Muslim Voices

After two years and 60 podcasts, Muslim Voices is winding down mdash; this is the last new podcast that will be produced as part of the series. So, to mark the seriesrsquo; end, we take a look back with a few familiar voices. Manaf Bashir was the first host of Muslim Voices; Rosemary Pennington the second. To mark the end of new production Pennington and Bashir interviewed each other about their experiences with Muslim Voices. All About Information Bashir, a Muslim from Kuwait, says he thinks creating dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims is incredibly important, especially after 9/11 when ldquo;Islam became a terrorist religionrdquo; in the eyes of many. ldquo;The project is to show that Islam is like any religion,rdquo; Bashir says. ldquo;There are misperceptions, there are misinformations, there are practices that are not acceptable and yet people practice them. It [Muslim Voices] is all about information rather than misinformation that people get from the mainstream media.rdquo; No Single Islam Pennington, an American non-Muslim, says she hopes people listening to the podcasts will realize therersquo;s no single Islam. That Islam, and Muslim practice, is not monolithic. ldquo;There are two-billion Muslims in the world,rdquo; she says. ldquo;Therersquo;s no spokesperson for Islam.rdquo; Understanding that, she says, is the only way a person can begin to make sense of the media coverage of Islam. And while they realize Muslim Voices canrsquo;t profile every way of thinking or living or believing, both Bashir and Pennington hope it begins to help people see just how multi-faceted Islam and Muslim practice is. Archived Podcast Episodes All of the Muslim Voices podcasts are archived at muslimvoices.org/podcasts. But just because podcast production has ended doesnrsquo;t mean there wonrsquo;t be new information at the website. The Muslim Voices will still be updated each week and the Facebook and Twitter pages will be going strong.

Sitting on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is the Freer Gallery. It's the first Smithsonian Institute museum to focus on art and home to a number of paintings by James Whistler, including his famous ldquo;Peacock Roomrdquo; mdash; a turquoise and gold dining room designed by Whistler for a London couple. The Freer also houses one of the most renowned collections of art from the Islamic world anywhere. ldquo;It is considered one of the best in the world,rdquo; says Massumeh Farhad, Chief Curator of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery as well as the Freerrsquo;s Curator of the Arts of the Islamic World. ldquo;People come from all over the world to see some of the works in the Freer.rdquo; Art Of The Islamic World Among those works are ceramics decorated with calligraphy, pages of centuries old Qurrsquo;ans and huge apricot-colored glassware covered in delicate enamel work. ldquo;Enameling is an extremely difficult technique,rdquo; she says. ldquo;What you do is you first make your vessel and then to add the decoration -- the enameling -- you have to re-heat the vessel. So you have to be very careful because one degree here or there and the whole thing would turn into a glob of glass.rdquo; Whatrsquo;s striking about the Freerrsquo;s collection, in addition to the large size of several of its pieces, is the lack of overtly religious pieces. Farhad is careful to state the art exhibited in the collection is from the ldquo;Islamic Worldrdquo; and represents particular cultures, not the religion of Islam itself. Itrsquo;s one of the reasons the collection is called ldquo;Arts of the Islamic Worldrdquo; and not simply Islamic art -ndash; itrsquo;s a subtle distinction, but an important one Farhad says. ldquo;We donrsquo;t want this to be confused, letrsquo;s say, with Hindu art or Buddhist art because this is not religious art,rdquo; she says. ldquo;There are works that certainly relate to Islam but many of the other pieces donrsquo;t.rdquo; Not only are they not religious pieces, but they are pieces from a particular stratum of society. Almost all the pieces in the Freerrsquo;s collection belonged to members of the elite upper classes in Muslim societies. Eastern Influence Thatrsquo;s not to say the pieces werenrsquo;t used. In fact, more than a few show signs of the wear and tear of daily use, but they certainly werenrsquo;t objects most people would have had in their homes. One of the most striking examples of that is a huge brass and silver canteen found at the back of the collection. Itrsquo;s exhibited with a Chinese ceramic canteen that was clearly inspired by it or one like it. The silver-inlayed canteen sitting in the Freer is the only one known to exist. Itrsquo;s among Farhadrsquo;s favorite pieces. ldquo;Itrsquo;s the one object that when I first came here as a curator I went into storage to see it, actually, not under glass,rdquo; she says. Even through glass itrsquo;s impressive. It's slightly smaller than a small bass drum, and every inch of the canteen is covered in a design of some sort. There are calligraphy and birds -- things common to art from the Islamic world. Cultural Depictions Featured right in the middle of one side is an image of Mary and the Baby Jesus. ldquo;In the very center therersquo;s an image of the Virgin and Christ,rdquo; she says. ldquo;And then you have other scenes -- there is the birth, therersquo;s the entry into Jerusalem and therersquo;s the baptism.rdquo; On the other side of the canteen are images of jousting and Catholic priests. Farhad says they know the canteen was probably made in the Iraqi city of Mosul in the 13th Century, but they donrsquo;t know who it was made for or why. About 800,000 visitors go through the gallery each year and Farhad says the Freer is working to get most of its collection up on its website so more people can see it. There are a few works already there. You can view th...

