Islam

No. I’m not dead. Yet. Although this blog sort of has been for the last six weeks. I’ve been busy traveling, and I finally experienced snow for the very first time in my life. Ever. Heck, I even lost my snowboarding virginity up in Northern California, at Olympic Valley, nearby Lake Tahoe.

Fun.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to build that snowman I’ve been wishing to build since childhood.

Next time.

Also, my brother recently got married. The wedding celebration in Khartoum has now been over for a while. Phew, please don’t ask me about the ridiculous summer heat.

Blogging to resume shortly. Meanwhile, check out this cool personality test The LA Times is offering. I’m a Live Wire, and I must say, unlike many of those dumb personality quizzes you find online, this one is actually pretty accurate. It’s sooo me.

Here are the result details.

You’re a Live Wire

You like to be stimulated emotionally and intellectually. It’s all about striking the right balance! You have quite traditional values and believe in working hard to achieve your goals. And, when the work day is over, it’s time to kick back, relax and enjoy your downtime, hanging with friends, relaxing with the kids or enjoying one of your favorite interests, whether that’s on the sports pitch, at the mall or in a theater… Committed and loyal, family is really important to you. You’re successful and empowered by the opportunity you have to live the life that you want. You value your health and financial security and enjoy being able to create a happy home.

You appreciate intelligent conversation and enjoy the opportunity to express yourself and share your views with your friends and family. You’re a bit of a bookworm at heart. You probably have a good pile of books by the bed and maybe even a few on-the-go at once! Success is a real enabler for you. You reap the benefits by enjoying some really magical vacations that broaden your horizons and leave you feeling refreshed and invigorated.

Take the test here, and tell me what you get.

Also, if you haven’t taken time to read this article before on the esoteric Vs exoteric aspects of religion, please do. If you enjoyed my posts on faith and reason, you’ll like this article.

… as prevalent as genuine mysticism is in all these traditions, many people in today’s world go their entire lives without ever hearing about these aspects of religious experience.

… They often do not even recognize the rich legacy of esoteric spirituality that exists in their own tradition, hiding right in plain sight—simply because we are too close to our own cultural preconceptions, too burnt out on the mythic dogma of our childhood, and too alone in the dark without anyone pointing us in the right direction.

In fact, once we have tasted the esoteric waters in another spiritual tradition, we usually intuit that this very same esoteric core is shared by all religions, that it is the cornerstone of spiritual experience for every mystic in history (though expressed very differently from culture to culture).

… The central problem of religion today is not the unavailability of esoteric teachings—they are just as accessible today as they have ever been, perhaps even more so—but that our exoteric religions have become damaged, painfully decoupled from history’s ceaseless march toward more novelty and more complexity. Our religions are fully capable of keeping pace with our progress, growing from magic forms of religion to mythic forms, rational forms, pluralistic forms, integral forms, and beyond. And the esoteric teachings and practices are alive in all these forms, though will certainly be interpreted very differently at each level

Me loves and agrees! I think what the article discusses can easily be applied to Islam as well. In fact, I have applied it, and it has helped me see Islam in a new unique light which in turn enabled me to reconcile many previously troubling things in my head.

Yay to integral theory and epistemology. And yay to Ken Wilber. Reading his work, especially his book The Marriage of Sense and Soul, has been super life-changing and very healing.

More later.

Talk soon!

- Drima

Good discussion you should watch to get an idea on what’s happening. If there’s anything that I find really disturbing, it is the insistence of the two featured Northerners on applying Sharia law. They don’t even seem to have a clue about what democracy really means.

Democracy isn’t just “the rule of the majority.” It is the rule of the majority without infringing on the rights of the minority. One of  these rights is religious freedom.

Lovely.

Gosh, makes me so hopeful about this country’s future.

These guys ought to read Abdullahi An-Na’im’s book Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Sharia.

Not too long ago, I published a post entitled Morality Does Not Come from Holy Books. It Comes from Us. The post drew lots of interesting comments, some of which I think adequately challenged, not my argument itself, but a big troublesome consequence it leads to that I failed to adequately address: moral relativism.

I am not a fan of post-modernism’s relativism. Morality can be and indeed is objective. Just because there are moral issues that are complex, does not mean there is no objective difference between right and wrong.

