Interview with the Prophet Muhammad

A Facebook friend asked a very interesting question: If I were a journalist assigned to interview the Prophet Muhammad (S.), what would i ask him?

And I repled:

If I were a journalist who had the opportunity to interview the prophet Muhammad (S.) here's what I hope I would ask:

I would ask him to clarify how we should practice Islam in this post-modern, multi-cultural, globalized, pluralistic context. I would ask him what the essential points of faith and practice are and how to carry them out in the context of such times as these.

I would ask him if and how we Americans can de-Arabize and de-Wahhabicize Islam. I would ask him how he viewed both Muslims among the Sufis and the Wahhabis.

I would ask him to end all violence in the name (i.e., the pretense) of Islam.

I would ask him if we could practice Islamic non-violence as modeled and described by Gandhi's colleague Badshah Khan, Chaiwat Sathanand (of Thailand), Bawa Muhayideen (of sri Lanka and Philadephia, PA, USA) and Abdurrahmna Gus Dur Wahid (once president of Indonesia and leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the worlds largest Muslim organization [40 million members]).

I would ask him what he thought of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan and Murshid Sufi Ahmad Murad Chishti and how they brought Sufism to America. I would ask him for a fatwa forbidding violence and retaliation.

And I would ask him how he liked Mevlana Jalauddin Rumi!

Wa Allahu 'Alim

Thanks for that great question,

Greenboard

This is the address for my Facebook Group
Greenboard: H. Talat Halman's CMU Course Support Site
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13139726751

Hijab -- a "threat" & cause of prejudice

This video from ABC News shows prejudice and fear projected against a Muslim woman by an American merchant and some of his customers merely because of her modest but different dress, as well as acts of heroism by other customers who stand up for the hijab-wearing Muslim's rights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqbQWxH In4U

Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality

On campus today (March 29, 2008) we experienced a day-and-a-half conference that featured a valuable and transformational documentary on how our relationship with death impacts our lives. Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality combines religion, philosophy, social science and experimental psychology into a coherent perspective. This combination keeps it very real and straight. Flight focuses on two threads. First it suggests anxiety about death is a primary source of our creativity (that's the quest for immortality part as exemplified by Gilgamesh mentioned in the film). Then the Flight's interviewees suggest that intensified and unresolved experiences of death anxiety lead us to derogate and annihilate those we differentiate as "other." The film even shows some of the subjects of experimental studies demonstrating this correlation. The pollster John Zogby gave two talks here too. All these social scientists are developing their work from a 1974 Pulitzer-Prize book by Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death. The film presents all this with a poetic and musical touch. I hope you get to check it out.

http://www.flightfromdeath.com/
http://www.flightfromdeath.com/synopsis.htm
http://www.flightfromdeath.com/trailer.htm

On Line Learning

I've moved into the world of On-Line learning. At CMU I'm teaching World Religions On Line. While I shall miss the meeting of hearts and minds in the classroom, I hold great hope for the what this medium might offer in guiding people to develop their reflective qualities and learn to practice the art of writing. The rest .... I shall suspend my judgement till when we reach the end and see what quality of writing emerges and what dialogues ensue. I do know that if I were designing this format I would include videos such as You Tubes. I started showing You Tubes of religious people and phenomena in the class. Thich Nhat Hanh particularly struck a chord. They're working really well in the classroom as a way of bringing traditions to life.