Courage, Bullying and Ramadan

The Old Father's Moon

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Eid Mubarak! The holy month of Ramadan is closing and the Muslim world is celebrating Eid ul Fitr, a massive celebration of family and festivities. People all over the world have been buying new clothes and even new furniture, preparing huge meals and readying gifts for family and neighbors. They will spend anywhere from one to five days visiting family, hosting feasts and distributing gifts to celebrate the end of the holy month of fasting. I get the feeling it's kind of like Christmas as far as a party season is concerned.

Over this last month I have been collecting and sharing stories about the different kinds of people in the world who are Muslim. I have read about the Muslim people of Senegal, Indonesia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Detroit, Los Angeles and many many others. I have read about their food customs (and eaten a number of delicious date concoctions - check out My Halal Kitchen's Dates and Cream), their daily life during Ramadan and their special religious ceremonies during the month. As I read, I kept in mind the charge I set myself at the beginning of the month, to be mindful of God-in-People. A query I asked "Do I speak to and answer “that of God” in everyone?"

One of the things I came to realize as I read these stories is that we as a species can be quite awful to each other. We are very bad at realizing and respecting that of God in each other. I learned a lot of stories about people being oppressed, persecuted and outright killed because of their cultural affiliation. I read about the Uiygar people who's lands were invaded by the Han Chinese in the early 20th century and have been oppressed religious and ethnic minorities ever since. Recent years have seen resistance violence in their Central Asian capitol which has resulted in harsh bans on practicing their Muslim faith. I read about the Kurdish people who, after World War I, had their ancestral lands split between Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Their cultural identity has been actively suppressed by the Turkish government and the government of Saddam Hussain in Iraq. Their language has been outlawed, political organizing harshly crushed and even entire male populations of villages killed. I read about the Mughal invasion of northern India, where the new Muslim rulers felt justified in destroying Hindu religious sites because they were heathen, and modern laws and attitudes in Europe and America that make being a Muslim difficult and dangerous. Of course, stories of oppressors and oppressed are not limited to the Muslim world, but it was a theme that came up again and again.

The pastor at my Quaker meeting gave a sermon about bullpuckey, as he called it, the other week. He was specifically talking about bullpucky about Jesus and how Quakers stand in a unique place to see through, and speak up against bullpucky because of our belief in silent worship, personal connection with the divine and speaking truth to power. In worship, I thought a lot about a faith and values based anti-bullying program I heard about recently where the main focus is on helping bystanders to bullying find the courage to speak up. The thing that connects the bullpucky my pastor was talking about and the bullpucky of bullying is power, and writ large the bullpucky of those in power leads to the kind of oppression I see in my study of Muslim cultures. Whether oppressing or being oppressed, misuse of power, cultural bullying and disrespect of human life and dignity is a big pile of bullpucky.

What can we do about this cultural bullying, this disrespect for humanity? Paul Coughlin, the founder of the anti-bullying program The Protectors, says that the most powerful player in the theater of bullying is the bystander. Bullies do what they do because no one stands up to them, no one points out their disrespectful behavior, no one has the courage to say "stop!". A study quoted by Paul Coughlin's group says that 58% of bullying incidents end within just a few seconds of a bystander speaking up for the victim. Whether his numbers are true or not, and whether this study can be scaled up to culture wide bullying, I don't know. I do know, however, that we must do everything we can to shed light on oppression, bullying and bullpucky everywhere.

The Father's Moon energies ask us to think about how we can be mature adults as we interact with our community to make it a better place. How can we keep our community safe, how can we encourage community members to be better people? How can our own resources and gifts be used for the greater good? There are so many things going wrong with our communities that it is easy to get overwhelmed. It is easy to ignore the bullpucky, easy to let the bullies set the agenda. Courage is required to be a good father, and courage is required to use the Father's moon energies to speak up for those who need a champion. I'm not saying I'm any good at any of this, but I'm saying I feel a new call to be mindful of it.

