Saturday, March 5, 2011
Meta Tag
asian chat asian dating asian matchmaking asian online asian wife beautiful bride bride bride guide brides canada chat canadian dating canadian match chat community chat now chat rooms chat site chat video christian dating city dating dating dating and matchmaking dating chat dating customs dating friends dating girls dating in canada dating in uk dating personals dating service dating singles dating uk dating website dream match european brides european dating find match finder friend foreign bride free chat rooms free chatting rooms free dating chat free dating site free friend finder free matchmaking free online dating site free phone chat free uk chat rooms friend finder dating friend finder uk friends chat friendship bible friendship club horoscope matchmaking indian chat indian shaadi international dating internet chat internet matchmaking local chat looking for love love dating love personals male personals marriage personals match match personals matchmaker matchmaker sites matchmaking agency matchmaking services matchmaking dating service meet personals meet your match mobile chat online bride online chats online dating online dating services online friend finder online matchmaking people chat personal sites personals online professional matchmaker personal websites punjabi shaadi romantic proposals safe dating seniors dating shadi shaadi uk single chat singles singles chat room singles dating sites singles in canada singles online singles services singles websites speed dating true dating uk chat rooms uk photo personals web chat rooms wedding grooms woman personals world dating brides weddings canadian bride usa brides
Friday, March 4, 2011
Prospect of Marriage Can Lead Away from Interfaith Dating
Prospect of Marriage Can Lead Away from Interfaith Dating
By HELEN T. GRAY
The Kansas City Star
Posted on Sat, Jul. 20, 2002
Miri Hoch's Jewish parents never told her she had to date a Jew, but she knew they weren't thrilled when she started dating a Catholic.
"They respected my right to make my own choices," said Hoch, who lives in Prairie Village. "And they knew I would grow up and come around."
She did, and as she grew older, it became more important for her to date men within her faith. Now at age 25, Hoch is engaged to Jeffrey Spiegel, 31, of Overland Park, who also was committed to marrying someone Jewish.
Ann Pavlich, a devoted Catholic, tells a similar story. She had dated non-Catholics but always felt something important was missing -- a common faith.
"As you get older, you start thinking about what type of home life you want and how important it is to raise your children in the faith," said Pavlich, 30, of Mission.
Pavlich is now dating a practicing Catholic. Both come from large Catholic families, love the traditions and practices of their faith and attend Mass together.
In a society that emphasizes diversity and tolerance, many people from various faiths are saying no to interreligious dating. They love their faith and want to marry within it. To them, it makes sense to date members of their religion.
To Live On
For Jews, it's a matter survival, some say.
The leadership council of Judaism's Conservative movement has strongly condemned intermarriage and urged Jews to marry other Jews.
The majority of Jews who intermarry cease to practice Jewish traditions and often do not provide a Jewish education or experience to their children, said a 1995 statement from the leadership council. The result: "Over 70 percent of children of intermarried couples are not being raised as Jews, thus further diminishing the Jewish people."
"We must continue to articulate that it is important for Jews to marry other Jews to continue the ancient and historic mission of Judaism," the Conservative leadership said. "...Our young people and their families must comprehend the direct relationship between interdating and intermarriage."
Youth groups in all of the Jewish movements have programs that address interdating and intermarriage, said Rabbi Joel Meyers of New York, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly (of Conservative Rabbis).
"This is a serious concern, a serious problem," Meyers said.
Fifty-one percent of Jews intermarry, according to a 2000 national survey of Jewish identification, conducted through the graduate center of City University of New York. The figure has changed little from 52 percent in a 1990 survey.
Throughout American culture, studies show a decrease in ethnicity and an increase in personal choice, Meyers said. This has a bearing on interdating and intermarriage.
One factor that affects the intermarriage rate among Jews is the high rate of people living together outside marriage, said Egon Mayer, a sociology professor at City University's Brooklyn College, who headed the Jewish identification survey.
"Part of the reason we have not seen an increase in interfaith marriage is that it has been offset by people living together," Mayer said. "People who are in mixed relationships are less likely to marry.
"The big push since 1990 has been at increasing the opportunities for young Jews to meet and mate with other Jews. The emphasis has been in education about the religion. But the jury is still out as to whether that works because most people get educated in childhood but marry in adulthood."
The message apparently is making an impact on some young Jews, who are deciding early that they want to date and marry within their faith.
Ethan Pack, an 18-year-old who lives in Prairie Village, said he prefers to date Jewish girls. Pack has been influenced by his participation in Young Judaea, a Zionist youth movement sponsored by Hadassah, a women's Zionist organization. The movement provides a wide range of youth activities, including peer-led clubs and summer camps.
"Dating can present a tough challenge," Pack said. "If my feelings were to go in one place and my beliefs go in another, that would be a problem. If I dated someone who was not Jewish, it would have to be someone who is open-minded and be willing to convert."
According to Scripture
Many Christians who hold to a stricter biblical interpretation say God mandates marriage within the faith. They cite 2 Corinthians 6:14, which says: "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"
Most of the 60 to 80 active members of the Plaza Heights Baptist Church youth group in Blue Springs date other believers, said Daniel Dorr, youth pastor.
"We deal with dating a lot," he said. "We tell them the Bible says they should not be bound with a nonbeliever and that God has a design for relationships.
"A dating relationship is more than just going out and having a good time. You want to find a mate, so you want to date someone who has a like faith and practices as you have."
Phil Dietz, associate pastor of students at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, tells his two sons, ages 16 and 18, the same thing he tells the young people at church:
"I discourage them from dating someone outside their faith," he said. "If you raise them right and sit down and talk to them and explain the reasons why, they really respond well."
Jonathan Kinyon, 34, of Kansas City said he has never dated anyone who was not a Christian. Kinyon is a member of Equally Yoked, a Christian singles organization, where he met the woman he is currently dating.
Kinyon believes dating another Christian provides compatibility in prayer time, fellowship and building a friendship.
"I have seen some so-called `missionary dating,' dating them until they get saved," he said. "But this is not successful very often."
Course of Conduct
Boys and girls of the Muslim faith do not date, and marriage within the faith is mandated for women and recommended for men.
Hamed Ghazali, principal of the Islamic School of Greater Kansas City, said the school emphasizes no dating and no physical contact between the sexes, not even shaking hands.
The Qur'an provides marriage guidelines for Muslims. One passage states: "He created for you spouses from yourselves that you might find peace in them" (30:21).
Sherita Mohammed, 15, of Kansas City, said she accepts the fact that she cannot date.
"If someone asks me out, I tell them in a nice way, `I can't go out with boys, and you can't call me,' " she said. "If they ask why, I say because I am a Muslim. When I wear the head covering, usually that's when boys come up to me."
Mohammed said she has met some boys she has liked who were not Muslim, but she knows she wouldn't be able to marry them.
Many young Muslims meet one another at annual Islamic conventions, such as the Muslim America Society convention, said Sherita's father, Imam Bilal Mohammed of the Al-Inshirah Islamic Center in Kansas City. Composed primarily of African-Americans, the convention includes a lot of seminars and activities for youth.
"The young people get a chance to interact in public places," he said. "They are chaperoned heavily by all of us, under our watchful eyes. Then they may keep in touch through writing or e-mail."
Intermarriage is not a problem among Muslims even though the United States is a pluralistic society, said Sayyid Syeed of Plainfield, Ind., general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America.
"Now that there are more Muslims in this country, there are even more choices, and most marry within the faith," Syeed said.
Many people of various religions believe the best way to carry their faith into the next generation is to marry within the faith and raise children in that faith. Usually this process starts with dating.
"I would get nervous if my son or daughter started dating people of other faiths," said Matthew Siegel of Leawood, who is Jewish. "I would not have a rule that they should not date outside their faith, but I would teach them the advantages of marrying within their faith.
"And I have the utmost respect for anyone, a Catholic, a Baptist, whoever, who would want their children to marry within their faith."
By HELEN T. GRAY
The Kansas City Star
Posted on Sat, Jul. 20, 2002
Miri Hoch's Jewish parents never told her she had to date a Jew, but she knew they weren't thrilled when she started dating a Catholic.
"They respected my right to make my own choices," said Hoch, who lives in Prairie Village. "And they knew I would grow up and come around."
She did, and as she grew older, it became more important for her to date men within her faith. Now at age 25, Hoch is engaged to Jeffrey Spiegel, 31, of Overland Park, who also was committed to marrying someone Jewish.
Ann Pavlich, a devoted Catholic, tells a similar story. She had dated non-Catholics but always felt something important was missing -- a common faith.
"As you get older, you start thinking about what type of home life you want and how important it is to raise your children in the faith," said Pavlich, 30, of Mission.
Pavlich is now dating a practicing Catholic. Both come from large Catholic families, love the traditions and practices of their faith and attend Mass together.
In a society that emphasizes diversity and tolerance, many people from various faiths are saying no to interreligious dating. They love their faith and want to marry within it. To them, it makes sense to date members of their religion.
To Live On
For Jews, it's a matter survival, some say.
The leadership council of Judaism's Conservative movement has strongly condemned intermarriage and urged Jews to marry other Jews.
The majority of Jews who intermarry cease to practice Jewish traditions and often do not provide a Jewish education or experience to their children, said a 1995 statement from the leadership council. The result: "Over 70 percent of children of intermarried couples are not being raised as Jews, thus further diminishing the Jewish people."
"We must continue to articulate that it is important for Jews to marry other Jews to continue the ancient and historic mission of Judaism," the Conservative leadership said. "...Our young people and their families must comprehend the direct relationship between interdating and intermarriage."
Youth groups in all of the Jewish movements have programs that address interdating and intermarriage, said Rabbi Joel Meyers of New York, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly (of Conservative Rabbis).
"This is a serious concern, a serious problem," Meyers said.
Fifty-one percent of Jews intermarry, according to a 2000 national survey of Jewish identification, conducted through the graduate center of City University of New York. The figure has changed little from 52 percent in a 1990 survey.
Throughout American culture, studies show a decrease in ethnicity and an increase in personal choice, Meyers said. This has a bearing on interdating and intermarriage.
One factor that affects the intermarriage rate among Jews is the high rate of people living together outside marriage, said Egon Mayer, a sociology professor at City University's Brooklyn College, who headed the Jewish identification survey.
"Part of the reason we have not seen an increase in interfaith marriage is that it has been offset by people living together," Mayer said. "People who are in mixed relationships are less likely to marry.
"The big push since 1990 has been at increasing the opportunities for young Jews to meet and mate with other Jews. The emphasis has been in education about the religion. But the jury is still out as to whether that works because most people get educated in childhood but marry in adulthood."
The message apparently is making an impact on some young Jews, who are deciding early that they want to date and marry within their faith.
Ethan Pack, an 18-year-old who lives in Prairie Village, said he prefers to date Jewish girls. Pack has been influenced by his participation in Young Judaea, a Zionist youth movement sponsored by Hadassah, a women's Zionist organization. The movement provides a wide range of youth activities, including peer-led clubs and summer camps.
"Dating can present a tough challenge," Pack said. "If my feelings were to go in one place and my beliefs go in another, that would be a problem. If I dated someone who was not Jewish, it would have to be someone who is open-minded and be willing to convert."
According to Scripture
Many Christians who hold to a stricter biblical interpretation say God mandates marriage within the faith. They cite 2 Corinthians 6:14, which says: "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"
Most of the 60 to 80 active members of the Plaza Heights Baptist Church youth group in Blue Springs date other believers, said Daniel Dorr, youth pastor.
"We deal with dating a lot," he said. "We tell them the Bible says they should not be bound with a nonbeliever and that God has a design for relationships.
"A dating relationship is more than just going out and having a good time. You want to find a mate, so you want to date someone who has a like faith and practices as you have."
Phil Dietz, associate pastor of students at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, tells his two sons, ages 16 and 18, the same thing he tells the young people at church:
"I discourage them from dating someone outside their faith," he said. "If you raise them right and sit down and talk to them and explain the reasons why, they really respond well."
Jonathan Kinyon, 34, of Kansas City said he has never dated anyone who was not a Christian. Kinyon is a member of Equally Yoked, a Christian singles organization, where he met the woman he is currently dating.
Kinyon believes dating another Christian provides compatibility in prayer time, fellowship and building a friendship.
"I have seen some so-called `missionary dating,' dating them until they get saved," he said. "But this is not successful very often."
Course of Conduct
Boys and girls of the Muslim faith do not date, and marriage within the faith is mandated for women and recommended for men.
Hamed Ghazali, principal of the Islamic School of Greater Kansas City, said the school emphasizes no dating and no physical contact between the sexes, not even shaking hands.
The Qur'an provides marriage guidelines for Muslims. One passage states: "He created for you spouses from yourselves that you might find peace in them" (30:21).
Sherita Mohammed, 15, of Kansas City, said she accepts the fact that she cannot date.
"If someone asks me out, I tell them in a nice way, `I can't go out with boys, and you can't call me,' " she said. "If they ask why, I say because I am a Muslim. When I wear the head covering, usually that's when boys come up to me."
Mohammed said she has met some boys she has liked who were not Muslim, but she knows she wouldn't be able to marry them.
Many young Muslims meet one another at annual Islamic conventions, such as the Muslim America Society convention, said Sherita's father, Imam Bilal Mohammed of the Al-Inshirah Islamic Center in Kansas City. Composed primarily of African-Americans, the convention includes a lot of seminars and activities for youth.
"The young people get a chance to interact in public places," he said. "They are chaperoned heavily by all of us, under our watchful eyes. Then they may keep in touch through writing or e-mail."
Intermarriage is not a problem among Muslims even though the United States is a pluralistic society, said Sayyid Syeed of Plainfield, Ind., general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America.
"Now that there are more Muslims in this country, there are even more choices, and most marry within the faith," Syeed said.
Many people of various religions believe the best way to carry their faith into the next generation is to marry within the faith and raise children in that faith. Usually this process starts with dating.
"I would get nervous if my son or daughter started dating people of other faiths," said Matthew Siegel of Leawood, who is Jewish. "I would not have a rule that they should not date outside their faith, but I would teach them the advantages of marrying within their faith.
"And I have the utmost respect for anyone, a Catholic, a Baptist, whoever, who would want their children to marry within their faith."
Speaking for Islam
Speaking for Islam
SCHOOLS HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT MUSLIMS, AND BAY AREA VOLUNTEERS HAVE ANSWERS
By Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News
Ameena Jandali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, talks with Lorraine al-Rawi
Standing next to an overhead projector, Maha ElGenaidi reviews a list of Islam's basic tenets with 22 students at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose. Dressed modestly in ankle-length skirt and long-sleeved blouse, her head covered in accordance with Muslim custom, she tells the world history honors students about salat, the practice of praying five times a day.
``Now this is seven days a week, guys,'' ElGenaidi says. ``Weekends included.''
ElGenaidi, 41, is co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group (ING), which has trained and sent speakers into Bay Area middle and high schools for nearly a decade. The idea is to counter stereotypes by helping social studies teachers supplement and put a human face on their annual, required textbook unit on Islam. Increasingly busy in the post-Sept. 11 era, San Jose-based ING has 15 volunteer speakers who made about 750 classroom presentations about Islam last year. They also spoke at dozens of churches, senior centers, corporations and forums for law enforcement officers and healthcare workers.
ElGenaidi and co-founder Ameena Jandali are ING's engine and soul, running it as a passion without pay and turning it into a national model for teaching about religion in the public square.
In California, it has been almost 15 years since educational reforms set academic instruction about religion firmly into the world history and social sciences curricula, so that children will understand how major faiths have shaped history and civilization. Many non-public schools also observe these guidelines.
``The state made it a requirement to teach about religion,'' ElGenaidi says. ``But they haven't given teachers adequate resources to do that. Nor have they taught teachers how to teach about religion, which makes them reluctant to approach the subject. Some skip it or skim it, because they're afraid about the separation between church and state. What they don't understand is that, while they cannot promote religion, they can teach about it. That's where we come in.''
Since the reforms were made, ING has become a success story: Two Muslim women in Silicon Valley have built a one-of-a-kind educational group, spinning off a network of 18 affiliated, Islamic speakers bureaus in 12 states, from Arizona to Nebraska and New York, as well as two in Canada.
With so many affiliated bureaus cropping up during the past two years, ING has become a prototype: It doesn't proselytize, it describes the faith, and it emphasizes the commonalities among Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Speakers are trained according to secular guidelines, developed by the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom Forum and its First Amendment Center, for teaching religion in schools. Each bureau, though operating independently, receives training from ING and commits itself to the vision of teaching about Islam, never preaching.
``There's a sensitivity issue,'' ElGenaidi explains. ``If these were Muslim kids and you had a Christian or Hindu speaker coming into the classroom, how would Muslim parents want that handled? That's our standard. Faith is between the kids and their parents. I don't give students our office number or e-mail. I don't even give them our Web site. If a kid asks for a copy of the Koran, we always say, `Ask the teacher about it.' ''
Demand for information about Islam is growing nationally, and the new start-up bureaus are struggling to keep up with demand. The Phoenix bureau has half a dozen speakers. The one in San Diego has 10. In Boston, where plans for a formal bureau are on hold, 70 people showed up for training as speakers in October. Ten were selected.
In Minneapolis, bureau director Zafar Siddiqui had eight trained speakers available when Sept. 11 happened. ``We were a nascent group, just getting established,'' he says, ``and suddenly we found ourselves deluged with tons of requests for presentations on Islam from schools, churches, colleges, universities, book clubs, coffee shops, law enforcement agencies and hospitals.'' He now has 25 speakers working for him.
At a time of increasing ethnic and religious diversity in classrooms around the state and nation, demystifying religion is an essential, ElGenaidi figures. ``Because of changing demographics,'' she says, ``people and professional groups are interested in cultural competency.''
And at a time when Islam is held in suspicion by some people -- and when teaching about Islam in schools is being challenged by some conservatives -- ElGenaidi knows what a tightrope she and her colleagues are walking.
``Since Sept. 11, the presentations feel really different to me,'' she says. ``I feel that I have to begin by condemning terrorism, by disassociating myself from Osama bin Laden, and being clear that the hijackers are not martyrs.''
But walking into the classroom at Mitty, she deals with more mundane matters. She tells the students that she is married to a software engineer. She explains that Islam is the source not only of her religious belief, but of her cultural identity, her diet and style of dress. Born in Cairo, she is Egyptian, Arab, and, for more than 30 years, American. ``I'm not a woman living under the Taliban,'' she quips.
But, she adds, ``I wear my Islam. To understand my identity, you have to know about my religious beliefs and practices.''
ElGenaidi is visiting Mitty, a Catholic school, at the invitation of world history teacher Nick Bridger. Every year, in accordance with the California state framework for social studies instruction, Bridger's 10th-graders learn about the history of Islam.
This year's group, which is heavily Roman Catholic, already knows some of the basics: that Islam is a monotheistic faith; that it traces its origins to Abraham; that it holds up Muhammad as its principal prophet, though not its only one.
The students want to know whether Islam has a rite analogous to baptism -- it does not -- and whether Muslims are allowed to marry people of other faiths. Only men are allowed, ElGenaidi says. As ``primary provider'' at home, the man generally exercises more authority. And since Islam recognizes the prophets of Judaism and Christianity, a Muslim man who marries a non-Muslim woman would allow her to practice her faith freely. ``In fact,'' ElGenaidi tells the students, ``he is required to do so by Islamic law.''
Also, Islam is a patrilineal faith: Children follow the religion of the father. Even if he marries outside the religion, the family's Muslim lineage will continue.
ElGenaidi explains that most of the world's more than 1 billion Muslims are Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi -- fewer than one in five is Arab. She shows them a page of Arabic and explains that it is read from right to left, like Hebrew. She adds that Moses is a prophet in the Islamic tradition, as is Jesus, though he is not considered to be the son of God.
Her presentation was ``so good,'' Bridger said later. ``Textbooks are kind of flat, and kids are inundated with media. But hearing this in person, they were able to toss ideas at her and see how she can be a very contemporary person and still practice this ancient religion. She had a good impact.''
ElGenaidi, whose father was a psychiatrist, grew up in a largely secular home, first in Cairo and then on the East Coast. Jandali grew up in an observant Muslim home in Fort Collins, Colo., the daughter of a Pakistani-born college professor and a convert mother.
