By Shelina Begum
Asma Hasan – loyal American and Muslim
AMERICAN author Asma Gull Hasan is hoping to rock stereotypes about Islam through her latest book ‘Why I Am A Muslim’.
The self-styled Muslim feminist cowgirl felt Americans were misinformed about the true nature of her faith.
A regular on Fox News, where she gives her own views on being a Muslim woman in America, Asma was approached by publishers Harper Collins to write a book on the religion.
Boston, Massachusetts
This event is not open to the public, but, if you are interested in attending, please e-mail Miss Hasan at asma@asmahasan.com.
San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Back Page
Don’t buy a PC. I’ll help you when you have problems.” My friend Andy was talking me out of my purchase. A devoted Mac user most of my life, I was frustrated that every time I had a problem with my Mac, no one I knew could help me because they were all PC users. Andy’s bravado made me realize that I shouldn’t let others’ shortcomings dictate my choice. Plus, since he was offering his unconditional IT support, I figured I couldn’t lose. So I bought a new Mac to replace my old one.
I had just visited a Constitutional Law class at a school I was considering attending, New York University School of Law. The professor and his teaching assistants discussed an elaborate plan to distribute class materials on disk (the year was 1997, a time before downloading off the Internet became easy).
“Who here will need Mac?” the professor asked. About a quarter of the class raised their hands, almost in unison. Surprised, he chuckled audibly.
“Fight the power!” one young man said, raising a playful, defiant fist. Everyone laughed. In the real world, a similar Mac request would be mocked, even met with indignation or stunned anger. Macs are seen as toys, not serious computers for serious people.
The choice to use a Mac or to be Muslim in today’s world is not easily understood. In a world where the vast majority of computers are PC, where Islam is perceived as the enemy, why would someone choose to be a Mac user or a Muslim? Bias against both is rampant. Those who we rely on to educate us — the media — are themselves neither Muslim nor Mac users. Outright untruths are widely subscribed to. Muslims and Mac users are described as cult members, when, clearly, we are not. Both Islam and Macintosh are legitimate movements, with no spooky stuff in either of them. Obviously, the more than a billion people who follow Islam and the more than twenty-five million who use Macs cannot all be crazy.
At restaurants, when I place my order, I have to provide a blanket disclaimer: “Could you make sure my meal doesn’t have any pork products like bacon, sausage, bacon bits, lard, pepperoni, pancetta, or pork?”
“Oh, OK,” the waiter will say. Is he annoyed, I ask myself? Are they wondering if I am Muslim? Should I say I’m allergic to calm him? I go through the same dilemma when looking at computer products. Should I tell the salesperson I need a Mac-compatible mouse? Will he laugh at me?
Why do we do it? Why belong to a movement that is a source of comedy or scorn for many? Islam and Mac both started revolutions. Mac is a computer designed to be easy to use. Islam is a religion designed to be easy to use. Before Islam, the Arabs of Mecca prayed to one of more than 300 gods, whichever was assigned to their tribe. The gods of weak tribes were weak gods, while the gods of the strong tribes were seen as powerful and effective. Islam arrived with an innovation: we each pray directly to the same, single God, without the assistance of a saint, priest or other minister. The Koran says that God, being all powerful, hears the prayers of each of us equally.
The Mac operating system was created from scratch with the goal of being simple. When you turn a Mac on, the desktop is not an artificial environment created to navigate through DOS but is, in fact, the actual environment. Muslims are encouraged by the Koran to look at the world with curiosity and wonder, not to be afraid of scientific discovery. God’s creations are “signs” to us of his design, which God wants us to explore and theorize about. The Koran liberates us to ask, “Why?” This accessibility to God is a major attraction for many Muslim converts. Being Muslim, and also being a Mac user, is empowering because both put me in control.
As much as I enjoy being a Muslim, I certainly don’t expect everyone I know to become Muslim and start using a Mac. As every Mac user knows, suggesting a Mac product to a PC-using friend may end the friendship. I’d feel more comfortable encouraging a Christian friend to learn more about Islam. At least, out of sensitivity, my friend would not malign my religion. Paradoxically, it’s always open season on Macs. However, I accept that Macs, like Islam, are not for everybody. As much as I can’t imagine being something else, some people cannot imagine being what I am.
One day I did have a problem with my Mac. Two hundred pages of my writing — my first book — could be lost forever. I rapidly e-mailed the one person who had promised to help me. When Andy’s rescue e-mail finally came, my hopes were deflated. “I don’t know anything about that,” he wrote.
