June was not a good month for Muslims. To be fair, May wasn't particularly great, either. In fact, come to think of it, things have been pretty bad since September 11, 2001. There are myriad issues, most of them far too serious to make light of but one of the primary problems concerns image and communication. Essentially, Islam at the moment has a very troubled image and Muslim governments, entities, and people are not doing a particularly good job of communicating well with others. This issue of image and communication is both an internal and external one. Take last month in Egypt. First there was the notorious 'breast-feeding fatwa.' Dr. Ezzat Atiya declared that to avoid all that pesky male-female tension at the office, females should just suckle their male colleagues since Islam forbids sexual relations between a man and a woman who has breast-fed him. In point of fact, Islam forbids sexual relations between a man and any woman he isn't married to, but Dr. Ezzat apparently chose to take a more creative way out. Normally, this kind of fatwa would have any writer squirming with delight at the prospect of all the fun you could have with double entendres but my parents are likely to read this column. Besides, I believe every other paper in the country has already done so. Al-Azhar said the fatwa was farcical and Atiya had just enough time to produce an apology before being hauled off to a disciplinary investigation. The sheer ludicrousness of this fatwa would have been enough to have people rolling in the aisles if Atiya had been some ignorant crank. Problem is, he's the head of the Hadith Department at Al-Azhar. His authority, however, pales beside that of Ali Gomaa, the Mufti of Egypt and arguable one of the most prominent figures in Sunni Islam. He was recently up to his nose in hot water over his claim in a book published several years ago that the companions of the Prophet (PBUH) considered drinking his urine a blessing. We have enough problems with the outside world thinking that Islam and Muslims are an odd bunch without doing this to ourselves. The papers were full of sly columns and hilarious cartoons because that's how Egyptians tend to handle their problems; they laugh at them. However, it isn't really funny. Religion (at least in the Arab or Muslim world) can only take the gentlest form of humor. Behind the cartoons, the flurry of jokes making the rounds in telephone text messages and the gales of laughter sweeping through the country's café's, Egyptians are shaken and upset. Regardless of whether we're Copts or Muslims, Egyptians are a naturally devout people; my father once joked that a thief breaking into a house would ask for God's help while climbing in through the window. Devout people do not like it when their security in their religion is shaken by something even the most ignorant of us can recognize as nonsense. A New York Times article of June 12 described the breast-feeding fatwa and the Mufti's claim as a "source of national embarrassment in Egypt. It's an accurate assessment. Egyptian Muslims are as keenly aware of the negative image of their religion abroad as any of their fellow adherents in other countries. But Egypt is the home of Al-Azhar, the focal seat of Sunni Islam for well over a 1000 years and people have always looked here for common sense and jurisprudence. The idiocy of a fatwa on breast-feeding adult colleagues is difficult to defend and the national rage and embarrassment are only heightened by a sense of impotence at our apparent inability to explain that it is an individual gaffe and not a religious aberration. Perhaps what has shaken Egyptians most is the gradual erosion of Al-Azhar as a religious compass. To be fair, Atiya was suspended by Al-Azhar and he faces a disciplinary committee but many feel that in light of the delayed reaction, it was too little too late. One unfortunate fatwa after another and the lack of a firm stand by Al-Azhar has shaken popular belief in the institution. The Mufti in particular has taken a beating. Newspaper editorials have attacked him personally, insisting that he apologize over the urine claim and he has developed a reputation for vacillating on issues. Despite a surprisingly compassionate and brave fatwa on the validity of hymenoplasty (reconstructive hymen surgery) so that women may move forward with their lives, he does not appear to show the kind of strength of purpose that his position warrants, particularly in times like these. The resulting tremors have pushed people into the arms of 'sheikhs' who issue astonishingly bizarre and often aggressive fatwas that often have little religious basis. A Cairo lawyer recently filed a complaint against a Mohamed Hassan, who allegedly described - on satellite television - the Bible as 'a work of fiction that contained pornographic language.' The Mufti's office dismissed this idiocy; the Mufti's media spokesman, Ibrahim Nagm, told this paper that Hassan was 'one of those satellite TV sheikhs' and had nothing to do with Al-Azhar who disavowed any responsibility for his comments. Dismissing the man as a nutcase is not enough. In fact, it's the kind of limp response that has people complaining of Al-Azhar's inefficacy. The Quran is very specific on both the Bible and Torah and one is not a Muslim if one denies them. The statement from Al-Azhar should not have been in response to a question, it should have been a strongly worded, heavily circulated press statement. This country is facing a very real threat of sectarian violence and offensive nonsense of the sort that Hassan is spouting which must be handled immediately. Our Parliament recently condemned the knighting of Salman Rushdie (whose book, The Satanic Verses included material offensive to Muslims) calling it an even more unwise decision that the publication of the cartoons depicting the Prophet. It is ridiculous that in a country with a burgeoning population, rising poverty rate, simmering sectarian violence and a host of other problems, our Parliament is wasting time discussing whether or not another country has the right to honor one of its own citizens. By contrast, people are dying because the bill on transplants from cadavers has been delayed, yet again, till November, since our legislators are running off for their summer holidays. Our dying citizens, apparently, aren't as worthy of discussion as someone else's business. However, while we can waste time in our Parliamentary sessions discussing alleged insults to Islam, Christians in Egypt are supposed to swallow comments about the Bible being a pornographic work of fiction. This is another major communication issue - Muslim authorities complain of feeling victimized and slandered but they cannot understand these feelings in others. It begs the question of who is supposed to ensure that Islam gets the representation it deserves. The government, apparently, feels that it is enough to crack down on religious movements but not enough to promote real religious tolerance. Al-Azhar seems to believe that limp reaction is enough when it has to be aggressively proactive. Where are the media and public relations efforts to explain and properly represent Islam both here and abroad? We complain constantly about our image abroad and how this is all a plan by the Israeli lobby in the US to defame us. Actually, the Israeli lobby is mostly concerned with Israel looking good - anyone else looking bad (such as ourselves) is a desirable by-product. And we should stop complaining and pay attention as to how they do it. Israel may be powerfully connected but it is not particularly popular in many places around the world. For a nation that has had a string of ex-members of terrorist factions as cabinet members and prime ministers, it enjoys a currently exalted position that is the result of decades of hard work in networking and public relations. And as for religious persecution, the Jews, for example, have a head-start on the Muslims. The last several thousand years have been fairly tough on them and if they enjoy a certain publicity leverage now, it's because they've worked at it. Frankly, we should be emulating instead of blaming. There is no shortage of money or leverage in the Muslim world, only an apparent shortage of responsibility. In short, the Muslim world has largely whined but not acted. And the results are painfully obvious. We have become the global whipping boy. On a June 18th appearance on the David Letterman show, comedian Robin Williams launched into a riff on Catholic priests being pedophiles that many Catholics, understandably, found offensive. (Williams is commonly thought to be Jewish, although his actual religious beliefs are unclear.) A response was offered by Catholic League President Bill Donohue. He claimed that it was permissible to insult Catholics but why 'could we not insult other minorities?' He then launched into a tirade against Muslims. Not Jewish people (which he apparently believes Williams to be) or Africans or Asian Americans or any other minority. He lashed out at Muslims, because he can. Because Muslims are, to quote a great Egyptian proverb, the 'low wall' over which anyone can jump. That wall will remain low until it's fortified. And as any bricklayer will tell you, walls don't get built by whining that they're low and that the weather is hot and there really ought to be a fence there instead. Walls are raised by sheer hard work and the sooner you start, the more secure you will feel.
