Why is the color green so important in the Muslim world?

explainer
Islamic Greenwashing
Why is the color green so important in the Muslim world?
By Christopher Beam
Posted Tuesday, June 9, 2009, at 6:29 PM ET
slate.com

The main rival of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Iranian elections, Mir Hossain Mousavi, has adopted green as his signature color. The flags of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian group Hamas also include the color. Why is green so prevalent in the Muslim world?

Because it was supposedly Mohammed's favorite color. The Islamic prophet is said to have worn a green cloak and turban, and his writings are full of references to the color. A passage from the Quran describes paradise as a place where people "will wear green garments of fine silk." One hadith, or teaching, says, "When Allah's Apostle died, he was covered with a Hibra Burd," which is a green square garment. As a result, you'll see green used to color the binding of Qurans, the domes of mosques, and, yes, campaign materials.

Green has other properties, too, that make it a natural fit for Islam and the Middle East. It's a symbol of nature and life—especially potent in the dry desert. Mohammed invoked this connection when he wrote about a folkloric figure called al-Khidr, or "the Green One," who symbolizes immortality. (Al-Khidr may have been an inspiration for the Arthurian character of the Green Knight, who in one story is described as worshipping Mohammed.) At least one commentator has speculated that because green is in the middle of the color spectrum and Mohammed preached moderation, one complements the other. (The Quran describes the Muslim community as "the midmost nation.")

Green comes up a lot in Islamic history. It was the color of the flag of the Fatimid Caliphate, the last of the four Arab caliphates. During the crusades, Islamic soldiers wore green to identify themselves. (Likewise, crusaders avoided green in their coats of arms, just to be safe from friendly fire.) Some say the banner under which Mohammed fought in the war on Mecca was green with golden trimming. (The flag is currently locked away in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey—we don't really know what color it is.) For centuries in Persia, only descendants of Mohammed, known as the Sayyids, were allowed to wear green turbans—anyone else would be punished for it. Green was also favored by the Ottoman Empire, which after the Tanzimat reforms of the mid-19th century dyed its secular flags red and its religious flags green. More recently, the color has become associated with Hamas, which sports a bright green flag.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2220136/

When the Extreme Becomes the Norm

fighting words
When the Extreme Becomes the Norm
What connects Obama's pronouncements on head scarves and the argument over released Guantanamo detainees?
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, June 8, 2009, at 12:26 PM ET

There is a fascinating connection between what President Barack Obama said about head scarves for women in his June 4 speech in Cairo and the argument over the released Guantanamo detainees who have since been found, or found again, in the ranks of the Taliban and al-Qaida. Don't try to guess, but do please read on.

Ever since former Vice President Dick Cheney made the most of the New York Times headline of May 21, using Defense Department statistics to suggest that one in seven Guantanamo graduates had "returned to terrorism or militant activity," there has been a huge row about whether this is true and, if it is, why it is. Might it not be the case, for example, that an innocent person put through the Guantanamo experience might become "radicalized" and decide to join the ranks of jihad for the first time?

The latter explanation is certainly not true for several of the recidivists who have been positively identified; we do know the past and present of some of these characters. On my own visit to Guantanamo, I was given a list—admittedly containing only 11 names—of former Taliban militants like Abdullah Mehsud, detained in February 2002 and released in March 2004, who later killed himself rather than surrender to Pakistani security forces. If it is an offense to justice to hold people who may have been victims of mistaken identity or of vendettas by other factions, then it is also an offense to justice to release psychopathic killers who believe that they have divine permission to throw acid in the faces of girls who want to attend school.

