Islamic society president has become the face of American Muslim women
Ramabriga
FACING CHALLENGES
Breaking down stereotypes
Islamic society president has become the face of American Muslim women
By BARBARA KARKABI
Ingrid Mattson lost her faith as a teenager. Years later she found it again in the pages of the
Quran and the teachings of Islam.
Since then, Mattson has been somewhat of a poster girl for Muslim women. Two years ago she made
headlines when she became the first woman and first convert elected to head the Islamic Society
of North America.
Mattson wears a head scarf, or hijab, and dresses modestly in long sleeves and ankle-length
skirts or dresses. She also has strong views on the role of women in Islam, which she backs up
with examples from the life of the prophet Muhammad and the Quran.
"The thing to understand is that Islam treats women as spiritual equals to men," Mattson said.
"Muslim women have the same obligation to pay charity, to perform community service, all of
those things. What looks different is that women wear more modest dress, not to oppress or
demean them but to allow them to be in the public space without being harassed or distracted."
She acknowledged, however, that problems exist. And she is not shy about discussing them.
"It doesn't mean there aren't people who use Islam to justify oppression against women or other
actions," she said. "I think one of the reasons that is more of an issue is that Muslim society
still tends to be more religious. So they have religious justifications for everything, both
good and bad."
ISNA was started by Muslim students and now represents an estimated 100,000 individuals and
groups. It is the largest Muslim organization in North America.
Though her first term as president ends this summer, Mattson agreed to be nominated for a
second term. The position is a volunteer one, which she juggles with her paying job as
professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. She is also director of an
Islamic chaplaincy program, part of her goal to raise the quality of community and youth leaders.
Raised as one of seven children in a Catholic family in southern Ontario, Canada, Mattson met
her husband in Pakistan and is the mother of two children, 16 and 19. When asked if they are
proud of her work and activism, Mattson replied: "I hope so. I'm certainly very proud of them."
Mattson was in Houston last weekend for an ISNA regional conference, "Muslims in the Public
Square," which was attended by several thousand Muslim-Americans. She spoke at a number of
workshops and at a Saturday night banquet.
Zuhaira Razzack, principal of ILM Academy, an Islamic preschool in west Houston, was impressed
with Mattson's presentations.
"She is very knowledgeable about Islam and its history, and I think she understands and
respects the challenges we face here as American Muslims," Razzack said. "She doesn't try to
sugarcoat things. These are the realities we face, and this is the way we need to deal with it
in the society we live in."
More conservative Muslims from patriarchal societies may struggle with the notion of female
leaders, Razzack added. "But the people she represents are very happy she is there."
"She helps break that cultural stereotype about women's leadership," Razzack added, "and shows
the difference between culture and Islam."
Mattson's first talk, on Islamic etiquette, was packed with men and women who listened
attentively and laughed at several of her remarks. She discussed manners both in and out of the
Muslim community.
An example of what she calls cultural miscommunication occurred in one of her seminary classes.
"A young woman came up to me and complained that whenever she tried to speak to a male student
in the class, he refused to look her in the eye," Mattson told the group. "She was very angry
and said his actions were demeaning to women. When we included the young Muslim student in the
conversation, he said: 'But I was trying to be respectful.' "
Lesson: It is possible to converse with women and make eye contact in a collegial, respectful
fashion.
"Islam is not supposed to be about hurting people's feelings," she told the group in Houston.
"Respect on both sides is part of Islamic guidelines. But we have to step back and think: Does
lowering your eyes refer to just looking and listening to a woman in conversation? Or is it
about looking lustfully?"
That led to another issue — women in the mosque — a subject of discussion among many Muslim
women. Mattson would like to see women included in the prayer hall instead of being isolated in
another room behind a screen or curtained off. It often makes it hard to hear, she said,
especially during lectures on Friday, the main day of prayer.
"It's a new challenge in certain areas because there are many people who go to the mosque and
are very conservative about their religious practice," Mattson said. "Even if it's pointed out
to them that what they do (in the mosque) is not necessarily religious" but part of their
cultural or personal background.
Nothing in the Quran says women must be segregated in the mosque, she said. "When people are
immigrants, they have given up so much that they tend to hang on to these cultural markers."
Some women prefer their own space for prayer, she said. A good compromise might be a common
space, with a place for women who want to pray alone. Different mosques will reach their own
conclusions, she said.
"The question is: Can we develop a way of interacting with each other that is more flexible?"
Mattson poses it as a question and a challenge to American Muslims.
Her election as vice president of ISNA occurred Sept. 4, 2001, so Mattson says she "hit the
ground running."
Since then she has spoken all over the country. At first, her audiences acknowledged they knew
little about Islam or Muslims and wanted to know more. Lately she has noticed a change to a
more negative attitude.
