Progressive_Islam

I 23f have recently started gymnastics classes. Ive been jealous of how people can push their bodies to their physical limits and just think gymnastics is really cool. I don't however like the typical female leotard, and think it's wayyyy too revealing compared to the (typical) male uniform. I can't even understand how we managed to convince girls that wearing leotards and having to worry about shaving was better than full body suits. Anyways

I just feel sad about not being able to share in my excitement about this new hobby with the rest of my family because they don't think gymnastics is a girl's sport, especially not a woman's sport. Id begged to be put in gymnastics but wa always met with "a respectable girl doesn't do gymnastics" or something along those lines.

Especially during Ramadan I don't feel I can bring this up and it's just sad that even when wearing 'as modest clothing as possible', gymnastics is still too sexualised in our community.

I want to enjoy the limits of this human form Allah SWT has given me, I want to appreciate it in all it can do. I don't think that's something I'd be damned for, but it hurts knowing that it's looked at in contempt by the majority of people.

Netflix just aired a completely unnecessary and racist attack on Dagestanis in their new show Running Point.

The show is about a wealthy family that owns a basketball team, and Kate Hudson’s character, Isla Gordon, is put in charge of running it.

The scene in question happens in episode six, where a basketball podcaster named Sean Murphy, who has a history of being critical of Isla, is in the middle of recording an interview.

At this point in the story, he has just revealed something that makes it clear he got inside information from someone who was trying to create tension between Isla and her star player.

Furious, she storms into his studio and interrupts him, demanding to know who leaked the information.

When Sean reminds her that he’s in the middle of an interview, she snaps back with, “Just tell whatever wife-beating Dagestani MMA fighter they can wait.”

What makes this line so outrageous is that it comes completely out of nowhere.

This is a show about basketball.

The podcast is about basketball. The audience watching the podcast within the show would be basketball fans.

There is absolutely no connection to MMA, let alone Dagestani fighters.

The chances of a Dagestani even watching this fictional basketball podcast are next to none.

So why was this line written? It serves no purpose to the plot, no relevance to the scene, and is just a blatant and unprovoked smear against Dagestanis and Muslim fighters in general.

This wasn’t satire.

It wasn’t a joke.

It was a direct attack, casually inserted into a show where it had no place.

And the fact that Netflix signed off on it shows exactly how normalized Islamophobia has become in the media.

If a line like this had targeted any other group, there would be immediate outrage.

But because it was aimed at Muslim athletes, it’s just brushed aside. It’s disgusting.

I’m not even joking. Every day before taraweeh he gives a little 5 minute talk about a verse he read or a story he’s researched.

Yesterday he came out with this. He said that before the non Muslims were open and direct with stopping us practice our religion. Now they are more “covert” so they use “hidden tactics” like stopping you praying Salah.

Bro what 😂😂😂😂

Every time I’m on social media and it’s a Christian majority comment section or niche , whenever they comment on anything about Muslims it all becomes over simplified and explained through racist Islamophobia. I’ve realized that during the Gaza genocide , a lot of Christian accounts have been not only fervently Zionist , but also using Islamophobia to explain away the situation in Palestine. I’ve seen this now with Syria too. With the recent massacres of Syria’s minorities , there have been a number of Christians explaining away Syria’s situation through using Islamophobia rather than talking about the geopolitical situation on the ground , foreign involvement , the oppression of the dictatorships et cetera. It’s as though the actual politics on the ground mean nothing to these people and for these Christian Islamophobes any and everything that happens in the so called « Muslim world » (even if non Muslims are doing the actions) is only explained away as « this is what Islam commands (injustice oppression darkness etc) » or « it’s a religion of war mongering and killing » and this includes situations where Muslims are also the victims of these atrocities.

For these Christian Islamophobes , when the victim is a Muslim , they secularize or christianize the victims. For instance , if it’s a shi’i minority being persecuted and there’s 1 or 2 Christian’s who got killed along with the shi’i or whoever the minority is, the Christian Islamophobes will make generalizing statements as though the victims were mostly Christian or leave out that the victims are even Muslims. Or they will use the name of the sect completely leaving out that this sect is Muslim too. On the flip side, when they secularize it, these people will remove the religious affiliation of the victims while only describing the religious affiliation of the perpetrators which in effect creates an image of Muslims as the perpetual bad guys and Muslims as never the victims of atrocities.

And the crazy part is that whenever anyone mentions Israel’s involvement in the situation of anywhere where there’s a large Muslim population it’s , « Israel has nothing to do with it ». Or they say stuff like « you all like to blame the west » despite the overwhelming evidence of the west’s involvement in the given situation.

Demonizing Islam

I'm like so over it.

I hate to see that more and more people start to demonize Islam as a dangerous religion.

They take Quran verses out of context and start spreading misinformation without even checking the facts.

They see some garbage on the TV about terrorism and immediately point the finger at the whole religion, as if a normal Muslim person living in a country is a threat for everyone around them.

It has come to the point of which I'm afraid to even say that I'm a Muslim.

In my country, there is an upsurge of right-wing parties.

Even the media seems to be extremely one sided.

For the past few months or so, all I've been hearing on the media has been

"A Muslim has done XYZ"

or

"The suspect was screaming 'Allahu Akbar'"

and so on.

