MEDIA: The Oz manufactures Koranic verses

News Limited papers have recently reported the tragic tale of the Hussain family in Queensland. Originally from Adelaide, they are of Bangladeshi origin. As a result of some domestic dispute, the mother was killed from a stab wound to the chest. The father is in hospital in a critical condition.

The Oz’s report attempted to show the attack was occasioned by the girl’s wish to convert to Christianity. The only evidence for this was from a Southport neighbour of the family. The family had just moved into the area some 2 months ago.

A neighbours and a former employer of the mother in Adelaide also were quoted. The parents were described as strict, insisting their daughter achieve good academic results and enrol in a medical degree.

The Oz’s slant on the story amply illustrates what editors can do to manufacture a context. The girl’s description included that she ...

... spoke with an accent and did not wear hijab.

Bloody Bangladeshi migrants speaking in their bloody Islamic accents! Indeed, very few Bangladeshi women wear the hijab.

The report also claimed it was ...

... curious for devout Muslim parents ...

... to send children to a non-denominational Christian school with sound scholastic record. Yet hundreds of Muslim children are sent my parents to exclusive private schools.

Also mentioned were ...

... Islamic sweets ...

... which the mother allegedly made at the Indian restaurant where she worked. Just last week I visited a Canberra Indian spice shop and purchased Indian sweets. I didn’t bother to ask where the “Islamic sweets” were kept. Why? Because Islamic sweets just don’t exist! Indians of all faiths eat the same sweets.

Most disturbingly, the reporters claimed there was such a thing as ...

... Koran-sanctioned ritual killing to punish the rejection of Islam … One Koran passage quotes Mohammed as saying ‘whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him’.

The newspaper then alleged that a Gold Coast imam confirmed the verse existed and shouldn’t be taken literally. In fact, all he said was that any book approached with a “surface reading” would have contradictions.

In fact, no such verse exists. I challenge the authors and editors of The Oz to provide the exact reference. I also challenge them to provide evidence from classical and modern Muslim religious jurists showing Islamic sacred law sanctions killing daughters.

At the time of writing, no charges had been laid against any member of the family. The ABC report states that Qld police ...

... are not prepared to speculate on whether religion was a motive in the attacks.

However, News Limited papers are quite happy to speculate, even if it means manufacturing verses of scripture.

© Irfan Yusuf 2006

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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MEDIA: Kerbaj’s Claytons Scoop

Richard Kerbaj has again “broken” a hot story about Muslim leaders. Sadly, it’s little more than extracting the tallest mountain from a microscopic mould hill.

No doubt The Oz’s hysterical front-page packaging of Dr Ali’s relatively benign remarks (not to mention the hysterical responses of caricatured sheiks) will assist in his re-appointment to the PM’s undemocratic handpicked Muslim Community Reference Group. But how revolutionary were Dr Ali’s words?

The gist of his message seems is that the Prophet Muhammad wasn’t perfect. But what kind of perfection is he talking about? Muslims agree that the Prophet was a perfect human (al-insan al-kaamil in Arabic). But the word for human (insan) itself means negligent. Muslims agree that, as a human being, the Prophet was perfect. Yet there are places in the Koran where he has been corrected in his conduct.

So how is this perfection to be worded? This is where the controversy among different Muslim denominations begins, whether in the Indian sub-Continent or the Middle East.

At worst, Dr Ali could be accused of using somewhat inappropriate language to describe the Prophet. He should have used more careful phrasing. Then again, had Sheik Hilaly bothered to learn English during his last 2 decades in Australia, he might have recognised the problem not in Dr Ali’s message but rather in his choice of words.

The rest of Dr Ali’s comments are nothing new, especially those relating to the process of renewing the understanding of Islamic sources. Similar thoughts have been expressed by the likes of prominent Swiss scholar Dr Tariq Ramadan and the American sharia academic lawyer Professor Khaled Abou el-Fadl.

Yet The Oz’s editorial on 5 October continues with manufacturing Mt Everest from a speck of dust, describing Dr Ali’s remarks as evidencing

... great courage ...

... and applauding them for ...

... promoting honest discussion that is in the interests of Islam, its followers and the Australian community.

The editorial took swipes at both Sheik Hilaly and his arch-nemesis, Muslim Community Reference Group member Mustapha Kara-Ali. For once, these two find themselves on the same side of an argument.

The editorial further claims that ...

... Dr Ali's standing cannot be easily dismissed.

How so? He has a doctorate in economics and teaches at a university. An economist claiming expertise on Islam’s most argued esoteric theological controversy. About as nutty as suggesting Sheik Hilaly be appointed to the Reserve Bank Board.

Speaking of Sheik Hilaly, Dick Kerbaj wrote on October 5 about Hilaly’s response to Ali’s remarks. Kerbaj described the Sheik as ...

... the head of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's southwest.

Had Kerbaj done his research, he would have found out that there is no such a place as “Lakemba Mosque”. The Sydney suburb of Lakemba is home to at least 5 mosques, the largest of which is the Imam Ali ben Abi Taleb Mosque. Further, the head of that mosque (where Sheik Hilaly is senior imam) is in fact the President of the Lebanese Moslems Association which owns and manages the mosque and the property on which it is built.

Words © 2006 Irfan Yusuf


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