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Daring Ruminations
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Alienation
Feature
Daring Ruminations
9
So, I got off the plane in Heathrow in April, and found myself quite pleased to be home. Restless as ever, I got another plane less than 36 hours later; this time, in the opposite direction than the Arab world from whence I had come.
In Chicago, I met a Muslim fellow who left the UK some twenty years ago to settle in the US. He pithily put the difference between British Muslims and American Muslims in the following way:
‘Muslims in America have a problem with being publicly Muslim. Muslims in Britain have a problem with being publicly British.’
Sounding The War Drum
Feature
Daring Ruminations
#8
Tony Blair is no longer the Prime Minister of the UK. Before long, there will be books about his life story, but let’s be honest, they are all going to be about Iraq.
Those who favoured him, and those who rejected him, will remember the failure of a policy that shook his nation to its core. Despite my not missing the former Iraqi President in the slightest, it is hard to ignore that we went to war based on poor intelligence, waged it on poor intelligence, and we came to this point because of poor intelligence.
Travel Lessons
Feature
Daring Ruminations
June
"...A remarkable thing which I saw in this country was the respect shown to women by the Turks, for they hold a more dignified position than the men.” So observed Ibn Battuta in Istanbul, centuries ago.
I was with a group of Britons the last time I visited one of Istanbul’s mosques; marvelous design, and indescribably peaceful. A common comment about Istanbul is how intriguing the merging of West and East is here; coming from Britain, where certain aspects of mosque culture have come under criticism lately, I confess I found something else far more fascinating.
What Kind Of Muslim Are You?
Feature
Daring Ruminations
May
For hundreds of years, there have been loads of ‘sides’, but there also haven’t been. In 14 centuries of Muslim history, there has been a plethora of different ways of looking at things. In jurisprudence, in mysticism: even in the most sacred of disciplines (theology), there have been alternative opinions. We are not just talking about Sunnis and Shi’is, but other groupings within and without those groupings. But, in retrospect, also for hundreds of years, there has generally been peaceful co-existence too.
Unveiling The False Veils: The West's Discomfort With Niqab
Feature
Daring Ruminations
April
Who would have thought a tiny piece of material would cause such a fuss? Then again, if the niqab was not such an issue for people, people like me would not get to rant about reactions to it in
Illume…
Of course, in Europe , it has become very topical of late. Apparently, a Member of Parliament (MP) considered a woman who wore the niqab a un-integrated when she came to visit him in his office, and decided it was of such national importance, it warranted a newspaper article which then spawned a national debate that we are still dealing with 9 months later. Quite.
Islam & The Future Of Europe
Feature
Daring Ruminations
March
The subject "Islam and the Future of Europe" would have been "Islam and Europe" in the 1980s when we identified these two things as almost mutually exclusive. In the 1990s, we might have said "Islam in Europe," and the discourse was about a foreign element at work within our continent. We could have good relations, but we were Europeans and they were Muslims.
Power To The Ummah
Feature
Daring Ruminations
February
ne of the Muslim world’s most famous legal specialists is the former Vice-President of Mauritania, Abdullah Bin Bayyah. He has been lauded by people such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Qatar, Zaid Shakir of the United States (who writes in this publication), and many others, for his knowledge and expertise. In July 1999, he visited the USA and gave a talk entitled ‘Muslims Living in Non-Muslim Lands’.
Missing The Point
Feature
Daring Ruminations
January
n September, the Muslim world became incensed by the Pope’s citing a medieval Byzantine Emperor who insulted the Prophet. Not particularly surprising. Any statement of any Pope is liable to fall under scrutiny; he is an infallible religious figure for his followers, and has incredible influence across the world. Yes, he did not say ‘I agree with this statement of the Byzantine Emperor who said this’. But in his position, it would not only have been wise to say ‘I
disagree’ but practically necessary to do so.
