There is a tension between those Muslims who see Islam as an historically fixed religion and those Muslims who recognize the long process of historical transformation that is a feature of Islam’s movement through time and space from its origins in 7^th century Arabia. Muslim religious doctrine and practices change based on context and interpretation. Religious faith clearly is more than a list of do’s and don’t’s derived from a holy text, but is based in part on reconciling age-old traditions and contemporary values.

Recently, there have been growing debates about Islam’s capacity for acceptance of gay Muslims. The question of reconciling faith and sexual orientation is not unique to Islam. As with Catholics and other Chrisitians, for example, many Muslims have positioned Muslim and gay identities as incompatible. In contrast, a growing number of Muslims and others are asserting Islam’s openness to sexual diversity. Because of this, Muslims, like other faith-based groups across the nation, are wrestling with the fact that gay rights are an issue for members of their family and their Mosque. It is not a simple theological question applying to an “other.”

In her account of the experiences of a lesbian Muslim friend, Nazly Siadate articulates a plea for Muslims to “modify their interpretation of their faith to be more inclusive.” Specifically, Siadate asks gay Muslims to stop “self-segregating” themselves. She suggests that gay Muslims can and should maintain their religious identity alongside their sexual identity. Then, Muslim communities will consider sexual difference from a position of a shared relationship and religious identity, thus making acceptance easier.

Siadate is not alone in her call for embracing gay and Muslim identities. Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed researches homosexuality in Islam from an anthropological perspective, and Imam Daayiee Abdullah, gay himself, leads a progressive prayer center in Washington D.C., counseling gay Muslims. Additionally, Muslims for Progressive Values advocates for LGBTQ rights from an Islam-inspired perspective. These examples show that gay Muslims exist (and there is a new documentary about it), they have Muslim allies, and they will continue to embrace both identities regardless of official doctrine.

Muslims in America are targets of prejudice and bigotry. The same bigots attack LGBTQ people. These attacks on Muslims and gays draw distinctions between Americans by highlighting a difference (religion and sexuality) that challenges sexual and religious conservative definitions of what it means to be American. Today’s progressive Muslim voices argue that their co-religionists ought to approach LGBTQ issues from a place of empathy, both within and beyond their community.

Like other religions, Islam must contend with the tension between normative practices and the reality of sexual diversity among believers. As is evident by the growing public discussion, Muslims today are exploring ways to address social issues, like sexual orientation, with the knowledge that how they respond plays a significant role in defining their own faith, especially for gay Muslims, and sets the tone for how they define the social values associated with their religious beliefs.

Sources:

http://www.shewired.com/lifestyle/2013/01/28/lesbian-muslim-unveiled-moving-forward-muslims-progressive-values

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/gay-and-muslim-islam-homophobia_n_2258802.html

http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=57953

http://mpvusa.org/portfolio/lgbt/

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/project-2026-fight-gay-muslim-atheist-alliance-destroying-america

http://www.afa.net/

http://iamgayandmuslim.com/

The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) recently published a report on alcohol use among Muslim college students in America. This report was part of an effort to better understand the prevalence of alcohol use among Muslim college students, to test the feasibility of studying hard to reach groups, and to identify possible areas of intervention. The study explored the relationship of alcohol use based on a variety of factors that included family, religious and personal beliefs, and social influences using respondent-driven sampling with a web-based survey for this particular demographic.

The study sampled 156 self identified Muslim undergraduate students at Wayne State University, located in Detroit, MI. 9.1% of students surveyed said they used alcohol at least once in their lifetime. According to the report, this is much lower than a previous 2001 national survey of college students in which over 45% of Muslim students used alcohol; it is also lower than a recent 2010 federally funded study that reported 63.3% of all college students using alcohol within the past month.

The study used Reference Group Theory, according to which an individual might look to or reference a particular group’s appropriate behaviors and actions when deciding how they will act. This includes religious groups, peers, and parents. These reference groups were examined in the context of the influence they played in a Muslim student’s decision to drink alcohol.

Not surprisingly, the ISPU study found parents, the student’s religious understandings and beliefs, as well as social actors such as peers, friends, and the community were all strong influences on a student’s decision to drink. For example, the study notes that students who drank generally had social networks that included others who drank, while those who abstained associated with non-drinking social networks.

