Assalamu aleikum and welcome back to your solvent (if barely) journalistic enterprise. Although we think we punch above our weight, we're not the largest Islamically-oriented online news and opinion source in the world. That distinction belongs to
IslamOnline, a vast internet resource started by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi in 1997. Called "the
jihad of our time" by al-Qaradawi, IslamOnline grew to over
300 employees based in Cairo, Egypt, managed by an administrative arm in Doha, Qatar. Recently, as tensions grew between two new Qatar-based members, general manager Ibrahim el-Ansari and his deputy Ali el-Amady, the Cairo journalists and adminstrators soon found themselves locked out of the site's servers and immediately staged a
sit-in, with termination procedures against them following shortly afterwards. Editors holed up in IOL offices and took to
Twitter, Facebook, and
live streaming video to seek worldwide support. Most employees believe that the shutting out stems from
dissatisfaction of an increasingly
moderate and introspective tone (which may sound familiar to some of our readers). Stories on issues such as homosexuality, art, and Valentine's Day were reported to have upset IOL backers. "Some officials... are trying to grip the website with the aim of diverting it from its moderate language," said an employee statement, "to a traditional, text-bound discourse that is detached from reality." This editorial independence has formed over the past 10 years in response to a more active and educated youth market in the Middle East and abroad, along with a more journalistic approach to covering issues in the Muslim world (at altmuslim.com, we have shared content with IOL on a number of occasions, most notably during the Jewel of Medina affair where we shared reviews of the book). However, by Wednesday, the sit-in may have
succeeded in prompting a suspension of two new members, general manager Ibrahim el-Ansari and his deputy Ali el-Amady, who have been blamed by many employees for the rising tensions. “Those two are the reasons for all of what has happened to us,” said striking employee Ahmed Abdel Fattah. “They’ve been destroying IslamOnline.” With al-Qaradawi's involvement in the suspension of el-Ansari and el-Amady, the employee's campaign may yet prove fruitful. As individuals gain media voices not available to them 10 years ago, those who control the creation and flow of information may find that their power is now limited. "We want the world to know that these editors and journalists and workers you see striking are the true voice of moderation," says employee
Deena Khalil. "Without them, who knows what IslamOnline will be like, we are all praying that the voice of moderation is preserved."
In 2007, the case of the
Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, New York brought to the forefront the prejudice that still surrounds any discussion regarding public education and Islam. At the center of that controversy was the school's original principal,
Debbie Almontaser. A 17-year veteran of the NYC public school system, Almontaser was picked to head the groundbreaking school, which emphasized Arabic language and culture (the only school among 67 dual language schools in the city of New York that focuses on Arabic). The Arabic focus of the school led many
conspiracy theories against it until Almontaser was forced to resign amidst a storm of accusations of stealth Islamist activity. This week, the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission
endorsed Almontaser's claim of bias against her race and religion. Though the resolution is non-binding (the Department of Education says they
won't reinstate her), it represents a moral victory for someone who was the victim of a
smear campaign based on fear and prejudice. Though detractors attributed her firing to
leadership issues and not racism, the primary issue at the time was her response to a student's T-shirt (which had nothing to do with the Academy) reading "Intifada USA." Montaser explained that “Intifada” means shaking off, but came to mean something else by the Palestinian Arabs. The commission found that a New York Post report on the story, which implied a support for terrorism, elaborated upon her remarks misleadingly. Interestingly, the current principal of the Academy, Holly Anne Reichert, resigned days after the commission's announcement. In her place came Beshir Abdelllatif, an Arabic-American principal who most recently worked in Queens. Almontaser's lawyer, Alan Levine, called the appointment of another Arab-American principal (the school's first) “suspicious” and claimed it was an “attempt to deflect the conclusion of the EEOC that the DOE had engaged in discrimination.” The Department of Education, he added, “might have the good graces to say, ‘This [Almontaser] is the person we wanted, and that’s who we are going to appoint,’ but good graces never distinguish themselves in these situations.” Still, an Arabic-language school now has an Arabic head, though that won't end the controversy.
Finally, speaking of controversial Arabs, you wouldn't think that, given his credentials, noted Islamic scholar
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi would be one of them. Tantawi, who died last week at the age of 81 from a heart attack, was the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar University, both in Cairo, Egypt. Al-Azhar is seen as one of the (Sunni) Islamic world's leading institutes of learning. Tantawi was appointed to the position by Egyptian President (both positions for life, apparently) Hosni Mubarak in 1996. Sheikh Tantawi did not have
mass reach like his contemporaries Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (of the aforementioned IslamOnline) and populist preacher Amr Khaled. Still, Tantawi was head of al-Azhar, and his numerous rulings created friction with an increasingly conservative Egyptian public. For example, he ruled in 1989 that some forms of financial interest, such as government bonds and individual savings accounts, were tolerable (eek). He called female circumcision, a widespread practice in Egypt, un-Islamic, stating that his own daughter was not circumcised (yay). Also, he differed with al-Qaradawi on the issue of suicide bombers, calling them "enemies of Islam" and refuting al-Qaradawi's exception for Palestinians under Israeli occupation and their use against Israeli civilians (yay again). Finally, last October, Tantawi
personally removed the niqab from a secondary school student, saying that it was a tradition not rooted in Islam and that he knew "Islam better than her and her parents" (eek for tactlessness). He later stated that he would
issue an edict against it, a view that resonated with proposed bans by secular governments in
European countries. The resulting controversy
continued until his death. Ebrahim Moosa, an associate professor of Islamic studies at Duke University, argues that "Tantawi was not only pro-Western, he was often pro-authority and did his best to satisfy such authority, even if it meant that he had to cut corners with the body of ethical and moral rulings in Islamic teachings". Adds Moosa, "His fatwas were not often carefully argued and scripted. [They] lacked a granular discussion of complex and controversial issues, and often he would cherry-pick from the tradition without proper justification." Tantawi was beholden to Egyptian politics, which muddied his findings and skewed his influence. Regardless of the controversies, more debate among scholars, who are by no means monolithic, must occur before an equilibrium can be found within society. "While he sometimes appeared as a source of enlightenment, he was finally too fond of access to power," notes analyst
Irfan al-Alawi. "But the road to Islamic fulfilment will be followed, as it was in the past, by those unafraid to separate themselves from political castes and official institutions, who search their own hearts, as well as the precedents of the Muslim intellect, for a reaffirming courage and determination."