How do we achieve such objectivity if morality does not come from holy books? Well, for a start, religion’s esoteric aspects and mysticism have a lot to teach us about human psychological well-being. On top of that, we have the insights offered by perenial philosohpy. Both have a great deal to teach us.

But today though, we have Sam Harris discussing his approach to this issue in a brilliant TED Talk that probably made many politically-correct liberals in the audience cringe uncomfortably, thanks to their postmodernist leanings.

Be sure to watch it.

While Sam makes one hell of a compelling argument, I do disdain his portrayal of burka-wearing women and the Taliban’s nuttiness in a way that attempts to make them seem representative of Muslims. There was also no effort on his part to clarify that the practice of honor killings is mostly cultural, and has no basis in virtually all Islamic interpretations, even the most traditionalist.

Dear Sam, I know you hate religion, but applying some nuance and taking into account differences in interpretation and how the faithful practice their faiths, will make more in your audience more receptive to your ideas.

Other than that, awesome stimulating talk. Thumbs up.

Related:

• Defining Open-Mindedness: A Story About a 14 Year Old Kid and the Torture of the Grave
• 7 Categories of Faith, Explained
• The Ultimate Proof of How Patriarchal Muslim Societies Oppress Women

Here’s a quote I read recently that I absolutely fell in love with. It’s from the book In the Mystic Footsteps of Saints, by the Naqshbandi Sufi, Shaykh Nazim Adil Al-Haqqani.

“Don’t worry about bringing people “in line” but rather concern yourself with making sure that your own practices are becoming a means for attaining inner peace and are not becoming an end in themselves. If your practice brings you inner peace and wisdom others will emulate those practices voluntarily.”

Where can you find Shaykhs who are well-known around the world, with this kind of thinking, nowadays? Answer? Sadly, not many. Or maybe I just haven’t come across them yet.

Shaykh Nazim is a breath of fresh air. I’m glad I discovered him and his beautiful insights. Yay to Sufi mystics who speak the language of love.

Edge recently asked some of the world’s leading scientists, authors and thinkers the following question: “How has the internet changed the way you think?”

One of my favorite answers came from the one and only, Kevin Kelly. And yes, I’m a huge fan of Kevin Kelly’s work. Here’s what he has to say in response to the question.

… my knowledge is now more fragile. For every accepted piece of knowledge I find, there is within easy reach someone who challenges the fact. Every fact has its anti-fact. The Internet’s extreme hyperlinking highlights those anti-facts as brightly as the facts. Some anti-facts are silly, some borderline, and some valid. You can’t rely on experts to sort them out because for every expert there is an equal and countervailing anti-expert. Thus anything I learn is subject to erosion by these ubiquitous anti-factors.

I can so relate to this. Think about the above and then just imagine the impact the web will have on religion in the long-term.

… My certainty about anything has decreased. Rather than importing authority, I am reduced to creating my own certainty — not just about things I care about — but about anything I touch, including areas about which I can’t possibly have any direct knowledge . That means that in general I assume more and more that what I know is wrong. We might consider this state perfect for science but it also means that I am more likely to have my mind changed for incorrect reasons. Nonetheless, the embrace of uncertainty is one way my thinking has changed.

Uncertainty is a kind of liquidity. I think my thinking has become more liquid. It is less fixed, as text in a book might be, and more fluid, as say text in Wikipedia might be. My opinions shift more. My interests rise and fall more quickly. I am less interested in Truth, with a capital T, and more interested in truths, plural. I feel the subjective has an important role in assembling the objective from many data points. The incremental plodding progress of imperfect science seems the only way to know anything.

Brilliant. Read the rest here.

I’m in love with the fact that “truth” is no longer what the guy sitting on the throne and a bunch of bearded men want it to be. Like inter-continental satellite television before it, the internet is now causing disturbances in the epistemologies of Muslim countries worldwide.

But, unlike the push medium of conventional media, the internet is a pull medium and the epistemic consequences of this massive property are as fascinating as they are exciting.

Me loves.

One the negative side, say hello to postmodernism on steroids!