When it comes to communicating to a broad audience, the internet is a powerful platform. Thatrsquo;s why some publications are choosing to snub the printing press and put their content exclusively on the web. But online publications donrsquo;t only benefit from reaching more people ndash;- by using social media like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, they also get to hear back from their readers. A Global Muslim Culture Elan Magazine calls itself the guide to global Muslim culture. Last year, Elan discontinued the print version of its publication in favor of strengthening their online community. Farrah Hamid and is the editorial director at Elan Magazine: The Guide to Global Muslim Culture. She explains how social media benefits Muslims around the world and how it makes Elan Magazine a truly global publication. An Open Dialogue The site itself is set up in a blog format. Hamid says while Elan's articles are more opinionated than they are "newsy", they try to maintain neutral tone. "It is a place where people can foster discussion. You can definitely express your opinion via comments, but we would never condemn anything," she says. But touching on issues that foster conversation comes with its critics. Touching On Taboos "We do cover some topics that are considered taboo like homosexuality and drinking," Hamid says, "but these are things that happen in Muslim cultures as well and we want to talk about it without getting preachy." Addressing these issues in an open forum allows Muslims ndash;- and even non-Muslims -ndash; to probe for more information. Many of the comments on Elanrsquo;s story pages reveal gratitude and encouragement for so-called ldquo;moderate, mainstream Muslimsrdquo; voices to be heard in the media. Tools Of The Trade Hamid says Elan often sees more engagement with their readers on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter than they do on their website. They have become valuable journalistic tools for the magazine. "Irsquo;m very active on Twitter," she says. "I think itrsquo;s a great way to not only engage with readers of Elan, but also to get story ideas and develop ideas we already have." Aside from helping editors to gather information on potential stories, social media provides Elanrsquo;s readers with perspectives from around the globe. "Itrsquo;s definitely easier for people of different regions to connect on Facebook and on Twitter," she says. "We have a blogger in Kuwait, we have a blogger on the West Coast." Giving A Voice Hamid says itrsquo;s this online form that makes a difference for people in parts of the world where communication and press are more heavily restricted. "In certain countries, itrsquo;s not very easy to speak in a public format on certain topics for what threats that might be out there. But being online, you can still be there and you can express yourself. She says Elan recently covered an online project out of Harvard and M.I.T that allows people in in Gaza to let their voices be heard. Celebrating Culture But what happens online doesnrsquo;t have to be an expression of politics or justice or a message of any kind. It can just be a nice place for Muslims to hang out. "We do see a lot of websites out there that are focused on dispelling this whole terrorism and the negative connotations that Islam and Muslims have had to experience in the media," Hamid says. "Those are great and those are very much needed, and we want to play a part in that as well. But our website is focused more on just celebrating our culture," she says, "because at the end of the day, Muslims all over the world in their various communities have cultural interests that have nothing to do with politics and may not have anything to do with religion either."

Arsalan Iftikhar likes to call himself a ldquo;freelance hustler.rdquo; A human rights lawyer by training, over the years hersquo;s become a fixture on CNN, NPR and other media outlets. Iftikhar is working, he says, to reframe the discussion about Islam. ldquo;I think itrsquo;s very important for Muslims, both here in America and worldwide, to tell our own narrative,rdquo; Iftikhar says. ldquo;For far too long after 9/11 we had a bunch of old white guys telling Muslims how we should act or how we should feel.rdquo; Iftikhar says too often Islam and Muslims are portrayed as violent, radical or extremist. He says hersquo;s working to counter those stereotypes and as well as other misconceptions people may hold of the faith and its practitioners. Islamic Pacifism Manifesto On September 11, 2008 he launched TheMuslimGuy.com, a website that features many of his columns and media appearances. Should you visit the site the first thing yoursquo;ll find is what he considers his ldquo;Islamic pacifism manifesto.rdquo; ldquo;I want everybody who visits the website to know exactly where I stand,rdquo; he says. ldquo;I am a proud Muslim pacifist. And, again, to shatter these generalizations about Islam and extremism being interwovenly innate within one another -- again trying to show the diversity of Muslim and Islamic thought and how you can advocate for non-violence and still be a proud, practicing Muslim.rdquo; Iftikhar says another reason he wrote his manifesto is so Muslims who may feel the same way realize they arenrsquo;t alone. ldquo;Itrsquo;s not only for myself and for the world know where I stand,rdquo; he says, ldquo;Itrsquo;s also for other Muslims worldwide to feel the confidence and courage -- to let them know that there are thought leaders out there who trying to not only dispel the stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam but that are also putting forth a new socio-political paradigms.rdquo; 'My Mona Lisa' Iftikhar hopes to reach an even wider audience with the publication of his first book next winter. ldquo;Itrsquo;s a continuation of all the work that Irsquo;ve done and sort of my Mona Lisa if you will.rdquo; He says the book should come out in January of 2011, ldquo;God willing.rdquo;