"Now there is more of a sense of hardening in their views," she said. "They are quite convinced
that Islam is a problem. I give people the benefit of the doubt; there's a lot of things I
don't know going on in the world today. But I try to give them facts because a lot of the
things they assume are not based in fact."
She is pleased with the increase in interfaith activity and partnerships — like the one ISNA
has developed with the Union for Reform Judaism. She spoke to a group of rabbis at their
conference in December and was well received.
"I hope people are feeling they have the ability to change things," she said. "And that they
understand American Muslims also have a role to play."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5883391.html
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Church, Ilan Ramon: Kike Lost in Space. Proudly serving Islam and al
Quds, Katrina, Ahura Mazda, TROLLS HUNTER, Kayid Al-Kuffar, Firnando,
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Islam Will Replace Collapsing Amerikan Empire, Muslims Are Good Folks,
Katucha, katucha is the zionists worst nightmare, We are Muslims, and
we are extremely proud of it, Born To Serve Islam, All praise is due
to Allah Lord of the Worlds, the Owner of all of the creation, Ardalan
Keykavoussi, Tommy Davis, LORD RAMA. (The 19 terrorists who attacked
our nation on September 11, 2001 used a total of 364 aliases.)
In the Name of Allah Most Perverted and Vile, Lord of the wicked: May
the Blessings of Satan be upon His messenger, Muhammad (Piss be Upon
Him), his family, his companions, and his evil followers.
Islam is a supremacist political ideology. The Arabs, especially the
Quraish tribe, are, according to Islam, the master race of the
universe. Other Arabs are their helpers, and the rest of us are called
kuffars. According to the sharia law, Arab women cannot marry non-Arab
men because Allah has chosen the Arabs above others. The word kuffar
is as pejorative as the word nigger; it means a non-Muslim beast in a
human form. Muslims who treat the kuffars as human beings are
apostates, so they must be killed, preferably by their own families.
(According to the hadith, a special reward in paradise is reserved for
the killers of apostates.) Muslims broke world records of genocide
(270 million victims), slavery, religiously sanctioned rape, abuse of
human rights, and prohibition of scientific inquiry. Two years after
Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor, the Haavara Agreement permitted
emigration of German Jews to Palestine. Haj Amin El-Husseini, the
mufti of Jerusalem, persuaded Adolf Eichmann and Adolf Hitler that
Jews should be killed before they flee Germany. Islam forbids Muslim
emigration to the lands of the infidels because a Muslim minority
cannot enslave the infidel majority. Despite this prohibition Muslims
emigrate to the West, not as migrants, but as conquerors. They live in
sharia mini-states and expand these mini-states by terrorizing infidel
neighbors and driving them out. Any society not willing to subjugate
itself to Islamic authority is, according to Islam, in a state of war,
or Dar al-Harb, with Islam. Arabic proverb says "first comes Saturday,
then Sunday." It means that Arabs are going to exterminate Jews before
they exterminate Christians. It also means that Israel is the first
line of defense against Islam. Islam, like cancer, has the sole
purpose of making more of itself. It will kill our civilization unless
it is cut, poisoned, and radiated into remission.
“I have been made victorious with terror.” - Muhammad (according to
Bukhari: 4.52.220)
In a poll taken for the Davos World Economic Forum, stunning numbers
of Europeans fear a "threat" from Muslims with whom they "interact":
79 percent of Danes, 67 percent of Italians, 68 percent of Spaniards,
65 percent of Swedes and 59 percent of Belgians. source:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0408/blankley042308.php3?printer_friendly
Europe’s Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to
between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025. source:
http://news.scotsman.com/europeanunion/CIA-gives-grim-warning-on.2595505.jp
The average European couple now has fewer than 1.4 babies, compared to
3.6 babies born to the average Muslim immigrant couple in Europe.
Across Western Europe 16 to 20 percent of babies are being born into
Muslim families… By 2025, one-third of all European children will be
born to Muslims… In Italy, 95% of all rapists are Muslims. Eighty-five
percent of all murderers are Muslims… France will have a Muslim
majority in less than 25 years! Another telling statistic is that
although the Muslims are 12% of France's population, 70 percent of a
total of 60,775 prisoners in France are Muslims! All of France's urban
suburbs are being roamed by Muslim black African or Arabic gangs… A
very high proportion of French Muslims are in the underclass, that
segment of the population that relies not so much on education and
work as on welfare and predatory activities. In fact, over one
thousand Muslim neighborhoods are under monitoring throughout France.
