Dezhen’s Creative Morality blog has some interesting thoughts on the situation of Muslims in Australia and what is to be done about it.
One of the key issues that I believe to be the case right now, though, is that of knowledge. Specifically our relationship to our religious tradition. My last blog post was a rather long time ago - unfortunately “real” life has intruded on my “online” life - but I feel that it has been culminating in this post.
So the issue of knowledge is a serious issue. As plenty of scholars are saying today (noteably the likes of Tariq Ramadan and Sh. Hamza), we need to be able to delve in to our Islamic heritage in order to retain our Muslim identity while becoming Western. This is the key issue.
His dream is the establishment of, “an institute, or seminary, devoted to Islamic studies and research in Australia.” There are already a number of different institutions servicing pockets of the community and on different levels. The universities, for example, offer courses in Islamic studies and there are groups such as al-Kauthar running intensive weekend courses in topics such as usool al-fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence) and fiqh ul-buyuu’ (the jurisprudence of business transactions and trade). However, there is nothing, as far as I know, that is involved in both research and education at a serious level and established with the betterment of the Muslim community in mind.
The real question, it seems, isn’t whether such a thing is desirable (of course, it is) but whether such a thing is even possible given the ideological and ethnic divisions that plague most Muslim communities in the West? Furthermore, and perhaps as importantly, any such undertaking should be community-funded and not funded by the government. In order for it to have credibility in the Muslim community, such that it can influence it, it would need to be independent and seen as something that is owned by the community rather than removed from it (as is the case with the universities).
Anyway, Dezhen has requested people’s thoughts on the matter so go forth and discuss.
9 comments ↓
Wow you guys are quick off the mark!
These are all issues that need to be well thought out and discussed, and this is exactly what I was hoping to kick-start by my initial posting.
I am interested in what both you and your readers think, as well as everyone else who happens to come across the intial posting.
ma’a salama
I think we have several rungs lower to fall, before we lose our pomposity and fidelity to mediocrity and magical thinking.
So I think that we will establish these centres of learning, but they are at least a decade away. In the meantime we will continue to “eat shoes” and endure cat-fights between various religious personalities.
In the meantime, if one is a self styled spokesman for the Muslim community, stick to “Islam is a religion of peace”.
Unfortunately I am afraid you are correct, it is rather disheartening sometimes! But if that is what it takes to make us and our religious community mature, than so be it.
I like the idea that has been batted about of university accreditation, or a similar type of thing - a professional qualification either in research or related fields. Various groups seem to have discussed the idea, but none really seem to have actually worked towards it.
The Muslim community is an untapped resource, I think. I am sure that if they could be convinced that something like this would be in their benefit, then everyone would be willing to support in some way. I do not see why other types of funding are necessarily “bad”? Surely they just have to be of the correct type and for the correct reasons, not some underhanded nonsense. Having autonomy would be a prequisite for this type of endeavour, would it not?
I am assuming you guys have seen the Zaytuna Seminary project… if so, what do you think of it? Do you think it is too early to begin thinking about something like this here? How will the various sectarian/cultural issues play out in regards to trying to establish something like this? I know the answer is in a word “badly”, but I am interested in everyone elses thoughts on this…
I think it’s possible but the key is to focus and start small. If you try and be everything to everyone, it will collapse. Therefore, you either need to specialise and represent one particular doctrine or you ignore doctrine and concentrate on fiqh. Personally, I think that what is needed most in Australia is more fiqh education. You can leave the education about aqeedah to specialist institutions or organisations. The fact is most of our problems come from a lack of fiqh, whether it is problems understanding how to interact with the broader society or whether it is problems in understanding how to conduct one’s affairs.
The issues I see with offering this sort of deep Islamic education in Australia are:
1. You need Arabic to study this in any depth;
2. You would either need to offer qualification in one madhab or offer it in comparative fiqh. If you offer it in comparative fiqh, then the natural consequence is that you end up far less able than if you specialised in one madhab and mastered that;
3. There isn’t enough demand. My feeling is that the demand for indepth Islamic education in this country is minimal. Most people prefer to listen to motivational speeches or one off lectures and I suspect they would lack the time and commitment for this sort of study;
4. You need authorities in the subjects not just students of knowledge if the course is to have real credibility. That sort of knowledge really isn’t available in Australia and so you would need to import it.
This is if you want a really high level of education. However, most people don’t need that to conduct their affairs and so I think you could offer comprehensive but perhaps less detailed courses in fiqh and qawaid al-fiqiyyah. i.e. covering the main issues that people need to live in the West such as fiqh ul-buyuu’ (fiqh of transactions), etc.
Alternatively, given there are already institutions offering this sort of thing to some degree, one could focus on the research. There is a huge need both in Australia and abroad for a half-decent Islamic think tank. Such an organisation would, as you mention in your piece, look at the needs of Muslims and try to formulate strategies or responses. It would also look to generate more scholarly responses to contemporary challenges and, where needed, marshall the efforts of overseas scholars. I think this would stand a better chance of success because you can avoid the usual politricks and sectarian warfare that normally accompanies any Islamic project that spans communities.
Anyway, there are people far more qualified than me to comment on these issues that read this blog so insha’Allah I’ll invite them to respond too with their thoughts.
I think that inshallh this will happen, either by us or by those who are better than us and without our many faults.
The concepts such as zaytuna and others have merit and enormous potential. There are some unique aspects to an “Islamic” education experience that are lacking in some contemporary models.
1. Spiritual and personal mentoring. This does not happen at the Azhar, nor at medina (as far as I am aware)
2. Scholarship based on merit. Everyone is delighted when a bodybuilder or rapper or street kid decides to study Islam, but lets not kid ourselves, they are not going to be those that revive Islamic scholarship. “dhats wicked maaaaaan”
3. The “third son syndrome”. It goes like this, first son goes to medicine, second goes to law and third son who maybe an idiot, is sent of to be an “Alim”. which allows him a modicum of social respectability even if he is an imbecile.