The 10th Anniversary of 9/11 is coming up in the next week and I worry that with heightened emotions there will be extra bullpucky about Muslims, about war and about our cultural bullying. I wonder what I can do to be a courageous bystander.

What did you learn about Islam and Muslim people this Ramadan? I'd love to hear your stories or thoughts. Have you ever found the courage to stand up against bullying, oppression or other forms of bullpucky? What's your favorite recipe using dates? Eid Mubarak!

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This post is not for the Full Father's moon and it is not for the New Nesting Moon, it is for the old Father's Moon. Here are links to other Ramadan posts, which is the main theme of this post. Use the tag for "Father's Moon" to see other New and Full Father's Moon posts from years past.

Ramadan 2010: Ramadan and End of Ramadan

Ramadan 2011: Blessed Ramadan and Ramadan Postings 2011

Photos by Carmen Alonso Suarez, DMahendra, DVIDSHUB and zz77. Please check out their photos on Flickr.

Ramadan Postings 2011

As with last year, I collected stories about Muslim people, culture and history and shared them on my Facebook page. Here are my postings from Ramadan 2011.

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Did you know that Ramadan, the holy month of Islam, begins with the next sighting of the new moon tomorrow or the next day? Like last year, I will be exploring Islam, Muslims and Ramadan as the month goes on. What would you like to know?
1.5 billion Muslims begin celebrating the holy month of Ramadan this weekend. Lets take some time this month to learn something new about this religion, the people who practice it and their many cultures. And keep the people of Libya, Syria, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq and so many more in your thoughts this month.. and all months.
Fasting for Ramadan begins the day after the first sighting of the new crescent moon, which could be seen last night. Today is the first day people all over the world are abstaining from food, water, smoking and a few other things for all daylight hours. Instead, they will spend their time praying and reading the Koran. Ramadan Mubarak!

Ramadan Mubarak! A Flickr blog.
In addition to refraining from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex, Muslims who fast during Ramadan also refrain from immoral behavior such as lying, speaking in anger, fighting or talking behind someone's back. How often can we refrain from those behaviors?

A Muslim Voices blog post about zakat, or charity. This is one of the five pillars of islam and especially important during Ramadan.
Indonesia is the world's most populous majority Muslim country. People joke that Ramadan is more of a feasting month than a fasting month in Indonesia because of all the family dinners and street bazaars that happen in the evening hours. Rice dumplings steamed in young coconut leaves, called ketupat, are a specialty this time of year.

A Boston.com photo gallery of Ramadan around the world.
40% of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or 1.8 million people are Muslim. They have been a part of this area's culture since the Ottomon rule beginning in the 1450s. Bosniaks, as they call themselves, celebrate Ramadan with savory filled dumplings called pita and baklava and singing games and competitions.
Last Ramadan, monsoon flooding in Pakistan (the world's second largest majority Muslim population) left 11 million people homeless. Giving charity or zakat is an important part of Ramadan celebrations all over the world, but especially in Pakistan. So are pakoras, or fried vegetable fritters.

A Washington Post slide show of photos of people celebrating Ramadan.
Senegal is a small country on the far west coast of Africa where 90% of the population is Muslim. Islam first came to Senegal in the 11th century but spread rapidly in the 19th century. Today, most Senegalese are Sufi, a mystical branch of Islam. Senegalese like to break their Ramadan fast with pastries and coffee before going to evening prayers.
There are around 2 million African-American Muslims in our country. Islam is attractive to many African Americans both because of the Islamic heritage of West Africa and also for the explicitly non-racist attitude of Islamic theology. Islam, like other world religions, is a wide and deep pool that people of all colors and backgrounds have found meaning in.
"Imam Shareef says there is a strong connection between African-Americans' historic struggle for freedom and equality since the end of slavery in the 1860s, and the Islamic tradition of seeking spiritual freedom. Ramadan, he says, is a chance for Black Muslims in America to remember that." For African American Muslims, Ramadan has Special Meaning.

