Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) for constructive & vibrant Muslim-Western relations
21 - 27 November 2006

The Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) aims to promote constructive perspectives and dialogue about Muslim–Western relations. CGNews-PiH is available in Arabic, English, French and Indonesian.
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Inside this edition

1) by The Muslim Public Affairs Council

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a public service agency working for the civil rights of American Muslims, announces the election of the first Muslim member of Congress. They talk about the role his faith has played in guiding his career choices and highlights the importance of the Muslim vote, as well as other minority community votes, not only in his riding but across the country.
(Source: Muslim Public Affairs Council, 8 November 2006)

2) by Leila Hanafi

Leila Hanafi, a graduate student at Georgetown University and director of the United Nations Young Professionals for International Cooperation Association, considers the common histories of Abrahamic religions and asks why, with all these similarities, there exists a perception that today’s great divisions stem from religion. She goes on to consider what lessons of our common past can hold for the future.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 21 November 2006)

3) by Alia A. Toukan

Alia A. Toukan, Jordan-based media consultant and journalist, argues that constant scenes of death and destruction in the Middle East do not excuse apathy towards violence, be it by outsiders or one’s own. By failing to speak out, she argues, “we are strengthening [the] arrow” that may one day be pointed at oneself and at loved ones.
(Source: Jordan Times, 9 November 2006)

4) by Mary Kissel

Mary Kissel, an editor at the Wall Street Journal, writes about the Indonesian rock group Dewi’s mission to spread a tolerant Islam among its primarily Indonesian and Malaysian audience. The group’s lead singer, Dhani, “…is a superstar on par with Bon Jovi or Bono…Yet Dhani's message is arguably far more powerful -- and meaningful -- than those Western rockers' ditties.”
(Source: LibForAll Foundation, 15 August 2006)

5) by Alexandra Marks

There are a growing number of Arab comedians in the United States who are speaking to very receptive audiences. Alexandra Marks, staff writer at the Christian Science Monitor, considers whether humour from “stand-up rebels” can actually change the way people think, making them more open to “receiving messages that make them aware of their prejudices without offending them.”
(Source: Christian Science Monitor, 14 November 2006)
   

1) American pluralism delivers first Muslim Congressman
The Muslim Public Affairs Council

Washington, D.C. - The election of Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison as the nation's first Muslim member of Congress is a milestone for American pluralism. Ellison also became the first African American from Minnesota to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Ellison's election was accompanied by historic numbers of American Muslim voters going to the polls yesterday to make their voices heard.

"Tonight, we made history," Mr Ellison said in a victory speech to supporters. "We won a key election, but we did much more than that. We showed that a candidate can run a 100% positive campaign and prevail, even against tough opposition."

Throughout his campaign Ellison, a criminal defence attorney who converted to Islam as a college student, focused on issues that resonate in the 5th District in Minneapolis. Ellison says he became involved in politics in college after hearing about apartheid, and he converted from Catholicism to Islam.

"People draw strength and moral courage from a variety of religious traditions. Mine have come from both Catholicism and Islam," Ellison has said. "I was raised Catholic and later became a Muslim while attending Wayne State University. I am inspired by the Qur’an's message of an encompassing divine love, and a deep faith guides my life every day." Ellison's strength is that he brings together people of all faiths to work towards better policy.

Ellison said he wants to catalyse citizens of all income levels and races to have a voice in government. He reaches out to previously disengaged groups like students and immigrants to urge them to get involved. Already, his efforts have borne fruit: voter turnout shot up in his district during the September primaries.

"I think the most important thing about this race is we tried to pull people together on things we all share, things that are important to everyone," Ellison told the Associated Press.

This election should indicate to the Muslim community, that our vote counts. MPAC Executive Director, Salam Al-Marayati, stated that "the only way towards success in American society is by civic engagement and political participation." Al-Marayati also stated that "the effectiveness of this campaign was due to Ellison's ability to unite labour, minority communities and bring in people of all religions." The Muslim Public Affairs Council is hopeful that the balance of power in Washington, D.C. will bring forth a new energy and new perspectives on issues facing our nation today.

