IQRA

ISNA in Washington this weekend

The 46th Annual ISNA Convention is set to begin in the US capital this weekend.

The theme of this year's gathering is 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.'

IQRA will be blogging from this year's convention - check for regular updates at the Editor' Blog http://iqra.typepad.com/tmp/

New website

The re-designed IQra.ca web site has been up and running since the beginning of June and the response has been positive.

IQRA Redesigned Web Site Now Online

I am pleased to announce the launch of the redesigned Web site, IQRA (http://www.iqra.ca)

IQRA is an online magazine based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It aims to be a voice for progressive change by providing relevant news, thoughtful commentaries, lifestyle features and literary reviews.

The site has a new look and feel and is the first major redesign since it was launched in 2003.

Technology Specialist, Umar Nasir, led the redesign of the site and I would like to thank him for his excellent work.

NOTE: If you were a subscriber to the IQRA headline feed, please go to the new site and enter you email address to continue receiving updates. 

Muneeb Nasir

May 30, 2009

Don’t Judge others by what they look like, Lieutenant Governor

(Toronto, ON) - Changing our attitude is the key to providing greater accessibility to the disabled, Ontario's Lieutenant Governor David Onley told a gathering hosted by the Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities (CAMD) on Sunday, May 24.

 

"It means that we must not form value judgments based on what a person looks like," he said. "I'm sure it has happened to many of you and it has happened to me. It's not pleasant and in many cases its hurtful."

 

Onley who is the first Lieutenant Governor in Ontario with a disability, has overcome challenges associated with polio and post-polio syndrome, including paralysis.

 

Rabia Khedr, CAMD’s Executive Director, said the Symposium was organized to, "bring families, community leaders and community members together to talk about planning for the future of people with disabilities and their families as they're aging."

 

The Planning for the Future: Disability Rights & Responsibilities Symposium was held at the ISNA Islamic Centre in Mississauga. 

 

The day-long planning symposium included presentations by Abdalla Idris Ali and Shahina Siddiqui, a video presentation, and workshops.

 

The event was an opportunity for families, service providers and community leaders to network and discuss issues around disabilities and it concluded with the launch of the CAMD Family Support Network.

 

The Symposium was funded by the Olive Tree Foundation as “we feel that CAMD is providing an important service to the Muslim community,” said Muneeb Nasir, the Foundation’s President.

 

The Lieutenant Governor told the audience of how our attitude to disabilities can lead to exclusion.

 

He said that an employer who rejected an applicant because he or she had one leg, may have rejected Terry Fox; if the employer rejected someone in a wheelchair, they would have rejected Rick Hansen and if the employer rejected someone who needs a computer to speak for him or her, the employer would have rejected Stephen Hawking.

 

Our Imam Problem

By Muneeb Nasir

The Canadian Muslim community continues to agonize over their religious leaders.

In a recent study done by Karim H. Karim for the Institute for Research on Public Policy, he found that Muslims in Canada and other Western countries “seek religious leadership that can guide them as they navigate spiritual and worldly matters in a knowledgeable and insightful manner. They expect their imam to have not only an intellectually sophisticated understanding of Islamic sources but also a keen appreciation of the Western contexts in which they are living.”

Very recently, the congregation of the main mosque in Ottawa, the Ottawa Muslim Association, has been caught up in a debate around such issues as a result of the choice of a new Imam.
 
The Imam, who was brought in from Al Azhar University in Egypt, is being criticized by segments of the community for his communication skills, his lack of experience and familiarity with Canadian social conditions.
 
The debate has become very public with the articles being written in the local press and even eliciting an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen.

After 33 years, Yusuf/Cat Stevens returns to Los Angeles

A concert by Yusuf, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, comes around only slightly more frequently than Halley's Comet, so it's no surprise that Yusuf's first appearance in Los Angeles in 33 years was a bit of a feeding frenzy. However, if Yusuf seemed dazed by the hoopla, he didn't let it show.(READ MORE)

Traditions

By Maryam Yasmin Hussain

I recently happened to attend a wedding in a small village outside the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. Almost everyone present at the wedding was from England, and came here merely for the wedding so all the relatives would be present at this great event. The setup was fabulous, the surrounding fields amazing and the garden was huge with lots of greenery everywhere. It felt as if everything was taken out of an ‘over the top’ Bollywood movie, the only difference was that this was real and not a fantasy. (READ MORE)

IN MEMORY OF DR. HASSAN HATHOUT - A Man of God, A Man of Love

On Saturday, April 25, the world lost a pioneer in American Muslim movement, a medical ethicist, a poet and a powerful voice for reform. Throughout his life, Dr. Hassan Hathout (1924-2009) was always known for carrying a message of love.

“The passing of Dr. Hassan Hathout is a profound loss to our community,” said MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati. “He promoted love as a key element of faith—loving everyone, friend and foe, while working for justice. We are committed to expressing our gratitude for his lifetime of work in the cause of Islam by continuing to work for the Islamic values of mercy, justice, dignity and equality for all.”

Dr. Hathout was a multi-cultural physician, ethicist, and poet. He grew up in surroundings where love of God and country, and call of duty, were pivotal. With much talent, learning, discipline, and meditation, he was able to combine a highly successful career in academic medicine, ethics, and theology. (READ MORE)

A Grand Scheme for Ethical Elaboration

  By Muneeb Nasir

Tariq Ramadan in his book, Radical Reform: Islamic Ethic and Liberation, addresses Muslim societies and communities everywhere with a bold call for radical reform.

 

The publisher, Oxford University Press, writes in its description of the book that ‘it is bound to provoke controversy and spark debate among Muslims and non-Muslims alike’.

 

Ramadan argues that radical reform demands not only the equal contributions of scholars of both the text and the context, but the critical engagement and creative imagination of the Muslim masses.

In response to this call for critical engagement, a group of interested and courageous readers in Toronto have been meeting to discuss and reflect on the author’s bold proposals for reforming Muslim minds - see Reading Circle schedule here

 

Reflections on 4th  week reading,  Elaborating An Applied Islamic Ethics: Pages  113 - 155

The playing field will need to be leveled for transformational reform to take place.

 

The two revelations (the text and the Universe) and the two sets of scholars (of the text and context) are to be on equal footing and the textual scholars are to have a double specialization.

 

This will change the authority relationship in elaborating norms and ethics which is currently weighted in favor of the textual scholars.

 

Going further, to produce applied Islamic ethics requires reclaiming what it means to be truly ‘Islamic’ and reconsidering the higher objectives.

 

Labeling this and that ‘Islamic’ may comfort and connect but may not reflect that it is based on ethical principles, the norms and goals that are to orient the knowledge acquired.

The Power of Courage

By Shelina Merani

The Power of Courage was one of the topics of discussion at a two-day intensive workshop in Paris recently where the European Muslim Presence network met to study the latest book by Tariq Ramadan, Radical Reform, Islamic Ethics and Liberation.

Fortunate to have the author himself there, Tariq Ramadan started the discussions by explaining that the process of reform starts by engaging with the world. In doing so, we are finding meaning and ultimately  answering the call of our creator. The concept of “reform” therefore should not be a foreign concept to Muslims.

Radical Reform highlights two major problems in the Muslim world which are hindering reform.

The first problem is that of leadership. Muslim scholars rarely come together to debate and drive reforms. Instead, they are more satisfied in talking among themselves in isolated circles.  Not serving the community, but instead being served by it.