Wednesday, February 21, 2007

A Modern Muslim

Check out Basil's latest blog at Ramblefish. Excellent interview with Tariq Ramadan. He touches on just about everything from the 1905 law in France (banning of religious articles in school-and why a girl faced w/ wearing the headscarf or going to school should always choose school) to what defines a Muslim.

7 comments:

Basil Epicurus said...

I also bought his book about the life of the prophet. Welcome back, btw.

Susan said...

Thanks! You'd recommend the book, then?

Forsoothsayer said...

except that the dude said "six pillars of Islam".

Susan said...

Sooth, I did a double take on that, and had to think for moment. Typo? Or is he so progressive that he believes there are 6? Do you know, BasiL?

Basil Epicurus said...

I'd heard of six pillars:

Shahada, Prayer, Fasting, Alms, Pilgrimage and Death to America..

No, seriously, some people consider Jihad to be the sixth pillar but opinion is divided on that. Of course, the definition of Jihad isn't that defined by the popular media. Jihad literally means to 'endeavor' or 'exert effort'...to whatever it is that betters the state of the Muslim people, be it learning, public service or fighting an invading enemy.

Anyways, Wikipedia has an entry about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_pillar_of_Islam

Sever said...

"This is why I'm always saying it's against Islamic teaching to force a woman to wear a head scarf. But it's also against human rights to force her to take it off. It should be a free choice."

That's jsut what I always say! I never had problems with the covered girls who studed in our city. Why not? It's their business.
But I did not get the same from Muslims when I appeared in the streets of their city not covered.
Unfair.

"What I can say is that I am Swiss by nationality, European by culture, Egyptian by memory, universalist by principle and of course Muslim by religion"

Like his position.

By the way, Cairogal, watched all your photos, enjoyed so much. Miss all this!!! :)

Susan said...

Glad you enjoyed them, Sever!