For where the book is banned, censored, or difficult to access:
Reformist Quran
A progressive, 21st-century translation -- in English. The U.S. publisher bailed on it after the Prophet Muhammad cartoon riots. But fear didn't stop the translators.
In the world of Islamic reform, the big news this week is that an eminent Pakistani sheikh has issued a 600-page fatwa against Muslim terrorism — with no qualifiers attached. You’d think I’d be celebrating.
Not really.
The very notion that 21st-century Muslims need a fatwa confirming the immorality of blowing each other up is, well, infantile. Frankly, it’s just another relic of the tribal mentality, in which the higher-ups do all the thinking for the lowly peeps.
The sooner Muslims wean ourselves off the fatwa fetish, the faster we’ll tap our potential to engage our own minds, hearts and consciences. As I’ll explain in my next book, it’s individuality — not deference to yet more external authority — that will spark the long-overdue liberal reformation within Islam.
You know whose fatwa I can endorse? Watch the video below:
Yep, I dig the idea of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Paine breaking the news to a violent jihadi that he’ll be spending eternity with them. After all, America’s founding fathers were a motley crew of Christians, skeptics, secularists and agnostics. That a true believer might have to share the afterlife with such infidels makes me smile.
Does this man go through with hurling his stone at Soraya? Watch the movie…
This week, among the most important movies of my generation, “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” comes out in DVD and Blu-Ray. You can order either version here.
“The Stoning,” starring recent Emmy-award winner Shohreh Aghdashloo, dramatizes the true story of an Iranian village wife whose deceitful husband sets her up for execution so that he can marry an unsuspecting girl in the city.
Ultimately, though, this isn’t a tale of female victimhood. Instead, it’s about moral courage. The target of the stoning — Soraya — has an aunt who shows us that even when you can’t stop the crime unfolding before you, there’s always an opportunity to use your mind, conscience and voice for longer-term good. That’s what Aunt Zahra does in this film. I won’t tell you how she does it. You’ll just have to buy the DVD!
Beyond buying it, I hope you’ll screen it in your homes, churches, temples, mosques, classrooms and community centers. The questions unleashed by “The Stoning” will generate amazing conversations.
For example, are non-Muslims “allowed” to comment on issues that affect Muslim women — such as the so-called honor killing of Soraya? If you watch a movie like “The Stoning,” are you sticking your nose in “other” people’s business? In an interdependent world, is there such a thing as “other” people?
Aunt Zahra protecting Soraya
To get you into the spirit of hi-octane discussion, here’s what I would say if I were part of the film club that I want you to create once you buy the “The Stoning” DVD:
As a Muslim reformer, I routinely receive heart-wrenching emails from fellow Muslims whose basic human rights are being violated — not by “outsiders” but by members of their own communities. Equally saddening is that self-professed human rights activists in the West often play the purity game, suggesting that you can’t comment if you don’t represent.
Their misguided conviction: Anyone living in the West can’t legitimately expose oppressive practices in cultures elsewhere. Hmmm… Would they say the same to Muslims in the traditional Islamic world who expose America’s human rights abuses at Gitmo or Abu Ghraib? Of course not.
Nor should they. Human rights, being human, are above the politics of identity. As Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out in hisLetter from a Birmingham City Jail, “Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, parochial, ‘outside agitator’ idea.”
But it seems that Elise Auerbach, Iran specialist for Amnesty International USA, can more than live with the narrow and parochial. She practices it in her baffling denunciation of “The Stoning of Soraya M.”
Tellingly, Amnesty itself released a January 2008 report that described stonings as “grotesque and unacceptable”. In its press release about the report, Amnesty called on “the Iranian authorities to abolish death by stoning and impose an immediate moratorium on this horrific practice, specifically designed to increase the suffering of victims.”
In her remarkably contradictory review of “The Stoning” — a review in which she acknowledges the report — Auerbach emphasizes that “Iranians don’t need people from outside Iran telling them what is good for them…”
Really? Then why did her own organization dare to tell Iranian authorities what to do in its report against stoning?
And why did Amnesty feature “The Stoning” at its 2009 annual film festival?
Above all, why did Amnesty invite Cyrus Nowrasteh, the Iranian-American director of “The Stoning,” to introduce the film at its festival? Is it because he’s Iranian? If so, then what makes him someone “from outside” according to Auerbach?
Of course, Nowrasteh is American too. Perhaps that’s the real taboo. In which case, isn’t Auerbach’s employer — UK-based Amnesty — also an outsider? Why does she continue to work for Amnesty and make herself part of the interference that she believes is a problem?
