What is Eid al-Adha?

Eid al-Adha also known as “Festival of Sacrifice” or “Greater Eid” is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide annually on the 10th day of the 12th and the last Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah of the lunar Islamic calendar. Eid al-Adha celebration starts after those performing the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from Mount Arafat. Hajj in Saudi Arabia will start on November 4, 2011 performed by more than two million pilgrims from around the world. Eid Ul Adha will fall on November 6, 2011.

What does Eid al-Adha commemorate?

During the Hajj, Muslims remember and commemorate the trials and triumphs of the Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim-Peace Be Upon Him). This holiday commemorates the willingness of Abraham  to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma’il-Peace Be Upon Him) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead.

Why do Muslims sacrifice an animal on this day?

During the celebration of Eid al-Adha, Muslims commemorate and remember Abraham’s trials, by themselves slaughtering an animal such as a sheep, camel, or goat. This action is very often misunderstood by those outside the faith.

The meat from the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha is mostly given away to others. One-third is eaten by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor. The act symbolizes willingness to give up things that are of benefit or close to hearts, in order to follow God’s commands. It also symbolizes willingness to give up some of own bounties, in order to strengthen ties of friendship and help those who are in need. Muslims recognize that all blessings come from God, and they should open their hearts and share with others.

What else do Muslims do to celebrate the holiday?

On the first morning of Eid al-Adha, Muslims around the world attend morning prayers at their local mosques. Prayers are followed by visits with family and friends, and the exchange of greetings and gifts. At some point, members of the family will visit a local farm or otherwise will make arrangements for the slaughter of an animal.

So if you know a Muslim, wish them “Eid Mubarak” (pronounced eeed moo baa ruck) this weekend!!!

My friend Hadi, who loans me Umm Kalthum CD’s, tells me with a smile, “I am

now fasting for Ramadan, you know.”  His smile suggests to me that fasting is helping him to reach his true spiritual center of calm and strength and generosity of spirit.

Sometimes, as I learn about Islam through good people like Hadi, I wonder about the reverse:  I wonder how Hadi and other Muslims learn about Christianity.  My guess is that that is often a confusing process.

The hard part for Muslims, I would guess, is not so much learning about the basic beliefs of Christianity.  Jesus is, after all, honored as a great prophet by Islam.  Indeed, I was recently happily surprised to learn that one of the three minarets at the historic Umayyad Mosque in Damascus is the Jesus Minaret, so named because Muslims believe Jesus will return to earth there on Judgment Day.  And Muslims in the Middle East have long lived with Arab Christians as their neighbors.  I’ve concluded that in general Muslims know much more about the West and Christianity than we Christians know about the East and Islam.

I suspect that what is so perplexing for Muslims is reconciling what they know about the peace and love taught by Jesus with the hard-edged militarism which too much of the time sadly characterizes American Christianity.  Reconciling these two very opposing ways of relating to the world must be very difficult, if not impossible, for my Muslim friends.

So how can I reconcile the stark contradiction of a peaceful Jesus and an often militaristic American Christianity to my perplexed Muslim friends?  The simple answer is I don’t think they can be reconciled.  The sad truth is I’m afraid most of us quarter-of-a-billion Americans who are descendants of Christian heritage are most of the time very poor witnesses to the love and peace which Jesus taught as the essence of His kingdom.

One of the ways we Christians study the Bible for spiritual growth is to read the parables of Jesus and meditate upon how different parts of ourselves are reflected in the various characters in the stories.  If we’re honest with ourselves, this process can help us to see where we need to grow spiritually.  In the beloved story of the Prodigal Son, for example, we might spend some time reflecting upon the part of us which relates to the disobedient son.  Obviously, this is a part of us which needs to repent and grow up.  Yet at the same time, we might reflect upon that part of us which shares some similarities with the super-obedient stay-at-home older brother.  He strictly follows all the rules, but nevertheless he’s still unhappy; nobody holds a party for him.  He is clearly not the character whose example we should be following, either.   The parable seems to be asking us:  might there be a third way?

More broadly, are there characters in the parables of Jesus who might reflect to us American Christians what our condition is at this point in history?  Can we see ourselves more clearly in the mirror of Jesus’ parables?  Two characters immediately come to mind – the Roman soldiers and the Pharisees.

We American Christians have become, I believe, less like Jesus and more like the Roman soldiers than we might care to admit.  Like the Roman soldiers, we American Christians have come to take for granted the use of military force and occupation and domination of foreign lands.  Like the Roman soldiers, the use of military force and an economy which supports those armed forces with bases all around the world has become a way of life.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the dangers of a “military-industrial complex” but we hardly seem to question that military economy at all these days.  Our current budget deficit debates never even seem to mention the obvious thing we need to do – cut our bloated military budget.

And even more troubling, I’m afraid, we American Christians have come to resemble in many ways another familiar character in the New Testament – the Pharisees, those self-righteous holier-than-thou persons.  We American Christians walk around so much of the time with our heads in the clouds of our assured self-righteousness, uninterested in any deep reflection upon the faults which our own Christian tradition assures us we certainly have.  We have conveniently forgotten that it was not the sinners who made Jesus angry, but self-righteous religiously-correct who really made Him mad.

