Islam Under a Human Rights Spotlight
  Web Guide for Journalists and Others

TRAPPED IN A LEGACY FROM THE PAST:
(Is This a Nazi Kind of Thing?)

In a complex religious tradition, who determines today's meaning?
(What About Those 72 Virgins?)

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American Human Rights Reporting
as a Global Watchdog
(ENTER)





Frederic A. Moritz


Understanding Islam: Howling at the Moon
Human Rights Web Research Tools



Islamic Concepts of Law, Sex, and Human Rights
"Fundamentalism" and Women
Islam: Scope and Doctrine
Political Islam: Fuller versus Huntington
Human Rights by Islamic Country
Human Rights and Religious Defamation

Islam and Journalism

Islamic Education
Islamic Jewish Relations
Anti-Islamic Thinking
What About Those 72 Virgins?

View an Iphone App


EDITOR'S NOTE: There are many resources on Islam on the web, but there are relatively few resources of established credibility brought together in one place. I have heavily relied on Wikipedia entries, along with other sources, to establish a relatively reliable "platform" for further exploration. Wikipedia has its limitations but can help provide a useful beginning in a highly controversial field.

The enormity of the challenge is obvious: relations with some 50 majority Islamic nations -- all different but sharing in varying form a cultural tradition related to but far different from Christianity and Judaism.

The most pessimistic of Western commentators compare global Islam to an aggressive network of Nazi like expansionists. Others see it as less threatening -- as a complex religion used to rally differing factions, meaning different things in different parts of the world.

In a complex religious tradition, who determines today's meaning?

In studying human rights issues a key question has often been Is this a Nazi kind of thing? The label can make for emotional propaganda, for imprisonment by analogies rooted in the past. But it may also stimulate serious inquiry.

The challenge of making both war and peace in  the Islamic "world" easily equals the challenge of the bridge building that ended the Vietnam War and created a new bond with China. Can an American people soured by ignorance and war meet the challenge? Are the varieties of Islam a fertile field for bridge building? Or will they become an implacable, permanent enemy?

The verdict is not in.

The essay below introduces internet resources, as well as support for users of applications for Iphone, Ipod Touch, and Ipad. The viewer can bypass the essay by clicking on the links above.




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"God gave humans the truth, and the devil came and he said,
'Let's give it a name and call it religion.'" -
Deepak Chopra


Islam,  like many other religions, is not inherently authoritarian or narrow.

But it can sometimes move in that direction because it, like other religions,  sometimes delegates to a human elite the power to dictate and interpret the scriptural law emanating from something considered divine.

Islam was probably ahead of much of Christendom in much of the Middle Ages in the sense that there was no Pope or Islamic leader controlling government. There was often more tolerance of diversity in the Islamic World than in the Christian World. 

Islam has in some ways gone backwards with governments sometimes enforcing Islamic orthodoxy. Conservative or radical rebels can seize on the authority of the Qur’an  for anti-government political purposes. Or to conduct campaigns of terrorism or to abuse women.

Even though the Qur’an  itself does not endorse or encourage such actions.

Still religious orthodoxies often require the believer to obey religious texts as interpreted by religious leaders. This often defines the person who disagrees as a "heretic."

That label can justify all sorts of abuse.

It must be remembered more than 50 nations have populations containing at least a majority of Muslims. There is a large variety of beliefs and practices contending both within these nations and between them.

The internet sources cited below make it clear gross generalizations can be misleading.

But is this a religion which offers challenges to peacemakers -- or is it increasingly "a Nazi kind of thing."






It was President John F. Kennedy who articulated, like his Cold War predecessors, the notion that Communism was a monolithic, integrated, and ruthless conspiracy -- a notion which dominated the nation, its media and its universities.


It was a notion which helped lead to the Vietnam War.

Other "experts" understood that Communism meant different things in different countries, so it was no great surprise when China and the Soviet Union went to war.

The debate is rejoined: is Islam a monolithic civilization at war with the West or is it a religion meaning different things to different people expressing the varied needs of many parts of the world -- depending on how interpreted?


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Islam is the world's second largest religion after Christianity. According to a 2009 demographic study, Islam has 1.57 billion adherents, making up 23 percent of the world population.

Islam is the predominant religion in the Middle East, in northern Africa, and in some parts of Asia. Large communities of Muslims are also found in China, the Balkans, and Russia. Other parts of the world host large Muslim immigrant communities; in Western Europe, for instance, Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity, though it represents less than five percent of the total population.

