i’m actually not going to write anymore. that technique is very useful when it comes to face to face dawah. When you write something like that in a paper, i’d expect to get a lot letters to the editor and a lot of people angry. i dont care really when people get mad in person and we really did use a lot of those methods at the dawah table and really worked. but the medium of newspaper i dont think that would be wise, especially in the conservative south. my goal was to reach out to those people who are open-minded. not the people who no matter what have a seal on their hearts and ears and will never listen.

but yeah i completely agree. we should use this in dawah.

I started there as a sophomore the first year of the magnet school and graduated in ‘79.

Was on the Campus Currents staff for a couple of years, the Fricassee my senior year, and my junior and senior years worked at WBRH, where, alas, I played music.

I posted my reply, and now that I realize who you actually are, I appreciate your original email and I hope that i’ve answered your questions.

(are you by any chance related to the opinion columnist Eric Freeman?)

“Before I proceed to answer your questions, I have to address a couple of points. First you decided to name your post “Dhimmitube on the Bayou” which really already seems like anti-Islamic sediment to me. As well as other comments you’ve made really led me to believe that you were not asking with sincere intentions. However, I’ll proceed to answer your questions in hope that it will be somewhat helpful for you.”

Not my post, not my blog, not my headline. Get your facts straight.

My post is here:

http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/2008/05/no-roomah-in-ummah-alhamdulillah.html

First, it’s good to find common ground between Muslims and Christians, as if you trace back the origins of the 3 monotheistic religions- they all came from the same source; Allah. So there is bound to be similarities that even exist until today, despite the altering of the Gospels and the Torah.

To address the hijab issue. It is true that the hijab was a commandment special to the followers of the final messenger,Muhammad (peace be upon him). For the revelation of the verse which perscribes women to wear hijab (found in the 4th surah of the Quran) was revealed only some time after Muhammad (PBUH) became a prophet.

Which just is to say that different nations had different shariah(laws, prohibitions). So the nation of Moses had a different Shariah than Jesus, why? Because Allah, chose to make some things permissible for one nation while he chose to forbid it in another due to wisdom only He knows.

However, Since the Quran remains in tact today since the time it was revealed (over 1400 years ago) and there has been no alteration of the Text and that Allah has promised to protect the Quran from that, then we have to follow the final message.

What does that mean? well since the obligation of women wearing hijab was revealed in the Quran, we as Muslim women still follow that order today and until the day of judgment.

So yes, it may be that the hijab not something jesus ordered the women to do, but that is because each nation had their own shariah until the final shariah (which we still have to follow today) revealed/inspired to Muhammad (PBUH).

I know that was long-winded but I wanted to make it clear.

Second, the term “wahhabi” is a term used in the media and by neo-conservatives. If by wahhabi you mean extreme, then no, sir. I am not an extremeist.

However, the term is derived from a righteous scholar named Muhammad Ibn Wahhab, who’s teachings were not extreme, but managed to bring millions of people back to true Islamic teachings, the teachings that trace back to the first 3 generations of Muslims, who were the most righteous. (I’m just clarifying this term).

Third, with regard to music, this is not an “extremist” view. this is an Islamic view. All musical instruments are forbidden except for the duff (a specific type of drum). You may be wondering why:

first, it is forbidden by the Quran and sunnah(found in hadith–you can look up what hadith are). second, anyone who has listened to music in the past (including myself) knows that music kind of intoxicates you. It takes you into this state of mind and takes you away from the remembrance of Allah. And a heart cannot have both the love of music and the love of Quran at the same time.

The call to prayer and Quran recitation is just that; recited. there is no music accompanying it, and we should try to beautify the way it is recited because it itself is beautiful in it’s words and meanings.

anyway I hope that answered your questions. I’ll be more than happy to answer any legitimate questions or concerns.

-Shirien

– What was “weird” about my original “Hijab Challenge” post, which was written from the perspective of an observant Catholic?

– The Islamic and Catholic agreement on the principle of modesty seems to be arrived at from different directions. Your take seems to be that Allah wills it; here is the dress that is prescribed.

Catholics, on the other hand, recall the teaching of Jesus that whoever looks upon a woman (or man) lustfully already has committed adultery or fornication — as well as other tenets both in scripture and tradition — and arrive at the conclusion that modest dress is the means of encouraging virtue.

But there is no specifically prescribed means of dress.

Is this “weird,” or is it just coming at the same problem from different directions?

– And what is the deal with the “no music” thing? I know that is a Wahhabi tenet, but what other movements among Sunnis and Shiites also frown upon music? Obviously, not all of the Muslim world does.

Furthermore, how do you square the “no music” admonition with the fact that your call to prayer is, itself, song?

Likewise, you also must have noted that my original post on the “Hijab Challenge” applauded your challenging of the skewed modern Western notion of “beauty,” while reflecting on that subject from *my* Catholic Christian perspective.
This, you apparently found “weird.”

When I asked what was so “weird” about a pretty straightforward presentation of Catholic cultural criticism, I discovered — to my surprise — that I had left “anti-Islamic sediment” in your combox.

Given all of the above — and given that you’ve not seen fit to answer ANY of the questions I’ve already submitted — I think I’ve learned plenty about someone who either is incapable of defending her faith or just unwilling to engage in anything other than shrill, thin-skinned Islamist mau-mauing.

Either way, it doesn’t paint a flattering portrait of Islam . . . not a good thing for someone who’s all about “dawah.” In fact, it kind of makes your faith look like what Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland — “There is no there there.”

OK, I do have one further question: How is your whole spiel anything but a bunch of “anti-Christian sediment”?