Solution? What Carter Phipps said:

Rehabilitating confidence in truth and reason will undoubtedly be one of the tasks of the twenty-first century. As a culture, we must begin to recognize that while truth and objectivity may not be absolutes that exist perfectly free of time and history, neither are they hopelessly embedded in personal perspectives. Simply because truth is always subject to revision does not and could never mean that all truth claims deserve equal space at the table of cultural discourse. Let’s not put reason and science on the pedestal of perfection, but let’s also not confuse leaps of faith with rational inquiry. If the twenty-first century is being defined by an ongoing clash of traditional, modern, and postmodern worldviews both in individuals and in societies around the world, then escaping that clash with minimal harm and maximal development will mean finding a fourth way. It will mean learning to steer our ship of culture away from the overconfident certainties of theology and science but also away from the overwrought uncertainties of contemporary philosophy.

Right on.

Bearded lunatic on the right asks “are we wrong?”

Wisey beard on the left replies “absolutely not, they criticized us first.”

O

ur quote of the day comes from Michael Knight, author of the infamous book, The Taqwacores.

When he was 17, Michael Knight left his mother’s home in Rochester to study Islam at a Pakistani madrassa. It was his first act of rebellion – against his abusive, schizophrenic, white-supremacist father. Years later, burned out on the demands of religious dogma, Mike rebelled once more – by penning a Muslim Punk manifesto called The Taqwacores. His work of fiction struck a chord with young Muslims around the world and before long, real-life Taqwacore bands were creating a scene. This film follows Michael and his band of Muslim punks as they journey across the U.S. and Pakistan, transforming their worlds, their religion and themselves through the spirit of Taqwacore.

The quote? Well, it comes from this awesome interview he gave about his new film.

“I realized that I’d rather be inside the mosque urinating out than to be outside the mosque urinating in.” - Mike Knight

LOL, hilarious!

Watch the whole interview here:

And here’s the film’s trailer:

N

o, this isn’t some New Age pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo. No I haven’t been converted into a believer in The Law of Attraction after watching that hit film, The Secret. And no, I don’t buy into everything New Age guru, Deepak Chopra says, although he does have many cool and pretty valid ideas.

I’m talking about something very different here - how science and religion connect together at their deepest level.

Neil Tyson says it better in this video.

What Happened Before the Beginning?

Here’s something that pretty much sums up what was said in the video.

Read it all, every word of it.

“What happened before the beginning?”

Astrophysicists have no idea. Or, rather, our most creative ideas have little or no grounding in experimental science. Yet certain type of religious person tends to assert, with a tinge of smugness, that something must have started it all: a force greater than all others, a source from which everything issues. A prime-mover. In the mind of such a person, that something is, of course, God.

But what if the universe was always there, in a state or condition we have yet to identify–a multiverse, for instance? Or what if the universe, like its particles, just popped into existence from nothing?

Such replies usually satisfy nobody. Nonetheless, they remind us that ignorance is the natural state of mind for a research scientist on the ever-shifting frontier. People who believe they are ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the cosmos. And therein lies a fascinating dichotomy. “The universe always was” goes unrecognized as a legitimate answer to “What was around before the beginning?” But for many religious people, the answer “God always was” is the obvious and pleasing answer to “What was around before God?”

No matter who you are, engaging in the quest to discover where and how things began tends to induce emotional fervor–as if knowing the beginning bestows upon you some form of fellowship with, or perhaps governance over, all that comes later. So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going. ~ Neil Tyson

Right on Neil.

And that ladies and gentlemen, is where science and religion connect - at their deepest questions.

So, whether you’re an atheist, pantheist, theist, mystic or just plain agnostic, next time somebody starts going on a rant about how it all began, keep in mind that to a certain extent, the two of you are merely engaging in a game of semantics.

At the deepest level, “The universe always was” Vs “God always was” aren’t such different answers after all.

Unless of course, you take the discussion to a higher level and begin discussing the qualities and properties of those two entities.

Either way, it’s something I personally find pretty damn fascinating and I love Neil’s approach to the issue.

Cool video from a person who’s ideas have had a massive impact on my journey and intellectual development.

This email from a new accidental reader made my day!

Subject: Thanks for giving me hope

Hi There,

I somehow stumbled onto your blog tonight.

