When Muslims become Christians

There's a widespread belief that the penalty for leaving Islam is death - hence, perhaps, the killing of a British teacher last week. But Shiraz Maher believes attitudes may be softening.

Ziya Meral's parents disowned him when he converted from Islam to Christianity.

"They said 'go away, you're not our son.' They told people I died in an accident rather than having the shame of their son leaving Islam."

FIND OUT MORE...

Shiraz Maher (right) presents Could I Stop Being a Muslim? on Radio 4 on 22 April at 2000 BST, repeated 27 April at 1700 BST.

Or listen to it on the BBC

Born and raised in Turkey, he decided to convert to Christianity after moving to university. He knew telling his parents would be a difficult moment even though they're not particularly observant Muslims, and he planned to break the news to them gently.

In the end, events overtook him. Before heading back to Turkey for the holidays, Ziya briefly visited a Christian summer camp where he was filmed eating a bowl of spaghetti.

The first his parents heard of his conversion was when they saw Ziya on the national news being described as "an evil missionary" intent on "brainwashing" Turkish children.

His parents decided they would rather tell people that he was dead than acknowledge he was a Christian. And Ziya, who now lives in the UK, is not alone in this experience.

Sophia, which is not her real name, faced similar pressures when she decided to become a Christian.

Coming from a Pakistani background but living in east London, 28-year-old Sophia spoke about the extreme cultural pressures her family put her under.

SENTENCED TO DEATH

Hashem Aghajari, a history professor in Tehran (pictured), was sentenced to death for apostasy in Nov 2002

He had said Muslims should not follow clerics "like monkeys"

The sentence sparked off a month of student protests and was quashed by Iran's Supreme Court

Abdul Rahman began a new life in Italy after his trial for apostasy in Kabul collapsed

"They kept saying: 'The punishment is death, do you know the punishment is death?'"

In the end, Sophia ran away from home. Her mother tracked her down and turned up at her baptism.

"I got up to get baptised, that's when my mother got up, ran to the front and tried to pull me out of the water.

"My brother was really angry. He reacted and phoned me on my mobile and just said: 'I'm coming down to burn that church.'"

For Sophia and Ziya, a lot of the prejudice they faced seemed to be borne out of cultural ideas, which are particularly ingrained in the South Asian community relating to notions of family honour.

But it's too easy to say this is just a cultural problem. Dig a little deeper and you find that there is a theological argument which advocates the death penalty for apostates, which has serious implications for British society.

Last week, British teacher Daud Hassan Ali, 64, was shot dead in Somalia. His widow, Margaret Ali, said her husband was targeted by Islamists who "believe it is ok to kill any man who was born into Islam and left the faith".

Those renouncing their faith for atheism or agnosticism are viewed in a similar way to those who adopt another faith.

A poll conducted by the Policy Exchange last year suggested that over a third of young British Muslims believe that the death penalty should apply for apostasy.

Until recently, I would have shared that view, but since personally rejecting extremism myself, I've been re-examining the issues which I once regarded as conclusive.

Discretion

I was staggered to learn that the Quran does not say anything about punishing apostates and that its proponents use two hadiths instead to support their view. Hadiths are the recorded traditions and sayings of the Prophet which, in addition to the Quran, provide an additional source of Islamic law.

The hadiths which relate to apostasy are linguistically ambiguous and open to interpretation. Distinguished scholars told me that the hadiths actually speak about a death penalty for treason, not apostasy. And even then, they stressed the punishment is discretionary.

“ I believe the classical law of apostasy in Islam is wrong and based on a misunderstanding ”
Usama Hassan
Scientist and imam

Dr Hisham Hellyer is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies at University of Oxford, and has researched classical Islamic law.

He believes the death penalty punishment is no longer applicable and should be suspended under certain circumstances.

Usama Hassan, a Cambridge-educated scientist and an imam, goes further and says the classical scholars were wrong in how they interpreted the Quran. He is unequivocal in denouncing those who advocate the death penalty.