"President Obama’s may be one of the more highly publicized Ramadan dinners at the White House, we have a teenage Chelsea Clinton to thank for the tradition — a young American willing to study cultures outside her own." The story.
In 1958 Ramadan, Passover and Easter all coincided. Here is a vintage Toledo Blade article about celebrations in Jerusalem.

In Morocco, like in other Muslim countries, traffic patterns change dramatically during Ramadan. People rush home in the early evening to get home in time to break their fast with their family, often causing traffic jams and frayed tempers. In Morocco, after breaking their fast with dates and milk, families will eat a hearty dinner of harira (lentil soup), hard boiled eggs and briouats (meat pastries).
98% of the 75 million people in Iran are Muslim and 90% of those are Shia (or Shiite) Muslims. Originally, the split between Shia and Sunni Muslims (who make up the vast majority of Muslims today) was a political one based on succession of leadership after the death of the prophet Muhammad. Both groups fast through ramadan, and reshteh-khoshar, a spiced cookie with walnuts and rice flour, is a favorite in Iran for iftar. .

The partition of Pakistan from India in 1947 happened along religious lines but there are still over 138 million Muslims in India. Islam is most common in the north and east of the country, but the southern state of Kerala had a Muslim population since the 7th century AD. Pathiri, a rice flour griddle cake, are a specialty of Muslims in Kerala and a must for Ramadan. A recipe.

Fordson High in Dearborne MI is again holding preseason practices at night to accommodate fasting players. Faith, family and football at its best! The New York Times article.
In the town of Habbaniya Cece, Christians, Muslims, Arabs, Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites all coexisted for decades. That changed as Al Qaeda began to take hold in Anbar Province. “It was strangers who came and made trouble, trying to plant something between us. But we’re living together now, there’s no problem,” caretaker of the Shiite mosque Khadem Owaid said. This is history for us, says final Christian family.
Tonight is the full moon which means we are halfway through Ramadan. Fasting for Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, can you name any one of the other four?

A video in which Muslims explain What Do You Think People Most Misunderstand about Islam? Very powerful.
""When accused of terrorism we are Muslims, when killed by looters, we become Asian", a Muslim student explained to me....Most important to emphasise is the extent to which everyone in Tower Hamlets was a beneficiary of streetwise, smart Muslims acting swiftly to protect shops, businesses and communities against looters." Muslims tackle looters, bigots, an Al Jazeera English opinion piece.
Islam is the second largest religion in the United Kingdom with over 2.5 million adherents of many different ethnicities. Islam has been known in England for centuries, one of Chaucer's pilgrims in Canterbury Tales was well versed in Islamic scholarship and Shakespeare's Othello was a Moor, possibly an African or Arab Muslim. Ramadan Festival UK is sponsoring events all over the country this month, including feeding homeless people, music festivals and house parties.
""Ramadan is all about training your self-discipline in order to be a better person," said Habehh, who has made it her Ramadan mission this year to focus on educating families about the importance of foster care in the Muslim community.... Children are exempt from the fast until they reach puberty, but many younger children are eager to imitate their parents and older siblings by taking part in the tradition." In Muslim families, kids want to join Ramadan fast, good deeds.
"The group’s members — Tyson, Kumasi, Erik Rico and Anas Canon — are all Muslims who aim to inspire with a positive message of beauty, faith and tolerance. Dubbing themselves “hip-hop ambassadors of the 21st century,” Remarkable Current was invited to tour the country at the behest of the US State Department as part of a performing arts initiative." Rap Ambassadors Spread the Word in Jakarta.