“What?” I said to myself. “But he promised!” I furiously wrote back an angry e-mail. I never sent it, though. I realized, regardless of what Andy had said, I now had this problem with my Mac. I could either fix it or not, but, ultimately, it was my computer, not Andy’s.
Faith is like computing. Whatever religion you are, you do it for yourself. I couldn’t count on Andy or anyone else to administer my faith or my computer. Repeated throughout the Koran is that God is the final judge of us all. My faith is a matter between God and me. This direct relationship with God is the revolution and, in a way, the burden of Islam: you and God are in it together. Maybe being Muslim has predisposed me to being a Mac user because I know that, when I write, it is between me and my Mac.
Asma Gull Hasan wrote her new book, “Why I Am A Muslim: An American Odyssey,” on a Mac. It is being published this month by Thorsons/Element, a division of HarperCollins.
Asma Gull Hasan, 29, considers herself an All American Girl. Her hobbies include collecting Barbie dolls, skiing and snowboarding. But she is also a serious-minded Muslim who continues to be in her faith because of the guidance and ecstasy she receives from it.
Two years ago she published “American Muslims: The New Generation.” Now she has a new book “Why I am a Muslim,” published by Thorson Element, a division of Harper Collins in England and America.
She wrote her first book as she was graduating from the New York University School of Law, where she was a staff editor on “The Review of Law and Social Change.” The book came out as she accepted an offer with the world’s largest law firm, Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells, to work in international corporate law.
Senior Editor Arthur J Pais spoke to her recently.
How did you get to be known as the Colorado Muslim Feminist Cowgirl?
When I was submitting a proposal for my first book, I wanted to write a catchy cover letter. I described myself as the Colorado Muslim Feminist Cowgirl. Eight years later people still talk about that description.
I wanted to tell the world that I am a Muslim and I am a feminist. I wanted to show that Islam and women’s right are not non-inclusive.
I grew up in a small city in Colorado. I went to Wellesley College, well known for feminist activities, before I joined New York University.
I ride horses and I am not scared of the outdoors. To me being a cowgirl meant someone who was spirited, independent, bold and at the same time someone who cared deeply about people.
So I called myself a Muslim feminist cowgirl and the term got attached to my name. Some traditional Muslims did not like me calling myself a Muslim feminist.
Why?
They thought Islam had enough provisions for women’s rights. By explicitly declaring myself a Muslim feminist, they thought, I was telling people that the two terms — Muslim and feminist –were not compatible.
How would you describe “Why I am a Muslim”?
It is part memoir, part guide and represents the side of Islam that is left out of daily newspapers and television.
And that would be
A vision of Islam that is ethnically diverse, tolerant of others, and supportive of women’s rights. The book is about my personal journey, of growing up in America, going to the best of schools, studying law, and being modern and Muslim.
Would you tell us about the readers you have in mind for your new book?
It is meant for mainstream readers everywhere, in America, in England, in France or any country. It is for people who want to know more about Islam. I also have Muslim readers in mind.
What kind of Muslims do you have in mind?
Those who know little about the faith they were born into. Also those who ought to know that religion is much more than a list of dos and don’ts.
What is your ideal concept of religion?
Every religion should feed one’s soul and spirit in the first place.
Your book also extols Sufism. What does Sufism mean to you?
Sufism focuses on inner divinity that is in all of us. When Sufis sing and chant, it is electrifying. Sufis believe that one should keep an open heart to welcome the divinity.
How have you experienced Sufism in your life?
Let me give an example. I was thinking of writing a hard-hitting book following 9/11. I wanted to shout how wrong Islam’s detractors were.
Suddenly I heard from a publisher that they wanted a book called “Why I am a Muslim.” They wanted a young female to write it. The book came to me, unlike the first time around when I had to look around hard and found a small publisher.
I decided to write the book in seven chapters. Seven because the number has religious and mythical connotations. Sufism also provides me with easy-to-remember life lessons.
What kind of life lessons?
For example, if one is open to God, we will know that bad things happen so that good things can happen, too. Sufis will tell you to remain calm amidst disappointments and setbacks. As I was worrying about my second book in response to 9/11, I got the offer to write Why I am a Muslim. Instead of a hard-hitting book, now I have a book that is more spiritual. Surely the world needed this book more.
What is the story we hear about you upsetting Catholic nuns?
