About The Banner Image Our banner image this month is the interior of an Adobe Mosque built by an American Muslim family and their surrounding community. Read More. Main Menu Home Essays News About Us Links Projects Human Rights Project Muslim Spaces Women's Health Project Community Works Muslim Spaces Michael Knight Ginan Rauf Willow Omer Mozaffar Baraka Bashment 3RD Resurrection The Dissident's Lair Ali Eteraz Muslim Hedonist Hager Youssef The Team Home Essays Ginan Rauf's "Homecoming" Ginan Rauf's "Homecoming" Written by Ginan Rauf    Wednesday, 09 November 2005 Article Index Ginan Rauf's "Homecoming" Page 2 Page 3 Page 2 of 3 In fact, one takes great delight in the story of Yusuf but fears the psychic habits of submission demanded by the great master. Iblis’s refusal to prostrate himself before Adam seems perfectly sensible to me given the master’s initial command; perhaps secular humanists need to rehabilitate this demonized figure and do a contrapuntal reading of him as a reasonable man of conscience who dared question the ultimate authority, who detected a troubling inconsistency in the exercise of power. Perhaps he can be our Caliban.   Yet one must remain attentive to how the energy has been and can be sucked out of us as secular humanists. Life is short and hadith collections long and the species is in a state of crisis. Much of one’s life can be spent rebelling against authority figures like Adam and his self-appointed representatives on earth. There is a very real danger of getting stuck in a defensive stance and continually reacting negatively to religious bigotry. So one turns elsewhere to a more positive space and attends a conference that looks toward a new Enlightenment. I turn my head and find that it is a joy to converse with a white man, a very white man from Ohio who laments his estrangement as much as I do mine. ‘’ There isn’t an atheist within a one hundred mile radius where I live’’.  He speaks proudly of his awakening at the tender age of eight and cites his precocious awakening as a sign of exceptional intelligence. As strangers we recognize a story of familiars. He is a character who breaks the monotonous stereotypes associated with white males from the Midwest and he starts a salafi contest to see who amongst us awakened from the era of jahaliya first. And there are others--male and female--from Georgia and New York and New Jersey and Texas and China and Russia and India and Pakistan and Egypt and Israel and England and France and Columbia and Greece and Serbia and Bosnia and we are momentarily one in our commitment to secular humanism.   There is laughter accompanied by the recognition that the Enlightenment is a living tradition with universal aspirations but a troubled past. There are books to be bought, libraries to be built, institutions to be established, great works to be studied and connections to be forged. One searches frantically for Susan Jacoby’s book ‘’ Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism’’ but alas they have sold out and there is one more book to read and less time to fret about the exemplary lives of the Prophet’s Wives as recorded in the traditional sources. << Prev - Next >> Last Updated ( Friday, 11 November 2005 )   < Prev Polls Top 10 Reasons Women cannot have Authority in Islam 10: Because then women would be in charge of everything! 9: Because next thing you know women scholars would prohibit wife-beating! 8: Because the gulab jamun wouldn't be waiting for the men when they got home! 7: Because women don't want to actually become scholars, they just want an MRS degree! 6: Because if a woman imam cannot lead the prayer when she has her period, then everyone would know she has her period! 5: Because women don't have the intellect to disentagle convoluted rulings tied up just so by the good 'ol boys! 4: Because the sound of a woman's voice reciting Qur'an drives men mad with desire! 3: Because a woman bending over while leading the prayer drives men mad with desire! 2: Because men might have to have the prayer and khutba piped in to them from another room like women do now. 1: Because men would have to earn access to authority instead of simply passing the penis-check at the door of the madrasa.    Food Bank ProgressiveIslam.Org would like to suggest that you consider giving Ramadan charity to Second Harvest, the national food-bank for the poor, or to your local food-bank.  Second Harvest has a local food bank finder on their front page if you need help or want to contribute locally.  We are building a  Community Portal Resource Page in the Women's Health Project.  Please tell us about services in your community. Syndicate

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