More AIDS and Islam

Muslim Wake Up has a followup to the AIDS conference and the Dr. Wadud controversy, pointing out the dreadful condition of women in Pakistan. Of course there are many other muslim countries the author could have named too. Times are rough all over.

At one point, the author says this:

“When she gets married, and if her husband is promiscuous, it’s easy for us North Americans to legalistically claim that a woman can leave him if he isn’t pious. All is still well in our jurisprudence. ”

Since I left this comment:

“If a woman suspects her husband of adultery, isn’t divorce or separation more the issue than refusal of intercourse?”

in the Dr. Wadud article, I assume she is talking to me.

Although I think she is being sarcastic, I’m going to repeat the statement “All is still well in our jurisprudence”. That’s the crux of my objection and I think it’s still valid. Stringing these two arguments (MWU’s and Wadud’s) together in the context of fighting AIDS, which is what this was all supposed to be about in the first place, Dr. Wadud was saying that the religious injunction to avoid adultery was meaningless, or worse, harmful or deceptive, because evil men will still fornicate and bring disease home to their wives. Divorce, though allowed in Islam, is not an option because it’s rough for a single mother in Pakistani society. Therefore wives must have the religious right to refuse intercourse. Now tell me, we should expect the man who defies the religious law by fornicating is going to respect the (new) religious law by not forcing intercourse on his wife? I don’t see how that could be. And this will stop AIDS because the wife will actually be refusing intercourse for the rest of her life? I don’t understand. The only thing gained by such a course of action is the undermining of the sanctity of the Quran and Hadith. Arguably, that was the whole point of the exercise.

I hope I don’t sound callous. AIDS is a big problem and so is the status of women in Pakistan and in many other countries. That’s why I support the Muslim Women’s Coalition and the Sisters in Islam pro-monogamy campaign, and any other group that wants to advocate for the rights of women in society within the context of Islam. But Dr. Wadud and anybody else is barking up the wrong tree if they want to “problematize” the Quran and Hadith, as Esack oh-so-gently put it, in pursuit of a solution to these things. And they shouldn’t be surprised if muslims in turn are hostile to it.

As an aside, Dr. Haddad deals with this issue in his review of the work of Riffat Hassan. [Update: Dr. Haddad’s review of Dr. Wadud’s Aisha’s Legacy]

Catching Up

There’s been some great posts among the websites I regularly read as well as some noteworthy stuff elsewhere as well. Here’s a quick round-up for you:

Thebit discusses in his very learned way an essay about the genre of Islamic apologetics that produce evidences from the Quran for modern scientific discoveries. The logic behind the genre goes that since the Quran was revealed before knowledge of these things, this is proof of the Divine nature of the Quran. It’s flawed for a lot of reasons, but a friend of mine summed it up best when he said, paraphrased, that if a muslim scientist studied the Quran and produced from it a new scientific discovery, that would be noteworthy. But interpreting the Quran to reflect the knowledge of a scientific discovery that has been made by non-muslims using modern science is quite unexceptional. The Holy Quran is far above needing this sort of defense.

Al-Muhajabah, the Niqabi Paralegal has the complete low-down on the Sultana Freeman driver’s license case, including relevant case law for you law nerds. Although she herself veils, A-M explains why Freeman’s case is not so supportable from an Islamic point of view. I also didn’t think her complaint was justified in Islam, regardless of what she might be entitled to in US law. In any case, she joins a long line of muslims of questionable character that have wound up in court. It certainly strains one’s powers of sympathy.

Borneo Chela is a brand new blog from an American studying the deep and wide field of treeshrews in Sabah. As a fellow countryman on the island, Jason gets a big shout and a spot on the blogroll. (His taste in website design is stunning too ;))

And speaking of Sabah, Lionel from Kota Kinabalu backs me up by dissing Pop Shuvit. According to him, the Malaysian rap group to watch for is the Teh Tarik Crew. I’m sceptical but I’ll keep my ears open.

