On Wednesday, Nov 5, I attended an event titled “Women in Islam: Oppressed or Liberated?” sponsored by the Islamic Dawah Foundation. I suppose that based on the organization’s name—“dawah” referring to an obligation to invite or inform—I should have gleaned the purpose of the event; however, in my naïve belief that religious organizations at an educational institution are formed at least in part to stimulate conversation and foster intelligent debate, I was excited and invited everyone I knew to attend with me.

I won’t be doing that again. The event was marketed as a dialogue, as an opportunity for Muslims and non-Muslims alike to speak their concerns about the highly contested status of women in Islam. Instead, an imam from Philadelphia stood at a pulpit and preached for an hour and a half, taking questions from an increasingly agitated audience and shutting down those questions in the same breath. He spoke on behalf of 1.2 billion Muslims, and he spoke without a speck of humility, doling out interpretation as though it were fact. He made bold, sweeping statements about Muslim women—why they veil, how they “get into Paradise,” and their role in Islam—without realizing that his proselytizing was no better than that of the other religions for which he demonstrated such disdain. But it was infinitely more harmful. As I left the room, I heard one young woman say to another, “I didn’t know women had to veil in order to be good Muslims.”

There’s a level of understanding with which students approach the evangelicals, Bible-thumpers and do-gooders of Judeo-Christian origin. They know, for instance, that any theological lecturer is only presenting one facet of a very multi-faceted religion; but they know this largely because of their familiarity with other manifestations of the religion. Americans come into contact with many, many forms of Judaism and Christianity. Islam hasn’t yet been given that opportunity. In the seven years since the attacks on the World Trade Center, public sentiment has ranged from sheer hatred and intolerance of Islam to a hesitant willingness to learn about it. Since we seem to have reached the latter stage, we have little choice but to grasp it and run with it while we can. That, of course, cannot be accomplished through events such as Wednesday’s, wherein people who profess to know about Islam and the Qur’an sermonize to a malleable audience.

On the contrary, the only way Islam can fully integrate itself into the American understanding of religion is by disseminating knowledge through dialogue. Instead of denouncing women who don’t veil as “lesser” Muslims and conflating morality with adhering to the (debated) letter of a religious text, we should speak with non-Muslims about their concerns regarding the veil. Instead of insisting that the Qur’an proffered an unprecedented equality to women in the 7th century, C.E., we should speak about the current status of women in countries that claim to abide by Islamic law. Perhaps most critically, we have to demonstrate that ours is a religion open to progress, and that we are a people open to frank analysis of our practices. Islam cannot afford to present itself as a monolithic block, and an educational institution of caliber cannot afford to house this many Muslim organizations that perpetuate a single image of Islam and only benefit their respective constituencies.

My generation of Muslims often complains that it speaks to an unreceptive audience; that Americans are unwilling to learn and to integrate one of the world’s three great monotheisms into the fabric of their national identity. And it is true that one of the great inhibitors to our society is a lack of knowledge—about the cultures, traditions, and religions of our neighbors, specifically. But we may have better luck spreading that knowledge if we present it in all of its richness and complexity, rather than as a definitive interpretation of a holy text.

Who speaks for Islam? At present, over a billion people—but only if we give them the chance.

This article was first published in the Daily Texan.

Photo Courtesy: rogiro

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