2014年12月19日 星期五

The Islamification of Britain: record numbers embrace Muslim faith

英國皈依穆斯林的入教故事

The number of Britons choosing to become Muslims has nearly doubled in the past decade, according to one of the most comprehensive attempts to estimate how many people have embraced Islam.

Following the global spread of violent Islamism, British Muslims have faced more scrutiny, criticism and analysis than any other religious community. Yet, despite the often negative portrayal of Islam, thousands of Britons are adopting the religion every year.

Estimating the number of converts living in Britain has always been difficult because census data does not differentiate between whether a religious person has adopted a new faith or was born into it. Previous estimates have placed the number of Muslim converts in the UK at between 14,000 and 25,000.

But a new study by the inter-faith think-tank Faith Matters suggests the real figure could be as high as 100,000, with as many as 5,000 new conversions nationwide each year.

2014年12月13日 星期六

The feminist case for the veil

西方穆斯林服飾議題

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a woman who prides herself on bridging worlds, denouncing racism at west London dinner parties while opposing religious bigotry down at the mosque. A committed anti-racism campaigner, she has been an almost-lone Muslim voice in the mainstream British media arguing against immigration scaremongering and retaliating against sweeping stereotypes of Muslims as anti-British terrorists. Her latest book, Refusing the Veil, part of a series entitled “provocations” for Biteback Publishing, is a passionate treatise against what she – as a Muslim, feminist and liberalconsiders to be submission to a misogynistic symbol of women’s inferiority.

“The veil,” she argues, “in all its permutations, is indefensible and unacceptable”.

But this is no theological treatise aimed at challenging the textual validity of “veils”, though Alibhai-Brown does also question that. It is a fundamentally political treatise on the place of Islam and Muslims in Europe, in which Alibhai-Brown contends that Muslim women are exploiting “the weaknesses and vulnerabilities at the core of free societies”.

2014年10月23日 星期四

Chinese Salafism and the Saudi Connection

介紹中國穆斯林受沙烏地教育影響的文章

Salafism, or Salafiyya, is a doctrinal-intellectual current within Islam that espouses a return to the ways of the Salaf As-Salih (the Pious Ancestors), the first three generations of Muslims who lived during and after the death of the Prophet Mohammed. Often described as being rooted in the works of the medieval scholars Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyyah, Salafism seeks to establish a more “authentic” religious experience predicated on a presumably correct reading of the Quran and the sunnah (the sayings and practices of the Prophet) and away from the supposed bid’ah (innovations) and heretical practices that have “polluted” it.

This current moreover embraces to a certain extent a rejection of the madhhab (legal school) Sunni traditions that had emerged in Islam’s early centuries. As a relatively modern phenomenon building on the Sunni orthodox revivals of the 18th century, the failures of traditional Muslim authorities to contend with mounting internal and external challenges, as well as the spread of new modernistic discourses, Salafism found a popular following across many Muslim societies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its growth was facilitated by Saudi Arabia – which embraced its own idiosyncratic brand of Salafism rooted in the mid-18th century religious revivalism that swept central Arabia (usually denoted by its detractors as Wahhabism after its “founder” Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab) – especially after its annexation of Mecca and Medina in 1924-25, and the subsequent influx of oil wealth, which endowed the country with the religious authority and means (universities, charities, organizations, preachers, and communicative mediums) to promote this current globally.

2014年9月22日 星期一

When men-only streets are okay in London

反向證明伊斯蘭恐懼症存在於英國的例子

Imagine in one of London’s central districts, a Muslim group representing a significant section of the local community puts up notices before a street event telling women to confine themselves to one side of the road only. The posters, in Arabic and English, state: “Women should please walk along this side of the road only.”

How much coverage in the UK media do you think this would receive? Would we see articles about Muslims trying to bring sharia law to the streets of London? Would commentators fall over themselves to decry Islam as a religion of extremism and intolerance? Would our media and politicians call on Muslim leaders to denounce such primitive practices?

From long experience, we all know the answer.

So how to explain the near-silence about exactly this happening last week in the London district of Hackney, except that religious Jews rather than Muslims were the party responsible. The Shomrim organisation put up the signs in preparation for the Torah procession in Stamford Hill. The posters were removed after local residents complained.