Approximately 50 countries are Muslim-majority. Around 62 percent of the world's Muslims live in Asia, with over 683 million adherents in such countries as Indonesia (the largest Muslim country by population, home to 15.6 percent of the world's Muslims), Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh (all three being successor states to the former British Raj). About 20 percent of Muslims live in Arab countries. (All figures from Wikipedia)

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At times Islam has been associated with highly advanced civilizations, but like so many other religions, including Christianity and Judaism, it can translate into notions of group superiority.

Perhaps it is not the religion itself which is to blame but the environment in which it often operates: countries with deep rooted cultures sometimes in chaos, transition, or authoritarianism -- where religion becomes hijacked by governments or rebel groups as a tool toward political ends.

Islam, like Western religions, has become entertwined with politics. The three monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have posed problems for our age when they are used to pursue nationalistic or revolutionary goals.

This is not to say that religions both East and West do not perform many very positive functions. They often encourage saintliness, giving, compassion. But there is always the danger they will be used and abused. And turned into political strait jackets.

My own evolving view is that many current abuses of Islam reflect the nature of troubled, changing, unpredictable societies. Societies coping with challenges to traditional values, economic change, and repeated onslaughts of outside influence or control. To consider all this a monolithic block, a dark and threatening forest is premature.

Where this leads will depend upon not only what happens in Islamic countries but what happens in the West.  And if Islamic extremists were to succeed in exploding a nuclear weapon in an American city, we can envision a longterm battle which truly polarizes the globe.





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 In Afghanistan decades of destabilization and civil war,  Soviet and American invasion.

Then came American fomenting of rebellion and civil war.  Then American withdrawal, then, with Pakistani sponsorship, the emergence of hardcore Pashtun nationalists (Taliban) using Islam as a tool for order.

Years of war and civil war can bring to the top both the "best and the worst" of religious committment.

In America the end of the Civil War and end of Reconstruction brought the terror of the KKK in the late 19th Century and "Jim Crow" segregation in the 20th.  In the American South Christianity became part of a system of "terror" to repress the ex-slave and also a powerful tool the ex-slave could use to endure, persevere, hold on, "to keep the eye on the prize."

It is important to understand that a religion is not one monolithic entitity or movement but a variety of things in different places under changing circumstances.

In that spirit let us look at Islam under a human rights spotlight.




ISLAMIC CONCEPTS OF LAW, SEX, AND HUMAN RIGHTS


A Wikipedia analysis of civil law, common law, and religious law which helps put Islamic Sharia law into perspective.

Sharia Law: Wikipedia's treatment of this this controversial subject involving issues of relationship of church and state.

What countries heavily use Sharia Law? Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Sudan, Iraq (pre 2002), Egypt, Bahrain, Azerbaijan. For details see The Spectrum of Modern Sharia Legal Systems, Wikipedia; and  Council on Foreign Relations for a breakdown of where and how Sharia Law is used.

Sharia Law: Contemporary Practice, a Wikipedi survey.

Sharia Law: Contemporary Issues, a Wikipedia survey.


Is Sharia Law coming to the United States?  Although Sharia is widely feared, the religious "law" of other traditions is already enshirned in American secular law. The courts and the legislatures ultimately decide. See this National Public Radio piece.


This Cairo Declaration of Human Rights is seen as an Islamic response to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. This Islamic version leaves everything in the hands of God, which leaves open the question who speaks for God. Western human rights codes have similar problems in that the leave ambiguous who will interpret and enforce them.

Ann Elizabeth Mayer: Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics: a major volume dealing with the uneasy relationship between traditional Islamic law and developing concepts of universal human rights. Efforts to modernize Islamic law reduce the tensions, but they are still there. Click here for Amazon summaries and reviews.

An examination by a Muslim intellectual of some tensions between "Western" and "Islamic" concepts of human rights. The author, Riffat Hassan, who teaches religion at the U. of Louisville, advocates a modernization and reinterpretation of traditional Islamic attitudes toward women.

An interesting website on Islam and Western concepts of human rights. It is important not to let the growth of American anti-Islamic xenophobias distract from the real human rights issues and differences of opinion within various Islamic countries.

Emory Law School. Islam and Human Rights: a useful web resource for exploring Islamic law and human rights issues in a variety of Islamic countries from Africa to Asia.

About Islam: for Westerners seeking to understand Islam and issues such as the status of women: "I consider it essential to make a clear distinction between, on the one hand, the theology and religion of Islam and, on the other, politics and terrorism involving Muslims who sometimes swathe their local culture or regional geopolitical concerns in the cloak of Islam. Many born Muslims both overseas and among immigrant communities in the West conspicuously fail to differentiate between these."-- 

From the introduction to this website by a Western former Christian who converted to Islam.