Islam came to Syria in 640AD when the area was conquered by a companion of the prophet Muhammad. Today, 86% of the country is Muslim including both Sunni and Shi'a communities. Like in other Muslim countries, Ramadan is a time for fasting, praying and charity but also a time for family and food. Evenings are often spent playing cards or backgammon, and sweets like knafeh, a pastry of semolina flour with cheese and sugar syrup, are a favorite.
Arabic is the language the Koran is written in, and thus is considered holy to Muslims. Arabic, like Hebrew, is written from right to left and uses mostly consonants with marks to denote vowels rather than letters. People actually learn two different varieties of Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, the language of media and scholarship, and their local dialect. Over 280 million people in over 26 countries are native Arabic speakers.
Sunset in Portland tonight is at 8:20pm. At the beginning of Ramadan the evening prayers, Magrhib, occurred at 8:40 and at the end of the month they will occur at 7:55pm. Autumn is upon is, and so is Eid! Have you been noticing the sunset? Doing anything special to commemorate it?
The Philippines is a predominantely Catholic country but there have been Muslims in the area since the early 1400s AD. One region in particular, southern Mindanao, has a significant Muslim population even today. The Muslim people are referred to as Moros, a word related to the Spanish word moor. House cleaning and tending to family graves are important parts of Ramadan in Mindanao.

Abdul Rashid Abdullah, scoutmaster of Troop 786, said the Islamic faith and Boy Scouts of America are harmonious in philosophy and in practice. "The Islamic ideals and the scouting ideals are the same. They're compatible," he said. "I can easily talk about the scout law and talk about Koranic verses that co-relate to those scout laws, so it makes it really easy." Muslim community embraces scouting, a CNN story.
The rebels in Libya are flying a flag of red, black and green to replace the solid green flag of Gaddafi's Libya. Green is a special color in Islam, said to represent life and nature and was the color of the prophet Muhammad's banner. 90% of Libya's population lives in 10% of its land, close to the coast which is the longest along the African Mediterranean coast. A Libyan food blog post about fritters in syrup, a Ramadan specialty.
"At the crowded Los Feliz diner, Abedin and the soon-to-be fasters were crammed into two booths, men and women side-by-side. They scanned the large menu... The waiter — a man named Achilles with a braided ponytail and a black T-shirt that read "Friends don't let friends get married" — asked about drink orders. But the group was ready for food, mindful that dawn would break at 4:30 that morning." Adapting Ramadan to the All American Diner, in the Los Angeles Times.
An Al Jazeera English video about the football team at Fordson High in Detroit. They practiced during the middle of the night to accommodate fasting students but just switched back to daytime practices. A cool look at Muslim kids and teachers who look and sound just like any other American football team.
The Uyghur people (pronounced "weeger") are a Turkic speaking group from Xinjiang region of Central Asia who have practiced Islam for over a thousand years. In the 19th century their homeland was invaded by Han Chinese and today, like neighboring Tibet, they face great political and religious restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. In fact, the Chinese government is actively repressing the practice of fasting for Ramadan after resistance violence in recent years. No Ramadan for Uighur Muslims.
A repost from last year about female imams in China's Henan Province.
The Kurds have been called the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state. After the US invasion of Iraq the northern portion of that country has been a virtually autonomous Kurdistan but the Kurds of Turkey are still persecuted. The holiday at the end of Ramadan is called jezhn and is celebrated with family, feasting and new clothes like in most other Muslim cultures. Kulicha, a sweet fried dough with a filling of dates, nuts or coconut is a popular jezhn treat. Anthony Bourdain's episode about Kurdistan on this season's No Reservations was really informative and well done.

Birdsong brings relief to my longing
I'm just as ecstatic as they are, but with nothing to say!
Please universal soul, practice some song or something through me!
Jelaluddin Rumi was born in what is today Afghanistan in 1207. He became a Muslim teacher and judge and later an ecstatic Sufi poet. He wrote in the Persian language and is considered a major cultural hero in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey. More Rumi poetry in translation.

