A case of selecting hearing
OXFORD — In a recent article, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch legislator and author of “Infidel,” accused the so-called “moderate” Muslims of remaining silent instead of condemning acts done in the name of Islam by individuals or governments.
Surprisingly, I was mentioned among the “moderate” Muslim scholars who did not condemn what happened in Saudi Arabia (the lashing sentence of a female rape victim) or Sudan (the indictment of a grade school teacher for allowing her students to name their teddy bear after the Prophet). All the while, I have been paying the price of my regular criticisms of such kinds of actions these past few years by being banned from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and . . . the United States.
Let us start first with Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s quotation of the Koran. The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. (Koran 24:2)
What kind of message does she exactly want to convey by quoting a verse referring to corporal punishment? That Islam, per se, is advocating violence? That violent Muslims or the so-called Islamic governments acting undemocratically are in fact genuinely implementing the Islamic message? Through her text, the message becomes clear: Islam is an archaic religion, the Koran is a violent text and the only way to reform Islam is simply to “de-Islamize” the Muslims.
Would it not be possible to quote here tens of passages from the Bhagavad Gita, the Torah, the Gospels and the Epistles that are violent without reaching the conclusion that Hinduism, Judaism or Christianity are violent per se? Is it difficult to understand that this is a question of interpretation and that to condemn in such a way a religion, by its very essence, is not only unjust but deeply counterproductive? It does not help the inner dynamic of reforms.
Contrary to what Ayaan Hiri Ali said — that no “moderate” Muslims, and in particular myself, had spoken out in protest over these incidents — I wrote a piece during the Sudanese story (11/28/07) about the situation in Pakistan, in Saudi Arabia as well as in Sudan. I started by rejecting any kind of victim mentality on the part of Muslims, for it would have easily been possible to claim that the media were once again covering only damaging stories about Muslims and the Islamic majority countries. For Muslims to simply blame this “ongoing campaign against Islam, its Book, its Prophet and its values and practices” is no longer enough.
There comes a time, I wrote before Hirsi Ali’s accusation of silence among Muslims, where one should take a hard look at the state of affairs of the legal system in the Islamic majority countries and draw some imperative (and constructive) conclusions. It is simply a shame! In the name of Islam, innocent, poor people and women are accused, jailed, sometimes beaten and sometimes executed with no evidence and, moreover, no way to properly defend themselves. A woman, victim of a rape, becomes the accused in Saudi Arabia while a British teacher is jailed because her students decided to name a teddy bear “Muhammad”! And then, in Algeria, two recent suicide bombings have killed innocent civilians. If all this is done in the name of Islam, where are we heading?
Though it should remain neutral and protect justice and people’s rights, in the Islamic majority countries the judiciary system is often used for political reasons or so-called “religious concerns.” The problem is much more serious and deep than the series of stories we have been getting in the media. These countries need profound reform, an imperative reassessment. Let’s face it. A rape is a rape. While all the evidence has not been shown, it remains unacceptable to start by blaming the woman. To use and instrumentalize the story of an innocent British teacher to show how much “we care about Islam” is pure nonsense and should be utterly rejected!
It is as if the teacher had become a vehicle through whom a government is showing its dedication toward Islam and for some Muslims to convey their anger toward the West. First, anger is not good in itself; second to send it through a wrong and unjust means must be condemned. Did not the Prophet Muhammad say: “What is built on wrong foundation is wrong”?
One must ask these Islamic majority societies to be more consistent with their own values and to stick to justice by refusing to abuse Islam.
They must protect the independence of the judicial system and protect innocent people, poor or rich, Muslims and non-Muslims, men and women equally. We cannot remain silent when we read about such unacceptable situations either in the petromonarchies or in the poor Islamic countries. These actions are not done in the name of one of the accepted interpretations of Islam. Because they are plainly unjust, they are purely anti-Islamic.
My condemnation — as well as those of many other Muslim scholars around the world — has apparently not been heard. Unfortunately, global information does not mean efficient communication. In the Western countries as well as in the Islamic majority countries, we witness a kind of selective hearing. People are invited to listen only to what apparently comforts their prejudices or suits some ideological agenda.