Yet if we think it probable or possible that a man would only mutate into such a monster after undergoing the Guantanamo experience, then I can suggest one reason why that might be. Nothing prepared me for the way in which the authorities at the camp have allowed the most extreme religious cultists among the inmates to be the organizers of the prisoners' daily routine. Suppose that you were a secular or unfanatical person caught in the net by mistake; you would still find yourself being compelled to pray five times a day (the guards are not permitted to interrupt), to have a Quran in your cell, and to eat food prepared to halal (or Sharia) standards. I suppose you could ask to abstain, but, in such a case, I wouldn't much fancy your chances. The officers in charge were so pleased by this ability to show off their extreme broad-mindedness in respect of Islam that they looked almost hurt when I asked how they justified the use of taxpayers' money to create an institution dedicated to the fervent practice of the most extreme version of just one religion. To the huge list of reasons to close down Guantanamo, add this: It's a state-sponsored madrasah.

The same near-masochistic insistence on taking the extreme as the norm was also present in Obama's smoothly delivered speech in the Egyptian capital. Some of what he said was well-intentioned if ill-informed. The United States should not have overthrown the elected government of Iran in 1953, but when it did so, it used bribed mullahs and ayatollahs to whip up anti-Communist sentiment against a secular regime. The John Adams administration in the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli did indeed proclaim that the United States had no quarrel with Islam as such (and, even more important, that the United States itself was in no sense a Christian nation), but the treaty failed to stop the Barbary states from invoking the Quran as permission to kidnap and enslave travelers on the high seas, and thus Thomas Jefferson was later compelled to send a fleet and the Marines to put down the trade. One hopes that Obama does not prefer Adams to Jefferson in this regard.

Any person with the smallest pretense to cultural literacy knows that there is no such place or thing as "the Muslim world," or, rather, that it consists of many places and many things. (It is precisely the aim of the jihadists to bring it all under one rulership preparatory to making Islam the world's only religion.) But Obama said nothing about the schism between Sunni and Shiites, or about the argument over Sufism, or about Ahmadi and Ismaili forms of worship and practice. All this was conceded to the umma: the highly ideological notion that a person is first and foremost defined by their adherence to a religion and that all concepts of citizenship and rights take second place to this theocratic diktat. Nothing could be more reactionary.

Take the single case in which our president touched upon the best-known fact about the Islamic "world": its tendency to make women second-class citizens. He mentioned this only to say that "Western countries" were discriminating against Muslim women! And how is this discrimination imposed? By limiting the wearing of the head scarf or hijab (a word that Obama pronounced as hajib—imagine the uproar if George Bush had done that). The clear implication was an attack on the French law that prohibits the display of religious garb or symbols in state schools. Indeed, the following day in Paris, Obama made this point even more explicitly. I quote from an excellent commentary by an Algerian-American visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School, Karima Bennoune, who says:

I have just published research conducted among the many people of Muslim, Arab and North African descent in France who support that country's 2004 law banning religious symbols in public schools which they see as a necessary deployment of the "law of the republic" to counter the "law of the Brothers," an informal rule imposed undemocratically on many women and girls in neighborhoods and at home and by fundamentalists.

But to the women who are compelled to dress according to the requirements of others, Obama had nothing to say at all, as if the only "right" at stake were the right to obey an instruction that is, in fact—if it matters—not found in the Quran. In Turkey, too, head scarves for women are outlawed in some contexts. Is this, too, Islamophobia? Does the president think that the veil and the burqa are also freely chosen fashion statements? This sort of naiveté is worrying, and it means that among the global Muslim audience, the wrong sort of people were laughing at us, while the ones who ought to be our friends and allies were shedding a disappointed tear.
Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair and the Roger S. Mertz media fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, Calif.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2220000/

The Intersection of Islam, America and Identity

Art
The Intersection of Islam, America and Identity
By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: June 7, 2009
The New York Times
Both Asma Ahmed Shikoh and Negar Ahkami are working to create a new kind of Islamic art that is modern, Westernized and female-centric.

Read it here.

