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Shaykh Yasir Qadhi posts his thoughts on the Swiss minaret ban.
The post is interesting for the way the Shaykh uses this issue to launch into a discussion of the overarching challenges facing the Muslim community in our times in “the West” and the different general approaches the community divides into in responding to those challenges.
Shaykh Yasir Qadhi delivers a much deserved verbal beat down to the “Shaykh” of Al-Azhar Tantawi and his crude, arrogant, and ignorant actions and statements toward the young sister in the niqab.
May Allaah (swt) protect and preserve Shaykh Yasir and the young sister and may Allaah (swt) increase all of us in knowledge.
The Baltimore Sun did an article on the AlMaghrib Institute Ilm Fest that I had advertised here earlier on TI.
“With Ilm Fest, it’s an opportunity for a bunch of speakers to come in with different topics, it allows us to pick up on some current issues,” says Alshareef, the president of the institute. “Something that separates Ilm Fest from other Muslim conferences is the tendency of those coming to the event to be more focused on seeking knowledge. Even though it’s a conference setting, you’ll actually see people with notebooks and pens.”
The event comes as young American Muslims try to reconcile their faith and their citizenship in the post-Sept. 11 United States. Organizers say this year’s Ilm Fest – the name comes from the Arabic word for knowledge – has been designed to address that struggle head-on.
“What we’re trying to do is give a public space to make Muslims feel that, look, there’s nothing wrong at all with being who you are, there’s nothing wrong with expressing your beliefs, with being proud of being who you are,” says Yasir Qadhi, the institute’s dean of academics. “That is part of the vision that the founding fathers had, where there would be a country where each and every religious group, ethnic group, political group, would have the right to be who they are, while they participate in the civic responsibilities of being a part of the new republic which is now known as America.
“I would go so far as to say that many times we have to learn our own history as Americans and teach that history to some of our fellow Americans who seem to have lost the plot, if you ask me, and they feel that America is simply one monolithic vision of what religion or what identity or what ethics people should have.”
Yasir Qadhi on The Theological Implications of the Story of Ibrahim & the Stars (Ibn Taymiyyah vs. the Mutakallimun) at MuslimMatters.
The Qurʾān informs us, in 6:74-83, of the story of Ibrahīm with his people, and how he argued with them about God and His existence by successively rejecting the stars, moon and Sun to be real Lords, and finally turning his face to the One who created Him.
This story has been understood in various manners by different groups. Most mutakallimūn (scholars of kalām ) used this story as the solitary Qurʾānic evidence for the proof of the existence of God through the proof of the createdness of accidents (the dalīl al-ʾaʿrāḍ wa ḥudūth al-ajsām – henceforth ‘dalīl’). The Ahl al-Ḥadīth, on the other hand, never accepted this proof in the first place, much less ascribe it to the great patriarch Ibrahīm, the ‘Friend of God’. The most vocal opponent of this interpretation was Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 A.H./ 1327 C.E.). In this article, the different theological implications of this story as understood by these two groups will be discussed.1
Over at Muslim Matters, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi gives an “insider’s” perspective on participating in the Doha Debates.
Shaykh Yasir debated, among others, Asra Nomani, on the motion ‘This house believes that Muslim women should be free to marry anyone they choose’.
The debate itself will be aired June 6 and 7.
Amad S. has a lengthy post at MuslimMatters responding to the Quilliam Foundation “Alert” on Islam Channel specifically (mentioned earlier on TI here) and the government funding for “ex-extremist” Muslim spokespersons phenomenon in general.
Shaykh Yasir Qadhi weighs in in the comments section, including a possible theory as to the cause behind QF’s seeming change of heart about Shaykh Yasir about which Thabet was curious.
An absolute must read from Shaykh Yasir Qadhi on his experience taking a class at Yale, where one of the instructors was Tony Blair.
Aziz and Razib have previously discussed whether there is value in using the analogy of Protestants and Catholics to discuss Shi’a/Sunni differences.
I have to come down on what I think is Razib’s side of that debate, that I don’t find much value in the analogy, although maybe talking about the differences between Protestant and Catholic practices, structures, and beliefs is a way to start talking in general about the ways in which religious traditions can differ using examples with which people may be familiar.
A much more common post-9/11 attempt to analogize Christian church history with Islam and Muslims is the oft stated call for Islam to have a reformation. The underlying assumption here is that it was the reformation in Christianity that allowed Christians to adapt successfully to modernity.
Again, I would have to say that this analogy is not very helpful, except in as much as it opens up the discussion to the various constituent components of the tension between modernity and traditional religion.
However, I have always found it strange that there was not more discussion making the analogy which actually is useful although of course like any analogy limited. The different possible approaches for a religious tradition in coming to terms with modernity are most easily understood by looking to the Jewish tradition of Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative approaches as well as all the various twists on those three main distinctions that have developed.
The most important limitation on the analogy I see is that I think the fact that a Judaism is not a universal or proselytizing religion, but is in fact viewed in modern times as an “ethnic” or “national” group, perhaps fundamentally changes some dynamics.
However, and perhaps they know this very well, but I rarely see it articulated, those both within and without Islam that call for “reformation” are not really calling at all for anything like the Protestant reformation of Christianity but are in fact calling for a Reform Islam movement that would resemble Reform Judaism.
Just one further side note, I know that Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, who I think will be a very important figure in the future intellectual development of Islam in America from one side (the Orthodox or Modern Orthodox one) of this discussion, I know has taken careful note of the intellectual and social evolution of the Jewish community, especially here in America and I know sees many important lessons for the Muslims. As one symbolic indication of this, he has actively and consciously began adopting the using the term “Orthodox Muslim.”
I think these concepts open up tons of interesting discussions. Has anyone seen this analogy discussed in any detail. Does anyone agree with me about how interesting it is?