on the road

Intervening in Afghanistan

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, On The Road on Nov 02, 2007

The debate is raging in various NATO countries - especially Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada - about how much longer to leave Western troops in Afghanistan. I’m sure I’ll be asked (or challenged) about the issue tonight, when I appear at a major bookstore in Canada’s capital, Ottawa.

Let me do my many critics a favour by tipping my hand. In a nutshell, here’s why I support humanitarian intervention in Afghanistan:

* Many Afghanis say they need NATO troops. Shall I pretend that the locals suffer from “false consciousness”? That they don’t know their lives the way that I, as a public intellectual, do? Doesn’t such haughtiness only replicate the neo-imperialist approach in which a distant elite lords it over the people on the ground?

* Yes, the mission in Afghanistan is marked as much by combat as by peacekeeping. But isn’t that what a soldier should expect? For the public to go limp when some of our uniformed women and men die (as 72 Canadians already have in Afghanistan) is to live a faithless fiction — and one that the Taliban loves to exploit. Religious fanatics rely on the international community’s rudderlessness. The less we stand for something, the faster we’ll fall for anything.

Soldiers, by and large, are proud to take a stand. Individuals sign up to the army knowing that they might be deployed to dangerous places and come home in coffins. Who exactly is the public fooling by denying this possibility?

* You can be anti-war and pro-intervention at the same time. Don’t take it from me. Take it from Ambassador Swanee Hunt, a noted feminist who teaches at Harvard and co-authored This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace. Read what Ambassador Hunt says in Newsweek’s special issue on “Women and Leadership”:

“When I studied World War II, I always wondered about the policymakers sitting behind their big mahogany desks as Hitler overran Europe.

Then, during the Bosnian war, I was the U.S. ambassador in Vienna. Suddenly, I was behind a big mahogany desk of my own, hearing horrifying reports from embassy personnel who were interviewing the refugees pouring into Austria.

The responsibility was awesome. I couldn’t sleep at night. I wondered if I should resign my position to protest the fact [that] my country was not intervening.

I decided I could do more by working inside than I could by leaving, but it was a terrible, terrible moral dilemma for me. I used every bit of connection I had to try to convince the president to intervene. And when Clinton finally intervened, the war was over very quickly. Meanwhile, 200,000 people died needlessly.”

Now, I realize my critics will pounce on Ambassador Hunt’s words, “the war was over very quickly.” That, they’ll proclaim, is the difference between Afghanistan and the Balkans.

But, in fact, strife in the Balkans is not over. Ambassador Hunt was referring to the genocide, not the reconstruction effort afterwards. Given the reality that peace and stability haven’t yet arrived in Bosnia or its environs, should intervention have been avoided? Is the 200,000 Balkan body count a fair price for sparing Western soldiers the opportunity to do their jobs?

If so, let’s come clean and simply declare Western lives more worthy of protection than the lives of women, children and minorities elsewhere. We owe ourselves — and the world — a modicum of honesty.

Hanson and hope

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, On The Road on Oct 28, 2007

 

Irshad, Isaac and Taylor Hanson, and Michelle Douglas

Last week, I blogged about speaking to a stadium full of students, all pumped by their potential to become champions for human rights. Dubbed “Me to We Day,” the event had the unmistakable feel of a rock concert, complete with, well, rockers.

At the after-party, the Tulsa-based band, Hanson, sent an emissary to me and my best friend, Michelle. “They want to meet you,” the emissary breathlessly whispered, chasing us down with a look of concern about why we’re bolting early. (Hey, I’d flown overnight to make the event; sleep dep had set in with attitude.)

Figuring it’ll be a five-minute hello and how y’all doin’, I happily stuck around. Twenty minutes later, the Hanson brothers were still engaging me and Michelle about social justice. Isaac almost foamed at the mouth. A flick of spittle hit my face. I embraced it, a sign that these guys are passionate agents of change.

Note to cynics: If Tulsa can give hope to Toronto, isn’t that a reason to salivate?

Since the event, hope has came in equal measure from students and teachers who attended Me to We. Here’s a sample of their emails to this site:

• No one ever said that “going against the grain” would be easy but you have truly motivated my students to get involved and speak out for those without a voice. - Michelle, 7th grade teacher

• Please continue to challenge common beliefs… It is time for religious reform. Most of the major religions are too archaic in their thinking. - Adam, 14-year-old student

A 14-year-old who knows the word “archaic” and uses it in a sentence: Yet another reason for hope.

If you want to watch the presentation I made, it’s streamed on MTV’s Me to We site. Look for “Me to We: On Demand,” then move your cursor over “19 segments.” A menu will pop up. Scroll down and you’ll find my video in three consecutive segments.