Hitting kids is bad enough, but when people hide behind scripture to justify it, it is especially grotesque – it scars the children, and it scars the tradition which justifies it.  Tragically, this is going on, it must be stopped, and it is precisely those of us for whom the Bible is a sacred and life-centering text that must take the lead in stopping it.

As is always the case, it is those closest to a tradition that should bear the greatest responsibility for it when it is being abused.  We cannot simply distance ourselves from “those crazy people”, because “those crazy people” are using the same books we hold dear to commit atrocities, so who better than those who turn to (some of) the same books, to take on the responsibility of addressing the abuses committed in their name?

The notion of hitting children should simply be repugnant to people, and the scientific evidence against the practice is overwhelming.  Kids who are hit, fare no better, and often fare far worse than children who are not.  Of course for some biblical literalists that argument will not suffice.

The literalists will quote chapter and verse beginning with Proverbs 13:24, One who spares the rod, hates his child.  (The commonly heard, “spare the rod, spoil the child”, by the way, does not actually appear anywhere in the Bible – it’s an expression based on this verse.)  But, as I often wonder with such approaches to the Bible, why are such literalists not stoning those who they deem to be Sabbath violators as is demanded by Exodus 31:15, for example?  The answer, of course, is that they don’t want to kill people for violating the Sabbath, but for whatever reason, actually want to hit kids and delight in finding a biblical “justification” for it.

Prosecutors in the case against the Schatz’s could not make an additional case for legal liability against Michael Pearl, whose book was among those found on the Schatz’s shelves and which appears to have served as an inspiration to them in “understanding” the religious value of corporal punishment.  Frustrating as that may be, that is probably as it should be given the importance of freedom of expression and the chilling effect upon it were it possible to hold Pearl legally culpable for the death of Lydia Schatz.

Legal liability and moral responsibility however, are two different matters and there is no doubt that Pearl bears a measure of the latter whether he realizes it or not.  Of course, the real challenge is not to Michael Pearl, it is to the rest of us, especially those who own Pearl’s book, believe, or teach, that hitting kids is a religious act.  This is no longer a phenomenon about which any of us can plead ignorance, and we all bear a measure of moral responsibility for every slap and punch.

There is no way to bring Lydia Schatz back, or to undo the damage to her still living siblings, or any of the other children who are beaten in the name of God.  We can however do everything in our power to put a stop to the practice.  For the sake of these kids and for the sake of the traditions we hold dear, that is what we must do.

By Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

Doron Rosenblum, writing in todays Ha’aretz newspaper provides evidence of the damage done, especially for Israeli Jews, when Israeliness and Jewishness are separated.  Claiming the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has forgotten what it means to be Israeli; Rosenblum assails the PM for thinking as a Jew, but not as an Israeli.

Rosenblum’s argument is a tendentious, if artful, overstatement.  Parts certainly ring true, but so does the fact that Rosenbloom pulls a reverse Netanyahu — separating Israeli from Jewish in the opposite direction.

At the end of the piece, Rosneblum observes:

Even his past in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit and the way he (Netanyahu) uses various images of “carrying the stretcher” have always sounded somewhat affected and fake when they come from him, like the kind of fond memories of an American Jewish participant on the Taglit-Birthright Israel program.

But hat is merely an external expression of something much deeper. It is not that someone has for gotten “what it is to be a Jew” – it is Netanyahu who has forgotten what it is to be an Israeli, and it is doubtful if he ever really knew.

Rosenblum’s words reflect that the author’s “Israeli-ness” cannot integrate the genuineness of the experience of a PM who was raised largely in the US — talk about a shtetl (Medieval Jewish ghetto) mentality! Ultimately, the piece demonstrates both the real challenge which the author (unwittingly) points out — the dis-integration of Jewishness and Israeliness — and the fact that the problem exists on both the right and the left.

As those familiar with my blogging and production activity on BridgesTV know, I have long been a stalwart defender of Muslims in general.  Indeed, I believe that our Diversity is the fundamental strength of the United States, and I see that most Muslim Americans have been valuable citizens in their communities, so I do not change that view here.  But this piece is not about that!  This is also not about what is wrong with Christianity and non-Muslim elements of our society—and those are plenty.

I have long been disappointed that most Muslims will not speak up about what is wrong (or what is right, for that matter) with their religion, their various cultures, and the state of the Muslim world.  What the rest of us hear, if we hear much of anything, is something like CAIR’s daily e-mail pitty-party about how Muslims are put upon by the rest of us.  We hear little or nothing about how Muslims have identified the things that are wrong in Muslim society, and what Muslims are doing about it.

