Blog


About


Books

 Latest Post: Flash!

Agnostic
A Spirited Manifesto
Available April 4, 2016

   Who is the AT?   Books by LH
  • Agnostic

  • The First Muslim

  • After The Prophet

  • Jezebel

  • Mary

  • More from LH

     

Who ISIS Hates

Posted October 15th, 2014 by Lesley Hazleton

I know Muslims are sick and tired of the Islamophobic refrain of “Why don’t they speak out against ISIS?”  Some refuse to accept the terms of the challenge, seeing it as a demand that they apologize for being Muslim.  Others denounce terrorism, to deaf ears.  But it wasn’t until I read this piece by New Zealanders Khareyah Wahaab and Jason Kennedy, who made news a couple of years back by inviting a racist MP to dinner, that I realized how Muslims in the West are doubly threatened by extremism.

[Tim from Timaru, by the way, is the New Zealand equivalent of Joe Bloggs — or perhaps Joe the Plumber.  And it should be noted that before ISIS took to beheading Western hostages, they beheaded dozens of Syrians in Raqqa. They stuck the heads on the points of railings in the city’s main park. Western media paid no attention.]

This may come as a shock to some, but ISIS hates us, a young Muslim couple in the West, with the same vehemence as Tim from Timaru.  Except, unlike Tim, we have many ties to the Muslim community in New Zealand.  It’s a small community and our family is known to most Muslims here, who in turn still have ties to their countries of origin.  This means that if by some freak chance a terrorist group were to put a bounty on our heads for speaking out against them, they have a much greater chance of finding us than finding Tim from Tumaru.

More than anyone else, terror groups seek to punish those they view as apostates of their own religion.  Radical fundamentalists thus hold all Muslims hostage.  Even in New Zealand, where our freedoms of speech and religion are a given, we still live with the risk of terrorist reprisal for speaking out, precisely because we are Muslim.

Terrorism is not aimed only at Westerners;  it’s a daily experience for those who must live among extremists.  Muslims have immigrated to the West in a conscious decision to escape violence and instability, seeking to build a better life, but many fear that if they speak out loud, they and their families “back home” will suffer.  You may call this cowardly, but first ask yourself if you would be willing to jeopardize your family’s freedom and safety if you legitimately feared reprisal.

Many do so nonetheless.  In public gatherings, demonstrations, formal statements by imams, even teenagers posting their frustrations on YouTube, the message is the same:  “ISIS does not represent us.  ISIS does not represent Islam.  We condemn their actions entirely.”  You don’t hear them because they’re not considered newsworthy, but engage a Muslim in conversation, and you are very apt to find someone who feels exactly the same way about extremists as you do.

How can we, two Kiwis who have never had anything to do with the Middle East, possibly answer for the actions of extremists with whom we have nothing in common other than proclaiming to be Muslim?  Like every other Muslim we know, we choose to follow the progressive, peaceful tenets of Islam, and leave the rest to the annals of a long and tumultuous history.

With biblical literalism still prevalent in many churches, it should be no surprise that Islam also struggles with literalism.  Most Muslims in the West gloss over the violent passages in the Quran in much the same way as Christians disregard the violent passages in the Bible.  Whether consciously or unconsciously, they recognize the need for reform.  But Martin Luther’s reform of Christianity didn’t come until the sixteenth century.  Islam, a faith 600 years younger, is now, in the twenty-first century, grappling with the same need.  Progressive western Muslims will certainly lead the way.

And if you haven’t managed to hear it by now, then hear it this time:  Yes, we are Muslim, and yes, we categorically denounce ISIS and all forms of terror.

 

Share this post:  Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
File under: fundamentalism, Islam | Tagged: Tags: ISIS, Islamophobia, Jason Kennedy, Khayreyah Wahaab, New Zealand, reprisal, terrorism | 5 Comments
  1. Omer says:
    October 18, 2014 at 11:51 am

    Thanks much for posting Leslie. I just heard Malik Mujahid, a civic leader in Chicago respond to an interview that condemning groups like ISIS has almost become a 6th pillar of Islam which condemnations required 5 x a day. I found that funny but sad.

