What's Right with Islam

IS

What's Right with America

From the Publisher

An American imam offers answers for today's toughest questions about Islam, and a vision for a reconciliation between Islam and the West.

One of the pressing questions of our time is what went wrong in the relationship between Muslims and the West. Continuing global violence in the name of Islam reflects the deepest fears by certain Muslim factions of Western political, cultural, and economic encroachment. The solution to the current antagonism requires finding common ground upon which to build mutual respect and understanding. Who better to offer such an analysis than an American imam, someone with a foot in each world and the tools to examine the common roots of both Western and Muslim cultures; someone to explain to the non-Islamic West not just what went wrong with Islam, but what's right with Islam.

Focused on finding solutions, not on determining fault, this is ultimately a hopeful, inspiring book. What's Right with Islam systematically lays out the reasons for the current dissonance between these cultures and offers a foundation and plan for improved relations. Wide-ranging in scope, What's Right with Islam elaborates in satisfying detail a vision for a Muslim world that can eventually embrace its own distinctive forms of democracy and capitalism, aspiring to a new Cordoba - a time when Jews, Christians, Muslims, and all other faith traditions will live together in peace and prosperity.

Biography

Feisal Abdul Rauf is the imam of Masjid al-Farah in New York City. Shortly after the attacks of September 11, he appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including BBC World, ABC News, CBS Evening News, CNN, and 60 Minutes. Born in Kuwait to a long line of imams, Abdul Rauf was educated in England, Egypt, and Malaysia.

He is also a graduate of Columbia University in the United States. In 1997, Imam Abdul Rauf founded the ASMA Society, a not-for-profit educational and cultural organization dedicated to building bridges between the American public and American Muslims, and cofounded the

Cordoba Initiative, a multi-faith effort to help heal the relationship between the Muslim world and America.

A trustee of the Islamic Center of New York, he is on the board of One Voice, a group whose initiative is to bring about peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and was recently appointed as a member of the Council of 100 Leaders to the World Economic Forum on West-Islamic World Dialogue. Abdul Rauf is the author of two previous books, Islam: A Search for Meaning and Islam: A Sacred Law, What Every Muslim Should Know About the Shari'ah.

Read an Excerpt:

What's Right with Islam IS What's Right with America

Chapter One: Common Roots

Many of the earliest civilizations believed in a plurality of gods. From the ruins and temples of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt in the Middle East and Greece and Rome in Europe to India and China in the Far East, the majority of early civilizations worshiped a pantheon of gods, with each god ruling over a sector of the universe and all of them ruled by a greater God. Representing their gods in the forms of statues, early people practiced idolatry, worshiping the gods' physical representations.

He Who Carves the Buddha Never Worships Him

In such societies, the pharaoh, emperor, caesar, or king was generally regarded as divine, a son of God, and the priestly class (like the Brahmins in India) a privileged one that supported his function as semidivine. Worldly society reflected the structure of the divine court, the pharaoh or king with his consort ruling over society just as the Great God had a consort and children who were gods, ruling over the many lesser gods. As the son of God, the king was God's representative on earth.

Together with such beliefs about the God-human relationship came a belief in the structure of human society. People were born into classes or castes reflecting the structure of the divine court, showing life "on earth, as it is in heaven." In society were found the royal and noble classes, the priestly class, the warrior class, the merchant and farming classes, and all those who did the most menial and undesirable work. Social mobility was not typically the norm; one was born, worked, married, and died within the boundaries ofone's class. One's status in life, profession, and choice of spouse were predetermined by the family and class one was born into — by the social structure — and one's destiny was deemed in some societies as karmic.

In many of these societies, rejecting the state religion was not a simple matter of exercising freedom of human conscience (something we in America take for granted today). It was typically regarded as treason against the state, an act punishable by death, not to mention a violation of

the institutional social structure on which society was built. Literally, one had no place in society, for such a person would be like an ant rejecting the structure of its colony, unprotected by its institutions. The possible freedom one had to exercise such inner convictions and to be true to oneself was to opt out of society and live as a hermit in a cave. Pre-Islamic Arabs called such people, driven by their conscience and desiring to live by its standards, hanif.

