When Fulbright Scholar Dr. Mukhtasar Syamsuddin discusses the “Muslim World,” he has several different world to discuss.
“The Islamic culture is the only one in the world based on the Koran, but the Muslim culture is a social construct,” he said. “There are Muslim Americans, Muslim Canadians, Muslim Arabs, Muslim Indonesians.”
Syamsuddin, a Muslim Indonesian, will share these worlds with Northeastern State University over the next six weeks through the Fulbright Visiting Specialists Program. Syamsuddin is the first Fulbright Scholar to be hosted by NSU.
Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program.
Syamsuddin teaches philosophy and philosophy of religion at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia. Theme of his Fulbright visit is “Direct Access to the Muslim World.”
Garments Syamsuddin said he wears in his home country reflect what he said was the diversity of Muslim culture.
Holding his hands to his shoulders, Syamsuddin explained “the clothes you wear must cover your body from here to your foot. You have to do this primarily when you go to pray.
Syamsuddin wore a wrap-around sarong in two hues of green to show what Indonesian Muslim men wear. Muslim men in Arabia usually wear looser floor length robe-like garments he said. Syamsuddin also wears trousers.
He said Muslim women in Indonesia wear headscarves, but “they’re just closing up their hair, not closing up their eyes.”
“In Iran, women close up all of their body but their eyes,” he said.
Syamsuddin said he also will spend his six-week visit clarifying Islamic terms such as “jihad,” which, he said, are misunderstood.
“Jihad is to do your religious commitments truly,” he said. “It does not mean you have to fight against another Muslim or another person. Terrorism is not an expression of jihad.”
He said jihad is a misunderstood word “not just in America, but in the Islamic world itself.”
He said Islamic terrorists see unbelievers as the enemy and have tried to kill them.
“”But according to Islamic teaching, the unbeliever is not the enemy,” he said. “One Islamic teaching is to keep their life in harmony, not in conflict and not to kill.”
Phoenix
Can Dr. Syamsuddin tell me how the Islamic belief is one of harmony when the Ayatollah Khomeni put out a death threat on Sal,mon Rudshie over a book he wrote? Then there is the case of the Danish cartoons depicting Allah. What about the beheading of Daniel Pearle? Not violent, I don't think so. Even the Koran direct the believers to killnon-beleivers
ReplyDeleteBasically, we believe in Allah and every single word in the Qur'an. We love our Prophet more than we love our own selves and family members. This respect and honour would obviously cause some anger, and the Danish cartoonist knew the consequences of his action before he even put pencil to paper to draw those provocative images concerning our Prophet, peace be upon him. In saying that, there is a lot of ignorance in Islam these days; and many actions that you see on T.V. or in newspapers are not necessarily Islamic. They are mixed with traditions. So you need to go back to the source of Islam to understand the justice and truthfulness of Islam (i.e. The Qur'an and the Seerah of Muhammed, peace be upon him) from a knowledgeable scholar (not from your own reading and interpretation) because there is context and stories behind many incidents mentioned in the Qur'an that you will not know by reading the Qur'an yourself without seeing true tafseer (hadith explaining some verses by the Prophet, peace be upon him).
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