    Regarding the issue of reform, I think the main issue that traditional Muslims need to confront is that much of the problem is of shackling the Qur’an to the hadith literature. The Prophet never authorized anyone to collect and compile alleged sayings of his and especially not to do so 100 years or more after his death.

    So interpreting the Qur’an through medieval lens is problematic because it institutionalizes a medieval mindset. I am not saying that medieval thought is necessarily bad….but it is not necessarily good either and it is not necessarily really from the Prophet either…at least much of what is said to be from him is likely not from him but from what people thought he would have said or what they mistakened him as saying.

    I think once that lightbulb resonates throughout the Muslim world, then that would be a huge blow to traditional and most especially a huge blow to salafi muslims and catastrophic to extremist muslims.

    I am not against hadith…i believe an indispensible source for interpretation of the Qur’an should be sought in looking at the hadith deemed authentic because some of it is authentic but not to replace reason and not to override the Qur’an as is done much too much by some muslims.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      October 18, 2014 at 2:02 pm

      Love the mordant humor of condemnation of ISIS as the sixth pillar of Islam! Similar vein to the #MuslimApologies meme on Twitter.
      Re hadith, I know I’ve recommended Sadakat Kadri’s ‘Heaven on Earth’ before, but can’t do so too often (the title makes it sound like devotional pap, but would I be recommending it if it were?). Especially the section on Salafism and the reinterpretation of tradition:
      http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Earth-Journey-Through-Sharia-ebook/dp/B005XMKAGY/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413665807&sr=1-5&keywords=heaven+on+earth

  2. jveeds says:
    October 19, 2014 at 10:51 am

    I liked the insightful comment about unshackling the Qur’an from the hadith — not that I get a say in it, but a minute after reading that it dawned on me that that could be an excellent thing. I’m of mixed minds about it, because a religion’s interpretive literature helps it grow and adjust to later time epochs. Yet, no matter how the hadith is divvied up among greater-to-lesser credibility, the sayings and actions of people as recollected later are notoriously unreliable and must certainly lead to misguided practices which become enshrined and immutable.

  3. SamAh says:
    October 22, 2014 at 4:43 am

    I love your articles! Absolutely admire the way you represent your thoughts.
    But I cannot help myself but to add the following: We Muslims in the Middle East are trying to progress and reform Islam. We condemn ISIS, and we want peace in the region, we want peace and love between the east and west.
    Much respect to the kiwis writers and to you.
    Cannot wait until your next article!

  4. Sam says:
    March 19, 2015 at 4:10 am

    Isis greatest enemy is Islam’s Sufism – “the love within Islam” all Muslims have to do to combatt and destroy ISIS …is bring back Sufism(love) as was expounded by one of the greatest personalities/poet – Rumi.
    Love all,Malice unto none

What Happens When We Eat Together

Posted February 24th, 2013 by Lesley Hazleton

Let me say this upfront:  I’m lousy at interfaith gatherings.  They tend to have an oddly stilted feel.  There’s something of Tarzan and Jane about them: “Me Jew, you Muslim, we friends.”  Far better, I’ve long thought, to get together on a small scale, over the dinner table.  Cook together, break bread together, drink together, and allow the conversation to develop without that weirdly over-determined self-consciousness.

That’s part of what so impressed me in the response of New Zealanders Khayreyah Amani Wahaab and her husband Jason Kennedy to an Islamophobic rant (Muslims shouldn’t be allowed on airplanes, etc) by Richard Prosser, a New Zealand member of parliament:  as I reported here, they invited him to dinner.

And he came to dinner.  Here’s Khayreyah’s post on it last night on her Facebook page:

Tandoori-Chicken3Mr Richard Prosser has just left our house after having a lovely dinner of home-cooked tandoori chicken, salad and roti with raitha. He was very realistic about owning the words he said, but was very clear that whilst he is never going to apologize to terrorists, he is very apologetic and contrite about the hurt and whatever damage he has caused the rest of the Muslim community. He understands, accepts and recognises that the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorist types and have the same fears, values and aspirations that he does.

We both agreed that aviation security is a wider issue that does need to be addressed [Kahyreyrah has a degree in aviation management — LH], as well as that of Muslims having a louder voice in condemning extremists and their actions. Jason and I both thanked him in the end, since if it wasn’t for his brash words written in a news column, then we would not have identified these needs, that ultimately will benefit the entirety of New Zealand. All three of us are willing to forge a way forward for Muslims in New Zealand in order to make it a happier, safer place, and leading the world in Islamic – Western relations.

