All The Wrong Things
Why do so many of us worry about trivialities?
The other day I received an email with the morbid title of “FW: BAD NEWS”. The “BAD NEWS” was that a range of chocolate bars were no longer considered Halal owing to the use of pig rennet, a natural enzyme which breaks down fat used in the production of cheese and other processed foods. It turns out that e-mail was a false alarm: the company in question eventually decided to stop using pig rennet owing to protests from a vegetarian advocacy group. So we dodged that bullet. Phew!
This is not the first time I’ve received messages from the Muslim community telling me what I can or cannot eat. My childhood is littered with instances when an uncle or aunty would hand us a letter listing decliciously forbidden products. One even warned me not to drink Pepsi because pig’s blood was used in its production.
When I was younger, I was pained by our family’s decision not to continue eating at McDonald’s after we learnt all of its fried foods were cooked in lard. Curiously, the fact that McDonald’s sells unhealthy food, pays restaurant employees poorly and promotes unsustainable farming practices never entered our collective conscience at that time. As I grew older, however, such concerns seemed somewhat trifling - I was more concerned about eating healthy, nutritious food. The haraam discussion became a dangerous form of distraction.
The concept of haraam is most often used to described prohibitions against food and alcohol, sex outside marriage, and gods other than Allah. One oft cited verus in Sura Baqarah reads : “He hath forbidden you only carrion, and blood, and swineflesh, and that which hath been immolated to (the name of) any other than Allah”(2:173). But at its apex the halal/haraam dichotimy is about righteous conduct. It is about establishing a way to act which minimizes harm and misconduct and maximizes virtuous behavior.
This is not an easy thing to distil. Each individual and community has their own standard. We don’t have to explore that standard when it comes to pig products since eating chocolate bars with pig rennet will not make me a better or worse person. Believe me, it won’t. But these standards must be explored on more pressing questions of how people treat each other.
For example, it is universally accepted that gratuitously killing people is wrongful. But as one Taliban commander told me in Pakistan last month, “we don’t kill Muslims, we only kill hypocrites.” If we ignore, for a moment, the problems with the Taliban’s definition of hyprocite, this reasoning implies that gratuitiously killing hypocrites is permissible. This kind of duplicity is not exclusive to the Taliban. Even something as seemingly nonaggressive as international law can justify murder. Under the the Geneva Conventions, it may be lawful for a state’s armed forces to kill civilians so long as the deaths are not intentional or foreseeable and are part of an armed attack against a military objective. Likewise, the death of enemy combatants may be considered lawful if the deaths occasion an attack on a military target whose eradication is considered necessary for defeating the enemy.
Such explanations need not give us satisfaction nor should they solve all or any of our moral concerns. Or should they? What is startling is how rarely such questions are posed by Muslims. Modern Islam seems to represents a bundle of practices which you follow because they are mentioned in the Quran or Hadith and less a set of principles to guide spiritual and intellectual reasoning. Following rules you don’t have to think about is easy, but that’s not what Islam is about.Thanks for the heads up about the Skittles, but let’s start talking about something that really matters.
Email • Print • Share on Facebook •
Add to del.icio.us •
Stumble It!
So true. What gets me the most is that many people will go to such lengths to not eat “haram” cheese, and will send out forwards to everyone of their contacts, and yet, when it comes to other individual actions that require so little action but have huge consequences, they can’t summon up the conviction. Really, how much energy does it take to place a plastic bottle in a recycling bin, or even, for that matter, forward on an email about environmental, social, economic issues that affect us all?
Thanks for a great article!
Mustafa, I may be missing the point completely here but you seem to be trivializing one aspect of faith in order to bring to light another equally important yet oft forgotten aspect. I’d like to hear more on this…
This is the first ever article i have read from the Western Muslim, and i am shocked at the horrible quality of this article. This is a joke. And its not your fault Brother Mustafa, im sure your intentions are good - i blame the magazine and its selection process for articles authors - or maybe i should blame the qualified Muslim scholars and thinkers who do not submit articles to this magazine.
Its about taqwa, it does matter if a Muslim eats pig products, it is forbidden in Islam to do so. Same as it is forbidden to consume other things that may feel or taste good, such as fornication, consuming alcohol, doing drugs. Once a person starts to over look the minor things the major ones will be next.
