'We must overcome our misgivings about 'God' both because of the word's intrinsic, historical merit and because it empowers us to communicate with our Jewish, Christian and other English-speaking neighbors in a meaningful way.'
An Islamic scholar spoke to a crowd of about 450 people at Western Michigan University on Feb. 19 with the message that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same God.
He also brought a message specifically for the many Muslims who were part of the audience: Failure to use the English word "God," in addition to the Arabic word "Allah," gives the impression to Christians and Jews that Muslims do not worship the same God.
Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, chairman of the board and scholar-in-residence of the Chicago-based Nawawi Foundation, explained the history behind God's many names and emphasized his belief that adherents of the three religions worship the same deity, even though they do so in different ways.
Abd-Allah was brought to WMU by the Muslim Students' Association, in collaboration with the Arab Student Association. His foundation is a nonprofit institution that works to spread teachings about Islam in the U.S. through research and education.
In his speech, titled "One God, Many Names: Muslims, Christians and Jews All Call Upon the Same God," Abd-Allah said the three religious groups all invoke the God of Abraham. He said this is a fact clearly affirmed in the Bible and in the Quran, the Islamic holy book....
The weight of a name As far as names used for God, Abd-Allah said all of them are "beautiful" and meaningful. But while the name Allah is considered to have a unique sanctity for Muslims, he said English-speaking Muslims should not use the name exclusively. He called such exclusive use "a very ill-advised position" that affirms the notion that the Muslim God and the Christian and Jewish God are not the same God.
"We must overcome our misgivings about 'God' both because of the word's intrinsic, historical merit and because it empowers us to communicate with our Jewish, Christian and other English-speaking neighbors in a meaningful way," he advised Muslims in his 2004 essay.
He said the belief that Muslims worship a God other than the deity revered by Christians and Jews has been detrimental to the way Muslims are viewed in America.
American religious conservatives such as the Christian Coalition's Pat Robertson and evangelical Franklin Graham, he said, have erroneously spread the idea that the Muslim God is somehow lesser than the Christian God. For Robertson, he wrote, "the world's troubles turn on the question of 'whether Hubal, the moon god of Mecca known as Allah,' is supreme or whether the Judeo-Christian Jehovah, God of the Bible is supreme." Abd-Allah debunked that notion, writing that Hubal was the chief pagan idol of Mecca and bore no theological or historical connection to Allah.
In discussing the history of different names for God, Abd-Allah said biblical terms such as Elohim come from the same Semitic root as the word Allah and basically mean "the one who is worshipped." In Arabic-speaking countries, he noted, non-Muslims refer to their God as Allah.
"God and his names are part of a universal human legacy," Abd-Allah said. "It's very important for us to understand the beauty of the word God."
In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine's Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety. St. Catherine's Monastery is located at the foot of Mt. Sinai and is the world's oldest monastery. It possesses a huge collection of Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world heritage site. It also boasts the oldest collection of Christian icons. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.
The Promise to St. Catherine:
"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."
Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, but non-Muslims are allowed to practice their faiths. Muslims, who make up around 65% of the Southeast country's 27 million population, are bound by Islamic family laws, while civil laws apply to non-Muslims.
KUALA LUMPUR: In an attempt to ease interfaith conflicts that have strained race relations, Malaysia on Thursday banned the conversion of children without both parents' consent.
The predominantly Muslim nation's decision follows the highly publicized case of Indira Gandhi, a 34-year-old ethnic Indian Hindu woman whose estranged husband embraced Islam and then converted their children to the religion as well.
Malaysia's legal affairs minister Nazri Aziz said on Thursday that minors were to be bound by the common religion of their parents while they were married, even if one parent later becomes a Muslim.
Islamic law will also apply only from the point of a person's conversion to the faith and is not retrospective, he told a press conference.
''We have to resolve this once and for all. I don't think we should be deciding on a piecemeal basis every time a conversion issue crops up,'' Nazri said. ''We have decided on a long-term solution because we expect more cases will occur, as we are a multiracial country,'' he added.
Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, but non-Muslims are allowed to practice their faiths. Muslims, who make up around 65% of the Southeast country's 27 million population, are bound by Islamic family laws, while civil laws apply to non-Muslims.
Nazri said the attorney-general had been instructed to look at relevant legislation that would need to be amended to effect the decision. The attorney-general would also be asked approach the Malay ruler's titular heads in nine of Malaysia's 13 states who are in charge of Islamic affairs in their respective states to seek consent for amendments to related state Islamic laws, Nazri added.
There has been growing unease among Malaysia's Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities, who are mostly Buddhists, Christians and Hindus, over numerous complaints of discrimination and unfair treatment by the authorities when seeking legal redress following cases of divorce and religious conversion.
SANA'A, April 12- In a kind gesture of religious tolerance, the Muslim Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW) provided Yemeni Jews in Amran with clothes and gifts on the important Jewish celebration on Passover last Wednesday.
"During Muslim celebrations, the society donates clothes and food," said Mohammad Al-Qubati, the general manager of the CSSW. "Jews are part of Yemeni society and we are trying to reach all of society's needy groups."
The CSSW provided about 50 Jews living in Raida with new clothes and gifts for Passover, most of whom are orphans, widows and other less fortunate.
On the occasion, Rabbi Yahya Yussif in Sana'a wished wellbeing and protection for all Yemeni people: "On behalf of all the Jewish community, I thank the President for his constant care of the Yemeni Jews," he said.
Passover is the most important Jewish celebration. Jews eat only unleavened bread made from sorghum during the holiday. They do this in remembrance of the raw dough that their ancestors hurriedly grabbed to take with them into the desert when they fled enslavement in Egypt, according to the Torah.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Officials in a Florida county say a Muslim group's ads promoting Islam will remain on local buses until the contract ends.
Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter said the county commission might change its policy on religious ads. But she said Broward would almost certainly be sued if the ads were removed prematurely, The Miami Herald reported.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations paid $60,000 for exterior advertising on 50 Broward County buses. The ads have the message "ISLAM: The Way of Life of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad."
Some Jewish groups have protested the ads, describing them as anti-Semitic and as provocative given the conflict in Gaza. Joe Kaufman, chairman of Americans Against Hate, organized a protest Friday outside the county government center that attracted 100 people.
Fresh from being tapped to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, Orange County Pastor Rick Warren spoke Saturday night to about 800 members of the Muslim Public Affairs Council at its convention in Long Beach.
Warren's theme was about people getting along, forgetting their differences and focusing on areas of agreement. The audience cheered him, and many people rose to their feet.
Among the first to stand was singer Melissa Etheridge, a lesbian, who performed for the audience.
Recognizing the potential for controversy, Warren said near the beginning of his speech: "Let me just get this over very quickly. I love Muslims. And for the media's purpose, I happen to love gays and straights."
He said people ask him what he prays for when it comes to Obama. "I pray for the president the same things I pray for myself: integrity, humility and compassion," he said.
A council spokeswoman acknowledged that some members objected to the choice of the evangelical pastor as the keynote speaker.
"We're always looking to work with unlikely partners, and I think he's a new kind of evangelical," said spokeswoman Edina Lekovic. "We have a lot in common."
The opening was marked with a simple ceremony in the lobby with Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Jain religious leaders.
MUMBAI, India - A Hindu priest chanted prayers and a Muslim cleric read from the Quran as the Trident Hotel at the Oberoi complex reopened amid tight security today, three weeks after it was targeted in a rampage by suspected militants.
....
candles flickered on the tables and flowers filled the sparkling, spotless lobby. With smiles, employees in ivory saris handed guests a yellow flower or a small bundle of roses as they arrived.
The opening was marked with a simple ceremony in the lobby with Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Jain religious leaders.
