Publicly funded SISO sponsors Islamist Zaid Shakir’s lecture at McMaster University

Author: Sharon Boase
Source: The Hamilton Spectator, 10 May 2007, p. A12

Original title: Muslim scholar to speak at Mac on combatting hatred 

Correction published: – 20070516 A story published May 10, 2007, advancing a visit to the city by U.S. Imam Zaid Shakir said he does not view the hijab as mandatory dress for women. In fact, Shakir does view the hijab as a requirement under Islamic law. However, he does not believe women should be coerced into wearing it nor does he make wearing a hijab a condition for female students wishing to attend his classes. 

A hugely popular Muslim scholar from the United States will visit McMaster University May 20 as part of an effort to heal bad feelings that linger in the wake of a sexist and anti-Islamic attack on campus last month. 

Imam Zaid Shakir, billed by some followers as the next Malcolm X, will be joined by Daniel Selsberg, rabbi at Beth Jacob Synagogue, and Dr. Muriel Walker, a McMaster University French professor whose office door was recently spray-painted with anti-Muslim and sexist graffiti. 

The vandalism is a presumed backlash for an awareness day Walker organized on campus to help sensitize people to Islam. 

All three will talk about the dire need for a united front to combat hatred. 

“Politically, we’re not going to agree and we don’t have to,” Selsberg said. “But we do have to see each other as human beings with families and concerns and a deep need to feel secure here at home.” 

Selsberg said he was sold on the event by the long list of co-sponsoring organizations, including Settlement and Integration Services Organization, the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, as well as Muslim, Arab and Jewish groups. 

Event organizer Hussein Hamdani said he was surprised by the number of Muslim students who told him they were “genuinely scared to walk around campus” following the graffiti incident. 

“They felt violated,” Hamdani said. “But someone of such high stature coming to speak on this issue is very reassuring.” 

Shakir, a “high-octane speaker,” will likely draw on the American civil rights movement and the work of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. — with an underpinning of Islamic scholarship — in building his case against hatred, Hamdani said. 

Shakir grew up in public housing projects in Georgia and served in the U.S. Air Force before converting to Islam in his early 20s. 

He is intimately aware of both North American and Islamic cultures as he spent almost a decade studying in Egypt, Syria and Morocco. 

Hamdani described Shakir as a traditional Muslim, someone who is neither conservative nor liberal. For instance, Shakir opposes polygamy and does not view the hijab as mandatory, but maintains it is a violation of Islamic law for a woman to lead men in prayer. 

Shakir tells his overflow audiences of young, American-born Muslims that extremists who commit acts of terror in the name of Islam are perverting the faith. 

He also presents Islam as a religion which can afford to remain open to the rich diversity of scholarly interpretation it has seen over the centuries. 

The talk starts at 7 p.m. and will be held in Room 1A06 of the Health Sciences building. Admission is $5. 

sboase@thespec.com 

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