By Roomana Songerwala
 
LOS ANGELES, California (April 22, 2013) – Over the past two days the prestigious Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was held on the sprawling grounds of the University of Southern California campus amid a warm but breezy weather.

ICNA’s outreach project WhyIslam was present in its 9th year with two professionally decorated booths. Nearly 40 trained volunteers gave over 2,000 copies of translations of Quran and over 6,000 pamphlets on Islam to those who requested it. Thirty one people embraced Islam during the weekend at the event.

“People were very receptive (to the message of Islam)” said Sameer Shaikh, manager of one of the booths. The WhyIslam booths were the center of attention in two corners of the festival. After many hours of tiring dialogue, someone would be on the verge of shahadah; a proclamation of the Islamic creed, thereby entering the fold of Islam, but someone not very at-home with Islam would say something to dissuade her. This was a familiar routine. A young festival goer came and said “I lived among Muslims, heard everything good about Islam and now all I needed was the Quran – and there you are!” But the conversation with him ended with a shahadah.

One of the volunteers was describing the different kinds of people mentioned in the first chapter of the Quran, Surah Fatihah to very interested individual. She was saying that those who had invited the wrath of Allah and those who were astray. But those who were blessed with favors were those who took the guidance from God.

The booth came a day after the devastating Boston bombing attacks. The trained volunteers went out of their way to satisfy the thousands of queries and to convey the correct message of Islam with professionalism and excellence. “We were able to discuss with our visitors that Islam doesn’t condone violence and dispel many myths regarding Islam” said Dr. Salahuddin who is the manager of one of the booths.

Volunteers are always needed. To apply visit http://www.icna.org/volunteer

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By Nicolette Kelegian, Annenberg Radio, USC
 
LOS ANGELES, California (April 19, 2013) – The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is scheduled this weekend at the University of Southern California. On Saturday, there will be more than 300 booths spread across the University Park Campus and more than 150,000 people are expected to attend the festival.

While there are various different booths around campus ranging from authors and publishing houses to fresh food collaboratives, there are two tents likely to stick out: Islamic organizations prepared to educate people about Muslims and the Islam religion.

The Islamic Circle of North America organization was established in 1968 and has been present at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books since 2004. The organization claims it’s the largest Muslim organization in America. The Islamic Circle’s main goal in attending this festival each year is to educate the people according to Waqas Syed, the organization’s deputy secretary general.

“We are more about offering facts about our religion; What does Islam say about terrorism, about violence, and other things so people can make their own informed opinion,” said Syed.

At the festival, the Islamic Circle of North America has distributed up to 12,000 copies of the literature and 4,000 copies of the Holy Qur’an all for free.

“The objective of the project is not to proselytize or convert people but to basically provide educational opportunities for the general public to know and inquire about Islam and Muslims,” he said.

This year, this festival is coming just days after the Boston Marathon explosion, which many Americans speculate has Muslim ties. Syed is concerned about how people will react to the booth this year, but doesn’t plan to back out. In previous years, there have been people who didn’t like this organization’s presence at the festival.

“a person whose Marine brother had died in the Iraq war was pretty upset and said you killed my brother and things like that, but overall we’ve had a very broad support from everyone” Syed said.

Al Islam is the second Islamic organization attending the festival this year. Al Islam is like a digital portal of books on Islam and lectures available for people who want to learn more about Islam.

Imam Shamshad Nasir belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Nasir is the Regional Imam for California, Nevada, and Nebraska. “There are so many misunderstandings and Islam is a very misunderstood region in the world right now and especially in the American society,” Nasir said.

Nasir wants to clear up the stereotypes people have against muslims. “People think that all Muslims are terrorists, which is not true. We want to remove the misunderstanding by telling them that Islam is peace, Islam is submission to the will of God,” Nasir said.

Both organizations said they are aren’t trying to convert people to Islam, but better educate people about the religion.

In light of the Boston explosions, USC’s Department of Public Safety has said it’s asked for an on-call bomb sniffing dog and more LAPD officers to help out with the large crowds at the festival this weekend.

Article Courtesy: Annenberg Radio, USC

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Last week the Times published a report about a judge's decision to allow a request from an Orthodox Jewish couple that a Beth Din court should be allowed to arbitrate in their divorce proceedings. Although the story concerned Jews rather than Muslims, the paper chose to run the report under the front-page headline "High Court opens way to Sharia divorces".

The Muslim Council of Britain, who took the view that the coverage "was sensationalist and would help fuel Islamopobia", wrote a letter to the Times complaining about the report, which was published in the paper today, albeit in an edited version.

The section of the letter that the Times decided to omit read: "Once again such reporting raises uninformed hackles against our faith, and what British Muslims really want. With a recent YouGov poll highlighting prevailing negative attitudes against British Muslims, there is a responsibility to report such matters fairly."