Within its own ranks, Amnesty International needs an intellectually honesty debate about how to realize its motto, “Defending Human Rights Worldwide.” Personally, I can attest that more than a few Amnesty activists worry about the scourge of moral and cultural relativism in their midst. That’s the single biggest concern confided to me when I presented at Amnesty’s 2006 conference in Mexico City.
Delegates disclosed to me that Amnesty International has no clear message about honor-based crimes, including stoning, because nobody wants to be deemed a bigot. As if defending human rights worldwide has ever been a matter of politeness.
It’s 2010 and apparently Amnesty has not resolved its dilemma. Auerbach condemns a movie that spotlights an Iranian heroine — Soraya’s aunt, Zahra — who tries to stop the stoning. Zahra is a Muslim who realizes her faith by speaking truth to power about the non-negotiable need for human dignity.
And yet, according to Auerbach, hapless audience dupes will respond with “disgust and revulsion at Iranians themselves, who are portrayed as primitive and bloodthirsty savages.” Thus, “we” — idiotic Westerners who can’t be trusted to reach independent conclusions — “still have to wait” for a “thoughtful” film about executions in Iran.
I hope we don’t have to wait for thoughtful human rights activists to speak truth to power in their organizations. Dissidents do exist, as I learned at the Amnesty conference that I attended. Will they exercise their own freedom of conscience? Of this, I can’t be sure. Moral courage is always more difficult than self-censorship.
To watch exclusive clips from “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” click here. And to buy the just-released DVD, click here.
The Moral Courage Project screens “The Stoning of Soraya M.” You can too.
When Tiger Woods apologized for having multiple extra-marital affairs, he confessed another sin: straying from his Buddhist upbringing. Seconds later, Twitter seized up with cynicism:
*“Did I just hear him say he’s a Buddhist or a boobist?”
* “The guy calls himself a Buddhist! Try bootyist!”
* “That’s like finding God in prison. Whatever, Tiger.”
Not so fast, folks. There could be some serious spirituality behind his decision to delay professional golf and focus on restoring trust with his family. One of Buddhism’s core teachings is that the journey matters far more than the destination. You can’t control what happens, but you can control your intentions. If you attach yourself to a healthy motive and detach yourself from the desired outcome, then all will unfold as it needs to.
Translation for Tiger: Forget about hitting the links right away, dude. Concentrate on what it will take to return with a clean conscience and authentic joy. That’s a journey worth investing in.
I got this message first-hand in India last year. One afternoon, I hung out to watch Buddhist monks put the finishing touches on an elaborate sand castle at the beach. They’d spent three days working on it. My good fortune: I was passing by as they were wrapping up.
A ceremony of prayer and laughter followed the castle’s completion. Then, all of a sudden, the young men began destroying what they’d taken so much time to craft. They grabbed chunks of sand, tossed it in the ocean air and razed the rest of the castle with arms swinging. What the saffron was going on?
I turned to the Indian-American standing beside me. He dutifully explained that in much of the West, the result is everything. We squander our lives chasing after this or that result, only to find that upon achieving it, we’re left empty. But in mystical traditions, it’s the process that counts. Our monks drew happiness from every step of building their sand castle.
The castle itself was intentionally ephemeral, maybe even incidental. It could have been washed away by an unforeseen monsoon or tidal wave, just like an investment portfolio, the promise of a job promotion, a brand name — and fame. Had that happened to our monks, the only loss would have been something temporary anyway. For them, the permanent accomplishment was felt moment-by-moment.
As it will be for a certain golfer who’s trying to redeem his honor. Still, I have to admit a nagging suspicion: I don’t believe it was Tiger who resolved to put off pro golf. Were it entirely up to him, he’d be back in the game, testosterone raging. But precisely because he does need help, I think Tiger’s very Buddhist mother now wields the clout that his late father once did. And her guidance is spiritual, not commercial.
If I’m right, then Tiger’s one lucky son of a Buddhist. Because by learning to attach himself to a new commitment and set aside a familiar outcome, he — like our monks — could end up expanding his creative energies beyond measure.
Oh, and if Tiger needs that much more guidance, the Dalai Lama happens to be in America this week. See, you nasty Twitter negatrons? With purity of intention, there’s no such thing as a coincidence. Now go ruin your own castles.
Documentary
Irshad's PBS Documentary: Faith Without Fear follows my journey around the world to reconcile Islam and freedom.
Irshad is pioneering efforts throughout the world to promote Muslim reform and moral courage. To join her mission, first get informed about all that she's doing.