Of course, this begs the question of the “Arab Spring,” where Muslims in their millions have stood up and died saying, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  But what has happened?  Very little!  The Egyptians still haven’t had an election, though they managed to rid themselves of a cancer ridden despot.  There’s a new leader in Tunisia, but is anyone happy?  Saudi women still have no rights, including the very basic right to drive (the only women in the world so forbidden by their (who? government? religion? what?), even in Muslim countries), and only one Saudi seems to have appeared for the March 11, 2011 protests, Khaled Al-Johani, and he seems to be among the “disappeared.”  A few women have driven their cars in defiance, but after a trip to the police station escorted by the Saudi version of the Spanish Inquisition (a long abolished institution in the West), the chorus seems to be, “We love our King!”  The list goes on.

Muslims seem to be slinking back into their customary reticence.  Looking into the situation from the outside, a famous quote suddenly came to mind, “If you can’t say anything good about something, don’t say anything.”  Is that it?

I am sorry to say that Muslim silence is not doing you any good.  Take a look at American society.  We are a noisy, debating, cantankerous lot, BUT through this process of noisy debate, like tempering steel, we have created the strongest country in the world.  Many of you reading this came here because you knew you would have a better life here, rather than living under dictators masquerading as theocrats, and you have.

As I hear more and more really atrocious things about Muslim societies, I am finding it harder and harder to be one of your few defenders.  My wife and I watched a Netflix documentary called “Afghan Star” recently, and I wanted to be sick to my stomach.  The 3 women, who managed to participate in what passed for a talent contest in Afghanistan, were threatened with death and even worse, multiple times.  What are we non-Muslims supposed to think when Muslims themselves will not put a stop to such behavior?

What are non-Muslims supposed to think when we hear more and more egregious stories of punishments meted out under Shariah law?  What are non-Muslims supposed to think when even Muslim Americans will not speak out loudly against honor killings, repression of women, and incest in Muslim communities?  What kind of people are you? Really!

Yes, the incident in Oslo, that seems to have taken over 90 lives, was very tragic!  BUT, I fear that the blowback is going to be even worse with terrible impact on Muslim communities in the West, unless you are willing to take on the very troublesome issues in Muslim communities globally, and get them fixed.  Yes, various attacks on bona fide Muslim religious beliefs and Muslims themselves are reprehensible.  But if you think many more Muslims ought to be permitted to come into Western societies, you’ll need to prove to my fellow Westerners that you are civilized.  Much of what we see in Muslim countries was rejected by civilization in most of the world centuries ago.

When a woman is killed in an honor killing, is this what Allah wants?  When Saudi women are not allowed to drive, is this what Allah wants?  If you think that, then why has Allah not punished the other 56 Muslim countries in the world, not to mention everyone else that takes women driving for granted?  When a woman is threatened with death for singing a song or dancing, is this what Allah wants?  If so, why does Allah allow women to dance in the rest of the world?  Why is belly dancing practically synonymous with major parts of Muslim societies?  Where is the punishment?  Looking objectively, I have to say that it is Muslim societies that are being punished for not modernizing, not the rest of humanity.  It sure looks like Allah is making things pretty unpleasant for lots of Muslims, while the rest of us enjoy a higher standard of living in Freedom.

You can complain all you like, but it seems to me that things are going to get worse and worse, unless Muslims are ready to stand up and speak out against the things that are wrong in Muslim societies.  I don’t need to give you the rest of the laundry list.  You already have it, I am sure.

In my heart, I know that there is much that is good about Islam and the people who practice it.  But you need better PR urgently, or it is evident that all of the Islamophobia that has been building up in the West for well over a decade will start causing very serious problems.  Changes need to be made and soon!

If you don’t have the courage to stand up against these wrongs, which are clearly evident to the rest of us, then don’t say anything, but remember this article when things get worse.  It seems that’s where things are heading unless you start to make the necessary changes.  Who will do the right thing, and start to get these problems solved?

I am building a community of people who are not afraid to speak their minds at http://archetypeinaction.com. I need more writers, who will sound off and demand the changes that are needed.  Write to me at skip@archetypeinaction.com.

Anchor: The fundamental purpose of the women protection act was (is) to provide women with the right to file cases on the basis of circumstantial and forensic evidence, making convictions of rape easier. Where is the obscenity in that?

Munawar Hasan: This bill has been part of law for years, how has that affected the rights of women in Pakistan? What is the one issue that can be pointed out as a success of this law?

Anchor: One blaringly obvious problem with the Hudood law was the need to present four witnesses in order to convict a rapist, failure to do so resulted in the arrest of the woman on charges of confession to adultery, that was the main issue.

Munawar Hasan: What is the problem in that?

Anchor: The problem is this sir, that according to the 2003 national commission status of women report 80 per cent women were forced to languish in jails because of inability to produce witnesses of their rape.

Munawar Hasan: The objective of Islam is to discourage such acts, no one can be shameless enough to commit such an act in the presence of four people. Making it impossible to prove such acts, therefore the whole idea is to discourage bringing such acts into public light. Discouraging it to the extent that the act is never quoted. If such a crime occurs and since there are no witnesses than both men and women are suppose to keep it under wraps and not discuss it in public.

Anchor: Sir, are you suggesting that a woman should stay silent after she is raped? That she should not report the crime?

Munawar Hasan: I am saying she should keep quite if she has no witnesses. If she has witnesses than she should present them.

