Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam (48 page)

H.I.V. and
Shari‘ah

My concluding remarks are based on the impossibility of an exclusively Islamic theological response to H.I.V./A.I.D.S. I don’t mean to sound pessi- mistic or un-Islamic here, but I have already stated that:

If a Muslim is efficient at bringing about a cure, or resolving issues about the spread of these diseases, we might want to associate his or her “Islam” with the consequence of the research or medical findings. If we do make this association, however, it would at best be indirect. Even if the successful researcher makes an explicit or direct statement that the work was accomplished as a result of his or her being Muslim, it will be impos- sible to refer to a specific Qur’anic verse or prophetic
hadith
that could stand as the foundation of the technical skills, medical know-how, or research methods that could actually prove to bring about solutions. In a sense this gives us, as Muslim, the greater freedom in participating fully and responsibly in the search for a cure. If we fail, we cannot be indicted as bad Muslims. On the other hand, if we are successful, we cannot associate our success explicitly to Islam, even as we take inspiration from it.

Indeed, I see Islam as inspiration for making my comments here as forceful

242 inside the gender jihad

and hard-hitting as I can in order perhaps to jolt my own soul out of any tendency toward what has been called the “ostrich approach” to Islamic theology in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds that do seem to find an explicit and simplistic textually based solution. In his book on
shari‘ah
,
19
Abdul Rauf reminds us that
shari‘ah
is the “operative formula

by which the Muslim determines what is good and ethical.” What is good conforms to divine intent.“The primary focus of the
shari‘ah
is on human- kind’s journey towards intimacy with our Creator,” it protects the religion from the vicissitudes of history. He goes further: “It is the law of Islam that is arguably the most important element in the struggle waged between traditionalism and modernism.” He recommends that we draw our temp- oral into the eternal and “think about the morality of issues that were not posed to us before.” Indeed, if the “Islamic point of view” has not yet been established, regarding certain issues that Muslims will have to encounter, then, he asserts, it “ought to be.”

Yet he refers to the three responses by Muslims to modern dilemmas. Number one is the “ostrich approach”: bury our heads in the sand, and quote isolated
ahadith
and Qur’an,especially those which imply that Muslims are on the moral high ground and thus unaffected by these new dilemmas. The second is to build a Muslim society by establishing standards adhering to divinely ordained values. The third is to develop a methodology to integrate us into the global society at large without losing our religious integrity and identity. Clearly this third option will be the most affirmative one in response to H.I.V./A.I.D.S.

The nuts and bolts of any affirmative action on legal reforms will be drawn from a variety of sources of Islamic law, textual and
ijtihadic
. How they have been used and can be used vis-à-vis H.I.V./A.I.D.S. is not fixed, yet using them is essential. Differences in their usage need to be plainly spelled out, showing the ways and means of using various criteria and one’s own sense of moral imperative to achieve optimal opportunities to benefit H.I.V./A.I.D.S. sufferers and to prevent further spread. We must be honest, however, that this is a process. For something like H.I.V./A.I.D.S. there is no simple precedent. A.I.D.S. is an indiscriminate, equal-opportunity killer: it matters little if you pray every day or never pray at all. Therefore we will not be able to resolve the problem by the ostrich logic that pretends good Muslims don’t contract A.I.D.S., let alone die from it. How relevant is such a stand in protecting millions of children with H.I.V./A.I.D.S.?

With respect to legal reforms I intentionally defer to those experts on matters of jurisprudence with this one important caveat gleaned from my

Stories from the Trenches
243

experiences addressing issues of Islam and gender for several decades. No interpretation, application, or positive development can proceed without every effort to include the ones whose agency is most directly affected by the case presented. H.I.V.-positive persons and victims of A.I.D.S. from all sectors of society must be included in the process of resolving the problem if we hope to achieve effective results. In this respect it is the reality of the ones who experience it that determines not only the nature of the experience, but the positive responses to it for the goals of education, curtailment, and control.

The
“
I Am a Nigger
”
Controversy, Toronto, 2005

This event points to some problems of race and ethnicity among Muslims in North America. Many Muslims who immigrated in the last century try to
achieve authoritative status and white non-Muslim privileges by discrimin- ating against the majority African-American Muslim population, made up
of converts and descendants of Muslim slaves over the past four centuries. The Noor Cultural Center in Toronto teamed up with York University, Toronto, Canada, to extend an invitation for me to give two presentations in Toronto in February 2005. Both institutions were particularly interested in ideas about textual interpretation. As I understood the email communi- cations, I planned to focus on issues of gender and Qur’anic interpretation. I also wanted to indicate complexities of interpretation and implementation within complex changes in circumstance. The experiences of North American Muslim movements, like experiences of other Muslims in the diaspora, include interactions between Islam’s intellectual heritage, diverse cultural traditions, and the contexts of secular modern nation-states in the West. A great deal of attention has been given to these multifaceted dynamics both from official government agencies within these Western nation-states and by the diverse population of Muslims now residing in them. This is an import- ant discourse and there are so many contributions already available I could never do justice to its complexities in this brief section. However, it is well worth the attention given to it.

