Progress (?) for the Islamic Society of North America

I read today that in August of 2006, Dr. Ingrid Mattson was the first woman elected as President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). But what really took me by surprise - but not really - was that she is also the first native-born North American, and the first Muslim convert to hold that position.

ISNA was established in 1963, so it’s been a long time coming! I have to say that even ten years ago, it didn’t seem like this was about to happen any time in the foreseeable future. While I think it’s a step in the right direction, I also shake my head at the fact that it’s taken 43 years.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Dec

17

When is a Holiday Not a UU Holiday?

Filed Under race, uu culture, uuism | 9 Comments

I’m not really big on holidays. I just procrastinate too much. I can barely get my friends’ birthday cards out on time. A few years ago I decided to start celebrating Kwanzaa because I no longer felt qualified to celebrate the two Islamic holidays. Adopting Christmas was still a strange notion. So I thought, “Well, I can do Kwanzaa; my religion may change, but I’ll always be black.” However, my laziness prevailed and I only managed to read up on it and send out Kwanzaa cards eleven months later.

This year I’ve been preoccupied, and haven’t been home for days at a time, so Kwanzaa is on hold again. In fact, I’ll be spending Christmas Eve with friends, and the Big Day with my Catholic grandmother and the DH’s non-religious family. I’m just going where the people I like are.

Jess writes on her blog that she’s pleased her home congregation is no longer doing a Kwanzaa service. Although it may be for different reasons, I agree with her that it doesn’t make sense for most UU churches to put on Kwanzaa services.

From what I know, most of the Kwanzaa celebration takes place within the home. And since the purpose is essentially for African descended folks to remember their roots and remain in community with each other, it just seems weird that white people would be the ones to “put it on” for their mostly white congregations.

I’d feel the same way about UU congregations putting on a Chinese New Year service. It’s really a lot more than just a dancing dragon and a couple of firecrackers. It’s one thing to recognize or acknowledge that these are holidays some folks in the congregation might be celebrating, but picking a day to “celebrate” either Kwanzaa or Chinese New Year via sermon + black candles or sermon + a CD somebody picked up in Chinatown is just really awful.

If I went to my church and found they were holding an Eid al-Fitr Sunday I’d be alarmed and really want to know what was going on. And I’m not even Muslim anymore! It’s not that I don’t think non Muslims can’t learn anything from the Islamic holidays, but seeing as how Islam is hardly mentioned the other 51 weeks of the year, what exactly is being celebrated?

Popularity: 9% [?]

Dec

10

Airport Security?

Filed Under anecdotes | 4 Comments

True story that took place in 2006: A young woman in her 20s is flying within the United States. She intends to carry on her luggage, as usual, but after boarding the plane, she discovers there is no room in the overhead compartments for her bag. A flight attendant collects the bag for last-minute checking. The young woman completes the first leg of her flight, but the plane is late. Very late. So late that the young woman has to run to the gate of her connecting flight. When she arrives, everyone else has boarded, but the two desk attendants assure her they can still put her on the plane. As one calls the plane to notify the crew of one more passenger, the other says, “Just give us your boarding pass, please.”

The young woman reaches for her boarding pass - then remembers: it’s in the outside pocket of the bag she had to check in! “Oh! Well, that’s okay. I’ll just print you a new one. Can you give me your ID?” says one of the attendants. The young woman smacks herself in the forehead. Her driver’s license is WITH the boarding pass in the outside pocket of her bag - which is on the plane that is about to depart! The sudden implications of being stuck in an airport, 1500 miles from home, with no plane ticket or photo identification begins to dawn on her, but before she can say anything -

“Well, what’s your name, hon’?” The attendant types in the young woman’s last name. “Here you go - don’t worry about it!” And to her great surprise, the young woman is provided with a new boarding pass, printed at the last minute for a flight that is already boarded and minutes from door , although she has shown no proof of who she is or that she has even purchased a ticket.

Two desk agents (one white, the other possibly so) in Texas enthusiastically usher a young woman of color with an Arabic name onboard a flight under such circumstances? Maybe she really does have “an honest face!”

(photo by HSA: Okay!)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Dec

10

Books

Filed Under books | 3 Comments

As I’m in the process of moving into a smaller space, the one thing I dreaded most was trimming down my personal library. I love books! I’ve always loved books! And I clung to this notion of the more books, the better.

This morning it dawned on me that I don’t love books anymore. The fluttering in my stomach that occurs when I’m walking past floor-to-ceiling stacks in the library? Not so much about the books.

The good news for me today is that what books contain can be found in many places.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Dec

8

Religious Conversations

Filed Under religion | 3 Comments

My ideas about religion seem to be changing. It is less and less something I need, and becoming more of a conscious choice. Nearly every day, the DH and I have at least one conversation about religion. He speaks about it from the perspective of one who sees religion as causing more harm than good. The great sin, in his mind, is that people turn over their intellect and submit their reason to a church, a cleric - or any ideology. The mindset of “I don’t know what’s good for myself, so I’m going to listen to him” gives people permission to accept injustices against others. Of course they will, he says. They’ve been given the “okay” to do so by a “higher authority.” If their President says, “These people need to die so that they can have a better life,” they say, “We trust him.” If their religious leaders tell them that God hates these people so we need to kill or persecute them, their response is, “Father knows best.”

My tendency is to be more forgiving of people with strong religious belief. I look at my parents, for example. They are people of faith, and they do not preoccupy themselves with identifying the hell-bound vs the heaven-bound. They know that there are Muslims who are terrible people and non Muslims who are wonderful people. However, I must admit, that my parents utilize their reason quite a bit. They don’t blindly follow others’ interpretations of Islam. As a child I frequently heard them say things along the lines of, “Does that make sense?” “God gave us brains so we would think,” and “What do you think.” They had Muslim friends who went to what they considered extremes - cutting off relations with their own parents because of religion; trying to marry off their teenage daughters and sons “to protect them from sin,” and spending all day in prayer instead of getting a job to support their families.

All of this makes me wonder: is a “moderate” or “liberal” religious person one who, ultimately, uses their intellect to decide what is right and wrong from within the parameters of their chosen faith? And if so, is the difference between a moderate religious person and a non-religious person simply a matter of parameters?

(photo by HSA: pier in Lappeeranta. 2006)

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