The plight of Muslim women under the Afghan Taliban: a subsection of the "Islam For Today" website.  The broader website leads in many other directions concerning Islam. Designed for Westerners.

Women in Islam: a Wikipedia survey.

Women in Islam: a useful web resource with multiple links. Other parts of the site have lots of other material on Islam geared toward Westerners. Some contributions are self evident; with others care must be taken on sources and credibility.

The Fundamentalist Agenda: an analysis by Unitarian pastor Davidson Loehr comparing extreme Christian Fundamentalism with extreme Islamic Fundamentalism. While harshly drawn, it can be a challenge to explore similarities among fundamentalists concerning the "place" of women.

Religious Terminology: "Fundamentalism in Christianity and Islam," a wide ranging treatment of the nature and origins of fundamentalism in a variety of religions. From the Canadian website "ReligiousTolerance."

Women's Wear: the head covering hijab (including modest body dress) and the full face covering burka. These links examine different national and government regulations on women's dress.

For the classic treatment of Islamic views on sexuality and chastity see the Qur'an (Surah 24).

Virgins in paradise? What is the background of the widespread belief that martyrs and terrorists will receive 72 virgins in Paradise? In the Qur'an, the houri are described as splendid companions of equal age who enter paradise after being recreated in the afterlife.
  Companions rendered pure and virginal.

The houri are mentioned in several places in the
Qur’an (Surah 56; 16-38).  Check the passage itself to decide if this is a sexual reward. Although plural, no specifics are given as to the number of houries available. They are made granted to all Muslims in paradise, not just martyrs.
  Some commentaries (hadiths) specify 72, but their authenticity and degree of acceptance by Muslims is disputed.

Here is "tongue in cheek" an American Jewish author's interview on YouTube with Palestinian "terrorists"  on the 72 virgin issue. And another YouTube interview by pro Israel Algerian refugee Jewish activist Pierre Rehov purporting to show Muslims who believe the 72 virgin promise. Remember it's not always what is in the Qu'ran that counts -- but what you are told and how you are indoctrinated.

Leila Ahmed is an Egyptian born Islamic feminist who has taught at the Harvard Divinity School. In Women and Gender in Islam (1992), Ahmed argues that oppressive practices toward women in the Middle East are due to interpretations of Islam in patriarchal countries rather than Islam itself.  See a YouTube TV interview with a Muslim feminist, including a later interview with Leila Ahmed herself. Leila Ahmed argues the position of women in Islam is being used by "Western people in power" to discredit Islam.

Honor killings in Islamic nations can target both men and women, but most victims are women. An honor killing is the murder of a family or clan member by one or more fellow family members, in which the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought dishonor upon the family, clan, or community. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the annual worldwide total of honor-killing victims may be as high as 5,000. Many women's groups in the Middle East and Southwest Asia suspect the victims are at least four times more. Honor killings had been reported in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, Yemen, and other Mediterranean and Persian Gulf countries, and that they had also taken place in western countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, within migrant communities. Wikipedia.

Islamic Human Rights Commisssion: a breaking news and background resource on cases and issues seen as human rights violations against Muslims.

The practice of Zina, sex outside of marriage, gets considerable attention  in Islamic history. What to do about it in the contemporary world is an issue in some Islamic countries.

From the Hadith Muslim. commentaries on the Prophet a century or more after his death (570-632 AD): a justification of stoning for adultery, not in the Qur’an :

"There came to him (the Holy Prophet) a woman from Ghamid and said: Allah's Messenger, I have committed adultery, so purify me. He (the Holy Prophet) turned her away. On the ...following day she said: Allah's Messenger, Why do you turn me away? Perhaps, you turn me away as you turned away Ma'iz. By Allah, I have become pregnant. He said: Well, if you insist upon it, then go away until you give birth to (the child). When she was delivered she came with the child (wrapped) in a rag and said: Here is the child whom I have given birth to. He said: Go away and suckle him until you wean him. When she had weaned him, she came to him (the Holy Prophet) with the child who was holding a piece of bread in his hand. She said: Allah's Apostle, here is he as I have weaned him and he eats food. He (the Holy Prophet) entrusted the child to one of the Muslims and then pronounced punishment. And she was put in a ditch up to her chest and he commanded people and they stoned her. "


This study from an Islamic scholar's point of view downloadable in .pdf format argues that Islamic punishments for adultery were more advanced than what came before.  In a broad survey of punishments in many early civilizations he argues that some Muslims after Muhammad neglected his teachings and slid backward in judgement and punishment. The question for Islamic countries is what to do today.

