Agenda
of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
CA
Moderate Islam
to reform Muslim society is a buzzword these days.
Many Muslim rulers as well as Muslim and non-Muslim
experts/intellectuals/scholars are calling for ‘moderate
Islam’. President General Parvez Musharraf
of Pakistan is for Enlightened Moderation in Islam
while Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
is promoting Islam Hadhari (contemporary Islam).
To promote moderate Islam in North America, the
Progressive Muslim Union (PMU) was formed on November
15, 2004 by a group of professed moderates who embrace
the simple proposition that “you are a Muslim
if you say you are a Muslim -- for whatever reason
or set of reasons -- and that no one is entitled
to question or undermine this identity.” Ironically,
the PMU has drawn bitter criticism from both the
staunch advocates of moderate Islam, who do not
find them moderate at all, and t mainstream Muslims
and scholars who see them as publicity-seeking Muslims
who may prove a Trojan horse, by design or default,
for the Rand Report - titled "Civil Democratic
Islam: Partners, Resources, and Strategies"
– that calls for revamping of Islam by, among
other things, encouraging moderate Muslims to counter
what it describes as fundamentalist and traditionalist
Muslims.
An analysis of the PMU statement of principles gives
some insight into the mindset of its founders. The
PMU tries to embrace Muslims of all shades, leanings
and schools of thought when it defines a Muslim
as anyone who identifies herself or himself as "Muslim,"
including those whose identification is based on
social commitments and cultural heritage. It also
calls for critical inquiry and dynamic engagement
with Islamic scripture (read Qur’an which
Rand Report describes as legend). The PMU also supports
the political separation of religious institutions
and state functions, and the strict neutrality of
the state on matters of religion. This provision
may put them in the category of secular Muslims
rather than modernists.
The MPU had a bumpy start as many invited to join
its advisory board either declined the request or
were dropped because of their support to the administration’s
policies in Iraq.
Farid Esack, a South African theologian who teaches
at St. Xavier University in Cincinnati, stunned
the PMU organizers by refusing the invitation to
join its board. He didn't want to work with those
who, although they might defend gender equity and
homosexual rights, also support Bush's "expansionist"
policies. In a critique of the PMU, he pointed out
that the PMU’s emphasis on diversity and pluralism
rather than justice and liberation shows its ideological
lines clearly. “There is of course another
dimension – virtually the entire list that
you have put together consists of the mighty, wealthy
and/or famous. Is this really what progressive Islam
is about?”
Not surprisingly,
the PMU was given wide coverage in the mainstream
media. The New York Times on Nov. 16, 2004 reported
the launch of the Progressive Muslim Union under
the headline: A little late, but a stand against
hate. Before the formal launching of the PMU, Washington
Post on Oct. 16, 2004 carried a long story entitled
‘For US Muslims, a push from the progressive
wing; broader rights backed for women and gays’.
On Oct. 7, 2004, USA Today reported: Progressive
Muslim members plan to form the Progressive Muslim
Union of North America as an alternative US voice
of Islam.
The PMU is being launched at a time when Muslims
remain under siege in the US. Since 9/11, attack
on Islam has become a past time for many, particularly
the Christian right. Just two recent examples: (1)
After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Franklin
Graham called Islam "an evil and wicked religion."
In an interview with The Los Angles Times on Nov.
27, 2004, he was asked if he still thought of Islam
in the same way. "I haven't changed my mind,"
he said. (2) Bruce Tefft, a founder of the CIA's
counter-terrorism center and now an advisor to the
New York Police Department's intelligence and counter-terrorism
divisions, told a seminar in Canada on Dec. 8, 2004:
Islamic terrorism is based on Islam as revealed
through the Qur’an and that while there may
be moderate Muslims, Islam itself is immoderate.
The PMU apparently comes as a response to this pressure
on the American Muslim community. The PMU founders
in their formal launching statement emphasized:
“PMU will defend the Muslim community from
the calumnies of those who seek to insult and degrade
Islam and/or the Muslim community, in particular
the relentless campaign of defamation from some
evangelical preachers, like Jerry Falwell and Pat
Robertson, or from supporters of the extreme right
… like Daniel Pipes.” A prompt response
from Pipes was not unexpected. He described the
PMU founders as “the worst Islamist and leftist
extremists in the United States.”
It has to be seen how the PMU will be received by
the American Muslim community and if it will be
successful in becoming an effective voice of the
community like established organizations such as
CAIR, ISNA, ICNA and MPAC who have grassroots contacts
with the community.
This discussion leads us to the basic question:
who is a moderate or progressive Muslim? Moderation
is a quality of being moderate and avoiding extremes.
American Heritage dictionary defines a moderate
as “one who holds or champions moderate views
or opinions, especially in politics or religion.”
However, these days apparently the title of "moderate
Muslim" is only reserved for those who do not
question the US foreign policy in the Muslim world
and openly abandon Islam's beliefs and malign its
scripture.
If this is not the case then what was the reason
to revoke the visa of renowned Swiss Muslim intellectual,
Professor Tariq Ramadan, who was supposed to begin
teaching at the Notre Dame University this fall.
It looks that his unwillingness to deny Islam as
his identity is his crime. He made this point abundantly
clear when he addressed the Dec 2 interfaith Conference
in Prague sponsored by former Czech president Vaclav
Havel: “I'm a European Muslim; I'm a Western
Muslim. So it's obvious that when you speak like
this you will have traditionalists and literalists
saying that you are betraying the religion. So it
is controversial within the religious community.
But at the same time, I'm still too much Muslim
for some Europeans and some Americans.”
Professor Ramadan is a scholar recognized throughout
the world for his efforts to promote interfaith
understanding and building of peace as evidenced
in his most recent book "Western Muslims and
the Future of Islam" in which he says: A silent
revolution is sweeping Islamic communities in the
West, as Muslims actively seek ways to live in harmony
with their faith within a Western context. French,
English, German, and American Muslims -- women as
well as men -- are reshaping their religion into
one that is faithful to the principles of Islam,
dressed in European and American cultures, and definitively
rooted in Western societies.
So, the question remains unanswered: who is a moderate
Muslim?
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of
the online magazine American Muslim Perspective:
www.amperspective.com
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