I walked away from the entire experience affirming that real education is about indie thinking. Hanson, an indie band that ditched the constraints of a corporate label, sealed my sentiment. To the entrepreneurs of the school, studio and stage, I submit a final thought: Rock on.

Imagine a stadium full of students…

Posted in On The Road, Announcements on Oct 18, 2007

… and they’re not drunk on anything but their capacity to change the world for good.

Sound like a Christian rock concert or a visit from the Pope? Well, maybe we progressives should learn a thing or two from the religious types.

I’m happy to report that we are learning. On Friday, I and other evangelists for human rights will speak to thousands of Toronto students and teachers about transforming our society. The event is called “Me to We” and you can watch it - LIVE - on MTV online starting at 9 am Eastern time.

The line-up of speakers includes Romeo Dallaire, former head of peacekeeping forces in Rwanda. He repeatedly warned the United Nations about an impending genocide. Under Secretary General Kofi Annan, the UN ignored him. But that didn’t stop Dallaire’s mission of compassion. He’ll be on around 10:30 EST.

With Betty at “Students Effecting Change” conference

As for me, I’ll go on at about 12:50 pm EST. My theme? Tune in and find out! You can grab a hint - but it’s only a hint - by reading the Toronto Star.

By the way, I’m taking a red-eye flight to Toronto so I can arrive at the event on time. The reason I care so deeply is that I’m moved by students like this, who recently wrote to me:

im a 14 year old girl and i find everything you do and have done with your studies amazing. you will be speaking on october 19 at me to we day and i greatly look forward to it. i also have your book the trouble with islam today and im constantly reviewing it. i am serbian croation and bosnian and my backgrounds fight like there is no tomorrow about stupid issues. i love the fact that you are out-spoken. - andrea

She’s a powerhouse of leadership potential. I, for one, will do everything I can so that percolating potential becomes kinetic energy.

Critical thinking: a right (and duty) of all Muslims

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, On The Road on Oct 11, 2007

Last night’s sold-out film screening at NYU drew a number of young Muslims who are genuinely struggling with Islam. One girl cried in my arms. Another wrote these words to me:

As a devout (but not extremist) Muslim myself, your documentary Faith Without Fear really touched me deeply. I think that it is important for Muslims who are frustrated/oppressed by extremist Islam to know that it is ok to follow the faith that is within their souls. Muslims need to know that instead of abandoning their faith or Allah, they can and should turn to ijtihad.

“Ijtihad” is Islam’s tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent. To restore this progressive tradition to the practice of Islam, I and other reform-minded Muslims have launched Project Ijtihad.

Of course, our critics are loud and legion. They insist that ijtihad can only be exercised by “scholars.” In that case, they ought to read a scholarly paper written by Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Ph.D.  To download the paper, click here, then go to the “Read and Learn” box at the right-hand side of the page.

Dr. Abd-Allah points out that ijtihad is a “duty of the first magnitude” for ordinary Muslims and not just for the elites. Throughout Islamic history, says Dr. Abd-Allah:

“… even the common people were required to perform their own type of ijtihad by striving to discern the competence of individual scholars and selecting the best to follow, a principle emphatically asserted by the majority of Sunni and Shi’i scholars and their schools.”

Today, he suggests, Muslims in North America are well-poised to revive ijtihad on behalf of Muslims everywhere:

“Like our counterparts in Canada, considerable sectors of the American Muslim community, in contrast to many of our co-religionists in the European Union, are highly educated and constitute, per capita, one of the most talented and prosperous Muslim communities in the world. Moreover, American Muslims, at least for the time being, enjoy a relatively favorable socio-political context with extensive freedoms and political enfranchisement. Few Muslims in the world today are in a more advantageous position to comprehend the essence of modernity and post-modernity and to formulate new directions for ijtihad in keeping with the best traditions of Islamic thought and the imperatives of an interconnected pluralistic world.”

I concluded last night’s event with a similar sentiment: We ijtihadists aren’t asking our fellow Muslims to import a foreign tradition or an alien virtue into the faith. We’re reminding Muslims that Islam itself once exhibited a tradition of indie thinking.

What in God’s name are we doing with that tradition now?

Tonight, Faith Without Fear at New York University

Posted in On The Road, Announcements on Oct 10, 2007

Note to New Yorkers: I’d love to see you tonight at NYU’s Cantor Film Center (36 East 8th Street). That’s where I’ll hold a screening and discussion about my PBS documentary Faith Without Fear.

We’ll watch the film from 7-8 pm, followed by my on-stage interview with the Wall Street Journal’s foreign affairs columnist, Bret Stephens. After grilling me, Bret will moderate questions from the audience. I’ll wrap the night by signing books and DVDs.

The event is co-sponsored by NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and the School of Continuing/Professional Studies’ Programs in Writing, Humanities and Arts. Seating is free but limited, so show up by 6:45 pm if you want a good space. Need more information? Here you go.