Seven hundred of those Muslim neighborhoods are listed as "violent"
and nearly 400 hundred are listed as "very violent." Violence ranges
from rape (95% of rapists are Muslim), murder (85% of murderers are
Muslim), theft and looting of cars (58% committed by Muslims) and
street fighting to assault on teachers and civil servants… source:
http://www.masada2000.org/islam.html
Muslim per-capita arrest rate on terrorism-related charges in the
United States is 2.5 times higher than in Europe… If the United
States, despite the much better socio-economic standing of its
Muslims, suffers from 2.5 times more terrorism per capita than does
Europe, socio-economic improvements are unlikely to solve Europe's
problems. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=932DF90B-4644-49A7-A754-C263BF74DE9B
"Like children playing with dynamite, Western intellectuals,
journalists, and diplomats fantasize that they are achieving results
in the Middle East with their words, promises, apologies, money, and
concessions. Yet how can such innocents cope… with polities and
societies whose basic ruling ethos is that of the serial killer?… Can
anyone really expect a stable society capable of progress in Pakistan
when a large majority of the population expresses admiration for Usama
bin Ladin? And what about the Saudi system where, as one local writer
put it, the big Usama put into practice what the little Usama learned
in a Saudi school?… The radical forces in the region are not expecting
to retain or gain power by negotiating, compromising, or being better
understood. They believe they are going to shoot their way into power
or, just as good, accept the surrender of those they have intimidated.
That is why so much of the Western analysis and strategies for dealing
with the region are a bad joke." - Barry Rubin, source:
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3952&cid=6&sid=20
"Europe is being targeted for deliberate colonization by Muslim
states, and with coordinated efforts aimed at our Islamization and the
elimination of our freedoms. We are being subject to a foreign
invasion, and aiding and abetting a foreign invasion in any way
constitutes treason. If non-Europeans have the right to resist
colonization and desire self-determination then Europeans have that
right, too. And we intend to exercise it." - "Fjordman" source:
http://www.islam-watch.org/Fjordman/European-Declaration-Independence.htm
It is Islamic violence which threatens Holland and all of Europe.
Exactly as in the 1930s, it is the weakness of European leaders which
allows the threat to grow. Just as the League of Nations refused to
stand up to fascism in pre-WW2 Europe, the United Nations grovels
before Islam today. source: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2414
"There does not exist an identifiable body of Muslims, substantive in
number or an outright majority, who could be described as "moderate"
by their repudiation of Muslim extremists. Violence has been an
integral part of Muslim history, irrespective of whether it is
sanctioned by Islam, and Muslims who unhesitatingly use violence to
advance their political ambitions have created a climate within their
faith culture that any Muslim who questions such practice is then
deemed apostate and subject to harm. Consequently, what might pass for
"moderate" Muslims, the large number of Muslims unaccounted for as to
what they think, in practical terms constitute a forest within which
extremists are incubated, nurtured, given ideological and material
support, and to which they return for sanctuary." - Salim Mansur
"A Muslim apostate once suggested to me a litmus test for Westerners
who believe that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance: try
making that point on a street corner in Ramallah, or Riyadh, or
Islamabad, or anywhere in the Muslim world. He assured me you wouldn't
live five minutes." source: http://citizenwarrior2.blogspot.com/2007/10/taqiyya-religious-deception.html
"There is no doubt that both the Qur'an and the Prophet (saws)
absolutely forbid Muslims to take the kuffar as their awliya (masters
and protectors)." - Zafar Bangash (source: http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/52814)
65.2% Muslims favor Caliphate, 65.5% Muslims favor strict Sharia law
in every Islamic country: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28064
(Only the Caliph can wage offensive jihad and offensive jihad is his
main duty.)
"To say that moderate Islam is the solution to radical Islam implies
several things: that moderate Islam exists; that it represents the
true (though perhaps currently disregarded) norm of Islam; and that
radical Islam is a departure from that norm." - Lawrence Auster
Muslim persecution of Christians: http://tinyurl.com/5rro8p
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/islams_global_war_against_chri.html
Young Talib beheads Ghulam Nabi: http://tinyurl.com/2rb2e3
Suppressing Discussion of Islam (85 minutes, 120 MB):
http://www.newcriterion.com/cm/webcast/wc_GZq4MHNn.mp3
Latest offerings from the religion of peace: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
MuhammadTube: http://www.muhammadtube.com/
MUSLIMS ARE GOOD FOLKS
I would like to thank you for your vast knowledge of Islam and helping
not just me, but thousands of Muslims worldwide, with your
information....
Jeffrey Hamilton
"MUSLIMS ARE GOOD FOLKS" <a.muslim.w...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:55687d5f-0d54-490a...@y38g2000hsy.googlegroups.com...
****Why don't you see if you can get more of them, to lose the explosive
vest.
cheers....Jeff