ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 116, OCTOBER 2004

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Waleed Aly's article "Why Islam is terror's trademark"  (Herald Sun 4/6/04) poses more questions than it answers.    

Of course terrorists will use whatever ideology best suits their purpose, but this does not explain why  the  Islamic governments of so many countries,  not  themselves supporters of terrorism, turn their faces away so resolutely from democracy, freedom  of religion, freedom of the press and the emancipation of women. 

Saudi Arabia is an ally of the West  - yet a Christian cannot openly carry a Bible or a rosary, much less pray in public.  Why? 

Why can't a woman drive a car in Saudi Arabia?  Why can't a Saudi citizen convert from Islam to Christianity or Buddhism if that is his choice?   

Predominantly Christian countries allow their citizens to convert to Islam if they so choose, why not the reverse? 

Why are adherents to the Bahai faith   persecuted in Iran?  Why do women have to cover their faces in public in many Islamic countries? 

Why do they ever have to wear burqas? 

Why are there no female athletes from Islamic countries participating in the OIympics?  Why do female hockey players in Pakistan have to play behind high walls?  

I grew up in India during the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan.  

Both countries are inheritors of the British Westminster system of parliamentary democracy,  but  I  have observed with  sadness the decline of  democracy in Pakistan while it has prospered in  India. 

 As Dr. Farooq Hassan, former Pakistan Test cricketer  writing in The Nation,  (3/6/04)   in an article entitled "Graces and disgraces"  commented:   ".....There is an inherent grace in leaving something voluntarily in time...... Within a span of 48 hours from11th May the truth about graces and disdainful disgraces for  'democracy' in the sub-continent was revealed to worldwide audiences. 

 “In India following the end of their three weeks’ long elections, the ruling coalition led by the BJP failed to get the majority it had wanted when calling for an early election. 

 “On the 13th even before the official results were announced, Prime Minister Vajpayee had resigned. 

"From the perspective of constitutionalism, it was a moment of the finest hour of democracy!  His departure witnessed on TV screens throughout the world exhibited enormous dignity and indeed humility. 

 “Most importantly in the context of Islamabad’s constitutional practices, there was no clamor to clamp down on the opponents, or to create, a 'forward block' or to collect a bunch of 'patriots' to turn the scale of the results. 

Despite their oil rich treasuries, the Islamic countries  - with the exception of the Gulf Emirates - have not brought prosperity to their citizens. 

Perhaps instead of focussing on jihad, militant Muslims could learn from Irshad Manji, an emancipated Muslim woman living in Canada, who promotes the concept of ijtihad. 

 Manji says that unlike violent struggle, ijtihad is Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking, independent reasoning.   

Independent thinking and reasoning involved freedom of the press and freedom to debate - without running to the Equal Opportunity Commission if someone says something about Islam that you don't like. 

Manji says that  due to the spirit of ijtihad in the early decades of  of Islam, in Cordoba, a city in  Muslim Spain, there  were 70 libraries,  as many as there are in many cosmopolitan cities today   - and that was a  thousand years ago. 

 As a lawyer living in a democracy with all its sophisticated freedoms, it is not enough for Waleed Aly to deplore terrorism. 

He should be urging Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan to end their tribal feuds and to   co-operate with the West in in rebuilding the infrastructure of their countries. 

Waleed Aly is  in a perfect position to revive the spirit of  ijtihad  today, and particularly to free  women from the cultural yoke for which Islam is the excuse.

Babette Francis

National & Overseas Co-ordinator, Endeavour Forum Inc.

12 Denham Place,

Toorak, Vic. 3142  

Ph: 9822 5218  

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