COLUMBIA — You notice his energy first. Then, the humor. And yes, the sarcasm and hyperbole make their way in soon after.
But Haroon Moghul warned the audience in MU's Memorial Union that they were in for a lecture.
“Because the one thing you want to do on a Thursday night after your classes is attend another class,” Moghul said.
To an audience of mostly students, some fulfilling class credit, the joke resonated.
More than 150 people filled the room and spilled into the hallway to hear the keynote address for Islam Awareness Week, put on by MU’s Muslim Student Organization. His lecture gave a condensed lesson on what Shariah means, in hopes of dispelling misconceptions about the codified set of laws based on the Islamic religion.
He called it one of the most complicated topics in the world and made light of the fact he had only 45 minutes to teach it. He told the audience although he would fail to cover all of the nuances of Shariah, he would “hit all of the bases.”
Moghul is one of 300 global Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, and he is a contributor to the Huffington Post, as well as Religion Dispatches. Moghul is The Maydan Institute's executive director. The group, according to Moghul's blog, Avari, works to improve relationships and communication between Muslims and the West.
Conflict between cultures
Muslim Student Organization vice president Mahir Khan explained that in the last few years, Shariah has become taboo, especially in the political arena. Legislation in several states has been introduced that would ban Shariah, among other foreign laws.
In spring 2011, two bills were introduced into the Missouri Statehouse that would ban foreign law in state courts. One targeted Shariah law specifically.
These bills prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri Muslim Rights Task Force to gather last spring in Jefferson City, and increase Muslim participation in the legislative process.
Khan said the bills, which never became law, were introduced because of fears that Islamic beliefs would invade public policy. He further said that in order to understand Shariah law, it must be thought about in a modern context and used Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population, as an example. Voters there elected a woman as president from 2001 to 2004.
“If you go into it word for word, some laws violate human rights, so you have to take it in context of where and when it was first written. Most countries that have a significant Muslim population apply [it] differently,” Khan said.
Aspects of Shariah law
Moghul asked for a pen and held it up above his head.
He promptly dropped it.
“The pen, to the Muslim perception, is Muslim,” he said.
He said that the pen had no choice but to obey God's laws of the universe. The only thing in the physical world that doesn't have to obey is humankind, he said. People are put on the earth to willingly submit to God, unlike the rest of the world.
“The way that God communicates this is through revelation," Moghul said. "People were chosen as prophets to communicate the message ... The final messenger is Muhammad, peace be upon Him.”
Muslims rely on two sources of guidance:
- The Quran, which, in the Muslim belief, is God’s revelation to humankind through Muhammad.
- The morals, life circumstances, character and actions of Muhammad, along with what he approves or disapproves of.
These two things together are Shariah, which literally means in Arabic, “the path to the water.”
This law is divided into two spheres: Acts of worship and worldly affairs. Acts of worship are like sacred law, and acts of worldly affairs are like secular ones. An act is a worldly affair in Islamic law if you can determine the legal reasoning behind a judgment. But, if it falls under an act of worship, it is beyond human comprehension.
In the Islamic tradition, Muslims pray five times a day.There is no definitive legal reasoning for this number, Moghul said, so it is a sacred matter and an instruction from God.
He said most Muslims don’t care about Shariah in the sense of a political agenda.
"What they care about, when they talk about Shariah, is following their religion," Moghul said. "Now, the question of whether a religious law should become political law in the United States is a completely different question ... I would argue that there are no grounds for it."
Community Response
Over the course of four days, a single post from the Mizzou Facebook page garnered 100 “likes,” 11 shares and nearly 150 comments, both heralding and lambasting Islam Awareness Week’s events.
Several comments were removed from the thread, as pointed out by users questioning MU’s policy on social media comments.
Plenty of opinionated comments remained on the page, with several users posting that the terrorist attacks from Sept. 11 were “enough Islam for me” and that the Muslim faith is “dangerous.”
Arwa Abdelhadi, a member of the Muslim Student Organization, said that she had mixed feelings about the posts, but ultimately decided that it was mostly positive because it gave a driving force behind efforts to educate through Islam Awareness Week.
Khan, the student organization vice president, pored over the posts for several hours and decided that it doesn't matter what you believe in, as long as you have an open mind. He wrote, in a Facebook post as part of the discussion, that the point of the week is to educate people and instill that understanding of others' beliefs.
"These are the values that the Columbia Muslim community has been built on, and these are the values that this great nation is built on as well," he wrote. "I ask all of you, what is more American than that?”
Comments
Bringing a previous discussion back up again here... It seems as though the liberal progressives want to "except and understand" other cultures regardless of their interpretation of Shariah. American liberals hate the extreme right wing Christians with a passion, yet want to accept the extreme right wing Islamists. Go figure...
I think most of us have some qualifications before we can accept or understand. We will not understand the public stoning of a woman who chose to wear shorts. We will not accept the killing of a son or daughter who behaves in a way that "brings shame" the family. These are real issues with east meets west. I think the single thing that could most positively impact these relations is for the moderate Islamists to call out the extremists with a louder voice and distance themselves from these extremists. Until that happens on a more consistant basis, there will be no acceptance I'm afraid...
