Tag: muslim for a month

  • Religious tourism has many flaws

    Religious tourism has many flaws

    By Gwynne Dyer, Special to QMI Agency

    Gandhi, born a Hindu, once said: “I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist

    and a Jew.” Most people will never achieve such enlightenment (or spout such pious tripe, if you are of a less reverent turn of mind). But such thinking certainly creates an opening for innovative programs like Muslim for a Month.

    No, really. There is an organization that invites people of other religions or none to come to Istanbul and live as Muslims for a month. Well, not a month, exactly: The nine-day “Explorations” program costs $900 and the 21-day “Ruminations” program costs $1,890.

    “We like to think that Muslim for a Month facilitates more understanding of a religion which gets a lot of bad press,” explained Ben Bowler, who lives in Thailand and runs similar “religious immersion tours” in Buddhism for the same organization. “There’s a huge difference in the public perception of Buddhism, for example, and Islam–Islam is thorny, while Buddhism is warm and fuzzy.”

    Indeed, if all that’s going on here is a simple download of information and perspective, you could argue that every religion should be doing it. Much of the human race lives in places where two or more major religions co-exist. A crash course in your neighbours’ religious beliefs ought to be part of the school curriculum. In some places, it already is.

    But there is still something disturbing about the very idea of religious tourism. Immersing yourself in the prayers and rituals of a religion even though you think its God is false smacks of condescension at best, blasphemy at worst. And although a sense of politeness prevents most people from saying it loudly in public, religious people generally believe that the gods of all religions but their own are indeed false.

    The people who are organizing Muslim for a Month have the best of intentions. The Blood Foundation is a Thailand-based enterprise whose goal is “to promote the ideal of the sister/brotherhood of all humanity. We operate cultural exchange programs that build bridges of understanding between diverse peoples through the means of shared, authentic experience.”

    I believe that that is truly their goal. I also very much like the Sufitradition of Islam, one of the most attractive forms of religious expression that I have ever encountered, and it is the Sufis who are providing the facilities and the teachers for the Muslim for a Month program in Turkey.

    But it still doesn’t feel right.

    Here’s the thing. Almost all of the “modern” religions that have arisen in the past 2,500 years (and Judaism, which is much older) have sacred texts that are held by the believers to be divinely revealed truth. They are not negotiable or mutually compatible, like the old pagan beliefs were. To believe in any of the modern gods requires the faithful to reject all the others as false.

    If Muslim beliefs are right, then Christian beliefs are wrong, and vice versa. If the Sikhs are right, then the Baha’i are wrong, and vice versa. If the Buddhists are right, then the Jews are wrong, and so on ad nauseam.

    We minimize conflict by simply not talking about the huge, irreconcilable differences in our religious convictions. (The non-religious play the same game: They rarely challenge the beliefs of the believers either.) It’s not an attractive behaviour, and it doesn’t always avert conflict, but most of the time it works. On most of the planet, we are no longer at each other’s throats about religion.

    The world does not need Muslim(or Sikh, or Christian) for a Month. Let sleeping dogs lie.

    –Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.

    via Religious tourism has many flaws | Comment | London Free Press.

  • Muslim for a month: Can you ‘test drive’ a religion?

    Muslim for a month: Can you ‘test drive’ a religion?

    rumi01A programme called “Muslim for a Month” is inviting non-Muslims to “test drive” the religion, immersing them in Islam without converting them.

    Run by a social enterprise called the Blood Foundation, which previously organised a similar “Monk for a Month” experience, participants are charged a minimum fee.

    People taking part pray five times a day, fast and forsake pork and alcohol, with the idea that their experience will help improve interfaith relations.

    BBC Asian Network met Barbra Taylor, who tried out the programme in Istanbul, Turkey.

    via BBC News – Muslim for a month: Can you ‘test drive’ a religion?.

    Video : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-13993848

  • Can you try a religion for a month?

    Can you try a religion for a month?

    By Catrin Nye BBC Asian Network

    Men at Friday prayers
    Men at Friday prayers

    People usually think of religion in terms of a lifetime of commitment, but could you learn anything from trying one out for a month?

    The call to prayer sounds from Eyup Mosque in Istanbul and local Muslims gather on the marble square outside for prayer. Men on one side, women the other, they crowd on mats for the Friday ritual.

    Among them this week though are a few faces looking less than confident about what comes next.

    Barbra Taylor, from Hawaii, and Terry Goldsmith, from Bury, Greater Manchester, are two of them. They’re not Muslim, but guests for nine days.

    This is part of “Muslim for a Month” – a programme from social enterprise group The Blood Foundation where participants get to “test-drive” a religion.

    “Coming away to do this process, some of my friends have questioned it and said ‘are you crazy? Aren’t you going to the enemy camp?’,” Taylor says.

    “They feel anyone who’s even remotely affiliated with the Muslim faith is a terrorist. I just felt this programme is interesting to me, I had an interest in Turkey and also I felt there was a misunderstanding about perhaps the second largest religion in the world.”

    For Goldsmith it was his changing surroundings at home that inspired the trip.

    “One of the things is that there are a large number of Muslim people in the area I live in,” he explains.

    “I don’t really know much about the people and I’d like to learn something of the religion and the culture.”

    Participants pray, fast, have lectures from Muslim scholars and spend time with local Turkish families. Most are here for their first taste of Islam, but some for a deeper understanding of the Sufi culture of Turkey.

    H Masud Taj is an architect from Canada, brought up Muslim in India. There were a number of questions about why he needed to become “Muslim for a Month”.

    “My first response was that I was bemused, frankly,” he says. “I was bemused that something that we take as sacred as religion could become like a shopping mall – try this out for a month.

