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The Islamic Bulletin
Still a relatively new Muslim, but being a well-known personality,
I was invited to join a letter campaign requesting the publishers of
the controversial novel to think again.
I did, but they ignored the plea. Suddenly the media tried linking
me to supporting Iran’s Fatwa on Salman Rushdie.
The fact is that I never did support the Fatwa. Such is the irony. You
wouldn’t ask a Christian to deny one of the Ten Commandments;
equally, as a new Muslim, I couldn’t deny that the Quran, just like
Leviticus in the Bible, forbade blasphemy and if there is no repen-
tance, made it a capital offence.
But what most people-including many Muslims-fail to recognize, is
that the Quran repeatedly calls on believers to repent, to uphold
the rule of civility and not to take the law in their own hands.
Clerics and extremists who call for the assassination of civilians
outside the recognized bounds of the Islamic State without due
process are wholly out of line with the limits and spirit of Islam.
The Koran states, “And do not let your hatred of some
people…
cause you to transgress (the law).”
My songs of love and harmony and I were now associated with death
edicts and even the Ayatollah! That was a time of great emotion
and uproar. I released a statement clarifying my position, but the
press preferred to ignore it-perhaps for them it didn’t go far enough.
At that time, I was still learning, ill prepared and lacking in knowl-
edge and confid nce to speak out specifi ally against forms of
extremism. I wish to avoid making that same mistake again.
Today, I am aghast at the horror of recent events and feel it a duty
to speak out. Not only did terrorists hijack planes and destroy life
last September, but also they hijacked the beautiful religion of Islam
and split the brother and sisterhood of mankind.
The targeting of unsuspecting civilians going about their daily work
was energized by nothing but blind irreligious hatred. Yet we should
remember, this kind of atrocity has been a common occurrence, year
upon year, in many lands. My memory of the prolonged suffering
and death of two hundred thousand people in Bosnia at the end
of last century is something that I cannot easily forget.
However, it is also good to hear spiritual and political leaders across
all countries and cultural divides making it clear that such acts of
murder as were witnessed in the U.S. have nothing to do with the
universal beliefs of Muslims; it’s also important that retaliation does
not become a representation of Christian wrath.The Koran states:
“Repel evil with what is better and he, between whom and you
was hatred, will become as a warm bosom-friend.”
So out of the shadows of death, positive signs are arising, human
beings are beginning to feel each other’s pain. Tragedies can some-
times help breakdown the barriers of prejudice. In Chicago, three
days after the attack, non-Muslim neighbors-Christian and other
denominations-held hands in a circle to form a human chain around
a Mosque in which Muslims were praying.
That chain, in the form of humanitarian aid, should stretch to
those innocent and blameless people of Afghanistan and all fellow
human beings like them who are still starving on the knife-edge of
life and death.
If humanity can be revived through honor and deeds of compassion
and charity, it is hoped that the tragedies of the past will herald a
new tomorrow and a new sunrise of moral understanding for peo-
ple all over the world. Our future is still glimmering brightly in the
searchlight of children’s eyes.
I belonged to that idealistic movement which grew up in the Sixties
and Seventies with undiminished dreams and hopes for a more
peaceful world. There are multitudes of people around the world
who don’t want more wars and destruction. And I am still one of
those.
Conflicts on earth seem endless, like day follows night. Life goes on
and, regrettably, wars and terrorism are still very much with us. But
nothing should stop us “dreaming about the world as one.” Let’s
hope those words of my song “Peace Train” will one day be fulfilled
A
ctor
W
ill
S
mith
E
mbraces
I
slam
Muslim leaders across America acknowledgeing Will Smith for em-
bracing Islam religion after completing the Muhammad Ali biopic.
Smith was introduced to Islam while learning about the legendary
boxer’s life.
Friends close to Smith claim the megastar is now embracing the
religion in his own life and is eager to learn more about it.