Muslims believe that the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Jibril starting on Lailatul Qadr', a night during the last 10 days of Ramadan. No one is sure what the exact date is, but it is generally believed to be one of the odd dates in the last weeks of the month. The Quran says that night is worth a thousand months, so many Muslims spend extra time in prayer.
Eid Mubarak! Eid ul-Fitr is the first day of the Shawwal and the end of Ramadan. It is celebrated as a huge holiday all over the Muslim world and occurs today! Many people celebrate by dressing in new clothes and attending prayers at a mosque, inviting family and friends over for a meal and then going visiting. What are you celebrating today? What have you discovered over the course of Ramadan? Photos of Eid celebrations from around the world.

Eid is a week long national holiday in Qatar. People travel home to be with their family, wear new clothes, have fresh hair cuts and even buy new furniture to show how special the holiday is. It is typical to give gifts of food to the poor, of sweets and money to children and other items to everyone else you meet. Cooked lamb and rice is a tradition Eid dish, and like with Ramadan iftars, sweets of all kinds can be found.

A lovely blog post by a woman in Baghdad about what Eid looks like there. A Day of Eid in Baghdad.

Since the Islamic calendar is lunar, rather than solar, each month begins when the moon is sighted.... but when the moon is sighted depends on where you are in the world, the weather conditions, whether you can use a telescope or not or whether you can use astronomical calculations. This means Eid starts in different places depending on the regional customs. NPR's report on determining when Eid begins.
Iftar dates or a glass of cabernet? A wonderful piece by Caroline Jaine on Muslim Voices.
As Eid celebrations continue all over the world marking the end of Ramadan, I ask you to keep thinking about the people of the Muslim world. They are not a monolithic group and I hope that we can continue to see people for their actions and aspirations, not just their religious or cultural affiliation. What have you learned this Ramadan? What will you be thinking about as we move into this autumn? Eid During the Arab Spring.

Blessed Ramadan

The New Father's Moon
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Once again, the holy month of Ramadan is upon us. Ramadan Mubarak!
Last year I posted about my growing concern about how Islam and Muslims are viewed in America and the West in general. I spent a thoughtful and fruitful month collecting information about Islam and Ramadan and sharing it with my close and distant circle of friends in person and electronically. It is Ramadan again, and again I feel the call to spend the month learning and sharing what I find.

Fire

O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and a pilgrim's Ka'bah,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur'an.
I follow the relition of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.

Ibn Arabi
It has been an exciting year for the Islamic world and a hard one. Revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia are changing the way people in North Africa and the Middle East view their governments and their societies. People continue to struggle for political reform in Yemen, Syria, Palestine and many other places. The struggle has turned to outright war in Libya, and Sudan is probably just in a lull in its long standing civil war. Famine grips Somalia and Ethiopia and the ancient battles in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India continue on in their modern forms. Muslims in Europe and North America continue their struggle for economic freedom and acceptance in antagonistic cultures. I can only imagine it must be a difficult time for many Muslims around the world. I know that I can make a difference by helping other people learn about the religion of Islam, get some perspective on the current events in the Muslim world and understand more of Muslim world history.

This year my Ramadan call feels strongly about the people and cultures of the Muslim world. About 1.5 billion people, 20% of the world's population are Muslim. The Muslim world stretches from Morocco to Pakistan to China, Indonesia, the US and northern Europe. Muslims have black skin, blond hair, brown skin, Asian faces and every other kind of face imaginable. People are Muslim in sandy deserts, lush tropical rain forests, temperate mountains and high, windy plateaus. Like with all religions, people continue to practice their local traditions in addition to Islam leading to various versions even of the same basic activities. So many different cultures, so many different kinds of people.

Allah

I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He
was not there; I went to the Temple of the
Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not
find a trace of Him anywhere.

I searched on the mountains and in the valleys
but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I
able to find Him. I went to the Ka'bah in Mecca,
but He was not there either.

I questioned the scholars and philosophers but
He was beyond their understanding.

I then looked into my heart and it was there
where He dwelled that I saw Him; He was
nowhere else to be found.