In 2004, The Center for Islamic Pluralism was started in Washington, D.C. Described on its website as ldquo;a think tank that challenges the dominance of American Muslim life by militant Islamist groupsrdquo;. The center considers itself the voice of moderate Islam. ldquo;For us, 'moderate Islam' means Islam as a religion that is like other religions,rdquo; says Executive Director Stephen Suleyman Schwartz. ldquo;Of course, as Muslims we believe our religion is the best, but that does not mean, for a moderate Muslim, that one has contempt for other religions -- or one has feelings of aggression or gets involved in violent activities toward other religions.rdquo; Questionable Funds Schwartz claims organizations like the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America and the Council on American-Islamic Relations are receiving funds directly from violent jihadi groups in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt and that his organization is attempting to counter their influence. ldquo;Wersquo;re trying to educate the Muslim public, and the non-Muslim public, on the nature of radical Islam,rdquo; Schwartz says. ldquo;We believe that, in the history of Islam, you can see a range between radical views and moderate views. And we represent moderate Islam, we represent an Islam that is not jihadist, that does not believe that jihad is a legitimate form of affirmation or struggle today.rdquo; Schwartz says the centerrsquo;s work is not only focused on the United States. He says there is a network of scholars and other individuals attempting to spread the organizations message in about 28 different countries. Immigration And Integration In addition to working to counter what it considers ldquo;radicalrdquo; Islam, the Center for Islamic Pluralism also tries to encourage Muslim immigrants to abide by the laws of the country of immigration. ldquo;That is traditional Islamic guidance,rdquo; he says. There are critics of the centerrsquo;s mission who say it simply labels those who donrsquo;t agree with it as radicals. Prominent Muslim scholar Louay Safi, who has held several different roles at the Islamic Society of North American, wrote in 2005 that Schwartzrsquo;s organization was creating an idea of moderate Islam that fit into the world view of Americarsquo;s religious right. And the center does link to a number of reports coming from conservative or neoconservative think tanks and media outlets. Radical Groups Are Not Islamic Schwartz says the center only labels groups extremist or radical if they donrsquo;t fall in line with traditional Islamic doctrine. ldquo;The whole problem that is facing the world now, that most people are baffled by, is the internal crisis in Islam,rdquo; he says. ldquo;Itrsquo;s a crisis based on the challenge of deciding whether Islam is going to continue to go, as it did historically, in a moderate direction or if it is going to go in one of basically several radical directions toward what we could call a reactionary utopia. "That is an Islam that looks to the past and tries to recreate the past in the present, rather than practicing an Islam that is relevant to the present.rdquo; You can read up on the Center for Islamic Pluraism, as well as some of the reports itrsquo;s issued, at its website www.islamicpluralism.org.

Comedy Centralrsquo;s South Park sparked a bit of a controversy recently with a couple of episodes that teased viewers with a possible visualization of the Prophet Muhammad. That visualization never materialized, but it did cause a fringe group in New York to threaten the showrsquo;s creators with violence. ldquo;I think itrsquo;s interesting the ways this so-called lsquo;grouprsquo; was able to get all the attention that it did,rsquo;rdquo; says Peter Gottschalk, associate professor of religion at Wesleyan University. ldquo;Looking at the news reporting of this event, itrsquo;s particularly striking that none of the news organizations that Irsquo;ve looked at have made any effort to see what exactly this group is and how big it is and how important it is.rdquo; Gottschalk says the media, instead, chose to focus its efforts on the ldquo;threatrdquo; posed by the group; the reporting perpetuating ideas of Muslims, and Islam itself, being inherently violent ndash; all based on a single posting on a website by a random group the police determined not to be a threat at all. ldquo;So that, for me, is one of the most astonishing phenomenon,rdquo; he says. ldquo;That for all we know one person with a website is able to get this much attention and reaffirm all of the negative stereotypes about intolerant and violent Muslims.rdquo; Stereotypes Perpetuated By The Media Negative stereotypes of Muslims have a long history in American media Gottschalk points out. In fact, he co-authored, with Gabriel Greenberg, a book that examined some of them. In Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy, Gottschalk and Greenberg focused on the history of the representation of Muslims and Islam in political cartoons. ldquo;The book is basically an effort to help Americans realize the ways in which therersquo;s an unjustified fear and antagonism toward Islam and Muslims thatrsquo;s just become normal for American culture,rdquo; he says. ldquo;Those fears are deeply rooted. They didnrsquo;t start with 9/11. They didnrsquo;t start with the Iranian Revolution. They actually reach back about 200 years.rdquo; The Function Of Political Cartoons Gottschalk says he and Greenberg embarked on the project after observing the fear and distrust of Muslims that seemed so rampant in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. He says political cartoons gave them insight into how Americans have been seeing and understanding Muslims collectively. ldquo;So we saw that Muslim men tended to always be typified as being very angry, as wielding swords, as being misogynists. And generally looking the same with an Arab facial stereotype,rdquo; Gottschalk says. ldquo;Muslim women tended to be seen as being very passive, as being victims, as being oppressed by those Muslim men.rdquo; He says itrsquo;s all too easy for people to buy into those staid stereotypes whenever something happens that seems to reinforce them. Thatrsquo;s what happened with South Park, Gottschalk says. The network censored the showrsquo;s final speech after the ldquo;threatrdquo; of violence was made. But itrsquo;s not just makers of mass media who may be overly concerned. Gottschalk points out itrsquo;s also affected academia. Yale University Press recently pulled reprints of the images that sparked the Danish cartoon controversy from a book about the controversy because the press was concerned about what would happen if the cartoons were published. This after the book had been vetted by other academics and by Muslims groups. ldquo;It seems to be real overkill,rdquo; Gottschalk says.

