Culture, Global, Identity, Israel, Justice, Politics, Religion

Interviews with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Mona Eltahawy

Update: videos are now embedded in the post.  Enjoy!
As I mentioned in my brief first-day J Street conference round up post, I secured interviews with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative (best known for the Ground Zero Mosque, which is neither at Ground Zero nor a mosque), and Mona Eltahawy, the Egyptian journalist and activist who rocked the socks off the J Street conference.  Those videos are now online; the YouTube playlist is here.  There are three videos – Mona Eltahawy on social media in the Jasmine Revolution and its potential in the future of the Arab and Muslim world, my question for Imam Rauf on the religious justification for his work, and footage of a few other press-folk asking him questions.  Check them out!


Mona did a superb job of addressing the straw man argument made by most of the prominent critics of the social-media-as-organizing-tool theory (Malcolm Gladwell, Evgeny Morozov, etc.).  That is, she made a strong case for how Twitter and Facebook were essential in helping garner support for a mass meeting and demonstration of a kind that was quite rare under Mubarak.  Notably, she doesn’t claim that it was Twitter or Facebook that toppled the regime.  No, that distinction belongs to the brave Egyptians who risked their lives to claim their basic human rights of freedom of speech and assembly.  But if you look closely, most of us arguing for social media’s importance in democratic movements aren’t saying that it’s the Internet itself that overthrows regimes, just that it’s a tool for those who desire to do so.  The key to any organized resistance movement, especially one that aspires to nonviolence, is organization.  Today, the Internet is often one of the last places where free exchange of ideas can take place.  Its fast pace and adaptability mean that dedicated users can often stay one step ahead of those trying to shut down the flow of information.  This is what makes it important and in some ways game-changing.

Imam Rauf, who’s been one of my personal heroes for a long time, spoke beautifully about the religious underpinnings of his peace work.  I hadn’t planned to ask him about this – the question came about as a result of a topic of discussion on the panel on Jewish-Muslim community relations on which he’d just spoken.  One Jewish community leader explained a program called “Iftar in the Sukkah,” in which local Muslims and Jews gathered at an Orthodox shul to share the evening break-fast meal during Ramadan, which for the past few years has overlapped with Sukkot.  The image of Muslims and Jews taking part in this ritual together was, for me, amazing, and reminded me of the phrase “ufros aleinu sukkat shlomecha” – “spread over us your sukkah of peace.”  This is pretty much one of my favorite liturgical lines ever, and I felt that I just had to ask Imam Rauf about it.  So I mentioned that connection, and asked him what scriptural or Islamic theological justification he found for his work.  His answer, that it’s rooted in the very word “Islam,” coming from “Salaam,” was completely in line with his messages of peace and mutual understanding.
I continue to be inspired by the work that both of these courageous activists do every day.  Mona Eltahawy speaks truth to power, and Imam Rauf (and the Park 51 project overall) has handled himself with incredible grace in the face of one of the worst smear campaigns I’ve ever seen, and more generally in a climate of increasing American Islamophobia.  May they both continue their work and dedication, and may their efforts be rewarded.
And let us say, Amen.

3 thoughts on “Interviews with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Mona Eltahawy

  1. Morozov does not deny the usefulness of the internet/social media. He simply says that it is not uniformly a good thing, because governments can use it to, among other things, collect info on their citizens. Authoritarian regimes find that especially helpful.

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