise symbolically brings to a close a century where narrow identities defined human conflict, from fierce nationalism to class warfare to religious bigotry. Its intellectual articulation was perhaps Samuel Huntington's 1996 book, The Clash Of Civilisations And The Remaking Of The World Order. He categorised conflict in civilisational terms, contrasting Western civilisation with "Muslim civilisation" and "Hindu civilisation", underlining the narrow characterisation of human groups.

But while Obama's story is significant, it has many similarities with that of the father of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. As with Obama speaking of his several worlds, Nehru spoke of being caught between the East and the West and not belonging to either. Just as Nehru tried to explain why he would never forget his duty to the Muslims, however divisive, Obama tries to communicate why he would never abandon Jeremiah Wright, his controversial black pastor.

Nehru appealed to the Brahmins to share power with the lower castes, as well as interpret the anger of the untouchables. Obama tries to give voice to the underclass by appealing to the higher consciousness of whites and blacks alike, as well as explain to whites the anger of blacks.

India is a prime example of how ancient identities and conflicts rising from them can be reinterpreted for modern conditions. The conflict in India has outwardly been between Muslims and Hindus but last week's attacks saw a new global twist.

It is unclear whether the attacks had any links with al-Qaeda but it has a unique mix of pre-modern ideas about social norms with a modern sense of globalism that taps into the longing for belonging. It is particularly attractive to those unable to find an identity in the usual categories of nation or race.

Instead, the idea of the umma, a global community of Muslims, becomes attractive. It appeals to the well-educated and the disenchanted, offering a system for regulating behaviour in any situation. Its failing is resorting to a narrow singular definition of the essence of the human self, in this case through religion.

There are many questions unanswered about Mumbai. But clearly, one of the key contributors was a yearning for a collective identity expressed in very narrow terms by perpetrators who elevated being Muslim at the expense of all else.

These narrow definitions not only diminish us as humans, but make the world much more flammable. In India, there is a particular danger of a mass uprising by Hindu fundamentalists.

Achieving harmony in our troubled world lies in the plurality of our identities, which are allowed to remain fluid as resources to be used in different situations, and as bulwarks against drives to categorise us as narrow, single entities.

Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatry registrar.

An Open Letter to the LGBT Community

An Open Letter to the Community

A diverse group of community leaders issued the following letter Thursday that emphasized the importance of building coalitions and rejecting divisive tactics in the efforts to overturn Proposition 8 and gain full marriage equality in California.

November 13, 2008

Dear Community,

We are on the cusp of a new era as our country has elected its first African-American president, Barack Obama.  We hope this unprecedented event will usher in a new chapter in our nation's history.

This past week has been a difficult time.  With the passage of Proposition 8 in California to change the state constitution to eliminate the right to marry, our community has experienced a difficult defeat.  We are angry and upset by the passage of Proposition 8 and the betrayal of the promise of equality that has been the hallmark of the Golden State.  Yet, we know that this is only a setback in—not the end of—our journey toward full equality for the LGBT community. 

It is natural to analyze what went wrong. But in recent days there has been a tendency to assign blame to specific communities, in particular, the African American community. The fact is, 52 percent of all Californians, the vast majority of whom were not African Americans, voted against us. In addition, the most recent analysis of the exit poll that drove much of this speculation determined that it was too small to draw any conclusion on the African American vote, and further polling shows that the margin was much closer than first reported.  Most importantly, though, none of this discourse changes the outcome of the vote. It only serves to divide our community and hinder our ability to create a stronger and more diverse coalition to help us overturn Proposition 8 and restore full equality and human rights to LGBT people. It also deflects responsibility from the group that is responsible for this miscarriage of justice: The Yes on 8 campaign. They waged a deceitful and immoral campaign that brought about this violation of our human rights and dignity.

We as a community have come so far.  Let's not lose sight of this.  Since Proposition 22 passed eight years ago by 22 percentage points, we have made our case to the people of California. We have talked to our families, co-workers and friends about what true equality looks like. In so doing, we have narrowed the gap substantially since that time. And, in the last week, we have continued to move forward with a great wave of non-violent protest and a strong and powerful legal case put together by some of the keenest legal minds, supported by the governor, our senators and many other elected officials in our state. Moreover, we have seen a great national movement growing in support of equal rights for the LGBT community as a result of our actions in California.