There has been a lot of research and reporting on Muslim populations living in the United States and Europe. That work often centers around issues of identity and integration. And these issues are often portrayed as being unique to the ldquo;West.rdquo; What that scholarship and reporting, has often overlooked is that there are Muslim populations in other non-majority Muslim regions. That includes Latin America. A Social Science Research Council funded project at Florida International Universityrsquo;s Latin American Caribbean Center is working to educate English speaking scholars and reporters about the Muslim populations in the region. Beyond The Middle East ldquo;I think Latin America has been one of the forgotten regions because of the Spanish and the Portuguese,rdquo; says Project Director Maria Logrono. She says most scholars who study Islam learn Arabic or Persian or focus on a traditional region in which to study the religion. ldquo;Most scholars approach the Middle East in area studies, not thinking about the larger geographic borders of it.rdquo; Logrono says English-speaking media often ignore the Muslim populations in Central and South America until something bad happens. ldquo;I guess we can say journalists have approached Islam in Latin America,rdquo; Logrono says, ldquo;But I think they have approached it only when therersquo;s conflict and tension.rdquo; Logrono says there is certainly tension in some parts of Latin America, especially where Islam chafes against Catholicism, but thatrsquo;s not true of every country in the region or every Muslim group, either. ldquo;The Muslim populations that you have in Latin America are, and this is especially the case of South America, mainly migrants and converts,rdquo; Logrono says. ldquo;When it comes to integration hellip; what we have noticed is that Muslim migrants have integrated very well.rdquo; Creolization Of Islam In fact, therersquo;s some debate whether a kind of ldquo;Creolerdquo; Islam has begun to develop in places like Brazil and Cuba. ldquo;Scholars working on Islam in Cuba will tell you, lsquo;Yes, there is actually an attempt at Creolization of Islam, or creating a Cuban Islam,rsquo; in which something as unthinkable as eating pork may be something that Muslims in Cuba are considering.rdquo; Logrono and her project staff have been working on a short documentary for the last year about Islam in the region. Itrsquo;s limited in scope, focusing on Argentina and Brazil, but Logrono hopes it will give viewers a taste of what life is like for Latin American Muslims. ldquo;We went and filmed communities and their gatherings and their practices and their histories to show the diversity of Muslim communities in Latin America,rdquo; she says. ldquo;Because we couldnrsquo;t accomplish all Latin Americahellip;what we tried to do is take two of the most representative places but obviously trying to open questions for debate and, hopefully, for future research.rdquo; You can find more find more information about Logronorsquo;s work as well as view photos and the documentary at the project's website.