4. Daughters are not mentioned, they can be traded for a goat or a chicken burger. the lack of of contemporary female scholarship is a scandal and we should be ashamed to even stick our heads up and speak about it. There were 15 to 20% of all scholars in the classical Islamic world, but are now only in Syria. The contemporary Umma’s fidelity to women’s academic rights is shameful
5. Islamic scholarship must not be restricted to a theological seminary, which is not what we need at all. It should a university that offers PPE, maths, arts, history medicine (but perhaps not those infernal “……-studies” courses.
6. we need to send our best children to study, concurrently with more “secular’ education. Not just the B team. It shouldn’t be a choice of azhaar or medina or centerlink
7. here is the one that will set your beard aflame. ..they should study non muslim texts!!!!, at an Islamic school, shock (he must be a modernist, I’ll bet his wife leads him salat, etc….)
Why does it need to be a university? Surely by the time children reach uni it is too late. This sort of teaching should be incorporated at the primary or secondary school level. We already have Muslim schools out there.
These are great responses folks, I am glad I stayed up late and checked this thread before bed.
See, the issue that I see in my mind is that we (the community) need various things happening at once. As RPG said, it does not need to be a University - but education to that standard would be something incredible to achieve in our community! We need a way to teach our kids about Islam from a young age, all the way through to adults. I am not sure how to tackle this issue of children, but personally am becoming more convinced of the idea of “parallel study” that Tariq Ramadan mentioned at a lecture I attended once: we cannot compete with state funded schools, so instead need to provide services that make up for the elements these schools lack, in order to teach our kids. At the same time, they are involved in wider-society, as Muslims. What are your guys thoughts on this?
You hit the nail on the head completely though: most people are not concerned with learning anything but the bare bones of their religion - simply what is needed in order to function day to day. It is sometimes one of the most frustrating things for me, as a convert, who is never not trying to learn more about Islam, but this is the reality, and always has been the reality.
This is important to bear in mind, because this makes up the majority of the community.
But we do still need to go deeper, and to have the facilities in place to go deeper.
The first issue, as Amir said, relates to Arabic. But of course, if it was an attempt to be truly representational, then other languages would need to be included too (such as Urdu, Turkish…) I am currently (i’A) about to undertake an undergrad degree in Arabic and Islamic studies at a Uni here, so I am interested to see what it is like. The Arabic (MSA) seems very impressive thus far, though I am not sure how much focus there is on classical Arabic for the Islamic studies side.
I also think that it would be good to specialise in one madhhab, but we would then need to have those who can teach all, so the students can specialise. I think this is where the diversity of Muslims here can really shine, especially in the realms of fiqh. That will rely on cooperation though, which is thorny. Especially if others such as the Shi’a are going to be represented too. I don’t have anything against any of those groups, but know plenty who do!
The demand issue is important, especially as that would also most likely be correlated to funding and support.
See, I once had the crazy idea of qualified scholars/academics being able to sit with both Muslims and non-Muslim students of Islamic studies and go through related texts. Kind of like having extra-curricular classes, or guest lectures or something. If any of you guys have read any theses from the likes of Scott Lucas, Sherman Jackson and so on, then it is clear that this has been done before. I know that most Islamic studies courses are very general and broad - especially at undergrad level - but something like that could be an amazing source of actual understanding of Muslim thought, if it came down to it. It is probably too “out there” though and I am just rambling.
The authority aspect is also important. I don’t know how much would need to be imported though - some of the Ulema that I have met since I came here from the UK have included some very top notch people. The problem is the language barrier, it is a key issue. We have many faculty graduates, many having Masters of Ph.D. level qualifications from diverse religious studies faculties. Most of them seem to keep silent or are unknown to the community. I know of some Shuyukh, for example, who own kebab shops or work in garages in order to make a living, yet they are faculty graduates who wrote theses and did research. I even know a Qari who works in a factory warehouse in order to support his family, yet he is well known in his community for his Qur’an recitation. I feel that these people should be valued and used to their maximum ability. It is a tragedy that we are so quick to say “we are Muslim”, yet neglect those who invested their time hard work to learn our din…
I think an organic connection needs to be established with the wider Muslim world though - perhaps especially with the likes of Malaysia and Indonesia (and their respective Universities). This would be especially important in the realm of getting source texts, as well as modern work.
This comment is getting far too long already, but I just wanted to say:
Amir: the think-tank/research idea is essential. But I think that having some type of coordination on the various community projects and such is important too. Avoiding intra-community politics is a must, and I am sure there are enough like minded people from among the various established communities here to begin something like this. They just have to be found!
Baybers: Scholarship based on merit - exactly! There needs to be something for everyone though, with the facilities for deeper study and research. Your last 3 points are exactly on the money. I don’t know about you, but having read my fair share of non-Muslim Islamic studies material, I have learned to value their critique and attention to detail. There are many great works in this field that can teach us a great deal about Muslim history and texts. But I am assuming you are meaning in a wider field as well?
These are great thoughts guys… and I hope others read and comment as well. I am interested in trying to distill all of these in to something more tangible, and in doing more research on the types of issues raised, if I can.
I think that I should make my point again , and hopefully more clearly. I am not against people from all backgrounds studying Islam, nor do I think that only middle class intellectuals deserve to study.
But I do believe that in Australia, there should be a wider pool of applicants for Islamic study, and that for the top tier of scholarship we must also attract the best in our community.
As Dhezen pointed out, this already occurs in the UK and USA.
Ones identity should not be based on academic excellence, nor should it be devoid of it.
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