Questions on Islam

The month of October in Canada is Islamic History Month, so it seems fitting that I have at least one Journal post about it.

This person very politely asked me some questions that seem to be very common, and my goal in posting this is to share some of these answers with some of you who might have had the same ideas or thoughts in your minds but didn't know who to ask or what to ask.

I am not a scholar of Islam, but I do try very hard to understand my belief as I often have to explain things to my non-Muslim family. If there are errors I do apologize, and if there are more questions I will try to answer them concisely. Islam is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I owe my success and happiness to it.

Not everything you see on CNN is the accurate portrayal of things, and this person was wise enough to ask someone who is actually a Muslim rather than the so called experts on Islam, who in many cases aren't even Muslim.

When making a judgement on something , make sure you see both or all sides of the story to gain a better or more fair understanding.



Nightweaver20XX asked some questions:

I'm sending you a note as opposed to asking your over a journal or gallery comment because some of these questions might be a bit personal and possibly offensive, though I don't intend them that way. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. I just honestly always wanted to know the answers because you're the only prominent Muslim artist I know.

So you're Muslim, right? And a devout one, for certain. I would suspect by now you can guess where I'm going with this. Basically, I just wanted to know what your accepted interpretation of the Qu'ran is, in summary. I'm not Muslim, in fact I am non-religious, some even call me athiest. Am I an infidel to you?

Also, do you believe that Islam dictates that non-Muslims should be killed? What about the subjugation of women; do you see that as a necessity (the burqa, not attending the same events as men, not being allowed to work, etc.)? And would you like to see Sharia law in the US?

I guess I'm ignorant, I dunno. I just never heard of a devout, practicing Muslim who also draws illustrations which often depict women in power situations, and scantily clad at that. Please educate me, Omar.




I will try to answer these questions s best as I can.

1) Infidels:

The word 'infidel' is actually a word that has its roots in Europe and is a translation of a similar idea in Islam. People who outright refuse and/or fight ardently against Islam are 'Kafirs' which means that they are ungrateful. But a greater amount of the population are consisdered non-Muslim, meaning either they haven't heard of it, are still undecided, or don't have any animosity against it.

The ones who go so far as to persecute us and kill us for the sake of our believing in Islam are the ones we are allowed to defend ourselves from, even if that means war. We are not allowed to wage war to just gain land, it is only to stop a threat towards us that has been proven to be a threat and we are suffering from them and all other routes of peace have been exhausted.

Further you are only allowed to fight combatants, not innocent people, so suicide bombing is totally wrong and not our teaching period. Our prophet never fought this way; it was face to face on a set field.

2) Women:

Islam came at a time when women were treated as second-class citizens. For the last 1400 year women's property and inheritance has been established, and the beating and abuse of them prohibited. They have also been able to vote and voice their opinions in government and legal systems as well. In western society this has only just recently happened in the last 150 years. Even in the 1920's in the US women had no right to vote hence women's rights movement etc. In the UK, a women often we left poor and destitute when their husband died as all his wealth went exclusively to a male relative no matter how distant.

No doubt the image portrayed is that women are not allowed to be educated and so on, but in Qur'an it clearly says, men and women you must learn and study. Also women are more than allowed to work, and Prophet Muhammad's first wife was a businesswoman. (Peace be upon them)

There are more Muslim female scholars in Islam than any other culture in the world. Many  of the most superior male scholars recieved their instruction from their mothers. The prophets wives also taught people in matters of jurisprudence and Islamic belief.

3) Women and Hijab:

Women and men are supposed to cover themselves and restrain their gazes out of respect for each other and preservation of dignity. Any person is supposed to do any act only for the sake of God, so anyone who forces anyone to do anything it is not Islam. Obviously there are codes of conduct in community places and these are again to preserve our dignity and stop fires from being lit meaning like flirting and dating etc.

My wife and any woman for that matter is the same wherever you go, you cannot tell them what to do. And even if you force them, they will do their own thing when no one is looking. The rewards for wearing Hijab are huge and the full face covering burqa is optional. Women have to cover from their wrists to ankles and hair.

Interesting note, is that even all portraits of Mary have her in Hijab, further if you ask a scholar of the Bible you will find that there are verses that say that women who do not cover their head in prayer should have their heads shaved, I think that is in old testament.

4) Shariah (Islamic) Law:

It has already been established that when a Muslim lives in a land where he is a minority he has to obey the laws of that country and if he finds they conflict with his religion then he has to emigrate.

As a result it would be totally unfair for us to force anyone to accept our law. This is what the Christians did in Spain and much of Europe to Muslims and Jews. However in Islam, and you can see it in history, that when non-Muslims live in a Muslim land they are allowed to follow their own laws, i.e. meaning their own courts.

5) Islam's idea of women:

The place of a women in Islam is primarily as an educator and caregiver of the entire family, whereas the man is the bread winner and also educates later on in life to the children. The man is the ruler of the house, but he is still highly accountable to Allah for anything bad he does.

One of the last things that our prophet said before he died was to take care of your women/wives, and that the best of you are the ones who are the best to their wives.

The idea of mother and housewife, which are looked down upon generally, are some of the highest and toughest jobs available. In fact, it was said by our prophet that women who are taking care of their children and home and family have the same status as a man who fought to defend his country from invaders. In other words they have the same status as martyrs, so in a nut shell the position is highly revered.

This doesn't mean women don't contribute things intellectually, on the contrary, they insure the growth of society by way of educating the children. The effects of the loss of this idea are being seen and felt nowadays.

Woman can work, but she is encouraged to a much higher and more difficult role of raising the children and by extension society.  

6) What you see:

So those are the ideals and yet when you look around you see people doing all sorts of things, and life is like that. Some Muslims know these things; others follow their culture and so on. But you never judge a religion or belief by its followers since they might understand it wrong; rather you look at the example they are trying to follow.

Knowing that and then studying the life of our Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, and how he himself acted with his wives and how he treated them, you will see how far away some are and how close some are. Over 1.5 billion people will not do things the same way. In the US there are good examples of people and bad, so it's the same everywhere.

I'm sure if the founders of the US saw how it was being run now they would not agree on many things. And it's the same here.

7) My job:

As far as what I do for a living, I don't think anything that I work on compared to art in general and the industry can be said to be risqué or smut. I was and artist before I accepted Islam, and my goal is to build my name on these things and then do my own story, which I am getting closer to.

If you look at the 5th Capsule poster I did, you will clearly see a girl in Hijab/veil at the top as a main character. That normally would not happen, most female characters are not like that, but I intend to do it to say something about it. Seriously and God knows that is my intention. I also prayed and do continue to pray that if Allah has a better purpose for me then to please let me do it, and every time He increases me on this journey of now 10 years.

The other thing is that I am in a unique position to answer question for people like you.

It really saddens me that Islam is seen this way as all it has to offer is violence and so on, but so much is owed by the world to Islam by way of its scholarly input and science. Here are just a few examples : omar-dogan.deviantart.com/jour…

I really am happy that you and many other people bother to ask, and I sincerely hope I gave clear and concise to the point answers. I can't apologize for other Muslims doing weird things, since it is their right to live their lives. Also I am not accountable for what they do and vice versa, and I wont be blamed for it either. Everyone answers for thier own deeds, and God knows best what we think and feel in our hearts and if our actions match, good or bad.

I do hope that I did shatter some of the misconceptions you may have had.

I pray we all find the truth.


Omar

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