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| My Muslim daughter is suspected of being Christian because she likes Christmas | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| It was in America where Reza Aslan - who will be discussing his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth at Writers at York on Wednesday - really reached the public consciousness. | It was in America where Reza Aslan - who will be discussing his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth at Writers at York on Wednesday - really reached the public consciousness. |
| YouTube will preserve forever the total incomprehension of Fox News presenter Lauren Green as to why Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, who also happens to be an Iranian-American Muslim, would have any possible interest in Christianity. | YouTube will preserve forever the total incomprehension of Fox News presenter Lauren Green as to why Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, who also happens to be an Iranian-American Muslim, would have any possible interest in Christianity. |
| Thousands of miles away in Bradford, the narrow-minded, macro world view embodied by Fox struck me immediately, as I had already seen it being enacted at a micro level in the playground of my daughter’s school in Bradford. | Thousands of miles away in Bradford, the narrow-minded, macro world view embodied by Fox struck me immediately, as I had already seen it being enacted at a micro level in the playground of my daughter’s school in Bradford. |
| For the last few years since joining the school, where the children are in main from a Pakistani Muslim background, my daughter has on a number of occasions either been told that she’s not a Muslim, or been asked if she is half Christian. | For the last few years since joining the school, where the children are in main from a Pakistani Muslim background, my daughter has on a number of occasions either been told that she’s not a Muslim, or been asked if she is half Christian. |
| The comments and questions stem from her love of singing Christmas carols. The confusion for some of her classmates has obviously arisen from the fact that although she looks like them, her penchant for Christmas carols and enthusiastic handing out of Christmas presents mean that in some ways she doesn’t behave like them. The obvious explanation that has occurred to these children is that either she is not a Muslim full stop, or that she must have one parent who is Christian - hence the enthusiasm for Christmas. This is a playground version of the same dynamic being played out on the Fox News interview; the failure to understand why someone who identifies themselves as being a Muslim would want to have anything to do with Jesus. | The comments and questions stem from her love of singing Christmas carols. The confusion for some of her classmates has obviously arisen from the fact that although she looks like them, her penchant for Christmas carols and enthusiastic handing out of Christmas presents mean that in some ways she doesn’t behave like them. The obvious explanation that has occurred to these children is that either she is not a Muslim full stop, or that she must have one parent who is Christian - hence the enthusiasm for Christmas. This is a playground version of the same dynamic being played out on the Fox News interview; the failure to understand why someone who identifies themselves as being a Muslim would want to have anything to do with Jesus. |
| This view that Jesus is alien to Islam, and not a figure of interest to Muslims, is one that I have come across time and again both among Muslims and Christians. When I spoke to my daughter’s teacher about what could become bullying behaviour, I suggested the need for a discussion in class about the centrality of Jesus and Mary in Islam. She really didn't seem to grasp where I was coming from. | This view that Jesus is alien to Islam, and not a figure of interest to Muslims, is one that I have come across time and again both among Muslims and Christians. When I spoke to my daughter’s teacher about what could become bullying behaviour, I suggested the need for a discussion in class about the centrality of Jesus and Mary in Islam. She really didn't seem to grasp where I was coming from. |
| My respect for Jesus, which I have tried to instil in my daughter, stems from the fact that as a Muslim I was brought up with the figures of Jesus and Mary. Mary, or Maryam in Arabic, is particularly revered and held up as a symbol of piety and chastity for women. There are any number of girls, my daughter’s classmates among them, named after her in the Muslim world. As a Muslim growing up in the UK, attending a Catholic junior school, I interacted with Mary and Jesus on a daily basis. The Lord’s prayer, Hail Mary and the Apostles' Creed, which I recited every morning during assembly, were as familiar to me as the Ayat-ul-Kursi (the Verse of the Throne), Surah Al-Fateha and the four Quls that I recited before going to sleep every night. Therefore, the need to understand how the Christian belief sat alongside my own was an urgent one. To come across Zealot, a book on the life of Jesus written by a man not only with scholarly credentials but who had for a period of time converted to Christianity before reverting back to Islam, was fascinating. | My respect for Jesus, which I have tried to instil in my daughter, stems from the fact that as a Muslim I was brought up with the figures of Jesus and Mary. Mary, or Maryam in Arabic, is particularly revered and held up as a symbol of piety and chastity for women. There are any number of girls, my daughter’s classmates among them, named after her in the Muslim world. As a Muslim growing up in the UK, attending a Catholic junior school, I interacted with Mary and Jesus on a daily basis. The Lord’s prayer, Hail Mary and the Apostles' Creed, which I recited every morning during assembly, were as familiar to me as the Ayat-ul-Kursi (the Verse of the Throne), Surah Al-Fateha and the four Quls that I recited before going to sleep every night. Therefore, the need to understand how the Christian belief sat alongside my own was an urgent one. To come across Zealot, a book on the life of Jesus written by a man not only with scholarly credentials but who had for a period of time converted to Christianity before reverting back to Islam, was fascinating. |
| However, while I found Zealot a riveting read it did make me wince on occasion. There is always a certain tension when a religious figure is viewed from a historical, rather than a faith, perspective. It is not possible to get away from the fact that all religions contain certain beliefs that require a leap of faith, so to speak. In Islam these include the Meraj or Night Journey where the Prophet Muhammed travelled from Mecca, to Jerusalem, to heaven and back in a single night. In Christianity there are the beliefs of the Immaculate Conception and the resurrection. It is precisely the tension between these leaps of faith and the historical corroboration, or lack of, that makes Zealot an interesting yet at times uncomfortable read. | However, while I found Zealot a riveting read it did make me wince on occasion. There is always a certain tension when a religious figure is viewed from a historical, rather than a faith, perspective. It is not possible to get away from the fact that all religions contain certain beliefs that require a leap of faith, so to speak. In Islam these include the Meraj or Night Journey where the Prophet Muhammed travelled from Mecca, to Jerusalem, to heaven and back in a single night. In Christianity there are the beliefs of the Immaculate Conception and the resurrection. It is precisely the tension between these leaps of faith and the historical corroboration, or lack of, that makes Zealot an interesting yet at times uncomfortable read. |
| • Reza Aslan will be discussing Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth at Writers at York on Wednesday 26 March. Syima Aslam is a Bradford based blogger, marketeer and co-Director of the Bradford Literature Festival. | • Reza Aslan will be discussing Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth at Writers at York on Wednesday 26 March. Syima Aslam is a Bradford based blogger, marketeer and co-Director of the Bradford Literature Festival. |