A friend of mine was flipping through my new issue of Muslim Girl a few nights ago. She came upon a photo shoot entitled, "Winterize Your Hijab", which showcases a model wearing different winter knit fabrics as headscarves.

She scoffed at the model: "She doesn't even look Muslim!"

"Why not?" I asked. "Because she's white?"

Akh, here we go again.

Now, the conflation of Islam with Middle Eastern people isn't new. To begin with, all Middle Easterners are not Muslim and all Muslims are not Middle Eastern. In fact, Arabs make up only 18% of the world's Muslim population, according to Reza Aslan, author of No God but God. But due to terrorism perpetrated by a few Middle Eastern people, and those oh-so-lovely film clips of angry, bearded brown men burning the US flag, the Middle East and Islam are often mixed up.

Looking within our own community, many Muslims themselves (those of both Middle Eastern origin and non-Middle Easterners) see Arab culture as a proxy for Islamic authenticity. This may stem from the fact that the Holy Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet (peace be upon him)—who was an Arab—in Arabic. Naturally, there is value of learning classical Arabic and reading the Holy Qur'an in its original form. Knowing classical Arabic can also aid in reading the ahadith (a collection of the Prophet's sayings, teachings, and traditions), and reading about Islamic law and history.

Baladas Ghosal of openDemocracy.com defines this phenomenon as "[a] process of homogenization and regimentation - the "Arabization" of Islam - puts greater emphasis on rituals and codes of conduct than on substance…" But although getting caught up in rules and regulations often can make one miss the bigger picture, it's important to note that this Arabization is more of a cultural issue than a religious one.

Since the original Muslims were mostly Arab, everything associated with them - their culture, names, and family structures - has been associated with Islam. But this presents a problem since the vast majority of Muslims in our current world are not Arab. Passing off Arab culture as Islam in this regard is inaccurate, exclusionary, and disrespectful of other Muslims' cultures.

Converts to Islam illustrate the issue even further. If a Latina converts to Islam, for example, she may decide (or those at the local mosque may urge her) to take a "Muslim" name, like Fatima or Khadija (which are also Arab names). But why can't Lucinda be a Muslim name? What makes a name "Muslim"?

I know of many non-Arab converts who have taken Arab names upon their conversion. But why? What's wrong with the names their parents gave them? There isn't anything in the Holy Qur'an that mandates Muslims to have Arab names. Changing your name from Carmelita to Khadija isn't going to get you into Paradise any quicker. Changing one's name doesn't change one's ethnicity or personality. But having an Arab name makes one seem more "Muslim," because of the way Arab culture is seen as synonymous with Islam.

Another excellent example is clothing, which mostly affects Muslim women. The niqab (the face-veil) was rarely seen outside of the Arabian Gulf until recently. Most Muslims see the niqab as a byproduct of Arab culture. It is only recently that the niqab has been interpreted as religiously authentic instead of a cultural expression. A minority of women in Canada, the U.S., and Europe now wear niqab because they believe it is religiously mandated.

But sometimes brothers get in on the cultural dress-up, too. For example, Morgan Spurlock's TV show, 30 Days, featured a white West Virginian man living as a Muslim for 30 days. They showed him often in a kufi and "salwar kameez" which is like a long tunic over pants. As with the niqab, this isn't "Muslim" clothing, it's a South Asian cultural dress. But since Pakistan is sometimes erroneously considered part of the Middle East, it's considered authentically Muslim. This seems especially silly considering the fact that the majority of the Muslim men in the TV special were wearing "Western-style" clothes: jeans and T-shirts or button-up shirts.

What is troublesome about all this is that most Muslims who are non-Arabs complain that they're not seen as Muslims because they're not Arab (or ethnically Middle Eastern, in some cases). But when non-Arab Muslims take Arab names or wear Arab clothes under the guise of "Islamic authenticity," we're all reinforcing the idea that we're not really Muslims unless we have some link to Arab culture.

The internal projection of Arab culture upon Islam has spread outside the Muslim community as well. If you've ever watched a TV special on Islam, there's always 'oud (an instrument similar to the guitar or lute) or ney (similar to a flute) music playing, to make it sound "mystical" and Arab, and thus authentic. And there's always a gratuitous shot of the desert in there, just to make sure we think that Islam derives from the tribal culture of the Arabian peninsula's deserts instead of from Allah (swt).

