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Your letters - posted January 1, 2006

Posted in Q & A on Jan 01, 2006

Posted January 1, 2006

Happy 2006! With the New Year comes a new translation of The Trouble with Islam Today. In response to a flood of requests from Iranians, the Persian (Farsi) version is now available to download free of charge. Click here and spread the word.

Meanwhile, readers around the world continue to write me. If you want to glimpse the cool, weird, and sometimes mind-blowing stuff happening in global Islam, read these letters…

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

“I live in Dubai. I’m about to return there from Toronto and will bring your book with me as it’s not available in the UAE. You know what else isn’t available? Access to your website. This is the message I get when I try to log on:

We apologize that the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.

This from a country that is called ‘the Las Vegas of the Gulf’! You’d think they would get past the whole censorship thing by now. It’s amazing to me that they would block a site which promotes critical thought in Islam. Well, actually it’s not all that surprising considering the Saudis breathing down our necks next door. Still, it’s infuriating. STAY LOUD!” - T.A.

MALAYSIA

“I’m writing this after having a nice long conversation with my grandmother about why my family can’t stand the guts out of me. It’s not because I don’t hold the highly respected diploma in science or law. It’s not because I happen to work 9-5 in an office instead of for my husband that I should have married by the time I was 18. It’s because of the ‘sexy’ clothes I wear and the fact that I haven’t married my (non-Muslim) boyfriend of three years.

I come from a family where it’s perfectly okay to close one eye when a favourite son does drugs and a favourite granddaughter flaunts herself at boys while wearing what we call the ‘tudung’ (headscarf). But people like me are considered KAFIRS. I have threatened that if they make me dump my man, I will find myself a woman and never get married (okay, you might take offence at that — sorry!). To top it off, I’m from a one-parent family raised by a SINGLE WOMAN (the shock and horror of it!!!). Yes, all my younger siblings too are seen as the spawn of Satan because their mother DARED to divorce their father. We’ve even got a step-mother living with us who finds it perfectly fine to hit disabled kids and thinks it’s funny when her husband’s other wife miscarries a baby. Did I mention that she also wears the tudung? Gee, how her religion shows!

I don’t get it, Irshad. I seriously don’t. It’s sinful for a woman to follow her own ways but when a man screws around, he gets promised a bunch of hurs [virgins] and green velvet cushions in heaven. Even in so-called progressive Muslim nations like Malaysia, the rules are still fucked up. If I sound crazy, this is what happens when ‘faith’ is forced upon those who choose to follow it with a human brain and not with one of a sheep. That’s what this damn place is made of. Sheep. No wonder my friend from New Zealand said she hardly saw any when she lived there. They’ve all migrated here.

Even though I might not agree with ALL of your ideas, thank heavens you have come out in all respects — successful, loud-mouthed, un-scarved, female. Things we all need to be ashamed of. (Ashamed of creation. That’s just sick, ok?)” - Poiz

AUSTRALIA

“I am a believing Christian. My brother married a Muslim girl and I have inherited an extended Muslim family. The wonderful thing is, we all get on so well together. I can talk about God to my sister-in-law, Abida, much more easily than I can to most of my colleagues at work, who are atheists and consider faith to be ‘unscientific and ignorant.’

My mother and Abida’s mother love each other very much, even though there is something of a language barrier. Recently, when my mother was very ill, Abida and I knelt together and prayed to God for healing. We may not agree on each other’s form of worship, but we respect one another. We also know we that we are equally valuable before God.

Abida’s father had a lot to do with this. He told his family: ‘A good Muslim should be judged by what is in their heart, not by what they wear.’ This, I believe, is how you view your faith. Your book was a revelation to me.” - Zoe

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

“This is a moment of happiness and joy for all queer Muslim activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and since you contributed your advice, I want to share the news with you personally. After months of extremely difficult negotiations with the Bosnian authorities, and endless discussions on how we can possibly connect queer issues with Muslim issues, I am proud to announce that the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina finally made the International Initiative for Visibility of Queer Muslims (IIVQM) a legal, non-governmental organization. So, we are now the first-ever queer Muslim organization officially registered and legally recognized in a predominantly Muslim country!” - Vanja

FRANCE

“It’s very, very hard here for young Muslim gays of North African origin — living in the ‘sensitive zones’. They get hit with murderous hatred from the street/prison culture on one side and Islamic fanaticism on the other. In any school room in the zone, most of the kids have blacked out the photographs in their textbooks because ‘images are un-Islamic.’ Imagine being a young gay person in that kind of situation. The choice is between self-betrayal and personal risk… the degree of which is determined by where you live. Keep up the good work. I really hope they don’t ice you, Irshad. You are definitely living dangerously.” - B.

