Why I am proud to be a muslim


On September 11th 2001 terrorists not only hijacked planes and destroyed innocent lives, they also hijacked the religion of Islam. Hijackers are thieves who steal something from another and pretend to own it. They take control of it and abuse it to attain their personal goals. On September 11th 2001 terrorists stole the religion of Islam. Now ten years later the hijackers are still soaring the skies of Islam taking Muslims as their hostages. The most befitting way to honor those fallen ten years ago and those struggling right now in the Arab Revolutions is to reclaim sacred stolen property. To never let one Muslim pretend to own another Muslim's mind, heart or conscience.

Unfortunately, till this day Muslims are robbed from their most precious belonging, their belief, by hijackers controlling their lives by issuing fatwas. A fatwa is an Islamic religious ruling, a scholarly opinion on a matter of Islamic law. Although fatwas can be sincere answers to sincere questions by individual Muslims, more often they are top down rulings dictating the way a Muslim should think, feel and act.

Everybody remembers the much publicized fatwa by Iran's late spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini sentencing writer Salman Rushdie to death for alleged blasphemy. There are more. An analysis of recent fatwas shows that they can be especially destructive for women in Islam. These fatwas range from not allowing women to attend soccer matches in stadiums and driving cars to fatwas barring women from work in the government or the private sector. They range from defending domestic violence to even rationalizing child abuse. In July of 2011 a prominent scholar and member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious council, issued a fatwa ruling that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married 'even if they are in the cradle'. This fatwa comes hot on the heels of a similar decree by a Moroccan sheikh stating it is lawful for a Muslim man to marry girls as young as nine years old.

Some may argue that there are also fatwas issued to protect women against violence. Some might say that there have also been anti-terrorism fatwas aside from the pro-terrorism fatwas. True, but the very notion that a Muslim needs a fatwa to judge the immorality of these acts of violence is mindblowing. Fatwas may come in many shapes and forms but they all have one thing in common. They reduce a Muslim to a mindless machine without the capacity of reason. Oscar Wilde once said 'most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.' What distinguishes man from machine is the ability to engage one's own mind, heart and conscience when one is called upon to choose what to believe or what to do. Each time a fatwa is issued and blindly adopted a Muslim's beliefs is being stolen

When hijackers put on the masks of fellow Muslims, there is need to wake up and resist them. The time has come to not only react to external criticism, but just as fiercely to the corruption of Islam. By adopting critical thinking and the questioning of authority as a natural state of mind Muslims all over the world can end the reign of hijackers. By issuing one final fatwa Muslims can end being willing hostages of their hijackers and mark the difference between human judgements and divine commands. By issuing one final fatwa Muslims worldwide can declare their independence and claim their individuality. Although we can never bring back the lives lost on 9/11 and during the Arab Revolutions, we can remember them by taking back control over our own lives. Together we can rise and form a generation of Muslims that proclaims for all to hear and see: No more fatwa.
No more playing Allah.