We are hopeful the election of Barack Obama signals a new spirit of collaboration among diverse groups of people.  There are many allied communities—straight, African-American, Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, Native American, white, people of faith, and secular people—who are energized to join with us as never before.  This is progress!  LGBT people are a part of all those communities, and with the support of our straight allies, we know that justice will prevail. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."  Now is the time to come together as one community working together toward human rights and full equality.  We are confident that with our growing coalition we will ultimately win this fight. 

Sincerely,

Ron Buckmire
Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition

Rea Carey
Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Jennifer Chrisler
Executive Director, Family Equality Council

Oscar De La O
President & CEO, Bienestar

John Duran
Member, West Hollywood City Council

Rabbi Denise L. Eger
Congregation Kol Ami

Lorri L. Jean
CEO, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center

Kate Kendell
Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights

Geoff Kors
Executive Director, Equality California

Francine Ramsey
Executive Director, Zuna Institute

Rev. Susan Russell and Rev. Ed Bacon
All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena

Rodney Scott
President, Christopher Street West/LA Pride

Joe Solmonese
President, Human Rights Campaign

Rev. Dr. Neil G. Thomas
Metropolitan Community Church/LA

Vallerie D. Wagner
National Black Justice Coalition

Marshall Wong
Co-Chair, API Equality—L.A.

Islamists' Rise Could Benefit Women's Rights

From the Washington Post - November 4, 2008

Islamists' Rise Could Benefit Women's Rights

Middle Eastern observers often assume that the deterioration of women's rights in the region is directly linked to the political rise and popularity of Islamist parties in countries across the region.

But this guest author argues otherwise. Dr. Isobel Coleman, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of the Council's Women and Foreign Policy program, argues that the movement of these groups into mainstream politics is actually changing Islamist attitudes toward women.

Article continued...

Indian Muslims Condemn Terrorism

From the BBC - Monday, November 10, 2008

There have been a number of blasts in India blamed on Islamic militants

Full article from the BBC.

Islamic World Remains Divided Over Violence Against Women

From Voice of America - November 11, 2008

Islamic World Remains Divided Over Violence Against Women
By Edward Yeranian Cairo 11 November 2008

Yeranian report - Download (MP3)
Yeranian report - Listen (MP3)

Violence against women has long been a controversial subject in the Arab and Islamic world. Some Islamic experts favor a husband's right to physically chastise his wife. But recent fatwahs, including from top scholars in Egypt, favor a woman's right to self-defense in cases of conjugal violence.  Edward Yeranian has more on the sensitive issue from Cairo.

Women protest against honor killing in Pakistan (file photo)

The topic of men beating their wives has long been controversial in the Islamic world, with various Islamic scholars condoning it, and others insisting it should be forbidden, or at the very least, reduced to a strict minimum.

A series of recent fatwahs, in both Turkey and Saudi Arabia, followed by support by the fatwah committee of Cairo's venerable Al Azhar University, where top Islamic scholars have ruled that wives have the right to fight back when beaten, are still challenged in many quarters and difficult to apply, as Egyptian women's rights activist Nehad Abu El-Komsan, explains.

"Women can call the police, definitely, and they are supposed to have to respond to protect women. But, what happens, usually, police in Egypt care about other things, and they consider this is a private relation or something, so they do not respond in proper time. So the procedure comes after….she has right to go to police station and make a report….and make a court file….she will have a criminal case… So it depends on what [the] judge believes. Sometimes, judge gives a hard punishment or a hard court decision in this case some judges make their decision only to show men they have no right to do this, but it is not strong enough."

Do women have right to self defense?
                                                                           
Islamic scholars, while divided, are increasingly coming down in favor of the Western concept of a woman's right to self defense. This is the position taken recently by the chairman of Al Azhar's Committee on Fatwahs, Sheikh Abd al Hamid Al Atrash, who tells the VOA that wives have the right to self-defense when their husbands beat them "cruelly and unnecessarily."