So the MCB writes a letter to the Times complaining about Islamophobic bias, and the Times publishes it ... minus the section that contains the actual complaint about Islamophobic bias!

Here, via the MCB website, is the full version of the letter:

Dear Sir,

We find it odd that your report of a landmark divorce settlement under Jewish Beth Din Courts should be framed under the narrative of Islamic Sharia courts (High Court opens way to Sharia divorces, 1 February). Once again such reporting raises uninformed hackles against our faith, and what British Muslims really want. With a recent YouGov poll highlighting prevailing negative attitudes against British Muslims, there is a responsibility to report such matters fairly.

Of course, we do welcome any move facilitating choices for those who wish, as Muslims, for their personal relationships to be governed by a Shariah civil code. This legitimate aspiration requires full discussion in an atmosphere of understanding and tolerance. It allows for British Muslims to fulfil their religious obligations under British law. It does not require a change in British law, or a diminution in human rights. We seek parity with other faiths, not special favours.

Yours Sincerely,

Farooq Murad,
Secretary General,
Muslim Council of Britain

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Yesterday the Jewish Chronicle carried a report ("Jewish divorce ruled OK in landmark High Court decision") of a decision by a High Court to refer a Jewish divorce case to a Beth Din (rabbinical court) for arbitration, at the request of the couple involved in the divorce.

Here, you might think, would be an opportunity for some responsible reporting in the mainstream press on the subject of religious courts, showing how they can play a legitimate role in civil cases and countering the ignorant bigotry commonly displayed over the issue of sharia councils.

Of course, a responsible press is precisely what the UK lacks. Instead, we have newspapers ever eager to promote an "Islamification of Britain" narrative. So it's no surprise that the story has made the front page of today's Times under the headline "High Court opens way to Sharia divorces".

The actual report, by the paper's legal editor Frances Gibb, is in fact reasonably balanced, and avoids the sharia hysteria suggested by the headline. Many people, however, won't see past that headline – or will take their cue from the version of the Times report published by the Mail, which has provoked the usual spate of Islamophobic raving from readers.

Some examples:

"Won't be long before people will be having their hands chopped off for theft. And stoning for adultery, and hanging from the end of a crane for robbery."

"Yet another nail in GB's coffin,if this judge finds himself incapable of judging according to English secular laws he should hand in his wig."

"NO NO NO to SHaria Law. This is GB so OUR LAWS ONLY. If people want Sharia Law they are welcome to go to a Country that supposts it. NOT OURS."

"Another thin end of the wedge, what British way will be undermined next??"

"I rake it that the mediaeval punishments will also be acceptable?"

"We are heading down the WRONG pathway. After this precedent, things can only get worse - and I thought this was a Christian country."

"Is it april fools day already!!!! If sharia is in this country then we the majority have to have our say and not allow this in to a majority christian country."

"We always laughed at France as being the nation which surrendered quicker than any other. Britain has now taken over that position."

"For all those who scoffed at the idea, who deny that Britain is changing at a dangerous pace, who stick their heads in the sand, wake up its all coming to get you......we are now on the slippery slope to end of Britain as we know it!"

"Sharia law here ? i knew it, let enough in and you will get their Laws too."

"Anyone wanting to live under Sharia law should move to a country that has been subject to it, I suggest Mali for instance. Any takers, no? Didn't think so !!!"

"Just wait till your fingers are cut off and your hand is hacked off or your stoned ot death... God no not in this Country surely?"

"What a load of rubbish, this is making way for the muslims to get what they want."

"Our sons and daughters are dying in a third world hell whole fighting the taliban and the barbarity of Sharia law. And judges in the UK give it the rubber stamp."

"You let this precedence in at your peril, just another step on the road to civil war I think. It's already started with the religious nutters proclaiming round the streets of major cities that areas are 'Muslim' areas and therefore subject to sharia law."

"Another nail in the coffin of western culture."

To be fair, there are a few comments that attempt to introduce an element of rationality into the discussion:

"Why does the Mail emphasise Sharia law when this was a ruling about a jewish couple? Is this some kind of subtle bigotry comment against muslims when it hasn't involved muslims at all? And then the Mail wonders why there are attacks against muslims. Disgraceful and shameful."

"How absolutely typical. This is entirely about a Jewish couple acting under Jewish law and yet it's used as an excuse for scaremongering about Sharia. Pathetic!"

"And how many read the bit saying that they could go with the ruling of the Beth Din because the outcome was not contrary to English law. So if the Beth Din or Sharia ruling was not in accordance with English law them the British court decision would overrule the religious court."

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Britain could have its first Sharia-controlled zone if plans for a mega-mosque more than four times the size of St Paul's Cathedral get the go-ahead.