"I believe the classical law of apostasy in Islam is wrong and based on a misunderstanding of the original sources, because the Quran and Hadith don't actually talk about a death penalty for apostasy."

Last year Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, unequivocally told the Washington Post that the death penalty for apostasy simply no longer applies. It provoked a flurry of debate in Egypt and the wider Middle East.

Traitor

The idea of killing apostates has become a resurgent theme in recent years, a fact closely-related to the increasing politicisation of Islam since 9/11.

It epitomises the "us and them" mentality felt by many Muslims between themselves and the West. And there's an uncomfortable conclusion to all this.

“ Muslim attitudes towards apostasy are a metaphor for the wider struggle taking place within Islam ”
Shiraz Maher

Aghajari's death sentence sparked protests and a review

If there is a death penalty for treason, then who defines what treason is?

Earlier this year a group of men from Birmingham pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to kidnap and behead a British Muslim solider because they regarded him as a traitor. Joining the British army was to them treason against Islam.

So while the debate surrounding one aspect of apostasy continues, it is simultaneously throwing up an entirely new series of challenges around other issues including what should be considered treason against Islam.

When Ziya talked about what happened to him, he was just finishing a report on the experiences of apostates, called No Place to Call Home. He had interviewed 28 apostates in six different countries as part of a year-long research project.

His report found that although the death penalty is rarely applied through the courts, apostates still face gross and wide-ranging human rights abuses at the hands of the state, radical groups and local communities."

It seems that Muslim attitudes towards apostasy are a metaphor for the wider struggle taking place within Islam, between those who argue for a progressive form of Islam and those who argue for more dogmatic interpretations.

Attitudes to apostasy may be a useful barometer for judging where it's headed.

I have a friend at church who came to the UK from the Sudan because he was threatened with being stoned to death following his conversion from Islam to Christianity. Even though some areas of the Islamic world may be moving away from the death penalty for apostasy, it still remains in force in some countries.
Sophie, UK

I was also born into Islam but have since become a Christian. My family never passed any such penalty on me or any of my siblings who had converted. We are still very much part of the family and never taken as outcast, which leads to believe that the penalty is more a Middle East cultural believe than Islamic law. I am from Nigeria and in fact from a very strong Islamic community, rather than pass any sure 'Death penalty' they are looking for ways to lure us back to Islam which is definitely not possible again.
OD Balogun, Grays

I really feel for the Muslim community who by and large are decent, ordinary people. They suffer so badly when things like this come up in the media. Unfortunately, individuals are going to read into any religious text exactly what they want to and give everyone a bad name it doesn't matter what religion it is. The saying is "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely", when one person is given the power to speak for their God there is always going to be misinterpretation and megalomania.
Tori Law, Thurso, Scotland

The freedom of religious worship should be absolute, and any faith that still refers to a death sentence on those who convert away has no place in modern society. The Islamic faith is in the same position as the Christian faith was in the 1500s, namely in need of reformation and modernisation.
Ian Taylor, Lincoln, UK

A true Muslim would never ever change his/her religion. A Muslim who understands the true values of Islam would never disgrace it by converting. Islam is a religion of peace and harmony. It forbids its followers to even hurt an animal so the excessive propaganda against Islam needs to end now. The Holy Prophet S.A.W said; "Be kind to those who are on earth and He in the heavens will be kind to you"

My point is anyone abandoning Islam is destroying his life hereafter [life after death] and is his/her own enemy.
Lubna, Pakistan

The thing that puzzles most of non-Muslims about this article will be how insecure they are in their own religion. Why are they so scared of other religions? Basically they should grow up and learn to live in the real world and not the Stone Age.
Laurence, Edinburgh

If you have read the Quran then maybe you would know different, if you haven't then you do not see the dire consequences in changing your religion.
Waseem, England

The "over one-third" of British Muslims who believe converts should be put to death are potentially guilty of inciting religious hatred. Will the police investigate? When are they going to be arrested?
James Rigby, Wickford, Essex

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7355515.stm

Published: 2008/04/21 01:02:04 GMT

© BBC MMX

A Fabled Iraqi Instrument Thrives in Exile By ERICA GOO

An oud maker in his workshop in central Baghdad. Residents rarely play the oud in public now for fear of angering militants critical of secular music.