Of course individual conduct is important and the Islamic concepts should be explored and discussed. However that doesn’t mean we should start to define what is Halaal and Haram without any authority to do so. If you want to start talking about something that really matters then do so; don’t write an article not even worth the energy my laptop is consuming for me to read this garbage. Write about some of the important issues facing the community. Write about the terrorists in Pakistan who are tarnishing the image of Islam. Write about social, economic or environmental issues that need to be addressed. But don’t pretend to be an authority on Islam or Islamic law and then forward this article to people who may not know better.
The wisdom of Allah should not be put into question. Allah forbade certain things for a reason, and for this article to attempt to say otherwise and to overlook and put into question the laws of Allah is ridiculous - its exactly the opposite of what we should be doing which is controlling our desires and the influence of shaytan- not falling into the trappings of the two.
Please do not take offence to the passionate response; however i feel really strongly about this.
We should be Muslims in the West not ‘Western Muslims’
Salaams. I agree with everything ‘Brotha’ had to say.
Yikes… I understand that the WM likes to throw out different view points and perspectives, but if you ask me Mustafa Qadri’s articles are TOO out there… (if you know what I’m saying)
I found ‘Brotha’s’ post disappointing. Underneath all his righteous indignation, both the author and brotha make the exact same point. Probably blind passion prevented that from being noticed.
I don’t read Qadri as saying that eating pig is halal. Or that doing drugs or fornicating is okay. I know WM wouldn’t post him if that was his point.
I read him as saying, “I’ve been told not to eat pork. I get it. I won’t eat it. Promise. But is there anything more to Islam? Because I don’t hear much about anything else.”
Brotha said the exact same thing with respect to Muslim scholars. So ‘Brotha’, where’s your article on terrorists in Pakistan? Or on the social, economic or environmental issues that you rightly point out need to be discussed? (and are in WM)
You didn’t write one. What you did write, with a lot of passion and eloquence, is monster post on why Qadri is wrong for saying it’s okay to eat pork, even though that not what he’s saying at all.
In fact, you just did what Qadri says everyone does. Spent a lot of time talking about why one shouldn’t eat pork…
As a follow up, it would be really disappointing if someone clicked on the magazine one time, misinterpreted an article and then wrote off the magazine as being “too radical”, never bothering to look any deeper.
Sort of like what happens to Muslims in the media all the time…probably should be used to it!
To Free,
You might not have liked the sentiment or critcisms made in Brotha’s post, but your accusations against him are pretty flimsy. For one, I’m highly doubtful ‘Brotha’ is his real name- he could have dozens of articles out there for all you know. Secondly, he was referring to the space that Mustafa Qadri’s article is taking up, the mental space of people who will use up some of their time to read this article and also the physical space it takes up on a monitor- that space could have been filled by some other article dealing with social, economic, or political issues.
I really don’t think it was ‘Brotha’s’ post that ‘Spent a lot of time talking about why one shouldn’t eat pork…’—in fact, I think it was this article itself which managed to waste more time on a useless subject. In my opinion, Brotha was responding to a number of iffy statements in this article which, like so many posts and article these days are doing, tried to sound ‘different’ and ‘progressive’ and ‘constructively’ critical of Muslims- which is always fun to do, apparently, and seems to be mistaken for quality writing. But if you are going to pick apart something as essential to Islam as the issue of what is halal and haram- you are really in over your head.
Iffy statements:
“We don’t have to explore that standard when it comes to pig products since eating chocolate bars with pig rennet will not make me a better or worse person. “
Umm….I highly disagree with that statement. Yes, in fact, it will make you a worse person for eating something with pig in it, because that is clearly forbidden in Islam. So instead of trying to sound more ‘progressive’ and above rules and limits, this just dragged down the discussion to a reiteration of what is one of the more basic and simpler aspects of Islam- you can’t eat pork.
“As I grew older, however, such concerns seemed somewhat trifling - I was more concerned about eating healthy, nutritious food. The haraam discussion became a dangerous form of distraction.”