As an ignorant American who travels a lot on business, I started researching Islam during the “cartoon riots” several years ago, and was really shocked at what I found. Reading “The Islamist” by Ed Husain helped make sense of some of it, but the rest - women arrested over naming a teddy bear, the wars over who is practicing the “right” or “most holy” form of Islam, silencing of 800-yr old church bells in Sweden - Well, I began siding with the Geert Wilders of the world - Maybe Islam really can’t exist within the confines of a diplomatic society.

Your blog gives me hope that reason can win out, and that there’s a lot more to Islam that what we read in the papers. Thanks.
Peace,

KLS.

Yay, this is cool, and really encourages me to keep moving forward.

I know blog updates have significantly lessened in recent months and this will probably continue for a few more.

But sometimes, (as much as it sucks), you just need to slow down so you can speed up again, and right now a lot is happening behind the scenes that will bear fruit soon.

Meanwhile, it would be really nice to know what kind of positive impact this blog has had on you, if any. Please share your thoughts below.

This  is too damn funny! If you understand Arabic, you’re gonna laugh your ass. If you don’t, read the translations, and you’re still going to laugh your ass off.

Don’t you just love these clowns?

That Al-Azhar scholar (the same Al-Azhar Obama spoke at and praised) belongs in an episode of… taraaa… The Holy Room!

Seriously though, the paranoia on this one is staggering. Although, I’m glad this debate is gaining more and more momentum so that the Arab public can get more informed, and hopefully reform the current education system in regards to that important issue.

But beware, most of za bearded ones will fight! Especially in za wahhabi kingdom.

If we have za sexi education, za arab worrrlid iz eegoing to be bigger immorality, and zat is a big broblim.

BROBLIM I TELL YOU!

Za youngi boyz and girrrlz will be, erm, you know, sorry, zat iz dirty word, but you know what zey weel do?

HARAM!

No, no, we musti fight za zionist sexi shops.

LOL.

Yay to baby-making factories!

Let’s have more. LOL.

Yours truly was recently interviewed by Sudan Radio Project, along with Sudanese blogger, Kizzie, and Prof. Suad Badri from Ahfad University.

Enjoy and tell me what you guys think.

First, we hear about a Sudanese woman journalist who was arrested for wearing pants in public–and refused to plead guilty. Listen here.

This is one hell of a courageous piece written by Dr. Farzana Hassan. More of these voices are needed to shake up numerous outdated aspects of the Traditionalist and dominantly accepted interpretations of the Quran today.

Interpretations that keep the Muslim mind locked in shackles and enslaved to dogmatism.

Boohoo, sucks.

Faith need not be like that.

And Dr. Farzana seems to largely agree with me in her piece, except for some small details like the one I discuss below.

RELEVANCE OF QURAN IN THE 21ST CENTURY
by Dr. Farzana Hassan

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I begin by quoting a few verses of the Quran:

“Those who disbelieve from among the people of the book and the idolaters will not desist from disbelief, until there came to them the clear evidence—A messenger from Allah reciting to them the pure Scriptures. Therein are lasting commandments.” (Quran 98: 2—4).

The reference here is to the eternal character of the Quran. It is a claim made by the Quran fourteen centuries ago– a claim which in my opinion is quite extraordinary in the light of more or less established truths. The bulk of humanity has witnessed and attested to these truths over time: that societies perpetually evolve and social norms change, therefore all societies need to reconsider the laws regulating altered ethics. It is also a claim that has not as yet been tested, as undoubtedly scripture is often treated as sacrosanct, demanding abject loyalty from the faithful.

Today I speak as a sceptic. And as a sceptic, I want to examine the validity of such claims, both in the light of modern circumstances, and in the light of the many theological constructs that have thus far attempted to confer some legitimacy to such claims.

Islam discourages critical inquiry of the Quran.

I disagree with that last sentence.

It is the dominant understanding of the Islam today which discourages critical inquiry of the Quran. Not Islam as a whole since its birth, and throughout its history of evolution until today.

Nope. Not Islam as a complete whole.

I can tell you from personal experience that making such a claim is unhelpful.