Last but not least, Anak Alam has a cache of excellent articles on Shafii fiqh and related issues from the erudite Sidi Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti. I particularly liked the one on Jahl al-Murakkab, Compound Ignorance. I didn’t know that (simple ignorance)! Anak Alam is off to Tunisia, so you all should check back in a little while for his travelogue.

Kuching in History

I picked up a great little book, a 50-year-old report done by two peninsular Malays as an undergraduate honors project. The reprinting, produced by UNIMAS, is titled “Life in the Malay Kampongs of Kuching, Fifty Years Ago”. It’s a real gem. The students were geographers, and so payed special attention to the landscape of the Malay north bank. They did dabble in some social observation as well:

Children and a few adults were noted, however, who although calling themselves ‘Malay’ were clearly wholly or partly Chinese physically. The adoption by Malay families of Chinese children, particularly girls, is a common practice, even among Malays with children of their own. The adopted child receives no invidious treatment, is accepted without qualification, and is invariably Muslim. Exactly why such adoption is so common it is difficult to decide satisfactorily on the basis of our short period of work in these kampongs. The only widely expressed and openly accepted reason is the desire of those possessing no children at all to own them or of those families in which the children are all boys to possess a girl. This certainly fits in well with the practice of disposing of the girls rather than the boys by Chinese who feel that their economic position does not warrant the keeping of an extra girl. There is also the fear by Malay families in which all the children are boys, that when the sons follow the practice among the Malays of living with their in-laws after marriage, the parents will be deprived of their sons who are income earners and capable of looking after them when they are old or sick. A daughter means a potential son-in-law in one’s house.

However, Chinese baby girls are taken by some Malay families even though they already possess several children, including girls. The reasons for this kind of adoption are certainly partly explicable in term of differences between Chinese and Malay economic philosophies. Some reasons, never expressed however by the Malay himself, may be unpopular if openly admitted although generally and tacitly held. The light colouring and more delicate features of the Chinese girls are, we think, factors of some importance in many cases, making the child probably more marriageable in a community with more females than males, and thereby incidentally attracting a son-in-law into the house. In one house in a downstream Kampong a large number of people were found to be visiting the household to see a small baby Chinese girl who had just been purchased for $50 by the Malays. The villagers certainly appeared to be most interested in whether the colouring and general features of the child made it a good bargain.

My in-laws from west Malaysia have adopted Chinese girls in our family tree as well, so this was not limited just to Kuching, though it seems to have been more common here. Has this resulted in closer relations between the Chinese donor families and the adopting families? I’d be curious to know. In our own family, the Chinese relatives still show up for weddings and other major gatherings. At the same time, I’ve been told our late grandmother was rather resentful for having been given away as an infant. Anyway, perhaps due to the general rise in prosperity, I don’t think this practice is happening more today.

Puteri Santubong

Mount Santubong is the subject of a local legend that was put to song. Brother Affendi kindly chased down the lyrics. I’ve supplied a translation for your reading pleasure.

Puteri Santubong, Puteri Sejinjang,
Penjaga gunung negeri Sarawak,
Manis sik ada dapat dilawan,
Anak dak dewa turun kayangan.

Princess Santubong, Princess Sejinjang,
Spirits of the mountain in the land of Sarawak,
So sweet, you could find no comparison
Children like goddesses descended from heaven.

Ooo..Puteri Santubong,
Menenun kain…siang,
Ooo…Puteri Sejinjang,
Menumbuk padi…malam.

Ooo..Princess Santubong,
Weaving clothes…by day,
Ooo..Princess Sejinjang,
Threshing rice…by night.

Satu harinya duak kelayi,
Beranok-anok sik renti-renti,
Sorang madah diri bagus agik,
Sorang sik ngalah sampei ke mati,

One day, the two fight,
Mad quarrel without ceasing,
One says she is the fairest
One won’t back down even unto death

Yalah kisah duak ‘rang puteri,
Suka kelayi setiap hari,
Lalu disumpah raja kayangan,
Menjadi gunung negeri Sarawak.