BAGHDAD — Dhia Jabbar hides his oud in a sack when he walks down the street in his Baghdad neighborhood.

He used to teach students in the back room of a photo shop, where the sound could not be heard. But last week, militia gunmen invaded the store, destroying one of his instruments and ordering him to stop teaching. He had dreamed of a performing career, but now he has lost hope.

“Iraq is dead,” he says.

Seven thousand miles away, Rahim Alhaj, who fled Iraq in 1991, carries his oud without a second thought through the streets of Albuquerque, where he now lives. In New York, Washington and other cities, he plays for audiences of hundreds. An album he recorded was recently nominated for a Grammy Award.

The two musicians are bound by their passion for the oud, a pear-shaped instrument whose roots run deep in Iraq’s history. Some say that in its music lies the country’s soul.

Both men trained at the same prestigious conservatory in Baghdad. Both have a deep love for traditional Iraqi melodies.

But Mr. Jabbar, 29, and Mr. Alhaj, 40, are also tied together by having watched — one from close up, one from far away — their country’s descent into sectarian violence.

Mr. Alhaj worries constantly about his mother and brother, who still live in Baghdad’s dangerous Sadr City neighborhood, in a house without electricity or running water. When there is fighting between Mahdi Army militia members and American and Iraqi forces there, as has been the case virtually every day in recent weeks, he calls his family frantically.

“It’s hard because I’m so far away from them and so far from their struggle, and I feel helpless,” he said.

The violence he reads about stirs troubled dreams: images of being tortured, as he was in the 1980s under Saddam Hussein’s government, or of seeing people being executed.

In 2004, he returned to Baghdad to give a concert at his family’s house. The friends he grew up with, he said, wore beards and felt uncomfortable listening to him play; secular music was considered “haram,” forbidden. An oud maker he knew was forced to build his instruments secretly in a tiny workshop on his roof.

One morning, Mr. Alhaj awoke in his family’s home to hear his niece singing a famous Iraqi love song. But the lyrics had been changed; the words no longer spoke of romantic love, but only of God, of heaven and damnation.

“What happened?” Mr. Alhaj asked. “What happened?”

Mr. Jabbar watched the transformation of Baghdad in real time. He saw religious fervor engulf the street outside his family’s house in the Shaab neighborhood, where he used to sit outside and play for passers-by. Salons and casual concerts, once common, became rare and clandestine. The teaching and performing jobs that used to await talented oud players when they finished training disappeared.

“I have lost 10 years of my life,” he said, “the years that I worked to be able to play for people.”

Iraq was once famous for its oud players. The instrument was a common sight in Iraqi households, much like the guitar in the United States. According to one legend cited in Grove Music Online, a standard reference, the oud was invented by Lamak, a descendant of the biblical Cain. When his son died, Lamak is said to have hung his remains in a tree and seen in the skeleton the bowled body and elegant neck.

A ninth-century jurist in Baghdad extolled the oud’s healing powers, as did Muhammad Shihab al-Din, a 19th-century writer. “It places the temperament in equilibrium,” he wrote. “It calms and revives hearts.”

Even Saddam Hussein was not immune to the instrument’s charms. He is reported to have received an oud, made from rare woods and inlaid with ivory, from a famous maker, Mohammed Fadhel. Mr. Hussein ordered a renowned oud player to teach him how to play, but arriving in the dictator’s presence, the man was so terrified he could not speak. Another oudist summoned to replace him gave Mr. Hussein two lessons, the story goes.

As a child, Mr. Jabbar fell asleep to music on his father’s tape recorder. Later, he sang national songs in a choir in secondary school. At 18, late for a professional musician, he took up the oud, studying the mysteries of the Iraqi maqam, the complex system of tonal sequences and improvisation passed from master to student. “I was born to learn it,” he said.