    “It really seemed a very post-modern phenomenon, but, once here it really envelops you with its own world view so I think it’s fascinating.”

    Like many of the participants Taj felt that Turkey was the place to hold this course. It may not have worked in other Muslim countries.

    There were tougher moments for participants; some women found being separated from the males in the group somewhat jarring. The organisers say this is all part of the experience.

    “I mean these are very hot points that often if they’re not dealt with can be blown out of all proportion,” says Ben Bowler, of the Blood Foundation.

    “The difference is sticking with that and working through that and certainly there is an element of how woman are treated in a religious sense in Islam, which is different from what we would expect in our culture, but this is the point of a cultural exchange if it was exactly the same it wouldn’t be interesting.”

    Taylor says she’s taking home a different outlook, although she won’t be pushing it with her friends back in America. The subject’s still too sensitive she says.

    “I’ve really learnt a lot this trip. We’ve been fully immersed – praying in a Mosque, the ladies coming to show us what to do, really it’s been a real eye opener for me in a positive way.”

    But the organisers say it’s been a tough ride. The title “Muslim for a Month” has put many people off, with some parts of the travel industry refusing to promote it because of the unease surrounding Islam in some quarters.

    “Sufi for a month” is going to start running as an alternative and plans for “Sikh for a week” are underway.

    via BBC News – Can you try a religion for a month?.

  • “Muslim For A Month” Project In Turkey Grows Interfaith Seeds

    “Muslim For A Month” Project In Turkey Grows Interfaith Seeds

    After successfully running its Buddhist immersion program Monk for a Month, the Blood Foundation looked to easing the “social friction between Muslims and non-Muslims” earlier this year. So was born the sister program – Muslim for a Month.

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    Split into a 9 day and more comprehensive 21 day course, Muslim for a Month was created to allow a deeper understanding of Muslim creed, action and green lifestyle, particularly in a tourist hotspot where travellers bypass the day-to-day routine of Muslims.

    Both courses were launched as a broad introduction to Islam and the environmentally aware Rumi inspired Sufism branch of spirituality. Moreover, members have been educated in healthier eating, the Muslim wedding ceremony and participated in a day of fasting.

    I asked Ben Bowler, a Muslim for a Month co-ordinator, why the program was launched in Turkey, why Islam, and why now?

    Muslim for a Month: “We were led to Turkey by a series of synchronous events. It seems to be a good access point for non-Muslims to encounter Islam.

    Islam being the second biggest religion in the world has a great impact on the planet. We were attracted to build a program that would contribute to more harmonious relationships between people of different faiths and worldviews.

    Now is great timing as there are many people who are seeking more fruitful relationships between various religions and worldviews after what has been a difficult decade. We hope we can be a part of a thawing spring of peace and progress.”

    According to the organisation, Blood Foundation has a number of education projects and cultural exchange programs, particularly in the field of Human Rights in relation to the ongoing civil war in Burma. You can learn more as well as make a donation by going to www.fangvalley.com.

    Green Prophet: What response have you had to your cultural exchange program from the Muslim, Turkish and wider community?

    Muslim for a Month: “So far the experience has been overwhelmingly positive. The local Turkish media as well as the wider Islamic media have been both curious and supportive. People seem to think it is a good idea and that now is the right time.”

    Browsing through their website, one of programs called The Ruminations covers a more spiritual itinerary as well as practical areas of the Muslim lifestyle. There is an opportunity to visit mosques, take a boat ride, and a shopping trip to Istanbul‘s Grand Bazaar (material relief perhaps?). Participants can also join in communal prayers, experience the movements of Whirling Dervishes and hear Qur’an recitations in Arabic.

    With the arrival of Ramadan this August – the Islamic month of abstinence – Muslim for a Month provided a day of fasting, enabling participants to truly immerse themselves in living as a Muslim. Food and entertainment was approved by halal authorities, of course.

    Green Prophet: Do you feel your program has impacted how people affect their environment and health?

    Muslim for a Month: “Certainly in the fields of health, folks who are learning the teachings of Rumi, say on self mastery, can learn to live healthy lives by eating more consciously and in moderation.”

    Hear what participants said about the Muslim For A Month project on YouTube.

    Green Prophet: Do you feel protecting the Earth’s health and understanding how others live is a global duty?

    Muslim for a Month: “Yes indeed, people have a great role to play in protecting the earth’s health and we all need to be more open to how people from other cultures and worldviews live their lives. We must be good stewards of the planet. Theistic faith can make a great contribution in providing people with the inspiration to live up to such ideals.

    Blood Foundation (www.bloodfoundation.org) is in the process of researching a Christian for a Month program in Scotland or Ireland as well as a Monotheism based program sometime in Jerusalem. We are also adding Sufi for a Month in Turkey for visitors who may be looking for an experience that is more spiritual than religious.”

    Green Prophet: Please share with us some of the core green principles inspired by Islam and Rumi, the Sufi mystic, that you know of.

    Muslim for a Month: “I refer to the principle of stewardship above – we must learn to be brothers and sisters to all people. Also we must love the creation for the sake of the Creator, so we take care of the whole planet, the animals, plants and each other.”

    Green Prophet: As a final message, if you could get people of a religious background to do just one thing for the environment, what would it be?

    Muslim for a Month: “If I could get religious people to do just one thing for the environment, it would be to treat the whole world as a precious masterpiece of divine creation.”

    With that beautiful image, we thank Ben and remind you of Muslim for a Month’s booking for 2012 which is now open.

    Image: Muslim For A Month © (flickr)

    via “Muslim For A Month” Project In Turkey Grows Interfaith Seeds | Green Prophet.