We can see in the below hadiths the foundation for modest veils and robes as man is seen as most vulnerable to the charms of the woman arouse the man's hunger for Zina:




1622. Abu Hurairah (May Allah pleased with him) said: The Prophet (PBUH) said, "Allah has written the very portion of Zina which a man will indulge in. There will be no escape from it. The Zina of the eye is the (lustful) look, the Zina of the ears is the listening (to voluptuous songs or talk), the Zina of the tongue is (the licentious) speech, the Zina of the hand is the (lustful) grip, the Zina of the feet is the walking (to the place where he intends to commit Zina), the heart yearns and desires and the private parts approve all that or disapprove it.'' [Al-Bukhari and Muslim hadiths].


If you wish to explore sex education Muslim style, there are a number of 99 cent Iphone/Ipod Touch/Ipad applications (apps) which  systematically instruct on everything from how to deal with two wives, to gay sex, to contraception, and to photographing your wife while she is nude.

A knowledge of sexuality in Islam is essential to understand the gap between traditional Islam and modern "Western" culture. Sexuality in Islam is largely described by the Qur’an  and hadith, and the rulings of religious leaders' (fatwa) as confined to marital relationships between men and women.
Intimacy  as perceived within
Islam --  encompassing a swathe of life more broad than strictly sex -- is largely to be reserved for marriage.
Explore a rich selection of concise links in Wikipedia under sexual jurisprudence.








ISLAM: SCOPE AND DOCTRINE

The official Wikipedia "portal" to Islam: perhaps the single most useful introductory web source of background information on Islam. Despite its limitations, it will be an important guidepost to any inquiry concerning Islam.

Who Decides: the Qu'ran and other Islamic religious documentes can be differently interpreted to justify vastly different social, moral, and political actions.

Symbols of Islam: in the absence of credible, readable web materials on Islam, Wikipedia fills the vacuum, even though many of its entries have been tagged as needing improvement. This one contains a useful index to its major contributions on Islam.  It amplifies in detail the Wikipedia "portal" to Islam.

Sunni Islam: a Wikipedia portrait. The largest branch comprising 90 percent of the world's Muslim population.

Wahhabi
is the dominant Sunni form of Islam in Saudi Arabia. It has developed considerable influence in the Muslim world in part by funding mosques, schools and social programs.
For a detailed analysis see Global Security, January 2010.

Shia Islam: a Wikipedia portrait. The world's second largest Muslim branch, with a different interpretion of Islamic history.

This is a Wikipedia list of countries listing Muslim population. Islam is the predominant religion in the Middle East, in northern Africa, and in some parts of Asia. Large communities of Muslims are also found in China, the Balkans, and Russia. Other parts of the world host large Muslim immigrant communities; in Western Europe, for instance, Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity, though it represents less than five percent of the total population. Approximately 50 countries are Muslim-majority.

This is a Wikipedia list of approximately 50 countries in which Islam is the majority religion. In a geopolitical sense these countries are often considered to form the Muslim world. The list only contains countries where at least 50 percent of the population is Muslim. The table is presorted by the largest population by country. It can be sorted on other criteria by clicking the tab of the appropriate column at the top of the table. The percentage shows the proportional amount of Muslims out of the total population of each country.

A Wikipedia portrait of the history and culture of the Arab peoples.  Those self-identifying as Arab, however, rarely do so with it as their sole identity. Most hold multiple identities, with a more localized prioritized national identity -- such as Egyptian, Lebanese, or Palestinian -- in addition to further tribal, village and clan identities.

Wikipedia's description of the "Muslim World."

Click on country of choice for Wikipedia portrait of Islam in the following Islam majority countries:

Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Morocco, Iraq, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Syria, Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina, Mali, Senegal, Tunisia, Guinea, Somalia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Sierra Leone, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Lebanon, Kuwait, Albania, Mauritania, Oman, Kosovo, The Gambia, Bahrain, Comoros, Qatar, Djibouti, Brunei, Maldives.

Islam in Europe.

Islam in the United States; a list of prominent American Muslims.


Explore the history and current practices of Islamic missionary activity. Wikipedia.

Surprising as it seems today,  Americans before the Revolutionary War were familiar with the Qur’an , even read it, according to a Boston Globe article by a Brown University librarian.  It had none of the threatening aura it carries today.  Many of the founding fathers had a high opinion of Muslims. Despite its foreign air,  John Adams’s Koran had a strong New England pedigree. The first Koran published in the United States, it was printed in Springfield in 1806.  Surprisingly, there was a long tradition of New Englanders reading in the Islamic scripture.

Here is a nuanced portrait of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is charged by some with controlling America's Mosques and Islamic Centers. Reminds a bit of the issues raised by Stalin's old Comintern, the international grouping of communist groups which became a tool of Moscow. Leadership in the Islamic world is much more diffuse.

