(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES – Apparently, not only are all Muslims terrorists, but they are also the most closed-minded, regressive, chauvinistic and intolerant people on the face of the earth.
For years, I have marveled at this religion’s achievements in breaking down barriers of race, class and gender, only to find out the so-called “truth” from others in television and radio.
Perhaps, I thought, these people had not read Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon. From his words, Muslims learn only piety and good actions establish superiority, not race. Or, maybe these people were not aware that one of the most revered early Muslims was black.
I wondered, did they know this regard for Bilal, a former slave, signals Islam’s stance against class discrimination? In a religion that advises its followers to give all they can to charity, it is no wonder Islam does not value the wealthy over the poor.
The case is the same for gender discrimination. In fact, the Koran explicitly states that belief and good deeds — not gender — take one to Heaven (4:124). Do television reporters know Islam prohibits forced marriage, does not blame a female (like Eve) for the “fall of man,” and regards Mary as the woman who is most respected? Or do they know Muslim women actually thank God for teaching us to never dress like Britney Spears? Amid a modern epidemic of women who are slaves to their images, Muslims find liberation in modest Islamic clothing.
The Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj just finished, but unfortunately, the word did not spread. Performed at least once in every able Muslim’s lifetime, Hajj consists of several rites symbolizing essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and commemorating the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family. All the while, it represents Islam’s egalitarian outlook on different races, classes, and genders — quite remarkable for a practice dating back fourteen centuries to pre-Islamic times, when female babies were being buried alive in Arabia.
Some people, of course, would have the public envision Hajj as a flood of Arab males performing religious rites. Though Arab males are a significant portion of those participating in Hajj, they comprise only 18 percent of the world Muslim population. Rather, hundreds of thousands of Muslims of both genders perform Hajj each year are from more than 70 countries. Such a diverse group of worshippers led Malcolm X to write in his autobiography, “I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their colors.”
Adornments of wealth are frowned upon at Hajj. Each Muslim wears a white sheet, so a country’s ruler may look the same as a lower class laborer. Even the prayers themselves break down barriers — blacks pray next to whites and the rich pray next to beggars.
Since Islam teaches that men and women are equal under God, Hajj manifests respect for women. Men and women circle the Ka’aba together and go through the same entrances. Even more of a breakthrough is the sa’I, a rite of Hajj, wherein Muslims honor the struggle of a black Ethiopian woman, Abraham’s wife Hajar, in finding water for her baby Ishmael.
The more I realize the ways in which Islam helped so many types of people respect each other, the more I realize the necessity of relying on Muslim sources for my information about Islam.