He says that when a wife has been disobedient and her cruel husband has beaten her badly because of it, to the point of putting her life in danger, then the wife has a right to defend herself or cry out for help, according to the precepts of Islam.

While decrying harsh or cruel treatment by husbands toward their wives, Sheikh Al Atrash, nevertheless, says that Islam allows husbands to rein in their "recalcitrant wives.

Sheikh al Atrash argues that Islam provides husbands a series of measures to make their wives obedient, using various forms of discipline, from verbal admonition to temporarily cutting off relations to the eventual stage of physical punishment. He adds that the sayings of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, the sunna, forbid anything more than light physical discipline.

Conjugal beatings have become cause celebre in Arab world
                                                                         
A top Saudi woman journalist, Rania al Baz, became a cause célèbre in the Arab world, several years ago, when she was beaten almost to the point of death by her husband. Baz ultimately survived the beating, but pictures of her horribly swollen and disfigured face fueled the debate in the Islamic world over conjugal beatings.

Baz, in an interview with Saudi-owned MBC TV, explains how her husband beat her and the extreme cruelty and violence he employed.

She says that she had a sense that her husband was going to beat her, but thought she could forestall the beating and seek refuge at her father's house. Once the beating got under way, though, she recalls that her husband insisted that he was not only going to beat her, but kill her, as well. The husband then grabbed her by the neck, threw her to the floor and began strangling her, his face contorted by hatred and anger.

Baz adds that she lost consciousness while being strangled, and can't remember how her husband beat her face, but that she eventually found herself in the hospital, surrounded by her family.
                                                                 
Rania al Baz's husband, Mohammed al Fallata, was eventually sentenced to six months in jail and 300 lashes by a Saudi judge. The Saudi English-language daily Arab News called the sentence "relatively lenient," and the judge claimed that there were "mitigating circumstances."

Some countries support woman's right to protect herself

Al Arabiya TV reports that a top member of Saudi Arabia's consultative Shura Council, Sheikh Abd al Mohsen Al Abekhan, ruled in a well-publicized fatwah, recently, that a wife has the right to use the "same violence against her husband, that he uses against her." A Turkish-born Islamic scholar quickly followed suit with a similar ruling.

In Lebanon, top Shi'ite moslem cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah came out in favor of a wife's right to self defense in a ruling that shook the Shi'ite world, several years ago, and Lebanon's Sunni Mufti Abd al Rashid Qabbani, made a similar ruling, last year.

Islamic preacher argues violence can be used as 'disciplinary measure'

Nevertheless, many Islamic scholars disagree with the recent fatwahs, or Islamic decrees, like Islamic preacher Walid bin Hadi in Qatar who argues during a Friday sermon that "violence must be used to discipline certain women".

He said everyone must be aware that beating is allowed by Islamic law as a punishment. He says no one can deny this, since it was mandated by God, who created the human being. If you buy any piece of equipment, he argues, you receive a manual to operate it. In this way, he adds, God gave the Koran to guide people, and keep everyone on the right track.

The sheikh goes on to explain why he thinks that wife-beating is necessary in certain cases.

He insists that there are some types of women with whom it is impossible to live, unless they are beaten.....These sorts of women, he adds, have been beaten throughout their lives to keep them in line, and that a husband must continue to beat them to keep them on the right track.

Despite the recently issued fatwahs permitting women to fight back when beaten, lines between those in favor and those opposed appear to be firmly drawn on Al Arabiya TV's website. A majority of men appeared to defend the beating of wives, while a majority of women appeared to oppose it.
 

SAUDI ARABIA: Let's take the morality police bowling

When the men from the Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice arrived unexpectedly at a shopping mall in Jeddah, the trendy Saudi youth in their Western-style attire were seized with fear. 

The religious force is notorious for beating up and arresting men and women in Saudi Arabia for what they perceive as immoral behaviors as well as Western ways of behaving or dressing up.

But this time, the bearded men of the religious police had totally different intentions. They just wanted to engage in a game of bowling with a group of youth at the mall in the Saudi coastal city, the local daily Al-Watan reported on Tuesday.   

