Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

To be 'Mossie' or 'Aussie' - that's the question!

By Nayeefa Chowdhury - posted Thursday, 7 September 2006


Interrogations like: “Are you an Australian first, or Muslim first?” reflect the ignorance on the part of the questioner. Either he or she is not aware of what it means to be a Muslim, or confused about what it takes to be an Australian, or both.

What is Islam like? Does it constitute an anti-thesis of “Aussie values”? Are they mutually exclusive?

Islam is the name of a faith - a belief in the existence of the one and only omnipotent, omniscient Creator of the universe, and equality of the humankind. Faith entails observance of a set of principles, so does Islam. It promotes human rights principles.

Advertisement

While glancing through Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility the other night, I felt so privileged being a Muslim woman. A very few Aussies would know that while the laws of inheritance that governed the English society in Austen's day - namely Agnatic primogeniture - left the two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, and their mother penniless; Islam bestowed the rights of inheritance upon the Muslim women 12 centuries ago.

Consider what Koran promoted during the seventh century: “From what is left by parents and those nearest related, there is a share for men and a share for women …” (4:7) and compare them with the laws of inheritance in any western society during the mid-19th century.

Amazing how short-lived human memory could be. Do we realise that what is recognised as the Western civilisation today owes much to the Islamic civilisation of yesterday?

I read with interest the opinion piece titled “Fuzzy thinking on religion” by Bill Muehlenberg (On Line Opinion, August 24, 2006). Muehlenberg is right to point out to Pamela Bone that the Judeo-Christian religious tradition gave birth to the notion of human rights. The modern-day notion of human rights has its origin in the 17th century enlightenment philosophical thought, which can be traced back to the natural law in mediaeval Christian thought.

Thomas Aquinas is considered to be the most famous classical proponent of the Natural Law. However, Muehlenberg stops short of acknowledging that Thomas Aquinas was influenced by the already well established Islamic tradition of huquq al-‘ibad (the rights of people) and his first principle of natural law is the Koranic concept of al-amr bi’l ma’ruf wa al-nahy ‘ann al-munkar (enjoining the good and forbidding the evil).

It is interesting to note that Muehlenberg again stops short of acknowledging that the modern science is indebted in many ways to the Islamic civilisation.

Advertisement

A seminar (pdf 126KB) was recently organised by the University of Melbourne on the topic of Islam and the Transformation of Science, presented by George Saliba, professor of Arabic and Islamic science at Columbia University. He attempted to clarify that “the commonly-held opinion that the role of Islamic science can be summarily characterised as preserving Greek science ignores various scientific activities that were generated by the requirement of the religious practices and rituals of Islam that were either unknown or very poorly developed in the Greek tradition”.

The perceived clash between the Islamic and Western values is a fallacy.

Are Islamic values synonymous to Arab customs? Let us not forget that the Koranic Laws of inheritance for women were revealed in the land of Arabia at a time when female infants used to be buried alive and women were considered as a commodity. Islam is not to be confused with the incompatible social mores of a particular region. The so-called followers of Islam account for a fifth of world’s population, hailing primarily from the Middle East, South Caucasus, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The Muslim world has absorbed the Islamic faith into its richly diverse customs and traditions. What is considered to be the norm among the villagers in the southern region of Bangladesh might be alien to the urban pop-culture of the capital, Dhaka; not to speak of the customs observed in Nigeria or Turkey.

A Muslim, by definition, is a person who acts in accordance with the principles of Islam. Merely sporting a luxuriant beard or a full hijab would make anybody as much a Muslim as holding a navy blue passport makes Paul Charles Denyer a committed Australian. Let us be fair and judge Islam by not the criminal acts of a terrorist, but by its primary sources, namely the Koran (the canonical text) and sunnah (Prophetic practice), which formulate its principles.

The Islamic rituals of the payment of zakat, five daily prayers, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca are not mere perfunctory expressions, but they are actions necessitating lifelong sacrifice for global harmony and justice.

The Koran is unequivocal in maintaining: “O believers, stand out firmly for justice and bear true witness before God, even though it be against yourselves, your parents, or your kinsfolk ...” (4:135). Let us explore how the Koran perceives of these rituals: “(It is) a warning to people who pray but who are careless of their devotions, whose prayers are only for show; refusing to share even the smallest kindness” (107: 4-7). “It is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward the east or west (while in prayer); rather it is righteousness … to spend out of your substance for the needy and destitute … to honour and fulfil the contracts which you have made … (2: 177).

Consider what the Koran says about the sacrificial animals slaughtered on the eve of a major Muslim festival: “It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches God. It is your piety that reaches Him” (22:36).

The last prophet of Islam, Mohammed, was reported to have said about fasting: “Whoever does not abandon falsehood in word and action, and speaking bad words to others, then God has no need that he should (fast) leaving his food and drink” (S. Bukhari 8.73.83).

He taught us about human brotherhood: “None of you are a true believer until you desire the same for the others which you desire for yourselves” (S. Bukhari 1.2.12). Mohammed firmly stood against prejudice and racism: “An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white except by righteousness and good action” (Last Sermon).

As an aside, allow me to denounce the attitude of misguiding people with misinformation or quoting references out of contexts for paltry material gain. Strapping explosives to bodies has got absolutely nothing to do with Islam. It is rather all about human instinct of self-defence, often cloaked in a religious package that is capable of evoking mass mobilisation. It is altogether a different story.

There is no doubt that there are some elements in Islam that stand in stark contrast to the Australian pop-culture of pornography, gambling, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

The Koran says about gambling and intoxicants: “In them is great harm and also some profits for people, but their harm far outweighs their profits” (2:219). Needless to say, the consumption of alcohol is prohibited in Islam. Islam always abides by the philosophy that prevention is better than cure. Perhaps, this philosophy deserves better attention especially while one in eight adults in Australia drink at a high risk level (The Age, August 25, 2006).

Add pornography to alcoholism, and you will get precisely the explanations for the steady increase in sexual assaults and incests on the record in Australia for the past ten years.

So, Islam tells you to become no-nonsense people who are serious about life and determined to help make the world a better place for all, upholding truth, justice, and social harmony. The Koran exhorts its followers to strive for success and not to sit idly by - “God does not change a nation’s condition until the people change themselves" (13:11). I leave it to the readers to decipher whether or not it is possible for the “Mossies” in the true sense of the word (i.e. the followers of the Islamic principles), to remain true blue Aussies, promoting true Australian values.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

157 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Nayeefa Chowdhury is the founding director of an Internet-based Islamic information service (Light-of-Islam.net). She writes in English & Bengali, and has contributed chapters to two books, also published in periodicals, including magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Nayeefa Chowdhury

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Nayeefa Chowdhury
Article Tools
Comment 157 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy