Al Jazeera TV recently ran the story, available here in Arabic, of massive demonstrations taking place in Egypt over a young Coptic woman who supposedly converted to Islam and was subsequently kidnapped by her Church. What I found even more interesting than the story itself was the way it was presented, and questions that could have been raised but were not even part of the equation.
Broadcaster Khadijah Qinna set the stage in her opening comments. Camellia Shehata was said to have accepted Islam and fled from her Christian environment. Some days later she was forcibly returned to her church by the Egyptian security forces. She has been detained by the church ever since. Thousands of Muslims are demanding that the government intervene to set free this Muslim convert whose human rights were violated when she was kidnapped by the church.
Khadijah then interviewed two Egyptian guests who presented quite different versions of what happened. Coptic human rights attorney Naguib Gabriel claimed that Camellia had simply left her house following a marital dispute and returned a week later. An office at Al Azhar University officially records all Coptic converts to Islam, and this office has no record of anyone with her name having converted.
Khadijah next asked Muslim scholar Fadel Soliman for his opinion. Fadel immediately went on the offensive, saying that of course Camellia had converted of her own free will and it was a lie to claim she had not. A campaign was being staged by the church to prevent people from choosing Islam.
This interview took place on 8 September. The following day Camellia herself released a Youtube video, available in Arabic here, in which she firmly denied that she had converted to Islam or been detained by her church. She acknowledged there were personal issues in her life that had caused her to leave her home, but did not go into detail about them and indicated they were certainly not the business of the government or the media.
As I tried to piece the puzzle together from the Arabic media and find out what really happened, the following thoughts crossed my mind:
1. The Coptic Church does not allow divorce. This puts Christian women who are in abusive or otherwise difficult relationships in an unenviable situation with no way out. It is possible that some of these women would choose Islam simply for the possibility of obtaining a state-issued divorce.
2. Al Jazeera described the thousands of Muslims shouting outside their mosques as "demonstrators". These were in fact not demonstrations at all, but simply crowds of men enflamed by the sermon they had just heard to shout curses and insults against the Coptic church and Pope Shenuda. It is sad to me that Egyptians are uninterested in demonstrating against the poverty, corruption, and illiteracy that exists in their own country, but can be whipped into a frenzy by an Imam's Friday sermon to protest an alleged conversion to Islam that did not even happen.
3. Muslims protest by the thousands to defend the rights of non-Muslims to convert to Islam, but it does not go the other way. It is impossible to imagine a demonstration at central Cairo's Tahrir Square with Egyptians protesting the right of a Muslim to become a Christian, or simply leave Muhammad behind. In reality it is not a question of "human rights" at all, but only "Muslim rights".
4. The story of Camellia Shehata's alleged conversion to Islam was conceived and spread by hatred. One Imam repeated it after the other, and the press and TV followed suit until it reached Al Jazeera and was broadcast throughout the entire Arab world. But it was all based on a lie.
5. Will Al Jazeera present Part Two of this story, acknowledging Camellia's testimony that she loves her Church and would never leave her Savior for Muhammad and Islam? Will Khadijah Qinna invite her as a guest as readily as she invited Fadel Soliman? I doubt it.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Kevin Higgins and a Night in Knoxville
While driving to a family reunion in the hills of northern Georgia last weekend, I stopped for the night in Knoxville. I knew that Tennessee cities are famous for live music and wanted to know who was playing where. Someone told me the Bistro on Gay Street had great food. Their website led me to the performer of the night, a singer-songwriter from west Texas I had not heard of named Kevin Higgins.
I went early for dinner to make sure I had a good seat for the nine o'clock show. Soon after eight Kevin arrived with his wife Barbara, the second person in his two-piece band. They looked tired, but began setting up their instruments and speakers. They had arrived with a local resident who was their host, and shortly before nine a few of his friends showed up. Kevin and Barbara began right on time, and played and sang their entire concert - for 6 people.
I loved every song. Kevin writes and sings about traveling across America, experiencing gratitude and heartbreak, making love under the stars, about small-town dreamers, drifters and schemers. I felt a connection, perhaps partially because he's not much younger than I am, and realized the gulf that separated us from the next generation. The Sapphire down the street was packed with hundreds of young people laughing and drinking, but no one wanted to hear the songs of a lifetime of hopes and disappointments. Even a few tables at the back of the Bistro had customers noisily enjoying each other but expressing not the slightest interest in the music. I was wondering how impolite it would be to ask them to please shut up.
At the intermission I went up to buy their latest CD, Find Your Shine, and struck up a conversation with Barbara. She was from Rochester and had found her way to Los Angeles as a young woman to immerse herself in heavy metal. Ten years ago she met Kevin. They both realized the LA scene was no longer theirs, and moved to west Texas to write and perform their songs. They were beginning a one-month tour that would take them up the East Coast and across the mid-West before returning home. They had been doing this for the past 10 years.
I wondered how they could make a living. Then I thought of the thousands like them, driving hundreds of miles every day to perform their songs to small crowds in bars, clubs, and restaurants across the nation. If I had a list of heros, I think people like Kevin and Barbara would be near the top.
You can hear some of their songs as well as check their schedule here as well as here. One of my favorites from the Find Your Shine CD, entitled Alone Star, goes like this:
Life and limbo in a motel lobby,
Call it a career or call it a hobby,
Grab your free cup of coffee and a muffin
and the road goes on....the road goes on.
I went early for dinner to make sure I had a good seat for the nine o'clock show. Soon after eight Kevin arrived with his wife Barbara, the second person in his two-piece band. They looked tired, but began setting up their instruments and speakers. They had arrived with a local resident who was their host, and shortly before nine a few of his friends showed up. Kevin and Barbara began right on time, and played and sang their entire concert - for 6 people.
I loved every song. Kevin writes and sings about traveling across America, experiencing gratitude and heartbreak, making love under the stars, about small-town dreamers, drifters and schemers. I felt a connection, perhaps partially because he's not much younger than I am, and realized the gulf that separated us from the next generation. The Sapphire down the street was packed with hundreds of young people laughing and drinking, but no one wanted to hear the songs of a lifetime of hopes and disappointments. Even a few tables at the back of the Bistro had customers noisily enjoying each other but expressing not the slightest interest in the music. I was wondering how impolite it would be to ask them to please shut up.
At the intermission I went up to buy their latest CD, Find Your Shine, and struck up a conversation with Barbara. She was from Rochester and had found her way to Los Angeles as a young woman to immerse herself in heavy metal. Ten years ago she met Kevin. They both realized the LA scene was no longer theirs, and moved to west Texas to write and perform their songs. They were beginning a one-month tour that would take them up the East Coast and across the mid-West before returning home. They had been doing this for the past 10 years.
I wondered how they could make a living. Then I thought of the thousands like them, driving hundreds of miles every day to perform their songs to small crowds in bars, clubs, and restaurants across the nation. If I had a list of heros, I think people like Kevin and Barbara would be near the top.
You can hear some of their songs as well as check their schedule here as well as here. One of my favorites from the Find Your Shine CD, entitled Alone Star, goes like this:
Life and limbo in a motel lobby,
Call it a career or call it a hobby,
Grab your free cup of coffee and a muffin
and the road goes on....the road goes on.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The Steamroller and the Mouse: Violent Versus Non-Violent Islam
In 1998 I watched an al-Jazeera TV interview with a handsome, soft-spoken, eloquent, charismatic young man I'd never heard before. He stated that after the first Gulf War, America had promised that its forces would leave Saudi Arabia, the land of the Two Holy Mosques, within six months. Seven years later they were still there. If American troops did not leave, he warned, America would be sorry. His name was Osama bin Ladin.
As I watched him I thought, "He really means this. I hope someone far above my pay scale takes him seriously." As it turned out, few people did. When American embassies were bombed in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, President Clinton's response was to send a few missiles to Afghanistan and blow up the al-Shifa (it means healing in Arabic) pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum. There was even less reaction when the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen two years later. It took 9/11 for America to realize it had a problem on its hands.
