Hello, Momodou, I can understand the "lowering your gaze" mentality when
dealing with people of the opposite sex.  What I mean is, watching how you
talk so as not to give the wrong impression, just to use one example.  And I
can understand the separation of men and women to a certain extent.  But
separating them on public transportation, this one I think is a little
extreme.

     Is this story you speak of published anywhere online, that I can look
up?

      It's one thing if a place is going to use sharia law, but it would be
nice if the people implementing it were educated islamically, and it would
be another thing if people practiced mercy and love and tolerance, and not
this hard-line-ish stuff we seem to see in most so-called Islamic states.

     How is anyone supposed to think kindly of Islam and Muslims and
supposedly Islamic governments when all they see come out of them is
harshness and extremism?

     I don't think that 2 billion people is it? or 1/5 of the world's
population got to be Muslim through harshness.  And even if Islam may have
been imposed on some people, even if that did happen in some instances, I
don't think Islam, itself, was sustained through harshness and puritanical
ideas.

     When you look at the vibrancy of art and literature and other things,
throughout Islamic history, I don't think you would have had those things if
you'd have had people like the Taliban as rulers.

     Just some thoughts.  BTW, I've also seen articles highlighting the
achievements of women scholars of Islam, however, if you were to go by the
ideas of some men, who see themselves as revivers of Islam, or men of
knowledge or whatever, if these men would have had anything to say about it,
women wouldn't have even been allowed to get an education, much less be any
kind of a scholar of anything.

     And the funny thing about it is that if I understand Islam correctly,
seeking knowledge is obligatory on * everyone *, isn't it?  I don't recall
anything in the Quran saying that women are not allowed to gain knowledge.

     However, some men who practice "hislam" have attached all of these
sorts of rules and regulations, disguised as Islam, but what are in
actuality, just ways for men to maintain the status quo, and stay in power.

Just some thoughts.

Ginny

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