(Laughs) I only know what I heard from my mother. I was about five or six when I heard a teacher tell the class that Jesus was the son of God and he was God himself. I had been taught otherwise at home, that Jesus was a revered holy man, a prophet. When the teacher stepped out of the class, I told my classmates that she wasn’t telling the truth.
I kind of felt like it was a little secret I had to myself. She heard about what I had said, and I was reported to the stern nun who was the school principal.
My mother was promptly summoned to school and I was asked to go home. I could return the next day but that day I had to be punished. My mother scolded me but she knew I was a mere child.
You have also talked and written about halal dating. What is it?
Young American Muslims have come up with creative solutions to dating –they fall into roughly three categories.
The first group is Strict Muslims who date halal (in an Islamically permissible style). The second group I call Eid Muslims, because many are not strict in practice and attend mosques only on holidays. While technically they date haram (unlawfully in Islam), without chaperones, they keep physical intimacy to a minimum and parental involvement at a maximum. The third group dates Sex and the City-style (definitely haram), openly and freely leading a non-Islamic lifestyle, having premarital sex sometimes in a series of monogamous relationships.
Halal dating is a practice gaining much popularity in the American Muslim community among Strict Muslims and Eid Muslims.
Why is that?
Halal dating is the first cousin of arranged marriage, with young people finding their mates –within the guidelines of Islam — instead of their parents arranging marriages. Because the Koran advocates equality between the sexes, it does not permit premarital sex.
Young Muslims who engage in halal dating seek a commitment first and are vigilant about staying true to their religion.
You have also spoken against certain traditions that have become part of South Asian Muslim communities. Could you tell us more about it?
Take the practice of six happily married women accosting the bride to meet the bridegroom. This is not mentioned in the Koran. Yet so much is made of this tradition even in America. At such ceremonies, when we ask for volunteers every woman wants to be part of the group because no one wants to be seen as unhappily married. No one wants to let others know she is having a rough or loveless marriage.
When did you first think of this arrangement?
When my sister married four years ago. I was in law school, and I wanted everything to be done with due diligence (laughs). I did my own search and I found six women who were genuinely happy in marriage.
Would you have six women leading you to your would-be husband?
I am not sure I will marry in the South Asian community.
Imagine you marry a South Asian. What happens?
If my naani insists, I will go through it. It will be for her sake. But I will find out if the women are truly happy with their spouses.
And will they be Muslim women?
They don’t have to be. Remember that the tradition is not part of Islam, to begin with.
What is the next book?
I am thinking of a couple of books. One could be a book about how religion has often united people and led to much good.
The second one could be a novel based on some experiences of my father and his parents when they migrated from India to Pakistan and then to America. It will have a lot of fascinating and life-affirming stories.
Could you tell us about one or two stories you cherish the most?
My father was about eight when he was living in a refugee camp in Pakistan. Everything was scarce: food, medicine, clothes. Every time supplies reached the camp, one person got the provisions first. My father wondered who he was. Even at age eight, my father told himself that he would want to be like that man. He soon discovered that the lucky man was a doctor.
My father decided he too would become a doctor. He achieved his goal.
Manhattan, NY
This event is not open to the public, but, if you are interested in attending, please e-mail Miss Hasan at asma@asmahasan.com.
Maharaja Restaurant
230 East 44th Street
between 2nd & 3rd Avenues
Reception at 6:30 PM
Talk and Q&A 7 – 8:30 PM
With Mahmood Mamdani, author of “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror”
$5 for SAJA members & students
$7 for non-members
(includes admissions, appetizers and cash bar)
Out of all the cultures in the world… true Islamic values, as embodied in the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad, most closely resemble American values.” So asserts Hasan, who has devoted much of her adult life (she is not yet 30) to combating anti-Muslim prejudice.
As in her first book, American Muslims, she passionately argues against stereotypes and in favor of an Islam that sounds a lot like Reform Judaism or liberal Christianity. This is the Islam she knew growing up in Pueblo, Colo., an American girl who looked Chicana and attended a Catholic school. Hasan’s version of Islam would have appealed to America’s founders with its advocacy of human equality, religious tolerance, property rights and self-improvement. It harmonizes just as well with 21st-century America’s spiritual inclinations: it is nonjudgmental, inclusive, open-minded, diverse, experiential, emotional and even feminist. “The Prophet Muhammad is personally responsible for the greatest advancement of women’s rights in a single time period,” she writes, noting that no Islamic justification exists for abuses such as female genital mutilation or stoning adulteresses; these stem from ancient patriarchal traditions that pre-date Islam. Not all American Muslims welcome Hasan’s interpretation of their faith or appreciate her enthusiasm for America (she recounts several experiences with such antagonists and suggests that they move to an Islamic country). Unfazed, she counters: “I’ll make my own tradition: one that embodies my own American Muslim ethnic culture.” This is do-it-yourself American religion at its most appealing. (Mar.)