I had the same feeling - I hope someone other than me is taking this seriously - recently while watching this debate on al-Jazeera between pro-Jihad scholar Nader Al Tamimi and Muslim advocate for non-violence Jawdat Said, hosted by Dr. Faisal al-Qassem.
Leading up to the show, Faisal asked his viewers to respond to an online poll. The question was, Do you believe that a non-violent Islam is an impractical, outdated theory? Sixty-five percent of the respondents said Yes, only 35% said No.
Jawdat Said spoke first. He based his argument for a peaceful Islam on his understanding of human psychology and the Quran. Man was the only being created with a superior brain, he argued, and Allah intended him to use his brain and not his brawn to resolve conflicts. Allah offered this responsibility of moral integrity to the Heavens, Earth, and Mountains in Surat Al Ahzab (Quran 33:72) but they refused, so he gave it to man (Yes, he does take this literally). If Japan could rise from the rubble of WWII to become a world power without the use of force, and Japan did not even bear a spiritual message, what could Islam accomplish with its message from God's Final Prophet?
Faisal then gave the microphone to Nader Al Tamimi. Like a steamroller squishing a mouse, he demolished the arguments of Jawdat Said. "Praise be to Allah who gave Jihad as the most powerful weapon in the Muslim arsenal. Jihad brought Islam from Arabia to the Levant, and then to Iraq, North Africa, and as far as Spain. Jihad is a two-edged sword; it enables the weak to conquer new territory, and then protects Islam in that territory. After Khalid ibn al-Walid led the Muslim army to victory in Syria, he left to fight the Battle of Yarmouk. The Syrians wept asking, "Are you again leaving us to the Byzantines?" The Copts in Egypt begged the Muslims to save them from Byzantine rule, and the Spaniards pleaded with Tariq ibn Ziyad and Musa ibn Nusair to save them from the armies of the Visigoths. The Movement of Liberation through Jihad that was begun by Muhammad ended 10 centuries of Byzantine, Persian, and Visigoth rule, and spread Islam throughout the world.
"Our brother says he begins with the Quran! Surat Al Bakarah (2:216) says that fighting is ordained for Muslims whether they want it or not. According to Surat Al Imran (3:142), Allah keeps those who refuse Jihad out of heaven. They will plead that they prayed, fasted and performed the pilgrimage, but he will ask, "Did you do Jihad when it was imposed upon you?" Jihad is an individual obligation imposed upon us today. Our Prophet said that Jihad will continue unabated until the Day of Judgment. That is why I applaud the Mujahideen of Iraq who put an end to America's scheme for the region. President Bush said he was leading a campaign to change the map of the Middle East from Tangiers to Bahrain. The American Chief of Staff said after Iraq would come Syria, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Mujahideen in Iraq caused them to rethink their plans and flee, and the same thing is happening in Afghanistan. Allah says in Surat Al Baqarah (2:251) that he uses one group of people to push back another, so the earth is not filled with their evil. There are billions of bacteria in the human body, but our immune system prevents them from spreading disease. The immune system is constantly on guard; if it fails or becomes weak, the bacteria will prevail. An ideological form of AIDS is widespread throughout the Ummah, led by misguided thinkers, and only the immune system of Jihad will stop it. When the British ruled India a movement of Jihad arose to force them out. A similarly misguided thinker named Ahmad Qadiani claimed to be the awaited Mahdi and taught Jihad had been replaced by proclamation. There is a place for preaching, but there is also a place for Jihad. There is a place for treatment and medicine, but if the infection is too wide-spread the only remedy is surgery!"
Faisal next asked Jaudat if it were not true that preachers of non-violence such as himself were only tools in the hands of the West. He replied there was another side of Jihad, quoting a Meccan Sura (25:52) where Allah told Muslims to engage in Jihad against the unbelievers by earnestly preaching the Quran.
Faisal responded incredulously, "You want to engage in Jihad against Israel and America, who are trampling us underfoot, with verses from the Quran?
Jaudat replied that was correct, and he would prove it from Islamic history. When the parents of Muslim Amar ibn Yasir were killed by the Quraysh in Mecca, Amar sought revenge. Muhammad told him to be patient because he would gain Paradise. This Quranic principle of returning evil for good, said Jaudat, has been lost in Islam. Because we fight America with our weapons, we only gain their hatred and hypocrisy. Why not acknowledge that Western society has invented all the modern means of transportation and communication used today, and work with the West rather than resist it?
Only after Muhammad established rule in Medina, continued Jaudat, was force permitted to maintain justice. An early Islamic movement known as the Kharijites were as committed to Islam as are the Mujahideen today but they killed Ali, the Fourth Caliph and son-in-law of Muhammad thinking that would get them closer to Allah. Ali's death ended the Caliphate of the Rightly Guided and ushered in a circle of violence that has never ended.
It was back to Nader, who expanded on his earlier statement that Jihad is a two-edged sword. The first side, enabling the Muslim to conquer new territory, is Jihad at-Talab or offensive Jihad. Protecting Islam after it conquers that territory is Jihad ad-Defaa, or defensive Jihad. Every Mathhab, or school of thought, has agreed throughout Islamic history that if the Kuffar occupy a single inch of Muslim territory or take a single Muslim prisoner, it is incumbent upon each Muslim living in that territory to engage in Jihad ad-Defaa to force the occupier from that territory (Yes, this does include all of Israel). If the local residents are unable to achieve victory, neighboring territories are to help. If they are still unable to dislodge the occupier, the entire Muslim Ummah must get involved. This includes every man, woman, and child, young or old. Woman who normally cannot even leave the house without permission of their fathers or husbands are ordered to do so when waging Jihad ad-Defaa.
Nader was not about to leave unchallenged Jaudat's comment about the West being the Mother of Invention. They stole that concept from us, he thundered, when we ruled Spain. Why do we not invent and produce today? Our rulers will not allow us to. We must engage in Jihad to remove them from power. "I am not calling for riots in the street," he cautioned, "But I am calling for civil disobedience to change the situation."
As Nader had finished his first argument with an illustration from medicine, he ended this one with an example from agriculture. A farmer carefully cultivates his fields, he noted, for the good of his own livestock, not for that of the foxes and rabbits outside that he prevents from even entering the fields. Arab rulers today consider their countries to be their private farms, with the produce going only to their families and cronies and allies in the West.
As with most Arabic TV debates, the substance was all in the first half of the interview. The two men were more interested in getting their point across than in really listening to each other, and in the second half basically repeated what they had said earlier. I'd like to close with this comment:
As I noted earlier, Nader Al Tamimi came across as a steamroller and Jaudat Said as a mouse. But even a mouse is a giant in a colony of ants. Many of the "mice" find their way to the West, where we see them as giants of Islamic moderation and intellect. They teach in our universities, represent Islam on TV, and their books fill our bookshelves. They advise our Presidents, Diplomats, and Generals.
Just as we ignored Osama bin Ladin in 1998, we ignore the Nader Al Tamimis of 2010. Who has even heard of him? The "peaceful Muslims" would have us believe he is insignificant, only representing a fringe of the Arab and Muslim mentality. I'm just not so sure all is as calm as it appears.
As I watched him I thought, "He really means this. I hope someone far above my pay scale takes him seriously." As it turned out, few people did. When American embassies were bombed in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, President Clinton's response was to send a few missiles to Afghanistan and blow up the al-Shifa (it means healing in Arabic) pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum. There was even less reaction when the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen two years later. It took 9/11 for America to realize it had a problem on its hands.
I had the same feeling - I hope someone other than me is taking this seriously - recently while watching this debate on al-Jazeera between pro-Jihad scholar Nader Al Tamimi and Muslim advocate for non-violence Jawdat Said, hosted by Dr. Faisal al-Qassem.
Leading up to the show, Faisal asked his viewers to respond to an online poll. The question was, Do you believe that a non-violent Islam is an impractical, outdated theory? Sixty-five percent of the respondents said Yes, only 35% said No.
