Destination X
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Showing posts tagged Islam
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”O King! We were ignorant people and we lived like wild animals. The strong among us lived by preying upon the weak. We obeyed no law and we acknowledged no authority save that of brute force. We worshipped idols made of stone or wood, and we knew nothing of human dignity. And then God, in His Mercy, sent to us His Messenger who was himself one of us. We knew about his truthfulness and his integrity. His character was exemplary, and he was the most well-born of the Arabs. He invited us toward the worship of One God, and he forbade us to worship idols. He exhorted us to tell the truth, and to protect the weak, the poor, the humble, the widows and the orphans. He ordered us to show respect to women, and never to slander them. We obeyed him and followed his teachings. Most of the people in our country are still polytheists, and they resented our conversion to the new faith which is called Islam. They began to persecute us and it was in order to escape from persecution by them that we sought and found sanctuary in your kingdom.
A summary of speech by Ja’far ibn Abī Tālib in the court of Abyssinia (today Ethiopia) in answer to the questions posed by the Christian king.
After the conversion of many prominent Meccans to Islam, the companions of Muhammad began to offer prayers publicly in 613. In turn, the Quraysh intensified their opposition by torturing the Muslims. Muhammad told his followers to leave for Ethiopia, where “a king rules without injustice, a land of truthfulness—until God leads us to a way out of our difficulty.”
The migration known as the first Hijarat was made in two groups totalling more than a hundred persons. According to Islamic tradition, eleven male and five female Sahabah, the Muslims who originally converged in Mecca, sought refuge from Quraysh persecution in the Kingdom of Aksum (modern-day Ethiopia) in seventh Islamic month (Rajab) of 7 BH (614–615 CE) in the first batch. Later on, a bigger group of eighty-three men and eighteen women emigrated (separately). This is called the second emigration. This group was headed by Ja’far ibn Abī Tālib—the son of Abu Talib ibn ‘Abdul Muttalib (the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad)—who was the only person from the Banu Hashim clan who migrated to Abyssinia. Abyssinia at that time was ruled by a Christian King, Aṣḥama ibn Abjar, or King Armah locally, famous for his mercy and equity. — Wiki
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"Saudi Women Shatter the Lingerie Selling" --@nytimes
A SOCIAL revolution began in Saudi Arabia this month, and it has little if anything to do with the Arab Spring. Women are going to work in lingerie shops. The Ministry of Labor is enforcing a royal decree issued last summer ordering that sales personnel in shops selling garments and other goods, like cosmetics, that are only for women must be female. More than 28,000 women applied for the jobs, the ministry said. Anywhere else in the world, it would not be news that sales assistants in shops selling panties and bras were female. In Saudi Arabia, where women have always been excluded from the public work force, it is a critical breakthrough. This is not just about intimate garments; this is a milestone on the arduous path to employment equality for women in a country where they are systematically excluded from retail activity. —more @nytimes
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“In God We Trust”
The religious views of the Founding Fathers are of great interest to propagandists of today’s American right, anxious to push their version of history. Contrary to their view, the fact that the United States was not founded as a Christian nation was early stated in the terms of a treaty with Tripoli, drafted in 1796 under George Washington and signed by John Adams in 1797:
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. I am continually asked why this is, and I do not know. I suppose it is possible that England has wearied of religion after an appalling history of inter- faith violence, with Protestants and Catholics alternately gaining the upper hand and systematically murdering the other lot.
Another suggestion stems from the observation that America is a nation of immigrants. A colleague points out to me that immigrants, uprooted from the stability and comfort of an extended family in Europe, could well have embraced a church as a kind of kin- substitute on alien soil. It is an interesting idea, worth researching further. There is no doubt that many Americans see their own local church as an important unit of identity, which does indeed have some of the attributes of an extended family.
Yet another hypothesis is that the religiosity of America stems paradoxically from the secularism of its constitution. Precisely because America is legally secular, religion has become free enterprise. Rival churches compete for congregations - not least for the fat tithes that they bring - and the competition is waged with all the aggressive hard-sell techniques of the marketplace. What works for soap flakes works for God, and the result is something approaching religious mania among today’s less educated classes. In England, by contrast, religion under the aegis of the established church has become little more than a pleasant social pastime, scarcely recognizable as religious at all. — Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (P. 39-41)
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A Nun and A Muslimah … The same human being, but a different culture or religious tradition. If she does it by choice, you must respect her choice.
I only see a problem when she is either FORCED by cultural/religious fanatics to wear it without her choice or HARASSED by bigots/ethnocentrists as a result of her choice.
(Source: sasrr)
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Now on view at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica is a three person show featuring...
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Laughing in Mongolia
