A Universal Way of Life

By Gerasimos Loukatos

For most of us Greek Muslims, there was a time when the words “Islam” and “Muslim” seemed so radically incompatible with our Greek identity. For those of us who refused to adhere to stereotypes and dogmatic ideas, our sincere research revealed a totally different truth about Islam and being Muslim. The universality of Islam is in that it addresses fundamental questions we all consider at some point in our life. Where do we come from, why are we here, where are we heading to? How do we choose to live our life and what are we leaving behind? People of all times, cultures and traditions have been trying to find adequate answers to these questions.

That’s why any Muslim who didn’t inherit his religion but rather studied it, he will tell you that Islam is a way of life and being Muslim is a state  and not an identity or a label. We are all born with the gift of consciousness and the freedom of choice to live a conscious life or not.

Therefore, the call to the way of Islam is not by proselytism which is as prohibited in Islam as in the Greek constitution. That is where any personal conviction should not be a result of persuasion by external force but rather a conscious choice based on our free will. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was prosecuted for 13 years in Mecca for threatening the status quo of the ruling elite, because he was setting the example for people to think for themselves. He was known as Muhammad the truthful long before he was recognized as a prophet and people believed in him because his actions where coherent to his words. His praxis was in harmony with the order of creation that wants us to learn from examples. This is the root of the crisis in our society today, where we constantly hear words and see contradicting actions. Every day we are called to follow an ocean of examples around us. The question is whether we are conscious for our choices and true to ourselves or we end up not recognizing ourselves.

Also, Muslims believe Adam was the first prophet and every people had the same message delivered to them in their tongue at their time. That is why we believe to all the prophets who came before, those we know and those we don’t know. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) didn’t bring a new religion, by his own words,  he was only sent to perfect noble character.

As I mentioned earlier, Islam is a universal way of life in that it speaks with universals. Oppression and injustice are universal,  regardless the multiple ways they manifest in any given culture at any given time. So, is also our moral obligation to restore freedom and justice. Willingly or unwillingly, people will turn their cultural practices and beliefs into a dogma everyone else should adhere to. In the absence of understanding the universals, there is a tendency for particulars to become universal. In the absence of knowledge, ignorance prevails. So, instead of understanding and learning from different cultures, we try to impose our culture onto others, turning religions and/or ideologies to a vehicle of oppression.

Ora islam was inspired as a way to clarify the misconceptions many of us had and many of us still have, due to the lack of any serious knowledge of Islam in the Greek language. Then it will become clear why being Greek and Muslim is not a contradiction and why Muslims owe to be a benefit and not a threat to the society. It will be explained why the famous Greek free spirit is part and parcel of the tradition of Islam.

In the age we live, access to information is easy and it is as easy to reproduce it. However, access to knowledge and original thought is not as easy.

An online encyclopedia of comprehensive articles. In depth analysis of the universals of Islam, with official authorization and scientific background. Linguistic and historical analysis of terms and concepts. In conclusion, Ora Islam will be the source of knowledge vs. information, in Greek.

The project will be launched by 1st of August 2011

Copyright ©MAG

The propagation of neo-Orientalism

The media continually builds an association of Islam with war,instability and repression, creating a false stereotype.

Source: Al Jazeera

by Soumaya Ghannoushi*

It is hard to imagine amidst the omnipresence of discourse currently on Islam that a mere three decades ago, Islam had been a marginal concern situated on the periphery of western consciousness.

If ever encountered in press reports during the cold war, it would most likely have been in the figure of the “mujahideen” confronting the Empire of Evil in Afghanistan. Islam appeared as a benign ally of the forces of freedom camped in New York and London.

What finally brought it to the heart of Euro-American preoccupations were the events that occured on 9/11.

Islam became a local and globalised issue at once, transmitted in countless daily images across the globe.

Since then, rarely does a day go by without hearing, reading, or watching reports of a terrifying Muslim-related event. The presence of Muslim minorities within western capitals has further complicated things, aggravating the intricate interplay of the local and the global.