The real danger is that Islam is getting buried under all this cultural expression. It is possible to be Muslim without being Middle Eastern, without having a name like Mohammed, and without wearing dishdashas (the long robe worn by most men in the Arabian Gulf states) or niqabs. We should reconsider why Arab-ness is, all of a sudden, next to godliness.

>>So, what makes faithfreedom.org an "objective" source?? What makes Ali Sina automatically correct?<<

I can answer that one. Ali Sina quotes from Muslim Religious texts, not from George Bush's private diary. He is saying what Muslim scholars over the years have said. He is only putting old wine into a new bottle, so that the truth can be clear for everyone to read.

>>Final comment: Our prophet married women; yours burned them in suttee. <<

Women ? Omar G , Please read the links i have submitted above. If you are allergic to ali Sinas comments ignore those, but please read YOUR texts. Please read them.

>>'Nuf said, you loose.<<

Now you are behaving like the lawyer and the judge, all rolled into one. No wait....more like the Bombay taxi driver, who hits a pedestrian and speeds away, because he knows that if he waits to talk, he will get thrashed black and blue.

Well Done MrsA .. That people can use an objective understanding of the sources in a rational and scientific approach to discourse, gives me hope indeed. What always troubles me about people with Orientalist views is that they are critical of the Islamic middle ages approach to the texts, then go on and use the same approach to "debunk" our contextualised and broad understanding of Islam and Islamic history.

@Amita ~ Whether the scholars concur or not, you're in fact pointing out that the entire basis of Islamic criticism is based on a possibly false understanding of a few spuriously debated "facts". Instead of considering the whole impact of the message on the society and working inwards from there, you do what every pundit does .. harp on a few tattered shreds of "evidence" to prove a case you had standing before you even knew there was an alternate view. It's doublespeak at its best and it makes and interesting case study of the western delusion. Everyone is subjective, and recognising this makes us the only people with an objective view.

Using similar logic as yours, Indians force their children to get married at pre-pubescent ages. Plenty of evidence on the ground to suggest this. Thus the society clearly supports imposing sexuality on children. Thus Hinduism endorses sexual herding of minors. Therefore, Hinduism has failed and secularism has succeeded. Wow.

@ Hajibaba .. You're right .. literacy probably is wasted on you. But its not an explicit part of your aqeedah, so why feel obligated to the truth anyways. Why feel obligated to have heated discussions that you think are meaningless anyway. The shariah condemns such wastefulness.

Well, looking at the Freedomfaith website, evidence looks pretty damning I must say. I mean if it clearly says in Sahih Bukhari AGE 9 then it is age 9 or 12 or 14 or whatever. Frankly, flopping around in the 20th century trying to recast the age to something higher is not relevent, if for 1200 years her age was considered 9, then it is Age 9 period. Besides what is the difference between 9 and 14??? Not much!

I certainly think casting the Prophet as a pedophile is being a little bit rude here, I ve always maintained that the Prophet (pbuh) was ordained by Allah (swt) to marry Aishah. Why? Have no clue. She was afterall his best friend's daughter, he probably raised her himself as a child as much as any close family uncle would.

Marrying someone who is more like a daughter to you is surely a severe trial. That is just one of many trials the Prophet (pbuh) faced in his mission. It is akin to Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son!! What would be the logic in that one may ask! But God commandeth and his Prophets' obeyeth.

It is a shame that people cast this whole episode in a sleazy light, trying to potray the Prophet as some kind of a pervert. Pity such people.

amita,

Just because something has been written over and over again in books that does not mean it is true. All over the world history books claim Christopher Columbus discovered America. This is false.

I suggest you concern yourself with the Hindu children who are killed during Hindu rituals, than the age of Aisha. See http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2006/10/horror-of-indias-child-sacrifice.html

There is also the fact that India has a lower malnutrition rate than Sub Saharan Africa. There is persecution of religious minorities and slavery still occurs. Even antisemitism is popular in India.

