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@katiecouric: Islam in America

January 19, 2011 7:00 AM

Katie Couric hosts a panel discussion on Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, and everyday life for Muslims in America.

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by BKHiPad February 18, 2011 4:08 PM EST
"Little Mosque on the Prairie" is a good one on Canadian TV http://www.cbc.ca/littlemosque/
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by sallyls February 16, 2011 5:16 PM EST
Excellent discussion with well-spoken and knowledgeable guests. I hope this airs on CBS Prime Time; it would be a service to the audience. The discussion touched on many topics and concerns for muslims and non-muslims alike. Katie asked why more moderate muslim voices were not heard? I beleive it is because it is not inflammatory, hence not news worthy. Katie, will this show air? Will these voices be heard? Or will the news continue to broadcast only the extreme that suits the political goals of the day, or draws viewers (which equals dollars) in Jerry Springer-like fashion? If it does not air, there is your answer, Moderate voices are not being given the exposure alloted to louder, inflammatory extremist voices.
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by MrBrown6824 February 6, 2011 10:43 PM EST
http://www.thestraightway.org
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by statingthis February 3, 2011 7:11 PM EST
My husband and myself are wondering why you are in Egypt you are not respecting the customs of the culture? We see you walking down the street with your hair blowing in the wind, rather than a scarf around your head. Just a note of disrespect.
We however, like your news broadcast very much.
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by JoeDaniels January 28, 2011 9:10 AM EST
This video interview is propaganda masquerading as journalism.
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by teufeldritch January 27, 2011 3:40 PM EST
What is the punishment for apostasy in Islam? What's that? Oh that's right... DEATH. What is al taqiyya? Hmm? Oh yea.. it's where muslims can lie about their faith to further it's designs. Where they can deny anything as long as it's furthers the cause of islam. A muslim Cosby show? No thank you. In fact I say 'no thank you' to islam & muslims in general. The world will never know peace as long as islam is on this earth. It needs to be eradicated, wiped off the face of the earth. Religion of peace my ass.
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by MrBrown6824 January 26, 2011 8:36 PM EST
The truth from someone who doesn't hate the Muslim people http://www.thestraightway.org If you think this guy is wrong, engage him in an interview. If you can't then not all points of view are welcome here.
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by mash0000 January 25, 2011 12:34 AM EST
Katie kept asking why is the mainstream Muslims not condemning the violence. Katie, they do. But their voices are drowned in the cacophony of the right wing propaganda. When every major violence erupts, many scholars, Imams, and Muslim institutions do condemn. None of their voices are sought by the media because that is not sensational. Two other reasons why they are not being heard are : Muslims as a whole do not understand the working mechanisms of the media and the important role it plays in a western society. Secondly, they are, like every other ordinary citizens, struggling for their day-to-day survival. After this, they have hardly any time left for public activism.

To my American neighbors: if violence was inherent in Islam, why this wasn't a problem prior to 3 decades agao (to be precise pre-soviet invasion of Afghanistan)?

What is happening is that the hardliners and political ideologues and extremists are using certain "militant verses" which was revealed in the context of war to drive out the occupiers from their land. They see that the occupiers of their land are Israel, USA, UK. Unfortunately, in their misguided zeal, they take law into their own hand and kill innocent lives around the world. In this chaos, it is the Muslims who have lost vast majority of the lives and suffered the most. Please do read Prof. Noam Chomsky's analysis on this: it is the military industrial complex, oil, and the control of natural resources, installation of the puppet regimes in the Muslim countries.


The biggest problem I found in the immigrant community is that when conservative Immigrant Muslims come to this country, they carry with them their cultural baggage. How they want to practice Islam in their country and individually is upto them, but when they go to a new land, the values of Islam need to take concrete shape in the cultural context of the adopted country without sacrificing the spirit and major principles. Islamic scholars and institutions have a big role to play in this area. So far they haven't succeeded in it. Part of the problem lies in the misplaced conservatism of the immigrant laiety, who rejects these institutions as liberal (which they are not) and the other part is lack of resources of these institutions.
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by mash0000 January 25, 2011 12:31 AM EST
I thank CBS and Katie for conducting this extremely important program which is absolutely essential to inform and educate the public and ease the tension for the long-term welfare of USA.

Katie & CBS: please invite some well informed panelists: Imam Zaid Shakir, Imam Hamza Yusuf, Prof. Sayyed Hussein Nasr, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, etc.

I am a male and is originally from the indian subcontinent and has been in US for a decade and a half. I consider myself a practicing and informed Muslim who is ideologically a little bit right of the center.

Here is my take on the interview: Katie asked the right questions, but the panel failed to answer some of the questions to the point. Perhaps the panelists, except Asra, do not have much training in these kind of interviews.