As young women, both ElGenaidi and Jandali, now 41, were profoundly aware of negative depictions of Muslims in movies, on television, and in other parts of U.S. culture. Jandali remembers a family friend whose daughter complained of inaccuracies about Islam in textbooks: `` `Muslims pray by hitting their heads on the sand,' that kind of thing.''
The friend, it turns out, was Shabbir Mansuri, the founder and director of the Council on Islamic Education in Orange County. In 1989, Mansuri became aware of the new California state framework for teaching about religion in the schools.
That framework is for a social studies curriculum in which students in the seventh grade -- and again in the ninth or 10th grade -- learn about the rise and growth of Islam as a religion and civilization. In the past month, conservative writers have charged that the state framework overplays Islam, and a San Luis Obispo mother filed a complaint, saying that her seventh-grader's textbook was biased toward Islam. The study of Judaism and Christianity is part of the sixth-grade state curriculum and is woven into portions of middle and high school study.
Mansuri came up with the idea of establishing a bureau of Muslim speakers to go into the schools and talk about Islam. Working with the Freedom Forum, which advocates church-state separation as it lobbies for religious freedom, he began to train Stanford students as speakers in California middle and high schools. Always, Mansuri says, the speakers ``were to be there with the permission of the teacher, to make the presentation and leave. They were not there to proselytize or promote a religion.
``I am very, very strict about this,'' Mansuri says. His efforts served as the ``incubator'' for ING, he says. Mansuri continues to mentor ElGenaidi and Jandali and remains involved with the training of speakers and new bureau directors around the country.
``I go in there and make sure,'' he says, ``that we are very, very careful and within the First Amendment principles that give us a place at the table in America. We should never abuse our place at the table by proselytizing.''
It is imperative that speakers -- from any religion -- ``not take advantage of a captive audience in a state-sponsored institution,'' says Marcia Beauchamp, until recently the religious freedom programs coordinator for the First Amendment Center, an independent program of the Freedom Forum. ``I'd love to see other religious communities doing what ING does and training speakers in the same way.''
ElGenaidi and Jandali met a decade ago while raising funds for Bosnian relief. The Muslim community already had its political and civil rights advocacy groups. Education was the missing piece. In 1993, they established Bay Area Media Watch, which attempted to monitor -- and educate -- local media about coverage of Muslims and Islam. After three months, they changed the name to Islamic Networks Group and began to focus on education in schools.
ElGenaidi, who has a background in marketing, sent mailings to well over 1,000 social studies teachers and educators. She had a 17 percent response rate, and ING made 300 school presentations in its first year.
In the mid-'90s, the group put an emphasis on meeting with police. ElGenaidi recalls counseling officers that, when responding to a domestic dispute in a Muslim home, the wife ``may jump if you touch her. She may not want to be alone with you. They may not want you to step inside with your shoes on, so you might want to ask them to step outside. And you need to accept all of this as American. Muslims are now part of the social fabric of the American society that you need to learn about.''
Now, nearly six months after the September attacks, churches have become ``the new door'' through which ING reaches out to non-Muslims, Jandali said. Also, corporations concerned about employee discrimination lawsuits are starting to phone the ING office for advice about cultural sensitivity.
Even with the help of assistants, the two founders work 60-hour weeks, and still haven't been paid a penny -- by choice. However, they would like to see their staff grow.
ING has a $400,000 budget, but has never been able to raise more than $200,000 in a year. It recently hired a managing director, Dian Alyan, a former brand manager for Procter & Gamble, who is looking into foundation grants.
The organization is growing in stature. ElGenaidi and Jandali have become familiar faces on the podium at national Islamic conferences. On a recent afternoon at the ING office, ElGenaidi answered the phone, offered a few suggestions to the caller, then hung up, saying, ``Time magazine. They're doing something on Afghan women.''
After nearly a decade of hard work, Jandali is encouraged: ``For a lot of people, when we walk in the room, it's the first time they've met an American Muslim. Just humanizing this very mysterious religion for them, it's a positive thing. It's a pleasant surprise for them that Islam is not just this horrible, violent religion that oppresses people.
``They go, `Wow, I didn't know you guys believe in the prophets. I didn't know you believe that Jesus is a prophet. Wow, I can relate to this. It's not that different from what I believe in my own religion.' ''
SCHOOLS HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT MUSLIMS, AND BAY AREA VOLUNTEERS HAVE ANSWERS
By Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News
Ameena Jandali, co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group, talks with Lorraine al-Rawi
Standing next to an overhead projector, Maha ElGenaidi reviews a list of Islam's basic tenets with 22 students at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose. Dressed modestly in ankle-length skirt and long-sleeved blouse, her head covered in accordance with Muslim custom, she tells the world history honors students about salat, the practice of praying five times a day.
``Now this is seven days a week, guys,'' ElGenaidi says. ``Weekends included.''
ElGenaidi, 41, is co-founder of the Islamic Networks Group (ING), which has trained and sent speakers into Bay Area middle and high schools for nearly a decade. The idea is to counter stereotypes by helping social studies teachers supplement and put a human face on their annual, required textbook unit on Islam. Increasingly busy in the post-Sept. 11 era, San Jose-based ING has 15 volunteer speakers who made about 750 classroom presentations about Islam last year. They also spoke at dozens of churches, senior centers, corporations and forums for law enforcement officers and healthcare workers.
ElGenaidi and co-founder Ameena Jandali are ING's engine and soul, running it as a passion without pay and turning it into a national model for teaching about religion in the public square.
In California, it has been almost 15 years since educational reforms set academic instruction about religion firmly into the world history and social sciences curricula, so that children will understand how major faiths have shaped history and civilization. Many non-public schools also observe these guidelines.
``The state made it a requirement to teach about religion,'' ElGenaidi says. ``But they haven't given teachers adequate resources to do that. Nor have they taught teachers how to teach about religion, which makes them reluctant to approach the subject. Some skip it or skim it, because they're afraid about the separation between church and state. What they don't understand is that, while they cannot promote religion, they can teach about it. That's where we come in.''
Since the reforms were made, ING has become a success story: Two Muslim women in Silicon Valley have built a one-of-a-kind educational group, spinning off a network of 18 affiliated, Islamic speakers bureaus in 12 states, from Arizona to Nebraska and New York, as well as two in Canada.
With so many affiliated bureaus cropping up during the past two years, ING has become a prototype: It doesn't proselytize, it describes the faith, and it emphasizes the commonalities among Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Speakers are trained according to secular guidelines, developed by the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom Forum and its First Amendment Center, for teaching religion in schools. Each bureau, though operating independently, receives training from ING and commits itself to the vision of teaching about Islam, never preaching.
``There's a sensitivity issue,'' ElGenaidi explains. ``If these were Muslim kids and you had a Christian or Hindu speaker coming into the classroom, how would Muslim parents want that handled? That's our standard. Faith is between the kids and their parents. I don't give students our office number or e-mail. I don't even give them our Web site. If a kid asks for a copy of the Koran, we always say, `Ask the teacher about it.' ''
Demand for information about Islam is growing nationally, and the new start-up bureaus are struggling to keep up with demand. The Phoenix bureau has half a dozen speakers. The one in San Diego has 10. In Boston, where plans for a formal bureau are on hold, 70 people showed up for training as speakers in October. Ten were selected.
In Minneapolis, bureau director Zafar Siddiqui had eight trained speakers available when Sept. 11 happened. ``We were a nascent group, just getting established,'' he says, ``and suddenly we found ourselves deluged with tons of requests for presentations on Islam from schools, churches, colleges, universities, book clubs, coffee shops, law enforcement agencies and hospitals.'' He now has 25 speakers working for him.
At a time of increasing ethnic and religious diversity in classrooms around the state and nation, demystifying religion is an essential, ElGenaidi figures. ``Because of changing demographics,'' she says, ``people and professional groups are interested in cultural competency.''
And at a time when Islam is held in suspicion by some people -- and when teaching about Islam in schools is being challenged by some conservatives -- ElGenaidi knows what a tightrope she and her colleagues are walking.
``Since Sept. 11, the presentations feel really different to me,'' she says. ``I feel that I have to begin by condemning terrorism, by disassociating myself from Osama bin Laden, and being clear that the hijackers are not martyrs.''
But walking into the classroom at Mitty, she deals with more mundane matters. She tells the students that she is married to a software engineer. She explains that Islam is the source not only of her religious belief, but of her cultural identity, her diet and style of dress. Born in Cairo, she is Egyptian, Arab, and, for more than 30 years, American. ``I'm not a woman living under the Taliban,'' she quips.
But, she adds, ``I wear my Islam. To understand my identity, you have to know about my religious beliefs and practices.''
ElGenaidi is visiting Mitty, a Catholic school, at the invitation of world history teacher Nick Bridger. Every year, in accordance with the California state framework for social studies instruction, Bridger's 10th-graders learn about the history of Islam.
This year's group, which is heavily Roman Catholic, already knows some of the basics: that Islam is a monotheistic faith; that it traces its origins to Abraham; that it holds up Muhammad as its principal prophet, though not its only one.
The students want to know whether Islam has a rite analogous to baptism -- it does not -- and whether Muslims are allowed to marry people of other faiths. Only men are allowed, ElGenaidi says. As ``primary provider'' at home, the man generally exercises more authority. And since Islam recognizes the prophets of Judaism and Christianity, a Muslim man who marries a non-Muslim woman would allow her to practice her faith freely. ``In fact,'' ElGenaidi tells the students, ``he is required to do so by Islamic law.''
Also, Islam is a patrilineal faith: Children follow the religion of the father. Even if he marries outside the religion, the family's Muslim lineage will continue.
ElGenaidi explains that most of the world's more than 1 billion Muslims are Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi -- fewer than one in five is Arab. She shows them a page of Arabic and explains that it is read from right to left, like Hebrew. She adds that Moses is a prophet in the Islamic tradition, as is Jesus, though he is not considered to be the son of God.
Her presentation was ``so good,'' Bridger said later. ``Textbooks are kind of flat, and kids are inundated with media. But hearing this in person, they were able to toss ideas at her and see how she can be a very contemporary person and still practice this ancient religion. She had a good impact.''
ElGenaidi, whose father was a psychiatrist, grew up in a largely secular home, first in Cairo and then on the East Coast. Jandali grew up in an observant Muslim home in Fort Collins, Colo., the daughter of a Pakistani-born college professor and a convert mother.
As young women, both ElGenaidi and Jandali, now 41, were profoundly aware of negative depictions of Muslims in movies, on television, and in other parts of U.S. culture. Jandali remembers a family friend whose daughter complained of inaccuracies about Islam in textbooks: `` `Muslims pray by hitting their heads on the sand,' that kind of thing.''
The friend, it turns out, was Shabbir Mansuri, the founder and director of the Council on Islamic Education in Orange County. In 1989, Mansuri became aware of the new California state framework for teaching about religion in the schools.
That framework is for a social studies curriculum in which students in the seventh grade -- and again in the ninth or 10th grade -- learn about the rise and growth of Islam as a religion and civilization. In the past month, conservative writers have charged that the state framework overplays Islam, and a San Luis Obispo mother filed a complaint, saying that her seventh-grader's textbook was biased toward Islam. The study of Judaism and Christianity is part of the sixth-grade state curriculum and is woven into portions of middle and high school study.
Mansuri came up with the idea of establishing a bureau of Muslim speakers to go into the schools and talk about Islam. Working with the Freedom Forum, which advocates church-state separation as it lobbies for religious freedom, he began to train Stanford students as speakers in California middle and high schools. Always, Mansuri says, the speakers ``were to be there with the permission of the teacher, to make the presentation and leave. They were not there to proselytize or promote a religion.
``I am very, very strict about this,'' Mansuri says. His efforts served as the ``incubator'' for ING, he says. Mansuri continues to mentor ElGenaidi and Jandali and remains involved with the training of speakers and new bureau directors around the country.
``I go in there and make sure,'' he says, ``that we are very, very careful and within the First Amendment principles that give us a place at the table in America. We should never abuse our place at the table by proselytizing.''
It is imperative that speakers -- from any religion -- ``not take advantage of a captive audience in a state-sponsored institution,'' says Marcia Beauchamp, until recently the religious freedom programs coordinator for the First Amendment Center, an independent program of the Freedom Forum. ``I'd love to see other religious communities doing what ING does and training speakers in the same way.''
ElGenaidi and Jandali met a decade ago while raising funds for Bosnian relief. The Muslim community already had its political and civil rights advocacy groups. Education was the missing piece. In 1993, they established Bay Area Media Watch, which attempted to monitor -- and educate -- local media about coverage of Muslims and Islam. After three months, they changed the name to Islamic Networks Group and began to focus on education in schools.
ElGenaidi, who has a background in marketing, sent mailings to well over 1,000 social studies teachers and educators. She had a 17 percent response rate, and ING made 300 school presentations in its first year.
In the mid-'90s, the group put an emphasis on meeting with police. ElGenaidi recalls counseling officers that, when responding to a domestic dispute in a Muslim home, the wife ``may jump if you touch her. She may not want to be alone with you. They may not want you to step inside with your shoes on, so you might want to ask them to step outside. And you need to accept all of this as American. Muslims are now part of the social fabric of the American society that you need to learn about.''
Now, nearly six months after the September attacks, churches have become ``the new door'' through which ING reaches out to non-Muslims, Jandali said. Also, corporations concerned about employee discrimination lawsuits are starting to phone the ING office for advice about cultural sensitivity.
Even with the help of assistants, the two founders work 60-hour weeks, and still haven't been paid a penny -- by choice. However, they would like to see their staff grow.
ING has a $400,000 budget, but has never been able to raise more than $200,000 in a year. It recently hired a managing director, Dian Alyan, a former brand manager for Procter & Gamble, who is looking into foundation grants.
The organization is growing in stature. ElGenaidi and Jandali have become familiar faces on the podium at national Islamic conferences. On a recent afternoon at the ING office, ElGenaidi answered the phone, offered a few suggestions to the caller, then hung up, saying, ``Time magazine. They're doing something on Afghan women.''
After nearly a decade of hard work, Jandali is encouraged: ``For a lot of people, when we walk in the room, it's the first time they've met an American Muslim. Just humanizing this very mysterious religion for them, it's a positive thing. It's a pleasant surprise for them that Islam is not just this horrible, violent religion that oppresses people.
``They go, `Wow, I didn't know you guys believe in the prophets. I didn't know you believe that Jesus is a prophet. Wow, I can relate to this. It's not that different from what I believe in my own religion.' ''
Muslim Women in Spain Denounce Stereotypes
Muslim Women in Spain Denounce Stereotypes
Source: BBC News online, Monday, 4 March, 2002, 03:13 GMT
By the BBC's Flora Botsford in Cordoba, Spain
A world conference on women and Islam has ended in the Spanish city of Cordoba with calls for western society to change its negative image of the Muslim religion.
Delegates said that Islam's image had worsened since 11 September and the US-led war on terrorism but that much of the criticism stemmed from misconceptions.
Earlier, security guards removed a group of Muslim delegates who gathered to pray in the city's former mosque - now a Catholic cathedral.
The conference's final statement was a summary of all the topics the speakers had touched on during two days of meetings in Cordoba, the historic capital of the western Islamic empire.
More than 200 delegates heard that Muslim women faced many difficulties, whether they were immigrants living in a western society or recent converts, mainly because of a high level of ignorance of Islamic customs.
The conference concluded that it was up to western societies to change their views of Islam and to counteract negative images of Islam in the media.
Violence condemned
Delegates said they were tired of being portrayed as timid and downtrodden.
They said the decision to wear a veil or headscarf was often portrayed as their central preoccupation when in reality there were many other subjects of concern to them.
There was strong condemnation of domestic violence and of female genital mutilation and a call for women to fight discrimination in work, pay, health and education, regardless of race or religion.
Controversy came when a group of about 20 delegates, men and women, insisted on praying inside Cordoba's Great Mosque, which was converted to a Catholic cathedral in the 13th century.
As they bowed to Mecca, security guards moved in to break up the gathering, saying it was forbidden for Muslims to pray within the property of the Catholic Church.
Worshippers said they wanted to reclaim a part of their history.
Muslims tried to pray at Cordoba's Great Masjid
Emotional moment
Some said it had been 500 years since such an event had taken place in the Cordoba mosque.
While that may not be true, it was clearly an emotional moment, leaving some of the participants in tears.
Yusuf Fernandez, of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Groups, said it was part of an ongoing campaign to change the status of the former mosque.
Spain is coming to terms with the relatively new phenomenon of large-scale Muslim immigration and many speakers in Cordoba said it was all too common for Spaniards to confuse integration with the need to adopt Spanish customs.
Spain has experienced a large-scale immigration from North Africa
Source: BBC News online, Monday, 4 March, 2002, 03:13 GMT
By the BBC's Flora Botsford in Cordoba, Spain
A world conference on women and Islam has ended in the Spanish city of Cordoba with calls for western society to change its negative image of the Muslim religion.
Delegates said that Islam's image had worsened since 11 September and the US-led war on terrorism but that much of the criticism stemmed from misconceptions.
Earlier, security guards removed a group of Muslim delegates who gathered to pray in the city's former mosque - now a Catholic cathedral.
The conference's final statement was a summary of all the topics the speakers had touched on during two days of meetings in Cordoba, the historic capital of the western Islamic empire.
More than 200 delegates heard that Muslim women faced many difficulties, whether they were immigrants living in a western society or recent converts, mainly because of a high level of ignorance of Islamic customs.
The conference concluded that it was up to western societies to change their views of Islam and to counteract negative images of Islam in the media.
Violence condemned
Delegates said they were tired of being portrayed as timid and downtrodden.
They said the decision to wear a veil or headscarf was often portrayed as their central preoccupation when in reality there were many other subjects of concern to them.
There was strong condemnation of domestic violence and of female genital mutilation and a call for women to fight discrimination in work, pay, health and education, regardless of race or religion.
Controversy came when a group of about 20 delegates, men and women, insisted on praying inside Cordoba's Great Mosque, which was converted to a Catholic cathedral in the 13th century.
As they bowed to Mecca, security guards moved in to break up the gathering, saying it was forbidden for Muslims to pray within the property of the Catholic Church.
Worshippers said they wanted to reclaim a part of their history.
Muslims tried to pray at Cordoba's Great Masjid
Emotional moment
Some said it had been 500 years since such an event had taken place in the Cordoba mosque.
While that may not be true, it was clearly an emotional moment, leaving some of the participants in tears.
Yusuf Fernandez, of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Groups, said it was part of an ongoing campaign to change the status of the former mosque.
Spain is coming to terms with the relatively new phenomenon of large-scale Muslim immigration and many speakers in Cordoba said it was all too common for Spaniards to confuse integration with the need to adopt Spanish customs.
Spain has experienced a large-scale immigration from North Africa
A World Where Womanhood Reigns Supreme
A World Where Womanhood Reigns Supreme
Source: Article by Mary Walker, a non-muslim production coordinator on the BBC 2 series "Living Islam"
When I joined the team of "Living Islam" (the BBC series) two years ago, my perception of Islam was dominated by prejudice and ignorance, and I found its treatment of women abhorrent. To me the veil symbolised the oppression of women, making them invisible, anonymous and voiceless, and the cause of this oppression lay in the will to perpetuate the family and maintain a patriarchal framework - the very basis of an Islamic society. I thought women were entirely submerged by divine justification of their role as wife and mother.
"Living Islam" was filmed over two years in nineteen different countries and on location I was a lone female in an otherwise male team. I was aware that I especially should behave appropriately. In my mind, women were to be neither seen nor heard. My first trip took me to Mali - to an untypical Muslim community in the bush. Making sure to cover every bit of naked flesh while the men wandered around in short sleeves, I wondered what rooms I was permitted to enter and who I was permitted to talk to. But I also wondered whether my new-found meekness was not in part a reaction to the overpowering atmosphere of the patriarchal society I found myself in. Was this how Muslim women felt - resignation in the face of impossible odds?
The first Muslim woman I met in Mali was far removed from my preconception about the Muslim female. She was the wife of a Shaikh dedicated to converting pagan villagers to Islam. A sophisticated, well-educated woman, previously married to a diplomat, she had renounced a Western lifestyle for a life in purdah. In my eyes she had sentenced herself to life imprisonment.
But here was no prisoner, no poor downtrodden slave. A sharp, intelligent and influential woman stood before me, clearly the one who "wore the trousers" round here. Her seclusion gave her a status of honour and allowed her to exercise control from behind closed doors without confrontation. She was the bargainer, the head of the household, and the manager of her husband's affairs and schedule. The emancipated woman in the West faces the conflict between confirmation of her femininity and the privileges that she associates with it, and repudiation of the confines of her female role and all the limitations that men want her to assume. From where I stood, this woman had transformed those limitations into privileges.