This is because it puts faithful Muslims in a difficult position, wherein they struggle between remaining fully loyal to their faith and valid skeptical doubt.

Such claims make it seem as if critical inquiry of the Quran has no room in Islam, and that if a Muslim does want to engage in such an activity, then it amounts to disloyalty, sinfulness and erosion of faith.

This maybe - and in fact is - the case in the eyes of most Islamic scholars today, and the majority of current Muslims who have been influenced and indoctrinated by them.

However, the bulk of today’s breed of Islamic scholars aren’t representative of all the generations of Islamic scholars that lived before them.

The bulk of today’s breed are a product of the Ash’ariyya’s victory over the Mu’tazila.

A victory that I believe me was one of the main - probably the main #1 reason - why the Islamic Civilization and Golden Age of Islam, fell to its knees.

Seriously, I’ve talked to many like-minded heretical Muslims who value reason, and often, I hear them say “if only the Mu’tazila had won. Islam today would be so different.”

How true.

Heck, you know what, watch the video below just so you can understand the immense contributions made by the Muslim scholars and scientists of yesterday. Contributions made by people who valued reason.

Algebra. Algorithm. And ironically, even alcohol.

LOL, I know, awesome.

But it doesn’t stop there. Like I said, just watch this video now from Neil Tyson, one of my most favorite scientists, to get a good idea.

It’s absolutely pathetic how so many Islamic scholars today love to brag endlessly about the great scientific achievements of the Islamic Civilization, but at the same time despise the philosophical foundations and high emphasis on empiricism that built its very Golden Age.

If you have no idea who the Mu’tazila are, I highly encourage you to learn more about them, starting with this.

And while, you’re at it, continue reading  Dr. Farzana’s awesome piece.

By contrast, Christianity and Judaism, the other two great monotheistic faiths, permit a liberal theology to scrutinize scripture without penalty. Islam rejects the idea entirely. But I wonder. Why must any document, old or new, religious or secular, be exempt from the scrutiny of intellectual processes that could enable an understanding of its true essence?

Such thoughts have inspired me to delve into today’s topic, which seeks to either establish or dismantle the notion that the Quran relates well to modern times.

… For example, does the Quranic injunction enjoining women to wait four months before ramarrying after the passing of their husbands have relevance for modern times? This provision was put in place for seventh century Bedouins to be able to make determinations of paternity and lineage in the absence of medical tests. But now, with all the medical advances that enable such determinations through a simple test, I question the relevance of such a provision to our modern circumstances.

Continue reading here >>

The news is out. Lubna won’t get flogged after all - a victory for Muslim women who stood behind her and supported her, but is the sentence really worthy of our celebration?

Me thinks probably not.

It’s a bittersweet occasion. No to getting flogged, yes to getting fined.

But that’s not the unfortunate part.

The true misfortune is the fact that this new embarrassing episode in Sudan - one of an ongoing series (Teddy Bear Circus anyone?) - doesn’t seem like it’s going to be the last.

Things like this will continue

As long as you have idiots who misunderstand Islam, abuse it for self-serving political purposes, or dogmatically support its orthodox traditionalist interpretation (which in numerous cases is anti-woman), incidents like this will continue.

(Note: There are things that are supported and backed by Islam which don’t treat women equally and that do indeed deserve critique, for example the amount of inheritance allocated for women within Islamic law. However, most Islamic scholars will agree that Lubna’s arrest was un-Islamic, and was either carried out by idiots who don’t have a proper understanding of Islamic law, or who are using Islam as a political tool to further their own self-serving agendas.)

But anyways, back to what I was saying.

Again, yes, things like this will continue not just in Sudan, but throughout the Muslim world, because most of it suffers from the same serious common illness: a knowledge crisis.

And this latest case, the Teddy Bear Circus, and other similar ones are merely symptoms of this disease, so don’t expect them to go away as long as this disease remains.

The cures?

Mainly free inquiry and free enterprise.

Oh, and lots of work, time and patience, but it’s okay because we’ve got to start somewhere, and it’s people like Lubna who inspire the needed soldiers to march forward with boldness and courage.

Bittersweet indeed, but maybe the sentence is worthy of just a little celebration.

So I guess this post is mine.