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Our Neighbors in Faith
This is another in an occasional series of articles about the
many faiths with whom Catholics share not only Chicago, but the
world. Our archdiocese is richly diverse, full of faithful people
who, despite their religious differences, often share similar
values, hopes and dreams. Though Chicago and its metropolitan
area are often considered a “Catholic” region, the faith diversity
is one of the reasons we remain in dialogue with other religions.
When we understand each other better, we learn to better get along.
Chicago’s Muslims: numerous, devout
By Michelle Martin
STAFF WRITER
When many Catholics think of Islam, their thoughts turn to international
events and images, often those of crises.
The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago wants
to replace those with images closer to home: Muslims who share
a devotion to one God and a pursuit of a moral way of life.
“We can be partners for doing so many things for our communities
and the community at large,” said Talal Sunbulli, the chairman
of the Council of Islamic Organizations, at a Jan. 4 meeting between
Catholics and Muslims at the Islamic Foundation in Villa Park.
More than 200 Muslims and Catholics gathered that evening for
an iftar, the festive meal that breaks the daylong Muslim fast
during the month of Ramadan. The shared meal also marked the 17th
meeting of the Catholic-Muslim dialogue group, a joint effort
of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Council of Islamic Organizations.
Media coverage can lead to misperceptions about the religion of
Islam and the way it is practiced, leaders said.
“Islam gets a distorted picture,” said Azam Nizamuddin, an attorney
who has participated in the Catholic-Muslim dialogue. “People
have biases and stereotypes based on foreign policy and politics
that have nothing to do with the religion of Islam.”
The Jan. 4 event started with Muslim hosts passing trays of figs
and offering soft drinks to their guests just after the sun set
at 4:34 p.m. Then the guests were invited to observe their Muslim
hosts as they went upstairs to say one of their five sets of daily
prayers.
Catholic priests sat or stood along the walls of the main level
in stocking feet while their hosts stood, knelt and then pressed
their foreheads to the floor in prayer, physically demonstrating
their humility before Allah--the Arabic name for God. Upstairs,
separated on the mezzanine level, the women performed the same
prayers.
Prayer is one of the five pillars of Islam, an Arabic word meaning
“submission” to Allah, the one God, creator and sustainer of the
universe. The other pillars are creed, almsgiving pilgrimage and
fasting during Ramadan.
The annual Ramadan fast requires all adults not to eat, drink,
use tobacco, have sexual relations, speak unkind words or commit
other sins. The fast goes further than denying oneself food and
water, said Theresa Clancy, a convert to Islam. The Ramadan fast
involves the whole mind and the whole body, asking the faithful
to be their best, and showing them that they can live better lives
on a day-to-day basis, she said.
Ramadan ended this year Jan. 8, when the new moon was sighted,
with Id al-Fitr, one of Islam’s biggest feasts.
Shakir Moiduddin, secretary of the Council of Islamic Organization’s
Interfaith Committee, said many Chicago-area residents might be
surprised how many local Muslims observed the Ramadan fast. The
council estimates there are about 400,000 Muslims in the Chicago
area, he said.
After Christians, Muslims make up the second-largest religious
community in the Chicago area, he said.
Islam shares with Christianity the belief in one God who will
judge people after they die and regards the Bible as the true,
revealed word of God, he said. The religion counts Abraham, Noah,
Moses and Jesus among the prophets of God.
But Muslims regard Mohammed as the last prophet, to whom God revealed
the Koran in the seventh century. Neither he nor Jesus are considered
divine.
Over the centuries, the details of Islamic practice have varied
slightly around the world, and those differences are reflected
in the ways different groups of immigrants worship in the United
States.
While all Muslims believe that Mary--revered in Islamic tradition
as Mother Mary--conceived and gave birth to Jesus as a virgin,
they do not believe he is the son of God, Moiduddin said.
“Muslims believe in the oneness of God, with no family, no partners,”
Moiduddin said. “That’s where the question comes in with the trinity
and the divinity of Jesus.”
Differences in religion should be understood and respected, even
when beliefs cannot be shared, Cardinal George told the assembled
Muslims and Catholics at the iftar.
Last June, Cardinal George said the dialogue between Christians
and Muslims would be the most significant discussion for the future
of the human race, because they are the two fastest-growing religious
groups in the world, and they will become the carriers of culture
across national borders.
“Each faith community transforms society when it is simply, boldly
and unapologetically itself,” Cardinal George said.
Catholics and Muslims have a special link, Moiduddin said, because
both faiths have held fast to their moral roots and bucked the
tide of popular culture.
Both also came to the United States as immigrant religions. About
half the Muslims in the Chicago area are immigrants, experts say,
and half were born here either to Muslim families or became converts.
Immigrants have come from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Actually,
only about 15 percent of Muslims live in the Middle East.
That has led to some of the same issues that Catholic churches
face, with some mosques offering separate prayer services in English
and other languages, Nizamuddin said.
Dominican Sister Joan Monica McGuire, who directs the archdiocese’s
Office for Interreligious and Ecumenical Affairs, said the interreligious
dialog group started its meetings with presentations on basic
religious tenets. Now the group plans to move to thornier issues,
like the status of Jerusalem and the role of women.
To non-Muslims, perhaps the most obvious difference in the role
of women is the dress code that requires Muslim women to cover
their heads. Women follow the code to varying degrees: some cover
their heads when they pray or in mosques; some wrap their heads
with scarves so that no hair shows when they are out in public.
Moiduddin said that should not be seen as alien dress by Christians.
“The Muslim women dress like Mother Mary. Their heads are covered,”
he said. The covering is intended to encourage modesty, he said,
and there is a dress code that applies to men as well.
Nizamuddin and Moiduddin are quick point out that Islamic law--the
Shariah--long ago gave women rights that were unheard of in European
and American societies until recently.
“For nearly 1,400 years, the Muslim woman has been allowed to
keep her maiden name, and keep her inheritance and her earnings,”
Moiduddin said. “The Muslim woman is not responsible for the upbringing
of children--often she does, but from the religious perspective,
it is not her responsibility.”
Nizamuddin suggested that Americans who decry what they see as
the oppression in the Islamic world should understand that other
societies have their own ways of maintaining stability. “People
should not be so judgmental and so critical,” he said. “Other
countries need to mind their own business.”
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