Words and Deeds

Words and Deeds
By Mark Dillen
Friday, June 5 10:37 am EST
Foreign Policy Association

Barack Obama’s Cairo speech was historic – that much is clear. It was the first time in our age, the age of conflict in the Middle East, that a U.S. President has gone to an Arab country to speak directly to the broader Muslim world. It came in the dramatic and dangerous context of intractable struggle between Israel and her neighbors, unconventional war between America and groups that employ terrorism, and deep divisions over who is to blame.

The speech was an appeal for tolerance and dialogue that has been repeated many times before. In that sense it was not new. What was different and unique was the manner in which the appeal was made, and the person making it. Therein lies its potential and risk. Barack Hussein Obama made his appeal by stating first something that has been obvious to the entire Muslim world for some time – that here was someone who understood their religion and culture:

I’m a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam...

The power of this respectful identification with his own family’s Muslim heritage is impossible to overestimate. Millions of Muslims around the world who otherwise would have refused to listen to an American president instead were prepared to consider what Obama had to say.

Media coverage of the speech in Muslim-majority nations around the world, and the reaction of political leaders, makes clear that they were listening in an extraordinarily attentive way. Many – not all – skeptics felt impelled to give this man a chance. He looked like he came from their world and clearly pronounced assalaamu alaykum knowing what the words meant.

This is not everything, but it is also no small matter. Those not delighted with the content of the “New Beginning” speech lauded its “beautiful theatrics,” a backhanded compliment. Like Reagan’s speech before the Berlin Wall (less original than Obama’s because of its conscious modeling after JFK’s own Berlin speech), the staging of the event was essential to getting its message across. An African-American, “almost” Muslim, young American president comes all the way to Cairo to pronounce assalaamu alaykum to the Muslim world. This is at once unimaginable and stirring.

Against this context Obama’s words themselves must be judged. No new initiatives were promised, just a New Beginning. Obama stated more forcefully than George Bush ever did U.S. opposition to new Israeli West Bank settlements. He used “Palestine” not just “Palestinian state,” a reference full of historical implications:

Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. (Applause.) This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop. (Applause.)

And Israel must also live up to its obligation to ensure that Palestinians can live and work and develop their society. Just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be a critical part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.

This is a stronger statement on behalf of Palestinian rights than any previously issued by a sitting U.S. president. It was of course balanced by America’s “unbreakable” bond with Israel and call on Palestinians to pursue their goals non-violently. The New York Times reported that these “blunt” words toward Israel “infuriated” some Israelis and American supporters of Israel. American conservative radio commentators yesterday were livid in attacking Obama. More Americans probably heard Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Obama’s speech than heard the speech itself, since it was delivered while most Americans were sleeping.

The words of the speech and the words of its critics are just that – words – and their credibility will rest on whether they are followed with deeds. But in the Muslim and Western worlds problem-solving requires cooperation, and cooperation requires trust. Obama’s speech may offer a “New Beginning” if it succeeds in making this American president’s message seem credible and thereby establish the trust needed for the United States and the Muslim world to cooperate.

Obama's Message to Muslims Resonates

Council on Foreign Relations Mideast expert Steven A. Cook says President Barack Obama's much-anticipated speech in Cairo on June 4 likely resonated with Muslims more deeply than similar attempts at engagement by President Bush. Cook says Obama is not tainted by the invasion of Iraq - his speech reiterated a vow to withdraw troops by 2012 - which helped give his reference to moderation and democracy in the Middle East greater credibility.

Read it all here.

Recruiter Shooting Suspect Under FBI Investigation

Man Accused of Killing One Recruiter, Wounding Another, Spent Time in Yemen

by RICHARD ESPOSITO, PIERRE THOMAS and JACK DATE
ABC News

June 1, 2009

The suspect arrested in the fatal shooting of one soldier and the critical injury of another at a Little Rock, Ark., Army recruiting booth today was under investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force since his return from Yemen, ABC News has learned.

The investigation was in its preliminary stages, authorities said, and was based on the suspect's travel to Yemen and his arrest there for using a Somali passport.