On my next trip to northern Nigeria I met two more women who would alter my views even further. These were two women from the household of Shaikh Zakzaky, a fervent preacher of Jihad who urges his supporters to follow the example of Iran and replace the imperialistic western regime with an Islamic state. Zeenah Ibraheem, Zakzaky's wife and Fatima Yunus, her friend, had agreed to be interviewed about the role of women in Islam. They were in purdah and would only speak to another woman. The producer asked me to interview them. I was nervous apart from the fact that I had never interviewed anyone before. I was worried that my feminist sympathies would antagonise the women. But it was precisely these sympathies that Zeenah and Fatima themselves were questioning. Once again, the women were educated and articulate. And once again they had rejected the Western lifestyle which I considered so superior to Islam in its treatment of women. As I took my seat on a carpet in the courtyard, the invisible boundary between men and women was a welcome partition, and within this boundary womanhood reigned supreme. This was a sharp contrast with the feelings from the previous days in locations where my presence had been acceptable only as an "honorary man".
We had been filming the medieval theatrics of the 'Salla' celebrations that marked the end of Ramadhan. Men, men, men everywhere: 500,000 men gathered for prayer on the morning of the Salla, men pouring into the inner courtyard of the Emirof Kano's inner courtyard to pay homage - I was grateful to be allowed to witness these events but at what price? The complete annihilation of my female identity? But now I was taking the reins because of my sex. No more the feeling of inferiority and exclusion, as a novice in things Islamic surrounded by a team of experts, as a woman in a patriarchal society. Now the men were excluded. Apart from the cameraman and sound recordist, they were encouraged to stand well back. The cameraman covered his head and the camera with a black cloth - his very own veil. I was now in a world where the men had no voice. The women talked and in their answers I saw the seeds of my own re-evaluations. They argued that the veil signified their rejection of an unacceptable system of values which debased women while Islam elevated women to a position of honour and respect. "It is not liberation where you say women should go naked. It is just oppression, because men want to see them naked." Just as to us the veil represents Muslim oppression, to them miniskirts and plunging necklines represent oppression. They said that men are cheating women in the West. They let us believe we're liberated but enslave us to the male gaze. However much I insist on the right to choose what I wear, I cannot deny that the choice is often dictated by what will make my body more attractive to men. Women cannot separate their identity from their appearance and so we remain trapped in the traditional feminine world, where the rules are written by men.
By choosing to wear the veil, these women were making a conscious decision to define their role in society and their relationship with men. That relationship appeared to be based more on exchange and mutual respect (a respect that was often lacking in the personal relationships I saw in the West), than the master/servant scenario I had anticipated. The Veil to them signified visual confirmation of their religious commitment, in which men and women were united, and for Zeenah and Fatima an even stronger commitment to a political ideal. So were my notions of oppression in the form of the veil disqualified? If my definition of equality was free will then I could no longer define that oppression as a symptom of Islam. The women had all exercised their right to choose. To some extent, they were freer than me - I had less control over my destiny. I could no longer point at them and say they were oppressed and I was not. My life was influenced by male approval as theirs - but the element of choice had been taken out of mine. their situations and their arguments had, after all, served to highlight shortcomings in my view of my own liberty.
Source: Article by Mary Walker, a non-muslim production coordinator on the BBC 2 series "Living Islam"
When I joined the team of "Living Islam" (the BBC series) two years ago, my perception of Islam was dominated by prejudice and ignorance, and I found its treatment of women abhorrent. To me the veil symbolised the oppression of women, making them invisible, anonymous and voiceless, and the cause of this oppression lay in the will to perpetuate the family and maintain a patriarchal framework - the very basis of an Islamic society. I thought women were entirely submerged by divine justification of their role as wife and mother.
"Living Islam" was filmed over two years in nineteen different countries and on location I was a lone female in an otherwise male team. I was aware that I especially should behave appropriately. In my mind, women were to be neither seen nor heard. My first trip took me to Mali - to an untypical Muslim community in the bush. Making sure to cover every bit of naked flesh while the men wandered around in short sleeves, I wondered what rooms I was permitted to enter and who I was permitted to talk to. But I also wondered whether my new-found meekness was not in part a reaction to the overpowering atmosphere of the patriarchal society I found myself in. Was this how Muslim women felt - resignation in the face of impossible odds?
The first Muslim woman I met in Mali was far removed from my preconception about the Muslim female. She was the wife of a Shaikh dedicated to converting pagan villagers to Islam. A sophisticated, well-educated woman, previously married to a diplomat, she had renounced a Western lifestyle for a life in purdah. In my eyes she had sentenced herself to life imprisonment.
But here was no prisoner, no poor downtrodden slave. A sharp, intelligent and influential woman stood before me, clearly the one who "wore the trousers" round here. Her seclusion gave her a status of honour and allowed her to exercise control from behind closed doors without confrontation. She was the bargainer, the head of the household, and the manager of her husband's affairs and schedule. The emancipated woman in the West faces the conflict between confirmation of her femininity and the privileges that she associates with it, and repudiation of the confines of her female role and all the limitations that men want her to assume. From where I stood, this woman had transformed those limitations into privileges.
On my next trip to northern Nigeria I met two more women who would alter my views even further. These were two women from the household of Shaikh Zakzaky, a fervent preacher of Jihad who urges his supporters to follow the example of Iran and replace the imperialistic western regime with an Islamic state. Zeenah Ibraheem, Zakzaky's wife and Fatima Yunus, her friend, had agreed to be interviewed about the role of women in Islam. They were in purdah and would only speak to another woman. The producer asked me to interview them. I was nervous apart from the fact that I had never interviewed anyone before. I was worried that my feminist sympathies would antagonise the women. But it was precisely these sympathies that Zeenah and Fatima themselves were questioning. Once again, the women were educated and articulate. And once again they had rejected the Western lifestyle which I considered so superior to Islam in its treatment of women. As I took my seat on a carpet in the courtyard, the invisible boundary between men and women was a welcome partition, and within this boundary womanhood reigned supreme. This was a sharp contrast with the feelings from the previous days in locations where my presence had been acceptable only as an "honorary man".
We had been filming the medieval theatrics of the 'Salla' celebrations that marked the end of Ramadhan. Men, men, men everywhere: 500,000 men gathered for prayer on the morning of the Salla, men pouring into the inner courtyard of the Emirof Kano's inner courtyard to pay homage - I was grateful to be allowed to witness these events but at what price? The complete annihilation of my female identity? But now I was taking the reins because of my sex. No more the feeling of inferiority and exclusion, as a novice in things Islamic surrounded by a team of experts, as a woman in a patriarchal society. Now the men were excluded. Apart from the cameraman and sound recordist, they were encouraged to stand well back. The cameraman covered his head and the camera with a black cloth - his very own veil. I was now in a world where the men had no voice. The women talked and in their answers I saw the seeds of my own re-evaluations. They argued that the veil signified their rejection of an unacceptable system of values which debased women while Islam elevated women to a position of honour and respect. "It is not liberation where you say women should go naked. It is just oppression, because men want to see them naked." Just as to us the veil represents Muslim oppression, to them miniskirts and plunging necklines represent oppression. They said that men are cheating women in the West. They let us believe we're liberated but enslave us to the male gaze. However much I insist on the right to choose what I wear, I cannot deny that the choice is often dictated by what will make my body more attractive to men. Women cannot separate their identity from their appearance and so we remain trapped in the traditional feminine world, where the rules are written by men.
By choosing to wear the veil, these women were making a conscious decision to define their role in society and their relationship with men. That relationship appeared to be based more on exchange and mutual respect (a respect that was often lacking in the personal relationships I saw in the West), than the master/servant scenario I had anticipated. The Veil to them signified visual confirmation of their religious commitment, in which men and women were united, and for Zeenah and Fatima an even stronger commitment to a political ideal. So were my notions of oppression in the form of the veil disqualified? If my definition of equality was free will then I could no longer define that oppression as a symptom of Islam. The women had all exercised their right to choose. To some extent, they were freer than me - I had less control over my destiny. I could no longer point at them and say they were oppressed and I was not. My life was influenced by male approval as theirs - but the element of choice had been taken out of mine. their situations and their arguments had, after all, served to highlight shortcomings in my view of my own liberty.
Muslim Women Say They're Equal in Islam
Muslim Women Say They're Equal in Islam
By Barbara Rodgers
Source: KPIX Channel 5 News, San Francisco
February 12, 2002
Muslim girls having lunch at school.
People Make Assumptions
The September 11th attacks have prompted many Americans to take a new look at Islam -- one of the fastest-growing religions in the U.S.
Muslim women, who wear a veil or a headscarf, are becoming a much more common sight, especially in the Bay Area.
If it were not for the hijab, or headscarf, people would probably make no assumptions about Ameena Jandali. But because of the way she dresses, they do.
"Just last week I was dropping someone off at the airport," she said. "I was waiting in the back seat because my baby was crying. You know the airports now -- you're not supposed to stay too long. So the security guard came and said, 'You really need to move,' and said, 'Can you drive?' I said, 'Yeah, I'm 40 years old and I can drive.'"
Jandali was born to Muslim parents in Colorado. She has a college degree, has been married for 23 years, and is the mother of five children. She was in high school when she decided to become a practicing Muslim.
"I made that conscious choice," she said. "I saw the benefits of practicing Islam. I saw the truth of Islam."
Christy Chase, an IT manager at the NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, was not born a Muslim. She converted 19 years ago.
"As a Christian, I was always waiting to be saved," she said. "I heard these wonderful stories about the sunlight coming through the window. I kind of waited for my moment to have that great moment of being saved, and knowing I found the truth, and it wasn't anything that exciting."
Chase married an immigrant from Egypt with whom she has seven children -- six of them girls -- all being raised as Muslims.
Focusing on School
At the age of puberty, Muslim girls are required to begin covering their heads in public. It's a concept that for many non-Muslim women appears to fly in the face of women's equality. But Muslim women disagree. Jandali says the hijab is "for the purpose of raising a woman above her sexuality -- so that she is not viewed or judged or related to based on the way she looks -- and to get away from some of the tendencies in society to misuse women's bodies, to abuse women's bodies."
Muslims are not allowed to drink, smoke, or date casually. How does that sit with Chase's 16-year-old daughter?
"You know, I really don't miss out on dating. I don't date," she said. "I get a lot of 'Don't you really want to date?' No, from watching you, your boyfriend, not really. Men take too much time. I'm focusing on school."
Most teenage boys and girls do plan to marry someday, but the Muslim way of choosing a mate is generally motivated more by personal histories than hormones.
"They're starting the relationship with the basis of marriage in mind," Chase said. "Rather than, 'Let's date and have a good time and see where this goes,' the idea is you see if your goals are aligned, and then you find out if you're compatible, and attracted to each other, rather than the opposite."
And if you think a modestly-dressed Muslim woman wouldn't be interested in a red party dress, then you'd be wrong.
"Ideally, Islamicly, you're home, you're dressed nice. You do your hair, even makeup," Chase said.
Culture has a Strong Hold
Clearly, many American Muslim women feel they have plenty of freedom and independence, but are well aware that's not the case for Muslim women everywhere.
"In many of the Muslim countries around the world, the culture has a strong hold on the people," Jandali said. "Islam should not be forced down people's throat. Something as minor as showing a little bit of flesh should not be a reason for some of the reported abuses."
Muslim men are able to marry up to four wives. But the Qur'an says that the man must treat each wife fairly, and that means financially and emotionally. Because it is illegal in the U.S. to have more than one wife, many American Muslim scholars say a Muslim man here cannot marry more than one woman, because the other women would not be treated fairly under American law.
Overall, Muslim women say theirs is a religion that respects women and elevates them to a special place. In Islam, they say, they are equal to men, but different from them.
By Barbara Rodgers
Source: KPIX Channel 5 News, San Francisco
February 12, 2002
Muslim girls having lunch at school.
People Make Assumptions
The September 11th attacks have prompted many Americans to take a new look at Islam -- one of the fastest-growing religions in the U.S.
Muslim women, who wear a veil or a headscarf, are becoming a much more common sight, especially in the Bay Area.
If it were not for the hijab, or headscarf, people would probably make no assumptions about Ameena Jandali. But because of the way she dresses, they do.
"Just last week I was dropping someone off at the airport," she said. "I was waiting in the back seat because my baby was crying. You know the airports now -- you're not supposed to stay too long. So the security guard came and said, 'You really need to move,' and said, 'Can you drive?' I said, 'Yeah, I'm 40 years old and I can drive.'"
Jandali was born to Muslim parents in Colorado. She has a college degree, has been married for 23 years, and is the mother of five children. She was in high school when she decided to become a practicing Muslim.
"I made that conscious choice," she said. "I saw the benefits of practicing Islam. I saw the truth of Islam."
Christy Chase, an IT manager at the NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, was not born a Muslim. She converted 19 years ago.
"As a Christian, I was always waiting to be saved," she said. "I heard these wonderful stories about the sunlight coming through the window. I kind of waited for my moment to have that great moment of being saved, and knowing I found the truth, and it wasn't anything that exciting."
Chase married an immigrant from Egypt with whom she has seven children -- six of them girls -- all being raised as Muslims.
Focusing on School
At the age of puberty, Muslim girls are required to begin covering their heads in public. It's a concept that for many non-Muslim women appears to fly in the face of women's equality. But Muslim women disagree. Jandali says the hijab is "for the purpose of raising a woman above her sexuality -- so that she is not viewed or judged or related to based on the way she looks -- and to get away from some of the tendencies in society to misuse women's bodies, to abuse women's bodies."
Muslims are not allowed to drink, smoke, or date casually. How does that sit with Chase's 16-year-old daughter?
"You know, I really don't miss out on dating. I don't date," she said. "I get a lot of 'Don't you really want to date?' No, from watching you, your boyfriend, not really. Men take too much time. I'm focusing on school."
Most teenage boys and girls do plan to marry someday, but the Muslim way of choosing a mate is generally motivated more by personal histories than hormones.
"They're starting the relationship with the basis of marriage in mind," Chase said. "Rather than, 'Let's date and have a good time and see where this goes,' the idea is you see if your goals are aligned, and then you find out if you're compatible, and attracted to each other, rather than the opposite."
And if you think a modestly-dressed Muslim woman wouldn't be interested in a red party dress, then you'd be wrong.
"Ideally, Islamicly, you're home, you're dressed nice. You do your hair, even makeup," Chase said.
Culture has a Strong Hold
Clearly, many American Muslim women feel they have plenty of freedom and independence, but are well aware that's not the case for Muslim women everywhere.
"In many of the Muslim countries around the world, the culture has a strong hold on the people," Jandali said. "Islam should not be forced down people's throat. Something as minor as showing a little bit of flesh should not be a reason for some of the reported abuses."
Muslim men are able to marry up to four wives. But the Qur'an says that the man must treat each wife fairly, and that means financially and emotionally. Because it is illegal in the U.S. to have more than one wife, many American Muslim scholars say a Muslim man here cannot marry more than one woman, because the other women would not be treated fairly under American law.
Overall, Muslim women say theirs is a religion that respects women and elevates them to a special place. In Islam, they say, they are equal to men, but different from them.
Islam's Female Converts
Islam's Female Converts
By Priya Malhotra
Reprinted from Newsday.com
February 16, 2002
Amina Mohammed and Sunni Rumsey Amatullah exchange phone numbers Sunday after prayers. (Newsday/Bill Davis)
‘ALLAHU AKBAR [God is great], Allahu akbar!” called Muhammad Hannini as about 15 worshipers gathered Sunday in a mosque in the basement of a home in Richmond Hill, Queens. Instantly, they knelt and touched their heads to the floor, a gesture symbolizing submission to God in Islam.
The eight women bent in prayer a few feet behind the men were dressed in scarves and long dresses or ankle-length skirts. "You should see my humanity, my compassion, my devotion to God coming through the surface, not my body,” said Sunni Rumsey Amatullah, who became Muslim a quarter century ago.
The women say they consider the veil and modest dress symbols not of oppression but of liberation. They say the emphasis on the female body in the Western world, with all its manifestations in popular culture, has led to the sexual objectification of women. And, despite their own often problematic relationships with men, they say their religion treats each gender equally, though not identically.
Like Amatullah -- who was born Cheryl Rumsey in Jamaica, Queens, and raised Episcopalian -- these women are among the estimated 20,000 Americans a year who since the mid-'90s have adopted Islam, a religion that has been receiving much attention since the Sept.11 terrorist attacks.
Despite the persistent image of the oppressed Muslim woman, about 7,000 of those converts each year are women, according to the report of a study led by Ihsan Bagby, a professor of international studies at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. The study was financed in part by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington. About 14,000 of the total number of converts in 2000, the report found, were African-American, 4,000 were white and 1,200 were of Hispanic descent. (Members of the Nation of Islam were not included in the study.)
What is the religion's draw for women? "The .tightly structured way of life, the regular set of responsibilities, where you know what you believe and you know what you do, attracts some women,” said Jane I. Smith, professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut and author of "Islam in America” (Columbia University Press).
With laws for almost every aspect of life, Islam represents a faith-based order that women may see as crucial to creating healthy families and communities, and correcting the damage done by the popular secular humanism of the past 30 or so years, several experts said. In addition, women from broken homes may be especially attracted to the religion because of the value it places on family, said Marcia Herman.sen, a professor of Islamic studies at Loyola Univer.sity in Chicago and an American who also converted to Islam.
Next Saturday, the women, along with Muslims around the world, will celebrate the festival of Eid ul-Adha marking the end of hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. They "don't see the structures as repressive,” Hermansen said. "They see them as comforting and supportive.”
Choosing Islam can also be a type of "cultural critique” of Western materialism, she said. "Islam represents the beautiful, traditional, grounded and .authentic.”
"It is Allah talking to you directly,” said Amatullah, 50, the director of an HIV prevention program at Iris House, a health-care organization in Harlem. She said she converted after leading a wildly hedonistic lifestyle for several years. "It's a spiritual awakening. What happens is you're in a fog and you don't know you are in a fog, and when it clears up you say, ‘Hey, I thought it was clear back there,'” she said. "My friend's husband gave me the Quran in my early 20s, because he thought I was too wild.”
At first, Amatullah said, she paid little attention, but she was profoundly affected when she .started delving into the book. Still, it took about five years and a great deal of contemplation, she said, before she became truly interested in Islam and came to believe the Quran was the divine truth. She said she also was impressed by the rights women had under Islam in .seventh-century Arabia, a time when women in most other cultures had virtually no power over their lives.
"Islamic law embodies a number of Quranic reforms that significantly enhanced the status of women,” according to John Esposito, a professor and director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and author of "Islam: The Straight Path” (Oxford University Press). "Contrary to pre-Islamic Arab customs, the Quran recognized a woman's right to contract her own marriage.
"In addition, she, not her father or male relatives, as had been the custom, was to receive the dowry from her husband. She became a party to the contract rather than an object for sale,” Esposito wrote. "The right to keep and maintain her dowry was a source of self-esteem and wealth in an otherwise male-dominated society. Women's right to own and manage their own property was further enhanced and acknowledged by Quranic verses of inheritance which granted inheritance rights to wives, daughters, sisters and grandmothers of the deceased in a patriarchal society where all rights were tradition.ally vested solely in male heirs. Similar legal rights would not occur in the West until the 19th century.”
Esther Bourne, a 46-year-old accountant in Manhattan, was raised Catholic by her American mother after her British father died when she was 6. Spiritually inclined from a young age, she said she first read the Quran in her mid-20s, because her former husband, a Muslim, owned a copy. "I would go in and out of it,” she said.
By her mid-30s, after ending an abusive relationship and enduring the tragic death of a man she loved dearly, Bourne said she began a spiritual quest that included classes on Islam at a mosque on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "When the teachers would explain, my heart just accepted it,” she said. "The heart believed it.”
In 1992, at the age of 36, Bourne took her sha.hada, the profession of faith that is the first of the five pillars of Islam. "I don't have panic anymore, and if some misfortune happens, I just accept the decree from Allah,” Bourne said.
"You slowly adjust yourself to an Islamic way of life, thinking about God, doing good deeds,” Amatullah said. "Some days I do it better than others.”