This search engine out of the University of Southern California allows one to search words and concepts in both the Qur’an  and the hadiths, which are addendums or interpretations of the Qur’an . The hadiths are controversial because some add things not in the Qur’an  -- like the stoning of adulterers. Some practices by fundamentalist Muslims may be from literal interpretations of the Qur’an  or from later hadiths which are no longer universally accepted. So far I have found no references to beheadings in the Qur’an. There may be some reference in some hadiths.  In some cases practices have been adopted by Muslims from traditions of areas to which Islam has spread.

Here is a useful online Qur'an at the University of Southern California which allows one to compare three English translations of each phrase.

This online Qur’an  also has  a search engine to check for concepts. However, if you try to read chapter by chapter, you will find the text broken up by the Arabic version.

Here is another very convenient way to survey and read the Qur’an  online.  However there is no search engine to check out contents.

Perhaps the most useful electronic version of the Qur’an  comes on applications ("apps") for the Iphone/ Ipod Touch/ Ipad. One of the most useful is "alQur’an ," which is free and contains access to about 15 English translations and to many in other languages.

Those of you with the Iphone/Ipod Touch/Ipad can also download a marvelous application ("app") allowing you to explore four hadiths which contain some of  the most controversial teachings of Islam, including "holy war" or jihad. This app contains a search function which allows you to check out four hadiths.

Secrets of the Qur’an : a multimedia YouTube reconstruction of the origins of Islam. The Qur’an  has a number of different translations and has been interpreted in many ways -- much like the Bible -- in accord with the beliefs and politics of those who interpret it. Similarly English translations differ according to the orientation and politics of the translator. Some are by Turkish scholars, some by Indian, some influenced by the Saudis. This documentary hints at the fascinating bonds between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

A Survey of the English Translations of the Qur’an : (Middle East Quarterly) In the past Muslims were reluctant to translate the Qur’an  into English -- for fear the translator might intentionally or unintentionally move the meaning in unorthodox directions. When English and other missionaries began to make translations (many in the 18th Century and on), concern grew that the missionaries were changing the meanings in ways hostile to Islam. Gradually Muslim scholars began to make their own translations into non-Arabic languages to insure the meanings were faithful to the Arabic.

An example of how modernizers in the Islamic tradition modify the substance or interpretation of certain hadiths (accounts of Muhammad's words or deeds) to make the Qur’an  and hadiths more compatible with modern times. These Turkish scholars argue that by removing incorrect hadiths they are recreating a more authentic version of Muhammad's practices (a higher place for women), a version distorted by later additions.

Different strains of Islam interpret the Qur’an  differently, as do different English language translations. The English version translated by Turkish scholar Ali Unal is less orthodox than some -- and uses an easily read modern style of English. This evolution is very similar to what has happened to the Bible in the Christian tradition -- with fundamentalists stressing the authoritarian, sometimes violent verses of the Old Testament and liberals spotlighting love and social service found in the New Testament Gospels.

What's Really Wrong With the Middle East: A very useful website covering many aspects of Middle East politics and life by the Middle East Editor of the Manchester Guardian.

The Roots of Islamic Rage, by Bernard Lewis: a noted scholar with a relatively dark view of Islam attributes the rage to the tendency in contemporary Islam to reject modernism and secularism.

A survey of Islam with many useful resources on the website of "ReligiousTolerance," Ontario, Canada.


POLITICAL ISLAM

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, 1993, a Harvard political scientist's classic analysis of an inherent geopolitical and ideological clash between Islamic and Western Civilization. "It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will be the battle lines of the future."





Graham E. Fuller, A World Without Islam: Here are some reviews of a book just released by a former colleague of mine, the former CIA station chief in Kabul, Afghanistan, former associate chief of long term intelligence analysis for the CIA and former Rand Corporation political scientist, Fuller is a critic of current U.S. Afghan policy -- and argues that fundamental geopolitical rifts, rather than the religion of Islam, lie behind many of today's conflicts. Islam may serve as the primary banner to reinforce and mobilize support for communal, ethnic and political resentments, he writes -- warning against viewing current conflicts as simply an expression of Islamic values or a "clash of civilizations."





Whither Political Islam:  Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani argues in the January, 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs that thinking of modern jihad as simply a cultural extension of Islam is a common, and unfortunate mistake. He cites two new books by Gilles Kepel, The War for Muslim Minds, and Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam, as better historical and sociological explanations, but they are only a start.  Roy argues that the Koran's most important feature is not what it actually says, but what Muslims say about it. "Not surprisingly," Roy observes, "they disagree, while all stressing that the Koran is unambiguous and clear-cut."