Anchor: What kind of an argument is that? A woman is raped and she has to look for witnesses to prove the crime?

Munawar Hasan: Argue with the Quran and not me.

Anchor: I am not questioning the Quran, I am questioning your argument.

This is unbelievable. Why do extremist Islamists always make the poorest, most ignorant religious arguments?

In the Qur’an, four witnesses are required to prove zina (adultery), not rape. That is a key distinction, and the Qur’an is merciful, in that by requiring 4 witnesses, the standard for proving adultery is set so high as to be impossible. That is as it should be, since the penalty for adultery is so severe (100 lashes – the Qur’an does not prescribe stoning). But adultery is not rape. If you are raped, you did not commit adultery. Adultery is a category of illicit, but mutually consensual, sexual intercourse. Obviously in rape, the sexual intercourse is forced by one party upon the other without their consent – that is the very definition of rape.

In fact, centuries of Islamic jurists have established consensus that rape is not a category of adultery, but rather of hirabah (terrorism). Here is an excellent resource from MuslimAccess on rape in Islam by Uzma Mazhar – from which I am copying liberally:

During the time of the Prophet (saw) punishment was inflicted on the rapist on the solitary evidence of the woman who was raped by him. Wa’il ibn Hujr reports of an incident when a woman was raped. Later, when some people came by, she identified and accused the man of raping her. They seized him and brought him to Allah’s messenger, who said to the woman, “Go away, for Allâh has forgiven you,” but of the man who had raped her, he said, “Stone him to death.” (Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud)
[...]
Islamic legal scholars interpret rape as a crime in the category of Hiraba. In ‘Fiqh-us-Sunnah’, hiraba is described as: ‘a single person or group of people causing public disruption, killing, forcibly taking property or money, attacking or raping women (hatk al ‘arad), killing cattle, or disrupting agriculture.’

The famous jurist, Ibn Hazm, had the widest definition of hiraba, defining a hiraba offender as: ‘One who puts people in fear on the road, whether or not with a weapon, at night or day, in urban areas or in open spaces, in the palace of a caliph or a mosque, with or without accomplices, in the desert or in the village, in a large or small city, with one or more people… making people fear that they’ll be killed, or have money taken, or be raped (hatk al ‘arad)… whether the attackers are one or many.”

Al-Dasuqi held that if a person forced a woman to have sex, his actions would be deemed as committing hiraba. In addition, the Maliki judge Ibn ‘Arabi, relates a story in which a group was attacked and a woman in their party was raped. Responding to the argument that the crime did not constitute hiraba because no money was taken and no weapons used, Ibn ‘Arabi replied indignantly that “hiraba with the private parts” is much worse than hiraba involving the taking of money, and that anyone would rather be subjected to the latter than the former.

The crime of rape is classified not as a subcategory of ‘zina’ (consensual adultery), but rather as a separate crime of violence under hiraba. This classification is logical, as the “taking” is of the victim’s property (the rape victim’s sexual autonomy) by force. In Islam, sexual autonomy and pleasure is a fundamental right for both women and men (Ghazâlî); taking by force someone’s right to control the sexual activity of one’s body is thus a form of hiraba.

Rape as hiraba is a violent crime that uses sexual intercourse as a weapon. The focus in a hiraba prosecution is the accused rapist and his intent and physical actions, and not second-guessing the consent of the rape victim. Hiraba does not require four witnesses to prove the offense, circumstantial evidence, medical data and expert testimony form the evidence used to prosecute such crimes.

To summarize, rape is hirabah (terrorism), not zina (adultery) – punishment should be meted to the rapist, and the victim of rape should not be punished in any way. A statement of being raped is not a confession to adultery. All of this is not some modern reinterpretation on my part, but a robust, centuries-old consensus of all major schools of jurisprudence in Islam.

The transcript of the video above is via Sana Saleem at Dawn.com, who also makes the point that the 2006 debate about the Hudood Laws in Pakistan really laid bare the issue. She writes:

In 2006, a much-heated debate on the Hudood Laws revealed the anatomy of rape, conflicting legalities involving misinterpretations of Shariah Laws and the deeply engrained distorted public perceptions. For those who followed the debate, there should be no qualms in admitting that it made the inherent flaws in interpretations of the law and the systematic distortion of a society sensitive to violence and abuse evident.

Saleem notes that it was the debate in 2006 that led to the Protection of Women Act later that year, which extremists like Jamaat-i-Islami opposed. Clearly, they haven’t evolved or become any more enlightened in the past five years. This all points to the difficulty of legislating morality – what’s needed is not top-down reform but a sustained campaign for civil rights at the grassroots level to change the public perception. This is how civil rights were won in the United States, by the most downtrodden and persecuted group in American society. I wonder if Pakistani women can do the same. Certainly not overnight, and not with a single law.

The full post by Sana Saleem, entitled “Your rape culture is not my religion“, is a must-read in full.

Reprinted from City of Brass, by Aziz Poonawalla on blog.beliefnet.com

The above is part of a report published by The U.S Dept of State/Bureau of International Information Programs. This colorful, 60 page glossy book, has lots of photos and info “Being Muslim in America.” Below is the link to the entire report in PDF.

