Posted on: Saturday, February 14, 2004

Islam class points to differences in beliefs

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

Niki Landgraf, a tour guide at Shangri-La, talks all day about the Islamic art at the late Doris Duke's mansion, but she yearned to learn more about Islam.

Enter Saleem Ahmed's class, "Understanding Islam," where she learned that the beliefs of Muslims follow a continuum as wide as her faith's.

"There are very different opinions on religion, not too different from what you'd find in the Christian religion," said Landgraf, who was brought up Presbyterian.

There is much variety in Muslim belief. And just as Christians disagree about the infallibility of the Bible and same-sex marriage, Muslims also sometimes fail to find a consensus on beliefs. Some of the most sensitive and hotly debated tenets touch on sexual politics as well as heightened visibility: whether women should wear the hijab, or head scarf.

At the first class session, Ahmed, a former East-West Center soils expert, outlined his beliefs, many from his book, "Beyond Veil and Holy War: Islamic Teaching and Muslim Practices with Biblical Comparisons." Listening in was a visiting Muslim, M. Ali Khan, who stood up after the presentation and told the class that not every Muslim would be as liberal in his or her beliefs as Ahmed. Khan suggested bringing in someone with a stricter interpretation of the Quran.

Enter Hakim Ouansafi, president of the Muslim Association of Hawaii.

Ahmed and Ouansafi have attended the mosque here in Manoa, and both have celebrated Islamic holidays at the same park. But they've also clashed in the press, and members of the mosque had threatened to picket Ahmed's class. Yet after this week's meeting, Ahmed said the classroom discussion with a few dozen students and some onlookers was "invigorating, but cordial."

"We agreed to disagree," Ahmed said.

In an ongoing disagreement, Ouansafi says Ahmed misquotes a translation in the Quran about the wearing of the hijab.

Ahmed contends the Quran specifies that a woman should wear an "outer garment," and be modestly dressed.

Ouansafi responds that Ahmed fails to quote a footnote that specifies the kind of outer garment. The wearing of a hijab, Ouansafi says, is required by Islamic law.

Ahmed's interpretation of the Quran has it that women "must be modestly dressed and have outer garment, so you're not molested."

"It's a safeguard against women to be molested," Ahmed said in a later interview. "In a society like the U.S. or France, where there are more people without the hijab, they have more of a chance of being molested by wearing one than the other way around. It's not a religious requirement at all."

Other points of contention: what's the appropriate punishment for adultery; and whether hadith (words of the prophet, Muhammad, as told to people after the Quran was written) should be followed as closely as their sacred text, the Quran.

"We have lots in common about spiritual aspects of Islam, but totally disagree on the rituals," Ahmed said. "To me, rituals are not at all important."

And that's OK with Landgraf, who said the women in the class were more inclined to follow Ahmed's hijab interpretation.

"I got sense of them being reasonable people," she said. "I lean more towards Saleem's rather liberal view of the religion. ... I guess I'm more of a liberal Christian myself, so I like the liberal bent."