​Of all there is to lament about popular discourse in the Muslim community, the most glaring is perhaps its predictability. As a friend once offered during a moment of near lyric poignancy, “If you can get down the ‘3 M’s’; music, moons, and meat, you’ve encompassed two-thirds of what Muslims discuss within their community forums! Of course, he was being facetious; nevertheless, his assessment was accurate. A good deal of our collective mental energies are expended on a handful of shopworn, hackneyed arguments. In an admittedly somewhat cynical move, I’ve actually adopted a bit of a ‘controversy calendar.’ It begins in the earlier part of the year with the Eid Milād an-Nabī (The Celebration of the Prophet’s birthday), surges to mid-year with the commencement of Ramadān and Shawwāl, and ends with the celebration of holidays. Ironically, as the conversation at the grassroots remains suspended in a painful rendition of ‘Groundhog Day’, our community also boasts a burgeoning group of creative and intellectually exciting academicians, classically trained scholars, and other thought-leaders. The perennial problems, however, have been accessibility and relevance. With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a jazzy swing-inspired musical track, Jay-Z’s normal mixture of nouveau-riche boast/social commentary and a group of young chic Muslim women could do something the traditional appurtenances of intellectual life—books, articles, and lectures—couldn’t: Instigate some fresh conversations among Muslims.

​Now that we have felt the pangs of restraint during Ramadan and hopefully found ourselves examining and interrogating our appetites, vanities and self-interests, what have we found crowding our thoughts, making us uneasy? I suspect that all in the Muslim community are suffering from an undiagnosed and certainly untreated fear of ‘what next.’ I have thought a lot about Surat Al-Fil (105). What are the elephants in American society looking to destabilize/eradicate in the Muslim community? The elephants in the front line of attack bring Islamophobia in all of its ugliness. We all know the narratives – good Muslims v bad Muslims; Muslim women continue to be oppressed; all Muslims are potential terrorists and so on.

In this video, comedian Preacher Moss along with filmmakers Mustafa Davis and Lena Khan talk about an array of topics such as challenges, setbacks, funding and community support as artists that are Muslim.

Many if not most people tend to equate denial of freedom with criminalization backed up by the possibility of jail. In reality, however, there are many other ways to restrict a person’s freedom. Generally speaking, if the price of exercising a particular freedom can be made high enough, people will simply ignore or consciously forfeit its gradual loss. This price can be in terms of money, loss of reputation, or fear of being ostracized, brought under suspicion or associated with unpopular groups, individuals, ideologies or agendas. The recent Supreme Court decision, for example, Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Committee, granted corporations the right to make campaign contributions. While it directly imposed no restrictions on the freedom of non-corporations, it clearly reduced the ability of individuals to protect and promote their rights and interests relative to those of the super-rich. Yet, the disparity in money and influence between the average person and large corporations is so massive that most people will simply ignore the impact of this decision on the meaningful exercise and eventual erosion of their political rights and freedoms.

​The acronym, ALTICALSA, I imagine, would not resonate too loudly with many Muslims in America, and for good reason. In the first place, the artifacts housed in this section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art spring not to mind as telling historical reminders of Islam’s potential beyond bombs and mayhem. And as Mehri Khalil discovered recently, the curators of this and other renowned museums have added to this disjuncture between Islam and aesthetics by rechristening these very sections of their libraries. The Galleries of Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and later South Asia (ALTICALSA) were until September 11, 2001 more elegantly titled the Islamic Galleries. Since then, almost all references to Islam in these galleries have been replaced by nomenclatures that say as much about our changing political landscape as they do about Islam and aesthetics.

​Our advanced education along with international media presents us with a free market of ideas wherein many and divergent philosophies, ideologies and opinions compete and strive for the world’s acceptance and internalization. The West, in particular, is where these concepts ferment. People are coerced and persuaded to choose the ones that make sense to them. Some choose according to their whims and fancy, while others may choose according to their religious dogma or moral beliefs. Of course, the reasons for choice may be many.

As an attendee of the 2005 Summer Program, ALIM played a significant role in this Al-Azhar graduate’s path in Islam. Watch Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans talk about his upbringing, interesting relationship with clothing, and love for knowledge.

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As Muslims, the Prophet (pbuh) is our model to emulate. The practical source for learning about the life of the Prophet (pbuh), his behavior and actions is the Sirah, the prophetic biographical works. Muslims rely on this outlet for guidance about issues of daily life and behavior. The main sources of Sirah are the Qur’an, the Sunnah – stories from the life of the Prophet (pbuh) that were documented by classical biographers of the Prophet (pbuh), and the Hadith – the sayings and actions of the Prophet (pbuh).