Ellison won 56 percent of the vote, defeating Republican Alan Fine and the Independence Party's Tammy Lee, both of whom garnered 21 percent of the vote.

In key elections throughout the country, candidates are beginning to realise the impact of the Muslim electorate. The increasing interaction of Muslim communities with elected officials and candidates is a positive step in solving public policy issues. Aside from anti-Islamic rhetoric in political campaigns, what matters is getting out the vote and getting our voices heard.

The Muslim community demonstrated its importance in this election and will continue to do so in future elections. In states like Virginia, the Muslim vote became the critical vote in tipping the balance on control of the U.S. Senate. Ellison's victory and the rise of Muslim participation in politics are success stories for our country. It is imperative for Muslims to continue to develop the path for civic engagement.

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*MPAC is a public service agency working for the integration of Islam into American pluralism. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Source: Muslim Public Affairs Council, 8 November 2006, www.mpac.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

2) ~Youth Views~ Jewish-Muslim dialogue can deliver
Leila Hanafi

Washington, D.C.- It would seem today that many view the great divisions among humankind and the dominating sources of conflict as being religious. This isn’t true, but as more and more is made of the potential for a clash of civilisations, the possibility could become real. There is already more than a little distrust and lack of accommodation between Western and Muslim societies, and these divisions are increasing in importance.

Radicalism, even though few of its objections to the status quo are valid or semi-valid, has a way of overwhelming public discourse. More than ever, we must realise that there is little difference between the various religions, all of which aim to provide similar systems of ethics and morals and a path to a closer connection with God. We must embark upon the challenge of creating a new reality by returning to the commonalities between these religions. When ordinary citizens unite in a commitment to positive change, a “culture of dialogue” to promote peace and prevent conflict will come into being.

It is incumbent upon the world’s Jewish and Muslim leaders to call for more interfaith dialogue, and make positive contributions to the cause of ethnic and religious tolerance. In addition to improving Muslim-Western relations generally, it would be easier to resolve the political conflict between Arabs and Jews, notably the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, if religion were removed from the equation.

Because of the recent history of warfare that has separated Arabs, who are mostly Muslim, and Jews, the underlying unity of Judaism and Islam is seldom recognised, except by scholars. These two great world religions not only have the same origins but the formulation of the ethical teachings of Islam resemble in many ways the Judaic teachings of the Old Testament. They also share an emphatic and central belief in one God and to a large extent look to the same genealogical and scriptural authorities as the basis of their faiths. Judaism traces its roots back to Abraham and God’s covenant with him, while Islam traces its roots to Abraham through Ishmael, the first born of Abraham. Indeed, Muhammad’s goal was to bring people back to the Abrahamic faith. The word “Islam,” which means peace and submission to God, carries the same meaning as the word “shalom” in the Torah.

This commonality was recognized by Jews and Muslims throughout much of the Middle Ages. Since the arrival of Islam and until only recently, Jews and Muslims had lived together harmoniously, getting on better than Christians with Jews, or Christians and Muslims. But this is often overlooked because of the current confrontation in the Middle East. Leaders would do well to look back at the example of Spain when ruled by the Moors. Until the invasion of the more conservative Almohad dynasty, Muslim Spain, at its best, was a beacon of religious and cultural tolerance, of libraries and literature. It produced great Muslim and Jewish scholars who interacted often. When Muslims took Jerusalem back from the Crusaders, one of their first acts was to allow Jews back to the city. Salahudin, a great Muslim hero, had as a senior advisor the great Jewish scholar Maimonides.

Men distrust people of different religious groups, even to the point of considering them profane and satanic, but what we should realise is that most differences between the Abrahamic religions have more to do with form than substance. A better Jewish-Muslim dialogue will depend on whether Jews and Muslims can prevent the ups and downs of Middle East politics from dividing them.

Politics and the control of territory are the real issues behind the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, not religion. That is why it is incumbent upon the world’s Jewish and Muslim leaders to call for more interfaith dialogue, to increase ethnic and religious tolerance.