What I get from this is that it’s more important to the author that his food is ‘nutritious’ rather than if it is haram or halal- because for Muslims to be more progressive and modern, we need to be more health conscious rather than Allah conscious? I really don’t get why understanding if something is haram or halal is a ‘dangerous form of distraction’. Does it really take up that much brain power to be health conscious AND not eat things which are haram?
“This is not the first time I’ve received messages from the Muslim community telling me what I can or cannot eat. My childhood is littered with instances when an uncle or aunty would hand us a letter listing decliciously forbidden products. One even warned me not to drink Pepsi because pig’s blood was used in its production.”
He seems to be using the example of pig’s blood in Pepsi to highlight the supposed ridiculousness of haram/halal restrictions. But that’s not the point. The point is, when something has proved to be unlawful to consume by the rules of our faith, we should not consume it. That doesn’t mean blindly reading forwards and listening to whatever someone tells you- that’s a totally different issue. That is miles apart from the issue of eating something haram in the first place- don’t do it. Sure it might be delicious, but if it’s haram you are not supposed to do it. Surely we do not need to go so far back into the basics as to talk about temptation, the fleeting nature of this world, obedience to God, etc? Because that is really what I think silly articles like this drag us down to.
This is why I agreed with Brotha’s post. If the author meant differently, he really should have made his point clear. You simply cannot include iffy phrases such as this and expect people to get the point - a lot of this stuff is just silly.
Also, I got really confused by the sudden talk about the Taliban and killing and international law- maybe I am missing the connection, but I really didn’t find that whole segue to be very clear.
*I should clarify that I don’t agree with ‘everything’ Brotha has to say…I don’t think you should judge all of WM because of one article…that’s not fair. There are a lot of things here which are art and politics related.
Thanks for the response Free. And like your name states You are ‘FREE” to interpret Qadri’s article any way you want, however i disagree with your interpretation because it is not based on logically reading the article it is based on abstract assumptions. You are assuming that Mr Qadri is not saying its ok to eat pork- what line do you base this on? Where’s the proof? You are assuming that Western Muslim wouldn’t post an article that says its ok to eat pork which is hard to believe because they did post this article, and that’s what it does say. I looked up Mr Qadri and found out he is a free lance journalist- so obviously Western Muslim should take the blame for intentionally seeking out and posting an article that simply wastes our collective mental capital.
I won’t go into every single sentence i disagree with however will explain my understanding of one sentence and i agree with Elisha’s explanation of some of the other lines used by Mr Qadri.
“eating chocolate bars with pig rennet will not make me a better or worse person. Believe me, it won’t. ”
First Qadri is telling the reader that it will not make a better or worse person if they knowingly and willfully break the laws of Allah - because as we know eating pork or pork products is Haram. I disagree with this because in the eyes of the Creator it does make a person ‘better’ if they abstain from breaking his laws and does make a person ‘worse’ if they willfully break those laws. He goes on to say “believe me, it won’t’ which to me says that he believes he is an authority on this issue - which he is obviously not. So i was arguing that if Qadri thinks the Halaal and Haram discussion is a distraction from what’s really important he should stay out of the discussion and write about what he thinks its distracting him from writing about.
When you asked where’s my article on Terrorism and social, economic or other important issues - its nowhere as i am not a scholar or a writer nor do i claim to be, im not the one writing articles and submitting them to magazines; im just a concerned reader who read an article that disgusted me and responded. So please don’t get all defensive and gaurded on behalf of Mr Qadri. If Mustafa Qadri wants to eat a pigs ass he can go right ahead, but i don’t think Western Muslim should be propogating his view points to me or anybody else.
Please respond only if you have something to say based on logic and not abstract thoughts….
Salam
If you suddenly found out the cheese pizza you were eating was made from pig rennet, are you now a worse person for it?
I guess that depends on how you define a good person. If one follows ALL the commandments of Allah SWT, they will necessarily be a good person, Islam is largely about showing people how to be good to one other. As such, I’d suggest that someone who is good to other people is a good person.
How does unintentionally eating pork effect how you treat another person? It doesn’t. How does intentionally eating pork effect how you treat people? It probably doesn’t either.
Any logician will tell you that it doesn’t not follow from any of the premises above that you should eat pork.
All Qadri is calling for is an increased discussion on things that effect how we treat people or how people treat others in the name of Islam (re: the Taliban discussion).
