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Religiosity
A TEACHER’S STORY : ‘CLASSMATES SIMPLY FORGOT THEM’  
I entered the classroom on my first day to be confronted by three girls in the back row, side by side, wearing the full-face nijab veil, with a tiny slit for eyes. The voices behind the veils told me their names. There were no faces to put them to, so I forgot them. In the year I taught the class, the girls never sat next to anyone else. They never entered into class discussion. I admit I never asked them their opinions about the books we read. Simply, they embarrassed me. They had no individuality. I could not address them by name unless I assumed they would always sit in the same order. I could not read their emotions. Or if they understood what I was teaching. The niqab left them utter strangers to me and their classmates, who simply forgot about them. The veil those young women wore utterly isolated them. They were not part of the group. They were effectively invisible. No one was unpleasant to them. There were 15 other teenagers in that classroom, all expressing their opinions with happy confidence. I should have made more effort to include them. It was much easier not to do so. Most of the group got A grades. These young women gained just passes. The niqab is not just a black robe adopted by some female followers of Islam. It is a symbolic rejection of equality and tolerance. A leading UK Muslim peer has said that the niqab is now a mark of separation, segregation and defiance against mainstream British culture. No girl, surely, willingly goes off to school looking like her grandmother. The issue has been sorted out in France. French youngsters go to school simply looking like children. We should pass a similar law in this country. Otherwise religious fundamentalists will be back, pushing ever harder against the barriers of tolerance, common sense and equality we have fought so hard to preserve in Britain.  
(précis of teacher’s article, UK national newspaper, March 2007).  
  In UK mosques, for too long there really has been no structure. I have seen people claiming to be imams for their mosques who could not read and write (in English).  In Germany, a 20-point strategy says imams should have a knowledge of the language and of the society into which they have entered.
  (While I was in Mecca) most Muslims were not fluent in Arabic, so we recited in a foreign tongue what many could neither articulate nor understand. If Allah was omnipotent he could understand English (or all other tongues). Instead of being Muslim for Allah, we had become Arab to be Muslim. (as Latin used in other Religions?)
  Teachers need to explain scriptures with historical context. In the UK, this is fast becoming impossible. Because of Muslim sensitivities, origins of the sacred text and development of the faith, and historical criticism of the Koran, cannot be included. The Koran is presented as if it has immediate and direct relevance. British universities are becoming tools of religious indoctrination.
  Who is in the true spiritual life? There are Muslims born into the faith but do not practise it beyond family events and cultural festivities. One strictly-born admitted to me ‘I am Islam, I do not drink (alcohol), but I do not go often to mosque’.
  As we in Britain become steadily a more secular society, less educated in even the most basic tenets of the (Christian) faith, and less exposed to the weekly iteration of the religious texts on Sundays, its complexities (some say implausibilities) become harder (especially for the newly-interested) to understand.
REALITY, BURKAS, HIJABS, NIJABS  
Either they have a grossly inflated perception of the sexual magnetism of their womenfolk, or they think that we males in the West are so much out of control in our carnal urges that we are unable to resist lusting after them, most insulting. If they really think that a glimpse of a bare hand or ankle (arthritic of otherwise) is likely to drive a western man into lustful erectile abandon, then the women could still dress normally but carry a bucket of cold water, just in case a ‘Western’ man makes an inappropriate suggestion to them.  
(dinner party discussion, author present, 2006)  
  They are tethered to old, immovable tribal conceits and ‘frozen by decree’ Muslim traditions, these regulated by the utterly medieval Sharia.
  It is imperative, in the practices of Muslim fundamentalists that they be different in substance and form from non-Muslims. Instead of applauding by clapping hands, Muslims should shout out in unison three takbirs (God is Greatest). Muslims should not use toothpaste but a little twig, a miswak. The Prophet, it is recorded, cleaned his teeth with a miswak (as toothpaste came a little later).
  The assumption is that those ‘integrated Muslims’, who participate in political life, have left their faith behind. A cultural-Muslim is one who does not display his faith. But we cannot presume religiosity is incompatible with civic competency, or that ‘integrated Muslims’ are apostates. Most would say Islam was important to them personally. But that religiosity did not predict political affiliation.
  Muslims look at the Way of Life, or Sunnah of Muhammad and his companions, to discover what should direct them on the proper Muslim way of life today, and what to avoid.
  The more pious (Muslims) are born into the faith. Some born into the faith become evangelists. The true spiritual life however escapes many.
EXTREME MEDIEVAL MODESTY?  
