The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

So here we are, on another Thanks Giving. Thanks For Nothing, if you ask our family. This isn’t a post to discuss the permissibility of Thanks Giving or not. But being an American and a Muslim, I want to ponder some of what it is and what it might mean (to me, at least).

I was watching today’s Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman had Jane Goodall as her main guest today talking about many issues I feel that Muslims should be having public opinions on. By public, I mean that we should engage in the public dialog from our perspective. Get active in America - be a part of America and not simply live as this shadow contingent, misunderstood and underrepresented.

One of the first topics that Ms.Goodall brought up was evolution and primates being our closest relatives. If you are unfamiliar with Ms.Goodall, she’s known as the chimpanzee lady (see her Web site here). As Amy Goodman had pointed out, evolution and intelligent design and all the talk revolving around this topic have become hot again in America. And while I don’t know Ms.Goodall I will say that she says she doesn’t see a conflict between gradual evolution and Darwinism. So just as there are many verses in the Qur’an that talk about Man looking at his world, looking around and saying, subhana Allah. Perhaps Darwin was just one man trying to use his God-given mind to puzzle out his existence. I am not saying aye or nay in terms of what I think of her theory, but I do feel it should be noted. And secondly, before any religious people jump into the fray slashing and bashing with their holy texts, I should say, “Try and have a dialog.”

Another point that Ms.Goodall made was that of our footprint that we’re leaving on the planet. The nature of how we produce our goods and foods. How farming is done and how big agriculture has and is damaging the earth. From a first viewing, one could easily write Ms.Goodall off as a hippie, a dreamer and someone who’s completely disconnected with reality. I have to admit, part of me does want to lump her in that category as well but on further listening I do think she has some valid points.

One of those points is how we are damaging our environment. The way in which we grow things today does, without a doubt, damage our environment and threatens our future ability to provide for ourselves. Some questions I would ask are:

• 1. How did things get this way?
• 2. Are they changeable, given the fact that there are so many people on the earth now?
• 3. How can we make a move away from this type of big agriculture without economic pitfalls?
• 4. And ultimately, how can we really do it, in a logistical way and not just a hippie, day dreamer kind of way (it will have to work on a large, broad scale)?

The side effects and spin-offs from such changes would be immense and have far reaching, global permeations. I often hear people who sound as if we should all live off of subsistence farming and go back to the, “old ways” of doing things but I do not believe that is an option. Personally, I think that in order for some or any of the above to work, it will have to be gradual, and socially and culturally acceptable. That’s how these practices have come into being in the first place - that and the fact that they also generate billions of dollars. If it’s gonna work here in America, it’s also got to be profitable.

Ms.Goodall also spoke of animal cruelty. She spoke of how she came to learn about the nature of how animals are raised and slaughtered and how cruel of a process it is. Upon learning of this, she forsook all meat, becoming vegetarian. While I certainly understand her actions, I do not think that most Americans, even after learning the true nature of how we get our food today, would become vegetarians (nor am I suggesting that she’s saying that we should). One of the interesting comments she made was that after discussing animal cruelty with a woman friend of hers the lady replied that she didn’t want to know. She wanted to remain ignorant of the situation. I would say that that is a wholly American quality! Ignorance is bliss. But sometimes our ignorance comes back to bite us in the ass. There have been incidents (those that we know of) where genetically modified food has slipped its way into the food stream for humans (some corn that was intended for cows) and people got sick. What kinds of effects could these have on us? Health care is already unobtainable for many Americans (another topic for another time). So how do you address or even solve these issues? I don’t know but I do know they should be addressed and Muslims should have opinions on them. The Prophet was a man who was kind to animals and I would say there’s enough in his actions or sunnah to make cruelty to animals haram (religiously forbidden), possibly finding room in the shari’ah, or religious law. Definitely some food for thought.

I hope that as time moves on and that as different issues of the day come up, we as Muslims here contribute and let our voices be heard. And our voice will not be one voice - it cannot be. Islam is not a monolith. This amazing, fascinating religion means many different things to many different people. So amidst coming into our voice on the national or world stage, we must also develop our voices amongst ourselves. Not just entirely separate voices but part of the American psyche as well.