Political Islam: a collection of documents and writings, Mt. Holyoke College. A wide ranging collection of articles, historical and contemporary by Middle Eastern analysts of many persuasions.


THREE BACKGROUND OVERVIEWS

Wikipedia: Political aspects of Islam: a historical and contemporary survey.

Wikipedia: islamism. "Political Islam" is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system, and that modern Muslims must return to their roots of their religion, and unite politically.

Wikipedia: Jihad.  A wide range of opinions exist about the exact meaning of jihad.  This general article gives a useful overview noting the sometimes different meanings given to it by Western and Middle Eastern scholars.

Muslims use the word in a religious context to refer to three types of struggles: an internal struggle to maintain faith, the struggle to improve the Muslim society, or the struggle in a holy war. The differences of opinion are the result of different interpretation of the two most important sources in Islam, the Qur’an  and the ahadith (singular: hadith).




Muslims in China's Northwest Xinkiang Province


HUMAN RIGHTS BY ISLAMIC COUNTRY


Use this Wikipedia list of countries in which Islam is the majority religion of the people to gain basic religious and political data on the country whose human rights record you explore.

In a geopolitical sense these countries are often considered to form the Muslim world. The list only contains countries where at least fifty percent of the population is Muslim. The table is presorted by the largest population by country. It can be sorted on other criteria by clicking the tab of the appropriate column at the top of the table. The percentage shows the proportional amount of Muslims out of the total population of each country.

Click on country of choice within the  Human Rights Watch  Report (2010) on the following Muslim majority countries:

Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Morocco, Iraq, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Syria, Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina, Mali, Senegal, Tunisia, Guinea, Somalia, Axerbaijan, Tajikistan, Sierra Leone, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Lebanon, Kuwait, Albania, Mauritania, Oman, Kosovo, The Gambia, Bahrain, Comoros, Qatar, Djibouti, Brunei, Maldives.


Click on country of choice within the Amnesty International Human Rights Report (2010)  on the following Muslim majority countries:

Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Morocco, Iraq, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Syria, Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina, Mali, Senegal, Tunisia, Guinea, Somalia, Axerbaijan, Tajikistan, Sierra Leone, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Lebanon, Kuwait, Albania, Mauritania, Oman, Kosovo, The Gambia, Bahrain, Comoros, Qatar, Djibouti, Brunei, Maldives..


Click on country of choice within  the U.S. State Department Human Rights Report on the following Muslim majority countries:

Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Morocco, Iraq, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Syria, Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina, Mali, Senegal, Tunisia, Guinea, Somalia, Axerbaijan, Tajikistan, Sierra Leone, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Lebanon, Kuwait, Albania, Mauritania, Oman, Kosovo, The Gambia, Bahrain, Comoros, Qatar, Djibouti, Brunei, Maldives.



RELIGIOUS DEFAMATION

Since 1999 several heavily Islamic countries have argued for international restrictions on defamation of religion, a position Americans tend to oppose in the name of free speech. When should words or book burnings be regulated -- and when do they become a form of symbolic violence, symbolic terrorism?  Americans do make some exceptions: KKK cross burnings are generally beyond the pale. Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, PBS.

The Supreme Court upheld in 2003 a 50 year old Virginia law making it illegal for Ku Klux Klansmen and others to burn crosses with the intention of intimidating or harming. What about acts of "defamation" which are like "yelling fire in a crowded theater?" Should they be permitted even though death of injury may result

In 2009 the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a non-binding resolution, backed by several Islamic states, condemning defamation of religion as a human rights violation. While many see this as protecting Islam, in theory it would also condemn anti-Semitic and anti-Christian defamation.

"Crying Fire in a Crowded Theater:" the famous quote from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1919). This limit on free speech and action in America is notoriously difficult to apply in real life, as it requires "a clear and present danger" of imminent harm in order to transcend rights of free speech.

The classic 2005 case of a backlash by Islamic demonstrators against Danish newspaper cartoons seen to insult, to defame Muhammad.  Check this YouTube video to understand how Anti-Western organizers can sometimes use such "defamations" to organize an emotional mob. The "defamation" works to strengthen those pushing hostility toward Western countries.

Radio Islam: a particularly virulent anti-Semitic website run by Swedish/Moroccan Ahmed Rami. This extreme strain in Islam portrays Jews as a kind of Satan -- and undermines the efforts of those Muslims in the U.S. and elsewhere who seek outreach to Christians and Jews.

A profile of Ahmed Rami, an anti-Semite and holocaust denier who publishes "Radio Islam." in website form. This kind of anti-Semitism, of course, fuels anti-Islamic feeling in Israel and the West.