The defining feature of Muslim shouldn’t be that we don’t eat pork. No doubt, Muslim shouldn’t. WE GET IT. But our defining feature as Muslims, IMO, should be the manner in which we conduct ourselves in society - piety, honest, charity, tolerance, friendliness and other such qualities (to both Muslims and non-Muslims).
The Prophet PBUH was reputed to be a person who always had a smile on his face. How often can you say that of today’s Muslims? Why hasn’t the message “It’s Islamic to smile” reached our youth? Why isn’t that the defining feature of a Muslim?
I can appreciate that one might erroneously make the connection between “Qadri says stop talking about not eating pork. Talk about something else” and “Qadri says it’s okay to eat pork.” I agree that the article leaves it open to that interpretation if not read carefully. Today’s Muslims are sensitive on the no pork issue. It is, after all, what defines us.
*Any logician will tell you that it does not follow from any of the premises above that you should eat pork.
Incidentally, if you think Qadri was a bit insensitive in how he made his point, you might like Norman Ball’s excellent article on the liberal/reformers tendency to be insensitive.
http://www.thewesternmuslim.com/index.php/Life/articles/intolerable_tolerance/
Requires you to poke around the site a bit though…
Elisha,
Sorry, missed your post. On your query of the “dangerous form of distraction” - there seems to be a couple points here. First is that it’s not enough to live your live avoiding pork or haram. Avoid it, but if you only focus on that, then you miss out on the positive obligation to do good.
In the McDonald’s question, Qadri is saying that in arguing the question of whether or not McDonald’s french fries are fried in lard, we’re distracted from the bigger point: McDonald’s is really terrible for you and you shouldn’t be eating it even if it turns out to be halal.
He makes the point in a reckless off hand manner and that’s a valid critique. But the question seems sound - do Muslims miss the bigger picture of Islam because of focusing on proscriptive rules? Then, what’s the bigger picture?
Free, i said only respond if you have logical arguments, obviously you don’t. If you read my posts i said ‘willfully’ and ‘knowingly’ breaking the laws of Allah and eating pork’. You obviously cannot even interpret my article properly even though i was being very very clear in what i was saying, and you take that response and twist the interpretation to suit what you want to read, same as you did with Qadri’s article.
I only read your first paragraph and didn’t want to waste my time reading the rest… I thought maybe by posting i would have some good discussions, however i feel like i am debating a 10 year old…
And btw, i am born and raised in Canada, and before this horrible article that was emailed me to by western muslim, i have maybe discussed eating pork by-products for about 30 minutes of my life- even though i don’t eat gelatin or pig rennet. I like to discuss the important things that are intellectually stimulating and worthy of discussion. However i was lured into this debate by an email from the magazine and once i read this garbage i was obliged to respond. So Qadri, and Western Muslim are actually the culprits in making this an issue- exactly what they are arguing should not be.
I will not be reading anybody’s responses to my posts as i do feel that i have wasted enough time on this topic….
Salam, and no hard feelings….
Brotha, you don’t need to patronize Free for his/her opinions. There’s nothing illogical about what he/she is saying. You claim that you were hoping to have some good discussions, but since when are discussions interesting when everybody agrees with one another?
And you seem to be jumping to conclusions a bit too fast. Nowhere did the author blatantly state that eating pork should not be haraam.
“If Mustafa Qadri wants to eat a pigs ass he can go right ahead, but i don’t think Western Muslim should be propogating his view points to me or anybody else.”
What I like about this website is that we are presented with articles, not only on a huge array of topics, but on a variety of different viewpoints as well. If that weren’t the case, then I don’t think the Western Muslim would be getting as much attention.
Just because people are offended by a certain author’s opinions doesn’t mean that his work shouldn’t be displayed any longer. Qadri has every right to express himself, and it’s our jobs as readers to decide whether we agree with him or not. For some people his articles are insightful and mind-opening, and that’s probably because they are interpreting it differently.
To Free,
I will have to agree with ‘Brotha’ again when I say that I don’t think you really understand the point we are trying to make here, and you are quite frankly, scaring me.
” First is that it’s not enough to live your live avoiding pork or haram. Avoid it, but if you only focus on that, then you miss out on the positive obligation to do good.”
Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Obviously we have an obligation to ‘do good’, but not eating pork should not really get in the way of that. If it does…you have issues, quite frankly.
“In the McDonald’s question, Qadri is saying that in arguing the question of whether or not McDonald’s french fries are fried in lard, we’re distracted from the bigger point: McDonald’s is really terrible for you and you shouldn’t be eating it even if it turns out to be halal.”
Yeah…that’s just not right. The ‘bigger point’ is to obey Allah (swt) ALWAYS, that’s always the big, bigger, and BIGGEST point, man. Always. McDonald’s being really terrible for you is going to come in second to the Will of God, ALWAYS. My body has a right on me, but Allah has the greatest right on me, and my body only even has a right on me because Allah has decreed it.
“He makes the point in a reckless off hand manner and that’s a valid critique. But the question seems sound - do Muslims miss the bigger picture of Islam because of focusing on proscriptive rules? Then, what’s the bigger picture?”
Once again…rules are set by Allah (swt) and while some might even be considered debatable, eating pork is REALLY not one of them. The bigger picture is to obey God and try sincerely to follow the religion as best as you can. And if you knowingly and willfully disregard the injunction to not eat pork, you aren’t really doing that, you know what I mean?
I really this article should just be taken off. I’m actually getting horrified at what you are saying.
While I’m here on this page for the last time, I might as well respond to anonymous to:
“There’s nothing illogical about what he/she is saying. You claim that you were hoping to have some good discussions, but since when are discussions interesting when everybody agrees with one another?
And you seem to be jumping to conclusions a bit too fast. Nowhere did the author blatantly state that eating pork should not be haraam. “
-Pork being haram shouldn’t be a discussion. Pork is haram. End of discussion. Only a very stupid, self important and deluded person would find this to be a discussion.
I don’t know if you are reading these statements we posted up properly, but this article is pretty much saying that pork being haram is not AS important as other things. Qadri has NO RIGHT to even comment on the idea that pork should not be haram- my God, what would ever give him the right to say that? Pork not being AS important as other things is not his territory, he is not a scholar. And it’s just logical that it you can avoid pork and still devote your time to being a good person.
This is a comment from Free:
“How does unintentionally eating pork effect how you treat another person? It doesn’t. How does intentionally eating pork effect how you treat people? It probably doesn’t either.”
How is that even logical? Disobeying God in eating pork, what does that have to do with how you treat people? Those are two seperate things, why are you involving the two? That shows a complete lack of rational understanding to me, but on top of it you have him talking about logicans?!? Intentionally eating pork affects your status as a believer, it affects you as a person because you are DISOBEYING God. And does the WM really want to advocate disobeying God?
This is not an issue about different ‘viewpoints’, that is an extremely illogical and stupid thing to say. I really think I am done with this discussion because it’s making me feel stupid even discussing this.
Im back, Good discussion to me is when people are using arguments based on fact and not abstract thoughts that have no bearing on the argument at hand. It doesn’t mean we always have to agree. I said ‘wilfully and knowingly’ eating pork, and free responds to this by saying ‘unintentionally eating pork’ right there i see that Free does not comprehend what im trying to say, therefor making me feel like im debating a 10 year old- and no offence to Free, for all i know Free might be 10.
Ignorance is not bliss for Muslims. A Muslim should seek out knowledge and should at the very least have the knowledge of what is Halal and Haram. Thus if people want to send out lists and other things in order to educate others as to what is Halal and Haram they should be encouraged - not brushed off. If Qadri, Free, Western Muslim or Anonymous want to discuss other things because you feel that its a distraction to discuss what is Halal and Haram - then by all means discuss those topics. But do not try to be-little the importance of eating Halal and having the knowledge of what is Halal and Haram at the expense of other important topics.
This discussion is interesting, but I feel the article should also be brought back into the limelight. Mr. Qadri is not saying its okay to eat pig (I know somebody already mentioned it, but I feel it should be stated again).
What I take away from this article is not that we should ignore everything that divides Halal and Haram, but rather, we should establish a ‘pecking’ order, if you will. Do you not think that establishing prayer five times a day, fasting in the month of Ramadan, giving Zakat and other such basics would constitute the basics of Islam or the first pecking order? I believe so. Accordingly, we should concentrate on fulfilling these fundamental requirements for being a Muslim before we even delve into the issue of whether using pig products for manufacturing chocolate makes it okay or not.
