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Trouble at home and abroad
He was blunt, "Got the
f---ing Koran have you? Got bloody Islam? Going round dressed like that, who the
hell do you think you are?" Racial abuse is one thing but this was the first
time I had been abused for being a Muslim, writes Waseef Asghar.
The personal is political
Political engagement is not only compatible to the quest for individual
spirituality, it follows from it, argues
Salma Yaqoob
Right this way
Conservative values are more compatible with Islam than the Muslim community is
ready to admit, writes Hassan Scott.
Love even those who revile you
Shaykh
Hamza Yusuf talks to Nazim Baksh about the search for virtue, beauty and love in
an age of hate, animosity and resentment.
Treading new ground with charity
Ramadan without charity
is like a mosque without an adhan - it just doesn't work. But it turns
out, giving charity isn't as easy as it seems. Indlieb Farazi followed the
travails of two unique projects to find out why.
Muslim travellers in 18th
century Britain
By the
eighteenth century, with its economic and military dominance already globally
well established, Britain began to be visited by a number of educated and
inquisitive Muslim travelers for a variety of reasons. Their unique experiences
were occasionally committed to print, offering a fascinating insight into
attitudes towards the Muslim ‘other’ in a nascent imperial Britain. Mohammed
Siddique Seddon offers some examples.
The Oxbridge connection
The
election of Michael Howard to the Tory leadership has brought a familiar club
back to the front benches of the commons. Hasna Fateh explores the scope of
Britain’s most celebrated academic fellowship.
A subversive presence:
Catholics and Jews in 1920s America
The
struggle of American Jews and Catholics for recognition and civil rights in the
1920s should be source of hope and inspiration for today’s Muslims, writes
Anthony McRoy.
Eclipses of Apocalypse
The
lunar and solar eclipses of Ramadan have caught the imagination of some Muslim
who say the phenomena herald the coming of the Mahdi. Butros Al-Bakr takes
another look at the evidence.
Letter from France, by Catherine Makereel
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FROM THE PULPIT
December
2003, Issue 352
READ
THIS ISSUE ONLINE
Adobe Acrobat required
In the heat of the battle, Imam Ali found himself
straddling his enemy. A skilled and stealthy warrior,
the fourth Caliph of Islam was always decisive in
battle. Fighting only when the cause was just and
necessary, he now held his sword high, ready to
deliver the final blow. Then came the great insult.
The enemy, seeing his end was near, spit violently
into Imam Ali’s face. The sword came down suddenly,
not into the man’s heart, but back into its sheath.
Imam Ali quickly got up and withdrew from the fight.
The spared combatant looked relieved and exasperated.
Why had the great Ali let him live? I was fighting you
for the sake of Allah, in the name of God, Imam Ali
declared. When you spit in my face I felt anger rise
up within me, he continued, and I realized that I was
going to smite you, not in the name of justice, but
out of revenge for your insult – that was something
that I could not do. Muslims would be wise to embrace
Imam Ali’s convictions.
Dazed and confused, we have become a reactionary
community. Our circumstances are difficult, but it
does not help that we often allow our public discourse
to be driven by anger and resentment. Within days of
11 September 2001, Q-News sidestepped the conspiracy
theorists, the Bin Laden apologists and the blind
patriots and took a less popular course. Articulated
by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and others, we set out on the
path of introspection. Along the way we didn’t forget
the massacre at Jenin (in fact, Fuad Nahdi was one of
the first journalists inside the devastated camp),
Guantanamo Bay, the bombing of Afghanistan or the
illegitimate war on Iraq. What we called for was
balance. Our faith instructs us to hold ourselves to
account, before holding others to account. It was
unpopular and at times we stumbled, but we have tried
to stay true to the sentiments of Imam Ali. We will
not stay silent and let our community be guided by
anything but love, mercy and justice.
In an exclusive interview with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, we
explore the path of introspection once again. It is a
clarion call for spiritual excellence in an age that
celebrates the ego and elevates the passions. His
ongoing dialogues with leading thinkers like Noah
Feldman, also featured inside, continue to give the
message of Islam relevance and vibrancy.
The cover story on “Islam and Democracy” has been
several months in the making. Polarized between the
party of rejection, who equate democracy with
unbelief, and the party of accommodation, who are
content with photo ops and token representation, we
have sought to find a middle ground. We believe that
Muslims are capable of intelligent and meaningful
participation in society as full citizens and
stakeholders in the future of the countries we call
home. We have brought together some of today’s most
visionary and exciting voices to challenge the status
quo. People like Tariq Ramadan, Salma Yaqoob and
Khalida Khan are not just thinkers, but activists.
They are ruffling plenty of feathers, but their ideas
will impact the direction of the community for years
to come.
Q-News has for over a decade pushed the envelope of Muslim discourse
in Britain and beyond. Our readers have never been passive. They have always
willingly jumped outside the box to see the possibilities of our faith. These
are debates about your future. You have nothing to lose but your illusions. And
all success is from Allah.
Fareena Alam
Managing Editor
fareena@q-news.com
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The race for the Muslim vote
After decades of invisibility, political parties are clamouring for the Muslim
vote. Approach with caution, argues Khalida Khan.
Tariq Ramadan
What is the future of Muslims in Europe? Fareena Alam talks to one of the most
influential thinkers of our time.
Is democracy disbelief?
Kamran Bokhari challenges the tiresome militancy of those who seek a mythical
Islamic state. Noah Feldman and Hamza Yusuf on Islam and Democracy
Excerpted from a dialogue between Noah Feldman and Hamza Yusuf on 5 December
2003 in Toronto, Canada.
Untying the Knot
More and more Muslim women are stepping forward to report marital abuse in the
absence of legal protection from the state. Be warned, the problem is bigger
than we think, argues Fauzia Ahmed.
Carnage in Istanbul
As
Istanbul residents reel from November’s devastating terror attacks, Mohamed
Bakari takes a closer look at a city picking up the pieces and trying to find
its soul. Racists
from the Left
Recent events have given British Muslims a foretaste of the
future: George W. Bush and Tony Blair delve deeper into political crisis over
Iraq, and with elections looming, they resort to the use of their own “weapons
of mass distraction”: Islamophobia.
Opposing British terror at home
Long before Bush declared a ‘war on terror’, Britain already had a head start in
terrorising immigrant communities and political protest through anti-terror
measures. The Campaign against criminalizing communities tells the story of how
ordinary people are challenging state terror at home,
argues Les Levidow.
Write Mind: Fundamentally funny
Who
says Muslims don’t have a sense of humour? Nadeem Bhatti almost gave up his day
job to give Billy Connoly a run for his money.
What you ought to know about Hajj,
by Faraz Rabbani Book Review: Islam under siege, by Akhtar Faruqui
Invocation:
The Prayer of Women
Book
Extract: Shems Friedlander on Friendship and Loyalty
TV Review: Witness to Hatred, by Arzu Merali
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