Amina Mohammed, a 58-year-old dental assistant at the Veterans Administration hospital in St. Albans, has been a Muslim for more than 20 years. She was born Doris Gregory, the daughter of an American Indian .mother and a .Jamaican father, and was raised as a .Lutheran. She said she stopped going to church when she was 16.
Two years later, she began an active spiritual quest by reading about Buddhism, Hinduism and American Indian religions, but, she said, none of them was what she was looking for -- a way to pray to one God in one form. "I was so disappointed,” she said. "I knew that there was a correct religion, but I just hadn't found it. But I believed in God -- I was no atheist.”
In her mid-30s, after two failed marriages and two daughters -- who are now 27 and 33 -- she said she felt a desperate need for spiritual direction and coincidentally was exposed for the first time to Islam. "This is what I had always felt in my heart,” she said.
For about three years she studied the religion; she began to cut down on dating and to cover her head occasionally. Then she went to a mosque in Manhattan and "saw women from different countries and from different races praying together,” she said. "I thought this is how it should be on earth.”
Amatullah, who lives in St. Albans, has been married and divorced three times since she converted to Islam. Her first husband was from Sudan, the second was from Egypt and the third was Italian-American; all were Muslim. Allah gives both men and women the right to divorce, she said, and she ini.tiated each split.
Although the Quran does not prohibit women from gaining an education or having a career, the converts said, it is a woman's primary responsibility to take care of her children.
"Look at the Western society of today with the breakdown of family, the mother being out of the home and the children being alone,” said Bourne, who is single and has a 28-year-old son. "I had problems because I practically had to raise my son alone.”
Their faith, the three converts said, has not been shaken by the Sept. 11 attacks, carried out by men who said they were acting as Muslims. The distortion of Islam by extremists and terrorists, the women stressed, should not lead to the condemnation of a great religion.
"To kill innocent lives,” Amatullah said, "is anti- Islamic.”
By Priya Malhotra
Reprinted from Newsday.com
February 16, 2002
Amina Mohammed and Sunni Rumsey Amatullah exchange phone numbers Sunday after prayers. (Newsday/Bill Davis)
‘ALLAHU AKBAR [God is great], Allahu akbar!” called Muhammad Hannini as about 15 worshipers gathered Sunday in a mosque in the basement of a home in Richmond Hill, Queens. Instantly, they knelt and touched their heads to the floor, a gesture symbolizing submission to God in Islam.
The eight women bent in prayer a few feet behind the men were dressed in scarves and long dresses or ankle-length skirts. "You should see my humanity, my compassion, my devotion to God coming through the surface, not my body,” said Sunni Rumsey Amatullah, who became Muslim a quarter century ago.
The women say they consider the veil and modest dress symbols not of oppression but of liberation. They say the emphasis on the female body in the Western world, with all its manifestations in popular culture, has led to the sexual objectification of women. And, despite their own often problematic relationships with men, they say their religion treats each gender equally, though not identically.
Like Amatullah -- who was born Cheryl Rumsey in Jamaica, Queens, and raised Episcopalian -- these women are among the estimated 20,000 Americans a year who since the mid-'90s have adopted Islam, a religion that has been receiving much attention since the Sept.11 terrorist attacks.
Despite the persistent image of the oppressed Muslim woman, about 7,000 of those converts each year are women, according to the report of a study led by Ihsan Bagby, a professor of international studies at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. The study was financed in part by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington. About 14,000 of the total number of converts in 2000, the report found, were African-American, 4,000 were white and 1,200 were of Hispanic descent. (Members of the Nation of Islam were not included in the study.)
What is the religion's draw for women? "The .tightly structured way of life, the regular set of responsibilities, where you know what you believe and you know what you do, attracts some women,” said Jane I. Smith, professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut and author of "Islam in America” (Columbia University Press).
With laws for almost every aspect of life, Islam represents a faith-based order that women may see as crucial to creating healthy families and communities, and correcting the damage done by the popular secular humanism of the past 30 or so years, several experts said. In addition, women from broken homes may be especially attracted to the religion because of the value it places on family, said Marcia Herman.sen, a professor of Islamic studies at Loyola Univer.sity in Chicago and an American who also converted to Islam.
Next Saturday, the women, along with Muslims around the world, will celebrate the festival of Eid ul-Adha marking the end of hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. They "don't see the structures as repressive,” Hermansen said. "They see them as comforting and supportive.”
Choosing Islam can also be a type of "cultural critique” of Western materialism, she said. "Islam represents the beautiful, traditional, grounded and .authentic.”
"It is Allah talking to you directly,” said Amatullah, 50, the director of an HIV prevention program at Iris House, a health-care organization in Harlem. She said she converted after leading a wildly hedonistic lifestyle for several years. "It's a spiritual awakening. What happens is you're in a fog and you don't know you are in a fog, and when it clears up you say, ‘Hey, I thought it was clear back there,'” she said. "My friend's husband gave me the Quran in my early 20s, because he thought I was too wild.”
At first, Amatullah said, she paid little attention, but she was profoundly affected when she .started delving into the book. Still, it took about five years and a great deal of contemplation, she said, before she became truly interested in Islam and came to believe the Quran was the divine truth. She said she also was impressed by the rights women had under Islam in .seventh-century Arabia, a time when women in most other cultures had virtually no power over their lives.
"Islamic law embodies a number of Quranic reforms that significantly enhanced the status of women,” according to John Esposito, a professor and director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and author of "Islam: The Straight Path” (Oxford University Press). "Contrary to pre-Islamic Arab customs, the Quran recognized a woman's right to contract her own marriage.
"In addition, she, not her father or male relatives, as had been the custom, was to receive the dowry from her husband. She became a party to the contract rather than an object for sale,” Esposito wrote. "The right to keep and maintain her dowry was a source of self-esteem and wealth in an otherwise male-dominated society. Women's right to own and manage their own property was further enhanced and acknowledged by Quranic verses of inheritance which granted inheritance rights to wives, daughters, sisters and grandmothers of the deceased in a patriarchal society where all rights were tradition.ally vested solely in male heirs. Similar legal rights would not occur in the West until the 19th century.”
Esther Bourne, a 46-year-old accountant in Manhattan, was raised Catholic by her American mother after her British father died when she was 6. Spiritually inclined from a young age, she said she first read the Quran in her mid-20s, because her former husband, a Muslim, owned a copy. "I would go in and out of it,” she said.
By her mid-30s, after ending an abusive relationship and enduring the tragic death of a man she loved dearly, Bourne said she began a spiritual quest that included classes on Islam at a mosque on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "When the teachers would explain, my heart just accepted it,” she said. "The heart believed it.”
In 1992, at the age of 36, Bourne took her sha.hada, the profession of faith that is the first of the five pillars of Islam. "I don't have panic anymore, and if some misfortune happens, I just accept the decree from Allah,” Bourne said.
"You slowly adjust yourself to an Islamic way of life, thinking about God, doing good deeds,” Amatullah said. "Some days I do it better than others.”
Amina Mohammed, a 58-year-old dental assistant at the Veterans Administration hospital in St. Albans, has been a Muslim for more than 20 years. She was born Doris Gregory, the daughter of an American Indian .mother and a .Jamaican father, and was raised as a .Lutheran. She said she stopped going to church when she was 16.
Two years later, she began an active spiritual quest by reading about Buddhism, Hinduism and American Indian religions, but, she said, none of them was what she was looking for -- a way to pray to one God in one form. "I was so disappointed,” she said. "I knew that there was a correct religion, but I just hadn't found it. But I believed in God -- I was no atheist.”
In her mid-30s, after two failed marriages and two daughters -- who are now 27 and 33 -- she said she felt a desperate need for spiritual direction and coincidentally was exposed for the first time to Islam. "This is what I had always felt in my heart,” she said.
For about three years she studied the religion; she began to cut down on dating and to cover her head occasionally. Then she went to a mosque in Manhattan and "saw women from different countries and from different races praying together,” she said. "I thought this is how it should be on earth.”
Amatullah, who lives in St. Albans, has been married and divorced three times since she converted to Islam. Her first husband was from Sudan, the second was from Egypt and the third was Italian-American; all were Muslim. Allah gives both men and women the right to divorce, she said, and she ini.tiated each split.
Although the Quran does not prohibit women from gaining an education or having a career, the converts said, it is a woman's primary responsibility to take care of her children.
"Look at the Western society of today with the breakdown of family, the mother being out of the home and the children being alone,” said Bourne, who is single and has a 28-year-old son. "I had problems because I practically had to raise my son alone.”
Their faith, the three converts said, has not been shaken by the Sept. 11 attacks, carried out by men who said they were acting as Muslims. The distortion of Islam by extremists and terrorists, the women stressed, should not lead to the condemnation of a great religion.
"To kill innocent lives,” Amatullah said, "is anti- Islamic.”
Islam Unveiled
Islam Unveiled
Muslim women explain their beliefs about God and faith to young, curious minds.
By Angela Miller-Hood
Reprinted from the St. Petersburg Times Online, January 19, 2002
[Times photo: Lance Rothstein]
Maysi Hnin shows Catlyn Harrier, 8, how to wear a hijab during a visit to St. Anthony Interparochial Catholic School. Six women who attend the University of South Florida in Tampa offered insight on their faith.
SAN ANTONIO -- Why do you wear that veil and those clothes?
That was the question of the day when six Muslim women visited St. Anthony Interparochial Catholic School on Jan. 11.
Children sat in awe of the women, who wore head scarves called hijabs and clothing that covered most of their bodies.
The students listened attentively while the women explained that their modest dress was to preserve their beauty for family members. They also talked about how the hijab boosts their confidence by forcing people to judge their character rather than their looks.
"The more we can understand other people, the more we can live in peace and harmony," said the Rev. Henry Riffle. "(The children) are at a very informative age."
The women, who attend the University of South Florida in Tampa, are part of a student group that promotes the Islamic faith by speaking at events.
"This is a way of life for me and my friends," said Maysi Hnin, who directed most of the program. "I try and remain calm and open-minded to questions, to help people understand."
Four of the women were born into Islam; the others converted.
The women told the students about God, whom they call Allah, which is Arabic for God. They also talked of their belief in prophets. Jesus was one of them, they said, though Muslims do not consider him the Messiah. Rather than pray through Jesus, they said, Muslims pray directly to God. They showed the children their holy book, the Qur'an, and demonstrated how Muslims pray five times a day. They kneel on a rug that faces a certain direction, saying the words of a prayer along with body movements.
"We are constantly remembering God this way," Hnin said.
The women said Islam is a peaceful religion and that they are taught to be kind to people, animals and nature.
After the program, students said they didn't know that not all Muslims are Arabs, and that Muslims also speak English, revere Jesus and come from all over the United States.
The topic of terrorism was not discussed. Before the presentation, though, some students remarked to religion teacher Shelia Mahoney that they thought all Muslims were like Osama bin Laden. The students said afterward that they had a much better understanding of Islam.
"I was glad to attend myself; I was enlightened," Mahoney said.
Mahoney said that although they mainly teach students about the Roman Catholic faith, she would like to see more ecumenical teaching.
Keri White attended the program with her daughters Kathleen, 9, and Mary, 12.
"I am very open to informing them on all religions; I like the girls to learn what other people believe," White said.
Muslim women explain their beliefs about God and faith to young, curious minds.
By Angela Miller-Hood
Reprinted from the St. Petersburg Times Online, January 19, 2002
[Times photo: Lance Rothstein]
Maysi Hnin shows Catlyn Harrier, 8, how to wear a hijab during a visit to St. Anthony Interparochial Catholic School. Six women who attend the University of South Florida in Tampa offered insight on their faith.
SAN ANTONIO -- Why do you wear that veil and those clothes?
That was the question of the day when six Muslim women visited St. Anthony Interparochial Catholic School on Jan. 11.
Children sat in awe of the women, who wore head scarves called hijabs and clothing that covered most of their bodies.
The students listened attentively while the women explained that their modest dress was to preserve their beauty for family members. They also talked about how the hijab boosts their confidence by forcing people to judge their character rather than their looks.
"The more we can understand other people, the more we can live in peace and harmony," said the Rev. Henry Riffle. "(The children) are at a very informative age."
The women, who attend the University of South Florida in Tampa, are part of a student group that promotes the Islamic faith by speaking at events.
"This is a way of life for me and my friends," said Maysi Hnin, who directed most of the program. "I try and remain calm and open-minded to questions, to help people understand."
Four of the women were born into Islam; the others converted.
The women told the students about God, whom they call Allah, which is Arabic for God. They also talked of their belief in prophets. Jesus was one of them, they said, though Muslims do not consider him the Messiah. Rather than pray through Jesus, they said, Muslims pray directly to God. They showed the children their holy book, the Qur'an, and demonstrated how Muslims pray five times a day. They kneel on a rug that faces a certain direction, saying the words of a prayer along with body movements.
"We are constantly remembering God this way," Hnin said.
The women said Islam is a peaceful religion and that they are taught to be kind to people, animals and nature.
After the program, students said they didn't know that not all Muslims are Arabs, and that Muslims also speak English, revere Jesus and come from all over the United States.
The topic of terrorism was not discussed. Before the presentation, though, some students remarked to religion teacher Shelia Mahoney that they thought all Muslims were like Osama bin Laden. The students said afterward that they had a much better understanding of Islam.
"I was glad to attend myself; I was enlightened," Mahoney said.
Mahoney said that although they mainly teach students about the Roman Catholic faith, she would like to see more ecumenical teaching.
Keri White attended the program with her daughters Kathleen, 9, and Mary, 12.
"I am very open to informing them on all religions; I like the girls to learn what other people believe," White said.
Allah Came Knocking at My Heart"
Allah Came Knocking at My Heart"
By Giles Whittell
Reprinted from the Times
Monday, January 7, 2002
"It All Seemed to Come Together"
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been a surge in conversions to Islam since September 11, especially among affluent young white Britons.
Six months ago Elizabeth L. — a graduate in political science, the daughter of affluent white British parents, an opponent of terrorism in all its forms — climbed Mount Sinai at night to watch the desert sunrise from its summit.
“It was the stillest, most peaceful place I’ve ever been,” she says. “I could hear my feelings come up from within me, and in one surreal moment it all seemed to come together.”
Last Friday, at 4.45pm, Elizabeth went to Regent’s Park Mosque in Central London and converted to Islam.
It wasn’t hard. She didn’t even have to wear a scarf. Witnessed by two Muslim men and nine other friends squeezed into the imam’s office, she pronounced, in Arabic learnt from a tape the night before, the words she will repeat like a mantra five times a day for the rest of her life: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” Afterwards there was a modest celebration at Al-Dar on the Edgware Road. Elizabeth and her well-wishers sipped mint tea and smoked apple-flavoured tobacco from a hookah. There was no booze, but she never drank much anyway.
Why has she done this? “I know it sounds clichéd, but Allah came knocking at my heart. That’s really how it feels. In many ways it is beyond articulating, rather like falling in love.”
It was, in other words, intensely personal. As she read the Qur'an and prepared for her conversion, the September attacks came and went and failed to derail her spiritual journey, despite their proven link to a fundamentalist Islamist terror network. In as far as they featured in her thinking, they even elicited some sympathy. All terrorism is cowardly, she says. “But I can see why people get fed up with the West. Capitalism is enormously oppressive.”
A Surge of Conversions
Elizabeth is not a freak, and she is certainly not alone. There is compelling anecdotal evidence of a surge in conversions to Islam since September 11, not just in Britain, but across Europe and America. One Dutch Islamic centre claims a tenfold increase, while the New Muslims Project, based in Leicester and run by a former Irish Roman Catholic housewife, reports a “steady stream” of new converts.
This fits a pattern set by recent history. Similar surges followed the outbreak of the Gulf War, the Bosnian conflict and the declaration of a fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Some of the newcomers doubtless do not share David Blunkett’s enthusiasm for overt espousals of Britishness. They may even have been caught on police videos flag-waving for the Taleban. But most will speak our language and support our football teams with roughly average fervour, and some — by all accounts a rapidly expanding minority — are white, more educated and more middle-class than the Home Secretary himself.
These are some of Islam’s more surprising converts. They have chosen their new creed over the world’s other great religions having had the privilege of choice, often confounding their own and their families’ prejudices in the process. They are highly articulate and tolerant to a degree. They’re People Like Us, only they’re not. They’re Muslims. They pray five times a day, fast during Ramadan and hope to go to Mecca before they die. They answer their mobiles with “salaam alaikum”.
Unlike Richard Reid, the would-be shoe bomber of American Airlines Flight 63, Britain’s pukka Muslim converts, as the label implies, tend to be over-privileged, not under. Unlike James McLintock, the Scots lecturer’s son being held in a Peshawar jail, the fighting in Afghanistan has dismayed rather than attracted them.
They are people like Elizabeth (who asked for her name to be changed because she has not told her parents yet); like Lucy Bushill-Matthews, a 30-year-old graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge, who flirted with Islam as a student in order to dismiss it, but found it “so simple and logical I couldn’t push it away”; like “Yahya”, whose father is a pillar of the Anglo Establishment and who feels that Islam “fits right into British tradition”; and like Joe Ahmed-Dobson, a son of the former Labour Minister Frank Dobson who believes that Islam transformed his spiritual life — and helped him to get a first at university.
If there is something familiar about these people’s startling choices, there should be. We have been here before, or at least Imperial Britain’s adventuring classes and their moneyed gap-year successors have.
T. E. Lawrence fell hard for the romance and otherness of Islam and came to embody them for succeeding generations even though he never converted. Gai Eaton, a former British diplomat now in his seventies, did convert. His influential work Islam and the Destiny of Man has become required reading for bright young Anglo-Saxons turning to his adopted faith, often as an expression of dissatisfaction with a Western culture that appeared to have offered them everything.
Matthew Wilkinson made headlines when he converted and changed his name to Tariq in 1993; he was a former Eton head boy. He and Nicholas Brandt, another Etonian and the son of an investment banker, swapped their destinies as scions of the Establishment for a Slough semi shared with four other Muslims.
Lord Birt’s son, Jonathan, forsook a fast track into the ranks of the great and the good by converting in 1997 and starting a PhD on British Islam. So did a son and a daughter of Lord Justice Scott, the scourge of Tory sleaze and the chairman of the Arms to Iraq inquiry.
And so did Jemima Khan. “My decision . . . was entirely my own choice and in no way hurried,” the 21-year-old daughter of the billionaire James Goldsmith declared angrily after suggestions that she had converted to marry Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain. She noted accurately that the Koran allowed Imran to marry any Muslim, Jew or Christian (even though it bars Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men). She pointed out that Imran’s sisters, far from being oppressed by his brothers-in-law, were all educated professionals, and she insisted that she found the tunic and trousers she would henceforth have to wear “far more elegant and feminine than anything in my wardrobe”.
Her plea seemed hard to credit in the circumstances, but it is a common one from educated British women trying to persuade baffled non-Muslims that conversion did not mean surrendering their independence or their critical faculties.
For Lucy Bushill-Matthews, it meant the reverse. “When I went to Cambridge I joined the Christian and Islamic societies and all three political parties,” she says. “I wanted to explore all the possibilities in order to dismiss them.”
She thinks of herself as pragmatic and not all that spiritual, and as such she found Islam irresistible. “It made sense of all the world’s faiths. It was a clear, simple way to believe in God.” She claims that it has even helped her to land good jobs by marking her out as a free thinker. Her husband is a Muslim of English and Iranian descent whom she married after converting.
Yahya, too, chose Islam from the broadest possible religious gamut. He was raised in a high-profile London family that, because of his father’s position, could not be seen to favour one faith over another. He then took a degree in comparative religion — the theological equivalent of a blind wine tasting — and Islam, quite simply, won.
“It’s pure monotheism,” he says. “It has a clear moral system and an intact tradition of religious scholarship. No scripture expresses its message of the oneness of God as clearly as the Koran. It also has a remarkably rich mysticism, which may be what appeals to middle-class white Brits like me.”
Yahya converted five years ago. Now 33, he is at Oxford writing a PhD on British Islam and is dismayed not just by last September’s attacks, but also by the mauling he says his religion has suffered since in the media, even — or especially — at the hands of would-be sympathisers. “It’s very painful for all of us to be associated with such sickening barbarism (of the attacks),” he says. “That’s not what we signed up for. And now we can’t portray our religion in undiluted form. It’s always mediated by someone else. It’s incredibly frustrating to have Polly Toynbee trying to save you from yourself.”