"There is no fear. We see the courage of the people and the staff," said Kritika Srinivasan, 28, a regular guest at the hotel who went inside to congratulate the staff. "We have to show them (the attackers) that they can't break our courage and solidarity."
RAJKOT: In perhaps the first-of-its-kind nikah solemnised before Lord Ram in the communally sensitive Gujarat, two Muslim couples tied the knot in a Junagadh temple with a maulvi reciting Koranic verses in the backdrop of Ram dhun. Members of both communities joined the ceremony and dined together.
Abdul Sheikh (48), who works at Junagadh Civil Hospital approached Satyam Seva Mandal, a local NGO, seeking financial help for the weddings of his son Asif and daughter, Najma. "We were ready to help. But we told the family that the wedding ceremony has to take place in our building which houses a Ram mandir. They happily agreed," said Mansukh Vaja, a local activist.
"We saw this as an opportunity to set an example. I discussed the issue with my relatives and our maulavi saheb readily approved the idea," said Sheikh.
A top Muslim representative has responded to remarks by a top Vatican official who said marriages between Muslims and Catholic Christians should not be encouraged. "Mixed marriages do not exist. The so-called mixed marriage with a Muslim, in reality, is a normal marriage. Islam has nothing to do with it," said Ejaz Ahmad, member of the Italian government's consultative Islamic Council and representative of Rome's Pakistani community told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"Marriage with a Muslim can fail, as it can fail with an Italian...cultural differences mean richness and not a threat."
"I have known my wife Valentina for more than 18 years and we have been married for 14. Our problems are work, the house and our children's health and our strengths are both Islam and Catholicism, thus our children are growing with both sets of values."
Ahmad was responding to a statement by Monsignor Mariano Crociata, the new Secretary General of The Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), saying that "Mixed marriages with Muslims are not to be encouraged."
"This is the challenge: remain Islamic but integrating yourself in a society that is not majority Muslim. This will ensure the possibility of coexistence," said Crociata.
Justice Kabir rejected the contention that the Act did not prohibit a valid Hindu marriage between a Hindu and another person professing a different faith: "We are unable to agree with such submission in view of the definite scheme of the 1955 Act."
New Delhi: A marriage between a Hindu girl and a Christian boy, who misrepresented himself as Hindu, solemnised and registered under the Hindu marriage law, is invalid and cannot be sustained as a legal wedding, the Supreme Court has held.
A Bench consisting of Justices Altamas Kabir and Aftab Alam held that for a marriage to be valid under the Hindu law, both the boy and the girl should be Hindus.
According to the Preamble to the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955: "An Act to amend and codify the law relating to marriage among Hindus. Section 5 of the Act makes it clear that a marriage may be solemnised between any two Hindus if the conditions contained in the said Section were fulfilled. In other words, in the event the conditions remain unfulfilled, a marriage between two Hindus could not be solemnised."
Writing the judgment, Justice Kabir rejected the contention that the Act did not prohibit a valid Hindu marriage between a Hindu and another person professing a different faith: "We are unable to agree with such submission in view of the definite scheme of the 1955 Act."
Santa Fe faith leaders spoke out Tuesday condemning the acrid anti-Muslim ideas that have surfaced during the presidential election campaign.
Imam Aziz Eddebbarh, leader of Taha Mosque on Cordova Road and president of the Santa Fe Interfaith Leadership Alliance, said he wanted to voice concerns about a statement by an organizer of Otero County Republicans calling Muslims "our enemies" and religious attacks that have appeared on television and the Internet.
"American Muslims share our American ideals and have been a vibrant and contributing segment of our society," said Eddebbarh, who spoke at a press conference at United Church of Santa Fe.
Later, Eddebbarh said the mosque where he worships with other Muslims has been targeted with phone messages and visits he describes as "hostile." But he's more worried about what young Muslim children hear from classmates at school about their faith. "It's having a effect on all Muslims across the nation ... especially the silence and what has been allowed to be said. It's also the subtle message; it makes you feel like Muslims are second-class citizens," he said.