Fears of a perpetual Muslim danger overlapped with deep-seated fears of immigrants, aliens, and strangers.

Explicating the truth

Coverage of Islam has turned into an industry specialising in the engineering of images, scenes, and messages.

In a globalised world governed by the power of the image, the question is no longer what has sparked this event or that incident and how it has unfolded on the ground, but how it gets captured by the camera and reported to viewers, listeners, and readers at home.

Some might argue,  that the media merely reports what is already in existence. However things are not so straightforward in the real world. For the lens is neither neutral nor objective.

It is subject to a set of pre-defined choices and calculations that decide what we see and do not see, know and do not know.

The media is not a mirror reflecting what is out there. Its role is not simple, passive transmission, but active creation, shaping, and manufacturing, through a lengthy process of selection, filtering, interpretation, and editing.

The hidden arms that hold the reins of our media – the giant news corporations and their masters – are not benign charities driven by the love of humanity.

Paradigms of dissemination

Of the 57 countries in the vast geographic and cultural expanse known as the Muslim world, some are rich, others poor; some royal, others republican; some conservative, others liberal; some stable, others less so; some where women preside over the state, others that deny them the right to vote; some that oppress in the name of religion, others that do so in the name of secularism…etc

But this strikingly varied mosaic is absent from mainstream coverage of the subject. What is compound, complex, diverse, and multi-faceted turns into a plain surface without depth, reduced to a narrow set of narratives about blood-thirsty terrorists, shouting mobs, black turbans, battered wives, and caged daughters.

The Muslim world becomes a silent object that does not speak, but is spoken for, an anonymous background against which stands the reporter dispatched from the metropolis.

S/he is the agent of understanding, the one who deciphers this strange entity’s mysterious codes and uncovers its secrets for us; the one who gives it meaning, truth and order.

Nowhere is this will to superficiality and reductionism more evident than in reports of conflicts in the Middle East.

Viewers are given a few minutes during which they watch and hear descriptions of wreckage, smoke, burnt cars, scorched bodies, severed limbs, blood, and wailing widows.

With no attempt to explain the underlying causes and histories of the crises in question, the reports merely compound existing misunderstanding.

The confusion is such that roles are often reversed, with the victim mistaken for the oppressor.

Prisms of perception

This is confirmed by a number of studies, such as the one conducted following the Palestinian Intifada by Greg Philo and Mike Berry of the Glasgow University Group.

The researchers monitored hours of BBC and ITV coverage of the 2002 Intifada, examined 200 news programmes, and interviewed over 800 people about their perceptions of the conflict .

The researchers encountered an alarming level of ignorance and confusion among the viewers, of whom only 9 per cent knew that the “occupied territories” were occupied by Israel, with the majority believing that the Palestinians were the occupiers.

This is hardly surprising given the unbalanced coverage and its tendency to obscure the central truths in the conflict: It does not tell us that over 418 Palestinian villages were destroyed in 1948, that their inhabitants were expelled in their hundreds of thousands, that Israel was largely established by force on 78 per cent of historic Palestine, that since 1967 it has illegally occupied and imposed various forms of military rule on the remaining 22 per cent, or that the majority of Palestinians – over 8 million – live as refugees today.

Reports of the Iraq war do not fare better. The viewer is given the impression that the country’s ills are rooted in its people’s bloodthirstiness and love of self-mutilation, with one sect and ethnicity vying for the other’s destruction.

The Americans emerge as benign mediators whose role consists in imposing order and preventing the different groups from exterminating each other.

The causes of the ongoing state of chaos are increasingly being brushed under the carpet, viz the 150,000 strong army deployed to invade a country hundreds of miles away, the destruction of its infrastructure, systematic demolition of its national collective memory, desecration of its cultural heritage, erection of an ethnic and sectarian based political system, dissolution of its army in the name of “de-baathisation”, and arming of one faction against the other - first the Kurdish Peshmarga, then the Shia militias in the name of “confronting the Sunni triangle”, and finally al-Anbar’s Sunni tribes under the pretext of combating Al Qaeda.

