Free Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism by Omid Safi Page A

Kindness, ed. Sidney Piburn (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1990), 17.
Bob Marley, “War.” Lyrics are from Bob Marley’s official website, http://www.bobmarley. com/. The words to Marley’s song are actually from a speech made by Haile Selassie to the United Nations. The song is featured on the third disk of the four-CD compilation of Marley’s songs, entitled Bob Marley: Songs of Freedom .
    30. Qur’an 23:29
    31. I am here reminded of the similarity of this Islamic perspective to the Jewish mystical concept of Tikkun olam , which calls humanity to be responsible for healing the world through concrete acts of righteousness and goodness, alongside mystical meditation on the Divine spheres. May this be one bridge that we can use to bring like-minded and like- hearted Muslims and Jews together to heal our communities, as we seek to heal this world. Amin. . . .

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    THE UGLY MODERN AND THE MODERN UGLY: RECLAIMING THE BEAUTIFUL IN ISLAM
    Khaled Abou El Fadl *

    Around the middle of March 2002, Saudi newspapers reported an incident that took place in Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthplace, that should have caused a public outcry, investigations, and prosecutions. Instead, nothing happened, and the incident is now all but forgotten. According to the official count, at least fourteen young girls burned to death or were asphyxiated by smoke when an accidental fire engulfed their public school. Parents who arrived at the scene described a horrific scene in which the doors of the school were locked from the outside, and the Saudi religious police, known as the mutawwa‘un , forcibly prevented girls from escaping the burning school and also prevented firemen from entering the school to save the girls, by beating some of the girls and several of the civil defense personnel. According to the statements of parents, firemen, and the regular police forces present on the scene, the mutawwa‘un would not allow the girls to escape or be saved because they were not properly covered, and the mutawwa‘un did not want physical contact to take place between the girls and the civil defense forces. The governmental institution that is responsible for administering the mutawwa‘un (known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) 1 denied beating any of the girls or civil defense workers, and also denied locking the gates of the school and trapping the girls inside. But witnesses told Saudi newspapers that the mutawwa‘un yelled at the police and firemen to stay back, and beat several firemen, as they commanded the girls to go back into the burning building and retrieve their veils (known as ‘abaya and niqab in Saudi Arabia) before they might be allowed to leave the school. Several parents told journalists that they saw at least three girls being beaten with sticks and kicked when they attempted to argue with the mutawwa‘un . Several girls did obey the
    mutawwa‘un , and returned to the school in order to retrieve their veils, only to be found dead later. 2
    In recent times, Muslim societies have been plagued by many events that have struck the world as offensive and even shocking. This has reached the extent that, from Europe and the United States to Japan, China, and Russia, one finds that Islamic culture has become associated with harshness and cruelty in the popular. When one interacts with people from different parts of the world, one consistently finds that the image of Islam is not that of a humanistic or humane religion. In fact, for many non-Muslims around the world, Islam has come to represent a draconian tradition that exhibits little compassion or mercy towards human beings. From this perspective, the event described above ought not give us pause; it simply becomes yet another inhumane incident in the history of modern Islam that borders on the incomprehensible and insane.