ISLAM IN OXFORD
This article reflects on the unusually positive nature of the Oxford Muslim community. It discusses the challenges they face and includes a photo slideshow and a photo gallery of Islam in Oxford. To read the article click here.
Friday, October 20, 2006
This article reflects on the unusually positive nature of the Oxford Muslim community. It discusses the challenges they face and includes a photo slideshow and a photo gallery of Islam in Oxford. To read the article click here.
About Me
- Name: Muqtedar Khan
- Location: United States
Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is also the Driector of Islamic studies Program. He is a Non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana, 2002), Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (Praeger, 2004).
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6 Comments:
Happy Eid !
I read this article about Muslims in Oxford with great interest.
This following sentence reminds me of the ideology of Sheikh Taha Jabir al-Alwani:
"Gibbon would have been surprised to learn the lesson that military defeats do not stop the advance of civilizations and the globalization of Islam is unimpeded by the material and military weaknesses of the Muslim world."
The term "globalization of Islam" is in Arabic "'Alamiyyat al-Islam" as al-Alwani wrote in his book "Maqasid al-Sharia". The idea is that lenient concessions should be made in Islamic law for the sake of Muslim minorities, in order to make the process of the globalization of Islam easier, by spreading Islam further in the West in a non-violent manner.
Shammai Fishman
Hebrew University - Jerusalem
Dear Muqtedar:
I have read your piece reporting on your visit to the great city of Oxford in the United Kingdom.Remember that history is full of ironies and paradoxes. When the British historian Gibbon wrote,he was intoxicated with the wine of human hybris and so could not see beyond his immediate world of dominance. This was the same feeling that the dominant contemporaries or Jesus (Issa) and Moses (Musa)had at their moment of superiority. You are right in suggesting that Gibbon would be surprised. Let us pray that the great historical if of Gibbon (had an arrow from the hand of a Meccan unbeliever struck the Holy Prophet....had the Muslims succeeded in their first move into Europe and into England...) is now turned into a challenge to Muslims in England particular and the West in general.This new historical challenge is telling us to develop ourselves intellectually and morally so that we can create a new sysnthesis of the best of the West and the best of the Muslim World to serve humankind. Keep the faith and good luck.
Sulayman S. Nyang, Ph.D.
Howard University
Dear Muqtedar:
I have read your piece reporting on your visit to the great city of Oxford in the United Kingdom.Remember that history is full of ironies and paradoxes. When the British historian Gibbon wrote,he was intoxicated with the wine of human hubris and so could not see beyond his immediate world of dominance. This was the same feeling that the dominant contemporaries of Jesus (Issa) and Moses (Musa)had at their moment of superiority. You are right in suggesting that Gibbon would be surprised. Let us pray that the great historical "if" of Gibbon (had an arrow from the hand of a Meccan unbeliever struck the Holy Prophet....had the Muslims succeeded in their first move into Europe and into England...) is now turned into a challenge to Muslims in England in particular and the West in general.This new historical challenge is telling us to develop ourselves intellectually and morally so that we can create a new synthesis of the best of the West and the best of the Muslim World to serve humankind. Keep the faith and good luck.
Sulayman S. Nyang, Ph.D.
Howard University
3:06 PM
I read with interest your comments on your recent visit to Oxford and your positive impressions thereof regarding Islam and the tolerance shown to it in my, presently secular, country.
I lived in a village close to Oxford for many years before there was any mosque in the city.
I then lived for 15 years in an Islamic country. I was not permitted to worship (there was no place of worship, the last one on the Yemen border had been destroyed many years before) or to congregate with my fellows in that country under pain of arrest.
And there is no clash of civilisations? I have never heard of the Dar-ul-Aman.
The 'tolerance' you refer to is presently entirely one-sided. Please do not seek to convince us Non-Muslims otherwise. But we have our limits; if there is no movement in our direction very soon, there will be serious Christian reaction following the persecution of our people under the Islamic yoke. This reaction is already slowly beginning within our UK society.
Fii' amaan Ullah
I read with interest your comments on your recent visit to Oxford and your positive impressions thereof regarding Islam and the tolerance shown to it in my, presently secular, country.
I lived in a village close to Oxford for many years before there was any mosque in the city.
I then lived for 15 years in an Islamic country. I was not permitted to worship (there was no place of worship, the last one on the Yemen border had been destroyed many years before) or to congregate with my fellows in that country under pain of arrest.
And there is no clash of civilisations? I have never heard of the Dar-ul-Aman.
The 'tolerance' you refer to is presently entirely one-sided. Please do not seek to convince us Non-Muslims otherwise. But we have our limits; if there is no movement in our direction very soon, there will be serious Christian reaction following the persecution of our people under the Islamic yoke. This reaction is already slowly beginning within our UK society.
Fii' amaan Ullah
Salaam, I hope you are well.
I have spent much time in the city of Oxford, and while living in another city for the past few years, I was disheartened to see the general state of Muslims. They are exactly how you describe them: in a type of poverty and alienation. Due to my experiences in Oxford, I thought Muslims were capable of more than what they are achieving in other major UK cities, especially in regards to integration. However, these experiences bared little weight when confronted against Muslim communities who would rather opt for segregational acts in fear of losing their iman. (Might I say, integration does not have conflict with religious obligations, thus such fears are unfounded if one is educated enough about their deen.)
You say, "Muslims in Oxford look happy, reasonably prosperous, and are well integrated, unlike the majority of Muslims in Britain who are poor, less educated, underemployed, socially marginalized, culturally segregated and politically alienated," which reassures me that I'm not the only one to see this, Alhamdulillah. (I have been put under the impression by many around me that I am quite simply wrong by maintaining this stance.)
Thank you.
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