When American tanks rolled into Baghdad in 2003, Mr. Jabbar was filled with excitement.

“I used to sit with my friends and talk about our dreams and what would become of Baghdad after the invasion,” he said. “I was expecting that Baghdad would be just like Hollywood. We were moving around freely. Sometimes we would go home at 2 a.m.”

But the new freedom did not last. He heard whispered stories of musicians who had been threatened by religious extremists. One of his professors was attacked while driving from Syria to Baghdad. The gunmen smashed the man’s oud, and said they would kill him if he continued to play. A month later, the professor fled Iraq.

“I started to be more careful and not to talk about my studies,” Mr. Jabbar said. “I used to say that I was studying painting or history or to become an English teacher.”

In some neighborhoods, he could carry his oud without much fear. In others, he said, “it was suicide to carry it with me.”

He plays where he can, in occasional festivals, in secret gatherings with friends. Once in a while, he stops by the shop of an oud maker, Ahmad al-Abdalli, on a winding street of central Baghdad’s market district.

“Before this, many players would come here and gather and play and sing, and when they go home, they are relieved and happy,” Mr. Abdalli said. “But now, they do not come, or if they come, they are only one or two at a time and they play for only a few minutes, so as not to attract the attention of the fanatics.”

Mr. Jabbar owns a valuable oud, built, like Mr. Hussein’s, by Mohammed Fadhel, an instrument so precious even his wife may not touch it. But he thinks about selling the instrument.

Mr. Alhaj, too, owned a Mohammed Fadhel, given to him decades ago by his teacher in Baghdad. He used to sleep with it next to him. He even talked to it, worrying his parents.

But in 1991, when he left Iraq, slipping into Jordan, a border guard confiscated the oud. As he saw it disappear, Mr. Alhaj recalled, he started shaking and became ill. “This is the saddest moment of my entire life,” he said.

He arrived in the United States in 2000, after years in Syria, and a refugee worker found him a job at McDonald’s. “What kind of institute is that?” Mr. Alhaj said he asked. “Do they teach Arabic classical music there?”

Eventually, he began to perform again. He does what he can to keep Iraqi oud music alive, giving concerts to benefit Iraqi children and talking to audiences about the oud and its history.

He knows he is lucky to be able to play freely, to be able to speak out without fear. “I have a chance to raise my voice here,” he said.

He rejoiced when the Hussein regime fell, he said, but he opposed the American invasion. Sometimes the thought crosses his mind that “there is a soldier there, and I do not know if he is killing my brother.”

Mr. Jabbar, for his part, jokes that he harbors a secret fantasy.

“I am going to make a coup d’état and make everyone in all the neighborhoods play the oud,” he said. “It will be a revolution.”

Qais Mizher, Anwar J. Ali and Ali Hameed contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/world/middleeast/01oud.html?n=Top/News/World/Countries%20and%20Territories/Iraq/Iraqi%20Refugees

Interview: “The Qur’an Doesn’t Support Patriarchy”

Naufil Shahrukh talks to Asma Barlas on her feminist interpretations of Islam,

with special reference to the post-9/11 world.

Published in ABC, The Nation, Pakistan, February 2005.

What is moderate Islam?

I do not like labeling Islam (as moderate or extremist or feminist) because not

only does it make the religion sound contradictory and schizophrenic, but it also

obscures our own role in interpreting it. To me, it makes more sense to speak of

moderate or extremist or liberal interpretations of Islam and of moderate or

extremist or liberal Muslims. This is also why I don’t like the label “political

Islam.” The truth is that Muslims use Islam for political purposes and that is a

rather different thing. Here I should also mention the quick and dirty habit in

the U.S. of speaking of Islam as if it were a person: Islam does this and Islam

does that, Islam has locked itself inside a prison, and so on. It’s utterly sloppy

and incoherent and no one would think of speaking in the same way about

Christianity or Judaism, for instance.

What are Washington’s objectives in particular and the West’s in general when

they want Muslims around the world to embrace moderate Islam?