Eddebbarh said he supported statements from former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week that condemned hate speech against Muslims.
Other leaders reported that churches have been inundated with faxes, mail and other materials that contain fear-mongering messages about Islam. In addition to the Otero County organizer statement, a widely circulated DVD called Obsession that reinforces prejudice against Islam has been disseminated here by a group called The Judeo-Christian View, said United's Rev. Talitha Arnold.
Joining Eddebbarh and Arnold were leaders from some of the more than a dozen area churches who have signed on to "an interfaith statement of support for Muslims" including Lutherans, Catholics, Quakers, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterians, Jews and Methodists.
"If all Muslims are truly our enemies, what is next? Round them up and put them in camps so we can keep an eye on them? That's ludicrous," said Rabbi Marvin Schwab. "We must as a nation stand against prejudice and intolerance and hate. And if we don't, we have to question why we even exists as a nation."
A year ago, 138 Muslim leaders from 40 nations addressed a plea for interfaith dialogue to the leaders of the world's Christian churches in a bid to diminish the influence of extremism around the world. That initiative, "A Common Word Between Us and You," led to a conference between Muslim and U.S. Protestant leaders at Yale University last summer and another last week with Church of England leaders at Cambridge University, to be followed next month by a meeting with Roman Catholic leaders at the Vatican. Ali Gomaa, who as the grand mufti (chief Islamic jurist) in Cairo is the senior Sunni Muslim figure in Egypt, was one of the Common Word signatories. He presided over the Cambridge conference with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. newsweek's Stryker McGuire interviewed Gomaa at a local hotel. At one point, their chat was interrupted by a carpenter's power saw. "That noise," joked Gomaa, "is from the sphere of terrorism." Excerpts:
Newsweek: What signs of progress have you seen since the Common Word initiative was launched?
Gomaa: Meetings such as this one at Cambridge, working with Muslims and Christians because they represent much of the world's population, are a sign of progress. Our willingness to listen to each other is the first sign of the melting away of the iceberg between the two sides. It's really something of a small miracle. We need to go step by step. The massiveness of the current economic crisis is something else that we must come together to solve. A crisis in the United States affects the street trader in Cairo. We no longer have the option to live in isolation. We Muslims and Christians must be successful so that we can be an example to the rest of the world. We hope that Common Word becomes a massive international peace movement.
One of your goals has been to reduce extremism, including terrorism, in the Islamic world. Are the radicals listening?
We have two objectives here. The first is to reach young people. That is where the problems begin and where we must begin. I equate terrorism with cancer. If we leave it alone, it will affect the entire body. The second involves the actual terrorists themselves, and our effort is to dampen their negative effect. In that regard we have been successful, but it's a partial success. We want to create boundaries for terrorism and restrict its activity. We've had a specific experiment in Egypt with the people who killed [President] Anwar Sadat [in 1981]. In Egypt there were about 16,000 members of the group [Islamic Jihad] that was responsible for Sadat's assassination. We were able to discuss issues with them and convince them of their errors, and 14,000 of them ended up denouncing the principles of the terrorism they had espoused.
You are an eminent legal scholar, and as a religious judge, you issue fatwas , or religious rulings, in all kinds of disputes. You ' ve said in the past that ill-trained or manipulative Islamic pseudoscholars have misused fatwas for their own ends. How so?
It is from these people that you get fatwas that endorse terrorism. That leaves the cancer to spread throughout the body. If Islam is not approached from a proper, scholarly point of view, we will see many problems. These ignorant "scholars" have been able to use mass communications, and now they have satellite TV channels and they're speaking night and day, constantly. This is very, very dangerous. We deem these ignorant people to be criminals. So why are they continuing to do this? They are doing it because the satellite channels give them the money and the resources to do it. It's a moneymaking proposition. All of us need to come together and to try to stand against this phenomenon. We believe in freedom of expression, but what I'm talking about here is a form of deception. It's not a right to hurt others and create havoc on earth.