Jawdat Said spoke first. He based his argument for a peaceful Islam on his understanding of human psychology and the Quran. Man was the only being created with a superior brain, he argued, and Allah intended him to use his brain and not his brawn to resolve conflicts. Allah offered this responsibility of moral integrity to the Heavens, Earth, and Mountains in Surat Al Ahzab (Quran 33:72) but they refused, so he gave it to man (Yes, he does take this literally). If Japan could rise from the rubble of WWII to become a world power without the use of force, and Japan did not even bear a spiritual message, what could Islam accomplish with its message from God's Final Prophet?
Faisal then gave the microphone to Nader Al Tamimi. Like a steamroller squishing a mouse, he demolished the arguments of Jawdat Said. "Praise be to Allah who gave Jihad as the most powerful weapon in the Muslim arsenal. Jihad brought Islam from Arabia to the Levant, and then to Iraq, North Africa, and as far as Spain. Jihad is a two-edged sword; it enables the weak to conquer new territory, and then protects Islam in that territory. After Khalid ibn al-Walid led the Muslim army to victory in Syria, he left to fight the Battle of Yarmouk. The Syrians wept asking, "Are you again leaving us to the Byzantines?" The Copts in Egypt begged the Muslims to save them from Byzantine rule, and the Spaniards pleaded with Tariq ibn Ziyad and Musa ibn Nusair to save them from the armies of the Visigoths. The Movement of Liberation through Jihad that was begun by Muhammad ended 10 centuries of Byzantine, Persian, and Visigoth rule, and spread Islam throughout the world.
"Our brother says he begins with the Quran! Surat Al Bakarah (2:216) says that fighting is ordained for Muslims whether they want it or not. According to Surat Al Imran (3:142), Allah keeps those who refuse Jihad out of heaven. They will plead that they prayed, fasted and performed the pilgrimage, but he will ask, "Did you do Jihad when it was imposed upon you?" Jihad is an individual obligation imposed upon us today. Our Prophet said that Jihad will continue unabated until the Day of Judgment. That is why I applaud the Mujahideen of Iraq who put an end to America's scheme for the region. President Bush said he was leading a campaign to change the map of the Middle East from Tangiers to Bahrain. The American Chief of Staff said after Iraq would come Syria, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Mujahideen in Iraq caused them to rethink their plans and flee, and the same thing is happening in Afghanistan. Allah says in Surat Al Baqarah (2:251) that he uses one group of people to push back another, so the earth is not filled with their evil. There are billions of bacteria in the human body, but our immune system prevents them from spreading disease. The immune system is constantly on guard; if it fails or becomes weak, the bacteria will prevail. An ideological form of AIDS is widespread throughout the Ummah, led by misguided thinkers, and only the immune system of Jihad will stop it. When the British ruled India a movement of Jihad arose to force them out. A similarly misguided thinker named Ahmad Qadiani claimed to be the awaited Mahdi and taught Jihad had been replaced by proclamation. There is a place for preaching, but there is also a place for Jihad. There is a place for treatment and medicine, but if the infection is too wide-spread the only remedy is surgery!"
Faisal next asked Jaudat if it were not true that preachers of non-violence such as himself were only tools in the hands of the West. He replied there was another side of Jihad, quoting a Meccan Sura (25:52) where Allah told Muslims to engage in Jihad against the unbelievers by earnestly preaching the Quran.
Faisal responded incredulously, "You want to engage in Jihad against Israel and America, who are trampling us underfoot, with verses from the Quran?
Jaudat replied that was correct, and he would prove it from Islamic history. When the parents of Muslim Amar ibn Yasir were killed by the Quraysh in Mecca, Amar sought revenge. Muhammad told him to be patient because he would gain Paradise. This Quranic principle of returning evil for good, said Jaudat, has been lost in Islam. Because we fight America with our weapons, we only gain their hatred and hypocrisy. Why not acknowledge that Western society has invented all the modern means of transportation and communication used today, and work with the West rather than resist it?
Only after Muhammad established rule in Medina, continued Jaudat, was force permitted to maintain justice. An early Islamic movement known as the Kharijites were as committed to Islam as are the Mujahideen today but they killed Ali, the Fourth Caliph and son-in-law of Muhammad thinking that would get them closer to Allah. Ali's death ended the Caliphate of the Rightly Guided and ushered in a circle of violence that has never ended.
It was back to Nader, who expanded on his earlier statement that Jihad is a two-edged sword. The first side, enabling the Muslim to conquer new territory, is Jihad at-Talab or offensive Jihad. Protecting Islam after it conquers that territory is Jihad ad-Defaa, or defensive Jihad. Every Mathhab, or school of thought, has agreed throughout Islamic history that if the Kuffar occupy a single inch of Muslim territory or take a single Muslim prisoner, it is incumbent upon each Muslim living in that territory to engage in Jihad ad-Defaa to force the occupier from that territory (Yes, this does include all of Israel). If the local residents are unable to achieve victory, neighboring territories are to help. If they are still unable to dislodge the occupier, the entire Muslim Ummah must get involved. This includes every man, woman, and child, young or old. Woman who normally cannot even leave the house without permission of their fathers or husbands are ordered to do so when waging Jihad ad-Defaa.
Nader was not about to leave unchallenged Jaudat's comment about the West being the Mother of Invention. They stole that concept from us, he thundered, when we ruled Spain. Why do we not invent and produce today? Our rulers will not allow us to. We must engage in Jihad to remove them from power. "I am not calling for riots in the street," he cautioned, "But I am calling for civil disobedience to change the situation."
As Nader had finished his first argument with an illustration from medicine, he ended this one with an example from agriculture. A farmer carefully cultivates his fields, he noted, for the good of his own livestock, not for that of the foxes and rabbits outside that he prevents from even entering the fields. Arab rulers today consider their countries to be their private farms, with the produce going only to their families and cronies and allies in the West.
As with most Arabic TV debates, the substance was all in the first half of the interview. The two men were more interested in getting their point across than in really listening to each other, and in the second half basically repeated what they had said earlier. I'd like to close with this comment:
As I noted earlier, Nader Al Tamimi came across as a steamroller and Jaudat Said as a mouse. But even a mouse is a giant in a colony of ants. Many of the "mice" find their way to the West, where we see them as giants of Islamic moderation and intellect. They teach in our universities, represent Islam on TV, and their books fill our bookshelves. They advise our Presidents, Diplomats, and Generals.
Just as we ignored Osama bin Ladin in 1998, we ignore the Nader Al Tamimis of 2010. Who has even heard of him? The "peaceful Muslims" would have us believe he is insignificant, only representing a fringe of the Arab and Muslim mentality. I'm just not so sure all is as calm as it appears.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Burning Elvis and Burning the Quran
Thirty-five years ago my brother burned my Elvis records. At the time I was in India. He thought he was doing God's will. Included among them was Elvis' Greatest Hits Volume 1 which I had bought when I was ten years old. It contained Heartbreak Hotel, All Shook Up, Hound Dog, and Jailhouse Rock. I still remember most of the lyrics.
How did I respond to my brother's zeal for God? Other than, "Damn it Sam, wasn't that going a little overboard?" - nothing. I didn't hold it against him, try to burn his house, or threaten his family. I'd almost forgotten about it until this week when the furor surrounding a church in Florida threatening to burn the Quran brought it back to mind.
The media is all over this story. Google it, and you will find the pastor called every name in the book. Well, not really; read 20 stories and you'll see the same adjectives repeated 20 times. If the church goes through with its threat, I imagine every news channel in the world would love to be there with its cameras when the first ayah hits the flames. A rabbi here warned us of the seriousness of this action (tears), reminding us that people who begin by burning books end by burning people (heavy sobs). General Petraeus stated that American soldiers in Afghanistan will be endangered if the event is not called off.
I just have three questions, one for the media, one for the rabbi, and one for the general.
My question for CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and all the others is, Why are you focusing all your attention on the stupidity of the pastor, and none on the stupidity of the people who will kill, burn, and maim when their book is burned? No one will be hurt if the Quran is burned. Wounded feelings, Yes; wounded bodies, No. Bruised emotions, Yes; bruised heads, No. Injured emotions, Yes; injured people, No. Hurt sentiments, Yes; patients in hospitals and bodies in morgues, No.