Jalaluddin Rumi

As a billion and a half Muslims around the world spend this month of Ramadan fasting and praying in order to be closer to God, I will spend it getting closer to God-In-People. I will spend time studying the cultures of the world and and also the cultures in my own neighborhood. I will cherish and cultivate my relationships with people I already know and love, and cultivate and open heart towards the people I do not already know. Again this year I will sit with queries from the North Pacific Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practices: Do I speak to and answer “that of God” in everyone? Am I charitable with others? Do I practice the art of listening to others, even beyond words? What will you be thinking about during this bright yellow August month when so many others are fasting, praying, feasting and playing?

Blessed Ramadan!

Images by Zolashine, JakeBrewer, Mizrak and NewMediaNormaRae. Click on their names or the photos for more of their amazing work. Thank you!

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New Father's Moon 2009: New Father's Moon
New Father's Moon 2010: Fourth of July

This post is about Ramadan, as are my posts from last August, Ramadan and The End of Ramadan.

The End of Ramadan

Eid Mubārak! We have just reached the end of the holy month of Ramadan and are now in the festive season of Eid ul-Fitr, the conclusion of the fast. Muslims all over the world have spend the last 30 days refraining from eating, drinking during the daylight hours and spending extra time praying in order to be closer to Allah. Early in the month I wrote about my feeling of needing to learn more about Islam and Muslims and of sharing what I learn with people around me. Below is a collection of my Facebook posts from the month aiming to share my interest in Islam. I hope you enjoy them as much as my Facebook friends did!

* I saw the new crescent moon last night - the new moon of the month of Ramadan, in fact. It is the most holy month in the Islamic calendar and Muslims aim to spend it in fasting and prayer. The holiday at the end of the month, Eid ul-Fitr, is a joyous festival of family and hospitality. Let us spend this month getting to know a little more about this ancient and amazing religion and the 1.5 billion people who follow it.

* Ramadan is a special month because it is when the Angel Gabriel (Jibril) taught the Prophet Muhammad the verses of the Koran. Observant Muslims spend this time working to be close to God/Allah by studying the Koran, fasting, and praying. Pregnant and nursing women, children, people who are sick or are traveling are not required to fast but most will make up the fast days when they can.

* During Ramadan people who have fasted during the day break their fast with an evening meal called iftar. It is traditionally begun by eating a date because the Prophet Muhammad broke his fast with that fruit. Thomas Jefferson attended an iftar dinner, according to Wikipedia!

* President Obama is hosting an iftar tonight (August 13)! The tradition was started by Bill Clinton and continued by GW Bush. Here is the text of his Iftar Remarks.

*Pakistan is the country with the world's second largest Islamic population in the world (after Indonesia) and is currently suffering massive loss of life and property due to flooding of the Indus river. Today is the 63rd anniversary of their independence from India and the first weekend of Ramadan... celebrations have been canceled all over the country. CNN Article; U.S. helicopters arrive in Pakistan to assist relief efforts

*At-Tuwani, a Muslim village in the Palestinian West Bank, is utilizing non violence resistance to block and call attention to the harassment they suffer at the hands of Israeli settlers. Orchards are cut down, homes ransacked and children kept from getting to school. During this holy month of Ramadan let’s remember that all people deserve a safe life and livelihood. For more of what is going on at At-Tuwani check out the Christian Peacemakers Team website.

*A high school football team in Dearborn, MI has moved its practices to 11pm to accommodate the fasting students during Ramadan. Dearborn MI is a city of 100,000 with close to 30,000 Arab Muslims. It is also home to North America's largest mosque. Cool! ESPN's story; Mich. school practices 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Colorlines.com story; Michigan Football Team Observes Ramadan, Puts NYC to Shame.

* Though I heard about it on the Daily Show, this isn't really funny. Tashima Crudup seems to have been denied approval as a foster parent because she, as a practicing Muslim, does not allow pork in her house. During this month of Ramadan let us examine our fears of the unknown people and groups and look for ways to practice the tolerance we expect "them" to show. Here's the Daily Show segment... Pork or Parents. And here is the Baltimore Sun article on the situation; ACLU: Foster mother rejected for not serving pork.