The newspaper said that high-ranking officials from this police force, who turned out to be talented bowlers, won the game against the young group of bowlers. They all engaged in a friendly conversation, Al-Watan added.

This unusual event raised questions in the kingdom about whether the morality police widely viewed as austere and brutal are trying to spruce up their public image by engaging with young people.

The few thousand clerical policemen, known in Arabic as Mutaween, have come under a lot of criticism lately for their extreme policing ways in implementing the laws of Islam in a country where the strict and puritanical Wahhabi interpretation of Islam is prevalent.

Officially recognized by the Saudi government, the religious police can raid private homes in search for "sinners" drinking alcohol or engaging in banned sexual activities. They can stop men and women who are unrelated by blood or marriage for meeting in a public place. They can also imprison those who are caught failing to perform one of the daily five prayers of Islam.

In August, the religious police banned Saudis from walking their pets in public because, they said, young men were using their dogs and cats to attract women on the streets.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is trying to polish the image of his country as one of the most religiously strict places in the world. Today, an international interfaith meeting spearheaded by the kingdom is starting at the United Nations in New York to foster dialogue among different religious groups.

But the Saudi initiative has been regarded as hypocritical by some human rights organizations.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said:

"There is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, yet the kingdom asks the world to listen to its message of religious tolerance. … The dialogue should be about where religious intolerance runs deepest, and that includes Saudi Arabia."

The New-York based human rights watchdog said that Saudi Arabia does not permit its citizens or foreign residents to publicly practice any religion other than Islam.

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photos: Officials from the religious police in Saudi Arabia bowled with a group of Saudi youngsters at a shopping m

US: Saudi Has 'Long Way to Go' On Religious Tolerance

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud

November 12, 2008

US: Saudi has 'long way to go' on religious tolerance

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House said Wednesday that Saudi King Abdullah knows that his country has "a long way to go" on religious tolerance and is trying to make progress on the issue.

One day before US President George W. Bush heads to a Saudi-sponsored UN conference on religious tolerance, spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked about Riyadh's ban on public practice of religions other than Islam.

"He welcomes the opportunity to have this event, and he believes that the king of Saudi Arabia has recognized that they have a long way to go and that he is trying to take some steps to get there," Perino told reporters.

The meeting, which aims to promote dialogue among the world's monotheistic religions, will be a follow-up to a similar conference in Madrid in July at King Abdullah's initiative.

Bush, who will address the meeting, sees it as "an opportunity for him to reaffirm his commitment to religious freedom and tolerance and the importance of people of all faiths coming together," said Perino.

Saud Arabia hosts Islam's holiest shrines and does not permit the public practice of religions other than Islam.

"This dialogue is a good way to bring people of all religions together. And you'll hear more from the president tomorrow," said Perino.

Race, Religion, and Proposition 8 - by Rev. Irene Monroe

Race, Religion, and Proposition 8 - by Rev. Irene Monroe

Our new presidential elect, the voting population of California's African-Americans, and unfortunate homophobia in churches has created a fuzzy rift between blacks and gays. It's time to stop creating scapegoats and get proactive.

Full article from the Advocate - http://advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid65681.asp

Among Young Muslims, Mixed Emotions on Obama

From the New York Times - November 7, 2008

Annie Tritt for The New York Times

Muslim students at New York University gathered on Wednesday to discuss the presidential election, among them Momtaz Yaqubie, Meherunnisa Jobaida, Sule Akoglu and Wamiq Chowdhury.

New York Region

Among Young Muslims, Mixed Emotions on Obama

By PAUL VITELLO

Published: November 7, 2008

For many, the excitement over Barack Obama's candidacy and election was muted by a sense of being marginalized politically.

Full article from the New York Times

Video: Islam and the Election

In a forum at New York University, Muslim students consider how Islam was used by the McCain and Obama campaigns.

Iranians Hope Obama Lives Up to His Name

From Time Magazine

An unidentified Iranian man wears a badge supporting President-elect Barack Obama in Tehran

Hasan Sarbakhshian / AP

Full article from Time.