The Soviet Union was an amalgamation of different states spread across Europe and Asia. In an attempt to create a cohesive nation out of the various cultures, religions and peoples included in the U.S.S.R the Communist government worked to erase or mitigate historical and cultural heritages. In Muslim countries ndash; like those of Central Asia ndash; this involved discouraging people from practicing Islam. Those who did want to practice their faith were pushed into a state-sanctioned version of the religion. ldquo;Basically they didnrsquo;t allow practice of any part of your religion,rdquo; says Azamat, a 25-year-old Indiana University graduate student from Kazakhstan. ldquo;But we still hold on to what we believed.rdquo; When Communism fell and the various states within the Soviet Union gained independence there was a rush to reclaim lost heritages. In many of the Central Asian Muslim nations a kind of Islamic Renaissance took place as Muslims began to openly explore and take up the practice of Islam. ldquo;We have an emergence that people are starting to learn the religion back and to realize thatrsquo;s a part of their lives,rdquo; Azamat says. ldquo;There are more people practicing, trying to practice, trying to learn. I can see more use coming to Islam.rdquo; Coming to Islam Growing up, Azamat says he remembers older adults encouraging their children and grandchildren to stay connected to Islam. But it was hard to stay connected to something they didnrsquo;t know much about. It also didnrsquo;t help, he says, that Islam, as well as Kazakhstanrsquo;s culture in general, was portrayed by the Soviets as ldquo;backward.rdquo; ldquo;I wasnrsquo;t a practicing Muslim until I was 18 or 20 years old,rdquo; he says. ldquo;As you know we didnrsquo;t even practice our own language. We have to come back to it [Islam] as if from the start. But I love it. I think it gives me so much in my life; it gives me direction.rdquo; Like the majority of Muslims in Kazakhstan, Azamat is a Sunni of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence. (There are four schools of law in Islam; the other three are the Shafirsquo;i, Maliki and the Hanbali.) The Hanafi school is quite common in Central Asia as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Knew He Was Hanafi While Azamat says he knew he was Hanafi, it wasnrsquo;t until coming to the United States that he began to think about what that meant. ldquo;I knew that Irsquo;m a Hanafi but I didnrsquo;t actually know anybody else who is not Hanafi so itrsquo;s by default so you donrsquo;t actually think lsquo;Oh, I am Hanafi and Irsquo;m different,rsquo; no,rdquo; Azamat says. ldquo;Maybe I could see that difference here but really itrsquo;s a minor thing. Itrsquo;s not something I associate myself with. I donrsquo;t say, lsquo;Well, I am Muslim, but I am also a Hanafi,rsquo; Irsquo;m just Muslim.rdquo; Azamat attends mosque near IU while at school; it, being located in a college town, caters to Muslims from all over the world. Azmat says hersquo;s never noticed any major differences between how he practices Islam and how others do. ldquo;Maybe they have small differences, small changes in details, but thatrsquo;s it,rdquo; he says. ldquo;But I never thought about that before coming to U.S.rdquo;

Itrsquo;s difficult to have a discussion about religion and not talk about faith. The trouble is, faith can be colored by society, culture and community as well as by religion. To find out I asked people: ldquo;What is Faith?rdquo;. As yoursquo;ll hear in this audio postcard, faith means different things to different people. What does faith mean to you? Post a comment and let us know!

Indonesia is the worldrsquo;s fourth most populous country. It might surprise some to know itrsquo;s also the most populous Muslim country. But that doesnrsquo;t mean there arenrsquo;t other religions to be found on Indonesiarsquo;s islands. Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and even people practicing animus faiths call Indonesia home. For much of the nationrsquo;s history the religions groups have been able to coexist. Over the last several decades, however, tensions have escalated leading some Muslim youth to buy into radicalized ideas of Islam. The tension coupled with the nationrsquo;s struggle to recover from colonialism has lead to violence in recent years -- most visibly the bombings in 2002 and 2005 in Bali. Psychology Of Young Extremists Djamaludin Ancok is a psychology professor at Indonesiarsquo;s Gadjah Mada University. He actually interviewed several of the young jihadis involved in the 2002 Bali bombing in an effort to understand their motivation. He says itrsquo;s more complicated than you hear in the media. ldquo;There are two motivations,rdquo; Ancok says. ldquo;First is the perception of injustice. The second is the perception of the lsquo;purity of the religionrsquo; hellip; what they want to do is create an Islamic state where every rule and regulation depends on the rule from God.rdquo; Indonesia And Interfaith Dialogue Ancok says the situation in Indonesia is different from that within in other countries because Indonesian Islamic jihadi groups specifically target sites associated with the West. Ancok says he sees that as a direct effect of the countryrsquo;s colonial past. The attacks hurt Indonesiarsquo;s economy ndash;- both tourists and companies looking to expand shied away from the country. Ancok says Indonesians recognized that and therersquo;s an active movement to find a way to bring the various religions and ethnic groups together. ldquo;Now more and more people [in] Indonesia start to think about multiculturalism, a multicultural approach and diversity,rdquo; he says. ldquo;And we even build a school, for example, with interreligious departments. You study many different religions with many different teachers in the same place.rdquo; Exaggerated Rifts Although there is an attempt to bring religions together Ancok says he feels like the conflict between Christians and Muslims has been ldquo;blown uprdquo; by the media. The fault lines sometimes do fall along religions borders, but there are other reasons for conflict within a nation as diverse as Indonesia. Rifts can also occur between different ethnic groups as well as between Muslims themselves. The rift between Muslims often happens because of differing interpretations of the Qurrsquo;an and what Islam is. Islam Is Peace ldquo;Islam is about peace; it is not about violence,rdquo; Ancok says. ldquo;These groups always read one verses and ignore the other verses that say you gotta live peacefully with the rest of the peoples.rdquo; Ancok points out the first constitution drawn up by the Prophet Muhammad in Medina stressed the equality of people of different faiths. That no matter what your faith you are entitled to the same rights as anyone else. ldquo;That is being ignored by some of these extremists,rdquo; Ancok says. He says he hopes the push toward a more multicultural society will lead to fewer Indonesians, especially young Indonesians who buy into radicalized ideas of what Islam is.