Here, I refer to the important discourse only to indicate two ways in which my experience with the Noor Cultural Center is only one event reflecting ongoing complexities. These two aspects of the dynamics are selected here only to allow me the opportunity to simultaneously respond directly to this experience and to reduce it from the sensationalism that it precipitated. The Noor Center is part of an important post-9/11 development in Muslim communities in North America. Increasing numbers of members

244 inside the gender jihad

of the diverse Muslim communities have worked together outside the mosque congregational context to create organizations that address Islam and Muslims. I have been invited to several of these new extra-mosque Muslim enclaves, and all of them have a refreshing response to the reality of being a minority within a context that has tremendous power to affect the lives of Muslims here and worldwide, despite adequate diversity of Muslim self- representations. All of them are explicit about the need for greater tolerance toward the diversities that exist among Muslims in North America as well as the need for building greater networks with non-Muslims. If the mosque organizations are focused on preserving the boundaries of Islam to such a level as to give more attention to constructing and preserving those bound- aries, then where will Muslims, whose lives are not so narrowly defined, go to further their knowledge of Islam and to affirm their identity as Muslims? Furthermore, how will their identity as Muslims
in America
be integrated with their lives in close interaction with non-Muslims in America? Only protecting narrow boundaries is a deterrent to such agendas.

More Muslim Americans are creating institutions that promote this

dynamic

interchange

rather

than

prescribing

and protecting

narrow

boundaries. The audiences in the variety of functions organized in these extra-mosque institutes are composed of both Muslims with active mosque participation and those who have felt excluded from the mosques. In accor- dance with the emphasis on greater tolerance, these institutions have also

addressed attention to

controversial

issues

and

perspectives

while not

confining the speakers or invited guests to conform to any one particular definition of Muslim, as well as inviting and interacting with non-Muslims. These new institutions are one of the best things in North America that have resulted from 9/11, and hence one of the important aspects about the event that deserve more attention.

The second aspect of the controversy that followed my presentation at Noor is much more complicated, requiring more attention than is provided in this book. By focusing on the gender
jihad
, I have introduced aspects of the ethnicity
jihad
that is manifest in the context of North America in distinct ways from its manifestation in other Muslim majority and minority contexts today. The issue of ethnocentrism and racism will have to be the subject of a future project on being Muslim within the arena of scholarly and political debates. My treatment of this aspect out of the only two that I consider worth attention will be reduced to the following observations.

How could a three-hour marathon of lecture and formal questions and answers intended to discuss ideas about interpretive possibilities get reduced

Stories from the Trenches
245

to a single statement, which I uttered at least two-and-a-half hours

into

this

marathon? There are unlimited answers to this question

and many of them have been dealt with in public debates following the publication of the article entitled “I am a Nigger” on
Muslim Wake Up
.
20

Another answer is simply to point to the obvious: if any single line uttered in a three-hour forum should capture so much attention, it is a
clear
indication that being a Niggah is a matter of extremely strategic importance in the context of North American Islam. Indeed, this response reflects a long historical precedent in dealing with racism in America. It is
not
the role of the racially oppressed to
help
the oppressor to come to terms with his or her racism. The author of the article failed to mention how this statement was in response to
his
question about why there is so much inter- nalized racism among Muslims. As the victim of racism, the Niggah is not responsible for the racist’s oppression, or its solution. Despite the emergence of publications, presentations, workshops, confrontations, and efforts to investigate this issue, the continued perpetuation of tension between tran- sitional African-American Muslim experience and transnational American Muslim experiences is not only alive, it is of strategic importance in any ways that Muslim American identity will be determined both within and without the Muslim communities. Either Muslims in America investigate the multiple dimensions of this strategically important matter, or it will continue to prove that it can bring all discussions and interactions to a full stop.

How any issue is treated in the public frenzy that the media might help to inflame is not a reflection of the actual context, commitment, complexities, or intentions of those who were participants in the forum out of which the media frenzy grew. Public access to information is a much better goal of all aspects of free press and publicity than the role that the media now seems to play in the lives of people seeking information. The media shapes those issues, which are being presented in accordance to the currency of their sensationalism with complete disregard for the actual events being reported and the extent to which the events are located within the trajectories of Islamic history and experience for over fourteen hundred years. This leads me to the final controversial issue in this chapter.

March 18, 2005: A Woman Leads Congregational Prayer in New York

My theoretical reconstruction of historical male hegemony in public ritual leadership in Islam need not be duplicated in order for me to address

246 inside the gender jihad

the particulars of the prayer service on March 18, 2005. That it was sensationalized in the media, and therefore open to a frenzy of global responses, reiterates the point I just raised above. Therefore, it has already been given extensive public attention and anyone interested in the twists and turns of the debates has more than ample access through these various publications.

The completion of this book with its discussions on multiple aspects and experiences inside the gender
jihad
is a clear indication that the roles I have played in this struggle are neither limited to this one symbolic act nor concluded by performing this act. To many people, worldwide, I am only known through sensationalized controversies. That is understandable. I hope they will eventually come to understand that sensationalist responses to certain public actions are not the basis of, and never can be the goal of, my identity quest as a female in Islam. For this reason, I rejected all invita- tions to do further interviews relating to the congregational prayer in New York City when those invitations were clearly expecting to gain more attention by publishing articles and presenting news programs focused on the event
just because
it had gained such attention. That is an unfortunate consequence of addressing issues of gender within today’s climate of sensa- tionalism. There are, however, a few points about this particular event that only I can tell. These are offered here, as a matter of public record, in order that my participation is reconfigured along the lines of my lifetime experience within the struggles for justice and Islam.

In the fall of 2004, I was one of several invitees, recognized for parti- cipation in progressing Islam from its various aspects of stasis and stag- nation, to join the advisory committee to a newly forming group that chose the name “Progressive Muslim Union.” Despite the existence of a plethora of organizations worldwide that use the word “progressive” in their name, and despite the number of self-identified progressive Muslims who were