2014年9月12日 星期五

Moeen Ali Interview: 'I Am A Muslim, Yes, But I Am Also Very English'

專訪英國板球明星Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali的大鬍子或是之前參加比賽穿戴聲援巴勒斯坦的手環(Free Palestine),遭到英國右派報紙的批判。右派質疑他太過宗教,不應該在公領域中過於強調。

另外他也談到對伊斯蘭、英國認同與中東局勢的看法。

I do let people touch it."
Moeen Ali is not just referring to but stroking – what else? – his glorious beard. The England cricketer grabbed the headlines over the summer, on both the front and the back pages, for his dazzling performances against India and Sri Lanka - and, also, for his striking visage.
England fans have dubbed him 'The Beard That's Feared', a slogan that has inspired both T-shirts and Twitter hashtags. Newspapers such as the Mail and the Independent have compared Ali to the bearded, Victorian-era cricket legend WG Grace.

"Let’s be honest, it’s hard to take the eyes off that long, lustrous beard," noted a recent profile of Ali in the Sunday Times. Writing in the Independent, columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown referred to the cricketer’s "Taliban beard".

2014年7月27日 星期日

Demonstrations are anti-islamic?

Tariq Ramadan的風格。
牛津大學Tariq Ramadan教授最近常收到其他教親的來信:「參加(聲援巴勒斯坦)示威活動符合伊斯蘭嗎?」
Ramadan教授回覆,參與公共事務本來則是伊斯蘭的首要原則。那些政治阿訇,引用古蘭與聖訓,作為穆斯林不能參與示威的依據,事實上他們發佈的不是教法判令(fatawa),而是政治判令。這些政治阿訇解讀經典相當有問題,例如他們說無論領導者做出什麼事情,穆斯林都必須服從領導者。
「最大的Jihad是在暴君面前說出真話。」另外我們必須記得,先知Musa在向法老宣教之前,安拉對他說「你倆對他(法老)說話要溫和,或許他會記取教訓,或者有所畏懼」(20:44)
參與示威,是堅定表達反對不義行為的具體展現。這種示威是溫和與非暴力方式。羞辱、搞破壞與種族歧視,不是示威者應該做的事情。
I have received numerous messages with the same question: “Is it Islamic to demonstrate?” I thought such a question was outdated but it does not seem to be the case, as some people claim to be scholars and confuse minds.
Some are asking for verses and prophetic traditions (ahadith) that would allow demonstrations. Actually the real proof lies with those who forbid it. The first principle in Islam, in social affairs, is permission and it is for those who prohibit protests to provide us with a verse or a clear tradition (hadith) banning demonstrations. It does simply not exist!
Some “scholars of power”, from Saudi Arabia to Egypt (and indeed historically under all despots), produce fatwas, with questionable interpretations and biased positioning, stating that the leaders (whoever they are) must be obeyed and therefore demonstrations are prohibited. Serving the despotic powers and States, installed and paid by them, these “scholars” produce legal opinions tailored for power. These are not Islamic fatwas by scholars, but political fatwas by courtiers.
What the Prophet (PBUH) said is pretty clear: “The best jihad is a word of truth before a tyrant, a despot.” This is exactly what those protesting in the streets are doing… they are speaking a word of truth where they live, where they are able to do so. It is a noble action, sometimes very brave because of the risks involved, and it is an action that is sometimes more a duty than a right.
One more point. We shall remember Moses and Aaron (PSE) before Pharaoh: “Tell him gentle words, perhaps he will remember or he will be moved, shaken.” There is a way of speaking : with firmness and gentleness, with courage and without violence. Gentleness and non-violence are indeed true courage: no insults, no vandalism, no racism. Dignified and powerful speech by women and men respecting themselves and their cause. As for those who vandalize or shout racist slogans, they express more their personal frustrations than they defend a cause. Or they are manipulated, or they are infiltrators trying to ruin the cause.

We should not be naive when organizing events : it is imperative to give every effort to be both heard and never instrumentalized or exploited. This is a requirement and a responsibility, but we must never be silent. In all circumstances, we need to remain wise and courageous. Simply put, … wise, and courageous.

2014年7月13日 星期日

American Muslims' ongoing civil rights fight

伊斯蘭恐懼症在美國。

Washington, DC - Thirteen years after the September 11 attacks, Arabs and Muslim Americans in the US still face continuing bias and prejudice, Arab Americans and civil rights activists say.
"It has gotten worse for us," said Nadia Tonova, the executive director of the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) in Dearborn, Michigan. "We are a community that is constantly under suspicion. It's really at a point where it's out of control."
The NNAAC is rolling out a $4.5m grassroots mobilisation campaign called "Take on Hate" in New York City on July 15, designed to give Arab Americans and Muslims tools for combating bias and prejudice. The campaign, funded by the Open Society Foundation and the Proteus Fund, will focus on achieving public policy changes, educating the US public about Muslims and giving community activists a platform to battle discrimination.
The campaign aims to challenge acts of discrimination such as an incident that occurred on June 16, during a panel discussion held by the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.