Director of the American Muslim Association of North America,
Sofian Zakkout says, “Muhammad Ali is one of the best examples
of Muslims in this country. He’s been a wonderful spokesperson for
the religion and if Will Smith can continue Muhammad Ali’s work
that would be wonderful.”
He continues, “Islam is a peaceful religion and if good people such
as Muhammad and Will can carry that message then it would be
wonderful. It would be a positive message for peaceful Muslims all
over the world.”
Smith appeared at the America: A Tribute To Heroes telethon in
September alongside Ali, defending Islam in the wake of the terrorist
attacks in New York and Washington.
M
any
I
n
H
awaii
T
urning
T
o
I
slam
By Mary Kaye Ritz -- Advertiser Religion Writer
Less than three weeks after terrorists struck New York City
and Washington, Heather Ramaha stood among a group of
women at the mosque in Manoa and recited the shahada in
Arabic: “Ash-hadu alla illaha illa Allah. Wa-ash-hadu anna
Mohamadan rassulu Allah.” She was testifying that “I bear
witness that there is no God but Allah (one true God), and
Mohammed is a prophet of God.” By doing so, she became a
convert to the Islamic faith, extending a recent national trend.
Some Muslim clerics across the country say they are seeing a
fourfold increase in conversions since Sept. 11, when stories
about Islam jumped from the back pages of the religion sec-
tion to front pages worldwide. HakimOuansafi, the president
of the Muslim Association of Hawaii, said that prior to Sept.
11, there had been an average of three converts per month.
In the two months since then, there have been 23. And oddly
enough for a religion that is often perceived as one that cloaks
its women from head to foot, the newly converted Westerners
tend to be female. Ouansafi said the national ratio of converts
is 4-to-1, women to men. Here, he said, it’s closer to 2-to-1.
Most Mainland converts are African-Americans, who make up
about a third of U.S. Muslims, some of whom found Allah while
they were in jail or in recovery from drug or alcohol addiction.
On the West Coast, the men are mainly military, said Ouansafi
and most of the O’ahu converts are former Christians. More
people are looking into Islam and liking what they see, he says,
despite the relentless media coverage of Muslim terrorists. “
Know you find bad people in every religion, and that religion
should not be judged by that extreme minority,” he said. One
thing Sept. 11 didwas remind people that life is too short: “If I’m
going to die, I want to die a Muslim,” a convert told Ouansafi
Cromwell Crawford, chairman of the religion department at the
University of Hawaii-Manoa, echoed that: The effect of Sept. 11
on thenational psychemade all Americans awareof the transience
of life. He described themood of the country as changing: Singles
seek to bond; family members hang together more tightly; and,
by extension, the nation’s people reach out to one another.
“People are turning to religion both in the institutional sense
and in non-institutional ways,” Crawford said, adding that the
fallout also is benefiting other religions besides Islam
W
hy
O
verwhelmingly
W
omen
?
“In the expression of this mood, women are moved more
readily and more deeply than men,” he said. “Go to any
church and you’ll fi d more women than men.” He also fi ds
the female students in his classes often show greater insight
into ethical issues. “Women are the more religious of the
genders for various reasons,” Crawford said. “... Women give
birth and so they are in touch with the life process, caretakers
of the life cycle by virtue of their biology.”
Converting - or “reverting,” as Muslims call it since they be-
lieve everyone starts life as a Muslim - does not take much
besides a sincere belief there is one God, and only one God.
“We believe, as Muslims, once a person reverts to Muslim,
all his past sins are forgiven by God,” Ouansafi said. “Starts
just like a baby that was born.”
The conversion ceremony itself is fairly simple, he said. A
convert tells of the converting of his or her own free will;
then explains the five tenets of faith. For the ceremony, two
witnesses watch as a convert agrees that Jesus was among the
great prophets (Ibrahim/Abraham, Mohammed and Moses are
among the others), but not God, then speak the same two
sentences that Heather Ramaha recited.