This polarization is dangerous because it engenders enmity. Our world needs more courageous, but also more consistent, voices. The reason why voices such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s are not heard in the Islamic majority countries is not because she raises irrelevant questions (some of her arguments are indeed very relevant) but because her criticisms appear to be obsessive, excessive and unilateral. It is as if she wants to please the West and, yes, the West is pleased. But the Muslims are deaf to her voice.
The future belongs to those who are able to consistently exercise self-criticism in the name of shared universal values and not because of blindly belonging to the artificial construct of “Western” or “Islamic” civilization, or because of a hidden ideological agenda.
All betrayals of faith and principles must be denounced with the same energy: those of the Muslims when they kill innocent people, or sentence to jail (or death) poor women, as well as those of democratic Western societies when they illegally invade another country, or use torture or extraordinary renditions. It would be good, indeed, to hear more often these non-selective — and non-selected — voices.
Published today in The International Herald Tribune
Dear Prof Ramadan,
It appears to me that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has so warped, in her mind, the association of heinous local customs and Islam that the only acceptable definition of ‘condemnation’ she espouses is one where the perpetrators be condemned for, in her opinion, acting on Islamic commandment.
Having read her book, it seems obvious to me that her acquired negative impressions have clouded her vision to the extent that when she believes to be presenting rational arguments what results are one-sided, ill-considered broadsides that border on deluded sophistry. In fact, her arguments are so fanciful that one gets the distinct impression that any effort to suggest polite and sensible alternatives will fall upon utterly deaf ears.
Anyway, she lives under an islamic threat, isn’t she? Why should she move to a “polite” and “sensible” alternatives when intellectuals in europe, including her, talking against Islam and making cartoons have to live hidden and protected (when not dead already?)? Where is the “polite” and “sensuitive” Islam except in the mind of some true mystics? I don’t see it, where is it?
Thank you for your wonderful article.
It is such a pleasure to read your articles.
It’s a shame to see the state of affairs in the muslim world and how Islam is distorted by men to abuse and control women.
It has happened in Afghanistan, Algeria during the civil war, when women used to be kidnapped by the FIS and GIA, held captive, raped………it’s sickening.
even here in the west women are relegated to 2nd class.
Inside the Mosque we are given basements or rooms from which we don’t even have access to ask question to the Imam.
I have a problem with it even thought I grew up in Algeria. How can I expect an educated young lady who is born and raised in Canada to accept this.
We have to change the way we do things.
Men need to contribute to the change. Otherwise we will lose our young muslims.
Thank you Dr. Ramadan for your effort in helping bring about the change we so desperately need.
being born and raised in Canada is good. but the status of women in Canada has not been all good. they only got the right to vote during 1960s i guess. women who worked and who got pregnant were fired immediately. I believe women in western societies are still a victim as their bodies are used to market products all the time. Like you and prof. Ramadan said religion is so often used to justify so many unethical practices. and its not always religion but many other factors are the cause of injustices. and i also believe that whether we are Canadian Muslims, European Muslims and Middle Eastern Muslim, fundamentals of Islam remains the same for all of us.
Revenge is a dish which is served cold.
Don’t forget.
Yes I think she is deluded about the West, being dishonest to herself and to others. She has yet to understand Islam in a fair, unbiased and in an unprejudiced light. May God guide her, ameen.
Assalamualikum brother Tariq, I remember one of your own cotations, wich I like very much, and which I usually use:
Convoquer la justice est inutile et vain. Il vaut mieux s’en tenir à la logique implacable de l’algèbre : Etre traités de « cons » par des « cons » est une assurance mathématique d’intelligence.
The translation should be some thing like: To Convene justice is useless and futile. It is better to stick to the merciless logic of the algebra: Being called “Idiot” by “idiots” is a mathematical assurance of intelligence.
So whatever that dumb, idiot, stupid, lier, sick women would say about you or about anything related to islam should be ignored.
You are giving her such a honor by replying to her sayings…moreover she is mentionning your name hopping you would reply so she could feel to deserve it.
