Peace, Silver Pearl

I am not an Arabic speaker, so I say "Peace". I could say, "Peace be upon you and the mercy of God and blessing!" but it takes a long time to type. There is no disrespect here.

I must admit, I have never had anyone criticise me for saying "Peace!" online before rather than typing in a pre-written Arabic phrase.

As for ad hominem attacks, I have not made any. I am not showing disrespect by disagreeing. I also did not say scholars claimed to be infallible, but they are often treated as such by modern Muslims.

I have not issued any fatawâ. I have expressed my opinions in disagreement with the piece. I'm not sure what you mean about carrying down something said from your original post... I was replying to Dishdash.

I feel I brought forth my criticisms already to what was said in ~Mu'minah~'s post. It starts with a seed and then begins to construct an argument that women and men must not mingle.

I criticised the argument because I disagreed that its foundation was solid. I cited several points that seemed to me to contradict what was written. That essay explicitly draws conclusions from evidence, and I do not agree with the train of thinking. Derail the train and the conclusions are not correct.

As for the bit about my opinions, am I not allowed to criticise what I see as a problem without giving a long and dedicated fatwa to replace it? I can see a problem even if I cannot provide all the answers I raise. This is why this is a forum - so we can talk about things.

And excuse me, but your statementis a thinly-veiled "sit down and shut up". I am allowed to comment on Islam as much as every other person on this forum; just because there is a chorus that I don't always fit into doesn't make me wrong, only different.

As for my choice of scholars, my heart moves with the tide of faith, and when I see wrongness, I listen to those who speak the truth. Claiming that we don't each make decisions about which scholars' works are more important to us is silly; we each decide, based on our faith, what we believe is true.

I move from my experiences as a Muslim woman. I have already said I read a wide variety of texts, and that I have found that certain scholars - no matter that they are a minority - speak to my heart and head. I have experienced sexism in mosques. I have seen un-Islamic cultural traditions supported by weak arguments. I have seen dissent crushed, people kicked out of mosques. These things have affected me and have made me seek out the truth of matters. Does my faith create a network of oppression?

Resoundingly, the answer is no. How could it be otherwise? So I listened and read, and learned that there are scholars who are educated and disagree with modern "Islamiyyin" and other revivalist movements' lack of understanding.

If women wish to wear the veil, they should. I am not arguing that anyone should change their personal behaviours. I am, however, going to express my opinions when I see faulty reasonings or problematic rationalisations.

And here's my thought: the Qur'ân demands modesty and that we "lower our eyes". Let me put it in other terms: imagine we demanded our hands be wrapped in duct tape so that we don't accidentally do something wrong with them because the Qur'ân says not to do various bad things. By the same token, I do not agree that the idea of lowering the eyes and modesty means men and women cannot mix.

Part of this is because I ask about how the community constructs the idea of male and female.

Okay: let's take a step back again. Imagine you are part of the community of people who are intersexed, transgendered or the like. Now tell me - which bathroom do you use?

This is not a joke. This is a huge problem for people, and not an insignificant number of them. The whole world is not just BOYS and GIRLS. If you are lucky enough to be born without this problem, then you are fine. But many people are not. If you can't even use a bathroom safely - because you will be assaulted by police, angry boyfriends, or the men in the bathroom - how can you know who you are supposed to be avoiding?

Maybe that's too much to handle. I challenge everyone to try to understand, though. I mean, if al-Azhar scholars and the Ayatollah Khomeini support transgendered persons in fatawâ, there must be some humanity in them, right?

So, in closing to my rambling post:
I don't have the answers to everything in which I see problems.
There are a diversity of scholarly opinions.
The world isn't black & white, and looking to the Umma we must look to all of it, not just the privileged and lucky.
Oh, and I say "Peace" instead of the Arabic because we are conversing in English and I also hate those little icon-y things, so don't be offended. Please don't, I'm not disrespecting, I'm giving and returning the greetings.

Nahid