We need to promote a dialogue of civilizations between Muslims and Jews, and between Muslim and Western societies, wherever these communities can be found. For Europe specifically, there is much to be learned from the past co-existence of Jews and Muslims in Palestine, Spain and elsewhere, as Christian (or more accurately, post-Christian) Europe struggles to accommodate its many Muslim immigrants.

Negotiation and politics become possible when the beliefs and practices of the “other” are no longer considered to be vastly different from one’s own. Dialogue can enable us to address the most important issue of all: what kind of future do we want to live in? This does not necessarily imply a common approach to every issue, but without a constructive dialogue the future is less likely to become one that we would want. In order to enter into a meaningful dialogue aimed at better results, every individual has to be prepared to exercise tolerance towards other ways of thinking and towards people who base their daily lives on values and experiences different from one’s own.

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* Leila Hanafi is a graduate student at Georgetown University and director of the United Nations Young Professionals for International Cooperation Association - International Law and Human Rights Committee. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 21 November 2006, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for republication.

3) Our silence, their ammunition
Alia A. Toukan

Amman - A year ago, many across the world were shocked by news of bombs exploding in Jordan, a country seen as an oasis of stability in a volatile part of the world. We Jordanians were particularly pained and angered by the bombs that killed family members, friends and acquaintances. Although we had watched the rest of the region and the world increasingly being targeted by terrorism, we simply did not think it would happen to us — or at least hoped it would not.

The feeble reaction, however, we Arabs and Muslims have expressed regarding terrorism in the region and the world may have helped encourage an environment where terrorism is tolerated.

If we are to presume that terrorists inflict fear and terror in the belief that they have support for their agenda (at least from some people, at some level), then every time we have been silent we have in fact encouraged terrorists. Every time they killed in the name of Islam and spoke on behalf of Muslims, and we remained silent, watching the senseless killings, we acted as indirect supporters of their terror (and allowed them to usurp legitimate resistance struggles in the cases of Iraq, Palestine and Chechnya, for their own ends).

Every time we stood silent as they killed innocent people and bombed civilian locations we added to their strength, handing them the bullets for their next attack. Our silence has been their ammunition.

When Chechen freedom fighters forced their way into a school over two years ago, holding hundreds of Russian children hostage, many in the Arab and Muslim worlds kept disturbingly silent. The Chechens have legitimate political grievances against Russia, but is Beslan excusable?

In another instance, in October 2004 in Baghdad, Iraqi children were killed by anti-occupation forces while being handed sweets by American soldiers. Thirty-five young people lost their lives that day. Few among us were even aware of this. Their death might have gone unnoticed to some, in the mess that Iraq has become. A year later, in identical circumstances, 27 people were killed, the majority, again, children. No outrage was expressed.

These are but a few examples of how apathetic we as Arabs and Muslims have become. And it is apathy, not cultural or religious backwardness and cruelty, as some in the US and Europe would claim. Decades of institutionalised social and political submission, as well as the West’s relationship with us, have led to genuine apathy; a belief that our voices are simply not heard or valued.

Daily news of the killing of Palestinians and Iraqis, and the bombing of the Lebanese in the summer, have only increased this apathy. It is said that as a coping mechanism the body becomes numb when faced with extreme pain. What we are going through mentally and emotionally could be the equivalent of this physical numbness — who, after all, can stomach watching the daily killings of Muslim and Christian Arabs, by the Israelis, by the Americans, and, as in Iraq, by our own?

Every day, scenes on TV screens and news in print media show death and destruction around us. In the case of Palestine, we have been witnessing killings, oppression and dispossession for decades now. To our east, Iraqis fall victim by the hundreds every day.

Yet feeling victimised only compounds apathy. Like oppressed people everywhere, we have come to view our values in reaction to, and in the context of, our political realities and the West’s treatment of and actions towards us. But values are sacred; they need to remain unchangeable, regardless of the context. Killing of innocent people is wrong and unacceptable. Period. Regardless of the injustice done to us, we should hold true to our values and our Muslim teachings of tolerance and non-violence towards civilians. And, above all, we should not allow ourselves to be apathetic to a breach of our values.