View the PDF

In fact, the religion denounces the killing of innocent people over and over again…

The Quran says:
“Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits.  God  does not love transgressors.” (Quran 2:190)
“If they seek peace, then seek you peace.  And trust in God for He is the One that heareth  and knoweth all things.” (Quran 8:61)

War, therefore, is the last resort, and is subject to the rigorous conditions laid down by the sacred law.  The term ‘jihad’ literally means ‘struggle’.  Muslims believe that there are two kinds of jihad.  The other ‘jihad’ is the inner struggle of the soul which everyone wages against egotistic desires for the sake of attaining inner peace.

Muslims worship a different God.

Allah is simply the Arabic word for God. Allah for Muslims is the greatest and most inclusive of the Names of God. It is an Arabic word of rich meaning, denoting the one and only God and ascribing no partners to Him. It is exactly the same word which the Jews use for God (eloh), the word which Jesus Christ used in Aramaic when he prayed to God. In short, Allah is the same God worshiped by Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Islam is a religion only for Arabs

The common image of a Muslim is a turbaned dark Arab man with a long beard. However this image is part of the minority of Muslims. The Muslim population of the world is around 1.2 billion. They are a vast range of races, nationalities, and cultures from around the globe–from the Philippines to Nigeria–they are united by their common Islamic faith. Arabs make only 15% of the world’s Muslim population. Another common misconception is that all Arabs are Muslims. While the vast majority of Arabs are Muslims (75%), there are many other religions that Arabs practice including Christianity and Judaism.

Muhammad was the founder of Islam and Muslims worship him.

Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was born in Makkah in the year 570. Since his father died before his birth, and his mother shortly afterwards, he was raised by his uncle from the respected tribe of Quraysh.  As he grew up, he became known for his truthfulness, generosity and sincerity, so that he was sought after for his ability to arbitrate in disputes. Muhammad (PBUH) was of a deeply religious nature, and had long detested the decadence of his society.

It became his habit to meditate from time to time in the Cave of Hira near Makkah (commonly known as Makkah). At the age of 40, while engaged in a meditative retreat, Muhammad (PBUH) received his first revelation from God through the Angel Gabriel.  This revelation, which continued for 23 years is known as the Quran. From the time he began to recite the words he heard from Gabriel, and to preach the truth which God had revealed to him, he and his small group of followers suffered bitter persecution. This grew so fierce that in the year 622 God gave them the command to emigrate.

This event, the Hijra (migration), in which they left Makkah for the city of Medina, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.  After several years, the Prophet and his followers were able to return to Makkah, where they forgave their enemies and established Islam definitively. Before the Prophet (PBUH) died at the age of 63, the greater part of Arabia was Muslim, and within a century of his death Islam had spread to Spain in the West and as far East as China.

While Muhammad (PBUH) was chosen to deliver the message, he is not considered the “founder” of Islam, since Muslims consider Islam to be the same divine guidance sent to all peoples before.  Muslims believe all the prophets from Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus etc. were all sent with divine guidance for their peoples.  Every prophet was sent to his own people, but Muhammad (PBUH) was sent to all of mankind.  Muhammad is the last and final messenger sent to deliver the message of Islam.

Islam oppresses women.

The image of a woman wearing a veil from head to toe, a woman who gets unfair justice or a woman who is not allowed to drive is an all too familiar notion when it comes to women treatment in Islam. And while there are Muslim countries in the world that do implement many harsh rulings against women, this should not be portrayed as Islamic law. Many of these countries have cultural differences that go against the teachings of Islam. It should be noted that during pre-Islam Arabia women were used for fornication only and had no independence. The birth of a daughter in a family was considered humiliating and the practice of female infanticide was uncontrolled.

When Islam came to being, verses in the Quran condemned the practice of female infanticide. Islam gave back many human rights to the woman. A Muslim woman is allowed to reject and accept any suitor for marriage and has the right to seek divorce. There is nothing in Islam that forbids a Muslim woman from exiting her house and is allowed to drive. Also in regards to education, a woman is obligated to seek knowledge and it is considered a sin if she refuses.

Muslims don’t believe in Jesus or any other prophets.

Although many lay Muslims and many Western scholars and writers hold the view that Islam began with Muhammad in Makkah, this contradicts the Qur’an, which says that Muhammad simply was the last prophet who preached the same faith that Adam preached to his children. Similarly Noah, Abraham and Moses (Peace Be Upon Them) are all prophets of Allah as well. Many people are amazed to find out that according to Muslim belief, Jesus is one of the greatest messengers of God. One cannot be a Muslim without believing in the virgin birth and the many miracles of Jesus Christ. Jesus is also mentioned in many verses of the Quran and is often used as an example of good virtue and character.

Broadway’s hottest new musical is the Book of Mormon, and in the wake of its triumph at the Tony Awards, the temperature continues to rise – as it should.  There are many reasons to like the play, but the most interesting is that it figures how to laugh with religion, not at it.

