Hamza Yusuf’s Speech

Watching what we could of Yusuf’s speech today had me thinking about what was going on back in 2004 and presently.  Back in 2001 I was in the 8th grade and believe me what happened on September 11th rattled me and I bought into the whole Muslim’s are extremist who have nothing better to do than blow up innocent people by flying planes into buildings.  However, as I got older I didn’t see Muslim’s in this way and realized that not everybody who practices Islam is like this.  Watching the video today furhter enforced this because watching the speech made me realize that many Muslims as a whole, are tired of being depicted as terrorists.  Here was a man, one of the most outspoken Muslim American’s rallying a crowd into rejecting those who fight in the name of God  because it never looks good. The same could be said with the crusades as Yusuf mentioned; it gave Christianity a bad name and the Church knew this, Just as Yusuf and many other Muslims knew this.

I think that killing in the name of God is horrible and that nothing good can ever come of it.  The only thing that it creates is more killing and bloodshed with both sides killing in the name of God and I’m sure He doesn’t want this.  How many lives must be lost to religious extremist before they realize that they’re not helping in anyway possible? Now I’m not talking about only extremist who are from the middle east, but I’m talking about extremist from all over the world.  This seriously needs to stop and I think that educating the youth is the best way to do this.  If we can reach to children and teach them the right ways of following God, then I think we can phase out these extremists who plague every religion out there.

It’s a nice thought, but…

When I told my parents what classes I would be taking this semester, it was all very run-of-the-mill; biology, chemistry, psychology… intro to Islam… It was the last one that got them. “Why are you taking that?” was the first question they asked. I told them that I wanted to learn more about the religion that receives so much prejudice these days and that I want to learn about something of which I have no prior knowledge. So, now my parents are all interested and over the weekend, my step-mom gave me a cut-out from the weekly church bulletin. It is entitled “Islam 101″ and contrasts Jesus in the Bible and Jesus in the Qur’an. The whole thing was kind of disappointing. It almost seemed as if the writer was trashing the contents of the Qur’an (at least in regard to Jesus) instead of teaching this particular Catholic Church about a different religion. The whole thing was kind of annoying but I thanked my step-mom for saving it. Then she made a remark along the lines of “well, at least we’re reading it, I think most people just put it in the trash”. So, on top of the article being annoying what really got me was that what she said is true the majority of the time; people are ignorant and don’t care to educate themselves about things that don’t directly impact their day-to-day lives. So, what’s worse in this catch-22? A biased article which fails its purpose or a group of ignorant people?

Is Our Ethnocentric Form of Instruction the Cause of the Clash Between the Islamic World and the Western World?

Before today’s lecture began, I decided to blog about perceptions and paradigms. The lecture only affirmed the thoughts I had earlier. Thoughts which interrupted the much happier things a mind can be consumed with; scantily clad women, delicious baked goods and the exciting possibilities of day-to-day life (should I rent a movie). Let that be insight into what commonly fills my mind. I digress.

It occurred to me, in a puberty-esque moment, that we live in spheres (not only of influence, but of information) of history. History is radically important. Most powerful governments attempt to mold and shape history: like the U.S. Congress did in 1987 when they re-evaluated what should be taught to children or in regards to the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust and pogroms abroad. History (when they allowed scholars to spend a decade researching what real American History is versus what is taught, they unanimously decided to throw the research in the trash) probably has the greatest influence on our outlooks and perspectives. Although we believe we’re 300 million unique and individual people – and to some extent we are – we’ve actually been educated in the exact same form with the exact same cookie-cut structure. I’ve seen many middle school/elementary/high school U.S. History syllabuses across this great nation. They’re all the same.

America (RIP Bernie Mac), does this not bother you?

We’ve only been educated about the Latin-derived world. Scholars – unbeknown by the average American – have made contributions to the progress of the human nation before other scholars (who are known by the average american) have. Coincidentally (sarcasm), the former scholars tend to originate from other spheres and the latter scholars tend to be born and bred from our own or the ancestors of our own. Even at this University, we have not been educated about Ibn Sina (whose name has been latinized to Avicenna) in Philosophy courses regarding skepticism but instead we learn about Hume and Descartes who have basically rehashed his arguments centuries later. We go from the western Socrates to the western Berkley without even stopping at the other worlds of our universe. We have not been taught about Averroes (in regards to secularism) but instead about fine English/European men like John Lock and Max Weber. Look up Pascal’s Wager and read the ending of the fourth chapter of Al-Ghazali and ask yourself why we call it Pascal’s Wager and not Ali’s ______. Frankly, maybe we have this American arrogance because our history is faulty. Maybe we do not attribute (and when we do, we latinize their names) the scholars of the Muslim Empire enough for our children to understand the contributions they have made. Maybe this leads to wrongful contempt, ethnocentrism and our righteousness. Maybe this is why we are keen to dictate the future of other soverign nations because in our history books – the only things we know – we (or our ancestors) have made the civilized world progress and it is our scholars who turn this world. This happens in regards to Asian scholars, Islamic scholars, Russian scholars and African scholars. Maybe our clash with these other worlds begins at the ethnocentric form of instruction in regards to history today.

What I know right now

I don’t know much about Islam, but this is what I do know. I know that Islam is the second most popular religion with about 2 billion people around the world who are practicing Islam. I also know that Muslims follow the teachings from the Qur’an, which is said to be the teachings revealed to Muhammad by God. I also know that Muhammad is a very important figure in the religion of Islam. I know that most Muslims are not violent like the media shows us, but they are peaceful people. This is all I know right now, which is pretty small. I hope that the class will teach me a lot more about the religion of Islam.

Confusion of Ramadan

Since Ramadan started today for some Muslims, I wanted to talk about the confusion Muslims have regarding when the month of Ramadan starts and when we celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr. Some Muslims started fasting today, whereas, other Muslims in nearby suburbs and Chicago are fasting tomorrow. I fail to understand how we all live in close proximity to one another, yet we cannot agree on the starting date. Do people who live half an hour away from each other see a different moon or count the days differently? The same confusion goes with Eid. In the past years, the Islamic Foundation in Villa Park has announced Eid on one day, whereas, others celebrate on another. Because of their disagreement, Muslims are always confused as to which day marks the end of Ramadan and fasting. It is extremely frustrating and disappointing as to the lack of unity the various committees have regarding the month of Ramadan and Eid. I would absolutely love if the deciding committees could agree on the dates just once. Just once.

How are we the same?

One day I was having a conversation about religion with two friends of mine, one of whom is Jewish and one who is Muslim (I am a Lutheran). One comment that my Muslim friend made to me that I found particulary interesting was that he saw Martin Luther as having taken an Islamic approach to Christianity, as in both Islam and many Protestant demoninations there is not a rigid hierarchy of a priesthood, it is based much more on establishing a direct relationship between the individual and God. This is something that I found to be very interesting, and I have been thinking about it ever since. I was wondering if there was any other connections like this between Islam and other religions. When different religions disagree on matters of theology and interpertation, is it possible for them to come together by seeing how they approach God in the same way?