In some ways, the Amman bombings might have created a small shift in unconscious support for or apathy towards terrorism; the very beginning of the end of this lack of awareness, in Jordan at least.

The tragic reality is that human beings, by nature, fail to act until the arrow has turned on them or their own. But we must realise that each time we are silent in the face of extreme wrongdoing, we are strengthening that arrow, until it takes its own course. Until it eventually aims at us as well.

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* Alia A. Toukan is a media consultant and journalist. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Source: Jordan Times, 9 November 2006, www.jordantimes.com
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

4) Muslim rocker preaches tolerance to a strong drumbeat
Mary Kissel

Jakarta -- "Why did I choose an Arabic beat? Because the Muslims think it's a Muslim song. It's not! It's a universal song."

So explained Dhani, the pony-tailed, baby-faced founder of one of Indonesia's most popular rock 'n roll bands, Dewa, on a recent afternoon here. Blasting a track from the group's latest album, "Republic of Love", Dhani explained how his faith, Sufism -- a mystic, tolerant form of Islam -- informs his music. Despite appearances, Dhani, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, is a very different kind of rock superstar. He's promoting moderate Islam -- vocally -- in a linchpin country in the war on terror.

Crammed into the back seat of his minivan while Dhani lounges upfront, I struggled to scribble down his words, barely audible as the booming bass shook the seats. "Wahai jiwa yang tenang!" ("O serene soul!"), blared the opening riff from the first song, "Warriors of Love", with a strong drumbeat backing it up. The tune's title in Indonesian, "Laskar Cinta", is a play on "Laskar Jihad" ("Warriors of Holy War"), Indonesia's homegrown, al Qaeda-linked terrorist group. But the song couldn't be more different from what they preach: Dhani sings about religious freedom, weaving in Qur’anic references easily recognizable to Dewa's primary audiences in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, and neighbouring Malaysia.

It's a conscious strategy; a cynic might even dismiss it as a marketing ploy. Dhani explains that he tucks messages of tolerance and peace beside Western, straight rock beats and halting, syncopated Arabic rhythms. Western-minded types and even radicalised Muslims buy his albums -- and, one hopes, his tolerant vision too. So far, so good: the group's new album is on track to sell a million legal copies in Indonesia alone; estimates put the volume of pirated versions at three to four times that number. The current disc's lead track was No. 1 in Indonesia for three weeks, running from last December to January, and the video reached MTV's top 10 chart. EMI plans to release an English-language version of Dewa's music into foreign markets soon.

It's ingenious, and infectious; indeed, some of Dewa's tracks could easily be mistaken for those of a Saudi Arabian pop band -- one whose members listened to Queen and classic rock as kids. But as the final verse of "Warriors of Love" fills the car, it echoes this holy verse: "O mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another, and not to despise each other." A tad more thoughtful than "Bohemian Rhapsody", and not exactly what Dhani's hardline Islamic groupies are taught in their madrassas.

Dhani, 34, is an unlikely proselytiser for peace. His grandfather participated in the Daru Islam Islamist guerrilla movement, which counted among its members the terrorist group leader who plotted the Bali bombings a few years back. Dhani's father, Eddy, followed in his father's footsteps, figuring prominently in an organisation bent on preaching Wahhabism. Dhani's Indonesian-born mother, Joyce, proved a more moderating influence -- she converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam when she married. (But "she learned Islam from me, not my father," Dhani confides quietly.)

As a youngster, Dhani attended a Wahhabist school. (Wahhabism, the prominent Muslim sect in Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia, promotes a strict observance of Islam; Sufism is historically dominant in Indonesia, among Muslims.) But the Wahhabist message didn't sit well with Dhani: in his teens, the young rebel dropped out of high school and started Dewa, also sometimes called Dewa 19, a reference to a personnel change when the band members were 19 years old. The name, an acronym of the founding members' names, ironically means "God" in Sanskrit. The group's catchy tunes caught on quickly; today in Indonesia, Dhani is a superstar on par with Bon Jovi or Bono.