Such powerful social constraints may sound strange to the contemporary American reader, but a mere fifty years ago in America, "unless one was either a Protestant, or a Catholic, or a Jew, one was a 'nothing'; to be a 'something,' to have a name, one [had to] identify oneself to oneself, and be identified by others, as belonging to one or another of the three great religious communities in which the American people were divided."

To be independent and step out of sociological norms and deeply embedded thought patterns is very hard for people to do. And if it was hard for us in America, a country where we prize individual freedom, you can imagine how hard it must have been a few thousand years ago in the earliest known ancient Middle Eastern civilizations that straddled the area between Egypt and Persia.

In that region, and in such a society characterized by a polytheistic religious, political, and sociological climate, a hanif man called Abraham was born in a town in Mesopotamia, the area now called Iraq. He found the idea of polytheism unacceptable. Biblical and Islamic narratives inform us that Abraham's father was a sculptor of such idols. We can well imagine the young boy Abraham seeing his father fabricating such statues from the raw material of wood or stone and perhaps occasionally cursing when the material cracked. The reality of the Chinese proverb "He who carves the Buddha never worships him" must have been apparent to Abraham, who probably observed, in the way children see through their parents' absurdities, the creature creating the Creator.

The Quran quotes Abraham as debating with his contemporaries: "Do you worship that which you yourselves sculpt — while God has created you and your actions?" (37:95–96). After going on a spiritual search, and after rejecting the sun, the moon, and the stars as objects of worship (objects his community worshiped), Abraham realized that there could be only one creator of the universe — one God (Quran 6:75–91 describes Abraham's search for God). Today Muslims, Christians, and Jews regard Abraham as their patriarch, the founder of a sustained monotheistic society subscribing to the belief that there is only one God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.

The monotheism that Abraham taught was not only theologically radical, in that it decried the plurality of gods as false, it was also socially radical. The idea that God is one implied two significant things about humankind.

First, it implied that all humans are equal, simply because we are born of one man and one woman. "O humankind," God asserts in the Quran, "surely we have created you from one male

[Adam] and one female [Eve] and made you into tribes and clans [just] so that you may get to know each other. The noblest of you with God are the most devout of you" (Quran 49:13). This meant that all of humankind is a family— brothers and sisters, equal before God, differentiated only by the nobility of our actions, not by our birth. Showing preference for one human over another on the basis of accidents of birth, like skin color, class structure, tribal or family belonging, or gender, is unjust and therefore has no place in a proper human worldview. Although it grossly violates reason and ethics, showing preference on the basis of these categories is the very way people traditionally judged others and structured their societies.

ENDORSEMENTS

"This book shows that the only possible way forward is by the assiduous cultivation of mutual respect. It should be read, but then ~ even more important ~ it should be acted upon."

— Karen Armstrong, author of The Battle for God, from the foreword

"As someone with roots in both East and West, who has spent most of a lifetime attempting to build bridges between our cultures, I welcome this urgently needed book. An insightful examination of the universal values shared by the Muslim world and the West, it presents not just what is right with Islam, but what is right with America too. Imam Feisal speaks from the heart about the higher ground on which we can all unite. It is a book brimming with hope."

— Her Majesty, Queen Noor of Jordan, author of Leap of Faith

"After two disastrous wars against Muslim countries, it is more than ever necessary to get objective and sympathetic information about Islam which is provided here by a very competent Muslim scholar living in the US. An excellent work of bridge building!"

— Professor Dr. Hans King, President, Global Ethic Foundation, author of On Being a Christian

"What's Right With Islam is a must read for anyone who wants to contribute to repairing our world post-9/11 - and that needs to be each one of us. Imam Feisal is a model religious leader for the 21st century -he combines passionate love of his own particular tradition with an openness and pluralism that flows from that very passion. This book overflows with the much needed faith that religion in general and Islam in particular can contribute to building a good society."

