This is interesting.  It seems the cultures with the highest restraints
against our full participation in society will jump at the chance to cast us
in clerical roles as if to say, "God will embrace these people even if we
won't."
----- Original Message -----
From: Blind World Magazine <[log in to unmask]>
To: Blind News <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2006 8:21 PM
Subject: What's With All the Blind Clerics?


>
> What's With All the Blind Clerics?
>
>
> January 20, 2006.
> By Daniel Engber,
> Slate - USA.
>
>
> Omar Abdel Rahman: the blind bomber
>
>
> The Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri denied preaching racial hatred in a
> British courtroom on Thursday. Al-Masri has been linked to the would-be
> shoe-bomber Richard Reid and stands accused of starting a terrorist
training
> camp in Oregon. Most news reports also mention that al-Masri has only one
> eye and no hands. It seems like we're always hearing about blind or
> half-blind Muslim clerics-what's the deal?
>
>
> There is a pattern of the blind leading the not-blind in modern Islam. A
> traditional Muslim education in some ways favors the blind, since it
> proceeds largely through the repetition and memorization of sacred texts.
> Children chant Quranic verses until they know them by heart; those who
learn
> the whole book often receive advanced religious training. Blind kids-who
> often make up for their disability with a finely tuned sense of
hearing-tend
> to do quite well at this.
>
>
> Children who can't see may also get pushed toward the clergy by their
> parents. Clerics often preach through the artful recitation of the
> Quran-something a blind person can learn to do as well as anyone else. The
> same child would be at a severe disadvantage in a conventional classroom,
> and he'd have a harder time holding down a regular job.
>
>
> Muslims have revered blind clerics for over 1,000 years. In one scene in
the
> Quran, the Prophet frowns and turns away from a blind man, only to have
> Allah castigate him for rejecting a spiritual seeker. The man, called
> Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum, became an important early follower of the
Prophet.
> (The tradition of blind religious figures extends back to early Judaism
and
> Christianity as well.)
>
>
> Today, even blind people without religious training enjoy a certain level
of
> respect in the Muslim world. Turks, for example, refer to a blind man as a
> hafiz-meaning one who has completely memorized the Quran-whether or not he
> has earned the title. In Egypt, blind men are casually described as
> moulanas, a term of respect given to Muslim scholars.
>
>
> Another factor in the prevalence of blind clerics may be the high rates of
> blindness in Arab countries. A 2002 study, for example, reveals a dire
> situation in Lebanon, Oman, and Morocco, where more than 5 percent of the
> people over the age of 50 couldn't see.
>
>
> The blind clerics most often mentioned in the Western press are radical
> jihadis like Abu Hamza al-Masri or Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman-the "blind
sheik"
> accused of masterminding the World Trade Center bombing of 1993. But blind
> clerics are just as likely to be moderates. The revered Saudi Abdelaziz
ibn
> Baaz, for example, renounced violence in the name of installing Islamic
> governments. He also issued a fatwa allowing Muslim men to take Viagra.
>
>
> In fact, blindness could be a liability within the most militant sects of
> Islam. In the 1980s, members of the Egyptian jihad movement debated
whether
> Abdel Rahman's blindness made him a poor operational leader. The strongest
> voice opposing him belonged to Ayman al-Zawahiri, now thought to be
> al-Qaida's No. 2 figure.
>
>
>
> Explainer thanks Richard Antoun of the State University of New York,
Mahmoud
> Ayoub of Temple University, Fawaz Gerges of Sarah Lawrence, and Valerie
> Hoffman of the University of Illinois.
>
>
>
> Source URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2134506/#.
>
>
>
>
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