The suspect, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, had changed his name from Carlos Leon Bledsoe after converting to the Muslim faith.

Law enforcement sources said he offered no resistance when Little Rock police arrested him today.

It was not known what path Muhammad, a U.S. citizen who is a recent convert to Islam, had followed to radicalization.

"At this point it appears that he specifically targeted military personnel, but there doesn't appear to be a wider conspiracy or, at this point in time, any indication that he's a part of a larger group or a conspiracy to go further," Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said.

But, Muhammad's travels overseas have sparked a major international investigation. Officials say it is too early to know for certain if he indeed acted alone.

According to sources, the suspect advised them that he was going to kill as many Army personnel as possible. At the time of the shooting, the subject had approximately 200 rounds of ammunition available, police said.

According to a police report, Muhammad told police he saw two uniformed U.S. soldiers in front of the recruiting office before he shot and killed Pvt. William Long, 23, and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, while they were taking a break outside the U.S. Army recruiting station where they both worked.

When Muhammad was arrested he was near a Walgreens drug store and another large store with hundreds of people inside and out in the parking lot areas.

But authorities said he never attempted to hurt anyone at either location, and only directed his hostility to the recruiting site.

When police stopped Muhammad's vehicle, the suspect immediately surrendered and advised officers that he had a bomb in the car. Bomb techs were dispatched but no explosive devices were found.

Recruiting Station Shooting Suspect Had Ammo, Assault Rifles

But the car was loaded with a small arsenal. Officers who searched the car found more than 100 rounds of ammunition, an SKS assault rifle, two pistols, and two military books.

The ammunition was loaded in magazines which were found in a vest, police sources say.

Twin City Tours, a Little Rock travel company, was listed as Muhammad's employer on an arrest report.

Muhammad's father, Melvin Bledsoe, would not comment when reached by ABC News. He would only refer all questions to the Little Rock Police Department.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Recruiter shot dead outside Army office

By William M. Welch
USA TODAY
1 June 2009

A Muslim convert who said he was opposed to the U.S. military shot two soldiers outside an Arkansas recruiting station, killing one, police said Monday.

"This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that's why he did what he did," Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said in a phone interview.

"He has converted to (Islam) here in the past few years," Hastings said. "We're not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in the military.

"He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them. That's what he said."

Hastings identified the man in custody as Carlos Bledsoe, 24, of Little Rock, who goes by the name of Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad.

Police Chief Stuart Thomas said William Long, 24, of Conway was killed. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville was wounded and in stable condition, Thomas said.

The soldiers wore fatigues, had recently completed basic training and volunteered to help attract others to the military, Thomas said. He said the gunman targeted the military but was not believed to be part of a broader scheme.

Thomas said Muhammad would be charged with first-degree murder, plus 15 counts of committing a terroristic act. He said those counts result from the gunfire occurring near other people.

Hastings said the attacker pulled up in a car outside the Army-Navy recruiting office around 10:30 a.m. CT and fired at the soldiers outside.

According to the Associated Press, the vehicle was stopped on Interstate 630 a short time later, and the suspect was taken into custody. Police found an assault rifle in the vehicle.

The recruiting office is part of a shopping center at a commercialized intersection.

Jim Richardson, the manager at a drug store around the corner from the Army-Navy center, said people at the store didn't realize anything was amiss until they heard sirens outside. "Nobody heard any gunshots," Richardson said.

Lt. Col. Thomas Artis of the Oklahoma City Recruiting Battalion, which oversees the Little Rock office, said the victims were not regular recruiters. He said they were serving two weeks in the Little Rock office.

As part of the Hometown Recruiting Assistance Program, the soldiers were sent to "talk to friends, folks in the local area. They can show the example, 'Here's where I was, and here is where I am,' " Artis said.

Artis said neither of the soldiers had been deployed for combat.

Contributing: The Associated Press