The war in Iraq is a source of grievance among Muslims. If the war begins to wind down, will that help you deal with the extremists who use the war as an excuse to commit terrorist acts?
Without a doubt. Military occupation is not something that's appropriate in our day and age. It can cause things to spin out of control. Sometimes there's a very fine line between terrorist activities and a legal armed struggle as outlined in the Geneva Conventions. When there's an occupation, there's a lack of balance, and then the concept of what's right and what's wrong is sometimes not understood by those committing violence or acquiescing in it.
BAGHDAD, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq condemned leaflets distributed in the northern city of Mosul that threatened the Christian community there.
The AMSI said in a statement on its Web site that the leaflets called on the Christian community to convert to Islam, pay a tax levied against non-Muslims, called jizya, or face death.
The Muslim Scholars said this type of discrimination was forbidden in Islam and violates its teachings regarding harmonious relations with members of other religions.
The leaflets caused the Iraqi people to grow suspicious of their leaders and only stoked sectarian divisions in the country, the statement said.
Such threatening statements do not correspond with the legitimate resistance movements in Iraq that only oppose the occupation, the scholars said, while condemning Iraqi lawmakers for excluding minority rights in the provincial elections law.
The practice of threatening minorities is inconsistent with the move toward national reconciliation and interferes with the solidarity required to "expel the occupation, to liberate Iraq from its clutches and followers."
The statement concluded with a call for the "dear Christian citizens" of Iraq to stand strong against oppression.
Even before the sun rose high enough to light the water Sunday morning, surfer Digger Green had paddled far into the Huntington Beach waves, taking a beating under the rough water.
"This is my life," said the 52-year-old native of Queensland, Australia. "It is my church."
For about 400 interfaith worshipers, the shoreline became a makeshift church as Catholics, Jews and Muslims gathered for an unusual "blessing of the waves."
Although their faith traditions differ, those in attendance were bound by a reverence for the ocean and the peaceful place of prayer they find on its shores -- if not surfing its waves.
The service, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, was directed by a pair of surf-loving priests. Fathers Christian Mondor and Matt Munoz chose the Sunday after the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi -- the patron saint of ecology, as well as for animals -- for the event as a reminder that the ocean and its ecosystem must be protected.
A snapshot-ready Southern California scene provided the backdrop for the service: The sun rose at 7 a.m. into a cloudless sky, and 6- to 10-foot waves crashed in quick succession against the pier, sending up high-splashing water.
Worshipers lined up on concrete steps just east of the Huntington Beach Pier, arriving in T-shirts or sweaters, shorts and flip-flops. A handful of surfers in wetsuits dotted the crowd. Every once in a while, a morning jogger ran past on the walkway between the crowd and the beach. A youthful rock band set up to play for the crowd.
Salaam writes: For a first-person account of how a Muslim-Christian interfaith marriage works, check out this post at HijabMan's website.
MANILA, Philippines-This marriage between a Christian man and a Muslim woman works.
This is what Armand Nocum and Annora Sahia wish the Christians and Muslims in Mindanao, some of whom have difficulty living together, can learn from.
And now the couple want not only to show how they live together in harmony, but also hope to go beyond themselves and reach out to war-torn communities in one simple way-through books.
Specifically through the Books-4-Guns project, also known as the A-Book-Saya Group, which suggests the joy and enlightenment a book can bring to children who have known only strife.
But before the books there was food. And food, as people may well know, is a great pacifier, bonder, uniter-the way to go to assuage hunger and appease anger as well.
Armand, an ex-seminarian and a former reporter of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Annora, a Tausug Muslim and a nurse, own the Satti Grill House. It is a small budget eatery in Ermita, Manila, and it serves food of Malaysian and Arabic origin indigenized by the predominantly Muslim communities of Zamboanga and Sulu.
The word "satti" is derived from the Southeast Asian "sate" or "satay." The eatery Satti is also the name of a dish.
