01-28-05

In the last month, I've done a little bit of reading on the religion of Islam, just to see what the faith is all about. Even in the span of the three weeks that I have read about Islam, I have had my eyes opened to a completly different world.
I began by browsing the internet for FAQs and the like, and read a few of them. My wife, seeing that I was reading about Islam, sternly warned me that she had no interest in my becoming a muslim, because the faith was oppressive to women.

I dropped into a local mosque, a place called the Islamic Education Center of Orange County. When I entered, it was empty. I knocked on the door of an office at the end of a hallway, but no one answered. The main room of the building was covered in small carpets. The walls were covered in tapestries and bookshelves. There was a rack for womens and mens shoes, and a literature rack on the wall where the local "Iman" was selling copies of his three books, "Discovering Islam", "Inquiries on Shi'a Islam", and "Women in Islam." Skipping the women's topical book for starters, I picked out one copy each of the other two and left a bill in the literature rack.

I have read the two books, and learned some of the most fundamental things about Islam. Most obvious was the attitudes of my peers. I normally read on my lunch break, and have digested a good number of books in this manner. Co-workers who pass by my cubicle know they can look around my desk and see what I'm reading. Over the years, there have been some provocative titles, but none has raised so many eyebrows as "Discovering Islam".

Most people that I meet are heavily inder the influence of the media image of Islam that they have been raised with. In a recent UN conference, the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called it "Islamophobia". I believe that it is very real, having seen it loud and clear in just a few weeks of only READING about Islam. The few times that I've braved actually TALKING about Islam, Islamophobia becomes all too clear.

Speaking to an aquantiance at a meeting of friends, I mentioned my studies. "I have actually been reading a bit on Islam." I said. His response was immidiate. "Terrorist." he said.

So many people know so little about this faith. I readily admit that up until three weeks ago, I would have had little defense against the assertion that all muslims are terrorists. One of my co-workers, seeing what I was reading queried my findings. "So", he asked "Have you found out what it's all about?"

"Not really." I told him. "But, I have to say. Islam seems to be a perfect sucess story of propiganda. Just about everyone here are very afraid of Muslims."

He nodded, fearfully. I was tempted to yell "Jihad!" and run after him, but decided against it.

Later in the week, I spoke to my brother on the phone. "You don't wan't to be a muslim." he said. "They have too many rules." Here, I had to agree with him. I have never been a great follower of rules.

Of course, one of the main resons that I took up a study of Islam, and began reading some of the Islamic rhetoric was to discover the root cause of the philosophical division between the Islamic communities and what they call "the west". In everything I've seen and read, "the west" is singled out and pointed to as a differnt culture with a different ideology. Where, I wondered, was the split? If Judeaism, Christianity, and Islam are all monotheistic dogmatic structures, how could the ideologies of their communities be so vastly different as to lead to an ongoing conflict of culure?

So far, the answer that I have found seems to rest on materialism. I found several articles by Islamic clerics tracing the causes and the conditions of "materialism in the west". Of course, at their cores, most religious dogmas condemn materialism. Christianaty is no exception. Christ's teaching on wealth asserted that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."

In the west, however, we have accepted and embraced materialism in spite of the religious background of our society. Accumulation of personal wealth is, under most religious schools of thought, detrimental to spiritual progress. In our culture, however, wealth is of the highest value, and the ambition for wealth has somehow been reassigned as a positive moral value.

I have been raised in a society with a set of views concerning wealth and poverty which, I have to admit, contradict the ideals of my religious upbringing. Poverty is viewed as a sign of sloth and sinfulness. The poor, or homless, are considered to be drug addicts or drunks (sinners), or to be unwilling to accept the responsibility required to participate in society, have a job, pay rent and the like (sloth).

Is this to say that materialism does not exist in Islamic cultures? The rhetoric from www.islamic-world.com would lead one to believe so. "Western secular materialism gives us a society of crime, violence, drug abuse, alcoholism, prostitution, pornography, homosexuality, exploitation of people and resources, and reduces life to a meaningless exercise in futility. Western secular materialism creates in the minds of our children atheistic thought, disrespect for parents and elders, hopelessness, disregard for knowledge, and love of a debased animalistic lifestyle focused on only the crudest pleasures of the flesh"

These types of statments are not uncommon to Islamic writing. There is much discussion of materialism and the west. The faith appears to have very distinct views on materialsm.

"Is that to say that Muslims don't seek money?" I was asked. Of course, I couldn't answer. I am no expert on Islam. I'm just learning.

What did strike me as authentic is the muslim practice of mandatory charity. This came as a shock to me, and to those to whom I hve mentioned it. Everyone seems to know that muslims face Mecca and pray five times a day. Most westerners also seem to be aware that a muslim should make a pilgramage (Hadj) to Mecca once in his or her lifetime. However, an equally important regular practice of Muslims is almost entirely unknown in the west. The practice of the Islamic faith reqires giving a percentage of one's income to the poor.

Of course, as with any piece of scripture, interpritations vary. I have read some artices that place the mandatory charity at 2% of the gross, and others that say 20% of profit after resonable expenses for food, clothing, and shelter are deducted. One book I read said that the charity should be divided between social institutions (libraries, hospitals) and direct charity to the poor.