[nasional_list] [ppiindia] The Very Model of a Moderate Modern Muslim
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- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 00:12:47 +0100
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**http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9§ion=0&article=77853&d=16&m=2&y=2006
Wednesday, 15, February, 2006 (16, Muharram, 1427)
The Very Model of a Moderate Modern Muslim
Roger Harrison, Arab News
Shahid Hussain at the London Central Mosque. (AN photo by Roger
Harrison)
There sits in the comfortably cluttered office of the Interfaith
Department of the London Central Mosque one devout young man, the product of
two cultures. Shahid Hussain is one of the youngest imams ever to be appointed
to the Central London Mosque and very unusually for this august institution, he
is British born and bred. Raynes Park, Wimbledon, Mitcham and Morden - being
brought up in those leafy suburbs marks Hussain as a south London native. He
is, nonetheless, the very model of a modern moderate Muslim. Quiet spoken, easy
of address and with a ready smile, he radiates unassuming certainty in his
religious beliefs. Unusually for such a senior religious figure, he disarmingly
admits that he simply does not know all the answers to difficult questions. He
follows this up with a determined wish to address difficult issues and relate
them to the increasingly secular society he lives in. Early secular British
state system education, he feels, grounded him firmly in Brit
ish society but, he explained, his parents were from a religious background
and at the age of 12, he felt the call to leave home and school in the UK and
pursue a religious education.
After gaining his MA, his dedication and talent for teaching was noticed
and in February 2005 at the age of 29, he was appointed to his current position
as the Honorary Interfaith Adviser and Head of the Interfaith Department at
London's prestigious Regent's Park Mosque. He brings to it an air of reflective
calm and a keen understanding of the challenges or, as he put it, a foot in
both camps. Whenever differing cultures meet, there are inevitably points of
friction, all the more so if one is secular and the other faith-based.
Hussain sees his role as developing good relations and better
understanding on both sides. "Interfaith is a cooperation and an understanding
that people have of each others' faiths or each others' concepts and belief
systems," he explained. "In order to promote this, we feel we need to reach out
to others as well as invite people to come to our mosques."
This he does; visiting the Regent's Park Mosque is an entirely
comfortable experience for a non-Muslim. "We believe that others should come
and see our system, our way of life and our faith and how we practice it. That
way, more respect and tolerance will develop." He also believes that engagement
with central government, other places of worship and with ministers from other
faiths will produce positive results.
When Hussain visits non-Muslim places of worship, he is usually well
received. "However, you do feel sometimes that you are in a hostile situation
but then one has to defend oneself, stand up and justify your beliefs," he
said. "As a cleric and an educated imam with a good command of English, I feel
I am prepared to tackle these issues."
The subjects of jihad and the position of women in Islam are probably the
most common topics at interfaith meetings. A more recent and very pertinent one
is suicide bombings. "Many, even in our own faith community, are uneducated
about the true meaning of jihad," Hussain observed. "In the literal sense, it
means 'a struggle' and scholars who have taken this to mean holy war have used
it as a metaphor."
How much does tradition influence the position of women in Islam and what
are Islam's actual prescriptions? "In the traditions of the Prophet, peace be
upon him, and the Qur'an, there are no clear definitions as to what women's
rights are in comparison to what men's rights are. Yet women in most cases
enjoy equality; they actually have more rights than men do. For example, in the
matter of daily prayers, women are forgiven a whole week each month during
their cycle; for men, there is no excuse. In some cases then, women are given
preference over men."
This is where, says Hussain, interpretation comes in. The Muslim
community in the UK lives in an increasingly secular society. Hussain, born and
reared partly in that society and partly in the traditions of his parents, has
a foot in both camps. He seems to have little difficulty in living with secular
traditions along with his Islamic values, accepting them as part of the
environment he has to deal with.
What then was his reaction to the "home grown" bombers who wreaked havoc
in London on July 7 and July 21 last year? They were in name, at least,
"British." Hussain is refreshingly direct about his position. He thinks that
the one thing that UK Muslim communities - including the huge influx in the
1960s - have failed to do is address the issues of "Britishness" and
integration. Most imams, he said, were brought from overseas and spoke only the
language of the immigrant community they served. "The first generation of
immigrants was content with imported imams and those imams related to the
immigrants' customs and ways of life in the countries they had left."
Most of the British Muslims of the new generation, however, speak only
English and have never visited their parents' countries; they feel a sense of
belonging and attachment to England itself. "As a result, first and second
generation young British Muslims who understood only English were compelled to
leave the mosques and seek refuge elsewhere."
This, he feels, opened the doors in the 1990s for radical individuals and
extreme organizations to influence young and vulnerable British Muslims. Key
figures in that movement would have been multilingual, professionals and
academics who had a wide appeal. Imams could not compete with such urbane
sophistication. "Gradually this developed into a major factor in creating the
big beast which showed its true colors on 9/11 and in the July attacks."
After the attacks, Hussain perceived a mixed reaction from the British
non-Muslim community. He received great support from the non-Muslim communities
he had links with; however, more socially isolated Muslim communities reported
feeling that they had been alienated to some extent. This led to calls for a
platform where they could meet and hold dialogue with other faiths in order to
dispel myths and misconceptions concerning the London bombings.
Hussain sees his greatest challenge as one of integration, balanced with
maintaining the core values of Islam and an Islamic identity. The task, he
says, is to help Muslim communities integrate with society as a whole. "If we
get people to develop an understanding of Islam, they will develop a respect
for it. We Muslims, on the other hand, must have tolerance and live peacefully
among the masses. These are my ideals and objectives."
Hussain is a pragmatist. "Our mosque cannot do this alone; it has to be a
cooperative effort, a reciprocal act and a joint project between faiths." He
counsels government initiatives and considers this an area which needs its
profile raised.
How useful then are NGOs such as the Muslim Council of Great Britain
which has all this in its brief? "I feel that we need to get to the stage so
that when the Muslim community makes a statement, it is made with the consensus
of every party. If the Central London Mosque says something, there shouldn't be
a different Muslim organization saying something else. We need to do much work
within our own community." Currently, there is no unified voice, no one voice
speaking for the whole Muslim community. "This is an area that many Muslims
have been questioning."
How does Hussain evaluate the position of a faith-based culture in a
society that is increasingly secular? Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of
the Muslim Council of Great Britain, recently said that he believed
homosexuality was "immoral" and has been threatened with prosecution for saying
it. Is there a conflict of morals at the interface between Islam and the
secular?
Hussain thinks that Islam and other monotheistic religions are clear on
these matters. Circumstances now obtain in secular society in which these
issues have to be addressed. "I feel that modern scholars have to meet and
discuss these and other such ethical and contemporary issues."
This, said Hussain, is the first time in Islamic history that Muslims had
lived in a secular society; Muslims have historically lived in an environment
where it was easy to practice and uphold their beliefs and values. Now Muslims
live in a society in which science and technology challenge beliefs and change
values daily and which also contains Muslim traditionalists and moderates. "We
are going through an era when there is a lot of confusion and mixed feelings
about whether Islam is compatible with a secular society or whether Islam can
only function within its own boundaries."
Hussain is committed to the view that Islam is a faith which is both
flexible and compatible with a secular society as long as there is no
imperative to compromise its ideals or values. When a core value runs up
against a secular fact or something prevalent in our community, he says, it
should be referred to the scholars. "However, scholars in the past were not
confronted with these issues in the way that we are as we live in a very
dynamic, multicultural and multiethical modern society," he pointed out.
Hussain's whole approach is one of a seeker of solutions rather than as a
didactic dispenser of prescriptions.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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