Recently in Islam Category

Michael C. Moynihan, being reasonable in Reason:

After September 11, former Washington Post religion reporter Gustav Niebuhr set out in search of the great backlash against Muslims, finding instead anecdotal evidence in support of the Pew figures: "In the very week when the nation suffered a grievous injury from a stateless criminal gang that identified itself by its members' religion--as Muslims--some Americans chose to express concern and friendship toward their Muslim neighbors."

So despite having the mother of all opportunities for a national convulsion of violence and discrimination against a religious minority, America, for the most part, chose investigation over emotion:, lay conversations about the tenets of Islam were ubiquitous, books detailing doctrinal differences between Muslim sects flew off the shelves, and the president beseeched his fellow Americans to understand that, despite acts of violence in its name, Islam was a religion of peace.

One can always find, in a nation of 300 million people, examples of boorish behavior towards religious minorities. But if Muslims that embrace violence against non-Muslims are a tiny minority, it is time to acknowledge that attacks on Muslims by non-Muslims in the United States are perpetrated by an even tinier minority. That the United States doesn't do backlashes needs to be restated frequently and forcefully, rather than ignored in favor of exploiting a "teachable moment" of religious tolerance.

Immediately after 9/11, some Lebanese Maronite Christians I interviewed feared that they would be dragged into any Muslim-bashing that might come about because they're Arabs, and many people don't understand that not all Arabs are Muslims. I thought about them just now when I read this story from Florida:

A Marine reservist is facing charges after police said he attacked a priest visiting from Greece who he believed was a terrorist.

Police said that Lance Cpl. Jasen D. Bruce, 28, hit 29-year-old Alexios Marakis in the head with a tire iron, then chased him for three blocks.

According to reports, the incident happened when Marakis, who was visiting from Crete and speaks only limited English, got lost near a Channelside apartment complex after performing the blessing of another priest.

Police said Marakis drove into a garage and tried to ask Bruce for help, but that he was instead attacked. Bruce then called 911 during the ordeal and told the operator an Arabic man was trying to rob him, the report said.

Bruce said he was going to take the priest into custody, police said. When officers arrived, they said Bruce told them the priest was a terrorist.

Had Father Alexios really been a Muslim, his (alleged) attacker would have been merely wicked. But it turns out the dude's not only wicked, he's an idiot too.

UPDATE: Ruh-roh! Jasen, who is now implausibly and despicably claiming that the priest tried to sexually assault him, might have been a little on edge about that sort of thing because some beefcake photos of him have turned up on Mad About the Boys, a gay-oriented site (he's not naked, but this isn't really safe for work). To be fair, he might not have known these shots were going to be licensed to a gay site ... but the story does get curioser and curioser.

David Frum reminds us to keep this image below and these others in mind as we struggle to figure out the meaning of Maj. Nidal Hasan's disgusting mass murder. Frum's right:

Did you know that creationism (versus natural selection) is mainstream in the Islamic world -- and that a secretive Turk named Harun Yahya has a lot to do with it? Steve Paulson reports for Slate:

Creationist stories are now popping up in Turkish high-school science textbooks, and some government officials in the AKP, the ruling Islamic party, freely criticize evolution. In Ankara, the government's point man on religious issues, Mehmet Gormez, told me, "All the holy texts say human beings are created by God. I think evolutionary theory is not scientific, but ideological."

The Quran doesn't have a detailed origins story like the six days of creation found in Genesis, but it does say Adam was created out of clay in a heavenly paradise and later banished to earth, along with Eve. Various polls show that many Muslim countries are predominantly creationist, but Turkey has recently emerged as a hub of global opposition to evolution. In 2006 Science magazine found that only 25 percent of Turks accepted the theory of natural selection--the lowest rate among any of the 34 countries surveyed. (The second-lowest was in the United States.)

Why Islamic creationism has exploded in Turkey is a complicated story that may have as much to do with politics as religion. Unlike most Muslim countries, which simply ignore the science of life's origins, Turkey's high schools have taught evolution for decades--the legacy of Ataturk's campaign to secularize Turkey's public culture. Creationism has become a way for political Islamists to attack the secular elite that governed Turkey until the recent rise of the AKP. Oktar's own agenda isn't confined to evolution. He's calling for a "Turkish-Islamic Union," a Turkish super-state that would stretch from Kazakhstan to Indonesia and western Africa--a revamped Ottoman Empire for today's Muslims.

I did not know that. I remember being in Istanbul and seeing an English-language pamphlet or a book, can't remember which, using a photograph of a piece of chewing gum to make some sort of creationist point. It was surreal. I had no idea that creationism was such a big deal in the Islamic world. Though when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

(Countdown to the deployment of a variation of Manning's Corollary in the combox thread...)

You really need to watch the six-minute video at the end of this post. It's a short interview with Fathima Rifqa Bary, the 17 year old Ohio girl who converted from Islam to Christianity, and who recently ran away from home, claiming that her father will murder her to save the family's "honor" lost when she left Islam.

Fox News reports that a Florida court today is likely to send her back to her Ohio family -- which she fears will kill her for apostasizing. It is impossible to say from afar how much this girl has been manipulated, and how realistic her fears are. Perhaps she's making it up (her family says so). Perhaps she's manipulating others, or being manipulated. What seems clear to me from watching the video is that this teenage girl is scared out of her wits. We know that honor killings happen. Last year in suburban Dallas, an Egyptian Muslim father killed his two teenage daughters, Amina and Sarah (Rifqa refers to them briefly on the video below); he is still at large. He had been threatening them with violence, friends and family say, because he thought they were becoming too Westernized.

Back then, I spoke to a reporter who covered the girls' funeral at a local mosque. The reporter told me it was shocking to hear the imam's funeral sermon focus on how parents need to control their children more. And, I spoke two years ago to a young adult Christian convert from a Southeast Asian Muslim nation, a journalist who lived every single day in fear of his life because of having left Islam. It was not an idle or theoretical threat for him. Rifqa ("Rebecca") Bary may not literally be in danger, but it is by no means out of the question. Honor killings are not a figment of anybody's imagination. You cannot watch this video of her without being deeply impressed by how frightened she is. It would be cruel to send her back to her family, at least at this point. I don't know that the law has any choice, given that she's not a citizen. But I tell you, I would give her the benefit of the doubt, based on what we know now -- and I would give her sanctuary too, in defiance of the law. (See update below -- Bary is safe for now, per court order)

Here's the key portion of the interview. But really, you should watch it yourself. The religion element aside, how can you send a teenager girl this frightened of domestic violence back into a situation in which, mistakenly or not, she fears for her life? I don't get it. Here is a live blog from the hearing going on right now (Friday afternoon) in Florida court.

Reporter: So what do you want at this point now?

Bary (emotionally): I want to be with [the church people in Florida]. I want to be free from my parents. I want ... I want to be free. I want to worship Jesus! I want to go to church on Sundays, and read my Bible, and say Jesus is alive whenever I want to! You guys talk about religious freedom? No! I don't have that. I want to be here, I want to worship Jesus freely. I don't want to die.

UPDATE: Thank God, the Florida court has ordered that Bary stay in Florida while an investigation of her family takes place. She's safe for now.