Attention of the American Muslim community is distracted these days by a non-issue that is, if a woman can lead Friday prayers? This distraction is sparked by the drama of Friday prayers in New York led by a woman who says that she has problem with the Quran. The circus of holding this prayer at a Church amid focus of TV cameras and presence of mainstream media shows the motives and designs of the perpetrators of this stunt and their backers.

It may be recalled that the Progressive Muslim Union of North America (PMUNA) the main backer of Friday prayer circus tried to push the major American Muslim organizations into corner by demanding a position on this non-issue. Just before the stunt, one of PMUNA’s co-founders demanded that the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), KARAMAH, the American Sufi Muslim Association, Women in Islam and Azizah Magazine should take a position on this non-issue.

Interestingly one of the directors of PMUNA himself refused to take a position. In an article entitled “Woman Leading Jummah Prayers: Why am I Silent?” the learned director says that his ijtihad (the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the sources of the Islamic jurisprudence) is confined to muamalat (worldly affairs) and does not cover Ibadah (prayers and rituals). Convincingly this reflects on the integrity of the PMUNA people.

I called it a non-issue which is aimed at diverting the attention from pressing issues facing the eight-million strong American Muslim community.

It is not an uncommon knowledge that the status of woman in Islam is now being used by many “independent” think tanks and neo-Orientalists to defame Islam and promote western political objectives. I know there is a problem related to women in Muslim society, but it is not dissimilar than other society. However, it exists not because of Islam as the neo-Orientalists and the embedded intellectuals want us to believe. It is just like the lack of democracy in the Muslim world which is also attributed to Islam.

The latest example of using of the feminine paradigm against Muslims is Afghanistan. The 2001 war in Afghanistan was sold to the American public by means of the Burqa. Even at one point a congressional aid was calling around Muslim organizations in Washington, if they can borrow a Burqa to wear at a press conference and show the oppression in Afghanistan. Now there is no story about Burqa anymore although the Afghan women are still wearing the Burqa.

Returning to the motives and objectives of the so-called progressive or modern Muslims to whom I consider as the pragmatic Muslims because of their utilitarian approach towards Islam. A pragmatist judges the value of ideas, judgments, hypotheses, theories and systems, according to their capacity to satisfy human needs. In other words what is good for material benefit (read market economy) is good for human beings. This is the agenda of the “independent” think tanks and neo-Orientalists. It appears that by default or by design, the pragmatic Muslims are working for them.

One of the founders of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America writes: “Progressive Muslims insist on a serious engagement with the full spectrum of Islamic thought and practices. There can be no progressive Muslim movement that does not engage the very ‘stuff’ (textual and material sources – read Quran and Hadith) of the Islamic tradition.…..They seek to open up a wider spectrum of interpretations and practices considered Muslim, and epistemologically follow a pluralistic approach to the pursuit of knowledge and truth.”

Obviously the pragmatic Muslims believe that the truth is to be determined by its practical implications and material benefits.

Ironically, without elaborating what should be a “reformed Islam” the pragmatic Muslims are taking cue from the neo-Orientalists in launching attack on the basic tenets of Islam, including its scripture, the Quran.

One wonders, what will be the next move of the pragmatic Muslims, in their bid to reform Islam. Probably they may be looking for an Imam who believes in the same sex marriage to lead another stunt of Friday prayer.

Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective www.amperspective.com

Published April 16, 2005, Al-Jazeerah

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/April/16%20o/Pragmatic%20Muslims%20of%20North%20America%20By%20Abdus%20Sattar%20Ghazali.htm