............................................................................................................................... Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is a staunch defender of human rights and his book standing up for others will be out soon, and a movie "Americans together" is in the making. He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links atwww.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.
Thanks to Pope Francis for emphasizing, as the Washington
Post said, “A Gospel teaching that may become the touchstone of his
papacy: mercy.” These are the most inspiring words in a world that has
placed mercy on the mantel. We pray a new norm of religion emerges:
mercy. Muslims are particularly excited about Pope Francis’
message of mercy. He is one of the best representations of the teachings
of Jesus Christ (my pluralist mentor) and Muslims can relate with him. Indeed Prophet Muhammad is
called “Rahmatul Aalameen – a Mercy to mankind”.
Pope
Francis made quite a splash when he said last week in response to a
question about a priest being gay: “If someone is gay and he searches
for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Beyond
those remarks, the pope has received ample attention for the simplicity
of his lifestyle, his attitude toward the poor and his humility in
washing the feet ofcriminal offenders. In fact,those are just some of the areas in which the pope has gained attention, as thisWashington Posteditorial indicates.
Of course, his remarks, attitude and approach have a special audience among Catholics.But
what relevance do they have to non-Catholics? The Catholic Church may
be the world’s largest body of Christians, but what about other
Christians and the many other faith traditions? What difference do
comments from the pope make to them — as well as to non-believers?
MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas, and speaker on interfaith issues
Thanks
to Pope Francis for emphasizing, as the Washington Post said, “A Gospel
teaching that may become the touchstone of his papacy: mercy.” These
are the most inspiring words in a world that has placed mercy on the
mantel. We pray a new norm of religion emerges: mercy.
Pope Francis continues to earn the role of world’s religious leadership. On March 13, on behalf of the World Muslim congress,
I welcomed him, “I hope he heralds a new beginning for building a
better world. In behalf of the people of faith or no faith, and my faith
Islam, I welcome the Pope and make myself available to jump at his call
for creating peace in the world, where no human has to live in fear of
the others, let the world be the new kingdom of heaven where we all feel
safe and secure with each other. Amen.”
Unlike
all his predecessors, he is relevant to non-Catholics. “He is a man of
dialogue, a man who is able to build bridges with other faiths,’ says World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder. Padma Kuppa of the Hindu America Foundation
says: “Pope Francis offers a great opportunity for the Church to build
meaningful and substantive relations with a billion Hindus.” Similarly,
Protestants, Sikhs, Buddhists, and others see a lot of hope in the Pope.
I believe he will heal the wounds of Native Americans as well natives
of the world.
Since
Adam, his message to gays and lesbians is one of the most powerful
statements ever delivered by a world leader other than President Obama.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who
am I to judge?” This is precisely what surrendering to God means.
Atheists
and non-believers are part of his family now. As one observer put it,
“Pope Francis has good news for atheists. Jesus died and was raised for
them as well. His redemptive embrace was for all, not just a chosen
few.”
Muslims
are particularly excited about Pope Francis’ message of mercy. He is
one of the best representations of the teachings of Jesus Christ (my
pluralist mentor). Indeed Prophet Muhammad is called “Rahmatul Aalameen –
a Mercy to mankind”.
He
brought freedom to humanity, freed the slaves, women were restored
their rights to be free individuals. He taught that all are created
equal in the eyes of God, and the humility became the foundation of all
of the Muslim religious practices, including ritual prayers, fasting,
obligatory tithe along with performing the Hajj Pilgrimage.
He
enjoined us that “if any one eats a full meal when his neighbor is
hungry or starving, then he is not from among us.” He never said “Muslim
neighbor.” He loved humanity and asked Muslims to be role models of
mercy, charity, kindness, concern and love to all.
Dr.
Amina Wadud is Muslim scholar well respected around the world, and has
earned the distinction of being the first woman to lead the mixed
congregation prayers on a Friday in 2003 or 2004. On that day and from
that day forward, the whole Muslim orthodoxy has gone to
work against her. Some of the placards held outside the prayer hall were
disgustingly shameful. Muslims in general value free speech and
subscribe to it but not the conservatives among them. Oddly the
conservatives want to scream, stop and prevent others from free speech,
but themselves? They want to have it all. They almost sound like my
fellow Republicans.The only way to change is to speak up - enough of us
to speak up to make sense to them.
On a Friday in 2003/04, just before the prayers Dr. Wadud, Asra Nomani
and Saleema were on my radio show to talk about what it means to lead the mixed congregational prayers.
I
was fortunate to be a co-speaker with her at DePaul
University in Chicago a couple of years ago and I was also thrilled when
she used some of my symbols from my facebook. I wrote a piece on Sharia
in July 2010, and she wrote an identical piece in November of the same
year - both were novel write ups and followed the same logic to the
point of being duplicate. Sharia was never looked in that fashion before.
Enough
of us have not taken the time to nurture the values of respecting different
opinions... and even expanding on Prophet's Hadith - combat evil (their
perception) with good.
Muslim men, like all other men seem to deal with women from an
insecurities of losing to her or acknolwedging her knowledge. "what does
she know" or "she is a woman". It is a fashion among a few prominent
Muslims to criticize women scholarship and discount their knowledge off
the bat. Its the old generation, the new ones in America are growing up
to believe in equality of men and women. However there are some out
there who are trained by their parents to be bigots, again, it is not
only Muslims, you find them among Christians, Hindus, Jews and even
Buddhists and Bahai's.
The men need to learn to debate her and
not be
afraid to learn and share the knowledge exchange. Even a non-scholar
like Taslima Nasreen, deserves to be engaged in a debate, a fair debate;
instead of physically pushing here out of
the stage. A disgusting act by an elected official in Hyderabad, India.
Is bigotry shown towards Dr. Wadud because she is a woman? A lot of
Muslims shamelessly discount women - what does she know?
We
all have to learn
to grow up. Prophet Muhammad, the mercy to mankind liberated women from
the
ugly clutches of men giving her all the liberties that were God given –
free to
practice her faith even against her husband’s wishes, free to choose her
partner, divorce, own property and business, and she was no more a man’s
property. She is on her own and responsible for her karma on the Day of
Judgment, not her husband. What you see how women are treated has
nothing to do with any religion, it is the men! And we we need to work
on changing by assuring them that by debating with a woman and losing
should be no different than debating with a man.
At
worldmuslimcongress@yahoogroups.com,
we bring tough issues to the fore, and with hesitation present the orthodox,
liberal and moderate views on a given topic. However it is moderated to keep
off tangent comments, and personal attacks.
The group has 1800 members including 50+ imams, scholar/academics, activist,
extremists (intolerant of others) and ordinary folks.
We also share the information regularly on our mailing list of over
36000 people across the globe – the message of pluralism and pluralism in
Islam.
Mike
Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on Islam, pluralism,
interfaith and other topics and offers pluralistic solutions on issues
of the day - all about him at www.MikeGhouse.net