Also, do you not feel that these things are trivial in light of what Islam is becoming? Should we waste our time and effort on telling everyone that Skittles is Haram when we could spend the same amount of effort trying to stop the injustices occurring to Muslims around the world? The injustices Muslims are doing to Muslims? I believe another important point Mr. Qadri is trying to make is that what we are focusing our time and energy on is so completely trivial when in essence, there are bigger fish to fry. These massive problems should be taking up our time and energy, not these trivial issues.
Brotha has successfully put up a straw man and then beat it up. His ad hominem arguments were also first rate. I concede defeat.
Elisha, you’re right to say the ‘bigger point’ is follow Allah. Of course, that’s the start and finish to everything.
It’s just a question of where we put our emphasis in our discourse. Some people would like to see more discussion on the part of Islam that talks about loving one another and being good to your neighbor and all that good stuff.
Let’s go on a bit of a tangent to see if we can put your mind at ease:
I suspect that most Taliban fighters pray 5 times a day. I bet they fast more often than just Ramadan. They’ve probably never seen pork let also eaten it. I bet you $5 they’ve never gambled 
and I’m sure they close their eyes when a kissing scene comes on tv. Granted, they do a lot of other stuff too - but that’s based on their interpretation of Shariah law, made by Taliban scholars that have spent their lives learning the subject. I’m sure their muftis are giving them solid rulings to support any action they have taken.
I suspect most Muslims in the West aren’t as ‘religiously observant’ as the Taliban are. We don’t follow our scholars nearly as closely. So why is it that Muslims out in the West suggest that the Taliban are bad people or bad Muslims?
I suspect it’s because we think there are other qualities that make up a Muslim - compassion, mercy, kindness, tolerance, love. And those are the things that the Taliban miss out on when they’re rounding people up for missing prayers or splashing acid in the face of girls going to school.
This article was not about thinking you can change Allah’s rules. Not about making pork halal to eat. Not about saying avoiding haram is unimportant.
It’s just saying, there’s some tough questions out there - such as how can really observant Muslims (Taliban) get it so wrong? And Mustafa Qadri seems to be wondering that while the Taliban Muslims are taking over Pakistan, why aren’t learned Muslims telling him something other than what products contain pork?
That’s what I took out of it. If you took something different, that’s fair enough.
My understanding of Islam is that there are two aspects to being a ‘good’ Muslim. 1 is Huqoq Allah (the rights Allah has over us) and the other is Huqoq -ul Ibad ( the rights that individuals have over us)
Huqoq Allah - consists of Praying, Fasting, Zakat etc not eating Haram things would also fall into this category - cause eating pork products (intentionally) although doesn’t effect how we treat people it effects our level of faith.
Huqoq ul Ibad consists of the things Free mentioned in his/her last post ie. compassion, mercy, kindness, tolerance, love towards other individuals- treating our parents with respect our youngsters with compassion etc…
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was an example to us in both of these aspects of faith. He never overlooked either and nor did he create a pecking order between the two. Both are equally important and we should emphasis the importance of both; and Mustafa Qadri or Western Muslim are not an authority to brush off one while emphasizing the other.
We should keep ourselves informed as to what products contain pork and avoid eating those products - as willfully eating pork does effect ones level of faith. Looking over a list for 2 minutes with all products that should not be eaten will not effect our ability to alleviate all the significant problems facing the world today. I don’t know about you but i come into contact with hundreds if not thousands of Muslims a year and discuss many topics, and skittles has not come up since i was in high school. I just know that skittles is haram so i don’t eat them, and if i see someone i know eating gelatin i will just let them know that there are pork products in that and leave it up to them if they want to eat it or not.However i do not feel i am an authority to tell that person ‘don’t worry about the pork it won’t make you a worse person but make sure you smile at someone today’.... these are two separate things…
To anonymous,
In response to what you wrote below
“Just because people are offended by a certain author’s opinions doesn’t mean that his work shouldn’t be displayed any longer. Qadri has every right to express himself, and it’s our jobs as readers to decide whether we agree with him or not…..........