— Rabbi Irwin Kula, President, CLAL - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

"An extremely important book for our day. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is to be congratulated for such a wise and well-written book. It is a 'MUST' for any thinking person who cares about our world."

— Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Chair of World Economic Forum's Council of 100 Leaders on West-Islamic World Dialogue

"At long last, a book that helps "us Westerners" to see Muslims as they wish to see themselves, and to see the West through Muslim eyes. A more urgent topic could hardly be envisioned post-9/11 and the war on Iraq. Here lies a coherent vision for a future when religions work for peace, and when what is right with Islam is right for Jews and Christians alike."

— Gunnar Stålsett - Bishop of Oslo, Lutheran Church of Norway, member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee

"An important counterweight to anti-Islamic polemics."

— Library Journal

"An invigorating glimpse into the heart and mind of a wise Muslim seeking the higher ground."

— Christian Science Monitor

REVIEWS

Publisher's Weekly,

May 2004

Rauf, a Manhattan imam whose mosque is only 12 blocks from the World Trade Center site, argues that what keeps the Islamic world and America apart, and what fuels Islamic terrorism, is economics, politics, Muslim defensiveness—everything but religion. In fact, Rauf believes that America best represents Islam's true values.

His major theme is the existence of an "Abrahamic ethic" which undergirds all the monotheistic religions and extols equality and justice. If Muslims, especially American Muslims, harness this Abrahamic ethic, Rauf promises Islam will once again contribute to the universal striving for a better society.

In countering Bernard Lewis's What Went Wrong?, Rauf raises numerous valid points: the U.S. overthrow of democratic Islamic regimes in Iran and Indonesia; U.S. creation and sponsorship of Afghan mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union; the anti-Muslim bias of American media (a point echoed by Karen Armstrong in the foreword); the massive, debilitating effect colonization had on most of the Islamic world; and the "drawing [of] lines" in the Middle East and South Asia by European powers after WWI and WWII, dooming countries with wildly diverse populations to perpetual unrest.

However, Rauf presents these points sporadically and less eloquently than some previous commentators. The book's strengths include a concise history of Islam as well as brief but valuable insights into the American Muslim community. The few references to his own personal story also resonate: "Like many immigrants from Muslim lands, I discovered my Islam in America."

From Amazon.com

Stimulating and thoughful on Islam in America:

Rauf is Imam of a Mosque a few blocks from the World Trade Center site and has been passionately involved in the aftermath of that tragedy, interfaith understanding, and the place of Islam in the United States.

His essay is a useful source to stimulate thinking even on matters with which one can not entirely agree. Most contemporary and major historical and social questions about Islam are addressed in a manner and from a perspective that is unique with comparisons to American values and practices and just enough history to provide context.

There are some major reasons that disagreement and/or discomfort may be expected that do not reduce the stimulation from reading the book:

(1) There will be some small disagreements on details for historians but there are also many thoughtful perspectives that may be of considerable value even for scholars of the subject.

(2) The comparisons to American principles will seem forced at times both because they relate to an idealized Islam of moderates and because most of us have been strongly conditioned by Islam phobia our entire lives continue to be fed nonsense by those who should know better and often want to divert us from the real policy issues ("they attack because they hate our freedoms and way of life" as if elections, booze, and bikinis are reason for attack).

(3) He does not address the moralistic antagonism against what Muslims (like Right Christians and others) consider to be lewd and corrupt behavior.

(4) There is little about the cultural values regarding family, honor, community that are not parallel to the individualistic, sometimes selfish and egoistic, standards of our own society. (To that degree he somewhat idealizes Americans as well as Muslims).

(5) The discussion will seem unfamiliar to those informed only by the media with its obsession with the violent ("if it bleeds, it leads"), simplification, and historic ignorance and disdain or hatred of Islam.

One who knows and understands Islam will recognize many strengths in this book, not least of which is placing things in what could be called a sociological and historical context.

The book is a striking contrast but certainly no more propagandistic than academic works have almost always had an "agenda" and can be very misleading. Often the most promoted and best known is very much product of ulterior motives about which many readers with limited alternative sources are naive. There is an intellectual "Gresham's Law for pundits it seems.