* There is a long historical association between African-Americans and Islam. It is estimated that about 10% of the slaves brought to America in the 17th and 18th centuries were Muslim. Today approximately 25% of the 6-8 million Muslims in America are African-American. During this month of Ramadan let us remember that Muslim does not equal Arab, nor is it equal for foreigner.

* According to a Pew Research Center poll 18% of Americans think Barack Obama is a Muslim. Most like those people think Obama is a poor leader and that being Muslim is a bad thing. Just for the record, he is a Christian (remember that scandal about his pastor?). During this month of Ramadan let us work to dispel untruths about Muslims and aim to keep "Muslim" and "people we don't like" from becoming synonymous. NPR story; Pew Survey: Growing Number Of Americans Say President Obama Is Muslim

* The Islamic civilization that dominated western Asia, North Africa and parts of Europe & India from the 9th to 16th centuries was a hotbed of mathematical thinking. The religious requirements of worship and inheritance set up the scientists of the day for massive advances in computation, geometry and algebra. In fact, our words algebra and algorithm (and alcohol!) are derived from Arabic words. Here is a great article that spells out some more of the advances. Arabic translations of many Greek works were the only copies to survive the European dark ages. Kevin Devlin's column on the Mathematical Association of America site; The Mathematical Legacy of Islam

* Rumi:

Birdsong brings relief to my longing, I'm just as ecstatic as they are, but with nothing to say! Please universal soul, practice some song or something through me!

Jalal ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi was a Sufi Muslim poet who lived and wrote in Persia in the late 1200s. His poetry is loved all over the world for its transcendental and ecstatic emotions but he was a firm believer in the truth of Islam. For more Rumi poems check this out this wonderful site.

* I just read about how a Swedish city joined with an Islamic student group to disseminate information about Ramadan to the Swedish public. "Ramadan is part of Swedish culture and we want to tell everybody about it. It is ignorance which breeds fear. By talking about Muslims and our customs and traditions, we counteract xenophobia and racism". Read more on the Islam in Europe blog's post Sweden: Municipality subsidizes Ramadan campaign

* Two great articles about how absurd the debate over the “Ground Zero Mosque” really is.
Charlie Brooker's column in the Guardian. 'Ground Zero mosque'? The reality is less provocative.

"The planned "ultra-mosque" will be a staggering 5,600ft tall – more than five times higher than the tallest building on Earth – and will be capped with an immense dome of highly-polished solid gold, carefully positioned to bounce sunlight directly toward the pavement, where it will blind pedestrians and fry small dogs. The main structure will be delimited by 600 minarets, each shaped like an upraised middle finger, and housing a powerful amplifier: when synchronised, their combined sonic might will be capable of relaying the muezzin's call to prayer at such deafening volume, it will be clearly audible in the Afghan mountains, where thousands of terrorists are poised to celebrate by running around with scarves over their faces, firing AK-47s into the sky and yelling whatever the foreign word for "victory" is. I'm exaggerating."

And another very funny article on Cracked.com; 3 Reasons the "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate Makes No Sense

* Muslim women are encouraged (but not required by the Koran) to wear a hijab, a head scarf that covers their hair to outwardly mirror their inner modesty. The potent mix of religious based intolerance and fear along with women's rights make the hijab a point of controversy all over the western world. During this month of Ramadan please examine your own feelings about women's head coverings. What are we so afraid of?

* Zakāt or "alms giving" is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. There are complicated rules about who needs to give what and who can receive what, but in general most Muslims give 1/40th, or 2.5% of their wealth to the poor. It is required the same way praying and fasting during Ramadan is required. During this holy month ...let us think about how we share our wealth with the needy.

* The Onion, America’s finest news source. Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Muslims

* Happy Eid ul-Fitr! Muslims all over the world are celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadan today by feasting, praying and giving small gifts to loved ones. Muslims are encouraged to forgive and forget any past animosities or difficulties. What are you celebrating and forgiving on this blessed day of Eid?