In Arabic the word tahrir means liberation; the idea behind WBAIrsquo;s ldquo;Radio Tahrirrdquo; is to liberate Arabic and Muslim voices from mediation and present them as they are. ldquo;It is our voice,rdquo; says executive producer Barbara Aziz. An anthropologist by training, she says Radio Tahrir is radio for Arab and Muslim Americans ndash; as well as by them. ldquo;We have no non-Arabs in production, so itrsquo;s a selection of material that we make from our own community.rdquo; Radio Tahrir is a weekly hour-long magazine program that steers clear from what Aziz calls ldquo;hotrdquo; news, instead featuring pieces that focus on Arab and Muslim thought, art and life. Aziz says all of the people who work on Tahrir are volunteers and the program takes the training of its volunteers, especially its young volunteers, very seriously. A Community Speaks For Itself ldquo;It seems more and more are in journalism,rdquo; Aziz says. ldquo;Journalism is fortunately, finally, attracting Arabs and Muslims, which it did not do 15 to 20 years ago. So Irsquo;m very pleased with that.rdquo; Shersquo;s pleased with that because she thinks people within the Arab and Muslim communities need to learn to create and produce content if they are going to be able to control how the world sees them. Thatrsquo;s another reason Aziz only accepts Arab or Muslim volunteers to work on Tahrir. ldquo;I accept people who are from our own community because we need to run our own shows, we need to learn communication skills hellip; we need to produce,rdquo; she says. ldquo;And as you know I have issues with Muslim Voices because you do not, as I understand, have Muslim producers, which I think is very unfortunate.rdquo; (There are, and have been since the beginning, Muslims involved in various aspects of the production of both the Muslim Voices podcast and its sister Crash Course in Islam.) From Anthropologist To Journalist Aziz dove into journalism after spending years in the field as an anthropologist. She did much of her work on Tibetan culture and had reached a point where she says felt like shersquo;d accomplished what she could. For her, Aziz says, the transition from anthropologist to journalist was, in a way, a natural one. ldquo;I wanted to work with my own people, the Arab people,rdquo; she says. ldquo;So I decided to jump in, to use my training as an anthropologist and my love of my people to, first of all, education myself and, second, to educate others.rdquo; You can listen to Azizrsquo;s work with Radio Tahrir and hear a live stream of the program at its website, radiotahrir.org.

Virtually anywhere you find a Muslim community, yoursquo;ll find a mosque -- or masjid, its name in Arabic. The masjid is where Muslims gather on Fridays ndash;- the holy day ndash;- for the congregational prayer known as Jumursquo;ah, as well as for other prayers throughout the week. But a mosque is more than simply a house of worship. Itrsquo;s often the heart of the Muslim community. ldquo;Itrsquo;s about meeting Muslim peoplehellip;to work together on different events.rdquo; Mosques At Home, Mosques Abroad Kuwaiti Aziz Alquraini is a journalism student at Indiana University-Bloomington. ldquo;The only difference I see is the diversity,rdquo; Alquraini says of the difference between attending mosque back home in Kuwait and in Bloomington. ldquo;Muslims from all over the world, they come to mosque here. But in Kuwait you see just Kuwaiti people therehellip;that is the only difference.rdquo; Alquraini says the mosque in Bloomington has been working to bring the Muslim and non-Muslim communities together to help foster understanding. Recent events include an Indonesian cooking lesson, a panel on the Five Pillars of Islam and, coming up, Muslims will talk about fasting and what Ramadan means to them. Bringing Mosques To The Screen It was that multi-faceted nature of the mosque Alquraini wanted to highlight in a video he recently shot for class. The idea to show people the mosque is more than simply a place Muslims go on Fridays. ldquo;I did this video, I just wanted people to know -- or to inform them about the mosque and what kind of service it has besides the praying time,rdquo; he says. ldquo;They offer classes for children to teach them Arabic, Qurrsquo;an and the prophet stories. Itrsquo;s not just about praying. Itrsquo;s about praying and classes.rdquo; Mosques, You're Welcome! Alquraini says he hopes his video can make the mosque seem less strange to non-Muslims and that theyrsquo;ll realize itrsquo;s a place they can visit too. ldquo;Itrsquo;s a place to meet people,rdquo; he says, ldquo;and introduce them to a religion maybe they donrsquo;t know about. And maybe learn Arabic there. If they want to learn Arabic therersquo;s free classes there.rdquo; If yoursquo;ve never been in a mosque before, you can take an virtual walking tour of the Suleymaniye Mosque in Instanbul, Turkey. It was completed in 1558 during the reign of the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent.

