Irshad Manji: A Brave Voice

"Actually, the Koran contains many verses that support the equality of women. For example, the Koran tells us that women have the choice to get married. If they choose to get married, then the Koran also encourages women to actually draw up a prenuptial contract, Glenn, so that in the event of a major disagreement between husband and wife, the woman`s interests, as she defines them, will be as much protected as the husband`s interests are. Most Muslim women, forget in America, around the world, do not yet know this, because they are kept illiterate. They don`t realize that it is their God-given right to think for themselves. So again, Islam has the raw material to be humane. It is we Muslims who are ensuring that the vast majority of our population remain stuck in not 12thcentury, but in seventh century norms..."

Irshad Manji(Glenn Beck Show)

http://www.myspace.com/projectijtihad

Allah Knows by Zain Bhikha

Great Video Mash'Allah

Women in Islam

This is from an Islamic CD set I recommend by Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah...

"It shows that the status of women in Islamic societies has never been uniform or monolithic but has shifted from place to place, from age to age, and from class to social class. The greatest disparity, however, has been between the norms of the Prophetic period and those of subsequent ages. Prophetic society lacked the rigid divisions of social space that became characteristic of many traditional Islamic societies, and, as a rule, Prophetic society was more open and less patriarchal, giving women greater freedom and allowing them a conspicuous role within the matrix of social and civic life. A second major shift in women's status occurred during the colonial, post-colonial, and modern periods, when the position of Muslim women often deteriorated markedly."

“We are perhaps living in times when living for Islam is more difficult than dying for it.”

[Abdul Malik Mujahid]

One of the things that is often overlooked by non-Muslims, and this I do not blame them for, is the importance that Islam puts on LIVING its message. Yes, there is great honor in dying for what you believe in, under the right circumstances. But Islamically, LIVING Islam in every aspect of your life, that is the GREATEST honor...To do this, one has to be a good neighbor, a good spouse, a hard worker, a good parent, a good child...aspirations that would be admired by any culture or faith. Those who choose to misconstrue these Islamic ideals have forever tarnished a faith and people that in the end have common aspirations as the rest of humanity, only they are veiled by the misconceptions of their faith, Islam.

MSA (Muslim Student Association) Elects First Woman President

Within the Muslim community I have often found something that disturbed me, the discouragement of women being in leadership roles. This disturbed me because from what I have studied of the Prophet(AS) is that his wifes had huge roles in the establishment and implementation of Islam at its beginnings. Never have I read or come across anything where he discouraged their roles. I strongly feel that Muslim women should be choosing more active roles in their communities. I still have reservations with a woman leading an army, I think that job is better suited for a man. But there are numerous other positions within the Muslim community that women are not doing simply because they feel they shouldn't be,

because the "Muslim" cultures they grew up in frown down upon it.

This needs to be changed.

And as an American-Muslim, I am glad that change is happening here.

Excerpt from Islamic Horizons September/October 2004 issue...

For the first time since its establishment in 1963, the MSA National has elected a woman president, Hadia Mubarak, a native of Florida. The election results were announced June 25, 2004.

The outcome of this election is representative of a growing trend within the more than 500 MSA chapters in the U.S. and Canada, in which an unprecedented number of recent chapter presidents have been women. MSA welcomes the election of its first woman president on a national level as a significant step toward the greater participation of women in leadership positions across the continent.

With the coming of age of a second generation of Muslims in the 1990's, the membership has shifted from predominantly international students to second generation Muslims, a majority of whom are born and raised in the U.S. and Canada. MSA National has always been diverse and even today boasts a membership that is rich in racial, ethnic, cultural, socioececonomic and gender-based diversity.

"As an organization built on grassroots support, it was only a matter of time before the National MSA elected its first female president," said past President Altaf Hussein (1997-2003). "In the past three terms, starting in 1999, Muslim women have been elected to at least half of the positions on the national executive committee."

"The election of a female president is a positive step toward reviving the egalitarian principles of Islam, such as gender equity and merit-based leadership," said outgoing President Tarek Elgawhary (2003-2004).

As a former Female MSA chapter co-president at Tennessee State University, it does my heart good to see this huge step in Muslim women taking on more leadership positions.

In Hamza Yusuf's new book, Purification of the Heart...

"If we examine the trials and tribulations all over earth, we’ll find they are rooted in human hearts. Covetousness, the desire to aggress and exploit, the longing to pilfer natural resources, the inordinate love of wealth, and other maladies are manifestations of diseases found nowhere but in the heart. Every criminal, miser, abuser, scoffer, embezzler, and hateful person does what he or she does because of a diseased heart. So if you want to change our world, do not begin by rectifying the outward. Instead, change the condition of the inward. It is from the unseen world that the phenomenal world emerges, and it is from the unseen realm of our hearts that all actions spring. . . . We of the modern world are reluctant to ask ourselves—when we look at the terrible things happening—“Why do they occur?” And if we ask that with sincerity, the answer will come back in no uncertain terms: all of this is from our own selves. In so many ways, we have brought this upon ourselves. This is the only empowering position that we can take." — Excerpted from the Introduction

Women's Rights in the Mosque

By Asra Q. Nomani

Islam is at a crossroads, much like the place where the Prophet Muhammad found himself when he was on the cusp of a new dawn with his migration to Medina from Mecca. Medina became “the City of Enlightenment” because of the wisdom with which the Prophet nurtured his community, or ummah.
In much the same way, the Muslim world has the opportunity to rise to a place of deep and sincere enlightenment, inspired by the greatest teachings of Islam. It is our choice which path we take. It is our mandate to take action to insure that we define our communities as tolerant, inclusive, and compassionate places that value and inspire all within our fold.

Read more...