I felt Mohammed's taking every issue back to education and economics is not quire accurate. Granted those are contributing factors, but there is the issue of literalist interpretation, which is problematic in every religion including Christianity (Evangelics, Southern Baptists ) and Islam (Wahhabis & the literalist Salafis). However, Asra's sweeping statement about Salafis and Deobandis as extremists and equating them in the same breath to Daniel pearl's murder and Al-Qaeda is ignorance at best and disingenuous and opportunistic at worst.

The literalist salafis are problematic from an interpretation perspective, but they strongly oppose any kind of suicide bombing whatever the purpose may be. They are apolitic and generally keeps away from political participation. The Muslim jurists trained in the extant four legal schools do not accept their interpretation. Salafi interpretation is likely to lead some people to take uncompromising position and to isolation from the mainstream society. People belonging to this category do exist in US. However, this group is open to Women coming to the mosques as they see that that was how the first generation Muslims were. I have strong issues with them and personally oppose their interpretation in my community. The Quran interpretation Asra mentioned is produced by this group.

I am surprised that Asra included Deobandi's (from Pakistan) in this list. The contemporary Deobandis are against any involvement in politics or military adventure. Though their methodology is based one established juristic methodologies, they take a narrow minded conservative approach to their interpretation, which was originally done in the early 20th century context of Indian subcontinent. It is this group which is against women's participation and leadership in the mosques and their public role in the society. Again, most of the followers of this methodology are not well informed and follows their teachers from their parent country. Piety doesn't compensate for their lack of knowledge. Asra may say that some of the Talibans were educated in these schools. This school has produced more than one hundred thousand graduates, out of which it is unlikely that you will find even a thousand militant jihadists. That makes less than 1%. Does that figure represent an exception or main characteristic of the school? Aain, many of us (males) have fought for the active participation of Women's involvement in the mosques and we have made some good progress though it took us more than 5 years. Now one moque has women in the Board of trustees and another mosque has women leading men in some of the committees. Change is gradual.

Asra: some of the points she raised are valid, but she exaggerated it and was trying to push her agenda. And she is pretty good at it.

Regarding the "72 virgins", there is nothing in the Quran that states that. For a well rounded explanation, please listen to Lesley Hazelton's 'An Agnostic Jew on the Quran" on Tedx. Dear Imam Khalid, though you are eloquent, you could have answered the question directly.

On the issue of Sharia, there is an excellent article published in NY times by Prof. Noah Feldman (Harvard Law School professor) a year or two back titled "Why Sharia?".
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by PrayAndStay January 24, 2011 7:01 PM EST
I feel that while the men were intent on asserting the theoretical "as it should be" Islam, Nomani was more practical, looking at how it IS asserted in many Muslim lands today, and how we should respond. In that sense, I think the tone she struck was more appropriate for an audience less concerned with theological debates and more concerned with having an explanation for the viciousness and backwardness they see.

I don't agree with everything Nomani believes in (at the same time I consider it quite sad that she is so vilified that I must make that disclaimer when the same is true for everyone else), but I think she was much better than the gentlemen at hearing how our inter-Muslim quibbling and apologetics sounds to the average Muslim viewer. Khalid Latif was articulate on many issues, but easily resorted to relativism when I felt he should have taken a position (banning women from driving....Qatar, Yemen, and Oman have the same culture as Saudi, and they have not banned it..let's call it what it is: abuse of the jurisprudential principle of "preventing harm" by men who see rape of their women as something lurking behind every corner).

Hameedudeen did not appear very educated on the religious aspects. He rejected a true assertion Nomani made. There IS a translation of Quran printed in mass by Saudi Arabia, which inserts into the text only their interpretation of 24:31, you can see it at thenoblequran website (.com). AS a convert to Islam, it is problematic when I first encountered this translation, which ignored all others opinions to tell me that I should cover one or both eyes according to the verse!

Problematic for Nomani, she at times advocated things that our community is not prepared to do (an allegorical interpretation of virgins) but that, even if accomplished, would do little to solve the larger reason of why people do suicide bombings (promise of virgins is superficial in comparison). In that sense, her own flaw was not working within what is possible, but working too much from her own "as it should be" liberal Islamic ideals.

I'd like to add that the Muslims who came here only to comment about Nomani's opinion of hijab are actually proving her point that as Muslims we make it a sixth pillar of our faith. I mean really, of all the issues discussed, this is what you chose to comment here about? I wear a hijab, but I also prefer to prioritize my concerns: people disorting our faith ranks higher than whether Nomani chooses to put a cloth on her head. We clearly have a long way to go if we are to be a RELEVANT religious community.

-A female Muslim convert
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