So does this wry and thoughtful soul share the credo of al-Qaeda? Of course not. But the belief system in which he and the terrorists co-exist has a serious and often lethal public relations problem. The parallel that comes to mind is with the environmental movement, boasting tens of millions of members paying dues to the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Sierra Club, and a handful bent on burning down ski lodges in the Rockies.
"Constant Impetus to do the Right Thing"
Well before September 11, well-heeled defectors from Anglicanism to Islam proved so unsettling to traditionalists that the Cold War author and journalist Philip Knightley branded them “the new Philbys”. They were running from privilege, he suggested, driven as much by a sense of guilt at what they had as wonder at the mysteries of Islam. The fact that Kim Philby’s father happens to have converted to Islam was taken to support the accusation. Levelled at Joe Ahmed-Dobson, it quickly seems ridiculous. The son of the former Health Secretary is a child of new Labour and the opposite of a rebel. He works on inner city regeneration, finds spiritual satisfaction in Islam’s “constant impetus to do the right thing”, and credits his first-class degree to the structure his faith has brought to his life.
All those I spoke to agreed that Christianity claims to answer the same yearnings for meaning and guidance. All had rejected it on intellectual grounds. Why grapple with mental puzzles such as the Holy Trinity and Original Sin, they asked, when the alternative, asserting neither, proved to them so much more satisfying?It was this clarity that won over Batool Al-Toma, the former Catholic who offers guidance to converts at the New Muslims Project. She tells them they need not change their names, advises women to dress modestly but not alienate their families with radical wardrobe changes and checks they have converted freely. Islam is not generally a missionary faith, she says. At one billion and counting, history shows it doesn’t need to be.
Famous converts
Gérard Depardieu: The 54-year-old French film star converted to Islam, but later converted back. He also experimented with Buddhism and the Russian Orthodox Church but says he has now found happiness in his vineyard in Anjou. “I work and keep quiet,” he told French Vogue.
Jemima Goldsmith: The daughter of Sir James, the late financier, she converted “of her own conviction” in preparation for her marriage to Imran Khan in 1995. “It would seem that a Western woman’s happiness hinges largely on her access to nightclubs, alcohol and revealing clothes,” she said. “However, as we all know, such superficialities have very little to do with true happiness.”
Eleasha Elphinstone: The wife of the boxing star Prince Naseem Hamed switched faiths in 1998 before marrying. The previous year the wedding plans had been abandoned when Eleasha had a change of heart and refused to convert.
Malcolm X: A former street hustler, Malcolm Little converted to Islam in jail, where he was serving time for burglary. He joined the Nation of Islam, was later expelled and assassinated by Nation members in 1965.
Muhammad Ali: The 59-year-old boxer previously known as Cassius Clay became an international role model, revered as much for his political stance over Vietnam and adherence to his faith, as for his showmanship in the ring.
Cat Stevens: Born Steven Georgiou, the singer dropped his nom-de-plume to become Yusuf Islam in 1977. His moment of enlightenment had come the previous year, when his brother gave him a copy of the Koran. From being a superstar at the age of 19 when Matthew and Son became a hit, Yusuf married a Muslim woman from central Asia called Fawzia, and became a high-profile spokesman for the British Muslim community.
Mike Tyson: The former world heavyweight champion was sentenced to three years in jail for raping a teenager. He converted to Islam before returning to the ring in 1995. He told visitors that he had spent his time studying the Koran, Machiavelli, Voltaire, Dumas “and a lot of Communist literature."
By Giles Whittell
Reprinted from the Times
Monday, January 7, 2002
"It All Seemed to Come Together"
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been a surge in conversions to Islam since September 11, especially among affluent young white Britons.
Six months ago Elizabeth L. — a graduate in political science, the daughter of affluent white British parents, an opponent of terrorism in all its forms — climbed Mount Sinai at night to watch the desert sunrise from its summit.
“It was the stillest, most peaceful place I’ve ever been,” she says. “I could hear my feelings come up from within me, and in one surreal moment it all seemed to come together.”
Last Friday, at 4.45pm, Elizabeth went to Regent’s Park Mosque in Central London and converted to Islam.
It wasn’t hard. She didn’t even have to wear a scarf. Witnessed by two Muslim men and nine other friends squeezed into the imam’s office, she pronounced, in Arabic learnt from a tape the night before, the words she will repeat like a mantra five times a day for the rest of her life: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” Afterwards there was a modest celebration at Al-Dar on the Edgware Road. Elizabeth and her well-wishers sipped mint tea and smoked apple-flavoured tobacco from a hookah. There was no booze, but she never drank much anyway.
Why has she done this? “I know it sounds clichéd, but Allah came knocking at my heart. That’s really how it feels. In many ways it is beyond articulating, rather like falling in love.”
It was, in other words, intensely personal. As she read the Qur'an and prepared for her conversion, the September attacks came and went and failed to derail her spiritual journey, despite their proven link to a fundamentalist Islamist terror network. In as far as they featured in her thinking, they even elicited some sympathy. All terrorism is cowardly, she says. “But I can see why people get fed up with the West. Capitalism is enormously oppressive.”
A Surge of Conversions
Elizabeth is not a freak, and she is certainly not alone. There is compelling anecdotal evidence of a surge in conversions to Islam since September 11, not just in Britain, but across Europe and America. One Dutch Islamic centre claims a tenfold increase, while the New Muslims Project, based in Leicester and run by a former Irish Roman Catholic housewife, reports a “steady stream” of new converts.
This fits a pattern set by recent history. Similar surges followed the outbreak of the Gulf War, the Bosnian conflict and the declaration of a fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Some of the newcomers doubtless do not share David Blunkett’s enthusiasm for overt espousals of Britishness. They may even have been caught on police videos flag-waving for the Taleban. But most will speak our language and support our football teams with roughly average fervour, and some — by all accounts a rapidly expanding minority — are white, more educated and more middle-class than the Home Secretary himself.
These are some of Islam’s more surprising converts. They have chosen their new creed over the world’s other great religions having had the privilege of choice, often confounding their own and their families’ prejudices in the process. They are highly articulate and tolerant to a degree. They’re People Like Us, only they’re not. They’re Muslims. They pray five times a day, fast during Ramadan and hope to go to Mecca before they die. They answer their mobiles with “salaam alaikum”.
Unlike Richard Reid, the would-be shoe bomber of American Airlines Flight 63, Britain’s pukka Muslim converts, as the label implies, tend to be over-privileged, not under. Unlike James McLintock, the Scots lecturer’s son being held in a Peshawar jail, the fighting in Afghanistan has dismayed rather than attracted them.
They are people like Elizabeth (who asked for her name to be changed because she has not told her parents yet); like Lucy Bushill-Matthews, a 30-year-old graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge, who flirted with Islam as a student in order to dismiss it, but found it “so simple and logical I couldn’t push it away”; like “Yahya”, whose father is a pillar of the Anglo Establishment and who feels that Islam “fits right into British tradition”; and like Joe Ahmed-Dobson, a son of the former Labour Minister Frank Dobson who believes that Islam transformed his spiritual life — and helped him to get a first at university.
If there is something familiar about these people’s startling choices, there should be. We have been here before, or at least Imperial Britain’s adventuring classes and their moneyed gap-year successors have.
T. E. Lawrence fell hard for the romance and otherness of Islam and came to embody them for succeeding generations even though he never converted. Gai Eaton, a former British diplomat now in his seventies, did convert. His influential work Islam and the Destiny of Man has become required reading for bright young Anglo-Saxons turning to his adopted faith, often as an expression of dissatisfaction with a Western culture that appeared to have offered them everything.
Matthew Wilkinson made headlines when he converted and changed his name to Tariq in 1993; he was a former Eton head boy. He and Nicholas Brandt, another Etonian and the son of an investment banker, swapped their destinies as scions of the Establishment for a Slough semi shared with four other Muslims.
Lord Birt’s son, Jonathan, forsook a fast track into the ranks of the great and the good by converting in 1997 and starting a PhD on British Islam. So did a son and a daughter of Lord Justice Scott, the scourge of Tory sleaze and the chairman of the Arms to Iraq inquiry.
And so did Jemima Khan. “My decision . . . was entirely my own choice and in no way hurried,” the 21-year-old daughter of the billionaire James Goldsmith declared angrily after suggestions that she had converted to marry Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain. She noted accurately that the Koran allowed Imran to marry any Muslim, Jew or Christian (even though it bars Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men). She pointed out that Imran’s sisters, far from being oppressed by his brothers-in-law, were all educated professionals, and she insisted that she found the tunic and trousers she would henceforth have to wear “far more elegant and feminine than anything in my wardrobe”.
Her plea seemed hard to credit in the circumstances, but it is a common one from educated British women trying to persuade baffled non-Muslims that conversion did not mean surrendering their independence or their critical faculties.
For Lucy Bushill-Matthews, it meant the reverse. “When I went to Cambridge I joined the Christian and Islamic societies and all three political parties,” she says. “I wanted to explore all the possibilities in order to dismiss them.”
She thinks of herself as pragmatic and not all that spiritual, and as such she found Islam irresistible. “It made sense of all the world’s faiths. It was a clear, simple way to believe in God.” She claims that it has even helped her to land good jobs by marking her out as a free thinker. Her husband is a Muslim of English and Iranian descent whom she married after converting.
Yahya, too, chose Islam from the broadest possible religious gamut. He was raised in a high-profile London family that, because of his father’s position, could not be seen to favour one faith over another. He then took a degree in comparative religion — the theological equivalent of a blind wine tasting — and Islam, quite simply, won.
“It’s pure monotheism,” he says. “It has a clear moral system and an intact tradition of religious scholarship. No scripture expresses its message of the oneness of God as clearly as the Koran. It also has a remarkably rich mysticism, which may be what appeals to middle-class white Brits like me.”
Yahya converted five years ago. Now 33, he is at Oxford writing a PhD on British Islam and is dismayed not just by last September’s attacks, but also by the mauling he says his religion has suffered since in the media, even — or especially — at the hands of would-be sympathisers. “It’s very painful for all of us to be associated with such sickening barbarism (of the attacks),” he says. “That’s not what we signed up for. And now we can’t portray our religion in undiluted form. It’s always mediated by someone else. It’s incredibly frustrating to have Polly Toynbee trying to save you from yourself.”
So does this wry and thoughtful soul share the credo of al-Qaeda? Of course not. But the belief system in which he and the terrorists co-exist has a serious and often lethal public relations problem. The parallel that comes to mind is with the environmental movement, boasting tens of millions of members paying dues to the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Sierra Club, and a handful bent on burning down ski lodges in the Rockies.
"Constant Impetus to do the Right Thing"
Well before September 11, well-heeled defectors from Anglicanism to Islam proved so unsettling to traditionalists that the Cold War author and journalist Philip Knightley branded them “the new Philbys”. They were running from privilege, he suggested, driven as much by a sense of guilt at what they had as wonder at the mysteries of Islam. The fact that Kim Philby’s father happens to have converted to Islam was taken to support the accusation. Levelled at Joe Ahmed-Dobson, it quickly seems ridiculous. The son of the former Health Secretary is a child of new Labour and the opposite of a rebel. He works on inner city regeneration, finds spiritual satisfaction in Islam’s “constant impetus to do the right thing”, and credits his first-class degree to the structure his faith has brought to his life.
All those I spoke to agreed that Christianity claims to answer the same yearnings for meaning and guidance. All had rejected it on intellectual grounds. Why grapple with mental puzzles such as the Holy Trinity and Original Sin, they asked, when the alternative, asserting neither, proved to them so much more satisfying?It was this clarity that won over Batool Al-Toma, the former Catholic who offers guidance to converts at the New Muslims Project. She tells them they need not change their names, advises women to dress modestly but not alienate their families with radical wardrobe changes and checks they have converted freely. Islam is not generally a missionary faith, she says. At one billion and counting, history shows it doesn’t need to be.
Famous converts
Gérard Depardieu: The 54-year-old French film star converted to Islam, but later converted back. He also experimented with Buddhism and the Russian Orthodox Church but says he has now found happiness in his vineyard in Anjou. “I work and keep quiet,” he told French Vogue.
Jemima Goldsmith: The daughter of Sir James, the late financier, she converted “of her own conviction” in preparation for her marriage to Imran Khan in 1995. “It would seem that a Western woman’s happiness hinges largely on her access to nightclubs, alcohol and revealing clothes,” she said. “However, as we all know, such superficialities have very little to do with true happiness.”
Eleasha Elphinstone: The wife of the boxing star Prince Naseem Hamed switched faiths in 1998 before marrying. The previous year the wedding plans had been abandoned when Eleasha had a change of heart and refused to convert.
Malcolm X: A former street hustler, Malcolm Little converted to Islam in jail, where he was serving time for burglary. He joined the Nation of Islam, was later expelled and assassinated by Nation members in 1965.
Muhammad Ali: The 59-year-old boxer previously known as Cassius Clay became an international role model, revered as much for his political stance over Vietnam and adherence to his faith, as for his showmanship in the ring.
Cat Stevens: Born Steven Georgiou, the singer dropped his nom-de-plume to become Yusuf Islam in 1977. His moment of enlightenment had come the previous year, when his brother gave him a copy of the Koran. From being a superstar at the age of 19 when Matthew and Son became a hit, Yusuf married a Muslim woman from central Asia called Fawzia, and became a high-profile spokesman for the British Muslim community.
Mike Tyson: The former world heavyweight champion was sentenced to three years in jail for raping a teenager. He converted to Islam before returning to the ring in 1995. He told visitors that he had spent his time studying the Koran, Machiavelli, Voltaire, Dumas “and a lot of Communist literature."
Oppression Faced by American Working Women
Oppression Faced by American Working Women
Indian Express (New Delhi), August 3rd, 1986
(Zawaj.com Editor's Note: Although this article was written several years ago, it deserves being reprinted, especially since so many Muslim women now labor in the American workplace. Having been employed myself in the American workplace for many years, I have seen some of this behavior. I once had a female colleague who was clearly being harrassed by her supervisor. He would frequently belittle her in public and make references to her supposed inferiority as a woman. I urged her to report the problem but she refused, saying that "he didn't really mean it." However, I don't believe for a moment that this problem is confined to America alone. I have no doubt it is just as endemic in India and other parts of the world. We Muslims must make sure that Muslim women are not subjected to this form of abuse. We must have organizations such as CAIR which can defend and protect the rights of Muslim women in the workplace. And we must never blame or discourage a woman for reporting this kind of abuse. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace.)
They sound like experiences in a Delhi bus. Lewd gestures, offensive language, attacks on your person - the American workplace is for its women workers what public transport is for women in Delhi. A bank teller, Michelle Vinson, suffered physical abuse and alleged rape by the bank's Vice-president Sidney Taylor for four years until finally, assisted by a women's organisation, she went to court.
The district court rejected her appeal, largely because she had remained silent for 4 years and had not used the bank's complaint procedure to ask for help. It held that any relationship between the two was voluntary. The higher court of appeal rejected every finding of the district court and the matter finally found its way to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that sexual harassment is a direct infringement of a woman's right to employment. It creates a hostile and abusive work environment in which she may be forced to leave her job or in which she cannot function to her full potential, even if such unwelcome sexual demands are not directly linked to concrete employment benefits. In other words, the courts ruled that it violates U.S. civil laws against sex discrimination in the work place.
Sexual harassment of working women is endemic, said friends-of-the-court brief filed by numerous women's organisation for this case. In the last 5 years, about half the American female working force has suffered this type of harassment at work. This does not just happen to women in factories or at blue-collar workplaces. Within the fibreglass, multi-storied skyscrapers, the American office is not as pleasant for its women secretaries, lawyers and other professionals as its air-conditioning, carpeted and muted decor makes it appear.
About 42% of federally employed women were harassed in their jobs, stated a recent 2 year survey done by the Official Merits Protection Board. Another 60% of the members of the American Federation of State, Country and Municipal Employees said that sexual harassment was a frequent problem for them. And between 1981 and 1985, the number of such complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, established to monitor employment practices, shot up by 70%.
The complaints vary from the physical violence of rape and assault to the insidious harassment of unwanted pushing and touching, persistent sexual demands, offensive sexual comments, constant conversations containing sexual innuendoes and coarse language.
The offender usually makes his moves swiftly and silently, when there are no witnesses around. He is usually confident that fear, embarrassment, and often the hopelessness of the situation will keep the victim from making public complaints. And when complaints are made, he can use every defense that this grey area of social attitudes and innuendoes provide. When it is so hard for a rape victim to prove she has been violated, one can imagine how much harder it is for a victim of the less dramatic forms of violence to prove her case.
In such instances, if the offenders are their supervisors, women who resist or complain find themselves burdened with an increased workload, scathing work evaluation, unwarranted reprimands and sheer hostility. So many quit their jobs rather than go to court. When neither alternative seems feasible, they give in, quietly.
Indian Express (New Delhi), August 3rd, 1986
(Zawaj.com Editor's Note: Although this article was written several years ago, it deserves being reprinted, especially since so many Muslim women now labor in the American workplace. Having been employed myself in the American workplace for many years, I have seen some of this behavior. I once had a female colleague who was clearly being harrassed by her supervisor. He would frequently belittle her in public and make references to her supposed inferiority as a woman. I urged her to report the problem but she refused, saying that "he didn't really mean it." However, I don't believe for a moment that this problem is confined to America alone. I have no doubt it is just as endemic in India and other parts of the world. We Muslims must make sure that Muslim women are not subjected to this form of abuse. We must have organizations such as CAIR which can defend and protect the rights of Muslim women in the workplace. And we must never blame or discourage a woman for reporting this kind of abuse. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace.)
They sound like experiences in a Delhi bus. Lewd gestures, offensive language, attacks on your person - the American workplace is for its women workers what public transport is for women in Delhi. A bank teller, Michelle Vinson, suffered physical abuse and alleged rape by the bank's Vice-president Sidney Taylor for four years until finally, assisted by a women's organisation, she went to court.
The district court rejected her appeal, largely because she had remained silent for 4 years and had not used the bank's complaint procedure to ask for help. It held that any relationship between the two was voluntary. The higher court of appeal rejected every finding of the district court and the matter finally found its way to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that sexual harassment is a direct infringement of a woman's right to employment. It creates a hostile and abusive work environment in which she may be forced to leave her job or in which she cannot function to her full potential, even if such unwelcome sexual demands are not directly linked to concrete employment benefits. In other words, the courts ruled that it violates U.S. civil laws against sex discrimination in the work place.
Sexual harassment of working women is endemic, said friends-of-the-court brief filed by numerous women's organisation for this case. In the last 5 years, about half the American female working force has suffered this type of harassment at work. This does not just happen to women in factories or at blue-collar workplaces. Within the fibreglass, multi-storied skyscrapers, the American office is not as pleasant for its women secretaries, lawyers and other professionals as its air-conditioning, carpeted and muted decor makes it appear.
About 42% of federally employed women were harassed in their jobs, stated a recent 2 year survey done by the Official Merits Protection Board. Another 60% of the members of the American Federation of State, Country and Municipal Employees said that sexual harassment was a frequent problem for them. And between 1981 and 1985, the number of such complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, established to monitor employment practices, shot up by 70%.
The complaints vary from the physical violence of rape and assault to the insidious harassment of unwanted pushing and touching, persistent sexual demands, offensive sexual comments, constant conversations containing sexual innuendoes and coarse language.
The offender usually makes his moves swiftly and silently, when there are no witnesses around. He is usually confident that fear, embarrassment, and often the hopelessness of the situation will keep the victim from making public complaints. And when complaints are made, he can use every defense that this grey area of social attitudes and innuendoes provide. When it is so hard for a rape victim to prove she has been violated, one can imagine how much harder it is for a victim of the less dramatic forms of violence to prove her case.
In such instances, if the offenders are their supervisors, women who resist or complain find themselves burdened with an increased workload, scathing work evaluation, unwarranted reprimands and sheer hostility. So many quit their jobs rather than go to court. When neither alternative seems feasible, they give in, quietly.
Muslim Women Say They Find Liberation in Modest Attire
Muslim Women Say They Find Liberation in Modest Attire
By Jennifer Halperin
Of The Columbus Dispatch Staff
Columbus, Ohio
Friday, May 19, 2000
Growing up in California, Norma Tarazi spent the early years of her life mired in a culture of miniskirts and hot pants, where many considered beauty and bare skin as worthy goals. So her conversion to Islam as an adult -- after which she adopted the style of dress known as hijab that covers much of the body and hair -- amounted to no small change in lifestyle.
Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin swings her daughter, Yasmine, 18 months, at a playground on the Northwest Side.
The Qur'an calls for both Muslim women and men to dress modestly in public. Although Islam doesn't specify a style or form of dress, Suzanne Haneef writes in her book "What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims" that a woman is required to "be completely covered except for her hands and face and that her dress should conceal her form, be loose and nontransparent, and not of a kind to attract attention by its beauty.
"Many non-Muslim women might think of such dress as restrictive or even oppressive -- a sign of submission to men -- but those who have adopted hijab find it nothing less than liberating.
"People gauge who you are by what you wear and what you look like; you can't get away from that," says Tarazi, who lives in Worthington and edits the IQRA! newsletter of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus. "I used to feel uncomfortable (trying to keep up with) styles and looks. I was an intellectual type with glasses; I didn't go to the prom. Hijab frees you from trends and trying to keep up with appearances."
Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin, a local pediatrician who is vice president of the Ohio Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, finds irony in the perception that hijab somehow represents a woman's submission to her husband.
"It's the total opposite of subordination," she says. "We wear it because we choose to; we refuse to let ourselves be sex objects. We're saying: 'Value us for what we are, our character, not how we look. We're not going to play the game of trying to look good for you. We won't let you hire us because you like our legs, or we'll look good around the office.'
"In the West, I don't think women really see or realize how much you're tied to fashion, how much time you spend -- or waste, I should say -- dressing 'appropriately' and following fashion," Mobin-Uddin said.
Hijab is an Arabic word meaning "curtain." Some use it to refer to the headdress many Islamic women wear; others use it to describe modest dress in general -- loose, unrestrictive clothing that covers the body, including Western-style blazers and long skirts.
As religious and cultural groups unfamiliar with one another's practices begin to work and live together, misperceptions can arise, said Alam Payind, director of the Middle East Studies Center at Ohio State University.
Sometimes these misperceptions have led to clashes. The city of Portsmouth, Va., for example, recently agreed to pay $100,000 each to two Muslim women who were arrested in 1996 for wearing veils in public. They were charged with violating a state law prohibiting the wearing of masks. The law, aimed at exposing Ku Klux Klan members, exempted people who cover their faces for religious reasons.
In France, where Islam is the second-largest faith after Roman Catholicism, Muslim students often are expelled from schools for wearing Islamic attire. Last year, France's highest administrative court reaffirmed a ban on wearing hijab in public schools.
"That's an ethnocentric mentality," Payind said. "You have women in the Middle East thinking they are more free than women here. Who is more free, they ask: Women who buy lipstick, are slaves to fashion, need new clothing every season and try to make themselves appealing to men? Somehow we all have the view that when others do things differently they are oppressed."
Payind theorizes that misperceptions about hijab might be rooted in media reports about oppression of women in some Islamic nations, such as Afghanistan, ruled by the restrictive Taliban regime. But he notes that of the world's 56 Muslim countries, most don't require women to dress in any certain way; indeed, headscarves and other hijab coverings are discouraged in some, such as Turkey.
The religious mandate of modest dress is hardly limited to Islam, he says; observant Jewish women, for example, are urged to cover their hair and bodies to hide their beauty in public. Nuns' habits are rooted in a religious call for modesty, as well.
"What seems to be overlooked or misunderstood in the West," says Margaret Mills, chairwoman of OSU's Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department, "is that hijab in a society often can be looked at as a way to 'decommercialize' women by looks, sexuality and fashion."
Jennifer Halperin is a Dispatch editorial writer.
By Jennifer Halperin
Of The Columbus Dispatch Staff
Columbus, Ohio
Friday, May 19, 2000
Growing up in California, Norma Tarazi spent the early years of her life mired in a culture of miniskirts and hot pants, where many considered beauty and bare skin as worthy goals. So her conversion to Islam as an adult -- after which she adopted the style of dress known as hijab that covers much of the body and hair -- amounted to no small change in lifestyle.
Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin swings her daughter, Yasmine, 18 months, at a playground on the Northwest Side.
The Qur'an calls for both Muslim women and men to dress modestly in public. Although Islam doesn't specify a style or form of dress, Suzanne Haneef writes in her book "What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims" that a woman is required to "be completely covered except for her hands and face and that her dress should conceal her form, be loose and nontransparent, and not of a kind to attract attention by its beauty.
"Many non-Muslim women might think of such dress as restrictive or even oppressive -- a sign of submission to men -- but those who have adopted hijab find it nothing less than liberating.
"People gauge who you are by what you wear and what you look like; you can't get away from that," says Tarazi, who lives in Worthington and edits the IQRA! newsletter of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus. "I used to feel uncomfortable (trying to keep up with) styles and looks. I was an intellectual type with glasses; I didn't go to the prom. Hijab frees you from trends and trying to keep up with appearances."
Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin, a local pediatrician who is vice president of the Ohio Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, finds irony in the perception that hijab somehow represents a woman's submission to her husband.
"It's the total opposite of subordination," she says. "We wear it because we choose to; we refuse to let ourselves be sex objects. We're saying: 'Value us for what we are, our character, not how we look. We're not going to play the game of trying to look good for you. We won't let you hire us because you like our legs, or we'll look good around the office.'
"In the West, I don't think women really see or realize how much you're tied to fashion, how much time you spend -- or waste, I should say -- dressing 'appropriately' and following fashion," Mobin-Uddin said.
Hijab is an Arabic word meaning "curtain." Some use it to refer to the headdress many Islamic women wear; others use it to describe modest dress in general -- loose, unrestrictive clothing that covers the body, including Western-style blazers and long skirts.
As religious and cultural groups unfamiliar with one another's practices begin to work and live together, misperceptions can arise, said Alam Payind, director of the Middle East Studies Center at Ohio State University.
Sometimes these misperceptions have led to clashes. The city of Portsmouth, Va., for example, recently agreed to pay $100,000 each to two Muslim women who were arrested in 1996 for wearing veils in public. They were charged with violating a state law prohibiting the wearing of masks. The law, aimed at exposing Ku Klux Klan members, exempted people who cover their faces for religious reasons.
In France, where Islam is the second-largest faith after Roman Catholicism, Muslim students often are expelled from schools for wearing Islamic attire. Last year, France's highest administrative court reaffirmed a ban on wearing hijab in public schools.
"That's an ethnocentric mentality," Payind said. "You have women in the Middle East thinking they are more free than women here. Who is more free, they ask: Women who buy lipstick, are slaves to fashion, need new clothing every season and try to make themselves appealing to men? Somehow we all have the view that when others do things differently they are oppressed."
Payind theorizes that misperceptions about hijab might be rooted in media reports about oppression of women in some Islamic nations, such as Afghanistan, ruled by the restrictive Taliban regime. But he notes that of the world's 56 Muslim countries, most don't require women to dress in any certain way; indeed, headscarves and other hijab coverings are discouraged in some, such as Turkey.
The religious mandate of modest dress is hardly limited to Islam, he says; observant Jewish women, for example, are urged to cover their hair and bodies to hide their beauty in public. Nuns' habits are rooted in a religious call for modesty, as well.
"What seems to be overlooked or misunderstood in the West," says Margaret Mills, chairwoman of OSU's Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department, "is that hijab in a society often can be looked at as a way to 'decommercialize' women by looks, sexuality and fashion."
Jennifer Halperin is a Dispatch editorial writer.
Turkish Government's War Against Hijab
Turkish Government's War Against Hijab
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 29, 2000
ISTANBUL – Five months ago, a Turkish court sentenced 23-year-old Nuray Canan Bezirgan to six months in jail for "obstructing the education of others." Her crime: wearing a head scarf to her college final exams.
In the past two years, more than 25,000 women have been barred from Turkey's college campuses because they refused to remove the head scarves they wear as part of Muslim tradition, according to Turkish human rights groups. Hundreds of government employees have been fired, demoted or transferred for the same reason. And this school year, the government has extended the ban to Islamic religious schools, prompting some Muslim girls to drop out.
The modest head scarf has become the object of one of Turkey's most divisive struggles as the country seeks to join the European Union and the globalized economy. The conflict leaves the country straining to balance greater democratic freedoms with preserving a secular state in a region of expanding Islamic influence.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the Turkish republic in 1923 to secularize and modernize a land that had been hobbled, in his opinion, by its Islamic and Ottoman imperial heritage. In recent years, the still fiercely secularist government and military have drawn criticism from human rights groups for their methods of opposing the rising influence of Islamic fundamentalism.
The government has prosecuted writers and journalists it says have espoused the spread of Islam. It has shut down an Islamic political party and is trying to ban its successor. Parliament is expected to revive a law twice vetoed by the president that would allow the government to fire civil servants suspected of having connections with Islamic or separatist political organizations.
Some of the most explosive fights have been waged on college campuses, where government regulations require students "to wear modern costumes and look modern." This month, university and high school classes opened with protests and demonstrations against administrations that barred women with head scarves.
"To ask people to choose between education and their faith is cruel," said Binnaz Toprak, a political science professor at Istanbul's Bosphorus University. "Here, two really basic rights clash with each other. People are left with a terrible choice."
Nur Sertel, deputy dean of state-run Istanbul University, which was the first to ban head scarves three years ago, defended the government. "The head scarf is not only a way of dressing, it has been used as a symbol of Islam, a flag of fundamentalism" and a political football for Islamic organizations, she said.
Turkey's National Security Council last week said education was a critical area in which to oppose the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. Council members discussed cracking down on religious influence in Turkish schools, particularly Islamic institutions.
But human rights groups have condemned the government crackdown as a violation of freedom of personal and religious expression. "In Turkey the wearing of the head scarf by students or elected representatives has not presented a threat to public order, health or morality," the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said in a report last month.
Two years ago, police dragged Nuray Canan Bezirgan and three other students from their classroom at Istanbul University a week before she was to graduate. She was barred from returning and, in May, was sentenced to six months in jail. On appeal, she was ordered to pay a small fine instead. Two other charges are pending against her for participating in illegal demonstrations, each carrying a prison term of up to three years, according to her attorney, Ibrahim Ozturk.
"Because I wear a head scarf, I can't finish my education," said Bezirgan.
The issue became so vitriolic in the opening days of school this year that government institutions began warring with each other.
"We have no right to ask people who think differently from us to disappear," Turkey's tourism minister, Erkan Mumcu, said in an address at Istanbul University, which has one of the country's largest and most economically diverse student bodies. University campuses, in particular, should encourage "freedom of thought and expression," he said.
The military – which has declared Islamic fundamentalism one of Turkey's greatest national security threats – said in a news release that it is "concerned with these statements, which can be interpreted as . . . leading Turkey to fanaticism. In contrast with Mumcu's statements, it is clear that if we are not careful about political Islam, it will lead Turkey to a new Dark Age."
Teachers and other government employees are also barred from wearing head scarves. Last year, a parliamentary deputy was forbidden to take her oath of office when she arrived at the Grand National Assembly wearing a head scarf.
Nezine Yildiz, 16, said she dropped out of high school this year and is taking U.S. correspondence courses via the Internet because the government decreed that students at her all-girls religious academy could not don head scarves when entering classes taught by men. Single-gender religious schools have been told to begin integrating their classrooms this year.
In grading national college entrance exams, the government puts graduates of religious schools and technical training schools at a disadvantage, compared with students from public high schools. That practice, plus the new restrictions on religious schools, has prompted a sharp decline in applications to Islamic academies, according to an association of religious high schools.
The government also has begun barring women from wearing head scarves in photographs for drivers licenses, passports and university enrollment documents. In an era of digital camera technology, some photography shops have found a booming business in digitally doctoring women's photographs with fake hair.
But officials have started to catch on. At three times the price of a normal passport photograph, digital hair has turned out to be only a short-term fix to a long-term issue.
Articles
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 29, 2000
ISTANBUL – Five months ago, a Turkish court sentenced 23-year-old Nuray Canan Bezirgan to six months in jail for "obstructing the education of others." Her crime: wearing a head scarf to her college final exams.
In the past two years, more than 25,000 women have been barred from Turkey's college campuses because they refused to remove the head scarves they wear as part of Muslim tradition, according to Turkish human rights groups. Hundreds of government employees have been fired, demoted or transferred for the same reason. And this school year, the government has extended the ban to Islamic religious schools, prompting some Muslim girls to drop out.
The modest head scarf has become the object of one of Turkey's most divisive struggles as the country seeks to join the European Union and the globalized economy. The conflict leaves the country straining to balance greater democratic freedoms with preserving a secular state in a region of expanding Islamic influence.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the Turkish republic in 1923 to secularize and modernize a land that had been hobbled, in his opinion, by its Islamic and Ottoman imperial heritage. In recent years, the still fiercely secularist government and military have drawn criticism from human rights groups for their methods of opposing the rising influence of Islamic fundamentalism.
The government has prosecuted writers and journalists it says have espoused the spread of Islam. It has shut down an Islamic political party and is trying to ban its successor. Parliament is expected to revive a law twice vetoed by the president that would allow the government to fire civil servants suspected of having connections with Islamic or separatist political organizations.
Some of the most explosive fights have been waged on college campuses, where government regulations require students "to wear modern costumes and look modern." This month, university and high school classes opened with protests and demonstrations against administrations that barred women with head scarves.
"To ask people to choose between education and their faith is cruel," said Binnaz Toprak, a political science professor at Istanbul's Bosphorus University. "Here, two really basic rights clash with each other. People are left with a terrible choice."
Nur Sertel, deputy dean of state-run Istanbul University, which was the first to ban head scarves three years ago, defended the government. "The head scarf is not only a way of dressing, it has been used as a symbol of Islam, a flag of fundamentalism" and a political football for Islamic organizations, she said.
Turkey's National Security Council last week said education was a critical area in which to oppose the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. Council members discussed cracking down on religious influence in Turkish schools, particularly Islamic institutions.
But human rights groups have condemned the government crackdown as a violation of freedom of personal and religious expression. "In Turkey the wearing of the head scarf by students or elected representatives has not presented a threat to public order, health or morality," the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said in a report last month.
Two years ago, police dragged Nuray Canan Bezirgan and three other students from their classroom at Istanbul University a week before she was to graduate. She was barred from returning and, in May, was sentenced to six months in jail. On appeal, she was ordered to pay a small fine instead. Two other charges are pending against her for participating in illegal demonstrations, each carrying a prison term of up to three years, according to her attorney, Ibrahim Ozturk.
"Because I wear a head scarf, I can't finish my education," said Bezirgan.
The issue became so vitriolic in the opening days of school this year that government institutions began warring with each other.
"We have no right to ask people who think differently from us to disappear," Turkey's tourism minister, Erkan Mumcu, said in an address at Istanbul University, which has one of the country's largest and most economically diverse student bodies. University campuses, in particular, should encourage "freedom of thought and expression," he said.
The military – which has declared Islamic fundamentalism one of Turkey's greatest national security threats – said in a news release that it is "concerned with these statements, which can be interpreted as . . . leading Turkey to fanaticism. In contrast with Mumcu's statements, it is clear that if we are not careful about political Islam, it will lead Turkey to a new Dark Age."
Teachers and other government employees are also barred from wearing head scarves. Last year, a parliamentary deputy was forbidden to take her oath of office when she arrived at the Grand National Assembly wearing a head scarf.
Nezine Yildiz, 16, said she dropped out of high school this year and is taking U.S. correspondence courses via the Internet because the government decreed that students at her all-girls religious academy could not don head scarves when entering classes taught by men. Single-gender religious schools have been told to begin integrating their classrooms this year.
In grading national college entrance exams, the government puts graduates of religious schools and technical training schools at a disadvantage, compared with students from public high schools. That practice, plus the new restrictions on religious schools, has prompted a sharp decline in applications to Islamic academies, according to an association of religious high schools.
The government also has begun barring women from wearing head scarves in photographs for drivers licenses, passports and university enrollment documents. In an era of digital camera technology, some photography shops have found a booming business in digitally doctoring women's photographs with fake hair.
But officials have started to catch on. At three times the price of a normal passport photograph, digital hair has turned out to be only a short-term fix to a long-term issue.
Articles
Keeping the Faith: More and More American Muslims are Choosing to Home-School
Keeping the Faith: More and More American Muslims are Choosing to Home-School
By Ephrat Livni
ABCNews.com
NEW YORK, August 23, 2000: Fatima Saleem’s day begins before the sun rises with the Salatul Fajr, the first of five formal daily prayers to Allah.
Hibba Ibrahim, 12, reads the Qur'an
(Jassim Mohammed/AP Photo)
A devout Muslim since her conversion to Islam 10 years ago, the 25-year-old Columbia, South Carolina mother is directed by her religion in every aspect of her existence, including her five-year-old son’s education.
Saleem is the founder of the Palmetto Muslim Home School Resource Network, a Web site that helps Muslim home schoolers locate information on everything from buying books to choosing a curriculum to learning the laws of their individual states. She was a full-time home-schooling mom until an Islamic school was established in her area this year.
The value clash between the teachings in public schools and her religious beliefs, coupled with the scarcity of Muslim schools in her region, left her little choice but to educate her child independently, she says. Today, her sentiments are shared by thousands of Muslim Americans, the fastest growing group within the national home schooling movement.
There are 1.7 million American kids who won’t be going back to school this September, but instead will be home educated. While home schooling has its origins in parents wanting to provide religious instruction to their children, the movement is growing by 7 percent to 15 percent per year, according to Brian Ray, the president of the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Ore., as more Americans with different ideologies choose to educate their children as they see fit.
Passing on Values
“Home educators aim to create an education in which the parents’ values and beliefs are passed on in an easy way that the factory school model cannot deliver,” says Mark Hegener, publisher of Home Education Magazine, of Tonasket, Wash.
Religion, however, is still the main impetus for home schooling. Currently, some 75 percent of home schoolers are Christians who “consciously and conscientiously want to promote their own values,” says Ray.
The increase in the size of the American-born Muslim population in this country, the rigorous demands of the faith and the difficulty for public schools to accommodate the needs of the religion, all help to explain the rise in home schooling among Muslims, proponents say.
Experts estimate that Islam is the fourth largest religious group in the United States today and by 2010 may displace Judaism, the third largest group which today represents 2 percent of the population. Protestants currently comprise 58 percent of America and Catholics, 26 percent.
Scott Sommerville, staff attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association, in Purcellville, Va.. says only about 5,000 Muslim home schoolers exist now, but predicts their numbers will double every year over the next eight years. Barring the implementation of a nationwide school voucher system — which would convert state and local education dollars into individual scholarship certificates for parents to spend at schools of their choosing — he believes 60,000 Muslim children will be learning at home by 2010.
“There’s a growing need to teach moral values and conduct to Muslim school children,”says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Committee on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington, D.C. “That’s traditionally what has happened in the Christian community.”
Keeping Customs While Educating
Value clashes with the public school system spurred Saleem to home schooling. “The public school system is not accommodating to Muslims,”says Saleem.“Especially around puberty, there are a lot of tenets that they have to adhere to, and interaction between boys and girls is greatly frowned upon.”
Further, Islam requires its practitioners pray five times a day, which means interrupting the school schedule, and emphasizes modesty.
“The girls get a lot of flack from their peers for having to cover up funny and boys sometimes try to pull off their covering,” explains Saleem. She says teachers sometimes penalize girls who are quiet in class, unaware that in conservative Muslim families they are taught not to speak in mixed sex society.
Additionally, Muslim school children cannot always participate in seemingly harmless school activities such as raffles and, eventually, as Muslim home-schooling mom Cynthia Sulaiman puts it, all the explaining to teachers and school officials gets to be tedious. She opted out before it became a big issue, saying,. “I could see [trouble] coming.”
An Attleboro, Massachusetts resident, Sulaiman has been educating her four children, at home for five years now. She is the founder of the Muslim Home School Network Resource — another Web site offering Muslim home schooling parents advice, assistance and support on home educating the Islamic way.
“You have to know your limits,” Sulaiman explains, adding that she only teaches at home until the eighth grade. Her eldest daughter now attends a private high school. The younger children are still at home with her, and their curriculum includes Koran, the Islamic holy book, along with the usual math, science, reading, writing, geography, and her family’s favorite, history. Their schedule varies, depending on what extracurricular activities are planned on a given day.
