The Relaunch of Islamica Magazine and its ImpacT by Teresa Camacho

Islamica Magazine has existed for a number of years but in 2004, underwent a facelift and streamlined its aesthetic and its content to a degree that it may garner readers who were not necessarily aware of the Islamic world pre 9/11. It is produced in Amman, Jordan by a plethora of writers and editors based there and in other international location. It covers diverse topics from religion, politics, ethics, spirituality, psychology, history, finance and art as well poetry, fiction and also includes book reviews. With so many areas it would not seem likely that the writers and editors could cover so much competently but in fact they do with excellence.

All of the articles and essays are well-researched and include specialists in Islamic and Middle Eastern fields who are very well-known in Europe and the Middle East including Gema Martín Muñoz, Professor of Sociology , Autonomous University of Madrid; Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Scholar-in-Residence, Nawawi Foundation, Chicago; Katherine Bullock, Australian feminist and Muslim convert; Stephane Lathion, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Religions, Fribourg University; Brannon Wheeler, Professor of Islamic History, University of Washington, Seattle among others.

The magazine devotes many pages to the Palestinian problem as well as to the Iraqi problem. The articles are in-depth and painful to read given the dire circumstances faced on a daily basis by both of these war-torn and battle scarred areas and their people. The dossier on Palestine is 25 pages in length and includes five sections all about the region. The most interesting and painful to read was the article titled, “Jews, Zionism and Israel” by Paul Eisen. Eisen delineates the issue with Zionism and the right of Israel to exist but not at the cost of the Palestinian people or their land. The history of the area is traced as well as the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to make way for the State of Israel and this pattern which has been repeated time and again since the founding of the country is the basis for continued illegal raids, arrests, torture and killing of Palestinians. The unwillingness by some Israelis to accept the injustice toward Palestinians demonstrates an unwillingness to change the violence of the region and right the wrongs of the Zionist founders of Israel. Included in the article is a photograph of a Palestinian school-age girl being dragged by the hair for participating in a demonstration against the occupation in 1976 by an Israeli soldier. The words and photographs of the article will move anyone who reads it and perhaps will allow those who are unaware of the situation to learn more about it and attempt to commence dialogues and educate others to the Palestinian plight.

Katherine Bullock's frankness in recounting her conversion to Islam is insightful since she presents Islam as a religion which fosters and allows an adherent to ponder the existence of life. She juxtaposes the fast-paced Western world and its lack of a space for people to ponder their existence and wherein they are simply concerned with work and leisure with no other care in the world – it is simply a shallow existence. Bullock does this in a manner which is not judgmental but simply makes the comparison. Her choice to leave the world concerned with only material success has been somewhat problematic as well since her Islamic identity has been adopted and as such she has incurred the wrath of many lifelong Muslims. Westerners look on her with suspicion since she is a white woman who has converted to the religion of “terrorists” and see no reason for it. Political violence and social injustice are two things based in the ignorance of the West toward Muslims and she calls for Muslims to be following the teachings of the Prophet and try to break the hateful relationship that the West has toward Islam and that sometimes Islam has toward the West.

Gema Martín Muñoz' article “Anti-Islamic Laicism” explores the issue of the hijab and the legislating against it in France and Spain and the reasoning of the West to question what they view as a “closed and immutable culture that is inferior and backward.” Both countries want to control and change what they see as the victimization of Muslim women and are taking secular courts to take women who don the hijab to task. Muñoz highlights two cases of schoolgirls in France and Spain and how their respective governments used the cases to set examples and precedents and may have long-term effects of continued misunderstanding and hostility between Muslims living in Western countries. Women and girls who don the veil are doing it by choice and should be trusted to decide their own fate instead of having Western governments interfere in their freedom to religious expression and modesty.

The history of relics within Catholicism is long, varied and interesting and is perfectly exemplified by the ultimate reliquary, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris France which houses Christ's “Crown of Thorns.” It would seem that the tradition of relics, as does the rosary, would have its roots within the Middle East specifically the Holy Land and was most likely something brought back by Crusaders returning to Europe. Brannon Wheeler's articles on relics of the Prophet is fascinating and mark the reverence for him as well as for Islam. Among the relics of the Prophet are hair, sandals, fingernails, footprints, clothing, utensils and weapons. The first Umayyad Caliph, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan asked to be buried with a shirt and the nails of the Prophet which were to be ground and placed over his eyes and mouth to ensure God's mercy. The reverence and the belief in the Prophet's relics is even incorporated in the construction of buildings and is a bridge between the temporal and the human and an attempt to contemplate and connect with that world.

For more on Islamica Magazine, visit www.islamicamagazine.com.

Teresa Camacho is an Editorial Contributor for PersianMirror from Los Angeles, California. She is a Comparative Literature (Spanish, French, and Italian) graduate of UC Berkeley and is currently an independent researcher, critic and writer. Topics of interest include the culture, politics, art and religion of the Middle East and its diaspora - specifically Iran, Morocco and Lebanon.  Also of interest are Sephardim  and medieval Spanish and contemporary Latin American literature. For more articles by Teresa, visit her webpage.