The objectives are to neutralize any political resistance to the U.S. The way the

Bush administration has framed the issue one would think that if only “Islam”

became moderate, all the problems in the world would disappear. The truth, of

course, is that U.S. foreign policies are partly responsible for the political and

economic inequalities and inequities that lead people (and not just Muslims) to

oppose them. One cannot reduce all opposition to terrorism but it is becoming

increasingly customary in the U.S. and the West to cast even legitimate political

resistance to repression as terroristic.

Can Islam and secularism co-exist?

If by secularism you mean a government that does not enforce religious practice

through coercion, that respects human rights and guarantees civil and political

liberties to its citizens, and that is democratic and accountable to the people, why

not? What is there in “Islam” that says that governments must manage the

religious practice of individual Muslims, or be authoritarian, or undemocratic?

I know that many Muslims understand the Qur’anic injunction to enjoin the right

and to forbid the wrong as a license for the state to manage the religious life of

its citizens, but even the Prophet was forbidden to do that. His mission, as the

Qur’an makes clear, was to proclaim God’s message, not to enforce obedience to

it; hence the Qur’anic emphasis on avoiding excesses and compulsion in religion.

This impulse to cast politics in terms of the religious management of people’s

lives and to cast Islam in terms of a denial of political and human rights, has

nothing to do with the teachings of our scripture. It has to do with certain

Muslim anxieties and, if I may say so, social pathologies.

Is there a moderate secularism?

Secularism also has its fundamentalists who are no less dogmatic about their

beliefs than religious fanatics. However, what I find more disturbing is the ease

with which liberal and secular states that are based in tolerance, human rights,

democracy and liberty—states like the U.S., for instance—are able to engage in

repressive, antidemocratic, and authoritarian practices abroad without too much

opposition from their citizens. This is partly because we almost never talk about

the violence done in the name of secular values because of our tendency to

associate violence only with religion, and, post 9/11 almost exclusively with

Islam.

Is Washington’s drive to enforce moderate Islam legitimate?

I have already suggested the problems with framing the issue in this way. But,

so long as we are talking about moderation, the Bush administration could also

benefit from some moderation.

Do you think the West is qualified to define what is Islam better than the

Muslim world itself?

There are Muslims in the West who are as qualified to define Islam as anyone in

the “Muslim world” is (I put the phrase in quotes because it seems to imply that

the Muslim world is a cognitive unity that exists separately from planet earth!)

However, I suspect what you’re asking is if nonMuslims in the West should be

the ones to define Islam and I would say only those who practice a religion are

best placed to define it. But this does not mean that one cannot benefit from a

dialogue with people who have alternative understandings of the world.

Can Muslims in the West live in accordance to their religious beliefs?

It is hazardous to speak on behalf of all Muslims in the West but I would say that,

for the most part, yes. This does not mean that are no restrictions placed on

them and here I have in mind the ban on the head-scarf in France. However, to

me this is no more problematic than forcing women to wear a veil in some

Muslim countries. In both cases, the state is mandating women’s dress which I

believe should be strictly within the purview of individual Muslim women to

choose. In cases where women are being forced to veil when the Qur’an does

not call for certain forms of veiling, they also are not being allowed to live in

accordance with their religious beliefs even in the so-called Muslim world.

Do you think that the Hadith, Ijma-e-Sahaba, and the work of the early

scholars (Imams) of Islam were all patriarchal interpretations of the Quran and

that all, or a major part, of that work should be revised?

I should clarify that when I speak about patriarchal interpretations I use two

very specific definitions of patriarchy: as a form of father (and husband) rule

over women and as a politics of sexual differentiation that privileges males. My

own understanding of the Qur’an is that not only does it not support either form

of patriarchy, but that its teachings are fundamentally at odds with theories of

male privilege. To me it seems obvious, then, that we need to rethink religious

knowledge where this knowledge conflicts with the Qur’an’s teachings. If this

means questioning the knowledge produced by the imams you mention, what is

wrong with that? None of the imams ever claimed that their work was

complete or infallible and that it was incapable of being reformed. The Qur’an is

a universal text applicable for all times. One cannot undercut its universality by

claiming that it could only be understood by four scholars for all of eternity! To

me this is blasphemy because it elevates human beings over the word of God.

