Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/618165
22 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 DECEMBER 2015 22 Opinion O n Sunday, December 20 we celebrate International Human Solidarity Day. The international community reiterates its commitment to protecting the dignity and rights of all, including the right to religious liberty. Religious liberty is an integral factor of American life, and has been since our Nation's founding. Indeed, many of the first European settlements in America were comprised of individuals and families fleeing religious persecution. Not surprisingly, this fundamental right is the "first freedom" enshrined in the Bill of Rights of our Constitution. An essential component of religious liberty is the right of people of all faiths to participate fully in society without facing discrimination based on their religion. Religious pluralism is an American value and tradition of not merely "tolerating" religious diversity, but embracing it as a national asset, and as an opportunity to build bridges across faiths. Each day in every state of our Union, diverse groups of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and others come together as Americans to tackle poverty, combat discrimination, and resettle and provide services to refugees fleeing persecution. Their work personifies the national motto enshrined on the Seal of the United States: E Pluribus Unum – out of many, one. As the US Ambassador to Malta, I have the opportunity to tell America's story. This often includes responding to recent events. For example, following terrorist attacks by groups such as ISIL or Al Qaeda, I often hear concerns about the rights of Muslims in America. Let me be clear: acts of violence or discrimination against Muslims are contrary to American principles and will not be tolerated. This has been and remains the policy of the US government. As President Obama stated earlier this year, "Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding. Muslim Americans are part of the fabric." Addressing our Nation following the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, President Obama stated clearly that, "ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death... [and] just as it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalisation, it is the responsibility of all Americans, of every faith, to reject discrimination. It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country. It's our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently. Because when we travel down that road, we lose." But let us be clear: as important as religious liberty has been to America's success as a nation, these rights do not belong solely to the American people. The freedom to choose one's faith, change one's faith, dissent from religion, speak publicly about one's beliefs, gather for worship, and teach one's beliefs to one's children is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. And indeed, it is because we so value religious freedom at home that the US Congress has mandated that the advancement of religious freedom be a US foreign policy priority, and established an Office of International Religious Freedom within the Department of State. And we have senior officials, such as the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and the new Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia, who drive our efforts in support of this inalienable right. It is true that bigotry occurs in the United States, just as it does in every corner of the globe. And understandably hateful statements often receive widespread attention. But this is only a small part of the story. A more accurate view of the United States can be found in everyday actions that often do not make international headlines, in part because these regular interactions of tolerance and respect are not newsworthy. This includes the numerous government officials, faith leaders, and members of civil society who have denounced discrimination and supported their fellow citizens, such as the hundreds of Christian churches that are fund-raising to resettle refugees; the 1,000 American rabbis who signed a letter welcoming Syrian refugees; the American Muslim crowdfunding campaign that has raised over $200,000 for San Bernardino victims; and perhaps most tellingly, the seven-year-old boy who donated all the money in his piggy bank to a mosque vandalised in Texas. This is the true story of America. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley is United States ambassador to Malta Religious freedom and pluralism are enduring American values Gina Abercrombie- Winstanley I n the mid-1990s I was invited to participate in an Islamic conference in Khartoum, with participants from all over the world. During a dinner hosted by the President of the Republic, Omar al-Bashir, it so happened that alongside me sat the famous British singer, Cat Stevens, or Yusuf Islam, as he called himself after he embraced Islam in 1977. In a conversation with him, I expressed my admiration and praised his artistic reputation, which had acquired universality some 20 years earlier, particularly among the youth. I then asked him why he had given up singing. His answer took me somewhat by surprise. Cat Stevens told me that it was no longer befitting for him to sing after embracing Islam! I asked his permission to state a different opinion, which he readily welcomed. I said that I believed there would have been greater benefit to his