Asma Gull Hasan, 29, is the author of “Why I Am a Muslim” (HarperCollins Thorsons/Element 2004) and “American Muslims: The New Generation” (Continuum 2000). She calls herself a “Muslim Feminist Cowgirl,” reflecting her upbringing in Colorado. She has been a columnist for The Denver Post and The Pakistan Link newspapers, and her op-eds have been published in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Beliefnet.com, and The Dallas Morning News among others. She is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel, particularly “Hannity & Colmes,” “From the Heartland” with John Kasich, and “The O’Reilly Factor.” Hasan has also been featured on: Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition on National Public Radio, CNN, CNN International, C-SPAN, and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher on ABC. She has been profiled in USA Today and interviewed in The New York Times. In September 2002, Hasan appeared in the History Channel documentary Inside Islam. Asma also contributes essays to collections including “Taking Back Islam,” “I Like Being an American,” and “It’s a Free Country,” and is an editor of the monthly online publication “The American Muslim” and a regular contributor to alt.muslim. Visit her website at asmahasan.com.
By Rashid Mughal
A born-in-the-USA Pakistani girl, Asma Gull Hasan, talks about her faith and how it’s in tune with American values.
Asma Gull Hasan is a sparkling young ambassador of her faith. Her simplicity is disarming and her sentiments tug at the reader’s heart-strings. Using an odyssey of personal anecdotes, she brings home the essence of Islam and its bond with Christianity and Judaism to Americans, Europeans and others who may or may not be Muslim.
Many Americans, she says, believe stereotypes such as “All Muslims are terrorists.” Others believe Muslims silently approved of 9/11 and are against the War on Terror, that Muslims pray to a different God than Christians and Jews, and that Islam oppresses women.
In distinguishing fact from myth, Asma Hasan, a lawyer and practising Muslim, maintains the core values of American society are strikingly similar to the message of the Koran, which makes her proud to be one of seven million Americans who are part of the billion-strong community of Muslims around the world.
Part memoir, part guide, Why I Am A Muslim, published by HarperCollins Thorsons/Element ($32.95) in Canada, presents Islam as it is seldom seen on the evening news. Asma Hasan refutes the terrorist image of Muslims perpetuated by Osama bin Laden, Al Jazeera and other fear-mongers; instead, she puts a fresh face on Islam in hopes that non-Muslims will see it as a religion of peace and know that Muslims are peace-loving people.
Born to Pakistani immigrants in Chicago, this 29-year-old all-American feminist cowgirl who grew up in Colorado is out to dispel the darkness of ignorance surrounding the Muslim way of life amid hostile press, media and government propaganda about America’s own holy war on terrorism since 9/11.
Asma Hasan is a Muslim, she says, because “I can’t imagine being anything else.” To her, “Islam is a simple religion” and her book dwells on how Islam gives her a direct relationship with God and how the simple message of the Koran leads to the rich Sufi tradition of finding God within oneself. “Sufism is not a specific sect or branch of Islam but actually cuts through all the various schools and sects,” she says.
Since no one is perfect, Islam allows and expects one to make mistakes, and teaches one to struggle toward perfection through a process called jihad, which is “a challenge from God to improve oneself constantly.” What’s more, she goes on, her religion stands for diversity. Muslims believe in God and the revelation given to Abraham and Moses and Jesus… “we make no difference between one and another of them, and we bow to God (in Islam).”
It is interesting how Asma Hasan calls Islam “a woman’s religion” that is against coercive proselytizing and defends women’s rights, including the right to marry or divorce a man, and how cultural practices sometimes do not reflect the true essence of Islam. Not one to deny her Americanness, she believes that being a Muslim makes her a better American and being American makes her a better Muslim. Her simplicity is disarming, to say the least.