Every negative thing that mainstream media says exists in the Muslim world also exists in India.

>> I suggest you concern yourself with the Hindu children who are killed during Hindu rituals, than the age of Aisha. <<

With all due respect, RandallJones, I think we as Muslims should not defend attacks on Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) with counter-attacks on other cultures. Other cultures are supposed to be faulty, that is why Allah (swt) sent Islam to mankind.

Nowhere in Islam is there any doctrine promoting marriage of 9-year old girls. Nor do most (95% plus) Muslim marriages feature 14-year old and below girls. (One does hear rumors of rich Saudi sheikhs going and marrying young girls in India, but that is clearly rich taking advantage of poor, just like rich foreigners buy organs from the same segment of society in India and similar corruption in Bangkok etc).

Why the Prophet (pbuh) married Ayesha at a young age while he himself was at a ripe old age, he only knows. Muslims should not feel ashamed or defensive about it, he did what he did in the open, in the most respectable way. Was he a bad person as so many suggest, there would be a whole portfolio of sexual transgressions for all to see, he lived a very public life and had many enemies. There are none. One would hardly expect him to turn "pervo" at the age of 55 right after he becomes the mayor of the city of Medina!!

In Hinduism we believe that a prophet sometime somehow proves his human frailty, ShriRam, Indra , Arjuna also had faults in their makeup.

Hajibaba, i dont really care for myself when you say that other cultures ( did you mean religions ? ) are faulty, but its just that when you consider yourself better, just because you interpret a 1000-2000 year old rule they way you want to, then you are going out of your way thinking about useless things, when you could do better things with your time. Because nobody is better, all religions are pretty useless institutions.

Ghulam, we are not talking about a few spurious debated facts, but tons of instances in ALL religions. Just open your eyes. I opened mine long ago.

If theists like you all focus on the good in Islam but (important ) keep it in your house, and spend your constructive time building public opinion about Muslim ( and Hindu, Christian, Jewish ) fanatics , just the way people are actively building public opinion against criminals like Bush, Saddam, Narendra Modi and the Nazis earlier, its a step towards creating a better world.

>> Ghulam, we are not talking about a few spurious debated facts, but tons of instances in ALL religions. Just open your eyes. I opened mine long ago. <<

Yes, I think, this is the root of the debate here. I was quite surprised at the way everyone is snipping at Hinduism and Indian society, I assume they know your background or something. Which i do not.

But there is a reason for that snipping. "You opened your eyes long ago" and then what??? Now what are you? An athiest?? And what do you have to show us Muslims that is BETTER than Islam? Just criticism of Islam? That is it?

This is the problem with crtics of religions. They do not have any better more practical alternative to provide for the betterment of mankind, they only know how to criticize what is there. Do you have some athiest culture and values and where are they documented and what is the history of them and societies that practiced them???

Islam is about doing good and living together and about matters of spiritual nature. What do you have that is better? There is a reason why Islam is a growing faith and passionately practiced by a large chunk of humanity. Because it is noble and good and organizes people's relationships with each other in a structured way for better living together as a family and a community.

Now if you are a capitalist or a communist or a liberetaerian or Nazi, or shinto or buddhist or whatever, identify yourself and we can debate which is better, Islamism or your ism. But an athiest? What is that? It means nothing. You don't believe in theisms. So what? What about relationships with the opposite sexes, with your family members, with the government, with your employer, with humanity at large, what thought process do you subscribe to?

You live in this world, so you must belong to some culture or system of things. You don' live in a space capsule do you??? Lets have your system and I m sure there will be a gazillion holes in it as well. It will have its villans and its horrible injustices and its massacres. So why pick on the Prophet's supposed personal transgressions, you are criticising us, but you are the one who started it.

As Muslims, we are very proud of our history and what it has done for humanity, and what it will do in the future. Yes, we feel we are the best of the lot. We have our goats and we have people who have made grave errors, but they are tiny compared to the benefits Islam has brought to HUMANITY, not just other Muslims.