The behavior of Muslim parents was an influence on students and drinking; those who drank reported their parents as having consumed alcohol before while those who abstained reported their parents to also have abstained. The attitudes, however, that parents had towards drinking did not seem to affect the actions of the youth. The difference between behavior and attitude is worthy of additional studies, especially among mixed families such as native born-immigrant marriages or Muslim and non-Muslim marriages.

Interestingly, outward behavior such as prayer and attending mosques was not as strong an influence in choosing to drink compared to the influence of a student’s beliefs and understanding of Islam. Compartmentalizing one’s actions in public and private space, especially as a minority, warrants further studies.

In addition, the study shows that despite opinions and concerns, social attitudes and behaviors of this specific demographic can be tapped for research beyond simple news stories. The study would be strengthened if it included a larger, more diverse group of Muslims given the limitations of the Detroit area. In addition, the study did not indicate if it measured for additional or other drug usage beyond alcohol such as marijuana, prescription pills, ect., which may serve to better understand this hard to reach group and the social complexity of the issue. The study focuses on the context of youth but does not explicitly indicate their approach to youth as a demographic, a culture, a context, or a transient stage as others have done.

M Al-K

 Madah-Sartre, The Kidnapping, Trial and Conver(sat/s)ion of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir

a play by Alek B. Toumi  

 DATE:  Friday, March 15, 2013
TIME:   12:30-1:45pm
PLACE:  B-342 Wells Hall, MSU (East Lansing, MI)

“Hell is other people,” Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote in No Exit. The fantastic tragicomedy Madah-Sartre brings him back from the dead to confront the strange and awful truth of that statement. As the story begins, Sartre and his consort in intellect and love, Simone de Beauvoir, are on their way to the funeral of Tahar Djaout, an Algerian poet and journalist slain in 1993. En route they are kidnapped by Islamic terrorists and ordered to convert . . . or die. Since they are already dead, fearless Sartre gives the terrorists a chance to convince him with reason.

What follows is, as James D. Le Sueur writes in his introduction, “one of the most imaginative and provocative plays of our era.” Sartre, one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century, finds himself in an absurd yet deadly real debate with armed fanatics about terrorism, religion, intellectuals, democracy, women’s rights, and secularism, trying to bring his opponents back to their senses in an encounter as disturbing as it is compelling.

Sponsored by the Department of Romance and Classical Studies and the MSU French Club

MSU Library Film Series presesnts:  Wham! Bam! Islam!

Followed by a discussion with Professor Salah D. Hassan (MSU Muslim Studies Program/Dept. of English)

Thursday, February 28, 7:30 pm
MSU Main Library
North Conference Room, W449
Light refreshments will be served.

Muslim Journeys Bookshelf event organized by MSU Libraries.
Co-sponsored by MSU Muslim Studies Program,
MSU Comics Forum, and Michigan Humanities Council.

Wham! Bam! Islam! tells the story of Naif
Al-Mutawa and his venture to create the first
team of superheroes from the Muslim world
called THE 99. Following the tumultuous
journey of THE 99 from concept to reality,
from acclaim to censure, from the edge
of bankruptcy to a multi-million dollar
animation series, Al-Mutawa dodges cultural
minefields and confronts the harsh realities
of the global marketplace in pursuit of his
vision to bring new heroes to children around the world.

“Karachi Elegies,” an exhibit of the artwork of Naiza Khan, will open on Friday February 22, 2013 at The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing. The exhibit will continue until March 26, 2013.

On Wednesday, February 20 at 6:00 pm, Khan will give talk on her work. The talk will take place in room 120 Psychology building (MSU).

See the Broad Museum website for more information.

Naiza Khan, Armour Lingerie IV, 2007. Courtesy the artist and Rossi & Rossi Gallery, London. © Naiza Khan

Pakistani artist Naiza Khan captures the experience of living and working in Karachi, where everyday life has been disrupted by natural disaster, migration to the city, and political violence.  For her first solo museum exhibition in the United States, Khan will show oil paintings, sculpture, and video works that map the tragic geography of violence in Karachi and place the human figure within it.  Khan uses the term “disrupted geography” to describe her oil paintings and video works, in which she layers striking images and words to create a dream-like topography.  In her landscape paintings, ruined structures are the lone traces of life.  Her steel sculptures of lingerie armor similarly refer to the human figure without actually representing it, but are evocative of both delicacy and strength.  In artworks of extraordinary beauty, Khan’s work provides a complex and sensitive window onto life in one of the world’s most troubled cities.