Muslims in the UK (both the non-violent ‘devout’ who wear full-veil nijab and burka, and the extremists forcing the hand of the MCB leadership), are well out of order. They are upsetting millions of Britons with their behaviour and their (politically-religious) claims. Extreme modesty, thrust before my sensitivities, can be seen as insulting to me, no lecher or luster. The arrogance, inversely, of extreme modesty, is saying that if I were to see bareface, bare head, bare arms or legs or ankles or even hands, I would flare up into deepest predatory sexual lustful threat to Muslim innocent maidenhead. Such ‘modesty’ ignores the open appreciation of (human) beauty and is medieval and locked into the past. It has no place in the modern world - just as appropriate modesty, decent shame and dignified behaviour does have a place; the fact that these attributes and qualities are abused in the modern Western world today is apparent to all sensible balanced civilised people, and needs no medieval extreme religiosity held up before us as mirror for right morality.  
(amalgam of two emails to author, January 2007)  
  Most mosques in the USA are local initiatives, started by groups of Muslims seeking a place to worship together and are usually explicitly Sunni or Shi’a run by an elected board. Sometimes the Friday sermons, or khutbahs are given in languages like urdu or arabic than english. Imams are usually imported from overseas with certificates from Muslim seminaries. Conflict can arise between congregation and imam who speaks little English and has little understanding of American culture. American Muslims are now founding seminaries to develop home-grown imams.
  Many Muslims in France simply do not consider themselves French. There is an increasingly two-track education system. More Muslim students refuse to sing, dance, participate in sports, sketch a face, play an instrument. They won’t draw a right angle, they won’t read Voltaire and Rousseau, Cyrano de Bergerac, Madam Bovary. One school was discovered with separate toilets for Muslim and French, another school has separate locket rooms. The local Muslim leader called for this so ‘the circumcised should not have to undress alongside the impure’
  Religious leaders normally argue that religion is a force for good and love in the world. Yet we see religion used regularly for war, mass murder, genocide and terrorism. How can religion be the basis for peace when it is the basis for terrorism?
  Muslim theologians are horrified by Christian claims that Jesus is ‘the Son of God’ and depict him as strenuously denying his divinity, so as to cleanse him of blasphemy. Monks and priests who did not/ do not believe Jesus as divine as ‘closest to Muslims’.
  For the vast majority of devout Muslims, authentic Hadith are also a source of religious inspiration. One Hadith reports the Prophet (pbuh) as saying: 'Desire for others what you desire for yourself, and you will be the most just of men.'
VILLAGERS AND FAULTY TEACHING?  
Some 80 per cent of Muslims living in Britain come from village and rural backgrounds, in essence villagers. Keeping the land within families and within the village is aimed at preventing other villagers of tribes intruding. Marriage as an answer is one Islamic fallacy arising (today) and is unacceptable. Faulty religious teaching is at base and PC (political correctness) going too far. Many mosques in the UK are tribal mosques. An Imam from their circle in Pakistan keeps the ideal of forced marriage going, so it is a vicious circle. It can’t be the same here (in Britain).  
(UK website, Dr Siddiqui and Sumit Bose, 2007)  
  Luke in his Gospel is seen by Muslims as ‘in tune with the Qur’an’ (surely, it should be time-wise that the Qur’an, so to speak, is in tune with Luke?) as he consistently calls Jesus a Prophet.
  It is a daunting task for Muslims to rectify the confusions of Islam with culture and culture with Islam. Merely a quarter of all converts actually remain Muslim by the end of their first year. Burn-out means they slowly disappear into apostasy (which is never talked about).
  The Books of the Bible (66 in number) were written by 40 different men over a period of 1,600 years, with multiple threads of unified themes. Surely, in contrast to the Bible, the Qur’an is disjointed material, without order, continuity or unity of any kind?
  “O ye who believe ! Ask not questions about things which, if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith.” (Surah 5.101-102).
  God Himself is conceived as a Person like ourselves but greater. His Grace is thought of as a quasi-mechanical force predestining and compelling the wills of men. The divine consciousness (which we can experience) of the Presence of the Holy reflects (deludedly? covered-over?) in the dogma of human self-abasement, lack of (Self) esteem and nothingness.
EMULATE ‘THE BEST OF WOMEN’  
In Muslim countries it is agreed with; but in the West, it might be avoided, they say. Freedom of choice: Haram says differences of opinion are to be respected, no-one to reject an opposing view. The Prophet’s wives were required to wear niqab (in the seventh century). Women today who use niqab often say it is religious “to emulate the best of women, bring them closer to God”.  
(Wikipedia and other sources)  
  Jihad can legitimately be used to defend one’s person, property or community. But it is not a rallying call to arms nor to advocate violence as a way or life, nor can it be used to suggest all ‘infidels’ be killed.