Faith needs to be able to laugh at itself, and so do the faithful.  That happens far too rarely, and when it does, the net effect is largely positive for both the faith and the faithful who can do so.  The Book of Mormon’s Tony Awards could be a triumph not only for a particular play, but for faith in general, if believers actually have enough faith in the faiths they follow to laugh at what they love even as they continue to love it.

This play pokes fun at elements of LDS practice and satirizes the experiences of some of its members, but it does so without hostility.  To be sure, the play is foul-mouthed, occasionally inaccurate in terms of doctrine, and all the other things you would expect from a play brought to the stage through the combined efforts of the guys who brought us South Park and Avenue Q.  But like South Park has done for years, the play also takes religion seriously, appreciating how it shapes many people’s lives and provides a sense of purpose and community.  And as Avenue Q did with Sesame Street, it pokes fun at some of the motifs and practices of a particular cultural phenomenon, but it does so in a way that also reminds us of how compelling and convincing those motifs and practices can be.

Nobody should confuse seeing The Book of Mormon, the musical, with serious instruction in the actual Book of Mormon.  But who does that?  One is a musical and the other is a sacred text for 15 million people.  If that’s a distinction one cannot make, then both the play and the book are beyond their intellectual capacity.

The show takes seriously the compelling nature of faith, and takes just as seriously the challenges associated with totalizing faith which makes little room for questions, doubt and the seeking new forms of religious connection.  If that’s uncomfortable for some, so be it, but creating that discomfort is not the same as mocking faith, especially when it’s done in the context of a cheery musical which leaves most of the audience, including as reported by many Mormons who have seen the show, feeling pretty good as they depart the theater.  Now if they could just put some tickets on sale, I could to take my kids to see the show!

I close my eyes and all I can dream about is my visit to Jerusalem. I’m smelling its air. Having the view of its nature. Walking in its streets. Smiling at the people. But this all is adding more excitement and keeping me awake instead. Finally, I manage to get a few winks. I open my eyes and it is still 4:30 am. After all my futile attempts, I give in and wake up at 6.

JOURNEY BEGINS

It is a scene of chaos. Most people around me are chatting in order to kill their time. They’ve nothing else to do but to wait and wait until the border control people become active. I, on the other hand, put my headphones in the ears and listen to Fairoz. It is my attempt to live in my own world. To stay calm and peaceful amidst a storm of excitement and frenzy that engulfs my heart and mind. Though I’m sitting in the benches of Beit Hanoun border post (also called Erez border) all I can see in front of my eyes is the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Here in the hall are lots of people, many of them patients and traders.

“Everybody has an excuse to go to Jerusalem and waiting to get the permission to pass,” I said to myself while my eyes confusedly wandered: one on the people around me and the other on the fences. Yes, the ugly iron fences with barbed wires that surrounded us from all directions. They seemed to be laughing hysterically and mocking us. Is it really funny that all of us here are waiting for hours to have a pass to go to our capital, Jerusalem. It’s not fair at all. I feel the need to shout and tell everyone I need no excuse to go there. It is my eternal right!

I waited for hours to get the security clearance at the Erez Crossing, surrounded by large walls and concrete slabs. Photo – Shahd Abusalamah

Two hours have gone by and I’m still waiting. I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait more. While I take a gander at people around me, an old woman sat next to me in her traditional Palestinian dress lined with red embroidery attracted my eyes. The wrinkles of her face seemed to bear many of the burdens of her life. I thought she must be in her late 70s but it turned out that she is just 66-years-old.

“Are you a refugee?” she asked while my eyes probed her face that lost many of its features in the trials of time. I smiled at her, nodding my head in affirmation. “I’m a refugee too,” she admitted. That was the start of a very interesting conversation about our lands, from which Palestinians were cleansed in 1948 and onwards. She was only three years old when her family was expelled from her native town of Acre. “I was the youngest of the family,” she explained while adding: “My parents and my older brother took turns carrying me. They had to put a cover on my face to protect me from the hot weather on that gloomy day.”

The remorse on her face wrenched my heart so I tried to make her laugh. “No wonder why we met here. We are here to return to our home! Here we come!” I said with a laughter. It wasn’t as funny as I thought. Her expressive face showed sorrow. “Oh, I hope so!” she sighed. And then she explained that she was accompanying her twin grand children who suffer from an illness. They sought a permit to admit them at Al-Maqased, a hospital in Occupied Jerusalem, and they managed to get it.

Erez crossing is one of the most horrible crossings into Israel that is manned by hundreds of Israeli soldiers equipped with sniffer dogs and latest military hardware. Hundreds of people have to wait for hours under extreme weather conditions to get into the Occupied Territories and Israel. Photo – Malashen/Virtual Tourist.com

I tried to change the topic, hoping to stop her from worrying about her kids for at least a few minutes. So I asked her if she knew where my original village, Beit Jerja, was located. While she was looking through the fence, trying to think where to point out, her son came rushing to tell her to get ready, as it was time for them to leave. She hugged me, wished me luck, and then left.