About the Artist
Born in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, in 1968, Naiza Khan is based in Karachi, Pakistan. Raised in England, Khan trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, and Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts, London. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally, including in the 2012 Shanghai Biennale and exhibitions such as Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan at the Asia Society, New York; XV Biennale Donna, Ferrara, Italy; Art Dubai 2008, Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain; and the 2010 Cairo Biennale. She has been selected for residencies in the Gasworks International Residency Programme, London, and at the Rybon Art Centre, Tehran. As a founding member and longtime coordinator of Vasl Artists’ Collective in Karachi, Khan has worked to foster art in the city, and participated in a series of innovative art projects in partnership with other workshops in the region, such as Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi; Britto Arts Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Sutra Art Foundation, Kathmandu, Nepal; and Theertha International Artists’ Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka. In addition, Khan has also curated three exhibitions of Pakistani contemporary art, including The Rising Tide: New Directions in Art from Pakistan 1990–2010 at the Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi. In 2011 she gave lectures at several universities across the United States, which were sponsored by the American Institute of Pakistan Studies. From 1991 until 2008 Khan was a member of the faculty in the Department of Fine Art at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi. She is currently a lecturer in the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Karachi.

Source: http://broadmuseum.msu.edu/exhibitions/karachi-elegies

For many devout Muslims the fashion industry poses a predicament – how to blend style without violating Islam’s tenets on modesty. While Muslim women may feel the conflicting pressures of fashion and modesty more keenly than others, this tension is not unique to them. Many women, regardless of faith, desire to dress modestly and lack representation in high fashion. Nailah Lymus is seeking to change this.

Lymus established Underwraps Agency to promote modest attire and provide an opportunity for aspiring models, Muslim and non-Muslim, who don’t want to, in her words, “show everything” in order to make it far. Underwraps Agency connects “modestly-minded” models with designers, and brings them into the industry. Lymus and her company are focusing mostly on Muslims because she believes that they are underrepresented in the industry. However, Lymus believes that the desire fore modest clothing transcends cultures and religions, and she wants Underwraps to establish its reputation based upon modesty more than its Muslim orientation.

While views on modesty differ throughout the national and international Muslim community, Lymus has based her company upon the idea that, regardless of religious practice, people feel best when they are comfortable with the clothes they are wearing. For many this means modesty, but not at the expense of style.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/underwraps-muslim-models-maintain-modesty-with-fashion-agency_n_2585104.html?utm_hp_ref=islam#slide=more277891

http://underwrapsagency.carbonmade.com/

National news reported on January 22, 2013 the local Detroit-area story about the McDonald’s that will pay $700,000 to members of Dearborn’s Muslim community to settle allegations that one of it’s restaurants falsely advertised its food as halal. Dearborn resident Ahmed Ahmed bought a chicken sandwich in September 2011 that was marketed as halal. Ahmed alleged that the chicken in the sandwich wasn’t halal, despite the restaurant’s advertisement that they exclusively sell halal Chicken McNuggets and McChicken sandwiches. The fast food restaurant is one of several McDonald’s in the United States that claims to sell halal products. (Another is also in Dearborn and was indirectly included in the lawsuit.)

The store obtains meat products from an approved halal provider, and Kassem Dakhlallah, Ahmed’s attorney, said that there was no evidence of problems with the provider. However, Dahklallah (and confirmed by his own investigation) asserted that the Dearborn McDonald’s sold non-halal products when it ran out of halal chicken.

Dakhlallah reports that McDonald’s took the case “very seriously” and “made it clear they want to resolve this.” The lawsuit covers anyone who purchased halal-advertised products from the Dearborn McDonald’s between September 2005 and January 18, 2013. Because of the impossibility of determining each individual within the class-action lawsuit, both sides agreed to provide money to “community-based charities that benefit members of this group.” Pending final approval, settlement will be paid out as follows: $275,000 to the Huda Clinic, $150,000 to the Arab American National Museum, $230,000 to attorneys and $20,000 to Ahmed.

