Saturday, September 19, 2009

Conversattions on Islam : Tariq Ramadan on Women's Right and Ijtihad

Islam in principle does not have problem with women, scientific progress or modernity.Some Muslims have.The scriptures are there, the seerah and sunnah are well laid out. The problems are not with them . The problem lies with the reader. This in essence is what Prof Tariq Ramadan, Swiss by birth, Islam by faith and spirit, seem to be saying wherever he goes.

He is a very busy man nowadays, besieged by traditional scholars for perceived 'playing to the gallery' and apologist to the West,hammered by Western secularists 'for still being too Islamic',courted by the 'munafikuns from within and from without',misquoted by many, and yet increasingly popular within the context of European Muslims as their spokesperson.Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe and America where there are growing disenchantment and disappoitment with the soul-decaying forces of materialism and traditional belief in the nebulous and indefensible concept of Trinity.

My personal reading of Tariq Ramadan is that here is a suave contemporary scholar who is worth watching. European and American Muslims are going through a rough spell with Islamophobia."Siasah" par excelence is required to move forward.One cannot expect erudite scholars entrenched in Al Azhar, in a milieu of almost 100 % Muslim, to fully comprehend and emphaties with the problems of European and American Muslims.Their context and nuances differ slightly but significantly.I particularly like his practical 'helicopter' view of Islam in Europe: One has to view Europe as an opportunity to develop rather than take a myopic xenophobic and defensive view and subscribe to a dichotomy of Darul Harb and Darul Islam . Europe and America is Darul Da'awa and Darul Syuhada.A reorientation of notions rather than crass
rebranding of Islam [ Liberal Islam, Islam Hadhari seem stupid ].

Islam is afterall a universal Din to save the whole of humanity, Muslims and non Muslims.

Thus, despite the continuous onslought on Islam and 'talibanization' and demonization of anything Islamic by an 'unfriendly and biased' Western press and media, more and more people are seeing through the thick veil of hypocrisy and false media blitz.
Listen to Tariq Ramadan on Women's Right, Ijtihad and etc and etc:

Retrieved from QuranSpeaks's Channel on Youtube

Women's Rights



Ijtehad - Independent Reasoning


PS: My main worry is unless we have more Tariq Ramadans in Europe and America, even he may follow the fate that happened to Ismail Al Faruqi. Truth has a great propensity to create powerful and 'creative' enemies!

1 comment:

RahmatHarounHashim said...

Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf zahir dan bathin.