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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