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The intellectual face of Islam pushes extremists off stage
Too often, Islam gets a bad rap, as extremists grab media attention, blocking from public view the rational, intellectual side of Islam.

This weekend, I had the privilege to witness the other side of Islam, at the Scholar in Residence program at Or Hadash, a Reconstructionist congregation in the suburbs of the City Between Two Rivers.

The speakers were Rumee Ahmed and Ayesha Chaudhry, professors at Colgate University. The pair are totally modern, totally American second generation immigrants. Their parents came from Pakistan. Ahmed was born in the Washington, D.C. area. Chaundhry was born in Toronto, and is here on a green card.

They tackled hard parts of the Qu'ran, interpreting, tempering and rationalizing passages written as absolutes, one of which could justify abuse of women.

I left the event with three pearls of understanding:

1. Tribalism. Violence, extremism and honor killings, are the result of tribal behavior rather than religion. Much of the Islamic world is rural, where tribal affinities prevail over government and religion. When the people converted to Islam, the religion was imposed on the existing trial customs, cultures and lifestyles. Hence the Islam of Tanzania is different from the Islam of India and the Islam of Indonesia.

2. Colonialism. The great universities of classic Islamic philosophy and law were destroyed by colonialism. The Islamic clergy has declined in quality and prestige. The best and the brightest Muslims aspire to other careers. Though colonialism in the Islamic world officially ended in the two decades after after World War II, there is great resentment against the West Colonialism has left a scar in the individual and collective self-esteem among Muslims.

3. Integration. There has been little terrorism in the U.S. Muslim community, due to the high degree of integration in American life. Islamic immigrants are generally well educated and socially mobile. They have good incomes. African-American Muslims have been in this country for generations. In Europe, by contrast, Muslim immigrants are enghettoed. There is little social mobility, with children continuing in the same low paying occupations as their parents. European Muslims resent colonialism. France, Britain and Holland were colonial powers in the Muslim world.

The Scholar in Residence program was sponsored by Joan and Ben Dickstein who have spent their lives pursuing human rights, social justice and interfaith dialogue.

I salute Or Hadash for helping me appreciate the diversity in Islam and lowering walls within the greater American community

Berrin wrote:its Colonial..

event horizon wrote:Looks like things aren't going well for Christians in either Nigeria or Liberia. Too bad, sub-saharan Africa used to be a place where there seemed to be little inter-religious quarrels.

event horizon wrote:No - I'm not exactly aware of violent religious conflict between the natives of sub-Saharan Africa.

shafique wrote:On Saturday:

event horizon wrote:Looks like things aren't going well for Christians in either Nigeria or Liberia. Too bad, sub-saharan Africa used to be a place where there seemed to be little inter-religious quarrels.

On Sunday:

event horizon wrote:No - I'm not exactly aware of violent religious conflict between the natives of sub-Saharan Africa.

Dear sheikh, you appear to be confused.

Cheers,
Shafique

Looks like things aren't going well for Christians in either Nigeria or Liberia. Too bad, sub-saharan Africa used to be a place where there seemed to be little inter-religious quarrels.

shafique wrote:Oh, sheikh - you are right. Sub-saharan Africa was indeed doing quite well up until the missionaries and colonialists arrived. But wasn't that where there was Apartheid too? And didn't the Boers (some of them at least) use the Bible to justify the racist laws?

Good points sheikh.

As for religious and tribal strife - the Muslims are victims as well. But hey, why let that fact distract from your excellent efforts of getting people to read the Quran and study Islam?

noting that there was significant violence and injustice after missionaries arrived in Sub-saharan Africa with their colonial brothers:

event horizon wrote:As for European colonists, we can see who destroyed/conquered more African civilizations - the Europeans or Islamic Jihad.

* African Civilizations

* Axum
* Ghana Empire
* Mali Empire
* Songhai Empire
* Great Zimbabwe
* Kanem Empire
* Bornu Empire
* Kingdom of Kongo

It is believed it began a long slow decline after the 7th century due partly to Islamic groups contesting trade routes. Eventually Aksum was cut off from its principal markets in Alexandria, Byzantium and Southern Europe and its trade share was captured by Arab traders of the era. The Kingdom of Aksum also quarreled with Islamic groups over religion. Eventually the people of Aksum were forced south and their civilization declined. As the kingdom's power declined so did the influence of the city, which is believed to have lost population in the decline similar to Rome and other cities thrust away from the flow of world events. The last known (nominal) king to reign was crowned ca. 10th century, but the kingdom's influence and power ended long before that.

The empire began struggling after reaching its apex in the early 11th century. By 1059, the population density around the empire's leading cities was seriously overtaxing the region. The Sahara desert was expanding southward, threatening food supplies. While imported food was sufficient to support the population when income from trade was high, when trade faltered, this system also broke down. It has been often supposed that Ghana came under siege by the Almoravids in 1062 under the command of Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar in an attempt to gain control of the coveted Saharan trade routes. A war was waged, said to have been justified as an act of conversion through military arms (lesser jihad) in which they were eventually successful in subduing Ghana by 1067, despite resistance by Ghana Bassi and his successor Ghana Tunka Manin. This view however, has seen general scrutiny and is disputed by some scholars as a distortion of primary sources.[5] Conrad and Fisher (1982) suggested that the notion of any Almoravid military conquest at its core is merely perpetuated folklore, while others such as Dierk Lange attributed the decline of ancient Ghana to numerous unrelated factors, only one of which can be likely attributable to internal dynastic struggles that were instigated by Almoravid influence and Islamic pressures, but devoid of any military conversion and conquest.[6]

Collapse
Mali Empire and surrounding states, c. 1625.