This incident marks a major collision between halal food ethics, marketing to Muslims and industrialized food systems. Halal food products are increasingly available in the U.S through the major industrial food system (as opposed to neighborhood or small scale butchers). This poses challenges in certification and verification similar to those faced by Kosher, but also offers opportunities of choice to Muslims who are seeking halal options. Furthermore, the instance of halal McDonalds raises questions about how the relationship of halal principles to more general questions of food quality, food preparation and food consumption. Fast food chains recognize that Muslims as a potential market, competing with the more established independent restaurants that offer traditional halal foods from Asia and the Middle East. The ability of industrial food companies like McDonald’s to meet the growing demands of Muslim Americans’ for halal food is increasingly shaping the relationship between Muslims, their food, and the systems that provide it.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gq94vFblc4miFvH52ka3v-GHutMA?docId=80e85e4ad9a044338d6ad6a083a63353

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/22/mcdonald-settles-700000-suit-over-islamic-diet-in-us/

http://www.freep.com/article/20130122/NEWS05/301220051/McDonald-s-settles-suit-over-Islamic-foods-in-Dearborn

In late November 2012, the Associated Press (AP) announced its choice to discontinue use of the terms “Islamophobia” and “homophobia.” Their decision is based upon the view that ascribing a phobia to someone in a social and/or political context is inaccurate. AP claims they desire to be “precise and accurate and neutral in [their] phrasing.” Therefore, they have chosen to favor the terms anti-Muslim and anti-gay.

This decision has elicited a flurry of commentary from journalists and the public. Some commentators support the ban because of its heightened rhetorical power and, what some consider, misuse. Ascribing phobias to bigoted behavior seems to pinpoint fear as the root of such behavior, but to some this view is inaccurate. Other commentators are outraged because the AP decision appears to be a response to conservatives who have sought to discredit the accusation of Islamophobia (see for example the Jihad Watch blog posting. The AP ban thus works against the neutrality that the Associate Press purports to represent in journalism. Furthermore, the discontinued use of Islamophobia and homophobia implies that most forms of anti-Muslim and anti-gay behavior and the expression of hatred toward Muslims and gays are not motivated by fear.

Instead of banning terminology that has entered popular usage, terminology that to a large degree accurately describes certain attitudes and behaviors, AP and other journalists might explore more in its reporting the relationship between hatred and fear and appropriate uses of the language of phobia in connection with groups that have long been subjected to bigotry. “Islamophobia” describes fear-based prejudicial behavior against Muslims, but if fear of Islam and Muslims is not the underlying source of anti-Muslim hate speech and actions. what is?  “Precise and accurate and neutral” reporting may go beyond terms like ‘Islamophobia’, but it certainly includes them.

Sources: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/associated-press-ban-on-h_b_2236916.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/27/homophobia-islamophobia-right-words-associated-press

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/11/ap-nixes-homophobia-ethnic-cleansing-150315.html

Film Screening

Thurs Feb 28, 7:30pm   •   Wham! Bam! Islam! 
• MSU Main Library North Conference Room, W449
Discussion with Salah D. Hassan (English)
http://staff.lib.msu.edu/deborahm/MuslimJourneysWhamBamIslam.pdf

The Michigan State University Library has recieved a Muslim Journeys Bookshelf grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Working with Muslim Studies faculty, MSU librarian Deborah Margolis prepared the grant proposal and submitted it to NEH on behalf of MSU and coordinated the submission of a proposal with Lansing-area public libraries (East Lansing Public Library, Okemos Public Library, and Michigan Humanities Council). Funds for the grant will be used to purchase books for the library collections. In addition, the libraries are hosting the screening of two films with presentations by Muslim Studies Core Faculty to highlight topics connected with the new acquisitions.

Film Screenings

Thurs Feb 28, 7:30pm   •   Wham! Bam! Islam! 
• MSU Main Library North Conference Room, W449
Discussion with Salah D. Hassan (English)
http://staff.lib.msu.edu/deborahm/MuslimJourneysWhamBamIslam.pdf

Thurs April 25, 6:30pm  •  Koran By Heart  
• Okemos Public Library
Discussion with Mohammad Khalil (Religious Studies)

Tea in a Harem, a French-language feature film about North African youth in France, will be screened in Fall 2013 at East Lansing Public Library with Chantal Tetreault (Anthropology) and Safoi Babana-Hampton (Romance and Classical Studies) presenting.