Here, the story of two princesses
Who liked to fight every day
Till a curse from the lord of the fairies came to pass
And they became the mountain in the land of Sarawak

Accommodations

I just got back from a lovely holiday at the Santubong Family Resort. It was my first real excursion out of Kuching since I got here. We took the chance to go, since Monday and Tuesday were State holidays in honor of Gawai Day.

Gawai Day is the biggest holiday of the year for the native tribes. Nobody I asked seemed to know exactly what was involved in the holiday though, aside from people returning to their villages to be with their families. The holiday calendar here has a great deal of variety in it from state to state, depending on which ethnic groups are more numerous. Sabah and Sarawak have Good Friday off due to all the Christians, Sarawak has Gawai Day, Perak and Penang have Thaipussam for all the Tamils. Each state with a monarchy also has a holiday for the birthday of the King. It all evens out in the end, it seems. At my last job in the states, employees had an official “floating holiday” that they could use to observe whatever holiday of theirs wasn’t honored by the calendar. That was pretty good, though I could use at least one more of those. I’ve been told that Sri Lanka wins for having the most national holidays a year. Sri Lanka observes all the high Hindu Holidays, both Eids and Mawlid Nabi, and all the Buddhist holidays, including every full moon! That’s a gauranteed holiday once a month. Now who’s going to complain about that?

Santubong was great. From our balcony we could see Mt. Santubong and the South China Sea. A ten-minute walk led to a gorgeous sandy beach. The sea was as warm as bath water, and gentle. The sun is too fierce to go in the middle of the day, but morning and late afternoon is great. The kids loved it, especially after I assured my five-year old that there were no crocodiles. All the crocodiles are over in the Sarawak River, but that’s a topic for another post. As a muslim, it’s the little things that made the trip so pleasant. Nobody complains if you jump in the pool with shirt and pants on (issue discussed here). Every hotel room has the direction of prayer marked in a corner of the ceiling. Forgot your prayer rug? No problem, housekeeping has complimentary ones for you. The complimentary breakfast buffet? Halal corned beef. Man, I haven’t had corned beef in ages! Of course, the hotel is a little pricey to make a regular thing out of it. But it turns out, Kuching is only about a half an hour drive from the sea, easily close enough for a day trip. Now I just have to find a public beach.

Overeating

Tracking down new and exciting foods and eating them has been my principle preoccupation since arriving in Malaysia almost six months ago. But I’ve also been happy to find old comfort food from my childhood that was tough to get back in the States. I lived in India for four years as a kid, and my favorite food while I was there was Dosa. Dosa is a thin, soft crepe-like food made from a sour rice flour batter. You can eat them stuffed with spicy potatos or plain dipped in dahl or sambar. It’s a lot like the sour flatbread that is common in Ethiopian and Somali cuisine. In Michigan there are many Indian restaurants, but they serve almost exclusively North Indian food. To my knowledge there is only one South Indian restaurant in the Metro Detroit area where you can get a dosa. That is Udipi’s, on Orchard Lake Road just south of 13 Mile. O Muslims! The restaurant is completely vegetarian, so have no fear.

In any case, when I first visited Malaysia, I asked around for dosa. Since there are many Tamils in Malaysia, I was sure it was available. But you see, dosa in Bahasa Malaysia means sin, so I didn’t get very far asking for it… Maybe for this reason as much as for any other, dosa is transliterated in Malaysia as thosai or tosai. Since I got that straightened out, I’ve been happy as can be. Many Indian restaurants here in Kuching sell them. You can get a tosai twice the size of your plate with sambar and dahl for one ringgit!

Islam in Canada

AltMuslim has a front page story on the rise of Islam in Canada. As has already happened in Germany, France and England, Islam is now the second largest religion in Canada, surpassing the Jewish population by a few hundred thousand. This probably has already happened in the US too, but, as the AltMuslim article alludes to, CAIR used some creative accounting in the study they widely publicized, leaving the question in some doubt. But it is safe to say that by the next census it will be confirmed.