Richard did say, interestingly, that of all the mail, comments etc he received from people following the article, our letter by far made him feel worse than all the others. He finds himself to be a person who can deal with anger and resentment being directed towards him but felt out of place dealing with outreach born of love and a desire for understanding. Ultimately both sides agreed that we need to see each other as a whole and not just what the media had chosen to portray, that we cannot expect fair judgement if only one facet of ourselves are exposed to said judgement. We ended the night with a short TedX video of Lesley Hazleton’s talk about being a tourist in the Quran and we promised to have future interactions with a view to improving NZ as a whole. — with Jason Kennedy

Glad to have played a small supporting role.

Share this post:  Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
File under: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, sanity | Tagged: Tags: dinner, Islamophobia, Jason Kennedy, Khayreyah Wahaab, New Zealand, Richard Prosser | 7 Comments
  1. abbasij says:
    February 24, 2013 at 1:18 pm

    The moral is, we need to see each other as a whole and not just what media has chosen to portray.

  2. Muhammad Shukri bin Yaacob says:
    February 24, 2013 at 11:50 pm

    Ms.Hazleton,I watched and listened attentively to your talk on Quran,more than once.It is amazing and enrich my understanding.Thank you for your objective take on Islam.However,I think you should lay your claim on frontiers explored.What becomes of an explorer if after exploring the uncharted areas then just leave to others to benefit.You have found Islam,accept it.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      February 25, 2013 at 8:46 am

      Thank you, but… I respect your Islam; please respect my agnosticism.

  3. William Branch says:
    February 25, 2013 at 12:52 pm

    Sharing a community meal used to have a powerful symbology; it meant that all who shared were part of the same tribe. As sharing in a family meal meant that all who shared were part of the same family, in Semitic culture, within the boundaries of the “haram”. Worse yet if it involved sharing food that was not as “chalal/kosher” as what you normally ate. What if they were dressed or undressed in a strange way?

    This is a powerful challenge to our sense of self and of belonging (both of the ego), inciting the strongest prejudiced response in all people. How would you feel if some stranger entered your home without asking, sat down at your table, and proceeded to eat a meal with you using your supplies and his, in the presence of your own family members? That would take great forbearance for anyone to tolerate.

    How much more would it take to get beyond mere tolerance to a full embrace of “the other”? Though each society has its own way of de-fanging “the other” or its own children thru the customs of hospitality and parenting. Perhaps it is enough to realize that “the other” sees us just as much a stranger as we see them. Yet this is essentially the problem we have in a global village that we were unprepared for. Difference in metaphysics is small compared to our preference for the familiar.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      February 25, 2013 at 1:46 pm

      Made me think of the phrase “getting to know each other” — emphasis on “other.” The progression from ‘they’ to ‘you’ to ‘we.’

      • William Branch says:
        February 25, 2013 at 2:17 pm

        By Jove, you’ve got it! Human beings usually live with profoundly unconscious and unexamined reflexes learned in infancy and childhood … that much Dr Freud may be correct about. Usually our conscious beliefs are concocted to provide a rationalization for these reflexes, though usually profoundly simple (nudity, eating, touching et al), they are very hard to address with any skepticism, if we can be brought to think about them at all.

        Personal boundaries are a big assumption … starting with our own personhood and extending out to our many associates in complicated inter-related rings. A conversion experience if one has one, involves a profound reorientation of this whole architecture. We articulate in our thought, spoken language, and written language, a blueprint of all of this, from our own “north pole” position, as vast as our ability to attach labels to the sum of our human experience.

        The pronouns are among the oldest and most conservative words in any language (explicit or implicit depending on the language). I, thou, he/she/it, we, y’all (in my own dialect) and they. Sometimes these pronouns are “sexed” with two or more genders in languages more complicated than English (not a legitimate language, but a creole or pidgin), making this even more complicated. In some languages which pronoun you use even depends on your social class and the social class of the person you are addressing.