2014年7月8日 星期二

Ramadan in Sweden with no dusk, no dawn

介紹在北極圈附近封齋的穆斯林情況。

Kiruna, Sweden - During this year's holy month of Ramadan, when consumption of food and water is prohibited between dawn and dusk, how do Muslims observing the fast manage in the far north of Scandinavia, where the sun never sets?   
An estimated 700 Muslims are spending Ramadan in the mining town of Kiruna, located 145km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by snowcapped mountains throughout the summer. Many of them are recent asylum seekers, sent to Kiruna while their claims are processed.
The sun stays up around the clock from May 28-July 16, which constitutes half of the fasting period this year.
"I started Ramadan by having suhoor with the sun shining in my eyes at 3:30 in the morning," said Ghassan Alankar from Syria, referring to the meal just before dawn. 

2014年7月2日 星期三

Ramadan: A centuries-old American tradition

在南北戰爭之前,估計15%-30%的黑人奴隸是穆斯林。那時已經有齋戒的記錄,但卻違背白人規定的法律。

This weekend marks the beginning of Ramadan. Nearly one-fourth of the world will observe the annual fast and eight million Muslims in the United States will abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset during the holy month. A gruelling task at any time of the year, Ramadan this year will be especially daunting during the long and hot summer days.      
Islam in America is rapidly expanding. It is the fastest-growing religion in the nation, and the second most practiced faith in twenty states. These demographic shifts prompted a prominent Los Angeles-based imam to comment, "Ramadan is a new American tradition." The cleric's forward-looking pronouncement marks Islam's recent arrival in the US. However, this statement reveals a pathology afflicting a lot of Muslim Americans today - an inability to look back and embrace the opening chapters of Muslim American history written by enslaved African Muslims.    

'The birthplace of Islam in Britain': Kensington's Victorian mosque reopens

該文介紹英國第一位入教的英國人,在利物浦建立英國第一座清真寺。他積極在英國宣教,讓200位英國人成為穆斯林。既使那個時代,伊斯蘭在英國被視為異端,他也受到許多外界的攻擊,但他仍透過理性思辨的方式,向英國社會宣揚伊斯蘭。

The mid-terrace house in Liverpool, with its broken windows and peeling paint, had given no clue it was, as one of the men behind its renovation put it, the "birthplace of Islam in Britain".
The building, in Brougham Terrace, Kensington, was once owned by Abdullah Quilliam, who opened it as Liverpool Muslim Institute in 1889.
A prominent English solicitor who had been educated on the Isle of Man and the son of a Methodist preacher, William Henry Quilliam converted to Islam two years earlier, taking the name Abdullah and claiming to be the first native Englishman to embrace the religion.

2014年6月12日 星期四

In the so-called “Trojan horse” debacle, Birmingham schools have become Gove’s sacrificial lamb

 Are there problems in some of the schools at the centre of the so-called “Trojan horse” debacle? Certainly there are.

Having spoken at length with various members of the community in Birmingham, there are undeniable concerns among certain – yes, including Muslim – students and parents pertaining to a narrow interpretation of Islam being enforced within some schools. There are also allegations of mismanagement, nepotism and of the misuse of funds. The detail of these issues is likely to emerge in upcoming reports.
But what the problem is not, is an issue of radicalisation. Rather, attempts to link the problems to radicalisation reflect an expansion of the counter-terrorism agenda to the policing of socially conservative views among some Muslims and the effects of this policy are likely to be disastrous.
The entire affair has been worrying on many levels, not least in the language used to report the story. Several outlets have referred to a “Muslim plot” – would that be all Muslims plotting to take over our schools? The uncritically regurgitated term “Trojan horse”, a term widely employed by the far-right, while the Times ran a headline “Gove told to launch dawn raids on schools”, with the implicit suggestion that the schools were being raided for terrorism-related activities. The man at the centre of it all, Michael Gove, opted for dehumanising imagery in his call to “drain the swamp“ in reference to the Muslim community – a swamp which, if one accepts the analogy, would be harbouring the crocodiles. None of this can or should be understood outside of the rise in support for the xenophobic UKIP or a rise in racism. There is a broader climate in which both the media and politicians operate and feigning ignorance of it doesn’t mitigate the reception of this terminology.