Extracurricular Activities
Like many home schoolers, Muslim home-school children are often very involved in extracurricular activities. The Sulaiman children all take swim classes and Tae Kwan Do, the boys are on a local football team and are involved in gaming clubs, and their mother says they are well-adjusted. “My kids are for the most part more enjoyable than kids who come to the house to play,” she says. “They are known for being ‘good kids’ in the neighborhood.”
Because home schooling laws and requirements vary from state to state, and every family is individual, each home schooler does it differently. Many Muslim moms have turned to the Internet for help in deciding exactly how to go about teaching their children. They chat online, exchanging curriculum and activity ideas, as well as their fears and hopes about the responsibility they have taken on.
“We live in a society that holds us accountable, so I would not put my family in a situation that would stunt their growth,” says Saleem, who follows a mixed curriculum. But she knows some American Muslims who feel so grossly misunderstood that they abandon American education altogether, basing their curriculums exclusively on studies from the Koran and other classical Arabic texts. Others, however, receive material from the local schools and censor what they consider blasphemous. “No one is unified on what approach to take,” says Saleem.
Opinions Differ on Results
Home-schooling advocate Ray is not certain method matters. “Not matter how you cut it, slice it or dice it, research shows home school kids are doing better [than their private and public school peers],” he says. In fact, a new three-year study out of the University of Durham in Scotland shows home-educated children significantly out performed their school contemporaries in literacy, mathematics and social skills. The top three finishers at the national spelling bee this year were educated at home.
The national teachers’ union disagrees. In 1999, the National Education Association issued a home-schooling resolution, stating, “The NEA believes that home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience.” Association spokespeople refused further comment. The U.S. Department of Education also refused to comment on this story.
Ray says homeschoolers — whether New Age or conservative Muslim — also tend to face a lot of resistance from relatives, friends and neighbors.
But Fatima Saleem is not answering to her neighbors, and she doesn’t want her child lost to the secularism that rules this society. She does, however, want him to succeed, and expresses a sentiment many parents, regardless of their religion, likely share, “We’re just trying to fit the pieces in a huge puzzle. We’re all caught in the dilemma of what to do with our children.”
Islam in America
Founded in 610 CE in Saudi Arabia by the Prophet Mohammed, Islam’s origins in America go back to the early 19th century. Some historians estimate that about 10 percent of African slaves were Muslims.
The word “Islam” means “submission” [to God]. To become a Muslim, one must accept and declare the creed of Islam, which states, “there is no other God but Allah, and Mohammed is His messenger.” Muslims also believe in six articles of faith: God, the Angels, the Scriptures, the Prophets, the Day of Judgment, and Fatalism, or “the will of God”. There are five religious duties known as “The Pillars of Islam,” which a Muslim must perform. They are: the professions, prayer, alms giving, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca.
Around 1878, thousands of Muslims came to the United States from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine, but that wave of immigration was halted in 1925 by the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, which limited immigration, and the Asian Exclusion Act, which classified Arabs as Asians.
At about that time, the Islamic African-American movement took hold in the United States and continues today. The more radical African-American Muslims, most notably The Nation of Islam, number in the hundred thousands, and are a minority in the American Islamic community.
After the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 the quota system was relaxed and the Muslim population in America grew again through immigration, with an increase in arrivals from Arab Muslim countries like Iraq, Egypt, and Syria. Today, South Asian Muslims from Pakistan and India comprise the biggest increase in Muslim immigration to this country.
According to the Committee on American Islamic relations, there are six million Muslims in America today. Estimates indicate that by the year 2010 that number will reach 10 to 16 million, making Islam the third largest religion in the United States.
By Ephrat Livni
ABCNews.com
NEW YORK, August 23, 2000: Fatima Saleem’s day begins before the sun rises with the Salatul Fajr, the first of five formal daily prayers to Allah.
Hibba Ibrahim, 12, reads the Qur'an
(Jassim Mohammed/AP Photo)
A devout Muslim since her conversion to Islam 10 years ago, the 25-year-old Columbia, South Carolina mother is directed by her religion in every aspect of her existence, including her five-year-old son’s education.
Saleem is the founder of the Palmetto Muslim Home School Resource Network, a Web site that helps Muslim home schoolers locate information on everything from buying books to choosing a curriculum to learning the laws of their individual states. She was a full-time home-schooling mom until an Islamic school was established in her area this year.
The value clash between the teachings in public schools and her religious beliefs, coupled with the scarcity of Muslim schools in her region, left her little choice but to educate her child independently, she says. Today, her sentiments are shared by thousands of Muslim Americans, the fastest growing group within the national home schooling movement.
There are 1.7 million American kids who won’t be going back to school this September, but instead will be home educated. While home schooling has its origins in parents wanting to provide religious instruction to their children, the movement is growing by 7 percent to 15 percent per year, according to Brian Ray, the president of the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Ore., as more Americans with different ideologies choose to educate their children as they see fit.
Passing on Values
“Home educators aim to create an education in which the parents’ values and beliefs are passed on in an easy way that the factory school model cannot deliver,” says Mark Hegener, publisher of Home Education Magazine, of Tonasket, Wash.
Religion, however, is still the main impetus for home schooling. Currently, some 75 percent of home schoolers are Christians who “consciously and conscientiously want to promote their own values,” says Ray.
The increase in the size of the American-born Muslim population in this country, the rigorous demands of the faith and the difficulty for public schools to accommodate the needs of the religion, all help to explain the rise in home schooling among Muslims, proponents say.
Experts estimate that Islam is the fourth largest religious group in the United States today and by 2010 may displace Judaism, the third largest group which today represents 2 percent of the population. Protestants currently comprise 58 percent of America and Catholics, 26 percent.
Scott Sommerville, staff attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association, in Purcellville, Va.. says only about 5,000 Muslim home schoolers exist now, but predicts their numbers will double every year over the next eight years. Barring the implementation of a nationwide school voucher system — which would convert state and local education dollars into individual scholarship certificates for parents to spend at schools of their choosing — he believes 60,000 Muslim children will be learning at home by 2010.
“There’s a growing need to teach moral values and conduct to Muslim school children,”says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Committee on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington, D.C. “That’s traditionally what has happened in the Christian community.”
Keeping Customs While Educating
Value clashes with the public school system spurred Saleem to home schooling. “The public school system is not accommodating to Muslims,”says Saleem.“Especially around puberty, there are a lot of tenets that they have to adhere to, and interaction between boys and girls is greatly frowned upon.”
Further, Islam requires its practitioners pray five times a day, which means interrupting the school schedule, and emphasizes modesty.
“The girls get a lot of flack from their peers for having to cover up funny and boys sometimes try to pull off their covering,” explains Saleem. She says teachers sometimes penalize girls who are quiet in class, unaware that in conservative Muslim families they are taught not to speak in mixed sex society.
Additionally, Muslim school children cannot always participate in seemingly harmless school activities such as raffles and, eventually, as Muslim home-schooling mom Cynthia Sulaiman puts it, all the explaining to teachers and school officials gets to be tedious. She opted out before it became a big issue, saying,. “I could see [trouble] coming.”
An Attleboro, Massachusetts resident, Sulaiman has been educating her four children, at home for five years now. She is the founder of the Muslim Home School Network Resource — another Web site offering Muslim home schooling parents advice, assistance and support on home educating the Islamic way.
“You have to know your limits,” Sulaiman explains, adding that she only teaches at home until the eighth grade. Her eldest daughter now attends a private high school. The younger children are still at home with her, and their curriculum includes Koran, the Islamic holy book, along with the usual math, science, reading, writing, geography, and her family’s favorite, history. Their schedule varies, depending on what extracurricular activities are planned on a given day.
Extracurricular Activities
Like many home schoolers, Muslim home-school children are often very involved in extracurricular activities. The Sulaiman children all take swim classes and Tae Kwan Do, the boys are on a local football team and are involved in gaming clubs, and their mother says they are well-adjusted. “My kids are for the most part more enjoyable than kids who come to the house to play,” she says. “They are known for being ‘good kids’ in the neighborhood.”
Because home schooling laws and requirements vary from state to state, and every family is individual, each home schooler does it differently. Many Muslim moms have turned to the Internet for help in deciding exactly how to go about teaching their children. They chat online, exchanging curriculum and activity ideas, as well as their fears and hopes about the responsibility they have taken on.
“We live in a society that holds us accountable, so I would not put my family in a situation that would stunt their growth,” says Saleem, who follows a mixed curriculum. But she knows some American Muslims who feel so grossly misunderstood that they abandon American education altogether, basing their curriculums exclusively on studies from the Koran and other classical Arabic texts. Others, however, receive material from the local schools and censor what they consider blasphemous. “No one is unified on what approach to take,” says Saleem.
Opinions Differ on Results
Home-schooling advocate Ray is not certain method matters. “Not matter how you cut it, slice it or dice it, research shows home school kids are doing better [than their private and public school peers],” he says. In fact, a new three-year study out of the University of Durham in Scotland shows home-educated children significantly out performed their school contemporaries in literacy, mathematics and social skills. The top three finishers at the national spelling bee this year were educated at home.
The national teachers’ union disagrees. In 1999, the National Education Association issued a home-schooling resolution, stating, “The NEA believes that home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience.” Association spokespeople refused further comment. The U.S. Department of Education also refused to comment on this story.
Ray says homeschoolers — whether New Age or conservative Muslim — also tend to face a lot of resistance from relatives, friends and neighbors.
But Fatima Saleem is not answering to her neighbors, and she doesn’t want her child lost to the secularism that rules this society. She does, however, want him to succeed, and expresses a sentiment many parents, regardless of their religion, likely share, “We’re just trying to fit the pieces in a huge puzzle. We’re all caught in the dilemma of what to do with our children.”
Islam in America
Founded in 610 CE in Saudi Arabia by the Prophet Mohammed, Islam’s origins in America go back to the early 19th century. Some historians estimate that about 10 percent of African slaves were Muslims.
The word “Islam” means “submission” [to God]. To become a Muslim, one must accept and declare the creed of Islam, which states, “there is no other God but Allah, and Mohammed is His messenger.” Muslims also believe in six articles of faith: God, the Angels, the Scriptures, the Prophets, the Day of Judgment, and Fatalism, or “the will of God”. There are five religious duties known as “The Pillars of Islam,” which a Muslim must perform. They are: the professions, prayer, alms giving, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca.
Around 1878, thousands of Muslims came to the United States from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine, but that wave of immigration was halted in 1925 by the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, which limited immigration, and the Asian Exclusion Act, which classified Arabs as Asians.
At about that time, the Islamic African-American movement took hold in the United States and continues today. The more radical African-American Muslims, most notably The Nation of Islam, number in the hundred thousands, and are a minority in the American Islamic community.
After the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 the quota system was relaxed and the Muslim population in America grew again through immigration, with an increase in arrivals from Arab Muslim countries like Iraq, Egypt, and Syria. Today, South Asian Muslims from Pakistan and India comprise the biggest increase in Muslim immigration to this country.
According to the Committee on American Islamic relations, there are six million Muslims in America today. Estimates indicate that by the year 2010 that number will reach 10 to 16 million, making Islam the third largest religion in the United States.
Lessions of Inclusion
Lessions of Inclusion
American Public School Kids Learn About Ramadhan
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 28, 2000;
Page B01
Daad Mohamed, 12, from Sudan, and Mariela Uceda, 12, from Peru, try on Muslim clothing as students at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School get a lesson in Ramadan. (James A. Parcell - The Washington Post)
Squeezing through a thick swarm of his giggling and gregarious sixth-grade classmates, Luis Macias, 12, stood on tiptoe to get a peep at a table crammed with clothing from the Middle East, sesame candies and leather-bound books with curly swirls of Arabic writing.
Within seconds, he spotted what he wanted: a black, green and velvet Kufi hat, with round mirrors and glitter dotting the sides. He placed the hat from Afghanistan atop his mop of black hair and quickly scrambled to his seat.
"Now that you are all wearing clothes from the Middle East, we can talk about them and what the upcoming special month for Muslims is," said Samira Hussein, a guest speaker at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Silver Spring. "Does anyone know what is coming up?"
Blank faces. Embarrassed shrugs. Even though Luis was smiling in his Kufi, the boy from Ecuador had never heard of Muslims, let alone what their holy month was.
"It's Ramadan, my holiday," answered Daad Mohamed, 12, a Sudanese American student. "We fast and get gifts at the end."
Eyes grew wide. Hands starting shooting into the air with questions as Hussein, a Muslim activist who works as a cultural liaison for the Montgomery County public schools, explained the 30-day period of fasting and reflection that started this week.
As the Muslim population in schools soars, lessons like this--complete with extensive lesson plans--have become more common in classrooms across the Washington region. It's part of a growing effort in public schools to increase understanding and decrease stereotypes of Muslim students and their traditions.
Educators said they are careful to keep the lessons focused on information rather than religious preaching. But they added that with thousands of Muslim students now attending Washington area schools, basic knowledge of Muslim students and their holidays is needed, especially during a time of tense conflict in the Middle East.
Cynthia Ross, who runs the Middle Eastern/South Asian Club at Chantilly High School, where about half the club's members are Muslims, said: "I recently got a call from a parent who wanted to know why we would sponsor a club like this. She started echoing stereotypes, and it was very tough and very painful. I think we very much need these kinds of sessions and clubs so people can gain some understanding."
Some Muslim activists and students are also talking about the idea of having a formal Muslim or Middle Eastern Heritage month, much like Hispanic and African American heritage months.
At Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Amani Elkassabany, a Muslim teacher and adviser for the Muslim Students Association, said she supports the idea and believes it could boost the self-esteem of students from the Middle East.
"The students are really struggling against negative images of Islam," said Elkassabany. "It's hard enough being a teenager and wanting to be accepted. As Muslims, some of these students are really reluctant to tell their peers about their culture because of the stereotypes that are out there."
At the school, Muslim and non-Muslim students alike prepared information cards that explained Ramadan. The cards described how Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during the month. They also said that Muslims have a three-day party called an Eid al-Fitr with food and gifts at the end of Ramadan, which marks the revelation of their holy book, the Qur'an.
The students also made small packages of dried apricots, dates and almonds--foods used to break the fast every day after sunset--and placed them in the mailboxes of all the teachers in the school.
"It's kind of hard when you tell people that you are fasting," said Afshan Chaudhry, 17, a Muslim student at Wootton. "Most people don't know much about the religion."Many Washington area schools are hosting information and Islamic heritage sessions around the time of Ramadan. Several school districts, including Montgomery County and Fairfax County, have also held Ramadan sessions for teachers that include trips to local mosques.
"I sent out e-mails to the entire staff explaining about Ramadan," said Isabel Showkatian, a second-grade teacher at Bailey's Elementary School in Fairfax County, who is Muslim. "And I brought out books about Ramadan and told teachers they could borrow them from me. The Muslim students become so excited when they meet someone who knows what Ramadan is about."
At Herndon Elementary School and at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Muslim mothers and teachers have visited classrooms to explain to students the meaning of Ramadan and why some of their classmates are fasting.
"I talk to them about tolerance and teasing and how it's not funny to have someone wave a Twinkie in your face when you are fasting," said Amaarah Decuir, a Muslim who is a sixth-grade teacher at Herndon Elementary School. "I think after you explain that, many students understand."
Afeefa Syeed, an intercultural trainer and consultant, has developed a lesson plan she has used in schools in Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George's counties to teach about Ramadan. The curriculum contains a show-and-tell with prayer rugs, Korans and coloring books about the holy month, along with arts-and-crafts projects for students.
Muslim students said they find that the lessons often make it easier for them during Ramadan.
"People always ask if you get presents like Hanukah and Christmas," said Salma Monastra, 11, a sixth-grader at Herndon Elementary. "After a teacher explains, they understand a little bit that it's a fun time and it's not just about fasting."
Students said they prefer that teachers or visitors explain what Ramadan is, saying they sometimes feel uncomfortable talking about it.
"When I went to Muslim school, everybody knew," said Fatima Showkatian, 13, now an eighth-grader at Thoreau Middle School in Vienna. "I kind of like when someone explains to everyone here what it is. It makes it easier for me."
Muslim teachers, including Wafa Hozien, who teaches government at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, said they also appreciate it.
"It's nice, because I like Madonna and I grew up very American," said Hozien, 31, who came to this country from Libya when she was 8. "They can now explain that I can be very American and still have my religion and pride. It's more complicated than people assume."
American Public School Kids Learn About Ramadhan
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 28, 2000;
Page B01
Daad Mohamed, 12, from Sudan, and Mariela Uceda, 12, from Peru, try on Muslim clothing as students at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School get a lesson in Ramadan. (James A. Parcell - The Washington Post)
Squeezing through a thick swarm of his giggling and gregarious sixth-grade classmates, Luis Macias, 12, stood on tiptoe to get a peep at a table crammed with clothing from the Middle East, sesame candies and leather-bound books with curly swirls of Arabic writing.
Within seconds, he spotted what he wanted: a black, green and velvet Kufi hat, with round mirrors and glitter dotting the sides. He placed the hat from Afghanistan atop his mop of black hair and quickly scrambled to his seat.
"Now that you are all wearing clothes from the Middle East, we can talk about them and what the upcoming special month for Muslims is," said Samira Hussein, a guest speaker at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Silver Spring. "Does anyone know what is coming up?"
Blank faces. Embarrassed shrugs. Even though Luis was smiling in his Kufi, the boy from Ecuador had never heard of Muslims, let alone what their holy month was.
"It's Ramadan, my holiday," answered Daad Mohamed, 12, a Sudanese American student. "We fast and get gifts at the end."
Eyes grew wide. Hands starting shooting into the air with questions as Hussein, a Muslim activist who works as a cultural liaison for the Montgomery County public schools, explained the 30-day period of fasting and reflection that started this week.
As the Muslim population in schools soars, lessons like this--complete with extensive lesson plans--have become more common in classrooms across the Washington region. It's part of a growing effort in public schools to increase understanding and decrease stereotypes of Muslim students and their traditions.
Educators said they are careful to keep the lessons focused on information rather than religious preaching. But they added that with thousands of Muslim students now attending Washington area schools, basic knowledge of Muslim students and their holidays is needed, especially during a time of tense conflict in the Middle East.
Cynthia Ross, who runs the Middle Eastern/South Asian Club at Chantilly High School, where about half the club's members are Muslims, said: "I recently got a call from a parent who wanted to know why we would sponsor a club like this. She started echoing stereotypes, and it was very tough and very painful. I think we very much need these kinds of sessions and clubs so people can gain some understanding."
Some Muslim activists and students are also talking about the idea of having a formal Muslim or Middle Eastern Heritage month, much like Hispanic and African American heritage months.
At Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Amani Elkassabany, a Muslim teacher and adviser for the Muslim Students Association, said she supports the idea and believes it could boost the self-esteem of students from the Middle East.
"The students are really struggling against negative images of Islam," said Elkassabany. "It's hard enough being a teenager and wanting to be accepted. As Muslims, some of these students are really reluctant to tell their peers about their culture because of the stereotypes that are out there."
At the school, Muslim and non-Muslim students alike prepared information cards that explained Ramadan. The cards described how Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during the month. They also said that Muslims have a three-day party called an Eid al-Fitr with food and gifts at the end of Ramadan, which marks the revelation of their holy book, the Qur'an.
The students also made small packages of dried apricots, dates and almonds--foods used to break the fast every day after sunset--and placed them in the mailboxes of all the teachers in the school.
"It's kind of hard when you tell people that you are fasting," said Afshan Chaudhry, 17, a Muslim student at Wootton. "Most people don't know much about the religion."Many Washington area schools are hosting information and Islamic heritage sessions around the time of Ramadan. Several school districts, including Montgomery County and Fairfax County, have also held Ramadan sessions for teachers that include trips to local mosques.
"I sent out e-mails to the entire staff explaining about Ramadan," said Isabel Showkatian, a second-grade teacher at Bailey's Elementary School in Fairfax County, who is Muslim. "And I brought out books about Ramadan and told teachers they could borrow them from me. The Muslim students become so excited when they meet someone who knows what Ramadan is about."
At Herndon Elementary School and at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Muslim mothers and teachers have visited classrooms to explain to students the meaning of Ramadan and why some of their classmates are fasting.
"I talk to them about tolerance and teasing and how it's not funny to have someone wave a Twinkie in your face when you are fasting," said Amaarah Decuir, a Muslim who is a sixth-grade teacher at Herndon Elementary School. "I think after you explain that, many students understand."