That is a play known only by our backward mentality of africans, you are not an african, you are a European, and you would not see those things; I hope you will read my text and take it into account.
Let the dogs bark my friend and keep the caravan going please; your caravan is blessed inchaAllah.
Koullou aam wantoum bikhair.
Rabah
Dear Ramadan,
you give us very clear reasons and arguments, but I think our problem is that our judicial systems are not independent. So we can not protect them. Religion like in West, and I dont want to please the West must become individual choice. In the Muslim word like you know we dont have the chioce.
Best regards and Id Mubarak
On tape toujours sur l’Islam, les musulmans et les pays islamiques, je suis tout à fait d’accord pour parler des injustices mais il ne faut pas nous laisser le monopole du mal du monde c’est bien trop.
On dénonce l’Arabie Saoudite en dénoncant les musulmans qui ne les dénoncent pas, mais on ne dénonce pas les pays “démocratiques” et riches qui ont des relations avec l’A.S. et qui ne dénoncent pas la politique saoudienne pour des raisons économiques.
Dans un climat pareil tout le monde écoute les politiques et “personne” les musulmans. Pourtant on accuse les musulmans de ne pas dénoncer ce qui se passe dans les pays islamiques alors qu’on ne nous écoute pas. Alors ceux qui doivent parler c’est ceux qu’on écoute: les européens de “souche”, les chrétiens, les “laïques”… J’espère que j’ai été clair!!
Salam
Oui c’est clair chez vous un européen de souche(expression introduite et utilisée par le front national) égale non musulman, ça en dit long…..
Dire que les musulmans ne sont pas écouté, est faux, encore faut-il parler en dehors de la oumma.
Aujourd’hui c’est surtout tout les musulmans qui se taisent, qui un certains nombre de sujets, qui reviendront comme un vent glacial, sur la Oumma, dans les générations à venir, a cause de ces silences.
le grand problème c’est aussi toute ces paroles de musulmans, qui ne critquent les pays musulmans, que quand ils s’agit de défendre l’islam.
Faudra savoir un jour ce que l’on défends.
Allahou Alam
Salam
Salam Aleykoum,
Acordin’ to myself, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has played the same game than all the people who don’t really know the Islam an’ who want to hear what they thing…
It’s selfish to insult a religion, which it represents a lot of people an’ which is one of the most important belief, for being recognized by the western people.
Thanx for all the responses and Tariq Ramadan,
Wassalam Aleykoum.
I think Ayaan Hirsi Ali is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I don’t think it’s healthy to radicly break with ones past, even when that past is problematic. It’s better to rearange.
I watched the debate between Tariq Ramadan and Hirsi ALi and she was really mixing things up: social prblems, cultural customs, religion. I think she is so wrong on many things.
While watching this video and knowing both Ramadan and Hirsi Ali one thought did come up to me: both are great intellectuals, and both are in a way a product of their personal history.
We can denounce Hirsi Ali with, but we also must reckognize that women like her – it’s not just Hirsi Ali, it’s also Irshid Manji, Asra Nomani and other women – don’t exist in a vacuum. It seems that the moment muslimwomen become better educated and can express themselves they turn against islam or try to water it down. Why is this? What has islam to offer to independent educated women? We have to make this clear or we risk (if we are serious about reform)loosing a driving force for any society: educated, intelligent and commited women.
I just finished reading Hirsi Ali´s book ´The Virgin Cage´ and I was really shocked to see her end the book with tips for muslima´s who want to run away from home. At first I was angry, but then I thought these ideas only find a foundation because our communities are lacking. She is pointing out some things in the book that happen in our communities that are really problematic. At the same time I thought things aren’t as bad (or static) as she describes: we have come a long way in just one generation. Anyway, we need to change things for the better ourselves, because I don´t believe in her solutions (westernize altogether). We need to have a vision ourselves. I think when it comes to womens issues we muslimwomen who don’t fit the image that Ali uses of repressed must show there is another way. I’m trying at least in my own family to show the girls that it is possible to be free and educated without losing islamic morals. Why trade one bad situation in for another?
Anoher thing: really amazing how she can reduce all the wrongs in our societies to islam. Almost skilfull.