Ramadan

The other night I saw the new crescent moon. It suprised me, jumped out from behind a tree or a building. It was beautiful. In Annette Hinshaw's calendar it is the month of the Nesting Moon, the first month of Autumn. This year it also happens to be the holy month of Ramadan.

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks

Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar and is the month in which the first verses of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Observant Muslims fast from sun up until sunset during the month and spend extra time praying, giving alms and working to be close to Allah. The end of the month is celebrated with the festive holiday Eid ul-Fitr. Eid is the social equivalent of Christmas in Christian societies when families gather for meals and gift giving, hospitality to neighbors and friends, giving to charity and more eating and visiting. During the month of Ramadan families break their fast in the evenings with a meal called iftar, which is often a time for people to gather as well. The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar one so the month rotates through the solar year. This year Ramadan falls during the long, hot days of late summer which makes the fasting even more onerous. Many people feel a deep sense of compassion towards the poor during this time because they know what it’s like to be hungry.

I have been feeling a growing concern lately over the public image of Islam in my country. It's a hard feeling to put into words - I want to know more about Islam and the people of the world who are Muslim. I want to share my findings and highlight the fact that Muslims are people with similar needs and aspirations as people we know more intimately and that Islam is a varied and vast religion. I want to show that Muslim people have all the good sides and bad sides as Christian and Jewish and secular people. In short, I want to find examples that break apart our stereotypes of Muslims and share those with everyone I come in contact with.

It's actually really frightening how scared and ignorant Americans seem to be about Islam. Islam is the second largest religion in the world with close to 1.6 billion people who follow the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad all over the world. The country with the largest Muslim population is Indonesia, a moderate republic with elections and friendly relations with the global community. There are an estimated 6-8 million Muslims in the United States and about a quarter of those are African-American. This is not a religion or a group that can be painted with broad strokes or reduced to a two dimensional stereotype.

The story about the mosque in Lower Manhattan has the country in a tizzy. I have actually heard news people and politicians insist that Islam is a religion of violence, that all Muslims are terrorists and even call Islam a cult. This is absurd. Can 1.6 billion people or even 7 million Americans be terrorists? Thats like calling all Catholics child molesters because of the issues with Priests or all Protestants hate mongers because of Nazi violence. There are real issues of tolerance that need to be dealt with both within Islam and by non-Muslims, but it is not just not true that every Muslim is a terrorist.

The North Pacific Yearly Meeting has a query in it's Faith and Practices that asks "Do we avoid being drawn into violent reactions against those who are destructive of human dignity? Do we reach out to the violator as well as the violated with courage and love?" I think this is such an important question for everyone who cares about peace, justice and religious tolerance today. We need help when dealing with people we see as enemies or as violent to be sure that we don't come to embody what we are fighting against. There is a true and real strain within Islam of intolerance and violence. How do we confront that part of Islam with compassion and integrity? How do we keep conscious of the difference between extremists and their co-religionists who are moderate? How do we remember that all people, no matter their religion, ethnic background, socio-economic status or even their actions deserve compassion and love? I haven’t a clue where to start with this except to ask the questions.

A Community of the Spirit

There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
Sit down in the circle.

Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd's love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders
Don't accept consolations.
Close your mouth against food
Taste the lover's mouth in yours.
You moan, "She left me." "He left me
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.

From Rumi – Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)
Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

As the month continues I will be using Facebook as my main form of ministry and share statistics, quotes, anecdotes and facts about Islam and Muslims from around the world. I’ll be sure to post some of my status updates here later. What do you know about Islam or Muslims? Do you have any personal experience with Islam? What do you wonder about Islam? Know any blogs by Muslim men or women worth reading? When have you ever been challenged by an interaction with someone who is intolerant or violent? How will you be working to get close to god this month

Photos courtesty of manitoon and birdfarm. They are of mosque decorations in Iran and Pakistan. Check out their flickr streams by clicking on the photos or their names. Thanks!