global audience and himself had he continued to use his singing talents in promoting the moral and humanitarian concepts of Islam in his songs that young people liked so much, rather than by stopping to sing. Cat Stevens received this opinion with complete neutrality as though he had never heard it before. At the time, I surmised that as a new convert to Islam, his attitude could be attributed to the group of people that surrounded him then. These obviously believed that Islam prohibited music and singing! This was evident even in the clothes that the famous artiste was wearing, typical traditional Pakistani attire. When I asked him why he was dressed in that way, he replied that it was the Islamic attire! I was amazed and wondered aloud: If that was Islamic attire, what about the characteristic gallabiyah and turban worn by our Sudanese hosts? Cat Stevens seemed too bewildered to answer. I was reminded of this incident when a group of Maltese Muslims, some newly converted to Islam and some others who had recently acquired Maltese citizenship, attempted to stir some noise against the possibility that the wearing of the burqa or the Saudi and Yemeni niqab in certain public places would be limited or prohibited. What drew my attention was this group claiming that the burqa or the face-covering niqab is Islamic and that Muslim women must wear them. Consequently, they add, any measure preventing them wearing them amounts to a breach of their religious rights. It is well known that the number of women who wear the niqab in the Muslim community in Malta does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand. This reflects the situation with Muslim women around the world. Those defending the burqa/niqab often claim that this option is a duty ordained by the Islamic law, and avoid revealing the fact that this attire is basically a social traditional wear of some societies in Afghanistan and in the Gulf. These are typical costumes in specific geographic regions with no ties to the Islamic Shariah. In fact, most Muslim scholars and theologians reject the Bedouin postulation that wearing the niqab is mandatory. In turn one asks, as I had done with our friend Yusuf Islam/ Cat Stevens: If this were Islamic attire, then how would one define the saris worn by Muslim women in Sri Lanka, Mauritania and the Sudan or the wide range of traditional attire of Muslim women in different parts of the world? The opinions that are significant in such contentious matters of a social and cultural nature, rather than Islamic, are those of the jurisprudential councils and scientific academies. These strive to deduce provisions that are inherently captive to the time and place to realise the interests of the people rather than the personal whims of a minority, even if Muslim. Islam is bigger and greater than any sect, faction, segment or free thinker, let alone than some extremist self-appointed "experts" in Islamic Law who want to make the wearing of the burqa a religious obligation. The established fact is that the majority of great Islamic Scholars (faqihs) and respected Islamic Law (fiqh) academies have always rejected the claims of some extremists who tried to pin a religious obligation on that attire known as the burqa. It is useful to reiterate that the Islamic fiqh is the outcome of human, worldly efforts that allow the faqihs to differ each according to his environment and time. Moreover, sometimes it is permitted or even mandated to adapt the deduced provisions as circumstances and times and places change along with the surrounding reality. This is the best established manner in which to preserve the intents of the Sharia to realise Muslim interests and to lift discomfort and hardship off them. To say anything different, will be a call to ossification and stagnation. Coincidentally, while writing these lines, I googled to find out the latest news regarding our friend Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, reminded as I was of my conversation with him by those of our Maltese Muslim friends who maintain that wearing the niqab is a duty. In my search I came across some remarks attributed to the famous singer who, a few years after our meeting, acknowledged his mistake in giving up singing, having believed that Islam prohibited it. More fascinating was the fact that since then he has returned to singing and has released more than one album. On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, Yusuf explained that he had stopped performing in English due to his misunderstanding of the Islamic faith. "This issue of music in Islam is not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe... I relied on hearsay that was perhaps my mistake." Clearly, a new conversion is usually coupled with excessive enthusiasm and extreme impulsivity. This can produce positive energy if channelled into acquiring and deepening knowledge from valid Islamic sources and scrutinising its various religious tenets. In doing so, they would realise the truth of the axiom that Islam is bigger than to be contained by one ijtihad (independent reasoning), one doctrine, or one opinion. Islam can contain all of the ijtihads but it is loftier than all of them. Everything that is human and worldly is limited by its time and place while the heavenly revelations are preserved by the providence of God and are valid for every time and place. Mukhtar Aziz is director of Islamic World Studies Centre Mukhtar Aziz A custom does not a religious ordinance make