  The days have gone when governments, religious authorities and (Muslim) religious scholars can control (or influence permanently) what their people know and what they think. In country after country, ordinary people now have unprecedented access to sources of information and knowledge about religion and their society.
  Hell is a state of mind that arises when, by our sins, mankind has separated itself from God’s love. God is love. Hell has no physical reality. The black and white approach however takes the Bible literally. “Hell is a ruined Eden, Satan is filled with hate and spite”.
  People are desperate for real information: objective, knowledgeable, giving trustworthy perspectives on other belief systems.
  He called for the (UK) National Health Service to provide separate (privileged?) services for Muslims on account of religious requirements. Patients’ religion and ethnic grouping should be recorded. Drug ingredients should be available, allowing Muslim patients to avoid porcine and alcohol-derived drugs.
THINGS BECAME MUCH WORSE  
A prominent Islamic jurist in 1933 saw that the Islamic tradition was being deprecated, belittled by ‘puritan orientations’. People with a very limited education in Islamic jurisprudence were becoming self-proclaimed experts in Shari’a. Things became much worse than he could ever have imagined. Often these ‘experts’ were engineers, medical doctors and physical scientists. The leaders of most Islamic/Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qa’ida have been engineers or medical doctors. Imagine Rabbinic law being usurped by Jewish engineers and medical doctors. Soon nothing would remain of the Rabbinic tradition except unsystematic anecdotes and meditative speculations.  
(précised except, Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Great Theft, 2005)  
  When the city of Mecca opened its gates to the Muslim army in 632, after five years of warfare and siege, nobody was forced to convert to ‘early Islam’, Muhammad (pbuh) ordered the destruction of all idols and icons of the divine. He is said to have covered up a fresco of Mary and the infant Jesus. Islam is not the implacable enemy of Christianity. Just a competitor, in Man’s search for Truth?
  Jihad to Muslims can be a struggle to protect the weak or free the oppressed, the greater jihad is confronting one’s own desires, the struggle for spiritual cleanliness, the control over carnal desires, and the application of God’s laws in telling the truth and providing for the destitute and hungry.
  Though Islamic fundamentalists/puritans insist on declaring their rejection of the West by adopting alternative forms of appearance, they have no qualms about using Western weaponry and technologically advanced products such as computers and cell phones.
  Faced with suffering, temptations, corrupt living, a person needs a guiding standard. Each messenger or revealer teaches the standard. Followers who develop their own beliefs, particular interests, dilute and colour these teachings. Muslims have no doubts about purity of the revelations given Muhammad (pbuh) and used today. (an introduction to Islam, 2006)
  Catholic Europe is effectively secularised. Communities were allowed, starting 40 years ago, to worship in their own languages, not the Latin Mass, its constant and consistent liturgy. The new is dominated by the brilliant mediocrity of modernity. No-one has done that to Islam.
PROTESTS, COMPLAINTS, AGAINST WHOM?  
You ask why are Muslims not fighting Muslims in the UK and expressing outrage about protests or demonstrations against Shi’a or Sunni massacres (in Iraq) - exactly who are Muslims supposed to demonstrate against? Why would Muslims complain to their fellow Brits about Muslims killing Muslims? A small minority of Muslims are activists. It is a bit much to expect them to attack themselves? or did you expect UK Shi’a to attack UK Sunni? It is not going to happen.  
(email response to another response, over article in UK national newspaper, 2006)  
  The dark forest of Ignorance obscures the vision of (the One) Truth. (Ashtavakra Gita)
  While Britain remains a secular society and non-Muslim, the niqab veil can only hold back the economic and social prospects of Muslim women. Muslims who complain about ‘exclusion from wider British society’ (sometimes with good reason) must examine so-called religiousness.
  It is not fundamentalist Islam, but Arab tribal nationalism which rejects the teachings of Islam which Muhammad (pbuh) and followers envisioned to tame the tribal system.
JEWISH COMMUNITIES’ ORTHODOXY SPREADS  
Far from being concentrated, prosperous, homogenous - as historically believed – in a few boroughs in London and Manchester, Britain’s 270,000 Jewish communities are today found in all but one of the UK’s 408 Districts. London boroughs predominate however. Jewish women outperform women in the general population at the highest professional levels. The strictly Orthodox high birth rate is affecting the make-up of British Jewry and they will dominate in a generation or so.  
(report, Institute Jewish Policy Research, 2007)  
  British Muslim leaders seek to give the state a role in enforcing religious laws including rules against blasphemy. They also aim to make Islam count in the public realm, in schools and universities, upbringing of children, marriage, divorce, property, trade, taxation and banking. The secular state will be a surrogate Sharia institution.