      • pah says:
        March 17, 2013 at 7:10 am

        belated reply
        i think ignorance plus arrogance is what truly separates us.
        and therin lies the problem, so your blog goes a long way to bringing us all together, so i agree with your progression from “me’ to “thee” keep up the good work, Lesley!

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner

Posted February 13th, 2013 by Lesley Hazleton

When things seemed to be getting ever worse in the Middle East — as they always seemed to, and still do — we’d look at each other and say, wistfully, “There’s always New Zealand.”  New Zealand, for us, was the image of peacefulness, where nothing ugly ever happened.  We didn’t enquire too closely.

But of course even New Zealand has its bigots.  Like Richard Prosser, a Member of Parliament from the right-wing New Zealand First party, who two days ago published an ugly Islamophobic rant suggesting, among other things, that Muslims be banned from air travel.

So an Auckland Muslim sat down and wrote an open letter in response, and today it appeared in The New Zealand Herald.  I”m running it in full here because I’m bowled over by the wisdom and grace of it, and because it gets better and better as it goes on:

Dear Mr Prosser,

Unbeknown to myself, I am your enemy.

I consider this strange as I have never met you and harbour no ill will toward you. I am certain that if I walked past you on the street your suspicions would not be raised. If you were a customer in my shop I am certain you would not suspect that I pose your family any risk. For you see, I am Muslim, I am 30, and I am also white. Throw in the fact that I am an American expatriate – accent and all – and I possess quite the subterfuge. After all, I could sit next to you on a flight, our arms negotiating the armrest for space, and you would think nothing of it. And yet if between us the subject of religion arose, my reply would disable you with fear.

Or so your column would lead me to believe.

I am writing an open letter to you out of sympathy, respect, and the desire for understanding. I do not write this so publicly in order to give your opinions greater status than they deserve. Instead, I hope to circumvent your vitriol from tainting the views of other people who, through lack of personal experience with the Muslim community, may be susceptible to your very limited and ignorant view of our religion and families.

I will start by, ironically, providing you with some defence. It is absolutely your right to speak your mind freely with whatever opinions you so wish. That is one of the great liberties of this nation.

But let me be clear: speaking your mind is your right as a private citizen. As a Member of Parliament, you are a public servant, and your public opinions need to be more carefully delivered. You must be aware that the words of MPs are granted greater political legitimacy than those of private citizens.

It is frightening when someone with so much power to sway the opinions of others is so cavalier in his delivery. We entrust MPs to make defensible, rational, and sympathetic judgments in pursuit of the common good. Counter to this, your words seek to generate divisiveness by fostering an indefensible ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality.

Do you actually believe Muslims are so different to you that we should be trusted less than any other human being? Wherefore this presumption that those who commit terrible crimes in the name of Islam are actually considered heroes or true Muslims by the rest of us? Are we really so homologous to you? Woe to the Sikh or Hindu who you might accidentally recognise for a Muslim in your eagerness to incite fear, all the while I, the unrecognisable white Muslim, sits next to you.

For you see, if the subject of religion is never broached between us, you will feel safer the entire trip knowing you sit next to a safe and reliable Pakeha. Let me assure you, I want that plane to land safely just as much as you do. I have family and friends who I want to be around for a good long time, and so do they.

The only reason I can think that you would harbour such ill-sentiment is that you have very little first-hand experience with Muslims. I can relate. I was not born into a Muslim family. However, with age I came to recognise my beliefs were congruent with Islam. That seemed a bit of a scary prospect, as I am sure you can appreciate that there is a great deal of Islamophobia in the United States, as well.

Once I actually met some Kiwi Muslims, I quickly realised my presumptions were entirely inaccurate. Muslim culture is not some monolithic fiction. Muslims are just like the majority of Kiwis: we love our summer barbecues, we avidly follow the All Blacks’ domination of rugby, we wear jandals, we buy fish n’ chips down the road. You see, Muslims come from all different backgrounds. I was born in the US and descend from Irish stock. My wife was born in Fiji, and her Indian ancestors were relocated during the British slave trade. Many Kiwi Muslims are from India, the Middle East, east Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia. We have all come here to share in what it means to be Kiwi. Between us we have a similar pathway to God, but we also respect that every non-Muslim is on their own pathway to God.