And I have a question for the rabbi. You went on and on about the "sacred book". Have you read (I mean carefully read) what it says about your people? Do you know what Muhammad did to your people in Medina and Khaybar? Can you connect that, not just settlements in the West Bank and checkpoints at Gaza, with the hatred many Muslims feel towards your people?
My last question is for the general. Are you really telling us that we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and our soldiers are sacrificing their lives and limbs by the thousands, to help a people who will kill us if we burn a book 99.9 percent of them cannot read? (The only "Quran" is the Arabic Quran; any other translation is considered merely an interpretation and the vast majority of Afghans cannot even read that).
I guess I do have another question, one directed towards myself. Are we all going just a little bit crazy with our inability to think creatively, out of the box, beyond the pale of political and social correctness, or is it just me? Perhaps I was affected by the burning wax of those Elvis albums more than I realized.
How did I respond to my brother's zeal for God? Other than, "Damn it Sam, wasn't that going a little overboard?" - nothing. I didn't hold it against him, try to burn his house, or threaten his family. I'd almost forgotten about it until this week when the furor surrounding a church in Florida threatening to burn the Quran brought it back to mind.
The media is all over this story. Google it, and you will find the pastor called every name in the book. Well, not really; read 20 stories and you'll see the same adjectives repeated 20 times. If the church goes through with its threat, I imagine every news channel in the world would love to be there with its cameras when the first ayah hits the flames. A rabbi here warned us of the seriousness of this action (tears), reminding us that people who begin by burning books end by burning people (heavy sobs). General Petraeus stated that American soldiers in Afghanistan will be endangered if the event is not called off.
I just have three questions, one for the media, one for the rabbi, and one for the general.
My question for CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and all the others is, Why are you focusing all your attention on the stupidity of the pastor, and none on the stupidity of the people who will kill, burn, and maim when their book is burned? No one will be hurt if the Quran is burned. Wounded feelings, Yes; wounded bodies, No. Bruised emotions, Yes; bruised heads, No. Injured emotions, Yes; injured people, No. Hurt sentiments, Yes; patients in hospitals and bodies in morgues, No.
And I have a question for the rabbi. You went on and on about the "sacred book". Have you read (I mean carefully read) what it says about your people? Do you know what Muhammad did to your people in Medina and Khaybar? Can you connect that, not just settlements in the West Bank and checkpoints at Gaza, with the hatred many Muslims feel towards your people?
My last question is for the general. Are you really telling us that we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and our soldiers are sacrificing their lives and limbs by the thousands, to help a people who will kill us if we burn a book 99.9 percent of them cannot read? (The only "Quran" is the Arabic Quran; any other translation is considered merely an interpretation and the vast majority of Afghans cannot even read that).
I guess I do have another question, one directed towards myself. Are we all going just a little bit crazy with our inability to think creatively, out of the box, beyond the pale of political and social correctness, or is it just me? Perhaps I was affected by the burning wax of those Elvis albums more than I realized.
Monday, September 6, 2010
A Response from (and to) Kristiane Backer
Following this post in which I discussed Kristiane Backer's recent interview on al-Jazeera, she asked me to post her response. I am glad to do so, and will add a few comments. Kristiane said:
"Interesting observations although sadly biased and disrespectful towards Islam. I would never utter disrespectful words about any religion because they all come from God, and as Muslims we are asked to believe in all angels, scriptures and Prophets and make no distinctions between them. (Second to last verse in Surat Bakara)
Regarding your comment about repelling evil with good, this is actually a verse of the Qur'an. And of course every Prophet would have taught this principle. God sent different messengers with the same truth because people have always been weak and were deviating..
You left out my main point which is that we need to revive the spirit and the qualities of Prophet Muhammad. That we need to follow his inner teachings, i.e. his moral and ethical teachings rather than focus so much on the outer forms (length of a beard or size of a hijab). So you misunderstood and therefore misrepresented what I said as I have never emphasised the rituals but always the inner dimension. Godwilling you'll be able to read it in my book one day where I have elaborated this point in several chapters.
By the way I didn't say Islam is the best religion, maybe it was wrongly translated. I believe all authentic religions lead to God.
And in fact have a lot more in common than what differentiates them. The differences are on the level of form, (rituals) the commonalities in the ethical teachings+ the Divine root..
And yes it is important that we as human beings come together, focus on our commonalities, respect each other in our differences and work together for the common good.
Thanx
Best wishes and God's guidance to His light
KB
And my comments:
1. As someone who takes seriously accuracy in language and translation (and avoiding the bias and misrepresentation to which Kristiane feels I am victim), I checked to see if I had mistranslated her saying "Islam is the best religion". Kristiane spoke in an inaudible English that was translated into Arabic. I translated the Arabic back into English - a risky venture at best - and summarized her 50-minute interview in a few pages. I have now posted at the original post a full translation of her response to Ahmad's question. The relevant sentence was, "You will only be able to achieve happiness and spiritual enrichment through Islam. Islam is the best religion for that because it gives you a deep connection with Allah."
2. There is a difference between looking at a religion devotionally (as most people do) and examining it critically. Speaking devotionally, Kristiane says she would not speak disrespectfully of any religion. A religion is a system of thought just like capitalism, narcissism, atheism, or any other. It can be examined critically and does not need to be respected. Yes, you treat people with respect, including those who think the world is flat or was created 6 thousand years ago, or those who believe a person who did the things Muhammad did (or Joseph Smith for that matter) could be a Prophet of God, but you do not need to respect what they believe.
3. In response to my suggestion that "Respond to evil with good" was more like Jesus than Muhammad, Kristiane correctly said it was in the Quran. It's repeated several times, including 13:22, 23:96, 28:54, and 41:34. What I find informative is that these were all Meccan suras. My study of the life of Muhammad is leading me to conclude that Muhammad's relative, Nestorian priest Waraqa bin Naufal, taught Muhammad all he knew about the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel of Matthew to the Hebrews (the text followed by the Nestorians) with the hope Muhammad would replace him as the leader of Mecca's Nestorian Christians. Muhammad's union to Khadija was essentially a Christian marriage, and his message for 13 years in Mecca was a continuation of Biblical principles. For that reason, he said some things that sound like they came from the Bible. Only after Muhammad found a tribe to adopt him as leader and moved to Medina was he able to put his political and economic goals into practice. There was no "return evil with good" in the next 10 years of Muslim expansion until Muhammad's death.
4. Kristiane suggested I minimized her emphasis on the spirit of Muhammad, and exaggerated her references to the externals of Islam. The all-important question is, "What was the spirit of Muhammad?" Canon Andrew White, a man whose courage I greatly admire, writes that he encourages Sunnis and Shia in Iraq to seek reconciliation "in the spirit of the Prophet". The phrase breaks my heart and I do not believe he will ever succeed, because I see the spirit of the Prophet as the problem and not the solution. Again, looking at the trajectory of Muhammad's life during his 10 years in Medina and how he treated non-Muslims and women there (not isolated stories from the Hadith) gives a clue to the spirit of Muhammad.
Externals are extremely important in Islam. "Did you pray al-'Asr?" or "Is he fasting?" or "Is she wearing the hijab?" are questions you will hear much more often than, "How are you forgiving your enemies?" and "How are you doing in honoring your wife?" To me it is significant that al-Muhajabah, the veiled Kristiane who appeared on al-Jazeera (a photo can be seen here), and the woman you see on her website can hardly be recognized as the same person. I'd bet money it was a Muslim man who advised Kristiane to wear the hijab on TV, and as a submissive Muslimah she did so.
5. A billion Muslims around the world recognize that the farewell in Kristiane's email, "Best wishes and God's guidance to His light", is her invitation for me to join Islam. It is an invitation I respectfully decline.
