A Portrait of Courage & a Vision of Hope

I recently read an article by Asra Q Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and author of "Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam." She is an American Muslim, born in India. From a young age, she broke the rules, like praying close to the males during Ramadan prayers. An all-male tribunal tried to ban her and scare her off. They demanded that she stop writing and criticizing the way their faith was practiced. This has become more common in the past decade. She explains that this is largely because of the rising power and influence of the "ghairat brigade," an honor corps that tries to silence debate on extremist ideology in order to protect the image of Islam. It meets even sound critiques with hideous, disproportionate responses. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation - comprising the world's 56 countries with large Muslim populations – was created to combat Islamophobia and projecting the "true values of Islam." This created a watchdog group with the goal of documenting slights against the faith. The Danish cartoons of Muhammad and of course Charlie Hebdo were some of those documented slights.

Communities of self-styled blasphemy police arose and began trying to control the debate on Islam. She says, "The official and unofficial channels work in tandem, harassing, threatening and battling introspective Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere. They bank on an important truth: Islam as practiced is a SHAME-BASED patriarchal culture that values honor and face-saving from the family to the public square." Charlie Hebdo, a frequent target, is not the only evidence that, to self-appointed defenders of the faith, a call to kill the message, becomes a call to kill the messenger. She states, "Murders like this would be much harder to radicalize in a climate that welcomed debate about Islam, rather than seeking revenge on its critics. But in so many Muslim communities, saving face trumps critical thinking and truth-telling. This is why reform within Islam is so difficult."

For her part, she continues to push American Muslims to root out extremism, arguing that certain passages of the Quran are too antiquated for our times. The author goes on to say that a new interpretation of Islamic law is needed that would require rejecting the 8 schools of religious thought that dominate the Sunni and Shiite Muslim world. She proposes the new one,"ijtihad", the concept of critical thinking and elevating self-examination over toxic shame based discourse, laws and rules. Such a project could take the power out of the hands of the status quo clerics, politicians and experts and replace it with a progressive interpretation of faith motivated not by defending honor, but acting honorably. 

Islam has never gone through a religious reformation in 1500 years. I've always maintained, that America is good for religion, it allows for debate, free thinking and new interpretations. Maybe what we are seeing here is the beginning of those ideas starting to take root and grow. I applaud her efforts!

Based on what some of the American Muslim clerics are saying, “the true Islam is a religion of love and they reject Islamic extremism,” it would be a good start if they could look into their traditions and find the Life First Values we call TOV. We know the violent histories of Judaism and Christianity. Anytime the legal authority to use political sanctioned force is placed in the hands of religious leaders – any religious leaders – the chances of that religion becoming a source of violence increasing exponentially.

I hope that a group of Muslim leaders will rise up and incorporate new interpretations of their faith that make life the top priority and highest value of Islam, especially in their communities in America. I also hope that Jewish and Christian leaders will teach their communities about the darker periods of their traditions. Religion is a powerful force in shaping the minds of people and the cultures of societies. History records how that power had been the source of many acts If not, shame, face-saving and the preference for death will keep them where they are, a place of TOV or its opposite RA:

Acts of TOV protect life, preserve life, make life more functional, and increase the quality of life.

Acts of RA destroy life, threaten life, make life less functional, and decrease the quality of life.

 RA is the word that is translated “evil.” Read its definition again so you can keep it in mind when you hear the word “evil” again. And, for those from biblical traditions, let’s not forget that the first act of murder in the Torah was that of brother against brother over a religious ritual – Cain murdered Abel because he believed God preferred Abel’s offering over his.

Before the murder, God explained what He considered more important than religious rituals – If you do TOV you will do well. Doing TOV and Choosing Life brings honor, saves face, elevates, motivates, and empowers all people. It repairs the world.

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

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