We are part of a club, Islam. And you are welcome to join in, no fees required!!! Islam is open source code. Anyone is welcome. The Holy Qur'an, the Prophetic sayings, everything is available for anyone to read and start their own little community. No permission of the pope required. The more mainstream your views, the more universal will be the appeal of your community. Blacks, blues, grees, yellows, whites, reds, oranges, people of all colors and waist sizes will be attracted to your message. There is Ghulam, there is OmarG, there is Hajibaba, three absolute diameterical opposites of a triangle. In the same club. Amazing.

No one will be able to tell you what to do because if you are in the right, Allah the creator of this planet will be with you, and there can be no better helper than that. So before you go around telling other people how not to live their lives, kindly offer a solution first. Just telling them not to do something (athiesm) is not a solution.

Hajibaba – I am Indian, I am Hindu by birth only, and my culture and ism has a gazillion holes. Who cares a damn, I believe I can have my worldly relationships without an ism. I don’t live in a space capsule. I subscribe to the modern nation state called India. That’s my club.

I don’t feel we are the best of the lot. I believe that anybody who thinks like that is either a fool or has an inferiority complex. I never said I was an atheist. To disbelieve blindly is as big a fool as a theist – who believes blindly. I’m an agnostic, choosing to stay away from what science cannot prove or disapprove. If there is a god then I serve him by living life like a good human.

I offered you a solution in my last post. If you want to live life like an exhalted human being, don’t believe in unnecessary unknown unproved foolish matters of the past, but try to create public opinion on idealistic matters of today. I do my bit by trying to expose Narendra Modi so that the Brown Indian Gujarat Muslims of my ‘club’ get justice. Do your little bit ( for non believers too, try to make people of all religions part of your club, why is that so difficult ), there are plenty of victims in this world.

Was that not why AltMuslim was conceived ?

well amita's endeavor to find jutice for her imprisoned countrypeople is about as noble a motive as it gets-
i certainly cant find fault with that.

i did look at the posts, i didnt study them as ive seen the same hadeeth posted before on faithfreedom-

but i did notice that the enitr arguments were built around the same discredited and invalidated hadeeth of hisham and his father-

several points that discredited the father in particular-
his advanced age
his faulty memory
his singular transmission (it ususally requires 2 or 3 at least to bakc up one persons relaying of hadeeth)
his migration to iraq-
the transmission of the hadeeth coming back through the people of iraq-

(there is some bad blood between the people of iraq and aisha at that point in history- so a hadeeth dealing specifically with her, definitely has the possibility of a tainted or subjective quality-)

the second link was basically the same as the 1rst-
the third link bore no references, and was purely an emotional (and pretty insulting to muslim women in general) appeal preaching to a choir that is already singing that song.

as for the cliqueish quality of hajibaba's response-

there are no deathbed conversions in islam-
BUT- there are instances of very late in life conversions-
also instances of very late in life regressions and renunciations-

the drunken atheist one just passed on the street may have the seeds of grace fermenting inside them to blosson one day-
and the pious muslim sitting next to you in the mosque may have a heart hardened by a righteous judgemental elitism that poisons his prayers and validity as a good muslim-

who knows? not me- allahu allum.(only ALLAH knows)

peace all

MrsA ~ your approach to hadeeth is very challenging.

>> and the pious muslim sitting next to you in the mosque may have a heart hardened by a righteous judgemental elitism that poisons his prayers and validity as a good muslim-

Too many concepts here for the best ism above all other isms of the haji. You'd think people developed a whole hearted appreciation for their smallness in relation to the Truth and enormity of Allah SWT out of Islam. Instead we start to define Islam as "role playing" religion or "socialist brotherhood" or "gateway to science" or whatever other political infringement they need to make onto a religion that is fundamentally about the human beings relationship with God.

No .. I don't want to criticise Hinduism. I want to point out that a certain heavy-handedness is reserved for Muslims. Apparently open-minded people, seem to not apply their objectivity in relation to the "mindless" Muslim masses. All probably done because we don't seem to have viable movie industry.

I do agree with Haji that Muslims have no need defending a minor and almost arbitraty anecdote about the Prophet's (SAW) life. People don't go around arguing about how he did household chores or lived an ascetic life or the he showed mercy, restraint and kindness to everyone around him on countless occassions. People don't argue that he fought his battles, lived what he preached, improved the society for he lived in (despite its apprehensions of him). It seems people of lesser consequence in the history of the world, and with less to offer to even their immediate neighbours, are more inclined to be critical on the basis of their "principles". And atheists feel especially inclined to fault the Prophet SAW because he believed/knew God. How absurd.