The "Nation of Islam," now headed by Minister Louis Farrakhan, identifies with the Anti-Semitism widespsread in the Islamic world. It develops a national posture which calls on African Americans to emulate the success of American Jews in many aspects of American life -- while decrying what it calls a Jewish record of exploiting American Blacks. This is a "Black Nationalist" movement separate from mainstream Islam.

Some 42 percent of Muslims in the US are Afro-American. That amounts to 2.1 million, although all such statistics are unreliable. Examine this website on Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan's shift toward mainstream Sunni Islam -- and the doctrinal differences remaining. The NOI places the Bible on a higher footing than does traditional Sunni. (After breaking with NOI's Elijah Muhammad, Farrakhan's predecessor). Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim before his assassination in 1965)

Here is Malcolm X's account of his trip to Mecca, part of his conversion from Nation of Islam (NOI), a powerful African American form of Islam, to mainstream Sunni Islam. He broke from NOI leader Elijah Muhammad and formed a Sunni style American mosque before his assassination in 1965.


This article on English translations of the Qur’an  also explains the Black Muslim (Nation of Islam) choice of a 1917 translation which denies the "miracle" of virgin birth and tends to be interpreted by some to be both anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. Other translations are said to be more faithful to the original Arabic.


ISLAM AND JOURNALISM

Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies: one of the few web based Islam resources for journalists on the web. There is a stunning shortage of usable resources on the web -- and no major "gateway page" which can guide a visitor to web resources. This plays into the hands of extremists of all kind. For now Wikipedia fills the vacuum.

Covering Religions: A Primer on Journalism's Best Beat: religion story ideas and sources.

Nieman Reports: Islam; Reporting in Context and With Complexity. Examine this list of sometimes very useful articles which can be read online. "This collection of articles explores the challenges journalists encounter in their coverage of Islam in the wake of 9/11. Words and images that follow speak to these difficulties but also address ways in which journalist -- and scholars who study Islam -- are striving to anchor their work in a knowledgeable context and imbue it with essential layers of complexity. "

The Paley Center for Media: Media and the Muslim World: Enriching the American  Dialogue. Download here the complete report in .pdf form and offer your input. A 2009 conference.




ISLAMIC EDUCATION

Zaytuna College, Berkeley, Californis's new Islamic college will undoubtedly be under scrutiny for the content and atmosphere surrounding its courses on Islamic theology and Arabic -- not to mention its finances.

Inside Higher Ed: here is a more detailed article on Zaytuna College, Berkeley's first Islamic College. Its organizers have long term goals to create a full college of more than current majors in Islamic history and Arabic. They have sometimes compared its goal with the Jesuit Georgetown in Washington, DC.

Australian Islamic College founders make it clear one purpose of "overseas" Islamic education is to protect youth from losing their Islamic identity. In Australian history ethnic/religious groups seeking to retain their separateness has sometimes been as controversial as in America. See Wikipedia entry for conviction on corruption charges. The Australian details the charges. See a video history.

YouTube segment on Islamic education in Australia: just how similar will American Islamic colleges be to the model in Australia? Are these schools encouraging of a more open, tolerant form of Islam -- or are they reservoirs for anti-Western propaganda? All topics for journalism inquiry.



ISLAMIC JEWISH RELATIONS

Wikipedia is a useful source on controversial topic of relationship between Islam and Judaism. In some instances Islam tolerated and encouraged coexistence and flowering of both cultures but with limitations. In some instances Jews were forced to convert. The historic interaction began in the 7th century with the origin and spread of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula.

Wikipedia provides a thorough survey of different theories and practices concerning anti-Semitism in Islam. This is both historical and contemporary.

Propaganda and history: this account from Israeli point of view stresses limitations, abuses against Jews by Islam during its early period after its 7th Century rise. Islamic accounts stress co-operation, partnership, Jews turning to Islam for protection from Christians.

Propaganda and history: this essay stresses early tolerance of Islam for Judaism -- appears to gloss over repressive parts of Islamic rule. Jewish accounts more likely to stress restrictions and abuses carried out against Jews in early days of Islam.

In this brief Wikipedia history, we see the defacto ethnic cleansing which uprooted both Jews and Palestinians with the establishment of Israel. We also see how religious doctrine was used by both sides to enhance control. Growing Jewish immigration from Europe and the move to establish Jewish dominance in a Jewish state exaggerated the existing divide between peoples competing for land and power.

An exhaustive Wikipedia examination of the dealings of Jerusalem's Grand Mufti with Hitler and other fascists during WWII. The anti-Zionist Mufti sought Hitler's help against both the Britain and against growing Jewish immigration to Palestine Some see today's radical Islam as the descendant of this man, a view rejected by other scholars. All of this adds to the emotional content of today's disputes.