What the media reports do not tell us is that Iraqis continue to suffer not because they are Arabs, Muslims, brown-skinned, or followers of an “inherently violent” religious culture, but because they are the victims of a heartless power game that saw them as little more than insects, worthless creatures to trample on without bothering to count the dead.

The west seems to have created its own “machinery of truth” about Islam, Muslims, Arabs, and the Middle East.

Through it the lens is directed and small narratives are produced and reproduced ad infinitum.

The titles and headlines may vary, but they lead back to a narrow ring of notions that define Muslim society in the eyes of manufacturer and domesticated consumer alike.

These boil down to violence, fanaticism, irrationality, emotiveness, stagnation, subordination, and despotism. They are the pillars of an orthodoxy, which is popularised by the media and bolstered by a complex network of power centres and institutions.

To defy it is to place oneself outside the mainstream and within the margins, alongside outsiders, heretics, and truth monsters.

*Soumaya Ghannoushi is a freelance writer specialising in the history of European Perceptions of Islam. Her work has appeared in a number of leading British papers including the Guardian and the Independent.

A Greek Muslim lady from Ilioupolis, Athens

Miss Anna Stamou, public relations manager of the Muslim association of Greece, was awarded for her action by the European Muslim Professionals Network

Διαβάστε στα Ελληνικά

Source: www.tovima.gr

By Achilles Hekimoglou 21^st of November 2010

One of the leading international Muslim awards of Europe was recently given to a Greek lady. The public relations manager of the Muslim Association of Greece miss Anna Stamou is included in the 10 Muslim ladies with the greater and most positive influence in Europe, next to personages like the famous Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid! Miss Stamou found herself among the top 10 of the female aspect’s expression of the modern, moderate Islam, receiving a relevant award by the European Muslim Professionals Network (CEDAR), which is supported by the well known Institute of Strategic Dialogue, also known as the “Three Club”. The award ceremony , which took place three weeks ago in Madrid, is an important step for Greece so as to have a voice on the continuously widening circle of influence on the European Muslims, of the importance of whom has been stated over the last few years by numerous analysts of the international relations of our country.

Miss Stamou refers on the nowadays big issue that preoccupies the mind of thousands of Greeks and foreign Muslims, meaning the creation of an Islamic prayer site and cemetery in the capital. “We had suggested creating a simple, functional infrastructure that will be aesthetically compatible with the surrounding area. We do not imagine any luxuries just a functional prayer site.” And at the same time she criticizes the new phenomenon of islamophobia in Greece, characterising it as temporal and of ephemeral consuming. “In the past there were the communists, today are the Muslims. In a few time though, this will no longer have any effect and shall be forgotten” she underlines

In addition, she highlights that the lack of a Mosque is not the only deficiency, but there is also the lack of accredited officially appointed Imams in our country. “The imam –as well as the priest and the spiritual instructors-aids with his consultation people or couples who face problems, seek for psychological support or they confront moral dilemmas. Furthermore, we do have mixed weddings, where so many women ignore their rights. This is a tragedy.” She adds that it is necessary to create all the required institutions with Greek and not with foreign funds. “In such cases the financial contributor, has the upper hand. We have seen countries such as Holland and Great Britain to establish the state’s control.”

Miss Stamou became a Muslim six years ago, as she found answers for her inner philosophical quests. “My quest has been long, I was always seeking answers and I always had answered questions, not necessarily of theological nature. In my quest of truth, I could not get satisfactory answers. Thus, I consulted several philosophical schools; I dealt deeply with Pythagoras, through whom I found myself embracing Islam. “she states. During this quest she met her current husband, with whom they jointed as volunteers the organisation “Doctors of the World”, during the war in Iraq. Then was the time when she came into closer contact with Islam, and she started researching deeper to its teachings. “I thought due to the knowledge I have acquired from school that this is an inferior and distorted religion. Islam though had given me answers. I said then to myself that I should learn more about this religion. Many of the questions I had, started sorting themselves out with a simplicity that was really annoying!” she states. Miss Stamou underlines that due to the historical facts in our country many people confuse Muslims with Turkey, a thing she says it is wrong. “I have been a Muslim for so many years and I have learnt the word bayram last year! During my way to Islam, I have never met Turkey. The European citizen who becomes Muslim he does not obtain knowledge from the Turks, but from the Arabs, following Arab teachers” she underlines. “In Europe those who embrace Islam learn from English and French sources. Though there are thousands Greek Muslims, I do not understand why there are not any published book in Greek. Thankfully, we published five books.” She says.

She as well says that her transition from Christianity to Islam was escorted by acceptance from the side of family and her friends.”I have not met any negative reactions. Some people might have questions or they might not like it. But what could I do? Anyhow, they did not like yoga either!  I did not change my social behaviour, I just wore a head scarf!” she narrates.

Miss Stamou is 37 years old and she was born in Athens, one month after the riot of Polytechneio. “My mother, being eight months pregnant to me, was watching the facts from the roof of our house.” She was born and bred in Ilioupolis, studied Business administration and Economics, though she professionally dealt with sign language but also with yoga, which she still teaches! The awarded Greek lady, is married with the chairman of the Muslim Association of Greece, Mr. Elgandhour , is a mother of two children , and she is the public relations manager of the previously referred association. “A few years ago, I had an office for the young Muslims, though I have translated from English language books relevant with Islam” she states. Though for many years, her main occupation was the family business, an old small factory of athletic wear that their parents had, which due to the recession shut down.

“Wearing hijab is a matter of choice”

The issue of hijab consists an important issue for many countries, for Miss Stamou though things are quite simple.

“Hijab is a part of the faith, a part you can choose to follow or not. It is your choice” she adds. Though, as she highlights, it has not only a social standing, as anyone who does an internal request, will also find other things. “The hijab is a matter of choice. But, anywhere where is enforced, is a wrongdoing. Certainly, in my opinion, when it is exposed as a symbol of oppression, is wrong. I have seen women who fight for their right to wear it” she states.

Miss Stamou refers on her award with satisfaction. “There were ten awards given, all of them equally given. I was awarded due to my actions through the Muslim Association to claim an Islamic prayer site and a cemetery but also for my positive contribution in society. The European Muslim Professionals Network (CEDAR) promotes education, progress, business, creativity, arts and sciences. It is not a religious institution” she highlights.

As she says, the basis of all the issues is the peaceful coexistence and tolerance. “During Ramadan, we eat together with our Christian friends; this is something that is not easily found in Europe. Furthermore, my daughter loves and is eager for Christmas. So they last approximately up… to Easter!” she concludes.

Habiba Sriz – a candidate with a headscarf

Source:  Protagon.gr

© Translation: Muslim Association of Greece

Διαβάστε στα Ελληνικά

Habiba Sriz is full of controversies. She was born in Casablanca, she studied Fashion in Paris, she fell in love in Athens and she lives in Alimos for the last 20 years. Her husband is a converted Muslim. She is Muslim as well, wearing colourful hijabs and she speaks openly about them.

Religious symbols were the reason we met 3 years ago. She was participating in a theatrical play, its scenario  mostly focused on fear and ignorance of the West for the hijab (Muslim headscarf).We have spoken about women’s place in Islam, the relationships between the sexes, the identification of people in the society. So to prove to me the western clichés, she invited me to her brother’s wedding in Morocco. “Come to see how our women really are.”  I told her then that the Mediterranean Sea beautifies everything.

The tenderness in the look of people kept her here. In the beginning, her hijab was unnoticed.” I used to travel by bus from Kalamaki to go for shopping to Athens, no one was calling me a stranger and I never felt other people’s curiosity on the street. Though lately, additionally to recession, a racist, xenophobic attitude was developed within the society. I think some people in order to get in power are using us, inventing racism.”