  When one grows up in a religion, there is always the danger that one may assume that religion to be the only valid one, and if others exist, they are merely a reflection of the ‘one religion’ or ‘misguided steps’ that hopefully will lead one to my ‘real one religion’.
  ‘Popular’ Islam has emerged in Egypt. The crowd around singer/dancer ‘Ruby’ Rania Hussein are young school-girls – and they are all veiled (hijab scarves). It is a sign of popular not political Islam, encouraged by satellite-television. When I was at school, says Ruby, 25, there were only about five hijab veiled girls, but now the hijab is everywhere. A sermon by a trendy-suited televangelist kicked off the ‘fashion’ in Egyptian universities and classrooms around the year 2000 when numbers doubled overnight.
  Fundamentalist Muslim ‘puritans’ transform Islam into a creed for which the purpose is to negate and even spite others, and this risks transforming Islam into a creed so absorbed in superficialities to the point of becoming frivolous. Even moderate Muslims can take their religion too seriously.
FOUR DUTIES – AND A VIOLENT FIFTH  
A faithful Muslim has five duties – prayer, charity, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca. The fifth is jihad (spiritual striving). That fifth is something Christians, Buddhists, Judaism, others aspire to, engage in, and sincerely work on, many honourably through a lifetime. Fundamentalist extremists in Islam turn to jihad, coming to use it in their violence of understanding. This means to them, via Islamic literature and (ancient and modern) jurisprudence: protest and violence to spread the faith, to protect Muslims from outside aggression, to punish the backsliders.  
(conflations, several comments, Islamic websites)  
  ‘Religions’ and extremist interpretations of them can be evil. All religions have been nasty. The Ku Klux Klan claims to be devoutly Christian. The Taliban claims to be devoutly Muslim. The Spanish Inquisition was at a minimum extremely violent. In India, the Thuggees centred their faith around robbing and killing. The British rightly wiped out the entire cult.
  After 9/11 he (American preacher) said that America had brought the tragedy on itself because it had become a nation of abortionists, sodomites and pornographers. The opponents of the Religious Right in America hugged themselves in joy: what more apposite proof could you have these Christians were morally indistinguishable from the Islamist jihadists?
  Moderate Muslims in the Western world claim Islam is an open religion. They contradict the actions of their brethren in Muslim controlled nations. If Islam is such an open, peaceful religion, why are Christians harassed even murdered in all countries where Muslims are in control of the civil governments. Actions speak truer, louder than words.
UK GLIMPSE OF ‘PC’ RELIGIOSITY ?  
A local Council in the UK (spring 2007) tries to clarify the rules about use of “religious jewellery” in its schools and causes an outcry. Symbols worn by Muslim, Sikh, Hindu children got a mention in proposals, but not Christianity, the nation’s major religiosity. A government minister says the Council’s efforts were ‘clumsy’. The Council then explained that that the ‘guidelines, issued by its advisory committee for religious education, included jewellery but did not mention Christianity, because ‘in that religion, it is not compulsory to wear a cross… it is a personal preference and can be taken off’. It still made no sense. Was it all an oversight, or councillors bereft of common sense, or anticipating, appeasing and in fear of ‘minority religious eruptions’…. but taking Christianity for granted? The external consultants (who drew up the report for the Council) counselled head teachers to ban jewellery except in ‘exceptional circumstances’ when schools need to be ‘sensitive’ towards other faiths. ‘Other’ relative to what? Is it relative to other religions on my block? In my school? In my country? In the West? This is a Christian country. Many children, unacceptable numbers, leave school unable to read or write. These authorities must concentrate on the basics - education. Do they not see their politically-correct clumsiness creates division in children’s minds on Christian and minority faiths. They are being racist. Even Muslim leaders have join¬ed the condemnation, arguing that all religious groups, including Christian¬s, should be treated the same. When PC becomes so silly that even the Muslims recognize it, the Council’s actions are way over the top. The majority of British are sick and tired of these PC-brigade people.

These PC people have gained power via a department to carry out ‘their’ campaign to keep open multiculturalism, resulting in the undermining of anything British. If a Saudi was ever stupid enough to suggest things like this he would probably disappear! We (Britons) must fight for our beliefs just as Christians in third world countries have to. One websiter commented ‘the liberal educational elite are so out of touch with the common man. In a recent case a British Airways’ staff member was suspended over wearing a cross but it was overturned when there was a big public backlash’. (This is a precis, an amalgam, a conflation, an author-edited review – once the hot air had cleared – of viewpoints made in the media of a local UK row concerning the ‘political-correct’ phenomenon now influencing even British schools)		  

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