The ideas, perspectives, comparisons, and examples should all engage a thoughtful reader to better understand Islam and America too. Reading this book with an open mind is enjoyable and time well spent.

The most refreshing perspective in years:

Imam Feisal speaks for all Muslims who find themselves defending their religion. His moderate voice is consistent with the philosophical basis of Islam. His approach and vivid examples provide Muslims with a framework to best articulate how Islam and the West are not only compatible but also made for each other.

This is also a must read for anyone whose impressions of Islam have been formed through the events and coverage of the last few years. Many are perplexed by the seeming inconsistency of terror "in the name of Islam" and our leaders' statements such as "Islam is a religion of Peace." Without addressing the 'expert analysis' given full reign in the media to besmirch Islam, this book effectively discredits those theories. By identifying the common threads between West & Islam, the 'us vs. them' thoughts dissolve.

This should serve as the foundation of reconciliation and peace between Islam and the West.

A thoughtful book:

The first few reviews of this book written by my fellow Amazonians were exactly what I expected to read. Reviewer Tom Swift spouts racists nonsense about " total world conquest ", while Mohammed Irfan Shariff toes the ultra conservative Sunni line that condemns anything Sufi.

Tragically it seems that prevailing views, both within the Muslim world and without, have effectively smothered the voice of rational, forward thinking, Islam.

Feisal Abdul Rauf presents the reader with a very well laid out, well crafted, highly logical and even handed presentation of the challenges that face Islamic nations and the rest of the world as we try ( some of us at least ) to find ways to coexist in mutually beneficial ways. Personally, there wasn't anything in this book that I hadn't read or experienced previously. The history of the rise and spread of Islam has been written about by many authors, each with his or her particular

bias. What the good Imam has done however, is to provide a wonderfully thorough context in which to examine the history of Islam via vis it's relationship with the western world.

I challenge Tom Swift to attend Friday prayers at his local mosque. What he will experience is a sincerely warm greeting and a willingness to share very openly about Islam's core beliefs. I did this back in the late 90's and was deeply moved, not only by the personal contact, but by the Imam's firm declaration that the United States was, and I quote, " the best place in the world to be a Muslim ". I respectfully remind Mohammed Irfan Shariff, that many of Islam's greatest achievements in science and philosophy were accomplished by Sufis and that many of the world's Sufis are devoted to the Qur'an and are deeply observant Muslims.

The author ends this book with numerous, realistic, well considered recommendations, that will in all likelihood never see the light of day. Frankly, the status quo of mistrust and hostility are very important to many of our world's leaders. If they can't distract us by pointing a finger at the " evil other ", their own corruption and incompetence will be exposed. It's easier to hate, and it turns out it's much more financially remunerative, too. Even the media ( particularly in the USA ) has given up on in depth reporting in favor of slickly delivered shards of violent, negative images. Evidently, there's no profit in peace.

Still, I recommend this book very sincerely. If things are ever going to get better in this tragedy filled world, it will be people like Feisal Abdul Rauf who will show us the way.

I'll end this review with a personal note. I found myself in Malaysia in February 2004. Given the fact that Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim nation, and that my country was pursuing a highly unpopular war in Iraq, I was a bit apprehensive as to how I would be received. What I found was a people who went out of their way to assure me that the Malaysian people didn't hold individual Americans responsible for their government's policies. It was made very clear to me that to treat a guest with anything other than generosity and respect was un-Islamic.

Spirituality & Practice

Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is Founder and CEO of the American Sufi Muslim Association (ASMA Society) and Imam of Masjid Al-Farah, a mosque in New York City twelve blocks from Ground Zero. He has dedicated his life to building bridges between Muslims and the West and is a leader in the effort to build religious pluralism and integrate Islam into modern American society.

Imam Feisal is also the architect of the Cordoba Initiative, an interreligious blueprint for improving relations between America and the Muslim world, and he is on the board of One Voice, a group pursuing peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He is the author of Islam: A Search for Meaning and Islam: A Sacred Law, What Every Muslim Should Know About the Shari'ah. He has spoken at many churches, synagogues, seminaries, and interfaith centers about what unites all of the world's religions.