2014年6月5日 星期四

The second-largest religion in each state

基督教是美國第一大宗教。至於誰是第二大宗教,則依地區而有所不同。

Christianity is by far the largest religion in the United States; more than three-quarters of Americans identify as Christians. A little more than half of us identify as Protestants, about 23 percent as Catholic and about  2 percent as Mormon.

But what about the rest of us? In the Western U.S., Buddhists represent the largest non-Christian religious bloc in most states. In 20 states, mostly in the Midwest and South, Islam is the largest non-Christian faith tradition. And in 15 states, mostly in the Northeast, Judaism has the most followers after Christianity. Hindus come in second place in Arizona and Delaware, and there are more practitioners of the Baha’i faith in South Carolina than anyone else.

All these data come from the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, which conducts a U.S. Religion Census every 10 years. Here’s what their map of the second-most-practiced religions looks like:


And here’s the county-level map of second-largest religions after Christianity:



The data the ASARB release every 10 years are revealing: Adherents to any religious faith — that is, those who actually attend religious services — make up more than half the population in 28 states. Utah has the highest percentage of adherents, at 79 percent of the population, while just over a quarter of Mainers are adherents. North Dakota, Alabama and Louisiana are near the top of the list, while Oregon, Vermont, Alaska, Nevada and Washington sit near the bottom of the rankings.

Here’s their map of the largest religious denomination by county:



Catholicism dominates the Northeast and the Southwest, and Southern Baptists have a strong foothold in the South. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominates Utah and surrounding counties in Idaho, Wyoming and parts of Nevada. Lutheranism has a strong following in Minnesota and the Dakotas, while Methodists make their presence felt in parts of West Virginia, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.

2014年5月13日 星期二

The random Muslim scare story generator: separating fact from fiction

清楚解析當前英國社會的穆斯林議題:面紗、犯罪者、伊斯蘭法、伊斯蘭銀行與清真食物。
In Britain, there is now a cycle of Islamic scare stories so regular that it is almost comforting, like the changing of the seasons. Sadly, this rotation is not as natural, or as benign, although it is beginning to feel just as inevitable. We had the niqab winter last year, as the country lurched into the niqab debate for the second time in three years. Now we are in the spring of halal slaughter.
Add to this schedule the routine reports about gender segregation in UK universities and Muslim schools (as if the concept of gender segregation was somehow exotic to non-faith schools in the UK), claims of grand plans to "overthrow" non-Muslim heads of certain schools and you have a steady flow of creeping sharia messages, stoking a fear of a stealthy, incremental Islamicisation.
Channel 4's Ramadan coverage last year drew 2,011 complaints, the majority objecting to the broadcast of the call to prayer, a two-minute transmission. This reflects an increasing nationwide umbrage towards visible British Muslims, informed by repetitive stories that inaccurately amplify their religiously motivated activity.

2014年5月9日 星期五

The halal outrage has little to do with animal welfare

沒有科學證據,百分之百證實伊斯蘭宰牲,是非人道的方式。同樣,用電擊方式,未必動物不會感到痛苦。
The head of the British Veterinary Association has said that religious slaughter methods need to change to prevent animal suffering. It is unfortunate that the BVA and other animal welfare organisations in the UK tend to view religious slaughter as incompatible with humaneness; quite the contrary is true – compassion and animal welfare stand at the centre of the entire process.
Shechita and zabiha are not words commonly known by the public, but to Jewish and Muslim communities they are synonymous with sincerely held, religiously mandated care for animals. They refer to the Jewish and Muslim humane methods of slaughter of animals for food, and the body of religious law in which they are contained talks not only about the last two seconds of an animal's life, but about its treatment from birth.

英國清真食物(Halal meat)爭議: 三篇文章

1. We Muslims should be appalled by the sale of halal meat by stealth

貼標籤試的文章

‘This is covert religious extremism and creeping Islamic fundamentalism making its way into Britain by the back door. It is completely wrong that the food sensitivities of Britain’s Muslims — who amount to just 4.8 per cent of the population — should take precedence over the other 95 per cent.

‘But if the Koran does not insist on what have become the customary halal methods, why are they now so prevalent in Britain? One reason is that religious zealots and theological ideologues are deliberately promoting confusion about halal to sow discord and resentment.