As Sudan began to craft a new idea of itself in the mid-20th Century mdash; one that required gaining independence from Great Britain mdash; one man began to create a new idea of Islam. Mahmoud Mohamed Taha was involved in Sudanrsquo;s fight for independence and imprisoned for that involvement. It was while behind bars he saw Islam as a religion in need of liberalization and reform. Islam, Taha reasoned, needed to become more progressive. It needed to embrace human rights. An Islamic reformation was something he worked toward once released. Taha eventually embracing the womenrsquo;s movement and opposing the imposition of sharia mdash; Islamic law mdash; in Sudan. The religious leader was hanged in 1985 after a judge found Taha and four others guilty of sedition. Taha And Human Rights Taharsquo;s teachings appealed to many Sudanese youth, including Abdullahi An-Narsquo;im. An-Narsquo;im, the Charles Howard Chandler Professor of Law in Emory Universityrsquo;s law school, has followed in his teacherrsquo;s footsteps. His research focuses on human rights cross-culturally as well as within Islam. ldquo;I was torn between being a Muslim with popular understandings of sharia mdash; Islamic law mdash; and the rights of women and religious minority,rdquo; An-Narsquo;im says. ldquo;Taha helped me to come to peace with being a Muslim and human rights activist at the same time.rdquo; An-Narsquo;im says Taharsquo;s vision was groundbreaking because of his reference back to the original message of Islam. In Taharsquo;s thinking, the traditional interpretations of Islam had thrown up barriers to true Muslim understanding of the Qurrsquo;anrsquo;s message. By focusing on the original message of Islam, An-Narsquo;im says, Taha was able to systematically argue for human rights from a perspective within the faith. ldquo;Taha was reforming Islam within an Islamic perspective which allowed for a reinterpretation of sharia with Islamic sources and from an Islamic point of view and was not apologetic or selective.rdquo; The Qur'an In Context One way of moving reform forward is to contextualize some of the information in the Qurrsquo;an. However, some argue that one cannot contextualize the Qurrsquo;an because it is a direct revelation to the Prophet Mohammad from Allah. But An-Narsquo;im says that contextualization is absolutely necessary for Muslims living in the 21st Century. ldquo;If you take what Islam was in the 7th-10th centuries in that sense, there are certain aspects of Islam that are not incompatible with our understanding of human rights,rdquo; An-Narsquo;im says. ldquo;But, of course, the very notion of universal rights mdash; regardless of race or gender mdash; is new idea. If you take this idea of what Islam was understood to be in the beginning of Islam, naturally yoursquo;ll see Muslims at that time could not have even conceived of universal rights. In the issue of rights of women, rights of non-Muslims and freedom of religion and if you look at these three issues you will see that our understanding of sharia is totally incompatible with human rights.rdquo; Reconsidering Islam For An-Narsquo;im the only way Islam can become compatible with human rights is by re-examining the faith. To embrace human rights, he says, Muslims must reconsider their understanding of Islam. ldquo;To say I want to stay with the traditional understanding and I want to support human rights mdash; you cannot have it both waysrdquo;, An-Narsquo;im says. ldquo;You have to be one or the other. You have to be willing to reconsider your understanding of Islam or you have to be content with defending that ancient understanding.rdquo;