"Interesting observations although sadly biased and disrespectful towards Islam. I would never utter disrespectful words about any religion because they all come from God, and as Muslims we are asked to believe in all angels, scriptures and Prophets and make no distinctions between them. (Second to last verse in Surat Bakara)
Regarding your comment about repelling evil with good, this is actually a verse of the Qur'an. And of course every Prophet would have taught this principle. God sent different messengers with the same truth because people have always been weak and were deviating..
You left out my main point which is that we need to revive the spirit and the qualities of Prophet Muhammad. That we need to follow his inner teachings, i.e. his moral and ethical teachings rather than focus so much on the outer forms (length of a beard or size of a hijab). So you misunderstood and therefore misrepresented what I said as I have never emphasised the rituals but always the inner dimension. Godwilling you'll be able to read it in my book one day where I have elaborated this point in several chapters.
By the way I didn't say Islam is the best religion, maybe it was wrongly translated. I believe all authentic religions lead to God.
And in fact have a lot more in common than what differentiates them. The differences are on the level of form, (rituals) the commonalities in the ethical teachings+ the Divine root..
And yes it is important that we as human beings come together, focus on our commonalities, respect each other in our differences and work together for the common good.
Thanx
Best wishes and God's guidance to His light
KB
And my comments:
1. As someone who takes seriously accuracy in language and translation (and avoiding the bias and misrepresentation to which Kristiane feels I am victim), I checked to see if I had mistranslated her saying "Islam is the best religion". Kristiane spoke in an inaudible English that was translated into Arabic. I translated the Arabic back into English - a risky venture at best - and summarized her 50-minute interview in a few pages. I have now posted at the original post a full translation of her response to Ahmad's question. The relevant sentence was, "You will only be able to achieve happiness and spiritual enrichment through Islam. Islam is the best religion for that because it gives you a deep connection with Allah."
2. There is a difference between looking at a religion devotionally (as most people do) and examining it critically. Speaking devotionally, Kristiane says she would not speak disrespectfully of any religion. A religion is a system of thought just like capitalism, narcissism, atheism, or any other. It can be examined critically and does not need to be respected. Yes, you treat people with respect, including those who think the world is flat or was created 6 thousand years ago, or those who believe a person who did the things Muhammad did (or Joseph Smith for that matter) could be a Prophet of God, but you do not need to respect what they believe.
3. In response to my suggestion that "Respond to evil with good" was more like Jesus than Muhammad, Kristiane correctly said it was in the Quran. It's repeated several times, including 13:22, 23:96, 28:54, and 41:34. What I find informative is that these were all Meccan suras. My study of the life of Muhammad is leading me to conclude that Muhammad's relative, Nestorian priest Waraqa bin Naufal, taught Muhammad all he knew about the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel of Matthew to the Hebrews (the text followed by the Nestorians) with the hope Muhammad would replace him as the leader of Mecca's Nestorian Christians. Muhammad's union to Khadija was essentially a Christian marriage, and his message for 13 years in Mecca was a continuation of Biblical principles. For that reason, he said some things that sound like they came from the Bible. Only after Muhammad found a tribe to adopt him as leader and moved to Medina was he able to put his political and economic goals into practice. There was no "return evil with good" in the next 10 years of Muslim expansion until Muhammad's death.
4. Kristiane suggested I minimized her emphasis on the spirit of Muhammad, and exaggerated her references to the externals of Islam. The all-important question is, "What was the spirit of Muhammad?" Canon Andrew White, a man whose courage I greatly admire, writes that he encourages Sunnis and Shia in Iraq to seek reconciliation "in the spirit of the Prophet". The phrase breaks my heart and I do not believe he will ever succeed, because I see the spirit of the Prophet as the problem and not the solution. Again, looking at the trajectory of Muhammad's life during his 10 years in Medina and how he treated non-Muslims and women there (not isolated stories from the Hadith) gives a clue to the spirit of Muhammad.
Externals are extremely important in Islam. "Did you pray al-'Asr?" or "Is he fasting?" or "Is she wearing the hijab?" are questions you will hear much more often than, "How are you forgiving your enemies?" and "How are you doing in honoring your wife?" To me it is significant that al-Muhajabah, the veiled Kristiane who appeared on al-Jazeera (a photo can be seen here), and the woman you see on her website can hardly be recognized as the same person. I'd bet money it was a Muslim man who advised Kristiane to wear the hijab on TV, and as a submissive Muslimah she did so.
5. A billion Muslims around the world recognize that the farewell in Kristiane's email, "Best wishes and God's guidance to His light", is her invitation for me to join Islam. It is an invitation I respectfully decline.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Kristiane Backer: From MTV to Mecca - How Islam Changed My Life
There is a battle of dueling ideologies taking place in the Arab-speaking world far beneath the radar of academics such as Bernard Lewis (The Crisis of Islam) and John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed (Who Speaks for Islam). This battle is not over what type of Islam will prevail but whether or not Islam is true; was Muhammad a Prophet of God, and is the Quran a revelation from God?
Two media entities spearheading this battle are al-Hayat TV and the al-Jazeera program Sharia and Life. When Zakaria Botros recently presented a series on linguistic and grammatical mistakes in the Quran on al-Hayat, al-Jazeera responded with a three-part series on how to read and interpret the Sacred Book. The first program, by Shaykh Ahmad Hasan Farhat and available here for Arabic speakers, was entitled "The Problem of the Quran". Grammatical disputes about minute details of the Quran might seem of little significance to most of us, tantamount to a discussion of whether "who" or "whom" should be used in a particular sentence. They are, however, extremely important to Muslims who believe that every letter of the Quran descended from Allah in perfection. Shaykh Farhat's explanation on al-Jazeera was basically a repetition of the circular argument often used by Muslim apologists that I have noted here. "The Quran is perfect, and can have no mistakes. Any grammatical mistakes found in the Quran are not really mistakes, because the Quran is perfect and has no mistakes."
I don't know whether or not it was coincidence, design, or fate, but the week after al-Hayat presented the story of Ruba Qewar leaving Islam for Jesus, al-Jazeera's Beyond the Borders did an hour interview with Kristiane Backer, a German woman who announced her conversion to Islam in 2005. She published her story in a book that appeared in German in 2009 and is presently being translated into other languages including English. The interview in Arabic can be seen here.
Kristiane was a well-known personality on Europe's MTV when she become a Muslim. Host Ahmad Mansour's first question was what her impressions were of Islam before she converted. Kristiane replied she knew little except that it had an old religious text and ancient traditions, and that it supposedly persecuted women.
Kristiane then referred to an unspecified personal crisis that caused her much personal anguish. It was that crisis, she said, that led her to Islam. She discovered that the spiritual emptiness in her life which she had hoped would be satisfied by a husband was instead filled by Allah. The crisis took place while she was on an airplane, and her immediate response was to think that if the plane crashed with her aboard her death would be insignificant. She subsequently met Muslims who spoke to her about Islam and played Sufi music that touched her more than any music she had ever heard on MTV. They gave her books that spoke of the freedom of the woman who submits herself fully to Allah.
On a trip to Pakistan she met some poor Muslims who extended love and hospitality to her. Immediately afterwards she flew to the MTV awards in Los Angeles, and could not help but compare the women she had seen in Pakistan with "the women who wore short skirts and had plastic surgery for breast augmentation and wore dark sunglasses in the middle of the night".
Kristiane visited more Muslim countries, including Morocco and Turkey, and became more and more enamoured with the culture and beliefs of Islam. She was informed that spiritual peace could only be gained by following Islam's teachings, and began to practice them herself. She began with Salat, the ritual prayers, attempted fasting during the month of Ramadan, and announced her Shahada in a mosque in London in April, 1995.
Kristiane noted that her first attempt to fast was disastrous. She had been drinking the night before, and by three in the afternoon of the first day had a headache and realized she could never make it to Iftar at sunset. The following year, however, she was able to fast successfully the entire month.
Without going into details, Kristiane stated that she lost her position at MTV, moved to another European channel, but soon lost that job as well. Following a period of unemployment, she relocated to London where she wrote her book and now prepares and presents TV programs on subjects such as holistic health and travel.