According to some religious scholars “equity” between men and women is more

appropriate a term than that of “equality.” Is it correct?

Equity and equality are very hard terms to define in practice and even in the

West the debate on what equality entails is far from over. As to why some

Muslims like to use the word equity, I think it is because they feel that equality is

a Western and feminist concept, hence somehow decadent. It’s amazing how

Muslims shortchange themselves! Equality is very much a Qur’anic concept and,

in the Qur’an, sexual equality is ontological in that it is a function of our very

being and existence since both women and men were created from the same

nafs, or self. However, Muslims disregard this crucial principle in favor of three

or four words or lines in the Qur’an that they read as establishing men as

guardians over women and giving them the right to beat their wives, and so on.

There are now several studies that show such readings to be flawed and

misrepresentative of the Qur’an’s teachings. Conveniently, however, many

conservative Muslims who want to cling to patriarchal readings of the Qur’an

dismiss this work on various pretexts in order not to have to deal with it.

How was your book “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal

Interpretations of the Qur’an received in the Muslim world?

There is no monolithic Muslim world and even if there were, it would be hard to

generalize. The book is being translated into Indonesian and of course now

there is a South Asian edition but it has only just been released, so one has to

wait and see. In the U.S., it has done very well since it is in its fourth printing in

two years.

What was the reason behind your leaving of your home country and settling in

the US?

I left Pakistan in 1983 after General Zia ul Haq had me dismissed from the

Foreign Service on two charges: having called him a buffoon in my diary (which

was turned over to him by my former husband’s family as punishment for

leaving a bad marriage), and for having said at a private dinner in the home of

Pakistan’s ambassador to the Philippines that the judiciary in Pakistan was

neither free and nor fair (this was after the hanging of Mr. Bhutto in 1979). I was

in the sixth year of my service when this happened and for a year or so I worked

as assistant editor of the Muslim in Islamabad. However, I eventually had to

leave for reasons of personal safety and later received political asylum in the U.S.

I did not mean to settle in the U.S., but life has its own way of unfolding and here

I am, more than twenty years later. For a very long time, I felt that I had no real

home but lately I’ve been trying to make peace with my life.

Where is the actual problem—the misinterpreted and misused Hudood Act in

Pakistan; or the Hudood law itself?

I am not a legal scholar and cannot answer the specifics of this question. But I do

want to note that the late Fazlur Rahman used to say that the Qur’an is not a law

book but that we need to derive laws from it. The process of deriving the law is

thus very much an interpretive act that is far from perfect; we should thus

always be willing to entertain the possibility that some laws may not be

consonant with the Qur’an’s teachings. I say this as a general proposition.

As for the implementation of the Hudood laws in Pakistan, I would say that it

has been terribly egregious because the weight of all moral crimes has fallen

disproportionately on women. There are thousands of women languishing in

Pakistan’s jails while the men with whom they are alleged to have committed

sexual crimes have magically disappeared. How just is that? And how just is it

not to be able to distinguish, from a strictly legal perspective, between rape and

consensual sex so that a victim of rape is actually treated as the criminal? And

how “Islamic” is it to mandate stoning to death for adultery when the Qur’an

doesn’t mandate such a punishment for any crime? It is true that the Prophet

(pbuh) sanctioned this punishment for a Jewish couple taken in adultery since he

was judging them by their own law. How has stoning become part of Islamic

law?

The US and the West have always supported the Muslim states where Islam is

used as a tool to enforce the writ of patriarchal monarchies or authoritarian

forms of government, like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iraq (of 1980s). Do you

think that there is a role of the West in promoting patriarchal Islam?

Oh, absolutely! And that is partly why I find all this pious talk about “moderate

Islam” on the part of the U.S. and “the West” so hypocritical and galling.