Some months ago Salzburg, Austria, the birth place of Mozart, and the city of churches and bell-towers, was chosen to showcase a 10 day Spiritual Overture. Zubin Mehta, the celebrated Indian conductor, led the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in a symphony centering on the Holocaust, and appropriately titled “Revival of the Dead”. In the coming year the focus will switch to Buddhism and then in the years ahead to other religions. This particular spiritual musical ensemble, we learn, was based on artistic director Alexander Pereira’s belief that humanity is reaching out beyond rationalism to an idealism best articulated through aesthetics in general, and music in particular. And he’s not alone. Jane Moss, vice president for Programming at New York City’s Lincoln Center and self-described ‘secular mystic’ believes people are ‘looking for larger experiences in a cyber-world’. Humanity, Moss argues, is becoming desensitized by the surrealistic tendencies of modern technology. And in the absence of organized religion—which many in the industrialized world now turn their backs on—only music remains, she says, as humanity’s “live experience left in the world.”

Introduction
A secular aesthetics is fast replacing religion as the go-to spiritual forum of the 21st century. Humanity’s post Enlightenment journey, first through modern rationalism, then through scientific empiricism and more recently, anarchic relativism has left us turning wearily to an aesthetics that offers, not just to lighten the unbearable ennui of this material existence, but to do so along with fellow sojourners unburdened by the weight of tradition. Aesthetics offers today’s secular citizenry a chance to bond with each other in a communal identity that, unlike the religious, is both reassuringly realistic, and socially inclusive. Aesthetic spirituality differs from religious spirituality in two significant ways: it emphasizes beauty rather than truth, and more importantly, replaces traditional forms of devotion with a philosophy that plays out in the public forum not as worship, but as art.

In this short video, Imam Suhaib Webb shares some of his insights on being beneficial to people, and how ALIM empowers American Muslims.

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​Our collective ambivalence towards “the right to bear arms” is aptly summed up in the following tweet that went viral after the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school: “One guy tries to use [a] shoe bomb and everyone at the airport now has to take shoes off. 31 school shootings since Columbine, but no change.” Over the years, legislators on both sides of the political spectrum have avoided serious reforms as the NRA has grown into one of the most influential lobbies in Washington, DC. In political campaigns, candidates generally shy away from substantive discussion around gun control, opting instead to debate our romanticized “right to bear arms.” The fact is, however, that we have outgrown the 2nd Amendment.

​In this short video, Dr. Jackson shares some of his insights on why some misunderstand his views on being an American Muslim.
 
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Dr. Hans Kung, a professor of Ecumenical Theology and President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic said, “There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions.”

The Black community in America is now led by what some call the post-civil rights generation. These heirs to America’s newest cultural ideal, the diversity movement, graduate in significant numbers from America’s elite colleges and universities and occupy plum jobs in industry and the civil service. College admission policies together with corporate recruitment policies are increasingly driven by the quest for diversity, by which is meant, not the mere assortment of persons who together represent humanity’s cultural variety or ethno-racial multiplicity, but rather a quantitative array of human beings who fit certain racial and ethnic profiles.

In this short video, Dr. Fareed shares some of his insights on Islam in America, and the role of geography and religion in culture.

To the extent that they failed to use their pulpit to bully their congregants into living by Islam’s own human rights culture, the `ulama certainly have been remiss. But beyond the confines of the mosque clerical authority was severely curtailed by forces beyond `ulama control. Perhaps the most subversive of these forces came from Europe where earlier, the Enlightenment had trumped Church authority. In time, and as a result of colonization, all traditional societies, including the Islamic, were infected by the European bug, and thus began society’s awkward oscillation between tradition and change. This was particularly onerous on the `ulama as custodians of a tradition which centered itself on revelation rather than human creativity, and whose social values hearkened unto the Medina of the Prophet rather than John Rawls’ overlapping utilitarian future.
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The Gift of Historical Consciousness
I have often wondered about the way Muslims use the word “ummah.” In a technical sense, it clearly refers to the entire Community, the unqualified collective of all who espouse, “There is no god but God and Muhammad is His messenger.” And yet, it commonly manages to connote certain parts of the world to the marginalization if not mild exclusion of others. The Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia clearly make it in, while America, Canada and Jamaica are barely brought to mind. Ultimately, of course, numbers play a role here. Where Muslims are a majority or even a ‘significant minority’ (as, e.g., in India or parts of Africa), it is simply easier to see their sufferings, obsessions, preferences and even sensibilities as reflecting the pulse and interests of the “ummah.” Where they are a small, marginal minority, on the other hand, (as, e.g., in America or Canada) this is far less likely to be the case.

Clarifying the Sunnah (Actions, Sayings and Tacit Approval) of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).
 
This article was prompted by a visit one day by two groups of dedicated, young, practicing Muslims. There had been a heated debate on two issues. One was about whether or not our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had ever spoken or acted from his own desire, or had he always spoke by revelation. The second issue was regarding whether or not Muslims must follow the Prophet (pbuh) in everything: emulate all of his actions and follow all of his orders.

In this short video, Dr. Ali shares some of his insights about the future of Islam and Muslims in America.