In one sense it was difficult for me to follow the interview, because from the very first sentence Ahmad did his best to frame her experience in the context of a persecuted European Muslim convert trying to live her faith in a hostile environment. He repeatedly asserted that she lost her employment simply because she chose Islam. Kristiane, who was speaking in English with an Arabic voice-over, did not specify why she lost her jobs but instead spoke of the great interest aroused in Germany when she announced on TV that she had performed the Hajj in Mecca in 2005. Muslims wrote to say they had been inspired by her faith; one woman said she was beginning to say her prayers again, and a man said he was about to purchase a bottle of alcohol but decided not to after he heard her testimony.
Asked why she had waited years after her conversion in 1995 to publicly speak about Islam, unlike some converts who begin preaching the day after their shahada, Kristiane replied that she was advised by a Shaykh to deepen her own faith before speaking of it to others. Even though she wanted to respond immediately to the negative image of Islam in Europe, she chose to wait years before doing so.
Ahmad next asked an interesting question. "Kristiane," he said, "There are many young Muslim girls who would love to emigrate from Mecca to MTV, but you went from MTV to Mecca! What is your message to them?"
Kristiane replied, "Yes, that seems to be true. Someone in Yemen read my story and sent me a message that said, "Our women want to go from Mecca to MTV, but you migrated from MTV to Mecca." That is only a spirit of consumerism that gives you nothing. You will only be able to achieve happiness and spiritual enrichment through Islam. Islam is the best religion for that because it gives you a deep connection with Allah. When we fast for 30 days to achieve Allah's satisfaction and pray 5 times a day, we link ourselves to Allah. People and women can do that, and remind ourselves of Allah in everything. We can do this and draw closer to him."
When Ahmad opened the phone lines, a caller asked how Islam could best be presented to Europeans. Kristiane replied that Muslims needed to return good for evil, and turn enemies into friends (comment: was it Muhammad or Jesus who taught that?). Muslims should remind Christians they are the People of the Book, emphasize things held in common, let them know the Quran paints a full picture of the Virgin Mary, and emphasize that the Quran honors all the prophets from Adam to Muhammad including Jesus. The prophet Muhammad lived an ideal, perfect life, worthy of emulation.
"Some people," continued Kristiane, "Attack Islam. They say Muslims blow up subways and carry out suicide attacks. What can we do in light of such accusations? (comment: well, how about starting with Muslims stop blowing up subways and carrying out suicide attacks)."
Ahmad asked for Kristiane's response to media reports that many Western women in particular are accepting Islam. She repeated that was correct, why should women not accept this religion that grants them respect and freedom?
Kristiane ended the interview by saying that in spite of all the internal moral strength and peace with Allah she received from Islam, she still had an unfulfilled dream of marrying a Muslim man. I would imagine many viewers would love to be that man!
It was extremely interesting for me to compare the interviews and stories, also available at their websites, of Ruba Qewar and Kristiane Baeker. I'd like to close with a few impressions:
1. As I noted above, Ahmad in interviewing Kristiane repeatedly tried to present her as a victim of Europe's Islamophobia. Although the Christians of Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Egypt truly are victims, that was not even mentioned in Rashid's interview with Ruba.
2. Although both women discussed the person of Muhammad, Ruba talked about the Muhammad who really existed while Kristiane made references to the Prophet she wish had existed. My guess is that Ruba could repeat in detail the biographies of women whose lives were impacted (or ended) by Muhammad, including Aisha, Zainab, Mary the Copt, Sofiya bint Huyayy, Umm Qirfa, Asma bint Marwan, and the unfortunate woman from the Makhzum tribe, soon to be without a hand (Book 017, 4187-4190), who had the habit of borrowing things and then denying she had taken them. I'm not so sure about Kristiane.
3. Although this would be a statistic hard to come by, I strongly suspect that a factor in many women accepting Islam is the influence (or lack thereof) of a man. It could be an absent, uncaring, or abusive father, with the woman becoming convinced Muhammad is the father figure she never had. It could be a Muslim boyfriend or husband, or a charismatic Shaykh. Even though many Muslim women are involved in dawah, calling other women to Islam, I still suspect the influence of a man is often part of the equation.
4. A large part of Kristiane's story, as with all Muslim converts, was the externals of the religion - prayer, fasting, pilgrimage. Muslims see the performance of these rituals as pleasing Allah. External expressions of Christianity seemed to be of much less significance in Ruba's story.
Two media entities spearheading this battle are al-Hayat TV and the al-Jazeera program Sharia and Life. When Zakaria Botros recently presented a series on linguistic and grammatical mistakes in the Quran on al-Hayat, al-Jazeera responded with a three-part series on how to read and interpret the Sacred Book. The first program, by Shaykh Ahmad Hasan Farhat and available here for Arabic speakers, was entitled "The Problem of the Quran". Grammatical disputes about minute details of the Quran might seem of little significance to most of us, tantamount to a discussion of whether "who" or "whom" should be used in a particular sentence. They are, however, extremely important to Muslims who believe that every letter of the Quran descended from Allah in perfection. Shaykh Farhat's explanation on al-Jazeera was basically a repetition of the circular argument often used by Muslim apologists that I have noted here. "The Quran is perfect, and can have no mistakes. Any grammatical mistakes found in the Quran are not really mistakes, because the Quran is perfect and has no mistakes."
I don't know whether or not it was coincidence, design, or fate, but the week after al-Hayat presented the story of Ruba Qewar leaving Islam for Jesus, al-Jazeera's Beyond the Borders did an hour interview with Kristiane Backer, a German woman who announced her conversion to Islam in 2005. She published her story in a book that appeared in German in 2009 and is presently being translated into other languages including English. The interview in Arabic can be seen here.
Kristiane was a well-known personality on Europe's MTV when she become a Muslim. Host Ahmad Mansour's first question was what her impressions were of Islam before she converted. Kristiane replied she knew little except that it had an old religious text and ancient traditions, and that it supposedly persecuted women.
Kristiane then referred to an unspecified personal crisis that caused her much personal anguish. It was that crisis, she said, that led her to Islam. She discovered that the spiritual emptiness in her life which she had hoped would be satisfied by a husband was instead filled by Allah. The crisis took place while she was on an airplane, and her immediate response was to think that if the plane crashed with her aboard her death would be insignificant. She subsequently met Muslims who spoke to her about Islam and played Sufi music that touched her more than any music she had ever heard on MTV. They gave her books that spoke of the freedom of the woman who submits herself fully to Allah.
On a trip to Pakistan she met some poor Muslims who extended love and hospitality to her. Immediately afterwards she flew to the MTV awards in Los Angeles, and could not help but compare the women she had seen in Pakistan with "the women who wore short skirts and had plastic surgery for breast augmentation and wore dark sunglasses in the middle of the night".
Kristiane visited more Muslim countries, including Morocco and Turkey, and became more and more enamoured with the culture and beliefs of Islam. She was informed that spiritual peace could only be gained by following Islam's teachings, and began to practice them herself. She began with Salat, the ritual prayers, attempted fasting during the month of Ramadan, and announced her Shahada in a mosque in London in April, 1995.
Kristiane noted that her first attempt to fast was disastrous. She had been drinking the night before, and by three in the afternoon of the first day had a headache and realized she could never make it to Iftar at sunset. The following year, however, she was able to fast successfully the entire month.
Without going into details, Kristiane stated that she lost her position at MTV, moved to another European channel, but soon lost that job as well. Following a period of unemployment, she relocated to London where she wrote her book and now prepares and presents TV programs on subjects such as holistic health and travel.
In one sense it was difficult for me to follow the interview, because from the very first sentence Ahmad did his best to frame her experience in the context of a persecuted European Muslim convert trying to live her faith in a hostile environment. He repeatedly asserted that she lost her employment simply because she chose Islam. Kristiane, who was speaking in English with an Arabic voice-over, did not specify why she lost her jobs but instead spoke of the great interest aroused in Germany when she announced on TV that she had performed the Hajj in Mecca in 2005. Muslims wrote to say they had been inspired by her faith; one woman said she was beginning to say her prayers again, and a man said he was about to purchase a bottle of alcohol but decided not to after he heard her testimony.