The graceful stateless lady left me in a restless state. I felt deprived but at the same time wanted to continue waiting to visit the destination of my dreams: JERUSALEM.

COMMITMENT

It’s like a commitment for every Palestinian, and especially every Gazan, that we have to make before leaving our borders for the Occupied Territories. It is a commitment to get insulted and humiliated and never say a word. Every single hour I had to wait at the border control passed like a year. The excitement I had didn’t make the situation any easier.

And if you’ve been wondering what takes me to Jerusalem, the occupied capital of our occupied homeland, I’m meant to attend a visa interview at the US embassy in the Holy City. I am sitting here with my friends and we all have been shortlisted for the leadership programme in USA. And while we chit chat about our trip, a Palestinian who works in the Beit Hanoun border control, approached us and asked to get ready to leave the place. No words can describe my feeling right now. “Oh, thank you, God. Finally, we are passing!” are the words that came out as a big scream. I am simply crazy, jumping out to express my indescribable happiness, forgetting about everybody around…

In the Erez crossing corridor having a moment of joy after hours of frustrating wait. Photo – Shahd Abusalama

Now I was properly marching towards the checkpoint. I was taking big steps while breathing hardly. All I could think about was to get out from this place as fast as I could. I didn’t know what was waiting for me after the hours-long wait…

SORDID REALITY

As I passed through the first checkpoint, the alarm bell rang. I started to feel worried but one of my friends told me that it was because my bag contained a laptop. Seeing some Palestinian men working there helped me to relax. One of them told me not to worry as this was normal. He took the notebook from me and asked to pass through the machine again. I did, with my heart beating really fast. It was matching the pace of my steps it seemed…

After that we were led to enter lots of gates, one after another. My eyes waited anxiously to see the scanner lights go green. I then reached a point where I had to stand in an exact position. I tried my best to show that I had no fear. I saw the green lights and they allowed me to pass. I took a deep breath. Tried to calm myself down. But then I was so rushed! Unluckily, I heard some announcement in Hebrew being barked through the speakers which were spread everywhere. Then an old Palestinian man who was responsible to show the travellers where to go yelled loudly, calling me back.

“I don’t know what the problem is with you, my daughter,” he said with his eyebrows high, showing surprise and worry. “Come back to the same gate and do as I tell you to do,” he continued. I couldn’t hide my panic anymore. I did as I was told but the signs of worry on my face were obvious. “Smile or else the photo will be dark,” the Palestinian man joked to make me less worried. That was the instant break I needed to muster my confidence.

Thousands of Palestinians pass through hundreds of Israeli checkpoints that are dotted across the Occupied Territories. Three of such checkpoints are located on the Gaza border with Israel. People are routinely subjected to inhumane treatment where Israeli soldiers inflict deep psychological wounds. Such incidents are never investigated by the Israeli authorities.

I wondered why everybody else was having fewer obstacles at passing through the gates than I’m having but I had no answer to my question. I thought that nothing could be worse than passing through these miserable security gates. I was mistaken again. The buzzers beeped again and they sent me to a special check point. I was ordered to go into an empty room with a glass window and an empty chair, a table, and a microphone behind it. The eeriness of that place freaked me out and I was about to cry…

But I tried to pull myself together. “Shahd, you’re a brave Palestinian. Stand up! Who do they think they are? Rise and conquer,” said my mind to the heart. I realised that being weak would make them feel strong and they’ll be so happy seeing me fall. I made a quick decision. I had to face the enemy with courage. I kept standing and just waited.

The room was totally quiet and I had no idea what was going to happen next. Suddenly, while I looked around the place randomly, there appeared an Israeli female soldier sat in the chair. “You have to do exactly what I tell you,” she said brusquely. “Take off your trousers,” she continued with that severe, harsh voice. I looked at her with surprise, asking if she was serious. She repeated the same sentence, this time in a louder tone. I could not summon any reaction but the same shocked look. “It is an order!” she shouted, and continued, “You don’t have to worry as only you and I are here.” I kept my head high and I took them off, insisting on making my dream of reaching Jerusalem, a reality. She ordered me to turn myself around and then pull my t-shirt up. I put my stuff inside a box to be checked as she ordered. It seemed as if I was being checked by a sniffer dog or a bitch. A sadist one. There was nothing suspicious to be found. So then she let me put back the dress again.

You have no idea of how lowly my feeling was. Some people might say that I should not speak about this tormenting experience at all, but I must. The conscientious world should know how the Palestinians, including the women, are routinely humiliated. How badly our nation is treated, as if we are less than human beings. What is the point of doing this? Why did they choose me in particular? For absolutely no reason! They’re just sick in their minds. They wanted to enjoy inflicting psychological torment on somebody, and the lot fell upon me. I tried to gather my strength and confidence but this particular experience left a deep pain inside me…

Female soldiers, like their male counterparts, are also involved in routine detainee abuses. Once such scandal surfaced a few months ago when an Israeli servicewoman posted her pictures depicting abuse of Palestinian prisoners on the Internet. She is yet to be prosecuted and punished for her crime.