In this ambitious work, Imam Feisal points out what went wrong in the relationship between Islam and the West and discusses the common ground that can serve as a launch pad for a renewed relationship based on an abiding respect for the fundamental values of a pluralistic, free society. He provides a succinct look at the life and work of the Prophet Muhammad, describes the five epochs of Islamic history, and notes the five principles affirmed by all divine revelations. He also explores the reasons for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and explicates the condemnation of terrorism in Islamic law.

Islamophobia is rampant in American society with many people describing Muslims as enemies of civilization, extremists, militants, or terrorists. Imam Feisal reminds us that early Muslim societies were far more tolerant of other religions than were the communities of European Christendom. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity as Abrahamic religions have received two great commandments: to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors (no matter what their race or religion) as we love ourselves.

Imam Feisal believes that many Muslims admire the liberty, equality, and fraternity enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and would embrace their own brand of democratic capitalism. "The world wants to like America," he states, yet in many parts of the world, "hostility toward the United States is the rule rather than the exception." It is time for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to work together in "a renewed vision of what the good society can look like," especially since these religions share a passion for justice. Imam Feisal calls America back to its older function in the world, one that takes a different path that it is currently pursuing through the fields of fear:

"It ascends the highlands of trust and faith, conveying us to a place where America acts as the Great Conciliator — instead of the Great Policeman — for the world's family of nations. This is the path of cooperation, of multilateralism, of dialogue, of building friendships. On this path, America sleeps well because it has many friends and few enemies. This is the path of hope.

Americans must outgrow the unbecoming arrogance that leads us to assert that America somehow owns a monopoly on goodness and truth — a belief that leads some to view the world as but a stage on which to play out the great historical drama: the United States of America versus the Powers of Evil."

The author firmly believes that this vision is possible once both Muslims and Americans reconnect with "faith in the basic goodness of humanity and trust in the power of sincerity and dialogue to overcome differences with our fellow human beings." Given the entrenched views of original sin held by the majority of Christians and the reigning dualistic view of the world as divided between the good guys and the bad guys, this new paradigm seems to us a long way off, but we have to join Iman Feisal in saying, God willing, it will come to pass.Integral Options Cafe

Speaking to the themes of his recent bestseller What’s Right with Islam, Imam Feisal argues that Islamic principles support the fundamental values of a pluralistic, democratic society. Sharia, or Islamic law, is designed to “protect and further life, religion, property, family and mental well-being,” according to the Imam, who points out that these tenets closely parallel the U.S. Constitution’s precepts of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Imam Feisal draws many other parallels between Islam and a free democratic society, all the while emphasizing that there is little in the way of guidance for Muslims in regard to Western cultural issues. One delightful anecdote he provides as a participant in the Temple of Understanding’s “Religion in a Global Context” lecture series, is the problem of language.

Eskimos, he says, have close to sixty words for snow, words that mean new snow and fresh snow, for example. Muslims have only one word for snow: ice. This leads to the more complex issue of the tendency among Westerners to describe “everything Muslims do as Islamic: our art, architecture, religion, and our criminals.” He notes that Westerners don’t refer to their society and culture as the “Christian world.”

Imam Feisal is actively developing a “dictionary” of religious terms in order to change the nature of current discourse about Islam. For instance, when a Muslim says: “This is un-Islamic,” what he or she means is that “This is illegal,” according to Abdul Rauf. Because Islam is a religion of law, with a strong sense of justice, he says, what Muslims mean by “This is un-Islamic” is “This is unconstitutional.”

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf aspires to a “new Cordoba - a time when Jews, Christians and Muslims and all other faith traditions will live together in peace and prosperity.” He is the founder and chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, which aims at enhancing relations between the Muslim world and the U.S., teaches Islam and Sufism at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York and at New York Theological Seminary, and is the founder of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which is dedicated to the furthering of Islamic Art and Culture.