What can be done to liberate Muslims from the holds of patriarchal

interpretations of Islam?

Since I have already suggested that the Qur’an is not a patriarchal text, I would

say reading the Qur’an in light of new understandings of the world that come as

the result of living in this world; of educating Muslims so that, among other

things, they can read the Qur’an for themselves; challenging the authority of all

those readings of the Qur’an that project sexual preferences and hatred onto

God; punishing tribal notions of “honor” that allow men to exercise the right of

life and death over their female relatives, and working to develop an Islamic

praxis of sexual equality. However, I realize that for any of this to happen, there

needs to be far reaching social, economic, and political reform so that Muslim

societies become more egalitarian and democratic. For me, the challenge isn’t

identifying what needs to be done, but finding the means to do what needs to be

done and that’s a totally different question.

http://www.asmabarlas.com/TALKS/20050201_NationPk.pdf

Bint al-Shati's Wives of the Prophet: Feminist or Feminine?

Abstract The Egyptian writer and Islamic scholar Dr. cA'isha cAbd al-Rahman (b. 1913), who originated from the countryside, was a pioneering woman in many respects, although she did not consider herself to be a feminist. She was one of the first Egyptians to write about the agrarian problems of the country and the plight of the peasants; and of the pioneering generation of female Arab literati. She was also the first Muslim woman to undertake Quranic exegesis. Writing under her pen name, Bint al-Shati', she was also one of the first women to deal with the life of the Prophet Muhammad through vignettes of the women in his life. Like many other modern Muslim biographers of the Prophet, she rendered classical Islamic materials in a new style. Although her book on the Wives of the Prophet often portrays women in a negative light, content analysis indicates that the work also reflects feminist themes. Author: Ruth Roded - I would like to thank Professor Hilary Kilpatrick for her careful reading and comments on an earlier draft of this article as well as for her encouraging me to publish this preliminary work. Any inaccuracies that remain are, of course, my own responsibility. DOI: 10.1080/13530190600603915 Publication Frequency: 3 issues per year Published in: British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 33, Issue 1 May 2006 , pages 51 - 66 Subjects: Asian Studies; Middle East Studies; Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English) Previously published as: British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Bulletin (0305-6139) until 1991 Article Requests: Order Reprints : Request Permissions Single Article Purchase: US$30.00 - buy now add to cart [ show other buying options ] Sign In Online Sample View Article: View Article (PDF) View Article (HTML)

The Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in Mosques

Asra Nomani's ten principles of equality for women in mosques

BY: Asra Q. Nomani

1. Women have an Islamic right to enter a mosque.

2. Women have an Islamic right to enter through the main door.

3.Women have an Islamic right to visual and auditory access to the musalla (the main sanctuary).

4. Women have an Islamic right to pray in the musalla without being separated by a barrier, including in the front and in mixed-gender congregational lines.

5. Women have an Islamic right to address any and all members of the congregation.

6. Women have an Islamic right to hold leadership positions, including positions as prayer leaders and as members of the board of directors and management committees.

7. Women have an Islamic right to be full participants in all congregational activities.

8. Women have an Islamic right to lead and participate in meetings, study sessions, and other community activities without being separated by a barrier.

9. Women have an Islamic right to be greeted and addressed cordially.

10. Women have an Islamic right to receive respectful treatment and exemption from gossip and slander.

AL Jazeera : THE FABULOUS PICTURE SHOW 'The Infidel'