Here is a You Tube video examining the alliance between Hitler and the Islamic Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Hitler hoped to exploit Arab--Jewish rivalries in Palestine and to appeal to Arab nationalism and anti-semitism in areas where Hitler's enemies -- Britain and France -- had established colonies over Islamic subjects. The heritage of a proud culture having been ruled by the West, is even today a source of anti-European, anti-American emotion -- as the U.S. moves forward to establish protectorates in Iraq and perhaps Afghanistan. This video alleges Hitler openly revealed the coming Holocaust to the Mufti.

We can see that one of the central propaganda points of conservative anti-Islamic nationalists is to link Islam with Hitler. Propagandists usually seek to link their enemy with someone or something which is in disrepute. This is not to say that that there were not alliances between some Islamic leaders and the Nazis in WWII. Indeed we find among many Islamic militants a deep distrust of the West and a kind of conspiratorial, almost delusional thinking which is very similar to the sentiments voiced Islamophobes in the West.

Long, long ago, before Israelis and Muslim Arabs between locked in a deadly conflict over control of Palestine, Jews and Muslims lived together in peace on many occasions over history.  See this You Tube video on Muslim heroes of the Holocaust. Today the divide seems fierce and unrelenting. While the conflict takes religious forms, a battle over land and who runs what has become the Israeli state has replaced historic coexistence. The notes by Muslims attached to the bottom of this Youtube post show how bitter is the divide.


Jews in the Arab World: a useful bibliographic and essay source by the MiddleEast editor of The Manchester Guardian



ANTI-ISLAMIC THINKING

These three Wikipedia essays are very useful for undserstanding the broad range of reasons why Islam is and has been under criticism:

Islamophobia: a survey of emotional fears of Islam;
Islam under criticism: a survey of less emotional criticism of Islam; Islamism under criticism: a survey of criticism of Political Islam.

Islamophobia 1994 to 2010: a collection of useful resosurces on the rise of hate specch and violence against Muslims, on the website of ReligiousTolerance, Ontario, Canada.

One of the central propaganda points of conservative anti-Islamic nationalists is to link Islam with Hitler.

 Propagandists usually seek to link their enemy with someone or something which is in disdain. This is not to say that Islam is not sometimes associated with authoritarianism or that there were not alliances between some Islamic leaders and the Nazis in WWII. Indeed we find among many Islamic militants a deep distrust of the West and a kind of conspiratorial, almost delusional thinking which is also characteristic of extreme anti-Islamic militants.

"Islam: why I am buying a gun": see YouTube segment for the most fundamental fears of an American who sees his country as about to be swamped by hostile and murderous Muslims pushing Sharia Law. It is hardly surprising as Americans are fighting in more than two Islamic countries with more than 3,000 killed by terrorists espousing Islam.

A classic. vivid, violent example of how YouTube is used to spread anti-Islam propaganda through graphic photos of atrocities and warnings on the threat of Sharia Law.  All kinds of propaganda wars are fought out on YouTube with uploads by governments, private pressure groups, and individuals.

This profile of "Jihad Watch's" leader, Robert Spencer, gives useful insights into the emergence of anti-Islam ideology as the new foundation for conservative American nationalism. An emotional fear of Islam plays the role that fear of communism did in the past.

A comprehensive, interesting, but shrill anti-Islam webside, FaithFreedom.org with contributions from both the West and the Islamic World. The message of this site is that it is war to the death. Background.

"Sand Nigger" and "Towel Head" are widely used anti-Muslim epithets in the United States and elsewhere. Here is a listing of ethic slurs.

Many factors influence Hollywood stereotypes of "foreign peoples" -- whether they be Chinese, Japanese, or Muslims. It works both ways since "overseas peoples" can form stereotypes of the West, sometimes through what comes to them from Hollywood. World War II shaped images of evil Japanese; Korea shaped images of threatening Chinese hordes.  Palestinian terrorism of the Seventies and then Al-Qaeda of 9/11 brought in a whole generation of evil terrorists shading over to evil Muslims. Check this YouTube on how Hollywood has portrayed Arabs which, contrary to its treatment of Asians, has been almost universally negative.

My, he's Good!! Glenn Beck on YouTube walks the fine line between posing as a reformer and stirring up prejudice against Muslims. A good propagandist knows how to exploit the weaknesses, the vices of his opponent -- such as a Muslim beheading his wife. Beck's forte is to make a crime seem standard Islamic behavior.






Last updated October 6, 2010
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