The East London mosque, known as the Riverine Centre, will hold 9,312 worshippers, compared to 2,400 at St Paul's. The 16-acre site in West Ham will include 40ft minarets, an Islamic library, a dining hall, multi-use games areas, tennis courts, sports facilities and eight flats for visiting Muslim clerics.

Islamist group Tablighi Jamaat has submitted updated plans for what Cambridge-based architects NRAP are calling a "contemporary Islamic sacred space" the size of Battersea Power Station.

But last night campaigners against the proposal claimed the application was a smokescreen for wider intentions to create a hardline Islamic enclave in the capital. They also insisted facilities for the wider non-Muslim community in East London would be minimal and disguise Tablighi's real aim to establish a global base.

The group has been dubbed an "antechamber of fundamentalism" by French intelligence officials. Two of the July 7 bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, and failed shoe bomber Richard Reid, left, are believed to have prayed at a Tablighi mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Alan Craig, campaign director of MegaMosque-NoThanks, said: "Newham Council wants a mixed use of the site with homes, shops and business units. The mosque trustees say they want to build a mosque the size of Battersea Power Station. Either way, it will be the UK's first custombuilt Sharia-controlled zone."

Daily Star Sunday, 7 October 2012

This is just the usual ignorant, misleading nonsense we have come to expect from the right-wing press on the subject of the Newham "mega-mosque" (which won't even be the largest mosque in London, as according to the present plan its capacity would be rather less than that of the Ahmadiyyas' Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden).

The fact that Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan may have attended the Dewsbury Markaz is statistically meaningless given that the mosque holds 3,000 worshippers, nor is there the slightest evidence that it influenced their turn to violent extremism. And the Star yet again rolls out the claim that Tablighi Jamaat is an "antechamber of fundamentalism", in order to suggest that a "fundamentalist" interpretation of religious belief necessarily constitutes a threat, while at the same time happily quoting Alan Craig, leader of the right-wing fundamentalist political party the Christian Peoples Alliance.

The reliability of Craig's views on the Newham project can be gauged by the fact that, when he stood as the Christian Choice candidate for London mayor in 2008, his original election broadcast was rejected by both the BBC and ITV who demanded that he remove his unsubstantiated accusations against Tablighi Jamaat.

In fact Craig's statements in that broadcast – he described TJ as "separatist" and implied that they were extremists – were quite mild by his standards. After the failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow in 2007, Craig issued a disgraceful press release declaring that the Newham mosque was "linked" to the bomb plots, in which he made the following inflammatory claim: "Tablighi Jamaat radicalises and dehumanises Muslim young men. They have a growing and ominous track record as further young men follow Tabligh teaching about Islam and then go on to plan horrendous atrocities."

Meanwhile, in a press release headed "Irate residents launch campaign against West Ham mega-mosque", Craig boasts that he and his sorry little gang of bigots (masquerading as concnerned "residents") have been out leafleting in Newham in an attempt to whip up fear and hatred over the mosque among the local non-Muslim population. Craig's actions have received the warm endorsement of the "counter-jihad" movement (see here and here).

The Daily Star Sunday report has also proved a source of inspiration to the far right. The English Defence League's Facebook page has provided a link to the article, provoking the following comments from EDL supporters:

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One of the established clichés of the Islamophobia industry is the claim that Muslims can't be trusted because they all practise taqiyya, which is characterised as a licence to lie to non-Muslims.

Robert Naiman takes up a recent article in New York Times in which the paper's intelligence correspondent James Risen assessed the public statements of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on his country's nuclear programme. Risen wrote:

".... some analysts say that Ayatollah Khamenei's denial of Iranian nuclear ambitions has to be seen as part of a Shiite historical concept called taqiyya, or religious dissembling. For centuries an oppressed minority within Islam, Shiites learned to conceal their sectarian identity to survive, and so there is a precedent for lying to protect the Shiite community."

Naiman notes that on his blog Informed Comment Juan Cole points out that taqiyya has been "widely misrepresented by Muslim-haters and does not apply in Khamenei's case", describing the taqiyya argument in relation to Iran as "just some weird form of Islamophobia".

On top of that, the Risen article misrepresented Khamenei as stating that it was "a mistake for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya to give up his nuclear weapons program", when in reality Khamenei referred only to nuclear facilities.

Naiman concludes: "Some have characterized the Risen piece as an example of the general tendency of Fox-like arguments to penetrate liberal discourse. If that's true, then we ought to be able to do something about it. We can't stop Fox from spewing out garbage, at least in the short run. But the New York Times has a different reputation, and therefore can be called to account. You can help do so by asking the New York Times to correct its reporting, and to report these issues fairly, accurately, and with balance in the future."

Common Dreams, 19 April 2012

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