All my friends passed earlier than me. They were waiting for me on the other side. As I joined them again, I felt much better. I put behind the mortifying experience. I decided to live the moment and not to let anyone ruin my happiness of visiting our eternal capital city – Jerusalem. Finally, I reached the bus of the American embassy that was waiting for four hours to take us to Jerusalem.

DREAM COMING TRUE

I only needed to deeply breathe the fresh air of the lands on the other side of the Erez border to feel relaxed. It was such a special feeling that I never experienced before in my life. We all got into the bus which drove us to Jerusalem. I kept looking through the windows at the places around me. I was truly amazed. I saw fantastic natural beauty wherever I directed my eyes. My dark black eyes that were so hungry for such views. They wandered around wildly in order to catch every glimpse of the beauty: the hills, sandy and rocky mountains, green fields, huge trees, and colourful flowers. It started to become one of the journeys of life where you wish to stop the moment and never let it go…

On our way to Jerusalem from Erez border crossing, I pondered at the nature. I sang Fairoz’s song about the magical streets of the old Al-Quds. The feeling of happiness was enough to overcome the bitterness of every difficulty that I had passed through minutes ago. It is true that the enemy can inflict pain upon you but can they stop you from transforming that pain into pride and pleasure? I really doubt that. Not in my case at least…

The bus driver, who was originally from Jerusalem, noticed my painting book and asked me about it. “I am an artist and I always wanted to draw the Dome of Al-Aqsa mosque face to face one day. So I hope that this will be my chance to do so,” I said with innocent tone that surprised myself. “Do not be so dreamy. I have to drop you at the American embassy, and immediately after you all finish your visa interviews, I will take you back to the Erez border,” he replied in a flat tone. The reminder couldn’t have been more stark. Soon after I thought that everything was going to be fine, I was mistaken again…

It was not his fault. I don’t blame him as he is just following the orders issued by the embassy. I pity the situation though…living as a stranger in my very own homeland. Among my own people who were not allowed to treat me with love and care. The feeling of emptiness in a world full of material and comfort…

As soon as I got off the bus and stepped onto the ground, I started jumping and feeling happy that I was standing on the Holy Land. Shahd was alive again. She needs little things to be happy. She has learnt to live the moments in a place where days, months and years are just the same excruciating blocks of time. They never bring any joy or relief. But this moment is something very special. To step on the Holy Land and feel so liberated. As if I crossed the seven seas to get to this feeling of elation. I felt accomplished even though I faced more challenges ahead. The air of Jerusalem raised my spirits to an unknown high. Like never before…

Everything went fine at the US embassy in Occupied Jerusalem. The visa interview was perfect and thankfully I got the visa. Maybe it was the overwhelming sense of accomplishment or fear of returning to the harsh realities of life, I did not want to go outside the embassy. I knew we will be bundled back and won’t be given a chance to see the sights and sounds of our eternal capital. And I was right. Eventually, we had to get onboard the bus to return to Gaza. But I did not walk out empty handed. I was lucky enough to take two beautiful red flowers with me. I lived that moment in an eternity…

The directives given to the bus driver were very strict. He was ordered to take us directly to Erez. However, the driver sympathised with us. After all, he was a Palestinian who could understand what it felt like for Gazans who are in Jerusalem for the first time in their lives. How impossible it is for us to leave our eternal abode without catching a glimpse of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. He explained the restrictions but promised to take us through a street which would allow us a glance of our magnificent heritage.

A view of the Dome of the Rock from the street we passed. This is the closest we were allowed to. Photo – Shahd Abusalama

My starved eyes waited to witness the priceless glimpse of one of the most prized buildings on earth. Every yard that the bus covered seemed never ending to me. The heart beat was pounding once again as if silencing the buzz and excitement around me. Finally the moment arrived. I saw the Dome of the Rock from far away just like it is seen in the photographs. Nevertheless, I managed to see such an amazing scene that is beyond any explanation. My eyes could not stop gazing. It was like magic. Like a walk in the heaven. All the energies in my body just were attracted towards the Holy Complexes. What I heard was true. It is a spiritual magnet for millions of people across the planet. I still couldn’t believe that I lived that experience too…

“I have to move. I am sorry,” the driver said with a broken voice. I turned my head towards the Dome until it disappeared into the distance, leaving behind a long silence filled with deprivation and pity. The visual pilgrimage came to an end. We could see it for hardly a few minutes but my capture was timeless. Seeing that view, and the fact that we could not go closer, and even that we couldn’t open the window and put our heads out, all this made me very emotional…

I went to an empty seat in the back of the bus and lay on it, closing my eyes and letting my soul fly over Jerusalem’s Golden Dome. With a mixture of feelings and emotions, I fell asleep while my spirit encircled the skies of the Holy City. I let myself have this mystical experience till we covered the approximately 80km distance and reached Erez. I went empty handed with a violated feeling. But I returned as a victor. A winner who won all her tests and stood upright. A dreamer who saw the reality but decided to live it like a dream. A dream that is too big to be stolen and too high to be brought down. A dream that defines the essence and aspirations of my nation, of my ideology which the world knows as PALESTINE…