Asked why she had waited years after her conversion in 1995 to publicly speak about Islam, unlike some converts who begin preaching the day after their shahada, Kristiane replied that she was advised by a Shaykh to deepen her own faith before speaking of it to others. Even though she wanted to respond immediately to the negative image of Islam in Europe, she chose to wait years before doing so.
Ahmad next asked an interesting question. "Kristiane," he said, "There are many young Muslim girls who would love to emigrate from Mecca to MTV, but you went from MTV to Mecca! What is your message to them?"
Kristiane replied, "Yes, that seems to be true. Someone in Yemen read my story and sent me a message that said, "Our women want to go from Mecca to MTV, but you migrated from MTV to Mecca." That is only a spirit of consumerism that gives you nothing. You will only be able to achieve happiness and spiritual enrichment through Islam. Islam is the best religion for that because it gives you a deep connection with Allah. When we fast for 30 days to achieve Allah's satisfaction and pray 5 times a day, we link ourselves to Allah. People and women can do that, and remind ourselves of Allah in everything. We can do this and draw closer to him."
When Ahmad opened the phone lines, a caller asked how Islam could best be presented to Europeans. Kristiane replied that Muslims needed to return good for evil, and turn enemies into friends (comment: was it Muhammad or Jesus who taught that?). Muslims should remind Christians they are the People of the Book, emphasize things held in common, let them know the Quran paints a full picture of the Virgin Mary, and emphasize that the Quran honors all the prophets from Adam to Muhammad including Jesus. The prophet Muhammad lived an ideal, perfect life, worthy of emulation.
"Some people," continued Kristiane, "Attack Islam. They say Muslims blow up subways and carry out suicide attacks. What can we do in light of such accusations? (comment: well, how about starting with Muslims stop blowing up subways and carrying out suicide attacks)."
Ahmad asked for Kristiane's response to media reports that many Western women in particular are accepting Islam. She repeated that was correct, why should women not accept this religion that grants them respect and freedom?
Kristiane ended the interview by saying that in spite of all the internal moral strength and peace with Allah she received from Islam, she still had an unfulfilled dream of marrying a Muslim man. I would imagine many viewers would love to be that man!
It was extremely interesting for me to compare the interviews and stories, also available at their websites, of Ruba Qewar and Kristiane Baeker. I'd like to close with a few impressions:
1. As I noted above, Ahmad in interviewing Kristiane repeatedly tried to present her as a victim of Europe's Islamophobia. Although the Christians of Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Egypt truly are victims, that was not even mentioned in Rashid's interview with Ruba.
2. Although both women discussed the person of Muhammad, Ruba talked about the Muhammad who really existed while Kristiane made references to the Prophet she wish had existed. My guess is that Ruba could repeat in detail the biographies of women whose lives were impacted (or ended) by Muhammad, including Aisha, Zainab, Mary the Copt, Sofiya bint Huyayy, Umm Qirfa, Asma bint Marwan, and the unfortunate woman from the Makhzum tribe, soon to be without a hand (Book 017, 4187-4190), who had the habit of borrowing things and then denying she had taken them. I'm not so sure about Kristiane.
3. Although this would be a statistic hard to come by, I strongly suspect that a factor in many women accepting Islam is the influence (or lack thereof) of a man. It could be an absent, uncaring, or abusive father, with the woman becoming convinced Muhammad is the father figure she never had. It could be a Muslim boyfriend or husband, or a charismatic Shaykh. Even though many Muslim women are involved in dawah, calling other women to Islam, I still suspect the influence of a man is often part of the equation.
4. A large part of Kristiane's story, as with all Muslim converts, was the externals of the religion - prayer, fasting, pilgrimage. Muslims see the performance of these rituals as pleasing Allah. External expressions of Christianity seemed to be of much less significance in Ruba's story.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Ruba Qewar: From the Church to the Mosque Back to Jesus
If you are a well-educated young female Arab from an established Christian family in the Middle East, there is no easier way to get your fifteen minutes of fame than to announce you have converted to Islam. After Ruba Qewar made her shahadah in 2005, she was the darling of Muslim TV talk shows and the Arabic media. Things changed five years later, when she apostatized from Islam and publicly declared she was leaving Muhammad behind for Jesus.
Ruba was the guest for two successive weeks on Rashid’s Arabic TV program Daring Question. Arabic speakers can watch here and here.
The first question addressed to her, as could be expected, was why she left the religion of her ancestors for Islam. Ruba replied there were four reasons. First was that as a Christian living in a Muslim society, she always realized she was a minority, a second-class citizen. Second was the theological question of how could Jesus, an ordinary man, be God? Next was the linguistic attraction and power of the Quran when recited or read in Arabic. The final reason was that her Muslim friends asked her questions about Christianity she was unprepared to answer. Rather than resorting to Christian sources to find the answers, Ruba noted wryly, she looked up Islamic websites for their answers and became convinced they were correct. She was also influenced by ex-Christian scholars and authors such as Bart Ehrman, who left their traditional beliefs behind to announce they were now agnostics or atheists.
Rashid then played several clips of Ruba appearing on Muslim talk shows after she converted to Islam. I found it interesting that even in those interviews she admitted her main obstacle to becoming a Muslim was the person of Muhammad, the things he actually said and did. It was her desire to feel part of her society rather than a looked-down-upon Christian that caused her to finally accept Islam.
When asked about her relationship with her Christian family and friends after her conversion, Ruba noted she practiced the important Islamic doctrine of al-wala wal-bara, in which Muslims are not allowed to take non-Muslims (including family members) as friends.
Even after she publicly announced her conversion, Ruba still struggled with the historical Muhammad. She found it impossible to believe that a person who was maasoum, free from error, could do things such as I have described here. It was the linguistic pull of the Quran in Arabic, not the person of Muhammad, that had attracted her to Islam. She eventually aligned hereself with the Ahl-al-Quran (about whom I have written here), who believe that only the Quran and not the sayings and life of Muhammad (known in Islam as the Sunnah) are inspired by God.
Ruba was now studying in the United States, and married a Muslim from an Arab country. He did not approve of her affiliation with the Quran-only Muslims, and their marriage ended in divorce. She noted that 80% of Western woman who embrace Islam and marry Muslim husbands become divorced. (comment: this is even the case with women who write books about Islam, such as Maryam Kabeer Faye).
Before the divorce, Ruba's husband encouraged her to seriously study the Sunnah. She did so, and showed her certificate in Quranic recitation and her university degree in Islamic studies. She became very devout in her faith, praying more than the required five times a day, fasting more than the required month of Ramadan, avoiding contact and conversation with men other than her husband, wearing the full niqab, and leading dozens of people to Islam. Most of her converts were American women, although she was also influential in the conversion of several Arab female Christians.
The interviewer asked Ruba how she reconciled her new found faith with Muhammad's questionable acts such as marrying the nine-year-old Aisha, or encouraging his son to divorce his wife so the Prophet could marry his own daughter-in-law Zainab. She replied she learned these were things Allah allowed and even commanded his Prophet to do; her role, as is that of all Muslims, was not to question but simply accept. She quoted the Islamic doctrine that what cannot be understood by Aqel (reason) must be accepted as Naqel (divinely revealed and not to be questioned).
What was the beginning of Ruba's return to al-Maseeh (Jesus)? She said one simple but basic factor was the treatment of women in Islam. When she wanted to study fundamentalist Islam with one Shaykh, he informed her he would not teach her simply because she was a woman.
From her "Quran-only" perspective, Ruba began to examine what the Quran says about women and compare that with the example of Jesus. Even that is not allowed in Islam; the Muslim is not to study other religions because he or she might be influenced by them. One Hadith relates that Muhammad became angry when he saw the Caliph Umar bin Khattab with a copy of the Torah, "Why are you in doubt? Did I not come with the pure white message? If my brother Moses were alive, he would follow me." Christ's exhortation to the Jews in John 5:39, noted Ruba, was the opposite, "Search the Scriptures, for they testify of me."