For a very long time community building was something that took place in the ldquo;realrdquo; world. You voted, you attended city council meetings and clam bakes. You shaped your sphere of influence into something that mirrored your hopes, dreams, desires and beliefs. Well, for several years now, yoursquo;ve also been able to do that online as well. ldquo;People are forming social groups that are global with people theyrsquo;ve met in this medium,rdquo; says Rita King, CEO of Dancing Ink Productions and co-author of the three part ldquo;Understanding Islam through Virtual Worldsrdquo; study. ldquo;In fact I went to Brooklyn a couple of days ago to meet Alexis Madrigal whorsquo;s a writer for Wired who I first discovered in Twitter and it turns out he was just absolutely fantastic," she says. "And when we met he said he feels like hersquo;s finding his tribe.rdquo; Building Tribes, Exploring Cultures There are myriad ldquo;virtualrdquo; worlds you can immerse yourself into to build your tribe. Therersquo;s World of Warcraft and Everquest -ndash; two fantasy games that allow you to network and build communities with people from all over the place. Then there is Second Life, which can be fantastical at times, but which can also mirror everyday concerns. King and her research partner, Joshua Fouts, have been exploring the experiences of Muslims in Second Life. ldquo;I met a Muslim woman in a virtual Jewish synagogue,rdquo; King says. ldquo;She told me that her entire life shersquo;d been curious about what goes on in a prayer service in a synagogue but felt if she went into a physical world synagogue she would be persecuted or make people uncomfortable.rdquo; King says that intrigued her; this idea that people might be seeking out new cultural experiences in Second Life. A Virtual Hajj Armed with a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Fund King and Fouts spent a year in Second Life. During that time they engaged in chats with people from all over the world about Islam and Muslim life. They even went on a virtual Hajj and visited a mosque built by a Muslim woman. The woman, King says, invited people to visit her mosque to debate points of Islamic law. ldquo;People from 12 countries attended and they had an absolutely civilized and thoughtful conversation that revealed how kaleidoscopic these laws are around the world and what affect that has on women and men and children and people as a whole,rdquo; she says. That was the overriding theme of much of what she and Fouts found -ndash; that the Muslims, and non-Muslims, they encountered in Second Life were interested in having an open and respectful dialogue about Islam. Mark Bell is a Ph.D. student at Indiana University studying computer mediated communication. He says that is typical of the Second Life experience. He says the virtual world is a place where you can investigate, and even participate in, other cultures without getting in trouble for it. ldquo;When you exist in Second Life you can try on different cultures for a very short period of timerdquo; Bell says. ldquo;Be it a culture thatrsquo;s different than your gender, be it a culture thatrsquo;s different than your race, be it a culture thatrsquo;s different than your species and try those cultures out in a artificial way that is completely free of repercussions to you physically or economically.rdquo; The Aid Of Avatars Bell says he thinks the emotional risks of trying on a new way of looking at the world are fewer in Second Life because you have your avatar to shield you. While it is a representation of yourself yoursquo;ve created, it can serve as a firewall between the virtual world and the real world. He also says most people go into Second Life, not looking for trouble, but to actually encounter other cultures. ldquo;I think by going into Second Life yoursquo;re already signifying that yoursquo;re searching for something other than your usual existencerdquo; he s...

Music can be a unifying force that has the ability to transcend the boundaries of nationality, religion and language. It can also bring together a seemingly random assemblage of people mdash; all in celebration of and appreciation for a beautiful arrangement of sounds. Salaam, a band based in Bloomington, Indiana, focuses on music of the Arab world and aims to introduce it to an audience that reaches far beyond the Arabian Peninsula. NPR writes that Salaam ldquo;subtly transposes a genre of music few Americans are even aware of into a sonic realm that feels enchanting and exotic, while still strangely familiar.rdquo; Salaam consists of husband and wife duo Dena El Saffar and Tim Moore, and a rotating cast of musicians. While the music they play hails from the Middle East, that wasnrsquo;t El Saffarrsquo;s original focus when she began studying music. Shersquo;s a classically trained violist. Beethoven In Baghdad El Saffar grew up hearing the music of the Middle East in her home mdash; her father was a Muslim from Iraq mdash; but it would take a trip to the region when she was 17 for her to begin really paying attention to it. She would play the Bach and Beethoven she was learning on her viola for her family in Baghdad. After listening patiently they would put tapes of Middle Eastern music in the stereo and ask her to try to play that. ldquo;The response was really enthusiastic,rdquo; El Saffar says. ldquo;And I just started really paying attention to the music, and it just got under my skin. I loved it so much that ever since then. Irsquo;ve been learning to play ithellip; I would just listen to all the recordings I could get my hands on, and try to play along -- just like I did in Baghdad.rdquo; From Baghdad To Bloomington Moore is a native of the Midwest and originally played drums throughout the region in jazz and blues bands. It wasnrsquo;t until their paths crossed in 1993 that he was introduced to Middle Eastern music. Since then hersquo;s been dedicated to the practice and performance of this art form as well as understanding the place the music comes from. ldquo;The thing about music is there are no real boundaries or bordersrdquo;, Moore says. ldquo;Itrsquo;s all influenced by its neighbors. Even the Iraqi music that wersquo;ve spent so much time studying -- we hear the Persian influence, the Turkish influence, the Kurdish influence, the Gulf influence, and you can almost tell which part of Iraq the music comes from by what influence of the neighbors that yoursquo;re hearing in it.rdquo; El Saffar says Salaamrsquo;s shows usually draw a pretty mixed crowd. Audiences range from Muslims and Jews to Christians mdash; Arabs and Americans mdash; anyone that respects this traditional style. Itrsquo;s one of the things El Saffar says she loves most about playing in the band. ldquo;Music is a great equalizer, and it transcends language. It can bring people together even if they donrsquo;t speak the same language -- and the same with religion,rdquo; El Saffar says. ldquo;There might be Muslims, and Jews, and Christians, and especially if theyrsquo;re all from that part of the world, they all get up and sing along, and clap along. And it just, it brings people together. We get to represent the beautiful part of the culture from the Middle East. And we get to just make people feel good.rdquo;