A mom, son and daughter from Paradise Valley continue to get expanded publicity for their quick-read, 132-page guide, The American Muslim Teenagers Handbook. On Jan. 3, the Christian Science Monitor published a lengthy feature on it.
I met teens Yasmine and Imran Hafiz and their mom, Dilara Hafiz, early last October for an interview and article about the book, which was published on Oct. 13 in the Spiritual Life section of the Tribune. TV stations and other newspapers have interviewed them about the project. The guidebook came about when the teens found their friends giving them a cold shoulder after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, because they were Muslims.
Yasmine, a senior at Phoenix Xavier College Preparatory with plans to enter Yale
University next fall, and Imran, a sophomore of Brophy College Preparatory, collaborated with assistance of their mother, Dilara, who does weekend teaching at an Islamic school in Scottsdale. They produced a richly illustrated book with straight-forward information about basic Islam.
Imran told the Christian Science Monitor, I went to bed on Sept.10th an American, and on Sept. 11th, I became a Muslim in peoples minds. Then only in fourth grade, he recalled how his friends abruptly told him they were not playing soccer with him anymore. When he pressed them for a reason for their hostilities, they told Imran because youre a Taliban. His family soothed him with the explanation that their reaction came from ignorance, not from hate.
For five years, they worked on the book targeted to teens and not intended to be academic or the final source on Islam. I wanted to dispel negative stereotypes and show we are normal Americans like anyone else, Yasmine told the Monitor. Their book was published in August.
Sprinkled with humor, the lively paperback describes the essential beliefs and practices of Islam and includes questions and comments for Muslim teens across the United States, the Monitor explained. Material came from their own research and a survey of students at 44 Islamic schools. From 150 returned responses, the Hafiz trio realized how varied Muslim teens are that not all pray five times a day, nor do young women and girls necessarily wear the traditional hijab, or head scarf.
The article quoted Cynthia Berg, a Jewish mother in Phoenix, who saw the book after meeting Yasmines and Imrans parents at an event. The book shows moderation in the Muslim religion and answers a lot of my questions. It thought it was ingenious. My sister-in-law in San Diego showed it to her rabbi, and they are thinking about using it in their studies.
Even the ministry of education in Malaysia is said to have ordered a copy, and the book was to be translated into other languages, including French, Dutch and Chinese. Other languages could follow.
The handbook is meant to provoke discussion, not be the definitive guide to Islam, Yasmine said in the Monitor. Its something you work out with God. No one on the outside has a right to judge that.
The book is available at Barnes & Noble stores for $11.95 and on the web. For more information on it, see www.theamth.com.
One of the children who coauthored this handbook said: “The handbook is meant to provoke discussion, not be the definitive guide to Islam,. O.K., let’s. First of all, the title of the book is a misnomer. It is not for teenagers, but for kindergardners. The intellectual level is shockingly low. Second, the book is not really about Islam. It is about the behavior and practice of some very assimilated American Moslems who still like to think of themselves as Moslems even though they know practically nothing about Islam and even though their behavior and life-style is much more American than it is Islamic. After all, this oversized booklet was written by a family of educated, successful professionals who live in a 2-million-dollar home in one of the most exclusive suburbs of Phoenix and who send their children to Catholic school! These are not exactly your typical Moslems — except for the phony victimhood they claim to have suffered. The “Islam” they present, presumably for American Moslem teenagers presumes a near total and permanent ignorance of the contents of the Koran and the Hadith (i.e., Islam’s second holy book — a collection of sayings by and about Muhammad) and of Islamic sacred law, the Sharia, which is based on the Koran and the Hadith. The authors of this feather-weight, money-making project advise American Moslem teenagers to read the Koran — even though they, themselves, have shown no sign of having read it. What will they tell these hapless teenagers who actually take them up on their advice and then read such passages as these:
– The unbelievers among the people of the book and the pagans shall burn forever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures. (98.6).
– Surely the vilest of animals in Allahs sight are those who disbelieve. (8.55)
– The unbelievers are your inveterate enemy. (4:101)
– Mohammed is God’s apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another. (48:29).
– It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer, accidents excepted. (4:92)
– Those who speak ill of God and his Apostle shall be cursed by God in this life and in the life to come. (33:57)
– Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. (5:51)
– Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God’s religion shall reign supreme. (8:40)
– Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God’s religion reigns supreme. (2:193)
– The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan. (4:76)
– We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. (3:150)
– I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers. (8:12)
– When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. (9:5)
– Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe in neither God nor the Last Day, … until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued. (9:29)
– Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. (9:73 and 66:9)
– Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. (9:123)
– When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads. (47:4)
– A prophet may not take captives until he has fought and triumphed in the land. (8:67)
– Behold, God has bought of the believers their lives and their possessions, promising them Paradise in return, and so they fight in Gods cause, and slay and are slain. (9:111)
– The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter; except for those who repent before they fall into your power: in that case, know that Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. (5-33-34)
– Believers, retaliation is decreed for you in bloodshed: a free man for a free man, a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. (2:178)
– Let evil be rewarded with evil. (42:41)
Let us not forget that all Moslems are supposed to believe that the entire Koran, including all of the above, is Allah’s literal word — complete, perfect, immutable and valid for all of eternity. What, indeed, will the authors say to a teenager who asks them about such passages from the Koran? What will the authors say if their own children actually read the Koran and then ask their parents about these passages? Of course, the authors are counting on the fact that there is only a very small probablilty that anyone will read the Koran after reading this “handbook”. But, someone might read it. And that is the problem. Not infrequently it happens that more or less assimilated and secular Moslem American teenagers, like other teenagers go through life crises during adolescence. They will then read the Koran and discover what their God really expects them to believe and do. That is when we get big trouble. Last year, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article about the children of secular Christians, Jews and Moslems in America. Often, the children become more religious than their parents. However, only the Moslem parents worried that their children might become radicalized. Why is that?
Lillian
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result and the knowledge of the value of the result …