Yet Dhani's message is arguably far more powerful -- and meaningful -- than those Western rockers' ditties. Since the fall of Suharto's autocratic regime in 1998 and the advent of democracy, support for hardline Islamic political parties in Indonesia has grown. While such groups are by no means supported by the majority, mostly moderate Javanese, recent events -- such as public calls to impose shari‘a, or Islamic law, the prosecution of the editor of Playboy's Indonesian edition, and virulent anti-Western demonstrations -- speak to Wahhabism's creeping influence on the archipelago, as does a quick count of the scarves on women's heads in metropolitan Jakarta.

Dhani has responded not only through his music, but by joining a small -- but growing -- group of religious moderates who are trying to educate Indonesians about tolerant forms of Islam. Organised by LibForAll, a small U.S. foundation based in Winston-Salem, N.C., its members include former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, a great Sufi leader; Abdul Munir Mulkhan, a prominent former member of the governing board of the Muhammadiyah, one of the world's largest Muslim organisations; and Azyumardi Azra, an outspoken Islamic intellectual, among others.

The risks are great for vocal religious moderates like the ones affiliated with LibForAll. Last year, after Dewa released an album that featured the word for "Allah" in Arabic script on its cover, Dhani was labelled an apostate. Fearing for his wife, Maya, and their three children, Dhani moved them into a hotel. Only when Abdurrahman Wahid held a press conference supporting the rock star did Dhani feel safe enough to move them home again.

Dhani seems unperturbed by his mission. When I asked him about it, he laughed, talked about his faith (his children are named after Sufi saints), and turned the car stereo up.

As we crawled through traffic, one of Dhani's troupe reminded me that Dhani isn't the first to have this calling. In a neat historical parallel, Dhani's saviour and mentor, Mr. Wahid, is a direct descendant of Siti Jenar, a 16th-century Sufi who also preached tolerance in the face of a militant Islamic group in Java. He was executed for his faith, and legend has it that his blood sprayed "Allah is good!" in the sand as he died. He was later heralded as a true prophet of Allah. In the notes for his latest album, Dhani thanks Syekh Lemah Abang ("Reddish-brown earth") -- a reference to the town where Siti Jenar once lived.

Dhani laughed again when I asked him if the story of Siti Jenar's death is true, and if he's been compared to the prophet. He nodded, and smiled. And then he turned the music up again.

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* Mary Kissel is The Wall Street Journal Asia's editorial page editor. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Source: LibForAll Foundation, 15 August 2006, www.libforall.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

5) “Get your Arab on”: comedians chip away at ethnic fears
Alexandra Marks

New York, New York - Meet Dean Obeidallah. At a stand-up comedy open-mike night, he's quick to tell his audience that he was always "just a white guy in a white guy's life" from New Jersey. Then 9/11 happened and suddenly, he became ... "an Arab".

"And people would say, 'Hey, hey, hey, don't take this the wrong way, but if you hear of any terrorist attacks coming up, will you warn me?' And then they'd say, 'Only kidding! But, ah, seriously, will you warn me?' "

Born and raised in Jersey by a Sicilian mother and a Palestinian father, this lawyer-turned-comic is on the cutting edge of a quiet social revolution. Its weapon of choice is the joke. Just like vaudeville's Jewish comedians at the turn of the century and the stand-up rebels from the civil rights era, Arab-Americans are using humour to help remind people of the futility of vilifying others because of their culture, creed or colour. Mr. Obeidallah is part of a vanguard of young Arab-American comics who are determined to show America they are just like everybody else, one laugh at a time.

"Historically, humour has always been used to put people at ease and sort of open them up to receiving messages that make them aware of their prejudices without offending them," says Jack Shaheen, professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University and the author of "Reel Bad Arabs". "It's a wonderful way to help shatter stereotypes because with true laughter, particularly in open-minded people, comes real renewal and enlightenment."

Tuesday, the fourth Arab-American Comedy Festival opens in New York. It was started by Obeidallah and a friend in 2003 as a way to showcase Arab-American talent and deal with the sudden sense, in Obeidallah's words, "of being under siege."

