Letters to the Editor (excerpted)

Sunni-Shi’a

Dear Brother El-Amin:

Your commentary (Sunni-Shi’a Relationship, March 24, 2006) was very much to the point and educational. I hope more Muslims will read your article and work toward creating a united front to deal with our everyday problems as well as our future problems.

However, there is one correction I would like to make to the phrase you used, “Shi’a are just as bull-headed as Sunnis.” It would have been more appropriate to phrase it as follows: “Some Shi’as are just as bull-headed as Sunnis.”

Please keep up your good work and may Allah be always with you.

Best wishes for your success and sincerely,

Masood Behshid, Los Angeles, CA

I Like TMO

…I [like] the deeper broader insights and knowledge that The Muslim Observer provide[s] me [and I enjoy sharing] the insights of brother Harun Yahya as well as other highly intellectual Muslims who have been featured in The Muslim Observer. I hope to read and further enhance my growth in Islam by reading The Muslim Observer regularly.

Brian Barnett, Soledad, CA

Islamic Law!

I would like to congratulate you on the success of your newspaper, and tell you that many enjoy your articles. It is also good to see what’s happening to Muslims around the world and here locally.

New Muslims or Muslims not well-versed in Islam look to others for examples of how to be and to see what is halal and haram. For example, Prophet (s) said “Differ from the polytheists—trim your mustaches and allow your beards to grow.” When a new Muslim sees the masses of Muslims, some of whom he deems knowledgeable, with shaved faces, he may not think much of the command to grow the beard because “all these Muslims can’t be wrong!”

I know some things are unavoidable and there are differences of opinion on other things, but try your best to have articles and ads in compliance with Islamic law.

Bilaal Chaaban, Muskegon Hts, MI

Answers from TMO:

We show Muslims as they are. Some Muslims practice, some do not. Even practicing Muslims observe varying levels of adherence to Islam, and adhere to different madhhabs, some of which we have no knowledge of. We feature articles about and by non-Muslims, also.
There are differences of opinion on many issues of Shari’ah, and we are trying to appeal to a broad cross-section of Muslims, so we believe it is not right to be too strict or regimented in our view of Islam. There is room in Islam to breathe and be yourself, and we do not want to be a means of trying to control people, rather we want to be an expression of what Muslims are actually doing and generally agree on. We especially do not want to make ourselves a part of a strict and narrow interpretation of Islam that is itself rejected by many mainstream scholars. TMO