Sometimes when I'm outside I start to feel uneasy because some people look at me and my negative thoughts start to creep in:

"Are they maybe judging me because I look like a Muslim? Because I look like a foreigner? Maybe because of my beard?"

It's becoming so exhausting. I already suffer from a mild social anxiety, but with the way things are going, it's only going to get worse. I hate it, I really really hate it.

On International Women’s Day, there was a post that went viral on Instagram, about how Islam honors women with hadith, and Quraan verses that prove that.

This is an example of hadith mentioned in the post:

Islam honours Women:

• A mother is a gateway to paradise, a daughter is a path to mercy, and a wife is a garment of love
• "The best of you are those who are best to their women" ~ Prophet Muhammed
• “Whoever has three daughters, cares for them, and is patient with them, will enter Paradise"~ Prophet Muhammed
• "The best of you are those who are best to their wives"~ Prophet Muhammed

Notice how there is a pattern?

All of these are extremely indirect and focus on what men get rewarded when they treat women well.

This is not fitting the context at all, in my opinion.

I have also heard this talk so much whenever the notion of feminism in Islam is brought up, and I just think that it’s the wrong take and wrong arguments.

I’m actually starting to hate this perspective that is completely centered around men.

It emphasizes how women should be submissive and only serve as a way for men to earn more rewards.

But how about we actually start talking about women now?

What do you guys think?

I’m curious.

For starters , I am a woman (south Asian to be specific- probably can beat you at growing a beard)

My question is , is it haram for Muslim man not to grow a beard ?

The reason why I am asking and also observing Muslim men , tend to comment on non hijab women for not wearing a hijab . Majority of them are clean shaven , shave off their beards etc ( which tempts me to reply ‘brother , where is your beard ?)

Is it fardh for a Muslim man to grow his beard out ?

You love who you love, who you get along with.

My parents would never accept a non Muslim man, but is it bad to say I don’t really care??

So I create content online and it’s mainly beauty and lifestyle content.

I don’t wear hijab, but I do dress really modestly.

I don’t address being Muslim or following Islam in any of my content. I mainly do this to avoid hate comments and my religion is my personal journey so I don’t think the whole world needs to know what I follow.

I guess lately people have noticed from habits that I am Muslim as in my content it’s evident that I don’t drink, I eat only halal or kosher meat, I try not to use a lot of boycott brands and every Ramadan I basically make no content. I’ve been getting loads of comments asking if I’m Muslim.

I don’t know if I should just ignore them or address them because I know that I am doing everything I can to be a good Muslim but the moment I put that fact on the internet the haram police are just going to come for me.

Even right now where I haven’t addressed it I’ve gotten dms saying I shouldn’t eat kosher meat as it supports Israel and is haram.

Kinda disappointing assumption to make as it’s simply not true. I live in an area where Jewish people are the majority but they are also pro Palestine. Even the kosher butcher is pro Palestine. And to the point of if eating kosher meat is okay my scholar does permit it and if I’m going to be honest the halal meat in my area is terrible quality which is why I prefer to purchase kosher.

I just don’t think my religion really has anything to do with my content.

I'm not very well-versed on the subject, and I understand that both conflicts aren't necessarily equivocal, but is this a morally/religiously justifiable position to hold?

Where do Muslims learn to pray from?

In conclusion, to skip my ramble, my question is where does it describe step by step how to pray? how to do wudhu step by step?

Should a woman wear scarf during prayer or no?

As it is not described step by step in the hadiths and not in the holy Quran.

As someone who did not grow up Muslim, I am yet to learn where all the teachings come from, and how does everyone know everything step by step as I have not found it anywhere.

I am a Muslima who is still learning to pray, as I cannot speak Arabic and i find it hard to remember all the movements, as well as i struggle with the timings of prayers.

Naturally, the Islamic way requires quite a few steps, and requires lots of memorising.

However, I do question how does a Muslim learn to pray?

Especially if one believes that Quran is sufficient enough to be a Muslim, since prayer steps, what to say and wudhu are not explained step by step.

Also, I might be incorrect, but isn't the prayer supposed to be derived from a hadith?

However, I have not found hadith explaining step by step wudhu, prayer motions and when/what to say.

I am just learning the way everyone prays, but I do question the origin where Muslims are learning to pray from as I have not found it explaining step by step in the holy Quran or in the hadiths.

Like I don't think it was, if it was haram then why isn't it more well known.

If you have proof that it's haram, comment it here, and if you have proof it isn't, then comment it here.

Question/Discussion❔

Ah yes the usual music post in this community.

But I'm not here to ask "Is music allowed in Islam?"

Often when I see the people who say "Music is Haram" always associate it with negativity thinking all music are violent rap or promiscuous

There is even this one website ( which im pretty sure most people here know what the website is, but im not gonna mention the name because doing that may get my post removed )

that talks about how music is prohibited, and in the post they deny that music can be positive or can even be used as nasheed by saying

"What kind of light can someone get from something dirty, granted thats not exactly their words but its similar

But im sure music can be used for positive things

I also believe sometimes songs can inspire people with islamic messages

In fact growing up I often sees songs infused with Islamic message

So im asking if any of you can share your own experience where music has been a positive influence, even better if the positive message is Islam related.

This might be a dumb question, but doesn’t the melody make it music?