Asma Hasan writes in an easy, breezy style. A graduate of New York University’s School of Law with a deep-rooted love of literature, music and the wisdom of Rumi and Hafiz, her stint as a columnist for The Denver Post and Pakistan Link, with op-eds published in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Beliefnet.com, and The Dallas Morning News, among others, has no doubt prepared her to speak her truth softly and succinctly in stark contradistinction to loud-mouthed diatribes such as Irshad Manji’s The Trouble With Islam. The positive tone and exuberant message of Why I Am A Muslim has a winning edge to it. Her pen is mightier than a sword as it cuts through all the theological and political trappings.
You should read it.
Rashid Mughal is a Toronto-based editor and writer.
Halal dating in the U.S.
When I was in middle school, I attended the wedding of a family friend’s son. The event seemed overwhelming, with Pakistani-Americans like my family–dads who were doctors and moms dressed in glittery, gaudy Pakistani dress. The groom was a Pakistani doctor, but his bride was not. She was white and non-Muslim. The fabric of her Pakistani wedding dress was a rich orange color that made her skin seem even whiter and her hair even more red. She complained about how itchy her blouse was. My sister noted later to me that she had it on inside out, so all the embroidery was on the inside, scratching her skin. But problems with her bridal outfit intrigued me less than the fact that she was a white woman marrying a man of Pakistani descent. How did these two meet, I wanted to ask my sister. Did their parents arrange their marriage?
They had probably met at work and dated each other. I couldn’t admit this to my teenage self because I knew that Muslims did not date. We had arranged marriages, just like my mom and dad did.
Except that wasn’t–and isn’t–true of all American Muslims. Our adaptation of Islamic practice continues to evolve, as Muslim youth come up with their own unique approaches to Islam in American life. Dating is one of those issues where many conflicting values intersect. No premarital sex is allowed in Islam. Fine. Therefore, no dating is allowed on the premise that dating inevitably leads to premarital sex. So are we ready to arrange the marriages of all our young people, as is done in some Islamic countries?
Um, well, not really. In Islamic countries, parents have the support of the community in finding spouses for their children. Word of mouth, relatives, and a social schedule and circuit make arranging marriages easier. In the United States, parents are more alone and isolated from these networks.
Further, most Muslims are pushing their daughters to academic and career achievement. For immigrant Muslims, the opportunities for their daughters are hard to resist. For indigenous, mostly African-American, Muslims, the civil rights era gave their children greater access to educational institutions previously closed to them. A trade-off has been made, though–the more educated the daughter, the less comfortable a parent feels arranging her marriage. My parents could have locked me up at home and picked my husband for me. But then how could I have gone to college? In fact, the very same parents who had marriages arranged for them–including African-American converts whose marriages were arranged by their local community, as well as Arab and Asian immigrants from cultures that practice arranged marriages–are now reluctant to do the same for their own children.
So how are young American Muslims supposed to meet and marry each other, especially when Islamic religious or cultural events are often segregated by gender? Young American Muslims have come up with creative solutions to dating–and they fall into roughly three categories. The first group are “Strict Muslims” who date halal (in an Islamically permissible style). The second group I call “Eid Muslims,” because many are not strict in practice and attend mosques only on holidays. While technically they are dating haram (unlawfully in Islam), without chaperones, they’re keeping physical intimacy to a minimum and parental involvement at a maximum. The third group dates “Sex and the City”-style (definitely haram), openly and freely leading a non-Islamic lifestyle, having premarital sex sometimes in a series of monogamous relationships.
This “Sex and the City” group consists mostly of Muslim men who date non-Muslim women. These non-Muslim women sometimes convert to Islam and marry their Muslim boyfriends. But some are unceremoniously dumped when a halal marriage is arranged by the man’s parents. The woman’s family is naturally upset at how she has been treated, resulting in a misconception that Muslim men treat women poorly. Ironically, the “Sex and the City” Muslim man can date freely without risking his standing in the community, while a Muslim woman with the same dating pattern would not only gain a bad reputation but risk losing a good arranged marriage proposal. This double standard and poor treatment of women is not endorsed by Islam but by a general patriarchy that pervades many world cultures, including America.
Upon getting serious with a woman they’re dating, though, some of these “Sex and the City” men suddenly reassert their strict Wahhabi upbringing. They insist that their girlfriends, with whom they once openly had sex, will now have to wear a cover and stay at home, and that their dating relationship was haram. A friend of mine who had such an experience broke off the engagement with the Muslim man but retained her commitment to Islam. She said many of her friends were surprised that she didn’t return to the party-girl lifestyle once her Muslim fianc
