Akbar Ahmed (2 cents)

Until recently, I had not heard of Professor Akbar Ahmed, who heads the Islamic Studies Department at American University. Ahmed, a Pakistani Muslim and former diplomat and part time academic, has been at AU for several years, where he has become perhaps the best known (but not to me) ecumenical voice of the American Moslem community. He has authored 30 books, and written numerous articles. See www.akbarahmed.org.

Now, he has written a play, "Noor" ("Light" in Arabic), which received its world premier staged reading at Theater J as part of its Voices from the New Middle East contribution to the Capital Fringe Festival. The reading was followed by an audience talk-back.

Being read on the set of Motti Lerner's "Pangs of the Messiah", with a large photo of the West Bank in the background, "Noor" tells the story of a family in an unnamed Islamic city in a country whose government is bureaucratic, arbitrary and cruel. Noor, the daughter and her older attorney brother are kidnapped from a public market. The brother is beaten, sodomized, and released. Noor is not returned and, when young women are taken in this manner, the expectation is that they will be forced into sexual relations with the country's political elite.

But what kind of government is this? We are not told. Is it a fundamentalist led government? Is it a simple dictatorship? Is it an American pawn? Does it make a difference?

Noor is eventually released, but not before you learn that each of her three brothers, her father and her aunt have very different reactions. Her father is a product of the old, more liberal society that preceded the current government. One brother, the lawyer, believes that the law will eventually work to bring justice. Another, the religious radical, thinks more radically, and plans vengeance, although it is unclear if his thinking is religious or tribal. The third, also religious, is a Sufi, a spiritual man, given to prayer and supplication. The aunt, a traditionalist, is convinced that, irrespective of what actually happened to Noor, her reputation has been ruined and she has become (and must become) an outcast.

Clearly, an unusual play to come from a prominent Muslim in 2007. But, a play in some ways identical to Lerner's play, where similar family differences appeared when a West Bank Jewish settler family is threatened by a peace treaty which will lead to the destruction of their home, and the redrawing of the borders of Israel.

On Ahmed's website, there are links to a number of articles he has written, including articles on potential Moslem dialogues with other religions. I wish I had time to read them; perhaps you will have the time that I don't. Clearly, Ahmed believes that it is possible for Islam to co-exist with other religions in a conflict-free manner. But, although he believes this, he is also deeply pessimistic, not only because of the attitude of so many Moslems to the outside world, but because of the attitude of so much of the outside world to Islam.

Once again, the questions have been framed, and there are no answers.

Today.