Imagine if Homer Simpson were a Muslim named Mahmud who discovers one day that he is actually Jewish. That is the premise behind The Infidel, a new British comedy written by David Baddiel and directed by Josh Appignanesi. Entertainment editor Amanda Palmer talks toThe Infidel's Omid Djalili and David Baddiel The film stars Omid Djalili as Mahmud, along with Richard Schiff, best known as Toby inThe West Wing, as a Jewish London cabbie. Does the "F-word" occasionally pass Mahmud's lips? It is hardly worth mentioning. Does he say his prayers five times a day? Of course! Well, usually… Does he fast every day of Ramadan? Who is counting, anyway? He may not be the most observant, but in his heart he is as Muslim as it gets. But after his mother's death a discovery turns Mahmud's world upside down. He finds his birth certificate, which reveals that not only was he adopted at birth… but he is also Jewish, and his real name is Solly Shimshillewitz. Comedian and star of the film, Omid Djalili, plus fellow comedian and screenwriter David Baddiel join Amanda Palmer, Al Jazeera's head of entertainment, to talk about what provoked this ethnic comedy, which is infused with as many Jewish jokes as it is Muslim; the director of the film, Josh Appignanesi, also joins the FPS audience to talk about the challenges of shooting a comedy. The Taqwacores Islam and Punk collide in The Taqwacores The Taqwacores is the unlikely collision of "Islam" and "punk" forged by young American-born Muslims attempting to reconcile the different sides of their identity. It all began when Michael Muhammad Knight wrote the novel of the same name, in which he imagined moving into a house of punk Muslims. The book became an underground sensation and spawned a real movement of Muslim punk bands. Now, director Eyad Zahra has turned The Taqwacores into a feature film which launched at this year's Sundance film festival. The Fabulous Picture Show was there when director Zahra, his cast and crew, original author Knight and the real Taqwacore punk bands all descended on Sundance in Park City, Utah, to launch the film. The controversial low budget feature tells the story of Yusef, a strait-laced Pakistani-American student looking for Muslim room-mates. He finds the house of Taqwacores, where everyone is indeed a Muslim, but finds his ideas of his faith challenged by his new friends who mix Quranic study with music, sex and partying. The Fabulous Picture Show is with them from their punkish accommodation – everyone staying on the floor in one big house – through the press interviews where they attempt to explain the controversial film to both secular/Christian Americans and Muslims, and all the way to the movie's world premiere. 12 Angry Lebanese Prisoners perfom in 12 Angry Lebanese Gutsy theatre director Zeina Daccache has a history of working with traumatised and disadvantaged people – but when she decided to mount the play 12 Angry Men in Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, she went a step further than anyone ever had before. Murderers, rapists and drug dealers were among the inmates who signed up for 15 months of her unorthodox workshops. For most, it was the first opportunity they’d had to reflect on their crimes and emotional states. Together, they adapted the play to their own experiences, and the resulting production brought the performers face-to-face with an audience of government officials and curious visitors from around the world. FPS correspondent Lama Matta talks to Daccache about her new film, 12 Angry Lebanese, which documents this bold project and which she hopes will change attitudes towards prison therapy in the Middle East. This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Thursday, April 1, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600; Friday: 0030 and 0830; Saturday:1130 and 2330; Sunday: 0630 and 2130; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 0530, 1230 and 1930; Wednesday: 0300.

Source: Al Jazeera

Inside The Gender Jihad Women's Reform in Islam by Amina Wadud

In 2005, Amina Wadud made international headlines when she helped to promote new traditions by leading the Muslim Friday prayer in New York City. In her provocative new book, Inside the Gender Jihad, she brings a wealth of experience from the trenches of the jihad to make a passionate argument for gender inclusiveness in the Muslim world. Knitting together scrupulous scholarship with lessons drawn from her own experiences as a woman, she explores the array of issues facing Muslim women today, including social status, education, sexuality, and leadership. A major contribution to the debate on women and Islam, Amina Wadud’s vision for changing the status of women within Islam is both revolutionary and urgent.

Dr Amina Wadud is a professor of Islamic Studies and a mother of five. She is the author of Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective.

"Seen as a pioneering feminist, her last book, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam (2006) was partly an experiment in autobiography, and included details of the threats to her life in New York." Independent, The

“Readers of Inside the Gender Jihad will be taken on a truly thrilling journey - not just through the problems that confront Muslims today, or the many gender injustices that plague contemporary articulations of the Islamic faith, but also through the many forms of intolerable oppression, which have become interminable causes of human suffering in our world.”
Khaled Abou El Fadl – Professor of Islamic law and Jurisprudence, UCLA School of Law