Incidentally .. in relation to the topic, the idea of Arab names as the Islamic principle, is in fact the practice on madhab. It may have had sheer practical value, but to claim it is the religion .. well that's the same as saying that women shouldn't be allowed to drive or participate in society without a mahram.

The problem is that Muslims somehow think that we are a race. I am born as a Muslimah, blond and 1.80 m tall and I get always the quesion if I am a convert. No, ever heard there are Muslims in Bosnia?

I must admit that it had never occurred to me before that there is nothing Islamic or more Islamic in some names as compared to others. I must say that the argument seems convincing.
But in my case maybe i would prefer to have a name out of 99 names of Allah or The Prophet (PBUH) just for the sake of love and nothing else. Maybe most of the Muslims see it that way when they ask a convert to rename him/herself. But i can be completely wrong.

a salaamu alaikum MK- if i'd have been approached with such logic and intention- i would have considered the possibility of changing my name- but still definitely would not.

i became muslim through private prayer and asking for guidance-
i have to be honest- i knew very little about islam itself and depended upon my prayer experience, to revert.

i dont say this very often in any forum- but it is the truth.
i went through extreme culture shock- i had never met an actual muslim-
from what i (eventually) read- it seemed to me like the religion of all people-
not just arabs or asians-

so when i met "real" muslims- i expected that philosophy to be reflected in the attitudes of muslims-

i was not surprised though, when i discovered that muslims in america seem to be MORE insular, and divided along ethnic lines, than your average american- as many are 1st generation immigrants-
it was like trying to communicate with my grandparents and fight through their "old country" mentality. it still is.

so when im approached, (and i often and repeatedly am) to "change" my name-
there can be a certain inclusiveness in the invitiation- kind of like approving me of belonging to the 'club'.

but mostly- it is accompanied by an implication that my current and always self identification is somehow lacking, or wanting or inferior.

and that by accepting a 'new' name, i am also rejecting my own heritage, society and western upbringing as an inferior paradigm-
and adopting an eastern mentality that is superior to that one.

and a rejection or even a shame of who i was before i became muslim-

im really happy with who i was before-
actually, my volunteer activities as a christian far far far outwiegh my activities as a muslim-
as a matter of fact- i had to go and work for christians in a homeless shelter because there simply are no mu8slims doing any real charity work in america-

for the record- my name is victoria-
it already IS one of the 99 names-

and i would never hurt my parents by changing their decision and original right to name me-
no one else has that right.

like the bosnian sister pointed out- the heads of muslims come in ALL colors-

but all of our heads equal out in the whitenesss of age, don't they?

i have to be really honest about it too-
i went to an all black school as a youngster- with only 11 white kids (and 4 of them were from my family)

and for the first time in my life- i experienced alot of very real prejudice when i became a muslim- from other muslims- that i didnt even experience with the black kids in america!

america is a pluralistic society, and that is ALREADY an islamic principle-
muslims need to reaffirm this in their lives and actions-
here's to the health of the ummah!
peace

MRS.A Assalalikum, Your point of view is correct. I think that it is a way of including someone in your/their group. But it is human nature. We all dislike - actually fear- different or unfamiliar/unknown things, people, structures. Things are different for different people though. Where most of the muslims would ask you to change your name just to make you familiar there are few others who would not give it any importance.

>> america is a pluralistic society, and that is ALREADY an islamic principle-<<

Yes, why dont you go and give your lilly livered lecture on pluralism to:

- Palestinians
- Saudis
- Iraqis
- Iranians
- Taliban
- Vietnamese
- South Americans

and a host of other peoples outside of American borders who are on the receiving end of its pluralism. I assume because of their race. What else could it be?

Absolutely MK- All of us are guilty of fearing the different or unfamilair.
It is enough for me to continue to try and have suspicion for the good intentions in people.

hajibaba-you don't appear to come away from these conversations with much edification.