Afeefa Syeed, an intercultural trainer and consultant, has developed a lesson plan she has used in schools in Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George's counties to teach about Ramadan. The curriculum contains a show-and-tell with prayer rugs, Korans and coloring books about the holy month, along with arts-and-crafts projects for students.
Muslim students said they find that the lessons often make it easier for them during Ramadan.
"People always ask if you get presents like Hanukah and Christmas," said Salma Monastra, 11, a sixth-grader at Herndon Elementary. "After a teacher explains, they understand a little bit that it's a fun time and it's not just about fasting."
Students said they prefer that teachers or visitors explain what Ramadan is, saying they sometimes feel uncomfortable talking about it.
"When I went to Muslim school, everybody knew," said Fatima Showkatian, 13, now an eighth-grader at Thoreau Middle School in Vienna. "I kind of like when someone explains to everyone here what it is. It makes it easier for me."
Muslim teachers, including Wafa Hozien, who teaches government at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, said they also appreciate it.
"It's nice, because I like Madonna and I grew up very American," said Hozien, 31, who came to this country from Libya when she was 8. "They can now explain that I can be very American and still have my religion and pride. It's more complicated than people assume."
Muslims Schools in U.S. a Voice for Identity
Muslims Schools in U.S. a Voice for Identity
By Susan Sachs
New York Times - November 10, 1998
The playground at Al Noor School in Brooklyn. The principal said 400 students were turned away for lack of space at the 600-student school.
The school year is already in full swing and still the parents come, crowding into the principal's office at Al Noor School in Brooklyn, painstakingly filling in forms, proffering checks and pleading in Arabic and English for a chance to enroll their children in the New York area's biggest Islamic private school.
"We turned down 400 kids because we don't have space," said Nidal Abuasi, the principal, whose resources are already stretched to accommodate Al Noor's 600 students. "We have people who come hoping we have space even if their child has to be demoted to a lower grade. There is a huge demand."
Across the country, Islamic schools like Al Noor that offer religion and Arabic classes along with a standard academic curriculum are expanding and flourishing, with many becoming oversubscribed so quickly that principals are scrambling for money to build more.
The reasons for the surge are as diverse as the American Muslim population itself, which embraces American-born converts and a swelling immigrant population from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
But the educational structure these schools have forged -- prayer, discipline and American-style teaching -- has an appeal that cuts across lines of national origin and background.
At Al Iman elementary and high school in Queens, as at the 23 other Islamic schools in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey, the day begins with prayer: rows of children, separated by sex, reciting in Arabic the ancient words of submission to Allah.
Posters of Islam's most famous mosques and the sayings of the prophet Mohammed hang in every classroom. Children must wear uniforms: long shapeless robes and head scarves for the older girls and neat blue sweaters and gray trousers for the boys. Besides their regular studies, students take two classes a week in Islamic studies and three a week in Arabic, the language of the Koran.
A glance at Al Iman's handbook for students and parents further underlines the differences from public schools. The rules are strict: three demerits for taking toys, comics, cosmetics, jewelry or other unauthorized materials to school, one for wearing nail polish, five for disrespectful behavior to teachers or for "pursuing acts of romanticism" like flirting with a schoolmate. The punishment for five demerits is detention during lunch for three days. After 30 demerits, a child is suspended for a week, and after 40, expelled.
For students who transfer from public school, the transition can be difficult.
"My parents insisted I come here and I didn't really argue with them," said Amel Ahmed, 17, whose parents emigrated from Yemen in 1980. She admitted she had picked up some bad habits in public school, but said the individual attention and strictly enforced regulations at Al Iman had set her straight.
"I wasn't on the right track there, maybe because you get influenced by your friends," Amel said. "Here they don't only teach you. They guide you."
Until recently, a full-time academic course load combined with Islamic teaching was available mainly through the national network of Sister Clara Muhammad schools, named for the wife of the Nation of Islam's founder, Elijah Muhammad, mainly serving African-American students. Two in New York City have been operating since the early 1970's, although they are no longer associated with the Nation of Islam. Now a new type of school serving a broader group of Muslims has emerged. In a sudden growth spurt, the number of Islamic schools nationwide has jumped to at least 200, according to the Council of Islamic Schools in North America, an informal body that sponsors workshops for Muslim educators. But neither the council nor any other group keeps official track of school openings, and American Muslims say they believe that the national figures are even higher.
Al Noor School in Brooklyn and other Islamic schools offer religion and Arabic classes with a standard academic curriculum and use a formula of piety and penalties.
As recently as three years ago, fewer than 200 children in New York City and Long Island attended private Islamic schools. Today, with two full-time high schools in Queens and plans to build three more in Brooklyn and Manhattan, total enrollment is 2,400 spread among 13 schools, with the majority of students from immigrant families. In New Jersey there are now at least 10 private Islamic schools, not only in big cities, with their notoriously troubled public schools, but also in small towns with respected school districts.
Private school enrollment is up in general, and many of the attractions are the same for all parents, Muslim or not, who view public schools as too permissive, rowdy and crowded.
But a more subtle dynamic is at work in the national surge in Islamic private schools. It represents a coming of age, in the view of many Muslim leaders, for a community striving to define itself as a cohesive religious minority in the secular American society.
Long a community of distinct and often introverted parts, Muslims have begun a process familiar to many immigrant and ethnic groups. They are trying to reach beyond their internal demarcations of national origin and find a unified voice to defend and promote their interests in a multicultural society.
Convinced that many Americans have a distorted view of Muslims and their Islamic religion, compounded by images in the movies and the media, they have created national organizations, lobbying groups, voter-registration campaigns and outreach programs to explain Islam to their neighbors.
Those who help to create a school system see themselves as an integral part of this communal effort to define, for themselves and for others, what it means to be a Muslim in the United States.
"My father's family survived in Bosnian society as a minority for centuries," said Saffiya Turan, a founder of Noor al Iman School in South Brunswick, N.J., whose father emigrated more than 30 years ago from Yugoslavia. "To survive, you have to know who you are."
The challenge for Islamic educators is to create a spiritual educational experience for young Muslims that is also relevant to their lives in a secular society. It has been a process of trial and error, ad-libbing and self-discovery.
Many schools cobble together teaching materials from other countries. Abuasi, who is Palestinian-American, said he experimented with books from Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere before settling on Arabic texts from Jordan to teach the Koran, which Muslims believe is God's word as transmitted to the prophet Mohammed.
At Noor ul Iman School in South Brunswick, one teacher, Abir Catovic, decided it made more sense for American schools to write their own texts.
"Overseas, you aren't taught to ask why," said Mrs. Catovic, 31, who grew up in New Jersey after her family emigrated from Egypt. "Here you've got students who ask why, and you'd better be prepared to answer more than just, 'Because it says so.' "
Religious schools for American Muslims also have to contend with a widely diverse student body. At Al Iman in Queens, for example, any one class might have children from Egyptian, Yemeni, Pakistani, Indian and African-American backgrounds. For Souhair Ayach, who teaches Islamic studies, having that mix of cultures requires her constantly to stress the difference between old country traditions and religion.
One recent day, Ms. Ayach's class strayed from a discussion of the divine source of human genius to a more worldly topic that was on the minds of her 11th- and 12th-grade students: arranged marriages.
"Is there something in Islam that, like, says a girl should get married at a young age, or is it just tradition?" asked a teen-age girl who gave her name only as Sabih, whose parents came from Pakistan but whose accent announced her New York City upbringing.
Ms. Ayach, herself a recent immigrant from Lebanon, steered a cautious course. "In the past, people had everything they needed to live," she said. "They were shepherds. They were merchants. They had castles. They didn't have all these expenses of life.
"Here," she continued, "you have to have education because you need a good job, a respectable job, to make your living. So it's better if you marry early, but under some circumstances it's better to develop your life first."
Private schooling still touches only a small portion of American Muslims, whose numbers are growing. There are no official national figures, but a 1992 study commissioned by the American Muslim Council, a lobbying group in Washington, estimated the Muslim population in New York State at 800,000 and in New Jersey at 200,000. A more recent study by demographers at the State University of New York at Cortlandt concluded that 450,000 Muslims live in the New York metropolitan area alone.
Islamic schools are still small players in the private-education business. In New York State, 480,000 students, 1 in 5 of school age children, attend one of 2,400 registered nonpublic schools, most of them Roman Catholic schools or Jewish day schools and yeshivas.
But Muslim educators say the numbers of full-time Muslim students do not tell the complete story. Many of their schools have only now reached a point of critical mass at which they can attract more students because they offer advanced grade levels and have a demonstrable academic track record.
Still, it is difficult to gauge the real demand for Islamic schools, most of which charge up to $3,000 a year in tuition. But school administrators say that in an area that already supports 450 mosques in New York City and Long Island, there is a vast untapped pool of families willing to pay for an alternative to the secular public schools.
"This year we added 140 students from the public schools, all coming with the behavioral and academic problems they inherited: name calling, taunting with labels and names, casual profanity," said Abuasi at Al Noor. "Here they have to watch the way they walk, watch the way they talk and watch what comes out of their mouths."
The formula of piety and penalties at schools like Al Noor seems to have whetted the appetite of Muslim parents. Al Noor opened only three years ago, with an initial enrollment of 350 students in six grades. It now has 600 children from prekindergarten through ninth grade and is raising money from Arabic and Muslim businesses in the area to build a $4 million addition to the school.
To meet expected demand in Manhattan, the Kuwaiti-financed Islamic Cultural Center of New York is building a $10 million, five-story school for 1,000 students, next to its complex at Third Avenue and 96th Street.
Al Farooq mosque in Brooklyn, one of the busiest in the city, is soliciting donations to convert its top four floors into an Islamic junior high and high school for girls.
Abdulhakim Ali Mohamed, the imam at the mosque, said the need for a girls' school is particularly acute in his neighborhood of immigrants. Families from conservative Arab countries abhor the mixing of boys and girls in public schools, he said, and panic when their daughters become teen-agers.
"Many are thinking of sending them back home," Mohamed said. "We tell them that's not a solution. If you take them back, you have to go back with them."
Like new immigrants, more established Muslim families worry that their children may lose their religious identity or do poorly in public schools where their dress, holidays and religious taboos can make them curiosities.
Dawn El Mezyen, a convert to Islam, tried to help her son fit in at a conventional kindergarten, at one point acceding to his pleas to join in exchanging Valentine's Day cards with his schoolmates. It took hours, she said, to sort through piles of store-bought cards and toss those with romantic messages she believed were inappropriate for a Muslim boy to give.
Then she transferred him to the Noor ul Iman School in South Brunswick, N.J. "I needed him to be around other Muslim kids," Mrs. El Mezyen said. "I wanted it to be a day to day thing. I didn't want him to be the sore thumb that sticks out. Here we all celebrate a holiday together."
At Al Iman School in Queens, robes are required and cosmetics, jewelry and flirting are forbidden.
Articles
By Susan Sachs
New York Times - November 10, 1998
The playground at Al Noor School in Brooklyn. The principal said 400 students were turned away for lack of space at the 600-student school.
The school year is already in full swing and still the parents come, crowding into the principal's office at Al Noor School in Brooklyn, painstakingly filling in forms, proffering checks and pleading in Arabic and English for a chance to enroll their children in the New York area's biggest Islamic private school.
"We turned down 400 kids because we don't have space," said Nidal Abuasi, the principal, whose resources are already stretched to accommodate Al Noor's 600 students. "We have people who come hoping we have space even if their child has to be demoted to a lower grade. There is a huge demand."
Across the country, Islamic schools like Al Noor that offer religion and Arabic classes along with a standard academic curriculum are expanding and flourishing, with many becoming oversubscribed so quickly that principals are scrambling for money to build more.
The reasons for the surge are as diverse as the American Muslim population itself, which embraces American-born converts and a swelling immigrant population from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
But the educational structure these schools have forged -- prayer, discipline and American-style teaching -- has an appeal that cuts across lines of national origin and background.
At Al Iman elementary and high school in Queens, as at the 23 other Islamic schools in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey, the day begins with prayer: rows of children, separated by sex, reciting in Arabic the ancient words of submission to Allah.
Posters of Islam's most famous mosques and the sayings of the prophet Mohammed hang in every classroom. Children must wear uniforms: long shapeless robes and head scarves for the older girls and neat blue sweaters and gray trousers for the boys. Besides their regular studies, students take two classes a week in Islamic studies and three a week in Arabic, the language of the Koran.
A glance at Al Iman's handbook for students and parents further underlines the differences from public schools. The rules are strict: three demerits for taking toys, comics, cosmetics, jewelry or other unauthorized materials to school, one for wearing nail polish, five for disrespectful behavior to teachers or for "pursuing acts of romanticism" like flirting with a schoolmate. The punishment for five demerits is detention during lunch for three days. After 30 demerits, a child is suspended for a week, and after 40, expelled.
For students who transfer from public school, the transition can be difficult.
"My parents insisted I come here and I didn't really argue with them," said Amel Ahmed, 17, whose parents emigrated from Yemen in 1980. She admitted she had picked up some bad habits in public school, but said the individual attention and strictly enforced regulations at Al Iman had set her straight.
"I wasn't on the right track there, maybe because you get influenced by your friends," Amel said. "Here they don't only teach you. They guide you."
Until recently, a full-time academic course load combined with Islamic teaching was available mainly through the national network of Sister Clara Muhammad schools, named for the wife of the Nation of Islam's founder, Elijah Muhammad, mainly serving African-American students. Two in New York City have been operating since the early 1970's, although they are no longer associated with the Nation of Islam. Now a new type of school serving a broader group of Muslims has emerged. In a sudden growth spurt, the number of Islamic schools nationwide has jumped to at least 200, according to the Council of Islamic Schools in North America, an informal body that sponsors workshops for Muslim educators. But neither the council nor any other group keeps official track of school openings, and American Muslims say they believe that the national figures are even higher.
Al Noor School in Brooklyn and other Islamic schools offer religion and Arabic classes with a standard academic curriculum and use a formula of piety and penalties.
As recently as three years ago, fewer than 200 children in New York City and Long Island attended private Islamic schools. Today, with two full-time high schools in Queens and plans to build three more in Brooklyn and Manhattan, total enrollment is 2,400 spread among 13 schools, with the majority of students from immigrant families. In New Jersey there are now at least 10 private Islamic schools, not only in big cities, with their notoriously troubled public schools, but also in small towns with respected school districts.
Private school enrollment is up in general, and many of the attractions are the same for all parents, Muslim or not, who view public schools as too permissive, rowdy and crowded.
But a more subtle dynamic is at work in the national surge in Islamic private schools. It represents a coming of age, in the view of many Muslim leaders, for a community striving to define itself as a cohesive religious minority in the secular American society.
Long a community of distinct and often introverted parts, Muslims have begun a process familiar to many immigrant and ethnic groups. They are trying to reach beyond their internal demarcations of national origin and find a unified voice to defend and promote their interests in a multicultural society.
Convinced that many Americans have a distorted view of Muslims and their Islamic religion, compounded by images in the movies and the media, they have created national organizations, lobbying groups, voter-registration campaigns and outreach programs to explain Islam to their neighbors.
Those who help to create a school system see themselves as an integral part of this communal effort to define, for themselves and for others, what it means to be a Muslim in the United States.
"My father's family survived in Bosnian society as a minority for centuries," said Saffiya Turan, a founder of Noor al Iman School in South Brunswick, N.J., whose father emigrated more than 30 years ago from Yugoslavia. "To survive, you have to know who you are."
The challenge for Islamic educators is to create a spiritual educational experience for young Muslims that is also relevant to their lives in a secular society. It has been a process of trial and error, ad-libbing and self-discovery.
Many schools cobble together teaching materials from other countries. Abuasi, who is Palestinian-American, said he experimented with books from Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere before settling on Arabic texts from Jordan to teach the Koran, which Muslims believe is God's word as transmitted to the prophet Mohammed.
At Noor ul Iman School in South Brunswick, one teacher, Abir Catovic, decided it made more sense for American schools to write their own texts.
"Overseas, you aren't taught to ask why," said Mrs. Catovic, 31, who grew up in New Jersey after her family emigrated from Egypt. "Here you've got students who ask why, and you'd better be prepared to answer more than just, 'Because it says so.' "
Religious schools for American Muslims also have to contend with a widely diverse student body. At Al Iman in Queens, for example, any one class might have children from Egyptian, Yemeni, Pakistani, Indian and African-American backgrounds. For Souhair Ayach, who teaches Islamic studies, having that mix of cultures requires her constantly to stress the difference between old country traditions and religion.
One recent day, Ms. Ayach's class strayed from a discussion of the divine source of human genius to a more worldly topic that was on the minds of her 11th- and 12th-grade students: arranged marriages.
"Is there something in Islam that, like, says a girl should get married at a young age, or is it just tradition?" asked a teen-age girl who gave her name only as Sabih, whose parents came from Pakistan but whose accent announced her New York City upbringing.
Ms. Ayach, herself a recent immigrant from Lebanon, steered a cautious course. "In the past, people had everything they needed to live," she said. "They were shepherds. They were merchants. They had castles. They didn't have all these expenses of life.
"Here," she continued, "you have to have education because you need a good job, a respectable job, to make your living. So it's better if you marry early, but under some circumstances it's better to develop your life first."
Private schooling still touches only a small portion of American Muslims, whose numbers are growing. There are no official national figures, but a 1992 study commissioned by the American Muslim Council, a lobbying group in Washington, estimated the Muslim population in New York State at 800,000 and in New Jersey at 200,000. A more recent study by demographers at the State University of New York at Cortlandt concluded that 450,000 Muslims live in the New York metropolitan area alone.
Islamic schools are still small players in the private-education business. In New York State, 480,000 students, 1 in 5 of school age children, attend one of 2,400 registered nonpublic schools, most of them Roman Catholic schools or Jewish day schools and yeshivas.
But Muslim educators say the numbers of full-time Muslim students do not tell the complete story. Many of their schools have only now reached a point of critical mass at which they can attract more students because they offer advanced grade levels and have a demonstrable academic track record.
Still, it is difficult to gauge the real demand for Islamic schools, most of which charge up to $3,000 a year in tuition. But school administrators say that in an area that already supports 450 mosques in New York City and Long Island, there is a vast untapped pool of families willing to pay for an alternative to the secular public schools.
"This year we added 140 students from the public schools, all coming with the behavioral and academic problems they inherited: name calling, taunting with labels and names, casual profanity," said Abuasi at Al Noor. "Here they have to watch the way they walk, watch the way they talk and watch what comes out of their mouths."
The formula of piety and penalties at schools like Al Noor seems to have whetted the appetite of Muslim parents. Al Noor opened only three years ago, with an initial enrollment of 350 students in six grades. It now has 600 children from prekindergarten through ninth grade and is raising money from Arabic and Muslim businesses in the area to build a $4 million addition to the school.
To meet expected demand in Manhattan, the Kuwaiti-financed Islamic Cultural Center of New York is building a $10 million, five-story school for 1,000 students, next to its complex at Third Avenue and 96th Street.
Al Farooq mosque in Brooklyn, one of the busiest in the city, is soliciting donations to convert its top four floors into an Islamic junior high and high school for girls.
Abdulhakim Ali Mohamed, the imam at the mosque, said the need for a girls' school is particularly acute in his neighborhood of immigrants. Families from conservative Arab countries abhor the mixing of boys and girls in public schools, he said, and panic when their daughters become teen-agers.
"Many are thinking of sending them back home," Mohamed said. "We tell them that's not a solution. If you take them back, you have to go back with them."
Like new immigrants, more established Muslim families worry that their children may lose their religious identity or do poorly in public schools where their dress, holidays and religious taboos can make them curiosities.
Dawn El Mezyen, a convert to Islam, tried to help her son fit in at a conventional kindergarten, at one point acceding to his pleas to join in exchanging Valentine's Day cards with his schoolmates. It took hours, she said, to sort through piles of store-bought cards and toss those with romantic messages she believed were inappropriate for a Muslim boy to give.
Then she transferred him to the Noor ul Iman School in South Brunswick, N.J. "I needed him to be around other Muslim kids," Mrs. El Mezyen said. "I wanted it to be a day to day thing. I didn't want him to be the sore thumb that sticks out. Here we all celebrate a holiday together."
At Al Iman School in Queens, robes are required and cosmetics, jewelry and flirting are forbidden.
Articles
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