Your family and my family, we are each equally Kiwi, despite the fact that we may worship differently. We are equal to you in many other ways: my wife and I both happily pay the highest tax rate, our business creates revenue and employment for many New Zealanders, and our education benefits the New Zealand economy. We are even socially and politically active (gasp!).

If you think supporting terror is somehow intrinsic to Islam, or is somehow an inevitability of our religion, ask anyone in the Muslim community here: no one supports any act of violence or terror against any other living being, human or animal. That is what we call haram in Islam, which means “forbidden by God”. We have no support for terrorists who do such horrible things, and we cannot understand how they can call themselves Muslims. Their actions are entirely incompatible with Islam.

In order to establish better communication on this issue, my wife and I would like to invite you to dinner at our place the next time you are in Auckland. We would like to hear your story, and we would like to share ours. I believe that if you would grant us the pleasure of your company, it will give you a much more enlightened perspective on Muslims and Islam in general. I will leave my contact details with the editor if you wish to make good on our offer.

khayreyahTwo enemies who wish
to be your friends,
Jason (Naveed) Kennedy and
Khayreyah Wahaab

Update:  Prosser has accepted the invitation to dinner.  I’m sorely tempted to start a contest for suggestions as to what will be on the menu, but that wouldn’t do justice to the spirit of Jason Kennedy and Khayreyah Wahaab.  Talk about the better angels of our nature…!

Share this post:  Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
File under: Islam, sanity | Tagged: Tags: Islamophobia, Jason Kennedy, Khayreyah Wahaab, New Zealand, Richard Prosser | 4 Comments
  1. Ross says:
    February 13, 2013 at 11:34 pm

    Please, anyone reading this, don’t think that most New Zealanders share this man’s bigotry. I lived and worked there for the bulk of my vocational life and my children are Kiwis. Maori culture, they say, runs like a golden thread through the whole country and its people and elicits a tolerance and comradeship.

  2. Saimã Abbasi says:
    February 14, 2013 at 2:51 pm

    Honestly this is what every Muslim thinks who is interacting with such non Muslims. Because of some people why to condemn all Muslims, why to blame Islam? He said it all. In everyday life you and me are not different, yes our believes are different, so are our faces, our personalities, our whole lives are different from each other and still we both are, we all are humans, sharing this beautiful earth and universe. Isn’t it so?

  3. Sandra says:
    February 14, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    I live in NZ and remember the disbelief and shock when I heard it on the radio, I have not met anyone who has agreed with this view and I feel sad it makes headlines elsewhere.
    This is not a typical kiwi thinking or belief.

  4. pah says:
    February 26, 2013 at 7:32 am

    lovely letter, like the invite to dinner bit…perfect.
    also, to make a point, Eastern European Muslims are white, and you could easily be sitting next to a Muslim from Eastern Europe…..the world never seems to learn and it is so sad

Order the Book

Available online from:
  • Amazon.com
  • Barnes & Noble
  • IndieBound
  • Powell's
Or from your favorite bookseller.

Tag Cloud

absurd agnosticism art atheism Christianity ecology existence feminism fundamentalism Islam Judaism light Middle East sanity technology TED TALKS ugliness US politics war women

Recent Posts

  • Flash! September 1, 2019
  • “What’s Wrong With Dying?” February 9, 2017
  • The Poem That Stopped Me Crying December 30, 2016
  • Talking About Soul at TED December 5, 2016
  • ‘Healing’? No Way. November 10, 2016
  • Psychopath, Defined August 2, 2016
  • Lovely NYT Review of ‘Agnostic’! July 14, 2016
  • Playing With Stillness June 22, 2016
  • Inside Palestine June 20, 2016
  • Virtual Unreality June 6, 2016
  • The Free-Speech Challenge May 23, 2016
  • Category-Free April 20, 2016
  • Staring At The Void April 13, 2016
  • Sherlock And Me April 3, 2016
  • Hard-Wired? Really? March 22, 2016
  • A Quantum Novel March 9, 2016
  • This Pre-Order Thing March 4, 2016
  • The Agnostic Celebration February 29, 2016
  • The First Two Pages February 23, 2016
  • Two Thumbs-Up For “Agnostic” February 10, 2016
Skip to toolbar
  • About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support Forums
    • Feedback