This will be the first lecture as part of the developing Islamic Studies program, and so we would really encourage you to attend. For questions about this lecture, or for more information, please contact Amir Hussain at (818) 677-2741, or email him at amir.hussain@csun.edu.
Dr. Farid Esack is a member of the South African Commission on Gender Equality, one of the six "State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy" called for by Nelson Mandela in the 1996 Constitution. The aim of the Commission, as set out in section 119 of the Constitution is to promote gender equality and to advise and make recommendations to Parliament or any other legislature with regard to any laws or proposed legislation which affects gender equality and the status of women.
The Commission on Gender Equality gives the following biography:
Dr. Farid Esack is a South African Muslim theologian who studied in South Africa, Pakistan (Islamic Theology), the United Kingdom (Qur'anic Hermeneutics) and Germany (Biblical Hermeneutics). As a person committed to inter-religious solidarity for justice and peace and the struggle against apartheid, he played a leading role in the United Democratic Front, the Call of Islam, the Organisation of People Against Sexism, the Cape Against Racism, and the World Conference on Religion and Peace. Among the books written by Farid are: But Moses Went to Pharaoh, and The Struggle. He has also published widely in academic journals on Gender, Liberation Theology, Interfaith Relations and Qur'anic Hermeneutics; and participated in a number of conferences on these issues globally. A regular columnist in a number of Muslim papers in different parts of the world and in local newspapers, Farid has also been a frequent contributor to "Words of Faith" on the World Services of the BBC. Besides being a full-time Commissioner, Farid is also an honorary Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute of Religion, Identity and Culture at the University of the Western Cape. He serves voluntarily on a number of development, media, academic and inter-faith boards as a director and/or advisor.
His most recently published books are:
On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today. London: Oneworld Publications, 1999.
Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression. London: Oneworld Publications, 1997.
We will try to have copies of these books available for sale at the University Club during the talk. If you want some sense of how Farid (who is both a Muslim and an academic who studies Islam) views modern Islam, here is a short excerpt from his writings:
From On Being A Muslim, "on being with the gendered other":
...Let us also not forget that for both sides in the gender jihad it is a question of faith. There are many sensitive women who simply cannot, with any self-respect, live alongside the idea of a God who reduces them to half of men. For them, and for the men who identify with them, it [is] thus very much a question of faith, and a very personal and deeply held one too. At times, it may even appear to be immoral to call for a culture of listening. Could we listen to the cops brutalizing us and murdering our kids during the seventies and eighties in South Africa? Should we have? Where would our struggle have been if we decided to pause and listen to them? Can we ask women to listen to men who have abused them, dehumanized them for so long? The amazing thing is that most women committed to gender equality are still prepared to listen...As for we males, what is it about us that makes us feel so privileged?...We need to ask what exactly it is that we are afraid of; is it really women speaking in mosques? Is it the loss of our own faith at the hands of 'modernists', the uncertainty as to where all of these 'new ideas' will lead? Is it the loss of power that we as males exercise over women? Is it the loss of authority that we as religious leaders exercise over people? Is it our own sense of masculinity that is being threatened? If it is, then is it not more rewarding to look deep into ourselves and personal histories and study this hunger for power, this desire for authority and our own deep-seated sexual insecurity?
There is much truth in the idea that those who shout loudest against something usually feel most personally threatened by it - and often this 'it' that they feel threatened by is actually or feared to be located deep within themselves. In the same way that fanatics resort to screaming certainties as a way of camouflaging their own doubts, our fear of the sexual other and the resulting chauvinism is often a shield against our own deep-seated real or feared internal other. ...Rather than reacting so angrily against women preaching in mosques or leading the prayers we need to ask ourselves: what are we really defending and what are we really afraid of?