A month ago, Habiba was chosen as a representative by the Communist party, in the municipal elections, for Alimos area. She accepted straight away. “I want to support legal immigrants, I do not want people to perceive us as threats.” The society’s structure has changed. The traditions we used to learn when we were younger, it is spread to other groups as well, is evolving. Habiba’s example, Agapi as they call her here, beyond political parties and ideologies, identifies a knowledgeable person who is confident about herself and her beliefs. Habiba did not lose her identity in the “foreign” country but she complied with its constitution and its regulations and she decided to stand out proudly, to address herself to her “own” people. Her placement in a political candidates list is a rare political move in order to weaken conservatism.

Translated by: Myrto Zacharof

Why was the Quran revealed in Arabic?

I noticed this question being asked a lot.  Many people assume that because the Quran was revealed in Arabic that Islam must only be for Arabs.   Watch this video to understand the truth about it.

Mosque in Canadian Arctic — but not in Greece?

I read articles like this where they are building a mosque in the Canadian Arctic, a tiny corner of the earth where the Muslim community only consists of 80 people, and I think about my homeland.  Building a mosque in Athens where about 700 000 Muslims live should be a no brainer.

 

Source:  Ottawa Citizen   

Gems for the last 10 nights of Ramadan

I wanted to share these gems.

Salman al-Farsi narrated that the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said:

‘Indeed, Allah is Shy and Beneficent. His is Shy when His servant raises his hands to Him (in a duaa) to return them empty, disappointed!’

-Ahmad, Abu Dawud #1488, at-Tirmidhi #3556, Ibn Majah #3865 and others

photo credit: iruh

Hadith Qudsi, Allah said:

O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great at it.

-Saheeh. Related by at-Tirmidhi

Weird reasons why people fast and what your real reason should be

It was lunch time and we were eating, well, except for the host.  She told me she was fasting because it was Friday and every Friday she fasts, out of habit. 

I’ve seen weird things in my life but this one confused me.  A few conversations beforehand, I discovered that she didn’t believe in God anymore.  So, the obvious perplexing question I had was why she would keep fasting if she was not doing it for God??

I guess because as Muslims, we get this question a lot.  Why do you fast in Ramadan?  I usually say that we do it for God to gain piety as the Quran says,

“O you who believe! fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed upon those before you in order that you may attain taqwa.”[Surah al-Baqarah 2:183].

Notice that I translated “taqwa” as piety.  Well, that’s not quite accurate.  Recently, we were all gathered around and the same question came up, how do you translate this rich Arabic word “taqwa” into English?

Some say it is piety, some say fear, others say it is obedience to God.  I’ve heard many translations but nothing quite encompasses the original Arabic word.  The funny thing though is that if you leave it untranslated and just say taqwa, most Muslims know exactly what you mean by the word and sense a deep emotional feeling.

Here’s a good translation of taqwa I found:

Taqwa is obedience to God hoping for the mercy of God and it is staying away from the disobedience of God fearing the punishment of God. 

And just by fasting properly, you can automatically gain taqwa.  Before I fasted every year, I never imagined that would be the result, but when you do it properly, you would be amazed at how much taqwa you gain.

 But do you think that the lady who fasts every Friday out of habit and not for God can gain taqwa?  Most likely not. 

People fast for weird reasons but if we want to feel full and take the maximum benefit from things in life, we need to know why we do things and not just do them because our ancestors did so or society tells us to do so.

——————

photo credit: diekatrin

A letter from Romania

Now that we’ve been working for the Islamic community in Greece, I’ve been thinking about other Muslim communities in Europe a lot lately, especially the forgotten ones like in the Balkan countries.  For some reason, I keep coming back to Romania and just today, I stumbled across an article about the Muslim community of Romania!

I was touched by this article below and how similar it is to the situation in Greece.

 

Source:  The Balkan Chronicle

There are many countries in the world where Islam springs to mind when they are mentoned, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Morrocco are just a few. There are many other lands Islam reached that many from amongst the Ummah may not be aware of, such as Western China, Greece, Southern Italy, Hungary and maybe even Austria. Romania is also one such land that many may not be aware lived under Islamic rule for 800 years. Many may not even know where Romania is, it is only 275 miles from Turkey.