It's accept, not except, and you could probably learn a bit about the former.
Time to lighten this up.
Maysoon Zayid, who does stand up comedy here in the United States (she was born and raised in New Jersey) says that if she ever marries she isn't going to gently toss her bridal bouquet over her shoulder.
She's going to face the wedding guests and throw her bouquet directly at them as hard as she can.
Why?
Everyone knows the Palestinians' habit of throwing things.
MU gets these interesting people to come to Columbia and speak. They should approach Maysoon.
mike mentor wrote:
"I think the single thing that could most positively impact these relations is for the moderate Islamists to call out the extremists with a louder voice and distance themselves from these extremists."
Well, I'm not hearing a lot of Baptists calling out the Westboro folks, or condemning the people that kill abortion doctors and burn clinics.
There are extramists in every religion. That does not mean they are in any way typical of the religion as a whole.
DK
@Ryan
1. oops
2. How am I supposed to better understand the killing of a woman for wearing shorts or the killing of a child for acting in a way that brings shame to a family? According to you I lack and need to learn acceptance for this. Please enlighten me oh progressive one...
@Mark
Uhhhh... I guess you aren't listening then. Please attend any house of worship with a decent size congregation in all of Boone County and you will not find a single preacher that supports the Westboro folks or supports terrorist acts against clinics. When the Westboro folks have somehow managed to make news, there is uniform condemnation from all of the houses of worship around here. All of them. It's attitudes like yours that keep people apart. You hold so tight to a progressive agenda that you fail to see the forest around you. Go find yourself some Jihadists to befriend. They are looking for people who are easily manipulated, don't care about the truth, and will stubbornly support an agenda. As for those of us that are looking towards acceptance of other peoples and other religions, we are tring to learn about the good and the bad in each so we don't lump them all together unfairly...
"They are looking for people who are easily manipulated, don't care about the truth, and will stubbornly support an agenda. As for those of us that are looking towards acceptance of other peoples and other religions, we are tring to learn about the good and the bad in each so we don't lump them all together unfairly..."
After reading what you just said, it sounds like you are the one that "they" are looking for. Why all the lumping?
@Phyllis
um... o.k. I will take you at face value and assume you are honestly asking me why people get lumped in with a group of people that they share some, but not all, characteristics...
Websters says...
preconceived judgment or opinion : an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge : an instance of such judgment or opinion : an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics
Wiki says...
making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover". It also means beliefs without knowledge of the facts[1] and may include "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence."[2]
_________________________________________________________
Yes, I know... Things shouldn't be this way, but they are. If you don't want to be this way yourself then I challenge you to quest for knowledge as I have done and will continue to do. The knowledge you gain will help you to make more informed decisions about other people of other religions.
However, you may be more comfortable in your ignorance, feeling good about yourself because you are accepting of everybody. That is your choice.
I choose to not accept people that kill rape victims, gay people, or their own daughters who choose to wear western style clothes or gasp, get an education or a job... I want to know why this happens. How can anyone support this? In the case of our progressives who hate the religious right with a passion, but accept the Islamic right because it makes them feel superior because they are better "accepters", I would have to say the cause is ignorance, but I may be wrong. Still questing...
Have you really? Are you really? Then maybe you should have attended the event because you could have asked the speaker how many people he knows who killed a family member or anyone else for those said transgressions.
But I don't think you are.
You just want to ridicule and marginalize. It's your way.
I am.
This issue hit me in the face as a high school student. I knew a girl who was held down by her mother and repeatedly stabbed by her father until she was dead because she went and got a job without their permission. This was not her only transgression, just the straw that broke the camels back. She had previously worn western style clothes and listened to western style music.
Was this seen as a dispicable and horrific act by everyone I knew personally?
yes!
Was her family ostracized or condemmed by their Mosque?
No.
I see that as a problem.
just sayin...
I so disbelieve what you are just sayin'.
The family would have been charged with murder and convicted.
You have no idea what would have been said at the mosque.
Year, town, and school the two of you apparently attended together, so we can look it up and confirm, or I'm calling BS on that one, too.
These cases are very rare, and highly sensationalized when they happen. Almost everyone has *read* about them.
DF - "These cases are very rare, and highly sensationalized when they happen.".
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,15...
So, you have to have "been there" and seen it now? I doubt even that would Affect the liberal progressive attitude toward the opposite of any thing cherished by those of the Christian religion. Progressives are on the "other side of the looking glass", where "everything wrong is right and everything right is wrong" (Tammy Bruce, Death of Right and Wrong, Random House, 2003) They advocate government over any religion, but will defend any religion to the death, if it flies in the face of the hated Christians. What a bunch!.
Mike, what you're not separating here is the influence of culture on some of these actions that you're attributing to Islamic teaching. Some (in fact most) countries are not as gentle and accepting of differences as Western countries are. Many of these places it is still accptable to publicly stone and hang people, or inflict other corporal punishment (e. g. caning in Singapore).
This has nothing necessaarily to do with their religion. There are extremists and violent people in every religion, but that does not mean they're approved of or even common.
DK
PS, do you ever attend Muslim services, or even know any Muslims? You might find they are also not as accepting of the radicals that claim Allah as their inspiration.
DK