Religion & Society

In the lead-up to the recent British general election, political party leaders addressed the sensitive topic of Immigration. Gordon Brown’s major address on this topic on 31 March, entitled “Controlling Immigration for a Fairer Britain”, sought to balance firmness with fairness. Meanwhile David Cameron called for a cap on immigration to the level of the early 1990s, when it averaged 50,000 annually. Public interest in this topic is widespread in Western countries, given population movements to the West in recent decades. In Australia the asylum seeker debate in particular is assuming pressure-cooker proportions. The debate is taking place at two levels. Some refugees arrive through the official program of resettlement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, there are also “illegal immigrants” who arrive in Australia on boats often after paying exorbitant charges to anonymous people smugglers. Popular reaction against the second can have an impact on v...

“As we enter the 21st century, Muslim women have developed into a critical mass and are exercising their voice about their lived realities in new ways.” So said Professor Amina Wadud in a public lecture on 18 February at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. The lecture, entitled "Muslim Women and Gender Justice: Methods, Motivation and Means", was sponsored by the US Consulate in Melbourne. An Islamic “ordination” debate The American Muslim activist was visiting from her base at Virginia Commonwealth University in the US. She has long been a controversial figure among Muslims, leading a campaign that gets to the root of the gender debate within Islam about women being religious leaders, rather than merely participants. While most Islamic legal scholars, both Sunni and Shi’a, allow a woman to lead prayers to women-only congregations, the leading of mixed-gender prayers is reserved for male imams. In 2005 Wadud led mixed-gender Muslim prayers in New York in a building...