By the way, I’ll soon be joining NYU to initiate and direct “The Moral Courage Project.” To find out more, sign up to my confidential mailing list through the GET UPDATES box on the right-hand side of this page.

Faithful yet secular? Profile of me in La Presse

Posted in On The Road on Oct 09, 2007

A thoughtful piece (en francais) in one of Quebec’s most popular daily newspapers. The journalist, Rima Elkouri, explores with me the virtues and vices of multiculturalism, accommodation of minorities, universality of human rights… and the photo ain’t bad either.

“Faith Without Fear” DVD launch tonight!

Posted in On The Road, Announcements on Oct 03, 2007

Yep, that’s me in a hijab. GOTTA PROBLEM WITH IT?

You’re seeing the disc of my brand new DVD. If you live in Toronto, I invite you to join me at the Canadian DVD launch of Faith Without Fear. This documentary chronicles my journey to reconcile Islam with human rights and freedom of conscience. (Cynical Muslim friends have suggested I call it Mission Impossible, but I’m far more optimistic.)

Faith Without Fear premiered in America on PBS this past spring. Then it aired on Global Television in Canada. It’s now screening throughout Europe and parts of the Islamic world — underground.

This evening I’ll be above the ground, appearing at Indigo Bookstore (Manulife Centre) at 7 pm. Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo, will interview me on-stage. Of course, we’ll play parts of the film and hold a book-signing afterwards.

Can’t make it to the launch but want to watch the film and its special features? I humbly recommend buying the DVD. Bonus features include my interview with a young Muslim woman who’s also editor-in-chief of a major Middle East newspaper, a glimpse of the spirited debate in Turkey between Islamists and secularists, and behind-the-stage clips from my encounter with Muslims in Detroit. Can you say “entering the lion’s den”?

Celebrating Mahatma’s birthday

Posted in On The Road, Announcements on Oct 02, 2007

Tonight, I’ll be headlining a fund-raiser for World Literacy of Canada, an organization that promotes social justice and international development, particularly in India. The fund-raiser doubles as a birthday bash for Mahatma Gandhi. They love the Great Soul as much as I do. (In fact, World Literacy of Canada gave me the bright orange Gandhi shirt that I wear throughout my documentary, Faith Without Fear.)

This evening, I’ll be paying tribute to Gandhi by emphasizing his moral courage. What I mean is, Gandhi called out not only British imperialists, but also Indian ones. He spoke truth to power within his community, insisting that there’s no victory in replacing a white oligarchy with a brown oligarchy because it’s still an oligarchy.

By daring to ruffle the feathers of his “tribe,” Gandhi displayed a level of integrity that’s increasingly rare among activists. It’s relatively easy to confront outsiders. There’s honor in doing so. Far more dangerous to stand up to your own because the emotional risks, from accusations of selling out to marginalization of your loved ones, are that much higher.

But Gandhi firmly lived up to a simple principle: “Be the change you wish to see.” That ideal is worth celebrating even more than his birthday is. If you can join us at his party tonight, click here for tickets.

Looking up to Frank McCourt

Posted in On The Road on Sep 30, 2007

Just had the pleasure of meeting Frank McCourt, internationally best-selling author of Angela’s Ashes and, more recently, Teacher Man. We both spoke at the first annual Carmel Festival of Authors and Ideas, which wraps up today. (Photo: Adam Marks)

Speaking @ Google

Posted in On The Road on Sep 27, 2007

One of the central features of this site will be my blog. It’ll consist of various themes - from your feedback about my work, to my thoughts about current headlines, religious reform, social change, geo-politics, and, of course, Islam. I’ll also be posting dispatches from my travels. Here’s the first of them:

I’m speaking today at GOOGLE headquarters in California. In my talk, I’ll explain that digital technology plays a huge role in the mission to reform Muslim societies. I know this first-hand: The Arabic edition of my book, posted free of charge on this site, has been downloaded more than 250,000 times. A New York Times Magazine writer recently emailed me to say that the online translation is being circulated among youth in various parts of the Middle East. And check out this email from Lorena, an anthropologist, who wrote me through my myspace page:

“I’m an anthropologist doing research with Muslim women living in the slums of Kolkata, India. During my last trip there, I showed some of the women your website and the started reading The Trouble with Islam Today in Urdu.

One woman, Amina, runs a small NGO that operates a free school for slum children, and she immediately incorporated your work into her classes on Islam. Her comment on reading your ideas: ‘This is exactly what I have been saying!’ They now read and discuss your work together.”

I cringe at the label “slum children,” but when children living in slums have access to a critique of Muslims and are free to discuss ideas like mine openly, you’ve got to applaud digital technology. And the idea of global interdependence. Love it!

Pages (2): Previous 1 [2]