Ruba reached a dilemma in her study of the Quran. As she found challenging verses, Muslim Imams told her to study their explanation in the Tafseer, the expositions written by famous Muslim scholars. But as she read the Tafseer and found the explanations even more unacceptable, the Imams told her to forget them and just read the Quran!
Ruba gave one example, the verse in Al Nisa (Quran 4:34) where men are told to Hajr disobedient wives before beating them. The root meaning of the verb means to isolate, or tie up and leave alone. English interpretations of the Quran translate it as "forsake", saying it means to have the wife sleep alone until she comes to her senses (to properly obey her husband).
But is that the correct translation? How does one of Islam's most famous expositors, Al Tabari, explain Hajr? "It does not mean forsake, because to just leave her and not talk to her is useless for the woman, since she is arrogant and does not want to listen or talk to her husband. If he leaves her alone, he will be doing exactly what she wants! The correct explanation of the verse means to tie her to the bed - like the Arabs tie a camel - and have sex with her by force."
(Muhammad's three-step program to deal with marital conflict as presented in English translations of Quran 4:34 never really made sense to me. Step one, according to these translations, is to admonish the wife. Step two is to send her to a separate bed, and step three is to let her have it - that's the beating part. Perhaps some female Muslim readers can explain this to me, but if you are having a fight with your husband and his response is to scold you and tell you to sleep in the guest room, along with a warning that he's about to get physical, how does that make you long for reconciliation? It will only make you fearfully submit, which is exactly what he wants.)
Ruba next began to debate with Arabic-speaking Christians in the chatrooms of Paltalk. To her surprise, she discovered there were logical answers to her questions about Christianity, whereas her doubts about the Quran began to increase (there is a reason American convert to Islam Yusuf Estes warns young Muslims, as I noted here, to stay away from Paltalk!).
To make a long story short (the longer version can be read here), Ruba discovered she had left one religion, called Christianity, to join another named Islam. In each of them she found contradictions, weaknesses, and failures in the lives of its followers. Her spiritual journey eventually brought her back to the person of Jesus, and his invitation to follow his example as a lasting pattern of life.
Ruba was the guest for two successive weeks on Rashid’s Arabic TV program Daring Question. Arabic speakers can watch here and here.
The first question addressed to her, as could be expected, was why she left the religion of her ancestors for Islam. Ruba replied there were four reasons. First was that as a Christian living in a Muslim society, she always realized she was a minority, a second-class citizen. Second was the theological question of how could Jesus, an ordinary man, be God? Next was the linguistic attraction and power of the Quran when recited or read in Arabic. The final reason was that her Muslim friends asked her questions about Christianity she was unprepared to answer. Rather than resorting to Christian sources to find the answers, Ruba noted wryly, she looked up Islamic websites for their answers and became convinced they were correct. She was also influenced by ex-Christian scholars and authors such as Bart Ehrman, who left their traditional beliefs behind to announce they were now agnostics or atheists.
Rashid then played several clips of Ruba appearing on Muslim talk shows after she converted to Islam. I found it interesting that even in those interviews she admitted her main obstacle to becoming a Muslim was the person of Muhammad, the things he actually said and did. It was her desire to feel part of her society rather than a looked-down-upon Christian that caused her to finally accept Islam.
When asked about her relationship with her Christian family and friends after her conversion, Ruba noted she practiced the important Islamic doctrine of al-wala wal-bara, in which Muslims are not allowed to take non-Muslims (including family members) as friends.
Even after she publicly announced her conversion, Ruba still struggled with the historical Muhammad. She found it impossible to believe that a person who was maasoum, free from error, could do things such as I have described here. It was the linguistic pull of the Quran in Arabic, not the person of Muhammad, that had attracted her to Islam. She eventually aligned hereself with the Ahl-al-Quran (about whom I have written here), who believe that only the Quran and not the sayings and life of Muhammad (known in Islam as the Sunnah) are inspired by God.
Ruba was now studying in the United States, and married a Muslim from an Arab country. He did not approve of her affiliation with the Quran-only Muslims, and their marriage ended in divorce. She noted that 80% of Western woman who embrace Islam and marry Muslim husbands become divorced. (comment: this is even the case with women who write books about Islam, such as Maryam Kabeer Faye).
Before the divorce, Ruba's husband encouraged her to seriously study the Sunnah. She did so, and showed her certificate in Quranic recitation and her university degree in Islamic studies. She became very devout in her faith, praying more than the required five times a day, fasting more than the required month of Ramadan, avoiding contact and conversation with men other than her husband, wearing the full niqab, and leading dozens of people to Islam. Most of her converts were American women, although she was also influential in the conversion of several Arab female Christians.
The interviewer asked Ruba how she reconciled her new found faith with Muhammad's questionable acts such as marrying the nine-year-old Aisha, or encouraging his son to divorce his wife so the Prophet could marry his own daughter-in-law Zainab. She replied she learned these were things Allah allowed and even commanded his Prophet to do; her role, as is that of all Muslims, was not to question but simply accept. She quoted the Islamic doctrine that what cannot be understood by Aqel (reason) must be accepted as Naqel (divinely revealed and not to be questioned).
What was the beginning of Ruba's return to al-Maseeh (Jesus)? She said one simple but basic factor was the treatment of women in Islam. When she wanted to study fundamentalist Islam with one Shaykh, he informed her he would not teach her simply because she was a woman.
From her "Quran-only" perspective, Ruba began to examine what the Quran says about women and compare that with the example of Jesus. Even that is not allowed in Islam; the Muslim is not to study other religions because he or she might be influenced by them. One Hadith relates that Muhammad became angry when he saw the Caliph Umar bin Khattab with a copy of the Torah, "Why are you in doubt? Did I not come with the pure white message? If my brother Moses were alive, he would follow me." Christ's exhortation to the Jews in John 5:39, noted Ruba, was the opposite, "Search the Scriptures, for they testify of me."
Ruba reached a dilemma in her study of the Quran. As she found challenging verses, Muslim Imams told her to study their explanation in the Tafseer, the expositions written by famous Muslim scholars. But as she read the Tafseer and found the explanations even more unacceptable, the Imams told her to forget them and just read the Quran!
Ruba gave one example, the verse in Al Nisa (Quran 4:34) where men are told to Hajr disobedient wives before beating them. The root meaning of the verb means to isolate, or tie up and leave alone. English interpretations of the Quran translate it as "forsake", saying it means to have the wife sleep alone until she comes to her senses (to properly obey her husband).
But is that the correct translation? How does one of Islam's most famous expositors, Al Tabari, explain Hajr? "It does not mean forsake, because to just leave her and not talk to her is useless for the woman, since she is arrogant and does not want to listen or talk to her husband. If he leaves her alone, he will be doing exactly what she wants! The correct explanation of the verse means to tie her to the bed - like the Arabs tie a camel - and have sex with her by force."
(Muhammad's three-step program to deal with marital conflict as presented in English translations of Quran 4:34 never really made sense to me. Step one, according to these translations, is to admonish the wife. Step two is to send her to a separate bed, and step three is to let her have it - that's the beating part. Perhaps some female Muslim readers can explain this to me, but if you are having a fight with your husband and his response is to scold you and tell you to sleep in the guest room, along with a warning that he's about to get physical, how does that make you long for reconciliation? It will only make you fearfully submit, which is exactly what he wants.)
Ruba next began to debate with Arabic-speaking Christians in the chatrooms of Paltalk. To her surprise, she discovered there were logical answers to her questions about Christianity, whereas her doubts about the Quran began to increase (there is a reason American convert to Islam Yusuf Estes warns young Muslims, as I noted here, to stay away from Paltalk!).
To make a long story short (the longer version can be read here), Ruba discovered she had left one religion, called Christianity, to join another named Islam. In each of them she found contradictions, weaknesses, and failures in the lives of its followers. Her spiritual journey eventually brought her back to the person of Jesus, and his invitation to follow his example as a lasting pattern of life.
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