I would like to see the criteria used in selecting articles and what the selection process looks like. Cause i heard about this guy Salman Rushdie who’s writings may offend some people however im sure he has some very interesting view points that according to you should have the right to be posted on Western Muslim even though some may be offended. I also heard about some danish cartoons that express some other peoples viewpoints….
Great, now we’re discussing the issues like reasonable people!
“...eating chocolate bars with pig rennet will not make me a better or worse person. Believe me, it won’t.”
Note that the article doesn’t say “better or worse Muslim”. Most of what Brotha has written requires it to say that. A large chunk of non-Muslims eat pork. They’re not all bad people.
There’s no question that eating pork makes you a worse Muslim. Suggesting otherwise is so absurd it’s not worth discussing (as Brotha forcefully pointed out). So clearly that can’t be what the article is about…
With respect to the “two minutes to review a list” - total agreement on that too. You are fortunate if you live in a Muslim community that preaches both things. Not every community does. Some of us live in Muslim communities where our learned give us nothing but Huqoq Allah. All Qadri is asking for is for some more Huqoq ul Ibad.
As far as Rushdie and the Danish cartoons - you’ve put up another straw man.
Yes, there is a danger that in asking for more Huqoq ul Ibad you risk minimizing the importance of Huqoq Allah. (i.e. People who say “all that matters is that I’m a good person” to excuse not praying or drinking or what not.) It takes a careful hand to call for more Huqoq ul Ibad without seeming to minimize the importance of the other parts of deen.
Qadri wasn’t as careful as he could have been, which again, is a valid critique of him - but he’s a long way from Rushdie.
Again, Norman Ball is worth a read on this point.
Hate to break it to you Free but for a Muslim better or worse person is the same as better or worse Muslim - Again you are changing the topic - We are not talking about non- Muslims here, im sure there are many good swine eating christians and others; but this is not the topic of discussion.
I don’t put up the straw men. The weak arguments that are posted are the straw men, i just break them down.
I respect Mustafa Qadri’s appeal to a greater sense of responsibility and though he does not call it that, taqwa, in why we try to sort out foods on the basis of what we have learned is permissible or not.
That said, the article is the victim of numerous logical fallacies. You seem to be attributing a sense on your part of a lack of social consciousness in our community to a - perceived - overzealousness in, as you term it, the ‘haraam discussion’. T
When I was young my father would send letters to companies inquiring as to the source of their ingredients; it was through his efforts and posting their responses in the Masjid that our local community became aware, for one thing, that Tim Hortons’ baked goods used only vegetable ingredients, or that Safeway’s bakery did the same. My madrasah professors in England were concerned about restaurants claiming to use halal meat that wasn’t and helped found the successful Halal Monitoring Committee. These cannot be defined by the empty overzealousness you allegedly describe.
Islam is certainly not about latching onto smaller spheres of practise at the expense and ignorance of other, larger spheres. But nether is not the other way around; reference the Prophet’s, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, advice that who consumes haram, their prayers are not accepted, nor does their supplication go anywhere beyond their throat.
The desire to seek out halal food and avoid what is questionable or outright impermissible cannot be universally scapegoated as a trivialty that is the basis for the decline in social and moral conscience in our community.
What Islam is about - what defines it and forever has - is knowledge. The questions of how we treat one another, how to maintain a positive outlook, how to care for the world we live in and how to cherish human life are not new ones, and nor are their answers. The long and meticulous tradition of Islamic sciences, and the legacy of Islamic spirituality, are there, and with the decline of our awareness of them has always come our decline.
Not with worrying about rennet, pepsin, and gelatin. It seems you try to appeal to a sense of relativity but yourself discard the same. I can see where your frustration comes from and it is legitimate, but your conclusion on causation is misplaced. I would go so far as to call it a mental heuristic; short, easy to digest, and easier even to repeat.
If you make it a big deal to be careful with what you eat you do so yourself and to yourself only. It is not exactly a challenge. Rather than discouraging it, encourage it a a springboard to understanding the bigger reason as to why we do so. It is easier to build on previously established behaviours and practices and work from there. Why deconstruct positive behaviours?
And three varieties of Skittles, by the way, are now Halal.