Deoband declares birthdays un-Islamic

Darul Uloom Deoband, possibly the most prominent Islamic seminary in South Asia, has issued an edict saying "It is unlawful to celebrate birthdays. It is a tradition of the West and has no importance in Islam. It is wrong to attend such... celebrations". A separate Deoband edict says that Muslims should not utter the phrase "Happy birthday".

In response to the edicts, Begum Naseem, a member of the executive committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said that

Birthday celebrations are wasteful expenditure especially in a poor country like India. Islam lays great stress on social reform... it strives to counsel people to avoid wasteful expenditure.

Another member of the Board, Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangimahali, was in agreement with Begum Naseem. In his view, “Instead of spending money on celebrating birthdays, a man should offer food to the poor people."

Meanwhile, Yasoob Abbas, spokesman of the All India Shia Personal Law Board, remarked that “Such fatwas carry no weight... in fact Darul Uloom has made of a mockery of the fatwas" (Deccan Herald).

While being a Sunni, I tend to agree with Abbas. Islam certainly lays a great deal of emphasis on moderation in all spheres of life. However, to say that birthdays are "unlawful" simply based on the fact that they are "a tradition of the West" is slightly silly. Which "tradition of the West" is next? Jeans? Pizza? Living in Britain?

I think what the scholars of Deoband ignored in issuing these edicts is the role of 'urf (custom) in the Shari'ah. As long as a custom does not contradict Islamic principles, there is nothing un-Islamic about it, whatever part of the world it comes from.

Kashmir standardises the spelling of the name "Muhammad"

It is common in South Asia to spell the name Muhammad (when it is part of a man's name) as Mohd, or even Md. The practice is similar to the way William was once abbreviated "Wm." in English and Vladimir was shortened to "Vl." in Russian.

Now, Jammu and Kashmir is taking steps to combat the practice. The education department of the Indian state has issued an order to schools to record the first names of incoming students as "Muhammad", rather than the slightly distorted "Mohammed" or the abbreviated "Mohd" (Kolkata Telegraph).

I think it's a step in the right direction, provided the state doesn't start dictating the spelling of names in general.

Taslima forced to leave Kolkata

The Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who had been living in exile in Kolkata for the last three years, has moved to Jaipur, Rajasthan after an Indian intelligence agency informed her that it was too dangerous for her to remain in Kolkata. According to an unnamed intelligence officer, "she agreed to leave after some initial grumbling." Eearlier, as many as 43 people were wounded in a riot caused by Muslim protesters calling on India to expel Taslima from its territory (BBC).

It's sad that the Indian government can't ensure the safety of its guests, but, at the same time, it makes sense for Taslima to get out of West Bengal for a while and stay in a place where little is known about her. But then she might as well move back to Norway, where she lived before Kolkata. It's a shame that the space for dissent in South Asia seems to be shrinking in many parts of the region.

What do Muslims think of the US?

According to the recent Pew Global Attitudes Survey (PDF here), the following proportions of Muslim respondents have a favourable view of the US:

43% in Kuwait, 33% in Lebanon, 22% in Egypt, 20% in Jordan, 15% in Morocco, 13% in Palestine, 9% in Turkey, 51% in Bangladesh, 27% in Indonesia, 15% in Pakistan, 9% in Malaysia, 78% in Mali, 69% in Senegal, 49% in Nigeria, 48% in Ethiopia, 41% in Tanzania.

What stands out to me here is that the majority of Bangladeshi Muslims hold a favourable view of the US: Bangladesh is the only non-African country surveyed where this is the case. I wonder why. Perhaps the anwer lies in the fact that a large number of Bangladeshis know their compatriots living in the US who send back a balanced view of the US to their friends and relatives in Bangladesh.

Bin Laden's popularity low among Muslims

According to the recent Pew Global Attitudes survey (results available in a PDF), few Muslims have confidence in Osama bin Laden.

Asked whether they had "confidence in Osama bin Laden to do the right thing regarding world affairs," the following proportions of Muslim respondents said they had a lot of confidence or some confidence in him: 20% in Jordan, 20% in Morocco, 18% in Egypt, 13% in Kuwait, 5% in Turkey, 1% in Lebanon, 38% in Pakistan, 41% in Indonesia, 39% in Bangladesh, 32% in Malaysia, 30% in Mali, 20% in Senegal, 37% in Ethiopia, and 11% in Tanzania.

Only in two countries or territories did the majority of Muslim respondents express a lot or some confidence in bin Laden: Palestine, with 57%, and Nigeria, with 52%.

It is not surprising that Palestinians have a somewhat different view of the world from other Muslims at the moment, but what's with bin Laden's relatively high popularity among Nigerian Muslims? Perhaps President Umaru Yar'Adua should investigate the roots of the disaffection that Nigerian Muslims must be feeling.

Most Muslims against the use of suicide bombing

The results of a Pew Global Attitudes Survey carried out in April in 47 countries (available in a PDF file) show that the majority (often an overwhelming one) of Muslims in 15 different countries are against suicide bomb attacks on civilian targets.

According to the survey, the proportions of Muslims who believe that suicide bombing is sometimes or often justified are: 34% in Lebanon, 20% in Bangladesh, 9% in Pakistan, 23% in Jordan, 10% in Indonesia, 11% in Tanzania, 42% in Nigeria, 16% in Turkey, 39% in Mali, 26% in Malaysia, 21% in Kuwait, 18% in Ethiopia, 18% in Senegal, 11% in Morocco, and 8% in Egypt.

The only territory polled where a majority of Muslims supports the use of suicide bombing as a tactic was Palestine, where 70% of respondents think it can sometimes or often be justified.