Fundamentalisms

The importance of integrating women into society without respect for how it affects religion or tradition, comes from inside the Arab world, in particular from Egypt. Tarek Heggy, one of the most important contemporary Arab intellectuals, living in Cairo, writes in his article, “Women and Progress,” after the appointment of the first female judge to Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court: “Any society that views women as unequal to men contrives to find references and ‘evidence’ to support its perception, although the attitude has no religious or legal basis, but is a purely cultural phenomenon.”

Un tribunal islamique en Malaisie a décidé d'annuler la peine prononcée à l'encontre d'une musulmane, reconnue coupable d'avoir bu de la bière et condamnée à être fouettée, a expliqué jeudi à l'Associated Press l'avocat de la jeune femme, Adham Jamalullail, qui dit avoir reçu une lettre du sultanat de Pahang (est).

This month in two consecutive events, the Saudi King and a Saudi woman took on the Wahabi religious establishment. A simple gesture by the king and a poem by the woman set off another clash between the palace, which is trying gradually to take some steps toward liberalization, and an intransigent religious establishment that is fighting them every inch of the way, particularly on issues related to women’s rights.

For the last seven years, since its launch in 2004, the London-based Islam Channel has been hugely influential in the British Muslim community, where it has played a pivotal role in the development of a British Islam. Every night, thousands of British Muslims, many of them young, tune into the channel to watch programmes dealing with news, current affairs and religion from a distinctly Islamic angle. In addition, every few years, the channel organises a conference called Global Peace and Unity, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors, both Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as a smattering of senior politicians.