In Europe Romania is infamous for Transylvania – home of Count Dracula. Whilt this character has assumed a position archetypal vampire in populer Western culture; the character is based upon Prince of Wallachia. Vlad III, who came to be known as the impaler. Historically, Vlad Dracula became infamous for his resistance against the Uthmani Khilafah and for the cruel punishments he inflicted upon his enemies.

Vlad Dracula was sent in 1475 with an army of Hungarian and Serbian soldiers to recapture Bosnia from the Uthmani Khilafah. Whilst the Uthmani Khilafah lost this initial battle, the Uthmani’s entered Wallachia in 1476 under the command of Mehmed II to recapture the lost lands. During the war, Vlad was killed and, according to some sources, his head was sent to Constantinople to discourage the other rebellions.

According to most sources in Romania, Islam first emerged when the Sufi leader Sari Saltik came to the region during the Byzantine epoch. The Islamic presence in Northern Dobruja was expanded by Uthmani Khilafah who oversaw successive immigration. In Wallachia and Moldavia, the two Danubian Principalities, the era of Uthmani’s did not accompany growth in the number of Muslims, whose presence there remained small. Also the battles between the Uthmani’s and Habsburg Empire led to many Muslim to move to the Islamic heatlands.

Romania emerged in 1859 as a union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Northern Dobruja became part of Romania following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. However during the the communist regime, Romanian Muslims were subject to a number of harsh measures, especially supervision by the state. The Ummah in Romania managed to hold on to the deen and were able after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 to begin the open dawah to Islam.

Islam in Romania is followed by only 0.3 percent of population, this equates to around 60,000 people, but has more than 800 years of tradition in Northern Dobruja, a region on the Black Sea coast which was part of the Uthmani Khilafah for almost five centuries (ca. 1420-1878). In present-day Romania, most adherents to Islam belong to the Tatar and Turkish ethnic communities.

The vast majority of Romanians are Sunnis who adhere to the Hanafi madhab.

97% of Romanian Muslims are residents of the two counties forming Northern Dobruja: eighty-five percent live in Constanţa County, and twelve percent in Tulcea County.  The rest mainly inhabit urban centers such as Bucharest, Brăila, Călăraşi, Galaţi, Giurgiu, and Drobeta-Turnu Severin.

In all, Romania has as many as eighty mosques, or, according to records kept by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, seventy-seven. The city of Constanţa, with its Carol I Mosque and the location of the Muftiyat, is the center of Romanian Islam; Mangalia, near Constanţa, is the site of a monumental mosque, built in 1525. The two mosques are state-recognised historical monuments, as are the ones in Hârşova, Amzacea, Babadag and Tulcea. There are also 108 Islamic cemeteries in Romania.

After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, when Romania left the Eastern Communist camp native Romanians had the chance to discover Islam and taste its fruits. Today as many as 3,000 Muslim are converts to Islam and the number is growing day by day. Being converts they faced the particular problem in a society, in that society was not prepared to accept them. Most groups in Romania show little will to support Muslims generally. For these reasons the Ummah in Romania were forced to create an organisation capable of defending and maintaining the needs of the Ummah in Romania. The Alliance of Romanian Muslim was set up in order to protect and defend the Ummah and Islam in Romania.

When Islam came to Europe the continent was living in the dark ages. Eastern Europe was steeped in superstition, magic and sorcery. Islam came and brought a new rational belief that took the region from its misery and gave their lives purpose. Whilst in mainland Europe the challenge is to defend the deen, in Romania and many parts of Eastern Europe once again the people need liberation from capitalism and nationalism and it is here the Muslim of Romania are at the forefront carrying on the work the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم started and the Uthmani Khilafah expanded. Whilst the Ummah face the same issues globally, the Ummah from Romania stand shoulder to shoulder with the Ummah all over the world and await the day Allah sends his blessings.

Muslim female judge breaks barriers

(Watch YouTube video)

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