Now, Ramaha is incorporating her Islamic faith into her life as a
Navy petty offi er stationed at Pearl Harbor since July. She doesn’t
wear her hejab to work as a dental hygienist, but she does wear
her head covering when attending services at themosque.While
her husband, a Marine, was away recently, she couldn’t quite
recite the five daily prayers, all said in Arabic, without his elp.
But Ouansafi said the Islamic faith is supposed to be practiced
to the best of one’s abilities. It’s forbidden in the Quran, for
example, for pregnant women, travelers, and people with
diabetes to fast at Ramadan, if fasting means harming oneself.
On a recent Friday - the Islamic equivalent of the weekly
Sabbath - Ouansafi spoke at the prayer services about the role
of women in Islam, and talked at length in an interview at his
office with his wife, Michele Ouansafi, herself a convert, about
what draws women to a faith some have called oppressive.
Women are revered in their faith, the Ouansafis said. The wear-
ing of the hejab is for a women’s own protection - they are away
from the lascivious looks of men. The women pray in different
rooms and behind the men so as not to be a distraction when
worshippers kneel andplace their foreheads to the fl or. “Women
are in back because we are the stronger of the two,” saidMichele
Ouansafi with a laugh
And all the major texts of religions - the Bible, the Torah,
the Gospels - “in the Quran, women have more rights,” her
husband said. He noted that in the Quran (“the word of God,
descended directly on the prophet through Gabriel,” said
Ouansafi), Eve and Adam were equally at fault for leaving
the Garden of Eden. Eve wasn’t the seductress. Many of the
passages in the Quran are gender-neutral.
And, in Islam, Ouansafi said, the money a man makes goes
for the family. The money a woman makes is hers, he said.
Women are not obligated to work.
Michele Ouansafi converted after meeting her husband-to-be
whenhe tutoredher inRhode Island in1986, but she saidhenever
asked her to convert. “Ours is a faith of attraction, not promotion,”
said the French Canadian woman with an MBA who works at
Earth Tech, an environmental firm, as a contracts administrato .
For those women who see their place in the home, the Is-
lamic faith can be very attractive, said Tamara Albertini, a UH
philosophy professor who specializes in Islam and grew up
in an Islamic country. The man is responsible for taking care
of the earnings, and the woman rules the home.
Although Ramaha’s husband, Mike, is a lifelong Muslim and
a Palestinian who grew up in San Francisco, he was not the
reason for her conversion, she said. “Mike never once tried to
get me to convert,” the 24-year-old ‘Aiea resident said. “He
said, ‘If you want to do this, you can research it yourself, but
I’ll love you either way.’”
Ramaha has been searching for a way to explain her new
faith to her family in California. She notes that most of their
information about Islam comes from the TV movie, “Not
Without My Daughter,” a story about an American woman,
an abusive Iranian husband and a subsequent fight over their
child. “I haven’t been able to find a way to tell them without
them flipping out,” she said. “I haven’t told Dad. I tell him
I go to the mosque, but I haven’t told him I converted yet.”
To people who ask her why she would choose a religion
that some consider oppressive to women, she responds that
they’re mixing religion with culture. “Growing up in the U.S.,
Islamic faith doesn’t have the culture mixed into it,” she said.
Ramaha was the first in her family to join a church. At age 5,
she befriended the daughter of a non-denominational pastor
and became a Christian. The rest of the family joined later. Her
mother is still a churchgoer. But Ramaha said she struggled with
the Christian view of the Holy Trinity. In March, she took an
online world religions class through a California university. “I’d
been a Christian for 18 years,” she said. “There are so many
loopholes in that religion. (Islam) opened up so many ideas. ...I
felt that in my heart this was the right (one) for me.”
As a follow-up, she took an introductory class on Islam in Hawaii.
After Sept. 11, she started reading the Quran, and “something
clicked.” She converted soon after. “I’ve always felt drawn to
something out there, (otherwise, there’s) an emptiness,” she said.
“The only way I feel complete is when I have a religion, a God
to pray to.”