‘Three of the main fundamentalist Muslim sects — the Wahhabi fanatics in Saudi Arabia, the Salafi extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the Deobandi zealots from India-Pakistan — are foisting their fabricated notions about it down our collective throats.

‘It is high time the white, liberal, Guardian-reading classes stopped behaving like apologists and woke up. There is a fundamentalist Trojan horse in our midst, and we must take corrective action.’

‘Antiquated customs like the insistence exclusively on the Hadith version of halal meat only serve to entrench that fundamentalism. They should be rooted out and consigned to the dustbin of history. They have no place in a modern British society, where Muslims wish to be fully integrated and part of the UK mainstream.’



2. Which restaurant chains have gone halal – and why?

‘That sounds bad. But banner headlines about "ritually slaughtered meat" conceal the fact that, according to a 2012 Food Standards Agency report cited by the RSPCA, 97% of cattle, 96% of poultry and 90% of sheep slaughtered using the halal method in UK abattoirs are stunned before being killed – a procedure that makes them insensible to pain and distress.’

2014年5月6日 星期二

UK hysteria over 'Islamist' threat is fuelling race hate

英國的伊斯蘭恐懼症

Once again, the British press is panicking over the "Islamists" that are apparently lurking with malicious intent on every street corner in the UK.
While tabloids fret over imagined Islamic plots to take bacon off Britain's streets, the broadsheets reflect a more highbrow hysteria over an extremist Islamism that has apparently taken root on British soils.
Meanwhile, the political class is doing its bit, too. Tony Blair, the Middle East war-mongering former prime minister turned Middle East peace envoy, has declared "radical Islam" to be the biggest threat ever, in the world. The British government itself has launched an inquiry into the Muslim Brotherhood, which, according to Prime Minister David Cameron is to "establish a complete picture" of the organisation.
And the UK Charities Commission - headed by William Shawcross, formerly of the neo-con Henry Jackson society - has declared "Islamist extremism" to be the most "deadly threat" facing charities in England and Wales thereby raising alarm that legitimate Islamic charities may have funding choked off by association, through a spread of fears over handing out hard-earned pennies to hot-headed jihadis.

2014年4月9日 星期三

A People's History of Muslims in the United States

美國的穆斯林歷史由來已久,從15世紀時,則已經參與反殖民戰役、反歧視與反政府非法監控的市民運動。


When I teach history related to Islam or Muslims in the United States, I begin by asking students what names they associate with these terms. The list is consistent year after year: Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, and Muhammad Ali.
All of these individuals have affected U.S. history in significant ways. If we take a step back and look at the messages these figures communicate about Muslims in U.S. history, we see a story dominated by men and by the Nation of Islam. Although important, focusing solely on these stories leaves us with a skewed view of Muslims in U.S. history. Even these examples are a stretch. Most of my students reference 9/11 as the first time they heard of Muslims.
Mainstream textbooks do little to correct or supplement the biases that students learn from the media. These books distort the rich and complex place of Muslims throughout U.S. history. For example, Malik El-Shabazz (consistently referred to first by the name Malcolm X rather than the name he chose for himself before his assassination) is framed as the militant, angry black man, the opposite of the Christian, nonviolent Martin Luther King Jr. Muhammad Ali is another popular representative of Muslims in U.S. history textbooks but is misrepresented through the emphasis on his boxing career rather than his anti-racist activism against the Vietnam War.
Muslims have been part of our story from the beginning. For example, although U.S. history textbooks wouldn't dare leave out the sanitized story of Christopher Columbus, they fail to include the Muslim-led revolt against his son, Diego, on Dec. 25, 1522. Armed with the machetes they used to cut cane, these rebels, including enslaved West African Muslims, succeeded in killing a number of colonial settlers before the insurrection was quelled; of the 15 bodies recovered, nine were Europeans.

As Michael Gomez explains in Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas, Muslims were among the first to resist the colonialists. In fact, colonial authorities had long seen these "Moors" as a threat. According to Sylviane Diouf, author of Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, colonial documents between the Crown and conquistadors describe enslaved Muslims as "arrogant, disobedient, rebellious, and incorrigible." Diouf writes that no fewer than five decrees were issued against these rebels in the first 50 years of colonization. Records from as early as 1503 confirm a request by Nicholas de Ovando, the governor of Hispaniola, to Queen Isabella asking her to restrict further shipment of enslaved Muslims because they were "a source of scandal to the Indians, and some had fled their owners." It's essential that students know that resistance to colonial domination has always been a part of our history -- and Muslims played a role in this resistance from the earliest days.