shahada (idea)

Juan Cole, a historian of religion and the Middle East at the University of Michigan and generally insightful blogger, wrote today about a controversy concerning Muslim students at the University of California, Irvine who plan to wear stoles inscribed with the Muslim declaration of faith to graduation ceremonies. Jewish students and the American Jewish Congress have called this support of terrorism and claimed that the symbolism is based on that of HAMAS. It appears to me this is partly out of confusion of the words shahida and shahada, related but distinctly different words. The first, meaning witness, also means martyr, and is thus used by some to refer to suicide bombers. The latter, though, is the declaration of faith, the giving of witness, and is a religious, not a political, statement.

As Cole points out, the confusion of the two words stems from an intense ignorance about Islam among those protesting the stoles, but it appears that it also demonstrates an intense gullibility and laziness, as I was able to find credible definitions of both terms, and thus demonstrate both their related and distinct meanings, in a few minutes. The press release by the American Jewish Congress especially demonstrates what Cole terms bigotry, as they have assumed the worst about the students instead of taking the obvious step of consulting with someone who knows Arabic. Fortunately, both the chancellor of the university and the Muslim Student Union have made efforts to explain the real situation.