Since then, it's grown and spawned other ventures. In December, Comedy Central will première on its Internet site "Watch List" a night of Arab-American stand-up humour. Hollywood, which has historically vilified Arab-Americans, according to Dr. Shaheen, is also taking note. Albert Brooks’ "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" debuted in 2005.

Obeidallah and his cohorts hope these are indications that more Americans are ready to "Get Your Arab On", as the motto to the festival says. Just listen to the producer of Comedy Central's "Watch List"/

"Obviously our foremost consideration is, is it funny? And the answer is yes. And secondly, there was this loud, very clear and cool idea that was politically relevant," says Daniel Powell, manager of original programming and development at Comedy Central in New York.

If it hadn't been for the terrorist attacks, many of these comedians would never have known one another. Before that, they were just like hundreds of other young stand-up comics doing the rounds of open-mike nights around Manhattan. But the climate after 9/11 gave them unique shared experiences - such as always being "randomly" searched at the airport.

Maria Shehata says her audiences tend to respond, regardless of heritage, because the experience of being singled out is universal. At an open-mike night in Greenwich Village last week, she introduced herself as an "Egyptian from Ohio".

"Usually, they laugh at that because, it's like, absurd - an Egyptian from the Midwest," she says. "People do want to reach out and understand the different cultures and laugh at their own fears."

The joke that got the biggest laugh in her set was about sitting on a bus with a friend. Two guys were speaking in Arabic. "My friend said, 'What are they saying? Do they have a bomb?' I told her, 'Look, it doesn't matter. Just get off the bus, now. Don't make eye contact.' "

Right after 9/11, that would have fallen flat, says Ms. Shehata. And it still does around the anniversary of the attacks. But this audience's reaction, and the joke itself, are indications of how Arab-American humour has evolved over the past five years.

"The humour in the beginning was, and now I'm paraphrasing: 'Don't beat us up, don't hurt us, we're not terrorists," says Obeidallah. "That's still there, but on a lesser note. Now we're much more challenging and confident."

In other words, they're much more likely to challenge stereotypes than just defensively explain themselves. One of Obeidallah's bits is about his name, and how people suggested he Anglicise it after 9/11 so others wouldn't know he was Arab.

"Literally, my name Obeidallah translates into Servant of Allah. So how easy would it be for me to get airplane tickets for the rest of my life?" he asks the crowd at Y Improv, a club in midtown Manhattan. "'Two tickets to Miami, please.' 'Name?' 'Oh, Mr. Servant-of-Allah....' 'Let me check with the right department.... FBI?' "

Part of the irony is unstated. Obeidallah, like the majority of Arabs in the United States, was raised a Christian.

"These stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims are as solid as prehistoric rocks, and humour is gently chipping away at those prehistoric boulders, ever so gently," says Shaheen. "I don't think while watching you suddenly think differently. But when you leave, later on when news stories break ... some of what transpired in that audience carries over, and people will think twice."

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* Alexandra Marks is a staff writer at the Christian Science Monitor. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, 14 November 2006, www.csmonitor.com
Copyright © The Christian Science Monitor. For reprint permission please contact lawrenced@csps.com.

Youth Views
CGNews-PiH also regularly publishes the work of student leaders and journalists whose articles strengthen intercultural understanding and promote constructive perspectives and dialogue in their own communities. Student journalists and writers under the age of 27 are encouraged to write to Chris Binkley (cbinkley@sfcg.org) for more information on contributing.

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The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) provides news, op-eds, features and analysis by local and international experts on a broad range of issues affecting Muslim-Western relations. CGNews-PiH syndicates articles that are constructive, offer hope and promote dialogue and mutual understanding, to news outlets worldwide. With support from the Norwegian government and the United States Institute of Peace, this news service is a non-profit initiative of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO working in the field of conflict transformation.
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Rio Rinaldo (Jakarta)
Zeina Safa (Beirut)

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Posted by Evelin at November 26, 2006 02:42 AM