By Brian Aull, MIT
Last month, the MIT Center for International Studies hosted a talk by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Raised a Muslim, she witnessed abuse of women in Muslim communities. She renounced her religion and became an activist for women’s rights. Her criticisms of Islam led to death threats, and her courage was recognized by several awards. Her latest book, Heretic, calls for a fundamental reformation of Islam.
Ali’s writings suggest that the violence and intolerance in the Muslim world are intrinsic to the religion. Jihadists, she claims, draw their inspiration from their scripture and from the example of the Prophet himself. This message creates concern among Muslims on campus. They don’t interpret the scripture and history of their religion in this way; in their daily lives, they practice a religion of peace. They worry about stereotypes that feed hatred against Muslims in general. In the current atmosphere of rising anti-Islamic sentiment in the U.S., Muslim students on college campuses feel marginalized if not besieged.
This has have very old roots. In the West, Islam has long been obscured by ignorance and prejudice. American elementary school children generally learn very little about the religion. Yet they learn to use Arabic numerals for math and science, a reminder of the profound contributions that Islam made to Western civilization. The early centuries of Islam belie the idea that it was an intolerant and oppressive religion. Islamic civilization revived classical learning and made major contributions to optics, astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, law, and medicine. Contrary to the notion that Muslims converted by the sword, they set an example of religious tolerance and interfaith collaboration. Their scripture gave women rights to own property, choose their marriage partners, and have a voice in community affairs. The comparative religion author Karen Armstrong has said, “The emancipation of women was a project dear to the Prophet’s heart.”