INDIA

“I am a Muslim and my ancestors were converts from Hinduism to Islam. I credit Islam for giving my family the self-confidence to leave a life of social and economic marginalization in rural India in the 19th century, and providing the impetus to educate themselves. My sister and I are urbane, articulate, successful professionals. I thank my ancestors for choosing the faith they did a century and half ago.

I was in the U.S. doing my Masters when the WTC and Pentagon bombings took place. I cannot tell you how sick I felt. I was taking a class at that time with a Jewish professor from New York. He was and still is one of the best teachers I’ve encountered. After September 11, I had no idea how to face him. A Muslim, determined to eradicate his race, had destroyed an iconic monument in his city. And he used my faith, Islam, to justify it.

When Bombay was bombed in 1991 by a Muslim terrorist, I considered that an attack on me. I stood squarely with other Bombayites as the wronged victim. But in 2001, I did not have the consolation of being a victim. I could not go to my professor’s class. Islam frowns upon cowards, and yet I could not tell him anything then or later on this topic. His attitude towards me never changed.

In the months following that attack, we Muslims moaned about how we were discriminated against. And in many cases, we were. I was physically assaulted on our college campus. But what Muslims experienced was nothing compared to what the terrorists were doing to their adopted countries. They were traitors. Even ordinary non-violent Muslims wanted the material comfort of the West but could not be bothered to accept the values that enabled the West to acquire those comforts. Sexism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia were and still are rampant.

I am back in India but the attitude of Muslims does not cease to shock me. An educated, intelligent woman pursuing her graduate studies contends that 9/11 has not been conclusively proven to the caused by the 19 hijackers from al-Qaeda. A Jewish conspiracy cannot be ruled out, she says. A Muslim Brown University graduate I met is obliquely, but unmistakably, anti-Semitic.

I’ve had it with these people who malign the faith that has helped my family and me get to where we are today. Like you, I’ve started writing and speaking out against their bigotry. With this, I shamelessly pitch my blog: http://ilampoon.blogspot.com/. Please visit. You are my inspiration.” - Akbar

BRITAIN

“I am a Muslim, a head teacher of a faith school in London and an inspector with the Department for Education in England. For the past 10 years, I have been engaged with a study group who meet every few weeks to discuss precisely the sorts of questions you have raised in your absorbing book. I have been asking these ‘difficult’ questions since early adolescence, only to meet with expressions of incredulity and disgust from the self-appointed protectors of foundamentalist Islam. I would just like to express my whole-hearted support for what you are trying to achieve by galvanizing liberal, reform-minded Muslims through the vehicle of Project Ijtihad.” - Dr. Nasim

MEXICO

“My family was never very religious. My parents taught us to believe in ourselves and work to achieve our goals. My brothers, my sister and me all have Masters or Ph.D. Degrees. So you can imagine how shocking it was for my parents when my only sister got secretly married to a Turkish man and converted to Islam. She changed her name and rejected my family’s traditions. Ever since, I’ve been reading about Islam, trying to understand its ideas. I was surprised by the many treasures in the Quran and, at the same time, shocked at how men have misled its beliefs.

My sister had a terrible experience. Her husband beat her often, even when she was pregnant, and kept her isolated for many years. Things changed a bit when they moved to Canada, but after a while, everything started all over again. We haven’t seen or heard from her (or my nephews and nieces) for almost three years. I’ve been seeing documentaries about the situation of Muslim women in Turkey who run away to Germany so they can have their own lives, a life that doesn’t force them to marry a man who they don’t even know.

I just won a fellowship to write about my sister’s (and family’s) experience with Islam. I’ve been buying books to help me out and want to thank you for having the COURAGE to write yours. It takes INTELLIGENCE to observe and analyze your religion. I am sure you have been the target of much abuse. But in the name of the many women that haven’t been able to raise their voices, I congratulate you on a such a brave adventure.” - Sylvia

UGANDA

“I’m a Ugandan Muslim, aged 20, at Makrere University in Kampala. The reason for writing is to let you know that you are a blessing to Muslims all around the world. We need people like you (reformists) to help reduce the bloodshed of the so-called fundamentalists. I have tried to talk to my fellow Muslims about changing the way people look at us, but I got a bad reception. However, this should not discourage us from fighting for a better and authentic Islam. (Remember that we should not alter the word of God.) FIGHT ON — and stay true to your religion!” - Agaba