The mansa’s defeat actually won Manden the respect of Morocco and may have saved it from Songhai’s fate. It would be the Mandinka themselves that would cause the final destruction of the empire. Around 1610, Mahmud IV died. Oral tradition states that he had three sons who fought over Manden's remains. No single person ever ruled Manden after Mahmuud IV's death, resulting in the end of the Mali Empire.[56]
[edit] Manden Divided

The old core of the empire was divided into three spheres of influence. Kangaba, the de facto capital of Manden since the time of the last emperor, became the capital of the northern sphere. The Joma area, governed from Siguiri, controlled the central region, which encompassed Niani. Hamana or Amana, southwest of Joma, became the southern sphere with its capital at Kouroussa in modern Guinea.[56] Each ruler used the title of mansa, but their authority only extended as far as their own sphere of influence. Despite this disunity in the realm, the realm remained under Mandinka control into the mid 17th century. The three states warred on each other as much if not more than they did against outsiders, but rivalries generally stopped when faced with invasion. This trend would continue into colonial times against Tukulor enemies from the west.[57]
[edit] The Bamana Jihad

Then, in 1630, the Bamana of Djenné declared their version of holy war on all Muslim powers in present day Mali.[58] They targeted Moroccan Pashas still in Timbuktu and the mansas of Manden. In 1645, the Bamana attacked Manden seizing both banks of the Niger right up to Niani.[58] This campaign gutted Manden and destroyed any hope of the three mansas cooperating to free their land. The only Mandinka power spared from the campaign is Kangaba.

Following Dauoud's death, a civil war of succession weakened the Empire, leading Saadi Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi of Morocco to dispatch an invasion force under the eunuch Judar Pasha. Judar Pasha was a Spaniard by birth, but had been captured as an infant and educated at the Saadi court. After a cross-Saharan march, Judar's forces razed the salt mines at Taghaza and moved on Gao; when Askia Ishaq II (r. 1588-1591) met Judar at the 1591 Battle of Tondibi, Songhai forces were routed by a cattle stampede triggered by the Saadi's gunpowder weapons despite vastly superior numbers. Judar proceeded to sack Gao, Timbuktu, and Djenné, destroying the Songhai as a regional power. Governing so vast an empire proved too much for the Saadi dynasty, and they soon relinquished control of the region, letting it splinter into dozens of smaller kingdoms.

Decline

Causes for the decline and ultimate abandonment of the site have been suggested as due to a decline in trade compared to sites further north, political instability and famine and water shortages enduced by climatic change.[11][22] The Mutapa state arose in the fifteenth century from the northward expansion of the Great ZImbabwe tradition.[23] Great Zimbabwe also predates the Khami and Nyanga cultures.

Decline and Fall

The administrative reforms and military brilliance of Aluma sustained the empire until the mid-1600s, when its power began to fade. By the late 1700s, Bornu rule extended only westward, into the land of the Hausa of modern Nigeria. The empire was still ruled by the mai who was advised by his councilors (kokenawa) in the state council or "nokena".[2]
[edit] Fulani Jihad

Around that time, Fulani people, invading from the west, were able to make major inroads into Bornu. By the early 19th century, Kanem-Bornu was clearly an empire in decline, and in 1808 Fulani warriors conquered Ngazargamu. Usman dan Fodio led the Fulani thrust and proclaimed a holy war (the Fulani War) on the allegedly irreligious Muslims of the area. His campaign eventually affected Kanem-Bornu and inspired a trend toward Islamic orthodoxy, but a Muslim scholar turned statesman, Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi, contested the Fulani advance.
[edit] Muhammad al-Kanem

Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi was a Muslim scholar and non-Sayfawa commander who had put together an alliance of Shuwa Arabs, Kanembu, and other seminomadic peoples. He eventually built in 1814 a capital at Kukawa (in present-day Nigeria). Sayfawa mais remained titular monarchs until 1846. In that year, the last mai, in league with the Ouaddai Empire, precipitated a civil war. It was at that point that Kanemi's son, Umar, became king, thus ending one of the longest dynastic reigns in regional history.
[edit] Post Sayfawa

Although the dynasty ended, the kingdom of Kanem-Bornu survived. Umar eschewed the title mai for the simpler designation shehu (from the Arabic shaykh), could not match his father's vitality and gradually allowed the kingdom to be ruled by advisers (wazirs). Bornu began a further decline as a result of administrative disorganization, regional particularism, and attacks by the militant Ouaddai Empire to the east. The decline continued under Umar's sons. In 1893, Rabih az-Zubayr leading an invading army from eastern Sudan, conquered Bornu.

But, I have to admit - I'm a bit confused - where did you get the count of 9 erased by Europeans then?

ABUJA, NIGERIA (Worthy News)-- Christians in two states of Nigeria were mourning Wednesday, July 7, the killings of at least eight Christian believers, after Muslim militants reportedly attacked several villages.

event horizon wrote:Peace with Islam and Muslims is impossible. The only time Muslims seek peace is when they need to reload.

shafique wrote:Loon versions of history